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x9.r.~ i! seneca uniyeitsitv transfer credit articulation agreement between york university and seneca college of appued arts and technology i given that york university and s eca college have a long history of collaboration for combined education and transfer pathway op ortunities for students; given that york university and s eca college wish to enhance student mobility between the two institutions while maintaining the tegrity, autonomy and high quality of their academic programs; given the desire of york universi and seneca college to improve access for graduates of the social service worker diploma program to further their education and career prospects through transferring in to bachelor of public administrati n and bachelor of arts programs at york university; given that the common goal ofbo h postsecondary education institutions is to meet the growing demands of the creative industries of ontari by preparing graduates as to be a flexible and critically minded workforce, supporting numerous dustries across ontario's economy; given the existing affinities (curri ular and pedagogical) between both institution's in conununity and public service programs, and the s ong academic overlaps and in view of the mutual commit ents stated in this document, the parties agree to the following: transfer from social service wo ker diploma programs of seneca college to bachelor of pubuc administration (bpa) and bacbjlor of arts (ba) programs of york university 1 a) eugibillty- bachelor of~blic administration specialized honours (bpa, 120 credits) and bachelor of arts honours a, 120 credits) 1. students who have gra uated from the social service worker, the social service workerimmigrants and refug s or the social service worker -gerontology diploma programs at seneca college may b considered for admission to york university to be enrolled in the public administration pa), the multicultural and indigenous studies (ba) or the human right and equities stu ies (ba) programs of the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies 2. students must have ac eved a gpa of b (3 .ono%). students applying to the public administration progr must also have successfully completed one high school 4u math or equivalent1 3. eligible candidates wh register in the previously identified programs will be awarded 45 credits towards the bp or ba at york university. see appendix a for details on transfer credit and course waiv rs. 4. york university does ot limit the number of eligible graduates from the social service worker diploma pro ams at seneca college. 1 students having successfully comple ed courses mth196 (advanced functions) or mth197 (statistics 1) at seneca college will be considered as eetlng math admission requirements. b) admi55ion candidates from the socia service worker diploma programs at seneca college wishing to take advantage of this agreeme t must follow this procedure: i) candidates must apply! to york university by following the steps identified on the admissions website (http://futures~dents.yorku.ca/applying/onlineapp). 2) the application must received no later than april!'' in order to qualify for admission the following september. e application must be accompanied by a transcript confl1llling graduation from one o the social service worker diploma programs at seneca college. 3) if only a partial transc 'pt is sent, the admission offer will be conditional to the presentation of a full transcript co l1llling graduation from one of the social service worker diploma programs at seneca c liege 4) administrative fees p aining to the application must be paid. c) requirements for transti r students to receive the bpa or ba honours incoming students receive 45 credits towards their bpa or ba honours and are required to complete 75 credits (total f 120) to receive their degree. transfer students must meet all degree and program requirements hile completing these credits to be able to graduate from york university. d) right to refuse york university reserves case of a candidate who prior to 2015. e right to refuse to apply this transfer articulation agreement in the uated from the social service worker programs at seneca college promotion and advertising seneca college and york universi will mention the transfer articulation agreement in promotional materials and advertisements perta g to their respective programs, during related special events and in their websites. leads seneca college and york universi agree to mandate persons who will serve as contacts between the two institutions for the implementa on of the transfer articulation agreement. these persons will be responsible for compliance with th transfer articulation agreement and for the transfer articulation agreement framework. exchange of information a) seneca college will send ork university the relevant information relating to course descriptions for each of the programs i entified in this agreement and will inform york university, every spring of any changes in th curriculum of these programs or in their course descriptions. b) each spring york univers will inform seneca college of any changes in its admissions requirements. c) in accordance with the pro 'sions of the freedom of information and protection of privacy act, each institution will provid the other, each spring, with all relevant pertaining to the admission and academic history of didates having benefitted from this agreement. d) transfer credit and waive identified in this agreement are based on cuniculum in effect during the 2014-20 i 5 academic y . any changes in the cuniculum or in the description or mnemonic of courses of the programs entioned above must be reported to the other partuering institution in order to guarantee that fer credits will be granted as stated above. g~~~e ~f the implementation period this transfer articulation agreement, the details can be updated by the designated leads, without a ne~ version of this transfer articulation agreement having to be signed. ~ date of coming into effect the transfer articulation agreem nt comes into effect at the date of signature and will be valid for a period of five years. at the end of s period there will be a joint review of the partnership activities. at any time, one of the parties may ca eel this transfer articulation agreement with a six month notice in writing to the other party. agreement signatories the parties signed in toronto, in d plicate, on seneca college joy l cilinnon" vice-president academic, senec college york university pjdr. rhonda lenton vice-president and provost arlee pitt i) vice-provost academic fflccj cf the vp academic & provost appendix a' t

student success after transfer from college to lakehead university june 30, 2012 office of institutional analysis, lakehead university overview this transfer student success study is based on 10 years of data from lakehead university, a provincial leader in attracting transfer students from colleges 1. it compares and contrasts the success of 3 groups of college students entering lakehead university: those entering through bilateral or multi-lateral agreements with block transfer, advanced standing college transfer students (those who have completed a college diploma and are eligible for transfer credit), and other college students without transfer credits (students who have upgraded their high school credential at a college, those who only partially completed a diploma, or those whose average is below the requirement for transfer credit). findings the study gauged the success of transfer students based on five criteria: 1 i) retention rate: when compared to the full-time direct entry student retention rate of 86.9%, ...transfer students as a whole had a slightly lower retention rate 2. those who received one half or more advanced standing credits for their prior college work have a retention rate of 82.5% followed closely by block transfer students at 81.2% and all other college students at 77.4% . calculations using lakeheads data show that annual retention is highest in the later stages of university study. ii) success rate 3: at 89.0%, block transfer student success rates were higher than those for direct entrants at 86.9%. advance standing transfer students had the next highest rate of 82.5% and all other college students at 79.8%. the 18-24% of lakeheads transfer students who registered on a part-time basis appeared to have lower success rates. iii) graduation rate 4: full-time advanced standing transfer and direct entry students have comparable graduation rates (73.3% and 72% respectively). since 2000, the performance of full-time block credit transfer students exceeded that of direct entry students with a graduation rate of 84.4% 5. among ontario universities, lakehead is tied with ryerson as having the largest share of the provincial credit transfer enrolment relative to its share of full time enrollment. 2 this represents a year one to year two retention rate based on transfer student persistence data since 2005. 3 this report adopted a one-year success rate defined by graduation or persistence one year later. this may be a more accurate measure since it measures success (retention or graduation) one year later. 4 graduation rate includes only full-time transfer students graduating within 2 years of the normal period for program completion. 5 the report bases these figures on an average of all data available since 2000. 2 iv) common entry year graduation rate 6: when comparing the graduation rate for cohorts of full-time students from their entry into the 3rd year of degree study, this report concluded that block transfer students have similar but slightly lower success rates (at 84.4%) compared to their direct entry counterparts (at 87.7%). other college and advanced standing transfer students experienced lower graduation rates 7 although data limitations may under represent their success. v) grade point average: when comparing full-time students first semester gpa, advanced standing and block transfer students outperform direct entry students. when part-time students are included, college transfer students obtain a first semester gpa that is lower than direct entry students. this appears to reflect the historically lower performance of part time students that are comparatively overrepresented in the universitys transfer population. conclusions the report concludes, [o]verall, full-time college transfer students at lakehead are at least as successful as their direct entry counterparts. it goes on to state that the one year success rate of full-time block transfer students... and the six-year equivalent graduation rate for both full-time block and advanced standing students is higher than their direct entry counterparts. 8 [p]art-time status seemed to lower the success rate... of transfer students. part-time registrations are over represented in the transfer student enrolment. therefore, when compared to the mostly full-time direct entry cohort, total transfer student first semester gpa and common entry point graduation rates tend to skew lower. transfer ...students who have upgraded their high school credential at a college, those who only partially completed a diploma or those whose average is below the requirement for transfer credit... have significantly lower success measures than those who completed a college diploma and are eligible for transfer credit. these results affirm the conclusions of parallel transfer student success studies: assuming appropriate preparation and admission requirements, full-time block and credit transfer students succeed in degree studies as well as their first-time direct-entry peers. 6 this statistic is based on time to completion from a common starting point (e.g. high school entrants in their third year of baccalaureate study versus college graduates transferring directly into third year of a baccalaureate program). the report explains the rationale for this measure and the data anomalies for which it compensates. 7 the study indicates that the common entry year graduation rate of advanced standing transfer students does not allow for the fact that they, on average, receive only 3.4 credits. for these students, a 7 year graduation measure would better represent their success. 3 this transfer student success study is based on 10 years of data from lakehead university, a provincial leader 9 in attracting transfer students from colleges. it compares and contrasts the success of 3 groups of college students entering lakehead university: those entering through bilateral or multi-lateral agreements with block transfer, advanced standing college transfer students (those who have completed a college diploma and are eligible for transfer credit) and, other college students without transfer credits (students who have upgraded their high school credential at a college, those who only partially completed a diploma, or those whose average is below the requirement for transfer credit). 9 among ontario universities, lakehead is tied with ryerson as having the largest share of the ontario credit transfer enrollment relative to its share of the full time enrollment.

wilfrid laurier university brantford | waterloo | kitchener | toronto enhancement and creation of new diploma to degree pathways between conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning & wilfrid laurier university report prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) by dr. lauren eisler, valerie clement elaine francombe, and amy kendall wilfrid laurier university october 31, 2014 table of contents section one: introduction ........................................................................................................... 3 section two: shared administrative services/infrastructure ...................................................... 4 section three: collaborative academic programming ............................................................... 5 joint education programs....................................................................................................... 5 integrated education programs .............................................................................................. 6 other education programs ..................................................................................................... 8 section four: transferable model and tools/templates ............................................................ 9 appendix 1 education program agreement ...........................................................................15 appendix 2 confidential programs under development ......................................................17 appendix 3 registration process ...........................................................................................18 appendix 4 digital media and journalism faq sheet ............................................................21 appendix 5 revisions to the part-time faculty handbook .....................................................23 appendix 6 library services ...................................................................................................26 appendix 7 accessibility services process ............................................................................28 appendix 8 bookstore ordering and sales process ...............................................................29 appendix 9 2014-15 conestoga student orientation agenda ................................................30 appendix 10 conestoga/laurier student handbook ...............................................................32 2 section one: introduction this project sought to enhance existing and create new academic pathways for students located at the brantford campuses of wilfrid laurier university (laurier) and conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning (conestoga). all pathways were developed in collaboration with conestoga to achieve the learning outcomes for each program. programs are designed to give students theoretical and practical experiences that are fundamentally rooted in achieving the program learning outcomes and lauriers undergraduate degree level expectations. the goal for this project was to create a transferable model that could be used with other institutions and in other communities. the two main components of this project were to: 1) identify fully the opportunities for joint academic and shared administrative services/infrastructure in brantford; and 2) create tools and models that can expedite/facilitate new partnerships and joint programming across ontarios post-secondary education system. to identify opportunities for shared administrative services and infrastructure on the brantford campuses, executive bodies from laurier and conestoga have been working to draft collaboration agreements to append to the memorandum of understanding that was signed in 2013. additionally, with regards to the joint academic programming, it was proposed that six partnerships potentially be explored to build upon the strengths of both institutions. during the scope of this project, some ideas were explored, while others were added or removed from the original list. while exploring opportunities for academic partnerships, tools and models were drafted and developed to help expedite and facilitate joint programming. the main focus was to use the joint and integrated programs being implemented as trial runs to create transferable models for programs that are hoped to be launched in the future. roadblocks to collaboration were addressed and best practices were identified through the implementation of the initial joint and integrated programs. 3 section two: shared administrative services/infrastructure a memorandum of understanding (mou) has been created between conestoga college and wilfrid laurier university, and was signed in june and july 2013, taking effect july 1, 2012. the mou sets out the principles and high level processes for ongoing collaboration between the two institutions in the delivery of academic programs for the mutual benefit for students registered at conestoga and/or laurier. the mou stipulates that collaboration, may take the form of shared use of facilities or services, shared delivery of academic programs, or various combinations of instructional and infrastructure partnership. the intent of the mou is for student pathways to be improved; services and support to be seamless from the students perspective; and administrative resources not to be duplicated. as per the mou, a framework for the collaboration agreements was agreed upon by both institutions. this framework outlines four agreements that support the mou will be developed, with focus on academic collaboration, student services collaboration, operations collaboration, and administration collaboration of the two institutions. these agreements, as well as a set of financial principles, are in progress to support the partnership. as of june 2014, a draft of schedule a: academic collaboration was reviewed internally at laurier and was sent to conestoga for their review. it is expected that schedule a will be completed closer to december 2014, depending on the number of revisions that are required. as schedule a has not been signed by each institution yet, full details cannot be provided here. however, it can be disclosed that three types of education programs are detailed in the agreement: a) separate education programs academic programs are delivered and governed by conestoga independently on lauriers brantford campus. b) joint education programs academic programs offered by conestoga or laurier that are paired together so that students receive credentials from both institutions upon successful completion of the program. typically, students will take all of their conestoga courses in one full academic year, while taking few, if any, laurier courses. c) integrated education programs academic programs from each institution are fully integrated. components of the program are seamless from the students perspective. typically, courses from conestoga are offered concurrently with laurier courses. education program agreements for each program will be added as appendices to schedule a. the education program agreements outline specific details pertaining to individual academic program collaborations (see appendix 1 for a draft template education program agreement). due to the complexities of issues being addressed, the other three schedules are not as far along in negotiations as schedule a. schedule b: student services collaboration is being reviewed, while schedule c: operations collaboration and schedule d: administrative collaboration remain in the early stages of development. 4 section three: collaborative academic programming through this project, joint and integrated academic partnerships that built upon the relative strengths, resources and expertise of both institutions were explored and analyzed. the aim in terms of programming was to provide students with enhanced access and pathways, compress time frames for degree qualification, and, preferably, allow students to receive credentials from both institutions. it was also hoped that the collaborative programming would allow the institutions to capitalize on public infrastructure investment, as well as demonstrate a strong commitment to the continued success of the post-secondary education-led social, cultural and economic revitalization of the city of brantford, brant county and the six nations of the grand river territory. in total, eight programs were explored, with four moving beyond the preliminary discussion phase. three of the programs that are still in the process of being explored are discussed in appendix 2 (confidential, to be made public following development of the programs addressed). joint education programs a) conestogas human resources management post-graduate certificate with lauriers human rights and human diversity degree the agreement with conestoga regarding the option of completing the human resources management post-graduate certificate for year 3 of the human rights and human diversity degree has been updated to better reflect recent changes in the laurier program requirements. registration in each institution remains separate, but continues to follow a simplified process of credit transfer between the registrars offices of both institutions. the transfer agreement articulates that students will receive 3.0 senior human rights and human diversity credits and 2.0 senior leadership credits for the hrm certificate. this transfer credit arrangement, among other items, is detailed in the education program agreement for this program, which will be included as an appendix to schedule a of the mou. a) conestogas human resources management and community and social services management post-graduate certificates with lauriers health administration degree lauriers health administration degree, within the health studies program, has also been revised. changes to the requirements for the health administration program were passed by lauriers senate in october 2014 and now include a mandatory year 3 requirement of a postgraduate certificate from conestoga, beginning in september 2015. the two options for a certificate program from conestoga are human resources management and community and social service management. as per the transfer credit arrangement, students will receive 2.5 senior leadership credits and 2.5 senior miscellaneous credits for the completion of one of 5 these certificates. students will graduate with both a college and university credential after four years. conestoga currently runs the human resources management program on the brantford campus and has agreed to begin offering the other program in brantford in september 2015, as well. registration at conestoga will be based on the model currently being employed by the leadership and human rights and human diversity programs. integrated education programs b) conestogas contemporary media arts graduate certificate with lauriers digital media and journalism degree beginning in september 2014, students in the digital media and journalism program at laurier were required to concurrently enroll in and complete conestogas post-graduate certificate program, contemporary media arts. the post-graduate certificate is the first program to be completely integrated with a laurier degree program in brantford. journalism students currently following year 3 of the previous program requirements were still provided the option of completing year 3 at conestogas kitchener campus. year 1 students must complete courses towards the certificate in each year of their studies at laurier, with all classes taking place on the brantford campus. in total, there are 14 conestoga courses that count towards 5.0 credits for the revised laurier degree. a seamless integration of these programs from the students perspective required the collaboration of representatives from conestoga and laurier to work out the details of registration at one institution. numerous meetings and written communications between both registrar offices were necessary, specifically to determine how to set conestoga courses up in the laurier registration system and to work out the financial arrangements. timing of the conestoga classes within the laurier schedule, academic regulations, and the length of terms were also reviewed. not all of the issues were resolved in time for the registration of year one students in the 2014-2015 academic year. registration in conestoga courses was made seamless by lauriers office of the registrar through them automatically enrolling new students in the program in the conestoga classes. since then, new course codes that reflect the conestoga courses were created and entered into the laurier system with p and f indicating a pass/fail standing based on a minimum average required in each course. care was taken to ensure that these codes are similar to those used in the conestoga system for ease of conversion and display on transcripts. since the four conestoga classes in year 1 are equivalent to 0.25 laurier credit each, technical difficulties in displaying the exact course grading at laurier resulted in a calendar change to indicate that a minimum of 70% would be required to attain a pass grade or p on the transcript. with the new course codes and average requirements in place, future students in this program will be able to enroll in conestoga courses using the laurier system without the intervention of the registrars office. 6 in order to ensure that a clear exchange of student information between both institutions continues to allow a seamless process of registration and progression for all students, a document further outlining the monthly responsibilities of each of the conestoga and laurier representatives in both registrars and program areas has been created (appendix 3). it has been agreed that this document will be reviewed and revised by appropriate members of both institutions on a yearly basis. details related to student fees and financial transfers between institutions have resulted in numerous consultations with financial specialists at both institutions. the financial arrangements continue to be worked on, with the goal to create a fair and equitable transfer of resources. the process that is implemented will largely be driven by the financial principles, which are currently being explored as part of the mou discussions. the creation of one seamless registration and billing system through laurier is a model that will be implemented for all future integrated programs with conestoga college. the model strengthens the ties between institutions and creates a positive seamless student experience. communications with academic advising have also occurred on a regular basis to ensure that students in this program are accurately advised about course registration. an information sheet was created and distributed to incoming students who were unsure about whether applications and registrations at both institutions were necessary for enrolment (appendix 4). the coordination of recent changes to the weighting of the conestoga courses from a total of three to five credits was overseen through the curriculum process at laurier and recently passed through senate. this new information is being confirmed with advising and will be communicated to each individual student in the program to ensure that they are aware of the changes to their course load. recognizing that students are not the only stakeholders who required new and updated resources to ensure they have a seamless and positive experience, lauriers part-time faculty handbook is also being revised (see appendix 5). the handbook will be edited for conestoga faculty to ensure their faculty members receive pertinent information for teaching in an integrated program. additionally, the creation of a steering committee comprised of representatives from both institutions to oversee progression and other academic decisions has been discussed. the final form of this steering committee has not yet been finalized, but will be addressed in the individual education program agreements appended to schedule a of the mou. the steering committee will ensure that regular meetings are held to enable program coordinators and other administrators involved with the integrated program to review and resolve program issues. c) conestogas game design courses with lauriers game design and development degree the proposal for an honours bachelor of fine and applied arts in game design and development is currently awaiting approval from the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities. the program is being advertised through recruitment for possible incoming students in september 2015. 7 all students in this program will be required to take courses that introduce them to a broad variety of critical and applied concepts in both gaming studies and game design. the curriculum for this program is integrated, with a mix of laurier and conestoga courses. in addition to the required junior and senior level courses delivered by laurier, this program requires six courses (3.0 credits) delivered by conestoga. since the program assumes no previous programming or design experience on the part of students, the curriculum introduces concepts of games and game design through a project-based course in which first-year students develop an analog board game. the wlu-based curriculum then introduces students to key concepts, ideas, and tools in media history, theory, design, and interaction. the conestoga-based curriculum introduces key skills required for game development in hands-on computer lab classrooms. the interaction of theory and practice culminates in two capstone projects that showcase the students ability to create games from concept to product and to work in collaboration with an external organization to solve or address a problem with gamified strategies. through the use of a consultant, as well as the university-industry liaison officer, laurier is exploring other avenues of partnership for the games program. the possibility of funding from mitacs, an organization devoted to the building of partnerships between academia and industry, as well as a relationship with the university of waterloo games institute are currently being investigated. there is great potential for future educational experiences through these partnerships for lauriers undergraduate students. the consultant is also sharpening the collaboration between conestoga and laurier in terms of helping us understand how to bridge the gap between theoretical and applied elements of game design in terms of curriculum and operational infrastructure (such as information technology). the program registration model of the digital media and journalism program will be used to provide students with a seamless registration through the laurier registration system. unlike the journalism program, game development and design students will not receive a credential from conestoga upon graduation from this program; however, the communication of grades and the planning processes between the registrars offices will be run as indicated in the registration process document developed for journalism (appendix 3). other education programs d) conestogas business diploma and lauriers business technology management degree due to concerns raised by lauriers school of business and economics, the conestoga business diploma and lauriers business technology management degree (2+2) has been put on hold until a future date. 8 section four: transferable model and tools/templates the second component of the project was to create tools and models that can expedite and help facilitate new partnerships and joint programming across ontarios post-secondary education system. this was to be accomplished partially through building upon best practices and through the creation of turn-key tools and templates to help institutions move forward with any/all components of these innovative collaborations. it was found that in order to successfully launch these programs, several offices and services from both institutions needed to be consulted and work closely together. in particular, it was determined that human resources, faculty relations, finance, the office of the registrar, student unions, library, the bookstore, student services, the residence life office, information technology services, and recruitment and admissions need to be contacted for input. collaboration with these areas is critical during the different stages of establishing a separate, joint or integrated program, as is described in the below table: office/area consulted human resources and/or faculty relations preliminary idea stage contact regarding any issues that may surround the institutions collective agreement(s). in terms of conestogalaurier partnerships, discussions included issues around modified work assignments and concerns of the wilfrid laurier university faculty association regarding possible contravention to the collective agreements for full-time and parttime faculty. financial operations contact regarding preliminary budgeting questions, funding issues/concerns. proposal writing and approval stage notify about the proposal status and ensure no further questions have arisen as the proposal is drafted. program launch stage determine which institution will receive funding (or both), including government grants, tuition collection, any future surplus revenue, etc. finalize financial arrangements and ensure any outstanding issues are handled. this should be directed by the financial 9 principles that are in place on a higher level between the institutions. also look into insurance coverage, including: students/instituti onal risk/insurance suing wsib field trips request support determining logistics and costs per student (fees + regular +student affairs security who is charging and what is being charged back should be clearly spelled out). registration and records once it is clear what the program wants to do (i.e., integrated vs. joint, how many courses to be offered, during which years, etc.), collaboration with the registrars office is required. a process needs to be developed and be used for the information sharing and for piloting integrated programming options. see the example registration process document attached in appendix 3. ensure the solution and process in place for registration, progression and graduation confirmation are ready and are functioning properly. after much deliberation, the solution laurier and conestoga determined was that new course codes and average requirements be entered in lauriers system. future students in integrated programs should be able to enroll in conestoga courses 10 student unions library and resource centre using the laurier system without the intervention of the registrars office. connect the student unions from each institution to initiate discussions that look at options to ensure all students, both college and university, are represented at the campus. they may also want to look at various partnership opportunities. work with the library and any resource centres to ensure they are able to properly service the additional students and have the resources available for the new program. it may be necessary for the incoming partner to establish a process with the library. discussions may also want to be held regarding resources for any necessary bridging courses. conestoga and laurier/brantford public library had an initial process in place from fall 2012 and they have recently provided revisions to that agreement to be incorporated into the services agreement being updated. please see appendix 6. accessibility office conestoga and lauriers accessible learning have had an arrangement in place for 11 assessing and accommodating conestoga students since the fall of 2012 and it has proven successful. through discussions, it was determined that no new processes will need to be added for students in integrated programs. see appendix 7. bookstore connect the bookstores from each institution to develop a process for ordering the required books to be sold for joint and integrated programs. the agreement reached between conestogas bookstore and the stedman community bookstore at laurier brantford is attached in appendix 8. student services discuss how student services will be provided, by which institution and what the fees are for this. conestoga and laurier discussions have focused on all student services being handled by laurier brantford with a bundled charge back. ongoing discussions will occur for information sharing and enhancements as this partnership moves forward. residence office if students for any separate, joint or integrated programs will 12 require residence rooms (or the option to have rooms in residences), work with the residence office of the hosting institution to ensure accommodations are made. lauriers residence life office allots rooms to conestoga students. numbers of residence rooms required for conestoga students must be finalized by july 1 each year. information technology work with it to review systems and ensure capability to service incoming programs. be mindful of programs that are labour intensive for the data required and sharing of information. this may not be a streamlined process, based on the technological requirements for each program. recruitment and admissions once approved by appropriate bodies, work with the recruitment and admissions office at each institution to design and implement a marketing strategy for all program options. best practices were also identified through the process of setting up the initial joint and integrated programs. one such practice is to establish a steering committee for each individual program, comprised of representatives from both institutions, to oversee progression and other academic decisions. the steering committee will hold regular meetings to enable program coordinators and other administrators to review and resolve program issues. in terms of the conestoga-laurier partnership, this is an idea that is still in the discussion phase and has not yet been implemented. another best practice is to ensure that faculty members teaching within 13 any separate, joint or integrated program receive a proper orientation to the campus and have access to up-to-date resources. in fall 2014, conestogas faculty were invited to attend the student orientation, as well as participate in a separate lab orientation session. they also received a brief information sheet that included necessary information. to replace the information sheet, lauriers part-time faculty handbook is being revised for the winter 2015 semester so that conestoga faculty have all applicable information (see appendix 5). similarly, it is best to ensure students in these types of programs receive a separate orientation to understand how their program works, what it means to be a student of each institution and any other issues that are related to their program. in fall 2014-15, conestoga students received their own orientation on the brantford campus (excluding degree students, as they received their primary orientation through laurier). at the conestoga orientation, students were given a handbook that was specifically designed for their program, introduced to the different services on brantford campus that were available to them, and presented with program-specific information. please see appendix 9 and appendix 10 for the 2014-15 student orientation agenda and student handbook. 14 appendix 1 education program agreement please note that the below template education program agreement is only a draft version and has not yet been approved by the executive offices of laurier and conestoga. this proposed version of an education program agreement would be filled out for each individual program and appended to schedule a: academic collaboration agreement of the memorandum of understanding. schedule a3.1 appendix template 1. faculty: liberal arts: human and social sciences: 2. laurier program name: _______________________________________________________ 3. conestoga post-graduate certificate name(s): ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ~ or ~ no conestoga certificate awarded for this program: 4. number of credits awarded in total: _______ 5. conestoga credits: optional for graduation 6. year 3 program: ~ or ~ other: ~ or ~ ~ or ~ mandatory for graduation concurrent program: _________________________________________________________ 8. minimum overall gpa average required in conestoga courses: ___________ ~ or ~ minimum gpa average required in each conestoga course: ___________ 9. laurier transcript notation: credits listed as per laurier academic calendar: ~ or ~ pass/fail notation for each conestoga class: ~ or ~ other: _________________________________________ 15 10. registration process agreement and transfer of credits process approved by both registrars: yes attached no if no, will transfer be based on model as per previous program agreement? yes program name: _____________________ no 11. academic steering committee: if required, committee responsibilities may include the review of issues related to the content of courses, scheduling of exams, issues of academic misconduct, petitions and grade appeals and registration processes between institutions. required not required i) frequency of meetings: end of each term: ~ or ~ end of winter term: ii) if required: list of members by title from both institutions: ________________________ _____ ____________________________ ________________________ _____ ____________________________ ________________________ _____ ____________________________ academic sub committee: frequency of meetings: required: end of each term: not required: end of winter term only: if required: list of members by title from both institutions: ________________________ _____ ____________________________ ________________________ _____ ____________________________ ________________________ _____ ____________________________ 16 appendix 2 confidential programs under development note: this appendix has been removed due to its confidential nature and will be released at a future date. 17 appendix 3 registration process registration process for digital media and journalism as agreed in may 2014 when ongoing task grades are entered into the conestoga d2l system and uploaded into sis. who instructors ongoing students who have left the digital media and journalism program who wish to complete the conestoga media arts certificate will be directed to conestoga college for assistance. academic advising will direct the students to the program coordinator at the college. conestoga will direct students who have completed the cma who want to reapply to honours jn to laurier academic advising grades for all students registered in spring conestoga classes are sent to associate registrar, brantford for input of cr or f into the laurier system associate registrar conestoga and conestoga representative students who have a minimum grade of 65% in each conestoga class may progress. (under review) program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in spring conestoga courses. the manager of academic advising, laurier students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion of the digital media and journalism program coordinator. august within five days of the end of the spring term august additional notes laurier will allow students to hold conestoga credits and use them as miscellaneous senior credits towards other programs if conestoga courses were completed in spring term, progression may be recommended by academic advising before progression decisions are final. progression decisions are communicated by the registrars office (and potentially advising) august ensure the minimum required contact hours for fall/winter conestoga courses are met. conestoga representative courses may require make up classes or self-directed learning activities. 18 when october task send notice of spring timetable planning to the conestoga representative in brantford. who laurier brantford scheduling and examinations coordinator additional notes for the coming academic mayaugust spring term classes november send notice of fall/winter timetable planning to the conestoga representative in brantford. laurier brantford scheduling and examinations coordinator for the coming academic year sept.-april fall/winter term classes november provide scheduling specifics for coming spring classes to the laurier brantford scheduling and examinations coordinator conestoga representative. ensure to include which courses require lectures and/or labs for the spring term may-august. associate registrar conestoga and conestoga representative students who have a minimum grade of 65% in each conestoga class may progress. (under review) december provide scheduling specifics for coming fall and winter to the laurier brantford scheduling and examinations coordinator. conestoga representative. ensure to include which courses require lectures and/or labs for the academic year sept.-april fall/winter. december class times are scheduled so that conestoga classes - april do not conflict with laurier jn classes. laurier brantford scheduling and examinations coordinator december within 5 days of the end of the term grades for all students registered in fall conestoga classes are sent to associate registrar, brantford for input of cr or f into laurier system january end results from fall term program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in conestoga courses. the manager of academic advising, laurier students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion of the digital media and journalism program coordinator. if conestoga courses are available in spring term, retakes may be recommended by academic advising. february academic dates posted on wlu web conestoga instructors are informed of all laurier academic dates including university holidays. conestoga representative instructors informed if make-up classes are required for any conestoga classes that fall into times when the university is closed. 19 when march task information regarding registration in conestoga classes is included in the first year registration guide for new students. who submitted by academic advising laurier associate registrar laurier to ensure conestoga classes are included. additional notes academic dates for registration, dropping or adding courses follow laurier calendars. information regarding registration in conestoga classes for continuing students is included in registration instructions for all students advertised by the registrars office. associate registrar laurier brantford. academic dates for registration, dropping or adding courses follow laurier calendars. april ensure courses are inputted into the laurier system. associate registrar laurier brantford april days and times of classes are entered into the laurier system. laurier brantford scheduling and examinations coordinator april ensure the minimum required contact hours for conestoga courses are met for spring classes conestoga representative courses may require make up classes or self-directed learning activities. april within 5 days of the end of winter term grades for all students registered in spring conestoga classes are sent to associate registrar, brantford for input of cr or f into the laurier system. associate registrar conestoga and conestoga representative students who have a minimum grade of 65% in each conestoga class may progress. (under review) april end results of winter term program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in conestoga courses. the manager of academic advising, laurier students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion of the digital media and journalism program coordinator. if conestoga courses are available in spring term, retakes may be recommended by academic advising before progression decisions are final. progression decisions are communicated by the wlu registrar & advising march 20 appendix 4 digital media and journalism faq sheet digital media and journalism first year student registration information 1. how do i enroll in the conestoga courses i need for this program? the office of the registrar will register you in the conestoga courses before classes begin in september. the conestoga classes will appear on your loris registration as part of your fall and winter schedules. if the times of the classes conflict with any electives you have already registered for, the office of the registrar will notify you through your mylaurier email so that you have plenty of time to choose new electives. you are responsible for checking your registration to ensure that you attend all of the classes listed there. you will complete two conestoga classes each semester. the four conestoga classes you complete in year 1 are equivalent to a total of 0.5 laurier credit for the purposes of osap and any laurier scholarships you may be eligible for. fall term: group dynamics - thursdays from 8:30 - 11:20 in cb205 art of storytelling - tuesdays from 11:30 - 2:20 in dal007 winter term: digital imaging i - fridays from 10:00 - 12:50 in od210 (computer lab) project management - thursdays from 8:30 - 11:20 in cb206 2. which journalism courses are required this year? jn101 (fall), jn202 (winter) and jn211 (winter). 3. which brantford foundation courses should i complete this year? bf190 is required in the fall term. it is required for graduation and is also the prerequisite for jn211 in the winter. completion of bf290 is preferred in the winter term, but if scheduling is better for fall, that is fine. 4. how many elective courses should i enroll in this year? you need 2.0 credits of electives (4 x .5 credit classes) in year 1 to complete 5.0 credits in total. the required jn, bf and conestoga classes total 3.0 credits. 21 you could choose to enroll in 3 elective classes in the fall (1.5 credits) and 1 in the winter (.5 credit), to balance your schedule with all of your required classes. laurier students who complete honours degrees in 4 years without enrolling in any spring classes (may august), usually complete 5.0 credits each year, (5 x .5 credit classes per f/w term). its up to each student to decide how many elective classes they are comfortable completing each year. if you require 5.0 credits a year for funding purposes, but find this workload too heavy, please contact your funding sponsor to assess how dropping classes will affect your finances. always be aware of the deadlines for dropping and adding courses and contact an academic advisor to review possible registration in spring (may- august) electives. 5. will i be able to take some journalism classes in the spring term (may-august) and finish this degree in less than four years? no, journalism classes will not be available in the spring term. it will take a minimum of 4 years to complete this degree. 6. what if i need more than 4 years to finish the degree? thats fine, although you will need to complete the required journalism and conestoga courses in sequence each year. its up to each student to decide how quickly to complete all of the electives that you require to graduate with 20 credits. you may remain registered for up to 18 months after the date of your last registration and still be eligible to follow the academic calendar year of your program requirements. 7. what grades are required to remain in the program? a cumulative gpa of 5.0 (63-65%) in the jn courses, and an overall cumulative gpa of 5.0 is required to progress in this program. an average of 65% in each conestoga class is required to graduate. students who achieve less than 65% will only be permitted to progress in the program at the discretion of the digital media and journalism program coordinator. students must achieve a 7.0 (70-72%) cumulative gpa in jn classes and 5.0 cumulative gpa overall to meet requirements to graduate with honours. 22 appendix 5 revisions to the part-time faculty handbook some of the information that has been discussed and will be included in the revised part-time faculty handbook for conestoga faculty in the winter 2015 include: campus map http://www.myatlascms.com/map/index.php?id=573#!ct/6897,5784,5799,5783,5798,5800,5797, 5782,5623 laurier academic dates all conestoga classes will follow the laurier academic calendar as below: fall term 2014 http://www.wlu.ca/calendars/dates.php?cal=1&t=210&y=61 winter term 2015 http://www.wlu.ca/calendars/dates.php?cal=1&t=211&y=61 assignments and tests in the last week of classes normally, work such as assignments or tests, due in the last week of classes will be made known to a class at the beginning of the term. in no case, after the first half of the term, shall the assignment of such work first be made known to a class. to ensure that the workload of students is not unreasonable in the last week of classes, the university sets the following limits for the final week of regularly scheduled classes of each term: 1. assignments, projects, presentations and other evaluated work, to a maximum worth of 50 percent of the total marks available in the course, may be due for submission or presentation during the last week; 2. in a course or section with a final examination scheduled in the examination period, an inclass test or examination worth no more than 20 percent of the total marks available in the course may be administered during the last week of classes; 3. in a course or section that does not have a final examination scheduled in the examination period, no tests or examinations may be administered during the last week of classes, excepting only small quizzes and the like, worth no more than 10 percent that are part of a weekly or biweekly series of such items. campus closures - severe weather/storm closing policy for information regarding brantford campus closures, please see www.laurierbrantford.ca. severe weather/storm closing policy: the decision to close the brantford campus will be made by the principal/vice-president or designate. the office of the principal/vice-president will notify the president's office, conestoga college, and nipissing university whenever the brantford campus closes. buildings in kitchener will close whenever the waterloo campus closes. notifications of such a closure will be communicated by 7 a.m. in the following ways: 23 1) campus closure notification on the homepage - www.laurierbrantford.ca 2) campus closure notification on the switchboard - 519.756.8228 3) campus closure notification email sent to all faculty, staff and students 4) campus closure notification to ckpc am 1380 and jewel 92.1 fm, as well as their websites closing the university means that: 1. all classes are cancelled. 2. meetings and other scheduled events are not held. 3. staff, other than those needed for essential services, are not expected to be at work. 4. examinations are cancelled. any centrally scheduled examinations that have been cancelled will be rescheduled by the office of the registrar. 5. deadlines for assignments and other submissions are postponed until the same hour on the next weekday that the university is open. please note that your courses will also be affected by conestoga campus closures. the best information sources are the conestoga website (http://blogs1.conestogac.on.ca/announcement/2012/02/emergency_closure_information.php) and local media. when the decision is made to close one or more of conestogas campuses because of bad weather or an emergency, an announcement will be posted on the home page under college news, and phone systems at each campus will be updated to reflect information pertaining to the closure. closure information will also be provided to local radio and television stations, including: 88.3 cjiq-fm , conestoga college 570 news/ 96.7 chym-fm, kitchener 105.3 kool-fm, waterloo 1460 cjoy/magic 106.1-fm, guelph cjcs 1240, stratford 107.5 dave-fm , cambridge 91.5 the beat, kitchener ckco-tv classroom location please do not change the location of your classroom. room bookings for university and nonuniversity functions require us to have strict record keeping of all room usage. your cooperation is appreciated. if you have any questions about your room assignment, please contact: ruth cole at rcole@wlu.ca or service laurier at servicelaurier@wlu.ca should you wish to request a change to your assigned classroom location, please complete the online form found here prior to the beginning of classes (where possible). if you need to book rooms for any reason (i.e. make up exams, etc.), please fill out the online form by going to the service laurier website to complete a room booking request form. make-up mid-term exams make-up midterms are to be arranged between the faculty member and the student, and should not involve office staff. make up midterms can also be written in the professors offices if that is agreed upon by the student. staff cannot act as proctors for mid-terms. if support is needed for 24 make-up mid-terms, please work with conestoga staff. office location and key services your office location will be assigned by conestoga staff. keys for office, classrooms and media kiosks are distributed and returned through linda cook in campus operations. see linda (before the first week of class, if possible) to sign for, and pick up the key(s). at the end of term, it is important that you return the key(s), and sign that you have done so. if you are making a special trip to pick up your keys, please verify that someone will be in the office on the day and time you are coming. contact information: linda cook e| lcook@wlu.ca p| 519.756.8228 ext. 5761 university holidays please click the following link for a list of university holidays. voicemail there may be a note in your office as to what the password is. otherwise, initial password is 66 plus extension number. the first person to access the voicemail system will be prompted to change the password. please leave a note for other faculty sharing the office, indicating the new password. likewise, if you ever change the password, leave a note for your office-mates. helpful phone extension information: to setup your voicemail for both laurier and the community to hear, do the following: - press 7000 or message (if your phone has this button) and enter your extension # - your password is 66 + your extension followed by the # key (this is a temporary password & you will be asked to change it) - press 8*, 2 and then 1 - press 5 to record message and # to end message to retrieve voicemail, do the following: - press 7000 or message (if your phone has this button) and enter your extension # - enter your password followed by the # key - press 2 to play the message or replay; press 76 to delete the message 25 appendix 6 library services please note that this is a draft version, which has not been approved by the executive bodies at either institution. for education programs offered at the brantford campus, conestoga students at brantford will have access to the following services: a. instructional services: conestoga program liaisons will provide on-site orientation and classroom information literacy sessions as requested by program coordinators and faculty. online tutorials on research skills and database searching will also be accessible to students on the conestoga library website. b. reference services: brantford public library staff will provide the same basic / directional reference service to conestoga students as is provided to laurier students. more complex questions or students with greater needs will be directed to the conestoga library program liaisons or to the main conestoga library client service email. in addition, askon colleges virtual research service http://www.conestogac.on.ca/lrc/contact/askon.jsp and wlus ask us http://library.wlu.ca/askus will be available to conestoga students. c. e-resources: access to conestoga online e-resources will be promoted for all conestoga students. access to laurier on-line e-resources is limited to laurier students and faculty. conestoga students enrolled in a joint or integrated education program (i.e. enrolled at both laurier and conestoga) will have access to laurier online eresources. conestoga students enrolled in a separate education program will be issued a laurier onecard (as will all conestoga students) and will have access to e-resources only in person when on campus. d. print resources: conestoga students and faculty may request print resources from the conestoga library. resources will be shipped in care of conestoga faculty. print resources will not be transferred from conestoga library to brantford public library. conestoga students and faculty who reside in brantford may obtain a brantford public library (bpl) card to borrow from the bpl collection. students may also borrow from the laurier print circulating collection at bpl using their laurier onecard. e. interlibrary loan: conestoga library is responsible to process all requests for interlibrary loans or document delivery for conestoga students or faculty. once a sufficient number of conestoga students are enrolled in education programs at brantford, interlibrary loans from lauriers print collection will be available to conestoga students via the laurier interlibrary loan services (ils). f. reserves: no conestoga print reserves will be held or circulated by bpl. conestoga library will establish a reserve system with conestoga faculty teaching at brantford to provide for access to electronic reserve materials for conestoga students. g. study space: through their onecard, conestoga students enrolled in an education program are eligible to access study space at bpl. 26 h. returns: conestoga and laurier will develop a system to address the timely return of library materials by conestoga students. as may be requested by laurier, conestoga will follow-up with conestoga students who are delinquent in returning library materials or fail to pay library fines. laurier will provide timely written notification (email is acceptable) to the conestoga library director of all students who have failed to return materials or pay library fines. i. evaluation: all requests and comments by conestoga students and faculty on library services will be collected and reviewed to monitor demand for services and adequacy of existing services. feedback from conestoga students and faculty, as well as bpl and laurier library staff will be shared annually with the advisory council to assess services and propose improvements. as may be appropriate, conestoga or laurier may complete a survey to assess students library needs during the term of the mou. 27 appendix 7 accessibility services process please note that this is a draft version, which has not been approved by the executive bodies at either institution. the accessible learning centre at laurier brantford will be vetting all accommodation requests for conestoga college students. ann moore, the manager of accessibility services on the doon campus and amy kendall have been working together to develop an accommodation process that is modelled after the services on the doon campus, yet is administered through the accessible learning centre. the following will offer some initial guidelines to support your students as we continue to work through this development process: you will receive an accommodation letter from a student if they are registered with accessible learning. their classroom and exam accommodations will be indicated. you are expected to implement any classroom accommodations as soon as possible. if there is a testing accommodation, this is your cue to begin putting test times into the test wizard. according to ann moore, you can enter an entire semester's test times into the test wizard. if you have questions about an accommodation, please speak to michael ackerman, disability consultant before negotiating any variations with the student. michael can be reached at mackerman@wlu.ca/ 519-756-8228 x 5759, his office location is 97 dalhousie st room 212. volunteer student note taking (this process will follow that of the doon campus): when a student has a 'student note taker' accommodation, please post a request to the class for a volunteer student note taker on d2l, without identifying the student. ask that student volunteers "reply to all" when responding. this will allow the student with accessibility needs to privately contact the volunteer. in this way, we can protect the student's privacy, while assisting them in getting their needs met. the exam process will follow that of the accessible learning centre/ laurier brantford. students will be invited to book to write tests and exams by advertised deadlines. once a booking is received, the exam coordinator will be in contact with you to request the submission of your exam to our office. we ask that you submit your exam 3 days prior to the exam date, to lbalexams@wlu.ca or drop off a hard copy to the main alc office at 97 dalhousie room 214. this will enable the alc time to format the exam to meet the needs of the students. 28 appendix 8 bookstore ordering and sales process bookstore processes - conestoga and laurier as of may 2014 fall semester: when task 3rd e-mail book adoption list to stedman monday in bookstore manager june june/july inputs conestoga book orders july send program and course numbers july e-mail students regarding orientation date, reminder of textbook costs and process ensure any issues related to the order is address in july early enough to resolve follow up with stedman bookstore manager regarding september numbers, and to identify any items to review july august winter semester: when task september set up college program order day for shirts and other products by the 3rd monday in october october e-mail book adoption list to stedman bookstore manager october send program and course numbers october ensure any issues related to the order is address in july early enough to resolve e-mail students regarding winter semester updates and reminder of textbook costs and process follow up with stedman bookstore manager regarding january numbers, and identify any items to review november december inputs conestoga book orders who conestoga college program support notes stedman bookstore manager conestoga college program support conestoga college program support stedman bookstore manager conestoga college program support who stedman bookstore manager and conestoga college program support conestoga college program support notes stedman bookstore manager conestoga college program support stedman bookstore manager conestoga college program support conestoga college program support note: if there are orders that cant be placed or there are issues then either party should contact the other immediately to communicate the concerns. the stedman bookstore manager will contact the conestoga college bookstore for any kits, special orders or order concerns. conestoga colleges bookstore will come to brantford at least once a semester to give the students an opportunity to purchase conestoga college products. 29 appendix 9 2014-15 conestoga student orientation agenda conestoga college brantford orientation agenda thursday, august 28th - 9- 3:00 p.m. location: research academic centre - 002 rcw http://www.wlu.ca/documents/57297/brnt-mar14-campus_map_web.pdf orientation agenda time activity 9:00am -11:30 a.m. general orientation welcome/overview of the day o student handbook bookstore, parking and other logistics conestoga students inc. (csi) o healthcare plan & student wellness o student life o library resources, learning commons & aboriginal services laurier student services o accessible learning o service laurier and the one card o library resources o its service desk it technical support o tech shop printing services o wilkes house gym financial aid o osap information & student awards introduction of contacts announcement of program coordinators o school chairs o program coordinators information about phase 2 of orientation 11:30 - 12:00 noon lunch (provided) 12:00 1:00 p.m. program specific orientation introduction into program introduction of faculty and students ice breaker activity brief overview of courses realistic preview of what to expect 30 1:00 - 2:00p.m. networking events question & answer period computer lab session how to log onto system, access conestoga college email and d2l overview question & answer period 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. depart for tour and to purchase books in the bookstore 31 appendix 10 conestoga/laurier student handbook 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

wilfrid laurier university brantford | waterloo | kitchener | toronto project 2015-28 final report enhancement of existing and creation of additional diploma to degree pathways between wilfrid laurier university & conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning report prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) by dr. lauren eisler and valerie clement september 30, 2016 1 table of contents section one: introduction ........................................................................................... 3 section two: shared administrative services/infrastructure ............................................ 3 section three: collaborative academic programming ...................................................... 4 joint education programs ......................................................................................... 4 integrated education programs ................................................................................. 8 future collaborations ............................................................................................... 9 section four: transferable model and tools/templates ................................................... 9 revised tools and templates .................................................................................. 10 new tools and templates ....................................................................................... 10 new best practices and lessons learned .................................................................. 11 appendix a education program agreement template ................................................. 12 appendix b pathways ............................................................................................. 14 appendix c updated registration process documents ................................................ 28 digital media and journalism .................................................................................. 28 game design and development .............................................................................. 33 appendix d year 3 process and forms ...................................................................... 39 appendix e master list of laurier-conestoga programming ......................................... 42 appendix f marketing tri-fold handout .................................................................... 45 2 section one: introduction project 2015-28 sought to build upon the success of oncat project 2014-06 by continuing to enhance existing and create new academic pathways within the comprehensive partnership between wilfrid laurier university (laurier) and conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning (conestoga) through their memorandum of understanding (mou). this project also sought to continue to enhance the transferable model that was developed as part of project 2014-06. as such, the two main components of this project were to: 1) identify fully the opportunities for joint academic and shared administrative services/infrastructure in brantford; and 2) create tools and models that can expedite/facilitate new partnerships and joint programming across ontarios postsecondary education system. in order to identify opportunities for shared administrative services and infrastructure on the brantford campuses, executive bodies from laurier and conestoga have been working to draft collaboration agreements to append to the memorandum of understanding that was signed in 2013. it was originally proposed that six potential areas for partnerships be explored to build upon the strengths of both institutions. during the scope of this project, some ideas were explored, while others were added or developed in an altered form. this report presents the final version of these collaborations. the creation of new academic pathways for students inevitably led to tools and models to be developed to help facilitate joint programming. while many of the tools, models, and best practices were developed as part of project 2014-06, some have been revised and other ones have been created. section two: shared administrative services/infrastructure as noted previously, a mou was signed between conestoga and laurier in june 2013, dating its effect back to july 1, 2012. the mou has been revisited and re-signed in the summer of 2016. the mou sets out the principles and high level processes for ongoing collaboration between the two institutions in the delivery of academic programs for the mutual benefit for students registered at conestoga and/or laurier. the mou stipulates that collaboration, may take the form of shared use of facilities or services, shared delivery of academic programs, or various combinations of instructional and infrastructure partnership. the intent of the mou is for student pathways to be improved; services and support to be seamless from the students perspective; and administrative resources not to be duplicated. since the signing of the mou, four collaboration agreements have been discussed between laurier and conestoga that fully detail their relationship in terms of separate, joint, and integrated programming. the agreements include schedule a - academic collaboration, scheduled b - student services collaboration, schedule c - operations collaboration, and schedule d - administration collaboration. currently, schedule a and schedule b have been signed by both laurier and conestoga. schedule a contains its own appendices that detail 3 the education program agreements for each individual pathway program. a blank template of the education program agreements is included in appendix a. schedule c has been finalized and is being executed, while schedule d is still in the development stage at laurier. as a result of the mou, conestoga has an office with full-time administrative support on lauriers brantford campus. conestoga is also now offering its own programming in brantford, as well as content, preparatory, and concurrent certificate programs in conjunction with several laurier degree programs. section three: collaborative academic programming through this project, joint and integrated academic partnerships were explored and, in a majority of cases, were developed. these programs build upon the relative strengths, resources, and expertise of both institutions. the overall aims of this programming was to provide students with enhanced access and pathways, compressed time frames for degree qualification, and the opportunity to receive credentials from both institutions. in total, eight pathways were explored, five being successfully developed. descriptions of each pathway are included below; however, further details can be found in appendix b. all pathways developed were created in collaboration with conestoga to ensure that students achieve the program learning outcomes and students receive theoretical and practical experiences that are fundamentally rooted in achieving the program learning outcomes and lauriers undergraduate degree level expectations. joint education programs a) conestogas autism and behavioural science graduate certificate with lauriers honours bachelor of arts in community health in order to provide students with opportunities to specialize their program, three streams within the honours bachelor of arts in community health have been developed health studies (a fully laurier option); addictions and mental health (laurier and conestoga joint option); and autism and behavioural science (laurier and conestoga joint option). the inclusion of graduate certificates was approved by senate on april 15, 2015, and students began being admitted into these streams in september 2015. currently, students in the autism and behaviour science stream will be taking courses through conestoga in this field in an online delivery model. the graduate certificate for the addictions and mental health stream is currently awaiting approval by the ontario ministry of advanced education and skills development. including graduate certificates in these two fields allows students to seek a specific trajectory in their career in these areas of critical societal need. the graduate certificates also fit well with the learning outcomes for the ba in community health, which include identifying the most significant health challenges in communities; evaluating the factors 4 that create health risks for members of those communities; and studying and making recommendations for program and policy interventions that will improve the health status within communities of concern. students in the two joint conestoga areas of concentration will complete graduate certificates offered by conestoga on the brantford campus during their third year of study. students must have successfully completed 10.0 credits, including ps101, ps102, ps275 and ps276, or ps280 with honours status in community health in order to be eligible to enroll in a graduate certificate program. completion of the graduate certificate with a minimum average of 70% will allow for the transfer of 5.0 senior credits, including 3.0 senior hs credits and 2.0 senior misc. credits, towards the laurier degree requirements. upon graduation, students will receive both credentials. b) conestogas sustainable business management (formerly green management) and community and social service management graduate certificates with lauriers honours bachelor of arts in society, culture, and environment two certificates have been added to lauriers honours bachelor of arts in society, culture, and environment (which has been renamed social and environmental justice, beginning fall 2017). both graduate certificates are offered as possible streams within the laurier degree program, offered on the brantford campus. the addition of sustainable business management as a stream was approved by senate on april 15, 2015, and the addition of community and social service management was approved by senate on january 11, 2016. the sustainable business management graduate certificate provides students with the knowledge and skills to reduce their social and environmental impacts, contribute to the development of innovative solutions, and gain market advantage in the new, emerging sustainable economy. in the program, students learn the project and change management skills needed to help an organization implement environmental sustainability into its bottom line. as part of their learning experiences, students will develop and implement a sustainability action plan that will lead to greater value creation, improved productivity and enhanced corporate responsibility for the organization. the community and social service management graduate certificate focuses on developing skills in managing public, private, or non-profit community organizations. students gain knowledge of community development methods and learn strategies for relationship building, community outreach, and community leadership. students enhance their understanding of community-based social policy and public administration, as well as gain perspectives on social, cultural and political issues. both graduate certificates fit well with the program learning outcomes and goals of the laurier program, which seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and inspiration to directly contribute to the world we live in both locally and globally. lauriers curriculum examines topics such as poverty and policies to reduce income inequality, climate change and sustainable communities, and citizens' roles in a democratic society. students work with each other and with faculty to develop innovative solutions to complex social and environmental problems. 5 students are eligible to enroll in the sustainable business management graduate certificate if they have successfully completed a minimum of 10.0 credits, including ct210, ct215, and ol140 with a minimum gpa of 5.0 in their honours laurier program and 5.00 overall. this typically occurs during the third year of full time study. completion of the graduate certificate program with an average of 70% or better will allow students to receive 4.5 senior miscellaneous credits towards their laurier ba. the program recommends that students who have completed the graduate certificate in sustainable business management also choose to complete three specific environmentally-focused courses in year 4 of the honours program at laurier in order to fully immerse themselves in the subject-matter. students are eligible to enroll in the community and social service management graduate certificate if they have successfully completed a minimum of 10 credits, including bf190, bf199, bf290, bf299, ct100, ct120, ct222, ct250, ct255, and one of ct280 or ct285, with a minimum gpa of 5.0 in their honours laurier program and 5.0 overall are eligible to enroll. this also normally occurs during the third year of full time study. completion of the community and social service management graduate certificate with a minimum average of 70% or better will allow students to receive 5.0 senior miscellaneous credits towards the laurier ba. similar to the other stream, it is recommended that students take an additional three specific laurier courses in year 4 to fully immerse themselves in the subject-matter. c) conestogas community and social service management graduate certificate with lauriers honours bachelor of arts in human rights and human diversity the community and social service management graduate certificate, as described above, has also been added as an optional stream in lauriers honours bachelor of arts in human rights and human diversity program. this pathway was approved by senate on january 11, 2016. this option is in addition to the pathway already in place with this degree program where students can take conestogas human resources management graduate certificate in year 3 of their studies. the objectives of conestogas community and social service management program fit well with lauriers human rights and human diversity program. lauriers program examines the key forces that shape students' futures as individuals, workers, and canadians. the program is designed to provide an understanding of the origins and the laws and institutions designed to protect human rights, as well as the processes diversifying cultures and the policies that have been put in place to manage and accommodate this diversity. students come to understand human rights (their origins, how they are protected, and the current challenges they face) and their relationship to human diversity (through gender, race, religion, culture, disability and sexual orientation). students in the honours human rights and human diversity program may take conestogas community and social service management in year 3 of studies. students are eligible if they have successfully completed 10.0 credits, including 4.5 credits of bf190, bf199, bf290, bf299, hr100, ol224, ct260/hr260, hr261, cc233/hs233/ol233 with a minimum gpa of 5.0 in honours hrhd and 5.0 overall. if students complete the conestoga graduate certificate with an average of 70% or better, they will receive 5.0 senior credits as follows: 3.0 senior hrhd credits and 2.0 senior ol credits. 6 d) conestogas human resources management and career development practitioner graduate certificates with lauriers new honours bachelor of arts in work and employment laurier has developed a new 20.0 credit honours bachelor of arts in work and employment, to launch in fall 2017. this program received senate approval on april 13, 2016, and has been approved by the quality council and the ontario ministry of advanced education and skills development. this degree will provide a unique and broadly based interdisciplinary investigation of issues and practices relating to work and employment based in a broad liberal arts curriculum. a core of required courses in years 1 and 2 will provide an examination of the historical and contemporary dimensions of the experience of work and elucidate the developing terrain of employment in canada and the globalized world. mentorship training towards possible service careers in broad areas of the private and public sectors will be available through three streams of study a 4-year honours degree (fully at laurier); career management (joint with conestoga in year 3); and human resource management (joint with conestoga in year 3). students who successfully complete one of the conestoga certificates (career development practitioner and human resources management) will receive 5.0 senior transfer credits towards their laurier program. the career management stream will appeal to students most interested in careers that help individuals requiring assistance in planning and understanding their place in the labour market and world of work. as the first university-college partnership of its kind in canada, career management will also provide the educational requirements towards the new certified career development practitioner designation, currently under review. offered through conestoga on the brantford campus, the college certificate will be combined with a strong liberal arts focus on personal development through an awareness of social issues and their impact on satisfaction in the workplace. the human resource management stream offers to teach students expertise in work and employment for service at the individual, community, or institutional level. lauriers curriculum blends with the conestoga certificate to provide the educational requirements towards professional designations as developed by the human resources professional organization. each stream within the work and employment program correlates to a majority of the program learning outcomes, especially those that relate to the autonomy and professional capacity udles, as follows: demonstrate the ability to interact collegially and professionally with others; recognize their place in the political economy of work and the limitations and potentialities of that position; synthesize theoretical and practical knowledge to identify possible career paths; articulate the transferability of academic skills to future employment opportunities; and develop the requisite skills for engaging in lifelong learning, especially as it pertains to adapting to a changing labour market. the degree combined with the graduate certificates will offer a synthesis of theoretical and practical knowledge providing the skills graduates will need to succeed in their chosen 7 careers in these areas. after four years of post-secondary education, all on the brantford campus, students completing either of these two partnership routes will be able to graduate with both credentials. additionally, graduates will have fulfilled educational requirements towards the corresponding professional designations in each of the two conestoga streams. integrated education programs a) conestogas integrated media marketing user experience with lauriers new bachelor of arts in experience design building upon the success of lauriers integrated honours bachelor of arts in digital media and journalism, a new integrated degree program has been developed in the field of user experience design. this 20.0 credit honours bachelor of design in user experience design will teach students a multidisciplinary way of thinking about and designing content, products, services, and solutions based upon an explicit understanding of people, their needs, their access to content, tools and services, their tasks, and their environments. the program received senate approval on may 26, 2016, as well as quality council approval in the summer of 2016. however, the program is still awaiting approval by the ontario ministry of advanced education and skills development. it is planned to begin admitting students in fall 2017, pending the final approvals. with its blend of the liberal arts, the applied arts, community engagement, and experiential learning, this program will be unique in ontario and beyond. students will progressively work towards mastery of all aspects of user-centred design, including undertaking needs assessments, creating design solutions, and evaluating design outcomes. students will be exposed to all aspects of the design process, visual analysis, design thinking, and design theory, as well as universal design and the sociocultural implications of design. it will be a four year program in which students will gain two credentials: an honours bachelor of design from laurier and a graduate certificate from conestoga college in interactive media management user experience. through the graduate certificate, students will have opportunities to develop their creativity through hands-on projects and think critically about how design decisions in digital and physical environments affect users. students will gain hands-on, skills-based experience in areas where user experience design is employed, including immersive and mobile environments. this program combines design education with technical instruction and hands-on workshops to configure interactive design strategies using existing and emerging technologies. this will prepare students to act as user experience design practitioners or consultants in website and application development, as well as immersive and non-digital environments. the technical skills students will develop through the completion of the graduate certificate program will facilitate the development of strong technical knowledge of digital, mobile, and immersive design to complement the theoretical and critical skills developed through a liberal arts university education. students will be well versed in content creation, community engagement, and social innovation. 8 as an integrated program, students will take a mix of laurier and conestoga courses throughout all four years of their studies. there is also a conestoga-run optional co-op placement that can be taken in the summer following the second or third year of studies. by organizing the program in this manner, students will be able to anchor their acquisition of hands-on design and technology skills as they are developing their critical thinking skills and knowledge of the user-experience design process. students would also be able to take courses that introduce skills to them in year 1 and build upon them over four years. the conestoga graduate certificate was created in consultation with laurier so that it would meet the needs of the students in the laurier program. appropriate courses will be delivered in laboratory environments in brantford, which will foster rapid skills acquisition. the certificate adds well to the following program learning outcomes for the bachelor of design program: demonstrate knowledge of design thinking, fundamental design practices and tools, and the creation of designed solutions; demonstrate knowledge of methods involved in the evaluation of designed solutions and outcomes; evaluate the appropriateness of design tools and methods required for the creation of design solutions; employ appropriate design tools, techniques, and best practices to develop design solutions; articulate verbally, visually, and in writing concepts and design solutions to stakeholders, clients, subject matter experts, and users; work effectively and collegially in groups; recognize the importance of and develop an interest in staying current with best practices, tools, and technologies in user experience design as they emerge, and incorporate them into practice; and create and maintain an electronic portfolio of scholarly and design work. future collaborations there are three future collaborations that laurier and conestoga plan to explore over the next few years. these are included as part of this report in a separate document, for purposes of confidentiality. section four: transferable model and tools/templates the second component of project 2015-28 was to create tools and models that can expedite and help facilitate new partnerships and joint programming across ontarios postsecondary education system. this was to be accomplished by building upon the best practices and tools/templates that were developed as part of project 2014-06. 9 revised tools and templates process documents related to course registrations between laurier and conestoga have been updated after further consultations with the registrars offices at both institutions. new copies of the process documents for the integrated digital media and journalism and the game design and development programs are included in appendix c. these process documents encompass the entire registration process, including topics such as entering grades, progression, course registration, ensuring courses meet the requirements for contact hours, communication policies, etc. the process document related to how students apply and register for the year 3 joint graduate certificate programs has also been revised. see appendix d for a copy of the new process document, as well as the form that students must fill out and submit to declare their year 3 specializations. new tools and templates as more pathway programs on brantford campus are added, the task of managing and tracking them became more complicated. a master list of all agreements (current, pending, and former) is now created by a laurier employee, who works closely with the fulltime conestoga administrative staff on brantford campus. a copy of this master list is included in appendix e. marketing the college-university partnership programs has been a very important part of the relationship between laurier and conestoga. conestoga has launched a conestoga-laurier partnership programs website that details all of the opportunities for students. the websites drop-down format is easily organized and describes each of the programs in the dual-credential partnerships. laurier will have a parallel page with similar content; however, it is currently under development. a brochure was also created for the ontario university fair and other marketing events. a copy of this handout has been included in appendix f. another new initiative has come out of the development of the integrated program in user experience design. pedagogically, having students learn the hands-on skills as they learn theory throughout all four years of the program is the superior model for this program. however, the current funding formula for integrated college-university programs pose resource challenges. rather than revert to a joint program that would have students complete the conestoga graduate certificate in year 3 of their studies, laurier and conestoga submitted a proposal to the ontario ministry of advanced education and skills development to review how integrated programs are funded. a new funding formula for integrate programs would allow more colleges and universities to implement these innovative partnerships. 10 new best practices and lessons learned a new process has been developed and implemented between laurier and conestoga after issues regarding key decision-making, timing, and communication about program offerings with low enrollments. in order to avoid the communication issues and to ensure programs that have been marketed to students are not cancelled at the last minute, a best practice process has been implemented. conestoga now reports course and program registration figures to laurier on a monthly basis after registration opens. this allows laurier to be aware of any potential enrollment issues, as well as helps laurier communicate information to students and potentially boost enrollment into the graduate certificates. an additional lesson learned is for programs to implement joint programming options in direct relation to the number of students enrolled in the program. if enrollment in a program is not high enough to justify having two or more joint graduate certificates, a new pathway will not be implemented until enrollment increases. having too many options for graduate certificate completion can work to segment the student body and this may cause low enrollment figures in one or more of the graduate certificate programs (jeopardizing whether it can be offered). other ways to mitigate this risk include having one graduate certificate program as an option in several programs and having the college offer admission into the program separate from the university partnership. 11 appendix a education program agreement template 12 13 appendix b pathways title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses pathway details joint program with conestoga colleges autism and behavioural sciences graduate certificate and lauriers honours bachelor of arts in community health dual credential honours bachelor of arts and graduate certificate conestoga college senate approval april 15,2015 fall 2015 contact laurier brantfords academic advising centre office hours: monday to friday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm & 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm lbacademicadvising@wlu.ca 519-759-8228 ext. 5849 to be granted admission in the conestoga graduate certificate in year 3 of full-time studies, students must be enrolled in lauriers community health program with honours status and have successful completion of 10.0 credits, including ps101, ps102, ps275 and ps276, and ps280. in order to receive 5.0 senior transfer credits (3.0 hs credits and 2.0 misc. credits), students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a in order to receive 5.0 senior transfer credits (3.0 hs credits and 2.0 misc. credits), students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a 14 total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5.0 of 20.0 5.0 senior transfer credits (specifically 3.0 senior hs credits and 2.0 senior miscellaneous credits). 15.0 of 20.0 4 years conestoga college autism and behavioural sciences graduate certificate wilfrid laurier university honours bachelor of arts in community health 15 title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving institution (please pathway details joint program with conestoga colleges sustainable business management graduate certificate and lauriers honours bachelor of arts in society, culture, and environment dual credential honours bachelor of arts and graduate certificate conestoga college senate approval april 15,2015 fall 2015 contact laurier brantfords academic advising centre office hours: monday to friday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm & 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm lbacademicadvising@wlu.ca 519-759-8228 ext. 5849 to be granted admission in the conestoga sustainable business management graduate certificate in year 3 of full-time studies, students must have successfully completed a minimum of 10.0 laurier credits, including ct210, ct215, and ol140, with a minimum gpa of 5.0 in their honours laurier program and 5.0 overall. in order to receive 4.5 senior miscellaneous transfer credits, students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a in order to receive 4.5 senior miscellaneous transfer credits, students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a 4.5 of 20.0 16 express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 4.5 senior miscellaneous transfer credits 15.5 of 20.0 4 years conestoga college sustainable business management graduate certificate wilfrid laurier university honours bachelor of arts in society, culture, and environment 17 title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving pathway details joint program with conestoga colleges community and social service management graduate certificate and lauriers honours bachelor of arts in society, culture, and environment dual credential honours bachelor of arts and graduate certificate conestoga college senate approval january 11, 2016 fall 2016 contact laurier brantfords academic advising centre office hours: monday to friday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm & 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm lbacademicadvising@wlu.ca 519-759-8228 ext. 5849 to be granted admission in the conestoga community and social service management graduate certificate in year 3 of fulltime studies, students must have successfully completed a minimum of 10.0 laurier credits, including bf190, bf199, bf290, bf299, ct100, ct120, ct222, ct250, ct255, and one of ct280 or ct285, with a minimum gpa of 5.0 in their honours laurier program and 5.0 overall. in order to receive 5.0 senior miscellaneous transfer credits, students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a in order to receive 5.0 senior miscellaneous transfer credits, students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a 5.0 of 20.0 18 institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5.0 senior miscellaneous transfer credits 15.0 of 20.0 4 years conestoga college community and social service management graduate certificate wilfrid laurier university honours bachelor of arts in society, culture, and environment 19 title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to pathway details joint program with conestoga colleges community and social service management graduate certificate and lauriers honours bachelor of arts in human rights and human diversity dual credential honours bachelor of arts and graduate certificate conestoga college senate approval january 11, 2016 fall 2016 contact laurier brantfords academic advising centre office hours: monday to friday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm & 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm lbacademicadvising@wlu.ca 519-759-8228 ext. 5849 to be granted admission in the conestoga community and social service management graduate certificate in year 3 of fulltime studies, students must have successfully completed a minimum of 10.0 laurier credits, including 4.5 credits of bf190, bf199, bf290, bf299, hr100, ol224, ct260/hr60, hr261, and cc233/hr233/ol233, with a minimum gpa of 5.0 in their honours hrhd program and 5.0 overall. in order to receive 5.0 senior transfer credits (3.0 senior hrhd and 2.0 senior ol credits), students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a in order to receive 5.0 senior transfer credits (3.0 senior hrhd and 2.0 senior ol credits), students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a 5.0 of 20.0 20 be granted at receiving institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5.0 senior transfer credits (specifically 3.0 senior hrhd credits and 2.0 senior ol credits). 15.0 of 20.0 4 years conestoga college community and social service management graduate certificate wilfrid laurier university honours bachelor of arts in human rights and human diversity 21 title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to pathway details joint program with conestoga colleges human resources management graduate certificate and lauriers honours bachelor of arts in work and employment dual credential honours bachelor of arts and graduate certificate conestoga college senate approval april 13, 2016 fall 2017 contact laurier brantfords academic advising centre office hours: monday to friday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm & 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm lbacademicadvising@wlu.ca 519-759-8228 ext. 5849 to be granted admission in the conestoga human resources management graduate certificate in year 3 of full-time studies, students must have successfully completed a minimum of 10.0 laurier credits, including work210 and ct250, with a minimum gpa of 5.0 in honours work and employment and 5.0 overall gpa. in order to receive 5.0 senior transfer credits (1.0 senior work credit and 4.0 senior miscellaneous credits), students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a in order to receive 5.0 senior transfer credits (1.0 senior work credit and 4.0 senior miscellaneous credits), students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a 5.0 of 20.0 22 be granted at receiving institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5.0 senior transfer credits (specifically 1.0 senior work credit and 4.0 senior miscellaneous credits) 15.0 of 20.0 4 years conestoga college human resources management graduate certificate wilfrid laurier university honours bachelor of arts in work and employment 23 title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to pathway details joint program with conestoga colleges career development practitioner graduate certificate and lauriers honours bachelor of arts in work and employment dual credential honours bachelor of arts and graduate certificate conestoga college senate approval april 13, 2016 fall 2017 contact laurier brantfords academic advising centre office hours: monday to friday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm & 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm lbacademicadvising@wlu.ca 519-759-8228 ext. 5849 to be granted admission in the conestoga career development practitioner graduate certificate in year 3 of full-time studies, students must have successfully completed a minimum of 10.0 laurier credits, including work210 and ct250, with a minimum gpa of 5.0 in honours work and employment and 5.0 overall gpa. in order to receive 5.0 senior transfer credits (1.0 senior work credit and 4.0 senior miscellaneous credits), students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a in order to receive 5.0 senior transfer credits (1.0 senior work credit and 4.0 senior miscellaneous credits), students must complete the graduate certificate program with a minimum average of 70%. n/a 5.0 of 20.0 24 be granted at receiving institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5.0 senior transfer credits (specifically 1.0 senior work credit and 4.0 senior miscellaneous credits) 15.0 of 20.0 4 years conestoga college career development practitioner graduate certificate wilfrid laurier university honours bachelor of arts in work and employment 25 title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to pathway details joint program with conestoga colleges integrated media management user experience graduate certificate and lauriers (proposed) honours bachelor of design in user experience design dual credential honours bachelor of design and graduate certificate conestoga college senate approval may 26, 2016 fall 2017, pending ministry approval contact laurier brantfords academic advising centre office hours: monday to friday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm & 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm lbacademicadvising@wlu.ca 519-759-8228 ext. 5849 to be granted admission in the conestoga integrated media management user experience graduate certificate, students have to be enrolled in the honours bachelor of design in user experience design program at laurier. successful concurrent completion of the graduate certificate with a minimum average of 60% in each conestoga class is mandatory and will result in 5.0 senior credits towards the laurier degree. n/a n/a successful concurrent completion of the graduate certificate with a minimum average of 60% in each conestoga class is mandatory and will result in 5.0 senior credits towards the laurier degree. 5.0 of 20.0 26 be granted at receiving institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5.0 senior transfer credits 15.0 of 20.0 4 years conestoga college integrated media management user experience graduate certificate wilfrid laurier university honours bachelor of design in user experience design 27 appendix c updated registration process documents digital media and journalism registration process digital media & journalism wilfrid laurier university & conestoga college january 2016 when task who ongoing grades are entered into the conestoga d2l system and uploaded into sis students who have left the digital media and journalism program who wish to complete the conestoga media art certificate will be directed to conestoga college for assistance instructors ongoing july august (within five days of the end of the spring term) august ensure the minimum required contact hours for planned fall/winter conestoga courses are met and communicate this to conestoga instructors grades for all students registered in spring conestoga classes are sent to assistant registrar, laurier brantford. records & registration specialist inputs grades of s (satisfactory) or u (unsatisfactory) into the laurier system program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in spring conestoga courses additional notes academic advising will direct the students to the program coordinator at the college. conestoga will direct students who have completed the cma who want to reapply to honours digital media and journalism to laurier academic advising conestoga manager of operations and program planning laurier will allow students to hold conestoga credits and use them as miscellaneous senior credits towards other programs *see addendum below associate registrar conestoga and conestoga manager of operations and program planning students who have a minimum grade of 70% in each conestoga class may progress manager of academic advising, laurier brantford students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion of the digital media and journalism program coordinator. courses may require make up classes or selfdirected learning activities. 28 august (prior to start of term) an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes september an electronic class list for each of the (after last conestoga courses is sent to the day to add conestoga college associate registrar a course) and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system october conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes send notice of spring timetable planning to the conestoga representative in brantford november (after last day to drop a course) an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system november conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes laurier program coordinator and conestoga coordinator agree on fall/winter, spring course offerings for next academic year assistant registrar, laurier brantford if conestoga courses were completed in spring term, progression may be recommended by academic advising before progression decisions are final. progression decisions are communicated by enrolment services & academic advising the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors assistant registrar, laurier brantford the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford assistant registrar, laurier brantford for the coming academic may-august spring term classes laurier program coordinator to prepare for course build the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors 29 november send notice of fall/winter timetable planning to the conestoga representative in brantford november provide scheduling specifics for coming spring classes to the scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford december (within five days of the end of the term) grades for all students registered in spring conestoga classes are sent to assistant registrar, laurier brantford. records & registration specialist inputs grades of s (satisfactory) or u (unsatisfactory) into the laurier system provide scheduling specifics for the next fall and winter to the scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford associate registrar conestoga and conestoga manager of operations and program planning december academic sub committee meeting to review grades and issues that have arisen during the term december (before holiday break) an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system arranged by laurier program apa on behalf of laurier program coordinator laurier manager, academic advising conestoga manager of operations and program planning assistant registrar, laurier brantford december december - april conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes 1) class times are scheduled so that conestoga classes do not conflict with laurier jn classes. 2) ensure that transfer students exempted from specified block of scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford conestoga manager of operations and program planning conestoga manager of operations and program planning for the coming academic year sept-april fall/winter term classes include which courses require lectures and/or labs for the spring term may-august and number of hours for each conestoga lab or lecture students who have a minimum grade of 70% in each conestoga class may progress include which courses require lectures and/or labs for the fall/winter academic year, term class is taught, and number of hours for conestoga lab or lecture to review grades and any academic issues that may have occurred during the term the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford 30 january (after last day to add a course) january conestoga courses may complete all remaining year 1 & year 2 conestoga classes in f/w an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in conestoga courses assistant registrar, laurier brantford the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors manager of academic advising, laurier brantford students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion of the digital media and journalism program coordinator. february conestoga instructors are informed of all laurier academic dates including university holidays conestoga manager of operations and program planning march (after last day to drop a course) an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system assistant registrar, laurier brantford march conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes information regarding registration in conestoga classes is included in the first year registration guide for new students submitted by academic advising, laurier brantford & assistant registrar, laurier brantford to ensure conestoga classes are included if conestoga courses are available in spring term, retakes may be recommended by academic advising instructors informed if make-up classes are required for any conestoga classes that fall into times when the university is closed the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors academic dates for registration, dropping or adding courses follow laurier calendars 31 march april april information regarding registration in conestoga classes for continuing students is included in returning student registration guide ensure courses are inputted into the laurier system days and times of f/w classes are entered into the laurier system april steering committee meeting date set april academic sub committee meeting to review grades and issues that have arisen during the term april (within five days of the end of the term) grades for all students registered in spring conestoga classes are sent to assistant registrar, laurier brantford. records & registration specialist inputs grades of s (satisfactory) or u (unsatisfactory) into the laurier system program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in conestoga courses april assistant registrar, laurier brantford assistant registrar, laurier brantford scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford laurier dmj program coordinator works with laurier apa to notify committee members laurier program coordinator laurier manager, academic advising conestoga manager of operations and program planning associate registrar conestoga and conestoga manager of operations and program planning manager of academic advising, laurier brantford academic dates for registration, dropping or adding courses follow laurier calendars senior admin from laurier and conestoga yearly meeting. members listed on appendix to mou. to review grades and any academic issues that may have occurred during the term students who have a minimum grade of 70% in each conestoga class may progress. students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion of the digital media and journalism program coordinator. if conestoga courses were completed in spring term, progression may be recommended by academic advising before progression decisions are final. progression decisions are communicated by enrolment services & academic advising 32 may steering committee meeting held chaired by laurier dmj program coordinator yearly review of the program *addendum: - laurier will allow students to hold conestoga credits and use them as miscellaneous senior credits towards another program - if student remains at the brantford campus (fhss/fla) they have approval for these senior misc. credits towards their new program from the deans (per bruce arai/heidi northwood) - if a student transfers to the waterloo campus, they will need to go to admissions to determine what will happen with the conestoga credits since the dean approvals are only for the fhss and fla programs - academic advising is required to be involved should a student leave the program. for example, there could be a situation where a student has 1.75 conestoga credits (if they happened to fail a conestoga course). this will mean that they could end up needing more than 15.0 or 20.0 credits to graduate game design and development registration process - game design & development wilfrid laurier university & conestoga college january 2016 when task who ongoing grades are entered into the conestoga d2l system and uploaded into sis students who have left the game design & development program who wish to complete the conestoga media art certificate will be directed to conestoga college for assistance instructors ongoing july ensure the minimum required contact hours for planned fall/winter conestoga courses are met and academic advising will direct the students to the program coordinator at the college. conestoga will direct students who have completed the cma who want to reapply to honours game design and development to laurier academic advising conestoga manager of operations and program planning additional notes laurier will allow students to hold conestoga credits and use them as miscellaneous senior credits towards other programs *see addendum below courses may require make up classes or selfdirected learning activities 33 august (within five days of the end of the spring term) august august (prior to start of term) communicate this to conestoga instructors grades for all students registered in spring conestoga classes are sent to assistant registrar, laurier brantford. records & registration specialist inputs grades of s (satisfactory) or u (unsatisfactory) into the laurier system program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in spring conestoga courses an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes september an electronic class list for each of the (after last conestoga courses is sent to the day to add conestoga college associate registrar a course) and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system associate registrar conestoga and conestoga manager of operations and program planning students who have a minimum grade of 65% in each conestoga class may progress manager of academic advising, laurier brantford students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion of the game design & development program coordinator. assistant registrar, laurier brantford assistant registrar, laurier brantford if conestoga courses were completed in spring term, progression may be recommended by academic advising before progression decisions are final. progression decisions are communicated by enrolment services and academic advising the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes 34 october send notice of spring timetable planning to the conestoga representative in brantford november (after last day to drop a course) an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system november conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes send notice of fall/winter timetable planning to the conestoga representative in brantford november provide scheduling specifics for coming spring classes to the scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford december (within five days of the end of the term) grades for all students registered in spring conestoga classes are sent to assistant registrar, laurier brantford. records & registration specialist inputs grades of s (satisfactory) or u (unsatisfactory) into the laurier system academic sub committee meeting to review grades and issues that have arisen during the term december december provide scheduling specifics for the next fall and winter to the scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford december an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford assistant registrar, laurier brantford for the coming academic may-august spring term classes scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford conestoga manager of operations and program planning for the coming academic year sept-april fall/winter term classes associate registrar conestoga and conestoga manager of operations and program planning laurier program coordinator laurier manager, academic advising conestoga manager of operations and program planning conestoga manager of operations and program planning assistant registrar, laurier brantford the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors include which courses require lectures and/or labs for the spring term may-august and number of hours for each conestoga lab or lecture students who have a minimum grade of 65% in each conestoga class may progress to review grades and any academic issues that may have occurred during the term include which courses require lectures and/or labs for the fall/winter academic year, term class is taught, and number of hours for conestoga lab or lecture the conestoga college representative is responsible for 35 (before holiday break) december - april january (after last day to add a course) january and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes 1) class times are scheduled so that conestoga classes do not conflict with laurier dd classes. 2) ensure that transfer students exempted from specified block of conestoga courses may complete all remaining year 1 & year 2 conestoga classes in f/w an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in conestoga courses communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford assistant registrar, laurier brantford the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors manager of academic advising, laurier brantford students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion of the game design & development program coordinator. february conestoga instructors are informed of all laurier academic dates including university holidays conestoga manager of operations and program planning march (after last day to drop a course) an electronic class list for each of the conestoga courses is sent to the conestoga college associate registrar and conestoga representative for input into conestoga system assistant registrar, laurier brantford if conestoga courses are available in spring term, retakes may be recommended by academic advising instructors informed if make-up classes are required for any conestoga classes that fall into times when the university is closed the conestoga college representative is responsible for communicating the lists of students to conestoga instructors 36 march march april april conestoga instructors will update conestoga administrators if students drop or add classes information regarding registration in conestoga classes is included in the first year registration guide for new students information regarding registration in conestoga classes for continuing students is included in returning student registration guide ensure courses are inputted into the laurier system days and times of f/w classes are entered into the laurier system april steering committee meeting date set april academic sub committee meeting to review grades and issues that have arisen during the term april ensure the minimum required contact hours for conestoga courses are met for spring classes april (within five days of the end of the winter term) april grades for all students registered in spring conestoga classes are sent to assistant registrar, laurier brantford. records & registration specialist inputs grades of s (satisfactory) or u (unsatisfactory) into the laurier system program coordinator will be alerted if students have not met the minimum gpa requirements in conestoga courses submitted by academic advising, laurier brantford & assistant registrar, laurier brantford to ensure conestoga classes are included assistant registrar, laurier brantford. assistant registrar, laurier brantford scheduling and examinations coordinator, laurier brantford laurier gdd program coordinator works with laurier apa to notify committee members laurier program coordinator laurier manager, academic advising conestoga manager of operations and program planning conestoga manager of operations and program planning associate registrar conestoga and conestoga manager of operations and program planning manager of academic advising, laurier brantford academic dates for registration, dropping or adding courses follow laurier calendars academic dates for registration, dropping or adding courses follow laurier calendars senior admin from laurier and conestoga yearly meeting. members listed on appendix to mou. to review grades and any academic issues that may have occurred during the term courses may require make up classes or selfdirected learning activities students who have a minimum grade of 65% in each conestoga class may progress students will only be permitted to progress in the honours program at laurier at the discretion 37 of the digital media and journalism program coordinator. may steering committee meeting held chaired by laurier gdd program coordinator if conestoga courses were completed in spring term, progression may be recommended by academic advising before progression decisions are final. progression decisions are communicated by enrolment services & academic advising yearly review of the program *addendum: - laurier will allow students to hold conestoga credits and use them as miscellaneous senior credits towards another program - if student remains at the brantford campus (fhss/fla) they have approval for these senior misc. credits towards their new program from the deans (per bruce arai/heidi northwood) - if a student transfers to the waterloo campus, they will need to go to admissions to determine what will happen with the conestoga credits since the dean approvals are only for fhss and fla programs 38 appendix d year 3 process and forms process document wilfrid laurier university & conestoga college february 2016 introduction: in year 2, students in a variety of laurier honours programs, apply to conestoga college and enroll in a variety of one-year graduate certificate programs for year 3 of their studies. the programs are offered by conestoga college. entry into the conestoga programs is competitive and will be governed by the application processes, deadlines, enrolment targets and limits set internally by conestoga college. students who take year 3 at conestoga return to laurier for year 4 of their program. students who complete the conestoga college certificate program with a 70% average or better will be eligible for the allotted number senior transfer credits towards their laurier degree (varies based on laurier program requirements). upon successful completion of both programs, the student holds a conestoga college graduate certificate and an honours ba from wilfrid laurier university. purpose: this document outlines the process for information sharing between wilfrid laurier university and conestoga college to ensure seamless transitions for students and adequate data for both institutions to conduct their business. scope: all laurier students in eligible programs with a third year conestoga partnership agreement and wishing to attend conestoga for their third year of study will follow the process outlined within this document. process to attend conestoga: step process 1. a representative from conestoga college delivers a presentation to year two students regarding completing their third year at conestoga. the laurier student declaration form is provided to interested students (see appendix) 2. 3. when november academic advising staff from laurier brantford are present to talk about requirements students complete the student declaration form and submit to their laurier programs office for signature no later than february 1 november february 1 program representative provides completed student declaration forms to the assistant registrar, laurier brantford students may begin to apply to conestoga through the ontario college application service (ocas). two transcripts are required to be ordered: beginning december 1 1) order their official laurier transcript to be sent now 2) order their official laurier transcript to be sent at end of winter term (typically mid-june is when these grades are made official) 39 4. assistant registrar, laurier brantford conditionally confirms eligibility of each student by notifying (pending official winter term grades): february 1) manager of brantford operations and admissions representative, conestoga copying the academic advising department and applicable academic program assistants at laurier brantford 5. 2) approved students conestoga begins sending early conditional offers of admission to laurier applicants 6. manager of brantford operations, conestoga informs the coordinator of academic development, laurier brantford with the number of applications received for all year three partnership programs 7. assistant registrar, laurier brantford confirms final eligibility of each student by notifying (after winter term final grades are official): february periodic updates: feb, mar and apr june 1) manager of brantford operations and admissions representative, conestoga copying the academic advising department and applicable academic program assistants at laurier brantford 8. 9. 2) approved students assistant registrar, laurier brantford provides listing of students and conestoga program they are attending to records & registration specialist, laurier brantford to add the letter of permission (lop) courses to their laurier records along with the official lop being added to the student file conestoga matches list of applications with the list of approved students for admittance to the programs. conestoga will admit any new applicants and clear conditions on previously issued offers of admission based on confirmation email from laurier june june process to return to laurier: step process 1. upon completion of studies at conestoga, student orders official transcript to be sent to: wilfrid laurier university attn: enrolment services 73 george street brantford on n3t 2y3 2. 3. conestoga agrees to waive the transcript fee for these students. (conestoga will identify an internal process for capturing these transcript requests) records & registration specialist, laurier brantford assesses conestoga transcript for the minimum 70% overall average necessary to grant the allotted laurier credits. if student achieves less than the minimum 70% required, the assistant registrar, laurier brantford is notified student registers for year 4 of their ba program at laurier when may may/june june 40 wilfrid laurier university & conestoga college student declaration of third-year specialization i __________________________________ hereby declare my intent to undertake the following student name conestoga college graduate certificate for my third year of studies: conestoga program: ___________________________________________________________ current laurier program: ___________________________________________________________ laurier id number: ___________________________________________________________ laurier email address: ___________________________________________________________ contact phone number: ___________________________________________________________ i hereby grant both wilfrid laurier university and conestoga college access to my student records at both institutions. ___________________________________________ student signature __________________________________ ocas application number ___________________________________________________________________ laurier program confirmation of student eligibility this document serves as official notification that _____________________________________________ student name is eligible to undertake the third year graduate program studies at conestoga college for the 20___ - 20___ academic year and has declared the above listed program as their intended specialization. laurier program representative: name: ____________________________________________________ signature: ____________________________________________________ email: ____________________________________________________ date (mm/dd/yyyy): ____________________________________________________ ----- please return this form to your laurier programs office ----this information is collected to administer university-student relations. questions relating to the collection and use of your personal information can be directed to privacy@wlu.ca. 41 appendix e master list of laurier-conestoga programming conestoga agreements september 2016 faculty la faculty fhss laurier program conestoga graduate cert. x community health (began sept. 2015) http://legacy.wlu.ca/ca lendars/program.php? cal=1&d=1655&p=345 9&s=781&y=69 (pending approvalsubmission to mtcu in july 2016): mental health and addictions or autism beginning fall 2017 fully online x x digital media and journalism (updated 2014formerly journalism) http://legacy.wlu.ca/ca lendars/program.php? cal=1&d=1616&p=338 5&s=765&y=69 game design and development (began 2015) http://legacy.wlu.ca/ca lendars/program.php? req. x optional year 3 x x concu rrent x number of credits minimum gpa cumulative 5.0 senior credits as follows: 3.0 senior hs credits and 2.0 senior misc. credits 70% 5.0 senior credits contemporary media arts no certificate minimum gpa in each course 70% x x 3.0 65% 42 cal=1&d=1662&p=346 8&s=781&y=69 x x x health administration (updated sept. 2015) http://legacy.wlu.ca/ca lendars/program.php? cal=1&d=1657&p=346 5&s=781&y=69 human rights & human diversity http://legacy.wlu.ca/ca lendars/department.p hp?cal=1&d=1614&s=7 65&y=69 journalism (last group from 2013 calendar before program change to digital media & journalism) http://www.wlu.ca/cal endars/program.php?c hr management or community and social services management x human resource management or community and social service management x videography-broadcast journalism/ documentary or integrated marketing communications (new media na) x x 5.0 senior credits (2.5 senior ol credits, 2.5 senior miscellaneous credits) x 5.0 senior credits as follows: ol212, ol250, ol260, ol311, 1.0 miscellaneous hrhd category i elective credits, 1.0 miscellaneous hrhd category ii elective credits, 1.0 miscellaneous senior credits (2015 change: change 3.0 sr. hrhd and 2.0 sr. ol credits) 5.0 (5.0 senior jn credits) x 70% 70% 70% 43 al=1&d=1184&p=2449 &s=565&y=57 x x leadership (suspended admissions 2014/15) http://www.wlu.ca/cal endars/program.php?c al=1&d=1358&p=2810 &s=649&y=61 note: no students registered for conestoga for sept 2016 hr management x x x x 5.0 (4.0 sr. ol including ol212, ol250, ol260, ol311, plus 1.0 sr. misc. credit) 4.5 senior misc. credits (students must complete ol140 to replace conestoga course) ------------------------ note: no students registered for conestoga for sept 2016 society, culture & environment http://legacy.wlu.ca/ca lendars/program.php? cal=1&d=1613&p=337 7&s=765&y=69 green management (name change: sustainable business management 2016) or community and social service management x user experience design (pending mtcu approval for september 2017) interactive media management user experience x work and employment (new program begins sept. 2017 first group to conestoga 2019) human resource management or career development practitioner (pending renaming to career management) x x x x 70% 70% 5.0 credits 5.0 credits 5.0 credits as follows: 1.0 we credit, 4.0 sr. misc. credits 60% 70% 44 appendix f marketing tri-fold handout 45 46

sene transfer credit articulation agreement between seneca college of applied arts and technology and york university given that york university and seneca college have a long history of collaboration for combined education and transfer pathway opportunities for students; given that york university and seneca college wish to enhance student mobility between the two institutions while maintaining the integrity, autonomy and high quality of their academic programs; given the desire of york university and seneca college to improve access for graduates ofbachelor of public administration and bachelor of arts programs to further their education and career prospects through transferring in to social service worker diploma programs at seneca college; given that the common goal of both postsecondary education institutions is to meet the growing demands of the creative industries of ontario by preparing graduates as to be a flexible and critically minded workforce, supporting numerous industries across ontario's economy; given the existing affmities (curricular and pedagogical) between both institution's in community and public service programs, and the strong academic overlaps and in view of the mutual commitments stated in this document, the parties agree to the following: transfer from bachelor of public administration (bpa) and bachelor of arts (ba) programs of yorlfuiiiversity to sociifservice-worke"fuiploma programs of se neca colfege a) eligibility - social service worker diplomas 1. students who have graduated from the public administration (bpa), the multicultural and indigenous studies (ba) or the human right and equities studies (ba) programs of the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies at york university may be considered for admission to seneca college to be enrolled in the social service worker, the social service worker - immigrants and refugees or the social service worker -gerontology diploma programs at seneca college 2. students must have achieved a gpa ofc+ (5.0) 3. eligible candidates who register in the previously identified programs will be awarded up to 9 courses towards the social service worker or social service worker - gerontology diploma programs and up to 11 courses towards the social service worker - immigrants and refugees diploma program at seneca college. see appendix a for details on transfer credit and course waivers. 4. seneca college does not limit the number of eligible graduates from the bpa and ba programs at york university. b) admission candidates from the bpa and ba programs at york university wishing to take advantage of this agreement must follow this procedure: 1) candidates must apply to the ontario college application service (ocas) by following the steps identified on the admissions website (http://www.ontariocolleges.ca). 2) the application must be received preferably before february i" in order to qualify for admission the following summer semester. the application must be accompanied by a transcript confirming graduation from the bpa or ba programs at york university. 3) if only a partial transcript is sent, the admission offer will be conditional to the presentation of a full transcript confinning graduation from the bpa or ba programs at york university 4) administrative fees pertaining to the application must be paid. c) requirements for transfer students to receive incoming students receive up to 9 courses towards the social service worker or social service worker- gerontology diploma programs and up to ii courses towards the social service worker- immigrants and refugees diploma program and are required to complete 15 to 17 courses over 3 to 4 semesters depending on program to receive their college diploma. transfer students must meet all program requirements to be able to graduate from seneca college. d) right to refuse seneca college reserves the right to refuse to apply this transfer articulation agreement in the case of a candidate who graduated from bpa and ba programs at york university prior to 2015. promotion and advertising seneca college and york university will mention the transfer articulation agreement in promotional materials and advertisements pertsining to their respective programs, during related special events and in their websites. leads seneca college and york university agree to mandate persons who will serve as contacts between the two institutions for the implementation of the transfer articulation agreement. these persons will be responsible for compliance with the transfer articulation agreement and for the transfer articulation agreement framework. ------exchange of informationa) york university will send seneca college the relevant information relating to course descriptions for each of the programs identified in this agreement and will inform seneca college, every spring of any changes in the curriculum of these programs or in their course descriptions. b) each spring seneca college will inform york university of any changes in its admission requirements. c) in accordance with the provisions of the freedom of information and protection of privacy act, each institution will provide the other, each spring, with all relevant pertaining to the admission and academic history of candidates having benefitted from this agreement. d) transfer credit and waivers identified in this agreement are based on curriculum in effect during the 2014-2015 academic year. any changes in the curriculum or in the description or mnemonic of courses of the programs mentioned above must be reported to the other partnering institution in order to guarantee that transfer credits will be granted as stated above. update during the implementation period of this transfer articulation agreement, the details can be updated by the designated leads, without a new version of this transfer articulation agreement having to be signed. date of coming into effect the transfer articulation agreement comes into effect at the date of signature and will be valid for a period of five years. at the end of this period there will be a joint review of the partnership activities. at any time, one of the parties may cancel this transfer articulation agreement with a six month notice in writing to the other party. agreement signatories the parties signed in toronto, in duplicate, on seneca college joy mcki~non vice-president academic, seneca college york university r dr. rhonda tenton vice-president and provost allee pitt viceprovost academic !jfflce of the vp academic & provost appendix a: transfer credit granted by seneca college to graduates of bpa and ba degree programs at york university trans{er pathway description york university graduates of the public administration (honours (120cr) and specialized honours (120cr)), multicultural and indigenous studies (honours (120cr) and general degree (90cr)) and human rights and equity studies (honours (120cr) and general degree (90cr)) will be eligible for admission consideration and granted transfer credit for up to 9 courses when entering seneca college's diploma program in ssw or in ssw - gerontology and up to ii courses when entering ssw-immigrants and refugees. transfer credit and course waivers in recognition of the 21 credits general education courses mandatocy in all la&ps programs, seneca college will grant transfer credit for eac!50-co!lege english as well as two general education options. york university graduates having successfully completed an english course may receive additional transfer credit from seneca college for the general education option requirement in literature. total transfer credit will be granted as follows: degree program at yorku transfer credits counted directly towards ssw programs ssw program ssw-m program ssw-g program public administration up to 8 courses up to 9 courses up to 9 courses multicultural and indigenous studies up to 8 courses up to ii courses up to 7 courses human rights and equity studies up to 9 courses up toll coui)ies up to 7 courses ... -- - ------- -- - - - ~---- -------~----- - - - ------- - --- - public administration de!zree gr_aduates will be specifically exempted from the following courses program at seneca college social service worker ssw- immigrants and refugees transfer credit granted at seneca sll307 - sociology: a practical approacb apippasiiio (3cr) introduction to public administration: bureaucracy and western liberal capitalist democracy swl136 - introduction to social problems apippas2110 (3cr) canadian government wiri 00 - introduction to the immigrant and refugee sector apippas 1110 (3cr) introduction to public administration: bureaucracy and western liberal capitalist democracy sll307 - sociology: a practical approach apippas!iio (3cr) introduction to public administration: bureaucracy and western liberal capitalist democracy sswgerontology york university courses required for transfer credit to be granted .. appendix a: transfer credit granted by seneca college to graduates of bpa and ba degree programs at york university additional exemptions may be granted for the following courses at york university: program at seneca college transfer credit granted at seneca york univenity courses required for transfer credit to be granted social service worker swl247- field work seminar ii and swl 257 - field work (2 days per week) ap/ppas4995 (6cr) practicum in public administration ssw- immigrants and refugees wir247- integrative field work seminar and wir257- field placement ap/ppas4995 (6cr) practicum in public administration ssw402 - community ptactice ap/ppas4190 (3cr) ethics and the public service: iotegrity and democracy wir407- selected issues ii: violence, mental health, addictions any 3cr course in psychology or relating to menta! health ssw - immigrants and refugees program at seneca college sswgerontology transfer credit granted at seneca gwl247- integrative field work seminar and gwl257- gerontology field work gwl377 -volunteer program management ssw402 - community practice york university courses required for transfer credit to be granted ap/ppas4995 (6cr) practicum in public administration hrm2600 (3cr) human resources management ap/ppas4190 (3cr) ethics and the public service: integrity and democracy multicultural and indigenous studies degree graduates will be specifically exempted from the following courses: at seneca college program~ social service worker ssw- immigrants and refugees ---- ~ ~ -~ transfer credit granted at seneca ssw102- diversity: awareness and practice swl247- field work seminar ii and swl 257- field work (2 days per week) sswi02- diversity: awareness and practice wir247- integrative field work seminar and wir257 -field placement ssw402 - community practice sswgerontology ssw102- diversity: awareness and practice gwl247- integrative field work seminar and gwl257- gerontology field work -vot-ir-ujitvrsity-courses required for transfer credit to be granted apimistlloo (6cr) multicultural and indigenous studies based on knowledge acquired in york university program apimistiloo (6cr) multicultural and indigenous studies based on knowledge acquired in york university program based on knowledge acquired in york university program apimistiioo (6cr) multicultural and iodigenous studies based on knowledge acquired in york university program appendix a: transfer credit granted by seneca college to graduates of bpa and ba degree programs at york university additional exemptions may be granted for the following courses at york university: program at seneca college social service worker ssw -immigrants and refugees transfer credit granted at seneca students will be granted transfer credit for one of the followiog courses: ssw371 -selected issues: intimate partner abuse and violence, or ssw372- selected issues: addictions, or ssw3 73 - selected issues: mental health or ssw3 74 -child welfare wir! 00 - introduction to the immigrant and refugee sector wir208 - social policy, legislation, and governmental systems wir407 - selected issues ii: violence, mental health, addictions york university courses required for transfer credit to be granted any 3cr course in psychology or relating to mental health apimist2000 (6cr) introduction to refugee and migration studies apimist3624 (6cr) canadian immigration policies & settlement any 3cr course in psychology or relating to mental health human ritzhts and eauities studies will be specifically exempted from the following courses program at york university courses required for transfer credit granted at seneca seneca college transfer credit to be granted swl136 - introduction to social problems social service --worker ssw - immigrants and refugees sswi.okdi"ersity'-a: '""" practice swl247- field work seminar ii and swl257- field work (2 days per week) sswi02- diversity: awareness and pmcticeand wirioo -introduction to the immigrant and refugee sector wir247- integmtive field work seminar and wir257 - field placement ssw402- community practice sswgerontology ssw102- diversity: awareness and pmctice gwl247- integrative field work seminar and gwl257- gerontology field work ap/ppas3136 (3cr) public law ii: the charter of rights and freedoms and. the limits of public administration oj.jl(6~jntroduction.to_t<, rights and equity studies based on knowledge acquired in york university program hreq2010 (6cr) introduction to human rights and equity studies based on knowledge acquired in york university program based on knowledge acquired in york university program hreq2010 (6cr) introduction to human rights and equity studies based on knowledge acquired in york university program ,, ' appendix a: transfer credit granted by seneca college to graduates of bpa and ba degree programs at york university additional exemptions may be granted for tbe following courses at york university: program at seneca couege transfer credit granted at seneca students will be granted transfer credit for one of tbe followiog courses: ssw371 -selected issues: intimate partner social service abnse and violence, worker or ssw3 72 - selected issues: addictions, or ssw3 73 - selected issues: mental healtb or ssw374- child welfare ssw - immigrants wir208 - social policy, legislation, and and refugees governmental systems wir407 - selected issues ti: violence, mental health, addictions york university courses reqnired for transfer credit to be granted any 3cr course in psychology or relating to mental healtb ap/mist3624 (6cr) canadian immigration policies & settlement for any 3cr course in psychology or relating to mental healtb

general arts and science credential completion project: mohawk college fanshawe college executive summary: in partnership, mohawk college and fanshawe college worked to create pathways within their respective general arts and science programs. general arts and science, unique in being largely options-based and offered through both part-time and full-time deliveries, was leveraged within the project to facilitate credit transfer opportunities and enhance flexibility for students, in particular for those going through an academic transition. the main goals of the project were to map post-secondary credits from institutions within the colleges catchment area on both a course-to-course and course-to-program outcome basis. data resulting from the process was to be compiled by establishing a database. the project was to culminate in sending course credit transfer decisions to oncat. in total, 3,435 course transfers were approved from 35 institutions with a particular focus on mcmaster university, university of guelph, sheridan college, seneca college and niagara college. of the courses assessed by mohawk, 173 were approved for course-to-course transfer and 3,263 were approved as course-to-program outcome(s) transfer. areas of focus included business, humanities, and liberal arts as they proved to have the highest transfer rates with respect to general arts and science. both the certificate and diploma offerings of the program were considered. at mohawk college the pathway(s) created throughout the project render students eligible for course to program transfer for all seven first year options-based courses. eligible students may be exempt from the remaining mandatory courses, however transfer credits must align with the residency policy. fanshawe college agreed to allow nine credits (roughly three courses) from any program for transfer into their general arts and science program, raising the likelihood that a student would only need one additional semester of study to complete a one-year certificate. the process was formalized and degree audits were updated so that the nine standard (non-elective) credits would automatically populate the student evaluations (eval) allowing them to see immediately which credits they had already completed toward a one-year general arts and science certificate. as more of general arts and science has moved to an online delivery, fanshawe is now able to offer program completion to online-only students as well. the first of its kind within general arts and science as well as continuing education, the project at hand shed light on new approaches to credit transfer within the program as well as within the full-time and part-time academic areas. mohawk college, as the lead of the project, created a cross-disciplinary steering committee and working group that leveraged the different strengths, knowledge, and background of its members, amplifying the ability to overcome challenges. in addition, it was important to recognize the differences between programs, policies, and procedures at the two participating institutions. mohawk and fanshawe worked towards the common project goal while tailoring processes to individual institutional policies. the two schools leveraged their excellence in academic programming and student-centred approach to create novel opportunities for credential completion. overall, having a strong, dedicated and collaborative team ensured that project deliverables were met effectively and on time. in the end, project goals were met and the team continues to communicate and market the credential completion opportunity for implementation in fall, 2017. without the project funding, this initiative would likely not have carried forward. mohawk and fanshawe would like to take the opportunity to recognize and acknowledge the support and contribution from oncat.

supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking project presented to the organizational excellence steering committee november 2013 purpose the goal of this benchmarking project is to improve support services that best address the needs of transfer students. supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 executive summary the credit transfer innovation fund supports a specific range of activities aligned with mtcus current priorities for development of credit transfer pathways in ontario as well as research on the student experience of transfer, including experiences during the process of transfer and experiences after transfer, such as communication of transfer credits granted, orientation to new institution, academic preparation for new institution, etc. this benchmarking project was undertaken not only as part of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) five year $73.7m commitment to improve student mobility in ontario but also supports goals 1-1 and 1-2 of carletons strategic integrated plan to develop new programs and initiatives that build on academic strengths and respond to societal needs and "to diversify the student population at carleton in order to offset the projected decline in the traditional domestic student market". carleton university already offers a number of transition and academic support services for firstyear students. transfer students see themselves as a distinct population and even though they need many of the same services, they often assume that the workshops and programs are designed for younger students. in addition, transfer students have unique needs around registration and integrating with already established peer groups. the purpose of these recommendations is to develop timely, targeted communications, to promote already existing services as well as to coordinate and enhance current services to better meet the specific needs of transfer students. one of the measures of the strategic plan is to increase the number of students transferring to carleton from ontario colleges. reaching out to these students with targeted services that best addresses their specific needs will have a positive impact on their transfer experience, help optimize their time to degree completion and help ensure their academic success. recommendation 1: develop a position of coordinator of pathways to advocate and coordinate interdepartmental efforts to continually improve support services and programming for transfer students. it is recommended that carleton pilot a new position of coordinator of pathways to advocate and coordinate interdepartmental efforts to continually improve all aspects of the transfer student experience. this portfolio ultimately falls under the direction of the associate vice-president (students and enrolment) however there currently is not a role dedicated to enacting the types of initiatives recommended in this report on a consistent basis. the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) currently has a credit transfer innovation fund that may be a source of funding for this position, at least on a pilot basis. recommendation 2: implement a peer mentorship program to allow for student-tostudent advice and support, including referrals to campus services. transfer students with personal connections with returning students identified them as the most important resource for advice, information and transition. to offer all transfer students this type of resource, it is recommended that a peer mentoring program be created to match new transfer students with a trained, upper-year peers to offer them advice and support, including providing referrals to the appropriate campus services. recommendation 3: actively promote pre-registration advising in early june for transfer students, including in-person and virtual advising sessions. it is recommended that the student academic success centre and/or departmental advisors actively promote pre-registration advising in early june (prior to the fall registration period) for transfer students. this should include in-person advising appointments for those in the ottawa area and virtual (email, phone or video conferencing) advising sessions for those who cannot visit campus. showing students how to access and read their audit, helping them in course selection, 2 november 2013 3 confirming expected course restrictions, and referring them to registration and academic support would allow students to have a much easier registration experience so that they can be confident they are in the right courses. recommendation 4: encourage the two faculties involved to explore methods to allow upper-year transfer students to register in first-year seminars. it is recommended that the faculty of public affairs and the faculty of arts and social sciences be encouraged to investigate methods by which spaces in fysm courses could be made available to second-year transfer students. in addition, promoting the advantages and importance of these seminars to all transfer students transitioning into the carleton environment should be undertaken. it is hoped that the small class sizes emphasizing group work, instructor mentorship, interactive learning, and early assessment/evaluation will help students achieve their academic goals and have a positive impact on transfer students, as they transition to university and prepare for upperyear studies. recommendation 5: further align programming and services to the needs of transfer students it should be noted that radical change in service delivery is not necessary to meet the needs of transfer students but more nuanced adjustments are recommended in the area of communications, language, targeting and workshop design. this is expected to better promote the value of student services to transfer students as well as better matching service offerings and programs to their needs. these needs are expected to evolve over time and the main role of the coordinator of pathways role (see recommendation 1) will be to solicit ongoing feedback in order to keep abreast of the changing needs of transfer students and advise academic departments and student support services to make the necessary adjustments to meet those needs, when required. recommendation 6: develop a communications strategy to specifically target the transfer student population (new and existing) including targeted email, centralized web resources, and social media. transfer students need much of the same information as other students however the language needs to be adjusted and, in some cases, they should not receive information that is not pertinent to them. clearly flagging email as for transfer students is one way to alert them to a message that they should pay attention to. having a centralized website as a key information resource that they can refer to is also a way to minimize the information gap. curating news posts and web information and customizing that information to provide clarity for transfer students would offer them a singular information resource they can refer to. lastly, use social media to connect transfer students with each other, especially new students with returning, can offer an informal, two-way information source that can also facilitate personal connections amongst students. it can also be used to proactively see where students are having difficulties and adjust other communications mediums as a result. november 2013 supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 table of contents executive summary table of contents background........ 5 objectives........ 5 project methodology...... 5 team membership..... 5 research strategy and primary findings....... 6 overall findings and analysis........ 9 internal findings......... 9 profile of a transfer student............................ 10 services and programming........ 10 ownership of portfolio......... 11 external findings........ 12 transition and adjustment..........12 registration challenges...... 12 recommendations....... 13 recommendation 1: coordinator of pathways position................................ 13 recommendation 2: peer mentorship program........... 14 recommendation 3: pre-registration advising........... 15 recommendation 4: upper-year access to first-year seminars............ 15 recommendation 5: continuous development of programming and services. 16 recommendation 6: communications strategy and improvements.......... 16 conclusion.............. 16 next steps............ 17 appendices....18 appendix a: benchmarking project charter appendix b: transfer student focus group guide appendix c: pedagogical objectives for first-year seminars 4 november 2013 5 background transfer students are new students to carleton who bring with them previous post-secondary studies. transfer students are admitted into carleton at varying year levels based on the amount of transfer credit awarded at the point of admission. this proposal is initiated partly in response to the ministry of training colleges and universities' discussion paper on "strengthening ontario's centres of creativity, innovation and knowledge" but also to support carleton's proposed strategic mandate agreement. in the government vision for postsecondary education, "ontario's colleges and universities.....will put students first by providing the best possible learning experience for all qualified learners in an affordable and financially sustainable way, ensuring high quality, and globally competitive outcomes for students and ontario's creative economy." the government hopes to further improve student mobility between colleges, between universities and between colleges and universities. this project will determine the characteristics and service needs of the transfer students attending carleton and identify the challenges that these students encounter upon entering their degree program. this project will involve benchmarking of existing programs at other institutions, focus groups with transfer students, and an assessment of current student services offered for their relevance to transfer students. this initiative will make recommendations for a coordinated set of services to support the needs and address the challenges of transfer students. objectives the goal of this benchmarking project is to develop and improve support services that best address the needs of transfer students that are currently in their program of study. specifically, the project has five key objectives: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. to identify the characteristics of transfer students attending carleton. to gain an understanding of which services transfer students use and identify gaps in providing services to them as a distinct population. to develop a list of measures to enable tracking and assessing the effectiveness of services to transfer students. to identify the challenges faced by transfer students. to make recommendations for a coordinated service model for transfer students. the benchmarking project charter can be found in appendix a: benchmarking project charter. project methodology team membership project owner: suzanne blanchard, associate vice-president (students & enrolment) team leader: janice ofarrell, director admissions services team members: david taylor, transfer student advisor student academic success centre richard nimijean, assistant dean faculty of arts & social sciences perry legakis, director student awards stenley philippe, telecounselling supervisor undergraduate recruitment supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 facilitator: scott gonsalves, senior quality advisor (office of quality initiatives) research strategy the data collection was structure to first get a high-level understanding of transfer student support issues and challenges, and then focusing on uncovering the strengths and weaknesses of the current support model at carleton university. once that was understood, the team consulted with other institutions to identify best practices that may be applicable to addressing areas of improvement for carleton. specifically, the internal and external data were gathered in five key ways: 1. institutional data the office of institutional research and planning (oirp) supplied the benchmarking team with current and historical data, including the number of students, level, year standing, previous higher education, program of study, retention, and performance. this provided a clear picture of the number of student affected by the outcomes of this project, where they come from, and how they do academically. primary findings included: transfer students are equally split between those coming from college (49.7%) and university (50.3%) 72% of transfer students are with the faculty of arts & social science (fass) and the faculty of public administration (fpa). for both college and university transfers in fass, the most popular major is psychology with 38.7% of college transfers and 25.4% of university transfers. for college transfer in fpa, the most popular major is criminology and criminal justice at 36.5%. for university transfers, the most popular major is political science at 25.3%. most college transfer students enter into second year of their degree program. for university transfer students, it is equally dispersed between first and second year. graduation rates for transfer students are lower than rates for all new, traditional students. 2. literature review the team reviewed a total of nine of reports, journal articles and news articles on the topic of transfer student services to identify trends and common issues on this topic. sources included: the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco), the college-university consortium council (cucc), the canadian society for the study of higher education, the journal of college student development, the british columbia council of admissions and transfer (bccat), and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). literature reviewed included: references reznick, a. transfer-specific programs work to bridge gap. the daily of the university of washington, january 30, 2013. townsend, b; wilson, k. a hand hold for a little bit: factors facilitiating the success of community college transfer students to a large research university. journal of college student development. volume 47, number 4 (july/august 2006) pp. 439-456. bc council on admissions and transfer (2012) 2011 admissions and transfer experiences of students continuing their studies in british columbia. 6 november 2013 7 kerr, a; mccloy, u; shuping, l. (2010) forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities, higher education quality council of ontario, at issue paper no. 4. decock, h; mccloy, u; shuping, l; hu, b (2011) the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education, higher education quality council of ontario. [unknown] (2007) measuring the success of college transfer students at nipissing university 1994-2005. college university consortium council. arnold, c.h. (2011) following the ontario transfer student: from college to university inception. canadian society for the study of higher education, january 2011, number 31. shinberger, d. transfer student experience provides smooth transition. news release: western illinois university, may 11, 2010. primary findings included: traditional orientation programs are designed for younger students and focus on the social experience - generally not what more mature transfer students are looking for. transfer students, notably those coming in with advanced standing, face difficulty integrating in established peer study and social groups. differences between college and university are a shock for college transfer students. ability to engage with professor, grading and assessment, and relative independence/accountability are key distinctions. techniques to assist transfer students include program-specific interest groups, learning communities, prep courses, and peer support programs. 3. student focus groups speaking directly with current transfer students (new and returning) allowed the team to identify positive aspects of their university experience and to uncover the specific challenges carleton students were facing and how they see those challenges being addressed for future transfer students. students were asked to share their experiences on a number of related topics including transition, registration, in-class experience, and social integration. a total of 55 participants were involved in three separate focus groups. in addition, five students that were unable to attend provided comments on the topic of student support. the students involved represented a broad range in both age and year status. the question guide can be found in appendix b: transfer student focus group guide. primary findings included: new student orientation is demeaning for transfer students (who happen to be older) and not focused enough on academics, which is their primary focus at university. transfer students reported experiencing challenges academically (class sizes, access to professor, course expectations) and socially (getting involved with established peer groups). perceived lack of targeted communications leading to information and knowledge gaps. registration restrictions are common among transfer students and represent a key barrier in taking required courses. requested changes included: hold a transfer student-specific orientation session and include an academic transition component. develop a peer mentoring program to connect upper-year transfer students with incoming students. social media groups to connect transfer students with each other. mandatory advising session (pre-registration) for transfer students with check-ins throughout the year. consolidated website for information appropriate for transfer students to know. 5. service provider consultations supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 student services units and academic departments at carleton university were specifically targeted to share their experiences with transfer students and to discuss improvements with the team. these units were identified through the institutional data and the student focus groups as key impact areas for transfer students. seven service providers, including two academic departments with a large population of transfer students, participated in the consultations: department/office student experience office department of criminology & criminal justice learning support services writing tutorial service international student services office department of child studies career services primary findings included: comprehensive services to transfer students already exist in academic departments and student services units. most units do not differentiate services to transfer students as a distinct population but students self-identify themselves as such. transfer student orientation exists but was not well known or attended in the past. clear challenge with academic literacy however good support mechanisms are in place at learning support services, writing tutorial service, library and in prep courses (for child studies students only). convincing students to use existing services is the biggest challenge. suggested changes included: incentive marks for completion of academic-related workshops improved registration management such as blocked courses and overrides (preregistration) mandatory advising session(s), specifically focusing on recommended course pattern bring student services into the classroom publish a transfer student handbook or guide connect upper-year with incoming transfer students targeted and early communications rebrand frosh or orientation to academic transition for transfer students 6. external interviews learning from the experiences of other institutions is the core component of benchmarking. the team looked to other north american higher education institutions, including ontario colleges to gain best practices in the management of support services for transfer students. questions to these institutions covered such topics as services/programming, orientation, advising, social integration, registration, financial arrangements, metrics, and communications. a total of ten universities and colleges participated in this interview. institution trent university 8 november 2013 position director, post-secondary partnerships 9 university of arkansas little rock director, office of transfer student services algonquin college dean, academic development brock university web research seneca college coordinator, degree and credit transfer university of british columbia director, enrolment services wilfrid laurier university manager, admissions york university recruitment officer, mature and transfer students ryerson university university registrar niagara college manager, academic quality primary findings included: institutions with strong and robust articulation agreements have an easier time anticipating student service needs and designing transition programming around those needs. most universities hold a dedicated transfer student session within orientation. resources (director, coordinator, manager) to address needs of transfer students from admission to graduation can influence subtle differences in student services that have a noticeable impact on the transfer student experience. dedicated website for transfer students can connect students to timely and necessary services and resources. targeted emails remain a key communication mechanism. mixed approaches on whether to treat transfer students as a distinct population or consider them like any other student. recognition that this should be unique to the needs of each institution. mandatory advising (pre-registration) is used at some institutions to proactively address registration difficulties. overall findings and analysis the benchmarking team adopted a phased approach and collecting data by primarily focusing on internal data to clarify the challenges and opportunities with carletons support of transfer students, and then looking to external research to aid in identifying established solutions to those challenges. the recommendations included in this report were only developed after all data was collected and analyzed. in general, the research undertaken forms a consistent picture of a growing population of transfer students that require a little extra institutional effort, in terms of support services, in order to be on par with the experience one might get as a traditional student. communication (of information, advice, procedures/policies, events) seems to be a common theme with transfer students. given their reluctance to be categorized as a first-year student, they often miss out on the benefits and information that is specifically targeted to them. this reluctance has academic and social repercussions. internal findings the internal findings were compiled and analyzed from carletons institutional data, student focus groups, and service provider consultations. the research suggests that transfer students at carleton university do face unique challenges vis--vis traditional students (i.e. those coming directly from high school) and, as a result, they experience lower completion rates. that being said, carleton makes available a host of services and programming that could assist transfer students in a myriad of ways, should those students see the value and take advantage of these offerings. generally, students were unaware of the resources at their disposal, due largely to the supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 perception that the communications received were not applicable to them. lastly, services to transfer students span multiple portfolios including admissions, advising, registration, student experience, and academic support. the existing support model doesnt identify a clear owner who can work with the various support units to better promote campus resources and ensure the needs of transfer students are taken into account. profile of a transfer student both data from the office of institutional research and planning and student input from focus group gives us a clear picture of transfer students as having a unique experience in relation to traditional students. starting with the obvious, transfer students at carleton tend to be older than their counterparts from high school. although the difference between an 18 year-old and a 21 year-old may not seem like much, this does form a social disconnection between the groups that emerges during transition initiatives (e.g. orientation programming) and in the classroom (e.g. forming project groups). in regards to the latter, transfer students that are admitted with upper-year standing face challenges integrating with established study groups where relationships tend to have been formed in first-year studies. in fact, much due to their age, transfer students tend to be more focused on the academic aspects of their experience, with a singular determination on the completion of their degree. in reality, college transfer students report not being fully prepared for the academic demands of university studies. although they do bring unique experiences from their collegial studies, they find themselves underprepared in the areas of academic literacy, research, critical thinking, and analysis. this is further exasperated by the shock of the size of classes and the perceived lack of access to their instructors, who can plan a crucial role in supporting these students and/or referring them to the appropriate services. even the act of registration, one of the first tasks all new students must complete, is a source of much confusion for transfer students. transfer students almost exclusively have a complex registration pattern that is not easily self-addressed. issues of being prevented from registering in courses required for their degree, year-level challenges and, generally, what courses to select are commonplace. that being said, academic programs with formal articulation agreements such as child studies, criminology and social work report more positive experiences from their students. these departments have developed advising and support services specifically for transfer students. services and programming based on current student expectations, carleton university provides all of the necessary support services that transfer students would require. these would include, but not limited to: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) admissions support with the admissions process and transfer credit(s) academic department and faculty academic support with choosing courses, connecting students with other students and faculty in the department, academic advising, prep courses, events. registrars office registration support including how to register, how to overcome errors, how to access key information, and be aware of dates and deadlines. student academic success centre understanding which courses to choose, reading their audit, discussing program choices student experience office academic and social transition and developing a connection to the university career services discuss career options, career preparation, part-time employment opportunities and work experience international student services office support to international transfer students learning support services on-campus and online study skills workshops, one-on-one appointments, drop-in sessions, tutor referral service 10 november 2013 11 i) j) writing tutorial service development of academic writing skills library access to information resources, student research, research workshops the difference between those that recounted positive experiences as students versus those that expressed challenges had much to do with their use of services. although they were in the minority, those that took advantage of those services, especially as it relates to academic transition and registration, seemed to face less dire challenges than transfer students that did not take advantage of these services. this begs the question, why arent students taking advantage of the services available to them? communications and student perceptions are key factors to consider. firstly, communications to first-year students, were generally ignored and not seen as applicable to those transfer students who enter the university with advanced standing (e.g. may have second year status). in addition, although they may be coming to carleton for the first time, transfer students have experience in a post-secondary environment and dont necessarily identify with the new student label, therefore communications to new students are also often disregarded. that being said, communications that are clearly labeled for transfer students are more likely to be paid attention to. transfer students relate to that label, even if their statuses are quite varied. thirdly, the sheer volume of communications students receive is generally recognized as an issue for all students. those transferring from college are accustomed to their instructors reinforcing important communications in the classroom (e.g. deadlines, services), which may not always occur in university courses. transfer students that had personal contacts in upper years at the university expressed that as a key success factor in informing them of resources available and/or showing them how to resolve their situation themselves. in terms of the quality of the support services available to transfer students, those who reported using services found them beneficial, with the exception of orientation. transfer students, who tend to be older than traditional students, reported not attending orientation events or disliking the experience. they viewed orientation as a primarily social activity whereas they were looking for one that focuses more on academic transition. again, they also felt that orientation was designed for first-year students and not all transfer students had that status. lastly, all of the focus group participants had not heard of transfer student orientation held by the student experience office but were very positive to the idea and would have liked to attend had theyd known about it. it should be noted here that the benchmarking team advised the student experience office about the findings during the planning of orientation for september 2013 and some changes to transfer student orientation were implemented. lastly, the child studies program in the institute of interdisciplinary studies has, up until 2013, been a pathway program for college graduates looking for a university degree. child studies welcomes 30 students per year into the program and has identified academic literacy as a key deficiency with these students. to address this, theyve introduced courses focused on reading and understanding methods of study (chst 2503), and writing skills and oral communication (chst 2504). these courses also bring academic services (e.g. library, writing tutorial service) into the classroom. by all accounts, this has had a positive impact on students in terms of academic transition and performance. ownership of the transfer student portfolio the needs of transfer students are unique, but not totally divergent to the needs of traditional students. their needs, and the approaches to satisfying those needs, are more nuanced as opposed to treating them completely differently. many of the services provided to them fall into the domain of the associate vice-president (students and enrolment) and it can be said that ultimate responsibility for the transfer student portfolio falls on that role (as evidenced by the owner of this benchmarking project). however apart from transient initiatives like this one, there is no person on campus who is charged with understanding the needs of this growing population and working with service providers to improve their programs and resources to meet the needs of transfer students. to that end, many service providers welcomed any direction on how to serve supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 this population better as they already recognize transfer students as a vulnerable group, whether that involves slight tweaking to existing programming or completely new offerings. external findings external findings were collected by analyzing existing literature on the topic of support services to transfer students and through interviews with other north american institutions. transition/adjustment is a major challenge for transfer students and universities are making deliberate efforts to address this. likewise, overcoming registration challenges due to a transfer students near-personalized path to their degree test system capabilities, course set-up, registration support and advising services. lastly, transfer students exhibit challenges with building social connections that have implications on their general student experience and their sense of belonging. transition and adjustment much of the literature suggests that transfer students have difficulty transitioning to university life both academically and socially. this is particularly true for those transferring after attending college. their perceptions of higher education are formed by their experience at the college level and students become frustrated with the differences in environments. the literature posits that transfer students have a difficult time connecting with their instructors. large classes sizes, lack of understanding of the purpose of office hours, and the availability of instructors form the main reasons transfer students experience difficulty connecting with their professors. transfer students become frustrated with a university professors focus on research in comparison to the strong teaching background of college instructors. this sentiment of, im just a number is commonplace. the importance of self-motivation is also a new reality for those transferring from college. the idea of a personalized schedule, with no attendance taken or reminders of deadlines by instructors, relies on the motivation of individual students to attend classes, keep up with their studies, and plan for deadlines. even grading for some classes, that puts pressure on a single project or midterm exam is seen as stressful to the college transfer student who is used to a staged, progressive model of evaluation. in terms of social transition, transfer students find it difficult to integrate with students in their classes that already have previous peer groups established from their first year or even their residence/orientation experience. the large class sizes also contribute to not being able to make connections with peers. lastly, the age difference between a transfer student taking first year courses versus a high school applicant can be a limiting factor when it comes to social connections. ideas from the literature to address transition issues and encourage adjustment include the development of learning communities (cohorts of students that share an identical schedule), transfer student interest groups (informal meetings of students with student affairs staff and faculty), and peer mentoring (advise from upper-year students). registration challenges information on academic websites and brochures are designed for new students with the assumption that they have no advanced standing and their subsequent years of study are clearly laid out in terms of the credits they must achieve to earn their degree. to varying degrees, transfer students (by definition) do not follow this model and therefore experience a great deal of confusion in both choosing classes and completing registration. in short, each transfer student follows their own, unique path to complete their degree. 12 november 2013 13 for example, a transfer student with advanced standing may be admitted into secondyear but still have some first-year credits to complete and may even have equivalencies in some second-year courses. their optimal registration may include a mix of first-year, second-year and possibly, third-year courses. published information is not sufficient enough to advise them what courses they need to register for in a given academic year. this is exasperated with the registration restrictions of their required courses where they may be restricted by year-standing, program, or major. many universities face similar challenges in this regard. the existence of articulation agreements, which add structure and predictability to a students progress, helps alleviate this problem. proactive universities look to build formal bridges like this in areas with a high percentage of transfer students that allow them to tailor their information to show students the courses required to complete their degree requirements and pre-answer student questions that otherwise would have necessitated academic advising. these challenges were also found in the internal research. students reported being confused by what courses to select and encountering a number of registration errors when they tried to register for required courses. not knowing enough about overrides they could request to gain access to their required courses, they select other courses that may or may not put them in an optimal place to achieve progress in their degree. by the time they see an advisor in september (two months after registration began) or later, they are told of their registration mistakes and are faced with courses at capacity and the challenge of getting into their required courses and achieving a full course load at such a late point in the registration cycle. recommendations transfer students at carleton are almost equally split between those coming from college (49.7%) and those coming from university (50.3%). these transfer students tend to be older than their counterparts from high school and over half of them enter into studies in upper years. this results in difficulties integrating in established peer study and social groups. in addition, large class sizes also contribute to not being able to make connections with peers. college transfer students report not being fully prepared for the academic demands of university studies. they find themselves underprepared in the areas of academic literacy, research, critical thinking, and analysis. carleton already offers a number of transition and academic support services for first year students. transfer students, however, see themselves as a distinct population and even though they need many of the same services, they often assume that the workshops and programs are designed for younger students. in addition, transfer students have unique needs around registration and integrating with already established peer groups. by developing timely, targeted communications, promoting already existing services as well as coordinating and enhancing current services, these recommendations aim to better address issues of adjustment to the carleton community for students with previous post-secondary experiences. recommendation 1: develop a position of coordinator of pathways to advocate and coordinate interdepartmental efforts to continually improve support services and programming for transfer students. although this project was focused on student services to transfer students during their studies, the management of transfer students begins with agreements and relationships with other institutions, and continues onto the recruitment and admissions phase prior to them becoming current students. the experience the student has while they are at carleton is influenced by their experiences in these preceding phases. when the benchmarking team surveyed other universities, many did not have primary contacts to answer questions about student support services as this portfolio was shared across many units on campus, without strategic oversight. supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 institutions with a single role responsible for the all aspects of the transfer student experience seemed to have a more intentional approach to servicing this growing population of students. it is recommended that carleton pilot a new position of coordinator of pathways to advocate and coordinate interdepartmental efforts to continually improve all aspects of the transfer student experience. this would include such activities as: building formal and informal agreements and relationships with other higher education institutions, particularly in ontario. working with academic departments to review common pathways and identify recommended course patterns for transfer students. coordinate recruitment and transition activities with colleges. collaborate with service providers to develop materials to promote available services and to adjust service delivery (language, scheduling, workshops, communications, content, programming) to better meet the nuanced needs of transfer students. develop a communications plan to keep the transfer student population informed and connected including a central website, social media, targeted email (see recommendation 6). implement regular measures to assess the satisfaction of transfer students, and their unfulfilled needs in order to monitor the impact of improvement activities. oversee the implementation of the recommendations of this report. this portfolio ultimately falls under the direction of the associate vice-president (students and enrolment) however there currently is not a role dedicated to enacting the types of initiatives recommended in this report on a consistent basis. the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) currently has a credit transfer innovation fund for credit transfer initiatives which could be a source of funding for this position on a pilot basis. recommendation 2: implement a peer mentorship program to allow for student-tostudent advice and support, including referrals to campus services. transfer students with personal connections with returning students identified them as the most important resource for advice, information and transition. to offer all transfer students this type of resource, it is recommended that a peer mentoring program be created to match new transfer students with a trained, upper-year peers to offer them advice and support, including providing referrals to the appropriate campus services. many upper-year students involved in the focus groups indicated that they would be open to becoming peer mentors to others. this program would involve mentor profiles on a centralized website where a new transfer student could go to choose the mentor that best matches their needs. these mentors would be trained on the campus services available and would be supported by the coordinator of pathways. the program would also feature mentor-organized drop-in sessions, hosted at different departments throughout the school year as an informal forum for transfer students to answer their questions and feel supported. these drop-ins would feature a guest speaker on a particular topic of interest and timing to transfer students. the goal of this program is to offer an informal source of information for new transfer students to complement official university services and departmental resources (e.g. administrators, instructors). this peer-delivered support is expected to allow student to; 1) increase use of student services, 2) improve timeliness of their use of student services (e.g. registration support at early stages of registration), 3) use online tools and resources more effectively, and 4) build personal connections with other students. recommendation 3: actively promote pre-registration advising in early june for transfer students, including in-person and virtual advising sessions. 14 november 2013 15 stories of confusion with the registration process, specifically course selection and access, are commonplace among transfer students. their advanced standing causes a number of complications in registration that often cannot be easily answered via information on a website. getting clarity on what courses they are exempt from and what courses they still need to take is problematic for them. once that is ascertained, students are often faced with course restrictions that limit them from taking courses outside of their official year standing. finally, by the time they arrive on campus and take advantage of advising services available to them, there is often no space in the courses needed to adjust their registration. knowing how to overcome these barriers, including the navigating of them via carleton central, is a challenge in itself. registration advising is available to students at any time after their acceptance, should they wish to take advantage of it. the student academic success centre (sasc) has a dedicated transfer student advisor on staff to assist them. by september, many transfer students are seeking assistance from various resources on campus however it is often too late. it is recommended that the student academic success centre and/or departmental advisors actively promote pre-registration advising in early june (prior to the fall registration period) for transfer students. this should include in-person advising appointments for those in the ottawa area and virtual (email, phone or video conferencing) advising sessions for those who cannot visit campus. showing students how to access and read their audit, helping them in course selection, confirming expected course restrictions, and referring them to registration and academic support would allow students to have a much easier registration experience so that they can be confident they are in the right courses. it is imperative that this occurs prior to the registration period, where possible, so that the student can be prepared for their registration time-ticket and have addressed any course restrictions (through departmental overrides) prior to that time. recommendation 4: encourage the two faculties involved to explore methods to allow upper-year transfer students to register in first-year seminars. university seminar courses are small classes (usually with 30 students) designed to give students the opportunity to discuss and research topics of interest in a core subject area. the instructors involved in fysms are committed to teaching and mentoring students as they make the transition into university life. first-year bachelor of arts (ba) and bachelor of cognitive science students are provided this experience through enrolment in a first-year seminar (fysm). with the majority of transfer students from within the ba, and over 60% of them being admitted with second-year standing, these new students miss out on this opportunity. it is recommended that the faculty of public affairs and the faculty of arts and social sciences be encouraged to investigate methods by which spaces in fysm courses could be made available to second-year transfer students. in addition, promoting the advantages and importance of these seminars to first-year transfer students transitioning into the carleton environment should be undertaken. there are six pedagogical objectives for fysm courses at carleton university (see appendix c: pedagogical objectives for first-year seminars), all of which have advantages for new transfer students. it is hoped that the smaller class sizes emphasizing group work, instructor mentorship and advising, interactive learning, and early assessment/evaluation will help students achieve their academic goals and have a positive impact on transfer students, as they transition to university and prepare for upper-year studies. recommendation 5: further align programming and services to the needs of transfer students supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 it should be noted that radical change in service delivery is not necessary to meet the needs of transfer students but more nuanced adjustments are recommended in the area of communications, language, targeting and workshop design. this is expected to better promote the value of student services to transfer students as well as better matching service offerings and programs to their needs. these needs are expected to evolve over time and the main role of the coordinator of pathways role (see recommendation 1) will be to solicit ongoing feedback in order to keep abreast of the changing needs of transfer students and advise academic departments and student support services to make the necessary adjustments to meet those needs, when required. to exemplify this, consultation has already begun with the student experience office on how best to design and promote a specific orientation session for transfer students. this begins with promoting it appropriately as students clearly did not know that this exists. this starts with targeted communications that are clearly customized for transfer students. branding is also an issue to be addressed given that this student population does not associate themselves with orientation or frosh and prefer terms that are focused on academics such as academic transition workshop. lastly, there needs to be a component of the orientation session that involves one-on-one advising with the student. this might involve going through their audit, reviewing their registration, and/or referring them to campus services/workshops. a little handholding at the early stages can go a long way to setting them on the path to success. recommendation 6: develop a communications strategy to specifically target the transfer student population (new and existing) including targeted email, centralized web resources, and social media. the information gap between what students need to know and what they are paying attention to is great for the transfer student population. as we have seen with other student groups, they are receiving the required information but have trouble distinguishing what information is pertinent to them. for example, they might receive an email to new students that is clearly written with the assumption that the student is in the first year of their studies. this confuses new transfer students that have advanced standing. transfer students need much of the same information as other students however the language needs to be adjusted and, in some cases, they should not receive information that is not pertinent to them. clearly flagging email specifically for transfer students is one way to alert them to a message that they should pay attention to. having a centralized website as a key information resource that they can refer to is also a way to minimize the information gap. curating news posts and web information and customizing that information to provide clarity for transfer students would offer them a singular information resource they can refer to. lastly, the use of social media to connect transfer students with each other, especially new students with returning, can offer an informal, two-way information source that can also facilitate personal connections amongst students. it can also be used to proactively see where students are having difficulties and adjust other communications mediums as a result. to accomplish this, it is recommended that a comprehensive communications strategy be developed that involves a diverse set of communications mediums including email, web and social media. conclusion the recommendations, when implemented, aim to address challenges faced by transfer students in their transition to the carleton community. reaching out with coordinated and targeted services will have a positive impact on their transfer experience, help optimize their time to degree completion and help ensure their academic success. 16 november 2013 17 although carleton delivers a number of service programs that help address some of the academic challenges, most units do not differentiate services or communications to transfer students as a distinct population leading to information gaps. transfer students are unaware of the resources at their disposal, due largely to the perception that the communications received were not applicable to them. those who received advice from friends at carleton fared better. connecting with current upper year students allowed them to take advantage of lessons learned and make use of existing services. the creation of a peer mentorship program aims to increase effective use of services for transfer students and create a network of connections for support. participants from the focus groups have agreed to take part in the formation of such a mentorship program. overcoming registration challenges is another major transition issue for transfer students. because transfer students begin their studies with advanced standing in courses, they almost exclusively have a complex registration pattern that is not easily self-addressed. registration restrictions are common among transfer students due to year level standing and represent a key barrier in taking required courses. the individualized nature of their pathway requires more customized support from academic units and advising services in a timely manner to ensure an appropriate course pattern. as part of a pilot project, the student academic success centre received funds from the credit transfer innovation fund to have a dedicated transfer credit advisor. this position can be utilized to promote and offer pre-registration assistance. in addition, sasc has also begun offering telephone advising sessions which could be used for early outreach to transfer students. services to transfer students span multiple portfolios including admissions, advising, registration, student experience, and academic support. there is no one overseer who is working to understand the needs of transfer students and working with the service providers to better promote campus resources and ensure the needs of transfer students are taken into account. many of carletons service providers welcomed any direction on how to serve this population better as they already recognize transfer students as a vulnerable group. learning support services recently establish a workshop cluster for transfer students. as part of this cluster, writing tutorial services is offering workshops for transfer students in essay writing, proofreading and research. communicating the current and new services designed specifically to address the needs of transfer students is critical. development of a communications strategy designed to reach transfer students in a timely manner as well as assessing the feasibility of a transfer student website can be undertaken within the position of coordinator of pathways, a pilot position being funded by the credit transfer innovation fund. next steps given the discussions that this project has initiated, some progress on the recommendations has already occurred. fiscal funding for the pilot position via the credit transfer innovation fund has been requested. the student experience office consulted with members of the benchmarking team on the design of an orientation session for transfer students that was offered this summer and those consultations will continue for the 2014 session. the writing tutorial service is now offering a newly-designed cluster of workshops specifically for transfer students. upon support from the organizational excellence steering committee (oesc), it will be important to present the findings and recommendations of this report to the academic research committee (arc) to particularly inform the deans of how support for the transfer students within their faculties will be improved. it is also critical to have early conversations with the student academic success centre on their preparation and support needs to facilitate increased preregistration advising for transfer student groups in early june 2014. supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 appendices appendix a: benchmarking project charter name of project supporting the success of transfer students project owner suzanne blanchard, avp (students & enrolment) & university registrar project leader janice ofarrell, director (admissions services) purpose the goal of this project is to develop and improve support services that best address the needs of transfer students. description transfer students are new students to carleton who bring with them previous post-secondary studies. transfer students are admitted into carleton at varying year levels based on the amount of transfer credit awarded at the point of admission. this proposal is initiated partly in response to the ministry of training colleges and universities' discussion paper on "strengthening ontario's centres of creativity, innovation and knowledge" but also to support carleton's proposed strategic mandate agreement. in the government vision for postsecondary education, "ontario's colleges and universities .....will put students first by providing the best possible learning experience for all qualified learners in an affordable and financially sustainable way, ensuring high quality, and globally competitive outcomes for students and ontario's creative economy." the government hopes to further improve student mobility between colleges, between universities and between colleges and universities. this project will determine the characteristics and service needs of the transfer students attending carleton and identify the challenges that these students encounter upon entering their degree program. this project will involve benchmarking of existing programs at other institutions, focus groups with transfer students, and an assessment of current student services offered for their relevance to transfer students. this initiative will make recommendations for a coordinated set of services to support the needs and address the challenges of transfer students. objectives 1. to identify the characteristics of transfer students attending carleton. 2. to gain an understanding of which services transfer students use and identify any gaps in providing services to them as a distinct population. 3. to develop a list of measures to enable tracking and assessing the effectiveness of services for transfer students. 4. to identify the challenges faced by transfer students. 5. to make recommendations for a coordinated service model for transfer students. strategic alignment this proposal is aligned with carleton's 2009 strategic plan, defining dreams, in the area of striving for excellence in education and support services for students. the project also supports objectives 7.1 (expand university-college academic collaboration) and 7.2 (explore a regional post-secondary partnership) of the carleton academic plan. as carleton continues to improve our transfer credit protocols and actively promotes student mobility and access, it will be key to have effective services in place to support students during their studies and ensure success through to graduation. 18 november 2013 19 scope in scope (project deliverables) identification and analysis of new undergraduate students that bring with them previous post-secondary studies review of how current services cater to the unique needs of transfer students identify gaps between current services and needs of transfer students recommendations for a coordinated service model for transfer students out of scope graduate and special students with previous post-secondary studies students on letter of permission admissions and course articulation policies team membership team leader: janice ofarrell, director (admissions services) team members: david taylor, student advisor (sasc) richard nimijean, assistant dean (fass) perry legakis, director (student awards) stenley philippe, telecounselling supervisor (ug recruitment) benchmarking facilitator: scott gonsalves, senior advisor (quality initiatives) milestones milestone project charter approved team members identified benchmarking training delivered to team meeting schedule set internal data collected external data collected recommendations identified final report completed report recommendations approved implementation plan created project closed completion date december 2012 january 2013 january 2013 january 2013 february 2013 march 2013 april 2013 may 2013 june 2013 june 2013 june 2013 success criteria metric transfer student satisfaction number of transfer students graduation rate of transfer students *to be collected during project intended outcome increase increase increase baseline measure tbd* tbd* tbd* supporting the success of transfer students benchmarking 2013 appendix b: transfer student focus group guide 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. first, we will start with some introductions. lets go around the room and share your 1) first name, 2) program of study, and 3) one word to describe how carleton university supports its transfer students. a. does anyone care to further explain their choice of word? (for transfers from college) why did you choose to further your studies with a university education? a. did you begin attending college with the intention of transferring to university? thinking back to your expectations of embarking on a university education, what expectations were met/not met once you actually got here? st what, if anything, makes transfer students unique from students coming from high school into 1 year? do you feel that you were prepared for university? please explain. a. how could your previous institution prepared you better? b. how could carleton have prepared you better? c. what could you have done to prepare yourself better? what was the hardest part about attending university for the first time? how did you find your experience with selecting and registering for courses? did you feel well prepared for dealing with the financial aspects of attending university (paying for tuition/residence? accessing funding? etc) was the process of purchasing books similar to your experience at other institutions? was the experience getting your accounts set up (email, library, lms, student card, etc.) a seamless one? why/why not? have you had any challenges using the library for your research (including online resources)? what activities did your academic department offer to you upon entering university? a. did you take advantage of those activities? b. were those activities helpful? there are a host of services available to students, academically and otherwise. which services have you taken part in? (e.g. student experience office, academic advising, library, athletics, registration support, fee payment/awards support, health services, residence life) a. did those services meet your needs? b. if you didnt use those services, why not? c. what services to you plan to use going forward? what was the one major factor that eased your transition to university? a. academically? b. socially? has anyone taken part in orientation activities (seo, departmental)? a. how did you find it? b. did it help point you in the right direction in those initial weeks? nd c. (for those that entering into 2 year) how can we best orient you to the carleton university experience (e.g. resources, services, processes, support)? d. did you attend the special orientation for transfer students (offered in summer)? why/why not? how did you find it socially upon arriving at university? nd a. (for those entering in 2 year) how did you manage to make social connections? b. what opportunities did you have to connect with other transfer students? was that even necessary? if you were to mentor a new transfer student to carleton university, what advice would you give them? what, if anything, should carleton university do differently to help students like yourselves in the future? is there anything else on the topic of services to transfer students that we didnt discuss that youd like to share? 20 november 2013 21 appendix c: pedagogical objectives of first-year seminars 1. close analysis some of the assignment, student-faculty interaction, and group work in first-year seminars should be designed so that students carry out close analysis of some texts, theories, mathematical models, explanations, narratives, artifacts, aesthetic objects, or symbolic systems that are central to the course. 2. interactive learning first-year seminars should be designed so that all students have some regular opportunities for learning by interacting with the instructor. the type of interaction will vary for different fields and instructors; it could include problem-solving sessions, socratic conversations, discussion of student drafts or presentations, and many other formats. 3. early assessment and evaluation first-year seminars should be designed so that the students receive early feedback (i.e. within the first six weeks) on short assignments, so as to convey clear expectations for university-level performance. in the case of written work, these might include standards for literal meaning, clarity, organization and reasoning. a series of modest assignments starting early in the term will give students multiple opportunities to improve their work without the risk associated with final examinations and term papers. 4. culminating project first-year seminars should be designed to culminate in a project or essay that is transitional to upperyear work. the assignment should be structured so that students are guided systematically through phases of formulating a question, research, writing, critique, and revision, as appropriate to the discipline or interdisciplinary field of study. 5. teamwork first-year seminars should be designed so that there are occasions on which students work in groups. group work is to serve not only as a pedagogical method, but also to support the development of interpersonal skills and to encourage students to find a social and intellectual home. 6. consultation & advising first-year seminars should be designed so that instructors consult with students from time to time about their work in this and other courses, and about institutional concerns. this will provide an opportunity to help students understand and communicate about the university and the services that might assist them. source: first-year seminar review report january 2007

final report diploma degree pathway lakehead history degrees (including the ba history online) oncat project no: 201510 prepared by: michel s. beaulieu, jenna kirker, andrew heppner, and nancy luckai submitted to: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) august 2016 this project (oncat project number: 201510) was funded by a grant from the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). august 2015 1 acknowledgements with any project of this magnitude, the product is representative of a community of educators and staff working together across departments to support initiatives that benefit ontario learners in the postsecondary system. the project team would like to extend gratitude towards the following individuals for their contributions to this project both past and in its future implementation: project leads and coordination dr. michel s. beaulieu and jenna kirker pathway bridge development dr. scott pound, anthea kyle, rafaela jobbitt, dr. nancy luckai, adam humeniuk, leslie malcolm, debra gold, leslie malcolm, and andrew heppner additional research and support steven dealmedia, dr. steven jobbitt, amanda lino, and faculty and staff of the department of history thank you! 2 contents executive summary 4 introduction 5 project overview specific objectives methodology key milestones 6 6 7 8 steps and results phase one: analysis phase two: the pathway bridge phase three: next steps 10 12 15 works consulted and referenced 17 appendix a: modular proposal breakdown 20 appendix b: bridge course outline 23 3 executive summary history is one of the most popular degrees sought in the social sciences and humanities at lakehead university and has the potential to be an attractive degree option for college transfer students. it is a discipline that combines content knowledge with the development and honing of analytical, critical thinking, writing, and communication skills that are highly sought after by employers. many of these foundational skills are developed as part of college diploma programs and are articulated by the associated program learning outcomes. however, college diploma programs do not always offer the contentbased or process learning in courses that facilitate transfer of credits. it is an issue further compounded by 3year and 4year university degree level expectations as well as course and program level learner outcome requirements. this report covers the three phases of the project. 1) an analysis and evaluation of existing ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) projects, history specific and/or history related content offered by ontarios colleges, and progress towards the identification of partners, negotiations, and planning for next steps in the larger collegeuniversity pathway project focused on aspects of disciplinespecific process learning. method of analysis included survey of existing reports by collegeuniversity consortium council (cucc) and oncat, including the assessment of more than 280 courses offered by 20 colleges in ontario, the identification of colleges with a level of existing relevant course capacity and the gathering of secondary literature as well as telephone and inperson discussions. 2) the development of a skills/competencies based modular online bridging course that allows students who have completed college level history related courses to receive university level transfer credits at the first, second, and third year. 3) implementation of the pathway bridging course. 4 introduction as peter stearns has eloquently stated, the study of history is based on two fundamental facts: history helps us understand peoples and societies and history helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be.1 historians have always been turned to for foundational information in legal cases, government policy creation, treaty rights negotiations, etc. additionally, history plays an important role in all disciplines as each, directly or indirectly, requires some understanding of the past. history is by its very nature an applied discipline, resting on the idea, as stearns and tarr have argued, that knowledge of the past can relate to and enlighten present and future policies.2 history is one of the most popular degrees sought in the social sciences and humanities which presents an attractive option for college transfer students. it is a discipline that combines content knowledge with the development of analytical thought, critical thinking, writing, and communication skills. in fact, graduates with degrees in history are much sought after and highly prized by employers.3 many of these foundational skills are initially developed as part of college diploma programs and are articulated by the associated program learning outcomes. however, college diploma programs do not always offer the contentbased courses that facilitate transfer of credits. it is an issue further compounded by 3year and 4year university degree level expectations, as well as course and program level learner outcome requirements. this project examined existing college diploma programs and courses with the purpose of developing a bridging pathway into the department of historys 3year and 4year degree programs, including the new ba history (online) degree. 1 peter n. stearns, why study history?, american historical association, accessed 1 august 2016, http://www.historians.org/pubs/free/whystudyhistory.htm 2 peter n. stearns and joel a. tarr, curriculum in applied history: toward the future, the public historian 9:3 (summer 1987): 111. 3 see, for example, george anders, "that 'useless' liberal arts degree has become tech's hottest ticket," forbes, 7 august 2015 norm augustine, the education our economy needs: we lag in science, but students historical illiteracy hurts our politics and our businesses, the wall street journal, 21 september 2011 zac bissonnette, "your college major may not be as important as you think," the new york times, 3 november 2010 robert campbell, "why the liberal arts are vital to our prosperity," moncton times and telegraph journal, 8 august 2015 benjamin doda, "why pr needs liberal arts majors," ragan's pr daily, 21 july 2015 james grossman, "history isn't a 'useless' major. it teaches critical thinking, something america needs plenty more of," los angeles times, 30 may 2016 gianna may, "press start to begin: how historians can apply their work in a nonacademic setting," the aha today: blog of the american historical association, 2 july 2015 adam mayers, "why an arts degree still gets you a great job," toronto star (business section), 4 september 2015 max nisen, "11 reasons to ignore the haters and major in the humanities," business insider, 27 june 2013 annett gordonreed, "critics of the liberal arts are wrong," time magazine, 19 june 2013 and alan wildeman, "we ignore the liberal arts at our peril," the globe and mail, 7 september 2015. 5 project overview this project represents the successive processes and evolution of curriculum and competency analysis in ontarios postsecondary system. building on work completed in an earlier oncat project (201437) this project was founded on the following objectives: 1) examine the learning outcomes for the general arts and science (gaas) diploma programs delivered at a number of ontario colleges and to map these against the course requirements and program learner outcomes for lakehead universitys history degrees (3 year ba and 4 year hba) 2) through consultation with college program coordinators, determine the knowledge, skills and experiences necessary to ensure successful transfer into history degrees 3) based on the completion of a gap analysis, develop a pathway(s) into the ba and hba degree programs including the ba history (online) degree program 4) develop an online bridge, as necessary, to support the proposed pathway(s) and 5) examine and propose pathways from the ba and hba history degree programs to specific postgraduate diplomas. to clearly highlight our efforts towards meeting these objectives, this report is), divided into three sequential phases which are summarized below phase one constituted continuation of the earlier project with the recruitment of both faculty and student researchers to begin the collection of data necessary for an indepth analysis of existing literature on degree pathways and bridging programs with direct relevance to social sciences in general and history, in particular. along with the collection of studies, articles, and literature on transfer programs, phase one ultimately resulted in the collection and extrapolation of aggregate data to form the conclusion that an online, remotely deliverable bridging course would form the culmination of the proposed project. phase two consisted of the design and development of modular online bridging course that is focused on gaps between the skill sets and competencies between vocation based diplomas and knowledge generation based degrees. development of the bridge was informed by the results of phase one to be delivered as an online bridging course. this phase was primarily focused on the technical development of the online bridge, course content, learning outcomes, and methods of assessment relating to the completion of a baccalaureate degree. 6 phase three represents the current and ongoing phase of the project which includes testing of the now complete bridging course by both faculty and student volunteers as a diagnostic, and the implementation of the course for future transfer students. methodology the project was completed by focusing on general arts and science programs and historyrelated postgraduate diploma programs and courses at 20 colleges in ontario. while an analysis of courses at these colleges encompass the primary material for this report, the deliverables (i.e. pathway plans and bridge) can be adapted for applicability to other colleges offering the general arts and science diploma programming and courses in the social sciences and humanities. the following steps were undertaken to meet the project objectives: 1. a faculty and a student assistant was recruited to assist with the completion of the oncat project. 2. the project lead and assistant(s) completed a detailed curriculum analysis along with an examination of the learning outcomes for the general arts and science diploma programs. 3. the assistants mapped the diploma learner outcomes against the course requirements and program learner outcomes for lakehead universitys history ba and hba degrees, and against the universitys dles. 4. the project lead developed a pathway(s) into the ba and hba degree programs including the ba history (online) degree program. 5. following the completion of revisions, the project lead submitted the proposed pathway for review and approval by the department, faculty council, and other committees/offices as necessary. 6. the project lead communicated the final pathway(s) to the college contacts. 7. the project lead and assistants completed the preliminary design of the academic bridge necessary to ensure success for transfer students. the content development of online modules/courses necessary for the academic bridge was completed. 8. the project lead recruited an individual, mr. andrew heppner, to manage the process of creating the online bridge course. in addition, two members of faculty with special expertise in course design and content, one member of staff with extensive experience in student skills coaching 7 (writing assistance and student success) and a second with extensive experience in online course delivery and design contributed to the final product. 9. the project lead prepared and submitted the status and final reports as required. 10. the project lead will promote and communicate as necessary including ensuring that all related information is posted on the lakehead website. key milestones: id. title planned completion date forecast completion date as reported two months ago forecast current forecast actual completion date completion date completion as reported last date month phase one 1 faculty and students were recruited 30mar2015 30mar2015 30mar2015 30mar2015 30mar201 5 2 beginning of detailed curriculum analysis and examination of the learning outcomes for the general arts and science diploma programs. 30apr2015 30apr2015 30apr2015 30apr201 5 3 consultation with colleges to discuss curriculum, and to help inform decisions related to knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to ensure successful transfer into the history ba degrees. 30sep2015 0sep2015 30sep2015 30sep2015 30sep201 5 4 mapping of diploma learner outcomes against the course requirements, program learner outcomes, and dles for lakehead university history ba degrees. 30nov2015 30nov2015 30nov2015 30nov2015 30nov201 5 5 interim report to oncat 01dec2015 01dec2015 01dec2015 01dec2015 01dec201 5 30apr2015 phase two 8 id. title planned completion date forecast completion date as reported two months ago forecast current forecast actual completion date completion date completion as reported last date month 6 development of pathway into the ba degree programs including the ba history (online) degree program 31jan2016 31jan2016 31jan2016 31jan2016 31jan201 6 7 communication of the proposed pathway to ontario colleges request for feedback 29feb2016 29feb2016 29feb2016 29feb2016 not applicable 8 review and approval of pathway(s) through department, faculty council, and other committees/offices as necessary. 31mar2016 31mar2016 31mar2016 31mar2016 tba 9 report to oncat 31mar2016 31mar2016 31mar2016 31mar2016 31aug 2016 10 further college communication regarding the approved pathway(s). on going on going on going on going not applicable 11 establishment and critical review of the academic bridge needed to ensure success for transfer students. 30apr2016 30apr2016 30apr2016 30apr2016 ongoing 12 creation of multimodal delivery and archive of instructional resources required for the academic bridge. 31may2016 31may2016 31may2016 31may2016 31aug 2016 13 communication confirming the pathways including posting on a lakehead webpage, with updates sent to onttransfer.ca 30jun2106 30jun2106 30jun2106 30jun2106 ongoing phase three next steps 9 id. title planned completion date forecast completion date as reported two months ago forecast current forecast actual completion date completion date completion as reported last date month 14 initial testing of proposed bridging course by faculty and student volunteers fall 2016 ongoing ongoing ongoing ongoing 15 implementation of the bridging program for incoming college transfer students fall 2017 fall 2017 fall 2018 fall 2018 tba phase one: analysis the first phase consisted of a preliminary analysis of ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) reports, relevant history specific and history related courses at ontarios colleges, potential partner identification, and planning for further interactions leading to the development of both pathway mechanisms to provide greater opportunities for college transfer students seeking to undertake 3 and 4 year history degree programs, and potentially other social sciences and humanities programs. the analysis was also expanded to include previous collegeuniversity consortium council (cucc) studies. information was compiled (i.e. course descriptions, syllabi, instructor information) on over 280 history specific and history related courses from over 20 colleges in ontario. initial selection was based on calendared course descriptions and identified content. course outlines were examined with particular attention made to content suitability, assessment methods, and the courses relevance to the attainment of a degree or diploma. the status of a course as a mandatory/required or elected class as an aspect of degree attainment often determined the level of instruction as well as basic methodology taught within the course, therefore affecting the first two examinations. at the same time, a survey and analysis of relevant literature on the subject of postsecondary pathways programs was also undertaken, including the identification and attempted acquisition of relevant reports previously produced by the collegeuniversity consortium council (cucc), the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), and similar bodies elsewhere in canada and the united states. additionally, existing transfer agreements, particularly recent general arts and science pathways (gaas), were examined. what our analysis of history specific and historyrelated courses being offered revealed was that levels of postsecondary education (i.e. ma and phd) of those teaching historyrelated courses in ontario colleges has increased to the point that, with individual institutional exceptions, the gap between college and 10 university instructor competency (based on education levels) is narrowing and, in fact, should be viewed as a redherring towards hesitancy in pathway building. the educational level of instruction does vary from institution to institution, but need not be a barrier. while there does exist a wide variety of differences in the scope, nature, and structure of history specific and historyrelated courses being offered by colleges their consistent patterns are discernable. typically, the structure and scope of surveytype courses at the colleges are consistent with those typically offered at the first and second year levels at universities. based on an analysis of course outlines and available materials (time constraints did not allow for proposed discussions with course instructors), courses offered by colleges tend to consist of either traditional western civilization/european history and/or canadian history based content. these courses tend to utilize the same lecture topics and main textbooks used by comparable university courses at the first and second year level. those learning outcomes that touch upon content mastery, when available, are also similar. where these courses diverge significantly from those offered at the university level is the amount of expected reading (both within the assigned text and other materials) and in the scope, nature, and type of assessment related outcomes. as such, elements of process learning central to university degree level expectations are not being met to the depth and extent required to form the basis of a baccalaureate degree. it is a gap that, not unexpectedly, widens as courses are assessed through a firstyear or a secondyear equivalency lens. colleges also offer a variety of history specific or history related courses that, when delivered often in a lecture format, in terms of content and/or subject matter, would be classified as a third or even fourth year university course. however, these courses present significant differences in the scope and nature of assessment than those found at the upper undergraduate level. again, elements of process learning central to university degree level expectations are not being met to the depth and extent required. in short, students taking those collegelevel courses are reading far less material and writing significantly less than students taking comparable contentsubjects at the university level to the point that direct equivalencies are impossible. the corollary effect is the lack of development of key critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis skills necessary for success at the upperyear level and required in university degree level expectations. it is important to note however that, in many cases, collegelevel courses appear to be doing an excellent job in introducing students to the content of the subject area being focused upon. they also tend to incorporate into their delivery an assessment of student discussion, direct participatory, and groupwork assessment not often found at the first and second year university level. 11 the tight timelines and the preliminary project occurring in the fall (the busiest time of the academic year) versus the original winter/spring proved to be problematic for arranging meetings. as a result, a discussion with only one school, humber college in toronto, was possible. humber was selected due to the readily available materials on its website, a representative variety of courses (i.e. capacity), education level and experience of its instructors, and the existence of existing transfer agreements. an initial teleconference was held and a physical meeting occurred to discuss the larger project as proposed and to develop a preliminary idea on the larger projects framework and team. while enthusiastic and interested in participating, discussions with course instructors was unable to be completed before the projects deadline. therefore, more specific course content analysis (testing, exams, etc.) was unable to be completed. due to unforeseen issues, the partnership with humber college did not continue past the first phase. after consultation with oncat, the original project objectives were altered and further content and bridge analysis was based on accumulated literature and independent research. phase two: the pathway bridge the analysis of existing courses and literature led to the development of a bridging program designed to clarify and improve the skills and competencies of students in order to create a seamless entry into the history program. despite the best efforts of the project team, the development of the bridge lacked firsthand input from a designated college, therefore the modular based program was heavily informed by standards of best practice and existing secondary literature accumulated over the course of the project. strengths and weaknesses were determined by an evaluation of aggregate data collected from both canadian and north american universities and have been used as a model for what, and how, students should learn. the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) in its 2014 report identified five specific areas critical to the attainment of a baccalaureate degree: knowledge critical and creative thinking research and scholarship social responsibility and communication.4 higher education quality council of ontario, learning outcomes assessment: a practitioners handbook, (toronto, on: hecqo: 2015): 3. 4 12 identifiable areas of strength designated to diploma graduates fell under two categories: oral communication and creative thinking.5 the ontario collegiate system was redesigned during the 1990s around a model where applicable skill and vocational pursuits were the primary goal of diploma programs. as victoria hurhiley discusses, technical ability and employment marketability were the primary degree outcomes in a majority of college diploma programs.6 not surprisingly, the comparative examination of college level historyfocused courses revealed that many of the programs offered focused on the development of oral communication and creative collaborative learning in order to reflect current north american workplace standards. with these strengths in mind it was determined that a comprehensive module for the facilitation of pathways students would need to focus on those areas in which student learning remained underdeveloped. areas identified included: knowledge of methodologies research and scholarship application of knowledge and awareness for academic limits. 7 as the council of ontario universities ensuring the value of university degrees in ontario states, these areas specifically showcased degree mobility and university level educational attainment as a natural extension for college diploma programs, and students wishing to pursue additional academic programs.8 however, in order to best prepare students for entry into the program, a decision was made for the course to follow a singular thematic topic in order to better reflect the type of courses students would be enrolled in after the pathways completion. the decision for a modular pathway bridge was purposeful as, in part, future adaption for other social sciences and humanities disciplines could occur and the topic could either change yearly or remain constant as content was not the outcome, rather the overall benefits derived from its consistency would be a determinant for its application in the pathway.9 further, it was determined that the modules, contained within the bridge curriculum should focus on developing key skills both in technical ability and the arleen morrin, college to university transfer: an educational pipeline in support of social equity, college quarterly 14:4 (2011): 3. 6 victoria hurhiley, collegeuniversity transfer programs in ontario: a history and a case study, college quarterly 15:4 (fall 2012): 9. 7 council of ontario universities, ensuring the value of university degrees in ontario: a guide to learning outcomes, degree level expectations and quality assurance process in ontario (toronto, on: council of ontario universities, 2015): 17. 8 council of ontario universities, ensuring the value of university degrees in ontario, 9. 9 rebecca kleincollins, sharpening our focus on learning: the rise of competency based approaches to degree completion, in national institute for learning outcomes assessment occasional paper #20 (november 2013), 7. 5 13 development of competencies relating to history as an academic discipline. student comprehension of written material at the college level significantly differed between diploma and degree level students. with degree level students reading a variety of sources each week in their first and second year, university, and specifically college level students must work to attain competency in research, reading and writing due to their lack of experience with source materials.10 the modules therefore are based on a combination of blooms and biggs taxonomy of learning objectives and a reflection of the academic standards applicable to the attainment of a baccalaureate degree by the council of ontario universities (cou). bridge structure: the proposed modular bridge was developed as a four week intensive online course designed to allow students to maximize the number of transferable universitylevel courses (particularly upperyear) and prepare them to enter into the third year of history baccalaureate programs (refer to appendix a for a complete breakdown of the proposal), the final bridging course was designed to accomplish the following: catalyze the development of core university competencies establish a baseline academic competence to facilitate student success in transitioning from college diploma studies to university level degree studies in social science and humanities based fields of study and introduce students to the social and academic culture of lakehead university based on literature related to competency gaps between college and university11 as well as discussion with relevant faculty and administration at lakehead university gaps between college and university (specifically social sciences and humanities) studies include: reading: the ability to find, sustain focused reading, and critically analyze scholarly sources of literature related to their field of students. writing: the ability to find meaning and engage in the process of translating academic reading and critical thinking on scholarly topics into essays, presentations, and reports with: appropriate prose, style, grammar, rhetoric, and academic formatting valerie thaler, teaching historical research skills to generation y: one instructor's approach, the history teacher, 46:2 (2013), 271. 11 see, for example, m. lennon, et al. tuning: identifying and measuring sectorbased learning outcomes in postsecondary education. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario, 2014. 10 14 arguments that demonstrate comprehension, synthesis and application of scholarly theories and approaches relevant to the field of study. critical thought: the ability to understand, apply, and evaluate scholarly documents and synthesize personalized responses to the learning process of reading, writing, and discussion acting as a gateway/gatekeeper to access upper years of degree studies, it was determined that the bridge needed to not only challenge and engage learners in a process of relevant academic discourse,12 but also be accessible to ontarios increasingly wide demographic of post secondary learners.13 the original modular proposal (appendix a) was used as a starting point in the development and implementation of the online history bridging course. through the process of consultation with history faculty and student support services staff, the completed online history bridging course evolved into a uniquely skill based course which blends relevant content with competency based outcomes to bridge students into upper year studies in the history degree program. a detailed course outline containing learning outcomes and assignment descriptions is included as appendix b. phase three: implementation this project represents the evolution of pathway development in ontario in that it focuses on areas of competency and skill instead of purely focusing on curriculum and gaps in content based learning outcomes. instead of offering diploma graduates with a similar, content related degree, the intent is to offer any 2 year diploma graduate the opportunity to enter into advanced degree level studies by bridging their skill sets. challenging the status quo requires systematic implementation and documentation to justify our technique and pathway to the university quality assurance council and senate committees. the next steps in implementing this pathway included: 1. attempting a pilot of the online bridge in the fall term using funds and resources from a variety of locations. ideally, a fulltime faculty member will oversee the pilot, however we hope to secure funding to support at least one qualified sessional lecturer and graduate student assistant(s) to andrew heppner and nancy luckai, transitioning to university: best practices for college transfer bridging courses (oncat report 201501). toronto, ontario: ontario council for articulation and transfer, 2016. 13 see ian d. clark, greg moran, michael l. skolnik, and david trick, academic transformation: the forces reshaping higher education in ontario (montreal and kingston: queen's policy study series, mcgillqueens university press, 2009). 12 15 deliver, monitor and adapt the module as it is rolled out to an appropriate student cohort. the use of a faculty member, qualified sessional, graduate student(s) and student volunteers as a diagnostic will help to ensure that the bridge is both accessible to and useful for future students. there is the potential to also evaluate the pedagogical quality of the bridge in some form, possibly as part of a further participatory research project for graduate students studying educational attainment and academic transference in the pursuit of higher education. 2. use the results of the pilot to develop and justify the implementation of the transfer pathway to appropriate approval bodies at the university fall 2017. 3. set target date for the first cohort fall 2018. 16 works consulted and referenced algonquin college. program standards in the college system. november 2013. bell, s. college transfer students: a canadian case. community college journal of research and practice 22, no. 1(1998): 2137. borden, v. m. h., & kernel b. (2012). measuring quality in higher education: an inventory of instruments, tools, and resources. the measuring quality inventory. retrieved from http://apps.airweb.org/surveys/default.aspx carter, irene. james coyle and donald leslie. easing the transfer of students from college to university programs: how can learning outcomes help?. canadian journal of higher education/ revue canadienne d'enseignement suprieur 41, no. 2 (2011): 1027. clark, ian d. greg moran, michael l. skolnik, and david trick. academic transformation: the forces reshaping higher education in ontario. montreal and kingston: queen's policy study series, mcgillqueens university press, 2009. connell, jane & p. seville (2006). processbased learning: a model of collaboration. cape breton university. florida state university. competencies and rubrics. accessed 1 august 2016. http://liberalstudies.fsu.edu/faculty_competenciesandrubrics.html heppner, a., & luckai, n. transitioning to university: best practices for college transfer bridging courses (oncat report 201501). toronto, ontario: ontario council for articulation and transfer, 2016. higher education quality council of ontario, 2015. learning outcomes assessment: a practitioners handbook. toronto, on: hecqo. hoffman, eleanor m. writing for the social sciences. college composition and communication 28, no. 2 (1977): 195197. humphries, jennifer & karen rauh, david mcdine (2013). a world of learning: canadas performance and potential in international education. published by: canadian bureau for international education. hurlihey, victoria. collegeuniversity transfer programs in ontario: a history and a case study. college quarterly 15:4 (fall 2012): 123. ilsc (2014). university pathway program: your route to university success starts here. ilsc canada. 17 kerr, a., mccloy, u., liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. kleincollins, rebecca (2013). sharpening our focus on learning: the rise of competencybased approaches to degree completion. international institute for learning outcomes assessment, champaign il: university of illinois press. krause, jackie & laura portolese dias and chris schedler. competencybased education: a framework for measuring quality courses. online journal of distance learning administration, 18, no. 1 (2015): 19. lange, daniel & valerie lopes. deciding to transfer: a study of college to university choice. college quarterly 17, no. 3 (2014): 119. latinen, amy. changing the way we account for college credit. issues in science and technology, xxix, no. 2 (2013): 6268. lennon, mary catherine. incremental steps towards a competencybased post secondary education system in ontario. tuning: journal for higher education 2, no. 1 (2014): 5989. lennon, m.c., frank b. humphreys, j., lenton, r., madsen, k., omri, a., & turner, r. tuning: identifying and measuring sector based learning outcome for postsecondary education. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario, 2014. lesage, ann. pathways from college to university: a social science example from ontario. college quarterly 17, no. 1 (2014): 18. martinello, felice & jo stewart. transfer from college to one ontario university: a four year study. canadian journal of higher education 45, no.1 (2015): 18 36. morrin, arleen. college to university transfer: an educational pipeline in support of social equity. college quarterly 14, no. 4 (2011): 117. council of ontario universities, 2015. ensuring the value of university degrees in ontario: a guide to learning outcomes, degree level expectations and quality assurance process in ontario. toronto, on. ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities. (2009). ontario qualifications framework. accessed 26 may, 2016. http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/programs/oqf/. 18 ott, molly & eveleyn baca, jesus cisneros & evan bates. a competencybased approach to the masters degree preparation of higher education professionals. journal of case studies in accreditation and assessment 4, no. 1 (2014): 119. southern association of colleges and schools (2015). direct assessment competency based educational programs. commission of colleges. sean, junor & alex usher (2006). student mobility and credit transfer: a national and global survey. educational policy institute: canadian council on learning. schaeper, hildegard. development of competencies and teachinglearning arrangements in higher education: findings from germany. studies in higher education 34, no. 6 (september 2009): 677697. skolnik, micheal l (1999). caats universities and degrees: towards some options for enhancing the connections between caats and degrees. university of toronto discussion paper prepared for the collegeuniversity consortium council. stearns, peter n. nd. why study history?. american historical association. accessed 1 august 2016. http://www.historians.org/pubs/free/whystudyhistory.htm. stearns, peter n. and joel a. tarr. curriculum in applied history: toward the future. the public historian 9:3 (summer 1987): 111125. stony brook university. outcomesbased assessment: an introduction and guide. published by: the state university of new york. sullivan, susan c and jayne a downey. shifting educational paradigms: from traditional to competencybased education for diverse learners. american secondary education 433 (summer 2015): 421. thaler, valerie. teaching historical research skills to generation y: one instructor's approach. the history teacher 46. no. 2 (2013): 268281. 19 appendix a: modular proposal breakdown modular proposal breakdown 1) disciplinary approaches/ introduction to historical study. 1. what do historians do? 2. historiography 3. different historical lenses a. feminist b. social c. political the first module will focus on the introduction of historical study as an academic discipline within the university system. students will be given an overview of what historians do, a brief historiography concerning important practices, methodologies and applications of the discipline as well as a look at the different expressions of historical study through the lenses they are likely to encounter during their coursework. this approach utilizes the third tier of the blooms taxonomy of learning by having students move from quantitative increases in learning to qualitative increases in learning (deepening understanding and creating meaning, rather than merely adding items to a disconnected set of what they know. 14 corresponding objective for the attainment of a baccalaureate degree from the ontario council of universities under depth and breadth of knowledge: general knowledge and understanding of many key concepts, methodologies, theoretical approaches and assumptions in a discipline broad understanding of some of the major fields in a discipline, including, where appropriate, from an interdisciplinary perspective, and how the fields may intersect with fields in related disciplines15 2) technical skills: 1. footnote/ endnotes 2. language/ grammar 3. parallel structures 4. how to write a thesis 5. basic essay structure 6. citations the second module will act as an extension of the general knowledge and understanding of the key concepts of history as an academic discipline attained during the first stage of the pathway. this will again follow blooms taxonomy of learning outcomes in the ability to compose their own arguments about what they are learning and may create meaning and purpose from course material, integrate parts to create a sense of the whole and elaborate connections between facts and theory, action and purpose.16 higher education quality council of ontario, learning outcomes assessment: a practitioners handbook. (toronto, on: 2015, hecqo): 15. 15 council of ontario universities, ensuring the value of university degrees in ontario: a guide to learning outcomes, degree level expectations and quality assurance process in ontario (toronto, on: council of ontario universities, 2015): 17. 16 higher education quality council of ontario, learning outcomes assessment, 15. 14 20 corresponding objective for the attainment of a baccalaureate degree from the ontario council of universities under knowledge of methodologies: an understanding of methods of enquiry or creative activity, or both, in their primary area of study that enables the student to evaluate the appropriateness of different approaches to solving problems using well established ideas and techniques and devise and sustain arguments or solve problems using these methods.17 3) reading and responding to secondary sources: 1. journal articles 3 (read and review) 2. historical monograph 1 per week starting on module 3 (3 total) 3. assign a text and give a guided reading response a. what is the thesis? b. what are the strengths? c. what are the weaknesses? d. what are two arguments? the third module will serve as an introduction to content and an extension of the knowledge acquired from the first two modules. selected works will be used to develop student understanding for the analysis and implementation of source material through a combination of independent study and tangible performance outcomes. this will allow students to to apply competently what they learn to familiar problems or experiences becomes evident.18 corresponding objective for the attainment of a baccalaureate degree from the ontario council of universities under application of knowledge: the ability to review, present, and interpret quantitative and qualitative information to develop lines of argument make sound judgments in accordance with the major theories, concepts and methods of the subject(s) of study and the ability to use a basic range of established techniques to: analyze information evaluate the appropriateness of different approaches to solving problems related to their area(s) of study propose solutions and make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources. 19 4) reading and responding to secondary sources 1. 3 different primary source materials a. photograph b. oral history c. statistical data (alongside a relevant article in order to compare and extrapolate data with current literature) the fourth module will focus on developing students understanding when dealing with sources that require advanced levels of interpretation, analysis and comprehension. a selection of works will be chosen and used to increase student understanding concerning the value, critique and appraisal of a source. this module will help students abstract and generalize from course material, at the extended abstract level they abstract and generalize beyond the course material, transferring and applying ideas to new situations and new experiences, integrating them with ideas from other courses and other aspects of their lives, testing and hypothesizing beyond the confines of a course, and developing arguments and theories of their own 20 (biggs taxonomy) council of ontario universities, ensuring the value of university degrees in ontario, 18. higher education quality council of ontario, learning outcomes assessment, 15. 19 council of ontario universities, ensuring the value of university degrees in ontario, 19. 20 higher education quality council of ontario, learning outcomes assessment, 16. 17 18 21 corresponding objective for the attainment of a baccalaureate degree from the ontario council of universities falls under awareness of limits of knowledge: an understanding of the limits to their own knowledge and ability, and an appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits to knowledge and how this might influence analyses and interpretations.21 21 council of ontario universities, ensuring the value of university degrees in ontario, 20. 22 appendix b: bridging course outline hist xxxx competency bridging spring/summer 20xx instructor information instructor: office location: telephone: email: office hours: course identification course location: class times: course description/overview students will develop university level core competencies and overarching foundational content to support the transition from college diploma to university degrees studies in the department of history. focus on retrieving and interpreting scholarly literature, university level writing and academic argumentation will be supplemented by subject specific content on theory, research methods and knowledge generation. course learning objectives 1. students will know the purpose of university and explore their personal purpose and intentions for engaging in scholarly activities 2. students will have the ability to use lakehead university resources to find, assess and retrieve appropriate academic literature in relation to their field of study 3. students will be able to read, critically analyze and synthesize the contents of academic literature (primary and secondary sources) related to their field of study 4. students will be able to apply subject specific academic formatting, grammar, style, and prose to their writing 5. students will comprehend select foundations of historical content related to time periods, particularly european contact in multiple geographies. 23 6. students will be able to synthesize arguments from academic literature and course content to communicate what has been said and also what they think through the process of writing. 7. students will understand select processes of conducting research in their field of study as well as the ethical implications of conducting research. 8. students will engage with each other to establish a community of learners 9. students will learn to navigate the desire to learn online education environment course resources course website(s) desire 2 learn online platform @ http://mycourselink.lakeheadu.ca mcgraw hill connect composition required course readings all reading are accessed through the desire 2 learn online platform please access readings (organized by date) online. assignments and evaluations assignment/test academic self d2l profile academic self profile reviews critical analysis activities: fall of the aztec empire research paper phase 1: research questions on fall of aztec empire secondary sources: chicago style reference list (completed in class/online) research paper phase 2: creating an outline writing mechanics activities research paper phase 3: final report due date wednesday, week 1 monday, week 2 friday, week 2 friday, week 2 monday, week 3 value 5% friday, week 3 wednesday, week 4 friday week, 4 15% 5% 20% 5% 10% 15% 30% . tentative course schedule dates tentative topic 24 week 1 monday (skills lab) purpose of university styles of assessment primary/secondary sources in history course outline review wednesday (lecture) reading online european contact through maritime voyages use of primary sources in writing history noneurocentric approaches to world history friday (lecture) reading online week 2 contact in the indian ocean world and africa comparing and contrasting primary sources monday (skills lab) developing a research question establishing timelines critical analysis of documents access 3 primary source documents online wednesday (lecture) contact in the americas critical analysis of images and writing friday (lecture) week 3 fall of the aztec empire discussion and evaluation of research questions (peer review) monday (skills lab) using the library retrieval of secondary sources crediting sources and academic formatting complete chicago style reference list assignment wednesday (skills lab) evaluation/speed assessment of secondary sources academic quality appropriateness of content starting to write (then read then write then read etc) the recursive process synthesizing what has been said vs what do you think composition of an academic paper 25 friday (lecture/skills) week 4 research methods in social sciences ethics from epistemology to data collection monday (skills lab) mechanics of writing grammar style common errors chicago style refresher footnotes/endnotes quotations wednesday (skills lab) academic argumentation peer review of final papers content grammar academic formatting friday (skills lab) refine and hand in final paper assignments academic self the purpose of this assignment is to construct an online profile that allows you and your peers to explore aspects of your personal and academic evolution leading to your goals and future hopes with regards to your studies in the history department. within the field of history there is wide range of research and potential avenues for specialized learning. it can be easy to get lost in the details of university (scheduling, studying, marks) so this assignment is intended to ground you in your goals with relation to expanding your knowledge and perspective as well as introduce you to the knowledge and perspectives of your academic peers. please follow these steps to complete the assignment: 1. log onto the desire2learn (d2l) online course using your lakehead university log in name and password. 2. locate your name in the top right corner of the screen and click the drop down menu. select the profile button. 3. fill in your profile with the following information in relation to your academic self by wednesday, august x (first week of class). 26 a. upload an appropriate picture that represents your academic self and select a nickname b. scroll down to the personal info section and complete: i. interests/hobbies: what types of research and knowledge regarding historical events/interpretations interests you? how have your past experiences and activities professional and personal influenced your interest in university, particularly history? ii. media: which types of music, books, television shows, movies and web sites have inspired you and influenced your perspective with relation to your field of study. iii. what are your postsecondary goals aside from completing your credential? what do you hope to understand and/or achieve? iv. what is your most memorable learning experience? c. it is not necessary to fill in your social networks, contact information, employment information or birth date. only fill in social network/contact information you are willing to share publically as anyone in any of your classes can view your d2l profile. 4. once the profiles have been completed begin reading through your peers profiles and identify interests/hobbies/media/goals that relate to yours. write up a brief list of notes via the discussions tab on d2l that address the following: a. any themes you identified across peoples most memorable learning experiences. b. areas of research interests and hobbies that relate to yours or were unexpected c. the top three media sources in peoples profiles you would like to follow up on. evaluation: this is a pass or fail assignment with two components. 0.5% will be deducted for any missing parts of either assignment. complete your profile as per these instructions by the due date for 5%. complete your discussions note by the due date for 5%. critical analysis activities: fall of the aztec empire the purpose of this assignment to develop and refine your critical analysis skills in relation to reviewing primary sources in history. you will be introduced to the 27 problems historians face when dealing with multiple historical narratives related to one particular event. please follow these steps: 1. log in to d2l and access the mcgraw hill assignments critical analysis: fall of the aztec empire 2. three documents are uploaded and you will be prompted to respond to a series of questions before, during and after reading. a. complete all critical analysis questions for all three readings 3. keep track of your ideas to aid in formulating research questions and areas of inquiry for your upcoming paper. evaluation: your responses will be evaluated based on a rubric informed by taxonomies of learning discussed in class that is available on d2l. research paper phase 1: research questions on the fall of the aztec empire the purpose of this assignment is to formulate a research question or questions based on the recursive process of reading and reflection. often you will be required to develop your own research questions for undergraduate assignments with minimal assistance from an instructor. please post your research questions to the research questions discussion board with a brief background that helps the reader understand what about the three fall of the aztec empire led you to ask those questions students are expected to post their questions by friday (week 2) and provide a thoughtful content based comment on a minimum of 2 other students research questions by monday (week 3). evaluation: research questions w rationale is worth 3%. each peer response to a reading is worth 1%. chicago style reference list the purpose of this assignment is to develop your ability to find, assess the relevance of and retrieve academic literature appropriate to your field of study and appropriately cite it in your writing. using the various strategies and resources outlined in class, you are to: 1. complete the connect composition chapter review (chapter 3) 2. review lecture on retrieving secondary sources 3. use the library system to retrieve 5 peer reviewed journal articles and 5 academically oriented books that inform your research question related to the fall of the aztec empire. 4. create a chicago style reference list of your sources 28 5. a sample chicago style reference list is posted to d2l for your reference 6. submit a word format document with your research question and a chicago style reference list of your sources to the d2l dropbox folder. 7. ensure you download at least one of your sources for the next assignment. evaluation: rubric is available on d2l. critical analysis activities: secondary sources the purpose of this assignment to develop and refine your critical analysis skills in relation to reviewing secondary sources in history. you will be introduced to an academic interpretation of historical events. please follow these steps: 1. log in to d2l and access the mcgraw hill assignment critical analysis: secondary sources 2. you will be prompted to upload one of your secondary sources (peer reviewed article) from your chicago style reference list 3. keep track of your ideas to aid in formulating research questions and areas of inquiry for your upcoming paper. connect composition writing modules the purpose of this assignment is to strengthen your ability to write academically using appropriate grammar, punctuation and formatting. to complete this assignment: 1. log on to mcgraw hill through the d2l site 2. complete chapter reviews and associated learnsmart writing quizzes related to the assigned chapters research paper phase 2: creating an outline the purpose of this assignment is to initiate the recursive process of reading and writing. sometimes the hardest part of writing a paper is starting! to complete the outline follow these steps using the outline template posted to d2l.: 1. write a very short paragraph on what your paper is about ( page max). 2. write out a working title and a thesis statement. 3. include in point form a list of main points to be included in the paper that includes paragraph headings put in sequential order. 4. write a working conclusion. 5. include a csa reference list. remember, you can use the reference list you already developed in class, only include sources you are actually using. 29 you must use one of the primary sources you must use three journal articles and three books minimum can include encyclopedia entry or book chapter research paper phase 3: final paper the purpose of this assignment is to complete your finished research paper which combines your skill sets in: critical analysis in academic reading formulating a research question synthesizing overarching themes throughout a variety of literature based sources developing and defending a scholarly argument through writing that combines your personal thoughts on a historical topic and is supported by both primary and secondary sources the paper must include an introduction, literature review (what has been said), discussion (what i think about it) and conclusion. it must include headings, citations and a reference list in the chicago style of formatting. length: 5 page minimum minimum sources: 1 primary source, 6 secondary sources (must include both journal articles and books) evaluation: see rubric uploaded to d2l course policies students are referred to section ix of the lakehead university calendar concerning regulations on academic dishonesty. late assignments or missed exams are excusable only in the event of documented extenuating circumstances, i.e., serious illness or death in the immediate family. the penalty for late assignments without appropriate documentation is 10% of the assignments grade per day late. electronically transmitted assignments will not be accepted. 30 university policies all students are to be aware of and adhere to the following lakehead university and school policies: student code of conduct, academic misconduct, accommodation for students with disabilities ethics for doing research with humans all student projects that include human participants requires ethics approval, following the research ethics process 31

executive summary arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study an examination of current practices at canadian postsecondary organizations arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study an examination of current practices at canadian postsecondary organizations prepared for: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) by: joanne duklas (project lead) karen maki joanna pesaro jo-anne brady may 2014 copyright 2014 by the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfer 1 executive summary the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) have collaborated to lead an extensive study to understand current transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices in canada. these findings will ultimately inform a comprehensive update and expansion of the 2003 arucc national transcript guide and potentially result in a searchable database of transcript practices and canadian transfer credit nomenclature. the ultimate goal is to enhance the clarity, consistency and transparency of the academic transcript and transfer credit resources that support student mobility. the specific deliverable for this phase was to identify and summarize canadian transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices, review four international jurisdictions as a means to highlight promising practices related to these two areas and, finally, to provide both an overview of systems and an initial examination of emergent perspectives and themes. the report purposefully avoids suggesting prescriptive solutions or outcomes; however, the findings from this study will provide a solid foundation from which to move forward the standards and terminology discourse in canada. this report collates the findings from the supporting research conducted from january through to april 2014. the report begins with an overview of background, context, scope, objectives and guiding principles for the project. the research was focused on the following objectives: articulating the enhancement requirements for the 2003 arucc transcript guide and testing its core principles and definitions; identifying at a specific, operational level the current transcript and transfer credit terminology practices in use across canada within postsecondary institutions and by associated organizations; highlighting gaps and opportunities in current transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices; providing a beginning understanding of the emergent thinking surrounding transcript and transfer credit terminology standards; conducting an initial jurisdictional review to identify promising practices in various jurisdictions (with a particular focus on europe, the united kingdom, united states and australia); informing a next phase of consultation, which will be tasked with deliberating and determining a transcript and transfer credit terminology standards guide(s). the following core principles underpinned the research process and guided efforts executed by the project team, under the leadership of the arucc pccat steering committee: supporting student mobility through enhanced clarity, transparency and consistency of transcript and transfer credit information as the primary underlying focus of the project; broad and deep consultation and engagement of individual, institutional and organizational stakeholders; 2 a focus on research, including being informed by previous research, collecting evidence of current practices, validating existing principles and illuminating emerging issues and trends; respecting institutional autonomy and culture; improving transparency and coherence; enhancing knowledge through exchange of information and promising practices during the research process. in keeping with the guiding principles, the research employed a variety of methods, which are described beginning on page 25 with additional details provided in appendices d1 through d11. these methods included an online poll completed by 25 participants on the project's national advisory committee, regional workshops with 103 participants across the country, and 25 individual stakeholder interviews. this input was used to guide development of a national survey targeted primarily to members of arucc and pccat. the survey was completed by 119 individuals, representing 105 institutions, for an organizational response rate of 57%. the project also received 145 samples of transcripts and transfer credit material from 44 postsecondary institutions and the xml data standards for electronic transcripts from the canadian post-secondary electronic standards council (pesc) user group. in addition, jurisdictional reviews were conducted to explore the current transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices, at both national and provincial/regional levels in canada. the four international jurisdictions, australia, europe, uk and the us, grounded this research in a global context. research findings are presented beginning on page 27, with a focus on canada. provincial and regional jurisdictional overviews (western canada, ontario, quebec, and atlantic canada) that informed the development of the canadian report are included in appendix e. the canadian jurisdictional overview highlights the combined strength and capacity of provincial responsibility for postsecondary education. particular attention to the work of provincial councils on articulations/admissions and transfer and related bodies1 is examined together with national strategy leadership and coordination achieved through the council of ministers of education, canada (cmec), and sector-specific bodies such as the association of universities and colleges of canada (aucc), colleges and institutes canada (formerly the association of canadian community colleges) and the conference board of canada, in addition to arucc and pccat. consistent themes related to transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards that emerged from the canadian jurisdictional research include the following: there is solid evidence of collaboration within jurisdictions to ensure quality of process, qualifications alignment, efficiencies and coordination and a growing research culture. the variability in regional, programmatic and linguistic nomenclature is evident across the country. 1 bccat, acat, campus manitoba, oncat, nbcat, the maritime provinces higher education commission and, for quebec, the ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche et de la science (mesrs) and the bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci) 3 there is emerging interest and work in the area of national electronic transcript exchange standards and practices, particularly as noted through the work of the member organizations of the canadian post-secondary electronic standards council (pesc) user group. it is important to note that while the scope of the research did not include data exchange protocols, this area was of significant interest among research participants. the project benefited from the cooperation of the canadian pesc user group, whose work is also profiled in the canadian jurisdictional overview. the increasing implementation of prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) structures (e.g., in alberta, saskatchewan, new brunswick and ontario) bring attention to the need for clear, transparent and appropriate transcription and transfer credit standards for credits achieved through plar. the growing adoption of online learning and blended learning models, and the emergence of massive open online courses (moocs) present questions with respect to assessment and transcription of alternate delivery format courses. there is a growing focus on learning outcomes as a mechanism to improve and enhance pathway development and credentialing. implications for transcripts and credit transfer must be considered. the international jurisdictional findings begin on page 46. each jurisdiction offers their own interesting credentialing approaches, and policies and practices related to transfer and mobility. simply transposing an international approach on canadian jurisdictions is neither suggested nor appropriate given the histories, cultures, and system norms with respect to institutional autonomy and local postsecondary frameworks. the research, however, provides an overview of common practices, new possibilities and collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries that may be helpful to national discussions. highlights of key themes and promising practices derived from the international research include the following: advantages to students and internationalization more generally when collaboration among and support for coordinating levers and organizations that enhance mobility are encouraged. this is evident whether it occurs within or across jurisdictional borders. policy development and coherence in the areas of credentialing and transfer credit nomenclature are enhanced as a result. as one example, in some of the international jurisdictions studied and with the help of coordinating agencies, qualifications frameworks situate the level of student learning achieved and facilitate interpretation and comparison of equivalencies for credential types across regions. providing an explanatory document with standard content to accompany the transcript and degree parchment or creating cross-jurisdictional standards to enhance clarity about the credential and its provider appears to be another typical outcome of collaboration. examples include the diploma supplement (eu), the higher education graduation statement (australia), the higher education achievement record (uk) and the transcript guide published by the american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (aacrao). each example is representative of best practice both nationally and internationally. 4 competency-based learning outcomes in these jurisdictions are increasingly being used to measure, assess, and compare student learning and are subsequently resulting in implications for transcription and transfer credit nomenclature. there is growing support for identifying and adopting standards for electronic data exchange and participating in international initiatives that support student mobility and data portability (e.g., the groningen declaration). findings from the canadian primary research are presented beginning on page 62 with the advisory poll, workshops, stakeholder interviews, and website and document sample review and on page 73 for the national survey results. further details of primary research findings are provided in the appendices. findings from the transcript research are extensive, with the following summary of highlights: respondents confirmed the currency of most of the transcript principles and definitions included in the 2003 arucc transcript guide. awareness and usage of the guide appears to be inconsistent. numerous examples were provided of needs for enhancements to the guide. there is continued evidence of ambiguity surrounding understandings of what constitutes an 'official' transcript and questions about related privacy and security considerations. there is substantial variability in definition and understanding of terms, as well as in practices of what should be included on the transcript. there is also considerable support for enhancing consistency and clarity of practice. variability in definitions of credit and credit weight stands out as presenting an opportunity for developing common usage and/or understanding. the transfer credit nomenclature and related policy research also revealed significant variability in approaches with respect to transfer credit guides and use of terminology at the strategic and operational levels for both pathway agreements and individual transcript assessment for transfer credit. guides and glossaries produced by provincial councils on admissions/articulation and transfer (e.g., bccat, acat and oncat) were highlighted as promising resources. respondents noted in particular the need to contemplate and potentially define standards for: transcripts and transfer credit assessment with specific reference to terminology for types of pathway agreements (e.g., articulation, degree completion, block transfer, and joint programs); alternative learning delivery such as online learning and experiential learning; competency-based education (e.g., learning outcomes); and equivalent learning (e.g., prior learning assessment and recognition - plar, challenge exams, etc.). additionally, respondents acknowledged the impact of regional, programmatic and linguistic nomenclature differences, which are often embedded in institutional policies and/or regulations. at the same time, actual data comparisons have revealed a number of common themes and practices, which are noted throughout the report. recommendations resulting from the research are presented beginning on page 111 within implications and concluding remarks. the findings achieved through this research demonstrate a high level of convergence among the themes derived from the advisory group, stakeholder interviews, jurisdictional research, and survey findings. such results validate and confirm the reliability of the research. at a high level, important findings include the following: 5 there is a tremendous will and engagement among arucc and pccat colleagues, as well as allied organizations to work towards refinements that will improve clarity, transparency, and mobility for students. while there is strong support for moving forward with transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards, there is an equal assertion that institutional autonomy be respected and that any such standards become recommended, not required practice. student mobility and the processes and structures that support it are subjects of increasing focus worldwide. there is significant opportunity to benchmark and learn from promising practices in regional, national, and international jurisdictions. six recommendations are offered to guide the next phase of the arucc pccat project: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. enhance the 2003 arucc transcript guide - the next phase of the arucc pccat project should further assess these findings, confirm that which is still current and relevant in the arucc transcript guide, and propose a series of potential content enhancements, changes and additions that should then be presented for consultation, review, refinement and endorsement by the community. determine where to house the new guide - an analysis should be conducted in the next phase to explore how best to present the information and ensure its currency and final location. develop a national transfer credit glossary - the feasibility of creating a single national glossary for transfer credit nomenclature should be explored, the specifics of which would be endorsed and supported by pccat, arucc, and the councils on admissions/articulation and transfer. the glossaries and terminology guides presented in this report, together with the frequently used terms identified through the survey will provide a helpful starting point for this work. assuming the support and resources are available, it may be possible to implement the new glossary in the next phase. develop a sustainable and complementary communications plan the guides and glossaries ultimately must be supported by a complementary communications plan to ensure regular awareness and usage of the tools. establish a national awards program to recognize and validate promising practices the two associations should consider developing a national awards program, ideally adjudicated by both arucc and pccat that acknowledges potential promising practice in canada and begins to bring external validation and visibility to models of interest throughout the country. support the development and adoption of electronic transcript exchange standards the next phase of the arucc pccat project should continue to ensure that the canadian pesc user group member organizations are consulted and engaged in this process. further, the ongoing project should be mindful of the opportunities presented by international opportunities such as the groningen declaration. the report includes an extensive reference list. a comprehensive series of appendices provide further insights into the themes and recommendations derived for this report. 6

academic resourcefulness and transfer student success: direct entry, college transfer, and university transfer student comparisons: executive summary june 2014 deborah j. kennett* karen maki** *department of psychology, trent university, peterborough, on ** higher education consultant and researcher, peterborough, on funding from the ontario council on articulation and transfer is gratefully acknowledged. correspondence regarding this paper should be addressed to dr. deborah j. kennett, department of psychology, trent university, 2140 east bank drive, peterborough, on, k9j 7b8, email: dkennett@trentu.ca 1 executive summary a previous study (drewes, maki, lew, willson & stringham, 2012) funded by the college-university consortium council found that, after controlling for program and demographic variables, college transfer students entering through an articulation agreement (caat transfer and articulation) attained significantly higher grades and were significantly less likely to drop-out (i.e., had a higher retention rate) than students entering directly out of high school (high school), whereas transfer students entering outside of an articulation agreement (caat transfer non-articulation) and those involved in a university transfer program (caat transfer university transfer program) were comparable to the high school group in terms of academic performance and retention. there is growing evidence (oncat, 2013) that college transfer students are performing well at university, yet the question remains as to what factors contribute to the overall successful performance of the caat transfer students at university. the model of academic resourcefulness, shown in figure 1, guided the research. studies show that, in everyday life, individuals having a large repertoire of general learned resourcefulness persevere with challenges, and use problem solving strategies and positive self-talk to deal with challenges and/or to subside anxieties (rosenbaum, 1980; 1989; 1990; 2000). we also know that highly generally resourceful students are more likely to be very academically resourceful (kennett 1994; kennett & keefer, 2006; kennett & reed, 2009), in that they set goals, think positively despite demands or challenges, rely on information and assistance from both social and non-social (e.g., the library) sources, keep records, structure their environment to make learning easier, apply selfconsequences (e.g., rewards), and review written material. even when they do poorly on a test or assignment, they remain optimistic, evaluate the possible reasons for the failure, and restructure study goals and strategies (kennett & keefer, 2006; reed, kennett, et al., 2009; 2011). in short, they are neither likely to give up nor succumb to anxiety. instead, they look for ways to rectify the problem and are efficacious that they have what it takes to succeed. recent research also shows that these students are not only better integrated into the university environment both socially and academically, their reasons for attending university are for more internal reasons (e.g., they like learning, attend for the challenge) and less so to please others and to delay responsibilities (kennett, reed & lam, 2011, kennett, reed & stuart, 2013). 2 figure 1. model of academic resourcefulness specific research questions of the current project included: what are the factors predicting academic resourcefulness and grades? based on past investigations (e.g., kennett, 1994; kennett & keefer, 2006, kennett, reed et al., 2013), it was expected that the more highly academically resourceful students would be more generally resourceful, have higher academic self-efficacy beliefs, be attending university for more internal reasons and less so to please others and to delay responsibilities, and have an explanatory style that attributes failure to task difficulty and not because of lack of personal effort or ability. academic resourcefulness was also expected to be a strong and direct predictor of grade performance. we also asked if the psychosocial profiles of university transfer, college transfer students and students entering directly from high school differed. and, do the factors predicting academic resourcefulness, adjustment, and grades differ among the groups? our findings revealed that college and university transfer students are well prepared for academic success. multiple regression analyses of the predictors of academic resourcefulness, university adjustment, and final grades, for each of the groups, replicated findings reported in the literature (e.g., kennett, 1994; kennett & keefer, 2006; kennett, reed, et al., 2013; reed et al., 3 2009). similar to their direct entry student counterparts, being generally and academically resourceful and efficacious about ones academic abilities is key to success and university adjustment for both college and university transfer students, too. further, and consistent with recent studies (oncat, 2013), our findings debunk the deficits based myth about college transfer students not being prepared for university-level study. we also observed that, in contrast to university transfers and direct entry students who have more discretionary time, college transfer students spend considerably more time working for pay off campus, and are more responsible for the care of dependents. the practical implications of this study are obvious. educators and academic administrators need to focus on students strengths versus perceived weaknesses, and be cognizant of students differing life profiles. especially for some college transfer students, scheduled events during the day or evening may be unattainable due to work and family responsibilities. reaching out in different ways to these and other students having similar circumstances may serve to enhance their participation and experience. for example, our findings suggest that engaging transfer students through academic advising as opposed to traditional orientation events may be fruitful. finally, our findings suggest that college to university transfer may be a particularly promising pathway to increase male participation in university. 4

final report ____________________________________ transitioning to university: best practices for college transfer bridging courses ____________________________________ oncat project no: 2015-01 submitted to: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) march, 2016 ____________________________________ ____________________________________ 1|page this project (oncat project number: 2015-01) was funded by a grant from the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). march, 2016 2|page acknowledgements this project was an integrated effort across many departments and services at lakehead university and benefited from the support and assistance of faculty, administration and administrative support services for participating in and informing the multiple phases of this initiative. we would like to first and foremost thank the transfer students at lakehead university for taking time to participate in the web survey, focus groups and pilot projects. many students took time out from their studies to provide thoughtful, meaningful and, at times, quite frank input into developing some best practices regarding for future generations of transfer students. in addition, we would like to acknowledge those who played a key role in the development of this final report, including: project staff and coordination dr. nancy luckai, rachel kushnier, calla sampson, sarah prouty, anna meer, anthea kyle, andrea tarsitano and andrew heppner. best practices in bridging working group dr. sreekumari kurissery, dr. heidi schraft, dr. sherry wang, heather moynihan, dr. marg mckee and robert perrier additional supports paola borin (ryerson university), many members of lakehead university academic and administrative staff. 3|page table of contents introduction ........................................................................................................................... 5 literature review ................................................................................................................... 6 pre-transfer practices ...................................................................................................................... 7 transfer mechanics .......................................................................................................................... 8 bridging ........................................................................................................................................... 9 conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 11 environmental scan .............................................................................................................. 11 ontario best practices .................................................................................................................... 12 canadian best practices ................................................................................................................. 13 international best practices............................................................................................................ 16 inventory of current services and practices at lakehead university ...................................... 17 transfer student demographics at lakehead university ....................................................... 17 web based survey ......................................................................................................................... 18 demographic characteristics ............................................................................................................. 18 service awareness and usage ........................................................................................................... 19 psychological characteristics ............................................................................................................. 20 focus groups and interviews.......................................................................................................... 22 transfer transparency ....................................................................................................................... 23 cultural transitions ............................................................................................................................ 26 best practises in bridging - recommendations ...................................................................... 34 pre-transfer .................................................................................................................................... 34 bridging ......................................................................................................................................... 35 maintaining academic momentum ................................................................................................ 36 pilot projects ........................................................................................................................ 37 peer mentoring program ................................................................................................................ 37 student support tutorials .............................................................................................................. 38 curriculum assistant learning outcome mapping .......................................................................... 39 best practices top 10 hit list ................................................................................................ 40 list of appendices ............................................................................................................. 41 4|page transitioning to university: best practices for college transfer bridging courses introduction the intent of this project was to develop a series of best practices and guidelines to inform the creation of bridging curricula and tailored supports that enhance the success of college to university transfer students while supporting all types of institutional transitions in the context of ontarios post secondary education system. a previous oncat funded project (lakehead, 2012) identified that college transfer students entering lakehead university through block transfer pathways had the highest retention rates and grade point averages in comparison to transfer students entering with advanced standing or other types of post secondary credit. the study recommended follow up work into the characteristics and experiences of college transfer students to better understand differences in success and retention rates. as a result of this project, we found that lakehead university has a rich and varied context of transfer students in which to examine bridging processes including: college to university block transfer with summer transition programming and curriculum (e.g. engineering, natural resource management) college to university block transfer directly into various year levels (e.g. applied life sciences, business, social work) advanced standing students across programs with credit transfer assessed on an individual basis varied and unexpected transfer students whose educational context includes: o partially completing some university before transfer to lakehead o partially completing some college and some university before transfer to lakehead o partially completing a college diploma then completing a full university degree1 before transferring credit to lakehead university. to unpack the characteristics and experiences of lakehead university transfer students, apply this to scholarly research and place it within the context of the ontario post secondary environment we engaged in the following steps: 1. complete an annotated bibliography (appendix a) 2. complete a literature review regarding a) student satisfaction with and success resulting from university transfer processes and bridging curriculum and b) qualitative research on the lived experience of college to university transfer. 1 filtering methods for sending out the online survey related to this study were intended to exclude students who had a completed university degree however in some instances students with a completed degree and varying amounts of college credit were sent and completed the survey. 5|page 3. complete an environmental scan of college to university bridging practices, programming and online resources and practices in ontario, canada and internationally 4. develop a formal mixed methods research process to inventory current practices at lakehead university entailing: a. an online survey sent to 1655 transfer students b. multiple focus groups with block transfer and advanced standing students c. individual interviews with administrative, support staff and faculty members who deal directly with transfer students and bridging programs. 5. form a working group on best practices in bridging for faculty and staff at lakehead university to review preliminary research results and advise on the development and implementation of three pilot projects: a. impact college to university transfer student mentorship program b. enrolment services project (series of videos to educate students on using information captured by the myinfo online system) c. piloting a web based curriculum assistant application to facilitate information sharing across all university services and faculties serving transfer students literature review for the purposes of this study the concept of bridging in post secondary education refers to practices designed to assist in a students transition from college to university studies and often relates to university orientation activities and pre-degree summer transition curricula directed at college transfer students. bridging processes are often designed to ease transfer shock a concept that originates with hills (1965) where he refers to the sudden drop in grade point average (gpa) of most students transferring from two year junior college programs to four year baccalaureate degree programs in the united states between 1923 and 1955. transfer shock has evolved in the ontario context beyond simply accounting for drops in gpa experienced by college to university transfer students and takes into account the challenges of the overall social and academic transition between post secondary institutions (gawley & mcgowan, 2006; gerhardt & ackerman, 2014; kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). when assessing best practices in providing transition support services it is necessary to consider that: the ontario college and university system rejected the american model of junior and senior colleges accepted by british columbia and alberta and were designed as unique separate systems designed to serve different purposes and populations (hurlihey, 2012). this uniqueness can be viewed as a strength towards developing a highly skilled yet knowledgeable workforce in ontario if the challenges in translating differences between the two systems are overcome. the process of transitioning between post secondary institutions is as unique and varied as the amount of options available to ontario students. within their academic and vocational lifespan students may change careers more than once and move in multiple academic directions between diplomas, degrees and postgraduate studies (lang & lopes, 2014). best practices in bridging college students to university studies should begin to account for varied populations of 6|page students and consider transfer students who have come to university through non-traditional pathways. the term transfer shock suggests a sudden, harsh experience and should be challenged (flaga, 2006). for the purposes of this study we considered the process of transfer as commencing during the students process of investigating potential degree options and moving through multiple phases, each of which can be addressed by university systems to ease the process of transfer and work towards student success. the phases in which we will examine literature to inform best practices in bridging will include: pre-transfer practices, transfer mechanics, bridging and maintaining academic momentum. pre-transfer practices the potential for students to consider themselves as post-secondary students begins at an early age as the learner begins to form a social and academic self concept developed and modelled as learner identity formation by briggs, clark & hall (2012). by visiting universities, receiving university ambassadors at their school and engaging with educational counsellors, students are more likely to see themselves as post-secondary students. considered within the ontario post secondary environment, learners may consider attending a college, university or both at many points in their lifespan based on their experiences and knowledge of the system in relation to the evolution of their academic and vocational self-concept. according to the literature the post secondary system in ontario can assist students in developing their learner identity related to college to university transfer by: having specific college transfer offices and transfer advisors; they are considered the most influential source of information (lang & lopes, 2014) and expectations (gerhardt & ackerman, 2014) for students considering college to university transfer after high school guidance counsellors. understanding that increasingly, students plan to attend university after attending college and require access to up-to-date and accurate information on college to university pathways (alpern, 2000) implementing university campus tours and in-person information sessions conducted by university staff for potential college transfer students (flaga, 2006) as one step in transmitting the academic and social culture (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010) of the university and program to college students and staff. establishing an accessible, one-stop shop online resource with checklists and clear instructions on the transfer process that allow the learner to independently inform their decision to attend (arnould, 2011; flaga, 2006; gerhardt & ackerman, 2014) key aspects of services designed for students considering transfer relate to transmitting the academic culture and expectations of specific universities at an early stage and allowing students to fully understand the mechanics of credit transfer, amount of courses required and see a clear pathway to degree completion via online and transfer specific resources. according to berger & malaney (2003) the biggest predictor of transfer student satisfaction and success 7|page was how well students prepared for their transfer and universities can apply the aforementioned strategies to aid in this preparation process. transfer mechanics to continue placing the literature into the timeline of the transfer student process, once a transfer student has committed to their university of choice and applied they generally begin a process of transfer credit assessment, tuition payments and course selection based on their program and the university credit they have received for their college studies. chrystal, gansemer-topf & laaanan (2013) fittingly characterize this component of the transfer experience as transfer mechanics. within the mechanics of transferring credits, confusion regarding the process of determining transfer credits and obtaining academic advice regarding the enrolment process is often cited as a significant factor influencing transfer student satisfaction (alpern, 2000; berger & malaney, 2003; chrystal, gansemer-topf, & laaanan, 2013; gard, paton, & gosselin, 2012; gawley & mcgowan, 2006; kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; mcgowan & gawley, 2006). published literature has several suggestions to inform best practices including: working towards creating a comprehensive system of transfer in ontario clearly documenting and publishing evidence based program learning outcomes to assist faculty members and enrolment staff in making accurate transfer credit decisions (carter, coyle & leslie, 2011; kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010) since many students prefer to use online resources to navigate the enrolment process and tend to seek friends, family and alumni instead of/or before accessing formal supports (chrystal, gansemer-topf, & laaanan, 2013). empowering students to make independent decisions (including enrolment decisions) through transparent, easy to access online resources positively influences their transfer experience as a whole (arnold, 2011). demonstrating transparency and accountability in credit transfer decisions and ensuring that students do not have to take unanticipated make up courses which increase the length of time required for degree completion (gard, paton, & gosselin, 2012; gawley & mcgowan, 2006) another theme in the literature that relates to transfer mechanics is a financial component. according to gard, paton & gosselin (2012) transfer students often experience a sticker shock when faced with the higher cost of university tuition over college tuition. in addition to higher tuition, authors also cite the lack of scholarships and financial aid as contributing to challenges faced by transfer students (lang & lopes, 2014; townsend, 2008). although a large portion of transfer mechanics takes place when a student applies and is enrolled through a transfer pathway, the need for transfer specific academic advising and financial aid are a continuous component of the transfer students navigation of post secondary education. connecting transfer students to systems that allow them to find university supports in managing the mechanics of university should also be addressed in the orientation and/or 8|page bridging curriculum provided at the institution they are transferring into. bridging the practice of bridging at lakehead university refers to spring/summer courses and activities that are undertaken by college block transfer students to prepare for entering into upper years of study in their respective programs. the primary focus of these courses is on academics and filling curriculum gaps between college and university programs however there are some aspects of bridge courses that involve developing social/professional connections and a sense of cohort. transfer students who are receiving advanced standing are currently not involved in formal bridging activities. expanding the concept of bridging beyond a business as usual approach requires examining the experiences and needs of transfer students so that university services can strategically direct their transition supports. in her phenomenological study on the college to university transfer experience, flaga (2006) found that the transition into the academic, social and physical environments of a university moved through five sequential phases: learning resources, connecting, familiarizing, negotiating and integrating. at the beginning of the transfer process students gain an awareness of their (1) learning resources including formal university supports (academic advising, faculty, learning assistance centres), informal supports (peers, family members, past alumni) and use personal initiative (viewing websites, reading resources, attending orientation events) to gain an understanding of and (2) connect to personally relevant components of the academic, social and physical university environments. once they are (3) familiar with their environments and supports students develop strategies to (4) negotiate success and ideally (5) integrate with the university environment, as it becomes a recognized component of their identity. within flagas framework university bridging and orientation activities can play a role in helping students learn about formal resources, connect students with informal resources and help familiarize them with the physical context of the university and surrounding community. perhaps the concept of transfer shock can be considered more as culture shock, and the purpose of bridging is to initiate students into the academic, social and community culture of a new post secondary institution. published literature on the academic transition from college to university transfers suggests it is challenging (gawley & mcgowan, 2006) however college students can manage the academic shift successfully (kennett & maki, 2014; lakehead transfer report, 2012) with supports that: connect students with informal supports (mentors, alumni, past transfer students) and peers that can transmit the academic culture of an institution in ways relevant to transfer students (flaga, 2006; gerhardt & ackerman, 2014) experientially connect students to formal academic learning resources (flaga, 2006) that 9|page show them how to succeed thus increasing their self concept and self efficacy (cabrera, miner & milem, 2013) and assist in transmitting academic culture (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). provide online resources that summarize differences between college and university pedagogy and assessment methods (gerhardt & ackerman, 2014) focus transition activities on transfer students strengths (practical skill sets and prior learning) instead of focusing on perceived deficits (kennett & maki, 2014) ensure that summer transition programming is directly geared towards college transfer students (townsend, 2008) and accessible to people of all ages, potentially with work and family obligations, coming from different academic and employment backgrounds (gawley & mcgowan, 2006; martinello & stewart, 2015) evaluate summer transition program key performance indicators to ensure they are contributing to student success and worth funding (garcia & paz, 2009) the social transition from a college to a university context is also frequently cited in literature on transfer experiences (chrystal, gansemer-topf & laanan, 2013; flaga, 2006; garcia & paz, 2009; gard, patton & gosselin, 2012; gawley & mcgowan, 2006; kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; townsend, 2008). literature informed guidelines for creating social transition supports in bridging vary based on the context. for example, an advanced standing student with a small amount of transfer credit student attending a large university living off campus in a new city will have a different experience than a block transfer student in their home town who is able to attend an intensive summer transition program with like minded peers and develop a sense of cohort. some suggestions include: bridging/orientation activities should include opportunities specifically designed to develop social connections with peers which are geared towards transfer students not first year students (flaga, 2006; garcia & paz, 2009; gawley & mcgowan, 2006; townsend, 2008) including transfer students as information sources in orientation activities and potentially grouping block transfer students living on campus in an area of residence (townsend, 2008) although college transfer students may be less likely to search out social opportunities (mcgowan & gawley, 2006), assisting students in connecting with appropriate social supports (clubs/peers) on campus to help with social isolation and to assist in integrating into the university environment is suggested (chrystal, gansemer-topf & laanan, 2013). 10 | p a g e conclusion based on reviewing the literature, many issues surrounding the mechanics of transfer can be addressed before transfer students actually begin their university studies. pre-emptive strategies regarding transfer credit can relieve the burden on academic resources so they can address transitioning students into the academic and social cultures of their chosen university. although designed specifically for direct entry students entering their first year of university, lizzios (2006) summary of the five care needs of students can be considered in the transfer context as well. to feel successful, students need to have a sense of capability, a sense of competence, feel connected to others, have the ability to effectively navigate the university system and integrate into the academic culture of the institution. these five care needs strongly relate to literature regarding the process of bridging in that bridging curriculum should be specifically designed to help connect and familiarize students with formal and informal supports at the university that fast track their integration into the academic, social and physical environments. to place this literature into both a provincial, national and international context of actual bridging practices an environmental scan of college to university transition programming exemplars was undertaken. environmental scan the environmental scan was conducted through a review of ontario colleges and universities websites through the eyes of a potential transfer student. the websites were reviewed broadly to see what information was easily accessible to the students. select ontario universities were then casually contacted for further information regarding their programming. after reviewing the ontario context the scan was broadened to include all of canada to examine what other provinces were doing in terms of post-secondary transfer. strong transfer systems were found to exist in alberta, british columbia, and newfoundland and labrador. the council of ministers of education, canada (cmec) was also discovered during this phase. the cmec provided insight on the direction of transfer systems in each province and territory and timelines documenting their processes. it also provided a strong point of reference to examine all of the provinces in one location. the scan also included the united states, the united kingdom, and australia. little information was found though due to time constraints and a stronger focus occurring on the canadian systems. for a complete list of all webpages reviewed and used during the scan refer to appendix b 11 | p a g e ontario best practices all ontario universities included in the environmental scan offered forms of summer transition programming. it was often unclear based on the web based scan how many institutions have opportunities targeted specifically at college and/or university transfer students. most were open to all students. best practices identified through the environmental scan include outdoor adventure based transition activities as well as some unique transfer supports. brock university, mcmaster university, and trent university offer outdoor adventure based camps for new students to attend. brock and mcmasters camps are trip based having the students leave the campus for overnight camping trips. trents camp keeps the students on or close to campus learning from recreational activities within the city such as rock climbing, canoeing, and hiking. these camps are not offered to specific groups of students and instead are open to all incoming students. an individual involved with one of the camps spoke of how by having all students of different backgrounds come together it allows for an interesting dynamic to form between the students. everyone has an experience to share regardless of what brought them to their program of study, and these individual experiences are what help all of the students learn from each other (anonymous, personal communication, january 26, 2016). student ambassadors are in place at algoma university and brock university where incoming transfer students are paired with an upper year transfer student to help guide them through the transition. at algoma the program is structured to have the ambassadors mentor the students as well as work with the university community to promote the school and the transfer program. brocks ambassadors meet transfer students after they take part in an information session prior to september and discuss their experiences at the school while providing a tour of the campus. the scan brought to light that hard copy resources are still an option for students to utilize. examples of strong transfer guides offered to students are the algoma transfer & mature student orientation guide, nipissing university transfer guide, and brock university guide for college transfer students. each of these guides are available online as well as hard copy. within the guides students find key contact information, guidance on what resources are available to them, and information on what to expect in the coming year(s). a few schools have developed websites specific to incoming students. similar to the orientation programing during the summer months, these sites are meant for all new students. regardless of focus, the sites contain all of the information students may want to access when adjusting to their new school and surroundings. guidance through the application process, key dates, contact information etc. is available through these sites. a great example of a first year site is carletons cu start website (see appendix b). some universities offer programing through the school year to aid students with their academic and social transitions. some of these programs are not specifically targeted to the transfer population but available to transfer students. transition programs included social gatherings, 12 | p a g e academic tutoring, and information sessions on topics helpful to students during their first year of study. a program that appeared to be a great option to students is bounce back, offered at algoma university and the university of guelph. the program is run during the winter term and is offered to students who finished the fall term with a 60% average or lower. through the program students are paired with a student or faculty member to help them discover where the problem was occurring and how to improve their average. many schools had a transfer specific staff member who solely serves transfer students by developing/running transfer programing and/or advising transfer students coming in and attending the school. based on discussions with transfer specific staff at various institutions it is apparent that the transfer student population in ontario is unique and cannot be grouped with the direct entry or even mature students in all circumstances. each transfer student has had a different path bring them to the new institution and these individual experiences must be recognized when aiding these students. having a staff member who is dedicated to support each transfer student, as a unique individual is a best practice in bridging. within the ontario context, online exemplars of bridging programs and articulation agreements were difficult to find. learning the keywords and search tactics necessary to find online information regarding transfer practices and bridging curriculum in ontario took a significant amount of time. the transparency of articulation agreements and transfer credit was more apparent on websites from other provinces. this finding was mirrored in conversations with transfer specific staff in ontario who are often asked by pre-transfer students if they are able to access the university website to see each credit they will be receiving and know exactly what courses they have to take before committing to a school. canadian best practices when examining the transfer systems and best practices of the provinces and territories it is important to recognize each provincial government has a unique way of working with their post-secondary system. ideas and suggestions can be drawn from these practices but need to be adapted to suit the ontario system. within canada each province and territory oversees their transfer system, whether it be directly by the government or an organization that acts between the government and the institutions. in addition to province specific organizations, there are organizations that focus on transfer on a national scale. these groups include, but not limited to, the association of registrars of the university and colleges of canada, pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfers, western canadian consortium on admissions, and the council of ministers of education, canada. alberta. albertas transfer system is overseen by the alberta council on admission and transfer (acat), which reports directly to the minister of enterprise and advanced education. acat was developed in 1974 and since then has overseen the transfer of students moving from secondary to postsecondary as well as postsecondary to postsecondary. annually acat publishes a three-year action plan to guide the council and inform the schools of where acat is 13 | p a g e progressing. along with this is the release of an annual report communicating the results of the previous year (council of ministers of education, canada, 2012). acat maintains a close relationship with the british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat). an agreement was signed between the two provinces promoting interprovincial transfer by allowing institutions to apply for membership in both acat and bccat. alberta is working with other provinces to consider transfer and mobility between them as well (cmec, 2012). through examination of acats website it is seen that they are efficient in keeping all reports and documents accessible to both their members and general public. the schools, which send and receive transfer students, are listed with the programs and/or courses, which are transferable for each academic year. the visual appeal of the site is not comparable to oncat and bccat but provides the information needed in an efficient manner. british columbia. the british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat) was established in 1989 to provide leadership and direction to the institutions within the province wishing to establish transfer and articulation agreements. bccat does this through the development of policy, supporting the institutions, coordinating research, and providing resources to students and the institutions. they report to the ministry of advanced education (cmec, 2012). from examination of the bccat website information is easy to find and all institutions are listed for students to review. once leaving the bccat site to look at individual schools the information is very transparent and for the most part has a comprehensive guide to transfer programs and also lists, in detail, course specific credits that universities give for college courses which is available to the public. through the best practices in bridging working group of faculty involved in transfer at lakehead university it was observed that the b.c. post-secondary system is similar to the united states system and therefore has pieces that would be difficult to implement within ontario. manitoba. the council on post-secondary education (copse) coordinates the transfer system within manitoba working as a level between the institutions and the provincial government. along with working to support seamless pathways provincially they are also working to recognize foreign-credentials. the focus of copse is not solely on transfer; they also focus on the development of post-secondary education and the accessibility of post-secondary education. manitoba is looking at other provinces to learn from their systems in an effort to improve the workings of copse (cmec, 2012). new brunswick. new brunswicks post-secondary education, training, and labour (petl) department has developed supports to allow for credit transfer within the province. in 2010 the new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat) was established. nbcat 14 | p a g e works to ensure transfer between institutions is possible for students and that institutions are working cooperatively to allow for the smoothest transfer possible (cmec, 2012). nbcat has an online portal which outlines course by course what credits will transfer between each school. for example anth 1013 intro to cultural anthropology at st. thomas university can be counted as 1st yr anth at the university of new brunswick saint john campus. students can search all schools at once or narrow the search school by school. newfoundland and labrador. with a small post-secondary system it appears that newfoundland and labradors government oversee the transfer system. they support the transfer between schools across canada and sign agreements with schools internationally as well. an online transfer guide is available to students to allow the search of programs which transfer between schools as well as a course by course list. the guide is available in print if a student wishes to see it this way. the guide also provides students with information on the post-secondary system in general, individual institution transfer policies, and programs and/or courses which link to high school courses (cmec, 2012). northwest territories. northwest territories has only one post-secondary school, aurora college, and therefore does not have a transfer system to look at. the department of education, culture and employment supports credit transfer though, even if implantation is not an option within the territory. northwest territories and aurora college continually look at transfer options in other areas of the country. a priority of aurora college is to ensure their students can seamlessly transfer to institutions to further education. to aid in this they became a member of acat (cmec, 2012) nova scotia. nova scotia universities and the community college work to recognize institutions and credit equivalencies between institutions. institutions have or are working towards an online list of equivalencies for students to reference. in june 2009 a memorandum of understanding was signed by the atlantic-region community colleges and universities to allow students to seamlessly transfer between public institutions (cmec, 2012) nunavut. as of 2012 nunavut did not have a credit-transfer agency but preparations were being made to develop a council to oversee other issues along with credit transfer. rather than a formal post-secondary system nunavut has an adult learning strategy. on april 1st, 2013 the department of education was to begin to implement post-secondary policy around this (cmec, 2012). nunavut has one post-secondary institution, nunavut arctic college (council of ministers of education, canada, 2003). prince edward island. prince edward island has two post-secondary institutions, the university of prince edward island and holland college. both institutions have regular meetings to ensure they are continuing to develop processes between institutions to allow for transfer. they also look at service between institutions across canada and internationally (cmec, 2012). quebec. the ministry for advanced education, research, science and technology was created in september 2012 and has the responsibility for postsecondary education in the 15 | p a g e province of quebec. post-secondary institutions are continuously working to increase pathways between technical programs and university undergraduate programs. while quebec supports seamless transfer within the province it appears that transferring to other provinces and/or into quebec is difficult due to very different education systems (cmec, 2012). saskatchewan. between 2006 and 2010, the ministry of advanced education, employment, and immigration, to support credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition within the province, invested $1,270,530. originally the transfer system was overseen by the saskatchewan council for admissions and transfer (saskcat), but it has now dissolved. saskatchewan now has membership in the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) and the western canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (westcat) (cmec, 2012). yukon. with only one postsecondary institution, yukon college, there is no organization overseeing and implementing transfer within the territory. yukon college continuously is looking at transfer options, both credit and program, to see what opportunities exist for their students. currently they are a member of bccat as well as acat. they work to develop and update a credit database for their students to investigate possible transfer options (cmec, 2012). international best practices australia. in 2008, a study supported by the australian government, referred to as the bradley study (jackson, dwyer, byrnes, & blacker 2010), reviewed the higher education system of australia bringing to light what improvements needed to be made in order to remain a top education system on the international scale (bradley, noonan, nugent, & scales, 2008). similar to ontario, australia experiences difficulties with transfer between vocational education and training (vet) and higher education (he) due to differences in the structure of both systems. the australian government responded to this through a report outlining improvements that would be made to all areas of the education system (australian government, 2009). included in this were plans to aid the vet and he systems to facilitate transfer of students increasing the number of graduates from both systems. from this came an ongoing project, the integrated articulation and credit transfer (icat) project that is completing research, educating vet and he institutions on articulation agreements, and overall creating a seamless transfer system (jackson et al., 2010). united states of america. similar to the canadian provinces and territories each state has a unique system used for transfer between postsecondary institutions however it is generally accepted that two-year college programs act as feeders for four-year programs. with the scope of this project it was not possible to thoroughly investigate and report on all practices in all states. one practice worth briefly discussing is that of reverse transfers. reverse transfer is the process of applying university credits towards an associates degree (marling, 2012). a student transfers from their community college prior to completing their associates degree and can have their credits transferred back to the college to earn their associates degree while completing their program at the 4-year institution. reverse transfers are becoming popular 16 | p a g e across the states with the national institute for the study of transfer students educating students and institutions continually on the benefits (national institute for the study of transfer students, n.d.). in texas it is required by the state that all public institutions participate in reverse transfer programs (lone star college, 2016). the process of the transfer ranges from review upon students request at wayne state university (2016) to an automatic review of transcripts every term until the student has completed the requirements at lone star college (2016). inventory of current services and practices at lakehead university the following is a list of services and/or practices currently employed at lakehead to support transfer students: a. discipline specific orientation engineering (2 days), natural resources management (0.5 day), social work (variable), business (variable) b. university wide orientation separate session during orientation week, separate sessions during the term c. transfer student advisor available since fall 2014 d. within program advising all programs with a block transfer have at least one specific individual with responsibility for advising transfer students. normally it is the program chair; in engineering there is a specific position for this activity. e. university wide academic advising available to all students f. student success advising available to all students; includes general study skills (time management, test prep, note taking, resume prep) g. writing and math assistance centres normally only available during fall/winter terms; some by appointment during spring/summer. h. presence on ontransfer website i. information available in the academic calendar re admissions requirements and processes j. discipline specific communications regarding program requirements with applicants and potential applicants (especially engineering and natural resources management) transfer student demographics at lakehead university guided by the lakehead transfer report (2012) which indicates that block transfer students are often as successful and at times more successful than direct entry students, taking an inventory of current practices evolved into a mixed methods research process informed by the literature review. a web survey and qualitative interview/focus group template were developed with the intention of: 1. gaining insight into the characteristics of transfer students at lakehead university, 2. understanding transfer students awareness and use of formal university supports, 3. informing best practices through the experiences of transfer students as well as faculty and staff serving transfer students 17 | p a g e web based survey a web survey instrument (appendix c) was developed and approved through lakeheads research ethics board and institutional survey management committee. the survey instrument (appendix c) was sent out to 1655 transfer students who were identified through the office of institutional planning and analysis as having either partial college or university transfer credits or a completed college diploma on their transcript. students with completed university degrees were filtered out of this study. the survey included demographic questions regarding the characteristics, assessed awareness of and interest in using various student services of transfer students and contained three psychological scales selected to assess the students academic motivations for enrolling at lakehead university. these included the academic motivation scale (vallerand, blais, briere, & pelletier, 1989), the academic resourcefulness scale (kennett & maki, 2014)), and the academic locus of control scale (trice, 1985). the survey response rate was 9.3% (n 153) with 76 male and 76 female respondents. ages reported ranged from 18-50 with a mean age of 24.2, which is higher than the age of direct entry students coming from high school settings. of the respondents block transfer students (n 103) are categorized as those entering the business, engineering, natural resource management, and social work programs of which engineering and natural resource management have summer transition programs. advance standing students (n 37) are those students who are not block transfer students but who did receive some other kind of credit for their previous post-secondary experience. students classified as other (n 14) had previously attended a college or university but did not receive any kind of transfer credit for their previous post-secondary experience. this category could likely be refined with more responses. demographic characteristics block transfer students were primarily male students enrolled in engineering while female block transfer students were primarily enrolled in health and behavioural sciences. considering that a 9.3% response rate may not capture a fully representative sample, there are more female advance standing students and students classified in the other category than there are male students. the success of the engineering block transfer program in attracting a large number of students, the majority of whom are male, is evident. a majority of students identified as caucasian/white (74%). the next most frequent response was aboriginal (6.5%). small groups of students identified as chinese (3.9%), black (3.9%), filipino (3.2%), and arab (2.6%). other responses included south asian, latin american, west asian, korean, and japanese (5.7% combined) (n 154). self-identified ethnic and cultural 18 | p a g e associations were not particularly different for different transfer types as compared to each other or the total sample. to account for obligations outside of their studies, we attempted to capture the extent to which transfer students at lakehead university are supporting dependents (children or elderly parents) and their employment status. nearly 10% of students said they were currently supporting dependents (n 155). when organized into transfer type block transfer students and advanced standing students had a very similar proportion of students currently supporting dependents (8.7% block, 8.1% advanced). students categorized in the other category were more likely to be supporting dependents (21.4%). this may be an actual difference, but it may also be due to the small sample size of this group of students. with respect to employment status, the majority of students were not currently employed (63%, n 154). of those employed (n 57) 68.4% were employed part time and 31.6% employed full time. a larger proportion of students in the advance standing and other categories reported being currently employed. nearly 75% of block transfer students were not employed, while only 35.1% of advanced standing and 42.9% of students categorized in the other category reported not being employed. service awareness and usage to strategically target resource allocation, our survey attempted to identify which academic and student life services transfer students were aware of and how likely they were to use these services. of the academic services at lakehead university students were most aware of student success centre managed programs, which consist of the peer assisted learning (pal) and tutoring programs and associated writing and math assistance centres. select academic service awareness and likelihood of usage by type of transfer student is presented in table 1. while usage and awareness levels are generally consistent across the types of transfer students, it is notable that advanced standing students indicated a lack of awareness regarding the math assistance centre but a high likelihood of usage. also notable was the extent to which students were unlikely to use any form of academic support service, 59% of block transfer students indicated that were unlikely to use any of the academic supports in comparison to 48% of advanced standing students and 60% of other transfer students. 19 | p a g e table 1 academic student services awareness and likelihood of use block transfer advanced standing writing assistance centre student success centre workshops math assistance centre student success centre tutoring and peer assisted learning other awareness likely to use awareness likely to use awareness likely to use 67% 28% 72% 43% 55% 0% 56% 12% 64% 28% 78% 0% 45% 24% 22% 67% 22% 22% 35% 25% 64% 28% 35% 25% select student life services awareness and likelihood of use is represented in table 2. transfer students were very aware and most likely to use student health and counselling services (which offers both physical and mental health services) as well as campus athletics (which offers a range of casual and competitive athletic activities aimed at various segments of the student population). based on the survey results, student awareness and use of student life services may be influenced to some extent by marketing and promotion but students also perhaps seek out these services based on need and interest. table 2 student life services awareness and likelihood of use block transfer advanced standing student health and counselling campus athletics aboriginal services international student services other awareness likely to use awareness likely to use awareness likely to use 95% 45% 81% 50% 89% 33% 93% 73% 34% 4% 81% 64% 37% 3% 100% 33% 22% 0% 52% 2% 56% 0% 78% 11% psychological characteristics to gain a preliminary understanding of the psychological characteristics of transfer students, measures of academic resourcefulness, motivation and locus of control were included in the survey. a portion of survey respondents exited the online survey instrument before completing the psychological tests; from a total sample of 155, 110 students completed the academic 20 | p a g e resourcefulness scale, 117 students completed the academic motivation scale and 114 students completed the academic locus of control scale. welch and brown-forsythe anova tests were used to assess if there were differences in resourcefulness, locus of control and motivations across the types of transfer students as the best fit for unequal groups sizes and skewed scale data resulting from a large proportion of block transfer students in engineering and health and behavioural sciences. means for the academic resourcefulness, academic motivation and academic locus of control scales were not significantly different between transfer group types however we can cautiously examine the characteristics of all transfer students to derive some insights that could apply to future studies. as a proposed measure of students learned resourcefulness and thought processes in negotiating the academic challenges of university, lakehead university transfer students mean (m) score on the academic resourcefulness scale (kennett & maki, 2013) was (n 110) 112.6 with a standard deviation (sd) of 17.8. this finding is similar to college transfer students at trent university who scored m 112.47 with a sd of 19.74 (kennett & maki, 2012) indicating that college transfer students are academically resourceful and capable of negotiating and overcoming challenges similar to direct entry and university to university transfer students. with respect to academic motivation, transfer students scored high on the intrinsic motivation to know subscale of the academic motivation scale (m 20.3, sd 5.7, n 117). conceptually intrinsic motivation - to know is the idea of motivation stemming from a desire to understand things and search for meaning (vallerand et al., 1992). this data suggest that overall, transfer students as a group, have a high desire to know and understand things as related to the following items: experiencing pleasure and satisfaction from learning new things the pleasure i experience when i discover new things never seen before the pleasure i experience in broadening my knowledge about subjects which appeal to me my studies allow me to continue to learn about many things that interest me transfer students scored high on the extrinsic motivation - identified subscale of the academic motivation scale (m 22.7, sd 4.8, n 115), extrinsic motivation introjected regulation subscale of the academic motivation scale (m 20.1, sd 6.8, n 116) and the extrinsic motivation - external subscale of the academic motivation scale (m 21.6, sd 5.7, n 115). this data suggest that overall transfer students have a high level of extrinsic motivation that influences their behaviour and is strongly related to their identity (vallerand et al., 1992). for the purposes of this report, a selection of sub-scale items to highlight subscale motivations provides some useful insights: extrinsic identified subscale items: university education will help me prepare better for the career i have chosen 21 | p a g e eventually it will enable me to enter the job market in a field i like i believe a few years of education will improve my competence as a worker. extrinsic introjected subscale items: to prove to myself that i am capable of completing my university degree to show myself that i am an intelligent person because i want to show myself i can succeed in my studies extrinsic external subscale items: to obtain a more prestigious job later on because with my previous education i would not find a higher paying job in order to have a better salary later on. from a motivational perspective survey results may suggest that college students are motivated to engage in academic pursuits because they gain intrinsic pleasure from the process of learning and exploring new concepts while balancing the need to become highly educated and higher paid employees and to some extent, proving to themselves that they are equal to the challenge of university studies. as a measure of students perceived internal ability to control and negotiate their interactions with the academic environment instead of attributing challenges to external forces beyond their control (trice, 1985), transfer students locus of control scores (n 114, m 10.8, sd 4.6) indicate that they are more likely to feel internal control over their circumstances. based on our analysis to date it is not apparent if a more internal locus of control is due to demographic or program related characteristics. a table summarizing the results of psychological scale scorings is included as appendix d. focus groups and interviews semi-structured focus groups and interviews were conducted at both the thunder bay and orillia campuses of lakehead university to elicit the experiences of transfer students and the faculty and staff serving transfer students at lakehead university. four transfer student focus groups were conducted, two for block transfer students (n 20) and two for advanced standing students (n 9). twelve individual interviews were conducted with faculty and administrative staff in roles that served transfer students. focus groups and interviews were transcribed, coded and analyzed using methods informed by the grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis (ryan & bernard, 2003). the process included open, axial and selective coding that results in theoretical propositions that can be triangulated (cresswell, 1998) with both existing theory and findings from the quantitative portion of this research. 22 | p a g e both the researcher and a research assistant analyzed the transcripts separately and then combined their codes and overarching themes to establish a reasonable degree of authenticity within the time frame of the project. as the coding process progressed we reached a saturation point (cresswell, 1998) and found that many of our thematic points related strongly to the literature reviewed. therefore presentation of the themes is influenced by components of the literature review to place the perspectives of lakehead transfer students in the context of theory development within the ontario transfer context. our intent in this study is to tie various components of literature relating to the lived experience of transfer students into cohesive theory grounded in the perspectives of our research participants to inform developing a list of best practices in bridging. our overarching themes include: 1. transfer transparency: a theme related to the mechanics of transfer (chrystal, gansemer-topf & laanan, 2013) and degree to which students understand decisions made regarding transfer credits and the multiple university services involved. 2. cultural transitions: a theme relating to the transition between the academic and socio-cultural environments of sending and receiving institutions (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; lizzio, 2006) 3. student supports: a theme that focuses on the interactions between lakehead university transfer students and forms of formal, informal, social and academic supports. transfer transparency student satisfaction with the process of assessing and granting transfer credit as well as the amount/type of transfer credit received was often focused on understanding the process and having a justification for the decisions made and not necessarily on how much credit was granted. students in more rigid block transfer programs were generally happy with the amount of credit and the transparency of the process: very satisfied, its a direct two-year transfer creditand the only additional thing is the summer [bridging program] which is no big deal, thats totally worth it. i thought the transition program was good. they were pretty honest about what was expected of us coming into the transition program. like on my letter of acceptance it informed us [of all necessary summer bridging classes]. in our college we had a presentation on all of our possible transfers and theyre like, if you go to lakehead youre going to need to take these courses [in the summer bridging curriculum] despite the fact that block transfer programs are, upfront with each and every student about what it is that they are going to have to take and understand that, the success of the student and our ability to retain them is definitely linked to them understanding what exactly it is that theyre getting into some students struggled with transparency when they realized that not 23 | p a g e meeting the academic expectations of the summer bridge to enter block transfer program would result in a longer period of study than advertised upon acceptance. when i looked at my acceptance letter and saw the [summer bridging] courses, i knew i was going to be in for a third year. when i saw [my summer bridge courses] i didnt really think of the whole make up situation, i was just like im getting it done in two years, sign me up. i would have liked a lot more information about it [summer bridging program]. attempting to establish a completely transparent credit transfer process with the ontario postsecondary context is a challenging task. many degrees are refining/adding/dropping courses based on revolving program reviews, accreditation processes and maintaining degree standards with embedded professional designations and multiple specializations. transfer focused staff describe the process of assessing transfer credit as ever changing, never statictheres always new courses [at lakehead university]...other schools are actively changing their coursesyou could work on it every day and youd still find something new tomorrow[at some colleges] weve seen changes in programs from year to year. faculty, chairs and administrative staff often play a large role in assessing block transfer students with one staff stating, every application is considered individually. were making sure the student is admissible and gets exactly the program of study that will ensure they have the background they need to do well in their program and for when they graduate. the edge of the block is a bit fuzzy. this statement applies when academic units are faced with balancing students getting the proper courses with minimum averages and meeting strict accreditation standards and professional designations. although documentation for incoming students is designed to explain the standards required for progression without additional courses, students often dont understand the implications until they havent met them. for advanced standing students, whose transfer credits are assessed on an individual basis, having a specific person assist them in credit transfer process and provide explanations for credit transfer decisions enhanced the transparency of the process. even if they questioned which courses they got credit for, having an explanation helped to resolve concerns. several participants in the focus groups referred to the person that helped them by name or title instead of department. i had a hefty amount of transfer credits. i probably have 10 or around there. so the good thing was the head of [department] at thunder bay, had said it was okay to waive certain prerequisitesbecause i had taken such a similar course that it would not make sense for me to redo itshe just made it happen. i emailed them about a specific credit [because the course used the same text book] so i wanted to know how he decided that its not equivalenti would have appreciated if he had 24 | p a g e explained in more detailhe did get back to me very quickly but it would have been nice to send me to an academic advisor and let me kind of talk. i talked to [staff name], she helped me pick my courses. i had one course that was very similar to what i took at [college]so i sent an email and got an email backthey were very quick to respond and that was good. of course the result was not what i wanted but at least the way they did it was good. i just direct them to [staff name] whenever they [transfer students] need help. where students experience the most confusion was regarding what are called unspecified credits which are credits assigned in general areas (e.g. humanities, science, business) often at the 1st or 2nd year level for college courses that do not equate or have enough information for admissions staff to assign credit for a specific course at lakehead university. students seemed most dissatisfied when they could not find an explanation for the credit transfer decisions, were hoping that the letter grade of their transfer courses was represented on their transcript or they were prevented, by unspecified first year courses, from taking prerequisite first year courses because the amount of first year electives is limited to a maximum of seven. i went from my diploma to a degree and i got three unspecified credits and thats itthey wouldnt specify what they were. [in second year] i was speaking to random professors and theyre like, you could have gone to the head, the dean and [asked] does it transfer over? but no one had told me that. [transfer credits] showed up as unspecified. so unnamed classes which can only transfer as general electives with no grade points. thats frustrating because now im taking again, first year [course name] but first year [course name] didnt transfer as first year [course name]. there is the potential that transfer students do not feel comfortable questioning their credit transfers as one university staff, by coincidence, addressed this exact situation. we strongly encourage you [students] to speak with somebody so that they can show you how to use these creditsweve implemented a chat systemwe get creative more and more every year. based on feedback from university administrators, case by case credit analysis is generally emphasized in university to university transfers however college transfer assessment relies more on the individual articulation agreements established through relationships between departments and/or individuals at various ontario colleges, particularly accredited diploma programs. best practices in bridging grounded in the perspectives of students with regards to the credit transfer process do not necessarily centre on giving as much credit as possible. student perspectives indicate that transparency in program requirements and credit transfer decisions should reflect what is advertised by the university and that people who are responsible for or 25 | p a g e can explain the justification for credit transfer decisions are accessible and can engage in a negotiation/conversation with students promptly and efficiently. cultural transitions it is evident in the literature review that college to university transfer students experience a transition when moving between institutions. this shift is frequently referred to as transfer shock and has been applied to academic, social and financial differences between the college and university system in ontario. transfer students transitional experiences between the academic and social culture of their sending institutions and lakehead university were varied based on the individuals perspective and also their program of study. academic culture summer bridging programs the academic culture of summer bridging programs at lakehead university was experienced as an academic challenge mediated by the students level of preparation and matching curriculum covered in their college diploma. in some cases, summer bridging courses seemed to induce transfer shock to an extent that students could use the experience to assess if they were matched to the academic rigours of the program. throw you in the deep end to see if you can swimtransition is difficultthats the summary. it was hard it was kind of like the gauntlet. if you couldnt make it through the transfer program then you knew university would be a little bit too difficultwhich is something im grateful for i found a good, diverse learning community [in the summer bridge program]. definitely a lot harder than college. i found it this a lot more difficult [than college]the transfer program was definitely a big eye opener several block transfer students were appreciative of any overlapping college/university content in the summer bridge curriculum as it offered a point at which to build on their previous studies and also to boost their average grades to balance the challenges of learning new curriculum within a short time frame. students who were prepared in advance for the transition to the academic culture of their respective summer bridge program through their peers, college instructors and college information sessions conducted by university representatives benefitted to some extent. accurate pre-enrolment venues for the transmission of academic culture could be considered a best practice in bridging. one of my good friends started at [college name] and i told her this transfer program is great 26 | p a g e i was told [by a college instructor] youre going into this [block transfer program] and its not going to be like this [college], its going to be a thousand times harder, youre going to have to put in hours and hours a day and youre doing really well now, dont expect high marks. yeah, my co-worker kind of convinced me to the do it [the transfer program] and then he said that, alright, start studying. [before getting into the program] cause in our college we had like a presentation on all of our possible transfers and theyre like, if you go to lakehead youre going to need to take these courses [in the summer bridging program] the challenging nature of bridging programs at lakehead university served as an intensive introduction to the academic culture of the respective program. when students felt that they were prepared in advance and that their college learning could be applied they indicated that the bridge program was manageable. block transfer students who were unprepared for the level of academic intensity or had significant gaps between their college curriculum and summer bridge curriculum experienced significant transfer shock. block transfers with no bridge a small amount of students from block transfer programs that provided direct entry into upper years of study without a summer bridge program completed the survey and of those none elected to participate in the student focus groups. therefore insights into direct block transfer transitions can only be informed by faculty/staff interviews. several faculty supporting block transfer students without bridging curriculum found that block transfer students were similar to the direct entry students in their upper year classes with varying levels of success based on their maturity and study habits. some had considered the potential of developing summer bridging to create faster college to university pathways but for the most part felt that summer bridge curriculum was unnecessary. you might have gone successfully through college, and maybe the systems differentbut if youre not ready to be independent, to take care of your own, then youre just not ready. and i dont think any transition will make them ready, it has to be intrinsically. one faculty chair found that among college transfer students there were only one or two students per cohort who struggled academically to the extent that they had to re-take classes. from the perspective of staff and faculty the transition to the academic culture of university involved a manageable change in perspectives and increased independence in academic decision-making. [the college students] were prepared, i only have good things to say about these programs. their more hands on technical skills are there. some of them are more mature, they tend to be more mature in class. but thats a bit of a generalization. theres definitely a difference in how [college transfer students] approach 27 | p a g e things. college, i think, trains people to follow the rules, to learn how to do things.my challenge is to say, ok, were also going to learn why we do this, why not another tool and where does this come froma bit of history i can weave in there as well. while there was no feedback from this specific group of students, students in summer bridge programs mirrored the shift in academic orientation between college and university. in college we had similar courses, like this is how you do it versus [university courses where you learn] this is why you do it a lot of my profs [in university] dont work in the fieldits just a different set up here its more academictheres a lot of really good [research] job opportunities here though. i got a sweet summer job coming up i would have never gotten in college. advanced standing students the transition into the academic culture of lakehead university for advanced standing students was generally smooth, with students finding that they could succeed and, at times, found lakehead university classes to be easier than the courses they had taken in their sending institution. i thought i would have to do a lot of extra work in case i missed anything from first year, but so far its been really straight forward. i honestly found my college diploma a lot harder than i find university, to be honest. i find the teachersfind outside sources and make it relevant in a life context, not just regurgitating information. students cited their level of maturity, studying what they were passionate about, personalized content from their professors and smaller class sizes in relation to other larger institutions as contributors to the ease of their transition into lakehead universitys academic context. several students found that with partial credit they often found themselves in first year courses and had struggles with content that overlapped with previous studies and also the maturity level of fellow students in the classroom in first year classes. i really wanted to be in an academic environment and classes where the professor is having discussions and people in the class are talking. thats going on in second year but in first year, in the class everyone around me was just saying some of the dumbest things ever. i do like the academic environment, now that im in second year and surrounded by people taking it a bit more seriously. to some extent, transfer mechanics play a role in these students experiences, specifically unspecified transfer credits which did not act as pre-requisites to enter into upper year courses. advanced standing students in this study were seeking an academically rigorous environment with like-minded peers similar to students in gerhardt & ackermans study (2014); this 28 | p a g e environment is more likely to be accessed if specific first year prerequisites are captured as advance standing. social culture summer bridging students for summer bridging students, the initiation into the social culture of lakehead university began with an intensive full time program of study. summer bridging consisted of a program specific fixed curriculum for all students and was attended by a variety of specializations within each degree. it was a heavy course load, for sure, you were there for eight in the morning, every morning and were done at eight at night because we were staying to studyit was hectic. the level of intensity of the summer, you dont really have timethree hour class, hour break, go back to class for two hours and then, study. as a result of the intensive experience some students experienced a cohort bonding which was largely mediated by their class size. larger cohorts often found common ground with peers through a similar specialization in their program of study or through past experiences at the same college. at times, in bridge cohorts with 100+ students, block transfer students found they were competing with peers for shared support resources and time with instructors. while students did not specifically mention socially bonding as a result of scheduled social activities or through intensive classes and field experiences, both staff and students noted that block transfer students often stuck together as a group once they entered into classes with direct entry students. yeah, id say in transfer, at least for us, id say the transfer students clique together and the non-transfer students clique togetherits still like that in some fourth year classes. all the university students sit on the right side of the room in lecture and all the college transfers sit on the left side of the lecture. just cause of who you befriended, you know. it would please me if the students mixed morecollege transfer students, especially from the same college will hang out together. they will support each other. with one exception, the majority of block transfer focus group participants had moved to their respective campus from other cities and provinces. when discussing social aspects of their experience they did not cite family and friends (outside of school) as being a component unless they had moved with a spouse or significant other. the bridging experience, with a boot camp style intensity, created a social context of cohort bonding over the challenging academic work load and various course related activities. few students cited engaging in organized or casual social activities within their summer bridge due to the work load, however they would reach out to alumni and student groups on campus for support in their studies and build connections in that way. 29 | p a g e advanced standing students the experience of transitioning into the social culture of lakehead university for advanced standing students involved aspects of integrating into the campus and community contexts. many advanced standing students had transferred to lakehead university to be near their hometown where they could be supported by friends and family. they also cited smaller class sizes as a positive contributor to developing social connections with other students and their professors. my teacher knows my name and i can just talk to them informally. i found it really easy, i made friends here pretty much just on the basis that we were just in the same vicinity and were all having a conversation, which you dont get a big university. so it hasnt been a difficult transition, its been what i expected which was a smaller environment. quite a few advanced standing students found social supports through campus and community groups based on their interests. students cited the student union, campus athletics, residence life, multicultural clubs, gender issues groups, community churches and more informal supports such as room mates and local political groups as places for social support and a finding a sense of community. advanced standing students experienced transition challenges into the social context based on pre-formed student groups and also perceptions of a gap in age and maturity between them and first year, direct entry students. without a cohort bonding bridge experience, advanced standing students entered into various stages of group formation in their program of study, electives and student led groups. i think for me the only challenge would be coming into a situation where people do already have pre-formed relationships. so there is a feeling like, oh, people already have their groups and do they want to make more friends. a lot of students [in my program] are first years, because they are living in residence they are like a group, then you get the kids who are from thunder bay, and they have their own group. so when youre a transfer studentyoure kind of just by yourself. if youre older its a bit of an isolating experience. i went to join a [academic] association but they actually told me, we dont know who you are. weve never seen you before.we were having a meeting about who wants to be treasurer, secretary, whatever but they didnt let me even though i was really excited and committed. quite a few of the advanced standing students made an attempt to attend orientation and as a result, strongly advocated for an orientation centred on mature students as many were not interested in team building activities and events that focused on transitioning from high school. 30 | p a g e one group of advanced standing students were particularly negative about their social transition experience and cited the faculty and professors as their primary social support with secondary supports being family members and friends who were past alumni. thank goodness for the [head of my department], she was so helpful with, like putting all that stuff [enrolment/orientation] together. my profs in [program of study] are really good, they were the ones that tell me where to go and show me what to do. i had an alumni i was in contact withreally intelligent person, they knew what to tell me, where to gotold me the services that were available. family friend, they used to live hereid call them up and say, this is the problem and theyd be like, okay, there are the services available to you. clearly, feeling comfortable in their environment, welcomed by university groups and services and having a sense of self efficacy emerged as factors strongly influencing advanced standing students abilities to seek out and integrate with social contexts on campus and in the community. students who felt isolated and unwelcome tended to be highly critical of the university as a whole with the exception of professors they felt a personal connection to and coursework they enjoyed. student supports lakehead university offers a wide range of both academic and social supports that are summarized in the web survey tool. while in the web survey most students indicated that they were unaware of several supports or had thought about using supports but had yet to access them, the experience of accessing student support systems was mentioned by a large portion of focus group participants. themes that consistently arose from transfer students and staff included academic supports, orientation activities and financial supports. themes related to assessing transfer credit and academic advising were discussed in the transfer mechanics section of this report. program specific academic supports students enrolled in summer bridging accessed a wide range of academic supports, often within their first week on campus. bridging students discussed attending weekly tutorials, accessing generalized content tutors as well as seeking out content specific tutors, student success centre supports and several mentioned searching beyond campus supports for academic support. compared to college, transfer students who felt significantly challenged in the academic transition felt that they had to show more personal initiative to find the support they needed to succeed in their programs. in addition to formal university support services, block transfer students cited youtube instructional videos, faculty office hours, knowledgeable peers and alumni on campus for the summer as significant sources of academic support. 31 | p a g e summer bridging faculty and support staff indicated that students often needed to perceive that they would require future supports or be challenged significantly before reaching out for academic assistance. at times academic services available during summer bridge courses experienced large amount of students attempting to access supports that were in excess of their resources. predicting times of student need and scaling academic support resources to match demand in summer bridging courses is challenging as many peer tutors are in the work force, academic assistance resources are focused primarily on supporting large numbers in fall and winter semesters. for advanced standing students, faculty stood out as the primary academic support however several students indicated that they had accessed academic writing or student success supports successfully. advanced standing students primary struggle was their level of awareness around the physical and online location of academic supports and being able to find key support staff that could assist them in navigating the system. orientation summer bridge programs contained multi-day orientation activities that introduced students to the services on campus as well as various alumni and professional associations related to their program. while these activities were intensive, block transfer students seemed to access supports and negotiate the university system as a result of program specific orientations. advanced standing students were invited to generalized orientation activities and cited that the focus was on high school students and first year, direct entry students. several advanced standing students elected not to participate in orientation activities although they recognized their need for both a physical and social orientation to the campus. advanced standing students recommended program specific orientations and/or easily navigable online resources to assist them in negotiating the process of accessing supports, finding physical locations of buildings and classrooms as well as understanding the range of social opportunities available to them during their studies. financial aid many transfer students discussed bursary and scholarship opportunities specifically for transfer students as an area of necessary growth for summer bridging students citing the difference in college and university tuition. its like shellshock too because tuition prices are substantially more from college to university. both years in college were probably eight grand and thats like, one semester here, or a year here. while there are specific transfer bursaries available at lakehead university, students were unaware of how to access these bursaries. some students cited that they had received a transfer bursary and had automatically been entered into the bursary application process upon 32 | p a g e acceptance while others seemed unaware that they were eligible for any bursaries as a transfer student. block transfer students questioned how scholarships scaled to match direct entry students high school grade point averages (gpa) did not apply to their college gpa, suggesting that it would just as valuable for the university to apply entry point scholarships to college students. students perceived that maintaining a high gpa in college is more challenging than maintaining a high gpa in high school. i had a 90 average or higher and i was surprised lakehead didnt offer that [entrance scholarship]. cause i know pretty well if you have a 90 average coming in from high school you get a full ride here. im pretty sure. its surprising to me that having that in college, which should be a lot harder [you dont get a scholarship] some block transfer students were aware that after their first year they would qualify for gpa based scholarships and felt confident that they would maintain their average, citing that their marks were higher in university than in college. a larger portion of block transfer students felt that it would not be possible to maintain the average required to maintain a scholarship. one theme, notable for summer bridge students, was related to the disbursement of student loans in relation to tuition payments. while traditionally students felt that a student loan covers tuition and provides a portion for living expenses, including a summer semester tuition payment into the loan process came as a surprise for some. several were prepared for the financial logistics of summer bridging tuition while others incurred more debt than expected to pay for living costs over the summer and fall semesters. 33 | p a g e best practises in bridging - recommendations key aspects of best practices in bridging can be seen across a continuum of student experience. to represent these pathways we have developed a model (figure 1) that represents multiple phases in which varying practices across three areas of best practices can be applied. these phases include pre-transfer, summer bridging and maintaining academic momentum and the three areas of student experience can be characterised as transfer mechanics, cultural shifts and supports. figure 1: key aspects of best practices in bridging pre-transfer based on the concept of learner identity formation (briggs, clark & hall, 2012) students have varying perspectives on different universities and may change areas of study or select certain post secondary institutions for a wide range of reasons. best practices in transfer mechanics for pre-transfer students involves ensuring that the process of researching transfer credits and block transfer agreements online is as transparent as possible so that high school students and guidance counsellors, college transfer advisors and potential post secondary transfer students can assess the viability of transfer as independently as possible. preparing potential transfer students for shifts in academic and social culture can involve transmitting institution specific aspects of the academic and social culture of receiving institutions pre-transfer through: faculty visitations to potential sending institutions ranging from high schools to colleges that transmit the academic culture of programs to both students and the staff advising them. 34 | p a g e online marketing of academic program strengths and standards as well as social aspects of the surrounding campus and community environment hosting potential transfer students from potential sending institutions to have experiences on campus through shared educational or event based activities ideal pre-transfer supports for potential transfer students included transfer specific staff or staff with extensive knowledge of transfer agreements that respond efficiently and effectively to requests from sending institutions, potential students and faculty advisors regarding potential credit transfer. an additional pre-transfer support that was found to be effective through the environmental scan of ontario included a student friendly, all you need to know transfer guide which transfer specific staff suggested should be available in hard copy for students who were becoming invested in the transfer process. students often cited by name the person who had helped them negotiate their transfer arrangements and felt that during the process of assessing their credit, they needed to talk to a human being. bridging at lakehead university the bridging experience differs between varying types of transfer pathways ranging from a six week intensive summer transition program to voluntary attendance at an orientation day. for students who have made the decision to enrol and are participating in either orientation activities or a summer transition program, best practices include: o ensuring that the mechanics of transfer take into account mandatory prerequisites for taking upper year courses and ensuring that the amount of transfer credit received and the amount of courses necessary for degree completion, matches the expectations of students or can be justified in a transparent manner to the student. o recognizing that bridging and orientation activities involve aspects of integrating students into the social and academic cultures of host institutions. in our case we found several best practices that include: o academically intensive summer transition programs that develop strong cohort bonds and engage students in academic and professional cultures/activities related to their degree of study o engaging multiple strategies for delivering orientation activities including: program specific tours as a mandatory component of course components multi-day summer transition orientations that introduce students to both the physical campus and community and the academic/social support systems available at the university 35 | p a g e ensuring that there are age appropriate and efficient orientation options available to mature students with varied scheduling commitments (i.e. work/family) o based on attendance at orientation activities and need, transfer students discussed accessing supports and recommended best practices such as: o scaling support services and associated resources to meet program specific demands at key periods in both summer transition programming and during the regular academic year. o providing access to content specific tutors for specialized science and mathematics topics. o ensuring students are aware of financial assistance and opportunities for financial aid while potentially considering entrance scholarship options similar to those offered to direct entry students. maintaining academic momentum douglas & attewell (2014) discuss the importance of academic momentum as a concept related to the student experience of going somewhere academically. according to their study, avoiding remedial coursework strongly increases the likelihood of retention. based on the survey results, we would like to extend that concept to include both the strong extrinsic motivation that students indicated and focus group comments related to taking courses which felt like overlapping credits. best practices in bridging students requires supporting students throughout their degree to maintain a meaningful and productive academic trajectory. some best practices include: transfer mechanics: o allowing opportunities for students to consult with staff on overlapping course content and strongly consider re-assessing credit transfer decisions so students do not feel like they are losing momentum or running on an academic treadmill so to speak. o ensuring that the transfer mapping of upper year courses for articulated agreements is accurate, updated based on changes and accessible to all the support services that are involved in assisting a student to meet graduation requirements cultural transitions: o providing peer mentorship programs, potentially pairing students of varying programs, to enhance social integration into a post-secondary community of learners. ensuring that students who have the potential to meet program requirements receive support and direction to avoid remedial coursework or adding extra years on to their degree process. 36 | p a g e pilot projects peer mentoring program recognizing the unique needs of many block transfer students based on their previous academic background and program of study, a peer mentorship program was piloted to supplement peer assisted learning and tutoring services offered by the student success centre at lakehead university. some block transfer students, specifically in summer transition programs, indicated needing assistance on very narrow and specified content and mentioned that being assisted by upper year mentors who had experience the transfer process greatly influenced their success. according to literature reviewed in appendix e, peer mentoring programs support students by engaging them directly with like-minded peers; creating a life-long learning culture and community; increasing retention and attracting new students; connecting students to resources on campus and in the surrounding community; supporting academic and emotional skill development including communication, resilience, and problem-solving skills; and potentially creating future agents of change and civic leaders. 30 potential mentors and mentees were recruited via posters and contact with faculty and their respective administrative staff. mentors were incentivised by an offer to include the program on their co-curricular record. after expressing interest, mentors participated in a needs assessment (appendix f) and a mandatory, evidence based mentorship training program (appendix g). of the 30 potential participants, programming was attended by a total of 20 participants who completed needs assessments and appropriate training and were successfully paired in mentor/mentee relationships. as of march 25th, 2016 there have been four group meetings of all participants in the mentorship program and a final evaluation of the program will be conducted on march 31st, 2016 at the end of the pilot project. while the impacts of a peer mentorship program can require years to establish consistent evaluation, this final report/evaluation along with a mentorship handbook outlining best practices will be available upon request after may 1st, 2016. mentorship program participants were primarily (96%) engineering students with one pair from business/science. purposes for seeking mentorship elicited from the needs assessment included seeking assistance and support with the challenges with the physical and social transition to north western ontario. students moving to thunder bay for their studies noted things such as the differing climate and feeling a sense of isolation even within the campus community. based on an interim satisfaction assessment, students attending the peer mentorship pilot project sessions rated the programming highly and made several recommendations for future mentorship initiatives: 37 | p a g e mentorship targeted at first generation students who are the first in their families to attend university matching college transfer students with direct entry, upper year mentors for increased integration into the university environment including mentors who are alumni or professionals with proven academic/career success the process of coordinating the mentorship program resulted in the following suggestions for future implementation: a full-time dedicated resource is needed in order to ensure the matching process and resulting relationship is managed continuously otherwise there is a chance the program will yield less than optimum results, marketing and promotion of mentorship programming requires the full support of faculty and administrative services to reach an optimal amount of students, based on the needs assessment, mentorship coordinators may wish to experiment with mixing mentors and mentees from different programs instead of creating homogenous relationships to expand peer networks and enrich the educational experience of attending lakehead university. student support tutorials transfer students are often looking for information outside of office hours and/or when in crisis mode. this means that online information is sought. if it is readily available, it can be very useful in resolving issues and keeping students on track. to assist transfer students in independently navigating the mechanics of university enrolment to maintain academic momentum, one pilot project was initiated to develop online video tutorials that are accessible to both future and current transfer students. to date, 11 individual tutorials have been developed and published to lakehead universitys youtube channel titled the "student support series and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/ucvbga1_0ss_qkgj4gnloxqw academic standing bursaries declaring a minor degree audit enrolment verification letter of permission change of name osap program change special exams 38 | p a g e the calendar & understanding program requirements curriculum assistant learning outcome mapping based on the transparency of specific course related transfer credits across university and college systems in provinces such as british columbia and alberta, the project team sought out tools that allow for post secondary institutions in ontario to share course content and curriculum both internally and externally. qualitative data elicited from faculty advisors and enrolment services indicates that a universal system for assessing credit transfer and tracking block transfer agreements in the context of cyclical program reviews, and course changes at sending and receiving post secondary institutions requires transparent systems for sharing information. as a result of discussions that took place at an oncat funded learning outcome and transfer pathways colloquium, project staff and paola borin, a curriculum development consultant at ryerson university, were made aware of work being done at ryerson to map such information. ryerson then provided access to an online curriculum assistant tool which allows for the mapping of multiple block transfer pathways, program level learning outcomes and course level instructional tools designed to enhance learning outcomes. project staff participated in two phone meetings to receive informal training and advice on how to use the tool. using a developing oncat funded pathway, project staff mapped out program learning outcomes and course based instances of initiating, reinforcing and mastering various program level learning outcomes to generate sample reports (appendix h). demonstrations of the curriculum assistant tool were conducted with administrative staff responsible for assessing transfer credit and developing/maintaining pathways. the administrative staff, including the associate registrar, saw the potential benefits of using an online, university wide system of mapping degree requirements, block transfer pathways and associated learning outcomes that is accessible to faculty advisors, academic advisors, admissions and enrolment services. as of the date of this final report, the curriculum assistant tool is set to be forwarded to lakehead university technology staff to ensure compatibility with current online curriculum navigation resources as well as to be assessed for potential changes in coding the program to better fit lakehead universitys academic environment. 39 | p a g e best practices top 10 hit list 1. create a transfer specific orientation package (online and paper) of information that is provided to all transfer students; include the link in all correspondence with students. have hard copies available at key locations. 2. avoid putting transfer students into first year courses unless absolutely necessary and if necessary ensure that first year courses act as prerequisites for accessing upper year classes. a large portion of individuals with some pse have already had a first year experience. 3. avoid unspecified credits wherever possible. work with departments to offer specified credits that can be used as prerequisites for accessing program specific upper year courses by students. ensure that students are aware of opportunities to re-assess credits if appropriate. 4. ensure that faculty and staff working with transfer students are well trained and able to answer questions, particularly questions regarding the reasoning behind decisions on transfer credit assessment. maintain consistency in personnel and approach. 5. promote a general culture of inclusiveness with all students within programs; this requires continual effort on the part of department chairs, directors and staff. 6. organize informal opportunities for interaction between transfer students and department faculty, staff and students. be persistent initial response may be low but will gain momentum as more students learn about the events. 7. design and advertise specific orientation activities to reflect the maturity and outside obligations of transfer students. consider evening sessions, drop-ins, coffee breaks and summer opportunities. 8. while big events (e.g. transfer student fairs) are important, constant reminders of available resources are just as important and maybe more effective. design of online resources is critical; access to personnel is equally important. 9. consider adjusting scholarship standards to include non-direct as well as direct entry students. 10. ensure discipline specific tutoring is available throughout the terms (including spring/summer) and that students are reminded of its availability constantly. reduce the ad hoc nature of tutoring wherever possible as this tends to marginalize those on the edges. 40 | p a g e list of appendices a. annotated bibliography b. environmental scan website reference list c. transfer student web based survey instrument d. summary of psychological scale results e. peer mentorship references f. mentorship needs assessment g. peer mentorship training h. sample learning outcome report i. additional references 41 | p a g e

pathways and barriers to art and design undergraduate education for students with previous college and university experience ontario college of art and design university (ocad u) deanne fisher, eric nay, mary wilson and laura wood november, 2012 outline of the study this study investigated the transition needs and experiences of current ocad u students from two distinct types of educational backgrounds: those with previous undergraduate coursework and those with prior college experience. the study used a mixed method approach, both qualitative (analysis of semi-structured interviews with students from both cohorts) and quantitative (analysis of national survey of student engagement (nsse) data comparing college transfer students, university transfer students and students who came directly from high school). the study found some significant differences in the expectations, experiences and needs of students from different educational backgrounds leading to a series of recommendations to better facilitate student mobility and enhance the quality of experience. (report abstract) the quantitative analysis involved the identification of respondents who self-reported prior post secondary experience using ocad universitys results in the 2011 nsse. using this data, the study explored levels of engagement and satisfaction, as well as average grades and time-to-completion for students with previous university and college experience relative to students with only high school backgrounds. (pp. 6-7) qualitative data was collected through interviews of 39 ocadu students, 21 having prior university undergraduate experience (cohort a) and 18 having completed college coursework (cohort b). the cohort a sample was 45% male, a mean age of 27 years, 85% studying full-time, and receiving between .5 and 6.5 transfer credits. the cohort b sample was 22% male, mean age of 23, 89% studying full-time, and receiving between 1 and 7.5 transfer credits. (p. 7) while this study was limited to ocad u students, the authors anticipate that the findings could apply more broadly to transfer pathways among other studio-based fine and applied arts programs. quantitative results and findings first year students: the study found that direct and college entries had lower first year averages than those with prior university experience (70.7% for high school, 69.7% for college and 72.8% for university. (p. 9) there was no significant difference between the three groups on retention to the second year (91% of direct entries, 89% of college entries and 87.5% of university entrants returned to second year). the study also notes: high school entrants and university entrants were less likely than college entrants to believe that ocad u contributed to their ability to write clearly and effectively and their ability to analyze quantitative problems., (p. 9) 2 transfer students were less likely than direct entry students to indicate that reducing class size most needs to be addressed by the institution (p. 9) college transfer students were less likely than other cohorts to indicate that shifting the mix of lectures, seminars, and tutorials most needs to be addressed. (p. 9) direct entries and college transfer students were more likely than university transfers to experience a sense of community in study groups. (p. 9) senior students: the senior year student analysis observed that direct entries spent more time relaxing and socializing and were less likely to participate in class than transfer students. the study found no significant difference in their overall senior year average (74.5% for direct entrants, 75.1% for college transfer students, and 75.9% for university transfers). (p. 10) the researchers conclude that the intake of students with previous post-secondary experiences appears to add to the rich and unique atmosphere of academics, practitioners and researchers on the campus. (p. 10) qualitative results and findings factors influencing the transfer decision: both the university and college respondents chose their first post secondary institution based on location. university program choices, however, tended to reflect uncertainty about ... educational direction while college choices were purposefully intended to prepare ... for entry into ocad u. (p. 11) university and college transfer students choices of transfer institution were motivated by different pressures and considerations. university transfers cited personal/financial/medical motivations and unhappiness with their previous program as well as a desire to be part of a program with greater focus on art and creativity. the choice was also driven by the applied nature of the programs and the anticipated greater employment benefits. (p. 11) also, the choice of institution was made without much attachment to transfer of credits that might be granted for prior study. (p. 14) the study found that college transfers tended to be attracted specifically to ocad u and its nature, location, reputation, specializations, faculty, studio-based environment and like-minded peers. (pp. 11-12) admissions and transfer process experience: college and university transfers tend to have come with some significantly different needs, expectations and knowledge and, yet, both cohorts are treated the same by the university. (p. 19) typically, coming from a program that did not have an art and design or studio focus, university transfers anticipated being awarded fewer transfer credits and spending longer to complete their degrees than transfers from college. 87% of college transfers, however, had liberal arts and science and art or design studio credits. 3 the study found that some university transfers characterized the transfer as easy but faced difficulties such as locating transfer credit information, communicating with the university about transfers of credits, accepting the time consuming nature of the transfer credit process, and acquiring information such as course descriptions, syllabi. (p. 13) less than half of the university transfers received the anticipated transfer credits: the credit expectations of close to 60% of college transfers were not met. the study found that many students lack a basic understanding about their own programs, ... are often unable to see their degree programs in totality and therefore cannot see where previously taken courses may fulfill ... requirements. (p. 17) the report suggests that the university suffers from communications gaps from a practical transfer student perspective. information is embedded in layers of university policy and students do not understand transfer of credit rules, policies and opportunities as a result. (p. 18) the transfer credit process is labour intensive, requires too much information gathering..., and remains subjective in many cases. in addition, communication of transfer credit results takes too much time. (p. 18) transfer students perceived that there was unnecessary duplication in a number of required courses (university transfers found overlap in first year writing, introduction to earth sciences, design processes, research methods, english and art history while college transfers noted significant duplication in life drawing, art history, sculpture, painting studio, and non-specific liberal studies). while some transfer students found the portfolio entry requirement to be feared and anxiety producing, the misgivings voiced after the process related to the length of time that student artwork was held and the length of time spent in limbo waiting for an answer. (p. 13) information was generally found through the universitys, and the ontario university application centres (ouac) websites. 25% received help from university staff and were generally happy with that assistance. (p. 13) few transfer students participated in university recruiting and information sessions. students recommended improvements in the transfer process including, granting more credits, improving communications and information about the transfer process and fees, adopting more standardized course descriptions, improving methods whereby students are informed of their credit transfer eligibility and making the process more expedient to reduce anxiety and frustration. (p. 14) academic and social transition: virtually all transfer students indicated that they were made to feel welcome and highlighted orientation, e-mail updates, friendly staff and faculty and small classes as contributing to the their satisfaction with their transition. they found information about available services through promotional materials, on-line notifications, website announcements and through faculty, academic advisors and peers. they recommended instituting better ways of connecting with other mature students, improving the fit of social activities with their interests and providing social and studio space. (p. 15) 4 while university transfers reported that their ocad u studies were equal to or easier than their former universities, college transfers reported greater difficulty particularly where abstract course content was involved. while university transfers tended to see the transfer process as just requir[ing] adjustment, many recommended reducing the course load and adding supports such as more social space, more studio/work space, more academic advising and more information about the academic expectations. (p. 14) college transfers recommended the addition of supports such as studio space, ... student residences, ... increased guidance from professors, preparatory classes the summer before they started... and peer mentorship. (pp. 14-15) recommendations based on the findings, this study presents a number of recommendations for the enhancement of the transfer process. these are summarised as: 1. ocad u should attempt to re-assess its many different programs with facilitating transfers of credit in mind as one of its criteria for clarity and consistency including the use of course titles and descriptions that are simple, clear and similar to other institutions, when possible. (p. 18) 2. make the website user-based, graphic and less reliant on written policies ... with carefully prioritized data that may have policies embedded for further information and designed around helping students choose the right classes and understand programs. (p. 18) 3. standard block agreements need to be forged between copasetic programs, core courses, such as basic research methods and introductory english, need to be more often automatically granted credits, and learning outcomes and experiences rather than course outlines, descriptions and titles need to form the back bone of these prearranged transfers. (p. 18) 4. digitize the entire [admission and transfer] process with workflow mapping, status reports and progress tracking to help those [university staff involved] in the process to manage their time and efficiency. (p. 19) 5. orientation, messaging and even the transfer of credit assessment process itself may need to be redesigned into two separate processes to fit the very different needs of university and college transfers. (p. 19)

acknowledgements we thank oncat for the funding for this research and gratefully acknowledge their ongoing support and interest. the group of institutions who contributed to this study, was phenomenal. they surpassed all goals in terms of participation and data gathering, making the study a resounding success, not just for research, but ultimately for learners and their mobility. the work of andrea ditullio, our student research assistant was fundamental to the success of this project, she brought organization, hard work, a keen mind and above all an energy of spirit! tracie howieson as our faculty researcher, is to be commended for her ability to generate and sustain momentum to a research study. her insights brought a depth to the methodology that otherwise would not have been achieved. authors: dr. audrey j. penner, principal investigator vice president, academic and student success, northern college tracie howieson, investigator faculty and pathways lead, northern college andrea ditullio, research assistant bachelor of science nursing program, laurentian and northern college collaborative nursing program partnering institutions algoma university canadore college cambrian college college boreal confederation college la cite college lakehead university lambton college northern college university of sudbury 2|page contents acknowledgements................................................................................................................................... 2 partnering institutions .............................................................................................................................. 2 creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions ..................................................................... 5 introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 5 literature review and environmental scan .............................................................................................. 6 methodology........................................................................................................................................... 10 phase one ........................................................................................................................................... 11 phase two ........................................................................................................................................... 11 phase three......................................................................................................................................... 12 findings ................................................................................................................................................... 12 qualitative data and key themes ....................................................................................................... 12 best practices and lessons learned........................................................................................................ 32 what is a culture of mobility? ............................................................................................................. 32 why is a culture of mobility important? ............................................................................................. 34 what are the key determinants of a culture of mobility? .................................................................. 34 what values are demonstrated in a culture of mobility? ................................................................... 35 why do small institutions want or need a culture of mobility? ......................................................... 35 how can a culture of mobility be created and sustained? ................................................................. 35 conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 37 recommendations .................................................................................................................................. 38 recommendation one: ....................................................................................................................... 38 recommendation two: ....................................................................................................................... 38 recommendation three: .................................................................................................................... 38 recommendation four: ...................................................................................................................... 38 recommendation five: ....................................................................................................................... 38 references ............................................................................................................................................. 39 appendix a: key informant interview questions ................................................................................... 41 appendix b: quantitative survey ............................................................................................................ 42 3|page table 1 mission and vision summary from participating institutions .......................................................... 7 table 2 themes mapped to principles ........................................................................................................ 13 table 3 examples of best practices in place ............................................................................................... 16 table 4 sector participants and level of authority ...................................................................................... 19 table 5 years of experience by level of authority....................................................................................... 20 table 6 understanding and using terminology ........................................................................................... 31 table 7 cultural determinants by development phase .............................................................................. 34 table 8 spectrum stages and best practices ............................................................................................... 36 figure 1 aggregate averages of mission related to student mobility ......................................................... 21 figure 2 aggregate totals for strategic enrollment management and level of authority .......................... 22 figure 3 comparison of sem statements by level of authority .................................................................. 23 figure 4 aggregate averages related to investment................................................................................... 24 figure 5 comparison by sector for return on investment .......................................................................... 25 figure 6 comparison by sector for information on decision making.......................................................... 26 figure 7 aggregate averages of communication and student mobility...................................................... 27 figure 8 comparison by sector of communication ..................................................................................... 28 figure 9 aggregated averages of behaviours/practices ............................................................................. 29 figure 10 comparison by sector of behaviours/practices .......................................................................... 30 figure 11 deltas by sector for information sharing and behaviour ............................................................ 30 figure 12 the culture of mobility spectrum............................................................................................... 33 4|page creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions introduction student mobility is a critical priority within the province of ontario (oncat, 2014). with technological advances and a global economy, educational needs and opportunities for post-secondary students have greatly increased. not only are post-secondary institutions focusing on local and domestic student entry but global, as well. appropriate protocol and partnerships must be in place to assure a full range of student mobility options. these protocols must recognize previous academic achievements, to give credit where credit is due. students are increasingly interested in completing/furthering their studies in different cities, provinces, and countries. the students of today are more mobile than ever before, and mobility is something they consider a right, not a privilege. students are aware mobility is an option but do not always know what is available or what a personalized learning path could look like and how to access it. students are looking for return on investment for their education dollars. solid credit transfer/articulation agreements between post-secondary institutions guarantees seamless student mobility. building the post-secondary culture that supports these seamless opportunities is a fundamental part of this process. examining a culture of mobility to determine needs of small institutions fosters growth in articulation, pathways, and ultimately seamless student mobility for students to and through those same small institutions. efforts to encourage and support student mobility have grown across the postsecondary sector. small institutions are grappling with expanding pathways for learners, while the costs to do this continue to grow. previous studies (penner & howieson, 2016) show that small institutions, whether colleges or universities, have challenges in growing these activities without additional support. the study, measuring the cost of credit transfer in small colleges (penner & howieson, 2016), identified an impact of culture within a small institution and a net effect on the expansion of pathways leading to greater mobility for learners. thus the concept for the current study was conceived to examine the culture of mobility within ten small institutions and determine how culture contributes to the ultimate goal of seamless pathways for learners in the postsecondary system. this research project generated interesting findings, discussed later in the paper. some findings were unanticipated, adding depth and breadth to understanding the culture of mobility concept. the most exciting aspect of this study, was the enthusiasm expressed for the research. all ten institutions invited to participate, accepted. one additional institute asked to be involved, however, with a budget already in place, we were not able to expand the study. all ten institutions maintained their participation in the study, creating a complete data set. due to the depth and breadth of data compiled in the first round of interviews, the researchers opted to reduce the number of key informant interviews from two to one from each of the ten institutions. during the quantitative survey distribution, the target number of surveys was met and surpassed, an almost unheard of phenomenon in survey research. in addition, faculty involved in the study from participating institutions, contacted the researchers to see if they could continue to work on study in some form. the level of excitement generated by the study created a dynamic the researchers found refreshing, invigorating, and motivating. this dynamic clearly supports the need for this type of research. 5|page literature review and environmental scan as student mobility demand increases, the need for institutions to be responsive and articulate in managing student mobility must become part of the institutional culture (voorhees & harvey, 2005). where this culture already exists it is important to understand the value system supporting it, while finding indicators that predict culture, such as institutional value systems, the established norms, or goals of that institution (katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, 2016). value systems as a driver for institutional quality have already been affirmed (penner, 2007). value systems in relation to a culture of mobility need to be explored. understanding the culture of an institution and impacts on student mobility, builds knowledge around institutional processes that further the integration and sustainability of credit transfer (harrison, 2005). practices which support and enhance mobility will be examined as to their relationship to and within, institutional culture (velden, 2012). previous research on credit transfer has identified many best practices. in addition, the recent study on measuring the cost of credit transfer in small colleges (2016) points to the value system within the institution as a key indicator of success in credit transfer initiatives. credit transfer supports student mobility, a provincially mandated initiative. thus, a culture of mobility is a desired state for a small institution. results of this research project will help build upon the body of knowledge about student mobility within this province. a literature review of student mobility, value systems and institutional culture puts this study into context. focus upon the relationship between value systems within an institution and development of institutional culture, was part of this literature review (mueller r. , 2014). background on this relationship development is found within quality assurance, change management, and organizational culture literature. a preliminary concept of a culture of mobility is proposed based upon the results of this literature review. this preliminary concept is utilized as a comparator to data collected in the study. key informant interview questions were determined from the literature review. culture as a concept has been researched in many ways, with varying outcomes (kuka, 2012). kuka (2012) discusses five indicators of culture as: the status quo; upgrade; integration; comprehensiveness; and evidencebased development. a summary of kukas indicators would state: it starts with an existing culture (the status quo), recognizes change when needed (update), assures silos are not generated or created (integration), considers the entire culture (comprehensiveness) and assures appropriate data is gathered and used to move cultural change (evidence-based development). while kukas indicators give a profiled view of culture, the indicators he proposes can be difficult to measure without appropriate tools or standards. this creates a challenge for assessing culture using kukas theories. mueller (2014) would add to the discussion of culture by talking about the organizational values demonstrated, expressed, and exhibited. mueller noted two distinct value clusters in a culture, one cluster where organizational values are directly linked to human activity and/or behaviour. the second cluster consists of variables that are aspirational in nature. the first cluster describes what happens within an institution on a day to day operational basis, the human activity and behaviour. the second cluster is about the larger institutional organization of mission and vision. therefore, the vision and mission of an institution should give clear indicators of the values driving the mission. to give context to the culture within the ten institutions partnered in this study, an environmental scan of mission, vision, and strategic plans was compiled. table 1 provides a summary of published missions and visions from each. 6|page table 1 mission and vision summary from participating institutions institution algoma university (algoma university , 2010-2015; algoma university, 2016-2020) canadore college (canadore college, may 19th 2015; canadore college, 2017) cambrian college (cambrian college of applied arts and technology, 20152016) collge boral (college boreal, 2015-20120) (college boreal, 20142015) confederation college (confederation college, 2017) la cite college (la cit, 2016) 7|page mission is the special mission of the university to, (a) be a teaching-oriented university that provides programs in liberal arts and sciences and professional programs, primarily at the undergraduate level, with a particular focus on the needs of northern ontario; and (b) cultivate cross-cultural learning between aboriginal communities and other communities, in keeping with the history of algoma university college and its geographic site. to provide outstanding applied education and training for an ever-changing world. we lead with our commitment to diverse learners. we teach and learn through quality education that responds to the needs of the community. we balance hands-on experience with the knowledge and skills essential for personal and professional success. collge boral provides a high calibre personalised education to a diverse clientele and practices leadership to foster the sustainable development of ontarios francophone community. confederation college inspires learners to succeed in their lives and careers in northwestern ontario and beyond. dans un milieu de vie francophone, la cit forme une main-d'uvre comptente, engage et crative, capable de contribuer au dveloppement conomique, social et culturel de l'ontario franais et la socit vision a university of international distinction enriching generations of diverse cultures and communities. canadore is the college of choice for connecting people, education and employment through leadership and innovation. cambrian is northern ontarios preeminent college and a key regional economic driver. our graduates are proud of their education and aspire to be the best for themselves and their communities, and to make a difference in the world. cambrian provides world-class applied learning, labour force development, and research through flexible, responsive, and caring student success practices; by striving for excellence in instruction, engaging students using hands-on, life-changing learning; and by remaining accountable in all that we do. recognized for the quality, accessibility, and flexibility of its training and services, collge boral is the first choice among french-language colleges confederation college will enrich lives through learning. leader francophone en ducation, la cit est le collge de la russite institution lakehead university (lakehead university , 2013) lambton college (lambton college, 2017) northern college (northern college of applied arts and technology, 20132016) university of sudbury* (university of sudbury, n.d.) *expressed as core values 8|page mission to be recognized as an innovative comprehensive university that provides an education that is about how to think, not what to think. lambton college is committed to student and community success. excelling in quality, accessible education through innovative programs, services and partnerships for the benefit of our northern communities. as an undergraduate, liberal arts university, the university of sudbury is committed to developing in its students the desire and the ability to undertake humanity's perennial quest for ultimate meaning. the courses and programs offered by the university of sudbury aim to foster, in a contemporary setting, the search for the ultimate truth. vision to provide a transformative university experience that is far from ordinary lambton college fosters innovation and entrepreneurship among our faculty, staff, and students and in the local and global communities we serve. as the sole provider of higher education in our region, we remain committed to providing teaching and learning excellence in a broad range of program offerings, and a full range of credentials. we will enhance the student experience and learning outcomes by becoming a mobile learning college. in particular, we will distinguish ourselves amongst all canadian colleges by leveraging our unique strengths to become a global leader in education and applied research in the areas of energy & bioindustrial technology, and fire & public safety. success for all through learning and partnerships. the catholic heritage is central to the identity of the university of sudbury. tri-cultural and bilingual mandate excellence in student learning research community engagement while credit transfer and student mobility may not be expressed explicitly in the mission and visions of the participating institutions, the missions all reflect student centered directions. the vision/values statements further expand on student focused learning and teaching excellence. algoma and the university of sudbury both recognize culture and diversity within their vision/values, while lakehead has a vision of transformation as a result of postsecondary education. canadore, college boreal, cambrian, confederation, la cite, lambton and northern college all reference community in their mission, a strong link to culture. corporate cultures are constantly changing, and rate of change varies dependent upon the institution. how people behave (kuka, 2012), in combination with the way they think and feel shapes their beliefs (katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, 2016). their beliefs, in turn, shape the practice of day to day work flow, which in turn demonstrate the organizational values (gurley, peters, collins, & fifolt, 2015) . core concepts of culture have been researched by katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas (2016). their research stipulates a specific culture cannot be described exactly, as each culture has routine habits, reactions and emotional responses, unique to that organization or institution. katzenbach et. al. (2016) described ten key principles to motivate a change in culture (to replace it with something entirely new and different). these principles are deemed to be more effective than formally mandated change and are practical for organizational development. the principles themselves need to be linked to a value system to be sustainable and to change culture. the ten principles (katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, 2016) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. work with and within your current cultural situations change behaviours and mind-sets will follow focus on a critical few behaviours deploy your authentic informal leaders dont let your formal leaders off the hook link behaviours to business objectives demonstrate impact quickly use cross-organizational methods to go viral align programmatic efforts with behaviours actively manage your cultural situation over time based upon this exploration of culture, the researchers preliminary concept of a culture of mobility is: an organizational culture where student mobility is valued, articulated in behaviours, and demonstrated in actions. to understand student mobility within the ontario postsecondary system, it is important to describe credit transfer as a priority in ontario. mandated in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 public postsecondary institutions and defined as a member-driven organization to work with all public colleges and universities to enable a system of credit transfer to develop as rapidly as possible, while also respecting institutional autonomy (oncat, 2016). by 2015, there were 21,500 transfer students in ontario, with a comprehensive provincial data base to track and monitor transfer activities. this data base is fed by the 45 postsecondary institutions in ontario. credit transfer activity is part of the premiers mandate letter to the minister responsible for higher education (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2016). 9|page the vision of seamless transfer of students is described through the key principles of credit transfer (oncat, 2014). these principles are: students should have the information they need to make informed decisions about the transfer process; students can expect to be treated equitably by all members institutions; all members acknowledge and respect the primary jurisdiction of each institution for transfer policy and academic integrity. therefore, a culture of mobility indicator could be defined by demonstration of these key principles. the principles come with concisely described expectations. with a clear priority, and student success at the core of institutional values, this study examined the values and behaviours within ten small institutions. recognizing culture is unique to each institution, the values articulated give clues to the priority of student mobility. the behaviours demonstrated further define the culture of student mobility within each institution. the enthusiasm and support for this research demonstrated to the researchers, a strong interest by each institution to identify what their culture of mobility, as it exists today. methodology the goals of this project were to: define a culture of mobility: all institutions have distinctive culture (harrison, 2005) and in a small institution, understanding their culture is important for overall success of that institution. it is important to identify values and related indicators of a culture of mobility. an articulated view of providing opportunities for students educational pathways is a first step in determining how to support and sustain institutions success in credit transfer. defining this culture for small institutions is even more important where the ability to host a department dedicated to a specific activity is limited. in order to support successful outcomes and long term change, the culture of the small institution is key to change as small institutions endeavor to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers (oncat, 2016). determine best practices: according to harrison (2005), institutional processes are built within a reflection of institutional culture. examining student mobility practices of several institutions provides insight into institutional processes and their relationship to culture. when these processes are focused upon student mobility, the best practices can be tools of this culture of mobility. determine challenges in creating and sustaining a culture of mobility: if a culture of mobility is defined, and the will exists for such a culture, it is necessary to understand challenges to create and sustain this same culture (hicks, weingarten, jonker, & liu, 2013). iterating these challenges helps small institutions address their needs in the creation and sustainability of a culture of mobility. to achieve these goals, ten (10) small institutions participated to determine the culture of mobility within their institution. 10 | p a g e research questions posed reflect the goals of this research project. the research questions are: 1. what is a culture of mobility? a. why is a culture of mobility important? b. what are the key determinants of a culture of mobility? c. what values are demonstrated in a culture of mobility? d. why do small institutions want or need a culture of mobility? e. how can a culture of mobility be created and sustained? this project was completed in three phases: phase one included a literature review, key informant interview design and participation, secondary data collection, along with survey instrument design. culture of mobility as an issue has not been extensively documented, more specifically how this culture develops and is nurtured in a small institution has not been considered. defining a culture of mobility concept as it applies to small institutions will happen in this phase. what that culture looks like, the values associated with it, and the indicators of its existence need to be identified, this phase provides the framework for that process (harrison, 2005). small institutions have unique opportunities in culture creation, combined with distinct challenges in sustaining externally driven initiatives. secondary data such as institutional business plans, strategic plans, articulation agreements, web based information, etc., were reviewed to examine the overarching institutional culture. the secondary data provided the environmental scan for the project. other research specific to a culture of mobility was not found. design and testing of the key informant interview and identification of the key informants to be interviewed, took place in this phase (see appendix a). the key informant interview tool was tested on a group at northern college prior to delivering to the partnering institutions. key informants were defined as those persons in the institutions who best understand the culture, history and value system of their institution. a minimum of 20 key informant interviews were proposed, however, the depth and scope of information gathered from the first round of interviews resulted in the need for only one interview per institution. this phase lasted approximately 3 months, one month less than anticipated in the study design. secondary data collected included artifacts such as business plans, strategic plans, vision and mission statements, strategic mandate agreements and other publically accessible, institutional documents. no confidential institutional documentation was requested or used. the public documents identified here are meant to define an institution and its public profile, and would be the most likely source of information about mobility for future students. therefore, these documents provided a valuable resource about, and insight into the institution. this background information guided the design of the key informant interview questions and helped triangulate data from interviews. phase two involved survey tool design (see appendix b) and distribution across the ten institutions. the distribution list included staff and faculty whose roles promote and facilitate student mobility. selection of the survey participants was left with the institutions themselves. the criteria for selection was faculty and staff who have direct involvement with student mobility. this was a targeted census not a random sampling design. an example of this targeted census group would be coordinators in the college system. 11 | p a g e coordinators are faculty who have an additional role in relation to students. their role can be to actively facilitate student mobility within the college system. as such their behaviours have a direct impact on institutional culture. the number of survey participants targeted was 100 with 114 surveys completed, approximately 10 per institution. all surveys were completed by late november. a unique feature of this study, included the choice of participants by institution. established value measurements were used in the quantitative tool, with adaptation to this particular research. the quantitative survey tool was validated with a volunteer group at northern college. phase three consisted of data analysis, triangulation and validation of information, plus report writing. thematic analysis was utilized on key informant interview, qualitative data. predetermined themes were selected based upon kuka, (2012) indicators and muellers, (2015) theories. descriptive analysis was used for the quantitative survey with particular focus on lower rankings in the likert scale responses. average rankings by statement were aggregated in clusters that represented key themes. comparisons of identified values were cross referenced with data from the key informant interviews and secondary data. institutions were compared, as were sectors. with the larger response rate, multi-variate analysis could have been utilized. however, with the volume of data and time frame to complete this report, a more advanced level of analysis was allocated for future study and focus was placed on responding to the research questions. findings to better understand cultures existing within the ten institutions, the key informant survey was developed based upon muellers (2014) concept of culture looking at the organizational values expressed, demonstrated, and exhibited. the key informant survey (see appendix a) had three sections designed to discover how organizational values were indeed expressed, demonstrated, and exhibited within these ten institutions. the values section queried expressed values such as those reflected in the mission and vision of the institution. strategic enrollment management (sem) within the institution was queried in relation to engagement/investment in the concept of student mobility. the third section asked about practices (behaviours demonstrated and exhibited) supporting student mobility. the final section queried challenges the institution faced, specific to student mobility and credit transfer. qualitative data and key themes the researchers chose to assess the key informant data using the prescribed themes of values, behaviours, and investment. these three themes encompass kukas (2012) indicators, muellers theories, (2014 &2015) and are mapped to katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, (2016) ten principles of culture. to validate these perscribed themes, the mapped themes to katzenbach et.als principles are shown in table 2. 12 | p a g e table 2 themes mapped to principles principle identified by katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, 2016 work with and within your current cultural situations dont let your formal leaders off the hook align programmatic efforts with behaviours actively manage your cultural situation over time themes values link behaviours to business objectives focus on a critical few behaviours change behaviours and mindsets will follow behaviours deploy your authentic informal leaders demonstrate impact quickly use cross-organizational methods to go viral investments description prescribed theme cross referenced with principles work with and within your current cultural situations to articulate values dont let your formal leaders off the hook requires senior leaders in an organization to identify and demonstrate values align programmatic efforts with behaviours requires an organization to align values to practices/ behaviours actively manage your cultural situation over time means pay attention to culture and values and how they are demonstrated /expressed link behaviours to business objectives to ascertain how a certain behaviour will achieve an objective focus on a critical few behaviours to attempt to change/enhance/promote these behaviours, as required change behaviours and mind-sets will follow, behaviours should reflect values and changed behaviour reinforces value deploy your authentic informal leaders, invest in the change with time and messaging demonstrate impact quickly once the investment has paid off use cross-organizational methods to go viral, invest in spreading the message in a variety of formats across the institution the description of how the principles applies to this research, creates a foundation and framing of qualitative analysis. the researchers were not able to link all ten principles to findings in the data, specifically change behaviours and mindsets will follow and demonstrate impact quickly were not seen in the data set. values there were four distinct values expressed in the key informants interviews: access, student success, faculty engagement, and student mobility. the value of access was talked about in response to almost every question. the first question in the interview asked the participants to reflect on how their institutions mission and vision linked to student mobility. the responses indicated all participants believed their institution valued student mobility, and gave examples of how this was expressed either directly or indirectly. their responses to various questions demonstrated the commitment to and value held for access within the system. we support student success by creating bridging by valuing meaningful credit awarded at other institutions was a comment from one institution. all institutions emphasized access at some point in time during the key informant interview. mueller (2015) talks about values driving the plan, and in the interview data, access as value was a recognized driver. 13 | p a g e the value of access was typically linked to the value of student success. one comment from a college, we want to use student mobility as a way to promote their success. another institution articulated, our strategic plan involves mobility and access . . .we see access as a key to student success. one northern college stated, our student success advisors promote student success and advise students what options they have within or outside of our college. the value expressed is access and student mobility is discussed as a value intrinsically linked to process. post-secondary institutions exist for students, student success needs to be a priority, and the expression of its value, this study was gratifying for the researchers. another value expressed by the participants was faculty engagement, which could also be described as participation within a culture of mobility. this value was expressed both as support for, and understanding of student mobility as it related to faculty engagement. what was important from the participants perspective, was to have faculty confirmation of the credit transfer pathways. acknowledgement of faculty subject matter expertise was core to this value. almost all institutions commented on the need for faculty to be part of the student mobility strategy. including them in planning processes, assuring communications flowed to faculty, and building relationships between faculty and whomever was involved in the credit transfer process were steps identified to support, encourage and promote faculty participation. as such, faculty were seen as a lynch pin that made student mobility a success or a challenging process within an institution. faculty provide tailored versions of pathways specific to their program. . . stated one institution. another institution observed senior administration stays involved to maintain consistency of student mobility initiatives, they support faculty in promoting transfer credit opportunities. however, when faculty do not support the transfer process, the institutions identified significant challenges to offering student mobility options. student mobility as a concept was identified as a value from the data. a profound comment came from one of the universities learning is fluid and flows through different generations and cultures, mobility is part of that. another institution stated, credit transfers are part of our strategic plan over the next five years. another university talked about, virtually every department at . . . . has been touched by student mobility and our programs have adjusted their requirements to suit transfer. student mobility was found in several strategic plans from the ten institutions, as well as being defined as a priority within their strategic enrollment management process. behaviours as a theme within the qualitative data, behaviours represents those individual behaviours that were described or attributed to student mobility processes as well as institutional practices which had developed or were being developed. the researchers identified behaviour when applied to an individual, and a practice when it was an institutional process. behaviours were exhibited by individuals in performing duties related to student mobility, however practices were the processes of promoting student mobility performed by the institution. the researchers did not attempt to measure effectiveness of any practices identified, as this was not the purpose of the study. rather identifying practices, and listening to what the institutions had to say about how the practices worked, helped define the overall culture of mobility within a particular institution. the researchers asked specifically about new procedures put into place to support student mobility. the most common response to this question, was the use of technology or a dedicated human resource to manage the process. this core technology or person serves as a tipping point to centralizing the student mobility process within an institution, and as such, could be labelled a key indicator of culture of mobility. 14 | p a g e the participants identified a past practice of student mobility processes dispersed across their institution. for various reasons, volume of requests or consistency, processes were centralized. in general, that centralization included a core person with dedicated duties, full or part time, as well as automation of the process to the best of the institutions ability. use of a data base for centralizing records was mentioned, as well as moving information to the website to assure students could access more information and begin the process. almost all of the institutions, mentioned new practices around information access. establishment of a database or core record of credit transfer already given was a new practice to many of the institutions in the study. this eliminates work being done twice. if a credit transfer had already been given for course xyz, and another student requested the same transfer, the process was much quicker when records were already in place. expanding the database or using additional automation was expressed as the next phase of this practice, by a number of institutions. sustainability of this data base was seen as a labour intensive process. courses and curriculum are and should be dynamic with continuous change, so the currency of the database could become a problem. the institutions website was the most frequently used resource for information. the participants noted, not only adding information to the website as an enhanced means of access but also the creation of templates to guide students through the process more quickly and efficiently. this promotes self-service for students. a practice identified by several of the participants, was the move to bring pathways and articulation into the new program development process. this saves time and effort by creating the pathway and aligning curriculum at the same time. those institutions who had started this new process were pleased with how it was working and the outcomes they were achieving. a few institutions identified creating more of a branding about student mobility in-house, with dedicated space and signage. this raised the profile of student mobility on their campus and encouraged students to make inquiries about the process. it was felt this generated credit transfer activity for students who may not have previously considered it. communication is a key aspect of culture and how we communicate demonstrates behaviour within that culture. the language of credit transfer and student mobility has specific terms which need to be used and understood to assure culture is established and maintained (harrison, 2005). the behaviours and practices of an institution around communication are intertwined. one college supplied a list of the new vocabulary in their college, related to student mobility; course equivalence, course exemption, learning outcomes, common curriculum, transfer credit articulation, student pathways block transfers, and plar. the participants talked about using words like pathways instead of articulation agreements when talking to students. this simplified the dialogue without changing intent. some institutions used the word laddering to identify movement in a way that is more meaningful to students. one institution stated we are using the vocabulary of credit transfer everywhere, including aligning policies, directives and procedures. none of the participants in the interview portion of the study indicated any challenges with the language of mobility, either understanding or using it. in general, participants commented on a lack of use or misunderstanding around plar. the participants believed it had not been used as widely across the system as anticipated. what is important to note about communication was the language of those working with credit transfer was one aspect, while an overall corporate lexicon for the institution was another. in simple terms, talk the talk. 15 | p a g e another practice noted by most of the participants was the monitoring of pathways and recognition that some were underutilized. many institutions commented on the time and effort placed into creating these pathways. confusion was expressed by the group of participants about these underutilized pathways. a question that kept recurring was why the lack of uptake? this study did not inventory the underutilized pathways, however, if this is a significant issue across the system, it would be beneficial to complete an inventory and assess how utilization can be encouraged. within each institution a best practice was identified in following categories: communication; new behaviours/practices; specified language; and new information access for students. table 3 highlights examples of the best practices identified in each category. table 3 examples of best practices in place examples of identified best practices category communication new behaviours/practices new terms/language providing information to students practices outreach campaigns open forums strategic initiatives pathways officer sustained database tracking revamped website advanced standing course equivalence degree pathways website internal tvs presentations to high school teachers future plans were shared by the institutions, and each institution identified what would happen in their student transfer processes in the next 3-5 years. the most common practice aspired to, is automation of the credit transfer process. we are. . . trying to automate as much as possible stated one institution. this is seen as a way to speed up the process for the student, increase self-service and hopefully increase the number of transfers occurring. taken a step further, if the process was automated and a student could access this during the application process, a letter of acceptance could include the pathways beyond the program they were applying to, a one-stop shop approach to applications. this concept was expressed by two institutions. the behaviour theme demonstrates two the key principles identified by katzenbach et al (2016). the key informants consistently tied their activities back to their mission and vision and through that their strategic objectives. the institutions appeared to be focused upon a few core activities which would support student mobility. this validation supported the design of the quantitative survey. 16 | p a g e investment within culture, change happens when investment is made in time, communication, and behaviour (harrison, 2005). this investment assures formal leaders are committed to student mobility and operational activities can bring return on investment (penner a. j., 2007). questions around investment, in the key informant interview included return on investment, ownership, and engagement. return on investment was related to time and efforts expended, compared with impact achieved. ownership was the give and take of the student mobility process. at a faculty level, this was ownership of course material and the willingness to recognize other learning. at an institutional level this was ownership of learners. sharing waitlists to assure access, and recognizing prior learning are at the institutional level. engagement was the interest and participation in student mobility from all levels of the organization. a number of institutions utilized student mobility process as a means to address strategic enrollment management strategies (sem). one institution stated we are soon going to be in a position . . . . to strategically target students with prior education and encourage them to come back to school. transfers in were seen as a bonus, to fill seats where other students had dropped out. in this respect, credit transfer was linked to strategic enrollment management, and to higher levels of authority within the institutions. approximately half of the interviews documented student mobility in their sem strategy. investment was recognized by those institutions as required for their sem activity. one university described student mobility as critical to their sem. one institution talked about the priority of articulation as an immediate thought when program changes or development occurred. therefore, investment in student mobility was institutionally acknowledged. ownership had two key aspects the researchers wanted to explore. one was the concept of shared waitlists which would be an investment in access, and the other was faculty ownership in relation to credit pathways, an investment in future mobility. the interviewees were asked how they felt about sharing waitlists, when programs were full, as a promoter of mobility and access for learners. this appeared to be a novel concept for most of the institutions, and three were very keen on the idea. the majority of the institutions were hesitant about the concept but found it interesting while one institution was neutral. as one institution stated when the pool for enrollment declines, people [institutions] are more territorial, that is natural. this concept would enhance access beyond what is available now. aligning the value of access with this practice was only in the idea stage based upon this study. the idea needs further exploration given the value placed upon access and the potential to increase access and future mobility. ownership at a faculty level was explored by the researchers as an investment. faculty develop curriculum for the courses they teach, and feel pride and ownership in this. recognition of another course requires objective analysis of that course to assess what credit transfer may be given. for some faculty this is harder than for others. giving credit where credit is due ensures learners only have to learn something once. however, this is more easily said than done. as one institution stated the biggest challenge is leaving old ways of doing things behind. when specifically asked about program ownership as an issue, the responses were mixed. some institutions acknowledged this can be a challenge while others said they had not encountered it. as one college stated we try to show our teachers about the values of pathways and equivalencies. the value of faculty engagement was recognized here, without that engagement these investments are not made. engagement by all levels of authority in student mobility processes is necessary for it to be a success. this was a clear message from all the institutions. therefore, administrators, admissions, recruitment, student advising, faculty and deans all needed to be aware of and engaged in mobility practices as an investment 17 | p a g e in student mobility. while there is a need to be engaged, there were mixed messages about how that engagement occurred and whether or not it contributed to an investment in student mobility. within the investment theme, there are indicators of the cultural principles. deployment of informal leaders was evidenced in the discussion of who all was engaged and involved. the cross-organizational implementation of student mobility was demonstrated through the linkages between academic, administration, and student services departments in the various institutions. qualitative data was gathered in the first phase of the study, and informed the quantitative survey, distributed in the second phase of the study. analysis of the quantitative data, provides more insight into qualitative findings. quantitative: data analysis the quantitative survey was developed using the three prescribed themes from the qualitative analysis. there were key sections to the survey, with themes clustered. the survey began with demographic questions such as name of the institution, level of authority, years of experience and length of experience with student mobility. the survey did not ask for typical demographic data such as age or gender, as these were not deemed relevant to this study. three survey sections were created: values; practices and challenges. each section had a series of statements with a likert scale: strongly agree (5), agree (4), neutral (3), disagree (2) and strongly disagree (1). the statements were framed to inquire how the individual perceived the statement and how the individual perceived the institution in relation to the statement. two questions in the practices section had modified scales of yes, somewhat, or no. these questions dealt with corporate lexicon. in the first question, the individual was asked to rate their understanding of mobility terms and in the second, they were asked to rate how their institutions used the same terms (see appendix b for the full survey). the ten institutions provided rich data with 114 people responding the quantitative survey (n=114). not all items were responded to, and item non response had an impact on the ability to complete some data comparison. descriptive data frames the findings, as this was sufficient to address the research questions. bi-variate and multi-variate data can be applied to answer future research questions. levels of authority are a key demographic factor in this study, where a person is positioned within an organization, often predicts his/her perception of the organization and its culture. those who participated in the study had a wide range of authority within their institution. table 4 presents the survey participants by sector, college or university, and level of authority. 18 | p a g e table 4 sector participants and level of authority level of authority position n=114 colleges university total dean associate dean director chair coordinator faculty admissions recruitment 13 2 13 1 17 4 3 1 1 0 3 0 0 5 5 4 14 2 16 1 17 9 8 5 other* 28 14 42 total 82 32 * includes vp's administrative assistants, registrars, counsellors etc. 114 the largest number identified were in the other category of level of authority. within this category there was a variety of roles representing a broad spectrum of level of authority. the other category limited analysis due to the fragmented nature of the groupings with everything from vice president academics to counsellors. looking at only the defined categories, the dean/associate dean/director group represented a majority of survey participants, 32 of the 114 responses, at 28%. the next largest participation was the chair/coordinator/faculty group with 27 of the 114 responses, at 23.6%. faculty represented 7% of total respondents with admissions/recruitment had 13 of the total number, 11%. the variety of this category limited comparisons using the level of authority as a filter. for the purposes of analysis, deans, associate deans and directors were clustered together, having similar levels of authority. for the same reason, chairs, coordinators and faculty were considered as one, while admissions and recruitment were clustered with other to create a third group for analysis. in each category, there are more college participants than university, this is a reflection of the numbers of institutions, with 7 colleges and 3 universities. the amount of time and experience a person has with student mobility issues was another consideration. table 5 presents the experience level by year, of the various levels of authority. 19 | p a g e table 5 years of experience by level of authority years of experience level of authority* 1 to 5 6 to 10 11 to 15 16 to 20 20+ na dean 4 4 3 0 2 1 associate dean 0 1 1 0 0 0 director 5 4 3 0 4 0 chair 0 0 0 1 0 0 coordinator 4 4 4 1 4 0 faculty 0 3 1 0 4 1 admissions 2 4 1 0 0 0 recruitment 4 1 0 0 0 0 other** 16 6 3 0 5 0 *item non response rate accounts for variations in totals * *includes vp's administrative assistants, registrars, counsellors etc. when including the other category, 30% of respondents have experience of 1-5 years. however, if we discount the other category with its broad range of job classifications and levels of authority, the next highest group is the 6-10 years experience with 18% of the respondents. there are 19 participants with more than 20 years of experience in student mobility and credit transfer. given the inception of oncat in 2011, this depth of experience is impressive. however, due to the scope of levels of authority selecting the other category and variation in positions reported in defined categories, the ability to analyze the data in relation to levels of authority was limited. the first section of the survey asked the participants to identify how four statements about student mobility and credit transfer related to their institutions mission. all statements were related to values. the statements were: my work with credit transfer supports my organizations objectives; my institution encourages student mobility into our institutions; my institution encourages student mobility to other institutions; and my institution is focused on student mobility. the institutional responses to each statement were totaled, and averaged by statement, with all four statement averages aggregated to a total, for that section. the maximum aggregate for this comparison is 20, all four statements would need to be ranked at strongly agree to achieve the maximum. figure 1 provides the aggregated average, for this first cluster of statements by institution. 20 | p a g e university of sudbury northern lambton lakehead la cite confederation college boreal canadore cambrian algoma 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 my work with credit transfer supports my organization's objectives. my institution encourages student mobility into our institution. my institution encourages student mobility to other institutions. my institution is focused upon student mobility. figure 1 aggregate averages of mission related to student mobility when an organizations culture reflects the mission statement, then true alignment between mission and culture occurs (gurley, peters, collins, & fifolt, 2015). mission is critical to any postsecondary institution, and seeing student mobility within the mission is a statement of cultural value (simplico, 2012). while none of the ten institutions achieved a maximum ranking of 20 for the link between mission and culture, the total aggregates have a small range from 15.06 to 19.17. the university of sudbury at 15.06, commented in the key informant interview, that they were new to student mobility activity. northern college represents the highest average total, at 19.17, and is also relatively new to student mobility. in the qualitative interview, the concept of mission and vision as directly or indirectly linked to student mobility was confirmed by all ten institutions, and responses to this cluster of value related statements validate interview findings. a section on strategic enrolment management (sem) was included on the survey with four values related statements measuring sem and level of authority. the statements were: my supervisor encourages credit transfer activity; my supervisor supports my activity related to credit transfer; student mobility directives originate from the executive level in my organization; the activities for student mobility are directly connected to our institutions strategic enrollment management plan. aggregated averages were used once again and aggregating the four statements created a maximum of 20 for this section. figure 2 shows the stacked aggregate averages of the four statements linking student mobility, sem and level of authority with organizational culture and value. 21 | p a g e university of sudbury northern lambton lakehead la cite confederation college boreal canadore cambrian algoma 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 my supervisor encourages credit transfer activity. my supervisor supports my activity related to credit transfer. student mobility directives originate from the executive level at my institution. the activities for student mobility are directly connected to our institution's strategic enrollment management plan. figure 2 aggregate totals for strategic enrollment management and level of authority the range of responses within this section was a low of 15.10 and a high of 19.10. college boreal has the highest aggregate in this section. within this section, the aggregates do not come as close to 20 as the previous section, but do demonstrate similar patterns. of the four statements the response to the statement that directly connected mobility to sem had the lowest overall average, 3.97 just below agree on the likert scale. the range of averages was 1.06. the largest range in the single statements was: student mobility directives originate from the executive level of my institution, at 1.33. this could be an indication about confusion within the institution as to who directs this type of activity or a lack of communication on the issue within an institution. this statement had the lowest average in this section in nine out of 10 of the institutions. in the qualitative data, senior management was identified as a driver of these initiatives. this quantitative data implies this may not be well understood within an institution. examining the level of authority more closely, deans/associate deans/directors were clustered together as were chairs/faculty/coordinators and admissions/recruitment/other to compare perceptions of student mobility in relation to sem, for the same four statements. figure 3 shows the results of this comparison. 22 | p a g e 5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 encourages faculty/chair/coordinator supports originate with executive admissions/recruitment relation to sem dean/associate dean?director figure 3 comparison of sem statements by level of authority the averages changed slightly when grouped in this fashion. while the dean/associate dean/director level shows the highest averages across all four statements, the patterns are close together, and tend to mirror each other. the delta for the average responses in this statement is .59, while the final statement on the link to sem has all groups responding within a delta of .02, which indicates strong agreement. the widest delta occurs in response to the statement: my supervisor encourages credit transfer activity. given deans/directors are at a higher level of authority then faculty/chair/coordinator, the understanding of culture or perceptions of what is happening in relation to culture appears to be different when talking about student mobility. the higher the level of authority, the more likely to view this statement as agree to strongly agree. within the qualitative data, this was not acknowledged, however, the key informants themselves sat in a higher level of authority. for institutions to become culturally engaged in student mobility, there is a need for individual and institution to see return on investment credit transfer may offer. to measure this, seven statements on investment and funding in relation to student mobility were ranked. these seven statements were: creating and using student mobility practices is a good investment for my institution; there is/will be a return on investment for my institutions efforts on student mobility; i am aware that my institution has accessed special funding for student mobility; i am aware of the results my efforts have on credit transfer activity for students; i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives as a whole; i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives for my institution; and i am aware of the results for student mobility initiatives for specific schools of study. aggregated averages were used once again, with the seven statements creating a maximum of 35 in this section. the ten institutions offered responses about their personal role as well as their perception of the institution in relation to return on investment. figure 4 shows the aggregate averages when ranking return on investment for student mobility. 23 | p a g e university of sudbury northern lambton lakehead la cite confederation college boreal canadore cambrian algoma 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 35.00 creating and using student mobility practices is a good investment for my institution. there is/will be a return on investment for my institution's efforts on student mobility. i am aware that my institution has accessed special funding for student mobility. i am aware of the results my efforts have on credit transfer activity for students. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives as a whole. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives for my institution. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives for specific schools of study. figure 4 aggregate averages related to investment the range for responses in this section is greater than the previous seen in the previous two charts, at 6.8, from 22.4 for university of sudbury to a high of 29.2 for la cite. this greater range represents cultural influence differences across institutions. this cluster of aggregates had three institutional averages below 3.0, agree. note the first statement creating and using student mobility practices is a good investment for my institution has a very narrow range of averages, within 1 point on the likert scale. however, the statement i am aware of the results my efforts have on credit transfer activity for students, has a range of almost 2 full points. the final statement i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives for specific schools of study, had a range of averages of 1.3 points between institutions. the differences in the two statements reflect values and behaviours. while student mobility is valued and measured by the responses, the accompanying behaviour (results of activity) are not as clear to the participants as to impact. from this data, the responses indicate mobility is seen as good investment however, the impact 24 | p a g e or awareness of results is not readily seen by the respondents. the qualitative data did not reflect one of the ten key principles from katzenbach et al.(2016), which is demonstrate impact quickly. as impact of results was not noted in the interviews and the quantitative responses show some averages below the agree range, demonstrating impact may be a challenge for some institutions, or the culture is not developed enough for impact to be demonstrated. to further explore this cluster of statement responses, a sort of data by sector was used to view patterns between colleges and universities. figure 5 shows return on investment as viewed by sector. 5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 good investment roi funding my results colleges universitites whole results impact on institution figure 5 comparison by sector for return on investment both colleges and universities had identical averages when it came to awareness of funding for student mobility initiatives. overall, colleges ranked the idea of return on investment slightly higher than universities. the widest delta occurs around the statement, i am aware of the results my efforts have on student mobility, mirroring the results seen when compared by institution. within the qualitative data, the concept of engagement as part of the investment theme is reiterated here, and university employees may not have the opportunity to see the impact in the same way a college employee would. colleges responded with higher averages for individual impacts, then universities, again pointing to a cultural variance by sector. overall, this is a small range of differences but the differences are definitive. communication about processes is necessary to assure students access mobility opportunities. the survey had a series of statements dedicated to ease of access and use both in terms of information and accompanying process. statements reflect both individual behaviours and institutional practices. the statements were: information about credit transfer is easy to find for students; information about credit transfer is easy to find for staff; processes for credit transfer are easy to find; processes for credit transfer are easy to use; i can explain student mobility options and decision steps to the students in our department; our graduating students know about future mobility options when they leave our institution. 25 | p a g e figure 6 shows the results of this section, by sector, college and university. 5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 easy for students easy for staff processes easy to processes easy to find use colleges can explain to students graduates know universities figure 6 comparison by sector for information on decision making interesting to the researchers, was the pattern of almost parallel lines that occurred again for this comparison. the overall results for this section show lower averages then previous sections, with a range of 3.26 by universities when responding to it is easy for me to explain to students their mobility options to a high of 4.00 by colleges in response to i can explain student mobility options and decision steps to the students in our department. in this case, universities are ranking these statements higher, on average than their college counterparts. however, neither sector has given ease of use for students or staff a ranking that would equate to agree on the likert scale. nor are the processes easy to find or use according to the averages presented by both sectors here. overall this comparison had lower averages than previous sections of the survey. this would indicate communication distribution and application of information needs more attention. communication was commented on frequently in the qualitative narrative, with an emphasis on a number of activities to assure awareness. however, the responses in this section of the survey do not indicate effective communication is happening. communication is important for any culture. as identified in the literature, a corporate lexicon reflecting student mobility is necessary to assure a culture of mobility is in existence. participants were asked to rank various statements related to communications and student mobility, from within their institutions. the statements were: i have taken part in/received communications about student mobility at my institution; i am aware of student mobility opportunities in my department; the departments that need to understand credit transfer within my institution, do understand; there is a high level of awareness of credit transfer activities within my institution. with four statements, the aggregate maximum for this series of statements is 20. figure 4 presents the aggregated averages for this cluster of statements in the survey. 26 | p a g e university of sudbury northern lambton lakehead la cite confederation college boreal canadore cambrian algoma 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 i have taken part in/received communication about student mobility at my institution. i am aware of the student mobility opportunities for students in my department. departments that need to understand credit transfer within my institution, do understand. there is a high level of awareness of credit transfer activities within my institution. figure 7 aggregate averages of communication and student mobility here the ranges of average responses becomes wider, with a low of 12.10 out of 20 to a high of 17.83 out of 20. the broadest range of responses was with the statement there is a high level of awareness of credit transfer activities within my institution, at 1.7 points. this was the lowest ranked statement in this series of statements on the survey, indicating communication and awareness in the culture at institutions maybe a challenge. as the range of averages continues to widen, communication and awareness show different levels in different institutions. to further explore this section, the two sectors, colleges and universities, were separated with responses plotted. figure 8 shows the aggregate average responses by sector, college and university. 27 | p a g e 5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 participate aware colleges understand level of awareness universities figure 8 comparison by sector of communication figure 8 again shows almost parallel responses to the statements, with universities responding lower averages than their college colleagues. the differences between the responses is .36 to .57 of a point, depending upon the statement. the pattern is clear in both sectors, individual participation and awareness is ranked higher than departmental and institutional understanding of credit transfer and student mobility. this would be a key aspect of institutional culture to address. the continued parallel responses between sectors could be an indicator of organizational differences. practices and behaviours are the permanence to culture (kuka, 2012). what we do speaks more to our culture than what we say we do. eight statements related to behaviours/practices were provided in the survey. the statements were: it is easy for me to explain to students their mobility options; my supervisor encourages handling of credit transfers as a priority for me; my institution encourages handling of credit transfer as a priority for me; handling credit transfer activities is a priority for me; i understand the importance of credit transfer to my institution; i understand the importance of credit transfer to my students; i understand the importance of credit transfer to my role. this created the potential for aggregate averages to a maximum of 40. figure 9 shows the aggregate averages of these 8 statements by institution. 28 | p a g e university of sudbury northern lambton lakehead la cite confederation college boreal canadore cambrian algoma 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 i regularly interact with staff whose job is specifically related to student mobility. it is easy for me to explain to students their mobility options. my supervisor encourages handling of credit transfers as a priority for me. my institution encourages handling of credit transfer as a priority for me. handling credit transfer activities is a priority for me. i understand the importance of credit transfer to my institution. i understand the importance of credit transfer to my students. i understand the importance of credit transfer in my role. figure 9 aggregated averages of behaviours/practices it is within the behaviour statements, we see the greatest range of responses yet, with a differentiation of 14 points over 8 statements. northern college has a high of 36.23, with canadore college at 34.81. the statements about priorities had ranges of approximately 2 points each. understanding the importance of credit transfer within an individuals role had a range of 1.35, while regularly interacting with those whose job is related to student mobility had a range of 1.2. when behaviours reflect priorities, it can be assumed it is well embedded within culture. this figure would indicate institutions have a culture of mobility that may not be fully actualized, with behaviours inconsistent with priorities. a closer examination of behaviours was conducted to see how the various behaviours ranked when sorted by sector. figure 10 shows the rankings for all 8 behaviours by sector, college and university. 29 | p a g e 5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 colleges universities figure 10 comparison by sector of behaviours/practices again, an almost parallel line of responses occurs between the two sectors with the colleges between .33 to .67 points higher on all statements. what this means may be sectorial differences in behaviours due to structure and hierarchy of a college compared with a university. behaviours reflect what the culture represents and in this case, while the importance is recognized with higher rankings by both sectors, the regularity and ease of the behaviour are ranked lower. during the qualitative interviews, the key informants were clear on their roles within the institution, and the priorities, however, this did not come through with the same assuredness in the quantitative data. with such consistent and close results when compared by sector, the researchers compiled a differentiation graph for two of the statement clusters. the clusters chosen for this graph were behaviour and information sharing. figure 11 shows the deltas. behaviour information sharing -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 universities figure 11 deltas by sector for information sharing and behaviour 30 | p a g e 0.2 0.4 colleges 0.6 0.8 viewing the information from just the deltas, demonstrates the variation of differences more clearly then looking at just the aggregate averages. in the case of behaviour, the colleges are showing consistently higher averages than the universities with a range of .3 to .7. when comparing information sharing, the universities have consistently higher averages with a range of .25 to .39. there is a consistent variation in responses between the two sectors. the consistency of the variations and the size of the variations across all the statement clusters is hard to explain. corporate lexicon is important to cultural development and sustainability (mueller r. , 2015). therefore, the survey offered a series of words tied to the lexicon of mobility. survey participants were asked if they understood certain words common to student mobility and credit transfer. the survey participants were also asked if their institution used these words in the corporate culture. with these statements, there three choices, yes, somewhat or no. table 6 shows the results of the combined somewhat/no answers, indictors the terminology was not clearly understood. table 6 understanding and using terminology somewhat/no lexicon n=114 advanced standing transfer credit course to course transfer degree completion pathways course equivalency ontransfer.ca oncat i understand the following terms my institution uses the following terms on a regular basis 16.0% 4.0% 13.0% 7.0% 11.0% 9.6% 34.0% 34.0% 11.0% 2.6% 31.5% 9.6% 7.8% 7.0% 51.7% 46.0% advanced standing as a term was not well understood by individuals and participants reflected this in their ranking of the institution use. course to course transfer was considered by participants to be not well understood with 31.5% estimating their institutions did not use the term on a regular basis. when it came to the terms ontransfer.ca and oncat, one third of individuals did not feel they understood the meaning while close to half of the participants did not believe it was used on a regular basis within their institutions. these terms are part of the lexicon and environment creating a culture of mobility, understanding and use is vital to cultural growth and sustainability. the qualitative data had many statements about use of terms, and introduction of simpler language. the quantitative data would support language needs to be better understood in the lexicon of student mobility. both qualitative and quantitative data offered rich information about the culture of mobility as it exists today in these ten institutions. the expression of values from the key informant surveys is validated by the quantitative results. as the demonstration and exhibition of values was more deeply explored, it became apparent that not all behaviours/practices aligned with the values. the alignment is close but not exact, which means the culture is not at an ideal state. given the data from this study, the researchers defined various states of culture which explain alignment and maturation of the culture. this is extrapolated in the next section. 31 | p a g e best practices and lessons learned the data accumulated for this study went far beyond the researchers expectations. the interest and level of enthusiasm was totally unexpected and very much appreciated by the researchers. unlike other studies the researchers have done, the data flowed freely and quickly, and offers to provide more data came in all through the study. there appeared to be a great willingness to explore this topic among all ten institutions. with so much learned, it is a challenge to capture it all into this report, but there are research questions to answer, and that is the purpose of this section. what is a culture of mobility? in the literature review, a preliminary definition of the culture of mobility was given as a culture of mobility indicator could be defined by demonstration of these key principles referring to the ten principles identified by katzenbach, oelshlegel, &thomas, 2016. in the previous study, measuring the cost of credit transfer in small colleges, the researchers identified two distinct aspects of culture within each institution studied, these were the forming and established cultures. at the time, the researchers were asked what is the tipping point to move from forming to established? the tipping point is moving from a dispersed distribution of pathways duties to a dedicated pathways position, or centralized resource to manage pathways. what the researchers have learned in this study is the dedicated position is not just a tipping point rather it is the beginning of more cultural change and growth. based upon this realization, the researchers theorized, a culture of mobility exists on a spectrum. this spectrum has stages the researchers have identified as forming, established, mature and ideal. the researchers have conceptualized this spectrum with distinct separations but overlapping areas, visually represented by a linear venn diagram (see figure 12). each stage of this cultural development has indicators and best practices. for example, in a forming culture, pathways duties are dispersed, and the lexicon is being learned. in an established culture, a dedicated resource is established for pathways, and activities are centralized. in a mature culture, the actions are now proactive, looking ahead to what can be done, and in an ideal culture, values, mission, vision, and behaviours/practices are in perfect alignment. the best practices identified in this study can be mapped to a specific stage of development in the culture of mobility spectrum. based upon the quantitative results, the institutions could map themselves to this spectrum, identify where they are, and also define where they want to be. from this mapping, institutions could select a best practice from another stage of the spectrum, try the best practice and attempt to move to a new phase of cultural development. from the data the researchers would map the ten institutions to various places on the spectrum ranging from forming to almost mature. in some cases, the institution may rest in the overlap area between two phases. none of the institutions would have an ideal culture, and in fact, that may never be achievable for any institution. moving through the various phases on the spectrum may be an example of the old adage the journey is more important than the destination. as a follow up to this study, each institution will receive an outline of their specific results along with a discussion about where their institution could be located on this spectrum. 32 | p a g e best practices established values and behaviours articulated dedicated resources forming established figure 12 the culture of mobility spectrum 33 | p a g e fully aligned mission, values and behaviours proactive planning for future enhancements mature ideal why is a culture of mobility important? culture reflects what is important to an institution (watkins, 2013). a culture of mobility positions the institution for seamless program delivery, improved access for learners, a stronger success strategy and participation in a system wide approach to education. this was articulated in the qualitative data, and partially supported in the quantitative data. credit transfer, pathways and articulation have been set as priorities for the province (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2016), and the need for student mobility will increase as global approaches to student mobility become a reality (voorhees & harvey, 2005). the result could be disastrous for an institution to ignore mobility, and presume the students they see will only need what their institution has to offer. as evidenced by the missions and visions of this group of institutions, the priorities are clear and they have taken a logical approach to mobility by incorporating it. a further demonstration of importance is including it in strategic plans and building business plans with this in mind (mueller r. , 2015). by recognizing the potential for students within mobility frameworks the institution is setting the stage for a culture of mobility. in turn the culture of mobility supports the values the institution is driving to espouse. what are the key determinants of a culture of mobility? the key determinants of a culture of mobility are those behaviours/practices which demonstrate how mobility is achieved within their institution (kuka, 2012). returning to muellers 2014 work, culture is expressed, demonstrated and exhibited. most notably those determinants are values, communication, including a lexicon around student mobility, information sharing, and engagement at all levels of authority in the commitment to student mobility. therefore, what is expressed in the mission and values is one determinant of a culture of mobility. this value is then brought to life through the behaviours/practices. for those institutions with a pathways officer, this practice is an indicator of a culture of mobility. those institutions formulating proactive approaches to culture are demonstrating culture at a more advanced level, or mature. culture has to permeate every level of the institution with values and behaviours/ practices aligned to achieve an ideal culture. to solidify this concept, table 7 was developed to map indicators to the culture of mobility spectrum phases. table 7 cultural determinants by development phase values information sharing 34 | p a g e indicators of culture of mobility by phase forming established mature expressed in the expressed in the expressed in the mission and vision mission and vision mission and exhibited in the vision exhibited in the strategic plan strategic plan and business plan expressed desire for student flow of information may have institution to institution flow of information expressed desire and demonstrated internal to student flow of information institution to institution flow of information demonstrated and exhibited internal to student flow of information and exhibited institution to institution flow of information ideal expressed in the mission and vision exhibited in the strategic plan and business plan demonstrated values fully aligned with organizational activity demonstrated and exhibited internal to student flow of information and demonstrated and exhibited institution to institution flow of information forming communication lexicon engagement by level of authority indicators of culture of mobility by phase established mature expressed wish to share waitlists increasing awareness no formal lexicon maintaining awareness partial lexicon some are engaged, likely at higher levels of authority majority are engaged but not equally distributed throughout levels of authority expanding awareness full lexicon looking to develop breadth understood by most majority are engaged at all levels authority ideal demonstrated and exhibited sharing of waitlists transforming awareness full lexicon breadth and depth completely understood by all all are engaged equal engagement at all levels of authority what values are demonstrated in a culture of mobility? the values associated with a culture of mobility are those identified in this study: access, student success, faculty engagement and mobility, but the researchers believe there is more to discover around the values and how they drive culture. this does not mean there are no other values associated with student mobility, further exploration would undoubtedly find more; however, these four values were clearly defined within this study. the expressed values in this study are the cornerstone of each of the ten institutions within the mission and vision statements (gurley, peters, collins, & fifolt, 2015). mueller, 2014 defines a need for alignment of values with demonstrated practices. the behaviours/practices do not appear to be fully aligned with the values statements based upon the survey responses. why do small institutions want or need a culture of mobility? given the mandate for all institutions in ontario to promote student mobility, credit transfer and articulation, the need for a culture of mobility is clear (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2016). mobility is a government priority, the need for mobility is going to grow and understanding mobility with all of its nuances will increase. enrollment challenges will increase over the next ten years as the direct entry population declines. mobility is seen as a potential offset to enrollment challenges, so the practical applications for mobility reinforce the altruistic intentions as stated in the mission and vision. if an institution understands its culture of mobility, the institution is in a better position to manage and expand that culture, and thus meet both its mandate as a postsecondary institution and the governments priorities for seamless student mobility. at the same time, this improves access, an articulated value found in this study. how can a culture of mobility be created and sustained? based upon the findings in this study, the ten institutions can be plotted on the culture of mobility spectrum to identify their stage. using this benchmark, an institution can make an informed choice as to which phase on the spectrum it should be on. setting a goal to move on the spectrum would generate practices that demonstrate values, further developing the culture of mobility. assessing their alignment of values with their practices and behaviours would be a next step in determining how to create or sustain their culture (simplico, 2012). using indicators from this study, a choice could be made to apply a best 35 | p a g e practice new to the institution to demonstrate impact on their culture, and measure movement on the spectrum. table 8 shows best practices identified in this study, cross referenced to the culture of mobility spectrum. table 8 spectrum stages and best practices stage on the spectrum forming established mature best practice demonstrated complete transfers as the need arises work on formal arrangement develop communications tools to promote student mobility information dispersed to managers information sharing through a variety of means, websites, workshops, fliers, open forums workshops for staff and faculty establish policy terminology is explored - example; advanced standing means something different from transfer credit pathways officer connect program development to laddering opportunities align vocational outcomes and find common themes with a cluster of programs outreach activities website information readily available student success advisor working on pathways target student mobility to enhance enrollment policies established on student mobility terminology is confirmed advise students of their pathways and transfer credit options when they are accepted conduct environmental scans for potential student mobility gather data about where the students are going assess pathway utilization student mobility demonstrated as an enrollment strategy policies updated for student mobility needs lexicon is developed the findings showed the culture of mobility is growing in the ontario postsecondary system. clear stages are seen, and indicators at each stage are demonstrated. this culture can be shaped as the institutions need. understanding how to shape their cultures or ultimately what they want their culture to be is an exciting opportunity for both colleges and universities. 36 | p a g e conclusions culture is a dynamic organism in an organization. the culture of mobility seen in this research exists on a spectrum. the spectrum has four distinct stages: forming where the culture tends to be dispersed; established where the culture is centralized and more automated; mature where the activities become proactive and future focused and ideal where there is perfect alignment between mission, values and behaviours/practices. the ten institutions in this study appear to be in the late forming stage to the early mature stages, and each institution has a unique story to tell. institutions are willing to make the investments in mobility to assure they are meeting the values they espouse around access and student success. the interest and enthusiasm for this project encouraged the researchers and point to many new areas of exploration in relation to the culture of mobility spectrum. a key observation within the study was the reporting of underutilized pathways. this study did not inventory these pathways or explore why they were underutilized, but it was mentioned frequently in the qualitative data and needs to be looked at more closely. a provincial inventory and assessment of underutilized pathways would give insight into new directions for pathways and further expansion of mobility opportunities. why the pathways are underutilized, is a question that needs to be explored to assure investment in mobility is generating a return. while there is strong commitment to student mobility, and the cultures have clearly articulated values of access, student success faculty engagement and mobility, the data shows a mismatch between what is said and what is done. the gaps in behaviour and practices appear to reflect inconsistencies in both communication and practices. the gaps were more apparent when discussing institutional practices rather than individual behaviours. the gaps occurred in both sectors, colleges and universities. this is a reflection of the cultural stage many of the institutions are at, and why the researchers theorize an ideal culture would have perfect alignment between mission, values and practices. with gaps identified, institutions can take steps to introduce practices to address or fill the gaps. the colleges and universities in this study showed consistent but minor differences in culture between the two sectors. these consistent differences are hard to explain, however, the structures and processes are different in the two sectors. the challenge to explain is why the differences are so consistent in every cluster of statements examined. there were no extremes or major gaps, simply a consistent, small difference. there were only three universities in this study, with twice as many colleges. thirty university people responded compared with approximately 90 college colleagues. averages were the comparator, so the number of participants has an impact, which may be the reason for the close and consistent results, however, this is an estimation by the researchers not a confirmation. as global student mobility becomes a reality, the willingness and enthusiasm to grow opportunities will probably increase. given the enthusiasm for this study, small institutions appear to be very keen. the sharing of waitlists to promote student access is a novel idea explored in this study that may grow along with the enthusiasm for student mobility as a strategic enrollment management tool. time will tell. a culture of mobility is necessary in a world where student mobility will cross international boundaries and geography. a global vision for mobility is coming, and all learning, formal and informal, will need to be measured and tracked to certify what a person knows and how they know it. the global economy will dictates this. therefore, as a system, if we value student access, this value will drive the practices we need to establish for our students to have access to a global system. a culture of mobility meets a provincial priority but may ultimately be a factor in helping ontario as a global competitor. 37 | p a g e recommendations the researchers view this study as a middle point in exploring culture as it relates to mobility. there is much work to do, to assure seamless mobility for students in ontario. recommendations from this study are made based upon that idea. recommendation one: an inventory of underutilized pathways be compiled with an assessment of why the pathways are underutilized recommendation two: a trial of best practices applied to specific cultures be tested to determine impact and movement on the culture of mobility spectrum recommendation three: an exploration of processes for student application to a college or university which results in an automated pathway generated for the student be completed recommendation four: a formal corporate lexicon of mobility be established provincially and published on the oncat website recommendation five: an exploration of a formal process to share waitlists for oversubscribed programs in colleges or universities be considered 38 | p a g e references algoma university . (2010-2015). institutional plan. sault ste. marie: algoma university. algoma university. (2016-2020). strategic plan process. sault ste. marie: algoma university. cambrian college of applied arts and technology. (2015-2016). business plan. sudbury, on: cambrian college of applied arts and technology. canadore college. (2017). skilled solution 2017 canadore college strategic plan . 2017: canadore college. canadore college. (may 19th 2015). business plan . north bay, on: canadore college. college boreal. (2014-2015). annual report. sudbury, on: college boreal. college boreal. (2015-20120). plan strategique. sudbury, on: college boreal. confederation college. (2017). strategic plan path to 2020. retrieved from confederation: http://www.confederationcollege.ca/strategic-plan gurley, d. k., peters, g. b., collins, l., & fifolt, m. (2015). mission, vision, values, and goals: an exploration of key organizational statements and daily practise in schools. journal of educational change, 217-241. harrison, m. (2005). diagnosing orgnaizations: methods, models, and processes. thousand oaks: sage publications. hicks, m., weingarten, h., jonker, l., & liu, s. (2013). the diversity of ontario's colleges. toronto: higher education quality council. katzenbach, j., oelschlegel, c., & thomas, j. (2016, february 15th). 10 principles of organizational culture. retrieved from strategy and business: http://www.strategy-business.com/article/10principles-of-organizational-culture?gko=71d2f kuka, j. (2012). monitoring cultural indicators. iccpr (p. 8). barcelona: iccpr. la cit. (2016). vision 2018 plan stratgique 2013-2018. retrieved from la cit collegiate: http://www.collegelacite.ca/documents/39427/169480/vision_2018_plan_strategique_20132018.pdf lakehead university . (2013, 10 1). nurturing a passion to lead strategic plan 2013-2018. retrieved from lakehead university : https://www.lakeheadu.ca/presidents-office/nurturing-passion lambton college. (2017). strategic priorities. retrieved from lambton college : http://www.lambtoncollege.ca/strategic_priorities/ mueller, r. (2014). a general model of organizational values in educational administration. educational management admis, (42) 5, 640-656. mueller, r. (2015). do values drive the plan? investigating the nature and role of organizational values in university strategic planning. teritary education and management, 41-55. 39 | p a g e northern college of applied arts and technology. (2013-2016). strategic plan. south porcupine: northern college of applied arts and technology. oncat. (2014). principles for credit transfer . toronto : oncat. ontario council on articulation and transfer. (2016). oncat annual report 2015-2016. toronto: oncat. penner, a. j. (2007). performance indicators, funding and quality. calgary: university of calgary. penner, a., & howieson, t. (2016). measuring the cost of credit transfer in small colleges . toronto, ontario : oncat. simplico, d. j. (2012). the university culture. journal of educational change, 336-339. university of sudbury. (n.d.). mssion and values . retrieved from university of sudbury- about us: http://usudbury.ca/en/about-us/mission-and-values velden, g. v. (2012). institutional level student engagement and organisational cultures. higher education quarterly, 227-247. voorhees, r., & harvey, l. (2005). workforce development and higher education. san fransisco: joseybase . watkins, m. d. (2013). what is organizational culture? and why should we care? harvard business review. 40 | p a g e appendix a: key informant interview questions part one- values 1. how do you see student mobility reflected in your institutions mission/vision statement? 2. how do your staff, faculty, and senior administration demonstrate engagement in and commitment to policies and processes regarding student mobility at your institution? 3. when you think of the level of authority of people involved in student mobility at your institution, how does that link to your institutions strategic enrollment management plan? 4. what are your thoughts on the hypothetical scenario of sharing a wait list of your oversubscribed programs with institutions that offer the same programs? 5. when you consider the time your institution invests in student mobility, what do you see as the value for this investment? (clarification: what are you getting for the time spent?) part two- practices 1. how does your institution inform various relevant departments about student mobility activities you are initiating? please provide an overview of all forms of communications 2. what are any new procedural behaviours of staff and faculty that indicate how your institution supports student mobility? 3. what are some of the new terms or language that students, staff and faculty are using to indicate student mobility has become part of your day to day work? 4. in what way does your institution provide information to help students make decisions about their mobility options? 5. what are your institutions plans regarding student mobility over the next three to five years? part three- challenges 6. change can be challenging. a. will you describe some of the challenges your institution has experienced related to increasing student mobility? b. and how has your institution dealt with these challenges? 7. one challenge that other institutions have described is related to course/program ownership a. if you have experienced this, might that ownership stand in the way of their accepting credits from other institutions in the same subject matter? b. how do you usually deal with this challenge? wrap up 8. can you think of anything else you would like to talk about regarding your institutional culture around student mobility? 41 | p a g e appendix b: quantitative survey 42 | p a g e culture of mobility 1. your institution: algoma university cambrian college canadore college college boreal confederation college la cite collegiale lakehead university lambton college northern college university of sudbury 2. how long have you been working at your institution? (in years) 1 3. what is your role at your institution? faculty coordinator chair dean associate dean admissions director recruitment other (please specify) 4. how long have you been working on student mobility? less than 2 years 2 - 4 years more than 4 years 2 culture of mobility part 1: values 1. mission vision strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree my work with credit transfer supports my organization's objectives. my institution encourages student mobility into our institution. my institution encourages student mobility to other institutions. my institution is focused upon student mobility. student mobility comes to mind when i read my institutions mission/vision statement. 3 2. employee engagement strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree i collaborate with my colleagues when dealing with student mobility processes last school year, my colleagues and i had more discussions about student mobility with each other than in previous years. 3. i have been discussing student mobility with students for (choose the time frame that best describes your situation) 1 year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years over 5 years 4. sem and level of authority strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree my supervisor encourages credit transfer activity. my supervisor supports my activity related to credit transfer. student mobility directives originate from the executive level at my institution. the activities for student mobility are directly connected to our institution's strategic enrollment management plan. 4 5. waitlists strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree one way to address student mobility that my institution may explore is the possibly of sharing wait list information with other institutions. sharing wait list information between institutions is a good idea. sharing wait list information between institutions could get complicated. 6. return on investment creating and using student mobility practices is a good investment for my institution. there is/will be a return on investment for my institution's efforts on student mobility. i am aware that my institution has accessed special funding for student mobility. i am aware of the results my efforts have on credit transfer activity for students. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives as a whole. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives for my institution. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives for specific schools of study. 5 culture of mobility part 2: practices 1. communication about student mobility strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree i have taken part in/received communication about student mobility at my institution. i am aware of the student mobility opportunities for students in my department. departments that need to understand credit transfer within my institution, do understand. there is a high level of awareness of credit transfer activities within my institution. 7 2. behaviours strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree i regularly interact with staff whose job is specifically related to student mobility. it is easy for me to explain to students their mobility options. my supervisor encourages handling of credit transfers as a priority for me. my institution encourages handling of credit transfer as a priority for me. handling credit transfer activities is a priority for me. i understand the importance of credit transfer to my institution. i understand the importance of credit transfer to my students. i understand the importance of credit transfer in my role. 3. i understand the following terms yes somewhat no advanced standing transfer credit course to course transfer degree completion pathways course equivalency ontranfer.ca oncat 8 4. my institution uses the following terms on a regular basis yes somewhat no advanced standing transfer credit course to course transfer degree completion pathways course equivalency ontranfer.ca oncat 5. how information is provided to help student decision making strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree information about credit transfer is easy to find for students. information about credit transfer is easy to find for staff. processes for credit transfer are easy to find. processes for credit transfer are easy to use. i can explain student mobility options and decision steps to the students in our department. our graduating students know about future student mobility options when they leave our institutions. 9 6. plans for the future strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree my supervisor encourages me to show leadership on credit transfer issues. my institution encourages me to show leadership on credit transfer issues. i encourage others to show leadership on credit transfer issues. expansion of student mobility options is part of my institution's 3-5 year plan. my institution recognizes that we need to encourage this new type of student. funding opportunities must continue in order for us to continue on the path of developing student mobility opportunities. 10 culture of mobility part c: challenges 1. perceptions strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree meeting student expectation of service is difficult in my department. my institution is moving towards being proactive instead of reactive to student mobility as a way to deal with student mobility challenges. perception of the value of college diploma as it applies to university credit can be a challenge in student mobility. finding resources to put student mobility plans in place is a challenge. 11 2. program ownership strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree more colleagues are focusing upon student success and meeting student mobility needs. my colleagues are open to including their programs or courses in relation to student mobility. my colleagues are open to accepting programs or courses in relation to student mobility. i appreciate the need to continue with student mobility initiatives. it is necessary to work together with other institutions to address student success in mobility. 3. there seems to be more trust in the student mobility processes in the past ____ year(s). 1 year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5+ years 12 culture of mobility summary 1. on the following scale, rate your institution on its progress regarding student mobility in the last 3 years. ahead average behind other (please specify) 13

carleton university supporting the success of transfer students project owner: suzanne blanchard, associate vice-president (students & enrolment) team leader: janice ofarrell, director admissions services team members: david taylor, transfer student advisor student academic success centre richard nimijean, assistant dean faculty of arts & social sciences perry legakis, director student awards stenley philippe, telecounselling supervisor undergraduate recruitment facilitator: scott gonsalves, senior quality advisor (office of quality initiatives) executive summary the credit transfer innovation fund supports a specific range of activities aligned with mtcus current priorities for development of credit transfer pathways in ontario as well as research on the student experience of transfer, including experiences during the process of transfer and experiences after transfer, such as communication of transfer credits granted, orientation to new institution, academic preparation for new institution, etc. this benchmarking project was undertaken not only as part of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) five year $73.7m commitment to improve student mobility in ontario but also supports goals 1-1 and 1-2 of carletons strategic integrated plan to develop new programs and initiatives that build on academic strengths and respond to societal needs and "to diversify the student population at carleton in order to offset the projected decline in the traditional domestic student market". carleton university already offers a number of transition and academic support services for first-year students. transfer students see themselves as a distinct population and even though they need many of the same services, they often assume that the workshops and programs are designed for younger students. in addition, transfer students have unique needs around registration and integrating with already established peer groups. the purpose of these recommendations is to develop timely, targeted communications, to promote already existing services as well as to coordinate and enhance current services to better meet the specific needs of transfer students. one of the measures of the strategic plan is to increase the number of students transferring to carleton from ontario colleges. reaching out to these students with targeted services that best addresses their specific needs will have a positive impact on their transfer experience, help optimize their time to degree completion and help ensure their academic success. recommendation 1: develop a position of coordinator of pathways to advocate and coordinate interdepartmental efforts to continually improve support services and programming for transfer students. it is recommended that carleton pilot a new position of coordinator of pathways to advocate and coordinate interdepartmental efforts to continually improve all aspects of the transfer student experience. this portfolio ultimately falls under the direction of the associate vice-president (students and enrolment) however there currently is not a role dedicated to enacting the types of initiatives recommended in this report on a consistent basis. the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) currently has a credit transfer innovation fund that may be a source of funding for this position, at least on a pilot basis. 1|page recommendation 2: implement a peer mentorship program to allow for student-to-student advice and support, including referrals to campus services. transfer students with personal connections with returning students identified them as the most important resource for advice, information and transition. to offer all transfer students this type of resource, it is recommended that a peer mentoring program be created to match new transfer students with a trained, upper-year peers to offer them advice and support, including providing referrals to the appropriate campus services. recommendation 3: actively promote pre-registration advising in early june for transfer students, including in-person and virtual advising sessions. it is recommended that the student academic success centre and/or departmental advisors actively promote pre-registration advising in early june (prior to the fall registration period) for transfer students. this should include in-person advising appointments for those in the ottawa area and virtual (email, phone or video conferencing) advising sessions for those who cannot visit campus. showing students how to access and read their audit, helping them in course selection, confirming expected course restrictions, and referring them to registration and academic support would allow students to have a much easier registration experience so that they can be confident they are in the right courses. recommendation 4: encourage the two faculties involved to explore methods to allow upperyear transfer students to register in first-year seminars. it is recommended that the faculty of public affairs and the faculty of arts and social sciences be encouraged to investigate methods by which spaces in fysm courses could be made available to second-year transfer students. in addition, promoting the advantages and importance of these seminars to all transfer students transitioning into the carleton environment should be undertaken. it is hoped that the small class sizes emphasizing group work, instructor mentorship, interactive learning, and early assessment/evaluation will help students achieve their academic goals and have a positive impact on transfer students, as they transition to university and prepare for upper-year studies. recommendation 5: further align programming and services to the needs of transfer students it should be noted that radical change in service delivery is not necessary to meet the needs of transfer students but more nuanced adjustments are recommended in the area of communications, language, targeting and workshop design. this is expected to better promote the value of student services to transfer students as well as better matching service offerings and programs to their needs. these needs are expected to evolve over time and the main role of the coordinator of pathways role (see 2|page recommendation 1) will be to solicit ongoing feedback in order to keep abreast of the changing needs of transfer students and advise academic departments and student support services to make the necessary adjustments to meet those needs, when required. recommendation 6: develop a communications strategy to specifically target the transfer student population (new and existing) including targeted email, centralized web resources, and social media. transfer students need much of the same information as other students however the language needs to be adjusted and, in some cases, they should not receive information that is not pertinent to them. clearly flagging email as for transfer students is one way to alert them to a message that they should pay attention to. having a centralized website as a key information resource that they can refer to is also a way to minimize the information gap. curating news posts and web information and customizing that information to provide clarity for transfer students would offer them a singular information resource they can refer to. lastly, use social media to connect transfer students with each other, especially new students with returning, can offer an informal, two-way information source that can also facilitate personal connections amongst students. it can also be used to proactively see where students are having difficulties and adjust other communications mediums as a result. november 2013 3|page

executive summary this project aimed to build a bridge between programs in the trades, health and business fields from collge boral and collge la cit. these institutions share a mutual interest in exploring innovative transfer paths between certain programs, to help students not only acquire technical, technological, practical and theoretical knowledge, but also benefit from expertise and partnerships with the regional industry of each institution, with the ultimate goal of serving francophone communities in ontario. the results of the analysis of various transfer path projects were that some of them proved achievable while others couldn't be established due to a lack of affinity between the programs. rigorous work processes were developed and used to determine the relevance and contents of transfer paths between the programs, while focusing on the value added and the creation of conditions that would assure students' success. 2 oncat 2014-16 executive summary

laurentian university tracking student success for credit transfer students at laurentian: executive summary contract file 2013-05 christine blais, phd executive director, centre for academic excellence meghan harper, ma, academic advisor, centre for academic excellence executive summary the new ontransfer.ca web-site/database is a wonderful planning tool to help students who are debating whether or not to attend or transfer to another post-secondary institution in ontario. however, in some cases, once the student has been admitted and is enrolled at a university the path is often no longer as well defined. this is the case at laurentian university. this project evolved in order to answer questions regarding the transfer student experience before targeted programming for them could be developed. transfer students are likely the most diverse group of students in terms of the range of ages as well as their individual and unique situations. despite this diversity the main academic concerns of transfer students are generally consistent; they are most concerned with the length of time they have to graduation, financial matters, and the number and actual transfer of credits approved for transfer. when a transfer student arrives at university, they often experience transfer shock due to the new campus culture. differing ways of counting credits, different academic regulations, and a different registration process are all areas of confusion for this population. transfer student programming, therefore, plays a major role in retention strategies. this report presents laurentians data on college transfer students over multiple years, including number of applications received and accepted compared to eventual enrolments, as well as the top ten disciplines to which transfer students both applied and were accepted. information for this report was collected from various north american universities, peer reviewed journals, and the nacada website. in addition, a transfer student survey was sent out to each of the 1200 transfer students that began at laurentian in 2013. the aim of this survey was to collect feedback from transfer students about laurentians current processes and supports. the survey, developed in survey monkey, was sent 3 times: january 2013, may 2013 and september 2013. a total of 85 students responded, equivalent to a 7% response rate. in an attempt to hear more about students experiences at laurentian, focus groups in both english and french were organized. recognizing the unique needs of transfer students, it is important to fashion specific supports and services for this population. this report proposes a transfer student specific orientation (sample orientation schedule included), a registration booklet geared specifically to transfer students needs, and an online tutorial or registration guide to provide transfer students with an avenue to be self-reliant and to access accurate information quickly and easily. after completion of this study laurentian has decided to implement systems and programming that are targeted towards the transfer student population, improve the initial student experience, and work to create a welcoming atmosphere where transfer students feel they can belong.

executive summary this report presents phase one of the indigenous program pathways inventory project (herein referred to as the indigenous pathways project). for the purposes of this project a pathway is defined as a route from one program to another program that contains specified eligibility requirements and awarded transfer credits and/or other benefits to be applied at the receiving institution (adapted from ontransfer, online). an indigenous program is defined as any program which is rooted in or directed toward indigenous peoples knowledges, practices and experiences. in september 2016, aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities in ontario were sent an online survey containing 42 multiple choice and open-ended questions designed to provide a comprehensive snapshot of indigenous pathways in ontario. in total forty-six individuals participated in the survey, representing 30 institutions. colleges had the highest response rate at 75%, followed by universities (41%) and aboriginal institutes (33%). in december 2016, survey respondents who had indicated in their survey response that they were willing to participate in a follow-up conversation were contacted. twelve follow-up conversations took place between mid-december 2016 and early january 2017. the follow-up conversations allowed participants to expand upon their survey responses and to provide comment and reaction to the survey results. these activities were followed by a roundtable discussion in march 2017 to substantiate the interpretation of findings. fourteen individuals, representing 10 post-secondary institutions partook in the day long gathering to comment on the draft report and to craft an indigenous program pathways action plan based off report recommendations. this report provides a summary of survey results and the subsequent follow-up conversations and concludes with a series of recommendations to support wholistic and accessible pathways, collaborative and communitydriven pathways, pathway expansion, enhanced data collection, indigenous approaches to pathway development and commitment to indigenous education. key findings from the report are listed below: sixty-seven percent (n=20) of participating institutions have indigenous programs in place. the most widespread areas of study are social services (e.g. child welfare, social work, mental health and addictions), preparatory studies (e.g. bridging programs, general arts and science), and health (e.g. nursing, paramedic, pre-health). there are no reported indigenous pathways developed in the disciplines of justice (e.g. police foundations, law, forensic psychology), hospitality and tourism (e.g. culinary arts, travel services, hotel management) and aviation. the most common credential learners hold entering an indigenous pathway is a diploma and the most common credential learners hope to gain from an indigenous pathway is an honours bachelors degree. the most common amount of credit received was less than two years but more than one year. indigenous program pathways inventory five institutions indicated that they track learners who enter their institution through an indigenous pathway. a need for better data on indigenous pathways was identified. no significant relationship was found between the maximum number of credits awarded in a pathway in relation to: level of collaboration between the sending and receiving institution in the credit assessment process, involvement of certain groups/individuals in the institution (e.g. faculty, program coordinator, associate registrar/registrar, transfer coordinator, and academic leadership), or methodology used to assess credit transfers. only one institution reported that indigenous knowledges were factored into the assessment process between indigenous and non-indigenous programs. multiple institutions shared that they are currently in the process of indigenizing their curriculum, adding indigenous content and/or learning outcomes to all curriculum. participants believed that there were more advantages than disadvantages associated with indigenous pathways. almost half of all institutions believed that there were challenges when creating, implementing and/or assessing indigenous pathways. indigenous program pathways inventory

acknowledgements this project represents the efforts and participation of many educators and researchers and administrators involved in the education of computer programmers and computer science professionals in ontario. we would like to document and acknowledge all those who played a key role in producing the pathways and/or envisioning future pathways that are outlined in this final report and look forward continued communication and educational alignment in the high speed, ever evolving field of technology. confederation college troy mangatal, daniel kaukinen & riley burton georgian college ross bigelow, jaret wright, wayne brown, paul koidis, anju chawla & sara budd lakehead university sabah mohammed, vijay mago, jinan fiaidhi, maurice benson, nancy luckai, francis delorenzi, dhruval patel & andrew heppner sheridan college joe varradarmo & philip stubbs table of contents project purpose and goals 4 pathway development 6 methodology, analysis and timelines 6 bridge curriculum 11 block transfer pathways 12 lakehead university computer science degree variations 12 georgian college computer programmer analyst diploma (three year program) to hbsc in computer science 13 georgian college computer programmer diploma (two year program) to hbsc in computer science 13 confederation college computer programmer diploma (two year program) to hbsc in computer science 14 lakehead university hbsc and msc in computer science to vocational/industry based credential at georgian college 14 sheridan college hbsc in computer science to msc in computer science 15 implementation process and timelines 16 appendix a 17 diploma to hbsc and msc computer science degree pathways 17 appendix b 19 hbsc and msc computer science degree to certificate pathway 19 appendix c 20 online gap analysis tool visual examples 20 project purpose and goals the primary purpose of this project was to develop efficient and functional credit transfer agreements into the lakehead university honours bachelor of computer science (hbsc) from ontario colleges offering diplomas that aligned with the hbsc curriculum, research focus and vocational opportunities. sparked by consistent curriculum updates necessary to match the fast-paced evolution of information technology related post secondary education, the faculty of the computer science department at lakehead university recognized the opportunity and need to develop credit transfer pathways and relationships with colleges who offer vocational education credentials in cutting edge it professions. this perceived need was reinforced through: communications with various ontario college contacts seeking increased transfer mobility for their graduates recognizing consistent overlaps (and policy based barriers to transferring credit) in college and university content through the process of assessing individual college transfer students on a case-by-case, course-by-course basis. through the course of this project the goals and purposes were refined and adapted via shared communication with the partnering institutions. key points derived from these communications include: there is a large demand for information technology trained professionals with diplomas matching the industry needs and predicted growth in each geographic college catchment area. o note: some participating ontario colleges reported a perfect or near perfect hire rate for all computer programming related diploma graduates immediately upon credential completion depending on the industry (health informatics, web development, mobile development, database administration) graduates from diploma, honours bachelor and masters programs may benefit from credit transfer agreements that aid mobility in all possible directions: o diploma to degree o degree to diploma o post-graduate degree to certificate/diploma therefore the project purpose and goals evolved to include identifying multiple venues for credit transfer and increased mobility between the lakehead university undergraduate and graduate level degree offerings in computer science and related information technology diploma programs in ontario. the results of this project include the development/identification of: three diploma to degree block transfer agreements into the hbsc of computer science with three ontario colleges potential for the piloting a multi-lateral block transfer agreement for all diploma graduates of the two year computer programmer diploma in ontario pending the success of future block transfer students sent from the program specific pathways developed in this project an acceptance agreement between honours bachelor degrees offered by an ontario college and the masters of computer science program at lakehead university an accelerated diploma/certificate for both hbsc and masters level students seeking entry into a specific/specialized information technology (it) industry pathway development methodology, analysis and timelines april 2016 institutional partnerships: to initiate this project, faculty from lakehead university contacted program coordinators and deans from a variety of related ontario college diploma programs to confirm their participation and identify diplomas that would be best served by the pathway development process. factors influencing this process included: building on pre-existing relationships between it faculty and administration between institutions geographic proximity of ontario colleges to lakehead universitys thunder bay campus the availability of similar honours bachelor level credentials offered by the participating college industry demand for a specific credential in the colleges catchment area and variations in the desirability and necessity for credential upgrades to facilitate workforce entry. in addition to partner relationship building processes, the department of computer science began the recruitment process for hiring a project manager (pm). after a lengthy competition process, there were limits in suitable candidates available during the spring/summer period for a limited term contract and so the hiring of a pm was delayed until fall of 2016. june 2016 georgian/lakehead meetings lakehead university faculty travelled to barrie, ontario and met with georgian college computer programming program coordinator and faculty and through consultation and meetings established: the credentials which would be best suited to examine for a block transfer agreement the types of curricula which overlap between the identified credentials the future of their respective it programs in the context of annual technology advancements that can require a nimble curriculum development strategy in relation to other types of science credentials july/august 2016 database development building on identified credentials and partner institutions, two undergraduate research assistants established a database of courses and course descriptions from all potential sending institutions (confederation college, georgian college, sheridan college, seneca college and humber college) as well as the specific course requirements and policies for both the hbsc in computer science - science focus and business focus degree options offered at lakehead university. september/october gap analysis database refinement 2016 a project manager was hired in september of 2016 and a series of processes were initiated: 1. the database of course descriptions was updated to include learning outcomes from all potential sending institutions. 2. the learning outcomes, course descriptions and content of all potential sending institution credentials were compared to the published program standards provided by the ministry of advanced education and skills development (formerly the mtcu) to assess for similarities across multiple credentials 3. based on the wide degree of variation in content between ontario it diplomas identified during the examination of published program standards, the project team elected to focus pathway development efforts on geographically proximal partners in the short term (confederation college and georgian college) to best serve local industry and students seeking credentials in the areas adjacent to lakehead university campuses. 4. a part time research assistant was hired to convert the database of course content and learning outcomes into an online database and learning outcome comparison tool which would assist faculty and administration in comparing overlaps and gaps between credentials. 5. the dean and faculty members of confederation college attended a meeting at lakehead university to discuss the needs of it industry in thunder bay and indicated that the hbsc of computer science - business focus degree option would likely be the most beneficial credential for potential transfer students. november 2016 learning outcome development and specializations to facilitate an assessment of college and university based learning outcomes, the department of computer science at lakehead university embraced the idea of developing detailed, specific and comprehensive course level learning outcomes to facilitate a transparent credit transfer process. after the extensive review of learning outcomes (los) across it programs, faculty recognized that los can often be vague and allow for a wide variety of course content delivery without identifying what is specifically taught. as a result of this insight, the hbsc computer science faculty requested the provision of a learning outcome workshop to facilitate the writing of course level learning outcomes that: contained an action verb that was directly associated with and easily identified as relating to the appropriate level of blooms taxonomy of learning contained enough content and details on the skills, software languages and technical content covered in the course to ensure that when it was reviewed by a college faculty, they could easily match the outcomes, skills and content to their course content and outcomes were laddered in sequence throughout all courses in the four year degree structure to match the overall program learning outcomes aligned with undergraduate degree level expectations (udle) o in this process the irp acronym was helpful to identify where skills and competencies were initiated, reinforced and at what point proficiency has been attained based on the efforts of the hbsc computer science faculty and their work on learning outcome development, detailed learning outcomes were established for courses, particularly those being assessed for credit transfer. in addition, the revised learning outcomes contributed to a new degree specialization (health informatics) which has been identified as a necessary credential for the it industry in ontario by two of the partnering colleges in this project. finally a tele-conference between the georgian college computer programmer program coordinator, the lakehead university oncat project team and the lakehead/georgian partnership lead took place to re-align our respective institutions in light of potential program changes taking place in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 curricula. december 2016/january 2017 learning outcome gap analysis with an established list of learning outcomes, lakehead university faculty identified areas of content overlap between the programs being assessed and constructed a preliminary list of overlapping college and university courses with learning outcomes attached. a list of courses containing overlapping content was sent to the participating colleges to review and adjust as necessary. despite efforts to complete the online learning outcome gap analysis tool before 2017, the software was not yet functional and therefore the project team elected to create an online gap analysis survey using google forms. this process included: uploading all overlapping courses between the two institutions with learning outcomes to the online survey and arranging matching courses in sequence for analysis. allowing for review and collaboration by faculty of each institution. upon initial review, one college program coordinator identified college courses that overlapped with university courses but were not included in the online survey. the process of collaborating and refining the online survey between institutions was a positive and productive one. in future online surveys that involve course comparisons, all institutional partners should be included as collaborators on any learning outcome and course-matching database as the process leads to enlightening discussions towards pathway development. the finalized survey for each institution pair (georgian/lakehead and confederation/lakehead) was sent to all faculty in each respective department to assess the course matches and learning outcomes by: o reviewing the course level learning outcomes and indicating a percentage of content/skills overlap per course o identifying if they recommended each course be given as a transfer credit (yes or no) o providing comments on the quality of the learning outcome match and also any questions regarding the skill sets/competencies and learning outcomes that were not evident in the survey. while the survey was being conducted, the project manager reviewed degree policies and pre-requisite course requirements to ensure that future drafts of transfer pathways resulting from the survey would not include credits which run in to unnecessary stumbling blocks in future approval processes or for future block transfer students applying for graduation. february 2017 transfer pathway development the results of the online survey were analyzed and synthesized into presentations and first draft block transfer pathways. georgian college associate dean of design, computer programmer program coordinator and faculty travelled to lakehead university on february 27/28 to engage in an extensive review of the learning outcome gap analysis survey results and also a collaborative course mapping exercise. the outcomes of this meeting include: agreement on a draft block credit transfer degree curriculum from the computer programmer analyst diploma at georgian college to the hbsc computer science undergraduate degree offerings at lakehead university agreement on bridge curricula and also potential courses which would act as exemptions. identification of curricula for an accelerated diploma or certificate offered by georgian college for hbsc direct entry graduates and domestic/international masters students seeking employment in southern ontario. continued communication and shared course refinement between respective programs to embrace the evolution of it in ontarios post-secondary sector. communication between sheridan college and lakehead university, while ongoing through january and february resulted in the identification of a pathway from the sheridan college hb in computer science to the masters in computer science at lakehead university. this pathway will require further negotiation with respective departments and administration at both institutions. a gap analysis survey and draft block transfer pathway was formulated specific to the sheridan college computer programmer diploma and may be conducted or refined once sheridan has completed program changes for the 2017/18 academic year. significant progress was made on the online gap analysis tool with the intention of piloting it for the sheridan college pathway. it has value as a database tool allowing post-secondary institutions to track changes in learning outcomes and courses live and in real time. screen shots of the user interface are included as appendix c and a trial of the pilot this online gap analysis and learning outcome database tool is likely to be tested in future pathway development projects at lakehead university. if functional, it may become available for multiple institutions. march 2017 finalizing transfer credit and approvals over the course of march the following steps have been initiated: confederation college dean and associate dean of aviation, technology and trades, computer programmer diploma program coordinator and faculty members will be visiting the lakehead university campus on march 21st to review the online survey results and first draft of a block transfer curriculum. departments involved in the delivery of courses assessed for block transfer credit are being consulted to finalize decisions for non-computer science courses included (math and business) faculty of graduate studies office contacted regarding direct pathway from hbsc at sheridan college to masters in computer science at lakehead university georgian to consider developing accelerated diploma/certificate for lakehead university hbsc and msc computer science graduates bridge curriculum throughout the gap analysis process, all participants in the online survey and in-person consultation process have identified two key gap areas between the hbsc in computer science and it related diplomas: within a science focus degree program, students learn the theory and foundations of computing with an emphasis on computational science and algorithm building. therefore, different programming languages are sometimes more useful in teaching the science of computing than programming languages used by ontario colleges, whose focus is primarily to teach programming languages which are best suited for industry. in this project, the ability to perform advanced programming in the c/c++ language emerged as a skill which will need to be bridged for block transfer students the ability to manage data structures within the c/c++ programming language emerged as a secondary gap area in that the degree level science of computing often requires deep understanding to be applied in the construction and manipulation of various data structures (e.g. link list, stack, queue, tree, graphs and dictionaries) whereas the level of data structures taught at the college level provides a more practical exposure to some of these structures which serve as complimentary knowledge required for object oriented programming in java. founded on the results of the gap analysis, the lakehead university faculty responsible for teaching courses in c/c++ programming as well as data structures see value in offering a half course equivalent in the spring/summer semester which focuses primarily on building the skills and competencies necessary to access upper year level courses in the hbsc through the block transfer pathway. of note, georgian college computer programmer faculty are also in the process of developing courses that cover the gap content areas. both departments have agreed in principle that transfer students may be exempted from this bridge course if their college program includes the proposed college level data structures in c++ course. (note: course title is a draft and may change after the publication of this report.) finally, the project team identified that, depending on the program, some of the college sending institutions may have diploma graduates who have not completed a grade 12 u level calculus course which is required to register for the math courses embedded in lakehead universitys hbsc computer science degree. as of the writing of this final report, the department of computer science at lakehead university is willing to review and potentially accept pre-calculus equivalents offered by the partnering colleges. the lakehead university math department see value in offering a summer pre-calculus bridging course for students who do not have this mandatory pre-requisite pending a ten student enrollment minimum. block transfer pathways before discussing the components of the current block transfer pathway drafts, it is necessary to review details regarding the credentials offered at lakehead university that were included in the gap analysis and pathway development process: lakehead university computer science degree variations the hbsc in computer science has two distinct options. students, upon entry, must elect to take the science focus pathway or the business focus pathway and can also select a degree specialization area. both degree foci and the following specializations were taken into consideration within the block transfer pathway development process as value added for potential transfer students. the science focus contains mandatory electives in the faculty of science (excluding engineering courses) that contribute to depth and breadth of knowledge in the field of science. the business focus contains a sequence of courses offered by the faculty of business administration that are designed to allow computer science graduates to also be eligible for an entrepreneurship certificate upon graduation. a specialization in game programming includes taking three half course equivalents related to components of game programming and an associated elective to demonstrate depth and breadth of knowledge. it is currently offered. a specialization in health informatics includes taking three half course equivalents related to various aspects of health information management and database organization/analysis and an associated elective to demonstrate depth and breadth of knowledge. it is currently undergoing approval processes with an intended start date of fall 2017. drafts of transfer-mapped curriculum have been distributed to one of the participating colleges and has gone through extensive revisions based on both university and college faculty consultations. the process of refining and consulting on the final drafts of these pathways will continue beyond the final report for this project. entry requirements include having a completed diploma from the aforementioned programs with an overall minimum average (e.g. 70%). based on the college curriculum offered by partner institutions and feedback from all stakeholders in the block transfer development process, diploma graduates from sending college institutions are very likely to be successful in the hbsc computer science with the agreed upon average. a brief summary of pathway development for each unique pathway is addressed below and is representative of the most recent pathway drafts as of april 1st, 2017. a diagram of all diploma to degree pathways explored/developed during the course of this project are included as appendix a and potential degree to diploma pathways are included as appendix b. georgian college computer programmer analyst diploma (three year program) to hbsc in computer science based on a strong foundation in mobile application development, object oriented programming, industry focused co-op and creative programming curriculum in multiple languages, georgian college copra diploma graduates have a skill set well matched to fast paced growth and demand for it professionals in simcoe county. the most recent draft of the block transfer agreement allows graduates of the three year copra diploma at georgian college with an average of 70% or greater to receive 10 full course equivalents of credit (equal to four semesters or two years of study) towards the hbsc of computer science. in addition, pending final approval, block transfer pathway students may be able to structure their courses to meet the requirements for the certificate in entrepreneurship from the faculty of business administration (only available to hbsc computer science business focus students) and also for all available degree specializations. georgian college computer programmer diploma (two year program) to hbsc in computer science in addition to the three year copra program, the two year computer programmer (cp) diploma was assessed for credit transfer. through in person consultations and email communications, a list of transfer eligible courses that are available through the three year copra but not available in the two year cp diploma, was made available under the premise that both institutions would analyze and, if appropriate, modify their programs to facilitate a transfer agreement without compromising the academic integrity of the programs involved. this work is underway at both institutions. pending further modification, the most current iteration of the block transfer pathway between the 2 year cp diploma and the 4 year hbsc in computer science allows graduates with an average of 70% or greater to receive up to 8.0 full course equivalents of credit (equal to ~three semesters or one and a half years of study) towards the hbsc of computer science with a mandatory bridge to be completed prior to entering third year. in addition, pending final approval, block transfer pathway students may be able to structure their courses to meet the requirements for the certificate in entrepreneurship from the faculty of business administration (only available to hbsc computer science business focus students) and also for all available degree specializations. confederation college computer programmer diploma (two year program) to hbsc in computer science the confederation college computer programmer diploma provides a much-needed educational credential for meeting the high demand for it professionals in north western ontario with curriculum strengths including object oriented design, software engineering and also database management. the current draft of the block transfer pathway between the 2 year cp diploma and the 4 year hbsc in computer science allows graduates with an average of 70% or greater to receive up to 8 full course equivalents of credit (equal to three semesters or one and one-half years of study) towards the hbsc of computer science. once again, there is a mandatory bridge requirement that must be completed prior to entering third year. in addition, pending final approval, block transfer pathway students may be able to structure their courses to meet the requirements for the certificate in entrepreneurship from the faculty of business administration (only available to hbsc computer science business focus students) and also for all available degree specializations. lakehead university hbsc and msc in computer science to vocational/industry based credential at georgian college through in person consultation both project teams identified that a core group of students graduating from a degree level credential at lakehead university, particularly those who have a highly theoretical specialization or research area, may benefit from an additional college level credential to gear their computer programming skills towards entering the workforce. with a large cohort of international students, our project team also identified that mobility pathways should be available for students to move to popular urban centers and assist them in entering the workforce, particularly in southern ontario. georgian college faculty and administration agreed, at the time of this report, to review the content gap analysis and reverse engineer it to find gaps that might lead to a selection of georgian college courses and educational experiences to meet this need. currently, the following areas of vocation focused expertise are being explored: advanced object oriented courses (uml) - unified processes/crud matrix/requirement application advanced data network design - practical routing/assigning/troubleshooting/igp protocols - windows server administration and the administration of linux systems sheridan college hbsc in computer science to msc in computer science through a series of email communications with sheridan college the project team identified a potential direct pathway into the msc computer science for hbsc in computer science graduates from sheridan college. this mobility option will provide students with increased assurance of acceptance, a streamlined application process and an increased opportunity to access funding for their graduate studies. as of the writing of this report, the project team has reached out to sheridan associates for a review of agreement terms. in addition, the project team has developed a diploma to undergraduate degree gap analysis survey specific to sheridans two year computer programmer diploma program. based on upcoming changes in the ministry of advanced education and skills development criteria for computer programming diplomas, sheridan college will not engage in the gap analysis project by the time this final report is complete however the relationship will continue beyond the granting period and has the potential to lead to the establishment of an diploma to degree block transfer pathway. implementation process and timelines transfer pathway current approval level target implementation date georgian college copra diploma to lakehead hbsc in computer science college and university faculty have discussed first draft and requested revisions for consideration of final approval. fall 2018 georgian college cp diploma to lakehead hbsc in computer science college and university faculty have discussed first draft and requested revisions for consideration of final approval fall 2018 confederation college cp diploma to lakehead hbsc in computer science college faculty to approve and request revisions on first draft of transfer pathway fall 2018 sheridan college cp diploma to hbsc in computer science college administration to move ahead with gap analysis process fall 2019 (pending college engagement) lakehead university hbsc and msc to georgian college specialization certificate college faculty in the process of formulating curriculum fall 2018 sheridan college hbsc in computer science to lakehead university msc in computer science informal approval gained from graduate office at lakehead university. requires formal verbal agreement to proceed from college administration fall 2017 appendix a - diploma to hbsc and msc computer science degree pathways appendix b - hbsc and msc computer science degree to certificate pathway appendix c - online gap analysis tool visual examples

final report contract: 2016-28 project title: transfer pathway to a ba in psychology at laurentian university list of participants and partner institutions laurentian university collge la cit report prepared by the laurentian university office of francophone affairs march 2017 table of contents summary....................................................................................... 3 purposes and objectives of project .................................... 4 development of transfer pathways ................................... 4 methodology........................................................................................................................................................................... 4 comparison and analysis of programs ........................................................................................................................ 5 implementation process ................................................................................................................................................... 6 summary of transfer pathways created .......................... 6 new pathways between collge la cit and laurentian university .............................................................. 6 status of the pathways ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 memorandum of understanding................................................................................................................................. 10 best practices and lessons learned .................................. 11 conclusion .................................................................................. 11 appendix a: five new pathways between la cit and laurentian university for psychology students ........................................................................................................ 12 appendix b: four new pathways between la cit and laurentian university for psychology students as joint programs .................................................................... 14 appendix c: draft of the memorandum of understanding drawn up to facilitate the implementation of articulation agreements and new pathways between laurentian university, the university of sudbury and la cit ............................................................... 20 2 summary as part of this project, laurentian university and la cit have developed transfer pathways for college programs in social sciences at la cit to the bachelor of arts in psychology. nine distinct pathways have been developed to the bachelor of arts psychology. these include a pathway for the techniques de travail social [social services technician] program, one for the techniques dducation spcialise [child and youth worker] program, and one for the ducation en services lenfance [early childhood education] program. in addition, pathways have been developed for two unique programs at la cit: interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap [interventions with persons with disabilities] and techniques de travail social [social services technician]. finally, two joint programs have been developed for graduate certificate programs: autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] and sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction]. in addition to the pathways that have been developed, laurentian university and la cit, as well as the university of sudbury, have developed a new memorandum of understanding among the three institutions, which will allow for new pathways to be implemented more easily in the future. 3 purposes and objectives of project the objective of this project was to develop transfer pathways between laurentian university and collge la cit. the two institutions analyzed the college programs in social sciences unique to la cit toward the bachelor of arts in psychology. based on the pathways developed last year between laurentian university and collge boral for the social service worker, child and youth worker and early childhood education programs, laurentian university and la cit predicted that the programs of study leading to a graduate certificate, i.e., autisme et sciences du comportement [austism and behavioural science], sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction], as well as those leading to an ontario college diploma, i.e., interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap [personal support worker] and techniques de travail social grontologie [social service worker gerontology], from la cit would also have affinity with the bachelors degree program in psychology. given that the three college programs at collge boral that resulted in transfer agreements to the bachelors degree program in psychology are also offered at la cit, it appeared clear that graduates from the la cit programs listed above could benefit from this initiative. development of transfer pathways methodology the steps followed to develop these transfer pathways are as follows: 1. consultations with departments, directors and deans, in person (through the officer) and in writing (through the associate vice-president), to identify the pathway and articulation agreement avenues to be developed; 2. identification of articulation models to be developed for each agreement and pathway (in this case, five traditional agreements and two joint programs (see summary of pathways)); 3. gathering and exchange of the course outlines, course descriptions, curricula, etc., necessary for analysis; 4. comparison and analysis of the learning outcomes and course outlines of the programs to identify the number of credits that can be recognized by laurentian as well as the necessary bridges; 5. initiation of the approval process to obtain consensus from the university's departments in the following order: - department faculty academic regulations and awards (ara) committee conseil des programmes francophones (cpf) senate meetings and personnel involved: several meetings were held throughout this process. these meetings by telephone or in person varied from the formal to the rather informal, depending on the subject matter. the table below provides an overview of the personnel involved in this process, as well as the role each played. 4 description of communications and meetings stakeholders consultations with departments, directors and deans in person (officer) to identify pathway and articulation agreement avenues to be developed. - lu project officer articulation agreements, - associate vice-president or executive, academic and francophone affairs identification of the articulation model to be developed for each agreement or transfer pathway. - lu project officer articulation agreements - program chair (psychology) gathering and exchange of the course outlines, course descriptions, curricula, etc., necessary for analysis. - lu project officer articulation agreements - project officer la cit analysis and comparison of the learning outcomes and course outlines of the programs to then identify the number of credits that can be recognized by laurentian as well as the necessary bridges. - initial comparison lu project officer approval process: - lu project officer articulation agreements - several meetings were required to provide information, explain and obtain approval of the articulation agreements. - members: of the psychology department of the faculty of arts of the ara of the cpf of the senate - the members of each of the departments and committees (listed in the next column) were consulted several times throughout the process. inform the departments following approval. - validation by: - a representative of the lu psychology department - department chair and lu head of admissions - final review by la cit - lu project officer articulation agreements - meeting with various members of the: admissions office office of the registrar liaison office marketing department executive team faculty comparison and analysis of programs when comparing and analyzing the programs, the course descriptions are compared in a table to see if there is affinity between the college and university courses. when two similar courses are identified, a detailed analysis of the course outlines is required to ensure a minimum of 80% common content. if the content is different, but there is clearly learning in a specific field (in this case in psychology), generic credits are awarded by the faculty (in this case in social science), in recognition of the knowledge acquired by the student. in this case, the student must complete the compulsory courses for the program, but the required number of elective courses will be reduced. this formula reduces the costs and time required of the student who already has a base of prior knowledge and experience in the field in question. 5 the comparison and analysis process varies based on the type of agreement. as part of this project, three pathways were developed with programs for which agreements already exist between laurentian university and collge boral. this analysis therefore involved reviewing the terms of the college programs to confirm the correct number of transferred credits. in the case of comparing unique programs or programs for which no agreement exists, each course must be analyzed individually, as described in the first paragraph. implementation process once the agreement is approved by the senate, the following departments are informed: - admissions office office of the registrar liaison marketing executive team faculty the agreement is then entered into the ontransfer database by the representative in the admissions office. the agreement is reviewed at the frequency indicated in the agreement or when there are changes to the structure of the programs. summary of transfer pathways created new pathways between collge la cit and laurentian university as part of this project, three types of articulation agreements, for a total of nine pathways, were developed between collge la cit and laurentian university. a copy of the agreements can be found in appendixes a and b. three pathways for the joint programs: transfer pathway # 1 la cit program credits granted by laurentian ducation en services lenfance [early childhood education] psyc 1105 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (15) two years (diploma) ----------- first- and secondyear courses to be completed at laurentian university lang 1005 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) credited core courses psyc 1105 (6) total: 45 credits* 6 2 techniques de travail social [social services technician] two years (diploma) soci 1015 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) huma 9100 (3) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (24) psyc 1105 (6) lang1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) soci 1015 (6) lang 1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) psyc 1105 (6) first- and secondyear courses to be completed at laurentian university credited core courses ----------total: 54 credits* 3 technique dducation spcialise [child and youth worker] three years psyc 1105 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (21) ----------- (diploma) total: 57 credits* two pathways for the separate programs: transfer pathway # 4 la cit program interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap [interventions with persons with disabilities] two years (diploma) credits granted by laurentian edph 9100 (6) educ 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (9) lang 1005 (6) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) 0 ----------total: 42 credits* 0 5 techniques travail social grontologie [social services edph 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) lang1005 (6) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 2005 (6) 7 technician gerontology] sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (9) 1.5 years ----------- (diploma) total: 39 credits* psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) four pathways (as joint programs) for graduates see details in appendix b pathway #6: joint program (regular option) autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] at la cit and bachelor of arts (four years) in psychology at laurentian pathway #7: joint program (intensive option) autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] at la cit and bachelor of arts (three years) in psychology at laurentian pathway #8: joint program (regular option) sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] at la cit and bachelor of arts (four years) in psychology at laurentian pathway #9: joint program (intensive option) sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] at la cit and bachelor of arts (three years) in psychology at laurentian 8 status of the pathways the approval process for new articulation agreements and pathways consists (in order) of the following steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. obtain approval from the department obtain approval from the faculty obtain approval from the ara inform the members of the cpf obtain approval from the senate each of the nine pathways is at the indicated stage: pathway approval stage as of march 15, 2017 from program: to: ducation en services lenfance [early childhood education] bachelor of arts psychology ara techniques de travail social [social services technician] bachelor of arts psychology ara technique dducation spcialise [child and youth worker] bachelor of arts psychology ara interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap [interventions with persons with disabilities] bachelor of arts psychology ara techniques travail social grontologie [social services technician gerontology] bachelor of arts psychology ara bachelor of arts psychology (threeyear option) autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] ara bachelor of arts psychology (four-year option) autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] ara bachelor of arts psychology (threeyear option) sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] ara bachelor of arts psychology (four-year option) sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] ara please note that the number of credits granted or the other terms and conditions of the proposed agreements could be amended when they are presented to the various committees. the admissions department is in charge of notifying oncat and updating ontransfer.ca when the pathways have been finalized and approved in the senate. 9 memorandum of understanding as part of this project, a memorandum of understanding was drawn up to facilitate the implementation of articulation agreements and new pathways between laurentian university, the university of sudbury and la cit. a draft of the memorandum of understanding can be found in appendix c. following the review of each of the institutions in spring 2017, the memorandum of understanding will be signed and implemented for the 2017-2018 academic year. 10 best practices and lessons learned there were not that many obstacles for this project in particular. once again this year, the importance of communicating with all the departments was vital. these include the department of the program in question, the faculty, the registrars office and the admissions office, as well as the administrators and the academic guidance centre, which advises students on their schedule, etc. this communication ensures that there are no understandings, but also that the agreement complies with all of the universitys rules. furthermore, when everyone is informed about the agreement, it has a better chance of being approved during the various approval stages, as the committee members are generally members of the aforementioned departments. this project also revealed that certain kinds of programs are more suited for certain kinds of agreements. for example, we were unable to create traditional articulation agreements with college graduate certificates; the joint program model, however, was much better adapted to these. in the case of psychology, we noted a tendency that many students decide in their second year that they no longer want to pursue graduate studies, so this model was excellent for offering them other career opportunities in the field of social services, where they had the chance to help or serve their community, without becoming a psychologist, researcher or professor. finally, there was less affinity than we would have liked between most of the college social sciences programs and the psychology program at the university. this is why most of the credits recognized by the university were elective credits, which poses several challenges, especially when students want to complete a minor or major, in addition to their chosen concentration or specialization. conclusion in general, we, laurentian university and la cit, are satisfied with how this project is progressing. although we would have preferred 2 + 2 agreements to save students who use the agreement time and money, this was not possible due to a lack of affinity between the programs in question. in future, we hope to pursue agreements between programs that will give students the most benefits possible. 11 appendix a: five new pathways between la cit and laurentian university for psychology students these pathways will be added to appendix 1 of the memorandum of understanding between collge la cit, laurentian university and the university of sudbury (which can be found in appendix c of this document). la cit program ducation en services lenfance [early childhood education] two years (diploma) credits granted by laurentian psyc 1105 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (15) first- and second-year courses to be completed at laurentian university credited core courses lang 1005 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 1105 (6) lang1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) soci 1015 (6) lang 1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) psyc 1105 (6) lang 1005 (6) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) 0 ----------total: 45 credits* techniques de travail social [social services technician] two years (diploma) soci 1015 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) huma 9100 (3) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (24) ----------total: 54 credits* technique dducation spcialise [child and youth worker] three years (diploma) psyc 1105 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (21) ----------total: 57 credits* interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap [interventions with persons with disabilities] two years (diploma) edph 9100 (6) educ 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (9) ----------total: 42 credits* 0 12 techniques travail social grontologie [social services technician gerontology] edph 9100 (3) 1.5 years fran 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (9) (diploma) ----------- lang1005 (6) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) total: 39 credits* * although we grant the number of credits indicated, to complete a ba, the student must still meet the degree requirements. in some cases, and for certain combinations of degrees, the student may have to exceed the total of 120 credits to obtain the ba sought, because the majority of credits given are for electives. **the first- and second-year courses to be completed at laurentian university may change when changes are made to the program curriculum. please see laurentian universitys website for a current list of required firstand second-year courses: https://laurentian.ca/program/psychology-ba or meet with an advisor at the centre for academic excellence (ext. 3346) for more information. for each of the above transfer pathways: - a minimum college grade-point average of 3.0 or 75% is required to obtain the credits indicated. - although the credits granted by the university sometimes represent the equivalent of one, two or even three year(s) of study, it is possible that the student may not be able to complete the ba within the two or three years following registration due to the university course schedule or because of the prerequisites for certain core courses. 13 appendix b: four new pathways between la cit and laurentian university for psychology students as joint programs articulation agreement between la cit sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] program autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] program and laurentian university bachelor of arts (three years) in psychology this document summarizes the pathway to follow to receive a bachelor of arts (three years) in psychology and a graduate certificate in sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] or in autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] in three (3) or four (4) years. 1. agreement 1.1. students at laurentian who have completed the second year of their bachelor of arts in psychology program with a cumulative average of at least 3.0/4.0 (73%, b) may apply to la cit to complete a graduate certificate in sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] or in autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] during their ba. 1.2. this agreement is in effect until december 31, 2022. 2. admission criteria for the bachelor of arts in psychology 2.1. please see the admission criteria for the psychology program described by laurentian on its website. 2.2. general admission criteria 14 2.2.1. students at laurentian who would like to take a joint program must inform their academic advisor at laurentian of their intention to do so early in their pathway in order to find out the graduation requirements of the ba and to get information on credit transfers. students must also submit an admission application to la cit, as explained in appendix a. 2.2.2. students must formally apply to la cit for admission. 2.2.3. students will need to complete and pass the prescribed courses in order to receive the graduate certificate from la cit. 2.2.4. students cannot contest the graduate certificate courses. claiming a credits exemption or recognition of prior learning is prohibited for the graduate certificate. 2.2.5. laurentian must provide an official transcript for each student who takes a graduate certificate at la cit 2.2.6. students at laurentian can expect to follow a pathway like the one described in appendix a. 3. quality assurance 3.1. each partner in this agreement agrees: 3.1.1. to make the information from this agreement available to students. 3.1.2. to inform the other party as soon as possible of any changes greater than 25% to the curricula of the programs under this agreement. 3.1.3. to notify the other party as soon as possible of any expected or approved changes to the admission criteria for the programs under this agreement. 3.1.4. that it does not have the authorization to assume or create obligations, whether explicit or implicit, on behalf of the other party, aside from what is stipulated in this agreement. 3.2. upon request, and when possible, la cit will share its annual enrollment data on programs listed in this agreement. 3.3. the management, quality assurance and implementation of this agreement will be carried out by the laurentian university admissions office and the la cit xxxx, in consultation with the appropriate authorities of the respective programs. 3.4. this agreement will enter into effect on march 31, 2017, for a period of five (5) years, until december 30, 2022, and will be reassessed before being renewed. 3.5. if the agreement is not renewed, students who are currently registered in one of the programs listed in this agreement will be able to complete their studies. 4. promotion 4.1. both parties may promote this agreement using the existing methods. both parties will add the agreement to their websites. 15 joint program (regular option) autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] at la cit and bachelor of arts (three years) in psychology at laurentian laurentian first year fall winter third year psyc 1105 lang 1005 six elective credits in culture scientifique [scientific culture] six elective credits in contenu autochtone [aboriginal content] six elective credits at the end of the fall semester, students with a cumulative average of at least 3.0/4.0 (73%, b) can apply to the autisme et sciences du comportment [autism and behavioural science] program at la cit through ocas. psyc 2005 psyc 2706 psyc 2707 stat 2126 three elective courses psyc 2005 psyc 2127 six elective credits fall fall six credits in upper-level courses winter fourth year admissions process fall and winter second year la cit psyc 3206 psyc 3306 psyc 4066 winter 020098 aut 020099 aut 020101 aut 020102 aut 020106 aut fall winter 020100 aut 020103 stg 020104 aut 020105 aut 020108 stg 020107 aut 16 joint program (intensive option) autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] at la cit and bachelor of arts (three years) in psychology at laurentian laurentian first year third year admissions process summer at the end of the fall semester, students with a cumulative average of at least 3.0/4.0 (73%, b) can apply to the autisme et sciences du comportment [autism and behavioural science] program at la cit through ocas. fall and winter second year la cit psyc 1105 lang 1005 six elective credits in culture scientifique [scientific culture] six elective credits in contenu autochtone [aboriginal content] six elective credits fall winter fall psyc 2005 psyc 2127 six elective credits six credits in upper-level courses winter psyc 2005 psyc 2706 psyc 2707 stat 2126 three elective courses psyc 3206 psyc 3306 psyc 4066 020098 aut 020099 aut 020101 aut 020102 aut 020106 aut fall winter 020100 aut 020103 stg 020104 aut 020105 aut 020108 stg 020107 aut 17 joint program (regular option) sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] at la cit and bachelor of arts (three years) in psychology at laurentian laurentian first year fall winter third year psyc 1105 lang 1005 six elective credits in culture scientifique [scientific culture] six elective credits in contenu autochtone [aboriginal content] six elective credits at the end of the fall semester, students with a cumulative average of at least 3.0/4.0 (73%, b) can apply to the sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] program at la cit through ocas. psyc 2005 psyc 2706 psyc 2707 stat 2126 three elective courses psyc 2005 psyc 2127 six elective credits fall fall six credits in upper-level courses winter fourth year admission fall and winter second year la cit psyc 3206 psyc 3306 psyc 4066 winter fall winter 021717 tox 021718 tox 023011 tox 023010 tox 022985 tox 022986 tox 023008 tox 023007 tox 021724 tox 023009 tox 023006 tox 021725 tox 023135 tox 021723 tox 023136 tox 021726 tox 023137 tox 021728 tox (internship) 18 joint program (intensive option) sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] at la cit and bachelor of arts (three years) in psychology at laurentian laurentian first year fall winter third year admission summer at the end of the fall semester, students with a cumulative average of at least 3.0/4.0 (73%, b) can apply to the sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction] program at la cit through ocas. fall and winter second year la cit psyc 1105 lang 1005 six elective credits in culture scientifique [scientific culture] six elective credits in contenu autochtone [aboriginal content] six elective credits psyc 2005 psyc 2706 psyc 2707 stat 2126 three elective courses psyc 2005 psyc 2127 six elective credits fall 021717 tox 021718 tox 023011 tox 023010 tox 022985 tox 022986 tox 023008 tox 023007 tox fall six credits in upper-level courses winter psyc 3206 psyc 3306 psyc 4066 winter 021724 tox 023009 tox 023006 tox 021725 tox 023135 tox summer 021723 tox 023136 tox 021726 tox 023137 tox 021728 tox (internship) 19 appendix c: draft of the memorandum of understanding drawn up to facilitate the implementation of articulation agreements and new pathways between laurentian university, the university of sudbury and la cit memorandum of understanding between la cit, laurentian university and the university of sudbury (20142019) the mission and objectives of the cooperation agreement between la cit, laurentian university and the university of sudbury stipulate that, among other things, these three institutions are committed to encouraging excellence in learning, providing educational opportunities and increasing access to post-secondary programs in french, as well as mobility between the institutions. in recognition of this framework agreement, the parties agree on the mutual commitments set out in this document with respect to transfers between la cit, the university of sudbury and laurentian university. a. admissibility to laurentian university 1) graduates from the la cit programs identified in appendix 2 will be eligible for the programs at laurentian university and the university of sudbury that are specified therein. 2) eligible candidates who register in one of the programs covered by this agreement will have their college degree recognized in the form of university credits, according to the grid set out in appendix 1. 3) laurentian university and the university of sudbury do not limit the number of eligible graduates from la cit. 20 4) candidates must have completed their college degree and meet the general conditions for admission to laurentian university, as described in its academic calendar. b. admissibility to la cit 1) graduates from the laurentian university programs identified in appendix 2 will be eligible for the programs at la cit that are specified therein. 2) eligible candidates who register in one of the programs covered by this agreement will have their university degree recognized in the form of college credits, according to the grid set out in appendix 1. 3) la cit does not limit the number of eligible graduates from laurentian university. 4) candidates must have completed their university degree and meet the general conditions for admission to la cit, as described in its academic calendar. c. exchange of information subject to the provisions of the freedom of information and protection of privacy act, each institution shall send to the other institution information relating to official documents, such as transcripts or diplomas. d. coming into effect and term the memorandum of understanding comes into effect upon its date of signature and is entered into for a period of five (5) years. at the end of this period, after consultation between the partners on the results of the activities, the memorandum may be renewed. either party may at any time terminate this memorandum of understanding upon written notice of one (1) year to the other party. e. updating and reviewing the agreement 1) during the implementation period of this memorandum, the appendices may be updated by the designated individuals, without a new version of this memorandum having to be signed. 2) the office of the vice-president academic at la cit agrees to send, as needed, to laurentian university or the university of sudbury (depending on the program) any relevant information on the description of courses that comprise the programs designated in this memorandum of understanding, and to inform it of any change in the makeup and description of those courses. conversely, the registrar of laurentian university or the university of sudbury (depending on the program) agrees to send, as needed, to la cit any relevant information on the description of courses that comprise its programs designated in this memorandum of understanding, and to inform it of any change in the makeup and description of those courses. 3) the registrar of laurentian university or the university of sudbury (depending on the program) agrees to inform, as needed, la cit of any change to its admission requirements. likewise, the office of the vice-president academic at la cit agrees to inform, as needed, laurentian university of any change to its admission requirements. 4) at the beginning of the fifth year, the departments in question at la cit, laurentian university and the university of sudbury will carry out a more detailed review of this agreement. the person in 21 charge of articulation agreements at laurentian university and the office of the vice-president academic at la cit are responsible for initiating said review. f. faculty the faculty of each institution is governed by its own collective agreement. the parties agree to encourage professional development. g. financial aspects 1) the parties agree that tuition fees and any funding associated with the programs belong to the receiving institution. 2) the parties agree that any advertising or marketing activity for the program is the responsibility of the institution undertaking it. 3) the parties agree that they are responsible for their respective costs associated with this agreement. h. terminating the agreement 1) a party may terminate this agreement by giving written notice of three hundred sixty-five (365) days to the other parties. the agreement is thereupon terminated ipso jure and is deemed terminated on the date indicated in the notice. 2) in the event the agreement is terminated, the parties agree to put in place the necessary means to ensure that the cohort of students who are already enrolled can finish their study program. i. dispute resolution 1) any disagreement between the parties regarding the interpretation, application or administration of this agreement, or any failure by the parties to agree when an agreement is necessary, here generally called dispute, shall be resolved in accordance with the provisions of this article. however, one partys decision to terminate the agreement under article h does not constitute a dispute for the purposes of article i. 2) the parties shall make all necessary efforts to resolve a dispute quickly and amicably through mediations or otherwise. 3) if a dispute cannot be resolved within a reasonable time, it must be submitted to the arbitration of a single arbitrator, in accordance with the following provisions: i. the party seeking the arbitration shall send the other parties a notice of arbitration; ii. the parties shall jointly appoint an arbitrator who is acceptable to everyone within ten (10) business days after the notice of arbitration is sent; iii. if the parties do not agree on the choice of an arbitrator within this ten (10) business day time-frame, an arbitrator shall be appointed by a justice of the ontario superior court of justice from the city of greater sudbury; iv. the arbitration sessions shall be held in the city of greater sudbury; v. the arbitrator has the power to determine his/her own procedure, and may render his/her decision in writing or any other form he/she chooses; vi. each party involved shall pay an equal share, i.e. half, of the arbitration costs; 22 vii. the arbitrator's decision is final, cannot be appealed, and is binding on the parties. j. entire agreement the parties agree that this agreement contains the complete and sole statement of the agreement they entered into regarding the program offer. it replaces and terminates any previous representation, negotiation or proposal concerning the aim of this agreement. k. miscellaneous clauses 1) the preamble (basic principles) and the appendices are an integral part of this agreement. 2) this agreement does not make one party the agent of the other, its legal representative, its partner in this joint venture, its associate, employee or officer. it does not create any fiduciary or agency relationship between the parties. 3) each party recognizes that it has no authority to assume or create any kind of obligation whatsoever, whether explicit or implicit, on behalf of the other party, except and strictly as expressly provided by this agreement. each party also recognizes that it does not have any authority to bind the other party in any manner whatsoever, nor to engage the other party's responsibility. 23 signatories of the agreement the parties have signed at sudbury, in duplicate, on __________________________________. line tremblay, ph. d. associate vice-president, academic and francophone affairs laurentian university lynn casimiro vice-president, academic and student success la cit date date sophie bouffard president and vice-chancellor university of sudbury date 24 appendix 1 (of the memorandum of understanding) i. articulation agreements from la cit to laurentian university and the university of sudbury program completed at la cit required cgpa credits received laurentian university and university of sudbury credits to obtain program arts techniques des services policiers [police foundations] (two years) 2.8 30-42 b.a. (three years) law and justice 48-60 administration de la loi et de la scurit [law and security administration] (two years) 2.8 30-42 b.a. (three years) law and justice 48-60 techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale [community and justice services] (two years) 2.8 30-42 b.a. (four years) law and justice 78-90 techniques des services policiers [police foundations] (two years) 2.8 30-42 b.a. (four years) law and justice 78-90 ducation en services lenfance [early childhood education] (two years) 65% to 69% 12-36 bachelor of arts 54-78 interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap [interventions with persons with disabilities] 3.0 or 75% 42 b.a. (three years) psychology 48 interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap [interventions with persons with disabilities] 3.0 or 75% 42 b.a. (four years) psychology 78 techniques de travail social grontologie [social services technician - gerontology] 3.0 or 75% 39 b.a. (three years) psychology 51 techniques de travail social grontologie [social services technician - gerontology] 3.0 or 75% 39 b.a. (four years) psychology 81 journalisme [journalism] up to 30 credits b.a. (four years) tudes journalistiques [journalism studies] management administration des affaires ou commerce [business administration or commerce] (two years) 70 % 57 bachelor of business administration 63 cole des sciences de la sante (ss) hygine dentaire [dental hygiene] (three years) 3.0 60 bachelor of science major in biology 60 techniques de travail social [social services technician] (two years) 3.2 30 social work 90 techniques de travail social [social services technician] (two years) 3.0 42 indigenous social work 78 25 appendix 2 (of the memorandum of understanding) list of francophone programs at la cit and laurentian that qualify for general transfers program completed at la cit required cgpa credits laurentian university credits to received program obtain general transfers - faculty of arts all three-year degrees 3.2 48-54 b.a. (three years) 36-42 all two-year degrees 3.2 36-42 b.a. (three years) 48-54 two years of a three-year program 3.2 30 b.a. (three years) 60 all three-year degrees 3.2 48-54 b.a. (four years) 66-72 all two-year degrees 3.2 36-42 b.a. (four years) 78-84 two years of a three-year program 3.2 30 b.a. (four years) 90 general transfers - faculty of management and faculty of science, engineering and architecture all three-year degrees 3.2 36 b.a. (three years) 54 all two-year degrees 3.2 30 b.a. (three years) 60 two years of a three-year program 3.2 30 b.a. (three years) 60 all three-year degrees 3.2 36 b.a. (four years) 84 all two-year degrees 3.2 30 b.a. (four years) 90 two years of a three-year program 3.2 30 b.a. (four years) 90 26

transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries christine helen arnold university of toronto/ontario institute for studies in education (oise) sections of this report are reproduced from a thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy, graduate department of leadership, higher and adult education university of toronto/oise 2 christine helen arnold table of contents executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .introduction ...... .................................................................................... .review . . . . . . of literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .an ontario blueprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8 9 10 .a. fresh . . . . . . approach: ontarios new credit transfer framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . methodology 13 ......... phase i: document analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 phase ii: focus groups with institutional administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . framework ... theoretical ......................................................................... 14 16 19 .results . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i. documentation of information needs and responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 . . . . . . .terminology, . . . . . . . . . . . . ..structures, . . . . . . . . . . . policies ..... and procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 ................. literature and publicity/centrality of information/responsibility and processing . . . . 23 self-recognition of position and merits/assessment and competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 advising, forecasting and preparation/program affinity and coursework . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 outcomes and career prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .of . . the . . . . degree .. ii. analysis of completeness in terms of the effectiveness and sustainability 27 of existing and relevant information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .government/agencies ........ and institutional administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 20 27 . . . . . . .symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 .asymmetries ......... .................................................................. . . . . . . . administrators ... institutional and students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 . . . . . . .symmetries ......... ................................................................... 31 .asymmetries ......... .................................................................. . . . . . . .evaluation ... of credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .program . . . . . . affinity, equivalencies and recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .advanced . . . . . . . . . ..standing . . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .re-evaluations ........ .................................................... . . . . . . .process and required documentation/gpa calculation/ application policies and affiliated terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 34 35 35 37 38 38 transfer literacy 3 enrolment and follow-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .admissions . . . . . . . . . . . .cut-off .. averages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .grading . . . . . . . .scales . . . . . and gpa calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .policies . . . . . . . .and . . . .terminology .... ......................................... . . . . program . . . . . . . . . requirements/variations in structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . degree. . and . application of credit evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .program . . . . . . . . .flexibility ...... ................................................ discussion and conclusion . . . .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... iii. identification of internal and external factors that impact on performance and the formation of an action plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . private information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .students ..... private information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 40 41 41 42 42 44 45 45 45 46 .institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . private .. information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . signalling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 . . . . . . .choosing .. with which universities to communicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 .determining . . . . . . . . . . . . .what . . . . . to communicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . references . . . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 .appendix ....... a...................................................................................... .appendix ...... b...................................................................................... .appendix ...... c...................................................................................... .appendix ...... d..................................................................................... ........ 49 52 57 63 68 73 4 christine helen arnold executive summary research reveals asymmetries between students (buyers) perceptions of particular postsecondary education practices (ex. admissions, financial assistance and credit transfer) and institutions (sellers) practices (frenette & robinson, 2011; lang, 2004; lenning and cooper, 1978; noel, 1976; ontario undergraduate student alliance, 2010; pascarella, 1982). in economic terms, postsecondary education can be viewed as a market with asymmetric information (spence, 1973). according to michael spence (1973), asymmetries exist when certain participants in the market do not possess the same sets of information that others in the market possess. increasing literacy around institutional admissions procedures, program offerings, financial assistance/repayment and educational pathways is regularly the focus of governments, agencies and administrators in postsecondary education. however, striking a balance of information between buyers and sellers in this market can be challenging (lang, 2004). recent calls for reform have focused on improved student comprehension of the credit transfer process and the effective application of information (andres, qayyum & dawson, 1997; colleges ontario, 2008; constantineau, 2009; junor & usher, 2008; kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011a, 2011b; usher & jarvey, 2013). national and international researchers have voiced concerns regarding students understanding of this process and the resulting impediments (repeated coursework, limited program and professional certification alignment, lack of financial assistance and increased time to graduation) (canadian federation of students, 2010; colleges ontario, 2008; davies & casey, 1998; loades, 2005; moodie, 2004; nyborg, 2007; ontario undergraduate student alliance, 2010). the omission of a literacy baseline in the credit transfer debate is striking and is the focus of this research. transfer literacy, as it is coined in this study, is the ability to comprehend credit transfer procedures, policies and outcomes. it refers to a set of knowledge and skills that allow individuals to advise and/or make informed decisions about admission and the mobilization of academic credits between colleges and universities to avoid the repetition of coursework, lack of financial assistance and misaligned institutional and program fit. an investigation of students clarity and confusion with credit transfer processes centers on the existent information system in place and its accessibility. in the ontario context, this information system includes the government of ontario (government), agencies (ex. colleges ontario, council of ontario universities, the college university consortium council, ontario council on articulation and transfer, higher education quality council of ontario and the council of ministers of education, canada), institutional administrators (senior leaders, departmental and program coordinators, deans, advisors/counsellors, faculty members and staff) and students. an information system where various members understand the fundamentals of transfer literacy 5 credit transfer processes and outcomes may reduce the level of omitted and/or inaccurate information. this multi-institutional study examines the extent to which the college-to-university transfer information system is performing efficiently and identifies (a)symmetries in stakeholders understanding of this process. research methods include a document analysis of college-touniversity credit transfer publications, reports, policies and charters from the years 1999-2012 (over 70 documents in total). focus groups with senior leaders, departmental and program coordinators, deans, advisors/counsellors, faculty members and staff involved in advising credit transfer students (potential and successful) and/or evaluating credit were also conducted across 13 ontario postsecondary institutions (six colleges and seven universities). in 2012, over 100 institutional administrators participated in the focus groups and contributed to the conclusions drawn from this research. in order to assess the efficiency of the transfer information system and identify (a)symmetries among stakeholders, the following steps were taken: 1) documentation of information needs and responsibilities, 2) analysis of the degree of completeness in terms of the effectiveness and sustainability of existing and relevant information and 3) identification of internal and external factors that impact on performance and the formation of an action plan (united nations-economic and social development department, 2008). documentation of information needs and responsibilities- stakeholders identified several elements of transfer literacy necessary for students comprehension of credit transfer processes and outcomes. first, a solid understanding of credit transfer terminology used by universities was deemed necessary if students wish to effectively search for information and ask pertinent questions. the ability to identify sites where information is housed and take responsibility for locating information is important. students should be able to determine when advisement is needed and apply the information they receive from their appointments. administrators stressed the need for students to recognize that credit transfer is a competitive and multistage process with unique demands at each juncture. students must apply for admission, compete for seats, submit all required documentation for credit evaluation and attend follow-up advising appointments. most importantly, administrators shared that, beyond the transactional side of credit transfer, the ability to make informed decisions regarding program choice, future graduate education and career goals is fundamental. analysis of the degree of completeness in terms of the effectiveness and sustainability of existing and relevant information- this research revealed that informational symmetries and asymmetries exist between 1) government/agencies and institutional administrators and 2) institutional administrators and students in the ontario transfer information system. recognized symmetries were identified in areas where shared (or uniform) knowledge exists. asymmetries were identified 6 christine helen arnold in areas where some stakeholder(s) would directly benefit from additional information from the other(s) that is not being fully disseminated, resulting in non-uniform knowledge. first, symmetries between government/agencies and institutional administrators include shared (or uniform) knowledge about the frameworks and guiding principles for collaboration (recommendations for the acceptance of college coursework, timelines for completion and strategies for the creation and maintenance of college-university relations), admissions (grade point average [gpa], external accreditation requirements, workplace demands and available seats in university programs) and lastly innovative articulation and transfer models. asymmetries include credit review procedures for course-to-course transfer, development of electronic administrative management systems/degree planning tools (receiving credit transfer applications and documentation, posting evaluation results, tracing academic history and advising about degree/program plans) and institutional tracking of transfer students/student data via a comprehensive research agenda. since this research concluded, government and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) have worked with institutions to construct, populate and disseminate information regarding course-to-course transfer. what once was a sizeable asymmetry is now being partially remedied. management systems/planning tools and data initiatives are receiving attention but will require much work. second, administrators identified several areas where symmetries and asymmetries exist between themselves and students. recognized symmetries include shared (or uniform) knowledge about the availability and benefits of articulation agreements, program choice and residency requirements, as well as shared (or uniform) confusion about the evaluation of applied degree credits, academic regulations, advising practices (high school and postsecondary), terminology and location of information. asymmetries include students unawareness that their college credit will generally not be assessed on a one-for-one basis. program affinity, academic prerequisites and gpa all impact evaluations. additionally, students require advisement on degree and program requirements. the variation in the two requirements can cause difficulty for students trying to determine what functions awarded credits fulfill. the number of credits students receive is not as important as their application. finally, administrators noted that variations in structure from college-to-university demand that students be accountable for enrolling in all coursework, selecting electives and meeting breadth requirements. identification of internal and external factors that impact on performance and the formation of an action plan- in areas where problems were identified, the following six recommendations have been made; each represents a potential guideline/amendment to current practice for the improvement of transfer literacy among stakeholders: transfer literacy 7 1) develop a searchable centralized database for identifying previous student registrations and the electronic archiving of course outlines/descriptions. this will assist advisors/counsellors when conducting transfer credit evaluations. reliable mechanisms to collect and access student data across institutions are pertinent to a well-functioning credit transfer system. 2) institute and publicly post policies regarding the evaluation of applied degree credits at ontario universities. this is crucial for academic and system planning purposes. the role of the college in the postsecondary system has evolved over the last decade. with the offering of applied bachelor degrees, there is a duty to consider the mobility needs of students enrolled in these programs who wish to transfer both during and upon completion of their studies. 3) establish more transparent and system-wide academic regulations across institutions to assist both institutional administrators and students. heterogeneity in academic regulations across institutions (ex. grading scales, gpa calculations, credit values/weight, credit evaluation fees and timing, course repeats and declarations of previous postsecondary education) often results in disconnected advising practices. 4) educate students about credit transfer pathways and institutional offerings earlier in their educational careers. this will improve their knowledge about the function and flexibility of a postsecondary education. amplified promotion of high school guidance counsellors as conduits for information dissemination is necessary. 5) create standard credit transfer terminology. this is particularly important when writing, structuring and publicizing articulation agreements and transfer models (ex. direct entry, blended/joint/integrated/concurrent/collaborative/consecutive/accelerated, advanced standing, equivalencies, exclusions and exemptions). the development of a tips for articulating guide produced in consultation with institutions will take strides towards the harmonization of credit transfer exchanges. 6) open communication lines and resource sharing among college and university credit transfer advisors/counsellors. infusing information about the application of awarded transfer credits (program versus degree requirements; generic, unassigned and unspecified credits; reach backs; and the importance of program major and minor declarations) pre-university enrolment may limit confusion surrounding credit evaluations and time to graduation. 8 christine helen arnold introduction college-to-university transfer students have become an important population for study. understanding the demographics and performance of this subset of students has led to change in (inter)national education systems and design. this population accounts for a large amount of postsecondary admissions each year; these students are often viewed as additional revenue for institutions; and governments across jurisdictions have focused on instituting policy initiatives, reward systems and mechanisms to track transfer students success over the last decade. governments and agencies have legislated, funded and managed numerous degree-partnerships, block transfers and course-to-course transfers between institutions. a considerable amount of attention has been given to recognized deficiencies in the organization of postsecondary education for students wishing to transfer. an increasing demand for access to further education, greater mobility for students seeking advanced credentials, the lack of recognition of prior learning and artificial barriers to transfer have all contributed to an emphasis on reform (dennison, 1995; british columbia, 1988; council of regents, 1990; new brunswick commission on excellence in education, 1993; rae, 2005; ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011a, 2011b). in the ontario context, which is fundamentally binary, a credit transfer system has not historically been committed to in the same vein as other jurisdictions. institutions have largely determined who is responsible for transfer student advisement; developed transfer materials, policies and procedures; and collected data on an ad hoc basis. as a result, information about the credit transfer process varies among stakeholder groups: the government of ontario (government), agencies (ex. colleges ontario, council of ontario universities, the college university consortium council, ontario council on articulation and transfer, higher education quality council of ontario and the council of ministers of education, canada), institutional administrators (senior leaders, departmental and program coordinators, deans, advisors/counsellors, faculty members and staff) and students. while the foundational structure of the ontario credit transfer system (partnerships, models and innovative programming) has received primary attention from government, agencies and administrators, the development of the transfer information system has been limited. information processing and transmission, selection, organization, reduction and conceptualization are important if there is to be a common understanding/transfer literacy among stakeholders. although college-to-university credit transfer has taken place in ontario since the 1960s and represents the principal form of transfer in the province, little research has focused specifically on transfer literacy. transfer literacy, as it is coined in this study, is the ability to comprehend credit transfer procedures, policies and outcomes. it refers to a set of knowledge and skills that allow individuals to advise and/or make informed decisions about admission and the mobilization of transfer literacy 9 academic credits between colleges and universities to avoid the repetition of coursework, lack of financial assistance and misaligned institutional and program fit. the purpose of this research study is twofold: 1) in consideration of current student transfer demands, existing regulatory and advising practices by government, agencies and institutions and the present state of transfer literacy among all stakeholders, to what extent is the college-to-university transfer information system performing efficiently? 2) what (a)symmetries exist in stakeholders understanding of this process which affects students facility to transfer and universities ability to accommodate transfer students? the objectives include: establishing a baseline of credit transfer information that government, agencies and institutions view as being necessary for students to navigate the transfer system; assessing current regulatory and advising practices; identifying (a)symmetries within the collegeto-university transfer information system from which literacy programs might be constructed; and generating data for discussion in the field. the timing of this research is of extreme importance: the transfer literacy of stakeholders will be assessed and advanced within the new credit transfer framework for ontario. in 2011, the provincial government announced a spending of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system aims included: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework, 2) developing more transfer opportunities, 3) providing on-campus advisors/counsellors and orientation programs and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011b). the government is currently in the process of determining what these aims will require in order to be successful. this research attempts to delineate what initiatives and education will work to better enhance the credit transfer function. review of literature the document that shaped the character of the colleges in ontario was the second supplementary report of the committee of university presidents (1965), entitled the city college. this report rejected the american model in favour of an ontario solution and worked to correct a number of deficits in the postsecondary education system: 1) a lack of opportunity for adult education and 2) growth of the non-university sector in vocational and technical areas for students without aptitudes for university (committee of presidents of provincially assisted universities and colleges of ontario, 1965). 10 christine helen arnold however, even from the start, there was anticipation from the committee of university presidents that students who performed well in these colleges of applied arts and technology (caats) might be able to transfer to provincial institutes of technology or universities for additional studies (dennison & gallagher, 1968). murray ross, then president of york university, advocated for a transfer opportunity for college graduates as a matter of provincial policy, not merely at the discretion of universities in specific cases (dennison, 1995, p. 123). public debate ensued over the transfer function. university presidents wished to keep the sole right to offer university-level courses (skolnik, 2005). consequently, they advocated that colleges should not serve the purpose of preparing students for university, but that the college should function as a means in itself. in strong opposition to colleges offering university equivalent programs, the committee argued that an expansion of existent university facilities could bring 90 percent of ontarios population within twenty-five miles of a university (dennison & gallagher, 1986). on may 21, 1965 william davis, ontario minister of education, introduced an amendment to the department of education act establishing the caats; the university transfer concept was not a part of these new institutions (committee of presidents of provincially assisted universities and colleges of ontario, 1965). further, the focus of the curriculum for these institutions was to be occupationally oriented with admission based on grade 12 or grade 13 completion and open admission for students over the age of nineteen (1965). an ontario blueprint a review of the literature provides insight into the chronology of credit transfer and collegeuniversity relations in ontario. a history of regulatory practices emerges as developed by government, agencies and institutions. the creation resembles a blueprinta technical drawing of the transfer structureoutlining preferred procedures to be followed, load-bearing components and recently the finishing materials. while the drawing lay unfinished for several years, the long periods of pause and consideration have led to the creation of new tools, identification of required materials and accumulation of the participants necessary for advancement. numerous developments have reinforced both drafting and construction procedures in the province (see table 1). essentially, credit transfer in ontario has made slow progress until recently. in 1988, a thorough review of ontarios colleges was set into action by the honourable lyn mcleod. the mission of the vision 2000 project was to develop a vision of the college system in the year 2000 (ontario ministry of colleges and universities, 1990, p. 1). among the challenges identified in the college system at the time was a lack of system-wide standards and planning. there was criticism of similarly titled postsecondary education programs across the system not yielding the same qualifications or skills in graduates. this lack of standards impeded student mobility. an insufficient general and generic curriculum was further discussed as an impediment to student mobility. transfer literacy 11 general education was set to constitute at least 30 percent of postsecondary education content despite most programs having less (1990). many college programs focused on narrow occupationspecific skills versus transferable skills (problem-solving, critical thinking, numeracy and literacy) desired by employers and universities. moreover, missing links between the colleges and universities were cited as being the result of proposed joint school-colleges-universities curriculum committees that were never implemented (1990). the original college mandate outlined that colleges would fit into an educational spectrum as part of a coherent whole (1990, p. 18). finally, trends in employment at the time suggested the need for greater opportunities for college students to take advanced studies through either improved college-university links or at the college itself. table 1 | ontario credit transfer developments 1965 the city college 1990 vision 2000 1993 task force on advanced training (pitman report) 1995 pan-canadian protocol on the transferability of university credits 1996 college and university consortium council (cucc) 1999 ontario college-university degree completion accord (port hope accord) 2002 postsecondary education choice and excellence act 2005 ontario: a leader in learning (rae review) 2011 policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) the vision 2000 report outlined several recommendations to provide avenues for students to transfer from one type of institution to another. it was recommended that the minister of colleges and universities should expand opportunities for students to move between college and university sectors through 1) consistent program standards across the college system, 2) a broadening of the general curriculum of college education, 3) the creation of advanced standing arrangements in related fields of study (ex. college business graduates and university bachelor of commerce programs), 4) general transfer credits for students moving between unrelated fields and 5) joint program offerings by colleges and universities (ontario ministry of colleges and universities, 1990). a number of the vision 2000 recommendations have been brought to life, including advanced standing arrangements and joint program offerings. the task force on advanced training, a recommendation of vision 2000, was established to identify the need for advanced training and make implementation recommendations (dennison; 1995; task force on advanced training, 1993). the task forces report, entitled no dead ends, 12 christine helen arnold called for the development of a provincial institute, the ontario institute of advanced training, to coordinate, manage funds for advanced training programs and grant degree-level credentials (1993). the formal recognition of credentials and province-wide policies in support of a planned system of advanced training and equitable student access were discussed in detail (1993). by september, 1995, the pan-canadian protocol on the transferability of university credits was adopted and implemented, providing for the transferability of first and second-year university courses [including the final year of studies leading to a diploma of college studies (dcs) in quebec and the university transfer courses offered by community colleges and university colleges in british columbia and alberta] (cmec, 1995, p. 1). nevertheless, many provisions stood in the way of the protocols implementation in ontario: 1) the protocol was silent with regard to the acceptance of ontario college courses of university level, 2) the protocol did not infringe on universities academic autonomy and 3) the protocol maintained the right of universities to determine academic prerequisites, admission criteria and certification requirements of academic achievement (constantineau, 2009). degree-partnerships have had more success. in 1999, the ontario college-university degree completion accord was signed by representatives from the colleges and universities. the accord set out a series of principles for the development of degree completion agreements. progress made in the ontario system was significant; in may 5, 2004, 216 approved collaborative program agreements (including joint, degree completion, consecutive and concurrent programs) were listed on the ontario postsecondary transfer guide (optg) (ontario confederation of university faculty associations, 2008). this represented an increase of approximately 60 percent over three years (176 college-to-university and 40 university-to-college agreements) (ontario confederation of university faculty associations, 2008; ontario universities application centre, 2004). one distinctive development inadvertently influencing the credit transfer system has been the establishment of the postsecondary education choice and excellence act (2000). this act gave the caats authority to offer new competitive programs and degrees both independently and in conjunction with existent degree-granting institutions. the result has been the formation of unique applied degrees and cooperative programs. student choice has increased with the ability to concurrently earn a diploma and bachelor degree, utilizing theory and skills in the classroom. despite the increase in collaborative programming offered by colleges and universities, the 2005 release of ontario: a leader in learning announced the need for regional/program collaborations (california model), a focus on high-demand programs and generic courses (course-to-course transfer). the latter, generic courses, a core set of courses comparable in terms of learning outcomes (ex. first year introductory courses), was cited as a necessary area for improvement (rae, 2005). the rae review outlined the value of encouraging all colleges and all universities to come transfer literacy 13 together as a group to outline (and make available publicly) expected learning outcomes and make any necessary changes to help ensure an alignment (2005, p. 42). while many of the issues reviewed and debated in the above literature have received limited traction over the last forty years, the time for improvement and implementation has arrived. a fresh approach: ontarios new credit transfer framework a number of students with previous college attendance pursue bachelor degrees in a university setting. students are aware of the need for education to be a global venture in which they are able to move and study between institutions of interest. education should not be a one-time purchase, but should work to include as much perspective and acculturation as possible. students in ontario and other jurisdictions have been generally way ahead of educators and planners in discovering the value of combining the strengths of the colleges in hands-on learning with the strengths of the universities in academic education (jones & skolnik, 2009). educators and government have made efforts to create transfer opportunities for students in college programs by means of several targeted funding initiatives and projects (jones & skolnik, 2009). in 2006-2007, the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) awarded three million dollars to the cucc as part of the provincial change fund initiative. the projects funded under phases i and ii covered a range of initiatives from collaborative college-university program development, through bilateral transfer agreements, to multilateral direct entry degree completion agreements (cucc, 2009, p. 5). moreover, the development of course equivalencies from college general arts and science/liberal arts programs to university degree programs in arts, social science and science were created to aid an area of increasing student movement (cucc, 2009, p. 5). further, the cucc conducted in-depth research on credit transfer policies, practices, frameworks and student resources in over forty jurisdictions (cucc, 2009). summaries of best practices and barriers to transfer were developed and presented to the provincial credit transfer steering committee and working group in preparation for the development of the new credit transfer framework (cucc, 2009). mtcu first added system-wide indicators on participation in the credit transfer system for the 2009-2010 multi-year accountability agreements (myaa) report-back process (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). the college graduate survey was used to report data from college graduates who have transferred to university within six months of graduation (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2010a). ontario universities application centre (ouac) data were used to report the number of transfer applications and registrations from colleges in ontario (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2010b). the report-back gathered information on promising practices institutions have used to promote credit transfer 14 christine helen arnold (ex. transfer policies, specifically defined credits and entry points, new or expanded agreements and students academic preparedness and satisfaction). in 2011, the honourable john milloy announced a plan to construct and operate a functional new centralized system. this recent responsiveness to credit transfer in the province is a welcome addition. government, agencies, institutional administrators and students hold a vested interest in ensuring transfer information, resources and personnel are helpful, savvy and up-to-date. this work will assist in increasing ontarios current marginal transfer rate. while the provincial totals for transfer have been growing over the last decade, increases have been minimal, growing at a slow steady pace (see table 2). transfer rates do not compare favourably to similar jurisdictions and suggest a remaining disconnect between ontarios colleges and universities (of which transfer literacy may play a part). table 2 | ontario university applicants and registrants with previous college attendance by year 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 7,059 6,875 6, 282 6, 508 6, 692 7,910 8,668 10,693 14,490 15,624 15,950 16, 154 registrants 2, 542 2, 408 2, 229 2, 109 2, 046 2, 513 2, 782 2, 746 applicants 04-05 4, 263 05-06 4, 479 06-07 4, 194 07-08 5, 110 note: table adapted from colleges ontario. (2009). student mobility between ontarios colleges and universities. toronto: on. totals calculated using ouac data. methodology there is little research in the canadian, more specifically the ontario, context regarding credit transfer information systems; this study seeks to describe and evaluate the phenomena under investigation. the objectives of this research lend themselves to a qualitative methodology: establish a baseline of credit transfer information that government, agencies and institutions view as being necessary for students to navigate the transfer system; assess current regulatory and advising practices; identify (a)symmetries within the college-to-university transfer information system from which literacy programs might be constructed; and generate data for discussion in the field. an understanding of governments, agencies and institutional administrators perceptions of the credit transfer information system were attained. phase i: document analysis in the first phase of this project, a document analysis of governments, agencies and institutions perceptions of college-to-university transfer in the province was undertaken. this form of analysis entails locating, selecting, assessing and synthesizing data within the documents (lincoln & guba, transfer literacy 15 1985; strauss & corbin, 1998). the excerpts, taken altogether, reveal underlying meanings, patterns and processes, which are identified through content analysis (altheide, 1996; 2000; bowen, 2009; labuschagne, 2003). the document analysis includes publications, reports, policies and charters from the years 1999-2012. this time period was chosen for the primary documents it includes. the period is framed by two of the most substantial credit transfer achievements in the province (ontario college-university degree completion accord and the 2011 announcement by the honourable john milloy, of a new credit transfer framework for ontario). a table was developed as a means of summarizing the reviewed documents, which are organized according to two classifications: 1) system-wide, macro level studies and 2) institution-specific, micro level case studies (see appendix a). these classifications are further divided by student and administrator expectations. documents that focus discussion on the concepts, materials and tools that assist students in their navigation of the credit transfer system or research collected about students credit transfer activity, expectations and satisfaction are included in the student expectations category. documents classified within the administrator expectations category include those that focus discussion on assisting institutional administrators in their efforts to promote and facilitate credit transfer among institutions. all documents selected for inclusion in phase i highlight provincial transfer arrangements and mobility between colleges and universities as the principal form of transfer. while there are more system-wide than institution-specific documents included on the list, this is not to suggest that a dialogue on credit transfer in the province has not been occurring at the institutional level. rather, limited institutional research was posted publicly and was reasonably accessible at the time of the document analysis. within the new credit transfer framework, the public sharing of institutional research has grown, with waves of institutional projects now being funded and published by oncat. documents written about international student transfer and out-of-province transfer arrangements and mobility are not included. in completing a scan of all credit transfer, articulation and student mobility documents in the province from 1999-2012, the investigator began with those documents posted online under various postsecondary education groups webpages throughout the province. these groups include: colleges ontario (co), council of ontario universities (cou), the college university consortium council (cucc), ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), higher education quality council of ontario (heqco), the council of ministers of education, canada (cmec), the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa), the canadian federation of students (cfs)-ontario affiliated component and the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu). after this initial scan, consultations with academics in the credit transfer field yielded a small collection of additional documents for inclusion. in total, over 70 documents have been reviewed as part of this analysis. while this list is not exhaustive, it is believed the selection chosen is representative of credit transfer deliberations in the province from 1999-2012. 16 christine helen arnold the research tool nvivo was used to parse each credit transfer document. this procedure began by extracting and classifying bibliographic qualitative data about each document (bowen, 2009). the investigator employed both open and axial coding techniques: 1) open coding to categorize and name themes while examining the properties and dimensions of the data and 2) axial coding to identify a central phenomenon and relate categories by identifying links and relationships among the data (creswell, 1998; strauss & corbin, 1990; 1994; 1998). the objectives of this analysis were to identify: 1) descriptive items, such as the purpose of the text, stakeholders involved, actions to be taken and resources to be allocated to credit transfer, 2) procedural items, such as specific elements of credit transfer and their implications and 3) inferential items, such as the operational definition of the terms transfer, seamless and affinity underlying each text. using these objectives, nodes and sub-nodes were established. each node was given a clear and operational definition to ensure the consistency of its use throughout the application process. the initial set of nodes were revised and reworked as new data surfaced throughout the research process. a number of qualitative research techniques were used to identify themes such as key-words-in text (the range of uses of key terms in phrases and sentences), constant comparison (how the themes, terms and phrases differ from the proceeding statements) searching for missing information (what is not been explained or written about but might have been expected to be included), connectors (connections between terms such as causal and logical connections) and pawing (circling words, underlining, highlighting etc. indicating different meanings and coding) (strauss & corbin, 1990; 1994; 1998). phase ii: focus groups with institutional administrators in the second phase of the project, institutional visits took place at colleges and universities across ontario in order to conduct focus groups with senior leaders, departmental and program coordinators, deans, advisors/counsellors, faculty members and staff involved in advising credit transfer students (potential and successful) and/or evaluating credit. overall, 13 (out of 17 recruited) ontario postsecondary institutions (six colleges and seven universities) participated in phase ii. postsecondary institutions invited to participate in this research were those with the highest student transfer application rates in the province. it is held that these institutions have the most experience advising students about the transfer process (regardless of the result of students transfer applications). application rates were calculated using ouac transfer application data from 2008, 2009 and 2010. these data include those transfer applications processed through the centre. applications from part-time students and those in transfer partnerships may not be included in these counts. the investigator sent the senior academic or student affairs/services officer in charge of the credit transfer portfolio a recruitment letter requesting their institutions official participation in the research study (see appendix b). the senior academic or student affairs/services officer at each transfer literacy 17 participating college and university, using the institutional organizational structure, then identified individuals advising credit transfer students and/or evaluating credit. faculty members in advisement positions were identified in those departments with the highest proportion of transfer at each institution. the roles and responsibilities for credit transfer advisement and evaluation varied at each institution. a 'letter of invitation to participate' authored by the investigator (see appendix c) was sent to senior leaders, departmental and program coordinators, deans, advisors/counsellors, faculty members and staff. the letter was endorsed by the senior academic or student affairs/services officer and sent by an on-campus contact person to individuals working under the credit transfer portfolio. in 2012, over 100 senior leaders, departmental and program coordinators, deans, advisors/counsellors, faculty members and staff participated in the focus groups. the participants represent a wide range of functional areas and positions across the institutions involved (see table 3). table 3 | participants functional areas and positions participants functional areas positions academic advisor/coordinator/associate vice president/ assistant director program manager/chair/coordinator/administrator pathways consultant/coordinator/specialist degree and credit transfer assessor/coordinator/manager/officer/clerk career/employment counsellor/consultant/advisor registrar assistant registrar/ associate registrar/analyst admissions/ entry assessor/advisor/liaison officer/manager/ associate director/assistant director/director/counsellor recruitment assistant/officer/manager/advisor curriculum coordinator student success specialist/advisor/director/officer faculty lecturer/chair/associate dean/dean administration officer/assistant client services manager/officer the purpose of the audiotaped, 75 minute semi-structured focus groups was to collect essential information students should be able to comprehend and apply about the transfer process and 18 christine helen arnold identify potential (a)symmetries among stakeholders.1 the focus group protocol was composed of the following components (see appendix d): 1) clarifying terms and concepts- participants elaborated on the use/context of the terms transfer student, articulation, advanced standing and transfer model at their institution; identified institution-specific credit transfer terminology; and defined transfer literacy. 2) information matrix- participants completed an information matrix: 1) identifying those areas of student clarity and confusion with both internal and external credit transfer information and 2) identifying their own areas of clarity and confusion. 3) transfer elements and advising- using the matrix as a springboard, participants answered broad semi-structured questions about advising practices and the importance of chief transfer elements (programmatic and course planning, articulation and transfer models, admissions, credit review and evaluation, financial aid and costing). the results of this research represent the voices of those individuals who voluntarily chose to participate in the focus groups. those who participated were recruited systematically; each focus group consisted of individuals with first-hand experience advising credit transfer students and/or evaluating credit. all recorded and written notes from the focus groups were transcribed. from the transcripts, the investigator used the same open and axial coding techniques employed in phase i (creswell, 1998; strauss & corbin, 1990; 1994; 1998). a powerpoint was composed for each institution detailing the themed summary (open coding) and preliminary findings (axial coding). participants were electronically sent a copy of the powerpoint and asked to participate in a 40 minute conference call (10 minute presentation followed by a 30 minute discussion). the purpose of the conference call was to provide participants with an opportunity to affirm that the summary reflected the focus group conversation, elaborate on that which was originally stated and comment on any recent developments that were of importance to the study. this form of member checking is an essential component of qualitative research as it allows participants to validate the accuracy of the investigators interpretations and minimize distortion (byrne, 2001; lincoln & guba, 1985; rubin & babbie, 2008). interviews replaced focus groups in the research design when the collective group of participants fell below three people. focus groups generally range from 3-12 participants, a group large enough to allow for multiple and diverse perspectives and small enough for everyone to have their insights heard (krueger, 1994). the focus group protocol (see appendix d) was used as an interview protocol in these circumstances. 1 transfer literacy 19 theoretical framework this study utilizes seminal concepts from contract theory, a branch of economic research which investigates how stakeholders interact and form contractual arrangements often in the presence of asymmetric information, as a lens through which to interpret and analyze the results. in 2001, george akerlof, michael spence, and joseph stiglitz won the sveriges riksbank prize in economic sciences for their research contributing to the development of this sub-discipline. as mentioned, above, asymmetric information arises when (at least) one stakeholder has more or better information than the other(s) involved in an exchange or transaction. in his famous paper, akerlof (1970) uses the market for used automobiles as an analogy for understanding this concept: sellers have better information about the quality of their vehicles for sale than buyers. whether the automobile is a peach or a lemon, therefore, can only be learned with precision by buyers after the transaction is completed. similarly, student admissions into postsecondary educationincluding credit transferare contractual negotiations involving asymmetric information wherein both parties seek to determine the value of one another, but where true values and the quality of the match can only be learned over time after entering into the agreement. such problems are referred to as adverse selection (in contrast, moral hazard exists when information asymmetries persist even after a contract has been entered into). the incongruities that arise from adverse selection may ultimately lead to problems of attrition, lack of program fit, dissatisfaction and increased spending. this bears a striking conceptual resemblance to akerlofs (1970) prediction of how asymmetric information distorts markets, in his case for automobiles, resulting in inefficiencies of exchange. for this reason, the adverse selection model is an appropriate framework for understanding the college-to-university transfer system in ontario. in order for administrators to learn about their transfer applicants, students are required to present personal information such as: number of previous credits acquired, credits eligible for transfer, sending institution, program of study, academic prerequisites, transcripts, course repeats, course descriptions, course outlines, textbooks, portfolios, confirmation of co-op hours and reading requirements among other items. in other words, institutions do not know applicants true quality but they do observe a plethora of personal data in the form of observable characteristics and attributes of the individual, and it is these that must ultimately determine his assessment (spence, 1973, p. 357). in contract theory, this process is called signalling, i.e. a mechanism to reduce or mitigate the inefficiencies that would arise from information asymmetries during contract formation. in addition to deciding what to communicate to institutions to be evaluated for entry, students also signal their expected fit for a program by choosing with which universities to communicate. however, proper communication is a two-way street: administrators must also disseminate their expectations and evaluation criteria in order for students to signal efficiently. 20 christine helen arnold assessing the efficacy of the transfer information system and identifying (a)symmetries and current signalling practices among stakeholders will assist in forming a baseline from which literacy programs may be constructed and institutional and/or system refinements made. results this research has two purposes: 1) determine the extent to which the college-to-university transfer information system is performing efficiently and 2) assess the (a)symmetries existent in stakeholders understanding of the process which affects students facility to transfer and universities ability to accommodate transfer students. assessing the efficiency of an existing information system and conducting an information gap analysis requires the following necessary steps: 1) documentation of information needs and responsibilities; 2) analysis of the degree of completeness in terms of the effectiveness and sustainability of existing and relevant information; 3) identification of internal and external factors that impact on the performance of the information system and the formation of an action plan to develop and implement activities to fill information gaps (akerlof, 1970; spence, 1973; stiglitz, 1990; united nations-economic and social development department, 2008). the results of this research are discussed accordingly herein. i. documentation of information needs and responsibilities as a means of documenting both information needs and responsibilities, phases i and ii of this research center on establishing a baseline of credit transfer information that government, agencies and institutions view as being necessary for students to navigate the transfer system. figure 1 illustrates the nine elements that were most frequently identified from the document analysis and focus group sessions. terminology, structures, policies and procedures the most commonly-cited need for information is regarding terminology, structures, policies and procedures. the first, terminology, is commonly discussed as being a first step to entering the transfer information system. without an understanding of the terminology and its application to the admissions, evaluation and enrolment process, students may experience difficulty navigating the transfer system and making informed choices. a number of participants discussed the need for clarity and consistency in the various credit transfer terms used within the system. one participant transfer literacy 21 commented that literacy should include stricter, sharper definitions in terms of what we mean by partnership, pathways and collaboration, because these terms are used rather loosely. the need for consistent terminologies and the use of language for clarity versus jargon was found to be essential. assessment and competition outcomes and career prospects information position and merits and coursework centrality of literature and self-recognition of program affinity publicity and procedures preparation processing forecasting and structures, policies responsibility and advising, terminology, figure 1 | definitional elements of transfer literacy it was clearly communicated that students have to learn a new kind of language; they have to become literate in our [universities] systems, structures, codes and terms. the language used to describe the credit transfer process is of key importance for students, as the vocabulary allows them to deal with challenges. if students are not fluent in the terms and concepts required it can be difficult to ask questions regarding the policies and procedures governing their situation. the terminology used in the documents reviewed proved to be distinctly ontarian. the analysis revealed the need for an exercise in lexicography for those stakeholders within the transfer system. for example, while the most prominent transfer models, categories and types are used fairly consistently, others require clarification. the number of terms used to describe transfer is overwhelming: block credit, advanced standing, collaborative programs, direct entry programs, 22 christine helen arnold degree completion, consecutive, concurrent, joint/integrated, blended program agreements, articulated/blended program agreements, accelerated/intensive, laddering and bridging courses/programs. student confusion can set in when trying to learn the logistics and distinctions that govern each of these agreements, models and terms. government, agencies and institutions have a responsibility to use terminology consistently in their print and web materials when advising students and in all governance proceedings when discussing credit transfer. participants stated that this form of consistency is pertinent to everyone speaking the same language. the oncat glossary of terms speaks to the commitment to expand and make use of a common language for credit transfer. institutional administrators admitted to using terms fairly loosely when advising students. during the focus group sessions, participants commonly broke out into side conversations when asked to define common terms used within their institution. a universal language, even among participants at a single institution, was difficult to come by. however, one senior leader provided a constructive resolution, stating that she has been leading the charge to refine institutional print and web materials for students in accordance with the oncat glossary throughout her institution. a conscious effort is being made to use the terminology outlined by oncat in daily interactions with students. likewise, structures, policies and procedures were cited as being integral to transfer literacy. several documents outlined caveats students should be mindful of when transferring: program specific criteria and academic performance are used during the admissions process, admissions is not guaranteed, the repetition of coursework is costly, program affinity is advantageous, residency requirements vary by institution and appeal mechanisms allow for credit evaluation decisions to be challenged (acaato, 2005; cfs, 2009; cmec, 2002, 2006; co, 2005; cucc, 1999; ousa, 2011; skolnik, 1999). one participant stated, i think they [students] have to understand its a whole process. transferring credits involves several steps that students must familiarize themselves with. policies and procedures often vary from one institution to another: often colleges and universities have different procedures were advising them for, doing all kinds of things, and i think that literacy extends beyond just the language. it should include the procedures and processes as well. participants commonly spoke about crafting step-by-step guides to lead students through the transfer process at both sending and receiving institutions: very plain language and in steps, so that a student would just be able to transfer really easily and it would be very transparent . step 1, step 2, step 3, not a mystery and requiring the reading of 12 pages. internally in the business school, we developed a step-by-step process, so accounting is a huge area where people transfer, so weve got a document that says here are your options well the main options that are sought out and some basic steps. transfer literacy 23 of course, once this information is composed, it is important that it is made widely available to all institutional administrators and students. literature and publicity/centrality of information/responsibility and processing the availability and centrality of literature about the transfer process were discussed as being of primary importance. participants stated, they [students] should know where and how to access information. others explained that transfer literacy should presumably include information that allows our clients to know: what are the options, the processes and so on. we have a lot of opportunity that exists and is there a problem with getting that message across? because of a transfer literacy shortfall? print and web materials were discussed as sources of information that should be easy to locate and navigate. materials identified in both the document analysis and focus groups sessions are listed below: institutional websites- websites with easily navigable items (ex. course descriptions). one centralized place that will house the [articulation] agreements [on each college and universitys website], the archive the paperwork if you will, electronic because right now if you want to find the details on a bunch of articulation agreements, youll likely have to go to a variety of different academic faculties sites. transfer booklets/guides- university wide transfer booklets with general, not complicated, guidelines for programs. wouldnt it be great if every university in ontario composed a three or four page booklet with that information [articulation agreements, transfer models and the admissions process] in it? ontario postsecondary transfer guide- when students start to even think about where they can go after school, they dont even know on the website what to look up. the transfer guide is not exactly an intuitive term. familiarity with existing locations/portals where credit transfer information is housed is necessary for students. however, participants noted that the amount of searching that is necessary to locate information can be challenging. for example, colleges and universities typically house articulation agreements, admissions and transfer policies in varying locations. to circumvent this issue, one senior leader proposed composing a directory, containing all of the articulation agreements an institution is involved in, and posting it publicly on the registrars webpage or another relevant location at each ontario institution. this initiative would create a semblance of uniformity. faculties may still wish to post relevant information for students on their individual webpages, but a master list spanning all areas would be available. transfer booklets were cited as being a useful tool students are able to mark-up and share with others during the decision process. both college and university participants were able to name those institutions with clear transfer booklets/guides and the advantages of providing these hard 24 christine helen arnold copy and electronic documents to students. a few participants commented that the resources and staffing required to produce and update such a document is too much: we had tried at one point to publish something so that students would know in advance, but it changes continuously, and it is difficult to maintain, and so because we did not have the resources to maintain it, i think we decided to drop it. the development and maintenance of this form of information in the ontario system currently varies among institutions. funding provided to institutions from oncat is currently working to assist administrators in their promotion of credit transfer opportunities. additionally, ontransfer/optg was discussed as a learning opportunity for both administrators and students at ontario institutions. recognition and use of the portal varies widely by institution and division/department. increased training sessions on the use of this website and the portal it houses were discussed as options for the improvement of its function and use as an advising tool. participants stated that a common awareness when advising students would create a level of consistency among advisors/counsellors both within and among institutions. the documents analyzed provide a history of the progression of the optg and the major revisions it has undergone since initially being launched in 1998 as the ontario college university transfer guide (ocutg). defining features of importance to administrators and students include: the use of web analytics to measure, collect and analyze the guides various capabilities and viewings of its various elements; the development of an ocutg newsletter to enhance communication among administrators; the introduction of new categories of agreements; and more inclusive information on a multitude of transfer pathways (cucc, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). nevertheless, despite the information available, students have the responsibility of applying policies and procedures to their situation in an effective manner. one advisor explained: it may help us at our level to have all the information in one quick and easy accessible place, but in the end i think it goes back to processing. students are not reading what we are giving them . the ones that are doing very in-depth research, they benefit from that, but for the most part students just come into my office. students must understand the information garnered from their advising appointments and be able to act upon that information. there is a level of responsibility and confidence they must possess to move forward. self-recognition of position and merits/assessment and competition students confidence levels and recognitions of their position are at the forefront of transfer literacy. all students do not recognize the term transfer student. some feel that they are graduating from their college program and applying for a new program at a university. an explanation of the transfer concept is essential: transfer literacy 25 understanding that there is such a thing as transfer is fundamental. i recently spoke to a young man a couple weeks ago who had completed a three-year diploma from a college and he had no idea that he would actually be considered a transfer student, and that hes entitled to take that education and apply it towards a degree. youre a transfer student, youre coming from another institution but then when theyre looking on university websites, are they return students or transfer students? they dont really understand what that means and what does a first year or second year look like at specific institutions? further, comprehending the benefits and limitations of transferring credits and determining ones academic year of study are additional conceptual leaps students must make. participants explained that it is the concept of transferring credits that students must recognize: they [students] dont always understand why they want transfer credits. i think its easy for them to say they dont want credit . for some, they have these notions that the grades are going to come forward and that the program of study is actually going to be very different. participants stated that students are often unsure about the application of previously earned coursework to a university degree, the level of affinity between programs and the potential impact of college grades on university grade point averages (gpa). administrators discussed the latter in detail: there is a reason for that perception. every institution is different some universities will take the credit and the grade and some universities wont. it depends on the home institutions policies and procedures. sometimes the students are legitimately confused about whether the mark is going to come into play or not. the evaluation of credits and resulting implications can be baffling. the documents reviewed frequently discussed: the daunting task of determining whether a prospective college transfer is likely to succeed, the amount of credit to be granted, student satisfaction with awarded credit and the implications of receiving credit (gpa, course scheduling, full-time/part-time status, financial, and time to graduation) (acaato, 2000; co, 2005; cou, 2004; ousa, 2011; usher & jarvey, 2013). lastly, once students recognize their position, assessment and competition is a piece of transfer literacy that cannot be overlooked. the competitive admissions process can at times be disregarded by students and is the first determinate of their transfer success: if somebody is very well versed in the transfer model, they may understand how it is being evaluated but not necessarily for them to actually get to and fro; they first need to be admitted. they need to know the admissions policy. participants commented that students must recognize they are in competition with high school applicants, international applicants and college/university transfers. an application will be required and an assessment will take place: understanding the differences between when they applied from high school, is the process different and if it is how? moreover, submitting the appropriate documentation is the first impression a student makes upon applying to a receiving 26 christine helen arnold institution. advisement during the transfer process can ensure that all requirements for admission are met and supporting documents are arranged. advising, forecasting and preparation/program affinity and coursework obtaining advisement while preparing to transfer can strengthen students understanding of the process. participants named several items that students may receive assistance with during their advising appointments: university admission- i have to remind them partway through their college studies, just because you dont make the cut for one of our joint programs or partnerships, you can still go to university, and a lot of times they dont hear that and think that if they fail one course, im not going to university so i might as well drop out. institutional choice- the benefit of choosing one institution over another as opposed to how the process works . this is why [university x] would be your best choice. i think we have a challenge in terms of varying students and making sure they are ready for what happens. minimums and the application process- what options are out there, understanding that what is published is the minimum and how to proceed with the application process. program affinity- curriculum for one program versus another is an important considerationyou start out; you do a year and a half or two years in a nursing program and want to transfer to engineering. credit review, evaluation and coursework- the whole credit review and evaluation that goes on at the university. we know what happens, we give them a heads up about that, and although id like to be able to influence the program and course planning, thats not something i have much control over. while common concerns regarding credit transfer surface among students, advisors/counsellors were quick to state that advising practices vary depending on a students program and educational background. participants stated that information is generally very case-by-case independent. additionally, a consistent level of information across advisors/counsellors was cited as an item for improvement. one administrator stated: transfer literacy needs to also happen internally and i think that is a big issue. people not having the correct information and then telling the student something and then its the wrong thing. not doing it on purpose, but because thats the most information they have. we need to do more. participants discussed constant circulation of current/new procedures and improved information sharing between divisions/departments as possible solutions. transfer literacy 27 outcomes and career prospects ultimately, the outcomes and career goals associated with students transfer decisions must be aligned. one administrator described the information required: transfer literacy in my view also means having literacy around how the postsecondary education system works. it is not just about having literacy around how to transfer from one institution to another . there's a transactional side, i've got credit, what can it earn me, but then there's the career and where can postsecondary education take me. others commented on the purpose of the university program chosen and expenses: relevance of the program towards employment prospects in the future. understanding how much it might cost to pursue a program in order to reach a particular terminal credential. students ability to make informed decisions regarding program choice, future graduate education and career goals is the ultimate measure of literacy. ii. analysis of the degree of completeness in terms of the effectiveness and sustainability of existing and relevant information an assessment of the (a)symmetries existent in stakeholders understanding of the transfer process which affects students facility to transfer and universities ability to accommodate transfer students was conducted. symmetry refers to a congruity in credit transfer information between stakeholders. this includes shared (or uniform) knowledge about the credit transfer process as well as shared (or uniform) confusion. in other words, symmetry of information arises when all of the relevant stakeholders are on the same page: there is no withholding of information, they share common knowledge about the credit transfer environment (even if this knowledge is incomplete), and they hold common beliefs/expectations about future outcomes. in contrast, asymmetry refers to an incongruity in information resulting in non-uniform knowledge across relevant stakeholders. in this case, some stakeholder(s) would directly benefit from additional information from the other(s) that is not being fully disseminated. this may arise if stakeholders have incentives to withhold information, the costs/challenges of collecting and disseminating information are too high, or the information is simply too complex for stakeholder(s) to reasonably comprehend. this examination consisted of identifying (a)symmetries between 1) government/agencies and institutional administrators and 2) institutional administrators and students. government/agencies and institutional administrators in phase i, a document analysis of governments, agencies and institutions perceptions of collegeto-university transfer in the province was undertaken. the document analysis included publications, reports, policies and charters from the years 1999-2012. the findings of this analysis are discussed herein as they compare to institutional administrators responses in phase ii of this 28 christine helen arnold research study. several meaningful symmetries and asymmetries were identified between government/agencies and institutional administrators. symmetries this section details areas of the transfer process where shared information exists between government/agencies and institutional administrators. similar arguments, concepts and priorities were named and elaborated upon by each stakeholder group. the document analysis revealed several frameworks and guiding principles for collaboration (ex. pan-canadian protocol on the transferability of university credits, ontario college-university degree completion accord and the policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system). these documents outline the guiding principles for a functioning credit transfer system: guidelines for the acceptance of college coursework, timelines for completion and strategies for the creation and maintenance of college-university relations. institutional administrators also collectively discussed these guiding principles. additionally, symmetries were identified with regard to information about admissions, articulation and transfer models. similar priorities, operating procedures and concerns arose throughout the document analysis and focus group sessions. the first, admissions, was identified by both groups as being of primary importance for a successful transfer system. institutional responsibility to offer admission to those students whose academic backgrounds indicate that they are likely to succeed in university programs was discussed in detail. those items identified as being crucial for admission include: gpa, program-specific criteria, external accreditation requirements, workplace demands and available seats in university programs. the council of ministers of education, canada (cmec) working group on credit transfer (2009) noted, transfer students should be made aware that program-specific criteria and other factors, in addition to academic performance, may be used as admission criteria. that is, while possession of academic prerequisites makes an applicant eligible for admission, it does not guarantee admission to a particular program (p. 36). the need for consistency in admissions decisions, credit transfer policies and evaluations was frequently discussed. numerous documents stated that transfer and direct entry students should not experience advantages or disadvantages as a result of the credit transfer process (cfs, 2009; cmec, 1995, 2010; ousa, 2011; skolnik, 1999). moreover, students should be able to obtain an institutions reason(s) for refusal of credits for transfer and experience clear appeal procedures (ousa, 2011). both stakeholder groups also highlighted articulation and transfer models; the analysis revealed a number of transfer models and categories. the expanding scope of relations between colleges and universities is evident in the unique college-university programming developed in ontario. these relations led to the discussion of many concepts necessary for credit transfer: programming, transfer literacy 29 learning outcomes, innovation, trust and respect, governance and shared resources. the latter proved to be a great concern for those engaging in college-university relations. participants noted that numerous partnerships have been implemented over the years via shared resources and campus space. government and agencies also proudly discussed these collaborative ventures. numerous examples were cited in the documents reviewed: seneca college and york university, seneca colleges general arts and science program and york universitys faculty of arts established a ground-breaking and unique articulation agreement that facilitated student transitions into a bachelor degree; georgian college university partnership centre (upc), a number of ontario universities currently have formal agreements with georgian college to deliver degree studies; university of guelph and humber college, a new facility created through a partnership between the university of guelph and humber college dedicated entirely to serving students who wish to receive both a university degree and a college diploma; durham college and the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit), the creation of a two-plus-two model with a summer bridging program for college graduates wishing to transfer to high-affinity degree programs (cou, 2004; trick, 2013). overall, fundamental changes in government policy have led to the creation of numerous partnerships over time in ontario: 1) full funding for incremental undergraduate enrolments (universities receive revenues to assist with the costs of serving additional college transfers) and 2) a portion of government superbuild funding devoted to joint college-university initiatives (cou, 2004). college-university relations are currently beginning to expand once again and government, agencies and administrators seem to hold similar visions for the future. earlier documents discussed bilateral transfer agreements and the uniqueness of the partnerships being created between two institutions. the increases in agreements of this kind were cited in many of the documents reviewed and are showcased on the optg. as time has progressed, these agreements have been applauded for their contribution to the system, but commentary about the need to expand to multilateral agreements has become a well-defined ambition. asymmetries asymmetries were identified in areas where administrators (government) would directly benefit from additional information about the credit transfer process from government (administrators). while the examples provided do not represent an exhaustive list, they do showcase key examples where administrators have or desire more information. 30 christine helen arnold university administrators stated that centralized databases containing credit equivalencies assist in providing consistent and objective credit evaluations. reviewing and updating those equivalencies housed within the database and articulation agreements (print and web materials) annually by discipline must occur for the distribution of accurate credit evaluation information. numerous universities had developed or were in the process of developing internal centralized databases. while oncat recently launched a course-to-course section of the optg on january 20th 2014, many administrators have been actively addressing this issue for several years. institutions have collected a great amount of information about course-to-course equivalencies throughout ontario, which has only recently been shared with government and oncat. advisor/counsellor and student needs demanded this type of information source. centralized databases are a mechanism for students to predict, in advance, the amount of credit they will receive. while rules or course-to-course equivalencies will not exist for every course, foundational courses among others are included. administrators also emphasized that centralized databases are one step of a two-step process when reviewing credits. a review conducted by an advisor is crucial when evaluating more specialized credit equivalencies and combinations. second, issues were raised concerning the transition from paper procedures to electronic administrative management systems/degree planning tools. administrators discussed the strengths of these systems for themselves and students. such systems typically allow for the submission of credit transfer applications and required documentation, the posting of evaluation results, viewing of academic history and degree planning in consideration of awarded credit. yet, administrators discussed that although government has provided financial support to facilitate this transition, there has not been a matching of informational resources to ensure the programs are harmonized across institutions. this carte-blanche approach of promoting electronic systems ultimately results in increased uncertainty for institutions on how to properly implement these platforms as well as greater confusion for students forced to learn and manoeuvre various tools. lastly, administrators discussed research priorities with regard to credit transfer and the development of tracking mechanisms (ex. previous registrations, value-added, student satisfaction and employment outcomes). one administrator explained, i dont think weve done a whole lot on the success rates of students. are we helping them or not helping them by doing it the way were doing it? we havent done enough in my view to assist students with transferring. such priorities would be enhanced by an increase in communication and data sharing at the system level. over time, many institutions have invested resources to improve administrative approaches to credit transfer. as a means of improving efficiency, such information and strategies should be publicized and adopted across the system rather than continue to function in a localized, institution-specific manner. administrators discussed the desire to learn from their colleagues about methods and strategies used for data collection, database construction/expansion, transfer literacy 31 management system/degree planning tool development and policy improvement. encouragingly, government and agencies have begun working on a number of the items administrators identified since the announcement of the new credit transfer framework, which will impact information collection, retrieval, renewal and circulation. institutional administrators and students in phase ii, senior leaders, departmental and program coordinators, deans, advisors/counsellors, faculty members and staff were asked to complete an information matrix: 1) identifying areas of student clarity and confusion with both internal and external credit transfer information and 2) identifying their own areas of clarity and confusion (see appendix d). several meaningful symmetries and asymmetries were identified between institutional administrators and students. symmetries this section details areas of the transfer process where shared information exists between institutional administrators and students. participants identified seven common overarching areas that contain symmetries of information: 1) articulation agreements, 2) program choice, 3) residency requirements, 4) applied bachelor degrees, 5) advising practices (internal and external), 6) degree and program requirements and 7) information location/relevance. identified areas where shared clarity and confusion exist are shown in the circles below (clarity-left circle; confusion-right circle) (see figure 2). figure 2 | areas of informational symmetries between administrators and students articulation agreements program choice residency requirements applied bachelor degrees advising practices (internal & external) degree and program requirements information location/relevance 32 christine helen arnold the two most frequently-discussed areas will be elaborated upon herein; limited space does not permit a discussion of the others. articulation agreements were identified as the most common area where items of shared clarity exist between administrators and students. at colleges with a multitude of agreements, participants stated that there is an awareness of the partnerships in place and the associated benefits: the awareness. our students are using terms like joint program or partnership. they are speaking as we talk right from the beginning. so, all of our students are potential transfer students . they are not actual transfer students, but they are well aware of what the agreements are, and in most cases we have a fixed gpa. others commented, students know we have agreements, that there are agreements and with which institutions. articulation agreements were cited as the pathway of choice for many students when planning their education: the vast majority of students are hoping to get into a university program with which we have an agreement, to get their undergraduate degree. students are aware of the advantages of combining practical hands on experience with theoretical concepts. moreover, they recognize that formal articulation agreements generally guarantee the largest amount of credit upon application to university. however, administrators were also quick to comment that it can be difficult for students to comprehend and apply the information posted within articulation agreements to their specific situation. at times, the terms used within the agreements vary and the same information is not posted in every agreement (ex. contact, terms for renewal or cancellation, eligibility and credits received). while the optg requires the use of an articulation agreement template, when agreements are publicized on institutional websites a common structure is not always adhered to. particular items of shared confusion between administrators and students are presented in table 4. the two columns display the breakdown between those items identified by both college and university participants and those solely identified by those at the college or university. although administrators at ontario colleges and universities may sometimes feel like they are divided when it comes to credit transfer, this table reveals items of similar dialogue and debate. applied bachelor degrees were identified as the most common area where items of shared confusion exist. participants discussed the multiple questions they have surrounding these degrees and their role in the ontario postsecondary education system. one university advisor stated, degree programs from the colleges. there exists confusion about equivalencies and there remains a good deal of misinformation. what is the volume of these programs? what is available? why are they treated as a secondary degree? another advisor questioned how students are coping: i think it causes confusion at this level. i cant even imagine how the students may be doing it. i do have a degree from a college. it says degree. why are you not treating it like a degree? college participants noted that universities are beginning to come on board; however, they are still reluctant to recognize applied bachelor degrees at times. one administrator remarked, our new degree programs, people ask, are they real? well, yeah they are. theres a bit of resistance from the old boys club, saying transfer literacy 33 we offer degrees only. the college offering business degrees is receiving some backlash. regardless, the most stimulating conversation surrounded motivation for colleges to participate in credit transfer activities in areas where they could retain their own students: our marketing and communications department has concerns there are concerns amongst our colleges deans that if we have articulation agreements college-to-university that we might be cannibalizing our own degrees. table 4 | informational symmetries between administrators and students university college & university timing and method of transfer credit evaluation applied bachelor degrees pre or post admissions evaluation of credit when transferring from an applied automatically assessed or application required bachelor degree to university college role of college degrees in applied areas of study information location/relevance tracking down information and wait times at universities data sharing between institutions and professional associations contact information for established articulation agreements gpa calculation varying gpa formulas (program versus cumulative, permitted course repeats) terminology articulation agreements (varying terms and language used) credit value/hours (full versus half credits etc.) applicant pool quota of reserved seats for college transfers advising practices communication lines between colleges and universities multi-campus distinctions in policies and procedures high school guidance counsellors advisement practices regarding pathways degree and program requirements switching majors high demand programs and additional requirements information location/relevance internal contact information and resource sharing between units publishing and updating transfer agreements internally (web) setting research priorities (credit transfer activity/outcomes/(dis)advantages) consistency of information and level of guidance provided ease of access to information oncat portal overall, while participants identified appreciably more areas where shared confusion exists than shared clarity, this finding is positive in that administrators acknowledge questions they currently possess about the ontario college-to-university credit transfer process and outcomes. moving forward, it is imperative that these questions, among others, are resolved and supports are put in place to minimize any misperceptions. as government continues to advance the new credit transfer 34 christine helen arnold framework, the development of transfer recommendations and resources for both students and administrators are necessary. asymmetries asymmetries were identified in areas where students would directly benefit from additional information about the credit transfer process from administrators (government). participants identified eight common overarching areas that contain asymmetries of information: 1) evaluation of credits (advanced standing, direct entry, equivalency etc.), 2) application process and required documentation, 3) credit transfer portfolio (location, unit[s] and personnel involved), 4) gpa calculation, 5) reach backs, 6) degree and program requirements, 7) variations in structure (institution and program type) and 8) policies and affiliated terminology (see figure 3). the spider graph depicts the percentage of colleges and universities involved in the study that identified each area. for example, 100 percent of the colleges and universities involved in the study identified evaluation of credits, as an area where confusion exists for students. on the other hand, 83 percent of colleges and only 57 percent of universities involved in the study identified gpa calculation as an area where confusion exists for students. figure 3 | informational asymmetries- comparison colleges and universities evaluation of credits 100% policies and affiliated terminology 80% 60% application process and required documentation 40% 20% variations in structure 0% degree and program requirements credit transfer portfolio gpa calculation reach backs universities colleges transfer literacy 35 a comparison of college and university data reveals that specific areas are listed more frequently by colleges than universities and vice versa. the application process and required documentation, gpa calculation and policies and affiliated terminology were listed more frequently as areas where confusion exists for students by college participants than university. degree and program requirements and variations in structure were listed more frequently as areas where confusion exists for students by university participants than college. the particular items that lie within these frequently listed areas and the corresponding supporting evidence will be discussed in more detail herein. evaluation of credits. all colleges and universities involved in the study identified evaluation of credits as an area where confusion exists for students. several themes emerged within this area (see table 5). table 5 | themes: evaluation of credits program affinity, students express frustration over their attempts to determine the equivalencies & amount of transfer credit they will receive upon applying to recognition university. advanced standing students require clarification with regard to the concept of advanced standing and the accompanying conditions. re-evaluations degree and faculty changes made by students throughout the course of their education may require transfer credit re-evaluation, additional advising and a reconfiguration of program plans. program affinity, equivalencies and recognition. program affinity is a concept that often misleads students attempting to calculate the amount of credit they will receive. participants explained that students often state that they understand the importance of program affinity but, when the times comes for them to review their individual credit evaluations, they are bewildered: they're [students] coming from a business diploma at a college, and they want to go into landscape architecture at a university, i think they get that they are not aligned. that they are different . however, when you get down to the nitty-gritty of what courses they're going to get from business to landscape architecture, it is probably going to be a grand total of one, if any. then they're like, whoa, wait a second. i did a three-year diploma. so again, i think they understand the words, but when it comes right down to them looking at their case, i don't think it makes as much sense as when it is black and white. 36 christine helen arnold students are confused about the number of credits they are receiving, because they may be applying to science where they will get 30 credits, but also applying to engineering where they are getting 18 credits. why am i not getting the same thing? i am graduating from the same program from the same college; i am applying to the same university? students tend think that their case will somehow be different than those that have come before them. faculty summarized that, while some students are satisfied to switch program areas regardless of awarded credit, others regret not having made more aligned program choices. equivalencies can be a challenge for students to comprehend. they are subject to degree, grade, course level, program requirements and academic prerequisites. in addition, students must be aware of external accreditation requirements, which can affect equivalency/amount of credit awarded. this is illustrated in the example above, where it is important to note that engineering applicants typically will not receive credit for engineering related discipline courses for programs not accredited by the canadian engineering accreditation board (ceab). advisors/counsellors stated that during advising appointments students often exclaim: why am i not given credit for everything i did at college? not understanding that they made a choice to go to college, its different. they may not have the requirements that the university stipulated. i start there those are two really good reasons why youre not going to receive credits. these are different institutions. many students feel that all of their college education should be transferred; two years of education should be equivalent to two years of education. students are often not aware that multiple courses at the college level are considered to be equivalent to one course at a university. one advisor clarified: they [students] dont feel theyve got enough credit, but they tend to understand when you explain to them this many courses at a college with this average gives you this at a university. frustration can ensue when students feel their previous college education is not being recognized at the university level: you know, they [students] spent three years doing something and then they finally get very little in terms of recognition. so i think they think thats a real turnoff. so they would like to know more about their options right from the beginning. another participant stated, students should be aware of how much recognition they will receive. shopping around? often they think their college education is the bees knees, but what is granted credit is not always clear. advisors/counsellors commented that the amount of misinformation students acquire demands attention: we have individuals that go to a college program and they are given misinformation saying if you take this to your university program you will get 14 credits, which then they find is not true. when students overestimate the amount of credit they will receive, it can become difficult for transfer literacy 37 them to complete their remaining education. faculty and advisors/counsellors stated that anticipated plans can shift quite quickly: they get hit with a wall. i realize, my goodness, i have to do six extra credits to reach maximum and i didnt get this transfer credit. now it is going to take me two and a half years, and then there is a funding issue because i thought i only had two more years. advanced standing. students commonly have questions regarding their academic year of study and remaining coursework. theyll get an advanced standing letter from admissions and theyll still call. they have no idea about what it means. so thats where we have to guide them through and discuss how its going to fit. for us advanced standing means any transfer credit, whereas students when they are asking about admission they often call us to ask what level should i pick? im a postsecondary student should i choose on the application that i want advanced standing or ? they dont understand what advance standing means to us. typically, advanced standing refers to students admitted to a second or higher term or year of a program because of transfer credits granted for courses completed at another institution. however, this definition diverges across institutions; there are examples, like the institution described above, where advanced standing refers to any awarded transfer credit. students investigating/applying to a variety of institutions must keep track of these differences, ultimately learning to speak several transfer dialects. with regard to credit evaluation, comprehension is important when adhering to conditions/guidelines and predicting awarded credit. the conditions required for advanced standing, if overlooked, can result in student disappointment. one advisor provided a useful example: to receive advanced standing [awarded credit] you have to have completed [a specific number of sessions] in the same program. if there is a change of program, then they're not eligible for those credits. and they, well, some of them, i won't generalize, but some of them don't realize that that's one of the conditions. so when we have to withdraw the advanced standing, there is great confusion there. university policies dictate the amount of credit students are eligible to receive and their advanced standing designations. all the universities in this research study have set requirements regarding who is eligible for transfer credit based on the amount and level of previous college education obtained. they also have set methods for conducting credit evaluations. 38 christine helen arnold re-evaluations. students must be aware of universities methods and sequences for conducting transfer credit evaluations. if the credit evaluation is program based, students may require a re-evaluation when switching majors or declaring a minor: when transferring degrees or faculties students may need to be re-evaluated for credit. for example, if you switched majors from anthropology to history, the college transfer student would not have been evaluated for credit for a b.a. in history. ensuring students seek advisement when switching majors is critical. as one participant stated, re-evaluation after an internal transfer is the responsibility of the student to request. full versus program based evaluations varied among the institutions in this research study. one administrator described the adjustments her institution has made over time: we went back to giving a full assessment because they [students] may change after year one and have to go back to admissions . i think that was a huge change, advising them that they may not all fit [credits] and the reason they dont all fit is because after first year you may not choose to stay in business or visual arts, and you can re-assess using those. the advantages and disadvantages of each method must be weighed. application process and required documentation/gpa calculation/policies and affiliated terminology. colleges involved in the study identified the application process and required documentation, gpa calculation and policies and affiliated terminology as areas where confusion exists for students. several themes emerged within these areas (see table 6). table 6 | themes: application process and required documentation/gpa calculation/policies and affiliated terminology enrolment & follow-up credit transfer students experience a multifaceted enrolment process (admissions applications, submission of documentation for transfer credits, additional fees and follow-up advising). admissions cut-off institutional admissions averages are dependent on discipline, averages applicant pool, annual targets and funding. the shifting nature of admissions cut-offs often proves difficult for advisors/counsellors and students for whom ranges must be used. grading scales & gpa varied grading scales, gpa calculations and regulations calculations regarding course repeats cause confusion for students. policies & terminology in order to function in a university setting, students must acclimatize to a new set of policies and terminology. this adjustment can prove difficult for students engrained in a previous institutions culture and procedures. transfer literacy 39 enrolment and follow-up. the enrolment process for college transfer students is multifaceted with additional steps and considerations. participants explained, students require a better understanding of the timing and process. they must apply for admissions, have their transcript(s) assessed and sit down to speak with an advisor. applying for admission to university is only the beginning of a chain of events that must occur before transfer students walk into a classroom. the items listed below encompass the many considerations students must process: support services- well have students that will call an institutions admissions department and if the person that answers is not the contact i have given them, or referred them to, and they get a general admissions advisor, theyre not going to get the correct information regarding transferability. so, it really is important for students to ensure that they are in touch with the appropriate individuals at those institutions or they will not be informed correctly. i have heard confusion from students regarding i hear one thing on the phone one day and somebody is very informed, and then the next it just depends on their portfolio and what they are in charge of. documentation- the submission of previous transcripts is confusing for students alongside how credit is assessed. students dont necessarily know why they would go to university or how its different. or they dont necessarily have a good concept of what a credit or transcript is and what that is used for. theyre still thinking of report cards. fees and deadlines- students often feel like they should pay less because they have prior coursework. however, in transferring credits, additional fees are incurred- fees for transcripts and course outlines. when students become aware of these fees, some would rather retake courses versus taking the time to locate all of the documentation required. some students would rather retake courses at university and get a better grade. one of the things that just really throws college students when they go to apply to universities is the multitude of deadlines. they offer a february boost right? i say, well no not exactly. if its nursing, its february 15th, for everything else its june 1st, but it might be different if its this program and if you want to get records here. locating support services can be confusing for credit transfer students. additionally, roles and responsibilities regarding various units involvement in credit transfer are not always clear. administrators explained that students experience difficulty locating reliable information: who is responsible for different roles when it comes to credit transfer or even program planning? weve had students who have gone to the registrars office and those who have gone to their department and talked to faculty members. if students do not possess the correct contact(s) they may receive incorrect or incomplete information. 40 christine helen arnold similarly, students themselves must be willing to provide complete information about their previous postsecondary education upon transferring. declaring all previous postsecondary education and providing the correct supporting documentation is important when transferring to university; a proper credit evaluation (academic year of study, required coursework etc.) is on the line. students may be asked to provide the following documentation: transcripts, course descriptions, course outlines, portfolios and confirmation of co-op hours among other items. credit is assessed based on these items and may be delayed until each has been processed appropriately. advisors/counsellors discussed the importance of students keeping their course outlines and descriptions: every teacher in every college and university has said to them [students] on the first day: here's your course outline, keep this for the next 25 years. you don't know when you're going to need it. unfortunately, if students do not keep their original copies, retrieving them later can be difficult: on the college end, it's not always easy for students to get access. after they leave the college, they can't go back, it's very hard. it's even hard for us to go back, 5-10 years later, to get there in time. several participants commented on the need for electronic archived copies of course descriptions and syllabi for both administrators and students. at one institution, an archived system which sorts course outlines by program and course number is already in place and was described in detail. finally, fees and deadlines vary by institution and program. transfer students typically incur additional fees upon applying for admission: every single time they request to transfer theres a fee, it doesnt matter if its from us [college] to them [university], them to us, back and forth, and at the end of the day some of our students are requesting as many four transcripts. thats a lot. while some institutions have an omnibus fee, others charge separately for each transcript. further, some institutions have a transfer credit evaluation fee that students must pay in order to have their previous education assessed upon admission. participants commented that deadlines for admissions applications, transfer credit evaluations, course registrations and program major and minor declarations can be difficult for students to digest. students applying to multiple programs and institutions may initially encounter several different fee structures and deadlines. admissions cut-off averages. participants overwhelmingly discussed institutional admissions averages; averages are dependent on discipline, applicant pool, annual targets and funding. however, the shifting nature of admissions cut-offs proves difficult for advisors/counsellors and students for whom ranges must be used. averages can rise or fall year to year and students attempting to make last years cut-off can at times be disappointed. college advisors/counsellors described the issue: 3.0, okay, ill do that. but then its not 3.0. it sometimes floats up. and all of a sudden they [students] feel as though theyve been robbed. you know, i received a 3.1. why didn't i get in? i mean, we're just it, right? it's based on last year? however, it is not feasible for universities to state yearly cut-offs, as these determinations are not made until transfer literacy 41 the applicant pool and funding considerations are accounted for. one college advisor explained the situation: it's very difficult, i think, for universities to give specific grade points without being committed to it. you have a target to meet, right? meeting the target may require that you have to work with that range a little bit so that you dont over commit or you dont under commit, right? if you say, okay, 2.5. you're definitely in, it's very difficult to do that. others commented that some students do not view cut-offs as rigidly as they should: a number of students, although you can say the words to them, and they can say yes, this gpa is required, when it comes down to it they ask: if i get a 2.94? that's probably close enough, right? they don't really get it. students must obtain at least the minimum gpa and often they will require grades above that which is stated. grading scales and gpa calculations. a number of grading scales are in place across ontario institutions. these systems can be confusing for students trying to predict how their college average will be calculated by universities upon application. what point scale will be used? what courses will be included? is it a cumulative average? do course repeats count? participants commented on why student confusion exists, stating, i think sometimes they [students] struggle with the gpa notion. we [colleges] deal with letter grades where the university will have numeric grades. often, students are confident in their academic standing, but wonder how their grades will be perceived in a university setting. what regulations are in place that they are not aware of? advisors/counsellors clarified the areas of student concern, they [students] dont know on the other end in the university zone who is looking at their gpa, how is it being perceived, does the university know what the gpa calculation measures are for the college in question or do they see a c+ and it is in a different numeric category than what the college deemed it to be? discussions revolved around examples of varying college and university practices with few black and white answers: each grading scale varies along with the policies and what is transferred. policies and terminology. acclimatizing students to varying university policies and terminology during the transfer process can be a challenge. university administrators and advisors/counsellors stated that students generally possess a good understanding by the end of their first semester. the difficulty occurs while students are applying to universities from college. the rules and regulations in place at the college they attended are not universal throughout the system. first, advisors/counsellors explained that students can experience problems with rudimentary terms: students coming from a college environment going onto university have some trouble understanding the terms required: honours degree, undergraduate degree, major and specialization. others commented that the term credit itself can be rather difficult to comprehend, 42 christine helen arnold as many college students are used to course hours, and university credit systems typically vary (3/6 credit courses versus .5/1 credit courses). moreover, some students struggle with the very terminology that defines their transition. program lengths and the types of transfer models in existence can be a challenge to process. participants commented, often with our programs, we refer to them in length of time, so two-plus-two or threeplus-one or three-plus-two. students look for clarification around those terms. what does that actually mean when youre telling me i qualify for a two-plus-two? another advisor stated, a lot of students feel there are too many road blocks. anyone whos had exposure to the united states system or what goes on in other provinces, they know that the standard model in north america, everywhere but ontario, is two-plus-two. students who are familiar with these alternative north american models often feel discouraged when they realize they may not experience the same level of planning and coordination in the ontario context. numerous focus group sessions centered on the need to place students information needs first: there is not enough of an emphasis on ensuring that whatever we design will specifically meet students communication and information needs we need to make it clear that the ultimate stakeholder is the student and lets not design collaboration to be impossible. degree and program requirements/variations in structure. all universities involved in the study identified degree and program requirements as an area where confusion exists for students. several identified variations in structure between the college and university sectors. two themes emerged within these areas (see table 7). table 7 | themes: degree and program requirements/variations in structure application of credit regardless of the program, it is important that students evaluation understand their transfer credit evaluation and how it applies to both degree and program requirements. program flexibility university programs are less prescribed than that of the colleges; students manage their own course selections. given this flexibility, students have the responsibility of determining how they wish to proceed in achieving their degree. application of credit evaluation. students are often so focused on the number of credits they will receive that they do not contemplate the type of credit awarded. one administrator stated, applying for credit and getting credits on your record is really just the first step and there is a lot of follow-up on how some of these credits are used, like generic credits. they are used differently transfer literacy 43 by every faculty. participants named a few key concepts students must remember when viewing and acting upon their credit evaluations: generic, unassigned, and/or unspecified credits- understanding what a generic credit can and cant do. it cant fulfill a program requirement so there are some students who dont quite understand how they use the generic credit to their advantage towards their degree and then being able to explain and clarify that. for two years of college, we give two unspecified credits for an academic program. how those two unspecified credits play into their degree requirements, theyre sometimes unsure in a sense and feel that those two credits can be used to meet program requirements. exclusions- if students have a course with an exclusion, depending on what course it is that they were excluded from and the level of the unspecified credit, we would take it or we would give it an alternative. but those arrangements are made by each individual department because we sign off on their program. level of credits- sometimes students receive something like five transfer credits and they are all at the 100 level and then they come here and because they cant use those credits towards the program the program requires three credits at the 100 level, a lot of times theyll say can i get rid of those transfer credits? when we do the assessments we do try and make them most beneficial for the students. if we see that they do need to take x amount of first year credits, we try not to give them too many so they are in a predicament where they cant take the required courses. its not helping them. the role of generic, unassigned and/or unspecified credits was raised by several participants as an item students struggle with once they receive their credit evaluations. generic, unassigned and/or unspecified refers to credits given for courses with no exact equivalent at the university or for a course where no equivalent discipline exists. contrastingly, assigned or specified refers to credit given for a fully equivalent course in content and level of study. generally, generic, unassigned and/or unspecified awarded credit may not be used to fulfill program requirements (unless permission is obtained from a program/department advisor) but may be used to fulfill degree requirements. restrictions and usage vary by university. student advisement is often necessary: students need much more counseling . i can look through the faculty of arts and science calendar, can see what my program requirements are but i dont really know how this all works. because ive been somewhere where my program has been set up for me and now here i am, i find out i have program requirements and degree requirements. we say they are separate and yet they overlap. so what does this really mean? how is it that im going to actually receive that degree? 44 christine helen arnold many stated that the devil is in the details as students may be awarded a significant number of credits, but they may not be applicable to their program and/or degree requirements. one participant explained, students think because they are eligible for a certain number of credits, that means their degree will be expedited for graduation. however, this is not always the case. unspecified credits are the greatest queries we receive. students may also be awarded generic, unassigned and/or unspecified credits with attached exclusion(s). in these cases, course exclusion(s) may be noted barring enrolment in similar course(s). students are not able to enroll in courses listed as exclusion(s) on their transfer credit evaluation, unless required to do so to meet program requirements. exclusions refer to a significant overlap in course material such that students may not count both the awarded credit and the noted course credit exclusion(s) for degree credit. participants noted that when students are required to enroll in a course(s) listed as an exclusion(s) to meet program requirements, confusion can ensue. arrangements must often be made at the departmental level in order to determine how students will proceed. program flexibility. university programs are less prescribed than the college programs with which students may be accustomed. one advisor explained, especially when college culture is a little more prescribed like high school culture was . college is less of a shock than coming into this totally different system in the university where were all so different. universities require students to register for each course they wish to enroll in (predetermined blocks are generally not provided). elective credits and breadth requirements encourage students to enroll in courses across disciplines. for example, one faculty member stated, in the faculty of arts, we have a multitude of programs, and the structure of the programs is not as defined as it is in other faculties, health sciences, for example. you have a series of core courses and a couple of electives here and there. in the faculty of arts, it is somewhat the opposite. you have a lot of electives, with a small number of disciplinary courses. so transfer students coming from colleges, when they are admitted, let's say in a major, we say, well, you can't graduate just with a major, you've got to add a second discipline to your program, either another major or minor. participants commented that students might not be used to making fundamental program decisions. advising around these decisions and the timing in which they are to be completed may be required. further, administrators remarked that part-time and full-time status impacts the structure of a students program: transfer literacy 45 theyre [students] not used to being able to flip between part-time and full-time. for us its just the number of credits youre taking. theres no prescription of courses you need to complete this year in order to move onto next year. its a totally different culture in terms of understanding how you choose courses and progress through your degree. students must develop an individual plan for the completion of their coursework. transfer students have the responsibility of ensuring this plan incorporates potential bridge courses/programs, reach backs and awarded credits. the next section brings together the findings regarding the information that government, agencies and institutions provide to students to proceed in college-to-university credit transfer and the (a)symmetries in the current transfer information system. a discussion of the internal and external factors that impact on the performance of the current credit transfer information system and the formation of an action plan to fill information gaps is outlined. discussion and conclusion iii. identification of internal and external factors that impact on performance and the formation of an action plan this report concludes with implications for practice. the findings from this research are considered in terms of the internal and external factors influencing the efficiency of the credit transfer information system. concepts from contract theory will guide this discussion. private information the conventional model of adverse selection is based on one-dimensional private information (akerlof, 1970). private information refers to information that is potentially valuable to both parties but is held by only one party in a possible transaction. in the adverse selection model, one party lacks information while negotiating an agreed understanding of a transaction. in the credit transfer information system, this research study suggests that both institutions and students in the transaction withhold, fail to reveal, or are unable to fully disseminate private information throughout various points in the credit transfer process. the university requests personal information from the student in order to provide a sufficient offer of admission. however, university admissions officers may not know a transfer students true skill set or qualifications if he/she does not reveal personal information in his/her admissions application or subsequently in his/her credit transfer application(s). likewise, the student requests personal information from the institution, collected via advising, websites and print materials. however, when information is not clearly outlined for the student regarding the transfer process or information is not made available, 46 christine helen arnold the student may not know the true skill sets a university demands or the qualifications required for admission. a few popular examples given during the course of this research study are provided to demonstrate each point. students private information throughout the research study, participants detailed multiple circumstances where students may not reveal their true skills and qualifications. the first overarching example is when students do not present all of their past educational experiences through the submission of transcripts. participants described that they are often at the mercy of students to declare all previous education to ensure proper program fit and avoid repetition of previously completed coursework. one advisor stated, there is no database for us to check . we have to make sure that we rely on the students to tell us what institutions they have been engaged with across the province. if students applied and were unsuccessful at other institutions, advisors/counsellors require a record of that information; past experiences at another college or university should be automatically disclosed. the ontario education number (oen), when fully implemented, should reduce the administrative demands connected with the collection and reporting of data (ontario ministry of education, 2013). currently, students may choose to purposefully keep this information private despite policies stating they must reveal all previous education. administrators explained that some students wish to keep unsuccessful previous coursework and grades private so as not to influence admissions and/or transfer credit decisions. other examples provided surrounded student delays in submitting the documents necessary for credit review and the difficulty of obtaining these documents. at times, administrators stated that students may experience difficulty locating previous course materials once they have left the college. college systems often do not allow students to search these documents once they have left the system and therefore accessing course descriptions and outlines on platforms such as blackboard and sakai is not possible. when students are unable to retrieve these documents, what is presented to the university for review can contain incomplete information. in both cases, internal factors within the credit transfer information system can be altered to meet stakeholders needs. a searchable centralized database for identifying previous student registrations and the electronic archiving of course outlines/descriptions will assist advisors/counsellors when conducting transfer credit evaluations. reliable mechanisms to collect and access student data across institutions are pertinent to a well-functioning credit transfer system. data regarding mobility is useful both for admissions and advising purposes. the institutional archival of course outlines and descriptions for access by administrators and/or students are integral for determining learning outcomes and previous course material covered during credit evaluations. furthermore, students applying for course-to-course credit, not listed on the optg, are required to submit this transfer literacy 47 information to each receiving institution. the development of an electronic data interchange platform between administrators across institutions could minimize this paper trail. institutions private information administrators discussed the need for more transparent policies surrounding credit transfer in the province. within the new credit transfer framework, participants identified moments where both students and they feel that information is not revealed. while a certain amount of information was discussed as being difficult to comprehend or locate, there were also identified gaps. applied bachelor degrees were a source of confusion raised by several advisors/counsellors. the role of the college in the postsecondary system has evolved over the last decade. with the offering of applied bachelor degrees, there is a duty to consider the mobility needs of students enrolled in these programs who wish to transfer both during and upon completion of their studies. instituting and publicly posting policies regarding the evaluation of applied degree credits at ontario universities is crucial for academic and system planning purposes. the role of applied bachelor degrees in the current credentialing system in ontario is largely debated. as such, applied bachelor degrees are considered an internal factor influencing credit transfer. one participant stated some colleges offer, they have the college diplomas, but they have as well the applied bachelor degrees. and, we don't recognize them as university transfer credits. so we treat them as if they're in a diploma program. another commented, i think that one of our [college] students going from a degree to a university masters program, or graduate studies, is actually less challenging than one of our degree students wishing to leave our degree and go on to a university degree and get course-to-course recognition. currently, information regarding how applied bachelor degrees are assessed at ontario universities is generally not posted publicly. while some evaluate applied degree credits as university credits (course-to-course), others acknowledged evaluating them as they would college diploma credits (combinations of courses equaling one university course). while polices may vary by institution and program, students should be provided with this full information. further, heterogeneity in academic regulations across institutions (ex. grading scales, gpa calculations, credit values/weight, credit evaluation fees and timing, course repeats and declarations of previous postsecondary education) often results in disconnected advising practices. presenting this amount of information in a clear and concise manner can be difficult. one central issue that was discussed throughout each of the focus groups was the lack of information with regard to gpa conversions and the weighting of courses/units across ontario institutions. varying grade point scales are in place across all ontario universities (see table 8). 48 christine helen arnold table 8 | ontario university grade point scales point scale university 4.0 university of toronto 4.3 ryerson university, queens university 9.0 york university 10.0 ottawa university 12.0 carleton university, wilfred laurier university, mcmaster university 13.0 windsor university 100% algoma university, brock university, guelph university, western university, waterloo university, trent university, ocad university, laurentian university, lakehead university, nipissing university, windsor university note: table adapted from university of windsor senate. (2011). grading scales. windsor: on. one faculty member stated, there should be a generic scale that we have in our course outlines. do a conversion between a gpa and a letter d grade, as a percentage. participants commented that students often wish to calculate their cumulative averages both at the college and as it converts to various universities. lack of information surrounding conversions among institutions in the system largely impacts students trying to determine the grades they require for both admission and transfer credit eligibility. moreover, some transfer students focus on repeating coursework to improve their average, making active decisions to signal to universities their capabilities. practical solutions regarding the improvement of internal information regarding gpa calculations were discussed: some colleges and universities have a gpa calculator which is attached to their systems. students enter their grades and play scenarios. if i retake this d and i get a b what happens? if we could have that on the system for student access . what a great tool to have for degree transfer. at the provincial level, some college advisors/counsellors discussed having collected each ontario universitys grading scale and formula as a means of creating their own conversion document. access to internal gpa calculators and provincial conversion documents are essential for students basing their institution and program decisions on these projections. provincial level solutions can also be evidenced in alberta, where in 2001, the universities coordinating council, responding to an initiative by the alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat), made the decision to have alberta's four universities and five university colleges adopt a universal 4.0 grade point scale. the purpose of the initiative was to identify an academically sound grading scale to meet student needs and facilitate simplified transfer within the province (acat, 2001; 2002; jabbour; 2002). transfer literacy 49 an external factor affecting student information was identified in the high school system, where guidance counsellors have the opportunity to support college and university collaborative efforts and innovative programming/pathways. educating students about credit transfer pathways and institutional offerings earlier in their educational careers will improve knowledge about the function and flexibility of a postsecondary education. high school guidance counsellors are necessary conduits for information dissemination. however, participants were often wary about misinformation and lack of information about credit transfer at the high school level. one participant stated, they [guidance counsellors] certainly dont understand the potential to transfer, articulate to university beyond college. so if they do not understand what college can offer, then certainly they need some education in terms of completing a three-year diploma program as a first choice, and then down the road pursuing an available pathway. college faculty members spoke a little about the difficulties they experience when leading information sessions at regional high schools: we saw almost 5000 [students] from grade 10 and 11, and the only thing we talked about is degree programs. we introduce them to the concept, you must have degree programs. we described the programs we offer, then after the panel discussion we have a fair or booth and they come and ask questions. the difficulty experienced during these sessions included credit transfer and applied bachelor degrees being cited as a plan b by high school educators. if the ontario governments new credit transfer framework is going to receive the traction it deserves, a culture shift may need to occur. while this pathway largely flew under the radar for years, this new system with all participants on board actively needs to be promoted. high school guidance counsellors should be included in all conversations, conferences, planning and development. annual optg training sessions organized for guidance counsellors (ontario school counsellors' association [osca]) and information bulletins regarding recent transfer developments, key partnerships and pilot projects might be effective ways to include these participants. while various communication mechanisms were employed by the cucc in the past, more targeted, innovative and consistent contact with counsellors is now required. credit transfer pathways are now a part of the ontario postsecondary education landscape and the legitimacy of these opportunities should be well known. students should have access to this information at the high school level by grade 10 or 11. signalling from the students perspective, signalling occurs in two stages: 1) students must choose with which universities to communicate and 2) determine what to communicate to successfully be evaluated for admission and transfer credit. college students are typically asked to present the following information at some point during the transfer process: number of previous credits acquired, credits 50 christine helen arnold eligible for transfer, sending institution, program of study, academic prerequisites, transcripts, course repeats, course descriptions, course outlines, textbooks, portfolios, confirmation of co-op hours and reading requirements among other items. students literacy surrounding the importance of these items and how they function is integral as outlined by the participants in this research. students intending to transfer may enroll in a particular college program to ensure program affinity between their prospective university program, enroll in an applied bachelor degree, take particular courses, choose to transfer during or upon completion of their studies, and/or repeat selected courses to improve their cumulative gpas in order to signal to universities they are admissible. choosing with which universities to communicate this research revealed several symmetries when it came to students choosing with which universities to communicate. administrators stated that students are confident in the following areas: program choice, residency requirements and the use of articulation agreements. they discussed students ability to select programs at the university with limited difficulty. many explained that students have alternative program choices selected and develop numerous plans for entry to university. however, comprehending how program choices (mis)align with previous education and how chosen pathways fulfill personal aspirations requires more thought. second, participants indicated that students are aware of residency requirements and understand that a portion of their education will need to be completed at the university to earn their degree (generally, at least 50 percent of the courses required for a degree). lastly, articulation agreements were cited as being well known by students; however, the terms used in the description of these agreements and the structure on institutional websites vary. standard credit transfer terminology (ex. credit transfer student, advanced standing, direct entry, equivalencies, exclusions, exemptions etc.) when writing, structuring and publicizing articulation agreements and transfer models is a priority. the development of a tips for articulating guide produced in consultation with institutions will take strides towards the harmonization of credit transfer exchanges. at one institution, administrators discussed conducting a feedback exercise during recruitment in which students identified the varying language they experienced when reading articulation agreements. the aim of the exercise was to identify inconsistencies among the agreements posted on the institutions website and garner ways to improve student understanding. participants stated, articulation agreements contain different language. that's because they're all established with a partnering institute and those institutions all have their own terms. when trying to determine with which institution to communicate and for what program, students may struggle when the information presented cannot be universally understood. a common language surrounding transfer was emphasized as a priority both within divisions/departments at an institution, between institutions and for use in communication with government and agencies. transfer literacy 51 determining what to communicate students literacy about the credit evaluation process is an area where signalling can be ineffective if detailed information is not provided. students should be able to make accurate estimates as to the amount and type of credit(s) they will receive. the exercises conducted throughout the focus group sessions revealed that much of the advising occurring in the province is institutional- and timingdependent. college advisors/counsellors identified providing assistance with those items that students are concerned about when applying to transfer. university advisors/counsellors identified advising primarily around issues that affect students once they are admitted. open communication lines and resource sharing among college and university credit transfer advisors/counsellors is essential. infusing information about the application of awarded transfer credits (program versus degree requirements; generic, unassigned and unspecified credits; reach backs; and the importance of program major and minor declarations) pre-university enrolment may limit confusion surrounding credit evaluations and time to graduation. while this just-in-time advisement technique is generally effective, it also leaves something to be desired. students caught up in signalling their value to an institution may not realize the poor fit and limited recognition they will receive until they are enrolled. for example, from an awarded six credits, only three may actually be applicable to their degree and program requirements. the most commonly-cited item of confusion for students identified in this research was the interpretation of credit evaluations. advising surrounding this issue could be offered to concerned students in greater detail pre-university enrolment. in conclusion, in consideration of current student transfer demands, existing regulatory and advising practices and the present state of transfer literacy among stakeholders, the college-touniversity transfer information system requires a few fundamental modifications in order to function with greater efficiency for both administrators and students. the current information system requires: reliable mechanisms to collect and access student data across institutions, the development and public posting of policies regarding the evaluation of applied degree credits, practical resolutions regarding system-wide variances in academic regulations, early advisement of students about credit transfer pathways and institutional offerings and open communication lines and resource sharing among college and university credit transfer advisors/counsellors. 52 christine helen arnold references association of colleges of applied arts and technology of ontario (acaato). 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(2013). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. toronto: higher education strategy associates (hesa). transfer literacy 57 appendix a document analysis system-wide 1999 institution-specific student expectation administrative expectation the ontario college-university degree completion the ontario college-university degree completion accord accord http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_9.pdf student expectation administrative expectation /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_9 .pdf caats, universities, and degrees: towards some options for enhancing the connection between caats and degrees caats, universities, and degrees: towards some http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en options for enhancing the connection between caats /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_8.pdf and degrees http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf a new charter for ontario colleges of applied arts and /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_8 technology of ontario .pdf http://cclp.mior.ca/reference%20shelf/pdf_oise/charte r%20for%20colleges.pdf ontarios colleges for the 21st century: capacity and 2000 charter framework http://cclp.mior.ca/reference%20shelf/pdf_oise/charte r-final2_acaato.pdf an analysis of college university degree completion arrangements in 24 program areas http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_7.pdf 2001 report of the college-university consortium council report of the college-university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_3 /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_33.pdf 3.pdf 2002 college university consortium council forum: ontario colleges of applied arts and technology act, 2002 georgian college university partnership proceedings http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/ centre cucc forum proceedings http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/files_docs/content/p elaws_ statutes_02o08f_e.htm http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/ df/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/o _22.pdf ncat_research_reports_23.pdf 58 christine helen arnold ministerial statement on credit transfer in canada college university consortium council forum: http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ proceedings attachments/193/winnipeg2002.en.pdf http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/ en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_22.pdf from diploma to degree: a study of the movement of ontario students from college to university through ministerial statement on credit transfer in canada formally articulated agreements http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf chments/193/winnipeg2002.en.pdf /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_1 4.pdf from diploma to degree: a study of the movement of ontario students from college to university through report of the college-university consortium council formally articulated agreements http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_3 /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_14.pdf 2.pdf report of the college-university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_32.pdf 2003 report of the college-university consortium council provincial postsecondary systems and arrangements for college university consortium council college university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf credit transfer forum: guelph-humber partnership forum: guelph-humber partnership /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_3 http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta report report 1.pdf chments/29/credittransfer.en.pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/ /content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/o /oncat_research_reports_21.pdf ncat_research_reports_21.pdf college university consortium council forum: report of the college-university consortium council proceedings http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/files_docs/content/p /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_31.pdf df/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports _19.pdf college university consortium council forum: proceedings http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/ en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_19.pdf 2004 report of the college-university consortium council a vision for excellence http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.cou.on.ca/issues-resources/student- /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_3 resources/publications/reports/pdfs/vision-for- 0.pdf excellence-october-2004 report of the college-university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_30.pdf 2005 report of the college-university consortium council ontario: a leader in learning http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/postsec /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_2 .pdf 9.pdf transfer literacy student mobility within ontario's postsecondary report of the cmec working group on credit transfer sector http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf chments/91/credittransfergroupreport2005-en.pdf 59 /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_1 3.pdf report of the college-university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en student mobility /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_29.pdf http://www.collegesontario.org/research/studentmobility/co_2005_mobility.pdf student mobility within ontario's postsecondary sector http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_13.pdf student mobility http://www.collegesontario.org/research/studentmobility/co_2005_mobility.pdf 2006 report of the cmec working group on credit transfer report of the cmec working group on credit transfer http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta attachments/91/credittransfergroupreport2005- chments/91/credittransfergroupreport2005-en.pdf en.pdf further education of the 2004-05 ontario college further education of the 2004-05 ontario college graduates graduates http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student- http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student- mobility/co_2004_furthered_mobility.pdf mobility/co_2004_furthered mobility.pdf student mobility student mobility http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student- http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student- mobility/co_2006_mobility.pdf mobility/co_2006_mobility.pdf report of the college-university consortium council report of the college-university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_2 /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_28.pdf 8.pdf 2007 report of the cmec working group on credit transfer report of the cmec working group on credit transfer measuring the success of college transfer measuring the success of college transfer http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta students at nipissing university students at nipissing university attachments/99/credittransfer2007.en.pdf chments/99/credittransfer2007.en.pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/ /content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/o /oncat_research_reports_17.pdf ncat_research_reports_17.pdf report of the college-university consortium council report of the college-university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_2 /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_27.pdf 7.pdf 60 christine helen arnold college-university transferability study college-university transferability study http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_1 /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_12.pdf 2.pdf 2008 student mobility student mobility an analysis of undergraduate students an analysis of undergraduate students http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student- http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student- admitted to york university from an admitted to york university from an mobility/co_mobility_2008.pdf mobility/co_mobility_2008.pdf ontario college of applied arts and ontario college of applied arts and technology (caat) technology (caat) report of the cmec working group on credit transfer report of the cmec working group on credit transfer http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/ http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta /content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/o attachments/120/credittransfer2008.en.pdf chments/120/credittransfer2008.en.pdf /oncat_research_reports_16.pdf ncat_research_reports_16.pdf report of the college-university consortium council report of the college-university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_2 /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_26.pdf 6.pdf change fund invitational conference change fund invitational conference http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_18.pdf /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_1 8.pdf 2009 moving beyond reaching higher the ontario transfer credit system: a situation report http://cfsontario.ca/downloads/cfs- http://www.cou.on.ca/issues-resources/student- moving%20beyond%20reaching%20higher%202009 resources/publications/papers-by-academic- .06.pdf colleagues/pdfs/the-ontario-transfer-credit-system-asituation-rep student mobility between ontarios colleges and universities student mobility between ontarios colleges and http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student- universities mobility/student_mobility_09.pdf http://www.collegesontario.org/research/studentmobility/student_mobility_09.pdf report of the cmec working group on credit transfer http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ report of the cmec working group on credit transfer attachments/217/credit-transfer-group-report- http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta 2009.pdf chments/217/credit-transfer-group-report-2009.pdf ministerial statement on credit transfer in canada ministerial statement on credit transfer in canada http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta attachments/216/ministerial-statement-credit- chments/216/ministerial-statement-credit-transfer- transfer-2009.pdf 2009.pdf transfer literacy report of the college-university consortium council report of the college-university consortium council http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_2 /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_25.pdf 61 5.pdf making college-university cooperation work: ontario in a national and international context (heqco) http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_1.pdf 2010 our bright future: credit transfer report of the cmec working group on credit transfer http://cfsontario.ca/downloads/cfs- http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta pse%20secretariat-credit%20transfer.pdf chments/246/wgct-report2010.pdf the ontario online institute: students vision for report of the college-university consortium council opening ontarios classrooms http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en http://www.ousa.ca/wordpress/wp- /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_24.pdf content/uploads/2010/08/ooi-submission.pdf report of the cmec working group on credit transfer forging pathways: students who transfer between http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ ontario colleges and universities. postsecondary attachments/246/wgct-report2010.pdf education quality council of ontario http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en report of the college-university consortium council /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_11.pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_2 multi-year accountability agreements (myaa) 2009-10 4.pdf report back colleges and universities forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. postsecondary education quality council of ontario http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_1 1.pdf post our vote, our future: the student platform implementation of the ontario online institute: building successful college-university jan. http://www.ousa.ca/wordpress/wp- recommendations of the online learning working group partnerships content/uploads/2011/11/student-platform- http://www.cou.on.ca/issues-resources/student- http://www.mcmaster.ca/vpacademic/doc compressed-final-v25.16.pdf resources/government-submissions/pdfs/online- uments/buildingsuccessfulcollege- institute-discussion-paper-may-20 universitypartnerships.pdf 2011 breaking barriers: a strategy for equal access to college-university transferability study postsecondary education http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en http://www.ousa.ca/wordpress/wp- /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_10.pdf content/uploads/2011/03/breaking-barriers.pdf 62 christine helen arnold college-university transferability study the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf further their education (postsecondary education quality /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_1 council of ontario) 0.pdf http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en /oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_15.pdf the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education (postsecondary multi-year accountability agreements (myaa) 2010-11 education quality council of ontario) report back colleges and universities http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf /en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_1 proceedings of the student pathways in postsecondary 5.pdf education conference http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/ oncat faq and glossary on credit transfer in en/student_pathways_conference/conference_proceedings ontario _post.pdf http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/index_en.php?page= faqs report of the cmec working group on credit transfer http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/atta http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/index_en.php?page= chments/263/wgct-report2011-en.pdf glossary policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system report of the cmec working group on credit transfer http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/publications/creditt http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ ransfere.pdf attachments/263/wgct-report2011-en.pdf public services for ontarians: a path to sustainability and student experiences in credit transfer at excellence ontario colleges http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/reformcommission/chapters http://www.collegesontario.org/research/externalrep /report.pdf orts/credit%20transfer%20summary%20report.pdf multi-year accountability agreements (myaa) 2011-12 report back colleges and universities innovation and differentiation: ontario college and university strategic mandate agreements http://www.heqco.ca/enca/about%20us/policyadvice/pages/smas.aspx student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges http://www.collegesontario.org/research/externalreports /credit%20transfer%20summary%20report.pdf transfer literacy 63 university of toronto/oise-ut leadership, higher and adult education 252 bloor street west, toronto fax: 416-926-4741 ontario, canada m5s 1v6 www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/tps appendix b recruitment letter leadership, higher and recruitment letter adult education university of toronto/oise title: transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries 252 bloor street west, toronto, canada principal investigator: christine helen arnold c.arnold@utoronto.ca m5s 1v6 senior supervisor: dr. daniel lang dan.lang@utoronto.ca www.oise.utoronto.ca invitation dear [senior academic or student affairs/services officer], my name is christine helen arnold and i am a ph.d. candidate at the ontario institute for studies in education (oise) at the university of toronto under the supervision of dr. daniel lang. i am writing to request your institutions participation in the following research study, entitled transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries. before you decide, it is important for you to understand why this research is being done and what it will involve. please take a moment to read the details of this study and its benefits. feel free to ask questions if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. what is the purpose of the study? college-to-university transfer students have become an important population for study. understanding the demographics and performance of this subset of students has led to change in (inter)national education systems and design. this population accounts for a large amount of postsecondary admissions each year; these students are often viewed 64 christine helen arnold as additional revenue for institutions; and governments across jurisdictions have focused on instituting policy initiatives, reward systems and mechanisms to track transfer students success over the last decade. although college-to-university credit transfer has taken place in ontario since the 1960s and represents the principal form of transfer in the province, little research has focused specifically on transfer literacy. transfer literacy, as it is coined in this study, is the ability to comprehend credit transfer procedures, policies and outcomes. it refers to a set of knowledge and skills that allow individuals to advise and/or make informed decisions about admission and the mobilization of academic credits between colleges and universities to avoid the repetition of coursework, lack of financial assistance and misaligned institutional and program fit. the purpose of this research study is twofold: 1) in consideration of current student transfer demands, existing regulatory and advising practices by government, agencies and institutions and the present state of transfer literacy among all stakeholders, to what extent is the collegeto-university transfer information system performing efficiently? 2) what (a)symmetries exist in stakeholders understanding of this process which affects students facility to transfer and universities ability to accommodate transfer students? as part of this study, i am interested in conducting a focus group at your institution with institutional administrators involved in advising credit transfer students and/or evaluating credit. why is your institution being invited? [insert institutions name] is a leader in the advisement of credit transfer students in ontario. according to data from the ontario universities' application centre (ouac), [insert institutions name] has one of the highest transfer application rates in the province from 2008-2010. this transfer application rate was used to identify [insert institutions name] for inclusion in this study. those at the institution seem deeply committed to assisting students with their credit transfer undertakings by providing guidance, materials, application instruction and evaluations. who is organizing and funding the research? this study is being funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc) and the college-university consortium council (cucc)/ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). [insert institutions name], if willing to transfer literacy 65 participate, will be one of 17 ontario postsecondary institutions selected and approached for participation in this study. your institution and the cucc/oncat will receive a copy of the final cross-institutional integrative report generated from this research. the cucc/oncat will seek to make transfer advising recommendations to the government of ontario (government) from this report. what will be involved if your institution takes part? you will be asked to identify, using the institutional organizational structure, those individuals advising credit transfer students and/or evaluating credit. potential participants will be sent a letter of invitation to participate in the focus group. an on-campus contact person will send this letter to individuals working under the credit transfer portfolio. this will ensure that no information about potential participants is released before they have given their consent to participate. the 75 minute semi-structured focus group will center on collecting essential information students should be able to comprehend and apply about the transfer process. further, institutional administrators knowledge and judgment of important elements of the transfer process as outlined by government and agencies (ex. colleges ontario, council of ontario universities, the college university consortium council, ontario council on articulation and transfer, higher education quality council of ontario and the council of ministers of education, canada) will occur. (a)symmetries between governments/agencies and institutional administrators perspectives will be identified. the focus group will be audiotaped with participants permission. what are the possible disadvantages in taking part? there are no foreseeable risks associated with participating in this study. institutional administrators involved in advising credit transfer students and/or evaluating credit, do not have any pre-existing vulnerabilities. the research risk in this study is extremely low. participants will be instructed to only share and disclose that which they are comfortable. the data collected is not sensitive and the participants are highly educated professionals that can make rational/ informed decisions about participating. there is no more risk involved than in everyday interactions. what are the benefits of taking part for my staff and institution? participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. participants may experience the following benefits: 66 christine helen arnold 1) reflect on their individual work advising students and evaluating credit; 2) consider their colleagues practices for disseminating information, advising students and evaluating credit as well as draw comparisons relative to other institutions in the study; 3) revisit transfer materials and institutional policies and procedures, which may lead to strategic planning initiatives. potential benefits to the scholarly community include: establishing a baseline of credit transfer information that institutional administrators view as being necessary for students to navigate the transfer system; assessing current regulatory and advising practices; identifying (a)symmetries within the college-to-university transfer information system from which literacy programs might be constructed; and generating data for discussion in the field. will the data collected be kept confidential and secure? involvement in the study is voluntary. the institutional agreement to participate will not override potential participants decision to be a part of this research. participants may withdraw at any time or not answer any question they are uncomfortable with. at no time will participants be judged, evaluated or at risk of harm. participants will be informed that no value judgments will be placed on their responses. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the transcripts. individual and institutional confidentiality will be maintained in all research writing and publications. in order to maintain the confidentiality of each participant, he/she will be given a case number and all documents will be numbered accordingly in the participants file along with any notes taken and the audiotape from the focus group. should participants identify specific institutions or persons in the focus group, these will be given a factitious title or name in the final transcription of the data and not mentioned in the doctoral dissertation resulting from this study. data will be used for other manuscripts and public presentations; all institutions and persons will remain confidential in these reports as well. participants will be informed of this fact in the letter of invitation to participate and orally prior to the commencement of each focus group. the information gathered from the focus group will be kept in strict confidence and stored at a secure location, a locked filing cabinet. all digital data will be stored on a transfer literacy 67 secure server. all raw data (i.e. transcripts, field notes) will be destroyed five years after the completion of the study. contact and further information if you are interested in participating in this research please reply to christine helen arnold at c.arnold@utoronto.ca by [insert date]. the following signed agreement will be collected electronically. this invite will be followed-up with a phone call early next week at which point i will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the study. if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study please contact the university of torontos office of research ethics at ethics.review@utoronto.ca or 416-946-3273. by signing below, you are indicating that [insert institutions name] is willing to participate in the study, you have received a copy of this letter and you are fully aware of the conditions above. ______________________________ signature ______________________________ date thank you in advance for your participation. please keep a copy of this letter for your records. christine helen arnold ph.d. candidate, higher education leadership, higher and adult education, oise/ut 252 bloor street west, toronto, canada, m5s 1v6 c.arnold@utoronto.ca daniel w. lang ph.d. university of toronto, professor leadership, higher and adult education, oise/ut 252 bloor street west, toronto, canada, m5s 1v6 dan.lang@utoronto.ca (416) 978-1246 68 christine helen arnold university of toronto/oise-ut leadership, higher and adult education 252 bloor street west, toronto fax: 416-926-4741 ontario, canada m5s 1v6 www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/tps appendix c letter of invitation to participate leadership, higher and letter of invitation to participate adult education university of toronto/oise title: transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries 252 bloor street west, toronto, canada principal investigator: christine helen arnold c.arnold@utoronto.ca m5s 1v6 senior supervisor: dr. daniel lang dan.lang@utoronto.ca www.oise.utoronto.ca invitation my name is christine helen arnold and i am a ph.d. candidate at the ontario institute for studies in education (oise) at the university of toronto under the supervision of dr. daniel lang. i am writing to request your participation in the following research study, entitled transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries. as a leader in advising credit transfer students and/or evaluating credit at [insert institutions name], you are being asked to participate in the following research study in which your institution will be involved. [insert senior academic or student affairs/services officers name] has identified you as a potential participant given your work in this field. in your current position, you are deeply committed to assisting students with their credit transfer undertakings by providing guidance, materials, application instruction and/or evaluations. before you decide, it is important for you to understand why this research is being done and what it will involve. please take a moment to read the details of this study and its benefits. feel free to ask questions if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. transfer literacy 69 what is the purpose of the study? college-to-university transfer students have become an important population for study. understanding the demographics and performance of this subset of students has led to change in (inter)national education systems and design. this population accounts for a large amount of postsecondary admissions each year; these students are often viewed as additional revenue for institutions; and governments across jurisdictions have focused on instituting policy initiatives, reward systems and mechanisms to track transfer students success over the last decade. although college-to-university credit transfer has taken place in ontario since the 1960s and represents the principal form of transfer in the province, little research has focused specifically on transfer literacy. transfer literacy, as it is coined in this study, is the ability to comprehend credit transfer procedures, policies and outcomes. it refers to a set of knowledge and skills that allow individuals to advise and/or make informed decisions about admission and the mobilization of academic credits between colleges and universities to avoid the repetition of coursework, lack of financial assistance and misaligned institutional and program fit. the purpose of this research study is twofold: 1) in consideration of current student transfer demands, existing regulatory and advising practices by government, agencies and institutions and the present state of transfer literacy among all stakeholders, to what extent is the collegeto-university transfer information system performing efficiently? 2) what (a)symmetries exist in stakeholders understanding of this process which affects students facility to transfer and universities ability to accommodate transfer students? as part of this study, i will be conducting a focus group at your institution with institutional administrators involved in advising credit transfer students and/or evaluating credit. why has your institution agreed to be involved? [insert institutions name] is a leader in the advisement of credit transfer students in ontario. according to data from the ontario universities' application centre (ouac), [insert institutions name] has one of the highest transfer application rates in the province from 2008-2010. this transfer application rate was used to identify [insert institutions name] for inclusion in this study. 70 christine helen arnold who is organizing and funding the research? this study is being funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc) and the college-university consortium council (cucc)/ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). [insert institutions name] is one of 13 ontario postsecondary institutions (six colleges and seven universities) participating in this study. your institution and the cucc/oncat will receive a copy of the final cross-institutional integrative report generated from this research. the cucc/oncat will seek to make transfer advising recommendations to the government of ontario (government) from this report. what will you need to do if you take part? the 75 minute semi-structured focus group will center on collecting essential information students should be able to comprehend and apply about the transfer process. further, your knowledge and judgment of important elements of the transfer process as outlined by government and agencies (ex. colleges ontario, council of ontario universities, the college university consortium council, ontario council on articulation and transfer, higher education quality council of ontario and the council of ministers of education, canada) will occur. you will be asked to provide consent to be a part of this research study on two occasions: 1) response to the rsvp link provided below and 2) written confirmation of your willingness to participate at the commencement of the focus group. the focus group will be audiotaped with your permission. due to the confidential nature of this study you will be asked to keep all discussion that takes place within the focus group private. last, you will be e-mailed a summary of the themed analysis resulting from the focus group you participated in and provided the opportunity to confirm that it accurately represents our discussion. what are the possible disadvantages in taking part? there are no foreseeable risks associated with participating in this study. the research risk in this study is extremely low. you will be instructed to share and disclose only that information with which you are comfortable. the data collected is not sensitive and as a highly educated professional you can make a rational/ informed decision about participating. there is no more risk involved than in everyday interactions. transfer literacy 71 what are the benefits of taking part? participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. as a participant, you may experience the following benefits: 1) reflect on your individual work advising students and evaluating credit; 2) consider your colleagues practices for disseminating information, advising students and evaluating credit as well as draw comparisons relative to other institutions in the study; 3) revisit transfer materials and institutional policies and procedures, which may lead to strategic planning initiatives. potential benefits to the scholarly community include: establishing a baseline of credit transfer information that institutional administrators view as being necessary for students to navigate the transfer system; assessing current regulatory and advising practices; identifying (a)symmetries within the college-to-university transfer information system from which literacy programs might be constructed; and generating data for discussion in the field. will my taking part in this study be kept confidential? involvement in the study is voluntary. while you have been identified as a potential participant, the decision to take part in this research project is yours alone. you may withdraw at any time or not answer any question you are uncomfortable with. at no time will you be judged, evaluated or at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the transcripts. individual and institutional confidentiality will be maintained in all research writing and publications. in order to maintain your confidentiality, you will be given a case number and all documents will be numbered accordingly in your file along with any notes taken and the audiotape from the focus group. should you identify specific institutions or persons in the focus group, these will be given a factitious title or name in the final transcription of the data and not mentioned in the doctoral dissertation resulting from this study. data will be used for other manuscripts and public presentations; all institutions and persons will remain confidential in these reports as well. 72 christine helen arnold contact and further information my visit to your campus will take place [insert date]; the focus group will occur from [insert time and location]. i invite you to attend and discuss your impressions and experiences. your contribution to this study will help take stock of the information students should be able to comprehend and apply about the transfer process in order to be successful and identify current advising practices. if you are unavailable during this time please contact me and i will be pleased to arrange a one-on-one interview. if you are interested in participating in the transfer literacy[insert institutions name] focus group, please rsvp to [insert rsvp link]. responses are requested by [insert date]. if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study please contact the university of torontos office of research ethics at ethics.review@utoronto.ca or 416-946-3273. thank you in advance for your participation. please keep a copy of this letter for your records. christine helen arnold ph.d. candidate, higher education leadership, higher and adult education, oise/ut 252 bloor street west, toronto, canada, m5s 1v6 c.arnold@utoronto.ca daniel w. lang ph.d. university of toronto, professor leadership, higher and adult education, oise/ut 252 bloor street west, toronto, canada, m5s 1v6 dan.lang@utoronto.ca (416) 978-1246 transfer literacy 73 appendix d focus group/ interview protocol focus group/ interview protocol 75 minute session 1) settling in (5 mins) a. welcome interviewee or focus group participants to the session. b. investigator introduction. c. describe the purpose of the study. d. describe the voluntary nature of participation and ask participants if they are comfortable having their discussion audio recorded. inform participants that those who wish to withdraw from the study may do so at any time; all data collected from these individuals will be removed from the transcripts. thank and dismiss those who are not interested in continuing their participation. remind participants that due to the confidential nature of this study they will be asked to keep all discussion that takes place within the focus group private. remind participants that respect is encouraged-while they are certainly entitled to disagree with anothers point they are asked not to be disagreeable. lastly, inform participants that they will be e-mailed a summary of the themed analysis resulting from the focus group they participated in and provided an opportunity to confirm that it accurately represents the discussion. e. ask the individual or focus group members to introduce themselves, in which area of the institution they work, and briefly, what they do in their role. 2) warm-up clarifying terms and concepts (15 mins) a. a few common terms used when talking about credit transfer include: transfer student, articulation, advanced standing and transfer model. which of these terms is most relevant to your work (use board to enumerate relevancy)? do you recognize all the terms? are there other terms that you use when talking about transfer? 74 christine helen arnold when i use the phrase transfer literacy what comes to mind? do students understand these terms the same way that you do? if not, what are the differences? do those differences pose any problems for you? do you think they pose problems for students? what do you understand your institution's transfer model to be? is it an institution-wide model, or does each faculty have its own? do you think it makes a difference which form the model takes (ex. advising, curriculum and collegeuniversity partnerships)? information matrix (15 mins) b. ask participants to fill in the following matrix: 1) identifying those areas of student clarity and confusion with both internal and external credit transfer information and 2) identifying their own areas of clarity and confusion. internal information on external information on transfer processes transfer processes confusion clarity reporting out. what similarities do you see between student and administrator perspectives? what differences did you find? 3) ask broad semi-structured questions transfer elements and advising (35 mins) a. are advising practices treated differently by discipline, program, model and degree of articulation (bilateral, multilateral, no pathway), advanced standing? examples. transfer literacy 75 b. ask participants to examine the following four interrelated elements of the transfer process (printed separately on a piece of paper in bullet points). programmatic and course planning articulation and transfer models admissions credit review and evaluation (gpa; program affinity; course challenge examinations; generic, unassigned and unspecified credits; assigned and specialized credits; elective credits; materials required; and timing of review process) c. what element is the most important for students to be able to comprehend and apply properly during the transfer process? what information is necessary for students to comprehend and apply in order to be literate with this element of transfer? other elements? d. what relationships do these transfer elements have with one another? does a higher degree of one of the elements (ex. articulation) make another (ex. credit review and evaluation) less important, and vice versa? e. one element we have not yet discussed but can be rather important is financial aid and costing information (access to aid, not the aggregate amount). what information is necessary for students to comprehend and apply in order to be literate with this element of transfer? f. when students come into your office seeking credit transfer advice, do they have a plan in mind or are they just beginning to consider this option? for students who have a plan, are there different kinds of plans? is there a certain amount of re-correcting of information that must occur before new information can be provided? g. government and higher education agencies place great value on a seamless transfer system. if we had a seamless transfer system in ontario, would the information students require to be transfer literate change? (ex. british columbias transfer guide provides students with a guarantee their credits will be accepted pre-admission- this seamlessness requires literacy of the use of the guide, online planning tools, student rights etc.) do you have any experiences with such a system? 76 christine helen arnold 4) wrap-up (5 mins) a. summarize the main themes of the conversation. go around the room to see if participants agree with the summary and determine if they have anything to add, amend etc. b. have i missed anything? is there anything else that you wish to share that i havent asked? c. thank participants for their time. ask if they have any questions. provide contact information if participants have anything additional they would like to share.

fall exploring canadian-american cross border articulation in south western ontario tim brunet, jessica bukovac, and julie norman university of windsor funded by oncat 12 table of contents acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................3 executive summary .......................................................................................................................3 why is this study important?..................................................................................................................... 4 academic standing and increased opportunity ......................................................................................... 4 future study.............................................................................................................................................. 6 introduction .................................................................................................................................6 why are border cities different? .............................................................................................................. 7 method............................................................................................................................................7 for all regions .......................................................................................................................................... 8 findings...........................................................................................................................................9 student recruitment officer notes........................................................................................................... 9 colleges are re-thinking their brand .................................................................................................. 10 prospective students in border regions .................................................................................................. 11 regional information .............................................................................................................................. 12 ontario/michigan border (windsor, sault ste. marie, and sarnia regions)....................................... 12 promotion in the niagara region ............................................................................................................ 14 buffalo state college ........................................................................................................................... 14 canisius college................................................................................................................................... 15 medaille college .................................................................................................................................. 15 windsor, sarnia, and sault ste. marie regions ....................................................................................... 16 sault ste. marie region ........................................................................................................................... 19 windsor region ....................................................................................................................................... 19 detroit, michigan region ........................................................................................................................ 20 wayne state university ....................................................................................................................... 20 sault ste. marie, michigan region .......................................................................................................... 20 lake superior state university ............................................................................................................ 20 requirements........................................................................................................................................... 20 conclusions and recommendations ........................................................................................ 21 appendix ........................................................................................................................................ 22 niagara region ........................................................................................................................................ 22 windsor region ....................................................................................................................................... 25 sault ste. marie region ........................................................................................................................... 28 sarnia region .......................................................................................................................................... 29 ease of transfer ...................................................................................................................................... 31 niagara region ................................................................................................................................... 31 windsor region ................................................................................................................................... 34 sarnia region ...................................................................................................................................... 35 sault ste. marie region ....................................................................................................................... 36 2 acknowledgements this project would not have been possible without the financial support of the college university consortium council (cucc), now the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). we are fortunate to have the resources required to drill down for information that affects all of our educational landscape. jessica bukovac and julie norman worked tirelessly, combing through websites, interpreting disparate educational system data, and mastering technical language and myriad acronyms to make this project happen. thanks to dr. shelagh towson, whose editing and research expertise served as an excellent resource for this project. finally i would like to thank dr. clayton smith for his initial consultation regarding this project; dr. smith provided considerable guidance in explaining the notion of transfer among united states post-secondary institutions. executive summary in 2011, the college university consortium council (cucc) provided funding to the university of windsor to explore the competition between united states (us) and canadian post-secondary degreegranting institutions located in border cities that wished to attract college transfer students. the cities chosen for the exploration included sault ste. marie, niagara falls & st. catherines, sarnia, and windsor. the information in this report is based on the online review conducted by jessica bukovac and julie norman and field notes recorded by tim brunet as part of his responsibilities as a university of windsor student recruitment officer. a three-year diploma in business administration (specializing in accounting) from an ontario college of applied arts and technology was evaluated for transferability to a four-year business degree program at each of the university-level institutions located in the designated regions. the results of this project were presented at the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer conference in ottawa in june 2012. 3 why is this study important? during the 2011/2012 ontario college to university recruitment travel season, the first author encountered some ontario colleges that referenced 2+2 agreements with us universities (two years at college plus two years at university for an honours degree) as a more favourable route to articulation into a degree program than transfer pathways currently available at ontario universities. there were also a considerable number of us universities at both the st. clair college and niagara college fairs, suggesting a heightened us institutional interest in canadian students. the visits to lambton college and sault college where the student recruitment officer met with administrative staff also suggested that there is increasing student interest in us transfer opportunities. ontario post-secondary institutions in border regions must constantly benchmark the goods and services offered in their cities to be competitive with what is offered in the us. the neighbouring us competition mixed with fluctuating currency creates unique and complex economic systems that can create challenges and/or opportunities for border city institutions. academic standing and increased opportunity an important consideration that emerged during data collection is the academic standing required to gain admission and receive advanced standing. in almost every region, the norm for both canadian and us universities was a cumulative average of b- (70%) or higher. however, some us universities offered admission and transfer credit to students whose cumulative average was below the b- standard. it behooves administrators, admissions personnel, and recruitment officers to know their us university competitors when competing to attract college transfer students. four tables summarize the transfer credit provided by receiving institutions, as a percentage of total credits required for the degree, and the relation between credit transfer and tuition fees. while there was no strong trend for paying more money for more transfer credit, a small number of high- 4 priced us institutions offer approximately 75% transfer credit as compared to 25% transfer credit at less expensive ontario institutions. within the windsor-detroit region, us institutions tended to offer more competitive tuition rates for canadian students as compared to the other border regions reviewed in this project. however, the university of windsor has the most competitive programs when considering price, proximity, and credit transfer among students whose averages where high enough to receive admission and full transfer credit. after meeting with a number of post-secondary institution community members and students, the first author concluded that the creation of transfer agreements was too often mired in politically and economically motivated regulations rather than focusing on the academic well being of the students. for example, if a canadian college administrator obtained a 2+2 (2 years at college followed by two years at university) agreement with a us institution they felt that canadian institutions should adopt the same metric. when asked about evidence showing that such a model would work in ontario (or for the students involved) their comments where anecdotal. ontario students who consider transferring to us institutions need to learn several technical terms/policies to understand the full implications of transferring to a us school. while there are a few testimonials and promotions published online for college of applied arts and technology (caat) students transferring to us institutions, there are no easily-found statistics posted online regarding the success of caat students transferring to us institutions. perhaps past and current caat transfer students should have the opportunity to aggregate their experiences and recommendations in a public forum. their information could benefit future college transfer students, institutional administrators/educators, ontransfer, and advisors from sending institutions. perhaps some form of automated, online self-advocacy tools could be provided for caat students who decide to transfer to degree programs through the ontransfer website. for example, students could comment on whether or not they felt prepared versus not given enough credit. students/graduates could also elaborate on their experiences as a prospect, applicant, current student, 5 and graduate. these online self-advocacy tools could be revised and published annually so that both receiving and sending institutions can be ranked thus giving students more information when choosing where they would like to transfer. future study the findings suggest that more work needs to be done to assess the strengths/weaknesses of ontario students transferring into us institutions to complete their degrees. it is evident that analyzing this topic using mediums such as a survey, interview, or focus group, would require significant resources to navigate the research ethics boards on both sides of the border. however, if ontransfer allowed students to self-report their experiences, recruiters and administrators located within border cities could provide more robust information to prospective students regarding geographically convenient degree transfer opportunities. introduction in 2011, the college university consortium council (cucc), now the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), provided funding to the university of windsor to explore the cross border transfer agreements between united states (us) and ontario post-secondary institutions. after initial online review, it was decided to focus on the sault ste. marie, niagara falls, sarnia, and windsor regions. the projects first author, tim brunet, is a student recruitment officer at the university of windsor. as a lifelong resident of a border city, mr. brunet has a high-level awareness of the unique characteristics of border towns. mr. brunet has visited all of the ontario colleges of applied arts and technology (caat) mentioned in this report. the project was conceived after mr. brunet visited several colleges and found that a number of administrators implied or indicated explicitly that us institutions had more favourable transfer agreements for caat college graduates than ontario universities in their regions. 6 why are border cities different? border cities are challenged by a constant benchmark comparison for shopping, events, law, tourism, health care, and education. according to the ambassador bridge corporation (crossingmadeeasy.com, n.d.) and the detroit-windsor tunnel (detroit-windsor tunnel, n.d.), more than 67,000 vehicles cross the border each day between windsor and detroit. in 2007, there were almost two million (1,915,512) vehicles that crossed the border at sault ste marie (international bridge administration, n.d.) and almost 14 million (there are 13,730,120) people per year who crossed the niagara/us border bridges (niagara economic development corporation, n.d.). while not all vehicles calculated relate to this study, the high volume of people who go to the us for goods, services, and employment create unique economic systems. our team asked the question: what are the competitive offerings for ontario caat graduates living in ontario/us border regions? this study does not make assumptions regarding the quality of education on either side of the border. the intention of the online search was to provide a sampling of what may attract caat graduates to american post-secondary educational institutions for the purpose of completing a degree. method for three of the four regions studied (all but the windsor region), a google maps search was used to determine which ontario and us universities and ontario caats were within one hour travel time from the border crossings (see table 1). for the windsor region, the authors focused on ontario and us universities that were present at college/university recruitment fairs at st. clair college and/or were mentioned during individual visits such as at sault and lambton colleges. because there is no canadian university in sarnia, the university of windsor was chosen as the canadian alternative for this region. the university of windsor also has a collaborative nursing program and a satellite offering of 7 the liberal arts and professional studies program at lambton college in sarnia making the link between lambton college and the university of windsor stronger than its geographical distance might suggest. two co-authors used similar search techniques throughout the study. regular meetings were held throughout the year to verify that the data were collected in a similar fashion. the assistants expressed difficulty in assessing credit transfer agreements and tuition costs based on institutional websites. because websites tended to be either out-dated or unclear, there may be erroneous information in this report despite the competence of the project assistants. institutional websites were difficult to navigate and were laden with out-dated information. the malaise caused by online research limited the reliability of the project results. this study was restricted to online research, as we did not have the resources to seek research ethics board clearances from each one of the post-secondary institutions. for all regions information was compiled about the various aspects of applying to, transferring to, and attending each institution. sault, st. clair, lambton, and niagara college websites were reviewed to provide a geographical summary of college/university partnerships. the categories included: partnerships within ontario online partnerships (students would not be displaced with the agreement) canada (outside of ontario) united states australia international (other than australia and the united states) table 1 lists the institutions we chose to study in each selected region. in all regions, a 3-year ontario college diploma in business administration (specializing in accounting) from an ontario college was evaluated for transferability to a 4-year business degree program at each of the university-level 8 neighbouring institutions. business accounting was chosen because it is a high affinity program between all of the institutions included in this project. the choice of a business program with specialization in accounting influenced the results of this research, as the post-graduate professional requirements for accountants differ between the united states and canada. because of these differences, canadian students in this field may not be interested in studying in the united states. however, caat business programs within ontario are more similar than most other programs at colleges because they must meet professional standards for accounting designations. table 1 windsor region lawrence technological university (us) walsh college (us) university of detroit mercy (us) wayne state university (us) university of windsor sarnia saginaw valley state university (us) sienna heights university (us) university of windsor sault ste. marie lake superior state university (us) algoma university niagara buffalo state college (us) niagara university (us) canisius college (us) medaille college (us) niagara college mohawk college mcmaster university wilfrid laurier universitybrantford brock university findings student recruitment officer notes the united states credit transfer system is much more robust and larger than the canadian transfer system. consider that canadas entire population34,482,779 (statistics canada, n.d.)is smaller than that of the state of california (37,691,912; united states census bureau, n.d.). this extreme fluctuation 9 in population makes for a more robust and complex credit transfer system in the us as compared to the ontario system. in the us, one could describe the post secondary education system in terms of a few groups: research intensive institutions, research extensive institutions, private for-profit institutions, private not-for-profit institutions, and community colleges (personal communications with us recruitment officer and dr. clayton smith). this is much different than the ontario system (mostly teaching focused institutions with some research intensive institutions). ontarios education system has been run quite separately (where universities and colleges are concerned) for many years. colleges are re-thinking their brand the colleges of applied art and technology, whose original mandate was to prepare students for the work-force, have been evolving their brand with the offering of applied degrees. the use of theory and higher education are also part of the new college brand (www.ontariocolleges.ca). numerous colleges in canada have recently been designated as universities, including mount royal in alberta in 2009 (cbc news, 2009), the ontario of college art and design in ontario in 2006 (ocadu.ca, n.d.), the university of guelph-humber in 2002, and the university of ontario institute of technology created in 2002 (service ontario, n.d.). in british columbia, premier gordon campbell announced in 2008 that five colleges would become universities (zeisman, 2008). the increasing implementation of research ethics boards across the colleges in the province of ontario shows that caats are interested in competing for industry and government-funded research on their campuses. yet another step toward a hybrid form of education is the example of university graduates who can now consider graduate certificates offered by the colleges. this coalescing of the university/college brand is also reflected in increasing pressure for the creation of at par transfer agreements, whereby graduates of two-year college diplomas would be credited for two years at the destination university. the first author was told on a recruiting visit to a northern ontario college, that they would not explore agreements or promote a university unless programs were similar to the 2+2 (two years college, two years university for an honours degree) 10 agreements offered by lake superior state university (sault ste. marie, michigan). during an introductory discussion on potential agreements, a professor at another caat provided an articulation template with the words 2+2 agreement in bold print at the top of the page. it would seem that the marketing of agreements within ontario is leaning increasingly toward the united states differentiation between two-year (community college) and four-year (college or university) post-secondary institutions rather than the current definition of college and university in ontario. a number of two-year colleges in british columbia and alberta offer university courses. completing two years of study at a community college and then beginning in year three at a larger institution or university may be commonplace in michigan, british columbia, and alberta. ontario universities, however, are still struggling to develop such a system. perhaps the border colleges will hasten this notion of course for course credit transfer in ontario through their negotiation of agreements with us institutions. according to a recent supplemental report on the pan-canadian survey of student mobility, the largest sources of [transfer] students appear to be those colleges that are closest to the receiving universities (heath 2012, 72). since geography is a strong indicator of where transfer students will study, the negotiation of transfer credit could be more competitive for ontario universities that reside in border communities where students can commute to us institutions. prospective students in border regions in his visits to recruitment fairs across ontario, the first author has heard a number of questions and comments from prospective students in a border town when they shop for the best transfer offer. while the typical pressing question of how many transfer credits will i get? is paramount, considering transfer options between us/ontario institutions creates an avalanche of considerations. students want very specific transfer credit information because it determines many factors such as: length of time to degree completion course sequencing and ability to connect prerequisite courses in a timely fashion 11 variability in cost with the regular concerns of access to ontario student assistance program, commercial student loans, annual tuition increases, and fluctuating currency car-pool/commute they may be attending with friends who plan to car pool so the transfer process needs to be consistent these factors become difficult to manage when students compare us institutions with ontario institutions due to the variations in nomenclature for degree names, credit hours, definition of courses, grading systems, and graduation requirements. the us transfer credit system may also give coursebased credit rather than program-based block transfer or degree completion, causing additional challenges in assessing the amount of credit transfer. regional information four tables summarize the percentage of transfer credit provided by receiving institutions. tuition costs were included to assess the ratio between tuition and credit transfer. for example, we wanted to see if us institutions were charging a premium for additional credit transfer. a percentage calculation in the credit transfer analysis was used to avoid the disparate nomenclature between the institutions reviewed in the study. some differences causing comparison difficulties included variations in credit hours per course, yearlong courses versus semester courses, and variations in number of courses required to graduate. the information collected was based on the co-authors interpretation of the online materials. both co-authors experienced frustration in comparing institutions due to the lack of information provided on the websites regarding how the various institutions counted courses, structured credit hours, and listed requirements to graduate. it is reasonable to assume that prospective students may experience the same frustration. ontario/michigan border (windsor, sault ste. marie, and sarnia regions) in the niagara region (see table 2) the difference in annual tuition and fees between ontario and new 12 york institutions for a canadian student were staggering, although the cost of attending medaille college is offset by the large amount of advanced standing they advertise online. originally it had appeared that wilfrid laurier university-brantford offered a much lower tuition, but the fees had to be reassessed because ancillary fees were posted separately from tuition fees. the co-authors were unable to find the required online information for credit transfer at niagara university (new york). overall, niagara college (ontario) has made most of their articulation agreements with ontario and canadian institutions. however, us, australia and international agreements were also posted. table 2 niagara region: annual tuition costs along with the percentage of transfer credit offered to college transfer students. institution tuition credit transfer brock university $7,229.00 can/yr 25% buffalo state college $15,944.00 us/yr 17.5% canisius $32,030.00 us/yr 25% laurier brantford university $7,796.50 can/yr 12% mcmaster university $9,652.77 can/yr 25% medaille college $22,678.00 us/yr 75% niagara university $16,225.00 us/yr not available 13 table 2.1 geographic dispersion of receiving institutions that have agreements with niagara college ontario insitutitions canadian institutions us institutions australian insitutions international insitutions promotion in the niagara region buffalo state college buffalo state college advertises to canadian students, although the information provided is not specific to any particular program. the following is an excerpt from the institutions website (buffalo state, n.d.): buffalo state college is excited about expanding connections with canadian students. students from canada who are interested in receiving a valuable and affordable education in an urban setting should consider applying for admission. our unique academic programs, diverse student population, exciting opportunities outside the classroom, and dynamic location make buffalo state an exciting place to learn and grow. 14 canisius college canisius college has promotional material on its website designed to attract canadian students who are pursuing a teaching designation. the following is an excerpt (canisius college, n.d.): canisius makes it easy for canadian students to obtain their teaching certification. we offer: 20% canadian tuition discount flexible scheduling, with classes offered during the week or on saturdays fast admission decisions; youll receive an answer within 10 days free application to all education programs for canadian students select courses are available online pre-student teaching seminar & classroom practicum completed at sites in ontario student teaching requirements at two different settings in ontario thousands of our canadian graduates have gained certification to teach in ontario. http://www.canisius.edu/canadian/ medaille college medaille college has promotional website information designed to attract canadian students to their masters in education program. the following is an excerpt (medaille college): for more than 60 years, canadian students have found medaille college to be a perfect fit. we dont just welcome canadian students, we cater exclusively to their needs. students can choose to attend classes on weekdays or weekends, allowing them to maintain their life in ontario. medaille has offered canadian students a master's in education preparation program for the past 25 years. graduates of this program earn a master of science in education degree and are certified to teach in both new york and ontario. our programs include: 15 master in elementary (primary-junior/16 grade) master in adolescent (intermediate-senior/712) medaille also offers a message board for canadian students on multiply, that provides students with a place to arrange carpools, buy and sell textbooks, share advice and more. windsor, sarnia, and sault ste. marie regions in general, institutions in michigan (in the windsor, sarnia, and sault ste. marie regions) tended to be similar to ontario universities with respect to the amount of transfer credit granted for coursework completed at previous institutions. for example, at two institutions that provided information about time to graduation (wayne state university and walsh college, both in detroit, mi), it is suggested that approximately 40% of the coursework that would typically be required for a 4-year degree can be obtained via transfer credit. similarly, at the university of windsor, up to 17 courses might be granted transfer credit, effectively granting credit for approximately 42.5% of a 4-year degree program. the university of windsor also offers a $500 scholarship for students who register by way of a university of windsor articulation agreement with a graduating average of at least b+ (university of windsor transfer student, n.d.). students who commute from sarnia to windsor through michigan cross the canadian us border 4 times round trip. this double border crossing could be an additional cost of more than $1,200/year if commuting 4 times per week. virtually all applications to ontario universities are submitted to the ontario universities application centre (ouac), and the application process can be expensive. students must pay a base $135 fee plus a transfer credit evaluation fee (ranging from $40$100) at each institution they wish to apply (ouac.on.ca fees). at an open house event at the university of windsor, one transfer student reported spending over $400 in application and evaluation fees to apply at four ontario universities. this additional cost is a large part of the prospective students desire to have specific credit transfer information available beforehand so that they can reduce their application fees by not applying to universities with less competitive transfer 16 agreements. perhaps if ontario institutions did not benefit financially from individual assessment fees, they might have better online information and a more standardized process. us institutions tended to have higher tuition rates and student fees for canadian than for us transfer students. studying at us institutions requires canadian students to obtain specific paperwork for attendance (i.e., an m1 visa, ~$160 usd), and generally pay higher tuition rates than those offered by canadian universities (i.e., ranging from $9,064$32,500/year). travel across a canada-united states border crossing may range from $68 usd round-trip. assuming a full course load and attendance on campus 4 days/week, this might be $770/year (fall and winter semesters) in tolls. students need to consider the cost of fuel, additional repairs for their vehicle and the faster depreciation of their vehicle when commuting longer distances. the cost of attending an american institution may be offset somewhat by the scholarships and financial aid offered by these institutions. institutions such as the university of detroit mercy offer scholarships in the amount of $11,00016,000 usd. thus, the amount of these scholarships may make up for the initially higher tuition at the american institutions, and entice canadian students to attend. one notable difference between us and ontario institutions is the amount of information provided to students regarding transfer credit and the transfer evaluation process. in general, american institutions tended to provide more online information for transfer students. this includes transfer agreements that are specific to the students previous institution, with course-by-course equivalencies laid out for the transfer student to evaluate prior to making a decision about applying to or attending the institution. in contrast, the canadian universities studied often indicated that up to ____ transfer credits can be granted, but did not provide course-by-course equivalencies. further, both the university of windsor and algoma university directed potential transfer students to the ontario college university transfer guide website (ontransfer.ca), which, although helpful in indicating which institutions offer programs for college transfer students, was somewhat vague concerning how much 17 transfer credit a student might actually receive in a specific degree program. as the ontransfer guide becomes more well known, it will be populated by more institutions with more information and will become a more reliable source of more specific credit transfer information. table 3 sarnia: annual tuition costs and percentage of transfer credit offered to college transfer students. institution saginaw valley state siena heights university university of windsor tuition $19,698.90 us/yr $21,152.00 us/yr $8,464.58 us/yr credit transfer unknown 75% 40% table 3.1 lambton college agreements by geography canadian institutions ontario institutions hybrid institutions (canada west) online institutions international institutions us institutions 18 sault ste. marie region table 4 sault ste marie regional institutions: annual tuition costs and percentage of transfer credit offered to college transfer students. institution tuition credit transfer algoma university $6,229.98 can/yr 3350% lake superior state university $20,447.50 us/yr unknown table 4.1 (sault college articulation agreements) ontario insitutions international insitutions australian institutions us institutions windsor region table 5 windsor: annual tuition costs and percentage of transfer credit offered to college transfer students. institution tuition credit transfer lawrence tech university $25,740.00 us/yr unknown university of detroit mercy university of windsor $34,530.00 us/yr unknown walsh college $11,465.00 us/yr 40% wayne state university $9,678.42 us/yr 40% $8,464.58 can/yr 40% 19 tables 5.1 windsor st. clair college articulation agreements by geography us institutions ontario insitutions international institutions australian institutions online institutions canadian institutions detroit michigan region wayne state university wayne state university offers a good neighbour policy where ontario residents have the nonresident portion of their tuition waived (wayne state university, n.d.). sault ste. marie michigan region lake superior state university lake superior state universitys transfer guide advertises that 60% of students graduate in 45 years, although it is unclear whether this refers specifically to transfer students or to students in general. requirements ontario border universities tend to require a minimum of a b- gpa (2.73.0) while some us institutions give admission and advanced standing to students who achieved a minimum of 2.0 or 2.5. 20 the variation in entrance/advanced standing requirements may be one reason students would consider a us institution despite higher costs and inconvenient border crossings. conclusions and recommendations based on the information gathered in this report, there needs to be more quantitative statistics regarding the success rate and satisfaction rates of students who choose to transfer to us post secondary institutions from caat colleges. it was very difficult to gather accurate information via the internet, which is a common source of information for transfer students. canadian transfer students considering us/canadian institutions need to do considerable advance planning and master unfamiliar technical terms/policies to transfer to a us school. whether attending a us or canadian institution, students seeking articulation agreements should find an academic entry point where they can be competitive within their cohort and also be challenged in their new program. past and current college transfer students would benefit from a public forum (perhaps on the oncat website) where they could aggregate their experiences and recommendations. their information could benefit prospective college transfer students, institutional administrators/educators, ontransfer.ca, and both sending and receiving institutions. perhaps some form of automated, online self-advocacy tools during the transfer process would allow students to be better placed within receiving institutions. students first hand knowledge of negotiating course syllabi, tests, and course readings could provide valuable information to any credit transfer system. the validity of the recommendations could be reviewed and the automated, online self-advocacy tools could be revised as needed. the information provided by students could further offer mentoring tips to students who will be taking similar educational paths. 21 appendix the tables below represent the information provided by the two co-authors and their assessment of institutional websites. we reviewed three areas, including navigation, search optimization, and identification. navigation generally refers to the ease with which a student could start on the main institution website and easily identify their path to desired information. search optimization indicates how easily they could either google or use search bars to find the targeted information. identification is defined as whether or not websites specifically listed or titled websites for canadian transfer students. there are also comments regarding whether or not websites had specific and visible promotion for college transfer students. niagara region institution buffalo state college advantages navigation: apply menu has a transfer student section with appropriate links to navigate information: (i.e., required grade to transfer, how many transfer credits are given, and articulation agreements with other institutions). additional information is provided for commuting students and information for living on/off campus. finding tuition costs was not difficult as there was a link provided identifying fees for in-state and outof-state residents (http://www.buffalostate.edu/student accounts/x528.xml). identification: the website provides valuable information for canadian students such as admission requirements and scholarships available (http://www.buffalostate.edu/admissi ons/x1395.xml). official or promotional information: disadvantages search optimization: had to use the buffalo state search bar to find information specifically for canadian students. used the term canadian transfer students 22 niagara university laurierbrantford canisius college various scholarships are available for canadian students navigation: admissions menu has a transfer admissions section (http://www.niagara.edu/creditplacement/#creditplacement). identification: a link was provided identifying scholarships and awards for transfer students (http://www.niagara.edu/internationa l-scholarships-and-grants/). official or promotional information: ontario teacher certification provided through niagara university (http://www.niagara.edu/ontarioteacher-education-faqs/). navigation: prospective students menu has an academic info drop down menu where admissionsundergrad provides a section for transfer and out of province applicants. information was provided for admission requirements, transfer credits given, and for additional documents required when applying. identification: specific information is provided for students transferring from an ontario college or colleges outside of ontario (https://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id =2256&p=9615). search optimization: only had to navigate through a few links to find inclusive information for transfer students. did not have to use google search or the websites search bar to find the appropriate webpage for transfer students. navigation: admissions menu has a transfer link and an international link. the international page provides a link for canadian student admissions. general information for transferring and tuition costs was found under a navigation: transfer information was provided; however, there was a broken link that would have led to more specific information for credit transfer from specific institutions. another disadvantage included a broken link for tuition and fees which made it difficult to determine how much it would cost for a canadian student to transfer. search optimization: using the niagara university search bar to find specific information for canadian students, it was the 4th option listed that provided information for canadian students. navigation: no direct link is provided for transfer students. must search through various links until a transfer student webpage can be found. difficult to find tuition costs. official or promotional information: not provided search optimization: no specific information is given for students transferring from a canadian institution (i.e., course equivalents or transfer credits given). unable to find any transfer agreements established with canadian institutions 23 medaille college brock university frequently asked questions webpage (http://www.canisius.edu/admissions/ transfer_faq.asp). identification: specific information is provided for canadian students such as applying for financial aid, receiving a canadian tuition discount, plus additional programs and services for canadians. official or promotional information: highlights how many canadians attend this institution 250 + (http://www.canisius.edu/admissions/ intstud_canada.asp). navigation: admissions & financial aid has a canadian students link in addition to an undergraduate link with direction to a transfer students page. information includes a transfer policy and articulation agreements. identification: specific information is provided for canadian students and transfer students. *highlighted is a canadian education program (http://www.medaille.edu/sage/canad ian-education-program). official or promotional information: advertises promotional material designed to attract canadian students to their masters in education program. offers a message board for our canadian students on multiply, which provides students with a place to arrange carpools, buy and sell textbooks, share advice and more (http://62172986.multiply.com/) navigation: transfer student section provides criteria for transfer credit, subject prerequisites, and articulation agreements. identification: specific section of website clearly designed for students transferring from on ontario college navigation: difficult to obtain information on credit transfer from a canadian institution. search optimization: google search and the websites main search toolbar yielded negative results for determining credits given to canadian transfer students. navigation: no direct link given for transfer students on main page. had to use the search tool bar to navigate information for transfer students. identification: quotes not available from transfer students. official or promotional information: not provided search optimization: had to use google search brock university transfer student to find admission 24 mcmaster university navigation: admissions menu has an admissions requirement link which navigates to a page where students can chose their current academic standing (i.e., college) and which program they would like to transfer into. identification: information is provided for grades required when transferring into a program from college and transfer criteria. navigation: no appropriate link provided for transfer students. identification: limited information is provided for ontario college transfer students. official or promotional information: not provided search optimization: must refer to specific program web pages to determine course-for-course transferability. windsor region institution wayne state university advantages navigation: become a student menu has transfer students and canadian students sections; both provide information concerning application, transfer credit evaluation, credit equivalency, financial aid, and cost of attending http://admissions.wayne.edu/transfer /index.php identification: specific section of website for canadian students (distinct from international students) http://admissions.wayne.edu/canadia n/index.php official or promotional information: good neighbor policy - ontario students have non-resident portion of tuition waived http://admissions.wayne.edu/canadia n/pay.php?from=10646 search optimization: using both google and the wayne state university website search tool (search term: wayne state university transfer student), the wayne state university transfer student webpage was the first result disadvantages navigation: must use transfer database to check equivalency/transferability of each individual course http://transfercredit.wayne.edu/ 25 university of windsor walsh college lawrence technological university (ltu) navigation: transfer students section has informative sections/headings; tuition estimates (and several associated costs); transfer guide with information about credit equivalency, cost of attendance, and campus information were easy to locate http://www.uwindsor.ca/college/ identification: use of quotes from current students in transfer guide brochure http://www.uwindsor.ca/college/online-brochure official or promotional information: transfer guide contains information designed to attract students to windsor (i.e., moderate climate, just a few hours from the gta) navigation: in the future students menu, there is an international students and a transfer students section; the latter provides a list of transfer agreements with transfer guides; transfer guide gives specific course-by-course equivalencies well organized under accurate headings, gives an idea of how many courses will need to be completed at walsh college (i.e., time to graduation) http://www.walshcollege.edu/transfer collegecredit official or promotional information: pdf transfer guides available for download (informative) search optimization: using google (search term: walsh college transfer student), the walsh college webpage for transfer students is the first result; using the walsh college website search tool, the transfer student webpage is the first result and the international student webpage is the fifth result. navigation: under the future students menu, the transfer students section clearly indicates where information about articulation official or promotional information: material designed to attract students to windsor is not specific to collegetransfer students; no obvious incentives search optimization: using google (search term: university of windsor transfer student), the university of windsor webpage for collegetransfer students is the second result; using the university of windsor website search tool, the collegetransfer student webpage does not appear in the first page of results. identification: no information specific to canadian students was found; financial information was provided under the future students menu (http://www.walshcollege.edu/?id=1 082&sid=1), but no information specific to international students was identified. official or promotional information: no obvious incentives designed to attract canadian students were found. navigation: transfer guide was somewhat vague course equivalency was somewhat unclear; had to search for international 26 agreements, transfer evaluation process, and scholarship information (specific to transfer students) can be found http://www.ltu.edu/futurestudents/tr ansfer/index.asp?_wds=fs official or promotional information: pdf transfer guides available for download http://www.ltu.edu/futurestudents/tr ansfer/transfer_guides.asp search optimization: using google (search term: lawrence technological university transfer student), the ltu webpages for transfer students are among the first four results. university of detroit mercy (udm) navigation: under the apply menu, the undergraduate and transfer students and international students sections provide information about admission requirements and what to do after being accepted http://www.udmercy.edu/apply/unde rgrad_students/ http://www.udmercy.edu/apply/inter national_students/index.htm search optimization: using both google and the udm website search tool (search term: university of detroit mercy transfer student), the udm transfer student webpage (undergraduate and transfer students) is the first result. students section (not clearly indicated); no information about cost of attendance was found in transfer students section of website identification: no information specific to canadian students was found on website. official or promotional information: no obvious incentives designed to attract canadian students were found. search optimization: using the ltu website search tool, the transfer student webpage does not appear on the first page of results, although it can be found by clicking on the seventh result (titled transfer for campus and student life) and clicking on another menu (transfer quicklinks) on the page that opens. navigation: transfer students section is difficult to locate and navigate to (the title of this section, undergraduate and transfer students, was unusual); most information for transfer students was combined with information for typical undergraduate applicants; no information about cost of attendance was found in the apply menu, or in the international students or undergraduate and transfer students sections; little information was found regarding transfer credit evaluation process. identification: no information specific to canadian students was found. official or promotional information: no obvious incentives designed to attract canadian students were found. 27 sault ste. marie region institution algoma university lake superior state university (lssu) advantages navigation: the future students section of the algoma website has a subsection called diploma to degree that is targeted to collegetransfer students; this section provides considerable relevant information about financial aid, scholarships, number of potentially transferable credits, and time to graduation http://www.algomau.ca/futurestudents/diploma-to-degree identification: specific section of website clearly designed for students transferring from on ontario college search optimization: using google (search term: algoma university transfer student), the algoma university webpage for collegetransfer students is the second result; using the algoma university website search tool, two relevant college-transfer student webpages are the third and fourth results. navigation: under the prospective students menu, the transfer student (http://www.lssu.edu/admissions/t ransfer.php) and ontario (http://www.lssu.edu/admissions/ canadian.php) sections provide relevant information; the former provides transfer guides, transfer equivalency tool, and faq brochure i.e., http://www.lssu.edu/equivalency/ guide_index.php identification: specific section of website clearly designed for students transferring from ontario, detailing differences in admission requirements, tuition fees, etc.; transfer guides provided for disadvantages navigation: application information provided is somewhat vague links redirect to application information for regular students (i.e., http://www.algomau.ca/futurestudents/how-to-apply); little information provided about transfer credit evaluation process was found official or promotional information: no information about advantages of algoma or sault ste. marie or quotes from current students were found; no obvious incentives designed to attract canadian students were found. navigation: course equivalency tool not working (checked on several different days) http://www.lssu.edu/equivalency/ 28 canadian college (sault college) official or promotional information: campus tours (including meeting with faculty representatives and complimentary lunch at dining hall) are advertised in transfer brochure. search optimization: using both google and the lssu website search tool (search term: lake superior state university transfer student), the lssu transfer student webpage is the first result. sarnia region institution university of windsor siena heights university (shu) advantages navigation: transfer students section has informative sections/headings; tuition estimates (and several associated costs); transfer guide with information about credit equivalency, cost of attendance, and campus information were easy to locate http://www.uwindsor.ca/college/ identification: use of quotes from current students in transfer guide brochure http://www.uwindsor.ca/college/o n-line-brochure official or promotional information: transfer guide contains information designed to attract students to windsor (i.e., moderate climate, just a few hours from the gta) navigation: in the admissions menu, there is a transfer students and international students section; the transfer students section provides answers to faqs and a list of transfer agreements; the admissions menu also provides information about tuition and fees disadvantages official or promotional information: material designed to attract students to windsor is not specific to college-transfer students; no obvious incentives search optimization: using google (search term: university of windsor transfer student), the university of windsor webpage for college-transfer students is the second result; using the university of windsor website search tool, the collegetransfer student webpage does not appear in the first page of results. navigation: although a list of transfer agreements is provided, and canadian colleges are included in this list, no transfer guides (i.e., with program-specific information) were found; in the tuition and fees section of the admission menu, little information was found for international students. identification: in the list of faqs, the 29 saginaw valley state university (svsu) http://www.sienaheights.edu/adm issions/transferstudents.aspx http://www.sienaheights.edu/adm issions/tuitionfees.aspx identification: canada is mentioned in the international student brochure (as one of the countries represented in the current population of international students); canadian colleges are included in the list of transfer agreements http://www.sienaheights.edu/adm issions/internationalstudents.aspx http://www.sienaheights.edu/adm issions/transferstudents /transferagreements.aspx search optimization: using google (search term: siena heights university transfer student), the top three results are the shu webpages for transfer students; using the shu website search tool, the same three pages appear as the first results. navigation: under the apply menu, the transfer section is easy to find and provides information about transfer equivalencies and how to apply as a transfer student http://www.svsu.edu/main/apply/t ransfer.html identification: canada is listed third in the list of international students by citizenship, 20092010 http://www.svsu.edu/apply/intern ational.html search optimization: using google (search term: saginaw valley state university transfer student), the svsu webpage for transfer students is the fourth result; using the svsu website search tool, the transfer student webpage is the third result. information about the credit transfer process does not make any reference to canadian applicants; information seems more suited to non-english-speaking applicants (i.e., referral for credential evaluation) http://www.sienaheights.edu/admissions/tr ansferstudents/transferadmissionsfaq.aspx official or promotional information: no obvious incentives designed to attract canadian students were found. navigation: the transfer section provides links for cost of attendance and financial aid that link to these general areas of the website (i.e., information for traditional applicants); once opened, the general financial aid webpage contains a subsection that lists scholarships specific for transfer students (http://www.svsu.edu/financialaid/types-offinancial-aid/scholarships.html); in the how to apply information, links are provided separately for transfer students and for canadian - undergraduate students (this may suggest to potential applicants that the two are mutually exclusive; http://www.svsu.edu/apply/transfer/howto-apply.html). identification: no course equivalencies or transfer guides were found for canadian colleges. official or promotional information: no obvious incentives designed to attract canadian students were found. 30 ease of transfer the following tables represent individual institutional notes regarding the process of transferring from a canadian border college to either a canadian university or a commutable us institution. niagara region institution brock university buffalo state college mcmaster university advantages cost of attending: least expensive tuition assessment of transfer credit: articulation agreements in place. applicants who have completed a three-year diploma program with a cumulative average of 70 percent, or an average of 70 percent in the last two semesters of a three-year diploma program, will be considered for admission, and may be awarded up to five** credits (http://www.brocku.ca/registrar/admissions/a dmission-criteria/transfers#college). (**five credits = one full-time year of study.) assessment of transfer credit: transfer students into business must meet the residency requirement of 21 credit hours of upper-level coursework plus have a minimum cumulative gpa of 2.5. additional transfer credit: (maximum credits that may be given) 4 year program 88 credits 2 year program 66 credits proprietary institution 15 credits. if a student has 60 or more transfer credits they should apply to a specific program. transfer credits are specifically defined based on entering program (http://www.buffalostate.edu/undergradprog. xml). cost of attending: various scholarship opportunities for canadian students ease of commute: ~1020 minute commute from niagara plus ~$66.50 in toll round-trip. cost of attending: tuition costs are moderate. assessment of transfer credit: articulation agreements are in place. students transferring into business from a three-year ontario college diploma must obtain a cumulative gpa of 3.4 on a 4.0 scale disadvantages assessment of transfer credit: information not provided for specific program credit transfer (i.e. business). cost of application: must apply through ouac; expensive application cost of attending: expensive tuition cost of application: there is a transfer fee of $50 required to be paid to buffalo state college. cost of application: must apply through ouac; expensive application. 31 niagara university laurierbrantford canisius college (or equivalent) plus they must have successfully completed three mathematics courses at the college level. successful applicants may receive up to 30 units of advanced credit. assessment of transfer credit: transferable courses must be 3+ credits with a letter grade of a c or higher, and courses that are accredited are decided by the dean. there is no requirement for a minimum number of credit hours a student must complete before they can apply for transfer admission. articulation agreements are in place with niagara college into a business administration program. (see appendix_) at least 10 courses on the major side of your curriculum must be taken at nu. niagara university offers a transfer cost calculator (http://www.niagara.edu/transfercost-calculator/). cost of attending: scholarships are available for transfer and international students. ease of commute: ~520 minute commute to niagara plus ~$66.50 in toll round-trip cost of attending: tuition is relatively low. assessment of transfer credit: based on completion of a 3-year program, students must have a cumulative average of b- or better. a minimum grade of b- must have been attained in any applicable courses for transfer credit consideration. assessment of transfer credit: transfer students will have their application assessed by the registrar. maximum transfer: 2 year college 20 courses 4 year college open* students transferring from four-year institutions must complete at least 30 credit hours at canisius, including at least 18 in their major, in order to earn a bachelors degree. grades of c- or better will be considered for credit at canisius. grades of d may only be accepted if a student has earned an associates degree. cost of attending: scholarships for canadian students ranging from $9,000$17,000 per assessment of transfer credit: unable to assess credits transferred towards a business program. cost of attending: there is a broken link for tuition and fees for international students. cost of application: not available assessment of transfer credit: no specific information available for course-for-course transfer into business. cost of application: must apply through ouac; expensive application assessment of transfer credit: course-for-course transfer credit not demonstrated for business. cost of attending: tuition is very high. international students must attend all 4 years to be eligible for scholarships. cost of application: unknown 32 medaille college academic year. ease of commute: ~1030 minutes to niagara plus ~$66.50 in toll round-trip. assessment of transfer credit: medaille college has established a transfer student policy (http://www.medaille.edu/transfer/policies). a maximum of 90 credit hours may be transferred toward a baccalaureate degree from other regionally accredited institutions; however, no more than 72 hours may be transferred from two-year colleges. a maximum of 45 credit hours toward an associate degree may be accepted in transfer from other regionally accredited institutions. only those credits applicable to the degree program entered are accepted. in the area of a students major program of study only grades of c or better are transferable. medaille may accept in transfer up to 12 credit hours of d grades as liberal arts electives or free electives provided that the overall transfer average is at least 2.0. cost of attending: scholarships are available for transfer students. ease of commute: ~1030 minutes to niagara plus ~66.50 in toll round-trip assessment of transfer credit: the only well defined information for canadian transfers was for the education program (http://www.medaille.edu/sage/ canadian-education-program). cost of attending: tuition is high. cost of application: unknown based on website rankings and transferability rankings it was found that buffalo state college and niagara university made more information available concerning transfer of credit, specifically, transfer of credit from a canadian institution. although canisius college and medaille college published information that helped to understand transfer of credit at these institutions, little information was found concerning course equivalencies or transfer of credit from canadian institutions. 33 windsor region institution university of windsor1 advantages cost of attending: least expensive tuition assessment of transfer credit: articulation agreement in place wayne state university assessment of transfer credit/credits given: up to 64 credits transferred; 48 out of the total 122 credits (40%) required for the business degree identified can be transferred cost of attending: relatively inexpensive tuition ease of commute: travel time (~15 minutes) assessment of transfer credit/credits given: up to 82 credits transferred; 51 out of the total 127 credits (40%) required for the degree identified can be transferred; articulation agreement in place cost of application: free online application ease of commute: close to windsor-detroit border crossing (~15 minutes) cost of attending: substantial financial aid available (almost 50% of tuition) walsh college university of detroit mercy disadvantages assessment of transfer credit: maximum 17 semester courses (43%) granted transfer credit; no guarantee of which courses will be granted credit cost of application: must apply through ouac; expensive application cost of application ease of commute: travel time (~30 minutes from windsor); $8 in tolls round-trip cost of attending: expensive tuition assessment of transfer credit/credits given: no guarantee of transfer credit; credit evaluation occurs after admission; must pay credit evaluation service for transfer credit cost of attending: most expensive tuition of institutions studied in this region 1 note that the university of windsor was ranked higher than wayne state university (despite the fact that the two institutions might be considered close to equivalent based on the information collected) because attending wayne state university would require making costly and time-consuming arrangements to study in the united states, and presumably students would want to avoid this if possible. 34 lawrence technological university cost of attending: minimal international student fee; financial aid ranges from $3,000 $13,000/year (in the form of scholarships) assessment of transfer credit: articulation agreement in place assessment of transfer credit/credits given: 18 credit hours transferred, but no list of degree requirements provided (to evaluate how many additional credits would need to be completed at the institution) cost of attending: expensive tuition ease of commute: travel time (~30 minutes from windsor); $8 in tolls round-trip sarnia region institution saginaw valley state university university of windsor2 siena heights university advantages cost of application: minimal compared to alternative institutions cost of attending: relatively inexpensive tuition; scholarships available ease of commute: ~17 minutes from sarnia; $7 in tolls round-trip cost of attending: relatively inexpensive tuition; small scholarship available assessment of transfer credit/credits given: articulation agreement in place; up to 17 semester courses (40%) given credit disadvantages assessment of transfer credit/credits given: no articulation agreement; must email registrars office to determine number of credit transfers assessment of transfer credit/credits given: articulation agreement in place; up to 90 hours of transfer credit can be applied towards degree requirements ease of commute: ~15 minutes from sarnia; $7 in tolls round-trip cost of application cost of attending: most expensive tuition of institutions in this region; possibility of scholarships (although not clearly specified) cost of application: most expensive of institutions in this region ease of commute: ~1 hour 15 minutes each way; includes travel through michigan, which necessitates $15 in tolls for each round-trip 2 the university of windsor was ranked higher than siena heights university despite the difficulty of commuting to windsor because the difference in tuition between the two institutions ($12,288) was thought to be more than a student would spend commuting to windsor over the course of one academic year (two semeste.rs); this difference in cost of attending is presumed to be of considerable importance to potential students. 35 sault ste. marie region institution algoma university lake superior state university advantages assessment of transfer credit/credits given: articulation agreement in place, up to 60 transfer credits towards degree identified (representing 3350% of degree, depending on choice of 3- or 4year program and incoming gpa) cost of attending: least expensive tuition cost of application: less expensive application cost of attending: $1,000$3,000 scholarship (based on college gpa) disadvantages cost of attending: financial aid only one $2,000 scholarship to college-transfer student with highest gpa; other scholarships unspecified in online material cost of application: more expensive application; must apply through ouac assessment of transfer credit/credits given: no articulation agreement, little information about how many credits transferable; must pay credit evaluation service for transfer credit cost of attending: more expensive tuition ease of commute: ~15 minutes from sault ste. marie (on), $6 round-trip in tolls 36 references buffalo state. (n.d.). canadian student information. retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.buffalostate.edu/admissions/x1395.xml canisius college. (n.d.). graduate education. retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.canisius.edu/education/canadian-teacher-certification/ cbc news. (september 3, 2009). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2009/09/03/calgary-mount-royal-collegeuniversity.html crossing made easy. (n.d.). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from http://crossingmadeeasy.com/ambassador-bridge.htm detroit windsor tunnel. (n.d.). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.dwtunnel.com/aboutus.aspx heath, nick. 2012. pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat): student mobility in canada across canadian jurisdictions. retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.uwindsor.ca/pccat/24/pccat-research-report international bridge administration. (n.d.). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.saultbridge.com/about-us/ medaille college. (n.d.). medaille college canadian community. retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://62172986.multiply.com niagara economic development corporation. (n.d.). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.niagaracanada.com/invest-in-niagara/business-advantages/ ocadu.ca. (n.d.). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.ocadu.ca/about_ocad/overview/historical_summary.htm ontario colleges. (n.d.). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.ontariocolleges.ca/ontcol/home.html ouac. (n.d.). fees. retrieved on october 3, 2012 from: http://www.ouac.on.ca/ouac-105/105-fees/ service ontario. (n.d.). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_02u08_e.htm statistics canada. (n.d.). retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/12581-x/2012000/pop-eng.htm united states census bureau. (n.d.) retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html 37 university of windsor. (n.d.). transfer student. retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://www.uwindsor.ca/awards/transfer-student wayne state university. (n.d.). good neighbor policy. retrieved on october 3, 2012 from: http://reg.wayne.edu/students/tuition-info.php - 7 zeisman, d. (2008, may 18). magic wand. the province. retrieved on september 25, 2012 from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/269521302?accountid=14789;%20http://sfx.scholarsporta l.info/windsor?url_ver=z39.882004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=unknown&sid=proq:proq%3acanadiann ews&atitle=magic+wand&title=the+province&issn=&date=2008-0518&volume=&issue=&spage=a.21&au=zeisman%2c+derek&isbn=&jtitle=the+province&btitle= 38

executive summary a college to college pathway partnership seneca college & cambrian college march 2017 this project set out to establish an ongoing, permanent academic relationship between seneca college of applied arts and technology in toronto and cambrian college of applied arts and technology in sudbury, for the purposes of facilitating student movement between the two institutions. in place of occasional, ad hoc, individual transfer agreements, a formalized academic partnership structure would be established with the purpose of assessing institutional strengths in respective academic programming to determine a strategic approach to transfer agreements. a new pathway between cambrians physical fitness management advanced diploma and senecas bachelor of recreation therapy has been developed as a pilot project. this opportunity for students provides a new degree option, recognizing the maximum number of transfer credits and further explores opportunities for students in sudbury to begin their degree studies at seneca while still living in sudbury. the pilot will allow faculty to share experience and expertise. cambrian college has significant experience using technology to connect students and faculty through virtual and on-line modes. both cambrian and seneca are prepared to test the technology in the coming months. this will also provide an opportunity for cambrian to share expertise related to the pedagogy of teaching in a virtual environment. seneca has a well-established degree and credit transfer office with highly successful internal protocols in place. cambrian will benefit from this expertise in the newly opened pathways office. successes: a memorandum of understanding has been signed which formalizes the seneca-cambrian partnership and provides a platform for ongoing evolution of the partnership. this agreement establishes a foundation for a new relationship that is student focused (considers access, affordability and the student experience) and encourages collaboration rather than competition a leadership steering committee has been struck and regular meetings held to identify new transfer arrangements, to encourage the development of innovative methods of delivery and to support the coordination of academic infrastructure which will simplify the exchange of student information. this regular contact between institutions ensures that the momentum of discussion and progress is maintained in spite of geographical distance and competing priorities at each institution. the new physical fitness diploma to recreation therapy degree pathway provide cambrian graduates with admission directly into year three after completion of a one semester bridge. this will be available for students beginning in january 2018. the initial pathway development process has led to the beginning of a second pathway from cambrians computer engineering technology diploma to senecas bachelor of software development and bachelor of applied technology- informatics and security. the partnership experienced several changes of leadership throughout the year and processes have been established to ensure the learning curve of new players is successfully managed. this highly successful project provides a glimpse into how the system can evolve from a spirit of competition between a large college and a small college to a spirit of collegial collaboration which supports students journey through post-secondary.

university to college pathway for students not meeting academic progression requirements in administrative studies final report oncat project 2015-24 march 2016 2 executive summary building on their long standing relationship, york university and seneca college developed a redirect pathway for struggling administrative studies degree students. administrative studies students who have been required to withdraw from york university will be given the opportunity to complete an accounting diploma at seneca college, where upon successful graduation they will be able to transition back into york university through the summer bridge program to finish the degree in which they began. the project is premised upon university students desire to complete a credential in the field but whose learning needs and style may be better suited in the college environment. for both york and seneca, the project represents a collective effort to increase student retention in post-secondary education and whose processes serve as a model for other high affinity programs between regional institutions. success of this initiative will be dependent on the quality of advising. identified personnel at york university will meet with students at the end of the first year to discuss this option. students wanting to avail themselves of the possibility will be directed to a specific academic advisor in the accounting program at seneca college who will be able to map out a plan for completion. an admissions person specializing in articulation agreements will process the intake and generate an immediate acceptance. redirection into seneca and transition back to york will be completed internally between institutions and the students will not be required to navigate through the respective central application services. it is expected the redirected students will receive some transfer credit at seneca for their completed courses, thereby allowing for an individualized course schedule to expedite a return to york university. with multiple intakes each year, the accounting program is particularly suited for this initiative and students will be able to enroll in any course they require, even ones which would reduce the existing bridge requirement necessary to re-enter york at year three of their original degree program. based on the number of students who meet the minimum criteria of successfully completing 6.0 credits at york university in the administrative studies program, it is expected there will sufficient numbers to make the project viable. representatives from seneca and york will meet annually to review and adjust where necessary to ensure the seamlessness of the student movement. the parties have committed to internal communications to help make the program attractive, including informing all accounting students of the bridge program developed by york university for an earlier oncat funded project. this initiative will also be part of an anticipated multi-institutional research project on redirection tracking and mechanisms in the province of ontario.

finance and wealth management project 2015-11 specialized transfer project: finance and wealth management kings university college and fanshawe college executive summary authors: marilyn mason and tracy cunningham, kings university college at western university march 28, 2016 1 specialized transfer program: finance and wealth management kings university college at western university and fanshawe college final report to oncat introduction through the generosity of an oncat grant, beginning march 30, 2015 and continuing to september 15, 2016, kings university college at western university and fanshawe college have developed a unique pathway earning the two year diploma and the three year degree in finance within a four year period. these graduates, in addition to earning a degree and a diploma from both institutions, will also possess a number of certifications (granted by professional finance and banking associations) which will further enhance their career opportunities. 2

fall exploring canadian-american cross border articulation in south western ontario: executive summary tim brunet, jessica bukovac, and julie norman university of windsor funded by oncat 12 exploring canadian-american cross border articulation in south western ontario: executive summary in 2011, the college university consortium council (cucc) provided funding to the university of windsor to explore the competition between united states (us) and canadian post-secondary degreegranting institutions located in border cities that wished to attract college transfer students. the cities chosen for the exploration included sault ste. marie, niagara falls & st. catherines, sarnia, and windsor. the information in this report is based on the online review conducted by jessica bukovac and julie norman and field notes recorded by tim brunet as part of his responsibilities as a university of windsor student recruitment officer. a three-year diploma in business administration (specializing in accounting) from an ontario college of applied arts and technology was evaluated for transferability to a four-year business degree program at each of the university-level institutions located in the designated regions. the results of this project were presented at the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer conference in ottawa in june 2012. why is this study important? during the 2011/2012 ontario college to university recruitment travel season, the first author encountered some ontario colleges that referenced 2+2 agreements with us universities (two years at college plus two years at university for an honours degree) as a more favourable route to articulation into a degree program than transfer pathways currently available at ontario universities. there were also a considerable number of us universities at both the st. clair college and niagara college fairs, suggesting a heightened us institutional interest in canadian students. the visits to lambton college and sault college where the student recruitment officer met with administrative staff also suggested that there is increasing student interest in us transfer opportunities. ontario post-secondary institutions in border regions must constantly benchmark the goods and services offered in their cities 2 to be competitive with what is offered in the us. the neighbouring us competition mixed with fluctuating currency creates unique and complex economic systems that can create challenges and/or opportunities for border city institutions. academic standing and increased opportunity an important consideration that emerged during data collection is the academic standing required to gain admission and receive advanced standing. in almost every region, the norm for both canadian and us universities was a cumulative average of b- (70%) or higher. however, some us universities offered admission and transfer credit to students whose cumulative average was below the b- standard. it behooves administrators, admissions personnel, and recruitment officers to know their us university competitors when competing to attract college transfer students. four tables summarize the transfer credit provided by receiving institutions, as a percentage of total credits required for the degree, and the relation between credit transfer and tuition fees. while there was no strong trend for paying more money for more transfer credit, a small number of highpriced us institutions offer approximately 75% transfer credit as compared to 25% transfer credit at less expensive ontario institutions. within the windsor-detroit region, us institutions tended to offer more competitive tuition rates for canadian students as compared to the other border regions reviewed in this project. however, the university of windsor has the most competitive programs when considering price, proximity, and credit transfer among students whose averages where high enough to receive admission and full transfer credit. after meeting with a number of post-secondary institution community members and students, the first author concluded that the creation of transfer agreements was too often mired in politically and economically motivated regulations rather than focusing on the academic well being of the students. for example, if a canadian college administrator obtained a 2+2 (2 years at college followed by two years at university) agreement with a us institution they felt that canadian institutions should 3 adopt the same metric. when asked about evidence showing that such a model would work in ontario (or for the students involved) their comments where anecdotal. ontario students who consider transferring to us institutions need to learn several technical terms/policies to understand the full implications of transferring to a us school. while there are a few testimonials and promotions published online for college of applied arts and technology (caat) students transferring to us institutions, there are no easily-found statistics posted online regarding the success of caat students transferring to us institutions. perhaps past and current caat transfer students should have the opportunity to aggregate their experiences and recommendations in a public forum. their information could benefit future college transfer students, institutional administrators/educators, ontransfer, and advisors from sending institutions. perhaps some form of automated, online self-advocacy tools could be provided for caat students who decide to transfer to degree programs through the ontransfer website. for example, students could comment on whether or not they felt prepared versus not given enough credit. students/graduates could also elaborate on their experiences as a prospect, applicant, current student, and graduate. these online self-advocacy tools could be revised and published annually so that both receiving and sending institutions can be ranked thus giving students more information when choosing where they would like to transfer. future study the findings suggest that more work needs to be done to assess the strengths/weaknesses of ontario students transferring into us institutions to complete their degrees. it is evident that analyzing this topic using mediums such as a survey, interview, or focus group, would require significant resources to navigate the research ethics boards on both sides of the border. however, if ontransfer allowed students to self-report their experiences, recruiters and administrators located within border cities 4 could provide more robust information to prospective students regarding geographically convenient degree transfer opportunities. 5

pathway for admission university academic preparation and retention at a community college (oncat project 2016-36) executive summary glenn harvel, jennifer percival, joe stokes, alena shah & jeff zakoor june 2017 uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit executive summary some university applicants are not admissible to undergraduate study because of what the university deems a lack of preparation, largely evaluated on high school grade point average. if admitted, the students would be at risk of not achieving success due to a lack of preparedness for university-level academics. currently, these students are refused admission, and must either upgrade academically, or look for options with less competitive admissions requirements. the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) and durham college (dc) have collaborated to develop an alternative pathway for students who are otherwise not admissible to the university. the pathway allows successful students to be eligible to earn university transfer credits concurrently with a pre-university program that will prepare them for admission to undergraduate study and academic success. the pathway specifically addresses communication and life skills related to academic success to improve the students preparedness for university level study in the fall without losing valuable time upgrading in high school. this oncat pre-university project built on the successes of a previous oncat funded project (2015-23) that allowed students who were suspended from the university to remediate at a community college over the summer, while earning credits toward a college certificate. the pre-university program was developed using a similar framework, and focused on numeracy, literacy and study skills that can be offered as a proactive option for students who are not normally admissible to the university. successful completion of this program would allow the student to enter an undergraduate program with at least one transfer credit or to elect to enter a college program. the pre-university program includes four core courses at the university level; they are: academic success, a double-weighted fundamentals of communications course, and a fundamentals of math course. in the academic success course, the students concentrate on improving their life skills with particular focus on time management, study skills, responsibility and financial management. the double communication course is essentially one course on individual communication and one course on group communication. the course covers fundamental literacy, verbal, and written communication and comprehension but also focusses on communicating with authority and self-advocacy. the math fundamentals course is expected to ensure numeracy skills are present for day-to-day success. the conceptualization of the pre-university pathway program has been completed and a pilot date has been proposed. implementation has been delayed from the initial proposed launch date as both institutions had already dedicated their efforts to successfully launching another pilot program for the summer of 2017. through the conceptualization of this pre-university pathway program, and drawing on knowledge gained through the previous oncat funded project (2015-2023), a number of learnings have been generated. notably, the recognition that building a students self-efficacy remains a key part of their success, regardless if taking a pre-university or remedial program. 1|page

understanding student experiences and graduate outcomes for durham college graduate certificate programs durham college 2012 outline of the study this study focuses on the experiences and outcomes of college and university graduates who have enrolled in durham colleges ontario college graduate certificate programs. (p. 5) the findings were based on the results of 284 online surveys, insights from a focus group, and analyses of student and graduate grade and program completion data and key performance indicators (kpi). the survey sample included both certificate students and graduates, from 14 programs, representing a slight gender bias towards females. having transferred from university or college or admitted with relevant work experience, they were older (99% were 21 years of age or older). the study brings the distinct benefit of considering transfer student satisfaction and success through the entire admission/program-of-study/graduation/employment continuum and offers its recommendations for improvement of the entire pathway. findings this research focused on 11 study questions most of which compared findings among those admitted university, from college and with equivalent work experience. reason for choice of program: most surveyed students reported that their choice of further study was to enhance present skills or develop new ones as a stepping stone into the job market. (p. 14) over 4 in 5 survey respondents expected their program to add additional skills to advance [in] their career. (p. 15) university graduates were two times more likely than college graduates to be seeking hands on experience while equivalent work experience admits were almost twice as likely as college and university graduates to receive employer financial support. college graduates were most likely to pursue further study to earn more money. multi-year student satisfaction kpi data identifies program i wanted and location as key choice factors. (p. 15) program relatedness: 2/3 of the respondents perceived their prior and further study to be highly related (50%) or somewhat related (14%) with university students twice as likely to report their further study to be not at all related. (p. 18) satisfaction with the transfer process before class start: transfer students report being satisfied with their transfer experience (65% for college graduates, 71% for university graduates, and 100% for the equivalent work experience admits). (p. 19) 88% of work experience equivalent admits, 68% of university graduates and 61% of college graduates had no difficulties in the transition. (p. 20) those difficulties reported include finding out what student services were offered ..., finding their way around campus, and connecting with someone from the program. (pp. 19 - 20) somewhat 2 over 1 in 10 had difficulty connecting with someone from admissions or determining program fit. (p. 20) concerns about the transfer process were greater among those who had been out of school for some time. (p. 24) students recommended simplifying admission process, enhancing communications and increasing staff availability. satisfaction after classes began: almost 2/3 of the students and graduates surveyed (61%) strongly agreed or agreed that they had no difficulties with the transition to their graduate certificate program after starting their classes. they were most likely to use library, food services, the bookstore, the computer commons and study space and unlikely to use academic student services such as peer tutoring. (p. 22) those that faced difficulties cited challenges related to accessing learning, information technology and student support services; connecting with faculty outside class hours; and accessing career information. (p. 21) concerns expressed about the program demonstrate the connection between pre- and post-admission issues and their resolution. while the report describes field placement as a major hook for potential applicants some students who were not satisfied with this component of their program. these suggested providing clearer advance information, enriching workplace opportunities and improving staff support. (pp. 23-24) others felt that the fit between some students and their program could be improved by providing more information to better assist students choice and introducing more stringent admission requirements. (p. 25) student success: one year completion rates during the 5 years ending in 2012 range from 82% to 91%. these vary annually among university graduates (88% 100%), college graduates (72% - 92%) and equivalent work experience (63% - 86%). first term gpa also differs among the three groups with university transfers outperforming both college graduates and equivalent work experience admits. university graduate cumulative gpa scores exceed those of college transfers. not surprisingly, gpas are significantly lower among students who did not complete their [certificate] program in the required timeframe. (p. 27) graduate satisfaction and outcomes: an analysis of graduate perceptions, satisfaction and employment rates is also include in this study. while employment rates [for these programs] are strong across all three student subsets ... university graduates are finding the skills they learned less helpful in finding employment ... are less satisfied with the preparation they received for the labour market and are unhappy with working in positions unrelated to [their] program. these are substantial areas of concern given that improving skills and bolstering employment opportunities are two of the primary reasons why students enrol in a graduate certificate program. (pp. 36-37) conclusions and recommendations as noted above, the most striking dimension of this study is its tracking of student satisfaction and outcomes along the entire admission/program-ofstudy/graduation/employment continuum of the transfer pathway. central to this are the 3 recommendations intended to support student attainment of their principle programrelated goals: to acquire the experience and skills that will strengthen [each graduates] resume and [help] find full-time employment (p. 35) and/or advance in their career (p. 15). these include: providing information that will help potential applicants self-select the pathway and program that best fits with their needs and goals; ensuring that admission standards and prerequisites are appropriate to the academic demands of the program; ensuring that the program is effective in preparing students for related employment, enhancing student preparation for their job search; ensuring that the work experience component of the program is meaningful, relevant, supported and connected to future employment opportunities; and supporting job search and career development priorities. recommendations to improve the graduate certificate experience: first, the study recommends a review of entry requirements and simplification of the admissions process. these improvements are expected to partially address the confusion about the transfer process and concerns about the program related to requirements, challenge and workloads. (pp. 34-35) second, the advice to review and enrich field placement opportunities (where applicable) is offered to address student concerns about this important part of their program. most graduate certificate students are attracted to programs that include field practice to acquire the experience and skills that will strengthen their resume and [help them] find full-time employment. (p. 35) third, the recommendation to develop relevant and opportune social opportunities to encourage a school-life balance is offered to address the different interests of the older transfer population and to help them balance their program workload and external life obligations. (p. 35) suggestions involve collaborative learning, age-appropriate social networking, fitness and nutrition initiatives and events that support employment search. recommendations to improve graduate outcomes: fourth, the recommendation to provide more assistance to graduate certificate graduates to locate relevant employment (p. 36) was triggered by the significant proportion of university graduates who were less satisfied with the preparation they received for the labour market and the unrelatedness of their ultimate employment. (pp. 36-37) recommended job search strategies include network building, improving interview and resume preparation skills, and developing enhanced approaches to career building. fifth, foster[ing] connections between field placements and future employment opportunities would better use work experience as a springboard into a related workplace. program leaders were advised to ensure that field placements are 4 meaningful; apply classroom learning; offer relevant, hands-on experience; are supported by college staff; and contribute helpful developmental feedback. finally, the need to provide more support to at-risk students targets those who are not succeeding in their first semester of study, college graduates and equivalent work experience students who typically earn lower gpas and are more likely to drop out. the study recommends earlier interventions, collaborative learning strategies, support networks and more attention from professors. providing better pre-admission program information to help students self-select and introducing more rigorous admission requirements are also suggested.

final report for ontario colleges to fanshawe college and seneca college honours bachelor of commerce degrees transfer pathways project project number- 2015-25 submission date- march 2016 table of contents project inception and goals .......................................................3 project team3 project timeline4 pathway development.5 learning outcomes.5 articulation agreements.6 successes and challenges..6 creation of online bridging programs..7 communications plan..7 monitoring outcomes..7 appendix appendix 1: sample of diploma to diploma course mapping .10 appendix 2: seneca college flow chart for direct entry, diploma and advanced diploma courses and bridges..13 appendix 3: fanshawe college flow chart for direct entry, diploma and advanced diploma courses.14 appendix 4: table of learning outcomes for diploma business, advanced diploma business and honours bachelor of commerce (management)..15 appendix 5: fanshawe college list of bridging courses17 appendix 6: seneca college list of bridging courses22 appendix 7: sample articulation agreement from fanshawe college24 appendix 8: sample articulation agreement from seneca college..26 2 project inception and goals a proposal was submitted to oncat in early 2015 to initiate a project to support the creation and implementation of diploma to degree pathways for access from all colleges in ontario for transfer into honours bachelor of commerce degree programs offered at fanshawe college and seneca college. building on the ontario heads of business oncat transfer agreements in business between ontario college diploma programs, fanshawe and seneca colleges honours bachelor of commerce degrees will provide pathways for ontario diploma graduates to ladder into these college degrees. the projects goal was to create articulation agreements for the colleges high affinity diploma and advanced diploma programs in business. the result of these agreements will create time and cost saving for college graduates in ontario seeking degree options in business. it will further fulfill a need for degree transfer opportunities in high affinity business diploma programs. goal of the ontario colleges to fanshawe and seneca college honours bachelor of commerce degrees transfer pathways project create seamless diploma to college degree transfer between the 24 ontario colleges and pathways from high affinity college diploma programs to: o 4 honours bachelor of commerce degrees at seneca college honours bachelor of commerce-business management honours bachelor of commerce-financial services management honours bachelor of commerce-human resources strategy and technology honours bachelor of commerce-international accounting and finance o 4 honours bachelor of commerce degrees at fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce (management) honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) honours bachelor of commerce (human resources management) honours bachelor of commerce (digital marketing) provide oversight of the development of online bridging courses (6 per institution) o fanshawe college online bridging course development o seneca college online bridging course development articulation agreements created for all high affinity business diploma programs from all ontario colleges into the fanshawe college and seneca college honours bachelor of commerce degrees. project team the project team is comprised of representatives from fanshawe college and seneca college and a hired project manager. fanshawe college staff: mary pierce, chair, lawrence kinlin school of business 3 minette klazinga, event and pathways coordinator, lawrence kinlin school of business lisa schwerzmann, program manager ligia pacheco, customer service representative fanshawe college faculty: darren johnson, honours bachelor of commerce degree coordinator susan deakin, 3-year accounting coordinator randy hull, 2-year accounting coordinator roberta wheeler, 2 and 3-year human resources coordinator sherry mcevoy, 3-year marketing coordinator scott hubert, 2-year marketing coordinator seneca college staff karen murkar, chair, school of accounting & financial services joanna crabtree, operations manager, faculty of business sheilagh stephenson, student advisor lisa dallazuanna, student advisor seneca college faculty larry hurst, 3-year accounting coordinator simon lee, 2-year accounting coordinator jamie aldcorn, accounting (iaf) degree coordinator puneet luthra, hr (hst) degree coordinator sarah arliss, business administration (bbm) degree coordinator david hoffman, financial services management (fsm) degree coordinator peter wan, 3-year financial planning coordinator project manager lynn sveinbjornson project timeline march 31, 2015: approval of ontario colleges to fanshawe and seneca colleges bachelor of commerce degrees transfer pathways project june 2015-december 2015: pathways mapping of all 24 ontario colleges diploma programs in business, human resources, marketing, accounting and financial services/financial planning pathways mapping of all 24 ontario colleges advanced diploma programs in business, human resources, marketing, accounting and financial services/financial planning draft articulation agreements for applicable programs 4 january 2016-february 2016 approval of articulation agreements development of communications plan march 2016-september 2016 roll out communication of articulation agreements to ontario colleges and development of online and printed materials initiation of online bridge curriculum development june 2016-june 2017 finalize and roll out online bridging courses pathway development development of transfer pathways the project began with a review of the oncat funded diploma to diploma project as the start to the roadmap for going forward with this project. the diploma to diploma project provided an excellent base of research that was verified, documented and provided information on program equivalencies and diploma programs that met with the standards set out by the heads of business for ontario colleges. having access to the work that was completed in the oncat funded diploma to diploma program saved valuable time and effort in identifying programs that were determined to be compliant with the conditions of the agreement. signed agreements with parameter requirements such as course requirements, course sequencing and compliance with professional designation requirements made the mapping exercises for the four honours bachelor of commerce degrees at fanshawe college (accounting, digital marketing, human resources management and management) and the four honours bachelor of commerce degrees at seneca college (business management, international accounting and finance, financial services management, and human resources strategy and technology) easier to navigate and saved significant time. the first part of the project was to verify that college programs met the diploma to diploma standards and then compare the differences in the programs to the fanshawe and seneca diploma programs. this was especially important for specialized programs such as the fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce, (digital marketing) degree which has specialized course content in both the degree and diploma programs. a gap analysis was done between college diploma programs to help determine where the course gaps existed that would hinder the progress through the degree program because of a lack of knowledge. (see appendix 1-sample of diploma to diploma course mapping). 5 in addition, a gap analysis between the courses in the honours bachelor of commerce degree programs and those in each colleges business diploma and advanced diploma programs was conducted to determine any additional courses that would be required for a student to take to meet the requirements of the honours bachelor of commerce degrees. for both seneca college and fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce degrees, a flow chart for the pathways for transfer students to follow was developed. (see appendix 2-seneca college honours bachelor of commerce-iaf program flowchart), (see appendix 3-fanshawe college flow chart for direct entry, diploma and advanced diploma entry) learning outcomes it is challenging comparing the learning outcomes from diploma to degree programs because the differences between the applied nature at the diploma and the advanced diploma levels and the conceptual sophistication at the honours bachelor degree level. (see appendix 4- table of learning outcomes for diploma business, advanced diploma business and honours bachelor of commerce (management)). in the business diploma programs that have courses that allow for transfer to professional credentials or designations, college diploma courses have built in some of the conceptual sophistication necessary to transfer to the profession-oriented degree requirements in the same areas of study, for example, accounting, hr and management. to address gaps in learning outcomes, seneca and fanshawe college developed bridging courses that will address the lack of skills and knowledge that the gap analysis identified in the mapping process. the bridging courses provide skills and competencies that are necessary at an honours baccalaureate level and that are missing from diploma level programs such as critical thinking, analytical skills, independent thinking and learning and research oriented skills. the bridging programs also provide a more theoretical approach to the functional areas of business than in the diploma programs. (see appendix 5- fanshawe college list of bridging courses). (see appendix 6seneca college list of bridging courses). articulation agreements a total of 235 articulation agreements were developed for the 24 ontario colleges. a separate articulation agreement was prepared for high affinity diploma and advanced diplomas for each colleges program. please note, not every college offered a diploma or advanced diploma in each specialty (i.e. business, marketing, accounting, financial services or human resources). (see appendix 7- sample articulation agreement from fanshawe college and (appendix 8- sample articulation agreement for seneca college) successes and challenges successes: the ability to prepare the 235 articulation agreements for 24 colleges in a relatively short period of time (june 2015-march 2016) is the direct result of the synergy gained by being able to access the research, findings and results of the oncat funded ontario college diploma to diploma transfer project completed by the heads of business for ontario colleges. there was a tremendous amount of sharing of information that made the mapping of the college diploma programs simplified through shared resources and collaboration. another factor that assisted in the development of the agreements was the publicly available online information for each college. the posting of detailed course outlines and learning objectives provided an easy and accessible method for gaining information and the posting of relevant contact persons aided in required follow-up. 6 there are more pathways available than ever before for people wishing to pursue post-secondary education through diploma and degree programming. these articulation agreements offer graduates of business diploma and advanced diploma programs a clearly communicated, easy to understand pathway following graduation from diploma and advanced diploma to honours bachelor of commerce degrees at fanshawe and seneca colleges. additionally, the articulation agreements originating out of this project provide opportunities for colleges, and in particular those that do not offer similar degree level programming, and the ability to promote more degree options to their students and graduates who wish to pursue bachelor degrees in business. challenges the major weakness in the outcome of the mapping exercise is the nature of them as point in time articulation agreements that are based on diploma course requirements in a specific academic year. graduates from prior years will have to have a more detailed review of their courses and curriculum to be accepted into the degree programs. likewise, agreements will need revisions as curriculum in diplomas and the eight degrees themselves evolve in the future. the sustainability of these agreements will need to be examined in the future to determine an effective way to keep them updated and relevant in the most-timely fashion otherwise they lose their value to students, faculty and staff who access them. as more college programs develop opportunities for transfer between post-secondary institutions, another opportunity for colleges to streamline the entry process between institutions would be to offer common transcript language so academic results are consistent across institutions. creation of online bridging programs timing constraints necessitate that the current in-class bridging programs (a group of courses bridging the gap between diploma and degree) be delivered over the summer months between diploma graduation and degree start. since many diploma programs have a co-op option and some students have flexible graduation dates, access to the summer bridging programs is delayed for some. to address this timing issue, fanshawe and seneca colleges are currently developing these bridging courses to online courses that will allow graduates that need to take the bridging courses the opportunity to do so without being on campus. ideally, the online courses that compose the bridge will also be available multiple times during the academic year which will benefit students that graduate at the end of the summer and fall semesters. development of these online courses will begin summer 2016. communications & implementation plans both fanshawe college and seneca college have invested in this project to develop a communications plan to promote the articulation agreements at ontario colleges. the communications plan will include online and written materials targeted to the colleges in the agreements. the communications plan will be rolled out at the end of march 2016. both fanshawe and seneca college will be updating their schools website to include information on the transfer opportunities for graduates of ontario diploma 7 and advanced diplomas. in development is marketing materials that will be shared with other schools for information about the degree programs. all ontario colleges have received a pdf copy of all of the relevant articulation agreements for their high affinity business diploma and advanced diplomas. feedback regarding the agreements was requested from all schools to ensure accuracy of information, and understanding of degree pathways. both fanshawe college and seneca college have had follow-up conference calls, follow-up email correspondence with ontario colleges to answer questions about the pathways, processes and request for additional materials. both fanshawe college and seneca college degree programs currently have processes in place to accept graduates from other colleges using the articulation agreements. monitoring outcomes seneca college and fanshawe college will monitor the progress, success and challenges of students who transfer from other college diploma programs into their honours bachelor of commerce degree programs. this will be done to maximize student success in the degree programs by identifying and addressing learning gaps. both seneca and fanshawe colleges will be ensuring potential students needs are met in the enrolment cycle from communication of degree options to registration processes with easy access of information. they will ensure transparency, clear communication of application processes, and advisement support. finally, these students will be monitored in terms of challenges and successes in the program through to graduation. 8 appendix appendix 1: sample of diploma to diploma course mapping appendix 2: seneca college flow chart for direct entry, diploma and advanced diploma courses and bridges appendix 3: fanshawe college flow chart for direct entry, diploma and advanced diploma courses appendix 4: table of learning outcomes for diploma business, advanced diploma business and honours bachelor of commerce (management) appendix 5: fanshawe college list of bridging courses appendix 6: seneca college list of bridging courses appendix 7: sample articulation agreement from fanshawe college appendix 8: sample articulation agreement from seneca college 9 appendix 1: sample of diploma to diploma course mapping fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) transfer schedule for cambrian college accounting diploma and business administration-accounting diploma direct entry semester 1 fall acct 1004 principles of accounting 1 mktg 1012 principles of marketing 1 math 1052 business math busi 1060 strategies for success writ 1032 reason & writing-business 1 or comm 1023 business communication busi 1005 introduction to business processes total credit hours semester 1 semester 2 winter acct 1097 applied computer applications for accounting acct 1011 principles of accounting 2 comm 3020 professional communication math 1175 financial math econ 1002 economics 1 (micro) acct 1098 applied computer applications for accounting 2 total credit hours semester 2 semester 3 fall econ 1005 economics 2 (macro) mgmt 3041 organizational behaviour math 1045 statistics fina 3043 taxation 1 personal tax acct 3036 accounting 1 intermediate accounting total credit hours semester 3 semester 4-winter acct 3050 accounting 2-intermediate acct 3022 cost accounting 1 fina 3044 taxation 2-personal tax syst 3002 business information systems laws 3041 business law fina 3042 corporate finance 1 gen ed elective total credit hours semester 4 credit hrs cambrian college accounting diploma credit hours cambrian college accounting administration diploma credit hours 4 3 3 1 3 semester 1 fall acc 1100 intro to accounting mkt 1100 introduction to marketing bus 1100 business mathematics gsc 1003 prepared for success eng 1003 college communications 4 4 4 3 2 semester 1 fall acc 1100 intro to accounting mkt 1100 introduction to marketing bus 1100 business mathematics gsc 1003 prepared for success eng 1003 college communications 4 4 4 3 2 3 1130 business intelligence 2 1130 business intelligence 2 17 19 19 3 isp 3026 spreadsheet management 3 isp 3026 spreadsheet management 3 5 3 acc 1102 accounting principles eng 2205 business reports & presentations 5 3 acc 1102 accounting principles eng 2205 business reports & presentations 5 3 3 3 3 bus 1200 mathematics of finance econ 1101 microeconomics acc 1215 accounting simulation 4 3 3 bus 1200 mathematics of finance econ 1101 microeconomics acc 1215 accounting simulation 4 3 3 20 3 3 3 5 5 21 semester 3 fall ecn 1201 macroeconomics bus 2040 organizational behaviour bus 2302 quantitative management methods i acc 3540 taxation i acc 1117 intermediate accounting i 19 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 23 3 3 3 4 5 21 semester 3 fall ecn 1201 macroeconomics bus 2040 organizational behaviour bus 2302 quantitative management methods i acc 3540 taxation i acc 1117 intermediate accounting i 19 semester 4-winter acc 1118 intermediate accounting ii acc 2320 management accounting i gap gap bus 2320 commercial law gap gen ed elective 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 4 5 19 semester 4-winter acc 1118 intermediate accounting ii acc 2320 management accounting i gap acc 1116 management information systems bus 2320 commercial law bus 3550 corporate finance i gen ed elective 4 4 4 3 3 3 bridging semester semester 5-bridge (summer) argumentation & persuasion ethics in a global context operations management non-core elective quantitative methods 3 3 3 3 3 15 total hours semesters 1-4 semester 5-fall acct 5010 cost & managerial accounting fina 5009 corporate finance 2 fina 5010 taxation 3-corporate tax (old fina 5006) meth 5020 quantitative methods mgmt 3011 project management total credit hours in semester 5 semester 6-winter acct 5003 cost and managerial accounting acct 5001 auditing 79 mgmt 5048 professional competencies and mgmt 5034 strategic policy & planning or mgmt 5039community consultancy gen education elective 3 semester 6-winter 3 personal taxation 5 6 3 non-core elective business finance 2 advanced financial accounting 1 advanced accounting theory total credit hours semester 6 20 3 4 3 3 18 total credit hours for semesters 1-6 total hours in business accounting diploma total hours in the business administration accounting diploma bridging semester total hours in bridging semester semester 7-fall advanced financial accounting 2 corporate taxation auditing 1 non-core elective non-core elective co-op preparation (non credit) total credit hours 4 semester 5-fall management fundamentals 3 3 5 business finance 1 hr management 4 3 3 3 18 management accounting 2 non-core elective 4 3 bus 3651 corporate finance ii acc 3640 taxation ii + acc 1125 electronic taxation simulation bus 2401 quantitative management methods ii acc 1115 project management 17 gap 6 5 semester 5-fall acc 2420 management accounting ii acc 1017 introduction to internal audit and acc 3501 auditing gap 4 3 5 4 2 18 9 gap field placement gen ed elective 3 79 semester 6-summer bridging argumentation & persuasion ethics in a global context 3 3 117 operations management 3 non-core elective elective business finance 2 3 3 4 19 3 4 4 3 3 semester 7-fall advanced financial accounting 2 corporate taxation auditing 1 non-core elective non-core elective co-op preparation (non credit) 17 3 4 4 3 3 17 11 semester 7-fall advanced financial accounting 2 corporate taxation advanced accounting theory hr management non-core elective co-op preparation (non credit) 3 4 3 3 3 16 co-op work term-winter semester 8-fall co-op integration (non-credit) advanced management accounting advanced taxation advanced auditing strategic policy and planning non-core elective co-op work term-winter semester 8-fall co-op integration (non-credit) advanced management accounting advanced taxation advanced auditing strategic policy and planning non-core elective 4 3 3 3 3 co-op work term-winter semester 8-fall co-op integration (non-credit) advanced management accounting advanced taxation advanced auditing non-core elective non-core elective 4 3 3 3 3 graduates from the cambrian college businessaccounting 2 year diploma graduates from the cambrian college business administration- accounting 3 year diploma gaps in curriculum fina 3044 taxation 2-personal tax syst 3002 business information systems 12 gaps in curriculum fina 3044 taxation 2-personal tax acct 5003 cost and managerial accounting mgmt 5048 professional competencies mgmt 5034 strategic policy & planning 4 3 3 3 3 appendix 2: seneca college flow chart for direct entry, diploma and advanced diploma courses and bridges bachelor of commerce international accounting and finance (iaf) 13 appendix 3: fanshawe college flow chart for direct entry, diploma and advanced diploma courses bhm1 bachelor of commerce (human resources management) direct entrance transfer from 2 yrs diploma course # course name math-7007 acct-7002 writ-7005 comp-7012 mgmt-7006 math for decision making introductory accounting 1 argumentation & persuasion computer apps for business management fundamentals 60 60 45 45 45 4 4 3 3 3 core core non-core core core mktg-7001 econ-7005 syst-7001 libs-7001 comm-7018 marketing 1 microeconomics business information systems ethics in a global context professional communication elective 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 core core core non-core core acct-7014 econ-7006 mgmt-7007 meth-7022 mgmt-7011 accounting for managers macroeconomics human resources management statistics for business leaders & leadership elective 60 45 45 45 45 4 3 3 3 3 core core core core core non-core transfer from advanced diploma hours credits level 1 level 2 level 3 level 4 laws-7002 mgmt-7008 mgmt-7009 mktg-7002 business law operations management organizational behaviour marketing 2 elective 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 core core core core non-core fina-7006 mgmt-7012 mgmt-7013 mgmt-7014 financial management managing performance talent acquisition employee & labour relations elective 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 core core core core non-core level 5 level 6 mgmt-7015 mgmt-7016 sfty-7003 mgmt-7017 international hr managing programs & projects workplace health & safety compensation elective 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 core core core core non-core laws-7003 mgmt-7018 comp-7013 mgmt-7019 coop-1020 employment & labour law training & development hris - data & enquiry pension & benefits co-op preparation (non-credit) elective 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 core core core core level 7 non-core level 8 mgmt-7020 planning for the hr profession mgmt-7021 negotiation-mediation & dispute res. mgmt-7022 organizational development mgmt-7023 strategic policy & planning coop-1020 co-op integration (non-credit) elective 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 core core core core non-core course # level 4b - bridge writ-7005 libs-7001 mgmt-7008 mgmt-7011 math-7007 level 5 b fina-7006 meth-7022 acct-7014 mgmt-7014 level 6 b laws-7002 mgmt-7015 mgmt-7016 mktg-7002 level 7 b econ-7006 comp-7013 mgmt-7019 coop-1020 course name hours credits argumentation & persuasion ethics in a global context operations management leaders & leadership math for decision making elective 45 45 45 45 60 3 3 3 3 4 non-core non-core core core core non-core financial management statistics for business accounting for managers employee & labour relations elective 45 45 60 45 3 3 4 3 core core core core non-core business law international hr managing programs & projects marketing 2 elective 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 core core core core non-core macroeconomics hris - data & enquiry pension & benefits co-op preparation (non-credit) elective elective 45 45 45 3 3 3 core core core level 8 b mgmt-7020 planning for the hr profession mgmt-7021 negotiation-mediation & dispute res. mgmt-7022 organizational development mgmt-7023 strategic policy & planning coop-1020 co-op integration (non-credit) elective 14 course # level 6c - bridge writ-7005 libs-7001 mgmt-7008 mktg-7002 mgmt-7015 level 7 c meth-7022 laws-7002 mgmt-7019 coop-1020 non-core non-core 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 core core core core non-core level 7 c fina-7006 mgmt-7022 mgmt-7023 coop-1020 course name hours credits argumentation & persuasion ethics in a global context operations management marketing 2 international hr elective 45 45 45 45 45 3 3 3 3 3 non-core non-core core core core statistics for business business law pension & benefits co-op preparation (non-credit) elective elective 45 45 45 3 3 3 core core core financial management organizational development strategic policy & planning co-op preparation (non-credit) elective elective 45 45 45 non-core non-core 3 3 3 core core core non-core non-core appendix 4: table of learning outcomes for diploma business, advanced diploma business and honours bachelor of commerce (management) diploma-business advanced diploma business 15 honours bachelor degree (management) 16 appendix 5: fanshawe college list of bridging courses fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce list of bridging courses for degrees and course descriptions honours bachelor of commerce (digital marketing) bridging courses: mgmt-7008 - operations management students will learn the art and science of ensuring that goods and services are created and delivered successfully through the value chain to the end customer. the course covers practical applications of operations in both the manufacturing and services environments with an emphasis on operational strategy, leadership, decision making and customer satisfaction. topics will include: competitiveness, strategy and productivity, forecasting, lean system, total quality management (tqm) and the ability to analyze key issues and problems in operations management. libs-7001 - ethics in a global context the last half century or so has seen a rapid shift towards globalization. as a result, even our most mundane actions can easily and unwittingly impact someone halfway around the world. as good global citizens, we must consider our actions in a global context. this course introduces students to the four most prominent ethical theories - utilitarianism, deontology, ethics of care and virtue ethics - as well as the two chief models of business ethics - friedmans account that shareholders interests trump all and freemans more recent suggestion that corporations must balance the interests of all stakeholders. we also consider these theories within the context of a variety of topics, including abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, sexual morality, pornography, addictions, terrorism, human rights, world hunger, poverty, economic justice and environmental issues. writ-7005 - argumentation & persuasion argumentation and persuasion is an advanced writing and communications breadth course. the purpose of this course is to examine the sophisticated interrelationship between rhetorical choices (including modes, style, and tone), audience requirements, engagement with outside sources, and texts' ultimate success. students will learn how to apply these concepts to their own writing, and thus how to construct a variety of successful texts, including advanced argumentation. mgmt-7011 - leaders & leadership leadership is about getting results over the long-term. in an organization, the leaders main role is to not only move the entire organization forward but to create leadership in everyone with whom they work. students will learn to apply a proven leadership process in the workplace of the 21st century by understanding the role of credibility, values, vision, ethics, empowerment, human relations, communication, developing others and effective feedback. they will build leadership skills, insight and judgment enabling them to make a significant impact on the operational effectiveness of an organization. 17 honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) bridging courses: mgmt-7008 - operations management students will learn the art and science of ensuring that goods and services are created and delivered successfully through the value chain to the end customer. the course covers practical applications of operations in both the manufacturing and services environments with an emphasis on operational strategy, leadership, decision making and customer satisfaction. topics will include: competitiveness, strategy and productivity, forecasting, lean system, total quality management (tqm) and the ability to analyze key issues and problems in operations management. libs-7001 - ethics in a global context the last half century or so has seen a rapid shift towards globalization. as a result, even our most mundane actions can easily and unwittingly impact someone halfway around the world. as good global citizens, we must consider our actions in a global context. this course introduces students to the four most prominent ethical theories - utilitarianism, deontology, ethics of care and virtue ethics - as well as the two chief models of business ethics - friedmans account that shareholders interests trump all and freemans more recent suggestion that corporations must balance the interests of all stakeholders. we also consider these theories within the context of a variety of topics, including abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, sexual morality, pornography, addictions, terrorism, human rights, world hunger, poverty, economic justice and environmental issues. writ-7005 - argumentation & persuasion argumentation and persuasion is an advanced writing and communications breadth course. the purpose of this course is to examine the sophisticated interrelationship between rhetorical choices (including modes, style, and tone), audience requirements, engagement with outside sources, and texts' ultimate success. students will learn how to apply these concepts to their own writing, and thus how to construct a variety of successful texts, including advanced argumentation. meth-7023 - quantitative methods the objective of this course is to introduce students to the mathematical techniques and models used in management science, supported by extensive use of business applications and computer software. topics include: decision modelling and analysis; regression analysis; time series analysis and forecasting; linear programming, including sensitivity analysis and application to distribution and network models; simulation. fina-7003 - business finance 2 this advanced finance course provides an in-depth study of issues and tools that financial managers use in making decisions. the main goal of the course is to teach students to explore issues andmake sound corporate financing decisions. specific topics include financial markets and portfolio risk; capital budgeting under uncertainty; long term sources of funds, capital structure and dividend policy; special financing and investment decision making; valuation of corporations; treasury risk management; futures, forwards, options and swaps; and, financial planning. 18 honours bachelor of commerce (human resources management) bridging courses: mgmt-7008 - operations management students will learn the art and science of ensuring that goods and services are created and delivered successfully through the value chain to the end customer. the course covers practical applications of operations in both the manufacturing and services environments with an emphasis on operational strategy, leadership, decision making and customer satisfaction. topics will include: competitiveness, strategy and productivity, forecasting, lean system, total quality management (tqm) and the ability to analyze key issues and problems in operations management. libs-7001 - ethics in a global context the last half century or so has seen a rapid shift towards globalization. as a result, even our most mundane actions can easily and unwittingly impact someone halfway around the world. as good global citizens, we must consider our actions in a global context. this course introduces students to the four most prominent ethical theories - utilitarianism, deontology, ethics of care and virtue ethics - as well as the two chief models of business ethics - friedmans account that shareholders interests trump all and freemans more recent suggestion that corporations must balance the interests of all stakeholders. we also consider these theories within the context of a variety of topics, including abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, sexual morality, pornography, addictions, terrorism, human rights, world hunger, poverty, economic justice and environmental issues. writ-7005 - argumentation & persuasion argumentation and persuasion is an advanced writing and communications breadth course. the purpose of this course is to examine the sophisticated interrelationship between rhetorical choices (including modes, style, and tone), audience requirements, engagement with outside sources, and texts' ultimate success. students will learn how to apply these concepts to their own writing, and thus how to construct a variety of successful texts, including advanced argumentation. mgmt-7011 - leaders & leadership leadership is about getting results over the long-term. in an organization, the leaders main role is to not only move the entire organization forward but to create leadership in everyone with whom they work. students will learn to apply a proven leadership process in the workplace of the 21st century by understanding the role of credibility, values, vision, ethics, empowerment, human relations, communication, developing others and effective feedback. they will build leadership skills, insight and judgment enabling them to make a significant impact on the operational effectiveness of an organization. math-7007 - mathematics for decision making in this course, students will study the fundamental mathematical concepts required to understand and analyze a variety of business-related applications. these applications include: mathematics of merchandising, cost-volume-profit analysis, simple and compound interest, annuities, debt retirement through amortization or sinking funds, bonds, net present value, internal rate of return and an introduction to probability. 19 mktg-7002 - marketing 2 this course advances the study of buyer behaviour and strategic marketing management practices in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. students utilize the case study method and apply the use of quantitative and qualitative tools to analyze the market and assess the impact of marketing decisions domestically and globally. the successful student will demonstrate the ability to solve marketing problems using a combination of creative thinking and appropriate application of marketing theory and principles. the course culminating project is the creation of a marketing plan based on a case study scenario. mgmt-7015 - international human resources this course will provide students with an overview of the impact of globalization on the management of human resources at home and abroad. the course will focus on the complex, interdisciplinary nature of international human resources and take the student beyond a narrow functional focus. the student will explore managing and developing global leaders and their staff against the backdrop of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and cross border alliances. expatriate assignments, social and cultural diversity and the paradoxes of human resource management in a global environment will be investigated. students will research and present a comparison of human resources between canada and another country. honours bachelor of commerce (management) bridging courses: mgmt-7008 - operations management students will learn the art and science of ensuring that goods and services are created and delivered successfully through the value chain to the end customer. the course covers practical applications of operations in both the manufacturing and services environments with an emphasis on operational strategy, leadership, decision making and customer satisfaction. topics will include: competitiveness, strategy and productivity, forecasting, lean system, total quality management (tqm) and the ability to analyze key issues and problems in operations management. libs-7001 - ethics in a global context the last half century or so has seen a rapid shift towards globalization. as a result, even our most mundane actions can easily and unwittingly impact someone halfway around the world. as good global citizens, we must consider our actions in a global context. this course introduces students to the four most prominent ethical theories - utilitarianism, deontology, ethics of care and virtue ethics - as well as the two chief models of business ethics - friedmans account that shareholders interests trump all and freemans more recent suggestion that corporations must balance the interests of all stakeholders. we also consider these theories within the context of a variety of topics, including abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, sexual morality, pornography, addictions, terrorism, human rights, world hunger, poverty, economic justice and environmental issues. writ-7005 - argumentation & persuasion argumentation and persuasion is an advanced writing and communications breadth course. the purpose of this course is to examine the sophisticated interrelationship between rhetorical choices (including modes, style, and tone), audience requirements, engagement with outside sources, and texts' ultimate success. students will learn how to apply these concepts to their own writing, and thus how to construct a variety of successful texts, including advanced argumentation. 20 mgmt-7011 - leaders & leadership leadership is about getting results over the long-term. in an organization, the leaders main role is to not only move the entire organization forward but to create leadership in everyone with whom they work. students will learn to apply a proven leadership process in the workplace of the 21st century by understanding the role of credibility, values, vision, ethics, empowerment, human relations, communication, developing others and effective feedback. they will build leadership skills, insight and judgment enabling them to make a significant impact on the operational effectiveness of an organization. mgmt-7029 - sales leadership & management integrating sales techniques and sales management, this course uses a strategic and consultative sales model to develop and manage customer relationships effectively as they relate to business-tobusiness (b2b) environments. students will study current sales management issues such as territory and time management, sales compensation and incentive systems, prospecting and qualifying sales leads and sales training methods. learning will be derived from in-class lectures, in-class activities, group presentations, role playing, learning objects and online assignments. students will learn to use techniques specific to b2b sales management to deliver realistic sales presentations. students work will culminate in a presentation and report delivered to a live client (business). mktg-7002 - marketing 2 this course advances the study of buyer behaviour and strategic marketing management practices in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. students utilize the case study method and apply the use of quantitative and qualitative tools to analyze the market and assess the impact of marketing decisions domestically and globally. the successful student will demonstrate the ability to solve marketing problems using a combination of creative thinking and appropriate application of marketing theory and principles. the course culminating project is the creation of a marketing plan based on a case study scenario. 21 appendix 6: seneca college list of bridging courses seneca college honours bachelor of commerce bridging courses bab240 - management accounting in this course, students examine the fundamental concepts of management accounting including cost control, planning, decision making and performance evaluation utilized by users internal to the corporate organization. specific items include standard costing, variance analysis, cost behaviours, budgeting, and break even analysis, make or buy decisions, return on investment and discounted cash flow for capital budgeting. the introduction of management accounting is applied to the analysis, interpretation and application to business including human resource decision making. hst430 - organizational behaviour this course examines the various aspects of organizational behaviour within the context of the canadian business environment. increased global competition, technological change and rising expectations of both employees and employers have underlined the need for a comprehensive analysis of motivation and leadership processes that influence group and individual behaviour within organizations. iaf410 - intermediate financial accounting ii this course includes an in-depth analysis of accounting for specific items in liabilities and shareholders' equity. coverage includes a review of generally accepted accounting principles (gaap), as codified in the cica handbook, that apply to the following topics: current and long-term liabilities, shareholders' equity, complex financial instruments, pensions and other post-employment benefits, corporate income taxes and leases. the calculation of earnings per share and the preparation of cash flow statements for more complex situations, in accordance with gaap, are also covered in this course. the statement user perspective is reinforced through a review of financial statement analysis techniques at a more advanced level. relationships between accountants, reporting corporations and statement readers receive close attention in this course, with a view to making decisions that establish a viable and ethical approach to fulfilling the accountant's role in the financial reporting process. a global perspective is maintained in this course through a comparison of canadian and international accounting standards for the specific topics covered. iaf330 finance in this course, students learn the basic finance concepts, tools and theories required by a financial specialist, working in a canadian organization and a global economy. this subject is designed to give the students a broad understanding of the use of mathematical techniques as an aid to managerial decision-making. this course prepares students to understand the language and description of canadian financial markets and the implication of these markets to financial managers. the content includes analysis of the current financial environment and its components, security 22 valuation, the capital budgeting process, the component costs of capital, introduction to risk, and financial planning. hst330 - business finance the purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the principles governing the functioning of capital markets and the theories, concepts and principles used by companies to engage in financial analysis and decision making. students analyze how organizations allocate scarce resources to projects, how assets are valued, the factors of risk management and capital budgeting. emphasis is placed on the term structure of interest rates, the time value of money and discounted cash flow valuation which are applied in assessing a firm's capital structure, capital expenditures and working capital management. ethical considerations and fiduciary responsibility as they relate to financial management are also examined. lsp500 - ethics and social responsibility ethics or moral philosophy is the philosophical exploration and consideration of the values and principles we use to make moral judgments. thus, answers to the fundamental questions of ethics provide guidelines for how we should lead our lives. this course will introduce students to the major ethical theories and consider the practical implications and applications of these theories for conduct in the business world. 23 appendix 7: sample articulation agreement from fanshawe college fanshawe college lawrence kinlin school of business 1001 fanshawe college blvd. london, on n5y 5r6 transfer agreement algonquin college business accounting diploma to fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree agreement details eligibility for pathway graduates of algonquin colleges business accounting diploma program with a minimum b+ average or cumulative 3.5 gpa or 75% will be eligible to enter level four of fanshawe colleges honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree program. applicants must submit a transcript with their application. credit transfer and required courses students graduating from algonquin colleges two-year business accounting diploma program will receive credit for courses equivalent to levels one to three of the honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree program. a gap analysis between the learning outcomes of the honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree program and those contained in the provincial program standard for the business accounting diploma program was undertaken to determine the block credit transfer. in addition, a gap analysis between the courses in the honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree program and those in algonquin colleges business accounting diploma program was conducted to determine any additional courses that would be required to meet the requirements of the honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree. summer level four bridging courses required in the honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree program from the business- accounting diploma are argumentation & persuasion, ethics in a global context, operations management, quantitative methods and a non-core elective. the gap analysis identified the following additional courses to be completed before graduating from the fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree program*. 24 mktg 7001 marketing 1 econ 7005 microeconomics mgmt 7009 organizational behaviour it is the responsibility of the student to ensure that their diploma and degree course grades are in compliance with the chartered professional accountants of ontario professional accounting qualifications and standards for the cpa (chartered professional accountant) and acaf (advanced certificate in accounting and finance) designations, upon entrance to and graduation from the fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree program. anticipated schedule of student progression five academic terms plus one paid co-op term. if gap courses were identified, there may be additional time needed to complete courses prior to graduation from the honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree program. terms for renewal or cancellation all fanshawe college pathways will have a review date of three years from the date of implementation. pathways may have a shorter review date if substantive curriculum changes are made to either the sending or receiving program. students enrolled in the receiving institution at the time of any change or notice of termination will be given the opportunity to complete their studies based on the terms of the transfer pathway in effect at the time of their enrollment. credential to be granted on successful completion of all required components honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) *it is the responsibility of the student to ensure that all degree requirements are met prior to graduation. it is strongly suggested that students meet with their program coordinator to review their program completion plan. fanshawe college reserves the right to adhere to all academic and administrative policies relative to the students in this program including areas such as grades, academic progression, academic integrity, accessibility, code of conduct, tuition. 25 appendix 8: sample articulation agreement from seneca college transfer agreement algonquin college business administration general business advanced diploma program to seneca college honours bachelor of commerce business management degree (bbm) the following agreement applies only to college programs which have met the published program standards for mtcu code 60200, business administration advanced diploma. agreement details eligibility for pathway graduates of algonquin colleges business administration general business advanced diploma program with a minimum cumulative grade point average (gpa) of 3.0 or 70% will be eligible to enter semester five of seneca colleges honours bachelor of commerce business management degree program. applicants must submit a transcript with their application. credit transfer and required courses students graduating from algonquin colleges advanced business administration diploma program will receive credit for all courses in semesters one to four of the bbm program, except those courses, listed below, which will be taken in upper semesters in place of the following courses for which credit has been given: bab905, project management, bmt545, effective selling; bmt700, international business management, and bmt760, entrepreneurship and the business plan.1 a gap analysis between the learning outcomes of the bbm program and those contained in the provincial program standard for the business administration advanced diploma program was undertaken to determine the block credit transfer. in addition, a gap analysis between the courses in the bbm program and those in algonquins business administration advanced 1 students will receive credit for all or some of these degree courses if their diploma program included courses with similar learning outcomes. additional or different credit may be granted to students depending on the diploma courses in their program or taken as electives. 26 diploma program was conducted to determine any required semester one four courses and any upper semester courses for which credit would be given. required courses are hst310, business ethics; hst330, business finance, and a lower level liberal studies option.2 anticipated schedule of student progression two calendar years: four academic terms (semester five to eight) plus one co-op semester between semester seven and eight. progression may be affected by course availability and by students meeting upper semester course prerequisites. terms for renewal or cancellation all seneca pathways will have a review date of three years from the date of implementation. pathways may have a shorter review date if substantive curriculum changes are made to either the sending or receiving program. students enrolled in the receiving institution at the time of any change or notice of termination will be given the opportunity to complete their studies based on the terms of the transfer pathway in effect at the time of their enrollment. credential to be granted on successful completion of all required components honours bachelor of commerce business management seneca college reserves the right to adhere to all academic and administrative policies relative to the students in this program including areas such as grades, academic progression, academic integrity, accessibility, code of conduct, tuition. 2 additional or different courses may be required. 27

indigenous program pathways inventory project phase one prepared by: lana ray, phd, minowewe consulting, research lead project lead: mary wabano, director, first peoples centre/ associate dean school of indigenous studies project lead: jeannette miron, registrar and director, strategic enrolment services date: march 2017 foreword the indigenous program pathways inventory project emerged from dialogue with our communities, colleagues and partners around the inherent need to inventory and document the tremendous network of indigenous-based programming that exists within the ontario postsecondary education system. aboriginal learner enrolment composition and program offerings vary among institutes and institutions -a common barrier is the absence of a cohesive inventory of the mobility networks that exist among the indigenous-based program offerings. our provinces 53 institutes, colleges and universities have significant capacity to directly impact indigenous learner attainment by leveraging our collective tools, wisdom, program asset inventories, geographical reach and relationships. our networks and program offerings are more closely aligned between institutes and institutions, in some cases more so than others, with varying degrees of expertise and success in moving the yardstick on indigenous education. in spite of this, there still remains a lack of solid useable data that reaffirms our intuition and working knowledge of the gaps that nevertheless exists for the provinces fastest growing and youngest population. this project brings another piece of the puzzle to the table and supports a rounding out of dialogue on indigenous pathways and starts to shed light on some unique and niche based opportunities that the institutes, colleges and universities could address in our obligation to the calls to action as identified in the truth and reconciliation report. like any research of this nature, for every question answered is a question raised and more research, collaboration and action will be the key to ensuring that this good work improves access, pathways and outcomes for indigenous learners and the people of ontario. miigwetch, nia:wen, thank you, to all who provided their guidance shared their knowledge and contributed to this project. we would like to also acknowledge and thank first nations technical institute and seven generations education institute who began this journey with us as our primary project partners. miigwetch, nia:wen, thank you, shawn chorney vice-president enrolment management, indigenous & student services mary wabano director, first peoples centre / associate dean school of indigenous studies indigenous program pathways inventory jeannette miron registrar and director, strategic enrolment services 2 executive summary this report presents phase one of the indigenous program pathways inventory project (herein referred to as the indigenous pathways project). for the purposes of this project a pathway is defined as a route from one program to another program that contains specified eligibility requirements and awarded transfer credits and/or other benefits to be applied at the receiving institution (adapted from ontransfer, online). an indigenous program is defined as any program which is rooted in or directed toward indigenous peoples knowledges, practices and experiences. in september 2016, aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities in ontario were sent an online survey containing 42 multiple choice and open-ended questions designed to provide a comprehensive snapshot of indigenous pathways in ontario. in total forty-six individuals participated in the survey, representing 30 institutions. colleges had the highest response rate at 75%, followed by universities (41%) and aboriginal institutes (33%). in december 2016, survey respondents who had indicated in their survey response that they were willing to participate in a follow-up conversation were contacted. twelve follow-up conversations took place between mid-december 2016 and early january 2017. the follow-up conversations allowed participants to expand upon their survey responses and to provide comment and reaction to the survey results. these activities were followed by a roundtable discussion in march 2017 to substantiate the interpretation of findings. fourteen individuals, representing 10 post-secondary institutions partook in the day long gathering to comment on the draft report and to craft an indigenous program pathways action plan based off report recommendations. this report provides a summary of survey results and the subsequent follow-up conversations and concludes with a series of recommendations to support wholistic and accessible pathways, collaborative and community-driven pathways, pathway expansion, enhanced data collection, indigenous approaches to pathway development and commitment to indigenous education. key findings from the report are listed below: sixty-seven percent (n=20) of participating institutions have indigenous programs in place. the most widespread areas of study are social services (e.g. child welfare, social work, mental health and addictions), preparatory studies (e.g. bridging programs, general arts and science), and health (e.g. nursing, paramedic, pre-health). there are no reported indigenous pathways developed in the disciplines of justice (e.g. police foundations, law, forensic psychology), hospitality and tourism (e.g. culinary arts, travel services, hotel management) and aviation. the most common credential learners hold entering an indigenous pathway is a diploma and the most common credential learners hope to gain from an indigenous pathway is an honours bachelors degree. the most common amount of credit received was less than two years but more than one year. five institutions indicated that they track learners who enter their institution through an indigenous pathway. a need for better data on indigenous pathways was identified. indigenous program pathways inventory 3 no significant relationship was found between the maximum number of credits awarded in a pathway in relation to: level of collaboration between the sending and receiving institution in the credit assessment process, involvement of certain groups/individuals in the institution (e.g. faculty, program coordinator, associate registrar/registrar, transfer coordinator, and academic leadership), or methodology used to assess credit transfers. only one institution reported that indigenous knowledges were factored into the assessment process between indigenous and non-indigenous programs. multiple institutions shared that they are currently in the process of indigenizing their curriculum, adding indigenous content and/or learning outcomes to all curriculum. participants believed that there were more advantages than disadvantages associated with indigenous pathways. almost half of all institutions believed that there were challenges when creating, implementing and/or assessing indigenous pathways. indigenous program pathways inventory 4 table of contents foreword................................................................................................................................................................................................ 2 executive summary ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 table of contents ........................................................................................................................................................................... 5 background .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 methodology ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 survey design....................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 survey implementation ................................................................................................................................................................. 10 survey data preparation and analysis .................................................................................................................................... 11 survey data collection summary............................................................................................................................................... 11 follow-up conversations with survey respondents ......................................................................................................... 12 roundtable discussion ................................................................................................................................................................... 12 results.................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 an overview of indigenous programs ..................................................................................................................................... 13 areas of study ............................................................................................................................................................................... 13 award granted .............................................................................................................................................................................. 15 mode of delivery .......................................................................................................................................................................... 15 an overview of indigenous pathways ..................................................................................................................................... 15 areas of study ............................................................................................................................................................................... 15 pathway direction ....................................................................................................................................................................... 17 learner recruitment and transition................................................................................................................................... 18 institutional impact of indigenous pathways ....................................................................................................................... 19 who is accessing indigenous pathways? ............................................................................................................................... 19 indigenous pathway credit assessment ................................................................................................................................. 21 indigenous knowledges and credit assessment ................................................................................................................. 23 seeing the learner....................................................................................................................................................................... 25 honouring personal experience ............................................................................................................................................ 26 indigenous pathway advantages, disadvantages and challenges ............................................................................... 28 advantages ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 28 disadvantages ............................................................................................................................................................................... 29 challenges ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 indigenous program pathways inventory 5 recommendations .......................................................................................................................................................................... 31 wholistic and accessible pathways ..................................................................................................................................... 31 collaborative and community-driven pathways ........................................................................................................... 31 pathway expansion..................................................................................................................................................................... 32 enhanced data .............................................................................................................................................................................. 32 indigenous approaches to pathway development ........................................................................................................ 32 commitment to indigenous education ............................................................................................................................... 33 references ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 34 appendices............................................................................................................................................................................................ 37 appendix a: indigenous program pathways inventory survey .................................................................................... 37 indigenous program pathway inventory survey ........................................................................................................... 37 appendix b: participant introductory letter ........................................................................................................................ 43 appendix c: project backgrounder ........................................................................................................................................... 44 appendix d: leadership introductory letter ....................................................................................................................... 45 appendix e: list of participating institutions...................................................................................................................... 46 survey participants ..................................................................................................................................................................... 46 follow-up conversation participants ................................................................................................................................. 47 roundtable discussion participants .................................................................................................................................... 47 appendix f: institutional response rate by survey question ...................................................................................... 48 appendix g: indigenous program pathways inventory project survey summary ............................................... 49 appendix h: follow-up conversation discussion questions ......................................................................................... 51 appendix h: roundtable discussion meeting agenda ...................................................................................................... 52 appendix i: roundtable discussion meeting summary ................................................................................................... 53 appendix j: draft indigenous program pathways action plan ...................................................................................... 57 indigenous program pathways inventory 6 background indigenous peoples 1, particularly youth, are the fastest growing demographic in canada. within this year, it is anticipated that the population of indigenous peoples between the ages of 20 and 29 will rise to 242,000, representing a 41.9 percent increase in a five-year period (rosenbluth, 2011). when compared to the projected growth rate of 8.7 percent for the overall canadian population (rosenbluth, 2011) this increase is quite substantial. in fact, by 2026, it is expected that the indigenous population will comprise 4.6 percent of the canadian population (afn, 2012). this population growth signals an increasing need for post-secondary education that meets the needs of indigenous peoples, as only one in 33 indigenous peoples will obtain a post-secondary degree in comparison to one in five canadians (rosenbluth, 2011). ontario is not exempt from this trend as indigenous peoples are an under-represented group within our provincial post-secondary institutions (sawyer et al., 2016). the historical and ongoing systemic role of the education system in the colonization of indigenous peoples and knowledge systems has been well documented (e.g. rcap, 1996, milloy, 1999; battiste, 2013), with a lack of culturallyresponsive education being linked to lower rates of educational attainment for indigenous peoples. effective transfer pathways between post-secondary institutions could support the facilitation of a more accessible and equitable education system overall. the lack of indigenous perspectives, values, camman et al., 2014, p. 4 issues, and attention to the real-life context in which learners will use their knowledge and skills in post-secondary institutions provides an example of this unresponsiveness (fnesc, 2008). this is supported by the indigenous adult and higher learning association (iahla) data collection project which reported 80% course completion rates at aboriginal institutes, which deliver programs designed for indigenous peoples (fnesc, 2008). access, is also commonly cited as a causal factor for the disproportionate educational attainment rates of indigenous peoples. for example, a study on best practices in aboriginal post-secondary enrolment found that when access programs are in place, indigenous learner success rates were improved (malatest, 2002). indigenous pathways are a mechanism to support the need for culturally-responsive education and access to post-secondary education. as suggested by camman and colleagues (2014), ontarios post-secondary institutions are not equal in their capacity to attract students from under-represented groups, meaning that effective transfer pathways between post-secondary institutions could support the facilitation of a more accessible and equitable education system overall (p. 4). the term indigenous refers to first nations, mtis and inuit peoples within canada and is used interchangeably with the term aboriginal in this report. 1 indigenous program pathways inventory 7 currently, there are more indigenous programs than ever before. according to universities canada (2015), there has been a 33% increase in programs for indigenous learners or on indigenous issues, since 2013. there is also an increasing number of program pathways, with approximately 21 500 learners transferring within the province of ontario annually via the 600+ pathways and 35000+ transfer opportunities available (oncat, online). evidence also suggests that these pathways have been effective in addressing issues of access for learners, especially in relation to time requirements and financial constraints (camman et al., 2014). overall, the current system transformation that is occurring in post-secondary institutions, which includes an increased recognition of the value of indigenous knowledge systems and learner-centered approaches, provide a timely opportunity to engage in work that supports the development and enhancement of indigenous pathways. through the indigenous program pathways inventory project, funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), an extensive inventory of indigenous program pathways in ontario, including those pathways that exist within and between aboriginal institutes, colleges, universities and community-based delivery agencies in the province was developed. the culminating goal of the project is to develop an indigenous program pathways action plan that will support the enhancement and expansion of indigenous pathways in ontario. this is currently being achieved through the four main activities listed below. to date, activities 1-3 have been completed. this report provides a summary of these results. 1. a province-wide survey that will be disseminated to admission leads, indigenous leads and pathway/transfer leads, or their equivalents when present. 2. follow-up phone calls with survey participants to discuss and interpret survey results and identify potential actionable items that support existing pathways and pathway expansion. 3. a roundtable with subject matter experts to present and discuss results, informing the development of the indigenous program pathways action plan. 4. a one-day forum with participation from aboriginal institutes, colleges, universities, community-based delivery agencies, and learners in the province to present and refine a draft indigenous program pathways action plan. this work is aligned and supported by various research and forum calls for action. most notably are: oncats (february 2016) workshop on pathways for small and northern institutions which identified the need to focus on collaboration and ensure that northern students have access to educational opportunities, develop an inventory of northern pathways, develop common terms of reference on collaboration, and hold a more focused conversation on supporting indigenous learners, including the development of a strategy to carry out this work. malatest and associates (2002) study, best practices in increasing aboriginal postsecondary enrolment rates which identified the importance of access programs for indigenous learners, relevant and accessible curriculum and programs, and working with indigenous peoples, including aboriginal-controlled institutions. queens universitys indigenous issues in post-secondary education: building on best practices conference which urged for the formal and informal development of access routes to university and indigenous program pathways inventory 8 college for indigenous learners, including the creation of mechanisms that enable smooth transitions (rosenbluth, 2011). it is anticipated that through the course of the project, including project activities and creation of the indigenous pathways action plan the following efforts will be supported, answering the above calls for action: identification of gaps and opportunities for post-secondary education pathways; networking and discussion between post-secondary institutions and other relevant parties; highlighting the uniqueness and distinctive nature of indigenous program pathways; creating awareness of indigenous post-secondary programming in ontario; developing baseline data on indigenous program pathways in the province; standardizing credit transfers in indigenous programming in ontario; partnerships between pse institutions; mobility and access to pse for indigenous and non-indigenous learners; access to indigenous programming for indigenous and non-indigenous learners; and, graduating learners that possess knowledge and skills that are relevant to indigenous communities and organizations. methodology this project utilized a mixed approach, specifically the dissemination of an online survey and follow-up phone conversations with survey participants. the objective of the survey was to provide a snap-shot of the current landscape of indigenous pathways between and within universities, colleges and aboriginal institutes in ontario (e.g. breadth of programs and pathways, transfer credits awarded, pathway learner demographics, challenges and threats, and successes) to inform a discussion on indigenous pathway enhancement and development. with limited research conducted on indigenous program pathways to date, this approach was ideal as the survey results provided the basis to engage in informed discussions on indigenous pathways with survey participants at both an institutional and system-wide level. survey design prior to constructing the indigenous pathways survey, an environmental scan of pathway survey instruments was conducted to inform survey question construction. the scan identified a limited number of surveys. none had the same objective as the indigenous pathways project, and only one survey was found that focused on obtaining a comprehensive view of pathways from an institutional level. the american society of radiologic technologists (2008) articulation agreement survey served useful in the development of general questions such as award granted and discipline of study that would be invaluable to any institutional focused pathway survey. the survey also contained two multiple choice questions related to the advantages and disadvantages of pathways, which served as the basis for questions 37 and 38 on the indigenous pathways survey. indigenous program pathways inventory 9 in total the survey contained 42 multiple choice and open-ended questions (see appendix a) designed to: identify current indigenous post-secondary and training programs in ontario, identify current indigenous pathways in ontario, understand the current usage of indigenous pathways in ontario, understand how pathways are developed (including how credits are assessed and the role of indigenous knowledges in assessment processes), understand who is accessing indigenous program pathways, and identify threats and areas of interest for indigenous pathway development. to identify potential participants for follow-up phone interviews, the last question of the survey asked participants if they would be willing to participate in a follow-up phone call. if interested they were asked to provide contact information. once complete, the survey was inputted into surveymonkey. skip logic was utilized so that participants were only asked questions that related to their institution. for example, if an institution specified that they did not have any indigenous programs, they would skip past the related follow up questions. prior to survey dissemination, the survey was also tested internally by three individuals. survey implementation because the objective of the survey was to provide a comprehensive overview of indigenous pathways in ontario, all aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities in the province were invited to participate. as a strategy to secure a high response rate and to allow for multiple perspectives from within institutions, surveys were sent to multiple contacts at each institution, when possible. in the end, surveys were sent to between one to four points of contact per institution. admission, pathway and indigenous leads were identified at each institution. to identify admission leads, searches were conducted on the websites of post-secondary institutions for the institutions registrar and/or associate registrar. if no information was found, a search was conducted for a general email address related to admissions. pathway leads were identified for each institution from the ontransfer website, where they are referred to as transfer/policy advisors. to identify indigenous leads, first a search for indigenous academic programs was conducted. if indigenous academic programming existed, a search for the academic lead of that program(s) was conducted. if none could be identified then a general search of indigenous positions was conducted, identifying individuals primarily responsible for indigenous relations and/or indigenous support services. once the initial contact list was compiled, an introductory letter (appendix b) was sent out. this was accompanied by a project backgrounder (appendix c). aside from introducing the project, the purpose of the letter was to validate individuals as the appropriate point of contact and notify potential participants that they would receive an online survey within 5-10 business days via email. in instances where the appropriate individual was not contacted, they were asked to provide the email address of the appropriate contact. during this timeframe, a letter was also sent to senior academic leadership (appendix d) informing them of the project; and employees at canadore college reached out to colleagues through various tables and committees to inform them of the project. survey data was collected between september-october 2016 via the online program surveymonkey. two reminders were also sent to potential participants and the deadline was extended by one week to indigenous program pathways inventory 10 secure a higher response rate. surveys both partially and fully completed remained accessible to participants until the deadline. this was done to facilitate inter-departmental collaboration because it was anticipated that information requested in the survey would not be readily available. hard copies of the survey were also sent to potential participants to support inter-departmental collaboration efforts. survey data preparation and analysis survey data was entered into an excel spreadsheet. when possible categorical variables were established for open-ended questions and data was coded to support statistical analysis. for example, if participants replied police foundations and forensic psychology when asked to identify programs subject to an indigenous pathway, a categorical variable of justice would be generated. a companion key was also created. when multiple responses were received from one institution the responses were collated. the following procedures were utilized to guide data collation in instances where there were multiple answers to the same question: if the question allows for multiple responses, all answers will be included (e.g. what are the advantages of pathways? please check all that apply) definitive responses super cede non-definitive responses (e.g. yes would super cede i dont know) affirmative responses super cede negative responses (e.g. when asked if learners are tracked and one individual said yes and one said no, the yes response would be recorded) greater responses super cede lesser responses (e.g. if one respondent replied 100 and another 20 when asked how many learners are subject to an indigenous pathway, the response of 100 would be recorded) on one occasion an institution asked that a specific survey response super cede other responses from that institution and this request was granted. despite no issues emerging during the testing phase of the questionnaire, when asked to list and include award granted upon completion, completion time and associated credential of indigenous programs and programs subject to an indigenous pathway, multiple participants did not list the program name. similarly, some participants indicated that they had indigenous programs and/or indigenous pathways but did not provide any information in regards to these programs and pathways. in instances where the presence of an indigenous program and/or pathway was identified, a scan of the institutions website and ontransfer was conducted to identify the program(s) and other relevant information. survey data collection summary forty-six individuals participated in the survey, representing 30 institutions (see appendix e for a list of participating institutions). one survey was discarded because the institution from which the survey originated was not disclosed 1-3 responses were received from each participating institution the institution response rate was 55% indigenous program pathways inventory 11 colleges had the highest response rate at 75%, followed by universities (41%) and aboriginal institutes (33%) sixty percent of all respondents were colleges, 30% universities and 10% aboriginal institutes twenty-nine percent of respondents were indigenous leads, 24% were pathway leads and 16% were admission leads. thirty-one percent of respondents occupied other positions at their respective institution the institutional response rate varied by question, ranging from 100%-3%. questions pertaining to learner demographics had the lowest response rates. (see appendix f for a breakdown of the response rate by question). follow-up conversations with survey respondents twenty-two individuals from 19 institutions (14 colleges and 5 universities) indicated in their survey response that they would be willing to participate in a follow-up conversation. all individuals except one, whose identity could not be discerned, were contacted in december 2016 via email to participate. upon initial contact, participants received a summary of the survey results (appendix g) and a follow-up conversation discussion guide (appendix h) to review prior to follow-up conversations. they were also given the option to email responses to the questions in the discussion guide if they were unable to participate via phone conversation. in total, 12 follow-up conversations took place between mid-december 2016 and early january 2017. twelve institutions (8 colleges and 4 universities), and 16 individuals participated in the follow-up conversations. no written responses were received. appendix e provides a summary of institutional participation for follow-up conversations. follow-up conversations were approximately 0.5 to 1.5 hours in duration. during the follow-up conversations, institutional representatives expanded upon their survey responses and shared their reactions to the survey result summary, particularly what they found reaffirming, surprising, and to identify gaps and areas in need of further discussion. the follow-up conversations also provided an opportunity to identify potential participants, themes, and structure for the one-day forum. notes were taken during the conversations. roundtable discussion a one-day roundtable discussion was held march 16, 2017 to substantiate the interpretation of findings. fourteen individuals, representing 10 post-secondary institutions (see appendix e) partook in the day long gathering to comment on the draft report. through a series of structured discussions and activities (see appendix i) contextual and content revisions were identified and incorporated into the report. further details are available in the roundtable discussion meeting summary (see appendix j). in addition, roundtable participants identified actionable items to support recommendation implementation, resulting in the creation of a draft indigenous program pathways action plan. results the section below summarizes the results of the indigenous pathways survey and follow-up conversations. indigenous program pathways inventory 12 an overview of indigenous programs sixty seven percent (n=20) of participating institutions indicated that they have indigenous programs in place. by institution type, this includes one hundred percent of aboriginal institutes, 61% of colleges and 67% of universities. in follow-up conversations, some participants indicated that they were surprised by the expansiveness of indigenous programming and pathways at universities in comparison to colleges. this could be explained by the fact that the expansion of indigenous programs across universities is a more recent phenomenon (universities canada, 2015). in addition, with less than half of ontario universities participating in the survey, it is also possible that the universities most engaged with indigenous programming responded. areas of study of no surprise to participants was the selection of indigenous programs available. within ontario, aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities are offering a wide array of programming in various disciplines, including art & design, aviation, business & administration, community development, education, environmental science, health, hospitality & tourism, indigenous studies, justice, language, preparatory studies, science, social services, and trades & technology (see table one). the most widespread areas of study are social services (e.g. child welfare, social work, mental health and addictions), preparatory studies (e.g. bridging programs, general arts and science), and health (e.g. nursing, paramedic, pre-health). science (e.g. biology, chemistry), environmental (e.g. ecosystems management, environmental science), and art and design (e.g. fine arts, fashion design) were the least ubiquitous disciplines of study. there are many innovative programs in ontario. in some cases, they are among the first of their kind in canada or north america. there are many innovative indigenous programs in ontario. in some cases, they are among the first of their kind in canada or north america. algonquin college, for example, is the first college in canada to offer a pre-apprenticeship indigenous cook program (carlberg, n.d.). the program fuses knowledge of traditional food preparation, stories, spirituality and culture with food processing, nutrition, business management and skill development. trent universitys indigenous environmental studies program is another example. a blend of indigenous knowledges and western science, it was the first degree-granting program of its kind in north america (sweeny, 2014). indigenous program pathways inventory 13 while under-represented, art and design is an emergent area of study within the province. ocad currently offers an indigenous visual culture undergraduate program. aside from direct access, learners can also enter the program in the second year through six nations polytechnics indigenous visual arts program which was launched in 2015. most recently, the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) has begun offering an indigenous visual art general education course. to date it has proven very popular. before there was no visual art program at six nations polytechnic, this despite the community being well known for its visual artists. ocad university in follow-up conversations, institutional representatives stressed the importance of the initial point of access for indigenous learners. this was reflected in programming, with many institutions having preparatory programs in place. at nipissing university, the 8-month aboriginal advantage program which is comprised of 24 credits and 1 elective, provides a pathway to an undergraduate degree in arts and science or applied and professional studies for indigenous learners. employing a cohort model of learning, learners participate in workshops, orientations, tutoring, academic check-ins, tutoring, wellness workshops with counsellors and sharing circles and one on one sessions with elders. while not indigenous specific, centennial colleges hype (helping youth pursue education) program is popular among indigenous youth. it provides a six-week on-campus, tuition-free learning experience, including learning materials, transportation, and meals, to learners ages 17-29. for the program, learners choose a course from select areas of interest (e.g. automotive, hospitality, business) and spend the first three days of the week on coursework. the fourth day consists of motivational skills development workshops and the fifth day is an optional academic preparation course. while learners do not receive a credit that is transferable into a pse program they do receive a credential from centennial college upon completion and may be eligible for a bursary. the value to learners is the relationships and confidence that they gain. the program has a graduation and a reception that members of the colleges executive team attend. the general conversion rate of hype graduates into full-time programs of study is 35-55%. a multitude of colleges shared their participation in the dual credit, school college work initiative. through the dual credit program, secondary school students take college or apprenticeship courses that count towards both their high school diploma (ossd) and a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree, or apprenticeship certificate. the program has experienced success to date with 44% of learners who participated in the program in the 2011/12 school year, registering for university or college within a twoyear period (scwi, 2014). while not solely an indigenous initiative, multiple colleges have had indigenousspecific partnerships with indigenous institutions or directly related to indigenous learners to increase access to college for indigenous learners. in line with the auccs (2011) trend of indigenous program development, many institutions (4 colleges, 1 aboriginal institute and 1 university) are currently in the process of developing indigenous programs in indigenous program pathways inventory 14 the areas of business and administration, education, with a focus on early childhood, health, justice, and preparatory studies. award granted we have well over 700 graduates the type of award granted in indigenous of the summer aboriginal programming is diverse with universities having an equal number of bachelor and honours bachelor education programs working in programs (n=4), colleges having an equal number of schools across ontario. certificate and diploma programs (n=9) and aboriginal institutes offering an equal number(n=3) nipissing university of certificate and diploma programs. other types of awards granted from participating institutions include a masters degree (n=2), doctorate of philosophy degree (n=1), graduate and post graduate certificates (n=3) and board of governor certificates (n=2). one college indicated that they have an indigenous pre-apprenticeship program and universities also have programs that provide learners with a certificate upon successful completion. mode of delivery most institutions offer indigenous programming in-person, however, select aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities offer programming online, in a blended format and in-community. for example, nipissing universitys indigenous education programs, including the native classroom assistant diploma program, are delivered on-campus in a low residency model for 5-6 weeks over the summer. once complete, learners can finish their course work online and their subsequent placement within their home community. an overview of indigenous pathways sixty-nine percent of post-secondary institutions (n=20) who responded to the question does your institution currently have any pathways to or from indigenous post-secondary and/or training programs? reported having an indigenous pathway in place. more specifically, 67% of aboriginal institutes, 61% of colleges and 87.5% of universities indicated the presence of an indigenous pathway. areas of study table one provides a snap shot of the number of aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities with indigenous programming and pathways by discipline. indigenous program pathways inventory 15 table 1: number of aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities with indigenous pathways (pwy) by discipline discipline # of aboriginal institutes pgm pwy art & design aviation business & administratio n community development education environmenta l health hospitality & tourism indigenous studies justice language preparatory studies science social services trades & technology programs (pgm) and # of colleges # of universities total pgm pwy pgm pwy 1 1 pg m 1 2 3 pw y 1 3 1 2 1 - - 4 3 - - 4 3 3 1 2 - 3 1 2 - 1 - - 7 2 4 - 1 - - 1 1 3 1 1 - - 1 1 1 1 2 - 2 1 3 5 4 1 1 3 - 2 1 2 7 - 1 - 2 1 4 1 2 1 1 - 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 5 1 6 3 5 7 8 2 5 1 3 2 3 1 9 1 by far, pathways are most prevalent in the social science disciplines with social services being the most popular discipline for pathway development. specifically, social services pathways are being offered at almost double the number of institutions when compared to pathways in other areas of study. in comparison to the overall pathway landscape in ontario we see that social science only comprises 7% of pathways with business pathways being the most popular (17%) (oncat, online). to date, there have been no reported indigenous pathways developed in the disciplines of justice (e.g. police foundations, law, forensic psychology), hospitality and tourism (e.g. culinary arts, travel services, hotel management) and aviation. when discussing future pathway development, participants stressed the need to create pathways that are relevant to indigenous peoples lives and community need. for example, one respondent indicated that youth want to be in the professions they see in their communities such as nursing, teaching and policing. this was similar to findings of an atlantic canada study, which identified gaining skills and applying them at home as a reason why aboriginal students attended post-secondary institutions (timmons, 2009 as cited in sawyer et al, 2016). indigenous program pathways inventory 16 the need for enhanced capacity related to economic development, environmental science, and art & design was identified and seen as relevant and timely for indigenous communities. currently the latter two disciplines each have only one reported pathway to date. a lack of pathways to and from justice programs was the most identified gap in follow-up conversations as institutions recognized the overrepresentation of indigenous peoples in the justice system and the value indigenous perspectives on justice could bring to indigenous communities and society at large. one participant, envisioned learners having access to a justice program that partners with aboriginal police services. the program would teach students about indigenous principles of governance, build skills such as writing a gladue report, include wrap-around academic supports and include potential pathways into law school. it was also important to identify what programs indigenous learners are currently in, whether they be indigenous or non-indigenous programs, and create pathways based on this data. while there are no indigenous pathways, there are currently diploma to degree pathways associated with the criminology and justice programs at the university of ontario institute of technology. many of their learners who selfidentify as aboriginal at the institution are enrolled within this cluster of programs. while discipline specific pathways were present there were also multiple generalized pathways and interdisciplinary pathways, with fluidity most prominent among the following areas of study: social services, indigenous studies, and community development. five institutions also reported that they were party to a pathway between an indigenous and non-indigenous program. these findings differ from those of decock and colleagues (2011 as cited in dick, 2013) who found that forty-four percent of pathway learners entered programs that were closely related to their former program. this approach is aligned with an indigenous wholistic view in which facets of knowledge are not compartmentalized to a specific discipline. moreover, this approach was validated by follow-up conversations, as institutional representatives highlighted the need to ensure room for learners to explore their possibilities between and within institutions. for example, if learners were transferring programs internally it was important that learners be allowed to carry over at least some credits. at one institution, they spoke of a policy which allows learners to carry over credits received when entering their institution via a pathway, even if once at their institution the learner changes programs. pathway direction it was not uncommon for there to be multiple pathways from one or more institutions to the same receiving program. for example, confederation college has pathways from social services and community development programming to an indigenous studies program at trent university. there were also multiple institutions that had pathways in place from their social service worker programs to laurentians indigenous social work program. while most pathways were vertical, there was also horizontal pathways. for example, if a learner completed a diploma program they could be granted entry into the second year of another diploma program. the survey identified no direct pathways at either a masters or doctoral level. the most common credential learners held to gain access to an indigenous pathway was a diploma and the most common credential learners were pursuing due to an indigenous pathway is an honours bachelors degree. table two provides an overview of the number of institutions with pathways and associated credentials. it is important to note that if institutions subject to the same pathway responded to the survey the pathway could appear in multiple columns. indigenous program pathways inventory 17 table 2: number of aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities with indigenous pathways by earned and pursuant credential # of aboriginal # of colleges # of universities institutes credential type earned pursuant earned pursuant earned pursuant certificate 2 2 2 diploma 1 1 10 2 4 advanced 1 1 1 diploma/degree bachelors 1 1 honours bachelors 2 10 5 other 1 - learner recruitment and transition the most common ways to notify learners about indigenous pathway opportunities was through information on institutions websites (n=10), pamphlets (n=8), and classroom visits by recruiters (n=7). in addition, recruitment also occurred via partners, information sessions, community visits and by word of mouth. all but two institutions shared that they utilize multiple forms of recruitment; however, those institutions that employed information sessions did not utilize any other recruitment methods. one participant noted a lack of promotion in indigenous communities and was unsure of the extent in which indigenous courses, programs and pathways are communicated to internal indigenous offices, as well as if pathways were marketed more toward indigenous or non-indigenous learners. it was mentioned by more than one institution that indigenous learners may only enter or return to postsecondary studies years after high school or a preparatory program. this may have implications for recruitment success and supports the need for a broad recruitment strategy that includes community engagement. to support indigenous pathway learners in their transition, approximately of institutions reported bridging or transition programs in place. transition program curriculum includes general academic skills, indigenous knowledges, and often discipline-specific content. these programs are typically delivered in an in-person format, but in one instance was supplemented by online learning. through the inclusion of indigenous knowledges and discipline-specific content, these transition programs may also be helping to bridge the understanding between the sending and receiving programs, especially with several selfreported interdisciplinary pathways, including those between indigenous and non-indigenous programs. one such program is the bishkaa transition program. bishkaa which means rise up in anishinaabemowin is a summer indigenous student transition program developed in partnership with fleming college, hiawatha first nation, curve lake first nation and niijkiwendidaa anishnaabekwewag services circle. the program takes place during the three weeks before the start of university and college classes. through the program, at-risk indigenous students from trent university and fleming college (starting in the second year of the project), build relationships with each other and with upper-year indigenous student mentors. the program also features indigenous knowledge, skills-building, individual success planning, elders indigenous program pathways inventory 18 teachings, and living on the land (trent university, 2015). one of the goals of the program is to help learners feel welcome and apart of the local community. in this instance, the program is supported by an external funding source, so there is no tuition fee. tuition fees for bridging and preparatory programs was identified as an additional barrier for indigenous learners to access pse. in some instances, these costs are not covered by community sponsorship agencies, due to concerns that it will alleviate the responsibility of k-12 to adequately prepare learners for pse. institutional impact of indigenous pathways in the 2015/16 academic year, on average, 165 learners were enrolled in indigenous programs at a postsecondary institution in ontario, with a minimum of 9 learners and a maximum of 420 learners enrolled at a single institution. the mean enrolment number at aboriginal institutes, colleges, and universities was 95, 184 and 183 learners respectively. very limited data was available on the application and enrollment counts of learners stemming from an indigenous program pathway. one institution reported that in the 2015/16 academic year, two learners applied to an art and design program and were successful in their application, comprising 20% of current learners in that program. another institution, while unable to provide the number of applicants, did communicate that 60% (n=19) of current learners in programs with indigenous pathways came from a pathway option. indigenous pathways have the potential to be a viable source of income for post-secondary institutions moving forward. while not specific to indigenous programs, penner and howieson (2016) suggest that pathways represent a growing percentage of income for post-secondary institutions that are fluid and often go untracked. they calculate that the revenue for a northern college solely from credit transfers is at minimum 1% of the aggregate 5-year average, and that although probably underreported due to a lack of institutional data, pathway learners comprise almost 20% of the average full time equivalent. one institution reported a waitlist for their indigenous child and family worker program in the 2015/16 academic year, and, while not yet an established trend, the program has seen steady growth. other institutions have also expressed a high level of interest in their indigenous programs, including canadore colleges indigenous preparatory programming that ladders into their indigenous wellness and addictions prevention program and subsequently laurentians social work program. who is accessing indigenous pathways? at a system level, it is difficult to discern who is the average learner(s) accessing indigenous pathways. only five institutions indicated that they track pathway learner demographic information such as age, gender and geographic location. zero institutions provided information on the common age range(s) of indigenous pathway students, supporting the need identified by one survey respondent for better data on indigenous pathways. in terms of gender, one institution shared that 87% of learners who enter their institution through an indigenous pathway are female. with most indigenous pathways in the fields of social science, this is expected and consistent with other findings. one study suggests that women comprise the majority of indigenous program pathways inventory 19 young graduates, especially in areas unrelated to science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (stem) (hango, 2013). for example, women dominate enrolment in education, representing 77% of undergraduate learners (aucc, 2011). only three respondents, disclosed information related to the geographic region from which indigenous pathway learners came from to attend their postsecondary institution. two institutions relayed that most of the learners originated from northern ontario, which was also the region in which the institutions were located. for another institution, southern ontario was cited as the area where most of their indigenous pathway learners come from, and while not in the same region, the institution was not too far away, residing in the greater toronto area. we have had the anishnawbe health worker trainee program for twenty years. it serves learners, in many cases who would not otherwise consider collegethe numbers are small, at only six participants per year. but almost often 100% graduate from first year. in these instances, it is unclear if shorter pathway distances are a result of learner preference or institution pathway preferences as dick (2013) notes, geographic proximity and available transfers are closely related. in follow-up conversations, no george brown college institutions found the lack of mobility surprising with one individual noting that learners tend to stay close to home where they are comfortable. moreover, a survey of indspire recipients found that most indigenous learners attending university listed close proximity to home as an influential factor in deciding what institution to attend (indspire 2013 as cited in sawyer et al., 2016). survey results found that the distribution of indigenous learners in indigenous pathway programs is alike the overall distribution of indigenous learners in indigenous programs (see table 3). as illustrated in table three, pathways that involve indigenous programs do not always translate to access for indigenous learners. follow-up conversations affirmed this finding, with some respondents indicating that generally it is non-indigenous learners and/or indigenous learners from urban areas who are second or third generation learners that are accessing indigenous programs and pathways. for example, one institution shared that approximately 40% of students in their indigenous programs are non-indigenous, while another institution shared that of the indigenous learners present, most were from an urban area. additionally, some institutions shared that most indigenous learners are not clustered in any specific program area, including indigenous programs, but instead, are spread across the institution. indigenous program pathways inventory 20 table 3: percentage of indigenous pathway learners with aboriginal ancestry by overall % of aboriginal learners in indigenous programs % of pathway learners with aboriginal ancestry % of learners in indigenous programs with aboriginal ancestry less than 5% 5-25% 25-50% 50-75% more than 75% unknown less than 5% 5-25% 25-50% 50-75% more than 75% unknown 50% 0% 0% 0% 0% 50% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 50% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 50% 0% 0% 37.5% 50% 50% 0% 62.5% the need for reserved seating for indigenous learners in programs was one method utilized to increase access for indigenous learners. for example, trent universitys indigenous bachelor of education program requires learners to self-identify as aboriginal to be eligible for admission through an indigenous pathway. in addition to the above characteristics, the roundtable discussion shared that adult learners may have unique experiences which also need to be understood and accounted for within pathway development and assessment. in some instances, adult learners may have attended pse but left due to family commitments or other reasons, sometimes leaving part way through a semester and/or returning to pse many years later. questions that arose were, on average, how many credits are transferable? and, how can we recognize their prior learning within the institution if they have left part way through a semester? enhanced data was also seen by the roundtable participants as a necessity to the development and enhancement of indigenous program pathways. acquiring a fulsome picture of indigenous learners transfer experiences and how they define success in the context of their experience were essential. the follow-up roundtable discussion also identified the ontario education number as a potential mechanism which could advance data collection processes in the future, and shared that aboriginal institutes are already doing work in this area which could be built upon. indigenous pathway credit assessment the amount of credits awarded because of an indigenous pathway varied, amounting to less than one year to two years of study for the learner 2. the most common amount of credit received totaled to under two years. 2 survey respondents did not specify if credits received included excess credits. indigenous program pathways inventory 21 table 4: number of aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities with indigenous pathways by credits awarded credits awarded # of aboriginal institutes less than one year 2 one year 1 up to two years 1 two years - # of colleges # of universities 2 4 10 3 2 2 3 1 eight institutions indicated that the credit assessment process was a 50/50 effort between the sending and receiving institution; with 5 institutions reporting that it was primarily or solely driven by the receiving institution. two institutions believed that the process was driven by the sending institution. discrepancies were noticed in this regard, with some partnering institutions selecting conflicting statements to characterize the level of collaboration between the sending and receiving institution during the credit assessment process. this could be explained by institutions choosing the statement that best characterized their general approach to credit assessment or by institutions employing different definitions of collaboration. a chi-square test (p-value=0.69) revealed that there was no significant relationship between the maximum number of credits awarded in a pathway and level of collaboration between the sending and receiving institution in the credit assessment process. the methodologies of block credit transfer review, program/course outcomes review, case by case basis review and course outline review also did not have a significant influence on maximum credits granted. a chi-square test (p-value=0.72) revealed no relationship between methodology for credit assessment and maximum number of credits awarded. all credit assessment methods had similar levels of usage with 7 institutions assessing credit transfers using a block credit transfer, and 6 institutions assessing credit transfers with each of the following: program/course outcomes, case by case basis, and course outline review. seven institutions reported that they use more than one method with only one institution utilizing all four methodologies. most institutions employed a combination of two or three approaches. multiple participants believed that the current methodologies to assess pathways are not the most appropriate model for indigenous learners, citing a need to explore more collaborative and wholistic approaches. this will be discussed at greater length in the next section. aboriginal institutes, colleges, and universities alike involved multiple individuals from their institution in the credit assessment processes, including program coordinators, faculty, the registrars office, transfer coordinators and academic administration. only one institution did not employ a team approach to credit assessment, reporting that the program coordinator was responsible for conducting a credit assessment. a chi-square test (p-value=0.87) verified that there was no significant relationship between the maximum number of credits awarded in a pathway and involvement of or lack of involvement of different indigenous program pathways inventory 22 group/individuals in the institution (e.g. faculty, program coordinator, associate registrar/registrar, transfer coordinator, and academic leadership). contradictory to the above, multiple individuals spoke about the necessity of having indigenous content experts participate in the transfer credits assessment process for indigenous pathways. this tension could be explained by numerous factors, including the quality of credits awarded and residency requirements that limit the number of credits transferred that contribute to the degree audit. as one participant explained, residency requirements at the receiving institution can limit the number of credits that can be applied to a degree audit. they noted that it would be beneficial to look at the conversion rate of transfer credits that contribute to the degree audit to ensure full disclosure be provided to potential learners. indigenous knowledges and credit assessment fleming colleges indigenous perspectives designation (ipd). provides students in social service and environmental programs with an optional opportunity to access knowledge of indigenous cultures, histories, traditions and contributions to society. while utilizing different approaches, multiple institutions indicated that they have or are currently in the process of strengthening the culturally-responsiveness of their curriculum and/or institution. this difference in approach may be attributed to the uniqueness of each college and its surrounding community, as respondents consistently shared that planning efforts toward indigenization were inclusive of indigenous leaners, indigenous communities and elders. approaches spanned from embedding indigenous content across curriculum to the addition of stand-alone courses within academic programming, to focusing on experiential learning opportunities through student support services. confederation college, for example, currently is integrating seven indigenous learning outcomes across all academic programming. initiated in 2011, approximately 95% of the programs at the college, currently include two or more indigenous learning outcomes (confederation college, n.d.). using a stand-alone model, centennial college currently offers a stackable credential in indigenous studies. comprised of four general elective credits (taken as two general electives, one mandatory course in diploma programs and one additional course), students learn about current issues, community, relationships, self-governance, and sovereignty within canada. fleming college has chosen to blend integrative, discrete and experiential opportunities through their indigenous perspectives designation (ipd). ipd provides students in social service and environmental programs with an optional opportunity to access knowledge of indigenous cultures, histories, traditions and contributions to society. in addition to two general education courses in indigenous studies, learners must also participate in a minimum of four approved co-curricular indigenous events or experiences that will be incorporated into a learner portfolio assignment. the programs that offer ipd as an option have also indigenous program pathways inventory 23 committed to providing discipline-specific indigenous curriculum, beyond what will be offered in the two general education courses. on the opposite end of the spectrum, one institution was apprehensive about incorporating indigenous knowledges within academic programming. they believed it was more appropriate to make indigenous knowledges available through experiential learning opportunities delivered through student support services. they cited issues related to non-indigenous faculty teaching indigenous knowledges, and a desire to focus on reaching indigenous students as reasons for the approach. the need for a broad commitment to indigenous education was identified in survey responses, follow-up conversations and assigned a high degree of importance in the roundtable discussion. conversation ensued about the need to: eliminate misconceptions of indigenous education as less than, provide training to pse employees, ensure the cultural safety of indigenous employees and hire more indigenous employees. with efforts to ensure culturally-responsive institutions still underway, it appears that institutions in ontario are only at the cusp of accounting for indigenous knowledges within credit assessment. follow-up conversations did not provide evidence of stand-alone or add-on credentials being utilized within credit assessment processes. moreover, one out of five institutions with a pathway between an indigenous and non-indigenous program imparted that there is indigenous content within the non-indigenous program subject to an indigenous pathway and that indigenous knowledge was factored into the credit assessment process. kennepohl (2016) naturalizes this lag, arguing that only after the development and incorporation of learning outcomes have gone through a transition phase and are well underway will learning outcomes be the primary means of transfer credit assessment. if this remains true, this number should increase in coming years with multiple institutions sharing that they are currently undergoing efforts to increase cultural responsiveness. in the one reported case where indigenous knowledge was reported to inform the credit assessment process between indigenous and non-indigenous programs, a learning outcomes-based approach was utilized. no further detail on the methodology was provided. scholars such as kennepohl (2016) and roska and colleagues (2016) have articulated the usefulness and far reach of an outcomes-based approach in credit transfer. within their article on defining and assessing higher education, roska and colleagues (2016) describe the measuring college learning project. what they found was that common ground could be found in interdisciplinary transfers through generic and discipline-specific competencies. what is unclear is if the above approach can be successfully applied when attempting to fuse different knowledge systems instead of different disciplines operating within the same knowledge system. perhaps proof of this challenge can be found in the fact that including indigenous knowledge was more prevalent in pathways between programs rooted in different indigenous cultural traditions that have shared foundational principles. four institutions answered that they have pathways between programs rooted in different cultural traditions, with three quarters of these institutions indicating that they do factor in differences in cultural traditions during the assessment process. no details were provided on how this is accomplished. indigenous program pathways inventory 24 in follow-up conversations, one participant also shared that an interdisciplinary approach could be used to assess transfer credits within a discrete model of indigenization. they explained that the learner would rather focus on learning the indigenous content or the discipline-specific content. this would be dependent on if the learners route was from an indigenous to a non-indigenous program or vice versa. the conversation on indigenous knowledges and credit assessment also raised additional considerations, such as the need to ensure that learners achieve the necessary learning outcomes in accelerated models that utilize an integrated approach. for example, if multiple learning outcomes are introduced in year one and a learner enters the program in year two, how does an institution ensure that the learner achieves all required learning outcomes without creating additional costs or other barriers to graduation? who is qualified to develop pathways that include indigenous knowledges was also a key consideration. multiple institutions identified the need for a collaborative approach which could include indigenous content experts, fluent language speakers and experts in pathway development, curriculum and provincial standards. multiple institutions currently have or are hiring indigenous curriculum specialists to support indigenization, and while none were identified as participants in the pathway development process, moving forward they may occupy a more prominent role in pathway development. seeing the learner several institutions spoke to tensions between an indigenous wholistic framework and the credit assessment process. specifically, they felt challenged when trying to see the learner beyond the credits they possess, and instead as a whole person. it was believed that current processes promote a way of thinking centered around quantification and equivalency instead of situatedness and relationships. for example, one individual explained that within a block transfer model there is a whole background of the student that is not evaluated. in addition, they need to fit into one of the pre-established boxes whether that be the block transfer or a prior learning assessment to receive credit. attached to this notion of seeing the learner, processes also need to have the capacity to identify what the learners needs are, including wrap around academic and support services. they also need to have flexibility to accommodate the lifestyle and circumstances of learners and as discussed more in the next section, recognize the learners pre-existent knowledge and skills learned through experience. current tools both within and outside of the education system were identified that could provide a starting point to transform the current credit assessment process. one follow-up conversation identified a need for more laddering curriculum across the province. for example, the florida adult education career pathways toolkit, promotes the use of a ladder framework that includes three components: bridge programs, clear pathways and road maps that identify multiple entry and exit points and depicts vertical and lateral movement within a career cluster (mills, 2012, p. 54). another individual brought forth the use of gladue reporting in the justice system. these reports provide a tool to tell the individuals story so that an informed decision can be made on sentencing by the courts. a similar report could also support post-secondary institutions decision-making efforts in credit transfer and to identify additional supports needed. lastly, many individuals spoke of the need to include a broad range of individuals into the credit assessment process so that the learner could be reviewed in a more wholistic manner. for one individual, they felt that if the right people were engaged, including indigenous communities, relationships would be strengthened and a process that works would emerge organically. indigenous program pathways inventory 25 honouring personal experience within indigenous pedagogies, experiential knowledge is considered both valued and valid (ray & cormier, 2012). as such, a necessary subset of the larger discussion on indigenous knowledges and credit assessment is how to formally acknowledge the lived experience and prior knowledge of indigenous learners. in follow-up conversations, institutional representatives spoke about the knowledge and skills indigenous learners harnessed through attending ceremony, mentorships and apprenticeships with elders and community members, speaking an indigenous language, raising children or caring for family members and prior work experience. this prior experience was viewed as relevant in multiple disciplines including but not limited to indigenous studies, nursing and personal support worker programs and social work; however, the question remains as to how this translates into credits for the learner. in terms of specific methods to assess experience, institutions acknowledged the use of challenge exams, curriculum vitae reviews, letters of support and/or essay writing. one institution also acknowledged cv reviews, letters of support or essay writing as a method for learners to meet admission requirements if they are just below the requirement. general education requirements were acknowledged during the roundtable discussion as an opportunity to account for personal experience, with participants suggesting that there is already space within the current general education framework to acknowledge skills and knowledge such as fluency in an indigenous language, beading, and leatherwork since indigenous learners personal experiences are likely to include cultural and spiritual knowledge, there was an identified need to ensure culturally-safe methods of recognition. one participant shared that fluent language speakers and elders should be involved in assessing indigenous language competencies. another individual communicated that there are more appropriate ways to account for cultural and spiritual knowledge aside from granting credit for an indigenous-specific course. they explained that indigenous learners can be recognized within non-indigenous programs for the perspectives and knowledges they bring to their respective discipline. for example, geese hunting, and navigating the land and waterways directly relate to an environmental management program. an experience can be designed for indigenous learners so that they can teach this to non-indigenous faculty and learners, furthering their own awareness of the value of this knowledge and their own understanding by relating and teaching this knowledge within a specified discipline. some institutions, mostly colleges, have implemented prior learning and recognition (plar) as a methodology. for example, algonquin college has a plar administrator who facilitates assessments for students depending on the course and the experience. for other institutions, plar was a foreign practice and was viewed as incompatible with their internal processes and philosophies. for example, one university reported that they have a specific clause in their academic calendar that does not allow for the practice of plar, while another institution shared that within specific disciplines, such as the arts, prior experience and skill are expected and must be demonstrated prior to entry. while limited, there are examples of plar being utilized within an indigenous context. northland college in saskatchewan has introduced a form of plar referred to as holistic portfolio plar (robertson, 2011, 459). with the objective of building or regenerating indigenous identity that has been impacted by colonization, indigenous learners reflect on their past experiences to generate new understandings. conrad (2008) explains that unlike the typical challenge for credit plar in which learners must present their prior knowledge in predetermined knowledge clusters, holistic portfolio plar provides learners indigenous program pathways inventory 26 with the opportunity to build knowledge off their pre-existent foundation (as cited in robertson, 2011, p. 461). vancouver island universitys canoe of life model of prior learning assessment and indigenous portfolio is delivered as a mandatory course within the aboriginal university bridging program certificate. the model was developed with elders and coast salish communities. akin to the holistic portfolio plar, it asks indigenous learners to critically reflect on past experiences to create new knowledge and understanding and formulate a strong sense of identity and appreciation for their indigenous and experiential knowledge. as part of the course, learners develop education and career goals, and create a learning plan and personal indigenous portfolio (hobenshield et al., 2014). vancouver island universitys canoe of life model of prior learning assessment and indigenous portfolio is delivered as a mandatory course within the aboriginal university bridging program certificate. as part of the course learners develop education and career goals, and create a learning plan and personal indigenous portfolio. hobenshield et al., 2014 with indigenous learners attending communitybased training and learning centers the need to provide recognition for formalized training in a non-accredited environment was also identified. as mentioned previously, the need to identify training done to date in an accredited institution in which the learner did not complete their course and/or semester was also acknowledged. ocad university has been able to create a policy that permits learners to take ocad courses if they are not enrolled at the university but have an intent to enroll at a later date. as a result, they were able to create an indigenous pathway with six nations polytechnic that ladders learners into a second-year undergraduate program. designed collaboratively between ocad and six nations polytechnic, in the bachelor of fine arts in visual culture pathway, learners take an ocad first year colour course and aboriginal art history course online and in-person courses at six nations polytechnic. learners can choose to complete the first year only and receive a six nations polytechnic certificate or to continue their education with an advanced standing into the 2nd year of the 4-year bachelor of fine arts in indigenous visual culture program. following a similar model, the native university program at six nations polytechnic, in cooperation with a consortium of universities: brock university, mcmaster university, university of guelph, university of waterloo, university of western indigenous program pathways inventory the native university program at six nations polytechnic, in cooperation with a consortium of six universities, provides learners with an opportunity to apply five credits earned at six nations polytechnic toward a bachelor of arts program at any of the consortium universities. 27 ontario and wilfred laurier university provides learners with an opportunity to apply five credits earned at six nations polytechnic on a full or part-time basis toward a bachelor of arts program at any of the above universities (six nations polytechnic, 2017). in a different approach, an agreement struck between the heads of business at colleges and mcdonalds canada, awards mcdonald employees with at least two of four company courses required to become a manager the equivalent of first-year courses in a two or three-year business diploma. within this agreement, a manager-in-training could enter a business program in second-year, complete the program through an online, in-class or blended delivery, and potentially saving up to $4,500 in tuition (lewington, 2016). while this opportunity is not indigenous specific it can serve as a transferable model. for example, many first nations have national native alcohol and drug abuse program (nnadap) workers and partnerships could be struck with first nations, health canada and post-secondary institutions to grant advanced standing in social services programs. indigenous pathway advantages, disadvantages and challenges advantages overall, post-secondary institutions in ontario believe that there are more advantages than disadvantages associated with indigenous pathways. almost all respondents reported that indigenous pathways provide educational advancement opportunities for the learner (91%) and greater access for the learner (91%). eighty-seven percent of institutions indicated that indigenous pathways improve learner mobility, while flexibility and convenience for the learner (83%) and professional advancement opportunities for the learner (74%) were reported by many. just over half of respondents (57%) are convinced that indigenous pathways lower costs for learners. the lack of consensus among survey respondents may be attributed to the type of pathways available. as calculated in one study, if a college student can earn their pathway credential and a university degree in four years they can be expected to save 14-30 percent when compared to direct entry; however, learners only break-even if completion takes 4.5-5 years (dick, 2013, p. 32) this finding was supported by one institution who shared that a pathway can save a learner approximately $5200 in tuition fees. indirectly, pathways may also result in more savings as it was suggested that college learners who transfer into university are more prepared and thus experience greater rates of success. just under half of respondents (43%) believed that indigenous program pathways increase the applicant pool and when asked if there are any other advantages to indigenous pathways, respondents noted that such pathways allow learners to study closer to home, support the validation of indigenous knowledge systems and provide non-indigenous peoples with exposure to indigenous knowledge systems. indigenous program pathways inventory pathways alleviate the shortage of funding for indigenous learners, help to direct their educational journey and shows a commitment to indigenous education mohawk college 28 indigenous pathway development was seen as part of a larger movement to support reconciliation efforts with indigenous peoples, particularly through the truth and reconciliation comission of canadas education recommendations. disadvantages far fewer respondents indicated that there were disadvantages. in fact, 45% of survey respondents believed that there were no disadvantages to indigenous pathways with 35% citing learners taking courses they may not want to take as the most prominent disadvantage. other disadvantages noted were undervaluing of transfer credits (20%), inefficient program study delivery/course load issues (10%), accreditation/certification challenges for the learner (10%), limited space (10%), and greater cost to learners (5%). despite being the most prominent disadvantage, learners taking courses they may not want to take was seen by numerous respondents in follow-up conversations as an inherent disadvantage and it was not believed that efforts should be taken to address this disadvantage aside from communicating to learners the value and purpose of these courses. when asked to identify other disadvantages not listed in the survey, one institution noted that aboriginal self-identification may be required for access or preferential access to a program via a pathway and learners may not want to self-identify. in follow-up conversations, it was identified that students may not want to self-identify due to racism. another institution shared the concern that if a learners course workload is reduced due to a pathway (e.g. part-time status because of number of credits transferred) external funding could be jeopardized if the funder has a minimal course load policy. similarly, there could be implications of reduced course-load for other sources of funding such as the ontario student assistance program (osap). challenges thirteen respondents from the college and university sector believed that there were challenges when creating, implementing and/or assessing indigenous pathways. as discussed in the previous two sections, institutions were challenged by wholistic conceptions of pathways and learning, such as the inclusion of wrap around supports in pathway discussions and agreements, the construction of pathways with multiple points of entry and exit and recognition of experience through prior learning assessments and other means. the challenge of having institutions recognize indigenous knowledges as a valid way of knowing was identified. this challenge was also identified during the roundtable discussion, with one participant sharing that indigenous programs are programs plus, because they must meet both indigenous and western requirements to establish validity and quality. related to this concept of programs plus was the need to ensure that indigenous programs align with professional credentials and to demonstrate their alignment with non-indigenous programs. perhaps related, participants also shared that content is not always understood by the instructor, contributing to the undervaluing of transfer credits and that administration must see the value in indigenous pathways. indigenous program pathways inventory 29 related to the above was a need for cultural competency in instructors, which one respondent indicated can be achieved by hiring local people. in a similar vein, another individual asked, are there qualified staff to assess indigenous knowledge and teach within these programs? a lack of human resources was also identified as a barrier to pathway development because there is not enough time to meaningfully engage with indigenous communities. financial resources were also cited as a challenge, as one participant stated, they wanted to ensure that current initiatives are not lost to create new initiatives. various funding policies were also seen as a barrier to pathway development. one interviewee noted that in some instances transition programs were not funded by learners first nations because learners were expected to be prepared after grade 12 or through academic upgrading. funding policies were also seen as a challenge that restricted program delivery structures, as one institutional representative shared, learners cannot stretch their learning out over additional years, such as completing a 2-year program over three years and this is a barrier to alternate modes of delivery such as block learning which allows learners to remain in their communities or closer to home. moreover, funding for non-accredited programs that have pathways to accredited programs was flagged as a potential barrier moving forward. data was also a common challenge raised. some institutions shared that they currently do not have the capacity to track pathway learners. other institutions do have the capacity to track pathway learners by characteristics including discipline, gender, and geographic location. they explained that once the infrastructure is in place, tracking pathway learners is not an onerous process. when students come in through the admissions program they are flagged as a transfer student via a specific code, and students can be sorted by that code. in this instance, as indicated in one follow-up phone conversation, the challenge for institutions is understanding how to best use the data that is available. other data-related challenges and needs were also identified. while many institutions shared that they track learners that self-id as aboriginal, a further break-down would be helpful in confirming if there are sub-populations, such as band-sponsored learners, that are under-represented in indigenous pathways or have unique experiences. for example, one college shared that they had limited success in recruiting first generation, band-sponsored students. they found that financial incentives were not as alluring, and other incentives were needed to get these students in the door. they found that the dual credit program, which provides high school students with an opportunity to take college credit courses, was a successful program for sponsored students. tracking a learner over their entire journey from entry to workplace was also a challenge and identified need. some institutions shared that they ask partners to share aggregate data of learners who have applied or have been accepted to another institution, but this does not always occur. furthermore, even with aggregate data there is no way to definitively discern individual identity or even what graduating cohort learners are from. logistically, the creation of standardized data sets and tools such as a shared credit module form would support comparative analysis, atop of supporting internal mechanisms to automate transfer credits, however, it still would not address access to cohort level data. in addition, at the roundtable discussion, important considerations for data collection were noted. ocap (ownership, control, access, and possession) was viewed as a necessary framework to guide data collection and analysis related to indigenous learners and pathways. aboriginal education councils were identified as indigenous program pathways inventory 30 potential owners of data sets related to indigenous learners. engaging and including indigenous communities through a variety of methods such as the development of community reports, data sharing and research agreements was also identified and seen as ways to promote indigenous-driven pathways. initial access was also a concern. numerous institutions stressed the need for pathway conversations to be inclusive of the initial entry points for learners, including secondary school and academic upgrading. one interviewee shared that indigenous learners are not being streamed for the academic stream, and that once a learner is in the applied or college stream it is a much longer route for learners to gain access to university. similarly, at a college-level, one institution found that many band sponsored students do not have the required grade 11 math and english so they are unable to take advantage of their pathway opportunity. program offering at high school can also limit access to post-secondary studies. for example, if a school does not offer physics or calculus in a classroom setting and this is a prerequisite, in can be a barrier to access. alternatively, limited selection can impact a students average because they may not be able to take courses that play to their strengths. lastly, a cluster of challenges related to in-community pathways were recognized. these included jurisdictional issues, program feasibility and success measures that are number driven, logistics surrounding the delivery of longer term programs with lab-based components and access to student supports, and the perceived impact of in-community delivery on campus enrollment. specifically, as one individual shared, the misconception that in-community learning would compete with on-campus delivery instead of attracting new learners who would have otherwise not enrolled in post-secondary education. recommendations this report has identified key considerations, practices and areas of further research that support indigenous pathway development and assessment, informing the development of an indigenous program pathways action plan (appendix j). overall pathways should be wholistic, accessible, collaborative and community-driven, be expanded and supported by enhanced data and indigenous approaches and occur within a broader framework of commitment toward indigenous education: wholistic and accessible pathways indigenous pathway development should be comprehensive, spanning from k-12 to employment; an enhanced focus on academic upgrading and other initial entry points to post-secondary studies should occur to support access to indigenous pathways as some indigenous learners do not currently meet eligibility requirements; and, collaboration among sending and receiving institutions should extend beyond transfer credit assessment to include data sharing and the delivery of wrap-around supports. collaborative and community-driven pathways indigenous communities, indigenous learners and indigenous content specialists must be meaningfully involved in pathway development and assessment processes; indigenous program pathways inventory 31 indigenous communities should be equipped with the necessary information to meaningfully participate in pathway assessment and development. an environmental scan of similar pathways should be conducted prior to new pathway development to maximize learner advantages, and data related to indigenous learners should be available; enhanced collaboration should occur between institutions and relevant stakeholders, to support the development of innovative and consistent pathways; pathway expansion there is a lack of indigenous pathways within disciplines that are both meaningful and relevant to indigenous communities, such as justice, environmental science and art & design. further pathway development in these areas should be explored; indigenous learners are spread across disciplines, requiring the development of additional pathways outside of indigenous programs; and, best practices should inform the development of new pathways. consistent with a strengths-based approach, laddering curriculum or other means should be utilized to demonstrate the relevance and value of such pathways to learners and indigenous communities. enhanced data indigenous learners are accessing and experiencing indigenous pathways differently. more information on indigenous learners experiences is needed overall as well as in relation to subpopulations including on-reserve, sponsored and adult learners; further planning at an institutional and system level needs to occur to support standardized data collection and analysis efforts; and, data collection efforts need to be informed by indigenous-based research principles and include indicators that are meaningful and relevant to indigenous peoples, including but not limited to indigenous-based measures of success. indigenous approaches to pathway development personal experience is a respected knowledge tradition among indigenous peoples and postsecondary institutions should recognize the personal experiences of indigenous pathway learners upon entry. innovative work in both an indigenous and non-indigenous context is occurring that can inform practices in ontario institutions; institutions across ontario are using a variety of approaches to incorporate indigenous knowledges including integration into current curriculum, stand-alone courses and through extra-curricular experiential opportunities. as such a spectrum of approaches to credit assessment of indigenous content should be explored in place of a standardized approach; ontario is only at the cusp of incorporating indigenous knowledges in credit assessment, promising practices, including outcome and interdisciplinary approaches should be explored; and, alternative modes of program delivery and subsequent pathways that align with the lived experience of indigenous learners, such as collaborative-based programming and block programming should be explored. indigenous program pathways inventory 32 commitment to indigenous education a comprehensive review of institutional and system level policies, including funding policies, is needed to identify and address barriers to indigenous modes of education delivery, pathway development and assessment; post-secondary education employees should be knowledgeable about indigenous peoples and equipped to support indigenous learners; and, post-secondary education learners should be knowledgeable about indigenous peoples. indigenous program pathways inventory 33 references american society of radiologic technologists. 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(2015). facts and stats overview. accessed at: http://www.univcan.ca/universities/facts-and-stats/ indigenous program pathways inventory 36 appendices appendix a: indigenous program pathways inventory survey indigenous program pathway inventory survey the purpose of this survey is to document and understand indigenous post-secondary and/or training program pathways within and between aboriginal institutes, colleges, universities and community-based delivery agencies in ontario to inform a discussion on enhancing and developing indigenous program pathways. more specifically, this survey contains questions that will help us to: identify current indigenous postsecondary and training programs (indigenous programs) in ontario, identify current indigenous program pathways in ontario, understand the status of indigenous program pathways in ontario, understand who is accessing indigenous program pathways, and identify potential indigenous program pathways in ontario. this may require you to access institutional data that is not readily available. because of this, you can access the survey multiple times, up until the survey close date (september 30, 2016, 5:00pm). to do this you must ensure that you press "next" or "done" at the bottom of each page that you have entered a response on. to re-access the survey with your saved responses, you must use the same computer and web browser. the amount of time needed to complete the survey will depend on the robustness of indigenous programming and indigenous program pathways at your institution and will take approximately 5-45 minutes to complete if all information is readily available. project results will be published on the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) website and will be disseminated to all participants as well. thank you for participating in our survey. your feedback is important! 1. what institution do you work at? 2. what is your position(s) at this institution? 3. does your institution currently have indigenous post-secondary and/or training programs? yes no 4. please list and include award granted upon completion (e.g. certificate, diploma, graduate certificate, post graduate certificate, degree etc.), completion time and associated credentials for indigenous programs 5. what is the mode of delivery for these programs (e.g. in-person, online, blended etc.)? indigenous program pathways inventory 37 6. how many learners were enrolled in indigenous programs at your institution for the 2015/16 academic year? 7. were there any waitlists for indigenous programs at your institution in the 2015/16 academic year? if yes, please specify. 8. is your institution currently in the process of developing indigenous post-secondary and/or training programs? if so, please list, including award granted (e.g. certificate, diploma, graduate certificate, degree), completion time and any credentials associated with the award, if available. 9. does your institution currently have any pathways to or from indigenous post-secondary and/or training programs? yes no 10. please list all programs that are subject to an indigenous program pathway. 11. what credits are awarded to learners when they enter or leave this program(s) as a result of an indigenous program pathway? 12. how are awarded credits assessed? please check all that apply. program/course outcomes block credit transfer case by case basis course outline review other (please specify) 13. who is involved in the assessment process? please check all that apply. transfer/credit coordinator senate/program quality committee/academic council program coordinator program faculty vice-president academic dean/associate dean/chair registrar/associate registrar other (please specify) 14. please select what statement best describes the assessment process: the process was a 50/50 effort between the receiving and sending institution the process was driven primarily by the receiving institution the process was driven primarily by the sending institution the process was driven solely by the receiving institution the process was driven solely by the sending institution 15. if there is a pathway(s) in place between an indigenous and non-indigenous program, is there indigenous content/knowledges in the non-indigenous program(s)? yes no indigenous program pathways inventory 38 not applicable 16. is indigenous content/knowledges factored into this assessment process(es)? yes no not applicable if yes, how? 17. do you have a pathway(s) between indigenous programs that are rooted in different cultural traditions (e.g. anishinaabe and haudenosaunee)? yes no if yes, how? 18. are differences in cultural traditions factored into this assessment process(es)? yes no not applicable if yes, how? 19. how do you notify potential and current learners about indigenous program pathway opportunities? please check all that apply. recruiters visit classes information on our website pamphlets other, please specify 20. do you have a transfer program(s) in place to support learners who are transitioning as a result of an indigenous program pathway? yes no 21. what is the format of this program(s)? 22. what comprises the content of this program(s)? please check all that apply. general academic skills discipline-specific material indigenous knowledges (e.g. language, culture, protocols) other (please specify) 23. do you track learners who enter your institution through an indigenous program pathway? yes no 24. how many learners applied to your institution through an indigenous program pathway for the 2015/16 academic year? indigenous program pathways inventory 39 25. how many learners entered your institution through an indigenous program pathway in the 2015/16 academic year? 26. what percentage of current learners in programs with indigenous pathways entered as a result of these pathways? 27. is there an indigenous program pathway that on average attracts more learners than other pathways? yes no if yes, please specify 28. what is the retention rate of learners who entered your institution through an indigenous program pathway in the 2015/16 academic year? 29. what is the 2015/16 graduation rate of learners who entered your institution through an indigenous program pathway? 30. what is the most common age range(s) of current learners who entered your institution through an indigenous program pathway? please check all that apply. under 19 19-24 25-29 30-40 over 40 we have an equal number of learners from all age ranges i don't know 31. what is the gender composition of current learners who entered your institution through an indigenous program pathway? 32. for current learners who entered through an indigenous program pathway, what region did they most commonly come from? northern ontario the gta southern ontario eastern ontario western ontario i don't know 33. is your institution located in this region? yes no i don't know 34. does your institution count self-identified aboriginal learners? yes no i don't know indigenous program pathways inventory 40 35. what percentage of current learners in indigenous programs are aboriginal? less than 5% 5-25% 25-50% 50-75% more than 75% i don't know 36. what percentage of current learners who entered your institution through an indigenous program pathway are indigenous? less than 5% 5-25% 25-50% 50-75% more than 75% i don't know 37. what are the advantages of having indigenous program pathways in place? please check all that apply. educational advancement opportunities for the learner professional advancement opportunities for the learner greater access for the learner improved learner mobility flexibility and convenience for the learner lower cost for the learner increases the applicant pool there are none that i can think of at this time other (please specify) 38. what are the disadvantages of having indigenous program pathways in place? please check all that apply. learners required to duplicate courses/course material inefficient program study delivery/course load issues greater cost to the learner accreditation/certification challenges for the learner learners must take courses they may not want to take limited space transfer credits are undervalued there are none that i can think of at this time other (please specify) 39. are there any challenges when creating, implementing and/or assessing indigenous program pathways? yes no i don't know if yes, please explain. indigenous program pathways inventory 41 40. are there any successes you would like to highlight in regards to indigenous program pathways? yes no if yes, please specify. 41. are there certain areas of study where your institution is interested in developing indigenous program pathways? yes no if yes, please specify. 42. would you be willing to participate in a follow-up call to discuss survey results and identify potential actionable items that support existing pathways and pathway expansion? yes no if yes, please provide your contact information. indigenous program pathways inventory 42 appendix b: participant introductory letter september 1, 2016 dear potential participant, re: indigenous program pathways inventory survey funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), the indigenous program pathways inventory project seeks to develop a comprehensive inventory of indigenous program pathways in ontario, including those pathways that exist within and between aboriginal institutes, colleges, universities and community-based delivery agencies in the province. as part of the indigenous program pathways inventory project, canadore college will be conducting a survey on indigenous program pathways. the survey will largely focus on documenting current pathways, including awarded credentials and credits, and innovative and supportive features, but will also include questions that will inform an understanding of enhanced and future pathways in indigenous programming. as a recognized leader at your institution in one or more of the following areas: enrollment, pathways and transfers, and indigenous education, it is believed that you are well-positioned to support our efforts to document and envision current and future pathways in indigenous programming. in 5-10 business days, you will be emailed a link to an online survey via surveymonkey. to ensure that our project results are representative of the provincial landscape of indigenous programming, we ask that you please take the time to respond. if we have contacted you in error and you believe that there is a more suitable contact(s), or if you would like more information about the project, please contact lana ray, minowewe consulting at: minowewe@outlook.com. a project backgrounder has also been provided for your reference. project results will be published on the oncat website and disseminated to all participants. sincerely, jeannette miron registrar/ manager of institutional research canadore college mary wabano director, first peoples centre/ associate dean school of indigenous studies canadore college indigenous program pathways inventory 43 appendix c: project backgrounder backgrounder indigenous program pathways inventory project description funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), the indigenous program pathways inventory project is one year in duration, running from april 2016-march 2017. during this timeframe, the project seeks to develop a comprehensive inventory of indigenous program pathways in ontario, including those pathways that exist within and between aboriginal institutes, colleges, universities and community-based delivery agencies in the province. the efforts of this project will culminate in an indigenous program pathways action plan which institutions can use to support and expand indigenous pathways. this will be accomplished through four main activities: 1. a province-wide survey that will be disseminated to registrars, indigenous leads and pathway/transfer leads, or their equivalents when present. 2. follow-up phone calls with survey participants to discuss and interpret survey results and identify potential actionable items that support existing pathways and pathway expansion. 3. a roundtable with subject matter experts to present and discuss results, informing the development of the indigenous program pathways action plan. 4. a one-day forum with participation from aboriginal institutes, colleges, universities and community-based delivery agencies, and students in the province to present and refine a draft indigenous program pathways action plan. potential benefits -identifies gaps and opportunities for post-secondary education (pse) pathways -facilitates networking and discussion between pse institutions and other relevant parties -increases awareness of indigenous programming in ontario -contributes toward the development of baseline data and criteria for transfers in indigenous programming in ontario -increases partnerships between pse institutions -increases mobility and access to pse for indigenous and non-indigenous learners -increases access to indigenous content for indigenous and non-indigenous learners -pse graduates possess knowledge and skills that are increasingly relevant to indigenous communities and organizations contact information for more information on the indigenous program pathways inventory project please contact: lana ray, minowewe consulting (807)-632 6828/minowewe@outlook.com indigenous program pathways inventory 44 appendix d: leadership introductory letter august 31, 2016 dear vice-president academic/academic lead, re: indigenous program pathways inventory survey funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), the indigenous program pathways inventory project seeks to develop a comprehensive inventory of indigenous program pathways in ontario, including those pathways that exist within and between aboriginal institutes, colleges, universities and community-based delivery agencies in the province. as part of the indigenous program pathways inventory project, canadore college will be conducting a survey on indigenous program pathways. in 5-10 business days, enrollment, pathway/transfer, and indigenous education leads from your institution will receive an online survey via surveymonkey. the survey will largely focus on documenting current pathways, including awarded credentials and credits, and innovative and supportive features, but will also include questions that will inform an understanding of enhanced and future pathways in indigenous programming. project results will be published on the oncat website and disseminated to all participants. as the academic lead at your institution we wanted to bring this project to your attention. we appreciate the significant role that you occupy at your respective institution, and believe your engagement and support will be a critical success factor of the project. if you would like more information about the project, please contact lana ray, minowewe consulting at: minowewe@outlook.com. alternatively, you can contact either of us at: jeannette.miron@canadorecollege.ca and mary.wabano@canadorecollege.ca. a project backgrounder has also been provided for your reference. sincerely, jeannette miron registrar/ manager of institutional research canadore college mary wabano director, first peoples centre/ associate dean school of indigenous studies canadore college indigenous program pathways inventory 45 appendix e: list of participating institutions survey participants aboriginal institutes first nations technical institute oshki pimache o win education and training institute seven generations education institute colleges algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral confederation college contestoga college durham college fleming college george brown college georgian college mohawk college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college universities algoma university brescia university college, university of western ontario laurentian university nipissing university ocad university trent university university of ontario institute of technology university of toronto mississauga university of waterloo indigenous program pathways inventory 46 follow-up conversation participants colleges algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college fleming college sault college sheridan college st. clair college universities nipissing university ocad university trent university university of ontario institute of technology roundtable discussion participants aboriginal institutes first nations technical institute seven generations education institute colleges algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college fleming college sault college st. clair college universities ocad university indigenous program pathways inventory 47 appendix f: institutional response rate by survey question indigenous program pathways inventory 48 appendix g: indigenous program pathways inventory project survey summary i ndigenous program pathways inventory project survey data collection summary forty-six survey responses were received, representing 30 institutions. the institution response rate was 55%. colleges had the highest response rate at 75%, followed by universities (41%) and aboriginal institutes (33%). sixty percent of all respondents were colleges, 30% universities and 10% aboriginal institutes. twenty-nine percent of respondents were indigenous leads, 24% were pathway leads, 16% were admission leads and 31% of respondents occupied other positions at their respective institution. questions related to indigenous pathway learner demographics had the lowest response rates of any question, with only 7% of respondents answering questions related to gender or age composition. survey results summary sixty-seven percent (n=20) of participating institutions have indigenous programs in place. by institution type, this includes 100% of aboriginal institutes, 67% of universities and 61% of colleges. the most widespread areas of study are social services (e.g. child welfare, social work, mental health and addictions), preparatory studies (e.g. bridging programs, general arts and science), and health (e.g. nursing, paramedic, pre-health). one college reported a waitlist for their indigenous child welfare program in the 2015/16 academic year. sixty-nine percent of participating institutions have at least one indigenous pathway in place. by institution type this includes 87.5% of universities, 67% of aboriginal institutes and 61% of colleges. social services is the most popular discipline for pathway development, being offered at almost double the number of institutions when compared to pathways in other areas of study. to date, there have been no reported indigenous pathways developed in the disciplines of justice (e.g. police foundations, law, forensic psychology), hospitality and tourism (e.g. culinary arts, travel services, hotel management) and aviation. there were multiple interdisciplinary pathways, with fluidity most prominent between social services, indigenous studies, and community development. five institutions reported pathways between indigenous and non-indigenous programs. in some but not all instances the non-indigenous program had indigenous content. the most common credential learners hold entering an indigenous pathway is a diploma and the most common credential learners hope to gain from an indigenous pathway is an honours bachelors degree. the amount of credits awarded because of an indigenous pathway varied, ranging from less than one year to two years of study. the most common amount of credit received was less than two years but more than one year. four institutions reported transition programs for learners entering their institution through an indigenous pathway. these programs commonly include general academic skills, indigenous knowledges, and disciplinespecific content and are delivered in-person. indigenous program pathways inventory 49 there were limited horizontal pathways in place, and no pathways identified to or from a masters or doctoral program. five institutions indicated that they track learners who enter their institution through an indigenous pathway. a need for better data on indigenous pathways was identified. only three institutions shared information on the geographic mobility of their indigenous pathway learners. these learners tend to stay close to home. when the percentage of indigenous pathway learners with aboriginal ancestry was known, the distribution was almost identical to the overall composition of learners with aboriginal ancestry in indigenous programs. eight institutions indicated that the credit assessment process was a 50/50 effort between the sending and receiving institution; with 5 institutions reporting that it was primarily or solely driven by the receiving institution. two institutions believed that the process was driven by the sending institution. most institutions employed 2-3 methods to assess credit transfers, with block credit transfer being the most common method of assessment. no significant relationship was found between the maximum number of credits awarded in a pathway in relation to: level of collaboration between the sending and receiving institution in the credit assessment process, involvement of certain groups/individuals in the institution (e.g. faculty, program coordinator, associate registrar/registrar, transfer coordinator, and academic leadership), or methodology used to assess credit transfers. only one institution reported that indigenous knowledges were factored into the assessment process between indigenous and non-indigenous programs. four institutions identified pathways between programs rooted in different cultural traditions, with 75% of these institutions indicated that they do factor in differences in cultural traditions during the assessment process. no information was provided on how this is done. multiple institutions shared that they are currently in the process of indigenizing their curriculum, adding indigenous content and/or learning outcomes to all curriculum. participants believe that there are more advantages than disadvantages associated with indigenous pathways. almost all respondents reported that indigenous pathways provide educational advancement opportunities for the learner (91%) and greater access for the learner (91%). just over half of respondents (57%) were convinced that indigenous pathways lower costs for learners. when asked if there are any other advantages to indigenous pathways, respondents noted that such pathways support reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, allow learners to study closer to home, support the validation of indigenous knowledge systems and provide non-indigenous peoples with exposure to indigenous knowledge systems. forty-five percent of institutions thought there were no disadvantages to indigenous pathways, with 35% citing learners taking courses they may not want to take as the most prominent disadvantage. when asked to identify additional disadvantages, mandatory aboriginal self-identification and jeopardized funding for learners due to a reduced workload were mentioned. almost half of all institutions believed that there were challenges when creating, implementing and/or assessing indigenous pathways. institutions were challenged by holistic conceptions of pathways and learning, recognition of prior learning assessments, scheduling, human resource capacity, and a lack of validation of indigenous knowledge systems by institutions. six institutions (4 colleges, 1 aboriginal institute and 1 university) shared that they are currently in the process of developing indigenous programs. areas of programming include business and administration, early childhood education, health, justice, and preparatory studies. indigenous program pathways inventory 50 appendix h: follow-up conversation discussion questions i ndigenous program pathways inventory project survey follow-up discussion questions are there key components of your institutions indigenous program and pathway experience that is not reflected in the survey result summary that, if included, would enhance peoples understanding of the current and future landscape of indigenous programming and pathways? was there any information in the survey results summary that you felt was surprising or conflicting with your views of indigenous programs and pathways? from reviewing the survey results summary, are there areas where you think further discussion and work on indigenous programs and pathways needs to occur? should the development of indigenous pathways differ from pathway development in other areas? (e.g. who is involved, assessment of indigenous knowledges). if so, how? how important is tracking indigenous pathway learners to the success of indigenous pathways? are there steps that can be taken to enhance data collection? would someone from your institution be interested in attending one of the regional indigenous pathway forums? are there additional individuals who you would like us to invite (e.g. a student representative, partner)? does your institution or an affiliate have a meeting space that you think would be ideal to host a regional forum? how can we ensure that we get the utmost value from these forums? are there key topic areas or activities that should be included? (e.g. focus of pathway development, networking time) indigenous program pathways inventory 51 appendix h: roundtable discussion meeting agenda indigenous program pathways inventory project roundtable agenda march 16, 2017, 8:30a.m.-2:15p.m. location: simcoe room, marriott downtown centre, toronto time item march 15, 2017 7:30p.m. dinner at trios bistro (if available) march 16, 2017 8:30a.m.hot breakfast 9:00a.m. 9:00a.m.introductions 9:20a.m. 9:20a.m.presentation of phase one 10:00a.m. results 10:00a.m.10:15a.m. 10:15a.m.11:00 a.m. break 11:00a.m.12:15 p.m. recommendations activity & discussion 12:15p.m.1:00 p.m. 1:00p.m.2:15p.m. final report activity & discussion lunch wrap-up & forum discussion objective(s) -to present methodology, findings & recommendations from phase one -to identify key findings, areas that require expansion & gaps -to ensure continuity between report content & recommendations -to further prioritize recommendations -to identify ideas and actionable items that support recommendation implementation -to complete any outstanding work from the morning -to discuss forum objectives and structure -to identify potential participants & experts for the forum indigenous program pathways inventory 52 appendix i: roundtable discussion meeting summary indigenous program pathways inventory project roundtable summary date: location: march 16, 2017, 8:30a.m.-2:15p.m. simcoe room, marriott downtown centre, toronto attendees: shawn chorney, canadore college; jeannette miron, canadore college; mary wabano, canadore college; dr. joyce helmer, first nations technical institute; william perrault, seven generations education institute; carolyn hepburn, sault college; dr. caroline langill, ocad; renay dixon, algonquin college; harpreet singh sonu, algonquin college; david baker, fleming college; mark gray, fleming college; don duclos, confederation college; dr. rick ouellet, cambrian college; jessica charette, canadore college (recorder); dr. lana ray, minowewe consulting (facilitator) agenda item 1. opening remarks opening remarks were given by shawn chorney, vice president, enrolment management, indigenous and student services, canadore college. jeannette miron, registrar and manager of institutional research, canadore college announced that canadore has received funding for phase two of the indigenous program pathways inventory project. entitled, inventory of indigenous postsecondary programs and community based deliveries: a longitudinal study of the students transfer experience from admission to employment, phase two will examine student experiences within the context of indigenous transfer and pathways for programs in ontario. 2. presentation of phase one results & discussion dr. lana ray, minowewe consulting, provided an overview of the indigenous program pathways inventory project (phase one) methodology, results and recommendations. no comments or questions arose in relation to the methodology. utilizing the liberating structure exercise 1, 2, 4, all, roundtable participants examined the following sets of questions alone, in-pairs, in foursomes and lastly as a group: a) are there findings that you think garner more weight (have more potential impact) than others? do these findings receive adequate attention in the report? if not, are there any suggestions? b) are the recommendations reflective of the report content? are there additional recommendations that should be gleaned from the content? what recommendations should be prioritized? are there additional areas of research and/or collaboration that have not been identified but would be beneficial to explore? the following feedback was received in relation to the first set of questions (a): indigenous program pathways inventory 53 terminology such as indigenous and aboriginal need to be defined and used consistently. the term indigenization is problematic and should be replaced with a term that is more student-centered and promotes the agency of indigenous peoples. culturally responsive and decolonization were suggested. ensure the report objectives are clear and the uniqueness and distinctiveness of indigenous pathways is highlighted. further reflect on the historical and current experiences of indigenous peoples in the education system. e.g. individuals are often doing double duty with limited capacity, need for more resources, systemic issues. indigenous programs provide added value. secondary education is important, you are setting the stage. pathway discussions need to occur within a larger discussion on institutional commitment to indigenous education. how do we offer relevant bridging programs? there are financial considerations. communities are not supporting through sponsorship anymore. if we are going to identify a pathway, it must reflect learners and scaffold with faculty, policy, course work and curriculum, etc. the knowledge belongs to indigenous peoples, so indigenous peoples need to be the ones to impart the knowledge. there is a lack of indigenous peoples delivering curriculum. there is the perception that indigenous pathways and programs are of lesser quality and value. students think they must be of indigenous heritage to enroll, but that is not the case. prior learning is an important piece. for example, if someone is fluent in the language they should be able to apply against a general education course. learners are not completing their education sometimes to go out and raise families, etc. we need to take a good look at whether we recognize the work theyve done to date when they come back. in some cases, it is trying to figure out how to provide credit for work when a learner has not finished their semester. the aboriginal institute consortium are moving toward granting their own credentials. how do we make sure to include them in the discussion? what is the best way to engage with the ais? create an abstract or a short summary of the findings for community dissemination. there is a need to demonstrate the common outcomes between programs and how outcomes relate to the workplace. for example, the indigenous wellness and addictions program and social service worker program have many similarities that are not widely recognized. need to ensure indigenous programs align with professional credentials. for example, graduates of the native child and family worker program can write the provincial challenge exam for social service workers. indigenous programs need to be easily identifiable. for example, programs could have a feather as a symbol or something of that nature. data, or lack thereof, should be highlighted in the report. cant justify funding till you know what is going on. how is success defined and how do we use and define the data? what is the role of the ontario education number in this discussion? this could be used to move the conversation further. how do we extract information/engage with indigenous peoples for the information versus how can we fit you in? what data is already available? what are the implications of ocap for this work? indigenous program pathways inventory 54 need to have a transfer guide across the system. in bc, any college course can be transferred across the province if there is a similar department, there is also a great degree of transferability in the united states. who drives the pathways, the community or the institution? viewing learners from indigenous communities as individuals instead of always as a collective. we collaborate and we compete. we are not a college system, we are a system of colleges. the following feedback was received in relation to the second set of questions (b): there can be different levels of recommendations (direct and indirect/supportive) within the plan. seek out aboriginal institutes to engage in a discussion on findings and future directions. clarify in the recommendations that pathways must be community driven. expand focus from secondary to employment to elementary to employment. a focus on best practices in pathways and pathway development can overcome past challenges and inefficacies. groups, including the confederation college oncat project table and the northern collaborative can be brought together to create a common vision and path forward. define from an indigenous perspective what a successful pathway is and pursue data projects that measure this success. need to ensure there is a broader framework/commitment from institutions to support pathways including indigenous knowledge training for faculty and staff. we need to be sure we are providing pathways for the right reasons. training needs to be different between faculty and staff, there needs to be a greater commitment to hire indigenous faculty. indigenous employees need to feel cultural safe within our institutions. we need to have people delivering curriculum that our elders are comfortable with, whether they be indigenous or non-indigenous. collaboration must occur within and between institutions. for example, aboriginal education councils can play a role in regards to data ownership and research/data agreements. aboriginal institutes are already doing some joint work on data collection. learners returning to school are a subpopulation of indigenous learners whose experiences we need to know more about. how long are credits valid for before learners are back to square one? what about learners who are midway through a course/semester, how do we help them transition back? 3. recommendations activity & discussion individuals participated in the liberating structure exercise 25/10 crowd surfing to develop a draft indigenous program pathway action plan (appendix a). roundtable participants were asked to review and select two report recommendations. once selected, participants identified one bold idea and an initial implementation step for each recommendation on an index card. the index cards were then circulated amongst the group and rated by participants on a scale of 1-5. the ratings were averaged and the ideas that received the highest scores were displayed and discussed as a group. participants also had an opportunity to review and expand upon the highest rated ideas on an individual basis. the following ideas were put forth by roundtable participants. the highest rated ideas that were discussed in greater detail have been italicized: build new pathways based on best practices and strength-based approaches and not historical approaches. remove secondary streaming and/or identify alternatives to current forms of equivalency testing that are community-based. indigenous program pathways inventory 55 involve k-12 institutions and learners in the creation of possible pathways. provide indigenous knowledges training in protocols, language use and cultural practices for faculty and employees. create system-wide resources and supports to teach and embed indigenous education. build indigenous knowledges and skills into current curriculum. general education courses provincially recognized for language and skill competency such as beadwork, drumming, leather work etc. have the maesd program standards creation branch embed indigenous learning outcomes in all pse programs as vocational learning outcomes. work with a local community to design and pilot a k-12 to employment pathway model. bring together groups who are already engaged in this work. provide cultural sensitivity training in orientation activities for learners and include in mandatory employee and faculty orientations. develop consistent engagement and evaluation pieces to support pathway development and assessment enhanced collaboration with communities to facilitate a better/deeper understanding of data and subsequent pathway needs. involve aboriginal education councils and/or elders, language speakers, and indigenous knowledge keepers in the credit assessment process. create more bridging/transition programs. build, in collaboration with communities, an alternative access program pathway from the ground up that does not have to fit into pre-established processes (e.g. ged). standardize data collection processes/indicators for all post-secondary institutions. examine operating funding for indigenous programs in aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities. implement mandatory awareness training for all employees working in education. meaningfully involve indigenous learners in the pathway development process, beginning with an environmental scan of similar pathways. rewrite the admissions binding policy to create better access for indigenous learners, including exploring non-grade based options and reserved seating. develop pathways for indigenous learners outside of indigenous programming. apply for funding collaboratively to carry out work identified in the action plan. 4. wrap-up & forum discussion the roundtable meeting closed with a discussion on wrap-up activities for phase one and initial steps for phase two. as a wrap-up to phase one, an indigenous program pathways forum will take place. the purpose of the forum will be to discuss and finalize the draft indigenous program pathways action plan. all institutions in attendance were invited to participate in the forum, as well as phase two of the project. an initial planning session for phase two will also take place at the forum. indigenous program pathways inventory 56 appendix j: draft indigenous program pathways action plan indigenous program pathways action plan recommendation wholistic & accessible pathways indigenous pathway development should be comprehensive, spanning from k-12-employment an enhanced focus on academic upgrading and other initial entry points to pse should occur activity initial steps work with a local community to design and pilot a k-12 to employment pathway model hold focus groups/meetings with communities and key stakeholders involve k-12 institutions and learners in the creation of possible pathways remove secondary streaming and/or identify alternatives to current forms of equivalency testing that are communitybased collaborative and community-driven pathways indigenous communities, enhanced collaboration with indigenous learners and communities to facilitate a indigenous content specialists better/deeper understanding must be meaningfully involved in of data and subsequent pathway development and pathway needs assessment processes enhanced collaboration among and bring together groups in the between institutions and relevant province who are already stakeholders engaged in research and/or advocacy work pathway expansion best practices should inform the development of new pathways. consistent with a strengths-based approach, laddering curriculum or other means should be utilized to demonstrate the relevance and value of such pathways to learners and indigenous communities develop a position paper provide communities with data (i.e. community report) to support the discussion review work done to date in this area meet with the northern collaborative and the confederation college group to identify and discuss shared priorities meet with colleges ontario to identify and discuss shared priorities build new pathways based on best practices and strengthbased approaches and not historical approaches indigenous program pathways inventory compile an inventory on approaches and best practices in pse pathway development 57 enhanced data further planning at an institutional and system level needs to occur to support standardized data collection and analysis efforts data collection efforts need to be informed by indigenous-based research principles and include indicators that are meaningful and relevant to indigenous peoples, including but not limited to indigenous-based measures of success. standardize data collection across pse data collection to be guided by ocap principles and aboriginal education councils develop consistent engagement and evaluation pieces to support pathway development and assessment indigenous approaches to pathway development pse institutions should recognize general education courses the personal experience of provincially recognized for indigenous pathway learners upon language and skill competency entry such as beadwork, drumming, leather work etc. build indigenous knowledges and skills into current curriculum commitment to indigenous education a comprehensive review of revise the ministers binding institutional and system level policy directive policies, including funding policies, is needed to identify and address barriers to indigenous modes of education delivery, pathway development and assessment pse employees should be develop and deliver knowledgeable about indigenous mandatory cultural sensitivity peoples and equipped to support training as part of employee indigenous learners and faculty orientation indigenous program pathways inventory develop indigenous baseline data requirements develop draft guidelines or overarching principles for institutions to adopt develop pathway standards based off indigenous concepts of success examine the space to acknowledge indigenous knowledges and skills within the current general education framework and plar policies and practices create and implement training to support the assessment of indigenous knowledges and skills through ge and plar if necessary, create guidelines for indigenous knowledges and link to current framework and plar policies and practices engage in discussions with the ministry about barriers to indigenous pathway development create a working group to oversee the creation of roll out messaging across the province and to carry out this work 58 provide indigenous knowledges training for faculty and employees in protocols, language use and cultural practices pse learners should be knowledgeable about indigenous peoples have the maesd program standards creation branch embed indigenous learning outcomes in all pse programs as vocational learning outcomes create system-wide resources and supports to teach and embed indigenous education indigenous program pathways inventory engage senior leadership in planning and roll-out create and/or adopt training on canadian/indigenous history identify resources currently available (best practices, modules etc.) 59

2016 hob transfer agreement steering committee cookson, jeannine ma developing & implementing system-wide transfer agreements in ontario colleges the lessons learned hob transfer agreement steering committee table of contents executive summary .................................................................................................................................. 3 project team .............................................................................................................................................. 4 background ............................................................................................................................................... 5 purpose: ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 definitions: ............................................................................................................................................... 6 guiding principles .................................................................................................................................... 7 principles of transferability ................................................................................................................. 7 heads group transfer agreement steering committee (tasc)............................................................... 8 the agreement process and content .................................................................................................. 9 program pathway agreement committee (ppac) ................................................................................... 9 agreement content ................................................................................................................................ 10 process of communicating system wide college agreements........................................................... 10 the issue of implementing .................................................................................................................... 11 curriculum pathway guides ................................................................................................................... 12 the road to implementation in ontario ................................................................................................ 13 managing/sustaining the agreements ............................................................................................. 13 alignment of curriculum ........................................................................................................................ 13 the impact of external associations on curriculum............................................................................... 14 planning for the future ........................................................................................................................... 14 coming together on common ground.................................................................................................. 15 in conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 15 works cited ................................................................................................................................................. 17 appendix a - terms of reference transfer agreement steering committee..18 appendix b - system wide transfer agreement template .................................................................... 23 appendix c - process flow system-wide college transfer agreements............................................. 30 appendix d - frequently asked questions (faqs). 31 appendix e - curriculum pathway guide - core course comparison ...33 appendix f cpg changes template...34 2 hob transfer agreement steering committee developing & implementing systemwide transfer agreements in ontario colleges the lessons learned cookson, jeannine ma executive summary in september of 2013 the 24 ontario colleges delivering business programs had agreed to four, system- level transfer agreements. these agreements would allow students in specific programming areas, the ability to seamlessly transfer from one college to another college within the same program. transfers could occur at the completion of year 1 or at the completion of year 2, without academic penalty or impact to completion time. as this was the first of such agreements in ontario, this project would serve to implement the 4 college-to-college business transfer agreements, engage participating stakeholders and provide a road map for other agreements of this nature. the original goal of the project was to achieve the implementation through three key milestones, management, integration and establishing a method to maintain/sustain these agreements. management the primary focus under management of the pilot implementation project was ensuring the equitable, timely implementation of the agreements across the province. it should be well noted, the ontransfer.ca site at the beginning of this project was in its infancy as it related to transfer agreements of this magnitude. at the same time, the heads of business hob, agreements were being forged and signed, oncat was developing the ontransfer.ca pathways site. since both were crafted independently of each other, the first goal was to ensure there would be a template for the crafting of future agreements. in addition, the communication of these agreements had been sporadic and required a defined communication framework to ensure all stakeholders were informed of agreements during their development. integration the implementation project, spear headed by the heads of business needed to ensure a broad outreach to all stake holders, from chairs, to admissions officers to pathway advisors to program coordinators. through college workshops and the development of specific tools like; curriculum pathway guides, presentations, word documents and ongoing updates, each college began to explore their specific internal processes. essentially ensuring each college had the tools necessary to interpret and implement the agreements as written. maintain/sustainability the ultimate goal for these and other agreements is their long term sustainability. it should be noted that had it not been for the reciprocity and enthusiasm of the heads of business, agreements of this nature may not have been forged. it will be that same commitment that will continue to ensure every effort will be taken so that no student will be disadvantaged, should they chose to transfer now and in the future. 3 hob transfer agreement steering committee in august 2014, a project manager was secured to provide the colleges with a single point of contact, to help ensure consistency in interpretation and implementation of the agreements across all 24 colleges, simultaneously. however, prior to the colleges complete understanding of the nuances of the agreements and the implementation hurdles facing them when admitting students, colleges ontario and oncat announced the signing of these exemplary agreements on november 24th, 2014. this early announcement, necessitated a pilot implementation process that would not be the ideal example for other system wide pathways. throughout the implementation journey, a number of success were achieved; a communication framework for college-to-college pathways and the terms of reference for the transfer agreement steering committee were developed and approved. all 24 business schools in the ontario colleges have greater curriculum transparency. in addition the colleges in general, are better prepared to recognize and implement these and other agreements. in addition to the successes, a number of hurdles were also uncovered, which if unaddressed will negatively impact the sustainability of these agreements in the long term. many of these hurdles are beyond the scope of the heads of business. through the documenting of this journey and the lessons learned along the way, recommendations have been made, that if addressed, could serve to assist in the sustainability of these agreements and future development of other agreements. project team senior project manager jeannine cookson, cookson consulting group inc. hob - transfer agreement steering committee mary pierce; co-chair helene vukovich; co-chair joan campbell; alvina cassiani doug clark john conrad gary hallam sharon kinasz janice lamoureux marianne marando tina montgomery amy morrell karen murkar 4 chair lawrence kinlin school of business, fanshawe college associate dean, school of business, george brown college dean, school of business, media studies, creative arts & design, it, & culinary arts, cambrian college (from october 2015) dean, school of business humber college director of business, justice and science programs, northern college (to december 2014) associate dean school of business st. lawrence college executive dean, school of business & hospitality, conestoga college registrar, seneca college (from january 2016) registrar, fanshawe college (from january 2016) director of marketing, seneca college (from january 2016) dean of business, community services & school of the arts, college boreal chair, marketing and entrepreneurship school of business, centennial college (from may 2015) chair, school of accounting and financial services, seneca college hob transfer agreement steering committee background the ontario colleges heads of business (hob) has worked for several years to develop pathways for students in business-related postsecondary programs. in 2010, the heads of business (hob) received support from the college university consortium council (cucc) to develop province-wide college to college transfer protocols for accounting programs and human resources programs. this work expanded in 2011 to include the development of business administration and marketing transfer protocols. hob successfully collaborates with the mtcu and cucc/oncat to develop (4) four transfer agreements agreement date ontario college heads of business transfer agreements october 2011 1. february 2013 2. february 2013 3. february 2013 4. student transfer within accounting diploma and advanced diploma programs: mtcu # 50100 & 60100 student transfer within business diploma and advanced diploma programs mtcu # 50200 & 60200 student transfer within human resources diploma and advanced diploma programs mtcu #50223 & 60223 student transfer within business marketing diploma and advanced diploma programs mtcu #52900 & 62900 the agreements recognized that each college was satisfying the provincial standard learning outcomes within their curriculums. hob was confident, that they could support a transfer of grouping credits from the first year, to the second year and second year, to the third year of the identified programs. however, only 60% of the courses were completely aligned as equivalent across the system. this presented implementation challenges within each of the community colleges, in particular as it relates to the function of the registrars office. despite the fact that the principles of most of the oncat projects are based on the concept of common learning outcome delivery, the implementation systems and processes of the participating colleges are largely course based. in august of 2014, a project manager was hired to assist with the implementation of the four agreements. with only two months into the project, oncat and colleges ontario announced their desire for a public announcement of the agreements. this required an expedited posting of the agreements to ontransfer.ca. in addition and more importantly, they were posted without all implementation challenges facing the colleges being addressed and without an established method of sustaining the agreements. purpose: the purpose of this document is to share the experiences of the heads of business and assist other heads groups, in the creation and implementation of system wide program transfer agreements. it will assist in opening doors for students to transfer from one college to another, supporting barrier free mobility and student success. it will also provide some narrative based on the experiences of the heads of business (hob) through the implementation of the 4 hob systemwide transfer agreements. 5 hob transfer agreement steering committee definitions: the following definitions are for the purpose of this document and are subject to change. accc: association of canadian community colleges articulation agreements: formal agreements (or some would call a partnership) between two or more colleges and universities documenting the transfer policies for a specific academic program or degree in general. credit transfer: the recognition of achieved academic standing in a course or multiple courses, which can be applied towards the achievement of another credential ccvpa: coordinating committee of vice presidents academic cralo: committee of registrars and associate leaders ontario block credit: for the purpose of these agreements, a group of credits, earned over one or two years, at the sending institution and applied to the same program as a credit or exemption at the receiving institution. draft pathway: an ontransfer.ca pathway, under development, awaiting approval of the project lead exemption: a course which a student is not required to take in order to satisfy a particular credential. ontransfer.ca: the searchable web site for all ontario academic transfer/pathway agreements pathway template: the framework for communicating transfer agreements for posting to the ontransfer.ca web site. plar credit: prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) is a process that helps adult learners to identify, articulate and demonstrate relevant learning acquired through life and work experiences and translate this learning into college credit. receiving institution: the college or university to which a student is transferring into sending institution: the originating college, university or high school from which a student is transferring from. staged agreement: a system- pathway posted to the ontransfer site, awaiting confirmation of acceptance by the individual college(s) system-wide pathway: an agreement that has been posted to the ontransfer.ca site for the purpose of communicating transfer/articulation opportunities for students between multiple like institutions. i.e. college to college 6 hob transfer agreement steering committee system-wide transfer agreement: a formal contract between institutions to facilitate a students ease of transfer within the same program(s) lessons learned-definitions during the process of transferring the hob agreements to the ontransfer.ca site it became evident that common terminology was necessary and missing. without a basis for definitions, the above list was created to assist the implementation process. we understand there is work currently being done through oncat to align terminology for not only the oncat transfer projects but with potential pan canadian pathway agreements. as a result this list will continue to evolve. guiding principles the transfer agreement steering committee for the heads of business were asked, 6 months into the implementation of these agreements, what their thought process was during the negotiations and implementation. they were asked, what was the primary motivator that helped to keep them on track and what helped to guide their decision making? the following is that list: o o o o o o o o ensuring that students do not lose credits ensure students can complete their programs on time do not lose sight of diploma and credential completion (for higher education) focus on student success/satisfaction ensure transparency promote openness and sharing to provide students fair, easy and timely responses to focus on output rather than input lessons learned an issue of trust negotiations for the hob agreements occurred following significant curriculum mapping among participating colleges. once it was evident that learning outcomes were being met among all institutions, it then became a matter of trust that allowed the forging of these agreements. each college must trust their colleagues are meeting the learning outcomes as mapped. principles of transferability the ultimate goal of a transfer agreement is to remove barriers and allow for mobility of students from institution to institution in the province of ontario or among participating colleges. the principles listed below stem from the work of the dental hygiene project and accc. these same principles were used in the negotiation and ultimate writing of the four (4) business transfer agreements; 7 hob transfer agreement steering committee 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. transfer opportunities are transparent and communicated to students through the ontario transfer system. ontransfer.ca block transfer arrangements are based on the agreement of curriculum among colleges utilizing a learning outcomes approach. where block transfer is not possible, courses eligible for transfer and any assessments and student success strategies are identified by the individual colleges students must be in good standing at the original college to be considered for transfer credit all credits successfully completed in the pathways document for a particular program at the sending college will be accepted by the receiving college. all credits awarded through prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) at the sending college will be accepted at the receiving college. all colleges participating in a transfer pathway will advise other colleges when curriculum changes have been made that will affect transferability colleges will flag in their registration systems students who request transfer credit. college heads groups will provide an annual report to ccvpa on transfer activity. 1 heads group transfer agreement steering committee (tasc) in order to more effectively support the work required by these agreements, a steering committee was appointed by the heads of business to facilitate the agreement and implementation process for the programs within their portfolio. the role of the steering committee was defined within each of the agreements. over the course of the implementation, a more formalized terms of reference appendix a was developed and approved by the heads of business membership in october 2015. the (tasc) as appointed by the heads of business ontario (hob), report as a sub-committee of that group and are answerable to the coordinating committee of vice presidents academic (ccvpa). the heads of business (tasc) within its mandate are responsible for overseeing the development, communication process, ongoing sustainability and maintenance of all approved transfer agreements within their portfolio of programs in ontarios colleges. specific functions of the hob transfer steering committee include: collect and review, all data and issues pertaining to the implementation of all hob transfer agreements on an annual basis. provide an annual update to the hob membership during the implementation period of the agreements. any significant problems that fall within the mandate of the steering committee, the hob or its members will be addressed in a timely fashion: those beyond their mandate will be forwarded to those responsible for appropriate action. issues related to application, admission, and information will be forwarded through the registrar representative to the provincial college registrars committee. 1 page: 5 donovan, r. (10/18/2013) framework for implementation of oncat projects. london, on. 8 hob transfer agreement steering committee create opportunities for faculty to review the core learning outcomes as defined by the agreements and sustained through the program teams. update annually any shared documentation for the purpose of facilitating the long term success of the various hob transfer agreements. i.e. course exemplars and curriculum pathway guides review annually, required course sequencing for all colleges associated with the various agreements. assume oversight responsibilities within its mandate for additional business transfer initiatives as they are implemented. in this context, they will recommend adjustment to the committees membership, mandate, scope and continuation as needed. promptly address any urgent concerns within its mandate. critical issues requiring ongoing monitoring include any non-compliance with the established program requirements, concerns expressed by the professional organizations or any changes to the external rules governing college programs. table at the end of the initial seven year term, a summative report recommending any further changes in the overall transfer agreement and its renewal. this report will be finalized in consultation with the hob and subsequently forwarded to the provincial college ccvpa and the registrars group. lessons learned-terms of reference the above functions of the tasc were crafted prior to the authors of the agreements having a complete understanding of the implementation process, potential issues that could surface, or the full role of oncat as it relates to the signed agreements. the terms of reference (appendix a) has been finalized and approved by the ontario heads of business. the committee will continue as a sub-committee of the heads of business. the agreement process and content program pathway agreement committee (ppac) under the direction of the transfer agreement steering committee (tasc), each of the 4 agreements were negotiated through a program pathway agreement committee (ppac). this group conducted the curriculum mapping and determined the best method of ensuring transferability between colleges and programs. each ppac was comprised of; at least one tasc member plus faculty, coordinators, program managers, chairs or deans from participating colleges (one per institution), who were familiar with the mtcu program standards for the program(s) under discussion and the courses delivered within the program(s). a tasc member acted as chair for the committee all committee members agreed to work in accordance with the principles of transferability and although not documented at the time, the guiding principles above were pivotal in achieving a resolution. lessons learned crafting the agreement the crafting of the 4 hob agreements was done prior to the oncat work creating the ontransfer.ca pathways template. as a result, the process of moving the agreements into the ontransfer.ca site posed some significant challenges and issues around interpretation. it is recommended that future agreements be written using the template provided in this document. it will assist in the crafting of a transfer agreement, ensure the content is communicated in a consistent manner to all stakeholders and assist the transition to the ontransfer.ca site. 9 hob transfer agreement steering committee agreement content utilizing the system-wide transfer agreement template - appendix b. future program pathway committees can work through the following specific sections to reach consensus among participants. 1. basic information implementation and expiration dates 2. pathway information title of the pathway terms for renewal/cancellation eligibility and grades needed credit transfer details credential to be earned 3. receiving institution information program title, area of study, discipline approving authority college specific details 4. colleges administration and maintenance of the agreements participating colleges identified specific curriculum/learning outcome requirements of the agreement steering committee purview food for thought although not all colleges will participate in these agreements, it is still beneficial for all colleges to be aware of the transfer agreements and their status. in order to ensure all colleges are made aware of any potential system-wide transfer/pathway agreements. each should be presented to the respective heads group for endorsement and subsequent submission to the coordinating committee of vice president academics ccvpa. lessons learned- assign a project lead the hob transfer agreement, as a pilot project, benefited from a dedicated project manager. for other system wide transfer agreements it is recommended a project lead be identified. this should be an individual involved with /close to the development of the agreement(s). this can be a tsc member or other designate. their role would be: as a primary contact for oncat through the posting and approval stages of the pathway. a source of information, interpretation and counsel to all parties: ccvpa, academic heads, registrars and oncat. a consistent source of communication and support to all colleges as the pathway is implemented process of communicating system wide college agreements once an agreement by the ppac has been achieved the recommended process for introduction, communication and implementation to the colleges is defined in the process flow system-wide college transfer agreements appendix c. this process has been approved by the ccvpa in april of 2013 for immediate implementation. 10 hob transfer agreement steering committee lessons learned the process of communicating the agreements it should be noted, that the heads of business had no communication plan or process to follow, as they shared the agreements with key stakeholders. the process employed was somewhat ad hoc and is not recommended. the process flow appendix c is based on the experiences of the hob, discussions with ccvpa, council of registrars and associate leaders ontario (cralo) and oncat. the issue of implementing the greatest implementation challenge facing the colleges rests in their internal processes. the existing internal process, which requires each completed course be recognized, in order to ensure the student has suitably mastered the credential and validate the issuance of that credential, has not been fully satisfied by the hob transfer agreements as they exist today. all academic institutions on individual student transcripts, record successful achievement in course(s). the registrar traditionally relies on the academic schools to assess external course content or prior learning (plar) in order to apply credit. the hob transfer agreements recognize all credits earned at any sending institution. however, other than the defined core courses of each agreement, the remaining credits/courses earned, do not necessarily align with the receiving institutions courses or course sequencing. the desired end state, as expressed by the academic leadership, is that these agreements will serve to automate this process at the point of admission and thereby eliminate the need for academic review and approval prior to admitting a student. lessons learned frequently asked questions (faqs) as the colleges began accepting students through the oncat pathways, it became necessary to share managed hurdles through a faqs document, see appendix d. this was posted originally in a shared dropbox and was subsequently moved to the oncat web site for ease of access by all stake holders within ontario colleges. in addition, a number of desired transcript changes have been identified that if implemented could tremendously help simply this process. a shift at the college level to include the following on every college transcript will greatly assist the transfer process; - identify the program of study identify the mtcu# for program of study all general education courses identified program completion status, at the end of each semester/year. i.e. first year complete lessons learned transcript alignment it has been identified and acknowledged that there is significant disparity between transcripts at the various post-secondary institutions across canada. ease of transfer within ontario will only be achieved when the information shared on a transcript is consistent from college to college 11 hob transfer agreement steering committee cralo has withheld making any provincial recommendations around transcript alignment until the completion of the arucc/ pccat project. the research conducted in 2014 for arucc/pccat by j. duklas et al, served to define the similarities and diversity of transcript information across the country. 2 the original study led to the development of the arucc/pccat national practice standards guide and glossary. this guide does not define the necessary components of a transcript but aids interpretation of transcript information in canadian colleges and universities. http://guide.pccat.arucc.ca/en/ curriculum pathway guides currently, given the lack of automation in many college system data bases, the process of applying credit to a students transcript continues to be a manual endeavor. a significant amount of work has been funded to develop the ontransfer course credit transfer system. this data base can be utilized by both students and college administration alike, to inform of credit equivalencies, however it is still a manual process within the colleges. the heads of business transfer agreements housed in the program transfer system also recognizes core courses as equivalent, however these core courses may or may not be housed in the course credit transfer system and again, requires the colleges to manually apply the necessary credits to a students transcript. with this in mind and considering the additional implementation challenges listed above, it became imperative to create a solution that could be immediately implemented and utilized. curriculum pathway guides (cpg), were created, for each of the four agreements and originally posted to a centralized dropbox. these guides, written in excel, compare each colleges program, mapped to the framework of the respective agreement. colour coding of courses was used to ease comparison of various college curricula (core course comparison - appendix e). the colour coding was also used to compare all courses including those not defined as core. with no electronic link from the program transfer system to the course credit transfer system, the colleges will be dependent upon the on-going maintenance of the curriculum pathway guides. currently this and other resources pertaining to these agreements are housed on the project page of the oncat web site. a more suitable and accessible location for this material is necessary to support these and other agreements. many colleges are beginning to use these curriculum pathway guides to update their own systems, however that process is again a manual process. it will take a considerable amount of time and potentially additional funding to achieve. 2 duklas, et al arucc/pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study an examination of current practices at canadian postsecondary organizations 12 hob transfer agreement steering committee the heads of business believe it is critical for oncat to take a leadership role in creating a more intuitive data base that will: 1. 2. integrate the course transfer credit system to the program transfer data base. work with the individual colleges to develop their internal data base(s) to interface with the ontransfer.ca content. in february of 2016 one month prior to the conclusion of the project, all participating colleges were asked to review the curriculum pathway guides as posted to the oncat web site and verify accuracy of posted information. each college was asked to either confirm accuracy or report any changes using a standardized form. (appendix f). the hope was to have accurate data at the conclusion of the implementation project to sustain through the 2016/17 academic year and test the method of receiving changes. lesson learned as of march 17, 2016, less than 50% of the colleges had responded to the request for curriculum changes. it should be noted, in order for the colleges to be able to provide a response in a timely fashion, an annual date for curriculum updates be established, preferably in the spring or fall. the road to implementation in ontario during the implementation process, a number of methods were employed to share knowledge of the agreements and provide tools to share information with front line faculty and advisors. power point created and shared an faqs document created and shared by-monthly updates were posted and mailed to all heads of business members. transfer agreements implementation workshops were conducted. o as of march 2016; 13 colleges were visited 3 colleges part of northern collaborative and deferred 6 colleges tasc members facilitated the implementation 2 colleges limited contact or response a recent survey of the 24 colleges in ontario, conducted in february/march 2016, indicated that the vast majority of the survey respondents were aware of the heads of business (hob) transfer agreements with 82.05% responding that they were either moderately, very or extremely familiar with the agreements. 3 3 walker, s. d; march 2016, oncat diploma to diploma business transfer agreement process survey responses 13 hob transfer agreement steering committee managing/sustaining the agreements alignment of curriculum the heads of business, through the transfer agreements, very clearly defined the core (mandatory) courses required within each agreement and the approved sequencing. upon signing of the final agreements in april 2013, all colleges agreed to align their programs to match the framework of each of the agreements by september of 2013. should a college be unable to completely align, they needed to provide assurance that a transfer student could achieve the necessary core courses and would not be disadvantaged. it was not until the creation of the curriculum pathway guides did the misalignments to the framework of the agreements come to light. with the exception of only a very small number of colleges, between november 1, 2014 and january 2015, the required changes had not materialized. it took a considerable amount of discussion and work with the various chairs, deans, program coordinators and pathway advisors to assist each college achieve the desired goal. lessons learned: curriculum alignment and processing of transfer students each of the hob transfer agreements is centered upon a set of core courses, with a larger number of nonprescribed ancillary courses. however there is still some flexibility in which year/term these core courses are delivered. this flexibility along with a significant number of ancillary courses, will continue to force a manually generated, specialized timetable for transfer students. the impact of external associations on curriculum at the same time as the colleges were shifting curriculum to align with the agreement, the curriculum mapping originally completed in 2010 for the accounting programs had lost its alignment with its professional association. every college delivering accounting had been accredited by the certified general accountants (cga) association. the cga was now in the process of being dissolved. this change had significant impact on all the colleges, who were very dependent upon this relationship. it then became the goal of the hob to see if the various college curricula could align, in some way, to the remaining certified professional accountants (cpa) education certification. ongoing talks with the cpa continued over the 2014/15 academic year and as of march 23, 2015, still no direction had been ascertained. many colleges were then reluctant to change curriculum until a more clear direction had been forged with the cpa. thereby impacting the colleges ability to align with the accounting agreement as originally intended. the curriculum for the new cpa designation, the advanced certificate in accounting & finance acaf was finally defined in june of 2015. at which time, the colleges began the task of remapping their program learning outcomes to ensure alignment and accreditation with the cpas curriculum guidelines. lessons learned: affinity groups and curriculum alignment long term individual colleges must have the ability to modify their respective programs vocational outcomes in order to meet the needs of their local business community and as discussed, their various partnering associations. beyond march 2016 there will be no mechanism in place to capture localized curriculum changes or to address provincial issues impacting curriculum. the concept of affinity groups, comprised of coordinators/faculty has been raised. there has been no discussion pertaining to composition of these groups, mandate or reporting structure. this may be the avenue for the heads of business to ensure the continuity of provincial dialogue around curriculum. 14 hob transfer agreement steering committee planning for the future as the implementation of the agreements throughout the college system unfolded, a number of questions continued to arise as did some desired outcomes. - how do we keep information current? what happens when a college changes their program? will the curriculum pathway guides be needed long term? who will be responsible for keeping shared data, up-to-date? should we have common course outlines (course exemplars)? can we view learning outcomes by semester/year? how does this work impact the provincial standards? how does the college verification system cvs, support/augment this process? how can we use this opportunity to engage faculty better? how do we promote this opportunity? can this work help to leverage a students ability to articulate to a degree program, in colleges and universities? it was the hope of tasc to begin addressing these issues through a gathering of coordinators, and pathways advisors. coming together on common ground in may 2015 at guelph/humber university and humber college. the hob tasc hosted its first gathering of coordinators, registrars, and pathways advisors. with the following goals: 1. 2. 3. 4. create an opportunity for program coordinators to network and learn from one another plant the seed for evolving the agreed to vocational learning outcomes/courses to a more seamless alignment. set the foundation for year to year review of vocational outcomes. work to answer the questions identified in planning for the future above this first gathering proved extremely successful and generated a significant amount of synergy among the academic coordinators as they shared common interests and goals within their specific programs. the gathering also helped to define the common implementation issues facing the college community as well as establish recommendations to help solve the issues. unfortunately tasc unable to capitalize on the enthusiasm of the first forum with a phase ii as follow up. it will be left for discussion with the heads of business to determine the palate for continuing on an annual basis. in conclusion the agreements forged by the heads of business was the first step in what will be a lengthy process. the merging of outcomes and learning has given all the colleges pause to reflect and license to take the next step towards a more seamless alignment of curriculum. the implementation has certainly not been without its bumps and hurdles, largely due to the lack of a defined communication process. in hind sight, had the role of the project manager included more direct communication with cralo much of the implementation struggles may have been mitigated. 15 hob transfer agreement steering committee currently the common theme of reciprocity and shared belief in the spirit of transferability is pervasive among all the heads of business and the colleges in general. it will take some additional work among the educators to improve the alignment of learning outcomes while ensuring the registrars ability to adequately reflect that achievement on a transcript. some opportunities for closer alignment of curriculum could be achieved with: agreement on core course nomenclature. currently equivalent courses most often do not share a common name e.g. financial accounting i, introduction to accounting i, accounting fundamentals etc. this alignment would not only enforce the alignment of curriculum but provide visible evidence of that alignment. more tightly prescribed sequencing of core courses in the agreements. this would eliminate the current flexibility in delivery at each college which is creating complications for transfer students when the sending college has a different course sequencing than the receiving college. perhaps exploring the option of yearly course learning outcomes, which would help to address the alignment of courses outside of the core complement. courses which may be equivalent but also fall outside of a prescribed course sequencing in addition, it is important to ensure the colleges do not lose ground with their current degree articulation partners but expand their reach into even more degree opportunities. 16 hob transfer agreement steering committee works cited donovan, r. (10/18/2013) framework for implementation of oncat projects. london, on. duklas, j. et al (may 2014) arucc/pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study, an examination of current practices at canadian postsecondary organizations. h.o.b steering committee (2013) ontario college agreement regarding student transfer within business programs. toronto, on. hob agreement for business/business administration mtcu# 50200 and 60200 hob agreement for business- accounting/business administration- accounting mtcu# 50100 and 60100 hob agreement for business- hr/business administration- hr mtcu# 50223 and 60223 hob agreement for business- marketing/business administration- marketing mtcu# 52900 and 62900 walker s. d. (march 2016) oncat diploma to diploma business transfer agreement process survey responses 17 hob transfer agreement steering committee appendix a terms of reference transfer agreement steering committee system-wide transfer agreement terms of reference transfer agreement steering committee effective: approved: next review: march 2014 october 2015 march 2019 facilitating ease of transfer for business students in ontario colleges. 1.0 function the heads of business transfer agreement steering committee (tasc) as appointed by the heads of business ontario (hob). report as a sub-committee of that group and are answerable to the coordinating committee of vice presidents academic (ccvpa) 1.2 the hob transfer agreement steering committee within its mandate is responsible for overseeing the: development communication process ongoing sustainability and maintenance of all approved transfer agreements within the business portfolio of programs in ontarios colleges. 1.3 specific functions include: 18 1.3.1 collect and review all data and issues pertaining to the implementation of all hob transfer agreements on an annual basis. 1.3.2 provide an annual update to the hob membership during the implementation period of the agreements. any significant issues that fall within the mandate of the steering committee, the hob or its members will be addressed in a timely fashion. issues or concerns beyond the mandate of the transfer agreement steering committee will be hob transfer agreement steering committee forwarded to the individuals responsible for appropriate action. issues related to application, admission, and information will be forwarded through the registrar representative to the provincial college registrars committee. 2.0 1.3.3 create an annual opportunity for faculty to review the core learning outcomes as defined by the agreement and sustained through the program teams. 1.3.4 update annually any shared documentation for the purpose of facilitating the long term success of the various hob transfer agreements. i.e. course exemplars and curriculum pathway guides 1.3.5 review annually, required course sequencing for all colleges associated with the various agreements. 1.3.6 assume oversight responsibilities within its mandate for additional business transfer initiatives as they are implemented. in this context, they will recommend adjustment to the committees membership, mandate, scope and continuation as needed. 1.3.7 promptly address any urgent concerns within its mandate. critical issues requiring ongoing monitoring include any non-compliance with the established program requirements, concerns expressed by the professional organizations or any changes to the external rules governing college programs. 1.3.8 table at the end of the initial seven year term, a summative report recommending any further changes in the overall transfer agreement and its renewal. this report will be finalized in consultation with the hob and subsequently forwarded to the provincial college ccvpa and the registrars group. membership and terms of office 2.1 19 this committee is comprised of members from the hob. ideally one representative for each of the 4 geographic jurisdictions for ontario colleges. voting membership: 1 rep - northern colleges 1 rep - central colleges 1 rep - eastern colleges 1 rep - western colleges 1 rep - francophone college, if not represented above. ex officio: 1 rep council of registrars and admissions liaison officers (cralo) 1 rep heads of marketing (hom) hob transfer agreement steering committee 3.0 2.2 terms of office: each member shall serve a term of no less than 3 years with an opportunity to sit for a second term. in order to ensure the knowledge base of this committee, steps should be taken to ensure a rotation of membership including the introduction of only one new member per year. 2.3 chair: the chair/co-chairs will be voted upon by the sitting committee members serving a term of no less than 2 years. guiding principles in the execution of their responsibilities, the transfer agreement steering committee will work to sustain the following guiding principles and ensure that any additional pathways created are done so, within the spirit of these guiding principles: 3.1 the transfer agreement steering committee for the hob including any sub committees creating pathway opportunities for students, will strive to ensure: 3.1.1 all discussions/actions maintain confidentiality of personal and individual college information 3.1.2 students can complete their programs on time 3.1.3 all decisions will support a students ability to achieve credential completion without jeopardizing their opportunity for additional higher education 3.1.4 the focus will be on student success/satisfaction 3.1.5 transparency of pathway opportunities for students 3.1.6 all meetings are conducted within an environment among committee members and partnering colleges that promotes openness and sharing 3.1.7 students receive fair, easy and timely responses 3.1.8 colleges shift their focus on output rather than input 3.1.9 a collaborative and collegial working environment for all colleges 4. meetings and conduct of business the transfer agreement steering committee shall meet a minimum of once per month during the initial implementation phase of an agreement. at the discretion of the committee this can be reduced as implementation progresses. 5. annual reporting an annual report containing key success measures will be prepared for, reviewed by and reported through the business transfer agreement steering committee for the purpose of: 5.0.1 the early identification and correction of any confusion or problems in the overall agreement and its administration, 20 hob transfer agreement steering committee 5.0.2 5.0.3 5.0.4 the early identification of any significant problems with student preparation and the timely and confidential communication of those too the originating college, the provision of data to support ongoing professional associations and accrediting agencies recognition, and academic planning. 5.1 without limiting any future reporting requirements of the ccvpa, cop, related government agencies or mtcu, relevant data and reports containing only system aggregate data will be shared with the business transfer agreement steering committee, the heads of business, the committee of registrars and with the college signatories to the agreement. 5.2 working with the college registrars, the transfer agreements steering committee will facilitate the preparation of the following reports: 5.2.1 a report of the application, registration and graduation data for transfer students provided in chart form by program, semester, originating and receiving college, will be made available to the steering committee, 5.2.2 a report on the gpa of transferring students by program, semester and receiving college, will be made available to the steering committee, 5.2.3. reports on the gpa of transferring students by program, semester and originating and receiving college will be made available confidentially to only the authorized representatives of the originating college. 5.3 additionally, the college schools of business and their registrars will collect information and report to the steering committee on: 5.3.1 transfer student satisfaction and 5.3.2 any anecdotal issues with the transfer process. 5.4 to deal in a timely fashion with critical issues that may emerge during the life of the agreement, the steering committee may be requested to provide, or require additional information. 6. references hob -transfer agreement for business/business administration mtcu# 50200 and 60200 hob -transfer agreement for business- accounting/business administration- accounting mtcu# 50100 and 60100 hob -transfer agreement for business- hr/business administration- hr mtcu# 50223 and 60223 hob -transfer agreement for business- marketing/business administration- marketing mtcu# 52900 and 62900 21 hob transfer agreement steering committee 7. attachments the transfer agreement steering committee as of january 2016 voting membership joan campbell alvina cassiani john conrad gary hallam tina montgomery amy morrell karen murkar mary pierce; co - chair helene vukovich co-chair ex officio hom marianne marrando cralo sharon kinasz janice lamoureux project mgr. jeannine cookson 22 cambrian college humber college st. lawrence college conestoga college college boreal centennial college seneca college fanshawe college george brown college joan.campbell@cambriancollege.ca alvinacassiani@humberc.ca jconrad@sl.on.ca ghallam@conestogac.on.ca tina.montgomery@collegeboreal.ca amorrell@centennialcollege.ca karen.murkar@senecacollege.ca mpierce@fanshawec.ca hvukovic@georgebrown.ca seneca college kwiley@sl.on.ca seneca college fanshawe college sharon.kinasz@senecacollege.ca jlamoureux@fanshawec.ca cookson consulting group inc. jeanninecookson@rogers.com hob transfer agreement steering committee appendix b system wide transfer agreement template system wide transfer agreement template the following system pathway template can be used to forge pathway agreements among participating institutions. it will also provide the necessary information to oncat for posting to the ontransfer.ca site once agreement has been secured. it can be used for both college and university pathways alike. section 1: basic information the basic information section includes the pathway category, type and the implementation and expiry date of the agreement. the section is for administrator view only and is not seen on the public facing website. 1.1 pathway category system pathway 1.2 pathway type credit transfer or degree-completion 1.3 implementation date (yyyy-mm-dd) 1.4 expiry date (yyyy-mm-dd): should be a common date agreed upon by the transfer steering committee. determine the length of time the committee is comfortable going without review 7 years allows for sufficient time to assess the success of the pathway and develop a good method of sustaining/maintaining the agreement. section 2: pathway information: this section includes the information students and the public will see in their transfer guide search results. 2.1 title of pathway: be specific in the title of the pathway. include the mtcu # of the program(s): example: business year 1 to business administration advanced diploma year 2 mtcu code # 60200 one agreement for a program discipline may create multiple pathways. for example; the business diploma 2 year program and the 3 year business administration advanced diploma was written as one agreement but created 6 pathways. utilize a table to define the pathways. this will assist oncat when moving the agreement to a pathway. 2.2 terms for renewal or cancellation: provide a statement outlining expectations should a college need to withdraw from the agreement prior to the renewal date. acknowledge any external accrediting bodies which may impact the feasibility of the agreement. describe any conditions applicable in the event of a cancellation of the agreement. example: colleges offering programs in fire science may adjust the conditions for transfer to reflect external changes in standards, professional accreditation or certification requirements. the changes must conform to the timelines set by the accrediting organization. individual colleges may withdraw from the agreement with the following conditions: the decision is implemented after formalized student information sources are updated accordingly students currently registered in the degree program are able to complete their program of study external regulations permitting, degree programs will continue to accept transfer student for a two additional years. 23 hob transfer agreement steering committee in the unlikely event that the agreement is terminated at the end of the initial term, students enrolled in the diploma transfer stream or transfer prerequisite pathway will be continue to be eligible to transfer for an additional two years. 2.3 eligibility for the pathway: keep in mind the principles behind these agreements. a student has already been admitted into a post secondary institution, they should not be required to repeat the same admission process again. use generic terminology to identify the possibility of additional admission criteria. for example: french language proficiency and possibley issues of capacity. example: to qualify for transfer from the first year of the ontario college business diploma to the second year of the ontario college business diploma offered by another college, the student must: have completed the first year of the business diploma program meet any other admissions requirements of the receiving college student application will be through the ontario college application system (ocas) and must conform to the published time lines. www.ontariocolleges.ca admissions will be subject to the processes of the college being applied to. where application numbers exceed the capacity of any college, additional selection and approval requirements may apply. regardless of the level at which a student was originally admitted into the diploma program and/or the admission standard at the time, students will be accepted for transfer based on their successful completion of the required first year of the business diploma program at the point of transfer. 2.4 graduated from the program at the sending institution: used for articulation agreements, example diploma completion to degrees, or 2 year diploma to 3 year diploma. 2.5 required gpa (x.xx gpa or x/x+/x or xx%): when building a system wide agreement use the lowest common denominator for transfer. recommend using % as there is no consistency in gpa calculation across the system. for example: the business agreements used 50% 2.6 minimum grade in required courses (x/x+/x-): as with above, define the lowest grade which can be accepted for this pathway should be identified. for example: the business agreements used d 24 yes no hob transfer agreement steering committee 2.7 credit transfer: this is a system- wide agreement therefore a generic reference to credits received may need to be used. given the liberal nature of the business agreements and their relationships with external associations it was useful to include a statement pertaining to the students responsibility. example: admitted transfer students will be granted by their receiving college an agreed number of academic credits: termed a block credit transfer which will include specific credits and exemptions. grade equivalencies are addressed by this transfer pathway agreement as follows: participating colleges will accept the course pass designation for all other colleges regardless of specific grade earned, wherever specific grades or grade point averages (gpas) are required, the grade given by the originating college will be accepted, transfer credit for courses will typically be recorded on the receiving college transcript in terminology such as transfer credit or exemption rather than a grade, whenever transfer students pursue professional certification and they require final grade evidence of completion of a professional course requirement from another college, they must obtain transcript evidence of grades from the college at which the course was taken. 2.8 number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving institution (must be expressed as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): since there could be an exhaustive number of permeations a generic reference to credits may be required example: block transfer of all first year credits or recognition of all first year credits earned. 2.9 anticipated time to complete the credential at the receiving institution if enrolled full-time: the system wide agreements need to be consistent. however, it is recognized that at some institutions the delivery schedule of needed courses may prevent a student from completing within the defined time frame. example: students transferring from the first year of an ontario college business diploma to the second year of the business diploma program at another college: can anticipate time to completion to be one (1) year. *please note: time to completion may be altered by course availability 2.10 number of semesters to complete the credential based on full-time study: 2.11 credentials to be granted on successful completion of all required components: use the ministry approved nomenclature for the program(s). example: business administration advanced diploma 25 see pathway hob transfer agreement steering committee section 3 : receiving institution information: the receiving institution information section describes the credential, discipline, program area and title of the program that the student will be transferring into. the credits they must achieve at their receiving institution are defined. students and the public will see this information in their transfer guide search results. approval party name(s) and date of approval are for administrator view only. 3.1 degree 3.2 credential: diploma advanced diploma certificate ontario certificate program discipline: this field is consistent with the ontario college application system (ocas) discipline fields example: science and technology/ business and finance administration etc. 3.3 program area: can repeat above or use program title example: engineering and technology 3.4 program title: use the ministry approved nomenclature for the program(s). individual colleges may adjust this should the name of their program not be consistent with the common nomenclature. example: business administration accounting 3.5 date of approval by receiving institution (yyyy-mm-dd): this date will be populated by each participating college once the staged pathway has been approved on the ontransfer.ca site. 3.6 approving party name(s): identify who the approving authority is for this pathway. for community colleges, the vice president academic is generally applicable. more than one person can be identified. please include name and title. example: sally provost vice president academic vpa 3.7 credits that must be achieved at the receiving institution: when working with a system-wide agreement use terminology that can be applied to all institutions. the number of credits required to complete, may vary at each college. example from the business agreements: students will be required to take the outstanding number of course credits, in order to satisfy the remaining learning outcomes of the program of study. students are required to meet the progression and graduation requirements as defined by the receiving college in order to satisfy the credential. please discuss with the transfer advisor for further information students will be required to take no less than 25% of the course credits at the receiving college. 26 hob transfer agreement steering committee 3.8 summarized credits that must be achieved at the receiving institution an average number of credits/courses can be used. or the highest number required based on course mapping. 3.9 college specific information required ontransfer.ca site contact procedure: the contact information in this section is specific to the institution and for the pathway identified above. you may include one or more contacts. this can be a program coordinator, advisor, faculty etc. ensure you provide a link to the specific program web page provide: name of college name of advisor phone number email address program administrator (if able to speak to terms and conditions of agreement) section 4: college administration and agreement maintenance this section is specifically for the college administration of the agreement. the content will not be posted to the oncat web site. 4.1 curriculum alignment define the expectation of each college to ensure they meet the framework of this agreement. include all courses and sequencing agreed to. include in a separate appendix if necessary. example: the business agreements used a table. see appendix b of this template 4.2 inter college/university management of this agreement. the following lists the requirements of all participating colleges for continued inclusion in the agreement and the role the steering committee plays in ensuring compliance/adherence to the agreement. example: 4.2.1 reporting to the heads of ________________ and answerable to the college committee of vice presidents academic (ccvpa), this transfer agreement will be subject to monitoring by a ______________transfer steering committee (steering committee) the steering committees mandate is: i. to annually collect and review measurement data on the effectiveness of the transfer process and report to the heads of __________________ ii. to maintain confidentiality of personal and individual college information, iii. to receive and deal with concerns within its mandate, iv. to propose academic improvements to the heads of ____________________; v. pursue admission information and data collection issues to the registrars committee and route other concerns to the responsible individuals or groups, vi. to prepare the end-of-contract-term summative report for the heads of __________________ and the ccvpa, and 27 hob transfer agreement steering committee vii. at the end of the first term of the agreement, to recommend continuation, adjustment or retirement of the agreement and of the steering committee. 4.2.2 it is understood that the steering committee will assume oversight responsibilities within its mandate for additional applicable transfer initiatives as they are implemented. in this context, they will recommend adjustment to the committees membership, mandate, scope and continuation as needed. 4.2.3 the steering committee will promptly address any urgent concerns within its mandate. critical issues requiring ongoing monitoring include but are not limited to any non-compliance with the established program requirements, concerns expressed by the professional organizations or any changes to the external rules governing college programs. 4.2.4 the steering committee will table with the heads of ________________________ an annual progress report on the transfer program. any significant problems that fall within the mandate of the steering committee, the heads of _______________________ or its members will be addressed in a timely fashion: those beyond their mandate will be forwarded to those responsible for appropriate action. issues related to application, admission, and information will be forwarded through the registrar representative to the provincial college registrars committee. 4.2.5 at the end of the initial seven year term, a summative report will be tabled by the steering committee recommending any further changes in the overall transfer agreement and its renewal. this report will be finalized in consultation with the heads of _______________________ and subsequently forwarded to the provincial college ccvpa and the registrars group. 4.3 list of participating institutions provide a list of all institutions participating in this agreement. include within the document or on a separate appendix. 4.4 statement of acceptance the heads of ____________________ recommend acceptance of this agreement by the coordinating committee of college vice presidents academic, ccvpa for immediate communication/distribution the ontario council on articulation & transfer oncat , council of registrars and associate leaders of ontario cralo and their respective colleges. signed: ________________________________________ date: ___________________________ chair; heads of ___________________ motion to accept: signed: _________________________________________ date:___________________________ chair; ccvpa oncat communication date: ____________________________________________ 28 core course sequencing for business programs- transfer agreement template appendix b typical college business diploma courses general two-year and three-year business and business administration programs for students planning to continue 2nd yr. diploma studies at another college course completion by end of the first year of the 2 yr business or 3 yr business admin. diploma program for students planning to continue 3rd yr diploma studies at another college course completion by end of second year of the 2 yr. business or 3 yr. business administration diploma program transfer prerequisites for business administration diploma graduates into business degree programs offered by collaborating ontario universities4 accounting introductory financial accounting management accounting yes yes yes yes communications business writing effective communications yes yes business computer applications yes computers economics microeconomics macroeconomics yes (recommended have one economics) yes yes math business math5 yes introductory customer relations yes yes marketing operations human resources management business law organizational behaviour statistics ethics gened 4 yes yes yes yes yes yes per transfer agreement business administration college to university being finalized as of february, 2013 if school only offers math of finance, it should be indicated that is the math course they will include if participating in this agreement 55 yes yes yes yes appendix c - process flow system-wide college transfer agreements action vpa heads group sponsoring group develops agreement, including list of all participating colleges. all participants ensuring consultation with respective vpa. colleges may choose to participate or not. ccvpa liaison maintains communication with the heads group and ccvpa final agreement presented at heads group meeting for "motion of acceptance". project lead identified. signed by presiding chair ccvpa signed agreements presented at ccvpa for "motion of acceptance" signed by presiding ccvpa chair accepted agreements forwarded to oncat for initial data entry and cralo for distribution among college registrars distributed through vpa's to all colleges. oncat cralo draft agreements posted to www.ontransfer.ca. awaiting review by project lead agreement forwarded to cralo for distribution among registrars project lead review of draft agreement with oncat approve for staging colleges college ensures ability to facilitate the agreement according to internal policies and procedures email sent to college oncat contact of pathway agreement pending approval. each college confirms acceptance of the agreement on www.ontransfer.ca agreement live on ontransfer.ca for confirmed colleges only heads group ongoing annual review to ensure effective sustainability. agreements recorded at respective college to be implemented and promoted according to college practice. hob transfer agreement steering committee appendix d - frequently asked questions (faqs) frequently asked questions (faqs) system wide transfer agreements implementation programs program name(s) mtcu# mtcu# business / business administration 50200 60200 business- accounting / business administration - accounting 50100 60100 business human resources / business admin. - human resources 50223 60223 business marketing / business admin. - marketing 52900 62900 eligibility 1. students must be in good standing at the end of the first or second year at the sending college. 2. students must meet any other admission criteria as described by the receiving college i.e. french language competency assessing credit earned how many course credits, is a receiving college required to provide? a transfer student must receive recognition for all credits received within the applicable program at the sending college. one or two years depending on the pathway this may be recognized as an exemption, external credit or transfer credit individual college web sites can provide the necessary data. how does a receiving college know if a student has taken the required number of credits? or what is the curriculum pathway guide (cpg)? the core courses" are identified with all other courses delivered at each college, for comparison purposes. how should a transfer students credits be recognized? 31 a curriculum pathway guide cpg will be available to provide quick access to all 24 colleges curriculum for the purpose of assessing credit earned and for mapping the students necessary learning outcomes. the curriculum pathway guide provides a central reference of all like programs in the province of ontario, mapped to the framework of each agreement. a credit can be identified as external credit transfer credit or exemption, based on individual college practice. hob transfer agreement steering committee is the receiving college required to review course outlines/syllabus prior to granting credit? our policy dictates a 60% pass as the minimum grade for accepting external credits. if a student has an external credit or plar credit on their transcript, are they required to present evidence of the original documentation? our internal process dictates approval for credit can only be granted by the course department head not just the head of business. progression/graduation our college policy stipulates a student must attain a minimum overall average of 60% to graduate. our program requires students maintain a 60% average to enter the second/third year of our program. will a transfer student attain a minimum of 25% of our curriculum to receive our diploma? no. these agreements are founded on significant curriculum mapping. all courses delivered within the ontario college system have been deemed acceptable recognition of credit earned and should be recognized as such. for the purpose of the four business agreements, if 50% is recognized as a pass at the sending college, it is to be recognized as a pass at the receiving college. all external credits, exemptions and plar are to be accepted by the receiving college. a student should not be required to submit evidence a second time. these agreements came to be after significant curriculum mapping including all service courses, in particular communications and math. they have been endorsed/signed by all vice president academics and are therefore supported by all department heads. students are required to meet the receiving colleges graduation policies. students should be advised by the transfer advisor as to the applicability of their transfer credits, in the overall calculation for graduation purposes. the language of the agreements recognizes a pass as a pass regardless of grade earned or overall gpa. transfer students will be required to meet the receiving colleges progression and graduation policies in order to graduate and complete their credential. yes, transfer for these agreements will continue to support this policy. a transfer student will still complete greater than 25% of the curriculum at any receiving college regardless of pathway. sustaining the agreements for 7 years is there a specific curriculum that all colleges are required to deliver? can we make changes to our programs? other pathway agreements 32 each agreement identifies core courses to be delivered by the completion of the first year and the second year of study. all colleges delivering the applicable programs as of 2013 were to have aligned their curriculum to meet these minimum requirements. currently colleges are asked to forestall any curriculum changes until a sustainability plan can be forged among the heads of business. hob transfer agreement steering committee appendix e - curriculum pathway guide - core course comparison core course comparsion march-16 business accounting diploma & advanced diploma mtcu# 50100 & 60100 business human resources diploma & advanced diploma mtcu# 50223 and 60223 business marketing diploma & advanced diploma mtcu# 52900 & 62900 admission requirements admission requirements admission requirements admission requirements transfer agreement transfer agreement transfer agreement transfer agreement 2 communications - effective /////////////////////////////// 3 business computer applications 4 business math 5 marketing - introductory year one core courses /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// math /////////////////////////////// 4 /////////////////////////////// 5 2 business writing 3 college communications 4 business computer applications 5 business math /////////////////////////////// microeconomics /////////////////////////////// 6 4 year two core courses year one core courses 1 introductory accounting 2 management accounting 1 financial accounting fundamentals ii 2 business writing 2 business writing 3 micro or /macro economics 3 macro economics organizational behaviour 4 /////////////////////////////// 3 business computer applications 4 business math 5 introduction to marketing /////////////////////////////// human resources management /////////////////////////////// 5 year two core courses 1 business writing /////////////////////////////// 6 year two core courses 1 year two core courses /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// see year 1 1 communications 2 microeconomics or / macroeconomics 2 microeconomics or /macroeconomics organizational behaviour 3 organizational behaviour 3 organizational behaviour /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 4 gened 4 gened 5 marketing customer relations /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 5 sales/selling 6 human resources /////////////////////////////// see year 1 7 operations management /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 5 accounting information systems 6 intermediate accounting i 7 intermediate accounting ii /////////////////////////////// 8 quantitative methods i /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 9 management acccounting fundamentals /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 10 corporate finance 5 training and development /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// additional core courses 8 business law /////////////////////////////// additional core courses 4 year two core courses communications - effective /////////////////////////////// 3 year one core courses 1 introductory accounting additional core courses year one core courses 2 year one core courses 1 financial accounting fundamentals i year one core courses year one core courses 1 accounting - introductory year one core courses business/business administration - general mtcu# 50200 & 60200 /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 6 compensation /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 7 occupational health and safety /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 8 recruitment and selection /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 13 core courses 33 /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 14 core courses 14 6 advertising/integrated marketing comms /////////////////////////////// 7 marketing research core courses 12 core courses appendix f cpg changes form curriculum pathway guide cpg, updates please identify any changes to the cpgs posted to the hob project resources page on the oncat web site. http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=heads_of_business_project_resources changes can be emailed to: college hillaryclairewatson@gmail.com program contact name(s) contact title email telephone agreement framework core courses year 1 ancillary courses year 1 core courses year 2 ancillary courses year 2 course # current course title course # changed to course title level

oncat transfer pathway final report project name: member: project number: project manager: project manager contact info: report date: attention: transfer pathway - general arts and science at georgian to psychology at york university york university 2015-27 yvette munro, director, academic partnerships and planning (york university) york university 4700 keele street 933 kaneff research tower toronto, on m3j 1p3 ymunro@yorku.ca (416) 736-5396 march 23, 2016 lena balata, project officer (oncat) lbalata@oncat.ca executive summary this project establishes a transfer pathway between the general arts and science program (gas) at georgian college and york university, in particular, to the psychology programs offered by the faculty of health. while historically, students from the georgian gas program or any like program offered through ontarios publicly funded colleges were granted credits under the universitys block credit policy, no specific transfer pathway/articulation agreement existed. the project aimed to grant additional credits and/or more specific credit within the receiving program. the project achieved its overall goal and based on a review of detailed course outlines by academic colleagues, it was determined that a greater amount of credit than the normal block (15 additional credits/one full-time term) could be awarded and a number of specific credits that could count towards a variety of majors were identified. the psychology program at york university has determined that the psychology courses offered at georgian in the gas program satisfy learning outcomes of introductory level psychology courses at york university, provided the student has attained a high enough grade in those individual courses, as is required by students at york. the project participants worked very efficiently and were able to achieve the project goals within the time frame that had been proposed. the formal transfer articulation agreement outlining the details of the transfer pathway from the georgian gas to york university was signed in february 2016 (attached). in addition, york university has determined that an admissions agreement for students who complete the one gas certificate may also be admitted to degree programs with more than the usual credit transferred for one year programs; as these students are required to complete the two introductory psychology courses that align with yorks introductory course, admission to psychology is a possibility. the project also explored the potential for pathways from georgians gas to yorks sociology and political science programs. the project was successful in identifying specified credits at the introductory level (within the 45 transfer credits) in three additional york programs: english, philosophy and sociology. through the work to establish the gas pathway to the faculty of health, other potential pathways are being explored. this includes a pathway from health and wellness at georgian to the kinesiology in the faculty of health. project details the project involved completion of the following: oncat transfer pathway final report 1. curriculum and learning outcomes mapping of psychology; 2. identification of transfer credits that can be assigned to other majors at york; 3. credit transfer assessment for diploma students with the aim to recognize as many college credits as possible; 4. coordination of promotional aspects between the institutions; and 5. approval of new pathway(s) by both institutions. the project did not require the development of bridging courses or examination of accreditation requirements. based upon curriculum and learning outcomes mapping, the transfer pathway grants 45 credits towards the ba degrees at york university and does not limit the number of georgian students eligible to transfer as long as students meet the admission requirements of having achieved a minimum gpa of b (3.0/70%) and, for the psychology program, a minimum of b or 70% in each of the two introductory psychology courses in order to be exempted from the required introductory course. transfer pathway/articulation agreements were approved and signed by the president and ceo (georgian) and vice president academic & provost (york) in february 2016. the transfer pathway will be included in future institutional print and web-based promotional materials and have been included at upcoming transfer recruitment events and has been posted to the oncat site. key lessons learned or best practices include the following: importance of engaging faculty, staff and administration for various aspects of the project such as overall project management and building faculty support at the program level. value of maintaining a degree of project flexibility to expand or reshape scope of project to allow for opportunities that may emerge (e.g. development of university to college pathways, including additional degree programs) while balancing overall project management and deliverables. connections matter and can lead to further exploration of partnership opportunities

credit where credit is due: understanding the credit transfer experience at ontario colleges submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer march 2016 abstract during the summer of 2013, in the course of preparing durham colleges oncat data availability report, the office of research services and innovation determined that 1,124 applicants who applied to durham college during the 2011-12 reporting year possessed prior postsecondary experience and thus were eligible to apply for credit transfer; yet, only 298 of those applicants applied for credit transfer. almost three quarters of students who could have applied for credit transfer did not. there was interest in exploring whether this might be the case at overall provincial level as well as why. the purpose of this research study is to understand why some students do not apply for credit transfer and for those who do, to understand their experiences in applying for credit transfer. the study explores patterns of student mobility, student expectations on credit transfer, prevalent credit transfer practices and procedures, and institutional challenges. the goal of the study is to produce a report that will identify best practices to improve the credit transfer process for students in ontario colleges. this study was the result of collaboration between 22 colleges of applied arts and technology (caat) in ontario led by durham college. the research team used data from ontario college application service (ocas), and a survey of the students across all 22 caat colleges who were eligible for credit transfer prior to enrolling in a postsecondary program in september 2014. students were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey and offered the opportunity to volunteer for group discussion. findings from the survey were analyzed and the quantitative data was further enriched with student focus groups conducted onsite at most of the 22 participating caat colleges, and phone interviews conducted with the registrars or designates at each of the participating colleges. using applicants voluntary self-disclosure on the ocas admissions application, it was determined that approximately 30% of first year students enrolled at a caat college in september 2014 declared having a prior postsecondary experience. these students were credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 2 invited to participate in a survey. respondents were divided into three categories: those that were not aware of credit transfer, those that did not apply for credit transfer, and those that did apply for credit transfer. not aware of credit transfer (27.8%) eighty-one percent of these students indicated that they would have applied for credit transfer if they had been aware of the possibility; and the remaining 19% of students reported that their perception of whether they are enrolled in a related program would play a key role in their decision to apply for credit transfer. did not apply for credit transfer (28.9%) thirty eight percent of the respondents assumed that since they are pursuing a different program, there would be no credit transfer possibility and did not apply; and applicants often do not explore the possibility that even in the case of a subsequent unrelated program, there might be a possibility to transfer some elective courses. applied for credit transfer (43.2%) seventy-seven percent of students indicated that they pursued a subsequent postsecondary program at a different institution; developing robust inter-institutional credit transfer possibilities is especially important; students with prior university experience indicate that attending a different postsecondary institution as an opportunity to build on their postsecondary experience as a major reason; student with prior college experience indicated the location of their current institution as a major reason for attending a different postsecondary institution; colleges websites (25.8%) were resourced most as a source of information in addition to the informal information from peers or family (22.6%); sixty-four percent of respondents indicated that they would prefer to receive the credit information at the same time as (when they receive) their admissions package; credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 3 almost forty percent of respondents indicated that they submitted multiple applications; access to documentation and financial cost for credit transfer application were found to be primary barriers in the application experience; almost one-sixth of the respondents consider less than 3 days a reasonable length of time to process an application, an additional forty percent consider less than 1 week to be the appropriate length of processing time; there is a significant gap between applicants timeline expectations and current prevalent practices at a number of colleges; of the respondents who expected to receive credits, but were denied, just over half 56.2% received an explanation of the reason; there appears to be a communication gap when students are denied credit, which often leaves applicants feeling confused and treated unfairly; classroom visits and assistance by program coordinators was found to be very helpful; and often the credit transfer process resides in the registrar offices while the credit transfer decision-making resides in the school offices. if the transfer efforts in the two units are not well-coordinated, it leads to a significant amount of frustration and time-delay for student. predictors of credit transfer applicants students who are older are less likely to apply for credit transfer; students who are enrolled in a diploma or advanced diploma are more likely to apply for credit transfer than those in certificate program; students who were enrolled in a prior diploma, advanced diploma or degree program were more likely to apply for credit transfer than those who were enrolled in a prior certificate program; and students who had graduated from their prior postsecondary program were more likely to apply for the credit transfer. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 4 predictors of credit transfer recipients students who are on international study permit and have enrolled in prior postsecondary in ontario, are more likely to receive credit transfer; students who submitted credit transfer applications closer to start of the classes, or during the first weeks were less likely to receive credit; students who submitted multiple credit transfer applications were less likely to receive at least one credit transfer; and students who found the collection of requisite documents easy were more likely to receive credit transfer. predictors of credit transfer satisfaction students who found the first point of contact easily were more satisfied with the process; students who clearly understood the credit transfer requirements were more satisfied; students who could easily access the requisite documentation such as, course outlines and transcripts were more satisfied; and students who deemed the processing time for the application to be reasonable were more satisfied. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 5 table of contents section i: background purpose of the study ............................................................................................ 13 research questions .............................................................................................. 14 definitions of key terms ....................................................................................... 16 limitations of the study ........................................................................................ 16 section ii: literature review defining credit transfer ........................................................................................ 18 non-traditional paths of credit transfer and articulation ................................... 19 intra-institutional collaboration............................................................................ 21 inter-institutional cooperation ............................................................................. 23 section iii: methodology population and sample ......................................................................................... 30 section iv: data analysis provincial data assessing the magnitude of credit transfer interest ........................................... 32 credit transfer: geographic implications ............................................................. 34 credit transfer: swirling/non-traditional pathways ............................................. 35 credit transfer: geography and swirling ............................................................. 36 survey data - overall introduction ........................................................................................................... 41 demographic profile .............................................................................................. 41 survey respondents that did not apply for credit transfer group aware of credit transfer possibilities ........................................................ 44 group not aware of credit transfer possibilities ................................................. 45 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 6 survey respondents that applied for credit transfer credit transfer: swirling/non-traditional pathways ............................................. 48 credit transfer: geography and swirling .............................................................. 51 credit transfer: sources of information................................................................ 55 credit transfer: process information clarity and timeliness ................................ 61 credit transfer: applicant experiences ................................................................. 66 credit transfer: processing times ......................................................................... 68 credit transfer: application outcomes ................................................................. 71 credit transfer: overall ease of process ............................................................... 74 credit transfer predictors students likely to apply for credit transfer ......................................................... 80 students likely to receive credit transfer............................................................ 83 predictors of student satisfaction with credit transfer application process ....... 87 summary findings from logistic regressions ....................................................... 91 institutional perspectives institutional perspectives ...................................................................................... 93 section v: conclusions and recommendations recommendations................................................................................................. 96 references references .......................................................................................................... 103 appendices appendix 1a: online student survey questionnaire (english) ........................... 107 appendix 1b: online student survey questionnaire (french) ........................... 118 appendix 2: focus group interview guide ........................................................ 129 appendix 3: registrar interview guide .............................................................. 131 appendix 4: overview of provincial and survey data ......................................... 132 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 7 appendix 5: survey participation rates .............................................................. 133 appendix 6: comments: completing the credit transfer application process was easy to understand (strongly disagree/disagree) .............................................. 134 appendix 7: comments: completing the credit transfer application process took an appropriate amount of time (strongly disagree/disagree) ........................... 136 appendix 8: comments: requirements for credit transfer are clearly defined (strongly disagree/disagree)............................................................................... 137 appendix 9: comments: no issues accessing the documentation needed for credit transfer (i.e., transcripts, course outlines) ......................................................... 138 appendix 10: comments: the financial cost of applying for credit transfer was appropriate (strongly disagree/disagree) .......................................................... 139 appendix 11: comments: the credit transfer application was processed in an appropriate timeframe (strongly disagree/disagree) ........................................ 141 appendix 12: compendium of institutional practices and procedures .............. 142 summary of best practices .................................................................................. 156 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 8 list of tables provincial data table 1: number of students with prior postsecondary attempts .............................. 32 table 2: number of prior institutions from which transcripts were requested ......... 34 table 3: region of prior postsecondary institutions .................................................... 35 table 4: institution of prior postsecondary experience .............................................. 36 table 5: number of inbound/outbound institutions for each college........................ 38 survey data - overall table 6: survey and provincial profile .......................................................................... 42 survey respondents that did not apply for credit transfer table 7: reason for not applying for credit transfer .................................................. 45 table 8: reason why students would not apply for credit transfer........................... 46 survey respondents that applied for credit transfer table 9: distribution of prior postsecondary experiences ........................................... 48 table 10: distribution of prior postsecondary experiences - graduates ..................... 49 table 11: student enrolment- assessing institutional/program change ..................... 49 table 12: main reason for choosing a different institution........................................ 50 table 13: previous institution by region of current institution .................................. 50 table 14: reason for choosing a different institution; comparing institutions .......... 51 table 15: region of prior postsecondary institutions .................................................. 52 table 16: number of inbound/outbound institutions for each college...................... 53 table 17a: source of credit transfer information - overall ........................................ 55 table 17b: source of credit transfer information - changed institutions................... 56 table 18a: ease of locating credit transfer information overall .............................. 56 table 18b: ease of locating credit transfer information changed institutions ........ 57 table 19a: helpful aspects of credit transfer overall .............................................. 58 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 9 table 19b: helpful aspects of credit transfer changed institutions ........................ 59 table 20a: helpfulness of first point of contact - overall ........................................... 60 table 20b: helpfulness of first point of contact changed institutions .................... 60 table 21a: clarity of credit transfer information- overall .......................................... 61 table 21b: clarity of credit transfer information changed institutions................... 62 table 22a: credit transfer information timelines overall ........................................ 62 table 22b: credit transfer information timelines changed institutions .................. 63 table 23a: credit transfer application timelines overall ......................................... 63 table 23b: credit transfer application timelines changed institutions ................... 64 table 24a: number of credit transfer applications overall ..................................... 65 table 24b: number of credit transfer applications changed institutions ............... 65 table 25a: credit transfer application experience - overall ....................................... 66 table 25b: credit transfer application experience changed institutions ................ 67 table 26a: acceptable length of processing times overall ...................................... 68 table 26b: acceptable length of processing times changed institutions ................ 68 table 27a: recommended time to provide information overall .............................. 69 table 27b: recommended time to provide information different institution ......... 70 table 27c: recommended time to provide information same institution ............... 71 table 28a: number of courses that were granted credit - overall............................. 71 table 28b: number of courses that were granted credit changed institutions ...... 72 table 29a: denied credit transfer applications overall ........................................... 73 table 29b: denied credit transfer applications changed institutions ..................... 73 table 30a: ease of credit transfer process - overall.................................................... 74 table 30b: ease of credit transfer process changed institutions............................. 75 table 31: ease option of credit transfer was clear when initially enrolled ............. 75 table 32: ease credit transfer information was readily available ........................... 76 table 33: ease clearly understood the credit transfer process ............................... 77 table 34: ease knew who to contact when starting credit transfer application ..... 78 table 35: ease credit transfer advising was readily available ................................. 78 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 10 credit transfer predictors table 36a: logistic regression apply for credit transfer .......................................... 81 table 36b: logistic regression applied; changed institutions.................................. 82 table 37a: logistic regression likely to receive credit ............................................ 84 table 37b: logistic regression likely to receive credit; changed institutions ........ 86 table 38a: logistic regression satisfaction with application.................................... 88 table 38b: logistic regression satisfaction; changed institutions ........................... 90 table 39: tabular summary of logistic regressions .................................................... 92 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 11 list of figures provincial data figure 1: college inter-institutional mobility by region .............................................. 39 survey data - overall figure 2: survey data flowchart all students............................................................ 43 survey respondents that did not apply for credit transfer figure 3: survey data flowchart did not apply for credit transfer .......................... 44 survey respondents that applied for credit transfer figure 4: survey data flowchart apply for credit transfer, all ................................ 47 figure 5: survey data flowchart applied for credit transfer; eligible students....... 54 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 12 section i: background purpose of the study in the course of preparing the 2011-12 oncat data availability report for durham college, it was found that almost three quarters of the 1,124 students who could have applied for credit transfer did not. with such a large proportion of students at durham college not pursuing credit transfer, an exploration into the proportions at other colleges was required to assess whether this was a systemic level concern. there is currently limited information available on the proportion of students who may qualify but do not apply for credit transfer. historically, students apply for credit transfer because they have changed programs and/or institutions and do not wish to repeat certain courses. although anecdotal reasons exist to explain why students do not apply for credit transfer, there have been no methodical investigations to better understand the reasons at the systemic level. the purpose of this research study is to understand why students in ontario colleges do not apply for credit transfer and for those who do, to understand their experiences in greater detail. results from this research will confirm whether the reasons and barriers that prevent students from applying for credit transfer continue to remain the same as previous studies, and whether the policies and procedures currently being implemented are aiding student mobility. the study also explores the geographic patterns of mobility of the postsecondary students between different colleges of applied arts and technology (caat ), and from university to college in order to better understand inter-regional and inter-institutional mobility in ontario. an insightful understanding of the credit transfer experiences of students who do apply for credit transfer is key to assessing the expectations of students with regard to credit transfer and how well these expectations are being met with current policies and procedures in place at caat colleges. the participation of 22 caat colleges in this study will allow for a wide range of credit transfer practices and procedures to be examined to help identify areas of improvement, credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 13 as well as best practices that will make credit transfer processes more efficient and effective. the overall goal is to produce systemic level recommendations to make credit transfer more accessible, efficient and effective at caat colleges in ontario and to provide a ready reference of best practices to the colleges. research questions the study explores the size of the potential college student pool at the provincial level that may be eligible to apply for credit transfer. it further explores students decision to apply for credit transfer and the various factors that affect the decision. the study undertakes a detailed investigation of the experiences, outcomes and barriers for students who apply for credit transfer. the following presents the framework of research questions that are under investigation to better understand credit transfer experiences in ontario, identify best practices, and provide recommendations. section 1: provincial dataset 1) what is the overall potential magnitude of credit transfer in the province of ontario as it relates to ontario colleges? what is the potential magnitude especially with regard to inter-regional mobility and non-traditional pathways? section 2: proxy definition 2) is use of transcript request an acceptable proxy for assessing the magnitude of credit transfer at the provincial level? do the findings from the survey confirm the findings from the provincial dataset? section 3: students who did not apply for credit transfer 3) how aware are the students with prior postsecondary education of credit transfer opportunities? does the awareness of the credit transfer possibilities have an impact on their decision to apply for credit transfer? what are the barriers to credit transfer applications? section 4: students who applied for credit transfer 4) what are the sources of credit transfer information accessed by the students who do apply for credit transfer and how effective are these sources? how aware are the credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 14 students of the various aspects of the credit transfer information? what are their recommendations for timeliness of credit transfer information and acceptable processing times? are there any differences between students who transfer credits and move to a different institution in comparison to students who transfer credits and stay within the same institution? 5) how were the students credit transfer application experiences? what factors have an impact on these experiences? how do credit transfer information and timeliness affect students expectations of reasonable processing times? are these experiences and expectations similar for students who transfer credits and move to a different institution in comparison to students who transfer credits? 6) what were the students credit transfer application outcomes and their satisfaction with the outcomes, and the explanations provided, if any? how does credit transfer information affect students perception of the ease of credit transfer applications? section 5: predictors of credit transfer 7) what are the predictors of students likelihood to apply for credit transfer? are these predictors different for the students who transfer credits and move to a different institution in comparison to students who transfer credits and stay within the same institution? 8) what are the predictors of students likelihood to receive credit? are these predictors different for the students who transfer credits and move to a different institution in comparison to students who transfer credits and stay within the same institution? 9) what are the predictors of students satisfaction with the credit transfer process? are these predictors different for the students who transfer credits and move to a different institution in comparison to students who transfer credits and stay within the same institution? section 6: institutional perspective 10) what are the institutional perspectives for credit transfer among participating institutions, and the current practices? what are the barriers to efficient and effective credit transfer from the institutional perspective? in particular, the study explores at each of the institutions: the existence of formal policies and procedures for credit transfer; record keeping aspects, such as software usage, database management, tracking; application process aspects, such as mode of application, communication between departments, identification of stakeholders involved; aspects related to evaluation of the application, such as identification of evaluator, criteria, availability of rubric; credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 15 timelines for application submission and evaluation; documentation and guides; and, communication and follow-up practices with students. definitions of key terms the following is a list of key terms used throughout this report: aps: approved program sequence caat: colleges of applied arts and technology mtcu: ministry of training, colleges and universities ocas: ontario college application service occupational cluster: refers to groupings of careers that are similar based on required skills, knowledge, duties, education, and working environments. mtcu assigns each postsecondary program to one of the four categories, applied arts, business, health, and technology oncat: ontario council on articulation and transfer reb: research ethics board limitations of the study this study was extensive in its scope and included students from 22 publicly funded caat colleges within ontario. the results are thus expected to be widely generalizable. however, two of the caat colleges did not participate and it is possible that these two colleges may have some unique practices with regard to the credit transfer processes that were not included in the study. the study focused on the credit transfer processes and experiences at the publicly funded caat colleges and did not include any publicly funded universities in ontario, private colleges in ontario or other canadian or international jurisdictions. hence, the findings and the recommendations in the study are particularly applicable to the publicly funded caat colleges in the province of ontario. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 16 the study uses request for the transcript as a proxy definition for credit transfer to analyze the provincial dataset. this is a limitation because the students who are enrolled in post-diploma programs such as graduate certificates and degrees may have requested the transcript to provide evidence of pre-requisite academic credentials rather than any interest in credit transfer. to address this, this study excludes from analyses any students who are enrolled in graduate certificate programs or degree programs, and have requested transcripts from prior ontario postsecondary institutions. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 17 section ii: literature review credit transfer and articulation is an important part of the postsecondary experiences of many students, and plays a large role in providing students with full access to opportunities available in postsecondary education. in its most basic form, credit transfer and articulation refers to the formulas, policies, and procedures that are developed in order for students to exchange credits and curriculum from their previous postsecondary institution or program, to their current program of study (kintzer, 1996; wilson, 2006). there is, however, no singular definition of credit transfer. this is largely a result of the many different ways credit transfer and articulation can be defined and utilized within institutions (pegg and di paolo, 2013). there are many factors at play in credit transfer, which contribute to the belief that it is a particularly complex issue. the inconsistent process of credit transfer across institutions, and uncertainty about how exactly institutions determine whether or not credits are in fact transferable, are just two of the factors contributing to the lack of a concrete definition and common understanding (patry, 1995; junor and usher, 2008). by not having a concrete definition available, institutions are left responsible to evaluate and assess credit transfer requests using their own interpretations. credit transfer systems are a key component of student success because of the additional mobility it affords the student (junor and usher, 2008). understanding the reasons why students apply for credit transfer is important to ensure that students have full access to postsecondary education. defining credit transfer the inability to define the multi-dimensional aspects of credit transfer has led educators and researchers to create a variety of working definitions. one of the first definitions proposed declares the credit transfer process as being: an essential process whereby qualifications, part qualifications and learning experience are given appropriate recognition (or credit) to enable students to progress in their studies without unnecessarily having to repeat material or levels of study, to transfer from one course to another. (toyne, 1979 in junor and usher, 2008) an alternative definition is offered by the quality assurance agency for higher education. their definition refers to the credit transfer process as a mechanism which allows credit awarded by a higher education (he) awarding body to be recognised [] towards the credit requirements for a programme delivered by another he provider and/or between programmes offered by an credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 18 he provider (quality assurance agency for higher education, 2008 in di paolo and pegg, 2012). what is lacking from each of these definitions is a description on how the credits are evaluated or quantified. ontransfer is an ontario organization inclusive of all 45 publicly funded colleges and universities that seeks to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among those institutions. ontransfer lists credit transfer as the recognition of courses taken at one institution that are credited toward a degree or diploma at another institution (2015). the traditional framework under which credit transfer is often discussed is the pathway of graduating from a college program and using these credits to gain access into a university degree program. this linear mobility has been challenged over recent years as an increasing number of students are moving from college to college, university to university, and university to college. while the term pathway has been strongly associated with credit transfer in the past, the current definition and understanding must recognize that credit transfer is a program level conversation as much as it is an institutional one. not all students are completing their program and abiding by a pre-existing agreement, but rather, are changing their career paths mid-stream, which has drawn much attention to these non-traditional pathways. non-traditional paths of credit transfer and articulation in the united states, community colleges were essentially created for allowing students to transfer from a two-year college into a four-year college to complete a degree. unlike the united states, community colleges in ontario were not created with that same mandate and were instead developed to exist entirely separate from the university sector (bell, 2006). despite this distinction, much of the literature on credit transfer in ontario continues to focus on the transfer of students from a college to a university and the eventual completion of a baccalaureate degree (andres, 1999; skolnik, 2004; mcgowan and gawley, 2006; constantineau, 2009). within the literature that explores the non-traditional paths and why postsecondary student transfer is not solely from community colleges to baccalaureate degree granting institutions, there are two terms that are often used: reverse transfer and swirling (townsend, 1999; townsend, 2001; borden, 2004; wilson, 2006). reverse transfer refers to situations where students begin their postsecondary education at a university and eventually transfer to a community college (townsend, 1999; townsend, 2001; wilson, 2006). a number of factors have been identified as influencing a students decision to enrol in a community college after first being enrolled in a university. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 19 initially, it was widely held that reverse transfer was mostly the result of students who experienced academic difficulties in university transferring back into a community college as an academic second chance to complete a postsecondary credential (townsend and dever, 1999). however, more recently, others have indicated that there are, in fact, a wide variety of other factors that have made reverse transfer an increasingly common occurrence among postsecondary students (townsend and dever, 1999; townsend, 2001; borden, 2004; wilson, 2006). reverse transfer is part of a larger theme within credit transfer that is referred to as student swirl. this term is used to characterize non-linear transfer patterns in which students transfer back and forth between institutions, or attend multiple institutions over the course of their postsecondary education (borden, 2004). it is argued that students are becoming increasingly mobile, and as a result, transfer patterns are becoming increasingly sporadic. some swirling transfer patterns include students transferring into a community college after their enrolment in a degree granting institution, students transferring back and forth between a university and a college, and students transferring from one community college to another (townsend, 2001; borden, 2004). the increasingly common occurrence of student swirl and reverse transfer is important because it emphasizes the fact that the traditional transfer paradigm, in which students transfer from a college to a university, is becoming less representative of credit transfer in the postsecondary sector (townsend, 2001; shapiro et al., 2015). it is important for institutions and policy makers to acknowledge the increasingly complex process of credit transfer, and to take the steps that are required to make the process as easy as possible, both for institutions and for the students that are involved. profile of credit transfer applicants the term transfer student is also used more broadly to refer to any student who wishes to transfer credit from one institution to another (bccat, 2010). the demographic profile of a student wishing to transfer credits is, in essence, absent from the credit transfer literature. what is known about credit transfer students tends to be what their educational path looks like, the reasons why they are applying for credit transfer, and any barriers experienced along the way that hindered the transferring of credit. for example, it is becoming more common for students to transfer to a community college (townsend and dever, 1999; borden, 2004; wilson, 2006). recent reports on the directional credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 20 change of credit transfer students in ontario indicate that approximately 40% of students are transitioning from a college to university, 20% from a university to a college, 20% from college to another college, and 20% from university to another university (academica, 2014). the proportion of students transitioning from a college to another college (20%) has increased from the 10% that had been reported in previous years (colleges ontario, 2008). similarly, the reasons why students change institutions ranges from needing a program change due to personal circumstances (primary factor), to dissatisfaction with the previous institution (academica, 2014). although these reasons have remained relatively consistent over the years (colleges ontario, 2008), the desire for better employment has also surfaced in the literature as a possible reason. regarding credit transfer, it can be suggested that there are four types of students: those that sought credit and were awarded, those that sought credit and were not awarded, those that did not apply for credit transfer, and those that plan to apply for credit transfer. very few studies investigate whether the reasons for applying for credit transfer and the perceived barriers or barriers overcome are more relevant to a certain type of student. intra-institutional collaboration one of the largest barriers that students face when attempting to transfer credit is a lack of awareness about the processes in place at their new institution. shapiro et al., (2015) concluded that both starting and destination institutions should work together to better inform and advise students and to make these transitions smoother and free of unnecessary hurdles. efforts from granting institutions especially increase the likelihood of gaining access to accurate information, submitting the proper documents that are required to complete a credit transfer application, being put in contact with the proper institutional representatives should questions need to be answered, and lastly, eliminating inconsistent expectations of results. general awareness that credit transfer is an option while most institutions list their policies and procedures online, there is much inconsistency across institutions in terms of what is required to complete a credit transfer application (camman et al., 2014). quite often, students report having difficulty making sense of the information that is available to them, which results in a lack of clarity about what exactly is required of them (andres, 1999; gerhardt et al.,2012). these inconsistencies have the potential of becoming an even larger issue when students seek information from different sources such as a different institutions website or someone not involved with credit transfer (e.g; a friend that attends the institution) for clarity on the issue. to minimize the confusion, blanchard et al. (2013) recommended the development of a communications strategy to specifically target the credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 21 transfer student population (new and existing) including targeted emails, centralized web resources, and social media, ultimately removing the guesswork for students altogether. gaining access to accurate information woodbury (1988) identified that students typically ask questions regarding the maximum number of credits that can be awarded, what specific credits can be transferred, how transfer credits are calculated, and what documentation is needed to complete their credit transfer application. according to the literature, students often acknowledge that the credit transfer process becomes overly complicated when college staff or faculty either provide them with no information, or in some instances, provide them with information that is not entirely accurate (andres, 1999; mcgowan and gawley, 2006). numerous studies suggest that one of the most common issues that students raise as a concern in the credit transfer process is the dissemination of misinformation (andres, 1999; mcgowan and gawley, 2006, junor and usher, 2008). institutional contact(s) depending on the institution, the credit transfer application process can involve members from a number of different departments including faculty members, administrators, and student services representatives. one of the ways to ensure that students are provided the required information is to make sure that members from each of these departments work together and have a broad understanding of the credit transfer process itself, not just the aspects of the process that they are directly involved with (berger and ortiz ruiz, 1988; townsend, 2001). student success in postsecondary education is suggested to be heavily reliant on a students ability to develop meaningful relationships with faculty members (tinto, 1975; pascarella, 1980; kuh, 1996; grosset, 1991). this relationship is especially true when it comes to the process of credit transfer because students are required to obtain the course outlines from courses they completed in previous years, and typically, they reach out to their instructors at the time. because faculty members tend to be an initial point of contact and, by default, an important source of information for students, some suggest that it is imperative for faculty members to be especially well versed on the processes and the politics of credit transfer (berger and ortiz ruiz, 1988). more recently, a study at ocad university re-affirms that this is still a concern. the research team deduced that one-on-one meetings with individuals knowledgeable about the transfer and transition process was necessary to achieve greater levels of success and satisfaction (fisher et al., 2012) overall, students rely heavily on interactions with faculty members while navigating through the process of credit transfer (usher and jarvey, 2011). for this reason, it is believed that credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 22 student success and satisfaction with their credit transfer experience is based largely on the culmination of their interactions with faculty members throughout the process (usher and jarvey, 2011; mcgowan and gawley, 2006; andres, 2009). conversely, dissatisfaction with the credit transfer process is also believed to be influenced largely by how a student feels they were treated by faculty and staff while they completed their credit transfer application. the recommendation of creating an initial point of contact such as a credit transfer advisor was suggested, should additional funding become available (camman et al., 2014). this position would alleviate some of the pressure currently on faculty. equivalent courses another largely debateable issue on credit transfer is the ways in which credit transfer is calculated, and how exactly credits are awarded. duklas (2014) found that there continues to be a need for clarity of credit transfer practices, especially the definitions of credit and credit weight. very few institutions are clear and transparent in promoting this process to students, and most studies on credit transfer include the recommendation that institutions should make their credit transfer policies publicly available and easily accessible, and make each incoming student aware of them (colleges ontario, 2012; usher and jarvey, 2012). student perceptions about the inconsistencies in decision-making, and lack of detailed documentation of internal college policies and procedures continue to be a concern (colleges ontario, 2008). timeline expectations in addition to the process being complicated and poorly communicated, students continually identify the process as very time consuming (colleges ontario, 2008). the length of time it takes to learn the result of a credit transfer application can vary from one week to longer than a month (usher and jarvey, 2012). in fact, the role that universities and colleges play in credit transfer, particularly the timely provision of needed information, has often been argued as inadequate (gerhardt et al., 2012). inter-institutional cooperation while the previous section identifies shortcomings at the institutional level, the following barriers are concerns that can also be identified at a systemic level. in 2011, the minister of training, colleges and universities released a policy statement claiming that ontario will have a credit transfer system that will be comprehensive, transparent, and consistent. although institutions can address the concerns that were identified previously, the overall consistency for the student remains in jeopardy if not all institutions are operating under similar principles and policies. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 23 general awareness that credit transfer is an option although not all institutions have difficulty promoting credit transfer to their students, some colleges simply do not have the resources to allocate the required time and effort. at an aggregate level, approximately half of the universities in ontario give credit transfer status with their offers of admission (camman et al., 2014). by comparison, ontario colleges report a much lower proportion, as approximately one-third of students do not apply for credit transfer until the start of their semester (usher and jarvey, 2012). with a large proportion of students not applying for credit transfer until the start of the semester, there continues to be a discrepancy surrounding the timing of when students find out that credit transfer is a possibility for them. the best practice proposed in the literature is to provide information about the credits for which students are eligible at the time the student is offered admission to the institution (colleges ontario, 2012). also, the simplicity of the credit transfer process has been reported to be easier when applying at the same time they complete their college application (usher and jarvey, 2012). obtaining proper documentation the earlier the credit transfer process can begin, the more time students have to obtain the documentation that is required to complete the application. studies have recommended that institutions take action to support students with this proclaimed difficulty by creating a database where faculty can easily populate the requested syllabi (camman et al. 2104; gerhardt et al., 2012). similarly, the ability for institutions to exchange these documents electronically has also been a strong recommendation (colleges ontario, 2012; duklas et al., 2014). if institutions have the resources available, this initiative would rely on the willingness of institutions to respond to requests for transfer related information and documentation (mccrary, 1988). the process of gathering that documentation can be made easier when both the sending and receiving institutions are willing to work together to provide that information (junor and usher, 2008). equivalent courses emphasis on inter-institutional cooperation is also important because it is widely held that one of the most significant barriers to credit transfer is an unwillingness of institutions to recognize the educational experiences of students at other institutions. it is generally the responsibility of full-time faculty to review courses and programs from previous institutions in order to make a judgement about a credits transferability (berger and ortiz ruiz, 1988; knoell, 1996, compton et al., 2012). the process of credit transfer can become very divisive when institutions worry about protecting their turf. difficulties in transferring certain courses or credits can become difficult because of perceived differences in content and the level at which courses are taught at other institutions (bowles, 1988; camman et al., 2014). student credit transfer is often credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 24 inhibited by professional elitism, wherein faculty at an institution believe that what they teach in their particular program is superior to similar programs taught elsewhere (king, 1988; lynch 1994). unless all colleges are in agreement, they may be reluctant to cooperate with a process that can result in students leaving their institution in order to complete their program elsewhere. also, should a credit be denied, studies have strongly recommended providing students with justification because not all institutions are abiding by this practice (camman et al., 2014). the result of denying credits without reason can often create issues for students attempting to complete the credit transfer process when they do not understand why credits from one institution are not recognized at another institution, when the student perceives the credits at both institutions to be the same (mcgowan and gawley, 2006). articulation agreements in addition to concerns about professional elitism, institutions can often be reluctant to enter into articulation agreements with other institutions because of the idea of competitive advantage. formal articulation agreements and arrangements between institutions can help to both make the credit transfer process easier and more intuitive for students, while also making the process faster and more efficient (bell, 2006; junor and usher, 2008; constantineau, 2009). however, in order for institutions to maintain a flexible articulation and transfer system, it is sometimes necessary for postsecondary institutions to compromise a certain level of their institutional advantage (kintzer, 1996). one recent example of a system level collaboration within canada is the 2014 agreement signed by all 24 of ontarios colleges. this agreement allows students the ability to transfer among all college business programs across ontario. the colleges first-ever province wide agreement grants recognition for all previous years credits when a student in a business diploma program transfers to the same program at another college. in order to improve the process of credit transfer and to improve articulation agreements, it is important for institutions to strike a balance between individual academic autonomy, and improving access and persistence in postsecondary education while addressing the needs of the academic system as a whole (berger and ortiz ruiz, 1988; kintzer, 1996). as of june 2014, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) reported over 590 active college to university pathways, 17 university to college pathways, and 108 college to college pathways on their portal (in camman et al., 2014). oncats 2014-15 annual report suggests an increase in the number of pathways available to students of more than 1200. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 25 other jurisdictions in canada british columbia the first annual transfer guide was published in 1990. this guide was created with the intention of eliminating the multi-institutional guides that were being used and offering one comprehensive package (bcccat, history of the bc transfer system). a short time later, this guide provided users with the opportunity to access a search tool. in 1997, a system-wide examination of transfer policy and models to determine whether alternative approaches, such as block transfer, could replace or supplement course-to-course transfer was initiated (bcccat, history of the bc transfer system). credit transfer responsibility became the responsibility of the various institutional admissions offices in 2003. in sum, bctransferguide.ca has been serving as a standalone website since 2005, welcomed postsecondary institutions from alberta in 2008, and signed a memorandum of understanding with alberta, ontario, and new brunswick in 2014. alberta established in 1974, the alberta council on admissions and transfer was developed as an alternative to affiliation agreements with universities (acat, who is the alberta council). in 1976, council established a network of public institutional representatives known as contact persons. the success and growth of transfer in alberta was thought to be the result of the efforts of this group. it includes members from 26 publicly funded institutions, 4 of which are out-of-province, 5 that are indigenous, as well as 4 private institutions. new brunswick in 2009, a provincial working group composed of registrars from postsecondary institutions was established to explore the possibility of developing a common web portal for credit transfer (catnb, about the council). in 2010, a new brunswick council on articulations and transfer was officially established and the initial 2009-10 committee of registrars was transformed into a standing contact persons committee. the initial committee was established to develop a provincial prior learning and recognition (plar) coordination plan. ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer brought 45 publicly funded colleges and universities together for the purpose of enhancing academic pathways and reducing the barriers for students looking to transfer among those institutions. in january 2014, oncat launched its new course-to-course transfer guide, making it easier for postsecondary students to transfer their credits in the province. this website currently displays information on more than 600 student transfer pathways (oncat, 2014). credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 26 provincial comparison the system in place in british columbia appears to be the most established. the bccat has been focusing on out of province pathways since 2008 and degree pathways since 2010. also, since the system in alberta has been around longer, it is not surprising that there are roughly 25% more pathway opportunities than ontario. one noticeable difference between the provinces is that western colleges tend to place an emphasis on admissions data and requirements, whereas eastern colleges are more committed to improving articulation agreements. standardization frederick kintzer (1996) argues that the accessibility of the credit transfer system for students heavily relies on the willingness of the individuals and institutions involved in the process to voluntarily cooperate with each other and to put the student ahead of academic expediency. he goes so far as to suggest that the success of the credit transfer process depends on close inter-institutional communication and collaboration. kintzers thoughts have been echoed by many as others have argued that the increasingly complex nature of credit transfer patterns has emphasized the importance of institutions working together in order to make the credit transfer process as easy as possible for students (knoell, 1996; woodbury, 1988; bowles, 1988; townsend, 2001). a 2012 report released by colleges ontario suggests that successes have been at the institutional level, rather than system wide. institutional policies on credit transfer often create some of the most serious barriers that can inhibit students from completing the credit transfer process. to some students, the credit transfer application process can often seem complicated and difficult, especially considering that process itself can differ depending on the institutions that are involved and similarly for the courses that a student is looking to receive credit for (woodbury 1988; mccrary 1988; berger and ortiz ruiz, 1988; andres 1999; townsend, 2001; knoell; mcgowan and gawley, 2006; bell, 2006; junor and usher, 2008). moving forward, the need for standardization of the process continues to be a goal. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 27 section iii: methodology the research team began this project by inviting each of the twenty-four ontario colleges to participate in the study and sign a participation agreement. the purpose of the participation agreement was allow for the release of anonymous student data for each college through a data release from the ontario colleges application service (ocas). a signed participation agreement would allow durham college access to the following september 2014 enrolment data for each student record: 1. college name; 2. program name; 3. aps code; 4. mtcu code; 5. occupational cluster; and where possible 6. whether a transcript was requested. in the event that a student did submit a transcript request, the following additional information was also provided: 7. previous institution type; 8. source institution name; 9. aps code; 10. mtcu code; 11. occupational cluster; and 12. whether the applicant only declared a previous postsecondary experience or declared and requested a transcript, which was transmitted. the invitations to participate were e-mailed to each college during the first week of july 2014. in order to facilitate the process, these emails were sent on behalf of the research team by the office of the president. an institutional contact was also requested from each college that chose to participate in the study should additional support be required. in total, twenty-two of the twenty-four college presidents chose to participate in the study. once a response was obtained from the colleges, the research ethics approval process began. within ontario there exists a community college multi-site research ethics board (reb) application form. this form is for researchers who are planning to conduct research at multiple colleges in ontario. fifteen of the twenty-two participating colleges accepted the ontario community college common reb application form. for each college that was not listed on the common reb application form, the college contact was asked to investigate and discuss with their reb representative whether their college would be willing to accept this multi-site form. each of the remaining seven colleges indicated a willingness to accept. there were additional steps taken to minimize delays with the approval process. the first multisite application was submitted to the durham college research ethics board to demonstrate credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 28 due diligence. the second application was submitted to the expert panel, which was established by a subcommittee of the colleges ontario heads of applied research. this expert panel was piloting a new process designed to streamline research ethics reviews for studies that will be done at more than one ontario college. the expert panel was created with the purpose of providing a letter of recommendation regarding the ethical acceptability of proposed research that is minimal risk. this letter of recommendation was submitted to each college along with the multi-site application form. the time required for each college to provide ethical approval varied considerably. data collection started upon receipt of each colleges approval. there are three key additional data sources for this project: student survey, student focus groups, and registrar interviews. student survey the survey launch required the support of the ontario colleges application service (ocas). ocas contacted all eligible students from the participating colleges, by e-mail, and provided them with an invitation letter and a link to the survey. by taking these steps, all communications with students that did not have a relationship with durham college were in accordance with the requirements outlined by canadian anti-spam legislation. there were three phases of survey invitations required to complete the survey outreach due to the varying times that durham college received ethics approvals from each college. this project achieved an overall survey response rate of 11.4% from the 4,099 respondents across 22 colleges. in total, there were 36,001 invitations sent out by ocas. phase one included eighteen english speaking colleges. students attending these colleges received their first invitation to participate on december 2nd, 2014 with two reminder e-mails sent on january 7th, 2015 and january 21st, 2015, respectively. phase two included two additional english speaking colleges. students attending these colleges received their first invitation to participate on january 7th, 2015, with one reminder sent on january 21st,, 2015. the last phase included the two french-speaking colleges. the option of completing the survey in french or english was provided to students at both these colleges. students attending these institutions received their invitation to participate on january 16th, 2015, with one reminder sent on january 21st, 2015. the survey period closed on february 8th, 2015. these survey questionnaires are available in appendix 1. student focus groups upon completion of the survey, students were invited to sign up for the possibility of being invited to provide additional feedback through a focus group conducted on site at their home college. the purpose of the focus groups was to obtain additional information as to why students were very satisfied or very dissatisfied with certain aspects of the credit transfer process. focus groups took place between february 17th and march 26th , 2015 and lasted approximately one hour in duration at their institution. lunch and a $25 gift card were provided to each participant for their involvement in the focus group. the focus group questionnaire is available in appendix 2. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 29 telephone interviews in addition to the student survey and focus group sessions, a 30 to 40 minute phone interview with each institutions registrar or designate was conducted. the purpose of these interviews was to obtain the institutional perspectives on the credit transfer process. registrars were given an information letter outlining the purpose of the project as well as the reason for their involvement. a consent form for their participation was also provided along with a copy of the questionnaire in advance. the majority of registrar interviews occurred between december 18th, 2014 and january 30th, 2015. all interviews were conducted in english. upon completion of the interview, a copy of the interview notes was returned for verification purposes. in some instances, the registrar filled out the questionnaire prior to interview commencement. the interview guide is available in appendix 3. population and samples the student population (n=36,001) was derived from all first year students enrolled at an ontario college that reported having previously attended a postsecondary institution. a. registrar interviews target respondent: sample source: sample size: field dates: completion length: screening criteria: incentive: weighting: summary college registrar; if unavailable, the person(s) most familiar with credit transfer policies and procedures college registrars 1 per college december 18th, 2014 to january 30th , 2015 approximately 45 minutes, on average written consent prior to start of interview none none required the study portion of this research sought to obtain insight as to what actions and efforts are being taken by institutions to promote, track, and provide assistance to students seeking credit transfer at their college. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 30 b. online survey target respondent: sample source: sample size: field dates: completion length: screening criteria: incentive: weighting: summary any first year student enrolled at a college of applied arts and technology within ontario as of september 2014 and declared an experience at a different post- secondary institution within ontario. ontario college application service database a total of 4,099 surveys were completed december 2nd, 2014 to february 8th, 2015 approximately 15 minutes, on average provision of informed consent prior to completing survey entry into a draw for a chance to win a $300 amazon gift card none required the study portion of this research sought to obtain insight as to why some students do not apply for credit transfer, and for those who do, to understand their experiences in applying for credit transfer more clearly. at an aggregate level, survey responses would aid in the creation of a report that will identify best practices to improve the credit transfer process for students in ontario colleges, and hence improve the student experience. c. focus groups target respondent: sample source: sample size: session dates: group length: screening criteria: incentive: summary after completing the online survey, all respondents were invited to participate in the focus group on site at their home college to explore key themes in greater detail online survey respondents who volunteered their contact information focus groups were conducted at twenty-one of the twenty-two institutions that were included. participation varied by institution. february 17th, 2015 to march 26th, 2015 60 minutes provision of informed consent prior to participating in focus group lunch and a $25 gift card was provided to participants a set of open-ended questions was designed to elicit information at a deeper level, particularly to understand their reasons for applying for credit transfer, barriers faced, points of contact, and recommendations for change. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 31 section iv: data analysis 1. provincial data: assessing the magnitude of credit transfer interest over the last few years, there has been a sustained interest in developing inter-institutional and intra-institutional supports for the credit transfer efforts across ontario. this implies that there is a population of students that stands to gain from these efforts; however, the number of students who may benefit from credit transfer opportunities has yet to be assessed. this study attempts to (i) quantify the extent of prior postsecondary experience that exists among caat college students starting a postsecondary program, and (ii) provides an assessment of the proportion of the caat student population that may be eligible for credit transfer within the scope of the oncat mandate. to assess the above metrics, an anonymized but comprehensive dataset was requested from the ontario college application service (ocas). this dataset consisted of all postsecondary students who were newly enrolled in september 2014 at any of the participating 22 ontario caat colleges. the dataset comprises of 129,670 students with enrollments ranging from a minimum of 753 to a maximum of 12,002 across colleges. of the 129,670 students, 36,001 students (27.8%) declared that they had prior postsecondary experience. the declaration of prior postsecondary experience is based on applicants voluntary self-disclosure on the ocas admissions application. of the 36,001 students who declared prior postsecondary education, 30,474 students (84.7%) declared postsecondary experience at a publicly funded ontario college or university. the remaining 5,526 (15.3%) had prior postsecondary experience at an institution outside of canada, or within canada in a nonontario jurisdiction or a private college in ontario. given that the purpose of the study is to explore the credit transfer experiences of the students within ontario, the student population of 30,474 who indicated prior postsecondary experience at a publicly funded ontario institution, is of particular interest. some of the students in this group also indicated multiple attempts at prior postsecondary education. table 1 below indicates the number of attempted postsecondary experiences, partial or complete, by the various students in this group. table 1: number of students with prior postsecondary attempts at ontario publicly funded institutions = 30,474 number of prior postsecondary attempts 1 2 3 4 5 > than 5 number of students 10,679 14,573 3,206 1,496 328 192 % of students 35.0% 47.8% 10.5% 4.9% 1.1% 0.6% the data in table 1 indicates that students sometimes make multiple attempts at pursuing postsecondary education, thereby increasing the probability that they may qualify for a credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 32 relevant credit transfer. given the sheer volume of students with prior postsecondary, there is a clear necessity for a provincial level credit transfer framework. currently, there is no mechanism in place for early identification of whether an applicant with a prior postsecondary education is interested in applying for credit transfer or not. this lack of information as a major gap in successful inter-institutional credit transfer process. since there is no indicator available for the students who may be interested in credit transfer, this study uses the students request of transcript from prior postsecondary institution as proxy definition for students interest in applying for credit transfer. of the 30,474 students who indicated that they had prior postsecondary education, 17,515 (57.5%) requested a transcript from their prior institution(s). however, using the transcript request from prior institution as a proxy for credit transfer interest has significant limitations. one such limitation is the request of the transcript by international students is usually to demonstrate the equivalency from their home-country institutions. this limitation is addressed by ensuring that this study only includes students for analyses who have indicated a publicly funded ontario institution as their prior institution and requested transcript(s) accordingly. the second major limitation of the credit transfer proxy definition is that the students who are enrolled in post-diploma programs such as graduate certificates, and degrees may have requested the transcript to provide evidence of pre-requisite academic credentials rather than any interest in credit transfer. thus to impose stringent definition requirements, this study further excludes from analyses any students who are enrolled in graduate certificate programs or degree programs, and have requested transcripts from prior ontario postsecondary institutions. of the 17,515 students who requested a transcript, 5,818 students were enrolled in graduate certificate or degree programs. it is thus reasonable to assume that the remaining 11,697 students, which is 38.4% of the first year student population that had a prior postsecondary experience at one of the publicly funded institutions in ontario, and enrolled in certificate, diploma or advance diploma programs, likely requested transcripts to support their interest in credit transfer. these students (n=11,697) will be the primary focus of the investigations in this section. please refer to appendix 4 for a visual representation. the proxy definition is subsequently validated in section 2 using student reported data on credit transfer. since 40% (11,697) of the student population with prior experience at a publicly funded institution in ontario have requested transcripts, there appears to be a strong student interest in exploring credit transfer opportunities at ontario institutions. conversely, there are 12,959 students who have prior postsecondary experience at publicly funded ontario institution(s) but did not request a transcript, thereby missing the opportunity to request or receive credit transfer. this too has significant implications for optimizing the use of resources in the ontario postsecondary sector. this study thus will further explore in later sections the reason(s) why students with prior postsecondary experience at ontario institution choose to apply or not apply for credit transfer, the roles that credit transfer information, communication and credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 33 submission process play in the students expectations, experiences and satisfaction with the credit transfer. this study further enriches the student perspective by investigating institutional practices, barriers and successes. however, before delving into further analyses, it is important to visit the two other key contemporary aspects associated with assessing the magnitude of credit transfer possibilities in ontario. 1a) credit transfer: geographic implications even though this study limits its discussion to students who have prior postsecondary experience at publicly funded ontario institutions, provincial geography may play a vital role in student mobility. the 11,697 students who were enrolled in certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programs requested a total of 12,948 transcripts from publicly funded ontario institutions. in some cases, students made requests for transcripts from more than one institution. table 2 presents the number of transcripts requested and the corresponding number of students requesting them. almost 10% of the 11,697 students requested transcripts from more than one institution. table 2: number of prior institutions from which transcripts were requested 1 2 3 4 5 number of students (n=11,697) 10,555 1,045 86 10 1 % of students 90.2% 8.9% 0.7% 0.1% 0.0% the following discussion explores the geographic location of these prior 12,948 transcript requests to investigate whether geographic location plays a role in the students subsequent choice of college and credit transfer interest. an approximate but useful geographic rubric, often used provincially, distributes the participating 22 caat colleges as: - eastern durham, fleming, loyalist, la cite, and st. lawrence; - western conestoga, fanshawe, lambton, mohawk and niagara; - northern boreal, cambrian, canadore, confederation, northern, and sault; - central centennial, george brown, georgian, humber, seneca, and sheridan colleges. table 3 depicts student mobility using the location of their current program as compared to the location of prior institutions(s) from where transcripts(s) were requested. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 34 table 3: region of current postsecondary institution central (n = 6,114) eastern (n = 2,042) northern (n = 1,006) western (n = 3,786) region of prior postsecondary institution central eastern northern western 3,967 (65%) 419 (21%) 151 (15%) 714 (19%) 715 (12%) 1,259 (62%) 151 (15%) 319 (8%) 210 (3%) 88 (4%) 555 (55%) 149 (4%) 1,222 (20%) 276 (14%) 149 (15%) 2,604 (69%) the highest percentage of students within a given region, as highlighted in table 3, have completed their prior postsecondary within the same region, ranging from a low of 55% within the northern region to a high of 69% within the western region. the evidence of regional preference is important in that it makes it incumbent, at least on the institutions in that geographic region, to develop viable inter-institutional credit transfer opportunities amongst themselves. a review of interregional relationships indicates, the central region colleges draw students from the western region; the eastern region draws students from the central region; the western draws a similar proportion but less absolute number of students from the central region; and finally, the northern region draws small but equal proportions from all of the three other regions. 1b) credit transfer: swirling/non-traditional pathways as evidenced by data in table 4, the ontario postsecondary sector is increasingly experiencing non-traditional or swirling pathways with students moving from college to college, university to college, or a combination. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 35 table 4: institution of prior postsecondary experience (n = 11,697) prior college (n = 6,259) prior university (n = 5,019) prior college and university (n = 419) transcripts requested from 1 college 2 colleges 3 colleges 1 university 2 universities 3 universities 4 universities 5 universities 1 college, 1 university 2 colleges, 2 universities 2 colleges, 1 university 2 universities, 1 college 3 colleges, 1 university 3 universities, 1 college number of students 5817 417 25 4738 268 11 1 1 360 3 33 17 4 2 it is noteworthy that 42.9% (n=5,019) of the students (11,697) requesting a transcript have prior postsecondary experience at one or more university before enrolling in a certificate, diploma or advanced diploma program at one of the participating caat colleges. an additional 3.6% (n=419) students have prior postsecondary experience both at college and university. this lends further credence to the trend that an increasing number of students with prior postsecondary exposure to university are resourcing postsecondary education at caat colleges. it is also interesting to assess the extent of swirl based on the number of institutions from which transcripts are being requested. 9.8% of the students (n=1,142) requesting transcripts, requested from more than one institution as indicated in table 4. it expected that the greater the number of transcripts requested by the student, the greater their interest is in acquiring credit transfers. 1c) credit transfer: geography and swirling geographic location tends to have a marked impact on the mobility of students between regions (table 3), and a significant number of students are transferring between institutions from both colleges and universities (table 4). these concepts can also be explored together to assess whether there are any differences in the student mobility between the four geographic regions. to track inter-institutional mobility, the institutions from which the 12,948 transcripts were requested were cross-tabulated with the current institution of student attendance as of september 2014. as indicated in table 4, 90.2% of the student (n=10,555) requested transcripts from a single institution only, thereby making it an acceptable approximation for interinstitutional mobility. the highest numbers of transcripts requested by students at any given college were from the college itself. this re-emphasizes student interest in intra-institutional credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 36 credit transfer. the issue of having to request transcripts from institutions that student were currently attending as of september 2014 was also identified as one of the key dissatisfactions. an average of 15 transcripts were requested across and within institutions; hence interinstitutional mobility was assessed using a minimum of 15 transcript requests as the threshold. table 5 presents at each of the participating caat colleges, the number of: - institutions that the transcripts were requested-from excluding the institution itself (defined as inbound), and - institutions that the transcripts were requested-to (defined as outbound) in addition, table 5 also identifies how many universities the transcripts were requested from at each of the caat colleges. while this analysis does not provide a direct assessment of the magnitude of the student mobility, it indicates students relative interest in moving between the institutions. it further illustrates that students with prior university education seem to prefer attending the colleges in the central region. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 37 table 5: number of caat colleges inbound central colleges college 1 4 college 2 11 college 3 12 college 4 5 college 5 8 college 6 6 eastern colleges college 1 8 college 2 3 college 3 0 college 4 1 college 5 4 northern colleges college 1 2 college 2 1 college 3 0 college 4 0 college 5 0 college 6 0 western colleges college 1 7 college 2 11 college 3 1 college 4 7 college 5 3 number of caat universities outbound inbound 4 8 9 8 8 8 5 14 5 12 11 10 6 4 0 1 4 7 3 1 0 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 5 9 1 6 5 6 7 1 7 3 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 38 figure 1 is a visual representation of the inter-institutional mobility at the 22 participating caat colleges as per each of the four geographic regions. figure 1: college inter-institutional mobility: eastern college inter-institutional mobility: central 14 12 college 3 10 college 5 college 4 8 college 2 college 6 6 college 1 4 2 institutions - outbound institutions - outbound 14 10 8 6 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 4 2 14 college 1 college 2 college 5 college 4 college 3 0 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 institutions - inbound institutions - inbound college inter-institutional mobility: northern college inter-institutional mobility: western 14 10 8 6 4 2 0 college 3 0 college 4 college 5 college 6 12 14 14 12 institutions - outbound institutions - outbound 12 college 2 college 1 2 4 6 12 10 college 2 8 6 college 4 college 5 college 1 4 2 college 3 0 8 10 12 14 institutions - inbound 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 institutions - inbound the above charts indicate the number of institutions that the students have transferred-from (inbound) and transferred-to (outbound) in each of the regions. not surprisingly, the transfer activity is greatest between the institutions in the central regions as compared to other regions; this may well be the result of relative geographic proximity of various colleges in the central region. northern region is marked by the least inter-institutional mobility with four of the colleges not meeting the threshold of 15 transcript requests either for inbound or outbound transfers. colleges in the eastern region experience relatively lower interinstitutional activity than colleges in the western region. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 39 the analysis of the provincial dataset is useful in understanding the credit transfer implications from a macro level perspective. however, it needs further validation and enrichment based on students actual experiences and expectations. this study thus undertook a survey of the relevant section of students from the provincial dataset, and further explored student views and experiences through focus groups conducted at each of the participating 21 caat colleges. to ensure that the study provides a holistic view, interviews were conducted with the registrars or designates of each of the 22 participating colleges to explore the institutional practices and perspectives. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 40 2. survey data introduction as discussed in the prior section, there were 36,001 students in the provincial dataset who had indicated that they had prior postsecondary experience in canada or elsewhere. these students were invited to complete an anonymous survey, which explored their demographic information, prior academic education and experience, their awareness of the credit transfer process, communication preferences for credit transfer information, decision to apply for credit transfer, credit transfer experiences, subsequent application outcomes and their recommendations, if any. all of the participating 22 caat colleges were represented in the student population that was invited to participate in the survey. of the 36,001 students invited, 4,099 students (11.4% of survey population) completed the survey. the survey technology precluded the invitees from being able to complete the survey more than once. the participation rate is consistent with the expected rates (10-15%) for anonymous, online, external surveys. appendix 5 presents the overall survey participation rates, geographic participation rates and the institutional participation rates. students from all of the colleges were represented in the survey responses, and the participation rate at various colleges varied from a low of 6.2% to a high of 22.0%. participation rates in various geographic regions were in proportion to the base study populations (please refer to appendix 5). the english version of the survey questionnaire is available in appendix 1a and the french version is available in appendix 1b. 2a) demographic profile table 6 presents the overall profile of the survey respondents. please note that to comply with the privacy and confidentiality requirements, durham college did not receive any demographic information or other personal information for students invited to take part in the survey. hence, non-respondent analysis is not feasible for this study. however, please note that there is a significant higher participation of female students (72.4%) in the survey than the overall first year college population (52.0%). there is also relatively higher participation of first generation students (37.0%) in the survey than the overall first year college population (30.4%), and relatively higher participation of the aboriginal student (4.2%) in the survey than the overall first year college population (1.5%). the age categories used in the survey are different from those available in the provincial dataset; hence, comparison for the age distribution is not possible. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 41 table 6: survey number of attribute respondents gender (n=4,046) male 1,102 female 2,930 other 14 age less than 21 762 21-25 1,718 26-30 659 31-35 350 more than 35 570 international student(s) yes 488 no 3,555 first language english 3,283 french 140 other 629 first generation student(s) yes 1,495 no 2,547 aboriginal student(s) yes 168 no 3,848 credential current certificate 832 diploma 1,994 advanced diploma 396 graduate certificate 452 degree 295 unknown/other prior postsecondary education location ontario caat college 1,738 ontario university 1,347 institution not in ontario 739 other 199 provincial data (ocas data) percent of respondents 27.2% 72.4% 0.3% number of respondents (n=129,670) 61,585 67,485 570 percent of respondents 47.5% 52.0% 0.5% 18.8% 42.3% 16.2% 8.6% 14.0% similar age categories not available at provincial level 12.1% 87.9% 15,109 114,561 11.7% 88.3% 81.0% 3.5% 15.5% 105,328 4,060 20,282 81.2% 3.2% 15.6% (n=104,173)* 37.0% 63.0% 31,679 72,494 30.4% 69.6% 4.2% 95.8% 2,010 127,660 1.5% 98.5% 21.0% 50.2% 10.0% 11.4% 7.4% 26,690 61,676 23,185 11,293 6,605 221 20.6% 47.6% 17.9% 8.7% 5.1% 0.2% 43.2% 33.5% 18.4% 4.9% not available at provincial level * 25, 497 students did not report a status and are reported as unknown, they are not included in this total. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 42 of the 4,099 survey respondents, 3,085 (75.3%) identified that they had prior postsecondary education at one of the publicly funded ontario institutions. of the 3,085 students who had prior postsecondary experience from a publicly funded ontario institution, 1,065 students (34.5%) who were enrolled in a certificate, diploma or advanced diploma program applied for credit transfer. this is a fairly close approximation to the estimate of 38.3% (11,697 out of 30,474 students) derived from the provincial dataset; this further validates that use of the transcript request as a proxy for interest in the credit transfer in section 1 is acceptable. figure 2 provides a pictorial description of the survey respondents in various categories and makes it easier to follow the categories of respondents as they are analyzed in subsequent discussion. figure 2: survey data number of students invited to participate in study 36,001 number of survey respondents 4,099 number of survey respondents with prior ps in ontario publicly funded institution 3,085 number of survey respondents who applied for credit transfer 1,216 number of survey respondents enrolled in certificate, diploma, advanced diploma who applied for credit transfer 1,065 31,902 1,014 1,869 151 note: of those that reported applying for credit transfer, 107 students were enrolled in a degree program, while 44 were enrolled in a graduate certificate program. further, of the 3,085 students who had prior postsecondary experience at a publicly funded institution in ontario, 1,216 students applied for a credit transfer. of these 1,216 students, 151 were enrolled in a degree or graduate certificate program and the remaining 1,065 students were enrolled in a certificate, diploma or advanced diploma program. of significant note is the fact that 1,869 survey respondents did not choose to apply for credit transfer even though they had prior postsecondary experience within ontario. the survey explored the respondents level of awareness about credit transfer possibilities, reasons for not applying, and the future credit transfer plans; these findings are discussed in the following section. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 43 3. survey respondent group - did not apply for credit transfer figure 3 provides a pictorial representation of the survey respondent group who did not choose to apply for credit transfer. figure 3: number of survey respondents with prior ps in ontario publicly funded institution 3,085 number of survey respondents who respondents who applied for did not apply for credit transfer credit transfer 1,869 (discussed in section 4) respondents enrolled in certificate, diploma & adv. diploma who did not apply for credit transfer 494 (excluded from analysis) 1,375 671** 699* 203 489 542 126 5 respondents did not indicate an answer * 7 respondents did not indicate an answer ** 3 respondents did not indicate an answer of the 1,869 respondents who did not apply for credit transfer, 460 students were enrolled in the graduate certificate or degree program, 29 were enrolled in credential identified as other, and 6 respondents did not choose to indicate the credential in which they are enrolled. of the remaining 1,375 respondents who were enrolled in certificate, diploma or advanced diploma program, 699 (50.8%) of the respondents indicated that they were of aware of the credit transfer possibility, whereas 671 (48.8%) respondents indicated that they were not aware of the credit transfer possibilities, and 5 respondents did not provide an answer. 3a) group: aware of credit transfer possibilities: of the 699 respondents who were aware of the credit transfer possibility, 203 (29.0%) were planning to apply for credit transfer but the majority, 489 (70.0%) respondents were not planning to apply for credit transfer. respondents who indicated that they were not planning to apply for credit transfer despite being aware of the possibility were further asked to provide credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 44 the primary reason for their decision. table 7 presents the reasons why these respondents did not apply for credit transfer. table 7: reason for not applying for credit-transfer (n = 489) percent of number of respondents respondents my current program is completely unrelated to my previous program of study 186 38.0% i did not want to spend the money to apply for transfer credits 69 14.1% i assumed that i would not receive any credits 39 8.0% i felt that the process was too much work 33 6.7% i did not clearly understand the credit transfer process 32 6.5% other 130 26.6% thirty eight percent of the respondents assumed that since they are pursuing a different program, there would be no credit transfer possibility. applicants often do not explore the possibility that even in the case of a subsequent unrelated program, there might be a possibility to transfer some elective courses. as indicated in table 7, an additional 14% indicated that there was no financial incentive to apply for the credit transfer since most colleges do not issue a refund of monies on per courses basis. another 13% indicated that the process was either unclear or tedious, and a further 26.6% indicated other concerns. among other concerns, respondents indicated that significant time had lapsed since their prior postsecondary, or they were trying to maintain full workload status, or they had been encouraged to repeat for grade reasons. 3b) group: not aware of credit transfer possibilities conversely, of the 671 respondents who indicated that they were not aware of the credit transfer possibility, a large majority 542 (80.8%) indicated that they would have applied for credit transfer if they had been aware of the possibility. upon further exploration with these students on how they could be encouraged to apply for the credit transfer, there were two dominant themes in their comments. the first theme was the locus of responsibility for the credit transfer; whether it resides with the student or the institution. while the current transfer credit processes at most postsecondary institutions in ontario hold it as the students responsibility to initiate the credit transfer process, a number of respondents in this group expected the institutions to take the initiative in informing them of the credits that can be transferred, and the process that was required to complete the transfer. further exploration of this aspect during student focus groups provided additional insights. the focus group participants indicated that since colleges have the in-depth knowledge of program curriculum and the relevant program of study, the colleges are in a better position than the individual students themselves to assess the credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 45 opportunities or courses where credit transfer is applicable. the focus group participants believed that this model of credit transfer would provide the greatest return on credit transfer efforts while alleviating the extensive awareness and process requirements placed on students. from the students perspective, they would prefer the credit transfer to be an automated process that automatically identifies and grants relevant credits between postsecondary institutions, with an option for individual students to be able to opt-out of the credit granting if s(he) chooses to do so. the second theme identified by these respondents was the timing and the avenues for making the information available. a significant number of respondents indicated that the credit transfer information should be available much earlier and integrated with the college application process itself, and that the information should be communicated through multiple avenues, such as college websites, offer letters, emails during the recruitment cycle, and open houses. further, among the 671 respondents who were not aware of the credit transfer possibility, 126 (18.8%) respondents indicated that they would still not apply for the credit transfer. table 8 presents the reasons why almost one-fifth of the group of respondents would still not choose to apply for credit transfer. table 8: number of respondents percent of respondents my current program is completely unrelated to my previous program of study 58 46.0% i did not clearly understand the credit transfer process 32 25.4% i assumed that i would not receive any credits 13 10.3% i felt that the process was too much work 9 7.1% i did not want to spend the money to apply for transfer credits 3 2.4% other 11 8.7% reason for not applying for credit-transfer (n = 126) it appears that the students perception of whether they are enrolled in a related program plays a key role in their decision to not apply for credit transfer regardless of their awareness of their credit transfer possibilities. this implies that students are not aware of the possibility for credit transfer for electives, such as general education. it is also interesting to note however, that there are some key differences in the reasons for not applying between the aware and not aware group. in the group that was aware of the credit transfer possibilities but chose not to apply, the financial cost was one of the key reasons. meanwhile, in the group that was not aware of the credit transfer possibilities but would not have applied for credit transfer even if they had been made aware of the possibility, the clarity of the transfer credit process was a key reason and financial cost was not as much of an issue. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 46 4. survey respondent group - applied for credit transfer section a: section a provides an overview of the overall survey data for respondents who indicated that they applied for credit transfer, and validates the use of request for transcript as the proxy definition for credit transfer used to analyze the provincial dataset in section 1. it further presents analysis conducted to validate the findings from the provincial dataset in section 1. figure 4 provides a pictorial representation of the survey respondent group that chose to apply for credit transfer. figure 4: number of survey respondents with prior ps in ontario publicly funded institution 3,085 respondents who applied for credit transfer 1,216 respondents who did not apply for credit transfer (discussed in section 3) 172 (excluded from analysis) respondents enrolled in certificate, diploma & adv. diploma who applied for credit transfer 1,044 241* 27 789** 213 90 697 14 respondents did not indicate either previous or current institution * 1 respondent did not indicate program ** 2 respondents did not indicate program of the 3,085 survey respondents who had prior postsecondary education in ontario, 1,216 (39.4%) applied for credit transfer. of the 1,216 respondents who applied for credit transfer, 172 (14.2%) were enrolled in degree or graduate certificate programs, while 1,044 (85.9%) were enrolled in certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programs. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 47 the group of respondents that is currently enrolled in certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programs is of particular interest since prior postsecondary education was not a mandatory requirement for their subsequent postsecondary program, and an attempt to apply for credit transfer is thus a resource optimization behaviour that other student groups may benefit from. 4a) credit transfer: swirling/non-traditional pathways the analysis of the provincial data in the previous section provided evidence for the nontraditional or swirling pathways rather than linear progression with students moving from college to college, university to college, or a combination. the survey data for the 1,044 students who applied for credit transfer was investigated to validate the findings from the provincial data analysis. table 9 presents the distribution of the prior postsecondary experience based on the current postsecondary credential in which the respondents were enrolled. table 9: current postsecondary credential enrolled (n = 914) prior postsecondary credential enrolled certificate diploma advanced diploma graduate certificate degree other certificate 29 54 9 4 42 2 diploma 116 208 27 9 286 10 advanced diploma 22 24 12 0 56 4 as evident in table 9, there are significant numbers of students who are enrolling in the certificate or diploma programs after degree or graduate certificate enrolment. of the 1,044 respondents, 914 indicated their prior postsecondary credential. of these 914 respondents who indicated their prior credential, 584 (63.9%) had graduated from their prior program. it is sometimes evinced that students who do not complete a degree or graduate certificate credential often resort to a subsequent certificate or diploma program to successfully complete their postsecondary experience. however, the analysis of respondents who graduated from their prior postsecondary program provides contrary evidence as indicated in table 10. table 10 presents the distribution of the prior postsecondary experience from which the students graduated based on the current postsecondary credential in which the respondents were enrolled. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 48 table 10: current postsecondary credential enrolled (n = 584) certificate diploma advanced diploma certificate 23 83 19 prior postsecondary credential graduated advanced graduate diploma degree diploma certificate 26 7 4 24 139 16 8 172 17 7 0 28 other 2 8 1 even when the successful completion of the prior postsecondary credential is accounted for, there is evidence for the swirling and non-traditional pathways choices among students. table 10 provides further evidence that students subsequent postsecondary choices are driven not only by credential-progression but also changing personal interests. it thus becomes increasingly important that credit transfer not be perceived as just a mechanism to facilitate linear progression on credentials ladder but also be recognized as an important tool for students to ensure optimization of their learning and resources. the academic credential information of these respondents was further explored to elicit program and institution choices. table 11 presents information on whether these respondents enrolled in a different postsecondary program than the previous one, and whether they enrolled at a different institution. table 11: subsequent postsecondary choices (n = 1,044) number percent same program same institution 27 2.6% different program same institution 213 20.4% same program different institution 96 9.2% different program different institution 705 67.5% as indicated in table 11, a significant majority of respondents, 801 (76.7%) indicated that they pursued the subsequent postsecondary program at a different institution as compared to only 23% that chose to continue at the same institution. this further emphasizes the importance of developing robust inter-institutional credit transfer possibilities, especially when approximately 10% of the respondents identify continuing in the same program at a different institution. table 12 presents the reasons identified by these respondents for choosing to pursue further postsecondary at a different institution. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 49 table 12: main reason for choosing different postsecondary institution (n=789) number percent changed my mind about field of study 328 41.6% reputation of my current program 137 17.4% location of my current institution 90 11.4% dissatisfied with my previous program 52 6.6% wanted to build on my postsecondary experience by attending a different institution 34 4.3% reputation of my current institution 31 3.9% dissatisfied with my previous institution 5 0.6% 112 14.2% other further, inter-institutional mobility was analyzed based on whether the prior institution was a caat college or ontario university. table 13 presents this information on a regional level. table 13: current postsecondary college - region (# survey respondents applyimg for credit transfer) n = 1,035 institution transferred from: number percent college 264 57.1% university 198 42.9% college 119 63.0% university 70 37.0% college 86 65.2% university 46 34.8% college 147 58.3% university 105 41.7% central (n = 462) eastern (n = 189) northern (n = 132) western (n = 252) of the 1,044 respondents who applied for the credit transfer, 1,035 (99.1%) identified both their current institution and prior institution. it is evident from the table that 35-40% of the credit transfer applications were from students whose prior postsecondary experience was at an ontario university. it is thus important that credit transfer frameworks not only include college to college transfers, but also university to college transfer possibilities. this aspect was particularly evident in the various on-site student focus group discussions facilitated by researchers. a number of participants expressed their frustration at having to undertake communication or english courses in particular. the scope of the current study is limited to students enrolled in the caat colleges; hence it is not able to explore similar transition trends from caat colleges to ontario universities. there is credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 50 currently a significant gap in the information exchange between ontario colleges and universities that inhibits college-to-university credit transfer exploration at provincial level. given that there is an expanding roster of credentialing offered by both colleges and universities, it is interesting to investigate whether there are differences in the reasons why students with a prior college or university credential would choose a different postsecondary institution. table 14 provides the reasons as for the two groups in the survey data. table 14: main reason for choosing different postsecondary institution prior college (n = 371) number percent prior university (n = 418) number percent changed my mind about field of study 137 36.90% 191 45.70% location of my current institution 73 19.70% 17 4.10% wanted to build on my postsecondary experience by attending a different institution 42 11.30% 95 22.70% dissatisfied with my previous institution 25 6.70% 9 2.20% reputation of my current program 17 4.60% 14 3.30% dissatisfied with my previous program 12 3.20% 40 9.60% reputation of my current institution 5 1.30% 0 0.00% other 60 16.20% 52 12.40% it is interesting to note that while change in field of study continues to be a dominant reason, there are other differences in the choices of the two groups. students with prior university experience indicate that attending a different postsecondary institution as an opportunity to build on their postsecondary experience as a major reason, whereas student with prior college experience indicate location of their current institution as a major reason. in addition, students with prior university indicate a higher dissatisfaction with the previous program (9.6%) than students with prior college (3.2%). 4b) credit transfer: geography and swirling this study explored the impact of geographic location on the mobility of students between regions using provincial data and a proxy definition of credit transfer (table 3). to validate the findings in provincial data, similar analysis was conducted with the survey data where credit transfer information was provided directly by the respondents. table 15 presents the results. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 51 table 15: region of current postsecondary institution central (n = 384) eastern (n = 135) northern (n = 88) western (n =182 ) region of prior postsecondary institution central 228 59% 32 24% 11 13% 39 21% eastern 48 13% 73 54% 17 19% 23 13% northern 19 5% 11 8% 44 50% 7 4% western 89 23% 19 14% 16 18% 113 62% table 15 presents similar trends of mobility as evidenced in the provincial data. as may be expected, the highest percent of students within a given region have completed their prior postsecondary within the same region ranging from a low of 50% within the northern region to a high of 62% within the western region. again, the evidence of regional preference makes it incumbent, at least on the institutions within that geographic region, to develop viable interinstitutional credit transfer opportunities amongst themselves. table 15 presents remarkably similar trends for all the regions as demonstrated in table 3. a review of inter-regional relationships indicates that the central region colleges draw students from the western region; the eastern region draws students from the central region; the western draws a similar proportion but less absolute number of students from the central region; and finally, the northern region draws small but similar proportions from all of the three other regions. to further track inter-institutional mobility, table 16 presents the number of institutions that the credit transfer was requested from excluding the institution itself (defined as inbound), and the institutions that the credit transfers were requested to (defined as outbound) at each of the participating caat colleges. in addition, it also identifies how many universities the credit transfer were requested from at each of the caat colleges. this analysis provides a direct validation of the provincial analysis presented in table 5 (page 29), and helps assess students relative interest in moving between the institutions. it further illustrates that students with prior university education seem to prefer attending the colleges in the central region. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 52 table 16: number of caat colleges central college 1 college 2 college 3 college 4 college 5 college 6 eastern college 1 college 2 college 3 college 4 college 5 northern college 1 college 2 college 3 college 4 college 5 college 6 western college 1 college 2 college 3 college 4 college 5 number of caat universities inbound outbound inbound 8 10 15 11 11 12 11 10 10 9 9 7 6 11 15 13 9 11 13 9 1 3 5 9 9 1 6 8 10 7 1 3 12 7 12 1 4 3 1 7 5 2 4 5 5 6 5 0 4 2 5 13 9 9 13 5 11 4 8 8 8 11 9 10 6 6 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 53 section b: figure 5 identifies the specific set of respondents groups that will be analyzed and discussed in this section. figure 5: number of survey respondents with prior ps in ontario publicly funded institution 3,085 respondents who applied for credit transfer respondents who did not apply for credit transfer (discussed in section 3) 1,216 172 (excluded from analysis) respondents enrolled in certificate, diploma & adv. diploma who applied for credit transfer 1,044 section b analysis and discussion 241* 27 789** 213 90 697 14 respondents did not indicate either previous or current institution * 1 respondent did not indicate program ** 2 respondents did not indicate program as previously noted, the group of respondents that is currently enrolled in certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programs, and applied for credit transfer is of particular interest since prior postsecondary education was not a mandatory requirement for their subsequent postsecondary program. an attempt to apply for credit transfer is thus an effort/resource optimization behaviour that other student groups may benefit from. it is thus important to explore the characteristics, motivations, expectations and experiences of this group to identify levers for promoting credit transfer engagement. the analysis and results presented in section b focus on two primary goals in this study: to study the overall transfer behaviour of the respondents to study the transfer behaviour of the respondents who transferred to a different institution and compare it to the respondents who transferred within the same institution. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 54 hence, subsequent sub-sections will first present results for the overall respondents (n=1,044) who applied for credit transfer, and then compare the results for respondents who transferred to a different institution (n=801) to respondents who transferred to the same institution (n=240). 4c) credit transfer: sources of information the previous analysis of the group of survey respondents who did not apply for credit transfer in sections 3a) and 3b) demonstrated the critical importance of awareness of the credit transfer possibilities for students. the study thus asked survey respondents to identify their sources of information. respondents could indicate multiple sources of information, if applicable. table 17a presents the information for the usage of various sources that provide information about credit transfer process. table 17a: source of credit transfer information number percent current institutions website 361 25.8% from a friend, classmate or family member 317 22.6% faculty member 271 19.4% staff member from the office of the registrar (or equivalent) 229 16.4% previous institutions website 89 6.4% ontransfer website 85 6.1% other 48 3.4% * respondents could select multiple sources hence the number of respondents will not add to 1,044 respondents indicate that both formal and informal networks of information were important for resourcing information on credit transfers. colleges websites were resourced most as a source of information in addition to the informal information from peers or family. it is interesting that a greater percentage of students (19.4%) sourced the information from faculty members rather than office of the registrar (16.4%) even though for most colleges the credit transfer initiation process resides in the registrar offices. this finding is understandable since faculty members are most familiar to students and are more readily accessible, but it does underline the importance of ensuring that faculty members are included in or at the very least have the most updated credit transfer information to be able to redirect students to appropriate resources. further analysis was conducted to investigate whether respondents who were transferring to a different institution were accessing information from a different set of sources than those who were transferring credits within the same institution. results in table 17b indicate that greater proportion of respondents who transfer to a different institution sourced the information from credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 55 their current institutions website or from an informal source such as friend, classmate or family member. however, students who applied for credit transfer within the same institution, a greater proportion accessed faculty member or staff from the registrar office as the source of the credit transfer information. table 17b: source of credit transfer information transfer diff. inst. (n = 789) transfer same inst. (n = 241) number percent number percent current institutions website 316 40.1% 42 17.4% faculty member 174 22.1% 94 39.0% from a friend, classmate or family member 245 31.1% 64 26.6% ontransfer website 69 8.7% 13 5.4% previous institutions website staff member from the office of the registrar (or equivalent) other 69 8.7% 20 8.3% 155 19.6% 72 29.9% 44 5.6% 4 1.7% * respondents could select multiple sources hence the number of respondents will not add to 789 or 241 the various sources of information were further assessed to determine the ease of finding the first point of contact for credit transfer process. this analysis will help assess the quality of information available through various sources. table 18a presents the information on ease of locating first point of contact information. table 18a: source of information very easy/easy very difficult/ difficult staff member from the office of the registrar 267 9 faculty member 222 39 ontransfer website 174 29 current institution's website 169 27 previous institution's website 146 131 from a friend, classmate or family member 99 0 other 13 0 table 18a illustrates that if the source of credit transfer information was the office of the registrar, then the first point of contact was easily located. however, if the source of information was previous institutions website, then the first point of contact for credit transfer was particularly difficult to locate. the oncat website, and in the last few months ocas credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 56 website, both provide transfer advisor contact information for each of the 24 caat colleges and ontario universities. ease of locating the source of information was further analyzed to investigate whether there were any differences between the respondents transferring to a different institution as compared to respondents who stayed at the same institution. table 18b presents the results. table 18b: transfer diff. inst. (n = 789) transfer same inst. (n = 241) very easy/easy very difficult/ difficult very easy/easy very difficult/ difficult current institutions website 195 24 22 3 faculty member 138 34 78 5 from a friend, classmate or family member 161 0 37 0 ontransfer website 95 21 46 7 previous institutions website 144 16 36 3 staff member from the office of the registrar (or equivalent) 137 9 59 0 other 22 0 1 0 source of information * respondents could select multiple sources hence the number of respondents will not add to 789 (transfer to diff. institution) or 241 (transfer to same institution). results in table 18b indicate that those transferring to a different institution were able to locate the credit transfer information from their current institutions website most easily but had difficulty resourcing the information from faculty. on the contrary, those who transferred within the same institution were able to locate the information most easily from faculty and had difficulty with ontransfer website. these findings raise an interesting possibility that the students likelihood of transferring credits within or to a different institution may, to some extent, depend on the source from where they are getting the credit transfer information. are students who are able to resource credit transfer information from a faculty member more likely to apply for credit transfer and stay within the same institution as opposed to transferring to a different institution? however, the answer to this question is not within the scope of the current study. further exploration with students during the focus group identified the inability to find the firstpoint-of-contact information as a major barrier; participants further recommended that the transfer advisor information be readily and visibly available on the main page of the oncat website. in addition, based on the feedback from focus group discussions, the table 19a identifies the aspects of credit transfer communication that students found particularly useful, and the ones that they did not. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 57 table 19a: helpful aspects not helpful aspects receive e-mail/letter alerting student of their credit transfer eligibility lack of credit transfer process information at other institutions information availability at various events classroom visit by program coordinator finding credit transfer information too late in the semester step by step instructions on how to apply (documents and forms all online) inaccurate information on website (re: contact info; timelines) clarification of course eligibility poor communication or phone calls not returned assistance with course mapping if credit transfer is awarded being re-directed to different people on multiple occasions proper guidance to locate point of contact inability to submit application until classes start helpfulness of the above aspects was further investigated using survey data for the respondents who moved to a different institution and compared to respondents who stayed at the same institution. the results are presented in tables 19b. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 58 table 19b: aspects respondents who transferred to different institution respondents who stayed at same institution helpful aspects: e-mail/letter to alert student of their credit transfer eligibility information availability at various events step by step instructions on how to apply (documents and forms all online) visits and assistance by program coordinator clarification with course eligibility assistance with course mapping if credit transfer is awarded proper guidance to locate point of contact not helpful aspects: finding credit transfer information too late in the semester poor communication or phone calls not returned being re-directed to different people on multiple occasions lack of credit transfer process information at other institutions inability to submit application until classes start inaccurate information on website (re: contact info; timelines) in table 19b, it is interesting to note that respondents who transferred to a different institution identified classroom visits and assistance by program coordinator as being helpful in comparison to the respondents who stayed at the same institution. this aspect was further explored with the focus groups participants; it was found that in comparison to respondents who transferred to a different institution, the respondents who stayed at the same institution were more likely to know the person (most often staff member) who they needed to resource for credit transfer information. the interviews with caat colleges registrars further reinforced the fact that the lack of credit transfer policies and procedures at various colleges often leads to reliance on informal, inefficient practices and scant infrastructure. there is agreement for the need for wellarticulated, efficient documentation to support the process, and online/paper-based guides to assist students with the process. it is an area where colleges can substantially benefit from oncats leadership and support. oncat can support the caat colleges to develop and implement credit transfer policies, which consistently correspond to a common provincial framework. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 59 the survey respondents were further asked to identify the particular point of first contact and assess the helpfulness of the contact. table 20a presents their responses. table 20a: respondents first point of contact very helpful/ quite helpful number percent percent dean 5 0.5% 90.0% program advisor 58 6.0% 87.1% pathways and credit transfer coordinator 53 5.5% 86.8% faculty member 70 7.2% 83.6% program coordinator 213 21.9% 82.9% admissions advisor 166 17.1% 80.6% registrar staff member 407 41.9% 79.9% it is interesting to note that the registrar staff members were most resourced and rated as least helpful whereas deans were least resourced and rated as most helpful. it is also interesting to note that program coordinators were resourced more often than admission advisor and rated as more helpful. helpfulness of the first point on contact was also analyzed to investigate whether there were differences between the group of respondents who transferred to a different institution in comparison to respondents who stayed at the same institution. table 20b presents the results. there are no differences in the patterns between the two groups for the first points of contacts resourced or their helpfulness. table 20b transfer diff. inst. (n = 787) first point of contact admissions advisor dean faculty member pathways and credit transfer coordinator program advisor program coordinator registrar staff member other respondents very helpful/ quite helpful transfer same inst. (n = 239) respondents very helpful/ quite helpful number 124 3 54 percent 15.8% 0.4% 6.9% percent 82.3% 100.0% 79.6% number 41 2 15 percent 17.2% 0.8% 6.3% percent 73.2% 100.0% 93.3% 41 5.2% 87.8% 12 5.0% 83.3% 40 151 318 56 5.1% 19.2% 40.4% 7.1% 90.0% 81.5% 79.9% 58.8% 18 59 81 11 7.5% 24.7% 33.9% 4.6% 88.9% 86.4% 77.8% 60.0% credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 60 the above results are indicative of the interesting debate that surrounds credit transfer in terms of process and decision ownership. often the credit transfer process resides in the registrar offices while the credit transfer decision-making resides in the school offices. if the transfer efforts in the two units are not well-coordinated, it leads to a significant amount of frustration and time-delay for students. participants in the focus group discussions identified this as a significant area for improvement while sharing their experiences. while this observation is of course incumbent on the procedural efficiencies at various colleges and varies from college to college, the following sections present discussion and insights into various procedural issues as identified through survey analysis and student focus group discussions. 4d) credit transfer: process information clarity and timelines: the following table presents information on the clarity and timeliness of the credit transfer information when required. please note that the following survey respondents all applied for credit transfer and hence are likely to be better informed than the counter-parts who did not. the purpose of this analysis is to identify specific informational aspects in the credit transfer process that may need better communication support. table 21a presents survey respondents aggregate responses. table 21a: strongly agree/ agree credit transfer information aspect the option for credit transfer was made clear to me when i enrolled (n = 1,039) i clearly understood the process when i applied for credit transfer (n = 1,037) information about the credit transfer process was readily available to me when needed (n = 1028) i knew who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process (n = 1,032) advising from college staff about the credit transfer process was readily available to me when needed (n = 1,035) number percent 731 70.4% 836 80.6% 815 79.3% 743 72.0% 883 85.3% the above credit transfer information aspects were also investigated for differences between the groups of respondents who transferred to a different institution as compared to the group of respondents who transferred credits within the same institution. table 21b presents the results and the pattern of results is quite similar between the two groups as well as with the overall results. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 61 table 21b: credit transfer information aspect transfer diff. inst. transfer same inst. strongly agree/ agree strongly agree/ agree number percent number percent the option for credit transfer was made clear to me when i enrolled 542 (n=788) 68.8% 180 (n=238) 70.40% i clearly understood the process when i applied for credit transfer 623 (n=788) 79.1% 202 (n=237) 80.60% information about the credit transfer process was readily available to me when needed 611 (n=780) 78.3% 193 (n=236) 79.30% i knew who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process 549 (n=783) 70.1% 184 (n=236) 72.00% advising from college staff about the credit transfer process was readily available to me when needed 667 (n=786) 84.9% 207 (n=236) 85.30% it is evident from tables 21a and 21b that the area most in need of communication support is identification of contact, and the time when more communication support is required is earlier in the process when students enrolls initially. as presented in table 22a, survey respondents further recommended the time when the credit transfer information would be most useful. table 22a: credit transfer information: timeliness recommendation (n = 1,026) strongly agree/ agree number percent included in the admission package for your current program 647 63.1% during course registration 191 18.6% during introductory program orientation 82 8.0% during the first week of class 78 7.6% other 28 2.7% the majority of respondents (63.1%) indicated that they would prefer the credit information much earlier in the process when they receive their admissions package. the timeliness recommendation was further analyzed to investigate the differences between the group of respondents who transferred to a different institution as compared to the respondents at the same institution. results are presented in table 22b. while a major proportion of students in both the groups prefer the credit transfer information to be provided in the admission package, the preference seems to be stronger in the group of students who transferred to a different institution. students who stayed at the same institution have a credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 62 relatively stronger preference for credit transfer information during course registration as compared to the students who transferred to a different institution. table 22b: credit transfer information: timeliness recommendation transfer diff. inst. (n = 783) transfer same inst. (n = 230) strongly agree/ agree strongly agree/ agree number percent number percent included in the admission package for your current program 513 65.5% 124 53.9% during course registration 143 18.3% 47 20.4% during introductory program orientation 60 7.7% 21 9.1% during the first week of class 48 6.1% 30 13.0% other 19 2.4% 8 3.5% it is anecdotally contended that college students do not initiate the credit transfer process until much later in the program and that any attempt to provide early credit transfer information or encourage earlier process initiation are likely to yield little value. to assess the current time frames in which the students are applying, the survey respondents were asked to indicate the time when they applied for the credit transfer. the results are presented in table 23a. table 23a: credit transfer: time of application (n = 1,041) strongly agree/ agree number percent at the same time as applying for current program of study 171 16.4% during course registration 146 14.0% after course registration, but before the first day of class 182 17.5% during the first week of class 271 26.0% after the first week of class, but during the first month of class 185 17.8% other 86 8.3% almost half (47.9%) of the respondents applied before the first day of class, with almost onefifth (16.4%) applying before course registration. this demonstrates the need for early information so that students can take the time to understand the requirements, assess the financial or other implications if any, decide if they want to apply, have time to collect documentation and submit the application, receive the decision on their application, and plan their course registrations effectively. an earlier credit transfer decision not only helps students but also eliminates the undue administrative burden that is caused by dropping and adding of the courses at a later date, and managing class sizes. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 63 the time of application was further analyzed to investigate the differences, if any, between the two groups of respondents who transferred to a different institution, and the group of respondents who stayed at the same institution. table 23b presents the results. the pattern of results between the two groups is quite similar thereby indicating that the time of application is likely to be driven by the process requirements at a given institution rather than the respondent choice. table 23b: credit transfer: time of application transfer diff. inst. (n = 789) transfer same inst. (n = 239) strongly agree/ agree strongly agree/ agree number percent number percent at the same time as applying for current program of study 122 15.5% 43 18.0% during course registration 113 14.3% 32 13.4% after course registration, but before the first day of class 144 18.3% 37 15.5% during the first week of class 197 25.0% 72 30.1% after the first week of class, but during the first month of class 142 18.0% 41 17.2% other 71 9.0% 14 5.9% timeliness of the credit transfer information was explored in detail with the focus group participants. some of the key observations and recommendations made by the focus group participants were: i. explore the possibility of integrating credit transfer information requests with the ocas application process. ii. explore the possibility of institutions automatically granting credit transfers, where applicable. iii. develop mutual institutional resourcing of the transcripts without financial cost and involvement on behalf of students. iv. integrate credit transfer process and deadlines with other institutional documents such as college calendars, and develop multiple avenues for information such as open houses, ocas application, admissions package, follow-up communications. v. ensure there is clear understanding of the differences between credit transfer, plar and advanced standing processes. vi. develop readily available roster of equivalencies, and easily accessible point-of-contact information vii. differing credit transfer informational requirements for different courses credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 64 the last observation vii in the list above which indicates that there are different informational requirements for different courses indicates either inconsistencies in the credit transfer process implementation or the inadequacy of the credit transfer information provided. survey information as presented in table 24a was used to get an assessment the proportion of students that might be submitting multiple credit transfer applications. it is interesting to note that almost forty percent (38.4%) of the respondents indicated that they submitted multiple applications. table 24a: credit transfer: number of applications (n = 981) respondents number percent 1 604 61.6% 2 215 21.9% 3 109 11.1% more than 3 53 5.4% the data for number of credit transfer applications submitted was further analyzed to investigate any difference between the group of respondents who moved to a different institution and the group of respondents who stayed at the same institution. results are presented in table 24b. table24b: credit transfer: number of applications transfer diff. inst. (n = 741) transfer same inst. (n = 226) respondents respondents number percent number percent 1 422 57.0% 173 76.5% 2 177 23.9% 34 15.0% 3 95 12.8% 13 5.8% more than 3 47 6.3% 6 2.7% it is interesting to note that a greater proportion of respondents (43.0%) who moved to a different institution indicated that they submitted multiple applications as compared to the respondents who stayed at the same institution (23.5%). credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 65 4e) credit transfer: applicant experiences survey respondents were asked to indicate their agreement with the various aspects of the credit transfer process to assess the quality of their experience. the aggregated responses are presented in table 25a. table 25a: strongly agree/ agree credit transfer: application experience completing the credit transfer application process was easy to understand (n = 1,033) completing the credit transfer application process took an appropriate amount of time (n = 1,024) requirements for credit transfer are clearly defined (n = 1,018) i had no issues accessing the documentation i needed for credit transfer (i.e. transcripts, course outlines, etc.) (n = 1,031) the financial cost of applying for credit transfer was appropriate (n = 1,025) my credit transfer application was processed in an appropriate timeframe (n = 1,022) number percent 904 87.5% 890 86.9% 800 78.6% 803 77.9% 717 70.0% 848 83.0% for each of the aspects indicated in table 25a, the reasons for disagreement are provided in appendices 6 through 10. the reasons for inadequate credit transfer experiences were also explored extensively in the on-site focus groups. based on the information derived from the survey and the focus groups, the following is a summary of the key issues that cause a nonsatisfactory credit transfer experience: i. lack of clarity between various credit granting processes, such as credit transfer, plar and advanced standing; sometimes terms are used interchangeably. also, advanced standing may be defined differently at various colleges. ii. hard to follow process information; too many steps. iii. inconsistent or inadequate information from various sources. iv. inconsistent interpretation or implementation of the same credit transfer process. v. determination of courses eligible for credit transfer. vi. lack of clear documentation requirements. vii. access to course outlines. viii. access to transcripts; multiple transcript requests for course credits applied in different areas of same institution. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 66 ix. no refund for the cost of the course for which transfer is granted; hence credit transfer cost is perceived as additional cost. repeat documentation requests perceived as additional costs. x. lack of communication on the status of the application. xi. length of the time it takes to receive the decision. the various aspects of credit transfer application experiences were further analyzed to investigate the differences, if any, between the two groups of respondents who transferred to a different institution, and the group of respondents who stayed at the same institution. table 25b presents the results. respondents who transferred to a different institution consistently rated all aspects of the credit transfer experience lower than the respondents who stayed at the same institution. the magnitude of these differences was particularly high for access to documentation and financial cost for credit transfer application. a greater proportion of respondents who transferred to a different institution indicated challenges with ability to access requisite documentation and the financial cost. table 25b: credit transfer: application experience transfer diff. inst. transfer same inst. strongly agree/ agree strongly agree/ agree number percent number percent completing the credit transfer application process was easy to understand 673 (n = 784) 85.8% 219 (n = 236) 92.8% completing the credit transfer application process took an appropriate amount of time 662 (n = 775) 85.4% 217 (n = 236) 91.9% requirements for credit transfer are clearly defined 590 (n = 773) 76.3% 199 (n = 232) 85.8% i had no issues accessing the documentation i needed for credit transfer (i.e. transcripts, course outlines, etc.) 582 (n = 783) 74.3% 212 (n = 235) 90.2% the financial cost of applying for credit transfer was appropriate 509 (n = 780) 65.3% 199 (n = 233) 85.4% my credit transfer application was processed in an appropriate timeframe 632 (n = 778) 81.2% 208 (n = 231) 90.0% as indicated in tables 25a and 25b, and further borne by the survey comments, the two aspects of the credit transfer process which are most challenging for the applicants are financial cost and supporting documentation, particularly course outlines and transcripts. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 67 4f) credit transfer: processing times survey respondents were asked to indicate what they considered as an acceptable time for processing credit transfer applications. the results in table 26 indicated that almost one-sixth of the respondents consider less than 3 days, and an additional forty percent consider less than 1 week to be the appropriate length of processing time. there is a significant gap between applicants timeline expectations and current prevalent practices at a number of colleges. interviews with the registrars at various colleges revealed variable timelines ranging from less than one week to as long as end of september. additionally, there were three colleges that did not have a defined timeline for processing times. further, secondary analysis revealed that as the number of credits applied increases, the length of the acceptable processing time increases, thereby indicating that applicants are reasonable in their expectations. table 26a: credit transfer: acceptable length of processing time (n = 1,037) number percent less than 3 days 159 15.3% less than 1 week 381 36.7% less than 2 weeks 380 36.6% less than 1 month 91 8.8% other 26 2.5% the acceptable length of processing time was also investigated for differences between the groups of respondents who transferred to a different institution as compared to the group of respondents who transferred credits within the same institution. table 25b presents the results. table 26b: credit transfer: acceptable length of processing time transfer diff. inst. (n = 784) transfer same inst. (n = 240) number percent number percent less than 3 days 102 13.0% 57 23.8% less than 1 week 286 36.5% 92 38.3% less than 2 weeks 311 39.7% 64 26.7% less than 1 month 69 8.8% 17 7.1% other 16 2.0% 10 4.2% while about 37%-40% of respondents in both the groups indicated less than 1 week as the acceptable processing time, there were differences in their second ranked choice. almost an credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 68 additional 40% of the respondents who transferred to a different institution indicated less than 2 weeks as acceptable length of time, whereas only about 27% of respondents staying at the same institution indicated less than 2 weeks. additionally, far fewer respondents (13%) attending a different institution indicated less than 3 days as acceptable time as compared to 24% for the respondents who were attending the same institution. the results reinforce two important findings. first, students are reasonable in their expectations; when they transfer to a different institution, they are willing to have more patience with the processing times. second, students expect significantly greater efficiencies in credit transfer application processing when they are applying for credit transfers within the same institution. the respondents processing time expectations were further analyzed for their recommended ideal time to receive credit transfer information. it would help investigate if the earlier knowledge of credit transfer information may have a bearing on applicants expectations on the processing times. table 27a presents the results. table 27a: credit transfer: acceptable length of processing time recommended time to provide credit transfer information less than 3 days less than 1 week less than 2 weeks less than 1 month other number (percent) number (percent) number (percent) number (percent) number (percent) included in the admission package for your current program (n = 642) 95 (15%) 219 (34%) 254 (40%) 61 (10%) 13 (2%) during introductory program orientation (n = 81) 10 (12%) 45 (56%) 22 (27%) 2 (2%) 2 (2%) during course registration (n = 191) 36 (19%) 73 (38%) 61 (32%) 17 (9%) 4 (2%) during the first week of class (n = 78) 10 (13%) 28 (36%) 28 (36%) 7 (9%) 5 (6%) other (n = 28) 3 (11%) 12 (43%) 8 (29%) 4 (14%) 1 (4%) table 27a indicates that if the credit transfer information is included in the admissions package then the processing time expectations is less than 2 weeks but when the credit transfer information is made available during introductory program orientation, the processing time expectations shrink considerably to less than 1 week. thus the time when the credit transfer information is made available has important bearing on administrative processing time available. earlier availability of the credit transfer information would ensure that students have time to apply, and that there is sufficient time for administrative processing. researchers further explored this aspect during the student focus groups and the registrars interviews. it appears that the greatest barrier in earlier application and decision, is the lack of credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 69 curriculum expertise or resources over the summer to make credit transfer decisions. this further underlines the importance of developing course or program equivalencies across the postsecondary sector. focus group discussions revealed that the assessments of credit transfer applications on case-by-case are resource intensive, use precious faculty time, entail a significant amount of process and documentation exchanges between registrar offices and the corresponding schools, increase the possibility of miscommunication or misplaced documentation, and are more prone to perceptions of subjective judgments. the data was further analyzed to investigate the differences, if any, between the respondents who transferred to a different institution and the respondents who stayed at the same institution. table 27b presents results for the group of respondents who transferred to a different institution and table 27c presents results for the group of respondents who stayed at the same institution. table 27b: credit transfer: acceptable length of processing time credit transfer timeline recommendation transfer different institution included in the admission package for your current program (n = 509) during introductory program orientation (n = 59) during course registration (n = 143) during the first week of class (n = 48) other (n = 19) less than 3 days number (percent) 67 (13.2%) 6 (10.2%) 21 (14.7%) 3 (6.3%) 3 (15.8%) less than 1 week number (percent) 163 (32.0%) 35 (59.3%) 58 (40.6%) 21 (43.8%) 8 (42.1%) less than 2 weeks number (percent) 219 (43.0%) 16 (27.1%) 48 (33.6%) 19 (39.6%) 6 (31.6%) less than 1 month number (percent) 49 (9.6%) 1 (1.7%) 14 (9.8%) 3 (6.3%) 2 (10.5%) other number (percent) 11 (2.2%) 1 (1.7%) 2 (1.4%) 2 (4.2%) 0 (0.0%) results in table 27b indicate that students who transfer to a different institution are willing to allow for longer processing times less than 2 weeks if the credit transfer information is provided earlier with the admissions package. otherwise, regardless of when the credit transfer information is provided subsequently, a greater proportion deem less than 1 week as the acceptable processing time. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 70 table 27c: credit transfer timeline recommendation in the same institution included in the admission package for your current program (n = 123) during introductory program orientation (n = 21) during course registration (n = 47) during the first week of class (n = 30) other (n = 8) credit transfer: acceptable length of processing time less than less than less than less than other 3 days 1 week 2 weeks 1 month number number number number number (percent) (percent) (percent) (percent) (percent) 28 53 31 9 2 (22.8%) (43.1%) (25.2%) (7.3%) (1.6%) 4 10 6 0 1 (19.0%) (47.6%) (28.6%) (0.0%) (4.8%) 15 15 13 2 2 (31.9%) (31.9%) (27.7%) (4.3%) (4.3%) 7 7 9 4 3 (23.3%) (23.3%) (30.0%) (13.3%) (10.0%) 0 4 1 2 1 (0.0%) (50.0%) (12.5%) (25.0%) (12.5%) results in table 27c indicate that generally less than 1 week is considered as the acceptable processing time by the students who stay at the same institution as well, but if the information is received much later, i.e. after the first week of class, then there is willingness to allow for greater time. 4g) credit transfer: application outcomes the survey respondents were further asked to indicate whether they received all the credits that they applied for. table 28a presents the information on the credits received according to the number of courses applied that the credit transfers were applied for. table 28a: receive credit for all the courses applied for number of courses applied for credit transfer (n = 1,032) 1 2 3 more than 3 total number of courses applied for credit transfer yes (n = 675) (65.4%) no (n = 258) (25.0%) 228 (74.8%) 194 49 (16.1%) 67 waiting for decision (n = 99), (9.6%) 28 (9.2%) 26 (67.6%) (23.3%) (9.1%) (100.0%) 128 (65.3%) 125 (51.2%) 50 (25.2%) 92 (37.7%) 18 (9.2%) 27 (11.1%) 196 (100.0%) 244 (100.0%) credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 305 (100.0%) 287 71 it is interesting to note that the survey was conducted in january 2015, at the beginning of the second semester for the participants and yet almost 10 % of the participants were still waiting for a decision. thus, there seems to be a large gap between what the colleges recognize as their processing times and the actual practice. the data for number of courses applied for credit transfer and the credits received was further analyzed to investigate the differences, if any, between the respondents who transferred to a different institution and the respondents who stayed at the same institution. results are presented in table 28b. table 28b: number of courses applied for credit transfer 1 2 3 more than 3 transfer diff. inst. (n = 780) receive credit for all the courses applied for waiting for yes no decision total (n = 484) (n = 219) (n = 77) (62.1%) (28.1%) (9.9%) 159 39 23 221 (71.9%) (17.6%) (10.4%) (100.0%) 131 52 21 204 (64.2%) (25.5%) (10.3%) (100.0%) 103 40 13 156 (66.0%) (25.6%) (8.3%) (100.0%) 91 88 20 199 (45.7%) (44.2%) (10.1%) (100.0%) transfer same inst. (n = 239) receive credit for all the courses applied for waiting for yes no decision (n = 183) (n = 36) total (n = 20) (76.6%) (15.1%) (8.4%) 66 9 5 80 (82.5%) (11.3%) (6.3%) (100.0%) 60 15 5 80 (75.0%) (18.8%) (6.3%) (100.0%) 25 9 5 39 (64.1%) (23.1%) (12.8%) (100.0%) 32 3 5 40 (80.0%) (7.5%) (12.5%) (100.0%) as indicated in table 28b, a greater proportion (28%) i.e. 219 out of 780 respondents who attended a different institution were denied credits than the proportion (15%) i.e. 36 out of 239 respondents who applied for credit at the same institution. it is also interesting to note that that there is relatively a large difference in the two groups amongst the respondents who applied for credits for more than 3 courses. a far greater proportion (44%) i.e. 88 out of 199 respondents who transferred to a different institution and applied for credits for more than 3 courses were denied credit than the proportion (8%) i.e. 3 out of 40 respondents who stayed at the same institution and applied for credit transfer for more than 3 courses. this indicates that institutions may be more likely to recognize credit for the courses that they deliver as compared to the courses delivered by other institutions. this finding though not surprising, is contrary to the expectations in an academic environment where significant number of programs are governed by common program standards across the province. survey respondents were further assessed for the reasonable of their credit transfer expectations. table 29a presents information on whether they expected to receive any credits that they were not granted. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 72 table 29a: expected to receive denied credit (n = 1,033) number percent yes 210 20.3% no 823 79.7% as indicated in table 29a almost 80% of the credit transfers denied did not come as a surprise to the applicants, and hence were unlikely to cause disappointment. however, these applications place an unnecessary and unproductive administrative burden of processing those applications. it is thus imperative that there be well-articulated information on course eligibility for transfer to avoid poorly informed or frivolous applications. the credit expectation data was analyzed to also investigate the differences between respondents who transferred to a different institution and the respondents who stayed at the same institution. table 29b presents the results. table 29b: expected to receive denied credit transfer diff. inst. (n = 781) transfer same inst. (n = 239) number percent number percent yes 173 22.2% 34 14.2% no 608 77.8% 205 85.8% the results in table 29b indicate that a greater proportion of respondents who transferred to a different institution were expecting to receive the credits that were denied. of the 210 respondents who expected to receive credits that were denied, just over half 56.2% (118) received an explanation of the reason that the credit transfer had been denied. this is an important communication gap in the process, which often leaves applicants feeling confused and treated unfairly. these 118 respondents were further asked to indicate whether they were satisfied with the explanation. more than half of the respondents 72 (61.0%) indicated that they were dissatisfied with the explanation provided. further exploration of the survey comments as to why the explanations were deemed unsatisfactory, as well as insights from the on-site focus group discussion, reveal that a number of these were university students who were denied credit for various courses taken in the prior university. of special note were courses in psychology, sociology, and english; students were particularly upset that university level english courses could not be used as a credit for the communications course at college. given the increasing population of students at caat colleges with prior university degrees, it is imperative that the credit transfer conversation be conducted not only in college-to-college or college-to-university contexts but also in the university-to-college context. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 73 4h) credit transfer: overall ease of process while the survey investigated the multifarious aspects of the credit transfer process, it also asked the respondents to provide an assessment of overall ease of the credit transfer process and their overall satisfaction with the process. table 30a presents the results for the ease-ofprocess. table 30a: ease of credit transfer process (n = 1,035) number percent very easy 279 27.0% easy 594 57.4% difficult 129 12.5% very difficult 33 3.2% the majority of the respondents (84.4%) indicated that they found the overall credit transfer process very easy or easy; however, about one-sixth (15.7%) of those who applied found the process to be difficult. informational aspects of the credit transfer process were re-analyzed within the context of satisfaction ratings, as presented in tables 31 through 35, to determine whether there was an impact of informational awareness on the perceived ease of the credit transfer process. overall ease of credit transfer process was also assessed to investigate differences, if any, between the respondents who transferred to a different institution and respondents who stayed at the same institution. the results are presented in table 30b. though the magnitude of differences is not large, the respondents who stayed at the same institution seemed to find the overall credit transfer easier than the respondents who transferred to a different institution. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 74 table 30b: transfer diff. inst. (n = 782) ease of credit transfer process transfer same inst. (n = 240) number percent number percent very easy 185 23.7% 88 36.7% easy 464 59.3% 125 52.1% difficult 105 13.4% 23 9.6% very difficult 28 3.6% 4 1.7% the subsequent discussion presents the analysis that was conducted to investigate whether each of the following five aspects of credit transfer information had any impact on the perceived ease of the credit transfer process. the five credit transfer information aspects analyzed in the subsequent discussion are: 1. credit transfer option was made clear to the respondent when (s)he enrolled. 2. respondent clearly understood the process when s(he) applied for credit transfer. 3. information about the credit transfer process was readily available when needed. 4. respondent knew who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process. 5. advising from college staff about the credit transfer process was readily available when needed. the analysis was conducted for overall respondents, as well as the two groups under discussion, namely, group of respondents who transferred to a different institution and the group of respondents who stayed at the same institution. within group significance tests were conducted to see whether there was a meaningful impact of the clarify of credit of transfer information for overall respondents as well as each of the three groups. the results are presented in tables 31 through 35, followed by findings for the significance test for each of the groups. 1. option of credit transfer was clear when initially enrolled: table 31: ease of credit transfer process option of credit transfer was clear when initially enrolled overall different institution same institution difficult easy difficult easy difficult easy agree (n = 724) 64 (9%) 660 (91%) 52 (10%) 484 (90%) 11 (6%) 168 (91%) disagree (n = 307) 96 (31%) 211 (69%) 81 (33%) 164 (67%) 14 (24%) 44 (76%) credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 75 overall: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found the option for credit transfer to be clear when enrolling (m=3.73, sd=0.85) and those that found the option for credit transfer to be unclear when enrolling (m=3.06, sd=1.39); t (1029) = 9.475, p= 0.000. different institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found the option for credit transfer to be clear when enrolling (m=3.71, sd=0.88) and those that found the option for credit transfer to be unclear when enrolling (m=3.00, sd=1.41); t (779) = 8.405, p= 0.000. same institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found the option for credit transfer to be clear when enrolling (m=3.81, sd=0.72) and those that found the option for credit transfer to be unclear when enrolling (m=3.27, sd=1.29); t (235) = 3.989, p= 0.000. the results indicate that when the respondents had clear knowledge of the availability of the credit transfer option when they initially enrolled, they found the credit transfer process relatively easy regardless of whether they transferred to a different institution or stayed at the same institution. 2. credit transfer information was readily available table 32: credit transfer information was readily available ease of credit transfer process overall different institution same institution difficult easy difficult easy difficult easy agree (n = 809) 61 (8%) 743 (92%) 52 (9%) 554 (91%) 8 (4%) 184 (96%) disagree (n = 211) 99 (47%) 112 (53%) 81 (49%) 86 (51%) 17 (40%) 25 (60%) overall: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that clearly understood the process when applying for credit transfer (m=3.76, sd=0.81) and those that that did not clearly understand the process when applying for credit transfer (m=2.56, sd=1.50); t (1027) = 15.480, p = 0.000. different institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that clearly understood the process when applying for credit transfer (m=3.75, sd=0.83) and those that that did not clearly understand the process when applying for credit transfer (m=2.4908, sd=1.50) ; t (779) = 14.248, p = 0.000. same institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that clearly understood the process when applying for credit transfer (m=3.80, sd=0.74) and those that credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 76 that did not clearly understand the process when applying for credit transfer (m=2.94, sd=1.45); t (233) = 5316, p = 0.000. the results indicate that when the credit transfer information was readily available to the respondents, they found the credit transfer process relatively easy regardless of whether they transferred to a different institution or stayed at the same institution. 3. clearly understood the credit transfer process: table 33: ease of credit transfer process clearly understood the credit transfer process overall different institution same institution difficult easy difficult easy difficult easy agree (n = 830) 65 (8%) 765 (92%) 51 (8%) 567 (92%) 13 (6%) 188 (94%) disagree (n = 199) 95 (48%) 104 (52%) 82 (50%) 81 (50%) 12 (35%) 22 (65%) overall: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found information about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=3.77, sd=0.79) and those that did not feel information about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=2.59, sd=1.50); t(1018) = 15.572, p = 0.000. different institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found information about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=3.75, sd=0.84) and those that did not feel information about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=2.55, sd=1.50); t(771) = 13.426, p = 0.000. same institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found information about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=3.87, sd=0.60) and those that did not feel information about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=2.78, sd=1.49); t(232) = 7.698, p = 0.000. the results indicate that when the credit transfer process was clear to the respondents, they found the credit transfer process relatively easy regardless of whether they transferred to a different institution or stayed at the same institution. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 77 4. knew the contact when starting credit transfer application: table 34: knew who to contact when starting credit transfer application ease of credit transfer process overall different institution same institution difficult easy difficult easy difficult easy agree (n = 737) 51 (7%) 686 (93%) 38 (7%) 506 (93%) 12 (7%) 171 (93%) disagree (n = 287) 109 (38%) 178 (62%) 95 (41%) 137 (59%) 13 (25%) 39 (75%) overall: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that knew who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process (m=3.79, sd=0.76) and those that did not know who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process (m=2.86, sd=1.45); t(1022) = 13.303, p = 0.000. different institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that knew who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process (m=3.79, sd=0.76) and those that did not know who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process (m=2.77, sd=1.47); t(774) = 12.601, p = 0.000. same institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that knew who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process (m=3.80, sd=0.74) and those that did not know who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process (m=3.25, sd=1.31); t(233) = 3.913, p = 0.000. the results indicate that when the respondents were aware of the contact person for initiating the credit transfer application, they found the credit transfer process relatively easy regardless of whether they transferred to a different institution or stayed at the same institution. 5. credit transfer advising was readily available: table 35: credit transfer advising was readily available ease of credit transfer process overall different institution same institution difficult easy difficult easy difficult easy agree (n = 876) 67 (8%) 809 (92%) 58 (9%) 603 (91%) 9 (4%) 197 (96%) disagree (n = 151) 93 (62%) 58 (38%) 75 (64%) 43 (36%) 16 (55%) 13 (45%) credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 78 overall: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found advising from college staff about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=3.77, sd=0.79) and those that did not find advising to be readily available when needed (m=2.15, sd=1.46) ; t(1025) = 19.839, p = 0.000. different institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found advising from college staff about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=3.73, sd=0.85) and those that did not find advising to be readily available when needed (m=2.09, sd=1.45) ; t(777) = 17.952, p = 0.000. same institution: there was a significant difference in the scores for those that found advising from college staff about the credit transfer process to be readily available when needed (m=3.86, sd=0.61) and those that did not find advising to be readily available when needed (m=2.34, sd=1.51) ; t(233) = 9.843, p = 0.000. the results indicate that when the credit transfer advising was readily available to the respondents, they found the credit transfer process relatively easy regardless of whether they transferred to a different institution or stayed at the same institution. it is not surprising but certainly interesting to note that when applicants agreed that they were well informed of the various aspects of the credit transfer process, including point of contact and relevant resources, they found the credit transfer process significantly easier. similar analysis was conducted to investigate whether the timing when the credit transfer information is made available has an impact on applicants perceived ease of the process. the timing of the availability of the information did not have an impact on the perception of the ease of process. based on the findings above, it is evident that the clarity, accuracy and completeness of the credit transfer information has a significant impact on the perception of the ease of the credit transfer process, while time when the information is made available has an impact on the applicants processing timeline expectations. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 79 5. section v: credit transfer predictors the analysis in the prior section was directed at developing a better understanding of the various patterns of credit transfer choices and outcomes for students, identifying best practices, and identifying areas of improvements in credit transfer process. this section focuses on further enriching the prior findings with a deeper understanding of the factors that may increase the propensity of students to apply for credit transfer, receive credit transfer, and finally factors that may predict their satisfaction with the credit transfer process. 5a) which students are likely to apply for credit transfer? the discussion in prior sections demonstrates the great importance of timely availability of accurate credit transfer information to potential student applicants. credit transfer awareness efforts are often aimed universally at all incoming new students. if the students attributes that increase the likelihood of their applying to credit transfer could be predicted, then the information can be used to identify student populations that may be less likely to apply for credit transfer and hence could benefit from a more targeted credit transfer information approach. logistic regression was conducted to investigate the factors that may contribute to respondents decision to apply for the credit transfer. the type of prior institution (university/college), current and past credential level, academic performance in the past program, graduation status, unique attribute such as first generation or aboriginal, and demographic variables were examined as possible factors that may predict students decision to apply for credit transfer. table 36a presents the results the logistic regression analysis that was conducted for the 2,419 survey respondents that were enrolled in a publicly funded institution within ontario and not enrolled in a graduate certificate or degree program. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 80 table 36a: variable standard error significance gender -0.06 0.13 0.627 age -0.13 0.05 0.009** international student status 0.26 0.19 0.166 language 0.06 0.33 0.860 first generation 0.07 0.12 0.585 aboriginal -0.06 0.27 0.814 diploma 1.18 0.14 0.000** advanced diploma 1.06 0.19 0.000** previous institution type -0.13 0.31 0.677 previous diploma 0.32 0.16 0.042** previous advanced diploma 0.86 0.28 0.002** previous grad certificate 0.65 0.52 0.210 previous degree (ref: certificate programs) 0.70 0.33 0.032** previous grade achieved 0.11 0.08 0.143 graduation status in prior program 0.25 0.14 0 .063* constant pseudo r2 x2 n -1.749 0.072 108.773, p<.000 2419 *p < 0.05, **p < 0.10 results indicate that within the student population of certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programs: - students who are older are less likely to apply for credit transfer; - students who are enrolled in a diploma or advanced diploma are more likely to apply for credit transfer than those in certificate program; - students who were enrolled in a prior diploma, advanced diploma or degree program were more likely to apply for credit transfer than those who were enrolled in a prior certificate program; and - students who had graduated from their prior postsecondary program were more likely to apply for the credit transfer. there were no significant results for gender, or groups of special interest such as first generation, aboriginal or francophone. additionally, there were no significant results for the grade achieved in the prior postsecondary education. it is interesting to note that respondents who graduated from their prior postsecondary program are more likely to apply, thus implying that that students do not impute value to their credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 81 prior incomplete postsecondary education when it may actually hold value for credit transfer. this implies that the colleges should particularly continue to focus their credit transfer awareness campaigns on students who have prior postsecondary experience but did not graduate from the program. separate sets of regressions were also conducted for the group of respondents who moved to a different institution and the group of respondents who stayed the same institution. results are presented in the table 36b. table 36b: variable different institution (n=1688) standard significance error same institution (n=693) standard significance error gender age international student status language first generation aboriginal diploma advanced diploma previous institution type previous diploma previous advanced diploma -0.07 -0.06 0.32 0.08 -0.03 0.07 1.26 1.16 -0.28 0.44 0.96 0.15 0.07 0.24 0.48 0.14 0.34 0.17 0.23 0.33 0.23 0.36 0.671 0.384 0.181 0.874 0.830 0.836 0.000** 0.000** 0.399 0.051 0.007* -0.10 -0.28 0.35 -0.01 0.26 -0.29 0.94 0.67 0.25 0.09 0.30 0.51 0.22 0.47 0.26 0.38 0.696 0.002* 0.247 0.987 0.251 0.541 0.000** 0.076 0.06 0.51 0.23 0.50 0.786 0.308 previous grad certificate 0.97 0.66 0.141 0.07 0.93 0.937 previous degree previous grade achieved graduation status in prior program 0.79 0.12 0.32 0.38 0.09 0.15 0.037* 0.189 0.036* 0.82 0.10 -0.01 1.09 0.15 0.30 0.451 0.490 0.977 constant pseudo r2 x2 n -1.941 0.074 76.678, p<.000 1688 -1.032 0.068 28.996, p<.010 693 *p < 0.05, **p < 0.10 results indicate that factors that contribute to the likely to apply for credit transfer for respondents who transfer to a different institution are quite similar those for the overall respondents. the only difference being that age is not a predictor of the likelihood to apply in the respondents who transferred to a different institution. results further indicate that there are not as many predictors of likely to apply for credit transfer for respondents who stay at the same institution. in the fact, the only significant credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 82 predictors for this group are age and respondents who are currently enrolled in the diploma program. it is interesting to note that while age is not a predictor of likelihood to apply for credit transfer for students who transfer to a different institution, it is a predictor for students who stayed at the same institution. 5b) which students are likely to receive credit transfer? this study also investigates whether there are particular process attributes, such as first point of contact, time of submission or groups of students who are more likely to receive transfer of the credit applied. this does not imply that there are systemic biases but helps identify whether there are certain aspects of the process that are more critical or whether particular academic background attributes are more likely to lead to successful application of credit transfer. logistic regression was conducted to investigate the factors that may contribute to success in receiving the credit transfers applied. the type of prior institution (university/college), current and past credential level, academic performance in the past program, graduation status, informational aspects (re, helpfulness of first point of contact, understanding of the process, knowledge of who to contact for information and readily available advising), process aspects (re, time of submission, multiple submissions, clarity of requirements, ease of documentation, and cost), attributes such as first generation or aboriginal, and demographic variables were examined as possible factors that may predict the success of students credit transfer application. table 37a presents the results the logistic regression analysis that was conducted for the 1,044 survey respondents who applied for credit transfer and were enrolled in a publicly funded institution within ontario and not enrolled in a graduate certificate or degree program. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 83 table 37a: standard significance error variable gender -0.15 0.28 0.601 age 0.21 0.13 0.101 international student status 1.27 0.53 0.017** language 1.12 0.76 0.139 first generation 0.11 0.26 0.685 aboriginal 0.04 0.64 0.950 current credential -0.17 0.23 0.453 previous institution -0.37 0.61 0.542 previous credential 0.01 0.18 0.978 previous grade 0.18 0.18 0.314 graduation status in prior program 0.53 0.28 0.053* helpfulness of first-point-of-contact 0.00 0.16 0.985 clearly understood the credit transfer process knowledge of who to contact for credit transfer information credit transfer advising was readily available 0.01 0.20 0.944 -0.39 0.20 0.054* 0.28 0.22 0.203 time of submission -0.24 0.09 0.006** submitted multiple applications -0.72 0.24 0.003** credit transfer requirements were clear 0.84 0.20 0.000** document collection was easy 0.55 0.17 0.001** cost was appropriate -0.28 0.14 0.044** constant pseudo r -3.059 2 0.18 x2 101.392, p<.000 n 1044 *p < 0.05, **p < 0.10 results indicate that within the student population of certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programs: - students who are on international study permit and have enrolled in prior postsecondary in ontario, are more likely to receive credit transfer; - students who had graduated from their prior postsecondary program were more likely receive credit transfer; credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 84 - students who indicated that they had knowledge of who to contact for credit transfer information were less likely to receive credit transfer. this may seem counter-intuitive but it underscores the previous findings from the exploratory analysis and student focus groups. it implies that students perceptions of who to contact for credit transfer information are often misguided, such as mistaking faculty members as possessing complete knowledge of credit transfer information; - students who submitted credit transfer applications closer to start of the classes, or during the first weeks were less likely to receive credit; - students who submitted multiple credit transfer applications were less likely to receive at least one credit transfer; - students who clearly understood credit transfer requirements were more likely to receive credit transfer; - students who found the collection of requisite documents easy were more likely to receive credit transfer; and, - students who deemed the cost of credit transfer appropriate were less likely to receive credit transfer. there were no significant findings for the various demographic variables, group attribute such as first generation, prior institution, credential level or prior academic grade. overall, the findings imply that students demographic or academic backgrounds except graduation status do not have a significant bearing on whether their application for credit transfer will be successful. however, various aspects of the credit transfer process itself, such as clarity of the requirements, ease of document collection, timing of the application process, and cost, all have a significant impact on whether the application for credit transfer is successful. the above finding further underscores the credit transfer procedural inefficiencies and students credit transfer dissatisfaction discussed in sections 4c through 4f of this document. specific recommendations are made in section viii-conclusions and recommendations of this document to address the various procedural deficiencies identified in this study. separate set of regressions were also conducted for the group of respondents who moved to a different institution and the group of respondents who stayed the same institution. results are presented in the table 37b. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 85 table 37b: different institution (n=789) variable same institution (n=241) standard error significance standard error significance gender -0.21 0.28 0.465 0.54 0.81 0.503 age 0.35 0.14 0.013 -0.24 0.27 0.383 0.25 0.70 0.720 international student status^ language^ first generation status -0.28 0.28 0.313 current credential -0.09 0.23 0.710 previous institution -0.42 0.58 0.474 previous credential 0.12 0.18 0.509 0.19 0.43 0.665 previous grade 0.12 0.18 0.500 -0.11 0.45 0.802 graduation status 0.52 0.28 0.060 1.45 0.78 0.061 helpfulness of first-point-of-contact -0.27 0.35 0.439 0.09 0.81 0.911 clearly understood the credit transfer process 0.17 0.19 0.373 -0.22 0.63 0.724 knowledge of who to contact for credit transfer information -0.32 0.21 0.121 0.33 0.53 0.535 credit transfer advising was readily available 0.21 0.24 0.387 0.17 0.51 0.742 time of submission -0.23 0.09 0.010** 0.03 0.23 0.908 submitted multiple applications -0.41 0.25 0.100 -0.80 0.62 0.202 credit transfer requirements were clear 0.95 0.20 .000** 0.23 0.61 0.709 document collection was easy 0.51 0.16 0.002** 1.06 0.53 0.046** cost was appropriate -0.30 0.14 0.039** -0.34 0.49 0.486 constant -5.584 -5.246 pseudo r2 0.194 0.237 x2 90.154, p< .000 34.031, p< .018 n 789 241 aboriginal status^ 0.19 0.62 0.756 not applicable ^ - please note that the variables language, aboriginal and international status were included in the regression analysis to keep it comparable with overall regression presented in table 37a; however, once the overall data is divided into two groups, the samples sizes for each of these variables are too small for reliable interpretation. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.10 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 86 results indicate that factors that contribute to the respondents receiving credit transfer for respondents who transfer to a different institution are quite similar to those for the overall respondents. the only two differences are that graduation status and the knowledge of who to contact for credit transfer information are not predictors of their likelihood to receive credit transfers. on the contrary, results for respondents who stay at the same institution indicate that the only predictor of likelihood to receive credit transfer is the ease of document collection. 5c) what factors predict student satisfaction with credit transfer application? this study investigates whether there are particular aspects of credit transfer process or student attributes that may predict student satisfaction with the credit transfer process. logistic regression was conducted to investigate the factors that may contribute to respondents satisfaction with the credit transfer process. first point of contact, helpfulness of first point of contact, informational aspects, timing and clarity of the information, time when applications are submitted, requisite document access, cost, processing time, acceptance or rejection of the credit transfer applied, and overall ease of the process were examined as possible factors that may predict the success of students credit transfer application. results are presented in table 38a. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 87 table 38a: variable standard significance error ease of finding first-point-of-contact 0.54 0.28 0.049* helpfulness of first-point-of-contact 0.90 0.20 0.000* credit transfer possibility was made clear before enrolment 0.00 0.22 0.987 clearly understood the credit transfer process 0.05 0.27 0.848 credit transfer information was readily available 0.32 0.27 0.247 knowledge of who to contact for credit transfer information -0.01 0.23 0.958 credit transfer advising was readily available -0.02 0.27 0.955 time of submission -0.06 0.11 0.607 ease of completing credit transfer application -0.20 0.30 0.517 time for completion of credit transfer application 0.14 0.25 0.570 credit transfer requirements were clear 0.51 0.25 0.039* ease of accessing required documentation 0.43 0.20 0.027* cost was appropriate 0.39 0.19 0.035* processing time for credit transfer application 0.86 0.22 0.000* received all the credit requested 1.23 0.32 0.000* overall perceived ease of credit transfer process 1.02 0.30 0.001* constant -12.100 pseudo r2 0.359 x 2 386.632, p<.000 n 1044 *p < 0.05, **p < 0.10 results indicate that within the student population of certificate, diploma and advanced diploma programs: - students who found the first point of contact easily were more satisfied with the process; - students who perceived the first point of contact as helpful were more satisfied with the process; - students who clearly understood the credit transfer requirements were more satisfied; - students who could easily access the requisite documentation such as, course outlines and transcripts were more satisfied; - students who deemed the cost of credit transfer less appropriate were more likely to be satisfied; credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 88 - students who deemed the processing time for the application to be reasonable were more satisfied; and - students who received all the credits requested were more likely to be satisfied; and, - students who perceived the overall credit transfer process to be easy were more satisfied. again, there were no significant findings for the various demographic variables or group attribute such as first generation. these findings further reinforce that availability of helpful first point of contact, clarity of the process and requirements, and ease of accessing and providing requisite documentation are key to students satisfaction with the credit transfer process, separate sets of regressions were also conducted for the group of respondents who moved to a different institution and the group of respondents who stayed the same institution. results are presented in the table 38b. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 89 table 38b: different institution (n=789) variable standard significance error ease of finding first-point-of-contact 0.51 0.30 0.087 helpfulness of first-point-of-contact 0.83 0.21 0.000* credit transfer possibility was made clear before enrolment 0.05 0.23 0.832 clearly understood the credit transfer process 0.01 0.28 credit transfer information was readily available 0.31 knowledge of who to contact for credit transfer information credit transfer advising was readily available same institution (n=241) standard significance error 2.09 1.90 1.91 0.272 1.18 0.108 0.27 1.13 0.814 0.980 1.80 1.70 0.290 0.29 0.287 2.06 1.69 0.224 0.07 0.25 0.793 0.95 1.42 0.503 0.14 0.29 0.628 1.70 0.125 0.12 0.686 0.56 0.683 0.32 0.424 2.48 2.65 0.350 0.19 0.26 0.468 0.98 1.72 0.570 0.52 0.26 0.041* 1.30 1.65 0.428 0.48 0.20 0.017* 1.97 1.83 0.282 cost was appropriate 0.31 0.19 0.113 1.04 1.34 0.437 processing time for credit transfer application 0.79 0.23 0.001* 1.99 1.32 0.132 received all the credit requested 1.05 0.34 0.002* 4.11 2.20 0.062* overall perceived ease of credit transfer process 0.94 0.32 0.003* 2.92 1.66 0.079* constant -11.758 -15.583 pseudo r2 0.375 0.311 x2 309.061, p<.000 74.817, p<.000 n 789 241 time of submission ease of completing credit transfer application time for completion of credit transfer application credit transfer requirements were clear ease of accessing required documentation 0.05 0.25 2.60 0.23 *p < 0.05, **p < 0.10 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 90 results indicate that factors that contribute to satisfaction with the credit transfer process for respondents who transfer to a different institution are quite similar those for the overall respondents. the only difference being that ease of finding first point of contact is not a predictor of the satisfaction with the credit transfer process in the respondents who transferred to a different institution. results further indicate that there are not as many predictors of satisfaction with the credit transfer process for respondents who stay at the same institution. in the fact, the only significant predictors for this group are received all the credit requested, and overall perceived ease of credit transfer process. 5d) summary findings from logistic regressions it is useful to conduct separate analysis to better understand the factors that are likely to predict students propensity to apply for the credit transfer, likelihood of receiving transfer and finally their satisfaction with the credit transfer. however, due to a multitude of factors involved, it may leave the reader with a fragmented understanding of predictors and miss the connections between each of these aspects investigated. table 39 thus presents summary of the results from the prior inferential analysis. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 91 table 39: credit transfer likely to apply likely to receive likely to be satisfied age current credential previous credential graduation status in prior program graduation status in prior program international student status time of submission knowledge of who to contact for credit transfer information submitted multiple applications credit transfer requirements were clear document collection was easy cost was appropriate credit transfer requirements were clear ease of accessing required documentation cost was appropriate ease of finding first-point-ofcontact helpfulness of first-point-ofcontact processing time for credit transfer application overall perceived ease of credit transfer process it is evident from the above table students who have graduated from their prior program are also the most likely to apply and receive credit transfers. this finding is of particular note since students who were enrolled in degree or graduate certificates, where graduation from prior postsecondary program may have been a mandatory requirement, were excluded from the analysis. further, clarity of credit transfer requirements, ease of documentation access and financial cost are factors that are likely to impact students likelihood of receiving transfer and being satisfied with the process. it is thus important to note that clear, accurate, and timely communication of the credit transfer process and requirements is key to a successful credit transfer experience for the students. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 92 6. institutional perspectives this study was unique in that it reviewed the credit transfer process and the experiences of the students at 22 of the 24 caat colleges. it was further unique in that it tried to better understand the current credit transfer processes at each of the 22 caat colleges and identify the institutional barriers that prevent the colleges from being able to be more efficient and effective providers of the credit transfer as desired by the students. the costs of not accommodating credit transfer to students are readily apparent, such as tuition cost, impact on eligibility for further education, transportation and living expenses, and time to graduate, but the costs of accommodating the credit transfer are not as readily apparent. some of the obvious costs of credit transfer for students are applications fees and transcript fees but there might be other costs as well that are not as readily perceived, such as reduced workload implications, ineligibility for bursaries or osap, or ineligibility for health coverage. similarly there are numerous and complex costs to the college. some of them may be readily perceived, such as promotional material costs, and loss of tuition or funding grant monies, but others may not be as readily apparent. these include faculty and staff time to evaluate credit transfer requests, data and process maintenance costs, attrition at host college, impact on viability of courses (especially courses with pre-requisites), assessment of viable class sizes, non-predictable curriculum specialist or faculty workload for scheduling, and finally motivation for students to enroll at a college or program on the basis of ease of obtaining credit transfer. it is thus critical that the credit transfer process be examined with a view to making it viable for both the students and the colleges. this approach will enable the development of a balanced perspective between student expectations, and institutional resources and feasibility. the best practices and recommendations thus identified with this approach are more likely to be wellreceived and actionable. to this effect, phone interviews were conducted with the registrars or registrar-designates at each of the 22 caat colleges, and credit transfer processes and supporting requirements were explored in extensive details. please refer to appendix 3 for the questionnaire. in particular, the various questions sought to develop insights into each individual institutions practices with regard to: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. application record keeping (database, tracking, data exchange) process (mode, rubric, communication) timelines (submission, process completion) documentation guides communication outreach (time, application mode, information) communication alerts and assistance (workload, osap implications) difficulties (institutional perspective) credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 93 a compendium of these practices at each of the 22 caat colleges is presented anonymously in appendix 12. based on the registrar or registrar-designate interviews, this study identified key institutional challenges in facilitating credit transfer. when all college practices were compared, a number of institutional challenges became apparent. the level of outreach conducted by each institution varies significantly. where some institutions are pairing their credit transfer information with confirmation packages and following up with e-mails from the registrars office as well as a program coordinator, others did not provide this level of rigor and promote credit transfer during orientation week with posters. centralizing the details about credit transfer process appears to be one of the largest challenges. registrars commonly discussed how team members from different departments were offering students conflicting advice on how to proceed with their applications. the number of possible starting points for students only contributes to this confusion. a second obstacle that registrars are facing when students initiate the credit transfer process is granting access to the current course outlines. across most institutions, course outlines are not available until later in the summer. should a student self-start the process and seek clarity in the ontransfer guide online, registrars expressed concerns that their own institutions data is not current, nor accurate. due to the minimal staffing currently allocated for credit transfer, uploading course equivalencies has not been a primary concern, unfortunately. along that note, evaluating university courses was also deemed to be a significant issue. as a result of college programs having a more hands-on applied component, university courses are typically deemed incomparable and often not granted credit to students; a similar problem exists with evaluating french courses and international student transcripts/outlines. in the event of a successful credit transfer, registrars have been found to code credit transfer in many different ways. this inconsistency in coding of credit transfer successes may take on a different meaning should the student pursue credit at a different institution. by having a lack of familiarity about the process at other institutions, registrars are unable to provide students with a common experience and why some students have resorted to seeking advice from their previous institution, rather than their current one. while the information derived from registrar interviews helped identify systemic challenges, more importantly, the study identifies the best practices (based on study findings from survey and focus group analysis) in appendix 12 compendium in bold italicized text. these best practices provide a foundation toward the development of a system level benchmark. one of the best things institutions are currently doing is tracking the number of credit transfer requests inbound to the institution. while not all institutions are tracking the same level of data, some level of record keeping is apparent across almost all institutions. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 94 maintaining a minimum threshold in terms of course similarity (80%), and promoting that it is in fact the course outlines and not program descriptions that are being compared eliminates the confusion that students have about the evaluation criteria. conducting outreach with confirmation letters was also a best practice that was recognized. although not all colleges are in a positon to communicate with their students at this time with promotional materials, an email or two from the appropriate contacts might aid the process and allow questions to be answered over the summer months by the appropriate contacts. also, since only a few institutions are using an online submission portal, maintaining an application deadline of the 10th day of class allows the proper contacts to reach out and communicate with students what the requirements are, allows for the answering of questions, and still provides students with a reasonable amount of time to gather their documents, should they just learn about credit transfer upon the start-up of class. program coordinators were identified as one of the key front line persons that students are turning to with great frequency to ask their questions. while not all faculty hold this position, a best practice was to train the coordinators specifically, as they have the most diverse knowledge about the program and is a common title across all programs, thereby eliminating the contradictory advice that may be offered by part-time faculty. most institutions are implementing a two week turnaround time period when it comes to the evaluating credit transfer applications; however, some institutions are using their databases to communicate results back sooner. while the best results appear to be posting the students results on their portals students heavily criticized their institutions for not letting them know whether to keep attending class. in the event of being denied credit specifically, not all institutions are providing a reason why, or affording the student the opportunity to challenge the decision. providing a list of reasons along with an faq guide to support the students in their ability to self-assess an application was deemed to be a great resource. last, including population specific departments throughout the process was found to be quite valuable. for example, some institutions have the financial aid department heavily integrated in the credit transfer process. especially concerned for those already in financial hardship, some institutions go so far as to providing a list of all students that have applied for credit transfer to the financial aid office to ensure that no student loses their funding. other colleges include a checklist for students asking them if they are aware that a change in enrolment status may impact their funding. either way, some institutions are taking a very proactive approach to ensure that their students are well informed. as an aside, students participating in focus groups identified persons such as the first year coordinator, and first generation coordinator that could also be integrated in the process as information providers because of the more personalized relationship. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 95 section v: conclusions and recommendations the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) promotes student pathways and reduces barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 publicly funded postsecondary institutions. oncat in collaboration with various caat colleges has led a number of initiatives to promote and sustain province-wide credit transfers. based on the findings, this study makes the following recommendations to further increase the awareness and improve credit transfer practices in ontario, especially for the caat colleges. 1. credit-granting vocabulary: there are significant inconsistencies in the understanding, usage and applications of various credit-granting terms and processes. three that are of particular note within the context of credit transfer are: credit transfer, plar and advanced standing. these terms are used interchangeably by students and sometimes by college staff as well. further, these terms may be defined and used differently at different colleges. it is important that consistent provincial nomenclature be developed for these terms and that clear distinctions are made between the various processes that support each of these credit granting mechanisms. 2. credits: internal/external: researchers also found significant confusion on whether the term credit transfer applied to internal credits earned at a given college, and then applied to another program, or whether they referred to credits earned at a different institution only. even when college staff possess clarity between the internal and external implications of the credit transfer definition, the students are generally not aware of these distinctions. if the internal credits that are being awarded to a different program within the same institution are not to be included in the credit transfer definition, then alternative terminology needs to be developed for that group of credits. 3. credit transfer on transcripts: consistent coding and recording of credit transfer on transcripts and student information systems is critical to efficiently recording and retrieving credit transfer related information. for example, for one college credit transfer is defined as tc on the transcripts, but recorded in student information system as ex which stands for exemption. also, the manner in which credit transfer credit is recorded on various college transcripts ranges from a ct, tc, tcr to ex. it is important to develop consistent and common recording protocols. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 96 4. credit transfer policies: not all caat colleges have formal credit transfer policies and procedures guiding the practices at the respective colleges. this is a key area of development, and is one of the important markers that differentiate colleges which are further along in supporting credit transfers compared to those that are not. the interviews with caat colleges registrars further reinforced the fact that the lack of credit transfer policies and procedures at various colleges often leads to reliance on informal, inefficient practices and scant infrastructure. there is agreement for the need for well-articulated, efficient documentation to support the process, and online as well as paper-based guides to assist students with the process. it is an area where colleges can substantially benefit from oncats leadership and support. oncat can play an important role in supporting these colleges by providing the consistent terminology and framework that can be used as guidelines for credit transfer policy development. 5. credit transfer procedures: it is understandable that there would be a significant amount of variability in the credit transfer procedures at each college, as each college would need to structure it within the context of its unique resources and infrastructure. however, there are certain elements that are common across also credit transfer procedures. it is recommended that oncat take the lead in identifying these elements and recommend best practices. the extensive compendium of credit transfer practices included in this study, and a summary of best practices (appendix 12) intends to provide a significant launching platform for this initiative. it is also important to note that currently, not all caat colleges have formal credit transfer procedures, and the absence of any formal documentation may often lead to misinformation or reliance on informal, inefficient past practices. 6. program standards major credit transfer opportunities: for well-established programs, mtcu has developed program standards that are applicable as minimum standards that each college within the caat sector has to meet if they offer the given programs. all colleges are required to be compliant with program standards for the given program to ensure a certain level of quality assurance. hence, these programs that have mtcu defined program standards present a significant and major opportunity for credit transfer. since credit transfer generally requires 75-80% concordance in curriculum, these programs lends themselves uniquely to credit transfer both in terms of course-equivalencies as well as year-block basis. the other advantage of using program standards as the base is that it would eliminate the subjectivity that can creep in when different individuals are making the decision simply by assessing the course outlines. 7. course assessment: the study found divergent practices at colleges in assessing the thresholds of similarity required credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 97 between courses for credit transfers, and while course outlines were the most prevalent basis for establishing similarity, in a number of cases, program descriptions were used to evaluate similarity. program descriptions are often more sparse than course outlines and can make the decision making rubric ambiguous. it is important that colleges develop a consistent minimum threshold of similarity between courses, and use course outlines to establish equivalency between the courses. additionally, a pre-existing framework of course equivalencies would ensure that fewer credit applications are referred to curriculum experts for direct assessment. oncats credit equivalency database is a commendable effort in this regard. it is recommended that further coordination processes be developed to ensure that the information is current and accurate, and that any changes are undertaken and reflected in the database at pre-designated times. it is recommended that planned course equivalencies be communicated to oncat a year prior to the anticipated change and that the database be updated annually. this would allow the students to use oncat website as a planning tool. 8. credit transfers and heads-of meetings: a number of interviews with registrars identified evolving course curriculum as a major challenge in being able to maintain credit transfer course datasets that would be current and automated. this challenge could be substantially mitigated by following a best practice from british columbia council on admissions and transfers (bccat). the heads-of various academic area groups periodically consult, or at the very least, share information on the key curriculum changes in various courses or programs that fall within their purview. this allows other institutions to quickly identify and recalibrate those courses within their credit transfer course databases. thus, one of the key recommendations of this study is that the course equivalencies embedded in various credit transfer pathways and oncat.ca database be standing agenda items for discussions at various heads-of meetings in caat colleges. 9. university-to-college credit transfers: this study found that students who were transitioning from a degree program at a university to a program in the college were particularly frustrated with the credit transfer process. some of the perceptions were due to semantic interpretations, such as english versus communication courses and some of it due to the perception that university level courses were higher than college level courses. this area would benefit greatly from informational exchanges between the university and college sector, and setting up of university-to-college transfer credit protocols. 10. college-to-university credit transfers: there is currently a significant gap in the data exchange between ontario colleges and universities that inhibits college-to-university credit transfer exploration at the provincial level. the scope of the current study is limited to students enrolled in the caat colleges because of credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 98 the limited availability of college to university transfer data; hence it is not able to explore similar transition trends from caat colleges to ontario universities. it is recommended that the ontario university and college postsecondary sectors explore data exchange opportunities to support and optimize student mobility and learning resources. 11. documentation: this was one of the most significant areas of frustration for credit transfers applicants. there were two major reasons for this: i) first was the lack of a current, adequate and readily accessible guiding document that would clearly and succinctly lay out the requisite documentation required to support the application or identify the resource person if they had any questions or concerns. even when such guiding documents exist, they were reported to be extremely complex and use confusing language. oncat can support by providing a framework document and encouraging various college to develop consistent documentation that is not tedious. additionally, colleges can develop how-to and/or frequently asked questions guides, or virtual pathways office which act as central reference points for all credit transfer information and queries. ii) second was the access to course outlines and transcripts. course outlines applicants were often discouraged with the amount of communication effort and the time that it took to resource the course outlines. they were further concerned that assessment of course outlines can be person-centric thereby making it vulnerable to subjective decisions that may vary between different assessors. transcripts students were particularly dissatisfied at having to request the transcript, and having to pay for it. they were especially exasperated at having to request transcripts when they were continuing in a different program at the same institution. it is the prime area that students identified for automation or direct institutional exchange. 12. credit transfer grade expectations: in the absence of well-articulated documentation or a readily accessible information source, many students assume that a passing grade is sufficient for credit transfer. however, interviews with registrars revealed a range of grade expectations defined as c; however, these grade expectations were not applicable across all areas or common across all colleges. it would be helpful to define if and what the minimum grade expectation should be for various courses, areas of study, and ensure that applicants are aware of the expectations well in advance of the application. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 99 11. refund for course credit granted: most colleges do not provide a refund of monies for the course for which credit is granted, unless the student falls to a part-time workload. instead they offer the student the opportunity to take an alternative course or take a lighter workload. this is one of the key frustrations among applicants and often a disincentive to apply for the credit transfer. some students portray it as cash grab while some credit transfer applicants phrase it as being penalizing since they pay for the credit transfer application and yet also pay for the course. interviews with registrars reveal the complexity of issuing course based refunds with the structure of block courses, as well as other administrative challenges such as being able to plan class sizes and faculty workloads. however, a dialogue is keenly required in this area to explore and find innovative solutions. 12. credit transfer advisors contact information: this was a major recommendation from the survey as well as focus group participants. they recommended that the transfer advisor information for each of the ontario institutions be posted on each college website. in addition, very few respondents were aware of the information available on oncat.ca. hence it is recommended that the individual credit transfer advisor information for each institution be made more visible and accessible on oncat website. 13. sources of credit transfer information: the findings in this study indicate that students access credit transfer information from multiple sources, and are most likely to access the sources that are readily available, especially faculty members or program coordinators. it is important that in addition to the transfer advisors, programs coordinators or relevant faculty members also be aware of the transfer credit process, required documentation, and timelines. the study also found that the source of credit transfer information also had an impact on students ability to locate the first point of contact. if the source of credit transfer information was the office of the registrar, then the first point of contact was easily located. however, if the source of information was previous institutions website, then the first point of contact for credit transfer was particularly difficult to locate. the oncat website, and in the last few months ocas website, both provide transfer advisor contact information for each of the 24 caat colleges and ontario universities. we recommend that this information be also provided on the individual postsecondary institutions website, and be updated periodically on a mutually agreed upon period. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 100 14. timing of credit transfer information: this topic was explored in great detail in the survey and then further insights were sought from the various student focus groups. some of the key recommendations on information were that: information be provided early information be provided in multiple formats (online and print) information be provided at multiple avenues information that is provided be consistent and accurate regardless of source relevant reminders are sent throughout the recruitment cycle, particularly in admissions package. it is recommended that all colleges adopt some common practice of including credit transfer information in the admissions package. 15. early assessment of student interest in credit transfer: students identified that the key to early credit transfer information, successful application, and satisfactory experience was early assessment of student interest in the credit transfer experience, especially when they indicate that they have prior postsecondary experience on the ocas application. it is thus recommended that for the applicants who do indicate as possessing prior postsecondary experience, an additional question be added to the ocas application to assess whether the applicant is interested in receiving credit transfer information. this could be an important trigger to ensure that colleges start engaging with the applicant on credit transfer in a timely manner with the requisite information. 16. credit transfer locus of responsibility: an interesting aspect that emerged from this study was the locus of responsibility. some participants in this study viewed it as a systemic level responsibility of the institutions to initiate and grant course credits, where applicable. in their view, the institutions were most familiar with their own course curriculum and requirements, and could arrange for inter-institutional exchanges of transcripts. they were perplexed, particularly in cases when prior course equivalencies between certain programs at different institutions already pre-existed, as to why the course credits were not being granted automatically. it seems students would much appreciate an automated model of credit granting to the extent possible with the ability to optout rather than have to experience a tedious application process. this perspective is certainly worth reflecting upon, especially when prior course equivalencies have been established. there needs to be a deeper provincial dialogue on the merits and feasibility of shifting the responsibility of initiating credit transfers to the colleges. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 101 17. credit transfer processing of applications: lack of clarity and lack of communication were two important aspects identified with respect to the application process. based on the feedback provided by the participants in this study, the lack of clarity could often be traced to lack of adequate policy, procedure and well-articulated guidelines. lack of communication, however, was traced to the administrative complexities embedded in the transfer application process, and the ownership of decisions and timelines. often the transfer application process involves exchange of documents between registrar offices and assessors who are located in different units such as schools or curriculum units. this exchange is the most fraught part of the application process. it sometimes leads to delays, misplaced documents, miscommunications and missed timelines. colleges would be well advised to focus on this most pivotal aspect of the application process and explore creation of greater efficiencies and better communications. it is also important to recognize that credit transfer application is not a monolithic process but involves multiple stakeholders. it is important to clearly articulate who is responsible for communication during which phase of the application. this study found that a significant majority of applicants did not receive any reason for the rejection of their applications. this gap in communication leads to dissatisfaction and unfairness. it is strongly recommended that colleges integrate a well-developed communication plan with the credit transfer application process and articulate it clearly in the credit transfer guidelines document. 18. credit transfer college calendars: college calendars were identified by study participants as a simple yet effective tool for increasing the credit transfer awareness and timelines. integrating the various credit transfer application timelines with the college calendar will ensure that not only the students are aware of the possibility but are also aware of the various deadlines. 19. credit transfer unintended adverse consequences: an unexpected finding of this study was the adverse outcomes that were associated with successful credit transfer applications. while the impact of granting course credits on workload is intuitively understood, the other impacts are not readily appreciated. in some cases a lighter workload may have adverse implications for students ability to apply to financial bursaries, osap or be eligible for health insurance coverage. these are important aspects, especially osap and health insurance eligibility, and need to be studied and understood in a better provincial context. it is particularly recommended that the credit transfer applicants be shared with financial aid and other first year support persons, such as a first generation coordinator or first year coordinator. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 102 references acat. who is the alberta council on admissions and transfer. (n.d.). retrieved from http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/ andres, l. (1999). investigating transfer: the students perspective. centre for policy studies in higher education and training, university of british columbia. bccat. history of the bc transfer system. (n.d.). retrieved from http://www.bccat.ca/system/history bell, s. (2006). college transfer students: a canadian case. community college journal of research and practice, 22(1), 21-37. berger, r., & ortiz ruiz, a. m. (1988). the crucial role of faculty in transfer articulation. in c. prager (eds.), enhancing articulation and transfer (39-48). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. blanchard, s. (2013). supporting the success of transfer students. carleton university. borden, v. m. h. (2004). accommodating student swirl: when traditional students are no longer the tradition. change, 36(2), 10-17. bowles, d. (1988). transferability in the liberal arts and sciences. in c. prager (eds.), enhancing articulation and transfer (27-38). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. british columbia council on admissions and transfer. (2014a). history of the bc transfer system. retrieved from bccat: http://www.bccat.ca/system/history/ camman, r., hamade, s., & zhou, a. (2014). student mobility and credit transfer pathways. ontario undergraduate student alliance. catnb. about the council on articulations and transfers of new brunswick. (n.d.). retrieved from http://catnb.ca/about/ compton, p. k., tafel, j., law, j., & gustafson, r. (2012, winter). faculty-determined course equivalency: the key to ohios transfer mobility system. new directions for community colleges, 160, 4554. constantineau, philippe. the ontario transfer credit system: a situation report. council of ontario universities. council of ministers of education, canada [cmec]. (2011). report of the cmec working group credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 103 on transfer. retrieved from http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/attachments/263/wgct-report2011-en.pdf duklas, j., maki, k., pesaro, j., & brady, j. (2014). arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study. association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfer. empowering ontario: transforming higher education in the 21st century. (2012). colleges ontario. fisher, d., nay, e., wilson, m., & wood, l. (2012). pathways and barriers to art and design undergraduate education for students with previous college and university experience. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2012-13ocadu-pathways-barriers-art-design-undergrad-education-students-previous-collegeuniversity.pdf grosset, j. m. (1991). patterns of integration, commitment and student characteristics and retention among younger and older students. research in higher education, 32(2), 159-178. higher education strategy associates. (2012). changing times, changing places: the global evolution of the bachelors degree and the implications for ontario. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario (heqco).improving college system pathways. (2008). colleges ontario. junor, s. & usher, a. (2008). student mobility & credit transfer a national and global survey. toronto: educational policy institute. king, e. c. (1988). in c. prager (eds.), enhancing articulation and transfer (63-72). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. kintzer, f. (1996). an historical perspective of articulation and transfer in the united states. new directions for community college, 96, 3-13. knoell, m. (1996). moving toward collaboration in transfer and articulation. new directions for community college, 96, 55-64. kuh, g. d. (1995). the other curriculum: out-of class experiences associated with student learning and personal development. the journal of higher education, 66(2), 123-155. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 104 lynch, r. l. (1994). seamless education: barriers to transfer in postsecondary education. briefing paper no. 3. mccrary, r. d. (1988). an information driven articulation model. in c. prager (eds.), enhancing articulation and transfer (73-76). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. mcgowan, r. a., & gawley, t. (2006). the university side of the college transfer experience: insights from university staff. college quarterly, 9(3). ontario council on articulation and transfer annual report. (2015). oncat. oncat. (2014). oncat launches new course-to-course transfer guide. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=news_1401 patry, r. (1995). pan-canadian protocol on the transferability of university credits. pancanadian protocol on the transferability of university credits pascarella, e. t. (1980). student-faculty informal contact and college outcomes. review of educational research, 50, 545-595. shapiro, d., dundar, a., wakhungu, p.k, yuan, x., & harrell, a. (2015, july). transfer and mobility: a national view of student movement in postsecondary institutions, fall 2008 cohort (signature report no. 9). herndon, va: national student clearinghouse research center. skolnik, m. l. (2004). the relationship of the community colleges to other providers of postsecondary education in canada and implications for policy. higher education perspectives, 1(1), 38-58. summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research. (2013). ontario council on articulation and transfer tinto, v. (1975). dropout from higher education: a theoretical synthesis of recent research. review of educational research, 45(1), 89-125. townsend, b. k. & dever, j. t. (1999). what do we know about reverse transfer students? new directions for community colleges, 106, 5-14. townsend, b. k. (2008). feeling like a freshman again: the transfer student transition. new directions for higher education, 144, 69-77. townsend, b. k. (2001). redefining the community college transfer mission. community college review, 29(2), 29-42. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 105 townsend, b. k., & wilson, k. b. (2006). the transfer mission: tried and true, but troubled?. new directions for community colleges, 136, 33-41. usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2011). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. higher education strategy associates. wilson, d. n. (2009). reverse transfer constraints upon planning postsecondary programs in ontario, canada. community college models, 401-415. woodbury jr, k. b., (1988). articulation and dual admissions. in c. prager (eds.), enhancing articulation and transfer (7-26). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 106 appendix 1a online student survey questionnaire (english) section i general information 1) what gender do you identify as? male female other gender identity 2) what is your current age? less than 21 21-25 26-30 31-35 more than 35 3) are you enrolled at your current institution on an international study permit? yes no 4) what is your first language? english french other; please explain 5) has either of your parents/guardians ever attended college or university? yes no 6) do you identify as aboriginal/first nations? yes no 7) what institution are you currently enrolled at? (drop down list of ontario caat colleges) credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 107 8) what type of program are you currently enrolled in? certificate diploma advanced diploma graduate certificate degree other; please explain _______ 9) what is the name of the program that you are currently enrolled in? text box section ii previous postsecondary education 10) was your previous postsecondary educational institution in ontario? yes no (if yes answer q11, if no skip to q12) 11) what type of postsecondary educational institution were you previously enrolled at? university (if selected, provide dropdown list of ontario universities) college (if selected, provide dropdown list of caat colleges) other; please explain 12) what type of postsecondary educational institution were you previously enrolled at? university in canada college in canada other; please explain 13) was your previous postsecondary program of study the same as the program you are currently enrolled in? yes no (if yes, skip to q16) 14) what was your previous postsecondary program of study? text box credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 108 15) what type of postsecondary program were you previously enrolled in? certificate diploma advanced diploma graduate certificate degree other; please explain ________ 16) what was your final letter grade in your previous program of study? a/a+ b/b+ c/c+ d or lower dont know 17) did you graduate from your previous postsecondary program of study? yes no if no, provide a textbox that says why did you not graduate from your previous postsecondary program of study? section iii credit transfer experience 18) did you apply for credit transfer for the postsecondary program that you are currently enrolled in? yes no (if yes, proceed, if no continue to section iv) 19) what was the main reason you chose to continue your postsecondary studies at a different institution? (please select one only) changed my mind about field of study reputation of my current program reputation of my current institution location of my current institution dissatisfied with my previous program dissatisfied with my previous institution credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 109 wanted to build on my postsecondary experience by attending a different institution other; please explain 20) how did you find out about the possibility of credit transfer? (select all that apply) previous institutions website current institutions website ontransfer website faculty member staff member from the office of the registrar (or equivalent) from a friend, classmate or family member other; please explain 21) how easy was it to find a first point of contact for credit transfer? very easy easy difficult very difficult if difficult or very difficult, prompt with please provide specific details about the difficulties you experienced finding a first point of contact 22) who did you first contact for information on the credit transfer process? registrar staff member admissions advisor pathways and credit transfer coordinator dean program coordinator program advisor faculty member other; please explain 23) how helpful was the {insert selection from question 22} as a point of first contact? very helpful quite helpful somewhat helpful not at all helpful credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 110 v1: helpful please provide details about your experiences with {insert selection from question 22} and why you found them helpful v2: not helpful- please provide details about your experiences with {insert selection from question 22} and why you did not find them helpful 24) reflecting on your experiences with the credit transfer application process, please indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements: strongly agree agree 1 the option for credit transfer was made clear to me when i enrolled 2 i clearly understood the process when i applied for credit transfer 3 information about the credit transfer process was readily available to me when needed 4 i knew who to contact when beginning the credit transfer process 5 advising from college staff about the credit transfer process was readily available to me when needed disagree strongly disagree (for all of these questions, if respondent indicates disagree or strongly disagree provide a textbox that says please provide any specific comments or concerns:) 25) when would you recommend an institution provide students with information regarding the credit transfer process? included in the admission package for your current program during course registration during introductory program orientation during the first week of class other; please explain: credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 111 26) at what point did you submit your request for credit transfer? at the same time as applying for current program of study during course registration after course registration, but before the first day of class during the first week of class after the first week of class, but during the first month of class other; please explain 27) did you submit multiple applications for credit transfer? yes no (if no - skip to q29) 28) how many applications for credit transfer did you submit? 2 3 other; please explain 29) reflecting on your experiences with the entire credit transfer application process, please indicate your agreement with the following statements: strongly agree 1 completing the credit transfer application process was easy to understand 2 completing the credit transfer application process took an appropriate amount of time 3 requirements for credit transfer are clearly defined 4 i had no issues accessing the documentation i needed for credit transfer (i.e. transcripts, course outlines, etc.) 5 the financial cost of applying for credit credit where credit is due oncat provincial study agree disagree strongly disagree 112 transfer was appropriate 6 my credit transfer application was processed in an appropriate timeframe (for all of these questions, if respondent indicates disagree or strongly disagree provide a textbox that says please provide any specific comments or concerns) 30) did you receive credit for all of the courses you applied to have transferred? yes no waiting for decision from the institution 31) how many courses did you apply to receive credit for? 1 2 3 more than 3 32) how long is an acceptable length of time to wait for an institution to process your credit transfer application? less than 3 days less than 1 week less than 2 weeks less than 1 month other; please explain 33) did you expect to receive any credits that you were not granted? yes no (if no, skip to q37) 34) did you receive any explanation why you were not granted those credits? yes no (if no, skip to q37) credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 113 35) do you recall the explanation that you were provided? text box 36) how satisfied were you with that explanation? very satisfied satisfied dissatisfied very dissatisfied prompt for all responses: v1: why were you satisfied with the explanation you received regarding credits that you were not granted? v2: why were you not satisfied with the explanation you received regarding credits that you were not granted? 37) how easy did you find the process of credit transfer? very easy easy difficult very difficult if very easy or easy: what in particular helped to make the credit transfer process easy? if difficult or very difficult: what in particular did you find difficult about your credit transfer experience? 38) overall, how would you rate your experience in transferring credits to your subsequent postsecondary program? very satisfied satisfied dissatisfied very dissatisfied prompt: v1: please provide additional feedback about your credit transfer experience, and what particular aspects of the process you are satisfied with v2: please provide additional feedback about your credit transfer experience, and what particular aspects of the process you are dissatisfied with credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 114 39) if you have any additional comments regarding the credit transfer experience, please provide specific details below: text box section iv credit transfer awareness 40) did you know that credit transfer was possible? yes no (if yes skip to q42) 41) if you would have known the possibility of credit transfer, would you have considered it? yes no (regardless of the answer, skip to q45) 42) do you plan to apply for credit transfer? yes no (if no - continue to q43. if yes - proceed to section v) 43) did you try to find information about the process of credit transfer? yes no (if no skip to q45) 44) did you try to contact someone at your current institution for information about the process of credit transfer? yes no (if yes skip to q46) 45) why would you prefer to not apply to have credits from your previous institution transferred to your current program of study? i did not clearly understand the credit transfer process i felt that the process was too much work i assumed that i would not receive any credits credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 115 i did not want to spend the money to apply for transfer credits my current program is completely unrelated to my previous program of study other; please explain 46) is there anything your current institution could do to encourage you to apply for credit transfer? section v potential credit transfer applicants 47) how satisfied are you with the availability of information on the credit transfer process? very satisfied satisfied dissatisfied very dissatisfied 48) have you contacted someone at your current institution for information about the credit transfer process? yes no text box that says why have you not yet contacted anyone about the credit transfer process? (if yes proceed, if no skip to q51) 49) who have you contacted for information on the credit transfer process? registrar staff member admissions advisor pathways and credit transfer coordinator dean program co-ordinator program advisor faculty other; please explain 50) how helpful was {insert selection from 49} as a point of first contact? very helpful quite helpful somewhat helpful credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 116 not at all helpful if very helpful or quite helpful: what in particular did you find helpful about this interaction? if not at all helpful: please explain how that contact was not helpful to you: 51) what could your current institution do to help make your credit transfer experience better? text box credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 117 appendix 1b online student survey questionnaire (french) section i renseignements gnraux 1) vous vous identifiez comme : homme femme autre identit sexuelle 2) veuillez indiquer votre ge : moins de 21 ans de 21 25 ans de 26 30 ans de 31 35 ans plus de 35 ans 3) tes-vous inscrit dans votre tablissement actuel grce un permis dtudes pour tudier au canada? oui non 4) votre langue maternelle est : langlais le franais autre; veuillez prciser 5) est-ce que lun de vos parents/tuteurs a dj t au collge ou luniversit? oui non 6) vous identifiez-vous comme autochtone/membre dune premire nation? oui non 7) quel tablissement tes-vous actuellement inscrit? (menu droulant de collges darts appliqus et de technologie de lontario) credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 118 8) quel type de programme tes-vous actuellement inscrit : (menu droulant) certificat diplme diplme avanc certificat post-diplme baccalaurat autre; veuillez prciser _______ 9) quel est le nom du programme dans lequel vous tes actuellement inscrit? bote de texte section ii tudes prcdentes 10) votre tablissement dtudes prcdent se trouvait-il en ontario? oui non (si oui rpondez q11, si non passez q12) 11) de quel type dtablissement dducation sagissait-il? universit (si slectionn, offrir menu droulant des universits de lontario) collge (si slectionn, offrir menu droulant des collges darts appliqus et de technologie) autre; veuillez prciser _______ 12) de quel type dtablissement sagissait-il? universit au canada collge au canada autre; veuillez prciser _______ 13) votre programme dtudes prcdent tait-il le mme que celui dans lequel vous tes actuellement inscrit? oui non (si oui , passez q16) 14) quel tait votre prcdent programme dtudes? bote de texte credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 119 15) votre programme dtudes prcdent tait de quel type? certificat diplme diplme avanc certificat post-diplme baccalaurat autre; veuillez prciser _______ 16) quelle a t votre note finale (sous forme de lettre) dans votre prcdent programme dtudes? a/a+ b/b+ c/c+ d ou moins je ne sais pas 17) avez-vous obtenu votre diplme dans votre prcdent programme dtudes? oui non (bote de texte pourquoi pas? ) section iii exprience relative au transfert 18) avez-vous cherch obtenir un transfert de crdit vers le programme dans lequel vous tes actuellement inscrit? oui non (si oui , continuez, si non , passez la section iv) 19) quelle a t la principale raison pour laquelle vous avez choisi de continuer vos tudes postsecondaires un nouvel tablissement? chang dide relativement mon domaine dtudes la rputation de mon programme actuel la rputation de mon tablissement actuel emplacement de mon tablissement actuel peu satisfait de mon programme prcdent peu satisfait de mon tablissement prcdent dsire diversifier mon exprience postsecondaire en minscrivant un nouvel tablissement autre; veuillez prciser _______ credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 120 20) comment avez-vous entendu parler de la possibilit de transfrer des crdits (choisissez tous ceux qui sappliquent) site web de mon tablissement prcdent site web de mon tablissement actuel site web dontransfer professeur ami, collgue de classe ou membre de la famille autre; veuillez prciser _______ 21) quel point a-t-il t facile de trouver le premier point de contact pour le transfert de crdits? trs facile facile difficile trs difficile 22) qui a t votre premier point de contact pour des renseignements sur le processus de transfert de crdits? membre du personnel du bureau du registraire/registrariat conseiller ladmission coordonnateur ditinraire et de transfert de crdits directeur de votre secteur dtudes coordonnateur de programme conseiller en programmes professeur autre; veuillez prciser _______ 23) si vous rflchissez votre rponse la question 17, comment dcririez-vous lutilit des renseignements que vous a donns votre premier point de contact? trs utiles plutt utiles plus ou moins utiles pas utiles du tout credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 121 quelle que soit la rponse, donnez une bote de texte indiquant veuillez expliquer : 24) si vous rflchissez lappui que vous avez reu de votre tablissement en ce qui concerne le processus de demande de transfert de crdits, veuillez indiquer jusqu quel point vous tre daccord avec les noncs suivants : pas du pas daccord trs tout daccord daccord daccord 1 loption de transfert de crdits est clairement indique aux tudiants lorsquils sinscrivent. 2 je comprenais clairement le processus lorsque jai demand un transfert de crdits. 3 des renseignements sur le processus de transfert de crdits sont faciles obtenir au besoin. 4 je savais avec qui communiquer pour commencer le processus de transfert de crdits 5 il est facile dobtenir, au besoin, des conseils et de lappui auprs du personnel du collge relativement au processus de transfert de crdits. (pour toutes ces questions, si un rpondant indique pas daccord ou pas du tout daccord , offrez une bote de texte qui indique veuillez prciser ) 25) quel moment recommanderiez-vous quun tablissement donne aux tudiants des renseignements sur la possibilit de transfrer des crdits? avec la trousse dadmission votre programme actuel au moment de linscription aux cours pendant les activits dorientation/daccueil au cours de la premire semaine de cours autre; veuillez prciser _______ credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 122 26) quel moment avez-vous fait votre demande de transfert de crdits? au moment de faire votre demande dadmission votre programme dtudes actuel au moment de vous inscrire avant le premier jour de cours pendant la premire semaine de cours aprs la premire semaine de cours, mais pendant le premier mois de cours autre; veuillez prciser _______ 27) avez-vous dpos de multiples demandes de transfert de crdits? oui non (si non passez la q29) 28) combien de demandes de transfert de crdits avez-vous dposes? 1 2 3 autre; veuillez prciser _______ 29) si vous rflchissez votre exprience du processus de demande de transfert de crdits dans son ensemble, veuillez indiquer jusqu quel point vous tes en accord avec les noncs suivants : pas du pas en trs tout daccord accord daccord daccord 1 le processus de demande de transfert de crdits tait facile comprendre. 2 le processus de demande de transfert de crdit sest effectu dans un dlai raisonnable. 3 les attentes et les exigences relatives au transfert de crdits sont clairement tablies. 4 je nai eu aucun problme obtenir les documents dont javais besoin pour le transfert de crdits (p. ex., relevs de credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 123 notes, plan de cours, etc.) 5 le cot de faire une demande de transfert de crdit tait raisonnable. 6 ma demande de transfert de crdits a t traite dans un dlai raisonnable. (pour toutes ces questions, si le rpondant indique pas daccord ou pas du tout daccord , offrez une bote de texte qui indique veuillez prciser ) 30) avez-vous obtenu les crdits de tous les cours pour lesquels vous avez demand un transfert? oui non en attente dune dcision de ltablissement 31) pour combien de cours avez-vous demand un transfert de crdits? 1 2 3 plus de 3 32) daprs vous, quel est un dlai raisonnable de traitement dune demande de transfert de crdits? moins de 3 jours moins dune semaine moins de 2 semaines moins dun mois autre; veuillez prciser _______ 33) vous attendiez-vous recevoir des crdits qui finalement ne vous ont pas t accords? oui non (si non , passez la q37) 34) vous a-t-on expliqu pourquoi vous naviez pas reu ces crdits? oui non (si non , passez la q37) 35) vous rappelez-vous lexplication quon vous a donne? bote de texte credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 124 36) quel point avez-vous t satisfait de cette explication? trs satisfait satisfait insatisfait trs insatisfait si insatisfait ou trs insatisfait : pourquoi navez-vous pas t satisfait de lexplication qui vous a t donne relativement aux crdits que vous navez pas obtenus? 37) en rflchissant votre exprience, quel a t le niveau de facilit du processus de transfert de crdit? trs facile facile difficile trs difficile si trs facile ou facile : quest-ce qui, en particulier, a aid faciliter le processus de transfert de crdit? si difficile ou trs difficile : quavez-vous trouv difficile, en particulier, de votre exprience de demande de transfert de crdits? 38) dans lensemble, quel est votre niveau de satisfaction relativement au transfert de crdits vers votre programme dtudes postsecondaires subsquent? trs satisfait satisfait insatisfait trs insatisfait si insatisfait ou trs insatisfait : veuillez nous donner de la rtroaction supplmentaire sur votre exprience de transfert de crdits, et sur les aspects particuliers du processus qui vous ont laiss le plus insatisfait. 39) veuillez nous faire part de tout commentaire, suggestion ou proccupation supplmentaire relativement votre exprience de transfert de crdits. bote de texte section iv ceux qui nont pas transfr de crdits 40) saviez-vous quil tait possible de faire transfrer des crdits? oui non (si oui passez la q42) credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 125 41) sachant quil est possible de dposer une demande de transfert de crdits, y songeriezvous? oui non (quelle que soit la rponse, passez la q45) 42) prvoyez-vous faire une demande de transfert de crdits? oui non (si non continuez la q43. si oui passez la section v) 43) avez-vous tent dobtenir des renseignements sur le processus de transfert de crdits? oui non (si non passez la q45) 44) avez-vous tent de communiquer avec quelquun votre tablissement actuel pour obtenir des renseignements sur le processus de transfert de crdits? oui non 45) pourquoi navez-vous pas demand de faire transfrer des crdits de votre ancien tablissement votre programme dtudes actuel? je ne comprenais pas bien le processus de transfert de crdits. jai jug que le processus me demanderait trop deffort. jai prsum que je nobtiendrais pas les crdits demands. je ne voulais pas dpenser dargent pour obtenir le transfert de crdits. mon programme actuel na rien voir avec mon ancien programme dtudes. autre; veuillez prciser _______ 46) y a-t-il quoi que ce soit que votre tablissement actuel pourrait faire pour vous encourager demander un transfert de crdits? bote de texte credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 126 section v ceux qui prvoient demander un transfert de crdits 47) quel est votre niveau de satisfaction relatif la disponibilit des renseignements sur le processus de transfert de crdits? trs satisfait satisfait insatisfait trs insatisfait 48) avez-vous communiqu avec quelquun votre tablissement actuel pour obtenir des renseignements sur le processus de transfert de crdits? oui non bote de texte indiquant pourquoi navez-vous pas encore communiqu avec qui que ce soit au sujet du processus de transfert de crdits? (si oui continuez, si non passez la q51) 49) avec qui avez-vous communiqu pour obtenir des renseignements sur le processus de transfert de crdits? membre du personnel du bureau du registraire/registrariat conseiller ladmission coordonnateur ditinraire et de transfert de crdits directeur de votre secteur dtudes coordonnateur de programme conseiller en programmes professeur autre; veuillez prciser _______ 50) si vous rflchissez votre rponse la question 49, quel point ce premier contact a-til t utile? trs utile plutt utile plus ou moins utile pas utile du tout si trs utile ou plutt utile : en particulier, quavez-vous trouv utile de cette interaction? si pas utile du tout : veuillez expliquer pourquoi ce premier contact ne vous a pas t utile : credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 127 51) que pourrait faire votre tablissement actuel pour rendre votre exprience de transfert de crdit le plus simple possible? bote de texte credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 128 appendix 2 focus group questionnaire general 1) some institutions are dealing with issues of clarity, in your own words, describe to us what you feel a transfer credit is 2) if you have not applied for credit transfer, please tell us what you know about credit transfer, and what would your expectations be if you were to apply for credit transfer? 3) if you have applied for credit transfer, please describe to us your experiences to date with the credit transfer process. proactive 4) at what point would credit transfer information be most useful to you, and why? who was (would you expect to be) your first point of contact with credit transfer? and why? 5) what outreach was done with you regarding credit transfer information? what should have been done? what practices can an institution adopt that will help students think about credit transfer before the semester? want practices should an institution avoid? process and procedure 6) how easy was the document collection process? please describe your experience accessing student records and transcript to support the credit transfer application. 7) are there any policy or procedure documents that you know of for students to reference during the credit transfer process? what should be in this document? 8) how long is a reasonable amount of time to wait before hearing a credit transfer decision? what additional information should be communicated to you? 9) what can the college do to support a successful credit transfer experience? if colleges were to expedite the process for students, what might be some of the best places to start making changes? communication 10) was your first point of contact helpful throughout the application process? would you expect them to be? 11) how well are the credit transfer requirements made public? how well are the timelines that students are expected to follow made known? how could institutions promote the idea that some work should be done prior to the start of class start-up? credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 129 12) how do you think the institution can better assist students who are on osap that fall below the minimum requirements when granted credit transfer? 13) how have your experiences been with the online database, managed by oncat, which serves as an information hub for credit transfer? can you comment on any college specific databases that you know of? improvement 14) overall, what might be some additional factors that institutions can do to increase your motivation for applying for credit transfer? overall, what have been the biggest barriers in the credit transfer process? collaboration 15) were you satisfied with the help you received from both your previous institution and your current institution? was one more helpful than the other? credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 130 appendix 3 questionnaire for registrar interviews 1. how do you think your institutional is benefitting from engaging in credit transfer conversations? 2. how does your institution currently define credit transfer? 3. does your institution track the number of credit transfers? if yes, can you explain what data is recorded and how this information is used? if no, can you provide insight as to why? 4. what are the first steps that occur after the institution receives a credit transfer application from the student? 5. what does the complete cycle of credit transfer look like for your institution? 6. what are the timelines that students are expected to follow? 7. what is included in the grading rubric that is used when deterring whether a student is going to be granted a credit transfer? 8. is there a standard timeline for processing requests? if yes, how is the final decision relayed back to students, if at all? 9. on what grounds does your institution deny credit transfer requests from students? 10. are there any policy or procedure documents that your staff can use as a reference during the credit transfer process? 11. does your institution conduct any outreach to students regarding credit transfer information? 12. how do you think your institution can better assist students who are on osap that fall below the minimum requirements when granted credit transfer? 13. how have your experiences been with the online database, managed by oncat, that serves as an information hub for credit transfer? 14. are there any difficulties that your institution routinely encounters with handling credit transfers? credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 131 appendix 4 overview of provincial and survey data provincial data survey data caat first year fall 2014 129,670 number of unique id's with a prior ps experience 36,001 number of id's with a prior ps in ontario at a pub funded institution 30,474 number of id's that requested a transcript 17,515 number of id's that requested a transcript, presumably for the purpose of credit transfer 11,697 93,669 number of students invited to participate in study 36,001 number of survey respondents 4,099 number of survey respondents with prior ps in ontario publicly funded 5,527 institution 3,085 number of survey respondents who 12,959 applied for credit transfer 1,216 number of survey respondents enrolled 5,818 in certificate, diploma, advanced diploma who applied for credit transfer note: 1,220 students were enrolled in a degree program, while 4,598 were enrolled in a graduate certificate program - a transcript request for these groups is thought to represent prior program completion as opposed to credit transfer. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 31,902 1,014 1,065 1,869 151 note: of those that reported applying for credit transfer, 107 students were enrolled in a degree program, while 44 were enrolled in a graduate certificate program. 132 appendix 5 survey participation rates region central college 1 number study population 2148 percent study population 6.0% number survey respondents 247 percent survey respondents 6.0% institutional participation rate 11.5% college 2 4387 12.2% 494 12.1% 11.3% college 3 1900 5.3% 239 5.8% 12.6% college 4 3932 10.9% 393 9.6% 10.0% college 5 3508 9.7% 218 5.3% 6.2% college 6 2535 7.0% 295 7.2% 11.6% 18410 51.1% 1886 46.0% college 1 1982 5.5% 294 7.2% 14.8% college 2 1081 3.0% 140 3.4% 13.0% college 3 726 2.0% 53 1.3% 7.3% college 4 459 1.3% 59 1.4% 12.9% college 5 1240 3.4% 163 4.0% 13.1% 5488 15.2% 709 17.3% college 1 830 2.3% 130 3.2% 15.7% college 2 364 1.0% 80 2.0% 22.0% college 3 275 0.8% 27 0.7% 9.8% college 4 668 1.9% 101 2.5% 15.1% college 5 264 0.7% 42 1.0% 15.9% college 6 435 1.2% 39 1.0% 9.0% 2836 7.9% 419 10.2% 2280 2809 616 2031 1531 6.3% 7.8% 1.7% 5.6% 4.3% 283 267 95 166 196 6.9% 6.5% 2.3% 4.0% 4.8% 9267 25.7% 1007 24.6% 78 1.9% 4,099 100% college central region eastern eastern region northern northern region western college 1 college 2 college 3 college 4 college 5 western region unreported institution overall 22 n/a 36,001 100% credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 12.4% 9.5% 15.4% 8.2% 12.8% 11.4% 133 appendix 6 strongly disagree/disagree: completing the credit transfer application process was easy to understand. specific comments or concerns: too confusing, not straight to the point faculty knew you could do it but did not know how i had to really want to do it. no required a lot of time and research the lay out doesnt include all colleges it was hard finding matching classes no explanation given i had to wait until classes started didn't know i had to provide a course description of precious courses. if i didn't match the courses perfectly with previous course description i was denied. process seemed simple, but got different explanations from college staff so it was very confusing teachers at college x hospitality school kept insisting that courses from collegey were not recognized, even though currently in the program at college x, we are learning the same curriculum. although the course had been accepted as a transfer, it wasn't necessarily completed not enough information was provided or explained hard to understand when staff doesn't even know how to help you too much of the process is up to the discretion of faculty i sent my request too. the college should know what transfers and what doesnt i found it to be all over the place. it had to be done online. it took me a while to figure out how to send it all away to the email given. staff was uninformed sent me back and fourth proper form not easily available website details were hard to follow, yet school staff members were knowledgeable and easy to follow. too many steps....why am i requesting new transcripts be sent to every department? how can i access course outlines to see what's in the course? how do i know if i have covered the material if i can't see what's in your proposed course? i was not given any indication when the communications course was approved or where i was in the process for the one nursing course i submitted for transfer credit. i was told from my previous school i could just transfer credits and my current school kept saying "no, reapply through ontariocolleges" aucun credit ma ete transferrer cest ridicule!!! very unclear information was provided online about the process getting the data from university was very difficult. they claimed patent protection and every professor had to release the information credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 134 tres mlangeant, j'ai recus de directive diffrente et j'ai du faire mes propre demarche pour avoir des confirmations. for the same reasons as i put before. contradicting information from each person i spoke to. it's hard to pick courses that will match other courses when course outlines have different standards across institutions it ended up being an easy process but little help was given. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 135 appendix 7 strongly disagree/disagree: completing the credit transfer application process took an appropriate amount of time. specific comments or concerns: it is the second last week of the semester and i am still trying to transfer credits they lost my application. took 7 weeks - approaching midterms during the program way to long no a lot of chasing had to be done to get process done due to the time i applied, which was before the summer, it took months before i recieved any information. no, they told me the foirst day of classes. you are not accepted on level 3 and we are not giving you the credits took way too long took me weeks to figure out the correct way to do this 3 months to wait to see if i was accepted to declined is ridiculous!! was asked to fill out form scan it then email it. opposed to doing it online or any other way that might have saved paper even. i don't believe i received a response. i was sent to multiple faculty members who were confused about the process and some credits still have not been transfered it is very time consuming to have to fill out the form online, then print it off, sign it, then scan it back onto the computer, scan all of your previous course outlines and then attach them all to an email. it took me an hour or more. it took many contacts with the individual to get everything sorted little response. no one to call. many hours on long distance phone call on hold too many steps....why am i requesting new trancripts be sent to every department? how can i access course outlines to see what's in the course? how do i know if i have covered the material if i can't see what's in your proposed course? it should be automatic as it is in british columbia where all courses are listed on a university-college shared transfer credit website. spent half a day at school in line at the registration office to change things aucun credit ma ete transferrer cest ridicule!!! i took 3 months to get the data from the university and often it was not in sufficient detail for the college to use c'tait trs long presque 1 mois et 2 semaines it took much longer because i had to keep going back and forth and changing the application depending on who i was talking to. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 136 appendix 8 strongly disagree/disagree: requirements for credit transfer are clearly defined. specific comments or concerns: no - they do not have a list set out some of my courses weren't recognized by my current college and i had to repeat them no one really knew anything .. no had to ask coordinator was not specified anywehre not at all until this point i finis my semester and still my file had not been processed with the credits i paid and applied for once in the process it is exceptions are made but not very clear there is no specific outline as to what course will be considered for a transfer. it was a guessing game when applying. i knew i was eligable but didnt know the actual requirements literally nothing is clear on this topic i was told to find a class far outside of my area of study. its easy to get transcript but i dont have the damn course outlines yes except for which form to use and where to find it how can i access course outlines to see what's in the course? how do i know if i have covered the material if i can't see what's in your proposed course? the woman who adjusted my schedule wasn't even sure herself if i was eligible or a transfer credit she had to find someone else to help her if it was a standard transfer. not true for mature students who have been out of school for many years. aucun credit ma ete transferrer cest ridicule!!! didnt know if i was supposed to match up the course i had taken to a college x course or how to go about the process nothing i read gave me a very good gauge of what would be accepted and what wouldn't be. staff did not know the requirements (ex. when transferring an english credit, i was told completely different information by the english department and the registrar's office). they were too specific credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 137 appendix 9 strongly disagree/disagree: i had no issues accessing the documentation i needed for credit transfer (i.e. transcripts, course outlines). specific comments or concerns: to get course outlines from college x is completely aweful!! course outlines have to be given out by only certain faculty members from certain "schools" within the school. for college y on the other hand course outlines are provided on their website for public access. i think the is the best option some transcripts from universities are basically little booklets that have to be scanned course outlines where extremely difficult to get a hold of that was specific enough for the documentation needed had to wait for teachers to post information became costly as you have to print and photo copy multiple times it was difficult i had to print them off the internet transfer credit i paid college x to issue them hard to find front desk once told me i could not access my transcript, then days later changed their answer and gave it to me anyway..wasting time until the deadline which i made just in time it was hard contacting my previous school to access accounts as i forgot paswords bc it wasnt my current school anymore obtaining course outlines from u of x is probably impossible. phoning the university was no help. its a pain in the ass to get course outlines i had to make a 7 hour drive to obtain transcripts i had to search for outlines of the courses i wanted to apply as transfer credits . i did find the ones i needed, however i did not keep all my course outlines. i feel postsecondary education should have records of students who attended these courses. course outlines were not always available too many steps....why am i requesting new transcripts be sent to every department? how can i access course outlines to see what's in the course? how do i know if i have covered the material if i can't see what's in your proposed course? the course outlines i was given at college x were not up to date. some course outlines were hard to get fought with both schools over transcripts aucun credit ma ete transferrer cest ridicule!!! hard to find the proper form to submit all documents took many attempts university bumped me from contact to contact and claimed patent protection was on all material required by the college i had to request from two different departments from my previous institution. one got back to me very quickly, the other one took a couple of weeks. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 138 appendix 10 strongly disagree/disagree:the financial cost of applying for credit transfer was appropriate. specific comments or concerns: not at all. to transfer 5 credits out of the 12 i took last year, it has cost me over $200. that is equivalent to half of my book costs this semster i do not believe there should be a cost for credit transfer. i hate the fact it seems like i have to pay twice we already pay enough tuition $25 per credit is a lot considering i'm paying for the courses anyway. should be free or max the cost of a transcript having a plar assessment costs money, this is ridiculous. i paid 140 for the advance standing assessment and then i paid extra for my gened i think it's ridiculous that you have to pay for the original schooling--and then pay to prove you've already learned the material. too expensive cost should be per application instead of per course. new documents were needed at a cost. if you are able to get the full course money back weeks after the first day of school after attending classes, you shouldn't be unable to get money back for the classes you dropped before the first day of classes. why do i have to pay to not take a class? did not like having to pay the fee when there was no guarantee that my transfer would be accepted cost was too high particularly when i had to provide all the course outlines and fax/mail them in and particularly since i did not get tuition reduction when i was exempt from course should be free if you paid to send your transcript with ontario college application cost of transcripts for each and every department i want exemptions from? i don't even know which transcripts to send, as i don't know what this course covers, so how do i know which of my dozen psych courses covered it? it should be free and on a standard previously agreed upon transfer list as is in bc. the institution should take the money that they are saving from me dropping the course and apply it to the credit transfers. i understand within reason that multiple transfers are costly, but students should be offered one chance at the beginning of the program to apply for credit transfers and have the cost covered by the educational institution. school is already quite costly. please save students money! :) its the colleges job to help students, it is not acceptable to put a price tag on helping students with paperwork aucun credit ma ete transferrer cest ridicule!!! the fees were not clearly explained. i payed a lot more than what i expected there was to physical cost option just consumed weeks of my time credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 139 pas acceptable, le fait de ce faire crediter des cours devrait etre gratuit puisque a la fin, je va pas participer au cours. donc ou va le 50$? the fact that we have to pay to get the credit transfer and still not get any money back for the course we are already paying for as part of our tuition is ridiculous. if we were getting money back for not taking the course i'd understand the fee to get a transfer but we don't get money back, we still pay the same as someone not getting a transfer credit. although i have a university degree in a similar field, it is more expensive for me to complete my diploma without repeating unnecessary courses (i have to pay for each transfer credit, and do not receive any money back for dropped courses/am not allowed to take additional courses). credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 140 appendix 11 strongly disagree/disagree:my credit transfer application was processed in an appropriate timeframe. specific comments or concerns: they lost my application. i had to resubmit and it took longer than those who applied after the first week of class. 7 weeks into the program - not acceptable, 7 weeks in a class that i should have been exempted from no should been done before class it was the last week of the course that i got the transfer due to the time i applied, which was before the summer, it took months before i recieved any information. it is not done until today and i g=have finish a semester allready it was never done. and i did not receive a response. some were fast, some took weeks for a response. it took 3 months cannot accurately judge, request too recent, not yet processed i still had not heard the status of the one nursing course after 4 weeks. i was told a few weeks, it took three months. still waiting aucun credit ma ete transferrer cest ridicule!!! several months to get university documents is inappropriate it took more than the 2 weeks i was told it would take. further more i was not contacted about the results of the transfer credits i applied for. i kept having to chase them. took much longer than i was told as was not finished until several weeks into the semester. it took three months to receive an answer to my application. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 141 appendix 12 - compendium of institutional practices and procedures record keeping questions 1. 2. 3. 4. do you track the number of credits being requested? (tracking yes/no) what type of data do you keep in you records? (database management) what tool(s) do you use to store the data? (usage) to what extent are you using the oncat database? (oncat) record keeping college & region central 1. tracking (yes/no) 2. database management 3. usage 4. oncat college 1 yes id banner high college 2 yes number of applications n/a moderate college 3 yes n/a banner n/a college 4 yes institutions and courses banner moderate college 5 no course; expiry date; people soft high online high course equivalency rules, number of requests (approved, denied, in-progress) reason for denial, courses, and institutions. college 6 yes college 1 yes number of requests; response time excel low/limited college 2 no n/a n/a high college 3 yes id n/a low/limited lms moderate people soft low/limited eastern college 4 yes college 5 yes credit transfers and credit transfer applications credits that are granted are not recorded in a database credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 142 record keeping college & region 2. database management 3. usage 4. oncat yes only the equivalencies granted from other institutions n/a high college 2 yes student id; decision; course; approval duration; date of approval paper - manually low/limited college 3 yes dates; equivalencies excel; student information system low/limited college 4 yes courses banner low/limited college 5 yes id; course student record system low/limited college 6 yes approvals - online; denials - paper college 1 yes number of requests; turnaround time; denials excel moderate college 2 yes number of institutions and the number of students coming from each one; denials edi transcript data low/limited college 3 yes course n/a low/limited college 4 yes n/a online tool high college 5 yes courses; denials people soft moderate college 1 northern 1. tracking (yes/no) western credit where credit is due oncat provincial study high 143 process and evaluation questions 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. how is the application currently being received? (mode - online/paper/both) who is the first person that receives the credit transfer application? (recipient) which department evaluates the application? (department) what criteria are considered when evaluating an application? (criteria) is there a rubric in place to follow when evaluating the application? (rubric) process & evaluation 5. mode (online / paper / both) 6. recipient 7. department college 1 online student portal program coordinator college 2 paper/ online academic division/ admissions office faculty college 3 paper program coordinator program coordinator college 4 paper & online admissions staff program team college 5 paper admissions staff n/a college 6 online uploaded to student portal program coordinator college 1 paper pathways and credit transfer officer full-time faculty college 2 online registrar's office program coordinator college 3 paper/email registrar's office faculty course outlines n/a college 4 paper registrar's office faculty course outlines n/a admissions staff program coordinator transcripts & course outlines (descriptions) n/a college & region central eastern college 5 paper credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 8. criteria course outlines course outlines transcripts & course outlines transcripts & course outlines course outlines course outlines transcripts & course outlines transcripts & course outlines 144 9. rubric no n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a process & evaluation college & region northern western 5. mode (online / paper / both) 6. recipient 7. department 8. criteria 9. rubric n/a college 1 email prior learning coordinator program coordinator 80% course similarity; grade min 60% college 2 online pathways officer program coordinator course outlines n/a college 3 paper registrar's office program coordinator course outlines n/a college 4 paper & online credit transfer office program coordinator course outlines n/a college 5 paper admissions staff program coordinator n/a no college 6 n/a admissions staff program coordinator course outlines n/a college 1 n/a credit transfer office academic team college 2 paper n/a n/a college 3 online registrar's office academic team college 4 online pathways officer academic team college 5 paper registrar's office faculty course outlines course outlines course outlines transcripts & course outlines course outlines credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 145 n/a n/a no n/a n/a communication questions 10. how is information passed between departments? (between departments) 11. how is the student alerted if credit is approved? (with students approval) 12. how is the student informed if credit is denied? (with students denied) communication college & region central eastern 10. between departments 11. with students (approval) 12. with students (denied) college 1 n/a student portal n/a college 2 student portal student portal email college 3 n/a student portal student portal college 4 n/a student portal student portal college 5 n/a student portal student portal college 6 online student portal student portal college 1 college shared drive email & student portal e-mail college 2 n/a in person/ email email college 3 n/a email from dean n/a college 4 n/a n/a n/a college 5 n/a n/a n/a credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 146 communication college & region 10. between departments 11. with students (approval) 12. with students (denied) college 1 n/a student portal n/a college 2 n/a e-mail n/a college 3 n/a in person n/a college 4 n/a e-mail n/a n/a email email n/a student portal n/a n/a student portal student portal college 2 n/a student portal email college 3 online and through email student portal student portal college 4 online portal student portal student portal college 5 n/a email email northern college 5 college 6 college 1 western credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 147 timeline questions 13. what is the latest a student can apply for credit transfer? (submission deadlines) 14. how long are students expected to wait before hearing the results of their application? (evaluation) timelines college & region central eastern 13. submission deadline 14. evaluation college 1 start of term 1 week college 2 day 10 < 1 week college 3 day 10 <1 week college 4 day 5 n/a college 5 2 weeks n/a college 6 no deadline 10 business days college 1 4th week of class 10-15 business days college 2 day 10 < 1 week college 3 end of sept. 3 weeks college 4 day 10 10 days college 5 day 10 end of sept college 1 no deadline day 10 college 2 day 10 dependent on submission college 3 day 10 5 days college 4 no deadline no deadline college 5 day 10 none end of sept. 1-2 weeks northern college 6 credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 148 timelines college & region 13. submission deadline 14. evaluation first day of class n/a college 1 college 2 western day 10- 4th week 1 week college 3 day 10 day 10 college 4 day 10 2 weeks college 5 day 1 none credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 149 documentation questions 15. 16. 17. 18. is there a reference document staff can use to answer student questions? (staff yes/no) in what format is the guide available? (format staff) is there a guide or reference document that students can access? (student yes/no) in what format is the guide available? (format student) documentation guides college & region 15. staff (yes/no) 16. format staff 17. student (yes/no) 18. formatstudent college 1 yes online yes online college 2 yes n/a n/a n/a college 3 yes online yes online college 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a college 5 yes online n/a n/a college 6 yes online yes online college 1 yes online yes online college 2 n/a n/a yes online college 3 yes n/a n/a n/a college 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a college 5 yes online yes online central eastern credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 150 documentation guides college & region 15. staff (yes/no) 16. format staff 17. student (yes/no) 18. formatstudent college 1 yes n/a yes n/a college 2 yes paper yes online college 3 yes n/a yes online college 4 yes n/a n/a n/a yes n/a n/a n/a college 6 yes n/a n/a n/a college 1 yes online yes online college 2 n/a n/a n/a n/a college 3 yes paper n/a n/a college 4 yes n/a n/a n/a college 5 yes online n/a n/a northern college 5 western credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 151 outreach questions 19. when do you reach out to students with credit transfer information? (time) 20. how do you provide credit transfer information to students? (mode) 21. what type of information is provided to the student? (information) outreach college & region 19. time 20. mode 21. information college 1 confirmation to program e-mail postcards college 2 confirmation to program paper / online n/a college 3 confirmation to program e-mail eligibility status college 4 admissions package email n/a college 5 admissions package paper n/a college 6 applications paper inform about portal college 1 fixed - orientation webpage online n/a college 2 during applications paper n/a college 3 ongoing n/a registrar being open late college 4 admissions package paper contacts; and how to apply college 5 ongoing online n/a central eastern credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 152 outreach college & region 19. time 20. mode 21. information college 1 admissions package paper office location college 2 confirmation to program e-mail information card; faq link; how to guide college 3 admissions package paper pathways with local university college 4 registration e-mail gned exemptions college 5 orientation in person n/a college 6 orientation in person n/a college 1 n/a n/a n/a college 2 none n/a n/a college 3 during applications email eligibility college 4 n/a posters/ brochures n/a college 5 upon receipt of transcript n/a n/a northern western credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 153 alerts and assistance questions 22. is there anything in place to alert you when students drop to part-time status? (flags) 23. is the financial aid office a part of the credit transfer process? (osap) 24. are there any specific offices other than the osap office that advocates on behalf of student, i.e., aboriginal affairs, mature students? (other) 25. are there any commonly encountered concerns regarding credit transfer? (concerns) difficulties alerts& assistance college & region 22. flags 23. osap 24. other 25. concerns college 1 n/a n/a n/a jumpstart students can't apply until the fall college 2 n/a n/a n/a reporting college 3 n/a n/a n/a out of province requests college 4 n/a yes n/a accessing university outlines college 5 n/a n/a n/a inconsistencies across faculties college 6 n/a n/a n/a access to transcripts and outlines college 1 yes n/a n/a volume, when combined with manual process college 2 n/a n/a n/a need for automation college 3 n/a n/a n/a consistency of electives across all institutions; english and math, specifically college 4 n/a n/a n/a process consistency across institutions college 5 n/a n/a n/a process based problems; streamlining. central eastern credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 154 difficulties alerts& assistance college & region 22. flags 23. osap 24. other 25. concerns college 1 n/a n/a n/a lack of communication between registrar and admissions advisors college 2 n/a yes n/a access to course outlines college 3 n/a n/a n/a ---- northern n/a n/a n/a access to course outlines; and awareness of other college practices n/a n/a n/a consistency yes yes n/a university "buy-in" college 1 n/a n/a n/a college 2 n/a n/a n/a university "buy-in" college 3 n/a n/a n/a need for automation; handling of gneds college 4 yes n/a n/a new additions and cross referencing the mapping to us from other institutions college 5 n/a n/a n/a communication between faculty and registrars office college 4 college 5 college 6 western credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 155 summary of best practices overall, institutions must continue to track the data elements available across the various stages of the credit transfer process. record keeping a number of institutions are recording the receipt of an application along with the course name and whether an approval was granted; however, institutions should include the reason for rejection (where applicable), the approval date and duration of the approval. while most of the colleges are using a banner information system to capture this data, some colleges are not, which is why the best practice for using to store the data is any system that allows for the quick extraction of data. as a minimum, the data should be linked to the student registration/enrolment records. process and evaluation one of the best ways to track data is to receive this information through an online portal of some nature. by establishing an online portal, the information can easily be passed on to the program coordinator, as they have been identified as the best person to evaluate the application. when evaluating the application, coordinators should be comparing course outlines, with no exceptions, along with original student transcripts to ensure that a minimum grade of 60% was achieved. there was much variation in assessment criteria in terms of accepting photocopied transcripts as well as accepting program descriptions in place of full outlines. in order to improve the consistency of student experiences, neither of these decisions should exist. also, should someone other than the program coordinator be evaluating the application, a rubric outlining these standards should to be created. at present, no such rubric exists. outreach, communication and timelines another benchmark that would aid in the consistency of experiences is aiming to ensure that all students submit their applications before the first day of class. currently, most institutions abide by a day 10 deadline. institutions should aim to provide incoming student with relevant credit transfer information with their application and confirmation packages. similarly, multiple follow-up e-mails during the summer months were highly supported within the student focus groups. receiving applications before the first day of class minimizes unnecessary attendance in class from students that are granted credit. institutions should aim to have a response back to student within the first ten days of class, and preferably the first week. having the ability to relay information back and forth quickly between departments once the application is received allows for faster turnaround time. there is currently no set way on how to pass credit transfer information between the various departments. some colleges are opting to use an online portal, while others are primarily using e-mail. as a minimum, colleges should deviate as much as possible from using paper hardcopies. one of the reasons why it is important to use online and web based portals is because it allows for the decision to be relayed back to the student in a shorter time period. whether the decision is an approval or credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 156 rejection, it must be relayed back to the student promptly so that there is no wavering in the decision to continue attending class. also, in the event that a credit transfer application is denied, a reason should always accompany the decision. reference documents and alerts credit transfer reference guides was something highly sought after, but very rarely available, for students as well as staff and faculty. a frequently asked questions page available online, through the student portal, or as a link on program pages can be easily referenced by all parties should a question arise. currently, very few institutions have reference materials for students or staff to refer to when needed. one sample question on this faq page, in addition to fees, contacts and required documents, is eligibility criteria. for example, students that are on governmental assistance programs (osap) may not be aware of the implications if they drop down from full-time to part-time status. informing at-risk populations that they will need to check with additional departments should a successful application follow will reduce funding status concerns. currently there very few checks in place for populations such as those on osap. common difficulties the last question addressed in the compendium was whether there were any additional concerns regarding credit transfer. overall, most institutions either mentioned the need for more university buy-in or for more consistency with respect to evaluation metrics. registrars, students in focus group sessions, as well as within the survey responses all addressed frustration with the varying ways credit assessed. credit where credit is due oncat provincial study 157

transfer pathways: strategies for success in the transition from college to university in bscn collaborative programs may 2015 claire mallette rn, phd karin page cutrara rn, phd(c) jacqueline choiniere rn, phd martha rogers rn, edd carole umana ma york university, toronto, on 1 executive summary in 1999, the ontario ministry of health and long term care announced that a four-year bachelor of science in nursing (bscn) degree would be mandatory as the entry to practice for nursing graduates (council of ontario universities [cou], 2013). as a result of this decision, the government funded collaborative partnerships between university and college nursing programs across the province. the delivery structure of the collaborative partnerships are guided by a variety of factors such as previous relationships among the partners, geographical distances, and available resources (zorzi et al., 2007). the york-seneca-georgian collaborative bscn program is an example of such a partnership. it is considered an articulated program with an integrated curriculum, characterized by delivery of the first two years at either seneca or georgian college, and the last two years at york university. at york university, nursing students in the collaborative program were demonstrating signs of having difficulties with transitioning from the colleges to the university, despite a seamlessly integrated designed university curriculum. they were also less successful in the nursing registration exam than the 2nd entry bscn program at york, and other schools of nursing in ontario. the primary purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of the current transition difficulties experienced by the york-seneca-georgian collaborative nursing students as they transition from the college sites to the university setting. strategies to better facilitate the transfer process and foster student success were also explored. there are critical reasons for better understanding the transition challenges of collaborative program students. at the individual level, students have invested emotionally and financially, as much as $60,000 over four years of education. for the university, it is important to successfully retain students as the inability to do so has serious financial and reputational implications. in addition, the ontario government has made a large investment in educating nursing students in order to address the continuing human resource challenges in the health care sector. thus it is imperative that students are as successful as possible in transferring from the college to the university, in graduating from the program and ultimately in passing the nursing registration exam. a secondary purpose of this research was to offer generalized recommendations based on the findings, to foster successful college-university partnerships and transition practices for other programs. over the last two decades, more research has focused on student success in institutions of higher education. there is a growing institutional interest in establishing conditions for student success as a focus on student success and retention are critical as institutions face an increasingly competitive environment, higher expectations to demonstrate measurable performance to governments and accrediting bodies, and a diminishing fiscal climate. 2 through 11 focus group interviews, comprised of students and faculty from the three partner sites, qualitative data were gathered on the transition experience from the college settings to york university. perceived differences and expectations between a college and university setting were also explored. students and faculty were then asked to either identify whether they felt they were prepared to transition in year three, or make recommendations as to how better to support successful transition and student success. using lizzios (2006) five senses of success conceptual framework to guide the data analyses, the findings indicated that many students felt uncertain about the transfer process; were concerned about the university level academics; and had a sense of not being connected to the york community. this resulted in feelings of loneliness and disconnection that can lead to confusion regarding their own student identity and purpose. however, it is important to note that some students did not find the transition as difficult as others. these students, while reportedly maintaining previous college ties, demonstrated a different perception of the university experience, in that it offered new opportunities for becoming part of a larger community. in order to assist students to develop a sense of purpose, recommendations were made by focus group participants on how to emphasize similar academic and teaching expectations and experiences across the four years. to assist in feeling connected with the new academic environment, they also recommended such activities as mentorship programs, a strong orientation process, campus tours and welcome events when transitioning to the university site. a sense of resourcefulness is important to develop in order to navigate the university setting. students identified how it would be beneficial to be exposed to well-organized, timely, accessible, and consistent communication, systems, procedures and resources that would foster selfdirectedness. learning the academic culture and core scholarly values and expectations is central to fostering a successful transition. students and faculty expressed concerns in the difference of academic standards, such as scholarly writing, between the college and university settings. partnership infrastructures that enable all three partner institutions to have consistent expectations, shared academic data and teaching across sites, communication, and coordination of the delivery of a single curriculum in an articulated collaborative program were identified as being very important for fostering an academic culture across all four years. the findings from this study have implications not only for collaborative nursing programs but could also inform student transitioning support structures in other college-to-university academic programs. the challenges of student transition related to inter-university and college-to-university transitions have recently prompted political changes. since 2011, the ontario government began focusing more on the changing learning needs of students and labour market demands (ministry of training, colleges and universities [mtcu], 2011). as a result, the ontario credit transfer system was developed to improve transparency and access to student transfer pathways, and enable more choices for obtaining post-secondary education (mtcu, 2011). one of the goals of the credit transfer system is to assist students transfer their course credits and transition from college to university programs. while there is evidence that broader changes are being undertaken, the 3 findings of this study may contribute to strategies that support student success during transitional experiences. while this report outlines recommendations specific to the york-seneca-georgian collaborative bscn program, the following are more generalized recommendations based on the findings to foster successful college-university partnerships and transition practices. 1. structural conditions for collaborative institutional success enable clear and transparent expectations regarding the delivery of collaborative programs, by developing a mutually agreed-upon memorandum of understanding (mou) that describes the expectations of each partner, related responsibilities, decision-making and conflict resolution processes, governance, communication structures, admission requirements and procedures, program requirements, financial arrangements etc.; form committees such as an advisory, executive, and policy and curriculum committee, etc., to support clear and transparent expectations. membership should consist of appropriate representatives from all partners and student representatives where appropriate; ensure consistent and regular committee meetings take place, involving all representatives and stakeholders, and where outcomes are communicated across sites, as applies; explore the feasibility of one central communication point that provides students with a one stop location for all program-related information across the 4 years; ensure consistency and transparency in admission processes and standards by utilizing one application centre such as the ontario universities application centre (ouac). where this is not possible, it is recommended that representatives from both the university and college partners participate in a single application and acceptance process across all sites. establish structures and systems for an integrated, pan-institutional academic database or similar systems, to better share registrar and student information over the 4 years; and institute pan-institutional teaching and a schedule of visiting lectures to ensure curricular continuity and foster collaboration, student transition and academic success. 2. student services/support and community building create mentorship programs that could link upper year students with those transitioning into the university setting. this practice can provide transferring students with critical transition information to lessen their degree of uncertainty and stress, as well as provide an anchor to their new academic home; enable students to access university services such as the libraries and athletic programs prior to transitioning to the university setting. develop communication strategies to ensure consistent and timely information across all four years. multiple communication vehicles are recommended, such as a common program website for all 4 years (both for admissions and in-program information), 4 establishment of an e-newsletter, regular and timely emails, and a transitioning student handbook and next steps fact sheets; establish campus visits and opportunity to participate in transitional activities such as program and professional development activities, program specific orientations, tours of the university, welcome events focused on assisting them to acclimate to the larger university campus; provide opportunities for students to meet with friendly and informed students and faculty from the university prior to the transition period and specifically just prior to the actual transfer time; assist students in achieving school/work/home life balance through communication of additional scholarship opportunities, workshop offerings, as well as ways to connect during the regular school day as well as through electronic means; provide supports and information for first-generation students and their families as they adapt to the rigours of a university program; and provide students with a structured transition program such as the recently introduced yu start program at york university and providing incentives for students to complete the program during the summer of their transitioning year. 3. academic/curricular changes ensure consistency and collaboration in the program and integrity of the curriculum throughout the 4-year program, through practices such as ensuring consistent learning objectives, sharing of course syllabi, shared teaching across sites, and consistent expectations and evaluation processes over the four years; introduce specific student success strategies/modules into the beginning of year 3 academic course curriculum and provide incentives such as participation marks to ensure students learn quickly about using learning resources at the university; offer specific workshops (i.e., on scholarly writing skills, writing multiple choice exams) to equip students with the necessary skills and tools needed to foster their transition from the college to the university; establish agreed-upon learning outcomes and methods of evaluation across the curriculum. enable students to experience university by opening doors to the possibility of taking university electives during the first two years of study; and provide opportunities for strategies as cross teaching, cross appointments or team teaching across sites to facilitate continuity in the program and the students academic experience. these strategies would also enable a better understanding of the expertise within each of the partners faculties. 5 future research as post-secondary education pathways with college and university partnerships are becoming more widely accessible, it is important to continue to implement research on the types of delivery structures, and the successes and challenges experienced by students and institutions. while there has been a proliferation of research in student success during the transitional period, almost all focuses on students entering university from high school. some minor efforts have been made to better understand the mature student experience and strategies that support success for this cohort. nevertheless, there is a marked gap in research pertaining to students transitioning between institutions, particularly between colleges and universities. common strategies to foster student success and ways to improve program delivery need to be identified. quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and longitudinal studies of all four years of the program in terms of student outcomes are recommended. quantitative data such as students admission gpa, length of program completion, number and type of courses dropped or repeated and gpa accumulated across four years may provide insight into predictors of academic success. qualitative studies can glean more insight into the student experience and how it changes across the program. only through comprehensive analyses of all four years of student achievement, across partner sites, will collaborative programs be better able to understand academic and system barriers and strategies to foster success. 6 acknowledgements the research team would like to acknowledge the generous support of the ontario college university consortium council (cucc) for funding this project. special recognition is also sent to our two college partners, in particular the nursing leadership and staff at seneca and georgian colleges for their assistance in acquiring the required ethical review approvals as well as assisting in the logistical details of the two focus groups realized at their respective campuses. a special thank you is sent to the many focus group participants (including current students and faculty members) for their willingness to share their experiences in and suggestions for the improvement of the program. our appreciation is also extended to the institute for social research and the office of institutional research and analysis (both at york university) for their assistance in realizing the qualitative aspects of the project, respectively. we are grateful for the many and valuable contributions of all of the aforementioned. 7 table of contents setting the context ....................................................................................................................................... 10 introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 10 purpose of the study......................................................................................................................... 11 literature review .......................................................................................................................................... 12 student characteristics....................................................................................................................... 13 student development theories.......................................................................................................... 13 campus environment theories .......................................................................................................... 15 qualitative research methodology .............................................................................................................. 17 demographic data ........................................................................................................................................ 19 qualitative research results ........................................................................................................................ 22 sense of capability ............................................................................................................................ 22 sense of connectedness ................................................................................................................... 24 sense of purpose............................................................................................................................... 26 sense of resourcefulness ................................................................................................................. 28 sense of academic culture ............................................................................................................... 30 recommendations ........................................................................................................................................ 32 sense of capability ............................................................................................................................ 32 sense of connectedness ................................................................................................................... 33 sense of purpose............................................................................................................................... 34 sense of resourcefulness ................................................................................................................. 35 sense of academic culture ............................................................................................................... 36 limitations .................................................................................................................................................... 37 summary and future directions ................................................................................................................... 38 structural conditions for collaborative institutional success ............................................................ 40 student services/support and community building .......................................................................... 40 academic/curricular changes ............................................................................................................ 41 future research.................................................................................................................................. 41 references .................................................................................................................................................... 43 8 list of tables table 1: summary of focus groups conducted ............................................................................................... 19 table 2: age ranges of student focus group participants .............................................................................. 20 table 3: summary of prior education of student focus group participants ................................................... 20 table 4: parents educational background ....................................................................................................... 21 table 5: total number of hours worked per week by student focus group participants............................. 21 9 setting the context introduction in 1999, the ontario ministry of health and long term care announced that a four-year bachelor of science in nursing (bscn) degree would be mandatory as the entry to practice for nursing graduates (council of ontario universities [cou], 2013). as a result, collaborative nursing programs, which are partnerships between colleges and university schools of nursing, were formed. currently, there are 14 bscn programs offered in ontario, of which 12 are collaborative programs offered through college-university partnerships (college of nurses of ontario [cno], 2013). ontario-based institutions offer a variety of types of collaborative nursing programs. the ontario college university consortium council (cucc) report (2007) described the different collaboration models and partner relationships that exist. in some program collaborations, students complete their first two years at a college site and then transfer to a university setting to complete the final two years. this structure has been referred to as an articulated, or 2+2 model. other collaborations not only offer this 2+2 model, but also offer a separate 4-year bscn program structure at the university site. still, other collaboration structures involve a 4-year program that is offered at each of the college or university sites. lastly, in some collaborative structures where the college and university sites are close in proximity, students will proceed through the program together, taking some classes at the college site, and other courses at the university site (zorzi, engman, barry, lauzon, maccoy & yen, 2007). there are also a variety of practices in delivery structures for faculty. in some collaborations, faculty teach only at their own site, while others teach at more than one site. some faculty were also identified as teaching only at their partners site (zorzi et al., 2007). many different types of relationships between partner organizations and the interface with students were identified. for example, the access to resources and services for students differed, where in some collaborations, students only had access to resources at their site, while others had access to the services offered by all partners in the collaboration. graduate affiliations differed in that in some collaborations, the students were only affiliated with the degree-granting university, while in others the graduates were affiliated with all the partners (zorzi et al., 2007). some similarities were found in that that almost all collaborations had a formal agreement and/or memorandum of understanding that outlined the expectations and structures among the institutions for implementing the program. most had established joint committees for decisionmaking purposes, and an integrated and consistently-delivered curriculum, where the students were exposed to the same content, regardless of their setting. usually, the universitys academic policies and procedures were followed; however, the hiring of faculty was done independently at the college and university (zorzi et al., 2007). 10 the york-seneca-georgian collaborative program was the first collaborative nursing program to be established in ontario in 1999, and currently has one of the largest nursing enrollments in the province. as the first collaborative program in nursing in ontario, the design team from the participating colleges and the university faced many structural barriers. at the time, collegeuniversity collaborations were almost non-existent. working within existing constraints, the development team elected to use an articulated model with an integrated four-year curriculum. all four years of the curriculum including all courses, program outcomes, and program philosophy were agreed to by the partners and a commitment was made to ensure the consistent delivery of the program. as an articulated program, students select one of two college collaborative partner sites (georgian or seneca) for the first two years, at the time of application to the program, and then transfer to york university for the third and fourth years. georgian college is located in barrie and seneca colleges nursing program is offered at its king city campus (north of toronto). as time evolved, more and more collaborative programs were established with varying structures as previously discussed. concerns about the transitioning experiences of nursing students and their success have become the focus of interest of some researchers. research suggests that the transition from college to university can be challenging for all students. cameron (2005) describes the transition period from college to university as a time of uncertainty in which students must adapt to a new environment, and alter their routines and relationships. students can often face a number of challenges such as differences in size of schools, cultures, class sizes, and academic achievement (cameron, 2005; bell, 1998; kaylor & rewey, 1998; lizzio, 2006). at this time, there is limited research exploring the transition experience from community college to a university setting or with respect to predictors for success among collaborative bscn nursing students. instead, the research that is available identifies admission and cumulative grade point average (gpa), sciences courses gpa, previous degree attainment, reading comprehension and math skills, as predictors for student success (lewis & lewis, 2000; robichau-ekstrand, et al., 2011). purpose of the study at york university, nursing students in the collaborative program were demonstrating signs of having difficulty transitioning from the college to the university settings, despite a seamlessly designed university curriculum. in addition to a change in the academic setting, they were experiencing much less success in the ontario nursing registration exam when compared to the second entry bscn program students at york university. 1 1 second entry nursing students complete a full or partial university degree in any discipline, and meet specific program admission requirements, prior to entering the program, and complete a similar, compressed nursing curriculum as the collaborative students. 11 the primary purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of the transition difficulties currently being experienced by the collaborative nursing students as they transition from the college site to the university setting. in addition to better understanding collaborative nursing students experiences, the findings may also inform other programs who are considering college-university partnerships on how to build and sustain successful college-university partnerships and positive transition processes for their students literature review the literature review focuses on research and theory related to student success during the transition to university and specifically to those who physically relocate from the college to university campus at the end of year two as part of their degree program. theoretical approaches and frameworks useful to understanding the transition to university were reviewed, to identify specific transitional issues faced by college to university and collaborative bscn students (in particular), and to offer a framework upon which to analyze and compare the qualitative findings of the study. over the last two decades, much research has focused on student success in institutions of higher education. there is a growing institutional interest in establishing conditions for student success because success translates into the institutions reputation and its ability to attract and retain high quality students. a focus on student success and retention are critical as institutions face an increasingly competitive environment, higher expectations to demonstrate measurable performance to governments and accrediting bodies, and a diminishing fiscal climate. the findings in the area of student success research have emphasized that success in the first year has been found to foretell the success of a student throughout the university experience. conceptually, the first year begins with the period of transition to university. this period is a time when the foundation of personal growth and academic success is made marking the beginning of a new educational experience. it is therefore a critical phase for both students and the institution (mullendore and banahan 2005, cited in rogers, 2014). although much of the research has focused on transition of students from high school to university, some limited research has been with other populations such as mature students, international students and college transfer students. research related to student success, retention and persistence have broadly addressed student characteristics, growth and development, and the institutional climate. hardy and cox (2010) suggested that the dominant theoretical paradigms cluster into the student development theories and the campus environment theories. 12 student characteristics characteristics such as age, gender, first generation, family support, high school gpa in addition to internal factors such as intrinsic motivation have all been associated with student success as measured by academic performance, persistence and retention (rogers, 2014). while these characteristics, particularly gpa are strongly associated with success, there is also evidence that intentional student success strategies such as mentorship programs, learning communities and cocurricular programs can augment student capacity for success (zhao & kuh, 2004; cruce, wolniak, seifert & pascarella, 2006 cited in kuh et. al. 2008 cited in rogers, 2014). while grades remain the strongest predictor of academic success, high quality student programs can act as effective moderating influences. student development theories for more than 30 years, research has addressed the developmental needs of transitioning students to institutions of higher education. beginning with the seminal work of victor tinto (1975;1993), theories have focused on tasks students need to develop for successful integration into the university, both academically and socially. tinto theorizes that a students success is influenced by the students commitment to the academic institution, and academic and career goals (demetriou & schmitz-sciborski, 2011). those students who academically and socially integrate into the campus community increase their commitment to the academic institution and are more likely to graduate (2007). tintos student development theory is often used as a framework for student services programs in recognizing that the transition is a process and not a specific point in time. in tintos (1993) model 3 stages of transition are described as students navigate the transition process into the university setting. the transition process begins with students leaving and distancing themselves from past relationships and membership in a community such as in the college setting. once arriving at the university they often feel lost, confused and stressed as they learn the new environment and feel like they dont belong. the final stage occurs when students begin to learn the new system and focus on meeting the new challenges (cameron, 2005). the student development theory highlights the fact that the transition process is not a specific point in time and normalizes the process of uncertainty, exploration and a new identification. in order for students to be successful in the transition, they need support in developing new approaches and a new identity. victor tinto could be said to be the grandfather of student success theory coming from a developmental perspective. many other theorists and researchers have extended his work or offered additional models within the developmental paradigm. here we will focus on the work of three notable contributors to student success research and theory, including chickering, schlossberg and lizzio. 13 chickerings theory of identity development (1969, 1993) is one of the most comprehensive models used to understand the development of student identity. in his theory, he describes seven vectors of student development in identify formation. chickering chose not to describe this process as a linear process of stages, as he believed students are too diverse and respond in different ways. instead, vectors have direction and magnitude, with students going through each vector at different rates. there is also the possibility of issues interacting with more than one vector at the same time (evans, forney, guido, patton & renn, 2009; & edld579 opensource). the seven vectors that contribute to the development of identity are: developing competence, managing emotions, moving through autonomy toward inter-dependence, developing mature interpersonal relationships, establishing identify, developing purpose and developing integrity (edild579couglasopensource). while vectors are not rigidly sequential, they do build on each other to support identify formation (evans et al.). movement from one vector to another represents an increase in skills, strengths, confidence, awareness, addressing complexity and integration into the university setting (edld579opensource). schlossbergs transition theory is a theory of adult/student development that examines events which affect various aspects of an individuals life and their societal role. this psychosocial theory has been identified as being helpful in understanding and working with students in transition (evans et al. 2009). in this theory, transition can be defined as any event, or non-event (events that are expected to occur but dont), that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions and roles (goodman, schlossberg, & anderson, 2006, p.33). the transition itself is only defined by the person experiencing it (evans et al.). to understand individual transition experiences the type, context, and impact of the transition need to be considered (evans et al.). goodman et al. defines transition as being anticipated, unanticipated and non-events. the meaning of the transition is also related to the context and the effect of the event. alf lizzio (2006), an australian academic has proposed a conceptual framework of student success that has been extensively used in australia and is currently being applied and evaluated at york university in a pilot new student transition program called yu start 2 (rogers, 2014). lizzios model of student success focuses on five senses of success. the senses include; 1) a sense of resourcefulness or the knowledge of and ability to use appropriate university resources to support success, 2) a sense of capability or the skills and capacity to take action to support success as the student adjusts to the new demands of university work, 3) a sense of connectedness or the development of relationships with peers, upper year students, faculty members and staff all of whom can contribute to success, 4) a sense of purpose or clarity about what the student seeks to gain from and contribute to university life, and 5) a sense of academic culture including the unique culture of a given institution and the academic skills that accompany higher education. 2 yu start is a new student transition program designed to support the first year student experience. through this comprehensive program students learn how to enrol in courses, connect with fellow classmates, student leaders, faculty members and student services staff, and become more familiar with campus life, supports and resources available to them. 14 developmental theorists emphasize the importance of the transitional period as students enter the university in terms of students psychosocial development and their need to adapt to a new environment. their work has effectively drawn attention to the fact that transition to university can be filled with challenges as students navigate the change, develop a new identity (as a university student) and master the difficulties of environmental and psychosocial transitions. this need to adapt to their new environment and form a new identity is paramount to student success. campus environment theories the early years of research in the area of student transition to university focused on students themselves and the skills, knowledge and values they require to successfully achieve the developmental tasks that relate to academic, personal and social success. recent research has shifted the focus from students per se to the institutions and the conditions they need to create in order to support student success. astin (1993), as well as pascarella and terenzini (1998) began the shift in focus to environment. most recently, the work of kuh has drawn attention to the concept of student engagement as a powerful predictor of student success (kuh, kinzie, buckley, bridges &hayek, 2006). the specific benchmarks associated with student engagement have become well known with the widespread use of the national survey of student engagement (nsse). trowler (2012) suggest that student engagement is concerned with the interaction between the time, effort and other relevant resources invested by both students and their institutions intended to optimise the student experience and enhance the learning outcomes and development of students and the performance, and reputation of the institution (p.3). the definition points to the reciprocal nature of student success as it must engage both students and the institutions in which they learn. both have responsibilities for success. the research on student success has personal characteristics, developmental tasks and the institutional conditions that support success. but as noted, most of the research has been conducted with students entering university from high school. but what of the students who transfer from college to university and those students who transfer from college to university who are in nursing programs? cameron (2005) applied the work of tinto to explore transitional experiences of collaborative nursing students as they move from the college to the university. she noted that students often face a number of challenges such as differences in size of the school, culture, class sizes, and academic achievement. they are faced with having to develop new skills and abilities as they negotiate new roles and relationships to become fully integrated into the new institution. this time of uncertainty where students adapt to their new setting including altering routines and relationships can be described as transfer shock (cameron, 2005, hills, 1965). cameron (2005) reported that students expressed challenges applying nursing knowledge at the university level. they described the transition process as stressful and while they adapted to the university environment and expectations, they did not feel part of the university community. 15 cameron identified this as transition stress where geographical relocation, academic shock, and professional transformation all interact to create transition stress. students who were successful in the transition reported going through a process of separating from the community college, moving through the transition stress and adapting to the university. they adapted to the new environment through the development of new skills and relationships and an overarching commitment to obtaining a baccalaureate nursing degree. the process was supported by interactions students experienced with peers, faculty and staff within the university which were deemed to be crucial to the concept of integration and persistence to succeed. camerons findings were supported in a 2007 report by the college university consortium council (cucc) entitled implementation evaluation of ontarios collaborative nursing programs-final report. in this report the transition issues faced by collaborative nursing students were examined (zorzi et al. 2007). students were surveyed to assess their satisfaction with the transition from a college to university setting. of the 5 schools where students begin their studies at a college and then transfer to a university campus, none expressed satisfaction with the transition process and some found the transition difficult. the student comments indicated that they would recommend more information be provided in advance in regards to university registration and expectations; support and guidance during the transition process; more opportunities for interaction with university faculty and staff prior to the transition; and the ability to meet with students from other sites in the program before and after the transition (zorzi et al.). deepening an understanding of the transitional experiences of students, berger and malaney (2003) examined how pre-transfer activities with community college students along with posttransfer experiences affect the adjustment to the university setting. they found that individual student characteristics, community college experiences and university experiences all played an important role in adjustment and all should be considered when planning strategies to improve the transitional processes. their findings indicated that students who have been actively prepared during their college experience and when communication is clear about the nature of transition, students are more likely to be more academically successful and satisfied in the university experience. in 2011, mcmaster university and mohawk college published a report called building successful college and university partnerships (2011). the authors examined indicators of student with a focus on the overall integrated experience. the report describes how students can often have difficulty with social and academic integration following the college to university transfer. the authors underscore the point that both the sending and receiving institutions have a responsibility to prepare and support students throughout the transition process. one of the challenges faced by students transitioning from college to university settings is the perceived differences in institutional cultures between colleges and universities. for example, students reported the significant differences between college and university expectations, methods of teaching and evaluations. as schein (2010) has pointed out, institutional culture provides 16 students with a set of glasses through which their experiences can be interpreted and actions determined. it is an understanding of institutional culture that enables individuals and groups to learn how to successfully cope with the challenges of adaptation thereby enabling a more effective institutional integration. students who are in a collaborative nursing program with an articulated structure experience the cultural variations in an asserted way. not only are they needing to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to be academically successful in year 3 but they are also required to develop a working knowledge of the new culture including new expectations, new processes, new physical campus, new resources, new policies and procedures. the demands on students who are transitioning from college to university are complex yet effective negotiation of those challenges is essential to their ultimate success. in summary, student success is a complex phenomenon (wiggers & arnold 2011). while research is proliferating particularly in relation to students entering university directly from high school, there remain many unanswered questions about transition among specific cohorts such as college transfer students. the literature consistency identifies student characteristics, the developmental challenges (personal, academic and social) that university brings, and institutional conditions as the dominant factors affecting effective student transition and success. the research that has been done with collaborative nursing students in programs that are articulated has clearly illustrated the challenges of learning a new culture, rising to new expectations, orienting to new physical environments, acquiring an understanding of resources and establishing new relationships. what appears to be understood is that transition is a process that straddles the college and university experiences. when seen as process and when intentional actions are taken in the pre-transfer and post-transfer phases, students are more likely to be successful. qualitative research methodology the purposes of this study were to explore the transitional experiences of collaborative nursing students who were involved in the york-georgian-seneca bachelor of science in nursing program and to put forward recommendations derived from students and faculty with respect to how to better support student transition and success. a total of 11 focus groups were conducted at the three collaborative partner sites, comprised of students and faculty, from april to july 2012. two focus groups occurred at each of the two college sites (georgian and seneca colleges), with year 2 students, for a total of four focus groups. the research team decided to conduct two focus groups at each site, to provide the opportunity for balanced input. the decision was also made to only interview year 2 students, as first year students, who may still be coping with the transition from high school to the college setting, could unintentionally contribute perspectives that were not specific to the college-university transition experience. 17 two focus groups also took place with year 3 and 4 students from each college site for a total of four focus groups. the rationale to combine both year 3 and 4 students was to learn from those who have just transitioned into the university setting and from year 4 students who may be more reflective of their experience as they prepare to graduate. in order to compare the transition processes, the decision was made to separately interview year 3 and 4 georgian and seneca college students. three focus groups were also conducted, interviewing faculty from each site. in total, there were 73 participants in the focus groups (see table 1). the focus groups explored the following areas related to a successful transfer from a college to university setting: the experience of starting a baccalaureate program in a community college and then transferring at the beginning of the third year to complete the program in a university setting; the perceived differences between studying at a community college vs. a university setting; whether students feel prepared to transition in the third year of their program; and identifying current strategies and recommendations that would support the transition from a community college to university setting. students and faculty were recruited through a general email invitation, sent to all registered (second, third, and fourth year) collaborative bscn students and teaching faculty at all three partner institutions, to participate in a focus group. the invitation outlined that the research project was examining the experience of starting a program in a community college and then transitioning to university and identifying strategies and recommendations that would support the transition from college to university. the focus groups and transcription of the data were conducted by york university institute for social research (isr). during the focus groups, no member of the research team was present, in order to avoid bias and to maintain the confidentiality of all participants. while transcripts of the sessions were provided to the research team, names were replaced by a participant number by the isr prior to distribution of the files. in addition to the 11 focus groups, two members of the research team (i.e., both of whom teach in the collaborative nursing program at york university and had leadership roles in the undergraduate programs) were invited to provide their written response to the discussion questions used at the faculty focus groups. the two individuals were asked not to participate in the actual focus group so as to avoid both conflict of interest and bias; however, it was felt that their insights would be invaluable to the study and thus considered as part of the data collected. table 1 summarizes the dates, locations, and participants in each of the focus groups. 18 table 1: summary of focus groups conducted date of focus group location of focus group type of participant number of participants april 10th isr office (york u) 5 april 10th isr office (york u) april 17th isr office (york u) april 17th isr office (york u) may 16th may 28th july 3rd isr office (york u) july 3rd isr office (york u) july 4th isr office (york u) georgian college collaborative bscn faculty incoming (year 3) students (from georgian college) incoming (year 3) students (from georgian college) incoming (year 3) students (seneca and georgian) incoming (year 3) students (from seneca college) 7 july 3rd isr office (york u) seneca college (king campus) georgian college (barrie campus) isr office (york u) upper-year students (georgian college cohort) upper-year students (seneca college cohort) upper-year students (georgian college cohort) upper-year students (seneca college cohort) york collaborative bscn faculty seneca college collaborative bscn faculty june 4th total participants 8 9 5 7 7 3 3 11 8 73 the collaborative program has a diverse student population. to better understand the demographics of the students participating in the focus groups, they were asked to complete a demographic survey. the survey examined such factors as age, prior education level before entering the collaborative program, housing accommodations, parents educational background, student employment and the number of dependents. profiles were only requested from student focus group participants (with the option to not respond). the following section will provide demographic data on the 52 collaborative bscn students who participated in one of the eight focus groups. demographic data of the 52 students who participated in the focus groups, 27 were upper-year (years 3 and 4) and 25 were currently transitioning from year two (at one of two college sites) to year three at york university. specifically, 24 students had completed their first two years at georgian college; while 28 had completed years one and two of the program at seneca college. table 2 demonstrates the age ranges of participants. with respect to gender, of the 52 student participants, six (12 %) were 19 male and 46 (88 %) were female. this gender distribution is to be expected based on nursing continuing to be a predominantly female profession. table 2: age ranges of student focus group participants age ranges totals n=52 % age 19 21* 21 22 25 12 26 - 30 8 31 + 4 did not respond 7 40 23 15 8 14 *no student participant reported being less than 19 years old. as table 2 demonstrates, most of the focus group participants fall within the 19-21 year old age range. table 3 below outlines the educational background of focus group participants. specifically, it summarizes any prior post-secondary education achieved by the respondents prior to entering the collaborative bscn program. table 3: summary of prior education of student focus group participants educational background enrolled directly from high school (i.e.: no other post secondary experience) prior completed/incomplete university studies college-level upgrading (in pre-health or chemistry) other (unspecified) post-secondary did not respond total participants 21 % 47 6 13 10 22 8 7 52 18 -100 in summary, 47% of focus group participants who responded to this question on the demographic profile indicated that they entered the collaborative bscn program directly from high school. thirteen percent indicated having completed some prior university studies; while 22% indicated that they completed college level upgrading in pre-health or chemistry programs prior to beginning the program. another 18% indicated having some other post-secondary experience. the finding of 53% of the participants having another entry route than entering directly from high school indicates the changing profile and needs of post-secondary students. in terms of housing accommodations, 25 (56%) of the 45 students who responded to this question indicated that they lived at home with their parents; while 20 (44%) reported that they live outside of their parents home. seven focus group participants did not respond to this question. moreover, 20 six respondents indicated that they also supported dependents ranging from one to three dependents. table 4 examines the academic background of the parents of the student focus group participants. of the 45 students who responded to this question, 44% indicated that both parents had attended post secondary education (either college or university); 24% had one parent with post secondary education; and 31% indicated that neither parent had attended post-secondary education. this latter group is commonly referred to as first generation or first in the family to attend in student service sectors. seven students did not answer this question. table 4: parents educational background level of parents education both attended post-secondary one parent attended post-secondary neither parents attended post-secondary total participants (n) 20 11 14 45 % 44.4 24.4 31.1 100 table 5 outlines the number of hours per week that students reported that they worked outside of school hours. in total, 26 students reported that they worked; 19 indicated that they do not work; and, 7 abstained from answering the question. table 5: total number of hours worked per week by student focus group participants number of hours / week 1 14 hours 15 20 hours 21 30 hours 31 + hours total participants (n) 8 10 6 2 26 % 31 38 23 8 100 a total of 69% of student participants indicated that, in addition to their enrolment in a full time and challenging academic program, they also worked up to 20 hours per week. adding to this is the fact that many students reported (during the focus group sessions) that they commuted up to one hour to their classes and/or clinical placements. 21 qualitative research results as noted in the literature review, a number of theories address issues of academic and social integration and their importance in helping transferring students adjust to and succeed in their new environment. lizzios five senses of success conceptual framework was chosen to guide the focus groups data analyses as it is particularly relevant to this student transition study. lizzios (2006) framework identifies five senses that describe student transition and promotes success in the university setting. the five senses are: sense of capability, sense of connectedness, sense of purpose, sense of resourcefulness, and sense of academic culture. these five senses describe unique challenges that transitioning students experience as they adjust to university life. the framework outlines practices that contribute to facilitating students satisfaction, engagement and perseverance in transitioning to a university setting. as this framework provides actions and steps that can be used to assist students transition to their new context and be successful, it has been chosen to guide the data analyses and discussion of the report. while lizzios (2006) framework was designed to support students transitioning from high school to university, it is equally relevant and effective in terms of transfers into university from a college setting. using lizzios (2006) five senses framework, the experiences of students during the process of transfer and following the transfer were able to be explored and specific needs that foster success were identified. the research team individually analyzed the focus data transcripts and thematized the data under the five senses. validity of the findings was achieved through investigator data triangulation. individual research team members first analyzed the data using lizzios (2006) framework and then a comparison of findings occurred amongst the researchers. while the experiences documented are specific to collaborative bscn students, some of the observations and recommendations may also be applicable to other articulated programs, thus making the scope of this section broader than the specific and narrow focus of the research study. sense of capability lizzio (2006) describes students success at university depends on their sense of capability. specifically, he points out that, students who are better prepared for the roles and tasks of university study (viz., learning ready) tend to have greater early academic success and are consequently more satisfied and persistent with their studies (p.2). a sense of capability is developed through institutional identification, student-staff and student-student relationships. to understand how well students understood the academic expectations, student focus group participants were asked to what extent they understood that they were in a university baccalaureate program rather than a college program. they were also asked to describe how prepared (or not prepared) they felt with respect to the transition to university. at the same time, 22 faculty members from both the colleges and the university were asked similar questions. the aim was to gain a clearer understanding of the degree to which students felt they were prepared in terms of the academic expectations as well as the perception of faculty members regarding students skills and possible deficits. it is clear from the focus group data that students are experiencing some challenges to their sense of capability as they approach the transition from college to university. several students reported feeling uncertain about the transition. comments such as, i just didn't know what to expect when we were transferred," and "there is fear of the unknown...more chance of failing" reflect this concern. one student currently transitioning from years two to three noted: im scared that were going to be all on our own and wont be able to ask questions or get that help or we wont know where to get that help"; while another student added that "what i've been told is that it's a lot more intense; a lot more involved" [at university]. a few indicated they had received conflicting messages about what to expect we've been told so many different things by so many different people; i don't know what to believe and what not to ... i don't have enough information". at the same time, some students acknowledged that any change is challenging, and conveyed less concern about the transition. as one commented: it takes time. whenever you walk into a new building, new place youre going to feel awkward. thats even with new jobs or anything. youre always going to feel awkward when youre new. i think over timeyou will warm up to people and youll get a feel for what every day is going to be like". some students expressed specific concerns about university-level academic requirements. one student recalls reacting to this concern as the transition was about to occur, okay, get ready to be a very independent learner ... i knew it was going to be me sitting in a room self-studying everything....". other students just about to transition, expressed the expectation that the overall number of students and class sizes at york would reduce the level of personal attention. as one student stated come to university, nobody will have the time because it is so busy andso big. several students also expressed concern about a lack of curricular continuity or integration between the first two and last two years of the program. one noted that, at the college it was very practical, but they did bring in the theory a little bit. we had knowledge of self as a nurse and we did reflect on things..... but at university it was purely theory. i'm not saying i didn't enjoy my experience at university, but it was definitely like being in two different nursing programs". another student commented that ... i found this huge disconnect between what we learned in first and second year and what we have been learning at university". yet, a few students de-emphasized a lack of continuity between the college and university settings. one reported that at the college level there were more assignments worth less and here, fewer assignments worth more. i think it is what you prefer. a few students argued that the academic requirements were more difficult at york. one fourth year student, for example, noted that "the workload didnt get harder...it was different but it wasnt harder". faculty members also identified a lack of continuity between the academic expectations at the colleges and the university. a york faculty member offers one description of that difference in the 23 following, (t)hey come here and theres a lot more theory, a lot more application, a lot more abstract thinking, and theres a critique that this is wasted time slowly it starts to change.. another concurs, stating that: university expectations are that theres going to be a lot of self, independent learning." several faculty members underlined the importance of closer collaboration between the partners in order to improve continuity. as a georgian faculty member comments, it would be helpful for us to see the syllabi for semesters five and six, so we canorient how we are doing. there were also recommendations about regular and improved communication between the institutional partners to assist students in preparing for and navigating the transition period. as one faculty member stated: "information is power. if we have information, we can disseminate to the student". engagement or involvement within the academic partner communities is also linked to developing a sense of capability (lizzio, 2006). a few students reported having difficulties accomplishing this. as one noted, i wasnt a part of anything, just coming, going to my class, going home, even though i wanted more and i wanted to be a part of something .... i never got any sense of community, any sense of belonging. i dont know why, but it just never happened.... a few faculty members identified a relationship between size and developing a sense of community. as one college faculty noted, they talk about york being such a huge place say its not a communityseneca was a community because its smaller. everybody knew everybody, at york it is different. there were also comments capturing how the additional time to travel to york challenges engagement even more. as one faculty member noted, the drive it takes for some people at least two hours out of their day. the fact that many of them have jobs and so to juggle the job and the drive is something they never experienced or thought they would family responsibilities add yet additional constraints to students time for engagement. while several students and faculty members identified a fear of the unknown, a degree of discontinuity between the collaborative partners and the lack of involvement as hindering their sense of capability, their comments also identified several concrete steps that would facilitate a better transition. regular and early information sessions (leading up to the transition year), print and electronic communications (including a collaborative website, e-newsletter, new student check lists and regular emails), early orientation and dedicated transition staff, mentorship opportunities and on-site visits to the university as key vehicles to helping them develop their sense of capability and prepare more effectively for the transition. sense of connectedness fostering successful transitions depends on students sense of connectedness, and the quality of relationships with peers, with staff, and their feeling of identification or affiliation with their school or university (lizzio, 2006, p. 2). connectedness can be developed through good working relationships between fellow students and with staff, and involvement with the university community. as such, lizzio (2006) emphasized the importance of helping transitioning students make personal connections with other students, to develop a sense of solidarity and membership in 24 a student cohort. in this study, this need to create community was aptly summarized by one college faculty member who stated our students want relationships". nevertheless, several students pointed out that they had experienced a feeling of loneliness and disconnection during their transition with one student noting that: i think everyone felt very alone". this was underscored by another student who stated that transitioning from second to third years was the worst; you had no one to talk to." as a result, many students stated that they continued to rely on and identify with their initial cohort from their respective colleges. some expressed confusion and disinterest with respect to developing connections with students transitioning from the other partner college. one student stated that transitioning students stayed in distinct groups; while another expressed frustration, stating that ... there was always this tugof-war kind of sort... it's confusing. you're a york student, but you're at a college". similarly, some students indicated confusion regarding their own student identity. for example, one student commented: i didnt really understand that i was still a york student but i would be at a different campus, while another added that "when i applied to the program at york i assumed that i was going to be on the campus at york as a york student and more integrated in the york community. i didnt find out until later in my second year that i could actually get a yu card and go into the gym here still participate in activities at york". several comments indicate that this approach seemed to result in confusion and place barriers in terms of building an identity and affiliation with institution/program in their final two years, which is a critical element in terms of fostering a smooth transition according to lizzio (2006). as such, it is not surprising that one faculty member participant noted that students identification remains very much with their college as opposed to the university". as suggested by the mcmaster-mohawk (2011) report, these observations could be pointing to an inherent weakness in the very nature of the articulated collaborative program model (i.e.: two separate cohorts undertaking the first two years of the program at distinctive colleges and then merging together to the university for the final two years). on the other hand, other students expressed a desire to be part of a bigger community while not losing their previous ties. for example, one student who was in the process of transitioning from second to third year stated that: what im hoping will stay the same are the relationships within the student body. in seneca because the classes were so small and we were basically with the same people from first year, we all became really close and developed really strong bonds. im hoping that when we transition to york, even though therell be more students and bigger classes and we might not be in the classes, that that will stay the same. in addition to their own identity, part of students challenges with connectedness involved faculty and student relationship-building. lizzio (2006) noted that student-staff relations and fostering an atmosphere of collegiality and approachability is key. however, several students expressed their trepidation regarding these new relationships and thus might have actually impeded their transition 25 (i.e. their perception could become their reality). for instance, one transitioning student stated the relationships with the professors are probably not going to be the same because the classes are so big; while another felt that there is no one here within the faculty that was really willing to help students with stress". to the contrary, some students who began their transition period with a different perception might have, arguably, helped in their transition. for example, one upper-year student stated that i had an old idea of what i thought university was going to be like and when i came here, i realized how privileged i was, like the technology. really, i found coming to york a lot easier... because i could talk to the teachers. i never thought that i couldnt. this willingness to embrace and connect was also expressed by another upper-year student who noted that there was more excitement leading up to coming to york for me being on this campus because thats where my expectations were to be on a large university campus. sense of purpose as lizzio has argued, the students sense of purpose depends on their sense of vocation, their engagement with their discipline of study and their capacity to set personal goals (p. 2). indeed, this sense of purpose, while a key element of success, is also challenged by some of the tensions within a collaborative nursing program. these include the ongoing tensions between the college and university settings, as well as those between the theoretical and practical aspects of the program. the interviews reflect how important it is for students to have a clear sense of purpose about their place within the collaborative program. this not only means understanding the organizational specifics of the program, but also recognizing and accepting why the program is organized as it is. focus group comments from both faculty and students emphasize the importance of this understanding, and also uncover some of the gaps in this sense of purpose. a few comments suggest that some students do not experience the program as collaboration between three sites. as one faculty member noted, my overall impression is that they (students) had the understanding that they did two programs more of a hybrid than a single and unified program. a few students identified differences in teaching approaches between the college and university sites as interfering with their sense of program integration. a subset of these students reported concern with the more theoretical approach encountered in the university setting, compared to the more practical approach at the college. a few students questioned the need to incorporate theoretical frameworks at all, arguing that it detracts from the practical elements of their nursing education. as one student commented, i really think for all intents and purposes that nursing is a very practical profession and ... they may be trying to go very far the opposite extreme, to make it more academic and theoretical. the entry-level nursing profession is a very practical one". similarly, another student commented that: 26 there's a practical application of theory, it's not just purely theoretical. going into my placement [in third year], i felt prepared to discuss theories of philosophy and transcending patterns of rhythmical being, but i didn't really know much about what was going on in my patients body or what the medications did which i should have. in contrast to students who reported difficulty in connecting the practical and theoretical aspects of the curriculum, others applauded its relevance but offered the observation that it could be better integrated. as one upper-year student noted, if that client-centred care and that psychosocial aspect of nursing were integrated from day one, you wouldn't need two years worth. ... i can't tell you how much i've enjoyed my experience in most courses, but it needed to have been integrated better". this sentiment was echoed by another upper-year student who suggested that: maybe if they cut down the theory courses or implemented those in years one and two it would have helped us better apply what we learned. several faculty members emphasized the critical need for students to make the connection between the theoretical and practical aspects of the program in order to foster a sense of relevance in their program as well as enable them to develop as nurses. as noted by one faculty member: students ability to think critically and reflectively is what we do here critical thinking and reflective thinking around everything from a clinical scenario to an ethical scenario were always asking the students to think reflectively. another important aspect of fostering a sense of purpose lies in what lizzio (2006) terms sharing enthusiasm and excitement in the program ... (p.8). a few students shared concerns about having less laboratory time at the university (compared to their college experience), less choice in terms of securing clinical placements, and the gap in having hospital-based clinical placements. as one student noted, ...not having a placement when you come to the university that first semester is completely disadvantaging to us as students not having that experience...then you go into community and thats a whole year potentially that youre not in the hospitalnurses on the floor are going to expect 110% from you and you cant give it because you have been out of it for eight months. other students identified the importance of having other, extracurricular opportunities in the university setting that serve to foster professional and personal development, and strengthen a sense of purpose. one upper-year student commented on the benefits of becoming involved in student association activities, stating that: my only wish is that everybody had the same opportunity as me to go to the canadian nursing student association ... it was an amazing experience.... its so national. that really gave me a sense of belonging. when i got back from that trip suddenly i changed completely. i wanted to be so much more involved. similarly, another student observed the following, when i came to york, i was really surprised about the 27 opportunities and the leadership that i can take being in the nursing students association at york and doing events. that was something that was unexpected and that i really liked. yet a few students also reported that the intensity of the nursing program combined with the added stresses of commuting and other familial responsibilities made this difficult. this difficulty did not appear with the transition to university, for, as one student shared, even during the college years, "almost none of us were in any extracurricular activities because we just didnt have the time for it and also the college campus was really far from everything. but, a few students shared that the size of york and the added commuting time discouraged their participation in extracurricular activities. sense of resourcefulness a sense of resourcefulness, as identified through student feedback, was another point of concern. this ability to navigate the student system and to get the information they need, willingness to speak up if they have a problem and an ability to balance work, life and study commitments (lizzio, 2006, p. 2) is a necessary skill for program success. a key feature of developing a sense of resources can be found in understanding how to navigate institutional systems, procedures and practices as well as be able to access this information in organized and readily available formats and locations (lizzio, 2006, p.9). several students commented on the difficulties of having to adapt to new processes upon transferring to the university. as articulated by one transferring student, who stated, you get used to the system then you're almost done. you're always in this disoriented type of situation. you don't know where to grip or where you have to connect. then you move on. you're always trying to start over all the time". this frustration was similarly expressed by other students, often in the context of the different size of the partner institutions and thus the level of personal support experienced. for example, one upper-year student noted that at the university "you have to be more independent, actually seek the information. at the college it was more like everything was just told to you. university is more you have to find out, you have to be more independent. thats what people weren't used to". this reflects the nature of the current collaboration structure and the move to a new campus and institution. specifically, students expressed concern about particular institutional processes, such as grades/records transfer from the college to university systems, differing enrolment procedures, marking schemes, citation requirements (i.e., perceived variations in interpretations of apa referencing between instructors, courses, and institutions), scholarship availability, and processes with respect to the clinical preparedness permit. as one student pointed out, in our fourth semester we were told that our grades from the college would not count towards our transcripts at university a number of students were quite upset because they had been working very hard to have good grades, but then on our transcripts it's just a "p" for pass". 28 several students commented that the adjustment to a more automated system at the university was challenging with one student noting that they were just told to go to the website; adding that you were just staring at the space trying to figure out your way out through the labyrinth. to complicate matters, some students reported experiencing frustration when attempting to access university resources. for example, with respect to year one and two students located at the college site and accessing university resources, one upper-year student commented that they kept saying we did have access, but that they wouldn't release our student number which was very frustrating for us...we're paying university tuition fees, we should have university access, not just colleges because it is a big difference". this experience was underscored by another transferring student who added that in second year i always thought that we'd have access to the stuff at york, like the online stuff....but we just didn't have all the resources that could have been there for us". access to just-in-time information through regular emails and announcements (lizzio, 2006, p.10) as a way to promote students sense of resourcefulness; however, many students expressed frustration and confusion resulting from lack of coordination between the partner institutions as well as insufficient information and resources during the transition period. as stated: a lot of things were very confusing. i think there needs to be more clear communication between the people that have the information and the studentswe need a solid source of information that is one hundred percent concrete. interestingly, students turn to peer groups and social media sites such as facebook in lieu of asking nursing faculty for clear information. one student noted potential discrepancies, in stating, one person might go here but another person might have to go over there, but theyre telling different information. i find, as good as the group is, its more confusing than anything, so i take it with a grain a salt because its just tough to know. in addition to resources and accessing information, several students commented on the differences between the college and university setting, often pointing to the differences in physical size and the diversity of the student body. as one college faculty member noted: one of the things ive heard from students is that they talk about the physical environment and the psychological environment. they talk about york being such a huge place. it is not... and they think its not student-friendly. they say its not a community; whereas college was a community for them because its smaller. everybody knew everybody". the need for student-friendly advising practices and procedures was underscored by several students who commented that communication from the university is key to ensuring that they came prepared for their initial enrolment appointment. while this concern was reflected in the comments of some transferring students, those who had taken the initiative to visit the campus prior to the start of third year offered a different perspective. for example, one upper-year student reported that they felt prepared because i had come to york during the summer and taken a couple of tours. i was able to come here and take a look around. the enrolment appointment was helpful. i think just knowing the university and having a plan was very helpful." similarly, one college faculty member noted that: lectures are audio taped ... at york they (sic: students) like that. they can listen again; that is one thing that i've heard that's positive. 29 in summary, in order to develop a sense of resourcefulness, students feel they must be exposed to well-organized, timely and accessible systems, procedures and resources that foster self-help. however, many students reported a lack of communication and accurate information that compounded their frustration in having to adapt to new institutional processes. moreover, while many transferring students reported higher levels of stress and confusion during their transfer process, many upper-year students reported having overcome these barriers by their fourth year. sense of academic culture students in the focus groups identified issues associated with a sense of academic culture, which lizzio (2006) described as learning how things are done (p. 2) and understanding what are core values and principles in a new academic setting. generally, upper year students commented on the different academic standards to which they were being held at the university campus when compared to those experienced at the college campuses. some commented that this inconsistency made it difficult to transition to higher standards in years three and four. one student noted that during their first two years professors werent consistent. every professor was different and some just spoon fed you while others would make you work extra hard, which is not fair, because some of us are prepared and some arent. when you go to york, youre like, what happened? i'm not ready for this. students also mentioned specific examples of challenges with academic cultural competence. scholarly writing was identified as a significant concern in the transition from the college to the university campus. for example, the varied application of referencing systems was noted by the students as a difference between college and university faculty. as noted by one transferring student, im scared for a lot of papers and essays. i heard that at university theyre really strict on the apa citation." the inconsistent expectations of proper citation formatting in their first two years was also highlighted by several transferring students one of whom stated, i hope at york it's more of a black and white when it comes to apa format". these observations were echoed by faculty members. those teaching in third and fourth year commented that some students seemed not as well prepared in terms of their understanding of the university culture and its associated academic expectations for writing. for instance, one faculty member noted that, "i was quite taken aback by some of their writing skills. theyre not even, in my expectation, at a high school level...even in their analysis of the literature. theyll just basically use copy/paste technique where they just copy the sentence out of the research and just paste it into their paper. interestingly, first and second year faculty identify a specific focus on writing skills in early courses, and think that due to the recent heavier focus on increasing licensing exam pass rates in the upper years, less scholarly writing is occurring. 30 other issues raised that contribute to variances in the academic culture of learning related to grades and grading. students in the first two years sensed they were in a university program based on course progression requirements: the college courses the passing was 50, so i knew it was the university courses because you need 60 and 65. however, focus group discussions raised uncertainties regarding transitioning students knowledge of expectations. i thought i got the expectations, but when i got the marks back [at york] it was a completely different picture. i was like, oh, okay, i didnt. the values and principles of the university were not clear. faculty also voiced awareness that grading was a concern for students, stating that when students transfer and hear that marks declinethey're concerned. in the same vein, student progression to the next term is a significant issue that weighs on faculty, and was related to maintenance of numbers. with regards to failing students one faculty member commented, i think its a culture and im not going to say just college.nobody fails in the college or if they do fail then theres a discussion at a higher level on how to make sure that the seats are filled. in the upper years, faculty agreed there was an entitlement culture of everyone passing. consistent communication and its role in establishing clear expectations for behaviour and performance in the academic settings varied, according to both students and faculty. students generally agreed that transition would be facilitated by more communication between the people that have the information and the students, particularly with regards to placements, coursework activities and program expectations. faculty observed other items to be communicated, in order to facilitate success, such as underlining that its no longer fun and games. it is truly a university program and usually that discussion is around some kind of evaluation process and sometimes aroundclassroom conduct. the use of professional language was referred to as an example. they also voiced challenges concerning the influence of the culture of the organization and how learning and doing were not similar between sites and so deconstructing that thinking was necessary. lastly, the views of faculty-student relationships coloured communication and the learning culture. upper year faculty commented on the college culture of were all buddies and sitting in the cafeteria socializing with students. such differences were noted also by students and often attributed to large class sizes. aspects of communication relate also to some aspects of the overall collaborative relationship. the importance of the partnership infrastructures in forming the academic culture was expressed by faculty members from all three partner institutions. challenging aspects of the collaborative partnership included a lack of communication and, in some cases, a lack of coordination in the delivery of this articulated program. this resulted in frustration. for example, one faculty member commented that "collaboration ... is very, very challenging, while another questioned, "do [university faculty] really value what we teach here at a college?" these concerns were not limited to teaching faculty; students also sensed the cultural differences within the partnership structure. one transferring student commented, it would be a pretty seamless transition, considering it's york's program in the first place and i would expect there'd be communication between the two 31 parties". another student added, "i just dont like the segregation, because its kind of like two years there, two years here. youre not connected at all, so you have to find a way to bridge that". both transferring students and faculty members expressed concern with respect to students preparation for and understanding of the academic culture and the differing academic expectations between the colleges and the university. while some of this can be explained by the differing institutional policies and expectations, given that this is a single baccalaureate four year program, it raises questions with respect to the adequate and consistent student experience and environment. at the same time, it could also point to a lack of information, conveyance of expected standards to students and partnership collaboration. recommendations the qualitative findings indicated a variety of issues and concerns that could be improved upon to support the students transition process from the college to university setting. students identified the transfer process as being confusing with issues related to fear of the unknown; a perception of different academic requirements and expectations between the college/university portions of the program; and, the need to improve communication and the seamlessness between the two parts of the program. recommendations to improve strategies for success within the bscn collaborative program based on lizzios (2006) conceptual framework and findings will be discussed. sense of capability lizzio (2006) recommended that to develop a students sense of capability activities should be designed and implemented clarifying expectations, supporting the development of academic entry skills and engaging students as partners in a learning community. one way to achieve this is through deliberate redundancy where key messages are repeated in different ways and at different times. this can be achieved through such strategies as emails, web sites, and providing timely updates. the findings also point to the need to enhance communications between the institutional partners with a goal of improving curricular integration as well as exploring the possibility of team teaching across institutions. helping students to understand what is expected and providing the tools to enable them to understand the differences between the two parts of the program as well as integrating the theory and practical aspects to a greater degree may result in students who feel better prepared and capable to navigate the transition period. a key factor to improving experience and student success lies in strengthening the institutional relations and communication between the three partners. an example of some initiatives that could achieve this is strengthening established committees (with partners and student representatives) to meet at regular intervals to discuss issues of mutual importance. it is felt that the institutional partnerships could benefit from holding more consistent and frequent meetings both between the university and the respective partners as well as with all three partners around 32 the same table. this would enhance collaboration, ownership and consistency in terms of program design and implementation. lizzio (2006) also pointed to the need for ensuring that students feel connected to their new academic home and recommended that voice and ownership by students of their program (p.7) is evident. to that end, several efforts have already been undertaken and are being expanded at the school of nursing to foster this engagement and partnership. for example, inclusion of students on specific committees as well as at key events (such as the spring visit to transferring students at both college partner sites), are helping to integrate students in key ways. students are sent regular email updates with information at the end of year 2 moving into year 3 on important dates and processes they need to complete prior to the beginning of year 3. at the same time, lizzio (2006) noted that successful transitions are characterized by early independenceand getting active and starting self-managing study as soon as possible (p. 6). as a starting point, the school of nursing has identified the need to discuss both their definition of and approaches to fostering self-directed learning across the four years of the program. sense of connectedness the need for students to connect with their new academic home, develop effective peer relations beyond their existing cohort and be able to access helpful support are critical elements to helping students transition successfully. to foster this, students pointed to several recommendations such as mentorship, an enhanced york presence at their colleges as they prepared for the transition (i.e., in year 2) and a strong social orientation process at the beginning of year three. many transitioning learners noted that having an experienced upper-year mentor during their last semester at the colleges would have provided them with critical transition information as well as an anchor to their new academic home, thereby lessening the high degree of stress and uncertainty faced during the transition period. some of these approaches have already been undertaken at york, namely in the form of an enhanced student orientation for incoming bscn students as well as the exploring establishment of a robust and sustainable mentorship program. students pointed to the need to ensure transitional activities such as program-specific orientations and welcome events aimed at helping them to acclimate to the larger university campus. to assist in developing a new program identity, students expressed their desire for relevant information offered through different vehicles. along a similar line, students pointed to the need to meet with friendly and informed university representatives during the transition period, and specifically suggested visits to the college near the end of their second year (i.e., immediately preceding their completion of the fourth semester). similarly, invitations to visit and/or tour the university campus as well as to participate in program-based activities and professional development events were also recommended by transferring students. activities involving students at all three sites was also suggested by both students and faculty participants as a means to enhance program spirit and identification as well as foster stronger bonds between the teaching faculty at the partner sites. 33 both students and faculty identified access to york services as an issue and questioned why students in the first two years of the program are consistently faced with barriers in terms of accessing extracurricular and academic resources. students highlighted the fact that even with a york card, but without a york timetable, they are unable to access library resources, the gyms or participate in varsity athletics. thus, it is recommended irrespective of their year level or site location, the 3 sites explore how students can access the resources and benefits as a york student. it is felt that doing so will greatly enhance students identification with the institution. in order to foster new relations and connections, lizzio (2006) pointed out the need for students to access experience...[and] get to know and learn from the experience and modelling of senior students (p.4). several students highlighted the importance of nursing peer support and some pointed to the usefulness of facebook, explaining that "...third and fourth year students set-up a group on facebook for the transition where we can go on and post questions and they would answer it for us....the facebook group was very helpful .... although facebook groups have been established by most student cohorts and are valued for the connection and communication it provides, there is concern about the accuracy of the communications. one student stated, it would be nice if we had a more formal person making the statements because students will say one thing and then you hear another thing from another student." enhancing consistent and timely communications is imperative when facilitating the transition process and assisting students to feel connected and part of one program, instead of two. while facebook and social media sites are an excellent medium for student support and connectedness, as mentioned previously, there is a need to develop effective, consistent, academically-focused communication strategies across all three sites from the school of nursing. this will assist students to feel connected and informed of consistent and relevant information and activities as a unified program across the four years. sense of purpose it is important that transitioning students view their program as relevant, understand the various components, and develop a sense of identity and enthusiasm with their chosen profession (lizzio, 2006). focus group participants shared several suggestions about how to achieve a smoother transition. one faculty member recommended the need for cross-teaching.... cross-appointments and cross-pollination". a few faculty member acknowledged that such an approach would help build continuity in the program and in students academic experiences. students and faculty alike suggested more collaboration between the institutional partners, earlier blending of theory and practical courses, additional professional development opportunities and the need to better understand and appreciate the rationale for the structure and organization of the collaborative program. at the same time, focus group participants pointed to the need to more closely integrate elements of the entire program over the four years and with all partners to ensure a more seamless academic experience. as noted by one transitioning student, we were at the college for two years 34 getting used to the teachers, we know what they were like, what they expected. going to university, we're expected to do more and be more professional." in summary, the findings indicate that students feel that it is critical to their success and growth as practitioners that the program be more consistent and clear in terms of blending academic and professional expectations throughout the program as well as providing opportunities for engagement and professional development. sense of resourcefulness assisting students to develop their resourcefulness skills will support their success within the university setting. students can be assisted to more easily utilize resources by providing clear and accessible role information, procedures and resources, and encouraging timely help-seeking behaviours. as suggested previously, a facebook site run by yorks school of nursing was suggested as a possible means to access reliable and timely information. a student stated, itd be nice if york setup a facebook group and it was just constant updates about this is what you do if you want to file your osap, this is the days where you have to book the appointment if youre curious about transit, or this is the scheduling. to improve the sense of resourcefulness during the transfer and beyond, several students suggested improvements, through a pan-institution program website, an e-calendar for transferring students which lists critical dates and procedures, overall improved communications, and more opportunities to get acquainted to the university campus and processes (i.e., through visits, tours, and regular emails) before the start of third year. several students and faculty commented on difficulties with respect to transitioning from one higher education system to another. thus, it is imperative that students be equipped with the skills and tools needed to foster their transition from the college to the university as well as ensure consistent expectations across the four years of the program. building on the recommendations of student and faculty focus group participants, it is recommended that the university develop and offer a series of workshops to transitioning students (beginning in year two of the program) around specific topics, most notably apa citations, scholarly writing skills, and writing multiple choice exams. these workshops could be offered at the three program sites as well as accessed electronically. specific student success strategies/modules could be introduced into the beginning of year 3 academic course curriculum. incentives such as participation marks should be considered to motivate students to complete the modules and facilitate students learning quickly about using learning resources at the university. student participants identified multiple challenges they faced that affected their ability to balance life and school. in fact, 69% of focus group participants reported working up to 20 hours per week (outside of school) and several commented that they were unable to participate in student life or related professional development activities given familial or other demands on their time. the 35 school (across all 4 years) needs to explore ways to assist students to strike a balance in their school/work/home life which may include seeking additional scholarship supports as well as finding ways to connect during the regular school day using electronic means. similarly, it is recommended that the program find ways to support the growing number of first-generation students and their families as they adapt to the rigours of a university program. sense of academic culture both transferring students and faculty members expressed concern with respect to students preparation for and understanding of the academic culture and the differing academic expectations between the colleges and university. focus group participants helped to identify some of the underlying problems which have hindered the effective transition by underscoring the need for pan-institutional collaboration and partnership. while some of these issues are inherent in a model that spans two kinds of post-secondary institutions, recommendations to lessen challenges and augment collaboration and cooperation of the institutions involved can be identified. specifically, students expressed concern that the institutional registrar systems did not allow for grades/records from the first two years of the program to be transferred to their york transcript. as a result, a cumulative program gpa is not available. this is a potential disadvantage to students when applying to graduate programs in the future. in order to ensure transfer of important student data, it is recommended that the registrar representatives of the three partners move forward on the development of an integrated, pan-institutional registrar database or a similar system in order to be able to collect, record and analyze student records over the four years at all three partner sites. student success hinges on reducing the perception of three different programs and increasing academic seamlessness within one, unified program. accordingly, several initiatives have been identified as a result of this research project. specifically, by ensuring consistent learning objectives throughout the four years of the program, sharing course syllabi with all program partners and establishing consistent marking/grading protocols, as well as establishing other checks and balances, it is believed that student outcomes and a better senses of academic culture can be improved. in summary, some of the techniques and individual actions reported and already undertaken by some students in order to facilitate a smooth transition to university and the understanding of culture were discussed. some of these include: familiarizing themselves with the university campus and resources prior to the actual transfer; developing support relationships (with peers and upperyear students); refining their time management and study skills; familiarizing themselves with university policies prior to the transfer; using all available resources (such as time management and study skills workshops at the university); and, accessing other student supports (such as academic advising, skills and personal support counsellors). some students also commented on the importance of a balanced lifestyle as well as recognizing that all transitions can be challenging and 36 thus the need to maintain an optimistic and positive outlook. in the end, while students pointed to a variety of external conditions that may have hindered their transition, many also acknowledged the importance of self-preparation for the transition and taking responsibility for their own academic success. limitations this study has several limitations. in terms of the qualitative aspect of this study, it is important to acknowledge that given the nature of the focus groups (a general invitation was sent to all registered (second, third and fourth year) collaborative bscn students as well as teaching faculty at all three partner institutions) there exists an inherent self-selection bias evident in the focus group participants. the insights of focus group participants may not be representative of the entire student and teaching body, but rather embody the opinions of those who elected to respond to the invitation to participate. as such, the viewpoints expressed in the focus groups cannot be generalized. with that said, the insights gained through their participation may be invaluable to the understanding of some of the issues related to the program and transition process, and the resulting general recommendations may increase awareness of similar issues occurring in other comparable programs in ontario. the original research grant proposed quantitative analyses of the academic performance of students over the four years in relation to success on the crne. however, challenges in terms of incompatibility of the three data systems, highlighted as an issue from the qualitative data, prevented this from occurring. it is important to note that this analysis will be undertaken in the future (i.e., once systems become more compatible) as an on-going effort to identify early indicators of success. lizzios (2006) five senses framework was developed in the united states and in the context of a direct-entry student (i.e. students transferring directly from high school to university). as such, this model could be subject to two limitations: 1) a bias inherent in an american (not necessarily canadian) perspective; and 2) its focuses on the experiences of direct entry students (i.e., not the transfer experience of students moving from a community college to a university setting, as was the focus in this research study). with that limitation stated, it was nevertheless felt that lizzios framework was sufficiently robust and relevant, and thus was used as the analytical framework of the qualitative portion of this study. 37 summary and future directions in 1999, the ontario ministry of health and long term care announced that a four-year bachelor of science in nursing (bscn) degree would be mandatory as the entry to practice for nursing graduates (council of ontario universities [cou], 2013). as a result of this decision, the government funded collaborative partnerships between university and college nursing programs across the province. the delivery structure of the collaborative partnerships are guided by a variety of factors such as previous relationships among the partners, geographical distances, and available resources (zorzi et al., 2007). the york-seneca-georgian collaborative bscn program is an example of such a partnership. it is considered an articulated program with an integrated curriculum, characterized by delivery of the first two years at either seneca or georgian college, and the last two years at york university. at york university, nursing students in the collaborative program were demonstrating signs of having difficulties with transitioning from the colleges to the university, despite a seamlessly integrated designed university curriculum. they were also less successful in the nursing registration exam than the 2nd entry bscn program at york, and other schools of nursing in ontario. the primary purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of the current transition difficulties experienced by the york-seneca-georgian collaborative nursing students as they transition from the college sites to the university setting. strategies to better facilitate the transfer process and foster student success were also explored. there are critical reasons for better understanding the transition challenges of collaborative program students. at the individual level, students have invested emotionally and financially, as much as $60,000 over four years of education. for the university, it is important to successfully retain students as the inability to do so has serious financial and reputational implications. in addition, the ontario government has made a large investment in educating nursing students in order to address the continuing human resource challenges in the health care sector. thus it is imperative that students are as successful as possible in transferring from the college to the university, in graduating from the program and ultimately in passing the nursing registration exam. a secondary purpose of this research was to offer generalized recommendations based on the findings, to foster successful college-university partnerships and transition practices for other programs. over the last two decades, more research has focused on student success in institutions of higher education. there is a growing institutional interest in establishing conditions for student success as a focus on student success and retention are critical as institutions face an increasingly competitive environment, higher expectations to demonstrate measurable performance to governments and accrediting bodies, and a diminishing fiscal climate. through 11 focus group interviews, comprised of students and faculty from the three partner sites, qualitative data were gathered on the transition experience from the college settings to york university. perceived differences and expectations between a college and university setting were 38 also explored. students and faculty were then asked to either identify whether they felt they were prepared to transition in year three, or make recommendations as to how better to support successful transition and student success. using lizzios (2006) five senses of success conceptual framework to guide the data analyses, the findings indicated that many students felt uncertain about the transfer process; were concerned about the university level academics; and had a sense of not being connected to the york community. this resulted in feelings of loneliness and disconnection that can lead to confusion regarding their own student identity and purpose. however, it is important to note that some students did not find the transition as difficult as others. these students, while reportedly maintaining previous college ties, demonstrated a different perception of the university experience, in that it offered new opportunities for becoming part of a larger community. in order to assist students to develop a sense of purpose, recommendations were made by focus group participants on how to emphasize similar academic and teaching expectations and experiences across the four years. to assist in feeling connected with the new academic environment, they also recommended such activities as mentorship programs, a strong orientation process, campus tours and welcome events when transitioning to the university site. a sense of resourcefulness is important to develop in order to navigate the university setting. students identified how it would be beneficial to be exposed to well-organized, timely, accessible, and consistent communication, systems, procedures and resources that would foster selfdirectedness. learning the academic culture and core scholarly values and expectations is central to fostering a successful transition. students and faculty expressed concerns in the difference of academic standards, such as scholarly writing, between the college and university settings. partnership infrastructures that enable all three partner institutions to have consistent expectations, shared academic data and teaching across sites, communication, and coordination of the delivery of a single curriculum in an articulated collaborative program were identified as being very important for fostering an academic culture across all four years. the findings from this study have implications not only for collaborative nursing programs but could also inform student transitioning support structures in other college-to-university academic programs. the challenges of student transition related to inter-university and college-to-university transitions have recently prompted political changes. since 2011, the ontario government began focusing more on the changing learning needs and demographics of students and labour market demands (ministry of training, colleges and universities [mtcu], 2011). as a result, the ontario credit transfer system was developed to improve transparency and access to student transfer pathways, and enable more choices for obtaining post-secondary education (mtcu, 2011). one of the goals of the credit transfer system is to assist students transfer their course credits and transition from college to university programs. while there is evidence that broader changes are being undertaken, the findings of this study may contribute to strategies that support student success during transitional experiences. 39 while this report outlines recommendations specific to the york-seneca-georgian collaborative bscn program, the following are more generalized recommendations based on the findings to foster successful college-university partnerships and transition practices. 1. structural conditions for collaborative institutional success enable clear and transparent expectations regarding the delivery of collaborative programs, by developing a mutually agreed-upon memorandum of understanding (mou) that describes the expectations of each partner, related responsibilities, decision-making and conflict resolution processes, governance, communication structures, admission requirements and procedures, program requirements, financial arrangements etc.; form committees such as an advisory, executive, and policy and curriculum committee, etc., to support clear and transparent expectations. membership should consist of appropriate representatives from all partners and student representatives where appropriate; ensure consistent and regular committee meetings take place, involving all representatives and stakeholders, and where outcomes are communicated across sites, as applies; explore the feasibility of one central communication point that provides students with a one stop location for all program-related information across the 4 years; ensure consistency and transparency in admission processes and standards by utilizing one application centre such as the ontario universities application centre (ouac). where this is not possible, it is recommended that representatives from both the university and college partners participate in a single application and acceptance process across all sites. establish structures and systems for an integrated, pan-institutional academic database or similar systems, to better share registrar and student information over the 4 years; and institute pan-institutional teaching and a schedule of visiting lectures to ensure curricular continuity and foster collaboration, student transition and academic success. 2. student services/support and community building create mentorship programs that could link upper year students with those transitioning into the university setting. this practice can provide transferring students with critical transition information to lessen their degree of uncertainty and stress, as well as provide an anchor to their new academic home; enable students to access university services such as the libraries and athletic programs prior to transitioning to the university setting. develop communication strategies to ensure consistent and timely information across all four years. multiple communication vehicles are recommended, such as a common program website for all 4 years (both for admissions and in-program information), establishment of an e-newsletter, regular and timely emails, and a transitioning student handbook and next steps fact sheets; 40 establish campus visits and opportunity to participate in transitional activities such as program and professional development activities, program specific orientations, tours of the university, welcome events focused on assisting them to acclimate to the larger university campus; provide opportunities for students to meet with friendly and informed students and faculty from the university prior to the transition period and specifically just prior to the actual transfer time; assist students in achieving school/work/home life balance through communication of additional scholarship opportunities, workshop offerings, as well as ways to connect during the regular school day as well as through electronic means; provide supports and information for first-generation students and their families as they adapt to the rigours of a university program; and provide students with a structured transition program such as the recently introduced yu start program at york university and providing incentives for students to complete the program during the summer of their transitioning year. 3. academic/curricular changes ensure consistency and collaboration in the program and integrity of the curriculum throughout the 4-year program, through practices such as ensuring consistent learning objectives, sharing of course syllabi, shared teaching across sites, and consistent expectations and evaluation processes over the four years; introduce specific student success strategies/modules into the beginning of year 3 academic course curriculum and provide incentives such as participation marks to ensure students learn quickly about using learning resources at the university; offer specific workshops (i.e., on scholarly writing skills, writing multiple choice exams) to equip students with the necessary skills and tools needed to foster their transition from the college to the university; establish agreed-upon learning outcomes and methods of evaluation across the curriculum. enable students to experience university by opening doors to the possibility of taking university electives during the first two years of study; and provide opportunities for strategies as cross teaching, cross appointments or team teaching across sites to facilitate continuity in the program and the students academic experience. these strategies would also enable a better understanding of the expertise within each of the partners faculties. future research as post-secondary education pathways with college and university partnerships are becoming more widely accessible, it is important to continue to implement research on the types of delivery structures, and the successes and challenges experienced by students and institutions. while there 41 has been a proliferation of research in student success during the transitional period, almost all focuses on students entering university from high school. some minor efforts have been made to better understand the mature student experience and strategies that support success for this cohort. nevertheless, there is a marked gap in research pertaining to students transitioning between institutions, particularly between colleges and universities. common strategies to foster student success and ways to improve program delivery need to be identified. quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and longitudinal studies of all four years of the program in terms of student outcomes are recommended. quantitative data such as students admission gpa, length of program completion, number and type of courses dropped or repeated and gpa accumulated across four years may provide insight into predictors of academic success. qualitative studies can glean more insight into the student experience and how it changes across the program. only through comprehensive analyses of all four years of student achievement, across partner sites, will collaborative programs be better able to understand academic and system barriers and strategies to foster success. 42 references astin, a. 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conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca executive summary oncat project 2014-22 pathways from the software engineering technology diploma program at centennial college to the bachelor of applied health information science degree at conestoga college december 23, 2014 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) and centennial college (centennial) have worked in partnership to establish educational pathways from centennials software engineering technician diploma program (hereafter set) into conestogas bachelor of applied health information science program (hereafter bahis). students from centennials program will be required to take 5 academic semesters, and 1 coop semester.

contrat: 2016-28 titre du projet: transfer pathway to a ba in psychology at laurentian university rsum (executive summary) dans le cadre de ce projet, luniversit laurentienne et le collge la cit ont llabor des parcours de transfert de programmes collgiaux en sciences sociales de la cit vers le baccalaurat s arts en pyschologie. neuf parcours distincts ont t dvelopps vers le baccalaurat s arts - psychologie. ceux-ci incluent un parcours pour le programmes de techniques de travail social, un pour le programme de techniques dducation spcialise et un pour le programme dducation en services lenfance. de plus, des parcours ont t labors pour deux programmes uniques de la cit, soit interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap et techniques de travail social. finalement, deux programmes conjoints ont t dvelopps pour les programmes dtudes menant un certificat postdiplme, soit autisme et sciences du comportement et sant mentale et toxicomanie. en plus des parcours dvelopps, luniversit laurentienne et la cit, ainsi que luniversit de sudbury, ont labor un nouveau protocole dentente entre les trois institutions, qui permettra de plus facilement mettre en uvre des nouveaux parcours dans le futurs.

pathway transfer to postsecondary executive summary

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2016-32 enhancing the psw to pn bridge through responsive pathway redesign december 22, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to enhance an educational pathway between the personal support worker certificates (psw) to conestogas practical nursing diploma program (pn). the goal of this project was to redesign a pathway to the practical nursing (pn) diploma for personal support workers (psw). through an integrated program design, curriculum was intentionally developed to meet the diverse learning needs of the personal support worker. the implementation of the new psw to pn redesign and related curriculum enhances the student experience while ensuring that graduates obtain the knowledge, skills, and judgement to successfully complete the canadian practical nursing registration exam. standardized admission processes further strengthened the bridge resulting in what we expect will be improved student retention and success. this unique pathway provides opportunities for psws to continue to work parttime gaining valuable experience in the healthcare field, while working towards their diploma; typically requiring one to two days per week. this certificate to diploma pathway provides students an opportunity to explore health care as a psw, helping meet their goals of becoming a nurse, for those wishing to do so. the opportunity to provide highly engaging and interactive learning opportunities allows psws to engage in continuing education and has implications for meeting needsbased workforce demands. this format will engage students who may otherwise be unable to enter fulltime programming. it is our intent to increase student retention and success by strengthening integrated knowledgepractice learning by utilizing online, clinical and simulationbased learning opportunities. improved retention, student success and satisfaction were key priorities of this pathway redesign. this pathway redesign strengthens both the academic rigor of the pathway and better supports the needs and expectations of our future students. 1

postsecondary student mobility from college to university: experience and policy dr. kris gerhardt, dr. bruce arai, dr. michael carroll and dr. michael ackerman wilfrid laurier university august 2012 1. outline of the study this study investigates college-to-wilfrid laurier university (wlu) mobility from 4 key perspectives: i) a comprehensive environmental scan of ontario university transfer policies reported by registrars; ii) comparisons of transfer student baccalaureate performance based on random wlu samples of college transfer and non-college transfer students drawn from each cohort between 2008 and 2011. using this data base, the researchers a) calculated overall averages, b) compared course/program success rates, c) compared scores across groups, and d) compared scores in areas in which degree credit was granted; iii) a focus-group and interview based investigation of transfer student and university faculty and staff perceptions of the feeder college and wlu transfer processes and practices; and iv) recommendations for enhancement of the process based on analyses of the above data. the 77 page inventory appended to this report is an impressive provincial resource listing current university transfer policies. the recommendations are summarized below. 2. findings 2.1 success of transfer students through the analysis of random samples of wlu transfer student academic records, this report affirms that credit transfer students outperform non-transfer students in their degree studies. specifically, transfer credit students earned a gpa that is 8% higher than non-transfer students. when comparing full- and part-time students, similar results were found. additionally, the academic performance of students receiving more transferable credits tended to be higher (by a gpa of 4%) than those receiving less credit and higher still (by a gpa of 11%) than non-transfer students. the student focus groups confirmed that the colleges offer a more structured academic environment (p. 8) and a universitys greater independence contributes to transfer 2 shock. however, most students found that warnings of a full letter grade drop after transfer did not materialize. (p. 5) significant differences relate to the expected use of the additional free time (p. 25), the expectation that students will search out the assistance they need, and the critical and analytical nature of writing (p. 27) particularly in arts programs. the paper questions some of the more traditional comparisons between the college and university experience. the nature of evaluation, such as the use of group projects and multiple choice examinations, was seen to differ more by discipline and class size than between college and university teaching and learning. 2.2 key issue 1: accessing information student focus groups identified student concerns about the completeness, accuracy and search-ability of information on the websites; the relevance of orientation packages; the consistency and knowledge of advisers; and the timeliness of responses to enquiries, acceptance, information and credit transfer approvals. 2.3 key issue 2: recognition of disparity in transfer demographics the report cautions that the transfer student population is diverse and each market segment has different needs and preferences. institutions are advised to employ relevant communications and orientation strategies to: similar program transfer students; alternate program transfer students; mature students; and international students. 2.4 key issue 3: credits a wide range of credit definition and application issues was raised by the student focus groups and their observations are discussed in some detail. the following summarizes their concerns: the universitys and the colleges role in transfer, particularly the timely provision of needed information, was seen as inadequate. they particularly note insufficient information on the value, transferability, limitations, category, and number of diploma credits that are applicable towards the degree program. (p. 33) the amount of transfer credit approved by the university often fell short of student expectations. indeed, transfer pathways may appear more robust and advantageous than is likely in the case in practical application. (p. 11) given that some transfer students would have attended whatever institution gave them the highest number of credits, they were felt disappointed and misled. (p. 34) 3 some students feel that their approved credits are applied in a seemingly arbitrary manner and some find that at least some of these cannot be used to shorten their degree completion studies. 3. recommendations the key issues summarized above and discussed in the study set the stage for the following recommendations: provide one online location for all formal articulation agreements and transfer credit policies to ensure that prospective college transfer students obtain the information they need to make an informed decision regarding which institution to attend and how their credit will be applied upon admission. (p. 41) colleges and universities should develop transfer streams programs designed specifically for students whose desire is to transfer to a university. this approach could be designed so that the credits [that the students] are earning are clearly defined units of the program they are entering into.(p. 41) improvement of advisory services including such options as a university adviser at the colleges, university representatives holding information sessions on college campuses and the effective use of 4th year students to coach transfer students. (p. 41-42) the creation of headstart programs and/or orientation week events specific to college transfer students in order to assist them to navigate in a new system, and develop support links. (p. 42) provide the rationale for why certain college courses are not equivalent to certain university courses would address the perception of arbitrariness reported by students. (p. 42) to prepare transfer students for the universitys different writing expectations, improve awareness and help transfer students develop adjustment strategies. suggestions include: o mandatory writing intensive courses for transfer students, o closer engagement of existing support services (such as the writing centre) to meet the specific needs of transfer students, and o provide multiple, smaller, writing assignments so transfer students can be coached on, and incrementally develop skills applicable to the writing demands of the university. (pp 42-43)

university/college collaborative program template this template outlines the activities associated with the initiation, development, approval, and implementation of a new university-college collaborative degree program that incorporates an existing diploma. the activities are listed in sequential order; however, it should be noted that many of these processes occur concurrently. while the developers of the document took care to consult with colleagues at other universities and colleges in order to devise a process that could guide the development of a new collaborative degree program that incorporates an existing diploma, any institution following this process should determine and identify the key stakeholders and approval committees in advance to ensure compliance with their academic procedures and policies. using this template the primary activities or milestones are highlighted in grey. each milestone has a number of sub-activities. those activities that are the unique responsibility of the university partner are highlighted in red and those activities that the unique responsibility of the college partner are highlighted in green. each milestone and sub-activity are electronically bookmarked to facilitate navigation through the template. in determining the prioritization of activities, the following model was used: o high: activities to be completed/considered at least 2 years prior to program launch; o o medium: activities to be completed/considered at least 1 year prior to program launch; low: activities to be completed/considered by program launch. under the column responsibility, insert the name, title and contact information for each institution. throughout the template, recommended best practices are indicated. these best practices are based on the experience of the developers of this template on implementing collaborative programs. comments and questions on this template can be directed to: office of the provost and vice-president (academic) provost@carleton.ca 1 university/college collaborative program template project leads: (insert names here) key stakeholders: (insert names here) issue 1. high level institutional intent priority high description commitment from both institutions to collaborate mou to be developed 1.1 confirmation of targets 2. curriculum development high 2 labour market, applicant demand research and competitive landscape analysis identify the learning outcomes of the collaborative program develop curriculum in support of achieving the learning outcomes identify pedagogy, high impact practices develop plan for assessing learning outcomes tasks/decisions collaborative team from both institutions to develop 5 year plan and hold semiannual meetings to be determined at least 2 years in advance of start-up and confirmed on a yearly basis due responsibility provost (university) vice-president academic (college) program developers at university and college university/college collaborative program template 2.1 market research and applicant demand identify projected industry sector demand and applicant demand for proposed program 2.2 establish the learning outcomes of the collaborative program 3 draft learning outcomes for the collaborative program ensuring the existing diploma outcomes are embedded develop curriculum map to demonstrate that the learning outcomes of the existing diploma program map to the learning outcomes of the collaborative degree review draft learning outcomes with colleagues at university and college. revise as necessary identify similar existing programs what makes the proposed program unique compared to other like programs? what are the similarities and differences as compared to related programming and credential types? how does the program meet the demands of the labour market? university/college identify whether local labour market can support degree co-op requirements consult with relevant college committee on the proposed program to validate labour market analysis. obtain letters of support from labour market, as appropriate, that are linked to the proposed program review with colleagues revision of learning outcomes program developers at university and college identify similar programs and conduct analysis of program similarities and differences university and college staff conduct market analysis to establish labour market need for the proposed program relevant college committee(s) (eg., pac) university and college staff conduct survey and analysis of co-op opportunities program developers at university and college university/college collaborative program template 2.3 develop curriculum in support of achieving the learning outcomes identify the admission requirements and proposed courses and learning experiences that will comprise the program at both the university and college 2.4 identify pedagogy, high impact practices opportunities options include: co-op, practicum, internship, study abroad, language requirement, eportfolios, online, thesis, research essay, project, course-only 4 what are the admission requirements? evaluate the existing diploma curriculum to determine the split between university and college courses. determine if courses meeting diploma requirements (e.g., gen eds) can be taken instead at university? establish space requirements in service courses letters of support from service departments may be required obtain letters of support from supporting units identify needs for new courses, changes to existing programs, or revision of learning outcomes develop the curriculum map demonstrating the relationship of combined existing and new courses in meeting the learning outcomes obtain letter of support from co-op, as appropriate identify resource requirements determine minimal requirements for students to access opportunities (e.g., gpa), as appropriate obtain letters of support from support departments from respective institutions, as appropriate program developers at university and college consultation with appropriate departments (eg., respective ros, service departments, etc.) program developers at university and college university/college collaborative program template 2.5 develop plan for assessing learning outcomes 3. financial model high overall assessment plan that identifies: who will conduct the assessment; what will be assessed; how and when the assessment will be conducted; how the results will be disseminated to faculty/staff/students; how curriculum changes will be identified/made following assessment for each learning outcome, the assessment plan should identify: who will conduct the assessment; what will be assessed; how and when the assessment will be conducted; how the results will be disseminated to faculty/staff/students; how curriculum changes will be identified/made following assessment agreement by both institutions on the shared financial model 5 ensure that the assessment plan includes existing practices for assessment of the diploma feedback loop if curriculum changes are made to existing diploma, how will these changes affect the learning outcomes of the collaborative program? ensure assessment is reflected in the program governance structure revise assessment plan as necessary to accommodate changes to the program program developers at university and college net revenue is apportioned based on proportion of credits taught. net revenue = total revenue deductions additional calculation is required to determine appropriate split of ancillary fees. where students will be co-located at both institutions, the ancillary fees may be split. where students will be located primarily or exclusively at one of the collaborating institutions, the fee model will need to be adjusted to reflect usage of ancillary services at one institution. relevant administrators and departments at university and college university/college collaborative program template 3.1 ancillary fees 3.2 space 4. program quality assurance responsibilities 4.1 initial approval (university) high 6 determine appropriate division of ancillary fees see section 12 for additional considerations determine appropriate budget for space resources see section 5.8 for additional considerations quality assurance approval at university where it is intended that the requirements of the proposed university program will also meet the requirements of a college diploma, program quality review defers to cycle and processes established at university. colleges qa committees will review and ensure diploma requirements continue to be met through the delivery of the degree. initial approval of proposal on the basis of alignment with the strategic mandate agreement, strategic plan and resources required to develop and deliver the program use learning outcomes to discuss program overview; alignment with smas, and university and colleges strategic plans; student demand; market demand; and resource requirements to be reviewed by the relevant dean(s)/associate dean(s) at university and college approval in principle by relevant academic unit and collaborating units and facultylevel committees where appropriate. at which institution will students have access to ancillary services? to which services will they have access? how is space budgeted at the institutions? college program developers present mapping demonstrating how the collaborative program meets the diploma requirements and outcomes to relevant college committees prepare proposal for consideration program developers dean(s)/associate dean(s) or designate request business plan from relevant department program developers request additional information and reports as required relevant department(s) relevant administrators and departments at university and college relevant administrators and departments at university and college relevant offices and committees at university and college university/college collaborative program template 4.2 initial approval (college) 4.3 program business plan/financial approval (university) 4.4 program business plan/financial approval (college) 4.5 prepare 3 volume brief ( volume 1: self-study; volume 2: faculty cvs; volume 3: external reviewers) initial approval to pursue development of a collaborative program on the basis of alignment with strategic mandate agreement, strategic plan and annual business plan to be reviewed by the dean(s) (college) and senior executive leadership, as appropriate relevant financial committee approves the business plan of the proposed program. once approved, dean(s) can make the budget request in the fiscal year in which the resources are required relevant business plan/financial committee approves the business plan, faculty and space requirements for the new collaborative program and modified delivery of diploma (may be preliminary) program developers begin preparing the 3 volume brief use learning outcomes as basis for narrative ensure that program overview, alignment with strategic plan, faculty, governance, admissions, resources reflect learning outcomes prepare proposal for consideration request relevant supporting data such as kpi comparator information prepare preliminary environmental scan prepare relevant documentation relevant department(s) and committee at the university determine/request facilities assessment prepare business plan prepare vol 1: self-study request review of admissions requirements by admissions officer deans relevant department(s) and committee at the college program developers at college and university admissions request review of rules/regulations by registrars office registrars office university and college request review of calendar language (program and courses) by registrars office collect faculty cvs for vol 2 registrars office university and college program developers 7 relevant dean and committees relevant department(s) university/college collaborative program template 4.6 institutional approval for site visit (university) 4.7 academic program approval (college) 4.8 site visit the relevant university committee reviews and approves the self-study on the basis of the iqap the relevant college committee reviews the academic program the ontario college diploma/ontario college advanced diploma credential requirements to ensure compliance may include review of the final business plan, as appropriate external reviewers participate in a site visit during which they meet with faculty, staff, and students (as appropriate) at both university and college determine composition of external review team program developers prepare vol 3: external reviewers program developers prepare mapping documentation program developers relevant college curriculum support services prepare site visit agenda confirm logistics for external reviewers (accommodations, transport) confirm refreshments, room bookings, etc. communication to program developers program developers relevant staff at university and college relevant staff at university and college relevant department at the university response by program developers program developers/ dean(s) 4.9 external reviewers report and response 8 within an agreed upon amount of time following the site visit, external reviewers submit their report to relevant department at the university. in conjunction with the relevant dean(s) at the university and college, the program developers prepare a response in writing, which is submitted to the relevant department at the university university/college collaborative program template 4.10 institutional approval of new program (university) 4.11 academic program approval (college) 4.12 faculty curriculum committee approval (university) 4.13 faculty board approval (university) 4.14 institutional approval of calendar language (university) 4.15 senate sub-committee approval (university) 4.16 senate approval (university) 9 relevant qa committee at the university approves the new program based on the external reviewers report and the response by the program developers the final assessment report and executive summary is authored approval of the final assessment report and executive summary relevant university qa committee relevant department at the university relevant department at the university should the external review of the program necessitate changes to the program, this should be brought back for review and approval by the appropriate academic program approval committee the relevant faculty curriculum committee(s) approves the calendar language of the program the relevant faculty board(s) approve the calendar language of the program relevant committee approves the calendar language, admissions, and rules and regulations associated with the program the relevant senate sub-committee approves the proposal on the basis that due process was followed and that the outcome is appropriate based on that process senate approves the proposal communication to the program developers, including any outstanding issues/questions communication of outcomes to deans and to relevant department(s) at the college revise mapping documentation and any other documentation, as necessary program developers relevant college curriculum support services and approval body as necessary faculty curriculum committee faculty board relevant committee and department(s) at university documentation prepared by relevant department relevant department at the university documentation prepared by relevant department relevant department at the university university/college collaborative program template 4.17 academic leadership approval (college) 4.18 senior executive leadership approval (college) 4.19 board of governors academic affairs sub-committee, if in place (college) 4.20 board of governors (college) 4.21 quality council approval the relevant academic leadership committee or representative(s) approves the modifications to the existing college credentials to be offered as part of new collaborative program senior executive leadership committee or representative(s) approves the modifications to the existing college credentials to be offered as part of new collaborative program bog academic affairs sub-committee, if in place, receives notification of delivery modification to the existing college credentials to be offered as part of new collaborative program bog receives consent agenda item on the delivery modification to the existing college credentials to be offered as part of new collaborative program quality council appraisal committee and quality council approve the proposal 10 mtcu approves the proposal for biueligibility based on the institutions sma there are four annual submission deadlines within 30 days of submission, confirmation will be received on whether the proposal will undergo an expedited or regular approval process dean/academic administrator or designate relevant department at the college dean/academic administrator relevant department at the college documentation prepared by relevant academic administrator documentation prepared by relevant academic administrator dean/academic administrator bog bog office dean svpa bog documentation prepared by relevant department at university documentation submitted to qc via qams documentation prepared by relevant department(s) at university relevant department at university relevant department at university relevant department(s) at university submitted to mtcu by university president and college president 4.22 mtcu approval documentation prepared by relevant academic administrator university president and college president university/college collaborative program template 4.23 board of governors (university) college bog is notified of the approval of the program (for information only) 5.1 learning outcomes assessment infrastructure 5.2 course development 5.3 pedagogical tools and high impact practices 5.4 learning management system 5.5 faculty workload 5. program implementation 11 provost ensure that infrastructure is built into the program implementation plan, including faculty appointments and course development develop courses annually in consideration of the roll-out of the program in concert with the learning outcomes assessment plan, ensure high impact practices are incorporated into key courses of the program review platforms for both institutions academic unit, facilitated by relevant department(s) at university and college faculty relevant department(s) at university and college faculty relevant department(s) at university and college memo to bog high review faculty workload implications at both institutions consult with faculty whether they would like to use one or both platforms if different consult with deans regarding impact to workload university/college collaborative program template 5.6 faculty appointments 5.7 administrative staffing low 5.7.1 5.7.2 5.7.3 5.7.4 5.7.5 5.7.6 5.8 space job descriptions workspace training hours of operation computer access email address medium staffing plan will wait until program is decided upon unionized? collective agreements? benefits? tuition benefit? discussions at both institutions will be required dean(s) make budget request dean(s) academic unit prepares position profile, with support from relevant department(s) at university and university academic administrator(s) relevant department(s) at university and college will there be sharing of staff between the two institutions? on an ongoing basis or for start-up only? consult with faculty and decision makers regarding space and equipment requirements see financial model referenced in section 3 5.8.1 classroom space based on approved program curriculum, establish type of space needed (classroom, lab, etc) 5.8.2 faculty space determine office requirements for any faculty associated with program 5.8.3 administrative space determine requirements for administration of program 12 university/college collaborative program template 5.9 equipment requirements 6. recruitment high 6.1 ad campaign 6.2 mobile app 6.3 video 6.4 media 6.5 publications 6.6 mailings/emails 6.7 on campus events and campus visits 6.8 school visits - liaison submit annual request to appropriate committees for equipment requirements (software, lab, etc.) collaborative team to determine recruitment plan for meeting enrolment targets determine resources for implementation determine cost-sharing determine which of these should be integrated highlight new program in advertising campaign. new program added to mobile app produce video/slide show to highlight new program on website and social media posts pitching stories about new program to media produce viewbook, brochures paper and electronic determine distribution list university recruitment college promotes through recruiting practices integrated or separate for each institution? who is responsible for mailings/emailing? develop events agenda, campus visit format meet with students to discuss program 6.9 guidance counsellor information 6.10 partners conferences 13 annual budget processes and approvals provide detailed information to guidance counsellors discuss program during conferences who will coordinate? at which institution will these take place? will each institution conduct separate school visits or will they be integrated? will the visits be integrated into the normal school visit schedule or standalone? determine list of partners, format of information sharing academic administrator(s) and deans at university and college university/college collaborative program template 6.11 tele-counselling campaigns call campaigns 6.12 university fair (ouf) annual university fair participation 6.13 social media twitter, facebook 6.14 high school visits during march break half-day to full day agenda 6.15 website 7. admissions 7.1 application process - ouac high provide web presence on both institutional websites determine admission requirements application details offer letters transfer students program code determine which institution will coordinate admission add code to other institution application system program code determine which institution will coordinate admission add code to other institution application system collaborative team to determine admission decision making process, which institution will coordinate; one intake per year reference/link to ouac/university website link through ocas 7.2 application process - ocas 14 which institution will coordinate? how will the call list be determined? determine representation from each institution who will coordinate? will there be representation at the college fair? collegeto develop brochure with a link to the ouac website who will coordinate? determine the message at which institution will the visit take place? determine representation from each institution which institution will coordinate? who is responsible for maintaining/updating? university/college collaborative program template 7.3 admissions assessment 7.3.1 special criteria minimum average, prerequisites will special admissions criteria be required, such as a portfolio? letterhead acknowledgement, offer letter/electronic determine when offers will go out to students, when confirmation of acceptance required, when are fees due are there any barriers for international students (i.e. coop requirement), is the program full time only? are there separate admission requirements for these students? default programs how to refer to alternatives (ouac vs. ocas) see section 19 committees and policies confirm process for international applicants academic orientation, student orientation events which institution will host orientation and inform students? do students have access to orientation activities? are academic orientation activities mandatory? are there limits on the number of credits eligible for transfer on admission? recommended best practice: follow the process at the coordinating institution. exceptions to joint committee for consideration 7.4 logistics 7.5 offer date, confirmation date, fees due date 7.6 international and part-time students 7.7 mature students college grads 7.8 alternatives for those refused admission 7.9 establishment of joint appeals committee 7.10 orientation 7.11 transfer of credit on admission 15 recognition of previous post-secondary study determine who will be involved with admission assessment, decision university: portfolios due in march; offers out beginning late may recommended best practice: joint letterhead, both institutions on all correspondence recommended best practice: follow the process at the coordinating institution university/college collaborative program template 7.12 transfers in and out of program 7.13 student unique id internal transfers 7.14 providing both student ids will student have separate ids for each institution? provide both with offer acceptance letter 8. scheduling/timetabling/ academic year high 8.1 course scheduling what are the deadlines? what are the criteria? recommended best practice: students will have ids at both institutions are there differences in core hours between the institutions? are there differences in term start and end dates? determine who will build the schedule determine if special rooms are required length of semester at each institution if different how will it be handled? collaborative team to determine all aspects of scheduling and timetabling. develop quality student centered schedules 8.2 transfer of scheduling data once schedule is made transfer data to other institution as appropriate 8.3 unique registration parameters 8.4 start and end dates for term determine if registration /scheduling tool allows block registration determine dates 16 recommended best practices: follow the semester/term; meet parameters of the host institution coordinating the academic progress of the students; follow the core hours of the host institution recommended best practice: normally the institution hosting registration builds the schedule recommended best practice: follow the semester/term of the institution coordinating the academic progress of the students university/college collaborative program template 9. communication medium 9.1 electronic communication from each institution 9.2 student email address 9.3 website - joint 9.4 joint letterhead, logo 10. registration medium 10.1 course selection guides to be addressed/coordinated once program curriculum complete dates/deadlines will drive the process of how we communicate will need to differentiate between types of communications (program related/institution related) need to establish coordinated approach determine institutional email address used to promote the program needs to be developed prior to admissions offer registration setup which institution will administer registration? dates and deadlines: which academic calendar will students follow withdrawal: based on term set up will standard withdrawal dates work for both institutions? what registration tool will be used? electronic guides for registration/course selection 10.2 registration assistance/advising provide assistance to students regarding registration process, course selection 10.3 where are the students registered 10.4 choosing electives which institution will coordinate registration? access to advisers to assist with course selection 17 recommended best practice: follow the dates and deadlines of the institution coordinating registration determine who will coordinate who is responsible for updating/maintaining? how will it be accessed? how will it be staffed? at which institution? determine access to registration system university/college collaborative program template 10.5 student classification (ft/pt) determine criteria for full-time/part- time status 10.6 access to courses from nonprogram students will students from outside the program be given access to courses? non-refundable deposit? fee due dates 11. fees medium 11.1 tuition 11.2 ancillary and miscellaneous fees 11.3 collection review mtcu new regulations fee schedule and processes based on university regulations fees will be based upon available services 11.4 refunds 11.5 financial holds 12. ancillary and support services medium 12.1 residence access to residence rooms for students in the program 12.2 students association affiliation (health plan) 12.3 campus card student health and dental insurance 18 recommended best practice: normally follow the criteria from the institution coordinating admission/registration if so, which institution will determine/provide access? collaborative team to determine which institution will coordinate admission/registration recommended best practice: follow the normal process of coordinating institution collaborative team to determine which institution will offer services normally follow process of coordinating institution normally processed at institution coordinating registration normally follow process of coordinating institution collaborative team to determine which institution will provide the services/determine funding model what is the process for residence allocation? is residence guaranteed? do students need a campus card from both institutions? university/college collaborative program template 12.4 library access 12.5 athletics facilities/ varsity sports 12.6 health and counselling 12.7 career services 12.8 services for students with disabilities 12.9 academic advising 13. awards and financial assistance 13.1 osap eligibility and criteria 13.2 scholarships and bursaries 13.2.1 unlimited entrance scholarships 13.2.2 prestige scholarships 13.2.3 transfer student scholarships 13.2.4 in-course scholarships 13.2.5 entrance bursaries 13.2.6 in-course bursaries 13.3 government assistance programs (federal and provincial) 13.4 work-study program 13.5 emergency and parker loans 19 medium modify funding formula for institution providing service website data sharing support will students have access to library from both institutions? how will they gain access? collaborative team to determine which institution will coordinate/make decisions recommended best practice: normally follow the process of the institution coordinating admission/registration university/college collaborative program template 14. student information system medium 14.1 student unique id 14.2 data exchange between the two institutions 14.3 access to sis auto processes exclusion/inclusion? auto communications exclusion/inclusion? reports exclusion/inclusion? collaborative team to determine sis issues see sections 7.13 and 7.14 format, timelines student access for registration, withdrawals electronic or hard copy? determine which institution will maintain the student record recommended best practice: normally the institution that coordinates admission and registration will maintain the student record 15.1 transcripts 15.2 verification of student status/confirmation of enrolment/t2202 15.3 grade submission determine language/text for collaborative program determine which institution will provide confirmation of status/ enrolment/ income tax receipt deadline for grade submission, access to grading system, changes of grade, outstanding grades recommended best practice: transcript includes a notation in conjunction with recommended best practice: follow the process of the coordinating institution 15.4 ontario education number collection and disclosure of the oen 15.5 fee exemption exemption from international fees 15.6 change of name determine process for legal change of name, preferred name 14.4 records management 14.5 systems back up 15. records 20 medium recommended best practice: normally the institution that coordinates admission/registration will coordinate the collection of grades recommended best practice: follow the process of the coordinating institution recommended best practice: follow the process of the coordinating institution recommended best practice: follow the process of the coordinating institution university/college collaborative program template 15.7 record management 16. examinations medium 16.1 scheduling of exams electronic or paper file when curriculum is developed examinations will need to be decided upon are final exams required? dates of academic term? when can exams be scheduled? logistics? are they available? who processes? invigilation 16.2 deferrals 16.3 administration of exams proctoring 16.4 special accommodations 17. academic evaluation medium 17.1 continuation in program 17.2 year standing 17.3 letters of permission 17.4 exchanges/study abroad 17.5 change of program elements 21 is there a facility dedicated to special accommodations i.e. specialized computer software, hardware will need to determine if students in the program will have access to the various options which are currently available at each institution details should be available in the curriculum program plan evaluation to determine continuation in the program determine year standing in conjunction with institutional regulations are students allowed to study at another institution? are students allowed to take part in exchanges? adding/deleting concentrations, minors ensure that both institutions can support the format collaborative team to determine examination requirements/schedule/location collaborative team to determine which institution will coordinate these activities recommended best practice: follow the process of the coordinating institution/details in the curriculum program plan which institution will be responsible for the evaluation? what criteria will be used? recommended best practice: normally follow the practice of the institution coordinating admission/registration consideration for co-op option defer to joint academic council university/college collaborative program template 17.6 degree audit report is there a degree audit report? 17.7 graduation eligibility assessment automatic graduation or do students apply to graduate? 17.8 graduation approval process approval process for graduation will need to be determined 17.9 confirmation of graduation how will students be notified? who will provide confirmation to third parties? 18. convocation low 18.1 location of ceremony 18.2 dates which institution will host ceremony? consider having keynote speaker from other institution at graduation ceremony determine dates for convocation 18.3 faculty/staff representation 22 establish who will attend from each institution establish protocols for presentation of degrees/diplomas can both institutions support the degree audit? if not, how will students/support or academic services access? who has access to the degree audit reports? recommended best practice follow the process of the coordinating institution recommended best practice establish a joint approval process between the two institutions recommended best practice follow the process of the coordinating institution collaborative team to determine all aspects of convocation date, location, logistics, communication, coordination recommended best practice: hold ceremony at host institution ensure that date does not encroach on other institutions ceremonies recommended best practice: try to maintain consistency from year to year (same place in schedule) determine who will coordinate staff resources required university/college collaborative program template 18.4 credentials 18.5 medals 18.6 convocation hood 18.7 listing of graduates web, print 18.8 invitation logistics 19. committees and policies 19.1 admissions appeals 19.2 petitions and appeals in course (academic regs) 19.3 program specific appeals 19.4 academic integrity issues 19.5 financial appeals 19.6 student roles and responsibilities 20. reporting low low 20.1 data exchange (frequency) 20.1.1 admissions 20.1.2 in program 20.2 ministry 23 university degree and college diploma determine wording for collaborative aspect of program for both credentials establish signature requirements for joint credentials; recommended best practice electronic signatures are students eligible for medals? does the program require the establishment of a new medal? is a new hood required? will both institutions publish list of graduates? electronic/booklets who takes the lead? determine which institution will administer reporting is to be addressed after program is approved. determine which institution will take the lead recommended best practice: in collaboration with

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2015-14 pathways from policing and security diplomas to conestogas bachelor of community and criminal justice program march 24, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to establish educational pathways for students holding a two year diploma from police foundations (pf) or protection, security and investigation (psi) programs into the bachelor of community and criminal justice (bccj) program. as part of its cyclical renewal process, the bccj program recently updated its program design to strengthen both its capacity to prepare graduates for the changing landscape of community and criminal justice, and to improve opportunities for graduates of pf and psi programs to enter the degree program at a more advanced level. the latter was intended to better align diploma-to-degree pathways with student expectations of a two-plus-two post-secondary education opportunity. the focus of the present project was to consider and identify how pathways to the updated bccj design could be strengthened to benefit the widest range of students across the province, while recognizing that the provincial program standards for the pf (mtcu funding code 53008, august, 2012) and the psi (mtcu funding code 53007, january, 2010) programs may not emphasize community/ social justice aspects of policing and security to the extent that conestoga has incorporated them as important elements of the renewed bccj program design. while both of these broad areas continue to emphasize sector specific knowledge and instrumental skills in their in-house training programs, recruitment goals are evolving towards an emphasis on more integrated perspectives and softer skill sets deemed essential to effective practice within increasingly diverse and collaborative environments beset by complex issues that challenge unitary perspectives. the current project resulted in several useful results: a) a clearer articulation of the criteria and corresponding rationale for advanced standing entry into the updated bccj program from pf and psi diploma programs; b) better defined bridging courses to enable this pathway; and c) a better sense of which pf and psi diploma programs are best positioned for advanced standing entry to the bccj program through the specified bridge. as anticipated, only a segment of current pf and psi diploma programs would lend themselves to enhanced advanced standing entry into year 3 of the updated bccj program. based on our analysis, the majority of these programs either: a) lack published information to enable a detailed fit/gap assessment, and/or b) continue to emphasize a more traditional, specialized and instrumental approach to education that 1 does not overtly incorporate theory or applied strategies of community wellbeing, and the correspondingly blended and collaborating roles for public and private safety practitioners, as emphasized in the bccj. however, this project can support further pathway development from the remaining programs by identifying the features of policing and security focused diploma streams that appear best aligned, not only with existing provincial program standards, but with the community justice and inter-professional elements conestoga believes to be of emerging value as sector needs evolve and become refined across ontario.

executive summary this resource provides an overview of the participants, typologies, and timeframes involved in new program creation, approval, and launch that are followed by publicly funded, ontario postsecondary institutions. as oncat remains focused on enhancing transfer, pathway development, and interinstitutional joint programs in the province, the intention with this information is to demystify the current practices involved in new program creation, approval, and launch. the research indicates that as complexity and credential levels increase, so do the timelines and processes. this seems reasonable since quality assurance benchmarks and standards and the internal and external consultation expectations necessarily expand. the timeframes to create, develop, refine, and approve credentials delivered by colleges and universities vary: for certificates and diplomas, it typically takes approximately 1 to 1.5 years to conceive and ultimately launch a program. for degrees, whether at a college or university, the process takes approximately 2.5 to 3 years. with an eye to focusing specifically on the ontario college credentials (i.e., ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma, ontario college advanced diploma, and the ontario college graduate certificate) and baccalaureate degrees (whether offered by colleges or universities), this resource provides further details regarding internal institutional processes, explains the mandates and high level protocols followed by the quality assurance bodies, and shares information regarding the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu). examples are provided from specific institutions. it also touches briefly on apprenticeship programs and the ontario college of trades as there are times when such programs are offered through the colleges and, if tied to a credential, can result in additional funding allocations and program approval processes (e.g., under the co-op diploma apprenticeship program - coda). an overview is provided of the non-academic considerations institutions explore when creating new programs. in addition, the participation of system-wide opportunities to support program launch are identified as these can impact the timeframes. finally, a high-level overview is provided of select other jurisdictions. the research emphasizes the importance of internal quality assurance areas; staff within these areas were regularly identified as the main institutional partners with significant expertise in the areas of quality assurance and program development. further, they rely routinely on the external quality assurance bodies whose staff offer overarching knowledge of the quality assurance protocols for new programs. as this resource is focused solely on identifying current practices, readers are encouraged to deal directly with these internal professionals. this resource contributes to the governments provincial vision for enhanced pathways and related efficiencies as it provides a comprehensive overview of the new program approval typologies, timelines, and practices to assist pathway developers.

executive summary ontario college to fanshawe and seneca colleges bachelor of commerce degrees transfer pathways project project # 2015-25 march 2016 a proposal was submitted to oncat in early 2015 to initiate a project to support the creation and implementation of diploma to degree pathways for access from all colleges in ontario for transfer into college honours bachelor of commerce degree programs offered at fanshawe college and seneca college. building on the ontario heads of business oncats transfer agreements in business between ontario college diploma programs, fanshawe and seneca colleges honours bachelor of commerce degrees will provide pathways for ontario diploma graduates to ladder into these college degrees. the projects goal was to create articulation agreements for the colleges high affinity diploma and advanced diploma programs in business. the result of these agreements will create time and cost saving for college graduates in ontario seeking degree options in business. it will further fulfill a need for degree transfer opportunities in high affinity business diploma programs. goal of the ontario colleges to fanshawe and seneca college honours bachelor of commerce degrees transfer pathways project create seamless diploma to college degree transfer between the 24 ontario colleges and pathways from high affinity college diploma programs to: o 4 honours bachelor of commerce degrees at seneca college honours bachelor of commerce-business management honours bachelor of commerce-financial services management honours bachelor of commerce-human resources strategy and technology honours bachelor of commerce-international accounting and finance o 4 honours bachelor of commerce degrees at fanshawe college honours bachelor of commerce (management) honours bachelor of commerce (accounting) honours bachelor of commerce (human resources management) honours bachelor of commerce (digital marketing) articulation agreements created for all high affinity business diploma programs from all ontario colleges into the fanshawe college and seneca college honours bachelor of commerce degrees. provide oversight of the development of online bridging courses (6 per institution) o fanshawe college online bridging course development o seneca college online bridging course development pathway mapping the methodology for the mapping for this project began with the ability to build on two previous projects. both seneca and fanshawe colleges have analyzed diploma and advanced diploma course content and learning outcomes to the content and learning outcomes of the honours bachelor of commerce degree programs to build an internal pathway for their diploma students and advanced diploma students and graduates who wish to pursue the bachelor of commerce degrees. bridging programs delivered over the summer months were developed to allow the new degree students a seamless transfer into the bachelor degree program and address learning outcome gaps from diploma to degree programs. over the past couple years, another oncat funded project mapped out the ontario colleges diploma to diploma pathways project that build transfer pathways between ontario colleges by mapping course content and learning outcomes across all ontario business programs. this diploma to degree project piggybacked on the research and outcomes that came out of the diploma to diploma project. a gap analysis between fanshawe and seneca colleges diploma courses and the colleges courses were done to see about potential curriculum and learning outcome gaps, which then compared against the degree curriculum and learning outcomes. learning outcomes it is challenging comparing the learning outcomes from diploma to degree programs because the differences between the applied nature at the diploma and the advanced diploma levels and the conceptual sophistication at the honours bachelor degree level. in the business diploma programs that have courses that allow for transfer to professional credentials or designations, college diploma courses have built in some of the conceptual sophistication necessary to transfer to the profession-oriented degree requirements in the same areas of study, for example, accounting, hr and management. to address gaps in learning outcomes, seneca college and fanshawe college developed bridging courses that will address the lack of skills and knowledge that the gap analysis identified in the mapping process. the bridging courses provide skills and competencies that are necessary at an honours baccalaureate level and that are missing from diploma level programs such as critical thinking, analytical skills, independent thinking and learning and research oriented skills. the bridging programs also provide a more theoretical approach to the functional areas of business than in the diploma programs. articulation agreements a total of 235 articulation agreements were developed for the 24 ontario colleges. a separate articulation agreement was prepared for high affinity diploma and advanced diplomas for each colleges program. please note, not every college offered a diploma or advanced diploma in each specialty (i.e. business, marketing, accounting, financial services or human resources). successes and challenges successes: the ability to prepare the 235 articulation agreements for 24 colleges in a relatively short period of time (june 2015-march 2016) is the direct result of the synergy gained by being able to access the research, findings and results of the oncat funded ontario college diploma to diploma transfer project completed by the heads of business for ontario colleges. there was a tremendous amount of sharing of information that made the mapping of the college diploma programs simplified through shared resources and collaboration. another factor that assisted in the development of the agreements was the publicly available online information for each college. the posting of detailed course outlines and learning objectives provided an easy and accessible method for gaining information and the posting of relevant contact persons aided in required follow-up. there are more pathways available than ever before for people wishing to pursue post-secondary education through diploma and degree programming. these articulation agreements offer graduates of business diploma and advanced diploma programs a clearly communicated, easy to understand pathway following graduation from diploma and advanced diploma to honours bachelor of commerce degrees at fanshawe and seneca colleges. additionally, the articulation agreements originating out of this project provide opportunities for colleges, and in particular those that do not offer similar degree level programming, and the ability to promote more degree options to their students and graduates who wish to pursue bachelor degrees in business. challenges the major weakness in the outcome of the mapping exercise is the nature of them as point in time articulation agreements that are based on diploma course requirements in a specific academic year. graduates from prior years will have to have a more detailed review of their courses and curriculum to be accepted into the degree programs. likewise, agreements will need revisions as curriculum in diplomas and the eight degrees themselves evolve in the future. the sustainability of these agreements will need to be examined in the future to determine an effective way to keep them updated and relevant in the most-timely fashion otherwise they loose their value to students, faculty and staff who access them. as more college programs develop opportunities for transfer between post-secondary institutions, another opportunity for colleges to streamline the entry process between institutions would be to offer common transcript language so academic results are consistent across institutions. creation of online bridging programs timing constraints necessitate that bridging programs (a group of courses bridging the gap between diploma and degree) to be delivered over the summer months between diploma graduation and degree start. since many diploma programs have a co-op option and some students have flexible graduation dates, access to the summer bridging programs is delayed for some. to address this timing issue, fanshawe and seneca colleges are developing online courses that will allow graduates that need to take the bridging courses the opportunity to do so without being on campus. ideally, the online courses that compose the bridge will also be available multiple times during the academic year which will benefit students that graduate at the end of the summer and fall semesters. development of these online courses will begin summer 2016. communications plan both fanshawe college and seneca college have invested in this project to develop a communications plan to promote the articulation agreements at ontario colleges. the communications plan will include online and written materials targeted to the colleges in the agreements. the communications plan will be rolled out at the end of march 2016. monitoring outcomes seneca college and fanshawe college will monitor the progress, success and challenges with new students who transfer from other college diploma programs into their honours bachelor of commerce degree programs. this will be done to maximize student success in the degree programs by identifying and addressing learning gaps. both seneca and fanshawe colleges will be ensuring potential students needs are met in the enrolment cycle from communication of degree options to registration processes with easy access of information. they will ensure transparency, clear communication of application processes, and advisement support. finally, these students will be monitored in terms of challenges and successes in the program through to graduation.

exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfers conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning glen gorman, connie phelps, and robert carley march, 2012 outline of the study this study focused on 8 questions probing student profile, academic performance, graduation rates, motivations, transfer/non-transfer student differences, barriers faced, needed supports and potential improvements in the transfer process. to assess the outcomes of diploma to degree transfer students, a combination of qualitative and quantitative data were collected. (p. 8) the sample of respondents from 8 programs permitted the comparison of transfer and non-transfer students based on information from interviews and college academic data bases. findings quantitative findings: besides being slightly older, in terms of other demographics, transfer students look much like non-transfer students. in terms of academic success, this study found that transfer students tended to obtain higher gpas than non-transfer students and were less likely to drop out of the degree program. (p. 25) among non-transfer students, males were less likely to complete their scheduled courses on time and consequently more likely to drop out when compared to their female counterparts (p. 25). qualitative findings: reasons for pursuing a college degree related to the students labour market focus and the anticipation of boosting career options (p. 26) although specific motivations varied by program (pp. 17-19). many of the students who transferred in [to the degree program] from a diploma ... felt that their diploma level study provide them with practical, hands-on experience, and that their program gave them a unique perspective not shared by non-transfer students. (p. 4) many [transfer students] expressed feeling underprepared for the degree program. (p. 4) the time to degree completion and the greater baccalaureate workload were seen by students to be challenges. (p. 19) although the majority of the students had a good experience with the process of transferring from the diploma to the degree, their primary issue was the perceived inadequacy of communication. a number indicated that more information about the degree program before and during the transfer process would help students form realistic expectations and perhaps reduce some of the pressure that students felt in managing the more demanding baccalaureate workload. (p. 20) most transfer students did not take advantage of orientation programs although the study reported that attendance brought a peer networking value to those that attended. coordinators and instructors were the main source of support and found their high level of approachability and availability to be valuable. (pp. 21-22) 2 bridge programs were seen as a strong feature of the transfer pathways that included them. developing a peer network, getting to know faculty, and preparing for academic challenges were all seen as particularly important outcomes of the bridge experience. (p. 22) recommendations based on the findings, this study presents a number of recommendations for the enhancement of the transfer process. these are summarised as: 1. provide information on transfer pathways to students as early as feasible in, and throughout their diploma studies. this may take the form of periodic seminars and workshops on degree requirements (and particularly related to baccalaureate program workload) in order to form realistic expectations; 2. better prepare transferring students for the greater/different demands of baccalaureate study through strategies such as time management workshops, bridging programs, the development of student support networks, tutoring services and/or mentoring programs; 3. adopt strategies to integrate transfer and non-transfer students; and 4. further research the differences between transfer and direct entry students in order to better understand the unique needs of each and facilitate their integration. (pp. 27-28)

pathways for early childhood leadership oncat file 2016-17 15 june 2017 participants and contributors co-chair sandra fieber fanshawe co-chair patricia chorney rubin george brown co-chair cathy coulthard - sheridan maria sanchez-keane - centre for organizational effectiveness anne-marie sanchez - centre for organizational effectiveness fanshawe julia flook cj ocallaghan rosemarie pestill julie cross sabine milz jessica bugorski george brown gail hunter evelina lukaszyk noor jehan kabani sheridan darya dasha shalimo yalin gorica peter decourcy yasaman jalali kushki 1 list of participants and partner institutions partner institutions george brown college fanshawe college sheridan college participants (focus groups and interviews) fanshawe college students sheridan college students george brown college students and alumni guidance counsellors gta parents of youth entering the field mentor network in london fanshawe program advisory committee 2 table of contents executive summary 4 project purpose and goals 4 pathway development 5 methodology 6 program comparison and analysis 8 implementation process and timelines 8 summary of pathway created 9 promising practices and lessons learned 9 appendices list 9 3 executive summary george brown, sheridan, and fanshawe colleges have worked together to create the honours bachelor of early childhood leadership program (ecl). students in the early childhood education (ece) diploma are able to access face-to-face courses to bridge into the three institutions offering of the honours bachelor of early childhood leadership program (ecl). students successfully completing a diploma with a gpa of 2.5 or higher are eligible to bridge into level 5 of the degree program, giving them the recognition of previous learning. fanshawe, george brown, and sheridan colleges expanded opportunities for post-secondary collaboration by creating online bridging courses, therefore making bridging courses accessible to students graduating from one of the twenty-four colleges that offer ece across the province. a comprehensive pathways framework and online bridging courses were created for student mobility to support the pursuit of multiple credentials. the overall project purpose was to create a transparent and easy to understand pathway model for students to comprehend their pathways to achieve apprenticeship, diploma, and degree qualifications in this field including but limited to post graduate degrees and teachers college. the visual model will be communicated strategically through multiple platforms to reach the intended students and applicants across the province. in addition, the bridging courses were created into accessible, interactive, online courses to students and applicants. project purpose and goals market demand and the fact that the child development practitioner apprenticeship and the early childhood education program ontransfer had already been prepared and approved for colleges to sign on were motivating factors for this project. this team has been heavily involved with creating pathways for our early childhood educators to meet labour market demand. with the introduction of full-day kindergarten, there has been a significant shift in the sector in recent years, and there is high labour demand within this sector. in response, a number of pathways have already been created with all of the colleges in this tricollege consortium. there are a variety of delivery models including a two year diploma, ten month fast track, weekend college, and early childhood educator apprenticeship (child development practitioner). this team has created and implemented many new pathway opportunities for students and continues to work to streamline the pathways experiences to prepare students for this emerging career field. therefore, this team was well equipped to undergo another project to strengthen the pathways and expand the eligibility of applicants across the province. currently, early childhood educators with an ece diploma are eligible to take four bridging courses for admission into the ecl program. the courses are offered at the three said colleges. students have indicated they would like to see the courses offered online to make them more accessible across the province. 4 in addition, many students and practitioners in the field are not aware of the many pathways available to them to advance their knowledge and credential in this ever changing field. the online bridge course creates a seamless and accessible diploma-to-college degree transfer between 24 ontario colleges from the ece program into the early childhood leadership degree programs at fanshawe, george brown and sheridan colleges. the project will include: evaluation of current pathways and information gathering from key stakeholders creation of a seamless pathways model for students in the early childhood field completion of market research to develop a clear communication strategy implementation of a communication strategy across ontario to communicate pathways development of interactive, accessible online bridging courses (4 courses across the 3 institutions) the overall project purpose was the development and implementation of strategies to enhance student mobility within the various ece programs and the honors bachelor ecel degree programs. this project was prioritized because of the labor market need. pathway development the pathway development was a collaborative process between participating institutions offering the honors bachelor degree program. it was important to develop a clear and seamless pathways framework and increase accessibility to ece graduates across the province into degree programs. unique to the honours bachelor of early childhood leadership degree is the tri-college consortium initiative. all 3 colleges, namely fanshawe, george brown and sheridan, developed the ecl degrees in collaboration and have been lockstep in their curriculum development and delivery since the launch of these programs. there are regular annual meetings of the tri-college consortium to ensure alignment with each others programs as well as the peqab requirements. the three colleges have developed a memorandum of agreement that strengthens and promotes academic mobility in the area of early childhood leadership. 5 methodology activity participants evaluation and information gathering hire project manager complete evaluation of current courses host working group to determine pathways model literature review to inform model development. date outcomes april september 2016 confirmed work plan brainstormed different pathways to research confirmed meeting with centre of excellence on pathways at fanshawe gathered high-level lessons learned when developing the communication pieces for pathways and which groups with whom to consult key learnings from meeting case studies are important to learning about pathways consultations with different target groups development of guiding principles was important to decision making process established wireframe of what infographic and powerpoint would look like based on research first prototypes prepared for feedback leaders provided feedback to improve draft infographic, powerpoint leaders also answered key questions to ensure information is complete in the materials met with consortium leaders of george brown, fanshawe and sheridan to confirm work plan maria (consultant), sandra fieber (fanshawe), patricia (george brown), cathy (sheridan) september 8, 2016 met with centre of excellence on pathways at fanshawe project coordinator and supervisor at centre of excellence, sandra fieber, and consultants september 15,2016 follow-up meeting with project coordinator of centre of excellence associate consultant and project coordinator september 27, 2016 researched different visuals to outline pathways and similar processes consultants october 2016 developed first draft of infographics and power points slides met with consortium and present draft infographic with powerpoint consultants october 2016 november 1, 2016 consortium leaders and consultants 6 project manager hired draft pathways model collated feedback hiring of course creation teams activity participants date prepared and designed focus groups for students consultants january 2017 feedback on draft pathways model finalization of pathways model creation of 4 online bridging courses curriculum experts, course designers,etc from each college january june 2017 conducted 4 focus groups with students: two at george brown (one session included alumni), one at sheridan and one at fanshawe students from all three schools and associate consultant february 2017 reviewed and improved communication materials designed and conducted one focus group and four in-person interviews with parents who either work in early childhood education or have children entering post-secondary education with an interest in ece designed and conducted one focus group with guidance counsellors consultant with graphic designer march 2017 parents in london, on and associate consultant may 2017 guidance counsellors in gta location of meeting: george brown june 2017 7 outcomes confirmed contacts to coordinate focus groups at each college enhance infographic and powerpoint design sessions with focused questions on how to improve communication materials development of 4 online, interactive bridging courses pathways model gathered key feedback on how each program works, benefits of the programs, and different information students need to know going into the field also established the importance of having good information for parents communication materials clearer established key criteria parents are looking for when helping their son/daughter choose gathered a better understanding of how high school students learn about different programs learned more about the different assessment processes guidance counsellors use and the barriers they have when learning about different programs program comparison and analysis this project was unique in that the three colleges offering the degree work as a consortium and the courses are aligned. therefore, the major work was designing them to be delivered on line and affirming their alignment. implementation process and timelines unlike traditional pathways projects, there is no approval required the project received support from our respective institutions at the proposal stage of this project. there is a commitment to leverage the findings from this valuable project and therefore move forward with the following activities: future activities solicit feedback from current high school students and early childhood educators who are working in the field develop evaluation framework for effectiveness of pathway materials creation of communication plan and finalization of pathways model creation of marketing material delivery of online courses creation of website information for communication creation of social media strategy and implementation integration of material into ontransfer database summer 2017 september 2017 fall 2017 fall 2017 spring 2018 fall 2017 fall 2017 8 summary of pathway create anyone with and ece diploma will have access to online bridging courses which is a pathway into 3rd year of the ecel degree offered by fanshawe, george brown and sheridan. a pathways framework is designed to illustrate the pathways in early childhood education. promising practices and lessons learned it became apparent that people (parents, students, guidance counsellors) are not familiar with the pathways available to individuals in the ece sector. it was important to focus on transparency and making courses and information accessible to students interested in pathways. key lessons a. focus on the needs of the student, what is best for the student b. determine target audience (parents, guidance counsellors, students) c. make language accessible for target audience d. ensure the right people are around the table to make decision on design of pathway e. best way to explain pathways is through examples/case studies it also became apparent that there is a significant interest and market for degree completion in the field of ece. however, people are unaware of their pathway opportunities into the degree. although outside of this project, there is a strong commitment to take the valuable learnings from this project and extend our reach and increase awareness of pathways available to those interested. going forward: on-going commitment to disseminate pathway framework through internal communications and marketing departments currently developing a communications plan to be shared provincially develop an evaluation matrix to measure the effectiveness of the new pathway (# of students that us e the pathway, academic and/or professional success of students, student perception, ease of use, feedback from students current pathways) share learnings with other colleges offering degrees so that they too may leverage the pathways framework to their community partners and students. appendices 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. example of online course template example of project template for redesigning online bridging course power point presentation used with stakeholders draft pathways framework oncat pathways template 9

the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of ontarios graduate satisfaction survey 2007-2015 ursula mccloy, mitchell steer, henry decock centre for research in student mobility, seneca college oncat project 2014-34 march 2017 esearch mobility 64-70 the centre for research in student mobility 8 the seneca way markham, on l3r 5y1 416-491-5050 x77939 senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch list of contacts ursula mccloy, phd director, centre for research in student mobility seneca college ursula.mccloy@senecacollege.ca henry decock, phd associate vp, academic partnerships centre for research in student mobility seneca college henry.decock@senecacollege.ca 2 table of contents list of contacts .............................................................................................................................................. 2 table of figures ............................................................................................................................................. 4 list of tables .................................................................................................................................................. 5 executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 6 introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 9 research questions ................................................................................................................................. 10 methods ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 limitations ............................................................................................................................................... 13 results ......................................................................................................................................................... 13 who transfers to university? ................................................................................................................... 15 transfer by college and college characteristics ....................................................................................... 20 transfer experience................................................................................................................................. 32 regressions: influences on the transfer rate and satisfaction with transition experience ...................... 48 discussion .................................................................................................................................................... 55 influences on transfer rate ...................................................................................................................... 56 transfer trends ........................................................................................................................................ 57 transfer experience................................................................................................................................. 58 conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 60 references................................................................................................................................................... 61 appendices .................................................................................................................................................. 63 3 table of figures figure 1. percentage and estimated number* of college graduates furthering their education in a degree program, 200607 to 201415 .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 15 figure 2. transfer rate by graduate demographics, 2007 vs 2015 ........................................................................................................ 17 figure 3. transfer rate to university for aboriginal graduates and graduates reporting a disability .................................................. 17 figure 4. transfer rates to university by program characteristics, 2007 vs 2015 college graduates................................................... 19 figure 5. transfer rate to university by college characteristics, 2007 vs 2015 college graduates ....................................................... 21 figure 6. transfer rate by college, percentage of graduates, 2015 vs 2007 (one-, two-, and three-year programs only) ................ 22 figure 7. number of transfer students, 2015 vs 2007, graduates of one-, two-, and three-year credentials .................................... 23 figure 8. trends in college degrees granted by region, 20072015...................................................................................................... 24 figure 9. percentage of graduates with a college degree, by college, 2007 vs 2015 ........................................................................... 25 figure 10. number of transfer students, by receiving university, six months after graduation from a one-, two-, or three- year credential only, 2007 vs 2015 .................................................................................................................................................................. 26 figure 11. share of college to university transfer students by ontario university region, 20072015 ............................................... 27 figure 12. university program enrolment: college transfers versus overall university enrolment, 20152016 ................................ 30 figure 13. distribution of university transfers by field of study, 2007 vs 2015..................................................................................... 31 figure 14. reasons for continuing on to university, % major reason, 2007 vs 2015 college graduates.............................................. 34 figure 15. sources of information on transfer to university, % major, 2007-2015 graduates ............................................................. 36 figure 16. responses to the question, do you think you would have been accepted into your current program without graduating from college first? (20072015 graduates) ........................................................................................................................ 37 figure 17. responses to the question, do you think you would have been accepted into your current program without graduating from college first? by credential (20072015 graduates) ................................................................................................. 37 figure 18. timing of decision to further their education, 20072015 graduates who transferred to university ............................... 38 figure 19. role of work availability on timing of decision to transfer (%), 20072015 graduates who transferred to university..... 38 figure 20. relatedness of current university program to previous college program, 20072015 ...................................................... 39 figure 21. estimated amount of transfer credit received for two-year diploma programs, 20072015 college graduates.............. 40 figure 22. estimated amount of credit transfer received for advanced diploma programs (three-year), 20072015 graduates .... 40 figure 23. relationship between perceived relatedness of university program and amount of transfer credit, 20072015 graduates of two-year diploma programs ............................................................................................................................................... 41 figure 24. relationship between perceived relatedness of university program and amount of transfer credit, 20072015 graduates of three-year advanced diploma programs ........................................................................................................................... 41 figure 25. timing of transfer credit notification by program credential, 20072015 graduates ........................................................ 42 figure 26. amount of transfer credit received relative to expectations, 20072015 graduates ........................................................ 43 figure 27. expectations of transfer credit by credential, 20072015 graduates .................................................................................. 43 figure 28. percentage satisfied with the transition experience from college to university, 20072015 graduates .......................... 44 figure 29. satisfaction with the transition experience by credential and program area, 20072015 graduates ............................... 45 figure 30. association between satisfaction with transition experience and reasons for transferring (grouped), 20072015 graduates................................................................................................................................................................................................... 45 figure 31. satisfaction with transition experience by program relatedness and amount of expected transfer credit received, 20072015 graduates............................................................................................................................................................................... 46 4 figure 32. percentage satisfied with academic preparation for university, 20072015 graduates .................................................... 47 figure 33. percentage satisfied with their college credential in achieving their goals, 20072015 graduates .................................. 47 figure 34. percentage satisfied with their college education by activity after graduation, 20072015 graduates............................ 48 list of tables table 1. percentage of ontario college graduates furthering their education by pathway, 20072015 ........................................... 14 table 2. transfer by student demographics (one-, two-, and 3-year college programs), 20072015 graduates ............................... 16 table 3. transfer rate to university by program characteristics (one-, two-, and three-year programs), 20072015 college graduates................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 table 4. top 10 college programs by number of transfers to university, 2007 vs 2015 ...................................................................... 20 table 5. transfer rate to university by college characteristics (one-, two-, and three-year programs), 20072015 college graduates ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 21 table 6. percentage of ontario university transfer students relative to share of ontario university enrolment ............................... 28 table 7. top 10 college-university partnerships by number of transfer students, 2015 vs 2007 ........................................................ 29 table 8. affinity between college program area and university program of entry ............................................................................... 32 table 9. reasons for continuing on to university, % major reason, 20072015 college graduates .................................................... 33 table 10. information sources for graduates transferring to full-time university programs, percentage (%) major or minor source, 20072015 ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 35 table 11. responses to the question, when did you find out whether you were receiving credit for your college program? ..... 42 table 12. regression analysis: transfer to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 20072015 ........... 50 table 13. regression analysis: satisfaction with transition experience to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 20072015.............................................................................................................................................................................. 53 5 executive summary the ability of ontario college students to transfer credits to the university sector in ontario has been an ongoing issue for many years. progress toward a more seamless postsecondary education system has been slow and steady (crsm, 2015), culminating in the announcement in 2011 by ontarios ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) of a new provincial credit transfer framework, committing $73.7 million over five years. this report describes provincial trends in college transfer to university using data from the ontario college graduate satisfaction survey (gss) for the years 2007 to 2015. the study tracked the volume of graduates moving between college and university, and their characteristics and experience of transfer. of the 694,379 graduates, 444,451 participated in the gss, for an average response rate of 64%. the research questions include: 1. what are the trends in transfer to further education after graduation? a. which institutions and programs are college graduates choosing? has the distribution changed among institutions, credentials or programs? b. are graduates entering programs that more closely align with their college credential? has the amount of reported transfer credit changed? c. what is the student profile of college graduates who transfer? d. why do college graduates transfer to university? e. what information sources on transfer are graduates using? 2. are college transfers to university satisfied with their academic preparation and transition experience? 3. what factors, including socioeconomic and transfer-specific characteristics, influence the transfer rate and satisfaction with the transition experience? the study incorporates new variables including disability and aboriginal self-identity to test whether students who are under-represented in the direct entry pathway to university, are also underrepresented in the college-to-university transfer pathway. the first section of this report shows the full complement of transfer pathways for all college graduates. the remaining sections focus on transfer to university programs for college graduates of one-year certificate and two-and three-year diploma programs, excluding college degree and graduate certificate programs. results transfer rates the overall percentage of college graduates furthering their education has been fairly stable at approximately 26%. however, the percentage transferring to a university program has decreased, from 8% in 200607 to 5.5% by 201415. in contrast, the share transferring to a college program has increased, from 17% to 19.1% over the same period. when graduate certificate and college degree programs are excluded from the analysis, the transfer rate declines from 8.3% to 6.3%. controlling for any changes in the composition of students, programs, or college profiles, the regression models show that the graduating years of 2012 to 2015 had significantly lower transfer rates than the 2007 reference year. 6 factors that may have contributed to this trend include: the increased number of students, particularly international students, entering college with a degree; the increase in pathway options to a degree, such as college degree programs and access programs in university; increased student spaces in universities due to shrinking demographics; and greater awareness of the career options for graduates with a college credential (non-degree). ontario college graduates who were less likely to transfer were female, older, international, originally from neighbourhoods that were low-income or where english was the first language, and graduates whose campus of college graduation was beyond a commuting distance to university. graduates who reported a disability were slightly less likely to transfer, and aboriginal students were equally as likely to transfer. graduates of advanced diploma and community service and preparatory/upgrading programs were more likely to transfer. transfer largely occurred within related fields of study. major shifts in regional transfer rates occurred in 2007 to 2015. in 2007, metro toronto and the surrounding central region had much higher transfer rates than the rest of the province; by 2015, however, their rate was similar to that of other provincial regions. la cit collgiale continues to have the highest percentage of graduates who transfer, at 14% in both 2007 and 2015, whereas durham college has experienced the highest rate increase and now has the second highest rate in the province at 9% vs 6.6% in 2007. in terms of absolute numbers of transfers, the larger metro toronto colleges still predominate, with humber, seneca, and george brown ranked in the top three. york and ryerson universities continue to rank first and second in the volume of transfers received, with university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) moving toward a tie with the university of ottawa for third place. however, when the amount of transfer is weighted to enrolment, the northern universities are receiving a much larger share of transfer students compared to other ontario universities across the province. transfer experience overall, university transfers reported being satisfied with their academic preparation (85%), the collegeto university transition (81%), and their college education (87%). these values have been stable since 2007. university transfers who made use of information were more satisfied with their transition experience, particularly those who used college sources (5 percentage points more likely to be satisfied) or university sources (3 percentage points more likely). graduates who transferred for academic or program related reasons were more satisfied with their transition experience, whereas those transferring due to encouragement from others, or to advance their careers or employment outlook, did not differ in their satisfaction level. as might be expected, transfer credit that either met or exceeded expectations is a very large influencer on satisfaction with the transition experience. as well, receiving transfer credit and transferring to a related program area are also positive influencers on transfer. the timing of notification of credit is not significant. conclusions the study of transfer rates, the transfer experience, and trends over time is a complex endeavor, particularly in a dynamic environment with shifting student aspirations and demographics, a proliferation in new program offerings at colleges and universities, and changing labour market demand. further 7 research should focus on areas such as the role of college-university transfer for groups traditionally under-represented in university, and the effectiveness of current transfer agreements to support students. the creation of data infrastructure using the ontario education number can provide central tracking of transfer rates, so that transfer can be measured by student demographics, region, transfer credit, and student retention and success after transfer. administrative data, however, cannot capture the student perspective, and an ongoing reliance on survey data such as the ontario college graduate satisfaction survey, together with other qualitative research, will be required. 8 introduction the ability of ontario college 1 students to transfer credits to the provinces university sector has been an ongoing issue for many years. however, when the college system was created, then education minister bill davis announced that no able and qualified student should be prevented from going on from a college of applied arts and technology to a university. he recommended the creation of a committee to set the conditions under which qualified college graduates would be admitted to university. progress toward a more seamless postsecondary education system in ontario has been slow and steady (crsm, 2015), culminating in the announcement in 2011 by ontarios ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) 2 of a new provincial credit transfer framework, committing $73.7 million over five years. the purpose of this framework was to develop a more comprehensive and transparent system of pathways and credit transfer. concurrently, the province created the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), with the goal to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 44 publically funded postsecondary institutions. one of the barriers to a progress evaluation of college to university transfer pathways has been a lack of system-wide data on the volume of movement between sectors, the experience of students who transfer, and their success after transfer. many early discussions on transfer pathways were based on anecdotal data or on data from a single institution. one of the few province-wide sources available has been ontarios graduate satisfaction survey (gss), a census of all publically funded college graduates six months after graduation. initiated in 1998, the gss originally asked graduates whether they were attending school full or part time, at which college or university, in what program type and area of study, and why they were continuing. this data was used for reporting purposes on both an institutional (decock, 2006) and provincial basis (colleges ontario, 2005, 2008; decock, mccloy, liu, & hu, 2011; cci research, 2011), focusing on trends in overall transfer rates, and transfer rates by sending and receiving institution. provincially, these reports show that, based on the gss data, the overall transfer rate to university for college graduates rose from 6% in 200102, peaking at 8.7% and 8.8% in 200405 and 200506 respectively, before declining to 7.7% in 200809. throughout all these years, york and ryerson universities continued to receive the most university transfer students, with la cit collgiale and seneca college having the highest share of graduates continuing on to university. in 2005, the colleges worked with ontarios ministry of training colleges and universities (mtcu) to add to the gss a module on the transfer experience of those who continued their education full time. the module included items on information sources; satisfaction with academic preparation and the transfer experience; revised reasons for continuing; perceived affinity between program transferred from and entered; and amount, timing, and satisfaction with transfer credit. provincially, this data has been used in three reports including an in depth review of both college and university transfer of the 200607 graduates (decock, et al., 2011); a review of ontarios college-university transfer (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010), part of which included three years of graduate data; and a study of college and university transfer up until the 2008-09 graduating year (cci research, 2011). the results showed that college graduates who transfer were, overall, satisfied with their academic preparation, relied primarily on transfer information from colleges and university instead of personal sources, and largely entered related 1 the term college used throughout this report refers to ontarios publically funded college system, consisting of 24 colleges of applied arts and technology. 2 mtcu was recently renamed the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd). 9 programs. reasons for continuing were mainly career and credential related as well as increasing their skills and knowledge. the metro toronto area colleges and universities had the largest volume of transfers, and the largest share of their graduates transferring. university transfers were more likely to be younger, from preparatory or community service programs, and from three-year diploma programs. the number of transfer agreements has since grown the provincial government has invested more money into the development of pathways, and institutions have increased initiatives to foster student mobility (crsm briefing note, 2015). in addition, the gss data has since become a critical data source for provision of transfer grants and as transfer performance indicators in the strategic mandate agreements between ontarios ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) and the provinces publically funded postsecondary institutions. 3 maesd uses gss data to distribute the credit transfer innovation grant (ctig) to colleges based on each institutions share of ontario university transfer students. the most recent strategic mandate agreements (sma) also incorporate the transfer rate calculation used for ctig, but also includes two satisfaction indicators derived from the gss. these include the percent of ontario university transfers who were satisfied with their academic preparation, in addition to the percentage satisfied with their transition experience. accessibility to college and university remains a priority for student groups, institutions, and the ontario government, with indicators included in each institutions sma. multiple studies show lower rates of access to university for students who have disabilities, are low income, aboriginal, or from rural communities or communities beyond a community distance to a university (finnie, childs, & wismer, 2011; norrie & zhao, 2011; zhao, 2012). these studies also indicate that the college population is more reflective of the overall population, and some evidence suggests that transfer students at university are more likely to come from these under-represented groups than are those who enter directly (kerr et al., 2010; dumaresq et al., 2003). this study incorporates key demographic variables that were neither previously available nor created in the aforementioned studies, using responses to new gss questions in recent years on disability and aboriginal self-identity. as well, the current study derives a neighbourhood income measure and whether the graduate is from a rural or urban community based on their postal code. proximity to a university is derived from the distance between the college campus of graduation and the nearest ontario university. with the inclusion of these new variables, the study could test whether students under-represented in the direct entry pathway to university are also under-represented in the college-to-university transfer pathway. research on seneca college students in toronto has shown that although neighbourhood income does not affect rates of transfer independently, transfer increases for students who are both low income and have a parent with a degree (steffler, mccloy, & decock, 2016). students whose first language was english were less likely to transfer, and males were more likely to transfer. aspirations for university upon college entry, and strong college academic performance, were the strongest determinants of transfer. research questions the study sought to describe provincial trends in college transfer to university, including the transfer rate and the transfer experience. the research questions included: 3 each of the 45 publically funded colleges and universities has an agreement with maesd, highlighting institutional priorities. see: https://www.ontario.ca/page/college-and-university-strategic-mandate-agreements#section-2 10 1. what are the trends in transfer to further education after graduation? a. which institutions and programs are college graduates choosing? has the distribution changed among institutions, credentials or programs? b. are graduates entering programs that more closely align with their college credential? has the amount of reported transfer credit changed? c. what is the student profile of college graduates who transfer? d. why do college graduates transfer to university? e. what information sources on transfer are graduates using? 2. are college transfers to university satisfied with their academic preparation and transition experience? 3. what factors, including socioeconomic and transfer-specific characteristics, influence the transfer rate and satisfaction with the transition experience? methods the study uses data from the gss for the years 200607 to 201415. the gss is administered to all college graduates with an ontario college credential from a publically funded college of applied arts and technology (caat) in ontario. it is administered approximately six months after graduation through telephone surveys conducted by an external service provider to whom the colleges provide contact information and graduate characteristics such as age, gender, and program of study. the graduate record file of each college is examined by college auditors and reported to maesd, which uses the results to gauge the performance of colleges on three of the five key performance indicators (kpis) graduate satisfaction rate, employment rate, and employer satisfaction rate each of which is tied to a modest sum of performance funding and made public. the initial question of the survey asks the student if they went on to further education, either full or part time. those indicating they were enrolled full time complete a detailed survey about their current education. graduates who indicate they are working part time and attending school part time are asked several employment-related questions as well as fewer questions on their education. this study uses the following variables from the gss: administrative fields administrative fields provided to maesd by the colleges include program, credential, college, and college campus of graduation, full versus part-time status, gender, age, permanent postal code (first three digits), and international status at graduation. this study derived several variables from these administrative data: program area seven program area groupings were derived from maesds occupation cluster classification system, described in an earlier report by mccloy & liu (2010). college region and size the classifications for college region and size are the same as described previously by mccloy & liu (2010). the study used the first digit of the colleges postal code to determine its provincial region 11 (central, eastern, metro toronto, northern, or southwestern), and used student enrolment to determine college size (small, medium, or large). distance and selectivity of nearest university a variable was derived from the use of postal codes to indicate the geographical proximity of the nearest ontario university to the college campus of graduation: 50 km or less, greater than 50 km and less than 80 km, or greater than 80 km. an additional variable was created to describe the academic selectivity of the nearest university, using published historical admission averages 4. neighbourhood income for a proxy of each graduates household income, the three-digit permanent postal code was matched to household income data from the 2006 census. a students neighbourhood income group was divided into low, medium and high income terciles based on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households. international and non-ontario students were excluded from the neighbourhood income analysis. survey fields the specific wording of the questions from the survey used in this report are in the appendix 1. the first question on the gss asks whether the respondent is enrolled in full- or part-time education in the reference week. if the response is yes, the following information is gathered: institution name and type a drop-down list of names of ontario publically funded postsecondary institutions is provided to the interviewer. these institutions are subsequently grouped under university, college, or other education. starting in 201011, specific institution names were provided as open ended responses to other university, other college, and other education. in the current study, these open field responses were all reviewed, cleaned and recoded as necessary as some responses were found on the ontario institution list, whereas others were incorrectly identified as colleges or universities and vice versa. online research was conducted to determine the correct institution type for unknown institutions. college or university credential survey responses were classified as degree, certificate/diploma, degree offered jointly with a college or university, or no credential specified. university program of study entered these were classified according to the university student information system (usis). 5 reasons for furthering their education each question in this series contained three response options for furthering education: major reason, minor reason, or not a reason. respondents who indicated they were enrolled full time in further education were asked for details about their transfer experience, perceptions, and information sources including: 4 includes universities with high school entering overall averages of over 85%, comprising university of toronto, mcmaster, queens, western, and waterloo. https://cudo.ouac.on.ca/ 5 http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/document/3124_d3_t4_v1-eng.pdf 12 the reported amount, their satisfaction with, and the timing of notification of transfer credit relatedness of university program entered to program from which they graduated whether they would have been accepted into a university program without college graduation when they decided to transfer information sources (major, minor, not a source) satisfaction with academic preparation and the transition experience this report also includes and analysis of the following questions that are asked of all survey respondents: disability: starting in 201314, the gss asked all graduate respondents whether they considered themselves to have a physical, intellectual, mental health or learning disability" and whether they had registered with disability services at the college while a student. aboriginal identity: starting in 201415, the gss asked graduates if they wanted to self-identify as an aboriginal person, that is, someone who is related to, or descended from, the original peoples of canada? satisfaction with goal attainment: since the survey inception, asked graduates have been asked about their satisfaction with the usefulness of their college education in achieving their goals after graduation. this question also serves as a kpi for the ontario college sector. limitations graduates are asked to report on their status during a specified reference week six months after graduating, which may lead to several issues: an underestimate of transfer rate, particularly for students who graduate in the fall term as their reference week would be in june/july, a non-traditional enrolment semester. students are asked only if they are currently attending college or university in the reference week, not whether they had ever been enrolled or have registered in an upcoming semester. only graduates are counted. as this is a graduate survey, students who transferred without graduating are not counted. other research (smith et al., 2016) has shown that as many as half of those who transferred from seneca to york university were not graduates. results overall, approximately one quarter of all surveyed graduates continue their education within six months of graduation, of which two-thirds continue on in college, and one-third in university (table 1). the most noticeable trend is the decrease in college graduates furthering their education in university, from 8% of 200607 graduates to 5.5% of 201415 graduates. far more graduates return to college, with 19% returning in 2015, an increase from 17% in 2007. in an earlier report that analyzed the gss results from 200102 to 200607, the overall transfer rate to university in 200102 was 6%, peaking at 8.7% in 2004 2005 and 8.8% in 200506 (decock, mccloy, lin, & hu, 2011). the peak was likely related to the wave of high school graduates from ontarios double cohort (2003) who would have graduated from two- and three-year college programs in each of those years. 13 table 1. percentage of ontario college graduates furthering their education by pathway, 20072015 total # of graduates total # of survey respondents response rate university degree university certificate/ diploma degree offered jointly with a college university: no credential specified university programs total** college degree college certificate/ diploma degree offered jointly with a university college: no credential specified college programs - total* other education total further education 2007 60,406 43,086 2008 59,012 40,645 2009 62,842 42,185 2010 72,066 50,622 2011 78,651 57,701 2012 82,402 57,462 2013 87,129 54,467 2014 94,232 52,039 2015 97,639 46,244 total 694,379 444,451 71.3% 6.0% 1.0% 68.9% 5.5% 0.9% 67.1% 6.1% 0.8% 70.2% 5.9% 0.8% 73.4% 5.3% 0.8% 69.7% 5.0% 0.7% 62.5% 4.8% 0.6% 55.2% 4.2% 0.6% 47.4% 4.0% 0.6% 64.0% 5.2% 0.7% 1.0% 1.0% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7% 0.6% 0.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.5% 0.8% 0.4% 0.3% 0.4% 0.3% 8.0% 7.4% 7.7% 7.4% 7.3% 7.1% 6.4% 5.7% 5.5% 6.9% 0.7% 15.0% 0.7% 0.7% 14.6% 0.7% 0.7% 17.7% 0.8% 0.7% 16.6% 0.7% 0.7% 15.4% 0.6% 0.9% 15.7% 0.7% 0.9% 15.7% 0.7% 0.9% 17.1% 0.7% 1.0% 17.2% 0.5% 0.8% 16.1% 0.7% 0.6% 0.7% 0.2% 0.1% 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.3% 17.0% 1.7% 26.7% 16.7% 1.3% 25.4% 19.3% 1.0% 28.0% 18.1% 1.2% 26.6% 17.0% 0.6% 24.9% 17.5% 0.6% 25.2% 17.6% 0.4% 24.4% 18.9% 0.6% 25.2% 19.1% 0.5% 25.2% 17.9% 0.8% 25.6% note: *major changes in the options for college program types were made for the 2009 survey year, resulting in a lack of comparability to the previous years; **for university program type, the survey started asking in 2009 whether it was an undergraduate or graduate professional degree. other education also included those who did not provide an institution name or type of program. the question about credential type has a known french-translation issue, with a high share of french-language survey responses indicating university certificate/diploma, rather than degree programs. college to degree transfer rates in addition to degrees, universities also offer certificate, diploma and continuing education courses, whereas colleges have offered degrees since 2002. data on transfers specifically to degree programs at a college or university over time (figure 1) indicate that the percentage of graduates entering a university degree has declined from 6% to 4%, but without a counterbalance in the percentage entering a college or collaborative degree program the latter has been moderately stable. however, when the growth in numbers of graduates is taken into account (table 1), the proportion of transfers entering a degree program has risen modestly since 200607, by an estimated 15%. 14 figure 1. percentage and estimated number* of college graduates furthering their education in a degree program, 200607 to 201415 percent of graduates 8% 7% 5092 0.7 1.8 6% 0.7 1.7 5840 0.7 6000 0.7 1.5 1.4 0.7 1.3 5% 0.9 1.3 0.9 1.3 0.9 1.2 4% 3% 6.0 5.5 6.1 5.9 2% 7000 5.3 5.0 4.8 4.2 5000 1.0 1.1 4.0 4000 3000 2000 # of graduates 9% 1000 1% 0% 0 2007 2008 university degree 2009 2010 2011 collaborative degree 2012 2013 college degree 2014 2015 # degree transfers notes: the calculation of a transfer rate from college to any degree program is defined as the percentage of survey respondents who indicated they were enrolled full or part time in a university degree, a collaborative university/college degree, or a college degree program. the total number of survey respondents was adjusted by the response rate to produce an estimated total number of graduates entering a degree program using the calculation of: # transfers = (# surveyed respondents in degree program/total survey respondents)*# graduates. there is an issue with the french-language translation for credential, in which degree option may be misconstrued for the diploma option. trends in college degrees granted an important contextual piece in a review of ontario transfer rates to university is the growth of college degrees in ontario. the number of college degree graduates increased from 503 in 2007 to 2,239 by 2015, a rate increase from 0.8% to 2.3%. in regions with high numbers of college degree offerings, students have the option of acquiring a degree, eliminating the need to transfer credits to a university degree program; those at the start of college who intend to obtain a degree, likely may choose to enter a college degree program instead of embarking on a transfer pathway. in short, the college degree programs have likely displaced some of the college-to-university transfer activity. the trends in the provision of college degrees, by region and individual colleges, and the relationship of these trends to regional transfer trends, are shown later in this report. who transfers to university? the first section of this report showed the complete transfer pathways for all college graduates. for the remainder of this report, the focus is specifically on transfer to university programs for graduates of one year college certificates, two year diplomas, or three year degrees, with college degree and graduate certificates excluded. demographics table 2 and figure 2 show the transfer rates by graduate characteristics and trends over time. younger graduates, graduates from urban communities, and those attending college full time at graduation are much more likely to transfer to university. females and graduates from higher-income neighbourhoods 15 are somewhat more likely to transfer to university. transfer rates have been declining across all these characteristics, with the decrease in transfer rates for international students the most dramatic. whereas almost 11% of international graduates continued on to university in 2007, only 2.7% transferred in 2015, a much lower rate than the non-international rate of 6.3%. 6 table 2. transfer by student demographics (one-, two-, and 3-year college programs), 20072015 graduates 2007 8.3% 2008 7.9% 2009 8.1% 2010 7.8% 2011 7.8% 2012 7.8% 2013 7.2% 2014 6.4% 2015 6.3% total 7.5% 10.5% 7.2% 7.9% 9.0% 5.7% 3.7% 2.5% 2.2% 2.7% 4.2% < 22 11.1% 10.4% 10.7% 10.9% 10.9% 10.6% 9.5% 8.6% 8.6% 10.2% 22 - 25 8.9% 8.3% 8.6% 8.3% 8.9% 8.1% 7.2% 6.4% 6.1% 7.9% > 25 4.5% 4.4% 4.5% 4.1% 3.7% 4.1% 3.9% 3.2% 3.3% 3.9% female 8.6% 8.2% 8.3% 8.2% 8.0% 7.9% 6.9% 6.1% 6.2% 7.6% male 8.1% 7.4% 7.8% 7.3% 7.3% 6.9% 6.6% 5.8% 5.5% 6.9% permanent address urban 8.8% 8.4% 8.6% 8.2% 8.1% 8.2% 7.6% 6.7% 6.6% 7.9% rural 5.9% 5.0% 5.4% 5.5% 6.0% 5.7% 5.3% 4.9% 4.7% 5.4% neighbourhood income low 7.9% 7.4% 7.6% 7.4% 7.1% 7.2% 6.7% 6.0% 5.6% 7.0% middle 7.7% 7.4% 7.5% 7.7% 7.6% 7.5% 6.9% 6.1% 6.1% 7.2% high 9.6% 9.3% 9.3% 8.1% 8.8% 8.4% 7.9% 6.5% 6.9% 8.3% full time 8.6% 8.1% 8.4% 8.1% 7.9% 7.8% 7.1% 6.3% 6.2% 7.6% part time 6.7% 6.7% 6.5% 5.9% 6.6% 5.8% 5.0% 4.3% 3.9% 5.7% 8.4% 7.8% 8.1% 7.8% 7.7% 7.5% 6.8% 6.0% 5.9% 7.3% status in canada age (yrs) gender course load at graduation total noninternational international 6 a report by the authors mobility of international students in ontario colleges focuses specifically on the mobility pathways of international students and graduates. 16 figure 2. transfer rate by graduate demographics, 2007 vs 2015 12% 10% 8% 11% 11% 9% 9% 8% 6% 9% 6% 4% 8% 7% 6% 6% 6% 5% 3% 3% 10% 9% 8% 6% 5% 8% 6% 7% 6% 2% funding status age (yrs) gender 2007 permanent address high income mid income low income rural urban male female > 25 22 - 25 < 22 non-international international 0% neighbourhood income 2015 for 201314, the transfer rate to university was slightly lower for college graduates who self-reported having a disability, or who reported using the disability services office (figure 3). however, in 2015, the transfer rates for both measures of disability status were similar. additionally, gss data for 2015 show that the transfer rate was slightly higher (7.3%) for those self-identifying as aboriginal, relative to those who were not (6.8%). figure 3. transfer rate to university for aboriginal graduates and graduates reporting a disability 8% 7.3% 7% 6.8% 6% 6.5% 6.5% 6.4% 5.5% 5.2% 6.2% 6.4% 6.5% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% 0% yes no graduate self-reports being of aboriginal ancestry yes no graduate self-reports a disability 2014 yes no graduate used disability office 2015 note: the questions on disability have only been included in 2014 and 2015, and aboriginal identity in 2015. 17 transfer by program characteristics the analysis of transfer trends by student demographics shows a decline in transfer rates over time. similarly, the decline in transfer rates is fairly consistent across credentials and program areas. advanced diploma programs (three years) have the highest transfer rate, averaging 11%, followed by two-year diploma programs at 7%, and one-year certificate programs at 5% (table 3). program areas with the highest rate of transfer are preparatory/upgrading (14%), community service (12%), and business (9%). the decrease in preparatory program transfer rates is notable, from 16% in 2007 to 10% in 2015. since 2007, a detailed analysis of program offerings within the two-year general arts and science (gas) programs show that these programs are growing, and have become increasingly geared toward upgrading, particularly english-language learning, than to university transfer. 7 table 3. transfer rate to university by program characteristics (one-, two-, and three-year programs), 20072015 college graduates credential type program type cohort size cert. 2007 5.4% 2008 6.1% 2009 6.3% 2010 5.8% 2011 5.3% 2012 5.5% 2013 4.8% 2014 4.0% 2015 4.7% total 5.3% diploma 8.4% 7.8% 7.7% 7.4% 7.3% 6.9% 6.3% 5.6% 5.6% 7.0% adv. diploma business 10.7% 9.6% 11.0% 11.0% 11.8% 11.3% 10.6% 9.6% 8.3% 10.5% 10.0% 9.0% 10.0% 10.1% 9.7% 9.6% 8.4% 7.7% 7.7% 9.2% community service creative and applied arts health 13.9% 13.2% 13.2% 12.8% 12.5% 12.5% 11.6% 10.3% 10.1% 12.2% 5.4% 4.9% 4.6% 4.8% 4.9% 4.5% 3.8% 3.8% 3.7% 4.5% 2.2% 2.1% 2.1% 2.0% 1.8% 1.5% 1.5% 1.6% 1.8% 1.8% hospitality 2.8% 3.1% 2.6% 2.6% 3.8% 2.7% 1.9% 1.5% 1.5% 2.5% prep/ upgrading engineering/ technology <100 16.4% 16.8% 17.5% 15.8% 15.1% 14.5% 12.4% 10.2% 10.2% 14.2% 4.3% 3.8% 4.2% 3.8% 3.9% 3.8% 4.0% 3.3% 3.3% 3.8% 6.9% 6.3% 6.7% 6.5% 6.7% 6.5% 5.9% 5.4% 5.7% 6.3% 100-200 9.8% 11.2% 11.3% 10.0% 8.8% 8.4% 8.6% 7.2% 6.4% 8.9% >200 17.3% 15.2% 13.1% 12.2% 11.0% 10.3% 7.8% 6.3% 6.0% 10.1% transfer rates have declined rapidly for the very large college programs with greater than 200 graduates (table 4). the sharp drop in transfer rates for the large, two-year programs in early childhood education (ece) 8 and gas likely accounts for this decline. in 2007, ece was the largest supplier of transfers, but by 2015 it fell to fourth place because of changes in the labour market and the creation of college degree programs in the area (mccloy, steffler, & decock, 2015). the decline in transfer rate for the two-year gas program is largely the result of changes to its program composition across the province. 7 for example, humber and conestoga colleges two year gas provides ell for academic purposes, whereas niagara colleges two year gas is a large college preparatory program. 8 the changing patterns of transfer in ontarios ece programs are the subject of a report by the authors: http://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/the-impact-of-labour-market-and-policy-changes-onuniversity-transfer-the-case-study-of-early-childhood-education.pdf 18 the social service worker program is now the top supplier of college graduates continuing on in university, followed by the one-year gas program. in terms of estimated absolute numbers of transfers, social service worker, preparatory health science, and child and youth worker programs have increased the most. although these programs have grown rapidly, thus increasing the numbers of transfers, their transfer rates have remained constant. figure 4. transfer rates to university by program characteristics, 2007 vs 2015 college graduates 17.3% 16.4% 13.9% cohort size 10.2% credential type 4.3% 3.3% prep / upgrading hospitality health creative and applied arts community service business 5.4% 2.2% 2.8% 3.7% 1.8% 1.5% engineering / technology 10.1% 5.6% diploma (2 yr) certificate (1 yr) 5.4% 6.0% 4.7% >200 6.4% 100-200 6.9% 5.7% 8.4% 10.7% 10.0% 8.3% 7.7% advanced diploma (3 yr) 9.8% <100 20% 18% 16% 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% program type 2007 2015 note: one-, two-, and three-year programs only 19 table 4. top 10 college programs by number of transfers to university, 2007 vs 2015 early childhood education (2 yr) transfer rate (%) 17.0% 2007 estimated number of transfers 488 rank 1 transfer rate (%) 5.2% 2015 estimated number of transfers 235 rank 4 general arts and science (2 yr) 27.8% 328 2 11.4% 191 6 police foundations (2 yr) 14.4% 326 3 13.1% 332 3 general arts and science (1 yr) 18.1% 322 4 12.8% 372 2 social service worker (2 yr) 17.5% 284 5 17.0% 431 1 business administration (3 yr) 18.3% 227 6 15.7% 125 11 bus admin - accounting (3 yr) 20.2% 194 7 20.0% 190 7 preparatory health sciences (1 yr) business admin - marketing (3 yr) child and youth worker (3 yr) 9.3% 122 8 8.3% 219 5 14.5% 109 9 11.0% 65 17 11.7% 104 10 12.9% 184 9 program note: numbers were adjusted for each programs provincial response rate. transfer by college and college characteristics the study analyzed the transfer rates by college characteristics including ontario college region, proximity of a university to the college campus of graduation, selectivity of the nearest university (based on published entering high school grades), and size of college (table 5, figure 5). overall, graduates who are more likely to transfer are from a college in metro toronto and surrounding areas, in closer proximity to a university (particularly non-selective), and have graduated from a large college. that said, the decrease in transfer rate mostly affected colleges in metro toronto and the surrounding central region. 9 transfer rates in the other regions have fallen somewhat, but not to the same extent. in 2007, the regional transfer rate ranged from 6.3% in southwestern ontario to 10.6% in metro toronto. by 2015, however, the range was only between 5.0% and 6.2% (southwestern and central regions respectively). also evident are the decreases in the transfer rate for graduates from large institutions and from college campuses with a university within commuting distance, both of which pertain to the greater toronto hamilton area. 9 since college regions differed in their growth of international students, the study also compared transfer trends with the exclusion of international graduates. the declines in non-international student transfer rates (-2.2% central, -0.5% eastern, -3.8% metro toronto, -1% northern, and -1.2% southwestern) show that international student growth is partially responsible for the transfer rate decline across regions. 20 table 5. transfer rate to university by college characteristics (one-, two-, and three-year programs), 20072015 college graduates college region nearest university selectivity of nearest university college size central 2007 9.0% 2008 8.8% 2009 8.6% 2010 8.6% 2011 8.3% 2012 7.9% 2013 7.1% 2014 6.1% 2015 6.2% total 7.8% eastern 7.0% 6.3% 7.8% 6.9% 7.6% 8.3% 7.0% 6.4% 6.1% 7.1% metro toronto 10.6% 9.7% 9.9% 9.7% 8.7% 7.8% 7.3% 6.3% 6.0% 8.4% northern 6.6% 6.5% 6.2% 6.6% 6.8% 7.2% 6.4% 6.1% 5.4% 6.5% southwestern 6.3% 5.8% 5.6% 5.2% 5.8% 5.7% 5.3% 4.6% 5.0% 5.5% 50 km or less 9.0% 8.4% 8.9% 8.5% 8.1% 7.8% 7.2% 6.3% 6.1% 7.6% 50-80 km 6.4% 6.3% 5.5% 6.4% 6.4% 7.0% 5.3% 4.9% 5.8% 6.0% over 80 km 5.7% 5.4% 4.9% 4.8% 6.1% 6.0% 4.9% 4.6% 4.7% 4.1% not selective 8.7% 8.1% 8.3% 8.1% 8.0% 7.8% 7.0% 6.2% 6.2% 7.6% selective 7.4% 7.2% 7.5% 6.8% 6.7% 6.6% 6.3% 5.3% 5.1% 6.5% small 6.1% 5.7% 6.1% 6.0% 6.0% 6.3% 6.0% 5.0% 4.8% 5.8% medium 7.4% 6.8% 6.9% 7.0% 7.2% 7.3% 6.5% 5.8% 6.4% 6.8% large 9.3% 8.8% 9.1% 8.5% 8.3% 7.7% 7.1% 6.2% 5.7% 7.8% figure 5. transfer rate to university by college characteristics, 2007 vs 2015 college graduates 12.0% 10.6% 9.0% 10.0% 9.0% 8.0% 6.0% 6.6% 7.0% 6.3% 6.2% 6.1% 6.0% 5.4% 5.0% 4.0% 9.3% 8.7% 8.7% 7.4% 7.4% 6.4% 5.7% 6.3% 6.1% 5.6% 6.2% 6.4% 5.7% 6.0% 5.6% 6.1% 5.8% 5.1% 4.8% 4.7% 3.6% 2.0% college region distance to nearest distance to nearest selectivity of university from non-selective nearest college campus university from university college campus 2007 large medium small selective not selective over 80 km 50-80 km 50 km or less over 80 km 50-80 km 50 km or less southwestern northern metro toronto eastern central 0.0% college size 2015 la cit continues to have the largest percentage of college graduates who transfer to university, at 14% in both 2007 and 2015 (figure 6). the large decrease in transfer rates for the metro toronto and central regions, as shown previously, is also seen here for individual colleges. durham college, also from the central region, is the exception. durham has experienced the largest increase in transfer rate, from 6.6% 21 of its graduates transferring in 2007 to 9% in 2015, and now has the second highest transfer rate in the province. besides durham and la cit, only three colleges increased their transfer rates since 2007: two from the northern region (sault and northern) and loyalist. these three colleges had among the lowest rates of transfer in 2007. figure 6. transfer rate by college, percentage of graduates, 2015 vs 2007 (one-, two-, and three-year programs only) 14.0% 14.2% 13.3% laci sene 7.0% cana humb 11.1% 6.4% sher 10.9% 4.9% cent 9.6% 4.3% moha 9.0% 5.8% niag 8.8% 6.4% geor 7.8% 5.6% grbr 7.8% 6.2% stcl 5.9% conf 5.9% ssfl 7.0% 6.8% durh 6.2% 6.6% algo 6.5% 4.9% fans 6.0% 6.0% camb cons 3.7% lamb saul bore 4.0% loyt 3.2% 3.7% nort 3.2% 4.0% 2015 9.0% 6.3% 5.7% 4.8% 4.3% 2.0% 2007 6.8% 5.1% 5.8% 3.3% slaw 0.0% 11.8% 6.8% 5.5% 6.6% 4.0% 4.7% 6.0% 8.0% 10.0% 12.0% 14.0% 16.0% note: institutions are displayed in descending order based on the 2007 transfer rates. the full college name for each abbreviation is listed in appendix 2. seneca and humber colleges, despite their decreasing numbers of transfers, continue to have the highest number of graduates who transfer to university. whereas the majority of colleges saw an increase in the 22 absolute number of graduates transferring, seneca and sheridan had decreases of 31% and 36% respectively (figure 7). durhams transfer numbers have grown significantly since 2007, with nearly triple the number of graduates continuing on to university. figure 7. number of transfer students, 2015 vs 2007, graduates of one-, two-, and three-year credentials sene humb sher grbr algo fans moha cent niag laci geor stcl ssfl 2007 cana 2015 durh cons camb slaw conf lamb loyt saul bore nort 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 note: transfer numbers adjusted for each colleges survey response rate degrees granted by college the growth in college degree programs provides more options for students to attain a degree, which likely has the effect of partially displacing transfer pathways. therefore, the foregoing analysis of transfer rates by region and individual colleges is contextualized with the changes in college degree granting. some ontario colleges began offering four-year degree programs in 2002. however, the decision to offer degree programs has varied greatly by region, with three of the four metro toronto colleges (humber, sheridan, seneca) leading the way, and none of the northern region colleges offering such programs 23 (figure 8, figure 9). students in regions with high numbers of college degree offerings have the additional option of acquiring a degree without having to transfer credits to a university. this option potentially has an impact not just on the colleges offering degree programs, but also other colleges in the region, as seen with the decline in transfer at centennial college (which has minimal degree offerings). the percentage of college degree graduates from the metro toronto region increased from 1.4% in 2007 to 4% in 2015, which partially compensates for the decline in the regions transfer rates, from 10.6% to 6% over the same period (table 5). figure 8. trends in college degrees granted by region, 20072015 4.5% 4.0% 3.5% 3.0% 2.5% 2.0% 1.5% 1.0% 0.5% 0.0% 2007 2008 2009 central 2010 eastern 2011 2012 metro toronto 2013 2014 2015 total southwestern note: the northern region colleges do not offer degrees. 24 figure 9. percentage of graduates with a college degree, by college, 2007 vs 2015 humb 7.1% 2% sher sene 1% cons 2.1% 0% geor 2.0% 0% niag fans 2.3% 1% slaw 1.8% 1% 0% 0% laci 0.9% 0.5% 0.4% 0.3% cent 0% 5.2% 4.1% 0% grbr algo 6.1% 4% 2% 1% 1% 2% 3% 4% 2015 5% 6% 7% 8% 2007 note: share of all graduates, including those with graduate certificates. includes only colleges with degree graduates in 2015 receiving university the number of transfers to york and ryerson universities in toronto decreased in 2007 to 2015 (figure 10), mirroring the decline in transfers for colleges in the greater toronto area (gta), particularly seneca and sheridan. in contrast, the number of transfers increased for durham college, which shares a campus with uoit. details of this bilateral movement are shown in table 6. 25 figure 10. number of transfer students, by receiving university, six months after graduation from a one-, two-, or three- year credential only, 2007 vs 2015 york ryerson university (other) ottawa windsor western carleton laurentian brock mcmaster lakehead guelph trent toronto 2007 nipissing 2015 uoit waterloo wilfrid laurier ocad queen's guelph humber algoma 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 note: transfer numbers adjusted for each colleges survey response rate the metro toronto region continues to have the highest provincial share of transfers by region, at onethird (33%) of all transfers in 2015 (figure 11). however, this rate is a major drop from 45% in 2008, with most of the decrease occurring between 2010 and 2012. the central and northern regions have made up the difference, increasing from 12% to 18% and 12% to 15% respectively. 26 figure 11. share of college to university transfer students by ontario university region, 20072015 50% 45% 45% 43% 42% 41% 40% 36% 35% 34% 34% 33% 33% 30% 25% 20% 15% 12% 14% 12% 15% 14% 16% 18% 16% 18% 10% 5% 0% 2007 2008 central 2009 eastern 2010 2011 2012 metro toronto northern 2013 2014 2015 southwestern the analysis shown in table 6 accounts for the relative size of each university by creating a ratio of the share of transfer students versus the share of ontario university enrolment (see decock et al., 2011). a value of 1 indicates that the share of the provincial enrolment matches the share of ontario transfer students; a value of greater than 1 indicates an over-representation of college transfers; and a value of less than 1 indicates an under-representation. in 2007, the three northern universities, and ryerson in toronto, had the highest transfer ratios. in 2015, the northern universities ratio outdistanced that of the rest of the province because of the declining market share of ontario enrolment and an increase in the transfer student share. algoma university, which became an independent university in 2008 (formerly an affiliate of laurentian), has become a leader in transfer student enrolment relative to its total enrolment share. uoit, also a young university (established in 2002), has experienced growth in its total enrolment share and its share of transfer students to the extent that its transfer ratio is just behind that of the northern universities. york universitys share of transfers has dropped considerably, from 22% to 14%; however, as its enrolment share has also decreased (from 14% to 10%), its transfer ratio has only fallen from 1.8 to 1.4. 27 table 6. percentage of ontario university transfer students relative to share of ontario university enrolment algoma % share of ontario transfers n/a 2007-08 % share of ontario enrolment n/a share of transfer/ share of enrolment n/a % share of ontario transfers 1.3% 2015-16 % share of ontario enrolment 0.3% brock 5.0% 4.1% 1.2 6.3% 3.8% 4.7 1.6 carleton 5.0% 5.2% 1.0 4.6% 5.4% 0.9 guelph 3.7% 5.7% 0.6 5.2% 6.2% 0.8 lakehead 4.2% 1.8% 5.1% 1.5% laurentian 5.0% 2.1% 2.4 2.4 5.9% 1.8% 3.4 3.4 mcmaster 4.9% 6.3% 0.8 4.3% 6.5% 0.7 nipissing 2.6% 1.1% 3.1% 0.8% ocad 1.3% 0.8% 2.3 1.7 1.2% 0.9% uoit 1.9% 1.5% 1.3 6.7% 2.3% 3.8 1.4 3.0 ottawa 6.1% 8.1% 0.8 6.7% 7.9% 0.8 queen's 0.7% 4.4% 0.1 1.0% 5.0% 0.2 ryerson 15.5% 5.2% 3.0 12.1% 6.8% 1.8 toronto 3.4% 16.8% 0.2 5.1% 16.7% 0.3 trent 3.4% 1.9% 1.8 3.6% 1.8% 2.1 waterloo 1.8% 7.1% 0.3 1.5% 7.8% 0.2 western 5.6% 8.1% 0.7 5.0% 7.5% 0.7 wilfrid laurier windsor 1.5% 3.8% 0.4 3.4% 3.9% 0.9 5.9% 3.6% 3.8% 2.8% york 22.3% 12.2% 1.6 1.8 14.1% 10.4% 1.3 1.4 share of transfer/ share of enrolment notes: fall full-time head count, university enrolment numbers from council of ontario universities, http://cou.on.ca/numbers/multi-year-data/enrolment/; dominican university college and northern ontario school of medicine (nosm) excluded; college transfer numbers as share of transfers to ontario universities a comparison of the top 10 university-college transfer partnerships (2015 versus 2007) by transfer volume and the system-wide share, clearly shows the importance of geographical proximity between partner institutions. for both years, each of the top 10 university-college partnerships resided in the same city or surrounding area (table 7). torontos prominence in college-to-university transfer partnerships has declined from comprising 6 of the top 10 partners in 2007, to only three in 2015. the durham-uoit partnership has emerged from outside the top 10 in 2007, to occupy second place behind seneca-york in 2015. as noted previously, some of the decline in transfer in the toronto area can be attributed to the growth in degree offerings by the colleges. an interesting example is transfer between seneca and ryerson. in 2007, seneca graduates who transferred to ryerson reported entering business programs, particularly in management, human resources and finance, in addition to information technology. seneca has grown its own degree offerings in these areas, resulting in a decline in transfers to ryerson from seneca. 28 table 7. top 10 college-university partnerships by number of transfer students, 2015 vs 2007 university college partner seneca-york (toronto) 2015 # transfers share of transfers 4.1% university college partner 1 197 1 seneca-york (toronto) 2 durham-uoit (oshawa) 193 4.0% 2 humber-york (toronto) 3 fanshawe-western 184 3.8% 3 fanshawe-western (london) (london) 4 george brown-ryerson 181 3.7% 4 seneca-ryerson (toronto) (toronto) 5 la cite-u of ottawa 178 3.7% 5 st. clair-windsor (ottawa) (windsor) 6 st. clair-windsor 139 2.9% 6 george brown(windsor) ryerson (toronto) 7 algonquin-carleton 136 2.8% 7 algonquin-carleton (ottawa) (ottawa) 8 niagara-brock (st. 131 2.7% 8 sheridan-york catharines) (oakville/torontogta) 9 humber-york (toronto) 113 2.3% 9 la cite-u of ottawa (ottawa) 10 mohawk-mcmaster 84 1.7% 10 george brown-york (hamilton) (toronto) note: count and percentage share adjusted for college response rate. 2007 # transfers 333 share of transfers 7.3% 202 4.4% 168 3.7% 155 3.4% 137 3.0% 136 3.0% 132 2.9% 128 2.8% 111 2.4% 103 2.2% university program of entry the study analyzed the distribution of transfer students by field of study relative to the distribution of the overall university population. the results (figure 12) show that college transfers are more likely than the overall university population to enter the social sciences and commerce, and less likely to enter any of the sciences (applied, life, or physical). a comparison of the distribution for college transfers between 2007 and 2015 (figure 13) shows slight differences. transfers into health and engineering have increased slightly, whereas the share for education, fine arts and business has reduced slightly. 29 figure 12. university program enrolment: college transfers versus overall university enrolment, 20152016 60% 55% 50% 40% 37% 30% 20% 9% 10% 0% 6% 5% 4% 4% 6% 9% 0% transfer students 8% 11% 8% 2% 10%10% 7% 3% 5% 1% 2015-16 university enrolment note: university enrolment numbers by program area from council on ontario universities, http://cou.on.ca/numbers/multiyear-data/enrolment/ 30 figure 13. distribution of university transfers by field of study, 2007 vs 2015 40% 36% 34% 35% 30% 25% 22% 19% 20% 15% 10% 5% 8% 6% 6% 7% 4% 6% 6% 2% 2% 8% 10% 6% 4% 3% 6% 5% 0% 2007 2015 college graduates largely enter a university field of study that is related to their program area of graduation (table 8). for example, almost three-quarters of college business graduates entered a university business program; likewise 70% of community service graduates (from programs such as social service worker and police foundations) continued on in the social sciences, and 66% of engineering graduates entered either engineering or math-related programs. program affinity is further addressed later in the report. 31 table 8. affinity between college program area and university program of entry university program entered general arts & science college program area of graduation creative and preparatory applied arts health hospitality / upgrading 3% 4% 2% 4% business 1% community service 1% engineering/ technology 1% total 2% education 1% 15% 3% 8% 3% 3% 1% 6% fine & applied arts 1% 1% 34% 1% 2% 3% 1% 4% humanities 3% 4% 30% 2% 10% 14% 1% 7% social sciences 15% 70% 10% 7% 16% 34% 10% 36% agriculture & biological sciences engineering & applied sciences health professions 0% 1% 0% 7% 7% 3% 9% 2% 1% 0% 3% 1% 2% 2% 54% 7% 0% 2% 1% 57% 2% 25% 3% 8% mathematical & physical sciences commerce/business/ administration not reported/not applicable/other 2% 0% 1% 4% 2% 3% 12% 3% 73% 1% 10% 2% 50% 4% 5% 22% 3% 3% 5% 6% 6% 5% 4% 4% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% transfer experience reasons for continuing the gss asked graduates who continued their education after graduation to consider a series of 12 potential reasons for furthering their education, and to rate each as a major, minor, or not a reason. the data show that the reasons for continuing on to university after college graduation have remained very stable since 2007 (table 9, figure 14). on average, almost 90% of university transfers cited career advancement or obtaining the credential as a major reason, followed by reasons associated with expanding their education such as acquiring more in depth training, more theoretical knowledge, or improving skills.. in contrast, just over one-quarter of transfers reported pursuing a different field of study as a major reason. the potential for higher income was a major reason for 72% of respondents. almost half (47%) of respondents identified the existence of a formal transfer agreement as a major reason for continuing on to university. encouragement from others was of moderate influence, at 35%. a lack of jobs in their field of study and the employer requiring or paying for university were the least cited reasons for transfer. 32 table 9. reasons for continuing on to university, % major reason, 20072015 college graduates more opportunities for career advancement to get diploma/ certificate/degree upgrade/improve skills 2007 90% 2008 90% 2009 90% 2010 89% 2011 89% 2012 90% 2013 89% 2014 90% 2015 88% % point change, 20072015 -2% 87% 87% 87% 86% 86% 86% 86% 86% 86% -2% 72% 72% 74% 74% 72% 72% 74% 74% 75% 3% interest in further/ more 72% 73% 73% 72% 72% 73% 73% 74% 74% 2% in-depth training in field gain theoretical 70% 71% 74% 71% 71% 73% 74% 74% 73% 2% knowledge/broader education potential for higher 72% 74% 72% 72% 71% 73% 72% 70% 69% -3% income needed for professional 55% 57% 57% 55% 54% 56% 56% 57% 56% 1% designation there was a formal 44% 45% 45% 46% 47% 48% 48% 50% 47% 3% transfer agreement between your previous and your current program encouragement from 33% 34% 33% 34% 36% 38% 38% 36% 38% 4% others (family members, friends, faculty) interest in pursuing a 30% 28% 28% 30% 27% 25% 25% 26% 27% -2% different field of study no work/job available in 14% 14% 16% 18% 18% 19% 19% 18% 16% 2% your field of study company required/ paid 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 6% 6% 1% for it note: includes graduates who indicated they were enrolled either full or part time in a university program six months after graduation 33 figure 14. reasons for continuing on to university, % major reason, 2007 vs 2015 college graduates more opportunities for career advancement to get diploma/ certificate/ degree upgrade/ improve skills interest in further/ more in-depth training in field gain theoretical knowledge/ broader education potential for higher income needed for professional designation there was a formal transfer agreement between your encouragement from others (family members, friends, interest in pursuing a different field of study no work/ job available in your field of study company required/ paid for it 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 2015 2007 information sources graduates who indicated they were enrolled in full-time education were asked about the information sources they used when making plans for further education (table 10). graduates who transfer to university use of a variety of information sources, with university sources (e.g. staff, website, publications) the most common ones, suggesting that students likely go directly to the institutions they are considering attending. the reported reliance on university staff (academic and administrative) for information has increased by five percentage points since 2007, from 74% to 79%, with an 8% increase in those reporting staff to be a major source. college sources are separated into two categories, academic (faculty, coordinators, counselors) and administrative staff (registration, student services). a consistent proportion, about three-quarters of transfers, uses academic sources more often. reliance on college administrative staff for information has increased somewhat since 2007, at 4%, but the proportion of those citing it as a major source has increased by seven percentage points. students peers, parents, and families continue to be important sources of information, but are less dominant (particularly parents as sources) than the literature shows for those transitioning from high school (king et al., 2006). in 2013, the gss added questions on the use of university and college transfer advising services. data show that each service is currently used by almost two-thirds of transfers. the least-used sources of information are the ocutg and college hard copy publications. the use of hard copy publications has dropped by eight percentage points, understandably because of the long-term shift from print to electronic. despite the continued decline in the use of hard copy publications, it is 34 important to note that almost half of transfers report some usage. in 2013, the gss question on the ocutg was refined to ask whether the respondent used the website page that hosts the ocutg (ontransfer.ca), resulting in a much lower reported usage of 38% compared to 53% reported ocutg usage in 2012. this result may be due to a lack of awareness of the specific webpage address, or because respondents were referring to college or university transfer guides instead of the provincial guide. by 2015, however, the reported usage of ontransfer.ca increased from 38% to 44%. table 10. information sources for graduates transferring to full-time university programs, percentage (%) major or minor source, 20072015 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 university website/publications 86% 86% 88% 86% 88% 87% 86% 86% university staff (including 74% 73% 75% 75% 75% 74% 75% 77% registrars office, faculty, etc.) college faculty/counselors/ 74% 74% 72% 73% 73% 73% 73% 75% program coordinators other students (including 75% 74% 75% 74% 75% 74% 75% 76% current and former college and university students) college website 68% 69% 69% 70% 68% 69% 65% 66% parents and family 72% 71% 71% 71% 70% 70% 69% 69% college administration, i.e. 63% 64% 63% 63% 63% 63% 64% 67% registrars office, student services university credit-transfer 65% 63% advising services college credit-transfer advising 62% 62% services college hard copy publications 54% 53% 52% 52% 49% 48% 47% 45% ontario college university 55% 56% 55% 54% 53% 53% transfer guide (ocutg) ontransfer.ca website 38% 41% note: a breakout of the information sources by major or minor sources for 2015 are in the appendices. 2015 87% 79% % pt change , 20072015 1% 5% 75% 1% 73% -2% 70% 70% 67% 2% -2% 4% 65% 63% 46% -8% 44% to compare where respondents obtain their information from, the study categorized all of the sources of information into three main groups: university, college and personal sources (figure 15). university-based sources, such as staff, administrative offices, or websites, were cited as major by approximately twothirds of transfer students, whereas transfers cited approximately 60% of college sources as major. for each of these sources, usage has risen marginally. almost half of students cited either their family or other students as a major source of information on transfer, a share that has changed little since 2007. 35 figure 15. sources of information on transfer to university, % major, 2007-2015 graduates 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2007 2008 2009 2010 university sources 2011 college sources 2012 2013 2014 2015 personal sources colleges sources: used as a major source at least one of: college hard copy publications; college administration, i.e. registrars office, student services; college website; college faculty/counselors/program coordinators university sources: used as a major source at least one of: university staff (including registrars office, faculty, etc.), university website/publications personal sources: used as a major source at least one of: parents and family; other students (including current and former college and university students) college as route of access to university degree a key question in the area of student mobility is whether the college transfer pathway enables a student to attain a university degree which they otherwise may not have achieved. over half of graduates reported they would not have been accepted into university without first having graduated from college (figure 16). figure 17 shows the results by credential and demonstrates the access role that one-year certificate programs play in particular, with 66% reporting they would not have been accepted without graduating from college first. unpublished data from seneca show that only one-quarter of graduates from 20072014 who transferred (certificate and diploma programs only) would have been eligible to enter university directly based on their high school grades and courses, with little difference between the role of a certificate versus a diploma on university access. the different results of these two sources is likely related to the surveys question about needing to graduate first, as college courses, particularly in two- and three-year programs, are often transferable without the requirement of graduating first. 36 figure 16. responses to the question, do you think you would have been accepted into your current program without graduating from college first? (20072015 graduates) 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2007 2008 2009 2010 yes 2011 no 2012 2013 2014 2015 don't know note: total excludes refused and missing responses. figure 17. responses to the question, do you think you would have been accepted into your current program without graduating from college first? by credential (20072015 graduates) 100% 80% 51.4 51.1 44.5 45.2 diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) 65.8 60% 40% 20% 31.4 0% certificate (1 yr) yes no don't know note: includes graduates who indicated they were enrolled in full-time university six months after graduation timing of decision graduates who transferred were asked about the timing of their decision to transfer (before entering college, at entry, during their program, after graduation). figure 18 shows that over time, between 43% and 48% of transfers made the decision before or at the start of entering their program, and 42% to 46% 37 decided during their program. only between 10% and 12% decided to transfer after graduation. of those who made the decision to transfer after they graduated, 29% cited a lack of jobs as a major reason to continue their education, compared with 15% for those who decided earlier (figure 19). however, timing of decision did not appear to have a relationship with other cited reasons for transfer (results not shown). figure 18. timing of decision to further their education, 20072015 graduates who transferred to university 100% 80% 60% 43% 44% 42% 44% 44% 45% 46% 46% 42% 40% 41% 40% 40% 38% 38% 39% 38% 41% 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 40% 20% 0% before entering at the start during after completion note: includes graduates who indicated they were enrolled in full-time university six months after graduation figure 19. role of work availability on timing of decision to transfer (%), 20072015 graduates who transferred to university 70% 60% 59.6 57.7 56.9 56.4 50% 42.2 40% 29.2 30% 20% 15.0 15.1 16.7 15.2 10% 0% before entering at the start not a reason during minor after completion total major 38 relatedness of program most college graduates who transfer to university primarily move into a program that they consider somewhat or very related, at 90% in the most recent year (figure 20). over half (54%) consider their university program to be very related, an increase of almost nine percentage points since 2007. these reported levels of alignment match those seen in the analysis of sending and receiving programs (table 8). high levels of alignment between sending and receiving program are also shown previously in an analysis of reasons for transfer (figure 14). the cited reasons of upgrade/improve skills and interest in further/more in-depth training in field ranked higher than interest in pursuing a different field of study. figure 20. relatedness of current university program to previous college program, 20072015 60% 50% 40% 54% 46% 41% 36% 30% 20% 12% 10% 9% 0% 2007 2008 2009 not at all related 2010 2011 2012 somewhat related 2013 2014 2015 very related note: includes graduates who indicated they were enrolled full time in university six months after graduation. estimate of amount of credit received in 2015, 39% of graduates from two-year diploma programs reported more than a year of transfer credit, an increase from 33% in 2007 (figure 21). for advanced diploma programs, the share of graduates who reported two or more years of transfer credit (figure 22) 10 increased from 40% in 2007 to 57% in 2015. 10 one-year certificates are not shown, since typically there is minimal transfer credit provided. 39 figure 21. estimated amount of transfer credit received for two-year diploma programs, 20072015 college graduates 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% none less than half a year about half a year 2007 2008 2013 one year 2014 one to two years two or more years 2015 notes: for the graduate survey years of 2009-2012, the gss did not ask the question about estimated amount of credit received. in 2013, the category of two or more years was divided into two years and more than two years. for this analysis, the two categories are combined. dont know, missing, and refused responses are removed from the total. note that some graduates may have obtained credit from previous education. figure 22. estimated amount of credit transfer received for advanced diploma programs (three-year), 20072015 graduates 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% none less than half a year about half a year 2007 2008 2013 one year 2014 one to two years two or more years 2015 further analysis by reported level of program affinity can help to explain the distribution of transfer credit. as would be expected, there is a strong association between program relatedness and the amount 40 of credit reported for graduates of both the two- and three-year diploma programs (figures 23 & 24). for graduates of two-year programs, 81% of those who transferred into a very related program reported receiving at least one year of transfer credit, compared with only 57% of those transferring into an unrelated program. similarly for three-year programs, 79% of those from very related programs reported receiving more than one year of transfer credit, compared with 46% for those who entered an unrelated program. figure 23. relationship between perceived relatedness of university program and amount of transfer credit, 20072015 graduates of two-year diploma programs 100% 15.7 80% 9.5 60% 31.9 17.5 25.2 12.5 16.2 41.5 40% 20% 39.8 43.1 28.4 18.8 0% not at all related half year or less somewhat related one year one to two years very related two or more years note: this question was not asked for the graduate survey years of 20092012 figure 24. relationship between perceived relatedness of university program and amount of transfer credit, 20072015 graduates of three-year advanced diploma programs 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 27.8 41.6 53.5 17.9 24.4 18.5 25.2 17.2 35.8 10.6 16.9 0% not at all related half year or less somewhat related one year one to two years 10.8 very related two or more years 41 notes: includes graduates who indicated they were enrolled full time in a university. this question was not asked for the graduate survey years of 2009-2012. dont know, refused and missing responses were excluded from the total. timing of credit notification in 2015, only one-quarter of transfers found out whether they were receiving transfer credit when they were offered admission; a third found out at or before registration, and a quarter did not know until they were enrolled. these proportions have not changed since 2007, and they indicate that many students decide to enroll without knowing how many credits they will need to graduate from university. figure 25 breaks out the results by college credential: 31% of graduates from a one-year certificate program had not yet applied to university, or were not applying; this rate compares to just 8% of those from a two-year diploma program and 5% from an advanced diploma program. for those who had applied to university, 62% of graduates of one-year certificate programs had heard by registration, compared with 70% and 73% of two- and three-year diploma programs respectively. table 11. responses to the question, when did you find out whether you were receiving credit for your college program? with offer of admission at or before registration after registration have not heard yet have not applied for credit yet you are not applying for credit 2007 29% 2008 29% 2009 27% 2010 25% 2011 25% 2012 23% 2013 27% 2014 28% 2015 25% total 26% 33% 33% 36% 36% 37% 38% 35% 36% 34% 36% 26% 26% 23% 25% 23% 24% 27% 23% 26% 25% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 2% 2% 3% 4% 3% 4% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% 8% 8% 9% 8% 9% 9% 7% 9% 10% 8% figure 25. timing of transfer credit notification by program credential, 20072015 graduates 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% with offer of admission at or before registration certificate (1 yr) after registration have not heard yet have not applied you are not for credit yet applying for credit diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) 42 the share of transfers who reported receiving less credit transfer than expected has held constant, ranging from 25% to 29% between 2007 and 2015, with an overall average of 27% (figure 26). between 56% and 57% obtained the same amount of credit as they expected. figure 27 shows the breakout by credential. those with credentials of longer duration were slightly more likely to have received less credit transfer than expected, and less likely to have received more than expected. figure 26. amount of transfer credit received relative to expectations, 20072015 graduates 100% 14% 15% 17% 17% 17% 17% 16% 16% 17% 57% 56% 57% 56% 57% 58% 56% 56% 56% 29% 29% 26% 27% 26% 25% 27% 28% 26% 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% less than expected the same as expected more than expected note: data only for graduates who had applied for credit and received a response. figure 27. expectations of transfer credit by credential, 20072015 graduates 70% 58.9 60% 57.5 55.8 56.7 50% 40% 30% 20% 29.7 26.4 23.6 17.8 17.5 27.1 16.2 12.8 10% 0% certificate (1 yr) diploma (2 yr) less than expected advanced diploma (3 yr) the same as expected total more than expected 43 satisfaction with transition experience the proportion of transfers who reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with their transition experience to university has been very stable since 2007, averaging 81% (figure 28). figure 28. percentage satisfied with the transition experience from college to university, 20072015 graduates 90% 80% 70% 60% 35% 37% 38% 36% 39% 39% 44% 44% 44% 44% 43% 43% 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 32% 33% 35% 49% 47% 45% 2013 2014 2015 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% satisfied very satisfied notes: includes graduates who indicated they were enrolled full time in a university six months after graduation. for the combined years of 2007 to 2015, satisfaction with the transition experience differed by credential and program area (figure 29). graduates who transferred to university from credentials of shorter duration were more satisfied with their experience; 46% of certificate program graduates were very satisfied compared to 31% of graduates from advanced diploma programs. overall, 86% of transfers from one-year certificate programs were satisfied and very satisfied, compared to 81% from diploma programs and 78% from advanced diploma programs. differences in satisfaction rates also exist by program area. satisfaction with the transition from preparatory/upgrading programs was very high, at 86% (satisfied and very satisfied) compared to 76% for health and engineering, with the other program areas reporting in the intermediate range. 44 figure 29. satisfaction with the transition experience by credential and program area, 20072015 graduates 60% 50% 40% 40 46 49 47 45 36 31 30% 44 43 36 32 47 44 38 40 32 46 46 32 29 20% 10% credential type engineering / technology prep / upgrading hospitality health creative and applied arts community service business certificate (1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) 0% program area satisfied very satisfied the study analyzed three major factors that may explain graduates satisfaction with the transition experience: i) the reasons for transferring, ii) whether the expected amount of credit was obtained, and iii) the degree of affinity between the college and university programs. although a higher satisfaction rate is associated with citing most reasons as major (figure 30), those who cited academic or program related reasons were much more satisfied than those who did not (82% versus 69%). figure 30. association between satisfaction with transition experience and reasons for transferring (grouped), 20072015 graduates 90% 80% 77.9 81.9 81.3 76.4 81.5 79.2 major not major 83.4 79.9 83.3 68.9 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% not major major not major major career/ labour market academic/ program related related not major acquire credential or designation major presence of transfer agreement not major major encouragement from others 45 receiving the expected amount of transfer credit and moving within a related field have a positive effect on graduates satisfaction with their transition experience. only 71% of those who received less credit than they expected reported they were satisfied and very satisfied, compared to 86% and 88% of those who received the same amount of credit, or more credit, than they expected, respectively (figure 31). those who received more credit than expected were much more likely to be very satisfied. likewise, only 71% of those who transferred into a program not at all related to their college program were satisfied and very satisfied compared to 84% of those who transferred into a very related program. figure 31. satisfaction with transition experience by program relatedness and amount of expected transfer credit received, 2007 2015 graduates 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 40 23 31 48 42 29 50% 40% 30% 20% 48 46 less than expected the same as expected 40 42 49 42 10% 0% more than expected the amount of credit you received was.... satisfied not at all related somewhat related very related how related is your current program to your previous college program? very satisfied transfer students were also asked about their satisfaction with their academic preparation (figure 32). the percent satisfied has been consistently high over time, at 85%, with 37% very satisfied and 48% satisfied. 46 figure 32. percentage satisfied with academic preparation for university, 20072015 graduates 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 36% 38% 38% 37% 37% 39% 34% 35% 36% 49% 46% 47% 48% 46% 47% 50% 49% 50% 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 satisfied very satisfied 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% note: includes graduates who indicated they were enrolled full time in university six months after graduation. graduate satisfaction with usefulness of college education the study compared the satisfaction rates between college graduates who transferred to university and graduates who did not transfer (figure 33). for each year studied, the overall satisfaction rate of university transfers was very stable, between 85% and 87%. however, the satisfaction rate of nonuniversity transfers dropped after the 2008 recession, likely because of lower employment prospects, widening the gap in satisfaction between transfers and non- transfers by another 4 percentage points. figure 33. percentage satisfied with their college credential in achieving their goals, 20072015 graduates 90% 85% 87 87 86 82 86 83 80% 87 85 87 87 87 79 79 78 80 80 80 80 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 75% 70% 65% 60% 55% 50% 2007 2008 university transfers non-university transfers note: survey question: how would you rate your satisfaction with the usefulness of your college education in achieving your goals after graduation? 47 the study also analyzed the influence of labour market participation and other education activity after graduation, on graduates satisfaction with their college education (figure 34). graduates who obtain a job related to their field of study are the most satisfied, with a steady 92% indicating they were satisfied or very satisfied. graduates who further their education in a college or university program also have a strong and similar satisfaction rate of 87% on average. however, previous research has shown that graduate satisfaction is negatively affected by being unemployed or under-employed (mccloy & liu, 2010; mccloy, et al., 2016). figure 34. percentage satisfied with their college education by activity after graduation, 20072015 graduates 100% 90% 87.1% 87.3% 91.9% 77.0% 80% 70% 62.6% 67.5% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% university college working in a related job working in a partially related job working in an unrelated job neither working nor in school regressions: influences on the transfer rate and satisfaction with transition experience transfer rate to determine which factors independently influence the overall transfer rate, four regression models were performed (table 12). model 1 includes all students, including international students, for all years. as international students do not have an ontario permanent address, this model necessarily excludes neighbourhood characteristics such as income level and mother tongue (derived from census data) and other geographic characteristics such as proximity to the nearest university. model 2 excludes those who are international students and those without an ontario permanent address, and includes measures derived from neighbourhood income level and first language. model 3 focuses on students from ontario, but to determine the effect of disability status on transfer, it only includes those years for which the gss included the question on disability (2014 and 2015). similarly, model 4 focuses on all ontario students, including those who self-identify as having a disability, and includes data from the new gss question on aboriginal identity. as this question was not asked until 2015, model 4 focuses solely on that year. sociodemographics the results across three models show that male graduates are very slightly but significantly more likely to transfer than are female graduates. international students are 3 percentage points less likely to transfer. 48 graduates under 22 years of age, across all models, are more likely to transfer, with graduates 22 to 25 years of age 3 percentage points less likely; those over 25 years of age were 6 percentage points less likely to transfer than the younger age group. relative to graduates from the lowest income neighbourhood, those from middle and higher income neighbourhoods were more likely to transfer. graduates from neighbourhoods with a higher share with english as the mother tongue were less likely to transfer (4 to 6 percentage points, dependent on the model). in 2014 and 2015, the gss asked graduates for the first time two key questions: whether they selfidentified as having a disability, and whether they identified as being of aboriginal ancestry. the results show that when controlling for various factors, graduates with a disability were slightly and significantly less likely to transfer than other students. this finding mirrors the descriptive data which showed a transfer rate of 6.4% for those without a disability versus 5.8% for those with a disability. as for those who self-identified as aboriginal, the regression analysis showed no difference in the transfer rate. these results are interesting as these populations are considered under-represented in university, and are much less likely to transition from high school to university (finnie et al., 2011). program and credential graduates of one-year certificate programs were less likely to transfer, and graduates of advanced diploma programs were more likely than two-year diploma graduates to transfer. graduates of community service and preparatory/upgrading programs were more likely than business graduates to transfer, with graduates of all other program area less likely. geography graduates from southwestern ontario colleges were consistently less likely to transfer than those from each of the other regions. the proximity between the college campus of graduation and the university on transfer had a slight but significant effect, with transfer less likely for graduates from campuses located more than 80 km from a university. as well, if the nearest university to the college campus of graduation had high admission standards (selective), those graduates had slightly lower transfer rates. transfer rates to university were higher for graduates from larger cohorts and larger colleges. time trends the descriptive data show a decline in the provincial transfer rate to university. controlling for any potential changes in the composition of students, programs, or college profiles, the regression models also showed a decline in transfer rates, with the years 2012 to 2015 having significantly lower transfer rates than the 2007 reference year. 49 table 12. regression analysis: transfer to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 20072015 gender variables male status in canada international disability status self-identify with disability self-identify as aboriginal 22 - 25 aboriginal status age (yrs) (ref: < 22 yrs) > 25 neighbourhood income (ref:=low income) neighbourhood share with english as mother tongue cohort size (ref: >200) grad program group (ref: business) certificate 1-yr advanced diploma 3-yr community services creative and applied arts health hospitality preparatory/ upgrading engineering/ technology college size (ref: large) small medium college region (ref: southwestern) central eastern metro toronto model 3 ontario students (includes disability status, 2014, 2015 only) 0.008*** (0.002) model 4 ontario students (includes disability and aboriginal identity, 2015 only) 0.007 (0.003) -0.026*** (0.001) -0.060*** (0.001) -0.025*** (0.001) -0.059*** (0.001) 0.005*** (0.001) 0.012*** (0.001) -0.060*** (0.003) -0.030*** (0.003) -0.061*** (0.003) 0.006*** (0.002) 0.010*** (0.003) -0.045*** (0.007) 0.001 (0.005) 0.009 (0.008) -0.031*** (0.004) -0.061*** (0.004) 0.009*** (0.003) 0.016*** (0.004) -0.043*** (0.010) -0.019*** (0.002) -0.005*** (0.002) -0.030*** (0.001) 0.056*** (0.001) 0.026*** (0.002) -0.062*** (0.001) -0.049*** (0.001) -0.060*** (0.001) 0.070*** (0.002) -0.053*** (0.001) -0.020*** (0.002) -0.005*** (0.002) -0.031*** (0.001) 0.056*** (0.001) 0.030*** (0.002) -0.062*** (0.002) -0.043*** (0.001) -0.060*** (0.002) 0.081*** (0.002) -0.047*** (0.001) 0.009*** (0.003) 0.015*** (0.004) -0.031*** (0.002) 0.047*** (0.003) 0.029*** (0.004) -0.060*** (0.004) -0.045*** (0.003) -0.060*** (0.003) 0.065*** (0.006) -0.052*** (0.003) 0.015*** (0.005) 0.014*** (0.005) -0.029*** (0.003) 0.041*** (0.004) 0.030*** (0.006) -0.065*** (0.005) -0.048*** (0.004) -0.063*** (0.005) 0.063*** (0.008) -0.051*** (0.005) -0.012*** (0.002) -0.003*** (0.001) 0.023*** (0.001) 0.020*** (0.001) 0.035*** (0.001) 0.002 (0.002) -0.001 (0.001) 0.024*** (0.001) 0.012*** (0.001) 0.025*** (0.002) -0.004 (0.005) 0.003 (0.003) 0.016*** (0.003) 0.007** (0.003) 0.016*** (0.004) 0.005 (0.007) 0.010*** (0.004) 0.012*** (0.004) 0.001 (0.005) 0.017*** (0.005) high <100 model 2 ontario students (all years) 0.005*** (0.001) -0.007** (0.003) middle 100-200 grad credential (ref: 2-yr diploma) model 1 all students (includes international) 0.005*** (0.001) -0.028*** (0.001) 50 variables northern nearest university is >80 km selectivity of nearest university academic year of graduation (ref: 2007) distance from college campus nearest university is "selective" 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 term of graduation (ref: winter) summer fall constant observations r-squared model 1 all students (includes international) 0.026*** (0.002) -0.003 (0.002) -0.000 (0.002) -0.002 (0.002) -0.001 (0.002) -0.004** (0.002) -0.010*** (0.002) -0.016*** (0.002) -0.017*** (0.002) -0.010*** (0.001) -0.059*** (0.001) 0.083*** (0.003) 389,675 0.053 model 2 ontario students (all years) 0.019*** (0.002) -0.006*** (0.002) model 3 ontario students (includes disability status, 2014, 2015 only) 0.021*** (0.005) -0.009** (0.004) model 4 ontario students (includes disability and aboriginal identity, 2015 only) 0.006 (0.007) -0.008 (0.006) -0.002** (0.001) -0.002 (0.002) -0.004 (0.003) -0.002 (0.002) 0.000 (0.002) -0.001 (0.002) -0.000 (0.002) -0.003 (0.002) -0.008*** (0.002) -0.015*** (0.002) -0.016*** (0.002) -0.010*** (0.001) -0.062*** (0.001) 0.147*** (0.004) 354,934 0.056 0.002 (0.002) 0.100*** (0.009) 64,739 0.044 0.108*** (0.014) 29,170 0.042 regression results: satisfaction with transition experience graduates who indicated they had enrolled in full-time education six months after graduation were asked about their satisfaction with the transition experience. table 13 contains the regression results specifically for those who transferred to university. model 1 comprises all graduates (including those from outside ontario) and therefore does not include neighbourhood characteristics of income and mother tongue. model 2 excludes those outside of ontario, and includes neighbourhood income and mother tongue. both models include reasons for transfer and information sources. model 3 contains all variables (excluding those outside ontario) in addition to transition variables related to the timing, amount, and expectations for transfer credit, as well as the relatedness of the transfer program to college program of graduation. model 3 includes only the group that at the time of the survey had both applied for credit and had been informed about the amount awarded. the years between 2008 and 2013 are not included in model 3 as some transfer credit questions were not asked in those years. 51 sociodemographics males were slightly but significantly more satisfied with their transition experience than females. older transfers were slightly less likely to be satisfied, and there were no differences by neighbourhood mother tongue or income. program and credential across all models, graduates from advanced diploma programs were less satisfied than graduates from two-year diploma programs. results by program area are of interest in that several fields of study are no longer significantly different when transition variables are included. engineering transfers are less satisfied than the business reference in all models. however, community service, health and hospitality transfers cease to be less satisfied than the business reference group once other factors related to transfer credit and program affinity are controlled for (held constant). in contrast, graduates from preparatory/upgrading programs become more satisfied than the reference when these other factors are taken into consideration, likely because preparatory graduates generally have no related field to enter, and once that absence is controlled for, a slight inflation of satisfaction occurs. geography there was no difference by region in satisfaction rates, but graduates from medium-sized colleges were slightly less likely to be satisfied. the results showed that proximity between the college campus of graduation and the university entered, had no consistent effect on satisfaction rates. likewise, the size of the graduating class had no effect. time trends the descriptive data show only a slight change in satisfaction over time. controlling for any potential changes in the composition of students, programs, or college profiles, the regression models show slightly higher satisfaction rates between 2011 and 2013 than in the 2007 reference year. reasons for transfer and role of information sources the reasons for transfer and the sources of information were clustered into broader related groupings. overall, transfers who indicated they made high use of any of the listed information sources were more likely to be satisfied with their transition experience. as expected, access to sources of information generally enhances the transition experience. those who indicated that at least one of the college sources was a major source were 5 percentage points more likely to be satisfied. the rate for using university sources was slightly lower at 3%. those who indicated that personal sources, such as family or other students, were a major source of information were about 2 percentage points more likely to be satisfied than those who did not. the use of student and information sources was not significant in model 3, likely because the model contained fewer years. the study also tested whether the reasons for transfer were associated with subsequent satisfaction with the transition. those who transferred for academic or program related reasons were 10 percentage points more likely to be satisfied even when controlling for transition factors. those who indicated extrinsic factors such as encouragement from others, or career/labour market goals, were not more likely to be satisfied than those who did not. interestingly, those who cited a transfer agreement as a major reason for transfer, were not more satisfied when transfer credit factors were controlled for (model 3). 52 transfer credit and program affinity model 3 measured the effect of the notification of transfer credit, the amount of transfer, and whether the amount met expectations, as well as the perceived affinity of the transfer program. as might be expected, transfer credit amount that either met or exceeded expectations was a significant influencer on satisfaction with the transition, with those who received more transfer credit than they expected 17 percentage points more likely to be satisfied than those who received less than expected. those who received some transfer credit relative to no credit were 7 percentage points more likely to be satisfied. the timing of notification was not significant. graduates who transferred to a related program area were more likely to be satisfied with the transition experience than those moving to an unrelated program area. table 13. regression analysis: satisfaction with transition experience to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 20072015 gender variables male status in canada international age (yrs) (ref: < 22 yrs) 22 - 25 > 25 neighbourhood income (ref:=low income) all graduates 0.018*** graduates from ontario 0.018*** transfer variables 0.023*** (0.005) 0.066*** (0.012) -0.021*** (0.006) -0.035*** (0.008) (0.005) (0.008) -0.005 (0.008) 0.003 (0.008) 0.016 (0.009) -0.031*** -0.023*** (0.006) -0.035*** (0.008) -0.003 (0.006) 0.004 (0.007) 0.002 (0.018) -0.006 (0.008) 0.003 (0.008) 0.019 (0.010) -0.028*** -0.011 (0.009) -0.032** (0.013) -0.007 (0.010) 0.009 (0.010) -0.019 (0.027) 0.020 (0.012) 0.012 (0.013) 0.026 (0.015) -0.050*** (0.008) 0.076*** (0.023) -0.026 (0.008) 0.071*** (0.025) -0.027 (0.012) 0.027 (0.050) -0.052** (0.014) (0.015) (0.026) -0.025*** -0.023*** -0.022 (0.008) (0.008) (0.012) -0.017 -0.010 0.002 (0.011) (0.012) (0.019) -0.037** -0.038** -0.005 (0.014) (0.015) (0.024) middle high neighbourhood share with english as mother tongue cohort size (ref: >200) <100 100-200 grad credential (ref: 2-yr diploma) certificate 1-yr advanced diploma 3-yr degree 4-yr grad. certificate 1-yr grad program group (ref: business) community services creative and applied arts health 53 variables hospitality preparatory/upgrading engineering and technology college size (ref: large) small medium ontario college region (ref: southwestern) central eastern metro toronto northern nearest university (ref: over 80 km) distance from college campus selectivity of nearest university nearest university is "selective" academic year of graduation (ref: 200708) 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 term of graduation (ref: winter) all graduates graduates from ontario transfer variables -0.050** -0.054** -0.012 (0.020) (0.022) (0.038) 0.014 0.015 0.040** (0.010) (0.011) (0.016) -0.036*** -0.040*** -0.049*** (0.010) -0.014 (0.010) -0.015 (0.016) -0.015 (0.016) (0.017) (0.026) -0.027*** -0.031*** -0.040*** (0.007) (0.007) (0.012) 0.007 (0.008) 0.004 (0.009) 0.001 (0.009) -0.020 0.009 (0.009) 0.006 (0.010) 0.003 (0.010) -0.015 0.005 (0.013) -0.010 (0.015) -0.005 (0.015) -0.041 (0.016) 0.032 (0.016) 0.036** (0.025) 0.045 (0.017) -0.005 (0.017) -0.006 (0.026) -0.013 (0.006) 0.011 (0.011) 0.019 (0.011) -0.005 (0.010) 0.026*** (0.010) 0.030*** (0.010) 0.019 (0.010) 0.002 (0.011) 0.005 (0.011) (0.007) 0.012 (0.011) 0.023** (0.011) -0.001 (0.011) 0.028*** (0.010) 0.031*** (0.010) 0.022** (0.011) 0.004 (0.012) 0.006 (0.012) (0.010) 0.018 (0.012) - 0.055*** (0.005) 0.033*** (0.006) 0.055*** (0.006) 0.032*** (0.006) summer fall major source of transfer information college university 0.026** (0.012) 0.001 (0.012) 0.006 (0.013) -0.008 (0.012) 0.031 (0.025) 0.050*** (0.009) 0.036*** (0.009) 54 variables students and family major reason for transferring encouragement from others acquire credential or designation academic/program related career/labour market related presence of transfer agreement transfer credit received (ref: less than expected) all graduates 0.017*** (0.005) 0.010 (0.005) 0.027*** (0.010) 0.100*** (0.012) 0.007 (0.011) 0.034*** (0.005) graduates from ontario 0.018*** (0.005) 0.010 (0.006) 0.028*** (0.010) 0.102*** (0.012) 0.004 (0.012) 0.034*** (0.005) same as expected more than expected timing of credit notification (ref: notified after program start) relatedness to previous program (ref: program not related) at start of program or earlier received transfer credit yes somewhat related very related constant observations r-squared 0.626*** (0.021) 25,590 0.032 0.621*** (0.025) 23,855 0.032 transfer variables 0.010 (0.008) 0.010 (0.009) 0.028 (0.016) 0.093*** (0.018) -0.014 (0.018) 0.005 (0.008) 0.143*** (0.010) 0.170*** (0.012) -0.000 (0.009) 0.072*** (0.016) 0.110*** (0.016) 0.065*** (0.021) 0.414*** (0.046) 9,653 0.070 notes: 1. classification of information sources: a. colleges sources: used as a major source at least one of: college hard copy publications; college administration, i.e. registrars office, student services; college website; college faculty/counselors/program coordinators b. university sources: university staff (including registrars office, faculty, etc.); university website/publications c. students and family sources: parents and family; other students (including current and former college and university students) 2. classification of major reasons for transfer: a. career/labour market related: reasons included one of: potential for higher income, no job, company paid, more opportunities for career advancement b. academic/ program related: one of training, theoretical knowledge, upgrading skills, different field c. acquire credential or designation: to get diploma/certificate/degree; needed for professional designation discussion the study analyzed nine years of data from ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey to determine the influences on the transfer rate to university, trends in the rate over time and the potential explanations for them, and the transfer experience. 55 influences on transfer rate previous research has shown that students who are less likely to attend university are male, low income, aboriginal, have a disability, or live beyond commuting distance from a university (finnie et al., 2011). less is known about rates of transfer to university by these groups within the college student population. this study serves to bridge this gap in knowledge and suggests that the college transfer pathway to university may be more equitable than the direct entry pathway. there were only slight differences by income, commuting distance, and for students with a disability whereas males, and aboriginal students are as likely to transfer to university as other college students. other research on seneca students that includes details on college performance and plans for university at entry, shows that within the college population, college performance and aspirations for transfer are more important than sociodemographic factors on transfer rates, indicating this pathway may be more merit- and motivation-based (steffler et al., 2016; mccloy et al., 2016). graduates of one-year certificate programs were less likely to transfer, and graduates of advanced diploma programs were more likely to transfer than those from two-year diploma programs. graduates of community service and preparatory/upgrading programs were more likely than business graduates to transfer, with all other program area graduates less likely to transfer. programs with the highest transfer volume in 2015 were social service worker, followed by the one-year gas and police foundations. in 2007, ece, the two-year gas program, and police foundations had the highest numbers of transfers. ece also experienced a dramatic drop in transfer rate coinciding with changes in the labour market that made working in the profession more attractive, and with the creation of several ece college degree programs (mccloy et al., 2015). the two-year general arts program offerings throughout ontario now focus less on university transfer preparation and more on skills development. college graduates are largely transferring within related fields, as shown when the program of college graduation and university program of entry are mapped. approximately two-thirds of transfers are moving within related fields of study. this finding is further validated by results from a separate gss question that asked transfers to rate the affinity of their program of transfer. in 2015, 54% reported that it was very related and 36% indicated it was somewhat related. the share reporting that the programs were very related has increased from 46% in 2007. additionally, only 27% of university transfers in 2015 indicated interest in pursuing a different field of study as their major reason for transfer. major regional shifts in transfer rates have occurred since 2007: metro toronto and central region had much higher transfer rates than other regions of the province, but their rates are now similar to those of other regions. la cit continues to have the highest percentage of graduates who transfer, at 14% in both 2007 and 2015, whereas the rate for durham college (as an exception to the other gta colleges) increased from 6.6% to 9%, the second highest rate in the province. in terms of absolute numbers of transfers, the larger metro toronto colleges still predominate, with humber, seneca, and george brown ranked in the top three. the decreases in the volume of transfers from york and ryerson universities, together with uoits increases, mirror those seen in the college transfer numbers: york and ryerson are in close proximity to the toronto colleges, and uoit shares a location in oshawa with durham. however, york and ryerson continued to rank first and second in the volume of transfers received, with uoit moving into a tie with 56 the university of ottawa for third, up from a 15th place ranking in 2007.. yet when the amount of transfer is weighted to enrolment, the northern universities are taking on a much larger share of transfer students than the rest of the province. controlling for any potential changes in the composition of students, programs, or college profiles, the regression models show that the graduating years of 2012 to 2015 had significantly lower transfer rates than the 2007 reference year. the following section on transfer trends attempts to account for these changes over time. transfer trends the overall percentage of college graduates, including for all credentials, who furthered their education remained fairly stable throughout the years of this study, averaging 26%. the percentage transferring to a university program decreased from 8% in 200607 to 5.5% by 201415, whereas the share entering a college program increased from 17% to 19.1%, with the increase largely due to transfers into college certificate and diploma programs. when transfers from graduate certificate and college degree programs are excluded, the transfer rate to any university program still shows a decline, decreasing from 8.3% in 2007 to 6.3% in 2015. the descriptive data show that across all student, program, and college characteristics, the transfer rate has been declining, indicating that no single factor or set of factors included in the current analysis is responsible. the exception is international students, with growth in enrolment share, but a substantial drop in transfer rates, far larger than the system average. additionally, only five of the 24 colleges experienced an increase in the share of graduates transferring. the regression analysis supports this finding, which, by holding student and program characteristics constant, shows that graduates from the 201112 academic year onwards were less likely to transfer to university than the 200607 graduates. the following section discusses external factors, not captured in the current study, which may be responsible for the decline in transfer rates. potential external factors increase in college students with previous degrees the share of college entrants with a degree increased from 12.9% in 201112 to 17.9% in 201516 (maesd, student satisfaction survey; unpublished crsm analysis). when graduate certificate and degree programs are excluded, the share of degree holders was 7.7% in 201112 and 10% in 201516. the growth in international students is partially responsible for the increase in degree holders, as 30% of international entrants in certificate or diploma programs over this time period reported having a degree. however, even within the non-international student population, the share of certificate or diploma program entrants who reported having a degree increased from 6.4% to 7.8% over the same period. pathways to a degree have been increasing the provision of college degrees gives students the option of entering college degree program without having to transfer credits to a university. the number of graduates from college degree programs has increased four-fold, from 503 in 2007 to 2,239 by 2015. the toronto area colleges have experienced the most growth in the provision of degree programs, and also the largest decline in transfer rates. a similar trend has been observed in british columbia, where the gradually declining rate in student mobility from 200809 to 201314 was attributed to the numerous new opportunities available to students to 57 complete a bachelors degree or other credentials at a single institution, without the need to transfer elsewhere for completion (government of bc, 2017). in a positive development, universities in ontario have increased their focus on bridging programs, such as the transition year program (offered at york and the university of toronto) and the bridges to ryerson initiative, to improve access to university for underprepared or non-traditional students (medovarski, sanders, & spotton visano, 2015; kerr, 2011). plateauing university enrolment plateauing university enrolment may mean that some universities have greater capacity to accept more students directly from high school. undergraduate enrolment (fte) in ontario universities has only increased by 0.4% between 2012 and 2015 for funding eligible students, and 3% when including ineligible students 11. a recent report by the higher education quality council, suggested that universities may lower their high school admission averages in in geographic areas with a declining 18-25 year-old population, thus competing with local colleges (weingarten, kaufman, jonker, & hicks, 2017). increased focus on career opportunities for college graduates the marketability of a college credential is increasingly recognized as a viable alternative to a university education. for example, colleges ontario, the provincial advocacy association representing all 24 caats, mounted a marketing campaign to stress the value of college credentials in the labour market (colleges ontario, 2008). some evidence to support this theory is seen with seneca college entrants where the proportion with plans for university after graduation dropped from 42% in 200809 to 34% in 201314, whereas entrants plans for employment rose from 40% to 46% over the same period. similarly, a recent report on transfer trends in ece came to the conclusion that improved labour market outcomes (as well as the creation of college degree programs in early childhood education/development), contributed to a large decrease in transfer rates (mccloy et al., 2015). lack of comprehensive strategic planning pathway development between colleges and universities may need to follow a more strategic framework. lennon et al. (2016) found that pathway development has failed to focus within geographic areas where students are known to transfer the most, and that many pathways appear to be under-utilized. the study found that only 16% of ontario university pathways are with colleges within commuting distance and that the average number of transfers per pathway is 1.3. transfer experience the reasons for transferring to university have been consistent over time. highest-ranked reasons include career advancement; obtaining a credential; and expanding education, skills and training (such as acquiring more in-depth training, more theoretical knowledge, or improving skills). in contrast, just over one-quarter of transfers reported pursuing a different field of study as a major reason for transfer. a lack of jobs in their field of study, as well as employers requiring or paying for a university credential, were the least-cited reasons. transfers report a high use of a variety of information sources, with reliance on university websites, staff, or publications the most common, and reliance on most sources remaining the same over time. reliance 11 funding ineligible primarily pertains to international students. council of ontario universities, multi-year data: enrolment, http://cou.on.ca/numbers/multi-year-data/enrolment/ 58 on university staff and college administration for information has increased, whereas reliance on college hard copy publications has decreased. when information sources are grouped together based on whether they originate from college, university, or personal sources, two-third of transfers use university sources as a major source, followed by college sources at 60% and personal sources at 50%. approximately 40% of transfers had already made the decision to transfer when they entered college, with 11% deciding after graduation. this trend was stable over time. an interesting observation is that those who said their reason for returning to school was a lack of a job, were also more likely to have decided to transfer after graduation. the amount of transfer credit has been increasing somewhat, with transfers in related programs obtaining more credit, as would be expected. timing of credit notification has not changed over time, with only one-quarter of students finding out when they were offered admission, one-third at or before registration, and one-quarter not knowing until they were enrolled in university. the amount of credit received has been constant over time, with 27% receiving less than they expected and the majority (57%) receiving the amount they expected. satisfaction of university transfers with their academic preparation, transition experience, and college education overall remains consistently high. the rate of satisfaction with academic preparation averaged 85%. satisfaction with the transition experience has also been stable, averaging 81%. overall, 85% of transfers from one-year certificate programs were satisfied compared to 81% from diploma programs and 78% from advanced diploma programs. satisfaction with the transition from preparatory/upgrading programs was very high, at 86%, compared to 76% for health and engineering, with the rate for other program areas in the intermediate range. the proportion of transfers who reported being satisfied with the usefulness of their college education in achieving their goals has remained consistently high over time, averaging 87%. the satisfaction rate of the university transfer group was similar to that of college transfers, and slightly lower than those working in a related job (92% satisfied); college transfers, however, had much higher satisfaction rates than those working in partially related or unrelated jobs, or those not working. the factors influencing satisfaction with the transition experience were examined more closely in a regression model and showed slightly higher satisfaction rates between 2011 and 2013 than in the 2007 reference year. males were slightly but significantly more satisfied with their transition experience than females, and older transfers were slightly less likely to be satisfied. graduates from advanced diploma programs were less satisfied than graduates from two-year diploma programs; transfers from engineering, community service, health, and hospitality were less satisfied than the business group reference. overall, transfers who made high use of information sources were more likely to be satisfied with their transition experience. transfers using at least one of the college information sources were 5 percentage points more likely to be satisfied and 3 percentage points more likely to use university sources. having an academic or program-related reason for transfer resulted in a 10 percentage point increase in satisfaction with their transition experience. those influenced by extrinsic factors such as encouragement from others or career/ labour market interests, did not differ in satisfaction rates. 59 as might be expected, the amount of transfer credit either meeting or exceeding expectations significantly influenced satisfaction with the transition experience. receiving transfer credit and transferring into a related program area were also positive influencers on transfer, whereas the timing of notification was not significant. conclusion the study of transfer rates, the transfer experience, and trends over time is a complex endeavor, particularly in a dynamic environment with shifting student aspirations and demographics, a proliferation of new program offerings at colleges and universities, and changing labour market demand. further research should focus on areas such as the role of college-university transfer for groups traditionally under-represented in university, and the effectiveness of current transfer agreements to support students. the creation of data infrastructure using the ontario education number can provide central tracking of transfer rates, so that transfer can be measured by student demographics, region, transfer credit, and student retention and success after transfer. administrative data, however, cannot capture the student perspective, and an ongoing reliance on survey data obtained from such sources as the ontario college graduate satisfaction survey, together with other qualitative research, will be required. 60 references cci research inc. (2011). college-university student mobility report. toronto: college-university consortium council (cucc), http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports_10.pdf centre for research in student mobility (2015). student mobility milestones in ontario: a brief timeline. toronto: seneca college. colleges ontario (2009). student mobility between ontarios colleges and universities. toronto: colleges ontario, http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student-mobility/student_mobility_09.pdf colleges ontario (2008). colleges ontario launches obay marketing campaign, press release (feb. 25, 2008), http://www.collegesontario.org/news/news-releases/2008/colleges-ontario-launches-obaymarketing-campaign.html council of ontario universities, multi-year data: enrolment, http://cou.on.ca/numbers/multi-yeardata/enrolment/ decock, h., mccloy, u., steffler, m., & dicaire, j. (2016). international students at ontario colleges: a profile. canadian bureau for international education research in brief #6. ottawa: cbie. decock, h. (2006). a case study analysis of ontario caat graduates who transfer to a university. doctoral thesis. ontario institute for studies in education (oise), university of toronto. decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s., & hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education: an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario (heqco). dumaresq, c., lambert-maberly, a. & sudmant, w. (2003). the class of 1996 five years after graduation: comparing b.c. university outcomes for direct entry and transfer students. british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat), http://www.bccat.bc.ca/pubs/univoutcomes.pdf finnie, r., childs, s., & wismer, a. (2011). under-represented groups in postsecondary education in ontario: evidence from the youth in transition survey. toronto: heqco. government of british columbia (2017). highlights from the student transition project. post-secondary student mobility. vancouver: government of british columbia. kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: hecqo. king, a. j. c., & warren, w. k. (2006). transition to college: perspectives of secondary school students. colleges ontario: toronto. kerr, a. (2011). adult learners in ontario postsecondary institutions. toronto: hecqo. lennon, m. c., brijmohan, a., lavigne, e., yang, j., moodie, g. & wheelahan, l. (2016). ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise, university of toronto. mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). what are the influencers of graduate satisfaction and labour market outcomes of ontario college graduates? an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey results. toronto: hecqo. 61 mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h. (2015). the impact of labour market and policy changes on university transfer: the case study of early childhood education. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h. (2016). from high school to graduation and beyond: pathways of young immigrants in a toronto college. funded by the ministry of advanced education and skills development, ontario human capital and innovation fund. medovarski, a., sanders, l., & spotton visano, b. (2015). is there a best fit? assessing alternative entrance pathways into an undergraduate degree for non-traditional students at york university. toronto: hecqo. steffler, m., mccloy, u., & decock, h. (2016). understanding university transfer pathways of first generation students and students from low income neighbourhoods: evidence from a large toronto college. toronto: oncat weingarten, h.p., kaufman, a., jonker, l., hicks, m. (2017) college sustainability: signal data. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. norrie, k. zhao, h. (2011). an overview of pse accessibility in ontario. toronto: higher education quaity council of ontario. zhao, h. (2012). postsecondary education participation of under-represented groups in ontario: evidence from the slid data. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 62 appendices appendix 1. graduate satisfaction survey, questions of relevance to report 1. first of all, could you tell me whether you were attending an educational institution on a full-time basis or part-time basis during the week of july 1st - 7th, 2014? [g/e] 1 yes, full-time [754] -- continue 2 yes, part-time -- continue 3 no -- skip to q.6 2. and during that week, were you attending a college, a university or other institution? 01 college (other) [755 - 756] specify: ________________________-- continue 02 algonquin 03 college boreal 04 cambrian 05 canadore 06 centennial 07 la cite collgiale 08 conestoga 09 confederation 10 durham 11 fanshawe 12 george brown 13 georgian 14x le college des grands lacs (invisible and unavailable to the interviewer) 15 humber 16 lambton 17 loyalist 18 mohawk 19 niagara 20 northern 21 st. clair 22 st. lawrence 23 sault (pronounced: sue) 24 seneca 25 sheridan 26 sir sandford fleming 51 71 52 53 54 55 56 57 68 70 69 58 59 60 university (other) specify: ________________________ -- skip to q.4 algoma [new in 07f] brock/concordia lutheran seminary/college/college dominician de philosophie et de theologie carleton guelph lakehead laurentian/huntington/sudbury/hearst/thorneloe mcmaster/mcmaster divinity college nipissing ontario college of art & design/ocad [new in 05s] ontario institute of technology/uoit [new in 05w] ottawa/st. paul university queens/queen's theological college ryerson 63 72 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 81o 98 the michener institute [08s only] toronto/knox college/regis college/st. augustine's seminary/st. michael'scollege/trinity college/victoria university/wycliffe college trent waterloo/conradgrebel university college/renison college/st. jerome's university/st. paul's united college/waterloo lutheran seminary western/brescia college/huron college/king's college/st. peter's seminary wilfred laurier windsor york other educational institution (specify) _______________ skip to q.5 refused 3. was this a... read list 0-4, 6-9 [revised in 08s] 1 second year option or transition from a one year program [838] 3 third year option or transition from a two year program 2 two year diploma 8 three year advanced diploma 9 graduate certificate or post-diploma 6 college degree 7 degree offered jointly with a university (i.e. a collaborative program) ] 0 one year certificate, or 4 continuing education course 5 neither/refused [do not read] 4. was this a university... read list 1 - 3, 5 [revised in 08s] 1 certificate or diploma program, or [922] [v113] 2 undergraduate degree program 6 graduate or professional degree program 3 continuing education course 5 degree offered jointly with a college (i.e. a collaborative program), or 4 neither/refused (do not read) 4a. what program did you enrol in? (university respondents, using usis/ spemag codes) 5a. please tell me whether each of the following were a major reason, a minor reason or not a reason at all for returning to continue with your education? read and rotate list a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. potential for higher income no work/ job available in your field of study to get diploma/ certificate/ degree interest in further/ more in-depth training in field interest in pursuing a different field of study needed for professional designation gain theoretical knowledge/ broader education encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) more opportunities for career advancement upgrade/ improve skills there was a formal transfer agreement between major minor not a reason rf dk 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 [1180] 9 [1181] 9 [1182] 9 [1183] 9 [1184] 9 [1185] 9 [1186] 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 8 8 8 8 9 [1187] 9 [1188] 9 [1189] 9 [1190] 64 l. your previous and your current program company required/ paid for it 3 2 1 8 9 [1191] if answered part time in q1, skip to q.6, else continue: 5b. when you were making your plans for further education, please tell me whether each of the following was a major source of information, minor source of information or not used at all? read and rotate list not used major minor at all rf dk a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. college website college hard copy publications college faculty/ counselors/ program coordinators college administration, i.e. registrars office, student services university website/ publications university staff (including registrars office, faculty, etc.) other students (including current and former college and university students) ontransfer.ca web site parents and family college credit transfer advising services university credit transfer advising services 3 3 2 2 1 1 8 8 9 [1192] 9 [1193] 3 2 1 8 9 [1194] 3 3 2 2 1 1 8 8 9 [1195] 9 [1196] 3 2 1 8 9 [1197] 3 2 1 8 9 [1198] 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 8 8 8 8 9 [3954] 9 [1200] 9 [3955] 9 [3956] 5e. when did you decide that you would further your education after college graduation? was it... read list 1 before entering the ________________ (college program) program at __________ college [1453] [new in 06s] 2 at the start of the ____________________ (college program) program at __________ (college) college 3 during the ________________________ (college program) program at __________ (college) college 4 after completion of the ____________________ (college program) program at _ (college) college 8 refused 9 don't know 5k. 1 2 8 9 do you think you would have been accepted into your current program without graduating from college first? yes [1459] [new in 06s] no refused don't know 3 2 1 how related is your current program to the _____________ (college progam) at ___________ (college) college? would you say it is....... read list 1-3 very related [1454][v156] [new in 06s] somewhat related not at all related 5f. 65 5g. 8 refused 9 don't know not asked (new in 12s) 5gg. did you request credit for previous college or university learning towards the program you are currently enrolled in? [new in 06s, revised in 08s, new in 12s] 1 yes [3957] 2 no 8 refused 9 dont know 5h. please estimate how much credit you have or will receive from your ________________ (program name) toward your current program. would it be.... read list 0- 6 6 more than two years [1456] [new in 06s, revised in 08s] 5 two years 4 one to two years 3 one year 2 about half a year 1 less than half a year 0 none 8 refused skip to q.5l 9 don't know skip to q.5l 5i. when did you find out whether you were receiving credit for your college program? was it... read list 1- 6 1 with the offer of admission [1457 [new in 06s] 2 at or before registration 3 after registration 4 have not heard yet go to q.5kk 5 have not applied for credit yet, or go to q.5kk 6 you are not applying for credit go to q.5kk 8 refused go to q.5kk 9 don't know go to q.5kk 5j. relative to what you expected, the amount of credit you received was.... read list 1-3 1 less than expected [1458] [new in 06s] 2 the same as expected, or 3 more than expected 8 refused 9 don't know 5kk did you use credit transfer advising services for the program you are currently enrolled in? 1 yes, used credit advising services [3958] [new in 12s] 2 no, didnt use credit advising services skip to q.5l 8 refused skip to q.5l 9 dont know skip to q.5l 5kkk overall, how satisfied were you with the credit transfer advising services for the program you are currently enrolled in? 5 very satisfied [3959] [new in 12s] 4 satisfied 3 neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 2 dissatisfied 1 very dissatisfied 66 5l. 8 refused 9 do not know overall, how satisfied are you with the transition experience from college to your current program? 5 very satisfied [1460] [new in 06s] 4 satisfied 3 neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 2 dissatisfied 1 very dissatisfied 8 refused 9 don't know 5m. and, overall, how satisfied are you with your academic preparation for your current program of study? [1461][v163] [new in 06s] 5 very satisfied 4 satisfied 3 neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 2 dissatisfied 1 very dissatisfied 8 refused 9 don't know 44c. in order to group our data, can you tell me if you consider yourself to have a physical, intellectual, mental health or learning disability? [4301] [new in 13s] 44d. did you register with the office for students with disabilities at any point during your career at ________(i.1 institution from list)? [4302] [new in 13s] 44e. do you want to self-identify as an aboriginal person, that is, someone who is related to, or descended from, the original peoples of canada? [4303] [new in 14s] 67 appendix 2.classification of college size and region code college name college region college size algo algonquin college eastern large bore collge boral northern small camb cambrian college northern medium cana canadore college northern small cent centennial college metro toronto large conf confederation college northern small cons conestoga college southwestern medium durh durham college central medium fans fanshawe college southwestern large grbr george brown college metro toronto large geor georgian college central medium humb humber college metro toronto large laci la cit collgiale eastern medium lamb lambton college southwestern small loyt loyalist college eastern small moha mohawk college central large niag niagara college central medium nort northern college northern small saul sault college northern small sene seneca college metro toronto large sher sheridan college central large slaw st. lawrence college eastern medium ssfl sir sandford fleming college eastern medium stcl st. clair college southwestern medium college region is classified according to the postal code of the colleges main campus. (eastern:k; central:l; metro:m; north:p; south:n) college size is classified according to mtcu audited full time equivalent (fte) enrolment for 2006-07. 68 appendix 3. percentage of graduates continuing on to university, by college (1, 2, and 3 year programs only) college 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 total algo 6.5% 6.0% 7.6% 6.8% 7.6% 7.5% 6.9% 6.0% 4.9% 6.7% bore 4.0% 3.7% 4.7% 6.8% 4.8% 3.8% 4.8% 4.9% 3.2% 4.5% camb 6.0% 5.2% 4.5% 6.0% 6.9% 6.3% 5.3% 5.2% 5.1% 5.7% cana 11.8% 10.3% 9.7% 8.4% 8.8% 11.6% 9.1% 8.1% 6.8% 9.5% cent 9.6% 8.0% 7.4% 7.4% 6.3% 5.4% 5.9% 5.3% 4.3% 6.4% conf 6.8% 7.4% 7.1% 7.5% 5.6% 6.4% 6.7% 8.5% 5.9% 6.8% cons 5.8% 5.0% 6.5% 4.8% 5.0% 5.1% 3.9% 3.8% 3.7% 4.7% durh 6.6% 6.0% 7.6% 7.9% 7.9% 7.1% 8.2% 7.3% 9.0% 7.6% fans 6.3% 6.1% 5.1% 4.8% 6.6% 6.8% 5.9% 6.0% 6.0% 6.0% geor 7.8% 8.7% 6.0% 8.1% 8.1% 7.8% 5.3% 5.4% 5.6% 6.9% grbr 7.8% 7.2% 7.7% 7.6% 7.7% 7.3% 6.6% 5.9% 6.2% 7.1% humb 11.1% 9.9% 11.4% 10.9% 9.3% 8.3% 7.7% 6.1% 6.4% 8.9% laci 14.0% 9.5% 13.9% 13.4% 15.6% 17.5% 14.5% 14.8% 14.2% 14.4% lamb 5.7% 3.8% 5.1% 5.2% 5.7% 3.8% 4.8% 2.1% 3.3% 4.4% loyt 3.7% 2.4% 4.0% 3.8% 3.5% 4.5% 4.0% 2.3% 4.0% 3.6% moha 9.0% 9.2% 10.0% 7.9% 7.2% 6.9% 6.5% 5.8% 5.8% 7.5% niag 8.8% 7.5% 6.4% 7.2% 7.3% 7.4% 7.5% 5.1% 6.4% 7.0% nort 3.2% 2.8% 2.2% 2.5% 3.0% 3.1% 4.4% 2.4% 4.7% 3.1% saul 4.3% 8.6% 8.8% 6.9% 10.5% 10.7% 9.0% 7.9% 6.6% 8.3% sene 13.3% 12.6% 12.4% 12.2% 11.0% 9.7% 8.6% 7.7% 7.0% 10.5% sher 10.9% 11.0% 10.8% 10.5% 9.9% 9.3% 8.0% 6.7% 4.9% 9.1% slaw 5.5% 5.6% 5.5% 5.1% 6.6% 6.4% 4.0% 4.1% 4.8% 5.3% ssfl 6.8% 8.1% 8.5% 6.9% 6.3% 8.1% 6.4% 5.0% 6.2% 6.9% stcl 7.0% 6.6% 5.7% 6.4% 5.4% 4.9% 6.2% 4.3% 5.9% 5.8% total 8.4% 7.8% 8.1% 7.8% 7.7% 7.5% 6.8% 6.0% 5.9% 7.3% graduate certificates and college degree graduates removed 69 appendix 3. percentage of graduates continuing on to university, by college (all credentials) college 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 total algo 6.3% 6.0% 7.4% 6.5% 7.2% 7.2% 6.4% 5.8% 4.7% 6.4% bore 3.9% 3.7% 4.7% 6.8% 4.8% 3.8% 4.8% 4.9% 3.2% 4.5% camb 6.0% 5.1% 4.5% 5.9% 6.7% 6.3% 5.1% 4.9% 4.9% 5.5% cana 11.8% 10.3% 9.3% 8.4% 8.8% 11.5% 8.8% 8.0% 6.7% 9.4% cent 10.9% 9.5% 9.2% 8.0% 6.6% 6.3% 6.4% 5.3% 4.9% 7.1% conf 6.6% 7.1% 6.8% 7.4% 5.6% 6.2% 6.4% 8.0% 6.0% 6.6% cons 5.7% 4.6% 6.0% 4.7% 5.0% 5.0% 3.7% 4.0% 3.8% 4.6% durh 6.3% 5.9% 7.3% 7.6% 7.5% 6.9% 7.9% 6.8% 8.4% 7.2% fans 6.2% 6.0% 4.9% 4.7% 6.5% 6.6% 5.6% 5.4% 5.5% 5.7% geor 7.3% 7.9% 5.7% 7.6% 7.3% 7.2% 4.9% 5.2% 5.4% 6.4% grbr 7.0% 6.2% 6.6% 7.2% 6.8% 6.3% 6.2% 5.6% 6.1% 6.4% humb 9.6% 8.3% 9.7% 8.9% 7.7% 6.9% 6.5% 5.1% 5.2% 7.4% laci 13.8% 9.7% 13.7% 13.3% 15.4% 17.7% 14.5% 15.4% 14.1% 14.5% lamb 5.7% 4.0% 5.1% 5.5% 5.6% 3.7% 4.6% 1.9% 2.9% 4.4% loyt 3.7% 2.4% 4.0% 4.0% 3.6% 4.4% 3.8% 2.2% 3.9% 3.6% moha 8.3% 8.8% 9.8% 7.7% 6.9% 6.7% 6.4% 5.6% 5.6% 7.3% niag 8.2% 6.9% 6.1% 7.3% 6.7% 6.9% 6.8% 4.5% 5.3% 6.5% nort 3.2% 2.8% 2.2% 2.5% 3.0% 3.0% 4.4% 2.3% 4.5% 3.1% saul 4.2% 8.5% 8.9% 6.6% 10.1% 10.1% 8.5% 7.6% 6.6% 8.0% sene 11.8% 11.2% 11.1% 10.8% 10.2% 8.8% 8.2% 7.3% 6.1% 9.4% sher 9.4% 9.6% 9.5% 9.2% 8.7% 8.3% 7.2% 6.1% 4.5% 8.1% slaw 5.7% 5.3% 5.2% 5.0% 6.6% 6.3% 3.9% 4.1% 4.7% 5.2% ssfl 7.4% 7.8% 8.1% 6.6% 6.3% 7.7% 6.2% 5.0% 6.0% 6.8% stcl 7.0% 6.6% 5.6% 6.4% 5.5% 5.1% 6.2% 4.3% 5.8% 5.8% total 8.0% 7.4% 7.7% 7.4% 7.3% 7.1% 6.4% 5.7% 5.5% 6.9% 70 appendix 4. total number of transfers to university (1,2,3 yr programs only), adjusted for college response rates. 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 total algo 284 271 359 365 402 416 410 394 345 3292 bore 22 22 29 49 33 27 36 39 24 280 camb 100 86 73 115 119 124 109 119 121 978 cana 129 99 99 102 118 139 96 90 78 964 cent 249 203 212 264 299 286 302 274 231 2366 conf 76 73 77 86 75 87 93 110 81 755 cons 106 98 138 116 144 157 124 131 129 1158 durh 123 124 158 190 222 193 254 256 330 1834 fans 279 276 235 254 351 373 323 331 322 2747 geor 161 178 143 207 215 255 191 199 219 1801 grbr 340 289 348 405 419 396 378 371 408 3395 humb 506 404 478 520 483 450 469 422 457 4304 laci 169 90 158 151 228 279 221 263 256 1811 lamb 49 28 37 54 57 43 59 24 35 395 loyt 43 28 46 50 50 60 54 31 58 420 moha 260 266 314 281 288 287 277 252 256 2533 niag 189 161 162 195 222 238 256 194 240 1883 nort 17 14 12 16 23 19 27 14 28 167 saul 30 59 58 50 87 87 68 66 55 563 sene 612 566 529 576 585 532 488 471 421 4884 sher 452 371 400 454 471 476 452 376 292 3901 slaw 96 101 101 94 133 132 78 106 124 980 ssfl 141 160 178 167 162 209 169 129 161 1489 stcl 155 159 137 178 164 151 190 140 191 1469 total 4579 4155 4525 4981 5372 5431 5134 4813 4861 44509 71 appendix 5. total number of graduates continuing on to university (all credentials), adjusted for college response rates. college algo bore camb cana cent conf cons durh fans geor grbr humb laci lamb loyt moha niag nort saul sene sher slaw ssfl stcl total 2007 288 21 103 135 330 76 113 127 284 167 368 522 171 50 45 260 200 17 30 628 469 104 166 157 4826 2008 287 22 88 102 289 73 102 129 284 181 307 419 93 31 28 277 163 14 60 585 389 102 164 159 4373 2009 374 30 76 99 319 76 147 172 243 152 365 512 160 38 47 328 178 12 59 543 426 103 181 137 4815 2010 378 49 118 104 353 88 135 209 269 223 467 560 151 61 55 295 223 16 51 591 469 99 169 178 5337 2011 416 33 122 119 382 75 169 238 374 222 452 530 231 60 54 298 227 23 87 627 483 140 170 170 5715 2012 432 27 128 140 403 87 179 219 392 266 421 500 286 46 60 304 256 19 88 557 491 137 212 158 5816 2013 418 36 112 97 402 92 140 286 335 201 445 532 223 66 54 301 284 27 68 544 472 82 176 195 5602 2014 423 39 120 90 342 111 172 280 348 215 437 471 286 28 31 271 214 14 68 541 404 113 143 142 5329 2015 374 24 120 79 329 88 159 348 348 235 511 515 259 44 59 271 259 28 58 455 315 136 180 193 5392 total 3439 280 1002 980 3219 764 1330 1994 2892 1894 3801 4687 1857 446 435 2657 2044 167 573 5183 4066 1032 1578 1495 47937 72 guelph lakehead laurentian mcmaster nipissing ocad ottawa queens ryerson toronto trent uoit waterloo western windsor york guelph humber 0 7 136 4 13 0 0 29 0 81 9 9 4 2 2 0 4 2 2 0 0 345 bore 2 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 0 24 camb 3 0 3 5 0 10 73 0 5 0 3 0 0 3 0 3 0 0 3 0 10 0 121 cana 9 0 5 0 2 0 9 2 43 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 78 cent 12 0 12 4 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 0 53 33 6 23 0 2 0 6 68 0 231 conf 4 4 8 0 0 53 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 81 cons 7 0 2 0 23 7 7 20 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 20 2 32 2 2 0 129 durh 14 0 4 0 2 2 10 2 2 4 6 0 26 8 36 193 2 0 2 0 16 2 330 fans 21 0 8 6 15 15 6 6 8 0 0 0 6 0 2 2 2 184 21 6 8 2 322 geor 35 0 6 2 10 27 52 2 2 4 2 0 8 10 0 6 2 0 10 0 39 0 219 grbr 17 2 6 0 4 8 19 23 0 15 0 2 181 48 2 6 6 0 0 0 69 0 408 humb 29 2 8 4 80 19 0 19 0 14 2 2 74 29 4 10 4 2 6 2 113 33 457 laci 68 0 0 2 0 4 4 0 0 0 178 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 256 lamb 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 6 0 2 2 0 35 loyt 2 0 6 13 2 9 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 9 6 0 2 0 0 2 0 58 moha 4 0 52 0 11 15 4 84 2 2 0 0 13 6 2 0 0 4 43 2 11 0 256 niag 24 2 131 4 4 0 2 9 0 0 2 0 16 0 0 2 18 2 11 0 11 0 240 nort 4 6 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 28 saul 10 35 0 0 0 2 4 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 55 sene 35 2 4 4 6 27 4 4 0 4 0 0 76 35 2 14 2 0 2 2 197 0 421 sher 16 5 14 2 14 0 9 16 5 5 0 2 61 47 5 9 2 5 16 2 51 5 292 slaw 25 0 0 15 2 0 27 0 2 0 15 23 2 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 8 0 124 ssfl 26 0 0 6 6 12 2 0 2 2 2 0 4 0 80 12 2 0 0 0 4 0 161 stcl 17 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 0 139 6 0 191 total 427 59 280 204 189 227 262 191 136 54 298 45 534 227 160 296 66 220 149 168 626 42 4861 73 total brock 40 wilfrid laurier algoma algo carleton university (other) appendix 6. number of graduates continuing on to university by sending college and receiving university, 2015 (1,2,3 year credentials) adjusted for college response rates appendix 7. major and minor information sources, for graduates transferring to full time university programs, % major or minor source, 2015 56% university website/ publications 31% university staff (including registrars office, faculty, etc.) 40% 39% college faculty/ counselors/ program coordinators 41% 34% other students (including current and former college and university students) 33% 40% college website 34% 36% parents and family 33% 36% college administration, i.e. registrars office, student services 30% university credit transfer advising services 35% college credit transfer advising services 34% 13% college hard copy publications 17% ontransfer.ca web site 37% 31% 29% 33% 27% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% major minor note: includes graduates who indicated they were enrolled full time in university 6 months after graduation

transferability expectations and realities: analysis of incoming centennial college learner expectations, realities and self-adjusted perceptions christine helen arnold university of toronto/ontario institute for studies in education (oise) sean woodhead centennial college cite this publication in the following format: arnold, c. h., & woodhead, s. (2015). transferability expectations and realities: analysis of incoming centennial college learner expectations, realities and self-adjusted perceptions. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. 2 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead acknowledgements acknowledgement and gratitude are extended to the following individuals who made significant contributions to the success of this project: gabriella selvarajah jeff burrow mireille abou-hanna rachel oh transferability expectations and realities table of contents executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . purpose of the study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . centennial college . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . centennial colleges recognition of previous learning initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . review of literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . student expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . credit transfer satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . clear and accurate information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pathway support services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . improved transfer opportunities and processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . data collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pre-survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . post-survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . focus groups and interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . consent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . data analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . data collection summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . conceptual framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . expectation formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . definitions for consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . profile of rpl population and survey respondents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . previous postsecondary and rpl credit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . what expectationreality gaps exist for incoming centennial college rpl students (awarded credit and benefits; resources, sources and support; and policies and procedures)? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . understanding of concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . awarded transfer credit/plar and benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . resources, sources and support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . policies and procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . does the first term academic progression affect students' satisfaction and attitudes regarding program and rpl experiences? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . approval process, amount of credit and timing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . centennial college and program choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . credit transfer/plar process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . discussion and conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . expectation adjustments and the role of the scientist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 8 9 10 10 11 12 12 13 13 13 14 15 15 15 15 16 17 17 17 18 20 20 20 22 23 23 23 23 24 29 30 33 37 40 44 44 49 51 56 56 57 58 3 4 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix a- letter of invitation to participate pre-survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix b- pre-survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix c- letter of invitation to participate post-survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix d- post-survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix e- letter of invitation to participate focus group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix f- focus group protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix g- focus group consent letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 64 67 74 77 83 86 88 transferability expectations and realities 5 executive summary in recent years, ontarios credit transfer framework has improved postsecondary pathways and resources to help students receive recognition for their prior learning by expanding non-traditional pathways, notably collegecollege and universitycollege. as a result, ontario colleges have experienced an increase in the number of incoming transfer students who wish to change their field of study, upgrade skills, earn additional qualifications, and/or geographically relocate. the credit transfer population represents a growing share of ontario college students. with an emergent emphasis on life-long learning and the freedom to move among postsecondary institutions, assistance in navigating the postsecondary education system has become increasingly important. it is necessary that students comprehend the academic regulations and requirements they will encounter so as to form reasonable expectations about recognition of prior learning processes. credit transfer research has largely examined students admission rates, performance, retention, and time to graduation. limited research has focused on student expectations and potential expectationreality gaps. this research examines incoming students credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar), collectively referred to as recognition of prior learning (rpl), expectations and experiences. incoming student expectations are measured against subsequent credits received, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability adjusted between the initial point of intake and near the first terms end. the first part of this analysis involves identifying potential expectationreality gaps of incoming centennial college rpl students. gaps between initial expectations and subsequent credit transfer experiences were uncommon andin most casessmall. students expectations regarding the amount of transfer credit they would receive are quite accurate overall. students determine whether to apply for transfer credit based on professional and self-assessments of curriculum affinity and generally prefer to apply for all credit at the beginning of their programs. the students in this study experienced high transfer credit success rates, which may be attributed to the application procedures implemented at centennial college. however, students were unable to predict plar credit success with the same accuracy, as they either overestimated or were confused regarding this concept. the information accumulated by students as they formulated an understanding of credit transfer and plar came primarily from the centennial college website, on-campus staff and social networks. while students expectations about application procedures were generally met, expectations regarding clear information regarding eligible credits and assistance with understanding assessment decisions were not met. while most students expected to receive clear information about transferability, many struggled to gain clarity and still possessed questions about current policies. regarding policies and procedures, almost all students reported expecting to utilize academic transcripts when applying for credit, and this was actualized. however, while requiring an academic transcript is universally understood by students, some cited frustration and confusion concerning the need to submit transcripts twice: once for admission purposes and again for transfer credit. students reported utilizing course descriptions and course outlines/syllabi more than originally anticipated, and they highlighted the difficulty in sometimes acquiring this information from institutions. in addition, some students reported providing supplementary material, such as various assignments, in demonstrating their prior learning for rpl credit although this is no longer an acceptable practice at the college. lastly, students knowledge of the 6 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead steps required to apply for transfer credit and plar was lower at the offer of admission than at the end of the first term. it is crucial to inform students of the advantages in meeting with an advisor prior to applying for credit. students who reported visiting with academic division personnel in advance of submitting their application(s) noted the value in doing so. additional areas that did not meet student expectations include: 1) a lack of tuition rebates or reduced tuition costs as a result of rpl credit; 2) misunderstanding around rpl deadlines, which often resulted in students wanting extensions; and 3) block registration of courses that inhibited students from topping up their course load in order to fast track once credit was awarded. the second part of this analysis involved determining whether first-term academic progression affects students' satisfaction and attitudes regarding their program and rpl experiences. students tended to be satisfied with their choices of program, as well as to attend centennial college. while students maintained consistent levels of satisfaction with the fairness and quickness of the credit transfer/plar process, they expressed increased disappointment by the end of the first term with clarity and straightforwardness. regression results provide strong evidence that credit transfer understanding, the rpl success rate, and the quickness and fairness of the rpl process are all predictors of student satisfaction with rpl credit received. in examining rpl credit success as a function of satisfaction, the results show that age, sex, and citizenship (domestic versus international) are all non-determinants of rpl success. significant predictors include whether students possess previous postsecondary education within ontario and credit transfer understanding. the latter result suggests that initiatives to improve understanding will likely have significant effects on both satisfaction and success. a number of policy and procedural recommendations aimed to improve the rpl experience are provided. while the recommendations outlined are of key importance to centennial college, many are transferable across institutions looking to critically examine their credit transfer and plar structures: increase initial supportsupport in preparing and submitting rpl applications should occur as early as the time of admission. flagging students with previous postsecondary education upon admission and disseminating an email message via mycentennial prior to the start of term to alert them of the possibility of rpl credit would be helpful. the rpl experience would be further improved by sending rpl eligibility information and application links and forms with students offer of admission. further automate and streamline processesin recent years, centennial college has moved towards automating and expediting credit transfer/plar processes. while students recommend an online application system with tracking functionality, this has been established by the collegeeffective may 2014. however, there is still room for improvement, as students state that the academic transcripts on file, as a part of their admissions, should be automatically accessed for rpl assessments. centralize rpl supportstudents highlight the value of having access to academic division personnel through the rpl process. the current credit transfer advising and support mechanism is a patchwork of different support functions and individuals across the college. this patchwork, along with inconsistent information sharing and lack of clarity regarding the process, has resulted in a student experience that is akin to a hub-and-spoke model. centennial college should consider centralizing support functions. transferability expectations and realities 7 improve rpl staff visibility and expertisecentennial college should seek ways of improving rpl staff visibility and expertise. visibility can be increased through a more established presence on campus as well as at open houses, orientation sessions, college/university fairs and pop-up advising stands. rpl advising should also have an improved online presence. dedicated rpl staff should be able to advise students through self-assessments and identify curricular affinity between courses and programs. peer mentoringmentoring opportunities from previous rpl students is a means to guide and support incoming students about the application process. social networks proved to be a large source of information for students; therefore, utilizing this resource further would be desirable. centennial college should develop a peer mentoring program that draws on the expertise of previous rpl students. policies and proceduresdemand exists for tuition rebates, despite the current tuition framework in place at ontario colleges, which does not differentiate between full-time course loads with or without rpl credit. furthermore, in the event that rpl applications or subsequent appeals are denied, students wish to see a more thorough rationale. clarify realistic benefit expectationscentennial college has an opportunity to support students during expectation formation by clearly articulating realistic benefits obtained through transfer credit and plar. for example, administrators and advisors should reiterate the tuition framework and dispel notions of obtaining rebates for successful transfer credit and plar applications when full-time status is maintained. 8 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead glossary credit transfer refers to the overarching system of transferring credit. transfer credit refers to the awarding of course credit for previously completed credit obtained at a recognized postsecondary institution (centennial college, 2014). prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) refers to the process that gives adult learners the opportunity to gain credit for formal, non-formal, and/or informal learning. learners follow a process that allows them to identify, describe and demonstrate past learning that was obtained through a collection of study, life and work experiences (centennial college, 2014). recognition of prior learning (rpl) is an all-encompassing term that refers to all advanced standing, credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition processes. central to rpl processes are the assessments of prior learning in an effort to evaluate the learners sufficient demonstration of learning outcomes (centennial college, 2014). expectations refer to students self-reported rpl anticipated outcomes. realities refer to administrative data and students self-reported rpl experiences that occurred within the first term. population refers to all students across the fall, winter and summer 2013/2014 cohorts who met the selection criteria and were therefore eligible to participate in the distributed surveys. respondents refer to those students who completed a minimum of 85% of both the pre- and post-surveys. reduced course hours refers to the credit hours associated with courses awarded transfer credit and/or plar. rpl success rate refers to the fraction of transfer and plar credits awarded relative to the amounts for which students applied. transferability expectations and realities 9 introduction ontario has experienced a rapid proliferation of increased postsecondary pathways (oncat, 2013; oncat, 2014). specifically, colleges and universities have expanded credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) mechanisms to be more responsive to changing student demographics. students are increasingly mobile, pursuing multiple credentials that combine theoretical and hands-on learning experiences. life-long learning is a necessity and has contributed to a focus on the part of governments and institutions to increase pathways, assist students in their navigation of the postsecondary education system and facilitate their entry/reentry into the labour market (mtcu, 2011). in 2011, the provincial government announced an investment of $74 million for the development of a new credit transfer framework, which included the credit transfer innovation fund to assist colleges and universities in developing new credit options. the multilateral pathways and credit transfer supports established through this investment, including development of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), has further supported the movement towards maximizing transfer credit received by students and minimizing learning redundancy. oncat has successfully facilitated growth in the number of pathways between colleges and universities; an increase in non-traditional pathways, such as collegecollege and university college, has also occurred. ontarios colleges experienced a 6% increase in the number of transfer students between 200809 and 201314, from 37% to 43% (colleges ontario, 2009; colleges ontario, 2014). the credit transfer population comprises a growing share of ontario college students. students cite improved career opportunities, changing fields of interest, discontent with university learning styles or environments and location as their main reasons for transferring to an ontario college (usher & jarvey, 2012). as oncat continues to enhance supports for students through the transfer guide, course equivalency database and principles for credit transfer policies and procedures, these efforts are inciting rich expectations of postsecondary institutions with regard to credit transfer. institutions are implementing student-centred policies and procedures, developing innovative technology and data practices, and conducting and sharing student mobility research. an important facet of the student mobility research agenda is the student experience: transfer student expectations, performance, retention and time to graduation. this research study investigates potential expectationreality gaps associated with recognition of prior learning (rpl)the centennial college collective term for both credit transfer and plar. given the growing share of transfer and plar students at ontario colleges, it is essential to gain a better understanding of incoming student expectations, the formation of expectations and experienced realities. by examining potential rpl expectationreality gaps, this research aims to: 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding the effective communication of transfer credit and plar rights and responsibilities to students; 2) support increased expectation management at the point of admission by institutions; and 3) facilitate the development and revision of support structures that translate relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit. 10 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead purpose of the study the purpose of this study is to collect information on students credit transfer and plar expectations and experiences. incoming student expectations are measured against subsequent credits received, as well as student perceptions about transferability adjusted between the initial point of intake and near the first terms end. study results may inform centennial college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. the following research questions guide this analysis: 1) what gaps currently exist between the amount of rpl credit expected by learners and the amount of credit actually received? 2) what expectationreality gaps exist for incoming centennial college rpl students (awarded credit and benefits; resources, sources and support; and policies and procedures)? 3) does the first term academic progression affect students' satisfaction and attitudes regarding program and rpl experiences? centennial college centennial college has four campuses in toronto, ontario, and has been in operation since 1966; it is the oldest publicly funded college in the province. programs at centennial offer a blend of academic and didactic learning, ultimately preparing graduates for entry into a corresponding field of practice, advancement in a desired career, or further postsecondary education. the college offers certificate, graduate certificate, diploma, advanced diploma and degree programs covering a range of disciplines in the following schools: school of advancement school of business school of communications, media and design school of community and health studies school of continuing education school of engineering technology and applied sciences school of hospitality, tourism and culinary arts school of transportation. all students are fully immersed in the signature learning experiencea distinctive experience that integrates social justice, global citizenship and equity (gce) principles with their curricular, cocurricular and extra-curricular activities. the signature learning experience prepares students to be thoughtful and transformative advocates of global socioeconomic equity by introducing them to inclusion and diversity matters and embedding gce-specific outcomes into all programming, amongst other activities. centennial college is a champion of diversity and social change, and this is well-reflected in its student population. in 201314, 30% (10,910) of the student population, including full-time and part-time, are attending on an international student visa. in addition, the college hosted 20,363 fulltime and 4,767 part-time domestic students. transferability expectations and realities 11 centennial colleges recognition of prior learning initiative in march 2011, centennial college began a long-term initiative to enhance its rpl practices. this initiative, which was implemented around the time that the college received its first credit transfer institutional grant (ctig), centred on the following objectives: 1) clarify transfer credit application and assessment standards; 2) couple transfer credit and plar into a meaningful process of students self-identifying their relevant prior learning; and, 3) improve communication and supports for students and staff. the college utilized ctig funding for the improvement of data reporting, pathways development, and student and staff supports. in clarifying the transfer credit application and rpl assessment standards, a 20-month consultation process was undertaken, which involved members across all stakeholder groups. these efforts resulted in the development of the recognition of prior learning policy and its corresponding procedures (i.e. equivalence and substitution procedures, transfer procedures, and plar procedures). the new application and assessment standards were incorporated into an online transfer credit application system, which became the exclusive application medium, effective may 2014. upon adoption of the new policies and procedures, centennial college coupled transfer credit and plar by collectively referring to these separate mechanisms as recognition of prior learning. intentionally coupling transfer credit and plar signified that the college legitimizes all sources of relevant prior learningwhether from a postsecondary institution, place of employment or elsewhere. along with this coupling, student self-assessments of skills and knowledge were incorporated via the development of the online application mechanism that requires students to review course curricula before applying for transfer credit. as part of the emerging centre for pathwaysan initiative of the centennial college strategic mandate agreement (mtcu, 2014)the college is moving towards having students self-assess all prior learning in accordance with course learning outcomes. currently, rpl student supports exist as a patchwork of services across academic and service departments. students obtain support for rpl achievement through enrolment services, the centre for academic quality, and respective academic departments across schools. the emergent centre for pathways will significantly improve ease of access for students by centralizing service provisions through a single window delivery model. supports developed or otherwise enhanced as a result of this long-term project are as follows: online rpl applications and assessments; linking of the online system with students centennial college record; online and print advertising of rpl options; online learning modules regarding the application and rpl assessment processes; rpl student advising; and faculty and staff support for academic partnership development and rpl assessments. in 2015, centennial college will look further inward regarding its rpl population. the college has been intent on ensuring that these students receive fair recognition for their prior learning, are adequately prepared, and leave the process feeling satisfied with their experience. this study offers useful insights into ways centennial college and ontario postsecondary institutions can reflect and refine their policies, procedures and support structures. 12 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead review of literature while there is an abundant supply of student mobility literature, most of the research analyzes collegeuniversity credit transfer. a limited amount of research discusses collegecollege and universitycollege transfer, and even less literature investigates students plar experiences. the literature reviewed herein focuses on student expectations and satisfaction with the credit transfer process and credit received. pertinent canadian and american literature is reviewed from provinces and states with an established credit transfer framework. student expectations student-formed expectations are a key determinant of subsequent student mobility satisfaction (bccat, 2012; decock, mccloy, liu, & hu, 2011). students form expectations via their perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process, the assistance they receive during this process, the information they collect, and their previous learning experiences. in their 2011 survey of recently transferred college students, usher and jarvey (2012) determined that students overall satisfaction with their new institution was correlated with their perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process and helpfulness of college staff. student expectations are primarily established through information collected from postsecondary websites and social networks (peers and family) (andres, 1999; hood, hunt, & haeffele, 2009). hood et al. (2009) state that websites and peer networks are the primary sources of credit transfer information. in surveying college students, usher and jarvey (2012) elaborate that students primarily utilize receiving institution websites. other research (andres, 1999; flaga, 2006) echoes the importance of familial and social connections as a source of information, advice and guidance. the relevant literature does not explain if students continue to consider these sources of information to have been valuable or reliable after their transfer experience. the extent to which the information received is complete and accurate can affect student expectations. the british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat) (2012) highlights the importance of targeted marketing to potential credit transfer students and ensuring effective communication of standards, services and pathway possibilities. the research, however, does not explain whether students ascribe different weights or values to information obtained from postsecondary websites, advisors, peers or family. student backgrounds and destinations also inform expectations. for example, in british columbia, students who transfer institutions prior to completing their program were found to be much more likely to expect transfer credits at their new institution than those who had completed their program (bccat, 2012). a high percentage, nine out of ten non-completers who continued their education at a public canadian postsecondary institution, expected to receive transfer credit. decock et al. (2011) found that almost two-thirds of college graduates received the expected amount of transfer credit when continuing their education. however, the results varied according to destination. graduates who continued their education at a university were considerably less likely to have received the credit they expected as compared to those at a college. those who continued their education at a college report receiving the expected amount of transfer credit, approximately 72%. this finding is generally explained by students returning to their college of graduation for additional studies, where they are already familiar with the supports, policies and procedures in place to assist them. transferability expectations and realities 13 credit transfer satisfaction the literature establishes three broad tenets of a satisfying transfer experience (andres, 1999; arnold, 2012; bccat, 2012; handel, 2006; laanan, 1996; roksa & keith, 2008; townsend & wilson, 2006; usher & jarvey, 2012): 1) access to clear and accurate information; 2) access to reliable and knowledgeable pathway support services; and, 3) access to improved transfer opportunities and processes, (including the application of credit beyond general education or non-core courses). credit transfer systems and mechanisms that do not satisfy these three tenets can produce adverse effects on student transferability satisfaction. students cite these challenges as causes of distress, confusion and/or frustration (andres, 1999). clear and accurate information access to clear and accurate information supports expectation development as well as navigation through the credit transfer system. andres (2001) found that 71% of students preparing to transfer credit were able to seek out relevant information regarding how current coursework transferred into future academic plans (e.g., program of study). this result supports the need for system-level transfer credit databases that allow students to accurately predict the amount of credit they will receive. as students transfer between institutions, the need to familiarize themselves with the receiving institutions policies and procedures is critical. confusion regarding variations in academic regulations across institutions is a common problem experienced by students (carter, coyle, & leslie, 2011) and increases the likelihood of misaligned expectations. in the ontario context, usher and jarvey (2012) found that 30% of college students lack access to necessary basic credit transfer information and 26% lack more detailed information, such as student loan effects, methods of transfer credit assessment, and transfer credit application fees. decock et al. (2011) add to this discussion of ineffective and incomplete communication, stating that a significant proportion of students, particularly those transferring to a different institution, are either not informed about the amount of transfer credit to expect, or the information that they do have is lacking in accuracy (p. 61). pathway support services it is important to have reliable and knowledgeable pathway support services within all postsecondary institutions. gawley and mcgowan (2006), in their research analyzing the academic adjustment and social activities of college transfer students, revealed that students often receive inadequate pathways advising from those who lack detailed knowledge of the system. similarly, usher and jarvey (2012) found that colleges with the best student ratings on credit transfer possessed a culture of effective service. students reported having negative experiences when they perceived they had been treated poorly or were given inaccurate information. a system in which staff and faculty across an institution possess basic information regarding the transfer process is recommended. ensuring all employees have basic rpl knowledge helps students receive consistent information and ensures they are directed to the appropriate contact no matter what academic/service area they initially visit on campus. 14 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead moreover, andres (1999) uncovered that students underutilize pathways services, even when theses supports are readily available. lack of utilizing pathways services is often attributable to students unawareness of the available supportseither because of limited information regarding services or inaccessible language. improved transfer opportunities and processes enhanced transfer opportunities are an additional source of satisfaction for transfer students. from a student perspective, factors that may contribute to awarded transfer credit include private versus public institution, out-of-jurisdiction prior learning, program affinity, a transfer friendly culture, and institutional credit transfer policies (hood et al., 2009). in ontario, students have not historically been able to expect consistency and transparency in the way their transfer credit is awarded (carter et al., 2011; gawley & mcgowan, 2006; kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). however, the new credit transfer framework has provided increased resources and sources, including an updated transfer guide and new course equivalency database. many institutions are now able to automatically award transfer credit (usher & jarvey, 2012). college programs developed with university transfer in mind contribute to student satisfaction (hood et al., 2009). many colleges have developed program streams specifically designed to provide advanced standing for those students who have completed a previous postsecondary credential. improved transfer processes are being implemented at many colleges, including providing students with transfer credit summaries at the time of admission and online application systems. transferability expectations and realities 15 methodology this research utilized a mixed methods approach in order to capture students expectations and realities regarding rpl policies and procedures at centennial college. pre-surveys, post-surveys, focus groups and interviews were conducted with students who applied/tested for rpl credit at centennial college in their first term in order to measure the following: 1) incoming learner expectations against subsequent received credit; and 2) perceptions regarding transferability adjusted between the initial point of contact and the end of the first term. data were collected across three distinct intake cohorts: 1) cohort i: fall 2013; 2) cohort ii: winter 2014; and 3) cohort iii: summer 2014. student cohorts were followed throughout the duration of their first term. each cohort received the same pre-survey, post-survey and focus group/interview protocol questions. recruitment incoming centennial college rpl students were identified for participation in this research. the population comprises rpl students who adhere to the following selection criteria: centennial college students entering their first term at one of the progress, morningside, ashtonbee or story arts centre campuses; a transfer credit and/or plar form and fee was submitted to enrolment services, within centennial colleges marked deadline; enrolment in coursework for the duration of the first term in a certificate, graduate certificate, diploma, advanced diploma or degree program; and domestic or international student status. once a transfer credit and/or plar form and fee was submitted to enrolment services, students were identified by student number and contacted using their centennial college email address. in total, 384 students across all three cohorts were sent emails with an attached letter of invitation to participate in this research study. data collection the research study comprised a three-stage design, which is described herein (see figure 1). pre-survey students were sent a letter of invitation to participate in a pre-survey in september/january/may that addressed: 1) their knowledge of credit transfer and plar concepts; 2) their expectations for the credit transfer and plar process and outcomes; and 3) their satisfaction with the current credit transfer and plar system in place at centennial college (see appendix a). the pre-survey was developed based on the primary research questions outlined above and related constructs. the survey took approximately 35 minutes to complete and was hosted by fluidsurveys. students received a raffle ticket to be entered into a draw for an ipad 5th generation for their participation. at the end of the pre-survey, students were asked to check a box if they wished to participate in a 35 minute post-survey in december/april/august. 16 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead figure 1 | three-stage design summary pre-survey invitation at the beginning of the third week of classes, a pre-survey 'letter of invitation to participate' was sent to students who met the selection criteria. the survey remained open for a period of three weeks. this stage was repeated for each cohort (september, january and may). pre-survey reminders weekly reminder emails were sent to transfer credit and plar students who had not yet responded to the survey. these emails were sent until the survey closed at the end of the third week. post-survey invitation students self-selected whether to participate in the post-survey. three weeks prior to the start of the centennial college exam period, students who selected they wished to participate were sent a 'letter of invitation to participate'. the survey remained open for a period of three weeks. this stage was repeated for each cohort (december, april and august). post-survey reminders weekly reminder emails were sent to transfer credit and plar students who had not yet responded to the survey. these emails were sent until the survey closed at the end of the third week. focus groups/ interviews students self-selected whether to participate in a focus group/interview. students signed up for a 60-minute focus group if they wished to discuss their transfer credit and plar experiences. students who were unable to attend one of the scheduled focus group sessions were sent an email request asking them to participate in a phone interview. this stage was repeated for each cohort (december, april and august). post-survey prior to students final project and/or end of term tests and exams, the post-survey was administered. this timing was chosen in order to avoid any potential biases that may come with receiving a final grade. students who checked the box at the end of the pre-survey stating that they wished to participate in a 35 minute follow-up survey in december/april/august were contacted using their centennial college email addresses. students were sent a letter of invitation to participate in a post-survey discussing the following: 1) their knowledge of credit transfer and plar concepts; 2) realities of the credit transfer and plar process and outcomes; and 3) their satisfaction with the current credit transfer and plar system in place at centennial college (see appendix b). this survey took transferability expectations and realities 17 approximately 35 minutes to complete. students received two additional raffle tickets to be entered into a draw for an ipad 5th generation and a $15.00 tim hortons gift card. at the end of the post-survey, students were asked to sign up for a 60-minute focus group discussing their credit transfer and plar experiences (see appendix e). those students who were unable to attend one of the scheduled focus group sessions were sent an email requesting them to participate in a phone interview. all focus groups/interviews were scheduled prior to students final project and/or end of term tests and exams. focus groups and interviews students who signed up to participate in a 60-minute focus group discussing their credit transfer and plar experiences were contacted using their centennial college email addresses. students were sent a letter of invitation to participate in an audiotaped, semi-structured focus group discussing the existence of expectationreality gaps and rationales for these gaps (student estimations of relevant prior learning and institutional communication of expectations and standards) (see appendix c). student responses provide insight into how support structures can be constructed or revised to create a more productive system. students received a $20.00 cash honourarium, and complimentary pizza and drinks were served at all focus group sessions. consent students were asked to provide their consent to participate in the pre- and post-surveys via a checked box before accessing each survey. in providing consent, students confirmed that they had been given the opportunity to discuss the study, all of their questions had been answered, and they agreed to participate. students were asked to provide their consent to participate in the focus groups via written confirmation at the commencement of each session (see appendix g). focus groups were audio taped with students permission. approximately 3 to 6 students participated in each 60-minute semi-structured focus group. due to the confidential nature of this study, students were asked to keep all focus group discussions private (see appendix f). data analysis administrative data were collected via centennial colleges banner student information system and the transfer credit and plar logs for all 384 students who met the selection criteria for this research study. the administrative data consist of demographic information, program and course enrolment, and rpl applications and assessments (see table 1). administrative and survey data were used jointly for the quantitative analyses in this report. these data sources have been combined into a single file for analysis using spss 22.0 software. since students were informed, for ethics purposes, that they were able to decline answering any question with which they were uncomfortable/did not have a response, the number of responses for some questions may vary slightly across students. pairwise deletion was, therefore, used throughout the t-test and anova analyses. pairwise deletion of missing data means that only cases relating to each pair of variables with missing data involved in an analysis are deleted (bryman, 2004, p. 1). data analyses (e.g., cross-tabulation, cross-validation, regression analysis) were completed using spss. 18 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead table 1 | administrative data demographics program and course enrolment age international/domestic student status centennial college program gender high school location high schoolcentennial college time passed previous postsecondary education centennial college school centennial college credential number of registered courses in first term rpl applications and assessments number of transfer credit applications number of awarded transfer credits number of plar applications number of awarded plar credits reduced course hours qualitative data were analyzed by codifying themes using nvivo 10 based on focus group and interview responses and searching for emerging trends. a critical perspective was utilized throughout, which employed researcher reflexivity, collaboration, and peer debriefing (creswell & miller, 2000). as a means of researcher reflexivity, all members of the research team disclosed assumptions, beliefs and biases that could potentially shape the inquiry. this validity procedure identified the lenses of the researchers (social, cultural and historical forces that shape interpretation) and allowed for suspension and bracketing of researcher biases prior to analysis. collaboration occurred by summarizing the main themes at the conclusion of each focus group/interview and asking the participants if they agreed with the summary or had anything to add/amend. lastly, the research team transcribed all audio files from the focus groups and interviews and used an open coding procedure to name and categorize phenomena (strauss & corbin, 1998). two research team members worked together to build the domain structure, uphold broad discrete domains, debate how the domain structure fits the data, as well as introduce new and collapse existing codes. coding was done separately; the two researchers met afterward to compare codes and reconcile discrepancies. a consensus/core ideas file was then created as a means of transforming individual participants narratives into clear, consistent, understandable language across cases. this file was shared with all research team members who acted as peer debriefers. peer debriefers provided support, played devils advocate, challenged researcher assumptions and pushed the analysis to the next level (creswell & miller, 2000; lincoln & guba, 1985). data collection summary the following is a summary of all data collected for the purposes of this research study (see table 2): from the 384 population, 94 pre-post survey matches were attained; on average, the pre-survey response rate was 37% across all cohorts; on average, the post-survey response rate was 66% across all cohorts; focus groups and interviews were conducted with 40 students; and no respondents chose to withdraw from the research study. transferability expectations and realities table 2 | data summary population pre-survey respondents post-survey respondents focus groups and interviews cohort i fall 232 81 53 24 cohort ii winter 120 46 31 13 cohort iii summer 32 15 10 3 total 384 142 94 40 19 20 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead conceptual framework this section identifies the key factors affecting students expectations and experiences with regard to credit transfer, and the presumed relationships among them (miles & huberman, 1994). specifically, the conceptual framework is guided by behavioural psychologists victor vroom and george kelly, who investigated the mental processes and constructs that individuals utilize when making choices and anticipating events. vrooms expectancy theory posits that "people consciously choose a particular course of action, based upon perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs as a consequence of their desires to enhance pleasure and avoid pain" (vroom, 1964, p. 11). while kelly (1955) stated we are our own personal scientists, hypothesizing and making meaning, and it is through this process and the feedback received that changes what one perceives his or her position to be. this research study examines the mental processes in which students engage when forming rpl credit expectations, how they test these hypotheses and the process of reflection (see figure 2). expectation formation the factors that make up students initial rpl expectations consist of entry characteristics (e.g., gender, age, domestic/international student status); the sending and receiving institution type, program affinity and the relevancy and duration of coursework; previous learning and experiences (e.g., postsecondary culture, regulations, scheduling, work habits, workplace training); understanding of rpl concepts and environment; and the value students attribute to awarded credit. students may place varying weights on each factor when forming expectations. initial expectations of interest in this research include predictions regarding the following: amount of awarded credit; benefits associated with receiving credit; policies and procedures governing rpl; resources and sources utilized; and institutional support received with regard to preparing applications, submitting documents, grade calculations, etc. what students have learned previously in similar situations informs their self-efficacy, perceived control over the situation, trust in those who evaluate outcomes, and understanding of the policies that determine the correlation between performance and outcomes (mischel, 1979; vroom, 1964). personal, social and organizational determinants are all significant influences. process these expectations direct students in deciding how many applications to submit for rpl credit, what prior learning to demonstrate, and when to apply. after initially being denied credit, students may be notified that additional documentation is required and choices must also then be made. throughout the course of the first term, students experience rpl assessment policies and procedures; socialize at their institution with peers, staff and professors; and interact with the institution itself via coursework and activities. students reflect upon their initial expectations as compared to the realities experienced and as social scientists make judgments about whether their initial formulations were accurate. students may decide to revisit and/or revise their initial transferability expectations and realities 21 figure 2 | rpl credit expectation formation, process and impacts process/gap analysis expectation formation impacts accurate formulation? revisit and/or revise retain entry characteristics sending and receiving institutions, programs and coursework previous learning and experiences rpl understanding and environment rpl satisfaction initial rpl expectations awarded credit benefits policies and procedures resources and sources support behaviour application(s) supporting documents additional requirements rpl and first term experience awarded credit quick, fair and straightforward process rpl assessment/success rate socialization institutional interaction relative satisfaction institution program attributed value 22 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead position if they were unable to accurately predict the unfolding of events or receive additional information. if students are accurate in their predictions, they will retain their position and apply it to future situations (kelly, 1955). students may cycle through this process several times dependent on the number of credit applications submitted and the timing of these applications. therefore, this process is both cyclical and iterative. impacts lastly, once students have completed their first term and have made any necessary revisions to better comprehend and predict future events (kelly, 1955), attitudes result regarding satisfaction with the rpl process and relative satisfaction with institution and program selection. satisfaction regarding awarded credit, and a measure of the quickness, fairness and straightforwardness of the rpl process can be measured and may influence students views about their institution and program. the extent of these impacts is studied herein. transferability expectations and realities results this research study has three major purposes. the first is to develop an understanding of known gaps reported in the literature between the amount of rpl credit expected by learners and the amount of credit actually received. this environmental scan took place in the literature review. the second is to assess potential expectationreality gaps of incoming centennial college rpl students (with regard to amount of awarded credit, benefits associated with receiving credit, resources and sources utilized, institutional supports, and the policies and procedures governing rpl). the third is to examine whether first term academic progression affects students' satisfaction and attitudes regarding their program and rpl. the latter two related research objectives will be discussed in turn, after a brief profile of the rpl population and survey respondents is provided. definitions for consideration throughout this analysis, population refers to all students across the fall, winter and summer 2013/2014 cohorts who met the selection criteria and were, therefore, eligible to participate in the distributed surveys. respondents refer to those students who completed a minimum of 85% of both the pre- and post-surveys. although every effort was made to include plar students in this research study, population and respondent groups include primarily credit transfer students, whereas plar students represent only approximately 1% of both groups. profile of rpl population and survey respondents demographics a set of demographic characteristics were collected using centennial colleges banner student information system and transfer credit and plar logs for all 384 students who met the selection criteria for this research study. this section tests whether respondents are reasonably representative of the population by comparing observable demographics between the two groups. table 3 provides a summary of several key characteristics for the respondent and population groups. these comparisons show that the percentage of males and females who applied for transfer credit and plar is similar between the two groups. for example, females make up more than 60% of each group. the average age between the two groups varies slightly by approximately one year, with the 2024 and 2529 age groups comprising the largest share. additionally, the table shows that there are slightly more international students in the respondent group compared to the population and that respondents have been out of high school for approximately one additional year. for the majority of students, enrolling at centennial college occurred 59 years after completing high school. this characteristic is reflected in the literature, as students transferring to an ontario college are generally mature students with years of formal and/or informal learning as well as work and family responsibilities (cucc, 2011). 23 24 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead table 3 | demographic comparisons gender male female age (average) <20 2024 2529 3039 >40 domestic international time passed since high school (average) less than 1 year 12 years 34 years 59 years 10+ years respondents population 38% 62% 27 4% 41% 31% 14% 10% 83% 17% 6 5% 17% 23% 38% 21% 39% 61% 26 7% 47% 24% 14% 7% 88% 12% 5 4% 21% 26% 38% 10% the credentials in which students are enrolled across the two groups also have similar distributions (see chart 1). ontario college graduate certificate and diploma programs comprise the majority of students. with regard to enrolment by school at centennial college, the school of community and health studies, the school of communication, media and design, and the school of engineering technology and applied science comprise the majority of students (see chart 2). previous postsecondary and rpl credit in drawing further comparisons between population and respondent groups, it is important to investigate the elements related to students previous postsecondary experience, transfer credit and plar applications, awarded/denied credit, and reduced course hours. first, a comparison of previous formal postsecondary education experiences that students accumulated shows that the majority of students have already attended an ontario college or university (see chart 3). more students in the respondent group have attended an ontario university, while reportedly fewer attended an ontario college. additionally, it is noteworthy that 33% of respondents and 34% of the population previously attended more than one postsecondary institution. 25 transferability expectations and realities chart 1 | centennial college credential centennial college credential 0% centennial college certificate ontario college certificate ontario college graduate certificate ontario college ontario college diploma program advanced diploma program 0% 17% 21% 21% 11% 14% 1% 1% 16% 51% population 47% respondents ontario college degree program chart 2 | centennial college school centennial college school population 3% school of transportation 1% 3% 3% school of hospitality, tourism and culinary arts school of engineering technology and applied science 1% 1% school of continuing education school of community and health studies 18% 22% 51% 7% 9% school of communications, media and design 15% school of business 2% school of advancement 1% 19% 44% respondents christine helen arnold and sean woodhead chart 3 | previous postsecondary education previous postsecondary education population 34% 33% 10% 16% 18% 26% 28% more than one universityinternational university-out of province university-ontario 2% collegeinternational college-out of province 1% 18% 11% 37% 44% 59% respondents college-ontario 26 second, table 4 provides a summary of several key population and respondent comparisons on transfer credit and plar applications and awarded/denied decisions. the number of transfer credit applications submitted by students in both groups is fairly similar. on average, both groups submitted 2.3 transfer credit applications, although respondents were slightly less likely to submit only one application (41%) as compared to the population (49%). both groups were awarded 1.8 transfer credits on average, with 40% of respondents and 45% of the population being awarded one credit. furthermore, a fairly generous number of students in both the respondent and population groups were awarded two credits30% and 19%, respectively. only a small percentage of students in both groups were not awarded any transfer credit. plar applications and awarded credit are limited for both groups. lastly, students benefitted from reduced course hours as a result of awarded transfer and plar credit. reduced course hours refers to the credit hours associated with courses awarded transfer credit and/or plar. the majority of students in both respondent and population groups experienced a 150 course hour reduction, 34% and 42%, respectively. subsequently, 27% of respondents and 19% of the population experienced a 51100 course hour reduction. on average, respondents experienced an 84 course hour reduction as compared to the population, which experienced an 86 course hour reduction. the charts that follow examine rpl success rates and reduced course hours by credential and centennial college school. rpl success rate refers to the fraction of transfer and plar credits awarded relative to the amounts for which students applied. the overall rpl success rate for respondents was 80%, compared to 81% for the population. there is no significant difference between respondent and population groups, which suggests that success was not a factor influencing students survey participation. transferability expectations and realities 27 table 4 | previous postsecondary and rpl comparisons respondents transfer credit applications (average) 1 2 3 4 5 6 or more transfer credit awarded (average) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 or more plar applications 0 1 2 3 plar awarded 0 1 2 3 reduced course hours 0 hours 150 hours 51100 hours 101150 hours 151200 hours <200 hours population 2.3 41% 28% 12% 11% 4% 5% 1.8 11% 40% 30% 8% 9% 1% 2% 2.3 49% 21% 11% 7% 7% 6% 1.8 13% 45% 19% 9% 5% 5% 4% 99% 0% 0% 1% 99% 1% 0% 0.3% 99% 0% 0% 1% 99% 1% 0% 0.3% 11% 34% 27% 15% 8% 5% 13% 42% 19% 12% 5% 10% while success rates do not vary between respondent and population groups, variation by credential is observed (see chart 4). students enrolled in an ontario college certificate or ontario college graduate certificate have the highest success rates, followed by students in an ontario college diploma and advanced diploma. respondents in an ontario college advanced diploma have slightly higher success rates than the population. christine helen arnold and sean woodhead chart 4 | transfer credit and plar success rates by credential transfer credit and plar success rates by credential 70% 79% 80% 76% 83% 82% 87% population centennial college certificate ontario college certificate ontario college graduate certificate ontario college ontario college diploma program advanced diploma program 0% 0% 0% 25% 86% respondents ontario college degree program chart 5 | transfer credit and plar success rates by centennial college school transfer credit and plar success rates by centennial college school 81% 80% total 81% 76% 86% 79% other schools school of community and health studies population school of engineering technology and applied science 89% 80% 95% school of communications, media and design 55% 61% 100% respondents school of business 28 29 transferability expectations and realities considerable variation in success rates by school are also observed (see chart 5). students enrolled in communications, media and design, community and health studies, and engineering technology and applied science have the highest success rates. the respondent group has success rates of 100% in communications, media and design, 86% in engineering technology and applied science, and 80% in community and health studies. respondents in business are slightly less successful, with only 61% of applications resulting in awarded credit. the last chart in this section examines reduced course hours by centennial college school. chart 6 shows that reduced course hours are comparable between respondent and population groups. respondents in engineering technology and applied science and business experienced the largest course hour reductions, 106 hours and 98 hours, respectively. chart 6 | reduced course hours by centennial college school reduced course hours by centennial college school 86 78 total other schools school of engineering technology and applied science school of community and health studies school of communications, media and design school of business 55 84 96 106 population 82 72 78 71 96 98 respondents what expectationreality gaps exist for incoming centennial college rpl students (awarded credit and benefits; resources, sources and support; and policies and procedures)? the remainder of this report focuses exclusively on respondents. first, given that students form expectations to some extent based on their understanding of rpl terminology, policies and procedures, a baseline measure of their understanding of these concepts is constructed. this provides a useful starting point for assessing how expectationreality gaps may arise. second, in order to identify potential gaps, the expectations that students held upon arrival at centennial college were collected (pre-survey) and are compared to the realities that they experienced by the end of the first term (post-survey). these data, coupled with student focus group and interview responses, inform a few key expectationreality gaps identified throughout this research. 30 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead understanding of concepts to measure respondents understanding of credit transfer and plar concepts, a series of questions asked students to rank (using a 5-point likert scale) their understanding of the terms credit transfer, plar, and the policies and procedures governing how both forms of credit at centennial college are awarded. the resulting data provide a baseline of students understanding of rpl, from which they make decisions and form attitudes. chart 7 illustrates students understanding of credit transfer and the associated policies and procedures across three time points: 1) the moment they received an offer of admission; 2) the moment they attended their first class; and 3) the end of the first term. understanding of credit transfer and the associated policies and procedures increased from the offer of admission to the end of the first term. post-survey measures show that 95% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they understood the term credit transfer, and 73% agreed or strongly agreed that they understood the associated policies and procedures. while the pre-survey asked students jointly about terminology and policies and procedures in one question, in the post-survey the question was split. this was done to identify potential variation in students understanding of these two concepts. the post-survey indicates that students had a better understanding of the term credit transfer as compared to policies and procedures, a finding that is further explored below. in order to compare understanding across all three points in time, the two post-survey responses on terminology as well as policies and procedures were averaged to obtain a single measure. these time-series data show that average understanding increased gradually, from 3.55 at the initial time of offer (time 1), to 3.73 at the moment the students attended their first class (time 2), and then to 4.14 at the end of the first term (time 3). overall, this difference is statistically significant, where f(2, 180) = 19.06, p < .001. pairwise comparisons using the bonferroni correction more precisely demonstrate that students understanding increased significantly from the offer of admission to the end of the first term (p < .001), as well as from the first class to the end of the first term (p < .001), but not between the offer of admission and first class. similarly, students understanding of plar also increased during the first term (see chart 8). while very few students applied for plar credit, it is important to examine students understanding of this concept to determine whether additional and/or more effective information dissemination is required. understanding of plar and the associated policies and procedures increased from the offer of admission to the end of the first term. however, students understanding of this concept is considerably lower than credit transfer. postsurvey measures indicate that only 58% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they understood the term plar, and 44% agreed or strongly agreed that they understood the associated policies and procedures. using the constructed measure of post-survey understanding (which averages respondents understanding of terminology as well as policies and procedures), the results indicate that the mean increased over time: from 2.82 at time 1, to 3.07 at time 2, to 3.32 at time 3. these differences were statistically significant, where f(2, 174) = 13.04, p < .001. pairwise comparisons using the bonferroni correction show that the change occurred from the offer of admission to the first class (p < .010) and from the offer of admission to the end of the first term (p < .001). strongly disagree disagree neither agree nor disagree agree strongly agree 34% 26% understanding of credit transfer policies and proceduresend of term understanding of credit transferend of term 1% 2% 2% 23% 15% 11% 26% 52% 43% 44% 43% 50% time 3 11% 17% agree 12% time 2 43% neither agree nor disagree 15% 22% 14% 0% 14% 9% 5% 21% 14% 13% time 2 understanding of plar policies and proceduresend of term understanding of plarend of term disagree 5% 33% understanding of credit transfer, policices and proceduresattended first class understanding of credit transfer, polcies and proceduresoffer of admission 10% time 1 23% 22% 26% time 1 10% 13% 11% 15% 33% strongly disagree understanding of plar, policices and proceduresattended first class understanding of plar, polcies and proceduresoffer of admission 16% transferability expectations and realities 31 chart 7 | understanding of credit transfer, policies and procedures understanding of credit transfer, policies and procedures strongly agree chart 8 | understanding of plar, policies and procedures understanding of plar, policies and procedures time 3 32 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead consequently, survey data indicate that student understanding of credit transfer and plar increased throughout the first term. students recognize and report understanding the term credit transfer, but some policies and procedures may require further explanation. nonetheless, there remains a fair amount of clarification still required with regard to plar. students expressed having many questions about eligibility, timing, payments, and portfolio and challenge assessments during the focus groups and interview sessions. these insights are further explored herein. during the focus groups and interview sessions, students described what it means to be an rpl student, the purpose of transferring credits and any misunderstandings they wished to have clarified. specifically, they stated that rpl entails providing evidence of similar coursework and/or experience and applying it to a current program of study in order to reduce the repetition of previously learned material and costs. students explained their understanding in the following ways: for me it seems like you have been a previous student possibly at another institution. so credit transfer would mean that, whatever course you took at your previous institution that youre able to of course transfer here, to use that knowledge towards your diploma or degree. if you transfer over any of your credits youre a transfer student because then youre not actually taking the full course load at centennial college youre actually just bringing over credit youve already done and adding on extra credits. what we have studied we do not need to repeat that same thing. so without repeating previous coursework or learning. not wasting precious time or money as it can be costly. with regard to plar, students generally possessed an unawareness of the concept. where recognition was present, they discussed wanting information regarding which courses are (in)eligible for plar in advance of attending their first class. plar? what is this? i actually have no idea what plar is. what do you mean? plar? i think thats what im working on, next. because when i moved to ontario i had another job experience and it was my own field. like i was the accounts payable and the payroll administrator for six months as well. the first week of our semester our program coordinator asked us, havent you seen the first page of your course outlines? for this course? and then after that i found out the course was required. my suggestion is that they have to put all this information on their website. they have the course outlines on their website so at the beginning we know plar is not accepted for this course. i didnt know that for this is specific course plar was not accepted has not been accepted. they dont accept anything they said. transferability expectations and realities break-out discussions regarding the purpose of plar often occurred during the focus group sessions and after their completion. students wished to know how this concept varies from credit transfer, who is eligible and what is required to demonstrate prior learning. students comprehension of these key concepts can impact their predictions of the amount of credit they will receive and the benefits experienced by having their previous learning recognized. an analysis of students rpl expectations follows. awarded transfer credit/plar and benefits the first expectationreality gap analysis delves into students expectations and selfreported amounts of transfer and plar credits received, from the offer of admission to the end of the first term. the perceived benefits of awarded credit are then considered. with regard to transfer credit, chart 9 indicates that student expectations and amount of transfer credit received are strongly aligned. students are generally good predictors of how much credit they will receive. the majority of students expected to receive 13 transfer credits (76%), whereas few students expected to receive more than 3 transfer credits (14%). overall, the transfer credit applications that students submitted were successful, with only 11% receiving no transfer credit, 78% receiving 13 transfer credits, and 11% receiving more than 3 transfer credits. at centennial college, students are required to submit a separate application for each transfer credit they wish to receive. this contrasts with the policies and procedures at some other institutions, which permit students to apply for multiple credits on a single form or take automatic assessments. as a result, the marginal cost of applying (i.e. time, effort, financial cost of transcripts and international credential evaluations) for an additional credit at centennial college is comparatively high such that students may be more likely to only apply for credits that they perceive are likely to be awarded. this may, in turn, explain the comparatively high success rates that are observed herein. chart 9 | expected and actual transfer credit received expected and actual transfer credit received no transfer credit 1-3 transfer credits 11% 14% 78% actual 11% 10% 76% expected more than 3 transfer credits 33 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead in contrast, few students expected to receive plar credit at the time that they were offered admission (see chart 10). students were also not as successful in predicting the amount of plar credit they would receive. whereas 29% of students expected to receive 13 plar credits and 6% expected to receive more than 3 plar credits, students reported actually receiving 1% and 0%, respectively. however, administrative data outlined in the previous section revealed that only 1% of students submitted an application for plar credit. therefore, at the moment students received an offer of admission, they either overestimated the amount they would receive or there may have been confusion regarding the concept of plar leading to misreports. given that a limited number of students reported comprehending the concept of plar at the offer of admission (37%) and continued unawareness was reported throughout focus groups and interview sessions, the latter explanation may be quite plausible. with regard to the perceived benefits of awarded credit, students report expecting reduced course loads (84%), limited repetition of previously learned material (65%), reduced educational or opportunity costs (43%), additional time for employment (38%) and family (27%), and reduced time to completion (23%) (see chart 11). for the most part, these expectations were realized, with the exception of reduced educational or opportunity costs. ontario colleges have a flat tuition rate for full-time study; thus, a course load reduction does not necessarily result in a tuition reduction. part-time students, who pay tuition per course, will experience financial savings. students expecting to receive a refund for awarded transfer and plar credit may be surprised to learn this will not occur. chart 10 | expected and actual plar credit received expected and actual plar credit received actual 99% expected no plar 1-3 plar credits 0% 6% 1% 29% 66% 34 more than 3 plar credits transferability expectations and realities 35 chart 11 | expected and actual benefits of transfer and plar credit expected and actual benefits of transfer and plar credit post-survey reduced course load limited repetition reduced of previously educational or learned material opportunity costs additional time for employment additional time for family 23% 28% 27% 38% 38% 28% 43% 67% 65% 81% 84% pre-survey reduced time to completion taken together, survey data reveal that students are good predictors of the transfer credit they will receive at centennial college, which may in part be due to the policies and procedures in place. students ability to predict plar credit is not as fine-tuned, as students either overestimate or experience confusion about this concept. the two main benefits resulting from awarded credit experienced by students are reduced course load and limited repetition of previously learned material. students elaborated on these benefits, and the benefits of the rpl experience itself, throughout the focus groups and interview sessions. students explained that the benefits associated with a reduced course load include the ability to focus on other subjects, to spend more time preparing for assignments and tests, and to engage in community and family activities. i have a lighter semester because i have 5 credits. i did my transfer credits. so instead of having 7 courses this semester, i only have 5. so it makes it lighter and during my spare time, i do a lot of volunteer work around the school and stuff. it saves me time from doing the same courses, which ive already done. it also gives me more time to myself or for work or to focus on other courses that are important to me. actually i have extra time for my family and going to work part-time, because one of my classes was on friday the only class geography was on friday and im coming from mississauga. so when i dropped the class, after i got an exemption for the credit, i no longer have to come to centennial college on friday. i have one extra day off just to have time for family, time for my assignments and things like that. reduced educational or opportunity costs were also discussed by students, but with a bit of frustration and confusion. concerns regarding centennial colleges flat tuition fee policy as 36 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead well as full-time/part-time policies affecting the ontario student assistance program (osap), scholarships, and financial aid were shared openly by students. some students stated that, while they were eligible for a larger amount of rpl credit, at times they were unable to apply in order to meet osap requirements. i guess with the refund, i know a lot of students are still unclear about that. when you transfer credit how does that process really work? a deduction in tuition for not taking a certain class not paying an extra four or five hundred dollars for that class im paying the same amount as everybody else in my program and im not going to be taking as many courses. im happy about the amount i received, except that for osap theres a limit. i could have gotten more [transfer credit] but overall i was okay two courses. well first of all i thought wait i already did these courses maybe i could talk to admissions, but first because im an osap student they limit how many credits you have to take, so i had to ask them first. i had to double check with them first. if i drop this course will my osap be affected? residency requirements were not discussed as impinging on the number of rpl credit applications submitted; however, this may be a function of policy. the residency policy in place at ontario colleges, based on the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) binding policy directive framework for programs of instruction, allows students to receive up to 75% of credits through recognition of prior learning (equivalencesubstitution, transfer credit and plar) for certificates and graduate certificates, diplomas and advanced diplomas, and up to 50% for degrees. lastly, students discussed the benefits of the rpl experience itself, an item not asked in the surveys but raised by students in focus groups and interview sessions. there was an overwhelming sense of mastery and maturity in being an rpl student. students stated that the benefits of being an rpl student include an increased awareness of the subject matter, instructor expectations, and time management, problem solving and test taking strategies. there is also a learned knowledge of postsecondary processes and organizational structures. the subjects i am studying im almost familiar with all of them. all except one or two. i have been through you know i just know more. having that experience of being through challenges and courses and overcoming them and being successful and knowing that, knowing how to break things down into chunks so it doesnt get too overwhelming. some of the study habits are different than high school and a few of my student colleagues are still trying to figure it out. well i mean the expectations or the level that postsecondary offers requires a lot more from you. ive done four years at a university and coming to a college its a lot easier, a lot simpler because im older so i just know what people expect, what to study, and the effectiveness of questions, and of course the pressures. transferability expectations and realities many students described themselves as independent self-directed learners with prior postsecondary education and/or work experience. some went as far as to describe themselves playing a parental role in assisting younger students. they explained that the ability to be in a senior position is beneficial due to the heightened self-efficacy it provides them. for me, because i have been in college for lets say i am like a mother in my class and they are like babies. theyre just immature and sometimes not there to learn. they are not really focused. for me, it is just all about the learning. for example, to them it is to meet new people and you know just have a good time and for me it is all about my school. i think that some people who came here have only completed high school, theyre sitting in this course very attentive. and i have completed a masters degree and also have a couple of years experience. i think it is more convenient for us [mature students], so we help them sometimes to understand the subjects. i have one friend in the class, and hes from high school and requires clarification. so im available to assist all the people in the class. while previous experience equated to many benefits for rpl students, they also experienced a few barriers. students identified problems with regard to social fit, establishing themselves among new professors and the learning curve associated with new institutional procedures and protocols. during these moments, students sought guidance/support to aid them with their inquiries. an analysis of students expectations regarding the resources, sources and support available to assist them is detailed below. resources, sources and support herein, the analyses of expectationreality gaps centre on the resources, sources and support that students expect to access and receive compared to those experienced from the offer of admission to the end of the first term. the credit transfer and plar process is multi-faceted and requires students to research and contact service areas on campus as a means of compiling information. this information is used by students in constructing applications for credit, making credit predictions and adopting academic regulations, such as deadlines, timelines, prerequisites, and grade point averages. students were asked to identify the resources and sources from which they received rpl material. table 5 reveals that the most utilized resources and sources for credit transfer are internal, the centennial college website and on-campus staff. throughout the term, students use of centennial college staff increased considerably, suggesting that students are more likely to locate personnel on campus to assist them once they are established. it is also important to note that friends and co-workers are within the top three sources used and, as such, ensuring these individuals have accurate information is crucial. note that the resources and sources utilized for plar are not included, due to the small number of students eligible to comment. 37 38 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead table 5 | resources and sources for credit transfer pre-survey post-survey centennial college website 48% 48% centennial college on-campus staff 34% 47% friends and coworkers centennial college recruitment team or their agents 22% 12% 20% 15% other institution website family 11% 7% 13% 9% secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) other institution staff 5% 5% 9% 10% students were further asked to detail the credit transfer and plar support they expected to receive, and from which they actually benefitted, throughout the first term. table 6 highlights that students overwhelmingly expected to receive clear information regarding eligible credits (80%). additionally, they expected to receive guidance on application procedures (52%), assistance understanding transfer and/or plar assessments and decisions (43%), and assistance managing their transfer credit/plar files (38%). however, while students received the assistance they expected with regard to guidance on application procedures, gaps were experienced with regard to clear information, assistance with understanding transfer and/or plar assessments, managing transfer credit/plar files, program advising and grade calculations. the largest gaps measured from the offer of admission to the end of the first term were clear information regarding eligible credits (80% and 47%, respectively) and assistance understanding transfer and/or plar assessments and decisions (43% and 23%, respectively). table 6 | support for credit transfer and plar pre-survey post-survey clear information regarding eligible credits 80% 47% guidance on application procedures 52% 51% assistance understanding transfer and/or plar assessments and decisions assistance managing your transfer credit/plar files 43% 23% 38% 24% program advising 28% 18% assistance with grade calculations 14% 2% overall, survey data reveal that internal resources and sources were most widely used by students, alongside friends and co-workers. student expectations about available support on campus primarily centered on eligible credit, application procedures and assistance understanding assessment decisions. while students felt they received proper guidance on application procedures, clear information about eligible credits and assistance transferability expectations and realities understanding assessment decisions fell short. these findings were mirrored in the focus group and interview data collected. during focus groups and interview sessions, students described the centennial college website as being the clearest source of credit transfer and plar information available. students outlined three types of information they received on rpl. first, they discussed receiving procedural information from the centennial college website, enrolment services and academic advising, which is outlined in the following statements: advisors in my opinion their information is just on the basis of the website and the policies. they dont know the programs very well. theyre not very well i mean not aware of these things. the program details especially. the desk staff are helpful but mostly procedural. well i talked to one point person in the office for transferring. she gave me a lot of the general information and then i spoke with two of the professors that actually were teaching the course. step number one was checking the centennial college website, i checked the requirements and grades for applying for transfer credit. and then i went and checked with a student advisor. second, students described receiving program tailored information when speaking with program advisors, coordinators, deans, chairs and instructors of courses: i did go and talk to the faculty member who would be reviewing my transfer credit application prior to submitting it. im wondering if everyone offers that, if it is that easy of a service to obtain, because while he shot me down completely at least i was able to find that out in advance. for me, having the head of the english department go through all the documents i brought. it was really helpful because she knew what the panel was expecting so she could pick certain essays that would go better two credits i was transferring. and she mostly did everything for me, i just watched her. im at a loss for words. i just watched her pretty much match up things. i wouldnt have been able to do that myself because i thought maybe this essay would be better, but she actually chose items that i wouldnt have chosen. i took it [application] to my program coordinator. and then we sat down and i had to bring in my course outlines for the courses i thought that i could get. then we sat down and discussed which one he thought better matched up with the outlines from the school here. and then i filled out the forms to get the classes. while the information outlined above is formal in nature, students also discussed the role of informal information. students commented on receiving insider/informal organization information from friends, co-workers and family. these sources were typically responsible for alerting students to the possibility of rpl, informing them of with whom to speak and how to maneuver deadlines. they also acted as a sounding board, listening and directing from the sidelines with invested interest. 39 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead this type of information is particularly useful when determining the documentation and steps necessary for credit application; a more detailed discussion of these elements follows. policies and procedures the last expectationreality gap concerns the procedures/steps that students expected and actually encountered when applying for transfer and/or plar credit from the offer of admission to the end of the first term. the first question asked students to identify the documentation and/or experiences used to determine whether to submit an application for transfer/plar credit (see chart 12). almost all students expected to use academic transcripts (95%), followed by course descriptions (64%) and course outlines/syllabi (70%). notably, students reported using course descriptions (78%) and outlines (76%) slightly more than they planned. while a limited number of students reported actually using assignments and/or assessments (13%), this was almost double that of what students expected (6%). students did not report using previous work or community experiences, which reflects the small amount of plar applications. chart 12 | documentation and/or experiences used to apply for transfer/plar credit documentation and/or experiences used to apply for transfer/plar credit post-survey academic transcript(s) course description(s) course outline(s)/syllabi assignments and/or assessments 0% 0% 13% 6% 76% 70% 64% 78% 95% pre-survey 95% 40 independent study, paid or voluntary experience, workshops, hobbies and/or professional associations etc. after students have identified the documentation required, they must determine the procedure/steps to apply. the application process at centennial college is typically carried out in five stages, which have been divided into three categories for simplicity throughout this analysis: confirm requirements for transfer credit and/or plar with an advisor (first step); complete the transfer credit and/or plar applications, submit all applications and any applicable fees, and provide documentation (e.g., transcripts, course outlines) for transfer credit and/or complete the plar assessment with an rpl assessor (middle steps); and transfer credit and/or plar assessment received (awarded or denied) (last transferability expectations and realities step) (see chart 13). students were asked to identify the order in which they expected to complete these steps in the pre-survey, as well as the actual order in which they completed them in the post-survey. the purpose of this exercise is to obtain information on how often students are able to order these steps correctly. in the analysis, middle steps were grouped together such that if a student identified completing an application, submitting an application and fees, or providing documentation and completing a plar assessment as being mid-process (in any order), it was considered to be correct. the results indicate that students had some difficulty identifying the steps correctly. however, there was a substantial increase in the number of students who were able to identify the steps in order after having experienced them. overall, 45% of students identified confirming requirements with an advisor as the first step, 77% identified completing an application, submitting an application and fees, and providing documentation and completing a plar assessment as middle steps, and 78% identified assessment received as being the last step. chart 13 | identified correct steps in the transfer/plar process identified correct steps in the transfer/plar process pre-survey transfer credit and/or plar assessment received provide documentation and/or complete assessment with an rpl assessor 56% 78% 80% last step 79% 67% submit all applications and pay any applicable fees 60% 55% complete the transfer credit and/or plar applications 45% 33% confirm requirements for transfer credit and/or plar with an advisor 90% middle steps first step post-survey therefore, survey data reveal that almost all students utilized academic transcripts when applying for credit followed by course descriptions and course outlines/syllabi. a few students were asked to provide additional material outlining their previous learning in the form of assignments (e.g., essays, journals, labs) and assessments. students understanding of the steps required to apply for transfer credit and plar was lower at the offer of admission than at the end of the first term. informing students that convening with an advisor prior to applying for credit is important and may need to be reinforced. students 41 42 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead outlined a few reasons why it is advantageous to meet with a centennial college staff member prior to credit application during the focus groups and interviews. during these sessions, students were asked to name the documentation they expected to provide in order to receive credit and to list/illustrate the actual steps taken. students discussed expecting to use a transcript in order to have credit assessed. however, they thought that, once the transcript was submitted for admission to centennial college through the ontario college application service (ocas), they should not have to provide it again. the majority of students thought that the transcript would be on file at centennial college and automatically utilized for credit assessment. a handful of students assumed course outlines would be of use in comparing curricula, learning outcomes and texts used. students explained their rationales: it should be automatic. once we have gone through the procedure, ocas and the evaluation. if someone has already studied and applied to college that should be automatic. centennial college who is receiving me as a student should have my [academic] history. ocas should send my transcript to centennial college so they can look at it. i had to come in i was wondering why they had to have a copy of the transcript, if it was in my application. i know when you applied for school you sent in your transcript from the other school. i didnt know that to apply for a transfer credit its separate from the one you sent when you applied. i didnt know that, so i had to rush to george brown college and get the transcript. when it actually came time for students to apply for credit, some students commented that they were shocked to learn that course descriptions and outlines were required. there was reported difficulty sourcing these items in time to meet deadlines. moreover, a few students recalled writing letters explaining personal situations, such as time away from school and the currency of previous coursework for recognition. the process itself when listed/illustrated by students revealed that the first step generally consists of looking for affinity in course material (previous institution and centennial college) and compiling a case for the approval of credit. students discussed considering the content, hours, amount, and depth of material taught in their decisions to apply: i think the first step would be just seeing if you have any redundancy in your course selection. so, is there something where ive done this before? and then you know request transcripts. i went through my courses and i realized that i had some credits that i can transfer and i applied for it. the courses that were listed in my program, i noticed as i went through the course outlines that i could match it up with the courses that i took so say it said research methods, i took a course in university with research and so i had to go through the syllabus to see if i had actually covered what they were looking for. so each week, each weeks topic. transferability expectations and realities step one would be looking over the course outlines for the program i want to get into, lets say at centennial college, so thats what i did first. and then looking over the credits i already have with seneca college, so that would be looking at previous course outlines, my transcripts, making sure i got the proper grades for the credit transfer. then before mailing everything in i had to make sure my course outlines from my previous school were attached and ensure everything shows how the courses i took relate to the courses ill be taking. sometimes you have to do your own little research. try to meet the expectations of centennial college with what youve done. to make up the course hours because those hours have to be matched. once an initial informal assessment of course affinity is made, meeting with an academic advisor and/or faculty member was seen as useful for some students. students stated that the benefit of speaking with a centennial college staff member was that they received insight into the likelihood of their application being awarded credit: because they [advisors] know what will be accepted or not. some of them, they will tell you at the beginning dont waste your time when if you prepare all of those necessary transcripts at the end of the road you will not be successful. in my opinion it would be better to know that from the beginning. we must have a completed application and all the supporting materials and its most important to get it approved by the program coordinator. i even needed to ask if this material was enough. kind of receive his help and advice as to whether or not i should submit this transfer credit. as described above, assistance is helpful when deciding which additional materials to include in applications for credit. the middle steps consist of submitting documentation and the runaround of trying to locate previous course outlines, paying for transcripts, and digging through binders and plastic totes to find assignments long since stored away. nonetheless, students had the most to share when describing the last step. they described having to decide whether to drop courses preemptively or to attend classes prior to receiving credit decisions. i got an email confirmation saying that they received my request for the transfer credit and then it was another week or another two weeks before i got a confirmation of approval. but by that time i was like it better be approved because i havent been to that class in three weeks. i remember thinking should i go to class? should i not go to class? i could still go to class but i dont know whats going on. i did attend [class]. i was waiting and i continued to go class. i knew they were going to give me credit, but i said just in case. you know, we never know, so they let me continue going. yes after you receive the credit, you have to drop, you have to at least recoup your you have to go back into the office to let them know yes, i did receive credit and they 43 44 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead remove you from the class list. you have to do that. if you dont do that, sometimes they say the professor will still mark you absent or give you a zero. when students received a decision on whether their credits had been approved, this was reported as occurring within 12 weeks. students further stated that there is minimal opportunity to add courses once awarded credits are dropped due to registration in block programs. others described having to determine whether or not to accept awarded credit due to full-time enrolment requirements (osap, scholarships and financial aid) or desiring a content refresher. these considerations and the realities experienced by students throughout the process can potentially influence overall student satisfaction and attitudes. the final section of this analysis investigates students satisfaction with their program and rpl across several indicators. does the first term academic progression affect students' satisfaction and attitudes regarding program and rpl experiences? this section examines whether first term academic progression affects students satisfaction and attitudes regarding program and rpl experiences. in order to identify the impact of first term academic progression, the satisfaction levels students held upon arrival at centennial college were collected (pre-survey) and compared to those held at the end of the first term (post-survey). these survey data, coupled with student focus groups and interviews, provide insight into satisfaction and attitude (in)consistencies. approval process, amount of credit and timing first, students were asked about the approval process for obtaining transfer credit, and at the end of the first term, whether they were ultimately satisfied with the amount received (see chart 14). during the pre-survey, the majority of students agreed (33%) or strongly agreed (56%) that their request for transfer credit would be approved. however, when asked during the post-survey about their satisfaction with the amount of credit they were awarded, the percentage of students who strongly agreed dropped to 28%. the percentage of students who agreed stayed relatively constant. in the pre-survey, the mean score for students was 4.38 but this decreased in the post-survey to 3.67. this represents a significant negative shift, t(93) = - 4.29, p < = .001, in students satisfaction with the amount of credit received compared to their earlier expectations. since approximately 80% of all credit applications were approved, this raises the question of why post-survey satisfaction is comparatively low. this trend may suggest that student satisfaction also relies to some extent on the process taken in order to obtain credit and does not solely depend on what is awarded. note that the plar approval process and ultimate satisfaction are not included in this analysis, due to the small number of students eligible to comment. transferability expectations and realities 45 chart 14 | approval process and satisfaction with transfer credit received approval process and satisfaction with transfer credit received post-survey 28% 37% 6% 1% 6% 3% 13% 16% 33% 56% pre-survey strongly disagree disagree neither agree nor disagree agree strongly agree to investigate the determinants of satisfaction in more detail, table 7 estimates the effects of factors related to respondents understanding of, experience with, and applying for rpl on their satisfaction. the estimating equation is = + + + + + + + , where is the respondent s reported level of satisfaction; , , and denote the level of credit transfer understanding, pre-survey credit expectation, and actual success rate, respectively; and are vectors of demographic and education covariates, respectively; and is the statistical error. the inclusion of the covariates removes from the estimating equation potential demographic, program, or previous schooling effects on satisfaction that may be correlated with students rpl experiences and, therefore, inadvertently bias the effects of interest. however, due to small sample sizes and the possibility of multicollinearity across covariates, efforts were made to avoid including an inappropriately large number of controls in any one regression. the equation was estimated in an ordinary least squares (ols) framework using robust standard errors. the results show that a students understanding of the process of applying for transfer credit significantly improves their satisfaction. these findings indicate the merit of programs that aim to improve student knowledge of the credit transfer system. additionally, the measures of credit success, the quickness and fairness of awarded rpl, and general centennial college satisfaction all significantly and positively affect satisfaction levels (although this latter variable may suffer from reverse-causality bias). 46 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead table 7 | predictors of satisfaction with the rpl credits received, respondents dependent variable: female domestic age ont. coll. ont. univ. other pse (1) coeff. 0.29 0.21 0.00 0.29 -0.27 -0.47 s.e. 0.25 0.31 0.02 0.33 0.30 0.32 tcr understanding pre-tcr expectation success rate rpl was quick rpl was fair rpl was clear college satisfaction business communication health studies engineering ont. coll. diploma ont. coll. grad. cert. ont. coll. adv. dip. intercept 3.54*** 0.53 (2) coeff. 0.23 -0.08 0.02 -0.08 -0.49 -0.55* s.e. 0.21 0.25 0.02 0.28 0.27 0.26 0.34*** -0.09 1.5*** 0.10 0.10 0.42 1.47 0.81 rpl credit satisfaction (3) coeff. s.e. 0.07 -0.36* -0.24 0.19 0.18 0.17 0.22*** -0.01 0.93** 0.27*** 0.64*** -0.49*** 0.18** 0.06 0.07 0.29 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.07 -0.09 0.53 (4) coeff. s.e. 0.23*** -0.06 1.01** 0.33*** 0.67*** -0.51*** 0.14* 0.07 0.09 0.30 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.06 -0.16 -0.68 -0.44 -0.62* 0.33 0.36 0.27 0.30 0.14 0.79 (5) coeff. s.e. 0.20** -0.05 0.89** 0.28*** 0.66*** -0.48*** 0.19** 0.07 0.07 0.32 0.07 0.09 0.08 0.05 0.00 -0.03 -0.25 -0.20 0.22 0.23 0.25 0.63 r-squared 0.11 0.45 0.74 0.73 0.71 number of obs. 90 90 90 90 90 notes: *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.010; * p < 0.050. the following acronyms are used: coeff. = coefficient; s.e. = standard error; ont. = ontario; coll. = college; univ. = university; cdn. = canadian; int. = international; pse = postsecondary education; tcr = transfer credit; rpl = recognition of prior learning; cent. = centennial; grad. cert. = graduate certificate; adv. dip. = advanced diploma; obs. = observations. the variable other pse is an indicator that is 1 if the individual attended college or university outside of ontario, and 0 otherwise. transferability expectations and realities it is interesting to note that the extent to which the rpl process was clear significantly influences satisfaction, but with negative sign. while it is not possible in the context of this report to identify the cause of this anomaly, the researchers offer the following plausible explanation. a student who views the rpl process as less clear may be required to provide more effort than another student who views the process more clearly in order to achieve the same credit success. then, holding such factors as the success rate and rpl quickness and fairness constant in the regression framework, a student may be more satisfied from successfully navigating the rpl process when the effort put in was greater. indeed, the coefficient on the clarity measure increases to nearly zero when the success rate variable and the rpl quickness and fairness measures are excluded (not shown), which supports this hypothesis of a downward bias on the clarity variable. overall, the results provide strong evidence that credit transfer understanding, the success rate, and the quickness and fairness of the rpl process all affect satisfaction. given the large estimated magnitude and significance of the effect of success rate, the determinants of this variable are explored further in table 8. specifically, how students understanding of credit transfer and the types of resources that they used when applying affected their success is investigated. the estimating equation is = + + + + + + + , where is an indicator of whether the respondent expects to receive an a/a+ grade, which takes on a value of 1 if yes and 0 otherwise, is an indicator of whether the respondent correctly ordered the steps to apply for credit, and indicates whether centennial college (internal) supports were used when applying. the remaining variables are defined as above. the results reveal that age, sex, and citizenship (domestic versus international) are all nondeterminants of rpl success. in addition, previous postsecondary education from a province/territory outside of ontario, as well as from an international institution, do not matter in predicting success given that the point estimates for each of these variables are small and statistically insignificant. the only significant variable is the indicator of whether the respondent has previous postsecondary education within ontario, which may suggest that incumbent effects matter. however, this variable is only significant in regression (2), and its effect decreases in both magnitude and significance as other covariates are controlled for in the regression framework. regressions (3) to (5) go on to include the variables measuring the reported understanding of the credit transfer process, whether the respondent correctly identified the order of steps to apply for rpl, and the resources that respondents used when applying. these results indicate that only a students understanding of the credit transfer process robustly matters for explaining success. thus, programs to improve understanding are likely to have significant effects on both satisfaction and success. whereas the ability to properly identify the order of steps to apply for rpl and the indicator of having used centennial college supports are insignificant, this may arise since these variables are both simply precursors to credit transfer understanding. 47 48 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead table 8 | predictors of rpl credit success, respondents dependent variable: female domestic age ont. coll. ont. univ. other cdn. coll. other cdn. univ. int. coll./univ. other pse (1) coeff. -0.05 0.11 -0.01 0.18 0.09 0.00 0.05 -0.01 s.e. 0.07 0.12 0.01 0.12 0.12 0.13 0.08 0.15 (2) coeff. -0.05 0.10 -0.01 0.19 * 0.11 0.04 s.e. 0.07 0.11 0.01 0.11 0.10 0.08 tcr understanding high grade expectation steps correct used cent. supports business communication health studies engineering ont. coll. diploma ont. coll. grad. cert. ont. coll. adv. dip. intercept 0.85*** 0.21 0.86*** 0.20 rpl credit success (3) coeff. s.e. -0.09 0.07 0.09 0.12 -0.01 0.01 0.17 0.12 0.07 0.11 (4) coeff. s.e. (5) coeff. s.e. 0.10 0.06 0.11 0.09 0.17 0.09 0.12 0.10 0.03 0.08 -0.05 0.08 0.02 0.08 0.07* 0.06 -0.01 0.02 0.03 0.08 0.03 0.04 0.08** 0.02 -0.03 0.00 0.03 0.07 0.03 0.03 0.07 * 0.05 -0.01 0.02 0.03 0.08 0.03 0.04 -0.40** -0.02 -0.34* -0.17 0.14 0.12 0.15 0.13 0.01 0.01 -0.03 0.39* 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.25 0.59* 0.25 0.81** 0.25 r-squared .12 .12 .18 .29 .15 number of obs. 90 90 90 90 90 notes: *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.010; * p < 0.050. tcr understanding is based at the offer of admission. high grade expectation is an indicator that the individual realistically expects an a/a+ average. see the notes in table 7 for more information. transferability expectations and realities 49 chart 15 investigates students preferences about applying for all transfer and/or plar credits at the beginning of their programs. the results indicate that most students agreed or strongly agreed that they prefer to apply for all credit at the beginning of their programs in both the pre- and post-surveys. in the pre-survey, the mean score was 3.93 and, in the postsurvey, it decreased slightly to 3.71, which is not a significant difference, t(93) = - 1.33, p > .05. students preferences/attitudes were consistent. chart 15 | preference for start of program transfer and plar credit application preference for start of program transfer and plar credit application post-survey 35% 33% 11% 12% 11% 12% 4% 11% 32% 40% pre-survey strongly disagree disagree neither agree nor disagree agree strongly agree centennial college and program choice second, students were asked about their satisfaction with centennial college and their program choice. in both the pre- and post-surveys, 80% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with their choice to attend centennial college (see chart 16). in the pre-survey, the mean score was 4.14 and, in the post-survey, it decreased slightly to 4.06, which is not a significant difference, t(92) = -1.07, p > .05. with regard to program choice, in both the pre- and post-surveys, approximately 90% of students agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with their choice (see chart 17). in the pre-survey, the mean score was 4.38 and, in the post-survey, it decreased slightly to 4.24, which is not a significant difference, t(93) = -1.84, p > .05. taken together, these findings suggest that student satisfaction with institution and program choice remained stable throughout the credit transfer/plar process. christine helen arnold and sean woodhead chart 16 | satisfaction with centennial college satisfaction with centennial college 39% 41% 11% 14% 4% 4% 4% 2% strongly disagree 43% post-survey 37% pre-survey disagree neither agree nor disagree agree strongly agree chart 17 | program satisfaction at centennial college program satisfaction at centennial college post-survey strongly disagree 43% 7% 2% 0% 2% 11% 36% 46% 52% pre-survey 1% 50 disagree neither agree nor disagree agree strongly agree transferability expectations and realities 51 credit transfer/plar process lastly, students were asked about their satisfaction with the credit transfer and plar process. students indicated their satisfaction with whether transfer credit and plar was awarded fairly, quickly, and in a clear and straightforward manner. approximately 70% of students agreed or strongly agreed that transfer credit and plar is awarded fairly after the process was complete (see chart 18). only a small number of students reported they disagreed or strongly disagreed, which is consistent with the high rates of credit success. the pre- and post-survey mean scores were nearly identical (3.75 and 3.78, respectively), where no significant difference was detected, t(92) = .332, p > .05. chart 18 | fairness of transfer and plar credit decisions fairness of transfer and plar credit decisions post-survey strongly disagree 28% 31% 19% 6% 3% 8% 10% 20% 34% 40% pre-survey disagree neither agree nor disagree agree strongly agree similarly, approximately 70% of students agreed or strongly agreed that transfer credit/plar is awarded quickly after the process was complete (see chart 19). the presurvey and post-survey mean scores were 3.49 and 3.60, respectively, with no significant difference, t(92) = 0.88, p > .05. students were slightly less positive in their attitudes regarding the process being clear and straightforward (see chart 20). approximately 63% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the credit transfer and plar process is straightforward and clear, after the process was complete. the pre- and post-survey mean scores were 3.44 and 3.42, respectively, with no significant difference, t(92) = - .188, p > .05. christine helen arnold and sean woodhead chart 19 | quickness of transfer and plar credit decisions quickness of transfer and plar credit decisions post-survey strongly disagree disagree 25% 9% 16% 12% 16% 11% 9% 22% 37% 44% pre-survey neither agree nor disagree agree strongly agree chart 20 | clarity of transfer and plar credit process clarity of transfer and plar credit process post-survey strongly disagree disagree neither agree nor disagree agree 17% 20% 14% 18% 13% 14% 10% 39% 46% pre-survey 7% 52 strongly agree transferability expectations and realities on account of these findings, students tend to be satisfied with their choices of program of study, as well as to attend centennial college overall. students seem to be able to parse out their attitudes toward these elements of their education from the transfer/plar credit process, but, this issue is difficult to investigate further due to fairly high satisfaction across all credit transfer/plar indicators. although some students expressed disappointment with the clarity and straightforwardness of the credit transfer/plar process, a relatively large fraction of the respondents were still satisfied with this issue. during the focus group and interview sessions, students presented their attitudes toward the process in more detail, explaining their areas of clarity and confusion. encouragingly, students stated that they felt the transfer credit/plar application forms were easily accessible and navigable, explaining the following: i was fortunate that my professor [bridging program] actually sent out an email and a copy of the form online to all of the students in the program. i cant really remember exactly all of what was on the transfer credit application sheet, but it seemed pretty simple. just write down the course name and where you attended. i thought it was simple to fill out. the application process was made very clear. the application online and selecting the documents, that was clear. the application they gave us very clear instructions. by contrast, students also identified areas where they require supplementary information and/or experienced conflicting information. supplementary information was desired regarding transfer credit and plar contacts. while a centralized online rpl application system is in place at centennial college, a hub-andspoke advising model persists with students obtaining advice from enrolment services and the various academic departments. the online rpl application system collects students transcripts and documents and disseminates them to program coordinators in the relevant departments for evaluation. however, students described choosing to visit various departments for advising prior to submitting their applications: well im thinking do it the same way as organic chemistry did it. all i did was give them my syllabus and they looked it up and pressed a button, whatever button allows you to submit and approve credit. instead of making me run around the whole school. i emailed the faculty of business, about how to transfer over credits because i didnt know anything about centennial college before i actually tried to apply here. so, i just emailed and then i got a hold of the head of the faculty of business and he just basically guided me from there on what to do. i had an appointment with someone in the english department and she did it [evaluated credit] right away. she said okay, these look good, ill just process these. i think my experience is probably different than most people because i submitted everything to the head person of my program. 53 54 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead there should be a department strictly dedicated to the credits. if you could just get a single policy that can give credits for any kind of course. i wish the departments were linked to enrolment services i wish enrolment services could do all the credits, all the administrative work in one centralized place. most commonly, students reported visiting the english department and general education and liberal studies department in the school of advancement directly regarding the evaluation of communication and general education courses. they expressed being unsure of who was in charge of handling their applications and at what points decisions were being made: i had no idea who i had to talk to but i looked at the course code, and it was mostly the gned and the comm courses that i wanted to transfer. so, i went to the gned office and i asked somebody and they told me to contact maybe the head of the english department, so i had to do all this research, trying to look for this faculty member online. i dont know about other students, like if they were lucky enough to even make that initiative to like im just really keen. thats why i did all that research but in that aspect, i wish it was a bit more clear as to how to talk to somebody and get the process going. i couldnt understand if the program coordinator will decide, the advisor will decide, admission officer will decide of course not advisor but admission officer will decide regarding credit or the coordinators or cooperating with each other. i didnt get at the end of the road whats the process? i received an answer very quickly because i went directly to the department however i was told that if i had gone through admissions, went through the whole process from the beginning that it would take quite a while. students also requested more transparent evaluation criteria for communications and general education courses. if you have any questions like i never actually took any english courses, in university. but i wrote a ton of papers. so i didnt know if that would be acceptable or not. comm170, comm180 i didnt know you could use a humanities or some other essay course to fulfill that requirement. so once i spoke to someone he said just bring in everything youve done and then well go over it. when i applied for a gned credit i thought i had to specifically apply for the course that i had picked. so, i ended up using two perfectly good courses when i could have just used one to apply for transfer credit, for my one course. lastly, once students received assistance with their applications, they often desired more information regarding transfer credit decisions. rationales for denied credit were sought by transferability expectations and realities students who thought they should have received credit due to misunderstandings with course content or material learned. a clearer reason for why it wasnt granted. most of them [advisors/program coordinators] didnt give a proper reason why i wouldnt receive transfer credit. for students who applied for transfer credit but didnt get the transfer credit i think an explanation as to why it is not accepted, or why this transfer credit is rejected should be given. i think it is logical to do so. and the reason for that is i strongly believed that i would get the credit, which was declined. and the reason for it being declined wasnt given to me. but that was something that i really wanted to... or something that i wished to get some feedback on. conflicting information was experienced with regard to the deadline for applying for credit each term. students commented that the deadlines were not always adhered to or wellknown: the deadline is not very transparent i guess. its more like a recommendation than a deadline. i did miss the deadline and it was still approved. why is there a deadline? and for other people who think that they missed the deadline and dont have a friend who can tell them oh okay, just try it anyway and theyll just probably take the courses that is unfortunate. i didnt even know there was a deadline. i wasnt aware of the deadline and i honestly thought the program coordinator would say youve got this past education so you need to be im going to give you credit for comm170 and comm180'. just the deadlines. well, i thought coming into the program that i would probably get maybe a week or two as a deadline but i realized that the deadline had passed. in order to apply, you had to do so before you started the program. students stated that they wished for extensions on the deadlines to apply for credit. the last question in each focus group and interview asked students to comment on the support structures that could be constructed and/or revised to provide a more productive system at centennial college. these responses are detailed in the final section of this report, which will bring together results and recommendations and outline areas for future research. 55 56 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead discussion and conclusion this report concludes with a summary and application of the research results, followed by a discussion of institution-level policy and procedural recommendations. while this report expands research on the college rpl student experience, it also provides a number of transferable insights into how students form rpl expectations, and on effective institutional practices in communicating rpl rights and the improvement of student support structures. summary students understanding of credit transfer and plar increased throughout the term. students recognized and reported understanding the term credit transfer but required clarification with policies and procedures. students understanding of the term plar required a fair amount of instruction. the main benefits resulting from awarded credit experienced by students were reduced course load and limited repetition of previously learned material. students reported using their free time to focus on remaining coursework, employment, volunteering and/or family. after a measure of students understanding of these concepts was collected, the first part of the analysis involved identifying potential expectationreality gaps of incoming centennial college rpl students. gaps between initial expectations and subsequent credit transfer experiences were uncommon andin most casessmall. students expectations regarding the amount of transfer credit they would receive are quite accurate overall. students determine whether to apply for transfer credit based on professional and self-assessments of curriculum affinity and generally prefer to apply for all credit at the beginning of their programs. the students in this study experienced high transfer credit success rates, which may be attributed to the application procedures implemented at centennial college. however, students were unable to predict plar credit success with the same accuracy, as they either overestimated or were confused regarding this concept. the information accumulated by students as they formulated an understanding of credit transfer and plar came primarily from the centennial college website, on-campus staff and social networks. while students expectations about application procedures were generally met, expectations regarding clear information regarding eligible credits and assistance with understanding assessment decisions were not met. while most students expected to receive clear information about transferability, many struggled to gain clarity and still possessed questions about current policies. regarding policies and procedures, almost all students reported expecting to utilize academic transcripts when applying for credit, and this was actualized. however, while requiring an academic transcript is universally understood by students, some cited frustration and confusion concerning the need to submit transcripts twice: once for admission purposes and again for transfer credit. students reported utilizing course descriptions and course outlines/syllabi more than originally anticipated, and they highlighted the difficulty in sometimes acquiring this information from institutions. in addition, some students reported providing supplementary material, such as various assignments, in demonstrating their prior learning for rpl creditalthough this is no longer an acceptable practice at the college. lastly, students knowledge of the steps required to apply for transfer credit and plar was lower at the offer of admission than at the end of the first term. it is crucial to inform students of the advantages in meeting with an transferability expectations and realities advisor prior to applying for credit. students who reported visiting with academic division personnel in advance of submitting their application(s) noted the value in doing so. additional areas that did not meet student expectations include: 1) a lack of tuition rebates or reduced tuition costs as a result of rpl credit; 2) misunderstanding around rpl deadlines, which often resulted in students wanting extensions; and 3) block registration of courses that inhibited students from topping up their course load in order to fast track once credit was awarded. the second part of this analysis involved determining whether first-term academic progression affects students' satisfaction and attitudes regarding their program and rpl experiences. students tended to be satisfied with their choices of program, as well as to attend centennial college. while students maintained consistent levels of satisfaction with the fairness and quickness of the credit transfer/plar process, they expressed increased disappointment by the end of the first term with clarity and straightforwardness. regression results provide strong evidence that credit transfer understanding, the rpl success rate, and the quickness and fairness of the rpl process are all predictors of student satisfaction with rpl credit received. in examining rpl credit success as a function of satisfaction, the results show that age, sex, and citizenship (domestic versus international) are all non-determinants of rpl success. significant predictors include whether students possess previous postsecondary education within ontario and credit transfer understanding. the latter result suggests that initiatives to improve understanding will likely have significant effects on both satisfaction and success. expectation adjustments and the role of the scientist conceptually, students reported forming expectations according to their background characteristics, sending institution(s) and program affinity, previous learning and experiences, and understanding of rpl. students reported that their confidence in the likelihood that they would receive credit was based on high grades, program affinity, duration of coursework completed (e.g., one semester, two semesters) and currency (e.g., completed previous coursework five years ago). rpl understanding and the value attributed to receiving credit also seem to drive students expectations. some students expressed desiring credit in order to have more free time to work, to manage family commitments and to reduce commute time to centennial college. these factors impact the amount of credit students apply for and, as the first term progression occurred, students reported reflecting on their original expectations. student hypotheses regarding the amount of awarded credit, benefits associated with receiving credit, resources and sources utilized, institutional supports, and the policies and procedures governing rpl were tested. as feedback was received, students either retained their position or revisited it. with regard to the amount of credit, many students were correct in their expectations and, therefore reported satisfaction with this indicator. others reported the need to revisit why the credit for which they applied was not approved. some students were reflective scientists, realizing that the affinity they thought they presented in fact did not meet centennial colleges policy, whereby an rpl assessor identifies a minimum 80% affinity of learning outcomes or content between the previously completed course and the centennial 57 58 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead college course. realizations that course descriptions and course outlines/syllabi were required also prompted some students to re-consider their initial position. students commonly stated that sitting in the classroom with their peers and hearing their stories of rpl credit also made them revisit their initial positions. for some, these conversations reinforced that their learning was adequate to receive credit and that they properly prepared their applications, whereas others realized that they would not receive credit or deserved more credit. students reported becoming aware of additional credit transfer opportunities when speaking with their peers. while most students who were denied credit revised their initial expectations after learning more about the policies and procedures governing rpl at centennial college, survey results revealed that understanding improved over time, a small portion of students retained their position that it was the college that was incorrect in their assessment. the amount of time students cycled through this process was dependent on the number of credit applications submitted and the timing of these applications. for example, students who received credit for some applications and not others recalled retaining, revisiting and revising their initial expectations. this process/gap analysis eventually led to the student judgments about satisfaction reported above. while behavioural psychology successfully assists in explaining how rpl students rationally update beliefs as new information becomes available, future extensions may include the use of bayesian updating. additionally, cross-institutional investigations of expectation formation, updating, and experienced realities are necessary for a more thorough analysis at the system level. recommendations a number of policy and procedural recommendations aimed to improve the rpl experience are provided. while the recommendations outlined are of key importance to centennial college, many are transferable across institutions looking to critically examine their credit transfer and plar structures. the following insights are a result of this research: increase initial supportsupport in preparing and submitting rpl applications should occur as early as the time of admission. flagging students with previous postsecondary education upon admission and disseminating an email message via mycentennial prior to the start of term to alert them of the possibility of rpl credit would be helpful. the rpl experience would be further improved by sending rpl eligibility information and application links and forms with students offer of admission. further automate and streamline processesin recent years, centennial college has moved towards automating and expediting credit transfer/plar processes. while students recommend an online application system with tracking functionality, this has been established by the collegeeffective may 2014. however, there is still room for improvement, as students state that the academic transcripts on file, as a part of their admissions, should be automatically accessed for rpl assessments. centralize rpl supportstudents highlight the value of having access to academic division personnel through the rpl process. the current credit transfer advising and support mechanism is a patchwork of different support functions and transferability expectations and realities individuals across the college. this patchwork, along with inconsistent information sharing and lack of clarity regarding the process, has resulted in a student experience that is akin to a hub-and-spoke model. centennial college should consider centralizing support functions. improve rpl staff visibility and expertisecentennial college should seek ways of improving rpl staff visibility and expertise. visibility can be increased through a more established presence on campus as well as at open houses, orientation sessions, college/university fairs and pop-up advising stands. rpl advising should also have an improved online presence. dedicated rpl staff should be able to advise students through self-assessments and identify curricular affinity between courses and programs. peer mentoringmentoring opportunities from previous rpl students is a means to guide and support incoming students about the application process. social networks proved to be a large source of information for students; therefore, utilizing this resource further would be desirable. centennial college should develop a peer mentoring program that draws on the expertise of previous rpl students. policies and proceduresdemand exists for tuition rebates, despite the current tuition framework in place at ontario colleges, which does not differentiate between full-time course loads with or without rpl credit. furthermore, in the event that rpl applications or subsequent appeals are denied, students wish to see a more thorough rationale. clarify realistic benefit expectationscentennial college has an opportunity to support students during expectation formation by clearly articulating realistic benefits obtained through transfer credit and plar. for example, administrators and advisors should reiterate the tuition framework and dispel notions of obtaining rebates for successful transfer credit and plar applications when full-time status is maintained. in conclusion, there are minimal expectationreality gaps for incoming centennial college students. students apply for rpl credit with significant precision; success rates are quite high. the few notable discontinuities that exist concern information clarity, the credit transfer process and available supports. credit transfer understanding, rpl success rate, and perceived quickness and fairness of the rpl process are all predictors of student satisfaction with rpl credit received. what was not found in this study was a strong relationship between rpl satisfaction and centennial college satisfaction with either the students program of study or the institution overall. this finding may indicate that students are able to separate service and academic functions. nevertheless, due to fairly high satisfaction across all credit transfer/plar indicators, it is difficult to deduce this exclusively. ontarios colleges are in a strong position to work collaboratively with prospective and current students in managing their expectation formation and supporting development of reasonable expectations for their rpl experience. working alongside students, amendments and additions to current support structures can be implemented. it is essential that administrators ensure that the policies and procedures in place are serving students. 59 60 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead minimized gaps in expectations and understanding of rpl promotes a greater likelihood of student rpl satisfaction. transferability expectations and realities references andres, l. 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(1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. transferability expectations and realities townsend, b. k., & wilson, k. (2006). a hand hold for a little bit: factors facilitating the success of community college transfer students to a large research university. journal of college student development, 47(4), 439546. usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges: summary report. toronto, on: higher education strategy associates. vroom, v. h. (1964). work and motivation. new york, ny: wiley. 63 64 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead appendix a transferability expectations and realities survey 2013/2014 letter of invitation greetings, we are writing to request your participation in the research study entitled, transferability expectations and realities. for 5 minutes of your time, you will receive an opportunity to win an ipad 5th generation. there will be additional participation opportunities to win a tablet and/or receive a cash honourarium. as an incoming centennial college student with potentially relevant prior learning, you have been identified as a participant candidate for this study. your candidacy for participation has been based upon your application for transfer credit and/or prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) for the 2013-2014 academic year. before you decide whether to participate, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. please take a moment to read the details of this study and its benefits. who is conducting the study? all research will be carried out at centennial college under the supervision of christine helen arnold, university of toronto/ontario institute for studies in education (oise), and sean woodhead, centennial college. what is the purpose of the study? the purpose of this study is to collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability. study results may inform college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. what will you need to do if you take part? as a part of this study, we are asking you to participate in a survey discussing your: 1) knowledge of credit transfer and plar concepts; 2) expectations for credit transfer and plar processes and outcomes; and 3) satisfaction with the current credit transfer and plar system in place at centennial college. this survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete and you will receive an ipad 5th generation raffle ticket. in addition, we will collect information from your academic record regarding demographics, registered courses and recognition of prior learning (rpl) applications. transferability expectations and realities you will be asked to provide consent to be a part of this research study by checking a box on the survey itself. in providing consent, you confirm that you have been given the opportunity to discuss the study, all of your questions have been answered and you agree to participate. who is organizing and funding the research? this study is organized and funded by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). in 2011, the provincial government announced funding of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system objectives include: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework; 2) developing more transfer opportunities; 3) providing on campus advisors and orientation programs; and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). centennial college is supporting this provincial initiative by participating in and leading many transferability projects, including this study, which will provide fruitful recommendations regarding necessary rpl support structures. what are the possible disadvantages in taking part? there are no foreseeable risks associated with participating in this study. the research risk is extremely low. you will be instructed to share and disclose only that information with which you are comfortable. the data collected is not sensitive and there is no more risk involved than in everyday interactions. what are the benefits of taking part? participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. in identifying rpl reality-expectation gaps, colleges and universities can use the study results to: 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding their effectiveness in communicating credit transfer and plar rights and responsibilities; 2) participate in expectation management at the point of admission; and 3) develop or revise support structures that facilitate the translation of relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit. will my taking part in this study be kept confidential? yes, all responses will be kept strictly confidential and your involvement is voluntary. you may withdraw at any time or decline to answer any question with which you are uncomfortable. you will not be judged or evaluated and you will not be at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the study results. your identity will be kept anonymous within all research writing and publications. 65 66 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead contact and further information if you are interested in participating in the transferability expectations and realities research study, please complete the following survey. your contribution to this study is greatly appreciated. responses are requested by [insert date]. http://fluidsurveys.com/s/transferabilityexpectationsandrealities/ if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study, please contact ethics@centennialcollege.ca or the chair, dr. lynda atack at latack@centennialcollege.ca. we are happy to answer any questions you may have about this study. please keep a copy of this letter for your records. sincerely, christine helen arnold ph.d. candidate, higher education university of toronto/oise 252 bloor street west toronto, canada, m5s 1v6 c.arnold@utoronto.ca sean woodhead manager, pathways & academic partnerships centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca transferability expectations and realities 67 appendix b transferability expectations and realities survey 2013/2014 pre-survey sent from manager, pathways & academic partnerships to incoming centennial college students who have applied for transfer credit and/or plar credit _______________________________________________________________ this survey will collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability adjusted between the initial point of intake and near the first terms end. this survey is being conducted by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). all answers will be kept strictly confidential and used for statistical purposes. while participation in this survey is voluntary, your cooperation is important to ensure that the information collected in this survey is accurate and comprehensive. this survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. students who complete the survey will receive a raffle ticket to be entered into a draw for an ipad 5th generation. participant consent: i have been given the opportunity to discuss this study. all of my questions have been answered to my satisfaction. i agree to take part in this study and understand that i am free to withdraw at any time. _______________________________________________________________ student number: ________________________ program: __________________________ demographics 1. you most closely identify as: a domestic student born in canada a domestic student not born in canada an international student born in canada an international student not born in canada 2. where was your high school located? within canada (please specify province) ___________________ outside of canada (please specify country) ___________________ 68 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead 3. what was your overall average grade in high school? 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f 4. between finishing high school and enrolling in your current centennial college program, the following amount of time has passed: less than 1 year 1-2 years 3-4 years 5-9 years 10+ years did not graduate high school 5. 6. 7. (please select all that apply) prior to enrolling at centennial college you: were employed in a job that is related to your current program volunteered in a role that is related to your current program had a hobby or hobbies related to your current program completed university, college, polytechnic and/or vocational/technical education related to your current program completed workshops or seminars that were not for college or university credit and related to your current program (please select all that apply) if you completed postsecondary education prior to enrolling at centennial college, what form of education did you complete? attended a canadian college, polytechnic and/or vocational/technical institution attended a canadian university attended an international college, polytechnic and/or vocational/technical institution attended an international university did not study at a university, college, polytechnic and/or vocational/technical institution your current centennial college program is a: one year certificate program two year diploma program three year advanced diploma program four year degree program one year graduate certificate program transferability expectations and realities 8. you expect to complete your program within: one year two years three years four years five years more than five years do not expect to complete my program 9. ideally, you hope to complete most courses with grade points of: 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f 10. realistically, you expect to complete most courses with grade points of: 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f credit transfer and plar concepts 11. (please rank on the scale) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you understood the term credit transfer and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree 12. disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) at the moment that you attended your first class at centennial college, you understood the term credit transfer and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree 69 70 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead 13. (please rank on the scale) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you understood the term prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree 14. neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) at the moment that you attended your first class at centennial college, you understood the term prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree 15. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please select all that apply) your understanding of credit transfer has been informed by: family secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and coworkers centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff other institution website other institution staff oncat website other: ______________________ 16. (please select all that apply) your understanding of plar has been informed by: family secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and coworkers centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff other institution website other institution staff oncat website other: ______________________ transferability expectations and realities 71 expectations and preferences 17. 18. 19. 20. at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to obtain: no transfer credit 1-3 courses of transfer credit approximately 1 term of transfer credit approximately 2 terms of transfer credit approximately 3 terms or more of transfer credit at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to obtain: no plar credit 1-3 courses of plar credit approximately 1 term of plar credit approximately 2 terms of plar credit approximately 3 terms or more of plar credit (please select all that apply) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to use the following documentation and/or experiences to determine whether to submit an application for transfer credit and/or plar credit: academic transcript(s) course description(s) course outline(s)/syllabi assignments and/or assessments portfolio(s) independent study, personal projects and/or reading community and family activities paid or voluntary work, travel and/or military service hobbies and/or professional associations non- university and/or college courses and/or training programs seminars and/or workshops other (please rank all that apply in order) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to complete the following steps when applying for transfer credit and/or plar credit: confirm requirements for transfer credit and/or plar with an advisor transfer credit and/or plar assessment received (awarded or denied) provide documentation (e.g. transcript(s), course outline(s) etc.) for transfer credit(s) and/or complete plar assessment(s) with an rpl assessor complete the transfer of credit application and/or plar application submit all applications and any applicable fees 72 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead 21. 22. 23. (please select all that apply) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to experience the following forms of credit transfer and/or plar support: clear information regarding eligible transfer credits guidance on application procedures program advising assistance with grade calculation(s) assistance managing your transfer credit and/or plar files (e.g. deadlines, transcript(s), documents etc.) assistance understanding transfer credit and/or plar assessments and all decisions (please select all that apply) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to experience the following benefits if awarded transfer credit and/or plar credit? limited repetition of previously learned material reduced course load reduced time to completion reduced educational or opportunity costs additional time for family additional time for employment (please rank on the scale) when you applied for transfer credit and/or plar credit, you expected the application to be approved and the requested credit to be awarded. strongly disagree 24. neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you would prefer to apply for all your transfer credit and/or plar credit at the beginning of your program. strongly disagree 25. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you would prefer to apply for your transfer credit and/or plar at multiple points throughout your program. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree transferability expectations and realities 73 satisfaction 26. (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with choosing centennial college for your postsecondary education. strongly disagree 27. strongly agree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you believe centennial college quickly awards transfer credit and/or plar credit. strongly disagree 30. agree (please rank on the scale) you believe centennial college fairly awards transfer credit and/or plar credit. strongly disagree 29. neither disagree nor agree (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with your choice of program at centennial college. strongly disagree 28. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) the process of obtaining transfer credit and/or plar credit at centennial college was straightforward and clearly outlined. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree ______________________________________________________________________ thank you! we appreciate you taking the time to complete this survey. your feedback is important to us and will assist in improving centennial colleges credit transfer and plar system. if you have any questions about this survey, please contact sean woodhead at swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca. please check the box below if you wish to participate in a 5 minute follow-up survey in (december/april/august). you will receive an additional two raffle tickets for the ipad 5th generation draw for your participation. 74 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead appendix c transferability expectations and realities follow-up survey 2013/2014 letter of invitation greetings, thank you for taking the time to participate in the transferability expectations and realities research study. we enjoyed learning about your initial: 1) knowledge of credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) concepts; 2) expectations for credit transfer and plar processes and outcomes; and 3) satisfaction with the current credit transfer and plar system in place at centennial college. having almost completed your first term at centennial college, you will have now experienced the credit transfer and/or plar system in relation to your coursework. therefore, we are contacting you at this time to participate in a follow-up survey. we would like to hear about your first term and the realities you have experienced. before you decide whether to participate, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. please take a moment to read the details of this study and its benefits. who is conducting the study? all research will be carried out at centennial college under the supervision of christine helen arnold, university of toronto/ ontario institute for studies in education (oise), and sean woodhead, centennial college. what is the purpose of the study? the purpose of this study is to collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability. study results may inform college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. what will you need to do if you take part? at this stage in the study, we are asking you to participate in a follow-up survey discussing your: 1) knowledge of credit transfer and plar concepts; 2) realities of credit transfer and plar processes and outcomes; and 3) continued satisfaction with the current credit transfer and plar system in place at centennial college. this survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. you will receive a $15.00 tim hortons gift card as well as two additional raffle tickets for an ipad 5th generation draw! transferability expectations and realities 75 you will be asked to provide consent to be a part of this research study by checking a box on the survey itself. in providing consent you confirm that you have been given the opportunity to discuss the study, all of your questions have been answered and you agree to participate. who is organizing and funding the research? this study is organized and funded by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). in 2011, the provincial government announced funding of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system objectives include: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework; 2) developing more transfer opportunities; 3) providing on campus advisors and orientation programs; and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). centennial college is supporting this provincial initiative by participating in and leading many transferability projects, including this study, which will provide fruitful recommendations regarding necessary recognition of prior learning (rpl) support structures. what are the possible disadvantages in taking part? there are no foreseeable risks associated with participating in this study. the research risk is extremely low. you will be instructed to share and disclose only that information with which you are comfortable. the data collected is not sensitive and there is no more risk involved than in everyday interactions. what are the benefits of taking part? participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. in identifying rpl reality-expectation gaps, colleges and universities can use the study results to: 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding their effectiveness in communicating credit transfer and plar rights and responsibilities; 2) participate in expectation management at the point of admission; and 3) develop or revise support structures that facilitate the translation of relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit. will my taking part in this study be kept confidential? yes, all responses will be kept strictly confidential and your involvement is voluntary. you may withdraw at any time or decline to answer any question with which you are uncomfortable. you will not be judged or evaluated and you will not be at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the study results. your identity will be kept anonymous within all research writing and publications. 76 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead contact and further information if you are interested in continuing your participation in the transferability expectations and realities research study, please complete the following follow-up survey. your contribution to this study is greatly appreciated. responses are requested by [insert date]. http://fluidsurveys.com/s/transferabilityexpectationsandrealitiesfollow-up/ if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study please contact ethics@centennialcollege.ca or the chair, dr. lynda atack at latack@centennialcollege.ca. we are happy to answer any questions you may have about this study. please keep a copy of this letter for your records. sincerely, christine helen arnold ph.d. candidate, higher education university of toronto/oise 252 bloor street west toronto, canada, m5s 1v6 c.arnold@utoronto.ca sean woodhead manager, pathways & academic partnerships centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca transferability expectations and realities 77 appendix d transferability expectations and realities follow-up survey 2013/2014 post- survey sent from manager, pathways & academic partnerships to incoming centennial college students who have applied for transfer credit and/or plar credit _______________________________________________________________ this survey will collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability adjusted between the initial point of intake and near the first terms end. this survey is being conducted by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). all answers will be kept strictly confidential and used for statistical purposes. while participation in this survey is voluntary, your cooperation is important to ensure that the information collected in this survey is accurate and comprehensive. this survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. students who complete the survey will receive a $15.00 tim hortons gift card as well as two additional raffle tickets for an ipad 5th generation draw! gift cards will be mailed to students home addresses or made available for pick-up at centennial college. participant consent: i have been given the opportunity to discuss this study. all of my questions have been answered to my satisfaction. i agree to take part in this study and understand that i am free to withdraw at any time. _______________________________________________________________ student number: ________________________ program: __________________________ demographics 1. you most closely identify as: a domestic student born in canada a domestic student not born in canada an international student born in canada an international student not born in canada 2. has your program at centennial college changed since enrolment? yes, a program changed has occurred no, a program change has not occurred 78 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead 3. you expect to complete your program within: one year two years three years four years five years more than five years do not expect to complete my program 4. ideally, you hope to complete most courses with grade points of: 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f 5. realistically, you expect to complete most courses with grade points of: 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f credit transfer and plar concepts 6. (please rank on the scale) you are aware of and understand the term credit transfer. strongly disagree 7. disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you are aware of and understand centennial colleges policies and procedures regarding the awarding of transfer credit. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree transferability expectations and realities 8. (please rank on the scale) you are aware of and understand the term prior learning assessment and recognition (plar). strongly disagree 9. neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you are aware of and understand centennial colleges policies and procedures regarding the awarding of plar credit. strongly disagree 10. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please select all that apply) your understanding of credit transfer has been informed by: family secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and coworkers centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff other institution website other institution staff oncat website other: ______________________ 11. (please select all that apply) your understanding of plar has been informed by: family secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and coworkers centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff other institution website other institution staff oncat website other: ______________________ realities and additional expectations 12. for your current centennial college program you obtained: no transfer credit 1-3 courses of transfer credit approximately 1 term of transfer credit approximately 2 terms of transfer credit approximately 3 terms or more of transfer credit 79 80 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead 13. for your current centennial college program you obtained: no plar credit 1-3 courses of plar credit approximately 1 term of plar credit approximately 2 terms of plar credit approximately 3 terms or more of plar credit 14. (please select all that apply) you utilized/referenced the following documentation and/or experiences when submitting an application for transfer credit and/or plar credit: academic transcript(s) course description(s) course outline(s)/syllabi assignments and/or assessments portfolio(s) independent study, personal projects and/or reading community and family activities paid or voluntary work, travel and/or military service hobbies and/or professional associations non- university and/or college courses and/or training programs seminars and/or workshops other 15. 16. (please rank all that apply in order) you completed the following steps when applying for transfer credit and/or plar credit: confirm requirements for transfer credit and/or plar with an advisor transfer credit and/or plar assessment received (awarded or denied) provide documentation (e.g. transcript(s), course outline(s) etc.) for transfer credit(s) and/or complete plar assessment(s) with an rpl assessor complete the transfer of credit application and/or plar application submit all applications and any applicable fees (please select all that apply) you experienced the following forms of transfer credit and/or plar support: clear information regarding eligible transfer credits guidance on application procedures program advising assistance with grade calculation(s) assistance managing your transfer credit and/or plar files (e.g. deadlines, transcript(s), documents etc.) assistance understanding transfer credit and/or plar assessments and all decisions transferability expectations and realities 17. 18. (please select all that apply) you experienced the following benefits having been awarded transfer credit and/or plar credit: limited repetition of previously learned material reduced course load reduced educational or opportunity costs additional time for family additional time for employment n/a (please rank on the scale) you applied for all your transfer credit and/or plar credit at the beginning of your program. strongly disagree 19. disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you expect to apply for additional transfer credit during the course of your program at centennial college. strongly disagree 20. disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you expect to apply for additional plar credit during the course of your program at centennial college. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree satisfaction 21. (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with choosing centennial college for your postsecondary education. strongly disagree 22. 81 disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with your choice of program at centennial college. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree 82 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead 23. (please rank on the scale) (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with the amount of transfer credit you have currently been awarded at centennial college. strongly disagree 24. strongly agree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you believe centennial college quickly awards transfer credit and/or plar credit. strongly disagree 27. agree (please rank on the scale) you believe centennial college fairly awards transfer credit and/or plar credit. strongly disagree 26. neither disagree nor agree (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with the amount of plar credit you have currently been awarded at centennial college. strongly disagree 25. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) the process of obtaining transfer credit and/or plar credit at centennial college was straightforward and clearly outlined. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree ______________________________________________________________________ thank you! we appreciate you taking the time to complete this survey. your feedback is important to us and will assist in improving centennial colleges credit transfer and plar system. if you have any questions about this survey, please contact sean woodhead at swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca. please check the box below if you wish to participate in a 60 minute focus group discussing your credit transfer and/or plar experiences. students will receive a $20.00 cash honourarium for their participation. in addition, complimentary pizza and drinks will be served at each focus group session! transferability expectations and realities appendix e transferability expectations and realities focus group letter of invitation greetings, thank you for taking the time to participate in the transferability expectations and realities research study. we enjoyed learning about your: 1) knowledge of credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) concepts; 2) expectations and realities; and 3) satisfaction with the current recognition of prior learning (rpl) system in place at centennial college. we are contacting you at this time in response to your interest in participating in a 60 minute focus group discussing your credit transfer and/or plar experiences. a focus group consists of a small number of individuals brought together to discuss their perceptions, opinions and beliefs on a specific topic. questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. before you decide whether to participate, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. please take a moment to read the details of this study and its benefits. who is conducting the study? all research will be carried out at centennial college under the supervision of christine helen arnold, university of toronto/ ontario institute for studies in education (oise), and sean woodhead, centennial college. what is the purpose of the study? the purpose of this study is to collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability. study results may inform college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. what will you need to do if you take part? at this stage in the study, we are asking you to participate in audiotaped, semi-structured focus group that will center on the existence of expectationreality gaps and rationales for these gaps (student estimations of relevant prior learning and institutional communication of expectations and standards). your insights will reveal how support structures can be constructed and/or revised to provide a more productive system. the focus group will be audio taped with your permission. approximately eight to ten students will participate in each 60 minute semi-structured focus group. due to the confidential nature of this study you will be asked to keep all 83 84 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead discussion that takes place within the focus group private. you will receive a $20.00 cash honourarium for your participation! you will be asked to provide consent to be a part of this research study by written confirmation at the commencement of the focus group. in providing consent you confirm that you have been given the opportunity to discuss the study, all of your questions have been answered and you agree to participate. who is organizing and funding the research? this study is organized and funded by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). in 2011, the provincial government announced funding of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system objectives include: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework; 2) developing more transfer opportunities; 3) providing on campus advisors and orientation programs; and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). centennial college is supporting this provincial initiative by participating in and leading many transferability projects, including this study, which will provide fruitful recommendations regarding necessary rpl support structures. what are the possible disadvantages in taking part? there are no foreseeable risks associated with participating in this study. the research risk is extremely low. you will be instructed to share and disclose only that information with which you are comfortable. the data collected is not sensitive and there is no more risk involved than in everyday interactions. what are the benefits of taking part? participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. in identifying rpl reality-expectation gaps, colleges and universities can use the study results to: 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding their effectiveness in communicating credit transfer and plar rights and responsibilities; 2) participate in expectation management at the point of admission; and 3) develop or revise support structures that facilitate the translation of relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit. transferability expectations and realities will my taking part in this study be kept confidential? yes, all responses will be kept strictly confidential and your involvement is voluntary. you may withdraw at any time or decline to answer any question with which you are uncomfortable. you will not be judged or evaluated and you will not be at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the study results. your identity will be kept anonymous within all research writing and publications. contact and further information if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study please contact ethics@centennialcollege.ca or the chair, dr. lynda atack at latack@centennialcollege.ca. we are happy to answer any questions you may have about this study. please keep a copy of this letter for your records. sincerely, christine helen arnold ph.d. candidate, higher education university of toronto/oise 252 bloor street west toronto, canada, m5s 1v6 c.arnold@utoronto.ca sean woodhead manager, pathways & academic partnerships centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca 85 86 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead appendix f transferability expectations and realities focus group consent letter [insert date] to the participants in this study, the purpose of this study is to collect information on students credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability. study results may inform college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. all research will be carried out at centennial college under the supervision of christine helen arnold, university of toronto/ ontario institute for studies in education (oise), and sean woodhead, centennial college. in 2011, the provincial government announced funding of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system objectives include: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework; 2) developing more transfer opportunities; 3) providing on campus advisors and orientation programs; and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). centennial college is supporting this provincial initiative by participating in and leading many transferability projects, including this study, which will provide fruitful recommendations regarding necessary recognition of prior learning (rpl) support structures. the audiotaped, semi-structured focus group will center on the existence of expectation-reality gaps and rationales for these gaps (student estimations of relevant prior learning and institutional communication of expectations and standards). your insights will reveal how support structures can be constructed and/or revised to provide a more productive system. the focus group will be audio taped with your permission. approximately eight to ten students will participate in each 60 minute semi-structured focus group. due to the confidential nature of this study you will be asked to keep all discussion that takes place within the focus group private. you will receive a $20.00 cash honourarium for your participation! participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. in identifying rpl reality-expectation gaps, colleges and universities can use the study results to: transferability expectations and realities 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding their effectiveness in communicating credit transfer and plar rights and responsibilities; 2) participate in expectation management at the point of admission; and 3) develop or revise support structures that facilitate the translation of relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit. involvement in the study is voluntary. you may withdraw at any time or decline to answer any question with which you are uncomfortable. you will not be judged or evaluated and you will not be at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the study results. your identity will be kept anonymous within all research writing and publications. if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study please contact ethics@centennialcollege.ca or the chair, dr. lynda atack at latack@centennialcollege.ca. thank you in advance for your participation. christine helen arnold ph.d. candidate, higher education university of toronto/oise 252 bloor street west toronto, canada, m5s 1v6 c.arnold@utoronto.ca sean woodhead manager, pathways & academic partnerships centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca by signing below, you are indicating that you are willing to participate in the study, you have received a copy of this letter and you are fully aware of the conditions above. name: ____________________________ signed: ____________________________ date: ____________________________ please initial if you agree to have the focus group audio taped: ____ please initial indicating you have received your $20.00 honorarium: ____ 87 88 christine helen arnold and sean woodhead appendix g transferability expectations and realities focus group protocol focus group protocol 60 minute session i. settling in (5 mins) a. welcome focus group participants to the session. b. research team introduction. c. describe the purpose of the study. d. describe the voluntary nature of participation and ask participants if they are comfortable having their discussion audio recorded. inform participants that those who wish to withdraw from the study may do so at any time; all data collected from these individuals will be removed from the transcripts. thank and dismiss those who are not interested in continuing their participation. remind participants that due to the confidential nature of this study they will be asked to keep all discussion that takes place within the focus group private. e. ask the focus group members to introduce themselves and state their program at centennial college. ii. clarifying terms and concepts (10 mins) a. what does it mean to be a transfer student and/or plar student? do you use these terms to refer to your situation? b. has your experience at centennial college differed from that of your high school counterparts? (prompts: admissions, financial, coursework) c. from your experience, map/illustrate the process for receiving transfer credit and/or plar at centennial college? please include all required processes/stages. what processes/stages were you not aware of upon intake? iii. warm up information matrix (15 mins) a. ask participants to fill in a matrix identifying incoming expectations for credit transfer and/or plar at centennial college and their rationale. identify credit transfer and plar expectations separately (if applicable). grades expectation(s) rationale(s) previous program/ coursework application/ documentation policies/ procedures timing assessment/ amount of credit awarded transferability expectations and realities b. reporting out i. at the point of intake, what expectations did you hold for credit transfer/plar? ii. what was your rationale for these expectations? iii. what resources and/or sources informed your expectations? iv. v. realities and satisfaction (25 mins) a. what criteria does centennial college use to award transfer credit? were you aware of these criteria from the point of intake? b. are you satisfied with the amount of credit you have been awarded? reasons for dissatisfaction? (prompts: original course or program was not designed for transfer; courses could not be used toward certificate/diploma/degree; did not know or understand transfer requirements) c. what policies and procedures for obtaining transfer credit and/or plar credit at centennial college were clearly outlined at the point of intake? d. what policies and procedures for obtaining transfer credit and/or plar credit at centennial college were not clearly outlined at the point of intake? e. what support structures can be constructed and/or revised to provide a more productive system at centennial college? wrap-up (5 mins) a. summarize the main themes of the conversation what did the research team hear? go around the room to see if the participants agree with the summary and to see if they have anything to add, amend, etc b. have we missed anything? is there anything else that you wish to share that we havent asked? thank participants for their time. ask if they have any questions. provide contact information if participants have anything additional they would like to share. 89

creation of new diploma to degree pathway for social services worker (ssw) college diploma graduates school of social work report prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) march 19, 2015 1 contents introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 3 admission criteria for direct entry to second year of the bsw program for college graduates ....................... 4 advantages of this model .............................................................................................................................. 4 program administration / infrastructure .............................................................................................................. 6 recruitment and admissions ......................................................................................................................... 6 curriculum / course planning and management .......................................................................................... 7 student support ................................................................................................................................................... 10 campus-wide student support ................................................................................................................... 10 school-based student support .................................................................................................................... 10 learning outcomes ............................................................................................................................................... 11 future planning and development ...................................................................................................................... 11 detailed financial statement ............................................................................................................................... 12 appendix a ........................................................................................................................................................... 13 appendix b............................................................................................................................................................ 22 appendix c ............................................................................................................................................................ 33 appendix d ........................................................................................................................................................... 34 appendix e ............................................................................................................................................................ 40 appendix f ............................................................................................................................................................ 53 web-site links referenced................................................................................................................................... 54 2 introduction the school of social work at ryerson university (ryerson university) aimed to create a new program that provides a direct entry into the second year of its bachelor of social work (bsw) program for college graduates with a social services worker (ssw) diploma, who do not have two years of cumulative paid work experience in the social work field (field). ssw graduates have, increasingly, expressed a strong interest in obtaining a bsw immediately upon the completion of an ssw college diploma. these students have strongly advocated for new pathways into university level social work education (i.e. bsw program). for more than two years, the director and the dean of the ssw program at george brown college have advocated on behalf of students for ryerson university to create a more seamless pathway into the bsw program. ryerson universitys internal and external partners (e.g. george brown college) have met multiple times to discuss these matters. taking into consideration the growing and ever pressing need for new pathways into university level social work education, ryerson university has modified its current bsw curriculum, for such student group. fall 2014, ryerson university launched its direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program for college graduates with an ssw diploma, who have less than two years of cumulative paid work experience in the field. the first cohort consisted of 30 students. the demand for a new pathway to university level social work education is evident in the number of applications ryerson university has received: 320 applications for 30 available spaces. 3 admission criteria for direct entry to second year of the bsw program for college graduates following extensive discussions among ryerson universitys faculty of community services, school of social works faculty, curriculum advising office, planning office, and the office of the registrar and admissions office, the following admission criteria were established: ssw diploma 3.0 gpa no (or less than 2 years) cumulative paid social work experience if all of the above conditions are met, potential students are eligible to apply for direct entry to the second year of the bsw program. however, as part of their curriculum requirements, they are required to complete two reach-back courses: 1 liberal studies course; and swp 331 social work theories of practice in exchange for completing these two courses, this group of students is exempt from the requirement to complete swp 36 a /b field practicum. adjustments made to the bsw curriculum, designed specifically for ssw diploma graduates, are in compliance with the universitys undergraduate degree level expectations (udles). ryerson universitys school of social work follows grades-only admissions process. advantages of this model it provides a much needed and sought after pathway from college to university for ssw diploma graduates coming straight from the college system. in the past, due to systematic barriers, ssw diploma graduates were unable to access bsw education, immediately upon graduation. their only point of entry was to start the bsw program from year one, at the same level as students with a high school diploma, thus negating the skills and knowledge they obtained throughout 3 years of study at a post-secondary institution(s). taking into account particular skill set(s) the ssw diploma graduates bring to the classroom setting, this model allows the exemption of students from their third year field placement. upon reviewing the information about the placement(s) ssw diploma graduates were 4 required to complete during their 3 years of study at their post-secondary institution(s), ryerson university has determined that they meet the learning outcomes and objectives for bsws swp 36a/b field practium course1. upon further review of the ssw diploma curriculum, ryerson university has determined a slight gap in the students theoretical knowledge, as is taught at bsw level. however, via this model, students are required to take swp 331 social work theories of practice2, which enables them to gain the theoretical knowledge at bsw level, thus ensuring their success in the bsw program. 1 2 appendix a course outline 2014/15 appendix b course outline 2014/15 5 program administration / infrastructure in an effort to ensure a seamless integration of students into the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program, ryerson university has implemented numerous operational adjustments that are in direct correlation with several internal units. recruitment and admissions addition of the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program to ryerson universitys current bsw program streams (1st year entry for students with a high school diploma; and 3rd year entry for students with two or more years of cumulative paid work experience in the field) was made fruitful due to collaborative efforts and transparent information-sharing channels between the school of social work, admissions office and recruitment office. impact on the recruitment office: ryerson universitys recruitment office has experienced a significant increase in the volume of inquiries received regarding various program streams available for the bsw program. direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program for college graduates holding an ssw diploma, in particular, is generating extremely high interest rate that is on a continuous rise. multiple bsw program streams and their unique admission requirements have had a direct impact on the time needed to train student recruiters to be able to speak to the main, and more nuanced, differences between the three bsw program streams and on the length of time needed to field individual inquiries. impact on the admissions office: a separate process was developed to ensure proper admission of students who are admitted into the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program. this program is unique insofar that there are no similar programs available at ryerson university at present and, as such, has required the development of a specific admissions process. every student who is admitted receives a basis of admission form3 outlining the admission, number of transfer credits they are eligible to receive, and the type of reach-back courses they are required to take. 3 appendix c basis of admission form (boa) 6 in addition to issuing program-specific basis of admission forms, the admissions officer is also required to complete additional forms for submission to the transfer credit union and curriculum management office that are used to build student-specific graduation checklists. the direct entry to 2nd year to thebsw program has increased the workload volume for the assigned admissions officer to the level where the position had to be restructured. curriculum / course planning and management integration of the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program into its existing framework, required ryerson university to increase the number of course sections for course(s) in its bsw program. for example, in the inaugural year of the direct entry into 2nd year of the bsw program, ryerson university was required to increase the number of course sections offered for the swp 331 social work theories of practice, swp 341 transformative social work practice4 and swp 435 aboriginal approaches to social work5. consequently, class sections for all 2nd year courses have increased to accommodate the new cohort of 30 students. all course sections in subsequent years (years 3 and 4 of the bsw program) will experience a slight inflation and/or, alternatively, the creation of additional sections, as this cohort of 30 students in the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program moves through the required curriculum. impact on scheduling and time tabling in close collaboration with the school, a new program code was developed for course enrollment purposes for the cohort of 30 students in the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program. evaluation mechanisms were developed and put in place to facilitate the management of force-loading required courses. impact on the school of social work during the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program development phase, the school of social works administrative team took on a leadership role in meeting with external stakeholders to determine the synergies between the ssw college diploma program and the bachelor of social work program. the school of social works administrative team spearheaded meetings with internal stakeholders to create the most accessible diploma to degree pathway for ssw program graduates who have less than two years of cumulative paid work experience in the field. during the preliminary implementation phase of the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program, the school of social works administrative team continued holding a leadership role in meeting with 4 5 appendix d course outline 2014/15 appendix e course outline 2014/15 7 external stakeholders to ensure that all parties involved were informed of the direct entry to 2 nd year of the bsw program admission requirements, relevant application deadlines and the bsw curriculum that is specific to college graduates who have an ssw diploma. all students are required to adhere to the ryerson universitys significant dates schedule. an all-encompassing financial analysis6 was conducted, based on operational needs involved in introducing and conducting the new bsw program stream (e.g. promotional materials and/or events, additional course sections, operating supplies) the departmental hiring committee expended its hiring activities to include the recruitment of teaching staff for additional course sections. impact on the student affairs coordinator in order to ensure that the students in the direct entry to 2nd year in the bsw program are enrolled in the appropriate classes and that they are provided with the appropriate information regarding course requirements, the student affairs coordinator was required to devote significant additional time to this cohort of students. post enrollment student management, involving periodic one-on-one consultations, was and is continually needed. the student affairs coordinator has provided, approximately, 2 hours of support per student for this cohort of students, in their first term (fall 2014). this averages to 60 hours of additional student support provided by the student affairs coordinator. expansion of the student affairs coordinators portfolio has been made permanent. the student affairs coordinators portfolio will continue to be monitored for the office capacity building opportunities as we further grow and develop the direct entry to 2nd year in the bsw program. impact on the field education office the field education offices internal operations had to be restructured and external outreach activities had to be increased to prepare for the requirement to accommodate 30 additional field placements once the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program students enter their 4th year of study. the field education office will, on average, invest 300 hours in securing appropriate placement settings for this cohort of students. securing field placement is an ongoing process that is completed in collaboration with students and community partners, to ensure proper alignment between program/students learning objectives and community partners needs. 6 appendix f financial statement 8 the field education office will continue to be monitored for the office capacity building opportunities as we further grow and develop this program. impact on the faculty of community services deans office financial and human resources required for maintaining and further developing the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program have a direct impact on the faculty deans fiscal planning activities. 9 student support campus-wide student support upon admission, students in the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program become full-time undergraduate students and, as such, have access to all ryerson universitys student resources. ryerson university also offers various student services that are designed to provide students with opportunities to be successful in the university setting. ryerson universitys library provides all students with an extensive collection of print and audiovisual resources. students in the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program are represented by the ryerson student union and are free to access their services, as needed. school-based student support students in the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program have open access to the schools student affairs coordinator and the associate director, undergraduate program. both the student affairs coordinator and the associate director, undergraduate program, are available for student consultations. all school of social work students are represented by the school of social work student union. the school of social work student union acts as a liaison between the school of social work and the collective student body. 10 learning outcomes attrition rate ryerson university inaugurated direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program with a cohort of 30 students in the academic year 2014-2015. as of march 2015, the number of students expected to proceed to 3rd year of the bsw program is 28. two students are no longer in the program due to unforeseen personal circumstances. the expected graduation rate for this cohort of students, at present, is 93 per cent. student feedback in march of 2015, ryerson university held a de-brief session for the students in the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program. student feedback was positive. however, the students have raised an issue of not having an orientation that is specific to their program stream. they also indicated that more information about the swp 51a/b field practicum course requirements and expectations would be welcome. future planning and development program growth in order to accommodate the high demand for a new pathway to university level social work education, ryerson university will increase its enrollment numbers to the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program from 30 to 90 for the 2015-16 academic year. student support ryerson university will develop an orientation for students in the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program that will be integrated into the ryerson universitys orientation week activities, during the 1st week of september 2015. school of social work student union will actively encourage students in this program stream to elect a student representative to join the existing student union. 11 appendix a ryerson school of social work course outline swp 36a/b field practicum fall 2014/winter 2015 * according to ryerson university policy (www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol157.pdf), communication between students and instructors by email will occur only through official ryerson email addresses. please ensure you check your email on a regular basis. course description this first field practicum provides opportunities for students to have direct contact with service users. each placement offers the student beginning level experience with an emphasis on understanding social work skills, values and ethics within the community, organizational and policy of context of practice. most students attend placement two days a week for two semesters; alternate methods of completing this credit may be available to students with extensive prior experience or those undertaking an international placement. course objectives to gain a beginning understanding of the social work field through introduction to community agencies. to develop practice skills, such as engagement, assessment, planning, implementation, research, termination and evaluation skills. to prepare students to become a critical self-evaluating, knowledgeable and reflexive professional social work practitioner. to apply a critical understanding of existing social, economic and political forces and their implications for policy and practice within a field practicum setting. particular emphasis will be given to issues of diversity, power, privilege, oppression, individualism, and transformative change. to gain a critical understanding of the ways in which agencies respond to manifestations of oppression from an anti-oppression framework and their implications for practice. teaching methodology the experiences of the practicum are designed to enable students to integrate theoretical knowledge and practice skills under the field instruction of a qualified practitioner in the community. settings and field instructors are selected by the school in accordance with the curriculum and the standards set out by the canadian association of social work education. practica are available in a wide range of fields of practice. availability of a given setting may vary from year to year. the practicum is unpaid and students are responsible for related costs such as travel to and from the practicum setting, a criminal record check, required vaccinations, or health examinations. variations within a course sequencing of content areas, methodology and assignment details will vary among instructors. for instance, scheduling of student presentations may vary. examinations will be distinct for each section of the course. some topics of instruction will also vary according to an instructors area of interest and research. of the sections. 13 role of faculty consultant the person teaching your section (your instructor) is your faculty consultant. the teaching responsibilities of faculty consultants for this course fall within the caswes requirement for the activities of coordination, liaison and instruction (caswe accreditation standards sb6.13.5). these responsibilities include being available to students, field instructors and field education office as needed for those activities related to any students placement. these responsibilities of the faculty consultant are required to maintain close, reciprocal and ongoing relationships with field instructors, exchange important information, monitor the students educational experience in the classroom and consult and collaborate with the field instructor and student regarding student progress or problems (caswe accreditation standards: sb6.12.3). such responsibilities may be conducted through any combination of phone, online (e.g. email) and in person (e.g. field visit) contact with students and/or field instructors, including attendance at field instructor workshops as appropriate. it is expected that the faculty consultant will visit each student in placement at least once during the placement. additional visits may be required to address issues that arise in field placements. the need for additional visits may be identified by the faculty consultant, field instructor, or student. attendance policy all full-time third year students are in their field practicum, usually on tuesday and thursday of each week, throughout the full school year, 7 hours per day including, when necessary, some individual meeting time with the faculty consultant for a total of 364 practicum hours. the actual days of placement may vary according to practicum setting but the total number of hours remains 364 hours over the academic year. academic consideration and appeals there will be no penalty for work missed for a justifiable reason. students need to inform the instructor of any situation that arises during the semester that may have an adverse affect on their academic performance, and request any necessary considerations according to the policies and well in advance. failure to do so will jeopardize any academic appeals. except in cases of accommodations for disabilities, where documentation is handled directly by the access centre, students must fill out an academic consideration form and submit it to their own program office: school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph 200, eric palin hall. http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/senate/forms/academic_consideration_document_submission.pdf medical certificate guidelines when a student formally requests academic consideration for medical grounds, ryerson university requires that a medical certificate or letter from a physician be submitted a certificate must be presented within 3 working days of missed or affected classes, tutorials, practica, labs, assignments, tests or examinations to receive consideration for that exam to the school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph200. the program office will notify all instructors that the documents have been received. it is the students responsibility to make arrangements with instructor for a make-up exam. (see policy details and forms for physician and department http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/forms/medical.pdf) religious, aboriginal & spiritual observance as per the senate policy on accommodation of student religious, aboriginal and spiritual observance at http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol150.pdf, students must complete a form for alternate arrangements needed with respect to due dates for assignments, exams or absence from placement due to religious observance. requests for accommodation of specific religious or spiritual observance must be presented to the program office no later than two weeks prior to the conflict in question (in the case of final examinations within two weeks of the release of the examination schedule). the student must submit a request for accommodation form (http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/forms/relobservforminstr.pdf) to their program office (school of social work, student affairs coordinator, eph200). the office will notify all instructors when they have received the request form. 14 other requests for academic consideration which are not related to medical or religious observation must be submitted in writing together with the academic consideration form to the school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph200. the letter must clearly state the reasons for the request and describe the events or circumstances that seriously impair the students ability to meet their academic obligations, and that were beyond the students control. when possible, supporting documentation must be attached to the letter. the office will notify the instructor when they have received the request. regrading of work or recalculation students who believe that an assignment, test or exam, either in whole or part, has not been appropriately graded, or that there has been a miscalculation of a grade due to an omission, improper addition, etc., must contact the instructor to resolve the issue within ten (10) working days of the date when the graded work is returned to the class. grades not questioned within this period will not be recalculated at a later date. please see senate policy no. 134 for further details. http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/senate/policies/pol134.pdf students with disabilities with respect to disability, we take a critical approach in this course. this means that, if for reasons of selfidentified health/mental health/madness/disability, students are not able to complete an assignment by the due date, be present physically or engaged intellectually in class, they are encouraged to contact me to discuss alternatives as soon as possible prior to any deadlines. these alternatives are open to discussion whether or not you are registered with the access centre. it also means that all students recognize such challenges in the classroom and in group work with peers. in addition, students with disabilities or health concerns can register with the access centre at ryerson, pod 61. phone: 416-979-5094, tty: 416-979-5274; accessfrontdesk@ryerson.ca. we welcome your feedback on accessibility issues related to this course. please provide your feedback to your instructor or to the associate director, undergraduate program. disruptions to course and office hours pursuant to the universitys commitment to accessibility for all students, you shall be notified of cancelled classes or any changes to the posted office hours or pre-arranged appointments with your instructor. you will receive such information by email, sent to your official ryerson email address. plagiarism the ryerson student code of academic conduct defines plagiarism and the sanctions against students who plagiarize. all students are strongly encouraged to go to the academic integrity website at www.ryerson.ca/academicintegrity and complete the tutorial on plagiarism. academic integrity to preserve the academic integrity of this course, ryerson universitys regulations regarding academic misconduct will be strictly followed. this includes regulations concerning academic dishonesty, misrepresentation of personal performance, and aiding or abetting academic misconduct. please see the student code of academic conduct for details of these regulations and the penalties for academic misconduct at www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol60.pdf. culture of respect consistent with the mission, policies and services of the university, the school of social work promotes a culture of respect for human diversity and collegiality among faculty, students, staff, field instructors and clients-consumers-people. students are expected to familiarize themselves with the policies and procedures of the student code of non-academic conduct at www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol61.pdf 15 ryerson academic policies for more information on ryersons academic policies, visit the senate website at www.ryerson.ca/senate. course management policy no. 145 student code of academic conduct no. 60 student code of non-academic conduct no. 61 examination policy no. 135 policy on grading, promotion, and academic standing policy no. 46 undergraduate academic consideration and appeals policy no. 134 accommodation of student religious observance obligations policy no. 150 academic accommodation of students with disabilities policy 159 school of social work assignment and exam policy students are expected to take responsibility for making sure that all assignments have been received by the faculty member. students are expected to maintain rough notes and drafts of course work/ assignments. students must keep a copy of each assignment on file until the original has been marked and returned. unless otherwise notified, students papers should reflect the guidelines defined in the current edition of publication manual of the american psychological association. in case of any delay in submitting assignments the faculty member should be notified. late assignments will be downgraded by 2% of the assignment grade per day including weekends, holidays and reading week days. there is a seven-day maximum limit by which to accept late assignments where the student has not asked for an extension. no late assignments will be accepted beyond this limit. in extenuating circumstance, it is recognized that some students may require extensions for assignments. faculty will assign new due dates not later than two weeks from the beginning of the next semester courses . extensions beyond these dates are only available under extenuating circumstances and need to be negotiated with the associate director, undergraduate program. if this negotiation does not take place any incomplete grades will convert to an f. it is the students responsibility to follow up with the faculty member and associate director. there will be no penalty for work missed for a justifiable reason. students need to inform the instructor of any situation that arises during the semester that may have an adverse affect on their academic performance, and request any necessary considerations according to the policies and well in advance. method of posting grades assignments will normally be returned within two weeks from the date of submission, and where the faculty member is unable to do so s/he will notify students in writing. all grades will be made known to students in class or on blackboard. students will receive their final course grades only from the registrar. evaluation this course is graded on a "pass/fail" basis. a grade of pass or fail will be assigned only after all the requirements have been fulfilled and according to students performance in placement as evaluated by the field instructor and the ryerson instructor and recorded in the mid-term and final evaluations. the final grade is assigned by the ryerson instructor. required components of this course: placement hours 364 hours [to be completed over two terms (fall & winter- two days per week). students are expected to be in placement 14 hours per week. placement hours are usually done on tuesdays and thursdays. 16 placement can begin after the first practice class. placement ends in early to mid-april and when students complete 364 hours. students are not required to attend placement during the university exam periods (dates will be specified during the terms). students are expected to complete a minimum of two days of placement (i.e. 14 hours) in the period between the completion of fall term classes and the start of winter term classes. students are not required to attend placement during reading weeks. the faculty consultant will conduct at least one field visit while students are completing their placement hours. additional visits will be conducted as needed. the faculty consultant will keep in regular contact with field instructors as needed. additional activities may be applied to "placement hours" as authorized by field instructors and/or faculty consultants (e.g. seminars, workshops, trainings, etc.). international, block and late-start placement times and schedules are negotiated with your faculty consultant and placement supervisor; however, the requirement is that you complete 364 hours of placement. learning plan (due october 22, 2014) the learning plan guides students' work in field placement. it is to be developed in conjunction with the field instructor, with guidance from the faculty consultant. students are responsible for ensuring the learning plan is complete, has been signed by their field instructor, and is handed in on-time. a faculty consultant may ask for revisions to the learning plan in order to ensure all aspects of the curriculum are met in the context of each field placement. if a faculty consultant asks for revisions, students are responsible to re-engage the field instructor in a conversation about how to best satisfy the learning goals as set out in the school's curriculum in the context of the field placement. the faculty consultant is available for assistance as students and field instructors develop the learning plan. mid-term evaluation (due november 26, 2014 or at the mid-term examination) the field instructor is responsible for completing this document and ensuring it is submitted on time. it is often useful for students to complete a self-evaluation as part of this process. it is acceptable for field instructors to ask students to deliver completed evaluations to the school. students should have an opportunity to give input, to read and to discuss their evaluation with their field instructor before it is finalized. reflective logs (due september 24, october 29, january 28 and march 18) these short written assignments involve student reflection on professional practice. a reflection log is a diary of an experience that students identify as a learning experience. the experience can be related to social work education and/or practice and should be one that raised questions and or challenged a student's understandings, drew attention to their actions, heightened or raised thoughts and feelings, and overall engaged the student. exploring this experience through a reflection log can provide a better understanding and thereby enhance learning of oneself as a social worker. each section of the course will have its own specific assignments. instructors will distribute more information about these reflective logs in class. in total, four reflective logs are to be completed, with two in the first term and two in the second. logs are to be 2-3 typed double-spaced pages in length. final evaluation (due on april 8, 2015 or at final examination) the field instructor is responsible for completing this document and submitting it on time. it is often useful for students to complete a self-evaluation as part of this process. it is acceptable for field instructors to ask students 17 to deliver completed evaluations to the school. students should have an opportunity to give input, to read and to discuss their evaluation with their field instructor before it is finalized. final grades in this course cannot be assigned until the final evaluation form has been received. placement evaluation by student (due on april 8, 2015 or at final examination) the student is responsible for completing this document and submitting it on time. this form allows students to give feedback about the strengths and challenges of both the placement setting and the specific supervisor. this evaluation will not be shared with the placement but will go directly to the field education office. final grades in this course cannot be assigned until this evaluation form has been received. alternate due dates/assignments there may be some unique due dates/ assignments specific to students in the bsw program with advanced standing (including students in fnti), in block placements or in international placements, given their unique placement schedules and learning goals. in addition, if you are starting placement late, due dates can be negotiated. talk to the faculty member teaching your section. alternative options third year practicum challenge credit: full-time students with a minimum of three years paid social work experience may be eligible to challenge their third year field practicum. the challenge examination consists of a written examination and a demonstration of practice skills involving an interview with a simulated client or client group. the challenge examination is reviewed by at least three faculty members. fourth year practicum swp 51a/b cannot be challenged. all students are eligible to do an international placement in a spring/summer block, in the same academic year in which they complete their practice seminar course. the faculty member in charge of international placements holds an information session in the fall semester so students can be informed of what is involved in doing an international placement in time to make the appropriate request. required readings in all sections of this course, required reading includes: bsw field education manual all handouts regarding placement (including wsib forms and instructions) a set of section specific readings which are drawn from a pool of common readings for this course. these readings will be grouped in a reprotext with the readings for swp 31. this reprotext is available for purchase at the ryerson university bookstore. course schedule: fall 2014 unit i orientation & preparing for learning orientation reading: bsw field education manual discussion: receive all field material review course outline & course requirements and field manual discuss safety in field, expectations about placement. 18 preparation for learning reading: napier, l. (2010). practicing critical reflection. in a.ohara, z.weber, and k. levine (eds.) skills for human service practice: working with individuals, groups and communities, pp.1-11. toronto: oxford university press. bogo, m. and vayda, e. (1998). the beginning phase. in the practice of field instruction in social work: theory and process, (pp. 47-58). toronto: university of toronto press. sidell, n. & smiley, d. (2008). communicating in supervision. in professional communication skills in social work (pp. 82-99). boston: pearson education inc. discussion: what does a 3rd year placement look like, and what are your expectations? what are your hopes and activities in placement? common learning goals in learning plan role, function and purpose. developing your learning plan. assignment: learning plan due (submit in practice class october 22, 2014). note: regarding placement hours --reading weeks students are not expected to complete any placement hours during reading week. students may negotiate with the field instructor to complete hours during this week to make up for earlier missed hours; students cannot complete hours during this week to finish the placement early students should make sure their field instructors are informed about how their hours will be completed during this time period. unit ii theories that frame practice/understanding self / supervision reading: ohara, a. (2010). understanding and managing conflict. in a.ohara, z.weber, and k. levine (eds.) skills for human service practice: working with individuals, groups and communities, (pp. 183-198). toronto: oxford university press. blackstock, c. (2009). the occasional evil of angels: learning from the experiences of aboriginal peoples and social work. first peoples child and family review 4(1), 28-37. irwin, j. (2010). making the most of supervision. in a.ohara, z.weber, and k. levine (eds.) skills for human service practice: working with individuals, groups and communities, (pp. 30-43). toronto: oxford university press. mullaly, b. (2006). working within (and against) the system: radical humanism. in the new structural social work, 3rd edition (pp. 288-330). oxford: oxford university press. discussion: understanding your own learning needs and strengths 19 communicating needs with supervisor how to balance being assertive and negotiating with supervisor. assignment: reflective logs due unit iii assessments and evaluations reading: strega, s. (2009) anti-oppressive approaches to assessment, risk assessment and file recording. in s. strega, s. and j. carriere (eds), walking this path together: anti-racist and anti-oppressive child welfare practice, (pp. 142-157) toronto: fernwood press. smith, k. (2011). occupied spaces: unmapping standardized assessments in health and social service organizations. in in d. baines, (ed.) doing anti-oppressive practice: social justice social work (pp. 199-213). halifax: fernwood press. discussion: how do you carry out assessments how are client assessments linked to your evaluation what is evaluation? what have your experiences been? content and process of evaluation formative and summative evaluation review of mid-term evaluation form assignment: mid-term evaluation due (submit in last practice class in term 1, or at term 1 exam). note: regarding fall term placement hours - students are expected to complete 14 hours of placement between end of fall term classes and start of winter term classes, with no placement hours expected during the university exam period. students should make sure their field instructors are informed about how their hours will be completed during this time period. winter 2015 unit iv cultural frames/feedback/reflective practice reading: finch, j. b., bacon, j., klassen, d. and wrase, b. (2003). critical issues in field instruction: empowerment principles and issues of power and control. in w. shera (ed). emerging perspectives in anti-oppressive practice (pp.431-446). toronto: canadian scholars press. sakamoto, i. (2007). an anti-oppressive approach to cultural competence. canadian social work review, 24, (1), 105-114. el-lahib, y., and wehbi, s. (2012). immigration and disability: ableism in the policies of the canadian state. 20 international social work 55(1), 95-108. discussion: have cultural approaches informed my practice what feedback have i received and from whom? what is my reaction to feedback? how can i learn from feedback and integrate it into my practice? what is praxis? understanding critical reflection assignment: reflective logs due unit v termination & transitions reading: birkenmaier, j. & berg-weger, m. (2006). termination: the beginning of an end (or the end of a beginning?). in the practicum companion for social work: integrating class and field work (2nd ed.) (pp. 251-284). boston: pearson allyn & bacon. bogo, m. and vayda, e. (1998). evaluation and ending. in the practice of field instruction in social work: theory and process, (pp. 163-188). toronto: university of toronto press. discussion: saying good-bye using 3rd year learning plan and evaluations to consider own learning needs transitioning to 4th year placement assignment: student placement evaluation form (due on the last day of class) final evaluation (due on the last day of class or at the final exam) 21 appendix b ryerson school of social work course outline swp 331: social work practice theories (section 011) fall 2014 course description this course explores theories that influence the practice of social work. these theories are examined within the context of anti-oppressive perspectives. attention is given to the social and institutional arrangements that determine definitions of social problems and the social work responses to these problems. students will critically analyze their social location, professional role and ethical responsibilities. course objectives 1. students will develop an understanding of select theoretical perspectives that affect social work practice. 2. students will develop a critical understanding of the social, institutional and professional contexts of social work practice 3. students will critically examine different aspects of their social location, professional context and their implications for social work practice. 4. students will link anti-oppressive as well as a wide variety of other social work approaches to practice. variations within a course sequencing of content areas, methodology, and assignment details will vary among instructors. some topics of instruction will also vary according to instructors areas of interest and research. details for each section of the course are provided in the section-specific course outline for each of the sections. teaching methodology a variety of classroom formats may be used, such as group discussion, lecture, role play, class presentation, videos and films, group presentation, guest speakers, debates, case studies and use of simulations. the course requires students to be involved in activities outside of the classroom and to complete tasks in preparation for class. attendance & participation policy class attendance is essential not only to participation but to the development of collegial relationships that characterize learning, reflection and critical analysis of social work practice theories. students are expected to attend all classes on time and remain for the duration of the class. in the event that a student cannot attend or remain in class, it is expected that the instructor will be notified by telephone or email in advance of the class. technology use policy 22 students are expected to refrain from using laptops, cell phones, smart phones and other electronic devices during class time. the reason for this expectation is that use of these devices is consistently found by students and instructors to pose distractions which interrupt our ability to attend to classroom lectures, discussions and other learning activities. cell phones should be turned off except in cases of emergency or for parents who require access to their children or child care providers. if you must have your cell phone on during class, please discuss this with me at the beginning of class and set your phone to vibration mode. if you require electronic devices due to an accommodation arrangement or you are taking notes for someone, please discuss this with me at the beginning of the course. academic considerations religious, aboriginal & spiritual observance as per the senate policy on accommodation of student religious, aboriginal and spiritual observance at http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol150.pdf, students must complete a form for alternate arrangements needed with respect to due dates for assignments, exams or absence from placement due to religious observance. medical certificates a medical certificate is required, within 3 working days, for deadlines, tests and exams missed due to illness. see http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/forms/medical.pdf for the policy and certificate form. student learning and writing supports there are many supports at ryerson to help you learn how to write in an academic way (i even used something similar when i was an undergraduate!). students can seek help with researching, critical reading and writing from: 1. the learning skills strategists (lsc) & esl: reed hilton-eddy & iram khan (iram.khan@ryerson.ca & rhiltoneddy@ryerson.ca) lsc website: www.ryerson.ca/learningsuccess 2. the library (lib 2 nd floor) provides research workshops and individual assistance. enquire at the reference desk or at www.ryerson.ca/library/info/workshops.html 3. the writing centre (lib 272b) offers handouts (including one on apa format), workshops and one-on-one tutorial help with writing and workshops. http://www.ryerson.ca/writingcentre/index.html 4. the learning success centre (vic-b15) offers workshops, tutoring, individual and group sessions as well as resources covering various aspects of writing, and studying. http://www.ryerson.ca/studentservices/learningsuccess/ 5. english language support (vic b-17) offers workshops to improve overall communication skillswww.ryerson.ca/studentservices/els/ 6. faculty of community services student support services offer individual appointments with a learning strategist and with an english language specialist. the site also offers information on awards and grants-http://www.ryerson.ca/fcs/students/ 23 7. the tri mentoring program is a ryerson wide mentoring program to support learning, leadership, and employment. http://www.ryerson.ca/studentservices/trimentoring/index.html accommodations & accessibility with respect to disability, i take a critical approach. this means that, if for reasons of self-identified health/mental health/madness/disability, students are not able to complete an assignment by the due date or be present physically or engaged intellectually in class, they are encouraged to contact the instructor to discuss alternatives as soon as possible prior to any deadlines. it also means that all students recognize such challenges in the classroom. in addition, students with disabilities or health concerns can register with the access centre at ryerson, pod 61. phone: 416-979-5094, tty: 416979-5274; accessfrontdesk@ryerson.ca. we welcome your feedback on accessibility issues related to this course. please provide your feedback to your instructor or to the associate director, undergraduate program. disruptions to course and office hours pursuant to the universitys commitment to accessibility for all students, you shall be notified of cancelled classes or any changes to the posted office hours or pre-arranged appointments with your instructor. you will receive such information by email, sent to your official ryerson email address. culture of respect consistent with the mission, policies and services of the university, the school of social work promotes a culture of respect for human diversity and collegiality among faculty, students and staff. students are expected to familiarize themselves with the policies and procedures of the student code of non-academic conduct at www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol61.pdf. within the classroom, a culture of respect stresses that all members of the class: listen with an open mind to all that is presented and discussed by both the instructor and each other not interrupt or speak when someone else is talking think carefully before responding to anything that is presented ask for clarity if something is unclear challenge content in ways that lead to greater understanding for all refrain from body language and voice tones that are dismissive (e.g. rolling of the eyes) support one another by being on time and remaining attentive in the class room academic integrity to preserve the academic integrity of this course, ryerson universitys regulations regarding academic misconduct will be strictly followed. this includes regulations concerning academic dishonesty, misrepresentation of personal performance, and aiding or abetting academic misconduct. please see the student code of academic conduct for details of these regulations and the penalties for academic misconduct at www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol60.pdf. 24 assignments and grading 1. grand theory assignment- 25% 2. participation 15 % 3. practice theory paper 30 % 4. final exam 30 % (multiple choice questions - to be held during the examination period) grand theory assignment due october 06, 2014 at beginning of class for this first assignment, students will seek out an example of a grand theory as discussed in classes two and three (e.g. modernism, structuralism). an example may be a short sample of text that reflects the central ideas of the grand theory/philosophy (from a journal article, funding proposal, web site, song, story or other source) or a photo of a building, space, action, piece of art or other representation that visually incorporates the grand theorys tenets. along with a copy of the example, students will submit a double spaced, 4 page reflection (not including title page and possible reference page) that responds to the following questions: a. which grand theory/philosophy does your example represent? b. how does it do this? (hint: go back to the slides in week 2) c. why did this example appeal to you? students should include a cover page and details about where the example came from such as the writer, artist, publisher, magazine or web site. students should double space and edit their work as well as use a 12 point font. no additional references (from journals or books) are necessary, but if you do include references, be sure to use proper apa formatting! practice theory paper due november 24, 2014 at the beginning of class for this assignment, students will submit a 5-6 page paper (in addition to a reference page) with at least 7 references from journals or books, with at least 4 of these from the course readings. the paper will have an additional cover page, be printed in a 12 point font, be double-spaced and use apa format for referencing. in terms of the content, students will: a. choose and describe a theory of practice such as: task-centred approach systems theory the strengths perspective a feminist perspective anti-oppressive practice critical race theory narrative therapy queer theory trans theory b. outline which grand theory/philosophy (e.g. post conventialism) the selected practice theory is linked to and describe why / how you believe it to be so. c. discuss: 25 how you would use this practice theory (i.e. critical race theory) to respond to a group/issue close to your heart (i.e. imagine yourself using it to work with women from racialized communities who are depressed for example and reflect on what may or may not work) d. end the paper by reflecting on where you now position yourself theoretically. (i.e. with respect to your preferred grand and social work practice theory, who are you, how will you describe yourself and what are you still struggling with?) participation we will be looking for and grading you on all kinds of participation including your in-class work as well as your assignments. we will also be asking you to do periodic in-class reflections and exercises that will count towards your participation grade. expectations with regard to class participation include all of the following: attendance at all classes. come to the class prepared (i.e. read the required readings prior to class, bring questions and/or reflections on the reading) and demonstrate this preparedness in class discussions. participate actively and frequently in class discussions, without dominating. be engaged in class by making attempts to answer questions asked and raising questions about the material being discussed. demonstrate leadership in class (i.e example, by asking critical questions which push dialogue forward, by adding to or building upon previous discussions, or by bringing relevant material from outside class into class discussions). contribute effectively to class discussions (i.e, share comments that keep discussion focused, are relevant to class, and respond to what others have said; offer differing viewpoints in a respectful manner; share material that is relevant to the subject that is being discussed). ensure your contributions in class demonstrate critical analysis of required readings. contribute effectively during all class exercises (i.e, take a leadership role in small group work, engage with the exercises and the material). actively listen to the professor and to your peers and stay focused on what is happening in class. arrive on time and stay for the duration of class. 26 assignment policy please note that a detailed description of each assignment will be provided on blackboard. students are expected to take responsibility for making sure that assignments have been received by the faculty member. students are expected to maintain rough notes and drafts of course work/ assignments. only the original copy of an assignment is acceptable for submission. students must keep a copy of each assignment on file until the original has been marked and returned. in case of any delay in submitting assignments the faculty member should be notified. late assignments will be downgraded by 2% of the assignment grade per day including weekends, holidays and study week days. there is a seven-day maximum limit by which to accept late assignments where the student has not asked for an extension. no late assignments will be accepted beyond this limit. a request for an extended deadline for an assignment or rescheduled exam will be given only on medical or compassionate grounds. if a request for an extension is required, the faculty member must be informed and a request for extension date for an assignment form must be submitted before the due date. failure to submit this form will result in 0 grade for that assignment. the form is available from the schools website: http://www.ryerson.ca/socialwork/extension%20forms/ . please note that if you request more than one extension in the same semester, you will be required to meet with the associate director, undergraduate program to discuss this situation. faculty will assign new due dates not later than january 15th for fall semester courses and may 8th for winter semester courses. extensions beyond these dates are only available under extenuating circumstances and need to be negotiated with the associate director, undergraduate program. if there is a concern that the assignment has not been appropriately graded, the faculty member should be approached within 10 working days of the date of return of the graded assignment. if you wish to pursue a request for regarding, please contact the associate director, undergraduate program for procedures to follow. unless otherwise notified, students papers should reflect the guidelines defined in the current edition of publication manual of the american psychological association. examination policy student accommodations for exam in the case of emergency situations, the faculty member must be contacted and a request to reschedule an examination form must be submitted within three days of the missed examination date. the form is available from http://www.ryerson.ca/socialwork/extension%20forms/. method of posting grades assignments will be returned within two weeks from the date of submission. all grades will be made known to students in class or on blackboard. students will receive their final course grades only from the registrar. 27 e-mail contact according to ryerson university policy (http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol157.pdf) communication with you by e-mail will occur through your official ryerson address only. required and recommended readings required text book: healy, karen. (2005). social work theories in context: creating frameworks for practice. new york: palgrave. (available through ryerson bookstore) other recommended readings will be made available on the course blackboard site. class schedule sept 08 introduction to the course overview of the course outline, assignments, class culture sept 15 the context and philosophical foundations of social work: approaching theory reflexively required readings: healy, k. (2005). chapters 1 and 5 sept 22 philosophical foundations 2: aboriginal / indigenous ways of knowing and decolonization required readings: green, j. (2009). the complexity of indigenous identity formation and politics in canada: self-determination and decolonisation. international journal of critical indigenous studies, 2(2), 36 46. st. denis, v. (2007). aboriginal education and anti-racist education: building alliances across cultural and racial identity. canadian journal of education, 30(4), 1068-1092. http://www.congress2013.ca/blog/changing-subject-teacher-educationindigenous-diasporic-and-settler-colonial-relationsx sept 29 from philosophy to practice theories: 1) problem solving approaches required reading: healy, k. (2005). chapter 6. 28 oct 06 2) how to find: everything you need to know for finding materials in the library, both online and in print! guest lecturer: diane granfield first assignment due at the beginning of class oct 13 oct 20 reading week no classes scheduled 3) the strengths perspective and systems theory: three waves required readings: healy, k. (2005). chapter 7. parrish, m., burry, c. & pabst, m. (2003). providing comprehensive case management services to urban women with hiv/aids and their families. affilia-journal of women and social work, 18(3): 302-315. (on-line) healy, k. (2005). chapter 8. oko, j. (2006). evaluating alternative approaches to social work: a critical review. families in society; 87(4): 601-611 (on-line) oct 27 4) critical anti-oppressive approaches required readings: healy, k. (2005). chapter 9 strega, s. (2007). anti-oppressive practice in child welfare. in doing antioppressive practice: building transformative politicized social work. halifax: fernwood: 67-82. (on reserve) nov 03 5) anti-racism / critical race theory approaches gosine, k. & pon, g. (2011). on the front lines: the voices and experiences of racialized child welfare workers in toronto, canada. journal of progressive human services, 22: 135-159. duhaney, p. (2010-in press). why is our education system still guilty of whiteness? canadian social work journal. (on-line) nov 10 6) feminist approaches required readings: deepak, a. c. (2014). a postcolonial feminist social work perspective on global food insecurity. affilia, 29(2): 153-164 (on-line) 29 munch, s. (2006). the womens health movement: making policy, 19701995. social work in health care, 43(1):17-32. (on-line) black. c. (2003). creating curative communities: feminist group work with women with eating disorders. australian social work, 56(2): 127-140. (online) recommended reading: hooks, bell. (1988). straightening our hair. z magazine (on-line) note: we will review the final assignment grading guide this week nov 17 7) postconventional approaches required readings: healy, k. (2005). chapter 10 todd, s. & burns, a. (2007). beyond structural practice in child protection. canadian social work review, 24 (1): 23-37 carr, a. (1998). michael white's narrative therapy. contemporary family therapy, 20(4), 485-503. (on-line) nov 24 8) queer and trans approaches required readings: willis, p. (2007). queer eye for social work: rethinking pedagogy and practice with same-sex attracted young people. australian social work, 60(2): 181-196. burdge, b. (2007). bending gender, ending gender: theoretical foundations for social work practice with the transgender community. practice theory paper due at the beginning of class. dec 01 exam review / wrap-up final exam see examination schedule 30 additional recommended readings arnd-caddigan, m. & pozzuto, r. (2008). types of knowledge, forms of practice. the qualitative report, 13 (1): 61-77. baines, d. (ed.) (2007). chapter 1. doing anti-oppressive practice: building transformative politicized social work. halifax: fernwood; pages 1-30 besley, a. c. t. (2002). foucault and the turn to narrative therapy. british journal of guidance & counselling, 30(2), 125-143 brown, c. (1993). feminist contracting: power and empowerment in therapy. in consuming passions: feminist approaches to weight preoccupation and eating disorders. toronto: second story press. pages: 176-194. dcruz, h. gillingham, p. and melendez, s. (2007). reflexivity, its meanings and relevance for social work: a critical review of the literature. british journal of social work (2007) 37, 7390. dominelli, lena. (2002). feminist social work theory and practice, hampshire, uk: palgrave macmillan. graveline, f.j. (1998). circle works: transforming eurocentric consciousness. halifax: fernwood. greene, g., kondrat, d., lee, m., clement, j. et al. (2006). a solution-focused approach to case management and recovery with consumers. families in society; 87(3):339-350. houston, s. (2005). philosophy, theory and method in social work: challenging empiricism's claim on evidence-based practice. journal of social work, 5(1): 7 - 20. jeffrey, d. (2007). radical problems and liberal selves: professional subjectivity in the anti-oppressive social work classroom. canadian social work review, 24 (2): 125-139. murray, c. (2006). controversy, constraints, and context: understanding family violence through family systems theory. the family journal: counseling and therapy for couples and families, 14(3): 234-239. pazaratz, d. (2000). task-centered child and youth care practice in residential treatment. residential treatment for children & youth. 17(4): 1-16. payne, m. (1997). modern social work theory. 2nd edition. chicago: lyceum books. penna, s. (2004). on the perils of applying theory to practice. critical social work, 5(1): 1-6. rossiter, amy. (2005). discourse analysis in critical social work: from apology to question. critical social work, 6(1). spence, m. & goldstein, b. (1995). managing the tension between being task-centered and being antioppressive. groupwork, 8 (2): 205-216. 31 taylor, c. & white, s. (2006). knowledge and reasoning in social work: educating for humane judgement. british journal of social work, 36(6): 937-954. 32 basis of admission (boa) ryerson & other ontario institutions (level 1 + direct entry) / transfer credit (all admit levels) / advanced standing (above level 1, non-direct entry) surname: date revised: given name: ryerson number: ____________ program/plan: sw001 (boa lvl 3) scanned: admit term: 1159 updated by: boa coding by uar only; tc/as coding by tc unit only boa (a / b) tc/as host institution 1* external 2* org id name of college 9 digit col id (c) c ext term 2* f/w/p (a) school subject & course nbr 1* term 2* yr or program of study group 3* name of diploma/credential boa999 (b) ryerson 3* course grade letter 1* only swp 36b pol 101 pol 102 psy 102 psy 202 soc 111 soc 112 swp 132 gen lls psd psd psd psd psd psd psd psd psd rule 3* y/n expiry date 3* (if rule only) 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 (a) course directives (e.g. cdid151 / 152 / 251 / 252 = irn100) coding by ca/sr only ryerson ce course grade degree course ryerson ce course grade department authorization: degree course ryerson ce course grade signature: (please print name) note: department authorization only required when establishing a transfer credit rule or granting an exception. if expiry date not circled, default is 10 years admissions authorization: * definition: 1* all ryan dearing 2* all excluding ryerson 3* tc/as only s:\shared_admissions\admissions\admissions officers\boa tc cd form and instructions.doc date issued: ____________ undergraduate admissions and recruitment april 2010 degree course ryerson ce course comments: grade degree course appendix d ryerson school of social work common course outline swp341: transformative social work practices winter 2015 course description building upon theoretical and conceptual frameworks that inform social work practice, the course develops strategies, approaches and skills that reflect an anti-oppression perspective. specific attention is given to centering the person in all intervention approaches; addressing issues of difference and power; drawing on peoples strengths and understandings; solidarity building; addressing resistance; and developing critical consciousness. specific skills will include: active listening, reframing, openended questions, advocacy, and reflexivity. course objectives 1) to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the diverse contexts in which social work practices are situated. 2) to develop an awareness of ones personal social location, to include positions of power and powerlessness, and privilege and oppression as these impact your role as a social worker. 3) to develop an awareness of ones personal agency, to include strengths, assets and resilience as these impact your role as a social worker. 4) to develop a capacity for critical reflexivity in relation to practice situations that requires active listening, empathy and care. 5) to acquire a beginning understanding of the process of problem solving, to focus on assessment, and strategies for engagement and advocacy. teaching methodology a variety of classroom formats may be used, such as simulations, discussion, lecture, role play, class seminar, audio/videotape, group presentation, guest speakers. it is important that students are prepared to engage in critical discussions of the assigned readings. in addition to reading the assigned weekly material, students may be asked to complete specific tasks and additional readings in preparation for class. variations within a course sequencing of content areas, methodology, and assignment details will vary among instructors. some topics of instruction will also vary according to instructors areas of interest and research. details for each section of the course are provided in the section-specific course outline for each of the sections. additional readings may be assigned in each section. 34 attendance & participation policy class attendance is essential to understand concepts and engage in critical discussion. participation is necessary for the development of self-reflexivity and critical responsible practice. students are expected to attend classes on time and remain for the class duration. as a courtesy, students are asked to inform the instructor in advance that they cannot make it to class. note that there is a participation grade in this course, as detailed in the assignments and grading section of this course outline. while the grade is not assigned based on attendance, given the interactive and experiential nature of the course, and the connection of all assignments to classroom experiences, low attendance will significantly hamper full participation in the course. technology and social media use policy cell phone use is not allowed in the classroom. you are expected to be respectful and use laptops for note-taking and course-related research only. the instructor reserves the right to discontinue laptop use. laptop use will not be permitted during in-class exercises, group work and other activities specified by the instructor. all laptop users need to sit in the back row. unless social media use is part of the class (as instructed by the faculty member and included elsewhere in this course outline), students shall not share information and materials obtained in the class through any form of social media. disruptions to course and office hours pursuant to the universitys commitment to accessibility for all students, you shall be notified of cancelled classes or any changes to the posted office hours or pre-arranged appointments with your instructor. you will receive such information by email, sent to your official ryerson email address. academic considerations and appeals there will be no penalty for work missed for a justifiable reason. students need to inform the instructor of any situation that arises during the semester that may have an adverse affect on their academic performance, and request any necessary considerations according to the policies and well in advance. failure to do so will jeopardize any academic appeals. except in cases of accommodations for disabilities, where documentation is handled directly by the student learning support academic accommodation support - students must fill out an academic consideration form and submit it to their own program office: school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph 200, eric palin hall. http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/senate/forms/academic_consideration_document_submission.pdf supplemental material is required in addition to the academic consideration form (see medical certificate guidelines, religious observance and other requests). medical certificate guidelines when a student formally requests academic consideration for medical grounds, ryerson university requires that a medical certificate or letter from a physician be submitted. a certificate must be presented within 3 working days of missed or affected classes, tutorials, practica, labs, assignments, tests or examinations to receive consideration for that exam to the school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph 200. the program office will notify all 35 instructors that the documents have been received. it is the students responsibility to make arrangements with instructor for a make-up exam. (see policy details and forms for physician and department http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/forms/medical.pdf) religious observance requests for accommodation of specific religious or spiritual observance must be presented to the school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph 200 no later than two weeks prior to the conflict in question (in the case of final examinations within two weeks of the release of the examination schedule). the student must submit a request for accommodation form (http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/forms/relobservforminstr.pdf) to their program office (school of social work, student affairs coordinator, eph 200). the office will notify all instructors when they have received the request form. other requests other requests for academic consideration which are not related to medical or religious observation must be submitted in writing together with the academic consideration form to the school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph 200. the letter must clearly state the reasons for the request and describe the events or circumstances that seriously impair the students ability to meet their academic obligations, and that were beyond the students control. when possible, supporting documentation must be attached to the letter. the office will notify the instructor when they have received the request. regrading of work or recalculation students who believe that an assignment, test or exam, either in whole or part, has not been appropriately graded, or that there has been a miscalculation of a grade due to an omission, improper addition, etc., must contact the instructor to resolve the issue within ten (10) working days of the date when the graded work is returned. grades not questioned within this period will not be recalculated at a later date. please see senate policy no. 134 for further details. http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/senate/policies/pol134.pdf student learning support (formerly known as access centre) with respect to disability, we take a critical approach in this course. this means that, if for reasons of self-identified health/mental health/madness/disability, students are not able to complete an assignment by the due date, be present physically or engaged intellectually in class, they are encouraged to contact the instructor to discuss alternatives as soon as possible prior to any deadlines. it also means that all students recognize such challenges in the classroom and in group work with peers. please note that this critical approach does not apply to other courses outside the school of social work. we welcome your feedback on accessibility issues related to this course. please provide your feedback to your instructor or to the associate director, undergraduate program. of course, students with disabilities or health concerns can register with student learning support academic accommodation and are encouraged to do so if your accommodations extend to courses outside of the school of social work. student learning support offers assistance related to academic accommodation for students living with disabilities looking for help with academic accommodations. student learning support also offers english language, study skills and transition, writing and math supports. please visit www.ryerson.ca/studentlearningsupport. to contact academic accommodation support email accessfrontdesk@ryerson.ca or call 416-979-5290. 36 academic integrity to preserve the academic integrity of this course, ryerson universitys regulations regarding academic misconduct will be strictly followed. this includes regulations concerning academic dishonesty, misrepresentation of personal performance, and aiding or abetting academic misconduct. please see the student code of academic conduct for details of these regulations and the penalties for academic misconduct at www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol60.pdf plagiarism the ryerson student code of academic conduct defines plagiarism and the sanctions against students who plagiarize. all students are strongly encouraged to go to the academic integrity website at www.ryerson.ca/academicintegrity and complete the tutorial on plagiarism. culture of respect consistent with the mission, policies and services of the university, the school of social work promotes a culture of respect for human diversity and collegiality among faculty, students and staff. students are expected to familiarize themselves with the policies and procedures of the student code of non-academic conduct at www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol61.pdf. e-mail contact according to ryerson university policy (http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol157.pdf) communication with you by e-mail will occur through your official ryerson address only. ryerson academic policies: for more information on ryersons academic policies, visit the senate website at www.ryerson.ca/senate. course management policy no. 145 student code of academic conduct no. 60 student code of non-academic conduct no. 61 examination policy no. 135 policy on grading, promotion, and academic standing policy no. 46 undergraduate academic consideration and appeals policy no. 134 accommodation of student religious observance obligations policy no. 150 academic accommodation of students with disabilities policy 159 school of social work assignment and exam policy students are expected to take responsibility for making sure that assignments have been received by the faculty member. students are expected to maintain rough notes and drafts of course work/ assignments. students must keep a copy of each assignment on file until the original has been marked and returned. unless otherwise notified, students papers should reflect the guidelines defined in the current edition of publication manual of the american psychological association. in case of any delay in submitting assignments the faculty member should be notified. late 37 assignments will be downgraded by 2% of the assignment grade per day including weekends, holidays and study week days. there is a seven-day maximum limit by which to accept late assignments where the student has not asked for an extension. no late assignments will be accepted beyond this limit and will result in a grade of 0 for that assignment. in extenuating circumstance, it is recognized that some students may require extensions for assignments. faculty will assign new due dates not later than two weeks from the beginning of the next semester courses. extensions beyond these dates are only available under extenuating circumstances and need to be negotiated with the associate director, undergraduate program. if this negotiation does not take place any incomplete grades will convert to an f. it is the students responsibility to follow up with the faculty member and associate director. method of posting grades assignments will normally be returned within two weeks from the date of submission, and where the faculty member is unable to do so s/he will notify students in writing. all grades will be made known to students in class or on blackboard. students will receive their final course grades only from the registrar. required & recommended readings required readings are noted in the class schedule below. all course readings are available in class or on blackboard. note that the course readings are heavily concentrated early in the semester, so we can focus more on the simulation experiences as the course proceeds. evaluation: assignments and grading assignment details there are four forms of evaluation in this course: class participation (10%), simulation documentation/observation analysis essays (30%), simulation debriefing group presentation (30%), and simulation critical self-reflection essay (30%). brief details are provided below; full assignment details will be provided in the first class. all assignments draw from the in-class simulations. in groups of 6, (i.e. 5 groups), students participate in a simulation in a social worker role. the simulation is not graded. all students are required to participate. assignments are based on either being a participant in or an observer of simulations as detailed below. (1) class participation (10% of total grade) the focus of this second year course (swp 341) is the application of theory and research within the context of classroom/seminar learning. class attendance and participation are essential to the development of collegial relationships that characterize learning, reflection and critical analysis within social work practice. attendance is necessary for participation in simulations and role plays and for assignment completion. participation is necessary to the clarification of personal and professional values and their relationship to knowledge development and practice efficacy. participation in this course means active involvement in class discussions, contribution to the reflective process in simulations, review of the articles in the discussion of issues, participation in the simulations and other activities assigned in class. 38 (2) simulation documentation/observation analysis essays (30% of total grade) students will complete two short papers based on observation and analysis of a simulation in class, other than the one where they participate. the essay focuses on critical self reflexivity based on observation of a simulation. each essay is 1000-1200 words. in this assignment you are to demonstrate your ability to critically engage in a theoretical reflexive understanding of anti-oppressive practice in a practice simulation. five references are required. grading will be based partly on documentation of the simulation, and mostly on the analysis/reflection of the simulation. the assignment is due before / at the start of the class immediately following the class when the simulation occurred. (3) simulation debriefing group presentation (30% of total grade) each simulation group will facilitate a class discussion that will explore, critique, and reflect upon the previous weeks simulation with the rest of the class. this assignment provides an opportunity for the group and the class to explore the strengths and barriers pertaining to the previous weeks simulation as well as deliberate possible options and solutions for anti-oppressive social work practice. references may be helpful to this presentation. grading will be based partly on the presentation style and mostly on the analysis/reflection/response to the simulation experience and to the class discussion. the presentation occurs in the first half of the class the week following their simulation. a group grade is assigned. (4) simulation critical self reflection essay (30% of total grade) following the simulation where you participate in a social work role, you will write a critical self reflection essay. you will document what occurred in the simulation, and then explore what happened in your social worker role, examining your strengths and gaps in the context of anti-oppressive social work practice. this assignment requires you to consider how social work knowledge, skills and values intersect, alongside your social location/subject position and the context of the simulation. the essay is 8 pages maximum and must include a minimum of 5 references. grading will be based partly on the documentation of the simulation and mostly on your critical self-reflection about the experience. the assignment is due before / at the start of the class immediately following the class when your group facilitated the debriefing group presentation. 39 appendix e ryerson school of social work course outline swp435: aboriginal approaches to social work- section 61 winter 2015 * according to ryerson university policy (www.ryerson.ca/senate/policies/pol157.pdf), communication between students and instructors by email will occur only through official ryerson email addresses. please ensure you check your email on a regular basis. instructors will make their best efforts to respond to e-mail and voice mail from students within two working days. e-mail is the preferred method of communication when personal discussion is not possible. course description the course introduces students to issues confronted by contemporary aboriginal peoples in canada. aboriginal perspectives on the origins of these issues and their resolution will be examined in the context of aboriginal self-determination. students will examine the importance of world views, identity, and values of aboriginal peoples and themselves in the provision of services. aboriginal perspectives on the role of "helper", "healer", and "ally" will be addressed. prerequisites and/or exclusions swp132 and swp331 course objectives/learning outcomes to connect institutional and structural oppression to the history and current impacts of colonization upon aboriginal peoples and communities to encourage the student to gain an understanding of indigenous knowledges and worldviews as applied to the helping professions to provide opportunities for students to apply critical thinking and dialogue on what colonization and indigenous knowledges mean to them as social workers and canadian citizens to assist the student in selfexploration around the impact of identity and values for both themselves and aboriginal peoples within a social work relationship teaching methods a variety of classroom formats may be used, such as discussion, lecture, simulation, class presentation, un-graded reflections, and small group discussion. variations within a course sequencing of content areas, methods, and assignment details will vary among instructors. some topics 40 of instruction will also vary according to instructors areas of interest and research. details for each section of the course are provided in the section-specific syllabus. there is a core reading being used across sections and each section will have no more than one additional reading per week that will differ across sections. technology and social media use policy cell phone use in not allowed in the classroom. you are expected to be respectful and use laptops for note-taking and course-related research only. the instructor reserves the right to discontinue laptop use. laptop use will not be permitted during in-class exercises, group work and other activities specified by the instructor. unless social media use is part of the class (as instructed by the faculty member and included elsewhere in this course outline), students shall not share information and materials obtained in the class through any form of social media. disruptions to course and office hours pursuant to the universitys commitment to accessibility for all students, you shall be notified of cancelled classes or any changes to the posted office hours or pre-arranged appointments with your instructor. you will receive such information by email, sent to your official ryerson email address. academic considerations and appeals there will be no penalty for work missed for a justifiable reason. students need to inform the instructor of any situation that arises during the semester that may have an adverse affect on their academic performance, and request any necessary considerations according to the policies and well in advance. failure to do so will jeopardize any academic appeals. except in cases of accommodations for disabilities, where documentation is handled directly by the student learning support academic accommodation support - students must fill out an academic consideration form and submit it to their own program office: school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph 200, eric palin hall. http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/senate/forms/academic_consideration_document_submission.pdf supplemental material is required in addition to the academic consideration form (see medical certificate guidelines, religious observance and other requests). medical certificate guidelines when a student formally requests academic consideration for medical grounds, ryerson university requires that a medical certificate or letter from a physician be submitted. a certificate must be presented within 3 working days of missed or affected classes, tutorials, practica, labs, assignments, tests or examinations to receive consideration for that exam to the school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph200. the program office will notify all instructors that the documents have been received. it is the students responsibility to make arrangements with instructor for a make-up exam. (see policy details and forms for physician and department http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/forms/medical.pdf) 41 religious observance requests for accommodation of specific religious or spiritual observance must be presented to the school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph200 no later than two weeks prior to the conflict in question (in the case of final examinations within two weeks of the release of the examination schedule). the student must submit a request for accommodation form (http://www.ryerson.ca/senate/forms/relobservforminstr.pdf) to their program office (school of social work, student affairs coordinator, eph200). the office will notify all instructors when they have received the request form. other requests other requests for academic consideration which are not related to medical or religious observation must be submitted in writing together with the academic consideration form to the school of social work, student affairs co-ordinator, eph200. the letter must clearly state the reasons for the request and describe the events or circumstances that seriously impair the students ability to meet their academic obligations, and that were beyond the students control. when possible, supporting documentation must be attached to the letter. the office will notify the instructor when they have received the request. regrading of work or recalculation students who believe that an assignment, test or exam, either in whole or part, has not been appropriately graded, or that there has been a miscalculation of a grade due to an omission, improper addition, etc., must contact the instructor to resolve the issue within ten (10) working days of the date when the graded work is returned. grades not questioned within this period will not be recalculated at a later date. please see senate policy no. 134 for further details. http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/senate/policies/pol134.pdf student learning support (formerly known as access centre) with respect to disability, we take a critical approach in this course. this means that, if for reasons of self-identified health/mental health/madness/disability, students are not able to complete an assignment by the due date, be present physically or engaged intellectually in class, they are encouraged to contact the instructor to discuss alternatives as soon as possible prior to any deadlines. it also means that all students recognize such challenges in the classroom and in group work with peers. please note that this critical approach does not apply to other courses outside the school of social work. we welcome your feedback on accessibility issues related to this course. please provide your feedback to your instructor or to the associate director, undergraduate program. of course, students with disabilities or health concerns can register with student learning support academic accommodation and are encouraged to do so if your accommodations extend to courses outside of the school of social work. student learning support offers assistance related to academic accommodation for students living with disabilities looking for help with academic accommodations. student learning support also offers english language, study skills and transition, writing and math supports. please visit www.ryerson.ca/studentlearningsupport. to contact academic accommodation support email accessfrontdesk@ryerson.ca or call 416-979-5290. plagiarism the ryerson student code of academic conduct defines plagiarism and the sanctions against students 42 who plagiarize. all students are strongly encouraged to go to the academic integrity website at www.ryerson.ca/academicintegrity and complete the tutorial on plagiarism. ryerson academic policies: for more information on ryersons academic policies, visit the senate website at www.ryerson.ca/senate. course management policy no. 145 student code of academic conduct no. 60 student code of non-academic conduct no. 61 examination policy no. 135 policy on grading, promotion, and academic standing policy no. 46 undergraduate academic consideration and appeals policy no. 134 accommodation of student religious observance obligations policy no. 150 academic accommodation of students with disabilities policy 159 school of social work assignment and exam policy students are expected to take responsibility for making sure that assignments have been received by the faculty member. students are expected to maintain rough notes and drafts of course work/ assignments. students must keep a copy of each assignment on file until the original has been marked and returned. unless otherwise notified, students papers should reflect the guidelines defined in the current edition of publication manual of the american psychological association. in case of any delay in submitting assignments the faculty member should be notified. late assignments will be downgraded by 2% of the assignment grade per day including weekends, holidays and study week days. there is a seven-day maximum limit by which to accept late assignments where the student has not asked for an extension. no late assignments will be accepted beyond this limit and will result in a grade of 0 for that assignment. in extenuating circumstance, it is recognized that some students may require extensions for assignments. faculty will assign new due dates not later than two weeks from the beginning of the next semester courses . extensions beyond these dates are only available under extenuating circumstances and need to be negotiated with the associate director, undergraduate program. if this negotiation does not take place any incomplete grades will convert to an f. it is the students responsibility to follow up with the faculty member and associate director. method of posting grades assignments will normally be returned within two weeks from the date of submission, and where the faculty member is unable to do so s/he will notify students in writing. all grades will be made known to students in class or on blackboard. students will receive their final course grades only from the registrar. evaluation (see last three pages of course outline for details on each assignment) 1. media report due date 30% of final grade week of january 26, 2015 43 purpose 2. simulation due dates purpose demonstrate critical assessment of current issues 30% of final grade march 23rd or march 30th (one week after your involvement in the simulation) demonstrate ability to apply social work skills with aboriginal peoples 3. group assignment 30% of final grade three classes each worth 10% due date week of: january 28th, february 23rd and march 9th purpose demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of course readings 4. participation: 10% of final grade purpose demonstrate critical understanding of in-class discussions a total of five reflections will be completed in class at unannounced times throughout the course. students must be present to hand in their reflections. required & recommended readings baskin, c. (2011). strong helpers teachings: the value of indigenous knowledges in the helping professions. toronto: canadian scholars press. other readings on e-reserve as outlined in the syllabus. 44 class schedule/syllabus date week of jan 12th topic opening, introductions orientation readings and activities introductions review readings/ assignments video: kanehsatake: 270 years of resistance week of jan 19th history, values and terminology teaching: seven fires prophecies reading: terminology guide retrieve from: http://www.naho.ca/publications/topics/terminology/ reading: borrows, j. (2008). seven generations, seven teachings: ending the indian act. research paper for the national centre for first nations governance. week of jan 26th colonization & contemporary issues video: angaangaq: one earth - one race ** media assignment due reading: baskin, c. chapter 1 reading: baskin, c. chapter 2 reading: hart, m. (2007). indigenous knowledge and research: the mkiwhp as a symbol for reclaiming our knowledge and ways of knowing. first peoples child & family review. 3(1), 83-90. week of feb 2nd week of feb 9th social work theories and models self-reflexivity values and ethics research week of feb 16th week of feb 23rd holistic approaches spirituality week of group work reading: baskin, c. chapter 3 reading: baskin, c. chapter 4 reading: baskin, c. chapter 5 reading: baskin, c. chapter 12 reading week no class community reading: baskin, c. chapter 6 reading: baskin, c. chapter 8 reading: tse, s., lloyd, c., petchkovsky, l. & manaia, w. (2005). exploration of australian and new zealand indigenous peoples spirituality and mental health. australian occupational therapy journal. 52, pp.181-187. video: the world we want mary simon group work reading: baskin, c. chapter 7 45 mar 2nd justice reading: baskin, c. chapter 9 reading: stenning, p. & roberts, j. (2001). empty promises: parliament, the supreme court, and the sentencing of aboriginal offenders. saskatchewan law review. 64, 137-168. video: honouring our elders - pinehouse 2010: the gift of language and culture. week of mar 9th family focus reading: baskin, c. chapter 10 reading: manitoba mtis federation and mtis child and family services authority. (2013). mtis children and families, and the child welfare system: an urban winnipeg perspective. prepared for the commission of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of phoenix sinclair. video: fostering and aboriginal perspective - naho group work week of mar 16th week of mar 23rd week of mar 30th simulations simulations end or new beginning? ** reflection on simulation from previous week due week of apr 6th into the future reading: baskin, c. chapter 14 closing remarks and outstanding topics closing ceremony: pot luck feast ** reflection on simulation from previous week due 46 instructions and evaluation of media report (30%) choose a current news piece (no further back than september 2014) from the media that focuses on aboriginal peoples/communities/issues. media includes both mainstream (eg. cbc, the toronto star, etc.) and alternative (eg. aptn, windspeaker, etc.) sources. your choice can come from newspapers, television, radio, magazines, etc. write a 3 page report about the news piece addressing the topics noted below. include a copy of the news piece or the link to it if it is only available online with your report. please include the following in our report: a) introduction brief synopsis of what you will be writing about b) discussion and analysis who wrote the piece? how informative is it? whose voices are included and whose are left out? what are the underlying political positions/values/biases within the piece? what are your reactions to it? what questions come up for you? logic of statements inclusion of all applicable areas critical thinking explanations for critiques c) d) terminology appropriate terms for aboriginal peoples and communities appropriate capitalization of terms summary conclusions learning from assignment report will be graded with respect to organization and writing style, specifically: logical development spelling grammar punctuation sentence structure apa terminology 47 instructions and evaluation of simulation (30%) in class simulations will take place with an indigenous family. in small groups, students will be involved in the simulation putting into practice aspects of indigenous worldviews learned in the course such as listening, use of silence, questioning, roles of family members, engagement, respect of knowledge and revealing strengths, as well as exploring possible impacts of colonization, experiences of personal and structural racism and stereotyping. one week after participating in the simulation, students are expected to hand in a 4 page (individual) maximum (double spaced) reflection. reflections are to include: what went well and how do you know? what was challenging and why? what did you learn about yourself/others? what do you want to work on in the future? students will be graded on their self-reflection, not on specific actions in the simulation. further information about the family and their situation will be provided to students prior to the simulation. learner goals while part of the simulation: make family feel comfortable identify familys concerns clarify needs actively listen and allow for silence allow for expression of feelings ensure all family members have an opportunity to speak express respect for family values, roles, relationships and responsibilities acknowledge when you do not know something assess significance of aboriginal teachings and practices to the family members assess strengths and supports assess impacts of personal and structural colonialism/oppression upon family gather information without many direct questions answer the questions of the family members appropriate self-disclosure learner goals while observing the simulation: respond to instructors calls for time outs when she asks for feedback on what is occurring in the simulation and ideas to try with the family respond to learners calls for time outs when s/he is not sure how to proceed by offering suggestions learner goals after the simulation: 4 page reflection : what went well and how do you know what was challenging and why what did you learn about yourself 48 what do you want to work on in the future instructions and evaluation of group assignment students will be placed in groups of three for a total of three group assignment activities. students will be required to complete and submit answers to questions based on some or all of the readings from the assigned class date. questions will be posted on blackboard the week of group work. students will be required, as a group, to submit their answers via e-mail to the instructor within 24 hours of the class. evaluation will be based on students demonstrated understanding, critical analysis and thoughtful interpretations of the readings. due dates: week of: january 28th, february 23rd and march 9th 49 class schedule the class schedule is listed by session number as the actual date of each class varies according to the course section. dates can be confirmed with your faculty member. note there are no classes during reading week february 16-20, 2015 and good friday, april 3, 2015. session 1: january 9, 12, 13 introduction to course welcome back: review course outline, assignments and expectations reading: didham, s., dromgole, l., csiernik, r., lou karley, m.l., and hurley, d. (2011). trauma exposure and the social work practicum. journal of teaching in social work, 31: 523-537. session 2: january 16, 19, 20 social work practices and processes readings: payne, m. (2005). social work process. in r. adams, l. dominelli & m. payne (eds.). social work futures: crossing boundaries, transforming practice (pp. 21-35). new york: palgrave macmillan. lundy, c. (2004). the helping process: assessment and intervention. in social work and social justice: a structural approach to practice (pp. 111-127). peterborough, on: broadview press. allen, g. & langford, d. (2007). types and purposes of interviews in the agency context. in effective interviewing in social work and social care: a practical guide, (pp. 52-77). new york: palgrave mcmillan. session 3: january 23, 26, 27 simulation group 1 (no reading) session 4: january 30, feb. 2, 3 engaging in and reflecting on social work practices simulation debriefing group 1 readings: dcruz, h., gillingham, p. & melendez, s. (2007). reflexivity, its meanings and relevance for social work: a critical review of the literature. british journal of social work. 37, 7390. fook, j. & gardner, f. (2007). the theoretical frameworks underlying critical reflection. in 50 practising critical reflection: a resource handbook (pp. 22-39). maidenhead, uk: open up. lishman, j. (1998). personal and professional development. in r. adams, l. dominelli, & m. payne (eds.). social work: themes, issues and critical debates (pp. 89-103). london, uk: macmillan. session 5: february 6, 9, 10 simulation - group 2 (no reading) reading week february 14 - 20 (no class) session 6: february 13, 23, 24 ethical practices and documentation simulation debriefing group 2 readings: rooney, r. (2009). legal and ethical foundations for work with involuntary clients. in r. rooney (ed.), strategies for work with involuntary clients (2nd ed.) (pp. 19-44). new york: columbia up. healy, k. & mulholland, j. (2007). writing case records. in writing skills for social workers (pp. 68-86). london, uk: sage. session 7: february 27, mar.2, 3 simulation group 3 (no reading) session 8: march 6, 9, 10 critical and creative practice simulation debriefing group 3 readings: pollack, s. (2007). hope has two daughters: critical practice within womens prison. in d. mandell (ed.), revisiting the use of self: questioning identities (pp. 105-120). toronto: canadian scholars press inc. malekoff, a. (2009). gatekeepers, gatecrashers and gateways in group work with kids: a mystery story. social work with groups, 32(3), 193-208. session 9: march 13, 16, 17 simulation group 4 (no reading) session 10: march 20, 23, 24 termination 51 simulation debriefing group 4 reading: baum, n. (2006). end-of-year treatment termination: responses of social work student trainees. british journal of social work, 36(4), 639-656. session 11: march 27, 30, 31 simulation - group 5 (no reading) good friday april 3, 2015 (no class) session 12: april 6, 7, 10 self-care & wrap-up simulation debriefing group 5 reading: moore, s., perry, a., bledsoe, l., & robinson, m. (2011). social work students and self-care: a model assignment for teaching. journal of social work education, 47(3), 546-553. 52 web-site links referenced curriculum requirements: www.ryerson.ca/calendar/2014-2015/pg3612.html swp 331 social work theories of practice: www.ryerson.ca/calendar/2014-2015/pg3792.html swp 36a/b field practicum: www.ryerson.ca/calendar/2014-2015/pg3792.html undergraduate degree level expectations (udles): ryerson.ca/lt/programs/curriculum/degreelevelexpectations/index.html admission requirements: www.ryerson.ca/calendar/2014-2015/pg912.html significant date schedules: www.ryerson.ca/currentstudents/calendars/significant-dates.html student resources: www.ryerson.ca/currentstudents/ student services: www.ryerson.ca/studentservices/ library: library.ryerson.ca/ ryerson student union: www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/undergraduate/admission/downloads/tir2015/rsu.pdf swp 51a/b field practicum: www.ryerson.ca/calendar/2013-2014/pg3418.html ryerson universitys orientation week: studentlife.ryerson.ca/orientation/ 54

author note amy d. mitchell, school of language and liberal studies, fanshawe college; lane trotter, v.p. academic, fanshawe college; wendy wilson, school of language and liberal studies, fanshawe college; ryan walmsley, school of language and liberal studies, fanshawe college. this research paper was made possible by a grant from the cucc: 2012. correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to amy d. mitchell, school of language and liberal studies, fanshawe college, 1001 fanshawe college blvd., p.o. box 7005, london, ontario, n5y 5r6. e-mail: amitchell@fanshawec.ca abstract ontario's provincial government recognizes college to university transfer as increasingly important. the challenge that ontario faces is that its college and university systems were created as binary structures, with insufficient credit transfer opportunities for college students who wish to access universities with appropriate advanced standing. this paper discusses fanshawe college's consequent attempt to create new pathways for its students within the european higher education area, whose bologna process provides an integrated credit transfer system that is theoretically very open to student mobility. this unique project is intended to act as an exemplar for other ontario colleges seeking similar solutions, and to support an articulation agreement between fanshawe's advanced diploma in architectural technology and a building sciences master's program at victoria university of wellington in new zealand. this paper discusses the significance of fanshawe's project and of relevant international legislation that governs the european system. it describes the two key european transfer and mobility tools: the european credit transfer and accumulation system (ects) and the diploma supplement. it considers challenges facing the recognition of an ontario advanced diploma in europe, especially whether this qualification could be equivalent to a european first cycle qualification (a bachelor's). it then maps the ontario advanced diploma and the provincial standards for an advanced diploma in architectural technology to the two overarching european frameworks; this mapping supports the conclusion that the ontario qualification can legitimately equate with a european bachelor's. finally, it provides concrete recommendations for realizing the potential of this project. keywords. articulation, bologna process, caat, college of applied arts and technology, credit transfer, diploma supplement, ects, eqf-lll, european credit transfer and accumulation system, first cycle, learning outcomes, lisbon recognition convention, mobility, ontario qualifications framework, oqf, qfehea, qualifications frameworks, recognition, short cycle contents introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 significance of fanshawes project ........................................................................................ 3 economic significance ................................................................................................................ 4 the changing higher education landscape in europe and ontario............................................ 7 relevant policies: the lisbon recognition convention and the bologna process .......... 10 bolognas transparency tools: ects and the diploma supplement ............................. 15 the first transparency tool: ects .......................................................................................... 16 ects and student workload............................................................................................ 18 ects and learning outcomes ......................................................................................... 21 ects and levels ............................................................................................................. 22 ects grading conventions ............................................................................................. 23 ects and course catalogues ......................................................................................... 24 the second transparency tool: the diploma supplement ...................................................... 25 recognition and substantial differences .............................................................................. 27 first cycle or short cycle?........................................................................................................ 29 formal rights ........................................................................................................................... 32 qualifications frameworks .................................................................................................... 34 mapping the oqf advanced diploma and the provincial standards to the qf-ehea .............. 35 mapping the oqf advanced diploma and the provincial standards to the eqf-lll ................ 39 conclusions and recommendations..................................................................................... 42 initial strategy ........................................................................................................................... 43 ects ........................................................................................................................................ 43 diploma supplement ................................................................................................................. 44 references .............................................................................................................................. 46 facilitating college to university transfer 1 introduction the architectural technology advanced diploma program at fanshawe college1 in london, ontario, currently faces a unique opportunity: the signing of a memorandum of understanding with victoria university of wellington, new zealand (vuw) that includes an articulation agreement with a masters program allowing for direct entry with a minimal (one semester) bridging requirement. this opportunity arose after students from our architectural technology program worked on the construction in new zealand, and assembly in washington d.c., of vuw's entry into the u.s. department of energys 2011 biennial solar decathlon (a net zero house design and construction competition). senior leadership from vuw were so impressed with the problem solving abilities and work ethic of the fanshawe students that they were open to the idea that such an articulation agreement would be mutually beneficial. this kind of articulation agreement is, of course, unusual. it can be difficult for advanced diploma students to receive appropriate advanced standing if they try to access bachelors programs, so the possibility of easy entry into a masters program is practically unheard of. vuw could see that our advanced diploma students do possess the learning outcomes necessary for success in their masters program, but obviously any additional information buttressing the quality of fanshawe itself and of its architectural technology program would help to cement the agreement, and to reassure vuw that its perceptions of fanshawes students at the solar decathlon are, in fact, accurate. 1 a publicly-funded post-secondary college of applied arts and technology offering a range of diplomas, applied degrees, and post-graduate certificates, with a full-time student enrollment of 15,000. 2 facilitating college to university transfer at the same time, we learned that new zealand has been actively seeking to engage with europe's bologna process,2 with a focus not on ensuring compliancebut on ensuring that comparability mechanisms allow new zealands tertiary education system to relate to all major international models (new zealand qualifications authority, 2008, p. 4). we therefore decided to investigate achieving european credit transfer and accumulation system (ects) certification for ontario's architectural technology advanced diploma program at our institution (as we, wrongly, initially conceptualized the project facing us) in the interests of providing further proof of the quality of the program. ects is one of the more concrete manifestations of the bologna process' emphasis on student mobility. fanshawes ensuing ects project was designed in three phases: first, the production of an article (this paper) that delineates the nature of the problem facing us and that recommends how fanshawe should proceed; second, mapping of our architectural technology program to ects standards; and third, the production of a wrap-up article reflecting on the practical experience of the mapping process. very little seems to be known about european student transfer protocols within ontario, which is why we thought it important to report on the process after its completion. the college university consortium council (cucc) of ontario generously provided funding for the first two phases of this project, with the prescient request that we also map the provincial standards for an advanced diploma in architectural technology to european standards. given how tightly the issues facing us are bound up in program standards and qualifications frameworks, we would have eventually discovered that we had to take into account the ontario qualifications framework (oqf) and the provincial standards, even without the cuccs prompting. 2 this is the collection of policy decisions and practical implementation procedures that gave rise in 2010 to the ehea. facilitating college to university transfer 3 this paper describes our findings on the nature of the project itself (including our revised understanding of ects), and our recommendations for successfully translating fanshawes (and by extension ontario's) advanced diploma in architectural technology into european transfer terms such that it will successfully promote our students mobility in the european higher education area (ehea), in new zealand, and in other bologna-compatible higher education systems. since new zealand has not yet fully implemented ects and related bologna process elements at the institutional level, it proved necessary to select other program analogues to use for comparisons with us at this level. we chose the architectural technology programs at the irish institutes of technology as suitable analogues: ireland is widely recognized as one of the leaders of bologna process implementation, at all levels, and is therefore one of the best possible systems to turn to for answers on practical implementation issues. significance of fanshawes project there are four aspects of this project that make it significant beyond simply fanshawes own goals. first, the work accomplished in the course of the project will help to fill a significant gap in ontarios (and possibly canadas) knowledge of european transfer and mobility protocols. despite the fact that the bologna process is quickly becoming the global higher education norm, it is surprisingly difficult within ontario to acquire high-quality information about this phenomenon. additionally, there do not appear to be any similar projects underway. second, this project functions in part as a test of whether an advanced diploma in ontario can indeed find a place in the shifting landscape of bologna (preferably at the bachelors level), which is discussed further in another section of this paper. third, this project has larger economic significance, especially given the recent political recognition that credit transfer is an important factor in a robust, productive post-secondary system. fourth, the central question of 4 facilitating college to university transfer this projectessentially, whether it is possible to create unusual pathways for students through the levels of post-secondary educationechoes problems and opportunities that have been raised by the changing and increasingly fluid nature of both the north american and european higher education landscapes. economic significance the third and fourth significant aspects of this project require further explanation. the economic aspect is twofold: post-secondary education is facing an imminent decline in domestic enrollments, which has to be somehow mitigated, and post-secondary transfer opportunities (including international ones) have been identified as economically important for ontarios postsecondary system. the demographic age group that most commonly enrols in post-secondary studies in canada will decrease after about 2013 (see hango & de broucker, 2007, p. 14 and p. 15, chart 4.1); statistics canada predicts that ontario may (the claim is qualified by the statement that this projection ... [is] based on the assumption that migration will continue to benefit ... ontario [see p. 14]) fare significantly better than some of the other provinces (see hango & de broucker, 2007, p. 18, chart 4.7), but the overall downward trend in canada is undeniable. one of the classic responses of canadian post-secondary institutions to this projected trend is to try to increase international student enrolments, in order to offset the decline in the domestic market. it would therefore make sense to seek greater convergence with what adelman (2009) calls the dominant global higher education model within the next two decades (p. 2): the european system, which is rooted in the bologna process (and which is at least partly driven by ects). moreover, the european system and the bologna process have acquired influence in many global regions outside of the ehea itself. in the mediterranean region, serbia and turkey had become bologna participants by 2006, while eight others (algeria, tunisia, morocco, facilitating college to university transfer 5 egypt, israel, lebanon, syria, [and] jordan) had participated [by that date] in a variety of education linkage programs with european states (adelman, 2009, p. 170). the related 2006 catania declaration sought to pursue, among other things, the use of transferable credits [along european lines], and the development of comparable quality assurance processes (p. 170). morocco and tunisia had started on the process of conversion to bologna degree cycles (p. 170) by 2009. within africa, the francophone regions are picking up their cues from bologna, selecting the issues that are most relevant to their stage of development ... (p. 171), while the lusophone countries are seeking elements of convergence (p. 171). within latin america, 18 countries have participated in a full-blown tuning project (p. 170), which is a europe-driven project for curriculum change that has strong, informal associations with the bologna process. the iberoamerican area of higher education and research has prioritized investigating european convergence (see p. 171). new zealand is in the process of acceding to bologna, and australia is interested in alignment with bologna initiatives (cited in adelman, 2009, p. 171), at least in part because china requested observer status at the 2007 european higher education framework meetings (bishop, 2006, p. 6). australias interest is also sparked by their concern that european award- and scholarship-granting bodies may increasingly limit their funds to bologna- or ects-compatible countries and/or institutions (see p. 9), a concern that others would do well to heed, since this possibility could negatively impact international enrolments for post-secondary institutions that have no relationship with europes methods or transfer protocols. in addition to supporting international student enrolments, integration with the european system would promote the kind of credit transfer and international mobility that the higher education strategy associates 2012 report changing times, changing places: the global evolution of the bachelors degree and the implications for ontario emphasizes, and that the drummond (2012) report identifies as economically necessary. the higher education strategy 6 facilitating college to university transfer associates (2012) call directly for a common definition of a credit [in ontario, which] would almost certainly have beneficial aspects on credit transfer (p. 15), and recommend participation in a tuning project to start talking about agreed upon outcomes at the disciplinary level (p. 15) (it should be remembered that this kind of project has very close bologna process ties). similarly, but even more strongly, the drummond (2012) report (which was commissioned by the government of ontario to investigate how to bring ontarios finances under control, and whose recommendations are clearly economically motivated and often very dire) addresses the issue of international mobility and credit transfer at the post-secondary level. this report calls for the creation of a comprehensive, enforceable credit recognition system between and among universities and colleges (drummond, 2012, p. 7) and explicitly specifies that the transfer system must be two-way (p. 7); the nature of this proposed credit transfer and recognition system resembles the european ects in its open-ended nature. the report also states that post-secondary institutions need to ... increase study abroad and international experiences (pp. 7-8), which will be increasingly difficult to accomplish throughout much of the world without at least some passing familiarity with the bologna system. furthermore, the fact that a prominent canadian economist is calling for these post-secondary reforms in one of the most serious documents of this type in ontarios recent history means that these reforms are not only crucial for students, but are also economically crucial for the post-secondary sector. these recommendations, placed alongside the rapidly growing global reach of bologna and the need for ontarios post-secondary institutions to increase international student enrolments, strongly mandate more interest in the european transfer and mobility protocols and in the bologna process than ontario has shown thus far. facilitating college to university transfer 7 the changing higher education landscape in europe and ontario the final significant aspect of this project that requires some discussion is the changing higher education landscape in both ontario and europe. over the last 50 years, governments have come to see higher education as a tool for economic development and competitiveness (crespo & dridi, 2007; marginson, 2002, 2004; middlehurst, 2004; slaughter & leslie, 1997; slaughter & rhoades, 2004). this phenomenon, alongside simultaneous investment in labour force development (especially in the 1960s-1970s) (keeling, 2006; prokou, 2008), led some european governments to create alternate, non-university educational structures to support their economic objectives (ertl, 2005; huisman & van der wende, 2004; lampinen, 2001; pratt, 1997; prokou, 2008), especially when they encountered resistance on the part of the universities. the increasing massification of higher education and the pressures this placed on budgets further drove the reforms (crespo & dridi, 2007; dennison & schuetze, 2004; kivinen & rinne, 1996; shanahan & jones, 2007). the creation of these new higher education structuresoften in the form of polytechnics or the equivalentin turn led to the phenomenon known as academic drift, or the tendency for degree-granting powers to slowly creep into nonuniversity higher education institutions. three prominent examples of this kind of shifting educational landscape are the united kingdom, germany, and finland. in the uk in the early 1960s, the government did not think the universities were responsive to its request for applied education that supported economic development and skills training. in response, the government created a binary system that consisted of the current universities and new polytechnics, which would be created from existing colleges and vocational schools that would themselves be merged together. under the binary model, both the universities and the polytechnics would be separate but equal. according to pratt (1997), the governments rationale for this decision included the fact that "britain could not stand up to foreign competition by downgrading the non-university professional and technical sector" (p. 8). 8 facilitating college to university transfer the polytechnics in the uk then slowly evolved from initially offering certificates and diplomas, to offering bachelor's and later master's degrees. the polytechnics were very successful and supported the uk governments labour market competitiveness agenda, so in 1992 legislation was introduced that turned the polytechnics into enterprise universities (middlehurst, 2004) to further expand their role within the british economy. at roughly the same time, the federal government in west germany also wanted to ensure their economic competitiveness. in west germany's case, a further reason for change came from the students enrolled in colleges and vocational schools whose education was not recognised as being part of the higher education system, but was instead classified as further education. in the 1970s, the federal government passed legislation to create a national framework for fachhochschulen (the rough equivalents of polytechnics), in order to support germanys economic growth and to formally recognise the education of students from the nonuniversity sector (ertl, 2005; pritchard, 2006; kehm & teichler, 2006). although not as large as the university sector, the fachhochschulen have grown at a much faster pace than any other type of post-secondary institution in germany (ertl, 2005). under bologna the role of the fachhochschulen was aligned with the new 3-cycle degree model (see the section below on bologna's education reforms) and legislation was changed to authorise them to award both bachelor's and masters degrees. finland did not restructure its education system until 1991. in the late 1980s and early 1990s, finland experienced a severe recession caused by the break-up of the soviet union (organization for economic co-operation and development [oecd], 2003) that resulted in the finnish government cutting expenditures by almost 20% (kivinen & rinne, 1996). in order to diversify and move to a knowledge-based economy, in 1991 the government created a small number of experimental polytechnics (lampinen, 2001). the polytechnics were designed to be linked to industry; they were formed out of the non-university colleges and vocational schools facilitating college to university transfer 9 and given baccalaureate degree granting status. the structure of the finnish polytechnics was based on both the german fachhochschulen and the british polytechnics (although while finland was launching its new polytechnics, the uk decided to turn theirs into universities). the polytechnics were deemed to be a success, and in the early 2000s the status of the polytechnics shifted from experimental to permanent institutions. in addition, at this same time legislation was passed to allow the polytechnics to offer a post-graduate degree (oecd, 2003). under bologna, the finnish polytechnics have been designated as universities of applied sciences and, as in germany, can offer both bachelor's and master's degrees. there are parallels to shifting european higher education landscape in ontario's own higher education system. at the same time that the uk polytechnics were being established, the ontario colleges of applied arts and technology (caats) were created (in 1965) to support economic competitiveness and training for the labour market. the caats expanded quickly so that by the early 1970s there were 19 in existence (jones, 1991, 1997). the passage in 2000 of the post-secondary education choice and excellence act allowed the caats to grant a limited number of applied degrees. the scope of degree granting of the caats was clarified with the passage of the revised ontario colleges of applied arts and technology act (2002), which created two classes of colleges: the existing caats and the new institutes of technology and advanced learning (itals). the only difference between the two types of institutions is that the itals are authorized to offer a higher number of applied degree programs as a percentage of their total programming profile (15% vs. 5%), which for the first time created differentiation within the colleges (jones, 2004). the major european difference from ontario's situation is the bologna-driven roadmap for structural convergence across disparate higher education systems, in order to (among other objectives) "ease student mobility within europe" (kehm & teichler, 2006, p. 270). ontario does not have an integrated system allowing for transfer between the colleges and the universities; it 10 facilitating college to university transfer is trying to partially remedy this problem through funding for articulation projects, but this only makes changes on the periphery, not to the core relationship between the colleges and universities.3 more importantly, perhaps, is that the fact that ontario does not have a common credit structure in place between its publicly funded colleges and universities. it is clear that during the same time frame as bologna, ontarios reforms to its higher education systems have been much more modest than those undertaken in the eu or in other jurisdictions, such as australia or new zealand. the landscape in ontario is slowly changing, though, and there are emerging economic and government pressures to drive this change. what is clear from the situation in both europe and ontario is that new, historically unusual higher education pathways will be increasingly in demand as the traditional line between universities and all other higher education institutions continues to blur. yet the traditional prejudices remain. what fanshawe is attempting is thus a useful test case for any programs or non-university institutions that would similarly like to create unusual pathways for their students, and our project can offer insight into the extent to which the new fluidity and academic drift will allow these pathways. relevant policies: the lisbon recognition convention and the bologna process although the bologna process is the european policy that is most associated with transfer opportunities, and is in fact the one most closely allied with ects, it is preceded by the lisbon recognition convention of 1997, which sought to enshrine students rights to fair recognition of their foreign qualifications (bergan & hunt, 2009, p. 8) across borders, and which 3 ontario is taking steps to address this issue more comprehensively; the "policy statement for ontario's credit transfer system" (available at http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/publications/credittransfere.pdf) lays out a vision for much more integrated credit transfer. these goals are not yet realized, however. facilitating college to university transfer 11 set the stage for the bologna process and later mobility developments (the lisbon convention is also known as the council of europe (1997)/unesco convention on the recognition of qualifications concerning higher education in the european region [ets no. 165]) (see p. 8). the european region (p. 8) of this convention covers not only europe, but also north america, [and] parts of central asia and israel (p. 8) and is associated with australia and new zealand, who are parties to it (p. 8). in addition to being the first international legal instrument that enshrines a students right to a fair assessment of foreign qualifications (rauhvargers, 2006, p. 24) in both higher education and labor markets, the lisbon recognition convention introduces the crucial concept of substantial difference (p. 24) which is the only legitimate grounds on which to deny recognition of a students foreign qualifications. we will return to the concept of substantial difference (p. 4) and how it is defined, since this issue obviously bears on the question of whether our advanced diploma students could be accepted into other levels of higher education in other national systems; however, the concept of substantial difference was meant to nudge countries away from seeking full equivalence of [a] foreign qualification to the host countrys [own] (p. 4) to determining whether applicants learning achievements are such that they are likely to succeed (rauhvargers & bergan, 2006, p. 16) in the program they are seeking admission to, or in the labor market they would like to enter. it is important to note that the lisbon agreement is the only legal document attached to bologna at all (adelman, 2009, p. 11, footnote 5). this fact probably explains why lisbons focus on fair assessment of qualifications forms the legal, logical, and ethical foundation of student mobility practices in europe, even if there is not always a direct line of influence. the 1999 bologna declaration (also called the bologna accord and later sliding into the more familiar terminology bologna process) set the ground rules for a european project aiming to make ... higher education across europe more transparent, compatible, and 12 facilitating college to university transfer comparable (slantcheva-durst, 2010, p. 111; see also kehm & teichler, 2006, p. 270). it is considered to be self-sustaining, with several actors providing the driving force (divis, 2006, p. 63), namely the european commission, which has an ambition to make [it] ... part of its economic strategy (p. 63), and the council of europe, with its various networks and perspectives on higher education (p. 63). the bologna process focus was initially very much on the bologna area itself (p. 64) until the 2003 berlin communiqu, in which the outer world was rediscovered (p. 64). as adelman (2009) observes, it is becoming the internationally dominant model, for in terms reaching across geography and languages, let alone in terms of turning ancient higher education systems on their heads, the bologna process is the most far reaching and ambitious reform of higher education ever undertaken (p. 2) (even though it is still a work in progress, p. 2). the bologna process led to the creation of the ehea in 2010, of an overarching qualifications framework (the qualifications framework for the european higher education area; qf-ehea) to help in interpreting [students] qualifications between different national frameworks (rauhvargers, 2006, p. 41), and of mobility protocols that include ects. the process is regularly reviewed and updated, especially by the bologna follow-up group (bfug). adelman (2009) traces the impetus behind bologna to two factors: the development of both the european monetary union and the euro, and the 1991-1995 war in the balkans. he argues convincingly that, although the european monetary union treaty didnt have much to say about higher education, it recognized that the european economy was knowledge-based and hence fed by improvements in the education systems of countries whose industries and finances were already interlocked ... (p. 6). european countries found themselves with no economic borders yet a common workforce that was ironically stuck behind political borders because these countries, unified in other ways, and despite agreements did not yet fully recognizeor even understandtheir neighbors education credentials (p. 7). the bologna facilitating college to university transfer 13 process sought to clarify this confusion, while at the same time explicitly acknowledg[ing] a peace-motivation in intensifying european integration through education reform (p. 6) with a view to preventing more violence along the lines of the war in the balkans. while there was no direct legal motivation to sign on with bologna, it offered national systems of higher education the opportunity to join a club exercising similar (although not identical) forms of educational development[, and] eventually, they all joined . it was the only game in town, so to speak (p. 7). we will later return to the qf-ehea and its rival qualifications framework (the european qualifications framework for lifelong learning, or eqf-lll, which was created with the aim of expanding bolognas reach to non-university-based learning), but there is one significant (if not entirely intended) effect of the bologna process that should be mentioned now: the impact it had on the nature and length of post-secondary programs in europe, including most notably the new bachelors degree. rendering countries education systems comprehensible to each other required some kind of standardization of those systems, and the model chosen as the ideal is the bachelors-masters-doctorate (referred to by bologna as first, second, and third cycle qualifications) that is familiar to north americans (see adelman, 2009, p. 22). additionally, the length of the bachelors degree under the bologna process seems to have changed to 3 years. although it is true that no official bologna process document stipulates such a pattern, in a number of european countries the bologna reforms are being implemented as a transition to a 3+2 system, meaning a first-cycle (bachelors) degree worth 180 ects (three years of studies) and a second-cycle (masters) degree worth 120 ects (two years of studies). (rauhvargers, 2006, p. 44) this change may have occurred because it resonates with an earlier policy orientation of the european community, which asserted that employers would recognize the completion of a post-secondary course of at least three years duration as an establishment of higher education, (slantcheva-durst, 2010, p. 121); because it is designed to push students quickly 14 facilitating college to university transfer into the labor market and respond quickly to that market (adelman, 2009, p. 121; higher education strategy associates, 2012, p. 5); and frankly because it results in cost savings (see adelman, 2009, p. 121). variations obviously exist (see p. 121), but, despite what some european scholars still claim, it seems at this point undeniable that the bologna bachelors degree is now at the very least overwhelmingly perceived as being a 3-year degree (see adelman, 2009, p. 124; bell & watkins, 2007, p. 18; bergan, 2006, p. 176; higher education strategy associates, 2012, p. 4; roper, 2007, p. 55).4 this change to a 3-year bachelors is highly controversial, but the very source of this controversy is actually hopeful from the perspective of this project, especially in regards to seeking direct entry for advanced diploma (3 years of study) graduates into masters degrees. stephen adam (2006b) cautions that the new reduced timeframe (reduced from, in some cases, as much as 5 yearssee adelman, 2009, p. 123) for the bachelors degree means that bologna degrees [could] erroneously become associated with reduced standards[,] and the worth of our degrees [could be] questioned (p. 189). take, for example, the historic fight between european and american bachelors degrees. europe has a long history of rejecting american bachelors degrees on the grounds that the first two years of study, during which time most us students study a programme of distributed requirements covering several subjects, comprise secondary-level studies, and that the american secondary school system is inferior (hunt, 2006, p. 130). the reduction of the bologna bachelors to 3 years could even out the playing field (see rauhvargers, 2006, p. 44), or it could lead american post-secondary institutions to adopt the view that the new [bologna] bachelors degree cannot be viewed as 4 it would be a mistake, however, to follow ropers (2007) lead and assume that the bologna process envisions a common curriculum in which as much as 80% of courses would be the same throughout all european universities (pp. 54-55); with the exception of a few regulated professions, there is no expectation that even similar courses within the same higher education system will be exactly identical (see adelman, 2009, p. 78). facilitating college to university transfer 15 equivalent to a four-year bachelors degree (thompson, 2006, p. 165).5 complicating the issue further is the tendency of european students to view the bologna masters as the terminal degree of tertiary education, with the bachelors degree onethough the most importantof intermediate steps en route to the masters (adelman, 2009, p. 121). all of this is potentially bad news for europe, but, to put it bluntly, a demotion of their bachelors degree to 3 years with a concomitant loss of status could also equal a promotion of ontarios 3-year advanced diploma onto roughly equal footing; provided, that is, that an approximate equivalence can be demonstrated between ontarios advanced diploma requirements and outcomes, and those of bologna bachelors degrees. bolognas transparency tools: ects and the diploma supplement at the inception of this project, we understood the european credit transfer and accumulation system (ects) as the transfer and mobility system; in other words, we thought that it might be possible to become ects certified, or something along those lines, and that achieving this certification would usher us into the european transfer and mobility region. it frankly did not help matters that the section of the 2009 ects users guide titled ects and the ehea (bologna process), the first section of the document, asserts that ects is the credit system for higher education used in the european higher education area, involving all countries involved in the bologna process (european communities, 2009, p. 9). while there are discussions throughout the document of how ects operates in terms of qualifications frameworks, in our opinion the ects users guide tends to overstate the importance of ects, 5 it is unclear how this problem will ultimately be resolved, but signs are slowly emerging that favor the eventual and general acceptance of the "bologna bachelor's" as a legitimate entry degree for american graduate programs (west, 2010, p. 29). 16 facilitating college to university transfer and may unintentionally lead to the kind of interpretive error we originally made: to assume that it is the one european transfer and mobility system, complete in and of itself. one of the first signs that this understanding was mistaken was the discovery that there isnt any central authority that could confer certified status. the second discovery that radically altered our understanding of ects was the realization that prominent scholars who work on european higher education policy routinely refer to ects as a transparency tool that is designed to facilitate credit transfer and accumulation (see adam, 2006b, p. 184; rauhvargers, 2006, p. 41), and that is supposed to work in tandem with the other prominent transparency tool, the diploma supplement. these two tools are the concrete foundations of european transfer and mobility, and are designed to make the otherwise arduous process of investigating students foreign credentials much easier. as tools, however, they do not operate in a vacuum, and are not in and of themselves the totality of the process. the first transparency tool: ects one of the first problems facing a widespread post-secondary credit transfer systemin other words, a system in which credits are genuinely mobileis to find an objective measure in which to ground it. standardized testing is obviously not an appropriate choice at the postsecondary level. north american credit systems tend to base themselves on contact hours (i.e., the number of hours of instruction that students receive); ects has chosen to ground itself in student workload hours, which encompass both contact hours and the hours students spend working on their own to achieve course objectives (ects credits are based on the workload students need in order to achieve expected learning outcomes [european communities, 2009, p. 11]). these ects credits are in turn supposed to be tied to learning outcomes, which describe what a learner is expected to know, understand and be able to do after successful completion of a process of learning, and the learning outcomes themselves should be facilitating college to university transfer 17 referenced to level descriptors in national and european qualifications frameworks (p. 11). student workload hours are thus the basis of ects credits, but are contextualized by learning outcomes and the post-secondary level at which those learning outcomes are achieved. the focus on student workload hours, if perhaps odd from a non-european perspective, does drive home the eminently reasonable point that a programme of learning must be feasible within the given time frame for students (gonzalez & wagenaar, 2006, p. 100). however, the inclusion of levels and learning outcomes creates a somewhat incoherent credit product (and scholars have complained about the unwieldy nature of these credits [see adelman, 2009, p. 75]). the system is, nevertheless, far and away the most dominant credit transfer system in bologna compatible countries within europe, and is picking up steam in interested countries outside of europe. it should be noted that a cruder version of ects (originally just the european credit transfer system) predates bologna: it was in use broadly in the 1990s, but only for purposes of transfer for students from one country to another under the rubrics of the erasmus student mobility programs (adelman, 2009, p. 21); it operated in the context of a contract between institutions participating in student exchanges (p. 74); and it was not originally tied to anything other than student workload hours. it was not used for the process of credit accumulation until the 2003 bologna ministers meeting in berlin (p. 21), and did not introduce learning outcomes and levels until 2004, when it also became the european credit transfer and accumulation system (rauhvargers, 2006, p. 42) (although the ects acronym remained the same). the new ects, with its learning outcomes and levels, has also explicitly taken on ambitions in the direction of curriculum reform, not just student mobility: it aims to facilitate planning, delivery, evaluation, recognition and validation of qualifications and units of learning ... (european communities, 2009, p. 11). however, it does not seem to be used for reform purposes very often. 18 facilitating college to university transfer ects and student workload initially, what seems to be the most problematic aspect of ects in terms of implementation in fanshawes program is the focus on student workload,6 both inside and outside the classroom. the ects users guide lays out a prohibitively complicated and resource-intensive process for determining ects credits based on workload (european communities, 2009). first, there are standard numbers of credits for traditional units of academic study: 60 credits are allocated to the workload of a full-time academic year, 30 ects credits are normally allocated to a semester and 20 ects credits to a trimester (p. 17). a general total is also proffered: qualifications which have formal programs lasting three full-time academic years are allocated 180 ects credits (p. 17). the guide then seems to presume that academic programs will be built (or overhauled) from the ground up: first, stakeholders (including students and industry representatives, alongside faculty and administration) determine the profile of the program; next, the academic staff design the curriculum by defining the learning outcomes and allocating credits to the programme components (p. 17). the guide recommends two ways of allocating credits: when faculty define program components, they can also estimate the workload typically needed for a student to complete these activities (p. 17), with multiple faculty members submitting proposals that are then analyzed and synthesized; or, the higher education institution or the faculty may decide from the start to standardise the size of educational components, giving each one the same credit value (p. 17), which tends to produce a modularized approach with module components designed to fit the credits allocated to them. all of this amounts to a daunting task whose outcomes do not necessarily justify the 6 because the precise architecture of courses is not standardized across the ontario college system (i.e., the provincial standards direct the creation of courses, but do not specify the exact breakdown of assignments, week-by-week content, etc.), it is not possible to provide ects credits for an advanced diploma in architectural technology that will fit all ontario college programs. once fanshawes numbers are determined, however, they can serve as rough guidelines for the other versions of this program throughout the province. facilitating college to university transfer 19 vast amounts of resources (in terms of time as well as money) that would need to be used in order to properly allocate credits. in fact, a 2006 scottish pilot project on credit ratings for college programs found that most colleges [involved in the pilot] had ... underestimated the time it would take to carry out the project overall ... (hm inspectorate of education, 2006, p. 6), and cautioned against undertaking a similar project without a great deal of external support (see p. 6). and this is a higher education system that is obviously very familiar with european mobility issues. for outsiders, the project doesnt seem feasible. however, determining student workload hours and divvying up ects credits are not issues that, in practice, need pose any substantial problems. the ects users guide notwithstanding, the thorough approach that the scottish system took seems to be unusual. as adelman (2009) observes, most bologna countries do not engage in a careful analysis of the relation between learning outcomes, learning tasks, and student workload ... [for] the credit assignment water finds the easiest ways to flow downhill (p. 79). it should also be remembered that ects is a transparency tool, and that, contrary to what the users guide at times implies, ects credits will not be simply and automatically accepted by other higher education institutions at their full value (see gehmlich, 2006, p. 84). there are other factors that operate alongside this transparency tool, and that do not fall under its umbrella. furthermore, recognition specialists have noted a cultural shift away from seeking strict equivalence between qualifications and programs (see rauhvargers & bergan, 2006, p. 16; malfroy, 2009, p. 58). this means that increased variation in ects credits is now more widely tolerated than it may have been even 5 years ago: a difference in ects credits alone, for example a difference of 30 or even 60 credits, will no longer be considered as substantial (malfroy, 2009, p. 58). even wide variations are no longer automatically serious impediments to student mobility (unless 20 facilitating college to university transfer other negative factors are also present). recognition experts from the naric network7 ran a number of case studies on student mobility in 2009 and found that, generally speaking, features such as length, number of credits, or number of contact hours are irrelevant unless other issues, such as level, quality or core requirements are affected (hunt, 2009a, p. 147); in other words, recognition experts are inclined to respond positively to a students request to access a higher education program with pre-existing foreign credentials, even if that students original program does not match the length and credit norms in the system to which s/he is seeking access. what all of this means for our project is that it is probably enough to estimate and describe student workload for fanshawe's current program, without tinkering with the mechanics of the program itself. this estimate can then be converted to credits, and even if those credits fall outside the expected ranges, or deviate from the credit allocations of program analogues in europe, there should not be a serious problem with having our students qualifications recognized. whether this is true remains to be seen, but the literature at least looks hopeful. additionally, as part of the mapping process in the second phase of our project, we will canvass program analogues in the irish institutes of technology to gauge, among other things, what the expected rough credit ranges are for an architectural technology program, and how other institutions have assigned those credits. in any case, estimating student workload will be easier for our architectural technology program than almost any other program in the college, since many of the courses employ autocad, which conveniently logs the active hours 7 the enic and naric networks are european-based (although the united states, australia, and canada have enic centres [see hunt, 2006, p. 119]), and specialize in offering advice on the recognition of foreign credentials. some countries treat the centres' decisions on applicants cases as binding (see rauhvargers, 2006, p. 29), while other countries may only seek their advice, and still others primarily situate recognition decisions within higher education institutions. theoretically, though, each centre should be the first place that anyone would turn to for information on the higher education qualifications of the country in question or on the recognition of foreign qualifications in that country (rauhvargers & bergan, 2006, p. 8). facilitating college to university transfer 21 that students spend using it. we will therefore approach the workload estimation with a view to estimating how it currently pans out, and without trying to revise the entire program, despite the assertions in the ects users guide (2009) to the contrary. ects and learning outcomes determining the learning outcomes that accompany fanshawes ects credits should not be difficult because our course syllabi already specify vocational learning outcomes, and do so in more specific detail than it seems is usual in europe. as recently as 2009, european recognition specialists admitted that learning outcomes [are] still a vague concept that is far from being implemented everywhere ... (beaudin, 2009, p. 49), even though learning outcomes [are] the recognition tool (malfroy, 2009, p. 54). the ontario college system already extensively employs learning outcomesoften very specific oneswhich means that, in this area at least, we have a significant advantage over our european counterparts. as adam (2006b) puts it, the focus of credential evaluation is shifting towards more precise outputfocused learning outcomes (what a successful student can do) ... (p. 191), and we are very good at explaining what our students can do. as an example, here are the vocational learning outcomes from the winter 2012 iteration of fanshawes course arch-1001: 1. manually prepare sketches and design drawings in plan, section, elevation, and/or axonometric view of various aspects of part 9: small building (residential and/or institutional) projects. 2. explain basic space planning principles and apply functional space programming to part 9: small building (residential and/or institutional) projects. 3. explain basic scale and proportion criteria and apply to part 9: small building (residential and/or institutional) projects. 4. explain and apply basic design principles to various part 9: small building (residential and/or institutional) projects. 5. explain and apply basic manual presentation drawing techniques to various part 9: small building (residential and/or institutional) projects. 22 facilitating college to university transfer these learning outcomes are all specific, measurable, and based in verbs, which is what welldesigned learning outcomes should be like (see adam, 2006a, p. 7; adelman, 2009, p. 68; moon, 2004, p. 14). occasionally, some of our learning outcomes need to be revised for greater specificity, and greater focus on what exactly a student can do. one example is the vocational learning outcomes from the fall 2011 iteration of our course arch-3002: 1. understand and apply the regulatory zoning and building constraints to the project. 2. identify and organize the main building functions. 3. study and determine building volumetric/massing relationship. 4. understand basic concepts of structural steel framing characteristics. 5. understand basic concepts of curtain wall systems. 6. apply design principles to the creation of a preliminary design for the project. 7. synthesize the preliminary design components and prepare a set of final presentation drawings. 8. verbally present the final design project to the course professor and/or class. understand is a bit vague in this contextone demonstrates understanding by doing something else, and it is this something else that should be the focus of the learning outcome. we will therefore need to survey all the vocational learning outcomes contained in our architectural technology program, and fix any similar examples of vagueness. on the whole, though, our learning outcomes seem to stack up favorably with those that have been created on an ad hoc basis in europe (in other words, learning outcomes generated by structured programs such as the tuning project are robust, but others likely are not). we will also test this hypothesis with both irish analogues to our program, and with new zealands program. ects and levels next, there is the issue of levels and ects credits. levels are determined in the context of larger overarching, national and/or regional qualifications frameworks, and are referenced to these frameworks. ontario has a qualifications framework (the oqf), which can serve as a facilitating college to university transfer 23 partial guide for determining the levels of courses and learning outcomesand ultimately creditsproviding it does not differ materially from european qualifications frameworks. this is an issue discussed later in this paper, and will also be revisited in the application and mapping phase of our project: at that time, we will carefully map the oqf and the provincial standards for an advanced diploma in architectural technology to an established national qualifications framework in europe (irelands), and to the two competing, overarching european frameworks.8 ects grading conventions the one aspect of ects that may create a minor problem for our project is the relatively new phenomenon of ects grading. initially, the ects grading system was intended to act as an interface grade scale to facilitate the understanding and comparison of grades given according to different national systems (directorate-general for education and culture, 2004, p. 13). this intermediary device translated local grades into a 5-step, norm-referenced distribution based on a students performance relative to that of other students within a particular class. this system, however, punished classes with high averages, privileged classes with poor averages, could not accurately rank classes with a small number of students, and could not accurately rank students in pass/fail situations or in national systems with a low number of passing ranks. furthermore, it entirely ignored whether students met or failed stated learning outcomes in its assignment of distribution-based grades (karran, 2004). it is no surprise then that the initial version of ects grading was not widely understood, and that in the rare cases it was used, it was implemented crudely (karran, 2004; reichert & tauch, 2003). this created only a veneer of validity that had little to do with the actual grade claims of the host institution (sullivan, 2002, p. 73). in most cases, this lack of stringency 8 the two over-arching qualification frameworks are the qualifications framework of the european higher education area (qf-ehea) and the european qualifications framework for life long learning (eqf-lll) 24 facilitating college to university transfer resulted in a decreased, rather than an increased understanding of student performance (warfvinge, 2007, p. 3). accordingly, the ects grading scale was retired in 2009. its successor is the ects grading table; instead of mandating that institutions match grades to a standardized distribution scale, it only requires them to determine and state the percentage of students that are awarded each local grade (european communities, 2009, p. 49). this new approach avoids the inaccuracies inherent in the previous system, while still requiring institutions to be transparent about their grading practices and culture (p. 41). it offers a reasonable compromise: a receiving institution has enough information to perform an informed conversion of credits, but the grading table does not mandate standardization. the grading table can be populated per class or program, and is preferably calculated over a 2-year period to ensure greater accuracy. the current ects guide highly recommends that degree program tables be included in every diploma supplement, along a clear indication of which grade level constitutes a passing mark for that program (european commission, 2007, p. 3). we will have to investigate whether it is feasible to track our students' grades and use them in this fashion. ects and course catalogues as a final ects note, the ects users guide also exhorts institutions to publish a complete course catalogue (complete in terms of ects credits, as well as in more traditional information) on their websites (see european communities, 2009, p. 27). fanshawe college as a whole is not seeking european integration at this time, so a full-blown ects course catalogue does not seem entirely applicable to our situation (and, indeed, is absent entirely, incomplete, and/or difficult to locate on many european institutions websites). instead, architectural technology should make sure its course syllabi and a general program outline are posted in a publicly accessible manner, with ects credit values appended. facilitating college to university transfer 25 the second transparency tool: the diploma supplement whereas ects explains how a program works, and what a student has covered, the diploma supplement is intended to answer quality assurance questions about both the institution and the program.9 as divis (2006) points out, international recognition of qualifications is impossible without knowledge about the quality of the particular programme and the institution behind the qualification ... to assess a qualification fairly ... requires a profound knowledge of the higher education system from which the qualification in question originates. (p. 65) we all want to know that, if we grant a student credit for academic work s/he completed elsewhere, the work occurred in a sufficiently rigorous context. a traditional transcript does not offer any useful information about the quality and orientation (research, occupational applications, teaching, etc.) of the sending institution. the diploma supplement is a document designed to offer these kinds of answers, and thus to reassure higher education systems and institutions that an incoming credit is, in fact, worthy of acceptance. the level of quality assurance called for in the literature does differ. some would like a system ... involving both internal institutional processes and benchmarking and external audits and/or accreditation, with an emphasis on the former (adelman, 2009, p. 104), while for others simple institutional accreditation is enough (bergan, 2009c).10 the fact that fanshawe is a publicly-funded post-secondary institution in ontario is likely sufficient to meet the accreditation 9 10 it is important to realize that a diploma supplement is specific to a particular program at a particular institution, although each one contains general information about the institutions higher education system that regions often offer as detailed boilerplate to all of their institutions. thus, while there can be generic templates, there cannot be one diploma supplement that accompanies all students in a higher education system. fanshawes eventual diploma supplement can therefore act as a guide for other interested colleges, which will have to then slightly adapt it to their own programs. there is a fear that institutional ranking lists may eventually be considered in the quality assurance context, despite the fact that this approach seems contrary to good-faith recognition (see bergan, 2009a, p. 166). it is, however, too early to know if this will become a feature of the quality assurance and recognition landscape. 26 facilitating college to university transfer requirement, and should be clearly advertised as such in a diploma supplement. but there are other quality assurance and recognition questions involved in this document. in addition to reassuring the receiving system that the sending institution is of sufficient quality, the diploma supplement provides contextual information about the sending institutions educational structure, the nature of qualifications within its regional or national system, and the function of the [particular] qualification (for further studies and for work purposes) (rauhvargers, 2009, p. 113). this aspect of the diploma supplement will require a discussion of the oqf and of the provincial standards for architectural technology. the diploma supplement is open-ended enough that there is room to reference these structures to their european counterparts, which seems a useful step for explaining exactly how our system operates to those outside of it. one of the challenges that we will face will be overcoming the fact that our advanced diploma program is not a bachelors degree; if, however, the provincial standards of this program and the oqf standards for advanced diplomas could legitimately be read as roughly equivalent to the first cycle (bachelors) level in europe, this information will increase the likelihood of recognition for the purpose of, say, direct entry into a masters program, and therefore should also be emphasized in the diploma supplement. the kind of material covered by the diploma supplement partly explains why ects credits will not always be fully accepted by other institutions. scholars commonly compare ects to a kind of unofficial currency system, paralleling the euro in the economic sphere. as gehmlich (2006) argues, the purchasing power of the euro is not only different outside the founding member states but also within them. the absolute, nominal value stays the same but the relative one, the market value, normally differs ... (p. 86). the market value of ects credits differs depending on the context in which they are deployed, and part of that context is the perceived quality of the original qualification and of the sending institution relative to the receiving institution; the conversion of achievements at institutional, national and international facilitating college to university transfer 27 levels ... [leads to] fluctuations of value (p. 90). the diploma supplement, providing it is legitimately persuasive, helps to ensure that students receive the greatest bang for their ects buck. there is a master template for diploma supplements,11 but with plenty of room for including any information that helps to both contextualize the sending institutions program and legitimate the sending institution itself. this information need only be drafted once for fanshawes students, and then periodically updated as the program and the college evolve. recognition and substantial differences in order to understand both the role that qualifications frameworks play alongside ects credits and diploma supplements, and what our most serious recognition obstacle may be, we need to consider the larger context for recognition decisions. employing ects credits and issuing diploma supplements certainly increase the chances of a student achieving whatever kind of recognition s/he seeks in europe or elsewhere (e.g., entering a bachelors program with advanced standing, entering a masters program, etc.), but by no means guarantee this outcome. while the bologna process sets the most common parameters, as it were, of recognition decisions, the lisbon recognition convention ultimately underpins these decisions, and is less interested in strict adherence to bologna than in a fair assessment of [applicants] qualifications within a reasonable time limit, according to transparent, coherent and reliable procedures and without discrimination (blomqvist, 2009, p. 5). bologna is certainly a reliable procedure for 11 the education, audiovisual and cultural agency (eacea) of the european commission provides additional information on the diploma supplement (ds) and the diploma supplement labels at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/support_measures_and_network/documents/2011/diploma_supplement _label_application_form_2012.pdf. an approved ds can be found at: http://www.hsharz.de/fileadmin/uploads/group_uploads/bologna/sample_english_diplomasupplement.pdf 28 facilitating college to university transfer making recognition decisions, but lisbon is the ultimate authority in this area. lisbon is also the legal document that contains the concept of substantial differences, which are legitimate reasons to deny recognition (see bergan, 2009c, p. 16). although the existence of a substantial difference entails no obligation not to recognise the foreign qualification (malfroy, 2009, p. 58), in practice it will obviously drastically increase the chances of partial or no recognition. unfortunately, there is no master list of what counts as a substantial difference. roughly speaking, the concept of substantial differences clearly indicates that minor differences between qualifications do not provide sufficient reason for non-recognition, since an assumption of no differences between qualifications would very often make recognition impossible (bergan, 2009c, p. 17). the ideal situation is one in which the real test of whether a difference is substantial ... lies in the function of the qualification and the purpose for which recognition is sought[,] more than in the formal characteristics of the qualification, such as length of study or the architecture of a given study programme (p. 20). in practice, scholars debate the existence of two [recognition] cultures, one of which emphasises the identification of pragmatic solutions within a given legal framework and seeks to apply a measure of common sense, while the other emphasises the authority of legal provisions and seeks to apply a relatively rigid interpretation of these provisions (p. 24). if a student happens to apply for admittance to a legalistically-inclined system or institution, that student will likely be unsuccessful. but even the more supposedly commonsensical culture has yet to clearly agree on the exact nature of substantial differences, and will apply the concept differently. as we mentioned earlier, factors such as variant student workloads are not often regarded as substantial differences, but the overall nature of an advanced diploma does present recognition challenges. facilitating college to university transfer 29 it may be useful to consider these issues in the light of the four options for which ontario graduates of architectural technology advanced diploma programs could seek admission to the ehea or bologna-compatible systems: 1. temporary exchanges 2. admittance to a bachelors-level program with significant advanced standing 3. admittance to a masters-level program 4. admittance to the labor force options 1 and 4 are easy to dispense with: while a temporary exchange is not likely to pose any significant problems for recognition (the expression of a program in ects terms will help to grease the wheels of the exchange, but the temporary exchange itself is highly probable even without ects, as any number of such exchanges between north america and europe demonstrate right now), admittance to the labor force is almost guaranteed to be met with total denial of recognition. a combination of labor market protectionism (see hunt, 2009b, pp. 63-64) and legal licensure requirements (hunt, 2009a, p. 147) usually prevents recognition for regulated professions, such as architectural technology. but options 2 and 3 are not as clear, and how they are treated will be at least partially dependent on how europe interprets ontarios advanced diplomawhether they see it (or can be convinced to see it) as on par with first cycle (bachelors) degrees in their qualifications frameworks, or whether they see it as a subbachelors qualification (which they term a short cycle qualification). recognition will also turn on whether our students formal rights (the progression to higher levels of study laid out for them in their relevant home qualifications framework, or lack thereof) are deemed an instance of substantial difference. first cycle or short cycle? we have already discussed the bologna process advocacy of a 3-cycle higher education system (the first cycle is the bachelors level, the second the masters level, and the 30 facilitating college to university transfer third the doctoral level), with a fairly widespread reduction of bachelors programs to 3 years duration. this reduction seems to increase the chances of having ontarios 3-year advanced diploma also recognized as a first cycle award. however, there is a chance that it will instead be deemed what the europeans term a short cycle qualification, or one that is at a lower level than the bachelors. it should be noted that short cycle is a bologna term that does not encompass all subbachelors higher education: apprenticeship-based trades and lower-level vocational training do not seem to fall under this umbrella, and are not well integrated into the current bologna system. there is even a different credit system for this kind of learningecvet, or the european credit system for vocational education and trainingthat does not base its credits on a careful measurement of student workload but rather on credit points decided on by competent authorities or organisations (fietz, reglin, & le mouillour, 2007, p. 18), whose necessity has been questioned (see gehmlich, 2006, p. 83), and that in any case does not seem to be well understood (see adelman, 2009, p. 89). the profiles of programs that fall into this category, however, do not resemble ontarios advanced diploma, so ecvet can be set safely aside. short cycle awards and programs began to emerge in the 1960s and 1970s, and gradually multiplied across europe in response to increasing demand for higher education and a growing need for highly skilled manpower (slantcheva-durst, 2010, p. 112). some of these programs eventually drifted into universities or other degree-granting post-secondary institutions, while remaining partially analogous to what [americans] call associates degrees (adelman, 2009, p. 23), which are offered in the u.s. by community colleges. in 2003, bologna took notice of sub-bachelors post-secondary education, and incorporated this level of qualification into its framework (slantcheva-durst, 2010, p. 112): bologna conceptualizes short cycle programs as part of the first cycle, and not necessarily a terminal degree with no continuing connections, which means that these programs often lead to occupationally- facilitating college to university transfer 31 oriented bachelors degrees in the same fields, and with no arguments about articulation and transfer because both degree programs are [often] offered by the same institutions (adelman, 2009, p. 204). the qf-ehea, the qualifications framework emanating from bologna, states that short cycle programs typically receive "120 ects credits" (bologna working group on qualifications frameworks [bwgqf], 2005, p. 193); in other words, they last for about 2 years. on the one hand, ontario advanced diploma programs in architectural technology last for 3 years, not 2, which argues against casually categorizing this program as a short cycle qualification. on the other hand, according to unescos 2011 isced,12 the fact that in ontario completed advanced diplomas do not give seamless access to the bachelors level suggests that this program is indeed a short cycle qualification, since short cycle awards in the isced classification scheme are [typically] ... practically based, occupationally specific[,] and prepare students to enter the labor market .... [although they] may also provide a pathway to other tertiary education programs (unesco, 2011, p. 44). they also tend to be less theoretically oriented than bachelors programs (p. 44). if it turns out that the ontario advanced diploma in architectural technology is indeed less theoretically oriented than similar occupationallyoriented bachelors degrees in europe, the likelihood of the program being classified as short cycle increases. close comparisons with irish analogues that offer bachelors degrees for their architectural technology programs will help to resolve this issue. in order to have fanshawe's advanced diploma in architectural technology recognized as a first cycle qualification, then, three things need to occur: our specific program, the accompanying provincial standards for it, and the definition of an advanced diploma in the oqf all need to map onto the first cycle of corresponding european frameworks; the provincial standards for our program must prove to be sufficiently theoretically oriented, and our 12 the unesco international standard classification of education. although it has many strong similarities to bologna, the two do not completely mirror each other. 32 facilitating college to university transfer program's length (3 years) and learning outcomes must prove sufficiently persuasive; and we need to overcome the recognition issue known as formal rights. formal rights we are not the first (and we certainly will not be the last) party to attempt to leapfrog over traditional barriers and achieve access to an unusually advanced level of higher education program (typically, the masters level), given the level of the qualifications starting point. with bolognas shift to evaluating learning outcomes and de-emphasizing what hunt (2009a) terms bean-counting issues (p. 64), students both inside and outside the ehea have spotted an opportunity to create pathways that are unavailable to them in their home systems. however, the lack of comparable home pathways is sometimes deemed a substantial difference in the context of accessing the masters level. these pathways, or lack thereof, in the applicants home system are known as the applicants formal rights. recognition experts from the enic/naric networks ran two iterations of the same case study on this issue. the scenario is a student from south africa holding a bachelor of arts in historical studies who attempts to gain entry to a masters program in a similar field inside the ehea (see wegewijs, 2009, p. 69). within the south african system, this bachelor, despite being a bachelors degree, does not confer direct entry into a masters program; another preparatory year is necessary. the recognition experts were asked how they would respond to this situation. in one version of the case study, 52.9% of respondents said that they would decide access to the masters programme if the learning outcomes [of the bachelor of arts in south africa] meet the requirements of the host country, while 38.6% said that they would decide no access to [the] masters programme (since the qualification does not give access in the home country) (p. 72). in the other version of the case study, 53.3% of respondents decided to disallow access on the basis of home countrys denial of this access within its own facilitating college to university transfer 33 system (wegewijs & de bruin, 2009, p. 82). in neither case did many of the respondents think that denial was anything like an example of best practices, but their responses mirrored their countries current practices. wegewijs (2009) suspects denial of recognition on the grounds of formal rights will be phased out gradually, as more and more countries are likely to give more weight to learning outcomes ... (p. 75). for now, though, this is a significant issue. holders of an advanced diploma in ontario do not have formal rights to direct entry at the masters level (or even at the bachelor's level), and this lack of formal rights may be a substantial impediment to entering a masters program in the ehea. if, however, all the other relevant evidence (which needs to be meticulously itemized in a diploma supplement) overwhelmingly suggests that the ontario advanced diploma program in architectural technology is, indeed, a first cycle qualification, it seems there is still a chance of gaining masters entry. this chance is not as high as it hopefully will be in the future, but at least the door is still partly open right now. thus, our students should be able to participate in temporary exchanges without any difficulties, and should also have relatively easy entry to bachelors degree programs in the ehea (although the amount of advanced standing they receive may be dependent on whether the receiving country thinks ontarios advanced diploma is a short cycle qualification, and therefore on how much credit they are willing to recognize from short cycle qualifications). entry to the labor market should be considered closed. entry to a masters program is theoretically possible, but difficult due to the problem of formal rights; well documented arguments in favor of entry, presented in the form of a comprehensive diploma supplement, may help to overcome this problem. while it is possible to convince vuw in new zealand, on its own, to allow for fanshawe graduates easy entry into vuws masters program, even this would likely become easier if we present as strong an argument as possible that ontarios advanced diploma is essentially a first cycle qualification. 34 facilitating college to university transfer qualifications frameworks the final piece in the recognition puzzle is the role played by qualifications frameworks. they provide the levels that contextualize ects credits, they define qualifications, and the overarching versions of them function as an articulation mechanism between national frameworks (gonzalez & wagenaar, 2006, p. 93). there are two such overarching frameworks currently active in the ehea: the qf-ehea, which is descended from the bologna process, and the eqf-lll, which is descended from the copenhagen process,13 and which is intended to be both more comprehensive than the qf-ehea (see bergan, 2009b, p. 134) and more responsive to short cycle and other sub-bachelor's qualifications. the fact that there are two of these overarching frameworks is a problem; as maguire (2010) has noted, "the two metaframeworks co-exist ... [and] there remains the challenge of explaining this fact and the relationship between them to stakeholders ... if the two frameworks are not to cause further confusion" (p. 2). in our experience, the eqf-lll is less usefully detailed than its qf-ehea counterpart, and, despite its claims to the contrary, does not neatly map onto the qf-ehea. nonetheless, since both frameworks are in play, we must situate the ontario advanced diploma and the ontario provincial standards for architectural technology in relation to both of them, and document the findings in the diploma supplement. furthermore, ects credits must be clearly linked to widely understood levels, so we will eventually need to map fanshawes individual courses onto both qf-ehea and eqf-lll levels, as well as onto the oqf. the logical starting point for mapping outcomes onto both of these overarching frameworks is to investigate how countries have mapped their national qualifications frameworks (nqfs) to the qf-ehea and the eqf-lll. the match between nqfs and the qf13 the copenhagen process, begun in 2002, was intended to encompass vocational and lifelong learning, alongside the more traditional higher education focus in the bologna process (see maguire, 2010, p. 2). facilitating college to university transfer 35 ehea should theoretically be more flexible than that between nqfs and the eqf-lll, since "within the bologna process, ministers have committed to developing frameworks for higher education, whereas the requirement with regard to the eqf-lll is that countries reference their qualifications against the overarching framework" (bergan, 2009b, p. 127), although doing so is not technically a legal obligation (trampusch, 2009). however, as the united kingdom has complained in reference to the eqf-lll (which, it should be remembered, seems to require a more rigorous referencing process), "there is no agreed methodology for referencing national frameworks or systems to the eqf" (qualifications and curriculum development agency, 2010, p. 70). malta has been lauded as a "very positive example" of accomplishing both referencing processes (maguire, 2010, p. 2), but even then it is only one example among many. the lack of a widely accepted methodology for performing this referencing leaves us in the position of defining our own approach. given that the qualifications frameworks are inherently textual objects, with carefully chosen descriptors and vocabulary, the literary analysis technique of comparative close reading seems appropriate. we have therefore paid close attention to fluctuations in tone, emphasis, and word choice in the related qualifications frameworks (including the oqf), and based our decisions on these textual features. mapping the oqf advanced diploma and the provincial standards to the qf-ehea key vocabulary and emphasis shifts in the qf-ehea between the short cycle and first cycle levels include the following: a movement from stating at the short cycle that students "can apply their knowledge and understanding in occupational contexts" (bwgqf, 2005, p. 193) to claiming at the first cycle that students will "have competences typically demonstrated through devising and sustaining arguments and solving problems within their field of study" (p. 194); a movement from the short cycle ability to "formulate responses to welldefined concrete and abstract problems" (p. 193) to the first cycle ability to "gather and interpret relevant data" (p. 194); 36 facilitating college to university transfer a movement from the short cycle specification that students "can communicate about their understanding, skills and activities, with peers, supervisors and clients" (p. 193) to the first cycle specification that students can communicate relevant information "to both specialist and non-specialist audiences" (p. 195); an intensification of students' learning autonomy at the first cycleat the short cycle, students can "undertake further studies with some autonomy" (p. 193), but at the first cycle they can do so with "a high degree of autonomy" (p. 195); an introduction at the first cycle of the claim that students' knowledge "includes some aspects that will be informed by knowledge at the forefront of their field of study" (p. 194); the introduction at the first cycle of "reflection on relevant social, scientific or ethical issues." (p. 194) the oqf's descriptors for an advanced diploma, in contrast to a shorter, regular diploma, emphasize an intensification in students' abilities to navigate and respond productively to risk, uncertainty, and complexity. students are able to perform a variety of activities, "most of which would be complex or non-routine in an occupational setting"; they are able to apply their skills "across a wide and often unpredictable variety of contexts"; they are able to "anticipate" problems, as well as solve them; and finally, they are able to communicate in ways that "fulfil ... the purpose and meet ... the needs of the audience," without any restriction on what the constitution of that audience might be (ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities [omtcu], 2009). these emphases mirror the qf-ehea's first cycle emphases on "devising and sustaining arguments and solving problems" (bwgqf, 2010, p. 193) and on communicating with "both specialist and non-specialist audiences" (p. 195). additionally, the ontario advanced diploma is the first point in the oqf at which ethical and social concerns are introduced, just as these concerns are introduced at the first cycle: students will have exposure to "at least one discipline outside the main field of study ... to increase awareness of the society and culture in which they live and work" (omtcu, 2009, depth and breadth of knowledge, para. b). finally, the holder of an advanced diploma will be able "to manage their own facilitating college to university transfer 37 professional development" (omtcu, 2009, professional capacity/autonomy, para. b), which maps much more closely onto the first cycle characteristic of pursuing further study with "a high degree of autonomy" (bwgqf, 2010, p. 195) than onto the short cycle characteristic of pursuing such study "with some autonomy" (p. 195). all of the characteristics of an ontario advanced diploma that we have discussed here are introduced at this level of qualification, and are not present in lower levels. since these characteristics also closely match the distinguishing characteristics of the qf-ehea first cycle (and not the short cycle), it is reasonable to conclude that our advanced diploma is, in fact, a first cycle qualification. the fact that its length is equivalent to the new bologna bachelor's (3 years in both cases) only strengthens this association. similar analysis of the provincial standards supports this finding. it should be noted that the provincial standards are extremely lengthy and detailed, and could function quite well as a de facto course catalogue for the corresponding program, at least as far as listing learning outcomes goes. this amount of detail means that there are descriptors that span several different levels in overarching qualifications frameworks. the existence of some descriptors at a lower level than the final classification of a program is not, however, a problem. the ects users' guide notes that national variations in credit profiles for programs are acceptable (see european communities, 2009, p. 16), and some of the components of those profiles will necessarily be at a lower level than that of the eventual award. in any case, the descriptors which form the basis of the qf-ehea (the "dublin descriptors") "do not represent minimum or threshold requirements" (p. 15), which means the qf-ehea first cycle descriptors represent the apex of the students' abilities, with the implication that students will also learn lower level skills. the cumulative nature of ascending levels in the qf-ehea further supports this interpretation. two of the key developments at the first cycle level in the qf-ehea that are also found in the provincial standards are the ability to "gather and interpret relevant data" and to "be 38 facilitating college to university transfer informed by knowledge of the forefront of [the] field of study" (bwgqf, 2010, p. 194). collecting and interpreting data is emphasized numerous times in the provincial standards: "collect, organize and interpret graphical information" (omtcu, 2008, p. 8); "identify relevant data sources and develop appropriate strategies for data collection" (p. 9); "collect, collate, and organize data from drawings and specifications" (p. 10). furthermore, students are also expected to be and remain familiar with the forefront of knowledge in their field: "keep up-todate with available and emerging environmentally friendly building materials and systems" (p. 18); "keep up-to-date with canada green building council standards such as the leadership in energy and environmental design (leed)" (p. 18); "use and evaluate current and emerging [emphasis added] technology to support building projects" (p. 19). the provincial standards also further emphasize the point that this program, at this level, engages in first cycle abilities that are "demonstrated through devising and sustaining arguments and solving problems in their field of study" (bwgqf, 2010, p. 194), rather than the short cycle emphasis on simply applying knowledge. a few examples of first cycle problem solving and argumentation in the provincial standards include the following descriptors: "assist in the preparation of tender documents by calling for tenders, and receiving, analyzing, and recommending contract award" (omtcu, 2008, p. 10); "analyze alternative solutions to technical problems" (p. 11); "contribute to the analysis, planning, and preparation of site planning documents" (p. 14). all of these descriptors exceed the short cycle ability to simply "apply ... knowledge in occupational contexts" (bwgqf, 2010, p. 193), just as the first cycle emphasis on problem solving and analysis exceeds this ability. finally, like the oqf advanced diploma, the provincial standards emphasize the ethical orientation and professional autonomy that we find in the first cycle. students will "comply with the legal and ethical requirements of an architectural technologist" (omtcu, 2008, p. 15), including the abilities to "demonstrate respect for diversity and equality in the workplace" and to facilitating college to university transfer 39 "promote the potential of technology for the betterment of society" (p. 15). students will also "be self-directed and show initiative" (p. 21), which, combined with the requirements to remain constantly up-to-date, maps onto the first cycle's emphasis of pursuing further knowledge "with a high degree of autonomy" (bwgqf, 2010, p. 195), rather than simply the short cycle's emphasis on doing so "with some autonomy" (p. 193). the obvious conclusion, in reference to the qf-ehea, is that both the ontario advanced diploma and the specific program standards for an advanced diploma in architectural technology map onto the first cycle, not the short cycle. in fact, the provincial standards even exceed the first cycle in some respects: the qf-ehea does not introduce the capacity to demonstrate "originality in developing and/or applying ideas" or to work within "a research context" until the second cycle (bwgqf, 2010, p. 195), the master's level. the provincial standards emphasize participating in "building products research" (omtcu, 2008, p. 9), for which there is no provision below the second cycle in the qf-ehea. mapping the oqf advanced diploma and the provincial standards to the eqf-lll the eqf-lll is more problematic because it is less usefully detailed than the qfehea. communication skills and ethical awareness are not covered, for example, and the differences between levels are not as concrete. furthermore, there isn't the neat, continuous through-line that is present in the qf-ehea. for example, the first descriptor at level 5 is "comprehensive, specialised, factual and theoretical knowledge within a field of work or study and an awareness of the boundaries of that knowledge" (european commission, 2008, p. 2), whereas in level 6 it is "advanced knowledge of a field of work or study, involving a critical understanding of theories and principles" (p. 2). (according to the eqf-lll, level 5 is a short cycle award, and level 6 is a first cycle award [see p. 2].) there is no meaningful difference between "comprehensive, specialised, factual and theoretical knowledge" when it is assigned to 40 facilitating college to university transfer the lower level, and "advanced knowledge" when it is assigned to the higher level. similarly, it is difficult to see how one could possess "comprehensive ... theoretical knowledge" (level 5) without also "involving a critical understanding of theories" (level 6; p. 2). the descriptors in the eqf-lll suffer from many of the deficits that plague poorly written learning outcomes that seem specific, yet are not. mapping onto the eqf-lll therefore becomes more a matter of searching for vocabulary matches than taking into account the variations in emphasis between its levels, and using those variations to guide mapping decisions. fortunately, however, there are only three classes of descriptors. the "knowledge" descriptor for level 5 (short cycle) is the previously mentioned "comprehensive, specialised, factual and theoretical knowledge within a field of work or study and an awareness of the boundaries of that knowledge" (european commission, 2008, p. 2) whereas the corresponding level 6 (first cycle) descriptor is "advanced knowledge of a field of work or study, involving a critical understanding of theories and principles" (p. 2). the oqf advanced diploma is amenable to either of these levels because of the lack of clear semantic difference between them (it should be noted that the oqf advanced diploma mentions an awareness of the limits of students' knowledge, which would seem to place it at level 5, but this limitation is preserved through higher oqf qualifications as well). the advanced problem solving capacities that we identified in relation to the qf-ehea first cycle likely position our advanced diploma in level 6 for the eqf-lll, however. the "skills" descriptor at level 5 discusses "a comprehensive range of cognitive and practical skills required to develop creative solutions to abstract problems" (european commission, 2008, p. 2); the corresponding descriptor for level 6 is "advanced skills, demonstrating mastery and innovation, required to solve complex and unpredictable problems in a specialised field of work or study" (p. 2). here the mapping is easier: the oqf advanced diploma clearly emphasizes working with "complex or non-routine" situations (omtcu, 2009), facilitating college to university transfer 41 which, taken with its advanced problem solving, clearly corresponds to the level 6 ability to "solve complex and unpredictable problems" (european commission, 2008, p. 2). the provincial standards further cement this association with descriptors that require mastery of the field, and innovation within it: "assist in the preparation of building products research" (omtcu, 2008, p. 9); "analyze alternative solutions to technical problems" (p. 11); "design building subsystems, including building envelopes, to suit user requirements and to accommodate effects of climate, region, topography, and orientation" (p. 13); "assess buildings and their interiors, and make recommendations for their repurposing and renovation" (p. 16); "select, recommend, and evaluate sustainable design strategies" (p. 18). the eqf-lll introduces managerial capabilities for its "competence" descriptors, an area of practice about which the qf-ehea is silent. level 5 covers two descriptors: "exercise management and supervision in contexts of work or study activities where there is unpredictable change" (european commission, 2008, p. 2), and "review and develop performance of self and others" (p. 2). the corresponding level 6 descriptors inject slightly more emphasis on responsibility: "manage complex technical or professional activities or projects, taking responsibility for decision-making in unpredictable work or study contexts" (p. 2), and "take responsibility for managing professional development of individuals and groups" (p. 2). the oqf advanced diploma emphasizes "significant [emphasis added] judgment in ... planning, design and technical leadership" (omtcu, 2009); the intensifier "significant" surely places this descriptor in the more responsibility-heavy realm of level 6 than in the more general level 5. the provincial standards further support this reading with the indication in the "preamble" that [g]raduates are prepared to assume responsibility for their work and may work independently as a self-employed architectural technician or interdependently as a part of an architectural or multidisciplinary building team. also, graduates are prepared to contribute to the management of building projects. (p. 4) finally, as with the qf-ehea, the provincial standards map partially onto the master's level (level 7), although not for the same reasons. despite the eqf-lll's confident assertion 42 facilitating college to university transfer that "the [qf-ehea] descriptor for the first cycle ... corresponds to the learning outcomes for eqf level 6" (european commission, 2008, p. 2), the eqf-lll has taken the first cycle stipulation about knowledge at the "forefront" of its field (bwgqf, 2010, p. 194) and moved this key word to level 7, the second cycle: "highly specialised knowledge, some of which is at the forefront of ... a field of work or study" (european commission, 2008, p. 2). as we have discussed, the provincial standards clearly emphasize work at the forefront of the field. additionally, the provincial standards' emphasis on graduates' competency to work in a "multidisciplinary" context (omtcu, 2008, p. 4) maps onto the level 7 "critical awareness of ... the interface between different fields" (european commission, 2008, p. 2). thus, although there is not the depth of material to work with in the eqf-lll that is present in the qf-ehea, both the oqf advanced diploma descriptors and the provincial standards map solidly onto the first cycle/level 6. there is an enormous opportunity here not just for fanshawe college's one program, but for all advanced diploma programs in ontario. conclusions and recommendations the significance of this project extends well beyond fanshawe college itself. the initial, research phase of the project has already identified transfer and mobility opportunities at an advanced level (bachelor's or master's) that other ontario colleges could similarly benefit from. increased credit transfer and student mobility have been identified as key economic strategies for ontario, and entering the ehea and bologna-compatible systems in a methodical way, with all of the protocols in place, clearly supports these strategies. furthermore, this project's attempt to bypass traditional higher education pathways by seeking entry (for advanced diploma graduates) into master's programs and/or significant advanced standing in bachelor's programs echoes the challenges and opportunities presented by the increasingly fluid nature of higher education both here and in the ehea; our project can therefore suggest ways to leverage this facilitating college to university transfer 43 changing landscape for the benefit of ontarios college students. finally, our project fills a current gap in higher education knowledge within ontario, and the mapping stage of our project (beginning after this initial research paper is finished, and ending before september 1, 2012) will be able to offer practical implementation strategies and tips for maximizing student mobility potential. based upon our research findings, we recommend that fanshawe proceed with the mapping project as follows. initial strategy canvass the irish analogues to fanshawes program regarding practical implementation issues. information gathered will include determining ects credits at the course level, revising learning outcomes so that they receive maximal recognition within the ehea, determining levels for learning outcomes and courses, referencing the irish national framework to the two overarching european frameworks (a process that is analogous to mapping our oqf to these frameworks), and allocating sufficient resources for mapping and implementation. determine whether there is a significant difference in the theoretical orientation between ontarios advanced diploma in architectural technology and the irish programs; if there is, and if ontarios is less theoretical, we may have a problem in terms of isced classifications of levels (although not necessarily in terms of eqf-lll and qf-ehea classifications). perform a close, line-by-line mapping of the provincial standards, in their entirety, to the two overarching european frameworks and to the national frameworks of ireland and new zealand (to increase the chances of mobility success in europe and new zealand). ects determine rough estimates of current student workload for architectural technology courses at fanshawe in order to allocate the proper amount of ects credits to each. avoid revision of our program in order to produce the "correct" ects credit number, since this issue is rapidly declining in importance in terms of recognition issues. review all learning outcomes for courses, ensuring that they are as specific and robust as possible, and compatible with analogous irish learning outcomes (which are already accepted and understood in the ehea). 44 facilitating college to university transfer assign levels to both courses and ects credits based upon the line-by-line mapping of the provincial standards. express ects credit levels in regards to the european overarching frameworks and the oqf. initiate the process of openly posting architectural technology syllabi (known as "course information sheets") to fanshawe's website. determine whether it is feasible to obtain grade distributions in order to properly implement ects grading procedures. diploma supplement create detailed boilerplate for a diploma supplement that can be issued to any of fanshawes interested architectural technology advanced diploma graduates who would like to transfer to the ehea or to other bolognacompatible higher education systems. the boilerplate must attempt to overcome recognition barriers that we have identified. it can also function as a detailed guide for other ontario colleges that may decide to issue diploma supplements. emphasize the advanced diploma-to-master's agreement in progress for fanshawe and vuw in new zealand, and the fact that the oqf advanced diploma and the provincial standards map clearly onto the first cycle, not the short cycle. emphasize the comparability in the length of an ontario advanced diploma program to the new bologna bachelor's (both are 3 years). emphasize the theoretical and problem-solving aspects of an ontario advanced diploma in architectural technology. explain clearly that fanshawe college is an accredited, provincially recognized institution. there are two significant threats to the kind of recognition that we would like to receive institutional inertia and our students' formal rightsbut a sufficiently detailed and nuanced diploma supplement should help to mitigate these obstacles. thus, although direct entry to the second cycle in the ehea (or to master's programs in bologna-compatible systems) is a significantly more difficult proposition than achieving significant advanced standing in a first cycle (bachelor's) program, it by no means outside the realm of possibility. according to the relevant qualifications frameworks, the ontario advanced diploma program in architectural technology stands firmly at the level of first cycle programs in the ehea, and should be facilitating college to university transfer 45 accepted as such; the most serious hurdle will be providing overwhelmingly convincing evidence in favor of this argument, but carefully implemented ects conventions, close allegiance to the practices of ehea institutions, and a thoughtfully constructed diploma supplement will maximize our chances of successful recognition. finally, this project is not only an important test case for ontario colleges and other analogous institutions of higher education, but also for the ehea. we have formulated our approach based on the face that bologna presents to the world; if our endeavor is successful, it means that practice at the ground level does indeed mirror the information at the higher policy and theory levels. if, however, our aims are ultimately frustrated, this information will be troubling but useful to those who are invested in promoting bologna's external dimension. 46 facilitating college to university transfer references adam, s. 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pathways for aboriginal learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities phase one year end report 2014/15 by the centre for policy in aboriginal learning, confederation college march 31, 2015 executive summary this report provides a summary of the activities undertaken in the initial year of the pathways for aboriginal learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities project as well as next steps. key deliverables, financial expenditures and pathway development are reported on. commencing in august 2014, pathways for aboriginal learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities is a two-year project funded by the ontario council of articulation and transfer (oncat). through a tripartite partnership between the centre for policy in aboriginal learning (cpal), confederation college (main proponent), first nations technical institute (fnti) and trent university (trent), the project seeks to create distinct academic and student support pathways that are rooted in indigenous knowledges, for aboriginal learners, making it the first indigenous-centered transition pathways model for aboriginal transfer students in ontario. to date knowledge exchange and the creation of a memorandum of understanding between the three institutions has occurred. a review and evaluation of curriculum alignment, and the creation of a draft articulation agreement are also complete. alongside these efforts, work to support learners transitions have begun, through a process of asset mapping and support and recruitment focused discussions with aboriginal learners. an analysis of the content of indigenous studies, environmental and social work programs at trent, confederation, and fnti confirmed the feasibility of creating distinct pathways in indigenous studies, with the need for additional exploratory work in the areas of environmental studies and social work. a first cohort of transfer students (a soft launch) from the confederation college aboriginal community advocacy program to the trent university indigenous studies program will take place in september 2015, which will see students entering the third year of study. a corollary of the exercise of mapping transferability within indigenous programs, and between indigenous and non-indigenous programs is the identified need for a culturallyinformed strategy of alignment. preliminary efforts to align curriculum utilizing confederation colleges aboriginal learning outcomes as a companion framework to the learning outcomes approach is underway. 1 table of contents executive summary ................................................................................................ 1 pathway development ............................................................................................ 3 pathway analysis .................................................................................................... 5 next steps.................................................................................................................. 6 financial statement ...................................................... error! bookmark not defined. appendices ................................................................................................................ 8 2 pathway development a main objective of the project is to develop pathways between indigenous studies, environmental and social work programs at trent, confederation and fnti. these pathways for learners are two-way, providing an opportunity to move horizontally between institutions. a preliminary analysis of the course content within these three program streams identified 27 potential pathways for development (see table 1). table 1: potential pathways between trent, confederation and fnti is ies aca ncfs et il sw indigenous studies (is)trent indigenous environmental studies (ies)trent aboriginal community advocacy (aca)confederation native child & family services(ncfs) confederation environmental technician (et)confederation indigenous leadership (il)-fnti social work (sw)-fnti once all potential pathways were identified feasibility of pathways were assessed based on the following criteria: program alignment, program stability, and development, and current partnerships and pathways. programs that were strongly aligned, well-developed or longstanding, and that currently did not have any current partnerships or pathways in 3 place were placed in the highest priority. this resulted in the focus on the potential pathways of the indigenous studies program at trent to and from the aboriginal community advocacy program at confederation, and the indigenous environmental program at trent to and from the environmental technician program at confederation. the next step involved a more fulsome evaluation of the pathways using the learning outcomes framework, including an environmental scan of any similar pathways. the environmental scan determined that no clear benchmarks were in place regarding transferability of credit hours, with credit hours varying by programs and institutions. the maximum transfer of 60 credit hours for a two year college diploma was identified and the scan also revealed that pathways in environmental programs were quite common, whereas pathways between indigenous studies programs were scarce at best. while linkages between the environmental programs were present, deemed in need of further analysis, the evaluation between the trent indigenous studies and confederation aboriginal community advocacy program uncovered high compatibility levels both in discipline specific and cultural content. in response, a draft articulation agreement for the pathway between the two programs was developed, outlining a 60 credit hour transfer which would allow learners to begin their studies at trent in the third year of the indigenous studies degree program. table 2 provides a summary of the pathway. table 2: pathways for aboriginal community advocacy diploma graduates entering indigenous studies degree program requirements for ba (honours) in indigenous studies 4 courses granted through transfer equivalency from confederation college (required for program) 5.0 indg credits consisting of indg 1000y, 2100y, 3105y, 3813y, 4201h and 4202h 5.0 indg additional credits, including at least 0.5 credits from each of the four clusters: indigenous knowledge, culture & languages indigenous lands, politics & history theories, methods & practice cultural expressions & performance at least 3.0 of the indg credits at the 4000 level from the four clusters indg 1000y, 2100y a minimum of 7 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level one and a half courses at this level included above: 3860y and 3401h a minimum of 3 credits with a grade of 60% in a different disciplines indg-post 2000y, indg-adm 1500h courses students will need to take to meet specific program requirements indg 3105y, 3813y, 4201h & 4202h indg 3860y indg 2000y, 3401h 1011h, 1012h, 1500h --- 0.5 credits two additional 4000 level courses from the four clusters (4201h & 4202h would be the third) one additional half credit at the 3000 or 4000 level (five courses at this level included above: 3105y, 3813y, 4201h, 4202h, 24000 level courses) 1.5 credits in different disciplines a cohort from the aca diploma program will transition to trent universitys is degree program september 2015. discussions with these learners related to their transition needs will create awareness of the pathway strategy. a discussion guide was developed to frame this work (see appendix a). pathway analysis an in-depth analysis of the alignment between the aboriginal community advocacy program and the indigenous studies program, and the environmental technician program and indigenous environmental studies programs was conducted. the initial phase of the methodology employed for this analysis included a course by course analysis. syllabi from the indigenous and environmental programs were analyzed by members of the research team utilizing a learning outcomes framework. while this approach highlighted a feasible pathway within the indigenous studies programs, it did not produce similar results for the environmental programs. this lack of immediate alignment indicated that there was a need to revise and create new curriculum in order to achieve transferability. this initiated a broader discussion about the role of indigenous knowledge systems in assessing transferability as a complement to disciplines such as environmental studies. in the second phase, course syllabi from both areas of programming were then analyzed using the aboriginal learning outcomes framework. developed in 2007 through the collaboration of the aboriginal education council at confederation college and negahneewin college of academic and community development, these outcomes provide a framework for confederation college to infuse indigenous knowledges across curricula. the seven (7) aboriginal learning outcomes are: 1. relate principles of indigenous knowledge to career field. 2. analyze the impact of colonialism on aboriginal communities. 3. explain the relationship between land and identity within indigenous societies. 4. compare aboriginal and canadian perceptions of inclusion and diversity. 5. analyze racism in relation to aboriginal peoples. 6. generate strategies for reconciling aboriginal and canadian relations. 7. formulate approaches for engaging aboriginal community partners. when used to assess transferability, greater alignment was found in both indigenous studies and environmental programs. as the aboriginal learning outcomes are integrated into the curriculum, the knowledge, skills, and attitudes derived from these outcomes are reinforced through various assignments and measures across course content. this 5 enables learners to experience their learning in a culturally relevant manner. this resonates with learners so that their learning experience is affirmative. this also increases understanding of the aboriginal canadian context for both learners and instructors. enhanced awareness and appreciation of this historical and current landscape, prepares graduates for the workplace. increased alignment of curriculum is visible when matching infused indigenous content at the originating institution (confederation college appendix d) with indigenous content at the receiving institution (trent university appendix c). the discussion of the relationship between the outcomes and essential employability skills is ongoing. next steps building upon the work accomplished in year one of the project, the primary objectives of year two are to: 6 assess the feasibility of other pathways identified in the preliminary analysis, utilizing both traditional and culturally-relevant learning outcome frameworks; formalize and implement pathways deemed feasible through learning outcome frameworks; design and implement a holistic student transition pathway that will support aboriginal learners; create an evaluation mechanism for the learner transition support model. table 3 provides a detailed summary of activities with timelines associated with project outcomes. table 3: project phase ii implementation plan spring 2015 summer 2015 fall 2015 pathway feasibility review indigenous leadership and community development curriculum with fntis haudenosaunee governance curriculum examine potential pathways including lcd degree pathways develop articulation agreements between partnering institutions based on above formalize and implement pathways finalize is-aca articulation agreement finalize other articulation agreement signed by partnering institutions promote articulation agreements to key staff and learners design, implement and evaluate student support pathways conduct sessions with learners on transition needs finalize asset map and conduct gaps analysis develop transition program implement transition program at test site (trent) evaluate transition program via focus groups and surveys 7 winter 2016 appendix a 8 appendix c: inclusion of aboriginal learning outcomes in trent university indigenous studies 9 appendix d: inclusion of aboriginal learning outcomes in confederation college aca program aboriginal learning outcomes: . january 2015 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x alo #2: analyze the alo #3: explain the alo #4: compare alo #5: analyse racism alo #6: generate strategies alo #7: formulate alo #1: relate aboriginal and in relation to aboriginal for reconciling aboriginal approaches for engaging principles of indigenous impact of colonialism relationship and canadian relations. aboriginal community peoples. between land and canadian knowledge to career on aboriginal partners. identity within perceptions of communities. field indigenous societies inclusion and diversity confederation college: aboriginal community advocacy program year one aboriginal language and culture microsoft applicatons community development process traditional knowledge and ethics introduction to advocacy aboriginal law and self -government indigenous identity and relationship to land governement, law and aboriginal peoples history of aboriginal and canadian relations course code couse title college writing essentials cs 040 lv 100 lv 109 lv 110 lv 202 lv 204 lv 210 lv 213 mc 155 nc 124 10

pathway for admission university academic preparation and retention at a community college (oncat project 2016-36) abstract the pathway allows successful students who would otherwise not be admissible to university, to be eligible to enter a bachelors degree with advanced standing. the pathway is intended to be delivered during the summer before university starts but after their high school grades are known. the courses will concentrate on academic success, communication, and math skills necessary to be successful in 1st year university. the program also offers the option to transfer instead to the college and enter a general arts and science certificate program. glenn harvel, jennifer percival, joe stokes, alena shah & jeff zakoor june 2017 uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit contents 1.0 introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2 2.0 research and program development team ........................................................................................... 2 3.0 program framework ............................................................................................................................... 3 3.1 program concept ................................................................................................................................ 3 3.2 learning outcomes and course design .............................................................................................. 4 3.3 program layout and pathways ......................................................................................................... 12 4.0 program implementation...................................................................................................................... 15 5.0 lessons learned .................................................................................................................................... 16 1|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit 1.0 introduction some university applicants are not admissible to undergraduate study because of what the university deems a lack of preparation, largely evaluated on high school grade point average. if admitted, the students would be at risk of not achieving success due to a lack of preparedness for university-level academics. currently, these students are refused admission, and must either upgrade academically, or look for options with less competitive admissions requirements. the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) and durham college (dc) have collaborated to develop an alternative pathway from students who are otherwise not admissible to the university. the pathway allows successful students to be eligible to earn university transfer credits concurrently with a pre-university program that will prepare them for admission to undergraduate study and academic success. the pathway specifically addresses life skills related to academic success and communication to improve the students preparedness for university level study in the fall without losing valuable time upgrading in high school. the program includes four core courses at the university level. the core courses are: academic success, a double weight fundamentals of communications course, and a math fundamentals course. in the academic success course, the students concentrate on improving their life skills with particular focus on time management, study skills, responsibility and financial management. the double communication course is essentially 1 course on individual communication and 1 course on group communication. the courses cover fundamental literacy, verbal and written communication and comprehension but also focusses on communicating with authority and self-advocacy. the math fundamentals course is expected to ensure numeracy skills are present for day-to-day success. 2.0 research and program development team glenn harvel, b.eng. phd, p. eng. glenn is a professor and associate dean in the faculty of energy systems and nuclear science at the university of ontario institute of technology. dr. harvel has research interest in diagnostic techniques, energy systems and nuclear design. he has been working with various thermalhydraulic and electrohydrodynamic engineering methodologies to improve energy systems and nuclear reactor design. dr. harvel has also developed learning modules for nuclear engineering at the undergraduate level, and nuclear design at the graduate level. jennifer percival, bmath, phd jennifer is an associate professor and associate dean of the faculty of business and it at uoit. her research focuses on the strategic use of technology and the use of process modelling to support change management, innovation, and technology integration in services. she has also lead the development of projects for improved learning in the business and commerce fields as well as a previous oncat project on the evaluation of dc and uoit pathways. joe stokes, ba, med joe is the associate registrar, enrolment services at the university of ontario institute of technology. he is the past chair of the ontario university council on admissions (ouca), vice president of the ontario universities registrars association and is chair of the general arts and science program advisory committee at durham college. joe has worked on multiple enrolment management projects relating to pathways programs in ontario, including the durham college and uoit general arts and 2|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit science pathways project, and has previously coordinated pathways initiatives centrally for the university. alena shah, ba, bed, med alena is the program manager, mentoring and leadership in the office of student life at uoit. over the past 5 years, alena has worked on student development programming with a focus on student transition (i.e. first-year experience), specialized student populations (i.e. first generation, mature students) as well as assessment. most recently in her role, she has worked on the durham college and uoit general arts and science pathways project. in addition, alena has several years of combined teaching experience at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary level. jeff zakoor, bsc, mba jeff zakoor is a professor and program director in the school of interdisciplinary studies at durham college. jeff also teaches in the school of business, it and management at durham college. jeff has worked on many pathways initiatives at durham college, and has assisted with the province wide general arts and science (gas) transfer project. jeff has worked with uoit to create further pathways options from gas to degree completion and most recently has worked on the durham college and uoit general arts and science pathways project 3.0 program framework the framework for the program was developed around the success of the post 1st year retention program with durham college (dc) known as the gas-s: general arts and science student success. the success of gas-s led to the development of a concept for delivery in the summer immediately before entering university. the learning outcomes and individual course designs were revisited to check for content and feasibility of delivery. the program was laid out for a pilot delivery with the intent of preserving the pathway to the college as well as to the original university program. 3.1 program concept methodology the initial approach to designing the pre-university pathway was to consider the student needs during the time after high school and before they enter post-secondary. in this case, the student may be deficient in certain areas, both academic and non-academic, but since there is no experience in the university environment to judge where those deficiencies lie, it is difficult to pinpoint which areas need support. the only metric usable at this point is the grade point average from high school and the grades in specific courses. past studies regarding retention at uoit have shown that there is a weak correlation between the high school gpa and success. a review of the pilot remedial program, gas-s, has shown that those students needing support were deficient in the areas of academic success, and communication skills. for a significant portion of the students, math skills were also observed to be deficient. another finding of the gas-s pilot is the importance of increasing the student self-efficacy as the key motivating factor for continued success. elements of the gas-s retention program formed the basis of the pre-university program, in particular, the following courses from the gas-s program were selected as the elements of the pre-university program concept for further development: 3|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit academic success fundamentals of personal communication fundamentals of intrapersonal communication math as part of the program concept, it was important to consider if the courses could be awarded as credit at either uoit or dc. in the case of uoit, the initial pilot was intended for 1st year business students. hence, a transfer credit for the communications courses is considered as part of the program concept. with respect to dc, all four courses are adapted from the gas-s program. the program concept was to minimize changes such that four college course credits could be transferred to the students. students that continue at uoit could take an additional two courses at dc along with their uoit program courses and obtain a general arts and science certificate. those students that transfer to dc, could complete the certificate thereby taking an additional 8 courses or transfer into other college programs. development of a pre-university diagnostic tool could provide additional metrics, but delivery of those tools in a timely manner would be difficult to allow for the summer program to target the students academic weaknesses. it was decided that such diagnostic tools are better embedded into the summer program to assist in the development of student success initiatives that could be implemented during their academic study. such diagnostic tools would include numeracy level testing and self-efficacy testing, amongst others. a methodology was developed to review a 14 week delivery of a standard course in a 7 week timeframe. this activity was required as the full summer is not available for most pre-university students. the following steps guide the process of optimizing the design of the course learning outcomes: step 1: review learning outcomes against pre-university expectations/needs step 2: reviewing the number of hours in the course against the learning outcomes and required hours for completion step 3: rate priority of learning outcomes with respect to a 7 week delivery model step 4: proposed learning outcomes sent to instructors for review step 5: incorporate learning outcomes based upon durham college instructor feedback note that additional activities would be required in terms of optimizing course delivery once the course design is completed. this would include consideration of use of on-line and self-study components to optimize instructor face to face time. 3.2 learning outcomes and course design the pre-university summer program was created by conducting a curriculum redesign of the gas-s remedial program at durham college. the program was compressed to allow for a shortened delivery timeframe (july and august) so that students who were finishing high school, but were otherwise inadmissible to university, could complete the program before the fall. the courses were designed to be cohort based and students who completed the program would be granted admission to either the uoit bachelor of commerce or bachelor of arts degree program with one transfer credit. the students would be placed in a cohort learning community that could continue when 4|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit they joined the bachelor of commerce or bachelor of arts degree program. this additional support structure was integrated to improve motivation and potential academic success of the students. each course was assessed separate for both learning outcomes and course design. fundamentals of academic success (succ 3700) this course concentrates on those matters that help students succeed in life. the course includes time management and study skills so that the student can be more effective in balancing school, work, social and other activities. the course will also discuss financial planning and budgeting to help students ensure they do not run out of funds. the learning outcomes for this course needed refocusing; there were too many outcomes that could not be taught effectively in a short time frame. some of the originally proposed elements were not thoroughly covered in the first phase of the gas-s project. these included: understanding the importance of maintaining a positive life/work balance expressing their needs with professionalism and confidence to their peers and figures of authority. creating a financial plan for during and post-academic studies. as such, the main proposed change was to reshuffle the learning outcomes to focus more on beginning their academic career and to coordinate the learning outcomes such that they matched the delivery of similar topics in the communication courses. outcomes such as conflict resolution could be dealt with in the communication courses, while outcomes such as effective study skills, stress management, and selfadvocacy could be part of the focus. table 1 shows the assessment of learning outcomes for the academic success course from a preuniversity perspective. the order of delivery was changed for some learning outcomes to be more timely with the delivery. for example, learning outcome 4 to develop a study plan was moved from early in the course to just before completion since the student would then have the most knowledge regarding expectations of a 1st year at the university. in the gas-s version, earlier was better because the student had already experienced two terms of university. in the gas-s program there was opportunity for the learning outcome to be revisited at the end to strengthen the learning experience while in the preuniversity delivery, such an opportunity was not available. table 1: learning outcome assessment for academic success academic success lo (gas-s) lo1: the student demonstrates the roles and responsibilities of being an engaged learner. lo2: students will appraise their past postsecondary academic experiences (both positive and negative) and articulate current skills/strengths they possess that will assist in problem solving future challenges. lo3: the student understands the importance of maintaining a positive life/work balance lo4: the student can produce a plan to manage work, study, and life for a 1-term period. academic success lo (pre-u) week 1 lo1: the student demonstrates the roles and responsibilities of being an engaged learner. lo2: students will appraise their past secondary academic experiences (both positive and negative) and articulate current skills/strengths they possess that will assist in problem solving future challenges. week 2 lo5: students will distinguish appropriate learning strategies and study methods that 5|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit lo5: students will distinguish appropriate learning strategies and study methods that will assist in preparing them for exams relevant to their program of study. lo6: students will apply various notetaking techniques in order to have relevant, concise notes for their courses. lo7: students identify different skills, strategies and supports (including on-campus resources) which will help them cope/deal with different stressors. lo8: the student can identify a set of skills, strategies, and techniques for addressing conflict. lo9: the student can recognize different types of conflict and when they occur lo10: the student expresses their needs with professionalism and confidence to their peers and figures of authority. lo11: the student demonstrates budgeting skills by identifying needs, estimating expected costs and revenues, and prioritizing opportunities. lo12: the student creates a financial plan for during and post academic studies, including the identification of sources of financial support. lo13: the student can interpret the academic integrity policies of the institution and can illustrate appropriate methods for ensuring he/she complies when completing course related work. *one learning outcome addressed per week, with the exception of lo8 and lo9 which were combined into one week due to theme of the unit. *one week was left open for review (week 14) will assist in preparing them for exams relevant to their program of study. week 3 lo6: students will apply various notetaking techniques in order to have relevant, concise notes for their courses. week 4 lo3: the student understands the importance of maintaining a positive life/work balance lo7: students identify different skills, strategies and supports (including on-campus resources) which will help them cope/deal with different stressors. week 5 lo11: the student demonstrates budgeting skills by identifying needs, estimating expected costs and revenues, and prioritizing opportunities. lo12: the student creates a financial plan for during and post academic studies, including the identification of sources of financial support. week 6 lo4: the student can produce a plan to manage work, study, and life for a 1-term period. week 7 review *removed outcomes: lo8, lo9, lo10, lo13 *lo1 modified to have learners reflect on their past secondary school experiences as they have not yet attended post-secondary. the following learning outcomes were removed from the pre-university course as follows: lo8: this learning outcome is partially covered by the communications course lo9: this learning outcome is partially covered by the communications course lo10: the students do not get sufficient experience interacting with authority figures at the university for this learning outcome to be effectively learned lo13: while this learning outcome is important, it has a lower priority than the other learning outcomes for pre-university students. there are other opportunities such as ibegin (a university welcome program held in the summer for 1st year students) and orientation where this learning outcome can be addressed. thus it was more important to concentrate on other learning outcomes. 6|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit fundamentals of personal communications (comm 3711) this course is about one on one communication. it includes both oral and written communication and is design to help the student understand what others are telling them and to be more effective in getting their message out to the person they are communicating with. this course will include communicating with their professors to ensure they are getting the right support and also communicating with other groups such as the registrars office, their landlord, osap, etc. so that the student is better able to understand their rights and responsibilities. the learning outcomes were considered appropriate and should not be changed. the course design needs to be modified to reflect the shorter time available. there is no longer sufficient time to consider doing this course first then following it with fundamentals of interpersonal communication. hence, the course can now overlap with comm 3712 and use the co-delivery to enhance the student experience. table 2 shows the assessment of learning outcomes for the personal communication course from a preuniversity perspective. table 2: learning outcomes assessment for personal communication personal communication lo (gas-s) lo1: the student recognizes different forms of communication (reading/writing/listening/speaking) and identifies the appropriate context for using each form. lo1.1: the student will identify their communication style. lo2: the student demonstrates effective reading techniques including the summarization of content for quality note taking. lo3: the student demonstrates effective listening techniques in the classroom and in social group environments. lo4: the student illustrates proper grammar and presentation of concepts through written communication boards, blogs, and journals. this includes understanding the difference in the tone and presentation of materials for synchronous and asynchronous communications. lo5: the student is able to compare and contrast various resources in terms of potential bias and credibility. lo5.1: the student understands how to find appropriate resources for report writing and can cite them properly in a presentation or document. lo6: the student can document support for their views when asked including when and how to integrate external sources and facts personal communication lo (pre-u) week 1 lo1: the student recognizes different forms of communication (reading/writing/listening/speaking) and identifies the appropriate context for using each form. lo1.1: the student will identify their communication style. week 2 lo2: the student demonstrates effective reading techniques including the summarization of content for quality note taking. week 3 lo3: the student demonstrates effective listening techniques in the classroom and in social group environments. week 4 lo5: the student is able to compare and contrast various resources in terms of potential bias and credibility. lo5.1: the student understands how to find appropriate resources for report writing and can cite them properly in a presentation or document. week 5 lo6: the student can document support for their views when asked including 7|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit lo7: the student develops a structured outline of a report and can explain the importance of the outline in the writing process. lo8: students will write complete grammatically correct sentences that communicate their meaning clearly and effectively, using varying sentence type, structure, and length to suit different purposes and make smooth, logical transitions between ideas. lo9: students will read an academic article and summarize the articles main message(s)/arguments in a written paper. lo10: students will differentiate between academic keywords (such as identify, compare & contrast, etc.) and identify what is required to answer/respond effectively when such words are used. lo11: students will demonstrate different methods for generating ideas. lo12: the student will prepare a journal describing their contributions to work. lo13: students will be able to edit and improve an existing document. when and how to integrate external sources and facts lo7: the student develops a structured outline of a report and can explain the importance of the outline in the writing process. lo8: students will write complete grammatically correct sentences that communicate their meaning clearly and effectively, using varying sentence type, structure, and length to suit different purposes and make smooth, logical transitions between ideas. week 6 lo9: students will read an academic article and summarize the articles main message(s)/arguments in a written paper. lo10: students will differentiate between academic keywords (such as identify, compare & contrast, etc.) and identify what is required to answer/respond effectively when such words are used. week 7 *one week was left open for review (week 14) *one learning outcome addressed per week, with the exception of: lo1, lo1.1 lo5, 5.1 each set was combined into one week due to theme of the unit (same as the pre-u breakdown) lo12: the student will prepare a journal describing their contributions to work. *removed lo4, lo11, lo13 the following learning outcomes were removed from the pre-university courses (rationale provided for each): lo4: this outcome was considered not a focus for pre-u students as many have not yet participated in a university-level online class. lo11: students have not yet had the opportunity to learn about, or participate in, various methods for generation ideas (e.g. delphi method) at the university level so this outcome was deemed not timely. lo13: this outcome was deemed low priority as students would not have a pre-existing piece of writing from a university course for them to edit. fundamentals of interpersonal communications (comm 3712) this course is about communication in groups and working effectively as a team. much of the course work in university will include team reports for labs or team presentations and this course will help the student be more effective in working with others. 8|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit the learning outcomes were considered appropriate and should not be changed. the course design needs to be modified to reflect the shorter time available. there is no longer sufficient time to consider doing this course after completion of fundamentals of personal communication. hence the course can now overlap with comm 3711 and use the co-delivery to enhance the student experience. table 3 shows the assessment of learning outcomes for the academic success course from a preuniversity perspective. table 3: learning outcome assessment for interpersonal communication interpersonal communication (gas-s) lo1: student will respectfully participate in conversation and can identify appropriate techniques for engaging others. lo2: student will identify the context and nature of their audience and can adapt their communication style appropriately lo3: students will identify various presentation styles and methods that will assist them when presenting a variety of topics to different audiences. lo4: students will demonstrate various presentation styles and methods that are effective in relaying the message to the audience. lo5: students will differentiate between various forms of written communication (i.e. email, text message, etc.) and use the appropriate style, tone and approach for each form lo6: students will recognize diverse, cultural cues (verbal and non-verbal) that may impact the way one communicates. lo7: students will distinguish varying communication styles and approaches that are used to be successfully heard in a group/technical meeting. lo8: students will identify conflict resolution strategies that will allow them to successfully communicate with difficult individuals. lo9: students will be able to respond to challenge and justify the basis for their position. lo10: students will be able to describe constructive feedback and provide it orally and in writing. lo11: students will prepare a creative poster/presentation materials. lo12: students will recognize different contextual cues (verbal and non-verbal) that may interpersonal communication (pre-u) week 1 lo1: student will respectfully participate in conversation and can identify appropriate techniques for engaging others. week 2 lo3: students will identify various presentation styles and methods that will assist them when presenting a variety of topics to different audiences. lo4: students will demonstrate various presentation styles and methods that are effective in relaying the message to the audience. week 3 lo6: students will recognize diverse, cultural cues (verbal and non-verbal) that may impact the way one communicates. week 4 lo7: students will distinguish varying communication styles and approaches that are used to be successfully heard in a group/technical meeting. week 5 lo8: students will identify conflict resolution strategies that will allow them to successfully communicate with difficult individuals. lo9: students will be able to respond to challenge and justify the basis for their position. week 6 lo11: students will prepare a creative poster/presentation materials. lo13: the students shall demonstrate an ability to present in a group. week 7 9|page uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit impact the way one communicates.(e.g. the effect of body language, audience, dress code and context on the delivery of a message) lo13: the students shall demonstrate an ability to present in a group. *one week was left open for group presentations (week 14) continuation of presentations (week 6) *removed: lo2, lo5, lo10, lo12 the following learning outcomes were removed from the pre-university courses (rationale provided for each): lo2: this outcome was deemed lower priority as students for the limited time given and the perceived needs of pre-university students. lo5: this outcome was prioritized lower than the other learning outcomes and removed as students get exposure to this outcome when the begin their transition lo10: this outcome was removed, as students have not yet had the opportunity to learn and practice constructive feedback in academia. lo12: for the purpose of this condensed program, it was assessed that this outcome was lower priority in regards to the others. pre-university math course the gas-s program consisted of two options for the required math course. the pre-university program was to have only one course. both math courses were reviewed. math 1310 (applied mathematics), concentrates on foundations of math with attention to geometry, financial math, probability, fractions, etc. math 1316 (advanced mathematics) covers fractions, equations, cartesian graphing, algebraic factoring, trigonometry, etc. while math 1316 would be considered more useful for many technical programs, the primary purpose of the pre-university pathway is not to develop math skills. there is insufficient time in the 7 week period available to properly improve their skills. it was decided that math 1310, with the addition of appropriate diagnostic tools would be more appropriate. in this approach, the program would be able to identify those weaknesses in math such that other programs after university start could target those specific deficiencies. table 4 shows the assessment of learning outcomes for the math course from a pre-university perspective. the learning outcomes are kept very similar to the applied math course in the gas-s program as that produced a key set of fundamental outcomes. table 4: learning outcome assessment for math math courses lo (gas-s) lo1: perform arithmetic operations for numeracy and conversion of units. lo2: perform arithmetic operations and solve application problems using whole numbers, integers, fractions, and decimals. lo3: perform arithmetical operations and solve application problems using basic algebra. math course lo (pre-u) week 1 lo1: perform arithmetic operations for numeracy and conversion of units. lo2: perform arithmetic operations and solve application problems using whole numbers, integers, fractions, and decimals. week 2 10 | p a g e uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit lo4: perform arithmetical operations using ratios, proportions, and percentages lo5: solve financial problems involving percentages and simple and compound interest. lo6: solve problems involving length, perimeter, circumference, area, volume, weight, and temperature using both metric and imperial units of measurement. lo7: solve problems involving probability, descriptive statistics, and graphing including mean, mode, median, standard deviation, relative frequency and weighted average. lo8: perform arithmetic operations for solving equations, intersection of lines, solving inequalities and using order of operations. additional los for advanced math: lo9: perform arithmetic operations using set theory, fractions, algebra and factoring. l10: solve problems involving analytic geometry. lo11: solve problems involving trigonometry. *one week was left open for review (week 14) lo3: perform arithmetical operations and solve application problems using basic algebra. lo4: perform arithmetical operations using ratios, proportions, and percentages. week 3 lo5: solve financial problems involving percentages and simple and compound interest. week 4 lo6: solve problems involving length, perimeter, circumference, area, volume, weight, and temperature using both metric and imperial units of measurement. week 5 lo6: solve problems involving length, perimeter, circumference, area, volume, weight, and temperature using both metric and imperial units of measurement. week 6 lo7: solve problems involving probability, descriptive statistics, and graphing including mean, mode, median, standard deviation, relative frequency and weighted average. week 7 lo8: perform arithmetic operations for solving equations, intersection of lines, solving inequalities and using order of operations. *removed outcomes: lo9, lo10, lo11 the following learning outcomes were removed from the pre-university courses as follows: lo9: this learning outcome is removed as there is insufficient time to properly cover this material. l10: this learning outcome is removed as there is insufficient time to properly cover this material. l11: this learning outcome is removed as there is insufficient time to properly cover this material. the removal of the advance math components does not significantly affect the student performance as it is more important that the math fundamentals are covered well. other course changes in all four courses, due to the tighter timeframe for course delivery, it was decided that the course design needed to include many self-run modules and diagnostic tools to assist the student in promoting selflearning. this also served to support increased flexibility for both faculty and students during the summer months. 11 | p a g e uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit 3.3 program layout and pathways one of the first challenges in laying out the program was to determine the appropriate workload for the students. there is a challenge here between ensuring sufficient content for success and avoiding premature burnout of the student. in comparison to the gas-s summer program, the pre-university program only has an effective 7 weeks available or half the time. the gas-s program delivered 6 courses in 14 weeks. the challenge here was to delivery 4 courses in 7 weeks. significant debate was associated with reducing 4 courses to 3 courses while retaining the learning outcomes of the 4 courses. for the first phase of program development, the program remained with 4 courses with the understanding that scope may need to be reduced. the first decision was to remove all elective options as they would only add extra workload to the students. the second option was to not offer the math course and to concentrate only on academic success and communication. while possible, a minimum math course is required due to the evidence that weaknesses in math skills are limiting most students in the first term of their university experience. it was deemed important to assess their math skills so that programs could adjust to them. the third option was to merge the two communication courses into one larger course covering both aspects. at the present time, it was decided to move ahead with the four courses. the intent is to revisit workload once the first pilot has been delivered. reviewing the learning outcomes and discussing the courses with the dc course designers identified that many of the courses already had several on-line elements. as an example, a version of the fundamentals of academic success could have been delivered fully on-line. this information led to the consideration of face-to-face, blended (hybrid) or on-line delivery options. a solely on-line delivery method was ruled out as observational data is required in this program to help identify student weaknesses, especially if there is an intent to direct the student towards a focused learning community. as well, there is insufficient evidence to support that high school students are prepared to start university in a fully on-line environment. courses in the bachelor of arts and bachelor of commerce programs are also run face-toface or in a hybrid delivery mode and consistency in modeling the expected behaviours of class attendance and participation was important. the recommended solution for the pre-university program is a blended format based upon a flexible schedule. there are several advantages in that this migrates from a high school delivery model that students understand and ends with a university delivery model that the students need to experience prior to attending. it also adjusts the students time on campus to reduce their living and commuting costs as well as returning them a part of their summer. essentially, the model would start mostly face to face with about 20% on-line content. as each week passes, the students are assigned more self-study module work as well as on-line modules. by the end of the summer, the students will have experienced an environment where most of the learning is taking place outside of the classroom where lectures and guided tutorials remain a small portion of the experience. below are two examples of blended delivery models that could potentially work for the pre-university program: a typical course is 3hrs/week for 12 weeks for a total of 36 hours in the university environment. for students graduating from high school, they are aware of their marks by june 30th at the earliest. therefore the earliest offer of a pre-university program to those in need is july 4th. given 1 week for 12 | p a g e uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit turn around, this leads to july 12th as earliest start. this gives a maximum of 36 days assuming that we do not go with a fixed schedule. this is equivalent to 7 weeks. if we assume 2 days per week, that would give 14 days to work with. assume 6 hours equivalent per day, this results in 84 hours. or two courses as practical. hence, to deliver 4 courses, we would need to consume 4 days per week of the summer which would be excessive to some students and stressful to some others. model 1: the delivery is broken down into 4 sets as follows: 1st set: 75% face to face; 25% self-learning 2nd set: 60% face to face; 40% self-learning 3rd set: 40% face to face; 60% self-learning 4th set: 25% face to face; 75% self-learning the length of each set could vary, but assume # of weeks as 2:2:2:1. the resulting percentage in class would appear as follows: 1 face to face 0.9 self learn normalized time by learning method 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 1 2 3 4 5 week of learning 6 7 figure 1: delivery scheme for model 1 model 2: the delivery is continuous but fluid between the models as follows: week 1: 100% face to face. covers how it works and explains how to do self-learning week 2 through 4: steady increase in self learning activities could with experiential learning exercises such as ibegin week 5: peak self-learning time. minimal lecture 13 | p a g e uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit week 6 and 7: lecture is constant and low. more face-to-face time occurs but as tutorials and experiential learning exercises. so self-learning remains dominant but led towards the structure expected in university. such a model would follow the trend as follows: 100% percent time in learning mode 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 self learn 3.5 4 4.5 week of delivery tut/exp 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 lecture figure 2: delivery scheme for model 2 another issue to address was the affordability of the program and stress. students entering this program in the initial concept would have written their high school exams, entered this program, completed it, and then entered university with essentially no time off to enjoy their life. such an approach does not promote a life/work balance. the initial concept was based upon the need to squeeze 4 courses into a compact schedule so that the credit level was high enough to justify full time status with hopes that it could be used for funding models. the assessment determined that the 7 week program would not be eligible for osap so this requirement does not exist for the pre-university program and a lower workload is possible from that perspective. this concept also meant that the students were on campus for 5 days of the week incurring additional educational costs for minimal transfer credit. hence, changes to the program delivery that could reduce the educational costs should be considered. the blended approach could resolve many of these issues. while the student may start by being oncampus for 3-4 days, by august the student time on campus would be down to 1-2 days per week. in turn, living costs could be significantly reduced. as well, the flexibility in learning would reduce the stress level on the students and reduce the potential for mental health issues to affect the learning process. the only 14 | p a g e uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit remaining challenge was to ensure that the amount of time available completing the registration process and enrolment process could be done before the end of august. additionally, it was found that we could take advantage of other university programs, such as ibegin, which are designed for all students. the ibegin program is intended to introduce all university students to university life and expectations. by integrating those programs directly into the pre-university pathway (as aspects of both the academic success and communication courses), the students in this program would be integrated with their peers before the fall term starts. the first year experience currently offers the following: first year 101 introduction to uoit culture and community information about available services and supports time management first-year expectations sample lecture essentially the areas of uoit culture, community, services, etc. can be directly used to support the preuniversity program and create a sense of a learning community by identifying peers. 4.0 program implementation this pre-university program was brought to the normal academic governance channels, and it was decided that because the pathway was admission based, that the university would test the program on a pilot basis. the universitys current transfer credit framework allowed for the evaluation of credit transfer for busi 1020u business communications, based on the two college communication courses, so that upon completion of the program, students would enter the university with a 3 credit hour elective course already completed. the original plan for the pilot was delivery in summer of 2017 for a cohort of 1st year business students. such students would represent those that expressed interest in the uoit business programs but had sufficiently low high school gpa that they would not normally be accepted. an alternative to entering this pilot was to send such students directly to dc with the intent that after two years of college, they would pathway back to uoit through existing embedded bridge pathways between dc and uoit. both programs could not be piloted in the same year. as such, uoit decided to proceed with directing the students to dc with the hope of using the existing college to university pathways for the students to return to the university. hence, the implementation for this program, although fully developed, is on hold. the pilot for this program is anticipated to be conducted in the 2018-19 academic year. it should be noted that in a recent survey of students currently enrolled in the summer gas-s program many responded stating that they wished they had be given the opportunity to participate in a preuniversity version of the program before starting at uoit. this insight from students provides some anecdotal evidence that the designed program could be valuable to some students as a pro-active measure even if they do meet the minimum university standards. 15 | p a g e uoit admissions pathway with transfer credit 5.0 lessons learned the effort to produce a pre-university program identified the following lessons learned: student needs vary widely entering university and a pre-university program will not be able to cover all of those requirements. a pre-university program can be used as a controlled diagnostic tool to identify student needs and establish appropriate learning communities. note further development regarding the tools and learning communities is required. a program for credit is feasible but is constrained by the time available. a standard lecture approach is not recommended for a pre-university program. a blended model that evolves the student towards increased self-learning towards the university structure is recommended. self-efficacy remains a key part of student success and needs to be included in a pre-university program. support from university and college administration for a full summer pre-university program is not as strong as it is for a retention program partly due to the quality of incoming students and partly due to the very tight turnaround time for processing the students. 16 | p a g e

mary ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire mary catharine lennon, amanda brijmohan, eric lavigne, jinli yang, gavin moodie and leesa wheelahan research report 2016.02 a report to the ontario council for articulation and transfer a report by: pathways to education and work group ontario institute for studies in education (oise) university of toronto 252 bloor st. west, 6th floor toronto, ontario m5s 1v6 canada www.oise.utoronto.ca/cihe please cite this publication as: lennon, m. c., brijmohan, a., lavigne, e., yang, j., moodie, g. and wheelahan, l. (2016). ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. page 2 of 60 contents acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 5 1 introduction .................................................................................................................. 6 2 rationale, research design and primary questions ............................................... 7 3 concepts and practical realities ................................................................................ 9 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 roles and purposes of qualifications .................................................................................. 9 issues of coordination at the system-level ........................................................................ 12 issues of coordination at the institutional level ............................................................... 15 trust ................................................................................................................................. 18 4. mobility: students, pathways and credits ............................................................ 19 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 current mobility trends .................................................................................................... 19 access and accessibility ..................................................................................................... 19 depth and breadth of pathways ........................................................................................ 20 the value of credits ........................................................................................................... 21 summary ........................................................................................................................... 22 5. methods ....................................................................................................................... 24 5.1 data sources ..................................................................................................................... 25 6. data analysis and findings ....................................................................................... 28 6.1. ontario student transfer patterns by broad and narrow fields ....................................... 28 6.2 ontario institutional activities ......................................................................................... 33 7. discussion of research findings .............................................................................. 37 7.1 ontario student transfer patterns by broad and narrow fields ....................................... 37 7.2 ontario pathway articulation dataset and institutional profiles ..................................... 37 7.3 geographic trends ............................................................................................................ 39 8. summary and conclusion ........................................................................................ 42 references ........................................................................................................................... 44 appendix a: list of critical friends ................................................................................. 48 appendix b: detailed analysis methods ......................................................................... 49 appendix c: partnership profiles (colleges) .................................................................. 60 in a separate document .............................................................................................................. 60 appendix d: partnership profiles (universities) ........................................................... 60 in a separate document .............................................................................................................. 60 page 3 of 60 list of tables table 1: college graduates who further their education: timing of the decision ........................ 11 table 2: five most travelled flows of canadian college graduates who subsequently received an ontario college credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent broad field .................. 29 table 3: five most travelled flows of canadian college graduates who subsequently received an ontario university credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent broad field .............. 29 table 4: five most travelled flows of canadian university graduates who subsequently received an ontario college credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent broad field ............. 30 table 5: five most travelled flows of canadian university graduates who subsequently received an ontario university credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent broad field ......... 30 table 6: five most travelled flows of canadian college graduates who subsequently received an ontario college credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent subfield ....................... 31 table 7: five most travelled flows of canadian college graduates who subsequently received an ontario university credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent subfield ................... 32 table 8: five most travelled flows of canadian university graduates who subsequently received an ontario college credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent subfield .................. 32 table 9: five most travelled flows of canadian university graduates who subsequently received an ontario university credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent subfield .............. 33 table 10: summary of partnerships and generic and specific pathways between sending colleges and receiving universities, by university, ontario ................................................................. 34 table 11: summary of partnerships and generic and specific pathways between proximate sending colleges and receiving universities, by university, ontario ..................................... 36 table 12: summary of pathways agreements and transfer student populations, by university, ontario .................................................................................................................................. 38 table 13: summary of pathway agreements between proximate sending colleges and receiving universities and ratios, by university, ontario ...................................................................... 39 table 14: statistics canadas primary groupings .......................................................................... 51 table 15: composition of research teams subfields derived from statistics canadas categories53 page 4 of 60 acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge the significant contribution of many people who gave their time and insight to make this work as accurate and relevant as possible: to our critical friends who provided valuable insight and guidance on many issues helping to shape our understanding of the nuances of credit transfer in different environments in ontarios postsecondary education system, and providing feedback on many drafts of this work. to the many institutions that took the time to review the data to ensure our work is based on the most up to date information. to professor ruth childs at the ontario institute for studies in education for her support with the methods and data analysis. and, to oncat for funding this research and supporting the team. please note that any errors or omissions in this research are entirely the responsibility of the authors. page 5 of 60 1 introduction the ontario government has prioritised student pathways within education and between education and the labour market. the ministry of training, colleges and universities 2015-16 strategic plan notes, for example, the system will blend academic with applied learning and ensure that transitions are seamless whether it is from high school, between postsecondary education institutions, or between school and work (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2015, p. 3). the government has spent years investing in research and strategy to achieve these ends. in 2011, the ontario government set out three goals for a province wide credit transfer system to: expand and improve pathways to respond to student demand; improve transparency and access to information about pathways and credit transfer; [and,] support student success (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). at the same time, the government established the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat), a government agency designed to support credit transfer and mobility of ontario students. with a five-year mandate to improve student mobility in ontarios public institutions (oncat, 2013) the agency has supported research, partnerships and projects to further the systematic capacity for student choice and opportunity. contributing to the four years of substantial research, knowledge building and reflection by oncat, this study synthesises current theories and research on student mobility, institutional partnerships and pathways, and presents the current patterns of student flows and institutional agreements in ontario. the analysis and findings show unexpected routes and relationships, and finds current trends in pathway agreement are not supporting students in the intended way. based on literature, research and consultations with experts and practitioners, this study derives principles from these findings and develops a framework that supports the effective development and implementation of pathways and supports student movement and articulation between the sectors of postsecondary education (pse). the intention of the principles and framework is to support strategic decision making that benefits all stakeholders: students, programs, institutions, government, and society at large. the study is organised in two reports. the first, presented here, presents the theoretical and conceptual frameworks and empirical patterns of student mobility, partnership and pathway agreements in order to uncover whats working and where there is room for improvement. the second, titled ontario student mobility: a framework and decision making tool for building better pathways, presents the practical application of our findings: the tool. the following report is presented in eight main sections. following this introduction, section 2, presents the studys rationale, research questions and research design. section 3 presents the contextual background for the research and a literature review of student mobility, addressing both system-level and institutional issues. section 4 deals explicitly with current practice, providing an environmental scan of student mobility, challenges in developing deep and broad pathways for students, and issues of acknowledging students previous education. section 5 presents the research methods, while section 6 presents the analysis and findings of four data sources. section 7 discusses the implications of the research for the development of pathways in ontario, while section 8 concludes the research report. page 6 of 60 2 rationale, research design and primary questions the purpose of this project was to develop a decision-making tool that contains principles to guide decision-making about the development of pathways, articulation, student movement and credit transfer, and a framework to support decision-making. the project outcomes are intended to help jurisdictions, oncat, institutions and departments make policies about pathways and decisions about the kinds of pathways that are needed, whether pathways should be linear within fields of education or in related fields, and the level of resources that should be invested in their development. in order to determine what the tool should look like, the team undertook research to determine the features of the transfer and mobility in the ontario system. the research examines recent trends in ontario that relate to student mobility, existing partnerships and pathways agreements, and difficulties that arise in supporting student transfer. the project analysed the considerable literature on the effectiveness of policies and processes in promoting transfer in other jurisdictions (i.e. anderson, sun and alfonso 2006; gross and goldhaber 2009; roksa 2009; roksa and keith 2008; wellman 2002; welsh and kjorlien 2001), given the amount of time and effort required to develop partnerships and pathways and the different models that are used, the study seeks to understand if and how the pathways and different models of pathways are suitable for certain purposes. the questions guiding this research are: 1 2 3 what are the student mobility patterns of activity in in ontario? where do graduates undertake their next credential and in what program areas? what pathways are currently in place at ontarios colleges and universities? what do they look like and who are they with? what principles and criteria should the jurisdiction, oncat, institutions and departments use to make decisions about investing in pathways? in order to answer these questions the study employed qualitative and quantitative research methods. described in more detail in section 5, the project took a multi-level approach to data analysis. the national graduates survey (ngs) data was analysed to uncover patterns of student transfer in ontario, such as whether students in particular fields of study tend to transfer into a different credential in the same field of study or follow alternative paths. a second data source was the graduate satisfaction survey (gss) of college graduates that captures college graduates who transferred into another program. the oncat dataset that holds information on pathways available to students via formal arrangements was examined to see how many, what type, and between what programs/institutions, partnerships arrangements exist. finally, using google maps, an analysis of the distance between partner institutions were performed. readers should note that because both the ngs and gss data deal explicitly with students who are graduates of programs, all the analysis deals with graduates who undertake a second credential. while examining students who transfer mid-program is worthy of examination and discussion, it was not possible within the confines of this research. page 7 of 60 respecting that the lived experience is critical to understanding policy, an important component of this work was engaging with experts and practitioners to explore the findings, to enhance the interpretation of the research findings, and to guide our practical policy toolkit. critical friends were consulted at various stages of this research. they participated in two semi-structured interviews/consultations on the tool draft, and many participated in a day public symposium. their contribution has greatly influenced this final report (see appendix a for the list of critical friends). page 8 of 60 3 concepts and practical realities in this section, the nature of higher education credentialing is addressed. first, the inherent role and purpose of higher education qualifications are explored, noting that qualifications support individuals in gaining access to the labour market and to higher levels of education, and they support social inclusion and social mobility in society. following that discussion, operational issues that hinder or support mobility are discussed. at the system-level, this includes a review of the traditional roles and goals of the college and university sectors, the role of qualifications profiles, the potential of learning outcomes, and the functional challenges of system level coordination. institutional and program realities are explored in the third part of this section. developing effective pathways must take into account the very real issues of economics, competition and status-building that are the lived experience of institutional administrators and decision makers. this leads to the discussion on trust. we have drawn on the interviews we held with critical friends in this section rather than restricting this discussion to the findings section, because they help us to interpret and understand the issues we identified in the literature and how these issues are reflected in ontario. they also help us to elaborate the challenges and opportunities for building pathways in ontario and this provides an important context for the whole report. 3.1 roles and purposes of qualifications many governments have set the goal of developing a system that is accessible and equitable, operates efficiently, provides high quality education and is aligned with the economic goals of a jurisdiction (fitzgibbon, 2014; lennon, 2010b; wheelahan & moodie, 2011; wheelahan, 2016). the strategies include the development or re-development of education systems that encourage participation, allow students a choice of programs with opportunities for changing direction, and support people returning to formal education to update or enhance their knowledge and skills. beyond supporting the development of the overall economy, ensuring that members of a society possess certain key skills and capabilities is crucial, both for personal fulfilment and development and to ensure employability and active citizenship. education needs to result in individuals having knowledge and skills to think critically and creatively and the ability to transfer the knowledge gained in one area to resolve the issues and problems of another area. the goal of these strategies is to develop a workforce that is equipped with the knowledge, skills, capabilities and attributes needed for success in the labour market (lennon, 2010a). the role of qualifications, however, is slightly different. a recognised qualification is the passport to and progression in the labour market and further education and is a means social mobility and social inclusion. the next sections unpack these ideas. 3.1.1 links to the labour market an important role of qualifications is to prepare graduates for entry to and progression in the work force. previous work found that students progression through educational systems is related to fields of educations links to labour market. examining student transfer in both ontario and australia, wheelahan (2016) described four types of educational pathways: page 9 of 60 those with strong links to occupations and strong links between qualifications within the field of education, exemplified by nursing; those with strong links to occupations and weak links between qualifications within the field of education, exemplified by engineering; those with weak links to occupations and strong links between qualifications within the field of education, exemplified by business; and, those with weak links to occupations and weak links between qualifications within the field of education, exemplified by the humanities and sciences. further, qualifications that are strongly linked to occupations are mostly regulated, often by a statutory body such as the college of nurses of ontario and professional engineers ontario (wheelahan et al. 2015). where there is a strong occupational pathway between regulated occupations, there will usually be strong educational pathways. in unregulated occupations the link between qualifications and occupations is usually weak. in these cases, students often need to gain higher level qualifications (such as a degree) to compete in the labour market. this type of student mobility can result in strong pathways between qualifications within fields of education such as from one business qualification to another, or between fields of education such as business and social science. finally, where fields of education such as the arts and the sciences are weak in colleges, pathways between colleges and universities in these fields are likely to be quite weak (wheelahan, 2016). 3.1.2 supporting students and social equity governments have linked lifelong learning as a necessary precondition for building a strong knowledge-based society in modern economies. an international environmental scan conducted in 2010 uncovered numerous strategies to encourage participation in post-secondary education and to support students to achieve the higher levels of achievement (lennon, 2010a). providing information and support to students and making them aware of opportunities was found to be important in encouraging progression to university education. particularly, successful examples include mechanisms for offering substantial information and advice to ensure that students are aware of the multiplicity of choices. yet, education is not linear for large portions of the population. individuals life circumstances and choices do not always allow for uni-directional movement through education. people enter, drop out, change programs, change fields they are interested in, their intentions when entering the programs vary, and their goals can change (colleges ontario, 2009). hence, ensuring that no qualification is terminal (bar the doctorate) is also critical for encouraging progression. getting students in the door of postsecondary education is critical, because while some enter a college program with the knowledge they want to pursue further educational opportunities, many decide to proceed to further education while they are in their program. table 1 below shows a colleges ontario analysis of the 2006-2007 ontario graduate satisfaction survey that indicates when students made the decision to further their education. page 10 of 60 table 1: college graduates who further their education: timing of the decision before the at the start of during the college program the program program college-bound 44% 6% 32% university-bound 41% 6% 42% (colleges ontario, 2009. p. 2). after the program 18% 11% the proportion of students who decided to attend university only after they were enrolled in a college program suggests that perhaps students gained confidence in their academic abilities and were encouraged to continue. kerr et al (2010) found multiple studies that showed that transfer students performed equally well in grade point average (gpa) and course grades as their university-only counterparts. recent research specifically on social science students shows that college students who transferred into the university program performed as well or better than their peers who entered directly into the university program (lesage et al., 2014). trick (2013) found similar evidence where transfer students received similar or better gpas as direct-entry students across seven jurisdictions. despite the academic success of transfer students, there is less consistent evidence that they are likely to graduate. kerr et als meta-evaluation finds that, in ontario, college transfer students are more likely to drop out (2010. pp. 23-24). tricks international scan found conflicting evidence, where there were lower graduation rates for transfer students in three jurisdictions, but the same or higher rates in five (trick, 2013). the lower graduation rates can been understood as many transfer students are part-time, and part-time students traditionally have a lower graduation rate. another possibility offered by kerr (2010) is that students offered more credit for their previous education maybe more likely to graduate (2010). 3.1.3 encouraging progression in education colleges are gateways to further education and tend to enrol higher numbers of students who are traditionally disadvantaged (deller & oldford, 2011; trick, 2013). enhancing pathways from colleges to university is seen a way to enhance access to university-level education for underrepresented groups such as low-income, remote or rural learners, adult and aboriginal students, as well as those who may not qualify to attend due to weak academic history (kerr et al., 2010; lennon, zhao, & gluszynski, 2011). this supports both occupational progression and social mobility by providing access to higher levels of education and higher income jobs (wheelahan, 2009). however, the social mobility role of student transfer may be limited. some research has found that in ontario and australia elite universities and programs such as law and medicine admit few transfer students (heath, 2012b; wheelahan, 2009). furthermore, one study found that the demographic characteristics of students who transfer from college to university tend to be close to that of university students in australian and the uk (wheelahan, 2009). page 11 of 60 3.2 issues of coordination at the system-level the preceding discussion has demonstrated how governments are challenged to support the educational goals of citizens and increase the available opportunities. there are significant challenges for systems of higher education to provide opportunities for students in a way that is economically efficient, administratively reasonable, while also maintaining quality. in this section, the role and responsibilities of governments are set out, as are current policies and trends. what emerges is that a government often has conflicting priorities and/or seeks to reflect different goals of interest groups. as a result, policies can be vague in their stated goals or their underlying purpose or inconsistent with other government policies. for example, section 3.2.3 below contrasts the policy of differentiation with that of credit transfer, indicating that there are complex issues at play which highlight the realities of why there may be push back on what could be considered progressive government policies. 3.2.1 system design jurisdictions organise their postsecondary education systems and the pathways between sectors and programs in many different ways.1 some systems were intentionally designed to support student transfer. the californian system, for example, is held up as the pinnacle of a cohesive system of colleges and universities, where there is near seamless transfer between two-year and four-year higher education programmes (colleges ontario, 2009). similarly alberta, british columbia and qubec designed their college systems to articulate with their university systems. however, many jurisdictions including ontario did not design their colleges to transfer students to universities and are retroactively trying to find and institute clear links between sectors of colleges and universities, between institutions and programs. transfer rates in ontario are lower than for national and international counterparts (kerr et al., 2010). skolnik (1995) suggests that because the binary-system-model hindered transfer the low numbers of student transfer was perceived as lack of demand. moodie (2003) suggests that low numbers of transfer students in a highly differentiated system might reflect the systems success in matching students with the appropriate sector which fulfils very distinctive roles. there are significant challenges when the system develops pathways without the support and oversight of the government. institutions that admit transfer students may be concerned that any unsuccessful transfer student may reflect on the performance of the receiving institution rather than a shared responsibility of the sending and receiving institution, and sending institutions may be concerned that students who transfer successfully but without graduating will be counted as drop outs. government pressure to admit transfer students may result in receiving institutions limiting the amount of credit they offer, or argue that a coherent program of studies is interrupted when students dont follow the path determined by the institution (junor & usher, 2008). nonetheless, if transfer was not the original intention of ontario colleges, students themselves, through their actions are steering institutions in that direction (decock, 2004. p. 15). there have 1 david trick outlines the characteristics of 14 jurisdictions on issues of credit transfer (trick, 2013) page 12 of 60 been numerous calls for governmental support in developing a seamless transfer system over the past three decades (see kerr et al., 2010), and progress has (arguably) been slow. in 1994, the ontario ministry announced its intention to establish a voluntary consortium of colleges and universities that would promote cooperation and would publish a guide for students on credit- transfer arrangements. the college-university consortium council (cucc) was formed in 1996). given the difficulties of making changes in transfer arrangements, the rae report (2005) argued that the governments approach in this area must be aggressive to stimulate real progress (p.42). indeed, the report goes further, suggesting if institutions cannot make progress under an umbrella of incentives, government should be prepared to mandate greater co-operation in the best interests of ontario students (p. 42). in 2011 cucc was reformed to become oncat. it is a government agency with a five year mandate to improve credit transfer and student mobility in ontarios public institutions. 3.2.2 qualification frameworks the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities developed the ontario qualifications framework (oqf) in 2002. the oqf set out credential-level expectations for all levels of post- secondary education (ministry of training, colleges and universities, nd), intended to set the standard for each credential that can be used to assess the quality of particular programmes at that credential level, and [] facilitate international recognition of credentials, credit transfer and graduate mobility (hatchette, 2012. p. 90). the notion is that it establishes pathways for students to navigate through the jungle of credentials and supports students in transferring their educational history to another program in a seamless manner so that there is limited repetition, which cost students, institutions and systems unnecessary time and money. as discussed, ontario was built explicitly as a binary system where the two sectors were not intended to articulate and college programming was intended to be terminal. based on historic design and redesigns, the ontario pse system has a complex set of parameters that shape the distinct sectors of college and university provision. aside from different funding models and governance structures, there are separate quality assurance mechanisms in ontario for public college, public university, and private sectors. each has its own criteria, frameworks, language, expectations and documentation. in fact, there are seven different sets of binding accountability and quality assurance mechanisms managed by five different bodies (lennon, 2014). aligning the different frameworks is challenging and there is little coordination and limited formal paths of communication between the agencies (though there are informal conversations). these factors confound straightforward understanding and comparison of programming (lennon et al., 2014; skolnik, 2016). one question raised about pathways is about whether or not some programs are providing foundational knowledge a solid base from which any more advanced program can be pursued (the us model), or if it is providing a technical foundation that can be applied through more specific training. this question is fundamental to the question of compatibility in vocational educational training in college diploma programs and bachelors degrees. page 13 of 60 it has been argued that, in ontario, a degree is not simply a diploma plus two years. the ontario tuning project, for example, found that two-year diploma programs may include student learning outcomes that are not necessarily part of a four-year bachelors degree (lennon et al., 2014). for example, in the physical sciences, students in the college programs have very strong technical skills in testing, characterization and manufacturing, which are not points of focus for students at the four-year degree level. skolnik (2016) examined 11 jurisdictions quality assurance systems for issues that may impact diversity of programming. his findings indicate that countries are able to maintain diversity between applied and academic programs either by having explicit outcomes for each sector or by having common learning outcomes broad enough to be applied to both applied and academic programs. however, research on the value of learning outcomes for system design (including issues of credit transfer), has shown the policies are generally ineffective (allais, 2007; allais, 2014; lennon, 2016), suggesting that learning outcomes have a long way to go before actively contributing to credit transfer. alternatively, learning outcomes may be insufficient on their own to support robust pathways and high levels of student transfer, requiring as well a range of policies and practices that support these outcomes (wheelahan 2011). 3.2.3 policy issues and strategic plans diversity and differentiation are central debates in ontario higher education currently. the notion of differentiation has been widely supported by government, the higher education quality council of ontario, and institutions themselves. it provides institutions with the opportunity to determine their strategic goals through strategic mandate agreements with the government. weingarten and deller (2010) note that institutions can be differentiated based on: structure such as size (large or small); funding (private or public); legislated mandate (undergraduate only or mixed undergraduate and graduate student bodies); the type of program offered such as research intensive or teaching intensive, technical/design school or comprehensive university; how research, teaching or services are provided by the institution(i.e. on-line or residential); institutional status, prestige or rankings; or, on the basis of differences in the composition of the student populations served (unilingual or bilingual, religious, mature students or direct from high school). there is a significant amount of literature on the promise and challenges of this model of system design. with the increasing variety of offerings, many scholars have noted that institutional diversity has, in fact, decreased: that there is a process of de-differentiation, or homogenisation, of institutions (birnbaum, 1983; neave, 1979; neave, 2000; vught, 2009). relevant to the current discussion on credit transfer, the 2000 post-secondary education choice and excellence act (2000), permitted both colleges and private postsecondary institutions to offer a baccalaureate-level degree. the new degrees were intended to be in applied areas of study to have a hands-on component, and lead directly to employment. while initially the college-provided degrees were terminal, they are now considered equal to a university-provided degree and students are entitled to apply to masters programs. page 14 of 60 in a 2011 report, the ontario-based higher education strategy associates (hesa) considered the pros and cons of college provided bachelors degree. the report identified the benefits of these degrees as the ability of such [college] organizations to serve an access agenda, as well as their ability to provide new, more applied (and hence labour market-oriented) options for degrees and, in some cases, lower government educational expenditures (higher education strategy associates, 2012. p. 16). another consideration noted by some of the critical friends interviewed for this project is that college degrees were developed in part because college students were having a hard time being admitted to university programming: lacking transfer opportunities, colleges started providing the programming. colleges introduction of baccalaureates also opened the system to wider competition for government funding, research dollars, and of course, students. it expanded the market of educational offerings. however, it is not clear that pathways in colleges will be markedly different from potential pathways between colleges and universities. some critical friends sought to reconcile colleges offering baccalaureates, in which they compete with universities, with the policy to expand student transfer from colleges to universities, which depends on close cooperation and high levels of trust between colleges and universities. others thought that there was not necessarily a contradiction between colleges offering degrees in some areas, while cooperating with universities through developing pathways in other areas. arguably, both outcomes are possible: collaboration may be diminished; but on the other hand, institutional partners could work together even if both were offering qualifications at the same credential level. policy clarity on how pathways and institutional partnerships relate to the governments aims for differentiation would be helpful, as governments response to this issue will shape institutional behaviour. 3.3 issues of coordination at the institutional level to this point, the discussion has been on government policies and actions that shape the higher education landscape and sway institutional behaviour. however, institutions themselves are critical actors, as large organisations that are increasingly (and necessarily) being run in a businesses-like manner (slaughter & rhoades, 2004). hence, there are issues in credit transfer and student mobility that are more grounded in realities of administering large organisations. understanding the lived experience helps to explain why there may be push back on what could be considered socially progressive policies from the government. the following section discusses practical issues of economics, competition and reputation and highlights the contrast between ideals of seamlessly supporting students compared to the realities of the resource-restricted environment in which institutions operate. 3.3.1 economics critical friends suggested two contradictory economic factors may influence universities decisions to increase their intakes of transfer students. most universities lower level undergraduate courses have high enrolments; bigger class sizes and many have a higher proportion of teaching done by contingent faculty who are less costly than tenured faculty. accordingly, departments generate surpluses in lower level courses which they may apply, for example, to maintaining options in higher levels which have smaller class sizes or lower teaching loads for faculty: first year students pay for the 4th year students. many transfer students are page 15 of 60 exempted from lower level studies, therefore accepting big numbers of transfer students would reduce the economy of scale for lower level courses and thus the attraction of accepting transfers. the contrary point put by some critical friends is that some upper level courses have smaller numbers of students and are marginally viable. admitting more transfer students would increase the number of senior students and thus the viability of upper level courses. nonetheless, universities admit from 2% to 5% of their commencing undergraduate students from college, yet the ontario government administers an enrolment corridor which allows universities to vary their enrolments by 5% without affecting their funding. arguably, most universities could increase their proportion of transfer students markedly without moving beyond the bounds of their funding corridor. another argument that speaks to sustainability is the considerable time and effort put into developing agreements and partnership. curriculum changes, which occur frequently, require constant upkeep of agreements. in another example of administrative and economic reality impacting policy goals is the time it takes to recognise credits. the issue of credits will be further discussed in section 4.4, but for the purpose of considering functional economic issues here, determining the amount of credit a student will receive takes a significant amount of time. because the number of students who apply for transfer is higher than the number of students who accept an offer, rational institutional cost minimization dictates that the administrative burden of assessing credits is done only after the student is enrolled. for the student, however, having advanced knowledge of the value of their credits may influence their decision-making, and therefore change patterns. waiting until the student is registered is less burdensome on the institution but more burdensome for the student. admitting students directly from high school is easier and less labour intensive than admitting transfer students. progression from high school to university is normalized for which systems have been established, automated and integrated. more students seek admission with the same high school credential so the effort in assessing the high school credential is amortized over many more students. in contrast, transfer students are still exceptional for most universities; systems have yet to be normalized and integrated, and because they have low volume most systems remain largely manual and thus labour intensive. transfer students present with a considerable diversity of credentials, often from different years. while ontario college credentials follow the same mandated curriculum, it affords colleges appropriate flexibility in content, presentation and pedagogy, which, however, requires separate assessment for credit. the default position for all parts of the university tends to be to deal with the main cases first, for example, by admitting students directly from school, and dealing with exceptions such as college transfers second when capacity allows. some critical friends suggested that these reasons may explain some universities admitting high school students before considering transfer students. 3.3.2 competition for students like much of postsecondary education policy and management, student transfer has very different dynamics outside large population centres such as the greater toronto area and page 16 of 60 ottawa-gatineau. it was put to us by some critical friends that competition for students is an obstacle to transfer in small population centres. it was suggested that universities which recruited students mainly regionally, or from a smaller catchment area, maximised opportunities for students for direct admission and that there were therefore fewer students who would enrol in college in the hope of transferring to university. it was further suggested that colleges would prefer to retain students until they had completed the colleges highest qualification rather than facilitate their transfer to university, which may result in an early transfer student being recorded as a drop out. it was said that such competition for students is likely to intensify with the fall in the number of students over the next decade who are traditional college and university going age. other critical friends, including critical friends at regional colleges and universities, put a contrary view to us. these friends informed us that regional universities were keen to enrol students who had proved themselves at college, that generally being smaller and younger, regional universities often had more flexibility to adapt academic and administrative requirements to suit transfer students and that the close interaction between college and university faculty and registrarial staff facilitated by a smaller city encouraged cooperation and coordination in student transfer, as in many other areas of the institutions activities. regional connections are therefore a significant issue in transfer discussions. one possibility discussed later is for regional partners to identify transfer pathways between programs that reflect each partners distinctive strengths and are complementary rather in direct competition. some critical friends suggested that some universities admit a low proportion of transfer students because admitting a high proportion of transfer students may reduce their standing amongst elite students, all of whom enter direct from high school. it is true that some high status universities admit a very low proportion of transfer students. but some high status universities, such as the highly selective campuses of the university of california (2014) system, select around 20% of their undergraduates as transfer students. another critical friend suggested that admitting many transfer students did not affect the standing of some high status universities permitting access to affiliated colleges, to satellite campuses or as part time students, which preserved the elite status of their mainstream entry. some college champions suggest that serving a transfer function lowers their status by reducing them to the status of a feeder institution, makes them subservient to receiving institutions and compromises their role in preparing graduates for direct entry to work. arguably this shifts their original mandate and role in supporting the development of the local labour force. however, this ignores the high status and independence of institutions that prepare graduates for admission to very selective educational destinations, such as high status schools and in the usa liberal arts colleges such as the little ivies and members of the oberlin group and the annapolis group. these institutions have high standing because of their success in preparing graduates for transfer to selective institutions and programs. students who proceed to higher education have a different outcome from those who proceed directly to work from graduation. but programs can and should prepare students for both further education and for work since all programs are likely to include students whose primary aim is to prepare for higher education as well as students whose primary aim is to prepare for work, and because many graduates who page 17 of 60 enter the workforce directly upon graduation are likely to seek to further their education later in their career (wheelahan 2016). 3.4 trust trust is one of the most important, yet intangible aspects of credit transfer. does one program or institution trust that another program or institution has provided good quality education, and that a student coming from the program has the skills to proceed in a new program? trust occurs at many levels. for the most part, the system trusts institutions to provide high quality education. the system (largely) self regulates through quality assurance measures. hence the government trusts that institutions are providing education appropriate for the level of each of their qualifications. there is reasonable though not complete trust with sectors due to common expectations and processes and shared experiences. colleges are expected to meet the same program standards and essential employability skills so that there is a common expectation of curriculum content and level at which the student is operating. this supports the transfer of students between colleges when this is sought. the university sector has traditionally been responsible for its own programming, and that autonomy has allowed institutions to independently accept student and credits. hence, mobility within the sector is somewhat straightforward (though transferring to different programs is an issue discussed in more detail below). in 2012 a group of seven ontario universities formed a university credit transfer consortium which allows students to count any first year arts and science course taken for credit at a participating university for general credit at their home institution (cnw group 2012). trust between sectors is harder to establish and maintain because of each sectors lack of familiarity and interaction with the other sector and thus uncertainty about what occurs in the other sector. this uncertainty reduces trust in the other sectors curriculum, quality and the ability of transfer students. consequently moving between the two sectors is more difficult than moving within the sectors. in some cases a universitys uncertainty about a colleges curriculum in a core area led not to a conversation between the university and college faculty, but to the university insisting on a high school grade in a subject covered in the college diploma (arnold, 2015). page 18 of 60 4. mobility: students, pathways and credits having laid out the primary policy areas in the previous section, this section considers the way students are moving through the system, the ways pathways are being developed to support them, and how credits are awarded. 4.1 current mobility trends there are significant challenges in student mobility, credit transfer and articulation. there is a good deal of movement across provincial boundaries. in a survey of 40 universities across the nation, it was found that 18% of students lost prior credits when transferring to another province (heath 2012a). similar research within ontario highlights that students transferring institutions within the province are also likely to lose prior credits particularly if they are transferring from a college to university (heath 2012b). for decades, in most provinces in canada credit transfer has been negotiated between courses individually (junor and usher 2008), and many provinces are still developing course-to-course credit transfer using course hour equivalences. for these and other reasons the nature and structure of pathways differs between areas of study, preventing the development of a uniform approach to developing pathways. nonetheless, the demand for student transfer is likely to remain strong. decock (2004) cites credentialism as that the reason for higher student demand for transfer: higher demand for university programming across the board means that college bound students also see the degree as the pinnacle. similarly, the degree becomes more attractive to students when college trained and university trained individuals are competing for the same jobs. hence the economy and the structure of work plays a role in transfer and mobility, which suggests that having high or low transfer rates is not necessarily good or bad, but relative to the needs of students and the economy (moodie, 2003). lesage et al (2014) also note that transfer may have increased as more students use college as preparation for universities, and noting their plan to transfer from college to university and are actively trying to gain credit for past educational achievements. future student transfer is likely to be further influenced by changing demographics and institutional policies. the ontario education number will support a much fuller and richer analysis of transfer patterns. 4.2 access and accessibility access and accessibility to higher education are slightly different concepts. access suggests any qualified individual has the opportunity to attend a postsecondary institution. polices to support access focus on disadvantaged groups, or groups that have a proportionally lower presence in postsecondary education such as low-income or aboriginal students in ontario. access policies are often about supporting student choice to attend postsecondary education. accessibility, on the other hand, is arguably more practical. a student may encounter obstacles or difficulties in exercising their theoretical right of access in gaining admission to a program or institution, and then being able to physically attend. issues of accessibility have long been a priority for the ontario government given the disparate population across the province, page 19 of 60 particularly in the northern region. contact north is a network that supports online and distance education for k-12 and college level programming, and the newly developed ontario online network of university degree programs will provide high quality programming from ontarios best lecturers. the availability of online education is one way of ensuring that all regions have equal (or equitable) education opportunities, but face-to-face education is still the primary mode of delivery, particularly for inexpert or disadvantaged students (moore, shulock, ceja and lang, 2007). and, as frenette points out, geographic proximity is a major factor in decision-making about attending postsecondary education, particularly for lower income individuals (frenette, 2004; frenette, 2006). his research found that canadian low-income high school students were more likely to attend a nearby college than move away to university. he found that students would readily commute from 0 to 40 kilometres, possibly commute from 40 to 80 kms and that they would rarely commute beyond 80 kms. the research determined that when no university is nearby students from lower income families are fare less likely to attend than students from upper incomes families (frenette, 2004. p. 17). thus, there is a strong social equity issue in accessibility. students from smaller communities are more likely to start their postsecondary education close to home, but they should have the opportunity to transfer elsewhere. for example, students from northern ontario may choose to start their postsecondary education but move south for a wider variety of educational opportunities. another issue of accessibility is the acceptance rate of an institution. the differentiation strategy under which ontario institutions are operating promotes excellence by allowing institutions to set their own priorities. some may choose not to broaden access further in favour of developing as a smaller niche institution. however, the impact on potential students in the proximate/commutable region must be considered. 4.3 depth and breadth of pathways pathways can be developed in a number of different ways, and it is beyond the scope of this literature review to provide detailed examples. however, many partnerships are arranged by programs and institutions acting with only one or perhaps a handful of partners. lesage et al. (2014)) observe that various transfer, or pathway programs, that emerged within ontario were typically institution or program-specific and often without the guidance of provincially mandated guidelines. cmec (2012) notes, for example, that between 2009 and 2012, the number of credit transfer pathways in ontario increased by 30%. the assumption is that if pathways are developed students will use them. pathways are rarely developed based on market research that has found that there is strong student demand for the pathway. nor are pathways usually developed in response to the labour market or to reflect broader quality assurance and accreditation structures. for example, mitchel et al., (2013) suggest that articulation agreements change only the periphery, not the core relationship between the sectors or the underlying system factors that help or hinder students achieve their goals. page 20 of 60 university systems are much better at handling students who follow a standard pattern that is followed by most other students. handling exceptions can rarely be automated, they often fall outside standard policies, they may require the exercise of expert judgment and they may require the exercise of discretion which may require an additional level of approval. exceptions are therefore almost always much more expensive to manage than the norm. critical friends said that admitting students direct from school is the standard pattern which universities handle much more readily, cheaply and efficiently than transfers from college who are a small minority of students admitted by ontario universities. all parts of universities, from faculty to staff and from academic departments to registrars officers find it much more efficient to handle students who follow the main patterns. the default position for all parts of the university tends to be to deal with the main cases first, for example, by admitting students directly from school, and dealing with exceptions such as college transfers second when capacity allows. work in a different context (moodie, 2009; moodie, wheelahan, billett and kelly, 2009) suggests that a group of students needs to be around 20% of total students to warrant establishing standard policies, procedures and systems to handle them efficiently. clearly transfer students are way below this tipping point (grodzins, 1958) and so will need to continue to be managed as exceptions for the foreseeable future. 4.4 the value of credits there are different ways in evaluating the success of pathways. one is by the number of pathways that are established, another is by the number of students who use them, and a third is by the number of credits that are awarded. all are important, and may vary in relation to each other. for example, an interesting finding from kerr et al.s (2010) report on credit transfer in ontario is that while there are fewer students moving between programs and institutions in ontario than the rest of canada, the amount of credit that is provided may actually be higher. unfortunately the data did not allow kerr and colleagues to distinguish students transferring with complete or incomplete qualifications and thus needing to transfer different amounts of credit. nevertheless it seems that lower numbers of ontario students were repeating courses, which suggests that the pathways are working well or that much of the mobility in ontario is post- graduation when they are not trying to gain credit recognition. noting the same trends in his own research heath (2012b) distinguished between two types of ontarios students calling them transfer students when they are given credit and mobile when they move after graduating from another program and credit is not provided (p. 17). he notes that 80% of a sample of ontario students received credit for previous education, which is considerably more than the systems in other jurisdictions which may have been established with an explicit transfer function. this suggests that the articulation agreements in ontario are doing their job and benefitting students as they are receiving credit for their previous work and likely following the pathway. one systematic issue that can confound smooth transitions is how the educational process is conceptualised and operationalised. the higher education strategy associates (2011) note that a significant issue in ontario is the lack of a common definition of a credit. this is a confounding issue, where some universities give credit for 24 hours of classroom time (2 hours/week x 12 page 21 of 60 weeks), while others require 39 (3 hours/week x 13 weeks). this certainly confounds transfer arrangements. because of the complicated systems of credit accumulation, equivalencies and independence in decisions on how much is accepted, there is no data that provides system level information on the amount of credit transfer. oncats database provides information on what each pathway is willing to accept, but the variety and nuance of each makes any comparisons impossible. hence, the focus of this research is on student mobility and pathways rather than credit transfer. and, arguably, it is important to consider how student mobility and pathways can be supported as key issues in their own right. 4.5 summary in undertaking this work we recognise that while simple in concept, the realities of student mobility, transfer and pathways policy work is not so straightforward. furthermore there are challenges of working with system level policies and data collection, of the need to respect intuitional and programmatic autonomy, as well as practicalities of everyday operations in the institutions. we note the importance of structural and political confines of the system under which we operate. in ontario we work with the binary sectors of colleges and university that have different understandings, terms, policies and procedures that dictate many issues and confound many conversations. also important are the more complex issues that ontarios system contends with such as the policy push for differentiation and the pressure on colleges to both support mobility of their students by partnering with universities, while at the same time being urged develop degrees in order to support both educational and occupational progression and access within the institutions. these issues highlight the political realities of institutions, where issues of reputation, economics and competition are foremost in the minds of leaderships. certainly, there are everyday administrative hurdles, which, in any policy are the can confound success. regardless of how sound a policy goal is, if it is too burdensome to implement it will be circumvented. for example, it is recognised that there would be benefit to telling students which, and how many, credits they will receive at the same time as they receive their acceptance. this doesnt happen because the administrative significant cost of preparing that information, and not all students who receive acceptance letters actually attend. thus, the institution saves money by doing it after the fact only for the students that attend. of course this is a sound business decision, but it circumvents the system wide goals. what these examples intend to highlight, is that it is often small actions, or inactions, that can shape the ways a policy works and the system operates, and sometimes its important to take a step back to remember the goal and then to see if the policy activities are working to achieve that goal. and that was the intention of our research. we wanted to examine mobility trends and pathways developments to see if they are supporting the achievement of the ultimate goals. the development of pathways and partnership agreements has been one of the primary policy page 22 of 60 priority in the past 10 years, and a main policy directive for both oncat and the ontario government overall. hence our work focuses on policy and partnerships to determine what type of impact they were having on the system. we wanted to understand what types of pathways were being developed, in what programs, and how was that impacting student mobility. our goal was -and is to take what weve learned and make it useful to the policy makers and implementers. page 23 of 60 5. methods the data used to inform this project came from four sources. data from the 2013 national graduates survey (ngs) was used to depict pathways-by-fields which had the most student traffic, as well as the fields that acted as senders and receivers of transfer students. a second data source was the 2013/2014 graduate satisfaction survey (gss) of college graduates that captures college graduates who transferred into another program in a university. the oncat dataset that holds information on pathways available to students via formal arrangements was examined to see how many, what type, and between what programs/institutions, partnerships arraignments exist. finally, through using google maps, an analysis of the distance between partner institutions was performed. the aim was to get a sense of transfer-student pathway use, and whether distance played a role in mediating this use. the following sections will briefly discuss these data sources, and a fuller discussion of the methodology can be found in appendix b. the following lines of inquiry were explored: 1) what receiving pathway agreements did public universities have with their sending college partners? 2) were these receiving pathways for specific qualifications and fields of education, or for generic pathways that did not specify the field of education of the sending and receiving qualification? 3) how geographically close were the pathway partners and thus how practical were articulated pathways? 4) how heavily are the pathways used? to get a sense of the current landscape of existing transfer articulation within ontario postsecondary education, these questions were examined at the system level and at the institutional level where institutional profiles of each ontario postsecondary institution were developed.2 as the report takes the position that college-to-university transfer represents social mobility, the data represented in this main report will focus on the college-to-university pathways, and will draw from data summarized from the university institutional profiles. each institutional profile depicts the institution as a receiver of transfer students. a typical university institutional profile will show what paths currently exist for college students, both seen by sending institution, and by sending program. 2 institutional profiles were constructed for 22 publicly funded universities and 24 publicly funded colleges. institutional profiles for each college can be found in appendix c and for each university in appendix d. page 24 of 60 5.1 data sources 2013 national graduates survey (ngs) one of the datasets in this study is from the 2013 national graduates survey (ngs) class of 2009/2010 conducted by statistics canada from april 2nd to september 1st, 2013. the survey was designed by statistics canada to investigate the links between postsecondary education and the labour market. it collects data such as students field of education, their level of qualification and their employment three years after graduation. the full dataset of ngs 2013 contains 28,715 records and more than 900 original and derived variables. the survey uses a stratified random sample design. the sample of 28,715 graduates was drawn from a population of 431,921 graduates who completed the requirements of an admissible program some time in 2009-10 from a recognized public postsecondary canadian institution and who were living in canada or the united states at the time of the survey (with the exception of us citizens living in the united states at the time of the survey) (statistics canada, 2014). using the application of a weight variable provided by statistics canada, weight estimates were obtained for the entire population. readers should note that the credential type (i.e. diploma, advanced diploma, bachelors degree, masters degree) is not captured in this data. also, as the data only captures credential holders, it does not capture students who transfer during their program, or students who withdrew from a program and re-entered postsecondary education. ontario college graduate satisfaction survey student transfer data were gathered as a secondary analysis from a study performed by colleagues at seneca college, which used the 2013/2014 ontario college graduate satisfaction survey (gss). broadly, the graduate satisfaction student survey is administered 6 months after graduation, and details graduates satisfaction with their college education in achieving their post-graduate goals, whether it be in securing future employment or in continued education (mccloy & liu, 2010). data received from seneca colleagues summarized 2013-14 ontario caat/college graduates who reported attending university full or part time and enrolled in any credential six months after graduation. around half of college graduates responded to the gss. the team assumed that non-respondents had the same characteristics as respondents and so doubled the number of students who reported transferring to estimate the total population of transferring students. we recognise this is a somewhat rough and ready calculation, but we were interested in trajectories rather than precise numbers. moreover, this is the only data that is readily accessible, until data from the ontario education number is available for researchers to explore. from the estimated total number of student transfers the team calculated an approximate transfer student-per-pathway ratio to illustrate the magnitude of student traffic per pathway agreement. the research team understands that the transfer student-per-pathway ratios may not reflect an accurate reality of transfer student numbers for institutions, as the data is limited by virtue of secondary analysis, as well as recoding of an open ended other field as performed by seneca colleagues. moreover, the data do not capture transfer students who enrolled in a university program without finishing their college credential, or college graduates who enrol in a university program more than a year after they complete their college credential. it is therefore important to stress that the estimated number of total transfer students and the approximate ratios of graduate per pathway may not reflect accurately actual graduates per pathway. the data will therefore be used only to suggest trends in transfer student mobility. page 25 of 60 oncat pathway articulation data set the team obtained a comprehensive dataset outlining all articulation agreements of ontario post-secondary institutions from the ontario council of articulation and transfer (oncat). examining only approved articulation agreements; the team coded generic pathways as a pathway that articulated transfer from a non-specific sending program, and specific pathways were pathways that articulated transfer from a discipline-specific sending program to another discipline-specific program. some distinctions must be made here regarding the language of generic and specific pathway counts used in the reports. the research team wanted to approach the transfer pathway analysis not from an institutional perspective, but from a student perspective. the aim was to ask the question, what pathways are available to students should they wish to transfer, and would field of study matter? so to draw some comparisons, pathways as defined by institutions as multi-lateral systems pathways agreements were similar to what we defined as generic pathways for students. in other words, regardless of prior of field of study, as long as students had a college credential (i.e. any 2 year of 3 year diploma) these would be the available routes for them at the receiving institution. bilateral, or direct entry programmes, were similar to specific pathways. that is, they linked a specific college program in a specific field of study with a specific degree in (usually the same) field of study in the partner university. this means, for example, that students could use an arts transfer pathway at the receiving institution, if they had a college credential in a specific field of study. the research team then consulted institutions to provide feedback of the profiles developed, to ensure that the profile we had developed for their institution reflected the pathways they had registered with oncat. a limitation identified by this data source is that not all institutions responded to this consultative process, and not all institutions regularly update oncat with their more recent transfer pathway agreements. thus the data portrayed within institutional profiles may not reflect the most recent portrait of transfer pathways offered. the study is therefore limited to just the data made available through oncat, and the feedback received from institutional partners through the consultation process. geographical proximity data in line with question 3, the team was interested in understanding how feasible these pathways were for students to follow by commuting from their initial institution. distances (in kilometres) and commuting time (in hours) between sending and receiving institutions were calculated with google maps (a more thorough discussion can be found in appendix b). informed by previous work done by frennette (2004), reasonable commuting parameters were considered around 80 km or 1 hour commuting time. to deal with institutions that had multiple campuses, the team chose the campus the institution designated as its main campus as the institutions point of reference; if this wasnt specified, the campus that hosted the most students or offered the most programs was used. this is a limitation of the study since smaller campuses may be distant from the main campus. page 26 of 60 page 27 of 60 6. data analysis and findings 6.1. ontario student transfer patterns by broad and narrow fields the following tables present significant patterns of transfer by canadian postsecondary education graduates who returned to postsecondary education for another credential and graduated in 2009. using 2013 national graduates survey (ngs) data, the first four tables summarize student trajectories by broad field of study (for example, health and related fields), and the last four tables feature the subfields of the 2009 credential (for example, health medical assisting) for both the broad field and subfield flows, student movement is captured in 4 ways: 1) 2) 3) 4) students moving from a college credential to a college credential students moving from a college credential to a university credential students moving from a university credential to a college credential students moving from a university credential to a university credential. the five biggest field-pathway flows with the most student volume are depicted. two time points must be noted within this analysis, credentials obtained in 2009/2010, and credentials obtained prior to 2009/2010. the tables summarize the fields of study in which students obtained their first/prior credential, and the percentage of this population who continued on into their 2009/2010 credential. the purpose of this juxtaposition is to see which fields of study are the big senders and which are the big receivers of transfer students. table 2 shows that the five most travelled transfer flows for 46% of college graduates who completed another college credential are generally within the same broad fields, with 59% of architecture, engineering, and related technologies college to college transfer graduates getting their second college qualification in the same field. the same goes for health and related fields graduates, with 56% of college to college transfer graduates continuing in the same field, and 35% of business, management, and public administration college to college transfer graduates staying in the same field. other important transfer flows were between the broad fields of health and related fields and business, management, and public administration (29%), and between the broad fields of business, management, and public administration, and social and behavioural sciences and languages (24%). page 28 of 60 table 2: five most travelled flows of canadian college graduates who subsequently received an ontario college credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent broad field number of college proportion who field of prior credential graduates who obtained field of 2009 credential obtained their 2009 (sending field) a 2009 college (receiving field) college credential in the credential receiving field architecture, architecture, engineering, and related 2,220 engineering, and related 59% technologies technologies health and related fields 2,100 health and related fields 56% business, management health and related fields 2,100 and public 29% administration business, management business, management and public 2,280 and public 35% administration administration business, management social and behavioural and public 2,280 24% sciences and languages administration total number of transfer graduates: 9,640 the five most travelled transfer flows for 48% of college graduates completing a subsequent university qualification are shown in table 3. most (57%) of college to university transfer graduates from business, management, and public administration completed their second qualification in the same field, while 29% opted to do so in humanities. humanities also serve as a strong receiving field (61%) for social and behavioural sciences and languages college to university transfer graduates. also of note, though the numbers are smaller, the great majority (72%) of health and related fields college to university transfer graduates completed their second qualification in the same field. finally, the fifth most travelled transfer flow is in the broad field of humanities, with 55% of the college humanities transfer graduates getting a subsequent social and behavioural sciences and languages university qualification. table 3: five most travelled flows of canadian college graduates who subsequently received an ontario university credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent broad field proportion who number of college obtained their 2009 field of prior credential graduates who obtained field of 2009 credential university credential in (sending field) a 2009 university (receiving field) the credential receiving field business, management business, management and public 2,760 and public 57% administration administration business, management and public 2,760 humanities 29% administration social and behavioural 1,680 humanities 61% sciences and languages health and related fields 860 health and related fields 72% social and behavioural humanities 760 55% sciences and languages total number of transfer graduates: 9,160 page 29 of 60 table 4 shows the five most travelled pathways used by 50% of the university graduates transferring to complete a subsequent college qualification. important flows exist within the broad field of social and behavioural sciences and languages, with 35% of university to college transfer graduates staying in the same broad field, and 49% of university to college transfer graduates completing a qualification in business, management, and public administration. humanities also serve as a strong sending field. 40% of humanities university to college transfer graduates got a university qualification in business, management, and public administration, and 23% got theirs in social and behavioural sciences and languages. also of note, 62% of physical and life science university to college transfer graduates got their second qualification in health and related fields. table 4: five most travelled flows of canadian university graduates who subsequently received an ontario college credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent broad field number of university proportion who field of prior credential graduates who obtained field of 2009 credential obtained their 2009 (sending field) a 2009 college (receiving field) college credential in the credential receiving field business, management social and behavioural 2,200 and public 49% sciences and languages administration social and behavioural social and behavioural 2,200 35% sciences and languages sciences and languages business, management humanities 1,640 and public 40% administration physical and life sciences 1,060 health and related fields 62% and technologies social and behavioural humanities 1,640 23% sciences and languages total number of transfer graduates: 7,020 important transfer flows are also found within the university sector (including into masters and phd). table 5 shows the five most travelled ones, which account for 36% of the transfer graduates. of those, three are within the same broad field. 38% of university to university social and behavioural sciences and languages transfer graduates stayed in the same field. a rather higher 68% of health and related fields graduates moved within the same broad field and physical and life sciences was also relatively high (41%). education serves as a strong receiving field for university to university transfer graduates from humanities (39%) and social and behavioural sciences and languages (22%). table 5: five most travelled flows of canadian university graduates who subsequently received an ontario university credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent broad field proportion who number of university obtained their 2009 field of prior credential graduates who field of 2009 credential university credential in (sending field) obtained a 2009 (receiving field) the university credential receiving field social and behavioural social and behavioural 7,360 38% sciences and languages sciences and languages humanities 5,880 education 39% page 30 of 60 field of prior credential (sending field) number of university graduates who obtained a 2009 university credential health and related fields 2,940 physical and life sciences 4,380 and technologies social and behavioural 7,360 sciences and languages total number of transfer graduates: 29,240 field of 2009 credential (receiving field) health and related fields proportion who obtained their 2009 university credential in the receiving field 68% physical and life sciences 41% education 22% 6.1.1. movement between broad field to subfield by sector (ngs 2013) the next set of tables show the most travelled transfer flows between sectors, as in the previous section. this time though, the receiving fields have been narrowed down to subfields more closely related to occupations. table 6 shows the most travelled transfer flows for 35% of the college graduates who then obtained a second college qualification. 50% of college to college architecture, engineering, and related technologies transfer graduates obtained a second technician qualification, while another 20% chose business. a good proportion (31%) of health and related fields college to college transfer graduates obtained a second college credential in health medical assisting. in a similar fashion, 28% of business, management, and public administration college graduates got their second college credential in business. finally, another important pathway exists between business, management, and public administration, and social and behavioural sciences (23%). table 6: five most travelled flows of canadian college graduates who subsequently received an ontario college credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent subfield number of college proportion who field of prior credential graduates who field of 2009 credential obtained their 2009 (sending field) obtained a 2009 college (receiving field) college credential in the credential receiving field architecture, engineering, 2,300 technician 50% and related technologies health and related fields 2,060 health medical assisting 31% business, management and 1,980 business 28% public administration architecture, engineering, 2,300 business 20% and related technologies business, management and social and behavioural 1,980 23% public administration sciences total number of transfer graduates: 9,400 the five most travelled transfer flows for graduates between college and university, and counting for 49% of those transfer graduates, are shown in table 7. business, humanities, and social and behavioural sciences are strong receiving fields. business, management, and public administration sees 55% of its college to university transfer graduates getting their second credential in business, and 29% in humanities. for the broad field of social and behavioural sciences and languages, a majority (60%) of its college to university transfer graduates obtain their second qualification in humanities. beyond these three flows, transfer graduates numbers page 31 of 60 drop significantly for the next two, yet both flows point to the same receiving field. humanities is an important sending field for social and behavioural sciences (56%), but so is personal services, with 46% of their college to university transfer graduates obtaining their second qualification in social and behavioural sciences. table 7: five most travelled flows of canadian college graduates who subsequently received an ontario university credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent subfield proportion who number of college obtained their 2009 field of prior credential graduates who field of 2009 credential university credential in (sending field) obtained a 2009 (receiving field) the university credential receiving field business, management and business 2,780 55% public administration social and behavioural humanities 1,700 60% sciences and languages business, management and humanities 2,780 29% public administration social and behavioural humanities 720 56% sciences social and behavioural personal services 820 46% sciences total number of transfer graduates: 8,440 table 8 shows the most travelled pathways by university graduates who transfer to college to get a subsequent qualification. these five pathways are important pathways that are used by 38% of the total number of graduates with a prior university qualification who subsequently graduated from a college credential in 2009. business is a strong receiving field for social and behavioural sciences and languages, with 32% of university to college transfer graduates coming from that field, and for humanities, with 37% of their university to college transfer graduates pursuing a second qualification in business. some 25% of social and behavioural sciences and languages university to college transfer graduates also choose social and behavioural sciences as a subsequent college qualification, as well as human services (18%). finally, 42% of physical and life sciences and technologies university to college transfer graduates choose health medical assisting for their subsequent college qualification. table 8: five most travelled flows of canadian university graduates who subsequently received an ontario college credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent subfield number of university proportion who field of prior credential graduates who obtained field of 2009 credential obtained their 2009 (sending field) a 2009 college (receiving field) college credential in the credential receiving field social and behavioural business 2,160 32% sciences and languages humanities 1,720 business 37% social and behavioural social and behavioural 2,160 25% sciences and languages sciences physical and life sciences health medical assisting 1,040 42% and technologies social and behavioural 2,160 human services 18% page 32 of 60 field of prior credential (sending field) number of university graduates who obtained field of 2009 credential a 2009 college (receiving field) credential proportion who obtained their 2009 college credential in the receiving field sciences and languages total number of transfer graduates: 7,040 for university to university transfer graduates five most travelled transfer flows, which account for 24% of university graduates who went on and obtained a subsequent university qualification, table 9 shows humanities is a strong sending field. some 23% of humanities university to university transfer graduates stay within the same field, 21% choose teacher education as a subsequent subfield, and 17% choose education other. a strong pathway is found within social and behavioural sciences, where 25% of the social and behavioural sciences and languages university to university transfer graduates stay within social and behavioural sciences for their subsequent qualification. a similar pattern is also found within physical and life sciences, where 30% of physical and life science and technology university to university transfer graduates obtain their subsequent qualification in the physical and life sciences subfield. table 9: five most travelled flows of canadian university graduates who subsequently received an ontario university credential in 2009, by broad field and subsequent subfield proportion who number of university obtained their 2009 field of prior credential graduates who obtained field of 2009 credential university credential in (sending field) a 2009 university (receiving field) the credential receiving field social and behavioural social and behavioural 6,760 25% sciences and languages sciences humanities 5,840 humanities 23% humanities 5,840 education teacher 21% physical and life sciences 4,060 physical and life sciences 30% and technologies humanities 5,840 education other 17% total number of transfer graduates: 27,180 6.2 ontario institutional activities table 10 presents a summary of the information found in the institutional profiles3, focusing on the relation between colleges as sending institutions and universities as receiving institutions. the table shows great variations between receiving universities. most universities have partnerships with the great majority of ontario colleges, with the exception of queens university, the university of toronto, and the university of waterloo, which have very few partnerships. the number of generic pathways between sending colleges and receiving universities also shows great variation. some universities have only specific pathways, while other universities have generic pathways for all two or three year college programs. as with most pathways between colleges and universities in ontario, transfer students must first win admission to the degree through a competitive entry process before they are awarded credit in 3 found in appendices c and d page 33 of 60 the degree for their college program. although the number of specific pathways is similar to the number of generic pathways, the distribution of these is quite different, and in most cases complementary, to the distribution of generic pathways, pointing to a possible strategic choice differentiating universities. for example, lakehead university has no generic pathway and 574 specific ones, while york university has 1,929 generic pathways and 31 specific ones. in general however, universities tend to offer more specific pathways than generic ones, as can be seen by looking at the medians and the means for those two variables. the total number of pathways, generic or specific, follows from the previous trends mentioned. of note, the variability remains very high, with some universities having very few or no pathways for transfer students, even when adding together generic and specific pathway agreements. based on the results of the graduate satisfaction survey of ontario college graduates, the team also compiled data showing the estimated number of students per pathway. as the data shows, the numbers are quite low, with high variations. the median is 1.3 students per pathway, while the mean is pulled upwards by universities receiving a high number of transfer students in a select number of pathways. of interest, universities with a number of generic pathways above the median do not have, with the sole exception of brock university, a number of specific pathways above the median. a similar pattern is found for specific pathways. more pathways do not lead to more transfer, except for ryerson university and york university, which have a number of pathways far exceeding the other universities and also more transfer students, though their student per pathway ratio, as measured in the last column, is among the lowest of the sample. the university of toronto is also unusual. it is a very big university but accepts only an estimated 256 transfer students, between the median and mean for all ontario universities. however, the university of toronto has only 7 pathways, giving an unusually high estimate of 37 students per pathway. table 10: summary of partnerships and generic and specific pathways between sending colleges and receiving universities, by university, ontario estimated estimated number number number total number of number of receiving of college of generic of specific number of college students university partnerships pathways pathways pathways transfer per students pathway algoma 24 120 430 550 84 0.2 brock 24 48 196 244 306 1.4 carleton 24 0 229 229 248 1.1 lakehead 24 0 574 574 270 0.5 laurentian 25 66 258 324 262 0.8 mcmaster 25 0 131 131 194 1.5 nipissing 24 24 156 180 240 1.3 ocad 14 0 14 14 48 3.4 queens 0 0 0 0 34 0.0 *ryerson 54 1,863 538 2,399 658 0.3 trent 22 5 132 137 206 1.5 guelph 24 1 136 137 208 1.5 uoit 25 192 1,065 1,257 322 0.3 ottawa 24 48 58 106 384 3.6 toronto 5 5 2 7 256 36.6 waterloo 10 1 11 12 104 8.0 windsor 25 6 300 306 168 0.5 page 34 of 60 receiving university western wilfrid laurier york total median mean standard deviation lowest value highest value 56 132 estimated number of college transfer students 278 174 estimated number of students per pathway 5.0 1.3 31 4,404 134 220.2 262.4 1,960 8,755 159 437.8 665.2 834 5278 244.0 263.9 190.2 0.4 69.1 1.3 3.5 8.0 0 0 0 34 0.0 1,929 1,065 2,399 834 36.6 number of college partnerships number of generic pathways number of specific pathways total number of pathways 18 23 2 43 54 89 29 443 24 22.2 10.6 1,929 4,353 6 217.7 576.2 0 54 *ryerson university counts include both college and university partnerships/pathways also of interest to the team were the number of pathway agreements and transfer of students between institutions within commuting distance. the data compiled for the analysis of partnerships and pathways between sending colleges and receiving universities can be expanded to look more closely at the institutions within commuting distances from one another (usually within 80 km). table 11 presents results similar to those presented in the preceding table (9), but only for institutions within commuting distance. ontario universities have between one and ten colleges within commuting distance, with the majority having between 1 and 3 colleges in commuting distance, and the universities located in southern ontario having between 6 and 10 colleges within commuting distance. overall, universities have very few pathways with colleges within commuting distance. the median of the overall number of pathways is 16%. also of interest, universities have very few generic pathways with colleges within commuting distance, with a median of one generic pathway, while they have typically three (median) colleges within commuting distance. however, student transfer data from the graduate satisfaction survey shows that students transfer in great numbers to universities within commuting distance, with a median of 64%. similar patterns can be discerned from the data, with universities favouring either generic or specific pathways, or none, but not both, with the exception of uoit. the number of generic pathways is significantly smaller than the number of specific ones, if one removes york university from the sample. also of note, although ryerson university showed a great number of generic pathways with colleges, it has no generic pathway with the seven colleges within commuting distance. the number of pathway agreements does not seem to be influenced by the number of proximate colleges, as percentages of pathways varying across the universities. finally, the table shows that a significant percentage of students transfer between proximate institutions, while the percentage of pathways between proximate institutions remains small. page 35 of 60 table 11: summary of partnerships and generic and specific pathways between proximate sending colleges and receiving universities, by university, ontario number number total percentage number of percentage number of generic of specific number of of transfer of transfer receiving of pathways pathways pathways pathways students student university proximate with with with with from from colleges proximate proximate proximate proximate proximate proximate colleges colleges colleges colleges colleges colleges algoma 1 5 31 36 7% 32 38% brock 3 6 48 54 22% 834 55% carleton 2 0 41 41 18% 196 79% lakehead 2 0 36 36 6% 60 22% laurentian 2 3 43 46 14% 116 44% mcmaster 7 0 30 30 23% 144 74% nipissing 1 1 8 9 5% 64 27% ocad 7 0 7 7 50% 40 83% queens 2 0 0 0 0% 10 29% ryerson 7 0 118 118 5% 620 94% trent 2 4 49 53 39% 84 41% guelph 6 1 41 42 31% 148 71% uoit 6 32 263 295 23% 114 35% ottawa 2 4 9 13 12% 320 83% toronto 7 0 6 6 86% 230 90% waterloo 3 0 1 1 8% 44 42% windsor 1 0 30 30 10% 96 57% western 2 2 30 32 57% 216 78% wilfrid 3 4 9 13 10% 122 70% laurier york total median mean standard deviation lowest value highest value 10 76 3 3.8 2.7 658 720 1 36.0 146.6 21 821 30 41.1 58.5 679 1,541 34 77.1 155.7 35% 16% 23% 22% 802 4,292 119 214.6 246.6 96% 64% 61% 24%% 1 0 0 0 0% 10 22%% 10 658 263 679 86% 834 96% page 36 of 60 7. discussion of research findings using data from the national graduate survey, the oncat pathway articulation dataset, and estimates of students transfer from college to university (using the proxy of student transfer numbers in the graduate satisfaction survey), this research has presented results using those sources and presenting findings about student transfer patterns, pathways between colleges and universities, and geographic trends, and will now discuss those findings. 7.1 ontario student transfer patterns by broad and narrow fields the data presented in tables 2 to 9 for the top five student pathways used by graduates show several important patterns. first, they are of similar size, but only when we exclude university to university transfer from bachelors degree to masters, and from masters to phd qualifications. second, 11 of the top 20 pathways are not within the same broad field of study. this suggests that more attention should be given to articulation between complementary programs in different broad fields. the other nine of the 20 top pathways are within the same broad field of study. these are: architecture, engineering, and related technologies (college to college only); business, management, and public administration (college to college and college to university); health and related fields (college to college, college to university, and university to university); social and behavioural sciences and languages (university to college and university to university); and physical and life sciences (university to university only). of these, only health and related fields show a steady upward transfer pattern across sectors. third, there are strong transfer flows between the three broad fields of humanities, social and behavioural sciences and languages, and business, management, and public administration, with 11 of the 20 top pathways involving those fields. these three broad fields are both strong sending fields and strong receiving fields. these results should guide institutions in their efforts to offer meaningful pathways that are likely to be used by graduates as they pursue a new credential. 7.2 ontario pathway articulation dataset and institutional profiles tables 10 and 11 presented summary data on pathway agreements between sending colleges and receiving universities. the data show first that institutions have approached pathway agreements with different strategies, resulting in very different patterns of generic and specific agreements. some universities favour generic pathway agreements, while other universities prefer specific pathway agreements. the data point to generic pathways having more impact on student use. however, the data is largely driven by ryerson university and york university, which have emphasized generic pathways to a greater extent (around 1,900 generic pathways) than other universities (around 50 generic pathways). yet, these two outliers show low ratios of estimated students per pathway, while still the highest number of transfer students compared to other ontario universities. page 37 of 60 these results lead to questions of efficiency. what remain unclear from the data are the effort and the costs involved in drawing generic or specific agreements. generic agreements would likely require less effort and lower costs to build than specific ones, but probably more to administer, as each individual case needs a more thorough assessment. the data presented thus far do not take the size of the institution into account. table 12 shows the estimated number of college transfer students, drawn from the graduate satisfaction survey of ontario college graduates, as well as the number of first year incoming students, which allows to control for size and obtain the percentage of transfer students in relation to the number of first year students. first, there is no relation between the size of the institution and the number of pathways. second, smaller universities tend to receive a greater percentage of transfer students than larger universities. also of note, the percentages of estimated transfer students are for the most part resoundingly small, with a median of 1%. table 12: summary of pathways agreements and transfer student populations, by university, ontario estimated number estimated transfer st receiving total number number of 1 year of college transfer students as a % of 4 university of pathways students students ftes algoma 550 84 219 38.4% brock 244 306 3,394 9.0% carleton 229 248 4,884 5.1% lakehead 574 270 1,150 23.5% laurentian 324 262 1,512 17.3% mcmaster 131 194 5,313 3.7% nipissing 180 240 518 46.3% ocad 14 48 825 5.8% queens 0 34 4,195 0.8% *ryerson 2,496 658 6,881 9.6% trent 137 206 1,475 14.0% university of 137 208 5,479 3.8% guelph uoit 1,257 322 1,863 17.3% ottawa 106 384 6,039 6.4% toronto 7 256 12,850 2.0% waterloo 12 104 6,020 1.7% windsor 306 168 2,217 7.6% western 56 278 6,016 4.6% wilfrid laurier 132 174 2,861 6.1% york 1,960 834 7,052 11.8% total 8,852 5278 80,763 median 159 244.0 3,394 6.4% mean 442.6 263.9 4,038 11.7% standard 680.4 190.2 3,074 12.1% deviation lowest value 0 34 219 0.8% highest value 2496 834 12,850 46.3% *ryerson university counts include both college and university partnerships/pathways. 4 source council of ontario universities (2015) application statistics 2014 page 38 of 60 the number of transfer students is likely higher than the one reported by the graduates satisfaction survey, as it counts only graduates transferring within six months of graduation. despite this limitation, the data shows that taking the universities size into account exacerbates the situation, with smaller institutions like algoma university and uoit taking more than the average of transfer students. 7.3 geographic trends pathway agreements findings were also investigated by looking at proximate sending colleges. data from table 11 show that universities did not tend to have more pathway agreements with colleges within commuting distance. indeed, of the 8,852 pathway agreements, only 17% are with colleges within commuting distance. given previous findings on the importance of distance in students decision to attend an institution, these findings point to a severe gap in the offerings from a students perspective. table 13 shows the percentage of pathway agreements, but this time divided by the number of proximate colleges to adjust for the different number of proximate colleges for each university. this operation provides a new ratio that takes into account the difference between institutions located in densely populated area, and having more partners within commuting distance, and those located in areas where there are few partners within commuting distance. the ratio shows that universities have very different strategies. some universities have a high percentage of pathway agreements with proximate colleges only because they have a greater number of proximate colleges. for example, algoma university and brock university show different percentages, but when the number of proximate colleges is taken into account, these universities show similar patterns. on the other hand, universities with similar percentages of pathway agreements with proximate colleges, such as trent university (39%) and york university (35%), have a very different number of proximate colleges, and very different ratios (19% versus 3%). in this last case, fewer agreements were struck, but with a greater number of partners. table 13: summary of pathway agreements between proximate sending colleges and receiving universities and ratios, by university, ontario ratio of percentage of receiving number percentage of pathways pathways with proximate university of proximate colleges with proximate colleges colleges by number of proximate colleges algoma 1 7% 7% brock 3 22% 7% carleton 2 18% 9% lakehead 2 6% 3% laurentian 2 14% 7% mcmaster 7 23% 3% nipissing 1 5% 5% ocad 7 50% 7% queens 2 0% 0% ryerson 7 5% 1% trent 2 39% 19% guelph 6 31% 5% uoit 6 23% 4% ottawa 2 12% 6% page 39 of 60 receiving university toronto waterloo windsor western wilfrid laurier york total median mean standard deviation lowest value highest value number of proximate colleges percentage of pathways with proximate colleges 7 3 1 2 3 10 76 3 3.8 86% 8% 10% 57% 10% 35% 460% 16% 23% ratio of percentage of pathways with proximate colleges by number of proximate colleges 12% 3% 10% 29% 3% 3% 6% 7% 2.7 22% 7% 1 10 0% 86% 0% 29% the results show that universities, in general, do not tend to strike more pathway agreements with proximate colleges than with other colleges. exceptions are trent university and western university, which both offer more specific pathways than generic ones, but also offer fewer specific pathways than the average. these findings on the relative proportion of pathway agreements struck with colleges within commuting distance contrast sharply with those presented on table 11, which shows that transfer students tend to favour proximate universities, with a median of 64% of transfer students choosing a proximate university. data collected for the purpose of this report points to clear and important areas of development for pathways between postsecondary institutions. first, though there are a great number of pathways created, more can be done to design them according to student needs and reported transfer trajectories. student pathways are from college to university, but also, and in the same measure, between college and college, university and college, and university and university. pathway policy should reflect and encourage the development of upward, but also lateral and reverse pathways across sectors and within sectors. second, current pathway policy has focused on the number of pathways offered. data show that institutions do have a great number of pathways, but the overall percentage of transfer students per pathway is quite low. the data do not tell us which of the pathways students used, and it is likely that some are used more intensively than others. these results question the extent to which policy should focus on increasing the number of pathways, or whether attention should begin to focus on the number of students who are using pathways. perhaps the real question should be whether the efforts are correctly targeting the right programs, or whether they offer attractive and easy ways to transfer between institutions, while receiving a fair recognition of past credits. this is an important question that this study was unable to address (because data that tracks the numbers of students in each individual pathway is not available), however, it is critical for the conversation and worthy of investigation. finally, this report finds that few institutions concentrate on developing agreements with institutions within commuting distance. this is a clear gap, given what other researchers have found regarding the tendency of students to stay within the same geographical area, and page 40 of 60 regarding the specific challenges and needs of adult students who may have a job and a family to take into account when deciding on postsecondary education. page 41 of 60 8. summary and conclusion the purpose of this report is to draw from recent research findings and inform future decisions about the structure, development, and articulation of transfer pathways between ontario colleges and universities. to do so, the research team assembled findings from four main sources: a review of the literature; interviews with critical friends involved in ontario pathways policy, research, development, and articulation; and data mined from statistics canadas national graduate survey (ngs), the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) database, and from the ontario ministry of training, colleges, and universities (mtcu) graduate satisfaction survey of college graduates. a review of the pertinent research literature first reminds readers that credentials prepare graduates both for the labour market and for further studies, and, in so doing, are powerful engines of social mobility and equity. but if qualifications and pathways are to achieve these aims, transfer structures must be put in place to facilitate postsecondary mobility. yet, this report finds that the ontario system was not designed with a strong transfer structure. in other words, colleges were not established to prepare graduates for university, and each institutions aims are not only different, but not necessarily complementary. therefore, efforts are required to overcome problems with a system that, from its inception, saw colleges and universities as distinct and terminal paths. pathway agreements fall outside the normal activities of postsecondary institutions and are associated with new risks and concerns. as such, new drivers or facilitators need to be established and strengthened to encourage institutions to develop and implement pathway agreements. such incentives are generally established by government agencies through policy. interviews with critical friends identified important variables limiting transfer between ontario colleges and universities. the first is potential loss of revenue. why would institutions facilitate students leaving their institution for another, especially as most of them can now offer a greater variety of credentials? the second is additional revenues. critical friends have pointed that recruitment challenges tend to dramatically impact how an institution perceives the balance between the costs and benefits of transfer. accordingly, regional and smaller institutions are more likely to facilitate transfer than bigger and established ones. third is administrative systems and trust, and raises important questions about credit recognition. what is the cost for students who wish to have credits recognized? how and when is the decision to recognize prior credits made? what role does trust between individuals and between institutions really play in the development of pathway agreements? the fourth section of this report explored recognized principles and variables associated with transfer in the research literature. among the key variables influencing transfer are current mobility trends, which this report tries to bring to light, and geographic proximity, as most students, and in particular adult students, tend to study within commuting distance of their home. also, transfer is not only a function of what is available, meaning what pathways are there, but also of labour market pressure, student choice, and the usability of established pathways. employment prospects influence a students decision to transfer to a particular program or a particular institution. student preferences and aspirations also influence their decision. and finally, if institutions have a great number of pathways agreements, but these are only promises page 42 of 60 of minimal credit recognition upon registration, and require students to go through bureaucratic hoops, and cost students extra, this may reduce students propensity to undertake pathways. data analysis from surveys and databases shows there remains considerable room to improve existing pathway structures, development, and articulation. current flows of students and established pathway agreements are not aligned. students transfer in every direction in similar numbers, while expectations are geared towards upward transfer between college and university. furthermore, colleges and universities do not tend to have more pathway agreements struck with neighbouring institutions than institutions located beyond commuting distance. ontario, through oncat and its member colleges and universities, has made a significant contribution to establishing a policy framework and institutional framework to facilitate the development of pathways, particularly from colleges to universities. without this contribution, we would not now be in a position to build on this framework and consider the direction in which policy should go to maximise the potential of pathways to support student transfer with appropriate credit. this reports findings point to future policy adjustments that include: developing pathways in complementary fields of education based on an analysis of student flows between qualifications, institutions and fields of education; moving from a focus on the number of pathways to increasing the number of students who are using pathways. this would require thought about the type of pathways that are needed, and examining the balance between generic and specific pathways. developing pathways is quite expensive for institutions, and effort should be invested where the most benefit can be gained; and, an emphasis on supporting partnerships within regions, given that most students transfer from a college to a university that is within commutable distance. this would involve explicit policy support for building regional partnerships, governance frameworks, and the conditions that are needed to build relations of trust between institutions. the second paper in this series elaborates these points and presents the research teams recommendations in the form of a decision-tool to support jurisdictions, institutions and departments in developing pathways that will support students needs. policy has successfully created a pathways framework throughout ontario; the next stage is to work on making transfer more available, and making transfer easier and rewarding. what seems clear is that students are relying on the so-called path of desire. that even though weve paved a way, made it safe by fencing it off, and illuminated it for ease of use, students are choosing instead to forge their own way in pursuing education. an analysis of student transfer patterns provides insights into the types of pathways we may need to consider in future. the second report associated with this study, titled ontario student mobility: a framework and decision making tool for building, addresses these issues. page 43 of 60 references allais, s. 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(2013). college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context. toronto, ontario: higher education quality council of ontario. university of california (2014). admissions. retrieved 12 december from http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/ wellman, j.v. (2002). state policy and community college-baccaluareate transfer (no. national center report #02-6 ). washington d.c.: the national centre for public policy and higher education. viewed 26 april 2009. welsh, john f., & kjorlien, chad. (2001). state support for interinstitutional transfer and articulation: the impact of databases and information systems. community college journal of research and practice, 25(313-332). wheelahan, l. (2009). what kind of access does vet provide to higher education for low ses students? not a lot. 'national centre for student equity in higher education' launch and forum, university of south australia. wheelahan, l. (2011). from old to new: the australian qualifications framework. journal of education and work, 24(3-4), 323-342 wheelahan, l. (2014). rethinking pathways: why a new approach is needed. oise/university of toronto: https://www.academia.edu/12115971/rethinking_the_purpose_and_design_of_pathways_ in_higher_vocational_education_a_collection_of_think_pieces wheelahan, l. (2016). the roles and purposes of qualifications, their relationship to the labour market and how this helps to shape educational pathways. in sandra bohlinger, malgorzata klatt & kim anh dang (eds.), education policy: mapping the landscape and scope. frankfurt: peter lang publishers wheelahan, l., moodie, g., lavigne, e., yang, j., brijmohan, a., and childs, r. (2015) pathways to education and work in ontario and canada. report for the ontario ministry for training, colleges and universities ontario human capital research and innovation fund, toronto: university of torontos ontario institute for studies in education. wheelahan, l., & moodie, g. (2011). renegotiating sectoral relations: educational issues, https://www.academia.edu/8770167/wheelahan_leesa_and_moodie_gavin_2011_renego tiating_sectoral_relations_educational_issues. page 47 of 60 appendix a: list of critical friends the authors are grateful for the considerable time and contribution of many individuals that helped guide our understanding of the practical and policies realities of working with ontarios credit transfer system, including5: prof. tim brunet pathways coordinator, liberal arts & professional studies program coordinator, university of windsor peter gooch, phd senior director, policy and analysis, council of ontario universities. henry decock, phd associate vice president, centre for research in student mobility, seneca college. cindy hazel professor emeritus, seneca college susan kloosterman director, academic operations and student pathways, fleming college rhonda lenton, phd vice president academic and provost, york university ursula mccloy, phd research manager, centre for research in student mobility, seneca college alice pitt, phd vice-provost academic, york university laurie-anne rancourt associate vice president, humber college laurel schollen vice president, academic, fleming college bill summers vice-president, research and policy, colleges ontario david trick, phd president, david trick and associates inc. 5 we are also grateful to others who prefer to remain anonymous page 48 of 60 appendix b: detailed analysis methods this section outlines in depth the methods used to analyse the 2013 national graduates survey, and to assemble and analyse institutional profiles using oncats database of pathways, and google maps. the methods used to derive the number of students using the college graduate survey were outlined in the methods section in the main body of the report. national graduate survey data one of the datasets in this study is from the 2013 national graduates survey (ngs) class of 2009/2010 conducted by statistics canada from april 2nd to september 1st, 2013. the survey was designed by statistics canada to investigate the links between postsecondary education and labour market. it looks into factors such as students field of education, their level of qualification and the effects these two factors have on students employment pathway. the full dataset of ngs 2013 contains 28,715 records and more than 900 original and derived variables. the survey uses a stratified random sample design. the sample of 28,715 graduates was drawn from a population of 431,921 graduates who completed the requirements of an admissible program some time in 2009-10 from a recognized public postsecondary canadian institution and who were living in canada or the united states at the time of the survey (with the exception of american citizens living in the united states at the time of the survey) (stats canada, 2014). using the application of a weight variable provided by statistics canada, we were able to obtain the weighted estimates for the entire population. data mining and management given the size of the dataset, we chose sas to conduct data mining and management. as users external to statistics canada, we were required to access this dataset through the real time remote access (rtra) system and could only apply the sas macros prepared by statistics canada in advance. all the sas programs were uploaded through this system to statistics canada and the cross tabulation results were returned within one to two hours. with clear research questions in mind, the team first located the variables of interest from ngs 2013. then we extracted information by creating frequency cross tabulations by crossing four to five variables at a time. the detailed steps are illustrated in the following sections. as we focused on comparing ontario to all of canada, the variable that indicates the locations of postsecondary education institutions that the students graduated from, instprv,6 was applied to all cross tabulations. education one of the purposes of this study is to depict graduates postsecondary education pathway by examining the postsecondary education qualifications graduates completed in 2009-10 and their prior postsecondary education qualifications---the qualifications graduates completed before 2009-10. the factors we used to describe graduates qualifications are their field of education 6 instprv : province of institution. page 49 of 60 and level of qualification. specifically, we created frequency tabulations of graduates by crossing their prior level of qualification/sector, prior broad field of education, their current level of qualification/sector and current field/subfield of education. since the team was interested in examining both broad fields of education and specific subfields of education, both the specific level of qualification and students movement between and within sectors, we modified and derived new variables from the existing ngs variables to better serve our study purposes. sector students movement within and between sectors (college and university) is one focus of this study. the team derived the variables, prior sector and current sector, from ngs variable edbefor and certlev. specifically, the team aggregated two college level qualification, quebec trade/vocational diploma or certificate and college or cegep diploma or certificate, into college, and the university level qualification, university diploma or certificate below bachelor level, bachelors degree or first professional degree, university diploma/certificate above ba level but below ma, masters degree and doctorate, into university. field of education the project analysed graduates broad fields of education, and we also regrouped the individual instructional programs into subfields of education. the broad fields are statistics canadas primary groupings of instructional programs. we used statistics canadas broad fields to identify narrower subfields, and we linked subfields depending on their internal coherence and the nature of their links to the labour market. statistics canada reports graduates qualifications by its classification of instructional programs (statistics canada 2012: 11). this classification is at 3 levels. 1 2 3 the first level is broad field identified with 2 digit codes. examples are 01. agriculture, agriculture operations and related sciences and 52. business, management, marketing and related support services. there are 49 broad fields in the 2011 classification of instructional programs. the second level of statistics canadas classification of instructional programs is sub field identified with 4 digit codes. examples are 01.01 agricultural business and management and 52.03 accounting and related services. there are 387 subfields. the third and basic level is instructional program classes which have 6 digit codes. examples are 01.0103 agricultural economics and 52.0303 auditing. there are 1,688 instructional program classes. for some purposes statistics canada (2012: 15-17) aggregates instructional program classes by a variant of its classification of instructional programs that it calls primary groupings or broad field of education. the graduates broad field of study before 2009-10 was addressed by the variable named aecc1ag7, and the broad field of study in 2009-10 was under the variable named pr1cag118. these are shown in table 14 with the abbreviations used in this report. 7 8 aecc1ag: agg. cip 2000 completed in cnd institution before graduation 2009/2010 pr1cag11: agg. cip 2011 at graduation in 2009/2010 page 50 of 60 table 14: statistics canadas primary groupings abbreviation primary groupings constituent broad field and subfield 32. basic skills (not for credit) 33. citizenship activities (not for credit) not included 00 personal 34. health-related knowledge and skills (not for credit) in the improvement and 35. interpersonal and social skills (not for credit) analysis leisure 36. leisure and recreational activities (not for credit) 37. personal awareness and self-improvement (not for credit) ed 01 education 13. education 02 visual and 10. communications technologies/technicians and support performing arts, and services arts communications technologies 50. visual and performing arts 16. aboriginal and foreign languages, literatures and linguistics 23. english language and literature/letters 24. liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities 30.13 medieval and renaissance studies 30.21 holocaust and related studies hum 03 humanities 30.22 classical and ancient studies 30.29 maritime studies 38. philosophy and religious studies 39. theology and religious vocations 54. history 55. french language and literature/letters 05. area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies 09. communication, journalism and related programs 19. family and consumer sciences/human sciences 22. legal professions and studies 30.05 peace studies and conflict resolution 30.10 biopsychology 30.11 gerontology 30.14 museology/museum studies 30.15 science, technology and society 04 social and soc sci behavioural sciences 30.17 behavioural sciences and law 30.20 international/global studies 30.23 intercultural/multicultural and diversity studies 30.25 cognitive science 30.26 cultural studies/critical theory and analysis 30.28 dispute resolution 30.31 human computer interaction 30.33 sustainability studies 42. psychology 45. social sciences 30.16 accounting and computer science 05 business, 44. public administration and social service professions bus management and 52. business, management, marketing and related support public administration services 26. biological and biomedical sciences 06 physical and life 30.01 biological and physical sciences phys sci sciences and 30.18 natural sciences technologies 30.19 nutrition sciences page 51 of 60 abbreviation primary groupings info sci 07 mathematics, computer and information sciences eng 08 architecture, engineering, and related technologies ag 09 agriculture, natural resources and conservation health 10 health and related fields pers serv other constituent broad field and subfield 30.27 human biology 30.32 marine sciences 40. physical sciences 41. science technologies/technicians 11. computer and information sciences and support services 25. library science 27. mathematics and statistics 30.06 systems science and theory 30.08 mathematics and computer science 30.30 computational science 04. architecture and related services 14. engineering 15. engineering technologies and engineering-related fields 30.12 historic preservation and conservation 46. construction trades 47. mechanic and repair technologies/technicians 48. precision production 01. agriculture, agriculture operations and related sciences 03. natural resources and conservation 31. parks, recreation, leisure and fitness studies 51. health professions and related programs 60. dental, medical and veterinary residency programs 12. personal and culinary services 11 personal, protective 28. military science, leadership and operational art and transportation 29. military technologies and applied sciences services 43. security and protective services 49. transportation and materials moving 21. pre-technology education/pre-industrial arts programs 12 other 30.99 multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary studies, other 53. high school/secondary diploma and certificate programs this report adopts statistics canadas primary groupings for many purposes, including the categorization of qualifications that graduates had before their graduation in 2009-10. however, the report seeks to analyze in detail the prior qualifications of graduates of programs in 2009-10 that lead to specific occupations such as doctor, lawyer and nurse. but doctor and nurse qualifications are included in the same primary group 10 health and related fields and in the same broad field 51. health professions and related programs with many qualifications leading to other occupations. likewise lawyer qualifications are included in the primary group 04 social and behavioural sciences and law which includes many qualifications that do not lead to legal practice. even the broad field 22. legal professions and studies includes many programs that do not lead to legal practice. the team therefore developed a new aggregation of 6 digit instructional program classes to group those qualifications that seem homogenous on the characteristics of interest to the report. we have referred to these as subfields to differentiate them from statistics canadas broad page 52 of 60 fields. besides nursing practical and registered nurse, the rest of the 6 digit instructional program classes were coded under the variable named pr1cip11, which is shown in table 15. table 15: composition of research teams subfields derived from statistics canadas categories subfields statistics canadas categories 52. business, management, marketing and related support services except: 52.0401 administrative assistant and secretarial science, general 52.0402 executive assistant/executive secretary 52.0406 receptionist 52.0407 business/office automation/technology/data entry business 52.0408 general office occupations and clerical services 52.0409 parts, warehousing and inventory management operations 52.0410 traffic, customs and transportation clerk/technician 52.0411 customer service support/call centre/teleservice operation 52.0499 business operations support and assistant services, other 13.01 education, general 13.02 bilingual, multilingual and multicultural education 13.03 curriculum and instruction 13.04 educational administration and supervision 13.05 educational/instructional media design education other 13.06 educational assessment, evaluation and research 13.07 international and comparative education 13.09 social and philosophical foundations of education 13.11 student counselling and personnel services 13.99 education, other 13.10 special education and teaching 13.12 teacher education and professional development, specific levels and methods education teacher 13.13 teacher education and professional development, specific subject areas 13.14 teaching english or french as a second or foreign language engineering 14. engineering except those categorized as technician practitioner health medical 51.08 allied health and medical assisting services assisting 51.09 allied health diagnostic, intervention and treatment professions 16. aboriginal and foreign languages, literatures and linguistics 23. english language and literature/letters 24. liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities humanities 38. philosophy and religious studies 39. theology and religious vocations 54. history 55. french language and literature/letters 44.00 human services, general 44.02 community organization and advocacy 44.04 public administration human services 44.05 public policy analysis 44.07 social work 44.99 public administration and social service professions, other 22.01 law (llb, jd, bcl) law practitioner 22.02 legal research and advanced professional studies (post-llb/jd) 51.12 medicine (md) 51.19 osteopathic medicine/osteopathy (do) medicine 60.04 medical residency programs - general certificates 60.05 medical residency programs - subspecialty certificates page 53 of 60 subfields nurse practical nurse registered physical and life sciences social sciences technician trade statistics canadas categories 60.06 podiatric medicine residency programs 60.99 dental, medical and veterinary residency programs, other 51.3901 licensed practical/vocational nurse training (lpn, lvn, rpn, cert., dipl., aas) 51.3999 practical nursing, vocational nursing and nursing assistants, other 51.38 registered nursing, nursing administration, nursing research and clinical nursing, except: 51.3802 nursing administration (msn, ms, mscn, msc, phd) 51.3808 nursing science (ms, msc, phd) 51.3817 nursing education 51.3899 registered nursing, nursing administration, nursing research and clinical nursing, other 26. biological and biomedical sciences 40. physical sciences 05. area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies 09. communication, journalism and related programs 19. family and consumer sciences/human sciences 42. psychology 45. social sciences 15.00 engineering technology, general 15.01 architectural engineering technology/technician 15.02 civil engineering technology/technician 15.03 electrical and electronic engineering technologies/ technicians 15.04 electromechanical and instrumentation and maintenance technologies/ technicians 15.05 environmental control technologies/technicians 15.06 industrial production technologies/technicians 15.07 quality control and safety technologies/technicians 15.08 mechanical engineering related technologies/ technicians 15.09 mining and petroleum technologies/technicians 15.10 construction engineering technology/technician 15.11 engineering-related technologies 15.12 computer engineering technologies/technicians 15.12 computer engineering technologies/technicians 15.13 drafting/design engineering technologies/technicians 15.14 nuclear engineering technology/technician 15.15 engineering-related fields 15.16 nanotechnology 15.99 engineering technologies and engineering-related fields, other 41. science technologies/technicians 47. mechanic and repair technologies/technicians 46. construction trades 48. precision production discrepancies in the data that were noted, came largely from the nurse practical and registered nurse subfields. the team first identified problems in the coding of the nursing subfields when results from pr1cip11 indicated that there were less than 1000 registered nurses across canada; this number did not seem to be a true reflection of the national population of those within the nursing profession. working with statistics canada, the team later discovered that the nursing subfields of education were all coded under a different variable than the other subfields. in page 54 of 60 contrast to the rest of subfields that were regrouped from the variables named pr1cip11, the two nursing subfields, nurse registered and nurse practical, were coded under a different variable named prcip19. nurse registered: 51.1601 nursing/registered nurse (rn, asn, bscn, mscn) nurse practical: 51.1613 licensed practical/vocational nurse training (lpn, lvn, cert., dipl., aas) confidence intervals the use of the rtra system to access the ngs 2013 survey data comes with two important limitations for the determination of our results confidence intervals. the first limitation is that we could not compute the standard errors associated with the data. normally, when querying for results, we would be able to put an additional request for the standard errors, from which we could calculate our confidence intervals. the rtra system, however, does not give users direct access to its data sets and forbids users from running customized sas programs to calculate standard errors. instead, we were provided with the approximate sampling variability tables for typical population proportions. the ngs 2013 user guide pumf (statistics canada, 2014) makes it clear that the confidence interval can be calculated from the approximate sampling variability tables by first determining the coefficient of variation of the estimates from the appropriate table. it also provides users with the formula of calculating 95% confidence interval of the estimate x with its coefficient of variation x : ( 95%ci x = x 2 x x , x + 2 x x ) where x x equals to the standard error of x the fact that the approximate sampling variability tables only cover limited situations and proportions restricts us from calculating precise confidence intervals, but we are nevertheless able to arbitrarily estimate confidence intervals from these values. working with limited information, the team is only able to provide quite conservative estimates, therefore the range of the confidence intervals we calculated would be much wider than it actually should be. to better convert coefficients of variation to confidence intervals, we created standard error tables for ontario and canada respectively based on the approximate sampling variability tables and the formula. as the standard error steadily increases up to 50%, then symmetrically decreases, the coefficient of variation at 10% is same to that at 90%; the coefficient of variation at 20% is same to that at 80% and so on. the standard errors were calculated every ten per cent. however, one thing we should bear in mind is that based on the instructions from the user guide any coefficients of variation fall between 16.6% and 33.3% should be used with caution and those greater than 33.4% are not acceptable. we followed the instructions when converting coefficients of variation into confidence intervals and concluded that in tables of canada, the result is interpretable if 9 prcip1: cip 2000 at graduation in 2009/2010 page 55 of 60 the subsample is about 1000 and the per cent is between 40% and 60%, or the subsample is about 5000, and the per cent is between 20% and 80%, or the subsample is greater than 5000; in tables of ontario, the result is interpretable if the subsample is about 5000 and the per cent is between 20% and 80%, or the subsample is greater than 5000; the accuracy of our analyses was admittedly compromised by these limitations. however, the figures still roughly tell the tendency of students movements in postsecondary sector. therefore, instead of presenting accurate numbers, this paper is only aimed to report major and general trends and trajectories. institutional profiles to get a sense of the current landscape of existing transfer articulation within ontario postsecondary education, institutional profiles of each ontario postsecondary institution were derived. institutional profiles were constructed for all 22 publicly funded universities and 24 publicly funded colleges. institutional profiles for each university can be found in appendix c and for each college in appendix d. each institutional profile depicted the institution as a receiver of transfer students. each institutional profile summarized pathways of the receiving institution by sending program. for university institutional profiles, pathways were further analysed by sending institution. this table was not produce for the college institutional profiles, as student data available only allowed us to analyse universities as receivers of students. as the breadth of data available allowed for more detailed analysis of college transfer students to universities, the focus of much of the discussion in the main report will centre on student college-to-university transfer pathway. more detail regarding each pathway analysis approach can be found within each institutional profile. broadly, of interest were the following lines of inquiry: 1) what receiving pathway agreements did public universities and colleges have with their sending partners? 2) were these receiving pathways for specific qualifications and fields of education, or for generic pathways that did not specify the field of education of the sending and receiving qualification? 3) how geographically close were the pathway partners and thus how practical were articulated pathways? 4) can college-to-university student transfer data elucidate how heavily pathways are being used? the following sub-sections will outline data-sources used in institutional profile development. oncat pathway articulation dataset (obtained july, 2015). the team first obtained a comprehensive dataset outlining all articulation agreements of ontario post-secondary institutions from the ontario council of articulation and transfer (oncat). the following lists the available variables found with the dataset: page 56 of 60 pathway and credit variables pathway id sending institution variables sending institution receiving institution variables receiving institution agreement status sending program discipline archive reason pathway category pathway type implementation date sending program area sending credential sending program title graduated from the program at sending institution receiving institution program discipline required gpa minimum grade other eligibility criteria number of semesters to complete credentials to be granted receiving institution credential receiving institution program area receiving institution program title date of approval by receiving institution receiving institution approving party names credits that must be achieved at receiving institution expiry date title of pathway terms for renewal or cancellation contact procedure eligibility for the pathway credit transfer number of transfer credits to be granted at receiving institution anticipated time to complete summarized credits that must be achieved at receiving institution examining only approved, current articulation agreements (as relayed to oncat prior to july 2015), the team constructed pivot tables in microsoft excel 2011 to examine the nature of approved sending agreements for all publicly funded institutions in ontario. within the ms excel pivotbuilder, the following variables were placed under row labels: sending program discipline, sending program title, and sending institutions. under column labels, the team placed the variable receiving institutions. count of pathway id was placed under values, to show the number articulated agreements in existence between all sending institutions and the selected receiving institution. of interest were not only the number of approved agreements, but also whether the kinds of pathways that were articulated were either generic or specific. the team coded generic pathways as a pathway that articulated transfer from a non-specific sending program, and specific pathways were pathways that articulated transfer from a discipline-specific sending program. on the conceptualization of generic and specific pathways, it is important to make some distinctions about the language and counts used in the reports. our team wanted to approach the transfer pathway analysis not from an institutional perspective, but from a student perspective. the research questions which underpinned this conceptualization were: what pathways are available to students should they wish to transfer from college to university, and would field of study matter? so to draw some comparisons of meaning, pathways as understood by institutions as multi lateral systems pathways agreements, page 57 of 60 were coded as generic pathways for students. meaning regardless of prior of field of study, as long as they had a credential (i.e. any 2 year of 3 year diploma) these would be the available routes for them at the receiving institution. bilateral, direct entry programmes, were considered specific pathways. meaning for college students to use an articulated business transfer pathway at the receiving institution, they would have to have had a previous credential in business. institutions within our purview were individually selected as receiving institutions, and the data tables derived from the developed pivot tables were pulled and incorporated into profiles of each institution. the research team then consulted with institutions to provide feedback of the profiles developed, to ensure representativeness. though the team contacted all 22 publicly funded universities and 24 publicly funded colleges, only 13 responded with feedback. as well, not all institutions regularly updated oncat with their most recent articulated transfer agreements. thus data portrayed within institutional profiles may not reflect the most recent portrait of transfer pathways offered. the study is therefore limited to just the data made available through oncat, and the feedback received from institutional partners through the consultation process. geographical proximity data in line with question 3, the team was interested in understanding how feasible these pathways were for students to follow by commuting from their initial institution. distances (in kilometres) and commuting time (in hours) between sending and receiving institutions were calculated with a google distance calculator programmed by winfred van kuijk, which used google maps api software. after entering in the addresses of institutions, the team derived institution matrices of distances (in km) and commuting distances (in hours) and exported the matrices into an ms excel file. informed by previous work done by frennette (2003), reasonable commuting parameters were considered around 80 km or 1 hour commuting time. institutions have multiple campuses, so to analyse proximity, the team chose the campus the institution designated as its main campus, and if this wasnt specified, the campus which hosted the most students or offered the most programs. this is a limitation of the study since smaller campuses may be distant from the main campus. student transfer data: 2013/2014 ontario college graduate satisfaction survey student transfer data were gathered as a secondary analysis from a study performed by colleagues at seneca college, which used the 2013/2014 ontario college graduate satisfaction survey (gss). broadly, the graduate satisfaction student survey details graduates satisfaction with their college education in achieving their goals after graduation, whether it be in securing future employment or in continued education (mccloy & liu, 2010). data received from seneca colleagues summarized 2013-14 ontario caat/college graduates who reported attending university full or part time and enrolled in any credential six months after graduation. around half of college graduates responded to the gss. the team assumed that non respondents had the same characteristics as respondents and so doubled the number of students who reported transferring to estimate the total population of transferring students. we recognise this is a somewhat rough and ready calculation, but we were interested in trajectories rather than precise numbers. moreover, this is the only data that is readily accessible, until data from the ontario education number is available for researchers to explore. from the estimated total number of student transfers the team calculated an approximate student-per-pathway ratio to page 58 of 60 illustrate the magnitude of student traffic per pathway agreement. the research team understands that the student-per-pathway ratios may not reflect an accurate reality of transfer student numbers for institutions, as the data is limited by virtue of secondary analysis, as well as recoding of an open ended other field as performed by seneca colleagues. it is therefore important to stress that the estimated number of total transfer students and the approximate ratios of graduate per pathway may not reflect accurately actual graduates per pathway. the data will therefore be used only to suggest trends in transfer student mobility. page 59 of 60 appendix c: partnership profiles (colleges) in a separate document appendix d: partnership profiles (universities) in a separate document page 60 of 60

pathways and barriers to art and design undergraduate education for students with previous college and university experience prepared for: by: ontario council on articulation and transfer deanne fisher eric nay mary wilson laura wood ocad university november 2012 abstract ocad university undertook an investigation of the transition needs and experiences of current ocad u students from two distinct types of educational backgrounds: those with previous undergraduate coursework and those with prior college experience. the study used a mixed method approach, both qualitative (analysis of semi-structured interviews with students from both cohorts) and quantitative (analysis of national survey of student engagement data comparing college transfer students, university transfer students and students who came directly from high school). the study pointed to some significant differences in the expectations, experiences and needs of students from different educational backgrounds leading to a series of recommendations to better facilitate student mobility and enhance the quality of experience. while focused in one institutional environment, many of the findings can be generalized to fine and applied art and student mobility within studio-based programs. research team deanne fisher (principal investigator) associate vice-president, students ocad university eric nay associate dean & professor, faculty of liberal arts & sciences ocad university mary wilson director, centre for innovation in art & design education ocad university laura wood manager, institutional analysis ocad university interview coordinator: polly buechel, ocad university data analysis: holly kristensen, james d.a. parker, robyn taylor, trent university laura wood, ocad university research assistants: elizabeth coleman linh do faysal itani fareena chanda ocad university is grateful for the support of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (formerly college-university consortium council) in funding this project. table of contents i. background & context .............................................................................................................. 2 student preparation for choosing a college or university: a review of the literature ......................... 2 ocad university ...................................................................................................................................... 3 ocad university transfer of credit policy & practice ............................................................................ 4 ii. the study ..................................................................................................................................... 6 purpose ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 research team ......................................................................................................................................... 6 methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 6 iii. results: quantitative analysis ............................................................................................... 9 first year students .................................................................................................................................... 9 senior year students ................................................................................................................................ 10 summary .................................................................................................................................................. 10 iv. results: qualitative analysis ............................................................................................... 11 1. factors influencing decisions to transfer to ocad u ....................................................................... 11 2. admissions and transfer process ....................................................................................................... 12 3. academic & social transition ............................................................................................................. 14 v. discussion: implications & recommendations ................................................................... 16 recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 17 conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 19 references ..................................................................................................................................... 20 appendix a: interview protocol ................................................................................................ 22 pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 1 i. background & context student preparation for choosing a college or university: a review of the literature choosing a college or university is an important and often stressful life decision. for many students this is the first major educational, vocational, or financial decision they will have had to make. this decision has the potential to influence many immediate aspects of their lives, including whether they will move away from home, need financial assistance, and need to modify existing friendships. furthermore, the choice of university can determine future success, including career opportunities, probability of admission to graduate school or professional programs, and social status (desjardins, dundar, & hendel, 1999; galotti, 1995; johnson, stewart, & eberly, 1991; rae, 2004). for many students, the process of choosing a post-secondary institution begins many years prior to the final year of high school, when aspirations for post-secondary education are first crystallized (desjardins, et al., 1999; johnson, et al., 1991). as post-secondary institutions strive to attract the best students to their schools, the variables that influence this process become increasingly important. determining the factors that influence the students decision-making process will have important implications for university administrators, especially those who are responsible for student recruitment. this process can become highly competitive, with several universities competing for the same students (canale, dunlap, britt, & donahue, 1996; jones & skolnik, 2009; lennon, zhao, wang & gluszynski, 2011). students also have the ability to move between types of post-secondary institutions (i.e., college versus university)although the bureaucracy involved in making this move varies considerably across the provinces. nevertheless, as noted by jones and skolnik (2009), students in ontario have been way ahead of educators and planners in discovering the value of combining the strengths of the colleges in hands-on learning with the strengths of the universities in academic education (p. 22). to develop effective recruitment strategies it is also important to know where students obtain information to base their decision (galotti, 1995). universities allocate substantial resources to advertise their institutions; however, little research is available regarding the relative use of different information sources. in one of the few empirical studies on the use of various sources of information, galotti and mark (1994) reported that students (in order of importance) read college brochures available at their school, talked with guidance counsellors, wrote for college brochures, arranged for interviews with college admission officers, and attended college fairs. during the time that has elapsed since this preliminary research was conducted there have been far reaching developments in modes of communication and information gathering (e.g., the internet). recent research on post-secondary students in the ontario system (decock, mccloy, liu & hu, 2011) suggests that websites are now the primary source of information for students heading to either college or university. identifying the best student for a particular post-secondary institution involves a consideration of program fit, not just high school grade-point-average or transfer credits. student retention is enhanced when students goals are consistent with what the university is capable of meeting. retention is a critical issue in most post-secondary institutions (rae, 2004). research has shown that of students who start a specific program, more of these students will withdraw than graduate (mclaughlin, brozovsky, & mclaughlin, 1998; pancer, hunsberger, pratt, & alisat, 2000). furthermore, 75 percent of those who drop out will do so in the first two years of the program (gerdes & mallinckrodt, 1994). prior research on the decision process suggests that there is some consistency in the types of variables pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 2 that influence students. for example, galotti (1995) asked prospective students what variables they were considering while choosing a university. four broad categories of variables emerged: academic (e.g., admission requirements, faculty quality), institutional (e.g., campus atmosphere, class size), financial (e.g., cost, financial aid), and personal/social (e.g., distance from home, peers/friends at school). similarly, desjardins, et al. (1999) identified a set of dimensions after conducting a review of existing studies on college choice behaviour. the categorical labels differed (e.g., characteristics of students, institutional characteristics, and contextual factors), however the dimensions were relatively consistent between studies. while these studies are not specific to ontario, the majority of contextual data is directly related. although there is some consistency in the type of variables that influence student choice, the relative importance of these variables appears to have changed in recent decades. long (2004) analyzed the college choice decisions of high school graduates in 1972, 1982, and 1992. in 1972, the cost of the college was a significant variable in the decision making process; two decades later, however, the influence of this variable had declined. long (2004) suggests that this decline may be partially the result of greater student access to financial assistance, although there continues to be evidence that specific subgroups of students are differentially affected by the costs of post-secondary education (palameta & voyer, 2010). long (2004) also reported that the importance of the proximity to the institution has decreased over the past few decades. this is likely due to advances in transportation, communication, and increased availability of information about colleges during this time. an opposite trend has been reported for perceived college quality. in 1972 and 1982 college students did not consider college quality to be a major factor in their decisions. the perceived quality of the institution has now become one of the most important variables to post-secondary students and their families (rae, 2004). given the importance post-secondary students now place on perceived quality, it is critical that individual post-secondary institutions take stock of student perceptions-- particularly in critical subgroups (e.g., transfer students, first-generation students, etc.) who may be particularly vulnerable to lower persistence rates (seifert, arnold, burrow, & brown, 2011). this current project represents a rare opportunity to study, in depth, the experience of mobility within a particular discipline at an institution with very high proportions of students coming with previous postsecondary experience. as noted by decock, mccloy, liu and hu (2011) there is a very limited amount of data on the full picture of transfer in the province of ontario. hard data on the movement of students in all directions college-to-college, college-to-university, university-to-college, and university-to university is minimal. the lack of information relates to the number of students, their characteristics, and their overall transfer experience (p. 9). ocad university ocad university, canadas oldest and largest art and design university, is located in the heart of toronto. ocad u offers specialized degree programs that combine studio-based learning with critical inquiry. programs offered at ocad u lead to a bachelor of fine arts (bfa) or a bachelor of design (bdes) and, most recently, graduate degrees (ma, mfa, mdes). undergraduate programs include industrial design, environmental design, material art and design, graphic design, advertising, illustration, drawing and painting, photography, integrated media, sculpture and installation, printmaking, criticism and curatorial practice, and more innovative interdisciplinary new programs in digital technology and aboriginal visual culture. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 3 students in ocad us undergraduate art and design degree programs share a number of diverse courses in english, writing and literature; art, design and new media history and theory; the social sciences; science, technology and math; and the humanities. these faculty of liberal arts & sciences courses explore the theories and ideas informing art and design practice, providing an historical and critical dimension to studio work in art and design. collectively, liberal arts & sciences courses help develop written communication abilities and capacity for analysis and critical thinking. individually, these courses challenge students to inform their art and design practices with new theoretical perspectives and diverse methodologies. students come to ocad university often for very specific reasons and seek out its specialized programs, such as the selective and small studios and to experience an academic atmosphere that is centered on art and design as a way of thinking and locus for creative inquiry. ocad us entrance requirements are purposefully designed to include a full assessment of a students creative potential that includes a mandatory portfolio assessment and interview. all offers of admission to ocad university are based on the strength of the applicants portfolio, but are conditional upon meeting the minimum academic requirements as well. ocad universitys specialized degrees share commonalities such as a fairly standard first year curriculum across faculties and programs, as well as a range of choices for how students may choose to fulfill their liberal arts & sciences (las) requirements. this internal standardization does not always fit well with courses and programs outside of the institution that are very different from ocad universitys art and design focused curriculum in form, intent, as well as outcomes. this internally-oriented focus, as well as the wide range of programs and institutions students are transferring from, affect student mobility and transfer of credit outcomes. this study attempted to capture not just where, but why students were coming to ocad u and seeking transferred credit, to compare the general experiences of transfer students against their direct entry peers, and to learn about the admission and transition process for transfer students within this unique context. while ocad university is the only specific art and design-focused institution in ontario, there are several other institutions which offer art and design programs and have similar features to ocad u (eg. admission by portfolio; a mix of studio and general education requirements). it is assumed, then, that the findings of this study would be, at least in part, transferable to other art and design programs. ocad university transfer of credit policy & practice among ocad universitys more than 4,000 undergraduate students, a significant proportion come with previous post-secondary education at either the college or university level. the institution receives almost 200 applications for advanced standing (admission to year two or higher) each year. among fourth year respondents to the 2011 national survey of student engagement (nsse), almost half reported having already attended another university or college prior to enrolling at ocad u. ocad universitys transfer of credit policy states that students who have attended a recognized, approved, accredited or otherwise approved post-secondary institution may apply for transfer of credit. some of the substantive issues in assigning credit are quality-based such as: only those credits earned with a grade of 65% or higher will be considered for transfer of credit. contact hours must be equivalent to the 40 contact hours for 0.5 credit ocad u courses with a minimum of three weeks instruction. the minimum credit granted for transfer is equivalent to 0.5. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 4 all post-secondary transcript/ documentation must be presented to admissions & recruitment at the time of admission for possible transfer consideration. decisions are made in consultation with the appropriate dean or designate. a maximum of 1.5 studio credits may be awarded to newly admitted first-year students. the policy as practiced holds that college courses not belonging to an undergraduate degree program will be counted as two-for-one in exchange for ocad university courses. this policy does not recognize systems where college and university courses share codes, expectations and even syllabi. further recent modifications to the policy, following appeals by students, now allow for a second review if done before twelve months of attendance have passed since students sometimes are not aware of what liberal arts & sciences courses could have been transferred from their previous experience to their ocad u program. transfer of credit possibilities in las allow for everything from sociology and english to languages to transfer. matching studio work and course objectives from similar studio courses requires the assessment of art and design work, not just by looking at marks and syllabi. studio work may be looked at in totality by expert faculty in their field to assess where a student should be placed rather than which specific courses will transfer as an objective. this is very much the norm in art and design universities, and is required to maintain a level of quality control and guarantee that a student will be able to proceed through his or her program with the necessary skills and experiences that need to have been mastered for each year in studio progress. like so much in art and design, this is exacting and time-consuming. the process relies on subjective expertise that is often not understood by students, college instructors or high school art teachers, but is discernible by specialized professors such as those who conduct portfolio reviews at ocad u. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 5 ii. the study purpose this study explored the experiences of transfer students currently attending ocad university as a means to isolate the institutional policies, procedures and educational delivery methods most likely to have positive effects on student mobility, transition, progression and success. this project represents an opportunity to study, in depth, the experience of transfer students within a particular discipline at an institution with very high proportions of students coming with previous postsecondary experience. the results of this study are expected to influence not only ocad university policy and practice but to have applicability to other art and design programs throughout the province. this study followed invited proposals by the college university consortium council in december 2011 for research into aspects of postsecondary student mobility including student success after transfer compared to direct entry students, strategies to support transfer student success, and student experience of transfer. research team this study was conducted by a collaborative team including researchers, academics, administrators, students and others from the ocad u community and included significant input from researchers from trent university who conducted the literature review and qualitative raw data analysis. an administrator and principal investigator, project coordinator and faculty member at various stages in the project led major components of the research that was spread over the period of january july 2012. ocad u also included graduate students in this project as interviewers. methodology this research project was focused on investigating the transition needs, experiences and expectations of current ocad u students from two distinctly different backgrounds: a. students with previous university coursework. this cohort was made up of students with either complete or partial degrees from any university program prior to entering ocad u. note that participants in this cohort did not necessarily have art or design-related educational experience. b. students with previous art and design-related college coursework. this cohort was made up of students with college experience, regardless of whether a credential was received at the previous institution. participants in this cohort were limited to those with art or design-related educational experience in the college sector as this met an institutional need to design better pathways for those with related experience. the study used a mixed methods approach of both quantitative and qualitative data gathering and analysis, with an emphasis on the qualitative through interviews. quantitative: ocad universitys results of the 2011 national survey of student engagement allowed the research team to identify respondents who self-reported previous post-secondary attendance, prior to enrolling at ocad university. using the nsse data and institutional sources, the study explored levels of pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 6 engagement and satisfaction, as well as average grades and time-to-completion for students with previous university and college experience relative to students with only high school backgrounds. analysis of the quantitative data (nsse) was conducted internally by ocad universitys institutional analysis department. qualitative: using institutional data, the research team invited a random sample of 155 current ocad university students with previous university education and 170 with previous ontario college art and designrelated education to participate in interviews that explored their experiences just prior to entering ocad university and during the transition process. students were offered an incentive ($25 gift card) to participate in a structured interview that took approximately 45 minutes to complete (the complete set of interview questions are presented in appendix a). the final sample of participants in the qualitative section of this study consisted of 39 students enrolled at ocad university at the time of their participation. approximately half of the participants (n = 21) had previously completed university undergraduate coursework (cohort a); 18 participants had previously completed coursework at a college (cohort b). the mean age of participants in cohort a was 27 years. the sample consisted of 45% males, 85% taking a full course load and 75% from the faculty of design/25% from the faculty of art. students in cohort a received between .5 and 6.5 transfer credits. the mean age of participants in cohort b was 23 years. the sample consisted of 22% males, 89% taking a full-time course load and 56% from the faculty of design/44% from the faculty of art. students in cohort b received between 1 and 7.5 transfer credits. the study regularly compares the two cohorts in terms of responses to questions. in general, each cohort is unique and the two groups had very different expectations of credit transfers when switching to ocad university. because of the wide gap in expectations, previous experience and motivations for coming to ocad u, at times responses may be easily separable by cohort and other times both cohorts are presented together. when possible and not repetitive, data will be separated into university experience students and college experience students (for the purposes of this study labeled university entrants and college entrants). before coding the qualitative data, the research team at trent university conducted a review of relevant information in the peer-reviewed and grey literature. peer-reviewed studies published since 2000 in relevant databases (e.g., psycinfo, medline, and the web of knowledge) were examined using combinations of key terms (e.g., college transfer credit, persistence, student engagement, fine arts programs). of particular interest were studies using samples of canadian undergraduates. the grey literature was explored using several search engines (e.g., google) using a similar set of key terms. as with the peer-review literature, work using samples of canadian undergraduates were of particular interest (particularly work connected to the ontario post-secondary system). although not a formal grounded theory study, the data analysis of the interview transcripts followed core recommendations of strauss and corbin (1998). this systematic and structured qualitative approach requires that the data to be coded and organized into emerging themes. themes were discussed by the research team (i.e., multiple coders were used) and considered according to the two cohorts (cohort a. students with previous undergraduate coursework; and cohort b. students who had pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 7 completed coursework at a college). the research team also consulted a number of recent studies exploring student experiences and perceptions with transferring between ontario post-secondary institutions (decock, et al., 2011), as well as recent trends in student persistence for the ontario postsecondary system (finnie, childs, & qiu, 2012). several studies in the general student retention and engagement literature were also helpful in framing core trends and themes in the data (suhre, jansen & harskamp, 2007; umbach & wawrzynski, 2005), particularly those studies that looked at the role student services and resources play in post-secondary persistence (long, 2004; serenko, 2011). reliability in the coding process was achieved using a peer debriefing procedure (creswell & miller, 2000). this procedure involves regularized reviewing of the coding progress by several individuals familiar with the project. during these peer-debriefing sessions, coding and interpretation of the data were continually reviewed and evaluated by the group. this report provides a summary of the key findings of both the quantitative and qualitative data analysis. the full analyses of each component are available upon request to the research team. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 8 iii. results: quantitative analysis among the first year ocad u students who completed nsse in 2011, 268 reported that they came to ocad u with only high school in terms of educational background (high school entrants), 54 reported previous college experience (college entrants) and 74 reported previous university experience (university entrants.) among the senior year ocad u students who completed the nsse in 2011, 128 reported only high school educational backgrounds, 34 reported previous college experience and 78 reported previous university experience. first year students in comparing high school entrants to college and university entrants on the nsse instrument, several items were significant among first year students. due to significant age differences between the three groups (18.6 years for high school entrants, 22.5 for college entrants, and 25.4 for university entrants), age was used as a covariate in the comparisons. only those variables that remained significant after controlling for age are discussed. time usage high school entrants spent more time than university entrants relaxing or socializing and more time than college and university entrants commuting to campus. educational and personal growth high school entrants and university entrants were less likely than college entrants to believe that ocad u contributed to their ability to write clearly and effectively and their ability to analyze quantitative problems. barriers to success university entrants were more likely than high school entrants to report that difficulties due to a disability or health problem were an obstacle to their academic progress. areas for institutional improvement high school entrants were more likely than college or university entrants to indicate that reducing class sizes most needs to be addressed by the institution while high school and university entrants were more likely than college entrants to indicate that shifting the mix of lectures, seminars, and tutorials most needs to be addressed by the institution. sense of community high school entrants and college entrants were more likely to experience a sense of community in study groups than university entrants. academic performance & retention in addition to scores on specific nsse items, some examination of academic performance and retention was conducted on the respondents. high school entrants and college entrants had lower first year averages than those with prior university experience (70.7% for high school, 69.7% for college and 72.8% for university). there was no significant difference between the three groups on retention to second year: 91% of high school entrants, 89% of college entrants and 87% of university entrants returned for second year at ocad u. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 9 senior year students again, in comparing high school, college and university entrants on the nsse instrument, several items were significant among senior year students. due to significant age differences between the three groups (22.3 years for high school entrants, 31.2 for college entrants, and 30.3 for university entrants), age was used as a covariate in the comparisons. only those variables that remained significant after controlling for age are discussed. time usage high school entrants spent more time than college and university entrants relaxing or socializing. academic experiences college and university entrants were more likely than high school entrants to participate in class discussions. academic performance there was no significant difference between the three groups in their 2011-12 academic average (74.5% for high school entrants, 75.1% for college entrants, and 75.9% for university entrants). summary the examination of the nsse results comparing transfer and non-transfer students reveals significant differences between the three cohorts in terms of engagement and satisfaction with ocad university. transfer students are less likely to spend time relaxing or socializing than high school entrants, while transfer students were more likely to participate in class discussions than high school entrants. differences between college and university entrants include university entrants (and high school entrants) being less likely to believe that ocad u contributed to their ability to write clearly and effectively and their ability to analyze quantitative problems than college entrants; university entrants (and high school entrants) were more likely than college entrants to indicate that shifting the mix of lectures, seminars, and tutorials most needs to be addressed by the institution; university entrants were less likely to experience a sense of community in study groups than college entrants (and high school entrants). the results suggest little difference on academic performance or retention, with the exception of higher first year averages for the university entrant cohort. this analysis suggests there is some validity to the commonly held perspective of many of ocad u faculty members: ocad us higher than average intake of students with previous post-secondary experiences appears to add to the rich and unique atmosphere of academics, practitioners and researchers on the campus. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 10 iv. results: qualitative analysis 1. factors influencing decisions to transfer to ocad u the majority of university entrants in the study came to ocad u with experience from the sciences, the social sciences or humanities focused programs. many students simply went into general ba programs directly from high school without a clear direction other than knowing that they must or were expected to go from high school to university. most university entrants reported choosing their original program based on physical location as well as uncertainty about what educational direction they should pursue. students chose schools close to home or even in some cases based on where a parent or family member had gone to school. some students chose to come to toronto as a goal but the actual choice of school (ryerson, york, u of toronto, ocad u) was secondary. only two university entrants came from other fine arts programs. like the university entrants, those with college post-secondary experience chose their previous institution based on location. unlike many in the university experience category these college entrants did not choose a program to facilitate a move to toronto, but rather the opposite, choosing a program where they could stay at home for their first couple of years. however, unlike their university experience colleagues, many of these college entrants chose their college degree program purposefully to prepare them for entry into ocad u including gaining studio experience that they had not received in their high schools to buttress their application package and portfolio to meet what was perceived as a very demanding and challenging entry requirement. students with university experience cited the following reasons for transferring to ocad university: personal/ financial/ medical reasons desire to be part of a program with greater focus on art and creativity as well as a rigorous study of fine art unhappiness with their previous program additionally these university entrants mentioned greater employment prospects after graduation. ocad us applied degrees were appealing as well as a general disappointment in the lack or rigour and quality of teaching they perceived at their previous institutions. there are several places in this study where students verbalize a desire for ocad us practicing faculty members and their applied and rigorous teaching methods. students entering ocad u with previous college experience reported they left their previous programs often out of a desire to leave home and move away. the college entrants had more specific complaints about their previous programs that included restrictiveness of curriculum, lack of challenge and a lack of sophistication and chances for personal self-expression. participants in the study reported a number of motivations for selecting ocad university specifically, including: the nature of the university and its programs offered location of the university (downtown toronto core) reputation of the university art and design specialization pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 11 specialization of the faculty chances to study other specific aspects of art and design (e.g. furniture) the opportunity to study with like-minded peers (community of artists and designers) preference of a studio-based environment over traditional university experience some students were strongly influenced by the location of the university not just for the immediate experience of going to ocad u, but in the long term as a means to locate themselves where they want to live when they complete their degrees or as they are completing their degrees. ocad us location in the downtown core offered opportunities, arts friendliness and a progressive community. ocad us reputation was also a factor, specifically because of its exclusive focus on art and design, reputation as being a leading institution for art and design, and ocad us cultural value as an important institution in the downtown and arts communities 2. admissions and transfer process the portfolio entry requirement shows up several times in this study as something that is both feared and anxiety producing, as well as a threshold that students recognize as a potential barrier to admission. participants in the study who had attended college programs with the intent of entering ocad u focused on clear goals such as gaining studio experience and producing a professional portfolio of art and design work. in general students transferring to ocad university had different expectations about how long their degrees would take to complete, how many credits they were awarded versus what they expected as well as how difficult the transfer of credit process was for them. in this key category, the students with university experience were very different than their college experience counterparts. university entrants expected to spend longer completing their degrees than college entrants, and had more realistic expectations in general about transferred credits as well as time to degree completion. most university entrants expected to spend four years completing their ocad u degrees while half of the college entrants expected to complete their degrees in four years. among the university entrants, half of the participants in the study had transferred only liberal arts & sciences (las) credits and half had transferred both las credits as well as art or design studio credits. among the college entrants, 13% had transferred only las credits, while the vast majority (87%) had transferred both las as well as art or design studio credits. these numbers reflect that many of the students transferring to ocad u with university experience are coming from a program that did not have an art and design or studio focus and have lower expectations about direct transfers of course for course. the college entrants often have come from programs that were assumed to be transferrable to ocad u because of the art and design focus. access to information the interviews revealed the following general patterns in terms of how students found the information they needed to complete the transfer process: both university and college experience students relied strongly on the ocad u website for information. the ontario university application centres website was used as well. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 12 when experiencing difficulties with ocad us website, both university and college entrants utilized guesswork, talking to friends, or phone calls to university administration and staff; 25% received information about transfer of credit from ocad u administration and staff and were generally happy with the assistance they received. a small number of students had participated in information sessions or other presentations sponsored by ocad u recruiting that provided a source of information about transfer of credit options. student perceptions of the application process the majority of participants did not think the application process was difficult. however, a small number of students all college entrants found the process overwhelming. the portion of the transfer of credit process that caused the highest levels of ambiguity and anxiety (as well as intimidation) was the portfolio portion. in the end, students found the actual portfolio review process straightforward with the only solid misgivings afterwards located in the time artwork was kept and the length of time spent in limbo waiting for an answer. about one-third of the study participants had previous transfer of credit experience with other institutions, and ocad u was reported to be more generous than other institutions identified. the majority of university entrants found the process easy, but there were key recurring problems that are consistent with other university transfer of credit practices. difficulties were: 1. locating transfer of credit information and communicating with the university about transfers of credits. 2. time consuming nature of the transfer of credit process. ocad universitys process has a single dedicated officer, but the very specialized nature of ocad us course often require multiple reviews to assess transferability which may include reviews by associate deans in multiple faculties, portfolio reviews by disciplinary teams including chairs and associate deans which is further complicated when the peak season for assessment is in the summer when reviewers may be on staggered vacations. 3. difficulties associated with acquiring information such as course descriptions, syllabi and other requested information. courses change from year to year, course catalogs have been replaced by digitized content, transcripts often have fees attached. student satisfaction with process results just under half of the university entrants in the study expressed that they were not surprised with the results of the transfer credit process. of the others who did not get the credits they expected, these students were disappointed in the number of credits they did not get as related to their previous education. among university transfer students, the courses that were perceived as being unnecessarily repeated included: first year writing, intro to earth sciences, design processes, research methods, english, and art history. college entrants expressed the same concerns with closer to 60 percent of students being disappointed and surprised and some discussion of a lack of correlation between their expectations for direct course transferability. the greatest disappointment came in student reports that they were required to repeat courses in which the content and outcomes were considered to be a repetition of past course work without cause. among pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 13 college transfer students the courses given by students in interviews that were perceived as being unnecessarily repeated included: life drawing, art history, sculpture, painting studio, liberal studies (non specified). transfer of credits and impact on time to graduation perceptions about the effect of transfer of credit process on time to graduation were not remarkable. for both university and college entrants, the choice to attend ocad u was made without much attachment to transfer of credits, which correlates with other responses that indicate that students had chosen ocad u because of its specialized programs and mission and were not dependent upon transfer of credits to allow them to make their decisions. student suggestions for improving the process participants in the process provided their own recommendations to the institution to improve student mobility and transfer of credit. these recommendations included: accept more credits improve communication and information about transfer of credit process improve application process via more standardized course descriptions, etc. improve methods to inform students that they may be eligible for transfer of credits or advanced standing as well as clarify the transfer of credit process and fees make the process more expedient to decrease anxiety and frustration. these suggestions and others are explored in the implications & recommendations section that follows. 3. academic & social transition more than half of the students transferring from other universities reported that ocad u was equal to or easier than their former universities, with some qualification that the work required at ocad u was less formulaic work, more emotionally intense and work that was characteristically different than what they had experienced before with more hands-on experiences. additionally, once enrolled at ocad u students transferring from colleges almost universally reported that ocad u was more difficult than their previous experiences, particularly with abstract course content creating impediments to their success. when university entrants asked what would have helped them in their academic transition, three themes emerged. firstly, many of the students indicated that there is nothing specific that would have helped them with the academic transition to ocad university. these individuals indicated that the transition just required adjustment. a second theme that emerged was the view that a reduced course load would have assisted them in their academic transition. among the suggestions made by these participants were fewer courses, and fewer course projects. the final theme that emerged among university entrants was the belief that more supports and resources provided by the university would have helped. among the suggestions made by these participants were more social space, more studio/work space, more academic advising, and more information about the academic expectations at ocad university. when college entrants were asked what would have helped them in their academic transition to the university only one theme emerged. these individuals indicated that they believed that increased support and resources would have helped them in their academic transition. more specifically, pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 14 participants discussed the need for resources such as studio space and student residences. they also mentioned academic supports such as increased guidance from professors, preparatory classes the summer before they start at the university, and peer mentorship. when asked whether they were made to feel welcome at ocad university, virtually all of the students in both cohorts indicated that they were made to feel welcome. orientation (and other events for new students), email updates, friendly staff and faculty, and small class sizes were all listed as contributors to the welcoming environment at ocad university. among suggestions for improving the social transition of new students were the need for social and studio space, better ways to connect with other mature students, and improved social activities. familiarity with academic supports among the university entrants, 16 individuals reported being familiar with the academic supports available at the university. when asked how the participants learned about these supports and services, the majority talked about the promotional materials displayed throughout campus (posters, pamphlets, and advertisements) as well as online communications via email notifications and website announcements. participants in this cohort also reported learning about the available academic supports from faculty, instructors, academic advisors, as well as peers. among college entrants, 12 individuals reported that they were familiar with the available academic supports and services; four individuals were somewhat familiar, and only one participant was not familiar (but acknowledged a lack of diligence to pay attention to this type of information). individuals in cohort b reported that they learned about these supports and services through the same sources reported by cohort a. the final overall theme that emerged from the interviews was the need for increased supports for new students. several students suggested one on one meeting with individuals knowledgeable about the transfer and transition process. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 15 v. discussion: implications & recommendations the investigation was unique in that it looked towards qualitative as well as quantitative data to seek to understand not only the perceived problems associated with student mobility and transfer of credit, but also student expectations, backgrounds and motivations for transferring to ocad university. in general the students interviewed expressed that the complexities of transferring schools was a larger problem nuanced by the following realizations: 1. many students had problems choosing an institution and program of study, without enough critical background to understand the implications or abilities to navigate the many choices and options available to them, even if limited to ontario colleges and universities. 2. there is a large body of research addressing how students today make such life decisions that is still not conclusive and is shaped by the glut of additional information electronically available. 3. issues of program fit are rising in importance as institutions seek to address challenges in retention as well as time-to-degree completion. this studys results confirm almost every finding of the higher education quality council of ontarios 2011 publication, the transfer experience of ontario colleges who further their education an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey (decock, et al., 2011). this study called for more knowledge of the process, showed fairly high satisfaction rates and showed a general lack of correlation between transfer of credits and choices to attend a specific college or university. ocad us specialization was the most stated impetus for transfer and this needs to shape any broad scale or across-the-board transfer agreements, either through blocks or though program affinity. the study also drew attention to areas for institutional improvement, particularly the need for ocad u to be more flexible and focus on learning outcomes and pedagogical objectives rather than rely on course descriptions and very specific studio experiences in its transfer of credit practices and policies. faculty have observed that the university transfer students are often somewhat surprised that credits can even transfer at all in many cases, and this becomes a little perk offered by the university that was never expected. appeals of transfer of credit decisions are quite rare, and usually are handled with ease because students catch on that a french course can be transferred as a humanity credit or that their first year communication class at york uses the same textbook as ocad us first year critical theory course. seeing such transfer opportunities does not appear easily and ocad us art and design nuanced naming of courses further obfuscates parity in course descriptions, objectives and teaching methodologies. this is a negative effect of our specialization. it is also not unusual for a student with an engineering degree to have not had a recognizable english course, but upon investigation first year writing requirements can and are waived when it is clear that university level writing experiences are included in their former program. ocad us reliance on portfolio assessments and its non-traditional curriculum preclude many of the wisest suggestions from other more comprehensive institutions and these localized problems make ocad u an extremely difficult test case. as phillippe constantineau states in his july 2009 cou academic colleagues paper: the toughest choice facing ontario universities appears to be making the leap from bloc transfer credits for the completion of a community college program of study to the assessment of individual courses that have been successfully completed. these two approaches to the assessment of community college learning for university credit are not pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 16 necessarily mutually exclusive, but they are bound to lead to divergent results. this problem can be resolved by the application of the principle that, when there are divergent results obtained from the employment of both approaches to prior learning assessments, the one that gives the student the most advanced standing should be retained. (7) constantineus (2009) suggestion does not bode well with ocad us current approach. but were a stronger level of quality control maintained, key students coming from sympathetic programs at colleges who would reach a threshold such as obtaining an associates degree in graphic design with a minimum gpa could be assumed to have achieved the same educational goals and objects as would have been done at ocad u with similar portfolio evidence. if the minimum grade average is on par with marks given at ocad u and instructors and curriculum were close enough in outcomes then a direct transfer could work for select sympathetic programs. however, this research project suggests that students entering with college experience find ocad u difficult and abstract, leading to a belief that the intellectual and conceptual threshold has not been reached. art and design must be taught as more than just a vocational skill. this is why ocad u retains its desire to see work, meet students and subject them to anxiety creating, yet essentially rigorous screening. one approach would be to create program affinitive blocks with some flexibility, as is seen in the university of toronto, woodsworth college - seneca college model. if ocad u faculty do not feel that the studio experiences that college transfer students are coming to ocad u with warrant such large transfers then a reduced cap and retaking a few key core studios is reasonable and standard in studiobased education. however, the general liberal arts & sciences courses as well as the more generic first year studios that are skills-based may be much more easily transferred with more forgiving criteria such as learning outcomes like writing an analytical essay regardless of content or some kind of twodimensional representation course, be it drawing or digital design, etc. the results of this study suggest that ocad university should reconsider what it considers to be a core requirement, particularly at the first year level. for example, students coming out of a college or university program will, more than likely, have reached the same standards as the required essay and the argument first year writing class. some programs at other institutions allow students to test out of such a class and opt instead for a more content-based upper year alternative or a complete waiver. many experienced students deserve the same opportunity. recommendations finding: many students lack a basic understanding about their own programs and the relationship of their programs to the required, but flexible, liberal arts & sciences courses that they must take, as well as the other liberal arts & sciences courses that are part of their specific program requirements. students are often unable to see their degree programs in totality and therefore cannot see where previously taken courses may fulfill these various types of requirements. recommendations: ocad u should attempt to re-assess its many different programs with facilitating transfers of credit in mind as one of its criteria for clarity and consistency. ocad u should endeavour to use course titles and descriptions that are simple, clear and similar to other institutions when possible. many of the most highly specialized courses are not only similar to standard courses pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 17 elsewhere, but even use the same standard texts. clarity would help identify similar courses and lessen the burden of obtaining syllabi, course descriptions, etc. if a student has at least two years of full time college experience or at least one full year of university experience with a major that is in the social sciences, ocad u should consider waiving any required introductory research methods classes. the essay and the argument is the most often complained about course in relationship to redundancy. granting credit for this course if at least one year of university credit has been completed or two years of college has been completed or some similar measure would be advised as well. finding: ocad university suffers from communication gaps for transfer of credit options from a practical student perspective. information is embedded in layers of university policy as the default organizational structure, rather than being based on student experience. students do not understand transfer of credit rules, policies or opportunities as a result. recommendation: make the website user-based, graphic and less reliant on written policies and more on student and faculty experiences with carefully prioritized data that may have policies embedded for further information, but is designed around helping students choose the right classes, understand programs, and other practical applications. furthermore, use specific student cases to demonstrate how transfer credits may fit into real life student scenarios through case studies. various programs may be modeled using fictional or even real student personas. finding: the transfer of credit process is labour intensive, requires too much information gathering on administration and student ends and remains very subjective in many cases. student comments about ambiguities and mixed expectations are consistent with the subjectivity and interpretation that remain a key component of the transfer of credit process. those participating in the process make mistakes and staff change, particularly at the associate dean level where the highly subjective decisions occur and continuity is rare from year to year. recommendation: standard block agreements need to be forged between copasetic programs (at the college level and potentially university level), core courses, such as basic research methods and introductory english, need to be more often automatically granted credits, and learning outcomes and experiences rather than course outlines, descriptions and titles need to form the backbone of these pre-arranged transfers. the current system is too reliant on dated criteria. transfers may be seen as cumulative experiences and pairings of courses at ocad u may be seen to be the equivalent of other pairings of course with entirely different titles and course descriptions, but with similar learning outcomes and standards. the current exchange focus on course-to-course transfers denies the assessment of experiences such as achieving competency in writing a university level critical essay. finding: communication of transfer of credit results takes too much time. ocad u is a small institution where key decisions in the transfer of credit process rely on only one key person in various steps of the assessment process. as such, long delays can occur and transfer of credit bundles of student pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 18 cases are often passed on in batches. nearly finished applications must wait until a critical mass builds up and vacations and other work duties can impede progress. recommendation: the key solution is to digitize the entire process with workflow mapping, status reports and progress tracking to help those in the process to manage their time and efficiency. increasing participation in transfer of credit assessment of all courses, not just studio courses to include chairs or even senior faculty would also spread the workload and decrease dependency on just one or two key people. a by-product of sharing this task would be a greater understanding of transfer of credit policies, practices and rules by others, which would lead to more informed advising. finding: one of the more significant findings in this study was that the needs, expectations and knowledge level of university experience students and college experience students was very different, yet both cohorts are treated the same. recommendation: orientation, messaging and even the transfer of credit assessment process itself may need to be redesigned into two separate processes to fit the very different needs of these two very different groups of students. block transfers for college entrants may be paired with grouping of types of courses as core block transfers for university entrants. the study confirms that the experiences each cohort brings to the table is different, and current practices to transfer an english class for a university student as an english class at ocad u or two writing classes at the college level as the same ocad u english class does not take into account what either student may have actually experienced as a learning outcome. there needs to be more than one standard of measurement, and that standard needs not to be the course for course university transfer as the standard. conclusion looking at such transfer of credit expectations and outcomes by focusing on one particular art and design university has led to an optimistic but cautious call for entering into trial agreements and helping build realistic and useful student expectations and preparation for transfers within ontario into ocad university from a variety of origins. ocad u occupies a unique place in the post-secondary landscape in ontario and, as we have seen, ocad us students come here for very specific reasons. many come with prior post-secondary experience that deserves credit, but perhaps credit for learning outcomes more than specific courses should be the focus. it would be wise to help increase transfers, but alongside ocad us selective admissions process. facilitating transfer pathways along with a recognition that our university and college transfer students have different needs, intentions and expectations will help enrich ocad us learning environment and not devalue its mission if done with our student profile in mind. this broadening of transfer of credit beyond a one-size-fits-all mentality would serve students, faculty and staff and hopefully open up new venues for transfers in the future to further enrich ocad us diverse student body. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 19 references canale, j. r., dunlap, l., britt, m., & donahue, t. (1996). the relative importance of various college characteristics to students in influencing their choice of a college. college student journal, 30, 214-216. constantineau, p. (2009).the ontario transfer credit system: a situation report. cou academic colleagues working paper. toronto: council of ontario universities. creswell, j. w., & miller, d. l. (2000). determining validity in qualitative inquiry. theory into practice, 39, 124-30. decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s & hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education: an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. desjardins, s. l., dundar, h., & hendel, d. d. (1999). modeling the college application decision process in a land-grant university. economics of education review, 18, 117-132. finnie, r., childs, s., & qiu, t. (2012). patterns of persistence in postsecondary education: new evidence for ontario. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. galotti, k. m. (1995). a longitudinal study of real-life decision making: choosing a college. applied cognitive psychology, 9, 459-484. galotti, k. m., & mark, m. c. (1994). how do high school students structure an important life decision? a short-term longitudinal study of the college decision-making process. research in higher education, 35, 589-607. gerdes, h., & mallinckrodt, b. (1994). emotional, social, and academic adjustment of college students: a longitudinal study of retention. journal of counseling & development, 72, 281-288. johnson, r. g., stewart, n. r., & eberly, c. g. (1991). counselor impact on college choice. the school counselor, 39, 84-90. jones, g. & skolnik, m. (2009). degrees of opportunity: broadening student access by increasing institutional differentiation in ontario higher education. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. lennon, m.c., zhao, h., wang, s. & gluszynski, t. (2011). educational pathways of youth in ontario: factors impacting educational pathways. toronto. higher educational quality council of ontario. long, b. t. (2004). how have college decisions changed over time? an application of the conditional logistic choice model. journal of econometrics,121, 271-296. mclaughlin, g. w., brozovsky, p. v., & mclaughlin, j. s. (1998). changing perspectives on student retention: a role for institutional research. research in higher education, 39, 1-17. patton, m. q. (2002). qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. palameta, b. & voyer, j.p. (2010). willingness to pay for post-secondary education among underrepresented groupst. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. pancer, s. m., hunsberger, b., pratt, m. w., & alisat, s. (2000). cognitive complexity of expectations and adjustment to university in the first year. journal of adolescent research, 15, 38-57. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 20 rae, b. (2004). postsecondary review, higher expectations for higher education: working through the possibilities. toronto: government of ontario. seifert, t. a., arnold, c., burrow, j., & brown, a. (2011). supporting student success: the role of student services within ontarios postsecondary institutions. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. serenko, a. (2011). student satisfaction with canadian music programmes: the application of the american customer satisfaction model in higher education. assessment and evaluation in higher education, 36, 281-299. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. thousand oaks, ca: sage. suhre, c., jansen, e., &harskamp, e. g. (2007). impact of degree program satisfaction on the persistence of college students. higher education, 54, 207-226. umbach, p. d., & wawrzynski, m. r. (2005). faculty do matter: the role of college faculty in student learning and engagement. research in higher education, 46, 153-184. pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 21 appendix a: interview protocol ocad university - college university consortium council research project pathways and barriers to art and design undergraduate education for students with previous college and university experience questions regarding prior experience 1. can you tell me about the colleges or universities you attended prior to ocad u? what program(s) were you in? how much of your diploma or degree did you complete? name of previous institution(s location name of previous program semester(s) or year(s) of study at previous institution [if not clear] was your previous program art or design related? was your previous program studio-based? did you complete your previous program? if yes, credential awarded: 2. can you tell me what influenced you to enroll in that/those particular program(s)? 3. if you did not complete your diploma/degree, why did you choose to leave that/those particular program(s)? 4. at what point in your previous program did you decide that you wanted to continue your studies at ocad university? 5. why did you decide to enrol at ocad u? questions regarding admission and transfer process 1. before applying to ocad u, what did you anticipate in terms of how long it would take you to complete your chosen degree here? please elaborate. a. thinking back on this process, how did you find the information you needed to begin the application process? b. how difficult did you find it to complete the required steps in the ocad u application process? please elaborate on aspects of the process that were easy or difficult. 2. this next series of questions focuses on the process of applying for transfer credit when you came to ocad university. a. did you apply for any transfer of credit when you came to ocad university? (if no, skip to q. 3) b. if so, did you apply for studio credits, liberal studies credits or both? c. how difficult or easy was it to complete the required steps in the request for credit transfer portion of the ocad u application process? please elaborate on aspects of the process that were easy or difficult. d. did you seek assistance during the process? if so, what information did you need, from whom did you request assistance, and how often did you seek assistance? was the assistance provided inadequate or satisfactory? if no assistance was sought, what was your experience of navigating the steps on your own? e. were the necessary steps in the process and forms clear and intuitive or difficult to understand and complete? f. what was your experience in obtaining and supplying the required records? g. were the costs associated with the process prohibitive or reasonable? h. how did you feel about the length of time that the transfer credit and application process took? pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 22 3. have you gone through the process of applying for acceptance and transfer of credit to institutions other than ocad university? if so, can you compare your experiences noting both positive and negative aspects? 4. did the credit transfer process yield expected outcomes for you? 5. were you surprised by the transfer credits accepted or rejected by ocad university? 6. did the results of the transfer credit process have an effect on your plans and/or expectations about the time it would take to complete your degree here? 7. if you had had the opportunity to take ocad u courses online while you were still enrolled in your previous institution, would you have done so? 8. to what degree did ocad universitys decision regarding your application for transfer credit positively or negatively influence your decision to attend ocad u? questions regarding transition to ocad university 1. what impressions of ocad university did you make during your application process? 2. did you receive informative, clear and frequent communications from ocad u? 3. what were impressions following your acceptance to ocad university, but prior to your enrollment? 4. what were your impressions during your first semester of enrollment? 5. how would you describe your transition in terms of the level of academic difficulty of your courses at ocad university compared to your previous experience? 6. what would have helped you in your academic transition to ocad university? 7. how familiar are you with the structure and requirements for your degree program? for example: required and elective courses, credit weight system, different majors/minors/specializations? a. how and when did you learn about these? 8. how familiar are you with the various academic supports available at ocad university? for example, academic advisors, writing and learning services, library and the learning zone. a. how and when did you learn about those? 9. what would have helped you in your social transition to ocad university? were you made to feel welcome as a member of the ocad university community? can you give examples of what made you feel welcome/unwelcome? 10. how and when did you gain an orientation to the physical campus locations and purposes of buildings; transit and parking; hours of operation? 11. how familiar are you with the student life and involvement opportunities at ocad u such as clubs and associations, student union, career services, mentorship program. a. how and when did you learn about those? 12. can you identify any procedures, policies or practices at ocad university that have presented barriers for you? 13. since starting at ocad u, do you feel you have repeated any coursework unnecessarily? 14. are you pleased that you transferred to ocad u? suggestions 1. do you have any suggestions for how to modify the transfer of credit guidelines and practices for dealing with these issues to improve the process? 2. do you have any suggestions for how to ease the transition process to ocad university for students with previous post-secondary experience? pathways and barriers to art & design undergraduate education: 23

pathways from sheridan colleges journalism diploma programs to ryerson universitys bjourn program executive summary oncat project number 2014-01 march 25, 2015 350 victoria street, toronto, canada m5b 2k3 www.ryerson.ca 2 executive summary in march 2013, ryerson university began working with sheridan college to establish an articulation agreement that would see graduates of sheridan's diplomas in print journalism and in broadcast journalism free to apply for accelerated admission to ryerson's bjourn degree program with advanced standing. this project was supported by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). ryerson faculty and staff worked in collaboration with sheridan faculty and staff to assess sheridans program and courses and map equivalencies to ryerson courses. as a result of these efforts, an equivalency map was developed for each of the two sheridan journalism diplomas. according to these maps, graduates of each sheridan journalism program would be eligible to apply for admission to the four-year ryerson bjourn degree and, if accepted, to aim for completion of ryerson studies within two and a half years. an articulation agreement to this effect was signed by the two institutions in june 2014, and, the following september, a pilot group of sheridan graduates entered the ryerson bjourn program. all students are now on track to successful completion of ryerson studies by december 2016. key milestones id. 1 2 3 4. 5. 6. 7. title negotiate and plan the admissions criteria and process plot course equivalencies; sign articulation agreement plan and manage transition counsel students applying to pilot cohort (3 students) publicize the opportunity at sheridan assess pilot cohorts experience and modify transfer pathways or logistics, as necessary make final adjustments and conclude the project. planned completion date 2013-11-30 2014-06-30 2014-06-30 2014-08-31 2014-12-31 2015-01-31 actual completion date 2013-11-23 2014-06-15 2014-06-30 2014-08-31 2014-12-31 2015-01-31 2015-05-31 2015-03-15

finding success through student mobility a synopsis of three university to college pathways for remediation november 2016 project teams university of ontario institute of technology and durham college robert bailey, university of ontario institute of technology joe stokes, university of ontario institute of technology jennifer percival, university of ontario institute of technology glenn harvel, university of ontario institute of technology alena shah, university of ontario institute of technology jeff zakoor, durham college trent university and fleming college hailey wright, trent university joe muldoon, trent university david baker, fleming college sue kloosterman, fleming college york university and seneca college paula green, york university & seneca college yvette munro, york university henry decock, seneca college 1|page contents project teams ............................................................................................................................................... 1 university of ontario institute of technology and durham college ........................................................ 1 trent university and fleming college ....................................................................................................... 1 york university and seneca college .......................................................................................................... 1 chapter 1: the ontario council on articulation and transfer awards three development projects for academic remediation ................................................................................................................................. 4 1.0 background ....................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 finding a common theme ...................................................................................................................... 5 chapter 2: university to college remediation pathway for academic success at the university of ontario institute of technology and durham college ............................................................................................... 6 2.0 project summary ..................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 lessons learned ...................................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 conceptualization ................................................................................................................................... 7 2.3 curriculum............................................................................................................................................... 7 2.4 logistics ................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.41 enrolment management ................................................................................................................... 9 2.42 finances ............................................................................................................................................ 9 2.43 student development ..................................................................................................................... 10 2.5 governance ........................................................................................................................................... 10 chapter 3: student redirect initiatives at trent university and fleming college: university transfer expansion .................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.0 project summary ................................................................................................................................... 11 3.1 conceptualization ................................................................................................................................. 12 3.2 curriculum............................................................................................................................................. 12 3.3 lessons learned .................................................................................................................................... 13 3.31 project challenges........................................................................................................................... 13 3.32 project successes ............................................................................................................................ 14 3.4 concluding statement........................................................................................................................... 14 chapter 4: university to college pathway for students not meeting academic progression requirements in administrative studies-york university and seneca college .................................................................. 15 4.0 program overview .......................................................................................................................... 15 4.1 lessons learned .............................................................................................................................. 16 4.2 project conceptualization ............................................................................................................... 16 2|page 4.3 structural ........................................................................................................................................ 17 4.31 timelines, marketing, promotion ............................................................................................... 17 4.32 advising ....................................................................................................................................... 17 4.33 workload..................................................................................................................................... 17 4.34 advisor training .......................................................................................................................... 18 4.4 students issues ............................................................................................................................... 18 4.41 student satisfaction .................................................................................................................... 18 4.41.1 4.5 student interest ...................................................................................................................... 18 logistical.......................................................................................................................................... 18 4.51 staffing turnover ........................................................................................................................ 18 4.52 program location ........................................................................................................................ 18 4.53 the accounting bridge ................................................................................................................ 19 4.54 admissions process ..................................................................................................................... 19 4.6 the way forward ............................................................................................................................ 19 4.7 recommendations .......................................................................................................................... 20 4.8 conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 21 3|page chapter 1: the ontario council on articulation and transfer awards three development projects for academic remediation 1.0 background in 2015 the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) invited funding proposals from ontario universities and colleges of applied arts and technology for pathway development projects. three university/college partners the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit)/ durham college, trent university/fleming college and york university/seneca college who have both regional proximity and long standing histories of collaboration, submitted three separate proposals with similar characteristics. although each project had distinct differences, oncat recognized similarities that gave merit to a potential collaboration between the three development groups. some of the major commonalities that existed include but are not limited to, the following: each project proposal outlined a pathway proposal that was focused on academic mobility where the university was the sending institution; the proposals had an aspect of academic redirection and remediation; all three programs proposed some form of credit transfer between the university and college partner. these similarities sparked a desire to allow each project to proceed independently, but with central collaboration that allowed for discussion and inquiry through the project development phase of each proposal. the culmination of this dialogue and the lessons learned by each project team is contained in this report. it is the hope of oncat and the six participating universities and colleges that the information contained in the following chapters will assist other institutions who wish to collaborate on academic redirection and remediation programs that involve credit transfer. finally, this paper will focus solely on the project development phase of the three pathway programs. as all three programs are still in their implementation phases, there are not sufficient data to report on student success and program progression. in the case of successful implementations of all three projects, it could be valuable to consider future research on student success from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. 4|page 1.1 finding a common theme one of the hypotheses at the onset of the project proposals was that it would be possible to identify some sort of commonality between the project development learnings among the proposals listed above. while the projects had very different trajectories, there were some similarities observed, when they were compared synoptically. perhaps the most striking commonality between the three projects is that the major challenges seemed to focus more on the logistical aspects than on the curriculum development, and in the case of uoit/durham and york/seneca, the implementation process. this is not to say that curriculum development challenges did not exist, just that there seemed to be an emphasis on the challenges experienced across promotion, admission, communication, academic and non-academic logistics, and academic advising. most other challenges and successes that were experienced are uniquely individualized to each of the respective projects. with this outcome, all project teams had some sort of learning from the process of program development. finally, the ensuing chapters are organized in a similar fashion, in order to address the program development phase of the three chapters synoptically. however, due to the distinct objectives of each project there are some small differences in presentation. 5|page chapter 2: university to college remediation pathway for academic success at the university of ontario institute of technology and durham college 2.0 project summary some students have difficulty in achieving success in the first year of study. programs are intensive and do not include capabilities to recover from academic deficiencies. a mechanism is needed for students to break off from their program, and address their specific deficiencies, before returning. the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) and durham college have developed a pathway for enhanced academic success to support students requiring remediation. the proposed pathway is done in such a way that successful students will be eligible to earn a general arts and science certificate concurrently with the continuation of their university degree. in the academic success pathway, students that have been suspended from uoit will be given the opportunity to enter a durham college program that will address academic success related deficiencies. the students will undergo an assessment process to identify their specific needs and will have access to academic advisors at both institutions for guidance. upon successfully completing the program, the student returns to university with a position reserved in their program of study; allowing for a semester reduction in the time lost due to suspension. the program also allows for the student to recognize that they are not in the right program or at the right academic level and thus may choose to transfer to the college or apply to switch university programs during the remedial semester. regardless of the pathway taken, the student is provided the opportunity to be successful in obtaining the academic education that they are suited for. 2.1 lessons learned the following is a summary of the challenges and opportunities that were faced by the project group while developing this pathway program. these lessons learned are representative of program development only, and do not focus on student achievement in the program and subsequent academic progression. the project challenges and opportunities have been categorized into four major development areas conceptualization, curriculum development, logistics and academic governance 6|page to better display the types of learning that was gained through the projects course. as many of the lessons learned can be very institution specific, an effort has been made to generalize for the benefit of the reader. 2.2 conceptualization the uoit-dc project was submitted to oncat as a funding proposal in the spring of 2015. the initial concept of the project grew out of the need for a remedial track for university students who were in academic jeopardy. at the time of the project conceptualization, uoit had one of the lower year 1 to year 2 retention rates (81% vs the ontario average 86.6% based on csrde methodology) in the ontario system. furthermore, students that failed to persist to year 2 had virtually no options, except an academic appeal, to mitigate a possible suspension from the university. these challenges had led to open discussions across the university about possible retention mechanisms that could be employed for student success. the strong academic and working relationship that the university had with durham college allowed for a unique solution to the universitys retention issues: development of a college level remediation track. with a growing comfort level on academic pathways between the college and the university, collaboration on this project came relatively easy. this existing relationship also allowed for the formation of a dynamic project team, that consisted of academic, administrative and student development staff, many of whom had previously collaborated well. once the project team was assembled, and the funding submission was sent to oncat, there was considerable back and forth between uoit (who was designated the project lead) and oncat to understand the uniqueness of the proposal. the project team had significant discussions on defining the scope of the project; main themes included: project scope: should the program fit all academic disciplines at uoit or just select programs? transfer credit: the program allowed for the transfer of university credits to the college credential, but did not allow for college credits to transfer back to the university after the remedial program; should this be considered? project intake: timing and potential enrolment were large question marks, should the program only run in the summer, and how many students could potentially enroll? mode of delivery: should the program be online, face to face or hybrid? in the end, the group decided that college to university transfer was outside of the scope of the project. the team also opted for a summer remedial term only, with a forecasted enrolment of between 40 students. after much discussion, it was decided that an in-class delivery would be the predominant learning mode, with some instructors free to incorporate a hybrid component to their courses. 2.3 curriculum the goal of the curriculum development group was to create a fundamentally sound program; and their hope was that durham colleges existing general arts and science (gas) program could be used as a framework for developing a remedial program for the university. this would allow for students who are 7|page successful in this program, to transfer university credits to the college after program completion and earn a gas certificate concurrently with a university degree, while benefiting from academic remediation at the college. the curriculum team agreed that before the gas curriculum was evaluated, a set of learning outcomes would be developed in the areas of numeracy, literacy, and academic preparation. these outcomes would be used as the guideline with which to evaluate the college curriculum for the proposed goal of academic remediation to the university. as the team began their work they decided to build a program option for all academic disciplines at the university. this required the development of variable learning outcomes to ensure students had the appropriate core competencies for reentry to their home program. after evaluating the curriculum, there were some major changes that had to be incorporated within student development and literacy courses, and only minor changes to the proposed math courses. the group decided that to round out the program, students would take an additional 2 elective courses that could be discipline specific; this would allow for more customization in building remedial packages for students. once the curriculum development was underway the group began discussions on the program across the university academic community. the associate provost was tasked with introducing the concept to the decanal group for senior leadership feedback and support. the project team worked directly with various faculty council and academic advisor groups for feedback and support. on the college side, the team member from durham college discussed the curriculum changes with the college academic community. the major themes of the discussion were: deans liked the control that their advising units could have over the elective courses to add for program customization there was discomfort with the idea of allowing transfer credit from the college remedial program back to the university. this ultimately helped the project team to abandon the idea of two way transfer as outside of the project scope college faculty and administration were reluctant to modify curriculum, and wondered if the effort involved with overhauling a program would be realized with sufficient enrolment to run the program. academic advisors at both institutions had very few questions on curriculum, but had many questions on logistics and academic progression. this group was revisited by the logistical team for further discussion. after campus wide discussions were conducted at both institutions, there was agreement that the university would adopt the elements of the gas curriculum, with some modification, for the remedial option for students in academic jeopardy. in short, this agreement was the largest hurdle on the curriculum development side, as it would have been improbable that the college would have built 4 new courses to accommodate the universitys desire for a remedial option with unknown potential enrolment. 2.4 logistics 8|page at the same time that the curriculum team was redeveloping the gas courses, a sub-group of administrators started discussing how in practice, students would be able to move seamlessly between the 2 institutions, while conforming to both institutions general academic regulations. discussion with non-academic units included but was not limited to, the office of the registrar, financial aid and awards, scheduling, records and registration, enrolment services, admissions and recruitment, communications and marketing and student life. these interactions allowed for a fulsome discussion and the identification of major challenges. these included: 2.41 enrolment management the colleges summer session start date was before academic standing was released at the university. this resulted in the college agreeing to start the students in the second week of term, making the necessary adjustments with faculty and administration. to accomplish this short turnaround time, the university managed a phone campaign to call students who had just been suspended to explain the remedial program, and the college conducted multiple on-thespot admissions and registration sessions for students. there were concerns over the actual number of students who would enroll in such a program. the university had a little over 400 year 1 students on suspension, but it was guesswork to forecast enrolment. there were challenges for international enrolments, as many students who were on country specific scholarships (ex. king abdullah scholarship program for saudi arabian students) were not able to keep their funding. students were able to pay tuition outside of these programs if they wished. due to the quick turnaround from university suspension to the program start date at the college, the students generated a significant number of unanticipated requests for knowledge associated with college and university transfer options. despite the short turn around, a number of students from outside the target cohort attempted to access the remediation program, even some who were not suspended but who felt could benefit from further academic success training. as these students were outside the projected pathway, they generated additional registrarial related issues that were unanticipated. students tried to enroll in the remedial program while attempting an academic appeal at the same time. this created hesitance for the student to register and pay fees at the college. most university faculties recommended the college remedial program in lieu of granting an appeal. to share enrolment data between the 2 institutions, a data sharing protocol (already in place between dc and uoit) was leveraged. 2.42 finances ensuring the program was eligible for student financial assistance was important. this required all student registering in a full-time course load in a certificate level program to meet eligibility. this program format also ensured the college would receive government funding for the program. many students paid an initial enrolment deposit for the program, but waited on appeals at the university before paying their full tuition. much effort was made to explain to students that they are attending a separate institution, and that their fees would need to be paid regardless of an appeal outcome. 9|page 2.43 student development transitioning a student from one accessibility office to another with a 5 day turnaround was challenging. students may receive different levels of accommodation or support at either institution depending on the institutions policies or guidelines, and the differences in requirements for the programs at each institution may be confusing and stressful for students; especially with the tight turnaround time. by may 13 most of the enrolment unknowns were abated, as 96 students registered for the program. in fact, there was so much interest that a waitlist was developed, despite the college employing an exceptionally short turnaround to increase the pilot program capacity by 240%. in the coming years, it is likely that up to 50% of year 1 suspended students may opt into the program. 2.5 governance the way in which the remedial program was sent through academic governance at both institutions took some time to develop fully. on the university side, there was discussion if the entire curriculum needed to be accepted through formal governance channels. in the end, it was decided that what actually needed to be approved was not the curriculum itself, but rather an adjustment to the universitys suspension policy. in short, the university governing body approved to allow students to readmit to the university on probation with the completion of the college remedial program; effectively waiving the second half of the students suspension. on the college side there were some management and procedural changes during the project development phase. this resulted in the reevaluation of aspects of the project including the need to receive approval from the program proposal review committee. these changes caused additional hurdles to the project but ultimately resulted in a stronger pilot project offering 10 | p a g e chapter 3: student redirect initiatives at trent university and fleming college: university transfer expansion 3.0 project summary fleming colleges (fleming) general arts & science university transfer (ut) program and trent university (trent) collaborated to develop and facilitate a process for redirecting students facing suspension from trent within business and the sciences, which account for the highest rate of academic suspension across trent programming. prior to the beginning of the project, the ut program presented a social science and humanities emphasis through its multidisciplinary approach to literature, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. this program attracts students wishing to survey the humanities discipline; lack the academic credentials to meet university admission requirements; or previously attempted university studies. in addition, trent and fleming entered into an informal redirect upon admission agreement in 2014 to give an option to unqualified trent applicants a pathway to achieve a degree in four years. the goal of this project was to develop streams within flemings one-year ut certificate program and facilitate second-year entry into strategic bachelor of science majors and the bachelor of business administration program, in addition to the existing pathway which supports bachelor of arts secondyear entry and limited transferability into the bachelor of science degrees. this pathway will have three distinct entry points: traditional fleming recruitment and admission processes, trents redirect upon application, and trents suspension redirect process. a redirected suspension student will complete the certificate and transition into second-year studies of a degree program; this is identical to a student who entered into the ut program through flemings traditional recruitment and admission process or trents re-direct upon application process. students accessing the ut program at fleming via the suspension redirect process will be eligible to obtain transfer credits towards their certificate at fleming. the project team acknowledges that some students facing suspension from trent could have had success in varying courses during their first year of study that may be deemed equivalent to courses in the program specific streams in the ut program at fleming. although transfer credits can be assigned it will not expedite completion time for the certificate but may exempt students from studying in a full course load. both institutions are committed to the projects implementation and success; the ut streams provide a unique opportunity to those students that wish to survey humanities, science and business disciplines, lack the university admission requirements, or as an alternative to trents academic suspension policy. 11 | p a g e 3.1 conceptualization the ut pathway between fleming and trent has been a longstanding success for both institutions and the students it serves. the initial discussion of this project began at a meeting between fleming and trent administration in early may 2015. during that meeting, an expansion was proposed to the existing ut pathway where trent would redirect suspended students to flemings general arts & science ut instead of trent enforcing the traditional one-year suspension from the university. trent highlighted the need that any redirect or suspension redirect pathway would need to allow seamless second-year entry into specific bachelor of science majors and the bachelor of business administration program because of their persistently high first-year suspension rates (approximately 10% of the incoming cohort is faced with suspension at the end of their first academic year). early in june 2015, a decision was made to develop stream options within the existing ut program. the project team performed an analysis of trents first-year major requirements that identified key courses that required development for the business and science streams. additionally, fleming faculty identified the courses that are integral to the ut program, which ensures student success and maintains its program vocational outcomes. the courses deemed integral are mandated program requirements of the three-stream options. 3.2 curriculum as the curriculum development stage of the project approached, the teams at trent and fleming agreed that the conversation for course development would need to be collaborative and focus on establishing ut streams that supported the foundations of related degree programming. thus creating a program that would work from a preparatory point of view and solidify the fundamentals needed to be successful in the students selected degree program. trent and fleming reached a consensus on which streams and corresponding courses would have the greatest mutual benefit. as part of the curriculum development process, fleming faculty reviewed trents course outlines and consulted with trent faculty when necessary regarding textbook selection and delivery patterns. fleming consulted trent faculty early in the development process to ensure the courses would meet trents equivalency threshold. courses developed include preparatory calculus, calculus i (60 hrs.), calculus ii (60 hrs.), biology i (60 hrs.), biology ii (60 hrs.), and introduction to management. fleming is working towards operationalizing the multiple streams. fleming has included an equivalent preparatory calculus course in addition to the two calculus equivalents. this preparatory course ensures that students have the necessary background knowledge and understanding to succeed in an introductory university calculus course. further, it allows students without a high school grade 12 u mathematics credit access to the ut - science stream. understanding the overall project goal of on-time degree attainment and the timeline, the team chose to approach the design and curriculum assessment in a unique approach. the proposed streams have been mapped in a way that ensures students have the prerequisites to provide entrance in program specific second year courses. the proposed streams create a seamless 12 | p a g e transfer into the following trent degree programs: business administration (bba), economics (ba or bsc), biology (bsc), math (ba or bsc), psychology (ba or bsc), english literature (ba), philosophy (ba) and sociology (ba). students are able to apply for, and declare majors outside of these listed programs, but not all transfer credits may be usable towards degree requirements nor would students have the prerequisites to enter directly into the second-year of the desired program. trents transfer equivalency database was reviewed following the development of the curriculum map to determine which fleming courses may already have been deemed equivalent and could be worked into the pathway without requiring additional course development. the benefit of this approach was it allowed the team to adhere to project deadlines. further, it allows course delivery at fleming to be viable as a single course spans multiple college programs. this preliminary work allowed trent to make recommendations to fleming regarding course development. devising a curriculum map in the preliminary stages allowed for a more focused course development. following the preferred curriculum map, department heads and designated faculty members at fleming and trent were asked which courses would best fit in the new streams. the initial step in the curriculum analysis was to share current trent course outlines with fleming. this provided fleming faculty the framework to ensure the courses had enough learning outcome overlap to constitute an equivalency following development. subsequent to the distribution of the course outlines, subject matter experts met to explore course pedagogy and delivery pattern nuances. following the meetings, faculty began ongoing email consultation and collaboration. once fleming had established a skeletal course outline, learning outcomes, lecture and seminar topics, it was shared with trent. trent subject matter experts reviewed the skeletal outline and, if appropriate, awarded an inprinciple equivalency. after full development, trent subject matter experts reviewed the complete outline and related documentation to determine its equivalency. equivalencies for all developed courses were awarded. 3.3 lessons learned 3.31 project challenges the project received its approval midway through the fall academic term; this midterm approval prevented fleming from beginning the course development process until the end of the term as faculty appointments were already established and course release could not be implemented mid-term. fulltime faculty received development release time as part of their winter and spring teaching assignments, which ultimately led to the push back of projects completion date. at present, trent has an internal program, which supports newly suspended students to re-enter the university without completing the standard one-year suspension. this program known as fresh start allows students to petition to stay at trent on a reduced course load under close supervision of academic advisors. the project team has faced some challenges in moving forward with a suspension redirect process as it conflicts with an existing institutional program aimed at supporting student success within trent. 13 | p a g e the trent project team has recommended that both the fresh start program and the suspension redirect bi-directional-remediation program can coexist and ultimately the student will decide which suspension outcome is best suited to their needs. trent students facing suspension will meet with trent academic advisors and be presented with the option to make an appeal to become a part of the fresh start program or to participate in the pathway with fleming. this option supports the desire for these students deciding the direction of their educational journey and ensures that staff supports are in place to assist with the decision making process. 3.32 project successes the collaborative measures taken throughout the stages of curriculum mapping, course development and curriculum analysis for equivalency have led to a successful outcome of robust bachelor of science and bachelor of business administration pathways. students enrolled in any stream, regardless of how they entered, will have the opportunity to receive full trent credit for their learning at fleming. another benefit is participating students will not have to enroll into a summer bridge in order to enter secondyear programming at trent. the project team views this as a monumental success of the curriculum planning and a best practice in student mobility as it allows students to receive full credit for the learning completed in the academic year and eliminates the need for off-term study. the project is evidence that college curriculum developed and structured in a specific manner can allow for one-to-one college to university equivalents in the sciences and business disciplines. further, the program and its streams are not the pure delivery of university curriculum at the college, but provide the necessary preparatory curriculum and applied learning where necessary to ensure student success. the success of the project is attributed to the joint institutional faculty and administration collaboration at all project stages. faculty pedagogy discussions have been a learning experience for each institution's faculty and administration. 3.4 concluding statement as of fall 2016 the trent and fleming ut expansion has not yet been implemented and as such cannot include comments regarding governance or logistics of the pathway program. however, both institutions are committed to moving forward and establishing a viable model to launch in a continued effort to support the development of strong academic foundations for diploma to degree completion. 14 | p a g e chapter 4: university to college pathway for students not meeting academic progression requirements in administrative studies-york university and seneca college 4.0 program overview building on their existing partnership relationship, york university and seneca college established an accounting redirect project for students struggling in the bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree program. the accounting redirect program offered an alternative pathway to students in academic jeopardy at york university to be redirected to the seneca college accounting diploma program. upon successful graduation from the accounting diploma program, students would be able to transition back to york university through the accounting bridge program. the goal therefore of the accounting redirect project was the provision of a college transfer pathway option for students to achieve their original degree aspirations (oncat report 2015-24, march 2016, p. 2). to be admitted into the accounting redirect program, students from york university needed to have completed at least 24 credits. upon transfer, redirected students would then receive credits from seneca college for the courses previously taken at york university. the duration of their seneca college program would vary depending on the number of courses previously taken at york university where a c average was maintained. the anticipated duration of the students enrollment at seneca college was three semesters. this redirect option offered a pathway to help students achieve academic success, and was also a collaborative effort by both institutions to improve student retention. the approximate duration of the entire redirect program was sixteen months. at seneca college, students would complete three semesters and combined with their transfer credits, obtain a diploma. on their return to york university, they would be required to complete five, three-credit bridge courses from york university, offered only during the summer months. upon successful completion of these course requirements, they would be re-enrolled back into york university for the fall semester. however, during the three semesters at seneca college, students would have the option of taking two or three of the bridge courses offered by york university. the option to take these courses would be conveyed during the student advising appointments. students who take the two bridge courses while enrolled at seneca college, for example, 15 | p a g e would reduce the 15 credit (five, three-credit courses) bridge requirement to nine. the assumption was that the reduction would make the bridge program more appealing and manageable for students. in a document outlining the program, administrators noted that over a two year period, approximately 35 students were exited at the 24-credit decision point from the accounting program in the school of administrative studies. additionally, approximately 80 students were exited at the second decision point. consequently, it was assumed that many of these students already knew they were struggling at the 24-credit mark, and therefore the redirect program might be an appealing option for them, especially given the more supportive academic environment (smaller classes, slower pace), curricular design and pedagogical approaches offered at seneca college. the bridge courses would allow the returning student to upgrade, and arrive in year three of the bas with 60 york university credits and with the foundational courses for the accounting specialization. to successfully graduate from an honours degree program at york university, students would normally need approximately 120 credits. 4.1 lessons learned the project experienced a number of challenges that made its execution problematic. however, the ability to review and analyze what was the proposed implementation plan offers some insight for improving future inter-institutional collaborations. hence this report was compiled primarily from the post-project feedback conversations with the various administrators involved in the accounting redirect project. below is a summary of some of the challenges experienced in the project during the planning and implementation phases. they can be categorized primarily as structural, student and logistical challenges. 4.2 project conceptualization a number of meetings were held by the project team at both institutions to map out the implementation plan. through these deliberations, the courses that were most likely to be completed by york university accounting students were identified and assessed for the course credit transfer process. additionally, there were other discussions that led to the identification of course equivalents at seneca college, which helped to reduce in the number of courses required for the accounting bridge into york university. with these milestones achieved, the committee turned their attention to the promotion and advising aspects of the implementation plan. staff from the office of the associate vice president academic partnerships (seneca college), the office of the vice provost academic (york university), administrators from the admissions and registrars offices at both institutions, academic managers from the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies (york university) and the school of accounting within the faculty of business (seneca college) held a series of meetings, some of which were joint discussions. these discussions culminated in spring 2016. the students targeted for the project were those experiencing academic difficulty in the accounting program. the goal was to have the project plan completed and aligned to the institutional academic timelines for notifying students about their academic performance. at york university, students would normally receive their final grades and notifications about their academic standing during the month of 16 | p a g e may. students who were not succeeding academically would receive letters of academic warning, or academic debarment/ probation, or be required to completely withdraw from their program. with the receipt of a warning or probation/ debarment, the condition for a students continuation at the university is the achievement of a grade point average of 4.0 (c average), on their next 24 credits. on the other hand, students who had a grade point average of 2.5 or less after the completion of 24 credits are required to withdraw from the university for 12 months. these groups of students were seen as ideal candidates for the redirect project. included in the academic standing correspondences to these students is the requirement to meet with an academic advisor, within two weeks of the receipt of these academic decisions, to determine next steps. therefore, the plan was to have the redirect project rollout timed to these administrative processes. 4.3 structural 4.31 timelines, marketing, promotion more time was needed for the planning to implementation phases of the redirect project. as a result, marketing and promotion did not occur before or during the may to june timeframe, nor were the names of key contacts made available for distribution. the original goal was to ensure that the academic advisors had the accounting redirect program information at their disposal during the advising period. this would have ensured the provision of alternative degree pathway recommendations to the accounting students. however, although advising staff was assigned, the advisor list and program information were never developed and disseminated to the advising teams across the institutions. 4.32 advising additional challenges were also experienced because of the structure of the advising. although both institutional models could be classified as decentralized (located within the specific faculties/ schools), york universitys advising structure had additional complexities. at the university, student advising functions are performed in both the academic program offices (within the larger schools) and in the student academic advising services unit, which sees a high volume of students from across many disciplines/programs. however, the advising for students in academic jeopardy falls within the purview of the student academic advising services department. therefore, the identification of a suitable advising model, information coordination, adequate time for advisor training, and an evaluation process, were critical to the successful implementation the accounting redirect pilot project. 4.33 workload more than 40% of yorks undergraduate population is enrolled in programs within the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies. therefore, with a two week timeframe given to students in academic jeopardy for meeting with an advisor, there are many time constraints. added to that, this faculty also has the highest percentage of transfer students. accordingly, the advisor per student workload here is significantly higher than in other faculties. as a result, although the project proposal recommended that specific staff be assigned to the accounting redirect project at both institutions, workload issues prohibited this from occurring. there was also a sense among some administrators that the number of students identified, who might actually be interested in the accounting redirect program may have been too small to warrant the use of 17 | p a g e current, or additional advising or full-time resources. yet they maintained that there were many small projects in need of advising attention. it was therefore believed by some administrators that through a restructuring of the current advising model, and the pooling together of smaller projects, there would be sufficient work to allocate additional advising resources. 4.34 advisor training in the current training for advisors there is often greater emphasis on internal referrals as alternative program options for students in academic jeopardy. consequently, students are often redirected internally to programs with a lower gpa requirement. for these reasons, the dissemination of information about the accounting redirect program within the advising units would have required additional training to strengthen current knowledge about the options available through college, as well as dedicated staffing, and a high degree of coordination. 4.4 students issues 4.41 student satisfaction the practice of providing primarily internal referrals has created additional challenges. administrators have observed that some of the students, who have been advised out of pursuing an accounting degree often engaged in shadowing. that is, when enrolment restrictions are removed, they would still enroll in accounting program courses. these students continue to persist in the degree courses, even though they dont have the appropriate gpa average to graduate from the program. alternatively, some students choose to pursue the other degree options provided to them during advising, but may not be all-together satisfied with their new program choice. 4.41.1 student interest it was also never verified whether students would be interested in a redirect program option. that is, input from students was never solicited as part of the projects conceptualization. 4.5 logistical 4.51 staffing turnover within york university, academic administrators are appointed for a specific term. during the planning to implementation phase of the project there were academic administrative change-overs within the university, which may have contributed to the communication gaps that were experienced. additionally, there were management and staff changes within advising units of the faculty. the high turnover of administrative and advising staff within the faculties resulted in communication failures, so that students were never offered the accounting redirect as an option. 4.52 program location the seneca college accounting program is offered at the finch avenue, newnham campus location. students being exited from york university accounting program attended the keele campus. since students were not part of the initial discussions on the projects conceptualization, it is difficult to know 18 | p a g e how location would have affected their decision to participate in the accounting redirect program at the newnham campus. however, currently students can travel using the shuttle bus system which moves between the campuses of both institutions. additionally, course delivery options available to students at seneca college are multiple and flexible (hybrid, online, in-class), and are also offered on evenings, weekends, and during the daytime, every semester. 4.53 the accounting bridge students targeted for the redirect project would require sixteen months before re-entry back into the university could be facilitated. this included the acquisition of credits at the college towards a diploma, then an additional five bridge courses which could only be taken during the summer months, for those wanting to return to the university. however, many students needed the summer months to finance their academic programs. as well, the heavy academic content of the bridging courses was viewed as problematic among some administrators, and the attempt to do them within a single semester amounted to what some felt was academic suicide. however, as part of their seneca college program, students did have an option to complete two or three bridge courses, which would have reduced their course load during the summer. as of the writing of this report, there has been no significant enrollment into the accounting bridge program. therefore, given the lessons learned in the attempt to implement the accounting redirect project; and the recent changes the regulatory process for accounting certification, the accounting bridge may need to be revisited and reconstituted into alternative pathways. 4.54 admissions process to facilitate the ease of movement, it was proposed that the redirection into seneca college and transition back to york university will be completed internally between institutions and the students will not be required to navigate through the respective central application services (oncat project report 2015-24, march 2016, p.2). however, in reality, to mitigate issues around information sharing and privacy, and to expedite admissions into the college, the process was best facilitated through an application to ocas. additionally, on the readmit back to york university following the accounting bridge program, students needed to reapply directly to york. 4.6 the way forward most administrators shared the view that redirection to college was and still is a good option for students who wanted to pursue a career in accounting, but were struggling in their university degree program. now in ontario with the amalgamation of the regulatory bodies into the certified professional accountants (cpa), non-degree students can obtain mid-tier certification, which is an advanced certificate in accounting and finance, in order to obtain employment in intermediate accounting and finance positions. consequently, the redirect option through seneca college offers an alternative pathway and even greater opportunity for accounting students experiencing academic difficulties at york university. 19 | p a g e at the same time, higher education administrators were very aware of the realities of enrolment pressures, which are aligned to funding allocations from government. yet, there was overall agreement that the motivations for student retention into particular programs should not be primarily motivated by finance. student satisfaction and the pursuit of a career path of interest to individual students, was also of paramount importance. administrators noted that some of the reasons that university accounting students experienced difficulty may be due, in some cases, to the programs math requirements. that is, the students math literacy/ numeracy level was inadequate for success in the universitys accounting program. however, the practice of admitting academically weaker students created challenges that warranted remediation. these were initially offered as camps, pre-assessments, and later on as introductory/ foundational courses. what will need to be evaluated is the academic performance of these groups of students and the effectiveness of these remediation strategies. with this understanding, some administrators advocated more strongly for the redirect option through the college for the latter group. 4.7 recommendations overall, some of the general recommendations emerging from the post-project discussions are as follows: establish a clear and manageable advising process allocate specific resources and provide advisor training that includes information on the college program options manage student expectations about academic performance requirements at the university and how to achieve academic and career success through multiple pathways, including through the college give greater visibility to the york seneca partnership through timely marketing and promotion of the multiple pathway option mitigate communication failures and gaps through the assignment of dedicated resources, including staffing clarify registrarial processes to facilitate the bidirectional movement of students between the degree and diploma programs adopt a more flexible redirect model / approach that is not affixed to the accounting bridge, but is instead refocused to credential completion and student success. this could include: o course credit transfer options through an articulated agreement for the acquisition of the current bridge courses, thus ensuring adequate preparation for success in the degree program; o concurrent enrolment or other dual credential options for degree completion in alternative areas of study at the york university, along with the acquisition of an accounting diploma through seneca college the redirect program also addressed the issue of access toward achieving a postsecondary credential for groups of students that were typically excluded. and a pathway through college may offer a more successful approach towards career advancement than course shadowing. thus there was consistent 20 | p a g e and continued support for the accounting redirect program, and an intent to implement an improved version of the project. 4.8 conclusion in conclusion, the accounting redirect project experienced a number of unforeseen challenges during the implementation phase. as previously discussed, there were unexpected complications with advising that would have required restructuring, additional resources and time, in order to find resolutions. considering these factors, perhaps the september 2016 implementation timetable may have been too ambitious. 21 | p a g e

transfer, credit articulation agreement between york unlvers!tv ap~ ,.. . .. . . georgian college of applied arts. ,a.nd t~chf1c)iogy (geo~gian coll~ge) glvent~a.t york univer~ity and ge!!rgian college h~ve a history of coliabo~tionfor opportunities for ... . . ~~. given the,desire of york university and georgian college to continueto enh~nce .and improve access for graduates of the general arts and science program offered by, georgian college to furtheqh,eir education throughbachelor degree programs atyork university; given that the .common goal of both, postsecondary education institutions is to,meet. the growing demands fo~ student mobility; <,',', ' _, ' "- ' ' '', ' 61venl:i.e existing affinities !curricular and.~edagi!sicall a~d the. stro 11 g a~ademic.~lignmel'lt between the g~neraiar,t~ andsci"?ces [/jplqr\1~ prog~am ardilegree programs at'(grk\j!ii\i~rsity the p~r;ties,~g~eetothejolim.ving: '. transfer from general ar;ts and sdence,dlplo~a program o( georgian college to. ~he b4\ programs in yorkunl~ersity a) eligu111ity ~any hcmours bachelor degree (120 credits) , , , 1, student~ of the,genetal ~rts and.sclence,diplorna prf)gram at ge()rgian college may be considered for admission to york university to be enrolle~)n.degree programs of york university. 2. students will be allowed to register in up to 12 credits atvork l!niversity during the summer ses.sion \\'.~lie, ~~ey. wpr~ ;toy,ards their general arts. and scl~nce diplo!jla ~t (3eorglan college. to)e eligib,le to ~nroiijn york,univ,ersity courses during general arts'and science studies; student must have completed and .- - alllst - -_, .. 'and - 2nd semester - . ..courses -r of.the program . have an overall gpa of at least 3.0 (b or70%). students having completed all 1st semester courses with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 and enrolled in required 2nd semester courses of. the gene.(ai arts .and sci,ence p,rogram .may be conditionally admitted ,to a degree program at york university. students must also meet any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission. 3. gr

contract: 2016-28 project title: transfer pathway to a ba in psychology at laurentian university executive summary as part of this project, laurentian university and la cit have developed transfer pathways for college programs in social sciences at la cit to the bachelor of arts in psychology. nine distinct pathways have been developed to the bachelor of arts psychology. these include a pathway for the techniques de travail social [social services technician] program, one for the techniques dducation spcialise [child and youth worker] program, and one for the ducation en services lenfance [early childhood education] program. in addition, pathways have been developed for two unique programs at la cit: interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap [interventions with persons with disabilities] and techniques de travail social [social services technician]. finally, two joint programs have been developed for graduate certificate programs: autisme et sciences du comportement [autism and behavioural science] and sant mentale et toxicomanie [mental health and addiction]. in addition to the pathways that have been developed, laurentian university and la cit, as well as the university of sudbury, have developed a new memorandum of understanding among the three institutions, which will allow for new pathways to be implemented more easily in the future.

sommaire excutif ce projet visait mettre en place une passerelle rciproque (bidirectionnelle) entre les programmes de techniques et gestion de la scne du collge boral et dtudes dart dramatique du campus glendon de luniversit york. lesdites institutions partageaient un intrt mutuel dvelopper une passerelle innovatrice entre ces programmes, afin de permettre aux tudiants dacqurir la fois des connaissances techniques, technologiques, pratiques et thoriques en reprsentation et en production thtrales en franais, avec pour but ultime de desservir les communauts francophones dans le sud de lontario. dans le cadre de lentente tablie, les diplmes et diplms du programme techniques et gestion de scne du collge boral ont la possibilit daccder au programme tudes dart dramatique (120 crdits) du campus glendon de luniversit york et dobtenir un baccalaurat spcialis approfondi. un total de 42 crdits sera attribu. de mme, les diplmes et diplms du programme tudes dart dramatique du campus glendon de luniversit york (90 crdits ou 120 crdits) ont la possibilit daccder la 2e anne du programme techniques et gestion de scne offert au collge boral et dobtenir un diplme dtudes collgiales de lontario. pour ce faire, ils devront russir trois cours dappoint livrs en mode hybride au semestre du printemps de chaque anne. ces cours consistent en 2 semaines de formation distance et 3 semaines intensives de formation en laboratoire livre partir du campus sudbury du collge boral. 2 oncat 2014-20 sommaire excutif

1 executive summary this project was developed to explore the credit transfer pathway opportunities, into the bachelor of science degree programs at york university and the university of toronto, woodsworth college, st. george campus, for graduates of seneca colleges arts and science university transfer (asu) diploma program. the asu diploma program was developed by seneca college in collaboration with staff from the university of toronto, scarborough. the goal therefore was to explore the possibility of expanding this pathway agreement to include york university and the university of toronto, woodsworth college. the arts and science university transfer diploma program retains some of the foundational elements of the liberal arts transfer (lat) program, formerly general arts and science (gas), except for the addition of specific science courses in chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics. the program began in fall 2015 with one section, and as of winter 2016, there have been three additional intakes. the first group of graduates will complete their program in april 2017 and most will apply for admission to york university and the university of toronto, for programs beginning in fall 2017. students entering york university, having graduated from the arts and science university transfer (asu) program, will receive 48 block transfer credits towards a 120 credit, honours degree program. this is an enhanced block, as typically most diploma programs are awarded 45 block credits. since the course assessment and mapping at university of toronto, woodsworth college, began in 2017, the outcome of the credit transfer process here is pending, and so, at this time is unknown. students entering york university, having graduated from the arts and science university transfer (asu) program, will receive 48 block transfer credits towards a 120 credit, honours degree program. this is an enhanced block as typically, most diploma programs are awarded 45 block credits. since the course assessment and mapping at university of toronto, woodsworth college, began in 2017, the outcome of the credit transfer process here is pending, and so, at this time is unknown.

pathways from seneca colleges liberal arts transfer program: from college entrance to university graduation ursula mccloy, mitchell steer, henry decock centre for research in student mobility, seneca college december 2016 esearch mobility 64-70 the centre for research in student mobility 8 the seneca way markham, on l3r 5y1 416-491-5050 x77939 senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch 1 acknowledgements this project was funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). mustafizur rahman, john meskes, and michael cunningham of senecas information technology services department supported data extraction from senecas student information system. limin chen of senecas office of institutional research and planning was an invaluable source of information on all of senecas survey and data fields, while charlotte gayman of senecas testing centre provided information on the language placement tests and procedures. sylvia lin of york universitys office of institutional planning and analysis provided the data extract from the york-seneca dataset and provided guidance on variables of interest. dilys leman conducted a thorough structural and stylistic edit, and matthew duncan was responsible for formatting and layout of the final report. the york-seneca data was collected during a previous study funded by the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) entitled: transfer pathways in higher education: york university and seneca college as a case study, conducted by richard smith, sylvia lin, and robindra sidhu of york university, and henry decock and ursula mccloy of seneca college. the authors would also like to thank those at both seneca college and york university who provided feedback on the report and contributed to the recommendations arising from the research. 2 contents executive summary 3 introduction 6 history and description 6 genesis of a joint agreement with york university 6 subsequent agreement with the university of toronto 9 student outcomes in lat program 10 research questions 10 research design 11 analysis sample 11 progression to graduation from lat 11 propensity to transfer to york university 11 post-transfer outcomes at york university 11 datasets analytic methods 12 14 results 14 progression to graduation from lat 14 propensity to transfer to york university 15 characteristics of lat entrants by transfer pathway 17 regression analysis: propensity for transfer 21 post-transfer outcomes at york university 23 timing of transfer 23 amount of transfer credit 24 program of entry at york 25 academic outcomes 26 regression analysis: academic outcomes 29 discussion 31 conclusions and recommendations 32 references 34 3 executive summary studies on college to university transfer typically focus on a discrete aspect of the pathway, such as who aspires to transfer, who ultimately transfers and why, or outcomes after transfer to university. in contrast, this paper focuses on understanding the entire pathway, using the liberal arts transfer (lat) program at seneca college as a case study. senecas lat program evolved from a two-year general arts and science (gas) preparatory program launched in 1986, 1 into a joint university transfer program with york university in 1998. lat is both innovative and academically intense. students are required to take a full college course load, maintain an overall b average, and take college and university courses within the same academic year. lat graduates can potentially receive as much as two full years of credit towards a bachelor of arts degree at york. the analysis sample for this study included two populations: 1) 3,622 entrants who began the lat program at seneca in 20052012 and 2) 1,268 lat students/graduates who transferred to york university between 2002 and 2012. research questions included the following: what are the characteristics of students entering the lat program? what is the share of entrants who progress into second year and eventually graduate from lat? what share of lat entrants, including leavers and graduates, continue on to york? what are the sociodemographic and academic characteristics of those who transfer? what share of transfers graduate from york university? how do they perform at york academically? what are the sociodemographic and academic characteristics of those who are successful at york after transfer? method six datasets were linked to create a student-level dataset that includes the following variables: high school performance, neighbourhood income (using 2006 census data), aspirations for transfer, previous education, english-language proficiency, demographics, and seneca and york academic outcomes including grades, completion, withdrawal, transfer, and graduation. regression models (ols) were run to control for the independent effects of each variable, and multiple models were run with various subgroups. results progression to graduation from lat by the end of year two, 34% of all lat entrants had switched to another seneca program, 45% had left seneca without graduating, 10% had graduated from lat, and 11% were still enrolled in lat. by the end of year four, 15.2% of the entering cohort had graduated from lat. in 2008, the gas program was re-named the liberal arts transfer (lat) diploma program to better reflect the programs content and role as a pathway to a degree in the humanities and liberal arts. seneca entered into a joint agreement with university of toronto in 2008. this study, however, focuses on the seneca to york transfer pathway. 1 4 higher grades in high school (particularly in university preparatory courses) and college-level english at entry were important influencers on whether a student stayed on track in first year and completed the lat program on time. propensity to transfer to york university of the york stream entrants, 64% were under the age of 20, and 48% were male. eighty-nine percent were canadian citizens, with 73% reporting english as their first language. in terms of socioeconomic status, 71% did not have a parent with a university degree, and 24% came from lower income neighbourhoods, defined as the bottom tercile of the ontario population. over two- thirds of entrants took mostly university preparatory courses in high school, however 76% had averages under 70%. only 7% of the 20022010 york stream entrants had high school grades and courses required for university entrance in ontario, yet 82% had plans for university after graduation from college. many of these lat cohorts continued to struggle academically at college. over one-half left seneca without a seneca credential or without transferring to york. of those who graduated from lat, 61% transferred to york. more than one-quarter (26%) of entrants transferred to york by 2012, but less than half (12%) graduated from lat before transfer. nearly onequarter of lat entrants (23%) graduated from seneca, but did not transfer to york by 2012. academic performance in high school and at seneca (lat), english-language proficiency at college entry, and graduation before transfer were independent influencers on whether a student transferred to york. students who took mostly college preparation courses in high school and obtained an average of less than 70% were particularly at risk for not transferring or graduating. only 46% of those who did not both graduate from lat and transfer to york were placed in college-level english compared with 69% of those who both graduated and transferred to york. graduation from lat before transfer had a major influence on whether the student transferred, even when controlling for grades at seneca. obtaining a seneca gpa of greater than 3.0 increased the likelihood of transfer to york by over 40 percentage points, the largest influence of all variables. the influence of parental education, first language, and status in canada differed little across pathways. gender and age had little or no effect, nor did year of entry over the study duration. previous university did not affect propensity to graduate or transfer, but aspiration for university upon entry had an effect. aspiration for university was higher for both graduates and non-graduates who ultimately transferred to york, than for their non-transfer counterparts. post-transfer outcomes at york transfers who were lat graduates, non-canadian citizens, younger, and obtained good seneca grades were more likely to achieve a york gpa of 5.0 or higher, the minimum required for graduation with an honours degree from york. the transfers age did not influence their york gpa, but their neighbourhood income did. higher-income students were more likely to transfer and to attain a gpa of 5.0, but not more likely to graduate. compared to lat students who transferred without graduating from the program, those who graduated before transfer were more successful at yorkthey had more transfer credit and were stronger academically. there was a clear relationship between grades at seneca and performance at york, irrespective of graduation or articulation status at seneca. only half of transfers to york who had a seneca gpa of below 3.0 (70%) graduated, compared with the 70% of transfers with a gpa of 3.0 and above. graduates 5 of the articulated lat stream were the most likely to graduate from york (76%). they had the highest graduation rates and grades, took less time to complete, and were more likely to complete a four-year than a three-year degree program. graduates of the articulated stream who withdrew had a higher york average, at 66%, compared with 53% and 56% for lat non-graduates and lat non-articulated stream graduates respectively. more than half of those who transferred without completing lat ultimately withdrew from york. no clear relationship between high school grades and success after transfer could be established. likewise, a students first language and english-language placement at college entry were unrelated to their academic success at york. conclusions & recommendations students need comprehensive academic supports to ensure success in lat, from college entry through to university graduation. only about 16% of lat entrants ultimately graduated from york. seneca and york need to inform prospective students of lats intense academic requirements for completion, transfer, and graduation from york. current admission standards for lat are minimal, requiring only an ossd and grade 12 english. more than three-quarters of lat entrants had a high school average of less than 70% and nearly half did not place in college-level english. over half of transfers had a seneca gpa of less than 3.0, and half of those ultimately withdrew from york. the results of this study, however, also showed that some students performed well academically despite weak high school backgrounds. once they transferred, their high school performance was no longer a good indicator of how well they would perform at university, whereas their college grades were. the regression models showed an independent effect on graduating even when controlling for academic or sociodemographic factors, which likely related to a high level of student resilience or determination to finish a credential despite struggling academically. any review of admission standards will need to provide open access, allowing students who struggled in high school or performed poorly in a previous post-secondary program, to pursue a viable pathway to university. about half (51%) of the entering class did not graduate from seneca with any credential, and did not transfer to york. of those who did transfer, 20% did not graduate from lat or from york within the timeframe of the study. students need to have other credential options, such as an alternate diploma or degree pathway at seneca or other colleges. 6 introduction although programming in ontarios colleges 2 is considered primarily occupational in nature, colleges have offered preparatory programs for at least 30 years. 3 preparatory programs are geared toward students who are looking for career clarity, are lacking specialized skills, or are expressly using college as a vehicle to transfer to university, either due to a lack of requirements for admission or through personal choice. 4 these programs prepare students for further studies at both a degree (college, university or collaborative college-university) or non-degree level (college diploma). preparatory programs are also sometimes geared to specialized skill development, such as for english language learners, or for specific areas of study, such as health, or the arts. the numbers in these programs are significant, with seneca producing over 3,000 graduates of preparatory programs between 2007 and 2014, for a total of 6.5% of all graduates. using a university transfer program at seneca college (liberal arts transfer, lat 5) as a case study, this report traces its evolution from a general preparatory program to a joint university transfer program with york university in 1998, and subsequent expansion to the university of toronto (uoft) in 2008. studies on transfer typically focus on discrete stages of the transfer process, such as who aspires to transfer, who ultimately transfers and why, or success after transfer to university. this paper, in contrast, focuses on understanding the entire pathway from college entry to graduation from university, and identifying the factors that influenced student success at each stage. history and description seneca began its two-year general arts and science (gas) preparatory program in 1986. as described in the colleges proposal to the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maeds), 6 the programs goals were extensive: to address career uncertainty, re-awaken interest in science, refurbish learning skills and problem-solving skills, enable those not destined for university to acquire a liberal arts education, and offer young people choice and opportunity in their educational objectives, to name a few. the proposal distinguished seneca for its direction on career fulfillment and science education, emphasizing that the skills acquired would very definitely be used by those graduates who decide to pursue post-secondary education even beyond seneca. genesis of a joint agreement with york university in the early years, gas operated as a transition program, from which many students moved on to other programs within seneca college (green & decock, 1998). as the program became increasingly academic, york offered more and more transfer credit. subsequently, students began to enrol in gas as a stepping stone to university, particularly those without the high school credentials required for direct entry. in this report, college refers to ontarios colleges of applied arts and technology (caat), a publicly funded post-secondary system that provides credentials ranging from one-year certificates to four-year degrees. 3 resource document. aps-mtcu table, http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/ 4 a review of types of preparatory programs can be found in the report by durham college, assessing the effectiveness of ontario college preparatory programs offered at durham college, http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2013-08-durham-assessing-the-effectiveness-ofontario-college-preparatory-programs-offered-at-durham-college.pdf 5 the two-year general arts and science (gas) diploma program was renamed the liberal arts transfer (lat) diploma program in 2008. throughout this report it will be simply referred to as lat. 6 to create a new program that qualifies as an ontario college credential and receives government funding, ontarios colleges are required to submit proposals to ontarios maesd. 2 7 seneca college received provincial funding in 1996 to help build a new campus, seneca@york, on the site of york universitys keele campus. discussions to establish joint programming led to an articulation agreement between senecas gas program and yorks faculty of arts. the agreement was not signed until january 1998, but students who had begun the program in the fall of 1997 were considered eligible. senecas gas program was selected because of its pre-existing high academic content. the initial program concept entailed three specializations: arts, business, and science. however, the science stream was never operationalized 7 and the business stream had its final graduate in 2009. under the 1998 agreement, students could enrol in a course at york university between years one and two of the gas program provided they maintained the required minimum grade point average (gpa) of 3.0 (table 1). students also took a york university course in the second year of the gas program, taught at seneca by a york university professor. this latter provision was included to help ensure student quality: successful completion was considered additional evidence of a students future success at york. 8 built into the articulation agreement were two jointly approved courses, developed by seneca faculty and their counterparts at york, that were modelled on similar courses developed by humber college in conjunction with york. the courses were critical thinking (logic and phenomenology) and world literature, taught by seneca faculty in the first and second years of the program respectively. to remain qualified and receive full transfer credit, students were required to complete these and the two york courses (year one in summer and year two) with a minimum c grade. the amount of transfer credit exceeded typical arrangements, and the ability to augment the college program with university courses was unprecedented. the transfer credits were a combination of block credit 9 and individual course credit. upon successful completion, students received 30 advancedstanding credits towards yorks bachelor of arts program and 12 advanced-standing credits for the jointly approved courses. thus graduates received 42 advanced-standing credits 10 from the gas program and 18 credits from york, a total of 60 credits (or the equivalent of two years) towards a 90credit general bachelor of arts degree, or if qualified, towards a 120-credit honours degree. in 2008, the gas program was re-named the liberal arts transfer (lat) diploma program. the intent of this change was to better reflect the programs content and role as a pathway to a degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and to distinguish lat within the post-secondary system. 7 in 2015, seneca created the two- year arts and science university transfer program, with agreements with university of toronto scarborough and trent university, which are similar to the lat agreement. 8 the program has evolved and students no longer complete a summer course after year one and now complete a 9.0 credit course of their choosing at the york campus in the second year of the program. 9 york university defines block transfer credit as a specific amount of credit granted based on a completed certificate, diploma or degree and is accepted for transfer credit into a degree program. see https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/definitions 10 an updated agreement negotiated in 2015 increased the total number of advanced-standing credits to 48. 8 table 1. evolution of seneca-york general arts and science/ liberal arts transfer program 11 semester 12 fall winter full seneca course load including a york-approved seneca course with minimum c grade summer take 6-credit summer course at york with minimum "c" grade to continue articulated program fall full seneca course load including york-approved seneca course with minimum c grade plus 3-credit york course taught at seneca by york faculty year 1 year 2 19972008 (newnham campus) full seneca course load including one york-approved seneca course with minimum c grade winter postsummer graduation lat/gas seneca block credit, overall gpa 3.0 york-approved seneca courses with minimum c grade in each maximum york credits total maximum credits full seneca course load including york-approved seneca course with minimum c grade plus 3-credit york course taught at seneca by york faculty take 6-credit summer course at york 20082014 ( s@y campus) full seneca course load including york-approved seneca course with minimum c grade full seneca course load including york-approved seneca course with minimum c grade take 6-credit summer course at york take 9-credit course at york plus full seneca course load including one york- approved seneca course each semester, now taught by seneca faculty 13 (minimum c grade) take 3-credit summer course at york post-2014 full seneca course load including york-approved seneca course with minimum c grade full seneca course load including york-approved seneca course with minimum c grade take 9-credit course at york plus full seneca course load including one york-approved seneca course each semester (minimum c grade) take 3-credit summer course at york 30 30 36 12 12 12 18 18 12 60 60 60 the agreement was unique in ontario, structured to address many of the historic concerns associated with college-to-university pathways: administrative/curricular integrity of joint program: the agreement established a joint committee, with representation from each partner institution, to oversee the administration and curricular integrity of the joint program. it provided assurance that seneca faculty would have continuous 11the suggested sequence is shown. in reality, eligible students (3.0 gpa in first year, c in york-approved seneca courses) could take courses at york (up to 12 credits) any time after second semester, until graduation from seneca. students could then continue part time in the semester after graduation (generally summer) before enrolling in york full time. 12 there is now an enrolment start in the winter semester. 13 the exact date for when york faculty stopped teaching at senecas newnham campus is unknown, but it was likely in 2008 when the program was moved to seneca@york. 9 autonomy in the delivery of courses, and that yorks content and academic standards would not be compromised. academic preparedness of students: the requirement that each student successfully complete a york course before commencing full-time enrolment at york university helped alleviate some concerns about the academic preparedness of the student. the york-approved courses and the joint committee helped to ensure that the college faculty met the academic criteria required to teach university-level courses. in addition, the demanding time commitment (constantly enrolled) and additional courses meant that only keen, motivated and talented students would successfully complete the program. 14 equitable program costs for institutions: while the student was dually enrolled at both york and seneca, each institution could include the student in their enrolment for government funding and collect students separately paid tuition fees so that there was no loss in revenue for either institution. a recent report (trick, 2013) showed that the total program cost for direct entry to york is similar to that of the lat pathway, provided a student completes in four years. the report also showed that the student transfer route was more costly for the government in the form of operating grants, but less costly for the student in the form of tuition. the agreement contained a number of features that at the time were novel in ontario: entrance into the program continued to be an ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) with a grade 12 english course, and no university minimum entrance requirements. students could transfer based on their performance in the gas program. the amount of transfer credit for a two-year program was unprecedented: 42 credits (47%) of a 90-credit degree, or one-third of a 120-credit degree. there was no cap on the number of eligible transfer students admitted to york. all students who met the eligibility criteria received the full 42 credits and were admitted into yorks bachelor of arts degree program. students could start a college program and be concurrently enrolled in university. previously, students could only be concurrently enrolled if they started in university, and even then, had to be in their final two years of their degree before enrolling in college. students were not required to pay the university application fee to enrol at york upon transfer. subsequent agreement with the university of toronto based on the success of senecas transfer agreement with york, the college began a three-year lat pilot study in march 2008 with the university of toronto (faculty of arts, woodsworth college, st. george campus), which evolved into a formal articulation agreement that was finalized in may 2011. although the program curriculum and overall structure were unchanged, the agreement with university of toronto differed from the seneca-york agreement in three ways: i) the transfer credit was based on course-for-course, not on block credit; ii) eligible lat students were enrolled in university of toronto courses as non-degree visiting students; and iii) it introduced a facilitated transfer process which 14 at the official signing of the agreement, yorks dean of arts, george fallis, commented on the challenging nature of the program: "the program is intensive and certainly not for every student." cited in york universitys archive of the gazette, http://www.yorku.ca/yul/gazette/past/archive/012198.htm 10 supported students before, during and after transfer. successful lat graduates (minimum gpa of 3.0) received six transfer credits (assigned to specific courses) towards their bachelor of arts degree and were required to complete a university of toronto course in the summer as a visiting student and obtain a grade of 60%. the university of toronto found that students in the facilitated transfer program had a similar withdrawal rate as direct entry students, but a lower rate than other college transfer students. based on this success, university of toronto has expanded the lat-facilitated transfer model to humber college and george brown college. the liberal arts transfer program is taught at two of senecas campuses: the main and original campus, newnham, and the seneca@york campus situated on york universitys keele campus. the latter serves those intending to transfer to york university, while the former teaches those vying to attend the university of toronto (st. george campus or the scarborough campus). student outcomes in lat program from the university partner perspective, the agreement assured that transfer students were qualified and motivated to attend university. from a student and college perspective, however, this filtering approach came at a cost. a report on the first year of the program, 1997, showed that only 19 of the 160 entrants were eligible to take the summer course at york. seventeen students attempted it, three dropped it, and only seven obtained the c grade required to continue in the joint program. additional evidence from the provincial key performance indicators have shown that, overall, the program has weaker outcomes than other seneca programs. between the reporting years of 2001 and 2015, the ontario student loan 15 default rate for senecas lat program averaged 23%, more than double the overall seneca average 16 and the graduation rate averaged 29%, approximately half of senecas overall rate. however, the reported graduation rate did not account for students who may have transferred to a university before completing the program at seneca, or to another college. however, some evidence suggests that once a student has qualified to enrol in university courses, or has transferred to university within the agreement, they do well. senecas archives for the fall 1999 entrants show that 22 of the 28 students who enrolled in their first york summer course obtained a c grade or higher, and 15 obtained b or higher. for the university of toronto lat transfers, a tracking study by shook, guyatt and norman (2016) showed that lat students at the university had a retention rate of 84% and gpas higher than the overall faculty average. research questions the current study bridges the knowledge gaps described above by tracking lat students from college entry to graduation from university, using the following research questions: what are the characteristics of students entering the lat program? what share of entrants progress into second year and eventually graduate from lat? what share of lat entrants, including leavers and graduates, continue on to york? what are the sociodemographic and academic characteristics of those who transfer? students apply to the ontario student assistance program (osap) for loans. seneca college, ontario student assistance program (osap) performance indicators http://www.senecacollege.ca/stats/osap_pi.html. note that students who withdraw without graduating are also more likely to default on osap. the kpi graduation rate has improved somewhat in recent years, at 43% in 2014, and 35% in 2015. 15 16 11 what share or transfers graduate from york university? how do they perform at york academically? what are the sociodemographic and academic characteristics of those who are successful at york after transfer? research design analysis sample three populations of students from senecas lat program were analysed to demonstrate the following: progression to graduation from lat (seneca-only dataset, for students who entered lat from 2005 to 2012) propensity to transfer (all seneca lat entrants in york stream from 2002 to 2012, and those who transferred to york) post-transfer outcomes (all seneca lat entrants from 2002 to 2012 who transferred to york, regardless of entering stream) progression to graduation from lat the analysis sample comprised students who started at seneca in lat between 2005 and 2012; it excludes those who transferred into lat from another seneca program. of the 4,692 lat entrants, 22.5% were transfers from another program, and a further 1.6% withdrew between day 10 and the last two months of the semester, for a final analysis sample of 3,622 entrants. students were classified as leavers, switchers, continuers or graduates based on their status one and two years after entering lat. graduates were categorized according to program stream: i) nonarticulated, ii) york articulated and iii) university of toronto articulated. propensity to transfer to york university for this study we were provided with student-level data on those who had ever enrolled in senecas lat program and also enrolled at york university. to study the rate of transfer to york and the factors that affect the propensity to transfer, only students who entered the york stream were included in the sample. students in the university of toronto stream were excluded because we did not have access to these students data after transfer. senecas student information system does not label the york and university of toronto stream programs until a student is further along in the program, and therefore the campus of entry can be used to identify the stream. all lat entrants who were enrolled at the newnham campus from the fall of 2008 (the first year of the university of toronto stream) onward were labelled university of toronto stream and removed from this section of the transfer analysis. to provide a lag time for transfer to york, only lat entrants between winter of 2002 and 2010 were included, for a sample of 4,339 lat (york stream) entrants. post-transfer outcomes at york university the york-seneca sample comprised all lat york transfer students regardless of their entering stream (york or university of toronto). in total, between the winter of 2002 and the fall of 2012, 1,343 lat students enrolled at york university. of these, 75 students had attended york before enrolling in lat, resulting in a sample of 1,268 transfer students. 12 datasets six datasets and their associated variables were linked to create a student-level dataset (figure 1). a master student id was assigned to match as many records from the datasets as possible and to remove duplicates. a students identity was verified by using a combination of first name, last name, date of birth, and postal code, as well as the alternate ids already identified within the colleges system. figure 1. linked student-level dataset, seneca college and york university entering student survey & placement testing intentions after graduation, previous education, language skill level and demographics seneca student information system demographics, grades,, and enrollment status high school transcripts (ocas via seneca's student information system (sis) 2006 census neighbourhood income based on permanent postal code (da level) kpi graduate satisifaction survey employment and further education linked studentlevel seneca dataset (student id as unique identifier) york student dataset all york students from 2002-2012 who had been in seneca's lat program. program entered, grades, graduation status. high school records: for each seneca student who attended an ontario high school, the colleges student information system contains one record for every high school course the student took in grade 9 through to grade 12/oac. 17 the subset used for this analysis included only those students who had a minimum of six courses from grade 11 and 12/oac. the overall senior high school average was calculated from all grade 11 and 12/oac course grades. to get a sense of whether the student struggled in high school, the total number of failed grade 11 and 12/oac courses was also calculated. to indicate whether a student took mostly university preparatory courses or college preparatory courses, two variables were created, defined as mostly u or mostly c respectively. the variable mostly u was defined as having a minimum of half of grade 11 and 12 courses as university (u) or university/college (m) preparatory type, whereas mostly c was defined as having a minimum of half of grade 11 and 12 courses that were of the college or workplace preparatory type (c/w). for high school transcripts pre-dating the double cohort, courses from the previous advanced stream were considered university preparatory, whereas those from the general stream were considered college preparatory. 17the former ontario high school curriculum, ontario schools: intermediate and senior (os:is), contained a fifth year, ontario academic courses (oac), which was phased out in 2002. the graduating class of the final phase-out year was labelled the double cohort because it comprised both four- and five-year graduates. 13 an additional variable, eligible for admission to an ontario university, was created. for university admission, ontario high school students are required to have at least six grade 12 u or m courses or oac courses; the minimum high school average required for university admission is at the discretion of the institution. a review of entrance high school averages reported by ontario universities in the common university data ontario (cudo) 18 indicates that the minimum reported secondary school average was approximately 70%. students were considered to be eligible for university entrance if they had a minimum of 70% in their top six grade 12 u/m or oac courses. neighbourhood income: to create a proxy for student household income, the permanent postal code for students from ontario only was matched with household income data from the 2006 census. international students and students from outside ontario, therefore, were excluded from this analysis. (even if an international student did have an ontario permanent address on record, it would not reflect the income level of the neighbourhood in which the student was raised.) using the six-digit permanent postal code in the colleges student information system, students from ontario were assigned to a 2006 dissemination area (da) using the statistics canada postal code conversion file (pccf). if a students permanent postal code was missing or invalid, the ontario high school postal code was used. a students neighbourhood income group was derived by splitting the das 19 into terciles low, medium and high incomebased on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households, weighted by total population. english-language placement testing: most entering students at seneca, depending on the program, are required to complete an english-language placement test (comprising a 300-word essay) to assess writing proficiency. students are also required to complete a computerized placement test (accuplacer) to assess reading comprehension (120 point scale), though it is rarely used for course placement decisions. based on the test results, students are placed in one of several levels of english-language courses: 1. ell-1. non-credit english for english language learners, at three levels of proficiency below college-level english; 2. ell-2. non-credit english for english language learners (ell), at two levels of proficiency below college-level english; 3. below college english/ell-3. non-credit english for both native-english speakers and for ell learners at the more proficient end of the ell scale; 4. college-level english (credit). required for all certificate/diploma programs; 5. degree-level english (credit). applicable to some degree programs; and 6. exempt from college-level english. at high end of proficiency scale. for the purposes of this study, three categories of english-language proficiency were created: 1. below college-level english ell (levels 1 and 2 above); 2. below college-level english ell/non-ell (level 3 above); and 3. at/above college-level english (level 4, 5, and 6 above). entering-student survey: during the mandatory placement testing, all seneca entrants must complete a background survey related to the following variables: 18see the common university data ontario website at http://cudo.cou.on.ca/ ontario, the average da comprises 236 economic families. economic family refers to a group of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling and are related to each other by blood, marriage, common-law or adoption. 19in 14 university aspirations upon entry to the college: after graduation from my program, i plan to previous university: the last school i attended was first language: the language i learned first was whether either parent has a university degree: the highest level of education completed by my father/guardian is (includes a separate question about maternal education level) the parental education question was initiated in 2006, and therefore was not used in the regression analysis, however descriptive results are provided. the previous university variable is limited because entering students are only asked about the last school they attended and not whether they have ever attended university or have completed a credential. in cases where two or more complete surveys existed, the earliest record was used to reflect a students true entering status. college performance: full transcripts of all seneca students were extracted from the colleges student information system. overall gpa was calculated from the average of all courses which had a credit value. courses which were initially passed, but repeated, were averaged. for the descriptive analysis, gpas were grouped into four categories: i) 0 to 1.99, ii) 2.00 to 2.99, iii) 3.00 to 3.49, and iv) 3.50 to 4.00. in the regression models, the two lowest gpa categories were combined (below 3.00). as the focus of this study is on transfer to university, any courses that were taken prior to lat entry were included in the overall gpa because they remained a part of the students transcript when applying. seneca courses that were completed after graduation from lat were not included in the overall gpa calculation. york-seneca database: york university collaborated with seneca on a project to link all students who attended both institutions between 2000 and 2012. 20 this dataset was used for the current project, specifically for lat students who attended york and seneca between the winter semester of 2002 and 2012. measures obtained include status at york as of 2012 (graduated, in-progress, withdrew), number of transfer credits provided by york, timing of transfer, type of degree granted, years spent at york, program of entry, and york gpa (converted to percentage). in total, the dataset comprises 1,343 seneca lat entrants who attended york and seneca between 2002 and 2012. analytic methods descriptive results are presented for the key variables in the analysis, including sociodemographic and academic characteristics for each population of interest. to control for the independent effects of each variable, regression models (ols) were run to determine the following: i) whether the graduate transferred to york, ii) whether the transfer student graduated from york, and iii) whether the transfer student attained yorks minimum gpa of 5.0. multiple models were run with various subgroups. results progression to graduation from lat this section of the analysis shows the pathways of students whose first program at seneca was the twoyear lat program, for the entering years of 2005 to 2012. results include whether students completed first year, which stream they were eligible to enter, and whether they graduated on time. only 37% of lat entrants continued on to year 2, but a large share (27%) switched to another seneca program (table 2). overall, only 10% of entrants graduated within the standard program duration of two 20 details on the creation of the dataset and derived variables are available in the final report (smith et al., 2016). 15 years, with 7% graduating from one of the articulated streams (york or university of toronto). by the end of year two, 34% of all lat entrants had switched to another seneca program, 45% had left seneca without graduating and 11% were still enrolled in lat. however, by four years after entry, at total 15.2% of the entering cohort had graduated from lat. a regression model was run to determine the factors related to continuing in and graduating from the program. 21 higher grades in high school (particularly in university preparatory courses) and college-level english at entry were important influencers on whether a student stayed on track in first year and completed the lat program on time. however, this section of the analysis does include students who left seneca without graduating, and transferred to york or elsewhere. table 2. pathways of liberal arts transfer entering cohorts (20052012) sequence entrants (20052012) year 1 end number of students 3,622 % of entering class 100% enrolled in another seneca program in 2nd year 989 27.3% not enrolled in seneca program in 2nd year 1,291 35.6% 1,342 37.1% completed lat on time (non-articulated) completed on time (york stream) 104 2.9% 204 5.6% completed on time (uoft stream) still enrolled in lat 56 1.5% 400 11.0% enrolled in another seneca program in 3rd year 243 6.7% not enrolled 336 9.3% status left program before start of year 2 continued in lat in year 2 continued into year 2 completed in year 2 did not complete on time (by end of year 2) note: an additional 203 students graduated from lat, but after the time periods described above. propensity to transfer to york university senecas information system alone is unable to determine whether or not a leaver has transferred to further education outside of the college. the present study, therefore, used a dataset, created for a previous project with york university, which linked all students who moved between seneca and york between 2000 and 2012, and the seneca database which contains data from the winter of 2002 to the fall of 2014. as previously described, the lat program began offering two articulation streams in 2008: students with plans for transfer to york enrolled at the seneca@york campus, and those who planned to continue on to university of toronto enrolled at senecas main campus, newnham. prior to 2008, all students were considered to be in the york transfer stream and enrolled at either campus. 21 these regression models and associated descriptive tables can be requested from the authors. 16 table 3 shows the number of students who entered the lat program by stream and how many transferred to york. 22 the program grew significantly between the academic years of 2002 and 2004, possibly because of high demand by the double cohort, when seats in ontario universities were restricted. enrolment peaked in 200405, but by 201314 dropped to 351, less than half its peak number. the launch of the university of toronto stream in 2008 served to split the class between the two institutions. as a result, the number of entrants (228) to the york stream has declined to less than one-third of its peak enrollment in 200405. in total, 1,343 lat students also enrolled in york. of these, 1,268 students enrolled in york after lat and 75 students enrolled in lat after attending york. students who went from york to lat are not included in the remainder of the analysis, but are shown in table 3 to present a complete picture of mobility. although students were not restricted by their entering stream, only 14% of the 1,268 lat students who transferred to york originated in the university of toronto stream. table 3. number of lat entrants and transfers to and from york, by program stream, 20022012 entering stream number of transfers to york number of transfers from york year of entry total entrants 2002* 110 110 21 1 2002-03 391 391 98 2 2003-04 584 584 160 6 2004-05 696 696 197 7 2005-06 651 651 188 7 2006-07 659 659 186 4 2007-08 586 586 131 6 2008-09 514 157 357 13 96 3 3 2009-10 454 149 305 14 68 3 3 2010-11 488 162 326 10 50 3 6 2011-12 501 148 353 2 34 2 12 2012-13 451 138 313 2 5 2013-14 351 123 228 uoft stream york stream uoft stream york stream uoft stream york stream *fall semester of 2001 is not included. latter years are not comparable because entrants have less time to transfer to york. more than one-quarter (26%) of students who entered the york lat stream 23 between 2002 and 2010 24 transferred to york by 2012 (figure 2). less than half (46%) had graduated from lat before transferring (12% of total entrants); however an additional 4% of entrants had obtained a non-lat credential from seneca before transferring. nearly one-quarter of entrants (23%) graduated from seneca, but did not transfer to york by 2012. of those who graduated from lat, 61% transferred to york. over half of 22 data on transfer student numbers and academic performance are currently shared between the university of toronto and seneca for this group of students, but were not used for this paper. 23 students who started in the university of toronto (uoft) stream, regardless of whether they transferred to york, are excluded from this section of the analysis because it is unknown whether these students transferred. an unknown number of york-stream entrants may have transferred to uoft or another university, however the results from the graduate satisfaction survey show that only 11% of the york stream graduates (20072012) who transferred to university went elsewhere. 24 this year range was selected to allow sufficient time for transfer. 17 entrants in the york stream (2,233 entrants) did not graduate from seneca in any program by 2014, or transfer to york. about one-quarter (24%) of this group (539 lat entrants, 12% of entire sample) had either a zero or no gpa. figure 2. pathways of lat york stream entrants, 20022010 60% 51% 50% 40% 30% 20% 15% 8% 10% 12% 10% 4% 0% did not graduate from seneca by 2014 seneca graduate lat graduate by from non-lat 2014 program did not graduate from seneca before transfer did not transfer to york by 2012 seneca graduate from non-lat program lat graduate transferred to york by 2012 characteristics of lat entrants by transfer pathway the study compared the sociodemographic and academic characteristics of graduates and nongraduates who did not transfer to york with the characteristics of those who did (table 4, table 5). variables included age at entry, gender, status in canada, first language, parental education, neighbourhood income, high school performance, eligibility for university, and english-language placement at college entry. it is interesting to note that only 36% of lat entrants were 20 years and older and 48% were male. in contrast, in 2014, 80% of first-year students in ontario universities were under the age of 20 and 45% were male. 25 female students were more likely than male students to transfer to york and to graduate from lat. whereas females comprised only 49.5% of those who did not graduate from lat and did not transfer, they made up 55% of those who both graduated and transferred. higher-income students, both graduates and non-graduates, comprised a larger share of transfers to york. those who transferred to york without graduating were somewhat younger than those in other pathways. the influence of other factors, including parental education, first language, and status in canada, differed little across pathways. council of ontario universities, application statistics 2014, http://cou.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/cou-applicationstatistics-2014.pdf 25 18 table 4. sociodemographic characteristics of lat york stream entrants by transfer pathway, 2002 2012 all entrants* gender status in canada first language parental education neighbourhood income transferred to york 4,339 lat non-grad 2,863 lat grad 331 lat non-grad 625 lat grad 520 <20 64.2% 63.3% 65.3% 69.6% 61.9% 20-24 32.0% 33.1% 29.6% 26.7% 33.3% 25+ 3.9% 3.6% 5.1% 3.7% 4.8% male 48.3% 50.5% 42.0% 43.8% 45.4% female 51.7% 49.5% 58.0% 56.2% 54.6% citizen 89.2% 88.8% 89.1% 90.2% 89.9% other 6.0% 6.1% 5.7% 5.8% 6.1% international 4.8% 5.1% 5.1% 4.0% 4.0% english 73.3% 73.4% 76.9% 69.7% 74.7% other 26.7% 26.6% 23.1% 30.3% 25.3% degree 28.6% 27.7% 31.2% 33.7% 24.9% no degree 71.4% 72.3% 68.8% 66.3% 75.1% low 23.5% 24.6% 23.0% 20.7% 20.9% middle 33.1% 34.0% 32.5% 31.0% 31.1% high 43.4% 41.4% 44.6% 48.2% 48.1% number of students** age at entry did not transfer to york note: only students who began the york lat stream in 2010 or earlier are included. parental education was collected only for those students who entered seneca college after 2006. neighbourhood income was reported only for domestic students with an ontario permanent address. lat non-grads may have graduated from another seneca program. over two-thirds of entrants took mostly university prep courses in high school, indicating that aspirations for university likely started at least in high school. however, many students struggled academically, with 62% failing at least one course in high school, 19% failing more than three courses, and more than three-quarters having an average of less than 70%. only 7% of entering lat students met the minimum requirements to enter university in ontario (defined as a minimum of 70% in 6 u/m/oac courses). only 53% of entrants achieved a language test score equivalent to or above college-level english; the remainder were required to take at least one additional english course before attempting college-level english. the pathway analysis clearly shows that high school achievement and language proficiency have a large impact on whether a student transfers and/or graduates from lat: those who both graduate and transfer from lat have the strongest high school background and language proficiency. students who took mostly college preparation courses in high school and obtained less than a 70% average were particularly at risk for not transferring or graduating. of those who did not both graduate from lat and transfer to york 46% were placed in college-level english at entry. in contrast, 69% of those who both graduated and transferred to york were placed in college-level english at entry. 19 table 5. high school academic background of lat york stream entrants by transfer pathway, 2002 2012 all entrants* did not transfer to york transferred to york number of students 4,339 lat non-grad 2,863 lat grad 331 lat non-grad 625 lat grad 520 number with hs gpa 3,319 2166 258 494 401 high school course type mostly u/m mostly c/w 68.5% 31.5% 63.5% 36.5% 73.6% 26.4% 79.1% 20.9% 78.8% 21.2% high school average (gr 11/12) <60% 12.0% 15.1% 7.8% 7.1% 4.2% 60-69% 64.1% 65.8% 62.8% 64.0% 55.6% 70-80% 22.0% 18.1% 25.6% 26.5% 35.2% >80% 1.9% 1.0% 3.9% 2.4% 5.0% c/w <60% 4.8% 6.6% 2.3% 1.4% 0.5% c/w 60-69% 19.0% 22.5% 14.7% 12.1% 11.0% c/w 70-79% 6.8% 6.7% 8.1% 6.3% 7.2% c/w >80% 0.9% 0.6% 1.2% 1.0% 2.5% u/m <60% 7.3% 8.5% 5.4% 5.7% 3.7% u/m 60-69% 45.1% 43.3% 48.1% 51.8% 44.6% u/m 70-79% 15.2% 11.4% 17.4% 20.0% 27.9% u/m >80% 1.0% 0.4% 2.7% 1.6% 2.5% none 38.3% 34.1% 49.6% 40.7% 50.4% 1-3 42.8% 44.5% 36.8% 42.1% 38.2% 4+ 18.9% 21.4% 13.6% 17.2% 11.5% 7.4% 5.0% 11.6% 11.7% 12.5% 3.1% 3.5% 3.3% 2.7% 0.8% 44.0% 49.8% 34.9% 34.3% 30.1% 51.7% 46.0% 59.5% 61.1% 66.5% 1.1% 0.6% 2.3% 1.9% 2.6% high school average and course type number of hs course failures (gr 11/12) eligible for university (min 70% average in 6 u/m courses) english-language placement at seneca entry ell- level 1 or 2 below college level/ ell level 3 college-level english exempt note: *only students who began the york stream in 2010 or earlier are included. lat non-grad refers to those who did not graduate from lat; they may have graduated from another seneca program. in general, transfer rates to york were higher for students who had higher grades in high school, and for those who took the university preparatory stream (figure 3). 26 students with stronger english-language proficiency at entry were also more likely to transfer. over half (55%) of entrants with a high school average of 80% or higher, who had also taken mostly university prep courses, transferred to york. in figure 3 is based on the same data source as table 5, but includes a calculated transfer rate to york by high school background and english-language proficiency. 26 20 contrast, the transfer rate was much lower (6%) for those who took mostly college prep courses and had a high school average below 60%. a similar trend is seen with language placement results, with less than one-fifth of those who tested below college-level english transferring, compared with over half of those who were exempted from taking college-level english. however, it is clear that high school performance and language proficiency are not the only factors that influence whether a student transfers: many students with weaker backgrounds are transferring, and many strong students are not. figure 3. the percentage of lat york stream students who transferred to york by 2012, by high school background and language placement at seneca entry, 20022010 entrants 60% 55% 51% 49% 50% 42% 40% 27% 30% 10% 18% 17% 20% 32% 29% 16% 19% 6% 0% <60% 60-69% 70-79% >80% mostly college prep (c/w) <60% 60-69% 70-79% >80% mostly univ prep (u/m/oac) ellbelow college exempt level 1 college level &2 level/ ell english - level 3 english-language placement at seneca entry although the purpose of the lat program is made clearto prepare college students for transfer to universitysome lat entrants had already attended university (table 6). regardless, previous university did not affect their propensity to graduate or transfer. there is, however, a difference in transfer rates by plans for university. at the start of college, 82% of all lat entrants had plans for university. aspiration for university was higher for both graduates and non-graduates who ultimately transferred to york, than their non-transfer counterparts. table 6. previous university experience and aspirations for university of lat york stream entrants by transfer pathway, 20022012 all entrants* did not transfer to york transferred to york last school university yes 2.6% lat non-grad 2.2% lat grad 5.3% lat non-grad 3.0% lat grad 2.4% aspired to university yes 81.7% 78.3% 82.8% 91.8% 87.4% 21 notes: only students beginning the york stream in 2010 or earlier are included. this sample excludes anyone who appeared at york before entering lat. lat non-grad refers to those who did not graduate from lat; they may have graduated from another seneca program. the articulation agreement between york and seneca stipulates that students must maintain a gpa above 3.0, both overall and in key courses, to be eligible for transfer. as expected, whether a student transfers and/or graduates is largely reflective of their seneca grades. of those who did not graduate or transfer, three-quarters had a gpa below 2.0, 27 whereas 56% of those who graduated and transferred had a gpa of 3.0 and above (figure 4). as shown, the group that graduated from lat and transferred to york comprises both those who were in the articulated stream and those who were not, which may explain the high share of transfers with a gpa below 3.0. figure 4. seneca grades of lat york stream entrants by transfer pathway, 20022012 100% 90% 6% 11% 80% 70% 2% 4% 7% 19% 15% 12% 23% 24% 28% 60% 33% 50% 60% 41% 40% 30% 75% 54% 41% 20% 10% 18% 23% 3% 0% lat non-graduate all entrants lat graduate did not transfer to york gpa 0-1.99 gpa 2.00-2.99 gpa 3.00-3.49 lat non-graduate lat graduate transferred to york gpa 3.50-4.00 note: lat non-grad refers to those who did not graduate from lat; they may have graduated from another seneca program. regression analysis: propensity for transfer to determine which individual factors independently influence propensity for transfer to york, multiple regression models were run (table 7). model 1 includes high school grades and course stream, but does not include grades at seneca or indicate whether the student graduated from lat. model 2 includes senecas academic policy states that students will only be eligible to graduate with a seneca college certificate or diploma if they have maintained an overall good standing (1.7 program gpa) in their current program of study, http://www.senecacollege.ca/academic-policy/acpol-08.html 27 22 high school grades and seneca graduation status, but does not include seneca gpa. the third model excludes high school performance, but includes seneca gpa and graduation status. as shown consistently across all models, lat entrants who had plans for university after graduation had an increased likelihood of transfer. yet, an interesting finding of this study is that some students entered lat without the intention to transfer, even though lat is explicitly a university transfer program. those who reported that english was not their first language were 5 percentage points more likely to transfer. however, entrants who were placed in below college-level english for english-language learners (ell) were less likely to transfer to york. gender and age had little or no effect across models, nor did year of entry over the study duration. students from high income neighbourhoods were more likely to transfer than those in the lowest income group. however, this effect was only evident when high school grades were taken into consideration, indicating that, independent of college performance, neighbourhood income was not a significant factor in transfer to york. when controlling for high school grades, students who had previous university attendance were less likely to transfer. students who had taken mostly university preparatory courses in high school while attaining an average of 75% and higher were more likely to transfer. those who had taken the college preparatory stream, with grade averages below 75%, were less likely to transfer than the reference group who had a high school average below 75% with mostly university preparatory courses. whether a student graduated from lat before transferring had a major influence on whether the student transferred, even when controlling for grades at seneca. obtaining a seneca gpa of greater than 3.0 increased the likelihood of transferring to york by over 40 percentage points, the largest influence of all variables. table 7. propensity to transfer to york university reference ref: no plans for university citizenship (ref: noncanadian) starting age at college (ref: under 20 yrs) variables plans for university canadian 20-24 25 yrs + gender male first language english census neighbourhood income (ref: low income) mid income high income english-language placement (ref: collegelevel english) below college level/ ell level 3 ell- level 1 or 2 ref: not university last school university hs grades (ref: gr. 11/12/oac courses mostly u level & hs gpa below 75%) mostly c level & average <75% mostly c level & average >=75% (1) 0.106*** (0.019) 0.008 (0.039) 0.017 (0.019) 0.152** (0.075) -0.019 (0.016) -0.048** (0.019) 0.034 (0.022) 0.066*** (0.021) -0.124** (2) 0.095*** (0.017) 0.000 (0.038) 0.011 (0.018) 0.126 (0.070) -0.013 (0.015) -0.052*** (0.018) 0.034 (0.020) 0.055*** (0.020) -0.076 (3) 0.099*** (0.015) 0.012 (0.026) -0.029** (0.014) 0.022 (0.042) 0.003 (0.013) -0.055*** (0.015) 0.005 (0.017) 0.032 (0.017) -0.057 (0.055) -0.106*** (0.059) -0.078*** (0.043) -0.047*** (0.017) -0.159** (0.070) -0.093*** (0.016) -0.161** (0.070) -0.070*** (0.013) -0.044 (0.051) (0.017) 0.132** (0.016) 0.056 23 reference variables mostly u & average >=75% seneca grad status (ref: did not graduate) seneca gpa (ref: <3.0) graduated from lat (1) (0.056) 0.245*** (0.048) (2) (0.050) 0.183*** (0.046) 0.378*** (0.022) -0.093 (0.059) 0.016 (0.039) 0.014 (0.036) 0.028 (0.035) 0.074** (0.036) 0.062 (0.036) 0.014 (0.035) 0.064 (0.040) -0.015 (0.020) 0.213*** (0.058) 2,957 0.069 -0.093 (0.056) 0.003 (0.036) 0.007 (0.034) 0.021 (0.033) 0.068** (0.034) 0.062 (0.034) 0.017 (0.033) 0.068* (0.038) 0.005 (0.018) 0.145*** (0.056) 2,957 0.179 3.0 to <3.5 >/=3.5 lat entering year (ref: 2010) 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 term started (ref: fall) constant observations r-squared winter (3) 0.296*** (0.021) 0.408*** (0.025) 0.455*** (0.031) -0.101** (0.046) -0.002 (0.031) 0.002 (0.029) 0.034 (0.028) 0.035 (0.029) 0.042 (0.029) 0.021 (0.029) 0.031 (0.034) -0.014 (0.015) 0.089** (0.043) 3,545 0.289 notes: robust standard errors in parentheses.*** p<0.01; ** p<0.05; 20022010 academic years for entrants starting in lat york stream. international students and students without an ontario permanent postal code were excluded. post-transfer outcomes at york university this section examines various transition factorstiming of transfer, amount of transfer credit, program of entryof all lat entrants who transferred to york, for both the york and uoft streams. additionally, it explores how successful transfer students were at york, in terms of time to completion, graduation status and academic performance. timing of transfer timing of transfer to york relates to whether the student graduated and whether they followed the articulated stream. overall, 70% of all lat transfers (graduated or not) attended york within a year of leaving seneca: 33% enrolled concurrently, 37% attended the following year, and the remainder (30%) transferred at least one year later (figure 5). as described previously, the seneca-york articulation agreement allows a lat student to enrol in a summer course at york provided they have a 3.0 gpa in their first year. this accounts for the 93% of those in the articulated program who were enrolled at york in the same academic year as they were at seneca, compared to only 23% who graduated from the nonarticulated stream. those who transferred without completing lat were more likely to have a gap between leaving the lat program and entering york, with 45% taking more than a year before transferring. 24 figure 5. timing of lat transfers to york university, 20022012 700 600 500 303 400 300 200 19 302 48 0 282 117 100 61 50 lat non-graduate lat graduate, non-articulated stream concurrent direct lat graduate, articulated stream non-direct notes: excludes those who left seneca (graduates and non-graduates) after 2010. concurrent enrolled at both seneca and york in the same academic year. direct enrolled at york the following year after leaving seneca (both graduates and nongraduates). non-direct at least one academic year after having been enrolled in the lat program. note that some lat nongraduates may have completed another seneca program prior to entering york. amount of transfer credit ninety per cent of those graduating from the articulated stream obtained 42 credits or more, as prescribed in the articulation agreement with york, whereas only 8% of graduates from the nonarticulated stream obtained 42 or more credits (figure 6). the non-graduates of lat obtained a wide range of credits, providing evidence of the diversity of this groupfrom those who may have withdrawn within the first semester to those who graduated from another seneca (non-lat) program. the york records showed the varied bases of admission: 78% were admitted as a college transfer student, with the remaining 22% based on high school performance, previous university, or mature student status (data not shown). 25 figure 6. number of transfer credits provided to seneca lat students and graduates transferring to york, 20022012 90% 83% 80% 70% 59% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 31% 20% 23% 21% 10% 1% 0% 4% lat non- graduate no transfer credit 7% 13%15% 14%12% 6% lat graduate, nonarticulated stream 120 credits 3% 1% 1% 2% 5% 2241 credits 24%24% 7% 5% lat graduate, articulated stream 21 credits 19% total 42 credits 43 credits+ note: this excludes the york credits that seneca lat students obtained before graduation from seneca. program of entry at york as would be expected from a liberal arts transfer program, most students who continued on to york were predominately enrolled in the social sciences or humanities, with over half entering the social sciences (figure 7). graduates in the articulated stream were the most likely to continue into the humanities (40%), compared with only one-quarter of those from the non-articulated stream (25%). figure 7. first program area of entry of seneca lat students and graduates transferring to york, 2002 2012 60 54 57 53 50 40 40 30 25 29 20 8 10 0 1 0 0 2 3 2 1 1 arts & sci, education fine arts humanities social inter-dis sciences lat non-graduate 4 1 1 0 1 business agriculture & biology lat graduate, non-articulated stream health 2 3 1 math & physics 5 3 3 other lat graduate, articulated stream 26 academic outcomes irrespective of graduation or articulation status at seneca, only half of transfers to york who had a seneca gpa of below 3.0 (70%) graduated, compared with the 70% of transfers with a gpa of 3.0 and above (figure 8). figure 8. graduation status of lat transfers to york university, by seneca grades, 20022012 100 90 percentage 80 49.5 70 60 69.2 70.3 30.9 29.7 3.0-3.5 >3.5 50 40 30 50.6 20 10 0 <3.0 seneca gpa withdrew graduated note: excludes those in progress as of 2012 there is a clear relationship between performance at york and grades at seneca (table 8). transfers with a seneca gpa below 3.0 obtained a 64% average at york, whereas those with a seneca gpa higher than 3.5 obtained a 75% average at york. those who withdrew from york, whose seneca gpa was 3.5 and below, tended to struggle academically, with average grades in the 50s. in contrast, those who withdrew from york, and had a seneca gpa above 3.5, obtained a 67% average at york, potentially indicating that many left for non-academic reasons. interestingly, those who graduated from york obtained comparable york averages irrespective of seneca grades. table 8. grades at york (%) for lat to york transfers, by york status and seneca gpa, 20022012 seneca gpa <3.0 3.0 to 3.5 >3.5 withdrew 53.2 graduated 72.3 in progress as of fall 2012 66.0 total 64.1 sd 22.6 7.4 13.1 17.3 n 208 224 232 664 mean 54.6 74.3 72.4 69.2 sd 24.9 6.2 7.1 15.8 n 83 204 54 341 mean 66.5 77.6 78.0 75.1 sd 19.5 6.4 7.3 12.0 n 52 128 40 220 mean 27 seneca gpa total withdrew 55.6 graduated 74.2 in progress as of fall 2012 68.6 total 67.5 sd 23.0 7.1 12.4 16.5 n 346 556 328 1,230 mean notes: includes lat students who entered seneca in the winter of 2002 and transferred to york by 2012; 38 are omitted due to missing york grades; 5 transfer students had missing seneca grades but are included in overall total. students who obtained a gpa of 0 at seneca or york were included in the averages (n=27 at seneca, n=41 at york). sd = standard deviation of the mean. in total, 60% of lat transfers to york graduated during the years under study, 57% of whom completed a four-year (honours) degree (figure 9). as a general comparison, 62% of the 2012 graduates from yorks faculty of liberal arts and professional studies completed an honours degree. 28 two-thirds of those in the articulated stream completed an honours degree, compared with just over half of those who either did not graduate from lat or graduated from the non-articulated pathway. more than half of those who transferred without completing lat between 2002 and 2012 withdrew without graduating, the highest withdrawal rate of all three pathways. graduates of the articulated lat stream were the most likely to graduate, at 76%. 29 figure 9. status at york, by lat pathway 100% 90% 24% 37% 80% 70% 40% 51% 60% 50% 40% 51% 32% 34% 26% 30% 20% 10% 31% 23% 25% 25% lat graduate, articulated stream total 0% lat non-graduate lat graduate, nonarticulated stream graduated 3 yr degree graduated 4 yr degree withdrew from york universitys factbook, http://www.yorku.ca/factbook/factbook/index.php?year=2012%20-%202013. the articulation agreement is specifically with yorks faculty of laps. 29 as a comparison, yorks 2012 graduation rate was 76.5%, calculated as the share of the 2003 entering cohort who graduated by 2010. see: http://oipa.info.yorku.ca/files/2014/04/2012-mtcu-kpi1.pdf 28 28 notes: includes lat students who entered seneca in the winter of 2002 and transferred to york by 2012; excludes 333 transfer students who were still enrolled at york. although graduates from the articulated stream were much more likely to complete an honours degree than were other transfer students, their grades in four-year degree programs were similar across pathway types, with graduates from the articulated stream obtaining a slightly higher average in the three-year degree programs (table 9). on average, transfers who withdrew from york performed poorly at york if they had gone through the non-articulated stream, with averages of 53% and 56% for lat nongraduates and lat non-articulated stream graduates respectively. lat articulated stream graduates who withdrew had a higher average, at 66%. table 9. degree type and grades obtained at york for lat transfers, 20022012 graduated 3 yr degree lat non-graduate # of transfers york gpa (%) 112 69.8 lat graduate, non-articulated stream # of transfers york gpa (%) 54 69.1 lat graduate, articulated stream # of transfers york gpa (%) 71 72.1 graduated 4 yr degree 124 75.9 55 77.5 141 78.1 withdrew 248 52.5 63 55.7 67 65.7 in progress 203 66.5 61 68.7 69 74.4 total transfers 687 64.1 233 67.5 348 73.7 note: york gpas were missing for 38 transfer students who did not graduate from york. of those who transferred to york without graduating from lat, 54% took six years or more to complete a three-year degree program and 65% took six years or more to graduate from a four-year degree program (figure 10). interestingly, those who graduated from the non-articulated stream of lat were more likely to take six or more years, with 72% taking six or more years to complete a three-year degree and 87% taking six or more years to complete a four-year degree. graduates of the articulated pathway had fewer combined years. nearly one-third (31%) of those graduating from a three-year york degree program did so within four years of entering seneca and over two-thirds (68%) of those graduating from a four-year york degree program did so within five years. it is interesting to note that 18% of graduates from the articulated stream were able to obtain both credentials within four years of entering lat at seneca. on average, non-graduates of lat took six years combined at both institutions to complete a degree at york, slightly less time than those who first graduated from the non-articulated lat stream (table 9). for each of the three- and four-year degree programs, graduates of the articulated lat stream on average took 5.3 years to complete. 29 figure 10. number of years between entry in lat and york graduation, by pathway 100% 90% 80% 31% 34% 37% 45% 23% 31% 50% 34% 35% 40% 30% 23% 18% 70% 60% 9% 17% 42% 30% 20% 30% 10% 13% 0% 2% graduated 3 yr degree 50% 27% 24% 5% 4% graduated 4 yr degree graduated 3 yr degree lat non-graduate 18% 13% 4% graduated 4 yr degree lat graduate, non-articulated stream 3 yrs 4 yrs 5 yrs 6 yrs graduated 3 yr degree graduated 4 yr degree lat graduate, articulated stream >6 yrs notes: only academic years are available and not individual semesters, resulting in rounding. includes students enrolled full time and part time, concurrently at york and seneca, and those who may not have been continually enrolled. table 10. average number of years by pathway, seneca lat entry to york graduation lat non-graduate lat graduate, non-articulated stream lat graduate, articulated stream mean 3 yr degree 5.9 4 yr degree 6.1 sd 1.5 1.2 n 112 124 mean 6.3 6.6 sd 1.4 1.1 n 54 55 mean 5.3 5.3 sd 1.4 1.0 n 71 141 regression analysis: academic outcomes the regressions analysed the factors independently associated with two post-transfer outcomes: i) graduation from york and ii) cumulative york gpa of 5.0 (required for an honours degree). results are summarized in table 11. transfers who were lat graduates, non-canadian citizens, younger, or who obtained good seneca grades were significantly more likely to graduate from york. high school grades/course type and english- 30 language placement at seneca had no effect on whether a student graduated from york. a study gap of two years or more before transferring to york reduced the chance of graduation. the amount of transfer credit, because of its implicit connection to completion and grades, had a positive effect on graduation. to determine which factors influenced academic performance after transfer, for both graduates and non-graduates of york, a regression model was performed using the cumulative york gpa necessary for honours (5.0). transfers who were lat graduates, non-canadian citizens, and obtained good seneca grades were more likely to obtain a york gpa of 5.0 or higher. the transfers age did not influence their york gpa, but their neighbourhood income did: transfers from higher income neighbourhoods were more likely to attain a gpa of 5.0. no clear relationship between high school grades and success after transfer could be established. likewise, a students first language and english-language placement at college entry were unrelated to their academic success at york. those who entered natural and applied science fields were less likely to achieve a gpa of 5.0 than those who entered humanities, arts and education. higher amounts of transfer credit, even when controlling for seneca grades and whether or not the student graduated from lat, were associated with academic success in terms of grades. table 11. regression models for outcomes after transfer to york citizenship (ref: noncanadian) starting age at college (ref: under 20 yrs) canadian 20-24 25 yrs + gender male first language english census neighbourhood income (ref: low income) mid income high income english placement (ref: college english) below college level & ell - level 3 ell- level 1 or 2 ref: not university last school university hs grades (ref: gr. 11/12/oac courses mostly u level & hs average below 75%) mostly c & average <75% mostly c & average >=75% mostly u & average >=75% seneca grad status (ref: lat non-grad) seneca gpa (ref: <3.0) graduated from lat 3.0 <3.5 >/=3.5 entering program at york (ref: arts, humanities, education) social sciences business natural and applied sciences graduated from york after transfer -0.236*** -0.286*** -0.283*** (0.089) (0.061) (0.061) -0.132*** -0.128*** -0.142*** (0.046) (0.039) (0.039) -0.074 -0.161 -0.207** (0.152) (0.091) (0.092) -0.039 -0.027 -0.015 (0.039) (0.035) (0.035) -0.013 -0.007 0.008 (0.048) (0.043) (0.043) -0.027 0.013 0.016 (0.055) (0.048) (0.048) 0.050 0.068 0.062 (0.052) (0.046) (0.045) -0.085 0.128 0.144 (0.340) (0.180) (0.184) 0.007 0.025 0.030 (0.042) (0.038) (0.038) -0.421*** -0.155 -0.112 (0.107) (0.114) (0.118) -0.059 (0.056) -0.238** (0.111) -0.015 (0.065) 0.220*** 0.192*** 0.065 (0.039) (0.035) (0.049) 0.152*** 0.130*** (0.040) (0.042) 0.152*** 0.137** (0.049) (0.053) 0.034 0.036 0.032 (0.040) (0.037) (0.037) -0.028 0.020 -0.014 (0.096) (0.083) (0.081) -0.062 -0.096 -0.099 cumulative gpa 5.0+ -0.191** -0.208*** -0.199*** (0.082) (0.056) (0.057) 0.010 -0.035 -0.039 (0.040) (0.034) (0.034) -0.062 -0.037 -0.067 (0.137) (0.083) (0.085) 0.003 0.015 0.020 (0.034) (0.030) (0.030) 0.010 0.019 0.027 (0.041) (0.036) (0.036) 0.082 0.084** 0.082** (0.048) (0.042) (0.041) 0.097** 0.101** 0.095** (0.046) (0.040) (0.040) -0.064 -0.086 -0.090 (0.153) (0.119) (0.114) -0.057 -0.000 -0.003 (0.036) (0.033) (0.032) -0.256 -0.079 -0.060 (0.136) (0.092) (0.093) 0.048 (0.046) 0.049 (0.083) 0.087 (0.064) 0.217*** 0.156*** 0.070 (0.035) (0.032) (0.043) 0.187*** 0.163*** (0.036) (0.039) 0.307*** 0.285*** (0.040) (0.044) -0.021 -0.041 -0.048 (0.036) (0.032) (0.032) 0.045 0.044 0.013 (0.085) (0.073) (0.070) -0.140 -0.226*** -0.211** 31 term started at seneca (ref: fall) timing of transfer (ref: direct transfer) winter +1 academic year to transfer +2 academic years to transfer transfer credit rec'd at york (ref: none) 120 credits 21 credits 2241 credits 42 credits 43+ credits constant observations r-squared graduated from york after transfer (0.127) (0.105) (0.105) -0.041 -0.025 -0.033 (0.046) (0.040) (0.039) -0.041 0.038 0.020 (0.077) (0.069) (0.069) -0.180** -0.135 -0.213*** (0.085) (0.077) (0.082) -0.088 (0.079) -0.132 (0.072) 0.061 (0.069) 0.112 (0.079) 0.177 (0.108) 0.801*** 0.707*** 0.766*** (0.100) (0.081) (0.099) 627 764 764 0.118 0.121 0.146 cumulative gpa 5.0+ (0.084) (0.087) -0.043 -0.047 (0.036) (0.036) 0.099 0.095 (0.055) (0.055) 0.032 0.008 (0.060) (0.063) 0.050 (0.063) 0.013 (0.062) 0.135** (0.058) 0.171** (0.069) 0.249*** (0.082) 0.619*** 0.555*** 0.508*** (0.097) (0.076) (0.087) 833 1,005 1,005 0.074 0.120 0.135 (0.104) -0.037 (0.043) 0.008 (0.064) -0.020 (0.066) robust standard errors in parentheses; *** p<0.01; ** p<0.05; ^ entrants starting in lat york stream, 20022010 academic years; ^^ all york lat transfers to york, 20022012 academic years, excluding those still enrolled at york discussion senecas lat program is unique in ontario and has long been considered a pathway for students who could not enter university through other means, as demonstrated by the results in this study. while only 7% of the 20022010 york-stream entrants were eligible for university based on high school performance, 82% had plans for university after graduation from college. aspirations for university likely started in high school, with 69% taking mostly university preparatory courses. however, many of these students struggled academically: less than one-quarter obtained an average of 70% or above, considered the minimum requirement for university entry. many of these lat cohorts continued to struggle academically when they entered college: over one-half left seneca without a seneca credential or without transferring to york. while over one-quarter of lat entrants transferred to york, only 27% of this group came from the articulated pathway. non-graduation from the lat program had a rippling effect: seneca non-graduates were less likely to graduate from york, and thereby left both institutions without obtaining a credential from either one. compared to lat students who transferred to york without graduating from the program, those who graduated before transferring were more successful at yorkthey had more transfer credit and were stronger academically. however, the regression models showed an independent effect on graduating even when controlling for academic or sociodemographic factors, which likely related to a high level of student resilience or determination to finish a credential despite struggling academically. in total, 1,268 lat students had transferred to york by 2012: of these, 333 (26%) were still in progress, 30% had withdrawn, 25% had graduated from a three-year degree program, and 19% had obtained a four-year degree. their overall grade average at york was 68%. those who graduated from the articulated pathway had the highest graduation rates and grades, took less time to complete, and were more likely to complete a four-year than a three-year degree program. the multiple regression models performed for this study identified independent influences on student transfer, graduation from york, and gpa (5.0) at york. academic performance in high school and at 32 seneca, english-language proficiency at college entry, and graduation before transferring were independent influencers on whether a student transferred. the students with a higher propensity to graduate from york university after transfer were lat graduates, non-canadian citizens, younger, and had good grades at seneca. high school grades no longer influenced performance, unlike the effect of college grades on student transfer. factors that determined whether a transfer student attained a york gpa of 5.0 were similar to those that determined whether a student graduated from york. age was not a significant factor, but transfer students from higher income neighbourhoods were more likely to have a higher york gpa and transfer students who entered the sciences at york were more likely to have a lower gpa. an earlier study (smith et al., 2016) that analysed transfer students to york from all seneca programs found similar results. one exception was that female transfer students from the full transfer population were more likely to graduate from york, whereas there was no gender effect in the lat program in the current study. the literature also shows that females are more likely to persist to graduation in both college and university (kerr, 2010; mccloy, steffler & decock, 2016). the reasons why a gender effect was not seen in the lat program in the current study may be reflective of the type of students that enter lat, or the program delivery, and may warrant further study. the effect of income on propensity to transfer is interesting: higher income students are more likely to transfer and to get higher grades after transfer, but not more likely to graduate. researchers at seneca have been looking at the role of income in a series of reports pertaining to seneca transfer students. in a forthcoming report (steffler, mccloy & decock, 2016) on the overall seneca population, income did not have an independent effect on whether a student transferred, but parental education did. in an occupational program, early childhood education, income had no effect on transfer rates of graduates (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2015). interestingly, when controlling for a variety of factors, seneca students from higher income neighbourhoods were more likely to obtain a high gpa at seneca, but were not more likely to graduate from college (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2016). conclusions and recommendations senecas liberal arts transfer program is both innovative and academically intensive. students are required to take a full college course load, maintain an overall b average (with a minimum c grade in individual york-approved seneca courses), and to take college and university courses in the same year. those who fulfill these rigorous requirements are rewarded with as much as two full years of credit towards a bachelor of arts degree at york. this type of transfer agreement is unprecedented in the ontario college system, but similar to that of the american junior college and the british columbian systems (greene & decock, 1998; skolnik, 1989). students who successfully graduated from the articulated stream at seneca did well after transfer to york, with strong graduation rates and grades. however, admission standards for lat are minimal, requiring only an ossd and grade 12 english. as a result of this open admission policy, entrants to lat had a wide range of academic backgrounds: more than three-quarters had a high school average of less than 70%, and nearly half did not place in college-level english. only about 16% of lat entrants ultimately graduated from york. therefore, one of the recommendations is that both the college and university fully inform prospective students of the academic demands required to complete lat and to perform well after transfer. additionally, at-risk students could be advised on the variety of upgrading options available, such as academic upgrading 30 either before entering lat or during the program. 30 http://www.senecacollege.ca/fulltime/auc.html 33 currently, in the early stages of the program, faculty remind students that the program is challenging and a minimum standard is required to transfer to york with full transfer credit. the results also show, however, that some students are able to perform well academically despite weak high school backgrounds, and more research needs to be done, both quantitative and qualitative to determine whether they have unique characteristics that make them successful. as this study shows, once a student transfers, their high school performance is no longer a good indicator of how well they will perform at university, whereas their college grades are. any review of admission standards will need to provide open access, allowing students who struggled in high school to prove themselves in college and pursue a viable pathway to university. such a review will also need to address the needs of students at risk of not meeting the requirements for transfer. about half (51%) of the entering class did not graduate from seneca with any credential, and did not transfer to york. of those who did transfer, 20% did not graduate from lat or from york within the time frame of the study. the following recommendations attempt to address these issues: alternate pathways to college credential. students need to have other credential options, such as an alternate diploma or degree pathway at seneca or other colleges. such alternatives are already occurring to a certain extent at seneca. lat students who are unable to fulfill all the program requirements are awarded a one-year general arts and science credential if they have completed sufficient credits. student advising. early outreach for students who are disengaging for either academic or non-academic reasons is recommended. the lat program is aware of this and is in the process of creating a student advisor position, who will be able to advise students on the importance of graduating before transferring, provide academic and non-academic support for those struggling, and to advise on alternate pathways to a seneca credential. as well, since many strong students also left without graduating or transferring to university, a study of non-academic factors in student success may also be warranted. lat program review. future research may include looking more closely at which specific courses students are struggling in, so that adjustments in delivery, timing, or content may be made. support for transfer students at york. as this study showed, students who have done well at seneca continue to be successful at york. however, over half of transfers had a seneca gpa of less than 3.0, and half of those ultimately withdrew from york. therefore, students who transfer to york with a weak seneca academic record require support and advising. both seneca and york have a shared understanding that they are working with students who have gaps, and more institutional support is needed to help improve the success of transfer students. continue tracking student outcomes. finally, based on discussions with program coordinators and faculty, efforts continue to be made to improve the outcomes of students in the lat program. to reveal whether these changes have had the desired effect, a similar study with recent cohorts (2012-2016) should be conducted with the addition of a qualitative component involving students, faculty and administrators involved in the program at both seneca and york. additionally, the study could be broadened to similar liberal arts college-university partnerships in the toronto area. 34 references: kerr, a. (2010). what about the boys? an overview of gender trends in education and the labour market in ontario. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario (heqco). mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h. (2016). from high school to graduation and beyond: pathways of young immigrants in a toronto college. toronto: centre for research in student mobility, seneca college, toronto. funded by the ministry of advanced education and skills development, ontario human capital research and innovation fund (ohcrif). steffler, m., mccloy, u., & decock, h. (2016). understanding university transfer pathways of first generation students and students from low income neighbourhoods: evidence from a large toronto college. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h. (2015). the impact of labour market and policy changes on university transfer: the case study of early childhood education. toronto: oncat. smith, r., decock, h., lin, d., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in higher education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: heqco. meehan, p. & decock, h. (2011). seneca colleges liberal arts program: a partnership model for ontario, presented at the community college baccalaureate association (ccba) conference, san diego, ca, 2011. http://www.accbd.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/seneca_uot_partnership.pdf greene, i. & decock, h. (1998). the york university seneca college partnership in context, paper presented at canadian institutional research and planning association conference, st. johns, nl, 1998. skolnik, m. l. (1989). how ontarios colleges might respond to pressures for the provision of more advanced training. a background paper prepared for vision 2000. toronto: ontario council of regents. shook, c., guyatt, j. & norman, c. (2016). diploma to degree: transitioning from college to university, presented at the ontario university registrars association conference, toronto, 2016. http://oura.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/k5.pdf trick, d. (2013). college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context. toronto: heqco.

council of educators of toronto university and college data tracking practices for first-generation and transfer students in the greater toronto area project 2016-13 final report april 28th, 2017 prepared by: funded by: academica group ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) london, on list of participants cet oversight committee members: yvette munro, director, academic partnerships and planning, office of the vice provost academic york university richard smith, director of institutional research, reporting and analysis, office of institutional planning and analysis, york university henri decock, associate vice president, academic partnerships, seneca college eric mezin, director, council of educators of toronto (contact person for the project) eric.mezin@toronto.ca 416-397-0442 participating institutions (in alphabetical order): centennial college collge boral george brown college humber college la cit collgiale ryerson university seneca college university of toronto york university authors of the report academica group: julie peters julie@academicagroup.com andrew parkin andrew@academicagroup.com special thanks to all the cet member institutions who collaborated in this research, and to the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) for funding this project. council of educators of toronto - academica group 2 table of contents list of participants .................................................................................................................................. 2 executive summary .................................................................................................................................. 5 introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 8 definitions ................................................................................................................................................ 9 first generation students .............................................................................................................................9 credit transfer .............................................................................................................................................. 10 literature review................................................................................................................................... 12 a statistical portrait ................................................................................................................................... 12 first generation students ...................................................................................................................... 12 credit transfer .......................................................................................................................................... 13 pathways of first generation students ................................................................................................. 15 access ........................................................................................................................................................... 15 persistence .................................................................................................................................................. 15 transfer....................................................................................................................................................... 17 students who transfer ............................................................................................................................... 18 summary .......................................................................................................................................................... 19 environmental scan.............................................................................................................................. 21 research method ................................................................................................................................... 22 staff discussion group findings.......................................................................................................... 24 identifying first generation students .................................................................................................... 24 key findings:................................................................................................................................................ 24 identifying and tracking transfer students ......................................................................................... 25 key findings:................................................................................................................................................ 25 evolution in first generation student programs and advising ...................................................... 26 key findings:................................................................................................................................................ 26 evolution in advising services for transfer students........................................................................ 27 key findings:................................................................................................................................................ 28 the intersection of first generation and transfer students ........................................................... 29 key findings:................................................................................................................................................ 29 student focus group findings ............................................................................................................. 30 council of educators of toronto - academica group 3 first generation students .......................................................................................................................... 30 collection of information about parents education ................................................................... 30 definition of first generation student ........................................................................................... 31 the label of first generation student ............................................................................................. 31 interest in and use of programs for first generation students ................................................. 31 transfer students......................................................................................................................................... 32 types of student mobility ....................................................................................................................... 32 progression: diploma to degree................................................................................................................. 32 adjustment: program choice ..................................................................................................................... 33 adjustment: work-related experience ....................................................................................................... 33 credit transfer experience ..................................................................................................................... 34 the intersection of first generation students and transfer students ......................................... 36 recommendations ................................................................................................................................. 36 bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 39 appendix b: staff small group discussion guide ............................................................................... 43 appendix c: student focus group discussion guide .......................................................................... 45 council of educators of toronto - academica group 4 executive summary this study provides an overview and analysis of institutional data collection, sharing, and analysis practices regarding inter-institutional transfer and student mobility at cet member institutions with a focus on implications for first generation students. four research questions guided this study: 1. what mechanisms or strategies are currently employed by gta colleges and university to track and analyze data on credit transfer students in general, and first generation students specifically? 2. what data tracking analysis gaps exist among gta colleges and universities that if addressed could assist them in their capacity to support access-seeking students transferring between institutions? 3. what capacities exist or can be developed among gta colleges and universities to track and analyze mobility trends and experiences of credit transfer students as they move between institutions? 4. what does existing research about transfer students tell us about their backgrounds, and how could transfer pathways or supports be designed to facilitate the movement of students, including first generation students, between institutions? what implications are there for academic programming, institutional planning and student services, and system and policy change? to address these research questions, a literature review, an environmental scan, staff discussion groups, and student focus groups were conducted. a total of nine roundtable discussions with staff from cet member institutions were held from november 2016 to january 2017. the staff members participating in the roundtables included those with responsibilities in areas related to: first generation student programs and advising; student success, access and outreach; financial aid; credit transfer policy and advising; and institutional data and research. a total of 45 staff members participated at nine institutions, including three universities and six colleges. six student focus groups were held, involving a total of 26 postsecondary students currently enrolled at a cet member institution who were either first generation students, transfer students, or both. the focus groups took place in february 2017 on campuses within the gta. key findings and recommendations are summarized by below. identifying first generation students while all institutions work with the ministry definition of a first generation student, multiple methods are used to identify and count first generation students. these methods, however, are not cross-referenced with one another nor is the information that is collected through each integrated into a single database. institutions therefore do not have access to a single, comprehensive, or definitive count of the number of first generation students on campus or means of identifying or contacting them. recommendation first generation students should be identified at their first point of entry into ontarios education system, which for most students would be upon registration for early childhood education or for primary or secondary school. the identification would be derived from the information parents provide about their own educational attainment as part of the registration process for their children. the designation of a student as a first council of educators of toronto - academica group 5 generation student would then be part of the students record that would follow the student into pse by virtue of the ontario education number (oen). this approach would avoid the many problems associated with using a variety of methods to ask pse students to self-identify. identifying and tracking transfer students institutions are able to identify students who have previously undertaken postsecondary education at another institution, but only if the student chooses to declare this previous experience on their application form. the onus therefore rests with the student: there is no system-wide data system to which institutions have access that can automatically report on a students complete postsecondary pathway. in addition, institutions do not have access to any information on the postsecondary experience of students who transfer out of the institution. this speaks to institutions limited access to data derived from the ontario education number (oen), which to date has not been implemented in a way that facilitates institutional planning or the design and delivery of student services. recommendation the restricted access to data derived from the oen represents a missed opportunity to enable institutions to better understand and serve their students, particularly students who transfer between institutions. for the oen to live up to its promise, the government of ontario should ensure that the data be made accessible to institutional researchers, policy makers, and programs administrators, and provide a firm deadline for doing so. first generation student programs and advising a number of institutions are evolving their approach to first generation students, by gradually folding programs for first generation students into broader programs aimed at any student who might benefit from additional support or guidance. this broadening of focus allows institutions to adopt a wide net approach to outreach in which it matters less and less whether they can accurately identify whether a student is a first generation student or not as long as all students are made aware of the supports that are available, the label attached to the student makes little difference. while some students feel pride in being identified as first generation students, and while first generation students may have distinct needs and experiences, students themselves are not looking for services linked to that designation; more than that, many students are likely to misunderstand the intention behind programs targeted to first generation students, seeing them as programs aiming to assist new arrivals to adjust to life in canada. recommendation given the low resonance and degree of confusion associated with the term first generation among students, it appears that the broadening of focus or wide net approach in outreach and support to students reported by some gta institutions is appropriate. the evolution of approach in outreach and service provision for first generation students should be encouraged, as it reflects the lessons learned through experience at each institution. the government of ontario should ensure that institutions have the greatest degree of flexibility possible in how to allocate the funding they receive to support first generation students, to ensure that this funding can be used to support approaches that the institutions believe are most likely to reach students most in need of support in transitioning into and through postsecondary education. advising services for transfer students a number of institutions, primarily the colleges, are evolving their approach to advising students transferring between institutions, notably by adopting an approach that is both more proactive and more integrated. this council of educators of toronto - academica group 6 new approach is designed to support the development of a transfer culture in which the institution understands itself less as the singular destination for each student and more as a stop on a continuum of learning that begins before and ends after the students current program of study. many transfer student focus group participants reported that they had to navigate the transfer process without much assistance from the institution, and students making transfers that can be characterized as adjustments also felt that friends and families often view switching as a suboptimal outcome. the more proactive and integrated approach to advising students about transfer, reported by some gta institutions, is likely to be helpful as it should result in an improved transfer process for students and it may help to normalize or to reduce the social stigma associated with switching. recommendation emerging approaches to advising students on mobility in and out of their current institution that are both proactive and more integrated with other services at the institution should be considered promising practices within the sector. institutions that are not yet moving in this direction should seek opportunities to learn from the experiences of those that are. in particular, universities should seek to learn from the experiences of colleges, particularly in regard to taking on more responsibilities in the area of advising students on the opportunities for outbound transfer. the intersection of first generation and transfer students services for first generation students and transfers students are currently conceived of and delivered separately, and the implications for student advising and support of possible intersections between the two groups of students have yet to be explored. there is a recognition that first generation students might be more mobile (in terms of demand for inter-institutional transfer) and may be more likely to benefit from the opening up of new transfer opportunities (pathways). that said, institutions are likely to focus more on broadening their outreach to as many students as possible, rather than on narrowing their focus to particular subgroups. recommendation it is difficult to develop a better understanding of the needs, experiences and outcomes of first generation students as they pertain to mobility in the absence of comprehensive, system-wide data that allows institutions to develop a full picture of the educational pathways of students into and out of their current institution. further progress in understanding the intersection between first generation students and transfer students can be made once data systems are strengthened as per the first two recommendations advanced above. council of educators of toronto - academica group 7 introduction this study was commissioned by the council of educators of toronto (cet), a 15-member council with a mandate to develop and implement a collaborative and coordinated approach among educational institutions to enhance access to postsecondary education (pse) for individuals who have traditionally experienced barriers. the purpose of the study is to provide a comprehensive overview and analysis of institutional data collection, sharing and analysis practices regarding inter-institutional transfer and student mobility with a focus on implications for first generation students. four research questions guided this study: 1. what mechanisms or strategies are currently employed by gta colleges and university to track and analyze data on credit transfer students in general, and first generation students specifically? 2. what data tracking analysis gaps exist among gta colleges and universities that if addressed could assist them in their capacity to support access-seeking students transferring between institutions? 3. what capacities exist or can be developed among gta colleges and universities to track and analyze mobility trends and experiences of credit transfer students as they move between institutions? 4. what does existing research about transfer students tell us about their backgrounds, and how could transfer pathways or supports be designed to facilitate the movement of students, including first generation students, between institutions? what implications are there for academic programming, institutional planning and student services, and system and policy change? a detailed analysis of government policies and programs related to transfer students and first generation students was beyond the scope of this study. however, it is important to note that the ontario government currently offers focused funding to institutions both for student transfer and for first generation students and that institutions receiving funding through these programs are required to report to the ministry on key indicators. for example, credit transfer institutional grants are offered to support postsecondary institutions in projects related to data collection and reporting, transfer facilitation and student support services, and pathway projects. for first generation students, the first generation project provides funding to postsecondary institutions to work towards the goals of increasing retention and graduation rates of first generation students, establishing baseline information about first generation students, and informing the government on the effectiveness of retention activities. this study was not meant to evaluate these funding programs or their reporting requirements, but to examine the current state of data collection, data analysis, and support programming related to transfer students and first generation students generally at cet member institutions. council of educators of toronto - academica group 8 definitions first generation students the ontario government defines first generation students as a student whose parent(s) have never participated in postsecondary studies on either a full or part-time basis anywhere in the world (maesd, 2016). this type of definition is referred to by auclair et al. (2008, 4) as the strict definition used in most of the literature on the subject. it is, however, not the only possible definition. it is well known that there is a continuous relationship between participation in postsecondary education and parental education: a childs chances of accessing pse increases with each additional year of education held by his or her parents. the concept of the first generation student, however, goes beyond this by speaking not to a continuum but to a threshold: it is not each additional year of parental education that matters, but rather the attainment of a particular level of education. it posits that parents with more than a particular threshold level of education can instill in their children the necessary informational and cultural capital for success in postsecondary studies. auclair et al. explain: the fgs variable or concept is a theoretical concept based on the idea of a dichotomy between secondary and post-secondary schooling on the part of parents. that suggests that the educational levels have both an institutional and an educational structural effect on the individual schooling of parents, which creates a qualitative difference between the experience of those who did not receive post-secondary education and the experience of those who took (and even completed) post-secondary studies. it means that the difference lies not only in the number of years of study or the ranking of institutions but also in the social, cultural, educational and administrative structural effects that form character (auclair et al., 2008, 7). the idea, then, is that parents who have crossed over a certain educational threshold hold an advantage that they can convey to their children. what the various definitions of the concept of first generation students refer to, therefore, is the placement of this threshold. most researchers use the strict definition mentioned above, therefore, because they believe that the fact that one parent attended college or university is enough for that parent to know something about post-secondary education and to have acquired some social and cultural capital that can make it easier for his or her child to enter that level of study (auclair et al., 2008, 4). as mentioned, however, other definitions are possible (see auclair et al., 2008, 5), including: neither parent has completed pse (but one or both may have participated without obtaining a credential); neither parent accessed or completed university (but one or both may have accessed or completed college or another form of non-university postsecondary training); neither parent has accessed or completed pse in canada (but one or both may have postsecondary experience in another country); council of educators of toronto - academica group 9 additionally, some definitions take into account not only the educational experience of parents but also siblings, pointing to the importance of not only being among the first generation in the family to experience pse but also the very first person in the family to do so. finally, in some cases it may be important to distinguish between the experience of fathers and mothers, and of children who are boys or girls, on the understanding that there may be gender-specific avenues of transmitting information and cultural capital within a family that operate between fathers or mothers and their sons or daughters (cf. turcotte, 2011, 39). in some studies, the choice of which definition to use is mainly an empirical question: different definitions can be tested statistically to determine which one is a better predictor of childrens educational outcomes. in other studies, however, the choice of definition is related more to the choice of research question. for instance, if the question under consideration has to do, not with pse access, but with either access to university or with successful transition from college to university, then researchers may want to focus on students whose parents have no university experience themselves. if the question under consideration concerns the educational experience of first or second generation immigrants, then researchers may want to focus on students whose parents have no pse experience in canada. if the question has to do with gender differences in educational pathways and outcomes, then the different influences of mothers and fathers may be an important factor to take into account. finally, one additional consideration to keep in mind is that the category of first generation students tends to overlap with a number of other categories relevant to research on student pathways and experiences. students from lower-income families, indigenous students, students from some (though not all) immigrant backgrounds, and older students are all more likely to be first generation students. this observation has two implications. the first is that it is important to keep in mind that, whatever the formal definition that is used, the concept of first generation student may capture more than just the aspect of parental education it is a wide net that may capture other factors that correlate with parental education. the second is that the concept on its own may not always capture enough that is relevant about a students background. many students may be influenced by a number of overlapping factors, relating to parental education, income, and race or ethnicity. in these cases, the concept of first generation student may be limited unless it is employed in such a way that looks at its intersection with other factors (see robson et al, n.d.). in the case of the study of first generation students, this mean approaching the concept in a more nuanced fashion that considers differences between first generation students with or without parents born in canada, or between male and female first generation students (see, for example, turcotte, 2011, 40, 41; kamanzi et al., 17; smithies, 2015, 58). credit transfer as is the case with the concept of first generations students, there isno singular definition of credit transfer (durham college, 2016, 18). this has been attributed in part to the lack of a standard process among institutions of managing transfer students: the inconsistent process of credit transfer across institutions, and uncertainty about how exactly institutions determine whether or not credits are in fact transferable, are just two of the factors contributing to the lack of a concrete definition and common understanding (durham college, 2016, 18). the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) defines a credit transfer student as someone who has completed a course, some courses or an entire program at one institution and wants to continue their postsecondary education at another (oncat, n.d., 11). this definition clearly focuses on the movement of council of educators of toronto - academica group 10 students between institutions. in the ontario context, this covers the movement of students from a college to a university, from a university to a college, and between two colleges or two universities with the forms other than college to university apparently becoming increasingly common. as durham college explains, the traditional framework under which credit transfer is often discussed is the pathway of graduating from a college program and using these credits to gain access into a university degree program. this linear mobility has been challenged over recent years as an increasing number of students are moving from college to college, university to university, and university to college (durham college, 2016, 19). similarly, the government of ontario notes that while the provinces credit transfer system is currently designed to build the college diploma to university degree pathwayit will also serve as a starting point for other pathways, including university to university, college to college and university to college (ministry of advanced education and skills development, n.d., 7). by focussing on inter-institutional mobility, the oncat definition excludes students who switch programs within the same institution. other definitions of credit transfer, however, include such movement; for instance, the government of ontarios credit transfer system policy statement speaks of credit transfer in terms of students who move between postsecondary institutions or programs without repeating prior, relevant learning (ministry of advanced education and skills development, n.d., 1). this broader definition, by including the objective of avoiding the repeat of prior, relevant learning, underlines a key point, which is that credit transfer is about enabling the student to continue their education in a way that builds on what they have done before. this may be harder to justify in the context of a significant change of programs within the same institution (for example, from science to fine arts, or vice versa) -- although at the same time the recognition of credits for non-core or elective courses is also easier because there is no question of an institution not recognizing its own courses. for this reason, the desire of a student to both change the direction of their studies (switch pathways) while building on (i.e. gaining recognition for) some of their learning to date typically arises in the context of a switch from one institution to another. that said, the need to sometimes include program-switching in the context of a discussion of credit transfer should not be overlooked. one other caveat is in order. definitions of credit transfer generally exclude students who are moving between institutions in a prescribed way that is a feature of an established program, for instance, in the context of joint degree offered by two institutions that requires students to take courses at each, or a laddered program, such as the collaborative nursing degree program offered jointly by seneca college and york university, in which students begin the program at one institution before moving to the other. in these cases, the recognition of prior learning is built into the structure of the program. council of educators of toronto - academica group 11 literature review this literature review focusses in particular on the intersection of research about inter-institutional transfer and student mobility, on the one hand, and first generation students, on the other. that is to say, it focuses on both transfer students and on first generation students, but not separately from one another. it investigates what the literature on first generation students suggests about their interest in and experiences with interinstitutional transfer, and what the literature on transfer suggests about the particular experiences of first generation students. a starting point for this review is the observation that there are a number of existing literature reviews and studies of each of these two subjects taken separately. the review of literature on the concept of first generation students conducted under the auspices of projet transitions still stands as the definitive work on the subject in canada (auclair, et al., 2008), although it has been complemented by others (see, for example, smithies, 2015). reviews such as these have tended to show that first generation students suffer from multiple disadvantages: in their level of academic preparedness, in the amount of cultural and educational capital they acquired before beginning their studies, in the level of support they receive at home and at school, and in their difficulties in social and academic adaptation and integration. considering that their parents are generally from a more disadvantaged socio-economic background than their peers, fgss [first generation students] will also face more financial difficulties and are more likely to have more difficult living situations (kamanzi et al, 2010, 2). a number of recent studies of the experience of credit transfer are also available, including the review of research conducted by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (2013) and the surveys of transfer students analyzed by usher and jarvey (2013) and durham college (2016). these studies document student satisfaction with their experience with credit transfer, while at the same time identifying a range of student concerns related to the credit transfer process and pathways (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2013, 6) and areas of potential improvement. rather than repeat the findings of these studies, this review will address, as far as possible, the more specific issue of student mobility and inter-institutional transfer as it pertains to first generation students. it will do so by first reviewing issues around the definition of both first generation students and of credit transfer and by summarizing relevant statistics. it will then address the persistence rates, experiences and pathways of first generation students, with a particular focus on transfer. it will conclude by the discussing the implications of the literature reviewed for the remainder of the study. a statistical portrait first generation students it is difficult to get a system-wide portrait of the portion of college and university students in canada or in ontario who are first generation students for several reasons: students are generally identified as first generation students by asking them to self-identify as such, and the proportion that does self-identify may not in fact include all students who meet the definition. institutions may or may not collect the information in the same way or use the same definition, making aggregations of data across institutions difficult. council of educators of toronto - academica group 12 system-wide data instruments (such as the postsecondary student information system) may not collect or report on the data. for these reasons, the system-wide data that does exist tends to come from student surveys, such as the youth in transition study (yits) although this leads to a range of figures, varying according to the nature of the survey sample as well as the definition of first generation student that is used. according to yits, 31% of youth (those age 15 in 1999) who access college in ontario are first generation students1, as are 14% of those who access university in the province (finnie, childs, and qiu, 2012, 11). the proportion of students who are first generation students, however, would be higher if all students including not only young students entering pse soon after high school, but older students as well were included (kamanzi et al, 2010, 63). figures using the second, slightly older yits cohort (which is still not fully representative of students in all age groups) show that first generation students make up 37% of college students in the province and 20% of university students (finnie, childs, and qiu, 2012, 53). a system-wide figure for the proportion of pse students who are first generation students is useful as a general point of reference, but at the same time less useful to institutions since the situation within each institution can be expected to vary widely, depending on institution type, location, mission and history. some institutions clearly attract many more first generation students, measured as a proportion of their student body, than others. kamanzi et al., for instance, note that 45% of students at uqam are first generation students2 more than double the canadian average for universities (2010, 63). it would be optimal, therefore, for data to be reported on an institution by institution basis using similar definitions and data collection methodologies; however, this is not currently the practice in ontario. credit transfer it is no less difficult to get a clear portrait of the prevalence of credit transfer, again due to the limited availability of systems-level data, as well as inconsistent definitions. as kerr, mccloy and liu (2010, 6) observe, to date, efforts to produce a full empirical record of various pse pathways have been faced with the challenge of limited system-wide sources of information on student mobility within ontarios pse system. some figures are nonetheless available. according to oncat, more than 55,000 students transfer every year in ontario (oncat, n.d., 11). unfortunately, oncat does not report the proportion of college and university students that this number represents, nor on the direction of movement. in another report, however, it does add that the number of students seeking transfer appears to be growing. with changes to degree requirements for professional practice, the rising caat diploma student interest in pursuing a degree, and the sustained interest of university graduates in college graduate certificate programs, higher education institutions are finding that the transfer market is growing annually (oncat, 2013, 2) a study carried out by durham college found that 28% of newly enrolled college students in ontario in 2014 reported that they had some prior postsecondary experience (durham college, 2016, 32). the majority of these 1 finne, childs, and qiu defined first generation student as those students whose parents did not attend any form of pse (2012, 13). 2 kamanzi et al defined first generation student as a student whose parents do not hold a post-secondary degree (2010, 1). council of educators of toronto - academica group 13 students had previously attempted pse more than once. the college remarks that given the sheer volume of students with prior postsecondary, there is a clear necessity for a provincial level credit transfer framework (durham college, 2016, 33). not all of these students, however, should be considered to be credit transfer students, as some are proceeding to post-diploma or graduate certificate programs, while others opted not to request a transcript in order to apply for recognition of previous learning. in fact, about one in ten (9%) new college students could be considered transfer students in the ontario context, meaning that they have prior postsecondary experience at an ontario public college or university, are not enrolling in a post-diploma program, and requested transcripts, presumably to support their interest in credit transfer (2016, 33). the college points out, however, that a similar proportion (10% of new students) might have been credit transfer students but did not seek to have their prior learning recognized by requesting a transcript raising the question of why this is the case and whether there is potential for many more students to benefit from credit transfer. (unfortunately, there is no similar study available of the proportion of new university students with previous postsecondary experience). additional data is provided by the analyses of student mobility conducted by ross finnie and his colleagues, again using data from the yits. these analyses are helpful in documenting the extent of student mobility in the province, although they cannot pinpoint exactly how many of the mobile students would constitute genuine cases of credit transfer according to the definitions discussed above. referring specifically to ontario, the data show the following: two years after beginning their studies, 13% of college and 16% of university students have switched programs, with about half switching to another program at the same institution, and half switching to another institution (finnie, childs, and qiu, 2012, 4 ff.). at the university level, the proportion of students who switch rises to 19% by the end of the fourth year of study, again with about half of these students switching to a different institution (finnie, childs, and qiu, 2012, 20). among those who graduated from college or university within the tracking period covered by yits, 88.4 per cent of all ontario college graduates and 79.5 per cent of all ontario university graduates receive their diplomas from their first program at their first institution, while the rest graduate from a different program or institution (finnie, childs, and qiu, 2012, 29). note that more complete data is available for canada as a whole, rather than just ontario, due to larger sample size. using the national data, finnie, childs and martinello (2014) report that, five years after having begun their studies at a college, 18% of students had switched programs or institutions without yet graduating, with about half of these switching to a different institution; the figure for those beginning their studies at a university is 23%, again with about half of these switching institutions and not just programs. among those graduating after five years, almost one in five college graduates and one in four university graduates completed a program following a switch of program or institutions. from these different data sources, it seems that credit transfer is relevant to between one in five and one in ten pse students in ontario. according to durham college, about one in ten new college students in ontario signalled a desire to have prior pse experience recognized, although as many as one and five could have benefitted from such recognition. similarly, according to finnie, childs and qiu (2012), between one in five and one in ten pse students in ontario switch programs or institutions within the first few years of starting a program of study. council of educators of toronto - academica group 14 pathways of first generation students access there remains no doubt that first generation students access and complete postsecondary education at a rate which is lower than that of students whose parents have some postsecondary experience (see for example, turcotte, 2011; kamanzi et al., 2010). in the case of ontario, finnie, childs and wismer report that students with no family background of pse attendance have an overall pse participation rate that is 18 percentage points lower than that of students with at least one parent who attended pse (2011, 20). however, while first generation youth in ontario are half as likely as their non-first generation counterparts to attend university, they are more likely to attend college in others, within ontario colleges, first generation students are an overrepresented rather than an under-represented group. thus not having a parental history of pse attendance changes not only how many individuals go on to psebut also the distribution of the kind of schooling they engage in (decreasing university-level schooling and increasing college-level participation) (finnie, childs and wismer, 2011, 23). finnier, childs and wismer emphasize that the effect of parental education on pse participation is enormous, further noting that the effect of being a first-generation pse student is larger than the effects for any of the other under-represented groupsbeing from a non-pse family has a greater effect than being from a low-income family (by far) or a rural area (again by far); the parental education effect is even greater than the effects of being disabled or aboriginal (finnie, childs and wismer, 2011, 23-24). persistence the focus of this literature review is less on the factors that determine initial access to pse and more on the experiences of students, and the pathways they follow, once they begin their first program of study. it is widely assumed, largely due to the influence of the american literature and experience, that first generation students in pse are more at-risk than other students, in terms their ability to successfully complete their studies. as smithies (2015, 58) explains: most post-secondary institutions in canada recognize that first-generation students are at higher academic risk and have implemented a variety of student support programs, and even entire courses, intended to increase both their participation in higher education and their success in achieving a credential. however, most of these programs are based on long-standing american initiatives, largely because there is a robust body of american research on first generation students and far less canadian research. in fact, much of what we think we know in canada about first generation students is actually informed by american data, without full recognition of important differences that may simply be due to the canadian context. in canada, however, it is not necessarily the case that first generation pse students are more at risk an important point to consider when developing and delivering programs designed to assist first generation students. several studies based on data from yits have shown that in canada, the persistence rates of first generation students are generally comparable to those of their non-first generation counterparts, although the exact findings vary somewhat from study to study. at the national level, finnie and qiu (2008) report that parental education has little effect on the odds of a student dropping out of university, though a relationship does exist council of educators of toronto - academica group 15 for college students. using the same data,3 martinello (2008) similarly finds that parents education is unrelated to the chance of a student graduating from their first pse program, although in this case the conclusion holds for both university and college students. he concludes that surprisingly, parents with more education did not appear to help students make better initial decisions about their pse. parents education was not correlated with successful completion of first programs (martinello, 2008, 230, 235). further study by finnie, childs, and qiu (2012), focussing specifically on ontario, confirms this general pattern. in fact, they find that the first program graduation rate is higher for first generation ontario college students than for those with a family history of pse and that first generation pse students are also less likely to switch college programs (finnie, childs, and qiu, 2012, 21). they conclude that first generation college students in ontario do not appear to be an underperforming (or disadvantaged) group: they graduate at higher rates, they are less likely to switch programs and their rates of leaving pse are about the same as for students with no history of psethere is no doubt that such individuals may still face significant problems accessing pse but it would appear that once enrolled, they do at least as well as their nonfirst generation counterparts, at least at the college level (finnie, childs, and qiu, 2012, 20-21). somewhat puzzlingly, however, given finnie and qius earlier (2008) findings, they now report that among university students, first generation pse students have higher leaving rates and lower graduation rates (finnie, childs, and qiu, 2012, 24). in other words, having originally reported that first generation students are less likely to succeed at college but not at university, they now report than these students are less likely to succeed at university but not at college (note that the studies differ both because one focusses on the national picture and the other on ontario, and because they are each based of different cohorts of youth from the yits study). as mentioned earlier, studies based on yits data likely underestimate the challenges faced by first generation students because they exclude older students from consideration, and many of these older students are more likely to be first generation students. kamanzi et al. (2010), for instance, finds that there are twice as many first generation students in the university of quebec system as there are in the national yits sample. moreover, older first generation students (those age 21 and over) are more likely to enroll in shorter undergraduate programs, are proportionally more likely to enroll part-time, are more likely to have been out of school in the year prior to their enrollment, and consider themselves less well-prepared at the beginning of their program than their peers. in addition, their living conditions are also different they are more likely to be balancing work, study, and family responsibilities. for these reasons, it is perhaps not surprising that they find that even though the younger (18-20) fgss rates of graduation are barely distinguishable from those of their peers, the older fgss have a rate of graduation significantly lower than that of their peers (kamanzi et al., 2010, 59). that said, additional studies using data other than yits also find a lack of difference in the success of first generation students once in pse (see, for instance, grayson, 2011). using a longitudinal survey of low-income students from a number of provinces including ontario who received student aid in their first year of study, finnie, childs and wismer (2010) find that first generation students are actually less likely to leave pse in first or second year without graduating; this finding is consistent for college and university student. they conclude that parental education does not appear to be a particularly good marker for determining which students are 3 note however that the two studies discussed here focus on slightly different outcomes, namely dropping out and completing a first program. council of educators of toronto - academica group 16 inclined to leave pse without graduating... among students who access pse, whether students parents attended pse does not make a great difference with regards to pse experiences, in most respects. in other words, being a first generation student does not appear to be a significant marker for encountering problems in pse (2010, 6, 8). similarly, using data from one gta college, smithies (2015) finds that first generation students report behaviours, attitudes and attainments that are very similar to, if not slightly better, than their continuing generation peers, and do not actually appear to be at greater academic risk although she notes that her study focused solely on students entering two-year programs at a large community college in the greater toronto area, and therefore may not apply to students entering smaller colleges in less populated areas, nor to students entering university programs (2015, 146). transfer the data on the persistence of first generation students in ontario is relevant to this report because of its implication for the intersection of first generation students and credit transfer students. if it turns out that first generation students are less likely to encounter problems as they progress through pse, and are more likely to graduate from their first programs and original institutions, then the implication is that they may be less likely to make requests for the recognition of previously earned credits in the context of a significant pathway shift (though this is only one type of credit transfer; students who graduate successfully may also seek out credit transfer should they wish to build on their first credential). the literature, however, points to one very important caveat, which stems from the fact that while first generation students may not on the whole be at a disadvantage in terms of persistence, those who do encounter difficulties may in fact be less successful in managing the continuation of their studies. this issue was originally flagged by martinello. as noted above, martinello (2008) finds that parents education was unrelated to students success in their first program. he finds, however, that for students who stopped their first program, parents education was positively and significantly correlated with the decision to re-enrol in another pse program. in other words, while parents education was not correlated with successful completion of first programsmore parental education was correlated with the probability that students attempted second programs if they did not complete their first. he concludes that parents education appears to be related to students ability to adjust to adversity in their first program by finding and undertaking alternative programs, and that any overall relation between parents education and pse completion occurs via this mechanism (2008, 230; 235). this finding has been emphasized again by martinello, this time writing in conjunction with finnie and childs (finnie, childs and martinello, 2014). together, they draw attention to the fact that, while first generation students are just as likely as other students to graduate from their original program (i.e. to be successful in pse on their first attempt), they are less likely to graduate from any program meaning that those who do not succeed on their first attempt are less likely to find another route to pse success. referring to students who initially enrol in a college program, they write: students of higher income and higher education parents are much more likely to have graduated from a second or later program or institution. any student may find that their first pse program, something that they chose while still in high school, is no longer the best choice for them. it appears that higher parental socioeconomic status (ses) and two parent families make students more willing and able to council of educators of toronto - academica group 17 make adjustments to their pse pathway by leaving their first program and switching to another program or institution. these adjustments or changes in their pathways result in higher total graduation rates. we speculate that higher parental ses and two parent families provide more security and financial support that allows students to make more changes along their pathway to graduation. in addition, two parents and more educated parents may provide more resources and direct advice about the different opportunities for switching available and how to achieve them (finnie, childs and martinello, 2014, 17). similarly, students initially enrolling in a university program are much more likely to graduate after switching from their first pse program if their parents are higher income or higher educated. again, the increased use of switching pathways to graduation may be the result of greater security and support or better knowledge and ability to take advantage of alternative pse pathways (finnie, childs and martinello, 2014, 19). parkin and baldwin (2009, 11) have added to this discussion by connecting it with the concept of resilience. as defined by the canadian career development foundation, resilience refers to the capacity to overcome obstacles, adapt to change, recover from trauma or to survive and thrive despite adversity (canadian career development foundation, 2007, 3). factors contributing to resilience in youth include supportive relationships with adults and parental expectations (canadian career development foundation, 2007, 3-4). students who are more resilient have a better chance of persisting in their studies as they are better able to cope with setbacks, explore alternatives and implement a change of course. the important point here is that resilience is related to family background, placing first generation students at a disadvantage. yet another insight from yits is relevant in this context, which is that, overall, successful completion of pse is positively correlated with multiple program attempts meaning that those who try more than one program are more likely to eventually complete than those who stick with one (shaienks and gluszynski, 2007, 21). again, what this means is that the key to graduation is not necessarily the ability to make the right pse choice the first time around, but rather resilience and the ability to navigate a change of course. the connection to the discussion of first generation students is this: while first generation students may be less likely to request credit transfer because they are less likely to switch programs or institutions, they may be more likely to be missing out on the potential benefits of credit transfer because they do not have the motivation, information, encouragement or self-confidence to explore all of their options. non-first generation students, with their family experiences of pse, are more likely to have the ability to consider and take advantage of the opportunities provided by credit transfer. students who transfer in addition to looking at what the literature on first generation students says about their pathways through pse, it is also helpful to look at what the literature on credit transfer says about the profile of transfer students. as mentioned above, several studies have looked at the credit transfer experience in ontario and have identified practices: usher and jarvey (2013), for instance, identify seven practices or policies that have contributed positively to the credit transfer process and student experiences, while the durham college study concludes with 19 recommendations to improve credit transfer practices in ontario. the focus in this review, however, are those studies of credit transfer in ontario that have investigated which factors correlate with either the intention to transfer or to transferring, and that have asked whether first generation students are more likely than other students to follow a pathway through pse that involves the transfer of credits. council of educators of toronto - academica group 18 the evidence on this question, however, is not clear, and as smith et al. observe, it is an open question as to how this factor [parental education] may impact college-to-university transfer success (2016, 17). their own case study of transfer between seneca college and york university suggests that non-first generation students are more likely to take advantage of the possibility of university-to-college transfer, and suggest that this group of students may be among those who transfer because they may have performed poorly at university for whom university-to-college transfer offers students a second chance at attaining some form of credential (smith et al., 2016, 30; 36). kerr, mccloy, and liu, however, focus on the pathway from college to university, and cite data which they describe as preliminary and limited suggesting that this transfer pathway acts as a mechanism to enhance access to university studies for under-represented groups of students, including first generation students: college students from under-represented groups may indeed be taking advantage of transfer opportunities to pursue further education in university (2010, 12; see also 25). the more recent study from durham college, however, finds that first generation students are not in fact more likely to apply for or receive credit transfer (durham college, 2016, 81, 85). additional evidence is offered by steffler, mccloy and decock (2015; see also 2016), who analyze data from seneca college. they find that college students with university educated parents are more likely to aspire to and to actually transfer to university; in particular, college students whose parents combine low income and university education are most likely to aspire to transfer and to actually transfer to university. their key finding is that students from low income, university educated families are more likely to be using college as an access point to university (steffler, mccloy and decock, 2015; see also steffler, mccloy and decock 2016). this suggests that the situation at a particular institution (or particular combinations of institutions, such as seneca college and york university) may not necessarily match that which holds for the province as a whole. summary three major conclusions emerge from this literature review. the first is that, in canada, the study of both first generation students and transfer students, taken either separately or together, is still relatively underdeveloped. as recently as 2011, grayson asserted that in canada, with a few exceptions, scholars have overlooked the problems of first generation students (2011, 606). similarly, smithies observes that in canada, there is comparatively less research [than in the us] that uses the first generation concept to analyze educational data, especially in relation to retention and persistence (2015, 6). this lack of attention to first generation students combines with a relatively weak data infrastructure at the postsecondary level. researchers regularly observe that ontario currently lacks a formalized data infrastructure with common identifiers to study these [transfer] pathways at a system-wide level (smith et al., 2016, 6), and that if there is one critical item that is lacking in our collective capacity, it is the absence of a means of tracking the experiences, successful or otherwise, of the students who pass through our postsecondary systems (miner, 2011, 35). while this is unfortunate, one implication for the current study is that its focus on first generation students and on the data systems in place at postsecondary institutions is clearly addressing a deficit in the existing literature on postsecondary education in canada. the second conclusion is that the concept of first generation student may not be as relevant to the study of post-access student pathways in canada as it is in the us. while conclusions can vary from study to study, a council of educators of toronto - academica group 19 number of studies have concluded that first generation students are not necessarily less successful at completing their initial programs of study or to wish to or to actually move between programs and institutions. the implication of this finding is clear, in that it suggests that student services (including credit transfer services) that primarily target first generation students may be somewhat misdirected. this conclusion has been advanced most forcefully by finnie, childs and qiu, who write: targeting identifiable groups for interventions aimed at increasing pse retention may not be as effective as other potential strategies for identifying those students who are at greatest risk of dropping out and not completing their studies. in particular, favouring one or two particular types of students (e.g., first generation pse students) would appear to amount to a relatively blunt policy tool, since such a strategy will, in most cases, be targeted at students with persistence rates that are only marginally different from others (if at all) and miss others who are at risk (finnie, childs and qiu, 2012, 49). finnie, childs and qiu propose instead that institutions look at other factors, including membership in other groups or, more simply and probably more effectively, to target interventions at students according to their academic records, going back to high school and within pse, and surveying students regarding their attitudes to their studies and how they feel about being in school and taking other such direct measures of how they are doing (finnie, childs and qiu, 2012, 49). this recommendation aligns with two other points raised in the literature. the first is that in analyses that control not only for family background but also for factors relating to academic achievement the latter often emerge as the more significant predictor of student success. the analyses carried out by smith et al., for instance, makes it clear that academic performance is a chief ingredient in student success for those moving in either direction between college and university (2016, 6). second, the recommendation aligns with those who argue that concepts such as first generation student are too limited because they do not take into account the intersection of overlapping disadvantages. while finnie, childs, and qius recommendation to treat students as individuals rather than as members of groups may not be quite the same as the recommendation to look at the effect of membership in overlapping groups (based on parental education, income, race, and so on), the outcome is similar in that both are arguing for a more refined and flexible approach to supporting students. the third conclusion is that, other findings notwithstanding, there is evidence to suggest that in some cases, pathways opened up by credit transfer systems remain particularly relevant to first generation students. first generation students may currently be less likely to attempt second or third programs should they encounter problems with their first attempt, and may therefore represent a population with a great deal to benefit from better information about credit transfer and improved credit transfer mechanisms. in addition, first generation students may stand to benefit more from particular pathways, or from arrangements between particular institutions who may enrol greater proportions of first generation students, such as seneca college and york university. one implication of this conclusion is that general or system-wide findings may not always apply to particular circumstances be they particular types of first generation students, particular types of transfer pathways, or particular types of institutions. further research in this area should therefore be attentive to the possibilities of these differences. council of educators of toronto - academica group 20 environmental scan to better understand the nature of first generation student support programs currently available on-campus at the ten pse institutions in the gta that are members of the cet, an environmental scan was conducted. the environmental scan involved searching each institutional website for information about first generation student support programs. it is important to note that this scan does not necessarily represent the full range of programs in place at each institution, but only those for which information was publicly available online. nine of the ten institutions had a webpage designed to guide first generation students to available support programs. in eight of the nine institutions, this webpage was also the homepage for a dedicated first generation student program. in one institution, this webpage encouraged first generation students to take advantage of the availability of the student support services that are available for all students. institution name of program humber college first in the family george brown college first generation program centennial college first generation student project collge boral projet premire gnration seneca college [no specific program] ryerson university first generation project ocad-u first generation program york university first generation post-secondary program university of toronto first in the family peer mentor program the programs in place at the eight institutions with dedicated first generation student programs were broadly similar, with one exception. while almost all programs were open to all first generation students (either through voluntary registration or on a drop-in or as needed basis), york universitys program, as described on its website, is offered to incoming students recruited from local high schools. the seven programs open to all first generation students were similar in that they offered a mix of services typically combining information, mentoring and social activities (see appendix 1). the most common program features were: workshops or guest speakers on topics of interest (ranging from academic skills to budgeting); social activities or clubs designed to help students make friends on campus and meet other students with similar backgrounds; advice on available financial assistance (particularly how to apply for first generation student bursaries); one-on-one advising; peer mentoring or study groups; referrals to generally available support services. council of educators of toronto - academica group 21 less common (i.e. available at only a few of the institutions) were orientation week activities, panel discussion with faculty or staff who themselves may have been first generation students, access to online advising tools (e.g. career guidance), and information newsletters. information about credit transfer was not specifically highlighted in any of the cases. the environmental scan did not uncover any research or evaluation reports on the outcomes of these programs. the institutions reports on the implementation of their multi-year accountability agreements, however, typically include a description of the programs and a statement regarding their perceived success. while these reports often mention increased participation in the programs and high levels of satisfaction among participants, none provide information on outcomes (e.g. persistence or graduation rates for first generation students compared with other students). while all the programs are listed as currently active, in two cases web links to further information were broken, suggesting that students at these institutions might not always be able to easily access the services. in one case, a link to an online resource to support first generation students led to a us website, with student testimonials that, while encouraging, may not be directly relevant to students in the gta. research method primary qualitative data from institutional staff and students was collected for this research study. the first component was carried out through roundtable discussions with staff from cet member institutions on the subject of institutional data collection, sharing and analysis practices regarding inter-institutional transfer and student mobility with a focus on implications for first generation students. the staff members participating in the roundtables included those with responsibilities in areas related to: first generation student programs and advising; student success, access and outreach; financial aid; credit transfer policy and advising; and institutional data and research. a total of 45 staff members participated at nine institutions, including three universities and six colleges (see table 1). the discussions were conducted in person, with the exception of those conducted with staff members from collge boral and la cit; since the administrative offices of these two colleges are located outside of the greater toronto area, the discussions took place by phone. the discussions were between 60 and 90 minutes in length, and were framed by a discussion guide that was circulated to participants in advance. table 1: participation in roundtable discussions with institutional staff institution date york november 23, 2016 toronto december 15, 2016 ryerson december 16, 2016 la cit december 20, 2016 george brown january 10, 2017 seneca january 12, 2017 humber january 24, 2017 boral january 25, 2017 centennial february 1, 2017 total: council of educators of toronto - academica group number of participants 7 2 4 3 4 7 6 1 11 45 22 the student component of the data collection was carried out through a series of six focus groups, with a total of 26 postsecondary students currently enrolled in a college or university in the gta who were either first generation students, transfer students, or both (see table 2). the focus groups took place on campuses within the gta. students were recruited through academica groups studentvu panel. a screener survey was sent to panelists living in the gta to determine eligibility to participate in an in-person focus group. to be eligible, students had to be a first generation student or a transfer student, and be attending one of the cet member institutions. all eligible participants who responded that they were interested in participating in an in-person focus group were invited to attend one of the focus group sessions. table 2: participation in student focus groups type of student transfer students first generation students first generation students who had transferred transfer students first generation students and transfer students first generation students and transfer students date february 16, 2017 february 16, 2017 february 17, 2017 february 17, 2017 february 24, 2017 february 24, 2017 total: number of participants 2 4 3 3 7 7 26 the discussions were between 75 and 90 minutes in length, and were framed by a discussion guide (although the guide was not provided to participants in advance). the students discussed a wide range of issues relating to their postsecondary experiences. this report will focus on their perspectives as they relate specifically to their experiences as first generation students, and to their experiences transferring between programs and institutions. the students experiences were varied and are not easily summarized; accordingly, the material presented below seeks to illustrate the range of views that were expressed. in reviewing this information, it is important to recall that the participants in the focus groups are not intended to be representative of the student body in general or of particular subgroups of students. rather, the information they provide offers specific, real-world examples that can inform the other components of the research undertaken for this project. council of educators of toronto - academica group 23 staff discussion group findings the information collected during the discussions can be grouped under five main themes, as follows: a. b. c. d. e. identifying first generation students identifying and tracking transfer students evolution in first generation student programs and advising evolution in advising services for transfer students the intersection of first generation and transfer students the key points relating to each of these themes is reported below. in each case, a brief summary of what was heard is provided, following by a series of more detailed key findings. this is then followed by a recommendation. the recommendations were not collected from the participants during the roundtables; rather, they are put forward by the consultant based on our consideration of the information collected. identifying first generation students while all institutions work with the ministry definition of a first generation student, multiple methods are used to identify and count first generation students. these methods, however, are not cross-referenced with one another nor is the information that is collected through each integrated into a single database. institutions therefore do not have access to a single, comprehensive, or definitive count of the number of first generation students on campus or means of identifying or contacting them. institutions tend to use different methods for different purposes: for instance, one method may be used to provide data for reports to the government on the number of first generation students enrolled in the institutions, while another may be used to identify and reach out to students who may benefit from first generation programs or services. key findings: students have the opportunity to identify themselves as first generation students when they apply to an ontario college or university through ocas or ouac. data from ocas and ouac are thus the most common source that institutions use to establish the number of first generation students on campus. however, most institutions consider this information to be unreliable, either because many students choose not to answer the question on the application form, or because many misunderstand the question. in some cases, misunderstanding results from the fact that students born outside of canada were told that they were first generation immigrants during their time in ontarios k-12 education system. thus, as one participant explained, the questions asked through ocas certainly lead to many false positives and false negatives. for this reason, most institutions rely on data they collect themselves in order to identify first generation students who might benefit from support programs and services. institutions use a variety of their own approaches to identify first generation students. some use entrance or intake surveys, some use student satisfaction surveys designed to inform reporting on key performance indicators, and some use face-to-face interviews either at orientation activities, or when students inquire about available programs and services. information from these different sources is rarely cross-checked or merged with that from other sources, and at no institution is a single master file with information from council of educators of toronto - academica group 24 all sources created. in some cases, the information collected through a survey can only be used for the purpose for which that survey was administered, and cannot be shared in order to support outreach to first generation students for other purposes (such as making them aware of other programs or services available to them on campus). data generally is not used to measure the impact of programs and services provided to first generation students. the most common measure of program impact is client satisfaction surveys, where students who use a particular service are asked if they found it helpful and would recommend it to others. results from these surveys tend to be very positive. only rarely do institutions track the subsequent academic performance of first generation students who make use of support programs. most institutions report that the resources and infrastructure are not available to permit this use of institutional data. there are mixed views as to the extent to which students appreciate being identified as first generation students. some participants mentioned that being acknowledged as the first in their family to undertake pse can be a source of pride for some students. others felt that students wish to avoid being labelled or identified as different or at risk. many also felt that the term first generation student has little resonance for students: it is a term used by researchers or policy makers and not one that is part of a students own sense of self. it is a label that is not natural, in the sense that it is a concept that is a little theoretical. identifying and tracking transfer students institutions are able to identify students who have previously undertaken postsecondary education at another institution, but only if the student chooses to declare this previous experience on their application form. the onus therefore rests with the student: there is no system-wide data system to which institutions have access that can automatically report on a students complete postsecondary pathway. in addition, institutions do not have access to any information on the postsecondary experience of students who transfer out of the institution. this speaks to the limitations of the ontario education number (oen), which to date has not been implemented in a way that facilitates institutional planning or the design and delivery of student services. key findings: institutions are able to identify students who have previously undertaken postsecondary education at another institution, as long as the student chooses to declare this previous experience on their application form. however, many students choose not to do so, either because they think a poor start in pse may count against them, or because they are not aware of the potential advantages of making their previous pse experience known to their current institution. more specifically, not all students realize that having previously earned credits recognized could benefit them in their current program of study. a number of institutions are working to raise the profile of these opportunities in order to encourage more students to seek advice on credit transfer. institutions not only have an interest in knowing more about students previous pse experience, they also wish to know more about the pse pathways of students after they leave the institution. unfortunately, institutions do not have access to any information on the postsecondary experiences of outbound students beyond the limited information available from graduate surveys. in the case of colleges, this limits their council of educators of toronto - academica group 25 ability to assess how well they are preparing students for pse pathways that lead them to a university program. one college-based participant explained: we know anecdotally that students are using some programs to get a foot in the door, and then are transferring to another programto be able to see that, in fact, students move around all the time, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, would be wonderful -- to be able to track that both in and out. in the case of universities, this prevents them from understanding more about how their graduates use college diplomas to complement their university degrees. one universitybased participant explained: we really are in the dark around how our graduates or non-graduates or transfer students are faring once they get to the colleges. why are they transferring in? what was different about the experience when they got there? why was it a better fit? all of those questions, it's really impossible to know. to me that's a huge gap. the ability of institutions to understand and respond to students pse pathways including pse experiences before and after registering at their current institution is hampered by institutions limited access to data derived from the ontario education number (oen) to date. the purpose of a universal education number is precisely to facilitate the tracking of students as they move through the education system. at the moment, however, the data derived from the oen is not shared with institutions. as one participant explained, were feeding information to the ministry; it would be great if they were feeding that data back. another participant expressed the concern that in fact what ultimately is released is so sanitised that it's disconnected and can't really be used. participants are supportive of the oen project in theory, but in practice many appeared to have lost confidence that the data will ever be made available to institutions seeking to improve the way they support student mobility. as one participant emphasized, without this longitudinal or tracking data, it will be impossible to answer key policy questions: in the end, it [tracking] should be from secondary school, to college, to university and into the labour market. really, if we want to be serious about this issue, for first generation students too, this is what we should do. and then we could see whether there is a cause and effect. evolution in first generation student programs and advising a number of institutions are evolving their approach to first generation students, by gradually folding programs for first generation students into broader programs aimed at any student who might benefit from additional support or guidance. this is based on a recognition that many students, whether first generation or not, stand to benefit from programs that may originally have been designed with first generation students in mind, such as peer mentoring programs. this broadening of focus allows institutions to adopt a wide net approach to outreach in which it matters less and less whether they can accurately identify whether a student is a first generation student or not as long as all students are made aware of the supports that are available, the label attached to the student makes little difference. key findings: institutions maintain that it is important to be aware of the particular circumstances and distinct needs of first generation students. that said, for most institutions, the category of first generation student was not seen as necessarily the most important one to consider when developing and delivering institutional support services to help students transition into and feel welcome at colleges and universities. on the one hand, the category of first generation student is too narrow. many students, regardless of whether they are first generation students or not, may need academic, peer or financial support, council of educators of toronto - academica group 26 particularly students from lower-income families or students who are first or second generation immigrants. participants maintain that these students stand to benefit from the same type of advising and services as first generation students: what we're finding, quite honestly, is that the services and supports that we provide to first generation students are supports that all students could benefit from. for this reason, institutions are broadening their approach, reaching out to as many students as possible and not just to first generation students. in the case of two institutions, this means that they now no longer offer programs specifically for first generation students; instead, they seek to include first generation students along with all other students in their orientation and student support initiatives. in the case of other institutions, it means that first generation students are offered the same services as other students, though they may still be grouped together (e.g. all students may be offered peer mentoring, but first generation students may be purposely matched to a mentor who is also a first generation student, in recognition that first generation students may have distinct needs), or the institutions may still use the category of first generation student as a means of getting students attention and generating interest in the services offered. in either case, it means the issue of identifying who is a first generation student is not of paramount importance, since students who are not identified or who are misidentified can still be caught in the wider-net offer of services. on the other hand, the category of first generation student is in some ways too broad. some institutions spoke of the importance of a finer-grained approached, that recognizes the distinct needs that some students may have because of more specific characteristics. as one participant explained: the focus [has] moved away from first gen in particular because it was a very broad descriptor that, given the population of the college, wasn't as helpful in getting students to services or highlighting services as focusing on other attributes or characteristics, such as indigenous, such as youth from certain neighbourhoods, such as mature learners without high school, such as women with a focus towards non-traditional careers, or women living in poverty as sole support parents and no education, or newcomers. to illustrate this point, staff at one institution were asked what would change in their provision of services to students if they were suddenly prevented from using the term first generation student in outreach or service delivery. the answer was that nothing would change: the institution is already focused both on casting a wide net, to reach any student requiring support, and simultaneously on a finer grained approach, which zeroes in on the distinct needs of particular student subgroups. this is not to say that this institution is not interested in or attentive to the needs of first generation students. it is simply to say that it was not felt that a singular focus on the category of first generation student was needed in order to reach those students who, by virtue of their family background, may need more assistance to transition into and through pse. evolution in advising services for transfer students a number of institutions, primarily the colleges, are evolving their approach to advising students transferring between institutions, notably by adopting an approach that is both more proactive and more integrated. this new approach is designed to support the development of a transfer culture in which the institution understands itself less as the singular destination for each student and more as a stop on a continuum of learning that begins before and ends after the students current program of study. council of educators of toronto - academica group 27 key findings: generally speaking, advising for students interested in transferring between institutions has been reactive and decentralized. it has been reactive in the sense that the onus has been on the student to seek information and advice. for instance, incoming students may gain recognition for previous credits earned, but only if they declare their previous pse experience and take the initiative to make a request. in the case of outbound students, sending institutions traditionally have not seen it as their responsibility to advise them; it has been up to the student to seek information from the receiving institution. advising has also been decentralized, in that in many cases the source of information for students were academic advisors linked to their programs of study. by virtue of their positions within specific programs and not with the institutions central administration, these advisors were not well positioned to link their advising with other services offered by the institutions, such as career counselling or student success initiatives. to illustrate, one participant described the situation as follows: transfer credit is a student-driven processstudents actually have to drive that process. they have to self-identify, and say i think that i have some credits that i could get -- and a lot of students don't know that. we actually did our own survey last winter and that was one of the biggest things that came out, was that students were just not aware that they were eligible to apply for transfer credit because again, they don't identify themselves as transfer students. we as an institution don't necessarily identify them as transfer students. we don't have that kind of transfer culture. some institutions, particularly colleges, are in the process of replacing this approach with a more proactive and integrated one. it is proactive in the sense that it involves more purposeful outreach to students to make them aware of the opportunities both for the recognition for previously earned credits and for outbound transfer to other institutions. it is integrated in the sense that it is delivered centrally through the main office of student services and therefore linked to other student support programs. thus students who may seek academic support or career counselling may also receive information related to transfer opportunities. in the case of one college, this new approach took the form of a new advising model introduced in 2016. a participant described the model as follows: we're working on advising institutionally to provide more consistent approaches to advising across the whole college. instead of [there] being a whole bunch of different doors, there's one door for students to walk in, or whichever door they walk in it's the same experiencewe thought that these two things need to go together, because you can't have an advisor advising on all matters academic, and [then] have them sectioned off [with another advisor] being able to have their prior learning recognized or being able to see where they can take for credit in the future to go to other institutions or to apply their credit somewhere else. those two functions merged into this new advising model that we've just rolled out in september of 2016. similarly, at another college, participants spoke about their work in building a transfer culture, described as follows: we're trying to send the message both from the academic side and the student side that you are a special population and that we're here to answer your questions and service your needs. i've actually outreached to student services to start building programming so it doesn't just stop in the registrar's office, so that it's continuing on into student services. a colleague added: this transfer culture is starting to percolate within this institution it's all about developing pathways, using [institution name] as a conduit to other things beyond. council of educators of toronto - academica group 28 it should be noted that this type of approach requires considerable investment of time and resources on the part of the institution, including investment in training of staff in different service units to ensure that they are able to deliver their services in the context of the more integrated approach and connect students to other relevant sources of information and advice. finally, a more proactive approach to advising transfer students may be helpful because it is currently not clear whether and how transfer students are welcomed into the receiving institutions. while institutions typically have a well-defined approach to welcoming first-year students (in terms of orientation outreach and activities, designed in part to familiarize new students with the range of services available to them), staff at many institutions were unsure as to whether transfer students were included in these events or not. in a number of cases, it was assumed that transfer students could opt into orientations activities should they choose to do so; in other cases, staff believed that individual academic programs would offer some orientation services to students joining them after the first year. in general, however, the lack of clarity on this issue points to a potential gap, wherein transfer students including transfer students who are first generation students may not get picked up in the institutions welcome and outreach efforts that promote the availability of advising and student support services on campus. the intersection of first generation and transfer students services for first generation students and transfers students are currently conceived of and delivered separately, and the implications for student advising and support of possible intersections between the two groups of students have yet to be explored. there is a recognition that first generation students might be more mobile (in terms of demand for inter-institutional transfer) and may be more likely to benefit from the opening up of new transfer opportunities (pathways). that said, institutions are likely to focus more on broadening their outreach to as many students as possible, rather than on narrowing their focus to particular subgroups. key findings: to date, institutions have not explored in any depth the potential intersection between first generation students and transfer students and the possible implications of such an intersection for student advising and support. information about the two groups of students do not tend to be cross-referenced, and programs for the two groups tend to be designed and delivered independently of one another. first generation students are currently not a particular focus of advising for programs that support student mobility. in the case of one institution, for instance, if were talking about our articulation agreements, in the case of this group of students [first generation students], there is nothing special that is done. it is recognized however that first generation students may be more likely than other students to be in need of assistance with inter-institutional transfer. this could be because these students are more likely to encounter initial problems with program fit, and therefore may need to switch programs or institutions. it could also be because these students are more likely to find their way to degree programs via diploma programs, that is, to use diploma programs as a lower-risk entry point into pse that can be built on as they gain experience and confidence. this recognition, however, has not explicitly shaped the design or delivery of student advising or support services. there is also a recognition that while the development of more and more opportunities for students to transfer between programs and institutions opens up more pathways into and through pse that can facilitate access for students from under-represented groups, it also results in a pse system that is more council of educators of toronto - academica group 29 complex and potentially confusing. the more flexible the system, the more difficult it can be to navigate, particularly for those with less information, experience, and efficacy. there is a risk, therefore, that efforts to make the system more accessible can paradoxically make it one that favours those from more advantaged backgrounds who have more social capital and more family history with the inner workings of the pse system. for this reason, participants in the discussion readily conceded that the intersection of first generation students and student mobility could be an interesting one to explore in the future. at the same time, participants asserted that most students, and not only first generation students, have poor information about transfer opportunities and procedures. in the first instance, this is simply a truism that applies across the student body as a whole. one participant explained: from what i've seen, i think that the majority of students don't know that this [transferability] existsi don't necessarily think it's top of mind for many students. i don't necessarily think that first generation students are at any more of a disadvantage than the other 50 percent of the class in there. i think they stumble across itin general, i don't think that first gen has any less [information]. i think all students need more information. additionally, the ontario pse system has changed so extensively in a generation that parents knowledge of the system is not necessarily relevant for students today. more generally, a number of participants remarked that the students who find the system easier to navigate, or who are more aware of and interested in taking advantage of innovative pathways, are those who are more future-oriented in their thinking and this is dependent on a variety of factors that do not reduce easily to family background or parents educational attainment. for these reasons, institutions are likely to focus on broadening their outreach around transfer so as to reach many students as possible, rather than to narrow their focus to particular subgroups. this broader focus in consistent with the evolution in both first generation student programs and advising and in advising services for transfer students, described above. student focus group findings first generation students collection of information about parents education most of the students participating in the focus groups had only a vague recollection of times when they were asked to provide information on their parents education. they were most likely to recall being asked to provide this information on their ontario student assistance program (osap) application forms. many also recall being asked to provide this information through their online college or university applications. some students recall being asked about their parents education on institutional surveys. no students recall being asked this question in person by a staff member (e.g. by an academic advisor or student services provider). several students who participated in the focus groups did not know whether or not their parents had attended pse, illustrating the challenge of collecting accurate information through student surveys. council of educators of toronto - academica group 30 definition of first generation student there is a great deal of confusion about the meaning of the term first generation student in particular, students are unsure as to whether it refers to their parents education or country of origin (or to both). most students, when asked, say that they know what the term means, but as they speak about it, their confusion becomes apparent. this is best illustrated by the response of one student, who gave the following definition: the first in your family that goes to postsecondary[pause]in canada[pause]i think. asked to explain why she added in canada, this student said: my parents didnt go to school in canada, so thats how it is in my mind. another first generation student noted that he had originally misunderstood the definition when filling out his osap form, until someone else corrected him: i put no to begin with but then i asked somebody and they said no, that means parents education not origin. it is apparent that in a region such as the gta, where a significant proportion of students are first or second generation immigrants, confusion between the concept of first generation student and first generation immigrant is inevitable. the label of first generation student students whose parents did not attend pse do not think of themselves, unprompted, as first generation students: it is not part of how they naturally identify themselves. as students consider the label, their reactions range widely from positive, to neutral, to negative, as illustrated by these comments from focus group participants: i see it as a good thing. youre the first one in your family to get the education. im pretty proud of that. it makes me feel pretty good. my parents are proud of me. its a good thingyoure reaching high expectations from your parents. it feels nice, but it doesnt really make a difference. i am pretty neutral about it. its just not something i think about. im indifferent about it, really. i am proud of it, but it also does make me feel singled out a little bit. it depends on the context: what is your intention? what are you getting at?...are you just trying to put me on this side of the table or are you trying to put me at the same table as everybody else? sometimes people call you things to put you into a certain group, and they have other assumptions behind that as well that i dont like. interest in and use of programs for first generation students participating students were not very aware of the existence of specific support programs for first generation students. an exception is their awareness of the existence of bursaries for first generation students. this is not necessarily because the students had applied for or received these type of bursaries; in some cases, students merely assumed that if they were asked about their parents education on their osap applications, it was because there was some kind of bursary or scholarship related to it, though they did not know how to access these funds themselves. beyond financial assistance, very few students could say whether or not their institution offered specific support services for first generation students. only one student said she had seen that a program was available council of educators of toronto - academica group 31 and had signed up to find out more, though in the end she did not take up the offer of support as she felt she did not need it. when asked if they would be interested in participating in such a program, some first generation students said they might be curious to find out what was being offered, but at the same time were doubtful that they would participate. as one student said, im too preoccupied with schooli dont really have time for those sort of things. similarly, another said: i would be curious but it depends on timing. another student said that it is not clear what the incentive would be to take time out of his schedule to participate in such a program. the confusion around the meaning of the term first generation student is also a barrier to participation. some students said that if they saw an offer of support services for first generation students, they would assume it was a program for international students or for students who are new to canada. i would assume that if people are first generation [students], their parents probably came from another country. transfer students types of student mobility students stories relating to their trajectory through pse and their reasons for changing course are very individualized in a sense, no two students experiences are the same. that said, the transfer experiences of the focus group participants can be grouped into two types. the first is a progression, where a student builds on experience gained to move to a more demanding program. this is typified by the transition from a diploma to a degree program within the same field of study. the second type is an adjustment, where a student changes course because their original plan is not working to their satisfaction. progressions can be planned or unplanned that is, some students may have always intended to transfer from a diploma to a degree program, while others may only have discovered the option of transferring after having started their diploma program. adjustments, however, are always unplanned. the main difference among students whose transfer is a form of adjustment is the extent of the disruption. for some students, it is a question of finding their way progressively to a program that is a better fit. for other students, it is a question of withdrawing from pse unexpectedly and rethinking their options before returning. further examples of the different types of transfer follow. progression: diploma to degree one of the most common forms of transfer among focus group participants was the progression from a diploma to a degree program within the same field of study. some students in this group expected to make this change within the same institution, whereas others expected to move from a college to a university. some students were aware when entering the diploma program that transfer to a degree program was an option, whereas others only became aware after they started. those students who only became aware after starting their diploma program said that the faculty and staff associated with their programs have done a good job of informing them about the option of transfer into a degree program (in other words, the onus was not on these students to search for the information themselves; they were made aware of the transfer options by their teachers or advisors). regardless of whether or not these students were aware of the transfer option form the outset, they all spoke of college as providing a lower-risk entry point for them into pse, one that they could build on once they had council of educators of toronto - academica group 32 proven (namely to themselves) that they could be successful. as one student explained, i went into it knowing [about the option to transfer to a degree program]i wanted to know if it was something i wanted to pursue beyond just a diploma; thats why i went to a college rather than a university. i knew that eventually if i did like it i would go to pursue a degreeso it was more like a testing ground. similarly, another student who had seen many of his friends struggle with and drop out of pse, said: i was aware there are degree possibilities after this. i wanted to start off just with college firstand slowly go up the ladder to university. another student, who was not initially aware that his diploma program might lead to a degree, said that when he started pse he doubted he would ever go to university. but after he was made aware of the option to transfer, he thought: you know what? ill do it. ill go for it. why not? he explained: i had to get into the program and go through a bit of it and sort of get my feet wet before i decided that i was going to continue on to the university level. adjustment: program choice as mentioned, transfers that stem from the need to adjust vary in scale. experiences among the students participating in the focus groups varied from students who were looking for a better program fit, to students who did not enjoy being away from home and chose to move back to the gta to continue their studies, to students who encountered health problems that required a change of intended career, to students whose first attempt at pse was unsuccessful, requiring them to withdraw before returning for a second attempt. what all these students have in common is that they needed to develop a plan b transferring was not part of their original plan for their pse journey. in this context, transferring can be stressful both because it represents an unexpected change of course, and because it can be perceived as a sign of failure on the part of the student. a number of students spoke of their concerns about disappointing their parents, about falling behind their peers who are not switching, and about having wasted time and money on their first program. as one student explained, some people might feel like theres a social stigma behind it, because if you keep changing, some people might judge you as wishy washy even family; and that probably makes them uncomfortable. another said: it was very emotional for me, switching, because i was so worried about my peers being ahead of me and then my mom, i was going to disappoint her. comments such as this suggest that mobility between programs and institutions outside the context of a progressive move from a diploma to a degree has not yet been normalized, in the sense that it is perceived as a setback or as a suboptimal outcome. (there was at least one exception to this rule, however one student commented that she simply switched from one program and institution to a more preferable one, without it being a big deal.) that said, the students who had transferred also emphasized that it was important for students to pursue for the best program and institutional fit, rather than feel that they had to stick with their first choice. these students observed that it was unfortunate that so many students feel pressure to stick with their programs to avoid disappointing their parents or because they feel it would be a waste of time or money to switch. when asked what advice she wished someone had given her before starting pse, one student said that she wished someone had told her its ok to change programs. its not the end of the world. its not that big of a deal if you want to switch programs. another student echoed this when asked what advice she would give a student entering pse. she said that she would tell them to make the right call for themselves, but that the right call can changeand thats ok. adjustment: work-related experience council of educators of toronto - academica group 33 there is another form of transfer that is less about matching programs and institutions with student interests and more about meeting the requirements of the labour market. in these cases, students realize toward the end of their first program that they may not necessarily have what employers are looking for they therefore need to adjust their plans by pursuing additional pse credentials. this form of mobility is typified by university students enrolling in college programs after completing their degrees. from the perspective of colleges, this type of transfer might be seen as a progression and not as an adjustment in that it is a progressive step from a more theoretical program to a more practical or applied one. from the perspective of the students participating in the focus groups, however, this type of transfer is seen as an adjustment because it is clearly a plan b that they are undertaking only once they realized that they their first plan to go directly into the labour market upon graduating university is unlikely to work out. as one student explained: by the end of the program i was having some trouble finding work everyone just kept suggesting that i go do this program at [college] because it came with co-opit was never my plan to go to college until three weeks before i graduated university. a number of students agreed that this form of transfer is becoming more common. according to one student, a lot of my friends [at college] have degrees, like me, prior to going to [college], which is weird considering you dont need a degree to get into my programbut more than a third of us have degrees or some sort of university education before coming inpeople like us are just uncertain about what their job prospects are with just one thing, so they like doing both [college and university]a lot of my friends from university went to college afterwards. its becoming a lot more common to do both. credit transfer experience the experience of the focus group participants with navigating the transfer process and with gaining recognition for previously earned credits varied widely. at one end of the spectrum, students moving from a diploma to a degree program within the context of an articulation agreement find the transfer process to be clear and straightforward. for instance, once student found the process to be simple, convenient and easy. he elaborated: im happy that i am not going to be starting near the start its all very clearly laid out on the website nowthey lay it all out for you now. before you had to search around to figure it out. its a simple transition [now] [a] one sheet form, because they know everything about you already. other students who were making a more ad hoc transfer did not encounter any major problems, although in some cases the students found they had to navigate the process themselves without much help from the institution. here are some examples of this type of credit transfer experience: i didnt ask [for credits to be transferred] but they gave it to me thats the one things that [institution] has done for mei was hopeful, but because its college to university i wasnt sure it was going to happen with any of them, but i actually got about half of the kinesiology program transferred. council of educators of toronto - academica group 34 [sending institution] did nothing to help; they were the opposite of helpful4but at [gta receiving institution] they said no problem, well take all your credits. they even took my ap credits from high school. it was a very quick process. i literally walked to the registrars office, they looked at my transcripts, and they gave me the credits -- it took ten minutes. we have three elective courses we have to take, and to alleviate the course load i transferred over three creditsit was fairly easy -- theres forms right outside in the hallway: you pick one up, you fill it out, you drop it off and a couple weeks later you can get courses transferred. i had to do it on my own. they didnt really ask if i had anything. i had to go and say wait, i did do some electives, i think those apply. some students, however, had more frustrating experiences, particularly in being required to submit multiple copies of transcripts multiple times to different offices, in getting different or inconsistent answers from different advisors, and in not being satisfied with the reasons for why certain credits were not granted. experiences of this type were described by one student as incredibly annoying this student found it quite irritating that she had to repeat a course simply because her receiving institution was not aware of the curriculum taught at her sending institution. she stated: im quite upset about thatbecause its setting me back quite a bit and i dont understand why. she also said that other students considering transfer should be encouraged to do so if that is the right move for them, but at the same time they should be warned that its going to take up months of your time. some students encountered even more difficulties and were less successful. one student commented on her experience moving to a college after completing a university degree. i dont like how [college] does transfer systems. you have to fill out this form to apply. it costs $25 per credit. its not guaranteed. you dont get a refund if you dont get it. and id still have to pay for the full course load [even if some credits were transferred]so i said forget it. i didnt end up transferring anythingi was just so annoyed with the whole process that i just gave up. another student switching colleges within the gta was not able to secure copies of his course outlines to be assessed by his receiving institution. this student said: i wish that those two colleges would have had some kind of agreement or something to make it easier to transfer those kind of credits. another student assumed there was a time limit and he felt he knew there would be no point requesting credit recognition because his earlier credits were earned several years ago. another issue that arose in the discussion of the transfer process was problems in maintaining eligibility for osap. at least one student who transferred following an unsuccessful first pse attempt reported that their student assistance was suspended due to their poor academic standing (it is possible that the students osap was suspended once they withdrew from their first institution, even though the student intended to re-enrol at a second institution the following term). they therefore had to begin their studies at their receiving institution without support from osap. other students said they had had concerns about losing their osap eligibility during the transfer process; while this didnt necessarily happen, they said they found it difficult to get clear answers from institutional staff on this issue. 4 this first institution the sending institution in this case -- is not in the gta. council of educators of toronto - academica group 35 many students were unhappy about having to pay fees to secure the transfer of their transcripts from one institution to another, and the time it took for the transcripts to be sent. students reported having to pay the fee several times and having to send the transcripts to several different places (i.e. to different offices in the receiving institution). this process appeared cumbersome and out of place in an era students are used to receiving their marks themselves quickly and on their smart phones. only two students reported using ontransfer.ca to research options regarding credit transfer between institutions. one student reported that the website was helpful up to a point, but that in some cases it could not establish an equivalency between courses. the intersection of first generation students and transfer students the focus groups cannot be used to establish whether or not first generation students are more or less likely to transfer between programs or institutions. that said, based on the information gathered in the focus groups, two general observations about the intersection between the two groups of students can be made. first, the experience of some participants confirms that the diploma to degree transfer pathway is particularly appealing to students who are initially less confident in their ability to succeed in pse. as noted above, students taking advantage of this pathway who in these focus groups were also first generation students spoke of using college as a testing ground that enables them to proceed to a degree program after they had demonstrated (to themselves, as much to as anyone else) that they could be successful. second, outside of the parameters of an articulated program, within which the transfer process is clear, students who transfer and seek recognition for credits previously earned often feel they have to navigate the process on their own, without much guidance from the sending or receiving institution and in some cases, against the resistance of unhelpful institutions. in this context, the outcome depends at least in some part on the students own sense of efficacy and determination. while this study cannot demonstrate a definitive correlation between transfer outcomes and parental education, the conversations with students tend to support the assumption that some first generation students might be at a disadvantage in this regard. that said, there is clearly no neat divide between first generation students and other students when it comes to issues relating to mobility and credit transfer. many students and not just first generation students encounter the need to make unexpected adjustments in their pse trajectories, and many students and again, not just first generation students lack information, guidance or assistance when it comes to completing their transfers. recommendations based on the staff discussion group findings, five key recommendations are put forward: 1. first generation students should be identified at their first point of entry into ontarios education system, which for most students would be upon registration for early childhood education or for primary or secondary school. the identification would be derived from the information parents provide about their own educational attainment as part of the registration process for their children. the council of educators of toronto - academica group 36 2. 3. 4. 5. designation of a student as a first generation student would then be part of the students record that would follow the student into pse by virtue of the ontario education number (oen). this approach would avoid the many problems associated with using a variety of methods to ask pse students to selfidentify. the restricted access to data derived from the oen represents a missed opportunity to enable institutions to better understand and serve their students, particularly students who transfer between institutions. for the oen to live up to its promise, the government of ontario should ensure that the data be made accessible to institutional researchers, policy makers, and programs administrators, and provide a firm deadline for doing so. the evolution of approach in outreach and service provision for first generation students should be encouraged, as it reflects the lessons learned through experience at each institution. the government of ontario should ensure that institutions have the greatest degree of flexibility possible in how to allocate the funding they receive to support first generation students, to ensure that this funding can be used to support approaches that the institutions believe are most likely to reach students most in need of support in transitioning into and through postsecondary education. emerging approaches to advising students on mobility in and out of their current institution that are both proactive and more integrated with other services at the institution should be considered promising practices within the sector. institutions that are not yet moving in this direction should seek opportunities to learn from the experiences of those that are. in particular, universities should seek to learn from the experiences of colleges, particularly in regard to taking on more responsibilities in the area of advising students on the opportunities for outbound transfer. it is difficult to develop a better understanding of the needs, experiences and outcomes of first generation students as they pertain to mobility in the absence of comprehensive, system-wide data that allows institutions to develop a full picture of the educational pathways of students into and out of their current institution. further progress in understanding the intersection between first generation students and transfer students can be made once data systems are strengthened as per the first two recommendations advanced above. the findings from the focus group component of the research are consistent with the recommendations stemming from the interviews with institutional staff. specifically: 1. given the low resonance and degree of confusion associated with the term first generation student, it appears that the broadening of focus or wide net approach in outreach and support to students reported by some gta institutions is appropriate. while some students feel pride in being identified as first generation students, and while first generation students may have distinct needs and experiences, students themselves are not looking for services linked to that designation; more than that, many students are likely to misunderstand the intention behind programs targeted to first generation students, seeing them as programs aiming to assist new arrivals to adjust to life in canada. a wider net approach is more likely to reach the type of students who participated in the focus groups for this project. 2. outside the context of articulated programs, and notwithstanding the positive experiences that some students had in gaining recognition for credits previously earned, many transfer students found they had to navigate the transfer process without much assistance from the institution. perhaps more importantly, students making transfers that can be characterized as adjustments felt that friends and council of educators of toronto - academica group 37 families often view switching as a suboptimal outcome. for this reason, the more proactive and integrated approach to advising students about transfer, reported by some gta institutions, is likely to be helpful. in the first instance, it should result in an improved transfer process for students. additionally, it may help to normalize or to reduce the social stigma associated with switching. in short, the findings of the focus groups serve to validate the evolution in both first generation student programs and in advising for transfer students described in this report. finally, a link can be made between the findings of the focus groups and the conclusions of the literature review conducted for this study. the literature review suggested that the lens of first generation student may not always be the best one to employ when thinking about the factors that affect pse pathways in the canadian context, and that student services (including credit transfer services) that primarily target first generation students may be somewhat misdirected. in the same vein, the focus groups suggested both that any student regardless of family background can find themselves in need of support in switching programs or institutions, and that programs targeted narrowly to first generation students may not be successful in reaching their intended clients. at the same time, the literature highlighted the fact that, in some cases, pathways opened up by credit transfer systems remain particularly relevant to first generation students. this is confirmed by the experiences of the focus group participants taking advantage of the diploma-to-degree pathway, who say this option is a lower-risk entry point into pse that they can build upon as they gain experience and self-confidence. thus, the first generation student lens remains relevant to credit transfer, but the ways in which it informs student support services is rightfully being rethought. council of educators of toronto - academica group 38 bibliography auclair, rmy, et al. 2008. first-generation students: a promising concept? transitions research paper no. 2. montreal: canada millennium scholarship foundation, 2008. canadian career development foundation. 2007. applying the construct of resilience to career development: lessons from curriculum development. montreal: canada millennium scholarship foundation. decock, henry, ursula mccloy and mitchell steffler. n.d. the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of the graduate satisfaction survey since 2006-07. toronto: centre for research in student mobility, seneca college. doran, j., ferguson, a. k., khan, g. a., ryu, g., naimool, d., hanson, m. d., & childs, r. a. 2015. what are ontarios universities doing to improve access for under-represented groups? toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. durham college. 2016. credit where credit is due: understanding the credit transfer experience at ontario colleges. submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer. finnie, ross, stephen childs and felice martinello. 2014. post-secondary student persistence and pathways: evidence from the yits-a in canada. education policy research initiative, working paper no. 2014 01. ottawa: education policy research initiative. finnie, r., childs, s., and qiu, t. 2012. patterns of persistence in postsecondary education: new evidence for ontario. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. finnie, ross, stephen childs and andrew wismer. 2010. first generation post-secondary education students. a mesa project l-slis research brief. toronto: canadian education project. finnie, r., childs, s., and wismer, a. 2011. under-represented groups in postsecondary education in ontario: evidence from the youth in transition survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. finnie, ross, arthur sweetman and alex usher. 2008. introduction: a framework for thinking about participation in post-secondary education. in who goes? who stays? what matters? accessing and persisting in post-secondary education in canada, edited by r. finnie, r.e. mueller, a. sweetman, and a. usher. montreal and kington: mcgill-queens university press. finnie, ross and hanqing theresa qiu. 2008. is the glass (or classroom) half-empty or nearly full? new evidence on persistence in post-secondary education in canada. in who goes? who stays? what matters? accessing and persisting in post-secondary education in canada, edited by r. finnie, r.e. mueller, a. sweetman, and a. usher. montreal and kington: mcgill-queens university press. grayson, paul j. 2011. cultural capital and academic achievement of first generation domestic and international students in canadian universities. british educational research journal vol. 37 no. 4: 605-630. council of educators of toronto - academica group 39 hayes, david. 2015. helping first-generation students find their way. university affairs (november 3). http://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/first-gen-students-find-their-way/ kamanzi, pierre canisius, sylvie bonin, pierre doray, amlie groleau, jake murdoch, pierre mercier, cline blanchard, monic gallien, rmy auclair. 2010. academic persistence among canadian first-generation university students (projet transitions, research paper 9). montreal: centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (cirst).kerr, a., mccloy, u., liu, s. 2010. forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. martinello, felice. 2008. transitions and adjustments in students post-secondary education. in who goes? who stays? what matters? accessing and persisting in post-secondary education in canada, edited by r. finnie, r.e. mueller, a. sweetman, and a. usher. montreal and kington: mcgill-queens university press. miner, rick. 2011. gta post-secondary access initiatives: pointing the way to success. toronto: council of educators of toronto. ministry of advanced education and skills development (ontario). n.d. policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system. toronto: ministry of advanced education and skills development (ontario). ministry of advanced education and skills development (ontario). 2016. ontario first generation bursary. https://osap.gov.on.ca/osapportal/en/a-zlistofaid/prdr015088.html ontario council on articulation and transfer. 2013. summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. ontario council on articulation and transfer. n.d. annual report 2015-16. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. parkin, andrew and noel baldwin. 2009. persistence in post-secondary education in canada: the latest research. millennium research note #8. montreal: canada millennium scholarship foundation. prairie research associates (pra). 2016. canadian university survey consortium: 2016 first-year university student survey master report. prepared for the canadian university survey consortium. winnipeg: pra. robson, karen, paul anisef, sam tecle, lisa newton, and robert s. brown. n.d. an analysis of provincial and institutional policy around the inclusion of marginalized students in ontario post-secondary education. powerpoint presentation. sattler, peggy, and academica group inc. 2010. from postsecondary application to the labour market: the pathways of under-represented groups. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario shaienks, danielle, and gluszynski, tomasz. 2007. participation in postsecondary education: graduates, continuers and drop outsresults from yits cycle 4. ottawa: statistics canada. smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. 2016. transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. smithies, linda anne. 2015. a comparison of the academic attitudes, behaviours and attainments of three groups of first-generation students at an ontario college. thesis submitted in conformity with the council of educators of toronto - academica group 40 requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy, graduate department of leadership, higher and adult education, ontario institute for studies in education, university of toronto. steffler, mitchell, ursula mccloy and henry decock. 2015. understanding university transfer pathways of first generation students and students from low income neighbourhoods: evidence from a large toronto college. presentation to cirpa conference, halifax, nova scotia, oct 25-27. steffler, mitchell, ursula mccloy and henry decock. 2016. which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income. presentation to canadian economics association, ottawa, ontario, june 2-4. turcotte, martin. 2011. intergenerational education mobility: university completion in relation to parents education level. in canadian social trends. ottawa: statistics canada. usher, alex and paul jarvey. 2013. student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. ontario: colleges ontario. council of educators of toronto - academica group 41 appendix 1: first generation student support programs in the gta (environmental scan findings) the information contained in this chart is based on the environmental scan findings, which relied on information available on institutional websites. it does not necessarily represent the full range of activities and programs in place at each institution, but only those for which information was publicly available online. institution humber college george brown college centennial college collge boral seneca college ryerson university ocad-u york university university of toronto name of program first in the family first generation program first generation student project orientation activities peer mentoring / study groups one-on-one advising projet premire gnration referrals to other campus support services workshops / guest speakers social activities / club panels with faculty and staff financial aid advising online tools (e.g. career guidance) information / newsletter no specific fg activities* first generation project first generation program first generation post-secondary program first in the family peer mentor program * first generation students are encouraged to take advantage of existing advising and support services. appendix b: staff small group discussion guide introduction - - introduce purpose of the project - cet - definitions first generation students (fgs), transfer students introduce interviewer and participants (roundtable) recap parameters - time available - recording - attribution - group discussion (not series of one-on-one interviews) data: what the institutions know about fgs and transfer students o o o o o o o o how does the institution identify fgs? how does the institution identify incoming transfer students? do you have numbers? does the institution identify outgoing transfer students (e.g., numbers, destinations, reason)? are these two groups ever cross-referenced (e.g., profile of transfer students)? does the institution track the success of either group? how? which indicators? - how is the information used? - how is the data that is collected analyzed and used to inform decision making? to what extent does the institution work with others to produce system-wide data? - across the gta - cou / colleges ontario - ministry of advanced education and skills development - statistics canada what data gaps exist? - what underlie the data gaps (capability vs capacity)? - what are current data priorities (are gaps being addressed)? fgs student services o o o - - describe the evolution of programs (history, current status, future directions) what is current sense of impact of programs: - on individual students? - on institutional culture, priorities, practices? what information exists on students who utilize the services (backgrounds, needs, outcomes)? - program data - institutional data what information would be helpful to have? how could it be used? to what extent is transfer an issue for fgs? - for incoming fgs? - for outgoing fgs? are fgs at an informational disadvantage when it comes to knowing about how to take advantage of credit transfer opportunities? how could fgs be better served? has there been any evaluation conducted of fgs programs? to what extent has data been used in the design or evaluation of fgs programs? transfer students o o o o o what data do you use and/or need to keep track of student mobility? how is this data used? how are transfer students welcomed? what services do they get and how do these differ from those offered to other students? does the institution track how successful transfer students are, compared with other students? among transfer students, are fgs students flagged? if so, what is the outcome? do fgs have distinct needs from transfer students? - differences between incoming and outgoing fgs transfer students? review of key issues o o o o o how could transfer pathways or supports be designed to facilitate the movement of students, including first generation students, between institutions (e.g. college to university, university to university, university to college)? should there be a specific fgs + transfer student policy or program? what implications, if any, might there be from the following perspectives - academic programming, institutional planning, student services, or system/policy change? institutions views on how student transfer supports social mobility contribution to, or knowledge of, best practices to support transition for fgs transfer students? are they the same as those for other types of transfer students? conclusion o o final thoughts thank you council of educators of toronto - academica group 44 appendix c: student focus group discussion guide introduction of participants / roundtable - opening remarks about study, focus group overview, voluntary nature, importance of confidentiality, etc. introductions around the table - first name (only) - institution - program - destination / aspiration: what do you want to do next? (quick comment only) note anyone who is already planning to transfer e.g. college to university exercise 1 - - xs on sheets on the wall (move around the room) - when did you decide you wanted to go to college / university (continuum: as early as i can remember / grades 8,9,10,11,12 / after hs e.g. while i was working) - what were you doing in the year before you started current program: (options on wheel: in hs / working / looking for work / travelling / nothing / in another college or university program) - parents / guardians pse (one each for mother and father) (continuum: did not finish hs / hs / apprenticeship / college / university / ma or phd or grad degree / i dont know / separate box for finished education in canada or in another country) quick look and reflection - do answers cluster or are they spread out? - anything surprising? exercise 2 - - on sheets of paper (questions already marked; hand out papers) write first words that come to mind (just whichever first come to mind / quick answers / dont overthink) - how did you feel on first day or in first week of college / university? (emotion) [note: dont specify whether first or current institution unless asked; cross reference later with those who are transfer students] - what do you wish someone had told you (e.g. if you had met graduating student before you started, what would you have wanted them to tell you?) - what was most surprising thing you found out after you started? quick roundtable: participants read out answers to each themes? or all answers all over the place? prompt: to clarify when you walked on campus for first day of class did you feel at home / lost / stranger / among friends / welcome / overwhelmed / routine or no big deal / excited about next step / bored / etc.? (probe for sense of feeling welcome, comfortable, at home) discussion orientation / support services - how did you know where to go / what to do / what to expect / what to expect in first weeks of current institution? (even if not first program) where did you get information? - it was obvious / looked it up on website / wasnt hard to figure out - friends / siblings - university / college staff council of educators of toronto - academica group 45 - - - took part in orientation / welcome activities (before prompt) - i did not seek assistance prompt: experience of orientation activities - who took part? - what kind of orientation activities did you participate in (e.g. academic orientation activities such as note-taking, advising, writing tutorials, social orientation such as frosh week, social events and outings, tours) - how did you find out about them? (received email / letter / phone call; search for information on web / found out when i got to campus) - how useful? use of any other services after first week? how about - academic support / guidance (e.g. writing centre, advising, math support centre, met with faculty member, library workshops) - mentor / peer support (e.g. faculty advisor, peer advisor/tutor, student support group) - career guidance (e.g. career centre) - student financial services (e.g. bursaries/scholarships office, financial aid office) - health, counselling and disability services (e.g. office for students needing accommodation, health services/doctors office) - social activities (welcome activities) (e.g. outings, frosh events, residence life events) - student-led clubs and organizations (e.g. student council/union, clubs) how did you find out about them? did they find you or did you find them? how useful? how friendly / approachable? recommend to others? - any services missing? looked for something and didnt find it? wish someone was available to help you with.? student information data - - recall of information requested on applications (ouac / ocas): outside of all the information needed to identify you (name, address) and about institution, program, etc., do you recall being asked any information about yourself / your background / your family? what was is? - unprompted: any mentions of parents education, aboriginal status, disability, other? - prompt: do you recall being asked about parents education? if yes, was that easy to answer? did you know? did you have to check? did anyone answer dont know; why (did you really not know)? - why do you think they asked? why is knowing about your parents education important? institutional collection of information - recall of ever being asked about parents education by institution? institutional survey? service intake? other? - comfortable disclosing this information? any reason why you wouldnt want to tell someone or have somebody know? first generation students recognition / awareness of term - - anyone heard it before? anyone know what it means? - discussion - clarify (not about immigration status) - provide definition (neither parents has pse experience) based on that definition, who here would describe themselves as fgs? is this a term you would ever use to describe yourself? council of educators of toronto - academica group 46 - - - if opening exercise had been to tell me about yourself, how many would have said i am a fgs? how do you feel about being called a fgs? - probe for: proud / dont care or not relevant or important / annoyed or offended (dont like labels) - whats in it for you: any advantages to being known as a fgs? - is there enough recognition of this achievement? should there be more recognition / celebration? do you know if your college / university has any programs or services specifically for fgs? - if yes, what are they? - how did you find out about them? - did you take part? or anyone you know? - were they helpful? why or why not? - would you recommend them? - would you be interested in services designed especially for fgs? probe for financial matters (budgeting, sources of financial aid, etc.) transfer and mobility - - show of hands: how many different colleges / universities attended so far (only 1, 2, more than 2) - doesnt matter if you completed how many do you think you will attend before you are done (only one; 2; more than 2) friends experience: is more than one typical or the exception? discussion: why more than one (for those who have or are planning to / or thinking about friends who have or might switch); probe for: - discontinued (started, stopped, came back) because of personal/financial reasons - discontinued (started, stopped and came back) because of academic reasons - program switching to find right fit (switch once you know what you really want to do) - college as pathway to university: always wanted university degree but needed college to get in the door - college after university for job skills - articulated / laddered program (switching part of program) - graduate diploma / degree (first degree no longer enough?) do you think most students these days start out thinking they will get everything they need at one (first) college or university, or do you think most start out already planning to move between institutions, picking up parts of what they need at each one? is switching easy? (credit recognition) - - - is it easy to move between institutions? - (note: answers will vary depending if focus is on grad degrees or second degrees, as opposed to mid-program transfer) advantages? disadvantages? any risks? anything to lose? - unprompted: note mentions of risk of losing credit / standing / having to start over - prompt: can you keep credits earned / get recognition of learning to date? experiences of credit transfer - direct experience applied for credit recognition why or why not? what happened? was credit recognized? [note: high or low affinity programs?] was process clear? fair? was information accessible? clear? were you satisfied with outcome? treated better or worse than peers in similar situation? council of educators of toronto - academica group 47 - - indirect experience (what they have heard from others)? can credits be recognized? where to get information? where would you go for help? opportunities for transfer - are there enough options to transfer between institutions? should there be more? - what would this look like? more join programs? - should transfer be promoted more? why or why not? transfer information and support - - - - what if you wanted to transfer to another institution? where would you go to find out? is there someone around to help you? - is information easily available on website? sending institution website? receiving institution website? other, e.g. oncat or ontransfer.ca? has anyone ever asked for support for transfer / counselling / advice / information? - how helpful was it? did you get the information you wanted? - did anyone at your college / university raise this issue with you, or did you have to be the one to seek out information and advice? how easy or hard was it to get the information you needed? do you think most other students are aware of the possibilities? - probe for: do you have to have inside knowledge to come out ahead? would you recommend transfer to other students why or why not? welcoming of transfer students - any orientation offered? outreach? did you need help finding your way around or did your experience at previous institution provide you with what you needed? did you need any information, services or support, but not get it (or not know where to find it)? what more could be done to welcome transfer students? feel differently from other students (less a part of institution)? were you asked about parental education (to identify as fgs) at any stage of transfer / welcome process? would you have liked to been asked / offered support? wrap-up - wrap-up exercise: prepare to be a mentor - you are going to meet new student a fgs student whose parents dont have pse experience - youre getting ready for the first meeting: write down on paper in front of you the one thing youd want to say to that student in that first meeting, to help them get started at college or university - what one word of wisdom would you want to be sure to pass on - write on piece of paper leave time to write no need to read answer, just hand in papers focus group complete when everyone is done council of educators of toronto - academica group 48 council of educators of toronto - academica group 49

pathways from programs at la cit to programs at the university of ottawa in engineering project 2015-30 primary contacts: linda pietrantonio associate vice-president, programs university of ottawa and chantal thiboutot senior director, institutional planning la cit march 17, 2017 list of participants university of ottawa linda pietrantonio, associate vice-president of programs marcel turcotte, vice-dean of undergraduate studies, faculty of engineering maha manoubi, research assistant, faculty of engineering lise detellier, senior special projects officer luciana vaduva, senior academic policy officer rachel ouellette, chief of staff la cit* chantal thiboutot, senior director, institutional planning patrice supper, director, institute of technology annie chartrand, director of support, office of the vice-president, academic lise frenette, manager, special projects joseph aghaby, project leader *translators note: la cit position titles are unofficial translations. 2 table of contents executive summary 4 1. project purpose and goals 4 2. pathway development 4 2.1 methodology 4 2.2 program comparison and analysis 5 2.3 implementation process and timelines 6 3. summary of pathways created 7 4. promising practices and lessons learned 8 3 executive summary la cit and the university of ottawa decided to work together to explore ways to increase student mobility from college to university in the field of engineering. to this end, both partners conducted a detailed program analysis in four engineering disciplines: mechanical, civil, electrical and computer. they looked at the programs' general directions and approaches as well as the specific components of related courses (targeted learning outcomes, educational methods, topics covered, learning assessment methods, etc.). this analysis took into account the accreditation bodies academic program requirements, to maintain their integrity. this analysis identified possible course equivalencies in each program, as well as requirements and conditions for credit transfers from college to university. about thirty courses were identified in total. work is ongoing to develop agreements in these four disciplines, and these agreements should be ready to take effect in early fall 2017. 1. project purpose and goals la cit and the university of ottawa have been working together for several years to increase francophone student mobility and access to french-language postsecondary programs. through various articulation agreements, both institutions provide pathways from college to university that take into account college education. two of these articulation agreements are in the field of engineering, one in computer engineering and the other in electrical engineering. these agreements must now be updated to reflect recent changes to the curriculum. the primary purpose of the project was to update these two existing agreements. we also wanted to look at expanding existing pathways in other engineering disciplines (mechanical and civil). to this end, we set out to perform a detailed review of program directions, educational approaches, practical work and learning objectives assessment methods. we also analyzed curricula and course outlines to determine which programs at la cit could qualify for transfer credits toward a program at university of ottawa. 2. pathway development 2.1 methodology the first meeting between representatives from the university of ottawas faculty of engineering and la cits institute of technology was held in may 2016 to identify the parameters of the proposed analysis. once these parameters were defined, the project leads from both institutions worked with program experts from the faculty of engineering and the institute of technology to perform the required analyses, with the help of one analyst. 4 here is an overview of the revised timeline and main steps: may to september 2016: define project parameters and examine directions and educational approaches used in the engineering programs at la cit and the university of ottawa. september 2016 to march 2017: analyze curriculum and course outlines, and compare course contents in each program; determine total or partial equivalencies based on missing elements in college courses. march 2017: identify possible credit transfers for each program and discuss potential pathways. april to july 2017: finalize discussions on possible transfers and update agreements. august 2017: ratify and implement agreements. 2.2 program comparison and analysis the following university and college courses were analyzed: la cit university of ottawa technologie du gnie civil civil engineering technology b.sc.a. en gnie civil b.sc.a. in civil engineering technologie du gnie mcanique mechanical engineering technology b.sc.a. en gnie mcanique b.sc.a. in mechanical engineering technologie du gnie informatique computer engineering technology b.sc.a. en gnie informatique b.sc.a. in computer engineering or programmeur informatique computer programmer b.sc.a. en gnie logiciel b.sc.a. in software engineering or techniques des systmes system foundations techniques du gnie lectronique electronic engineering foundations b.sc.a en gnie lectrique b.sc.a. in electrical engineering technologie du gnie lectronique electronic engineering technology 5 the main sources of information used to carry out the analysis, for each program, are as follows: learning objectives and outcomes educational approaches course outlines practicum and workshops number of contact hours learning assessment methods detailed course contents professor qualifications course equivalencies were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative assessments of the contents. the quantitative assessment involved comparing the number of hours allocated to course lectures, laboratory sessions, readings and directed study, as well as analyzing learning assessment methods for each program (number, frequency, scope, etc.). we also looked at prerequisite breadth requirements for pathway development. in the course of the quantitative assessment, we performed a more qualitative assessment of the objectives and contents of each course. it goes without saying that the analysis took into account the strict program accreditation requirements of the canadian engineering accreditation board, as well as the need to maintain the integrity of the programs and meet relevant academic regulations, particularly the residence requirement to be eligible for a degree. 2.3 implementation process and timelines the implementation process is relatively straight forward. once the representatives from the university of ottawas faculty of engineering and la cits institute of technology have agreed on transfer conditions and contents, these will have to be approved by the dean of the faculty and then by the associate vice-president, programs. once the agreements are ratified, they will be communicated to the registrar's office at the university, so that they can be implemented. students coming from la cit programs can take advantage of these agreements when they register. both institutions will share information pertaining to the agreements with their units and will implement mechanisms to promote pathways (via their respective websites). our work to develop pathways for credit transfer is ongoing. we have had to revise our initial timelines due to the analysis process taking longer than expected. we now have everything we need to create pathways and should be able to do this by the end of august 2017, at which time it will be possible for the pathway models developed over the next few months to be shared publicly. 6 3. summary of pathways created the university of ottawas engineering faculty already credits the equivalent of 5 courses (two in mathematics, two in sciences and one elective) to students graduating from college. this wellestablished practice has been ongoing for several years without requiring an agreement. during this project, we were able to identify several courses at la cit that could qualify for transfer credits toward a program at university of ottawa. here is a brief summary of these courses: mechanical engineering credit transfers are possible in 13 courses in years 1, 2 and 3 civil engineering credit transfers are possible in 13 courses in years 1, 2 and 3 electrical engineering credit transfers are possible in 6 courses in years 1, 2 and 3 computer engineering and software engineering credit transfers are possible in 10 courses in years 1, 2 and 3 the two existing agreements between the institutions, in electrical engineering and computer engineering, will be updated and new agreements will be developed in civil and mechanical engineering. in addition to identifying these credit transfer opportunities during the project, the university of ottawa and la cit developed another type of partnership to enhance the experience of engineering students. while we were analyzing programs to develop mobility agreements, we launched a pilot project offering university of ottawa students the opportunity to acquire practical experience at la cit. la cit created a mechanical workshop that was offered to university of ottawa students on a voluntary basis. this workshop was called sous le capot de lauto - comprendre la conception des automobiles (under the hood - understanding car design); here is the description in advertisements sent to university of ottawa students: "during this workshop, students from various disciplines will understand how to diagnose failures caused by electric, electronic or mechanical systems, and will explain the primary sources of these failures. they will learn how to improve and integrate the component and system design of an automobile. this workshops key concepts include: issues arising from the integration of electric, electronic or mechanical systems; physical constraints caused by reality; primary causes of failures; tools available to diagnose and repair automotive failures. every student will have the opportunity to work on a motor vehicle supplied by la cit and learn to: diagnose a car that turns over but won't start; determine the cause of a lack of power and/or an increase in gas consumption while considering all aspects that could influence this condition." 7 the workshop was offered to 15 students (forty or so applications were received, but space was limited) from the following engineering programs: mechanical (8); software (2); civil (2); electrical (2); biomedical (1). these students were registered in 1st year (5), 2nd year (2), 3rd year (5) and 4th year (3) at the university of ottawa. the participants' level of satisfaction was excellent. in our opinion, this type of activity provides an interesting avenue of collaboration between our two institutions. the complementary nature of some of our training more practical at the college level and more theoretical at the university level became obvious while we were reviewing the curricula. this type of collaboration can happen both ways, especially when it comes to the practical aspects of university and college education. it can enhance training provided by both institutions and give students exposure to college and university programs. this is most certainly a collaborative direction that both institutions wish to continue exploring. 4. promising practices and lessons learned while we are satisfied with the project results, we are aware that we might have underestimated our timelines. the analysis took much longer than anticipated, which means that the project will continue beyond the initial timeline. however, we are confident that credit transfers opportunities identified in this project will be finalized through agreements over the next few months. meetings to this effect have already been scheduled as of april. as indicated in the previous section, we are also looking forward to possibly collaborating on practical training opportunities for students at both institutions. this type of experiential learning activity is very promising and we will keep exploring opportunities in this area. 8

1. executive summary the mcmaster-mohawk graduate school pathways project (gspp) sought to create a clear and unambiguous pathway, for working technologists, as well as high school and recent college graduates, to the b.tech. program, and onwards to graduate level studies in engineering. the project focused on the following: - gauging student demand and desire for graduate studies pathways via the bachelor of technology (b.tech.) programs based on this student demand, establishing: o a) an advanced entry (2 courses or 6 units credit) pathway to graduate studies (completed) within the w booth school of engineering practice and technology at mcmaster university; o b) a specialized new m.eng. degree in the w booth school, designed to be aligned to b.tech. program specializations, with options to complete the full degree as well as a shorter post-graduate diploma (in progress); o c) the creation of new partnerships and pathways through the combined degree/diploma program through bilateral articulation agreements, where students would then be eligible for option a) above in this case, with lambton college (completed). the graduate studies advanced entry option (a, above) will be added to more than 125 existing pathways into the mcmaster-mohawk b.tech. degree completion program effective immediately. it will also be included in the new lambton college b.tech. program pathway once entered into the ontransfer database. the research and analysis conducted in conjunction with these pathway development projects made it abundantly clear that students even at the college level have graduate studies (m.eng., mba, ph.d., etc.) on their radar. they would like to have information on graduate level pathways made available to them early, with close to half stating that it would have been useful information for planning purposes prior to university level studies. as one survey respondent aptly put it: the thought of a reputable university such as mcmaster acknowledging my college studies and giving me the opportunity to receive a bachelor's degree without starting from the bottom of the ladder (so to speak) is too good to pass up. and now with the inclusion of an internal graduate studies option, the potential to build my academic level in an efficient and timely manner is immense. i believe this will have the most impact if advertised together with the b.tech degree completion program. in my eyes it is the best option for a college student who wishes to continue their education while being acknowledged for obtaining a diploma. we believe this pathway will be of significant value to students moving through the post secondary education system as we continue to seek new opportunities to advance the careers of b.tech. students.

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research report 2016.03 student mobility in ontario: a framework and decision-making tool for building better pathways leesa wheelahan, gavin moodie, mary catharine lennon, amanda brijmohan and eric lavigne a report to ontario council for articulation and transfer student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool a report by: ontario institute for studies in education (oise) university of toronto 252 bloor st. west, 6th floor toronto, ontario m5s 1v6 canada www.oise.utoronto.ca/cihe please cite this publication as: wheelahan, l., moodie, g., lennon, m.c., brijmohan, a. and lavigne, e. (2016). student mobility in ontario: a framework and decision making tool for building better pathways. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. page 2 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool table of contents preamble........................................................................................................................................................ 4 how to read this document ...................................................................................................................... 6 1. purpose of these principles and decision-making framework .......................................................................... 7 2. goals and purposes of postsecondary education, qualifications and pathways ............................................. 8 postsecondary education systems ..................................................................................................................... 8 qualifications .................................................................................................................................................... 8 pathways ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 3. principles ........................................................................................................................................................ 9 4. guidelines ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 multiple entry mechanisms ............................................................................................................................. 10 entry mechanisms and pathways from least to most expensive ..................................................................... 11 trust and communication ................................................................................................................................ 11 5. framework for decision making ................................................................................................................... 12 province-wide .................................................................................................................................................. 12 oncat ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 institutional level ............................................................................................................................................. 13 faculty/program-level ..................................................................................................................................... 13 elaborated version student mobility in ontario: a framework and decision-making tool for building better pathways 6. elaborated: purpose of these principles and decision-making framework .................................................... 16 7. elaborated: goals and purposes of postsecondary education, qualifications and pathways........................ 17 postsecondary education system .................................................................................................................... 17 qualifications .................................................................................................................................................. 17 pathways ......................................................................................................................................................... 17 8. elaborated: principles .................................................................................................................................. 19 general principles ............................................................................................................................................ 19 curricular and pedagogic principles ................................................................................................................ 19 entry principles ................................................................................................................................................ 20 9. elaborated: guidelines ................................................................................................................................. 22 geography ....................................................................................................................................................... 22 distinguish between transfer of students and transfer of credit ..................................................................... 22 multiple entry mechanisms ............................................................................................................................. 23 entry mechanisms and pathways from the least to most expensive ............................................................... 24 trust and communication ................................................................................................................................ 26 10. elaborated: framework for decision making.............................................................................................. 27 province-wide .................................................................................................................................................. 27 oncat ............................................................................................................................................................. 28 institutional level ............................................................................................................................................. 28 faculty/program-level ..................................................................................................................................... 30 page 3 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool preamble this student transfer framework and decision-making tool was developed as part of a study supported by the ontario council of articulation and transfer in 2015.1 the project: reviewed much of the extensive literature on student transfer; analyzed the ontario council of articulation and transfers comprehensive dataset of all current articulation agreements of ontario post-secondary institutions; analyzed the 2013 canadian national graduate survey; analyzed the 2013/2014 ontario college graduate satisfaction survey; constructed a student transfer profile of 22 publicly funded universities and 24 publicly funded colleges in ontario; consulted 14 experts in ontario student transfer from colleges, universities, policymakers and researchers who were critical friends to the project. the full results, analysis and argument supporting the student transfer framework and decision-making tool are set out in the teams report.2 but very briefly, these are the main findings supporting the proposed student transfer framework and decision-making tool. 1. critical friends in colleges and universities responsible for leading and managing transfer between colleges and universities reported difficulties reconciling different provincial policies that have different effects on student transfer. 2. the national graduate survey finds that only 37% of college graduates in ontario who complete a university qualification do so in the same field as their college qualification.3 3. universities have an average of 24 pathways agreements but admitted a median ratio of 1.3 students per pathway in 2014. 4. the median percentage of universities pathway agreements with colleges within commuting distance of the university is 16%, but the median percentage of students who transfer from a college to a university within commuting distance of the college is 64%. 1 lennon, mary catharine; brijmohan, amanda; lavigne, eric, yang, jinli; moodie, gavin; and, wheelahan, leesa; moodie, (2016) ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire, ontario institute for studies in education, university of toronto, toronto, on. 2 ibid 3 wheelahan, leesa; moodie, gavin; lavigne, eric; yang, jinli; brijmohan, amanda; and childs, ruth (2015) pathways to education and work in ontario and canada, department of leadership higher and adult education, ontario institute for studies in education: toronto, p. 23, table 8. page 4 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool the project team consulted widely on this student transfer framework and decision-making tool and we held a consultative workshop on the student transfer framework and decision-making tool at oise on april 5, 2016. feedback received from the consultative workshop was used to revise the decisionmaking tool. further information about the project is available at: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/pew/ please share comments or questions on the framework and decision-making tool with: leesa wheelahan, phd william g. davis chair in community college leadership ontario institute of studies for education university of toronto 252 bloor street west toronto, on m5s 1vj leesa.wheelahan@utoronto.ca page 5 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool how to read this document this document has two versions of the student mobility and credit transfer framework and decisionmaking tool. the first version is a summary, while the second version is the elaborated version. the elaborated version contains more detail about most principles, and provides examples where appropriate. page 6 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 1. purpose of these principles and decision-making framework this document presents principles and a decision-making framework for developing new pathways and partnerships in ontarios post-secondary education system (pse). the principles and framework contribute to the ministry of training colleges and universities goals to support lifelong learning, and to increase and broaden access to postsecondary education. the principles and framework build on: the ministry of training colleges and universities policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system 20114 oncats proposed principles for credit transfer policies and procedures5 the document first outlines the goals and purposes of qualifications and pathways in supporting lifelong learning policies, then it presents principles that guide transfer of students and transfer of credit, before presenting a framework for decision making. 4 5 http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/publications/credittransfere.pdf viewed 14 may 2016. http://oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/annualreport_2014-2015_eng.pdf viewed 14 may 2016 page 7 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 2. goals and purposes of postsecondary education, qualifications and pathways postsecondary education systems 2.1 the province aims to support a postsecondary education system that is high quality, fair, efficient, and promotes equity and high levels of educational attainment qualifications qualifications support: entry to and mobility in the labour market; progression to higher-level studies; and, social inclusion and social mobility. 2.2 2.3 all qualifications should fulfil all three purposes, but the emphasis on each purpose may vary with each qualification. pathways 2.4 pathways should be designed to reflect these three purposes of qualifications to support lifelong learning policies and practices. 2.5 pathways and qualifications can be evaluated by the extent to which they meet these three purposes. 2.6 pathways should maximize student transfer from one qualification to another. 2.7 pathways should maximize the credit students are granted for their prior studies and reduce costs to students, institutions and their funders by saving funds for studies that have already been completed and by reducing the time it takes students to complete their studies. page 8 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 3. principles 3.1 transfer is more equitable if it is consistent. 3.2 transfer is more consistent if it is guided by agreed rules and processes. 3.3 transfer effort should concentrate on the areas where most benefit can be gained. 3.4 pathways should be developed from the least to most expensive to reflect the strategic priorities of institutions, regions and the province. 3.5 pathways which maximize the transfer of students and the transfer of credit are more likely between institutions that trust each others curriculum, syllabus, teaching, assessment and the expertise of their teaching staff. 3.6 trust between institutions reduces the transaction costs of developing pathways. 3.7 trust is more likely to develop where there are relationships between teaching staff in partner institutions. 3.8 relations are easier to establish between institutions which are close to each other. 3.9 pathways should ensure coherence and continuity in curriculum and pedagogy. coherence and continuity in curriculum and pedagogy can support student transition and contribute to retention, completion and positive labour market outcomes. 3.10 student transfer may be maximized by developing several entry mechanisms to suit prospective students from different circumstances. 3.11 students should be admitted to higher level programs based on their achievements in their most recent qualification. page 9 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 4. guidelines 4.1 students transfer in higher numbers between institutions within commuting distance of each other. institutions should prioritize building relations with neighbouring partners and develop regional pathways. 4.2 policy makers and institutions should develop explicit regional, provincial, interprovincial and national goals for student transfer to provide frameworks for institutional partnerships. 4.3 institutions should be aware of the political realities of their partners (such as provincial and municipal governments, regulatory and occupational bodies, employers, disciplinary associations etc), as well as the roles of each interested party. 4.4 transfer that provides students with entry to subsequent postsecondary education programs requires different decisions and processes compared to those used for the credit that transfer students may be granted upon gaining entry to those programs. 4.5 4.6 credit decisions are based on the syllabus and quality of the prior program, its assessment and its learning outcomes. decisions about student admission are based on judgements about the extent to which the applicant meets the programs admissions criteria. decisions about credit students will be granted should be made as close as possible to the decision to grant students admission. multiple entry mechanisms 4.7 increasing the number of students who can transfer from diplomas to degrees requires more emphasis on alternative entry mechanisms that provide students with different ways of entering degree programs. 4.8 guaranteed transfer pathways select students to the initial program and guarantee entry to a subsequent program subject to achieving a specified grade point average and meeting any other requirement specified in advance. 4.9 dual awards require students to meet the entry requirements for both qualifications. 4.10 nested awards are a series of qualifications linked by a guaranteed transfer pathway, which offer students multiple entry and exit points. nested awards support student equity because students only need to meet the entry requirements for the lower-level qualification and are guaranteed progression to higher-level qualifications provided students meet the gpa or other specified requirements. page 10 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool entry mechanisms and pathways from least to most expensive 4.11 entry mechanisms and different types of pathways range from the least to more expensive. the province, oncat and institutions should develop strategic frameworks that have many arrangements that are relatively cheap; a moderate number of arrangements that are moderately expensive; and a relatively small number of arrangements that are expensive. 4.12 pathway entry agreements are agreements between institutions that grant students entry to the receiving institution if they meet requirements certified by the sending institution. they are relatively inexpensive and can be used by many students. increased emphasis on entry agreements may help to increase the number of transfer students. 4.13 a generic pathway is a pathway that relates institutions and families of programs to facilitate entry and credit for individual students or groups of students. generic pathways are supported by institutional policies that specify general requirements for the transfer of students and the transfer of credit. generic pathways are cost effective and appropriate in the absence of a specific pathway. they support student entry and credit in areas where there is little student traffic. 4.14 a specific pathway is a pathway that relates existing programs and may involve some curriculum mapping and coordination. specific pathways need to be renegotiated every time there is a change in one of the programs. they are medium cost and should be moderate in number and developed only for pathways that attract significant numbers of students. 4.15 an enhanced pathway grants more students entry and/or more credit in the destination program than provided in standard institutional policies. enhanced pathways are based on varying levels of collaboration on curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment. they require high levels of trust between the partners, and are expensive to develop and maintain and should be limited to areas that reflect strategic priorities in institutional, regional and provincial partnerships. trust and communication 4.16 trust may be built between institutions and programs by providing opportunities for faculty and staff to get to know each other; by reporting to each other on the outcomes of pathways; by sharing information; and by providing opportunities for collaboration. 4.17 boundary spanners can foster communication and collaboration between partner institutions. page 11 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 5. framework for decision making province-wide 5.1 student transfer would be supported by the province stating explicitly that colleges roles include preparing students for study at degree level, including study at universities; and by stating explicitly that the role of universities includes accepting and supporting transfer students. 5.2 student transfer would be supported by the province including student transfer in its differentiation framework, which recognizes institutions different roles in student transfer. 5.3 student transfer agreements would be strengthened if strategic mandate agreements in one institution complemented the strategic mandate agreement of relevant institutions in the other sector, particularly those within the same geographic region 5.4 policies and support mechanisms for student transfer should be based on regions so that most attention and effort is invested in transfer between institutions within commuting distance of each other. 5.5 student transfer would be encouraged by support for system level funding for regional activities to build networks. 5.6 analysis of student transfer policy would be strengthened by collecting and reporting consistently data on the number of transfer students each university admits, the broad fields that transfer students are admitted to and whether the transfer was part of a pathway agreement. oncat 5.7 oncat has a key role to play in ontario as a system boundary-spanner because it is the only body other than the mtcu that spans both colleges and universities. 5.8 oncat may wish to develop a specific role in brokering, supporting and sustaining regional partnerships. 5.9 oncat may wish to support institutions deeper commitment to articulation and transfer by emphasising the number and proportion of students transferring between institutions rather than the number of pathways. 5.10 oncat may wish to consider developing a proposal for a system level fund to support regional student transfer networks and to recognize part of the extra costs that institutions incur in supporting student transfer. page 12 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool institutional-level 5.11 institutions should state explicitly the priority they give to supporting transfer in relation to other institutional priorities, recognizing the implications this has for neighbouring institutions. institutions might identify those fields or occupational areas in which they wish to concentrate their support for student transfer, which may be in similar or complementary fields to those identified by their partner institutions. 5.12 institutions should consider establishing a general partnership agreement with each neighbouring institution to provide a governance framework, strategic planning and support for generic pathway agreements and specific pathway agreements between specific qualifications. 5.13 regional coordination offers institutions the potential for convergent or complementary pathways in convergent or complementary fields of study. 5.14 institutions that put a high priority on supporting transfer students should consider nominating a person who has or who develops expertise in their institutions collaborating sector, particularly in their neighbouring institutions in the collaborating sector with which their institutions should have the closest relations. 5.15 institutions that give a high priority to supporting transfer may concentrate their academic efforts in some programs and therefore in some faculties, departments and schools. 5.16 institutions should seek opportunities to streamline transfer processes and decisions. 5.17 institutions need policies to guide entry and credit decisions for transferring students admitted in the absence of a pathway. 5.18 institutions frameworks should ensure consistency of treatment between domestic and international transfer pathways. 5.19 institutions need policies and practices to ensure that entry and credit decisions are consistent across fields and over time. faculty/program-level 5.20 most benefit can be gained by embedding transfer in the design and administration of programs. 5.21 consider developing a policy, principles and procedure to guide the entry of students who do not follow a designated pathway. 5.22 consider developing a policy, principles and a procedure to guide the grant of credit to students who do not follow a designated pathway. page 13 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 5.23 consider admitting transfer students and granting them credit according to the units policies, principles and procedure rather than developing a pathway agreement for a small number of students. 5.24 consider developing pathways agreements where numerous students transfer from the sending qualification. 5.25 develop pathways that reflect the way graduates use their qualifications in the labour market. if a qualifications graduates proceed to a diversity of occupations it may be desirable to accept transfer students from a diversity of fields. 5.26 consider different arrangements for qualifications that lead to occupational recognition and those that lead to more general recognition. 5.27 qualifications that lead to general recognition may be able to grant credit from a broader range of courses than qualifications which lead to occupational recognition. 5.28 qualifications that lead to general recognition may be able to assess credit by level and broad field of study rather than by detailed curriculum equivalence. 5.29 consider different arrangements for qualifications that receive most transfer students from one narrow field and qualifications that receive transfer students from several fields. 5.30 consider taking a broader approach to determining equivalent prior study for qualifications that receive transfer students from more than one field. 5.31 consider developing pathways collaboratively and sharing information on each programs syllabus, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and the expertise of teaching staff. 5.32 consider establishing with neighbouring institutions an annual cross-institutional faculty consultation, seminar or colloquium addressing issues within the discipline or field. 5.33 consider establishing a procedure for pathway partners to report to each other the outcomes of pathways 5.34 credit transferred should be realizable. page 14 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool elaborated version: student mobility in ontario: a framework and decision-making tool for building better pathways page 15 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 6. elaborated: purpose of these principles and decision-making framework this document presents principles and a decision-making framework for developing new pathways and partnerships in ontarios post-secondary education system (pse). the principles and framework contribute to the ministry of training colleges and universities goals to support lifelong learning, and to increase and broaden access to postsecondary education. the principles and framework build on: the ministry of training colleges and universities policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system 20116 oncats proposed principles for credit transfer policies and procedures7 the document first outlines the goals and purposes of qualifications and pathways in supporting lifelong learning policies, then it presents principles that guide transfer of students and transfer of credit, before presenting a framework for decision making. 6 7 http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/publications/credittransfere.pdf viewed 14 may 2016. http://oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/annualreport_2014-2015_eng.pdf viewed 14 may 2016 page 16 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 7. elaborated: goals and purposes of postsecondary education, qualifications and pathways this section presents the goals and purposes of postsecondary education systems, qualifications and of pathways. postsecondary education system 7.1 the province aims to support a postsecondary education system that is high quality, fair, efficient, and promotes equity and high levels of educational attainment to support a tolerant and inclusive society and a competitive and productive workforce. qualifications 7.2 qualifications support: entry to and mobility in the labour market; progression to higher-level studies; and, social inclusion and social mobility in the following ways:8 7.3 7.2.1 in the labour market, qualifications help guide entry into the workforce and movement to higher occupational levels once employed; 7.2.2 in the education system, qualifications help guide progress to higher-level studies. all qualifications should provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to study at a higher level in their field or a closely related field; and 7.2.3 in society, qualifications contribute to social inclusion by supporting social mobility in education and the labour market and by contributing to a more tolerant and inclusive society. all qualifications should seek to widen participation in postsecondary education by supporting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter higherlevel studies to support occupational and social mobility. qualifications also need to ensure that students have access to the knowledge and skills they need to be productive and contributing members in their communities, families and occupations. all qualifications should fulfil all three purposes, but the emphasis on each purpose may vary with each qualification. pathways 7.4 pathways should be designed to reflect these three purposes of qualifications to support lifelong learning policies and practices. 7.5 pathways and qualifications can be evaluated by the extent to which they meet these three purposes. 8 see: gallacher, j., ingram, r., & reeve, f. (2012). are vocational qualifications vocational? in m. pilz (ed.), the future of vocational education and training in a changing world (pp. 381-402). wiesbaden: springer vs. wheelahan, l., buchanan, j., & yu, s. (2015). linking qualifications and the labour market through capabilities and vocational streams. adelaide: national centre for vocational education research. page 17 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 7.6 7.7 pathways should maximize the credit students are granted for their prior studies and reduce costs to students, institutions and their funders by saving funds for studies that have already been completed and by reducing the time it takes students to complete their studies in the following ways: 7.6.1 student transfer should be maximized to support student choice and progression, which is an important aspect of universal participation. this includes pathways between qualifications at the same level, from higher to lower level qualifications, and from lower to higher-level qualifications. 7.6.2 student transfer from lower to higher level qualifications on the ontario qualifications framework should be maximized to support upward social progression and social mobility and economic development. pathways should maximize the credit students are granted for their prior studies and reduce costs to students, institutions and their funders by saving funds for studies that have already been completed and by reducing the time it takes students to complete their studies. page 18 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 8 elaborated: principles this section presents general principles, curricular and pedagogic principles, and entry principles. general principles 8.1 transfer is more equitable if it is consistent. 8.2 transfer is more consistent if it is guided by agreed rules and processes. 8.3 transfer effort should concentrate on the areas where most benefit can be gained. 8.3.1 most transfer benefit can be gained where the most students are involved. 8.3.2 most transfer benefit can be gained where least expense is incurred. 8.3.3 most transfer benefit can be gained where processes are efficient. 8.4 pathways should be developed from the least to most expensive to reflect the strategic priorities of institutions, regions and the province. 8.5 pathways which maximize the transfer of students and the transfer of credit are more likely between institutions that trust each others curriculum, syllabus, teaching, assessment and the expertise of their teaching staff. 8.6 trust between institutions reduces the transaction costs of developing pathways. 8.7 trust is more likely to develop where there are relationships between teaching staff in partner institutions. 8.8 relations are easier to establish between institutions which are close to each other. curricular and pedagogic principles 8.9 pathways should ensure coherence and continuity in curriculum and pedagogy. coherence and continuity in curriculum and pedagogy can support student transition and contribute to retention, completion and positive labour market outcomes. they can achieve these outcomes in the following ways: 8.9.1 qualifications should reflect the changing nature of work, which includes the need to use higher level and more abstract knowledge as the basis of educational progression and occupational progression, and they need to help students contribute to their family, community and society. 8.9.2 pathways should have curriculum coherence and continuity across qualifications. page 19 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 8.9.3 programs should scaffold learning in the disciplinary field in which students are studying. programs and pathways should embed transition support to help students progress to higher level studies and apply their knowledge and skills at work and in the community. 8.9.4 students should gain maximum credit for prior studies, while at the same time ensuring they are not granted inappropriate credit that may jeopardise their success in higher level programs. 8.9.5 credit for prior studies should be granted equitably to all students who undertook the same prior program. 8.9.6 where possible, pathways and new programs should be developed with the involvement of industry and occupational bodies, such as professional bodies and bodies representing technical and skilled occupations, rather than just one or the other to help develop programs that link occupational and educational progression. 8.9.7 pathways and programs should focus on the overall development of the student within the context of their planned occupation. (a) pathways should focus on the knowledge, skills and attributes graduates need in their broad field of practice rather than specific workplace tasks and roles to maximise students options to progress in their field and move to related fields. (b) pathways can be based on linear connections between programs within the same field of education, and/or they can link programs in complementary fields that reflect the way graduates use their qualifications to navigate the labour market. 8.9.8 programs and pathways should, where possible, provide students with early certification in their field so they can obtain relevant work and valuable experience while continuing to study in their field. the purpose is to insure students against the risk of not completing the destination program while at the same time leaving their options open for further study. 8.9.9 students should, as a general rule, be required to complete successfully the first qualification in a pathway or a nested program (see 4.13 below) before they are granted admission to the higher level program. pathways are premised on scaffolding knowledge and skills students need at higher level qualifications; students who do not complete the first award are less likely to be successful. entry principles 8.10 student transfer may be maximized by developing several entry mechanisms to suit prospective students from different circumstances. page 20 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 8.11 students should be admitted to higher-level programs based on their achievements in their most recent qualification. students achievements in their secondary school diplomas are relevant for entry to the first program in the postsecondary education pathway, but are rarely relevant to the second program in the pathway and should not be used to decide access into the second program. if there is not a direct alignment between the lower and higher level programs in the pathway, transition support should be built into the development of the pathway. page 21 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 9 elaborated: guidelines this section presents guidelines on taking geographic proximity into account, distinguishing between transfer of students and transfer of credit, moving from the least to the more expensive forms of pathways, developing multiple entry mechanisms, and building trust and communication. geography 9.1 students transfer in higher numbers between institutions within commuting distance of each other. institutions should prioritize building relations with neighbouring partners and develop regional pathways. 9.2 policy makers and institutions should develop explicit regional, provincial, interprovincial and national goals for student transfer to provide frameworks for institutional partnerships. 9.2.1 9.3 institutions should develop explicit local and regional goals for student transfer to guide the development of their partnerships strategically. institutions may have strategic reasons for developing partnerships beyond their regions to support student transfer in specific fields, or to serve specific occupations or communities, or to support institutional goals. institutions should be aware of the political realities of their partners (such as provincial and municipal governments, regulatory and occupational bodies, employers, disciplinary associations etc), as well as the roles of each interested party. distinguish between transfer of students and transfer of credit 9.4 transfer that provides students with entry to subsequent postsecondary education programs requires different decisions and processes compared to those used for the credit that transfer students may be granted upon gaining entry to those programs. 9.4.1 9.5 this distinction is important because students benefit from credit only once they have been admitted to the destination program. credit decisions are based on the syllabus and quality of the prior program, its assessment and its learning outcomes. decisions about student admission are based on judgements about the extent to which the applicant meets the programs admissions criteria. 9.5.1 student entry and credit decisions often take different factors into account. institutions decide about entry based on the applicants prior credentialed study and other attributes that enable the institution to determine whether the applicant is likely to succeed in the destination program and whether the applicant meets the programs admission criteria. credit decisions are based on the syllabus and quality of the prior program, its assessment and its learning outcomes. page 22 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 9.6 decisions about credit students will be granted should be made as close as possible to the decision to grant students admission 9.6.1 student entry and credit decisions are often taken separately at different times. it is preferable for credit decisions to be taken at the same time as entry decisions. this would enable students to plan their program of study, ensure they can study fulltime (should they wish to do so), use the credit they have been awarded in their qualification, and ensure they can receive appropriate funding (osap etc) based on credit awarded and subsequent study status (part-time/fulltime). multiple entry mechanisms 9.7 increasing the number of students who can transfer from diplomas to degrees requires more emphasis on alternative entry mechanisms that provide students with different ways of entering degree programs. 9.8 9.9 9.10 guaranteed transfer pathways select students to the initial program and guarantee entry to a subsequent program subject to achieving a specified grade point average and meeting any other requirement specified in advance. 9.8.1 there needs to be close communication and collaboration between the partners to a guaranteed access pathway so that the coordinator of the receiving program can anticipate and plan for the number of students who are proceeding through the sending qualification at the specified level. 9.8.2 guaranteed access pathways increase equity and opportunities for students to progress from diplomas to degrees. guaranteed access pathways also insure students against the risk of not completing the higher level program since they still have certification in the lower level program. this may encourage students from disadvantaged backgrounds to participate in postsecondary education and develop aspirations for undertaking bachelor level studies, gain experience in studying in postsecondary education, and leave their options open for the future. dual awards require students to meet the entry requirements for both qualifications. 9.9.1 an example is a diploma and a degree which are linked but in which applicants must meet the diplomas and the degrees entry requirements to enter the linked programs. 9.9.2 dual awards generally do not provide as much access for disadvantaged students as guaranteed access pathways because students are required to meet the entry requirements of the higher level qualification as a condition of admission. nested awards are a series of qualifications linked by a guaranteed transfer pathway, which offer students multiple entry and exit points. nested awards support student equity because students only need to meet the entry requirements for the lower-level qualification and are page 23 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool guaranteed progression to higher-level qualifications provided students meet the gpa or other specified requirements. 9.10.1 an example is a linked certificate, diploma, bachelor, graduate certificate and masters program in which, for example, a student may start in the diploma, complete the certificate while studying the diploma, and exit after completing the bachelor. 9.10.2 nested awards are usually in the same field of study, or occupational area. 9.10.3 there needs to be close communication and collaboration between the partners to nested awards so that the coordinators of each program can anticipate and plan for the number of students who are studying in each program and are eligible for and likely to seek to transfer to another qualification in the nested award, which may be to a shorter qualification, a cognate qualification of similar length or a longer qualification. entry mechanisms and pathways from the least to most expensive 9.11 entry mechanisms and different types of pathways range from the least to more expensive. the province, oncat and institutions should develop strategic frameworks that have many arrangements that are relatively cheap; a moderate number of arrangements that are moderately expensive; and a relatively small number of arrangements that are expensive. 9.12 pathway entry are agreements between institutions that grant students entry to the receiving institution if they meet requirements certified by the sending institution. they are relatively inexpensive and can be used by many students. increased emphasis on entry agreements may help to increase the number of transfer students. 9.12.1 this is an example of a pathway entry agreement: the bachelor of business studies at maple leaf university will guarantee to admit graduates of the diploma of business studies at cedar college who achieve a grade point average of 3.0. pipeline numbers of articulating students are managed by designating a specific number of places in the diploma of business studies that will be guaranteed places in the bachelor of business studies. 9.12.2 this is another example of a pathway entry agreement: (a) graduates who complete a diploma of early childhood studies at cedar college with a grade point average of 2.5 are eligible for admission to the bachelor of education at maple leaf university and will be admitted if there are enough places available; (b) diploma graduates will be selected according to their grade point average; (c) diploma graduates who achieve a grade point average of 3.5 are guaranteed admission in 2017. page 24 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 9.12.3 pathway entry agreements are relatively inexpensive and can be used by many students. 9.12.4 increased emphasis on entry agreements may help to increase the number of transfer students. 9.13 a generic pathway is a pathway that relates institutions and families of programs to facilitate entry and credit for individual students or groups of students. generic pathways are supported by institutional policies that specify general requirements for the transfer of students and the transfer of credit. generic pathways are cost effective and appropriate in the absence of a specific pathway. they support student entry and credit in areas where there is little student traffic. 9.13.1 generic pathways may specify general requirements for the transfer of students and of credit for graduates of diplomas of any ontario institution and general requirements for the transfer of students and of credit for graduates of diplomas of the institutions partner institutions. 9.13.2 an example of a generic pathway is where the program coordinator for a bachelor program receives an application for admission from a graduate of a specified diploma of a specified college and after reviewing the universitys policy, the diploma syllabus and the applicants grades offers the applicant a place. 9.13.3 an increase in traffic may signal to the institution that a specific pathway may be needed. 9.14 a specific pathway is a pathway that relates existing programs and may involve some curriculum mapping and coordination. specific pathways need to be renegotiated every time there is a change in one of the programs. they are medium cost and should be moderate in number and developed only for pathways that attract significant numbers of students. 9.14.1 an example of a specific pathway is a specified diploma at a specified college and a specified bachelor that exempts diploma graduates from the degrees general studies requirements. another example is a specified diploma that exempts diploma graduates from undertaking some core courses in the bachelor. 9.15 an enhanced pathway grants more students entry and/or more credit in the destination program than provided in standard institutional policies. enhanced pathways are based on varying levels of collaboration on curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment. they require high levels of trust between the partners, and are expensive to develop and maintain and should be limited to areas that reflect strategic priorities in institutional, regional and provincial partnerships. page 25 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 9.15.1 an example of an enhanced pathway is the development of diploma and a degree where the curriculum has been developed together to ensure coherence and continuity in syllabus, approach to teaching and learning and assessment. students are usually granted more credit than they would be otherwise be entitled to in a specific pathway. the development of the diploma and degree may, for example, include collaboration with an occupational body and a professional body, a specific community, or a specific industry partner. 9.15.2 enhanced pathways should be limited to areas which reflect strategic priorities in institutional, regional and provincial partnerships. the types of strategic priorities that may be assisted by the development of an enhanced pathway may include establishing new relationships with industry and occupational bodies, meeting an emerging occupational need, developing a new field of study or establishing relations with and/or supporting particular groups of disadvantaged students to enter and progress in postsecondary education. trust and communication 9.16 trust may be built between institutions and programs by providing opportunities for faculty and staff to get to know each other; by reporting to each other on the outcomes of pathways; by sharing information; and by providing opportunities for collaboration: examples include: 9.16.1 faculty and staff communicating frequently and building relations, for example, in an annual cross-institutional faculty consultation, seminar or colloquium addressing issues within their discipline or field; 9.16.2 the partners reporting to each other the outcomes of pathways such as the number of students who gain entry under an agreement and their performance in their subsequent studies; 9.16.3 partners sharing information on programs syllabus, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and the expertise of its teaching staff; 9.16.4 faculty in collaborating programs comparing curriculum, learning outcomes and assessment to develop a clearer picture of what students have learned. 9.17 boundary spanners can foster communication and collaboration between partner institutions. 9.17.1 such people should seek to span the boundaries between sectors and institutions by understanding the other sectors and institutions policies and processes. they help translate these to terms best understood by their home institution and sector and in turn explain their home institution and sector to their partner institutions and sector. page 26 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 10 elaborated: framework for decision making this section presents a framework to be considered when developing new pathways and transfer policies and programs. it is presented at four levels: province-wide considerations, oncat, the institution, and sub-institutional units such as faculties and departments and administrative support units. province-wide considerations 10.1 student transfer would be supported by the province stating explicitly that colleges roles include preparing students for study at degree level, including study at universities; and by stating explicitly that the role of universities includes accepting and supporting transfer students. 10.2 student transfer would be supported by the province including student transfer in its differentiation framework, which recognizes institutions different roles in student transfer. 10.2.1 for example, some universities main role may be accepting transfer students from neighbouring colleges; some universities main role may be accepting transfer students from specified occupational, linguistic, ethnic or equity groups; and some universities main role may be developing colleges faculty and staff to extend their degree programs and applied research. 10.3 student transfer agreements would be strengthened if strategic mandate agreements in one institution complemented the strategic mandate agreement of relevant institutions in the other sector, particularly those within the same geographic region 10.3.1 strategic mandate agreements are currently negotiated within each sector, rather than between sectors and including the two sectors together, particularly within regions, would enhance the provinces differentiation framework. 10.4 policies and support mechanisms for student transfer should be based on regions so that most attention and effort is invested in transfer between institutions within commuting distance of each other. 10.4.1 such regional policies should reflect institutions priorities and areas of strategic investment. where a university does not prioritize accepting transfer students in a region where there is no other university, the province may wish to consider negotiating with local colleges to develop and expand their provision beyond their current degree provision. this would help to ensure equality of access to degrees throughout the province. 10.5 student transfer would be encouraged by support for system level funding for regional activities to build networks. page 27 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 10.6 analysis of student transfer policy would be strengthened by collecting and reporting consistently data on the number of transfer students each university admits, the broad fields that transfer students are admitted to and whether the transfer was part of a pathway agreement. oncat 10.7 oncat has a key role to play in ontario as a system boundary-spanner because it is the only body other than the mtcu that spans both colleges and universities. 10.8 oncat may wish to develop a specific role in brokering, supporting and sustaining regional partnerships. 10.8.1 such a role would build on oncats success in its relatively brief life in stimulating pathways between qualifications and institutions. consequently oncat has build high levels of trust between it and its member institutions and supported the development of greater levels of trust between its member institutions. this is an indispensable requirement for building regional partnerships. 10.9 oncat may wish to support institutions deeper commitment to articulation and transfer by emphasising the number and proportion of students transferring between institutions rather than the number of pathways. 10.10 oncat may wish to consider developing a proposal for a system level fund to support regional student transfer networks and to recognize part of the extra costs that institutions incur in supporting student trasfer. institutional-level 10.11 institutions should state explicitly the priority they give to supporting transfer in relation to other institutional priorities, recognizing the implications this has for neighbouring institutions. institutions might identify those fields or occupational areas in which they wish to concentrate their support for student transfer, which may be in similar or complementary fields to those identified by their partner institutions. 10.12 institutions should consider establishing a general partnership agreement with each neighbouring institution to provide a governance framework, strategic planning and support for generic pathway agreements and specific pathway agreements between specific qualifications. 10.13 regional coordination offers institutions the potential for convergent or complementary pathways in convergent or complementary fields of study. 10.13.1 for example, it can support curriculum alignment for laddering within the same field of education, or provide complementary pathways that link qualifications in different fields of education to support labour market needs. page 28 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 10.14 institutions that put a high priority on supporting transfer students should consider nominating a person who has or who develops expertise in their institutions collaborating sector, particularly in their neighbouring institutions in the collaborating sector with which their institutions should have the closest relations. 10.14.1 such people should seek to span the boundaries between the sectors and institutions by understanding the other sectors and institutions policies and processes, translating these to terms best understood by their home institution and by helping to explain their home institution and sector to their partner institutions. 10.14.2 such boundary spanners should report to a senior person within their home institution to provide them with authority in negotiating within their own institution the types of pathways that meet their institutions strategic priorities, and to ensure they have sufficient seniority in brokering pathways with their collaborating institutions. 10.15 institutions that give a high priority to supporting transfer may concentrate their academic efforts in some programs and therefore in some faculties, departments and schools. 10.15.1 institutions may also nominate a support unit that has special responsibility for supporting student transfer. however, even if such a unit is nominated, most central service and support units are likely to have some involvement in supporting student transfer. 10.16 institutions should seek opportunities to streamline transfer processes and decisions. 10.17 institutions need policies to guide entry and credit decisions for transferring students admitted in the absence of a pathway. these policies may include: 10.17.1 minimum entry requirements for graduates of diplomas of any ontario college; 10.17.2 minimum entry requirements for graduates of diplomas of the institutions partner colleges; 10.17.3 selection criteria for diploma graduates; 10.17.4 the amount and type of course-to-course and block credit that it is appropriate to grant graduates of diplomas of any ontario college; 10.17.5 the amount and type of course-to-course and block credit that it is appropriate to grant diploma graduates of the institutions partner colleges; page 29 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 10.17.6 who is authorized to decide specific credit decisions when students are admitted through a generic pathway; and 10.17.7 how specific credit decisions may be reviewed to ensure consistency in these decisions, and to provide insights about where specific pathways should be developed. 10.18 institutions frameworks should ensure consistency of treatment between domestic and international transfer pathways. 10.19 institutions need policies and practices to ensure that entry and credit decisions are consistent across fields and over time. 10.19.1 one mechanism is a procedure for determining, recording, monitoring and evaluating precedents. faculty/program-level these principles are for sub-institutional units such as faculties, departments and schools, and administrative support units. 10.20 most benefit can be gained by embedding transfer in the design and administration of programs. 10.21 consider developing a policy, principles and procedure to guide the entry of students who do not follow a designated pathway. 10.22 consider developing a policy, principles and a procedure to guide the grant of credit to students who do not follow a designated pathway. 10.23 consider admitting transfer students and granting them credit according to the units policies, principles and procedure rather than developing a pathway agreement for a small number of students. 10.24 consider developing pathways agreements where numerous students transfer from the sending qualification. 10.25 develop pathways that reflect the way graduates use their qualifications in the labour market. if a qualifications graduates proceed to a diversity of occupations it may be desirable to accept transfer students from a diversity of fields. 10.26 consider different arrangements for qualifications that lead to occupational recognition and those that lead to more general recognition. page 30 of 31 student mobility and credit transfer framework and decision-making tool 10.26.1 qualifications that lead to general recognition may be able to accept transfer students from a broader range of programs than qualifications which lead to occupational recognition. 10.27 qualifications that lead to general recognition may be able to grant credit from a broader range of courses than qualifications which lead to occupational recognition. 10.28 qualifications that lead to general recognition may be able to assess credit by level and broad field of study rather than by detailed curriculum equivalence. 10.29 consider different arrangements for qualifications that receive most transfer students from one narrow field and qualifications that receive transfer students from several fields. 10.29.1 qualifications that receive transfer students from one narrow field may have opportunities to grant more credit for students who have graduated from the main source qualification. 10.30 consider taking a broader approach to determining equivalent prior study for qualifications that receive transfer students from more than one field. 10.31 consider developing pathways collaboratively and sharing information on each programs syllabus, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and the expertise of teaching staff. 10.32 consider establishing with neighbouring institutions an annual cross-institutional faculty consultation, seminar or colloquium addressing issues within the discipline or field. 10.33 consider establishing a procedure for pathway partners to report to each other the outcomes of pathways such as the number of students who gain entry under an agreement and their performance in their subsequent studies; 10.34 credit transferred should be realizable: 10.34.1 students should be able to use the credit they have been awarded towards completing their credential. 10.34.2 credit should result in students taking less time to complete the two qualifications than if they had not been granted credit. page 31 of 31

22 march 2017 oncat 2016-34 pathways for child and youth care executive summary the child & youth care (worker) advanced diploma program is offered in twenty colleges in the province of ontario. in child and youth care programs there is diversity in delivery methods, unique course offerings, structure, and course sequencing. the project team communicated, collaborated and consulted with their provincial cyc counterparts throughout the project in order to ensure consistency, accuracy and engagement. as a result, the project team was able to successfully navigate through the diverse program complexities in order to develop an innovative college to college pathway utilizing an outcomes based analysis to develop an inclusive and flexible transfer agreement. a significant outcome of this projects methodology resulted in the development of a live, web-based document that efficiently advances the process for cyc college to college program transferability and currency of the pathway

acknowledgements this project represents the work of many dedicated educators, content experts and administrators at multiple post secondary institutions across ontario and in quebec. through the support of the ontario council for articulation and transfer, the process of creating unique educational pathways and credentials to serve our students and communities was, and should be, a collaborative effort. we would like to acknowledge all those who played a key role in producing the pathways outlined in this final report and look forward continually evolving our respective programs together in the future. canadore college david himmelman, marianne haist, jennifer sutton, brian bennison, david dejourdan, and jonathan cranston confederation college stephen holloway, shelley neff, dr. shane strickland, dr. tania pynn, giannina veltri, and rod coates dawson college dianne hawryluck, and david nagels georgian college paul burton, sue lemmon, matt koller, dr. john cunningham, john daggett, jean payne, martha maceachern, dana winkler, and student representatives lakehead university dr. rhonda koster, dr. harvey lemelin, dr. margaret johnston, dr. tom potter, dr. willow curthoys, dr. mike yuan, dr. ryan howard, annette graham, calla sampson, mel fowler, dr. nancy luckai, breanne murphy, andrew heppner, the outdoor recreation students society, keli cristofaro, amanda browne (therapeutic recreation ontario) and the therapeutic recreation employers expert panel: lisa tyance, nancy rowlinson, shannon whale, alena frowen, and darrik smith. sault college brian anstess table of contents acknowledgements 2 introduction 4 the project 5 sending institutions and associated diplomas 5 content gap analysis and consultations 6 block transfer pathways and curriculum 7 appendix a - diploma to hbor pathways 14 appendix b - hbor to diploma/certification pathways 15 appendix c - two way recreation therapy pathways 16 appendix d - draft of proposed transfer credits in accelerated confederation college travel, tourism and eco-adventure diploma curriculum 17 appendix e - outd 4911: standards of practice in therapeutic recreation 18 introduction the school of outdoor recreation, parks and tourism (orpt) at lakehead university intended to develop block transfer pathways into the honours bachelor of outdoor recreation (hbor) degree for a variety of reasons: an expressed need from current professionals holding a recreation based diploma who require an honours bachelor credential to ladder up from or even maintain their current employment position; the exceptional successes of hbor graduates who have completed accelerated college diplomas and certificates post degree; the success of the block transfer pathway into the natural resources management program; providing an efficient pathway for recreation diploma graduates to access post-graduate studies and research related to outdoor recreation, parks and tourism, particularly in northwestern ontario; and colleges advocating on behalf of their students to develop a block transfer pathway into the unique theoretical, experiential and geographic context of the hbor degree program. through the alignment of program level and course level learning outcomes with ocav university degree level expectations, significant changes in the honours bachelor of outdoor recreation degree program created conditions that were ripe for assessing credit transfer between ontario colleges and the hbor degree program. in addition to creating credit transfer pathways from relevant diplomas into the hbor, the school of orpt intended to seek out and develop efficient diplomas and certificates that hbor graduates could complete to enhance their vocational skill sets and competencies in relation to their intended field of professional practice. the results of this project include the development/identification of: nine diploma to degree block transfer agreements into the hbor degree program with four ontario colleges and one quebec college, two accelerated college diplomas and one certificate for hbor graduates, and a new hbor nature based therapeutic recreation degree concentration developed collaboratively by college and university staff and students, an external credentialing agency and employers in the community. the project sending institutions and associated diplomas in conducting an initial broad strokes analysis of potential sending institutions we were guided by a variety of principles including: the increasing trend for post-secondary students to remain close to home to decrease the costs of obtaining post-secondary credentials.1 the wide variation in curriculum between recreation and tourism based programs designed to uniquely serve the needs of their community while still adhering to the ministry of training, colleges and universities standards the shifting and evolving field of theory and also employment in leisure and recreation, particularly in relation to the practice of using nature in health and wellness vocations based on these factors, we contacted program coordinators and deans from the following programs at various stages, all of which agreed to work with the school of orpt and put significant collaborative effort into the development and identification of multiple credit transfer pathways. block transfer agreements were developed for the following college diploma programs: 1. confederation college a. recreation therapy diploma (2 year) b. travel, tourism and eco-adventure diploma (2 year) 2. georgian college a. tourism marketing and product development diploma (2 year) b. recreation and leisure services diploma (2 year) 3. sault college a. adventure recreation and parks technician (2 year) 4. dawson college a. community recreation and leadership training diploma (3 year) 5. canadore college a. recreation and leisure services diploma (2 year) b. recreation therapy diploma (2 year) 1 college university consortium council. (2011). college-university student mobility report. toronto, on: cci research inc. a more detailed, visual outline of the transfer credit pathways and credentials available to degree and diploma graduates is outlined in appendices a to c. content gap analysis and consultations identification of specific courses to be included in the transfer credit agreement occurred through multiple phases that included: developing an 80 page qualitative content gap analysis worksheet (available upon request) that aligned: o program level learning outcomes between identified diplomas and degrees o course level learning outcomes for courses considered as eligible for credit transfer multiple rounds of in person, telephone and email based consultation with administrators, faculty, technical staff and students from both the colleges and university regarding: program content, pedagogy, assessment, employment prospects and access to graduate studies. overarching themes that arose from consultations with multiple stakeholders included: challenges with assessing transfer credit between diploma and degree level field courses, placements, and internships. faculty and students identified that within highly experiential diploma and degree programs, vocation based placement courses are different from placements that involve participating in scholarly research activities and the application of theoretical models. in addition, faculty identified that transfer credit should not disrupt carefully made pedagogical choices regarding the laddering of theory based degree level courses into practical application courses that seek to develop synthesis and evaluation competencies aligned with university level degree expectations; ensuring that awarded transfer credits do not negatively impact graduates opportunities for future education and employment based on their transcripts. in particular, potential post-graduate programs and external credentialing agencies require the submission of transcripts that include specific university level course titles. courses awarded through block transfer credits are not traditionally represented on a students university transcript at lakehead university, therefore it is necessary to carefully ensure that transfer credit does not impede students educational and vocational mobility over the course of their career; the importance of cohort development and the formation of peer to peer social support systems through field based, experiential learning is a significant factor in retention, developing a network of professional peers and enhancing the relationship between faculty, students, teaching assistants and technical staff within recreation and leisure focused programs. assessing credit transfer, for this project, went beyond learning outcomes and competencies (for example chain saw and snowmobile training [sault college] versus ax and snowshoe training [lakehead university] or linear regression versus factorial anovas) and encompassed the social and professional connections formed through strategic course structuring and sequencing. essentially, when designing credit transfer pathways, faculty frequently asked questions similar to the following: does the ethos of the receiving program, the overarching experiential product designed to produce creative, critically thinking professionals and researchers, still exist for students entering through a block transfer pathway? block transfer pathways and curriculum drafts of transfer-mapped curriculum were distributed amongst the participating colleges and went through multiple rounds of revisions based on both university and college faculty consultations. initially the project team targeted seamless, multi-lateral transfer agreements for diplomas categorized by ontario mtcu program codes. it became clear during our content gap analysis that there was a wide variation between recreation, leisure and tourism based diploma programs under the same mtcu code, and in some cases the mtcu had not yet developed (or was currently changing) their published program standards for a particular grouping. therefore we initially developed individualized transfer pathways with each college diploma program. through the lengthy content gap analysis and consultation process these individual pathways were consolidated into four unique transfer pathways (figures 1 through 4) that awarded diploma graduates from all programs assessed with one year of block transfer credit allowing them to complete the four-year hbor degree within three years of full time study. for diploma graduates who have completed a recreation therapy diploma from either confederation college or canadore college, students can elect to receive one year of block transfer credit towards the hbor with a concentration in nature based therapeutic recreation (nbtr). entry requirements include having a completed diploma from the aforementioned programs with an overall minimum average of 75%. traditionally this average is consistent with lakehead universities transfer pathways, and was recommended by several college program coordinators to increase the likelihood of student success. a summary of pathway development, transfer credit and the resulting curriculum of each unique pathway is addressed below. georgian college tourism marketing and product development diploma to hbor with a strong foundation in research, certification and business/administrative skill sets related to the field of tourism, multiple hbor courses were assessed for potential awarded credit to georgian college tourism diploma graduates. figure 1 outlines both transfer credits awarded and resulting curriculum. figure 1 georgian college tourism to hbor georgian college recreation and leisure services diploma; canadore college recreation and leisure services diploma; dawson college community recreation and leadership training diploma to hbor through initial discussions with georgian college, potential credit transfer areas were identified related to courses that were aimed at: developing skill sets in the systematic development, delivery and evaluation of recreation and leisure programming, exploring leadership theory and applying it through programming and placement experiences, developing skill sets and theory based strategies to manage group dynamics in addition, georgian college diploma graduates develop strong skill sets in the administration of recreation and leisure services as well as event coordination and business practices that may, in the future, benefit hbor graduates through the provision of an accelerated diploma program. due to the time constraints associated with this project, a proposed initial draft of an accelerated diploma curriculum was developed and remains available for future pathway development opportunities. through the course of this project we continually identified and established contact with additional colleges as per our commitments outlined in the initial oncat grant proposal. as the content gap analysis and consultations progressed with both canadore college and dawson college, the project team identified that the content between recreation and leisure services diplomas had similarities which could be translated into the development of additional transfer pathways. with a content gap analysis process already established through our work with georgian college, the team was able to assess program level and course level learning outcomes and efficiently develop a block transfer pathway that was suitable for all three college programs. figure 2 outlines both transfer credits awarded and the resulting curriculum. figure 2 recreation and leisure services diploma to hbor confederation college travel, tourism, and ecoadventure diploma; sault college adventure recreation and parks technician to hbor the confederation college travel, tourism, and eco-adventure diploma has evolved to uniquely serve the surrounding community with a blend of international travel and airline certifications combined with nature based technical skill sets and outdoor certifications. the school of orpt and the travel/tourism diploma at confederation college have been in discussions regarding a transfer pathway for the past five years and this oncat funded opportunity brought these discussions and intentions to fruition. similar to the confederation college travel/tourism program, the sault college adventure recreation and parks technician contains curriculum related to technical outdoor skill sets but with a greater focus on the management, identification, and classification of flora/fauna. according to the sault college coordinator, graduates of the adventure recreation and parks technician program will often apply to the hbor program but are sometimes deterred from enrolling when they receive minimal transfer credit in relation to other degree programs with established and generous transfer credit pathways. based on the content gap analysis the pathway outlined in figure 3 provides credit for both the theoretical and technical skill sets of the diploma graduates from the two aforementioned programs. figure 3 tourism and adventure diplomas to hbor based on the success of hbor graduates who have post-degree completed the travel, tourism and eco-adventure diploma program, our intention was to explore the potential of developing a one year accelerated diploma for hbor graduates that could also be extended to include other degree graduates from across ontario. the project team, along with the confederation college program coordinator, have developed a draft of potential transfer credits (appendix d) for the proposed accelerated diploma which has been presented to confederation college administration. refinement and development of this pathway will continue beyond the grant period. confederation college recreation therapy diploma; canadore college recreation therapy diploma to hbor with concentration in nature based therapeutic recreation (nbrt) at the outset of this project, we identified that a small portion of hbor graduates interested in specializing in therapeutic recreation apply to the confederation college recreation therapy program through their accelerated one year pathway, available for students with a previous degree. our initial intention was to provide a complementary pathway from the college to the university by establishing block transfer credit for recreation therapy diploma graduates who were interested in specializing in nature based recreation. through consultations with the confederation college recreation therapy program coordinator and associated dean, the project team identified that there is currently no recreation therapy related degree level credential available to current and past recreation therapy diploma graduates as well as practicing professionals in northwestern ontario. guided by standards of practice established by external credentialing bodies including therapeutic recreation ontario and the national council for therapeutic recreation certification, confederation college and lakehead university content experts developed a coordinated curriculum leading to the development of a unique hbor concentration in nature based therapeutic recreation (nbtr). this required the development of a new therapeutic recreation course for the hbor nbtr. a key component in the development of this pathway involved an event where hbor students, recreation therapy diploma students, educators and recreation therapy employers in thunder bay came together to discuss trends in the field and inform curriculum development decisions in regards to the respective programs. themes included: an increased amount of high needs clients in long term care services for the elderly requiring staff educated specifically on best practices in serving this population the place of perceived risk and skill sets required for delivering naturebased experiences to high needs clients and for rehabilitative recreation programming opportunities for sharing of recreation equipment and educational facilities between community resources, confederation college and lakehead university to support education and participation in outdoor recreation. the resulting credential, hbor nbtr, was designed specifically for credit transfer and allows for the completion of a recreation therapy related degree and diploma in five years regardless of whether the student starts at the university or the college. the hbor nbtr provides hbor graduates with the necessary course content to excel in the largely experiential one year accelerated recreation therapy diploma and be eligible to apply for external credentials with the appropriate amount of university level courses and also diploma/degree associated placement hours. for diploma graduates the hbor nbtr pathway provides the university level courses and placement hours necessary to both ladder to supervisory professional positions and access credentials requiring a degree while remaining in the northwestern ontario region. figure 4 - recreation therapy diploma to hbor nbtr pathway through discussions with the dean of media, arts, recreation and access at canadore college during the 2016 oncat conference, the project team identified another regional recreation therapy program which would benefit from a block transfer pathway aligned with external credentialing bodies. after conducting a content gap analysis and consulting with faculty via email, the recreation therapy diploma program at canadore college was deemed as congruent with credit transfer decisions made with confederation college during the extensive development process of the hbor nbtr transfer pathway. the curriculum and transfer credit for the confederation/canadore college recreation therapy diploma to hbor nbtr pathway are outlined in figure 4. implementation due the nature of the bi-cameral governing system at ontario universities, new program modifications related to articulation agreements and block transfer at lakehead university must pass through six intensive approval review phases after the articulation agreement has been approved by college and university faculties. at the time of this report, based on the varying timelines of all the institutions involved in this project, each diploma to degree pathway and degree to diploma pathway is at different phases of approval as outlined below. recreation therapy diploma to hbor nbtr pathways the hbor nbtr concentration and pathway from confederation college has passed through all phases of approval and is available for students as of september 2016. the canadore college recreation therapy diploma to hbor nbtr pathway will be reviewed by school of orpt faculty in fall, 2016. tourism/recreation and leisure services diplomas to hbor diploma to degree pathways from recreation and leisure related diplomas (dawson college; georgian college) as well as all tourism related diplomas (confederation college; georgian college; sault college) have been approved by all associated faculties and will be submitted to the senate approval workflow in fall of 2016. these pathways, pending full approval, will be available for students in fall of 2017. due to the late addition of the canadore college recreation and leisure services diploma to the development process, the school of orpt faculty review will occur in fall of 2016, and submission to the senate workflow is slated for winter of 2017. hbor to diploma pathways for hbor degree graduates who are seeking a post-degree diploma, the following options have been identified and/or are developing as follows: hbor nbtr and hbor to confederation college accelerated recreation therapy diploma: hbor graduates can currently apply to the accelerated recreation therapy diploma program. faculty members from both programs are seeking out additional certifications and working towards formalized provincial and international accreditation for the combined diploma/degree pathway. hbor to confederation college accelerated travel, tourism and ecoadventure diploma: a proposed curriculum draft is, at the time of this report, being reviewed by confederation college administration. development is slated to continue in fall of 2016. hbor nbtr and hbor to georgian college therapeutic recreation certificate: hbor graduates can currently apply to the georgian college therapeutic recreation certificate. this credential option is appealing to students who are looking to work in therapeutic recreation and relocate or return to southern ontario after completing their hbor degree. credit transfer pathways from hbor to georgian college tourism and recreation/leisure diplomas related to the content gap analysis findings were explored in spring 2015 and may continue to be developing in 2016/2017 based on faculty time and resources to continue development. appendix a diploma to hbor pathways appendix b hbor to diploma/certification pathways appendix c two way recreation therapy pathways appendix d draft of proposed transfer credits in accelerated confederation college travel, tourism and ecoadventure diploma curriculum appendix e outd 4911: standards of practice in therapeutic recreation calendar description: students will examine and implement the phases of delivering therapeutic recreation programming. assessment, evidence based program design, and evaluation of nature based experiences for a variety of populations will be explored theoretically and experientially. learning outcomes: 1. apply evidence based assessment and evaluation tools to recreation therapy programming and practice; 2. demonstrate comprehension of therapeutic recreation ontarios standards of practice; 3. design and implement therapeutic recreation programming using provincial standards of practice; 4. demonstrate the ability to comprehend and apply multiple forms of data used to inform therapeutic recreation practice; 5. know and understand best practices in therapeutic recreation program delivery for a variety of populations

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2015-18 pathways between ontario woodworking postsecondary programs and cabinetmaking trade curriculum march 15, 2016 project overview: phase one program mapping: the partner institution project members visited conestoga on december 2, 2015 to tour the woodworking facilities, discuss project expectations, and confirm timelines and individual responsibilities for gap analyses and bridge development between programs. the partner institutions provided to conestoga relevant program design matrices, learning outcomes, and all course outlines for applicable programs. additionally, program maps demonstrating how the program learning outcomes are met through the individual program curriculum were supplied. conestoga completed a preliminary comparison of the applicable programs to determine possible pathways. in sharing their findings with the partner institutions, conestoga made the following recommendations: 1) use the mtcu framework 2) k of vocational outcomes (mtcu descriptions 44300; 54300; 64300) to support comparison of program outcomes and curriculum mapping, given the differences in outcome statements 3) use the apprenticeship curriculum standard cabinetmaker (438a) at standard outcome and sub-outcome level for curriculum mapping to assess coverage of apprenticeship curriculum provided by the 1, 2 and 3 year programs. 4) discuss differences in admission requirements if relevant to the pathways phase two gap analysis: conestoga completed a comprehensive gap analysis for the pathways, as determined in phase one of the 1 project. the following is a curriculum gap analysis resulted from the comparative study of the woodworking programs at 4 participating colleges based on two reference learning outcomes frameworks. the current (2015) version of each participating program was compared at program outcome level and course level with the other programs through the reference frameworks and where applicable, academic pathways were developed. the following programs participated in this mapping exercise: 1. humber college: cabinet making certificate and industrial woodworking technician diploma 2. st. clair college: woodworking technician diploma 3. georgian college: cabinetmaking techniques certificate 4. conestoga college: woodworking technician diploma and woodworking technology advanced diploma method: complete information, including program design, admission requirements, program outcomes and course outlines, was collected for phase 1 of the project. the first stage of the gap analysis consisted of a comparison of program admission criteria across the participating programs. appendix d provides the details of this comparison. in stage two of the gap analysis, participating programs were compared at the program vocational learning outcomes level and at course level. learning outcomes from each program were compared within two available frameworks. the first framework used in this analysis consists of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) program descriptions number 44300, 54300, and 64300. these descriptions provide the validated program vocational learning outcomes. the matrices in appendix a reflect the way each of the programs at the participating colleges meet the mtcu validated program outcomes through local program outcome and courses. the second framework used in this analysis consists of the cabinetmaking apprenticeship standard 438a issued in may 2010 by the ontario college of trades (ocot). each program was mapped against the apprenticeship standard outcomes and sub-outcomes, at local program outcome and course level. the gap analysis aimed to identify which mtcu vocational outcomes and apprenticeship outcomes or suboutcomes (if any) are not achieved through the pedagogic activities in each program. where a local program outcome was not identified to map to the framework, the team listed the courses in the program that satisfy the identified outcome. gaps and their remediation were assessed and documented. the results of this analysis are described below and the supporting mapping documentation is presented appendix e. findings: 1. admission requirements: there is strong alignment between the admissions requirements in the programs involved in the resulting pathways. although georgian is the only institution that does not require a grade 12 mathematics course, a 45 hour course in mathematics in the first semester ensures students are brought to the required level for transfer into semester 2 of other woodworking programs. this difference was not identified as a gap and no remedies were required. please see appendix d for further detail. 2. program comparison through the mtcu framework: overall the majority of the program outcomes in the mtcu descriptions 44300, 54300 and 64300 respectively are met by the corresponding programs. the evolution of the program curriculum and the alignment with the newer apprenticeship standard has created, in some cases small gaps in the way the mtcu description outcomes are being met by individual programs. the details of this analysis can be found in table 1, table 2, table 3 and table 4 in appendix e. here is a summary of this analysis: o o all programs meet all the outcomes of the mtcu description 44300. there are no gaps between the program outcomes at the certificate level. the following exceptions were noted in the diploma outcomes comparison using the 54300 mtcu description framework: outcome 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer the role of the production engineer is not explicitly covered in st. clairs and humbers diploma programs outcome 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture antique furniture is not a subject covered in the st. clair and conestoga diploma programs remediation: the terms and concepts in these outcomes were deemed outdated and the group will propose the removal or upgrading of these outcomes at the next mtcu review (scheduled for 2018-2019). these outcomes were not considered essential in the development of pathways o as expected, a certain number of the program outcomes in the advanced diploma mtcu description 64300 program were not covered in the certificate or diploma programs, only in the advanced diploma program: outcome 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. outcome 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. outcome 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. outcome 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. outcome 6.b.understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. outcome 6.c. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. outcome 7.a. develop a quality assurance program for wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. outcome 12. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. outcome 13. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. remediation: these gaps are covered in the courses in year 3 of the advanced diploma program. the course comparison analysis supports this dimension by providing additional details in cases where the coverage is partial. 3. program comparison through the apprenticeship standard framework the vast majority of the apprenticeship standard outcomes and sub-outcomes are covered in the two and three year programs at the participating colleges. a detailed analysis was conducted, where each apprenticeship outcome was aligned where applicable with a program outcome; consecutively, each component sub-outcome was mapped to courses in the program that support them. the detail analysis for each program is presented below. due to the large volume of information contained in these tables, e.g. all the outcomes and sub outcomes of the apprenticeship standard and the courses that support them for each of the programs, the information is embedded as excel spreadsheets as opposed to word tables. o the following exceptions were noted: i. st. clair college woodworking technician diploma 1. s1471.1 stationary machines: 1.4; 1.5; 1.6 3 2. s1475.3 cost estimating: 3.3 3. s1477.2 woodworking shop productivity and efficiency: 2.2; 2.3; 2.4; 2.5 4. s1478.1 cabinet design: 1.3; 1.4 5. s1478.2 materials selection: 2.3 6. s1478.4 cabinet/furniture construction: 4.4 7. s1478.5 quality assurance: 5.1; 5.2; 5.4; 5.5 8. s1478.6 packing and shipping: 6.1; 6.2; 6.3; 6.4; 6.5 9. s1480.1 site safety and environment: 1.2 10. s1480.3 windows, doors and stairs: 3.4 ii. humber college industrial woodworking technician diploma 1. s1478.5 quality assurance: 5.2; 5.6 2. s1478.6 packing and shipping: 6.1; 6.2; 6.3; 6.4; 6.5 - will cover in next iteration 3. s1480.1 site safety and environment: 1.2 - will cover in next iteration; iii. georgian college cabinetmaking techniques certificate 1. s1461.2 general safety standards: 2.3; 2.8 2. s1468.2 cutting tool performance: 2.2 3. s1478.5 quality assurance: 5.4 4. s1478.6 packing and shipping: 6.1; 6.2; 6.5 iv. conestoga college woodworking technician and technology all sub-outcomes are covered o the analysis indicated that certain sub outcomes are not explicitly covered at course outcome level, although the overall student learning ensures the outcome is being met. a detailed presentation of the analysis for each institution is available in the following, embedded spreadsheets: conestoga humber georgian stclair woodworking technology woodworking apprenticeship technician cabinetmaking comparison.xlsx apprenticeship techniques woodworking comparison.xlsx apprenticeship technician comparison.xlsx apprenticeship comparison.xlsx o o o where applicable the course review process will strive to incorporate more explicitly the apprenticeship sub-outcomes currently marked as not covered. overall, it is evident that the two and three year programs facilitate the accomplishment of student learning outcomes from all three levels of the apprenticeship curriculum standard; in the case of georgian college, the apprenticeship standard levels i and ii sub-outcomes are covered well. as a result the group would like to explore the creation of a pathway that would allow graduates of the diploma or advanced diploma programs to be exempt from the in-school portion of all three levels of the cabinetmaking apprenticeship, and graduates from georgians certificate program to be exempt from level i and level ii. this process requires further exploration with the appropriate branch at mtcu and ontario college of trades. recommendations: the pathways established through these process fall into two main categories: mid-stream pathways, mostly from semester 1 of one program to semester 2 of another program, of equal or higher credential level; and pathways for graduates of a 1 year program into the 2 and 3 year programs. each pathway was analyzed at outcome, course design and practical project level, and in some cases instead of a bridging course, the receiving institution indicated that the interview with the program coordinator will provide information about the student level of outcome accomplishment. as such, no bridging is required for the programs in this situation, however the transferring student might be asked to sit for an evaluative computer test or complete a project. a second recommendation that resulted from this project is that a better alignment of the vocational outcomes can be accomplished through an update process similar to the mtcu standard review or development process. the three mtcu descriptions: 44300, 54300, and 64300 are scheduled for review and consolidation into standards in 2018. until then, the group agreed that outcomes review as a result of internal program reviews activities will be communicated to the partners in pathways and will ensure pathway integrity. the outcomes were not reviewed at this time, but maintained as they are stated for 20162017 in mtcu documentation and at each institution as it was felt this work was outside of the current project scope. a third recommendation stems from the established extensive coverage these programs provide for the cabinetmaking apprenticeship curriculum. as a result, the partner institutions would like to propose the creation of a pathway that will enable graduates of the one year cabinetmaking techniques certificate (georgian) to be exempt from the first two levels of in-school training and the graduates of the 2 and 3 year woodworking diplomas (conestoga, humber, st.clair) to be exempt from all three levels of in-school training of the apprenticeship program. these two pathways are not presented in the documentation attached to this report, only the evidence that supports them. their creation would need to involve approval from ontario college of trades and ensure it meets the conditions set forth by this organization. the partner institutions would be interested in completing a project focused on this particular set of pathways. the partner institutions recognize the importance of creating accessible pathways of education for students, while maintaining program integrity and providing for student success. phase three of the project included the development of program pathways, including bridging courses, addressing the gaps in knowledge, skills or abilities identified through the gap analysis completed in stage two (appendix a). once the pathways were developed, the minimum gpa and other relevant eligibility standards for students seeking admission via these established pathways were determined, during a second meeting held on march 11, 2016 at conestoga college. also identified were the courses for which transfer credit will be granted to students entering via each established pathway, as well as the remaining courses to be completed. see appendix a for details regarding bridging curriculum and appendix b for complete pathway details. phase three: articulation agreements and final report conestoga and the other 3 institutions have partnered to complete all analysis and conclusions that support the objectives of project 2015-18: pathways between ontario woodworking postsecondary programs and cabinetmaking trade curriculum, including: a curriculum and gap analysis of the pathways, a corresponding explanation of bridge curriculum and scheduling (appendix a), required pathway documentation (appendix b), and a detailed financial statement (appendix c). complete pathway details at ontransfer.ca upon final approval of the memorandum of understanding and articulation agreements within each institution. at that time, the credit transfer and registrars offices of the partner institutions will be appropriately informed of the new pathway details, per appendix b. the pathways will be implemented in 2017. the receiving institution specified in a given pathway will be responsible for the upload and maintenance of pathway information at ontransfer.ca. executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga), georgian college, humber college and st. clair college (herein referred to 5 as the partner institutions) have worked in partnership to establish educational pathways between woodworking and cabinetmaking programs, including: - certificate to diploma and advanced diploma pathways - diploma to diploma and advanced diploma pathways, and - mid-stream pathways for both categories above. in total, 13 pathways were established, as follows: - pathway 1: humber cabinet making and humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) - pathway 2: humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology - pathway 3: conestoga woodworking technician to humber woodworking technician (mid-program) - pathway 4: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology - pathway 5: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to humber industrial woodworking technician - pathway 6: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to st.clair woodworking technician - pathway 7: st. clair woodworking technician to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) - pathway 8: humber cabinet maker to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) - pathway 9: humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician to st.clair woodworking technician (mid-stream) - pathway 10: st. clair woodworking technician to humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician (mid-stream) - pathway 11: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician (mid-stream) - pathway 12: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) - pathway 13: conestoga woodworking technician to st. clair woodworking technician (mid-program) best practices: over the various phases of project 2015-18, the partner institutions identified the following best practices: when multiple institutions are involved, a common framework of vocational outcomes makes program comparison possible. for programs with a strong application and hands-on component, mapping curriculum between two institutions establishing a pathway is accomplished through a review of course outlines as well as practical projects at various stages in the program. the partner institutions also learned that planned time allocation for detailed mapping activities and review of final documentation as well as additional curriculum support can make the process more effective. conclusions: this project established 13 pathways for students in the woodworking and cabinetmaking programs at the participating 4 colleges: 1. from georgian cabinetmaking techniques to : a. conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathway 4 b. st.clair woodworking technician pathway 6 c. humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking pathway 5 2. from humber cabinet maker to: a. conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathway 1 b. georgian cabinetmaking techniques pathway 8 c. st.clair woodworking technician pathway 9 3. from humber industrial woodworking technician to: a. conestoga 2 year and conestoga 3 year pathway 2 b. st.clair woodworking technician pathway 9 4. from st.clair woodworking technician to: a. conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathways 11 and 12 b. georgian cabinetmaking techniques pathway 7 c. humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician pathway 10 5. from conestoga woodworking technician to: a. st.clair woodworking technician pathway 13 b. humber industrial woodworking technician pathway 3 the pathways, as depicted above, have been established with consideration of the academic and practical abilities of students at the sending institutions. these pathways provide opportunity for student mobility across the province and for academic continuity should they intend on furthering their study. the project provided supporting evidence for establishing future pathways between the post-secondary programs at the participating colleges and the cabinetmaking apprenticeship. 7 appendix a: gap analysis: pathway 1: humber cabinet making and humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) pathway 1 humber 2 year student to conestoga 3 year.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 4) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. no gaps in learning outcomes other than the ones mentioned above were identified for this pathway. no bridging courses are necessary for this pathway. pathway 2: humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology pathway 2 humber 2 year student to conestoga 3 year.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 4) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. no gaps in learning outcomes other than the ones mentioned above were identified for this pathway. the transferring student will be required to complete the following courses that address gaps identified through the course to course comparison. there will be 3 bridging courses available during one semester as listed below: course title advanced computer applications computerized product development ii finishing iii theory course code comp2010 dsgn2130 wood2070 pathway 3: conestoga woodworking technician to humber woodworking technician (midstream) pathway 3 conestoga 2 year student to humber 2 year.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 4) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. no gaps in learning outcomes other than the ones mentioned above were identified for this pathway. no bridging courses are necessary for this pathway. as a result of the interview with the program coordinator, the transferring student might be required to complete a project that includes self-study and execution of bending and laminating. pathway 4: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathway 4 georgian student to conestoga 2 and 3 year.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 2 and table 4) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the identified gaps in learning outcomes include outcomes 14, 15, 16, 17, 23 and 26 from mtcu 54300 and 2b., 2c, 3c, 4b g, 5b, 6a 7b., 9, 10, 11, 12. the comparison of course content and the position of the courses in the receiving institution program design ensures that these gaps will be addressed in the courses the student is completing at conestoga. therefore, no bridging courses are necessary for this pathway. as a result of the interview with the program coordinator, the transferring student might be required to sit for an evaluative computer aptitude test relating to computer drafting to ensure student success in the subsequent courses in the program. pathway 5: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to humber industrial woodworking technician pathway 5 georgian student to humber 2 years.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 2) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the identified gaps in learning outcomes include outcomes 14, 15, 16, 17, 23 and 26 from mtcu 54300. the comparison of course content and the position of the courses in the receiving institution program design ensures that these gaps will be addressed in the courses the student is completing at humber. therefore, no bridging courses are necessary for this pathway. as a result of the interview with the program coordinator, the transferring student might be required to complete a project that includes self-study and execution of bending and laminating. pathway 6: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to st.clair woodworking technician pathway 6 georgian student to stclair.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 2 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the identified gaps in learning outcomes include outcomes 14, 16, 23 and 26 from mtcu 54300. the comparison of course content and the position of the courses in the receiving institution program design ensures that most of these gaps will be addressed in the courses the student is completing at st.clair. there will be 2 bridging courses available during one semester, as listed below: course title renovation carpentry outdoor structures course code bdt219 crp211 9 pathway 7: st. clair woodworking technician to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (midstream) pathway 7 stclair student to georgian.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 2 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. there are no outcome gaps identified for this pathway. based on the comparison of course content, there will be 1 bridging course available during one semester as listed below: course title finishing processes course code cabt1012 pathway 8: humber cabinet maker to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) pathway 8 humber student to georgian.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 2 and table 1) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. there are no outcome gaps identified for this pathway. based on the comparison of course content, there will be 1 bridging course available during one semester as listed below: course title finishing processes course code cabt1012 pathway 9: humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician to st.clair woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway 9 humber 1&2 year student to stclair.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. there are no outcome gaps identified for this pathway. based on the comparison of course content, no bridging is required for this pathway. pathway 10: st. clair woodworking technician to humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway 10 st.clair student to humber 1&2 years.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. there are no outcome gaps identified for this pathway. based on the comparison of course content, no bridging is required for this pathway. however, for students coming into this pathway from the cabinet making certificate, arrangements have to be made to facilitate completion of the required number of general education electives in the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program. pathway 11: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician (midstream) pathway 11 stclair student to conestoga 2 years.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 4 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the following outcome gaps were identified for this pathway: 12, 15 and 17 from mtcu 54300. these outcome gaps will be addressed in the subsequent courses in semesters 2, 3 and 4. students must complete comm1085 college reading and writing skills before graduation. this course is offered in multiple sections in every semester. course title college reading and writing skills course code comm1085 pathway 12: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology (midstream) pathway 12 stclair student to conestoga 3 years.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 4 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the following outcome gaps were identified for this pathway: 3c, 4d 4.g, 6b, 6c, 7a, 11-14 from mtcu 64300. these outcome gaps will be addressed based on the students point of entry as described below: to enter at semester 2 level, no bridging is required for this pathway. however, students must complete comm1085 college reading and writing skills before graduation. this course is offered in multiple sections in every semester. 11 course title college reading and writing skills course code comm1085 to enter at semester 4 (year 2 level) students must complete comm1085 college reading and writing skills before graduation. this course is offered in multiple sections in every semester. additionally, there will be 4 bridging courses available during one semester as listed below: course title course code cnc (woodworking) mach1020 finishing ii - practical wood1070 machining ii - practical wood1080 finishing 2 theory wood1170 pathway 13: conestoga woodworking technician to st. clair woodworking technician (midprogram) pathway 13 conestoga 2 year student to stclair.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 4 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. no gaps were identified in the program outcomes. to enter at semester 2 level, no bridging is required for this pathway. to enter at semester 4 (year 2 level) students must complete the following 2 bridging courses, which will be available during one semester. outlines for each of these courses follow. course title renovation carpentry outdoor structures course code bdt219 crp211 appendix b: pathway documentation pathway 1: humber cabinet making and humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: from: humber cabinet making certificate and use official program/credential titles humber industrial woodworking technician diploma to: conestoga woodworking technician diploma conestoga woodworking technology pathway type: certificate to diploma and advanced diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma and advanced diploma mid-stream list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technician (#0054) 1701 design and forward conestoga woodworking technology (#0804) 170 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0054.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: students that have successfully completed the first semester of the humber cabinet making certificate program with a minimum of 60% average students that have successfully completed the first semester of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program and / or the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program students that have successfully completed the first two semesters of 13 the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the conestoga woodworking technician program and the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program. students that have successfully completed the first two semesters of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, no bridging courses are required for this pathway. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no only successful completion of the required number of academic semesters for the specific pathway minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 29 courses for the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program 55 courses for the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 note: conestoga offers a co-op version of the woodworking technology advanced diploma program. transfer into the second semester of this program would enable the student to complete the co-op design without any bridge courses. total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: 7 out of 29 courses for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway 7 out of 55 for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 15 of 29 courses for the semester 2 certificate or diploma to year 2 semester 3 diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma or the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma the following year 2 courses will be considered for advanced standing: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: wood2037 machining 3 practical entr1011 entrepreneurship 22 out of 29 courses for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway 48 out of 55 courses for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 14 of 29 courses for the semester 2 certificate or diploma to year 2 semester 3 diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2 (year 1), 3 and 4 (year 2) for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway semesters 3 and 4 (year 2) for the semester 2 certificate or diploma to semester 3 (year 2) diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete: semesters 2 (year 1), and all the academic terms in year 2 and 3 for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway note: this pathway allows students to complete the coop version of the program without any additional bridging anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: number of years: 1.5 (3 academic semesters) for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 3 academic terms number of years: 2.5 (5 academic semesters) for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 5 academic terms list of eligible institutions and their programs humber college: - humber cabinet making (30991) - humber industrial woodworking technician (30891) 15 pathway 2: humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: humber industrial woodworking technician diploma to: conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma diploma to advanced diploma degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technology (#0804) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0804c.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the third year of the conestoga woodworking technology program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging courses are required for comp2010 advanced computer applications dsgn2130 computerized product development ii wood2070 finishing iii theory applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 55 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 if the student from the sending institution pursues entry into the co-op stream of the program, an additional pathway, not represented here, will need to be developed. total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 30 out of 55 courses for the diploma to advanced diploma courses for the diploma to advanced diploma pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first two years of the conestoga woodworking technology program plus the following two courses from the third year: wtce1003 elective: general education entr1011 entrepreneurship 25 out of 55 for the diploma to advanced diploma pathway, including the bridging courses in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete year 3 academic terms (2 in total) for the diploma to advanced diploma pathway plus the bridging courses anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs comp2010 advanced computer applications dsgn2130 computerized product development ii wood2070 finishing iii theory for the diploma to advanced diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 humber college: - humber industrial woodworking technician (30891) 17 pathway 3: conestoga woodworking technician to humber woodworking technician (mid-program) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: conestoga woodworking technician diploma to: humber industrial woodworking technician diploma diploma to diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 humber industrial woodworking technician diploma 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.humber.ca/program/industrialwoodworking-technician program coordinator: drew aaslepp, (416) 675-6622 ext. 78059 drew.aaslepp@humber.ca eligibility for the pathway: students in the conestoga woodworking technician program that have completed the first year of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the third semester of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the transferring student might be required to complete a project that includes self-study and execution of bending and laminating. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% minimum gpa or % required in specific courses n/a total number of courses in the humber program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the humber program design: 20 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at humber in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 13 out of 20 courses for this diploma to diploma pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first and second year of the conestoga woodworking technology program 7 out of 20 courses in order to graduate from the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete year 2 academic term (1 in total) anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs for this diploma to diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 1 academic terms number of years: 1 conestoga college: - woodworking technician diploma (0054) 19 pathway 4: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: georgian cabinetmaking certificate to: conestoga woodworking technician diploma and conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma pathway type: certificate to diploma degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. certificate to advanced diploma list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technician (#0054) 1601 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1601. conestoga woodworking technology (0084) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701 contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0804c.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: students who have completed the first semester of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technician program or in the second year of the conestoga woodworking technology program graduates of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the conestoga woodworking technician program or in the second year of the conestoga woodworking technology program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, no bridging courses are required. the interested student may sit for an evaluative computer aptitude test relating to computer drafting following the interview with the program coordinator. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no for the mid-stream transfer only successful completion of semester 1 is required yes for the certificate to diploma pathway yes for the certificate to advanced diploma pathway minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: 60% n/a 29 courses for the conestoga woodworking technician diploma 55 courses for the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: 7 out of 29 courses for the certificate semester 1 to diploma semester 2 pathway 7 out of 55 courses for the certificate semester 1 to advanced diploma pathway 15 out of 29 courses for the certificate to diploma year 2 pathway 17 out of 55 courses for the certificate to advanced diploma year 2 pathway for the certificate to semester 2 diploma and advanced diploma pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program and the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program for the certificate to year 2 diploma and advanced diploma pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first year of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program and the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 22 out of 29 courses for the certificate to semester 2 diploma pathway 48 out of 55 courses for the certificate to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 14 out of 29 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway 38 out of 55 courses for the certificate to advanced diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2, 3, and 4 (one half of year one and the entire year 2) or the entire 2 semesters 3 and 4 21 in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technology program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or year 2 and year 3 academic terms anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: for the certificate to semester 2 diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 3 academic terms number of years: 1.5 for the certificate to advanced diploma semester 2 pathway number of academic semesters: 8 academic terms number of years: 2 note: this pathway allows transferring students to complete the co-op option of the program. for the certificate to year 2 diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 for the certificate to advanced diploma year 2 pathway number of academic semesters: 4 academic terms number of years: 2 list of eligible institutions and their programs georgian college: - cabinetmaking techniques pathway 5: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to humber industrial woodworking technician pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: georgian cabinetmaking certificate to: humber industrial woodworking technician diploma certificate to diploma degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 humber industrial woodworking technician (30891) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.humber.ca/program/industrialwoodworking-technician program coordinator: drew aaslepp, (416) 675-6622 ext. 78059 drew.aaslepp@humber.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the third semester of the humber industrial woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, no bridging courses are required for this pathway. the interested student might be asked to complete bending and laminating self-study and a project. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for 60% 23 this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses n/a total number of courses in 20 courses for the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma the humber program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at humber in order to graduate: 11 out of 20 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first two semesters of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program 9 out of 20 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway program completion requirements: in order to graduate from the humber industrial woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semester 3 academic term anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: for the certificate to diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs georgian college: - cabinetmaking techniques number of academic semesters: 1 academic term number of years: 1 pathway 6: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to st.clair woodworking technician pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: georgian cabinetmaking certificate to: st.clair woodworking technician diploma certificate to diploma degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: st. clair college; humber college; conestoga college september 2017 st.clair woodworking technician (30891) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.stclaircollege.ca/programs/postsec/woodwork/ program coordinator: roy bottoset, 519-972-2727, ext. 4407 rbottoset@stclaircollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the st.clair woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging courses are required for this pathway: bdt 219 renovation carpentry crp 211 outdoor structures applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for 60% 25 this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the st.clair program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 22 courses for the st.clair woodworking technician diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at st.clair in order to graduate: 10 out of 22 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first year of the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program 12 out of 20 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway including the bridge course program completion requirements: in order to graduate from the st.clair woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete the second year of study anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: for the certificate to diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs georgian college: - cabinetmaking techniques number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 pathway 7: st. clair woodworking technician to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: st. clair woodworking technician diploma to: georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate diploma to certificate mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: humber college; conestoga college september 2017 georgian cabinetmaking techniques 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.georgiancollege.ca/academics/full-timeprograms/cabinetmaking-techniques-cabt/overview-tab/ program coordinator: kim woodman (705) 728-1968 ext. 5231 kim.woodman@georgiancollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: students in the st. clair woodworking technician program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum average of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technician program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging course is required: cabt1012 finishing processes applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% 27 minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the georgian program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 18 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at georgian in order to graduate: program completion requirements: anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5 out of the 18 courses transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program 13 out of 18 courses in order to graduate from the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program, advanced standing students must successfully complete the remainder year 1 academic terms (semesters 2 and 3) plus the bridge course number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 st. clair college: - woodworking technician diploma (t805) pathway 8: humber cabinet maker to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: humber cabinet maker certificate to: georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate certificate to certificate mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: st.clair college; conestoga college september 2017 georgian cabinetmaking techniques 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.georgiancollege.ca/academics/full-timeprograms/cabinetmaking-techniques-cabt/overview-tab/ program coordinator: kim woodman (705) 728-1968 ext. 5231 kim.woodman@georgiancollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: students in the humber cabinet maker certificate program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum average of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging course is required: cabt1012 finishing processes applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% 29 minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the georgian program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 18 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at georgian in order to graduate: program completion requirements: anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5 out of the 18 courses transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program 13 out of 18 courses in order to graduate from the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program, advanced standing students must successfully complete the remainder year 1 academic terms (semesters 2 and 3) plus the bridge course number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 humber college: - cabinet maker certificate pathway 9: humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician to st.clair woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: humber cabinet maker certificate and humber industrial woodworking technician diploma to: st.clair woodworking technician diploma pathway type: certificate to diploma mid stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma mid stream list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: georgian college; conestoga college september 2017 st.clair woodworking technician (30891) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.stclaircollege.ca/programs/postsec/woodwork/ program coordinator: roy bottoset, 519-972-2727, ext. 4407 rbottoset@stclaircollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending students in the humber cabinet maker certificate program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the st.clair woodworking technician program students in the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the st.clair woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, there are no bridging courses required. yes 31 institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the st.clair program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: 60% n/a 22 courses for the st.clair woodworking technician diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at st.clair in order to graduate: 6 out of 22 courses for both certificate to diploma and diploma to diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program 16 out of 22 courses must be completed for both versions of the pathway program completion requirements: in order to graduate from the st.clair woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete the remainder of the first year and the second year of study anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: for both certificate to diploma and diploma to diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs humber college: - cabinet maker - industrial woodworking technician number of academic semesters: 3 academic terms number of years: 1.5 pathway 10: st. clair woodworking technician to humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: st. clair woodworking technician diploma to: humber cabinet maker certificate and humber industrial woodworking technician diploma pathway type: diploma to certificate mid-stream and degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma mid-stream list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; conestoga college; september 2017 humber cabinet maker certificate humber industrial woodworking technician diploma 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.humber.ca/program/industrialwoodworking-technician program coordinator: drew aaslepp, (416) 675-6622 ext. 78059 drew.aaslepp@humber.ca eligibility for the pathway: applicant must have graduated from the students in the st. clair woodworking technician program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, there are no bridging courses required for this pathway. however, for students coming into this pathway from the cabinet making certificate, arrangements have to be made to facilitate completion of the required number of general education electives in the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program. no 33 program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the humber program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the humber program design: 60% n/a 13 for the cabinet making certificate 20 for the industrial woodworking technician diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at humber in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 5 out of 13 courses for the cabinet making certificate 5 out of 20 courses for the industrial woodworking technician diploma for the diploma to certificate pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the humber cabinet making certificate or industrial woodworking technician diploma program as applicable 8 out of 13 courses for the cabinet making certificate 15 out of 20 courses for the industrial woodworking technician diploma in order to graduate from the humber cabinet making certificate program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semester 2 and semester 3 courses (2 in total) in order to graduate from the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semester 2 and semester 3 courses (2 in total) anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs for both versions of this pathway number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 st. clair college: - woodworking technician diploma (t805) pathway 11: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: st.clair woodworking technician diploma to: conestoga woodworking technician diploma diploma to diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: georgian college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technician (#0054) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0054.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending students that have successfully completed the first semester of the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, there are no bridging courses required for this pathway. however, students must complete comm1085 college reading and writing skills before graduation. this course is offered in multiple sections in every semester. no only successful completion of the courses in the first semester 35 institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: 60% n/a 29 courses for the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 6 out of 29 courses for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma 23 out of 29 courses for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2 (year 1), 3 and 4 (year 2) for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: number of years: 1.5 (3 academic semesters) for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs humber college: - st.clair woodworking technician diploma program pathway 12: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: st.clair woodworking technician diploma to: conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma diploma to advanced diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma (#0804) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0054.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: students that have successfully completed the first semester of the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technology diploma program note: this pathway allows the student to complete the co-op design of the program students that have successfully completed the first yearof the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the conestoga woodworking technology diploma program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning 37 across the sending institutions program, the following courses are required for this pathway: to enter at semester 4 (year 2 level) comm1085 college reading & writing skills mach1020 cnc (woodworking) wood1070 finishing ii - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical wood1170 finishing 2 theory note: the pathway with the entry point in the second year of the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma provides access only into the non-co-op design. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no only successful completion of the courses in the first semester or the first year respectively minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 55 courses for the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program for the pathway with entry into semester 2: total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 3 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 3 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 3 for the pathway with entry into year 2: total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 3 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 3 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 3 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: 6 out of 55 courses for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 10 out of 55 courses for the year 1 diploma to year 2 advanced diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first year of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma for the year 1 diploma to year 2 advanced diploma pathway total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 49 out of 55 courses for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 45 out of 55 courses for the year 1 diploma to year 2 advanced diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technology diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2 (year 1), and all the academic and co-op semesters for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway all academic semesters from year 2 and year 3 for the year 1 diploma to year 2 advanced diploma pathway plus the bridging courses anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: number of years: 2.5 for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs st.clair college: - st.clair woodworking technician diploma program 39 pathway 13: conestoga woodworking technician to st. clair woodworking technician (mid-program) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: conestoga woodworking technician diploma to: st. clair woodworking technician diploma diploma to diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: georgian college; humber college september 2017 st. clair woodworking technician 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.stclaircollege.ca/programs/postsec/woodwork/ program coordinator: roy bottoset, 519-972-2727, ext. 4407 rbottoset@stclaircollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: applicant must have students in the conestoga woodworking technician program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the st. clair woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, no additional bridging courses are required for this pathway: students in the conestoga woodworking technician program that have completed the first year of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the st. clair woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging courses are required for this pathway: bdt 219 renovation carpentry crp 211 outdoor structures no graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the st. clair program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the st. clair program design: 60% n/a 22 courses for the st. clair woodworking technician diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: 6 out of 22 courses for the diploma to diploma pathway with entry point in the second semester 10 out of 22 courses for the diploma to diploma pathway with entry point in the third semester transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the st. clair woodworking technician diploma program if the entry point is semester 2 transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first year of the st. clair woodworking technician diploma program if the entry point is year 2 total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at st. clair in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 16 out of 22 courses for the diploma to diploma pathway with the semester 2 entry point 12 out of 22 courses for the diploma to diploma pathway with the year 2 entry point in order to graduate from the st. clair woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete if they enter in semester 2, the year 1 semester 2 and year 2 academic terms plus the additional bridging courses: bdt 219 renovation carpentry crp 211 outdoor structures if they enter in year 2, year 2 academic terms and the additional bridging courses: bdt 219 renovation carpentry 41 anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: crp 211 outdoor structures for this diploma to diploma pathway with the entry point is semester 2: number of academic semesters: 3 academic terms number of years: 1.5 for this diploma to diploma pathway with the entry point is year 2: number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 list of eligible institutions and their programs conestoga college: - woodworking technician program appendix c: financial statement final budget project budget details can be found in schedule b of the oncat project 2015-18: pathways between ontario woodworking postsecondary programs and cabinetmaking trade curriculum agreement. a detailed financial statement was provided separately to oncat. 43 appendix d cabinetmaking techniques ontario college certificate georgian cabinetmaking ontario college certificate humber woodworking technician ontario college diploma conestoga woodworking technicianontario college diploma st. clair ossd or equivalent wit - grade 12 english (c or u) math in the program - allows for inter-college transfer ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) or equivalent including these required courses: grade 12 english (eng4c or eng4u or equivalent) grade 12 mathematics (map4c, mct4c, mdm4u, mcb4u, mga4u, mcv4u or mhf4u or equivalent) two grade 11 or grade 12 c, m or u courses in addition to those listed above or mature student status or college or university transfer status all applicants whose first language is not english must meet humbers english language proficiency policy ontario secondary school diploma (ossd), or equivalent, grade 12 compulsory english, c or u, or equivalent, or conestoga college preparatory communications (comm1270) grade 12 mathematics, c or u, or equivalent, or conestoga college preparatory mathematics for trades (math1420) or 19 years of age or older with mature student status (see mature student definition for details.) ossd with the majority of courses at the college (c), university (u), university/college (m) or open (o) level qualify for admission to this program. mature students - see admission procedures for details. admission selection is based on the academic criteria indicated. meeting minimum eligibility requirements does not guarantee admission. an academic strength is calculated by averaging the submitted marks of required subjects. if more than one mark is received for a required subject, the highest mark will be used in the calculation. ten (10) additional marks are added to each advanced level, oac, u, u/c, and postsecondary course used in the calculation of academic strength. program requirements applicants are assumed to have basic computer literacy. industrial woodworking technician - ontario college diploma humber ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) or equivalent including these required courses: grade 12 english (eng4c or eng4u or equivalent) grade 12 mathematics (map4c, mct4c, mdm4u, mcb4u, mga4u, mcv4u or mhf4u or equivalent) two grade 11 or grade 12 c, m or u courses in addition to those listed above or mature student status or college or university transfer status all applicants whose first language is not english must meet humbers english language proficiency policy. admission selection is based on the academic criteria indicated. meeting minimum eligibility requirements does not guarantee admission. woodworking technology ontario college advanced diploma conestoga ontario secondary school diploma (ossd), or equivalent, or 19 years of age or older with mature student status (see mature student definition for details.) grade 12 compulsory english, c or u, or equivalent, or conestoga college preparatory communications (comm1270) grade 12 mathematics, c or u, or equivalent, or conestoga college preparatory mathematics for trades (math1420) an academic strength is calculated by averaging the submitted marks of required subjects. if more than one mark is received for a required subject, the highest mark will be used in the calculation. ten (10) additional marks are added to each advanced level, oac, u, u/c, and postsecondary course used in the calculation of academic strength. appendix e table 1: mtcu vocational outcomes comparison humber college humber mtcu comparison map.xlsx 44300 (certificate) humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 1. apply the fundamentals of mathematics to the solution of routine problems in their discipline. 2.5. demonstrate dimensioning skills in both imperial and metric scales. iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 3.2. idetify and describe safety issues specific to the woodworking lab. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 2. perform all industrial woodworking activities safely and demonstrate the ability to react to emergency situations properly. 3.3. identify and describe humber college safety policies. 3.4. identify and describe humber college safety policies for the lab. 45 44300 (certificate) humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 3. store, test and select the various grades of wood and related building materials. 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary powered machinery. 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 5. determine joinery requirements for various types of construction through the assessment of material characteristics and end use suitability. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.1. identify and demonstrate correct use of manual drafting equipment. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 152: finishing 1 iwwt 205: finishing 2 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 6. perform sanding operations to the determined industrial standards. 7. select and apply adhesives common to the trade, utilizing related clamping and applicating tools and equipment. 44300 (certificate) 8. perform finishing operations utilizing materials and processes common to the wood products industry. 9. select and apply hardware and fasteners used in the manufacturing of furniture, cabinets, and millwork. 10. install residential and commercial cabinets. humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 152: finishing 1 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 205: finishing 2 4.1 describe and or construct the following types of case construction at a basic level: traditional (face frame) construction; 32 millimetre construction systems; kitchen cabinets; web frame case construction iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 5.1. install drawer and door components in a bank of cabinets using standard european style kitchen hardware. 5.1. install drawer and door components in a bank of cabinets using standard european style kitchen hardware. 5.3. scribe an upper cabinet to a typically uneven wall using portable power tools to simulate installation onsite. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 47 44300 (certificate) humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 2.1. identify and demonstrate correct use of manual drafting equipment. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.2. produce lettering and line work suitable for working shop drawings. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.3. identify and properly use typical terminology and abbreviations in regards to shop drawings. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.4. identify and properly use typical drawing symbols, graphics and conventions in regards to shop drawings. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.5. demonstrate dimensioning skills in both imperial and metric scales. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.6. describe and demonstrate the drawing techniques of orthographic projection. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 44300 (certificate) 12. develop acceptable business practices and communication skills to ensure customer and employer satisfaction throughout industry. 13. perform basic computer keyboard operations. humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 2.7. draw an isometric drawing of a given object. produce a rendering (perspective drawing) of a given object. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.8. prepare typical shop drawings for a given object, using proper symbols and conventions: (a) front view, top view and right side or end; (b) sections views where necessary; (c) title box and specifications iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading 49 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 209: shaping operations 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 152: finishing 1 iwwt 205: finishing 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 6. use basic hand tools. 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 7.1 describe and or construct the following types of case construction at a basic level: traditional (face frame) construction; 32 millimetre construction systems; kitchen cabinets; web frame case construction iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. 51 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods 12. communicate effectively. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications 8.1 the students will demonstrate basic knowledge of the following using toolpath software designed for use on the axyz cnc router: safety operations and regulations; introduction to toolpath iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business 16. apply simple business practice procedures. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture. 5.2. identify and complete basic repairs to a piece of broken furniture. the repairs shall be of a level suitable to the nature of the furniture, the structural demands imposed by use and also take into account the ability of the student. iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 5.1. install drawer and door components in a bank of cabinets using standard european style kitchen hardware. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 19. design and construct a variety of architectural millwork products. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column 21. design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 209: shaping operations iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 209: shaping operations 22. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; 8.1 the students will demonstrate basic knowledge of the following using toolpath software designed for use on the axyz cnc router: safety operations and regulations; introduction to toolpath iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 23. create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or 8.1 the students will demonstrate basic knowledge of the following using toolpath software designed for use on the axyz cnc router: safety operations and regulations; introduction to toolpath iwwt 154: basics of cad (auto sketch) iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 24. design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 25. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 152: finishing 1 53 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 205: finishing 2 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 27. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods 28. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 207: operating your own business 26. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 1.a. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 1.b. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.a. set up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 2.b. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling 2.c. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 209: shaping operations 2.d. finish a variety of woodworking projects using state-of-the-art finishing procedures and production techniques. 7.1 describe and or construct the following types of case construction at a basic level: traditional (face frame) construction; 32 millimetre construction systems; kitchen cabinets; web frame case construction iwwt 152: finishing 1 iwwt 205: finishing 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 55 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 2.e. use basic hand tools. 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 3.a. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 7.1 describe and or construct the following types of case construction at a basic level: traditional (face frame) construction; 32 millimetre construction systems; kitchen cabinets; web frame case construction iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 154: basics of cad (auto sketch) iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 3.b. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 3.c. develop complete working drawings using autocad. 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 4.a. understand basic principles of work measurements, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications iwwt 207: operating your own business 4.b. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business 4.c. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 207: operating your own business 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. not covered 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. not covered 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. not covered 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. not covered 5.a. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry. iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column 57 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 5.b. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. 9.1 describe and demonstrate the following types of bending at a basic level: lay-up and pressing of flat and curved veneered panels; vacuum pressing; cold pressing; steam bending; laminating a curve; brick laying a curve; kerf-cutting; form work; some of the bending listed above done in a group setting. iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 209: shaping operations iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 6.a. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 154: basics of cad (auto sketch) iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 6.b.understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 6.c. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 7.a. develop a quality assurance program for wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. 0 not covered 7.b. apply testing techniques including simple computer analysis on a variety of raw materials and assembled products. 0 not covered 8. appreciate the history of furniture styles. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 9. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods 10. apply simple business procedures. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business 11. restore antique furniture based on the evaluation and estimation of repair costs. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 12. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. not covered 13. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. 3.1. identify and describe safety issues related to woodworking. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 14. communicate effectively in speech and writing as well as graphically. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 59 table 2: mtcu vocational outcomes comparison georgian college georgian mtcu comparison map.xlsx 44300 (certificate) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes courses 1. apply the fundamentals of mathematics to the solution of routine problems in their discipline. 9. apply mathematical solutions for cabinetmaking applications. math1007 mathematics techniques 2. perform all industrial woodworking activities safely and demonstrate the ability to react to emergency situations properly. 1. perform cabinetmaking activities safely to industry standards cabt1010 hand and power tools cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation 3. store, test and select the various grades of wood and related building materials. 5. select various grades of lumber and building materials cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary powered machinery. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 5. determine joinery requirements for various types of construction through the assessment of material characteristics and end use suitability. 2. determine joinery requirements for various types of cabinetmaking construction including sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units cabt1013 joinery and fastening 6. perform sanding operations to the determined industrial standards. 6. perform sanding and adhesive operations to industry standards cabt1016 finishing applications cabt1020 advanced projects 7. select and apply adhesives common to the trade, utilizing related clamping and applicating tools and equipment. 6. perform sanding and adhesive operations to industry standards cabt1016 finishing applications cabt1020 advanced projects 8. perform finishing operations utilizing materials and processes common to the wood products industry. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1016 finishing applications cabt1020 advanced projects 9. select and apply hardware and fasteners used in the manufacturing of furniture, cabinets, and millwork. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1016 finishing applications cabt1020 advanced projects 10. install residential and commercial cabinets. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications cabt1018 construction applications 44300 (certificate) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes courses 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 2. determine joinery requirements for various types of cabinetmaking construction including sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units cabt1013 joinery and fastening 12. develop acceptable business practices and communication skills to ensure customer and employer satisfaction throughout industry. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1019 preproduction planning 13. perform basic computer keyboard operations. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column drft1009 technical drawings 61 54300 (diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes courses 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. not covered 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. not covered 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1016 finishing applications 6. use basic hand tools. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 5. select various grades of lumber and building materials cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1018 construction applications included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1021 furniture design included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column communications course 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. 12. communicate effectively. 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications cabt1020 advanced projects cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation communications course drft1009 technical drawings 54300 (diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. not covered 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. not covered 16. apply simple business practice procedures. not covered 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture. not covered 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications 19. design and construct a variety of 8. produce cabinets and other architectural millwork products. architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications depending on the optional practical modules chosen: 21. design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; not covered 22. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; not covered 23. create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or not covered 24. design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications 6. perform sanding and adhesive operations to industry standards 25. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. 26. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. courses cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation cabt1020 advanced projects cabt1011 cabinetmaking applications cabt1020 advanced projects cabt1015 trim and mouldings cabt1021 furniture design cabt1012 finishing processes cabt1020 advanced projects not covered 63 54300 (diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes courses 27. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 28. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation 64300 (advanced diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcome courses 1.a. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 1.b. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 5. select various grades of lumber and building materials cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 2.a. set up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 2.b. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. not covered 2.c. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. not covered 2.d. finish a variety of woodworking projects using state-of-the-art finishing procedures and production techniques. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1012 finishing processes cabt1016 finishing applications 2.e. use basic hand tools. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 3.a. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1012 finishing processes cabt1016 finishing applications 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications 3. interpret drawings for production planning and estimating cabt1018 construction applications 3.b. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 3.c. develop complete working drawings using autocad. drft1009 technical drawings cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation not covered 65 64300 (advanced diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcome courses 4.a. understand basic principles of work measurements, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation cabt1019 preproduction planning 4.b. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. not covered 4.c. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. not covered 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. not covered 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. not covered 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. not covered 5.a. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications 5.b. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. cabt1018 construction applications 6.a. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. not covered 6.b.understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. not covered 6.c. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. not covered 7.a. develop a quality assurance program for wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. not covered not covered not covered 7.b. apply testing techniques including simple computer analysis on a variety of raw materials and assembled products. not covered 8. appreciate the history of furniture styles. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column 9. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. cabt1021 furniture design 10. apply simple business procedures. not covered not covered 64300 (advanced diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcome courses 11. restore antique furniture based on the evaluation and estimation of repair costs. not covered 12. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. not covered 13. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. 1. perform cabinetmaking activities safely to industry standards cabt1010 hand and power tools cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation 14. communicate effectively in speech and writing as well as graphically. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column communications course 67 table 3: mtcu vocational outcomes comparison st.clair college st.clair mtcu comparison map.xlsx 44300 (certificate) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 1. apply the fundamentals of mathematics to the solution of routine problems in their discipline. 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. bdt 106 carpentry calculations bdt 117 print reading & estimating 2. perform all industrial woodworking activities safely and demonstrate the ability to react to emergency situations properly. 3. store, test and select the various grades of wood and related building materials. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary powered machinery. 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 5. determine joinery requirements for various types of construction through the assessment of material characteristics and end use suitability. 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 6. perform sanding operations to the determined industrial standards. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 7. select and apply adhesives common to the trade, utilizing related clamping and applicating tools and equipment. 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 8. perform finishing operations utilizing materials and processes common to the wood products industry. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 9. select and apply hardware and fasteners used in the manufacturing of furniture, cabinets, and millwork. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 219 renovation carpentry bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 302 materials i bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 219 renovation carpentry bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork 44300 (certificate) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 10. install residential and commercial cabinets. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 12. develop acceptable business practices and communication skills to ensure customer and employer satisfaction throughout industry. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. bdt 106 carpentry calculations arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 16. apply simple business practice procedures. bdt 117 print reading & estimating 13. perform basic computer keyboard operations. 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications. arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control 69 54300 (diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. bdt 302 materials i 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 219 renovation carpentry bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 309 architectural millwork 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 6. use basic hand tools. 6. use basic hand tools. 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 303 machining theory ii bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 410 stair design/ manufacturing bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 406 millwork installation mechanics bdt 302 materials i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 106 carpentry calculations arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 54300 (diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. bdt 221 custom cabinetry 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. bdt 219 renovation carpentry crp 211 outdoor structures bdt 308 design studio bdt 410 stair design/ manufacturing 12. communicate effectively. 12. communicate effectively. 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications. 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 16. apply simple business practice procedures. 16. apply simple business practice procedures. arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 106 carpentry calculations bdt 117 print reading & estimating bdt 117 print reading & estimating 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture. not covered 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 19. design and construct a variety of architectural millwork products. 19. design and construct a variety of architectural millwork products. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 410 stair design/ manufacturing depending on the optional practical modules chosen: 71 54300 (diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 21. design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: (a) design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; (b) understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; (c) create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or (d) design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. bdt 309 architectural millwork 22. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: (a) design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; (b) understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; (c) create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or (d) design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. bdt 407 computer numeric control 23. create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: (a) design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; (b) understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; (c) create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or (d) design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. arc 204 building cad ii 24. design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. not covered 25. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. 21. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. bdt 218 wood finishing bdt 303 machining theory ii 26. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. 22. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. bdt 117 print reading & estimating 27. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. 23. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. bdt 117 print reading & estimating 28. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 24. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. bdt 302 materials i 64300 (advanced diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 1.a. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. bdt 302 materials i 1.b. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. bdt 302 materials i 2.a. set up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 2.b. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 219 renovation carpentry bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 309 architectural millwork 2.c. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 303 machining theory ii bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 410 stair design/ manufacturing 2.d. finish a variety of woodworking projects using state-of-the-art finishing procedures and production techniques. 2.e. use basic hand tools. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. bdt 216 wood finishing 6. use basic hand tools. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 406 millwork installation mechanics 3.a. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork 3.b. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. bdt 106 carpentry calculations arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 3.c. develop complete working drawings using autocad. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 73 64300 (advanced diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 4.a. understand basic principles of work measurements, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. bdt 106 carpentry calculations bdt 117 print reading & estimating 4.b. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 4.c. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 23. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. bdt 117 print reading & estimating 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. not covered 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. not covered 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. not covered 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. not covered 5.a. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork 5.b. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. bdt 106 carpentry calculations arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 6.a. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: (a) design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; (b) understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; (c) create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or (d) design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. bdt 309 architectural millwork table 4: mtcu vocational outcomes comparison conestoga college conestoga mtcu comparison map.xlsx 44300 (certificate) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 1. apply the fundamentals of mathematics to the solution of routine problems in their discipline. 16. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. oper2120 shop management mgmt1230 time and motion study ii: work measurement mgmt1220 time and motion study i: work design qual3030 quality control 2. perform all industrial woodworking activities safely and demonstrate the ability to react to emergency situations properly. 2. safely use basic hand tools, and portable power tools. wood1010 woodworking techniques i wood1025 machining i - practical 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. manu3060 automated manufacturing mach2045 computer machining theory/practical wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets 37. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. plan1010 woodworking facilities planning i plan1020 woodworking facilities planning ii 1. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 7. describe the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. matr1030 materials wood1025 machining i - practical 24. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. matr1030 materials wood2020 woodworking techniques iii 2. safely use basic hand tools, and portable power tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. mach1020 cnc (woodworking) wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets 3. store, test and select the various grades of wood and related building materials. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary powered machinery. matr1030 materials 75 44300 (certificate) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 4. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of hand tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 21. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. wood2100 architectural techniques 36. understand the fundamentals of product testing and analysis and perform strength tests on a variety of furniture joints and components. qual3030 quality control 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 21. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 8. perform finishing operations utilizing materials and processes common to the wood products industry. 6. perform a variety of industrial wood finishing techniques. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory wood1070 finishing ii - practical 9. select and apply hardware and fasteners used in the manufacturing of furniture, cabinets, and millwork. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. wood1080 machining ii - practical 5. determine joinery requirements for various types of construction through the assessment of material characteristics and end use suitability. 6. perform sanding operations to the determined industrial standards. 7. select and apply adhesives common to the trade, utilizing related clamping and applicating tools and equipment. 44300 (certificate) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 10. install residential and commercial cabinets. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 12. develop acceptable business practices and communication skills to ensure customer and employer satisfaction throughout industry. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading dsgn1020 product engineering 18. apply simple business practice procedures. entr1011 entrepreneurship 13. perform basic computer keyboard operations. 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications. drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading comp1250 computer drafting 77 54300 (diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. 1. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. matr1030 materials 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. wood1010 woodworking techniques i wood1025 machining i - practical 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. 4. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of hand tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 6. perform a variety of industrial wood finishing techniques. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1070 finishing ii - practical wood2065 finishing 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 6. use basic hand tools. 2. safely use basic hand tools, and portable power tools. 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 7. describe the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical matr1030 materials 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. 10. appreciate the history of furniture styles. drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading wood3020 computer applications in wood products ii dsgn2130 computerized product development ii drwg2115 computerized product development i libs1510 history of furniture styles drwg2115 computerized product development i 54300 (diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. 11. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. wood1080 machining ii - practical hrm3010 effective supervision practicum ii hrm1130 effective supervision hrm3000 effective supervision practicum i 12. communicate effectively. 12. communicate effectively. comm1085 college reading & writing skills drwg2115 computerized product development i 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications. drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading comp1250 computer drafting 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 16. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. math1227 numerical woodworking applications oper2120 shop management 29. develop a quality assurance program for a wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. qual3030 quality control 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 17. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. dsgn1020 product engineering 16. apply simple business practice procedures. 18. apply simple business practice procedures. entr1011 entrepreneurship oper2120 shop management 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture. 25. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 20. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry and architectural millwork. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets wood2100 architectural techniques mach2045 computer machining theory/practical wood1080 machining ii - practical plan1010 woodworking facilities planning i 19. design and construct a variety of architectural millwork products. 23. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures using production processes. 20. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry and architectural millwork. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets wood2100 architectural techniques mach2045 computer machining theory/practical 79 54300 (diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 23. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures using production processes. 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: wood1080 machining ii - practical plan1010 woodworking facilities planning i 21. design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical 22. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; 33. understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. mach2045 computer machining theory/practical mach1020 cnc (woodworking) 23. create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program; or 22. understand the programming and operation of computercontrolled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. 24. design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. 25. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. 23. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures using production processes. 26. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. 25. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 27. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. 24. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. 28. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 25. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory 64300 (advanced diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 1.a. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 1. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 1. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. matr1030 materials 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. wood1010 woodworking techniques i wood1025 machining i - practical 2.b. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. 4. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of hand tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 2.c. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical 2.d. finish a variety of woodworking projects using state-of-the-art finishing procedures and production techniques. 23. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures using production processes. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory wood1070 finishing ii - practical wood2070 finishing iii theory 2.e. use basic hand tools. 2. safely use basic hand tools, and portable power tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 3.a. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical 3.b. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 3.c. develop complete working drawings using autocad. 34. develop complete working drawings using 3d cad software. 4.a. understand basic principles of work measurements, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 16. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 1.b. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 2.a. set up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. matr1030 materials drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading comp1250 computer drafting dsgn1020 product engineering drwg2115 computerized product development i math1227 numerical woodworking applications comp1250 computer drafting dsgn1020 product engineering drwg2115 computerized product development i qual3030 quality control oper1150 planning and control systems ii oper1140 planning and control systems i mgmt1230 time and motion study ii: work measurement 81 64300 (advanced diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 4.b. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 17. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. dsgn1020 product engineering 4.c. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 25. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory drwg2115 computerized product development i 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. 27. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. mgmt1220 time and motion study i: work design mgmt1230 time and motion study ii: work measurement 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. 28. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. oper1150 planning and control systems ii 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. 31. understand and assist in plant layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. plan1020 woodworking facilities planning ii plan1010 woodworking facilities planning i 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. 32. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. oper1140 planning and control systems i oper1150 planning and control systems ii 5.a. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry. 20. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry and architectural millwork. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets wood2100 architectural techniques 5.b. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets wood2100 architectural techniques 6.a. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. 6.b.understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. 21. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. 22. understand the programming and operation of computercontrolled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. 33. understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. 6.c. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. 35. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. mach2045 computer machining theory/practical manu3060 automated manufacturing mach2045 computer machining theory/practical mach1020 cnc (woodworking) mach2045 computer machining theory/practical mach1020 cnc (woodworking) manu3060 automated manufacturing 64300 (advanced diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 7.a. develop a quality assurance program for wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. 29. develop a quality assurance program for a wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. qual3030 quality control 7.b. apply testing techniques including simple computer analysis on a variety of raw materials and assembled products. 36. understand the fundamentals of product testing and analysis and perform strength tests on a variety of furniture joints and components. qual3030 quality control 8. appreciate the history of furniture styles. 9. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. 10. appreciate the history of furniture styles. 11. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. libs1510 history of furniture styles 10. apply simple business procedures. 18. apply simple business practice procedures. entr1011 entrepreneurship oper2120 shop management wood1025 machining i - practical hrm3000 effective supervision practicum i hrm3010 effective supervision practicum ii 11. restore antique furniture based on the evaluation and estimation of repair costs. not covered 12. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. 30. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. hrm3000 effective supervision practicum i hrm3010 effective supervision practicum ii 13. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. 37. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. mgmt1230 time and motion study ii: work measurement mgmt1220 time and motion study i: work design 14. communicate effectively in speech and writing as well as graphically. 38. communicate effectively in speech and writing as well as graphically. comm1085 college reading & writing skills comm1085 college reading & writing skills 83

rapport final contrat : 2016-28 titre du projet : transfer pathway to a ba in psychology at laurentian university liste de participants et tablissements partenaires universit laurentienne collge la cit rapport prpar par le bureau des tudes et affaires francophones de luniversit laurentienne mars 2017 table des matires sommaire .................................................................................................................................................................. 3 intentions et objectifs du projet ...................................................................................................................... 4 laboration des parcours de transfert .......................................................................................................... 4 mthodologie ......................................................................................................................................................................... 4 comparaison et analyse des programmes ................................................................................................................. 5 processus de mise en uvre ........................................................................................................................................... 6 sommaire des parcours de transfert crs.................................................................................................. 7 nouveaux parcours entre le collge la cit et luniversit laurentienne ................................................... 7 tat des parcours.................................................................................................................................................................. 9 protocole dententes darticulations ............................................................................................................................ 9 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises ..................................................................................................... 10 conclusion .............................................................................................................................................................. 10 annexe a : 5 nouveaux parcours entre la cit et luniversit laurentienne pour les tudiants en psychologie .................................................................................................................................. 11 annexe b : entente darticulation de 4 nouveaux parcours entre la cit et luniversit laurentienne pour les tudiants en psychologie sous forme de programmes conjoints ......... 13 annexe c : bauche du protocole dentente dvelopp pour faciliter la mise en uvre dententes darticulations et de nouveaux parcours entre luniversit laurentienne, luniversit de sudbury et la cit ................................................................................................................. 19 2 sommaire dans le cadre de ce projet, luniversit laurentienne et le collge la cit ont labor des parcours de transfert de programmes collgiaux en sciences sociales de la cit vers le baccalaurat s arts en psychologie. neuf parcours distincts ont t dvelopps vers le baccalaurat s arts - psychologie. ceux-ci incluent un parcours pour le programme de techniques de travail social, un pour le programme de techniques dducation spcialise et un pour le programme dducation en services lenfance. de plus, des parcours ont t labors pour deux programmes uniques de la cit, soit interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap et techniques de travail social. finalement, deux programmes conjoints ont t dvelopps pour les programmes dtudes menant un certificat postdiplme, soit autisme et sciences du comportement et sant mentale et toxicomanie. en plus de ces parcours dvelopps, luniversit laurentienne et la cit, ainsi que luniversit de sudbury, ont labor un nouveau protocole dentente entre les trois institutions, qui permettra de plus facilement mettre en uvre de nouveaux parcours dans le futur. 3 intentions et objectifs du projet lobjectif de ce projet tait llaboration de parcours de transfert entre luniversit laurentienne et le collge la cit. les deux tablissements ont fait lanalyse de programmes collgiaux en sciences sociales uniques la cit vers le baccalaurat s arts en psychologie. ce basant sur les parcours dvelopps lanne dernire entre luniversit laurentienne et le collge boral pour les programmes techniques de travail social, techniques dducation spcialise et ducation lenfance, luniversit laurentienne et la cit ont estim que les programmes dtudes menant un certificat postdiplme, soit autisme et sciences du comportement, sant mentale et toxicomanie, ainsi que ceux menant un diplme dtudes collgiales de lontario, soit interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap et techniques de travail social grontologie de la cit, auraient eux aussi des affinits avec le baccalaurat en psychologie. tant donn que les trois programmes collgiaux du collge boral qui ont produit des ententes darrimage vers le baccalaurat en psychologie sont galement offerts la cit, il semblait vident que les diplms des programmes numrs ci-haut de la cit pourraient bnficier de cette initiative. laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie les tapes suivies pour dvelopper ces parcours de transfert sont les suivantes : 1. consultations des dpartements, des directeurs et des doyens, en personne (par lintermdiaire de lagente) et par crit (par lintermdiaire du vice-recteur), pour identifier des pistes de parcours et dententes darticulation dvelopper; 2. identification des modles darticulation dvelopper pour chaque entente et parcours (dans ce cas, 5 ententes traditionnelles et 2 programmes conjoints (voir sommaire des parcours)); 3. recueil et change des plans de cours, descriptions de cours, cursus, etc. ncessaires pour passer lanalyse; 4. comparaison et analyse des rsultats dapprentissage et des plans de cours des programmes afin didentifier le nombre de crdits reconnus par la laurentienne ainsi que les passerelles ncessaires; 5. entame du processus dapprobation pour obtenir le consensus parmi les dpartements de luniversit suivant lordre suivante : - le dpartement la facult le comit academic regulations and awards (ara) le conseil des programmes francophones (cpf) le snat rencontres et personnel impliqu : au fil de ce processus, plusieurs rencontres ont eu lieu. ces rencontres tlphoniques ou en personne ont vari de formelles plutt informelles, selon le sujet. le tableau suivant prsente un aperu du personnel impliqu dans ce processus, ainsi que le rle quils ont jou. 4 description des communications et rencontres intervenants consultations avec dpartements, directeurs et doyens, en personne (agente) pour identifier des pistes de parcours et dententes darticulation dvelopper. - agente de projet ul ententes darticulation - vice-recteur ou direction aux tudes et affaires francophones identification du modle darticulation dvelopper pour chaque entente ou parcours. - agente de projet ul ententes darticulation - direction du programme (psychologie) recueille et change des plans de cours, descriptions de cours, cursus, etc. ncessaires pour passer lanalyse. - agente de projet ul ententes darticulation - agent de projet la cit analyse et comparaison des rsultats dapprentissage et des plans de cours des programmes pour ensuite identifier le nombre de crdits qui pourront tre reconnus par la laurentienne ainsi que les passerelles ncessaires. - comparaison initiale agente de projet ul processus dapprobation : - agente de projet ul ententes darticulation - plusieurs rencontres ont t ncessaires pour informer, expliquer et faire approuver les ententes darticulation. - les membres de chacun des dpartements et comits (numr dans la prochaine colonne) ont t consults plusieurs reprises tout au long du processus. - membres : du dpartement de psychologie de la facult des arts du ara du cpf du snat informer les dpartements suite lapprobation. - agente de projet ul ententes darticulation - validation par : - un reprsentant du dpartement de psychologie ul - la direction du dpartement et chef dadmissions ul - rvision finale par la cit - rencontre avec divers membres du : bureau des admissions bureau du registraire bureau de liaison dpartement de marketing quipe excutive corps professoral comparaison et analyse des programmes lors de la comparaison et lanalyse des programmes, les descriptions de cours sont compares dans un tableau, afin de voir sil y a de laffinit entre les cours collgiaux et universitaires. lorsque deux cours semblables sont identifis, une analyse dtaille des plans de cours est requise afin dassurer e un minimum de 80% de contenu commun. si les contenus sont diffrents, mais quil y a clairement un apprentissage dans un domaine spcifique (dans ce cas, en psychologie), des crdits gnriques sont attribus par la facult (dans ce cas en sciences sociales), en reconnaissance des connaissances acquises par ltudiant. dans ce cas, ltudiant doit complter les cours obligatoires du programme, mais voit sa charge de cours au choix requis diminue. cette formule rduit les cots et le temps requis ltudiant qui a un bagage de connaissances et expriences antrieures dans le domaine en question. 5 le processus de comparaison et danalyse varie selon le type dentente. dans le cadre de ce projet, trois parcours ont t dvelopps avec des programmes pour lesquels il existe dj des ententes entre luniversit laurentienne et le collge boral. cette analyse consistait donc de revoir les modalits des programmes collgiaux afin de confirmer le bon nombre de crdits accords. dans le cas de la comparaison de programmes uniques ou pour lesquels il nexiste aucune entente, chaque cours doit tre analys individuellement, tel que dcrit au premier paragraphe. processus de mise en uvre une fois que lentente est approuve par le snat, les dpartements suivants sont informs : - le bureau des admissions le bureau du registraire liaison marketing lquipe excutive le corps professoral lentente est ensuite entre dans la base de donnes dontransfer par le reprsentant au bureau dadmission. lentente est revue selon la frquence identifie dans lentente ou lorsquil y a des changements dans la structure des programmes. 6 sommaire des parcours de transfert crs nouveaux parcours entre le collge la cit et luniversit laurentienne dans le cadre de ce projet, trois types dententes darticulation, pour un total de neuf parcours, ont t dvelopps le collge la cit et luniversit laurentienne. une copie des ententes se retrouve aux annexes a et b. les trois parcours pour les programmes communs sont les suivants : parcours # 1 programme de la cit ducation en services lenfance 2 ans (diplme) crdits accords par la laurentienne cours de 1re et 2e anne complter luniversit laurentienne** cours obligatoires crdits psyc 1105 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (15) lang 1005 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 1105 (6) lang 1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) soci 1015 (6) lang 1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) psyc 1105 (6) ----------total : 45 crdits 2 techniques de travail social 2 ans (diplme) soci 1015 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) huma 9100 (3) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (24) ----------total : 54 crdits 3 technique dducation spcialise 3 ans (diplme) psyc 1105 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc9200 (21) ----------total : 57 crdits les deux parcours pour les programmes distincts sont les suivants : 7 parcours # 4 programme de la cit interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap 2 ans (diplme) crdits accords par la laurentienne cours de 1re et 2e anne complter luniversit laurentienne** edph 9100 (6) educ 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (9) lang 1005 (6) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) cours obligatoires crdits 0 ----------total : 42 crdits 0 5 techniques travail social grontologie 1,5 ans (diplme) edph 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (9) ----------- lang 1005 (6) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) total : 39 crdits les quatre parcours (sous forme de programmes conjoints) pour les postdiplmes sont les suivants (pour les dtails de ces parcours, s.v.p. consultez lannexe b) : parcours #6 : programme conjoint (option rgulire) - autisme et sciences du comportement la cit et psychologie s arts (4 ans) la laurentienne parcours #7 : programme conjoint (option intensive) - autisme et sciences du comportement la cit et psychologie s arts (3 ans) la laurentienne parcours #8 : programme conjoint (option rgulire) - sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit et psychologie s arts (4 ans) la laurentienne parcours #9 : programme conjoint (option intensive) - sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit et psychologie s arts (3 ans) la laurentienne 8 tat des parcours le processus dapprobation pour des nouvelles ententes darticulation et de nouveaux parcours consiste (en ordre) des tapes suivantes : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. obtenir lapprobation du dpartement obtenir lapprobation de la facult obtenir lapprobation de lara informer les membres du cpf obtenir lapprobation du snat voici ltape laquelle est rendu chacun des neuf parcours : parcours tape dapprobation en date du 15 mars 2017 du programme : vers : ducation en services lenfance bac s arts - psychologie ara techniques de travail social bac s arts - psychologie ara technique dducation spcialise bac s arts - psychologie ara interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap bac s arts - psychologie ara techniques travail social grontologie bac s arts - psychologie ara bac s arts psychologie (option 3 ans) autisme et sciences du comportement ara bac s arts psychologie (option 4 ans) autisme et sciences du comportement ara bac s arts psychologie (option 3 ans) sant mentale et toxicomanie ara bac s arts psychologie (option 4 ans) sant mentale et toxicomanie ara le nombre de crdits accords et les autres modalits des ententes proposes peuvent tre modifis lorsque les ententes sont prsentes aux divers comits. le reprsentant du bureau dadmission se charge davertir le caton et de mettre jour ontransfer.ca lorsque les parcours seront finaliss et approuvs au snat. protocole dententes darticulations dans le cadre de ce projet, un protocole dentente a t labor pour faciliter la mise en uvre dententes darticulations et de nouveaux parcours entre luniversit laurentienne, luniversit de sudbury et la cit. une bauche du protocole dentente se retrouve lannexe c. suite la rvision de chacune des institutions au printemps 2017, le protocole dentente sera sign et implment pour lanne scolaire 2017-2018. 9 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises dans le cadre de ce projet, les obstacles nont pas t nombreux. limportance de communiquer avec tous les dpartements a t primordiale. ceux-ci incluent le dpartement du programme en question, la facult, le bureau du registraire et le bureau des admissions, ainsi que les administrateurs et le centre dorientation scolaire qui avisent les tudiants concernant leur horaire, etc. cette communication assure quil ny ait pas de malentendus, mais aussi que lentente soit en accord avec toutes les rgles de luniversit. lorsque tous sont au courant de lentente, celle-ci a une meilleure chance dtre accepte lors des diverses tapes dapprobation puisque les membres des comits sont, en gnral, des membres des dpartements nomms ci-haut. ce projet a aussi fait ressortir le fait que certains types de programmes conviennent mieux certains types dententes. par exemple, il nous a t impossible de crer des ententes darticulation traditionnelles avec les certificats de postdiplmes collgiaux, mais le modle de programme conjoint sy prtait beaucoup mieux. dans le cas de la psychologie, nous avons remarqu une tendance o plusieurs tudiants dcident en deuxime anne quil ne veulent pas poursuivre aux tudes suprieures. ce modle est donc excellent afin de leur offrir dautres possibilits de carrires dans le domaine des services sociales, o ils ont la chance daider les gens ou dtre au service de leur communaut, sans devenir psychologue, chercheur ou professeur. finalement, il y a eu moins daffinit que nous aurions aim entre la majorit des programmes de sciences sociales collgiaux et le programme de psychologie luniversit. pour cette raison, la majorit des crdits reconnus par luniversit sont des crdits au choix, ce qui cause certains dfis, surtout lorsque ltudiant veut complter une mineure ou une majeure, en plus de la concentration ou spcialisation choisie. conclusion en gnral, nous, luniversit laurentienne et la cit, sommes satisfaits du droulement de ce projet. bien que nous aurions prfr des ententes 2 + 2, afin de pouvoir pargner du temps, et de largent aux tudiants profitants de lentente, cela ntait pas possible cause du manque daffinit entre les programmes en question. dans le futur, nous esprons poursuivre des ententes entre des programmes qui prsenteront le maximum davantages possibles aux tudiants. 10 annexe a : 5 nouveaux parcours entre la cit et luniversit laurentienne pour les tudiants en psychologie ces parcours seront ajouts lannexe 1 du protocole dententes darticulation entre le collge la cit, luniversit laurentienne et luniversit de sudbury (qui se retrouve lannexe c de ce document). programme de la cit ducation en services lenfance 2 ans (diplme) crdits accords par la laurentienne psyc 1105 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (15) cours de 1re et 2e anne complter luniversit laurentienne** cours obligatoires crdits lang 1005 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 1105 (6) lang1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) soci 1015 (6) lang1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) psyc 1105 (6) lang 1005 (6) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) 0 lang1005 (6) psyc 1105 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) 0 ----------total : 45 crdits* techniques de travail social 2 ans (diplme) soci 1015 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) huma 9100 (3) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (24) ----------- technique dducation spcialise 3 ans (diplme) total : 54 crdits* psyc 1105 (6) engl 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc9200 (21) ----------- interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap 2 ans (diplme) total : 57 crdits* edph 9100 (6) educ 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (9) ----------total : 42 crdits* techniques travail social - grontologie 1,5 ans (diplme) edph 9100 (3) fran 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (9) ----------total : 39 crdits* * bien que nous accordions le nombre de crdits indiqu, pour complter un bac, ltudiant doit toujours satisfaire les exigences du diplme. dans certains cas, et pour certaines combinaisons de diplmes, il se peut 11 que ltudiant doive dpasser le nombre total de 120 crdits pour obtenir le bac dsir, puisque la majorit des crdits donns sont pour des cours au choix. **les cours de 1re et 2e anne complter luniversit laurentienne peuvent changer lorsque des changements sont amens au cursus du programme. svp voir le site web de luniversit laurentienne pour une liste jour des cours obligatoires de 1re et 2e anne : https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba ou visiter un conseiller au centre dexcellence universitaire (poste 3346) pour de plus amples renseignements. pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.0 ou 75% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. - bien que les crdits accords par luniversit reprsentent parfois lquivalent dun, deux ou mme trois an(s) dtude, il est possible que ltudiant ne puisse pas complter son baccalaurat dans les deux ou trois ans suivant linscription cause de limites au niveau de lhoraire des cours universitaires ou pour des raisons de prrequis aux cours obligatoires. 12 annexe b : entente darticulation de 4 nouveaux parcours entre la cit et luniversit laurentienne pour les tudiants en psychologie sous forme de programmes conjoints entente darticulation entre la cit programme de sant mentale et toxicomanie programme dautisme et sciences du comportement et universit laurentienne baccalaurat s arts (3 ans) en psychologie ce document rsume le parcours suivre pour obtenir un baccalaurat s arts (3 ans) en psychologie et un postdiplme en sant mentale et toxicomanie ou un postdiplme en autisme et sciences du comportement en trois (3) ans ou en quatre (4) ans. 1. entente 1.1. les tudiants de la laurentienne qui ont termin leur deuxime anne du baccalaurat s arts en psychologie avec une moyenne cumulative dau moins 3.0/4.0 (73 %, b) peuvent postuler la cit afin de complter un postdiplme en sant mentale et toxicomanie ou en autisme et sciences du comportement lors de leur baccalaurat. 1.2. cette entente est en vigueur jusquau 31 dcembre 2022. 2. critre dadmission pour le baccalaurat s arts en psychologie 13 2.1. veuillez consulter les critres dadmission pour le programme de psychologie tels que dcrits par la laurentienne sur son site web. 2.2. critres dadmission gnraux 2.2.1. les tudiants de la laurentienne souhaitant poursuivre un programme conjoint doivent communiquer leur intention auprs de leur conseiller acadmique la laurentienne tt dans leur parcours, afin de connatre les exigences de diplomation du b.a et dobtenir les informations quant aux transferts de crdits. les tudiants doivent aussi soumettre une demande dadmission la cit tel quexpliqu lannexe a. 2.2.2. les tudiants doivent faire une demande dadmission rgulire auprs de la cit. 2.2.3. les tudiants devront complter et russir les cours prescrits afin de recevoir le postdiplme de la cit. 2.2.4. les tudiants ne peuvent pas contester les cours du postdiplme. il est interdit de revendiquer une exemption de crdits ou une reconnaissance des acquis dans le cadre du postdiplme. 2.2.5. la laurentienne doit fournir un relev de notes officiel pour chaque tudiant effectuant un postdiplme la cit. 2.2.6. les tudiants de la laurentienne peuvent sattendre suivre un parcours tel que dtaill lannexe a. 3. assurance de la qualit 3.1. chaque partenaire de cette entente saccorde : 3.1.1. rendre linformation de cette entente disponible aux tudiants. 3.1.2. avertir lautre partie dans les plus brefs dlais possible de toutes modifications de plus de 25 % au curriculum des programmes de cette entente. 3.1.3. aviser lautre partie dans les plus brefs dlais possible de modifications anticipes ou approuves aux critres dadmission pour les programmes de cette entente. 3.1.4. quil na pas lautorisation dassumer ou de crer des obligations, explicites ou implicites, au nom de lautre partie, part de ce qui est stipul dans cette entente. 3.2. sur demande et lorsque possible, la cit partagera ses donnes annuelles quant linscription dans leurs programmes numrs dans cette entente. 3.3. la gestion, lassurance de la qualit et la mise en uvre de cette entente sera effectue par le bureau dadmission de luniversit laurentienne et le xxxx de la cit, en consultation avec les autorits appropries des programmes respectifs. 3.4. cette entente est en vigueur partir du 31 mars 2017 pour une priode de cinq (5) ans, jusquau 30 dcembre 2022, et sera rvalue avant dtre renouvele. 3.5. si lentente nest pas renouvele, les tudiants qui sont actuellement inscrits dans un des programmes numrs dans cette entente pourront terminer leurs tudes. 14 4. promotion 4.1. les deux parties peuvent promouvoir cette entente en utilisant les mthodes existantes. les deux parties ajouteront lentente sur leurs sites web. programme conjoint (option rgulire) autisme et sciences du comportement la cit et psychologie s arts (4 ans) la laurentienne laurentienne anne 1 automne et hiver anne 2 automne hiver anne 3 psyc 1105 lang 1005 6 crdits au choix de culture scientifique 6 crdits au choix de contenu autochtone 6 crdits au choix psyc 2005 psyc 2127 6 crdits au choix automne 6 crdits dannes suprieures hiver la fin du semestre dautomne, les tudiants qui ont une moyenne cumulative dau moins 3.0/4.0 (73 %, b) peuvent faire demande au programme dautisme et sciences du comportement la cit en postulant au travers docas. psyc 2005 psyc 2706 psyc 2707 stat 2126 3 cours au choix automne anne 4 processus dadmission la cit psyc 3206 psyc 3306 psyc 4066 hiver 020098 aut 020099 aut 020101 aut 020102 aut 020106 aut automne hiver 020100 aut 020103 stg 020104 aut 020105 aut 020108 stg 020107 aut 15 programme conjoint (option intensive) autisme et sciences du comportement la cit et psychologie s arts (3 ans) la laurentienne laurentienne anne 1 automne et hiver anne 2 automne hiver anne 3 processus dadmission la cit psyc 1105 lang 1005 6 crdits au choix de culture scientifique 6 crdits au choix de contenu autochtone 6 crdits au choix psyc 2005 psyc 2706 psyc 2707 stat 2126 3 cours au choix 020098 aut 020099 aut 020101 aut 020102 aut 020106 aut la fin du semestre dautomne, les tudiants qui ont une moyenne cumulative dau moins 3.0/4.0 (73 %, b) peuvent faire demande au programme dautisme et sciences du comportement la cit en postulant au travers docas. automne 6 crdits dannes suprieures hiver psyc 2005 psyc 2127 6 crdits au choix automne t psyc 3206 psyc 3306 psyc 4066 hiver 020100 aut 020103 stg 020104 aut 020105 aut 020108 stg 020107 aut 16 programme conjoint (option rgulire) sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit et psychologie s arts (4 ans) la laurentienne laurentienne anne 1 automne hiver anne 3 psyc 1105 lang 1005 6 crdits au choix de culture scientifique 6 crdits au choix de contenu autochtone 6 crdits au choix 6 crdits dannes suprieures hiver la fin du semestre dautomne, les tudiants qui ont une moyenne cumulative dau moins 3.0/4.0 (73 %, b) peuvent faire demande au programme de sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit en postulant au travers docas. psyc 2005 psyc 2706 psyc 2707 stat 2126 3 cours au choix psyc 2005 psyc 2127 6 crdits au choix automne anne 4 admission automne et hiver anne 2 la cit psyc 3206 psyc 3306 psyc 4066 automne hiver 021717 tox 021718 tox 023011 tox 023010 tox 022985 tox 022986 tox 023008 tox 023007 tox automne hiver 021724 tox 023009 tox 023006 tox 021725 tox 023135 tox 021723 tox 023136 tox 021726 tox 023137 tox 021728 tox (stage) 17 programme conjoint (option intensive) sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit et psychologie s arts (3 ans) la laurentienne laurentienne anne 1 automne hiver anne 3 admission t la fin du semestre dautomne, les tudiants qui ont une moyenne cumulative dau moins 3.0/4.0 (73 %, b) peuvent faire demande au programme de sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit en postulant au travers docas. automne et hiver anne 2 la cit psyc 1105 lang 1005 6 crdits au choix de culture scientifique 6 crdits au choix de contenu autochtone 6 crdits au choix psyc 2005 psyc 2127 6 crdits au choix automne 6 crdits dannes suprieures hiver psyc 2005 psyc 2706 psyc 2707 stat 2126 3 cours au choix psyc 3206 psyc 3306 psyc 4066 021717 tox 021718 tox 023011 tox 023010 tox 022985 tox 022986 tox 023008 tox 023007 tox automne hiver 021724 tox 023009 tox 023006 tox 021725 tox 023135 tox 021723 tox 023136 tox 021726 tox 023137 tox 021728 tox (stage) t 18 annexe c : bauche du protocole dentente dvelopp pour faciliter la mise en uvre dententes darticulations et de nouveaux parcours entre luniversit laurentienne, luniversit de sudbury et la cit protocole dententes darticulation entre la cit, luniversit laurentienne et luniversit de sudbury (2014-2019) la mission et les objectifs de lentente de collaboration entre la cit, luniversit laurentienne et luniversit de sudbury stipulent, entre autres, que les trois tablissements cits sengagent encourager lexcellence en apprentissage, assurer les possibilits de formation et accrotre laccs aux programmes dtudes postsecondaires en franais ainsi que la mobilit entre les tablissements. en reconnaissance de cette entente-cadre, les parties sentendent sur les engagements mutuels noncs dans la prsente quant aux transferts entre la cit, luniversit de sudbury et luniversit laurentienne. a. admissibilit luniversit laurentienne 1) les diplmes et diplms issus des programmes de la cit identifis lannexe 2 seront admissibles aux programmes de luniversit laurentienne et de luniversit de sudbury spcifis ladite annexe. 2) les candidates et candidats admissibles, qui sinscrivent dans un des programmes viss par la prsente entente, recevront une reconnaissance de leur diplme collgial sous forme de crdits universitaires selon la grille tablie lannexe 1. 3) luniversit laurentienne et luniversit de sudbury ne limitent pas le nombre de diplmes et diplms admissibles provenant de la cit. 19 4) les candidates et candidats doivent avoir complt leur diplme collgial en plus de remplir les conditions gnrales dadmission de luniversit laurentienne, telles que dcrites dans son annuaire. b. admissibilit la cit 1) les diplmes et diplms issus des programmes de luniversit laurentienne identifis lannexe 2 seront admissibles aux programmes de la cit spcifis ladite annexe. 2) les candidates et candidats admissibles, qui sinscrivent dans un des programmes viss par la prsente entente, recevront une reconnaissance de leur diplme universitaire sous forme de crdits collgiaux selon la grille tablie lannexe 1. 3) la cit ne limite pas le nombre de diplmes et diplms admissibles provenant de luniversit laurentienne. 4) les candidates et candidats doivent avoir complt leur diplme universitaire en plus de remplir les conditions gnrales dadmission de la cit, telles que dcrites dans son annuaire. c. change dinformations sujet aux dispositions de la loi sur laccs linformation et la protection de la vie prive, chaque tablissement transmet lautre tablissement, linformation relative aux documents officiels tels que les relevs de notes ou les diplmes. d. entre en vigueur et dure le protocole dentente prend effet la date de sa signature et est conclu pour une priode de cinq (5) ans. lissue de cette priode, aprs concertation entre les partenaires sur le bilan des activits, le protocole pourra tre renouvel. lune ou lautre des parties peut mettre fin en tout temps au prsent protocole dentente sur pravis crit dun (1) an lautre partie. e. mise jour et rvision de lentente 1) durant la priode de mise en vigueur du prsent protocole, les annexes peuvent tre mises jour, par les responsables dsigns, sans avoir signer une nouvelle version du prsent protocole. 2) le bureau de la vice-prsidence lenseignement de la cit convient de transmettre, au besoin, luniversit laurentienne ou luniversit de sudbury (selon le programme) toute information pertinente concernant les descriptions des cours qui composent les programmes dsigns dans le prsent protocole dentente, et laviser de tout changement dans la composition de ces cours et de leur description. de faon rciproque, le secrtariat gnral de luniversit laurentienne ou de luniversit de sudbury (selon le programme) convient de transmettre, au besoin, la cit, toute information pertinente concernant les descriptions des cours qui composent ses programmes dsigns dans le prsent protocole dentente et laviser de tout changement dans la composition de ces cours et de leur description. 3) le secrtariat gnral de luniversit laurentienne ou de luniversit de sudbury (selon le programme) convient dinformer, au besoin, la cit de tout changement dans ses conditions dadmission. de mme, le bureau de la vice-prsidence lenseignement de la cit convient dinformer, au besoin, luniversit laurentienne de tout changement dans ses conditions dadmission. 20 4) au dbut de la cinquime anne, les dpartements concerns de la cit, de luniversit laurentienne et de luniversit de sudbury procderont une rvision plus dtaille de cette entente. le ou la responsable des ententes darticulation de luniversit laurentienne et le bureau de la vice-prsidence lenseignement de la cit sont responsables dentamer ladite rvision. f. corps professoral le corps professoral de chaque tablissement est rgi par sa propre convention collective. les parties sentendent pour encourager le dveloppement professionnel. g. aspects financiers 1) les parties conviennent que les droits de scolarit ainsi que tout financement reli aux programmes appartiennent ltablissement qui les reoit. 2) les parties conviennent que toute publicit ou activit de marketing du programme est la responsabilit de ltablissement qui lentreprend. 3) les parties conviennent quelles sont responsables respectivement des cots associs cette entente. h. rsiliation de lentente 1) lune des parties peut mettre fin cette entente en fournissant aux autres parties un avis crit de rsiliation de trois cent soixante-cinq (365) jours. lentente est alors rsilie de plein droit, et, est rpute rsilie la date indique dans lavis. 2) advenant la rsiliation de lentente, les parties conviennent de mettre en place les moyens ncessaires afin dassurer la cohorte dtudiants dj inscrits de pouvoir terminer son programme dtude. 21 i. rglement des diffrends 1) tout dsaccord entre les parties au sujet de linterprtation, de lapplication ou de ladministration de cette entente ou tout dfaut des parties de sentendre lorsquune entente est ncessaire, ici globalement appel diffrend , doit tre tranch conformment aux dispositions du prsent article. cependant, la dcision dune partie de rsilier lentente selon larticle h ne constitue pas un diffrend aux fins de larticle i. 2) les parties accompliront tous les efforts ncessaires pour rgler un diffrend rapidement et lamiable par voie de mdiations ou autrement. 3) sil est impossible de rgler un diffrend dans un dlai raisonnable, celui-ci doit tre soumis larbitrage dun seul arbitre conformment aux dispositions suivantes : i. la partie qui dsire larbitrage fait parvenir aux autres parties un avis darbitrage; ii. les parties doivent conjointement dsigner un arbitre acceptable pour tous dans les dix (10) jours ouvrables suivant lenvoi de lavis darbitrage; iii. si les parties ne sentendent pas sur le choix dun arbitre dans ce dlai de dix (10) jours ouvrables, un arbitre doit tre dsign par un juge de la cour suprieure de justice de lontario de la ville du grand sudbury; iv. les sances darbitrage se tiennent la ville du grand sudbury; v. larbitre a le pouvoir de dterminer sa propre procdure et peut rendre sa dcision par crit ou selon toute autre forme choisie; vi. chaque partie concerne payera part gale la moiti des frais darbitrage; vii. la dcision de larbitre est finale et sans appel, et lie les parties. j. intgralit de lentente les parties conviennent que la prsente entente contient lnonc intgral et unique de lentente intervenue entre elles relativement loffre du programme. elle remplace et met fin toute reprsentation, ngociation ou proposition antrieure relativement lobjet de la prsente. k. clauses diverses 1) le prambule (principes de base) et les annexes font partie intgrante de la prsente entente. 2) cette entente na pas pour effet de faire de lune ou de lautre partie lagente de lautre partie, sa reprsentante lgale, sa partenaire dans cette coentreprise, son associe, employe ou prpose. elle ne cre aucune relation fiduciaire ou mandataire entre les parties. 3) chacune des parties reconnat quelle na aucune autorit pour assumer ou crer quelque obligation que ce soit, expresse ou implicite au nom de lautre partie, sauf et strictement pour ce qui est expressment prvu par cette entente. chacune des parties reconnat galement quelle ne dtient aucune autorit pour lier lautre partie de quelque manire quelle soit, ni pour engager la responsabilit de lautre partie. signataires de lentente les parties ont sign sudbury en duplicata le __________________________________. 22 line tremblay, ph. d. vice-rectrice aux tudes et aux affaires francophones universit laurentienne lynn casimiro vice-prsidente lenseignement et la russite scolaire la cit date date sophie bouffard rectrice et vice-chancelire universit de sudbury date 23 annexe 1 (du protocole dentente) i. ententes darticulation de la cit vers luniversit laurentienne et luniversit de sudbury programme complt la cit mpc requise crdits programme de crdits reus luniversit laurentienne obtenir et luniversit de sudbury arts techniques des services policiers (2 ans) 2.8 30 42 b.a. (3 ans) droit et justice 48 60 administration de la loi et de la scurit (2 ans) 2.8 30 42 b.a. (3 ans) droit et justice 48 60 techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale (2 ans) 2.8 30 42 b.a. (4 ans) droit et justice 78 90 techniques des services policiers (2 ans) 2.8 30 42 b.a. (4 ans) droit et justice 78 90 ducation en services l'enfance (2 ans) 65 % 69 % 12 36 baccalaurat s arts 54 78 interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap 3,0 ou 75 % 42 b.a. (3 ans) psychologie 48 interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap 3,0 ou 75 % 42 b.a. (4 ans) psychologie 78 techniques de travail social grontologie 3,0 ou 75 % 39 b.a. (3 ans) psychologie 51 techniques de travail social grontologie 3,0 ou 75 % 39 b.a. (4 ans) psychologie 81 jusqu 30 crdits journalisme b.a. (4 ans) tudes journalistiques gestion administration des affaires ou commerce (2 ans) 70 % 57 baccalaurat en administration des affaires 63 cole des sciences de la sant (ss) hygine dentaire (3 ans) 3.0 60 bachelor of science major in biology 60 techniques de travail social (2 ans) 3.2 30 social work 90 techniques de travail social (2 ans) 3.0 42 indigenous social work 78 24 annexe 2 (du protocole dentente) liste de programmes francophones de la cit et de la laurentienne qualifis pour les transferts gnraux programme complt la cit mpc requise crdits programme de crdits reus luniversit laurentienne obtenir transferts gnraux facult des arts tous les diplmes de 3 ans 3.2 48 54 b.a. (3 ans) 36 42 tous les diplmes de 2 ans 3.2 36 42 b.a. (3 ans) 48 54 2 ans dun programme de 3 ans 3.2 30 b.a. (3 ans) 60 tous les diplmes de 3 ans 3.2 48 54 b.a. (4 ans) 66 72 tous les diplmes de 2 ans 3.2 36 42 b.a. (4 ans) 78 84 2 ans dun programme de 3 ans 3.2 30 b.a. (4 ans) 90 transferts gnraux facult de gestion et facult des sciences du gnie et de larchitecture tous les diplmes de 3 ans 3.2 36 b.a. (3 ans) 54 tous les diplmes de 2 ans 3.2 30 b.a. (3 ans) 60 2 ans dun programme de 3 ans 3.2 30 b.a. (3 ans) 60 tous les diplmes de 3 ans 3.2 36 b.a. (4 ans) 84 tous les diplmes de 2 ans 3.2 30 b.a. (4 ans) 90 2 ans dun programme de 3 ans 3.2 30 b.a. (4 ans) 90 25

cihe report 2016.02 research summary: carving paths of desire; and, student mobility in ontario a framework and decisionmaking tool for building better pathways arine lennon, gav in lees a w heel ah an, m ary cath m oodie, a m anda brij m ohan an d eric lavig ne a report to the ontario council for articulation and transfer public policy and the attraction of international postsecondary students a report by: ontario institute for studies in education (oise) university of toronto 252 bloor st. west, 6th floor toronto, ontario m5s 1v6 canada www.oise.utoronto.ca/cihe please cite this publication as: wheelahan, l., lennon, m.c, moodie, g., brijmohan a., and lavigne e. (2016). research summary: carving paths of desire; and, student mobility in ontario a framework and decision- making tool for building better pathways. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. page 2 of 5 public policy and the attraction of international postsecondary students summary of the research the ontario government has prioritised student pathways within education and between education and the labour market. the ministry of training, colleges and universities 2015-16 strategic plan states that the system will blend academic with applied learning and ensure that transitions are seamless whether it is from high school, between postsecondary education institutions, or between school and work (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2015, p. 3). the government has spent years investing in research and strategy to achieve these ends. in 2011, the ontario government set out three goals for a province wide credit transfer system to: expand and improve pathways to respond to student demand; improve transparency and access to information about pathways and credit transfer; [and,] support student success (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). at the same time, the government established the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat), a government agency designed to support credit transfer and mobility of ontario students. with a five-year mandate to improve student mobility in ontarios public institutions (oncat, 2013) the agency has supported research, partnerships and projects to further the systematic capacity for student choice and opportunity. this research was undertaken to support the governments three goals for pathways in ontario. contributing to the four years of substantial research, knowledge building and reflection by oncat, this study synthesises current theories and research on student mobility, institutional partnerships and pathways, and presents the current patterns of student flows and institutional agreements in ontario. the research has two components: the first component is a research report on pathways between colleges and universities in ontario.1 it presents the theoretical and conceptual frameworks and empirical patterns of student mobility, partnership and pathway agreements in order to uncover whats working and where there is room for improvement. it examines policy frameworks, institutional partnerships and pathways, and student flows in pathways. the second component is based on the research report, and is a framework and decision making tool for building better pathways between colleges and universities in ontario.2 it is designed to support policy makers, institutions, departments and programs in developing effective pathways that students use. it comprises principles, guidelines and a framework for decision-making to guide the development of pathways. the project: reviewed much of the extensive literature on student transfer; analyzed the ontario council of articulation and transfers comprehensive dataset of all current articulation agreements of ontario post-secondary institutions; analyzed the 2013 canadian national graduate survey; analyzed the 2013/2014 ontario college graduate satisfaction survey; 1 lennon, mary catharine; brijmohan, amanda; lavigne, eric, yang, jinli; moodie, gavin; and, wheelahan, leesa; moodie, (2016) ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire, ontario institute for studies in education, university of toronto, toronto, on. 2 wheelahan, l., moodie, g., lennon, m.c., brijmohan, a. and lavigne, e. (2016). student mobility in ontario: a framework and decision making tool for building better pathways. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto page 3 of 5 public policy and the attraction of international postsecondary students constructed a student transfer profile of 22 publicly funded universities and 24 publicly funded colleges in ontario; consulted 14 experts in ontario student transfer from colleges, universities, policymakers and researchers who were critical friends to the project. held a consultative workshop with approximately 60 policy-makers, institutional leaders, and pathways practitioners on april 5, 2016 on the student transfer framework and decision-making tool to receive feedback on the tool, which was revised in light of this feedback. the full results, analysis and argument supporting the student transfer framework and decision-making tool are set out in the teams report.3 but very briefly, these are the main findings supporting the proposed student transfer framework and decision-making tool. 1. critical friends in colleges and universities responsible for leading and managing transfer between colleges and universities reported difficulties reconciling different provincial policies that have different effects on student transfer. 2. the national graduate survey finds that only 37% of college graduates in ontario who complete a university qualification do so in the same field as their college qualification.4 3. universities have an average of 24 pathways agreements but admitted a median ratio of 1.3 students per pathway in 2014. 4. the median percentage of universities pathway agreements with colleges within commuting distance of the university is 16%, but the median percentage of students who transfer from a college to a university within commuting distance of the college is 64%. the decision-making tool is designed to build a strong pathways framework that is based on the way in which students use pathways to progress in their studies and careers. it recommends a focus on building institutional partnerships between colleges and universities within geographic regions. the research is divided into the following products: a research report entitled: ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire. this includes the list of critical friends who participated in the project (appendix a), and the project methods (appendix b). an appendix containing institutional profiles of colleges and their pathways and partnerships (appendix c) an appendix containing institutional profiles of universities and their pathways and partnerships (appendix d) the decision-making tool entitled: student mobility in ontario: a framework and decision- making tool for building better pathways. this has two sections: the first presents a summary of the decision-making tool, while the second is an elaborated version, which contains more detail about most principles, and provides examples where appropriate. 3 lennon et al. ibid wheelahan, leesa; moodie, gavin; lavigne, eric; yang, jinli; brijmohan, amanda; and childs, ruth (2015) pathways to education and work in ontario and canada, department of leadership higher and adult education, ontario institute for studies in education: toronto, p. 23, table 8. 4 page 4 of 5 public policy and the attraction of international postsecondary students further information about the project is available at: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/pew/ please share comments or questions on the research and decision-making tool with: leesa wheelahan, phd william g. davis chair in community college leadership ontario institute of studies for education university of toronto 252 bloor street west toronto, on m5s 1vj leesa.wheelahan@utoronto.ca references the ministry of training colleges and universities policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system 2011 http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/publications/credittransfere.pdf viewed 14 may 2016. ministry of training, colleges and universities. (2015). estimates briefing book 2015-2016. toronto, ontario: ministry of training, colleges and universities page 5 of 5

pathways from french language college programs from la cit to a bachelor of arts degree completion program at glendon college york university final report prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) december 31, 2015 1|oncat project 2014 -18 final report table of contents 1. executive summary..3 2. identified pathways4 3. advertising and promotion.......5 4. implementation date and duration ....5 5. lessons learned and implementation challenges..5 6. appendix a: memorandum of understanding7 2|oncat project 2014 -18 final report executive summary the objective of this project was to create pathways between glendons ba and la cit diploma programs in the areas of early childhood education, social work, gerontology and public relations. this was in response to the provincial need to increase access to frenchlanguage postsecondary educational opportunities in centre and southwestern ontario. the project was built on the recognition of glendon college of york university as the hub of french-language postsecondary education in central and southwestern ontario and the desire of la cit to increase its presence and educational expertise in the aforementioned region by developing a targeted program and service offer. the common goal of both postsecondary education institutions was to meet the needs of the francophone and francophile communities as well as the current need for a francophone and bilingual skilled workforce in many areas of the ontario economy. following the signature of a memorandum of understanding between york university glendon college and la cit (see appendix a), glendon college and la cit intended, with oncat funding, to strengthen a pathway between three 2-year college diploma programs offered at la cit and the glendon bachelor of arts in order to improve access to frenchlanguage college and university programs and training in the regions of central and southwestern ontario within the french-language postsecondary education continuum. with this objective in mind, glendon college of york university and la cit collgiale set out to continue the analysis of the learning outcomes in light of york universitys degree level expectations. la cit was hoping that such analysis would lead to the establishment of a 2+2 articulation agreement between the two institutions. the funding also allowed glendon to acquire teaching resources in french and translate some of its existing english material to strengthen its bridging curriculum. the funding was also used to expand on experiential learning opportunities for all students involved in the programs. internships were sought within francophone community organizations. the project allowed both institutions to complete the analysis of its pathways between three college diploma programs offered at la cit and the bachelor of arts offered at glendon. even though the curriculum analysis did not result in the identification of additional transfer credits for la cits programs, graduates from la cits program in techniques de travail social gerontology and ducation en services lenfance/early childhood education are now able to transfer into the glendons bachelor of arts in psychology program while graduates from social work would be able to transfer into the bachelor of arts in sociology earning 30 credits. la cits graduates in public relations, journalism or advertising could transfer into the glendons bachelor of arts in multidisciplinary studies (communications minor). the glendon-la cit pathways will allow college students to access a wide range of courses and to study under numerous francophone professors and experts in the field of social and cognitive sciences. for instance, professor guy proulx is a neuropsychologist who specializes in cognitive impairment and aging is the former director of psychology of baycrest geriatric centre. the identified pathways will enable college students to pursue university education in the field of psychology and help respond to the needs of employers looking for qualified and experienced bilingual staff possessing both the advanced knowledge and skills to work in the health and social service sector in toronto. after a preliminary analysis of curriculum and learning outcomes, it was determined that additional analysis would be required to ensure accuracy of credit transfers, congruency 3|oncat project 2014 -18 final report with glendons ba matrix and to develop bridging curriculum at la cit to facilitate student mobility between these two institutions. both institutions were able to establish student support services to ensure success and retention. however, in the absence of a toronto campus for la cit, the number of students taking advantage of these pathways has been very limited. both institutions are now working on identifying effective strategies to promote these pathways. information sessions are being scheduled at la cits campuses in eastern ontario. identified pathways all pathways were developed in collaboration with la cit to achieve the learning outcomes for each program and meet york universitys degree level expectations for a bachelor of arts. the identified pathways were developed following the development of the attached memorandum of understanding. in the process of identifying the best pathways possible for students, additional bridging courses and resources were developed to help strengthen the respective programs. the proposed pathways are described in schedule 1 and 2 of the attached memorandum of understanding. i. transfer from la cit to glendon college (see schedule 1) a. eligibility bachelor of arts (90 credits) 1) graduates, in the last three years, of la cits programs identified in schedule 1 are eligible for admission to glendon college programs identified in the same schedule. 2) eligible candidates who register in one of the programs offered at glendon will have their college diploma recognized as university credits. 3) glendon college does not limit the number of eligible graduates from la cit collgiale. 4) to be admitted as a transfer student, candidates have to meet glendon college general admission requirements and must have graduated from the college. given that la cits program was assessed at a particular point in time and that some additional courses were added to strengthen the program, glendon college reserves the right to refuse to apply this mou in the case of a candidate who graduated prior to 2013. ii. transfer from glendon college to la cit (see schedule 2) a. eligibility 1) students from glendon college programs identified in schedule 2 will be eligible for admission to la cits programs identified in the same schedule. 4|oncat project 2014 -18 final report 2) the list of courses required for glendon graduates were identified for each program identified in schedule 2. 3) la cit does not limit the number of eligible students from glendon college. additional courses and resources were developed or acquired to build institutional capacity of each institution and to strengthen the pathways in order to better accommodate transfer students and ensure student success and retention. advertising and promotion once the memorandum of understanding was signed, both institutions agreed to design and implement a marketing strategy to promote the identified pathways, especially within the francophone community. la cit collgiale and glendon college agreed to highlight the identified pathways between social work, gerontology and early childhood education and in psychology and sociology promotional materials and advertisements pertaining to their respective programs during special marketing and recruitment events. in order to ensure that students who are interested in transferring are successful in their application to transfer, special strategies were developed through recruitment, admissions and academic advising. implementation date and duration the memorandum of understanding signed between york university glendon college and la cit will be valid until 2017. at the end of that period, after a joint post-mortem of the partnership activities, the memorandum may be renewed. at any time, one of the parties may cancel this mou with a six-month notice, in writing, to the other party. lessons learned and implementation challenges one of the best practices identified in the implementation process was the identification of key faculty at each institution to review and analyze the respective curriculum. another best practice was to ensure the involvement of the recruitment, admissions and advising offices at each institution to ensure congruency with established admissions processes. the implementation of pathways between la cit and glendon was not without challenges. the first one being the distance between the two institutions (toronto to ottawa) and the second challenge being the fact that la cit does not currently have an established campus in central and southwestern ontario. la cit was able to set up a virtual classroom on the glendon campus to develop a stronger presence in the greater toronto area by allowing la cits students located in toronto to join other students from the ottawa campus in real time. la cit also offered online courses in addition to the face-to-face training offered in a variety of community-based sites across the greater toronto area. another implementation challenge was the fact that la cit has not been able to establish and offer a strong program in gerontology, social work or early childhood education in the toronto region; which made it difficult to identify potential applicants interested in pursuing their studies at glendon. due to the constant changes in leadership at la cits toronto office and recent staff turnover at glendon college, the project did not progress as fast as we would have liked. in fall 2014, la cit cancel its face-to-face program offerings in the gta and in fall 2015, la cit decided to close its virtual hub on the glendon campus and 5|oncat project 2014 -18 final report transfer its program offerings into a variety of community locations. both institutions will continue to work together to ensure continued opportunities for student mobility. another challenge has been the limited number of students who are availing themselves of these transfer opportunities. the number of applications received from la cit future graduate students has not been very high so far. glendon is planning to work closely with la cit to develop an active recruitment strategy and a fast-track admission process. glendon recruiters will visit la cits ottawa campus for active promotion of the agreed upon pathways. 6|oncat project 2014 -18 final report appendix a: memorandum of understanding (mou) between la cit collgiale legally constituted corporation, located at 801 aviation parkway, ottawa, ontario, k1k 4r3 and represented by ms. lise bourgeois, president, duly authorized for the purposes of this mou, as indicated, and york university of which glendon college is a faculty, located at 2275 bayview avenue, toronto, ontario, m4n 3m6 and represented by dr. rhonda lenton, york university provost and kenneth mcroberts, principal of glendon college, duly authorized for the purposes of this mou, as indicated, given the desire of glendon college of york university and la cit collgiale to implement projects improving access to frenchlanguage college and university programs and training in the regions of central and southwestern ontario through innovative and creative projects within the french-language postsecondary education continuum; given that the common goal of both postsecondary education institutions is to meet the needs of the francophone and francophile communities as well as the current need for a francophone and bilingual skilled workforce in many areas of the ontario economy; given the existing affinities between certain programs of both institutions and the need to recognize academic history; 7|oncat project 2014 -18 final report given the recognition of glendon college of york university as the hub of french-language postsecondary education in central-southwestern ontario and that la cit collgiale wishes to step up its presence and educational expertise in the aforementioned region by developing a targeted program and service offer; and in view of the mutual commitments stated in this document, the parties agree to the following: iii. transfer from la cit collgiale to glendon college a. eligibility bachelor of arts (90 credits) 5) graduates, in the last three years, of la cit collgiale programs identified in schedule 1 are eligible for admission to glendon college programs identified in the same schedule. 6) eligible candidates who register in one the programs included in this agreement will have their college diploma recognized as university credits. 7) glendon college does not limit the number of eligible graduates from la cit collgiale. 8) candidates must meet glendon college general admission requirements as described in its handbook and must have graduated from the college. b. admission eligible candidates from la cit collgiale wishing to take advantage of this agreement must follow this procedure: 1) candidates must apply by completing the glendon college application form. 2) the application must be received no later than april 30 and must be accompanied by a transcript confirming graduation from one of the programs identified in schedule 1. 3) if only a partial transcript is sent, the admission offer will be conditional to the presentation of a full transcript confirming graduation from one of the programs identified in schedule 1. 4) administration fees pertaining to the application must be paid. c. right to refuse glendon college reserves the right to refuse to apply this mou in the case of a candidate who graduated more than three (3) years ago from one of the programs identified in schedule 1. 8|oncat project 2014 -18 final report iv. transfer from glendon college to la cit collgiale a. eligibility 4) students from glendon college programs identified in schedule 2 will be eligible for admission to la cit collgiale programs identified in the same schedule. 5) the list of courses that must be passed at glendon college for each program included in this agreement is given in schedule 2. 6) la cit collgiale does not limit the number of eligible students from glendon college. b. admission eligible candidates from glendon college wishing to take advantage of this agreement must follow this procedure: 1) candidates must apply to la cit collgiale by completing the application form on the ontario colleges website www.ontariocolleges.ca. 2) an email must be sent to admissions@lacitec.on.ca to notify la cit collgiales registrar of the application. 3) the application must be received no later than february 1 (for the fall term) or october 2 (for the winter term) and must be accompanied by a transcript confirming the courses passed in one of the programs identified in schedule 2. 4) if only a partial transcript is sent, the admission offer will be conditional to the presentation of a full transcript confirming that all the courses identified by the institutions were passed. 5) administration fees pertaining to the application must be paid. v. promotion and advertising la cit collgiale and glendon college will mention the mou in promotional materials and advertisements pertaining to their respective programs, during related special events, and in their websites. vi. leads la cit collgiale and glendon college agree to mandate persons who will serve as contacts between the two institutions for the implementation of the mou. these persons will be responsible for compliance with the mou and for the mous framework. vii. exchange of information 9|oncat project 2014 -18 final report a. la cit collgiale will send to glendon college all the relevant information relating to course descriptions for its programs identified in this mou and will inform it, every spring, of any changes in the curriculum of a program or in the description of courses. b. each spring, glendon college will inform la cit collgiale of any changes in its admission requirements. c. in accordance with the provisions of the freedom of information and protection of privacy act, each institution will provide the other, each spring, with all relevant information pertaining to the admission and academic history of candidates having benefitted from this agreement. viii. update during the implementation period of this mou, the schedules can be updated, by the designated leads, without a new version of this mou having to be signed. ix. date of coming into effect and duration the memorandum of understanding comes into effect at the date of signature and will be valid for a period of three (3) years. at the end of that period, after a joint post-mortem of the partnership activities, the memorandum may be renewed. at any time, one of the parties may cancel this mou with a six-month notice, in writing, to the other party. agreement signatories the parties signed in toronto, in duplicate, on ___________________________________. la cit collgiale york university ___________________________ _____________________________ lise bourgeois president dr. rhonda lenton vice-president and provost glendon college _____________________________ principal 10 | o n c a t p r o j e c t 2 0 1 4 - 1 8 final report schedule i transfer from la cit collgiale to glendon college (program 2 + 2) la cit collgiale journalisme publicit relations publiques ducation en services lenfance techniques de travail social techniques de travail social grontologie techniques de travail social glendon college bachelor of arts, multidisciplinary studies (communications option) bachelor of arts, psychology bachelor of arts, sociology bachelor of arts, psychology 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from a diploma program (2 years) at la cit collgiale in: ducation en services lenfance; techniques de travail social; technique de travail social grontologie; b) and having a grade point average (gpa) in the program of at least 75%. 2) compulsory courses: a) la cit collgiale graduates in ducation en services lenfance / techniques de travail social / technique de travail social - grontologie admitted to the bachelor of arts, psychology program (90 credits) will have 36 credits recognized towards the bachelor. b) to receive the bachelor of arts, psychology, they will have to obtain 18 optional credits and 36 psychology credits, including: 11 | o n c a t p r o j e c t 2 0 1 4 - 1 8 final report gl/psyc 2510 6.00; gl/psyc 2520 3.00; gl/psyc 2530 3.00; a course in the gl/modr 17xx 6.00 or gl/phil 2640 6.00 series; 12 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level. advanced courses: 18 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level. courses include (the above) honours courses at the 3000 and 4000 level. 3) additional credits: students who have other college or university credits can present them to the coordinator of the psychology bachelor program. the decision to grant equivalence is for program officials to make. bachelor of arts, sociology 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from a diploma program (2 years) at la cit collgiale in techniques de travail social; b) and having a grade point average (gpa) in the program of at least 75%. 2) compulsory courses: a) la cit collgiale graduates in techniques de travail social admitted to the bachelor of arts, sociology program (90 credits) will have 36 credits recognized towards the bachelor. b) to receive the bachelor of arts, sociology, they will have to obtain 24 optional credits and 30 sociology credits, including: gl/soci 2510 6.00; gl/soci 3692 6.00 (or gl/soci 3680 3.00/gl/soci 3690 3.00); 12 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level. advanced courses: 18 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level. courses include (the above) honours courses at the 3000 and 4000 level. bachelor of arts, multidisciplinary studies (communications option) 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from a diploma program (2 years) at la cit collgiale in: journalisme publicit 12 | o n c a t p r o j e c t 2 0 1 4 - 1 8 final report relations publiques b) and having a grade point average (gpa) in the program of at least 75%. 2) compulsory courses: a) la cit collgiale graduates in journalisme / publicit / relations publiques admitted to the bachelor of arts, multidisciplinary studies [communications option] (90 credits) will have 36 credits recognized towards the bachelor. b) to receive the bachelor of arts, multidisciplinary studies (communications option), they will have to obtain 24 optional credits and 30 communications credits, chosen from the communications option course list. 13 | o n c a t p r o j e c t 2 0 1 4 - 1 8 final report schedule ii transfer from glendon college to la cit collgiale glendon college la cit collgiale any bachelor of arts or honours bachelor that includes the rdaction professionnelle certificate journalisme publicit relations publiques the francophone student must have obtained: 12 general writing credits: gl/fran 2210 3.00; gl/fran 2212 3.00; gl/fran 3240 3.00; gl/fran 3241 3.00. a grade of at least b is required in each general writing course. 9 professional writing credits: gl/fran 3214 3.00; gl/fran 4212 3.00; gl/fran 4312 3.00. a grade of at least c+ is required in each professional writing course. 9 optional course credits: - chosen from the list of approved courses. - other courses as approved by the coordinator. the non-francophone student must have obtained: 12 general writing credits: gl/frls 2240 6.00; gl/frls 3240 3.00; gl/frls 3241 3.00. a grade of at least b is required in each general writing course. 9 professional writing credits: gl/fran 3214 3.00; gl/fran 4212 3.00; gl/fran 4312 3.00. a grade of at least c+ is required in each professional writing course. 9 optional course credits: - chosen from the list of approved courses. 14 | o n c a t p r o j e c t 2 0 1 4 - 1 8 final report - other courses as approved by the coordinator. list of approved courses french or english translation courses: gl/tran 2250 3.00 gl/tran 3260 3.00 french linguistics courses: gl/fran/lin 2600 6.00 gl/fran/lin 3612 3.00 gl/fran/lin 3622 3.00 gl/fran/lin 3642 3.00 gl/fran/lin 4651 6.00 gl/fran/lin 4652 3.00 gl/fran/lin 4653 3.00 gl/fran/lin 4655 6.00 gl/fran/lin 4657 3.00 gl/fran/lin 4658 3.00 french information technology courses: gl/itec/modr 2635 3.00 gl/itec/modr 2915 3.00 gl/itec/modr 2925 3.00 french psychology of language and communications courses: gl/psyc 3520 3.00 gl/psyc/lin/nats 3640 3.00 french or bilingual communications courses: gl/sosc 2100 6.00 gl/sosc 4505 6.00 15 | o n c a t p r o j e c t 2 0 1 4 - 1 8 final report

project number: 2015-02 acknowledgements northern college extends our sincerest thanks to oncat for financial support for this study. we would also like to acknowledge our partner institutions who so graciously gave of their time and knowledge to help us compile this information: cambrian college canadore college collge boral confederation college georgian college lambton college sault college 1|page revised may 9/16 measuring the cost of credit transfer executive summary: unique challenges faced by small colleges in implementing credit transfer processes, are the few, if any resources dedicated to credit transfer tasks. providing credit transfer requires an investment of time and human resources for each receiving institution. costing models for this process need to be identified within the context of small colleges. as this was an acknowledged need, the following eight colleges agreed to participate in this study: cambrian, canadore, collge boral, confederation, georgian, lambton, northern, and sault college. the process of credit transfer has been well described by camman, hamade, and zhou (2015) as the manner in which recognition is given for prior formal learning at an institution. the manner refers to process(es) and involves time spent on a) what a student provides as an educational record, b) the application of that record to what the institution offers, and c) compared with what the student wants to achieve. at a minimum, there are three steps to this process (junor & usher, 2008). the time taken for each step, or the volume of activity within each step is not clear within the literature. what is clear, is that there is a mapping that happens as part of the process (camman, stephane, & zhou, 2014). as with any research endeavor, the research questions guide the process and determine methodology. the research questions for this project were: what is the cost (both direct and indirect) of the student transfer process for small colleges? what are the results for learners who engage in this process? what is the formula to determine return on investment specific to the transfer process in a small college? these research questions are most readily answered through the methodology described. the rationale for the project rested with the concept of small colleges managing multiple activities with limited resources. the definition of small colleges in the context of this study was drawn from the provincial standards of less than 5000 full time equivalent funded enrollment students, less than 450 full time faculty and less than $90 million in annual budget. the determination of small was also based upon overall budgets of the colleges involved. one institution within the study did not fit the small college definition, however, as a mid-sized institution the opportunity to have additional colleges involved was valuable to the study. each college was aware of the participating colleges and there was full commitment to the recognition of their status as small, or in one case mid-sized, colleges. what became clear in the qualitative data was two distinct structures within the colleges studied. one structure was forming credit transfer as a distinct part of the colleges business administration. the other structure identified was termed established, as business practices were solidified around credit transfer. on the basis of this study alone, it was not possible to tell what the tipping point was between forming and established, but the tipping point appeared to be tied to volume of requests and culture of the institution. comparisons of the categories flowed from this initial structural finding of forming and established structure (see table 1). 2|page revised may 9/16 table 1 activity by structure activity forming established comments type of activity disbursed centralized about of the colleges in the study were established categories of people involved 4-6 3-6 categories included faculty, registrar clerk deans, coordinators, first year experience advisors process steps 3-4 3-4 in the established model the steps were shorter time varies predictable 10+ days at the most in the established model. not predicted in the forming model level of authority administrative clerical category of personnel doing the bulk of the work at a lower level in established student access website/manual processes website how did students find out about this process increase in requests yes yes requests are increasing for everyone enrollment impact not clear stabilizing this may offset attrition but not clear institutional priority high high clearly understood as a government priority perception getting easier easy now established protocols simplify this in the established structure 3|page revised may 9/16 challenges gathering the data transfer of data there are still challenges, but the types differ when the registrars were asked what the biggest challenge for them was in the credit transfer process, the responses were l similar in that it takes time to do this, and to have the right people involved with each individual request. when asked the same question with an institutional focus on the challenges, the responses were on the need for resources and efficient processes. table 2 provides comparative detail on registrars responses sorted by working structure. table 2 registrars activity by structure activity forming established change affecting revenue declining tuition revenue from fte fte 5 year average declining declining enrollment growth declining declining declining tuition revenue from fte track tc requests not all tracked well defined tracking potential to track costs number of tc requests increasing increasing potential to impact tuition revenue process requests time to process requests time to process requests cost impacts of human resource time challenges coordinating all the activities and human resources confidentiality, consistency more sophisticated needs as the evolution occurs a picture of aggregate enrollment is important to focus the discussion of student mobility around costs and return on investment. a comparison of credit transfer students to aggregate averages per institution follows in table 3. 4|page revised may 9/16 table 3 student mobility and full time equivalents (fte) for small colleges in this study category full time equivalent 5 year average by college (demonstrating institutional size) full time equivalent this year (demonstrating institutional size) credit transfer by individual students* total transfers of all colleges in the study credits transferred by course students 2428 2553 843 3910 *this number is minimal, as not all institutions counted or reported the individual students. the revenue for an individual college, from credit transfer appears to be 1% of the aggregate 5 year average, increasing to 1.9% of the current year revenue average. this represents a growing percentage that is fluid in the system. unfortunately, this revenue is not specifically tracked within the colleges, as noted by the finance offices who responded to the survey. an aggregate comparison of tuition source revenue and credit transfer value is provided in table 4. table 4 tuition source revenue and credit transfer value sources of revenue (small colleges) tuition revenue average for five years average revenue $11,338,867 tuition past year $9,996,883 credit transfer aggregate value $1,173,000 credit transfer average value per college $186,166 estimated actual revenue from transfer not tracked time on task estimates were based upon information gathered through the key informant interviews. the estimated time on task for each individual handling a portion of a credit transfer request was 15 to 20 minutes, or one-quarter to one third of an hour. as hourly wages could be determined from caat classification tables, costs for time on task could be estimated. in lieu of specific data about seniority, the middle of each range for each classification was used to estimate time on task from the lowest level of authority (lla), to the highest level of authority (hla). the resulting range of $73,000 to more than half a million indicates how vulnerable this process is to cost variations. table 5 summarizes direct costs based on the level of authority and estimated time on task. 5|page revised may 9/16 table 5 range of human resource and time costs processing per 15 minutes at lowest level of authority (lla) costs $6.25 per 15 minutes at highest level of authority (hla) $16.50 three people at lowest level of authority (3l) (minimal time) three people at highest level of authority (3h) (minimal time) ten people at lowest level of authority (10l) (minimal time) ten people at highest level of authority (10h) (minimal time) 3910 at lla minimal time 3l $18.75 $73, 312.50 3910 at hla minimal time 3h $157,905.00 3910 at lla minimal time 10l $198,577.50 3910 at hla minimal time 10h $511,990.00 $49.50 $62.25 $160.50 credit transfer appears to be a contact sport. regardless of automated systems available, at some point a direct contact is required between the transferring student and the receiving institution to determine what the student wants to take and how they will get credit for it. for planning purposes, colleges must look more closely at the credit transfer process and impact these process may have on a) overall enrollment and b) costs. these issues need to be included in enrollment estimates, strategic enrollment management strategies, and costing formulas. credit transfer to support student mobility is alive and well in these colleges. it is a high priority and colleges are making the investments to assure it happens. however, there appears to be a lack of understanding as to what these investments mean in terms of costs or solid estimates on return on investment. 6|page revised may 9/16 the sustainability of credit transfer ties directly to the question of return on investment, which in turn is linked to the costs incurred in giving credit transfer value. the issue of sustainability is an institutional and system wide question to be asked. small institutions in particular are more vulnerable, as they deal with smaller budgets and fewer students, yet required to maintain prescribed standards of student service. with external support currently provided, the impact on college finances has yet to be truly felt. students are benefiting from this process as seen by the thousands of credit transfers issued in this past academic year alone, in the small and mid-sized college included in this study (see table 3). the number of students reported is minimal given this was not tracked but at 843 it represents almost 20% of the average full time equivalent reported by the registrars. based upon the trend identified by registrars, this number will increase and continue to make up a respectable percentage of the student body, thus making the benefits increasingly visible over time. while not all colleges in this study had an established structure, it is still recognized that student mobility is a high priority given the emphasis placed on it by the provincial government. the interest in and attention to this group of students is demonstrated at every level of this study. going back to these same colleges in the next two years, would probably demonstrate established structures. there are costs to credit transfer that could only be estimated in this study. another estimate is the potential return on investment. however, the return on investment is not gleaned immediately and is not currently tracked by the colleges financial departments. similar to wealth accumulation, diverse investments reap the best long-term rewards and that is the essence of student mobility. diversifying their education over time and geography is the new normal for a student learning trajectory. as with any other wealth accumulation, the costs incurred are borne somewhere; how they are borne and the impact they have are the challenges that post-secondary education institutions have to face. recommendations from this study are intended for both college and system application, as applicable: recommendation one: the tipping point of forming to established be further explored to better understand and support how colleges can achieve cost effective transfer processes recommendation two: the tracking of costs, direct and where possible indirect, be established as a pilot project to better define how costs impact budgets recommendation three: the potential revenue gained by the receiving institution be monitored to determine viability and return on investment recommendation four: the role student transfer plays in strategic enrollment management be examined in depth for all institutions, not just small colleges 7|page revised may 9/16 recommendation five: a student outcome measurement project be established to define the cumulative benefits to students in the system. 8|page revised may 9/16 contents executive summary:...................................................................................................................................... 2 recommendation one: ............................................................................................................... 7 recommendation two: ............................................................................................................... 7 recommendation three: ............................................................................................................ 7 recommendation four: .............................................................................................................. 7 recommendation five: ............................................................................................................... 8 measuring the cost of credit transfer........................................................................................................ 12 1 introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 12 2 literature review ................................................................................................................................ 12 credit transfer as an entity....................................................................................................... 12 ontarios commitment to student mobility .............................................................................. 13 credit transfer as a process ...................................................................................................... 13 cost of credit transfer and student mobility ........................................................................... 14 3 methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 15 research questions ................................................................................................................... 15 design and rationale ................................................................................................................. 15 3.2.1 phase one: literature review, interview design, preliminary data gathering ............. 16 3.2.2 phase two: quantitative surveys and analysis ........................................................ 16 3.2.3 phase three: extrapolation and report writing ........................................................... 16 college profiles ......................................................................................................................... 17 3.3.1 cambrian profile ............................................................................................................. 17 3.3.2 canadore profile ............................................................................................................. 17 3.3.3 collge boral profile ..................................................................................................... 18 3.3.4 confederation college profile......................................................................................... 18 3.3.5 georgian college profile ................................................................................................. 18 3.3.6 lambton college profile ................................................................................................. 18 3.3.7 northern college profile ................................................................................................. 19 3.3.8 sault college profile ........................................................................................................ 19 4 findings ............................................................................................................................................... 19 structure ................................................................................................................................... 20 student mobility........................................................................................................................ 22 9|page revised may 9/16 direct and indirect costs ........................................................................................................... 23 5 discussion ............................................................................................................................................ 26 what is the cost (both direct and indirect) of the student transfer process for small colleges?.................................................................................................................................... 26 what are the results for learners who engage in this process? ............................................. 27 what is the formula to determine return on investment specific to the transfer process in a small college? ........................................................................................................................... 27 6 conclusions and recommendations ................................................................................................... 28 recommendations: ................................................................................................................... 29 6.1.1 recommendation one:................................................................................................... 29 6.1.2 recommendation two: .................................................................................................. 29 6.1.3 recommendation three: ................................................................................................ 29 6.1.4 recommendation four: .................................................................................................. 29 6.1.5 recommendation five: ................................................................................................... 29 7 references........................................................................................................................................... 30 8 appendix a: key informant interview questions:.............................................................................. 31 10 | p a g e revised may 9/16 table 1 activity by structure ....................................................................................................................... 21 table 2 registrars activity by structure....................................................................................................... 22 table 3 student mobility and full time equivalents (fte) ........................................................................... 23 table 4 tuition source revenue .................................................................................................................. 23 table 5 range of human resource and time costs ...................................................................................... 24 table 6 direct and indirect activity costs .................................................................................................... 25 11 | p a g e revised may 9/16 measuring the cost of credit transfer 1 introduction the intent of this project was to determine the cost of and potentially a costing formula for credit transfer for institutional planning and sustainability purposes of credit transfer at small colleges. this project examined the identified direct and suggested indirect costs of credit transfer at c o l l e g e s that participated in this study. the investment and return on investment in the credit transfer process is explored and presented. i n a l l , e ight colleges were part of this study, seven were defined as small colleges while one was mid-sized. credit transfer is a clear priority for the provincial government. the concepts of credit transfer and block transfer are moving quickly to become a routine part of business w it h in the ontario college system. increasing access for learners is important to all colleges however, within small colleges, understanding cost implications is necessary to manage resource when new initiatives grow. there are two aspects of student mobility in the credit transfer process, one is institutions that are sending the student and the other is the institution who is receiving the student. this study focused upon institutions receiving students and the costs incurred in completing that process. unique challenges faced by small colleges in implementing credit transfer processes, are few, if any resources dedicated to credit transfer tasks. providing credit transfer requires an investment of time and human resources for each receiving institution. costing models for this process need to be identified within the context of small colleges. as this was an acknowledged need, the following eight colleges agreed to participate in this study: cambrian, canadore, collge boral, confederation, georgian, lambton, northern, and sault college. 2 literature review credit transfer as an entity student mobility has become an increasing pattern in higher education since 2000 (oecd, 2013). this process is part of growth and sustainability for canadian post-secondary institutions with emphasis on international students. this student movement places the onus on institutions to facilitate mobility processes (codina, nicolas, lopez, & hermain, 2013). international mobility may be at the front of this trend, but mobility between institutions in canada has grown in importance, as well (junor & usher, 2008). the student of today, does not stay in one country, one province, one city or even one institution for their entire educational career. rather they move between countries, provinces, cities, and institutions, as their educational pathways lead them where they want/need to go (arnold & woodhead, 2015). 12 | p a g e revised may 9/16 as a global reality, an institution no longer owns its learners, rather that institution is part of a learning journey whereby knowledge is acquired and developed (arnold & woodhead, 2015; cowin, 2013). in this case, the student is diversifying their learning over geography, while accumulating knowledge wealth simultaneously. as institutions become senders or receivers in this transfer process, how to manage student mobility as part of educational business in a seamless way, is the focus of much discussion (smith & bruyere, february 28, 2013). the mobile student factors into recruitment and retention strategies, something which institutions need to recognize in their overall enrollment planning (arnold & woodhead, 2015). strategic enrollment management plans, common in post-secondary institutions, focus largely upon recruitment of new learners, and not necessarily credit transfer learners (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2015). these two categories of students are different which implies a need for more planning on multiple institutional fronts for this mobile student category (junor & usher, 2008). as the growth in this area increases, understanding the costing formulas and return on investment is important for all colleges, for small colleges however, it takes on even greater significance (hicks, weingarten, jonker, & shuping, 2013). ontarios commitment to student mobility the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities mandated student mobility as a core priority for post-secondary education in 2011 (craney, september, 2013). the development of credit transfer policies and procedures emerged as a significant priority for post-secondary institutions in the province. however, while a clear priority for government, the issue is not all post-secondary institutions are created equally (hicks, weingarten, jonker, & shuping, 2013). the strategic direction of student mobility has grown with the establishment of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), mous with other provincial jurisdictions and the integration of electronic information tools for students that are linked to the ontarios post-secondary application systems. these activities have supported, enhanced and expanded credit transfer across the province. in oncats 2015 annual report, three-quarters of a year represented the average time saved with $84 million in tuition savings per student. this is a large business factor in a large system with one-third of its colleges classified as small. credit transfer as a process the process of credit transfer has been well described by camman, hamade, and zhou (2015) as the manner in which recognition is given for prior formal learning at an institution. the manner refers to process(es) and involves time spent on a) what a student provides as an educational record, b) the application of that record to what the institution offers, and c) compared with what the student wants to achieve. at a minimum, there are three steps to this process (junor & usher, 2008). the time taken for each step, or the volume of activity within each step is not clear within the literature. what is clear, is that there is a mapping that happens as part of the process (camman, stephane, & zhou, 2014). the mapping process is what separates credit transfer from a first time application, in terms of complexity and design. a first time application to a program is required to meet admission criteria, which are finite and definitive. this criteria applies to all applications with a few minor exceptions. however, credit transfer has neither finite nor definitive criteria attached to each and every request. mapping processes are critical steps and constitute a need for direct contact in credit transfer. within each institution, processes have evolved to suit institutional needs based on the volume and type of requests for credit transfer that the institution has historically dealt with. these vary from institution to institution. 13 | p a g e revised may 9/16 therefore, there is no standard formula that can be used universally to assure the receiving institution can give accurate credit transfer to an incoming student (codina, nicolas, lopez, & hermain, 2013). in some cases, such as the oncat database, credit transfer equivalencies are stipulated across the partnering institutions. this works well for those students who can find the exact course they want credit for, and match this to courses that are considered equivalent. to have a complete inventory of all courses and equivalencies is challenging, as curriculum is a dynamic entity, and keeping the information current will be a continuous effort. cost of credit transfer and student mobility two branches of post-secondary education in ontario predominate the system, universities and public colleges. the college system that this study focused upon, has a different funding formula than universities, hence the need to separate an analysis of measuring costs. less prominent in the literature is the question, what are the costs to the institution receiving students who have travelled a varied and diverse pathway to become their student? (snowden & brady, 2014). no process or services comes without cost, and with declining enrollment domestically, the ability to attract new students through credit transfer is an opportunity to fill seats (snowden & brady, 2014; cowin, 2013). unlike a straight forward application to programs, the processes involved in assuring credit transfer is given correctly, and in a timely way, have to be developed and involve more than one department and individual. institutionally, development translates into direct and indirect costs incurred for the processes and outcomes. as learning trajectories move from a linear path to a purposeful, winding pathway, the frequency of credit transfer requests grows (camman, stephane, & zhou, 2014; usher & jarvey, 2012). assessing the costs of credit transfer requests is important for institutional planning and viability. as little has been previously written on the costs of this process, basic accounting principles were reviewed to determine costs that would most likely be incurred (irfanullah, 2013). examination of direct costs were aligned with general accounting principles and managerial accounting practices. direct costs are generally defined as those that are easily observable, while indirect costs are those costs which are more difficult to track, less observable and as such more hidden. as already stated, the need for a student to work directly with a receiving institution constitutes the preliminary direct costs in terms of human resource time. snowden & brady have explored the universitycollege credit transfer pathway and presented cost efficacies of that process. with an emphasis on university and baccalaureate outcomes, this study helps define costs within a university system, but does not address costing models as viewed through a small college lens. snowden and brady go on to clarify how important this process is to both the future of the student and the institution. it is clearly not cost-effective for the student to have to re-learn throughout their learning career. snowden and brady discuss the complexities of the system issues in relation to the credit transfer question. measuring the cost of credit transfer in small colleges takes a more targeted approach to the costs incurred by receiving institutions, and is not intended as a system study. however, snowden and brady clarify and support a lack of information on this activity exists within the system. 14 | p a g e revised may 9/16 to further understand this concept of institutional inequality, the size of an institution dictates its tuition revenue. smaller colleges quite simply do not have as many students, faculty, staff, or resources, and as such a reverse financial barrier may exist. a definition of small colleges was used for this study and is outlined in the methodology section of this report. in junor and ushers 2008 examination of barriers to student mobility, financial barriers are highlighted, yet ironically, the financial barrier may not rest solely with the student. credit transfer is not the only barrier that governments and other funders can play [a] role in helping students to overcome. as noted above, financial barriers to mobility are also substantial, but private foundations, post-secondary institutions and governments all provide varying levels of support to encourage or enhance post-secondary student mobility throughout home countries and around the globe. junor and usher, 2008, pg. 6 oncat has supported the credit transfer process as student mobility gains traction in ontario (craney, september, 2013). project funding has been made readily available, along with opportunities for institutions to research root challenges and concerns. this funding has been well used and value added for the development process of credit transfer activity. however, without understanding exact costs, the appreciation of this value added funding could be lost. 3 methodology research questions as with any research endeavor, the research questions guide the process and determine methodology. the research questions for this project were: what is the cost (both direct and indirect) of the student transfer process for small colleges? what are the results for learners who engage in this process? what is the formula to determine return on investment specific to the transfer process in a small college? these research questions are most readily answered through the methodology described. design and rationale the rationale for the project rested with the concept of small colleges managing multiple activities with limited resources. the definition of small colleges in the context of this study was drawn from the provincial standards of less than 5000 full time equivalent funded enrollment students, less than 450 full time faculty and less than $90 million in annual budget. one institution within the study did not fit the small college definition, however, as a mid-sized institution the opportunity to have additional colleges involved was valuable to the study. each college was aware of the participating colleges and there was full commitment to the recognition of their status as small, or in one case mid-sized, colleges. this research project was divided into three phases outlined here. 15 | p a g e revised may 9/16 3.2.1 phase one: literature review, interview design, preliminary data gathering the literature review focused upon credit transfer practices across canada, with a more in depth focus on ontario colleges. current best practices in credit transfer were reviewed. the size effect on colleges to provide services and maintain access was part of this review, however, little information was available on this particular topic. existing costing formulas for credit transfer were sought and reviewed to determine applicability to a small college. key informant interviews were held with each participant college with the person(s) responsible for credit transfer. the researchers identifie d four areas of oncat influence and these were: (1) course specific precedents (2) market (3) growth (4) value of credit transfer. two questions were designed within each area. the key informant interview questions were validated amongst a test group of ten at northern college. it was hoped areas of definition arising from the interviews would be: length of time, number of steps, departments involved, revenue fees, ease of transfer, costs, etc. the interview was conducted by one research team member who as faculty ha d in depth experience in credit transfer. the data from the interview provided the scope of resources dedicated to credit transfer and efficient internal mechanisms create fluid transfer processes. a broader survey followed the key informant interviews and was completed via a cross section of departments at each institution: finance, admissions and/or, registrar. a secondary data source was websites and policy documents from each institution related to student admission and transfer policies. this secondary data supported the overall analysis. costing models/centers were provided by finance departments at each institution for assessment of indirect costs. 3.2.2 phase two: quantitative surveys and analysis as a mixed methods design, qualitative feedback as well as descriptive quantitative data was provided. the qualitative interview feedback fed the quantitative design to a certain degree. two quantitative surveys were designed, one for the registrars and one for finance. the surveys used quantitative measures related to input, process, output and outcomes of the transfer process. the surveys included time estimates on processes, and job classification of college employees in the process, to help determine overall efficacy and costs. t h e i n t e n t w a s t o k e e p t h e quantitative surveys as concise as possible to ensure prompt responses. both were under 20 questions. validation of the data occurred through triangulation of qualitative to quantitative to secondary data. the global data set remains with northern college, however should any one institution wish to receive their own data, it is available to them. 3.2.3 phase three: extrapolation and report writing the extrapolation of findings to relevance for small colleges occurred in the final phase. this took place from mid-november through to february, and overlapped with the quantitative survey distribution. the qualitative data and the registrarial quantitative data were available first, and review and analysis of these 16 | p a g e revised may 9/16 two groupings of data was completed early in january. there were no challenges with data complexity, however, what was discovered was data on direct costs appeared to challenging to identify, and no institutions were overtly tracking this aspect. college profiles eight colleges participated in this study. the determination of small was based upon the provincial definition of small colleges, coupled with overall budgets of the colleges involved. georgian, while not technically a small college by the study definition, participated and was an outlier comparator, for purposes of the study. in examining the data, responses from a mid-sized college were not that different than from the identified small colleges. the college profiles were developed in conjunction with the vice presidents academic of each college and focused on size, mission and location. 3.3.1 cambrian profile cambrian college is situated in sudbury, northern ontario. its vision is to be northern ontarios preeminent college and a key regional economic driver. their graduates are proud of their education and aspire to be the best for themselves and their communities, and to make a difference in the world. cambrian provides world-class applied learning, labour force development, and research through flexible, responsive, and caring student success practices; by striving for excellence in instruction, engaging students using hands-on, life-changing learning; and by remaining accountability in all that they do. with 3 campuses, a budget of $ 101,545,892, there are 4100 full time equivalent students served across 80 post-secondary programs. their mission statement in all that we do and all that we offer, you will find that: we lead with our commitment to diverse learners; we teach and learn through quality education that responds to the needs of the community; we balance hands-on experience with the knowledge and skills essential for personal and professional success. reflects student centered values. cambrian houses some unique activities such as cambrian innovates (applied research) all-season greenhouse, and varsity sports (soccer). 3.3.2 canadore profile canadore college is located in north bay, ontario. its vision is to be the college of choice for connecting people, education, and employment through leadership and innovation. with 3 campuses and a budget of $78,035,228, canadore delivers 80 post-secondary programs to 2300 full time equivalent students. canadores mission is to provide outstanding applied education and training for an ever-changing world. canadore hosts an interactive health fair, has the northern ontario crown ward education championship team, and is known for its aviation technology campus. 17 | p a g e revised may 9/16 3.3.3 collge boral profile collge boral is located in sudbury, ontario and is a francophone college that has sites across the province. its vision is to foster knowledge and stimulate culture. with 7 campuses and a budget of $ 125,202,906, collge boral delivers 60 post-secondary programs to 1500 full time equivalent students. its mission is to provide a high-caliber personalized education to a diverse clientele and it practices community leadership to foster the sustainable development of the francophone community of ontario. collge boral has 35 access centres, distributes over $800,000 in scholarships, and has won international marketing awards. 3.3.4 confederation college profile confederation college is located in thunder bay, ontario. confederations vision will enrich lives through learning with 9 campuses, a budget of $ 70,636,483, confederation delivers 60 post-secondary programs to 4000 full time equivalent students. confederations mission inspires learners to succeed in their lives and careers in northwestern ontario and beyond. confederation colleges many regional campuses cover 550,000 km2.. the college has a student mental health and well-being strategy and is known for its bound early acceptance program. 3.3.5 georgian college profile georgian college is located in barrie, ontario. georgians mission is be the most personally connected learning organization in canada a catalyst for individual, organizational and community transformation. with 7 campuses and a budget of $ 180,000,000, georgian delivers 125 programs to 11,000 full time equivalent students. its mission is to inspire innovation, transform lives and connect communities through the power of education. named one of canada's top 100 employers seven times. georgian offers more than $1 in scholarships, is entrepreneurship focused, has won awards for its support of syrian refugees. it is home to the one-of-akind university partnership centre and one of canadas greenest employers five years in a row. 3.3.6 lambton college profile lambton college is located in sarnia, ontario. lambtons vision is to be a higher education institution recognized locally, nationally and globally for excellence in education, applied research, technological innovation and sustainability leadership. with 1 main campus and a budget of $ 69,071,287, lambton delivers 120 post-secondary programs to 2600 full time equivalent students. lambtons mission is to promote student and community success. we achieve our mission through quality teaching and an innovative learning environment that: provides relevant, accessible, value added programs and services that engage and develop the whole student; proactively addresses the needs of a constantly changing labour market; supports community & economic development through innovative partnerships and applied research initiatives. lambton is known for its power and bio-engineering and mobile learning focus, as well as its research in water treatment. 18 | p a g e revised may 9/16 3.3.7 northern college profile northern college is located in timmins, northeastern ontario. the vision of northern college is success for all through learning and partnerships. with 4 campuses and a budget of $ 39,097,959, northern delivers 75 post-secondary programs to 2200 full time equivalent students. northern colleges mission is to ensure quality, accessible education through innovative programs, services and partnerships for the benefit of our northern communities. known for its mining expertise, northern supports a catchment area the size of france, and has an indigenous focus in support of the indigenous populations in the region. 3.3.8 sault college profile sault college is located in sault ste. marie, ontario. saults vision is to make our society a better place by providing a transformative life experience through empowering those who study with us to think and learn in progressive, innovative ways, including those we have not yet imagined. with 1 main campus and a budget of $ 57,926,000, sault college delivers 70 post-secondary programs to 3800 students, including part time learners. saults mission is to be recognized as the pre-eminent student-centered post-secondary institution in the province with an unyielding dedication to giving students the tools to reach their goals, and in doing so, be a cornerstone of the communities we serve. sault college is known for its willows teaching restaurant, varsity golf and provides year round day care for staff, faculty and students. 4 findings overall response rates were good for this study. although in each segment one response was missing, (key informant interviews, registrars and finance survey), it was never the same institution missing data. therefore, seven responses out of eight were available for review in responding to each research question. based upon the qualitative data, several categories emerged from the information collected. these categories evolved directly via the four oncat areas the key informant interviews were evolved from; course specific precedents, market, growth, and value of credit transfer. the categories were: types of activity, categories of people involved in the activity, process steps, time, level of authority, student access, and increase in requests, impact on enrollment, institutional priority, perceptions and challenges. what became clear in the qualitative data was two distinct structures within the colleges studied. one structure was forming credit transfer as a distinct part of the colleges business administration. the other structure identified was termed established, as business practices were solidified around credit transfer. on the basis of this study alone, it was not possible to tell what the tipping point was between forming and established, but the tipping point appeared to be tied to volume of requests and culture of the institution. comparisons of the categories flowed from this initial structural finding of forming and established structure (see table 1). 19 | p a g e revised may 9/16 structure the types of activity was a category focused upon what happened in the credit transfer process. the activity could have been a file review, meeting, report, etc. type of activity was presented by the various institutions as either centralized or disbursed, with disbursed linked to the forming structure. the breakdown of forming and established was approximately 50%. the categories of people involved in the activity was reviewed with each key informant. while there were various classifications involved such as first year experience officers, registration clerks, deans or marketing, there were several categories of people involved, regardless of the structure. in some cases, more than six people actually had hands on, or input into the file, but often the various people involved had the same work classification (as defined by colleges of applied arts and technology). the process steps were documented as three to four in the process as drawn from the key informant interview process. it appeared the number of steps was similar regardless of forming or established structure. these steps were clear within each individual institution, but individual steps had greater complexity in the forming structures. the steps included such things as receives request, helps student gather information, takes application, assigns content expert, reviews decisions, etc. various steps involved varying levels of authority (people). in the forming structure, the activity was more detailed and involved more decisions, while in the established structure the steps were streamlined with one decision point at each step. time was the amount of time the process took within each institution to arrive at a decision on the transfer credit. this was harder to determine in a forming structure. both structures reported increased requests and validated credit transfer was a high priority within the institution. the perception in forming structures was the credit transfer process was challenging, while established structures found it easier. both types of structures continue to have challenges, and there were mixed views on the enrollment impact. the level of authority category refers to the classification of the person involved. the colleges applied arts and technology (caat) classification system was used to determine salary ranges by classification for the purposes of this study. levels of authority are defined by classification steps, for example a dean may be at step 14, while an admissions officer may be at step 8. the level of authority represented was higher in a forming structure, then in established structures. student access as a category refers to the ability of students to find credit transfer information, how they can retrieve it, and how the credit transfer information is managed within an institution. notably, websites are the primary source of information, but within forming institutions, word of mouth still was believed to generate a lot of student awareness. this is an anecdotal observation but it was repeated in all forming institutions interviews. the impact on enrollment varies and is perceived differently in forming and established institutions, as was the perception of the processes and challenges currently incurred (see table 1). 20 | p a g e revised may 9/16 table 1 activity by structure activity type of activity forming disbursed categories of people involved 4-6 3-6 categories included faculty, registrar clerk deans, coordinators, first year experience advisors process steps 3-4 3-4 in the established model the steps were shorter time varies predictable 10+ days at the most in the established model. not predicted in the forming model level of authority administrative clerical category of personnel doing the bulk of the work at a lower level in established student access website/manual processes website how did students find out about this process increase in requests yes yes requests are increasing for everyone enrollment impact not clear stabilizing this may offset attrition but not clear institutional priority high high clearly understood as a government priority perception getting easier easy now established protocols simplify this in the established structure challenges gathering the data transfer of data there are still challenges 21 | p a g e established centralized comments about of the colleges in the study were established revised may 9/16 the registrars report on activity provided a wealth of information. there was unanimous agreement that enrollment was down over the past five years. the full time equivalent enrollment (fte) for the past academic year was averaged for the smaller colleges. the result was 2400 fte. the five year average full time equivalent amongst these same small colleges was reported at 2500, a loss of 100 students over the past five years compared with this academic year. when the registrars were asked what the biggest challenge for them was in credit transfer process, the responses were all similar in that it takes time to do this, and to have the right people involved with each individual request. when asked the same question with an institutional focus on the challenges, the responses were on the need for resources and efficient processes. table 2 provides comparative detail on registrars responses sorted by working structure. table 2 registrars activity by structure activity forming established change affecting revenue declining tuition revenue from fte fte 5 year average declining declining enrollment growth declining declining declining tuition revenue from fte track tc requests not all tracked well defined tracking potential to track costs number of tc requests increasing increasing potential to impact tuition revenue process requests time to process requests time to process requests cost impacts of human resource time challenges coordinating all the activities and human resources confidentiality, consistency more sophisticated needs as the evolution occurs student mobility one of the research questions focused upon what is happening for students. the overall student mobility in the eight colleges studied was captured. the question focused upon credit transfers into the institution, these transfers could come from anywhere, with no distinction between colleges within this study. more than 3910 credit transfers were issued by these institutions in the past academic year. these credit transfers represented 843 individual students. a picture of aggregate enrollment is important to focus the discussion of student mobility around costs and return on investment. a comparison of credit transfer students to aggregate averages follows in table 3. 22 | p a g e revised may 9/16 table 3 student mobility and full time equivalents (fte) for small colleges in this study category full time equivalent 5 year average by college (demonstrating institutional size) full time equivalent this year (demonstrating institutional size) credit transfer by individual students* total transfers of all colleges in the study credits transferred by course students 2428 2553 843 3910 *this number is minimal, as not all institutions counted or reported the individual students. tuition revenues were examined in these institutions, and while they vary, the average tuition revenue per course was estimated at $300. therefore, the credit transfer value of a course is $300. this value was used consistently in revenue comparisons. the credit transfer value of these transactions was $1,173,000 over the seven small colleges reporting in this study. only the small colleges were included, in defining aggregate data in table 3. credit transfer value represents 10% of the five year tuition average and nearly 12% of the past years total tuition revenue. tuition revenue is moving in the system when factoring credit transfer. the revenue for an individual college, from credit transfer appears to be 1% of the aggregate 5 year average, increasing to 1.9% of the current year revenue average. this represents a growing percentage that is fluid in the system. unfortunately, this revenue is not specifically tracked within the colleges, as noted by the finance offices who responded to the survey. a comparison of tuition source revenue and credit transfer value is provided in table 4. table 4 tuition source revenue and credit transfer value sources of revenue (small colleges) tuition revenue average for five years average revenue $11,338,867 tuition past year $9,996,883 credit transfer aggregate value $1,173,,000 credit transfer average value per college $186,166 estimated actual revenue from transfer not tracked direct and indirect costs direct and indirect costs were defined for the purpose of this study. direct costs were itemized as human resources, time, task activity such as data entry, and tuition value lost when a student receives credit from 23 | p a g e revised may 9/16 a receiving institution. indirect costs were itemized as processes, data maintenance, supervision and interactive tasks such as communication between people and/or departments. the key informant interview determined some areas of indirect support (costs), challenges and successes of the process. none of the colleges in the survey tracked direct or indirect costs specifically for credit transfer. people associated with these processes, function at various levels of authority within the institution such as: deans, faculty, coordinators, registrars, admissions clerks, first year experience advisors, etc. the number of categories of people involved, and the need to check, recheck and verify information in the process was identified as a labor intensive exercise. thus, this was deemed a contact sport activity. as the level of authority rises, so does the salary, and thus the cost associated with the process. the colleges applied arts and technology (caat) classification system was used as a guide to estimate salary ranges for categories of people involved. classifications are clearly delineated in the system. as exact salary ranges were not known for each category, middle ranges were selected and applied consistently in the cost accounting. time on task estimates were based upon information gathered through the key informant interviews. the estimated time on task for each individual handling a portion of a credit transfer request was 15 to 20 minutes, or one-quarter to one-third of an hour. as hourly wages could be determined from caat classification tables, costs for time on task could be estimated. in lieu of specific data about seniority, the middle of each range for each classification was used to estimate time on task from the lowest level of authority (lla), to the highest level of authority (hla). the resulting range of $73,000 to more than half a million indicates how vulnerable this process is to cost variations. table 5 summarizes direct costs based on the level of authority and estimated time on task. table 5 range of human resource and time costs processing per 15 minutes at lowest level of authority (lla) costs $6.25 per 15 minutes at highest level of authority (hla) $16.50 three people at lowest level of authority (3l) (minimal time) three people at highest level of authority (3h) (minimal time) ten people at lowest level of authority (10l) (minimal time) ten people at highest level of authority (10h) (minimal time) 3910 at lla minimal time 3l $18.75 $73, 312.50 3910 at hla minimal time 3h $157,905.00 3910 at lla minimal time 10l $198,577.50 3910 at hla minimal time 10h $511,990.00 24 | p a g e $49.50 $62.25 $160.50 revised may 9/16 indirect costs were not tracked by the institutions. when asked specifically about indirect costs, it appeared the indirect costs had not been considered at all. comparing the categories of activity by direct and indirect costs, in consideration of the structure, forming or established, is helpful to see where costs are/could be incurred. it is also possible to identify potential for net gain or reduction in cost (see table 6). table 6 direct and indirect activity costs activity type of involvement direct more centralized, reduce process time indirect disbursed increases process time net centralized may reduce costs people involved cost of employees time cost of processes, data management, communications fewer people may reduce costs process steps each step has a value each step has a value cost estimate of each step needs to be determined, increased steps increase costs time human resources/processes human resources/processes more time, more costs level of authority increased time increased processes higher level of authority means higher costs student access website maintenance communication flow to assure accuracy net cost incurred to maintain access increase in requests human resources and processes data management increase in costs enrollment impact stabilize/destabilize enrollment factor in retention potential to increase revenue institutional priority time and human resources time and human resources potential to increase costs perception no associated costs no associated costs no net activity challenges track identify unidentified challenges could pose cost risk what is not being captured at the institutional level is the overall office of credit transfer nature of this activity and exact quantity of people associated, plus exact time invested. data management including input and export were identified as time consuming and challenging to either develop or monitor, but no estimates on costs had been tracked. supervision of the entire process is another indirect cost. communication related to the process has to be considered as an indirect cost, the transmitting of information between the varieties of people involved along with the various departments is another aspect of consideration for the labor intensive nature of this activity. 25 | p a g e revised may 9/16 5 discussion having presented the overall findings of the key informant interviews and two surveys, it is important to go back to the original research questions to discuss findings within the context of what the study was seeking to determine. the three questions are presented here. what is the cost (both direct and indirect) of the student transfer process for small colleges? for the most part, costs incurred for credit transfer resources and processes have not been tracked by the institutions in this study. there was a clear acknowledgement of cost, but no seeming ability to capture this, despite the acknowledgement of cost across all institutions in the study. therefore to get an exact value was not possible. however, within the data provided there was a variety of costs that could be tabulated for everything from human resources to data management. these costs can be estimated given the nature of the ontario public college system. utilizing the information supplied on the processes and levels of authority of people in place, estimates were made on the basis of standardized pay scales throughout the province, as provided through caat. estimates of time were developed based upon the information given from the various institutions of how long their processes took. tools and resources were costed, utilizing current value estimates from web searches. all colleges identified resources and time as labor intensive in the starting phases of establishing credit transfer. a range of direct costs has been identified based upon the information given and that range is from $18.75-$160.00 per transfer. this leads to an aggregate variance of approximately $73,000 to over $500,000. an additional cost to the college is a loss of tuition revenue incurred for the transfer credit value given. in a review of tuition across the institutions showed a variation in what was charged. however, a consistent average is applied when giving credit. this average is approximately $300 per credit, and represents the credited tuition revenue. this can be weighed against potential tuition revenue from the incoming student. this potential revenue is dependent upon how long the student will stay at the receiving institution. therefore, potential tuition revenue increases the earlier a student transfers in, while lost tuition revenue is minimized. indirect costs are not considered by the finance departments in relation to this activity. 26 | p a g e revised may 9/16 what are the results for learners who engage in this process? the results from the study indicated 3910 recorded course credit transfers occurred across these seven institutions, over the past academic year. this represented a minimum of 843 individual students who received credit transfer, but this is a minimal estimate, as not all institutions recorded or reported the exact number. with the introduction of the single identifier as a student number the ability to track student mobility inter and intra institutionally will become easier and garner far more information than is currently available. given the definition of small colleges is fewer than 4000 fte, this number represents as much as 20% of the ftes in the small colleges studied. increased demand for transfer activity is occurring at all institutions, as was unanimously reported. this means student mobility has impetus to grow. the results for learners in this process is an enhanced ability to receive credit transfer value for learning regardless of where they choose to go for their learning. thus the results are meeting the provincial priorities. this diversification of learning across institutions should result in greater knowledge wealth for the student, like a diversified portfolio as an investment strategy. it should be noted that block transfers were not included in the numbers provided either for individual registrations or for individual students. block transfers are program specific and result in year to year, program to program exchanges. including them may have skewed the results of this study, and either diminished or overly inflated costs. overall, block transfers, while complex to design, appear to be simpler to implement at the institutional level. what is the formula to determine return on investment specific to the transfer process in a small college? the formula to determine cost to the institution is actually quite simple and is projected/anticipated tuition revenue (direct costs + indirect costs of credit transfer + credit transfer value given) = return on investment. however, without tracking the direct and providing mechanisms to estimate the indirect costs, this formula cannot be implemented at the institutional level. operating grants for the institutions were not factored in, rather tuition as a source of revenue was the baseline comparator. other factors influence this formula, for example the number of transfers one individual makes would create the following considerations for the formula: increased transfers for one individual = reduced potential revenue. however, when factored along with attrition, the return on investment again changes as the following factor needs to be included increased total number of student transfers = increased net enrollment. 27 | p a g e revised may 9/16 6 conclusions and recommendations credit transfer appears to be a contact sport. regardless of automated systems available, at some point a direct contact is required between the transferring student and the receiving institution to determine what the student wants to take and how they will get credit for it. for planning purposes, colleges must look more closely at the credit transfer process and impact these process may have on a) overall enrollment, and b) costs. these issues need to be included in enrollment estimates, strategic enrollment management strategies, and costing formulas. there appears to be a tipping point from forming to established structures in terms of credit transfer activity. this tipping point appears to be tied to volume of requests and the culture of the institution. determining the structure was not the purpose of this exercise, so the right questions to ask to define the tipping point were not included in this study. further assessment of creating that culture of mobility needs to happen. credit transfer to support student mobility is alive and well in these colleges. it is a high priority and colleges are making the investments to assure it happens. however, there appears to be a lack of understanding as to what these investments mean in terms of costs or solid estimates on return on investment. the sustainability of credit transfer ties directly to the question of return on investment, which in turn is linked to the costs incurred in giving credit transfer value. the issue of sustainability is an institutional and system wide question to be asked. small institutions in particular are more vulnerable, as they deal with smaller budgets, fewer students, and yet are required to maintain prescribed standards of student service. with external support currently provided, the impact on college finances has yet to be truly felt. students are benefiting from this process as seen by the thousands of credit transfers issued in this past academic year alone, in the small and mid-sized college included in this study. the number of students reported is minimal given this was not tracked but at 843 it represents almost 20% of the average full time equivalent reported by the registrars. this number will increase and continue to make up a respectable percentage of the student body, thus making the benefits increasingly visible over time. while not all colleges in this study had an established structure, it is still recognized that student mobility is a high priority given the emphasis placed on it by the provincial government. the interest in and attention to this group of students is demonstrated at every level of this study. going back to these same colleges in the next two years, would probably demonstrate established structures. there are costs to credit transfer that could only be estimated in this study. another estimate is the potential return on investment. however, the return on investment is not gleaned immediately and is not currently tracked by the colleges financial departments. similar to wealth accumulation, diverse investments reap the best long term rewards and that is the essence of student mobility. diversifying their education over time and geography is the new normal for a student learning trajectory. as with any other wealth accumulation, the costs incurred are borne somewhere; how they are borne and the impact they have are the challenges of post-secondary education to face. 28 | p a g e revised may 9/16 recommendations: recommendations from this study are intended for both college and system application, as applicable: 6.1.1 recommendation one: the tipping point of forming to established be further explored to better understand and support how colleges can achieve cost effective transfer processes 6.1.2 recommendation two: the tracking of costs, direct and where possible indirect, be established as a pilot project to better define how costs impact budgets 6.1.3 recommendation three: the potential revenue gained by the receiving institution be monitored to determine viability and return on investment 6.1.4 recommendation four: the role student transfer plays in strategic enrollment management be examined in depth for all institutions, not just small colleges 6.1.5 recommendation five: a student outcome measurement project be established to define the cumulative benefits to students in the system. the success of credit transfer in these small colleges is phenomenal given a short time frame and limited resources. the high priority and interest level bodes well for continuing growth of student mobility in small colleges, regardless of the challenges faced. 29 | p a g e revised may 9/16 7 references arnold, c., & woodhead, s. (2015). transferabiolity: expectations and realities. toronto, canada: oncat. camman, r., stephane, h., & zhou, a. (2014). student mobility and credit transfer pathways. toronto, canada: ontario undergarduate student union. codina, b., nicolas, j., lopez, l., & hermain, r. (2013). the importance of student mobility, academic exchange and internationalization of higher education for college students in a globalized world: the mexican and latin american case. retrieved from international journal of good conscience: http://www.spentamexico.org/v8-n2/a3.8(2)48-63.pdf cowin, r. (2013). student transfer, success and mobility in b.c. post-secondary institutions. victoria, canada: bccat. craney, g. (september, 2013). forging new pathways to improve student mobility. toronto, canada: oncat. hicks, m., weingarten, h., jonker, l., & shuping, l. (2013). the diversity of ontario's colleges: a data set to inform the differentialtion discussion. toronto, canada: heqco. irfanullah, j. (2013). managerial accounting. retrieved from accounting explained: http://accountingexplained.com/managerial/introduction/ junor, s., & usher, a. (2008). student mobility and credit transfer:, a national and global survey. toronto, canada: educational policy institute. oecd. (2013, july). how is international student mobility shaping up? retrieved from education indicators in focus; oecd: http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/edif%202013-n%c2%b013%20(eng)--final.pdf ontario council on articulation and transfer. (2015). annual report. toronto, canada : oncat. smith, g., & bruyere, m. (february 28, 2013). credit transfer institutional grants (ctig). ministry of training, colleges and universities at the 2nd annual student pathways in higher education conference (p. 18). toronto, canada: ministry of training,colleges and universities. snowden, k., & brady, j. (2014, october 31st). towards a better understanding of credit transfer costs and benefits. retrieved from oncat: http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=research usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer in ontario colleges. toronto, canada: higher education associates. 30 | p a g e revised may 9/16 8 appendix a: key informant interview questions: 1. course specific precedents a. in addition to you, who is involved either directly or indirectly with your credit transfer process? need exact title and role (if needed use prompts): program coordinators support staff from what department/position and job title advisors professors/counsellors registrar management to the best of your knowledge, what are their duties and the time (hours per week/semester/year) they spend on these tasks? use a table to tabulate information b. please tell me how your college communicates with oncat? and, how do you provide data to ontransfer.ca (manually through ocemc, or are you synchronized?) 2. market a. do you have any particular academic departments at your college that have been really successful with credit transfer? how has this come about? (examples, please) b. do you have any academic departments that have experienced particular difficulty with credit transfers? what would have caused these difficulties? 3. growth a. how do students find out about credit transfer at your college other than through oncat? b. how has credit transfer affected your enrollment? are the requests increasing? if so, by how much? have you been accepting more students since credit transfer has become more of a priority? 4. value a. where does seamless and flexible credit transfer fit in your institutions priorities? and, how does your college financially address the priority level of credit transfer b. overall, what has gone well for your college since the oncat process started, and, what has been difficult? 31 | p a g e revised may 9/16

pathways from programs at la cit to programs at the university of ottawa in engineering project 2015-30 executive summary la cit and the university of ottawa decided to work together to explore ways to increase student mobility from college to university in the field of engineering. to this end, both partners conducted a detailed program analysis in four engineering disciplines: mechanical, civil, electrical and computer. they looked at the programs' general directions and approaches as well as the specific components of related courses (targeted learning outcomes, educational methods, topics covered, learning assessment methods, etc.). this analysis took into account the accreditation bodies academic program requirements, to maintain their integrity. this analysis identified possible course equivalencies in each program, as well as requirements and conditions for credit transfers from college to university. about thirty courses were identified in total. work is ongoing to develop agreements in these four disciplines, and these agreements should be ready to take effect in early fall 2017.

oncat projet 201635 parcours de transferts des programmes de la cit et du collge boral vers deux programmes de luniversit st-paul rapport final fvrier 2017 liste des participants et des tablissements partenaires universit saintpaul jeanmarc barrette vicerecteur lenseignement et la recherche pauline blanger gestionnaire des programmes dtudes et des projets stratgiques dr. aliaa dakroury directrice et professeur lcole des communications sociales jeanfranois rioux directeur et professeur lcole dtudes de conflits sophie cloutier professeur en thique publique cynthia bilodeau directrice et professeur en relations humaines et spiritualit collge la cit lise frenette gestionnaire, projets spciaux joseph aghaby charg de projets collge boral jocelyne bdard gestionnaire de projets caton 201635 rapport final 2 contacts universit saintpaul pauline blanger gestionnaire des programmes dtudes et des projets stratgiques bureau du vicerectorat lenseignement et la recherche 222, rue main ottawa, on k1s 1c4 tl. : 6132361393, poste 2014 collge la cit lise frenette gestionnaire, services dappui aux projets spciaux 801, promenade de laviation ottawa, on k1k 4r3 tl. : 6137422493, poste 2023 collge boral jocelyne bdard gestionnaire de projets 21, boulevard lasalle sudbury, on p3a 6b1 tl. : 18003616673, poste 2240 caton 201635 rapport final 3 table des matires 1 sommaire ................................................................................................................................ 5 2 intention et objectifs du projet ............................................................................................... 5 3 laboration des parcours de transfert .................................................................................... 6 4 parcours de transferts labors .............................................................................................. 8 4.1 parcours labors vers le programme relations humaines et spiritualit de luniversit saintpaul ..................................................................................................................................... 8 4.2 parcours labors vers le programme thique publique de luniversit saintpaul ...... 9 4.3 parcours labors vers le programme communications sociales de luniversit saint paul .............................................................................................................................. 10 4.4 parcours labors vers le programme tudes de conflits ............................................. 10 5 parcours de transfert modifis .............................................................................................. 11 6 meilleurs pratiques et enseignement ................................................................................... 11 7 6.1 meilleures pratiques...................................................................................................... 11 6.2 enseignement ................................................................................................................ 12 sommaire des articulations tablies ..................................................................................... 12 annexes ......................................................................................................................................... 14 caton 201635 rapport final 4 1 sommaire trois tablissements ont particip ce projet soit luniversit saintpaul (usp), le collge la cit (lc) et le collge boral (cb). les trois partenaires avaient collabor ensemble en 2015 une premire entente qui a permis le dveloppement de plusieurs parcours vers trois programmes de lusp : relations humaines et spiritualit, tudes de conflits et communications sociales. en 2016, un nouveau projet visait dvelopper de nouveaux parcours de transfert vers trois programmes de lusp : relations humaines et spiritualit, thique publique et communications sociales. dix programmes collgiaux communs entre les deux collges et deux programmes uniques chacun des collges taient partie prenante au dveloppement de ces nouveaux parcours (voir le tableau la page suivante). lensemble des ententes soumises dans la proposition de projet en janvier 2016 ont t ralises. en plus, nous avons dvelopp huit parcours qui ntaient pas prvus dans ce projet la demande des directions des programmes collgiaux. grce la grande ouverture de lusp les requtes ont t analyses et accordes, ce qui a permis de dpasser nos objectifs. les programmes collgiaux suivants bnficient dune toute premire entente avec lusp : ducation en services lenfance (lc, cb), gestion des ressources humaines postdiplme (cb), soins paramdicaux (lc, cb), parajuriste (lc) et techniques de travail social grontologie (lc). le travail rigoureux et constant des diffrentes quipes de travail a permis de raliser ce projet avec succs grce entre autres ltablissement de processus fluides et dune communication rgulire entre les diffrents intervenants. les quipes esprent pouvoir poursuivre sur leur lance dans un avenir rapproch. 2 intention et objectifs du projet lobjectif du projet, tel quapprouv, tait de dvelopper des parcours de transfert fonds sur le principe du 2 + 2, entre trois programmes de lusp et dix programmes distincts des collges lc et cb. les parcours de transferts 2 + 2 font en sorte que la formation dun programme collgial est reconnue pour deux ans ou 60 crdits et ltudiant doit complter sa formation universitaire en 2 ans en obtenant 60 crdits. les arrimages proposs taient les suivants : programmes de lusp relations humaines et spiritualit programmes de lc programmes du cb ducation en services lenfance techniques dducation spcialise techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale ducation en services lenfance tudes sur la paix et les conflits gestion des ressources humaines techniques dducation spcialise caton 201635 rapport final 5 thique publique ducation en services lenfance soins paramdicaux techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale techniques de travail social techniques de travail social grontologie techniques des services policiers journalisme communications techniques dducation spcialise sociales techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale en gras : les programmes uniques des deux collges ducation en services lenfance tudes sur la paix et les conflits gestion des ressources humaines soins paramdicaux techniques de travail social techniques des services policiers techniques dducation spcialise le projet initi en 2016 visait poursuivre sur cette lance et dvelopper de nouveaux parcours avec un nouveau programme de lusp : thique publique. de plus, nous souhaitions dvelopper de nouvelles ententes pour deux programmes uniques chacun des collges : la cit : techniques de travail social grontologie techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge boral : tudes sur la paix et les conflits gestion des ressources humaines. cela sajoute deux programmes communs aux deux collges qui navaient pas dentente avec lusp : ducation en services lenfance et soins paramdicaux. fort de lexprience acquise et des contacts dvelopps en 2015, nous tions optimistes de rencontrer les objectifs fixs dans la soumission. 3 laboration des parcours de transfert a) mthodologie la mthodologie utilise pour laborer ces parcours de transfert sest dveloppe de faon intuitive et spontane. lobjectif des partenaires tait de respecter lindpendance des tablissements tout en dveloppant une mthode simple et efficace. la mthode employe pour le dveloppement des nouveaux parcours est la suivante : 1. les chargs de projets des deux collges acheminent leur collgue de lusp les documents suivants pour chacun des programmes : le cursus du programme la liste des comptences professionnelles terminales du programme les plans de cours du programme regroups par tape 2. la charge de projet de lusp prpare un tableau danalyse qui comprend trois colonnes : les cours du programme du collge, les cours du programme de lusp qui caton 201635 rapport final 6 sont crdits et les cours que devront suivre les tudiants (voir annexe 1). une premire analyse est effectue par la charge de projet de lusp. elle identifie les cours les plus vidents qui devraient tre crdits. 3. les documents des collges et le tableau danalyse sont distribus un professeur ou une direction du programme de lusp vis par lentente 4. cette personne procde un examen des plans de cours des programmes collgiaux et dtermine quels cours du programme universitaire sont quivalents, en tout ou en partie, et mritent dtre crdits. 5. la charge de projet de lusp prpare le formulaire qui sera achemin au registraire qui indique : le nom du programme et du collge, le programme de lusp concern et les cours qui sont crdits (voir annexe 2). ce formulaire est envoy la direction du programme pour discussion par lquipe de professeurs et approbation. 6. le registraire et le vicerecteur aux tudes de lusp sont informs des nouveaux parcours de transfert par le formulaire sign par la direction du programme. 7. les collges sont informs des rsultats de lanalyse et des nouveaux parcours de transfert approuvs. 8. les partenaires se concertent pour rdiger un protocole dentente (voir annexe 3) et la liste des cours que devront suivre les tudiants des programmes collgiaux concerns lusp (voir annexe 4). 9. une confrence de presse est organise pour annoncer les nouveaux parcours et procder la signature du protocole dentente (voir annexe 5). 10. les partenaires font la promotion des nouveaux parcours notamment sur leur site respectif et par des visites de reprsentants de lusp dans des salles de classe des programmes collgiaux concerns. b) analyse du programme pour faciliter le travail danalyse des reprsentants de lusp, les principes suivants ont t tablis : 1. les cours de la formation fondamentale des baccalaurats spcialiss sont tous crdits en bloc, puisquils sont considrs comme tant des cours prparatoires aux tudes postsecondaires destins aux tudiants qui proviennent directement du secondaire. il y a sept cours obligatoires et un cours au choix, parmi trois, dans la formation fondamentale. ceci reprsente donc un bloc de 24 crdits qui est accord de facto. 2. dans le cas de la formation fondamentale, les cours crdits, le sont parce quils ont t couverts dans le cadre de la formation du programme collgial. on va parfois trouver des carts sur la faon dont des concepts et des notions sont prsentes luniversit et caton 201635 rapport final 7 au collge. nanmoins, lvaluateur doit se poser la question, si les notions couvertes dans un cours luniversit ont t abordes au collge. 3. finalement, des cours au choix sont crdits pour rencontrer le seuil de 30 crdits accords c) processus de mise en uvre et chanciers le processus de mise en uvre est fort simple. lusp informe le registraire des nouveaux parcours dvelopps et ces informations sont notifies pour que ltudiant diplm dun programme x soit admis dans un programme y de lusp et que les crdits prvus soient dposs dans son dossier scolaire. du ct des collges, les chargs de projets informent les directions, professeurs et tudiants des nouveaux parcours dvelopps. des activits de promotion sont organises pour faire connatre ces nouvelles ententes : site web, visite en salle de classe effectue par des diplms du collge ( anciens du programme dtudes) qui ont bnfici de larrimage et qui poursuivent leurs tudes lusp. 4 parcours de transferts labors lensemble des ententes prvues en 2016 ont t dveloppes. huit parcours additionnels ont t ajoutes. 4.1 parcours labors vers le programme relations humaines et spiritualit de luniversit saintpaul les parcours de transferts mentionns dans le projet ont tous t dvelopps. voici la liste des programmes et des collges concerns : ducation en services lenfance la cit et boral techniques dducation spcialise la cit et boral techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit tudes sur la paix et les conflits boral gestion des ressources humaines postdiplme boral deux ententes qui navaient pas t annonces dans le projet ont t dveloppes : parajuriste la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit le premier programme est apparent adjoint juridique et le second techniques de travail social. ces ajouts ont t raliss la demande des coordonnateurs des deux programmes (parajuriste et grontologie) voulant faire bnficier aux tudiants ce parcours de transfert des plus avantageux. lanalyse des plans de cours des programmes collgiaux a t effectue par les professeurs du programme de luniversit. pour la grande majorit des ententes, les cours de la formation caton 201635 rapport final 8 fondamentale ont t reconnus, ce qui reprsente environ 24 crdits universitaires. les cours de la formation disciplinaire correspondant des sujets couverts par la formation collgiale ont t crdits. finalement, des cours au choix ont t crdits pour parvenir au seuil de 60 crdits accords. cette entente va permettre aux diplms des collges de complter et parfaire leur formation dans les divers aspects des relations humaines et du counselling. les connaissances acquises contribueront leur permettre de mieux intgrer le march du travail notamment dans des organismes humanitaires, communautaires, les coles et milieux ecclsiastiques. 4.2 parcours labors vers le programme thique publique de luniversit saint paul les parcours de transferts mentionns dans le projet ont tous t dvelopps. voici la liste des programmes et des collges concerns : ducation en services lenfance la cit et boral soins paramdicaux la cit et boral techniques de travail social la cit et boral techniques des services policiers la cit et boral journalisme la cit techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit tudes sur la paix et les conflits boral gestion des ressources humaines postdiplme boral une entente qui navait pas t annonce dans le projet sest ajoute : techniques dducation spcialise la cit et boral les professeurs du programme de la cit ont demand lajout de cette entente en raison de laffinit et la belle complmentarit entre les deux programmes. ils ont fait valoir que les ducateurs spcialiss sont de plus en plus confronts des situations qui font appel des notions morales et thiques. lanalyse des plans de cours des programmes collgiaux a t ralise par les professeurs et la direction du programme de luniversit. pour lensemble des ententes, 24 crdits de la formation fondamentale ont t accords. cela sajoute entre 3 crdits (journalisme) et 12 crdits (ducation en services lenfance, grontologie, techniques des services policiers) de la formation disciplinaire. les cours au choix du programme universitaire ont t accords pour rencontrer le seuil de 60 crdits reconnus. cette entente permettra aux diplms de 10 programmes des deux collges dtre mieux outills pour entrer sur le march du travail. les notions et aptitudes dveloppes dans le cadre de leur formation leur permettront dintgrer des considrations thiques dans leurs interventions professionnelles et personnelles. ces personnes se dmarqueront par leur point de vue clairant et apprci. caton 201635 rapport final 9 4.3 parcours labors vers le programme communications sociales de luniversit saintpaul les parcours de transferts mentionns dans le projet ont tous t dvelopps. voici la liste des programmes et des collges concerns : techniques dducation spcialise la cit et boral techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit deux ententes qui navaient pas t annonces dans le projet ont t dveloppes : parajuriste la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit tel que mentionn prcdemment, le premier programme est apparent adjoint juridique et le second techniques de travail social. comme pour lentente avec relations humaines et spiritualit, les coordonnateurs des deux programmes (parajuriste et grontologie) ont demand que leur programme puisse bnficier de cette entente. la directrice du programme de communications sociales a procd lanalyse des plans de cours des programmes collgiaux. lensemble des cours de la formation fondamentale ont t accords la grande majorit des programmes collgiaux. dans le cas de parajuriste, par exemple, les tudiants devront suivre quatre cours de la formation fondamentale. cette situation sexplique par le fait que les premires ententes conclues en 2015 comprenaient de la formation fondamentale. nous allons devoir revenir sur cette situation et rviser au besoin. lentente conclue en communication sociales permettra aux diplms de parfaire leurs talents de communicateurs. ils auront la possibilit de travailler comme porteparole, relationniste ou journaliste tout en ayant une expertise thorique et pratique dans un domaine technique. 4.4 parcours labors vers le programme tudes de conflits trois parcours ont t dvelopps entre des programmes collgiaux et le programme tudes de conflits de luniversit saintpaul. ces nouveaux parcours qui ne faisaient pas partie du projet dpos sont les suivants : parajuriste la cit techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit ce sont les coordonnateurs des programmes qui ont demand, au nom de leurs tudiants, le dveloppement de ces nouveaux parcours. lanalyse des plans de cours des programmes des collges a t faite par le directeur du programme. lensemble des cours de la formation fondamentale ont t crdits ce qui reprsente 24 crdits. les cours de la formation disciplinaire ont t crdits lorsquils correspondaient des cours du collgial. dans les trois ententes signes, les tudiants devront obtenir 48 crdits en formation disciplinaire et 12 crdits de cours au choix. caton 201635 rapport final 10 pour les tudiants des trois programmes, la formation en tudes de conflits constitue une corde de plus leur arc, pour faire leur entre sur leur march du travail. ces tudiants auront lexpertise pour dterminer les causes dun conflit entre des individus et participer sa rsolution, la satisfaction de tous. 5 parcours de transfert modifis des modifications ont t apportes en 20162017 six ententes pour en faire des 2 + 2, cest dire : 60 crdits accords et 60 crdits aller chercher luniversit saintpaul. les changements apports sont les suivants : collges modification du nombre de crdits accords publicit et communication marketing la cit de 45 60 cr communications sociales radio la cit de 42 60 cr tudes de conflits adjoint juridique la cit boral de 45 60 cr relations humaines et spiritualit adjoint juridique la cit boral de 45 60 cr programmes de luniversit saintpaul programmes collgiaux communications sociales pour parvenir une augmentation des crdits accords, le nombre de cours de la formation fondamentale crdits sest accru et au besoin, des cours au choix ont galement t crdits. ainsi, la presque totalit des ententes entre les collges et luniversit saintpaul sont des 2 + 2. il ne reste que lentente entre techniques dducation spcialise et le programme tudes de conflits qui ne reconnat que 30 crdits et ltudiant doit aller chercher 90 crdits. cette situation sera corrige de 20172018. 6 meilleurs pratiques et enseignement 6.1 meilleures pratiques la communication entre les responsables des ententes des tablissements est cruciale. ces changes doivent tre directs, dynamiques et constants. ces personnes agissent galement comme courroie de transmission linterne avec les professeurs, directeurs de programmes et gestionnaires. caton 201635 rapport final 11 nous nous sommes dot dun outil pour faciliter les changes entre les responsables des ententes. un espace virtuel pour dposer et modifier les fichiers de travail a t cr (dropbox), ce qui a facilit grandement le travail et a permis darrter de transmettre des fichiers par courriel. par ailleurs, les partenaires ont convenu que les nouvelles ententes seraient dune dure dun an, renouvelables automatiquement. auparavant, les ententes taient dune dure de 5 ans. au terme de ce dlai, il fallait rdiger un protocole pour renouveler une entente en cours. cette nouvelle approche vitera de devoir rdiger un nouveau protocole pour des ententes qui viennent terme. outre les ententes signes cette anne, nous avons amend les ententes des annes prcdentes pour mentionner quelles sont maintenant dune dure dun an, renouvelables automatiquement tous les ans (voir lannexe 6). 6.2 enseignement il est important que les professeurs et directions des programmes de luniversit rencontrent leurs collgues des collges pour discuter des ententes possibles. un tel change permet souvent de laisser tomber les dernires rsistances ou rserves lendroit des ententes darrimage. les professeurs des tablissements partenaires dcouvrent la complmentarit entre leurs programmes et les bnfices pour les tudiants qui dsirent poursuivre leur cheminement scolaire vers luniversit. les directions des programmes de luniversit doivent tre mobilises le plus tt possible pour effectuer le travail. la prparation des tableaux danalyse facilite grandement leur travail et est trs apprci. 7 sommaire des articulations tablies ententes conclues entre luniversit saintpaul et les collges la cit et boral 2016 no programmes de l'universit saintpaul programmes collgiaux 1 communications sociales parajuriste la cit 2 communications sociales techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit 3 communications sociales techniques de travail social grontologie la cit 4 communications sociales techniques d'ducation spcialise commun 5 thique publique ducation en services l'enfance commun 6 thique publique tudes sur la paix et les conflits boral 7 thique publique gestion des ressources humaines postdiplme* boral 8 thique publique journalisme la cit 9 thique publique soins paramdicaux 10 thique publique collge commun techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit caton 201635 rapport final 12 11 thique publique techniques de travail social 12 thique publique techniques de travail social grontologie 13 thique publique techniques d'ducation spcialise commun 14 thique publique techniques des services policiers commun 15 tudes de conflits parajuriste la cit 16 tudes de conflits techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit 17 tudes de conflits techniques de travail social grontologie la cit 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 relations humaines et spiritualit relations humaines et spiritualit relations humaines et spiritualit relations humaines et spiritualit relations humaines et spiritualit relations humaines et spiritualit relations humaines et spiritualit commun ducation en services l'enfance la cit commun tudes sur la paix et les conflits boral gestion des ressources humaines postdiplme* boral parajuriste la cit techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit techniques d'ducation spcialise commun caton 201635 rapport final 13 annexes 1 exemple dun tableau danalyse 2 exemple du formulaire transmis au registraire de lusp 3 protocole dentente sign en fvrier 2017 4 liste des cours que devront suivre des diplms de techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale de la cit au programme de communications sociales de lusp 5 communiqu de presse du 1er fvrier 2017 6 amendements au protocole dentente de janvier 2013 et fvrier 2015 caton 201635 rapport final 14 tableau danalyse communications sociales techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge la cit programme du collge la cit quivalents st. paul, techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale thique publique formation fondamentale tape 1 014859cor thique professionnelle 014861cor ressources de radaptation et de justice pnale 020518cor sociologie et dviance 020519cor systme judiciaire et lgislation canadienne 020520cor psychologie du dveloppement humain 020521cor interactions et interventions 022552fra franais crit : grammaire et comprhension de texte 022554enl english i cours de fge au choix tape 2 014862cor intervention de groupes 014867cor criminologie 014868cor systme lgislatif pour les jeunes 014869cor tude des clientles adultes 020524cor approches en relation d'aide 020902cor rsolution de conflits et de crises 1. htp 1501 courants de la pense occidentale 2. htp1502 imaginaire artistique et littraire : expressions de lexprience humaine 3. htp1503 personnes, politique et plante 4. htp1504 foi, justice et bien commun 5. isc2709 pratique du franais 6. isc2714 parole publique 7. phi2581 le savoir humain 8. mis2503 religions du monde formation disciplinaire 9. isc2701 communications et organisations 10. isc2729 communication interpersonnelle 11. isc3720 stage 1 total de 33 crdits cours au choix 27 crdits cours complter st paul formation disciplinaire (51 crdits) cours obligatoires (33 crdits) 1. isc1708 initiation aux nouveaux mdias 2. isc1710 mthodes et recherche en communication 3. isc2706 mdias et thique 4. isc2707 introduction la communication 5. isc2726 presse : principes dcriture 6. isc2728 plan de communication 7. isc3700 thories de la communication mdiatise 8. isc3727 thories des communications sociales 9. isc3739 introduction aux relations publiques 10. isc4700 argumentation et communication persuasive 11. isc4706 analyse denjeux total de 33 crdits 022553fra rdaction technique et spcialise 022555enl english ii cours optionnels (18 crdits) 6 crdits parmi (niveau 2000) : tape 3 014864cor dpendances 014871cor techniques de scurit 020523cor tude des clientles jeunes 020900cor victimologie 020901cor psychologie et sant mentale 022609cor planification en milieu de vie 022638cor prparation la carrire 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. isc2713 journalisme lectronique isc2715 son et radio isc2717 vido i : les bases isc2731 conception de la socit isc2737 questions spciales 1 en communications sociales 6. isc2742 outils de la communication stratgique 6 crdits parmi (niveau 3000) : tape 4 014882prs sminaire d'intgration 014883stg stage pratique 1. isc3701 marketing des causes sociales 2. isc3702 mdias et dbats de socit 3. isc3705 psychosociologie de la communication de masse 4. isc3718 analyse de contenu 5. isc3731 connaissance des mdias 6 crdits parmi (niveau 4000) : 1. isc4702 communications sociales et mdias sociaux 2. isc4704interactions entre mdias et religions 3. isc4705 communications pour le dveloppement durable 4. isc4714 communication et anthropologie 5. isc4720 stage 2 6. isc4730 recherche ou travail dirig cours au choix : 9 crdits reconnaissance de 60 crdits 60 crdits complter n.b : les renseignements prsents dans ce document pourraient tre sujets changements par luniversit. matricule | student no: trjs techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale nom | surname: la cit prnom | given name: 60 crdits post code 1ere inscription 1st registration _______ 20__ formation fondamentale | foundational courses cours obligatoires (24 crdits) | compulsory courses (24 credits) cr ins reg 1 5 9 note mark eq htp1501/1101 courants de la pense occidentale | trends in western thought 3 htp1502/1102 imaginaire artistique et littraire: expressions de lexprience humaine | artistic and literary imagination: expressions of the human experience 3 eq htp1503/1103 personnes, politique et plante | people, politics and the planet 3 eq htp1504/1104 foi, justice et bien commun | faith, justice and the common good 3 eq isc2709/2309 pratique du franais | english composition 3 eq isc2714/2314 parole publique | public speaking 3 eq phi2581/2181 le savoir humain | human knowledge 3 eq religions du monde | world religions 3 eq exploration du phnomne sacr | exploring the sacred 3 comprendre la bible | understanding the bible 3 3 crdits parmi |3 credits from mis2503/2103 ou / or tho1706/1306 ou / or tho1707/1307 spcialisation en communications sociales | specialization in social communications cours obligatoires (60 crdits) | compulsory courses (60 credits) cr isc1708/1308 initiation aux nouveaux mdias | introduction to new media 3 isc1710/1310 mthodes et recherche en communication | communication research and methodology 3 isc2701/2301 communication et organisations | communication and organizations 3 isc2706/2306 mdias et thique | media and ethics 3 isc2707/2307 introduction la communication | introduction to communication 3 isc2726/2326 presse : principes dcriture | print media 1: writing principles 3 isc2728/2328 plan de communication | communication plan 3 isc3700/3300 thories de la communication mdiatise | theories of mediated communication 3 isc3727/3327 thories des communications sociales | theories of social communication 3 isc3739/3339 introduction aux relations publiques | introduction to public relations 3 isc4700/4300 argumentation et communication persuasive | argumentation and persuasive communication 3 isc4706/4306 analyse denjeux | stakes analysis 3 cours optionnels (24 crdits) | optional courses (24 credits) cr ins reg note mark eq ins reg note mark 9 crdits parmi (niveau 2000) | 9 credits from (2000 level) isc2713/2313 ou / or isc2715/2315 ou / or isc2717/2317 journalisme lectronique | electronic journalism 3 son et radio | sound and radio production 3 vido i : les bases | video 1: the basics 3 communication interpersonnelle | interpersonal communication 3 conception de la socit | conceptions of society 3 question spciales 1 en communications sociales | special topics in social communication 1 3 outils de la communication stratgique | strategic communication tools 3 ou / or isc2729/2329 ou / or isc2731/2331 ou / or isc2737/2337 ou / or isc2742/2342 eq 6 crdits parmi (niveau 3000) | 6 credits from (3000 level) isc3701/3301 marketing des causes sociales | social marketing 3 mdias et dbats de socit | media and great social debates 3 psychosociologie de la communication de masse | psycho sociology of mass communications 3 analyse de contenu | content analysis 3 connaissance des mdias| knowing the media 3 ou / or isc3702/3302 ou / or isc3705/3305 ou / or isc3718/3318 ou / or isc3731/3331 3 crdits parmi (niveau 3000) | 3 credits from (3000 level) isc3703/3303 dontologie de la communication | professional ethics in communication 3 conception dmission | creating media programming 3 photographie : smiologie de limage | photography: semiology of image 3 vido 3 : production avance | video 3: advanced production 3 questions spciales en communications sociales ii special topics in social communication ii 3 stage 1 | internship 1 3 pratiques contemporaines du journalisme | contemporary journalism practices 3 vido 2 : documentaire | video 2: documentary 3 ou / or isc3709/3309 ou / or isc3712/3312 ou / or isc3713/3313 ou / or isc3719/3319 ou / or isc3720/3320 eq ou / or isc3750/3350 ou / or isc3754/3354 6 crdits parmi (niveau 4000) | 6 credits from (4000 level) isc4702/4302 communications sociales et mdias sociaux | social communications and social media 3 interactions entre mdias et religions | media and religious traditions 3 communications pour dveloppement durable | communications for sustainable development 3 communication et anthropologie | communication and anthropology 3 stage 2 | internship 2 3 recherche ou travail dirig | research or directed study 3 ou / or isc4704/4304 ou / or isc4705/4305 ou / or isc4714/4314 ou / or isc4720/4320 ou / or isc4730/4330 cours au choix 36 crdits (6 crdits doivent tre de niveau 3000 ou 4000) elective courses 36 credits (6 credits must be of 3000 or 4000 level) opt1xxx cr ins/ reg note mark 3 eq 3 3 3 opt2xxx 3 eq 3 3 3 opt3xxx cours | course isc3713/ isc3313; isc3754/isc3354 isc3750/isc3350 3 pralables | prerequisites isc2717 / isc2317 isc2726/isc2326 eq liste des cours complter par les diplms du programme techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale du collge la cit inscrits au programme communications sociales de luniversit saintpaul formation disciplinaire (51 crdits) 33 crdits obligatoires isc1708 initiation aux nouveaux mdias initiation l'tude de quelques techniques de la communication et l'tude des mdias. introduction aux lois du langage de l'image, la photographie, au montage audiovisuel (image et son), l'informatique et aux nouvelles technologies de communication. isc1710 mthodes de recherche en communication bases en mthodologie de la recherche en communication. distinguer l'argumentation des dmarches empiriques. distinguer les approches qualitatives et quantitatives. fondements du travail qualitatif et quantitatif. isc2706 mdias et thique lments constitutifs du comportement thique. critres thiques de base en communication mdiatise. droits et liberts en situation communicationnelle. codes de dontologie des diverses institutions. analyse de cas rencontrs dans la pratique mdiatique persuasive et imaginaire. isc2707 introduction la communication initiation au langage de la communication. introduction aux principaux concepts de la communication. prsentation des modles utiliss en communication. fonctions de la communication. de la communication personnelle la communication mdiatise. isc2726 presse : principes d'criture rgles de l'criture d'information reliant l'apprentissage de l'criture de presse celui de la lecture de presse, et les rgles d'criture aux thories qui les clairent. techniques de base touchant la cueillette, le traitement et la diffusion de l'information dans la presse crite. nouvelle, reportage et chronique. exposs magistraux et ateliers pratiques. isc2728 plan de communication notions de campagne, d'objectifs, de public cible, de canal, d'environnement, etc. planification d'actions stratgiques. laboration du plan de communication et procdures d'valuation. gestion de projets. isc3700 thories de la communication mdiatise thories sur la nature et sur l'influence psychologique, sociale et culturelle de la communication mdiatise. introduction la comprhension des thories de la balle magique, de l'influence slective, de la diffrenciation sociale, de l'influence indirecte, de l'organisation sociale, de la construction sociale de la ralit, etc. isc3727 thories des communications sociales prsentation approfondie d'un certain nombre de thories. notamment : question des technologies et de leurs effets; question des rseaux et des systmes; question de la culture et du symbolique; question des conflits et des idologies; thories critiques; apport des neurosciences. isc3739 introduction aux relations publiques historique et modles de base. principaux programmes, instruments, publics, milieux de travail. management, marketing, publicit, affaires publiques. tude de cas. isc4700 argumentation et communication persuasive lments de thorie d'argumentation. notion d'argumentaire en communication. exercices de rdaction et d'intervention publique. isc4706 analyse denjeux dvelopper des aptitudes l'analyse de situations sociales ou de situations sociopolitiques. notions de situation, d'acteurs, de problmatiques, d'enjeux, de contraintes. reprage d'enjeux sociaux. reprage d'enjeux de communication. formulation d'analyse de cas. 6 crdits parmi (niveau 2000) isc 2713 journalisme lectronique initiation la recherche et la cueillette des nouvelles. procdures de vrification. initiation la rdaction pour les mdias lectroniques. initiation la prsentation des nouvelles. initiation lentrevue radiophonique et tlvisuelle. isc2715 son et radio le son pour la communication. qualits du son. techniques de prise de son. techniques de montage sonore. application la radio. initiation la ralisation et la mise en ondes. isc2717 vido i : les bases introduction au langage tlvisuel. prises des images et leur composition. prise de son, clairage et montage. exercices de base devant la camra. production d'un court reportage. cours pralable aux autres cours de vido. isc2731 conception de la socit grandes traditions de comprhension de la socit. notamment : la tradition fonctionnaliste (durkheim, malinowski); la tradition des groupes en conflit (le marxisme, le fminisme); les traditions interactionnistes; les conceptions conomiques du social. isc2737 question spciales en communications sociales tude dun sujet dactualit sous un angle et un clairage particuliers. isc2742 outils de la communication stratgique initiation aux outils de base d'une communication stratgique russie. outils de recherche et d'analyse. rdaction de messages et intgration l'illustration, la photo ou la vido. relations de presse et relations mdias. expositions et objets promotionnels. utilisation des mdias sociaux. 6 crdits parmi (niveau 3000) isc3701 marketing des causes sociales marketing gnral, marketing social, publicit sociale et phnomnes connexes. concepts fondamentaux et dmarche du marketing et de la publicit appliqus la promotion des ides, des valeurs et des causes sociales: analyse du produit, analyse de la clientle, dfinition des objectifs de marketing et de communication, valuation des campagnes. isc3702 mdias et dbats de socit cours sur les grands dbats sociaux relatifs aux mdias et aux nouveaux mdias. notamment : l'information et la sphre publique; la place des minorits; la grande culture et la culture populaire; les grandes peurs : le sexe, les rumeurs, la violence, la consommation, la mort, la religion. isc3705 psychosociologie de la communication de masse principales thories et principaux concepts de la psychologie sociale ncessaires la comprhension des phnomnes de communication, du cheminement de l'information et de ses effets. concepts classiques : attitude, attribution, persuasion, dissonance cognitive. concepts contemporains de la cognition sociale : biais, heuristics. isc3718 analyse de contenu mthode de l'analyse de contenu. tude critique du discours religieux dnomm et dnot dans les missions produites la radio et la tlvision et dans la presse crite. traitement des sujets religieux et la couverture donne aux vnements religieux. le religieux dans les autres productions. isc3731 connaissance des mdias dveloppement et avenir des grands mdias. logique commerciale et modles de financement. comprhension des enjeux des mdias dans leur contexte social. paysage mdiatique national et mondialisation. 6 crdits parmi (niveau 4000) isc4702 communications sociales et mdias sociaux notion de communication sociale. volution du web et avnement des mdias sociaux. types de mdias sociaux et principaux usages. mdias sociaux et pratiques actuelles de communication. isc4704 interactions entre mdias et religions heurts historiques entre mdias et religions. culture, religions et mdias. divergences et convergences possibles. religions et nouvelles technologies. isc4705 communications pour le dveloppement durable volution du concept du dveloppement durable et ses diffrentes dfinitions. rle et responsabilit de communications sociales dans le dveloppement durable. stratgies de communication pour sa mise en uvre. isc4714 communication et anthropologie notions de culture et de socialisation. mythes et rituels. imaginaire et rationalit. construction sociale du sens. figure de l'tre humain dans la culture mdiatique, figure retouche par l'exprience moderne de la communication sociale. communication institutionnalise. isc4720 stage 2 mis en pratique des connaissances acquises. activits encadres par un superviseur dans un milieu professionnel de communication. rdaction d'un rapport de stage. isc4730 recherche ou travail dirig tude individuelle ou en petit groupe d'un sujet rpondant aux besoins ou intrts particuliers d'tudiants. dossier de ralisation. possibilit de reconnatre une activit professionnelle pertinente en milieu d'information ou de communication. trois cours au choix pour un total de 9 crdits pour un total de 60 crdits n.b : les renseignements prsents dans ce document pourraient tre sujets changements par luniversit saintpaul communiqu de presse pour diffusion immdiate un diplme collgial et universitaire en quatre ans, cest possible ! signature dune entente entre luniversit saintpaul, la cit et le collge boral ottawa, le 1er fvrier 2017 afin de faciliter la transition des tudiants collgiaux vers des tudes universitaires, luniversit saintpaul, la cit et le collge boral ont procd aujourdhui la signature dune nouvelle ententecadre formalisant loctroi systmatique de crdits universitaires aux diplms de programmes offerts la cit et au collge boral. grce ce nouvel accord qui touche quatre programmes de luniversit saintpaul (b.a en communications sociales, b.a en tudes de conflits, b.a. en thique publique et b.a. en relations humaines et spiritualit), les tudiants diplms de la cit et du collge boral pourront profiter de 32 nouvelles ententes menant des tudes universitaires. en outre, quatre ententes existantes se verront bonifies. ainsi, les tudiants collgiaux et universitaires auront maintenant droit une panoplie doptions additionnelles afin de complter leur parcours acadmique 2+ 2 , soit lobtention dun diplme dtudes collgiales et dun baccalaurat en quatre ans. titre dexemple, les diplms de la cit en techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale auront droit un maximum de 60 crdits sils dcident de poursuivre un b.a. en relations humaines et spiritualit luniversit saintpaul. quant eux, les diplms du collge boral en tudes sur la paix et les conflits pourront dornavant recevoir jusqu 60 crdits sils choisissent de faire un b.a. en tude de conflits lusp. des annexes dtailles, expliquant les nouvelles ententes et celles modifies, sont jointes ce communiqu de presse (voir annexe 1 et annexe 2). en ontario, le conseil sur larticulation et le transfert de lontario (caton) travaille de concert avec les 44 tablissements denseignement postsecondaire financs par le gouvernement provincial afin damliorer le parcours des tudiants et de rduire les obstacles pour ceux qui cherchent effectuer un transfert de crdits. pour en apprendre davantage sur la reconnaissance de crdits en ontario, consultez le www.ontransfer.ca. citations ce que les tudiants cherchent, cest la possibilit dobtenir de bons emplois rapidement et davoir un cheminement de carrire prometteur. ce que les employeurs cherchent, ce sont des gens qui ont la fois des connaissances pratiques et thoriques, qui sont capables de travailler et de rflchir propos de leur travail. cest ce que cette double diplomation offre, en assurant la formation dune mainduvre hautement qualifie. chantal beauvais, rectrice de luniversit saintpaul la cit se rjouit de la poursuite de sa collaboration avec luniversit stpaul pour la mobilit de ses tudiants. les 20 nouvelles ententes qui sajoutent aux 13 en place tmoignent du succs du partenariat entre nos deux institutions. je suis donc ravie du fait que ces ententes favoriseront laccs un plus grand nombre de programmes complmentaires pour nos tudiants qui souhaitent complter leur formation au niveau universitaire. je tiens remercier les diffrents intervenants pour le travail effectu au cours des dernires annes. lise bourgeois, prsidente de la cit le collge boral sengage accrotre la mobilit tudiante et nous sommes particulirement fiers de nos ententes avec dautres tablissements de langue franaise. le parcours de transfert bilatral des programmes tudes sur la paix et les conflits (collge boral) et tudes de conflits (universit saintpaul) favorise la transfrabilit dtudiants des deux tablissements, ce qui ne peut tre que bnfique pour la communaut francophone de lontario ! daniel giroux, prsident du collge boral photo + bas de vignette en bref propos de luniversit saintpaul luniversit saintpaul est le collge fondateur de luniversit dottawa (1848), avec laquelle elle a conserv un lien de fdration depuis 1965. bilingue et chelle humaine, elle offre des programmes en communications sociales, counselling et psychothrapie, droit canonique, thique publique, tudes de conflits, philosophie, relations humaines et thologie. en 2017, elle procdera au lancement officiel de son cole dinnovation sociale. propos de la cit titre dtablissement phare de lenseignement collgial de langue franaise en ontario, la cit, le collge darts appliqus et de technologie, place la russite de ltudiant au premier plan, en lui offrant des installations la fine pointe de la technologie et un milieu dapprentissage ax sur des pratiques exprientielles modernes et tournes vers lavenir. les diplms du collge sont reconnus comme tant comptents, engags et cratifs, capables de contribuer au dveloppement conomique, social et culturel partout en ontario, au canada et ailleurs. propos du collge boral cr en 1995, le collge boral est un tablissement de formation et denseignement postsecondaire de langue franaise qui uvre au dveloppement durable de la communaut francophone de lontario. le collge boral offre un service guichet unique dans 7 campus et 36 centres daccs rpartis dans 25 communauts. plus de 70 ententes darticulation ont t tablies entre le collge boral et dautres tablissements de formation postsecondaire. de tous les collges de la province, boral enregistre le plus haut taux de satisfaction des tudiants, le plus haut taux dobtention de diplmes, le plus haut taux de satisfaction de ses diplms et le plus haut taux dobtention demploi ! 30 renseignements : sean burgess agent de communications, universit saintpaul 613 2361393, poste 2310 sburgess@ustpaul.ca pascale montminy gestionnaire, communications et relations publiques, la cit 613 7422483, poste 2463 pmontm@lacitec.on.ca jose campeaurousselle chef communications et relations mdiatiques, collge boral 705 5606673, poste 1235 josee.campeaurousselle@collegeboreal.ca media release for immediate release a college and university diploma in four years: its possible! agreement signed between saint paul university, la cit and collge boral ottawa, february 1, 2017 to help college students make the transition to university studies, saint paul university, la cit and collge boral today signed a new framework agreement formalizing the systematic granting of university credits to graduates of programs offered at la cit and collge boral. thanks to this new agreement, which affects four saint paul university programs (b.a. in social communication, b.a. in conflict studies, b.a. in public ethics, and b.a. in human relations and spirituality), graduates of la cit and collge boral can take advantage of 32 new agreements leading to university studies. furthermore, 4 existing agreements will be enriched. in this way, college and university students will now have access to a wide array of additional options to complete their 2 + 2 academic journey: a college diploma and a b.a. in four years. for example, graduates of la cit in techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale will receive up to 60 credits if they decide to do a b.a. in human relations and spirituality at saint paul university. graduates of collge boral in tudes sur la paix et les conflits can now receive up to 60 credits if they choose to do a b.a. in conflict studies at saint paul university. detailed explanations of the new and modified agreements are attached to this media release (see appendix 1 and appendix 2). the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) is working with the 44 postsecondary educational institutions funded by the provincial government to improve education pathways for students and to reduce the obstacles for those seeking to transfer credits. to find out more about the recognition of credits in ontario, visit www.ontransfer.ca. quotes students are looking for the possibility of getting good jobs quickly and having a promising career path. employers are looking for people who have both practical and theoretical knowledge, who are able to work and reflect on their work. that is what this double degree offers, by ensuring the formation of a highly qualified workforce. chantal beauvais, rector, saint paul university la cit is very excited to be continuing its collaboration with saint paul university to give our students greater mobility. the 20 new agreements being added to the 13 that are already in place are a sign of the success of the partnership between our two institutions. i am thrilled that these agreements promote access to a greater number of complementary programs for our students who want to complete their training at the university level. i would like to thank the various stakeholders for the work accomplished over the past few years. lise bourgeois, president, la cit collge boral is committed to increasing student mobility, and we are especially proud of our agreements with other frenchlanguage institutions. the bilateral transfer path of the tudes sur la paix et les conflits (collge boral) and conflict studies (saint paul university) programs promotes student transferability for both institutions, which can only benefit the francophone community in ontario! daniel giroux, president, collge boral photo + caption in brief about saint paul university saint paul university is the founding college of the university of ottawa (1848), with which it has been federated since 1965. bilingual and on a human scale, it offers programs in canon law, conflict studies, counselling and psychotherapy, human relations, philosophy, public ethics, social communication, and theology. in 2017, it will officially launch its school of social innovation. about la cit as a flagship for frenchlanguage college education in ontario, la cit, the college of applied arts and technology, makes student success a priority by offering students stateoftheart facilities and a learning environment based on modern, handson practices that are aimed towards the future. graduates of la cit are recognized as being competent, engaged and creative, able to contribute to economic, social and economic development throughout ontario, canada and internationally. about collge boral founded in 1995, collge boral is a postsecondary frenchlanguage training and educational institution that works for the sustainable development of the francophone community in ontario. collge boral offers a unique onestop service on 7 campuses and at 36 access centres in 25 communities. more than 70 articulation agreements have been established between collge boral and other postsecondary institutions. of all the colleges in the province, boral has the highest rate of student satisfaction, the highest rate of diploma completion, the highest rate of satisfaction by its graduates, and the highest rate of obtaining employment. 30 information: sean burgess communications officer, saint paul university 613 2361393, ext. 2310 sburgess@ustpaul.ca pascale montminy manager, communications and public relations, la cit 613 7422483, ext.2463 pmontm@lacitec.on.ca jose campeaurousselle head communications and media relations, collge boral 705 5606673, ext. 1235 josee.campeaurousselle@collegeboreal.ca

bridge from bachelor of arts in english from algoma university to public relations and event management graduate certificate from sault college final report submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer march 31, 2015 oncat project number: 2014-05 project leads: krista pearson, registrar/international sault college 443 northern avenue sault ste. marie, ontario p6b 4j3 dawn elmore, manager, academic development and quality algoma university 1520 queen street east sault ste. marie, ontario p6a 2g4 executive summary initially the purpose of this collaborative pathway project between algoma university and sault college was to provide an academic bridging pathway from a bachelor of arts in english into a public relations credential. the intention of the project was to engage students entering their third or fourth year of their degree program by offering a blended curriculum of english and public relations. as a result, students would receive a balance of theory and practical skills while making professional industry contacts. the intention was also that students would satisfy requirements for the bachelor of arts credential from algoma university as well as the public relations and event management graduate certificate through sault college. this option is highly desirable to students given the high rates of employment for public relations graduates combined with the less job ready bachelor of arts degree. through discussion by both parties, it was determined that one possible model for the pathway is a major/minor model. in other words, the student would obtain a bachelor of arts in english, with a minor in public relations from algoma university, in addition to a graduate certificate in public relations/event management from sault college (with the minor identified on the students transcript). this would be possible by counting sault college public relations courses as algoma university electives. pending completion of an academic planning process at algoma university, this approach to the project has been temporarily put on hold as of the time of this report; however, there is an interim alternative solution to this bridging where students may take the pr program courses in the midst of their ba and receive 15 credits (one semester) of transfer credit toward their ba program and then will only have one additional semester to complete their ba requirements. oncat project # 2014-05 2 introduction the purpose of this collaborative project between algoma university and sault college was to provide an academic bridging pathway from a bachelor of arts in english into a public relations credential. given the geographical location of sault ste. marie and the fact that students are often looking for transfer opportunities locally, a partnership between algoma university and sault college was a natural choice. furthermore, the objective of this project was also to create a pathway that could be replicable in the future with other institutions. the initial goal of this project was to engage students entering third or fourth year of their degree program by offering a blended curriculum of english and public relations during their final year of study. graduating students would only require one additional college semester to satisfy the graduation requirements for the sault college ontario graduate certificate in public relations and event management. these students would qualify for entry into the ontario graduate certificate program based on having completed the first three years of the bachelor of arts in english. in other words, they will be admissible as having the degree requirements for a three-year degree even though they are entering their fourth, honours year of the degree program. this pathway is highly desirable given the high rates of employment for public relations graduates combined with the less job ready bachelor of arts in english. at the same time, this pathway recognizes the value of the four-year bachelor of arts in english in terms of future education or job prospects. essentially, participants in this pathway would benefit from the high affinity of english and public relation skill-sets; reduced time in school for completion of credentials; cost-savings by at least one semester of study; and employer-desired blend of theoretical and applied education, while still attaining the four-year degree with additional, future education pathway options. background sault colleges public relations/event management graduate certificate the public relations/event management graduate certificate program accepts graduates from university degree programs as well as college diploma programs. students learn public relations strategies, presentation skills, fundraising, sponsorship, community and stakeholder relations and event management. the program is unique in ontario as it is the only program that combines both public relations and event management; skills that are used by every organization. the program was launched in september 2011 when it was determined that there was a need for a program locally. the program is now entering its fourth year and has strong key performance indicators (kpis). since the programs inception, there have been 40 graduates, approximately half of which have come from algoma university. as part of the program curriculum, students are required to take two writing courses one that focusses on news releases, facts sheets, event plans and public relations strategy documents. the second writing course develops a students presentation and desktop publishing skills. furthermore, there is a job placement component that provides students with the opportunity to put their skills into practice as well as make contacts in the industry. oncat project # 2014-05 3 algoma universitys bachelor of arts in english algoma university offers traditional three and four year (honours) bachelor of arts in english degrees. the department offers literature courses in various genres such as drama, fiction, poetry and prose. the program also offers courses in creative writing as well as film studies. purpose of project the purpose of this project is to create a pathway for algoma university students to earn a ba in english and a sault college public relations/event management graduate certificate within a reduced timeframe that enhances cost savings by at least one semester of study. goals of project to create a pathway in english and public relations/event management that would offer a blended curriculum for students to provide transfer opportunities for students locally (sault ste. marie and area) to create a pathway that would be replicable with other post-secondary institutions in the future to create a pathway that would provide students the opportunity to gain theoretical knowledge while obtaining hands-on practical skills necessary for increasing employment opportunities (making students job ready) methodology to satisfy the goal of an academic pathway from english to public relations, it was determined the followings steps were required to complete the project: initial meetings took place between sault college and algoma university project leads to determine a project work plan and discuss strategies to engage necessary stakeholders at both institutions. assembled a group of subject-matter experts from the respective programs at each institution. the subject-matter experts worked on a detailed analysis of academic alignment and gaps between the english program and the public relations/event management program. this step in the process required engaging with other subject-matter experts, as required. the academic leads on the project consulted with the advisory committee following gap analysis findings to seek input and considerations from prospective employers. the academic leads and administrative support began a careful review of the curriculum and scheduling between the programs to determine best fits and necessary adjustments to potential delivery. completed curriculum mapping. this process involved meeting with stakeholders and engaging academic administrators at each institution. the end goal was to complete final pathway and receive final approvals from the academic university senate and college executive committee; this final curriculum mapping approach and proposal was not completed as of the time of this report; however, an interim solution has been oncat project # 2014-05 4 arranged whereby algoma university students wishing to complete the pr program would do so as follows: o during 3rd year of study, students attend sault colleges pr program, students return in year 4 to the university and complete the fall, winter and, potentially, the spring/summer semester to qualify for graduation. in total, there is only an addition of 1 semester that students could complete either by taking spring/summer courses at algoma university throughout their studies to complete 2 credentials by august of their 4th year or by returning for an additional semester of study in the fall of their 5th year. project outcomes at the initial team meeting between algoma university and sault college, it was established that there is a shared interest in growing enrolment for both institutions. a partnership between algoma university and sault college would be beneficial to both institutions and would also provide opportunities for students locally. examples of collaborative programs between universities and colleges were examined by the group to determine the best strategy to establish the partnership. it was also determined that the next step would be to arrange a meeting for subject-matter experts from both institutions. subject-matter experts from algoma university and sault college met to determine the structure of the pathway that would enable algoma university students to earn a ba in english and a sault college public relations/event management graduate certificate in four years. the original purpose of the pathway was to provide an opportunity for third or fourth year students to take part in a blended curriculum. the final pathway would be open to either three or four year degree students. the subject-matter experts agreed that one potential outcome for this partnership would be the creation of a major/minor model that included the possible exploration of the option of a dual registration at both institutions. upon completion of the program, students would graduate with three credentials a bachelor of arts in english from algoma university, a minor in public relations from algoma university, and a graduate certificate in public relations/event management from algoma university. the minor credential would be identified on the graduating students algoma university diploma. algoma subject-matter experts (faculty leads) also thought the minor option could be applied to other ba students (not just english minors), potentially. upon finalization, the pathway would be a ground-breaking news story as it would be the first of its kind in the province. the public relations coordinator also suggested seeking a professional endorsement by the public relations society this would be an added feature of the pathway and could be used in marketing materials to promote the partnership. since students following this pathway would have acquired advanced writing and communications skills through their degree program, there would be few gaps in moving towards the public relations credential. writing courses in the pr program do not need to be taken in sequence as one course focusses on writing skills and the other focusses on presentation and desktop publishing skills. furthermore, the programs could eliminate the need for pre-requisites. it was determined that the focus of creating the partnership would be primarily on scheduling and determining if sault college courses would fit within the elective components of the bachelor of arts degree. in order for a student to earn a four-year university degree, a student must obtain 120 credits in a bachelor of arts program, with 66 credits being electives in the ba (english). minors are typically 24 credits. following this, a student would be able to meet all their degree requirements while simultaneously earning the graduate oncat project # 2014-05 5 certificate in public relations/event management. moreover, the work placement component of the pr program could also count as course hours. the subject matter experts compiled a list of benefits of offering a major/minor partnership model to students including: providing students with the opportunity to acquire theoretical and critical thinking skills through a university program, while gaining hands-on practical skills at college offering the option to earn three credentials in as little as four years (bachelor of arts, minor in pr and graduate certificate in public relations/event management) providing cost savings to students by reducing the number of semesters in school providing an opportunity for students to gain work experience in the public relations/event management industry through a job placement providing students with the opportunity to make professional contacts in the industry through a work placement offering transfer options for students locally making students job ready upon completion of pathway program as part of the pathway, algoma also proposed the possibility of offering pr courses during the summer months. sault college noted that since college is very career driven, course offerings over the summer semester generally do not receive high levels of enrolment as college students often prefer to work at that time. this however, could potentially be an option in the future as the needs of the program change. it was also noted that offering programs during the summer months could be used as a potential marketing tool to attract international students. the courses do not need to be taken in sequence and students could start at any time. project challenges the project was presented with some unforeseen challenges mostly related to the commencement of a process to reassess academic priorities at algoma university, which resulted in some final meeting delays. as a result, the original project intent has not been fully realized; however, the partner institutions remain open to continuing with the original plan if/once the time is right and, as of now, we have developed a very workable, transfer-based solution. future considerations algoma university and sault college will continue to work together on this project development and remain committed to promoting the interim transfer-based solution of awarding 1 semester of credit toward the ba students degree as recognition for their participation in the public relations and event management graduate certificate. this solution enables students to complete 2 credentials within an 8.5 semester time period and opens up the possibility of students completing 2 credentials in 4 full academic years based on enrolment in spring/summer courses. oncat project # 2014-05 6

assessing determinants of academic success for college to university transfer woodsworth college, faculty of arts and science, university of toronto executive summary the diploma to degree program at woodsworth college in the faculty of arts and science, university of toronto is built upon articulated, bilateral agreements with george brown college, humber college and seneca college. the facilitated transfer model for these pathways is unique in that it provides early academic advising and an opportunity to experience university life prior to making the decision to pursue degree studies after successfully completing a two-year, liberal arts diploma program at college. this study set out to compile and analyze data collected prior to and specifically for this project to contribute to the research of assessing college to university transfer and in particular the diploma to degree facilitated model. to date, 385 students have participated in the program with the majority coming from seneca college which piloted the program with woodsworth college in 2007. since introducing the diploma to degree pathway, the faculty of arts and science at the university of toronto has increased the number of college transfers entering degree studies significantly. a higher percentage of diploma to degree students access osap and other financial assistance. this suggests there may be higher financial need amongst this group than the overall undergraduate population in the faculty of arts and science at the university of toronto. in addition, this suggests that this group of students may be better equipped to access financial aid resources as a result of targeted efforts to make these available specifically to this group. a significant number of the diploma to degree students (43%) worked on average 16 hours a week while attending college. college transfers move from an institutional culture where more than 50% of the students work to a university culture where less than 10% of the population is employed while studying. financial need is likely a combination of low socioeconomic status and the need to decrease hours worked while pursuing degree studies. the gender balance in the diploma to degree program (50.8% female; 48.2% male) is more even than in the faculty of arts and science generally (59% female; 41% male). a slighter higher number of male students have graduated from the diploma to degree program (52%). this suggests that this initiative breaks down barriers to post-secondary access for some male students who may not have considered university studies prior to engagement at the college level. diploma to degree students behave in a similar way to the general arts and science population at the university of toronto. they persist to degree completion and upon graduating have similar program combinations and grade point averages. initial institutional concerns about increasing the number of transfer credits (from 2.0 to 6.0) into a program-based hba degree program have been addressed with the diploma to degree program. there has been increased participation, retention and overall academic success for college transfers. march 8, 2016

rapport final contrat : 2018-18 titre du projet : parcours de transfert de divers programmes du northern college vers les programmes de luniversit de hearst liste dtablissements participants universit de hearst northern college rapport prpar par vronique d. lemieux, charge de projet pour luniversit de hearst, pour le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert - ontario table des matires sommaire 3 objectifs du projet 4 laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie comparaison et analyse entre les programmes processus de mise en uvre 5 5 6 6 sommaire des parcours de transfert crs nouveaux parcours entre le northern college et ludeh tat des parcours 7 7 7 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises 9 conclusion 9 annexe a : parcours entre le northern college et luniversit de hearst pour les tudiantes et les tudiants en gestion et en administration des affaires 10 annexe b : parcours entre le northern college et luniversit de hearst pour les tudiantes et les tudiants en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux 18 annexe c : parcours entre le northern college et luniversit de hearst pour les tudiantes et les tudiants en psychologie 20 2 sommaire ce projet dlaboration dentente darticulation a permis llaboration des parcours de transfert de plusieurs programmes collgiaux du northern college vers des programmes de luniversit de hearst. vingt parcours ont t dvelopps entre des programmes collgiaux et des programmes universitaires qui ont un niveau lev daffinit. des parcours ont t labors entre le programme collgial police foundations vers les programmes uniques de b.a. (3 ans) et b.a. (4 ans) dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst. dautres parcours ont t dvelopp entre le programme collgial social service worker vers les programmes de b.a. (3 ans) et b.a. (4 ans) en psychologie de luniversit de hearst. finalement, des parcours ont t dvelopps entre les programmes collgiaux de business, business-accounting, businessmarketing, business administration, business administration - accounting business, admninstration - human ressources (2 years), administration human ressources (3 years) et business administration- information systems vers les programmes de b.a. (3 ans) en gestion et de b.a.a. (4 ans) en administration des affaires de luniversit de hearst. 3 objectifs du projet de manire gnrale, le northern college et luniversit de hearst sengagent favoriser le continuum des tudes postsecondaires pour les tudiantes et les tudiants francophones et bilingues de lontario et faire preuve de collaboration en matire de dveloppement de nouveaux parcours de transfert. les partenaires conviennent que cette collaboration doit favoriser, entre autres, lexcellence en apprentissage, laccroissement de laccs aux programmes dtudes postsecondaires en franais et la mobilit entre les tablissements. dans le cadre du prsent projet, les partenaires souhaitaient tablir des parcours de transfert pour permettre aux finissantes et aux finissants des collges dans des domaines tels que ladministration, le travail social et la technique policire de poursuivre leurs tudes luniversit de hearst afin dobtenir un baccalaurat selon le modle deux annes de collge et une anne luniversit (2+1) ou le modle deux annes au collge et deux annes luniversit (2+2). ce projet visait deux objectifs : tendre les parcours de transfert existants entre les collges et dautres universits, aux programmes de luniversit de hearst pour tre en mesure de desservir la rgion du nord-est de lontario ; dvelopper de nouveaux parcours, notamment vers les programmes interdisciplinaires en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux, ceux-ci uniques luniversit de hearst. plus prcisment, les partenaires se proposaient dexplorer des ententes darrimage de types 2+1 et 2+2 entre les programmes collgiaux et universitaires suivants : business administration vers administration des affaires ou gestion ; social service worker vers psychologie ; police foundations vers tude des enjeux humains et sociaux. luniversit de hearst visait octroyer jusqu deux annes compltes en transfert de crdits, soit 60 des 90 crdits (entente de type 2+1 ) envers les baccalaurats s arts avec concentration et 60 des 120 crdits (entente de type 2+2 ) envers les baccalaurats spcialiss. lobjectif ultime des partenaires tait de permettre la clientle de poursuivre des formations pertinentes, enrichissantes et complmentaires au sein des tablissements participants et de lui reconnaitre le maximum de crdits tout en prservant la qualit et la valeur des titres de comptences, tant pour les tudiantes et les tudiants que pour les tablissements dducation. cette initiative de collaboration tenait compte galement du rapport produit par la commission de formation du nord-est1 qui prvoit un nombre important demplois qui seront disponibles dans la rgion du nord-est ontarien court et moyen termes dans les domaines identifis par le prsent projet. 1 http://www.fnetb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/northern-ontario-potential-labour-forceretirements.pdf 4 laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie afin de mener ce projet terme, des tapes ont t suivies. les deux premires tapes constituent le fondement de ce projet. les voici : 1. approbation dune initiative stratgique institutionnelle pour les parcours de transfert francophones et bilingues par le snat de luniversit de hearst qui contient un plan triennal (mars 2017); 2. prparation de la demande de financement au caton (automne 2017); 3. recueil, envoi et change des cursus et des plans de cours des programmes ltude, ainsi que dautres informations pertinentes en lien avec ceux-ci; 4. analyse dtaille des programmes et des plans de cours par chacune des units denseignement concernes; 5. prparation des parcours de transfert incluant lidentification et le nombre de crdits reconnus par luniversit de hearst; 6. enclenchement du processus dapprobation pour obtenir les approbations requises des instances dcisionnelles : a. le snat de luniversit de hearst b. envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne pour validation du respect de la procdure, accompagn dune lettre du vice-rectorat de luniversit de hearst indiquant sa raction c. validation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne du dossier soumis et du respect des procdures d. confirmation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne que le dossier a t trait et peut poursuivre aux tapes subsquentes e. signature des ententes darticulation entre le northern college et luniversit de hearst f. prsentation des ententes darticulation au snat de luniversit laurentienne pour information 5 comparaison et analyse entre les programmes les normes de chacun des programmes collgiaux et des plans de cours des cours obligatoires respectifs ont t analyss et valus en les comparant au mapping et aux objectifs du programme universitaire. pour effectuer lanalyse, les membres des units denseignement ont utilis les balises suivantes : - bibliographie des cours (pertinence et jour); objectifs du cours prsents devaient correspondre au dveloppement des savoir-faire avancs que sont lanalyse, la synthse et lvaluation critique; types de travaux qui doivent correspondre latteinte des objectifs prciss; notions et concepts prciss : nombre, pertinence et niveau de complexit. des crdits gnriques ont t attribus en quivalence pour les connaissances et les comptences dveloppes lorsquil tait impossible de les rattacher un cours ayant une cote de cours propre. aprs quont t identifies les quivalences des cours obligatoires et les quivalences de cours au choix du programme dtudes universitaire, un nouveau parcours a t cr pour les cohortes diplmes du programme collgial en question. ce nouveau parcours permettront ces cohortes de rduire la dure de leurs tudes universitaire et les couts engendrs par celles-ci tant donn leur bagage de connaissances et des comptences dveloppes dans le cadre de leur formation collgiale. une volont institutionnelle dtablir des ententes de type 2 + 1 et 2 + 2 guide le travail la coordination des projets. processus de mise en uvre ds que le processus dapprobation de toutes les ententes sera complt, les quipes suivantes seront informes des dtails relatifs tous les parcours contenus dans les ententes : - le bureau du registraire le bureau des liaisons et des communications les membres la direction les membres du corps professoral le bureau des admissions de luniversit laurentienne sensuivra alors le dveloppement des outils promotionnels, de linscription des ententes divers sites internet (ontransfer.ca, northern college, universit de hearst, etc.) et des stratgies de communications et de liaisons dveloppes par les quipes respectives des deux tablissements. les ententes seront affiches aux divers sites susmentionns ds que nous aurons laccord de ontransfer.ca. 6 sommaire des parcours de transfert crs nouveaux parcours entre le northern college et luniversit de hearst tous les parcours de transfert des programmes collgiaux ltude ont t complts et adopts par les instances de luniversit de hearst. au total, on en dnombre 20. les dtails acadmiques de ces parcours se retrouvent aux annexes a, b et c. tat des parcours ci-dessous dans le tableau, il y a ltat des parcours de tous les programmes collgiaux ltude. programmes universitaires gestion (b.a. 3 ans) administration des affaires (b.a.a. 4 ans) dernire tape complte programmes du northern college (dtails mthodologiques disponibles dans la section mthodologie la page 5 du prsent document) business business accounting business marketing business administration business administration - accounting business administration human resources (2 years) administration human resources (3 years) business administration information systems envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) business business accounting business marketing business administration business administration - accounting business administration human resources (2 years) administration human resources (3 years) business administration information systems envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) tude des enjeux humains et sociaux (b.a. 3 ans) police foundations envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) tude des enjeux humains et sociaux (b.a. 4 ans) police foundations envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) psychologie (b.a. 3 ans) social service worker envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit 7 laurentienne (tape 7.b.) psychologie (b.a. 4 ans) social service worker envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) tous les parcours de transfert des ententes auront atteint ltape de la signature des ententes au plus tard le 31 mars 2019. 8 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises dabord, pour mener terme ce projet et assurer sa russite, la communication intertablissement a permis au projet de bien senclencher et de progresser dans les premires tapes comme il avait t tabli dans le calendrier de travail. dans un deuxime temps, la communication au sein des quipes professorales des deux tablissements a t un gage de succs. les gestionnaires de projet ont bien amorc le projet en prsentant les objectifs et le calendrier de travail leur quipe respective et ont assur le travail continu en lien avec celui-ci. il tait important de rappeler la stratgie institutionnelle pour les parcours de transfert francophones et bilingues de luniversit de hearst adopte en 2017. les ralits dmographiques, la vision du ministre, la place que devrait occuper lapprentissage exprientiel ont tous t des facteurs sous-jacents importants aux analyses. comme les programmes de police foundations et social service worker ont un niveau daffinit lev, il tait raliste datteindre les objectifs fixs quant aux quivalences. pour ce qui est des nombreux programmes dadministration des affaires, tous les programmes de 2 ans vers un baccalaurat en administration des affaires (4 ans) ont atteint lobjectif du 2 +2 . les tudiantes et les tudiants qui complteront une 3ime anne dun programme collgial en administration des affaires auront plus de 60 crdits dquivalence. ainsi, ils pourront obtenir un baccalaurat en moins de 2 ans luniversit de hearst. malheureusement, il na pas t possible daccorder 60 crdits dquivalence et ainsi atteindre lobjectif du 2+1 pour les programmes menant au baccalaurat s arts en gestion (3 ans). nous avons tout de mme russi offrir des quivalences trs gnreuses. conclusion les deux tablissements sont satisfaits du projet et de ses rsultats. nous avons russi crer des parcours de transfert avantageux pour les finissantes et les finissants des programmes collgiaux et, par le fait mme, enrichir les possibilits de formation dans le nord-est de lontario et pour les francophones. 9 annexe a : parcours menant aux programmes de gestion et dadministration des affaires parcours entre le programme de business du northern college et les programmes de gestion et dadministration des affaires de luniversit de hearst. programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion** business 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 48 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 3946 (3) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 42 crdits* programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires** business 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 9100 (3) admn 9200 (9) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 60 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 4046 (3) admn 4915 (6) admn 4995 (6) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) + 1 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits* 10 parcours entre le programme de business-accounting du northern college et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst. programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion** business accounting 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 51 crdits* admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 3946 (3) admn 2316 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 39 crdits* programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires** business accounting 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 9100 (3) admn 9200 (6) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 60 crdits* admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 4046 (3) admn 4995 (6) admn 4915 (6) admn 2316 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) + 2 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits* 11 parcours entre le programme de business-marketing du northern college et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst. programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion** business-marketing 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 4956 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (3) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 51 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 3946 (3) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 39 crdits* programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires** business-marketing 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 4956 (3) admn 9100 (3) admn 9200 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 60 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 4046 (3) admn 4995 (6) admn 4915 (6) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) + 2 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits* 12 parcours entre le programme business adminstration du northern college et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion** business administration 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3496 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 51 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 39 crdits* programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires** business administration 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4915 (6) engl xxxx (3) admn 9100 (3) admn 9200 (12) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 69 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 4046 (3) admn 4995 (6) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 51 crdits* 13 parcours entre le programme business administration- accounting business du northern college et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion** business administration accounting business 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3946 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (3) ----------total : 60 crdits* admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 2316 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits* programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires** business administration accounting business 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4915 (6) engl xxxx (3) admn 9100 (3) admn 9200 (6) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------- admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 4046 (3) admn 4995 (6) admn 2316 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) + 2 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 45 crdits* 14 total : 75 crdits* parcours entre le programme administration -human resources et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme de northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion** administration human resources 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 4656 (3) admn 4976 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 48 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 3946 (3) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 42 crdits* programme de northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires** administration human resources 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 4656 (3) admn 4976 (3) admn 9100 (3) admn 9200 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 60 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 4046 (3) admn 4915 (6) admn 4995 (6) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) + 1 cours au choix des annes suprieures 15 ----------total : 60 crdits* parcours entre le programme business administration human resources du northern college et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme de northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion** administration human resources 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 4656 (3) admn 3946 (3) admn 4976 (3) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------total : 51 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 39 crdits* programme de northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires** administration human resources 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) engl xxxx (3) admn 4656 (3) admn 4915 (6) admn 4976 (3) admn 9100 (3) admn 9200 (6) cosc 1701 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (6) math 9100 (6) ----------- admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme admn 4046 (3) admn 4995 (6) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 51 crdits* 16 total : 69 crdits* parcours entre le programme business administration information systems du northern college et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme de northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion** business administration information systems 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme engl xxxx (3) admn 2306 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) cosc 9200 (6) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (3) math 9100 (6) psyc 3606 (3) ----------total : 51 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn 3946 (3) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 39 crdits* programme de northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires** business administration information systems 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn xxxx (3) systme engl xxxx (3) admn 9100 (3) admn 9200 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) cosc 9200 (6) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (3) math 9100 (6) psyc 3606 (3) ----------total : 63 crdits* admn 1107 (3) admn 2007 (3) admn 1006 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3836 (3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4915 (6) admn 4995 (6) admn 2316 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 3526 (3) ----------total : 57crdits* 17 annexe b : parcours menant aux programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux (3 ans et 4 ans) parcours entre le programme police foundations et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux** notes police foundations 2 ans (diplme) inte 1946 (3) inte 3946 (3) inte 3026 (3) psyc 3606 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) huma 9100 (3) scen 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (12) psyc 9100 (3) psyc 9200 (3) ----------total : 60 crdits* hist 3756 (3) ou hist 3757 (3) inte 3016 (3) ou litt 2646 (3) inte 1016 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) ou geog 1026 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux ** notes police foundations 2 ans (diplme) inte 1946 (3) inte 3946 (3) psyc 3606 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542(3) huma 9100 (3) scen 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (12) psyc 9100 (6) psyc 9200 (3) ----------total : 60 crdits* geog 1026 (3) ou psyc 2606 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) ou litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) inte 4915 (6) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. un cours parmi : soci 3187 (3) soci 3076 (3) geog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits* 18 trois cours parmi : soci 3187 (3) soci 3076 (3) geog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) ----------total : 60 crdits* 19 annexe c : parcours menant aux programmes de psychologie ( 3 ans et 4 ans) parcours entre le programme social service worker du northern college et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst social service worker 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) beso 1006(3) beso 1007 (3) huma 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (3) beso 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie** lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 3 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 30 crdits* programme du northern college crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie** social service worker 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) soci 1016 (3) huma 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (3) beso 9200 (15) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) 20 + 2 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits* * une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80 % est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. 21

participants and institutions dr. karen robson, mcmaster university dr. robert s. brown, toronto district school board dr. reana maier, independent consultant miad ranjbar, mcmaster university the authors would also like to acknowledge the helpful feedback and comments received from professors paul anisef and carl james from york university. contents executive summary ............................................................................................................ 1 introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3 who transitions and who transfers? characteristics of transitioning and transferring students ............................................................................................................................... 3 reverse transfers. ............................................................................................................ 5 comparative performance of transitioning and transferring students ............................. 6 persistence among transfer students ............................................................................... 7 retaining transfer students. ............................................................................................. 7 types of transfer students ............................................................................................... 8 credit transfer .................................................................................................................... 8 satisfaction with the transfer process. ............................................................................ 9 institutional support, practices and policies around transition and transfer .................. 11 research objectives .......................................................................................................... 13 data and research method ............................................................................................... 14 results ............................................................................................................................... 14 objective 1. exploring direct transitions out of high school to college and university 14 figure 1: pse status as of fall 2011 and fall 2014, grade 9 cohort of fall 2006 ...... 15 the importance of grade 9 credit accumulation. ...................................................... 15 table 1: post-secondary confirmations by grade 9 credit accumulation, 2006-2014 grade 9 cohort .............................................................................................................. 16 summary ....................................................................................................................... 16 objective 2: disentangling the disparate pathways that students take along the way .. 17 destination institution. .............................................................................................. 17 figure 2. destinations of cohort by 2011 ..................................................................... 17 program of study ...................................................................................................... 18 figure 3. destination pse areas of study, 2011 .......................................................... 18 transitions over two time periods............................................................................. 18 figure 4. transitions between 2011 and 2014 .............................................................. 19 tdsb cohort members later present in ocas data ................................................. 20 figure 5. cohort members in ocas data in 2014 ....................................................... 20 diagram 1. all pathways of students between 2011 and 2015. ................................... 21 figure 6. original university confirmations of students who transferred to college 22 where did university-to-college transfer students start their pse? .......................... 22 figure 7. university programs of study prior to college transfer (n=586)................ 23 figure 8. association between reverse transfer and parental occupation ................. 24 correlates of reverse transfer. ................................................................................... 24 figure 9. association between race and reverse transfer .......................................... 25 movement of the cohort within the college system .................................................. 25 figure 10. movement within college (n=3,130).......................................................... 26 diagram 2: movement of college enrollees ................................................................ 27 duration of enrolment ............................................................................................... 28 figure 11. duration of college enrolment, n=3,130 ................................................... 28 associations with college movement. ..................................................................... 29 figure 12. relationship between duration and college movement, n=3,130 ............. 29 figure 13. association between sex and college movement, n=3,130 ...................... 30 figure 14. association between grade 9/10 program of study and college movement ....................................................................................................................................... 31 summary ....................................................................................................................... 32 objective 3. how do pathways vary by individual characteristics? ............................. 33 data ........................................................................................................................... 33 figure 15. pathways of tdsb cohort .......................................................................... 34 bivariate associations.................................................................................................... 36 figure 16. program of study by self-identified race .................................................. 36 self-identified race and program of study ................................................................ 37 sex and program of study ......................................................................................... 37 figure 17. sex by program of study ............................................................................. 38 social class and program of study ............................................................................ 38 figure 18. association between social class and program of study ........................... 39 other bivariate associations ...................................................................................... 39 figure 19. parental pse by student's program of study .............................................. 40 figure 20. special education needs by program of study ........................................... 41 figure 21. grade 9/10 academic program and pse program of study ....................... 42 multivariate models .................................................................................................. 42 table 2. summary of statistically significant effects for race, race x sex and race x parental occupation in predicting postsecondary pathway ...................................... 44 determinant*............................................................................................................. 44 figure 22. predictive margins of interactions of race and sex on stem enrolment . 45 figure 23. predictive margins of interactions of race and class on university stem and college enrolment ................................................................................................. 46 summary ................................................................................................................... 47 discussion ......................................................................................................................... 48 limitations and recommendations................................................................................... 50 references ................................................................................................................. 52 appendix 1 ........................................................................................................................ 58 executive summary we addressed three research objectives by examining data from the toronto district school board. these data were from a cohort of students (n=16,364) that were in grade 9 in 2006 and were followed for eight years, until fall 2014. included in these data were ontario postsecondary application and enrolment information. our research objectives and findings were as follows: 1. to what extent are students graduating high school and directly entering college or university? forty-seven percent of the cohort transitioned directly from high school to university, while 13% transitioned directly from high school to college. over an additional three years of application cycles, 3% more students moved to postsecondary. 2. how can we look at movement between different postsecondary programs and institutions? students may start at a college and move to a different college, or change programs within the same institution. what factors are associated with such movements? eighty-five percent of students who confirmed a postsecondary place in 2011 were at the same institution in 2014. only 3% had changed institutions. among college students in the data set, 19% had confirmed university at an earlier date. in terms of students who appeared to have reverse transferred from university to college, exploratory analysis suggested that they were more likely to be from lower socioeconomic groups and be racialized (particularly black, south asian, or southeast asian). in terms of movement within college, 81% stayed in the same college and program, 8% changed programs within the same college, 5% went to similar programs at different colleges, and 6% went to different programs at different colleges. the only factor associated with college movement was duration of study; the longer students remained enrolled, the more likely they were to make some sort of movement. 3. how do pathways vary by individual characteristics? using an intersectionality framework, which understands race, class, gender, and special education needs status to be inextricably linked to the educational outcomes of young people, we investigated how these factors predicted postsecondary stem pathways (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in particular. race was associated with the five program pathways, with east asians 1 representing 40% of university stem enrollments and blacks comprising only 7%. there was strong male representation in stem, and the gap was bigger at the college level (25% women, 75% men) than the university level (42% women, 58% men). social class was strongly associated with program of study, with high status parental occupations being associated with university stem and non-stem pathways. students with special education needs were more likely to be in college nonstem programs. academic program of study in grade 9/10 was more strongly related to university stem and non-stem than applied programs of study, which were more likely to be found in the college pathways. in terms of multivariate analyses, parental occupational status had a strong negative association with university stem for black students and a weak negative association with university stem for east asian students. parental occupational status had a strong negative association with college stem for east asian students. our findings revealed the importance of examining the ways that race, sex, class, and special education needs affect postsecondary pathways and movements within these pathways. we have uncovered some important correlates associated with transfer and program choice. social class and race were found to have associations with these pathways, particularly with regard to reverse transfer and stem program choice. in the case of the former, reverse transfer among certain racialized and lower ses groups may signal unpreparedness (or lack of social and cultural capital) for university environments. programs targeting first generation students at the university level may assist in retaining such students, but it is probably the case that more social and cultural capital development at the high school level would make such transitions less awkward for traditionally underrepresented students. our findings regarding the negative association between parental occupational status and university stem pathways for blacks may be indicative of the lack of perceived support and social networks within these academic areas. if, as suggested by american research, high status blacks are rejecting stem due to segregated social networks, much more must be done at the university level to recruit and create inclusive environments for racialized students in the sciences and beyond. 2 introduction for increasing numbers of students in canada, the traditional pathway of moving seamlessly from high school directly into postsecondary education (pse) and continuing uninterrupted through to pse graduation is no longer the norm (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). so-called non-traditional pathways, which involve gap years, temporary program interruptions, and changes in program and/or institution, are becoming regular features of the pse experience across the country. according to the national graduates survey 2013 conducted by statistics canada, only 53% of those who graduated with a baccalaureate degree in 2010 entered their program directly from high school. of those who graduated from a college program, only 28% entered directly from high school. for both college and bachelors program graduates, over 30% had previously completed some other form of pse (ferguson & wang, 2014, pp. 7-8). disentangling the web or knot of pathways that students take, with particular attention to the transfer of students between institutions, is a topic that has received little attention, particularly in the canadian context. understanding the pathways students choose or are forced to take is crucial in order to design appropriate policy and support mechanisms to ensure all students succeed in pse. a one size fits all approach to movement through the postsecondary landscape based on the traditional pathway model throws up frustrating obstacles to the growing number of students who no longer fit this mould. in the following sections, we review the research literature on transitions from secondary to pse (transition) and mobility across and within pse (transfer). because our focus is on canadian students and institutions, we draw heavily, though not exclusively, on research funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat was established in 2011 in order to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary institutions (oncat, n.d.a) by creating a knowledge base to facilitate the transfer of credits between institutions. because transition and transfer is an under-researched area of higher education in canada, oncat studies represent an important emerging resource for research and policy direction. in the process of reviewing research literature on transition and transfer in ontario, we identified four key themes, which will be explored in the following sections: 1) personal/social characteristics of transitioning and transferring students; 2) academic performance of transitioning and transferring students; 3) credit transfer systems; and 4) institutional support, practices and policies related to transition and transfer. who transitions and who transfers? characteristics of transitioning and transferring students 3 students who transition directly from high school into pse (direct entry high school or dehs) in ontario tend to be young (aged below 19), female, single with no children, from middle to high income families, non-aboriginal, and declare no disabilities (sattler 2010; decock et al., 2011; acai & newton, 2015). research, particularly from oncatsupported projects, has shown that transferring students have comparatively more diverse demographics (blais & harper, 2013). though still more likely to be female, transferring students are also older on average and show greater variability in age than their dehs counterparts (durham college, 2013a; finnie et al., 2012). for example, transfer students at confederation college were mainly between the ages of 20 and 23, but could be as young as 18 and as old as 60 (confederation college, 2012). transferring students are also more likely than dehs students to be of aboriginal descent, to be the first generation in their families to seek higher education (oncat, 2013; stewart & martinello, 2012), or to have a disability (sattler, 2010). because they tend to be older, transferring students are also more likely to be married, have children and work full- or part-time, and therefore tend to experience higher levels of external pressures (e.g., workstudy conflicts) than transitioning students (coffey et al., 2012; kennett & maki, 2014). the literature indicates that there are a variety of reasons students delay entry into pse or begin in one institution and transfer to another. a minority of students cited dissatisfaction with their previous program, but more common reasons related to employment and potential future earnings (oncat 2013,). interestingly, these reasons were cited in both college-to-university transfers and university-to-college transfers. university credentials are increasingly in demand from employers (manfredi, 2015), and some professional qualifications can only be obtained through a university program, such as the bscn required in order to be a registered nurse (mallette, cutrara, choiniere, rogers, & umana, 2015), providing strong incentive for college-to-university transfers. college programs, however, are consistently seen to provide practical, hands-on experience an advantage in both university and the job market providing incentive for college experience either before or after university (durham college 2013a; gorman, phelps, & carley, 2012). for many students, college is a more accessible option than university for financial, academic, logistical and geographic reasons. colleges of applied arts and technology (caats) are more numerous and more spread out than ontarios universities, which is particularly important for students in the north of the province. college tuition is also lower than university tuition. statistics canada reported that the average canadian undergraduate paid $6,373 in tuition fees for the 2016/2017 academic year, with ontario students paying the highest fees at $8,114 (statistics canada, 2016). average annual college tuition fees in ontario range from $2,400 to $6,100, depending on the program and qualification offered (ontario colleges, n.d.). this tuition gap is compounded by the fact that most university degrees are four years, whereas college programs are generally one to two years. previous research has shown that for students from the lowest income categories in canada, the participation rate is about 50 percent greater in colleges than in universities (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010, p.12). some participants in oncat research also felt that college study was more flexible and therefore allowed for more time to 4 spend in paid work (confederation college, 2012) a necessity for many students, especially those from low-income brackets. in addition to students from low-income backgrounds, students who are aboriginal, have a disability, or whose parents did not participate in pse are all more likely to attend a college than a university and have higher proportions among college transfer students than in the direct applicant population (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010; sattler, 2010). oncat projects conducted over the past six years corroborate these findings. in short, transferring is an option that somewhat mitigates issues of access for under-represented groups in pse. the traditional pathway is often not an option for those who face obstacles to full-time university study directly out of high school, such as low income, poor previous academic performance, family or work obligations, disabilities that require additional resources to accommodate or cause periods of absence, or geographic location. reverse transfers. much of the research on transfer has focused on college-touniversity pathways, with college programs often seen as stepping stones to university programs. based on data from college and university graduate satisfaction surveys, however, kerr, mccloy, and liu (2010) reported that university-to-college pathways, or reverse transfers, are also increasing, though in general less quickly than college-touniversity transfers. the profile of students with previous university experience entering college programs is slightly different than those who transfer from college to university. reverse transfer students tend to be over 25 years old, speak a first language other than french or english, and enrol in narrow and applied (as opposed to general or preparatory) courses. the goals of these students are largely focused on workforce entry; they are therefore drawn to the practical experience offered by college programs (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). for example, focus group data from students who transferred from lakehead university to confederation college indicated that career preparation and time to pursue part-time work while studying were significant advantages to studying at college rather than university (confederation college, 2012). students with previous university experience who transferred to the ontario college of art and design (ocad) reported making the decision to transfer in order to enter a more applied program with a more art-focused curriculum, which would lead to greater employment opportunities (fisher et al., 2012). wilson (2009) pointed out that canada has a large and growing immigrant population, and that students with university degrees who are now enrolled in college programs may likely be foreign professionals looking to gain credentials recognized in canada. goldrick-rab and pfeffer (2009) found that reverse transfer is also more commonly observed among students from low socioeconomic backgrounds compared to those from advantaged backgrounds, who tend to engage in lateral transfer (i.e., mobility from university to university). this could be partly attributed to the comparatively lower cost of college programs. the authors also attribute this finding to the poorer academic 5 performance of low ses students, which they link to lower levels of parental educational attainment. wilson (2009) noted that while reverse transfer appears to be a growing phenomenon in the ontario postsecondary landscape, it is difficult to get an accurate idea of the extent of this growth. very little research has looked into student transfer from university to college, resulting in a paucity of data on the subject. one study from the early 1990s found that the majority of alberta students who transferred to colleges or technical institutions came from universities (vaala, 1991), but there seems to have been little attempt to follow these trends consistently. motivations for transferring from university to college have also not yet been researched systematically. comparative performance of transitioning and transferring students a number of oncat-funded projects have investigated the comparative performances of transferring and transitioning students, paying particular attention to two indicators: grade point average (gpa) and persistence/graduation. stewart and martinello (2012) found that compared to transitioning students, the academic performance of college-touniversity transfer students was very similar to that of dehs students in the first two years of study. however, in the latter two years, transfer students performed significantly less well and were much less likely to persist to the final year of their studies. this finding seems to support the common conception that transfer students underperform in university, something gorman et al. (2012) found to be a source of concern for collegeto-university transfer students even prior to transfer. some proposed explanations for this underperformance include an unsatisfactory college-to-university transfer experience (confederation college, 2012); partial completion of a college diploma (lakehead university, 2012); receiving only the minimum or lower than minimum transfer credits (coffey et al., 2012; lakehead university, 2012); studying part-time after transfer (finnie et al., 2012; lakehead university, 2012); or not receiving the required level of support from the universities to which they transferred (carleton university, 2013; durham college, 2014). transfer students from algonquin college to the university of ottawa were considerably more likely to leave than dehs students (finnie et al., 2012), but the studys authors were unable to account for this difference with reference to any of the explanatory variables included in the analysis age, gender, high school grades, rural/urban origin, and program choice. stewart and martinellos (2012) results represent a minority among the oncat research projects in terms of gpa. indeed, the overall findings suggest that transfer students performed at least as well academically as dehs students, and in some cases outperformed them. a study that focused on the degree completion and general academic performance of students who transferred from george brown college, humber college, and seneca college to woodsworth college in the faculty of arts and science at the university of toronto (shook et al., 2016) found that diploma to degree (transferring) students perform similarly to the general arts and science population at the university of 6 toronto in terms of persistence to degree completion and gpa after transfer. though transfer students from conestoga college described university workloads as more demanding than their college workloads, they nevertheless had higher gpas than nontransfer students (gorman, phelps, & carley, 2012). college to university transfer students at trent university, wilfred laurier university, and the university of ontario institute of technology (ouit) also outperformed their non-transferring counterparts in terms of gpa. persistence among transfer students. results for persistence are more mixed across oncats research, but this can be attributed at least in part to the greater diversity that characterizes the transferring population. a summary of oncat research up to 2013 reported slightly below average persistence rates overall for transfer students as opposed to dehs students, but it cautioned that this overall trend masks some important variations. some studies have identified transfer cohorts that show strong retention (oncat, 2013). for example, there appears to be a link between persistence and age. studies from ouit and trent university suggested that older students face more demands on their time because they are more likely to have work and family obligations in addition to their studies (drewes et al., 2012; coffey et al., 2012). part-time study was therefore more common among older students, and part-time students had significantly lower retention rates than full-time students (oncat, 2013). retaining transfer students. the oncat-funded projects suggest that one pathway to greater retention of transfer students lies in the features of the transfer program itself (usher & jarvey, 2012). as mentioned above, college-to-university transfer students outperformed other groups of students in much of the oncat research thus far (confederation college, 2012; gorman et al., 2012; drewes et al., 2012; gerhardt, arai, carroll, & ackerman, 2012; drewes et al., 2012). there were three studies that differentiated between types of transfer students those who transferred under block transfer or articulated agreements, those who transferred with other credits (either college or university), and those who transferred without any credits. block transfers or articulated agreements refer to prearranged agreements between institutions in which specified diplomas or sets of courses, usually gained with a minimum gpa, at one institution are considered equivalent to specified courses at another institution. for example, a student transferring to lakehead university with a diploma and the required average in business administration from a college with which such an agreement exists receives a block of credits for the first and second year and is able to transfer directly into the third year of a four-year business administration degree. a bridging program is a highly integrated type of articulated agreement in which transfer from a college program to a university degree is built into the structure of the college program; the program is designed so that students move from one to the other. students can transfer credits outside of a block transfer or bridging program, but courses are considered on a more individual basis, and there is no guarantee that previous learning will be recognized. when transferring to a university, college courses are less likely to be recognized and credited than courses from another university. 7 types of transfer students. the findings from studies that differentiate between types of transfer students are especially salient in the discussion of academic success and retention. in a project focused on college-to-university transfers at lakehead university, students with college diplomas or who participated in block transfer programs had retention rates similar to dehs students and higher than both students who transferred with credits outside a block program and those who transferred with no credits. the block transfer students also had higher graduation rates than all the other categories and outperformed them academically (lakehead university, 2012). a study at trent university examined academic performance and dropout rates, comparing dehs students, caat students transferring under an articulation agreement and caat students transferring outside an articulation agreement. transfer students outside an articulation agreement had grade averages and dropout rates similar to those of dehs students, but transfer students under an articulation agreement performed significantly better on both measures (drewes et al., 2012). nursing students in a bridging program at ouit, which represented an articulated transfer agreement between the college licensed practical nursing program and the university bscn program required to become a registered nurse, also performed at a significantly superior level in comparison to direct entry students (coffey, lindsay, & sproul, 2012). the success of these students can be partly attributed to the strength of the transfer model, which was highly planned and facilitated by the institutions involved. this model incorporated early academic advising and experience of university life into the program, allowing the students to make a better informed decision about whether to pursue degree studies (shook et al., 2016). the literature suggests the importance of a well-planned, clear, and properly administered and supervised transfer program in ensuring the persistence and academic success of college-to-university transfer students, a topic that will be explored further in the next section (drewes et al., 2012; durham college, 2013b; gorman et al., 2012; kennett & maki, 2014). the importance of transfer program design and implementation is demonstrated most compellingly by the work of drewes et al. (2012). caat students who transferred to trent university under an articulated agreement not only significantly outperformed all other categories of students including university transfer students, non-articulated transfer students, and direct entrants (transitioning students) they were also least likely to drop out, even when individual student characteristics were controlled. credit transfer ontario is a relative latecomer to facilitating transfers across postsecondary institutions. british columbia, alberta, and quebec, for example, have a stronger history of established credit transfer systems that facilitates inter-institutional mobility and correspondingly show greater student mobility than the other canadian provinces, despite bc and alberta having far fewer public postsecondary institutions than ontario (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). the establishment of oncat followed a number of calls and reviews by the ontario government, beginning in the early 1990s, for more discussion 8 and collaboration between provincial pse institutions in order to ease the transfer process and create more opportunity for mobility. oncats research thus far indicates that the proportion of students who transfer between postsecondary institutions varies considerably, depending on the location of the posttransfer institution, the existence of collaborative diploma to degree programs offered by pre- and post-transfer institutions, and the nature of the academic fields students wish to enter (oncat, 2013). across these variations, however, students identify credit recognition and transfer as one of the most important aspects of the transfer experience that is, to what extent the work they have completed at one institution counts toward the completion of their diploma/degree at another institution. several oncat-funded projects have investigated the transferability of credits between postsecondary institutions in ontario, particularly for students who transfer from colleges to universities (arnold & woodhead, 2015; fisher et al., 2012; sidhu et al., 2016; usher & jarvey, 2012). some of the most prominent factors found to influence the number of transfer credits earned by all groups of transferring students include the particular field of specialization, professional certification requirements (if applicable), and the existence of highly aligned programs that reflect articulation agreements between colleges and universities (drewes et al., 2012; oncat, 2013). satisfaction with the transfer process. a theme of dissatisfaction with the transfer process is apparent across the oncat research projects, centring on issues of expectation and communication. on average, college-to-university transfer students receive fewer transfer credits than university-to-college and university-to-university transfer students (confederation college, 2012; fisher et al., 2012; stewart & martinello, 2012). though some researchers attempt to justify this via the differential nature of academic expectations across institutions (e.g. dills & hernandez-julian, 2008), the majority of oncat-funded projects have found no reason to discount the value of credits earned at colleges. indeed, as mentioned above, these studies have shown that college-to-university transfer students tend to perform as well or better than those who earned their previous credits at universities (coffey et al., 2012; confederation college, 2012; drewes et al., 2012; lakehead university, 2016). this has led many college-touniversity transfer students to be less satisfied with the transfer process than universityto-university transfer students, largely due to disappointed expectations about the transferability of their college credits to universities (confederation college, 2012; fisher et al., 2012; gerhardt et al., 2013). participants in a study of transfer students at wilfred laurier university reported frustration with the seemingly arbitrary manner in which credits were approved (gerhardt et al., 2012), and similar objections were made about the subjective nature of credit approval at the ontario college of art and design (ocad) (fisher et al., 2012). students level of satisfaction with transferring across postsecondary institutions was also found to be directly related to the perceived ease of the transfer process (blais & harper, 2013; carleton university, 2013; durham college, 2016); transfer wait times (confederation college, 2012); communication of admissions decisions (durham 9 college, 2014; usher & jarvey, 2012); and the requirements associated with earning transfer credits (arnold & woodhead, 2015; confederation college, 2012; oncat, 2013). the common thread across these factors is communication, and it is the most important predictor of student satisfaction with the transfer process. those institutions and transfer programs that overtly and comprehensively communicate the requirements associated with inter-institutional transfer, that are well-planned and properly administered, and that provide students with the rationale for their admissions decisions were rated the highest by transferring students (arnold, 2012; durham college, 2014; fisher et al., 2012). the most commonly reported frustration in the oncat research was a lack of clear, readily available, and comprehensive information about transfer requirements and the transfer process. for transfer students at wilfred laurier, ocad, lakehead university, durham college, and centennial college, information on credit transfer was difficult to locate, and staff were often unavailable to answer questions or did not provide information in a timely manner. finding accurate course descriptions and syllabi in order to determine equivalency of courses, especially for courses no longer offered, was time consuming and sometimes led to dead ends. applications to the institution and application for credit transfer most often had to be done separately, resulting in students submitting the same or substantially similar materials and paperwork twice, and decisions often had slow turnaround times. it is important to note that students perceptions of their chances of success in the new institution, ease of inter-institutional transfer, and the possibility of earning transfer credits are decisive factors that shape the pathways ontario students take in their postsecondary educational careers. for some transfer students at wilfred laurier, credit approval was important enough to students to be cited as a reason for choosing one program over another. in other words, some students would choose to attend whichever institution gave them the highest number of credits for their college work, so it was important that this information be available before applications were made. a study from the ontario institute for studies in education at the university of toronto referred to transfer literacy, which is the ability to comprehend credit transfer procedures, policies and outcomes (arnold, 2012, p. 8). students with transfer literacy have access to the knowledge they need to make decisions about transfers that will minimize the time and effort spent on the transfer process and maximize the value of their previous academic work and finances. a high degree of transfer literacy depends on the availability and clarity of information regarding transfer policy and procedure. using document analysis of materials from government, agencies and educational institutions from 1999-2012 and focus group data from institutional administrators from colleges and universities across ontario, the researcher identified the most successful transfer pathways as those that were defined by well-publicized articulation agreements. students were informed during their diploma studies about the requirements and transfer expectations they would face during the process. this goes some way to explaining the 10 comparative success of students who transfer under such agreements, as discussed in the previous section, and we will return to this concept in the next section. institutional support, practices and policies around transition and transfer the recurring theme of complexity and confusion associated with inter-institutional transfer processes has been exacerbated by the absence of collaboration between institutions (oncat, 2013). each institution has its own policies and procedures, which do not necessarily make reference to the policies and procedures of other institutions. this has resulted in misunderstandings over degree expectations, inconsistency in defining terms, and opaque grading procedures. the lack of communication makes it difficult to evaluate the experiences and learning of transferring students and to translate these into appropriate credits, particularly in a timely fashion. this represents a significant obstacle to student mobility in the postsecondary landscape in ontario. student experiences with the transfer process as explored in the oncat projects highlight the importance of ensuring that admission standards, as well as prerequisites, appropriately reflect the academic demands of the programs students wish to enter (arnold, 2012; durham college, 2013b; durham college, 2013a). students are generally more satisfied with the transfer process if their pre-transfer programs have provided them with adequate preparation to enhance their academic performance (coffey et al., 2012; gorman et al., 2012; shook et al., 2016) and if social integration into their new postsecondary environment has been facilitated (durham college, 2013b; durham college, 2014). four oncat-funded projects conducted by durham college (2013a; 2013b; 2014; 2016) have attested to the importance of program-relatedness in ensuring student satisfaction, not only during the transfer process, but also post-transfer and even after degree completion. these issues are related to stakeholders knowledge and perceptions of the transfer process, which are influenced by the availability, completeness, and comprehensibility of information about the transfer process (oncat, 2013; usher & jarvey, 2012). a comprehensive report conducted by the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) suggested that based on the examination of current transfer-related practices of postsecondary institutions in canada, there are many ambiguities associated with defining the different facets of the transfer process (duklas, maki, pesaro, & brady, 2014). among these, prerequisite courses and/or programs, transfer credit standards, and transcript/gpa conversion methods seem to be the most important sources of confusion and ambiguity for both students and administrators involved in the transfer process. based on oncats findings, many researchers have proposed ways through which the transfer process could be improved, specifically by increasing transferring students knowledge about the transfer process. in one of the most comprehensive studies of 11 student experiences about the credit transfer process in ontario, usher and jarvey (2012) found that colleges with the most positive responses: 1) provided detailed information about the transfer process; 2) streamlined credit transfer processes; 3) provided support to students experiencing difficulty obtaining course outlines or course descriptions; 4) assess applications in one week or less; 5) provided justifications for both assessment results and policy positions; and 6) demonstrated a culture of effective service. (p. 9) usher and jarveys (2012) recommendations are reflected in other oncat-funded projects (arnold & woodhead, 2015; durham college, 2016), substantiating the need for policies and practices that are widely and conveniently available, intelligible to all stakeholders, and that ensure the provision of timely admissions decisions to transferring students. in more practical terms, some studies strongly advocated making information about credits and transfer including policy, course descriptions and syllabi, application information, wait times, past decisions, etc. available in a central place, preferably online. another recommendation was to make more university representatives available to handle transfer process enquiries, particularly during the application and registration periods, in order to ensure they are made in a timely fashion. yet another suggestion was to streamline the paperwork associated with credit transfer by making it part of the application package as opposed to a separate process. given the success of students transferring under articulated and block agreements, the creation of more of these types of programs is heavily favoured by researchers. moreover, it was recommended that colleges and universities target orientation and support services with the unique needs and demographics of transfer students in mind. transfer students can sometimes feel disconnected from their post-transfer institution or experience something of a transfer shock as they move between the different cultures of the college and the university (blais & harper, 2013). a study at carleton university suggested creating a staff position specifically to coordinate programs and support services for students in non-traditional pathways (carleton university, 2013). peer mentoring was also suggested as a way of easing the transition (carleton university, 2013; arnold & woodhead, 2015). the establishment of oncat was a significant step forward in this process. as a resource for both students and institutions, it continues to develop a knowledge base of information regarding the transfer process of its member institutions. it is not, however, a governing body and relies on voluntary participation. in a recent report, oncat set out its principles for credit transfer policies and procedures, which centre on three goals: 1) students should have the information they need to make informed decisions about the transfer process; 2) students can expect to be treated equitably by all member institutions; and 3) all members acknowledge and respect the primary jurisdiction of each institution for transfer policy and academic integrity (oncat, n.d.b, pp. 1-2). the 12 first and second goals encourage transparency and accessibility of information, which are facilitated by oncats online databases, as well as equitable treatment of pupils. the third goal emphasizes the fact that each institution is still responsible for its own transfer policy and procedure. oncat also advocates for a more robust research agenda that attempts to track transfer students and their pathways across the province or across multiple institutions, rather than the more common study of individual institutions. oncat continues to support research into this area; however, the majority of its projects still focus on the transfer process at individual institutions or pairs of institutions. an overall picture is therefore still lacking. research objectives as established above and contrary to popular conjecture on the topic, the traditional pathway of moving from high school seamlessly through to a postsecondary program is no longer a typical pathway and, arguably, nontraditional pathways have actually been the norm for some time. the reality is that students take years off, step out of programs temporarily, change programs, and change institutions. our project aimed to disentangle the web or knot of pathways students take, as well as to focus on the transfer of students between institutions a topic that has received little attention, particularly in the canadian context. the goals of our analysis were made attainable by our having access to a unique data set of students who were in grade 9 in 2006 and for whom we have eight successive years of data. these data included administrative data from the toronto district school board, student participation in the 2006 toronto district school board student census (which carries information on self-reported race, parental characteristics, and various attitudinal items), and five years of college and university application data. we had three general objectives in this report: the first was to examine direct transitions out of high school to college or university. to what extent are students graduating high school and directly entering college or university? the second objective was to disentangle the disparate pathways that students take along the way. these pathways involve movement between different postsecondary programs and institutions. students may start at a college and move to a different college, or change programs within the same institution. we were able to use our data to look at what sorts of patterns exist for program or institutional shifts, as well as completion. the third objective was to examine how these pathways vary by individual characteristics. we used an intersectionality framework, which understands race, class, gender, and special education need status to be inextricably linked to the educational outcomes of young people. 13 data and research method the data set was constructed by robert s. brown using toronto district school board (tdsb) accessible data sources and focuses on a specific grade 9 cohort from 2006. the various tdsb cohort studies followed grade 9 students as they progressed through secondary education into pse. in the standard tdsb grade 9 cohort studies, students were followed for five years after the beginning of grade 9. however, for the specific cohort on which we focused, data were available for eight years. the cohort study we drew upon utilized the pilot, a more comprehensive study that looked at students who started grade 9 in fall 2006 and were followed for eight years (instead of the typical five), until fall 2014. most importantly for the purposes of our research, these eight years included five years after graduation. this allowed for a more complete examination of the transition from secondary to post-secondary. it also allowed for an examination of other postsecondary pathways, such as those that have gap years or those that move through different pse institutions during this time period. there were 16,364 students in the 2006 grade 9 cohort study. in addition to tsdb data on these students, which contained rich demographic information, this was the first tdsb cohort that participated in the tdsb student census. thus, using these data, it was possible to link cohort information from the tdsbs student information system (sis) to student census responses. additionally, it was possible to link this information with five successive years of information from the ontario universities and college applications services (ouac and ocas). for this study, we examined the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 application cycles. information was matched to confirmations that is, instances in which students confirmed an offer of admission from an ontario college or university between 2010 and 2014. the ouac and ocas data also provided us with information on the students destination institution and their program choice. our more detailed analyses of college movement were facilitated by the detailed enrolment data that were provided to us by ocas (we could not analyze university transfers due to data restrictions). the richness of these data, along with the large sample size and relatively current nature of the data (ending in 2014), were heretofore unprecedented in the literature documenting postsecondary transitions of ontario youth. results objective 1. exploring direct transitions out of high school to college and university in general, the tdsb cohort studies have documented increasing direct transitions from high school into pse, which is part of a larger trend throughout the world. in the 10 years of tdsb cohort studies, transitions from high school to university increased from 43% to 50%, and transitions from high school to college increased from 13% to 18%. that being said, there was still a considerable group of students in ontario who applied to but did not 14 enter pse (at least directly), and some who did not apply at all. this includes both high school graduates and non-graduates. we looked at applications made by students in the 2006 cohort to ontario university and colleges application centres from 2010 (when students were in their fourth year of high school) into the 2014 application cycle (when the few remaining students were in their eighth year of high school) for a nearly complete picture of their direct transition to pse. figure 1 shows the difference between five and eight years. by the end of five years of high school, 47.4% of students confirmed an offer of admission from an ontario university, while 13.5% confirmed an offer from an ontario college. by the end of eight years, the proportion of university-bound students had increased to 48.2% and collegebound students had increased to 15.6% a total increase of 2.9%. figure 1: pse status as of fall 2011 and fall 2014, grade 9 cohort of fall 2006 60% 40% 2006-2011 grade 9 cohort 2006-2014 grade 9 cohort 20% 0% confirm university confirm college in apply to postdid not apply to in ontario ontario secondary, but did post-secondary not confirm although our data did not allow us to explore the reasons behind the 3% increase between five and eight years of high school, we can speculate. in some cases, students take longer than five years to finish high school, and will then apply to pse. in other cases, students may return for a necessary course or two (through the regular day school, summer school or night school) before gaining the prerequisites needed for pse. a number also take time off for travel and/or work before making the decision to go to pse. note that most university-bound students transition in year 4 of high school, while most college-bound students transition in years 5-7. the importance of grade 9 credit accumulation. even with the timelines extended from five to eight years, the importance of grade 9 credit accumulation for postsecondary access cannot be understated; generally, students who complete fewer than eight credits in grade 9 have a quite limited chance of confirming university, although they will graduate secondary school. of the students in grade 9 who completed eight credits, 59% 15 confirmed an offer of admission from an ontario university (nearly all confirmed by year 5); of those completing seven credits, only 15% confirmed university; and only 4% of those completing six or fewer credits confirmed university (see table 1). table 1: post-secondary confirmations by grade 9 credit accumulation, 20062014 grade 9 cohort grade 9 credit accumulation 6 or fewer credits (high risk) 7 credits (medium risk) 8 or more credits (low risk) confirm university in ontario confirm college in ontario applied to postsecondary, but did not confirm did not apply to postsecondary 3.6% 14.5% 6.9% 75.1% 15.2% 28.2% 13.1% 43.5% 59.3% 15.6% 11.2% 25.4% we captured eight years of information about the ontario applications, but this did not show our students entire history of postsecondary access. for one thing, it did not follow students who went into a postsecondary institution outside ontario, which we estimated to be three to four percent of the cohort. secondly, it included students who confirm an offer of admission from a public ontario postsecondary institution; however, in some cases, students who confirm an offer will not follow through, while others who may be on waiting lists may enter at the last minute, and still others may attend private colleges. there are also some smaller postsecondary institutions that are not part of the ontario applications process (e.g., royal military college in kingston). summary the goal of this section was to examine direct transitions out of high school to college and university. we found that around 47% transition directly from high school to university and 13.5% transition directly from high school to college. we used five years of college and university application data to account for 5-year graduation rates, as the context of high school in ontario makes it somewhat difficult to pinpoint direct transitions given that so many students take a victory lap (brady & allingham, 2010). eight-year graduation rates increased this rate only slightly, adding an additional 3% of students in pse. we also argued that grade 9 credit accumulation played a major part in the transition pathways observed in later years. 16 objective 2: disentangling the disparate pathways that students take along the way our second objective was to examine the pathways that students take during their acquisition of pse. by using the tdsb cohort, we were able to examine the first records of students in pse in 2014. figure 2 displays instances of confirmation in a pse institution that we had for the cohort members in 2014 (and the end of eight years of data). as our above analyses show, the differences between 2011 and 2014 were negligible (accounting for an additional 3% of students). for this reason, we have focused on pse confirmations to 2014 instead of providing separate analyses of 2011 and 2014, which show very little difference. of those in the cohort, around half (48.2%) confirmed an offer from an ontario university, 15.2% confirmed an offer from an ontario college, and nearly 11% applied to pse but did not receive an offer. around a quarter (25.4%) of the cohort did not apply to pse. these are the same numbers that were displayed in figure 1. destination institution. unsurprisingly, of the students that did confirm a pse offer by 2014, a majority chose toronto-based institutions (figure 2): university of toronto (19.7%), york university (13.9%), ryerson (10.8%), george brown (4.2%), seneca (5.3%), centennial college (5.1%), humber (4.6%), and ocad university (1.5%). the largest confirmation destinations outside of the greater toronto area (gta) were western (4.5%), guelph (3.6%), and mcmaster (3.2%). figure 2. destinations of cohort by 2011 ocadu 2% uoit 2% wilfred laurier 3% queens 3% mcmaster 3% guelph 3% humber 4% centennial 4% western 4% seneca george brown 5% 5% other 12% toronto 20% york 14% ryerson 11% waterloo 6% 17 program of study. next, we turn to program of study. students confirm offers from thousands of very specific programs offered by ontario universities and colleges. ocas and ouac group these specific programs under broader subject categories e.g., engineering and applied science for universities or technology for colleges. figure 3 displays the pse programs of study in which cohort members were enrolled in 2014. the largest programs of study were university general arts (27%), university science (16.3%), university business (6.9%), and college applied arts (6.9%). figure 3. destination pse areas of study, 2011 uni - physical and health education and recreation 2% college - health 2% uni environmental studies mathematics 1% nursing 1% 1% other 5% uni - fine and applied arts 4% uni - humanities and social science 27% collegetechnology 5% uni engineering and applied science 7% college - business 7% uni - science 16% college- applied arts 11% uni - commerce, management and business administration 11% transitions over two time periods. we now turn to comparisons between 2011 and 2014 institutional data. as displayed in figure 4, between 2011 and 2014, 85.3% of the cohort was observed in the same pse institution, while 3.1% were observed in a different pse institution. an additional 11.5% reported no pse institution in 2010/2011, but were observed in pse in 2014. 18 figure 4. transitions between 2011 and 2014 different institution 3% no institution in 2010 or 2011 12% same institution 85% it is the 3.1% (n=327) that represent either transitions or errors in the pse confirmation data. for the 327 students who transitioned to a different institution from the tdsb, there are three possible explanations: 1) students confirmed one institution by spring 2011, but did not actually attend. instead, these students went to another institution a bit later (by the end of the 2014 application cycle). an example could be a student who confirmed going to western in 2011, but did not actually go through the final steps that would have resulted in the student attending classes (i.e., paying for the courses for the first half of the year, paying for residence, moving to london). however, the same student might have confirmed an offer from york in 2012, and would therefore have shown up as a york student in our final 2014 data. 2) students confirmed an offer by 2011, attended, but then withdrew and applied to a different institution by 2014. 3) students transferred to another institution by 2014. to use our western-york example, the student could have gone to western in 2011, withdrawn, and then gone to york in 2012-2014; or could have transferred to york from 19 western. generally, we would not receive the information on university transfers from ouac, but there is a grey area between direct and indirect transfers if the student changes just a year or two after leaving high school, and it is possible, albeit unlikely, that the student may end up as a direct transfer twice within a few years. we cannot provide exact details on what the specific reasons for this are; in any case, 3% is not, in itself, a major part of the picture. however, as we will see, there are many of these seemingly minor changes in the transition process, which collectively are more important than the individual parts. in terms of the 12% that had no institution in 2010 or 2011, these were the students who only enrolled in college by 2014. tdsb cohort members later present in ocas data. for the next part of the analysis, we focused only on the ontario colleges data, as we did not have access to detailed university enrolment data. our analyses focused on 3,130 students from the tdsb cohort who were later found in the ocas data set, indicating that they had enrolled in college. figure 5 links the original pse confirmation data that were obtained for the students prior to their appearance in the ocas data. figure 5. cohort members in ocas data in 2014 applied postsecondary in ontario but didn't get in 8% confirmed university in ontario 19% confirmed college in ontario 73% 20 when the ocas college enrolment data up to 2014 were examined in relation to the cohort data, we found 3,130 tdsb cohort members. our original confirmation information on these students, however, indicated that less than three quarters of these students had been recorded as confirming college by 2011. we also observed that around 20% (n=586) had been recorded as originally confirming university, while just under 10% (n=263) had been recorded as applying to postsecondary but not getting in. these discrepancies can be interpreted in at least three ways: 1) as university students transferring to college, 2) as late offers being given to students who had originally not been offered a place, and 3) as the imperfect relationship between confirmation and enrolment data. the different pathways and eventual destinations of these students is illustrated in diagram 1. diagram 1. all pathways of students between 2011 and 2015. 21 figure 6. original university confirmations of students who transferred to college carleton 2% queens ontario college of 2% art and design brock 2% western 3% ottawa 2% trent 2% windsor 1% others 1% york 24% 3% waterloo 4% wilfrid laurier 4% oit 4% mcmaster 5% toronto 18% guelph 6% ryerson 18% where did university-to-college transfer students start their pse? examining the 586 cohort members who had originally confirmed university (figure 6), we can see that the data indicate the largest proportion of students who were later in the college system had originally confirmed one of three toronto universities: 24% had originally confirmed york university, 18% university of toronto, and 18% ryerson. the next largest transfers were from guelph (6%) and mcmaster (5%), while waterloo, uoit, and wilfred laurier each had 4% of the tdsb cohort university confirmations later found in ontario colleges. in the case of the large proportion of transfers from york university, one possible explanation may be that at least some of the students transferred to seneca college, which has a physical campus within the york university keele campus. 22 figure 7. university programs of study prior to college transfer (n=586) physical and health household science education and 1% recreation environmental studies 2% other 3% nursing 3% 3% mathematics 1% fine and applied arts 5% engineering and applied science 7% arts: humanities and social science 46% commerce, management and business administration 12% science 17% in terms of the university programs of study that the college transfer students arrived from (figure 7), nearly half began in a general arts program at a university, while around 16 percent were in general science programs. the next largest categories were business (12%) and engineering (7%). 23 figure 8. association between reverse transfer and parental occupation 40.00% 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% stayed in university 0.00% reverse transfer correlates of reverse transfer. we will now briefly examine whether self-identified sex, race, and socioeconomic status are associated with reverse transfer. in examining the association between sex and reverse transfer, no association was found (2=0.526, df=1, p<0.491). however, as illustrated in figure 8, some association was found between social class and reverse transfer (2=18.186, df=4, p<0.001), with more reverse transfer occurring in lower ses groups, consistent with the literature reviewed at the beginning of this report. 24 figure 9. association between race and reverse transfer 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% reverse transfer 30.00% stayed in university 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% exploratory analysis of self-identified race and reverse transfer also revealed a statistically significant association (2=40.327, df=0, p<0.000), indicating that black, south asian and southeast asian students may be more likely to reverse transfer. movement of the cohort within the college system. we now turn to the movements of the cohort within colleges. we examined this by comparing the first college attended by the student to the last college attended by the student over our time frame of college progress (fall 2010 to fall 2015). 25 figure 10. movement within college (n=3,130) different college same program 5% different college different program 6% same college different program 8% same college same program 81% as displayed in figure 10, the vast majority of cohort members who entered college stayed in the same college and same program. however, 8% were in a different college and different program, 5% were in the same college but different program, while 6% were in both different colleges and different programs. diagram 2 depicts the movements that the original 3,130 college students made between students first and last year in college within our time frame of fall 2010 to fall 2015. students started, and left, at different times of the academic year over the five years of our analysis. 26 diagram 2: movement of college enrollees 27 duration of enrolment. we now turn to the duration of college enrolment. the ocas data allowed us to observe the number of academic years that a student has been present over the time of our study (fall 2010 to fall 2015). as noted earlier, students entered and exited college at different times, and the duration of their enrolment was calculated by comparing their last date of enrolment to their first enrolment date. figure 11 indicates that around a third of students (31.2%) were enrolled for one year or less, while 28.1% were enrolled for up to two years. given that many college certificates are one year in duration and that many college programs are two years, the enrolment duration of nearly 60% of the college-going cohort appears to be an appropriate length of time. just over a fifth of students (21.2%) were enrolled up to three years, and just over 10% for up to four years (11.9%). a small percentage (6.2%) were present five years after initial enrolment, and a handful (1.4%) were recorded as being enrolled in a sixth year. these figures do not necessarily mean that the students were continually enrolled, since it was possible that they may have entered college, exited college, and then reentered over the five years of our analysis. figure 11. duration of college enrolment, n=3,130 started 6th year 2% up to 5 years 6% up to 4 years 12% 1 year or less 31% up to 3 years 21% up to 2 years 28% 28 associations with college movement. we now turn to the relationship between college movement and other correlated factors. we begin by examining how college movement is associated with duration of enrolment. after performing a cross-tabulation of these two characteristics, we found the association to be statistically significant (2=639.30, df=15, p<0.000). figure 12 illustrates this association with a stacked bar chart. the general pattern in this association is that the longer the college duration, the more likely it was that the student changed program of study, institution, or both. in the third bar (up to three years), students would have been college enrolled for a period longer than the typical certificate or diploma, which is where the increase in the checkered bar (representing changing colleges) is observed. the longer the duration, the less likely the student was to have stayed in the original college and program. figure 12. relationship between duration and college movement, n=3,130 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% different college & program 40% different college, same program 30% 20% same college & different program 10% same college & program 0% 1 year up to 2 up to 3 up to 4 up to 5 started or less years years years years 6th year duration of enrollment years 29 figure 13. association between sex and college movement, n=3,130 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% male female 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% same college & program same college & different college, different college & different program same program program in figure 13, we illustrate the association between sex and college movement (2=5.822, df=3, p=0.121), which did not achieve statistical significance. however, we observed a small female preference (56.5% versus 43.5%, n=194) for moving colleges but staying in the same general program type. 30 figure 14. association between grade 9/10 program of study and college movement 100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% different college & program 50.00% 40.00% different college, same program 30.00% same college & different program 20.00% 10.00% same college & program 0.00% we will now examine grade 9/10 program of study (i.e. academic, applied, essentials) and its relationship with college movement. measures of association revealed no statistically significant associations (2=11.954, df=9, p=0.216. thus, program of study in grade 9/10 was not found to be associated more or less with any kind of college or program change that we could measure in our data (figure 14). 31 our previous research has indicated that students with special education needs were more likely to choose a college pathway over a university pathway (robson, anisef, brown, & parekh, 2014). we therefore examined the associations between special education needs and program duration (2=5.302, df=5, p=0.380) as well as between special education needs and college movement (2=0.929, df=3, p=0.819), and found that special education needs was not associated with either of these variables. summary in this section, we sought to disentangle the pathways that students take in pse. our findings are summarized below. the majority of cohort members who confirmed pse chose a toronto-based pse institution 47% of the cohort confirmed one of the four universities in toronto and 19% confirmed a college in toronto, comprising 66% of the pse-going cohort members. the largest areas of study were university humanities and social sciences (27%), university sciences (16%), university business and commerce (11%), and college applied arts (11%). the vast majority (85%) of students who confirmed a pse place in 2011 were at the same institution in 2014. only 3% had changed institution. additionally, 12% of students who had not confirmed pse in 2011 had confirmed an institution by 2014. in terms of students who appeared to have reverse transferred from university to college, exploratory analysis suggests that they were more likely to be from lower ses groups and be racialized (particularly black, south asian, or southeast asian. focusing only on tdsb cohort members in the 2014 ocas (college) data set (n=3,130): 73% had confirmed college at an earlier date; 19% had confirmed university at an earlier date; 8% had previously applied to pse in ontario but did not get in; and just under half (45%) of the 327 who were recorded as confirming university but later appeared in college had originally confirmed one of the four universities in toronto. nearly half of the 327 students (46%) had originally confirmed a university arts program. in terms of movement of cohort members while enrolled at college, 81% stayed in the same college and same program, 8% changed programs within the same college, 5% went to similar programs at different colleges, and 6% went to different programs at different colleges. in terms of correlates of college movement, we examined duration of study, sex, grade 9 program of study, and special education needs, and we found that only duration of study 32 was significantly associated with college movement. unsurprisingly, students who were enrolled longer were more likely to change program or institution (or both). we also found a small preference among female students for moving colleges to take a similar program. objective 3. how do pathways vary by individual characteristics? the last part of our analyses examine how pse pathways differ by individual characteristics. using an intersectionality framework (collins, 2015), we focus on race, sex, and family socioeconomic status (ses) as individual characteristics that can shape alone and in their combinations the educational outcomes of youth. other research conducted by members of our research team (robson, anisef, brown & parehk, 2014; robson, anisef, brown & george, forthcoming) has demonstrated the general differences in individual characteristics as they pertain to college or university confirmations. we aimed to extend this research by looking more closely at program choice within university and college. data the data we used include the postsecondary program of study (key subject area) taken by students in the 2006-2014 tdsb cohort study, as illustrated earlier in figure 3. in the analyses presented below, we focus on program of study as the outcome variable of interest. as the number of programs of study were in excess of 20, grouping them into more manageable subsets was deemed necessary. here, we extend our extant knowledge about the general conceptual relationship between intersectionality and pse by considering the determinants of stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) pathways. previous research has indicated that a number of factors affect students decisions and ability to pursue stem pathways from secondary to postsecondary education. gender has been an important focus, as many stem career fields tend to be dominated by men. efforts to encourage young women to take math and sciences in secondary school have met with some success, but research shows that even when female students take advanced math courses in high school, they are still less likely to pursue stem programs into pse and beyond (tyson et al., 2007; you, 2013). parental education (maple & stage, 1991), secondary school culture, i.e. whether the school is stem-focused (wisall, 2014), and student perception of ability (wang, 2012) have also been shown to influence stem pathways. a recent study of toronto secondary students found that non-academic factors such as gender, place of birth, average income, and neighbourhood characteristics and academic factors such as level of stem courses taken in secondary school and gpa all played a role in students decisions to apply to and register for university stem programs (dooley, payne, steffler, & wagner, 2016). being female and canadian-born had a significant negative effect, though the magnitude of the effect was marginal. being from a low-income neighbourhood also had a negative effect, but this was not statistically 33 significant. the authors found that the most significant predictor of pursuing stem university courses was having taken advanced stem courses in secondary school beyond the point at which the subjects became optional, and the effect increased as gpa went up. research on stem pathways tends to be u.s.-based and tends to focus on university programs, but there is evidence to suggest that colleges are providing an increasingly important avenue for pursuing stem postsecondary education and careers (horn, neville, & griffith, 2006). as mentioned in the literature review section, colleges represent a potential alternative for those groups underrepresented in pse, such as students from low-income backgrounds, aboriginal students or students with disabilities. little is known, however, about the non-linear pathways of students pursing stem programs, particularly in canada. figure 15. pathways of tdsb cohort university stem 16% college stem 4% did not go 39% other university 31% other college 10% the dependent variable of interest had five possible values: 1) university stem, 2) college stem, 3) university other, 4) college other, and 5) no pse. we also examined a number of other variables in the analyses, including race, sex, social class, and a number of control variables. 34 in our analyses, we examined both university and college stem pathways. university stem pathways were operationalized by combining the science, engineering and applied science, mathematics, and nursing pathways of study into a dichotomous variable. as illustrated in figure 13, the proportion of the cohort enrolled in a university stem program was 16%. college stem pathways were operationalized by combining health and technology programs of study. the proportion of the cohort enrolled in a college stem program was 4%. we also created categories for non-stem university and college programs, as well as for students who did not enrol in pse. students in nonstem university programs accounted for 31% of the sample, while students in nonstem college programs comprised 10% of the sample. just under 40% of the sample did not confirm pse (figure 15). self-identified race (as reported by the student in the tdsb student census in fall 2006) was measured with a seven-category nominal variable with the following categories: black (which includes black african, black caribbean, and black canadian), middle eastern, east asian, south asian, southeast asian, mixed, and white. although aboriginal students are a part of the tdsb census, their sample sizes are not large enough to include in analysis. sex was dichotomously coded so that female was equal to 1 and male was equal to 0. social class was operationalized by a variable that measured the occupational status of the parent. originally, student respondents were asked the occupation of their parents, which was then recoded to a five-category variable with the following values: 1, non remunerative; 2, unskilled clerical and trades; 3, skilled and semi-skilled clerical or trade; 4, semi-professional and middle management; and 5, professional and senior management. we controlled for other correlates of pse pathways, which have been established by others (de broucker, 2005; cheung, 2007) as being key determinants in the pse pathways of canadian youth. we included these so as not to overstate the relationship between our intersectionality variables of interest and the dependent variable. these controls include: special education needs. a student was coded 1 if he or she had a special education need. parental postsecondary education: a student was coded 1 if his or her parent had college or university education. academic program of study: this variable measured whether the student was in a majority academic program of study (i.e. stream) in grade 9. the variable was coded 1 if the student was taking majority academic courses and 0 if otherwise (i.e., in mostly applied or essentials courses). enjoyment of school. this variable measured the extent to which the student 35 reported enjoying school in the student census, which was measured on a likert scale where 1 was equal to rarely or never and 5 was equal to all of the time. average mark in all courses. this variable was measured by the administrative records that contained the average school marks of secondary courses taken up to august 31 2011, when students should have completed their fifth year of secondary study. many would have left the tdsb prior this time, since the majority of graduates left by the end of june 2010. bivariate associations we now turn to bivariate associations between university and college stem pathways and other individual characteristics. we begin our bivariate analyses by examining the relationship between our intersectionality indicators (race, sex, and social class) and program of study. figure 16 illustrates the relationship between self-identified race and program of study (2=1700, df=28, p=0.000). figure 16. program of study by self-identified race 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% did not go 50% other college other university 40% college stem 30% university stem 20% 10% 0% black east middle mixed asian eastern south asian se asian white 36 self-identified race and program of study. the bars in figure 16 illustrate the different proportions of self-identified race in the various programs of study. if there were no racial differences, all the subsections of the bars would be equal across all racial groups. we can see, however, that the areas associated with university stem are very different across the groups, with over 35% of east asian students in such programs and less than 10% of blacks. conversely, nearly 15% of black students and just under 13% of east asian students were in college stem programs. when the bottom two bars of figure 16 are considered together, around half of all students in asian racial groups are in either university or college stem programs. whites, blacks, and mixed students enter stem (either university or college) at around 30%. sex and program of study. figure 17 illustrates the association between sex and the five pathways we are considering (2=527.10, df=4, p=0.000). clearly, there are male preferences to stem program pathways, a finding that has been demonstrated repeatedly in previous research. interestingly, the gap is bigger at the college level (25% women, 75% men) than at the university level (42% women, 58% men). 37 figure 17. sex by program of study 100 90 80 70 60 50 male 40 female 30 20 10 0 university college stem other stem university other college did not go social class and program of study. figure 18 illustrates the association between social class (as operationalized by parental occupation) and the programs of study examined here (2=336.89, df=16, p=0.000). clearly, the highest parental occupation category was associated with both university stem and non-stem pathways. the two highest occupational categories accounted for almost 70% of students in university stem and non-stem programs. college stem and non-stem students had more class origins from the category skilled and semi-skilled clerical or trades. 38 figure 18. association between social class and program of study 100% 90% 80% 70% nonremunerative 60% 50% unskilled clerical and trades 40% 30% skilled and semi-skilled clerical or trades 20% semi-professional and middle management 10% professional and senior management 0% other bivariate associations. we also examined the associations between program of study and 1) parental pse, 2) special education needs, and 3) grade 9/10 program of study. figure 19 illustrates how parental pse is associated with program of study (2=296.48, df=4, p=0.000), showing that students in university stem and university non-stem were more likely to have parents who had pse than students in either college pathway. 39 figure 19. parental pse by student's program of study 100 90 80 70 60 50 parental pse 40 no parental pse 30 20 10 0 university stem college stem other university other college did not go figure 20 displays the association between the programs of study examined here and special education needs (2=1100, df=4, p=0.000), clearly illustrating that students with special education needs are more likely to be in a college pathway than a university pathway. 40 figure 20. special education needs by program of study 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% sen 40% without sen 30% 20% 10% 0% university stem college stem other university other college did not go finally, figure 21 (2=310, df=4, p=0.000) reveals the association between grade 9/10 program of study and the pse program pathways we considered. nearly 97% of university stem students and 93% of university non-stem students had academic programs of study in grades 9/10, while around 55% of students in both college pathways were in majority academic courses. far more students in the college pathways had taken applied courses of study in high school 37% in the case of college stem and 40% in other college pathways. 41 figure 21. grade 9/10 academic program and pse program of study 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% essentials 50% applied 40% academic 30% 20% 10% 0% university stem college stem other other college did not go university multivariate models in our predictive models, we used multinomial logistic regression, as the nature of our dependent variable was nominal and contained more than two categories. we did not use multilevel modelling because when we fitted a random intercepts model (allowing for clustering by schools), the icc was only 3%, indicating that differences between schools were not accounting for much variance in the model. we opted for a simpler model, eliminating random intercepts. in keeping with our intersectionality framework, the concepts of race, sex and class were of key importance. intersectionality was operationalized by using the statistical interactions between sex and race and between race and parental occupational status. an intersectionality approach recognizes the interplay of multiple sites of disadvantage/advantage that may more fully explain the outcomes of young people. interaction terms allow us to explore this potential interplay of multiple sites of disadvantage. interaction terms are often alternatively called multiplicative terms or moderators. interactions were used to explore one aspect of intersectionality theory. while intersectionality theory argues that these two characteristics affect the life chances of individuals, the theory also suggests that their unique combinations will have differential 42 effects, depending upon subgroup membership. such a statistical application allows us to operationalize different intersectional ties of students so as to examine how different combinations of fixed characteristics can affect their educational outcomes (mccall, 2005). as our research question involved the exploration of the potential of differential effects of known factors that predict student pathways, interaction effects were seen as a statistically sound way of examining such hypotheses. we were able to examine, for example, whether the effect of social class (operationalized here as parental occupation) differentially impacts the program of study by race. we were also able to examine whether the effect of sex on program of study is different by race. we chose to present the multivariate analyses in a single model with did not attend pse as the reference category for the dependent variable. all variables and interactions were added in the model. the output for a multinomial logistic regression with a five-category dependent variable and several independent variables is very lengthy, and instead of presenting the full regression output in this discussion, we refer interested readers to appendix 1, where the full model is presented in its entirety. in table 2, the results of the effects of race and its composite interaction terms on predicting stem and non-stem programs are summarized. only self-identified race categories with statistically significant findings are presented. a + denotes a statistically significant positive effect, while - indicates a significant negative effect. in the case of self-identified blacks, the main effect of being black on university stem was positive, while the interaction between black x parental occupation was negative. the interaction between black x sex was only statistically significant in predicting college stem. in the case of east asians, the main effect of race was positive in all pathways (indicating that east asians were more likely than whites to attend all of these programs compared to no pse). however, for the interaction with parental occupation, the association was significant and negative for both university pathways and for college stem. for south asians, there was a positive main effect of race (relative to whites) for all pathways except college stem, while the interaction with parental occupation was negative for the non-stem pathways. finally, in the case of southeast asians, the interaction between race and sex was significant and positive for the non-stem college pathway. 43 south asian x parental occupation southeast asian x sex colother east asian x parental occupation uniother black x sex x parental occupation colstem determinant* unistem table 2. summary of statistically significant effects for race, race x sex and race x parental occupation in predicting postsecondary pathway + + - + + + + + + - + + reference category of dependent variable: did not attend pse, * reference is white male. it must be emphasized that when interaction terms are included in estimations, the meaning of the main effects of the composite variables changes. the overall effect of race and sex needs to be calculated with the main effects of the composite variables as well as the interaction term, something that is difficult to eyeball. thus, we provide the predicted probabilities in the form of data visualizations in figures 22 and 23, focusing on stem pathways. 44 in figure 22, it is clear that blacks, east asians and southeast asians have higher predicted probabilities of attending university stem than their white counterparts (as corroborated in table 2). the sex interaction that was significant here was for black females in college stem. the finding may be statistically significant (p<0.05), but it is not a particularly striking substantive finding, as the visualization does not illustrate any obvious deviation from the larger sex and race trends. the gap between black males and females in college stem is, however, noticeably narrower than it is for whites. w hi te sia n he as ta so ut so ut h as ia n m ix ed rn m id dl e ea st e ia n as ea st bl ac k 0 .1 .2 .3 figure 22. predictive margins of interactions of race and sex on stem enrolment racial groups male in university stem female in university stem male in college stem female in college stem 45 .25 .2 .15 .1 .05 .05 .1 .15 .2 probability of enrollment college stem .25 .3 .3 figure 23. predictive margins of interactions of race and class on university stem and college enrolment 1 2 3 4 parental occupational status 5 black black middle eastern white south asian 1 2 3 4 parental occupational status 5 east asian east asian mixed southeast asian figure 23 illustrates the statistical significant interactions between race and social class in predicting university and college stem pathways. not all racial groups are plotted, as some were not significantly different than whites (the reference category). note that in table 2, the interaction for race and parental occupation was significant in the case of university stem for blacks and east asians. as illustrated in the left panel of figure 23, the line associated with black students is strongly negative, indicating that university stem and parental occupation are negatively associated in other words, the higher the occupational prestige of the parent, the less likely the student is to go on to university stem. in the case of east asians, the relationship was somewhat curved, slightly increasing up to the middle occupational group but gradually decreasing after that point. however, east asians, regardless of parental occupation, had the highest predicted probabilities of university stem of all groups, while the opposite was true for blacks in all categories apart from the lowest parental occupation grouping. according to table 2, the single race interaction that was statistically significant in predicting college stem (i.e. the right panel) was for east asians. as illustrated in the figure, east asians had the lowest predicted probabilities of attending college stem, and this was strongly and negatively associated with parental occupation status. it should be noted, however, that findings associated with blacks and east asians must be interpreted with caution, as their estimations are associated with fairly high standard errors (see appendix 1). 46 summary in this section, we examined how individual characteristics affected pse program choice. we conceptualized program choice in terms of stem focus: university stem, college stem, university non-stem, college non-stem, and no pse. in particular, we focused on race, sex, and social class alone and in combination. we also controlled for several established correlates of pse pathways in canada. in the tdsb cohort data, 16% of cohort members confirmed university stem, 4% confirmed college stem, 31% other university, 10% other college, and 39% did not go on to pse. our bivariate analyses indicated that: self-identified race was associated with the five program pathways, with east asians representing 40% of enrollments and blacks comprising only 7%. consistent with other research, there was a strong male preference for stem, and the gap was bigger at the college level (25% women, 75% men) than the university level (42% women, 58% men). social class (operationalized by parental occupation) was strongly associated with program of study, with high status parental occupations being associated with university stem and non-stem pathways. similarly, parental postsecondary education was also associated with a preference for university pathways. students with special education needs were more likely to be in college nonstem programs. academic program of study in grade 9/10 was more strongly related to university stem and non-stem than applied programs of study, which were more likely to be associated with the college pathways. analyses of race, sex, and class in our multivariate analyses revealed that black, east asian, and south asian students were more likely to attend university stem programs than whites. an overall negative effect of female on stem (college and university) was also observed. in terms of stem pathways, parental occupation did not have a significant main effect; in fact, it only achieved statistical significance in the interaction terms. when graphed, it was found that: parental occupational status had a strong negative association with university stem for black students and a weak negative association with university stem for east asian students. parental occupational status had a strong negative association with college stem for east asian students. the standard errors associated with the estimates for black and east asian students were sizeable, indicating that caution must be taken when interpreting these findings. 47 discussion the objectives of our analyses were to examine 1) direct and indirect transitions to pse, 2) pathways within postsecondary, and 3) determinants of transition to program type (which we conceptualized as stem and non-stem). we found that 47% of our cohort transitioned directly from high school to university and around 13% transitioned directly from high school to college. we used 5- and 8-year high school graduation data because it is difficult to know when a student has completed high school. the differences between the two strategies accounted for only 3% difference overall, suggesting that the vast majority those who will transition to pse will do so within five years of starting high school. we found that a majority of the students in our cohort (65%) chose a toronto-based pse institution, with study areas clustered mainly in the general arts and sciences, and less so in university business and college applied arts. when examining transitions between 2011 and 2014, we found that 85% of students were at the same institution, but of the 15% that were not, 3% had changed institution and 12% were in a pse institution in 2014 but had no affiliation in 2011. our data did not allow us to specifically understand what happened to these students, but they may represent to some extent transfers from institution to institution, as well as errors in the application centre confirmation data. focusing only on cohort members who went to an ontario college (n=3,130), we were able to examine transfers in a bit more detail. we found that 19% of the cohort appeared to have reverse transferred from university to college, having appeared in university confirmation data prior to college enrolment data. the majority of these students came from york university, university of toronto and ryerson, with nearly half having been enrolled in a general arts degree program. reverse transfer students were found to be disproportionately from lower ses backgrounds and self-identified as black, south asian, or southeast asian. we did not find sex differences, and because our cohort is more or less the same age, we did not find that students who reverse-transferred were older, as previous studies have found. in terms of movement within the college system, we found that around 20% of the cohort in the college system did report shifts 8% changed program within the same college, while 11% changed colleges altogether. in terms of the factors associated with college movement, duration of enrolment was found to be negatively associated; the longer the enrolment duration (particularly after two years), the greater the likelihood that a student had moved programs or colleges. high school program of study, sex, and special education needs were not associated with college movement. when focusing on the determinants of pse pathways, we extended our previous analyses by looking in more detail at area of study. focusing on stem and non-stem pathways, both at the college and university levels, we examined how individual characteristics affected these outcomes. the bivariate associations indicated differences by race, social class, parental pse and special education needs. in particular, blacks were 48 underrepresented in stem, while east asians, south asians and southeast asianshad high representation, particularly in college pathways. college stem programs were more heavily male than university stem programs, while parental pse and high social class were strongly associated with the stem and non-stem university pathways. students who were in applied programs of study in grade 9/10 or those with special education needs were more likely to be found in college pathways. our multivariate analysis examining the ideas around intersectionality revealed significant main effects of race for blacks, east asians and south asians, as well as interactions around race and sex and race and parental occupation.1 in terms of pathways, controlling for the other variables in the model, the predicted probabilities showed distinct differences in the likelihood of program enrolment by race and class. in particular, white students were less likely than other groups to be in university stem. the most curious results were arguably the plotted predictive margins illustrating the association between race and class on stem enrolment (figure 23). these displayed a negative trajectory for black students at the university level and a negative trajectory for east asian student at the college level. in the latter case, the lower prestige of college stem programs would account for the negative association with parental social class and likelihood of enrolment for east asians. for black students, however, the strong negative association between parental occupation status and university stem is confusing. a weak negative association for east asians can also be observed, but the path is definitely much flatter. we have chosen to be cautious about overemphasizing this finding because of the high standard errors associated with the main effects for blacks (appendix 1). black students accounted for over 12% of the sample, and the parental occupational statuses are well-distributed, so it is unclear what is driving this finding. perhaps part of this finding may be explained by recent us research by beasley (2012), who found that there was reluctance among talented and highly qualified black students at elite american universities to pursue careers in stem. beasley argued that the range of majors among black students at elite us colleges was less diverse than among white students, and that black students social networks within pse institutions were segregated. beasley (2012) also argued that black students were wary about racism that they would encounter in white-dominated professions (i.e., stem) and were more likely to fear making mistakes in stem-related courses. the subjects in beasleys study indicated that they aspired to careers that would help them give back to the black communities that had been so supportive of their successes. similarly, the u.s. department of education (2015) has reported that historically black universities and colleges, while comprising only three percent of pse institutions, actually account for 27% of african americans who obtain stem undergraduate degrees. this also signals that it is the wider educational environment not disinterest in stem careers that is steering american blacks away from such fields. the same may be true of the canadian context. 1 other racial subgroups are not discussed as their findings were not statistically significant. 49 limitations and recommendations our study has revealed that the pathways of high school students can be varied and complex and influenced by various individual characteristics. in particular, it was found that individual characteristics can affect reverse transfer, college mobility, and program choice. we were, however, limited insofar as the types of generalizations that could be made. our data reflected a specific toronto cohort and are therefore not likely to be representative of ontario students as a population. we also had very limited information on university pathways beyond confirmation, as we were not privy to the cohorts enrolment experiences within universities in the same way were are able to access college data. such restrictions on data access and usage necessarily limit the types of processes and relationships that can be explored, hindering our ability to understand the wider scope of student mobility. while the case of reverse transfer is interesting, the larger trend of transferring from college to university could be explored here. we have, however, uncovered some important correlates associated with transfer and program choice. social class and race were found to have important associations with these concepts, particularly with regard to reverse transfer and stem program choice. in the case of the former, reverse transfer among certain racialized and lower ses groups may signal unpreparedness (or lack of social and cultural capital) for university environments. programs targeting first generation students at the university level may assist in retaining such students, but it is probably the case that more social and cultural capital development at the high school level would make such transitions less awkward for traditionally underrepresented students. programs like the life after high school project (ford et al., 2016) have demonstrated mixed outcomes, with no long-term benefits for interventions that nudge secondary students to apply to postsecondary, but the program was universal in its target and did not specifically target students who were less likely to apply. college coach programs in chicago that target racialized and underrepresented youth, however, have demonstrated success in increasing applications among blacks and latinos (stephan, 2013). the negative association between parental occupation and stem university program among blacks definitely warrants further investigation. if it indeed the case, as suggested by beasley (2012), that high status blacks are rejecting stem due to segregated social networks, much more must be done at the 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(2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges: final report. retrieved from ontario council on articulation and transfer website: http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2012-3collegesontario-student-experiences-credit-transfer-ontario-colleges-en.pdf vaala, l. (1991). attending two-year college after attending a four-year university in alberta, canada. community college review, 18(4), 13-20. wang, x. (2012). modeling student choice of stem fields of postsecondary study: testing a conceptual framework of motivation, high school learning and postsecondary context of support. working paper, school of education, university of wisconsinmadison. wilson, d. n. (2009). reverse transfer constraints upon planning post secondary programs. in r. l. raby & e. j. valeau (eds.), community college models: globalization and higher education reform (pp. 401-416). new york: springer. wisall, m., stiefel, l., schwartz, a., & boccardo, j. (2014). does attending a stem high school improve student performance? evidence from new york city. economic of education review 40(13), 93-105. you, s. (2013). gender and ethnic differences in precollege mathematics coursework related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) pathways. school effectiveness and school improvement, 24(1), 64-86. 57 appendix 1. multinomial logistic regression model of postsecondary program path on race, sex, class, interactions and controls (reference= no postsecondary) n=11,040 self-identified race (white=reference) university stem rrr se college stem rrr black 11.166 *** 6.250 0.760 east asian 11.472 *** 4.844 7.389 ** se other university rrr se 0.458 1.200 4.746 6.868 *** other college rrr 0.468 1.014 2.221 2.607 se 0.372 * 1.152 middle eastern 2.022 1.286 0.927 0.671 1.204 0.544 1.746 0.836 mixed 2.653 1.871 1.054 0.890 0.788 0.394 0.584 0.321 south asian 7.732 2.976 1.384 0.667 3.508 0.993 2.680 southeast asian 1.633 1.310 2.308 2.023 1.276 0.793 1.963 female (1=yes) 0.400 0.049 0.286 *** 0.056 1.118 0.092 1.578 * 0.828 1.259 0.261 1.342 0.273 *** *** *** ** 0.889 1.292 *** 0.176 race x sex interactions black x female 1.337 0.422 2.260 east asian x female 0.786 0.154 0.732 0.374 0.826 0.133 0.637 0.156 middle eastern x female 1.005 0.360 0.978 0.598 0.992 0.274 0.569 0.193 mixed x female 0.555 0.186 1.760 0.853 1.076 0.262 1.525 0.467 south asian x female 1.377 0.259 1.713 0.533 0.990 0.148 1.040 0.203 southeast asian x female 1.595 0.636 2.646 1.366 1.359 0.447 0.454 parental occupation 1.068 0.072 0.976 0.081 1.091 0.048 0.939 0.051 0.165 0.930 0.092 1.037 0.101 0.097 0.706 0.055 0.866 0.097 * * 0.169 race x parental occupation black x po 0.600 ** 0.089 1.003 east asian x po 0.746 ** 0.074 0.521 middle eastern x po 1.153 0.177 1.038 0.206 1.020 0.113 0.925 0.122 mixed x po 0.976 0.163 0.933 0.205 1.075 0.126 1.103 0.147 south asian x po 0.851 0.079 0.986 0.127 0.814 0.058 0.819 southeast asian x po 1.104 0.233 0.895 0.225 0.947 0.157 1.131 parental pse 1.319 ** 0.111 0.953 0.108 0.967 0.059 0.846 * 0.061 has special education need 0.640 ** 0.107 0.994 0.144 0.748 0.076 1.346 ** 0.122 *** *** ** ** * 0.074 0.208 58 academic program of study grade 9/10 5.358 *** 0.876 0.790 average marks 1.191 *** 0.006 1.025 whether enjoys school 1.122 ** 0.047 1.028 0.000 *** 0.000 0.034 constant log likelihood -12183 pseudo r squared 0.2027 *** *** 0.099 4.355 *** 0.415 0.877 0.005 1.100 *** 0.003 1.010 0.060 1.011 0.031 0.991 0.015 0.000 0.000 0.143 *** 0.072 ** 0.003 0.037 *** 0.040 ***p<0.001, **p<0.01, *p<0.05 59

appendix a annotated bibliography of college to university transition literature alpern, b. e. (2000). factors that influence community college transfer students' satisfaction with their baccalaureate institutions. [report no. ed 449854] us department of education. alpern conducted a qualitative study using mail out surveys to identify the factors that influence a students transition from college to university as well a that influences their choice of school. the sample of students was selected from three institutions that would provide a convenience sample well also giving the researcher a wide selection of degree choices, socio-economic status, and such. the students had to have transferred a minimum of 30 credit hours and completed a total of 100 credit hours between their two institutions. the showed the researcher that they were committed to the transfer and could report on experiences from both schools. the survey consisted of 102 questions relating to the experiences the students may have had and the factors that influenced their decision of school. 1,881 surveys were distributed and a total of 541 were returned. the data was analyzed as a whole for general results and separately to provide the individual institutions with results specific to their students. the results showed that the students want information that is precise and applicable to their institution. more students are choosing to attend college prior to university to complete their degree so schools need to provide information that will allow the student to make a plan from the beginning of their college career. the students in this study had selected their program of choice when enrolling at the college and did not change their end goal. the more information an individual has access to and the smother the transition went the more satisfied they were with the school. the students that received little information and found they had to complete extra courses at the university were unsatisfied with their institutions supports. this specific study found that the students did not experience transfer shock. they were aware of the difference in work and found their gpa changed very little when entering university. arnold, c. h. (2011). following the ontario transfer student: from college to university inception. professional file. number 31. canadian society for the study of higher education. this paper explores the transfer process perspectives of students considering transfer within ontario. through a qualitative analysis the researcher interviewed 50 students from the colleges of applied arts and technology (caats), and institute of technology and advanced learning (ital). half of the sample were selected from each school to ensure there were students from each institution. the remaining half was selected randomly based on their student numbers. the researcher spilt the results of the study into three categories; sources and resources for transfer, factors influencing students transfer decisions, and quality of the transfer information received. at the completion of the study it was seen that students must be able to access enough effective resources to allow them to make decisions on the transfer process for themselves. the information must be accessible and easy to understand. the resources available then influence how the students see the transfer process and prepare themselves for the transition. berger, j. b., & malaney, g. d. (2003). assessing the transition of transfer students from community colleges to a university. journal of student affairs research and practice, 40(4), 533-555. a qualitative examination of student transferring to a four year program at the university of massachusetts found that several factors influence student satisfaction and success. while this study reports on several variables that account for some variance in academic satisfaction (ie. knowing graduation requirements prior to transferring, seeking faculty advice about transferring, and higher levels of social engagement with university peers) the biggest predictor of student transfer satisfaction and academic success was how well transfer students prepared for the transfer. this study also reported that overall, academic support had the lowest satisfaction amongst transfer students; suggesting that transfer students may find it more difficult to obtain academic advising and faculty support. these findings suggest implementing resources that assist in increasing transfer students academic preparedness. briggs, a., clark, j., & hall, i. (2012). building bridges: understanding student transition to university. quality in higher education, 18(1), 3-21. in their comprehensive qualitative study the authors summarize the results of two research projects studying the process of transitioning from grade school into higher education settings from both a pre and post enrollment perspective. the authors track and develop a model of learner identity formation that explains this process. findings suggest that learner identity formation begins before enrolling in university and that pre-university students should be actively encouraged to learn about university, visit the campus and have access to knowledgeable supports that can coach them on degree paths and push students to attend university introduction activities. due to the exploratory nature of the study the authors do not include statistical information on student success and retention as a result of higher education practices that support learner identity formation. the research suggests that assisting in creating a social and academic identity associated with a university increases the likelihood that students will negotiate the challenges involved in transitioning to university and integrate with the university environment. cabrera, n., miner, d., & milem, j. (2013). can a summer bridge program impact first-year persistence and performance?: a case study of the new start summer program. research in higher education, 54, 481-498. an examination of a long-standing summer transition program for minority students entering into a 4 year university context identifies several factors that may contribute to student success and retention. a significant portion of the study examines how to effectively review summer transition programming and provides statistical advice on future studies while discussing limiting factors in past and present research. the authors, with many cautions, suggest that summer transition programming is most likely to have an indirect effect on student self-concept and self efficacy by experientially connecting them with academic and social support services. academic resiliency as the theoretical basis of the study is worthy of consideration in developing summer transition programming that addresses the complexity of identifying factors that influence transfer student success. carter, i., coyle, j. & leslie, d. (2011). easing the transfer of students from college to university programs: how can learning outcomes help? canadian journal of higher education, 41(2), 10-27. a review of the barriers to college to university transfer in the canadian, american and european post-secondary education systems with recommendations to implement learning outcomes for all post-secondary programs to facilitate negotiation of transfer credits. the authors discuss a range of systems that vary from mandatory government regulated transfer credit amounts for any diploma to degree program (missouri) to systems that simply assess each student as they apply in the absence of a formal articulation agreement (ontario). in loosely regulated systems some research reviewed by the authors has found that bias towards certain college programs and even the college system in general can unjustly penalize college to university transfer students by not recognizing or fairly considering their prior learning. the authors recommend that different styles of university programs in different geographical and social contexts can balance the uniqueness of programs with government mandated transfer efficiency by documenting clear learning outcomes for programs and courses guided by an instrument like blooms taxonomy. this allows those responsible for assessing potential transfer credits to compare learning outcomes and ensure that overlaps in course content are recognized. chrystal, l., gansemer-topf, a., & laaanan, f. (2013). assessing students transition from community college to a four-year institution. journal of assessment and institutional effectiveness, 3(1), 1-18. using a phenomenological approach to studying the lived experience of transfer, the authors interviewed 29 college transfer students in their first semester to elicit data on their transition process. three categories emerged: transfer mechanics, academic and social adjustment. the students interviewed primarily searched for enrollment information later than direct entry students and used primarily online resources to navigate their enrollment process preferring to rely on friends and family members familiar with the university for advice as opposed to using formal in-person resources. having clear online instructions and checklists for transfer students with easy to access, knowledgeable academic advisors was recommended. students found that while the academic challenge of university as compared to college was difficult, many felt it was manageable with behavioural modifications (studying more than college, sleeping regularly). students who lived off campus struggled with social isolation and the authors found that a key component of assisting students in making both the cognitive and lifestyle transition to college is greatly assisted by social supports (clubs, peers, fraternities) that help them integrate into university culture. douglas, d., & attewell, p. (2014). the bridge and the troll underneath: summer bridge programs and degree completion. american journal of education, 121(1), 67-109. using longitudinal transcript data that tracked 10,000 american college students over six years of study, the authors examined how the presence of a summer bridge program influences retention rates and academic momentum in post secondary. their propensity scoring model of analysis indicates that enrollment in a summer bridge program increases the rate of degree completion by ten percent when factors (demographics, pre-enrollment averages, pre-college coursework) that may influence selection bias are accounted for and normalized. the effects of enrolling in a bridge course were most influential to the increased graduation rates of students with low high school grade averages as well as women, black and hispanic students. the authors suggest that avoiding remedial coursework is a key issue in maintaining academic momentum, and that having to redo courses or lose academic momentum increases the potential of college dropout. flaga, c. (2006). the process of transition for community college transfer students. community college journal of research and practice, 30, 3-19. in her phenomenological study on the college to university transition flaga identifies five sequential phases of the transfer experience (learning resources, connecting, familiarity, negotiation, integration) that occur across the academic, social and physical environments of a post secondary institution. initially students used formal and informal learning resources and personal initiative to gain information about the campus, their studies and social opportunities. after accessing these resources students began connecting to and gaining familiarity with components within the three environments. once familiar students were able to begin implementing strategies to negotiate success in the post secondary system. at some point several students underwent a developmental shift characterized as integration in which they felt as though they were a part of their post secondary structure. flaga suggests that academic advisors should begin the transfer experience process by visiting colleges and implementing campus tours, developing bridge programming that fast tracks access to formal and informal learning resources and recognizes/utilizes the knowledge that informal learning resources (friends, family, peers) are the most utilized by students across multiple studies including her research. garcia, l., & paz, c. (2009). evaluation of summer bridge programs. about campus, 30-31. two graduate students that previously attended summer transition programming for college to university transfer students assessed four american college to university summer transition programs for performance evaluation practices. of the institutions included, the authors found that only one institution evaluated its summer transitional program based on specific performance indicators founded on program objectives. they recommend that the benefits of the social connections and academic foundations built during their summer transition experiences are grounds for implementing solid evaluation practices that justify summer transition programs to ensure they continue to receive funding in future years. gard, d. r., paton, v., & gosselin, k. (2012). student perceptions of factors contributing to community-college-to-university transfer success. community college journal of research and practice, 36(11), 833-848. this study examined college to university transfer success using a descriptive, exploratory method by employing semi structured focus groups and subsequent follow up questionnaires. the findings suggest three main areas that influence transfer success: academic advising, financial aid, and social and cultural factors. academic advising was a one area of interest as many students expressed their dissatisfaction with the assistance received. many individuals reported frustration with regards to not receiving transfer credits, as well as many student reported unanticipated additional time required to complete their program. although financial issues are not exclusive to transfer students, college transfer students often experience a sticker shock in regards to the difference in costs between college and university. the finding from this study suggest early communication regarding financial assistance and resources to help offset the higher cost. transfer students also commented on the social pressures they experienced and a lack of social support which affected their transfer experience success. limitations to this study include limited context and a homogeneous sample population. further research should consider more heterogeneous populations in order to increase the generalizability of findings. gawley, t. & mcgowan, r. (2006). learning the ropes: a case study of the academic and social experiences of college transfer students within a developing university-college articulation framework. college quarterly, 9(3) a case study analysis of a medium university campus in southern ontario where college transfer articulation agreements are fairly new to the campus. the researchers wanted to look at the academic adjustment of the students and the social activities they participated in. within these areas they were also looking to establish if transfer shock was evident and how the experiences of the students differed between college and university. the information needed was gathered through self-administered questionnaires, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews. the responses were useful and helped guided the researchers to making strong suggestions for other schools to take into account when analyzing their own articulation agreements and transfer processes. it was found that transfer shock does exist at this school and affects the majority of the students. after the two years at the school their marks had still not come to their college gpa. for experiences between the two institutions the students had very different experiences between the two. they felt they were starting over at the university, both socially and academically. everything is new to them and they needed better social resources built for them. they are older, at a different maturity level, and have had different life experiences to the high school students. the students recommended for future students to take it upon themselves to find the resources available and speak with their professors to ease the transition. as students transferring between institutions becomes more popular it is essential for schools to develop articulation agreements and keep them up to date. the students within this case study experienced confusion when trying to see what credits they would receive and what was expected of them in the transfer process. the information needs to be accessible and easy for all parties to comprehend. to ensure this the researchers recommended that adequate administration personal be available to keep the agreements current and to assist incoming students with any questions that arise during the process. gerhardt, k., & ackerman, m. (2014). postsecondary student mobility from college to university: student expectations and experience. college quarterly, 17(1), 7-39. within the context of the ontario college and university system, the authors use a qualitative focus groups to elicit college transfer students expectations regarding university and contrast expectations with actual experiences. students in the focus groups primarily formed expectations regarding the experience of university from their high school guidance counsellors and college instructors. many students were determined to seek out a serious academic environment where they could challenge themselves and surround themselves with peers who were serious about their education the biggest shock for transfer students was the change in pedagogy and assessment style that comes with larger class sizes. students indicated that they had to take more personal responsibility to get to know their instructors and adapt to the types of assessment used to mitigate marking large amounts of work (eg. scantron forms, multiple choice tests). the authors recommend ensuring that there is a one-stop online resource for students regarding transfer/articulation agreements and that this page include information on pedagogical/assessment model differences between the college and university systems in ontario. of note, the literature review highlights significant differences between college/university systems in both the united states and across provinces in canada. ontarios system is unique in that colleges and universities are mandated to serve different purposes and teach different curriculum. within the american system colleges are considered as 2 year feeder programs for 4 year degrees which is mimicked in the british columbia and alberta post secondary systems. in ontario the college system would be similar to what are referred to as technical institutes in the united states. interestingly, the students in this study did not consider university to be more theoretical and colleges to be more practical but felt that the style of pedagogy relies more on the specific program selected regardless of the institution (eg. social work, engineering, philosophy, womens studies) kennett, d., & maki, k. (2014). academic resourcefulness and transfer student success: direct entry, college transfer, and university transfer student comparisons. peterborough, ontario: trent university. intrigued by the higher academic success (retention and gpa) of transfer students entering university, particularly college students entering through an articulation agreement, in relation to direct entry students, the authors employed an academic resourcefulness inventory to examine the internal psychological factors (personal initiative, resourcefulness, productive thought processes) that might predict academic success and assist in explaining differences between students entering through differing pathways. findings indicate that both college and university transfer students have higher selfefficacy and more academically resourceful than direct entry students and suggest that college students have the internal psychological predictors of success. the authors recommend that university services, transfer bridge curriculum and orientation activities should be focused on college transfer student strengths (instead of perceived deficiencies) and geared to be accessible for individuals with obligations outside the university such as families and employment. kerr, a., mccloy, u., liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto, on: higher education quality council of ontario. retreived from http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/forgingpathwayseng.pdf using multiple data sets derived from several ministry of training, colleges and universities the authors, through tentative, cautionary analysis, provide insight into characteristics and themes related to the mobile student body moving through the ontario college to university transfer system at the time of publication. ultimately the authors advocate for the implementation of a province wide comprehensive measurement tool that addresses transfer students in ontario. of relevance to the bridging process, the authors determine a gap between quantitative reports of high satisfaction with the transfer process in relation to qualitative studies that elicit dissatisfaction with the experience of registration and confusion around the amount and type of transfer credit decisions made by universities. the authors also touch on differences in social and academic culture between sending and receiving institutions in the transfer process that leads to transfer shock. transition programs and university support services need to be accessible and engaged in assisting in the cultural transmission. lakehead university, office of institutional analysis. (2012). student success after transfer from college to lakehead university. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/20 12-11-final-report-lakehead-student-success-after-transfer-collegelakehead.pdf based on retention rates and gpa, college transfer students, particularly those receiving block credit, are as successful or more successful than students who enroll through direct entry pathways. the study suggests looking into factors that might influence the success of block transfer students and enhancing supports for part time college transfer students who were the least successful population of transfer students. lang, d., & lopes, v. (2014). deciding to transfer: a study of college to university choice. college quarterly, 17(3). using a mixed methods approach the authors examine a cohort of college students that have expressed interest in transferring to a university from the beginning of their diploma studies through to their graduation, drop-out and/or transfer to university. a recurring theme in the study is that there are significant differences between the perspectives of administrators and policy makers with those of students regarding college to university transfer. the decision to transfer from college to university was often cited as coincidental and evolving over time instead of a well-planned process. based on the unpredictability of student perspectives and life choices, the authors recommend that articulation agreements reflect the myriad of educational and career pathways students may choose to take. primary factors influencing the decision to transfer included the perceived status of the university as well as the increase in earning potential a degree from university might lead to. the amount of transfer credits and the costs associated with the program were not as influential in the decision-making process as expected. in colleges with specific transfer offices, specialized transfer advisors were the most influential source of information followed by high school guidance counselors. the authors highlight an unanticipated theme indicating that intra-institutional transfer students should also be considering in this body of research. lesage, a., samis, j., hinch, r., longo, f., digiuseppe, m., goodman, w., percival, j., de la rocha, a., rodrigues, a., raby, p., & sanchez, o. (2014). pathways from college to university: a social science example from ontario. college quarterly, 17(1), 6. an evaluative study on the differences in gpa and letter grades between college transfer students and direct entry students. the grades of direct entry students were compared to those of college transfer students in courses contained within a mandatory prerequisite bridging program. although the comparison is of student performance in the context of the same course name and number; it is unclear from the article whether the direct entry and transfer students took these courses at the same time under the same conditions. findings from this comparison should be considered cautiously. results show that transfer students grades were lower on the pre-requisite bridge courses than direct entry students but that transfer students out performed direct entry students in their fourth year of studies. lizzio, a. (2006). designing an orientation and transition strategy for commencing students. australia: griffith university. in his research summary on the five care needs of students entering university, the author briefly summarizes his results of a first year experience project at griffith university and provides an assessment instrument based on his findings. the five senses of student success include facilitating/fostering senses of: capability (competence), connectedness (to others), purpose (why they are in university), resourcefulness (ability to navigate the university system effectively/negotiate work/life balance) and academic culture (scholarly values/ethics of university). martinello, f. & stewart, j. (2015). transfers from college to one ontario university: a four-year outcome study. canadian journal of higher education, 45(1), 1836. in an examination focused primarily on the graduation rates and course enrollment of college transfer versus direct entry students at brock university, this study found that college transfer students typically completed their degree on a timeline similar to direct entry students but enrolled in less credits than direct entry students and also had lower course completion rates in upper years. qualitative research is recommended to understand the factors behind these findings. the authors suggest that as college transfer students typically miss out on first and second year supports due to getting credit for introductory/formative courses this may influence their success in upper year courses. supports specifically designed for college students entering directly into upper year courses may bridge that gap. mcgowan, r. a., & gawley, t. (2006). the university side of the college transfer experience: insights from university staff. college quarterly, 9(3), 3. this case study used a semi-structured design to conduct interviews with university administrative staff members. the staff members interviewed were directly involved with transfer program recruitment and registration. based on the in depth interviews five major themes emerged: transfer credits, expectations about university in comparison to college, student identities, transition processes, and establishing internal and external networks. administrative staff reported the many students sought advice regarding transfer credit issues, specifically the discrepancy in transfer credits offered between institutions. this study also reported that many transfer students have misconceptions about university admissions, and wrongly believe the process will be the same as admissions to college. it was also noted that college transfer students differ in their student identities in comparison to high-school direct students. it was found that transfer students rarely seek information about campus clubs or social events, rather they are more career focused and have a better idea of where they want to end up; thus they often seek information on expediting graduation. an interview with a staff member who serves as the first point of contact with transfer students reported that on average transfer students are very confident in their ability to perform well in university. based on the finding from this study the authors suggest that universities take initiative to develop programs and procedures tailored to transfer students to ease the transition as transfer students differ a great deal from high-school direct entry students. roberts, k., park, h., brown, s., & cook, b. (2011). universal design for instruction in postsecondary education: a systematic review of empirically based articles. journal of postsecondary education and disability, 24(1), 5-15. in their meta-analysis of peer reviewed publications on the use of universal design learning (udl) the authors found that studies focusing on measuring the effectiveness of implementing udl principles are limited. qualitative studies suggest that simply educating instructors in the principles and practices of udl can create a more inclusive environment and that adaptations to incorporate udl are often simple and easy to implement once understood. a significant limiting factor in the meta-analysis was the search criteria as many authors publish on technology and adaptations that relate to udl without putting udl in the title or tags of their publication. a substantial amount of the peer reviewed articles used on the udl website to justify their model do not have the term udl in the title. santos laanan, f. (2007). studying transfer students: part ii: dimensions of transfer students' adjustment. community college journal of research and practice, 31(1), 37-59. doi: 10.1080/10668920600859947 researchers were interested in finding which factors positively predict academic and social adjustment in transfer students. data was collected using a 304-item questionnaire meant to assess college and university experiences. findings suggest both gpa and intellectual self-confidence were both negative predictors of difficulty adjusting academically. another finding supported the notion that reducing transfer students apprehension and anxiety about university facilitated academic adjustment. authors suggest incorporating stress and anxiety reducing services into the college to university transfer process. limitations to consider include the use of only closed-ended responses from transfer students. further research should incorporate qualitative questions to further investigate the satisfaction of transfer programs. townsend, b. k. (2008). feeling like a freshman again: the transfer student transition. new directions for higher education, 144(4), 69-77. in a meta analysis of three qualitative studies examining the transfer student transition the author published suggestions in regards to the themes. one suggestion was that specific financial aid and scholarships be available to only transfer students. the other suggestion focused on the need to be treated as a transfer student and not as a first year student. transfer students wanted summer programs and orientation geared towards them. as well as for those living on campus students suggested having roommates that were also transfer students. in addition many students suggested that it would be useful if there were previous transfer students available to give campus tours, and answer academic and social questions. townsend, b. k., & wilson, k. (2006). " a hand hold for a little bit": factors facilitating the success of community college transfer students to a large research university. journal of college student development, 47(4), 439-456. doi: 10.1353/csd.2006.0052 a qualitative analysis examining the perceptions of community college transfer students to a four-year institution within the same state regarding the transfer process, orientation of the school, the social experiences, and academic experiences compared to their time at the community college. the researchers utilized video interviews where they asked 14 closed and open-ended questions of the current transfer students. all transfer students at the university were contacted regarding the study, forty-five students responded, and 19 followed through with the process. themes included students feeling that the community college provided little to no help in the transfer process and that they were left on their own whereas the university had provided adequate help and students were pleased with the information provided. students appreciated the transfer specific university orientation however they thought more could be done in the way of having a speaker who has gone through the transfer process and offering resources outside of the typical orientation framework. academically the students felt they were only numbers within the large classes of students. the professors are harder to access in the classes and do not care as much as their college instructors had. the students enjoyed the classes though but felt it was challenging to access social circles when they are not living on the campus and have not been in classes from year one. university of maryland. (n.d.). fear the transfer? a proposal to improve the adjustment process for transfer students. in this rhetorical memorandum, advocates of student transition support services petition the university of maryland to increase support for college to university transfer students beyond a one day orientation. while the article is not a research study it does contain interview data with transfer students and transfer support staff that indicate academic advising, counselling services and facilitated social development activities are services worth significant efforts in advocating for. appendix b environmental scan website reference list a spring 2003 snapshot: the current status of prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) in canadas public postsecondary institutions: part one http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/attachments/56/caplaplar2003.en.pdf acsenda school of management vancouver http://www.acsenda.com/ https://www.acsenda.com/about-us/why-choose-acsenda/ https://www.acsenda.com/admissions-for-international-business-programs/ https://www.acsenda.com/admissions-for-international-business-programs/transfer-ofcredits/ https://www.acsenda.com/admissions-for-international-business-programs/entranceawards/ https://www.acsenda.com/student-life/ https://www.acsenda.com/student-life/student-clubs/ alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/new_format_include/new_publications.asp http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/acat-council-action-plan-2013-16.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/annual-report-2014-15.final.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/math-articulation-report.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/sstudies.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/transfer-patterns-2011.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/terms_and_definitions_nov_2012.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/instructor-qualifications.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/bestpracticesreport.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/ http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/acat-membership-latest.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/acat-governance-structure.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/ppp.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/acat-mandate-roles.pdf http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/acat_code_of_conduct_final.pdf alberta government alberta learning information service http://alis.alberta.ca/ps/aas/transfers.html http://alis.alberta.ca/ps/tsp/transferalberta.html http://alis.alberta.ca/ps/tsp/ta/tbi/onlinesearch.html alexander college http://alexandercollege.ca/ http://alexandercollege.ca/admissions-and-registration/admission-requirements/ http://alexandercollege.ca/programs/university-transfer/ algoma university https://www.algomau.ca/star/ https://www.algomau.ca/news/latest_news/algomauandnortherncollegesignjointadmis sionagreement.html https://www.algomau.ca/diplomadegree/exceptional_and_standard_agreements/ https://www.algomau.ca/student-services/first_generation_project/bounce_back_101/ https://www.algomau.ca/learning/student_success_workshops/ https://www.algomau.ca/asap/ https://www.algomau.ca/diplomadegree/ algonquin college http://www.algonquincollege.com/ http://www.algonquincollege.com/current-students/ http://www.algonquincollege.com/search/?cx=002179760531728369470%3aecn4eupd fpm&cof=forid%3a11&ie=utf-8&q=transfer&sa=submit http://www.algonquincollege.com/ro/apply-to-college-and-programeligibility/advanced-standingexemptions/ http://www7.algonquincollege.com/ro/forms/ro068.pdf aqfc project to develop a common terminology for credit transfer and articulation (australia) http://www.csu.edu.au/acad_sec/academicsenate/docs/csu_submission_to_mceetya _project.pdf athabasca university http://www.athabascau.ca/ http://www.athabascau.ca/course/undergraduate.php http://www.athabascau.ca/course/fees.php http://www.athabascau.ca/students/index.php http://www.athabascau.ca/prospective/index.php https://secure3.athabascau.ca/tcas/transfer.cgi?type=cp&cpv=c http://www.athabascau.ca/students/starter/ bc transfer guide http://www.bctransferguide.ca/ http://www.bctransferguide.ca/transfer/how http://www.bctransferguide.ca/transfer/outside http://www.bctransferguide.ca/transfer/before http://www.bctransferguide.ca/transfer/after http://www.bctransferguide.ca/transfer/types http://www.bctransferguide.ca/transfer/faq http://www.bctransferguide.ca/search/course http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/alexander http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/ai http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/acsenda http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/athabasca http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/bcit http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/camosun http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/capilano http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/cnc http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/cotr http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/columbia http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/coquitlam http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/ccc http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/douglas http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/ec http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/fdu http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/fic http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/jibc http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/kwantlen http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/langara http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/nvit http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/nic http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/nlc http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/nwcc http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/oc http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/quest http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/rru http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/selkirk http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/sfu http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/tru http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/tru-ol http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/twu http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/ubc http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/ubc-o http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/ucw http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/ufv http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/uvic http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/vcc http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/viu http://www.bctransferguide.ca/system/institutions/yukon british columbia government http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/student_transitions/ british columbia institute of technology http://www.bcit.ca/ http://www.bcit.ca/admission/transfer/ brock https://www.brocku.ca/basecamp https://discover.brocku.ca/smartstart/ http://discover.brocku.ca/college-transfer-information-sessions/ https://www.brocku.ca/leadership-engagement/l-e-a-p http://www.brocku.ca/registrar/transfer-students/articulation-agreements-new http://www.brocku.ca/registrar/transfer-students/transfer-from-college cambrian college http://www.cambriancollege.ca/pages/home.aspx www.cambriancollege.ca/pages/home.aspx http://cambriancollege.ca/pages/cambriancollegesearchresults.aspx?q=transfer http://cambriancollege.ca/programs/pages/transferguide.aspx http://cambriancollege.ca/programs/pages/transfers.aspx http://cambriancollege.ca/programs/pages/plar.aspx http://cambriancollege.ca/programs/pages/degreecompletion.aspx camosun http://camosun.ca/ http://camosun.ca/services/student-records/transfer-credit.html can you get saskatchewan polytechnic credit for your saskatchewan high school information processing classes? http://saskpolytech.ca/admissions/resources/documents/plar/computer-classes.pdf canadore college http://www.canadorec.on.ca/ http://www.canadorecollege.ca/programs-courses/full-time-programs http://canadorecollege.ca/transferguide http://www.canadorecollege.ca/pathways-transfer-to http://www.canadorecollege.ca/pathways-transfer-within http://www.canadorecollege.ca/pathways-transfer-from http://www.canadorecollege.ca/sites/default/files/images/credit%20transfer/credit%2 0transfer%20student%20guide%20%28aug2015%29..pdf http://www.canadorecollege.ca/sites/default/files/images/credit%20transfer%20appli cation.pdf http://canadorecollege.ca/node/6810 http://www.canadorecollege.ca/sites/default/files/images/admissions/plar%20%20student%20guide%20jan%202016.pdf capilano university http://www.capilanou.ca/ http://www.capilanou.ca/future/ http://www.capilanou.ca/orientation/ http://www.capilanou.ca/future/how-to-apply/ http://www.capilanou.ca/admissions/transfer-credit/ carleton university http://carleton.ca/ http://admissions.carleton.ca/ https://admissions.carleton.ca/information-request/ https://admissions.carleton.ca/programs/ https://admissions.carleton.ca/certificates/ http://start.carleton.ca/ http://carleton.ca/seo/orientation/ https://admissions.carleton.ca/apply/transfer-credit/ https://admissions.carleton.ca/apply/transfer-credit/requesting-transfer-credit/ http://admissions.carleton.ca/wp-content/uploads/engineering-and-design-creditpetition-2013.pdf centennial college https://www.centennialcollege.ca/ http://www.centennialcollege.ca/admissions/applying/pathways-to-credit/transfercredit/transfer-credit-application/ college boreal http://www.collegeboreal.ca/accueil http://www.collegeboreal.ca/home/ college of new caledonia, british columbia, canada http://www.cnc.bc.ca/ tools.cnc.bc.ca/search/results.shtm?cx=010998674038483767677%3afdi8egywrpm&co f=forid%3a11&q=transfer&sa=google+search&domains=cnc.bc.ca&sitesearch=cnc.bc. ca&sa=search#918 college of the rockies http://www.cotr.bc.ca/ http://www.cotr.bc.ca/transfer/ http://www.cotr.bc.ca/transfer/transfer.asp http://www.cotr.bc.ca/transfer/transfer.asp?cotrid=62 http://www.cotr.bc.ca/transfer/cotr_web.asp?idnumber=157 www.cotr.bc.ca/transfer/cotr_web.asp?idnumber=157 http://www.cotr.bc.ca/opportunities/cotr_web.asp?idnumber=162 http://www.cotr.bc.ca/assessment/ columbia college vancouver, canada http://www.columbiacollege.ca/ http://www.columbiacollege.ca/programs-and-courses/programs-offered/universitytransfer?nav=home conestoga college http://www.conestogac.on.ca/ www.conestogac.on.ca http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/transfer.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/transfer/advanced-standing.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/transfer/individual.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/plar.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/plar/principles.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/plar/assessment.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/plar/processes.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/plar/eligibility.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/plar/gettingstarted.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/pathways.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/agreement.jsp http://www.conestogac.on.ca/credit-transfer/contact.jsp confederation college http://www.confederationc.on.ca/ http://www.confederationc.on.ca/transfercredits http://www.confederationc.on.ca/rpl/pathways http://www.confederationc.on.ca/plar http://www.confederationc.on.ca/plar/candidates http://www.confederationc.on.ca/plar/assessment http://www.confederationc.on.ca/plar/application http://www.confederationc.on.ca/plar/advisement http://www.confederationc.on.ca/plar/workplace http://www.confederationc.on.ca/articulation http://www.confederationc.on.ca/sites/default/files/articulationagreements_all_oct_30 _print.pdf http://www.confederationc.on.ca/scwi coquitlam college http://coquitlamcollege.com/ http://www.coquitlamcollege.com/university_transfer_program.php corpus christi college the catholic college in vancouver, bc http://corpuschristi.ca/ https://registrar.corpuschristi.ca/programs/10/ council of ministers of education, canada (cmec) http://www.cmec.ca/14/useful-links/index.html http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/attachments/216/ministerialstatement-credit-transfer-2009.pdf council on articulations and transfers of new brunswick (catnb) http://catnb.ca/home http://catnb.ca/about/ http://catnb.ca/guiding-principles/ http://catnb.ca/terms-of-reference/ http://catnb.ca/member-institutions/ http://portail.catnb.ca/ credit transfer centre five steps for a letter of permission http://www.georgiancollege.ca/wp-content/uploads/5steps_letter_of_permission_web9.pdf credit transfer centre five steps to articulation and transfer agreements http://www.georgiancollege.ca/wp-content/uploads/5steps_articulation_transfer_agreement_web3.pdf degrees of opportunity: broadening student access by increasing institutional differentiation in ontario higher education http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/degrees%20of%20opportunity.pdf douglas college http://www.douglascollege.ca/ http://www.douglascollege.ca/study-at-douglas/ways-to-study/university-transfer durham college http://www.durhamcollege.ca/ efficacy of transfer policy and practice: administrator and student perspectives https://transferinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/efficacy-of-transfer-policyand-practice-admin-stud.pdf emily carr university of art + design http://www.ecuad.ca/ http://www.ecuad.ca/admissions/application-info/undergraduateapplications/transfer-students fairleigh dickson university vancouver campus http://view2.fdu.edu/vancouver-campus/ http://view2.fdu.edu/vancouver-campus/admissions/transfer-students-transfer-credits/ fanshawe college https://www.fanshawec.ca/ https://www.fanshawec.ca/programs-and-courses/pathways-and-credit-transfer https://www.fanshawec.ca/programs-and-courses/degrees/degree-programs https://www.fanshawec.ca/admissions/mature-and-transfer-applicants/transferapplicants fleming college http://flemingcollege.ca/filebin/file/articulation_agreement_lakehead_park_operatio ns_oct1_2004%282%29.pdf http://flemingcollege.ca/ http://flemingcollege.ca/education-pathways fraser international college https://www.fraseric.ca/ george brown college http://www.georgebrown.ca/ http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/ http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-want-to-transfer-credits-into-georgebrown-college.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-already-have-a-college-certificatediploma-or-degree.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-have-some-college-credits.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-have-a-university-degree-or-partialcredits.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-have-work-experience-i-want-to-getcredit-for.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-am-an-international-student-withcredentials-or-credit.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-want-to-transfer-credits-out-of-georgebrown-college.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-already-have-a-george-brown-collegecertificate-diploma-or-degree.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-have-some-george-brown-credits.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-want-to-transfer-credits-within-georgebrown-college.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-want-to-transfer-my-credits-to-anotherprogram-at-george-brown.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/i-want-to-complement-my-diploma-ordegree-with-further-education-at-george-brown.aspx georgian college http://www.georgiancollege.ca/ http://www.georgiancollege.ca/academics/academic-areas/university-partnershipcentre/ http://www.georgiancollege.ca/academics/academic-areas/university-partnershipcentre/programs-tab/ http://www.georgiancollege.ca/academics/academic-areas/university-partnershipcentre/lakehead-georgian-tab/ http://www.georgiancollege.ca/admissions/credit-transfer/ http://www.georgiancollege.ca/admissions/credit-transfer/incoming-transfer-studentstab/ http://www.georgiancollege.ca/admissions/credit-transfer/outgoing-transfer-studentstab/ http://www.georgiancollege.ca/admissions/credit-transfer/georgian-pathways-tab/ http://www.georgiancollege.ca/admissions/credit-transfer/articulations/ government of saskatchewan https://www.saskatchewan.ca/residents/education-and-learning/credits-degrees-andtranscripts/degrees-and-transferring-post-secondary-credits griffith university https://www.griffith.edu.au/ https://www.griffith.edu.au/admissions/internal-transfer-readmission https://intranet.secure.griffith.edu.au/university-administration/academicadministration/about-us/best-practice/integrated-articulation-credit-transfer-project humber college http://www.humber.ca/ https://www.humber.ca/transferoptions http://www.humber.ca/programs/transfer-options/transfer-credits https://www.humber.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/humber-college-diploma-degreeapplication23oct2015.pdf http://www.humber.ca/programs/transfer-options/prior-learning-assessment-andrecognition-plar http://www.humber.ca/plar/docs/pla.pdf http://www.humber.ca/programs-academics/transfer-options/articulation-agreements http://www.humber.ca/programs/transfer-options/diploma-degree integrated articulation and credit transfer project http://www.acpet.edu.au/uploads/files/conference/2010/presentations/paez_di_c2_m 12.pdf joint declaration of provincial and territorial education and labour market ministers http://cmec.ca/docs/skills-symposium-joint-declaration-en.pdf justice institute of british columbia http://www.jibc.ca/ http://www.jibc.ca/registration/transfer-credit http://www.jibc.ca/sites/default/files/student_services/pdf/transfer-credit-form.pdf http://www.jibc.ca//policy/3212 http://www.jibc.ca/registration/prior-learning-assessment http://www.jibc.ca/sites/default/files/student_services/pdf/prior-learning-assessmentapplication-form.pdf http://www.jibc.ca/policy/3202 http://www.jibc.ca/procedure/3202-001 http://www.jibc.ca/policy/3201 kwantlen polytechnic university http://www.kpu.ca/ https://connect.kpu.ca/canadian/admissions-deadlines.ezc http://www.kpu.ca/admission/pathway http://www.kpu.ca/pathway la cite collegiale http://www.collegelacite.ca/ lakehead university https://www.lakeheadu.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/17/college%20transfer%20%20artiticulation%20agreements%20-%20all.pdf https://www.lakeheadu.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/17/applied%20life%20sciences. pdf https://www.lakeheadu.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/17/engineering.pdf https://www.lakeheadu.ca/future-students/admissions/undergraduate/transferstudent/college#articulation lambton college https://www.lambton.on.ca/ https://www.lambton.on.ca/admissions/transfer_opportunities/transfer_opportunitie s/ https://www.lambton.on.ca/admissions/transfer_opportunities/ontario_agreements/ https://www.mylambton.ca/centre_for_educational_pathways/home/ https://www.lambton.on.ca/custom/pages/transfer_credits.aspx https://www.mylambton.ca/policies/policy.aspx?id=2147491618 https://www.lambtoncollege.ca/admissions/transfer_opportunities/transfer_credit_a pplication_guidelines/ http://www.lambtoncollege.ca/uploadedfiles/lambtoncollege/content/admissions/tra nsfer_opportunities/transfer_credit%20_application_form.pdf langara the college of higher learning http://langara.ca/ http://langara.ca/programs-and-courses/degree-partnerships/index.html http://langara.ca/programs-and-courses/degree-partnerships/sfu-degreeprogram/index.html http://langara.ca/programs-and-courses/degree-partnerships/queens-langaratransfer/index.html http://langara.ca/programs-and-courses/degree-partnerships/unbc-mba/index.html http://langara.ca/programs-and-courses/degree-partnerships/unbc-bsw/index.html http://langara.ca/programs-and-courses/degree-partnerships/law-degree/index.html laurention university https://laurentian.ca/ https://laurentian.ca/college-transfer-applicants https://laurentian.ca/assets/files/admissions/admissionform_2015.pdf lone star college http://www.lonestar.edu/reverse-transfer.htm loyalist college http://www.loyalistcollege.com/ http://www.loyalistcollege.com/future-students/prior-learning-assessment-andrecognition/ making college-university cooperation work: ontario in a national and international context http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/making%20collegeuniversity%20cooperation%20work.pdf making reverse transfer work https://transferinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/making-reverse-transferwork.pdf mcmaster university http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/orientation.html http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/orientation/soar.html http://studentsuccess/mcmaster.ca/students/orientation/new-marauderorientation.html http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/orientation/common-readingprograms.html http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/orientation/welcome-week.html http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/orientation/macpasses-orientationkit.html http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/orientation/iris-theatre-production.html http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/orientation/fall-learning-and-orientationweeks.html http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/orientation/macademics.html mohawk college http://www.mohawkcollege.ca/ http://www.mohawkcollege.ca/programs-courses.html http://www.mohawkcollege.ca/pathways-credit-transfer.html national institute for the study of transfer students https://transferinstitute.org/?s=reverse+transfer nb prior learning assessment and recognition (nbplar) action group http://petl.kimantis.com/ new brunswick canada credit transfer portal http://portal.nbcat.ca/home.aspx http://portal.nbcat.ca/search/search.aspx portal.nbcat.ca/search/search.aspx http://portal.nbcat.ca/about.aspx http://portal.nbcat.ca/plar.aspx newfoundland labrador department of advanced education and skills (the newfoundland and labrador transfer of credit guide) http://www.aes.gov.nl.ca/postsecondary/transferguide/index.html nicola valley institute of technology http://www.nvit.bc.ca/ nipissing university http://www.nipissingu.ca/ nipissing college transfer programming http://www.nipissingu.ca/departments/admissions-registrar/admissionrequirements/undergraduate/collegetransfer/documents/1516_college_transfer_guide_lr_22july15.pdf http://www.nipissingu.ca/departments/admissions-registrar/admissionrequirements/undergraduate/college-transfer/pages/default.aspx north island college http://www.nic.bc.ca/ northern lights college b.c.s energy college http://www.nlc.bc.ca/ http://www.nlc.bc.ca/prospective-students http://www.nlc.bc.ca/current-students http://www.nlc.bc.ca/portals/0/documents/eduassist/transfer%20credit%20application .pdf ocad university http://www.ocadu.ca/services/campus-life/orientation.htm okanagan college http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/ http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/becomeastudent/transitions.html pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfer (pccat) http://pccatweb.org/pccat/ pan-canadian protocol on the transferability of university credits http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/attachments/198/pan-canadianprotocol-transferability-university-credits.pdf provincial postsecondary systems and arrangements for credit transfer http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/attachments/29/credittransfer.en .pdf queens university http://www.queensu.ca/ http://www.queensu.ca/apply/general http://www.queensu.ca/orientation/home quest university canada http://www.questu.ca/ http://www.questu.ca/admissions-transfer-students.html report of the cmec credit transfer working group http://cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/attachments/311/ctwg%20report%20 2012_en.pdf royal roads university http://www.royalroads.ca/ http://www.royalroads.ca/transferagreements?utm_source=tsa%27s&utm_medium=landing%20page&utm_campaign=u ndergraduate%20campaign http://www.royalroads.ca/prospective-students/transfer-agreements ryerson http://www.ryerson.ca/index.html http://www.ryerson.ca/currentstudents/transfercredits/ https://orientation.ryerson.ca saskatchewan polytechnic transfer credit request http://saskpolytech.ca/admissions/resources/documents/transfer-credit-requestform.pdf saskatchewan higher education quality assurance http://www.quality-assurance-sk.ca/ http://www.quality-assurance-sk.ca/institutions http://www.quality-assurance-sk.ca/students http://www.quality-assurance-sk.ca/resources selkirk college http://www.selkirk.ca/ http://selkirk.ca/program/about-university-arts-and-sciences-uas/transfer siast policy and procedure statement, recognition of prior learning: plar and transfer credit http://saskpolytech.ca/about/aboutus/documents/policies/recognitionofpriorlearningandtransfercredit116.pdf simon fraser university http://www.sfu.ca/ https://www.sfu.ca/students/admission-requirements/canadian-transfer/collegeuniversity.html.html http://www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/2015/fall/fees-andregulations/admission/undergraduate-admission.html#transfer-credit student awareness of articulation and credit transfer in queensland: results of a webbased survey (australia) http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3a52214 student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges, final report http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2012-3collegesontario-student-experiences-credit-transfer-ontario-colleges-en.pdf student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges, summary report http://www.collegesontario.org/research/externalreports/credit%20transfer%20summary%20report.pdf student mobility & credit transfer a national and global survey http://www.educationalpolicy.org/publications/pubpdf/credit.pdf thinking futures environmental scanning what it is and how to do it... http://thinkingfutures.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/es-guide-april-09.pdf the art institute of vancouver https://www.artinstitutes.edu/vancouver https://www.artinstitutes.edu/admissions the university of british columbia okanagan campus http://ok.ubc.ca/welcome.html http://students.ok.ubc.ca/global/outgoing/exchange-research-abroad/after-youapply/transfer-credit.html https://secure.students.ubc.ca/global/transfercredit/ the university of british columbia vancouver campus http://www.ubc.ca/ http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=12,215,410,406 the university of texas at austin https://www.utexas.edu/student/admissions/ate/ thompson rivers university http://www.tru.ca/ http://www.tru.ca/distance/ http://www.tru.ca/distance/transfer-credit.html http://www.tru.ca/distance/services/policies/transfer.html transfer guide: best practice guidelines http://guide.pccat.arucc.ca/uploads/pdf/transfer_guide_best_practice_standards.pdf transforming vision into reality: the integrated articulation and credit transfer project (australia) http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3a43065 http://www.acpet.edu.au/uploads/files/conference/2010/presentations/paez_di_c2_m 12.pdf trent http://trentu.ca/studentaffairs/orientation/overview.php http://trentu.ca/studentaffairs/orientation/summer/overview.php http://trentu.c/studentaffairs/orientation/bringiton.php http://trentu.ca/studentaffairs/orientation/week.php trinity western university http://www.twu.ca/ http://twu.ca/undergraduate/admissions/transfer-students/ http://twu.ca/undergraduate/admissions/transfer-students/admission-process.html university canada west https://ucanwest.ca/ university of guelph https://studentlife.uoguelph.ca/cns https://studentlife.ouguelph.ca/cns/mentoring-programs/startontrack-fall-semester https://studentlife.uogeualph.ca/cns/mentoring-programs/bounce-back-wintersemester https://studentlife.ouguelph.ca/oia/identity-and-success/chroma-project https://studentlife.uoguelph.ca/cns/summer-programs/startonlineca https://studentlife.uoguelph.ca/cns/summer-programs/transition-seminars https://studentlife.uoguelph.ca/cns/summer-programs/start-first-timers-august-142015 https://studentlife.uoguelph.ca/cns/summer-programs/countdown-guelph-august-2015 https://studentlife.uoguelph.ca/cns/ongoing-initatives/outline https://admission.uoguelph.ca/pathways university of northern british columbia http://www.unbc.ca/ university of ottawa https://web30.uottawa.ca/v3/sits/orientationsignup/default.aspx#schedule university of regina http://www.uregina.ca/student/registrar/transfer-credit/index.html university of regina centre for continuing education plar portfolio guide http://www.uregina.ca/cce/assets/docs/pdf/flexible-credit/plar/plar-portfolio-guide2012-13.pdf university of saskatchewan http://explore.usask.ca/admissions/transfer/index.php university of the fraser valley http://www.ufv.ca/ university of victoria http://www.uvic.ca/ university of waterloo https://uwaterloo.ca/orientation/node/1 vancouver community college http://www.vcc.ca/ vancouver island university https://www.viu.ca/ yukon college https://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/ participant information letter dear potential participant: my name is andrew heppner; i am a project coordinator and contract lecturer at lakehead university, currently conducting research under the supervision of deputy provost dr. nancy luckai. we are conducting a research project called the best practices in bridging funded by the ontario council for articulation and transfer. the purpose of this project is to investigate the characteristics and experiences of transfer students at lakehead university to improve transitional summer programming and student supports. at the end of the survey, should you choose to complete it, we will invite you to provide your contact information for participation in program specific focus groups. we are interested in participants who have transferred into lakehead university from another post-secondary institution. if you decide that you would like to participate this is what the study involves: 1. completing an online questionnaire that collects your demographic information and assesses your knowledge and awareness of student support services and levels of academic resourcefulness. this will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. 2. an invitation to participate in a 60-minute focus group session. this would include responding to open ended questions that facilitate the discussion of your experiences as a transfer student at lakehead university with other peers of various year levels in your current program of study. your participation in the survey portion of this study is completely voluntary and you may choose not to answer any question or withdraw from the study at any time with one exception. due to the anonymous nature of the survey, once you have submitted your survey we will be unable to locate your specific responses to withdraw them. as a lecturer, i will not know who has and has not completed the survey and so your decision to participate will in no way influence your academic success if you are enrolled in any of my courses. all information will be kept anonymous and confidential by the researchers. surveymonkey, as an online, u.s. based service could potentially be hacked or subject to information requests by u.s. officials. therefore we cannot entirely ensure that your survey responses are secure until we close the survey, download the results and remove the information from surveymonkey in november of 2015. no identifying information will be reported in the event of publication or public presentation. once downloaded only the research assistant, the deputy provost, the office of institutional analysis and myself will have access to the information. following the completion of the study all information will be stored securely at lakehead university for a total of 5 years and then destroyed. there are no physical risks associated with the participation in this study. however there may be a potential psychological risk. participants may experience a change in mood or experience certain emotions while completing the questionnaires that are of personal nature. you may choose not to answer any of the questions without penalty. if at any point during or after the study you are experiencing distress you are urged to contact the student health and counseling centre at (807) 343-8361 located at lakehead university (thunder bay campus - prettie residence). potential benefits to society will include expanding the literature and general knowledge available on the characteristics and experiences of transfer students for use at post-secondary institutions provincially, nationally and internationally. participants in this study may benefit from the improvement in university services and education that results from their feedback through this research. you will be given the option at the end of the survey to choose from any or all of the following: 1. to be entered in a draw for one of five $25 gift cards to the study coffeehouse if you are located on the lakehead university campus. 2. to be entered in a draw for one of three $25 gift cards to back to the grind coffee if you are located on the orillia campus. 3. to receive a summary of the results as they become available. 4. to be included in the potential participant group for the 60-minute focus group. 5. to be included in a pool of respondents for follow up research of a similar nature. the lakehead university research ethics board has approved this project. if you have any questions or concerns regarding the ethics of this study please feel free to contact rachel kushnier or myself at the contact number listed below. you may also contact sue wright at the research ethics board at (807) 3438283 or research@lakeheadu.ca. thank you for your consideration in participating in this study. sincerely, andrew heppner arheppne@lakeheadu.ca (807) 343-8057 rachel kushnier rbkushni@lakeheadu.ca (807) 343-8057 1. by checking this button you acknowledge that you have read and understood the "participant information letter" above. click the button if you agree. consent form it is necessary to give your informed consent in order to participate in the best practices in bridging study. by marking the consent check box below, i indicate that i have read the participant information letter contained within my invitation to participate email and that i understand and agree to the following: 1. i understand the information contained in the participant information letter; 2. i agree to participate in the study; 3. i understand that there are no anticipated physical risks associated with participation in this study and that if i experience any psychological distress i can personally access student health and counseling center as indicated in the participant information letter; 4. i am a volunteer and can withdraw from this research without penalty or consequence up until i submit my survey, and then my responses cannot be withdrawn as they do not contain identifiable information; 5. i may choose not to answer any question asked in the online survey without penalty or consequence; 6. my personal information will remain confidential and will be securely stored at lakehead university for a period of 5 years as per university regulations; 7. i may receive a copy of the research findings from this study once they become available upon request; 8. my personal information will remain confidential should any publications or public presentations come from this study; and 9. by clicking the box below i am indicating that i understand and agree to this consent to participate. 2. by checking this button i acknowledge that i have read and understood the "consent to participate," and that i give my voluntary consent to participate in this study. click the button if you agree. instructions please note: in order to protect your privacy your responses will not be saved on this computer. it is important that you complete the entire survey in order for your responses to be received. you will be notified when the survey is completed and it is safe to close the window. thank you again for your participation. please click "next" to begin the survey. demographics questionnaire 3. what is your sex? female male other (please specify) 4. what is your age? (in years) 5. what is your ethnic or cultural origin? please specify as many as applicable: caucasian/white aboriginal (e.g., cree, mikmaq, metis, inuit, etc.) chinese south asian (e.g., east indian, pakistani, sri lankan, etc.) black filipino latin american southeast asian (e.g., vietnamese, cambodian, malaysian, laotian, etc.) arab west asian (e.g., iranian, afghan, etc.) korean japanese other (please specify) 6. are you currently employed outside of your university studies? full time part time not employed outside of my studies 7. are you currently supporting dependents (eg. children, elderly parents)? yes no 8. what is your current program of study at lakehead university? 9. what is your current year of study at lakehead university? 10. what campus are you studying at? thunder bay campus orillia campus 11. where do you currently reside? on campus off campus 12. please list your previous post-secondary experience. (ie. year level/institution) 13. please list the transfer credits you received upon admission into lakehead university. 14. did you participate in a summer bridging program and/or summer courses in preparation for your program? yes no 15. when you are enrolled in full or part time studies, on average how many hours on per week would you estimate you dedicate to leisure activities? 16. please rate your current feeling of preparedness for university, regardless of year level. completely unprepared somewhat unprepared neither prepared nor unprepared somewhat prepared completely prepared 17. what letter grade do you expect to receive across all courses for the upcoming semester? 18. how often do you use various academic support services? never and i do not plan to ive thought about it but have not accessed them yet i have accessed student support services once or twice i access student support services regularly when i need them academic supports 2 please indicate whether, prior to completing this survey, you were aware of the following learning resources at lakehead university and rate how likely you are to use each of them them. 19. please indicate whether, prior to completing this survey, you were aware of the following academic resources at lakehead university yes academic advising centre writing assistance centre lakehead university math assistance centre student success centre workshops student success centre tutoring and peer assisted learning assisted learning no 20. using the following scale please rate how likely you are to use each academic resource over the next academic school year? it is very unlikely academic advising centre writing assistance centre lakehead university math assistance centre student success centre workshops student success centre tutoring and peer assisted learning assisted learning it is unlikely it is not likely or unlikely it is likely it is very likely don't know/not sure academic supports please indicate whether, prior to completing this survey, you were aware of the following student life services at lakehead university and rate how likely you are to use each of them. 21. please indicate whether, prior to completing this survey, you were aware of the following student life services at lakehead university yes lakehead university student union student health and counselling lakehead university athletics chaplaincy services aboriginal services lakehead university international student services no 22. using the following scale please rate how likely you are to use each student life service over the next academic school year? it is very unlikely lakehead university student union student health and counselling lakehead university athletics chaplaincy services aboriginal services lakehead university international student services it is unlikely it is not likely or unlikely it is likely it is very likely don't know/not sure 23. do you rely on any people (eg. friends currently attending lakehead university, lakehead alumni, family) for academic support outside of the previously mentioned university formal supports? yes no 24. please tell us of people you rely on to academically support your studies at lakehead. do not include their names or personal information. (eg. friends, fellow students, family) 25. do you rely on any people (eg. friends currently attending lakehead university, lakehead alumni, family) for social support outside of the previously mentioned university formal supports? yes no 26. please tell us of people you rely on as a social support and how they support your experience at lakehead university. do not include their names or personal information. (eg. family, room mates, karate instructor) 27. have you taken personal action on your own to search out information, resources and supports before or during your studies at lakehead university? yes no 28. please list the actions you have taken to seek out information, resources and supports at lakehead university. academic resourcefulness the purpose of this questionnaire is to determine your present thoughts about coursework, classes, tutorials/seminars, and other aspects concerning your university experience. a number of scales or dimensions are given. each scale is defined by opposing phrases (e.g. optimistic about making friends pessimistic about making friends). your task is to circle one of the seven scale positions on a particular dimension which you think best describes your present opinion of yourself as a student. as a student of university, i see myself as being 1 ----------- 2 ----------- 3 ------------ 4 ----------- 5 ------------ 6 ------------ 7 very quite somewhat neutral somewhat quite very 29. as a student of university, i see myself as being unsuccessful completing exams/tests in allotted time successful completing exams/tests in the allotted time 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 30. as a student of university, i see myself as being inclined to utilize quantitative skills (e.g. statistics, computers) when necessary 1 disinclined to utilize quantitative skills (e.g. statistics, computers) when necessary 2 3 4 5 6 7 31. as a student of university, i see myself as being easily confused when taking an exam/test 1 self-assured when taking an exam/test 2 3 4 5 6 7 32. as a student of university, i see myself as being uninspired to do my best 1 inspired to do my best 2 3 4 5 6 7 33. as a student of university, i see myself as being disorganized with my work 1 organized with my work 2 3 4 5 6 7 34. as a student of university, i see myself as being afraid about being wrong in class 1 unafraid of being wrong in class 2 3 4 5 6 7 35. as a student of university, i see myself as being poor at organizing my time 1 good at organizing my time 2 3 4 5 6 7 36. as a student of university, i see myself as being regular tutorial/seminar attendee 1 irregular seminar/tutorial attendee 2 3 4 5 6 7 37. as a student of university, i see myself as being successful at meeting deadlines 1 unsuccessful at meeting deadlines 2 3 4 5 6 7 38. as a student of university, i see myself as being likely to be too tired to study effectively 1 unlikely to be too tired to study effectively 2 3 4 5 6 7 39. as a student of university, i see myself as being likely to benefit from the comments i receive on my written work 1 unlikely to benefit from the comments i receive on my written work 2 3 4 5 6 7 40. as a student of university, i see myself as being timid about expressing my views in class 1 fearless about expressing my views in class 2 3 4 5 6 7 41. as a student of university, i see myself as being lazy 1 industrious 2 3 4 5 6 7 42. as a student of university, i see myself as being inclined to use vacant hours between classes for studying 1 disinclined to use vacant hours between classes for studying 2 3 4 5 6 7 43. as a student of university, i see myself as being infrequently requesting extensions 1 frequently requesting extensions 2 3 4 5 6 7 44. as a student of university, i see myself as being prompt completing papers and essays tardy completing papers and essays 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 45. as a student of university, i see myself as being inclined to miss lectures 1 disinclined to miss lectures 2 3 4 5 6 7 46. as a student of university, i see myself as being inclined to take time each day to review my notes to prepare for future exams/tests 1 disinclined to take time each day to review my notes to prepare for future exams/tests 2 3 4 5 6 7 47. as a student of university, i see myself as being likely to work to my full potential 1 unlikely to work to my full potential 2 3 4 5 6 7 48. as a student of university, i see myself as being forgetful of names, dates, formulae etc. during exams/tests 1 mindful of names, dates formulae etc. during exams/tests 2 3 4 5 6 7 49. as a student of university, i see myself as being unlikely to find enough time to thoroughly research topics i am writing on 1 likely to find enough time to thoroughly research topics i am writing on 2 3 4 5 6 7 50. as a student of university, i see myself as being able to do some work in all my courses every day 1 unable to do some work in all my courses every day 2 3 4 5 6 7 51. as a student of university, i see myself as being satisfied with my grades 1 dissatisfied with my grades 2 3 4 5 6 7 academic motivation using the scale below, indicate to what extent each of the following items presently corresponds to one of the reasons why you are enrolled at lakehead university. does not correspond corresponds corresponds corresponds corresponds at all a little moderately a lot exactly -------1-------------2----------------------------3--------------4--------------5----------------------------6--------------7------- 52. why do you attend university? does not correspond at all 1 because with my previous education i would not find a higher-paying job later on because i experience pleasure and satisfaction while learning new things because i think that a university education will help me better prepare for the career i have chosen for the intense feelings i experience when i am communicating my own ideas to others honestly, i dont know; i really feel that i am wasting my time in school for the pleasure i experience while surpassing myself in my studies to prove to myself that i am capable of completing my university degree in order to obtain a more prestigious job later on for the pleasure i experience when i discover new things never seen before because eventually it will enable me to enter the job market in a field that i like for the pleasure that i experience when i read interesting authors i once had good reasons for going to university; however, now i wonder whether i should continue for the pleasure that i experience while i am surpassing myself in one of my personal accomplishments because of the fact that when i succeed in university i feel important corresponds moderately 2 3 4 corresponds exactly 5 6 7 academic motivation 2 using the scale below, indicate to what extent each of the following items presently corresponds to one of the reasons why you are enrolled at lakehead university. does not correspond corresponds at all corresponds a little corresponds moderately corresponds a lot exactly -------1-------------2----------------------------3--------------4--------------5----------------------------6--------------7------- 53. why do you attend university? does not correspond at all 1 because i want to have the good life later on for the pleasure that i experience in broadening my knowledge about subjects which appeal to me because this will help me make a better choice regarding my career orientation for the pleasure that i experience when i feel completely absorbed by what certain authors have written i cant see why i go to university and frankly, i couldnt care less for the satisfaction i feel when i am in the process of accomplishing difficult academic activities to show myself that i am an intelligent person in order to have a better salary later on because my studies allow me to continue to learn about many things that interest me because i believe that a few additional years of education will improve my competence as a worker for the high feeling that i experience while reading about various school subjects i dont know; i cant understand what i am doing in school because university allows me to experience a personal satisfaction in my quest for excellence in my studies because i want to show myself that i can succeed in my studies corresponds moderately 2 3 4 corresponds exactly 5 6 7 academic locus of control 54. please complete the following true or false questions regarding the type and amount of control you feel you have over your academic success. true university grades most often reflect the effort you put into classes i came to university because it was expected of me i have largely determined my own career goals some people have a knack for writing, while others will never write well no matter how hard they try i have taken a course because it was an easy good grade at least once. professors sometimes make an early impression of you and then no matter what you do, you cannot change that impression there are some subjects in which i could never do well some students, such as student leaders and athletes, get free rides in university classes i sometimes feel that there is nothing i can do to improve my situation i never feel really hopeless there is always something i can do to improve my situation i would never allow social activities to affect my studies there are many more important things for me than getting good grades studying every day is important for some courses it is not important to go to class false 55. please complete the following true or false questions regarding the type and amount of control you feel you have over your academic success. true i consider myself highly motivated to achieve success in life i am a good writer doing work on time is always important to me what i learn is more determined by university and course requirements than by what i want to learn i have been known to spend a lot of time making decisions which others do not take seriously i am easily distracted i can be easily talked out of studying i get depressed sometimes and then there is no way i can accomplish why i know i should be doing things will probably go wrong for me some time in the near future i keep changing my mind about career goals i feel i will someday make a real contribution to the world if i work hard at it there has been at least one instance in school where social activity impaired my academic performance i would like to graduate from university, but there are more important things in my life i plan well and i stick to my plans false debriefing thank you for taking the time to complete this survey, the information you have provided will be used to enhance student services and improve the experience of transfer students attending lakehead university. due to the personal nature of this study, you may experience a change in mood or experience certain emotions. if at any point after completing this survey you find you are experiencing distress you are urged to contact the student health and counseling centre at (807) 343-8361 located at lakehead university (thunder bay campus - prettie residence). please click the following link to a separate page to be entered in the draw, provide contact information and also indicate if you are willing to receive future communications from the research team. the purpose for having this separate page is to ensure that your survey responses are not connected to your email address. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/followup42 appendix d summary of psychological scale results academic resourcefulness total score highest possible: 161 lowest possible: 23 middle point: 92 n mean sd block transfer with summer transition 46 111.6 17.3 block transfer with no summer transition 25 117.6 14.8 advanced standing 32 110.1 20.7 other 7 113.0 16.5 total 110 112.6 17.8 block transfer with summer transition 46 20.0 6.3 block transfer with no summer transition 30 21.4 4.6 advanced standing 32 20.1 5.9 other 9 18.4 5.5 total 117 20.3 5.7 block transfer with summer transition 45 17.9 6.2 block transfer with no summer transition 30 18.4 6.7 advanced standing 32 18.5 7.5 a higher score indicates a higher reported resourcefulness academic motivation scale, intrinsic to know subscale highest possible: 28 lowest possible: 4 middle point: 16 a higher score indicates a higher reported motivation academic motivation scale, intrinsic accomplishments subscale highest possible: 28 lowest possible: 4 other 9 16.0 7.2 middle point: 16 total 116 18.1 6.7 block transfer with summer transition 46 12.0 6.7 block transfer with no summer transition 29 15.0 7.0 advanced standing 31 13.5 6.5 other 9 11.2 7.0 total 115 13.1 6.8 block transfer with summer transition 44 22.5 5.6 block transfer with no summer transition 30 24.0 3.5 advanced standing 32 22.0 4.8 a higher score indicates a higher reported motivation academic motivation scale, intrinsic experience stimulation subscale highest possible: 28 lowest possible: 4 middle point: 16 a higher score indicates a higher reported motivation academic motivation scale, extrinsic identified subscale highest possible: 28 lowest possible: 4 other 9 21.7 4.0 middle point: 16 total 115 22.7 4.8 block transfer with summer transition 45 20.6 6.3 block transfer with no summer transition 30 20.1 7.5 advanced standing 32 19.7 7.6 other 9 19.3 4.9 total 116 20.1 6.8 block transfer with summer transition 45 21.1 6.5 block transfer with no summer transition 30 22.0 5.2 advanced standing 31 21.4 5.8 other 9 23.6 2.6 total 115 21.6 5.7 a higher score indicates a higher reported motivation academic motivation scale, extrinsic introjected subscale highest possible: 28 lowest possible: 4 middle point: 16 a higher score indicates a higher reported motivation academic motivation scale, extrinsic external regulation subscale highest possible: 28 lowest possible: 4 middle point: 16 a higher score indicates a higher reported motivation academic motivation scale, amotivation subscale highest possible: 28 lowest possible: 4 middle point: 16 block transfer with summer transition 46 7.7 5.0 block transfer with no summer transition 30 6.4 3.5 advanced standing 32 8.3 6.0 other 9 6.7 4.9 total 117 7.4 5.0 block transfer with summer transition 45 10.5 3.9 block transfer with no summer transition 28 10.7 4.8 advanced standing 32 11.7 5.5 other 9 9.3 4.4 total 114 10.8 4.6 a higher score indicates a higher reported motivation academic locus of control scale total score highest possible: 28 lowest possible: 0 middle point: 14 a higher score indicates a more external locus of control appendix e peer mentorship references allen, t. d., russell, j. e., & maetzke, s. b. (1997). formal peer mentoring factors related to protgs' satisfaction and willingness to mentor others. group & organization management, 22(4), 488-507. davies, t. g., & casey, k. (1999). transfer student experiences: comparing their academic and social lives at the community college and university. college student journal, 33, 60-71. davies, t. g. and dickmann, e. m. (1998). can we hear them? do we listen? student voices in the transfer process. community college journal of research and practice, 22, 541-557. good, j. m., halpin, g., & halpin, g. (2000). a promising prospect for minority retention: students becoming peer mentors. journal of negro education, 375383. sanchez, r. j., bauer, t. n., & paronto, m. e. (2006). peer-mentoring freshmen: implications for satisfaction, commitment, and retention to graduation. academy of management learning & education, 5(1), 25-37. tremblay, p. f., & rodger, s. (2003). the effects of a peer mentoring program on academic success among first year university students. the canadian journal of higher education, 33(3), 1. terrion, j. l., & leonard, d. (2007). a taxonomy of the characteristics of student peer mentors in higher education: findings from a literature review. mentoring & tutoring, 15(2), 149-164. impact mentoring information survey please fill out this survey to assist us in pairing you with a mentor/mentee. name: email address: university program and year level: 1. 2. 3. 4. what college did you transfer from? what was your college program? did you complete a college diploma? do you want to be matched with someone from the same program? 5. why do you want to be a mentor/mentee? circle all applicable choices. a) to increase your university network b) to become more connected and familiar with lakehead university life c) to enhance communication and interpersonal skills d) to guide/receive guidance from a new/experienced peer e) to add to my co-curricular record f) to be part of a legacy and participate in the lakehead university peer mentorship program for college students 6. do you prefer to meet every week or 2 weeks for a discussion with your mentor/mentee? please circle one. 7. communication method: how would you prefer to communicate with your mentor/mentee outside of face to face meeting? please circle one: email phone/text 8. a) b) c) d) goals (mentee) to adapt proven successful study tips and improve grades to develop friendships and expand academic, career, and extracurricular interests to improve interpersonal and communication skills to feel more connected to the lakehead university life in general 9. e) f) g) h) goals (mentor) to enhance leadership and networking skills recognition on resume and transcript personal fulfillment: rewarding experience pay it forward: share own challenges and lessons learned from first year to provide insights to others going through similar challenges biography: please provide us with a short biography. when you are matched, this is what will be provided to your mentor/mentee. you may include whatever information you like. suggestions include educational background, professional experience, hometown, community involvement, hobbies and interests, etc. do we have your consent to provide your contact info to your mentor/mentee? do you have any accessibility or special needs so that we can ensure accommodations? impact mentorship pilot program peer mentor training february 2016 student success centre mentorship what do you know about her/him? fears? how do i take care of me? leadership skills? n lived experience i can share with my mentee? thank you in another language i.e. sign, chinese what makes a great mentor we all have some innate skills and some we wish to enhance-thoughts? ac7ve listening-nonjudgmental, gaining trust clear, concise and 7mely communica7on time management and organiza7on emo7onal intelligence: challenger of assump7ons be resourceful and proac7ve ins7ll posi7ve change and guide, not necessarily advice and denitely not impose personal opinions boundaries: know when to direct them to a counsellor i.e. campus health and counselling centre or a 24 hour line such as goodtotalk.ca mentor expectagons formal training/orienta7on is mandatory commit to 4 mee7ngs un7l mid april 2016 set out the parameters of your rela7onship, i.e. how oren you will meet when it ok to contact each other, how you will communicate with each other, etc. fill out the coee with x mee7ng notes with your partner thoughwully and honestly @ every mee7ng and submit to anna a,er every mee1ng-please come to wc and leave in my oce desk or scan it to me mentors will par7cipate in the half-way round table session and social event-tbd mid march set the agenda in the beginning of the mee7ng or prior, but be exible. suggest resources in the community if required-for e.g. learning disabili7es associa7on provide respecwul and construc7ve feedback or guidance to mentee you are not a counsellor-will be discussed at feb 11th training. evidence-based mentoring benets jacobi (1991) increased self-driven learning, strong independent decision-making, improved organiza7on and 7me management skills/condence in abili7es brown, david and mcclendon (1999) directed career decisions and constant persistence to achieve goals ferrari (2004) improved academic performance, self-awareness, self-ecacy op7mum experience with choice of program mentors toolkit-language and conversagons person rst empowering respecwul dialogue on diering views cri7cal evalua7on of ideas most evoca7ve conversa7ons will have licle close-ended answers i.e. yes/nowhy -typically start with a how, what, and why listening barriers: not lefng mentee nish their thoughts, wri7ng notes or checking your phone when listening, not making eye contact or staring the person down genuine interest: find out things you have in common 6 mental health 101 some changes in behavior to look out for-speak to myself or refer to student health services (important to assess and judge what course is appropriate): licle or no communica7on/consistently standing you up diculty concentra7ng/not engaged at all even if acendance is perfect heightened response to feedback/ suddenly more defensive poor appearance/sloppiness explicitly shares something of concern, and feelings..i.e. lost, dazed in reference to a serious event/series of events/state of mind mentors are required to report the following to the police/security including anna/anthea: if they have concerns of self harm or harm to others if they believe someone may be suicidal if there is a child being abused if you choose to meet on the weekends outside of mandatory sessions-it is your responsibility to ensure safety but student code of conduct applies for every mee7ng/interac7on dont take on too much-quan7ty does not equal quality-self care is cri7cal (resilience video will be shared via email) strong people are able to show vulnerability. thank you, merci, gracias..?.. goal: 4-6 mee7ngs in total by mid april 2016 next apprecia7on event: mid march 2016 bowling/midway touch point with the whole group course code cour 1000 cour 1001 cour 1002 cour 1003 cour 2000 cour 2001 cour 2002 cour 2003 cour 2004 cour 3000 cour 3001 cour 3002 cour 4000 course name (instructor) course 1000 (john smith) course 1001 (susan green) course 1002 (tom anderson) course 1003 (jan butler) course 2000 (john smith) course 2001 (susan green) course 2002 (tom anderson) course 2003 (jan butler ) course 2004 (john smith) course 3000 (susan green) course 3001 (tom anderson) course 3002 (jan butler) course 3003 (john smith) total lo1 i r p x x x x lo2 i r p x lo5 i r p x x x x 3 lo7 i r p lo8 i r p x x x x x x x x 1 lo6 i r p x x x x x 2 lo4 i r p x x x 4 lo3 i r p 6 x x 2 x x x x x x 1 3 x 1 1 1 x x 1 x 5 x x x 1 x x 1 1 2 x x x 3 x x 1 1 1 1 3 x 2 appendix i additional final report references cresswell, j. w. (1998). research design qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. hurlihey, v. (2012). college-university transfer programs in ontario: a history and a case study. college quarterly, 15(4). trice, a. (1985). an academic locus of control scale for college students. perceptual and motor skills, 61(3f), 1043-1046. vallerand, r., blais, m., briere, n., & pelletier, l. (1989). construction et validation de l'chelle de motivation en ducation (eme). canadian journal of behavioural science, 21(3), 323. vallerand, r., blais, m., briere, n., pelletier, l., senecal, c., & vallieres, e. (1992). the academic motivation scale: a measure of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in education. educational and psychological measurement, 52, 1003-1017.

pathways for child and youth care oncat file 2016-34 22 march 2017 authors co-chair tina montgomery collge boral rjeanne dnomm collge boral co-chair angelique lemay sault college sandy macdonald sault college jane trakalo algonquin college vicki grisim algonquin college sandra fieber fanshawe college julie cross fanshawe college derek stockley - humber college brenda webb humber college 1 list of participants and partner institutions partner institutions collge boral sault college algonquin college fanshawe college humber college participating institutions durham college st. lawrence college centennial college george brown college fleming college confederation college georgian college niagara college lambton college mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college loyalist college cambrian college la cite college 2 table of contents executive summary 3 project purpose and goals 3 pathway development 3 methodology 5 program comparison and analysis 6 implementation process and timelines 7 summary of pathway created 7 promising practices and lessons learned 8 appendices 9 3 2. executive summary the child & youth care (worker) advanced diploma program is offered in twenty colleges in the province of ontario. in child and youth care programs there is diversity in delivery methods, unique course offerings, structure, and course sequencing. the project team communicated, collaborated and consulted with their provincial cyc counterparts throughout the project in order to ensure consistency, accuracy and engagement. as a result, the project team was able to successfully navigate through the diverse program complexities in order to develop an innovative college to college pathway utilizing an outcomes based analysis to develop an inclusive and flexible transfer agreement. a significant outcome of this projects methodology resulted in the development of a live, web-based document that efficiently advances the process for cyc college to college program transferability and currency of the pathway. 3. project purpose and goals the overall project purpose was the development and implementation of strategies to enhance student mobility in the child and youth care programs at the college level. the goal was to develop a transfer pathway so that students from any ontario college offering cyc could transfer from year 1 into year 2, or year 2 into year 3 of a cyc program without losing any credits or without increasing their time to graduate. the proposed pathway could then be transferable to include all colleges offering cyc in the ontario college system. this project was prioritized because of the volume of students studying in the cyc programs across the province. at this time it is unknown how many students are transferring between institutions, however anecdotally, coordinators have expressed that they accept transfer students but without a clear process. the process varies across all colleges. with a transfer pathway in place, the transfer process will be more consistently applied to all students. 4. pathway development the pathway development was a collaborative process between participating institutions offering the cyc program. it was important to develop a clear and seamless college to college transfer pathway for students wishing to transfer to another post- secondary institution to continue their studies. 4 a. methodology step by step process for achieving project goals activity participants date conducted an initial project team meeting to lay the foundation for the project. project team may 9 , 2016 presented oncat transfer pathway project to ontario college cyc coordinators group. project team coordinators may 17, 2016 - august 2016. learning outcomes analysis was initiated. provincial coordinators completed a swot (strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis for the examination of curriculum outcomes. developed an action plan and a project process. small working groups of coordinators consulted with each other and developed core areas of study based on ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) vocational learning outcomes. provincial coordinators provided oncat project team with potential barriers and challenges to consider during pathway development. provincial coordinators agreed, in principle, to move forward with the transfer project. submission of course outlines by each academic institution. the majority of college cyc course outlines were stored in a repository for ease of comparison and reference. brief interim report sent to co-chairs. ongoing consultation occurred through regular meetings with project team held via teleconference and face to face. face to face meetings occurred with project team and cochairs to complete work plan and ensure project timelines and deliverables on target for completion. project team sept, oct, nov 2016 project cochairs sept 19 , 2016 project team coordinators developed the cyc core areas of study comparison chart. consolidated and refined core areas of study to accurately reflect vocational learning outcomes of all programs. this was done in consultation with all 5 project team coordinators october 2016 provincial coordinators. tested the validity of the comparison chart using relevant student scenarios. completed draft pathway documentation and supporting documentation. project team coordinators oct nov 2016 prepared interim report. project team nov 30, 2016 held face to face meeting with project team and co-chairs to complete work plan and ensure project timelines and deliverables were on target for completion. project cochairs nov 21, 2016 project coordinators draft pathway template was developed project coordinators december 2016 held final meeting with project team to review final draft of pathways project and deliverables and preparation of final report submission project team feb 8, 2017 submitted final report. project team march 15, 2017 b. program comparison and analysis there are a multitude of barriers to developing transfer pathways between colleges for the same program of study. in child and youth care programs there is diversity in delivery methods, unique course offerings, structure, and course sequencing. it was important for the project team as well as the provincial coordinators group to ensure that the pathway was flexible in its implementation. therefore, it was decided to move away from a course to course comparison. rather, it was determined that utilizing the maesd vocational learning outcomes would provide a superior guide to extrapolate common core areas of study. all provincial cyc coordinators were provided the opportunity to offer input in the development of core areas of study during the coordinators spring meeting in may 2016. a web-based excel tool was created in order to more seamlessly and clearly compare the curriculum across all programs. this tool has been named the core areas of study comparison chart (see appendix a). once developed, each college curriculum was mapped to the core areas of study. the project team coordinators were assigned 4-5 colleges to work with directly in order to confirm accuracy of the core areas of study comparison chart. they provided the core areas of study comparison chart in advance to the provincial 6 coordinators, then followed up with a phone call to each college. the direct consultation with provincial coordinators and their active engagement in the process by the project team were key factors in populating the document successfully. the chart is designed so that it can be used to compare any 2 colleges (see partner and participating institutions) offering the cyc program. c. implementation process and timelines process timeline oncat project coordinator team presents pathway at coordinators spring meeting presentation at oncat provincial conference may 2017 pathway is presented at heads of community services spring meeting may june 2017 pathway is presented to ccvpa for approval to encourage college participation to be determined colleges add cyc pathways to ontrasfer.ca website june-sept 2017 each participating institution to work with registrars for ease of implementation of the pathway september 2017 5. summary of pathway created (see specific details in appendix b) any student wishing to transfer from year 1 to year 2 from one institution to another in the cyc program must have successfully completed each of the courses at the transferring out institution with a minimum gpa of 2.0. when a student has successfully completed year one they will be admitted into year 2 at the receiving college. any transferring student will take the same number of credits as per the receiving institutions curriculum. this transfer agreement allows the flexibility for each receiving college to determine a customized timetable for the transferring student if a gap exists, however, it is imperative that the student not be penalized by having to take extra credits. this principle will apply in the same way to students transferring from year 2 to year 3. 7 6. promising practices and lessons learned flexibility in the deployment of the pathway was a key success factor. developing core areas of study based on vocational learning outcomes and looking at program similarities as a basis for analysis allowed for the development of an innovative live document for ease of transfer for all institutions. when working on a project of this magnitude, it also became quite evident that clear consistent communication, collaboration and engagement from all institutions was critical. list of promising practices a. the coordinators from the project team presented this transfer project at their annual cyc coordinators conference (spring meeting 2016) to ensure engagement of the cyc coordinators across the province. b. establishment of core areas of study based on vocational learning outcomes. c. development of an excel spreadsheet to facilitate curriculum comparison. d. the coordinators from the project team ensured consistent communication throughout the development of the pathway project with all participating institutions to ensure accuracy and understanding of the core areas of study tool emails, as well as direct phone calls by the project team directly to each college cyc coordinator across the province were made to seek their input regarding the tool, as well as walking through populating and using the to analyse transfer possibilities e. regularly scheduled meetings with team f. pathway built to allow for flexibility (example placement hours) although this project has successfully reached its goals, the project team has identified the critical need to ensure the ongoing currency of the pathway tool. the project team recommends that ongoing resources be assigned to update and ensure alignment of the core areas of study tool, as well as annual review of the transfer pathway template. recommendations from project team for oncat moving forward: a. heads of community services group must decide about proceeding with phase ii college to degree pathways, and degree to college pathways in cyc b. recommendation that resources be identified/allocated to ensure that the core area of study comparison tool and each program course outlines be keep up to date and centrally located so that it is accessible to all colleges. c. recommendation that resources from oncat are provided for the translation of french course outlines to better populate the core areas of study tool and the course outline repository. d. recommendation that for ease of student mobility, the following be addressed i. ease of access to locate pathway at ontranfer.ca ii. elimination of ocas fees for transfer students if applying through ocas for the pathway 8 7. appendices a. core areas of study comparison tool b. oncat pathways template 9

sommaire ce projet dlaboration dentente darticulation a permis llaboration des parcours de transfert de plusieurs programmes collgiaux du northern college vers des programmes de luniversit de hearst. vingt parcours ont t dvelopps entre des programmes collgiaux et des programmes universitaires qui ont un niveau lev daffinit. des parcours ont t labors entre le programme collgial police foundations vers les programmes uniques de b.a. (3 ans) et b.a. (4 ans) dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst. dautres parcours ont t dvelopp entre le programme collgial social service worker vers les programmes de b.a. (3 ans) et b.a. (4 ans) en psychologie de luniversit de hearst. finalement, des parcours ont t dvelopps entre les programmes collgiaux de business, business-accounting, businessmarketing, business administration, business administration - accounting business, admninstration - human ressources (2 years), administration human ressources (3 years) et business administration- information systems vers les programmes de b.a. (3 ans) en gestion et de b.a.a. (4 ans) en administration des affaires de luniversit de hearst.

cihe report 2017.01 two towers of transformation: the compatibility of the policy goals of differentiation and student mobility stacey young, pierre pich and glen a. jones a report to the ontario council for articulation and transfer a report by: ontario institute for studies in education (oise) university of toronto 252 bloor st. west, 6th floor toronto, ontario m5s 1v6 canada www.oise.utoronto.ca/cihe please cite this publication as: young, s. j., pich, p. g. and jones, g. a. (2017). the two towers of transformation: the compatibility of the policy goals of differentiation and student mobility. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oiseuniversity of toronto. two towers of transformation 2 contents acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. 4 1 executive summary ........................................................................................................................5 2 introduction................................................................................................................................... 6 3 key concepts defined diversity and student mobility .................................................................... 7 4 benefits and challenges to students, institutions and government of increased differentiation and student mobility .................................................................................................................................... 8 5 4.1 differentiation ...................................................................................................................... 8 4.2 student mobility ................................................................................................................... 9 4.3 intersection of benefits ........................................................................................................ 10 ontario in context a historical review of differentiation and student mobility ............................ 11 5.1 differentiation ..................................................................................................................... 11 5.2 student mobility .................................................................................................................. 13 5.3 strategic mandate agreements ........................................................................................... 17 6 methodology and literature review ............................................................................................... 18 7 review of the literature on institutional behaviour........................................................................ 19 8 policy levers or drivers that impact differentiation and student mobility .......................................20 9 8.1 differentiation .....................................................................................................................20 8.2 student mobility ..................................................................................................................22 8.3 intersection of policy levers ................................................................................................ 24 articulation case study analysis ....................................................................................................25 9.1 development and renewal of articulation agreements a sample process ..........................25 9.2 current pattern of articulation agreements.......................................................................... 27 10 credit transfer analysis ............................................................................................................ 30 11 other observations from articulation and credit transfer analysis ................................................. 33 12 key observations for future considerations .............................................................................. 33 references ........................................................................................................................................... 35 two towers of transformation 3 acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge the contributions of mr. ken snowdon (president, snowdon and associates) and dr. henry decock (associate vicepresident, academic partnerships, seneca college) that contributed to the overall quality of this study. we are also extremely grateful for the support of the ontario council on articulation and transfer in funding this project. two towers of transformation 4 1 executive summary in the mid2000s, the ontario government began seeking ways to introduce greater financial sustainability in the postsecondary system through two major policy goals: greater institutional differentiation, as well as mechanisms that would enhance student mobility chiefly by way of the tools of credit transfer and institutional articulation. both are intended to deliver and expand postsecondary education in a more cost effective and sustainable manner. this paper traces the evolution of those two policy towers, ultimately considering how they reside within the same system, either competing or complementing each other. this paper begins by examining the benefits of expanded opportunities for student mobility and differentiation with an attempt at identifying the degree of intersection between the two policy goals. the examination revealed that both policies are aligned from an efficiency/effectiveness and public good/social justice perspective. both attempt to drive quality, reduce cost structures to government and students, as well as increase access to baccalaureate education. an examination of the policy levers and drivers that impact differentiation and student mobility in ontario are first placed historically in order to provide context to the discussion and are examined by drawing from organizational and globalization studies. while there are number of policy levers and drivers that have been used by the provincial government to increase differentiation or student mobility, some levers have been identified as having a series of common elements between the two policy goals central planning role of government, financial mechanisms, intersector cooperation and collaboration, and competition. although this paper argues that the two policy towers are indeed highly complementary and mutually dependent, differentiation as a policy goal requires a recognition that student mobility must be supported there are a variety of policy levers that have not been used effectively (or used at all) in the pursuit of either one. this paper made use of a small number of case studies beginning with the partnerships funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer, to draw out certain key characteristics that can be mapped against institutional types used in differentiating the higher education system by clusters of institutions. the study also examined the extent to which various institutional types have been engaged in credit transfer and compared and contrasted the various strategies used to increase credit transfers and provide support to transfer students and improve access to information. it was noted, among other observations that depending on their size, mission and demographic futures, institutions use different tools available to them to support the broader provincial policy goal of introducing greater student mobility in the system. it appears from our detailed analysis in the latter part of the paper that universities place a greater emphasis on credit transfer policies and protocols, or on the development of articulation agreements. the importance to universities of credit transfer and/or program articulation with colleges also reflects the demographic challenges faced by these institutions in the region in which they are located. the act of engaging other institutions in the formation of academic partnerships between institutions that yield pathways and create choice for students (e.g., for students who began their studies in the college sector and wish to pursue universitylevel studies, or vice versa), is labourintensive, which involves a variety of different areas within the institutions. there are also risks to creating such partnerships, risks that are heightened in the current context when funding, student aid and other policies do not render such partnerships exceptionally beneficial to either party. two towers of transformation 5 if the province does indeed decide to adopt a policy of creating greater institutional differentiation, which appropriately executes the potential levers at its disposal, the government must then compel institutions to take on a greater commitment to nurturing student mobility. the paper concludes with some key observations that would warrant future assessment within the broader funding formula and osap policies and practices that the authors feel are necessary for either policy goal to succeed. these are: as part of the funding formula review for the university sector, establish an extra formula enrolment envelope to encourage institutions to increase the number of transfer students (through program partnerships, credit transfer and the creation of articulation agreements). a. this may be in the form of a fixed per student dollar value that exceeds the biu value of the program in which the student enrols. going forward, request that institutions include as part of their strategic mandate agreement submission, a discussion of the institutions transfer capacity and how it will be achieved through the use of one or both student mobility tools. ensure that the distance component of the ontario student assistance program is sufficient (in terms of both value and policy intent) to meet the costs of student mobility and choice. 2 introduction over the last 10 years, the ontario government has adopted a number of strategies some more effective than others associated with achieving two public policy pillars that together make up the bulk of its transformation agenda. this agenda includes the themes of achieving greater student mobility and differentiation among institutions. both are intended to deliver and expand postsecondary education in a more costeffective and sustainable manner. in the years following the implementation of the rae review (post2006), the provincial government began to consider the relevance and policy implications of differentiation. for its part, the differentiation policy framework was adopted to reshape ontarios higher education system in an effort to increase the systems overall sustainability, improve ontarios global competitiveness and increase access to students by building on the existing strengths of its colleges and universities. the policy would ask institutions to consider how they differ in the role they play in the province in the following six areas: jobs, innovation and economic development in distinct regions; innovative teaching and learning; access to underrepresented student groups; research and graduate education; breadth of programs and credential offerings; and extent of institutional collaboration and student mobility (mtcu, 2013). this was done within the confines of a funding formula that did not itself incent institutional differentiation, but rather provided incremental funding tied to performance indicators, mostly made within a context of respecting institutional autonomy, rejecting central planning functions while increasing competition, cooperation and collaboration amongst higher education institutions (pich, 2015b, p. 52). it also advanced this agenda through what were, and remain, largely public communications vehicles that included an accountability component the multiyear accountability agreements (myaas) and the strategic mandate agreements (smas). being unattached to any considerable amount of money (at least for now), the two exercises the myaas and the smas were governments attempts to encourage universities and colleges to define themselves and report on a related set of provincewide indicators of performance. working in two towers of transformation 6 tandem, additional reporting mechanisms would reveal institutional weaknesses, which would, theoretically, help contain the aspirations of overly ambitious institutions. some higher education thinkers regard student mobility and differentiation as mutually dependent: differentiation drives quality and student choice. if the aspirations of the student change during their studies or lifetime, a differentiated system offers the opportunity to switch to another postsecondary institution more aligned with their amended intentions and circumstances. the opportunity for students to move among postsecondary institutions is why an efficient and robust credit transfer system is more necessary in a differentiated system. therefore, improving ontarios credit transfer system should precede or accompany more system differentiation (weingarten & deller, 2010, pp. 1011). there is no reason to suggest an incompatibility between the goals of institutional differentiation and student mobility. however, their interconnectedness or interdependence is not perhaps for the reasons cited in the passage above. a differentiated system does not afford an opportunity to students to discover a greater variety of programming; rather, differentiation challenges the architects of the system to enable students to move through the system with greater ease. the levers that allow for that mobility are explicit credit transfer policies and a funding formula that facilitates the formation of academic partnerships through the creation of articulation agreements and adequate student aid funding. for the purposes of this paper, though, the authors will focus on the current pattern of articulation agreements and transfer activity and how these historical patterns may intersect with a differentiated pse system. we will also analyze the provinces implementation of a differentiation policy, a foundation for decision making by the province, through the negotiation of institutional mandate agreements and by amendment to the funding formula to focus on institutional strengths, as a backdrop to its aspirations to build a more expansive system of credit transfer and institutional articulation. the study will conclude by providing a set of recommendations that will inform the practical merging of these two policy goals. 3 key concepts defined diversity and student mobility institutional diversity (variety of institutions within a system or sector and the dispersion of institutions across types, see huisman, 1998) is better understood when the specific institutional characteristic under examination is clearly identified. a number of recent studies (clark, moran, skolnik, & trick, 2009; weingarten & deller, 2010; clark, trick & van loon, 2011, pich, 2015a) and mtcus (2013) policy framework examined and called for institutions to be differentiated over a multitude of dimensions (size, institutional type, degree levels, student demographics, prestige, geographic location) with an overarching emphasis on systemic diversity (differences in the type of institution, size of institution and control within a postsecondary system, birnbaum, 1983) and programmatic diversity (differences in degree level, mission and program emphasis, birnbaum, 1983). while the literature often distinguishes between diversity, diversification (process in which the level of diversity increases, see huisman, 1998) and differentiation (process in which new entities emerge in a system or sector, see huisman, 1998) this study will use the terms institutional diversity and differentiation to refer to differences between or among postsecondary institutions with respect to specific institutional characteristics (skolnik, 2013, paragraph 3). two towers of transformation 7 the concept of student mobility in ontario is most strongly associated with the dual policies of credit transfer and institutional articulation. simply put, credit transfer considers the equivalency of course credits across institutions that are of high affinity (e.g., comparing the learning outcomes of economics 101 at university x versus the same course at university y, or even college b). institutional articulation agreements at the program level, on the other hand, facilitate the block recognition of credits when a student moves from institution a to institution b (or credential a to credential b). in so doing, a receiving institution grants advanced standing to the student, in an overall effort to eliminate unnecessary duplicative learning. according to the australian qualifications framework (aqf) glossary of terminology, credit transfer and credit are defined as the following: credit transfer is a process that provides students with agreed and consistent credit outcomes for components of a qualification based on identified equivalence in content and learning outcomes between matched qualifications (aqf, 2013a) credit is the value assigned for the recognition of equivalence in content and learning outcomes between different types of learning and/or qualifications. credit reduces the amount of learning required to achieve a qualification and may be through credit transfer, articulation, recognition of prior learning or advanced standing (aqf, 2013b). the same source offers the following definition of articulation: articulation arrangements enable students to progress from a completed qualification to another with admission and/or credit in a defined qualification pathway (aqf, 2013c). other terms that complicate the language of student mobility include pathways and academic partnerships. in this study, the latter term refers broadly to the variety of ways in which institutions can combine their resources (space, faculty members) to offer shared programming, and which includes articulation agreements. pathways has become a frustratingly ubiquitous term that, in the ontario context, refers some sort of transparent way students may navigate a way from one institution to the other, in a manner that facilitates entry into the receiving institution. pathways do not necessarily rest upon an articulation agreement, and often involve only two institutions. increasingly, the currency that allows for equivalency to be established is learning outcomes (los). learning outcomes make it possible to assess the degree to which duplication in learning can be eliminated. theoretically, then, when equivalency is established on the course level or the program level, more efficient pathways between programs and credentials can be established. 4 benefits and challenges to students, institutions and government of increased differentiation and student mobility 4.1 differentiation over the years, a number of studies have cited arguments in favor of a diversified higher education system. diversity has been identified in the higher education literature as one of the major factors associated with the positive performance of higher education systems (van vught, 2008, p.154). birnbaum (1983) was among the earliest to identify its value to meet the needs of a diversified student body (students can be two towers of transformation 8 better matched to the institution type that truly meets their learning styles and aspirations), different labour markets, and to meet the needs of different interest groups. more specifically, a diverse higher education system is more efficient and effective for both government and institutions in achieving their purposes and functions, as it encourages the achievement of quality outcomes while lessening mission drift (clarity around institutional missions combined with government regulations can prevent mission drift). a diverse system also facilitates targeted and strategic funding allocations (especially in times of economic restraint) to specialized institutions to meet the specific needs of funding agencies (singh, 2008). from a public good/social justice perspective, singhs (2008) review of the literature identified that a diverse system has more demonstrable lines of accountability, and that diversity is a more effective way to address the multiple social purposes of higher education; widening of access to higher education for nontraditional students that better addresses their varied needsfairer access through differential fee structures at different institutions[and] better informed choices by prospective students [when institutions are clearly classified], p. 248. there are, however, adverse and perhaps unintended consequences to a differentiated system. geographic accessibility could eliminate the benefits of a diverse higher education system when the distances between major urban centers are large and the cost of transportation is high, thereby limiting educational opportunities for students to a few types of institutions (jones, 1996). these concerns were also expressed by the council of ontario universities as they seek a diverse sector that still provides a wide array of programs across the province. the greater the diversity of the system, the more difference it makes which institution an individual attends in regard to the quality of the education received and future options for subsequent education and employment (skolnik, 1986, p. 5). specialized institutions would not have the breadth of disciplines and activities found in a comprehensive university, which would thereby limit the range of potential interactions between different types of students and different types of faculty (skolnik, 1986). 4.2 student mobility the overall purpose of both credit transfer policies and the formation of academic partnerships in the form of articulation agreements are to expand student choice and enhance the opportunity for students to move amongst pse institutions. these tools help to ensure that students are academically prepared to succeed in their new programme of study (through these formal agreements), and reduce the costs of postsecondary education to students by eliminating the need to duplicate learning (see young, roderick & dipietro, 2016). an efficient student mobility framework ensures that students are able to achieve their maximum potential in learning, and can complete their studies in a timely manner [and increases] a students ability to study anything, anywhere, at any time (junor & usher, 2008, p.20). it ensures fair and appropriate recognition of their past studies and provides clear information about transfer processes and pathways with credit recognition requirements that are comprehensible to students. the absence of efficient credit transfer creates a barrier to students to pursue further postsecondary education. even though credit transferability may not be the most important barrier to mobility, it is perhaps the most intractable one simply because of the number of partners which need to be mobilized in order for a solution to be found (junor & usher, 2008, p.19). furthermore, an academic credential is almost never issued without the student accumulating essential credits (prerequisites and minimum grade requirements) that demonstrate an appropriate level of mastery in an academic program of study, in order to ensure that all graduates from an institution possess the same core knowledge and competencies (junor & two towers of transformation 9 usher, 2008, p.22). while these requirements ensure minimum levels of academic quality are met before a credential is issued by an institution, they may also lead to duplicative learning. it has been widely accepted that, in most jurisdictions, the cost to government and students of obtaining a baccalaureate degree by attending two years at a college followed by two years at a university, is lower than the cost of attending a fouryear program at a university, assuming that the student does not need to take extra courses to make up for courses not taken at college (trick, 2013). in addition, the cost incurred by universities on admission, orientation, and academic advising for transfer students was noted to be higher than those for directentry students. the cost perstudent of recruiting transfer students was lower than for directentry students as there are a limited number of channels available for recruiting transfer students as compared to directentry students (young et al, 2016; trick, 2016). however, it is often assumed that the three main players who directly fund the postsecondary education system students, government and institutions will all reap substantial cost savings by rationing the systems resources and leveraging fixed costs to the benefit of all parties maximum advantage (see latest exercise in assessing the potential for costs savings by snowdon and brady, 2015), such assumptions have not been rigorously interrogated. furthermore, it has been pointed out repeatedly by institutions and scholars (notably, skolnik, 2005), that there exists no real structural financial incentive for institutions to actively pursue transfer students and incur additional costs (developing articulation arrangement and related infrastructure for caat transfer students) in a period of enrolment growth, with the exception that institutions facing declining enrolment may theoretically stem these declines through the development of transfer policies and agreements. skolnik (2005) makes the case that increased student mobility could be achieved if ontario universities would be more differentiated beyond the current researchintensive universities, have open access, flexible admission policies and would value student mobility between institutions. he argues that institutions with degreegranting authority includes those institutions that provide traditional polytechnic education, making them more similar to caats than to universities (ibid). 4.3 intersection of benefits the benefits of student mobility and a highly differentiated system are aligned from an efficiency/effectiveness perspective. both attempt to drive quality through specialization or by allowing some institutions to compete globally (differentiated system) or through increased collaboration between sectors (student mobility). there is also a reduction in cost structures for government as targeted and strategic approaches can be developed to support more specialized institutions (differentiated system) and a reduction in postsecondary spending occurs when a student attends part of their baccalaureate education at a college rather than entering directly into university (student mobility). the benefits of expanded student mobility and a highly differentiated system are also aligned from a public good/social justice perspective. both attempt to increase access to baccalaureate education either by creating different types of institutions beyond the traditional research university that will increase access to nontraditional students (differentiated system) or by allowing students to study closer to their family home (student mobility). there is also a reduction in cost structures for students with the creation of differentiated fee structures (differentiated system) and the elimination of duplicative learning (student mobility). two towers of transformation 10 5 ontario in context a historical review of differentiation and student mobility ontario higher education is composed of universities that were created with similar missions (teaching, research and community service) by separate acts of the provincial legislature with the authority to grant degrees. colleges were established under one act that offers technical, nondegree, communityresponsive and vocational programming, and, since 2000, to offer applied baccalaureate degrees. the province has few restrictions on the nondegree private career colleges sector and allows market forces to meet the demand for vocationally driven programming. 5.1 differentiation it is acknowledged that ontario universities are somewhat differentiated and the province seeks to increase the extent of diversity in its higher education system. ontario universities are currently differentiated on several dimensions: by size (e.g. the university of toronto has over 77,000 students in 201415 as compared to algomas almost 1,200 students), by program offerings (e.g. not all universities offer nursing programs and not all offer professional programs like medicine, dentistry and pharmacy), by mission (the extent to which an institution focuses on research, teaching and community service), by the composition of their student body (e.g. proportion of graduate and undergraduate students or the extent of indigenous, first generation, francophone and students with disabilities), and in the way universities deliver their course offerings (e.g. traditional lecture, experiential learning, online, or cooperative education). the ontario college sector is also differentiated by their nature as they offer programs that specifically serve their unique local communities and offer vocational certificates (including graduate certificates), diplomas, while half of the colleges offer baccalaureate degrees, all in support of their local economies. the sector is also differentiated by other dimensions: by size (humber has over 18,000 funded students in 201112 as compared to borals 1,366 students), by applied funded research activity, a relatively new and minor activity for colleges (hicks, weingarten, jonker and liu, 2013). however, very little attention has been given to the extent of diversity in ontarios college sector as these institutions, by their very own nature, immediately contributed to increasing the systems systemic and programmatic diversity when they were originally created (skolnik, 2013). while the debate about the level of diversity in ontarios higher education system has recently intensified with the governments adoption of a differentiation framework (see mtcu, 2013), skolnik (2013) traces the debate about institutional diversity to the second quarter of the nineteenth century where the discussion focused around differentiated funding for postsecondary institutions depending on their denominational affiliation. prior to the 2004, ontario postsecondary education system review, structural higher education changes were suggested by numerous commissions (commission to study the development of graduate programmes in ontario (known as the spinks commission, 1966), the report of the committee on the future role of universities in ontario (known as the fisher committee report, 1981), commission on the future development of the universities of ontario (known as the bovey commission, 1984)), and the advisory panel on future directions for postsecondary education (excellence, accessibility, responsibility, 1996) that focused mainly on increasing the extent of systemic and programmatic diversity in the university sector in an effort to increase the levels of teaching and research quality, and accessibility to meet the demands for higher education in a cost effective manner while respecting institutional autonomy. policy recommendations two towers of transformation 11 historically revolved around funding levels and program rationalization (mix of programs) to reduce duplication, all within a context of respecting institutional autonomy, rejecting central planning functions while increasing competition, and enhancing cooperation and collaboration amongst postsecondary institutions (pich and jones, 2016, p. 3). more recently, former ontario premier bob rae undertook a review of the public postsecondary education system with a focus on increasing access to postsecondary education, improving quality and accountability combined with examining the design and structure of the current system. rae encouraged the promotion of institutional diversity as a means of reducing duplication through the tuition framework, accountability arrangements and the design of the provinces funding formula (rae, 2005, p. 41). he also recognized that as institutions become more specialized, students require clearer pathways and enhanced credit transfer arrangements. several studies have suggested structural recommendations through increased institutional differentiation. jones and skolnik (2009) called for increased differentiation through the creation of an undergraduate teachingfocused sector (mainly located in the gta due to the demand for baccalaureate education in that region) that would differ from colleges and existing universities while enhancing pathways for college students to attain a baccalaureate degree and possibly attend graduate school if they so choose. this study also recommended the creation of a specialized open university, and an increased role for colleges in providing baccalaureate education and more efficient transfer system for university arts and science subjects. the ministry of training colleges and universities requested advice from the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) that led to the development of a roadmap to increase diversity in ontarios postsecondary education system during a period of fiscal restraint. weingarten and deller (2010) acknowledged that the university sector is currently differentiated by programmes that serve a variety of regions but noted that differentiation can only be achieved if teaching, research and community service are valued equally by government. differentiation can best be achieved through comprehensive agreements between government and institutions that lay out institutional priorities, goals and areas of future growth. it was also recommended that incentive funding obtained through competition that is tied to desired government outcomes be used as the key lever to enable differentiation. over the years, two different approaches have been suggested in the literature to increase institutional diversity in ontarios university sector. the first is to increase diversity through the creation of new institutional types (teachingfocused universities, an open university) or expand the role of existing institutions (such as colleges) thereby increasing access while also contributing to greater efficiencies in the provision of degree programsthe second approach, which now dominates the ontario policy debate is to increase diversity within the existing array of institutions through incentives and mandate agreements designed to stimulate differentiation (pich and jones, 2016, p. 13). while these recommendations mainly focused on the provincial government policy environment, from a federal perspective, ontario universities received significant research funding mainly through the national granting councils and academic salary support through the canada research chairs program. research funding is provided through a peer review based, competitive process and differentiates universities by the extent of their research intensity. this research funding mechanism supports existing research strengths and encouraged diversification in the university sector in ontario (pich, 2015b, p. 59). while the salary support funding is mainly distributed based on an institutions ability to attract national granting council funding, it ensures that all universities receive funding for at least one chair, thereby encouraging all universities to be more research intensive (pich, 2015b). two towers of transformation 12 5.2 student mobility the sister initiatives of articulation and credit transfer emphasize the elimination of the need for duplicative learning through the encouragement of institutions to deploy more rigor and transparency to the process of recognizing prior formal learning through the use and consideration of learning outcomes, both at the course and program levels. the emphasis on the word formal here is intended to draw attention to the simultaneous rise and encouragement of the adoption of additional mechanisms that recognize prior learning that takes place in more informal settings. prior learning and assessment recognition, or plar, is defined as a process constituting a combination of demonstrations, challenges, and the presentation of the personal portfolio, allowing learning outcomes to be translated into academic credit (thomas, 2001, p. 9). the reason for noting this concurrent rise and interest in widening the use of plar, on the one hand, and a system of credit transfer and articulation agreements on the other, is that they all rest upon the formal development of processes and mechanisms designed to establish the value and equivalency of acquired learning outcomes at the course and program levels. although thomas, collins and plett (2002) have characterized plar as a process designed to transform private knowledge into something that is publicly recognized, it is also premised on a selfconscious and intentional consideration of what has been learned in another, sometimes very different learning context. all these exercises of establishing equivalency draw heavily on the currency of learning outcomes in order to reduce duplication in learning and the costs involved thereof the costs to students, institutions and government. today, articulation and transfer are also regarded as tools to provide a mechanism of greater collaboration and cooperation between and among universities and colleges, particularly in a context of resource containment (weingarten and deller, 2010). ontario is among a handful of provinces in which college sectors were designed with the express intention of providing an alternative education to university (lang, 2009; skolnik, 2005). however, that is not the case for all canadian provinces. those such as alberta, british columbia, and quebec, feature a formally mandated transfer role that explicitly prepares the college graduate for entry into universitylevel study (dennison & gallagher, 1986; gallagher & dennison, 1995). curriculum development and program design, therefore, are driven largely with the university curriculum in mind, and attempt to prepare the graduate for future university study. however, as will be explored below in this paper, ontario and notably, manitoba has engaged in a fair amount of work in order to make the transition to degree level study possible after successful completion of a collegelevel credential (skolnik, 2004). as documented extensively by kirby (2007), the first interinstitutional collaborative programs were created for nursing education, in part a result of the 1993 call issued by the ontario nurses association (ona) that all of its nurse practitioners hold baccalaureate degrees by the year 2000 (ona, 2016). in response to the ndps interest in supporting the resurgence of the nursing practitioner credential, ona called upon the government to support the improvement and expansion of the transferability of academic credits, while ensuring the appropriate attainment of college diplomas and university degrees (ona, 2016). the articulation model of collegeuniversity nursing education was regarded by nurses themselves as the most appropriate way the profession could deal with the upgrading required by many of its members, in a costeffective way that minimized duplication in learning. with the transition from diploma entrylevel to degree entrylevel education for registered nurses (rns), a collaborative program model that brings together independent college and university two towers of transformation 13 programs has been widely adopted as a preferred model for baccalaureate nursing programs across canada (kirby, 2008, p. 2). in terms of articulation and transfer at large, the first of the most ambitious calls for enhanced opportunities for student mobility in the province was issued in 1990, in the document vision 2000, in which the author, charles pascal, restated what he considered the greatest flaw of the pse system in the province: that it was created with the explicit intention of providing a fundamentally different type of educational experience; and that such intentionality had created a profound challenge to student movement between and among the two institution types. some have suggested that caat system founder william davis left open the possibility of student movement from college to university, as the policy notes accompanying the creation of the college sector stated that no able and qualified student should be prevented from going on from a college of applied arts and technology to a university (davis, 1967, pp.1314). however, another, equally plausible interpretation is that the government was simply drawing attention to the lack of intention behind the streaming effect that the structure of the system would have, or that college students were simply in any way prohibited from applying to university. colleges were intended to provide an alternate, more efficient and costeffective option for workingclass ontarians. nonetheless, vision 2000 called for an expansion and increase in the number of opportunities for students to move with greater ease between and among provincial pse institutions, particularly through the mechanism of credit transfer (for fuller treatments of policy reviews, consult dennison, 1995; and fisher, rubenson, shanahan & trottier, 2014). two components of vision 2000 that were adopted by government that had relevance to the development of articulation and credit transfer in ontario were: the establishment of the college standards and accreditation council (csac) and the development of a guide devoted to assisting colleges craft and adopt their own prior learning and assessment mechanisms, to be operated fully independently at each college (smith, 1996). like vision 2000, pitman s (1993) report titled no dead ends: ontario task force on advanced training (also known as the pitman report), addressed what was habitually regarded as the major design flaw of ontarios system, through a more advanced and systematic mechanism of credit recognition. in the next few years, the provinces agreed, through the council of ministers of education (cmec), to issue a pancanadian protocol on the transferability of credits, with a view to increasing interprovincial student mobility (1995). although the spirit of the agreement was well intentioned, the coordination of 10 distinct provincial systems of higher education to join forces to improve student mobility was more relevant as a statement of interprovincial goodwill rather than a set of marching orders to regional bureaucracies. in other words, the set of principles was rooted in a sense of aspiration rather than short or mediumterm action plans. by 1994, the provincial government had shifted its focus somewhat, with attention squarely situated on the institutions and their processes, rather than on individual courses having some basic transferable qualities. the emphasis was also on the perceived need for colleges and universities to work together to achieve both a level of cost savings as well as serve what was perceived as a growing demand on the part of students and perhaps employers for a skill set that was best achieved through a program of study that combined the technical skills of a college education and the theoretical skills of university training. that same year, the government opted to support pathway development through a voluntary body of colleges and universities called the collegeuniversity consortium council (cucc). further pressure on improving student mobility emerged from the recommendations of a panel convened in 1995 on the future of postsecondary education under the recently elected progressive conservative government of mike harris. although the report clearly had terms assigned to it along the lines of how best the system could deliver more results with fewer resources (the theme of most government policy reports two towers of transformation 14 throughout the 1990s), the panel called for a few fairly dramatic changes to the way in which colleges and universities were financed during that decade. it was within that environment the deregulation of tuition fees, the cuts to student aid and operating support of up to 20 per cent that changes were needed to facilitate the movement and mobility of students between the college and university sectors (young, 2001). in the words of the panel, without some significant changes to the way the system was resourced, colleges and universities would not be able to deliver the types of programming expected of them by students, government and employers alike. specifically, the panel noted the need to remove unnecessary barriers to students wishing to transfer among [colleges and universities] and also to the sharing of services and facilities (mtcu, 1996). as part of acting concretely on some of the recommendations of the smith report, the government also funded the development and distribution of a key communication piece for the benefit of students and institutions in the form of a transfer guide available for students. it copied in both form and function similar communication vehicles used in other jurisdictions with highly developed transfer and articulation regimes; namely, british columbia and alberta. little happened on this particular policy front in the years from 1996 to 2003, although cucc established a number of initiatives in the sector, many of which involved two or three institutional partners. the total number of projects was impressive, as such activity was voluntary, and had not yet emerged as such a highly emphasized institutional focus. however, much of the activity was not coordinated at the system level and knowledge transfer was one of the downfalls of the voluntary nature of membership and involvement with the cucc and the activity it supported. it did, however, lead to a number of innovative experiments with articulation arrangements, as well as shared programming, and played a key role in the challenges facing the nursing profession, as outlined above. in terms of credit transfer and articulation, government also focused increasing attention on the college sector, where it could make its mark more effectively, given its great role in managing and governing that sector. its management role extended beyond funding and policy to its handson role in regulating curriculum, the result being that collegebased programming was far more similar from institution to institution due to external forces on program offerings and content. the result was the creation of a transfer and mobility protocol for collegetocollege transfer in 2003. through the mid2000s, further movement took place, as former premier bob rae called for greater progress related to facilitating student mobility; provinces formed a national umbrella group the pan canadian consortium on admissions and transfer. it was seen as a vehicle for organizing national activities, goals and statements of an aspirational tone; however, since its members exhibited such variation in the nature and structure of their postsecondary systems, it lacks the formal authority to advance the agenda too dramatically. credit transfer and articulation, including the broad goal of student mobility, took somewhat of a back seat to the trinity of access, quality, and accountability that characterized the reaching higher agenda. this was partly due to the fact that this agenda was about spending, not about seeking administrative and other efficiencies. however, once the spending associated with the reaching higher agenda had subsided, government turned toward a second wave of policy goals, arguably more motivated by realized system efficiencies and longterm sustainability, as well as addressing some of perceived systemic flaws. this included furthering the progress on differentiation, accountability (through the multiyear accountability agreement renewal process), and credit transfer and articulation, among others. in order to speed up the process improving student mobility, the ministry established a successor body to the collegeuniversity consortium council (cucc). in the following year (2009), the credit transfer steering two towers of transformation 15 committee was created, made up of sector representatives, to advise government on how credit transfer and articulation should and could be facilitated, as well as an additional committee (technical working group) to recommend how success would be reflected in an appropriate set of performance indicators. the latter body helped inform the credit transfer accountability framework. several years after the government sought internal approval to allocate funding to create a successor body that would further support student mobility, it created the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the arms length agency was established to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 44 publicly funded postsecondary institutions. it was created as a memberdriven organization to work with all publicly funded colleges and universities to enable the system of credit transfer to develop as rapidly as possible, while also respecting institutional autonomy (oncat, 2013, p. 3). ontario will have a comprehensive, transparent and consistently applied credit transfer system that will improve student pathways and mobility, support student success and make ontario a postsecondary education destination of choice. the credit transfer system will assist qualified students move between postsecondary institutions and programs without repeating prior and relevant learning (mtcu, 2011). in a 2013 policy paper, oncat stated its purpose was to help expand student mobility in the province of ontario by nurturing the creation of new pathways; work with institutions to create clearer guidelines concerning their policies and practices (communications); and advise on the development of mechanisms that would help generate better data on the tracking and movement of students through the provincial postsecondary system. in systems like ontario where articulation agreements and other forms of partnership tend to connect fairly autonomous institutions, the processes involved and the incentives offered are very different than they are in those provinces where cooperation is high and articulation and transfer practices are further along. part of what makes the expectations of cooperative behaviour by governments is that government itself sometimes relays contradictory messages to institutions. government creates both policy and operational levers designed to induce cooperation (special funding for articulation agreements) and others designed to support competitive behaviours (matching programs in which institutions compete, often, for the allocation of private funds) (young, 2002). given this challenging environment, boggs and trick deploy a unique lens to the challenges faced by ontario institutions when expected to forge cooperative relationships with one another within this funding and policy context, and begin their study with the following observation: studies show that between 50 and 70 per cent of joint ventures do not succeed (park & russo, 1996; as cited in boggs & trick, 2009). the following are the key factors and dynamics drawn from the work of boggs and trick (2009) that are part of the prospective partners process of determining whether or not partnership is prudent, beneficial or counter to the interests of an organization. they are extremely relevant to the specter of an articulation agreement: uncertainty and immeasurability this notion underlies the doubts and fears that either or both parties feel about the quality of the others contribution to the partnership. third party effects the impact upon relationships with other organizations as a consequence of forming a cooperative arrangement (government, funding agencies, competitors, etc.). two towers of transformation 16 disincentives to share gains (and risk!) the potential to overstate the costs or share/burden of the partnership so that the contributions by the two partnership are inaccurately reported; enforcement difficulties finding the appropriate dispute mechanisms in the event of a dispute or difference in interpreting a contractual element; uncertainty about external authorities the role of external agencies to facilitate or erect barriers to cooperation between two parties. as axelrod (1984) noted, without the shadow of the future, cooperation becomes impossible to sustain. thus, the role of time perspectives is critical in the maintenance of cooperation. when the interaction is likely to continue for a long time, and the players care enough about their future together, the conditions are ripe for the emergence and maintenance of cooperation (pp. 181182). 5.3 strategic mandate agreements the province launched its initial strategic mandate agreement (sma) process with ontario universities and colleges in 2012 as a mechanism to increase institutional diversity by focusing on institutional strengths and to inform future funding allocations and program approvals. the higher education quality council of ontario was asked to establish an expert peer review panel to evaluate these initial smas in an effort to identify institutions that would have the ability to improve productivity, quality and affordability through innovation and differentiation. funding allocations would be recommended for 201314. unfortunately, the panel chose not to make funding recommendations as there was not sufficient diversity among mandate agreements, particularly when examined within each of the college and university sectors, to allow for identification of some institutions as leads (higher education quality council of ontario, 2013, p. 6) and instead chose to advise the government on the various themes extracted from the smas. in late 2013, the ministry called for revised smas (201415 to 201617) to be developed within the context of ontarios differentiation policy framework which had been released in november 2013. institutions were required to highlight their areas of institutional strengths under each of the government priorities of jobs, innovation and economic development; teaching and learning; improve access, retention, and success to postsecondary education for underrepresented groups (aboriginal, first generation, students with disabilities) and francophones; research; the breadth of programming, enrolment and credentials offered; initiatives in student mobility; and identify future aspirations. institutional and systemwide metrics were also developed to monitor performance over time. once institutions submitted their revised smas, the province requested institutions to work with a special advisor to the minister, to complete the sma process by march 31, 2014, at which time the smas were signed by the institution and the government. while the first signed smas, created cooperatively between the ministry and the institutions, reflect a stronger alignment between institutional aspiration and the evidence of differentiation, it is critical that the next round of smas seize the opportunity to move strongly and boldly towards more differentiated missions and strategic pathways (jonker & hicks, 2016, p. 4). two towers of transformation 17 6 methodology and literature review this study will draw upon several bodies of literature that fall under the rubric of organizational (population ecology, resource dependency, institutional theory) and globalization theories to help explain institutional behaviors and responses to external forces such as government policy (some attached to financial incentives, some not), and how such policy levers can enhance or hinder student mobility and institutional differentiation. textual analysis of government policies and policy statements, as well as the critical bodies of literature (both ontario focused as well as international), will be used to shine the light upon the application and operationalization of these two public policy goals. the study will also examine a selection of articulation agreements between universities and colleges. relevant institutional characteristics include the type and size of institutions, and the locations of the institutions that are party to the agreement. the study will also examine the extent to which various institutional types have been engaged in student mobility and will compare and contrast the various strategies used to satisfy this public policy goal. for instance, transfer activity from the fall of 2014 to the fall of 2015 using the common university data ontario (hosted on the council of ontario universities website), which identifies the number of students who applied and enrolled as a degree seeking transfer student. transfer students are defined as those that attended another postsecondary institution and requested the transfer of credits. universities were clustered by size (small: less than 12,000 fte; medium: 12,000fte to 27,000fte; large: above 27,000 fte) and by type using the latest macleans university ranking classification (primarily undergraduate, comprehensive and medical/doctoral) and by classifying ocad university and algoma university as special purpose institutions. in order to gain insight into the credit transfer analysis, the study reviewed the transfer credit section of the multiyear accountability agreement (myaa) report for each ontario university for the period 200910 to 201314 in order to gain insights into the mechanisms used by institutions who more successfully participated in the transfer credit system as compared to others. overall observations were first derived from reviewing the myaa for the period and drawing out key observations by institution. these key observations were further summarized by cluster of institutions to draw out differences by cluster that may account for the differences in the extent of transfer registration as a percentage of transfer application by cluster. the focus of this analysis is on institutional mechanisms used to increase student mobility and is not an evaluation of student demand. the myaa is a publicly available report intended to provide the government of ontario with a tool for publicly reporting on the performance of ontarios postsecondary institutions. with respect to credit transfer, the ministry is seeking to hold institutions accountable for the level of activity that contributed to maintaining or improving an institutions efforts to develop and enhance credit transfer. while this report has been in place since 20067, the focus on credit transfer was first introduced in the 200910 myaa. at that time, institutions were required to report steps taken to enhance the students transition experience either from college to university or university to university and to showcase a promising practice used to develop and enhance credit transfer. from 201011 to 201213, institutions were required to report on their progress under the following three main themes, expanding transfer pathways, providing support service for transfer students and improving transparency and access to information. these categories were eliminated in 201314 and institutions were simply required to report on activities that contributed to maintaining or improving an institutions efforts to develop and enhance credit transfer. two towers of transformation 18 7 review of the literature on institutional behaviour the field of organizational studies can be used as an effective tool to understand institutional responses to government directives from a macro perspective. it is an examination of the relationship between the institution and its environment. this study will draw from organizational and globalization theories to better understand institutional responses to the provinces directive to increase diversity and student mobility through its review of policy levers. it should be acknowledged that external demands for change, such as global forces, can shape organizational change. clark, moran, skolnik, and trick (2009) observed that global forces helped shaped todays ontarios higher education system. institutions are expected to collaborate with industry to increase the countrys economic competitiveness and must adopt their programs to prepare a workforce that will assist employers to be globally competitive. institutions must also adapt their business processes for greater efficiency as government places increased reliance on market and quasimarket forces, thereby increasing competition for resources while placing restriction on degree granting. levin (2004) made use of globalization theory (global marketplace is the driver of organizational change) to explain the rationale for baccalaureatedegree granting in canadian and american community colleges. levin suggested that external demands (demands from economic marketplace beyond vocational training) for higher education and training drove institutions to alter their missions by offering baccalaureate degrees. van vughts (2008) theoretical framework for explaining diversity and differentiation in higher education systems drew from population ecology, resource dependency and institutional theory. population ecology focuses on the sources of variability and homogeneity of organizational forms. it pays considerable attention to population dynamics, especially the processes of competition among diverse organizations for limited resources such as membership, capital and legitimacy (hannan and freeman, 1989, p.13). in this model, the environment determines which organizations succeed and which fail (van vught, 2008, p.158). this perspective would suggest that organizations need to draw sufficient resources from their environment to survive and when resources are limited and must compete with other organizations to secure sufficient resources. van vught (2008) drew on resource dependency perspective, which unlike the population ecology perspective, contend that while organizations are influenced by their environment, they can also influence their environment for their survival. competition for scarce resources forces organizations to more or less similar responses, but also that, when confronted with scarcity of resources, organizations may want to try to influence their environmental conditions in order to secure better conditions (p.161). van vught (2008) drew from institutional theory to explain how institutions tend to act when threatened by a lack of resources. institutional theory examines the environmental effects of social rules, norms and values that shape organizational behavior. it essentially contends that an organization will take into account the success of other organizations in developing its own structures and processes. institutional theory favors local and institutional actors over economic markets and competition as justifiable explanations of organizational action and alteration (levin, 2004, p.3). relying on the work of dimaggio and powell (1983) which identified three pressures that lead to greater uniformity of institutions mimetic isomorphism (organizations imitating the behavior of successful organizations as they suffer from academic drift, ambiguous goals or uncertainty caused by poorly understood technologies), normative isomorphism (mimicking established professional norms) and coercive isomorphism (pressures from other controlling organizations on which the organization is dependent such as government policies and laws), van vught (2008) formulated the following two proposition: the larger the uniformity of the environmental conditions of higher education organizations, the lower the level of diversity of the higher education system[and,] the larger the influence of two towers of transformation 19 academic norms and values in a high education organization, the lower the level of diversity of the higher education system (p. 162). the following section will draw from organizational and globalization theory to inform some of the discussion of policy levers or drivers that impact institutional differentiation and student mobility as applied by codling and meek (2006) and reichert (2009). 8 policy levers or drivers that impact differentiation and student mobility policy makers and institutional leaders are interested in implementing the most effective processes and policies that will increase differentiation and student mobility. the following will draw from international and canadian experiences and practices to identify both formal and informal methods of achieving differentiation and student mobility. formal methods of promoting diversity emphasize the role of state regulation for sustaining the separate institutional types[while] informal promotion of diversity is realised through inter institutional competition for people and resources and through soft norms of quality assurance[with] the underlying assumption of such approaches usually liken he systems to markets in which institutions compete for resources (reichert, 2009, pp. 1516). 8.1 differentiation there are a number of key provincial policy mechanisms that can and have been used by the province of ontario to impact the extent of differentiation, namely the creation of new institutional types (discussed in a previous section), funding and enrolment policies, increased central planning, competition for funding, and the use of strategic mandate agreements (discussed in a previous section). universities and colleges in ontario are mainly funded through government operating grants and student tuition fees, essentially creating a uniform funding regime environment in each sector. the government controls the amount of grant it will allocate through enrolment levels (rewarding enrolment growth while institutions are free to allocate these funds between their teaching, research and community service missions) and funds new initiatives mainly through specialpurpose grants. the funding formulas are the most powerful instruments available to government to steer changes in the system and in the behavior of institutions (higher education quality council of ontario, 2013, p. 14). domestic tuition fees are regulated by government (provide no incentive for institutions to differentiate their programs by fee levels) while international student fees, some professional and all graduate program fees are deregulated allowing each institution to determine their fee levels. specialpurpose grants have been used by the province in support of a number of initiatives, including the special missions of northern universities, bilingualism grants to support the offering of more courses in french as well as differentiation grants in support of an institutions differentiated role including the provision of aboriginal education. however, these grants accounted for less than 12% of the basic formula grant in 2015. the recent allocation of graduate (masters and doctoral) enrolment spaces to universities first started as a result of the 2005 budget announcement followed by a june 2006 announcement by the ministry of its two towers of transformation 20 graduate expansion plans resulting in graduate enrolment targets being allocated to almost all universities while some researchintensive universities received additional spaces. while, universities in ontario were previously differentiated by the extent of graduate programs they offered, the allocation of graduate enrolment funding throughout the province decreased the extent of programmatic diversity in the province (pich, 2014). fallis (2013) suggested that a subgroup of universities should focus on doctoral education and conduct high quality research across a range of fields while all other universities could focus their attention on undergraduate education and the provision of masters programs. it should be noted that the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) has recently engaged both the college and university sector around potential changes to the funding formula. in december 2015, maesd released its report, focus on outcomes, centre on students, outlining the results of extensive consultations with the postsecondary sector on university funding reform and began the process to modernize the funding model for universities. the new funding model is anticipated to better align funding with institutional strengths and other priorities identified in the sma process. maesd is also expected to begin the next round of sma (201718 to 201920) discussions with institutions in 2017 that would coincide with the implementation of the new funding mechanisms with potentially more competitive performance based funding while minimizing the funding distribution among institutions. codling and meek (2006) developed twelve propositions on diversity in higher education mainly through their observations of australias and new zealands higher education systems. they posit, in support of van vught (2008), that a homogenous environment will promote a lack of diversity or institutional convergence unless the government adopts formal policy interventions to promote diversity and sustain existing differences. they also posit that a uniform funding regime, as the one currently present in ontario, will promote the convergence of institutions if institutions are not provided with financial incentives with explicit diversity objectives. pichs (2015b) policy and descriptive analysis of the factors that promoted or hindered diversity and differentiation in ontarios university sector supported this view and identified the lack of diversity objectives in ontarios egalitarian operating funding model as a major contributor to the current levels of diversity in the sector. however, the use of federal research grant funding in canada distributed on the basis of a peer review, competitive process increased the potential for diversification p.52. jonker and hicks (2016) reinforced that institutions should be funded to provide access to traditionally underrepresented students, and called for a concentration of research resources (including funding for graduate education) into a limited number of researchintensive institutions. regional universities should also be funded to provide a balanced set of programs and services with a more moderate research emphasis to their regional demographic and economic base (p.4). the need to remain globally competitive, combined with international ranking schemes for higher education resulted in some european countries providing additional funding to a few institutions that are well placed internationally to expand their global research competitiveness. such initiatives have been introduced in the uk (uk research assessment exercise), germany (exzellenzinitiative) and in france (plan campus) (reichert, 2009). in ontario, pich (2015a) called for separate and distinct funding formulas for each of the three university clusters (university of toronto, mainlyundergraduate universities and researchintensive universities) while jonker and hicks (2016) recommended that the ontario university sector funding formula should be restructured in such a way to ensure that the university of toronto continues to be able to play its unique and powerful flagship role in ontario (p.4). pich (2015a) and the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) also called for increased central planning in ontarios higher education system. heqco noted that differentiation works best when coordinated and supported at the system level, with a central hand guiding the development of differentiation between the participating institutionspast experience in ontario suggests that in the absence of a steering hand, institutions drift towards homogeneity more than they strive for diversity two towers of transformation 21 (jonker & hicks, 2016, p.10). the extent and nature of central planning could also have a homogenizing effect. as noted by birnbaum (1983), central planning can restrict experimental innovations of institutions their search for fitness. second, statelevel does not reflect knowledge about how institutions adjust to their niches. third, statelevel planning leads to centralization, which paves the way for homogenization of norms, values, and structures and thus decreases diversity (as quotes by huisman, 1998, p.83). any central planning role should therefore be limited to maintaining differences among institutions and avoid homogenization. codling and meek (2006) also drew from the work of jones (1996) and his canadian experience to suggest that the greater the cooperative activity between institutions within a higher education system, the greater the potential for institutional convergence (p.16). however in europe, some policymakers and national agencies look to increase cooperation between institutions to reduce fragmentation, duplication and increase economies of scale in differentiated systems. the fragmentation of frances higher education system comprised of different types of institutions (universities and grandes coles) that are governed by separate authorities and separate regulatory frameworks has been seen as an impediment to their global research competitiveness. france introduced its poles de recherche et denseignement suprieur that groups institutions of different profiles to invest in shared research infrastructure at regional levels to increase their international research competitiveness. cooperation among institutional types is also a concern by policymakers in switzerland, which has three types of higher education institutions, universities, universities of applied sciences (fachhochschulen) and teacher training institutions (pdagogische hochschulen). research funds are made available to encourage interinstitutional cooperation in switzerland and funding for doctoral schools is made available on the condition that cooperation between several universities would create sufficient complementarity and critical mass(reichert, 2009, p.146). academic norms and values have often been identified as a driver of institutional convergence that may undermine institutional and political attempts to increase institutional differentiation. thus, competition between higher education institutions should not be seen only as competition for resources but also, through the value system of academic staff and leadership, as competition for stature, prestige and legitimacy (reichert, 2009, p.19) that encourage conformity. in switzerland, different academic norms and values firmly support the separate roles of its three sectors. reichert (2009) noted no tendency of academics in universities of applied sciences to emulate university values and behavior in terms of shifting weights to basic research performance or more theoretical education programmes (p.107). this lack of tendency to emulate universities was attributed to the hiring criteria in universities of applied sciences that emphasize professional experience in their academic appointments. in france, the separation of universities and grandes coles is maintained by two parallel values of ensuring egalitarian access while maintaining elite education. in ontario, academic norms and values of quality, reputation, academic freedom and institutional autonomy may work so strongly against specialization that it could be argued that little can be done to move any of them (universities) toward specialization (clark, moran, skolnik and trick, 2009, p.178). 8.2 student mobility the ability of students to move from institution to institution, or from program to program, signals that a higher education system is structured in such a way that maximizes choice for students, as well as a fairly straightforward way to correct an initial error in institution or program choice. the number one priority of any educational system starting with elementary and secondary streams, and the transition to postsecondary education is to create curriculum and cocurricular programming that helps students make informed pse choice and this help ensure a good fit between student and program choice. this, in itself, is extraordinarily challenging, as so many factors and life circumstances get in the way of young people knowing what they want to do, or better yet, what they are capable of, when it comes to their career and vocational educational aspirations. two towers of transformation 22 student mobility is one way public policy makers see an answer to the challenge of program choice. students ability to take corrective action when they feel they have made an incorrect initial choice that they have had sufficient pse experience to know what program is right for them is an important principal that should be a feature of any accessible and equitable system of higher education. although it is not the focus of this paper, student assistance programs are one important lever in helping improve or in some cases impede the degree and facility of student transfer. student aid policies such as eligibility term limits, loan limits, limits on program switching, bridging programming eligibility and the like all either help or hinder students ability to take corrective action in addressing a bad first choice when it comes to their pse career. under the current osap regime, eligible students those studying away from home are entitled to receive a distance grant, a standard amount of $500 per term up to $1,500 for a threeterm academic year. the criteria for the grant include: attendance at a publiclyassisted college or university in ontario. one of the following describes the applicant: o youre a dependent student (i.e., parental information was required for your osap application for fulltime students) and youre living with your parent(s) during your study period. o youre an independent student (e.g. you have been out of high school for at least 4 years and you do not have a spouse and/or dependent children) and youre living with your parent(s) during your study period. o youre married or in a commonlaw relationship. o youre a solesupport parent. the student has been assessed as having at least $1.00 of financial need under the ontario portion of the canadaontario integrated student loan. the students home address is 80 km or more from the closest publiclyassisted ontario postsecondary school that matches the school type you are attending (i.e., 80 km from a college if you are a college student, 80 km from a university if you are a university student). (see exemption for francophone students, below). if a student has selfidentified as being a francophone student on your osap student profile, the student may still be considered for this grant if theres a publiclyassisted college or university within 80 km of your home but it doesnt deliver your program of study in french. this grant implicitly recognizes that, in a differentiated world, not all programs will be located within a students easy commuting distance. relocation may be necessary. although this is potentially more troubling when considering the mandate of the college sector and the role that institution type is supposed to play in the economic life and vibrancy of the community in which it is situated, university programs may be distributed in such a way that requires relocation for studies. there are, however, other less obvious policies that can impede both the student mobility and lifelong learning agendas that are both so dominant in 21st century discussions of the purpose of higher education. for instance, repayment and rehabilitation rules that stipulate the rules around reapplying for student assistance either once a borrower goes into repayment or worse, defaults on their loans can mean either students are shut out forever from reengaging in postsecondary education or make reentry so daunting that it simply doesnt appear to be an option. this may be particularly true for those students who are or were not able to take quick corrective action those that dropped out of their pse programs with no credential but responsible for repayable student aid. if we were to regard student mobility in its broadest notion, the ability to reengage in a program of true interest (or a program that better matches their abilities) two towers of transformation 23 later in life, without having to cope with insurmountable barriers, is also a facet of a pse system that facilitates student mobility. in addition to the functions that high schools and communitybased programming performs in helping students understand the array of pse choice, with the goal of making a good initial decision, policy change that helps facilitate student mobility once students are in the system is another way public policy see as another way to ensure that good fit. students ability to take corrective action after making what they regard as an incorrect initial choice or that they have had sufficient pse experience to know what program is right for them is an important principal that should be a feature of any accessible and equitable system of higher education. this is also an important feature of a system that boasts any sort of potential for student mobility. another significant policy lever developed in the last seven years is the credit transfer institutional grant (ctig). eligible activities under the ctig includes funding for the development and/or renewal of articulation agreements including special and/or innovative models of articulation; the extra institutional costs associated with accepting transfer students (for example, extra academic advising services, or data management personnel where there is a focus on tracking transfer students); data systems development; and better information provision. excluded are capital expenses, as well as those activities that have secured funding from oncat. the grant is allocated based roughly on the volume of transfer activity at each institution, but is also projectbased, insofar as a rationale for how the funds are spent must be provided. grants range from $70,000 to approximately $1m, reflecting, again, the volume of transfer activity. 8.3 intersection of policy levers policy levers used to increase differentiation or student mobility have a series of common elements the role of central planning role of government, the use of financial mechanisms, intersector cooperation and collaboration, and competition, which may work against each other. effective processes and policies that will increase differentiation and student mobility may require the government to take a more central planning role, principally in setting goals and targets, and deploying appropriate funding mechanisms. institutional convergence will occur if government policies do not sustain current differences among institutions (jonker & hicks, 2016; pich, 2015a; pich, 2015b; & weingarten & deller, 2010). a central guiding hand is also required for the development of student mobility to regulate and adjudicate credit transfer recognition, and mandate cooperation (boggs & trick, 2009). funding mechanisms can be used to support increased differentiation and student mobility. institutional differentiation in ontario can only be increased by changing the current egalitarian funding model to include more diversity objectives through increased differentiated funding by type of universities (pich, 2015b, p. 66). intersector credit transfer arrangements can also be supported with college and university funding mechanisms that would support and encourage intersectoral credit transfer arrangements and joint advanced training programs (smith, 1996 as quoted by hurlihey, 2012), thereby recognizing both colleges and universities for their role in promoting and encouraging student mobility. trick (2013) suggests that policymakers establish clear and quantifiable transfer targets for universities by providing them with the right incentives in the form of funding university seats reserved for qualified transfer students (p.4). intersector collaboration of institutions in the planning and delivery of programs is a fundamental tenet of a more expansive system of institutional articulation. however, cooperation and collaboration among institutions may lead to a decrease in systemic and programmatic diversity (jones, 1996). interinstitutional cooperation can lead to more standardization and less diversity in the delivery of public higher education (lang, 2002, p. 181). however, collaboration may also be viewed as a way institutions perform separate functions that complement but do not duplicate. two towers of transformation 24 creating a competitive environment between colleges and universities may work against increasing differentiation and student mobility. the creation of a competitive environment in a period of high resource flow will generally promote the convergence of institutions as institutions have the financial resources to mimic each other (codling & meek, 2006). also, the competition for students seeking degree studies has led universities in ontario to introduce careeroriented programs (reducing the level of programmatic diversity) that directly compete with degree programs offered at colleges. the need to compete for resources (resource dependency) may in fact restrict the extent of collaboration between institutions, thereby reducing opportunities for student mobility (trick, 2013). 9 articulation case study analysis 9.1 development and renewal of articulation agreements a sample process a detailed account of how one small, specialized institution outlined its process for developing articulation agreements had been documented in a prior oncatsupported research project (young et al., 2016). it will be outlined here, as one example of the many ways in which institutions approach this business process. however, it is sufficient in demonstrating the number of offices potentially involved in this process, as well as the types of institutional personnel that weigh in on the process. for this reason, it provides valuable insight into the scope and work involved in developing articulation agreements. in the academic year 2015, ocad university (ocad u) developed a business process for the development and renewal of articulation agreements, intended to increase the clarity in the roles and responsibilities of the various offices involved. the exercise was led by the office of the associate vicepresident, students, in collaboration with members of the admission, recruitment & retention committee and the faculty and curriculum development centre (fcdc). it covered all stages of developing such agreements, including their initial proposal, development, implementation, and assessment of articulation agreements and student transfer pathways. it also stipulates what offices or units are involved in all aspects of the process. first is the proposal stage; second, the development stage; the phase of drafting and agreement and seeking institutional approval; and implementation. the last includes the maintenance of the agreement and the relationships that are involved, as well as what is ideally an efficiently handled phase of either cancellation or extension. the business document notes that the identification of ideal articulation processes can arise from a variety of scenarios, and equally often result from inquiries made from other institutions where there appears to be a high demand for destination programming from college students who have recently completed a diploma or advanced diploma. it also may flow from professional associations from teacherartists and/or academic administrators at the decanal or chair level. proposals are developed (such as a process for establishing or elaborating on the nature of the affinity of the program), which then require approval by the relevant dean and the vicepresident, academic. in the initial stages of development, the admissions officer collects the relevant information, including all the uptodate syllabi of the originating programs, as well as any user data that can be collected (such as historical enrolment patterns of students coming from the proposed destination program to ocad u, as well as success rates). two towers of transformation 25 the vicepresident, academic, the assistant vicepresident of students and the relevant deans from both ocad u and the originating institution then meet to discuss the appetite for partnership, the potential programs being considered for articulation, as well as an overview of each institution. the admissions officer will take the lead in setting up the meeting and establishing the particulars of the agenda. then begins a process referred to as assessment, which includes the consideration of the course content in the form of program guides, course syllabi, coop requirement, if relevant, and samples of work by graduating students to provide the commitment with a sense of the skills and strengths of the graduates of the potential incoming program. the assessment team at this stage expands to include the faculty and curriculum development centre, as that is where the expertise sits at ocad u in terms of program mapping on the basis of course and program learning outcomes. after this phase of the review, a series of site visits are arranged. for the third major phase curriculum mapping and pathways design the educational developer in fcdc, in partnership with the departmental chair or designated faculty member, will begin the process of detailed curriculum mapping. once the pathway is established, the agreement is drafted by the fcdc. both the map and student pathway are included with the agreement (normally two pages) and constitute part of the agreement. (however, it varies from institution to institution, there is a fair amount of discretion as to how much of the document is studentfacing.) the fcdc then meets with the associate dean, chair or designated academic to review the established equivalencies. in what often becomes a separate, parallel process, the exercise of establishing equivalencies for the liberal arts and science courses take place, under the leadership of the fcdc and the associate chair of the faculty. this part of the process can sometimes be the most complicated since it is where equivalencies become the most difficulty to establish, and often tend to result in determining, on a casebycase basis, precisely how much course credit a student will be awarded upon entering ocad u. it also tends to in part inform the degree to which the articulation student will require in individual program and academic advising because it tends to rest on the individual students previous course choices regarding fulfilling program breadth requirements in often collegebased general education programs. at this stage, the registrars office begins its review, identifying any potential issues and returns the agreement to fcdc to resolve those issues with the relevant academic units. in terms of the substance of the agreement, ocad u embeds its admissions requirements (gpa and portfolio requirements); length of the agreement, renewal terms, and institutional contacts. once it is ready for institutional approvals (once the terms have been mutually agreed upon), the agreement and supporting documentation (all relevant appendixes that establish all the relevant course equivalencies, both program and breadth), are returned to the avp students, the vicepresident academic, the registrar and admissions and recruitment for final review. it is then submitted by the relevant associate dean or program chair for consideration at senate at its february meeting. there are three phases to the next round of activity, during which the agreement is implemented: communication, recruitment and student support. communications are required between partnering institutions and programs; with students, throughout the various offices and services areas of both the partnering institutions, and with the ontario articulation and transfer guide and database. this last phase should be the most efficient and straightforward: renewal. the renewal phase should reflect the demand on the part of students (as an average over the lifetime of the agreement), and the continuation of the programs that are part of the agreement (whether they remain core programming and within scope of the institutions strategic and academic plans). student data, major program changes and any plans to either two towers of transformation 26 change, continue or discontinue the program should be communicated as early as possible between partnering institutions and ideally part of the ongoing dialogue between the partnering institutions. this will minimize the disruption of student expectations and render unnecessary any or duplicative activity which could constitute and/or complicate the renewal process. currently, the three phases of the final stage (maintenance and renewals) involve: notification of agreement end date; reassessment; and agreement renewal and approval. 9.2 current pattern of articulation agreements the purpose of this part of the larger analysis is to identify the pattern to date of the development of articulation agreements across the province of ontario, not to gauge current demand or anticipate future interest on the part of students. as such, this part of the analysis does not provide a global view of either the number of articulation agreements active in the province, or the number of students currently anticipating in such arrangements. it is, rather, to examine a sampling of a number of agreements, and to determine if possible, whether the nature of articulation activity can at all be explained by university type. it is, rather, a consideration of what types of institutions (by size and type) tend to partner, and why. this exercise is, however, highly relevant to the goal of establishing what purposes are served by entering into such partnerships, and how they fit into a system being shepherded in the direction of further differentiation. table 1 contains a sampling of 267 articulation agreements involving six receiving institutions (universities). the chart includes only those agreements between publicly assisted institutions in the province of ontario. the receiving institution is characterized in column a by their geographic location. (column b is self explanatory) column c characterizes the classification of the institution that includes reference to both the size (small, medium or large), as well as type of institution (special purpose, primarily undergraduate, comprehensive and medical/doctoral). column d represents the number of articulation agreement (in brackets) for each agreement with an ontario college. column e is a characterization of the distance between the sending and receiving institution as either proximate (within 60 km) or not. most of the agreements identified above are bilateral arrangements (between one college and one university), while a smaller number are multilateral (university has an agreement with several sending colleges). one institution has effectively created a web of multilateral arrangements for such programs that meet provincewide standards and content are consistent across the college sector. other general observations include: table 1 selected ontario college/university articulation agreements by region, institutional type and distance between partnering institution, 201617 a region b receiving institution university of toronto c classification d sending institutions (ontario only) e within 60k of b? large/ medical doctoral gta ocad u small/ special purpose south west western large/ medical doctoral seneca (st. george) (1) humber (st. george) (1) george brown (mississauga) (1) mohawk (mississauga) (1) niagara (mississauga) (1) sheridan (mississauga) (1) seneca (scarborough) (1) humber (3) fleming (3) fanshawe (3) george brown (2) fanshawe (17) lambton (5) y y y y n y y y n n y y y gta two towers of transformation 27 southwest brock medium/ comprehensive algonquin (8) cambrian (5) canadore (6) centennnial (8) conestoga (4) confederation (6) college boreal (4) durham (6) fanshawe (15) fleming (8) gbc (5) georgian (10) humber (8) la cite (5) lambton (7) loyalist (5) mohawk (15) niagara (17) northern (5) sault (5) seneca (5) sheridan (9) st. clair (6) s. lawrence (4) central guelph medium/ comprehensive east northern carleton lakehead medium/ comprehensive small/ primarily undergraduate algonquin (1) centennial (1) conestoga (1) fanshawe (1) georgian (1) humber (1) niagara (1) seneca (1) algonquin (28) confederation (9) algonquin (1) fleming (1) seneca (1) georgian (3) total n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n y n n n n n n n n n n n y n n y y n n n n y = 87/267 (32.6%) 267 for one mediumsized, comprehensive institution, only 17 of 176 agreements are with a local institution and involve one of the universitys strongest programs. it also has agreements with all 24 publicly assisted colleges, many of which create a degree pathway for college graduates in programs that do not differ in terms of content across the college sector. these programs include: policing foundations, early childhood education, business administration, dental hygiene and other human health sciences programs, social service worker and recreation and leisure; for another mediumsized comprehensive institution, all 28 agreements are with a local institution; for one small and specialized institution, all agreements are program specific (high affinity programs); half are local and half are not; for one large medical/doctoral institution, most agreements are local (6 of 7) and 5 of 7 are held at the mainly undergraduate campuses at mississauga and scarborough; for a smaller primarily undergraduate university, agreements in high affinity programs speak to the institutional strengths of the receiving institution. it also focuses most of its articulation agreement activity with one local college; a fraction of the agreements shown in the table (32.6%) are forged between institutions that within 60 km in proximity with one another. two towers of transformation 28 table 1 also illustrates the variety of strategies that institutions utilize when it comes to supporting the broader public policy goal of student mobility. in the case of western university, the institution has chosen to develop a broad array of agreements with a small number of colleges involving receiving programs that represent that institutions strengths. they are also of relative geographical proximity. this approach allows students attending their local college to contemplate a move into a degree program within commuting distance of their home, and therefore provides students with an option that involves less disruption and lower cost. six of their 17 agreements with fanshawe are in two areas of programming; business and broadcasting, which is consistent with the universitys current areas of academic strength (and which are also academic activities that have been cited in their strategic mandate agreements as central to both their current and future focus). in this way, those partnerships speak to both the local needs of their students and broadening programming to students in that region, consistent with the nature of the institutions specialization. although carleton has created a number of degree pathways with partnering colleges, it has focused its pursuit of articulation agreement almost exclusively with the local college, in recognition of the potential needs of the surrounding pool of pse students wishing to pursue a degree after completion of their college studies. since this selection of 267 articulation agreements were examined for characteristics that did not include student demand (in other words, we are unable to determine how many students take advantage of these specific arrangements), we are therefore not able to adjudicate their quality, either as a way of promoting their programs of academic strength, or managing the challenges associated with enrolment fluctuations. what this analysis allows, however, is an opportunity to see how universities choose to support student mobility in a way that reflects or reinforces their size, program type and enrolment challenges. with respect to the latter, several institutional patterns are worthy of note: brock university and lakehead university. both institutions are located in regions that pose some major demographic challenges in terms of the decreasing pool of potential applicants in the region (weingarten, hicks, jonker and moran, 2017). in the case of brock, it has astutely developed articulation agreements with all ontario colleges that offer programs of high affinity with some of its bachelor of arts degrees, while recognizing the value of the systemwide standards and content of these collegebased programs, which allows the university to create a web of pathways. in this way, brock is attempting to broaden its applicant pool to include college degree holders from across the province. in terms of lakehead university, it has focused the majority of its articulation agreement activity on developing pathways from its proximate college (as in the case of carleton). a number of program ladders have been created for graduates of confederation college, allowing them to pursue degree options potentially within commuting distance of home (assuming that those attending the college are living at their permanent residence). this serves to expand student choice without a relocation requirement. at the other end of the spectrum, we see the university of toronto has pursued fewer articulation agreements proportionate to its size than the other universities featured in this study. when the demographic trends for the greater toronto area are considered, this makes some sense: u of t is less concerned about compensating for decreases in the application rate, since its applicant pool is very strong both locally and beyond. and when the activity in the above chart is compared with that as described in u of ts most recent strategic mandate agreement, the document is suggestive that perhaps credit transfer processes are the more favored student mobility tool rather than entering into various articulation agreements. in a recent study carried out by lennon et al. (2016), a geographic analysis of pathway agreements among ontarios colleges and universities revealed a few interesting observations. the results of the study pose the two towers of transformation 29 question of the strategic value of the agreements made, noting that the number of students per articulation agreement remain low, relative to the expense of developing the pathways; and that universities are not more likely to forge such agreements with colleges that are in commuting distance versus those that are not. although the purpose of their study focuses on the numbers and types of these pathways rather than assessing their fit with other public policy goals the lennon et al study reveals the same patterns with respect to universities tendency to develop articulation agreements using criteria other than student demand or proximity to the sending institution. strategic partnershipmaking will take on especial significance in the context of greater differentiation, insofar as partnerships must begin to better reflect student demand and student use which must also take into account typical participation patterns and institutional proximity. as lennon notes, this report finds that few institutions concentrate on developing agreements with institutions within commuting distance. this is a clear gap, given what other researchers have found regarding the tendency of students to stay within the same geographical area, and regarding the specific challenges and needs of adult students who may have a job and a family to take into account when deciding on postsecondary education (2016, p. 4041). therefore, if the development of pathways and articulation agreements are intended to nurture student mobility, differentiation and geography are factors to be reconciled. 10 credit transfer analysis as part of this study, transfer applicants registered were calculated as a percentage of transfer student applications from the fall of 2005 to the fall of 2014, by institution. institutions were clustered by size (small, medium and large) and by institutional type. the following table shows the transfer students that registered as a percentage of transfer student applications by institution, clustered by size. some observations to highlight: small institutions overwhelmingly managed to attract a disproportionate amount of transfer students as compared to medium and large universities averaging 37.4 % over 10 years as compared to 16.3% for medium and 13.3% for large universities. that is, small universities attracted on average 2.3 times more students than medium universities and 2.8 times more students than large universities. ocad university and laurentian university, for the most part, annually outperformed all other universities. two towers of transformation 30 table 2 transfer registration as a percent of transfer applications analysis by size of institution 20052014 size institution algoma lakehead laurentian nipissing ocad trent uoit average by group (small) 2005 30.1 41.3 57.9 22.7 59.8 26.2 35.4 39.1 2006 29.4 42.3 58.0 19.7 55.2 28.3 31.8 37.8 2007 30.3 33.7 68.2 28.6 61.7 21.9 30.0 39.2 2008 30.4 33.2 60.6 18.7 53.0 21.9 30.0 35.4 2009 34.7 32.5 73.1 19.4 63.8 24.2 27.1 39.3 2010 47.0 34.1 56.0 51.6 55.0 24.5 28.4 42.4 2011 56.4 29.1 24.0 46.1 55.6 21.4 31.4 37.7 2012 56.4 33.7 53.0 19.9 52.9 16.7 29.2 37.4 2013 44.4 32.1 48.3 17.4 44.7 17.4 48.4 36.1 2014 s s s s s s s m m m m m m brock carleton guelph queen's wilfrid laurier windsor average by group (medium) 2005 20.8 36.8 13.5 13.2 16.1 19.5 20.0 2006 18.3 34.0 9.9 7.5 11.1 27.5 18.0 2007 20.5 15.0 11.1 11.0 9.0 23.9 15.1 2008 24.4 14.9 20.7 5.4 10.5 26.8 17.1 2009 25.6 14.7 12.0 7.5 9.1 24.6 15.6 2010 29.3 16.0 19.1 10.5 8.8 25.8 18.2 2011 28.6 15.0 18.2 11.8 8.3 24.4 17.7 2012 20.7 13.7 17.6 9.9 8.7 20.9 15.3 2013 17.9 13.1 13.7 11.0 7.1 17.0 13.3 2014 18.3 12.8 11.4 10.8 6.0 17.0 12.7 l l l l l l l mcmaster ottawa ryerson toronto waterloo western york average by group (large) 2005 16.6 13.3 21.0 17.9 13.3 12.9 2006 12.9 9.1 13.5 16.8 11.0 13.6 2007 11.7 11.9 14.3 17.1 10.8 12.9 2008 12.0 11.6 16.5 17.3 9.1 12.1 15.8 12.8 13.1 13.1 2009 10.0 10.7 15.2 18.9 9.1 12.6 15.8 13.2 2010 14.5 11.8 15.3 17.0 10.1 13.1 14.5 13.8 2011 13.3 10.5 13.8 16.8 10.5 14.3 14.4 13.4 2012 13.1 14.6 12.2 18.6 11.6 11.0 12.9 13.4 2013 10.4 14.9 11.9 17.3 11.1 11.1 8.4 12.2 2014 11.7 14.2 12.8 17.9 12.0 7.7 9.5 12.3 25.7 23.7 23.3 22.6 23.0 25.1 23.2 22.4 20.9 17.8 system average 28.4 47.5 11.7 47.2 17.1 24.1 29.3 the differences in transfer students that registered as a percentage of transfer student applications for 2005 to 2011 between medium and large universities averaged 3.7% as compared to only 1.1% for 2012 to 2014. the system average has continually declined from 25.1% in 2010 to 17.8% in 2014, a drop of 7.3%. it should also be noted that during the period from 2005 to 2014, undergraduate enrolment (parttime and fulltime) grew from over 380,000 students to over 445,000, an increase of 16.9%. small institutions grew in total by 21%, medium institutions; by 17% and large institutions by 16%. this means that increasing the number of transfer students might not have been an intentional institutional goal or strategy of all universities during a period of enrolment growth. a review of the multiyear accountability agreement (myaa) report for each ontario university provided insight into why certain cluster of institutions more successfully participated in the transfer credit system as compared to others. successful strategies that were reported by small and medium universities beyond entering into articulation agreements with colleges included: the creation of student outreach and support officers, or credit transfer positions, to help students understand institutional policies and procedures; provide oneonone advising to potential and confirmed students; adoption of a block credit transfer policy; two towers of transformation 31 provision of writing and math labs, workshops and focus groups; customized orientation specific to transfer students. the strategies reported by large universities beyond their membership in the university credit transfer consortium made the least reference to the creation of outreach or support officers to deal specifically with transfer students, and appeared to provide less oneonone or personalized service geared to transfer students as opposed to institutions in the other two categories. the following table shows the same results by institution as previously discussed except that institutions are now grouped by type. there are a few observations worthy of highlighting: special purpose institutions (algoma and ocad university) managed to attract a disproportionate amount of transfer students as compared to all other types of institutions, averaging 47.8% over 10 years. this compares to 33.6% for primarily undergraduates, 16.0% for comprehensives and 12.9% for medical/doctoral universities. the differences in transfer students that registered as a percentage of transfer student applicants for 2005 to 2011 between comprehensive and medical/doctoral universities averaged 4.1%, as compared to only 0.3% for 2012 to 2014. table 3 transfer registration as a percent of transfer applications analysis by type of institution 20052014 type institution pu pu pu pu pu lakehead laurentian nipissing trent uoit average - primarily undergraduate c c c c c c c c brock carleton guelph ryerson waterloo wilfrid laurier windsor york average - comprehensive 2005 41.3 57.9 22.7 26.2 35.4 36.7 2006 42.3 58.0 19.7 28.3 31.8 36.0 2007 33.7 68.2 28.6 21.9 30.0 36.5 2008 33.2 60.6 18.7 21.9 30.0 32.9 2009 32.5 73.1 19.4 24.2 27.1 35.3 2010 34.1 56.0 51.6 24.5 28.4 38.9 2011 29.1 24.0 46.1 21.4 31.4 30.4 2012 33.7 53.0 19.9 16.7 29.2 30.5 2013 32.1 48.3 17.4 17.4 48.4 32.7 2014 28.4 47.5 11.7 17.1 24.1 25.8 2005 20.8 36.8 13.5 21.0 13.3 16.1 19.5 2006 18.3 34.0 9.9 13.5 11.0 11.1 27.5 2007 20.5 15.0 11.1 14.3 10.8 9.0 23.9 2008 24.4 14.9 20.7 16.5 9.1 10.5 26.8 20.1 17.9 14.9 17.6 2009 25.6 14.7 12.0 15.2 9.1 9.1 24.6 15.8 15.8 2010 29.3 16.0 19.1 15.3 10.1 8.8 25.8 14.5 17.4 2011 28.6 15.0 18.2 13.8 10.5 8.3 24.4 14.4 16.7 2012 20.7 13.7 17.6 12.2 11.6 8.7 20.9 12.9 14.8 2013 17.9 13.1 13.7 11.9 11.1 7.1 17.0 8.4 12.5 2014 18.3 12.8 11.4 12.8 12.0 6.0 17.0 9.5 12.5 md md md md md mcmaster ottawa queen's toronto western average - medical doctoral 2005 16.6 13.3 13.2 17.9 12.9 14.8 2006 12.9 9.1 7.5 16.8 13.6 12.0 2007 11.7 11.9 11.0 17.1 12.9 12.9 2008 12.0 11.6 5.4 17.3 12.1 11.7 2009 10.0 10.7 7.5 18.9 12.6 12.0 2010 14.5 11.8 10.5 17.0 13.1 13.4 2011 13.3 10.5 11.8 16.8 14.3 13.3 2012 13.1 14.6 9.9 18.6 11.0 13.5 2013 10.4 14.9 11.0 17.3 11.1 12.9 2014 11.7 14.2 10.8 17.9 7.7 12.5 algoma ocad average - special purpose 2005 30.1 59.8 44.9 2006 29.4 55.2 42.3 2007 30.3 61.7 46.0 2008 30.4 53.0 41.7 2009 34.7 63.8 49.2 2010 47.0 55.0 51.0 2011 56.4 55.6 56.0 2012 56.4 52.9 54.7 2013 44.4 44.7 44.5 2014 sp sp system average 25.7 23.7 23.3 22.6 23.0 25.1 23.2 22.4 20.9 17.8 two towers of transformation 32 47.2 47.2 11 other observations from articulation and credit transfer analysis depending on their size, mission and demographic futures, institutions use different tools available to them to support the broader provincial policy goal of introducing greater student mobility in the system. it appears that universities place a greater emphasis on either credit transfer policies/protocols, or on the development of articulation agreements. most universities selected for this study demonstrate that for the most part, institutions are attempting and succeeding at carrying out these activities in ways that reflect both their strategic mandate agreements (which ideally embody their current or future behaviour), as well as the particular role they play in the sector. the importance to universities of credit transfer and/or program articulation with colleges also reflects the demographic challenges faced by these institutions in the region in which they are located. if the province does indeed decide to adopt a policy of creating greater institutional differentiation, which appropriately executes the potential levers at its disposal, the government must then compel institutions to take on a greater commitment to nurturing student mobility. it can do so by adopting the following recommendations. 12 key observations for future considerations the paper concludes with some key observations that would warrant future assessment within the broader funding formula and osap policies and practices that the authors feel are necessary for either policy goal to succeed. these observations are intended to address the intersection of the differentiation and student mobility agenda. to that end, no recommendations were made within this section that deals specifically with increasing differentiation and student mobility as separate policy goals in ontario. previous sections that provide the literature review and a description of the applicable policy levers address each one separately. 1. as part of the funding formula review for the university sector, establish an extra formula enrolment envelope to encourage institutions to increase the number of transfer students (through program partnerships, credit transfer and the creation of articulation agreements). this would be in the form of a fixed per student dollar value that exceeds the biu value of the program in which the student enrols. a. as part of the process, universities must offer clear targets for receiving transfer students through the means described above, and must bid competitively for their share of the envelope based on the number of transfers. b. submissions should consider the potential extra resources required to support transfer students, e.g. academic advising; registrarial services; student access guarantee generated student financial assistance, borne by the institution; tutoring and writing services. c. eliminate the current premise that underlines the allocation of the credit transfer institutional grant (ctig), since this recommendation emphasizes the scope of transfer activity, as opposed to the quality of and strategic value of such activity. two towers of transformation 33 2. going forward, request that institutions include as part of their strategic mandate agreement submission, a discussion of the institutions transfer capacity and how it will be achieved through the use of one or both student mobility tools. a. for example, an institution may favour developing a more robust system of credit transfer and recognition, rather than pursuing and entering into bilateral arrangements with other institutions on a programspecific basis. b. institutions should also provide to government, through the sma process, the results of an assessment as to what its transfer capacity is: should it grow, remains constant or contract? what level of transfer activity is most appropriate to the institution/program and why? 3. ensure that the distance component of the ontario student assistance program is sufficient to meet the costs of student mobility and choice. a. in a vast province like ontario, students in a truly differentiated higher education system require sufficient and direct support to have access to programs offered outside of their local community. this includes both the ability to pursue additional credential opportunities, as well as to allow students to correct for an initial incorrect program choice. b. currently, students must demonstrate that the program they are attending is not offered within 80km of their home. in future, it is recommended that this grant reflect the true costs of living away from home and is not limited to attending a program offered at the institution closest to home. two towers of transformation 34 references australian qualifications framework (2013a). second edition. definition of credit transfer. retrieved on 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oncat project 2016-29 college-to-college pathway partnership final report march 23, 2017 henry decock, associate vice president academic partnerships seneca college charline smith, manager strategic initiatives cambrian college page |2 project overview description seneca college and cambrian college will formalize an ongoing academic relationship for the purpose of facilitating student movement, regularly examining programmatic collaborative opportunities. the partnership would increase diploma-to-degree and diploma-to-diploma student movement with clearly articulated pathways, both program-to-program and course-tocourse; and by utilizing innovative teaching delivery methods. project goals the goal of this project is to establish an ongoing, permanent academic relationship between seneca college of applied arts and technology in toronto and cambrian college of applied arts and technology in sudbury for the purposes of facilitating student movement between the two institutions. in place of occasional, ad hoc, individual transfer agreements, a formalized academic partnership structure would be established with the purpose of assessing institutional strengths in respective academic programming to determine a strategic approach to transfer agreements. it is expected an ongoing committee of senior academic leaders would be scheduled regularly to identify academic programming for the development of transfer arrangements, to encourage the development of alternative methods of delivery, and to support the coordination of academic infrastructure which will simplify the exchange of necessary student information. the emphasis would be on facilitating student movement through various methods within the parameters of government or programmatic regulations and suited to the particular discipline. achievements academic partnership: project goal: the intention of this college-to-college pathway partnership is to develop curriculum and a concomitant delivery structure to facilitate the student acquisition of credentials while minimizing their costs; and, to build on the respective institutional academic strengths while reducing expenses. in august 2016 the presidents of seneca college and cambrian college signed a memorandum of understanding. the intended purpose is to establish an ongoing structure to oversee simultaneous curriculum development to enhance student movement between the two colleges;and to identify other areas for mutual collaboration on services and/or resources. key aspects of the mou: the partner institutions are committed to the creation of seneca-cambrian partnership as described below: 1. without altering rights and obligations, the partnership involves a commitment to collaboration and joint effort in the creation of enhanced opportunities for credit transfer, as well as the delivery of existing joint partnership activities, and the development of new college-to-college pathway | final report page |3 joint partnership initiatives when judged opportune and equally beneficial to both partner institutions. 2. the partnership will be guided by the following goals and principles (the framework) a. a key goal is to maintain leadership in post-secondary education by increasing opportunities and accessibility to transfer pathways and jointly developed programs of study for students at the partner institutions; b. the partner institutions wish to consider ways to enhance student access to educational opportunities that build upon the strengths of both institutions, combining theoretical knowledge, critical thinking skills and experiential learning; c. the partner institutions will continue seeking opportunities to collaborate on improving transfer credit (diploma to degree, diploma to diploma) and other initiatives aimed at making pathways more seamless; d. the partner institutions also wish to consider joint initiatives that would involve the use of information and communication technology (ict) to facilitate transfer operations and teaching and learning , when judged relevant and appropriate 3. the vice-president academic at seneca college and the vice-president innovation, pathways and international at cambrian college will form and lead a joint steering committee that will provide the strategic leadership required for the creation of an innovative and sustainable seneca-cambrian partnership. the joint steering committee may create other working committees as needed and appropriate to develop or consider specific joint initiatives. the composition and terms of reference of the joint steering committee will be as follows: a. the joint steering committee will be composed of a minimum of three representatives from each of the partner institutions, including a representative of the vice-president academic of each institution, along with the appropriate staff lead(s) with administrative responsibility for the partnership. b. the joint steering committee will meet a minimum of three (3) times per academic year and be rotationally chaired by the representative of the vicepresidents of each institution. additional meetings of the committee may also be called as required. a quorum for meetings will require a minimum of two members or delegates from each partner institution. c. the terms of reference of the joint steering committee will be as follows: i. to implement the terms of this memorandum of understanding (mou); ii. to approve policy and program directions of this partnership; iii. to approve and promote the seeking of external funds to support agreedupon initiatives; iv. to approve any financial arrangements that may pertain to initiatives under this mou, subject to the terms of sections 6 and 7; v. to report to the partner institutions on the implementation of the terms of this mou; college-to-college pathway | final report page |4 vi. to provide strategic direction towards the development of a three year plan for the seneca-cambrian partnership; and vii. to review and provide ongoing direction/input on status updates pertaining to the three year plan for the seneca-cambrian partnership. subsequent to the completion of the mou the steering committee determined that monthly meetings of a representative from each of the respective institutions would assist to ensure the tasks are ongoing and to identify matters for the larger group consideration. in the immediate the two representatives are the associate vice president academic partnerships from seneca; and the manager strategic initiatives from cambrian. degree opportunities project goal: one major goal is to provide cambrian students access to senecas degree programs, with the maximum amount of transfer credit, and the opportunity to complete some components, where applicable, without leaving sudbury. an ongoing, structured academic partnership would ensure concurrent coordinated future program development in diplomas and degrees respectively. as an initial foray into expanding degree pathways it was determined the two colleges would map the diploma computer studies program offered at cambrian against the two related degrees offered at seneca college, bachelor of software development and bachelor of applied technology- informatics and security. appendix a provides a breakdown by course of the credits a cambrian computer studies graduate would earn towards the two degrees. the next step will be to determine what courses can be delivered long-distance. the partnership also identified the next programs for degree development: early childhood education into bachelor of child development business management into bachelor of commerce degrees diplomas to advanced diplomas identified as the next phase. as a component of the partnership development seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office (dcto) will be establishing a permanent section on their website specific to cambrian students. simultaneously there will be a link from cambrian colleges website directly to the dcto site. all new pathways will populate this section for students reference and it will become the permanent resource for information on student movement. still in draft form, a mock-up version is attached in appendix b. the operation of a degree transfer office has been determined as one of the areas where mutual support and learning opportunities exist. cambrian has a longer history using a student information system which accommodates course-for-course transfer. seneca has a well established pathway development office and a mature website. representatives from the respective departments will be working together to enhance each colleges resources in this area. college-to-college pathway | final report page |5 pathway development project goal: preliminary discussions have identified cambrians physical fitness and leisure diploma program into senecas therapeutic recreation degree as the first pathway for development. the mapping would also identify course development and experimentation in course delivery which would serve as a model for future arrangements. cambrians physical fitness and leisure diploma program was selected as the first program to begin discussion on a diploma to degree pathway because evidence from the graduate survey indicates the largest number of graduates pursue further educational opportunities. senecas bachelor of therapeutic recreation was identified as a program of significant affinity and therefore, a natural fit for these graduates. the opportunity also seemed timely as the therapeutic recreation program was undergoing a program review. the latter turned out to be problematic rather than an advantage and prolonged the discussion process. nevertheless, representatives of both programs managed to formulate a map of transfer credit recognition maximizing the learning and putting the cambrian graduates onto a path of degree completion. in the table below, cambrian graduates will receive advanced standing based completion of the program with a minimum grade point average equivalent to 65%. upon completion of a three course, one semester bridge the qualified advanced diploma graduates will go directly into the equivalent of year three of the degree program. seneca honours bachelor therapeutic recreation degree mapped to cambrian physical fitness management advanced diploma term courses 1 trc 101 the role of tr in wellness and health promotion 2 trc 201 trc 302 assessment and adaptive program recreation and planning for leisure activities therapeutic in tr recreation 3 4 hsc 103 anatomy and physiology for tr rec 105 recreation and leisure studies lso xxx liberal studies option eng 106 writing strategies trc 203 leisure education hsc 205 clinical biomechanics and kinesiology lso 260 principles of psychology phy 301 exercise physiology swo 202 lifespan development lls 304 leadership and life skills hcm 305 principles of health conditions and management i lsp 320 interpersonal communications trc 803 business management for therapeutic recreation services trc 402 assessment and therapeutic intervention i hcm 405 principles of health conditions and management ii trc 103 professional ethics for tr practitioners lso 403 group dynamics ftr 407 preparing for fieldwork and co-op college-to-college pathway | final report page |6 5 6 7 sco 501 cognitive and developmental disorders trc 502 assessment and therapeutic interventions ii swo 504 understanding addiction ftr 507 consolidation seminar/ fieldwork lso 120 introduction to sociology lsl 404 abnormal psychology pro xxx professional option pro xxx professional option ftr 607 consolidation seminar/ fieldwork sta 863 statistics for applied research swo 400 theories of counselling hum 709 analysis of canadian health and social programs rsc 875 research methods ftr 707 consolidation seminar/ fieldwork lso xxx liberal studies option cpp 600 co-op professional practice lso xxx liberal studies option cpp 700 co-op integration and career planning cwt 650 co-op work term fall semester 8 rsc 885 research project pro xxx professional option pro xxx professional option ftr 807 consolidation seminar/ fieldwork final approval of the consent renewal and the addition of a new pathway by the post-secondary quality assessment board (peqab) will enable a launching of this venture in january 2018. in the process of negotiating this pathway cambrian and seneca investigated the capabilities of their respective institutions to offer synchronous classroom teaching. cambrian has a well established infrastructure utilized with other northern colleges in the delivery of post-secondary education. seneca has limited resources in this area but are able to incorporate needed resources into current, new construction at their newnham and king campus locations. the institutions are now in a position to experiment with existing resources and technology to connect the institutions and the students. success and future investments will enable cambrian students to remain at home longer while completing a portion of the seneca program. in this case, the forthcoming bridge will be delivered in this manner and provide an example for further pathway development as well as possible co-delivery programming in the future. teaching and learning experience for this kind of delivery lies with cambrian college. over the last decade cambrian has developed expertise in synchronous program delivery at a distance to provide post-secondary education to students in satellite campus catchment areas and through partnership delivery with other northern colleges. this includes curriculum design expertise, experience with developing pedagogical best practices as well as significant experience and expertise with a range of technology that has been available over the years. currently cambrian is a key player in the northern colleges collaborative project which provides increased access to students across northern ontario through collaborative, synchronous, web-based delivery. seneca has been less involved in this type of delivery and this partnership provides another opportunity for the institutions to share expertise and experience while providing new opportunities to students in the north. college-to-college pathway | final report page |7 lessons learned a couple challenges experienced in this ongoing project are reflective of numerous related activities. the first is to maintain momentum after a flurry of activity and within the context of competing demands. this reality is compounded by distance and the geographic separation of the two institutions. recognizing this challenge, the steering committee followed a practice in another partnership and decided to have monthly meetings with select people to ensure activities remain on track. the second challenge is change of personnel in key positions related to the partnership. both colleges experienced changes contributing to the maintenance of momentum and the progression of project deliverables. the structure as outlined establishes a system for continuation in spite of these inevitable changes; and detailed documentation helps to manage the learning curve for new people as they enter into the partnership. the implementation of this project highlighted the enthusiasm for this form of collaboration. the discussions showed how keen everyone was to experiment on this sort of arrangement. the strong spirit of collaboration spawned other ideas, including relationships with other organizations. with the idea of learning from each other, the concept of this collaboration infiltrates through the organization and the people such that it becomes second nature and another component of regular business. in this manner, we can anticipate fewer hurdles in the future and the dawn of a new era in college education. college-to-college pathway | final report page |8 appendix a: cambrian pathway into seneca degree semester 1 bab140 introduction to financial accounting btc140 critical thinking and writing operating systems for programmers bto120 - unix btp100 programming fundamentals using c computer principles for btp105 programmers tc granted x x based on cambrian eng1003,1754 cet2331 x x cet2321 total left to complete: semester 2 interpersonal communications in btc240 organizations btd210 database design principles bti225 web programming principles the object-oriented paradigm using btp200 c++ plus: liberal studies course 2 x psy2700 x sty1211 x x x general education total left to complete: semester 3 btc340 business presentations btd310 sql database design using oracle web programming tools and bti325 framework object-oriented software btp305 development using c++ business requirements analysis bts330 using oo models plus: liberal studies course 2 x x x x x x general education total left to complete: semester 4 btc440 business and technical writing web programming for apps and bti425 services btn415 data communications programming btp400 object-oriented software courses remaining x 5 x x x cet2340,2345,3520 x college-to-college pathway | final report page |9 development ii - java systems analysis and design using bts430 uml x total left to complete: 4 internship btr490 investigative research internship x total left to complete: semester 5 btb520 canadian business environment principles of gui design and bth545 programming btp500 data structures and algorithms bts530 major project - planning and design plus: professional option course 1 x bus1045 x x x x sem 4,5,6 course total left to complete: semester 6 law, ethics and social bte620 responsibility multimedia elements for user bth645 interfaces btp600 data patterns in uml bts630 major project - implementation cpp600 co-op professional practice plus: professional option course 3 x ssc1006 + x x x x x sem 4,5,6 course total left to complete: 4 co-op work term 1 btw699 co-op work term x total left to complete: semester 7 bab235 introduction to marketing bth745 human-computer interaction btn710 information security bts730 project management methodologies co-op integration and career cpp700 planning plus: professional option course 1 x x x x cet1000,3615 cet2415 x x sem 4,5,6 course college-to-college pathway | final report p a g e | 10 total left to complete: 3 co-op work term 2 btw799 co-op work term x total left to complete: semester 8 btr820 research methodologies and project technology planning and bts830 acquisition plus: professional option course plus: professional option course plus: liberal studies course total left to complete: dps903 dps904 dps907 dps908 dps909 dps911 dps912 dps915 dps916 dps918 dps921 dps923 dps924 dps931 dps932 dps936 dps937 dps943 dps944 1 x x x x sem 4,5,6 course sem 4,5,6 course x 3 professional options enterprise development with java and ejb java database connectivity web services operating systems for programmers - iseries topics in open source development open source project topics in unix systems programming introduction to parallel programming visual basic unix bash shell scripting parallel algorithms and programming techniques mobile app development - ios mobile app development - android game engine foundations game engine techniques game content creation game development fundamentals web programming using php web programming using asp.net college-to-college pathway | final report p a g e | 11 college-to-college pathway | final report p a g e | 12 appendix b: draft version of revised seneca dcto website to support partnership with cambrian. front page. college-to-college pathway | final report p a g e | 13 one level into site under for students tab from front page: college-to-college pathway | final report

1 sommaire excutif oncat project 2015-17 privileged right of passage : pathways between collge boral and laurentian university rapport prpar par le bureau des tudes et affaires francophones juin 2016 2 rsum dans le cadre de ce projet, nous avons russi dvelopper dix ententes darticulation. quatre dentre elles visent les tudiants qui ont complt ou qui complteront un certificat dun an au collge boral. auparavant, il tait impossible pour ces tudiants de transfrer des crdits collgiaux envers des programmes universitaires. maintenant, ils sont ligibles jusqu 30 crdits, ce qui quivaut une pleine anne dtudes. en plus de ces ententes, trois ententes ont t dveloppes avec le dpartement de psychologie - une de celle-ci est un 2+2. finalement, trois ententes ont t amliores en ducation physique et sant. ces ententes se dmarquent des autres puisque les rsultats dapprentissage ont t compars et les tudiants peuvent profiter de plusieurs crdits spcifiques au lieu de seulement des crdits au choix. la majorit des ententes sont ltape dapprobation au snat de luniversit laurentienne. malheureusement, nous avons appris au mois davril que deux tapes staient ajoutes au processus dapprobation, ce qui a retard ledit processus. nous sommes confiants, cependant, que les ententes seront approuves dici la l'automne 2016. en suivant ce processus, nous sommes heureux dannoncer quune des retombes sera que toutes les ententes darticulations francophones sappliqueront aussi du cot anglais - donc pour tout autre collge qui offre le mme programme vers nos programmes francophones et anglophones (lorsque les deux options existent).

student success after transfer from college to lakehead university june 30, 2012 submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer office of institutional analysis lakehead university table of contents introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 literature review .......................................................................................................................................... 3 methods ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 limitations......................................................................................................................................... 6 profile of credit transfer students at lakehead ........................................................................................... 7 majors ............................................................................................................................................... 8 sending colleges ............................................................................................................................. 11 demographics ................................................................................................................................. 14 program characteristics .................................................................................................................. 14 results ......................................................................................................................................................... 15 retention rate ................................................................................................................................ 15 success rate .................................................................................................................................... 17 graduation rate .............................................................................................................................. 18 common entry year graduation rate............................................................................................. 19 grade point average ....................................................................................................................... 21 conclusions and recommendations ........................................................................................................... 22 references .................................................................................................................................................. 24 2 lakehead university - institutional analysis introduction a large number of college graduates enroll at lakehead university each year to further their education. within the ontario university system lakehead is tied with ryerson as the university having the largest share of ontario transfer students compared to its share of ontario system full-time equivalent students. because lakehead is an important destination for college transfer students, it is important to study the success of these students as has been done for traditional direct entry (straight from high school) students. this report compares and contrasts the success of the following three groups of college students entering lakehead: those entering through bilateral or multi-lateral agreements with block transfer, advanced standing college transfer students (those who have completed a college diploma and are eligible for transfer credit) and, other college students without transfer credits (students who have upgraded their high school credential at a college, those who only partially completed a diploma, or those whose average is below the requirement for transfer credit). specifically, this report explores whether there are any significant differences in the success rates and / or profile of the three types of college transfer students. comparisons will be made with direct entry students. success will be measured using modifications of measures traditionally applied to first-time, full-time freshmen including retention rate, six-year graduation rate, and grade-point average. literature review in recent years there has been significant discussion concerning pathways to and through higher education in ontario. this discussion commenced in earnest with the formation of the collegeuniversity consortium council (cucc) in 1996, continued with the signing of the ontario collegeuniversity degree completion accord (the port hope accord) in 1999, and culminated with the announcement in 2011 by the minister of training colleges and universities of the creation of a province wide credit transfer system in ontario (ontransfer 2012a)1. throughout this time period, the discussion on postsecondary education pathways has been underwritten by a general discussion of the state of ontarios postsecondary education system including anticipated challenges and possibilities for system transformation. see for example, clark, moran, skolnik and trick 2009 and clark, trick and van loon, 2011. within the discussion on postsecondary pathways, much of the initial focus has been on pathways from college to university (cmec, 2011). in ontario, there are nearly 520 transfer agreements including 435 college-university degree-completion agreements (cmec 2011). credit transfer refers to the ability to apply or transfer credits received for a course taken at one institution towards a credential at another 1 for a more detailed overview of key events in the credit transfer / postsecondary education pathways discussion in ontario please visit hazell, c.d., and s. wilson. (2012). what ontario has learned from 40 years of bilateral th transfer agreements. in proceedings from the student pathways in higher education conference, january 26 and th 27 2012. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. available at: http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/index_en.php?page=student_pathways_conference_recap 3 lakehead university - institutional analysis institution (ontransfer 2012b). the amount of credit a student receives for their prior educational experience may vary depending on the sending program and institution, the receiving program and institution as well as the year the course was taken and the grades received (ontransfer 2012b). there are different types of credit transfer ranging from single credits to block transfer. block transfer occurs when a group of courses taken at a sending institution are equivalent to a group of courses required by a receiving institution (ontransfer 2012b). block transfer usually occurs when the student is pursuing two highly related programs. the number of students potentially affected by ontarios credit transfer / postsecondary pathway policies is increasing. during the period 2005 to 2009 more ontario college graduates (27%) continued their education within six months of graduation than in the previous four years (24%)(cci 2011). eight percent of college graduates from between 2005 and 2009 were pursuing further education at a university (cci 2011). full-time continuation at university shows an increase of almost 2% over eight years from 2001/2002 to 2008/2009 cci 2011, p.13. most college graduates who move on to university are pursuing an undergraduate degree (74%); preparatory / upgrading programs were the most common type of originating program (cci 2011). many future university students choose to attend college first. thirteen percent of those applying to college, reported transfer to university as a major reason for applying (co 2011), while almost a quarter (24%) said that preparation for university was one of the major reasons they applied to college (co 2009). in 2007-08 about 6% of all ontario university registrants had college of applied arts and technology (caat) experience (co 2009). of the approximately 60,000 college graduates in ontario in 2006/2007 it was estimated that approximately 4,400 were enrolled in an ontario university within six months of graduation (co 2009). between 2006 and 2009, over 80% of college graduates transferring to university programs said that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their transition experience (cci 2011). during the same time period, (2006 to 2009) 85% of college graduates transferring to university programs said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their academic preparation for their university program (cci 2011). at lakehead university, credit transfer students are a major part of the student body. in 2011/2012 lakehead university accounted for about 2% of ontario university system full-time equivalent enrollment, but had about 6% of the full-time college transfers. lakehead is tied with ryerson as having the highest ratio of share of full-time transfers to share of overall full-time students in ontario (decock et al. 2011). in addition, lakehead university is a major draw for graduates of northwestern ontarios largest college: confederation college. in 2008-09 about 17% of confederation college students pursuing further education, either at university or college, attended lakehead. attending lakehead was second only to pursuing further education at confederation college (cci 2011). methods we examined the success of transfer students entering lakehead between 2000 and 2010 using modifications of the traditional success measures: retention rate, graduation rate, and grade-point 4 lakehead university - institutional analysis average. we compared the success of the three types of transfer students (block, advanced standing and other college) for each of the years. we also compared the success of college transfer students to that of students entering directly from high school. differences in, and methods of controlling for, characteristics such as full-time/part-time status, program type and length, and demographics are explored2. data used to address the research question originates from the lakehead university student information system. to construct the database of college transfer students for analysis, student data was queried from the student information system using the following criteria: the student applied to lakehead university with an anticipated start term between spring 2000 and winter 2011 (i.e., during the 2000/2001 to 2010/2011 academic years); the student applied to an undergraduate program or an access program; their application was of type 105; the last institution attended (and basis for admission) was a college or bible college within canada; the first term at lakehead approximates the application term (within plus or minus one term). students may have applied to multiple programs or applied over multiple years before eventually being accepted and subsequently enrolling in a program of study; therefore careful scrutiny was necessary to ensure that only those students entering based on an application made from college were included in this database. if a student had multiple applications, admits and enrollments within the 11 years encompassed by this study, only the first program enrolled in and its corresponding application was included. the program of study was considered to be the first program on record even if the students subsequently switched programs. the process of identifying the type of transfer was hierarchical starting with block transfer students. block transfers were easy to isolate as there were only a specific number of programs which offer block transfer, namely engineering, business administration, natural resources management / forestry and natural science. students entering these programs were explicitly coded as transfer students. if students had entered into one of these transfer programs they were classified as block transfer students unless they had advanced standing credits3. 2 finnie and qiu (2008) show that demographics such as gender and age can effect persistence rates of college and university students. 3 however, it was not always easy to differentiate between block transfer and advanced standing students in these three transfer programs. those that were in block transfer programs that had no advanced standing credits were considered block transfer students while those showing advanced standing credits were assumed to have insufficient credits for the complete block transfer and were required to complete additional credits but were still entered in to the transfer instead of the regular program. it is possible that the advanced standing credits were granted for a different program meaning we understate the amount of block transfer students and overestimate the amount of advanced standing students. in addition, changes to the coding used by the registrars office likely resulted in an underestimation of the number of block transfer students especially in the 2001-2002 academic year. 5 lakehead university - institutional analysis next we identified the advanced standing / general transfer students. these students were those that had received transfer credit from a college for work completed prior to their first enrollment at lakehead university. careful scrutiny was necessary to ensure that advanced standing was actually received prior to first enrollment4. finally, all college students who did not fit into either of the above categories, those not entering into a program with block transfer and those not receiving advanced standing, were assumed to be other college students without transfer credit. cohorts are defined by the academic year (e.g., spring to winter) but are labeled by the year of the fall term. for example, the 2000/2001 academic year is labelled 2000. while combining winter entry students with those from the previous spring might cause problems with the analysis, the data show that most college transfer students enter either in the spring / summer or fall of each academic year. a minimal number of students transfer into lakehead university during the winter term: less than 5% annually since 2002. any effects on the results caused by this assumption are assumed to be negligible. to verify the accuracy of the database, a second database was compiled using a different methodology and queried from lakeheads historical or frozen files. the similarity of the databases assured the researchers of the absence of systematic or major errors. limitations this research investigating the success of college transfer students is a post hoc analysis using data not originally collected for this purpose. this resulted in the following challenges. compiling a longitudinal database was difficult due to modifications to data definitions and interpretations over the eleven year period encompassed by this study. for attributes not available for all years, secondary sources were used where available, to piece together the required information (e.g., the forpos code was used to identify engineering transfer students prior to 2004 when the .post identifier had not yet been introduced). alternate offers of admission were recorded in an inconsistent manner over the eleven year period. therefore, some students who were likely alternate offered in earlier years were removed from the database due to the fact that the first program enrolled in did not correspond to a college application on file. students with complex pathways prior to becoming college transfer students at lakehead university were not easily captured and are underrepresented in our database. for example, students who applied to lakehead directly from high school, registered, subsequently dropped out and went to college then re-applied to lakehead were considered as high school applicants because that was their first contact / experience with lakehead university. students who 4 for example a college student may have applied and enrolled for the september 2000 term at lakehead. they may have subsequently left lakehead university without completing the term, thus receiving no grades or credits, returned to college completed another diploma and reapplied at a later date receiving advanced standing. in this case the student would be entered into the database for their 2000 application and their advanced standing would not be included because it is not associated with their first application. 6 lakehead university - institutional analysis applied from college, dropped out to go back to college and re-applied to university at a later date are recorded on their first date of entry into lakehead. term sensitive data, that is data that changes by term, (e.g., program, full or part-time status, year level) was challenging to determine. for example, ideally we would assess the full-time / part-time status at the point of entry. however because many transfer students enter in the summer months on transition programs which have a part-time status, and therefore may not be an accurate reflection of their overall status. we used the first fall term status to determine enrollment and demographic characteristics. this may result in an under-representation of part-time students who did not enroll in the fall term. profile of credit transfer students at lakehead there are many pathways into lakehead university that a college student may pursue. for the 2011/2012 academic year there were three areas into which students could enter and receive block transfer credit: business administration / commerce, engineering, and natural resources management / forestry. for each of the programs, students with a relevant diploma and the required average could transfer directly into third year, having received a block of credits for years one and two. for both the engineering and the natural resources management programs, transfer students are required to complete summer transition courses. students coming from college and receiving a half or more individual credits for prior college diplomas are categorized as advanced standing students. lakehead university has multilateral articulation agreements for the concurrent education and social work programs. these agreements offer up to a full years credit (five full course equivalents) for students completing a relevant diploma with the required average. several unilateral articulation agreements also exist between lakehead university and confederation college, algonquin college, seneca college and sir sanford fleming college in a variety of programs ranging from political science, to applied bio-molecular science to outdoor recreation. finally, students with prior college experience may apply to lakehead university for admission based on their previous studies at a college. these previous studies may include upgrading of a high school credential or partial completion of a diploma program. these students are categorized as other college students. figure 1 presents the number of students transferring into lakehead university by the three types of transfer described above. 7 lakehead university - institutional analysis number of college students, by transfer type, entering lakehead university each year. number of students entering lakehead 250 200 block transfer 150 advanced standing other college 100 50 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 cohort year figure 1: number of college students by transfer type, entering lakehead university each year. block transfer programs, which are offered in only three areas of study, are the most popular especially in recent years, drawing over 180 students per year since 2005. engineering (chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical and software) is the most dominant areas of study accounting for 87% of incoming block transfers. most transfer students enter with some type of credit for their prior college work, although between 160 to 220 students per year (about 36% of all transfer students since 2005) enter lakehead university from college with no transfer credit. majors of all the students entering lakehead university as college transfer students since 2000, the most popular areas of study are: civil engineering, electrical engineering, general arts and science, mechanical engineering, concurrent education, business, access/qualifying programs, nursing and social work (figure 2). combined, engineering disciplines account for 29% to 42% of all incoming college transfer students in the years between 2000 and 2010, with an average of 37% for the eleven years. general arts and science accounts for about 10% of the incoming college transfer students while concurrent education accounts for 9.5%. see table 1 for a list of the top five programs of study and their share of the incoming transfer student population from 2000 to 2010. 8 lakehead university - institutional analysis table 1: top five disciplines into which college transfer students entered at lakehead university (2000-2010) percent of total transfers (20002010) civil engineering electrical engineering mechanical engineering general arts and science concurrent education 13.3 10.7 10.0 10.0 9.5 engineering programs stayed consistently popular with incoming college transfer students throughout the decade. concurrent education programs became more popular from 2005-2010, accounting for 12.4% of incoming transfer students (tables 2 and 3). table 2: top five disciplines into which college transfer students entered at lakehead university (2005-2010) percent of total transfers (2005-2010) civil engineering concurrent education mechanical engineering electrical engineering general arts and science 14.8 12.4 10.5 10.0 9.4 table 3: top five disciplines into which college transfer students entered at lakehead university (2000-2004) percent of total transfers (2000-2004) electrical engineering general arts and science civil engineering mechanical engineering access / qualifying programs 11.9 11.0 10.9 9.1 7.3 within the block transfer category there are only defined programs into which students can enter in the areas of engineering, business and natural resources management. within these areas, the most popular programs of study from 2005-2010 were civil engineering with between 62 and 85 entrants per year, electrical engineering with between 39 to 78 entrants per year and mechanical engineering with between 39 and 54 entrants per year. business was the next most popular program, followed by chemical engineering. for those entering with advanced standing the most popular disciplines were concurrent education, social work, two disciplines for which lakehead has multilateral articulation agreements, followed by general arts and science. 9 lakehead university - institutional analysis number of college transfer students (all types) by program area from 2000 to 2010 100 90 80 number of students 70 2000 60 2001 2002 50 2003 2004 40 2005 2006 30 2007 2008 20 2009 2010 10 0 program area figure 2: number of college transfer students (all types) by program areas from 2000 to 2010. 10 lakehead university - institutional analysis table 4: top three programs into which students with advanced standing entered at lakehead (2005-2010) percent of advanced standing (20052010) concurrent education 26.0 social work 17.2 general arts and science 9.8 for other college students, the most popular disciplines were general arts and science, concurrent education and access / qualifying programs followed by nursing. table 5: top three programs into which other college students entered at lakehead (2005-2010) percent of other college (2005-2010) general arts and science 19.4 concurrent education 17.1 access / qualifying programs 15.9 sending colleges confederation college in thunder bay is the main sending college for lakehead university. between 100 to 200 students arrived at lakehead from confederation college each year between 2000 and 2010 accounting for 34% of the total transfer students. following confederation college, lakehead university has drawn most of its college transfer students from the ontario colleges of humber, algonquin, georgian, seneca, mohawk, and the british columbia institute of technology (bcit) (table 6). figure 3 shows the number of students by year originating from each of the sending institutions, excluding those that sent less than ten students. table 6: top five sending institutions for transfers to lakehead university (2000-2010) percent of total transfers (2000-2010) confederation college 34.1 humber college 4.1 algonquin college 3.8 georgian college 3.8 seneca 3.7 students enrolled in block transfer programs come from a variety of sending colleges across canada. some of the more popular sending colleges over the last eleven years were bcit, humber, seneca, mohawk, algonquin, southern alberta institute of technology (sait), niagara, and northern alberta institute of technology (nait) (table 7). 11 lakehead university - institutional analysis table 7: top five sending institutions for block transfers to lakehead (2000-2010) percent of block transfers (2000-2010) british columbia institute of technology 7.3 humber college 7.3 seneca college 6.3 mohawk college 6.1 algonquin college 5.5 it should be noted that the faculty of engineering, whose programs form the majority of the block transfers at lakehead, markets its programs across canada which may explain the presence of bcit, sait and nait as dominant sending colleges. if only the last five years of data for block transfer sending colleges is examined, the trend changes with bcit falling from the list. in the mid-2000s, bcit began offering engineering degree programs similar to those found at lakehead whereby students may opt to graduate with a diploma at the two year mark (bcit 2010)5. this may be at least partially responsible for the drop in students coming to lakehead from bcit for the degree completion transfer program. table 8: top five sending institutions for block transfers to lakehead (2005-2010) percent of block transfers (2005-2010) humber college seneca college mohawk college algonquin college northern alberta institute of technology 8.6 7.1 6.4 5.7 5.5 for advanced standing and other college students, confederation college was by far the largest sending institution, with an average of 44% of the incoming class of advanced standing students originating from confederation each year from 2000 to 2010, but falling in the overall proportion to 39% of the incoming transfers from 2006-20116. on average, 57% of other college students arrived at lakehead university annually from confederation college between 2000 and 2010. since the opening of lakehead universitys orillia campus in 2006 it appears that georgian college (barrie) has become the second largest sending institution in these categories, averaging 11% of incoming advanced standing students and 6% of incoming other college students from 2006 to 2010. 5 in spring 2009, bcit graduated its first students from the bachelor of engineering (mechanical). in 2010, bcit graduated its first cohort of students from the newly accredited bachelor of engineering (civil) program, and bachelor of engineering (electrical) program was ready to graduate students in spring 2011. (bcit 2009a, bcit 2009b). 6 the actual number of students originating from confederation college remains relatively stable over the two time periods averaging 48 to 49 students per year. 12 lakehead university - institutional analysis number of transfer students attending lakehead university by sending college 2000-2010 45 40 35 number of students 30 2000 2001 25 2002 2003 2004 20 2005 2006 15 2007 2008 10 2009 2010 5 0 sending college figure 3: number of transfer students attending lakehead university, by sending college 2000-2010, excluding confederation college and those colleges sending less than ten students in the time period. 13 lakehead university - institutional analysis demographics more males than females transfer to lakehead university from college. however, this may have more to do with the types of programing offered as opposed to any particular demographic pattern. for example, there are more males than females in block programs but this may be because of the type of programs offered (e.g., engineering) which is still predominantly a male dominated sector. the engineering transfer program (all types mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical, and software) is the dominant block transfer program at lakehead university accounting for an average of 87% of annual incoming block transfers. when we look at those transferring in with advanced standing or other college we see that in recent years between 60% and 70% of students are female. (figure 4). 100% enrollment by gender at lakehead university for each of the three types of credit transfer 90% 80% percent female 70% block transfer 60% 50% advanced standing 40% other college 30% 20% 10% 0% 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 cohort year 2007 2008 2009 2010 figure 4: enrollment by gender, showing the percent female, for each of the three types of credit transfer students program characteristics most of the block transfer students come in as full-time students with between 88% and 96% of them entering in any given year7. advanced standing students are the next most likely to attend full-time with about 80% doing so in any given year. finally other college transfer students are the least likely (about 75%) to be full time students upon first entering into lakehead university. 7 many college students transitioning to lakehead university may enter in the spring / summer terms and participate in transition programs (which often result in the student being registered as a part-time student). in order to assess full and part-time status we used the enrollment status at the first fall term. 14 lakehead university - institutional analysis students entering lakehead university with advanced standing, receive on average 3.31 transfer credits. this number rises slightly to 3.35 when only full-time students are considered. percent of college transfer students enrolled full-time at lakehead university, by transfer type 100% 90% percent enrolled full-time 80% 70% 60% block 50% advanced 40% other college 30% 20% 10% 0% 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 cohort year 2007 2008 2009 2010 figure 5: percentage of college transfer students enrolled full-time, during their first fall term, by transfer type. results the success of college transfer students is gauged by five criteria: retention rate, success rate, graduation rate, common entry year graduation rate and first term grade point average. comparisons were initially made including both full and part-time students, as part-time students form an important component of the college transfer cohort (nearly 25% of other college students) as compared to 12% of the direct entry cohort. however, to provide a more accurate and realistic comparison, only data from full-time students was used in most of the analysis. readers should take this into consideration when interpreting these data as part-time students do form a substantial portion of college transfer students. retention rate the retention rate for college transfer students was initially calculated and compared using the consortium for student retention data exchange (csrde) formula for first-time, full-time freshmen. in order to make the data comparable only credit transfer students for which we had reliable full-time / part-time status were included. those students that received half or more advanced standing credits for their prior college work have the highest year one to year two retention rate of the three types of college transfer students with the average retention rate since 2005 being 82.5%. block transfers are next with the average annual retention rate since 2005 being 81.2% followed by 77.4% for other college students. see figure 6. 15 lakehead university - institutional analysis compared to direct entry students as measured by the csrde method and reported to the ministry of training colleges and universities (mtcu) (average 86.9% since 2005), transfer students as a whole had a slightly lower retention rate. 100% one-year retention rate - full-time college transfer vs direct entry students at lakehead university percent retained 90% 80% block advanced 70% other college direct entry 60% 50% 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 cohort year 2007 2008 2009 2010 figure 6: the one-year retention rate measured as returning the fall term one year from the date of enrolment for full time college transfer and direct entry students. however, even when considering only full-time students it was difficult to establish a retention measure for transfer students that would be comparable to that reported for direct entry students using the csrde methods (i.e., the fall-to-fall retention of first-time full-time freshmen). first, because transfer students enter lakehead at numerous entry points, it is hard to calculate the traditional fall-to-fall retention rate that is used for direct entry students (direct entry students overwhelmingly enter lakehead in the fall term). for example a one-year retention rate might actually be under-reported because for students who entered in the winter of 2001, it would be closer to two years by the time they are counted as retained one year (fall 2002). (the other option would be to overestimate by including those who had been retained for half a year in the one-year retention rate.) second, year one to two retention rates of block transfer students and students with advanced standing may not be comparable to those of direct entry or other college students. students who have been granted advanced standing or who have been granted block transfer have already `passed` the year one retention / attrition test and therefore may have a higher likelihood of being retained than those entering with no transfer credits awarded8. third, due to the fact that some transfer students graduate within one year, the traditional measure of retention may not fully capture what it is designed to measure. in addition, because there may be greater likelihood of graduating after one year in a block 8 calculations using lakeheads csrde data show that attrition is highest in the early stages of university. that is retention rates from year two to three and years three to four are higher than from year one to two. 16 lakehead university - institutional analysis transfer or advanced standing situation than in an other college situation by calculating a one-year retention rate we may be skewing the results. success rate we are ultimately looking to measure the success of a student so we developed a hybrid measure which we call the one-year success rate. this measure considers students as being a success if they either graduate within one year or continue to be enrolled in the following year. examined this way, block transfer students are by far the most successful of the three types of student with an average success rate of 89.0% since 2005, making them more successful than direct entry students (86.9%)9. advanced standing students had the next highest rate of success at 82.5%, followed by other college students at 79.8% (figure 7). 95% one-year success rate - full-time college transfer vs direct entry students at lakehead university percent successful 90% 85% 80% block 75% advanced other college 70% direct entry 65% 60% 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 cohort year figure 7: the one-year success rate measured as a student either being graduated or returning as of the fall term one year from the date of enrollment, for full time college transfer and direct entry students. the one-year success rate measure seemed, conceptually at least, to be robust enough to measure the success of both full and part-time students. (the measure asks only if a student returned and not about how many courses they were taking). however, full-time / part-time status seemed to have a large role to play in the one-year success rate. when all students were included in the calculation, the one-year success rate declined (figure 8). for example, the success rate of advanced standing students falls from an average of 82.5% for full-time from 2005 to 2010 to an average of 72.3% for part-time over the same time period. meanwhile the success rate of other college students fell from an average of 79.8% (fulltime) to 64.4% (part-time) over the same time period. this drop could be due to the fact that part-time students are dropping out or due to the fact that they simply are not enrolling in fall term courses (the 9 the success rate for direct entry students is equal to that of the one-year retention rate. by definition and the nature of the programs offered at lakehead university, no student entering lakehead university direct from high school and pursuing a regular course load would be able to receive a degree in one year. 17 lakehead university - institutional analysis one term they must enroll in each year in order to be counted a success using this methodology). if it is indeed the former, attention needs to be paid as 24% of the other college student cohort and 18% of the advanced standing cohort since 2005 have been part-time students. 95% one-year success rate - full and part-time students at lakehead university 90% percent successful 85% 80% 75% block 70% advanced 65% other college direct entry 60% 55% 50% 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 cohort year figure 8: the one-year success rate measured as a student either being graduated or returning as of the fall term one year from the date of enrollment, for full and part-time college transfer and full-time direct entry students. graduation rate graduation rate is a popular measure of success and both six year and seven year graduation rates of direct entry students are used in accountability reporting to the mtcu. in order to develop and compare graduation rates, we chose to compute the graduation rate of students two years after the normal time to completion of their program. this was based on the csrdes six year graduation rate indicator for four year programs. for the block transfer programs, this means the graduation rate should be calculated three years (one-year programs) and four years (two year programs) after entry into their program10. those with advanced standing or other college experience as well as the direct entry comparators would be five (3 year degrees) to six (4 year degrees) years after their date of entry. to reduce errors associated with part-time status, college transfer graduation rates were calculated using only those transfer students who entered with full-time status. the six-year equivalent graduation rate is presented in figure 9. 10 this assumes entry into year three with years one and two (or equivalent) completed. 18 lakehead university - institutional analysis 100% six-year equivalent graduation rate of full-time students at lakehead university, by cohort year and type of college transfer 90% percent graduating 80% 70% block 60% advanced 50% other college direct entry 40% 30% 20% 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 cohort year 2005 2006 2007 figure 9: the six-year equivalent graduation rate of full-time students by cohort year and type of college transfer. when graduation rates of full-time transfer students are compared, the rates of advanced standing students are comparable to those of direct entry students (73.3% average versus 72.0% average from 2000 to 2005), while block transfer students exceed the rate of direct entry students averaging 84.4% since 2000. it should be noted that the methods used above may inflate the graduation rate for college transfers when compared to direct entry students. students who have been granted advanced standing or who have been granted block transfer have already `passed` the year one and possibly the year two retention / attrition test. it is therefore assumed that these students are more committed to their education and have more likelihood of succeeding than a student entering first year without prior postsecondary education experience. on this basis we explore refinements to the measure. common entry year graduation rate in an attempt to take into account attrition in years one and two we modified the six-year equivalent graduation rate comparator. we used the six year graduation rate of first-time full-time freshmen who had successfully made it to year 3 for a comparator to block transfer students (4 years from time of entry into 3rd year)11. this provides a more robust comparison as it tracks the graduation rate of the two sets of students from roughly the same starting point (entry into year 3). similarly we compared the six year graduation rate of first-time full-time freshmen who had made it to year 2 as a comparator for those who had received at least a half credit of advanced standing. although the amount of advanced 11 it should be noted that engineering transfer students do have to complete transition courses that may take up to two summers to complete. 19 lakehead university - institutional analysis standing credits received varies considerably between students it was felt that having at least a half credit already completed would provide a level of success that approximately corresponds to that achieved when completing first year and would provide similar incentive to continue pursuing a degree as someone who had completed some first year courses. finally, those with no advanced standing were compared to first-time full-time freshmen entering year one. the results are presented in figure 10 below. 100% graduation rates of full-time college transfer students at lakehead university (by type) compared to rates of first-time full-time freshmen at a common starting point 90% percent graduating 80% 70% 60% block direct entry - yr 3 50% advanced direct entry - yr 2 40% other college direct entry 30% 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 cohort year figure 10: graduation rates of full-time college transfer students (by type) compared to the rates first-time fulltime freshmen taken at a common starting point (e.g., block transfers entering year three are compared with firsttime full-time freshmen who have made it to year three). when adjusted for entry points / initial attrition we see that other college transfer students have lower graduation rates than their first-time full-time (direct from high school) counter parts. however, block transfer students have similar success rates to their first-time full-time counterparts when taken from the beginning of year three (84.4% versus 87.7%). although the six-year graduation rate of advanced standing students (73.3%) is slightly lower than that of their first-time full-time counterparts entering year two (81.2%), the difference is less than for other college students. in addition, the graduation rate for advanced standing transfer students might be better represented at the seven year mark since the average full-time advanced standing student receives only 3.4 credits. 20 lakehead university - institutional analysis grade point average a final method of determining the success of students is by measuring their grade point average (as a percent) after one term at university. this will pinpoint whether the student has been able to successfully make the transition to university. although not an ideal measure if there is no pre-entrance gpa as a control, at an aggregate level it is useful, assuming similar distributions of pre-entrance gpas. the first term gpa of college students tends to be on average lower than that of direct entry high school students (see figure 11 below). 70 three year moving average of first term gpa for each type of college transfer 68 grade point average 66 64 62 block 60 advanced 58 other college 56 direct entry 54 52 50 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 cohort year 2008 2009 2010 figure 11: three year moving average of first term grade point average (gpa) for each of the three types of college transfer students. however, when only full-time students are considered, the averages climb with both advanced standing and block transfer students having on average a higher average gpa than direct entry students (figure 12). 21 lakehead university - institutional analysis three year moving average of first term gpa for each type of college transfer (full-time only) 70 68 grade point average 66 64 block 62 advanced 60 58 other college 56 direct entry 54 52 50 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 cohort year 2008 2009 2010 figure 12: three year moving average of first term grade point average (gpa) for full-time students for each of the three types of college transfer. conclusions and recommendations this study shed light on the characteristics and success rates of credit transfer students at lakehead university. overall, full-time college transfer students at lakehead are at least as successful as their direct entry counterparts. in fact, the one-year success rate of full-time block transfer students is higher than that of their direct entry counterparts. furthermore, the six-year equivalent (relevant) graduation rate for both full-time block and full-time advanced standing students is higher than that for full-time direct entry students. when taken from a common starting point though the success rate of college transfer students doesnt quite match that of direct entry students, most likely because we have removed the element of first year attrition from the direct entry cohorts by starting the comparison in years two or three. the first term gpa for block and advanced standing college transfers was also higher than for direct entry students. at the aggregate level, students entering block transfer programs are more successful than those entering with advanced standing or those entering with other college experience. other college students scored the lowest (including compared to direct entry students) on all indicators. although not explicitly examined, part-time status seemed to lower the success rate and average gpa for all three types of college transfer. with the limited variables available in this study, we are unable to determine whether the differences discovered here (between full-time and part-time status and between the various types of credit transfer) are due to the credit transfer program or some other endogenous variable. it is impossible to say whether the variations in gpas, graduation rates and success rates are attributable to factors related 22 lakehead university - institutional analysis to the college transfer experience (e.g., academic preparation, transition to university, peer support) or demographic variables such as age and financial status, or even entering averages. similarly, it is difficult to tell whether the greater success rates of block transfer programs are correlated with the presence of formalized pathways and summer transition programs. a more fulsome study where we hold constant some of the entering characteristics of students (such as entering average, demographics) might be able to shed more light on whether the differences discovered here are due to characteristics present in the credit transfer program. it is encouraging to find that in circumstances similar to those experienced by direct entry students, college transfer students have similar amounts of success at lakehead university. however, students coming in as part-time students or students without any college credits do seem to have a lower success rate. the university may wish to enhance programs to assist these students. 23 lakehead university - institutional analysis references british columbia institute of technology (bcit). 2009a. engineering students on degree path. burnaby bc: british columbia institute of technology. available at: http://commons.bcit.ca/update/2009/02/engineering-students-on-degree-path/ british columbia institute of technology (bcit). 2009b. message form the dean, school of manufacturing, electronics and industrial processes. burnaby bc: british columbia institute of technology. available at: http://commons.bcit.ca/update/2009/02/message-from-the-dean-school-ofmanufacturing-electronics-and-industrial-processes/ british columbia institute of technology (bcit). 2010. bcit becomes first non-university body to award accredited civil engineering degree. burnaby bc: british columbia institute of technology. available at: http://commons.bcit.ca/update/2010/06/bcit-becomes-first-non-university-body-to-award-accreditedcivil-engineering-degree/) clark, i.d., g. moran, m.l. skolnik, and d. trick. 2009. academic transformation: the forces reshaping higher education in ontario. montreal and kingston: queens policy studies series, mcgill-queens university press. clark, i.d., d. trick, and r. van loon. 2011. academic reform: policy options for improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of undergraduate education in ontario. montreal and kingston: queens policy studies series, mcgill-queens university press. colleges ontario (co). 2009. student mobility between ontarios colleges and universities. toronto: colleges ontario. available at: http://www.collegesontario.org/research/studentmobility/student_mobility_09.pdf colleges ontario (co). 2011. student and graduate profiles: 2011 environmental scan. toronto: colleges ontario. available at: http://www.collegesontario.org/research/2011_environmental_scan/2011_scan_students.pdf compustat consultants inc. (cci). 2011. college-university consortium council college-university student mobility report. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. http://www.ontransfer.ca council of ministers of education, canada (cmec). 2011. report of the cmec working group on credit transfer. toronto: council of ministers of education, canada. available at: http://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/attachments/263/wgct-report2011-en.pdf decock, h., u. mccloy, u., s. liu and b. hu. 2011. the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education: an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. available at: http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/transferexperienceofontariocollegegraduates.pdf 24 lakehead university - institutional analysis finnie, r., and h.t. qiu. 2008. is the glass (or classroom) half-empty or nearly full? new evidence on persistence in post-secondary education in canada. in who goes? who stays? what matters? access and persisting in post-secondary education in canada. eds. r. finnie, r.e. mueller, a. sweetman, and a. usher. montreal and kingston: mcgill-queens university press. ontario ministry of training colleges and universities (mtcu). 2011. helping students graduate faster. toronto: queens printer for ontario. available at: http://news.ontario.ca/tcu/en/2011/01/helpingstudents-graduate-faster.html ontransfer. 2012a. history of the organisation. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. available at: http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/index_en.php?page=who_we_are ontransfer. 2012b. welcome to ontransfer: your guide to credit transfer in colleges and universities in ontario. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. available at: http://www.ocutg.on.ca 25 lakehead university - institutional analysis

mcmaster-mohawk graduate school pathway project project 2016-31 final report march 1, 2017 participants and partner institutions lindsay bolan manager, recruitment faculty of engineering, mcmaster university yvonne maidment business manager w booth school of engineering pracmaidmeny@mcmaster.ca tice and technology ishwar singh adjunct professor mcmaster-mohawk bachelor of technology program isingh@mcmaster.ca michael justason lecturer mcmaster-mohawk bachelor of technology program justaso@mcmaster.ca tom wanyama assistant professor mcmaster-mohawk bachelor of technology program wanyama@mcmaster.ca lbolan@mcmaster.ca 1 table of contents participants and partner institutions ............................................................................... 1 1. executive summary.................................................................................................... 3 2. project purpose and goals ....................................................................................... 4 3. pathway development ............................................................................................. 5 4. concluding remarks ............................................................................................... 14 appendix a student/alumni survey results ............................................................. 15 appendix b courses available for advanced credit ............................................ 18 appendix c c2u conference program ................................................................... 19 1. executive summary the mcmaster-mohawk graduate school pathways project (gspp) sought to create a clear and unambiguous pathway, for working technologists, as well as high school and recent college graduates, to the b.tech. program, and onwards to graduate level studies in engineering. the project focused on the following: - gauging student demand and desire for graduate studies pathways via the bachelor of technology (b.tech.) programs based on this student demand, establishing: o a) an advanced entry (2 courses or 6 units credit) pathway to graduate studies (completed) within the w booth school of engineering practice and technology at mcmaster university; o b) a specialized new m.eng. degree in the w booth school, designed to be aligned to b.tech. program specializations, with options to complete the full degree as well as a shorter post-graduate diploma (in progress); o c) the creation of new partnerships and pathways through the combined degree/diploma program through bilateral articulation agreements, where students would then be eligible for option a) above in this case, with lambton college (completed). the graduate studies advanced entry option (a, above) will be added to more than 125 existing pathways into the mcmaster-mohawk b.tech. degree completion program effective immediately. it will also be included in the new lambton college b.tech. program pathway once entered into the ontransfer database. the research and analysis conducted in conjunction with these pathway development projects made it abundantly clear that students even at the college level have graduate studies (m.eng., mba, ph.d., etc.) on their radar. they would like to have information on graduate level pathways made available to them early, with close to half stating that it would have been useful information for planning purposes prior to university level studies. as one survey respondent aptly put it: the thought of a reputable university such as mcmaster acknowledging my college studies and giving me the opportunity to receive a bachelor's degree without starting from the bottom of the ladder (so to speak) is too good to pass 3 up. and now with the inclusion of an internal graduate studies option, the potential to build my academic level in an efficient and timely manner is immense. i believe this will have the most impact if advertised together with the b.tech degree completion program. in my eyes it is the best option for a college student who wishes to continue their education while being acknowledged for obtaining a diploma. we believe this pathway will be of significant value to students moving through the post-secondary education system as we continue to seek new opportunities to advance the careers of b.tech. students. 2. project purpose and goals when polled, the majority of respondents in the mcmaster-mohawk bachelor of technology (b.tech.) combined degree/diploma and degree completion programs indicated they would like to extend their learning to graduate level studies. the mcmaster-mohawk graduate school pathways project (gspp) sought to create a clear and unambiguous pathway, for working technologists, as well as high school and recent college graduates, to the b.tech. program, and onwards to graduate level studies in engineering. a subsequent survey conducted as part of this pathway development project (see appendix a) revealed that even those still in college level studies have had graduate studies in mind; specifically, 81% of respondents enrolled in college level studies responded yes to the question have you previously considered pursuing a graduate degree (e.g. m.eng., m.a.sc., mba, and/or ph.d.)? in july, 2016, the school of engineering technology, home to the mcmaster-mohawk b.tech. programs, and the school of engineering practice at mcmaster university became a single unit, called the w booth school of engineering practice and technology (sept). with this unification of departments, it was an opportune time to consider how to build on the already established demand for graduate studies amongst b.tech. students and graduates. the gspp created streamlined pathways for high school students to proceed to graduate school through our combined degree/diploma program or through any of our already established degree completion pathways at the college level (over 125 listed on ontransfer.ca), then onward to our degree completion program for college graduates. over the years, many b.tech. students have expressed an interest in pursuing graduate studies. in fact, over 100 students have gone on to grad school and the demand is growing. a november 2015 student survey to b.tech. students revealed that 68% plan to continue on to graduate level schooling. of the students that replied yes, 71 are from our degree completion program for college graduates. 4 q: i plan to obtain a graduate degree, such as an m.eng., masc., mba, or phd. yes no total degree completion program 71 77.17% 21 22.83% 92 combined degree/diploma 166 64.84% 90 35.16% 256 total 237 68.10% 111 31.90% 348 table 1. november 2015 b.tech. student survey project goal: ultimately, the gspp created clear and unambiguous requirements for advanced admission to masters level engineering programs within the current school of engineering practice, through the already existing innovative bachelor of technology collaborative program model. now that the pathway is established, it can be expanded indefinitely, to include additional articulation agreements for students from other institution through the b.tech. program. for example, as part of the project, a brand new articulation agreement has been established with lambton college from two of their unique advanced diploma programs (instrumentation & control engineering technology and chemical production & power engineering) into the b.tech. combined degree/diploma program. this pathway from lambton, to b.tech., can now extend further into graduate level studies at mcmaster. this added option makes the b.tech. program extremely unique as a springboard for masters level studies. 3. pathway development a) competitive scan: to begin with, research was conducted via comprehensive competitor analyses to determine what other pathways from diploma to degree, to graduate level studies might exist. this analysis revealed some indirect advanced entry pathways programs similar to b.tech. into mba programs, nothing clearly defined or specific to entry into master of engineering programs was revealed. research was conducted online through university and college websites. 5 b) gathering student perspectives: next, we endeavoured to obtain some student perspectives on demand for graduate studies via b.tech. program pathways. specifically, we were interested in the points at which students would be interested in considering graduate school options and how to best deliver this information to them. approval from both the mcmaster university and mohawk college research ethics boards was obtained for this survey. this research revealed a wealth of useful information (see appendix a for a small sampling of responses), including the following: - - close to 85% of respondents have considered continuing on to graduate level studies. this did not vary significantly amongst respondents currently enrolled at the college vs university level, telling us that providing a clear and direct route for students prior to their undergraduate studies would be a worthwhile endeavour. further to this, close to half of students (46%) would have liked to find out about graduate studies pathways prior to undergraduate studies. the rationale for pursuing graduate school is career-centred for 51% of respondents. the most popular format for graduate studies was full-time, partially online. c) establishing a b.tech. to m.eng. pathway: as a first step, the w booth school sought senate approval to convert eight 400 level undergraduate courses into combined 400/600 level courses. these 8 courses are available as of january 2017. an additional eight have been put forward for approval, effective september 2017 (see appendix c). what is a 400/600 level course? these are courses in the b.tech. program that are cross-listed at the graduate level. the 600 level version of the course is essentially the same as the undergraduate course, but with additional coursework, commonly extra assignments or a course project, beyond the requirements for undergraduate students taking the corresponding 400 level course. the 600 level course can be taken by undergraduate students (with permission from the course professor) or by current graduate students. if you wish to complete a 400 level course, with 600 level credit, students must speak with their instructor at the start of the term. b.tech. students in either the degree completion program (coming most commonly from an ontario college) or the combined degree/diploma program (coming most commonly from high school) can take these 400 level courses and gain 600 level credit for up to two courses (6 units) once they enter gradu- 6 ate studies in the w booth school of engineering practice and technology. applicable masters programs include: - engineering design engineering entrepreneurship and innovation engineering and public policy manufacturing engineering based on feedback from students, as well as a comprehensive market and employer demand analysis, a proposal is being put forward to create a new m.eng. program in systems and technology (intended to replace the manufacturing engineering program above), with streams that would more closely stem from those in the b.tech. suite of undergraduate programs. this program would include the possibility for students to complete shorter graduate diplomas (4 courses), rather than a full masters degree (6 courses + 8 month internship or 9 courses + 1 semester project). advanced entry (i.e. 6 units of coursework completed at the undergraduate level) would apply to both the graduate diploma and degree options. an accelerated (12 month) and extended (24 month) option will be available to students and where appropriate. courses will also be made available in an online format. the following streams will be offered by the program1; the possible undergraduate b.tech. feeder-programs are indicated in parentheses. automation and smart systems (manufacturing, process automation, automotive) software systems and technology (software, process automation) advanced manufacturing (manufacturing, process automation, automotive) automotive (manufacturing, automotive) biotechnology systems (biotechnology) energy systems (energy) process systems (process automation, biotechnology) sustainable infrastructure systems (civil infrastructure) in the future, consideration may be given to offering guaranteed entry to b.tech. students who meet a minimum academic threshold. this would further allow students to chart their pathways well in advance. 7 students wishing to acquire advanced capabilities in specific areas, but do not want to commit to completing the entire m.eng. program can enroll in a graduate diploma. in order to receive a graduate diploma a student will need to complete 4 graduate level courses relevant to the subject area. the possible undergraduate b.tech. feeder-programs are indicated in parentheses; the alignment is clear. the following graduate diplomas will be offered: automation and smart systems (manufacturing, process automation, automotive) software systems and technology (software, process automation) advanced manufacturing (manufacturing, process automation, automotive) automotive (manufacturing, automotive) biotechnology systems (biotechnology) energy systems (energy) process systems (process automation, biotechnology) sustainable infrastructure systems (civil infrastructure) digital manufacturing (software, manufacturing, process automation, automotive) quality assurance (process automation, automotive, manufacturing) the last two are offered since the courses recommended for the program include capabilities required to specialize in the corresponding areas, even though there are no streams corresponding to them.1 reference: 1 new program proposal - m.eng. in systems and technology, jan 30, 2017. [internal mcmaster document] d) communicating the pathway to current and prospective students: the communications plan will include online and written materials targeted to the feeder colleges for the degree completion program. the additional pathway option will also be included in the ontransfer.ca website for >125 existing pathways. should the m.eng. systems and technology program proceed as planned, material specific to b.tech. students will be created to promote this graduate diploma or degree option. 8 pending approval of the new m.eng. program within the school of engineering practice and technology, a large infographic is planned to assist with the communicating this new pathway to the current students. this would be on display in the engineering technology building, as well as on the b.tech. website. also pending approval of the new m.eng. program, a one day seminar centered around the idea of communicating pathways to graduate programs for b.tech. students has been discussed. this proposed seminar would follow a format similar to the very successful c2u (college to university) conference held in the fall of 2013. attendees would include representatives from colleges and universities involved with student advisement, faculty, government, prospective students, existing undergraduate students and alumni. for reference, a sample of the 2013 c2u conference program is included in appendix c. the proposed seminar would follow a similar format to the c2u conference which included faculty presentations, guest speakers, and panel discussions. e) expanding pathways options to the combined degree/diploma program: though the creation of new pathways from college level studies has been a priority (indeed, the essence) of the degree completion program, the same is not true of the combined degree/diploma program. for the first time, ever, as part of this project, a pathway into this full-time, day-time program has been created with a partner institution other than mohawk college lambton college. specifically, graduating students from lambton colleges instrumentation & control engineering technology program (icet) and chemical production and power engineering technology (cpet) will be able to enter directly into year 3 of the 4 year degree program. once in the program, these students will have the option to take courses at the 600 level, for advanced credit at the graduate level. thus, it is possible to provide students with a clear graduate level pathway via the degree completion program which offers block transfer via multi-lateral institutional agreements, as well as the combined degree/diploma program with specifically designed bi-lateral articulation agreements. 9 highschool college b.tech. m.eng. pathway action create framework for advanced entry through 400/600 level courses begin marketing pathway to existing b.tech. students create framework for advanced entry through 400/600 level courses begin marketing pathway to future b.tech. students details 8 courses designed and approved in undergraduate/graduate calendars in class presentations & email communication additional 8 courses designed and approved in undergraduate/graduate calendars add to ontransfer.ca, communicate with colleges, add to mcmaster b.tech. website timeline effective january 2017 winter 2017 submitted fall 2016, effective september 2017 winter 2017 lambton college b.tech. m.eng. pathway action initial discussions with lambton college begin formal articulation is complete pathway is marketed to current lambton college students details curriculum is reviewed, gap analysis is conducted transfer credit is determined and details of pathway finalized print material is created, in class and out of class presentations conducted timeline january to september 2016 january 2017 march april 2017 f) additional pathway incentives for b.tech. students: three additional considerations related to pathways into graduate programs are: the attractiveness of on-line programs and courses; an improved pathway to professional licensure (p.eng.); and the potential to receive the iron ring. i) on-line program and course conversions 10 since 2015, the software stream within the bachelor of technology degree completion program has been in the process of converting to a fully online program. all 24 courses in the program will be fully converted by the fall of 2017. only final exams will be written in-person at mcmaster university, or written at remote testing locations. in 2015, the announcement of this change in format has sparked an increase in applications and enrollment in the program. even though the students entering the program in 2015, 2016 (and thus far in 2017) have had a mix of online and face-to-face courses, the prospect of having an increased number of online courses seems attractive to the majority of the software stream degree completion students. acceptance numbers for the software stream are shown in the table below. calendar year 2013 2014 2015 2016 intake 18 20 37 19 table 2. applicants and final intake numbers for 2013-2016 for the software stream the spike in enrollment in 2015 is clear from the data above, however, the enrollment in 2016 seems to have returned to the pre-2015 numbers. it should also be noted that the program name was changed in 2015 from computing and it to software; this may have also had an effect on the enrollment numbers. early indications for 2017 point to another strong enrollment year, perhaps similar to 2015. the conversion of the software program to a fully online format has had a spin-off effect for the other degree completion streams. seven of the required 24 courses in the software curriculum are management courses, are shared with the other 3 dcp streams (manufacturing, energy, and civil). this means that the students in the other 3 streams have also been taking several online courses. the preliminary feedback from students indicates that the majority prefer the online format. the main advantage cited by students is the reduced commute-time to and from the university. this is particularly appealing for students working full-time, and/or commuting to hamilton from the gta. the design of the b.tech. degree completion programs provides a pathway to obtaining a bachelors degree for college graduates who are also working full-time or part-time; hence the evening and weekend class times. offering online courses seems to further smooth the transition to university for the target demographic. this observation has been taken into consideration in the development of the new 11 m.eng. programs described previously, thus online courses will be offered whenever feasible at the graduate level. the school of engineering practice and technology has been actively experimenting and developing tools and technology to improve the student experience within online courses. this work will continue within the school and best-practices will be shared between the undergraduate and graduate level courses. ii) pathway to professional licensure (p.eng.) completion of a masters degree in engineering also facilitates the pathway to professional licensure for graduates of the bachelor of technology programs. the pathway to professional licensure that is created by the new m.eng. program is shown in fig. 1. in comparison to the pathway for a student graduating from a traditional accredited bachelor of engineering program. bachelor of technology bachelor of engineering (traditional departments with accredited programs) new master of engineering (b.tech. focus areas) experience references professional practice examination professional licensure fig. 1. pathways it should be noted that graduates of the bachelor of technology undergraduate program already have 12 an existing pathway to professional licensure (shown by the light-grey patterned arrow in fig. 1) but this involves a series of technical challenge exams administered by the professional engineers ontario (peo). the number of exams can range from as few as four, to as many as ten depending on the year of graduation. more recent graduates are assigned fewer exams thanks to the evolution of the curriculum towards content that is more favorable to the licensing body. completion of an m.eng. degree after the b.tech. degree can significantly reduce or in some special cases even eliminate the need to complete any challenge exams (represented by the dark-grey patterned arrow). additionally, the time spent in the m.eng. program may also count towards the amount of work experience required for licensure. typically, the m.eng. program will count as 1-year of the required 4-years of work experience. iii) potential to receive the iron ring a tradition in canada is for graduates of engineering programs to participate in a ceremony referred to as: the ritual of the calling of an engineer. this ceremony is commonly referred to as kipling; a reference to rudyard kipling who authored the ceremony in 1922 at the request of seven pastpresidents of the engineering institute of canada. the ceremony is meant to instill a sense of social responsibility among newly qualified engineers. these new engineers recite an oath and then receive the so-called iron ring (now made of stainless-steel) which they wear on the pinky-finger of their workinghand. the ceremony is administered by the corporation of the seven wardens inc. which is represented regionally by so-called camps consisting of a group of camp wardens. each camp is looselyaffiliated with a degree-granting university, or in some cities, with several degree-granting universities. the ring is strongly associated with the engineering profession in canada. since the beginning of the b.tech. program in 1997 (manufacturing), many graduates have participated in the iron ring ceremony. over the past decade, there have been inconsistencies in terms of the exact academic and work-related requirements necessary to qualify to receive the ring. some camps have been accepting of b.tech. graduates while others (including camp xiii affiliated with mcmaster) have required students to obtain a masters degree in engineering before being admitted to the ring ceremony. recently, the national organization of camp wardens has concluded that all applicants from nonaccredited engineering and technical programs (i.e. b.tech.) will be required to apply to the peo (or another equivalent provincial body) and complete any assigned challenge exams prior to receiving admittance to the iron ring ceremony. this requirement potentially increases the attractiveness of an 13 m.eng. program (and other graduate programs) since the completion of these programs will reduce the number of peo challenge exams and improve the student pathway to receiving the iron ring. 4. concluding remarks we wish to extend our sincerest thanks to oncat for the financial support that made this project possible. though pathways to graduate studies have not traditionally been the focus on oncat, we believe that our past experience with students moving through the b.tech. programs and research conducted as part of this studies both indicate that it is something that is very much on the radar of those moving through the pse system. 14 appendix a student/alumni survey results if you are currently enrolled in school, please indicate the level of your studies. if you are not currently enrolled anywhere, please select "not enrolled in school": college diploma 21 not enrolled in school 22 university graduate degree 9 university undergraduate degree 114 grand total 166 have you previously considered pursuing a graduate degree (e.g. m.eng., m.a.sc., mba, and/or ph.d.)? row labels college diploma not enrolled in school university undergraduate degree grand total no 19.05% 16.67% 15.04% 15.79% yes 80.95% 83.33% 84.96% 84.21% have not enrolled in graduate studies (college or undergrad studies only): what are your reasons for not previously considering pursuing a graduate level degree? do not know enough about what it would entail doesnt seem worth my time or money im already employed in my field my grades are not high enough other grand total 5 7 3 6 2 23 what are your reasons for wishing to pursue a graduate level degree? i want to advance my career i want to become an academic (researcher or faculty member) i want to make more money in my career i want to shorten the pathway towards obtaining my p.eng. license my employer is recommending that i pursue graduate level studies other 65 13 14 26 1 9 15 grand total 128 what format would you prefer to complete your graduate level studies in? in class only fully online partially online grand total full-time studies 23 4 51 78 part-time studies 10 20 35 65 grand total 33 24 86 143 what time of day would best suit you for graduate course work? coursework in a condensed format (e.g. monday to friday for 2-3 weeks straight for a single course) daytime during the week evenings during the week weekends grand total full-time studies 18 part-time studies 13 grand total 31 44 14 3 79 6 36 10 65 50 50 13 144 what would you consider to be most appealing as an incentive to consider an internal masters degree option? rank most important to least important. #1 #2 #3 #4 guaranteed admission to a graduate program 39 39 27 21 option to continue learning under faculty from the b.tech. program 20 29 24 50 possibility for advanced credit 30 24 41 28 tuition break/scholarship in a graduate program 42 35 32 19 grand total 131 127 124 118 if such an internal masters program existed, at what point would you like to find out about it? college high school 15.11% 31.65% 16 university grand total 53.24% 100.00% have already enrolled in graduate studies (in progress or completed): count of if there was an internal masters program, directly related to b.tech., would you have considered it? no yes grand total what would you consider to be most appealing as an incentive to consider an internal masters degree option? rank most important to least important. #1 #2 guaranteed admission to a graduate program 1 3 option to continue learning under faculty from the b.tech. program 5 1 possibility for advanced credit 1 4 tuition break/scholarship in a graduate program 3 1 grand total 10 9 2 9 11 #3 2 1 2 4 9 17 #4 3 3 2 1 9 appendix b courses available for advanced credit as of january 2017, the following courses are available for undergraduate students in b.tech. to gain advanced credit for graduate programs within the w booth school of engineering practice and technology: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 6as3 advanced system components and integration 6at3 conceptual design of electric and hybrid electric vehicles 6bc3 building science 6dm3 data mining 6pd3 power distribution ii 6tb3 biotechnology iii/advanced biotechnology 6pm3 project management 6rm3 robot mechanics and mechatronics the following additional courses will also be available for advanced credit, as of september 2017: 9. 10. 11. 12. 6da3 data analytics and big data 6es3 real-time systems 6pq3 power quality 6ss3 system specification and design the following additional courses will be available for advanced credit, in future years in the m.eng in systems and technology 13. 14. 15. 16. 6bi3 bioinformatics 6bl3 biomaterials and biocompatibility 6bm3 biopharmaceuticals 6bs3 biotechnology regulations 18 college to university: engineering success project wednesday, october 23, 2013 mcmaster innovation park, hamilton, on welcome note from alan murray: on behalf of the mcmaster-mohawk bachelor of technology, i am pleased to welcome you to the 2013 college to university engineering success conference! we are very excited to bring together representatives from 15 colleges and 12 universities to share the b.tech. story as one of the oldest multi-lateral block transfer credit programs of its kind. it is our sincerest hope that through an honest and open dialogue, we can encourage a feedback loop between sending and receiving institutions that is centred on one common goal student success! with your participation, im sure that this event will be both productive and insightful. with thanks, alan murray, executive director mcmaster-mohawk bachelor of technology partnership schedule: 9:00 9:30 welcome & breakfast opening remarks by cheryl jensen, vp academic, mohawk college 9:30 session 1 b.tech. success project 10:45 analysis/results 10:45 coffee break 11:00 11:00 session 2 facilitating the transfer 12:15 process: voices from feeder colleges 12:15 lunch - keynote 1:30 fiona deller, executive director, policy and partnerships, heqco 1:30 2:45 session 3 - student/alumni q&a panel 2:45 3:00 wrap-up & discussion dr. carlos filipe, acting associate dean (academic), faculty of engineering, generously sponsored by 19 mcmaster university 3:00 refreshments (wine & cheese) session 1: about the b.tech. program/results of success project 9:30 - profile of the b.tech. student lindsay bolan, m.a., business manager a close look at the b.tech. student body from 2006 2012 reveals a diverse range of educational backgrounds and individual success stories. for many, the decision to pursue university education was not made until years after college graduation, while for others it has been a primary goal since high school. this presentation will identify the various routes taken by students into the b.tech. program and provide an analysis of student demographics and motivations for enrolling. 9:50 - connecting the dots: academic performance based on sending college dr. jeff fortuna, computing and information technology program chair this presentation seeks to answer the question are there significant differences in the performance of students from different colleges? looking specifically at ontario published college standard programs in mechanical engineering technology, civil engineering technology, and electrical engineering technology, we will discuss how students from various colleges perform academically in the b.tech. program. 10:10 - collaborative research between colleges and universities: a success story dr. nafia al-mutawaly, energy engineering technologies program chair collaborative applied research delivers tangible benefits to both students and institutions by providing students with pathways, broadening skill sets at both institutions, solving real world problems, enhancing lab facilities, and strengthening faculty research resources. this presentation will discuss how the strategic selection of research topics, combined with multi-institution and industry partnerships, has strengthened education in energy engineering at both mcmaster and mohawk. 10:30 - life after b.tech.: pathways after the undergraduate degree mike piczak, mba, management program chair among the aims of the bachelor of technology program is encouraging graduates to pursue lifelong learning along the road to realizing their full potential. graduates assume related employment, pursue professional licensing and increasingly go on to do masters and ph.d. studies. this presentation will share the spectrum of post b.tech. options that are available to graduates of the program. session 2 facilitating the transfer process: voices from feeder colleges generously sponsored by 20 11:00 - forging new pathways to improve student mobility in the province of ontario glenn craney, executive director, oncat the presentation will cover oncats activities over its first year of operation and the next steps required to build a comprehensive, transparent and consistently applied system of credit transfer in ontario. 11:20 - 2013 humber college student survey on post-diploma planning barbara martin, manager, pathway development, humber college in spring 2013, the school of applied technology at humber college administered a survey to all final semester diploma students to gauge student interest in pursuing degrees following graduation, as well as to understand which factors mattered most in their decision to do so. barbara martin, manager of pathway development, will report on the outcomes of this survey as well as some of the initiatives that are being implemented as a result of the findings. 11:40 - the voyage of college to university transfer students: the student voice terry hickey, professor and program coordinator, loyalist college this presentation will share the findings of this qualitative study in the areas of motivation, academic surprise, fitting in and seamless education. some additional discussion focused on supporting future student success will be included for consideration in the college, university and student domains. 12:00 - c & u in a blender tony thoma, dean, engineering technology, mohawk college mohawk college is a leader in the establishment of student pathways across institutions. this presentation will discuss how mohawk has advanced traditional college to university pathway models, as well as university to college and combined degree/diploma options for students of all backgrounds. with a focus on professional licensing and career advancement, the discussion will centre on how new collaborative education models are serving the needs of the engineering industry today. lunchtime keynote: 12:45 - learning outcomes, credit transfer and the student experience: a snap shot of heqco research. fiona deller, heqco fiona deller is the executive director, policy & partnerships at heqco where she focuses on knowledge mobilization, research impact and partnership building. prior to coming to heqco, fiona worked as the postsecondary education coordinator at the council of ministers of education, canada where she focused on federal/provincial/territorial relations in postsecondary, quality assurance, government funding of pse, student financial assistance and credit transfer, among others. fiona also teaches program evaluation at the school of politics and public administration at ryerson. generously sponsored by 21 session 3: q&a panel with b.tech. students/alumni 1:30 - stories of success from c2u students and alumni in this session, we bring together 10 current students and graduates of the bachelor of technology program. what motivated these college graduates to pursue university education? how smooth was the transition and what obstacles did they face? what opportunities have opened up as a result of their decision to pursue further education? panel participants: matt colby o specialization: civil engineering infrastructure technology o story: matt graduated from mohawk college in 2007 with an advanced diploma in architectural technology. he began in the b.tech. program immediately, enrolling full-time in evening and weekend courses. after a successful co-op experience, which led to full-time employment, matt switched to part-time schooling in b.tech. he even received tuition assistance from his new employer for the remainder of his degree. asmaa al-hashimi o specialization: civil engineering infrastructure technology o story: asmaa graduated from mohawk college in 2008 with an advanced diploma in architectural technology and later that year she started a successful career with the city of hamilton, building services division. in 2010, she started her studies in the b.tech. program at mcmaster university studying full-time by taking courses during the evenings and weekends. asmaa is now enrolled in the master of engineering, civil engineering program at mcmaster university. juste fanou o specialization: civil engineering infrastructure technology o story: juste completed an advanced diploma in architectural technology in 2010 as an international student at sheridan college. he began working right away as a specification writer for parkin architects, an architectural firm based in toronto. he then started the b.tech. program in 2012, enrolling part-time in evening and weekend study. juste hopes to obtain his degree in 2014 and plans to pursue graduate studies in the field of building science and engineering. ashley osika o specialization: computing and information technology o story: ashley completed an advanced diploma in computer systems technology software engineering from mohawk college in 2005. after graduating, she worked as began a career as a business analyst, enrolling 3 years later in the b.tech. program for part-time in evening and weekend study. ashley graduated with distinction in 2013 and now works at desire2learn as an implementation consultant. generously sponsored by 22 utsav banerji o specialization: computing and information technology o story: utsav completed an advanced diploma in computer engineering technology from seneca college in 2010. after graduating, he completed an internship with mercedes-benz canada inc., before enrolling in full-time studies with the b.tech. program. utsav finished his degree in just 2 years, graduating with distinction. utsav is now working as a systems integration consulting analyst at accenture inc. ernie vidovic o specialization: energy engineering technologies o story: ernie has a bachelor of arts from the university of waterloo ('85) and an advanced diploma in electronics engineering technology from mohawk college ('89). after more than 20 years in the electronics, telecommunications and power industry and numerous professional development and project management courses, ernie decided to pursue further university education in his field with the goal of becoming a professional engineer. he began the b.tech. program in 2012, enrolling in part-time study in evening and weekend courses, while continuing to work as operations manager for norfolk power. he will be half way through the program by christmas 2013. phillip picassinos o specialization: energy engineering technologies o story: phillip graduated in 2009 from conestoga college with an advanced diploma in electrical engineering technology. he transitioned straight into the b.tech. program, finishing in 2012 with a degree in energy engineering technologies. phillip now works as an electrical designer for a company that specializes in the design and manufacturing of power transformers. in the future, phillip intends to get his masters in business administration, and with the help of his experience in engineering design, would like to excel in a career that demands overseeing and managing large projects. roberto ribeiro o specialization: manufacturing engineering technology o story: roberto graduated from conestoga college in 2009 with a diploma in mechanical engineering technology in design and analysis. after his diploma, roberto began a bachelor of engineering program at mcmaster university. during his first term in level 1 of the traditional 4 year engineering program, roberto realized that the program simply wasn't a good fit, and that the best route towards obtaining a ph.d. would be the b.tech. program at mcmaster. roberto finished the program through full-time studies in just 24 months with a cumulative average at the top of his class. roberto has moved on to a m.a.sc. in mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the university of waterloo, with an ontario graduate scholarship for his research. royston rebello o specialization: manufacturing engineering technology o story: royston graduated from humber college with an advanced diploma in mechanical engineering technology in 2008. he began right away in the b.tech. program, enrolling full-time in evening and weekend courses and graduating with a generously sponsored by 23 degree only 2 years later. royston is now working towards a master of science in management and systems from new york university and works as an account manager in toronto. jason wight o specialization: manufacturing engineering technology o story: jason graduated from sheridan college in 2003 with an advanced diploma in mechanical engineering technology. he immediately began his career, working for ontario power generation, but strived for advancement and knew that acquiring a degree would open avenues that were once closed. he began the b.tech. program in 2006, enrolling as a part-time student in evening and weekend courses and graduated in 2011 with his degree. immediately following, jason was accepted to the masters of engineering, mechanical engineering and mechatronics program at the university of waterloo. he completed his m.eng. in 2012, is continuing with a successful career at ontario power generation, and is now working towards obtaining his professional engineering license. -------------------------------------event sponsors: mcmaster university mohawk college ministry of training, colleges, & universities generously sponsored by 24

academic resourcefulness and transfer student success: direct entry, college transfer, and university transfer student comparisons june 2014 deborah j. kennett* karen maki** *department of psychology, trent university, peterborough, on ** higher education consultant and researcher, peterborough, on funding from the ontario council on articulation and transfer is gratefully acknowledged. correspondence regarding this paper should be addressed to dr. deborah j. kennett, department of psychology, trent university, 2140 east bank drive, peterborough, on, k9j 7b8, email: dkennett@trentu.ca 1 overview a previous study (drewes, maki, lew, willson & stringham, 2012) funded by the college-university consortium council found that, after controlling for program and demographic variables, college transfer students entering through an articulation agreement (caat transfer and articulation) attained significantly higher grades and were significantly less likely to drop-out (i.e., had a higher retention rate) than students entering directly out of high school (high school), whereas transfer students entering outside of an articulation agreement (caat transfer non-articulation) and those involved in a university transfer program (caat transfer university transfer program) were comparable to the high school group in terms of academic performance and retention. there is growing evidence (oncat, 2013) that college transfer students are performing well at university, yet the question remains as to what factors contribute to the overall successful performance of the caat transfer students at university. the model of academic resourcefulness, shown in figure 1, guided the research. studies show that, in everyday life, individuals having a large repertoire of general learned resourcefulness persevere with challenges, and use problem solving strategies and positive selftalk to deal with challenges and/or to subside anxieties (rosenbaum, 1980; 1989; 1990; 2000). we also know that highly generally resourceful students are more likely to be very academically resourceful (kennett 1994; kennett & keefer, 2006; kennett & reed, 2009), in that they set goals, think positively despite demands or challenges, rely on information and assistance from both social and non-social (e.g., the library) sources, keep records, structure their environment to make learning easier, apply self-consequences (e.g., rewards), and review written material. even when they do poorly on a test or assignment, they remain optimistic, evaluate the possible reasons for the failure, and restructure study goals and strategies (kennett & keefer, 2006; reed, kennett, et al., 2009; 2011). in short, they are neither likely to give up nor succumb to anxiety. instead, they look for ways to rectify the problem and are efficacious that they have what it takes to succeed. recent research also shows that these students are not only better integrated into the university environment both socially and academically, their reasons for attending university are for more internal reasons (e.g., they like learning, attend for the challenge) and less so to please others and to delay responsibilities (kennett, reed & lam, 2011, kennett, reed & stuart, 2013). 2 figure 1. model of academic resourcefulness specific research questions of the current project included: what are the factors predicting academic resourcefulness and grades? based on past investigations (e.g., kennett, 1994; kennett & keefer, 2006, kennett, reed et al., 2013), it was expected that the more highly academically resourceful students would be more generally resourceful, have higher academic self-efficacy beliefs, be attending university for more internal reasons and less so to please others and to delay responsibilities, and have an explanatory style that attributes failure to task difficulty and not because of lack of personal effort or ability. academic resourcefulness was also expected to be a strong and direct predictor of grade performance. we also asked if the psychosocial profiles of university transfer, college transfer students and students entering directly from high school differed. and, do the factors predicting academic resourcefulness, adjustment, and grades differ among the groups? method participants the survey invitation was sent to all undergraduate students at trent university, resulting in a survey population of 7,761. there were 1,545 respondents, for an overall response rate of 20%. fifty-nine per cent of respondents reported entering university directly from high school; 16% had previous college experience and were categorized as college transfers; 11% were university transfers, and 2% of respondents had prior post-secondary experience at both college 3 and university. a further 12% of respondents were categorized as other, with backgrounds as mature students, international or out-of-province students. given the focus of the research on comparing transfer and direct entry students, the other group and students with both college and university experience were dropped from further analysis. after case deletion based on excessive missing data or respondents not fitting the criteria for further analysis, 1,302 cases remained, for a usable data response rate of 17%. the revised data set resulted in a distribution of 743 direct entry (68%), 204 college transfer (19%) and 141 university transfer students (13%). both transfer groups were similar in terms of the number of transfer credits received, with a mean of 5.1 for college transfer students and 5.4 for university transfers, representing just over one year of full-time study. both transfer groups also reported similar satisfaction with the number of transfer credits received, with a mean of 3.0 on a 5 point scale. measures the self-control schedule (scs) assesses general learned resourcefulness and the use of positive self-statements to cope with negative situations (e.g., when i realize that i am going to be unavoidably late for an important meeting, i tell myself to keep calm), the application of problem-solving strategies (e.g., when i try to get rid of a bad habit, i first find out all the reasons why i have the habit), the ability to delay immediate gratification (e.g., i finish a job that i have to do before i start doing things i really like), and knowing how to engage in selfchange (e.g., if i carried the pills with me, i would take a tranquillizer whenever i felt tense and nervous - reverse coded). the schedule consists of 36 items rated on a six-point likert scale indicating the extent to which individuals evaluate the item as characteristic of themselves (-3 = very uncharacteristic of me, +3 = very characteristic of me). scores on the scs range from -108 to 108, with a higher score reflecting greater learned resourcefulness. recent studies (e.g., kennett, humphreys, & bramley, 2013) show the mean to be around 17 with a standard deviation of 25. the academic resourcefulness inventory (ari) measures academic self-control behaviors (kennett, 1994). it assesses students use of positive self-statements to manage emotional responses, problem-solving strategies to cope with the demands of academia, and delay avoidance. the inventory consists of 23 items defined by pairs of opposing phrases (e.g., 4 unafraid versus afraid about being wrong in class; successful versus unsuccessful meeting deadlines; benefit versus do not benefit from comments received on written work) that are rated on a seven-point likert scale according to students ability or inability to meet various academic demands. scores on the ari range from 23 to 161, with a higher score reflecting greater academic resourcefulness. studies with postsecondary samples (e.g., kennett, 1994) show the mean to be 108 (sd = 17). the explanatory style for failure questionnaire was designed based on seligmans (1991) portrayal of an optimistic persons attribution of failure (kennett & van gulick, 2002). it consists of two sections pertaining to a disappointing academic experience. in section a, the students are asked to think of a disappointing academic situation, and information is gathered on the type of the situation (e.g., test, essay), the grade received, which course the situation occurred in, whether it was required for their degree, whether they dropped that course, what midterm grade they received, and what final grade they expected to receive if the course was still in progress. with the same experience in mind, in section b, participants are given 18 explanatory statements (e.g., my poor performance here reflects a tough professor/marker). participants rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with each statement on a seven-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). factor analysis (kennett & van gulick, 2002) shows that scale consists of four subscales, with higher scores attributing academic disappointments to bad luck, lack of effort, task difficulty and not to lack of ability. studies (e.g., kennett & keefer, 2006) find the means and standard deviations of the subscales to be around the following values: bad luck, m = 10.73, sd = 3.91; lack of effort, m = 23.08, sd = 7.79; task difficulty, m = 18.75, sd = 6.53; and not to lack of ability, m = 15.43, sd = 4.11. the academic self-efficacy scale (kennett, 1994) explores students beliefs about their academic abilities (e.g., my study skills are excellent compared to other students, i think i will receive good grades). for this 9-item scale, students rate, on a 6-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree), how well each statement describes them (e.g., i know that i will be able to learn new material). scores range from 9 to 54, with a higher score indicating greater academic self-efficacy. the mean is generally around 40 with a standard deviation of 7 (e.g., kennett & keefer, 2006; kennett, reed, et al., 2013). the 26-item reasons for attending university scale by kennett, reed, et al. (2013) consists of five subscales: internal reasons (14 items - e.g., i like learning); other people (5 5 items - e.g., family expectations); attain a better job (2 items - e.g., to secure a better job than a high school education would get me), university features (3 items - location, varsity sports, student services), and to delay responsibilities (2 items - e.g., nothing better to do). to better capture the transfer students reasons for attending university, 10 addition items were added (e.g., secure a career advancement/change; pathway existed from previous program; trent offered me transfer credits). for each item, a 6-point likert scale ranging from 1 (definitely not a central reason) to 6 (definitely a central reason) is used. the university adaptation questionnaire assesses overall adjustment to university (crombag, 1968). this 18 item scale asks students to indicate whether statements are descriptive or characteristic of their feelings about their experience at university. highly adjusted students are satisfied with their way of life, are not missing someone to talk to freely with from time to time, rarely feel bored or lonely, find life as a student pleasant, and feel very much at home. the scale generates total scores that can range from 18 to 108, with higher scores indicating healthier adjustment to university. kennett, reed, et al. (2013) observed a mean score of 71.42 (sd = 17.02) in their sample of university undergraduate students. respondents were also asked a series of demographic questions, including their previous post-secondary experience, transfer credits received on admission, program major, age, gender, first generation status, year of study, last year's gpa, time spent engaging in non-academic activities (e.g., working off campus; providing care for dependent children; providing care for other dependents; volunteering), how often they used various support services (e.g., academic skills; career centre; disability services; department advisor/faculty advisor), preparedness for university (e.g., concerning: academic writing, academic reading, lab reports, library research, and time management), and expected grade. a final section of the survey included a set of questions only for transfer students, including questions about satisfaction with their transfer experience (the process, availability of information, and satisfaction with the number of transfer credits received), whether they came in under an articulation agreement, and an assessment of how their university experience aligned with or differed from their expectations. there were also open-ended options for students to describe additional supports or services that would have been helpful in their transition to university. 6 procedure in the fall of 2013, trent university undergraduate students were invited to participate in a study exploring the factors associated with academic adjustment and success, and whether these factors differed for students entering university directly from high school versus students transferring from colleges or other universities. via an online research management system, students completed a package of established and psychometrically sound questionnaires assessing general and academic resourcefulness skills, academic self-efficacy, explanatory style for failure, reasons for attending university, and university adjustment. results and discussion statistical analysis group differences were evaluated using chi square test for independence and goodness of fit for frequency distributions, and multivariate analysis of covariance and analysis of covariance, controlling for number of university courses at the time of completion of the survey, for the psychosocial variables. for the direct entry (d), college (ct) and university transfer (ut) groups, separately, standard multiple regression analyses were used to determine the unique predictors of academic resourcefulness, university adjustment and year end grades. unless otherwise stated, significance was set at alpha .05. for further information on the statistical output, contact the first author of this report. notation in tables and figures, indicating group differences, are arranged in order of the group having the highest mean to the group having the lowest mean. for example, the notation ct > ut > d signifies that the mean of college transfer groups mean was significantly higher than the means of university transfer and direct entry groups for that particular variable, and that the mean of the university transfer group was also significantly higher than the direct entry group. demographics overall, respondents were fairly representative of the trent university undergraduate population (see figure 2). eighty nine per cent of respondents were students at the peterborough campus, with 11% studying at trents oshawa campus. the full-time/part-time split was similar, at 88% full time, 12% part-time. respondents were primarily of caucasian ethnicity 7 (82%), with 6% asian and 3% black/african canadian/african canadian being the next greatest proportions. the most common degree programs being pursued by respondents were: b.a. (39%), b.sc. (27%), b.sc.n. (13%) and b.b.a. (6%). ba 39% degree program b.sc. 27% campus osh - 11% full-time 88% p-t - 12% no 60% yes 40% ethnicity other 21% peterborough 89% full-time/part-time first generation b.sc.n. 13% caucasian 82% gender male 20% female 80% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% figure 2. summary of respondent demographics the gender distribution of respondents was 80% female, 20% male. the actual gender distribution of undergraduate students at trent is 66% female, 34% male; however, the 80/20 split is consistent with the typical female response bias experienced by survey-based researchers in the psychology department at trent. significant differences were found in gender distribution by entrance type, with direct high school entrants being 81% female, university transfer students being 87% female and college transfer students 76% female (see table 1). this finding is consistent with the wellestablished trend of female participation in university undergraduate studies exceeding male participation by an average of 15% (aucc, 2011; drewes, 2009), whereas college participation tends to be more equally distributed between males and females (colleges ontario, 2013). the higher proportion of males in the college transfer group suggests that the college to university transfer pathway might be a promising solution through which to increase male participation in university. 8 table 1. gender distribution by entrance type female direct high school n = 740 university transfer n = 141 college transfer n = 202 male 81% 19% 87% 13% 76% 24% the mean age of the sample was 21.9 years. significant differences were found across all three groups, with the college transfer students being the oldest at a mean age of 26.2 years. university transfer students were slightly younger, with a mean of 25.4, and direct entry students were the youngest, at 19.7 years. these findings are not surprising, particularly given that many of the college transfer students would have completed a previous credential prior to beginning their university studies. variability across the age groups is reduced when looking at median age, which ranges from 20 to 24 years across the three entrance types. see table 2. table 2. age distribution by entrance type sample direct high school college transfer university transfer n 1087 743 203 141 mean median 21.9 19.7 26.2 25.4 21 20 24 23 range 17-59 17-41 19-56 19-59 respondents were representatively distributed across all years of the undergraduate program, with 34% in year 1, 24% in year 2, 24% in year 3 and 18% in year 4. three per cent of respondents had greater than 20 credits, suggesting they were either making up additional credits to meet degree requirements or were pursuing a second degree. there were significant differences in credits achieved by entrance type, with direct entry students having completed an average of 8.3 credits at the time of completing the survey, compared to college and university transfer students having an average of 10.4 and 9.9 credits respectively. given this difference in credits achieved, we controlled for number of credits achieved in subsequent group comparisons in order to equalize respondents on the basis of academic experience. the survey finding with respect to first generation status was somewhat puzzling. forty per cent of students responded affirmatively to the question, are you the first in your family to 9 attend university? the official institutional first generation student proportion is 11%. further investigation is required to understand this data anomaly. the most striking finding with respect to student use of academic support services was the overall low levels of service use across all services and all student groups. the lowest level of non-use of a service was 55% of students reporting not using the services of an academic advisor or senior tutor, followed by 65% of students reporting zero usage of the academic skills centre, which offers supports in research, writing and study skills. there were patterns of heavy use of selected services as well, with 12% of students reporting using academic advisors five or more times per term, 10% using the academic skills centre five or more times per term, and 9% consulting a departmental advisor five or more times per term. the only group differences found in the use of academic support services were that college transfer and direct entry students used the academic skills centre more than university transfer students, and that university transfer students used academic advising services to a greater extent than did college transfer and direct entry students. this finding contradicted the expectation that all transfer students would use advising to a greater extent, given the added complexity of planning their academic programs when entering with advanced standing and transfer credits, and the need to ensure they meet program requirements. a summary of these findings are shown in figure 3. academic skills centre ct = d > ut career centre 0 disability services 1 2 ut > ct = d senior tutor/academic advisor 3 departmental advisor 4 peer mentor 5+ counselling services 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% figure 3. student use of academic support services 10 the majority of students reported feeling somewhat to extremely well prepared for a range of academic and administrative aspects of their university experience, including foundation knowledge in their discipline (83%), academic reading (77%) and writing (76%), library research (61%), preparing lab reports (55%), time management (73%), and awareness of university services (58%) and the application process (63%). students transferring from another university reported higher levels of preparedness than college transfer and direct entry students across all factors except preparing lab reports and library research. both university and college transfer students reported feeling a higher level of preparedness for library research than did direct entry students. these findings are not surprising, given these students already had experience at another university or college. college transfer students reported feeling more prepared for writing lab reports, a skill they likely developed in their college programs. table 3. preparedness for the university experience extremely unprepared to somewhat unprepared somewhat prepared to extremely prepared group differences foundation knowledge in my discipline 16% 83% none academic writing 23% 75% ut > ct = d academic reading 23% 77% ut > ct = d preparing lab reports 45% 54% ct > ut = d library research 39% 61% ct = ut > d time management 28% 73% ut > ct = d awareness re application process 37% 63% ut > ct = d awareness of services 42% 58% ut > ct = d students were asked a series of questions about how they spent their time, including items related to the academic experience (e.g., attending class, preparing for class), co-curricular and social activities, working (on or off-campus), caring for dependents, volunteering and 11 commuting. the mean ranges, in hours, are presented in table 4. it was particularly notable that for the item work for pay off campus, while the mean response was a range of 5-10 hours, 23% of respondents reported working more than 10 hours per week, and of them, 16% worked more than 15 hours per week. with respect to group differences, a clear picture emerged of college transfer students having a more complex set of life responsibilities than did university transfer and direct entry students, as presented in table 4. college transfer students spent more time working for pay off campus and caring for dependent children and other dependents, whereas direct entry students reported spending more time engaged in typical undergraduate activities such as attending class, co-curricular activities, and relaxing, exercise and social activities. table 4. how students use their time mean range in hours group differences attending class 15-20 d > ut > ct preparing for class 11-15 none work for pay on campus 0-5 none work for pay off campus 5-10 ct > ut > d co-curricular activities 0-5 d > ut = ct relaxing, exercise, social 10-15 d = ut > ct care of dependent children 0-5 ct > ut > d care of other dependents 0-5 ct = ut > d volunteering 0-5 d = ut > ct commuting 5-10 none with respect to year-end cumulative grades, university transfer students were found to achieve significantly higher grades (80%) than college transfer (74%) and direct entry students (73%). the finding of no significant difference in grades between direct entry and college transfer students is consistent with the previous trent university study (drewes, 2012), which 12 compared college transfer and direct entry students and found no significant difference in grades. given insufficient numbers of students entering university through an articulation agreement in the survey response data, the present study was unable to test the previous studys finding that college transfer students entering the university through an articulation agreement performed better than both non-articulation college transfers and university transfer students. differences in research methodology between the two studies (i.e., survey data versus institutional records), may also explain inconsistencies in findings. findings with respect to participation in information and orientation events demonstrated that direct entry students participate to a greater extent in traditional events designed for high school students moving on to university, such as open houses and summer orientation and university preparation events. university and college transfer students reported greater levels of participation in introductory seminar week activities, which tend to be more academic and program specific. see figure 4. this finding seems to align with the earlier finding that transfer students have more complex life profiles and responsibilities, and as a result, have less time and/or interest to participate in traditional new student orientation activities. their focus appears to be more strongly on their academic program. d > ut = ct open house d > ut = ct bring it on new student orientation d > ut = ct introductory seminar week ut = ct > d 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% figure 4. participation in information and orientation events variables of the academic resourcefulness model 13 regarding the academic resourcefulness model shown in figure 1, each of our three student groups, direct entry (d), college transfer (ct) and university transfer (ut), on average, scored at or above the normative mean on the selected established inventories (see appendices for group means). thus, observed student group differences do not signify impoverished skills or beliefs for that particular measure or group. for analyses displayed in tables 5 to 8, groups were equated for number of university credits earned at the time of the survey. as shown in table 5, the findings revealed that the groups were similarly adjusted at university. college and university transfer students, however, were significantly more generally resourceful than direct entry students. although college transfer and direct entry students scored similarly in academic self-efficacy, academic resourcefulness, and final grades, university transfer students had significantly higher scores on these measures. appendix 1 provides the means and standard deviations of the groups. table 5. group differences for the major variables of the academic resourcefulness model. variable group differences general learned resourcefulness academic self-efficacy academic resourcefulness university adjustment final grade ct = ut > d ut > ct = d ut > ct = d none ut > ct = d the groups similarly attributed an academic disappointment to the difficulty of the task at hand, and reported receiving similar grades on this task. direct entry and college transfer students, however, endorsed more lack of effort and bad luck attributions than university transfer students, who, in turn, were more inclined to attribute academic disappoints to not lack of ability, in comparison to the other two groups (see table 6, and appendix 2). 14 table 6. group differences for the explanatory style subscales. variable group differences lack of effort task difficulty not lack of ability bad luck reported disappointing grade d = ct > ut none ut > ct = d d = ct > ut none examining initially only the factors of the original reasons for attending university scale by kennett, reed, et al. (2013), all groups equally endorsed attending to delay responsibilities and to attain a better job. as shown in table 7, direct entry students were significantly more likely to attend for internal reasons, to please other people, and because of the university features in comparison to the college and university transfer groups. as well, the college transfer group more highly endorsed the universitys features as a reason than the university transfer group. table 7. group differences for subscales of the reasons for attending university scale. variable group differences internal reasons other people universitys features delay responsibilities attain a better job d > ct = ut d > ut = ct d > ct > ut none none significant differences between the groups were observed for the following reasons that were added to the original scale: scholarship opportunities, pathway existed from previous program, secure career change/advancement, could not find a job, universitys size, trent offered me transfer credits (see table 8, and appendix 3). as expected, university and college transfer groups were more likely to be attending university because they couldnt find a job than the direct entry group; and the university transfer followed by the college transfer were more likely to be offered transfer credits by trent than the direct entry group. also not surprisingly, scholarship opportunities were greater among the direct entry group, followed by the college 15 transfer group, and, lastly, the university transfer group. as well, the college transfer group was the most likely to be attending university because a pathway existed from a previous program and to secure a career change or advancement, followed by the university transfer and direct entry groups. table 8. group differences for additional items added to the reasons for attending university scale. variable group differences scholarship opportunities pathway existed from previous program secure career change/advancement cant find a job universitys size trent offered me transfer credits d > ct > ut ct > ut > d ct > ut > d ut = ct > d d > ct = ut ut > ct > d based on past investigations (e.g., kennett, 1994; kennett & keefer, 2006, kennett et al., 2013), it was expected that the more highly academically resourceful students would be more generally resourceful, have higher academic self-efficacy beliefs, be attending university for more internal reasons and less so to please others and to delay responsibilities, and have an explanatory style that attributes failure to task difficulty and not because of lack of personal effort or ability. academic resourcefulness was also expected to be a strong and direct predictor of grade performance and university adjustment. these predictions were supported. but more importantly, we wanted to know if the factors predicting academic resourcefulness, adjustment, and grades differed among the groups? to address the later question, the first set of standard multiple regression analyses considered the common predictors of academic resourceful across the groups. as shown in table 9, for each of the groups, students who were more efficacious about their academic abilities, more generally resourceful, and attributed academic disappointments more so to bad luck and less to lack of ability or effort were more likely to be academically resourceful, accounting for between 54% and 63% of the total variance. asterisked in table 9 are the common unique predictors of academic resourcefulness across the groups. supporting the existing literature (e.g., kennett & keefer, 2006), for each of the groups, higher general learned resourcefulness skills and academic self-efficacy were the direct predictors of academic 16 resourcefulness. appendix 5 provides a more formal summary of the regression analysis for each of the groups, highlighting, as well, additional subtle group differences. table 9. predictors of academic resourcefulness. variables contributing to the prediction group % total variance self-efficacy* direct entry 57% general learned resourcefulness* college transfer 63% not lack of effort university transfer 54% not lack of ability bad luck note. * denotes the common direct/unique predictors of academic resourcefulness across the groups. table 10 summarizes separately for the groups the standard regression analysis of the variables predicting university adjustment. for each of the groups, students who were more adjusted at university were likely to be more generally and academically resourceful, and academically efficacious, to be attending university for more internal reasons and not to delay responsibilities, and to attribute academic disappointments not to their lack of ability. as well, for each of the groups, academic resourcefulness was the common direct predictor of adjustment. thus, students who were better able to self-regulate their academic environment by goal setting, problem solving, anticipating consequences and effective time management were more likely to be better adjusted at university. see appendix 6 for a more detailed summary of the individual groups. table 10. predictors of university adjustment. variables contributing to the prediction group % total variance self-efficacy direct entry 32% general learned resourcefulness college transfer 27% academic resourcefulness* university transfer 30% not lack of ability internal reasons not to delay responsibilities note. * denotes the common direct/unique predictor of university adjustment across the groups. 17 previous research has shown that the direct predictors of higher year end grades are higher levels of academic self-efficacy and academic resourcefulness (kennett, 1994; kennett & keefer, 2006; kennett & reed, 2009). as illustrated in table 11, this outcome was observed only for the direct entry and college transfer groups. only higher academic self-efficacy was a predictor of higher grades for the university transfer group; nonetheless, academic resourcefulness was a significant indirect predictor of grades for this group. other indirect/shared predictors of higher year end grades for the individual groups included an attribution style not attributing failure to lack of ability or lack of effort, but more to bad luck. see appendix 6 for a more detailed summary of the individual groups. table 11. predictors of year end grades. variables contributing to the prediction group % total variance self-efficacy* direct entry 23% d & ct only academic resourcefulness* college transfer 20% not lack of effort university transfer 39% not lack of ability bad luck note. * denotes the common direct/unique predictors of final grades across the groups. limitations this research does not come without its limitations. first and foremost, the generalizability of the findings needs to be tested. our sample is based on trent university students, with institution specific entrance requirements and policies for direct entry and transfer students. further, the study is situated in the post-secondary education context in ontario, a system in which the colleges and universities were initially developed to have distinct mandates, and in which a focus on college to university transfer is a more recent development. the student experience in other jurisdictions with more mature or integrated transfer systems may be very different. secondly, our initial intent was to single out college transfer students entering through an articulation agreement as drewes et al. (2012) had in their study. our small group of caat 18 transfer and articulation students, however, did not enable us to compare the performance and psychosocial profile of this group to the other transfer and direct entry student groups. thirdly, this and subsequent studies needs to examine the factor structure of the reasons of attending university revised scale, where 10 items were added to the inventory. specifically, we need to determine if a subscale, pertinent to transfer students, emerges. fourthly, further research may want to refine some of the measurement items. for example, students endorsed, more than anticipated, having the foundational skills for their selected discipline upon entrance. fifthly, a question that cannot currently be addressed, but will be in september 2014, is what are the psychosocial factors predicting retention (i.e., students deciding not to return to university in the subsequent year)? with the focus of their study being on reasons for attending higher education, kennett, reed, et al. (2013) found that students not planning on returning were more likely to endorse being at university for other people reasons and to delay responsibilities. kennett and reed (2009) observed that students deciding not to return to university in their second year had impoverished general or academic skills or both. as well, we need to determine whether retention rates vary between groups for non-graduating students. finally, our study did not inquire why students transferred to trent university. it would be fruitful for subsequent studies to employ qualitative methods via the use of focus groups and one-on-one interviews to explore why students are transferring across postsecondary institutions. conclusions in summary, our findings revealed that college and university transfer students are well prepared for academic success. multiple regression analyses of the predictors of academic resourcefulness, university adjustment, and final grades, for each of the groups, replicated findings reported in the literature (e.g., kennett, 1994; kennett & keefer, 2006; kennett, reed, et al., 2013; reed et al., 2009). similar to their direct entry student counterparts, being generally and academically resourceful and efficacious about ones academic abilities is key to success and university adjustment for both college and university transfer students, too. further, and consistent with recent studies (oncat, 2013), our findings debunk the deficits based myth about college transfer students not being prepared for university-level study. we also observed that, in contrast to university transfers and direct entry students who have more discretionary 19 time, college transfer students spend considerably more time working for pay off campus, and are more responsible for the care of dependents. the practical implications of this study are obvious. educators and academic administrators need to focus on students strengths versus perceived weaknesses, and be cognizant of students differing life profiles. especially for some college transfer students, scheduled events during the day or evening may be unattainable due to work and family responsibilities. reaching out in different ways to these and other students having similar circumstances may serve to enhance their participation and experience. for example, our findings suggest that engaging transfer students through academic advising as opposed to traditional orientation events may be fruitful. finally, our findings suggest that college to university transfer may be a particularly promising pathway to increase male participation in university. references aucc. (2011). trends in higher education: volume 1 enrolment. author: ottawa, canada. retrieved from http://www.aucc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/trends-2011-vol1enrolment-e.pdf colleges ontario. (2013). student and graduate profiles: environmental scan 2013. retrieved from http://www.collegesontario.org/research/2013_environmental_scan/co_envscan_12_stu&g radprofiles_web.pdf crombag, h.f.m. (1968). study motivation and study attitude: membership of various organizations and its effect on study motivation and study attitude in freshman students. groningen, the netherlands: wolters. drewes, torben. (2009). the university gender gap: the role of high school grades. mesa project research paper 2009-4. toronto, on: canadian education project. drewes, t., maki, k., lew, k., willson, m., stringham, k. (2012). an analysis of caat transfer students academic performance at trent university. a report submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer, toronto, on. kennett, d.j. (1994). academic self-management counselling: preliminary evidence for the importance of learned resourcefulness on program success. studies in higher education, 19, 295-307. 20 kennett, d.j., humphreys, t.p., & bramley, j.e. (2013). sexual resourcefulness and gender roles as moderators of relationship satisfaction and consenting to unwanted sex in women. canadian journal of human sexuality, 22, 51-61. kennett, d.j., & keefer, k. (2006). impact of learned resourcefulness and theories of intelligence on academic achievement of university students. educational psychology, 26, 441-457. kennett, d.j., & reed, m.j. (2009). factors influencing academic success and retention following a first year post-secondary success course. educational research & evaluation, 15, 153-166. kennett, d.j., reed, m.j., & lam, d. (2011). the reason students attend university, issues in educational research, 21, 65-74. kennett, d.j., reed, m.j., & stuart, a. (2013). impact of academic resourcefulness and reasons for attending university on academic achievement and university adjustment. active learning in higher education, 14, 123-133. kennett, d.j. & van gulick, c. (2002). dealing with academic success and failure: the association between learned resourcefulness, explanatory style, reported grades and sharing experiences with academic self-control. in d.j. kennett & a.young (eds.). notes on applied statistical methods in psychology integrating statistica software (pp.341-373). peterborough, on: trent university. oncat. (2013). summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat-researchsummary-2013-english.pdf reed, m.j., kennett, d.j., lewis, t., & lund-lucas, e. (2011). equal benefits found for students with and without disabilities taking a post-secondary success course. active learning in higher education, 12,133-142. reed, m.j., kennett, d.j., lewis, t., lund-lucas, e., stallberg, c., & newbold, i. (2009). the relative effects of course based and disability services interventions in students with learning disabilities. higher education research & development, 28, 385-399. rosenbaum, m. (1980). a schedule for assessing self-control behaviors: preliminary findings. behavior therapy, 11, 109-121. 21 rosenbaum, m. (1989). self-control under stress: the role of learned resourcefulness. advances in behavior research and therapy, 11(4), 249-258. rosenbaum, m. (1990). the role of learned resourcefulness in the self-control of health behavior. in m. rosenbaum (ed.), learned resourcefulness: on coping skills, self-control, and adaptive behavior (vol. 24, pp. 3-27). new york, ny: springer publishing company, inc. rosenbaum, m. (2000). the self-regulation of experience: openness and construction. in p. dewe, a. m. leiter, & t. cox (eds.), coping and health in organizations (pp. 5167). london: taylor & francis. seligman, m.e.p. (1991). learned optimism. new york: alfred a. knopf. 22 appendices in order to better compare means scores of this studys variables with the normative data presented in the measures section, the tables of appendices 1 through 4 provide the unadjusted group means and standard deviations. nonetheless, adjusted means, controlling for number of course credits at the time of survey completion, did not substantially differ from those means reported here, and, thus, including them was deeded as redundant information. appendix 1 unadjusted group means and (standard deviations) for the major variables of the academic resourcefulness model. variable direct entry general learned resourcefulness academic self-efficacy academic resourcefulness university adjustment final grade 12.43 (24.57) 40.26 (7.07) 110.94 (19.18) 75.04 (15.42) 73.48 (10.78) college transfer 17.96 (25.36) 41.14 (7.17) 112.47 (19.74) 73.54 (14.09) 74.44 (11.48) university transfer 16.68 (25.43) 43.39 (7.59) 118.56 (20.34) 75.21 (13.96) 79.71 (8.91) appendix 2 unadjusted group means and (standard deviations) for the explanatory style subscales and reported grade for the disappointing academic item. variable direct entry lack of effort task difficulty not lack of ability bad luck reported disappointing grade % 22.36 (7.86) 20.78 (6.69) 15.07 (3.97) 11.68 (4.12) 46.09 (28.15) college transfer 21.97 (7.90) 19.63 (6.69) 15.41 (3.94) 11.11 (4.28) 46.93 (28.93) university transfer 20.01 (8.08) 19.75 (6.88) 16.74 (3.44) 10.34 (4.33) 52.15 (28.62) 23 appendix 3 unadjusted group means and (standard deviations) for the subscales of the reasons for attending university scale. variable direct entry internal reasons other people universitys features delay responsibilities attain a better job 58.50 (12.82) 18.20 (6.07) 7.46 (2.59) 3.59 (2.36) 9.52 (2.33) college transfer 55.61 (15.22) 15.64 (6.09) 7.00 (2.58) 3.34 (2.10) 9.45 (2.57) university transfer 55.41 (15.22) 16.64 (6.72) 6.44 (2.94) 3.15 (2.02) 9.16 (2.76) appendix 4 unadjusted group means and (standard deviations) for additional items added to the reasons for attending university scale. variable direct entry college transfer 2.03 (1.65) 3.30 (2.16) university transfer 1.86 (1.36) 2.61 (1.89) scholarship opportunities 3.26 (1.91) pathway existed from previous 2.04 (1.55) program secure career 2.99 (1.92) 4.10 (1.90) 3.65 (2.02) change/advancement cant find a job 1.80 (1.34) 2.44 (1.66) 2.62 (1.76) universitys size 4.13 (1.70) 3.05 (1.84) 2.95 (1.90) trent offered me transfer credits 1.25 (0.84) 2.80 (1.95) 3.20 (1.93) note. a 6-point likert scale ranging from 1 (definitely not a central reason) to 6 (definitely a central reason) was used 24 appendix 5 output predicting academic resourcefulness for each of the groups, separately. group: direct entry (n = 743) dependent variable: academic resourcefulness (ari) r = .76, r2 = .57, unique variance = .27, shared variance = .30 independent variables bivariate semi-partial r semi-partial r2 iv correlations (unique variance) between ivs with ari self-efficacy .68 .42 .18 general resourcefulness .54 .26 .07 lack of effort -.42 -.12 .01 not lack of ability .33 non-significant bad luck -.28 -.07 .005 note. in addition to academic self-efficacy and general resourcefulness, other unique predictors of ari was lower lack of effort and bad luck attribution style scores. group: college transfer (n = 203) dependent variable: academic resourcefulness (ari) r = .79, r2 = .63, unique variance = .30, shared variance = .33 independent variables bivariate semi-partial r semi-partial r2 iv correlations (unique variance) between ivs with ari self-efficacy .64 .37 .14 general resourcefulness .60 .35 .12 lack of effort -.46 -.19 .04 not lack of ability .30 non-significant bad luck -.35 non-significant note. in addition to academic self-efficacy and general resourcefulness, another unique predictor of ari was lower lack of effort attribution style scores. group: university transfer (n = 141) dependent variable: academic resourcefulness (ari) r = .74, r2 = .54, unique variance = .27, shared variance = .27 independent variables bivariate semi-partial r iv correlations between ivs with ari self-efficacy .65 .41 general resourcefulness .46 .32 lack of effort -.40 non-significant not lack of ability .37 non-significant bad luck -.20 non-significant semi-partial r2 (unique variance) .17 .10 25 appendix 6 output predicting university adjustment for each of the groups, separately. group: direct entry (n = 705) dependent variable: university adjustment (uaq) r = .57, r2 = .32, unique variance = .09, shared variance = .23 independent variables iv bivariate semi-partial r semi-partial r2 correlations (unique variance) between ivs with uaq academic resourcefulness .52 .22 .05 self-efficacy .41 non-significant general resourcefulness .43 .14 .02 not lack of ability .21 non-significant internal reasons .24 .08 .01 delay responsibilities -.25 -.09 .01 note. in addition to academic resourcefulness, other unique predictors of uaq was higher general resourcefulness, greater internal reasons and lower delaying responsibility scores for attending university. group: college transfer (n = 192) dependent variable: university adjustment (uaq) r = .51, r2 = .27, unique variance = .06, shared variance = .21 independent variables iv bivariate semi-partial r semi-partial r2 correlations (unique variance) between ivs with uaq academic resourcefulness .49 .20 .04 self-efficacy .35 non-significant general resourcefulness .41 .13 .02 not lack of ability .19 non-significant internal reasons .14 non-significant delay responsibilities -.18 non-significant note. in addition to academic resourcefulness, another unique predictors of uaq was higher general resourcefulness. 26 group: university transfer (n = 136) dependent variable: university adjustment (uaq) r = .55, r2 = .31, unique variance = .11, shared variance = .20 independent variables iv bivariate semi-partial r semi-partial r2 correlations (unique variance) between ivs with uaq academic resourcefulness .47 .25 .06 self-efficacy .33 non-significant general resourcefulness .30 non-significant not lack of ability .28 non-significant internal reasons .27 .23 .05 delay responsibilities -.19 non-significant note. in addition to academic resourcefulness, another unique predictor of uaq was higher internal reasons for attending university. 27 appendix 7 output predicting final grades for each of the groups, separately. group: direct entry (n = 736) dependent variable: grades r = .47, r2 = .23, unique variance = .06, shared variance = .17 independent variables iv bivariate semi-partial r semi-partial r2 correlations (unique variance) between ivs with grades academic resourcefulness .44 .19 .04 self-efficacy .41 .12 .01 lack of effort -.28 -.07 .005 not lack of ability .25 non-significant bad luck -.15 non-significant note. in addition to academic self-efficacy and academic resourcefulness, another unique predictor of grades was lower lack of effort attribution scores. group: college transfer (n = 202) dependent variable: grades r = .45, r2 = .20, unique variance = .05, shared variance = .15 independent variables iv bivariate semi-partial r correlations between ivs with grades academic resourcefulness .42 .19 self-efficacy .37 .11 lack of effort -.24 non-significant not lack of ability .23 non-significant bad luck -.22 non-significant note. * academic self-efficacy approached significance at p = .08. group: university transfer (n = 140) dependent variable: grades r = .62, r2 = .39, unique variance = .12, shared variance = .27 independent variables iv bivariate semi-partial r correlations between ivs with grades academic resourcefulness .47 non-significant self-efficacy .61 .35 lack of effort -.32 non-significant not lack of ability .35 non-significant bad luck -.23 non-significant semi-partial r2 (unique variance) .04 .01* semi-partial r2 (unique variance) .12 28 29

1 executive summary since 2009, the ontario college system has experienced a dramatic growth in international students dramatically exceeding that of ministry-funded students at the system level; 246.0% and 11.4% respectively. despite this growth, international students at ontario colleges have not been the subject of studies especially as they compare to the domestic student population. enrolment continues to grow unabated, yet colleges are struggling to understand the demographic characteristics of international students, aside from their country of origin, let alone their outcomes post-graduation. utilizing two provincially mandated surveys, student satisfaction and graduate satisfaction, this report answers two questions: 1. how do international and domestic students differ in ontario colleges? 2. how does college-to-university transfer differ for international and domestic students in ontario? part one includes is an analysis of the demographic characteristics of age, gender, and first language learned along with the academic characteristics of previous education, program of choice, and related skill development. then, because of the large percentage of international students entering college with previous university, the same analysis is conducted for this sub-group. based on the student satisfaction survey from 2011 to 2014 international students are older, male and are most likely to be enrolled in business. international students are significantly more likely to come with a university degree and compared to their domestic counterpart are likely to enroll in graduate certificates, are younger, and are seeking support for writing and speaking skills. part two examines transfers various components including the rate, timing of decision, sources of information, destination program and satisfaction with the experience. based on the graduate satisfaction survey from 2007 to 2015 the transfer rates for international graduates are lower than that of their peers and are declining over time. international graduates are more likely to make their decision about transfer after completing their program; report getting more transfer information from the college; and have higher levels of satisfaction with their transfer experience and academic preparation. the growth of international students at ontario colleges of applied arts and technology is an important trend to both individual colleges and the system. because international students are rapidly becoming a singularly large portion of the college population, with different characteristics than their domestic peers, policy makers need to be receptive and responsive to their needs. with half of international students having completed a university degree the extent to which this reality affects pedagogy needs to be examined further. the transfer rate is dropping which suggests international students are primarily using college as a second credential and not as an automatic stepping stone to university. finally, those students who are transferring to university are more likely to use college resources for information about transfer which should prompt institutions to examine their services in this area.

how student pathways affect labour market outcomes: evidence from tax-linked administrative data march 31, 2017 ross finnie michael dubois masashi miyairi table of contents 1. introduction .............................................................................................................................. 3 2. literature and background ...................................................................................................... 4 3. data and methodology............................................................................................................. 5 3.1 analysis data ...................................................................................................................... 5 student pathway variable................................................................................................... 6 earnings .............................................................................................................................. 7 other variables ................................................................................................................... 8 3.2 analyses of post-graduation earnings ............................................................................... 9 3.3 comparison of pre and post graduation earnings ............................................................ 10 4. results.................................................................................................................................... 11 4.1 post-graduation earnings ................................................................................................. 11 diploma graduates ........................................................................................................... 11 degree graduates ............................................................................................................. 13 4.2 comparison of pre- and post-graduation earnings .......................................................... 16 diploma graduates ........................................................................................................... 16 degree graduates ............................................................................................................. 17 5. discussion and concluding remarks .................................................................................... 17 6. references .............................................................................................................................. 20 7. annex ..................................................................................................................................... 21 1. introduction post-secondary education (pse) plays an important role in developing the highly skilled workforce suitable for a modern knowledge-based economy. while direct entry from high school is the most familiar pathway to pse for many students in canada, a substantial proportion of students in fact take different paths. for example, ferguson and wang (2014) found from the class of 2009-10 of the national graduate survey (ngs) that direct entry students accounted for just about half of the bachelors degree graduates, and the corresponding figure for college graduates was 28 percent.1 indirect paths are thought to help expand access to pse for demographic groups that are underrepresented in the pse system or adult learners retraining themselves for different career paths. understanding how direct entry and non-direct entry students compare provides valuable policy input helping shape better access and quality of pse system. understanding the link between particular pse pathways and subsequent schooling and labour market outcomes is a complex challenge. unlike years of schooling or highest educational attainment, pse pathway is a multi-dimensional concept and there has been no established unified analytical framework. pathways represent diverse schooling choices including transfers, multiple pse credentials, delays to pse attendance, modes of attendance, or returns to pse. in theory, pathways varying along any one of these dimensions are each different pse experiences, and have potentially different implications for students outcomes at pse institutions or in the labour market. moreover, it goes without saying that pse pathways are not chosen randomly but by conscious decision making to a large degree. thus, analysis requires understanding of student background and circumstances that lead to the choice. in practice, however, analysis of pse pathway is highly subject to data availability because rich data on students schooling histories are hard to come by. as a result, depending on data sources, researchers choose some facet of pse pathway, including transfers, multiple credentials, or delays to pse entry. under these challenges, access to data on both educational histories and labour market outcomes of pse students greatly enhances the possibility of this research area. an ideal dataset will include not only extensive background information and complete education history, but also post-graduation labour market outcomes. examples of data sources meeting these data requirements include the youth in transition survey (yits), the national graduate survey (ngs), and the us national longitudinal study of youth. 1 the figure for bachelor graduates excludes graduates in quebec. 3 alternatively, access to both schooling and post-graduation labour market outcome can be gained by linking pse institutions administrative student data to earnings information available in statistics canadas tax data. the education policy research initiative (epri), a national research organization based at the university of ottawa, recently carried out a research project examining post-graduation outcomes of pse graduates by constructing and analyzing a dataset linking 14 canadian pse institutions administrative data with tax data held at statistics canada. one variable included in the administrative data classifies students by applicant type, such as direct entry from high school or transfer student. using information on the application types to their pse programs and post-graduation earnings, epri aimed to construct and compare the earnings profiles of students who followed different pathways. at the same time, the present analysis does not overcome all of the analytical and practical challenges discussed earlier due to data quality issues surrounding the applicant type variable. therefore, while the empirical analysis undertook here points to a promising avenue for enhancing research on pse pathways, it is accompanied by discussions on future research. this report is organized as follows. the next section discusses existing findings relating pse pathways and post-graduation earnings outcomes. section 3 discusses the analysis data and methodology, followed by section 4 presenting findings. section 5 concludes. all figures and tables discussed in this report are given in the annex at the end of the report. 2. literature and background the existing research in pse pathways is generally grouped into three categories: student background or characteristics associated with given pathways; experiences and outcomes associated with different pathways; post-graduation outcomes associated with different pathways. kerr, mccloy, and liu (2010) provide an extensive review of research related to these themes. past research on non-direct entry students (transfer students in particular) mainly addresses the first two points, focusing on their pse success and outcomes, and establishing the demographic properties of these students (tomkowicz and bushnik, 2003; hango, 2011; ferrer and menendez, 2009). while the third point is the most relevant to this study, much less is written about it due to its data requirements. among findings to date, dubois (2007) used the ngs to study the post-graduation earnings implications of having previous pse credentials. she found that for college graduates, having previous credentials was associated with higher earnings than having no previous pse experience at both two and five years after graduation. for university graduates, in contrast, her descriptive analysis found that only those with a previous university degree had higher earnings than those with no previous pse experience. however, her regression analysis revealed other types of pse credentials were also associated with higher earnings than no previous pse experience at five years after graduation. 4 dubois (2007) also carried out a regression analysis that compared post-graduation earnings following indirect pse pathways and a direct pathway, defined as entry to pse directly from high school that is full-time without interruption. the regression results for college graduates found that, while taking a break during pse was associated with higher earnings at the 5 percent statistically significant level compared to the baseline direct pse pathway at both two and five years since graduation, delaying pse entry or studying part-time were not. in contrast, only parttime study was associated higher post-graduation earnings than the direct pse pathway at the 5 percent statistically significant level for university graduates. wannell, pereboom, and lavllee (2000), using the ngs as well, examined how university graduates with a direct path, defined as those who studied full-time, graduated at age 25 or younger, and had no dependent children, compared to their indirect path counterpart in terms of post-graduation earnings. they found that though the direct-path group was more likely to study in technical fields such as engineering or sciences, they earned less than the indirect path group both two and five years after graduation. they also found that the pay difference between the direct and indirect group was narrower in technical fields than softer fields such as arts and humanities. using the 2005 graduating cohort of the ngs, ferrer and menendez (2009) developed and estimated an empirical model to estimate returns to delaying pse while controlling for endogeneity of this choice. the estimation results revealed substantial gains from interrupting and later re-entering pse compared to continually pursuing pse. specifically, these gains were estimated to be 18 and 30% at two years after graduation, and 8 and 5% at 5 years after graduation for college and university graduates, respectively. hango (2010) used the yits to study annual earnings associated with different educational pathways at two points in time after graduation (i.e., 1-2 years and 5-6 years since leaving fulltime schooling). in this study, she found that pse graduates with no gap between high school and pse had higher earnings than those with gaps at both points examined. 3. data and methodology 3.1 analysis data this analysis builds on a unique dataset created by linking administrative student data from 14 canadian pse institutions to statistics canadas tax records from 2005 to 2013. each participating institution prepared two datasets: one that included individual identifiers (e.g., full name and precise birth date) of students who graduated from their institution over the 2005 2012 period and another that included student and program characteristics such as graduation 5 year, cumulative grade point average, gender, credential type, classification of instructional program (cip) code. statistics canada used the first dataset to link graduate records to their related set of tax files, and then merged this dataset with the second dataset.2 once the fully linked data file was created at statistics canada, the participating institutions data were ready to be used in the analysis presented in this report. statistics canadas tax record data for this study is available from 2005 to 2013. the tax data represent the adult population well as the rate of tax filing in canada is very high. upper and middle-income canadians are required to file and lower-income canadians have strong financial incentives to file in order to recover part of the income tax and other payroll tax deductions they make throughout the year, or to receive various tax credits. as a result, more than 95 percent of graduating students from all participating institutions could be matched to at least one tax year record.3 this analysis selects graduates from two canadian colleges and three ontario universities which provided a variable identifying students application type and agreed to participate in this project. this analysis focuses on graduates from either degree or diploma programs that require education credentials no higher than a secondary school diploma as an entry requirement. in other words, first-professional degree, graduate degree, and post-graduate diploma programs are excluded. in what follows, we discuss the key variables for the analysis in more detail. student pathway variable a key step for this study is identification of each students pathway into their pse programs recorded in the data. this step largely depends on the applicant type variable in the dataset, which groups graduate observations into the following four categories: direct entry from high school; transfer from another pse institution; after successful completion of different pse programs; mature student. 2 as a security measure, once the data that included the student identifiers was linked to the tax data at statistics canada, it was destroyed there. all (actual) individual student identifiers were also deleted from the fully linked file to be used in the analysis. strict protocols established by statistics canada governed access to the data and the release of any information based on their analysis. 3 the analysis undertaken in this project follows statistics canadas disclosure rules. these rules state that the rounded sample size must be at least 20 for the sample mean and median statistics. furthermore, earnings figures must be rounded to the nearest $100. 6 based on this variable, student are classified into the direct entry (de) or the non-direct entry (non de) group, with the first category in the applicant type variable comprising the de group, and the remaining three categories making up the non de group.4 in addition, the pse administrative data provide a variable reporting students graduation year, and the tax data make graduates year of birth available. using these two variables, we derive graduates age at graduation. inspection of the distribution of age at graduation among the direct entry category reveals that a sizeable number of graduates finished their pse programs in their thirties or older. this suggests that the de group includes students who had gaps between their high school graduation and pse entry as well as those who do not. gaps in schooling activities are an important aspect of student pathways, and therefore it is natural to distinguish this group of students from those without any gap. unfortunately, the dataset lacks a variable that provides this piece of information precisely. therefore, we utilize the age at graduation as a proxy. specifically, graduates were divided into the two groups according to the following cutoff age: 23 for diploma graduates and 24 for degree graduates. an obvious limitation of this classification rule is that age at graduation is a less informative measure of the gap between schooling than age at pse entry. to summarize, the three types of pse pathways we consider are described as: younger de group; older de group; non de group. earnings in this study, earnings equal total before-tax earnings, created as the sum of three measures of each graduates yearly income. we combine the earnings from the t4 slips with declared selfemployment income and other employment income. the focus on before-tax income ensures that the effects of tax credits and transfer programs, which would disproportionately affect the aftertax earnings of some graduates, are not included. for example, individuals with children could claim a tax credit that would raise their after tax earnings relative to those who do not have children and have the same level of before tax earnings. all earnings are consumer price index (cpi) adjusted to 2014 dollars. 4 the aggregation of non de categories is necessary due to small sample size issues. 7 other variables the dataset provides graduates fields of study using the classification of instructional program (cip) code. based on this variable, each graduate observation is classified into seven and eight fields of study (fos) for diploma and degree graduates, respectively, with each group given a category name that reflects it. for diploma graduates, these groupings are arts and education; business; health; engineering; personal, protective, and transportation (ppt) services; fine arts; sciences. for degree graduates, we use the groupings of social sciences; business; health; engineering; sciences; humanities; mathematics; fine arts. for a detailed list of subfields in each field of study group, refer to tables 1 to 4. in addition, numeric values of graduates cumulative gpa at graduation are available for degree graduates. however, the cumulative gpa values are reported under different grading scales depending on pse institutions. to resolve these differences, grades are grouped into three groups, each corresponding to a, b, or c, based on each institutions conversion schemes between numeric and letter grades.5 the year-since-graduation (ysg) variable equals the difference between the taxation year and graduation year. in order to track each individuals earnings over time, and to capture the effects of labour market experience on earnings, this analysis examines earnings on a cohort-by-cohort basis by year after graduation. as an example: for a student who graduated in 2005 (the 2005 cohort), we observe their earnings at one year after graduation, i.e. in fiscal/tax year 2006, and 5 a very small fraction of graduates had graduating cumulative gpa corresponding to the letter grade of d and are combined into the c group. 8 follow them on a yearly basis for as long as we have earnings information. for this earliest cohort, we have earnings information spanning eight years (until 2013), while for later cohorts we have less information; for example, for the 2006 cohort, we have seven years of earnings information, for the 2012 cohort, we have only one year of earnings information. 3.2 analyses of post-graduation earnings the current analysis of post-graduation earnings consists of two parts. first, we will start with the descriptive analysis of mean earnings of graduates after they leave school. earnings will be examined on a year-by-year basis following graduation. the differences in earnings based on pathways will be broken down by the following variables: i) graduation cohort, ii) the graduates gender and iii) fields of study. the results from the descriptive analysis are intended to provide overall pictures of i) how the earnings of graduates with different pathways evolve over time, and iii) whether, and to what degree, these earnings profiles differ across cohort, field of study, and gender. second, regression analysis provides an alternative means of descriptive analysis to uncover earnings differences among graduates experiencing different pse pathways more concisely. the modelling framework in general is expressed by the following regression equation: where the dependent variable is annual earnings in a given year since graduation. the regression model relates the dependent variable to a set of explanatory variables that account for an individuals graduating cohort, years since graduation, and pathway type as well as other characteristics. x on the right-hand side of the equation represents a set of student characteristics often included in earnings regressions in the literature, such as gender or field of study. the last term on the right-hand side of the regression model, , is an error term capturing a part of the dependent variable unexplained by the explanatory variables. the regression is formulated as a linear regression model that includes a set of dummy variables indicating graduates cohorts and years since graduation. furthermore, to capture differences in earnings across different pse pathway, the model includes two dummy variables indicating whether a graduate belongs to the older and non de groups, respectively.6 in addition, terms interacting these dummies with years since graduation are included in the model. we consider three regression model specifications that differ in terms of student characteristics included in x. the first model, called model 1, includes only a constant term in x. model 2 also 6 thus, the younger de group forms a base group. 9 includes a set of dummy variables indicating graduates field of study and gender.7 moreover, each of these dummy variables is interacted with years since graduation to allow for different earnings growth patterns among fields of study and between genders. model 3 augments model 2 by adding a set of dummies indicating graduating grades and their interactions with years since graduation8. the objective of this study is to understand the relationship between pse pathway and earnings. to this end, the coefficients on the pathway type dummy variables capture difference in initial post-graduation earnings. moreover, the interaction term between these dummy variables and years since graduation captures changes in the relationship between these two variables over years. we employ the least square method to estimate the regression coefficients. while this estimation method is widely used, least square estimates should not be interpreted as the causal effects of the explanatory variables on the dependent variable without further conditions. in particular, if the error term contains a factor that is correlated with any of the explanatory variables, the least square estimator provided biased estimates of the causal effects of the explanatory variables on the earnings. 3.3 comparison of pre and post graduation earnings since the dataset contains tax records from 2005 to 2013, it also allows us to track earnings of graduates before graduation. as a result, for latter graduating cohorts, some earnings records correspond to those earned by graduates before starting their pse programs. taking advantage of this data availability, we compare mean earnings profiles before and after pse programs to see how earning outcomes change across intervening pse spells. in practice, however, the dataset does not provide information on which year each graduate entered the pse programs, forcing us to rely on a proxy for pse starting dates. to this end, we apply a simple cut-off rule that assumes that it takes four and three years to finish degree and diploma programs, respectively. under this assumption, the last time each degree graduate in the dataset worked a full year is five years before they graduated. likewise, the last time each diploma graduate in the dataset worked a full year is assumed to be four years before they graduated. therefore, we have one year of pre-pse earnings records for degree graduates in the 2010 cohort and two years of pre-pse earnings record for diploma graduates in the 2010 cohorts. 7 the base group among fields of study is social sciences for degree graduates, and arts & education for diploma graduates. as for gender, male graduates form the base group. 8 graduates with the graduating cumulative gpa of b are used as the base group. 10 for this part of the analysis, we further divide the non de group into two groups using their median age at graduation as the cut-off point, thus creating younger and older non de groups. the cut-off values are 25 for diploma graduates, and 26 for degree graduates. it is fair to suppose that the older groups had established labour market experience ,and therefore the change in earnings of these students around their pse experiences could be interpreted in a value added perspective. 4. results 4.1 post-graduation earnings diploma graduates student characteristics the upper panel of table 5 reports the distributions of the applicant type variable by graduating cohort. unfortunately, the table suggests that there are data quality issues related to this variable. specifically, the unknown applicant type category accounted for a disproportionately high proportion of diploma graduate observations among earlier graduating cohorts. for example, the applicant type was unknown for almost all graduates in the 2005 cohort, and 84% of the graduates in the 2006 cohort had the unknown applicant type. in contrast, this figure was more or less stable from the 2008 graduate cohort and on. this suggests that the coding of this variable was not consistent until at least the 2008 cohort. moreover, table 5 shows that there were no diploma graduates classified as transfer students, and a large fraction of graduates with an unknown application type, which likely reflects the difficulty in identifying transfer students based on administrative data at institutions. it might be natural to suppose that transfer students were grouped into the unknown category. however, without extra information establishing that graduates in the unknown category are transfer students, we chose to exclude observations in this category. table 6 presents the basic characteristics of diploma graduates by pathway type group in the dataset. male graduates accounted for nearly 60% of the younger de group, while female graduates accounted for a similar proportion of the non de group. the older de group was more evenly split between male and female graduates, with female graduates having a majority with 52%. as for the distribution of field of study, engineering accounted for the largest proportion among the younger de group, with almost half the group having graduated from this field. engineering was also the top field among the older de group, accounting for 41% of the group, and graduates from business and health accounted for sizeable proportions as well (17% and 23%, respectively). among the non de group, health accounted for the largest proportion (26%), while arts & education, business, and engineering each accounted for approximately 20% for the group. 11 descriptive results of mean earnings figures 1 to 8 report descriptive results for diploma graduates.9 recall that the distribution of the applicant type variable underlying the pathway type was unreliable before the 2008 cohort. therefore we leave out those earlier cohorts from the ensuing discussions. first, figure 1 presents the mean earnings profiles by pathway type for all diploma graduates. this figure shows that the older de group had the highest first-year earnings in any graduating cohort, with their earnings levels ranging from $35,000 to $40,000. in contrast, the younger de group typically started with a lower earnings level than the older de group. however, this group experienced higher post-graduation earnings growth than their older counterpart. the non de group had a similar first year earnings level as the older de group among the 2008 cohort, but among the other cohorts, they started with lower earnings levels. second, figures 2 and 3 present the mean earnings profiles broken down by gender. as shown in figure 2, female graduates had similar earnings profiles regardless of their pathway types. in contrast, male graduates exhibited a clearer spread in mean earnings differences among the three pathway types than female graduates. the older de group in any graduating cohort had higher earnings than the non de group in all five years since graduation, with the differences staying at roughly the same size over time. the younger de group also started with lower mean first-year earnings than the older de group. however, the former groups earnings appeared to catch up with the latters with faster earnings growth. third, figures 4 to 8 present the mean earnings profiles for selected fields of study.10 overall, these figures do not indicate clear systematic patterns in mean earnings differences among the three pathway types. however, it is important to note that quite a few mean earnings figures had to be suppressed due to small sample size issues, making a thorough analysis difficult. regression results table 15 presents the regression model estimates for diploma graduates, and figure 9 graphs earnings differences among the three pathway groups implied by the coefficient estimates. the estimated constant term in model 1 suggest that the younger de group has $30,800 first-year earnings on average. according to the coefficient estimate on the dummy variable for the older de group, the first-year earnings for the older de group is higher than the younger de group by $4,900. the estimated coefficient on the interaction term between this dummy variable and year since graduation implies that this difference in annual earnings narrows by $1,600 each year 9 the same set of results is available in a table format in tables 7 to 14. 10 in order to comply with the statistics canadas disclosure rules regarding confidential data, results for only the five largest fields of study among diploma graduates are released for this report. 12 afterward, resulting in the younger de groups earnings surpassing the older de groups earnings at 4 years since graduation. based on the parameter estimates from model 2, accounting for gender and field of study does not change the qualitative patterns of the earnings gap between these two groups. the initial earnings gap is estimated at approximately $5,500 and the gap in annual earnings is estimated to decrease by approximately $1,500 each year afterward. the estimates for model 1 indicate that the non de group earns $1,100 less than the younger de group in the first year since graduation. this gap is estimated to widen by $2,510 each year, amounting to a significant earnings gap several years after graduation. a different picture of the earnings gap profile emerges between these two groups once their gender and field of study is controlled for. in model 2, the non de group earns on average $2,030 more than the younger de group initially. the difference is estimated to narrow by $960 each year afterward, and the younger de group is predicted to surpass the non de group three years after graduation. overall, the earnings gap between these two groups is quantitatively insignificant over the first five years after graduation, unlike the one implied by model 1. despite the earnings differences implied by the estimated regression model, it is important to note that these earnings differences across different pathway types become quantitatively insignificant as time goes on. more specifically, the coefficient estimate on the dummy variable corresponding to 5 years after graduation indicates that there is $26,300 growth in earnings from the first to fifth years after graduation. this increase in earnings dwarfs changes in the earnings gaps among different pathway types. moreover, the earnings gap among different pathway types are relatively minor compared to those among different fields of study. for example, the coefficient estimates on the dummy variable for engineering and its interaction term with ysg reveal a far more quantitatively significant earnings difference between engineering and arts & education. specifically, the regression results estimate a $14,100 first year mean earnings difference between these two fields, and the difference will increase by $4,300 each year afterward. degree graduates student characteristics the lower panel of table 5 reports the distributions of the applicant type variable by graduating cohort, and it raises data quality issues surrounding this variable. to be more specific, there was a large upswing in the proportion of the category direct entry from high school from the 2005 to 2007 cohorts, increasing from 40% to over 60%. correspondingly, there was a large decline in the proportion of the unknown applicant category from the 2005 to 2007 cohorts. furthermore, there was a noticeable jump in the proportion of transfer student from the 2005 and 2008 graduating cohorts, going from less than 1% to slightly over 3%. these observations suggest that the coding of this variable was not consistent until at least the 2008 cohort. 13 moreover, table 5 shows that unexpectedly small proportions of degree graduates in the data were transfer or mature students. this likely reflects the difficulty in identifying transfer students based on administrative data at institutions. table 16 presents the basic characteristics of degree graduates by pathway type in the dataset. it shows that the younger de and non de groups had similar gender composition, with female graduates accounting for 56% and 58% of the groups, respectively. in contrast, male graduates accounted for 60% of the older de group. as for the distribution of field of study, social sciences accounted for the largest proportion among the younger de group, with nearly a quarter of the group having graduated from this field. engineering, business, and health also accounted for sizeable proportions of the younger de group at 18%, 17%, and 14%, respectively. engineering was the top field among the older de group, accounting for 25%, while social sciences and business accounted for sizeable proportions as well (17% and 23%, respectively). among the non de group, social sciences accounted for the largest proportion with 36%, and humanities was the second largest field at 14%. the remaining fields other than fine arts each accounted for approximately 10% of the group. based on the graduating cumulative gpa, the non de group had the highest academic achievement of the three pathway type groups, with 39% of the group having graduated with a. 60% of the younger de group graduated with b, while 24% of them graduated with a. in contrast, the older de group had 31% of their graduates graduating with c, almost twice the figures for the younger and non de groups. mean earnings figures 10 to 18 report descriptive results for degree graduates.11 as is the case with diploma graduates, the distribution of the applicant type variable was unreliable before the 2008 cohort. therefore we focus on results for graduates in the 2008 cohort and later. figure 10 presents the mean earnings profiles by pathway type for all degree graduates. within each graduating cohort, the three pathway type groups had first-year earnings levels in the lowto mid-$40,000. the observed earnings gaps between these groups were at most $3,600 and much lower than this value in many cases. generally, the three groups experienced similar 11 the same set of results is available in a table format in tables 17 to 25. 14 earnings growth.12 the figure shows no consistent ordering for earnings level among the three groups that holds across different graduating cohorts. figures 11 and 12 present the mean earnings profiles broken down by gender. both female and male graduates had similar earnings profiles among the three pathway groups except for the male 2008 cohort. within this cohort, the non de group experienced much higher earnings growth than the other two groups, resulting in earnings gaps around $24,000. however, this could be an artifact of the small sample size of the non de group. figures 13 to 18 present the mean earnings profiles for six selected fields of study.13 these figures do not indicate clear systematic patterns in mean earnings differences among the three pathway types. however, as quite a few mean earnings figures had to be suppressed due to small sample size issues, any findings from these figures may not be reliable. regression results table 26 presents the regression model estimates for degree graduates, and figure 19 graphs earnings differences among the three pathway groups implied by the coefficient estimates. the estimates for model 1 indicate that the older de group has higher first-year earnings than the younger de group by $1,320 on average. this earnings gap is estimated to narrow by $230 each year afterward. therefore, five years after graduation the earnings gap between these two groups is predicted to almost disappear. once graduates fields of study and gender are accounted for by model 2, the older de group has a lower first year earnings level than the younger de group by $620, though this difference is statistically insignificant. the earnings gap is estimated to widen by $780 each year. model 3 controls for graduating grades as well as gender and field of study. the parameter estimates from this model indicate that the older de group has a higher first-year earnings level than the younger de group by $670 but the difference is statistically insignificant. however, the younger de groups mean earnings are estimated to surpass those of the older de group, as it grows by a larger margin (by $870) each year. overall, the estimated profile of earnings gap is similar to the one from model 2. the estimation results for model 1 indicates that the non de groups first year earnings is not statistically different from those of the younger de group, with the former exceeding the latter 12 noticeable gaps in earnings level are observed at five years after graduation between the non de group and the other two groups in the 2008 graduating cohort, $8,300 and $10,400, respectively. however, this could be due to outlier observations in the non de group as the sample size of this group is modest. 13 in order to comply with the statistics canadas disclosure rules regarding confidential data, results for only the six largest fields of study among degree graduates were released for this report. 15 by $130. the difference is expected to grow by $920 each year. once gender and field of study is controlled for, the earnings gap is estimated to start at a substantially higher level ($2,380), but widen at a slower margin ($730) each year afterward. however, model 3, which also accounts for graduating grades, estimates a more moderate earnings gap profile between the non and younger de groups, which starts at $1,140 and widens by $460 each year. importantly, these earnings differences across different pathway types become quantitatively insignificant when they are compared with actual post-graduation earnings levels over years after graduation. for example, model 1 estimates the post-graduation earnings of the younger de group to grow by $22,430 from the first to fifth years after graduation. moreover, earnings gap among different pathway types are relatively minor compared to those among different fields of study. for example, the estimated model 2 indicates that business graduates earn $14,100 more than social sciences graduates in the first year after graduation, with this gap widening by $1,200 each year afterward. 4.2 comparison of pre- and post-graduation earnings diploma graduates figure 20 presents the mean earnings profiles surrounding graduates times in pse for the 2010, 2011, and 2012 cohorts of diploma graduates. since these three cohorts exhibited similar earnings profile patterns in this figure, we pool them together and produce mean earnings profiles for the combined group. figure 21 shows the result. the older non de group had the highest pre-pse earnings, which stayed slightly below $30,000, followed by the older de group with a gradually increasing mean earnings profile around $20,000. the pre-pse earnings for the remaining groups were mostly below $10,000. the younger and older de groups as well as the younger non de group had either increasing or flat pre-pse program earnings profiles. interestingly, the mean earning of the older non de group declined during the two year period before starting their pse program. the three pathway groups other than the older non de group experienced substantial jumps in earnings upon graduation, with the most notable case of an approximately $29,000 increase for the younger de groups. in contrast, for the older non de group, an increase in earnings upon graduation was much more modest at $4,300. however, this increase followed the decline in mean earnings before starting the spells of pse, and was followed by a positive earnings growth, thus having important implications for earnings dynamics surrounding pse. moreover, the increase in earnings from a year before the pse spell reached close to $12,000 at three years after graduation, a substantial change amounting to an increase of nearly 42%. 16 degree graduates figure 22 presents the mean earnings profiles surrounding graduates times in pse for the 2010, 2011, and 2012 graduating cohorts of degree graduates, while figure 23 shows the mean earnings profile among a student group pooling these three cohorts. as shown in the figure, while both younger and older de groups as well as the younger non de group had similar pre-pse earnings profiles hovering mostly below $10,000, the older non de group had much higher pre-pse earnings around $30,000. this is expected as the older non de group is likely comprised of those who had made a full transition to the labour market. the increase in labour market earnings is therefore more modest for this group at approximately $13,000, as opposed to around $30,000 or higher for the rest of pathway type groups. nevertheless the increase is quantitatively substantial as it translates into an earnings increase of nearly 40%. while all four groups experienced at least mild earnings growth before starting their observed spells of pse, the post-graduation profiles featured faster growth. 5. discussion and concluding remarks this project examines how different pathways through pse are related to labour market outcomes by using information available from institutions on the basis upon which students were admitted to their programs and then linking this information to labour market outcomes obtained from the linked tax files previously constructed by epri. we compared the earnings outcomes of direct entry students with those of students from other application type categories. the direct entry graduates were further divided into two groups based on their age at graduation to partially account for differences in their previous schooling and labour market histories. while we found differences in first-year earnings and subsequent earnings growth across different pathways, these differences were quantitatively insignificant compared to those found with respect to other graduate characteristics, especially field of study. moreover, these earnings differences became quantitatively less significant relative to actual earnings levels as earnings generally grew at a robust pace after graduation. in addition, we took advantage of the unique features of the dataset that allowed us to observed graduates earnings even before graduation, and compared pre-schooling earnings to postschooling earnings across four groups formed by direct-entry status and age at graduation. this comparison produced arguably the most interesting findings as to earnings differences among graduates from different pathways, together with the earnings dynamics of the older non-direct entry graduates. notably, while the younger groups had relatively low pre-schooling earnings, as would be expected, the older groups generally had established labour market experience and therefore the change in earnings of these students around their pse experiences could be interpreted in a 17 value added perspective. most interestingly, those older students generally demonstrated substantial increases in earnings in their post-schooling years relative to their pre-schooling years: i.e., significant value added from their pse experiences. any comparison of pre-post earnings profiles of pse graduates who had established pre-pse labour market profiles could in a similar way be used to answer a range of questions. for example, it would be interesting from a policy perspective to look at the change in earnings (and other related outcomes such as the use of income support programs such as ei and sa as well as employment programs) of those pse graduates who gain their pse experiences through sponsored government program such as those offered through ei or sa. however, it is important to highlight data quality issues underlying these findings. first, the nondirect entry group consisted of heterogeneous groups, thus the earnings comparisons between this group and the direct-entry group mask potentially important earnings differences within this group. since the applicant type variable had difficulty identifying the application types of all the graduates in the data, we could not examine potential heterogeneities among non-direct entry graduates. similarly, the applicant type variable had a large proportion of unknown values in the data. importantly, if missing values occur non-randomly and are related to student characteristics including their mode of pse entry, the results may be significantly biased. thus, while this project may have demonstrated fruitful approaches by which pse-tax linked data can be used to examine how pse pathways are related to both pre- and post-schooling outcomes, more thorough analysis requires higher-quality data on pse pathways. indeed, it would be ideal to have full psis-type data for an entire jurisdiction so that specific pathways can be identified by the researcher by tracking students as they move through the entire pse system. this will include identifying each student in each year at the pse institution they are attending, then defining a finite set of trajectories through pse from the almost infinite set of possibilities that such rich but complex data could identify, and then linking these to labour market outcomes. in this way we could learn, for example, how students who start in a program and then switch to another program at another institution without graduating perform in comparison to those who go straight through a single program. similarly, comparison could be made involving those who first finish a first program and then enter another program perform in comparison with others (perhaps with a break in-between, perhaps not). all such movements could take account of movements across pse sectors (i.e., college and university). therefore, even though pathways through pse have a highly diverse facets, they could be captured and analyzed in a manageable framework, with a focus on those which are most common and/or are of greatest interest. such work would be complex and take a serious investment of resources since tracking students through all their pse experiences is not easily done while then connecting students who take different pathways through pse to their labour market outcomes as captured in tax data would add a whole other element requiring different 18 kinds of expertise. but such work is possible, and the benefits of such a program of research could be substantial. 19 6. references dubois, julie. 2007. outcomes for alternative pathways. ferguson, sarah jane, and shunji wang. 2014. graduating in canada: profile, labour market outcomes and student debt of the class of 2009-2010. nov. ferrer, ana m. and alicia menendex. 2009. the returns to flexible postsecondary education: the effect of delaying school. hango, darcy. 2010. labour market experiences of youth after leaving school: exploring the effect of educational pathways over time. . 2011. delaying post-secondary education: who delays and for how long? kerr, angelika, ursula mccloy, and shuping liu. 2010. forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. liu, shuping. 2013. postsecondary education latecomers: profile and labour market out- comes of ontario pse graduates. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. tomkowicz, joanna, and tracey bushnik. 2003. who goes to post-secondary education and when: pathways chosen by 20 years-old. wannell, ted, bert pereboom, and laval lavalle. 2000. does the straight and narrow pay? the path to a degree and labour market outcomes. 20 7. annex table 1: field of study groups for diploma programs degree groupings arts & education business cip code 05 09 13 16 19 22 23 24 30.05 30.1 30.11 30.13 30.14 30.15 30.17 30.20 30.21 30.22 30.23 30.25 30.26 30.28 30.29 30.31 30.33 38 39 42 44 45 54 55 30.16 52 series/subseries name area, ethnic, cultural, gender and group studies communication, journalism and related programs education aboriginal and foreign languages, literatures and linguistics family and consumer sciences/human sciences legal professions and studies english language and literature/letters liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities peace studies and conflict resolution biopsychology gerontology medieval and renaissance studies museology/museum studies science, technology and society behavioural sciences international/global studies holocaust and related studies classical and ancient studies intercultural/multicultural and diversity studies cognitive science cultural studies/critical theory and analysis dispute resolution maritime studies human computer interaction sustainability studies philosophy and religious studies theology and religious vocations psychology public administration and social service professions social sciences history french language and literature/letters accounting and computer science business, management, marketing and related support services 21 table 2: field of study groups for diploma programs (continued) degree groupings engineering fine arts health personal, protective & transportation services science & agriculture cip code 04 11 14 15 30.06 30.08 30.12 30.30 46 47 48 10 50 31 51 60 12 28 29 43 49 01 03 25 26 27 30.01 30.18 30.19 30.24 30.27 30.32 40 41 series/subseries name architecture and related services computer and information sciences and support services engineering engineering technologies and engineering-related fields systems science and theory mathematics and computer science historic preservation and conservation computational science construction trades mechanic and repair technologies/technicians precision production communication technologies/technicians and support services visual and performing arts parks, recreation, leisure and fitness studies health professions and related programs dental, medical and veterinary residency programs personal and culinary services military science, leadership and operational art military technologies and applied sciences security and protective services transportation and materials moving agriculture, agriculture operations and related sciences natural resources and conservation library science biological and biomedical sciences mathematics and statistics biological and physical sciences natural sciences nutrition sciences neuroscience human biology marine sciences physical sciences science technologies/technicians 22 table 3: field of study groups for degree programs degree groupings business engineering fine arts health humanities cip code 30.16 52 04 14 15 30.12 46 47 48 10 50 31 51 60 16 23 24 30.13 30.21 30.22 30.29 38 39 54 55 series/subseries name accounting and computer science business, management, marketing and related support services architecture and related services engineering engineering technologies and engineering-related fields historic preservation and conservation construction trades mechanic and repair technologies/technicians precision production communication technologies/technicians and support services visual and performing arts parks, recreation, leisure and fitness studies health professions and related programs dental, medical and veterinary residency programs aboriginal and foreign languages, literatures and linguistics english language and literature/letters liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities medieval and renaissance studies holocaust and related studies classical and ancient studies maritime studies philosophy and religious studies theology and religious vocations history french language and literature/letters 23 table 4: field of study groups for degree programs (continued) degree groupings mathematics & computer science sciences & agriculture social sciences cip code 11 25 27 30.06 30.08 30.30 01 03 26 30.01 30.18 30.19 30.24 30.27 30.32 40 41 5 9 19 22 30.05 30.10 30.11 30.14 30.15 30.17 30.2 30.23 30.25 30.26 30.28 30.31 30.33 42 44 45 series/subseries name computer and information sciences and support services library science mathematics and statistics systems science and theory mathematics and computer science computational science agriculture, agriculture operations and related sciences natural resources and conservation biological and biomedical sciences biological and physical sciences natural sciences nutrition sciences neuroscience human biology marine sciences physical sciences science technologies/technicians area, ethnic, cultural, gender and group studies communication, journalism and related programs family and consumer sciences/human sciences legal professions and studies peace studies and conflict resolution biopsychology gerontology museology/museum studies science, technology and society behavioural sciences international/global studies intercultural/multicultural and diversity studies cognitive science cultural studies/critical theory and analysis dispute resolution human computer interaction sustainability studies psychology public administration and social service professions social sciences 24 table 5: distribution of applicant type variable by graduating cohort graduating direct cohort entry from hs (%) 2005 x 2006 13.7 2007 29.0 2008 49.3 2009 50.1 2010 49.2 2011 45.9 2012 42.7 graduating direct cohort entry from hs (%) 2005 39.4 2006 57.7 2007 63.5 2008 62.9 2009 60.8 2010 60.0 2011 59.0 2012 60.0 diploma graduates transfer mature student (%) student (%) x 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 x 2.1 6.2 21.8 25.2 28.8 31.3 30.2 degree graduates transfer mature student (%) student (%) 0.8 1.3 1.9 3.1 3.3 3.2 3.5 3.1 0.9 0.7 0.9 1.1 0.9 1.2 1.2 1.2 unknown (%) 99.4 84.2 64.8 28.8 24.7 22.0 22.7 27.1 unknown (%) 59.0 40.3 33.7 32.8 35.0 35.6 36.3 35.7 * includes the applicant type after successful completion of another pse program. x these figures cannot be reported due to the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 25 table 6: distribution of student characteristics, diploma graduates group gender (%) female male all field of study (%) arts & education business health engineering ppt services fine arts sciences all pathway type younger de older de non de 41.2 58.8 100.0 52.3 47.7 100.0 58.9 41.1 100.0 10.3 11.5 11.9 49.4 11.7 3.6 1.6 100.0 4.9 16.6 23.1 40.6 9.5 1.8 3.4 100.0 19.5 18.5 26.1 20.2 8.5 4.2 3.1 100.0 26 figure 1: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 27 figure 2: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, female 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 28 figure 3: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, male 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 29 figure 4: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, arts & education 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 2012 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 years since graduation younger de older de non de 30 figure 5: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, business 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 31 figure 6: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, health 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 32 figure 7: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, engineering 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 33 figure 8: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, ppt services 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 34 table 7: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type years since graduation cohort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 younger de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 34.0 41.7 42.4 50.4 60.2 67.9 70.6 2007 33.6 34.3 40.0 45.2 55.5 61.9 2008 30.4 38.0 43.0 51.1 58.0 2009 29.2 36.2 44.2 49.6 2010 31.8 40.6 47.8 2011 35.5 43.0 2012 36.0 older de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 36.9 45.2 45.9 52.7 58.7 64.9 65.7 2007 36.0 39.2 43.1 47.3 54.5 58.8 2008 34.8 40.8 44.2 50.3 55.1 2009 36.1 42.4 47.9 52.8 2010 36.8 42.6 46.6 2011 40.1 47.1 2012 38.7 non de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 34.3 39.8 35.6 41.6 40.8 41.5 48.7 2007 35.5 37.4 40.4 45.9 52.0 59.0 2008 33.9 36.4 38.7 41.3 45.2 2009 32.2 36.8 40.4 43.1 2010 30.5 35.6 38.7 2011 31.7 36.4 2012 30.9 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. x these figures cannot be reported to comply with the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 35 table 8: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, female years since graduation cohort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 younger de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 21.1 25.9 33.3 38.0 43.5 38.2 41.8 2007 27.0 28.1 32.5 29.7 31.6 33.6 2008 26.4 31.4 32.9 35.3 38.1 2009 26.5 30.5 34.0 36.4 2010 27.8 32.8 36.1 2011 28.8 33.9 2012 27.5 older de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 24.4 28.8 32.1 31.1 33.5 36.7 36.2 2007 26.9 30.5 31.2 34.2 36.7 38.0 2008 31.1 35.8 36.3 40.0 40.5 2009 33.1 36.0 37.6 37.4 2010 32.0 35.2 37.7 2011 33.8 38.3 2012 34.7 non de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 25.4 28.9 31.0 33.5 33.8 33.3 31.9 2007 30.0 36.1 38.0 41.4 43.0 45.1 2008 33.4 34.1 35.0 36.1 37.3 2009 30.9 33.4 36.2 36.6 2010 29.3 33.2 34.4 2011 29.4 32.8 2012 28.1 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. x these figures cannot be reported to comply with the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 36 table 9: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, male years since graduation cohort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 younger de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 38.0 47.1 45.1 54.3 65.2 76.4 78.2 2007 37.4 37.8 43.9 53.4 67.3 75.6 2008 33.5 43.0 50.6 62.0 71.2 2009 31.0 40.0 51.2 58.8 2010 34.7 45.8 55.3 2011 40.1 49.0 2012 41.6 older de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 42.7 52.0 52.2 62.2 69.4 76.0 78.5 2007 44.3 47.0 53.6 58.9 70.5 76.3 2008 38.5 45.5 51.6 60.1 68.1 2009 38.7 48.1 56.9 65.7 2010 43.0 52.0 58.3 2011 47.7 57.6 2012 43.4 non de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 39.4 47.5 39.1 47.3 45.8 48.1 61.7 2007 43.2 39.3 44.0 52.2 63.6 74.7 2008 34.6 39.7 44.4 49.3 56.6 2009 34.0 41.3 46.0 52.2 2010 32.5 39.4 45.5 2011 34.8 41.3 2012 34.6 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. x these figures cannot be reported to comply with the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 37 table 10: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, arts & education years since graduation cohort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 younger de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 23.9 24.9 26.2 23.9 x x 2008 22.5 27.1 28.2 30.2 30.6 2009 24.0 28.2 29.3 29.9 2010 21.4 24.1 26.0 2011 23.2 26.1 2012 25.3 older de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 24.2 26.8 28.2 29.2 34.3 2009 30.0 30.6 34.2 x 2010 22.4 22.3 28.5 2011 25.3 29.7 2012 25.0 non de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 28.4 26.3 28.8 28.6 31.1 2009 25.3 25.7 25.9 28.3 2010 24.4 26.5 28.5 2011 24.5 27.4 2012 25.0 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. x these figures cannot be reported to comply with the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 38 table 11: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, business years since graduation cohort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 younger de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 25.2 27.3 29.3 29.4 x x 2008 23.9 30.5 32.5 33.1 34.4 2009 26.3 30.2 33.6 36.4 2010 26.5 29.8 32.6 2011 26.5 31.0 2012 23.4 older de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 27.7 30.3 31.5 34.3 35.1 2009 29.3 34.0 34.2 x 2010 29.3 33.8 35.4 2011 30.7 34.3 2012 26.1 non de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 28.3 30.4 32.9 33.7 37.8 2009 26.4 29.6 32.3 33.8 2010 27.5 31.5 32.0 2011 27.4 31.0 2012 27.1 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. x these figures cannot be reported to comply with the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 39 table 12: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, health years since graduation cohort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 younger de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 34.0 39.9 47.1 47.9 x x 2008 32.4 36.5 35.9 34.9 37.1 2009 32.7 35.0 36.1 38.5 2010 32.1 36.6 37.9 2011 30.0 35.3 2012 30.1 older de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 37.0 42.7 43.5 44.0 41.9 2009 39.3 40.0 40.2 x 2010 36.2 40.5 41.6 2011 35.7 40.6 2012 37.4 non de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 39.4 42.5 40.8 42.1 40.9 2009 35.2 37.5 40.4 39.6 2010 33.0 37.4 39.2 2011 35.2 39.2 2012 30.7 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. x these figures cannot be reported to comply with the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 40 table 13: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, engineering years since graduation cohort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 younger de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 39.0 38.0 45.1 52.7 x x 2008 33.6 43.4 52.3 64.3 76.3 2009 31.2 41.0 53.4 61.8 2010 36.6 49.0 59.9 2011 42.8 51.4 2012 44.7 older de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 39.5 47.6 52.2 63.1 71.1 2009 40.5 49.6 58.6 x 2010 43.4 53.5 59.4 2011 50.8 61.7 2012 49.7 non de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 39.9 46.6 52.5 62.1 65.9 2009 42.0 52.6 60.1 66.8 2010 37.3 46.5 55.5 2011 41.6 48.3 2012 42.4 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. x these figures cannot be reported to comply with the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 41 table 14: mean earnings of diploma graduates by pathway type, ppt services years since graduation cohort 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 younger de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 27.5 29.6 33.1 42.6 x x 2008 32.9 40.0 45.7 56.8 57.8 2009 28.0 35.0 42.3 45.9 2010 32.0 39.6 46.0 2011 33.8 45.6 2012 30.9 older de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 31.9 36.9 41.1 45.0 53.3 2009 29.7 41.4 50.9 x 2010 40.3 41.5 52.9 2011 45.7 55.1 2012 33.6 non de 2005 x x x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 31.4 34.2 39.1 40.7 55.6 2009 25.9 33.3 37.4 45.3 2010 29.4 33.7 37.1 2011 29.2 35.4 2012 27.9 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. x these figures cannot be reported to comply with the confidentiality rules of statistics canada. 42 table 15: regression coefficient estimates, diploma graduates estimates std. error model 1 model 2 model 1 model 2 old de 4.91 5.48 0.53 0.51 old de ysg 1.59 1.46 0.31 0.30 non de 1.11 2.03 0.50 0.49 non de ysg 2.51 0.96 0.31 0.30 2009 cohort 0.53 0.10 0.44 0.41 2010 cohort 1.33 1.61 0.47 0.44 2011 cohort 3.69 3.86 0.52 0.49 2012 cohort 3.14 3.30 0.68 0.64 ysg = 2 7.48 6.02 0.43 0.61 ysg = 3 13.60 10.66 0.57 1.05 ysg = 4 19.79 15.27 0.75 1.54 ysg = 5 26.28 20.01 1.02 2.05 business 2.32 0.78 health 9.83 0.74 engineering 14.06 0.80 ppt services 6.28 0.93 fine arts 1.49 1.27 sciences 1.72 1.39 business ysg 0.62 0.47 health ysg 0.41 0.46 engineering ysg 4.31 0.49 ppt services ysg 2.42 0.56 fine arts ysg 0.26 0.78 sciences ysg 0.12 0.88 female 2.35 0.53 female ysg 2.36 0.33 constant 30.77 22.54 0.49 0.88 ** significant at 1% level. * significant at 5 % level. 43 figure 9: implied earnings gaps, diploma graduates implied earning difference ($1,000) older de vs younger de non de vs younger de 5 0 5 10 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 years since graduation model 1 3 4 5 model 2 44 table 16: distribution of student characteristics, degree graduates group gender (%) female male all pathway type younger de older de non de 56.4 43.6 100.0 39.7 60.3 100.0 57.7 42.3 100.0 field of study (%) social sciences business health engineering sciences humanities mathematics fine arts all 23.7 16.7 13.9 18.3 7.6 6.6 6.3 6.9 100.0 17.9 18.8 8.9 24.6 8.6 7.2 10.9 3.2 100.0 36.2 9.9 9.2 9.2 10.6 13.5 9.9 1.4 100.0 graduating grades (%) a b c all 24.2 60.2 15.6 100.0 16.4 52.7 30.8 100.0 38.7 45.1 16.2 100.0 45 figure 10: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 46 figure 11: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, female 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 47 figure 12: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, male 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 48 figure 13: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, social sciences 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 49 figure 14: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, business 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 50 figure 15: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, health 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 51 figure 16: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, engineering 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 52 figure 17: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, sciences 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 53 figure 18: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, humanities 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 mean earnings ($1,000) 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 years since graduation younger de older de 4 5 6 7 8 non de 54 table 17: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type years since graduation 3 4 5 6 51.8 55.4 57.8 60.6 52.7 55.3 58.9 61.1 51.9 55.9 59.1 62.3 54.3 59.3 65.0 53.9 59.4 53.9 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 37.7 45.2 2006 40.3 47.8 2007 42.2 47.7 2008 43.6 49.3 2009 41.3 48.2 2010 41.1 48.7 2011 40.3 49.6 2012 40.9 2005 42.0 49.9 53.4 59.1 60.8 older de 2006 49.8 58.3 63.4 67.5 70.6 2007 50.1 54.7 59.5 64.1 68.6 2008 47.2 52.1 57.2 62.4 67.1 2009 41.7 48.6 53.0 56.0 2010 41.2 48.0 53.7 2011 42.2 49.4 2012 42.6 non de 2005 43.4 51.1 53.5 61.0 61.2 2006 40.2 45.1 53.8 59.8 65.6 2007 41.1 49.5 49.5 57.9 60.2 2008 44.4 52.6 58.8 65.4 75.4 2009 40.7 48.6 51.0 55.1 2010 43.2 49.3 52.7 2011 43.2 48.5 2012 39.5 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 7 63.0 64.8 8 66.2 64.7 74.7 73.2 67.3 79.5 73.2 61.8 65.8 69.9 62.6 71.9 65.1 55 table 18: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, female years since graduation 3 4 5 6 49.6 52.9 54.4 56.4 49.9 51.8 53.7 54.5 49.8 52.8 54.4 56.3 48.5 52.9 56.7 49.0 53.9 48.8 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 37.8 44.2 2006 39.3 46.1 2007 41.8 46.8 2008 40.9 45.4 2009 39.0 44.4 2010 38.0 44.7 2011 37.9 44.7 2012 37.8 2005 42.8 48.3 51.0 56.1 55.1 older de 2006 46.9 53.4 58.5 60.9 61.9 2007 45.7 50.1 54.2 57.4 59.8 2008 44.3 49.1 52.3 55.9 59.0 2009 39.6 44.2 46.9 47.8 2010 38.2 43.1 46.5 2011 38.2 44.3 2012 37.3 non de 2005 41.0 47.8 48.2 54.7 54.3 2006 35.3 38.5 47.3 53.8 55.8 2007 37.1 45.2 44.9 49.7 52.1 2008 42.2 46.0 48.0 50.9 55.1 2009 39.3 45.9 48.1 51.2 2010 41.9 44.2 44.8 2011 42.3 46.9 2012 39.4 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 7 57.2 56.5 8 59.1 58.5 62.0 62.8 56.6 64.7 63.0 50.9 52.5 53.0 52.4 57.7 55.9 56 table 19: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, male years since graduation 3 4 5 6 55.2 59.3 63.1 66.9 57.0 60.5 66.4 70.6 54.9 60.1 65.6 70.4 60.5 66.1 73.4 59.7 66.0 59.6 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 37.5 46.7 2006 41.7 50.3 2007 42.8 48.9 2008 46.8 53.7 2009 44.2 52.9 2010 45.2 53.6 2011 43.5 56.2 2012 45.0 2005 41.4 51.2 55.3 61.4 65.3 older de 2006 52.1 61.8 66.8 71.9 76.5 2007 53.2 57.8 62.9 68.2 74.0 2008 49.2 54.3 60.6 66.8 72.6 2009 42.9 51.1 56.4 60.5 2010 43.1 51.1 58.0 2011 44.8 52.7 2012 45.9 non de 2005 48.2 57.8 64.1 73.6 75.1 2006 46.3 53.5 61.4 66.2 75.9 2007 47.9 56.7 57.2 72.4 73.3 2008 47.4 60.5 70.9 81.3 97.0 2009 42.5 51.7 54.0 59.0 2010 44.8 55.6 62.6 2011 44.4 50.7 2012 39.7 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 7 71.8 76.9 8 76.9 69.3 83.5 79.5 75.0 89.7 80.6 82.7 79.8 95.4 82.5 86.4 82.6 57 table 20: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, social sciences years since graduation 3 4 5 6 46.2 49.3 52.2 56.2 48.1 51.2 53.9 55.1 46.5 50.2 53.4 56.6 45.4 49.8 53.6 44.9 49.6 42.7 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 33.0 40.3 2006 35.5 43.3 2007 37.5 44.0 2008 34.4 40.4 2009 34.0 40.0 2010 32.2 37.4 2011 31.3 37.7 2012 31.0 2005 38.0 45.5 50.5 59.0 57.0 60.9 older de 2006 40.0 45.4 52.8 56.6 58.7 58.1 2007 39.6 45.2 48.0 52.4 54.2 58.8 2008 38.6 41.9 48.8 53.5 56.0 2009 34.9 43.6 45.1 46.9 2010 35.8 39.9 44.3 2011 34.1 39.6 2012 33.0 non de 2005 x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 42.6 x 48.1 53.1 55.1 2009 38.3 45.5 46.7 49.9 2010 38.1 x x 2011 39.3 43.7 2012 40.5 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 7 57.3 57.3 8 60.9 60.3 58.5 69.3 x x x 58 table 21: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, business years since graduation 3 4 5 6 55.4 58.8 61.7 64.1 55.1 58.5 63.5 65.2 54.5 60.4 63.4 67.2 57.9 63.2 69.9 57.3 64.4 61.5 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 40.4 48.4 2006 42.5 50.9 2007 43.8 49.0 2008 45.9 51.4 2009 43.2 50.2 2010 47.9 55.7 2011 45.4 54.7 2012 46.9 2005 43.2 50.4 53.7 60.9 64.0 older de 2006 50.1 59.3 65.1 69.3 75.2 2007 49.2 55.0 59.2 66.2 70.8 2008 48.3 53.5 59.5 63.8 67.5 2009 39.6 46.1 51.0 56.2 2010 39.1 45.8 53.2 2011 41.1 50.1 2012 41.4 non de 2005 x x x x x 2006 x x x x x 2007 x x x x x 2008 64.7 x 116.4 128.8 160.9 2009 48.1 55.0 63.5 64.9 2010 39.4 x x 2011 51.6 56.7 2012 41.6 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 69.9 76.5 74.7 x x x 7 8 67.6 70.9 71.6 71.5 79.4 83.4 x x x 59 table 22: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, health years since graduation 3 4 5 6 60.8 64.7 62.8 63.3 57.9 57.7 58.2 57.0 58.9 59.5 60.7 62.3 59.6 61.6 63.3 56.4 59.7 51.8 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 49.6 57.4 2006 47.8 53.8 2007 52.8 57.8 2008 52.9 56.7 2009 48.2 52.5 2010 42.4 48.9 2011 45.0 52.5 2012 45.1 2005 49.6 55.4 53.8 51.7 56.5 57.5 older de 2006 48.8 57.0 60.8 61.9 61.9 70.4 2007 49.4 52.9 55.5 53.6 57.7 58.9 2008 53.6 57.5 57.8 60.3 65.7 2009 47.0 52.1 54.7 58.0 2010 39.8 45.3 50.7 2011 40.2 45.6 2012 40.4 non de 2005 x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 42.8 x 49.3 43.0 48.8 2009 37.4 42.4 39.2 43.2 2010 39.4 x x 2011 35.7 37.5 2012 36.4 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 7 64.7 60.6 8 65.8 61.3 67.0 57.3 x x x 60 table 23: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, engineering years since graduation 3 4 5 6 63.0 66.4 70.4 72.4 62.7 67.2 71.7 77.0 61.4 65.9 69.7 76.1 66.6 72.7 81.9 68.6 72.9 67.6 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 44.4 55.0 2006 47.8 57.2 2007 49.2 54.9 2008 53.5 61.5 2009 53.5 61.7 2010 54.2 63.2 2011 53.1 69.1 2012 57.5 2005 44.6 54.2 60.6 65.1 67.7 72.4 older de 2006 56.5 65.2 68.8 73.6 77.9 84.2 2007 56.6 62.6 67.4 71.8 77.7 83.0 2008 53.9 60.2 65.1 70.6 77.2 2009 48.8 56.5 62.3 63.4 2010 50.2 59.0 64.5 2011 54.6 63.3 2012 55.4 non de 2005 x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 49.7 x 57.0 59.8 63.6 2009 46.7 59.0 58.9 73.2 2010 56.2 x x 2011 52.3 62.9 2012 56.3 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 7 76.6 80.2 8 76.2 77.0 90.6 78.7 x x x 61 table 24: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, sciences years since graduation 3 4 5 6 45.2 50.9 54.5 56.9 48.4 55.4 58.8 63.6 45.5 49.3 55.2 54.0 49.5 55.4 60.5 53.8 62.3 52.5 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 34.8 38.9 2006 33.2 43.1 2007 33.4 38.3 2008 38.4 44.6 2009 35.6 45.3 2010 37.9 48.0 2011 32.8 41.8 2012 33.0 2005 39.0 45.3 50.3 53.7 54.8 58.4 older de 2006 43.7 52.4 58.7 63.9 68.0 71.7 2007 40.0 44.4 50.4 57.4 59.0 61.8 2008 42.5 50.0 52.2 59.2 62.0 2009 45.7 48.9 56.8 57.5 2010 41.5 51.0 53.2 2011 40.8 44.7 2012 43.7 non de 2005 x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 51.3 x 60.6 64.1 71.1 2009 50.1 60.2 66.0 69.7 2010 38.5 x x 2011 33.5 40.7 2012 28.2 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 7 58.2 65.5 8 59.3 51.8 77.5 65.7 x x x 62 table 25: mean earnings of degree graduates by pathway type, humanities years since graduation 3 4 5 6 44.3 47.6 51.3 53.4 40.5 40.3 44.2 47.0 39.4 43.1 45.6 45.0 41.3 45.7 50.0 38.7 44.1 37.9 cohort 1 2 younger de 2005 29.7 36.1 2006 28.7 34.7 2007 27.7 35.3 2008 31.2 35.1 2009 28.4 34.7 2010 28.5 34.6 2011 29.4 35.4 2012 28.9 2005 35.7 45.8 47.7 53.3 55.6 59.6 older de 2006 36.3 44.8 49.7 51.2 52.4 54.0 2007 36.4 42.8 49.8 50.8 53.4 57.9 2008 33.1 36.7 41.6 44.6 54.1 2009 31.7 35.8 37.6 40.5 2010 29.8 34.2 39.2 2011 32.0 39.5 2012 33.3 non de 2005 x x x x x x 2006 x x x x x x 2007 x x x x x x 2008 31.2 x 34.4 41.5 42.6 2009 36.9 43.8 48.9 52.2 2010 54.5 x x 2011 46.0 52.3 2012 39.8 note: earnings figures are in thousand 2014 dollars. 7 51.4 51.2 8 56.2 60.9 56.9 60.8 x x x 63 table 26: regression coefficient estimates, degree graduates estimates model 1 model 2 1.32 0.62 0.23 0.78 0.13 2.39 0.92 0.73 2.65 2.10 2.53 2.13 2.34 1.62 2.69 1.64 7.11 8.20 12.00 14.15 16.81 20.09 22.43 26.87 10.92 12.14 20.33 4.50 2.31 15.43 7.67 1.20 0.53 0.24 1.25 0.94 0.33 1.77 0.35 2.21 model 3 old de 0.67 old de ysg 0.87 non de 1.14 non de ysg 0.46 2009 cohort 1.84 2010 cohort 2.00 2011 cohort 1.48 2012 cohort 1.71 ysg = 2 8.15 ysg = 3 14.05 ysg = 4 19.90 ysg = 5 26.65 business 10.22 health 11.96 engineering 19.29 sciences 4.50 humanities 1.99 mathematics 15.47 arts 7.98 business ysg 0.98 health ysg 0.74 engineering ysg 0.62 sciences ysg 1.05 humanities ysg 1.20 mathematics ysg 0.02 arts ysg 1.83 female 1.08 female ysg 2.30 cgpa = a 7.67 cgpa = c 4.47 cgpa = a ysg 2.15 cgpa = c ysg 0.33 constant 43.61 35.37 34.84 ** significant at 1% level. * significant at 5 % level. model 1 0.38 0.22 0.73 0.44 0.34 0.37 0.42 0.54 0.34 0.41 0.52 0.70 0.34 std. error model 2 model 3 0.37 0.36 0.21 0.21 0.70 0.69 0.42 0.41 0.33 0.32 0.36 0.35 0.40 0.40 0.51 0.50 0.40 0.40 0.62 0.63 0.87 0.89 1.18 1.20 0.53 0.53 0.59 0.58 0.54 0.53 0.68 0.67 0.70 0.69 0.69 0.68 0.78 0.77 0.32 0.31 0.36 0.36 0.32 0.31 0.42 0.42 0.42 0.42 0.40 0.40 0.46 0.45 0.36 0.36 0.21 0.21 0.40 0.42 0.24 0.25 0.52 0.53 64 figure 19: implied earnings gaps, degree graduates implied earning difference ($1,000) older de vs younger de non de vs younger de 5 0 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 years since graduation model 1 model 2 3 4 5 model 3 65 figure 20: mean earnings surrounding pse by graduating cohort, diploma graduates 2010 2011 2012 mean earnings ($1,000) 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 younger de 4 3 2 1 1 2 years from school older de 3 younger non de 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 older non de 66 figure 21: mean earnings surrounding pse of diploma graduates, pooled mean earnings ($1,000) 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 4 3 younger de 2 1 1 years from school older de 2 younger non de 3 older non de younger de older de younger non de older non de 60 50 40 mean earnings ($1,000) 30 20 10 0 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 3 2 1 years from school 1 2 3 67 figure 22: mean earnings surrounding pse by graduating cohort, degree graduates 2010 2011 2012 mean earnings ($1,000) 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 3 2 1 1 2 3 younger de 3 2 1 1 2 years from school older de 3 younger non de 3 2 1 1 2 3 older non de 68 figure 23: mean earnings surrounding pse of degree graduates, pooled mean earnings ($1,000) 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 3 2 younger de 1 1 years from school older de 2 3 younger non de older non de younger de older de younger non de older non de 60 50 40 mean earnings ($1,000) 30 20 10 0 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 3 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 years from school 1 1 2 3 69

university to college pathway for students not meeting academic progression requirements in administrative studies final report oncat project 2015-24 march 2016 1 table of contents executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 2 project team ................................................................................................................................................. 3 project description ........................................................................................................................................ 3 rational ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 redirect pathways model.............................................................................................................................. 4 mapping process ....................................................................................................................................... 4 accounting bridge (summer) ........................................................................................................................ 5 proposed changes ..................................................................................................................................... 6 timeline ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 selection criteria ........................................................................................................................................... 7 york to seneca ........................................................................................................................................... 7 seneca to york ........................................................................................................................................... 7 advising and registration process ................................................................................................................. 7 steps .......................................................................................................................................................... 8 promotion at each institution ....................................................................................................................... 8 at york ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 at seneca................................................................................................................................................... 8 success indicators ......................................................................................................................................... 8 appendices .................................................................................................................................................... 9 2 executive summary building on their long standing relationship, york university and seneca college developed a redirect pathway for struggling administrative studies degree students. administrative studies students who have been required to withdraw from york university will be given the opportunity to complete an accounting diploma at seneca college, where upon successful graduation they will be able to transition back into york university through the summer bridge program to finish the degree in which they began. the project is premised upon university students desire to complete a credential in the field but whose learning needs and style may be better suited in the college environment. for both york and seneca, the project represents a collective effort to increase student retention in post-secondary education and whose processes serve as a model for other high affinity programs between regional institutions. success of this initiative will be dependent on the quality of advising. identified personnel at york university will meet with students at the end of the first year to discuss this option. students wanting to avail themselves of the possibility will be directed to a specific academic advisor in the accounting program at seneca college who will be able to map out a plan for completion. an admissions person specializing in articulation agreements will process the intake and generate an immediate acceptance. redirection into seneca and transition back to york will be completed internally between institutions and the students will not be required to navigate through the respective central application services. it is expected the redirected students will receive some transfer credit at seneca for their completed courses, thereby allowing for an individualized course schedule to expedite a return to york university. with multiple intakes each year, the accounting program is particularly suited for this initiative and students will be able to enroll in any course they require, even ones which would reduce the existing bridge requirement necessary to re-enter york at year three of their original degree program. based on the number of students who meet the minimum criteria of successfully completing 6.0 credits at york university in the administrative studies program, it is expected there will sufficient numbers to make the project viable. representatives from seneca and york will meet annually to review and adjust where necessary to ensure the seamlessness of the student movement. the parties have committed to internal communications to help make the program attractive, including informing all accounting students of the bridge program developed by york university for an earlier oncat funded project. this initiative will also be part of an anticipated multi-institutional research project on redirection tracking and mechanisms in the province of ontario. 3 project team henry decock, associate vice president, academic partnerships, seneca college karen murkar, chair, school of accounting and financial services, seneca college kim michasiw, professor , faculty of liberal arts and professional studies, york university julie parna, director, strategic academic initiatvies, office of the vice-provost academic, york university with support from matthew duncan, support officer, crsm, seneca college. project description although students are admitted into a university administrative studies program with excellent secondary school grades, many face consistent and repetitive academic challenges and are required to withdraw. this project aims to provide these students a college transfer pathway option that would allow them to pursue an administrative-studies related diploma program with an opportunity to finish their original degree aspirations. rational the project builds upon an academic relationship that has existed for several years between the administrative studies degree program at york university and the administrative related programs at seneca college. university students that have been required to withdraw for academic reasons often continue their post-secondary level studies elsewhere. the purpose of this project is to provide an articulated pathway with a view to balancing the need to support academic progress with a commitment to retain credits earned. the larger goal is to create a pathway that increases students chances of earning a credential. seneca college and york university utilized a strong working relationship and solid expertise in credit transfer and building transfer pathways to create a series of options to students facing academic challenges in administrative studies programs. as these programs are present in most colleges and universities in ontario, the transfer pathway can be a practical template for the other post-secondary partners to achieve the same goals. the project would provide academically weak students in the administrative studies degree program at york university with another option rather than withdrawal from post-secondary studies. the accounting diploma program at seneca college would offer students an academic environment which could be better suited to their learning needs and style and allow for transfer credit for courses successfully completed at york university. 4 redirect pathways model the redirect pathway builds on a previous oncat funded project whereby york university built a summer bridge program for two and three year accounting diploma graduates to complete gaps in the curriculum and enter directly into the third year of the bachelor of administrative studies. the diagram below represents the progression for students identified for the redirect pathway. fig. 1 - bas to accounting redirect pathway embedded in the model are two decision points where the york university student is flagged for advisement based on their lack of success in the degree program. careful advisement is a critical element of the success of the project and to provide accurate, supportive information for the student. advisement is discussed further below. mapping process the efficiency of the model and the expedience for re-entry to york university is predicated on the number of successful york university credits a student would be able to use towards the completion of the accounting diploma program. the departments engaged in a mapping process to identify the course-for-course equivalencies. the prescribed courses for the accounting diploma program are laid out in the schematic with the corresponding york university course. provided the york university courses meet seneca colleges transfer credit policies (completion of the course with a minimum c grade), a redirect student can expect receiving transfer credit and shortening the amount of time needed to graduate from the accounting diploma program. 5 fig 2. seneca accounting program with york transfer credit the accounting program is uniquely structured to support non-standard course timetabling. because the program accepts a new intake of students in the fall, winter and summer semesters, courses for all four semesters are offered each term. this situation allows for individual timetables which can be constructed by student advisors to expedite the completion of the diploma program for those transfer students from york within this redirect pathway. accounting bridge (summer) york university completed an oncat project (2011-13: www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=projects) whereby graduates of three-year advanced diploma programs and two-year general diploma would be able to enroll in a summer bridging program which would allow entrance into the third year of business degree in accounting. the five course bridging program was intended to help fill specific knowledge gaps necessary for successful completion of the degree but missing from the identified diploma programs. the bridging program was applicable to qualified graduates from all colleges. yet despite this inclusivity, the program has not operated because of the lack of students. one major factor is likely the need to enroll on a fulltime basis, in the summer immediately following the completion of fulltime studies in the fall/winter academic year. a subsequent fulltime enrolment means 6 students would not have had a break from school nor would have been able to be employed to support continued education. the lack of knowledge of the bridging opportunity was identified as an additional factor affecting enrolment, as well as the limited manner in which the program is delivered. the latter was not addressed through this project but york continues to explore other approaches to teaching the bridge. york university will be highlighting the bridge opportunity on its website in a more visible manner; and seneca college will be actively promoting it through the degree and credit transfer office material, including a web presence, along with organized classroom visits for graduating students in relevant programs. proposed changes specific to this project, it was determined that two of the five required bridge courses could be completed by enrolling in course equivalents at seneca college. in so doing, a student participating in this redirect pathway could reduce the amount of bridging courses in the summer needed to transition into year three of the bachelors degree at york. a student would be able to enroll in these two additional courses depending on the amount of transfer credit which can be applied to accounting diploma program based on the successfully completed courses at york university prior to the redirection. the circumstances would be different for each student. the ability to individualize the curriculum would allow an advisor to map out a specific customized plan to enable a student to maximize the transfer credit back to york and expedite the completion of the diploma and the degree. the chart below shows the required bridging courses and the course-for-course equivalency of existing and approved seneca courses york mnemonic admb 2510 york title management accounting seneca equivalent acc 433 + acc533 admb 2511 3.0 information systems sms216/315 admb 3330 3.0 admb 3530 3.0 quantitative analysis financial management ----- admb 3585 3.0 financial accounting acc517 seneca title managerial accounting microcomputer applications / system studies intermediate accounting ii note: redirect students are eligible to take a maximum of 2 courses (6 credits), while at seneca, that can be applied towards the bridge. timeline identification and advising of students at york university begins in the winter semester to enable the students to enroll at seneca in the subsequent fall semester. students will have the option to begin in the following winter semester and still have access to the advising and registration process described below. outside of this time frame, students could apply on their own through ocas. 7 selection criteria york to seneca in each of the last three years there were approximately 50 students at the end of each fall/winter session who would be good candidates for this re-direction option. students will need to have passed a minimum of 6.0 york university credits to be included. seneca to york re-entry to york university is subject to the requirements of the established pathway. over the last 5 years, 192 seneca accounting students entered york university. this new redirect pathway may help increase the number of transfer students. advising and registration process advising is a critical component of the success of the redirection model so connections with designated personnel are important to make the process simple and transparent. in working with the respective registration and admission offices the following procedures and steps will be used in the initial operationalization of this redirect opportunity. the parties all agree to revisit each year and refine where necessary to ensure it continues to achieve the stated objectives. when the students are redirected to seneca, they will not have to go through ocas; and when they return to york they will not have to reapply through ouac. at seneca, students will enter directly though admissions and be assisted by a dedicated person well versed in the specifics of the pathway the pathway will be open to york redirect students for 2 semesters (fall/winter) after having met with the york advisor. any person outside of this time frame would need to apply though ocas like a regular student. when meeting with a york advisor, students will be asked to sign a waiver to allow their information to be shared with seneca college. a list of those students who provided consent will be sent to seneca for the academic program advisor to reach out to the potential students and arrange for an appointment. the student will be expected to supply an unofficial printed transcript to the seneca advisor in order to assess the amount of eligible transfer credits. following acceptance into the seneca program, the student will arrange for an electronic transcript to be sent to the seneca admission office. when the student confirms and enrolls at seneca, they will be tracked with a unique identifier. in so doing, seneca can proactively work with the students to facilitate the steps by which they will gain re-entry into york university. students will apply directly to york for admission into the summer bridge program and will be conditionally accepted back into their program. york university is investigating alternative processes to facilitate and help expedite this manual process. 8 steps 1. at-risk student at york receives notification that he/she must meet with academic advisor. normally the students are identified after having attempted 24 credits. advisors, however, may identify potential students after the first fall semester. 2. student meets with academic advisor where they: a) receive information on redirect program b) sign off for york to share information with seneca college c) print unofficial transcript to bring to seneca d) arrange to meet with seneca advisor 3. in person meeting with seneca program academic advisor. a) student is given more information on accounting program and redirect process b) go through transfer credit checklist to identify transfer credits and those needed for completion of diploma program c) academic advisor completes form and sends to a designated admissions person. 4. admissions receives student triggering the release of a bill to the student with the minimum deposit required which allows them to enroll in classes. promotion at each institution at york eligible students will be identified and provided this option through the advising process. normally the students are identified after having attempted 24 credits. advisors, however, may identify potential students after the first fall semester. at seneca the degree and credit transfer office will work with the academic area to promote the york bridge to all accounting students. the accounting program academic advisor will connect directly with redirect accounting students to support their transfer back to york university. success indicators the launch of the advisement this spring will enable the first students to begin at seneca in september of 2016. the students will be monitored throughout the process which is facilitated by the exchange of information between york and seneca granted by the students at the initial advisement. continued enrolment will be the measure of the projects long term success. the project will also be participating in an anticipated multi-institutional research project on redirection tracking and mechanisms in the province of ontario. by participating the parties will be able to understand the motivation of participating students and use the knowledge to continually refine the process. 9 appendix a.1 accounting redirect checklist

understanding student experiences and graduate outcomes for durham college fast track programs durham college 2012 outline of the study this study focuses on the experiences and outcomes of university graduates [who] have enrolled in accelerated (fast track) diploma programs at durham college. (p. 4) these compressed programs are designed for domestic and foreign bachelors degree holders to complete the advanced diploma requirements in 2 semesters. (p. 4) the study was based on a survey of students and graduates (26 surveys representing a response rate of 21%), focus groups, supplementary information drawn from durhams student data base and the colleges key performance indicator (kpi) results. the study population was 21 years of age or older. two major research questions were considered: i) what are the experiences of students entering fast track programs at durham college, and how can we develop strategies that will improve the experience? and ii) what are some of the specific outcomes of students that complete fast track programs? (p. 4) this study is distinct in considering transfer student satisfaction and outcomes through the entire admission/program-of-study/graduation/employment continuum and offering recommendations for improvement of the entire pathway in order to better meet students employment goals. findings the students: fast track programs are chosen to acquire skills and hands-on experience to enhance job and career prospects. (pp. 11-12) almost half of the respondents were unemployed prior to application. 60% indicated that their further study was intended to enable them to earn more money. over half began their further study within one year of graduation and an additional 35% transferred between 2 and 5 years after graduation. (p. 13) about 1 in 12 transfer students finished their degree more than 10 years earlier. while 1 in 4 (24%) reporting that their graduate certificate program was highly related, over half report that it was not. (p. 14) student satisfaction: 69% of the respondents were satisfied with the transfer experience -- 12% reported being unsatisfied or very unsatisfied. (p. 14) with respect to the transition process prior to enrolment, 3 in 4 reported experiencing no difficulties. however, 36% of those surveyed reported difficulties determining whether or not the program was the right fit (36%) and finding out about student services 2 (36%). (p. 15) approximately one quarter experienced difficulties connecting to admissions (24%). (p. 15) some reported difficulty understanding admissions requirements with international students often reporting difficulty obtaining the needed evidence of prior education completion. 1 in 3 experienced difficulties connecting to someone from the program (32%) and finding their way around campus (32%). (p. 15) while 84% reported having no difficulties after starting classes, those that did noted problems related to: accessing career information (25%), finding our what students services are offered (21%), connecting with someone from the program outside classes (20%), adapting to the new institution (12%), accessing it services (13%), and accessing learning support services (8%). (p. 16) the campus resources most used by transfer students included: computer commons (88%), library (80%), food services (76%), bookstore (76%) study space (60%), career services (60%), medical services (56%), financial aid (48%), sports and recreation (44%), and student academic learning services (28%). the students and graduates of fast track programs had five key suggestions: increase fast track program awareness and comprehension; clarify entry requirements and simplify the admissions process; improve class scheduling and loosen time requirements (ease workload pressures); expand focus on and enrich practical experience; and provide more assistance to students to locate field placement opportunities. (p. 18) it is important to note that 1 in 3 students experienced difficulty deciding whether the program was a good fit for them. others observed that prerequisite requirements could be refined to minimize the number of instances where the fast track curriculum was found to be duplicative, too easy and/or very difficult. (p. 19) while there were criticisms of the fast track model related to stress, scheduling and workload, most appreciated the accelerated models value in preparing them for earlier entry into the workforce. (p. 19) 3 student outcomes: not surprisingly, the program completion rate of fast track students is significantly higher than for 3 year diploma program students. even when comparing final year completion rates, the fast track students are 16% to 27 % (depending on the program) more likely to graduate within the planned time. (p. 22) this study also found a strong relationship between first term gpa and program completion rates for both fast track and diploma students. (p. 23) graduate outcomes: although the results varied by program, the overall graduate placement rate was higher for 3 year diploma than for fast track graduates. fast track graduates were less likely than diploma graduates to report that their employment was full-time and very related. (p. 25) even so, 88% of the fast track graduates over a 2 year period reported that the skills they developed in their program were extremely helpful or helpful in terms of locating employment (p. 26) and 79% reported that they were satisfied with the programs preparation for the job market. (p. 27) these findings, and the student recommendations related to them, are reflected in the reports recommendations. conclusions and recommendations this report offers 6 recommendations, 3 to enhance the experience and 3 to improve the outcomes of their studies: recommendations to improve the fast track program experience: first, the two pronged recommendation to increase pathway affinity and simplify the transfer process (p. 29) pursues alignment of advance information, admission requirements, prerequisites, program rigour and workload demands. (pp. 29-30) second, the recommendation to strengthen and enrich the field placement opportunity addresses the comparative (to diploma graduates) underperformance of fast track graduates in the job market. transfer students typically placed a good deal of importance on the field placement component of their program but some complained of the rushed struggle to find a placement, questioned the lack of support from the college, and were dissatisfied with the value of their placement to their job search. (p. 30) the study recognizes that these challenges emerge from the intensity of the program and recommend a number of support network strategies. the third recommendation proposes the development of relevant and opportune social opportunities to encourage a school-life balance. strategies to manage a demanding workload, part-time work and external obligations include programs to develop time management skills, unique, voluntary social networking opportunities, peer study strategies and special activities targeted at enhancing job search. (p. 31) recommendations to improve graduate outcomes: fourth, the recommendation to provide more assistance to fast track graduates to locate employment (p. 31) was also triggered by the concern about the comparatively lower full-time and related employment rates of fast track graduates (as compared to diploma graduates). lunch and learn, networking, job search skills and career building strategies were all suggested. 4 fifth, foster[ing] connections between field placements and future employment opportunities stress refinements that will better use work experience as a springboard into a related workplace. program leaders were advised to ensure that field placements are meaningful, provide appropriate student support, apply classroom learning, and provide the experience need to be successful in the job market. (p. 33) finally, the need to set expectations early on and develop a support network for at-risk students (p. 33) emerges from evidence that first semester underperformance correlates with a lower rate of persistence in the program. setting expectations during the admissions process, fostering collaboration, facilitating the development of student support networks and after hours extra help were listed as effective support strategies. (p. 33)

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2015-15 pathways from conestogas health office administration diploma to conestogas bachelor of applied health information science march 15, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to establish an educational pathway between the health office administration diploma (hoa) to the bachelor of applied health information science (honours) (bahis). this project has further supported pathway development relevant to this broader scope of programs and institutions by leveraging processes and best practices learned to support pathway development from office administration medical (oam) programs into conestogas bachelor of applied health information science.

a qualitative study of the york-seneca transfer experience henry decock, katharine janzen centre for research in student mobility, seneca college december 2015 esearch mobility 64-70 the centre for research in student mobility 8 the seneca way markham, on l3r 5y1 416-491-5050 x77939 senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch 1 i ought to go to university and get a degree. i had this thought for two years and finally my action was triggered by my co-worker who had been around and in his mid-50s. he asked me what i was waiting for, if i waited for one year i could wait for another year then nothing would happen to my life and i was no longer young. i would recommend that students interested in transferring not fear the process of applying and not be intimidated by it. acknowledgements: the conception of the study and submission to oncat for funding was supported by yvette munro at york university. karine lacoste, partnership manager for the york-seneca partnership helped organize the sessions and provided feedback on the design. john meskes at seneca college extracted the original list of potential respondents. dilys leman of seneca college read through the document for necessary edits and clarifications. matthew duncan of the centre for research in student mobility formatted the document for submission. ursula mccloy also of the crsm offered feedback and was a source for related literature. note: katharine janzen (b.sc.n., ed.d.) is the coordinator, m.ed. in higher education leadership cohorts at the ontario institute for studies in education/ university of toronto. 2 executive summary the purpose of this oncat funded research project was to better understand the decision-making processes of students moving between the two ontario postsecondary sectors, in both directions, and to explore their transfer experiences by conducting focus groups with a randomly selected group of students who transferred between york university and seneca college. the intention for the study was to gain a deeper understanding of the thought process of transferring students, beyond responses to typical close-ended survey questions. this qualitative research project aimed to answer the following three questions: 1. what are the motivating factors behind student transfer? 2. what are the experiences of transfer students with their sending and receiving institutions? 3. how might sending and receiving institutions improve the transfer experience for students? in an attempt to understand the rationale for their decision-making and to describe the students transfer experiences in their own words, focus group discussions were conducted with seneca students attending york university, and with york university students attending seneca college. the focus groups were comprised of graduates and early leavers, and provided a means to ascertain if there were any similarities and differences between the two circumstances. in general, the responses of the focus group participants were consistent with those found in previous studies where students who transferred were attempting to increase their future economic prospects. the combination of having both a college and university education was seen as valuable regardless of where they began their educational studies. these students recognized the perceived advantages of both forms of education. existing structural elements such as formal transfer agreements and specific scholarships, proved to both appeal to and support decisions for transfer. and it was these structural elements that were found to make transfer easier that were cited most often as suggestions for improvement. the most common response, when asked about challenges in the transfer process, was the difficulty encountered in identifying or connecting with a person who could answer their transfer specific questions. providing a person dedicated to supporting transfer students was suggested as a solution. the goal of the focus group discussions was to hear the stories behind standard questionnaires (such as the graduate satisfaction survey (gss) that is part of the reporting of the key performance indicators) or administrative data. the responses highlighted three themes which dominated the discussions. a number of the participants wanted to explain their circumstances to distinguish their abilities from their grades which they felt did not reflect their true potential. for them, college was seen as an opportunity to redeem themselves from poor performance at either secondary school or university. they felt their college performance reflected their true ability, rather than the previous grades which were poor because of circumstances, be it personal or as a result of poor program fit. although questionnaires, such as the gss, attempt to quantify the extent of parental encouragement as a reason for further education, participants identified the pressure, whether real or perceived, for a university education. that pressure manifested itself in the original choice of schools or as one rationale for transfer. 3 finally, the degree to which self-confidence played a critical role in supporting transfer decisions is clearly articulated by a number of participants in these focus groups, particularly by those who decided to transfer from college to university. it is the internalization of the encouragement from course success or faculty support, as expressed in varying levels of confidence, which ultimately lead them to pursuing other educational opportunities. 4 a qualitative study of the york-seneca transfer experience the purpose of this oncat-funded research project was to better understand the decision-making processes of students moving between the two ontario postsecondary sectors, in both directions, and to explore their transfer experiences by conducting focus group discussions with a randomly selected group of students who transferred between york university and seneca college. this study was intended to complement a heqco-funded research project that examined student movement between york university and seneca college (smith, decock, lin, sidhu, & mccloy, forthcoming 2016). the intention for this qualitative study was to gain a deeper understanding of the thought process of students who transferred between the two institutions an understanding that goes beyond responses to close-ended survey questions. background since their inception in the 1960s, york university and seneca college have been leaders in collegeuniversity partnership, promoting access to postsecondary education through a diverse range of programmatic offerings that support college to university pathways, student mobility, and lifelong learning. combined, the efforts of both institutions represent a significant share of ontarios pathway students, with york accepting the largest number of college transfer students annually and seneca sending the highest number of graduates to university each year; in fact, york university and seneca college are each others largest feeder institution for transfer students. the current fiscal environment of restrained resources has renewed the emphasis on identifying efficiencies and implementing new and creative solutions. this factor, coupled with the ontario governments ambitious policy agenda for increasing postsecondary educational attainment rates and transforming the sectors to meet the needs of an innovation economy, has created an opportunity for seneca and york to consolidate and formalize their partnership so as to support ongoing activities, facilitate positive student learning experiences with lifelong learning in mind, and respond to the growing demand for postsecondary education in the region. to better understand the student movement between the respective institutions, york and seneca engaged in the development of a master data set, comprised of administrative data from each of the partners, as part of a higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) - funded research project (smith, et al., forthcoming 2016).the purpose of that research project was to quantify student movement of this population, produce descriptive characteristics, and assess the socio-demographic factors which determine success after transfer; however, the administrative data are unable to capture motivation, decision-making processes, and the transfer experience of these students. literature review interest in the subject of student mobility continues to increase and the amount of research related to transfer is growing. among the challenges, however, are the uniqueness of individual institutional studies and the inability to track students from one sector to the next. individually, each study helps us to understand the transfer students in their particular contexts, but the disparate studies are unable to provide a collective assessment of the success of student transfer. the province of ontario lacks a comprehensive data set, and as such, current information about transfer is pieced together from various sources, each with limitations and none of which can be easily linked (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010, 5 p.27). the province is introducing an ontario education number (oen), but there continue to be challenges in implementation across both postsecondary education sectors. the ministry-mandated graduate satisfaction survey, one of five key performance indicators for colleges, is one consistent measure to assess movement, and the expansion of the transfer questions on that survey have made it an important piece for evaluating transfer at the institutional and the provincial level. with regard to graduates who transfer from college to university, the graduate satisfaction survey (gss) asks a series of closed-ended questions as an attempt to understand the reasons for pursuing further education1. to understand motivation, the survey asks participants to state their major and minor reasons for continuing their education, from a series of closed-ended statements. since the inception of these specific questions in 200506, the answers to these statements have changed little. more opportunities for career advancement was still the most cited major reason identified by 96 percent of the participants, followed closely by obtaining a credential, gaining theoretical knowledge, and upgrading skills. encouragement from others (family member, friends, faculty) ranked much lower, but was still cited as a major reason by 76 percent of the participants. the survey does not provide an opportunity for participants to expand on these statements, so readers are left to interpret the meaning of these statements and follow the patterns of changes over the years. the gss is a snapshot in time, conducted six months after graduation and intended to understand the outcomes of graduates and the impact of their college education. for purposes of identifying the total number who pursue further education at a university, it is limited to those participants who were attending university at the time of the telephone survey. consequently, it does not capture graduates who delay entry and as importantly, those who pursue a university education prior to college graduation. the accounting of student movement from university to college (reverse transfer), particularly in ontario, has been the subject of few studies; consequently, insights into university student experiences in their pursuit of academic credentials are limited. colleges have developed oneyear certificate programs specifically to attract university graduates, and early evidence shows a large number of previous university students enrolled in a wide variety of college programs. their specific circumstances are not well documented. a 2013 oncat report, university to college transfer students: exploring motives and characteristics (oncat, 2013), examined previous university students who were enrolled at, or had attended, confederation college in thunder bay. a combination of survey and focus group questions led the authors to conclude that the key reasons students transfer are career-related (p.21). the participants discussed a need for practical skills and experience that would assist in making a career change or landing a job. their college program of choice was further evidence, with two-thirds of participants commenting on career-related opportunities in their decision- making. the majority of the participants saw the college program as a practical application of the theoretical knowledge obtained in university. the emphasis on career-related reasons for transferring to a college was also found in an earlier study by usher and jarvey (2012).their study included both college and university students transferring into one of ontarios 24 colleges. an overwhelming number of participants cited improving career opportunities as a reason for transfer (p.15); only two participants identified low satisfaction with or a (see the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education (decock, mccloy, liu & hu, 2011) on the heqco website) 1 6 negative experience at the previous school. the report listed some difficulties with the transfer process; but overall, the students who participated in that study were satisfied, and the satisfaction was largely influenced by the type of interaction with staff. the authors concluded, students clearly think of faculty as front-line staff people whom they can approach for assistance with administrative problems (p.19). the forthcoming publication, transfer pathways in higher education: york university and seneca college as a case study (smith et al, 2016), documents student movement between the two institutions between 2002 and 2012. the study captures all students who began at one and transferred to the other during the time period in question, regardless of whether they completed their original program of study. a little more than one-third of transfer students (36%; n= 3343/9330) did not complete their seneca program before entering york university. in contrast, 61% (n= 3270/5413) of transfers to seneca college who did not complete their york university program. the characteristics of the two groups are also markedly different. the university-to-college group has a greater concentration of canadian citizens, they are slightly younger, they are more likely to have a mother tongue that is either english or french, and are more likely to have parents that have experience with pse (p. 44). the report utilizes administrative data in an attempt to quantify the movement and predict the probability of credential attainment. the nature of the data is such that it cannot answer questions regarding why the students transferred. research questions the focus group participants responded to a series of set questions and non-leading probes intended to answer the three research questions, as follows: 1. what are the motivating factors behind student transfer? why did you choose to transfer before having completed your initial program? why did you begin your studies at seneca/york rather than at york/seneca? at what point (when) did you decide to transfer from seneca/york to york/seneca? what did you hope to achieve by transferring? what helped you in this decision-making process? 2. what are the experiences of transfer students with their sending and receiving institutions? thinking back to your transfer experience, what did you find helpful in the process? why? again thinking back to your transfer experience, what did you struggle with or find less helpful in the process? why? was there specific assistance provided by your sending institution (york/seneca) that helped? was there specific assistance provided by your receiving (york/seneca) institution that helped? 3. how might the sending and receiving institutions improve the transfer experience for students? what could (york/seneca) do to make it easier for students who have transferred? would you transfer again? what would you do the same? what would you do differently? what advice might you give another student interested in transferring? 7 methodology this research was intended to complement the heqco-funded research project examining student movement between york university and seneca college (smith et al, forthcoming 2016) by conducting six focus groups, randomly selected from a database of students transferring between the two institutions. in an attempt to understand the rationale for their decision-making and to describe the students transfer experiences in their own words, focus group discussions with seneca students attending york university, and focus group discussions with york university students attending seneca college were conducted. the focus groups were comprised of graduates and early leavers, in order to identify any similarities and differences in the experiences of the two groups of students. participant selection process york-to-seneca participants the seneca-york database developed in the heqco project included students from the year 2000 to 2012. to facilitate ease in contacting participants and to reduce the amount of recall required to answer the questions, only students who were enrolled at the time of the study were eligible for inclusion in the study. lists of students were derived according to the following three criteria: 1. students who transferred within the context of an articulated agreement. 2. students who completed their program and transferred outside of an articulated agreement. 3. students who transferred before completing a program outside of an articulated agreement. emails (appendix a) were sent to eligible students inviting them to participate in their particular focus group based on the three inclusion criteria on a specified date. two of the sessions were conducted at senecas newnham campus, the colleges main and most populous site; one session was conducted at the seneca@york campus, located on the grounds of york university, as it was more convenient for students in programs which qualified for the first criterion. to thank them for their participation, those who participated in the focus group discussions received a $25 gift certificate to the colleges bookstore (at either campus where the focus groups were held). based on the above criteria, and including current enrolment, it was determined there were 15 students who met criterion one; 115 who met criterion two, and 420 for criterion three respectively, for a total of 550 potential participants. everyone in group one was sent an invitation; four responded, agreeing to participate, but none showed up at the scheduled session. the statistical software spss was used to randomly select 37 students from each of the second and third criterion-based groups; only eight students in total agreed to participate. an even smaller number actually participated in the sessions (see further details in the findings section below). seneca-to-york participants the timing of the meeting and the limited pool of potential participants for one of groups may have been factors in getting enough students to participate, prompting two changes in the methodology. rather than select students according to the three criteria, an email invitation was sent to those randomly selected from a list of all york students currently enrolled in any discipline who had previously attended seneca college. the invitation provided three different time slots for the participants to attend, allowing them to select the one best suited to their schedule. as well, invitations were sent out in several waves as the responses to each were small. in total, there were five rounds of invitations, 100 8 at a time, randomly selected from a total pool of 2,210 students. even with a larger number of invitations, although 21 students agreed to participate, only 12 participated in the sessions. when the participants indicated their agreement to participate, they were asked whether or not they had completed a program at seneca prior to attending york university. this question was to ensure that each session had at least two participants who had not completed, so they would not be singled out among those who had graduated. the self-selection of sessions proved to be random; each focus group contained representatives of the two different scenarios. in an attempt to increase the number of responses, students who expressed a willingness to participate, but were unable to attend the focus groups, were provided an opportunity to submit a written response. a revised consent form (appendix b) was emailed to these students, and was followed up with the exact same questions as those discussed in the focus groups. those participating with a written response received the same agreed-upon remuneration, a $25 bookstore gift certificate. three responses were received in this manner. the focus groups were recorded with the permission of the participants and the answers were transcribed and summarized into themes aligned with the research questions. pseudonyms were agreed upon by the participants and are used here in the report. given the small numbers, any academic (i.e., specific naming of program) or personal characteristics have been altered or deleted from the quotes and descriptions to ensure none of the participants are identifiable. the comments reported here are restricted to those applicable to the questions on their transfer experience. other issues specific to york or seneca were sent to the respective institutions. methodology and ethical considerations the focus group discussions were facilitated by an experienced neutral third party. before the beginning of each discussion of the questions identified above, the facilitator reviewed the consent form which included a request for the specific consent to audio-record the discussion (appendix b), and answered any questions asked, before participants signed the forms. the participants were asked to self-select non-identifiable pseudonyms for themselves which were then used throughout the discussions and reporting of the discussions. the audio-recordings were deleted once the discussions were transcribed and analyzed. findings participants york to seneca there were only three participants, all female, who attended the agreed-upon focus group sessions; two under age 25, and one was between the ages of 31 and 40. of the three participants, two had completed a degree before attending seneca, while the other transferred after completing the first year at york. seneca to york a total of 12 participants attended one of the three scheduled sessions. an additional three participants were emailed the questions and responded in a written format for a total of 15 answers (reported 9 below). of all the participants, 10 were female and five were male; 10 were under age 25, three were between the ages of 25 to 30, and two were between 31 and 40 years of age. the participants were almost equally divided; eight had completed a program at seneca before going to york, and six did not continue; one respondent did not indicate their previous status. responses the responses for both seneca-to-york and york-to-seneca focus group participants are organized in accordance with the studys three research questions (each is numbered) and the accompanying subset of questions. each of the three sections (research questions) begins with a summary of the themes, followed by a discussion. 1. what are the motivating factors behind student transfer? 1.1 why did you choose to transfer before having completed your initial program? key themes seneca to york opportunity to transfer credits already earned before completing seneca faculty encouragement york to seneca poor academic performance in york program discussion the number of participants who did not complete their program before transferring was limited (n=6), but their comments reflected common assumptions about the reasons. the opportunity to obtain transfer credits based on partial completion was certainly appealing to those whose original intention was to enroll in a degree program. the importance of the role of college faculty was evident. in one of the sessions, a student reported that when she was in the first year of a three-year program she was approached by one of the teachers who asked about the students plans. the faculty member encouraged her to transfer to york at that point. the student reported: she told me, you could do more if you wanted to and this was very encouraging for me. i wasnt sure i would be successful in university and seneca helped me to develop the confidence to apply. developing increased confidence was a common factor in deciding to pursue further education for those who began in a college program. further statements about confidence are discussed below, but the impact on the decision for transfer to university was evident throughout the participants responses. leaving york or any university, on the other hand, appeared to be more a function of finding the right academic fit. for cindy, the challenge of university was one for which she felt she was not fully prepared academically. she said: 10 i am not born in canada, and english is not my first language, so that the level of york university was a little bit hard for me. also, i wanted to get more hands-on experiences, and i knew that seneca will have more experiences. as discussed further below, cindy intends to pursue a degree after her time at seneca. it would appear the ability to start over with the opportunity to transfer back to university has allowed her to still achieve her career goals and remain within her original discipline. 1.2 why did you begin your studies at (seneca or york) rather than at (york or seneca)? key themes seneca to york did not meet york admission criteria (n=6) seneca transfer option to get a degree was always the goal (n=6) practical skills and co-op focus of college programs (n=6) degree was more valued and prestigious (n=3) not ready for university (n=2) smaller class sizes and more interaction with teachers at seneca york to seneca ease of access because of yorks location close to home reputation of the program at york pressured by parent to attend university, not college discussion the reasons for beginning at seneca are a mix of admission criteria and the type of education the participants were pursuing, coupled with structural characteristics which supported future transfer and skill development. several of the students selected seneca first because they wanted the hands-on skills that seneca offered. dan selected seneca specifically for this reason. he did not think he would be able to succeed in university and did not want to be a university drop out. when he completed seneca and began working, however, dan realized he needed a university degree for most jobs, a common theme from the participants when asked about future achievements. another student in dans focus group said she wanted a university degree but did not have the gpa required to get into york. she said she knew about the seneca-york partnership, and that going to seneca first was the only way to achieve her goal. not meeting the admission requirements to attend university was a refrain of several of the focus group participants. for some, the reality was clear; for others, like adrian, applying to college was a way to hedge their bets. adrian thought his grades were good enough to attend york, but he was not sure about his own preparedness for university studies; he applied to seneca as a backup. the cheaper tuition and the recommendations from friends who were attending seneca were also influential in adrians thinking. he did not get accepted to university, so he enrolled at seneca. natasha did not do well in secondary school and did not qualify for admission to university. she also wanted hands-on experience and was attracted to the practical aspects of her program. 11 a number of participants who were unable to meet the entrance requirements offered explanations to emphasize their lack of accomplishment was not related to ability, but to their circumstances. nancy stated the following: while perhaps having been academically capable to pursue university studies after high school, certain family matters that occurred in the last year of my high school studies had adversely impacted my academic drive which in itself had negatively shaped my overall academic standing, precluding me from direct entry to university. approximately two years after high school, i decided to enroll in college. senecas location and the broad range of programming made it an appealing choice. similarly, rachels goal was always to study french as her major in university, but she had personal issues in grade 12 and did not do well. rachel stayed back a year and had to do work to complete the last five secondary credits. these credits were not the right ones for university entry, but they did allow her to go to seneca. i had to do something after grade 12, she said. my parents did not want me to apply to seneca, but i did. parental pressure was a common scenario for the students who began their education at university. for some, like sally, university attendance seemed like the natural process after completing high school. her family expected her to attend university and persuaded her that this kind of education was in her best interests. sally chose york university because it was close to where she lived and easy to get to by public transit. she did not even consider going to any college at that time. for others, like cindy, college was not to be considered an option: my parents wanted me to get a degree for my future. so that i only applied to universities. i really wanted to go to [another university] but was not accepted. york accepted me. the reason why i chose york first was because my mom [would] not allow me to go to any college you must get a degree you must go to the university. cindy was not born in canada, and english was not her first language; she struggled with her courses and transferred to seneca after only one year at york university. i studied really hard working on three courses, so my mom saw, oh my daughter is having a hard time since that year my mom saw my problem so she allowed me to transfer to continue my education she saw that i could still get to my goal of the degree. cindy was also attracted by the field experience built into her program of choice, something that was very limited in a similar program at york. similar to others who started at seneca, cindy benefitted from the structure which supported her circumstances: i [developed] a lot of confidence here rather than at york. 1.3 at what point (when) did you decide to transfer from (york/seneca) to (seneca/york)? key themes seneca to york after having work experience after completing the program at seneca and realizing a degree was more beneficial 12 when i realized grades were good enough to go to university while in the seneca program, mid-way through the program york to seneca after working post-graduation, realized needed practical skills (n=2) at the end of first year, when i did not do well academically at york discussion for former seneca students, the timing of their decision to attend york university varied with the circumstances of their specific academic or career trajectory. two of the students commented that their success at seneca made them think that university was possible for them; it gave them the confidence to apply to york. for victoria, a lot of her motivation came from the encouragement she received from her teachers at seneca. they were really motivating and gave me the confidence to apply to york. three other students in her session agreed that increased confidence was motivating for them as well. another student mentioned that the support of the seneca program coordinator was very helpful in this process; the coordinator provided clear information on the papers they would need to complete, guidelines and specific requirements that had to be met (e.g., which courses and grades), and the number of credits students could expect when they transferred successfully. the specific information was very helpful in making her decision. grades were a necessary element to gain entrance, but the process of achieving those grades instilled confidence for many of the participants in the focus groups. combined with the transfer opportunity provided by a program, students were able to take advantage of the existing arrangements. adrians grades in the seneca two-year program were good, which gave him the confidence that he needed to try for entry into university after graduation. the transfer option built into his program was important to him. as with adrian, natashas grades increased her confidence that she would succeed in university. she completed her diploma and realized she really liked working with children most of all, an area not specifically addressed in her original program. natasha appreciated the practical experience she received at seneca, but felt there was more for her to learn to do her job well, and that she wanted to learn that in child studies. she realized that the transfer program option with credit transfer was available and it influenced her decision to attend york university. ritas time at seneca increased her confidence and her success, which allowed her to gain entrance to york as well as receive a york fellowship scholarship. it was her first-ever scholarship, so rita was naturally pleased, but it was instrumental as well in making the decision to continue. for others in the focus groups, transfer was a planned route. prior to starting postsecondary education, natasha, always wanted both college and university education she was not sure why, but she had a strong interest in practical skills and that made a difference in her decisions. natashas studies at seneca made her realize she wanted to understand more about the field and university was the place to acquire that knowledge. she looked forward, as well, to the increased choices (electives) available in the york program, compared to the seneca program where she was allowed only one elective (i.e., one choice of four options). 13 in other circumstances, the realization of the need for further education came after some time in the workforce. dan said he had difficulty getting a job after graduating from seneca and it wasnt until he was working that he realized (he) would not get the kind of job (he) wanted, unless (he) went to university. in one of the written responses, john was more emphatic about why he wanted to return to school and enroll in a degree program: having worked on my previous job for five years, i [had] seen a lot of hidden rules in the corporation [and] offices. a person who gets more chances to be promoted or moves on to a better position or company is usually determined by [their] education level. i had trained a few new hires and worked with a lot people. i saw people with master degrees [who were] initially doing the same work as [me] and received a way better package . but soon they either got promoted or moved on to a better place. i trained several new hires fresh from university with or without some co-op experience. they all received better packages than i did. when i started to look for better opportunities in the market, [the] most attractive jobs require[d] a bachelor degree or a master degree. at that point if i moved on, in the following three to five years, i could merely make as much salary as a person with a degree [who] has two to three years working experience; and by that time, i would have ten years working experience. so i decided to move on and continue education in a university. although there was an opportunity cost, overall the life satisfaction would be greatly improved. since i already owned a diploma from seneca, i applied to the university as a transfer student two years ago. johns decision to further his education also came from his understanding of the elements required to improve his career opportunities. rita realized from family and friends from her country of origin that the diploma was not as valued as a degree in obtaining what were perceived to be the more desirable jobs. her parents and relatives found out that friends who had acquired a diploma were not obtaining these jobs and encouraged her to transfer to a degree program at york university. in an era of rising credentialism, even a baccalaureate was considered inadequate given the increased competition in her country of origin. according to rita, one needed a masters degree to get a job, even though her friends opined they were over-qualified for the work performed. even if they hire you, you cant get a promotion unless you continue to study and that is hard to do when you are working and takes very long. while college-to-university students were concerned about the ability to advance within their career, the university-to-college students perceived a need to acquire practical experience to obtain their first job. marilyn found that her studies at york were all theoretical, but they opened (her) eyes to what (she) wanted to do, and that (she) needed practical experience. she wanted more work experience. senecas joint rehab program offered field experience with placements. a presentation at york during her third year opened up her eyes to the opportunity for transfer. with hindsight, marilyn said she was glad she pursued her studies in that order. for sally, participating in an internship made her aware of her lack of practical skills: i realized i did four years in university that didnt get me a job right away. i had a false hope. sally felt aggravated she had spent all that time, energy and money with no results. the recommendation of her two friends who had completed programs different from hers at seneca made her look at seneca as well. 14 1.4 what did you hope to achieve by transferring? key themes seneca to york the undergraduate degree (for all participants) deeper knowledge and insight (for 1 participant) york to seneca practical skills to get a job a degree discussion fulfilling career aspirations and acquiring desired jobs, as expressed in responses to the previous question, were echoed by a number of participants when describing their hopes in transferring. along with the potential for career advancement come the corollary benefits. from adrians perspective, the degree is held in higher regard than a diploma here in this country. although adrian felt he was not challenged in his seneca courses, his ultimate reason and hope for transferring was to garner the prestige in acquiring a university degree. for nancy, obtaining a degree fulfills a family tradition: i had always considered attending university as most of my immediate family members (i.e., father, mother, siblings) and extended family members (i.e., uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.) have university degrees. so, by enrolling in university i hoped to continue the family tradition of obtaining higher education. a university degree is held in high regard in my family. it is also considered a prerequisite to getting or achieving the types of careers that some of my family members hold (i.e., engineering, management, teaching, etc.). for cindy, who had enrolled in seneca after a poor start at york, going back to obtain that degree fulfilled her original goal and saved face for her family: as long as i was going to get the degree (in the end) my parents were ok with that. in transferring from seneca to york, naz felt that getting the bachelors degree was advantageous to her earlier career aspirations. naz began to realize she really wanted a career in academia, specifically teaching in university, and therefore needed to go on to a masters and then a phd degree program, which are now her goals. she worked extra hard on her academic studies to strengthen her application for graduate school, and felt that without that extra academic work, her york degree would not have gotten her into mcgill (she began a masters degree program in political sciences there in the fall of 2014). john wrote about a similar aspiration, now that he has achieved some further success in his degree studies: i (envision) myself at least completing the bachelor degree and preferably continuing the education in a graduate school and achieve a masters degree. 1.5 what helped you in this decision-making process? key themes seneca to york the seneca-york partnership and transfer credits (were important factors for all) encouragement of professors at seneca pressure from family and friends to get a degree (more prestigious) 15 educational requirements for jobs sought greater opportunity to socialize with other students in clubs, etc. at york york to seneca the program options at seneca (n=2) post-graduation work experience senecas location close to home discussion a deciding factor for the participants who started at york was related to the structure of the programming, which was convenient and supported the particular circumstances of these individuals. for samantha, the close proximity of seneca and the fact that seneca offered an accelerated one-year diploma program were important factors. i was getting older and really needed a job so the length of the program was a major factor. for marilyn, the opportunity to enroll in degree classes simultaneously with her program at the seneca @ york campus allowed her to engage in the experience within her comfort zone. in the focus groups for participants who started at seneca, there was unanimous agreement that the partnership between york and seneca, in terms of formal transfer and the amount of credits granted, was a contributing factor in their decision to transfer. for example, clints family had moved around a lot; he had been home-schooled and did not have a high school diploma. his initial goal was to go to york university, but he would have to apply as mature student at age 19. seneca admitted him as a mature student at 18, which meant he was able to start immediately rather than wait another year. he confessed: i didnt know what i wanted to do in life, so seneca was an opportunity to explore; smaller class sizes, less bureaucratic than york, a more nurturing environment at york you are just a number in a group of 1000 students. his initial goal was to get into a bachelor degree program and the agreement between his program and york university meant he could get full credit for his time at seneca. clint was enrolled in a program for which the number of advanced credits was made clear. many participants, however, complained about the lack of information on the timing and number of credits granted for previous education. a number of the participants mentioned that pressure from family, directly or indirectly, was a factor. rachel described how she felt pressured by her family to go to university: she said, if i were not to go to university i would be the shame of the family, even though my dad went to college. two others in the same focus group also said their families had pressured them. dan admitted that everyone in his family had gone to university, so that was an expectation, but his family did not pressure him to do so. for some, encouragement came in the form of observations made in the workplace, particularly in terms of pursuing a challenging career opportunity. nancy wrote about a time in her career when she realized she needed something more challenging, something new. around 2009, after having continually worked since finishing college, i had encountered a bit of a lull that made me feel that i was no longer progressing or growing at work. it seemed then that i wanted to take on more challenging projects at work or even take on a different role but still 16 within either the emergency medicine or humanitarian/crisis field. i began to research various professions and their described educational requirements. it became clear to me that i would need to embark on continued education if i wanted to make any kind of change or transition. after exploring the academic programs offered at the local universities, nancy came across a program offered by york university, which was the closest to the area of specialty she wanted to explore. john, on the other hand, conducted his own job market research to understand the educational requirements needed for the career he was interested in pursuing. weighing the financial loss involved in going back to school against his own notions of the value of life experience, he determined that attending university to obtain a degree was the appropriate route. however, it was a final push from someone at work that triggered johns return. i had this thought for two years and finally my action was triggered by my co-worker who had been around and in his mid-50s. he asked me what i was waiting for, if i waited for one year i could wait for another year then nothing would happen to my life and i was no longer young. 2. what are the experiences of transfer students with their sending and receiving institutions? 2.1 thinking back to your transfer experience, what did you find helpful in the process? why? key themes seneca to york ease of transfer/application because of the seneca-york partnership number of transfer credits encouragement of faculty at seneca orientation to transfer options at seneca specific information on what was needed to quality for transfer credits information shared by friends who were or had been at york seneca and york website information location of seneca@york (was helpful for one student with physical disabilities) ease of transfer of accommodation (i.e., files from seneca to york for the student with disabilities) york to seneca transfer credits received friends at seneca seneca website helpful york staff parental support (when parent saw that the student was not doing well at york) discussion for natasha, it was the discussion with a professor who encouraged her to continue in university that motivated her to transfer to york. five other participants agreed they got a lot of motivation to transfer 17 from teachers at seneca who encouraged them to go on. while at seneca, natasha felt she had more personal discussions with professors in her field, and more interaction with professors and students, which she liked and found helpful. seneca was a lot smaller and she did not feel she was just a face in the crowd as was her experience at york. her parents had been very supportive of her going to seneca, but people other than her family had told her many times that college was a lower level of education. for rita, it was her parents, relatives and friends who encouraged her. she also liked that at york she had more flexibility in the specific courses she would take, that the campus was bigger, and that the student population was much larger than at seneca. the increased opportunities to socialize were important to her and she liked that she got new thoughts and ideas. 2.2 again, thinking back to your transfer experience, what did you struggle with or find less helpful in the process? why? key themes seneca to york most challenging issue was the difficulty of getting full and specific information on transferrelated issues the second most frustrating issue was not knowing the number of credits and for which courses until after they registered for the york program for some, the actual number of transfer credits granted was disappointing insufficient accessible information on the seneca and york websites inadequate academic advisement at york use of different course management systems and emails (e.g., bbd vs. moodle) lack of coordination on assignments and tests between seneca and york courses in the joint programs irregularities in transcript information shared between seneca and york large classes york to seneca unhelpful responses when they asked for information about the transfer process at york redirected to others who did not know either wanted a program at king and the location was not good. poor english-language skills made studies at york difficult large classes at york and difficulty interacting with the professor automatic changes in class assignment without prior notification discussion the responses included the expected challenges of different systems at each of the respective institutions, some resulting in inability to exchange information, and others requiring adaptation. the major theme, however, was the struggle to obtain specific and timely information on the transfer process, on program guidance opportunities, and on the amount of transfer credit they would receive. overall, the students were seeking additional support provided by knowledgeable people. a student in one of the joint seneca-york programs commented, 18 once at york, i was on my own. i did not get as much support and guidance in requirements as when i was at seneca. i was not placed in a college at york, so i was excluded from finding much needed information that first-year students normally get. i missed out on the frosh experience. because she and other new transfers to york were not assigned to a college, they had no orientation on how the system worked. inquiries at the registration office were returned with the comment, that does not happen, you have to be in a college (however, when an administrator checked their records, the student was told that it must be a glitch). but it was our entire class, one respondent complained. i had to go to the program coordinator to ask for email access i had to do it all myself. clint described his difficulty in choosing a major at york. even after exposure to different disciplines and courses, and experiencing a york course, he could not decide on a major until after he had transferred to york. clint wished there had been someone to counsel him in this area. if there was someone, he was not made aware of it. rather, he discussed his options with friends at seneca and realized a ba would not get him the job he wanted unless he went to grad school, so he switched to a certificate program instead. the question of challenges for the seneca to york students elicited boisterous discussions in the three separate focus groups. the results are summarized in the table below, with the challenges listed by priority. priority challenges identified 1 2 not enough help with information on transfer issues not enough academic advisement; students had to do their own internet research disappointed with the limited credits granted specific credits (credit assessment) were not identified until after they were admitted and had registered transfer decision based on the students combined gpa, not just the last ones which are usually better not being assigned to a york college meant no orientation or communication about events there was no information provided on post-graduate opportunities confusion and frustration surrounding conditional acceptance no academic advisor assigned for ongoing assistance york asked for high school transcript 3 4 5 5 6 6 6 6 number of participants 13 8 7 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2.3 was there specific assistance provided by your sending institution (seneca or york) that helped? key themes seneca to york knowing what the criteria were for eligibility to transfer seneca courses prepared them well for studies at york orientation to seneca-york partnership seneca website 19 academic advisement from program chairs and coordinators automatically sending transcripts to york help with application process better communication between seneca and york in transcripts challenges york to seneca nothing other than york sending transcripts (and for one student, course outlines to seneca) 2.4 was there specific assistance provided by your receiving (york or seneca) institution that helped? key themes seneca to york york presentation at the orientation session at seneca some york faculty helped as did some academic advisement at york york website was more informative, but difficult to find (layers upon layers) york to seneca transfer credits registrars office at seneca helpful discussion those transferring from york university did not seek assistance other than obtaining course outlines, which did not prove difficult. in transitioning from york to seneca, sally found the program orientation at seneca to be very helpful. it provided a summary of the two years of the program, which was valuable information. she wanted co-op experience and asked about the percentage of graduates from the program who found employment after graduation. the response that only one of the graduates did not get a job reassured sally and she decided to enroll in the program. she was currently in the final semester and was starting to look for a job. coordinators and the registrars office were cited by other students as helpful in answering their questions. orientation and information sessions, both at seneca and york, were identified as helpful by seneca students transferring to york. guidance from coordinators and faculty also proved helpful in academic preparation and in understanding the requirements needed to transfer. the york university assistance was largely delivered by way of group sessions, the value of which was questioned by several of the participants. for clint, having a clearly structured program outline was important because he really did not know what was needed. he found that senecas program outline was structured and clear, and that yorks program outlines were more difficult to understand because there were so many more options. the seneca program outlines made it clear which courses he would take in each semester. as well, there were clear rules about what grades would be needed to articulate. finally, the requirement of taking an actual york course before he even graduated from seneca, helped him to transition relatively smoothly. 20 3. how might sending and receiving institutions improve the transfer experience for students? 3.1 what could (york or seneca) do to make it easier for students who have transferred? key themes seneca to york more easily accessible information on the york website informed staff who can answer all their questions and not refer them to other resources have one full-time position (or phone line) dedicated to transfer issues at both seneca and york so that all the transfer questions can be answered with one stop academic advisement provided one-on-one, and person to person support york to seneca more detailed information on the seneca website informed staff who can answer all their questions and not refer them to other resources inform students of consequences of entry skills testing (e.g., math) improved signage on campus to locate classrooms better internet access/service in residence discussion specialized support for students transitioning between york and seneca, particularly a person dedicated to those individuals, was identified as a solution to make transfer easier. john wrote, it would be better if york gave special support or assistance to the transfer students from college to fit in and get use to the university life (larger class, lots of readings and available campus activities) and achieve success in academics like what they currently have for mature students. marilyn, who started at york and was currently attending seneca, felt strongly that what is needed are specific coordinators at seneca and at york whose sole responsibility is to help transferring students with scheduling of courses and other related matters. other infrastructure support which would be helpful, according to nancy, included transcripts to be sent electronically from one institution to another; as well, a direct application process could be established, so as to alleviate some of the duplicate steps when applying to the respective academic institutions. 3.2 would you transfer again? what would you do the same? what would you do differently? key themes seneca to york yes (n=10) o all pretty well the same no (n=4) o two would have selected another university maybe (n=1) york to seneca no (n=1) 21 o would attend college first yes (n=2) o one would select another program at the university with more practical skills discussion this comment from samantha captures the general sentiment of all participants to acquire an education which encapsulates both theoretical and practical knowledge: i would still go to university but i would choose something more practical but when you are 18 you dont think about how it will impact your job possibilities. i really enjoyed it, but now in hindsight it would have been much better to study something like being a doctor or engineer because there are going to be jobs at the end of (those programs). .. i appreciate college because they do provide a lot of practical skills, but would still have chosen to go to university as long as it was a more practical program. i also enjoyed the challenge of higher education the theoretical concepts. john stated: university is prone to academic training; it trains students in independent thinking and research. college is prone to applied technology training, less academic training and more hands on experience. if there is a tool, college teaches you how to use the tool and in which situation the tool should be used. university shows you how the tool was created and why the tool was created. thats one of the differences between them. 3.3 what advice might you give another student interested in transferring? key themes seneca to york depends on the students goals and their situation get all the information you need early regarding what is required (e.g., gpa) and in relation to what you are really interested in, your strengths and your goals consider your options carefully at york you have more opportunities to socialize with students recommend start at seneca then go to york because seneca is less intimidating york to seneca hands-on experience in college will help you to get a job depends on the characteristics and goals of the student need to be clear about what they really want to do in university you can get away with cramming for exams; because of the practical component at college, you cant do that costs at college are lower than university public transit to york is easier than to seneca seneca faculty use more powerpoints which are helpful to learning discussion as someone who transitioned from a college diploma to a university degree program, john felt studying at york was more stressful than at seneca in terms of degree of difficulty and workload. 22 every hour or even every minute counts. if you fail to keep up the reading or project and assignments, you will be burned in the following week or two weeks. time management is your life saver. keep this in mind and be ready for this. sally, on the other hand, felt something similar in her move from york to seneca. for any young person just out of york, she would want them to know that seneca is not easier. sally was currently in third semester and felt she never worked that hard at york, and though the work at seneca was not harder than at york, there was more of it (harder work load) and it was more time consuming. she felt that at york, you can get away with cramming (for tests), but not in the seneca program. in one of sallys york courses it was recommended that the students read 100 to 200 pages per week, but you could not do [the readings], without it affecting your grades. you cant get away with it [in the seneca program]. everything is important you need to know it to be able to do it. perhaps the best advice is exemplified in the following statements: john: think thoroughly and carefully before you make your decision. know who you are and what you want from your life is the ultimate answer from your heart. nancy: i would recommend that students interested in transferring not fear the process of applying and not be intimidated by it. samantha: just be clear in what you want to do and you will get there. summary the purpose of this study was to complement an existing research project on student movement between york university and seneca college, by conducting focus group discussions with currently enrolled students who transferred in either direction. the project itself was an exhaustive analysis of the combined administrative data from each of the respective institutions. the intention of these focus group discussions was to get beyond the responses on a questionnaire or the administrative data and hear the stories behind the answers and the results observed. there were challenges in recruiting students, resulting in a smaller group for analysis than was intended. nevertheless, the feedback received confirmed some previous research and introduced a nuance for further refinement and analysis. the responses were consistent with those in previous studies where students who transferred were attempting to increase their future economic prospects (oncat, 2013; usher & jarvey, 2012). the students moving from seneca to york recognized they needed a degree to obtain their desired jobs and that further education would enhance career movement. the students moving from york to seneca saw the need to have practical skills to augment their theoretical knowledge. the combination of having both was seen as valuable regardless of where they began their educational studies. these students have learned for themselves the perceived advantages of both forms of education. they required a systematic approach to help make it happen, which is reflected in their very practical recommendations to facilitate transfer and the movement of credit between institutions. existing structural elements like the existence of formal transfer agreements and specific scholarships, proved to both appeal and support decisions for transfer. and it is these structural elements to make transfer easy that are cited most often as suggestions for improvement. 23 the students were also clear on their need for personal support, particularly at the receiving institution. those who participated in the orientation, regardless of which direction the student transferred, stated the sessions helped develop awareness and provided the necessary understanding of what was needed. the latter was particularly helpful to those wanting to attend university. nevertheless, the most common response when asked about challenges in the transfer process was identifying or connecting with a specific person who could answer their questions. a person dedicated to support transfer students was suggested as a solution. the responses in these focus groups identified several examples of where institutional or questionnaire data do not fully reflect the variables they purport to measure. secondary school grades provide one common input measure to help predict future success. a number of the participants, however, wanted to clarify their situation and explain the circumstances. their intent was to make clear they were not to be judged based on their academic grades and these, in turn, were not to be interpreted as a measure of their ability. grades did not capture other intangible characteristics of these participants and which would propel them to that goal for further education. and whether poor performance was exhibited in secondary school or at university, college was seen as an opportunity to redeem oneself. their college performance was an opportunity to demonstrate their ability, not the grades which were a product of their circumstances at the time, be it personal or a result of poor program fit. a second example is the attempt by questionnaires to quantify the extent of parental encouragement as a reason for further education. typically, participants have ranked this measure low as a reason for college to university transfers (decock et al, 2011). the other side of encouragement, however, is pressure, something which begins in secondary school when parental influence focuses on the choice of courses (king et al, 2009). succumbing to parental pressure, whether real or perceived, was identified by a number of the focus group participants. that pressure largely centred around the value of a university education compared to one obtained at a college; and manifested itself in their original choice of destination or as a rationale for transfer. finally, the degree to which confidence played a critical role in supporting transfer decisions is clearly articulated by numerous participants in these focus groups, particularly among those who decided to transfer from college to university. college also played a role in regaining confidence for those who were unsuccessful at their previous institution, which was especially true if the original program was perceived by the participants as a poor fit. sometimes that confidence was developed through success in courses, achievement in the program not anticipated based on previous experience. and given the responses, one cannot underestimate the power of faculty in instilling that confidence through encouragement and recognition of student abilities. regardless, it is the internalization of the encouragement as expressed in greater levels of confidence which ultimately leads to pursuing other educational opportunities. the development of confidence is an important nuance not reflected in earlier survey research when encouragement from others was cited as a major reason. critics of the junior college system in the united states describe one role of the sector as the cooling out function, a filter to ensure only those truly capable, as demonstrated by their academic achievement, would eventually enroll and complete a baccalaureate degree at a university (brint & karabel, 1989). this study did not interview those who had aspirations to obtain a degree but faltered in their attempt or altered their goals as a result of their college experience. however, in speaking with 24 those who did transfer, this study captured the warming up function as described by cohn and brower (1996) in their response to the critics and in defense of the collegiate role of colleges. indeed, what continues to emerge in the studies of transfer is the non-linearity of student progression. as andre (2001) suggests, the route by which the participants manage their educational destination resembles that of a car with various options to take according to your particular preferences: [a]s the paths through post-secondary institutions become more diverse and decisions regarding these routes become more individualized, vigilant monitoring of student flows by social class, gender, and race/ethnicity is essential (p.33). although not a component of this study, these matters are important to monitor, in the manner by which the concepts intersect with motivation and achievement and how they inform the practices of institutions to facilitate transfer. 25 appendix a email invitation subject of e-mail: invitation to participate in a qualitative study on inter-institutional student experience conducted by seneca college and york university dear seneca-york student, as an experienced transfer student, it is our pleasure to invite you to participate in a study that aims to better understand the decision making process of students that have transferred from seneca college to york university, and vice-versa, and to gauge their transfer experiences. we want to learn more about what motivates students to transfer, what were the positive and negative aspects of their experience and what could be improved in our institutions. by answering a few questions that relate to your transfer experience, you will be able to help us (seneca college and york university) identify where improvements should be made in our student services, policies and/or administrative processes surrounding student transfer. you would simply need to take part in a two-hour focus-group session. first, you will be asked to sign an informed consent form after which the focus-group facilitator will ask questions related to transfer student experience. the participants of the focus group will be able to answer these questions on a voluntary basis. please note that the focus group session will be recorded however participants will remain anonymous throughout this study. this focus-group session will take place on xxx from 1 to 3pm in room yy at the zz campus of seneca college/york university. participants will receive a 25$ compensation to thank them for their participation in this study. if you are interested and available to attend this focus-group session, please rsvp your participation by simply answering this e-mail. we thank you for your time and consideration and wish you a wonderful day! sincerely, seneca college and york university 26 appendix b informed consent form date: ________________________________ study name: qualitative study on inter-institutional student experience researchers: lead: henry decock academic partnerships institutional research seneca college a3554 newhnam campus 1750 finch ave east toronto, m2j 2x5 t: (416)491-5050 x 22594 henry.decock@senecacollege.ca co-leader: richard smith office of institutional planning and analysis york university 1021 kaneff tower 74 york blvd toronto, m3j 1p3 t: (416)736-2100 x 70400 richard.smith@yorku.ca purpose of the research: qualitative study to understand the rationale behind the decision making process of students that have transferred from seneca to york, or vice-versa, and to gauge their transfer experiences. what you will be asked to do in the research: students will be invited to participate in 2-hour focus-group sessions where the will be invited to answer, on a voluntary basis, questions regarding their transfer experience. those students who are willing to participate but cannot attend the focus-group sessions will be given the opportunity to participate in a phone interview or to answer questions by email, depending on what is convenient. they will be asked to answer, on a voluntary basis, questions regarding their transfer experience. risks and discomforts: we do not foresee any risks or discomfort from your participation in the research. benefits of the research and benefits to you: answers provided by students will help both institutions improve student services, policies and administrative processes surrounding student transfer. voluntary participation: your participation in the study is completely voluntary and you may choose to stop participating at any time. your decision not to volunteer will not influence the nature of your relationship with york university or with seneca college either now, or in the future. withdrawal from the study: you can stop participating in the study at any time, for any reason, if you so decide. if you decide to stop participating, you will still be eligible to receive the promised compensation for agreeing to take part in this study. your decision to stop participating, or to refuse to answer particular questions, will not affect your relationship with the researchers, york university or seneca college. in the event you withdraw from the study, all associated data collected will be immediately destroyed wherever possible. confidentiality: this study will not require that students provide personal information. all information you supply during the research will be held in confidence and unless you specifically indicate your consent, your name will not appear in any report or publication of the research. answers provided during the phone interview will be transcribed in writing and only research staff will have access to this information. answers provided by email will only be looked at by research staff. written data from interviews and email responses will be scanned and stored on seneca college's institutional server. paper version will be immediately destroyed following the scanning of the documents. data collected and analyzed will be securely stored for a period of 3 yrs on seneca college's institutional server which is password secured environment and is only accessible to staff of the institutional research office of seneca college. data will be destroyed after this period. confidentiality will be provided to the fullest extent possible by law. questions about the research? if you have questions about the research in general or about your role in the study, please feel free to contact dr. henry decock by e-mail (henry.decock@senecacollege.ca). this research has been reviewed and approved by the human participants review sub-committee, york universitys ethics review board as well as seneca colleges research ethics board. if you have any questions about this process, or about your rights as a 27 participant in the study, please contact the sr. manager & policy advisor for the office of research ethics at york university (e-mail ore@yorku.ca) or the research ethics board at seneca (reb.chair@senecacollege.ca ). legal rights and signatures: i, _______________________________________, consent to participate in the qualitative study on inter-institutional student experience conducted by seneca college and york university. i have understood the nature of this project and wish to participate. i am not waiving any of my legal rights by signing this form. my signature below indicates my consent. signature participant date signature principal investigator date 28 appendix c focus group questions student completed program and transferred within an agreed agreement student completed program and transferred without an agreed agreement student transferred before completing program seneca students now at york york students now at seneca focus group a focus group d focus group b focus group e focus group c focus group f questions for all groups: motivation/transfer planning 1. why did you begin your studies at seneca rather than at york or at york rather than at seneca? 2. at what point did you decide to transfer? 3. what did you hope to achieve by transferring? 4. what helped you in this decision-making process? student transfer experience 5. thinking back to your transfer experience, what did you find helpful in the process? why? 6. again thinking back to your transfer experience, what did you struggle with or find less helpful in the process? why? 7. was there specific assistance provided by your sending institution that helped? 8. was there specific assistance provided by your receiving institution that helped? process issues 9. what could this institution change to make it easier for students who have transferred? 10. would you transfer again? what would you do the same? what would you do differently? 11. what advice might you give another student interested in transferring? questions specifically for groups c and f: 12. why did you choose to transfer before having completed your initial program? 29 references andres, lesley. (2001). transfer from community college to university: perspectives and experiences of british columbia students. the canadian journal of higher education, 31(1), 3574. brint, s. & karabel, j. (1989). the diverted dream: community colleges and the promise of educational opportunity in america, 1900 1985. new york: oxford university press. cohen, a. m. & brawer, f. b. (1996). the american community college, third edition. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s. & hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. king, a.j.c., warren, w.k., king, m.a., brook, j.e., & kocher, p.r. (2009). who doesnt go to postsecondary education? toronto: colleges ontario. retrieved december 16, 2015 from http://www.collegesontario.org/research/who-doesnt-go-to-pse.pdf oncat. (2013). university to college transfer students: exploring motives and characteristics. toronto: oncat. retrieved december 16, 2015, from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2013-01-confederationfinal%20report-university-to-college-transfer-students-exploring-motives.pdf smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., mccloy, u. (forthcoming 2016). transfer pathways in higher education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. toronto: colleges ontario. retrieved december 16, 2015, from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2012-3-collegesontariostudent-experiences-credit-transfer-ontario-colleges-en.pdf

rapport final et rsum oncat project 2015-17 privileged right of passage : pathways between collge boral and laurentian university rapport prpar par le bureau des tudes et affaires francophones juin 2016 rsum dans le cadre de ce projet, nous avons russi dvelopper dix ententes darticulation. quatre dentre elles visent les tudiants qui ont complt ou qui complteront un certificat dun an au collge boral. auparavant, il tait impossible pour ces tudiants de transfrer des crdits collgiaux envers des programmes universitaires. maintenant, ils sont ligibles jusqu 30 crdits, ce qui quivaut une pleine anne dtudes. en plus de ces ententes, trois ententes ont t dveloppes avec le dpartement de psychologie - une de celle-ci est un 2+2. finalement, trois ententes ont t amliores en ducation physique et sant. ces ententes se dmarquent des autres puisque les rsultats dapprentissage ont t compars et les tudiants peuvent profiter de plusieurs crdits spcifiques au lieu de seulement des crdits au choix. la majorit des ententes sont ltape dapprobation au snat de luniversit laurentienne. malheureusement, nous avons appris au mois davril que deux tapes staient ajoutes au processus dapprobation, ce qui a retard ledit processus. nous sommes confiants, cependant, que les ententes seront approuves dici la l'automne 2016. en suivant ce processus, nous sommes heureux dannoncer quune des retombes sera que toutes les ententes darticulations francophones sappliqueront aussi du cot anglais - donc pour tout autre collge qui offre le mme programme vers nos programmes francophones et anglophones (lorsque les deux options existent). table des matires rsum ........................................................................... 2 table des matires ......................................................... 3 nouveaux parcours boral - laurentienne..................... 4 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises......................... 6 tats des parcours & ententes dveloppes et dates importantes ...................................................... 9 annexe a ...................................................................... 11 annexe b....................................................................... 15 annexe c....................................................................... 19 nouveaux parcours boral - laurentienne voici une liste des dix-neuf nouveaux parcours qui ont t dvelopps ou analyss entre le collge boral et luniversit laurentienne dans le cadre de ce projet. # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 du programme au collge boral programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an techniques de soins vtrinaires 2 ans technique de travail social (tosc) 2 ans technique de travail social (tosc) 2 ans ducation en services lenfance (geen) 2 ans ducation en services lenfance (geen) 2 ans technique dducation spcialise (tesq) -3 ans technique dducation spcialise (tesq) -3 ans adjoint juridique 2 ans adjoint juridique 2 ans technologie de larchitecture promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (2 ans) promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (2 ans) promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (2 ans) nombre de crdits accords suite lapprobation des parcours 15-30, 12, 6 (arts) vers ce programme luniversit laurentienne nombre de crdits accords avant 2016 arts gnraux aucun sciences aucun 9-12, 6, 3 (sciences) tude de lenvironnement aucun 24 psychologie aucun 30 sociologie aucun - mathmatiques aucun 24 zoologie 30 30 psychologie 30 60 sociologie 30 30 psychologie 30 51 sociologie 30 30 psychologie 30 66 sociologie 30 30 psychologie 30 30 sociologie 30 30 architecture - - ducation physique et sant 30 39 promotion de la sant 30 39 psychologie du sport 30 39 voir les annexes a, b et c pour une description dtaille de chacun des nouveaux parcours. de plus, voir les documents suivants en pice jointe pour une analyse encore plus dtaille du processus de mapping . nom du fichier feuilles dinformation description 1 2 3 4 analyse ed phys protocole dentente analyse des rsultats dapprentissage pour : technique de travail social ducation en services lenfance technique dducation spcialise adjoint juridique analyse des rsultats dapprentissage pour les programmes dactivit physique protocole dentente modifi meilleures pratiques et leons apprises le processus suivi pour complter ce projet cette anne tait efficace dans certains aspects, mais nous avons appris plusieurs leons qui mneront des changements pour les prochaines ententes dvelopper. voici les tapes du processus suivi cette anne, le nouveau processus suggr, le raisonnement qui explique les changements et une courte analyse la fin de la section. processus suivi pour complter ce projet cette anne : 1. effectuer une analyse prliminaire et dterminer les programmes pour lesquels une articulation est envisageable ainsi que ceux pour lesquels une articulation n'est pas envisageable. 2. stimuler l'engagement et l'engouement du personnel des deux institutions envers le projet. 3. consulter les doyens, les directeurs et les professeurs impliqus pour confirmer quelles articulations seront possibles cette anne. 4. rdiger le rapport initial. 5. identifier le modle d'articulation dvelopper pour chaque programme. 6. faire la comparaison des rsultats dapprentissage et des plans de cours des programmes pour lesquels une articulation a t identifie comme possible (en 1), et identifier le nombre de crdits qui pourront tre reconnus par la laurentienne ainsi que les passerelles ncessaires. 7. obtenir les approbations ncessaires pour procder l'tablissement de l'articulation. 8. rdiger le rapport intrimaire. 9. revoir certaines articulations existantes. 10. dvelopper des fiches techniques qui prcisent le cheminement des tudiants qui veulent bnficier des articulations dveloppes. 11. officialiser l'amendement de l'entente parapluie. 12. dvelopper un outil excel permettant la gestion des ententes entre l'ul et le cb. ce tableau permet de comparer les rsultats dapprentissage plus facilement, afin de 1) comparer initialement les programmes, et 2) assurer que lentente soit encore valide lors de changements aux programmes. 13. rdiger le rapport final. nouveau processus pour le dveloppement de parcours et dententes darticulation : suite une mise lessai de la procdure ci-haut pour tenter de dvelopper dix-neuf articulations entre le collge boral et luniversit laurentienne en 2015-2016, nous dterminons quune procdure plus efficace peut tre suivie afin de dvelopper des parcours et des ententes darticulations. ce processus est dcrit dans le tableau la prochaine page, et inclut lidentification de la ou les personnes qui complteront chaque tape, ainsi que quelques notes et raisonnements. tableau - nouveau processus propos : tape # 1 description qui facilitera ou coordonnera? consulter les dpartements, les directeurs et les doyens, en personne (agente) et par crit (vice-recteur), pour identifier des pistes de parcours et dententes darticulation dvelopper. identifier le modle darticulation dvelopper pour chaque entente ou parcours. - agente de projet lu ententes darticulation, - vice-recteur ou direction aux tudes et affaires francophones 3 recueillir et changer les plans de cours, descriptions de cours, cursus, etc. ncessaires pour passer lanalyse. - agente de projet lu ententes darticulation 4 faire lanalyse et la comparaison des rsultats dapprentissage et des plans de cours des programmes pour ensuite identifier le nombre de crdits qui pourront tre reconnus par la laurentienne ainsi que les passerelles ncessaires. - les dpartements et facults prfrent parfois que cette tape soit complte initialement par lagente de projet. - par la suite, le dpartement peut approuver, mais cette tape est seulement ncessaire lorsque lentente demande de nouvelles quivalences (qui nont jamais t reconnues par le dpartement dadmission). 5a suite lanalyse, si le parcours ou lentente darticulation dveloppe ne demande rien de nouveau, les parcours dfinis peuvent tre rajouts au protocole dententes darticulation ou envoys au dpartement dadmission. celui-ci se chargera dajouter les ententes sur ontransfer.ca (site web provincial pour tudiants qui identifie les parcours et ententes darticulation possibles). si lentente darticulation ou le parcours demande une reconnaissance de crdits qui na aucun prcdent (l o un transfert de crdit na jamais t donn) elle doit passer par le dpartement. - agente de projet lu ententes darticulation - agent en admission 2 5b - agente de projet lu ententes darticulation - agente de projet lu ententes darticulation - directeur du dpartement notes et raisonnements (meilleures pratiques et leons apprises) cette tape assurera la coopration et la participation des participants, puisque les projets viendront deux, et non de ladministration. modles possibles : - diplme vers baccalaurat - baccalaurat vers diplme - programmes parallles - programmes conjoints - etc. lidal est de pouvoir comparer les rsultats dapprentissage collgiaux avec les rsultats dapprentissage universitaires, mais ceux-ci ne sont pas toujours disponibles, donc il faut parfois fonctionner partir du plan de cours ou mme de la description de cours. - lorsquil y a une bonne affinit entre les programmes, il est parfois possible de donner des crdits pour des cours spcifiques. cest surtout le cas lorsque les apprentissages sont doubls ou trs semblables. nous visons 80 % des apprentissages communs dans un cours pour donner un crdit. - lorsque laffinit entre les programmes est moins leve, des crdits gnriques sont donns. par exemple arts9100 (pour des cours de premire anne) ou arts9200 pour des cours de la 2e la 4e anne). certains rglements doivent tre respects pour donner des crdits. voir annexe a. 5c 6 7 lorsque la nature de lentente darticulation ou le parcours propos est nouveau ou demande un changement important dans la faon de faire approuver par le dpartement dadmission, lentente doit passer par un processus. celui-ci inclut (en ordre) les tapes suivantes approbation par le dpartement approbation par la facult approbation par lara information au cpf approbation par le snat informer les dpartements suivants lorsquune entente a t approuve : bureau des admissions bureau du registraire liaison marketing quipe excutive corps professoral revoir lentente selon la frquence identifie ou lorsquil y a des changements dans les programmes - agente de projet lu ententes darticulation - dpartements, facults, membres des comits et snat lorsque lentente darticulation doit passer par ce processus, il est important de prendre en considration le temps requis pour ce faire. un minimum de 5 mois est requis pour ce processus, mais souvent cest encore plus long, cause de changements amener aux documents, objections par certains comits, etc. - agente de projet lu ententes darticulation puisque ce projet tait dassez grande envergure, nous avons dcouvert plusieurs pratiques gagnantes et avons appris plusieurs leons. celles-ci sont rsumes dans le tableau ci-haut, dans la colonne notes et raisonnements (meilleures pratiques et leons apprises) . en bref, la plus importante meilleure pratique est de faire faire lanalyse et la majorit du travail danalyse par lagente de projet caton, avant de demander lapprobation du dpartement. en ce qui concerne les leons apprises, les deux plus importantes sont 1) de toujours consulter les dpartements et les doyens avant de soumettre des demandes de projet caton, cest important que les ides viennent du terrain et 2) de planifier suffisamment de temps pour lapprobation des ententes darticulation, puisquil y a plusieurs comits et tapes auxquels se conformer avant de faire passer un projet luniversit. dfinitions importantes : parcours : un chemin prdtermin pour un tudiant qui souhaite transfrer dun programme particulier dune institution postsecondaire vers un programme particulier de luniversit laurentienne (ou vice-versa) entente darticulation : une entente qui stipule, entre autres, que deux ou plusieurs tablissements sengagent accroitre laccs aux programmes dtudes postsecondaires en franais ainsi que la mobilit entre les tablissements en donnant des crdits de transfert. une entente darticulation peut inclure un ou plusieurs parcours entre les tablissements. passerelle : cours ou modules qui doivent tre russis par ltudiant afin de pouvoir accder un programme et profiter dune entente darticulation tats des parcours & ententes dveloppes et dates importantes (approbations en attente) voici un tableau qui dcrit ltat des parcours et des ententes dveloppes dans le cadre de ce projet, ainsi que des commentaires pertinents pour chacun. programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an arts gnraux 9 sept. accord du snat 1 processus dapprobation retard 2 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an sciences 9 sept. accord de lara vers ce programme luniversit laurentienne processus dapprobation retard 3 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an tude de lenvironnement 9 sept. accord de la facult # du programme au collge boral processus dapprobation retard 4 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an psychologie 9 sept. accord du dpartement analyse complte dates dapprobation processus dapprobation retard 5 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an sociologie 6 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - 1 an mathmatiques 7 techniques de soins vtrinaires 2 ans zoologie technique de travail social (tosc) 2 ans sociologie 10 ducation en services lenfance (geen) 2 ans psychologie 11 ducation en services lenfance (geen) 2 ans sociologie - - - - - - - annul restructuration du programme processus dapprobation retard - - 9 sept. - psychologie 9 - 9 sept. - affinit limite processus dapprobation retard - - 9 sept. 8 technique de travail social (tosc) 2 ans - commentaires annul restructuration du programme processus dapprobation retard - - annul restructuration du programme 12 technique dducation spcialise (tesq) -3 ans psychologie 13 technique dducation spcialise (tesq) -3 ans sociologie - - - - annul restructuration du programme 14 adjoint juridique 2 ans psychologie - - - - affinits limites 15 adjoint juridique 2 ans sociologie - - - - annul restructuration du programme 16 technologie de larchitecture architecture - - - - remis lan prochain ( la demande du doyen) 17 promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (2 ans) promotion de la sant processus dapprobation retard 18 promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (2 ans) promotion de la sant processus dapprobation retard 19 promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (2 ans) promotion de la sant processus dapprobation retard 9 sept. processus dapprobation retard - annexe a trois nouveaux parcours entre : le programme de promotion de lactivit physique du collge boral et trois programmes francophones de lcole des sciences et de lactivit physique de luniversit laurentienne ces parcours seraient ajouts aux annexes du protocole dententes darticulation entre le collge boral, luniversit laurentienne et luniversit de sudbury (2014-2019). deux des trois parcours sont des amliorations de parcours dvelopps dans une entente en 2007. un des trois parcours (psychologie du sport) est nouveau. pour chacun des trois parcours dans ce document : - ltudiant doit toujours complter les cours obligatoires pour le(s) diplme(s) choisi(s), sauf lorsquun crdit quivalent spcifique est accord par luniversit lors de ladmission. - une moyenne pondre cumulative (mpc) collgiale de 3,2 ou 80 % ou plus est requise pour pouvoir profiter de ces parcours. - une lettre de recommandation est requise pour pouvoir profiter de ces parcours. - bien que les crdits accords par cette entente comptent pour plus dune anne dtudes, il est possible que ltudiant ne puisse pas complter son baccalaurat dans les deux ou trois ans suivant linscription cause des plages horaires des cours universitaires ou encore cause des prrequis de certains cours obligatoires. parcours n 1 promotion de lactivit physique (boral) vers ducation physique et sant (edph) (laurentienne) diplme du collge boral transfert luniversit laurentienne vers : promotion de lactivit physique baccalaurat en ducation physique et sant (2 ans) (126 crdits) cole des sciences de lactivit physique cours spcifiques complter au collge boral crdits accords par la laurentienne bio1026 anatomie et physiologie 1 edph 1506 anatomie et kinsiologie i (3cr) bio1027 anatomie et physiologie 2 edph 1507 anatomie et kinsiologie ii (3cr) spr1013 activit physique et sant edph 1006 science dexercice, mieuxtre et sant (3cr) spr1006 nutrition edph 4507 nutrition (3cr) spr1014 activits physiques ii apprentissage moteur edph 2206 apprentissage moteur (3cr) inf1064 culture technologique cosc 9100 - logiciels dapplications (3cr) fra1005 franais fran 9100 (3cr) eng1003 english communications i engl 9100 (3cr) soc1010 communication interpersonnelle sosc 9100 (3cr) spr1020 leadership ii sosc 9200 (3cr) spr1011 - activit physiques i techniques et tactiques edph 9100 (3cr) spr1005 physiologie de la performance edph 9100 (3cr) spr1003 valuation de la condition physique edph 9100 (3cr) ----------total : 39 crdits nombre de crdits complter* : 87 *pour de plus amples renseignements relatifs la liste des cours complter luniversit laurentienne pour obtenir le baccalaurat nomm ci-haut, voir le site web de luniversit laurentienne (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/educationphysique) ou rencontrer un conseiller au centre dexcellence universitaire (poste 3346). noter que le nombre de crdits complter peut changer sil y a des modifications au programme edph. parcours n 2 promotion de lactivit physique (boral) vers promotion de la sant (laurentienne) diplme du collge boral transfert luniversit laurentienne vers : promotion de lactivit physique baccalaurat en promotion de la sant (2 ans) (124,5 crdits) cours spcifiques complter au collge boral crdits accords par la laurentienne bio1026 anatomie et physiologie 1 edph 1506 anatomie et kinsiologie i (3cr) bio1027 anatomie et physiologie 2 edph 1507 anatomie et kinsiologie ii (3cr) spr1013 activit physique et sant edph 1006 science dexercice, mieuxtre et sant (3cr) spr1006 nutrition edph 4507 nutrition (3cr) spr1014 activits physiques ii apprentissage moteur edph 2206 apprentissage moteur (3cr) inf1064 culture technologique cosc 1017 - logiciels dapplications (3cr) fra1005 franais fran 9100 (3cr) eng1003 english communications i engl 9100 (3cr) soc1010 communication interpersonnelle sosc 9100 (3cr) spr1020 leadership ii sosc 9200 (3cr) spr1011 - activit physiques i techniques et tactiques edph 9100 (3cr) spr1005 physiologie de la performance edph 9100 (3cr) spr1003 valuation de la condition physique edph 9100 (3cr) cole des sciences de lactivit physique ----------total : 39 crdits nombre de crdits complter* : 85,5 *pour la liste des cours complter luniversit laurentienne quant lobtention du baccalaurat nomm ci-haut, voir le site web de luniversit laurentienne (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/education-physique) ou rencontrer un conseiller au centre dexcellence universitaire (poste 3346) pour de plus amples renseignements. noter que le nombre de crdits complter peut changer sil y a des modifications au programme. parcours n 3 promotion de lactivit physique (boral) vers psychologie du sport (laurentienne) diplme du collge boral transfert luniversit laurentienne vers : promotion de lactivit physique baccalaurat en psychologie du sport (2 ans) (124,5 crdits) cours spcifiques complter au collge boral crdits accords par la laurentienne bio1026 anatomie et physiologie 1 edph 1506 anatomie et kinsiologie i (3cr) bio1027 anatomie et physiologie 2 edph 1507 anatomie et kinsiologie ii (3cr) spr1013 activit physique et sant edph 1006 science dexercice, mieuxtre et sant (3cr) spr1006 nutrition edph 4507 nutrition (3cr) spr1014 activits physiques ii apprentissage moteur edph 2206 apprentissage moteur (3cr) inf1064 culture technologique cosc 1017 - logiciels dapplications (3cr) fra1005 franais fran 9100 (3cr) eng1003 english communications i engl 9100 (3cr) soc1010 communication interpersonnelle sosc 9100 (3cr) spr1020 leadership ii sosc 9200 (3cr) spr1011 - activit physiques i techniques et tactiques edph 9100 (3cr) spr1005 physiologie de la performance edph 9100 (3cr) spr1003 valuation de la condition physique edph 9100 (3cr) cole des sciences de lactivit physique ----------total : 39 crdits nombre de crdits complter* : 85,5 *pour la liste des cours complter luniversit laurentienne quant lobtention du baccalaurat nomm ci-haut, voir le site web de luniversit laurentienne (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/education-physique) ou rencontrer un conseiller au centre dexcellence universitaire (poste 3346) pour de plus amples renseignements. notez que le nombre de crdits complter peut changer sil y a des modifications au programme. annexe b quatre nouveaux parcours pour des programmes collgiaux dun an universit laurentienne 2016 projet caton ces parcours seront ajouts lannexe 1 du protocole dententes darticulation entre le collge boral, luniversit laurentienne et luniversit de sudbury (2014-2019). pour chacun des quatre parcours dans ce document : - un certificat collgial dun an rend ltudiant ou ltudiante admissible luniversit, cependant la moyenne pondre cumulative (mpc) collgiale et les affinits entre les programmes dtudes dterminent le nombre de crdits accords ltudiant ou ltudiante. - ltudiant doit toujours complter les cours obligatoires pour le(s) diplme(s) choisi(s), sauf lorsquun crdit quivalent spcifique est accord par luniversit lors de ladmission. - bien que les crdits accords par luniversit reprsentent parfois lquivalent dun, deux ou mme trois an(s) dtudes, il est possible que ltudiant ne puisse pas complter son baccalaurat dans les deux ou trois ans suivant linscription cause de limites au niveau de lhoraire des cours universitaires ou pour des raisons de prrequis aux cours obligatoires. parcours n 1 transferts gnraux certificat collge boral (1 an) transfert luniversit laurentienne vers : cours spcifiques complter au collge boral moyenne pondre cumulative (mpc) collgiale de 3,2 4,0 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) baccalaurat s arts au choix de ltudiant de 2,8 3,19 de 2,4 2,79 de 3,2 4,0 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) autres programmes au choix de ltudiant de 2,8 3,19 de 2,4 2,79 * selon le niveau daffinit avec le programme dtude crdits accords par la laurentienne de 15 30 crdits* 12 crdits* 6 crdits* de 9 12 crdits* 6 crdits* 3 crdits* parcours n 2 pasc vers psychologie une moyenne pondre cumulative (mpc) collgiale de 3,2 ou 80 % est requise pour pouvoir profiter de larticulation. certificat collge boral (1 an) transfert luniversit laurentienne vers : programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) baccalaurat s arts en psychologie cours spcifiques complter au collge boral crdits accords par la laurentienne fra1005 et fra1006 psy1001 et psy1002 fran9100 (6) psyc1105 (6) 6 cours parmi : sciences sociales humanits arq1005 dro1000 gen1018 gen1046 gen1054 jur1011 loi1000 loi1001 loi1004 pol1000 soc1001 soc1002 soc1010 tox1000 art1001 eng1003 eng1004 gen1038 gen1040 gen1047 gen1053 gen1055 gen1036 sgs1002 sgs1006 combinaison de (18) crdits : sosc 9100 ou huma 9200 ----------total : 30 crdits cours obligatoires de 1re anne complter luniversit laurentienne* : - lang1005 grammaire applique la rdaction *les cours de 1re anne complter luniversit laurentienne peuvent changer lorsque des modifications sont apportes au cursus du programme. svp voir le site web de luniversit laurentienne pour une liste courante de cours obligatoires de 1re anne (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba) ou rencontrer un conseiller au centre dexcellence universitaire (poste 3346) pour de plus amples renseignements. parcours n 3 pasc vers tudes de lenvironnement une moyenne pondre cumulative (mpc) collgiale de 3,0 ou 75 % est requise pour pouvoir profiter de larticulation. certificat collge boral (1 an) transfert luniversit laurentienne vers : programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) baccalaurat s arts en tudes de lenvironnement cours spcifiques complter au collge boral crdits accords par la laurentienne fra1005 et fra1006 fran9100 (6) 3 cours parmi : bio1000 bio1013 bio 1026 bio1016 bio 1027 chi1000 ctn 1001 ctn 1001 inf1078 inf1072 inf1039 inf1042 inf1046 mat1028 mat1026 mat1006 mat1018 phy1000 psa1005 psa1006 scen9100(3) arts9100(6) 3 cours parmi : sciences sociales humanits arq1005 dro1000 gen1018 gen1046 gen1054 jur1011 loi1000 loi1001 loi1004 pol1000 soc1001 soc1002 soc1010 tox1000 art1001 eng1003 eng1004 gen1038 gen1040 gen1047 gen1053 gen1055 gen1036 sgs1002 sgs1006 combinaison de (9) crdits : sosc 9100 ou huma 9200 ----------total : 24 crdits cours obligatoires de 1re anne complter luniversit laurentienne* : - envi1406 environnement i - envi1507 environnement ii - lang1005 grammaire applique la rdaction *les cours de 1re anne complter luniversit laurentienne peuvent changer lorsque des modifications sont apportes au cursus du programme. svp voir le site web de luniversit laurentienne pour une liste courante de cours obligatoires de 1re anne (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba) ou rencontrer un conseiller au centre dexcellence universitaire (poste 3346) pour de plus amples renseignements. parcours n 4 pasc vers mathmatiques une moyenne pondre cumulative (mpc) collgiale de 3,0 ou 75 % est requise pour pouvoir profiter de larticulation. certificat collge boral (1 an) transfert luniversit laurentienne vers : cours spcifiques complter au collge boral crdits accords par la laurentienne programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) mathmatiques fra1005 et fra1006 fran9100 (6) 2 cours parmi : bio1000 bio1013 bio 1026 bio1016 bio 1027 chi1000 ctn 1001 ctn 1001 inf1078 inf1072 inf1039 inf1042 inf1046 mat1028* mat1026* mat1006* mat1018* phy1000 psa1005 psa1006 scen9100(3) arts9100(3) 4 cours parmi : sciences sociales humanits arq1005 dro1000 gen1018 gen1046 gen1054 jur1011 loi1000 loi1001 loi1004 pol1000 soc1001 soc1002 soc1010 tox1000 art1001 eng1003 eng1004 gen1038 gen1040 gen1047 gen1053 gen1055 gen1036 sgs1002 sgs1006 combinaison de (12) crdits : sosc 9100 ou huma 9200 ----------total : 24 crdits cours obligatoires de 1re anne complter luniversit laurentienne* : - math1036 calcul 1 - math1037 calcul 2 - math 1056 mathmatiques discrtes i - math 1057 algbre linaire i - lang1005 grammaire applique la rdaction *les cours de 1re anne complter luniversit laurentienne peuvent changer lorsque des modifications sont apportes au cursus du programme. svp voir le site web de luniversit laurentienne pour une liste courante de cours obligatoires de 1re anne (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba) ou rencontrer un conseiller au centre dexcellence universitaire (poste 3346) pour de plus amples renseignements. notez bien : bien que le cours de fonctions avances 4u de 12e anne soit obligatoire pour accder au programme baccalaurat en arts - mathmatique, deux cours collgiaux de mathmatiques sont quivalents un autre cours 4u de mathmatiques. annexe c parcours entre divers programmes du collge boral et le programme de psychologie de luniversit laurentienne programme du collge boral crdits accords par la laurentienne cours de 1re et 2e anne complter luniversit laurentienne** notes ducation en services lenfance (geen) 2 ans (diplme) psyc 1105 (6) huma 9100 (6) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (21) ----------total : 51 crdits* lang 1005 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2126 (3) pscy 2127 (3) les tudiants du collge boral doivent russir psy 1001 et psy 1002 afin dobtenir leurs crdits pour psyc 1105. techniques de travail social (tosc) 2 ans (diplme) soci 1015 (6) huma 9100 (9) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (30) ----------total : 60 crdits* psyc 1105 (6) lang1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) pscy 2127 (3) les tudiants du collge boral doivent russir soc 1001 et soc 1002 afin dobtenir leurs crdits pour soci 1015. techniques dducation spcialise (tesq) 3 ans (diplme) psyc 1105 (6) huma 9100 (9) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc9200 (27) ----------total : 66 crdits* lang1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) pscy 2127 (3) les tudiants du collge boral doivent russir psy 1001 et psy 1002 afin dobtenir leurs crdits pour psyc 1105. *bien que nous accordions le nombre de crdits indiqu, pour complter un bac, ltudiant doit toujours rpondre aux exigences du diplme. dans certains cas, et pour certaines combinaisons de diplmes, il se peut que ltudiant doive dpasser le nombre total de 120 crdits pour obtenir le bac dsir, puisque la majorit des crdits donns sont pour des cours au choix. **les cours de 1re et de 2e anne complter luniversit laurentienne peuvent changer lorsque des modifications sont apportes au cursus du programme. svp voir le site web de luniversit laurentienne pour une liste courante de cours obligatoires de 1re ou 2e anne : https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba ou rencontrer un conseiller au centre dexcellence universitaire (poste 3346) pour de plus amples renseignements. pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3,0 ou 75 % est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. - bien que les crdits accords par luniversit reprsentent parfois lquivalent dun, deux ou mme trois an(s) dtudes, il est possible que ltudiant ne puisse pas complter son baccalaurat dans les deux ou trois ans suivant linscription cause de limites au niveau de lhoraire des cours universitaires ou pour des raisons de prrequis aux cours obligatoires.

pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges, and universities final report 2016- 40 centre for policy in aboriginal learning march 15th, 2017 1 table of contents acknowledgements p. 3 introduction to the project p. 4 pathways development: project design and methodology p. 5 pathways for indigenous learners p. 11 learning outcomes and curriculum analysis p. 12 promising practices and lessons learned - p. 12 going forward: conclusions and next steps p. 13 references p. 15 appendices p. 16 appendix a: steering committee membership p. 16 appendix b: asset map template p. 18 appendix c: wrap around supports model p. 23 appendix d: summary list of the identified pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions p. 26 appendix e: a sample pathway p. 28 appendix f: list of potential pathways for future exploration p.31 appendix g: testimonials: voices of our project partners p. 32 appendix h: sample articulation agreement p. 34 2 acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge the first circle partners, confederation college and the centre for policy in aboriginal learning, first nations technical institute, and trent university. in particular, we would like to thank dan longboat, don mccaskill, s. brenda small, joyce helmer, suzanne brant, and adam hopkins for your leadership and guidance in creating pathways for indigenous learners. we would also like to extend a thank you to the presidents of the first circle partnering institutions for their leadership and support for indigenous education. we would also like to thank oncat for your ongoing and continued support of the pathways for indigenous learners work. we would like to thank all new partnering institutions for your commitment to supporting this work and indigenous learners who are pursuing postsecondary education in ontario. in particular, we would like to say a huge thank you to the projects steering committee members for your commitment to and participation in this work. steering committee members: first circle leslie macgregor, confederation college s. brenda small, confederation college, centre for policy in aboriginal learning emily willson, confederation college joyce helmer, first nations technical institute adam hopkins, first nations technical institute suzanne brant, first nations technical institute don mccaskill, trent university dan longboat, trent university second circle carolyn hepburn, sault college angelique lemay, sault college nancy lukai, lakehead university shane strickland, confederation college amy keladis, mohawk college judy syrette, algoma university dawn white, algoma university dave marasco, algoma university jane manning, lambton college diane ryder, northern college jeannette miron, canadore college mary wabano, canadore college andre obansawin, algonquin college sheryl fraser, algonquin college dean jobin-bevans, lakehead university 3 introduction to the project there remains a gap in enrollment between indigenous and non-indigenous learners in postsecondary institutions resulting from historical and present day challenges and barriers. there also remains a gap in the creation and formal recognition of pathways into and across postsecondary institutions that indigenous learners may wish to pursue. these are timely gaps to address in response to reconciliation with indigenous communities, and in particular, the trcs calls to action, which highlight the importance of eliminating the education gap between indigenous and non-indigenous learners, improving funding for indigenous education, and integrating indigenous knowledge and pedagogy into public education (trc, 2015). in response to this, the centre for policy in aboriginal learning (cpal) (confederation college), in partnership with trent university (trent) and the first nations technical institute (fnti) undertook a project, entitled, pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities. specifically, this work aims to address a gap in supporting and advancing learning opportunities for indigenous learners, and learners pursuing indigenous studies, through the creation and formal recognition of indigenous specific learning pathways. earlier phases of this work resulted in the successful development of an indigenous learners pathways across partners, where articulation agreements, academic bridging and comprehensive wrap around supports for learners were key components of the pathways model. building off the success of the earlier phases of this work, this project entered into a phase iii, by expanding partnerships with additional interested colleges and universities across ontarios postsecondary, including partnerships with algoma university, algonquin college, canadore college, lakehead university, lambton college, northern college, mohawk college and sault college. representatives from partnering institutions, who form the steering committee, met in person throughout the year to explore and identify opportunities for partnership, collaboration, and pathways development across their institutions. 4 pathways development: project design and methodology first circle second circle all learners will be encouraged and supported to pursue postsecondary education pathways that resonate with themselves, that affirms their experiences and that meets their learning needs and aspirations. this is the underlying vision that grounds and guides this work. cpal (confederation college), fnti and trent university undertook pathways for indigenous learners as part of their commitment to indigenous learners and their leadership in indigenous education. building upon the success of their partnership, they sought to expand their circle, to include additional partners who are interested in and committed to supporting indigenous learners and education in ontario. in order to distinguish the roles that new and previous partners maintained, steering committee members from phases i and ii (cpal (confederation college), fnti, trent university) were referred to as the first circle and new steering committee members joining in phase iii of the project were referred to as the second circle. both circles were responsible for undertaking work relating to the project; however, acknowledging the previous experiences and knowledge gained from earlier phases of this work, the first circle was also responsible for providing advisory support to new members. figure 1: illustration of the expansion or partners, from the first circle of partner to the second circle. as the core focus of this work was to support and create learning pathways that are rooted in indigenous knowledges, for indigenous learners, the project was grounded by indigenous methodology. ceremony informed much of the project activities, where members were committed to working with an open heart and an open mind in establishing a common ground. all project processes were founded on relationship building, mutual respect and understanding of responsibility to the work (wilson, 2008). additionally, maintaining the approach from phases i and ii, this work was applied and collaborative. this project also relied upon shared group values, practices, and processes to guide the different stages of this work, which included: formal partnership and relationship building, building a common ground, and collaborative and informed action in the creation of pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions. this next section provides an overview of our process for creating pathways for indigenous learners. 5 partnership and relationship building relationship building was integral to our process and took place throughout the year. to launch the project, and to begin the process of relationship building, a customary feast was held in thunder bay, on, to bring together current and potential new partners, to begin a dialogue on their interest in and opportunities for expanding pathways for indigenous learners. the feast approach reflects a customary indigenous practice that facilitates the establishment of new partnerships and that promotes dialogue in the creation of new relationships. relationship building between current and new project resulted from open dialogue, a common ground, and a shared commitment to indigenous learners. there were additional factors that fostered relationship building throughout our process. firstly, members illustrated their commitment to the project, through attendance at and participation in regular in-person meetings. in total, there were 7 in-person meetings throughout the year at various locations that were home, or in close proximity, to partnering institutions. meetings typically took place over a day and half, and built off of one another in regards to their content and focus. initial meetings maintained a focus on relationship building and setting a foundation for partnership and collaboration. the focus of meetings then shifted to include broader discussions on barriers around access to postsecondary for indigenous learners and pathways development, in order to provide background on the landscape that our work is embedded in. meetings at this time also included a focus on sharing information and resources on creating pathways, covering topics such as institutional asset mapping processes, wrap-around supports, identifying affinity programs, finding alignment, curriculum mapping, and articulation agreements. in-person meetings then shifted to include workshop sessions that provided a space for identifying and creating pathways amongst our institutions. 6 reflection was also integral to our work, and often took the form of sharing circles at the end of each meeting day, where each member had an opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings in relation to this work. refer to table 1 for a summary of our regular in-person meetings. table 1: list of regular in-person meetings that took place throughout the year date may 17th and 18th, 2016 june 29th, 2016 august 22nd and 23rd, 2016 october 5th and 6th, 2016 december 7th and 8th, 2016 february 2nd and 3rd, 2017 march 8th and 9th, 2017 location thunder bay, ontario (project launch) thunder bay, ontario sault ste marie, ontario toronto, ontario thunder bay, ontario toronto, ontario ottawa, ontario establishing shared group values and practices contributed to relationship building and partnership, and were integral to the project as a whole. overall, a commitment to supporting indigenous learners across ontarios postsecondary brought this group together and grounded our work and collaboration. throughout the project, steering committee members also made personal commitments to work with an open heart and a good mind consistent with indigenous ceremonies and principles of respect (wilson, 2008). additionally, when possible, institutions were open and provided full disclosure on current and new processes or changes occurring within their representative institutions. the group also followed a consensus-based model for decision making whereby group members worked together to make decisions, and all group members were in agreement with decisions made. collectively, this reinforced a sense of mutual trust, respect and understanding, which ultimately created a space for members to communicate openly about ideas, concerns and questions relating to the project. in addition to the regular in- person meetings, communication was ongoing through regular emails and phone calls made by cpals research assistant, and project manager, with the steering committee members. refer to appendix g for reflection from steering committee members on the impacts of our process and shared values. building a common ground: information gathering and sharing alongside relationship building, information gathering and sharing also took place throughout the year and included the information and resources were shared during in-person meetings and group discussions, as well as asset mapping and key informant interviews. overall, information gathering and sharing reinforced relationship building and facilitated creating a common ground for the group on areas such as programming, support services, institutional landscapes, opportunities and barriers for indigenous learners across ontarios postsecondary environments. further, this shared knowledge and understanding provided a foundation, or a starting point, for the creation of pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions. 7 group discussions throughout the year partners shared discussions on methods of support and barriers around access to postsecondary education and pathways development for indigenous learners; these discussions came up often, as they were foundational to the work. some of the barriers or challenges discussed amongst the group included the following: high costs of tuition (especially across differing institutions) and limited funding opportunity available for learners; geographical and economical contraints around moving to different institutions; indirect and direct forms of institutional or systemic racism; a lack of system wide understandings of indigenous histories, cultures, community needs; and a lack of integration of methods of indigenous pedagogy and assessment (especially in regards to acceptance criteria for particular learners). regarding the support for indigenous education within postsecondary, partners identified challenges such as a lack of consistent and permanent funding for indigenous faculty and staff; the need for more indigenous faculty and staff; and institutional wide professional development opportunities for staff on indigenous histories, cultures, experiences and needs. in regards to pathways development in general, partners discussed challenges around a lack of time or resources for the creation of pathways as well as a lack of internal and external communication across ontarios postsecondary institutions. the group also discussed their perceptions of priority opportunities for the creation of pathways for indigenous learners. these priority areas included: pathways that would increase accessibility to postsecondary (e.g. horizontal or multilateral pathways with multiple entry points), pathways that included programs with higher enrollment of indigenous learners, pathways that included programs with lower enrollment of indigenous learners, and pathways that would help to supports communities interests and needs. asset mapping as a starting point for pathways development, each partnering institution created an asset map to gather institutional information, and in particular, to identify each institutions capacity to support pathways for indigenous learners. this involved creating a list of institutional assets, which referred to a quality, condition, or entity that serves as an advantage, support, resource, or sources of strength (dorfman, 1998). this could include programming, course offerings, institutional landscapes, and wrap around supports1 and services available to indigenous learners, as well as professional development opportunities for staff. through an in depth analysis of their institution, partners were able to identify their strengths, and through deduction, where weaknesses, or gaps existed as well. a gap referred to an area within an institution that could be improved upon, for instance through pathway development or partnership with another institution (dorfman, 1998). overall, this process resulted in a living document that reflects an in-depth and comprehensive overview of each institutions capacity and ability to support pathways for indigenous learners. during one of our later meetings and workshops, each member had the opportunity to provide an overview of their asset map, and was encouraged to provide information to group on the following: institutional strengths, or unique assets, around indigenous studies programming; institutional gaps in indigenous studies programming or supports and services for indigenous learners; and institutional interest and/or 1 wrap around supports reflect services that support the wholistic well-being of a learner (social, spiritual, mental, 8 priorities around partnership on pathways development. overall, this helped to provide a foundation, or a starting point, for the creation of pathways across partnering institutions. key informant interviews in addition to group discussions amongst steering committee members, key informant interviews were held with representatives from different ontario colleges and universities to explore their perceptions of barriers and supports for creating and facilitating pathways for indigenous learners among institutions in ontarios postsecondary. in total, 6 interviews were completed with 7 informants who represented 4 colleges and 2 universities, including, george brown college, lakehead university, lambton college, nipissing university, georgian college, and the university of waterloo. overall, discussions with key informants aligned with the group discussions that were shared during our regular in-person meetings as well as with themes that have been identified within reports on credit transfer and mobility in ontario (e.g. popovic, 2012). identified barriers to pathways development in general, included a lack of funding, time and resources for pathways development; a lack of communication with and between indigenous communities, students, faculty, administration, and support staff, across institutions; challenges around alignment of curriculum, and in particular, differences in curriculum content or learning outcomes across institutions; differences in institutional policies or systems of governance across institutions; and a lack of transferability of academic and/or non-academic experiences. regarding the development of pathways for indigenous learners, key informants also discussed themes such as a system wide need for knowledge on indigenous needs, cultures, histories for everyone and a greater and more wholistic support services for learners across institutions. collaborative and informed action: identifying and creating pathways workshops during several of our in-person meetings, time was allocated to workshop sessions where first circle and second circle members were provided with a space to work collaboratively on exploring and creating pathways across our intuitions. initial workshop sessions included presentations of information and reflections on pathways development from first circle members, and invited guests. topics of presentations included overviews of phases i and ii of the project and the first circle model (articulation agreements, bridging/transition program, wrap around supports), and more specific topics such as creating and asset maps, finding alignment across programs, and curriculum mapping. once the group was provided with general information and resources on creating pathways, the focus of the workshops transitioned to exploring and creating pathways across partnering institutions. these workshops included overview presentations of each institutions asset maps, as well speed-dating to expedite to the identification of partnerships and potential pathways, and action planning sessions around implementing pathways. 9 speed dating: exploring potential pathways once partners presented their institutional asset maps, it was realized that there were ample and overwhelming opportunities for collaboration; the group required an organized method to effectively and efficiently guide how to proceed with identifying potential pathways. as such, partnering institutions participated in a speed-dating exercise to provide an opportunity for members to explore and identify potential partnerships (in terms of pathways development). speed dating dates back to the 1990s and originated from los angeles as a method for assisting jewish singles in meeting each other (finkel & eastwick, 2008). in particular, speed dating was created to provide opportunity for individuals with the same goal (meeting potential romantic partners) to efficiently explore their shared interests, and in particular, to quickly determine if they align (finkel & eastwick, 2008). following the same structure and organization of speed-dating, steering committee members underwent a series of brief (10-15 minute) meetings with potential partners. during these brief meetings, potential partners discussed interests, priorities, and opportunities around pathways for indigenous learners. all initial identified potential partnerships and pathways were recorded. overall, the speed-dating activity was well received by the group and was successful in facilitating the creation of diverse list of potential partnerships and pathways across partnering institutions. action planning and creating pathways for indigenous learners following the success of the speed-dating activity, potential partners undertook second, and third rounds of follow-up meetings to discuss and prioritize the emerging potential partnerships and pathways. it was at this time, that partnerships and pathways were solidified, and detailed action plans for formalizing pathways within home institutions were created. in the exploration and creation of pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions, pathways were defined as the direct transfer of credits from one program to another, in line with the definition used ministry of advanced education and skills development, government of ontario. however, partners were encouraged to consider pathways broadly, so that they were mindful of wrap around supports and services that would be available to learners throughout a pathway. additionally, partners were encouraged to consider opportunities for pathways that were multi-lateral as opposed to pathways that are unilateral, linear, or hierarchal, in consideration of indigenous pedagogies where education is wholistic and life-long (augustus, 2015). partners sought to create pathways that were obvious in terms of alignment across programs or that were reflective of enrolment of their indigenous learners. partners also sought to create pathways that would help to address current gaps in indigenous education, such as enrollment within the sciences and business, or that would help to meet needs of indigenous communities, such as language programming. throughout discussions on the development of pathways, partners were cognizant of the capacity of their institutions to support indigenous leaners coming from another institution, and in particular, the wrap-around supports services they could provide. 10 pathways for indigenous learners across ontarios postsecondary summary of pathways formal pathways overall, this work resulted in a diverse list of 18 pathways across 9 institutions, with additional formal and informal partnerships and potential pathways that are still undergoing discussions and planning. the pathways and partnerships identified offer opportunities for learners to build upon their education in the fields of indigenous studies, social services, environmental studies/science, business, education, general arts and science, governance, nursing, social sciences, history, aviation and language. the pathways that emerged include the following formats: diploma to degree, degree-to- degree, dual diploma, certificate to diploma (concurrently), or diploma to certificate. partners are in the process of formalizing and implementing pathways within their institutions through the creation of formal articulation and transfer agreements. refer to table 2 for a summary list and brief description of the pathways for indigenous learners that emerged. refer to appendix e for a sample articulation agreement that was created in earlier phases of this work. formal partnerships in addition to pathways development, a formal partnership emerged between first nations technical institute, sault college, algoma university, with confederation college, relating to the implementation of confederation colleges indigenous learning outcomes2 (ilos) ilos into their curriculum. informal partnerships in addition to formal pathways and partnerships for indigenous learners, there were also a series of informal partnerships and relationships that formed amongst the group, which also formed around support for indigenous learners. informal partnerships referred to collaborations between institutions that were not formally structured, or supported by formal documentation. for instance, mowhawk college and algonquin college discussed a partnership around their nursing programs; algonquin gets many applicants to their rpn to bscn program and their shared credential with ottawa university to their bscn program. mohawk college with six nations polytechnic and mcmaster university have an indigenous focused pathway for nursing with the practical nursing with aboriginal communities diploma and the rpn-bscn program. through their partnership, they will seek to work on a way to share applicants who are interested in the indigenous nursing programs. lastly, the relationships that were formed amongst the steering committee members are notable. relationships were built from a commitment to supporting indigenous learners, regular in 2 the indigenous learning outcomes were created by negahneewin council with negahneewin college (confederation college) and include: (1) relate principles of indigenous knowledge to career field. (2) analyze the impact of colonialism on indigenous communities. (3) explain the relationship between land and identity within indigenous societies. (4) compare indigenous and canadian perceptions of inclusion and diversity. (5) analyze racism in relation to indigenous peoples. (6) generate strategies for reconciling indigenous and canadian relations. (7) formulate approaches for engaging indigenous community partners. 11 person meetings, and shared group values and practices, and resulted in successful and ongoing collaboration and informed action. future potential pathways in addition to formal pathways and partnerships and informal partnerships and relationships, there was a diverse list of potential pathways that were identified amongst the group that did not undergo action planning on their implementation. these pathways have been recorded for future exploration. refer to appendix f for the list of additional potential pathways. curriculum and learning outcomes analysis as a part of the asset mapping process, partners had the opportunity to analyze their institutions curriculum and learning outcomes in relation to programming and courses for indigenous learners and opportunities for pathways development. as a result, this process also allowed for institutions to identify programs and courses that included indigenous content or learning outcomes. for instance, through a program wide analysis of the integration of ilos across college programming and courses, confederation college identified a series of courses and programs that included significant indigenous content (addressing 3 or more ilos). through this analysis, institutions were also able to identify where there were potential gaps in indigenous education, as well as identify potential opportunities for addressing these gaps through partnership with other institutions. in example, partnerships were formed around the implementation of confederation colleges ilos into curriculum within partnering institutions, including algoma university, sault college and fnti and confederation college. overall, this overview provided a foundation for, while also facilitating, discussions on the potential affinity programs and their alignment across partnering institutions. additionally partnering institutions created detailed action plans for curriculum and learning outcomes analysis pertaining to each of their identified pathways. community of practice: promising practices and lessons learned promising practices with guidance from first circle partners, the second circle helped to expand and grow the community of practice that was established in earlier phases of the work. in particular, the first circle of partners relied upon relationship building that was founded on customary processes to establish a common ground, and that was reinforced by regular in-person meetings at each others institutions (cpal, 2016). this community of practice succeeded in bringing together 3 distinct institutions who share a commitment to indigenous learners, and proved to be successful again in expanding to include partnerships with additional distinct institutions. group reflection among first and second circle steering committee members shed light on a series of promising practices. firstly, launching the project with a customary feast set the foundation for nature of the work, where partners had an opportunity to share a meal of local food together. this provided a space for minds to be nourished, and for relationships to initiate, prior to starting on the 12 work. meetings also always started and finished with a group reflection and a prayer, putting our minds and hearts into a shared space. there was consensus amongst the group that our model, and the shared values, practices and process that it encapsulates, was a best practice for creating pathways for indigenous learners. in particular, in-person meetings and workshops that included indigenous and non-indigenous representatives who held diverse roles in diverse institutions, were key to the success of the work as they created a space for cross-cultural dialogue and communication, which is also an identified need by key informants and in the literature (popovic, 2012). additionally, locating meetings at different institutions provided additional insight on the institutional landscapes of partnering institutions. lastly, the method of speed-dating was identified as a best practice for the group as it expedited the process of aligning interests and identifying partnerships amongst a large group of institutions with diverse programming and assets. there was consensus among the group that this was a breakthrough moment as it was a catalytic to our creation of pathways. lessons learned the success of this work resulted from the partnership and collaboration of a diversity of learning institutions in ontarios postsecondary; however, there were lessons learned surrounding the communication of the history of our work and on the integration of new institutional partners who joined at different and later stages of the project. in particular, there was a need for more effective communication to partners who were not in attendance at previous meetings or who joined later in the project, as much of the workshops built off of one another. for future phases of this work, it is recommended that new and current partners make a commitment to attendance at all regular in-person meetings as well as to hosting an in-person meeting. additionally, the steering committee represented a diversity of positions and roles from distinct postsecondary institutions, which resulted in a diverse range in institutional knowledge and experiences across the group. a lesson learned was that there was a need for communication on particular common language and acronyms used that may vary across steering members. lastly, the group was aware of the wrap around support services that are in place across partnering institutions; however, steering committee members wished that there was more time for discussions on how specific services or supports would underlie their identified pathways. a recommendation going forward is to allocate additional time to ensuring that particular wholistic wrap around supports are in place throughout a pathway and/or on exploring how wrap around supports could be streamlined across partnering institutions. going forward: conclusions and next steps through the creation of pathways, this work seeks to address gaps in access to postsecondary for indigenous learners. much work remains to be done on addressing this gap, and on reconciling with indigenous peoples in canada. recognizing this, project partners will continue to make commitments to promoting and advocating for the sustainability of this work. the next steps of this work are to continue 13 to build upon the support for and implementation of pathways for indigenous learners across our institutions, and to expand the circle to include additional interested partners. 14 references augustus, c. (2015). knowledge liaisons: negotiating multiple pedagogies in global indigenous studies courses. canadian journal of higher education, 44(4), 1-17. centre for policy in aboriginal learning (cpal) (2015). pathways for aboriginal learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities: final report 2015/16. dorfman, d. (1998). mapping community assets workbook. northwest regional educational laboratory: portland. popovic, t. (2012). credit transfer and student mobility in ontario: policy paper. retrieved from: http://collegestudentalliance.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/student-mobility-and-credit-transfer-in- ontario-may-2012-tamara-popovic.pdf kovach, m. (2012). indigenous methodologies. university of toronto press: toronto. finkel e., and eastwick, p. (2008). speed-dating. association of psychological science, 17, 3. wilson, s. (2008). research is ceremony. fernwood publishing: halifax & winnipeg. truth and reconciliation commission of canada (2015). truth and reconciliation commission of canada: calls to action. retrieved from: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/file/2015/findings/calls_to_action_english2.pdf 15 appendices: appendix a: list of steering committee membership institution representative first circle trent university dan longboat, indigenous environmental studies, director trent university don mccaskill, professor first nations technical institute adam hopkins, first nations technical institute, vice president academic first nations technical institute joyce helmer, quality teaching, learning and innovation lead centre for policy in aboriginal learning, confederation college s. brenda small, centre for policy in aboriginal learning, vice president second circle centre for policy in aboriginal learning, confederation college emily willson, project manager research, centre for policy in aboriginal learning lakehead university nancy luckai, provost &vice president, academic lakehead university dean jobin-bevans, interim dean, associate professor, faculty of social sciences and humanities jane manning, aboriginal bridging co-ordinator, lambton college sault college carolyn hepburn, dean, school of indigenous studies and academic upgrading sault college angelique lemay, director of quality assurance and pedagogy northern college diane ryder, manager of james bay programs & services canadore college jeannette miron, registrar and manager of institutional research 16 canadore college mary wabano, director, first peoples centre algoma university leslie macgregor, associate dean, student services school of access and success shane strickland, dean, school of health, negahneewin and community services dawn white, manager, academic development and quality assurance judy syrette, director of anishinaabe initiatives algoma university dave marasco, university registrar algonquin college sheryl fraser, chair, general art and science algonquin college andre obonsawin, aboriginal portfolio manager, mamidosewin centre amy keladis, manager, indigenous programs confederation college confederation college algoma university mohawk college first circle co-chair: s. brenda small second circle co-chair: carolyn hepburn 17 appendix b: asset map template pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges, and universities asset map for partnering institutions the purpose of this document is to assist you in summarizing information pertaining to programs, courses, supports, opportunities, services, etc for indigenous learners within your institution. this information will be helpful throughout the process of this work, in creating learning pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions. when possible, include institutional data that could be useful to or inform the development or creation of learning pathways. **feel free to copy & paste any relevant information from your website** asset description programs and courses (that have a focus on knowledge/pedagogy, culture, knowledge, etc, or where there are indigenous learners enrolled, or that are delivered within communities) programs courses services/support/ resources cultural support (i.e. feasts, sweatlodge, ceremonies, sharing circles) academic support (i.e. academic advising, tutoring, various workshops) individual support (i.e. on campus counselling, elders) financial support (i.e. bursaries, food vouchers, bus tickets, emergency funds, food bank) resource centres? peer mentoring e.g. connections to upper year mentors (please include any informal supports (i.e. rides, out of pocket expenses lunches, coffee)) if you have a gathering space/student 18 lounge/support centre, who typically uses this space? (i.e. 1st year students, 2nd, non-indigenous) do you offer post-graduation services? (i.e. career exploration, job bank, etc.) are there linkages with specific community supports that learners can access? (i.e. off campus counselling, cultural support, etc.) special events and/or cultural programming? informal supports (i.e. rides, out of pocket expenses lunches, coffee)? learner demographics when possible include institutional data do you have a system for obtaining indigenous learner numbers? do you have the numbers for each group? who keeps the data? (i.e. registrars, it, student success centre) where do your learners come from? urban reside in same location as institution or relocated from another urban setting rural reside in location that is within the region of institution, i.e. drive in first nation community or small town remote fly in first nation or inuit communities language is there a language barrier? is english a second language for some of your learners? age is there a higher concentration in a particular age range? education what education level are they entering with? parental status do you have a large number of learners who are parents? prior learning experiences what work experience or educational experience or a combination of both are they bringing with them? 19 staff please list the positions that work directly with indigenous learners or within the realm of support services. (i.e. managers, counsellors, advisors, navigators) are there indigenous studies administration, administrative positions held by indigenous peoples in your institution? are there indigenous counsellors, elders, and/or peer support workers available at your institution? learner recruitment how do indigenous learners typically find out about your institution? do you have a designated indigenous recruiter? if not, how are indigenous learners recruited? (i.e. through mainstream services) where are learners recruited and in what ways? if in schools, what grade levels are targeted? how do you recruit learners for new programs? is there a formal way of tracking this? who makes the initial contact? how is contact maintained? is there follow up or referral to another person or department made? what information is given and by whom? outreach and transition at what point is first contact made with potential indigenous learners application, registration or other? who makes the initial contact? how is contact maintained? is there follow up or referral to another person or department made? what information is given and by whom? 20 if they are directly from high school, does your department have relationships with guidance counsellors or others that work directly with indigenous learners? who helps learners with the transition to your institution? does your department assist with securing housing, daycare or other essential services for learners? does campus residence provide targeted accommodation for indigenous learners? are there specific transition services offered to indigenous learners transfer students? (i.e. separate orientation, eligibility for on campus housing) decision making who is responsible for making decisions for indigenous learners within your institution? are there any groups or councils (e.g. aboriginal education council) that assist in decision making for indigenous learners at your institution? if so, what groups? does your institution have indigenous representation in decision making processes e.g. sitting on the board of governors, sitting in on senior leadership meetings? institutional setting aside from curriculum, in what ways are indigenous knowledge(s) reflected within your institution? the cultures of learning institutions differ from each other; what potential adjustments would indigenous learners have to make as they enter another institution? (i.e. class size, what assignments are like (group presentations, essays, etc.) what does building of community look like at your institution? what pathways, for indigenous learners, between post- secondary institutions do you currently offer? does your institution have a designated position for 21 pathways related work? (e.g. a pathways coordinator who is responsible for the creation, development and support of pathways) does your institution have education or personal development opportunities to inform staff and students on indigenous cultures, education, canadian history, etc? student indigenous funding sources what funders do you currently have relationships with? is there someone from student supports who liaises with the funders? other (is there any other useful information that could help to inform our process of creating or supporting pathways for indigenous learners?) 22 appendix c: wrap around supports model comprehensive wrap around supports interaction belonging a framework is the enactment of a respectful relationship with the rest of creation which shares this earth with us a framework is never a noun never simply a metaphor it is more than any words which attempt to denotate it a framework is a journey/ing with 23 spiritual purpose love - we are given strength to walk through all that comes our way as we seek to understand the creators purpose for our lives. accessing elders on and off campus aboriginal counselling on and off campus opportunities for cultural practices opportunities for spiritual practices mental learning humility - academic bridging course intensive 1 or 2 week module adaptation of trents research and writing course adapting to systems in new post-secondary institution acknowledging and accepting indigenous cultural difference emotional reflection - truth e-portfolio (to be developed) completion of transition questionnaire/assessment (to be developed) weekly check ins with peer mentor/advisor managing time (transfer shock) self - direction (self-care, self-advocacy) counselling relational interaction - respect promotion of articulation agreements navigators college recruiters develop promotional materials: brochures, postcards, etc. 1st year aca, ncfs, et class visits 2nd year aca, ncfs, et class visits access programs class visits alumni base call/email/mail promotional material high schools career fairs virtual tours website promotion and information meeting with students who are pursuing and meet criteria of articulation agreement introduction to receiving institution staff and faculty assist with application process checking in not out once at receiving institution weekly check ins with peer mentor/advisor 24 follow up by support staff to faculty faculty engagement advocacy social belonging - honesty maintenance of cohort summer orientation biishka, kiikokanawge community connections friendship centres, family connections financial balance - wisdom income source funding logistics employment opportunities pre, mid, post moving costs budgeting bursary applications physical movement self direction courage housing/accommodations daycare, childrens schools safe neighbourhoods health care doctors, dentists, optometrists diet and exercise 25 appendix d: summary list of the identified pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions from aboriginal studies, algonquin college environmental studies, algonquin college aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college business, confederation college aboriginal canadian relations certificate, confederation college social service worker, native specialization, sault college social service worker diploma, fnti anishinaabemowin (ba), algoma university anishinaabemowin (ba), algoma university social service worker, native specialization, sault college anishinawbemowin immersion certificate, sault college anishinawbemowin immersion certificate, sault college gas certificate/diploma, mohawk college gas certificate/diploma, mohawk college gas certificate/diploma, mohawk college native child & family services, social services worker, confederation college to b.a. indigenous environmental studies/sciences, trent university b.a. indigenous environmental studies/sciences, trent university indigenous learning, b.a., lakehead university badmin or hbcomm, lakehead university concurrent diploma, algonquin college pathway type diploma to degree diploma to degree diploma to degree diploma to degree diploma + certificate / concurrently native child & family worker, diploma to confederation college diploma native child and family worker diploma diploma to program, confederation college diploma (for advanced for accreditation) bachelor of education, lakehead degree to degree university indigenous language teacher diploma degree to diploma program (iltdp), lakehead university b.a. social work, algoma university diploma to degree, articulation caat university native child and family worker, certificate to confederation college diploma, diploma to certificate / concurrently aboriginal community advocacy, certificate to confederation college diploma, diploma to certificate ba indigenous learning (can be certificate/diploma concurrent with bed program), lakehead to degree university certificate/ ba history (online), lakehead university diploma to degree certificate/ or hbed aboriginal p/j (thunder bay diploma to degree campus), lakehead university ba psychology; ba community and economic and social development; ba social work, algoma university diploma to degree 26 ba community economic and social development, algoma university concurrent aboriginal canadian relations certificate certificate (online) (concurrently), confederation college with degree public administrative and governance degree, fnti concurrent aboriginal canadian relations certificate (online) certificate, (concurrently), confederation with degree college 27 appendix e: a sample pathway pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: mohawk college - gas certificate/diploma to: lakehead university ba indigenous learning (can be concurrent with bed program); alternately, students can complete the ba or hba il and then apply to the bed consecutive. ba history (online) hbed aboriginal pj (thunder bay) pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: certificate or diploma degree n/a sept 2018 spring 2018 mohawk college amy kelaidis, manager indigenous programs amy.kelaidis@mohawkcollege.ca 905-575-1212 ext. 3118 lakehead university admissions mr. nic chamut, manager of undergraduate admissions, 807-3438676, nchamut@lakeheadu.ca hbed (aboriginal education) dr. don kerr, acting chair aboriginal education, 807-343-8695, dkerr1@lakeheadu.ca bed (concurrent and consecutive) dr. teresa socha, chair undergraduate studies, 807-343-8052, tsocha1@lakeheadu.ca indigenous learning (ba or hba) dr. robert robson, chair indigenous learning, 807-343-8973, robert.robson@lakeheadu.ca history (ba, online) dr. michel beaulieu, incoming chair history, 807- 28 343-8341, michel.beaulieu@lakeheadu.ca note - 4u english or equivalent (e.g. college communications courses) required as part of admission criteria map out articulation from gas college certificate map out articulation from gas college diploma eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): completion (or in progress) of either a certificate or diploma for admission consideration applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: students can be assessed based on their completed courses minimum program gpa or % 70% required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required minimum in the college communications course may be required for equivalency to 12u english - tbd in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to be tbd dependent upon student transcript; completion of college granted at receiving institution (please express as credential could lead to block transfer in each area a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): assessed on an individual basis tbd total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): assessed on an individual basis tbd 5 fc/ year anticipated time to complete the credential if dependent upon credential 29 enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs mohawk and lakehead 30 appendix f: list of potential pathways for future exploration partnering institutions confederation collge - trent university algoma university- algonquin college description potential pathway work together towards building a funding model to facilitate the foundation of the 4 week orientation program; create pathways between indigenous programs in to indigenous bed; create pathways with indigenous language program as an add on to our indigenous programs future potential for pathway for an entrepreneurship diploma and algoma university program to be determined canadore college - lakehead university working on the rec programs at lakehead - environmental tech - biotech programs; environmental sustainability offered in orillia canadore college - trent university lambton college - trent university ece program; iwap; program maps, course outlines and curriculum 2+2 into the bed, bscn program, indigenous ba from: enviromental technician-water & wastewater systems operations diploma to: bachelor of arts in indigenous environmental studies (honours) potential pathway two: from: liberal studies diploma to: bachelor of arts (honours) in indigenous studies canadore college - sault potential college to college pathway: canadores community diabetes college worker program (post-diploma) and sault colleges social service worker native specialization program (diploma) ; collaboration: explore summer intensive programming in both community diabetes worker program (cc) and fetal alcohol syndrome disorder program (sc) (video conferencing) with a possible 2018 implementation; possible online development delivery; potential pathway: canadores mental health and addiction worker program (diploma) and sault colleges fetal alcohol syndrome disorder program (post-diploma) fnti - canadore college aviation programs (flight, amt, ame), fnti, canadore college bachelor of aviation technology or bachelor of applied technology(flight program stream), tbd; diploma to degree 31 appendix g: testimonials: voices of our project partners "it is refreshing to be part of our oncat project that has led to colleges and universities collaborating rather than competing in developing the numerous new pathways and wrap around services we have put in place among our institutions for the benefit of our indigenous learners. we at trent are appreciative of the new partnerships we have established with colleges through the province". -don mccaskill, trent university the collective power of open minds and hearts working together is very hard to properly put into words; however, because of this intangible process, commitment, and deliverables were achieved with a more holistic impact. i thoroughly witnessed and felt the continued effort put forth by each and every member to the ultimate benefit of our indigenous learners. very meaningful and purposeful work. -leslie macgregor, confederation college at the centre of all our discussions and sharing of information, is what is in the best interest of the indigenous learner. through collaboration and best practices, our learners are the recipients. -sherrly fraser, algonquin college the aboriginal pathways project funded in 2016-17 has created several opportunities for meaningful dialogue between the involved institutions. although lakehead has always been open to creating pathways that address the needs of aboriginal learners, this particular project has brought key players together to identify individual and common strengths as well as opportunities for improvement. most importantly, it has provided incentive and opportunity for collaboration. continuation of the project will, in our opinion, enhance pathways for aboriginal learners resulting in a wider array of economic and educational options. -nancy lukai, lakehead university participating in this project has been a tremendous learning experience. the process of relationship building grounded in shared group values provided a strong foundation for collaborative and informed action. the shared commitment to indigenous learners was core - what impacted me the most is how members of the group regularly brought the discussion back to what it means for the individual student's experience. this resulted in work that was genuinely student-centric. -dawn white, algoma university it was an absolute pleasure serving on the pathways for indigenous learners committee. while the work of the committee continues, the deliberations were refreshing, active and collaborative and gave the participating institutions an opportunity to build community in support and providing opportunities for indigenous learners. algoma university was fortunate to be part of the group in discovery and sharing knowledge. -dave marasco, algoma university sault college is pleased to have been a part of this innovative project which clearly demonstrated how indigenous worldview and ways of knowing can effectively be incorporated into the work we do as post- 32 secondary educators. in addition to the number of identified pathways and initiatives that are a result of this project, it has also been a catalyst in creating an environment of mutual collaboration between the participating institutions that will continue to contribute to the advancement of indigenous education in ontario in the years to follow. -carolyn hepburn, sault college 33 appendix h: sample articulation agreement refer to the document below. 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

the impact of labour market and policy changes on university transfer: the case study of early childhood education. ursula mccloy, mitchell steer, henry decock centre for research in student mobility, seneca college december 2015 esearch mobility 64-70 the centre for research in student mobility 8 the seneca way markham, on l3r 5y1 416-491-5050 x77939 senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch acknowledgements this project was funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). mustafizur rahman, john meskes, and michael cunningham of senecas information technology services department supported data extraction from the senecas student information system. limin chen of senecas office of institutional research and planning was an invaluable source of information on all the survey and data fields. the york-seneca data was collected during a previous study funded by the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) entitled: transfer pathways in higher education: york university and seneca college as a case study. that study was conducted by richard smith, sylvia lin, robindra sidhu and diane piaskoski of york university, and john meskes, henry decock and ursula mccloy of seneca college. dilys leman edited the report and matthew duncan formatted the document for submission. the authors wish to thank all those who made this research possible. 1 executive summary ontario colleges predominantly offer programming which leads to specific occupations in the labour market rather than further education. nevertheless, students and graduates are enrolling in many college programs with the intention to transfer to a university degree. early childhood education (ece) is a two year diploma program that prepares graduates directly for the labour market but also historically has had a high transfer rate to university. using the ece program in ontario as a case study, the interaction between the labour market and transfer to university was studied. several changes have occurred in the ece profession in ontario that have the potential to alter a students decision to transfer. these include the establishment of the college of early childhood educators in 2008, the phase-in of full-day kindergarten (fdk) between 2010 and 2014, the reduced demand for certified teachers, and the introduction of ece-related college degrees (starting in 2008). therefore, the overarching research question for this study is: how have the recent labour market and policy changes affected transfer to university for ece graduates? to answer this question analysis was performed on ece graduates at a province-wide and at a college-level. research questions: provincial-wide (ontario) what are the labour market trends for recent ece graduates in ontario? what are the trends in transfer rates to university after graduation from college ece programs? why do ece graduates transfer to university? have these reasons changed recently? what institutions and programs are ece transfers choosing? has the pattern changed? research questions: institutional-level analysis (seneca) what is the profile of ece entrants who aspire to transfer to university after graduation? what is the profile of ece graduates who transfer to university? what are the outcomes after transfer? methodology: there were two phases to the study. one was a provincial (ontario) analysis which included ece diploma graduates between the years 2007 and 2014. the graduate satisfaction survey, which is mandated and funded by the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities, was used to measure trends in employment, wages, transfer rates to university, and the transfer experience six months after graduation. the survey response rate was 70%, for a total sample of 18,165 respondents. the second phase focussed on 1) senecas ece students who entered the program between 2002 and 2014 and 2) senecas ece graduates between 2007 and 2014. for entrants, the academic and sociodemographic profiles of those who aspired to university at entry and those who did not were compared. the entrants sample size comprised of 5108 students. for graduates, the graduate satisfaction survey responses were linked to senecas comprehensive student information system, enabling the tracking of students from high school to college entry, graduation, and transfer to university. the sample size used for analysis contained 1503 ece graduates. the influence of sociodemographic and academic factors on the likelihood of aspiring to university and eventual transfer six months after graduation were assessed using both descriptive and regression models. sociodemographic factors included citizenship, age, and first language; academic factors included language proficiency (placement), high school background, previous university attendance and seneca gpa. in addition, a dataset developed previously containing all seneca students who had also attended york university was explored specifically for ece graduates to obtain a measure of outcomes after 2 transfer and mobility trends over time. this sample contained 472 ece graduates who had attended york university before or after enrolling in ece at seneca college. results: in 2014, ece graduates in ontario had an unemployment rate of 8%, half of the provincial average. hourly wages, when adjusted for inflation, have increased by 8% between 2007 and 2014 for ece graduates, compared to a drop of 6% for non-ece graduates. concurrently, the transfer rate to university has dropped from 17% in 2007 to 6% for 2014 graduates. at seneca college, ece entrants plans for university after graduation have dropped considerably in recent years, from 59% in 2009-10 to 35% in 2014-15, with plans for employment increasing from 26% to 46%. partially responsible for this result is a change in the composition of the students entering ece. in recent years ece students are more likely to be international, to be older and to have previously attended university. regression analysis showed that, controlling for other characteristics and year of entry, younger students, those who had taken university preparatory courses in high school, and those who obtained lower marks in high school were more likely to aspire to go on to university. similar to the trend seen provincially, transfer rates to university for senecas ece graduates dropped dramatically from 31% in 2007 to 6% in 2014. in addition to fewer entering students aspiring to transfer, the transfer rate for those who did aspire to go to university has also dropped. regression analysis showed that, independent of a variety of characteristics, those with aspirations for university, younger students, and those with higher seneca grades were more likely to transfer, whereas those with previous university, and those who graduated since 2010 were less likely. the independent effect of graduating year shows that the labour market and policy changes have had an effect in reducing transfer to university. for ece graduates from seneca who continued on to york between 2007 and 2012, 94% received at least one year of credit. between 2007 and 2011, 73% had already graduated or were in progress, with some of those who discontinued at york re-entering senecas bachelor of child development degree (bcd). recently, senecas bcd degree surpassed york as a degree destination for ece graduates, with 14% of senecas 2011-12 ece graduates continuing directly on to bcd, compared with 8% to york university. on a provincial level, university transfers who graduated from ece after 2010 were more likely to report that the program they transferred into was very related to their previous program, an increase to 54% from 45% in the 2007-2010 period. similarly, university transfers since 2010 were also more likely to report receiving more than one year of credit. post 2010, university transfers were less likely to cite needed for professional designation (-6.4%), or to pursue a different field of study (-3.6%) as reasons for transfer, indicative of both the regulatory changes in the field and an increase in alignment. conclusions: this paper demonstrates that a students decision to progress from a professional program like ece into university is not made in isolation from external factors. labour market conditions, the regulatory environment, and competition from related college degree offerings can all influence a students decision making. the results of this study suggest that, even when controlling for individual student characteristics that may influence transfer, transfer nevertheless declined as a result of, and concurrent with, the combined impact of changes to the ece profession in ontario. 3 introduction early childhood education (ece) is the largest college program in ontario, with well over 4000 graduates in 2014, a 47% increase since 2007. the role of ece professionals in the economy and society is immense, with the responsibility to plan, organize and implement programs for children between the ages of infancy and 12 years. 1 statistics canada notes that ece professionals are employed in child-care centres, daycare centres, kindergartens, agencies for exceptional children and other settings. 2 data from 2012 indicate that almost 80% of women in ontario with a youngest child under 15 years of age participate in the paid workforce, resulting in over 826,000 children needing care (friendly, halfon, beach & forer, 2013). the ece program in ontario is typically a two year college diploma, from which graduates either directly enter employment or, in some cases, transfer to a university for a degree. historically, ece graduates have experienced strong employment rates, but comparatively low wages (beach, 2013). despite the strong labour market demand and in some cases shortages, ece graduates have had one of the highest rates of transfer to university of all college programs in ontario (decock, 2006; decock, mccloy, liu & hui, 2011). however, changes to the ece field in recent years are likely contributing to the increased number of ece graduates who choose not to continue on to university, but to enter the labour market following completion of their college program. the largest change has been the regulation of the profession in ontario. this occurred with the passing of the early childhood educators act, 2007, which established the college of early childhood educators (the college) as the professions regulatory body. consequently, early childhood educators in ontario must now meet specific education and experience standards. 3 use of the title early childhood educator or registered early childhood educator is restricted to practitioners who meet the colleges eligibility requirements. another major change occurred in 2010, when ontario introduced full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds, teaming together certified teachers and registered early childhood educators (ontario ministry of education, 2010). the program was fully implemented across the province by the fall of 2014, contributing to an increased demand for registered early childhood educators (reces). 4 ontarios early childhood educator/assistant workforce increased 9% between 2012 and 2014. the median hourly rate for reces is $16.94 (emsi, 2015), well below the rate for early childhood educators employed in full-day kindergarten programs. 5 in response to concerns that reces in licensed day cares earned less than their counterparts in the school system, the ontario government announced in january 2015 an hourly increase of $1 for reces earning below $26.27 per hour. 6 1 see statistics canadas description of the 2011 national occupational classification (noc) code for early childhood educators, available at: http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3vd.pl?function=getvd&tvd=122372&cvd=122376&cpv=4214&cst=01012 011&clv=4&mlv=4 2 ibid. 3 see the college of early childhood educators website at: https://www.collegeece.ca/en/becomeamember/pages/who-is-required-to-join.aspx 4 see seneca college website at http://www.senecacollege.ca/media/eceebackground.html 5 a recent toronto district school board job posting showed an hourly rate range of $26.84 to $31.92. 6 a review of ontarios policy for wage subsidies for ece workers can be found in bird and halfon, 2015, available at: http://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/15/04/piecemeal-solutions-get-piecemealresults-addressing-wages- 4 prior to these changes, the pathway from an ece diploma to a university degree was an attractive option for ece graduates seeking certification as an elementary or secondary school teacher. most teacher education programs require applicants to have a degree or to transfer into concurrent or consecutive degree programs such as york universitys bachelor of arts/ bachelor of education. however, interest in this pathway has likely waned because of the decreased demand for certified teachers in kindergarten to grade 12 (k12) and a reduction in the number of seats in these degree programs. survey data from the ontario college of teachers show that in 2001, 70% of ontarios teaching graduates obtained regular teaching jobs; by 2014, the rate had dropped to 19% (ontario college of teachers, 2015). correspondingly, the number of applicants dropped from a peak of over 16,000 in 2007 to under 10,000 in 2014 (ontario university application centre, 2015). taken together, the data suggest there is reduced demand on the part of ece graduates for the university transfer pathway that leads to teacher certification. in 2008, seneca college launched a degree program in child development, providing a pathway for ece graduates to attain a related degree within ontarios college system. several other colleges soon followed suit, introducing degree programs in child development, early childhood leadership, and early learning program development (table 1). the introduction of these programs offers entering students the option of earning a degree in ece without having to transfer to a university, and completion of a degree for ece diploma graduates. most of these programs7 provide a one semester bridging program, followed by entry into third year, enabling students to complete a degree program in only four or five semesters. table 1. ontario colleges offering ece-related degree programs mtcu program title bachelor of applied arts (child development) bachelor of early childhood leadership college seneca humber fanshawe george brown sheridan bachelor of early learning program development total # graduates conestoga college program title bachelor of child development bachelor of child and youth care* bachelor of early childhood leadership bachelor of early childhood leadership bachelor of early childhood leadership bachelor of early learning program development program start date 2008 2011 2010 total # graduates by 2013-14 207 -27 2010 26 2010 80 2014 -- 340 note: although humbers program has the same mtcu title and code as seneca's, it is the only one listed without an ece degree completion pathway since it is more closely aligned with the field of child and youth worker. 7 information on these programs is available the these colleges websites: https://www.sheridancollege.ca/academics/programs-and-courses/bachelor-of-early-childhood-leadership.aspx; http://www.georgebrown.ca/c301-2016-2017/; https://www.fanshawec.ca/programs-and-courses/program/ecl1bachelor-early-childhood-leadership/next-year#group_more_info 5 in 2011, the ontario government made enhanced mobility between the college and university sectors a priority, investing $73.7 million over five years (2011-2016) in a credit transfer framework designed to increase alignment and reduce duplication of course work when qualified students move between postsecondary institutions (mtcu, 2011). this initiative places greater emphasis on partnership agreements and transfer advising services at colleges and universities. it doesnt focus specifically on measures to increase the number of transfers, but could positively affect the transfer experience. much of the research on transfer to university focuses on institutional factors such as articulation agreements, advising, and the provision of accurate information (arnold, 2012). other research, primarily american, has shown the effect of individual factors such as aspirations, sociodemographics, academic background, and language skill level on the propensity for transfer to university (dougherty & kienzl, 2006). high educational aspirations, both in high school and in postsecondary, have been shown to positively influence eventual educational attainment. australian research showed that educational aspirations in high school were influenced by socioeconomic status, whereas the realization of aspirations was not (homel & ryan, 2014). dougherty and kienzl (2006) showed that two-year college students in the united states, who aspired at entry to transfer to four-year degree programs were much more likely to transfer, independent of social background and academic preparation. crisp and delgado (2014) showed that students enrolled in developmental language courses in two-year community college programs were less likely to transfer. similarly, engle and tinto (2008) showed that only 18% of students who were both low-income and first-generation students transferred from two-year public colleges compared with 53% of those who were neither. limited canadian data from ontario and british columbia have shown that in comparison to other university students, university applicants who indicated they had transferred from a college were more likely to be of aboriginal heritage, have a disability, come from a lower-income household, and/or have parents who had not completed postsecondary education (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). most studies on transfer to university do not focus on occupation-based programs. the study described here measures the cumulative effect of individual, sociodemographic and academic/education factors on whether students continue on to university from the ece program. although these background factors clearly have a role, they may have less influence in a professional/occupation-based field of study such as ece, compared to a liberal or general arts field. labour market and policy changes in the profession may have a profound impact on the type of student who is attracted to a program and their professional and further education aspirations. therefore, this study will look at both the broader labour market environment at the provincial level, using the ontario graduate satisfaction survey (provides data on graduate outcomes) and at an institutional level to determine the effect of individual sociodemographic and academic factors on transfer to university. the overarching research question for this study is: how have the recent labour market and policy changes affected transfer to university for ece graduates, both at the provincial and institutional level? research questions include those at the provincial level and individual level of analysis. provincial-level analysis (ontario) what are the trends in labour market participation, employment outcomes, and earnings for recent ece graduates in ontario? what are the trends in transfer rates to university after graduation from ece college programs? why do ece graduates transfer to university? have these reasons changed recently? 6 what institutions and programs are ece graduates choosing? has the pattern in demand changed? are ece graduates entering programs that more closely align to their college credential? has the amount of reported transfer credit changed? institutional-level analysis (seneca) what are the trends in the entering ece classes at seneca? how many ece students have previously attended university? how many plan to attend university after graduation from seneca? what are the academic and sociodemographic backgrounds of seneca ece graduates who aspire to university? what are the academic and sociodemographic backgrounds of ece graduates who transfer from seneca to university? controlling for student backgrounds and their potential changes over time, are transfer trends a consequence of a changing student profile, or are there other external factors at play? what are the outcomes after transfer? how much transfer credit did students receive? how did they perform academically? to help understand what influences transfer and transfer outcomes, a framework was created to guide and interpret the analysis (figure 1): a students socioeconomic status (income and parental education), age, gender, academic background (high school (hs) performance, previous pse, language and math skills) potentially affect how they perform at college, whether they aspire to university after college and follow through on those aspirations, and their success after transfer. aspirations for university can directly and positively affect academic performance at college since the student is often highly motivated to meet admission standards set under transfer policies and agreements. external factors such as labour market conditions related to their college program, and enhanced institutional infrastructure (e.g. articulation agreements with universities, student advising on transfer options), and degree offerings at college can influence which type of student aspires to transfer, whether the student actually transfers, and post-transfer success and experience afterwards. 7 figure 1. influencers on student transfer and transfer outcomes: a framework methods the analysis was specific to the ece program and was conducted at both a provincial (ontario) and institutional level (seneca college). both these levels of analysis use the graduate satisfaction survey, which is mandated and funded by the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu). the institutional-level analysis uses data from this survey as well as comprehensive student-level data from the colleges student information system. provincial analysis graduate satisfaction survey the graduate satisfaction survey is administered to all college graduates with an ontario college credential from a publically funded college of applied arts and technology (caat).8 it is administered approximately six months after graduation through telephone surveys conducted by an external service provider to whom the colleges provide contact information and graduate characteristics such as age, gender, and program of study. the mtcu uses the results to gauge the performance of colleges on three of the five key performance indicators (kpis) graduate satisfaction rate, employment rate, and employer satisfaction rate each of which are tied to a modest sum of performance funding and are made public. additionally, the survey asks the graduate if they went on to further education. the survey had an average response rate of 67% between 2007 and 2014. graduates who indicate they are working full or part time are asked several employment-related questions. full time students are not asked any labour market questions. this study uses the following variables from the graduate satisfaction survey: 8 see the ministry of training, colleges and universities (2009). framework for programs of instruction. 8 labour market variables 9 unemployment rate: percent of respondents in the labour force who are not working. the labour force is defined as those who are available and are either looking for work or working. status after graduation: a derived variable based on all survey respondents, comprising those who are: 1) studying full or part time, and not working; 2) working in a related field; 3) working in a partially related field; 4) working in an unrelated field; and 5) neither in school nor working, regardless of labour force status. hourly salary: those employed full or part time and reporting an hourly wage of between $2 and $100. further education variables these include institution and credential type, program of study, and name of institution entered, and are reflective of a students status during a specified reference week six months after graduating. this may lead to an underestimate of a transfer rate, particularly for students who graduate in the fall term since their reference week would be in june/july, a non-traditional enrolment semester. transfer experience and perceptions: includes reported amount of transfer credit; relatedness of university program entered to program of graduation; reasons for furthering their education. these questions are asked only of those enrolled in full-time programs. more than 70% of graduates from ontarios two-year ece diploma program (mtcu code 51211) responded to the survey, for a total sampling of 18,165 respondents for the years 2007 to 2014. institutional-level analysis the institutional level of analysis focuses on seneca colleges ece diploma program. it examines the impact of sociodemographic and academic factors on student transfer aspirations and transfers to university. analysis sample: seneca offers several ece-related diploma programs, two of which are excluded from the foregoing institutional-level analysis the intensive, two-semester early childhood education (program code ecee) 10 and the three-year child development practitioner (program code ecef) because of their unique points of entry. the two-semester program is for students who hold a bachelor of education degree (primary/junior specialization) upon entry; applicants are not required to complete an english placement test or the entering student survey. the child development practitioner program is an apprenticeship program for those already working in the ece field; applicants do not apply through ocas and do not complete placement tests or the entering student survey. since the graduate sample was restricted to those who had completed both the entering student survey and the graduate satisfaction survey graduates of these two programs were excluded. for ece entrants, the sample consisted of 5108 students who started between 2002 and 2014. of ece graduates, 81.4% completed the entering student survey, 75% completed the graduate satisfaction survey, and 59% completed both, for a final sample size of 1503. this subset of graduate records was linked with senecas student information system, which contains data on high school performance, grades and enrolment status at 9 variables derived from the mtcu graduate satisfaction survey codebook and data set were used for labour market variables. 10 the ecee program is not currently being offered. 9 seneca, and postal code. the graduates postal code was linked to the 2006 census to determine neighbourhood income (figure 2). a master id was assigned to match as many records between the data sets as possible and to remove duplicates. this process entailed verifying a students identity using a combination of first name, last name, date of birth, and postal code, as well as the alternate ids already identified within the colleges system. for details on the ece sample used for analysis, see appendix 1. figure 2. linked student-level data set, seneca college high school records: for every seneca student who attended an ontario high school, the colleges student information system contains one record for every high school course the student took from grade 9 through to grade 12 (or ontario academic courses, oac 11). the subset used for this studys analysis included only those students who had a minimum of six courses from grade 11, 12, or oac. the overall senior high school average was calculated from all grade 11 and 12/oac course grades. to get a sense of whether the student struggled in high school, the total number of grade 11 or 12 courses failed was also calculated. two variables were created to take into consideration whether a student took a mainly university preparatory or college preparatory course stream, defined as mostly u or mostly c, respectively. the variable mostly u was defined as having a minimum of half of grade 11 and 12 courses as university (u) or university/college (m) preparatory type, whereas mostly c was defined as having a minimum of half of grade 11 and 12 courses that were of the college preparatory type (c). for high school transcripts predating the double cohort, courses from the previous advanced stream were considered university preparatory, while those from the general stream were considered college preparatory. additionally, an eligible for admission to an ontario university variable was created. for university admission, ontario high school students are required to have at least six grade 12 u or m 11 the former ontario high school curriculum (os:is) contained a 5th year (oac) which was phased out in 2002. the graduating class of the final phase-out year was labelled the double cohort, since it comprised both 4 and 5 year graduates. 10 courses (or 6 oac pre-2002), with the admission average at the discretion of the institution. a review of entrance high school averages reported by ontario universities in common university data ontario (cudo)12 indicate that the minimum reported secondary school average was approximately 70%. therefore, high school students were considered to be eligible for university entrance if their high school average was at least 70% in their top six grade 12 u/ m or oac courses. neighbourhood income: for a proxy of each students household income, the students permanent postal code was matched to household income data from the 2006 census for students from ontario only. therefore, international students and students from outside ontario were excluded from this analysis. for international students, even if they did have an ontario permanent address on record, it would not reflect the income level of the neighbourhood in which they were raised. using the six-digit permanent postal code in the colleges student information system, students from ontario were assigned to a 2006 dissemination area (da) using the statistics canada postal code conversion file (pccf). if a students permanent postal code was missing or invalid, the ontario high school postal code was used. a students neighbourhood income group was derived by splitting the das 13 into terciles of low, medium and high income based on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households. english-language placement testing: most entering students at seneca, depending on the program, are required to complete an english-language placement test (comprising a short essay) to assess writing proficiency, and a standardized test (accuplacer) to assess reading comprehension. based on the test results, students are placed in one of the following english-language categories/programs: non-credit english for english language learners (ell). courses offered at three levels of proficiency below college-level english. non-credit english for native-english speakers. below college level. college-level english (credit). required for all certificate/diploma programs. degree-level english. required for some degree programs. exempt from college-level english. for the purposes of this study, three categories of english-language proficiency were created including: 1) below college-level english ell; 2) below college-level english (native english speakers); and 3) at or above college-level english. entering-student survey: during the mandatory placement testing, all seneca students must complete a background survey. this survey inquired into the following variables: 12 13 university aspirations upon entry to the college: after graduation from my program, i plan to previous university: the last school i attended was first language: the language i learned first was whether either parent has attained a university degree: the highest level of education completed by my father/guardian is (includes a separate question for mother) see the common university data ontario website at http://cudo.cou.on.ca/ in ontario, the average da comprises 236 economic families. 11 in cases where two or more complete surveys exist, the earliest record was used to reflect a students true entering status. the parental education question was initiated in 2006, and therefore was not used in the regression analysis, however descriptive results are provided. the previous university variable is limited because entering students are only asked about the last school they attended and not whether they have ever attended university or have completed a credential. college performance: full transcripts of all seneca students who had ever registered in ece programs were extracted from the colleges student information system. overall gpa was calculated from the average of all courses ever taken at seneca which had a credit value. gpas were grouped into three categories including <3.0, 3.0 to 3.5, and greater than 3.5. a gpa of less than a 3.0 was chosen since it is the cut-off for transfer to most university programs. since the focus of this study is on transfer to university, courses that may have been taken prior to the ece credential were included in the overall gpa, because they remain a part of the students transcript when applying. seneca courses that were completed after graduation from ece were not included. york-seneca database: york university, senecas largest transfer partner, collaborated with the college on a project to link all students who attended both institutions between 2001 and 2012. details on the creation of the data set and derived variables are available in a forthcoming report (smith et al., forthcoming). this data set was used for the current project, specifically for ece graduates who attended york between 2001 and 2012 and had graduated from senecas ece program between 2007 and 2012. measures obtained included status at york as of 2012 (graduated, in progress, discontinued), number of transfer credits provided by york, and york gpa (converted to percentage). in total, the data set comprises 472 seneca ece graduates who had attended york either before or after graduating from ece. analytic methods descriptive results are presented for the key variables in the analysis, including sociodemographic and academic characteristics of ece entrants who aspire to university, as well as for those who graduate and ultimately transfer. to control for the independent effects of each variable, regression models were run with the binary outcomes of: 1) whether or not a student aspired to university at entry, and 2) whether or not the graduate transferred to university (degree and non-degree) or 3) whether or not the graduate transferred to a degree at college or university. multiple models were run with various subgroups included to avoid multicollinearity. for example, high school grades and seneca grades are highly correlated and therefore were entered in the same regression analysis. both ordinary least squares (ols) and probit regressions were conducted (evaluated at the mean) and proved to be sign consistent and very comparable in magnitude therefore only ols regression results are shown. results provincial analysis provincial ece labour market trends figure 3 shows the education and labour market status of all ece graduates for the years 200607 to 201314. the results show a steady increase, particularly since 2010, in the percentage of ece graduates working in a related field, and a concurrent decline in the percentage of those furthering their education. the percentage of graduates working in a related field rose from 56% in 2010 to 68% in 2014, 12 whereas the percentage of graduates furthering their education fell from 22% to 16% over the same period. based on this data, when taking into account the increase in the number of graduates, it is estimated that almost 1200 new graduates were employed in ece-related jobs between 2007 and 2014, whereas the number furthering their education held constant (data not shown). figure 3. employment and education status of early childhood education graduates, 6 months after graduation, 200607 to 201314 80 70 59 percentage 60 62 61 59 68 66 56 55 50 40 30 25 26 24 22 19 20 17 16 16 10 0 2007 2008 studying not working 2009 2010 job related/ partially related 2011 2012 job not related 2013 2014 not working or studying figure 4 shows that relative to other college graduates, ece graduates continually have had strong employment, a trend which has held despite much larger numbers of graduates entering the labour force rather than returning to school, as described above, and despite the 2008-09 recession. in contrast, non-ece graduates have struggled since the 200809 recession, with more than twice the unemployment rate as ece graduates. 13 figure 4. unemployment rate for ontario ece graduates, 20072014 20.0 17.8 17.8 18.0 17.5 17.4 17.1 15.9 16.0 percentaage 14.0 12.0 10.0 8.0 6.0 11.2 9.9 10.0 9.8 9.4 5.8 8.1 8.0 7.5 5.5 4.0 2.0 0.0 2007 2008 2009 2010 ece 2011 2012 2013 2014 non ece note: unemployment rate was calculated as the percent of respondents who indicated they were available and looking for work in the reference week. it is the inverse of the mtcus kpi employment rate. ece graduates have maintained strong employment and made major gains in starting wages. figure 5 shows that hourly wages have approached those of non-ece graduates, increasing by 22% unadjusted for inflation since 2007, versus an increase of only 7% for non-ece graduates over the same period. when adjusting for inflation, 14 hourly wages have increased by 8% since 2007, compared to a drop of 6% for non-ece graduates. the increase in hourly wages of ece graduates has outstripped the inflationadjusted hourly wage for ontarians aged 15 and over, which has increased by 3% since 2007. figure 5. average hourly wages, ece and non-ece ontario college graduates, 200714 18 17 16.6 16.2 16.5 16.8 16.5 dollars 14 13.7 13.9 13.8 14.1 16.8 16.7 17.3 15.9 16 15 16.8 14.6 15.2 13 12 11 10 2007 2008 2009 2010 ece 14 calculated using the ontario cpi, in 2007 dollars. 2011 non ece 2012 2013 2014 14 provincial trends in ece transfers to university figure 6 shows that the provincial transfer rate to university for ece graduates dropped sharply during the period of study. it fell from 17% in 200607 to 6.2% in 201314, with much of the change occurring as of 2010. in contrast, the decrease in the provincial non-ece transfer rate was much less, from 7.5% to 5.6%, with much of the change occurring recently between 2011-12 and 2013-14. between 2006-07 and 2010-11, ece had the highest volume of transfers to university of any ontario college program. however, by 2013-14, it had fallen to a fifth-place ranking (analysis not shown). even with this large decline, the transfer rate to university for ece programs continues to be higher than the system wide non-ece average. figure 6. percentage of ece and non-ece ontario graduates transferring to university, 200607 to 201314 18 17.0 16.5 15.6 16 15.4 percenatage 14 12.2 12 10.3 10 8 8.9 7.5 7.0 7.3 7.0 7.1 6.9 6.3 6 6.2 5.6 4 2 0 2007 2008 2009 transfer to university- ece 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 transfer to university- non-ece since the graduate satisfaction survey asks about the graduates activity during a specific reference week six months after graduation, fall graduates in particular are less likely to be enrolled in university over the summer months. as the share of fall and summer ece graduates comprise a significant portion of the total graduates (13% and 17% respectively), it is important to break out the transfer rates by term. the results clearly show a higher transfer rate for winter graduates, who can follow a more traditional university enrolment pattern of a fall entry point (table 2). table 2. percentage of ece and non- ece ontario graduates transferring to university, by term of graduation, 200607 to 201314 term graduated program 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 summer non-ece 6% 6% 5% 5% 5% 5% 4% 4% ece 8% 12% 11% 8% 6% 5% 5% 4% fall non-ece 3% 2% 3% 3% 2% 2% 3% 2% ece 2% 2% 2% 2% 3% 3% 1% 2% winter non-ece 9% 8% 9% 8% 8% 8% 8% 7% ece 21% 21% 20% 20% 16% 13% 11% 8% 15 institutional-level analysis: seneca as a case study characteristics of entering ece students at seneca because the decline in transfer rate is likely occurring as a result of changing class composition as well as external factors, the study examined how aspirations to university, and previous university experience, have changed among seneca entrants. the entering classes from 200203 to 201415 were analyzed. figure 7 shows a continual increase since 2008 in the percentage of senecas ece students who indicated their last school was university, from 6% to 18%. some of this increase is due to the increase in international students entering ece, who often have previous university experience 15, with 37% of international students having attended university previously, compared to 7% of non-international students that said, the share of non-international entrants with previous university has also increased, doubling from 5.5% to 11% since 2009. figure 7. percentage of entering ece students who previously attended university, seneca students, 200203 to 201415 20 18 18 percentage 16 14 14 11 12 9 10 8 6 4 2 6 5 5 9 6 6 10 7 2 0 over the same time period, the rate of entering students with plans to attend university after graduation dropped dramatically, accompanied by a large increase in the rate of those with plans to enter the workforce (figure 8). the effect of the double cohort is clearly evident in 200304, when the rate of graduates planning to attend university increased from 57% to 71%, before dropping back to 62% the following year. likely these are students who either chose the college-to-university transfer route, or were not accepted directly to university. between 2004 and 2009, approximately 60% of the entering class had aspirations for university after graduation, which then steadily dropped to 35% by 2014. the share of those interested in employment after graduation increased dramatically from 26% to 46%. a 15 the share of international students entering ece increased dramatically, from 2% in 2002 to 19% in 2014, with most of the increase occurring in 2013 and 2014. 16 large share of entrants also had plans for a seneca degree, however this does not compensate for the decrease in aspirations for university. figure 8. plans for post-graduation, percentage of entering ece students, seneca students, 200203 to 201415 80 70 59 percentage 60 46 50 40 30 26 20 35 10 0 university employment seneca degree note: categories not shown include other college programs and other plans. to determine whether the large increase in ece graduates with previous university was responsible for the decrease in aspirations for university, the study compared two groups of entering students those with previous university and those with none (figure 9). as expected, those with previous university were far less likely to plan for further university. however, the large increase in plans for employment and the associated decrease in plans for university still hold for the group with no previous university. 17 figure 9. plans for post-graduation: percentage of entering seneca ece students with and without previous university, 200203 to 201415 80 70 percentage 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 university employment university previous university employmemt no previous university 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2008-09 who aspires to university? figures 10 and 11 show the profiles of all entering ece students with plans for university for the years 2002 to 2015. younger students, canadian citizens, and those who report english as their first language were more likely to plan to transfer to university, whereas parental education and income level were similar for those who aspired and those who did not. in addition, those who were placed in below college-level english for non-native english speakers had lower aspirations for university. entering students with high school grades under 70% and those who had failed any high school courses were more likely to plan to attend university than those with high school grades over 70% and those with no high school failures. an explanation for this is evident. the group with a stronger high school performance are also more likely to have already attended university, and are thus less likely to be interested in returning. of the group with no previous university, 48% of those who aspired to university took mainly university prep courses in high school, compared to 35% of those who did not aspire to university. gpa played a role: 57% of those who aspired had a high school gpa of less than 70%, compared to 51% of those who did not aspire. these findings suggest that for some ece students, aspirations started in high school, but academic performance prevented them from attending university. 18 figure 10. sociodemographic characteristics of entering seneca ece students with plans for university, 200203 to 201415 70 60 percentage 50 40 30 20 10 0 <20 20-24 25+ age citizen other visa status in canada english other no degree degree first language parental education low middle high neighbourhood income note: parental education was collected only for ece students who entered the college after 2006; neighbourhood income was reported only for domestic students with an ontario permanent address. figure 11. academic background of entering seneca ece students with plans for university, 200203 to 201415 70 60 percentage 50 40 30 20 10 0 mostly mostly none u/m c/w level level courses courses 1-3 4+ hs course type #hs course failures (gr 11/12) <70% 70% 80% >80% high school ave (gr 11/12) yes no last school attended was university placed placed college below - below level ell non ell english english required note: high school information only for those with ontario hs records, with a minimum of 6 grade 11 or 12 courses. 19 regression analysis: aspirations for university to examine factors that contributed to entering students aspirations for university, an ols regression was performed (table 3). to look at the effects of high school grades and neighbourhood income, only students from ontario with ontario high school records were included in this analysis. the results showed that older students and those whose first language was not english were less likely to aspire to university when they began their program. entrants who had taken university preparatory courses in high school were 11% more likely to aspire to transfer. conversely, entrants with higher grades in high school were less likely to aspire to transfer. in terms of a time trend, the effects have been variable. the effect of the double cohort is seen in the increase in entrants aspirations in 2003 relative to 2002. 16 the 2008 and 2009 entrants had significantly higher university aspirations compared to the 2002 entrants, with the 2013 and 2014 entrants having a significantly lower aspiration rate. 16 the 2002-03 high school graduates in ontario comprised the double cohort, the year that the fifth year of high school was phased out. therefore, this group faced increased competition for university entry, and therefore planned to attend college first and then transfer to university rather than go directly to university. 20 table 3. regression model: influencers on aspirations for university, at entry (2002-2014) reference group ref: non-cdn citizen age at entry (ref: under 20 y) variables cdn citizen 20-24 y 25+ y ref: ell english first language census neighbourhood income (ref: low income) english placement (ref: college english) mid income ref: not univ. last school university ref: mostly college prep high school avg. (ref: < 70%) hs mostly univ. prep high income placed below non ell placed below -ell 70-80% >80% year entry (ref: 2002) 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 constant observations r-squared -0.028 (0.031) -0.160*** (0.020) -0.452*** (0.032) -0.041** (0.017) 0.005 (0.018) 0.013 (0.019) 0.016 (0.016) -0.065 (0.037) -0.081 (0.042) 0.105*** (0.016) -0.043*** (0.016) -0.110*** (0.030) 0.152*** (0.046) 0.080 (0.045) 0.084 (0.043) 0.078 (0.044) 0.084 (0.043) 0.126*** (0.044) 0.091** (0.044) 0.053 (0.044) 0.067 (0.044) -0.041 (0.043) -0.110** (0.045) -0.092** (0.047) 0.631*** (0.052) 4,035 0.097 note: robust standard errors in parentheses; *** p<0.01; ** p<0.05; international students excluded to enable analysis of hs records and neighbourhood income. 21 academic outcomes by aspirations a detailed analysis of the effect of university aspirations on final grades and on whether a student graduates is beyond the scope of this study, and therefore a preliminary descriptive analysis was performed. demonstration of a link between aspirations and academic performance is somewhat problematic since the group with previous university also has higher high school grades and performs better at seneca, but is less likely to aspire to university. additionally, older students have lower university aspirations, independent of other factors. therefore, this preliminary descriptive analysis is restricted to students who started the program when they were under 20 years of age. the results show the following: of these younger entrants, 43% of those with aspirations for university obtained a gpa above 3.0, compared with 36% of those without aspirations (table 4). those with aspirations for university were slightly more likely to graduate from ece. table 4: relationship between aspirations for university, grades, and graduation rate, seneca college seneca gpa (% of row total) graduation rate (%) <3.0 3.03.5 >3.5 graduated within 4 years did not aspire to university 63.6 20.8 15.6 59.5 aspired to university 57.4 26.2 16.4 63.7 total 59.6 24.2 16.1 62.4 notes: seneca gpa results are for all entrants between 2002 and 2014, however only entrants between 2002 and 2010 were included for graduation rate analysis, to allow for four years to graduate (2x standard program duration of 2 years). both sets of results are for ece graduates who entered at less than 20 years of age. transfer to university: from aspirations for university to reality figure 12 shows the share of the graduating ece class who had plans for transfer when they started their studies and whether they followed through on their initial intention. overall, the percentage of ece graduates from seneca who transferred to university has fallen, from 31% in 2007 to 6% in 2014. this decrease is a result of declining aspirations for university in the entering student class, as well as a reduced transfer rate to university for those who initially aspired to university. for the 200607 graduating class, 28% of all graduates had both planned to attend university at entry and followed through by enrolling in university within six months. this rate dropped dramatically by 2014; only 4% of the graduating class both initially planned to transfer and followed through on those plans. 22 figure 12. percent of seneca ece graduates who transfer to university, by initial aspirations, 200714 100 90 30.5 30.7 80 34.4 35.3 35.2 40.7 44.4 54.9 percentage 70 60 50 38.6 41.9 41.8 40 30 2.6 45.5 38.9 2.4 20 10 47.2 48.7 2.9 28.1 44.1 24.8 2.2 20.6 1.6 19.4 16.1 2.9 11.0 1.6 5.3 0 2007 aspired - went 2008 2009 2010 did not aspire - went 2011 2012 aspired - did not go 2013 2.1 4.1 2014 did not aspire - did not go table 5 shows the transfer outcome based on whether the graduate had initially planned to transfer or not, broken down by semester of graduation. whereas in the graduating class of 2007, 42% of those who had planned to attend university actually did so, only 10% of graduates from each of the 2012 2013 and 201314 classes converted their aspirations. the rate has been consistently low (in the 2% of graduating class range) for those who upon entry had not planned to transfer but ultimately did so. focusing on the traditional term for graduation (winter), 54% of the graduating class of 2007 who had planned to transfer did so within six months, dropping dramatically to 13% in 2014. table 5. transfer to university by initial aspirations, 6 months after graduation, by semester, 2007 2014 summer fall winter all terms 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 % with aspirations who went 36% 69% 40% 16% 16% 14% 23% 5% % without aspirations who went 20% 0% 0% 0% 12% 0% 0% 3% % with aspirations who went 10% 10% 4% 3% 0% 11% 3% 8% % without aspirations who went 0% 0% 4% 5% 0% 6% 3% 0% % with aspirations who went 54% 45% 42% 50% 37% 24% 10% 13% % without aspirations who went 9% 16% 9% 8% 4% 9% 4% 8% % with aspirations who went 42% 37% 33% 31% 25% 19% 10% 10% % without aspirations who went 8% 9% 6% 6% 4% 7% 3% 4% who transfers to university? figures 13 and 14 show differences in transfer rate by various characteristics, and across time. the transfer rates for the graduating classes of 20072010 were combined and compared with those of the 23 20112014 graduating classes, based on several academic and sociodemographic characteristics. for both time periods, older students and international graduates were far less likely to transfer. graduates who had at least one parent with a degree were somewhat less likely to transfer. before 2011, graduates from higher-income neighbourhoods were more likely to transfer, a result that disappeared post-2010. the decline in transfer rates is uniform across most of the socio-demographic groups, resulting in approximately more than halving of the rate across each subgroup when pre-2011 graduates are compared to their post-2010 counterparts. figure 13. transfer rate by sociodemographic characteristics, 20072010 vs 20112014 graduating classes 40 35 percentage 30 25 20 15 10 5 age gender funding 2007-2010 first language parental education high mid low no degree degree non- english english other international ministry female male 26+ 22-25 <22 0 neighbourhood income 2011-2014 note: parental education was collected only for those students who entered seneca college after 2006. neighbourhood income was reported only for domestic students with an ontario permanent address. in terms of academic background, high school performance had no apparent influence on who transferred (figure 14). those who placed below college-level english for english language learners had a much lower transfer rate. as expected, students with previous university attendance were far less likely to continue on to university after graduation. aspirations upon entry played a large role, particularly in the pre-2011 period. graduates with a seneca gpa below 3.0, the minimum required for many articulation agreements, were less likely to transfer. as seen previously with the sociodemographic characteristics, the dramatic time-effect was similar across all subgroups. 24 figure 14. transfer rate by academic background and plans for university, 20072010 vs 20112014 graduating classes 40 35 percentage 30 25 20 15 10 5 high school ave (gr 11/12) university "eligible", 6 u/m/oac & >70% language course placement 2007-2010 last school plans for attended was university at university entry >3.5 3.0 to 3.5 < 3.0 no yes no yes college level english placed below- non-ell placed below- ell no yes >80% 70% -80% <70% 0 seneca gpa 2011-2014 regression analysis: transfer to determine which of the individual factors independently influence the propensity for transfer to university or to a degree program at college or university, multiple regression models were run (table 6) for the seneca student population. the explanation and results for each model are as follows: 1. all ece graduates (model 1). since high school grades and neighbourhood income terciles of students who originated from outside ontario were incompatible with students from ontario, a model was run that included all ece graduates without those characteristics. the results showed that once other factors were taken into consideration, being an international student did not have an independent effect on transfer, probably because international students have lower university aspirations for transfer. however, the descriptive analysis also showed that being younger, not having attended university previously, and achieving a seneca gpa greater than 3.0, each independently increased the likelihood of continuing on to university. graduates 26 years of age and older were 7% less likely to transfer to university than graduates under 22 years of age. the year of graduation also had a strong independent effect, with all graduating cohorts after 2010 having a significantly lower transfer rate, even when controlling for any potential cohort changes in the graduating classs composition. 25 2. models 2 and 3.these models exclude international and non-ontario canadian students, but include neighbourhood income. to test for potential endogeneity of aspirations and other variables, models were run for those with (model 2) and without (model 3) the aspiration variable. the significant factors remained the same for both, and the coefficients changed only slightly, indicating that much of the effect of aspirations on transfer is largely independent of other individual characteristics in the model. importantly, neighbourhood income did not affect transfer, and the rest of the academic and demographic results were similar to those described for model 1. as well, similar conclusions to those for model 1 regarding an independent time effect can still be drawn. 3. since many researchers believe that the analysis of transfer rates should focus on the group that aspires to university, additional models were run using the same population, but with separate models for those who aspired to university and those who did not (results not shown). within the group who did not aspire to university, placement in an ell class, previous university, and graduating in the winter semester were the only significant factors. unlike in all the other models, year of graduation, seneca grades, or age had no effect. within the population with plans to attend university, all the significant factors were the same as in model 3, with age being the one exception, which was insignificant. those who had previously attended university were 14% less likely to continue on after graduation. seneca grades also were a large determinant of who transferred; those with a gpa between 3.0 and 3.5 were 11% more likely, and those with a gpa greater than 3.5 were 16% more likely, compared to those with a gpa of less than 3.0. these coefficients are larger than those in model 3. as well, the year of graduation and term of graduation had very strong effects, with all years post-2010 yielding significant estimates. summer and winter graduates were much more likely than fall graduates to be attending university in the reference week. 4. model 4. this model tests the effect of high school grades on transfer rates. high school grades were not included in a model with seneca grades as they are highly correlated and may cause interpretation problems. model 4 showed that high school grades and high school course stream did not affect transfer rates, unlike the strong effect of college grades seen in the other models. all other factors in the model were similar to those found in previous models, with the one exception being that previous university was no longer significant. this is likely the case since this model, unlike the ones previously mentioned, controls for academic background required for university entry. some of the variation in transfer outcomes is being picked up in differences across students high school characteristics. 5. model 5. in contrast to all of the models described previously, model 5 takes into account the creation of college degrees. instead of asking, did the student transfer to university? model 5 asks, did the student transfer to a college or university degree program? similar to the outcome found in the other models, students with aspirations for university, older students, and those with higher grades were all more likely to continue on to a degree, with the effect size similar to that of graduates going on to any university. interestingly, those from a high-income neighbourhood were 5% more likely than those from a low-income neighbourhood to continue on to a degree. this result could be spurious, or there could be variation in the type of credential that people of different socioeconomic backgrounds select into. controlling for the same individual characteristics as in model 2, there is a statistically significant time effect from 2011 onward. this means that those graduating in recent years are still less likely to transfer, even 26 when taking into account the introduction of college degree programs. however, the size of time effects is diminished under this specification, which indicates that some of the decline observed in transfer to university is likely being absorbed into college degree programs. 6. other models. since age group and seneca gpa were both such strong influencers of the transfer rate, the robustness of the results was tested by running the models for domestic students separately for each age group and seneca gpa group (table 7). the results show that although aspirations remain significant across age groups and gpas, they have a higher influence in the younger group of students who were under 22 years of age, and in the group of students whose gpas were higher than 3.5. aspirations had less of an effect in the oldest age group and in the group with the lowest grades. for the oldest age group (26 years old and over), the models were fairly weak, as most of the estimates were statistically insignificant, including year of graduation, college grades, and previous university attendance. these results indicate that on its own, being an older graduate leads to a lower transfer rate. similarly, for those graduating with a college gpa of less than 3.0 (considered the cut off for many universities), only aspirations and year of graduation had an influence, and the model itself had a r2 of only .097. largely, these models confirm this studys earlier findings regarding the significance of time and aspirations on eventual transfer to university, and demonstrate that these factors matter more for two groups who transfer, those with higher grades and younger graduates than for their counterparts. 27 table 6: regression models for university or degree attendance after ece graduation reference group ref: non-intl ref: no plans for univ. age (ref: under 22 yrs) variables regression model international plans for university 22-25 26+ ref: ell english first language census neighbourhood income (ref: low income) english placement (ref: college english) mid income ref: not univ. last school university seneca gpa (ref: <3.0) 3.0-3.5 (1) 0.004 (0.029) 0.163*** (0.018) -0.024 (0.023) -0.073*** (0.024) -0.024 (0.022) high income placed below non ell placed below ell 3.5+ ref: mostly hs college prep high school avg. (ref: < 70%) all students* mostly hs univ. prep -0.030 (0.022) -0.060 (0.031) -0.089*** (0.026) 0.082*** (0.022) 0.109*** (0.026) seneca ece graduates from ontario transfer to any university transfer to any degree (2) (3) (4) (5) 0.164*** (0.019) -0.018 (0.023) -0.066*** (0.025) -0.025 (0.023) -0.004 (0.027) 0.027 (0.027) -0.028 (0.022) -0.059 (0.034) -0.105*** (0.030) 0.080*** (0.023) 0.120*** (0.027) -0.044 (0.024) -0.136*** (0.025) -0.028 (0.023) -0.014 (0.027) 0.027 (0.027) -0.020 (0.023) -0.064 (0.034) -0.119*** (0.031) 0.075*** (0.023) 0.113*** (0.027) 0.157*** (0.021) -0.039 (0.025) -0.054 (0.031) -0.018 (0.026) 0.006 (0.031) 0.035 (0.031) -0.034 (0.025) -0.062 (0.044) -0.071 (0.045) 0.151*** (0.019) -0.031 (0.025) -0.077*** (0.027) -0.016 (0.023) 0.020 (0.027) 0.055** (0.026) -0.014 (0.023) -0.054 (0.033) -0.049 (0.035) 0.068*** (0.023) 0.101*** (0.028) 0.007 (0.024) 70-80% -0.015 (0.024) >80% -0.044 (0.038) year graduated 2008 -0.004 -0.012 -0.012 -0.030 -0.035 (ref: 2007) (0.045) (0.045) (0.046) (0.050) (0.044) 2009 -0.036 -0.035 -0.039 -0.069 -0.021 (0.046) (0.046) (0.048) (0.052) (0.047) 2010 -0.048 -0.047 -0.046 -0.069 -0.071 (0.044) (0.045) (0.046) (0.050) (0.044) 2011 -0.103** -0.104** -0.107** -0.141*** -0.083 (0.042) (0.043) (0.044) (0.048) (0.044) 2012 -0.109*** -0.106** -0.110** -0.145*** -0.103** (0.042) (0.043) (0.044) (0.048) (0.043) 2013 -0.182*** -0.185*** -0.202*** -0.229*** -0.102** (0.039) (0.040) (0.041) (0.045) (0.043) 2014 -0.138*** -0.151*** -0.173*** -0.194*** -0.120*** (0.039) (0.040) (0.041) (0.046) (0.041) term graduated summer 0.117*** 0.129*** 0.133*** 0.140*** 0.115*** (ref: fall) (0.026) (0.028) (0.028) (0.031) (0.029) winter 0.160*** 0.170*** 0.168*** 0.206*** 0.152*** (0.018) (0.019) (0.019) (0.021) (0.020) constant 0.063 0.041 0.178*** 0.120** 0.028 (0.048) (0.053) (0.052) (0.058) (0.054) observations 1,486 1,406 1,407 1,195 1,406 r-squared 0.175 0.175 0.138 0.158 0.133 note: robust standard errors in parentheses; *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05; *includes senecas ece graduates from ontario and elsewhere. 28 table 7: regression models for university attendance after ece graduation, by age group and gpa reference group ref: no plans for univ. age (ref: under 22 yrs) variables under 22 age 22 to 25 over 25 gpa <3.0 plans for university 0.192*** (0.033) 0.145*** (0.029) 0.087** (0.040) -0.003 (0.039) -0.025 (0.052) 0.033 (0.050) 0.023 (0.036) -0.136** (0.066) -0.229 (0.136) 0.129*** (0.038) 0.160*** (0.045) -0.045 (0.037) 0.017 (0.043) 0.032 (0.042) -0.117*** (0.036) -0.117 (0.063) -0.141** (0.059) 0.045 (0.035) 0.105** (0.047) -0.024 (0.030) -0.006 (0.028) 0.008 (0.033) -0.004 (0.035) -0.042 (0.035) -0.037 (0.033) -0.034 (0.027) 0.040 (0.035) 0.088*** (0.029) 0.044 (0.033) 0.042 (0.044) 0.060* (0.034) -0.022 (0.047) -0.024 (0.045) -0.014 (0.038) 0.021 (0.063) 0.055 (0.167) seneca gpa gpa 3.0 to 3.5 0.171*** (0.040) -0.075 (0.043) -0.140*** (0.050) -0.062 (0.046) 0.028 (0.051) 0.050 (0.051) -0.010 (0.044) -0.043 (0.075) 0.078 (0.124) 0.166** (0.079) 0.011 (0.025) 0.078 (0.046) 0.055 (0.041) 0.063 (0.034) 0.009 0.028 (0.034) 0.041 (0.038) 0.035 (0.072) -0.077 (0.095) -0.131 (0.096) -0.094 (0.093) -0.134 (0.090) -0.177** (0.087) -0.207** 0.036 (0.043) -0.083 (0.043) -0.075 (0.070) 0.013 (0.081) 0.047 (0.086) 0.005 (0.078) -0.085 (0.077) -0.059 (0.080) -0.193** -0.121** (0.056) -0.092 (0.056) -0.180** (0.074) -0.041 (0.085) -0.059 (0.097) -0.112 (0.098) -0.146 (0.091) -0.146 (0.095) -0.243*** (0.023) 0.059 (0.085) -0.193** (0.076) -0.124 (0.083) -0.160 (0.030) -0.018 (0.033) 0.020 (0.027) -0.026 (0.049) 253 0.121 (0.086) 0.115*** (0.040) 0.141*** (0.032) 0.040 (0.100) 422 0.102 (0.078) 0.133** (0.054) 0.202*** (0.038) 0.119 (0.096) 465 0.167 (0.089) 0.223*** (0.082) 0.261*** (0.044) 0.275** (0.127) 308 0.272 22-25 26+ ref: ell english first language census neighbourhood income (ref: low income) english placement (ref: college english) mid income ref: not univ. last school university seneca gpa (ref: <3.0) 3.0-3.5 high income placed below non ell placed below -ell 3.5+ ref: mostly college prep high school avg. (ref: < 70%) mostly hs univ. prep 70-80% >80% year graduated (ref: 2007) 2008 -0.010 -0.027 (0.075) (0.065) 2009 -0.021 -0.046 (0.078) (0.069) 2010 0.050 -0.094 (0.078) (0.065) 2011 -0.109 -0.105 (0.072) (0.064) 2012 -0.149** -0.071 (0.072) (0.066) 2013 -0.114 0.259*** (0.065) (0.065) 2014 -0.144** 0.230*** (0.070) (0.063) term graduated summer 0.179*** 0.187*** (ref: fall) (0.049) (0.042) winter 0.310*** 0.149*** (0.028) (0.032) constant -0.155 0.108 (0.086) (0.076) observations 583 570 r-squared 0.215 0.140 note: robust standard errors in parentheses; *** p<0.01; ** p<0.05 gpa > 3.5 0.214*** (0.046) -0.046 (0.058) -0.060 (0.071) -0.113** (0.057) 0.035 (0.069) 0.111 (0.068) -0.040 (0.047) -0.108 (0.158) -0.117** (0.056) 29 after transfer: student experience and success outcomes of ece graduates moving between seneca college and york university as described in a forthcoming report on the movement of students between york and seneca over the years 2000 to 2012, students pathways are complex and varied (smith et al., forthcoming). smith and others created a linked york/seneca administrative database that contained any student who had transferred between the two institutions in either direction between 2000 and 2012. in order to determine whether a seneca ece graduate had previously attended york or subsequently transferred to york after graduation, records were matched for senecas ece graduates who completed ece during the years 2007 to 2012. graduates from ece who had continued on to senecas bcd program were also analyzed since, as described in the introduction, a contributing factor in the decline in transfer to university was the introduction of related college degree programs in child development. table 8 and figure 15 show the number and percentage, respectively, of each ece graduating class that had ever enrolled in a york university degree program or in senecas bcd program. as seen previously in the survey data, the transfer rate of ece graduates to york university has been dropping dramatically, whereas the rate for students with prior york experience has been increasing. over one third of senecas ece 2007 graduating class continued on to york by 2012, with the vast majority transferring directly (table 9). by 2012, only 8% of the graduating class had continued to york directly after graduating. with the introduction of the bcd program in 2008, a significant share of ece graduates opted to transfer into that program rather than continue on to york to complete a degree. additionally, the merging of the two institutions data sets show that there were 23 ece graduates who transferred to york subsequently returned to senecas bcd program during the 2007 to 2012 time period. results clearly show the sharp decline in the numbers of ece graduates continuing on to york, relative to the increase in numbers continuing on to senecas degree program. table 8. transfer of senecas ece graduates into and from degree programs at york university and seneca college by 2012, 200712 graduates transfer in transfer post ece nontransfer attended york pre-ece seneca bcd york (any degree) seneca ece- york -bcd total # transfers not observed at york or bcd # ece graduates 2007 11 4 87 2 93 161 seneca ece graduating year 2008 2009 2010 2011 20 18 18 20 20 26 14 25 80 57 53 40 8 5 4 3 108 88 71 68 194 176 192 207 2012 28 46 27 1 74 233 265 322 335 282 281 295 note: as described in methodology; excludes apprenticeship ece (ecef) and intensive ece (ecee); graduates who are not observed at york or senecas bcd program could have transferred to another university or college, or another non bcd program at seneca. 30 table 9. percentage of ece graduates transferring directly versus non-directly to york university by 2012 direct to york transferred to york 1 or more years later (by 2012) 2007 27% 7% 2008 24% 3% seneca ece graduating year 2009 2010 2011 18% 19% 11% 4% 1% 3% 2012 8% 0% figure 15. percentage of ece graduates transferring to york university and/or senecas bcd program by 2012, 200712 graduates 35 33 30 25 percentage 25 20 20 19 9 10 5 14 14 15 6 6 4 2 6 6 2 1 7 5 2 8 1 8 8 1 0 0 2007 2008 attended york pre-ece 2009 seneca bcd 2010 york (any degree) 2011 2012 seneca ece- york-seneca bcd to determine whether the trend of ece graduates entering bcd continues beyond the time period of the york-seneca data set, transfer rates from ece to bcd by fall of 2014 were calculated (table 10). results show that the trend of a high rate of transfer to the degree program has continued. table 10. ece graduates transferring to senecas bachelor of child development degree program by fall 2014, 200714 graduates # entering bcd by fall 2014 # ece graduates % bcd by fall 2014 2007 7 2008 28 2009 32 2010 20 2011 31 2012 52 2013 49 2014 52 265 3% 322 9% 282 11% 281 7% 295 11% 335 16% 354 14% 411 13% note: includes those who entered a different program prior to attending ece 31 transfer credit provided seneca-york the york-seneca data set was used to analyze the amount of credit provided to ece graduates who had graduated between 2007 and 2012 and transferred by 2012 (table 11). the articulation agreement for seneca ece graduates continuing on to york university is 30 credits (the equivalent of one year), provided their seneca gpa is a minimum of 3.0. table 12 shows that, overall, this agreement has been followed, with 87% of transfer students receiving the prescribed 30 credits, 7% receiving more, and 7% receiving less. table 11. number of transfer credits provided to seneca ece graduates transferring to york, 2007 2012 # of credits provided none 1 to 15 16-29 30 31 -40 >40 % of transfer students 4.9 1.6 0 86.7 3.0 3.8 table 12 shows the status of seneca ece graduates who continued at york by fall of 2012. excluding those who entered york in 2012, 27% had discontinued their studies at york, 50% had graduated, and 23% were still enrolled. however, of the 87 students who discontinued at york, 19 returned to seneca in the bcd program. therefore, if those who switched to the bcd program were reclassified as continuers, the percentage of those who discontinued drops to 21%. table 12. number of seneca ece graduates (200607 to 201112) who transferred to york by 2012, by entry year at york entry year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 discontinued 2 26 30 12 13 4 0 graduated 3 47 59 26 22 3 0 in progress as of fall 2012 0 1 2 7 32 33 45 total 5 74 91 45 67 40 45 total 87 160 120 367 note: 2006 data year includes only those who graduated from seneca in august 2006 table 13 shows that seneca grades, as expected, are related to grades achieved after transfer. graduates who transferred with a seneca gpa of less than 3 attained a 63% average at york, compared with 69% and 73% averages for those with gpas of 3.03.5 and >3.5 respectively. 32 table 13. grades at york (%) for ece graduates, by york status and seneca gpa seneca gpa <3.0 3.0-3.5 >3.5 total mean sd n mean sd n mean sd n mean sd n discontinued 51.0 18.7 23 63.5 8.6 33 56.3 27.4 19 57.8 18.7 75 graduated 70.0 5.6 19 71.8 6.0 74 77.4 7.6 67 73.9 7.3 160 in progress as of fall 2012 70.0 7.0 19 70.0 6.4 38 75.5 5.0 18 71.3 6.6 75 total 62.8 15.4 61 69.4 7.5 145 73.2 15.4 104 69.4 12.8 310 note: excludes those whose first year of enrolment at york was 2012 in addition to achieving lower grades after transfer, ece graduates with lower seneca (sending) gpas were less likely to graduate. figure 16 shows that 42% of those with a seneca gpa below 3.0 discontinued their studies compared to 21% of those with a gpa above 3.5. in contrast, 63% of ece graduates with a seneca gpa above 3.5 graduated from york in the time frame studied. however, it is interesting to note that a sizable percentage (29%) of ece graduates with seneca gpas below 3.0 graduated from york. figure 16. graduation status of ece graduates who transferred to york university, by seneca grades 120 percentage 100 80 60 29 29 40 20 42 17 23 50 63 50 25 21 27 3-3.5 >3.5 total 26 0 <3.0 seneca gpa discontinued graduated in progress as of fall 2012 note: excludes those who first year of enrolment at york was 2012 33 provincial analysis: post-transfer pathways and experience in addition to data on graduates labour market and further education outcomes, the ontario graduate satisfaction survey provides information on where the graduate was studying and in what program, six months after graduation. as well, the survey asks them about their reasons for continuing to further education, their perceived affinity with their current program and college program of graduation, and the amount of transfer credit they received. transfer by institution overall, the percentage of ece graduates entering university degree programs has dropped sharply, while entry into college degree programs has increased (figure 17). in the 20072010 period, 5% of all ontario ece graduates continued on to york, far outstripping the transfer rate to ryerson, the next largest receiver of ece graduates. by 2010, however, the transfer rate to york had dropped to 2%, a similar percentage as ryersons.17 the growth of colleges as receiving institutions for ece-related degree programs is evident; between 2011 and 2014, colleges received 1.3% of all ece graduates in ontario (15% of the total movement), compared with 0.6% in the 2011-2014 period. figure 17. percentage of ontarios ece graduates transferring to a university or college degree program, by receiving institution, 20072010 versus 20112014 york ryerson carleton nipissing university (other) college brock windsor wilfrid laurier lakehead guelph trent western laurentian toronto ottawa mcmaster queen's waterloo algoma guelph humber uoit 2011-2014 2007-2010 0 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 george brown college and ryerson university have a consecutive diploma-to-degree program by which a student enters the program at george brown, graduates with a diploma after two years, and continues directly into the third year of the ryerson degree program. this articulation agreement partially explains why the drop in ryersons transfer rate is lower than those of other universities. 34 transfer by program the graduate satisfaction survey asks graduates what program they entered after graduation, whether they consider it to be related to their college program, and how much transfer credit was provided. this study compared the survey results for the pre-2011 and the post-2010 periods. figure 18 shows that ece graduates continue to enter related programs in child studies, education, social sciences and the humanities. however, since 2011, graduates are more likely to continue into programs directly related to the study of children. the percentage of ece graduates who reported continuing into education fields has plateaued, likely because of the continued weak demand for k-12 educators, the reduction in seats for teacher-education programs throughout ontario, and a shift in focus from humanities/social sciences to more specialized child-related studies. figure 19 further demonstrates this effect; the percentage of graduates reporting that their programs were very related increased from 45% to 54% over the two time periods. this tighter match aligns with the increase from 36% to 43% receiving greater than one year of credit (figure 20). figure 18. university program area entered by ece graduates (%), 20072010 vs 20112014 graduates 60 54.7 50 40.8 percentage 40 30 20 13.3 12.2 10 14.4 9.0 10.5 9.1 13.6 6.9 5.5 6.1 0.8 1.1 1.1 0.9 0 child studies/ education/ general arts/ psychology child teaching humanities psychology/ (non-ece) ece 2007-2010 graduates sociology other social social work natural and sciences applied science 2011-2014 graduates 35 figure 19. reported relatedness of university program entered to early childhood education (%), 20072010 vs 20112014 graduates 60 54.1 50 48.7 44.8 41.5 percentage 39.6 37.1 40 30 20 13.7 11.3 8.1 10 0 2007-2010 2011-2014 not related at all all years somewhat related very related figure 20. reported amount of credit received (%), 20072008 vs 20132014 graduates 50 45.5 45 40 36.5 34.1 percentage 35 30 25 20.1 20 16.0 15 10 5 9.9 8.5 3.4 3.1 1.8 8.5 6.5 0.0 0.3 0 none less than half about half a a year year one year 2007-2008 one to two two or more years years refused 2.0 3.8 don't know 2013-2014 note: for this question, only the graduate survey years of 2007, 2008, 2013 and 2014 were available. reasons for transferring graduates who transferred to university were asked about their reasons for doing so. table 14 shows the motivations for the 20072010 and 20112014 periods. although the major reasons have stayed the same, the 2.2% point drop in the reason potential for higher income aligns with the wage increases for ece professionals discussed earlier. most predominant, however, is the 6.4 percentage point drop in needed for professional designation as a reason for transfer. this latter finding aligns well with 36 changes in the ece environment during this time period, i.e., regulation of the profession, and with the 3.6 percentage drop in interest in pursuing a different field of study as reason for transfer. table 14: reasons for transferring to university, 20072010 vs 20112014 graduates more opportunities for career advancement to get diploma/certificate/degree gain theoretical knowledge/ broader education upgrade/improve skills interest in further/ more in-depth training in field potential for higher income needed for professional designation encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) there was a formal transfer agreement between your previous and your current program interest in pursuing a different field of study no work/ job available in your field of study company required/paid for it 20072010 98.8 96.5 95.1 95.7 92.5 94.3 82.6 78.0 69.4 20112014 97.9 95.6 94.2 94.3 93.8 92.1 76.2 77.6 70.6 % point change -0.9 -0.9 -0.8 -1.4 1.3 -2.2 -6.4 -0.4 1.2 67.3 39.7 19.0 63.7 39.0 16.4 -3.6 -0.7 -2.6 note: population includes ece graduates who entered full-time university within 6 months after graduation discussion early childhood education college programs have historically had one of the highest transfer rates to university in ontario. however, provincial regulation of the profession in 2008, combined with ontariowide implementation of full-day kindergarten, have served to make entry into the labour market a more appealing prospect for ece graduates. concurrent with these changes in the profession is a decrease in ece transfers to university and an increase in demand by ece graduates for related degree programs at colleges. rather than disentangle the influence of each of these changes, this study evaluates their combined impact on the student profile and on graduates pathways and experiences at both the provincial and institutional level. provincial level this study provides evidence of how changes in the ece landscape have affected the labour market outcomes of ece graduates at the provincial level. between 2007 and 2014, there was a steady increase in the share of ece graduates who found jobs related to their study program, a decrease in the number who returned to school (particularly university), and an increase in the ece hourly wage. these trends were particularly evident since 2010. motivations for university transfer have changed as well, aligning with regulatory changes in the profession and the labour markets response. survey data show that students are less likely to cite need professional designation and potential for higher income as reasons for continuing on to university. in addition, the creation of related college degree programs has contributed to an influx of ece graduates seeking an alternative degree-completion pathway. despite a large drop in the percentage of ece graduates transferring to university, the provincial-level analysis suggests that other gains are being made, possibly as a result of ontarios five-year investment 37 (initiated in 2011) to improve college-university partnerships, articulation agreements, and student advising services related to transfer. institutional level the provincial-level analysis provides a contextual overview of the impact of ece changes on student transfer and the transfer experience. however, the isolation of underlying factors at an individual level requires more comprehensive data and analysis. this part of the study uses a variety of linked data sets at seneca college and data from york university, senecas largest university partner. the institutionallevel of analysis focuses on factors that may contribute to student aspiration for transfer, as well as factors that influence who transfers. table 15 provides a summary of the significant influences on aspirations for university and transfer for the seneca ece entrants and graduates. influences on aspirations aspirations were studied since they are an important factor on who continues on in education and where. this study shows that ece graduates with aspirations for university are more likely to be younger, to have achieved lower grades in high school, and to have enrolled in mainly university preparatory courses in high school. this may indicate that for a subset of students, aspirations for university began in high school when the required courses for university entrance were selected; however, these students academic achievement levels were below that required for direct entry to university. contrary to the results reported in other studies, this study showed that income level did not have an impact on who aspired to university. other findings showed that graduates whose first language was english were more likely to aspire to university, but that english-language proficiency was not a factor. an analysis of entering students showed an obvious drop in the share of students planning to attend university, particularly since 2010. however, when controlling for student composition changes, the regression analysis showed a decline only in the last two years of entering students. this finding demonstrates that the changing profile of entering students (older, with previous university experience), rather than external changes, was partially responsible for the decline. on the other hand, the share of aspirants who eventually transferred after graduation has dropped dramatically, indicating that they were likely influenced, while in their ece program, by the expanded opportunities brought about by the changes within the ece profession. influences on transfer even when controlling for sociodemographic and academic factors, the transfer rate to university for senecas ece graduates has dropped significantly since 2010, relative to the rate for 2007 graduates. although the introduction of related degree programs in ontario colleges contributed somewhat to the decrease in transfer to university, its effect was minimal. the timing of the decrease coincided with the changes to the ece profession in the late 2000s and was partially a consequence of the changing composition of ece entrants. ece has been progressively attracting older students with previous university experience, and these new entrants are more likely to aspire to enter the workforce after graduation than to attend university. younger students and those without previous university continued to enter ece with aspirations for transfer, but in recent years have been changing their intentions after entry, deciding to enter the labour force after graduation instead of transferring. overall, aspirations for university after graduation and graduating since 2010, independent of demographic characteristics, 38 were the most important influencers of transfer to university (table 15). higher college gpa increased the likelihood of transfer, but neighbourhood income, high school grades, and course selection were insignificant influencers. table 15. significant influencers on aspirations and transfer, seneca ece entrants and graduates student characteristics age < 26 status in canada neighbourhood income hs gpa >70% hs course type- univ prep previous university language placement first language is english aspirations for university seneca gpa >3.0 year of graduation (recent) aspirations for university (entrants from 2002-2014) higher aspirations no effect no effect lower aspirations higher aspirations no effect no effect lower aspirations --lower aspirations transfer to university (graduates from 2007-2014) higher transfer no effect no effect no effect no effect lower transfer no effect no effect higher transfer higher transfer lower transfer note: only significant results from the regression analysis shown. post-transfer outcomes the third major piece of the institutional level analysis was to use a student-level data set (comprised of ece graduates who had moved between york and seneca) to track students who had either attended york before or after enrolling in senecas ece program. this part of the study showed that over the years studied, between 4% and 8% of ece graduates have previously attended york, a share that has increased over time. as with the graduate satisfaction survey data, the administrative data show a sharp decline in transfer to york, but a large increase in those entering senecas bachelor of child development program. ece graduates who went on to york for the most part received the prescribed amount of credit, and performed well academically, particularly those who had performed well at seneca. conclusion ontarios college system overwhelming provides programming to prepare students for specific occupations, rather than to further their education. 18 despite this, many students enter these programs with plans to transfer to a university degree. in response, institutions, students and governments have made the creation of a more seamless transfer system in ontario a priority. in order to study the interaction of the labour market and the desire to transfer to university, ece was used as a case study. ece was an ideal choice since it is an occupational program with a high rate of university transfer, is the largest college program in ontario, and is offered in all 24 colleges. this paper has demonstrated that a students decision to progress from a professional program like ece into university is not made in isolation from external factors including labour market conditions and related college degree program offerings. students respond to external events, and these events are typically complex and dynamic. the results of this study suggest that, even when controlling for 18 in a forthcoming report by the authors, it was found that only 10% of ontarios college graduates are from programs classified as preparatory. 39 individual student characteristics that may influence transfer, transfer nevertheless declined as a result of, and concurrent with, the combined impact of changes to the ece profession in ontario (e.g. regulatory, implementation of full-day kindergarten). that said, labour market trends should continue to be monitored to determine whether job prospects plateaued following the roll-out of full-day kindergarten across ontario, and whether historic low wages for ece practitioners in licensed day cares will improve as a result of provincial efforts to bring them closer to those of their counterparts in the public school system. one of the major policy implications of this report is the difficulties involved with measures of transfer success. oncat, in concert with mtcu and others in the sector, is currently working on metrics for ontarios credit transfer accountability framework to determine how well the transfer system is working. in the meantime, college transfer institutional grants are distributed to colleges on the basis of the number of their graduates transferring to university in the current year. the results of the current case study, focused on ece, demonstrate a limitation of this approach. whereas, the vision of ontarios credit transfer framework is to improve alignment and reduce duplication, this does not necessarily imply that an institution needs to increase its transfer rate to demonstrate progress. as was demonstrated in the case of ece over the last few years, alignment appears to have improved, while transfer rates have declined dramatically, and labour market opportunities increased. therefore, the decline in transfer was likely indicator of improved outcomes for students rather than a decrease in the performance of ece transfer partnerships. 40 references arnold, c. (2012). transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries. toronto: ontario council on admissions and transfer (oncat). beach, j. (2013). overview of child care wages, 2000-2010. ottawa: child care human resources sector council. bird, s. & halfon, s. (2015). piecemeal solutions get piecemeal results: addressing wages in regulated child care in ontario. ecelink- spring, 2015. toronto: association of early childhood educators ontario. crisp, d. & delgado, c. (2014). the impact of developmental education on community college persistence and vertical transfer. community college review, 42(2), 99117. doi: 10.1177/0091552113516488 decock, h. (2006). a case study analysis of ontario caat graduates who transfer to a university. doctoral thesis. toronto: university of toronto. decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s. & hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. dougherty, k. j. & kienzl, g. s. (2006). its not enough to get through the open door: inequalities by social background in transfer from community colleges to four-year colleges. teachers college record. 108(3), 452487. economic modeling specialists international. (2015). occupation report: early childhood educators and assistants noc-s e217 (noc 4214), ottawa, ontario, & canada (2012-2017), 3-year historical data & forecasted growth. ottawa: labour market ottawa. engle, j. & tinto, v. (2008). moving beyond access: college success for low-income, first generation students. washington, dc: the pell institute for the study of opportunity in higher education. friendly, m., halfon, s., beach, j. & forer, b. (2013) early childhood education and care in canada 2012. toronto: childcare resource and research unit. homel, j. & ryan, c. (2014). educational outcomes: the impact of aspirations and the role of student background characteristics. adelaide, australia: vocational centre for education research. kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. ontario college of teachers. (2015). transition to teaching 2014. toronto: ontario college of teachers. retrieved november 11, 2015, from http://www.oct.ca//media/pdf/transition%20to%20teaching%202014/en/main_report_eng.pdf ontario ministry of education. (2010). the full-day early learning kindergarten program (draft 2010 2011). toronto: queens printer. ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities. (2011). policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system 2011. toronto: queens printer. retrieved november 11, 2015, from https://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/publications/credittransfere.pdf 41 ontario university application centre. (2015). undergraduate and teacher education statistics archive. guelph: ouac. retrieved november 11, 2015, from http://www.ouac.on.ca/statistics/archive/ smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., piaskoski, d., sidhu, r., meskes, j., & mccloy, u. (forthcoming) transfer pathways in higher education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 42 appendix 1: seneca college, ece sample used for analysis total number of seneca ece graduates (exclude ecee, ecef) entering student survey completions graduate satisfaction survey respondents respondents of both entering survey and graduate survey missing one or more fields from bdat missing/invalid postal codes sample used in regression analysis i international students sample used in regression analysis ii those with incomplete high school records sample used in regression analysis iii 2545 2071 1977 1503 17 38 1448 56 1392 211 1181

oncat final report: 2016-21- electrical techniques ontario college certificate to electromechanical engineering technician ontario college diploma march 15, 2017 bryan aitken project lead nadine cervi pathways research consultant david simon program and pathways development coordinator steve minten - elearning manager project team the project team is comprised of representatives from lambton college, canadore college, conestoga college, niagara college and a hired project manager. lambton college project team members: 1. bryan aitken, project manager 2. steve minten, elearning manager 3. david simon, coordinator, program and pathways development 4. nadine cervi, associate faculty (english) and pathways research consultant 5. stephen tigchelaar, coordinator, electrical techniques canadore college project team members: 6. mark lamontange, dean, trades, technology, law and justice & part-time studies 7. steven lazarou, coordinator, electrical techniques conestoga college project team members 8. steve andrushak, program coordinator, electrical technician industrial program & electrical techniques program 9. josh hamilton, adjunct faculty, electro-mechanical engineering technology niagara college project team members: 10. jeff murrell, associate dean, school of trades executive summary the goal of this project is to provide a pathway for students graduating from electrical techniques, ontario college certificate programs into receiving electromechanical engineering technician, ontario college diploma programs. canadore college, conestoga college, lambton college and niagara college have electrical techniques programs, while conestoga college and lambton college have an electromechanical diploma program. the original design team began the project by investigating the gaps in the knowledge between students from first-year electromechanical, and the one-year electrical techniques program. as anticipated, most of the gaps were mechanical in nature, with only a few gaps in electrical that could be picked up by modifications to current techniques programs. these gaps were also compared to the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) program standards to identify any deficiencies relative to these publications. there was a delay during the summer and early fall, 2016 while several key individuals changed roles, left for other colleges, or found other employment. a new project team was assembled in october 2016, after which time the original gap analysis was finalized and the outcomes for two bridging courses were created. the necessary gaps were covered by outcomes in two courses - the mechanical principles bridging course and the mechanical practices bridging course. the outcomes for these courses were approved by the working team early in 2017, and then further refined into two course syllabi by the project lead. a pivotal meeting was held on february 17, 2017, where the team approved the course outlines, and discussed the plan for the delivery mode for the two new bridging courses. the mechanical principles bridging course will be delivered in an entirely online format, while the mechanical practices bridging course requires verification of online skills. to accomplish this, a two-day intensive hands-on workshop will be required at the host college in addition to the online component. using innovative 360-degree video instruction to teach the elements of the hands-on skills, this provides students the necessary background to attend the workshop. the course outlines and the delivery plan will now be shared with the subject matter experts (sme) for the final phase of the project. the smes will work with instructional design staff and videographers to develop the full course content, resources and evaluation tools. this will include development of the two-day intensive workshop for the mechanical practices bridging course. this detailed design will commence in april 2017, with a completion date by december 2017. this will permit the first delivery of the bridging courses to begin during the spring term in 2018, which will align with larger groups of electrical techniques graduates. for system-wide application, any ontario college that hosts an electrical techniques program can utilize the bridging courses into their respective electromechanical programs. this type of collaboration and participation is an excellent way to create wonderful opportunities for students and graduates across the province. each college may have some specialty content in their respective program that may require additional bridging if deemed essential, but this should be minimal. the bridge covers all of the necessary elements of the program standards published by the ministry of advanced education and skills development.

postsecondary student mobility from college to university: experience and policy a report prepared for the college university consortium council by: dr. kris gerhardt, dr. bruce arai, dr. michael carroll and dr. michael ackerman wilfrid laurier university postsecondary student mobility report 2 table of contents i. executive summary...pg. 3 a. environmental scan: summary.pg. 4 b. comparison of college transfer students to non-college transfer students: summary..pg. 4 c. focus group: summary.pg. 5 d. faculty/staff interview: summarypg. 8 ii. component reportspg. 10 a. environmental scan: report.pg. 10 b. comparison of college transfer students to non-college transfer students: report..pg. 13 c. focus groups: report...pg. 18 d. faculty/staff interviews: report..pg. 36 iii. limitations of study..pg. 40 iv. recommendations.pg. 41 v. appendix postsecondary student mobility report 3 i. executive summary college transfer students are not a homogenous group and to treat them as such does not attend to the differences that we have observed. college transfer students follow a number of different pathways that include (but are not restricted to): it is important to note that transfer between programs within an individual university (i.e. transferring from an arts major to a science major) is not seamless and involves different agreements on transferring credits; thus, even students who are transferring to new programs within the same university do not represent a homogeneous population. transferring from college to a similar academic program at university. transferring from college to an unrelated academic program at university. included in these transfer pathways are students who are: returning to academics after taking time off between college and university beginning postsecondary academics after an amount of time away from school, at the college level and continuing directly with university studies returning to complete a university degree after completing a college diploma students will also fall into a number of different categories: students who move directly from high school to college to university mature students international students comprehensive block transfer credit policies, such as the one in place at laurier brantford, result in a high number of transfer credits being awarded and may be a way to accommodate a larger number of students than general transfer credit policies. this type of comprehensive block transfer credit policy awards a designated amount of transfer credits from a specific college diploma program to a specific university degree program. however, even with a comprehensive block credit transfer policy in place, some issues regarding the applicability of awarded transfer credits at the individual student level remain. postsecondary student mobility report 4 a. environmental scan: summary there is significant variability in the accessibility of transfer credit information and in the locations of relevant information across institutions in ontario, which makes the information difficult and time consuming to both access and evaluate. there is also considerable variability in the transfer credit agreements within ontario universities and between the various colleges and universities. many universities are currently expanding and/or changing their transfer credit policies for college graduates. it appears that final decisions regarding total number of transfer credits is done on an individual basis regardless of whether or not a comprehensive block transfer credit policy or a general transfer credit policy is in place b. comparison of college transfer students to non-college transfer students: summary a significant difference was observed in the number of transfer credits obtained by students enrolling at laurier brantford vs. those enrolling in the faculty of arts at the laurier waterloo campus. the average number of transfer credits awarded at laurier brantford was 4.58, while the average awarded for faculty of arts students was 2.32 (for an overall average of 3.65). this may be attributed to the comprehensive block transfer credit policy that was instituted at laurier brantford in 2009 vs. the more general policies observed in the faculty of arts at laurier waterloo. full-time and part-time college transfer students maintain a higher gpa than non-college transfer students. full-time college transfer students maintain a higher gpa than part-time college transfer students. college transfer students attending laurier brantford maintained higher gpas than college transfer students in the faculty of arts at laurier waterloo. college transfer students who received 5.0 or greater transfer credits maintained an 11% higher gpa than non-college transfer students, while college transfer students who received fewer than 5.0 transfer credits maintained a 6% higher gpa than non-college transfer students. postsecondary student mobility report 5 college transfer students held a higher first term gpa than their entry-related and progress-related cohort in all years investigated except for the 2008 college transfer students vs. 2008 non-college transfer students comparison. average gpa scores of college transfer students have increased in each of the last 3 consecutive academic years. average gpa scores of non-college transfer students have decreased in each of the last 4 consecutive academic years c. focus groups: summary expectations students reported that college instructors provided a sense of what to expect at a university setting, almost always emphasizing the higher academic standards. students were often told to expect dropping a full letter grade if they transferred significantly, most of the students interviewed noted that this was not the case. college instructors also warned students about the shift from a more structured academic environment in college, to the university context in which students were expected to manage and motivate their own academic goals. most students found this to be accurate. most students expected a more intensive academic experience in transferring to a university program. this expectation included both the types of episteme, and the particular methods of evaluation that they would encounter. the old model of identifying colleges with practical knowledge, and universities solely with theoretical knowledge is giving way to a paradigm that identifies programs and disciplines, rather than institutions, as the determining factor when evaluating specific sets of learning and assessment models. experiences several students mentioned that courses relying exclusively on multiple choice exams as an assessment model limited their learning by focusing on regurgitating data from the textbook, and that these assessment models left little room for critical thought. significantly, their preference for other models (such as essay and short answer) were tied directly to their desire to engage in those aspects of higher order reasoning that attracted them to university studies in the first place. postsecondary student mobility report 6 another common assumption is that the modes/types of assessments are radically different in college and university settings. focus group participants suggested that changes were discipline specific and related to course size, rather than being institutionally based. transfer students noted some difficulty in adjusting to their universitys assessment model one that had far fewer assignments, but one that also had fewer opportunities for students to display their progress in working through course material and impact their final mark. transfer process college transfer students seemed expected to simply know about the process, or even know how to access help when challenges arose during the transfer process. thus, the problem for many transfer students was not simply that they lacked information about the transfer process, but that they also lacked information about how to access the resources they needed to get it. even when the college had an articulation agreement with a specific university, there did not seem to be a consistent, routinized program for assisting students to make the transfer. transfer students also pointed out that the problem was not that the university website did not have the information that they needed. in fact, several students mentioned that the website was cluttered with too much information everywhere. the central issue for most transfer students was accessing that information form the website was a frustrating and time consuming process. timing also proved to be a crucial aspect to how equipped transfer students felt in the process. participants cited some issues regarding when they received responses to inquiries, acceptance notices, or information from academic advising - in particular over the summer. some college transfer students could not get into certain classes that needed as pre-requisites due to the lateness of their acceptance resulting in significant delays regarding their program completion. transfer students seemed to get multiple answers from various sources each time they talked to someone new. in other words, there appears to be a need to consolidate, establish, and communicate uniform guidelines among staff and faculty. postsecondary student mobility report 7 recognition of disparity in transfer demographics interviews revealed a larger diversity among college transfer students than was previously expected. these groups include: similar program transfers, alternate program transfers, mature students, and international students. the university can be more effective in assisting them with those challenges by identifying the demographic grouping they belong to, and developing group specific strategies rather than inundating all of the groups with generalized information that may or may not apply. credits transfer students reported that it was difficult to find information from either their college or university about transfer credits. these students did not know what these credits were worth, what they would be applied to, or why they didnt count in the way a student thought they might. in addition to the amount of transfer credit students receive, transfer students reported being perplexed by the seemingly arbitrary manner in which those credits would be applied. college transfer students expressed frustration with the amount of academic overlap in transferring from college to university. several transfer students noted that they had already completed certain aspects of their studies, but had to repeat almost identical curricula in order to satisfy various university requirements. the last area of frustration for transfer students regarding transfer credits is their application of those credits towards electives. numerous students reported that almost all of the credits they did receive dont apply to their program [and] only count for electives. postsecondary student mobility report 8 d. staff and faculty interviews: summary the promotion of transfer and formal articulation agreements is managed by the colleges although recruitment staff at wlu also promote these agreements at college career fairs. laurier brantford staff appear more aware and more knowledgeable than faculty about college transfer students. academic advising at laurier brantford is done by full-time staff, while academic advising in the faculty of arts at laurier waterloo falls under the responsibility of faculty acting as undergraduate advisors. faculty are unaware of college transfer students unless they self-identify. this was cited as the major reason for turning down our requests for faculty interviews. academic advisors know who college transfer students are because these students have to self-identify and/or that information is more readily available to academic advisors through student records and transcripts. college transfer students may not be aware of the differences between college and university from an academic (or non-academic) perspective prior to transfer. differences in workload are the most often cited; differences in course content and evaluation are also frequently mentioned. college transfer students do not fit neatly into university culture. they are not really first year students because they are older, have prior postsecondary academic experience and have advanced standing due to their transfer credits. the majority of college transfer students are not really in a position equivalent with second-year because they may have to take prerequisite courses with first year nontransfer students. headstart programs and orientation week events allow incoming students the opportunity to learn how to navigate the non-academic aspects of university and the potential of engaging in dialogue with upper-year students about academics, however, college transfer students do not typically attend these events college transfer students may be more focussed on their academics. may be due to a higher level of maturity; previous post-secondary academic experience; higher personal expectations and many other potential factors. postsecondary student mobility report 9 college transfer students, on average, do not arrive at university with an understanding of the potential/realistic differences between college and university academics. college transfer students are frustrated by the lack of specific and applicable information regarding how they, on an individual basis, can directly apply their transfer credits. one re-occurring question involves the lack of information regarding why some college courses are not equivalent to university courses. postsecondary student mobility report 10 ii. component reports a. college/university transfer credit environmental scan: report methodology: an email was sent to the registrars office in all recognized ontario universities, requesting information relevant to any specific or general formal articulation agreements they currently have with ontario colleges. we also asked for specific or general information on transfer credit policies where no formal articulation agreements were present. only uoit, nipissing university and algoma university did not respond to our request. we combined the above information with information and data from ontransfer website as well as information on policies gathered from specific university websites. we excluded joint university/college programs unless they had a specifically stated transfer element. this information was compiled and organized and can be found on the document ontario college-university transfer credits environmental scan, which is available in appendix: 1. the information is broken down by school, separating transfer policies (articulation agreements), from general policies (transfer policies/credits that require a specific college diploma but are not attached to a specific school), and the general transfer policies/credit system schools employ. in the case of articulation agreements, the college involved is noted. wherever possible the date the policy was created (or in the absence of a creation date the time of most recent renewal) was included. the policies themselves follow the specific degrees they are intended to promote; followed by the transfer credits or advanced standing awarded by the policy; followed by the requirements necessary to complete the degree; and then the grade requirements for the policy/program (policy/program first, then the individual mark each credit has to meet to be considered for credit at the university). summary it was observed that many universities are expanding their transfer credit policies for college graduates (often by taking existing articulation agreements and employing the same policies for students outside the articulated schools they were intended for) but university promotion of this fact seems less pronounced. the institutions at the heart of promoting transfer agreements and transfer credits, based on what was observed through this research, were the colleges. the universities that appeared to have the most vested interest, and some of the more robust policies, in transfer credits and transfer credit agreements were wilfrid laurier university brantford campus, the university of windsor, trent university and york university (though york mainly does this by employing a few generically applied policies and then individually identifying each and every program they offer to each generic policy). universities that were found to be least accessible to college students were institutions like mcmaster university, the university of postsecondary student mobility report 11 toronto (and its affiliated campuses), the university of ottawa and queens university. institutions that had the most unique approach to transfers and transfer credits were the university of ottawa and rmcc. rmcc provides a pathway into the school by offering accreditation through colleges by way of online studies (specifically a military arts and science accreditation), after a prescribed amount of which students are granted full entrance into a program with advanced standing. the university of ottawa is relatively sparse in relation to college pathways, but it has a robust program for allowing its students to take courses at institutions that are geographically close to them (as these policies did not involve a change in program and were essentially a one-off system from college to university they were not included in the environmental scan). when looking at the average amount of transfer credit provided to college students transferring to universities, the standard is one full academic year (two semesters) of study. this is a very general average however, as some schools have transfer credit policies that have no real effect on the expected graduation date (i.e. only a few courses are given university credit, and the policy is used more as a metric for admission), and others require only two or three terms of full study for an honours degree. the acceptable grades for admission and course transfer credit acceptability are a bit more uniform, with an average of b/3.0/75% being required for admission, and an average grade of 70% required for a college credit to be considered for university credit. these numbers are a bit misleading, however, as many schools still apply a grade equivalence scale. this means that the actual threshold (after grades have been adjusted to the specific universitys standard) would require higher averages, and involve more subjective fluctuation than would be assumed based on the minimum grades outlined by the policy. it is also worth noting that many of the general transfer credit policies of universities, and the diploma specific transfer credit policies (and even some articulation agreements) are still judged on a case by case basis. this means that policies outline a maximum amount of transfer credits available, but that the actual amount allotted is still reliant on an individual review to determine the amount of transfer credit students will actually receive (note: this is the case in any policy where the words students will receive a maximum are used). similarly there are still cases where students will be approved for a number of transfer credits from admissions, but not all these credits will be applicable to the given degree they enroll in. all of these factors lead to a transfer credit system that appears more robust and advantageous than is likely the case in practical application. the environmental scan represents a comprehensive survey of transfer credit policies. the survey has every policy put forward and promoted by the universities in question, as well as some of the more minor policies. it is, however, beyond the scope of this study to guarantee that every possible minor policy is included, due to either a policy not being clearly posted or promoted; the current changing landscape of transfer credit policies in ontario; or misrepresentation regarding specific transfer credit policies or general transfer credit policies recognized by universities. notably, when requests for information were first sent to the universities outlined in the environmental scan document, ocad, carleton, ryerson, postsecondary student mobility report 12 laurentian, mcmaster, and the university of waterloo all noted that they were either currently reviewing or changing their transfer credit policies or had recently done so. similarly, the environmental scan document had to be revised on three occasions during the limited duration of this project because of the discovery of new or changed policies while undertaking a review of the information before submission. all of these factors would seem to imply that transfer credit policies in ontario are currently in a state of flux. postsecondary student mobility report 13 b. comparison of college transfer students to non-college transfer students: report methodology: the office of the registrar at wilfrid laurier university provided two random samples of deidentified student data for transfer and non-transfer students (a sample of up to 50 students from each campus for each cohort from 2008 to 2011). this data included term by term gpa scores for each student as well as area of study and courses taken. this data allowed the primary researchers to calculate overall averages, to evaluate course/program relevant success rates, to compare scores across groups and to compare scores in areas of credit/degree granted. graduation rates for the 2008 and 2009 cohort were also requested but very little of this data is actually available since few of the students had applied to graduate when the data set was generated. summary: when comparing a random sample of transfer credit students to non-transfer credit students at wilfrid laurier university (wlu) we find a defined and consistent pattern. transfer credit students are those who transferred from a college to wlu, while non-transfer credit students are those who moved directly from high-school to wlu. when comparing means of overall gpa, transfer credit students had acquired a cumulative 7.41 gpa in comparison to a cumulative gpa of 6.85 for their non-transfer credit counterparts. as well, transfer credit students had a higher real gpa of .56 compared to their non-transfer counter parts. this dynamic translates into transfer credit students having a cumulative gpa 8% higher than non-transfer students; these results were statistically significant at .001. when controlling for full time and part time transfer credit students we find similar results, with full time transfer credit students having a mean cumulative gpa of 7.47 and part time transfer students having a mean cumulative gpa of 7.30; a real difference of .17 (or 2%) between full time and part time transfer credit students. in this case, full time transfer credit students had a higher real cumulative gpa of .62 compared to their non-transfer credit counterparts, resulting in a 9% higher cumulative gpa than non-transfer credit students. part time transfer credit students had a higher real cumulative gpa of .45 compared to non-transfer credit students, resulting in part time transfer credit students having a 6% higher cumulative gpas than nontransfer credit students. all of these results were statistically significant at .001. the results describe above are displayed in figure 1. figure 1: cumulative mean gpa comparison of full-time and part-time college transfer students (cts) and non-college transfer students (non-cts). cumulative mean gpa full-time cts 7.47 part-time cts 7.30 non-cts 6.85 postsecondary student mobility report 14 figure 2 displays mean comparisons that were undertaken to determine if there was any difference in transfer credit students and non-transfer credit students from laurier brantford and laurier waterloo. only students transferring into the faculty of arts at laurier waterloo are included in this analysis. in this case transfer credit students had a higher mean cumulative gpa than non-transfer credit students; however, both groups from brantford campus held higher mean cumulative gpas than their laurier waterloo counterparts. laurier brantford transfer credit students had a 7.51 mean cumulative gpa compared to non-transfer credit brantford students who had a mean cumulative gpa of 6.46. this difference resulted in brantford transfer credit students having a higher real cumulative gpa of 1.05, resulting in brantford transfer credit students having a 16% higher cumulative mean gpa than non-transfer credit students from brantford. when compared to the overall cumulative mean gpa of non-transfer students, and non-transfer students from waterloo the results were a 9% higher mean gpa (a real difference of .66), and a 17% higher mean gpa (a real difference of 1.13) respectively. waterloo transfer credit students had similar results when compared to non-transfer credit students from waterloo, as waterloo transfer credit students had a higher real cumulative mean gpa of .87, resulting in waterloo transfer credit students having a 13% higher mean gpa than non-transfer credit students from waterloo. compared to the overall cumulative mean gpa of non-transfer students, waterloo transfer students had a higher real cumulative mean gpa of .40, resulting in a percentage difference of 5%. comparing transfer credit students from both campuses, brantford transfer credit students had a higher real cumulative mean gpa of .26, resulting in a 3% difference in mean gpa between brantford and waterloo. figure 2: cumulative mean gpa comparison of laurier waterloo & laurier brantford college transfer students and non-college transfer students laurier brantford cts cumulative mean gpa non-cts cumulative mean gpa 7.51 laurier waterloo (faculty of arts) 7.25 6.46 6.38 to determine whether the amount of transfer credits had an impact on academic performance, a mean comparison of the quantity of transfer credits and the impact on cumulative mean gpa was undertaken. in this case, students who received 5 transfer credits (equal to two full terms of transfer credits) or higher and identified as high transfer credit students, were coded as 2. students who received 4.9 transfer credits or less, identified as low transfer credit students, were coded as 1 and students without transfer credits were coded as 0. this analysis, displayed in figure 3, resulted in high transfer credit students having a cumulative mean gpa of 7.62, and low transfer credit students having a cumulative mean gpa of 7.28. non-transfer credit students postsecondary student mobility report 15 maintained their cumulative mean gpa of 6.85. when looked at together, high transfer credit students had a higher real mean gpa of .34 compared to their low transfer credit counterparts, resulting in high transfer credit students having a 4% higher mean gpa. when compared to nontransfer students, high transfer credit students had 11% higher mean gpas (a real difference of .77), and low transfer credit students had 6% higher mean gpas (a real difference of .43) compared to non-transfer students; all of these results are statistically significant at .001. figure 3: cumulative mean gpa for high transfer credit students, low transfer credit students, and non- transfer credit students. cumulative mean gpa high transfer credit students 7.62 low transfer credit students 7.28 non-transfer credit students 6.85 figure 4 describes the overall mean of 3.65 transfer credits that were awarded to students transferring from college to wlu in our sample of the years 2008-2011 (2556.25 credits awarded across 700 students). students transferring to the faculty of arts at laurier waterloo, were awarded a mean of 2.32 transfer credits (671.25 credits across 289 students) while students transferring to laurier brantford had a mean of 4.58 credits awarded (1885 transfer credits awarded across 411 students). figure 4: mean transfer credit comparison of laurier brantford and laurier waterloo (faculty of arts) students. laurier brantford mean transfer credits awarded 4.48 laurier waterloo (faculty of arts) 2.32 wlu 3.65 an analysis of first term gpas was undertaken to determine if there were any significant differences between college transfer students and their non-transfer student counterparts. college transfer students enter university with a specific cohort, defined as year x, and labelled entry related (e.g. entry into university in 2011 would be all students who arrived at wlu in the fall term of 2011). if college transfer students enter with an average of 3.65 credits, they have been awarded 75% of one full years credits (assuming 5.0 credits for a normal course load). since college transfer students have advanced standing in this respect, it is also necessary to compare them to the previous years cohort, defined as year x-1 and labelled progress postsecondary student mobility report 16 related (e.g. 2011 college transfer cohort would be compared to 2010 non-college transfer cohort) since they are closer in overall credits accumulated. figure 5 includes the results of the individual comparisons discussed below. therefore, first term gpa comparisons were made between transfer credit students from the 2008 cohort and the 2008 non-transfer credit cohort; transfer credit students from the 2009 cohort compared to the non-transfer credit students from the 2009 and 2008 cohorts; transfer credit students from the 2010 cohort compared to the non-transfer credit students from the 2010 and 2009 cohorts; and transfer credit students from the 2011 cohort compared to the non-transfer credit students from the 2011 and 2010 cohorts. in all cases except the entry-related 2008 cohort, the first term mean gpa of transfer credit students was higher than non-transfer students of the same cohort year. though 2008 and 2009 transfer credit students had the same first term mean gpa, as of 2010 we see a consistent increase in first term mean gpas for transfer credit students. this is seen most clearly in the 2011 cohort, where the first term mean gpa was 21% higher than the 2011 non-transfer credit students first term mean gpa and 14% higher than the 2010 non-transfer credit students first term mean gpa. transfer credit students from the 2008 cohort (n = 158), had a mean first term gpa of 7.07, compared to a 7.17 first term mean gpa for non-transfer students from the 2008 cohort (n = 22). the difference in first term gpa between these two groups is very small in this case, with nontransfer credit students having a higher real first term gpa of .1, a percentage difference of 1.3%. though the result was not statistically significant (.844) this is likely due to the size of the sample in this case. as we did not have data for the 2007 cohort a comparison of the first term gpa of transfer credit students from the 2008 cohort to the first term gpa of non-transfer credit students from 2007 was not possible. transfer credit students from the 2009 cohort (n = 193), had a mean first term gpa of 7.07, compared to a 6.82 first term mean gpa for non-transfer students from the 2009 cohort (n = 95). transfer credit students from 2009 had a higher real first term mean gpa of .25 compared to non-transfer credit students first term mean gpa from 2009; resulting in 2009 transfer credit students having a 3% higher mean first term gpa than non-transfer credit students from the same cohort year. when compared to non-transfer credit students first term mean gpa from the 2008 cohort we see that the 2009 transfer credit cohort had a lower real mean first term gpa of .1, resulting in 2009 transfer credit students having a 1.3% lower first term mean gpa than their 2008 non-transfer credit counterparts. these results were statistically significant at the 91st percentile range, with a statistical significance of .096. transfer credit students from the 2010 cohort (n = 162), had a mean first term gpa of 7.24, compared to a 6.47first term mean gpa for non-transfer students from the 2010 cohort (n = 97). transfer credit students from 2010 had a higher real first term mean gpa of .77 compared to non-transfer credit students first term mean gpa from 2010; resulting in 2010 transfer credit students having a 11% higher mean first term gpa than non-transfer credit students from the postsecondary student mobility report 17 same cohort year. when compared to non-transfer credit students first term mean gpa from the 2009 cohort, we see that the 2010 transfer credit cohort had a higher real mean first term gpa of .42, resulting in 2010 transfer credit students having a 6% higher first term mean gpa than their 2009 non-transfer credit counterparts. these results were statistically significant at the 93rd percentile, with a statistical significance of .073. transfer credit students from the 2011 cohort (n = 167), had a mean first term gpa of 7.44, compared to a 6.10 first term mean gpa for non-transfer students from the 2011 cohort (n = 93). transfer credit students from 2011 had a higher real first term mean gpa of 1.34 compared to non-transfer credit students first term mean gpa from 2011; resulting in 2011 transfer credit students having a 21% higher mean first term gpa than non-transfer credit students from the same cohort year. when compared to non-transfer credit students first term mean gpa from the 2010 cohort we see that the 2011 transfer credit cohort had a higher real mean first term gpa of .97, resulting in 2011 transfer credit students having a 14% higher first term mean gpa than their 2010 non-transfer credit counterparts. these results were statistically significant at the 93rd percentile, with a statistical significance of .073. figure 5: cumulative mean gpa of college transfer students and non-college transfer students by cohort 2008 cohort cts 7.07 non-cts 7.17 2009 cohort 7.07 6.82 2010 cohort 7.24 6.47 2011 cohort 7.44 6.10 at the time the current data set was obtained, very few students had applied to graduate and thus it was not possible to determine whether college transfer credit students, on average, can take advantage of their transfer credits by graduating ahead of their entry-related counterparts and/or at the same pace as their progression-related colleagues. current analysis has determined that in only two of the 115 cases where a graduation date was provided were non-college transfer students but more current data will be used to confirm and reanalyze these findings. postsecondary student mobility report 18 c. focus groups: report methodology the following is an analysis of 11 focus groups and 15 single participant interviews for the postsecondary student mobility project. of the 11 focus groups that were conducted 6 groups were from the brantford campus and 5 from waterloo. there were 25 college transfer student participants, 9 males and 16 females, ranging from first year students to fourth year students. the following is a list of questions that were asked at each focus group interview. 1 what college program you transferred from and what program you transferred into at wlu? 2 prior to starting at laurier brantford/wlu waterloo, what were your expectations of university life? 3 how would you describe your experiences in transferring from college to wilfrid laurier university? 4 how many transfer credits did you receive? 5 what specific assistance did you receive from your college when transferring to wlu and then also what assistance did you receive from wlu? 6 what parts of university life do you find enjoyable and what aspects do you not enjoy? 7 did you find the website helpful? 8 what were your expectations about academics at university relative to what you found your college experience of academics? and since arriving have your expectations been met? 9 what advice would you offer other college transfer students who were either about to start university or thinking about doing this? 10 anything else that you wanted to add to the discussion? expectations and experiences general expectations students responded to questions about the expectations that they held prior to attending university in a variety of ways. some students re-iterated a more traditional paradigm as reflected in comments like; college is more hands-on, university is more research focused. however, other students foregrounded their perception that this model espoused a false dichotomy, and that the amount of emphasis that is being placed on either theory or praxis is postsecondary student mobility report 19 more closely correlated to individual disciplines rather than being an institutionally specific mandate. several conversations within the focus groups identified how programs in both colleges and universities either reify or resist that generalized assumption about the types of learning that take place in each institution. for example, one student noted that the types of learning and modes of assessment they experienced were distinctly program based. in other words, they had engaged in some theoretical approaches in college, as well as experiencing some hands-on experience in their university context. this student went on to articulate the traditional paradigm - the idea that university programs involved more theory and [were] a bit less practical only to assert -i don't think high schools can really make that generalization anymore. these observations seem to indicate that, at least from a student perspective, the old model of identifying colleges with practical knowledge, and universities solely with theoretical knowledge is giving way to a paradigm that identifies programs and disciplines, rather than institutions, as the determining factor when evaluating specific sets of learning and assessment models. as well, students expressed a general concern about the higher academic standards they expected to encounter and some trepidation about entering a program that seemed less structured in comparison to their previous college experiences. surprisingly, several students also noted their reluctance to self-identify as college transfer students to peers. one student explained: i wouldn't say its discrimination but [there is] a kind of stigma that's attached to it (college). another student admitted that they wouldn't dare wear a college sweater here it's really frowned upon. these same students, however, also noted that they felt comfortable selfidentifying as college transfer students to their instructors, and went so far as to recommend it as part of a good survival strategy for future transfer students. sources of general expectations students identified several sources for these perceptions. almost all of the focus group participants mentioned family members and/or friends as important forces that shaped their perception of what colleges and universities are, how they function and what is so different about the two institutions. those same students were also quick to report that those sources had varying levels of experience. media sources were also identified as an information source that shaped students perceptions of college and university life. these sources included both entertainment media (films, television shows, videos) and information media (news, magazines, newspapers). as one student commented, so my perception was like partially media and partially just made up stuff that i had in my head that i had just created. the final source for these perceptions included college instructors and high school teachers. as would be expected, students reported that college instructors provided a sense of what to expect at a university setting, almost always emphasizing the higher academic standards (students were postsecondary student mobility report 20 often told to expect dropping a full letter grade if they transferred). college instructors also warned students about the shift from a more structured academic environment in college, to the university context in which students were expected to manage and motivate their own academic goals. a significant insight that developed from the focus group discussions was the impact of high school teachers and guidance counselors on students perceptions of college and university programs. several students mentioned how the descriptions of, and information about, colleges and universities that they received in high school shaped their perceptions of what those institutions do, and where, as students, they belonged. one student reported having a low gpa in high school and being told that they would never go to university. after a year in the workforce, they attended college and received very high marks they transferred to a university program in year two and have recently been accepted into a graduate program. students also recognized how the messages about those institutions and their own academic future were not always overt, or readily transparent. in addition to direct comments about a students potential for success in college or university programs, students seemed to decode a host of other, subtler, indicators of their academic abilities. this area did not fall under the purview of this study, however, a future study that examines the impact of high school experiences on transfer students may yield some important insights into those decision making processes. academic expectations as was mentioned above, most students expected a more intensive academic experience in transferring to a university program. this expectation included both the types of episteme, and the particular methods of evaluation that they would encounter. i was expecting more theory but i was [also] expecting the standards to be at least as tough as they were in college. while there were students who expressed some anxiety about this prospect, the vast majority expressed enthusiasm at the prospect of facing these new challenges. as one student noted: i was so excited to come to university and to be around other people who took school seriously. in fact, the expectation of encountering a culture of serious academic inquiry at university was a recurring theme in multiple focus groups. while the actual experiences of students will be discussed in detail below, it is worth noting here that many students experiences did not align with these expectations. even in non-academic scenarios, students experienced a disparity between their perceptions of college and university campus life. for example, one student reflected on their experience with various types of student government at both the college and university level: [i was with] the student union because i was part of our student association at college they were extremely, extremely different. i thought that actually the university student union would be much more organized and structured than college but i was very wrong. postsecondary student mobility report 21 sources of academic expectations as with the more generalized perceptions about university life, students expectations about academics were shaped by a variety of forces. while at least one participant confessed that they didn't know what's expected of me so i think i sort of came into it blind, most students had a definite, if not always accurate, image of what pursuing academics in a university setting would entail. students reported that both high school teachers and college instructors issued warnings about the difficulties of university life. both groups of educators seemed to emphasize that in their own settings (high school and college) a greater amount of assistance was being provided to assist with student success. other sources included both friends and family. students also realized after working through the transfer process the limitations of such sources. one student who was accessing information about the process from friends realized that her situation (transferring from college to university) differed quite drastically from her friends who had transferred from one university campus to another. likewise, another student who mentioned that all my friends went to university realized that their experiences of attending university directly after high school was markedly different than her own process of transferring from college to university. another student who relied on the fact that their dad went to laurier in waterloo found that his input had value in preparing them for the most general challenges of university life, but helped less in negotiating the nuts and bolts of transferring from one institution to another. academic experiences the discussion about student experiences elicited responses that can be organized into a few key categories. this section will begin with some of general feedback provided by students, particularly in reference to their expectations of entering into a culture of serious academic inquiry as they transferred to a university setting. the second category collects student feedback on the shift in class size and the role of the individual instructor in the transfer process. the last major category reflects the students emphasis on the issues surrounding assessment at university in contrast to their experiences of assessment at college. this final category is broken into two sub fields: assessment models and assessment rationales. the culture of academia students reported that certain preconceptions about transferring from a college to a university were confirmed, while others were modified by their experiences. for example, students who had been advised that, in transferring from college to university, there would be a shift of academic responsibility from the staff and faculty to the actual student found this to be true. several students reported that, to be successful in university academics required a greater level of postsecondary student mobility report 22 self-determination, self-motivation and self-confidence. as one student put it, there's a lot more that you need to be doing on your own time. one surprising feature of the focus groups was the number (and nature) of the comments that students made about their academic experiences. while students had received warnings from high school teachers, college instructors and, at times, parents and friends about the type of intellectual work that university studies require, many reported that the level and amount of work was quite manageable. it was not uncommon to hear students make remarks such as: i have noticed differences but [they are] not as extreme as they've lead us to believe or i thought it was going to be a lot more difficult than it is. granted, we did not correlate the gpa of the focus group participants to their comments and have no way of knowing if their perception of their own success is consistent with the assessment of their work by their instructors. however, several students reported that they were experiencing academic success (meaning that they were meeting or exceeding their own academic goals). as one particularly self-reflexive student remarked: i found that i've actually been doing a lot better in university than i ever did in college. i'm not sure if it's because i came in expecting it to be harder, or if i just care more nowthat i've realized i want to pursue more education. when probed about these experiences students followed up with some important insights about the differences between the college and university experience. even as some students noted, that the pace was quite a bit slower than what i was used to at the college level, others were quick to clarify that from a college aspectthe work wasn't as intensive, there was just a lot more to do. these comments led to discussions about both, the number of courses and assignments that college students were used to and the type of analysis that they were expected to perform on them. this comparison will be outlined in greater detail in the section on assessments, what is more pertinent here is the perspectives of the students on those differing pedagogical models. far from distaining one and favoring the other, most students reported a distinct value in both. while most transfer students agreed that the pedagogical model in their colleges left students with less free time because of the number of courses and assignments that were required, and that the pedagogical model in universities had fewer assignments and enabled more free time they also explained that it's not spare time because you actually have to get [the work] done so it's just it's a different way of working. again, students valued aspects of both models noting that it's not a matter of [being] more demanding it's just demanding in a different way. as mentioned above, most students reported having an expectation of finding a culture of serious academic inquiry as they transferred into their various university programs. while students felt challenged by this perception, this was also one of the central motivating factors for pursuing a transfer in the first place. in short, they wanted their university experience to align with this image, regardless of how much it might also cause a certain level of anxiety in them. postsecondary student mobility report 23 college students held an expectation that students would be much more serious at university than college. while their experiences with the course material, and course instructors bore out this reality, many students reported that broader campus culture did not. almost every focus group included one or two comments that reflected this discrepancy between the perception of an academic culture at university, and what college-transfer students experienced. several students noted that they were surprised thatnobody's really taking this as serious as i thought. to clarify, these comments were not directed at the academic standards held by the institution they were attending. rather, they were observations about their student cohort, the orientation process, and the general student attitude that appeared to be more focused on the social aspect of university life to the exclusion of the academic. one transfer student has recently begun her graduate work and only now feels like she is around people that are like-minded in terms of their commitment to academics, scholarly research and learning. many of the reasons for these experiences are examined in a later section of this report recognition of disparity in transfer demographics which highlights the types of groups typically associated with the college transfer process, and the ways that their age, life experience, nationality and previous academic experience have brought a certain amount of focus to their academic goals that is typically diminished in students who transfer directly from high school to university. there was also a mixed response to the ways that universities structure their degree programs. some students felt a loss of focus in transferring to a university program, as if they were being required to take courses that did not directly influence their specific educational goals. for example, one student noted that, you want to learn about early childhood education, [ but to] learn about ece here you have to take contemporary studies classes like world in the 21st century or applied scientific reasoning. however, others experienced this to be one of the advantages to attending university they reported that their exposure to multiple disciplines and subjects enhanced their overall perspective, challenged them to think about new subjects and to think about their own field in new ways. class size while most students found their new academic programs to be well structured and their professors very knowledgeable and willing to help in any way, they also noted the drastic shift in certain aspects of their educational experience in particular, the size of the courses that they were taking, and their interaction with both their cohort and their instructors. most college students reported that, every semester they had the same people [in] all seven of their classes every day so there was 30 of us [and] it was interactive with the teacher. they also remarked on the shock they experienced in transferring to an institution whose pedagogical model (in 1st and 2nd year courses) included large class sizes. here is how one student explained their transfer experience: in college my classes there were 20 to 30 people and i knew all my postsecondary student mobility report 24 profs really well andsocialized with them, they all knew who i was. in university none of my professors have any idea who i am you just kinda like blend in with the crowd, there's 200 people in your in your courses and you don't really get to know them. while that students comment regarding the difficulties in adjusting to large class sizes was common, their comments about not knowing their professors was unique. the majority of college transfer students reported having very positive experiences with their professors. a more typical assessment of the student -professor dynamic included students who felt as though their professors were knowledgeable, accessible, and willing to help. as one student noted, a lot of professors do care about students and want to be there if the students are willing to make themselves available. the students last comment seems to be the determining factor in whether or not a student had a positive or negative experience with their professors. as this report has previously indicated, college transfer students need to be aware of the shift in academic responsibility. on the whole, university professors were reported as being just as helpful and accessible as their college counterparts; however, where college instructors would pursue students on a more regular basis, in university the responsibility for initiating and maintaining contact with the professor rests squarely on the student. as one transfer student commented, i was [not] just going to be a number that wasn't going to have any dialogue with profs or anything like that, and i really have been able to. [] i have been able to take the time andget one on one consultation which i didn't think i was going to be able to getwhich you know makes me happy. i found ithelped me be a better student. in fact, college transfer students made astute observations about the roles and responsibilities of university professors, as well as a good deal of accommodation. one student remarked, students know that teaching is not 100% of the prof's job description, that it's actually quite a small percentage most oftenespecially professors with tenure. one student commented that, in their experience, a lot of professors do an amazing job of finding that balance between their own stuff and the teaching and the interactions with the students but were also quick to add that, there's like a handful of professors that don't enjoy the teaching [or] do it more of an obligation. these comments seem to acknowledge that students attribute the level of positive or negative interaction with their instructors on an individual, rather than institutional, basis. transfer students also speculated about a link between class sizes and assessment models. a number of focus group participants theorized that there might be some correlation between the sizes of those entry-level classes as the proliferation as certain assessment model such as multiple-choice exams. one transfer student mused, i guess with 200 people in the class it's hard for the prof to be able to mark, mark through each one of them so it's just quicker to do scantron. thus, transfer students recognized the difficulty in marking short answer or essaybased evaluations of student knowledge in courses with 100-200 students. while transfer students understood the practicality of this possible link, they also reported frustrations with postsecondary student mobility report 25 certain pedagogical models that seemed, in their experience, to limit the types of leaning that were possible. several students mentioned that courses relying exclusively on multiple choice exams as an assessment model limited their leaning by focusing on regurgitating data from the textbook, and that these assessment models left little room for critical thought. while some transfer students liked multiple-choice exams because they were perceived as being easier, the majority of transfer students preferred other assessment models. significantly, their preference for those other models (such as essay and short answer) were tied directly to their desire to engage in those aspects of higher order reasoning that attracted them to university studies in the first place. one student explained it this way: i prefer the tests that we have now [in university] i find that i learn a lot more and i'm a lot more motivated to pay attention in class and to take notes and to be there otherwise i can just go home and read the textbook on my own and answer those multiple choice questions so i feel like i'm getting more for my money and i'm learning more when i havethe short answer and the essay questions and things like that. assessment models another common assumption is that the modes/types of assessments are radically different in college and university settings. focus group participants confirmed certain aspects of that assumption, while rejecting other aspects and, again, suggested that changes were discipline specific and related to course size, rather than being institutionally based. one of the most common comments that surfaced repeatedly in focus group interviews was how unappealing group work assignment were to transfer students. transfer students were quick, however, to point out that they experienced group work assessments in both college and university settings, and that these experiences appeared to be rooted in the philosophies of individual programs rather than being a part of broader institutional differences. transfer students who were being assessed through individualized assignments expressed a certain level of anxiety about having their mark depend entirely on their own achievement. these same students, however, also reported a stronger sense of academic accomplishment and pride when they did well. as well, transfer students across focus groups made continual references to one key difference between college and university assessment models: the number of assignments (assessment opportunities). most transfer students identified having more free time in university than they did in college. part of the reason for this is that college students typically have a higher course load than university students, but also because college students tend to have a higher number of assignments in those courses. while several students noted a certain level of stress as they struggled to manage their time, they also recognized that multiple assignments also meant multiple assessment opportunities. thus, if a college student performs poorly on one assignment, there are still multiple opportunities to mitigate that mark and do well in the course. postsecondary student mobility report 26 transfer students noted some difficulty in adjusting to their universitys assessment model one that had far fewer assignments (hence the perception of a greater amount of free time) but one that also had fewer opportunities for students to display their progress in working through course material and impact their final mark. one student reflected on the fact that in college you could perform poorly on an assignment and still have multiple opportunities for success in the course, whereas in university if you perform poorly on even one assignment youre done. thus, one of the central challenges in assisting transfer students in their transition from college to university is in 1. making them aware of the shift in assessment models and, 2. helping them to develop adjustment strategies. while this challenge was expressed by almost all transfer students, students transferring into arts programs found it particularly difficult. their college assessments were often oriented towards group work, or objective, information based content. in university, these transfer students found that assessment models, both assignment and exam formats, required the ability to critique the information being presented, and the ability to express that critique clearly through their writing. as one transfer student put it, it's not just aboutthe types of assessment used but the types of knowledge, the types of thinking that you're doing. transfer students reported that they had encountered writing assignments in their colleges, but that everything from the subject matter, to the formatting, was different from the expectations they encountered in university. one student explained, in my (college) program we did actually have to write a number of essays but it wasn't that they were lower expectations they were just different expectations, instead of like putting forth your ideas and arguing etcetera maybe you just write a report to reflect on like a practical experience or like if you were writing an assignment about something a little less abstract. regardless of the program, most transfer students reported experiencing specific challenges with writing assignments once at university. significantly, these challenges did not diminish their desire to have writing assignments as a key part of their assessment model. in other words, while transfer students found writing assignments (or writing based exams) more difficult, they also found them more rewarding. the frustrations they experienced in attempting to adjust to this assessment model had less to do with the model itself, and more to do with the perceived lack of assistance in being able to master it. this aspect of the transfer process is detailed in the next section of this report, assessment rationale postsecondary student mobility report 27 assessment rationale as the previous section mentioned, students struggles with certain assessment models (writing assignments in particular) had less to do with the mode of assessment itself, and more to do with what students described as a lack of assistance in adjusting to that model. some of these struggles had to do with a lack of clarity about what criteria, exactly, the assessment was based on. whereas some students reported positive university experiences in this domain compared to their college experiences, others did not. for example one transfer student noted that, at university i find the assessment more straight forward and honestyou know what you're going to be marked on whereas in college it's almost like there's no marking structure. yet other students reported less positive experiences noting that in college like i found that the marking structure was really set out they said okay we want a 750 word essay and it has to be double spaced and 12 font and here is how it's going to be marked, it's going to be marked 10% on content, 10% on appearance etc. you knew exactly where the breakdown of the mark is whereas [in university] it's just kinda like this is worth 30% like have it in by the due date. transfer students remarked that there was not a lot of guidance especially for first year university students who haven't really written a university essay ever before who need a little bit of guidance writing a research paper. even with professors who were detailed in their expectations for the assignments, many transfer students felt bewildered by the assessment process. one reported feeling confused because they wrote my first one and i didn't do that good on it and i was really surprised and i had no idea why. another reported frustration about the lack of comments or feedback on the assignment: there was critical thinking in writing the 30 page paper and it took a lot of work but we never go any comments. this lack of feedback and the reduced number of assignments in the course left many transfer students feeling as though there was little hope of improvement. they were unsure about what, exactly, to change and even when they did know what to change in the essay writing they often didnt have a second opportunity (in that course) to implement those changes. far from discouraging transfer students, the single most common response from them during the assessment process was: how can i do better next time? ii. the transfer process this section of the report focuses on the responses of transfer students regarding the actual transfer process itself. after some general observations from focus group respondents, the report then outlines the role/helpfulness of colleges in that process, then the role/helpfulness of universities. the final section of the report is broken up into what i have called key issues. postsecondary student mobility report 28 these are the issues identified by the largest number of transfer students, and the ones that they identified as being the most important in their own transfer process. in general terms, most transfer students found the process to be very lengthy adding that you have to jump through a lot of hoops trying to get stuff sorted out properly. this was the case even when articulation agreements were in place between the college and university institutions. one crucial observation that emerged in the focus group interviews was that transfer students seemed expected to simply know about the process, or even know how to access help when challenges arose during the transfer process. thus the problem for many transfer students was not simply that they lacked information about the transfer process, but that they also lacked information about how to access the resources they needed to get it. one participant summed it up by stating, i think people assume that you know more about the way the university works than you really do college assistance a minority of transfer students stated that college has set me up for a lot of success at the university level by learning how to write and communicate effectively. however, the majority of respondents, as was mentioned previously, reported that the types of assessment used in college (group work, multiple choice exams) did not prepare them effectively for the types of assessments that they encountered after transferring to a university. however, this was also a very discipline specific phenomenon several university disciplines utilize similar assessment methods as the colleges do, and the transfer process for the students in those disciplines was obviously less stressful. when asked about what ways the college assisted students in the transfer process, almost all transfer students acknowledged that colleges were helpful in getting their transcripts sent to university institutions in a timely and effective manner. in fact, no negative comments were made about this aspect of the transfer process. however, most transfer students also responded that, at an institutional level, little assistance beyond sending the transcripts had taken place. in other words, even when the college had an articulation agreement with a specific university, there did not seem to be a consistent, routinized program for assisting students to make the transfer. some transfer students commented on the lack of assistance in transferring to universities with whom the college has no articulation agreement, but even when colleges were more knowledgeable with institutions that they had transfer agreements with, the guidance counselors who we would go to see as opposed to academic advisers did not know anything about applying to university. several transfer students pointed out that individual instructors, faculty and staff provided help with the transfer process. for example one student went and talked to the program coordinator about the criminology program to see what he thought about laurier and the program itself. he is a social worker and he recommended laurier and he liked the criminology program postsecondary student mobility report 29 although he did endorse other universities too. other transfer students acknowledged that they had specific instructors who encouraged them to transfer, and helped to prepare them in the process. in each case, however, the transfer student emphasized that these were individual efforts by college faculty and staff and that what was needed was a more consistent, more organized system to ensure that colleges were taking active steps towards assisting transfer students. the most common word used in describing the transfer process was - frustrating. again, this was due, in part, to the perception that there was not only a general lack of knowledge about transfer process in the college they were attending, but also a lack of interest. for example, one participant described their experience like this: they [the college staff/faculty] were not focusing on the university bound students and what we kept saying is look we're going to university, we know we are going to universitywe came here because we needed to upgrade to get to university - so stream us into university. comments such as this highlight one of the key challenges that will be discussed towards the end of this report: identifying diversity in the college transfer demographic. some students are at college as an end unto itself, they are looking to establish a specific skill set with the goal of future employment. as this comment indicates, other groups of college students already know they want to attend university, but view college as a valuable way of transitioning into their university pursuits. the challenge seems to be how colleges will manage the expectations of both groups of students. university assistance transfer students experiences with universities in this process varied. most of the challenges are outlined in the final section of this report; however, a few aspects deserve mentioning here. the most general complaint from transfer students is that they are not only at a disadvantage due to the lack of knowledge they have about the transfer processbut they also feel as though they dont know where and how to access the information needed to answer the question they have. as well, in transferring into second year courses some participants expressed challenges in terms of the instructors perceptions regarding prior knowledge. in other words, they felt as though some instructors took for granted certain domains of knowledge based on the universitys first year curriculum. this left transfer students scrambling to decode which aspects of their discipline they were expected to know, and then to find ways to access that information and catch up. this dynamic impacted everything from general knowledge (mla vs. apa formatting of papers), to more discipline-specific domains. conversely, other participants expressed frustration with the amount of academic overlap in transferring from college to university. several transfer students noted that they had already completed certain aspects of their studies, but had to repeat almost identical curricula in order to satisfy various university requirements. for example, one transfer student remarked: i'm taking a look at the syllabus and i'm looking atmy stats class, i'm looking at my it class, [and] i've postsecondary student mobility report 30 already done all this. i pull out my old course outlines from college, they match identically and my grades were up there. another student noted that, if i had known that beforehand [] maybe we coulda worked something out so i wouldn't have to redo something or you know just hash at the same old thing. one class in particular was my organizational behaviour class and it was the same on both ends, same text and everything. this aspect is addressed in detail in the following section on transfer credits. some transfer students experienced the process of individualized course selection a bit overwhelming compared to the block model that they experienced in college. in particular students identified their frustrations with coordinating the schedule while avoiding course conflicts. still, others expressed that this flexibility helped them establish work/life schedules in ways that were crucial to their academic success. key issue 1 : accessing information website the school website continues to be an essential aspect of how transfer students access information about the school in general and their transfer process in particular. several students pointed out that their particular demographic defaults to accessing web based content almost to the exclusion of direct contact with the institution or other forms of information dissemination (i.e. print). with only one exception, every person in every focus group had negative comments about the usefulness of lauriers website as a source of information. transfer students referred to it as atrocious and not user friendly at all with particular complaints about the ways in which laurier brantfords website merges unexpectedly with the waterloo website. complaints ranged from design principles (the font size is too small) to more serious issues (the search engine is flawed and inaccurate), and most found the website in general to be very confusing. transfer students also pointed out that the problem was not that the website did not have the information that they needed. in fact, several students mentioned that the website was cluttered with too much information everywhere. the central issue for most transfer students was accessing that information form the website was a frustrating and time consuming process. this is a significant problem given that, as one transfer student put it, our generation and generation after ours would rather go about something on the internet[it] wouldn't even occur to us to go speak to somebody. frustrations also occur for very practical reasons. for example, when a transfer student says, if you're coming from a college environment it's a different language [at university] they are not speaking metaphorically. the student gave a pertinent example about trying to locate what, on their college campus, was referred to as disability services at laurier, this same department postsecondary student mobility report 31 is called accessible learning. they now realize that different schools, different universities call it by different things too so you're not necessarily looking for things with those names. they continued, you know what you need but you don't know how to find it because you don't know what it's called. orientation package the observations of transfer students were polarized when it came to the actual orientation package that laurier sends out. some commented that it's just not comprehensive enough, whereas others noted that it tells you all about you know financial assistance and there's a map for the campus and it tells you basically everything that you need to know prior to coming here so that was very helpful. the discrepancies in these findings can be attributed, in part, to the particular needs of the transfer student. many of the transfer students that took part in the focus groups were mature students so certain information was not pertinent to them at all, and there were certain aspects like funding opportunities that seemed neglected. contact with personnel by far, the source that was reported as being most helpful was direct contact with a person on the university campus. numerous transfer students recalled specific individuals both staff and faculty who were instrumental in helping them negotiate the transfer process. it is telling, however, that the person mentioned by the transfer students was almost always someone different: transfer student 1 - you need to talk to your undergraduate adviser about everything that you need to transfer and what to expect and what the course load is like and what kind of courses you need, there is anundergraduate adviser for each program [who] is the key person to talk to when you're transferring transfer student 2 the key to getting information is to get to know your dean of students or at least know who she or he is transfer student 3 i found it most helpful to introduce myself to my professors. in other words, transfer students availed themselves to a number of various faculty and staff with varying degrees of success, when what was needed was a point person, or office that was well promoted (so that they knew to go there for information) and that has the information that they need. a common refrain among transfer students in the interviews was that once you got connected with some of the people the process went a lot smoother; it was actually getting connectedthat was the struggle or the challenge. regardless of the medium used for the inquiry electronic, university publications or tracking down staff and faculty for assistance the method of inquiry was equally as crucial to accessing the information that was needed. as one student phrased it, you think you're asking the right postsecondary student mobility report 32 questions and you're not getting the response and then you realize afterwards you really weren't even asking the right questions or the right people. timing timing also proved to be a crucial aspect to how equipped transfer students felt in the process. participants cited some issues regarding when they received responses to inquiries, acceptance notices, or information from academic advising - in particular over the summer. as well, respondents noted that having more than one person working on their file lead to some issues of miscommunication, and a lack of clarity. transfer students seemed to get multiple answers from various sources each time they talked to someone new. in other words, there appears to be a need to consolidate, establish, and communicate uniform guidelines among staff and faculty. key issue 2: recognition of disparity in transfer demographics several of the issues identified in this report were the result of a type of thinking by universities one that considered transfer students as a homogenous group. in fact, the transfer student population is comprised of a very disparate collection of smaller groups, each with their own unique sets of needs and challenges. these group differences impacted everything from how information was accessed to actual course selection. for example, one grouping, whom i have designated similar program transfers (students who are transferring from college to university but remain within the same discipline or field: college students studying finance that transfer to a university business program) had sets of challenges that were unique to them, in particular course material that overlaps between college and university. conversely, another group alternate program transfers (students whose field of studies at college are now markedly different at university: college students studying finance that transfer into a university arts program such as history, english or journalism) faced an entirely different set of challenges, in particular grappling with the new expectations regarding writing assignments. international students faced their own sets of challenges that included language and culture barriers, financial obstacles and the applicability of previous educational experiences. among the groups encountered at the focus group interviews, the largest group (and the most vocal) was what i would term mature students. yet even within this category there is broad range of diversity. for example, in one group a single 22 year old student who still lived at home self-identified as a mature student, but the term equally applies to another student who was 40, married with children and owned their own home. for example, in commenting about the orientation package one mature student remarked, it's not meant to be anything other than a welcome package to someone coming out of high school postsecondary student mobility report 33 that lives with their parents as a mature student who lives on their own who has their own family it's not helpful. in spite of the range of diversity in age and familial situations, all of the mature students interviewed shared a similar attitude towards their academic life at university. whether they were 40 or 22, all of them approached their university studies with tremendous focus, determination, and seriousness about their studies and a strong desire to succeed. one, younger, mature student remarked: i chose not to go to o-week becausei wasn't coming and i mean this might sound terrible but i wasn't coming to make friends and make cool t-shirts. in other words, most mature students were focused on the academic portion of their university experience, whereas younger, non-transfer students, were interested in exploring multiple aspects of university life. one of the challenges mentioned by mature transfer students was in meeting/connecting with people. most mature students are transferring in at year two, which means that they have missed that initial orientation week. regardless of the other, more social activities, that week is also very helpful in getting to know the campus and surrounding area, meeting with various staff and faculty and being aware of important campus opportunities (such as study groups). self-identifying mature students found professors to be approachable and flexible with their challenges. in any case, each of the aforementioned groups has their own unique set of challenges that need to be addressed. the university can be more effective in assisting them with those challenges by identifying the demographic grouping they belong to, and developing group specific strategies rather than inundating all of the groups with generalized information that may or may not apply. key issue 3: credits the role that course credits play in the transfer process cannot be overestimated. every transfer student in every focus group mentioned challenges with some aspect of the credit transfer process. information about credits transfer students reported that it was difficult to find information from either their college or university about transfer credits. these students did not know what these credits were worth, what they would be applied to, or why they didnt count in the way a student thought they might. transfer students noted that there was no page on their college or university website that explained this process, and nothing in the orientation package. even when students were in direct contact with university staff they often left the meetings without having clarity regarding postsecondary student mobility report 34 those questions. for example, one student noted that the academic advisersweren't 100% sure which classes were being applied and which classes weren't being applied. even still, students commented on the role of the academic advisor and see them to be a crucial link in the transfer process. they are often the front line in terms of contact with students and dissemination of information. this lack of clarity resulted in an increasingly accumulative negative impact for some transfer students. for example, as one student reported: i had to drive back and forth a few times because nobody could tell me what my credits were for, they gave me my transfer credits but then you have to build your own schedule and i wasn't aware of which credits would cover which courses. once they had signed up for courses, built a schedule and began their studies they realized that the credits would not apply in the way that they thoughtbut by then they were mid-way through a semester and to change courses then meant a loss of money and time. even when information about transfer credits could be accessed, almost every student mentioned challenges and concerns regarding how the credits were awarded during the transfer process. amount of transfer credits the amount of transfer credits a student receives is an important part of decision making process. some transfer students choose laurier based solely on those criteria, indicating that they would have attended whatever institution gave them the highest number of credits for the academic work they had done in college. others choose laurier in spite of not getting what they wanted because of the program selection or geographic convenience. at least one participant felt shortchanged because he received so many credits. this transfer student received 7 credits, and the number of those credits was reported as playing a significant role in their decision to attend laurier. however, now that they are moving on to grad school they felt as though they had missed out on specific skill sets that they would be needing: that i got 7 credits for accounting but i don't really think that they were relevant to criminology or contemporary [studies] areas that those credits had been applied to. the student continued, as i'm applying for master's programs i'm finding that all of them are asking for specific skills thati didn't learn [qualitative and quantitative analysis] i felt like i learned about them but not how to do them. a few other transfer students had similar thoughts as they finished their university degree: whereas they were happy to have a large number of credits applied when they began their university studies, they now regret missing out on some potentially important aspects of the material they received credit for. these cases could be considered an exception to the more typical complaint that was vocalized in the focus groups that students did not receive the number of credits they thought they would for the academic work they did in college. postsecondary student mobility report 35 in addition to the amount of transfer credit students receive, transfer students reported being perplexed by the seemingly arbitrary manner in which those credits would be applied. in the example stated above, the student received credits towards a criminology degree because of academic work they did in college accounting programs. another transfer student had already completed a certificate program in marketing, but even completing the two-year program did not exempt her from having to take a marketing course at the university she transferred to. as the student explained, after getting a diploma in marketing, the university awarded them a business law credit. but i didn't get my marketing credit [from university] so i had to take my marketing class here which i didn't complain about but i had a diploma in marketing so that just kind of my entire college experience didn't make up for that one credit. some of these experiences have led transfer students to question the way that universities value (or dont) the academic work that they are doing in college even colleges that have existing articulation agreements with those universities. in a similar manner, transfer students had questions about the criteria for accepting or rejecting previous academic work. one student remarked: i did receive credits for courses that ididn't excel in, that i was surprised to see credit for but then courses that i have done very well in college i have to retake and that was something thati was confused by - obviously they didn't see the same learning objectives between my university and college. the last area of frustration for transfer students regarding transfer credits is their application of those credits towards electives. numerous students reported that almost all of the credits they did receive dont apply to their program [and] only count for electives. as one student explained, when i first transferred from college here they (laurier) guaranteed me six credits, that's what a year and a bit? but with the program that i'm in, that doesn't do anything for me. as this report indicated earlier, many transfer students report benefiting from the ways they are able to explore other subjects and challenge themselves in other field of inquiry, outside of their own principle field of study. by only transferring course credits as electives, some transfer student felt as though this limited the university experience. postsecondary student mobility report 36 d. faculty /staff interview: report methodology 15 single participant interviews that include 4 faculty members and 11 staff members from various departments at each campus. 60% of the faculty/staff that were interviewed work at the brantford campus. the following is a list of questions asked at the single participant interviews. 1 what kinds of questions do transfer students bring to your office? 1a do you get any questions regarding extracurricular programs? 2 what kinds of comments do transfer students make about university versus college? 3 in your opinion what kinds of challenges in transitioning to university do college transfer students experience? 4 do college transfer students bring different questions to you than other students? 5 how does your office promote the possibility of transferring from college to university and the credit transfer process? 6 are there any other issues that you would like to comment on? general comments laurier brantford staff have significant experience with college transfer students. these experiences have created a high level aware of awareness regarding the challenges and experiences encountered by this group. even those involved in admissions and recruiting have at least a passing familiarity with the challenges that college transfer students encounter in their move to university. laurier waterloo staff seem more familiar with recruiting and admissions issues, but are less familiar with the issues encountered once college transfer students begin their studies. this disparity in information is, in part, a reflection of the different roles played by faculty and staff regarding college transfer students on the two campuses. at laurier brantford, staff are the frontline for college transfer students and their issues. unless college transfer students selfidentify, faculty are unaware of their specific presence in the classroom. however, this identification could entail both positive and negative effects. while faculty who are aware of college transfer students in their class may be more sympathetic to the challenges they may face; knowing who college transfer students are could just as easily lead to differing expectations or evaluations deliberately or unconsciously at the evaluative level. (the same issue may arise with accessible learning students as well, who are automatically identified by an e-mail from accessible learning to faculty.) at the waterloo campus, however, the faculty (especially the undergraduate advisors) are the primary contacts for college transfer students once their studies begin. while the experiences of postsecondary student mobility report 37 the two undergraduate advisors who were interviewed differed significantly, the limited pool size of interviewees necessitates a corresponding limit on our evaluative claims. in general, faculty interviews were much more difficult to procure than staff interviews. staff are aware of the fact that they are dealing with college transfer students while faculty, without selfidentification, are not aware of who are and are not college transfer students in their classes. the only faculty who are already aware of college transfer students are undergraduate advisors in waterloo, and only two agreed to be interviewed for this study. brantford staff laurier brantford staff exhibit a high level of awareness that the university experience for college transfer students is very different from that of students that attend university directly from high school [hsd]. those interviewed noted that college transfer students are often concerned with grade point averages and with being able to finish their degree program in the minimum amount of time possible. if prerequisite courses are not always offered, this can cause delays for college transfer students graduation process. laurier brantford staff further noted that these delays are not only costly, but can also cause anxiety which negatively affects these students overall university experience. some students experience transfer shock in the mistaken belief that they can handle the transition from college to university with a comparable or even increased course load (again, in the rush to complete their program requirements). furthermore, because college transfer students are usually several years older than hsd, they often have additional concerns regarding course scheduling and course choices. college transfer students often have to juggle commuting, family, and employment commitments. the relative open scheduling of university courses (including evening courses) can sometimes cause issues with college transfer students attempting to create a homogenous schedule which leaves little free time during the periods they are on campus, but groups all their courses into convenient blocs. college transfer students also struggle to fit into the broader university culture. too few college transfer students attend either headstart or orientation week to become aware of the new procedures and amenities available to them. this can lead to confusion about what to do in certain administrative circumstances, or it can lead to missed opportunities in terms of social or extracurricular activities. this may be a matter for greater concern when laurier brantford becomes more active in intercollegiate athletics. brantford staff, therefore, find themselves involved in more elements of college transfer students lives and academic careers. some recommendations include more careful monitoring of college transfer students academic progress to ensure that transfer shock is mitigated or postsecondary student mobility report 38 eliminated, and the creation of a headstart-style program that is designed specifically for college transfer students at the beginning of term to acclimate them to university life and culture. waterloo staff the preponderance of staff interviews in waterloo were with those involved in admissions and recruiting. however, one staff member more actively involved with college transfer students once they are in their studies noted that college transfer students contribute to the university in two important ways, one academically, the other on an administrative level. first, as older students, college transfer students tend to have an influence in classrooms because of their maturity and experience. they are a resource instructors can draw upon in class discussions and group projects. second, college transfer students have less of an impact financially on the university they do not need bursary incentives to the same degree needed to recruit in the competitive environment of hsd, they do not require the programs for support that less-mature hsd need, and they are far more likely to be at university because they want to be, not because someone else is paying for them or coercing them to be there. brantford faculty only three brantford faculty members agreed to be interviewed for this study, and one interview was unusable because the interviewee had misunderstood the subject of the study. the other two interviews noted the focus and determination of college transfer students in having a very specific goal in mind for their university studies. furthermore, if thwarted or frustrated in achieving that goal, college transfer students can become disillusioned or angry with the system which appears to be working at cross-purposes to their goals. one faculty member also questioned whether the process of admitting college transfer students was always working to full effectiveness, that prospective college transfer students were being turned away because they did not fit into narrow criteria defined by the university. waterloo faculty only two faculty members at waterloo agreed to be interviewed, and both also serve as undergraduate advisors for their respective departments. they related quite different experiences in dealing with college transfer students. the first faculty member had a number of college transfer students coming to the department having taken courses in that discipline in college, and wondering why what appeared to be identical college and university courses were not considered such. it required an explanation of the theoretical applications that were more prevalent in university-level courses and that were not present in apparently comparable college courses. from this persons experience, ontario colleges are not filling the role played by us community colleges or the cegep system in quebec, as a transition institution between high school and university. postsecondary student mobility report 39 as well, as an art-related discipline, it tended to attract college transfer students that were completing degrees in a program such as business and who were looking for an easy elective course to fill a credit requirement with fewer demands on them. instead of finding a bird course, these students were discovering that demands were being made on their time and intellect that they had not expected or wanted. finally, laurier waterloo faculty reported that college transfer students seem frustrated by course requirements and prerequisites, especially when transfer credits are useful only for general course requirements. this causes issues in choosing courses, especially when trying to meet specific requirements for degrees. the second faculty member reported fielding more traditional questions (mainly regarding the number of awarded transfer credits) from college transfer students, but again the issue was complicated by whether the students self-identified as college transfer students or not. postsecondary student mobility report 40 iii. limitations of the study since the 2008 cohort was the earliest data set obtained, we were unable to appropriately assess graduation rates. very few students had applied to graduate at the time the data was generated. future studies should consider obtaining data from cohorts a minimum of 6 years removed from the current year to ensure that graduation rates/time to graduate could be obtained in sufficient numbers to allow for useful comparisons. the environmental scan is limited because of the sheer number of locations that this information is contained at so it is possible that minor policies may have been missed. in addition, since many policies are general and final decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, the environmental scan can only represent the stated policies and not the eventual final individual decisions made at the student level. furthermore, even during the limited duration of this study, it was noted that several institutions changed their policies, which required an update to the data being analyzed. future studies may consider gathering data in fall months when students have already enrolled at an institution rather than in the spring months when students are gathering information with which to decide which institution to attend and institutions are changing their policies in anticipation of student information requests. the response rate from the students themselves was low. focus groups were held at various times and days across both campus locations in early february in an attempt to provide students with as many opportunities to attend as possible. future studies may consider some sort of compensation for participation to increase overall numbers. an online sign-up system may also help participation by reducing the amount of work a student would have to do to find a convenient time to participate. the response rate from faculty was very low and this may be in large part attributable to the fact that faculty cannot readily identify which students in their courses have previous academic experience at the college level. unless students choose to self-identify, there is no way for a faculty member to access this information and thus may not be aware of the proportion of college transfer students that they have had in any of their current or past courses. in a similar fashion, unless a student self-identifies to a staff member, that staff member would have no way of knowing their academic background. academic advisors (staff at laurier brantford, faculty at laurier waterloo) would be the exception to this rule, but they would also only have experience with students who have chosen to arrange for an appointment. this study did not gather data on the number of college transfer students who have arranged for academic advising vs. the total number of college transfer students on either campus. postsecondary student mobility report 41 iv. recommendations one online location for all formal articulation agreements and transfer credit policies is recommended to make it easier for prospective college transfer students to obtain the information they need to make an informed decision regarding which institution to attend and how their credits will be applied upon admission. furthermore, one location would ensure a higher degree of transparency with the transfer credit information itself. this does not necessitate, nor does the data indicate, that there is a need for a single system-wide transfer credit policy. in fact, the data suggests that a single system wide transfer credit policy may not be effective in accommodating any given student. an online location with an interface to access this type of database would be useful if a minimum of four fields could be used to access individual information college diploma program university degree program a student would input their specific college and diploma program and then choose a university and degree program they were interested in. the database would be polled and the number of transfer credits awarded on a general basis would be provided. the student would then be advised to contact the specific universities that they are interested in to get information on their individual case. in addition to having articulation agreements with individual universities, colleges and universities could develop transfer streams. this means that colleges could offer programs designed specifically for students whose desire is to transfer to a university. this could include establishing (in conjunction with university faculty and administrators) a core curriculum that helps to prepare students for the types of assignments and types of analysis that will be required once they transfer to university. this stream could also be designed so that the credits they are earning are clearly defined units of the program they are entering into. (trent university currently employs such a model for some of their programs) one suggestion put forth by a transfer student was to establish a university adviser at the colleges. literally to create a position in colleges that was dedicated to disseminating accurate information about universities, helping to form the curriculum for transfer streams, and for assisting students in the transfer process. postsecondary student mobility report 42 if a full time position cannot be created, transfer students recommended that some representative from the university be sent to hold information sessions, workshops, etc. at local colleges. as one transfer student stated: the university has to start looking at the college as its recruiting grounds. there's some really good students out there that do want to continue on a university level of education. several students utilized family members or friends at the institution as access points to the information they needone even suggested this as a possible solution to the problem of connecting transfer students with the information that they needed. this transfer student suggested that one solution is talking to 4th year students, implying a type of mentorship program with previous transfer students, so that the information can be customized in all of the ways mentioned everything from the individuals program requirements to life/family situations. the creation of headstart programs and/or orientation week events specific to college transfer students may help these students navigate the non-academic aspects of university and also allow them the opportunity to make social support connections, which may increase the chance that these students can engage in dialogue about academics at the university level prior to the beginning of their first term of university study. although a comprehensive block transfer credit policy is available at laurier brantford, it is necessary to also include rationale for why certain college courses are not equivalent to certain university courses. this will provide academic advisors and faculty the information that they may need to discuss, in an informed fashion, why certain transfer credits are awarded and applied in a specific context. transfer students reported that they had encountered writing assignments in their colleges, but that everything from the subject matter, to the formatting, was different from the expectations they encountered in university. significantly, these challenges did not diminish their desire to have writing assignments as a key part of their assessment model. thus, one of the central challenges in assisting transfer students in their transition from college to university is in 1. making them aware of the shift in assessment models and, 2. helping them to develop adjustment strategies. postsecondary student mobility report 43 to address these concerns we recommend: mandatory, writing intensive course for transfer students though, given the type of feedback that they are looking for, this would have be run in small class sizes. forming closer partnerships with existing academic support structures (such as the writing centre) geared specifically towards transfer students and their needs. multiple, smaller, writing assignments so that changes in writing can be implemented, and so that there are a greater number of opportunities for students to alter their overall mark in a course. postsecondary student mobility report 44 vi. appendix:1 environmental scan college university transfer credit policies f h i j k l m credential typadmission reqminimum grad* g credentials granted c+ graduation timetable a or 80% c+ credits needed to graduate from institution a/a /a+ c+ credit transfer & credit breakdown deg b/b /b+ admission requirements type of agreement graduates of northern or sault college's 2 year social service worker diploma programs with an a average will complete a 4year degree in 2.5 years (5 honours bachelor of semesters). social work deg c+ institution coddate of appro program title a b c d e 1 ontario university transfer credit policies for college transfer credit students 2 affiliated college honours bachelor of social work c+ c+ c+ 20110501 bachelor of arts students must complete 75 credits northern or sault college graduates (approximately 2.5 years) at will receive 45 credits toward a 4year algoma university to receive a 4 honours bachelor of social work. year degree. graduates of northern or sault college's 2 year social service worker diploma programs with an b/b/b+ average will complete a 4 year degree in 3 years (6 semesters). deg a/a /a+ c+ a or 80% transfer agreement algm 20110501 bachelor of arts students must complete 90 credits northern or sault college graduates (approximately 3 years) at algoma will receive 30 credits toward a 4year university to receive a 4year honours bachelor of social work. degree. graduates of northern or sault college's 2 year social service worker diploma programs with an c+ average will complete a 4year degree in 3.5 years (7 honours bachelor of semesters). social work deg b/b /b+ c+ deg northern, cambrian, 3 sault transfer agreement algm honours bachelor of 20110501 social work graduates of the northern or sault college's 2 year social service worker diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of a to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a, graduates of the northern or sault college programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. graduates of the northern or sault college's 2 year social service worker diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of b/b/b+ to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of b/b/b+, graduates of the northern or sault college programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. students must complete 105 credits (approximately 3.5 years) at algoma university to receive a 4 year degree. graduates of the northern or sault college's 2 year child and youth worker diploma programs with an a/a+ average will complete a 4 year degree in 2.5 years (5 honours bachelor of semesters). social work deg c+ honours bachelor of arts in sociology at algoma university northern, cambrian, 4 sault, george brown transfer agreement algm honours bachelor of 20110501 social work graduates of the northern or sault college's 2 year social service worker diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of c+ to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of c+, graduates of northern or sault college graduates the northern or sault college programs must have achieved a will receive 15 credits toward a 4year minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. honours bachelor of social work. students must complete 75 credits (approximately 2.5 years) at algoma university to receive a 4 year degree. graduates of the northern or sault college's 3 year child and youth worker diploma programs with anb/b/b+ average will complete a 4 year degree in 2.5 to 3 years honours bachelor of (5 to 6 semesters). social work deg northern, cambrian or sault college students will complete 4 year ba in sociology in 2 years. 5 northern, sault transfer agreement algm honours bachelor of 20110501 social work graduates of the northern or sault college's 3 year child and youth worker diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of a to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a, graduates of the northern or sault college graduates northern or sault college programs must have achieved a will receive 45 credits toward a 4year minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. honours bachelor of social work. students must complete 84 credits (approximately 2.5 to 3 years) at algoma university to receive a 4 year degree. graduates of the northern or sault college's 2 year child and youth worker diploma programs with an c+ average will complete a 4year degree in 3 years (6 honours bachelor of semesters). social work 60 credits (2 years) to receive a four year ba in sociology 6 northern, sault transfer agreement algm honours bachelor of 20110501 social work graduates of the northern or sault college's 3 year child and youth worker diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of b/b+ to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of b/b+, graduates of northern or sault college graduates the northern or sault college programs must have achieved a will receive 36 credits toward a 4year minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. honours bachelor of social work. students must complete 90 credits (approximately 3 years) at algoma university to receive a 4year degree. 3year bachelor of arts in community development at algoma university deg 7 northern, sault transfer agreement algm honours bachelor of 20110501 social work graduates of the northern or sault college's 3 year child and youth worker diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of c+ to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of c+, graduates of northern or sault college graduates the northern or sault college programs must have achieved a will receive 30 credits toward a 4year minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. honours bachelor of social work. northern, cambrian, sault and george brown college graduates of the social service worker diploma program will complete a 3 36 credits to receive a 3year ba in year ba in community community development development in 1.5 years. 8 northern, sault transfer agreement algm honours bachelor of 20110501 social work northern, cambrian or sault college graduates will receive 60 credits toward a 4year bachelor of arts in sociology. 9 northern, sault transfer agreement algm graduates of the northern, cambrian or sault college social service worker diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of a (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a (80%), graduates of the northern, cambrian or sault college programs must have achieved a minimum grade of 60% in all courses taken. graduates of the northern, cambrian, sault or george brown college social service worker diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of a (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a (80%), graduates of the northern, cambrian, sault or george brown college programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. 10 northern, sault n o a 13 george brown algm honours bachelor of 20110713 arts graduates of all ontario college advanced diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the threeyear advanced diploma program with an overall average of b and up (70%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall average of b and up (70%), graduates of the all ontario college advanced diploma programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. h j graduates of ontario college diploma programs with an a average will complete a 4 honours bachelor of arts year bachelor of arts in 2.5 (multiple majors) at years (5 semesters). algoma university deg i k l c+ 14 george brown general algm honours bachelor of 20110501 arts admitted students will receive 30 credits toward a 4year honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). g a or 80% c+ e honours bachelor of arts in sociology at algoma university deg a or 80% c+ d sault college graduates will complete the 4year ba in sociology in 2 years. a 3year bachelor of arts degree in community development at algoma university deg a or 80% c+ c sault college graduates with a native 60 credits (2 years) to receive a 4 social service worker diploma will year ba in sociology. receive 60 credits toward a 4year bachelor of arts in sociology. sault college graduates with a native social service worker diploma will complete the 3year ba in community development in 1.5 years. deg a or 80% b sault college graduates with native social service worker diploma will receive 54 credits toward a 3year bachelor of arts degree in community 36 credits to receive a 3year ba in development. community development george brown college graduates with a community worker diploma will complete a 4year ba in community economic and social development (cesd) in 2 years. bachelor of arts in community development at algoma university deg c+ 15 general algm graduates of all ontario college advanced diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the threeyear advanced diploma program with an overall average of c+ and up (65%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall average of c+ and up (65%), graduates of the all ontario college advanced diploma programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. 20110501 bachelor of arts george brown college graduates with community worker diploma will receive 60 credits toward a 4year bachelor of arts degree in community 60 credits (2 years) to receive a 4 economic and social development year ba in community economic and social development (cesd). (cesd). george brown college students will complete 3 year ba in community development in 1 year. a /a+ c+ 16 general 20110501 bachelor of arts students must complete 90 credits (approximately 3 years) at algoma university to receive a 4year honours bachelor of arts degree. transfer agreement algm george brown college graduates with a community worker diploma will receive 60 credits toward a 3year bachelor of arts in community 30 credits to receive a 3year ba in development (cd). community development (cd) honours bachelor of arts (multiple majors) at algoma university deg a c+ 17 algm all ontario college diploma graduates with an b average overall will receive 30 credits toward a 4year bachelor of arts. 11 sault admitted students will complete the 4year degree students must complete 60 credits program at algoma (2 years) to receive a fouryear university in 2 years (4 honours bachelor of arts degree. semesters). b /b+ c+ general graduates of all ontario college diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of a twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of b (70%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of b, graduates of the all ontario college diploma programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ in all courses taken. 20110501 bachelor of arts students must complete 75 credits (approximately 2.5 years) at algoma university to receive a 4 year honours bachelor of arts degree. honours bachelor of arts (multiple majors) at algoma university deg c+ 18 honours bachelor of 20110713 arts transfer agreement algm 20110501 bachelor of arts f graduates of sault college native social service worker diploma program must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the two year diploma program with a minimum overall average of a (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a (80%), graduates of the sault college program must have achieved a minimum grade of 60% in all courses taken. graduates of the sault college native social service worker diploma program must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the two year diploma program with a minimum overall average of a (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a (80%), graduates of the sault college program must have achieved a minimum grade of 60% in all courses taken. graduates of george brown college community worker diploma program must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the two year diploma program with a minimum overall average of a (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a (80%), graduates of the george brown college program must have achieved a minimum grade of 60% in all courses taken. graduates of the george brown college community worker diploma program must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the two year diploma program with a minimum overall average of a (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a (80%), graduates of the george brown college programs must have achieved a minimum grade of 60% in all courses taken. admitted students will receive 60 credits toward a 4year honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). admitted students will complete the 4year degree students must complete 75 credits program at algoma (2.5 years) to receive a fouryear university in 2.5 years (5 honours bachelor of arts degree. semesters). honours bachelor of arts (multiple majors) at algoma university deg c+ algm 12 sault transfer agreement algm 20110501 bachelor of arts graduates of all ontario college advanced diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the threeyear advanced diploma program with an overall average of a and up (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall average of a and up (80%), graduates of all ontario college advanced diploma programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. admitted students will receive 45 credits toward a 4year honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). admitted students will complete the 4year degree students must complete 90 credits program at algoma (2 years) to receive a fouryear university in 3 years (6 honours bachelor of arts degree. semesters). b general honours bachelor of arts in community economic and social development (cesd) transfer agreement algm honours bachelor of 20110501 arts graduates of all ontario college diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of a twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of a (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of a, graduates of all ontario college diploma programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ in all courses taken. admitted students will receive 45 credits toward a 4year honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). graduates of ontario college diploma programs with a b average will complete a 4 honours bachelor of arts year bachelor of arts in 3 (multiple majors) at years (6 semesters). algoma university deg 19 m n o g h e f d students must complete 105 credits (approximately 3.5 years) at algoma university to receive a 4 year honours bachelor of arts degree. c all ontario college diploma graduates with an c+ average overall will receive 15 credits toward a 4year bachelor of arts. b graduates of all ontario college diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of a twoyear diploma program with a minimum overall average of c+ (65%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall minimum average of c+, graduates of the all ontario college diploma programs must have achieved a minimum grade of c+ in all courses taken. a honours bachelor of 20110713 arts i j graduates of ontario college diploma programs with an c+ average will complete a 4 honours bachelor of arts year bachelor of arts in 3.5 (multiple majors) at years (7 semesters). algoma university deg k l c+ algm c+ general c+ 20 mohawk college students who have completed the two year insurance studies program with a minimum of 75% may apply to enter brock to complete an honours ba degree in economics. honours ba media and communication studies mohawk students who have completed the public relations or business graduate certificate program with a minimum 75% can apply 20090421 communication studies to enter brock university. up to 7.5 credits will be granted to mohawk college students when they transfer with a diploma in computer science technology software development with a minimum 3.5 gpa bachelor of science (80%), and a minimum 'b' in each of the required college courses. not posted computer science graduates of niagara college's general arts and science (gas) diploma program with a b (70%) average (including grades of at least b in socl courses) and completion of the designated 60 credit curriculum at niagara as well as one brock university course (cana 1f91) will be considered for admission into the bachelor of arts program with a general studies major (15 credits). admitted students will complete the 3year degree students must complete 60 credits program at algoma (2 years) to receive a threeyear university in 2 years (6 bachelor of science degree. semesters). b /b+ graduates of all ontario college advanced diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the threeyear advanced diploma program with an overall average of b and up (70%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall average of b and up (70%), graduates of all ontario college admitted students will receive 30 advanced diploma programs must have achieved a minimum credits toward a 3year bachelor of grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. science degree (multiple majors). deg 20110803 bachelor of science bachelor of science (multiple majors) at algoma university algm c+ general a /a+ 21 deg graduates of all ontario college advanced diploma programs must meet algoma university admission requirements defined as the successful completion of the threeyear advanced diploma program with an overall average of a and up (80%) to be eligible for credit recognition. in addition to an overall average of a and up (80%), graduates of all ontario college admitted students will receive 36 advanced diploma programs must have achieved a minimum credits toward a 3year bachelor of grade of c+ (60%) in all courses taken. science degree (multiple majors). bachelor of science (multiple majors) at algoma university 20110803 bachelor of science 70% algm 78.0% general honours bachelor of science (bsc) degree program with a major in chemistry. deg 22 admitted students will complete the 3year degree students must complete 54 credits program at algoma (2.5 years) to receive a threeyear university in 2.5 years (5 bachelor of science degree. semesters). the honours bsc program with a major in chemistry can be completed in two and a half academic years (5 semesters). students must complete all degree students will be required to requirements as outlined in complete 13.5 full courses at brock the 2011/12 undergraduate university. calendar. 70% bachelor of science 19930415 chemistry 70% transfer agreement broc honours bachelor of arts degree in labour studies (with comajor). deg 23 mohawk three academic years of study will be required to complete the honours ba degree in labour studies honours bachelor of arts degree in (with comajor) from brock labour studies (with comajor). university. 70% honours bachelor of arts degree in labour 20070123 studies 75% transfer agreement broc when all degree requirements have been met, students will earn an honours ba in economics from brock university. deg 24 mohawk approximately three academic years (six 15 of 20 credits for the honours ba semesters) of study at brock degree in economics will be to complete the honours ba completed at brock. in economics. 70% students of mohawk college's chemical engineering technology program who graduate with an overall 78 percent students may receive up to a (b) average will be considered for admission to the honours maximum of six and one half (6.5) bachelor of science with a major in chemistry program. credits towards the 20 credit degree mohawk college labour studies students who have already completed the 160 hours of the certificate program students who labour studies certificate program at mohawk college may have completed 160 hours will be apply to enter brock university to complete an honours ba awarded 5 of 20 credits towards an degree in labour studies (with comajor) and will be granted honours bachelor of arts degree in 3.0 transfer credits upon entrance to brock and an additional labour studies (with comajor) at 2.0 once they have successfully completed 12.5 brock credits. brock university. mohawk graduates from the two year insurance studies program, who apply to enter the economics program will be granted 3.0 transfer credits. after completing a further 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 credit degree in economics students can apply for a further 2.0 transfer credits. it will be the students responsibility to make application for these 2.0 credits, and the credits will be granted only to student who are still majoring in economics. 75% b honours ba degree in 20080123 economics when all degree requirements have been met, students will earn a fouryear honours ba in media & communication studies or a fouryear honours ba in business communications. deg 3.5 gpa transfer agreement broc three academic years (6 semesters) to complete the honours bachelor of arts in media & communication studies or business communications. deg 25 mohawk mohawk graduates will receive 3.0 transfer credits upon entering brock university's media & communication studies program or brock university's business communication studies program. students can apply for an additional 2.0 transfer credits upon 15 of 20 must be achieved at brock completion of 12.5 brock credits. university. bachelor of science computer science b transfer agreement broc two and a half academic years (5 semesters) to complete program. 70% 26 mohawk applicants will receive a maximum of 7.5 transfer credits to put towards 12.5 of 20 must be achieved at their 20 credit degree. brock university. deg transfer agreement broc students will complete the bachelor of arts (general humanities) degree program in approximately one and a half years (3 semesters) of bachelor of arts full time study. (general) degree 27 mohawk admitted applicants will receive six unspecified university credits, one specified credit in sociology 1f90 and students will be required to one brock university credit (canadian complete 7.0 full courses at brock studies 1f91). unviersity. transfer agreement broc bachelor of arts 20000901 general studies 28 niagara m n o 30 niagara 29 niagara transfer agreement broc transfer agreement broc transfer agreement broc 4 yr ba with major in 20090423 film studies honours bachelor of 20060606 arts dramatic arts bachelor of arts 20081119 community health honours bachelor of science in computer 20051103 science bachelor of recreation 20071018 and leisure studies fanshawe students who have completed the advanced film making graduate certificate or broadcast journalism television news graduate certificate and meet the minimum admission requirements may apply to brock's honours bachelor of arts degree in film studies. fanshawe college 2year theatre arts program diploma graduates who have achieved at least an overall 75 percent (b) average. niagara college students who have completed the two year dental hygiene diploma with a minimum overall 70% may apply for consideration to the articulation bachelor of community health with brock university. applications must be received by february 1st. graduates of the 3 year computer programmer/analyst program at niagara college with a minimum gpa of 3.5. the niagara college recreation therapy program graduate must have a minimum overall 80 percent overall grade average. f 31 niagara transfer agreement broc bachelor of arts with major in film studies e 32 fanshawe transfer agreement broc not posted bachelor of science computer science (general or honours) d 33 fanshawe transfer agreement broc not posted bachelor of arts visual arts (general or honours) c 34 fanshawe transfer agreement broc not posted b 35 sheridan transfer agreement broc honours ba in political 20080115 science a 36 sheridan transfer agreement broc students who have already completed the emergency management diploma at sheridan college may apply to enter brock to complete a a degree in political science and will be granted 3.0 transfer credits. further transfer credits may be granted at a later date. bachelor of science computer science (general or honours) bachelor of arts with major in film studies deg deg when all degree requirements have been met, students will earn a 4 year honours bachelor of arts with a major in film studies from brock. deg honours bachelor of arts dramatic arts degree deg honours bachelor of science in computer science deg students will earn a bachelor of arts in community health degree once all course requirements have been met at brock university. deg deg 3.5 gpa 75.0% 70% 75% or b 70% 3.5 80% b n/a 70% 70% 70% b 70% l 70% k 75.0% j bachelor of arts visual arts (general or honours) deg 70% bachelor of recreation and leisure studies (brls) honours (four year) degree. g h i the recreation therapy program graduate will be given up to nine (9.0) credits towards the brls (20) credit honours degree as determined by the registrar's office at brock university in consultation with the brock 9.0 of 20 as outlined by the two full years for a bachelor recreation and leisure studies recreation and leisure studies of recreation and leisure department. department. studies honours degree. the computer programmer/analyst program graduate will be given up to seven (7.0) credits towards a fifteen (15) credit pass degree or a twenty students must complete a (20) honours or major degree minimum of eight (8.0) of fifteen approximately three conditional upon a minimum grade of (15) brock credits to obtain a bsc academic years of study (6 b in each of the required courses. pass degree or thirteen (13.0) of semesters) will be required applicants are encouraged to discuss twenty (20) to obtain a bsc to complete an honours four course selection with the appropriate honours or major (20 credit) year bachelor of science in individual at the college. degree. computer science graduates of niagara college's two year dental hygiene diploma program with a 70% average will be awarded 5 10 of 15. applicants should contact of 15 credits towards a bachelor of the department of community arts in community health degree at health sciences to discuss the two academic years (four brock university required courses. semesters) of fulltime study. the theatre arts program graduate will be given up to ten (10) credits towards the fouryear (20 credit) honours bachelor of arts dramatic arts degree where each course has a the theatre arts program graduate 70% or higher grade and as will require at least ten (10) determined by the registrar's office additional brock university credits two (2) academic years as a at brock university in consultation to obtain the fouryear (20 credit) fulltime student for an with the brock department of honours bachelor of arts honours bachelor of arts dramatic arts. dramatic arts degree. dramatic arts degree. three academic years (6 semesters) at brock will be required to complete the fanshawe graduates will be granted honours bachelor of arts in 3.0 firstyear social science transfer film studies, upon the credits and may apply for an completion of the advanced additional 2.0 transfer credits after film making graduate successful completion of 12.5 brock certificate or broadcast credits towards the 20credit degree journalism television news honours bachelor of arts degree in contact the administrative office, graduate certificate from film studies. faculty of social sciences. fanshawe. college graduates will receive 3.0 transfer credits directly towards their program. after successful completion of 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 credit degree, students can apply to 15 of 20 course must be completed three academic years (6 the department for an additional 2.0 at brock university to earn the semesters) to complete the bachelor of arts. bachelor of arts. transfer credits. two academic years (4 applicants will receive a maximum of semesters) for a honours 10 transfer credits to put towards 10 of 20 credit honours degree or degree, one academic year their 20 credit honours degree or a 15 5 of 15 credit general degree must (2 semesters) for a general credit general degree. be achieved at brock university. degree. three and a half academic years (7 semesters) for a honours degree, approximately two and a half academic year (5 semesters) for a general degree. 75.0% 17 of 20 credit honours degree or 12 of 15 credit general degree must be achieved at brock university. when all degree requirements have been met, students will be receive an honours ba in political science from brock university. deg 15 of 20 courses must be completed at brock to achieve an honours ba in political science from brock university. three academic years of study will be required to complete the honours ba in political science degree at brock university. up to 3 credits will be granted to sheridan college students applicants will receive a maximum of when they transfer with a 1year sheridan college diploma in 3 transfer credits to put towards their arts fundamentals with a minimum 75% overall average, and a 20 credit honours degree or a 15 minimum 70% in each of the required college courses. credit general degree. upon successful completion of all requirements, the emergency management diploma graduates will be granted 3.0 brock university elective credits. upon successful completion of 12.5 brock credits the student will be eligible for 2.0 additional credits. students must apply for the additional 2.0 credits through their undergraduate adviser. applicants from fanshawe college's visual effect and editing for contemporary media certificate who have a minimum 75% cumulative average will be granted 5.0 credits (3.0 upon admission, an additional 2.0 after completion of 12.5 brock credits). up to 10 credits will be granted to sheridan college students when they transfer with a diploma in computer science technology software development with a minimum 3.5 gpa (80%), and a minimum 'b' in each of the required college courses. 37 sheridan m n o algonquin, canadore, centennial, fanshawe, 38 loyalist, and mohawk transfer agreement broc transfer agreement broc b 39 st. lawrence transfer agreement broc a 40 durham c not posted applicants from (the st. clair affiliate) anishinabek educational institute's native community worker (traditional healing bachelor of arts in methods) diploma who have a minimum 75% cumulative distinct and diverse average will be granted 5.0 credits (3.0 upon admission, an communities additional 2.0 after completion of 12.5 brock credits). students attend st. clair college's 2year liberal arts program for years 1 and 2. during year 2 they concurrently complete 1.0 credit at windsor university. in years 3 and 4 students attend brock university. 6.0 credits will be granted upon transfer to bachelor of arts degree brock university with the st. clair college diploma (4.0 upon in social sciences admission, an additional 2.0 after completion of 11.5 brock (honours) credits). transfer agreement broc anishinabek educational institute (st. clair transfer agreement broc 43 affiliate) not posted bachelor of arts in political science 41 lambton transfer agreement broc not posted transfer agreement broc 44 st. clair transfer agreement broc honours bachelor of 20020601 arts (multiple majors) 42 sault 45 seneca general/degree spec broc honours bsc in computer science 20030305 degree students who have successfully completed the twoyear police foundations diploma with a minimum 75% overall average will transfer students will be eligible to be considered for admission to brock and be eligible to receive receive up to 3.0 transfer credits upon up to 3.0 transfer credits upon initial admission to the initial admission to the university and university and can receive an additional 2.0 once they have can receive an additional 2.0 once completed 12.5 brock credits towards an honours ba (multiple they have completed 12.5 brock majors) credits. up to ten (10) credits towards a twenty (20) credit honours or major students must have completed the 3year computer systems degree conditional upon obtaining a technologysoftware development & network engineering co minimum grade of b in each of the op diploma program with a mininum gpa of 3.5 required transfer credits. 10 of 20 credits must be achieved at brock. i j l n/a k 75.0% 70% deg 75% bachelor of arts approximate three academic recreation and leisure years of study at brock. studies honours when all degree requirements have been met, students will earn a fouryear honours bachelor of arts psychology degree from brock university deg 70 three academic years (6 semesters) to complete the bachelor of arts psychology honours degree. 70.0% 70% 70% 75% n/a 75% when all degree approximately two academic requirements have been years (four semesters) of met, students will earn a study at brock to complete bachelor of arts in the bachelor of arts in community health from community health. brock university. deg when all degree and diploma requirements have been met, students will earn a fouryear bachelor of arts distinct and diverse communities aboriginal stream degree from brock university deg 75% when all degree requirements have been met, students will earn an honours bachelor of arts in child and youth studies from brock university. deg deg approximately three academic years (6 semesters) of study at brock to complete the honours ba in child and youth studies. bachelor of arts in distinct and diverse communities three academic years (6 semesters) to complete the bachelor of arts distinct and diverse communities aboriginal stream degree. three academic years (6 semesters) to complete the bachelor of arts. deg n/a bachelor of arts degree in social sciences (honours) 75% 70% two academic years + 1 credit at the university of windsor (approximately 4 semesters). 75.0% b deg deg a four year honours four year bachelor of arts degree in either psychology, sociology, geography or political science. deg honours bachelor of science in computer science 3.5 bachelor of arts in political science 15 of 20 course must be completed three academic years (6 at brock university to earn the semesters) to complete the bachelor of arts. bachelor of arts. three academic years of study (6 semesters) will be 15 or 20 credits must be received required to complete an at brock university to meet all honours four year bachelor degree requirements for an of arts degree in either honours ba in either psychology, psychology, sociology, sociology, geography or political geography or political science. science. two academic years of study will be required at brock to complete an honours bachelor of science in computer science. students who complete a 2year liberal arts program and 1.0 credit at windsor university will be advanced 10 of 20 course must be completed to 3rd year of brock's 20 credit at brock university to earn this degree. program. college graduates will receive 3.0 transfer credits directly towards their program. after successful completion of 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 credit degree, students can apply to the department for an additional 2.0 transfer credits. d e f g h applicants from algonguin, canadore, centennial, fanshawe, loyalist, and mohawk college with a 2year recreation and leisure services diploma who have a minimum 75% 13.5 of 20 credits must be bachelor of arts cumulative average in the recreation and leisure services applicants will receive a maximum of completed at brock to complete recreation and leisure diploma will be granted 6.5 credits granted upon transfer to 6.5 transfer credits to put towards the bachelor of arts recreation and brock. their 20 credit degree. leisure studies honours degree. not posted studies honours college graduates will receive 3.0 first year social science transfer credits towards the bachelor of arts psychology degree. after successful completion of 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 credit degree, students st. lawrence college graduates who have completed the three can apply for an additional 2.0 year behavioural science technology advanced diploma transfer credits. students who 15 of 20 course must be completed behavioural science curriculum with a minimum 75% may apply for admission to successfully complete the college at brock university to earn the technoloy to ba brock university to complete an honours bachelor of arts in program will receive 5.0 nonspecified honours bachelor of arts psychology. brock credits. psychology degree 20050429 psychology upon successful completion of the threeyear child & youth worker diploma program, graduates will be granted 4.0 brock university elective durham students who have completed the three year child credits. these will include three first and youth worker advanced diploma program with a 75% year social science electives and one average can apply to transfer to brock to complete a ba secondyear social science electives. degree in child and youth studies. students will be granted students will be eligible for 3.0 honours bachelor of 4.0 transfer credits upon entrance and can apply for an additional transfer credits upon 13 of 20 credits for the honours ba arts in child and youth additional 3.0 transfer credits upon completion of 11.5 brock successful completion of 11.5 brock degree in child & youth studies will credits. credits. be completed at brock. 20080123 studies upon successful completion of the twoyear pharmacy technician upon successful completion of all diploma program at lambton, requirements for pharmacy lambton students who have completed the twoyear students will be granted 5.0 non technician diploma, students will pharmacy technician diploma program with a minimum 70% specified brock university elective be granted four (5) nonspecified average who apply to transfer to brock to complete a bachelor credits. applicants who have brock university elective credits. 10 bachelor of arts of arts degree in community health will be granted 5.0 completed the pharmacy technician of 15 courses will be completed at transfer credits upon entrance. diploma prior to attending brock. brock. 20080902 community health college graduates will receive 3.0 first year social science transfer credits sault college graduates who have completed the twoyear towards the distinct and diverse social service workernative specialization diploma or communities degree aboriginal anishinabek education institute (st clair college) native stream. after successful completion 15 of 20 course must be completed community workertraditional healing methods diploma. of 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 at brock university to earn the distince & diverse graduates with a minimum 75% may apply for admission to credit degree, students can apply to bachelor of arts distinct and communitiesaboriginal brock university to complete a ba in distinct and diverse the department for an additional 2.0 diverse communitiesaboriginal communitiesaboriginal stream. transfer credits. stream degree. 20090421 stream college graduates will receive 3.0 transfer credits directly towards their program. after successful completion of 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 credit degree, students can apply to 15 of 20 course must be completed the department for an additional 2.0 at brock university to earn the transfer credits. bachelor of arts. 46 general/degree spec broc applicants from seneca college's law clerk diploma or paralegal diploma who have a minimum 75% cumulative average will be granted 5.0 credits (3.0 upon admission, an additional 2.0 after completion of 12.5 brock credits). 47 m n o b c d e f g h psychologysocial 20051103 service worker i three academic years (6 semesters) to complete the honours bachelor of arts in psychology j when all degree requirements have been met, students will earn a fouryear honours ba in psychology from brock university. deg k l 70% general/degree spec broc 75% 48 b 20070509 visual arts 75% general/degree spec broc 70% dependent on transfer credits awarded (credits assessed and awarded on a case by case bases). bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors approximately three academic years (6 semesters) bachelor of early of study at brock to complete childhood education the honours ba in ece. honours deg three and one half academic years (7 semesters) will be required to earn the honours bachelor of arts with a bachelor of arts with a major major in visual arts in visual arts degree. honours degree. deg upon successful completion of all degree requirements, students will earn a four year honours ba in women's studies from brock university. deg 75% 49 a college graduates will receive 3.0 first year social science transfer credits towards the ba psychology honours degree. after successful completion of 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 credit degree, students can apply for college graduates who have completed a 2year social service an additional 2.0 transfer credits. worker diploma with a minimum 75% may apply for students who successfully complete admission to brock university to complete an honours the program will receive 5.0 non 15 of 20 credits must be achieved bachelor of arts in psychology. specified brock credits. at brock university. the art fundamentals graduate will be given up to three (3) credits toward the four year (20 credit) honours ba with a major in visual the art fundamental graduate arts degree where each course has a would require at least seventeen 70% or higher grade and as (17) additional brock credits to graduates of the art fundamentals 1year program must have determined by the registrar's office obtain the four year (20 credit) achieved a minimum 75% (b) average for consideration into in consultation with the brock honours ba with a major in visual the ba in visual arts honours program. department of visual arts. arts degree. applicants who complete the 2 year social service worker diploma will receive 3.0 transfer credits when initially admitted to brock university and will be eligible to receive 2.0 additional transfer credits once they have completed 12.5 brock credits. sheridan students who have completed the 2 year social service worker diploma with a 75% average may apply to enter brock university to complete an honours degree in women's studies and will receive 5.0 transfer credits. additional transfer credits may be granted at a later date. 70% honours bachelor of 20080115 arts women\'s studies 3.5 or 80% general/degree spec broc honours bachelor of science in computer science 50 approximately three academic years (6 semesters) 15 of 20 credits for the honours ba of study at brock to complete degree in women's studies will be the honours ba in women's completed at brock. studies. two and a half academic years of study will be required to complete the the computer systems technology honours bachelor of science software development diploma in computer science degree graduate will be required to upon completion of the complete seven and a half brock computer systems credits to obtain an bsc honours technology software (20 credit) degree. development diploma bachelor of science in 20070822 computer science 70% general/degree spec broc 75% 51 college students who have completed the two year paralegal or law clerk diploma with a minimum of 75% may apply for admission to brock university to complete an honours degree in political science. when all degree requirements have been met, students will earn an honours ba in political science from brock. deg honours ba in political 20080123 science applicants who hold a 2year early childhood education (ece) diploma with a minimum overall average of 75% from any applicants will receive a maximum of 13 of 20 credits for the honours ba ontario public college will be granted 7.0 credits granted upon 7 transfer credits to put towards their degree in ece will be completed at transfer 20 credit degree. brock. three academic years of 15 of 20 credits must be completed study at brock to complete at brock to complete the honours the honours ba in political ba in political science. science. general/degree spec broc bachelor of early childhood education honours graduates from the 3year computer systems technology software development diploma program will receive up to a maximum of 7.5 must be a graduate from the threeyear computer systems credits of 20 towards the honours technology software development diploma with a minimum bachelor of science in computer 3.5 gpa (80.0%). science program at brock. applicants to the honours bachelor of artspolitical science degree who complete the paralegal or law clerk program prior to attending brock university will be granted 3.0 transfer credits when initially admitted to brock university and will be eligible to receive an additional 2.0 transfer credits once they have completed 12.5 brock credits and are pursuing an honours degree. 52 not posted n/a broc 75% general applicants who hold a ontario college of applied arts and technologies police foundations diploma with a minimum overall average of 75% will be granted 5.0 credits (3.0 upon admission, an additional 2.0 after completion of 12.5 brock credits in the specific major). deg 53 bachelor of arts honours psychology, sociology, geography or political science n/a not posted 75% broc bachelor of arts honours psychology, sociology, geography or political science deg general 15 of 20 course must be completed three academic years (6 at brock university to earn the semesters) to complete the bachelor of arts. bachelor of arts. 54 college graduates will receive 3.0 transfer credits towards bachelor of arts honours psychology, sociology, geography or political science. after successful completion of 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 credit degree, students can apply to the department for an additional 2.0 transfer credits. college graduates will receive 3.0 transfer credits towards bachelor of arts honours psychology or women's studies. after successful completion of 12.5 credits at brock toward a 20 credit degree, students can apply to the department for an additional 2.0 transfer credits. n/a not posted 75% broc applicants will receive a maximum of dependent on transfer credits 7.5 transfer credits depending on individual assessment and program of awarded (credits assessed and choice. awarded on a case by case bases). bachelor of arts honours psychology or women's studies deg general applicants who hold a ontario college of applied arts and technologies social service worker diploma with a minimum bachelor of arts overall average of 75% will be granted 5.0 credits (3.0 upon honours psychology or admission, an additional 2.0 after completion of 12.5 brock women's studies credits in the specific major). graduates of a threeyear diploma program with a cumulative average of 70 percent, or an average of 70 percent in the last two semesters of a threeyear diploma program, will be considered for admission, and may be awarded up to 5 credits. in some cases, where programs at the college and brock are quite compatible, up to 7.5 credits may be awarded with the approval of the department. the awarding of transfer credit is based primarily upon: the compatibility of the previous college program with the brock program; course content; grades achieved in courses. bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors 15 of 20 course must be completed three academic years (6 at brock university to earn the semesters) to complete the bachelor of arts. bachelor of arts. 55 not posted 70% broc 70% general deg 56 m n o 61 algonquin 60 algonquin 59 algonquin 58 algonquin 57 transfer agreement carl transfer agreement carl transfer agreement carl transfer agreement carl transfer agreement carl general not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted bachelor of arts bachelor of social work bachelor of arts child studies bachelor of arts geography bachelor of arts criminology, law, psychology, or sociology honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) not posted bachelor of arts e algonquin, fleming,st. 62 lawrence transfer agreement carl not posted bachelor of arts child studies d 63 durham transfer agreement carl not posted c 64 durham transfer agreement carl honours bachelor of 20110101 arts (multiple majors) b 65 loyalist general/degree spec carl 20110101 bachelor of arts a 66 general/degree spec carl 20110101 bachelor of arts bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors 67 general/degree spec carl f g h i applicants who have completed two years of a threeyear diploma program or graduates of a twoyear program with a cumulative average of 70 percent will be considered for admission and may be awarded up to 3 credits. in cases where the programs at the college and brock are quite compatible, up to 5 credits may be awarded with the approval of the department. the awarding of transfer credit is based primarily applicants will receive a maximum of dependent on transfer upon: the compatibility of the previous college program with 5 transfer credits depending on dependent on transfer credits credits awarded (credits the brock program; course content; grades achieved in individual assessment and program of awarded (credits assessed and assessed and awarded on a courses. choice. awarded on a case by case bases). case by case bases). normally three years (6 semesters) for an honours applicants will receive 5.0 credits bachelor of arts degree. graduates of algonquin's twoyear ontario college general (equivalent to one academic year of 15 of 20 required credits. numbers length of time may vary arts and science diploma program with a minimum overall study) upon completion of the two of credits may vary depending on depending on degree major grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. year diploma program. degree major selected. selected. students who have obtained a diploma in police foundations from algonquin college with an overall average of b or better will be granted up to a maximum of 5.0 credits on admission applicants will receive 5.0 credits students are required to complete towards the completion of a b.a. in either criminology, law, (equivalent to one academic year of 10 credits (two years) of a 15 credit two academic years (four psychology, or sociology. study). degree. semesters) of fulltime study. students who have obtained the gis technologist program from algonquin college and are admitted to the b.a. in applicants will receive 5.0 credits students are required to complete geography, will be granted up to a maximum of 5.0 specific (equivalent to one academic year of 10 credits (two years) of a 15 credit two academic years (four credits on admission to the degree. study). degree. semesters) of fulltime study. students who have obtained the early childhood education diploma from algonquin college with a b+ average or better applicants will receive 5.0 credits students are required to complete will be granted up to a maximum of 5.0 credits on admission to (equivalent to one academic year of 10 credits (two years) of a 15 credit two academic years (four the child studies program. study). degree. semesters) of fulltime study. diploma graduates of algonquin college, sir sanford fleming college and st. lawrence college's human service worker or social service worker programs will be granted 5 credits applicants will receive 5.0 credits students are required to complete (equivalent to one year of study) towards a bachelor of social (equivalent to one academic year of 10 credits (two years) of a 15 credit two academic years (four work from carlton university. study). degree. semesters) of fulltime study. graduates of a twoyear diploma from durham college who have a gpa of 3.0 will be considered for admission to carleton universities bachelor of arts program (multiple majors) and be students are required to complete award a maximum of five transfer credits towards their 10 credits (two years) of a 15 credit two academic years (four degree. degree. semesters) of fulltime study. graduates of a threeyear diploma from durham college who have a gpa of 3.0 will be considered for admission to carleton universities bachelor of arts program (multiple majors) and be students are required to complete award a maximum of seven transfer credits towards their 10 credits (two years) of a 15 credit two academic years (four degree. degree. semesters) of fulltime study. graduates of a twoyear diploma from loyalist college's early childhood education diploma who have a gpa of 3.5 will be considered for admission to carleton universities bachelor of students are required to complete arts in child studies and be award a maximum of five transfer 10 credits (two years) of a 15 credit two academic years (four credits towards their degree. degree. semesters) of fulltime study. normally 5 semesters (two and a half to three years) for applicants will receive 7.0 credits (one an honours bachelor of arts graduates of a threeyear ontario college child and youth and a half years of study) upon 13 of 20 required credits. number degree. length of time may worker advanced diploma program with a minimum overall completion of the threeyear of credits may vary depending on vary depending on degree grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. advanced diploma program. degree major selected. major selected. students will normally complete an honours 15 of 20 required credits must be bachelor of arts degree applicants will receive 5.0 credits completed at carleton. the (multiple majors) in three graduates of a twoyear ontario college social service worker (equivalent to one year of study) upon number of credits may vary years. length of time may diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average completion of the twoyear diploma depending on degree major vary depending on degree of 3.0 and any required prerequisites are eligible. program. selected. major selected. normally three years for an honours bachelor of arts graduates of a two year ontario college diploma in police 15 of 20 required credits. number degree. length of time may foundations with a minimum overall grade point average of of credits may vary depending on vary depending on degree 3.0 and any required prerequisites. degree major selected. major selected. normally 3 academic years (6 semesters) for an honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). broc 68 honours bachelor of 20110101 arts (multiple majors) 15 of 20 required credits for honours degree general/degree spec carl graduates of a two year ontario college diploma in paralegal education with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. 69 graduates of a twoyear developmental services worker program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. normally three years/6 semesters for an honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). 20110101 bachelor of arts 15 of 20 required credits. general/degree spec carl applicants will receive 5.0 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the two year diploma program. applicants will receive 5.0 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the two year diploma program. graduates of the twoyear diploma program will receive 5.0 credits (one year of study) of 20 towards an honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) 70 j honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg bachelor of arts child studies bachelor of arts bachelor of arts bachelor of social work bachelor of arts child studies bachelor of arts geography deg deg deg deg deg deg bachelor of arts criminology, law, psychology, or sociology deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg deg 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.5 3.0 3.0 n/a b+ n/a b 3.0 70% 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 3.0 70% l honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg 3.0 3.0 k honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg 3.0 bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg m n o 80 79 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl honours bachelor of science degree 20110101 (multiple majors) honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) honours bachelor of science degree 20110101 (multiple majors) honours bachelor of science degree 20110101 (multiple majors) honours bachelor of science (multiple 20110101 majors) 20110101 bachelor of science honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) honours bachelor of 20110101 arts (multiple majors) graduates of a twoyear ontario college environmental engineering technician diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. graduates of a threeyear ontario college business administration (materials management) advanced diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. graduates of a threeyear ontario college business administration advanced diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. graduates of a twoyear ontario college biotechnology technician diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any specified prerequisites. graduates of a threeyear ontario college biotechnology technologist diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. graduates of a threeyear ontario college chemical engineering technology advanced diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. graduates of a twoyear ontario college law clerk diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any specified prerequisites. applicants will receive 7.0 credits (equivalent to one and a half years of academic year of study) upon completion of the threeyear advanced diploma program. applicants will receive 5.0 to 7.0 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the threeyear advanced diploma program. applicants will receive 4 credits (equivalent to one year of study) upon completion of the twoyear diploma program. applicants will receive 7 credits (equivalent to one and a half years academic year of study) upon completion of the threeyear advanced diploma program. applicants will received 6.0 credits for the threeyear chemical engineering technology advanced diploma program. graduates of a two year ontario college chemical engineering applicants will received 5.0 credits technician diploma program with a minimum overall grade (equivalent to one year of study) for point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. the two year diploma program. graduates of a twoyear ontario college community worker diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. graduates of a twoyear ontario college library and information technician diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. applicants will receive 5 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the two year diploma program. f g applicants will receive 5.0 credits graduates of a twoyear ontario college diploma program in (equivalent to one academic year of community and justice services with a minimum overall grade study) upon completion of the two point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. year diploma program. e 81 general/degree spec carl honours bachelor of graduates of a two year ontario college diploma in early arts (child studies) childhood education with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. 20110101 degree graduates of a two year ontario college social service worker diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any specified prerequisites. applicants must also submit a personal information document that will assist in the 20110101 bachelor of social work evaluation. applicants will receive 5.0 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the two year diploma program. applicants will receive 7 credits graduates of a threeyear ontario college environmental (equivalent to one and a half honours bachelor of engineering technologist advanced diploma program with a academic year of study) upon science degree minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required completion of the threeyear prerequisites. advanced diploma program. 20110101 (multiple majors) applicants will receive 3.5 credits (equivalent to over half of an honours bachelor of graduates of a twoyear ontario college businessmarketing academic year of study) upon arts degree (multiple diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average completion of the twoyear diploma of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. program. 20110101 majors) applicants will receive 5.0 credits graduates of a two year ontario college diploma in police (equivalent to one academic year of general bachelor of arts foundations with a minimum overall grade point average of study) upon completion of the two 3.0 and any required prerequisites. year diploma program. 20110101 (criminology) degree applicants will receive 5.0 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the two year diploma program. d 82 general/degree spec carl c 83 general/degree spec carl b 84 general/degree spec carl a 85 general/degree spec carl applicants will receive 3.5 credits upon completion of the two year diploma program. applicants will receive 5 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the two year diploma program. applicants will receive 5 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the two year diploma program. 86 h i normally 3 academic years (6 semesters) for an honours bachelor of arts degree 15 of 20 required credits. (multiple majors). normally 3 and a half academic years for an honours bachelor of arts 16.5 of 20 required credits degree (multiple majors). normally 3 academic years (6 semesters) for an honours bachelor of arts degree 15 of 20 required credits. (multiple majors). normally 3 academic years (6 semesters) for an honours bachelor of arts degree 15 of 20 required credits. (multiple majors). normally three years (6 15 of 20 required credits. required academic semesters) for an credits may vary depending on honours bachelor of science major. degree students will be required to complete 14 of 20 required credits. normally three years for an the number of credits may vary honours bachelor of science depending on choice of major. degree (multiple majors). normally two and a half years academic years (5 semesters) for an honours 13 of 20 required credits. *number bachelor of science degree of credits may vary depending on (depending on major degree major. selected). normally three academic years (6 semesters) for an honours bachelor of science 16 of 20 required credits. credits degree. additional time may needed may vary depending on be required depending on degree major selected. major selected. normally three years (6 semesters) for an honours 1315 of 20 required credits. bachelor of arts degree. number of credits may vary length of time may vary depending on number of transfer depending on degree major credits awarded. selected. normally two and a half years (5 semesters) for an honours bachelor of arts 13 of 20 required credits. number degree. length of time may of credits may vary depending on vary depending on degree degree major selected. major selected. normally three academic years (6 semesters) for an honours bachelor of science 15 of 20 required credits. number degree. additional time may of credits may vary depending on be required depending on degree major selected. major selected. normally two and a half years (5 semesters) for an honours bachelor of science 13 of 20 required credits. number degree. additional time may of credits may vary depending on be required depending on degree major selected. major selected. honours bachelor of science degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of science degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of science degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of science degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of science degree (multiple majors). deg deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). deg 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 l honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg 3.0 3.0 k general bachelor of arts (criminology) degree deg 3.0 3.0 j honours bachelor of arts (child studies) degree deg 3.0 honours bachelor of science deg normally three years ( 6 semesters) for a bachelor of bachelor of social work social work degree. degree normally three and a half years (7 semesters) for an honours bachelor of arts 16.5 of 20 required credits. degree (multiple majors). for a general degree: 10 of 15 normally two years ( 4 required credits. number of credits semesters) for a general may vary depending on degree bachelor of arts major selected. (criminology) degree. normally three years ( 6 semesters) for an honours bachelor of arts (child studies) degree. for an honours degree: 15 of 20 required credits. 15 of 20 required credits. m n o 92 91 90 89 88 87 general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl general/degree spec carl not posted bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors honours bachelor of computer science 20110101 degree honours bachelor of 20110101 science honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) 20110101 bachelor of arts honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple 20110101 majors) e 93 carl not posted bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors d 94 general carl not posted c 95 general carl b 96 general a 97 f graduates of a threeyear ontario college business administration (marketing) advanced diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. g h bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg deg honours bachelor of computer science degree deg deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors) deg 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 l dependent on transfer credits awarded (credits assessed and awarded on a case by case bases). bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg i j k normally two and a half years for an honours bachelor of arts degree (multiple majors). length of time may vary depending on honours bachelor of arts degree major selected. degree (multiple majors) deg applicants will receive a maximum of 5 transfer credits depending on dependent on transfer credits individual assessment and program of awarded (credits assessed and choice. awarded on a case by case bases). dependent on transfer credits awarded (credits assessed and awarded on a case by case bases). bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors applicants will receive 7.0 credits (equivalent to one and a half years of academic year of study) upon 13 of 20 required credits. number completion of the threeyear diploma of credits may vary depending on program. degree major selected. applicants will receive a maximum of 3 transfer credits depending on dependent on transfer credits individual assessment and program of awarded (credits assessed and choice. awarded on a case by case bases). dependent on transfer credits awarded (credits assessed and awarded on a case by case bases). applicants will receive 5.0 credits (equivalent to one academic year of study) upon completion of the two year diploma program. honours bachelor of science degree applicants will receive a maximum of dependent on transfer credits 4 transfer credits depending on individual assessment and program of awarded (credits assessed and choice. awarded on a case by case bases). applicants will receive 6.0 7.0 credits (equivalent to one and a half years of academic study) upon completion of the threeyear advanced diploma normally two and a half to program. amount of transfer credit three years for an honours graduates of a threeyear ontario college business may vary depending on number of 1314 of 20 required credits. bachelor of arts degree administration (human resources) advanced diploma placement courses versus instruction number of credits may vary (multiple majors). length of program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 courses at the college and on the depending on degree major time may vary depending on and any required prerequisites. degree major selected. selected. degree major selected. normally two and a half to applicants will receive 7.0 credits three years for an honours graduates of a threeyear ontario college business (equivalent to one and a half bachelor of arts degree administration (accounting) advanced diploma program with academic years of study) upon 13 of 20 required credits. number (multiple majors). length of a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any completion of the threeyear of credits may vary depending on time may vary depending on specified prerequisites. advanced diploma program. degree major selected. degree major selected. normally three and a half years for an honours graduates of a twoyear ontario college business applicants will receive 3.0 credits bachelor of arts degree administration (accounting) diploma program with a minimum (equivalent over half a year of 17 of 20 required credits. number (multiple majors). length of overall grade point average of 3.0 and any specified academic study) upon completion of of credits may vary depending on time may vary depending on prerequisites. the twoyear diploma program. degre major selected. degree major selected. normally two and a half to three years (5 to 6 applicants will receive 7.0 credits semesters) for an honours graduates of a threeyear ontario college business (equivalent to one and a half years of bachelor of arts degree administration (finance) advanced diploma program with a academic years of study) upon 13 of 20 required credits. number (multiple majors). length of minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any specified completion of the threeyear of credits may vary depending on time may vary depending on prerequisites. advanced diploma program. degree major selected. degree major selected. normally two and a half to applicants will receive 7.0 credits three years for an honours graduates of a threeyear ontario college business (equivalent to one and a half years of bachelor of arts degree administration (international business) advanced diploma academic years of study) upon 13 of 20 required credits. number (multiple majors). length of program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 completion of the threeyear of credits may vary depending on time may vary depending on and any specified prerequisites. advanced diploma program. degree major selected. degree major selected. normally three to three and a half years for an honours applicants will receive 4.0 credits bachelor of science degree. graduates of a twoyear ontario college environmental (equivalent to almost one academic 16 of 20 required credits.number length of time may vary technician diploma program with a minimum overall grade years of study) upon completion of of credits may vary depending on depending on degree major point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. the twoyear diploma program. degree major selected. selected. normally three years for an honours bachelor of computer science degree. 15 of 20 required credits. number length of time may vary of credits may vary depending on depending on degree major degree major selected. selected. graduates of a twoyear ontario college computer programmer diploma program with a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 and any required prerequisites. applicants who present a minimum 3.0 g.p.a. and who have completed all diploma requirements except the last term/semester in a threeyear diploma program will be considered for admission with advanced standing to a maximum of 5.0 credits (equivalent to one year). the advanced standing would be granted according to the appropriateness of the diploma program, the admission requirements of the degree program, and the achievement in relevant courses. applicants who present a minimum 3.0 g.p.a. and who have completed all diploma requirements except the last term/semester in a twoyear diploma program will be considered for admission with advanced standing to a maximum of 3.0 credits. the advanced standing would be granted according to the appropriateness of the diploma program, the admission requirements of the degree program and the achievement in relevant courses. applicants who present a minimum 3.0 g.p.a. and who have completed two years of a threeyear diploma program will be considered for admission with advanced standing to a maximum of 4.0 credits. the advanced standing would be granted according to the appropriateness of the diploma program, the admission requirements of the degree program, and the achievement in relevant courses. m n o transfer agreement guel bachelor of commerce (hons) hotel & food 19961023 administration 19930519 bachelor of commerce the university of guelph will make up to five places available for admission into the bachelor of commerce hotel and food administration program for graduates of the threeyear hospitality and tourism administration advanced diploma program at centennial college. applicants must have a minimum 3.0 (b+) grade point average and have completed a 12u credit or equivalent (oac) in mathematics and english. an articulation agreement between the bachelor of commerce marketing management program at the university of guelph and the coop marketing advanced dipoma program at centennial college facilitates the transfer of students between the two institutions. ten places from the overall admission target for the marketing major will be reserved, annually, for graduates from centennial college threeyear advanced diploma program in marketing (coop) who have a graduating gpa of 3.2 or better, or of 3.5 or better for those graduating after 1995 under the "new" grading system. such students must also have successfully completed centennial's mathematics course mm250 elementary calculus or oac math credit (calculus recommended) or equivalent. f upon admission, students will be granted 11.00 transfer credits towards the degree. students may begin their studies commencing in the winter semester, into the second year of marketing management and will be awarded 7.5 advanced standing transfer credits. g e 98 centennial transfer agreement guel the university of guelph will make up to five places available for admission into the bachelor of commerce (tourism management) program for graduates of the threeyear hospitality and tourism administration advanced diploma bachelor of commerce, program at centennial college. applicants will be required to major tourism have completed ontario credits in grade 12u (4u) functions & up to a maximum of 11.0 advanced relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 management d 99 centennial transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and centennial college provides an opportunity for graduates from the twoyear hospitality management hotel & resort diploma program with a minimum 3.3 (b+) grade point average to be considered for admission to the hotel and food administration major of the bachelor of commerce program. bachelor of commerce, applicants will be required to have completed ontario credits major tourism in grade 12u (4u) functions & relations and english (or their up to a maximum of 7.50 advanced equivalent). standing credits. 20081211 management c 100 centennial transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and centennial college provides an opportunity for graduates of the twoyear hospitality management restaurant & catering (food & beverage) diploma program with a minimum 3.3 (b+) grade point average to be considered for admission to the hotel and food administration major of the bachelor of bachelor of commerce, commerce program. applicants will be required to have major hotel and food completed ontario credits in grade 12u (4u) functions & up to a maximum of 7.0 advanced relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration b 101 centennial transfer agreement guel a 102 centennial h 12.5 credits as per program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. 9.00 credits as per program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 9.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 12.5 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 13.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. deg 3.0 3.2 3.3 3.0 3.2 l students will complete the honours bachelor of degree program in 2.5 years commerce (marketing (5 semesters). management) degree deg 3.3 3.3 k honours bachelor of students will complete the commerce (hotel and degree program in 2 years (4 food administration) semesters). degree deg 3.3 j students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2 years (4 semesters a minimum of 9 credits), depending on the honours bachelor of number of transfer credits commerce (major in awarded. tourism management) deg 3.3 i students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters a minimum of 12.5 credits), depending on honours bachelor of the number of transfer commerce (major in credits awarded. tourism management) 3.3 honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 3 years (6 semesters a minimum of 13.0 credits), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. m n o k l 3.3 j 3.3 b i deg b 3.3 g students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 3 years (6 semesters a minimum of 14.0 credits), depending on honours bachelor of the number of transfer commerce (major in credits awarded. tourism management) deg 3.3 3.3 f students will complete the bachelor of applied science, child, youth & family degree bachelor of applied program in 3 years (6 science, child, youth & semesters). family deg 3.3 3.3 e honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg 3.3 d transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and centennial college provides an opportunity for graduates of the twoyear tourism management cultural and heritage tourism diploma program with a minimum 3.3 (b+) grade point average to be considered for admission to the tourism management major of the bachelor of commerce program. bachelor of commerce, applicants will be required to have completed ontario credits major tourism in grade 12u (4u) functions & relations and english (or their up to a maximum of 6.0 advanced equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 management graduates of the twoyear early childhood education diploma program at conestoga college are eligible to apply. applicants with a graduating average of b or better, with not less than 10 academic courses (exclusive of fieldplacement courses) with a bachelor of applied final course grade of a and a 4u credit in math and a 4u credit science, child, youth & in biology will be considered for one of 10 places available in the overall admission "cohort" target. 20060901 family students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters a minimum of 12.0 credits), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg c 103 centennial transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and conestoga college provides an opportunity for graduates of the twoyear hospitality management hotel and restaurant (food and beverage) coop diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the hotel and food administration major of bachelor of commerce, the bachelor of commerce program. applicants will be hotel & food required to have completed ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & relations and english (or their equivalent). 20081211 administration students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) b 104 conestoga transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and algonquin college provides an opportunity for graduates of the twoyear hospitality management hotel and restaurant diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce, bachelor of commerce program. applicants will be required to hotel & food have completed ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & relations and english (or their equivalent). 20081211 administration students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. a 105 conestoga transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and algonquin college provides an opportunity for graduates of the twoyear tourism and travel diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for bachelor of commerce, admission to the bachelor of commerce program. applicants major tourism will be required to have completed ontario credits in grade 12 up to a maximum of 8.0 advanced (4u) functions & relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 management h students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 14.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. 106 algonquin transfer agreement guel students must complete a further 15.0 credits (30.0 courses), as per students will normally be granted 5.0 degree requirements outlined in credits (10.0 courses) of advanced the university of guelph standing. undergraduate calendar. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 13.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for up to a maximum of 8.0 advanced students to be eligible for standing credits will be awarded. graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 12.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for up to a maximum of 8.0 advanced students to be eligible for standing credits will be awarded. graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 12.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. 107 algonquin m n o f g the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and canadore college provides an opportunity for graduates of the threeyear hotel, resort & restaurant administration advanced diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (hotel and food administration) bachelor of commerce, program. applicants will be required to have completed hotel & food ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & relations and up to a maximum of 11.0 advanced english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration e transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and georgian college provides an opportunity for graduates of the threeyear hospitality administration hotel & resort advanced diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (hotel and food administration) bachelor of commerce, program. applicants will be required to have completed hotel & food ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & relations and up to a maximum of 11.0 advanced english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration d 108 canadore transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and georgian college provides an opportunity for graduates of the twoyear hospitality management hotel & resort diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (hotel and food administration) program. bachelor of commerce, applicants will be required to have completed ontario credits hotel & food in grade 12 (4u) functions & relations and english (or their up to a maximum of 7.0 advanced equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration c 109 georgian transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and georgian college provides an opportunity for graduates of the threeyear business administration professional golf management advanced diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (hotel and food administration) bachelor of commerce, program. applicants will be required to have completed hotel & food ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & relations and up to a maximum of 7.5 advanced english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration b 110 georgian transfer agreement guel a 111 georgian h students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 9.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 9.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 13.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 12.5 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg deg 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 l students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2 years (4 semesters), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg 3.3 k students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2 years (4 semesters), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg j students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) i students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. m n o f g the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and georgian college provides an opportunity for graduates of the threeyear tourism managment advanced diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (hotel and food administration) program. applicants will be required bachelor of commerce, to have completed ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions up to a maximum of 8.0 advanced & relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 tourism managment e transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and georgian college provides an opportunity for graduates of the twoyear tourism and travel diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (tourism bachelor of commerce, management major) program. applicants will be required to major tourism have completed ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & up to a maximum of 6.5 advanced relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 management d 112 georgian transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and georgian college provides an opportunity for graduates of the twoyear snow resort operations diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (tourism bachelor of commerce, management major) program. applicants will be required to major tourism have completed ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & up to a maximum of 4.0 advanced relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 management c 113 georgian transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and humber college institute of technology & advanced learning provides an opportunity for graduates of the two year hotel & restaurant management diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (hotel and food bachelor of commerce, administration) program. applicants will be required to have major hotel and food completed ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & up to a maximum of 8.5 advanced relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration b 114 georgian transfer agreement guel a 115 humber h students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 12.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 12.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 16.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 11.5 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters), depending on honours bachelor of the number of transfer commerce (major in credits awarded. tourism management) deg deg 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 l students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 to 3 years (5 6 semesters), honours bachelor of depending on the number of commerce (major in transfer credits awarded. tourism management) deg 3.3 k honours bachelor of commerce (major in tourism management) deg j students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in approximately 3 years (6 semesters), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) i students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters a minimum of 11.5 credits), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. m n o f g the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and humber college institute of technology & advanced learning provides an opportunity for graduates of the two year tourism and hospitality management business applications diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce (hotel and food administration) bachelor of commerce, program. applicants will be required to have completed major hotel and food ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) functions & relations and up to a maximum of 6.5 advanced english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration e transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and humber college institute of technology & advanced learning provides an opportunity for graduates of the two year tourism management travel industry services diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce bachelor of commerce, (tourism managment major) program. applicants will be major tourism required to have completed ontario credits in grade 12 (4u) up to a maximum of 6.0 advanced functions & relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 management d 116 humber transfer agreement guel the articulation agreement between the university of guelph and seneca college provides an opportunity for graduates of the hospitality option of the tourism and travel diploma program with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+) to be considered for admission to the hotel and food administration bachelor of commerce, major of the bachelor of commerce program. applicants will major hotel and food be required to have completed ontario credits in grade 12 up to a maximum of 7.0 advanced (4u) functions & relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration c 117 humber transfer agreement guel the university of guelph and niagara college institute of technology & advanced learning have signed an articulation agreement which allows graduates of the twoyear hospitality management hotel & restaurant diploma program with a minimum 3.3 (b+) grade point average to be considered for admission to the hotel and food administration major of the bachelor of commerce, bachelor of commerce program. applicants will be required to major hotel and food have completed ontario credits in grade 12u (4u) functions & up to a maximum of 8.5 advanced relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 administration b 118 seneca transfer agreement guel a 119 niagara h students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 13.5 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 14.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 13.0 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 11.5 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg deg 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 l students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 1/2 semesters a minimum of 13.5 credits), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg 3.3 k students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 3 years (6 semesters a minimum of 14.0 credits), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) deg j students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters a minimum of 13.0 credits), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. honours bachelor of commerce (major in hotel and food administration) i students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 2.5 years (5 semesters a minimum of 11.5 credits), depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. m n o the university of guelph and niagara college institute of technology & advanced learning have signed an articulation agreement which allows graduates of the twoyear tourism management business development diploma program with a minimum 3.3 (b+) grade point average to be considered for admission to the tourism management major of the bachelor bachelor of commerce, of commerce program. applicants will be required to have major tourism completed ontario credits in grade 12u (4u) functions & up to a maximum of 6.5 advanced relations and english (or their equivalent). standing credits will be awarded. 20081211 management students will be required to completed between 14.0 and 17.5 credits, depending upon credit transfer received at the point of admission. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. h students will be required to completed between a total of 20.0 credits, a minimum of 13.5 must be completed, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. these credits must include remaining core requirements, restricted electives and electives. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. verified work experience in the hospitality industry is also required for students to be eligible for graduation. students will complete the bachelor of science in agriculture degree program in 3 years (6 semesters), honours bachelor of depending on the number of science in agriculture transfer credits awarded. degree students will complete the degree program in 3 years (6 semesters) to 3.5 years (7 semesters), depending on the number of transfer honours bachelor of credits awarded. commerce degree students will complete the bachelor of commerce degree program in 3 years (6 semesters a minimum of 13.5 credits), depending on honours bachelor of the number of transfer commerce (major in credits awarded. tourism management) deg deg deg 70% 70% 70% 3.3 60 70% 70% 70% 3.3 l students will normally be granted between 2.5 and 4.0 credits. diploma students may also obtain credit for degree courses completed while registered as diploma students. students will be required to completed between 16.0 and 17.5 credits, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. deg 3.2 60 k graduates of the associate diploma in agriculture will be accepted into the bachelor of commerce program providing they have achieved a cumulative average of 70% or higher in the diploma program. in addition, diploma students must have completed the admission requirements, or equivalent for admission to the bachelor of commerce program. students will normally be granted between 2.5 and 4.0 credits. diploma students may also obtain credit for degree courses completed while registered as diploma students. students will complete the bachelor of science in agriculture degree program in 3 years (6 semesters), honours bachelor of depending on the number of science in agriculture transfer credits awarded. degree deg 2.8 j honours bachelor of 19980601 commerce degree graduates of the diploma in horticulture will be accepted into the bachelor of science in agriculture program providing they have achieved a cumulative average of 70% or higher in the diploma program. in addition, diploma graduates must have completed the admission requirements, or equivalent for admission to the bachelor of science program. students will be required to completed between 13.0 and 16.5 credits, depending upon transfer credits received at the point of admission. students are advised to consult the program requirements outlined in the university of guelph undergraduate calendar. bachelor of health studies deg 60 i transfer agreement guel bachelor of science 19980601 (agriculture) graduates of the associate diploma in agriculture will be accepted into the bachelor of science in agriculture program providing they have achieved a cumulative average of 70% or students will normally be granted higher in the diploma program. in addition, diploma between 3.5 and 7.0 credits. diploma graduates must have completed the admission requirements, students may also obtain credit for or equivalent for admission to the bachelor of science degree courses completed while program. registered as diploma students. students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 54 approximately four credits of the three year degree at semesters, 2 years (of a laurentian university. three year degree) bachelor of health studies 2.4 60 g 120 niagara general/degree spec guel bachelor of science in 19980601 agriculture (honours) maximum of 36 advanced standing credits will be awarded. students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 66 approximately five full credits of the three year degree at semesters, 2.5 years (of a laurentian university. three year degree) deg 3.2 f 121 general/degree spec guel graduates of boreal college's 2 year dental hygiene diploma bachelor of arts health with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission studies with advanced standing. maximum of 24 advanced standing credits will be awarded. students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 78 approximately six semesters, credits of the three year degree at 3 years (of a three year bachelor of health laurentian university. degree) studies deg 60 e 122 general/degree spec guel not posted graduates of boreal college's 2 year dental hygiene diploma bachelor of arts health with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered for admission studies with advanced standing. maximum of 12 advanced standing credits will be awarded. bachelor of health studies 2.8 d 123 transfer agreement lauu not posted graduates of boreal college's 2 year dental hygiene diploma bachelor of arts health with a gpa of 2.4 or higher will be considered for admission studies with advanced standing. students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 60 approximately four credits of the three year degree at semesters, 2 years (of a laurentian university. three year degree) deg c 124 boreal transfer agreement lauu not posted graduates of boreal college's 2 year nursing auxiliaries (soins bachelor of arts health infirmiers auxiliaries) diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will maximum of 30 advanced standing studies be considered for admission with advanced standing. credits will be awarded. bachelor of health studies b 125 boreal transfer agreement lauu not posted students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 66 approximately five full credits of the three year degree at semesters, 2.5 years (of a laurentian university. three year degree) a 126 boreal transfer agreement lauu graduates of boreal college's 2 year nursing auxiliaries (soins bachelor of arts health infirmiers auxiliaries) diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will maximum of 24 advanced standing studies be considered for admission with advanced standing. credits will be awarded. 127 boreal not posted 60 transfer agreement lauu 2.4 128 boreal deg not posted students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 78 approximately six semesters, credits of the three year degree at 3 years (of a three year bachelor of health laurentian university. degree) studies transfer agreement lauu students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 54 approximately four credits of the three year degree at semesters, 2 years (of a laurentian university. three year degree) graduates of boreal college's 2 year nursing auxiliaries (soins bachelor of arts health infirmiers auxiliaries) diploma with a gpa of 2.4 or higher will maximum of 12 advanced standing studies be considered for admission with advanced standing. credits will be awarded. 129 boreal maximum of 36 advanced standing credits will be awarded. 60 graduates of boreal college's 2 year promoting physical activity and health (promotion de lactivit physique et de la bachelor of arts health sant) diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered studies for admission with advanced standing. 3.2 not posted deg transfer agreement lauu bachelor of health studies 130 boreal m n o a b c d e f graduates of boreal college's 2 year promoting physical activity and health (promotion de lactivit physique et de la bachelor of arts health sant) diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered studies for admission with advanced standing. g maximum of 24 advanced standing credits will be awarded. h i students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 66 approximately five full credits of the three year degree at semesters, 2.5 years (of a laurentian university. three year degree) j l 60 k 2.8 bachelor of health studies deg not posted 60 transfer agreement lauu 2.4 three semesters, 1.5 years (of a three year degree) approximately six semesters, 3 years (of a three year degree) deg 131 boreal maximum of 12 advanced standing credits will be awarded. 70 not posted 3.2 transfer agreement lauu deg 132 boreal maximum of 48 advanced standing credits will be awarded. 70 not posted 3.2 a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a three year program). approximately two semesters, 1 years (of a four year degree) approximately four semesters, 2 years (of a four year degree) approximately three semesters, 1.5 years (of a four year degree) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year degree) four and a half semesters, 2.5 years (of a four year program) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of commerce four year degree) (bcomm) bachelor of physical four semesters, 2 years (of a education insport and four year degree) physical education bachelor of physical four semesters, 2 years (of a education in health four year degree) promotion bachelor of physical education in outdoor adventure leadership bachelor of social work(native human services) bachelor of health studies bachelor of science (general) in liberal science bachelor of science (general) in liberal science deg transfer agreement lauu maximum of 48 advanced standing credits will be awarded. three semesters, 1.5 years (of a three year degree) 133 cambrian graduates of boreal college's 2 year promoting physical activity and health (promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant) diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 3 year medical radiation technology diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 3 year technology programs diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. bachelor of arts health studies bachelor of science (general) in liberal science bachelor of science (general) in liberal science 70 not posted 3.2 transfer agreement lauu deg 134 cambrian a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in law three year program). and justice graduates of cambrian college's 2 year correctional services bachelor of arts in law worker diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered maximum of 42 advanced standing and justice for admission with advanced standing. credits will be awarded. 70 not posted 3.2 transfer agreement lauu deg 135 cambrian maximum of 42 advanced standing credits will be awarded. a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in law three year program). and justice graduates of cambrian college's 2 year police foundations diploma or law & security administration diploma with a bachelor of arts in law gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with and justice advanced standing. 70 not posted 2.8 transfer agreement lauu deg 136 cambrian a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in law three year program). and justice graduates of cambrian college's 2 year correctional services bachelor of arts in law worker diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered maximum of 30 advanced standing and justice for admission with advanced standing. credits will be awarded. 70 not posted 2.8 transfer agreement lauu deg 137 cambrian maximum of 30 advanced standing credits will be awarded. bachelor of arts in law and justice bachelor of arts in law and justice 70 not posted 3.0 transfer agreement lauu deg 138 cambrian maximum of 90 advanced standing credits will be awarded. bachelor of communication studies bachelor of arts communication studies 70 not posted 3.0 transfer agreement lauu deg 139 cambrian maximum of 60 advanced standing credits will be awarded. bachelor of communication studies bachelor of arts communication studies 70 not posted 2.8 transfer agreement lauu deg 140 cambrian bachelor of communication studies maximum of 78 advanced standing credits will be awarded. students must maintain an average of 60% or higher and complete 78 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. students are required to complete 42 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. students are required to complete 42 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 78 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 48 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 78 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 48 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 90 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 60 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 90 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 60 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. students are required to complete 30 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university. students are required to complete 60 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university. students are required to complete 42 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university. bachelor of arts communication studies 70 not posted 3.2 70 transfer agreement lauu deg 3.2 70 141 cambrian students are required to complete 60 credits of the four year degree four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of commerce at laurentian university. four year degree) (bcomm) deg 3.2 70 maximum of 60 advanced standing credits will be awarded. deg 3.2 70 graduates of cambrian college's 2 year police foundations diploma or law & security administration diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 3 year public relations diploma with a gpa of 3.0 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 2 year advertising or journalism diploma with a gpa of 3.0 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 3 year graphic design diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 3 year business administration diploma (in marketing or management) with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. 142 cambrian transfer agreement lauu not posted deg 3.2 bachelor of commerce 143 cambrian transfer agreement lauu not posted deg not posted 144 cambrian transfer agreement lauu not posted 70 transfer agreement lauu 145 cambrian transfer agreement lauu 3.2 not posted 146 cambrian maximum of 48 advanced standing credits will be awarded. deg students are required to complete maximum of 60 advanced standing 60 credits of the four year degree credits will be awarded. at laurentian university. students are required to complete maximum of 61.5 advanced standing 58.5 credits of the four year degree credits will be awarded. at laurentian university. students are required to complete maximum of 61.5 advanced standing 58.5 credits of the four year degree credits will be awarded. at laurentian university. students are required to complete maximum of 30 advanced standing 90 credits of the four year degree credits will be awarded. at laurentian university. students are required to complete 72 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university. not posted graduates of cambrian college's 3 year business administration accounting diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 3 year physical fitness & leisure management diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 3 year physical fitness & leisure management diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 2 year naturebased adventure tourism diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 2 year native child and family worker diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. transfer agreement lauu bachelor of commerce bachelor of physical education insport and physical education bachelor of physical education in health promotion bachelor of physical education in outdoor adventure leadership bachelor of social work(native human services) 147 cambrian m n o b c d e f g i maximum of 42 advanced standing credits will be awarded. a graduates of cambrian college's 2 year social service worker diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. j k l 70 bachelor of arts in gerontology 3.2 not posted deg transfer agreement lauu maximum of 42 advanced standing credits will be awarded. a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in three year program). gerontology 148 cambrian graduates of cambrian college's 2 year developmental services worker diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. 70 bachelor of arts in gerontology 2.8 not posted deg transfer agreement lauu a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in three year program). gerontology 149 cambrian graduates of fanshawe college's 2 year social service worker diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for maximum of 42 advanced standing admission with advanced standing. credits will be awarded. 70 bachelor of arts in gerontology 3.2 not posted deg transfer agreement lauu a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in three year program). gerontology 150 fanshawe 70 maximum of 42 advanced standing credits will be awarded. 2.8 graduates of george brown college's 2 year activation co ordinator/gerontology diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered for admission with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts in gerontology a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in three year program). gerontology not posted 70 transfer agreement lauu 3.2 151 george brown deg maximum of 42 advanced standing credits will be awarded. a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in law three year program). and justice graduates of confederation college's 2 year police foundations diploma or law & security administration bachelor of arts in law diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for and justice admission with advanced standing. 70 not posted 2.8 maximum of 54 advanced standing credits will be awarded. maximum of 30 advanced standing credits will be awarded. transfer agreement lauu deg 70 152 confederation a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in law three year program). and justice 2.8 not posted deg transfer agreement lauu bachelor of health studies 153 confederation three semesters, 1.5 years (of a three year degree) not posted 70 transfer agreement lauu 3.0 154 algonquin deg maximum of 39 advanced standing credits will be awarded. bachelor of arts communication studies graduates of confederation college's 2 year police foundations diploma or law & security administration bachelor of arts in law diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered for and justice admission with advanced standing. graduates of algonquin college's 3 year respiratory therapy bachelor of health diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered for studies admission with advanced standing. graduates of georgian college's 2 year advertising diploma bachelor of arts with a gpa of 3.0 or higher will be considered for admission communication studies with advanced standing. six semesters, 3 years (of a four year degree) not posted 70 transfer agreement lauu 3.2 155 georgian deg maximum of 42 advanced standing credits will be awarded. a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in law three year program). and justice graduates of northern college's 2 year police foundations bachelor of arts in law diploma with a gpa of 3.2 or higher will be considered for and justice admission with advanced standing. 70 not posted 2.8 transfer agreement lauu deg 156 northern a) six semesters, 3 years (of a four year program); b) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of arts in law three year program). and justice 70 maximum of 30 advanced standing credits will be awarded. 3.5 approximately five semesters, 2.5 years (of a four year degree) graduates of northern college's 2 year police foundations bachelor of arts in law diploma with a gpa of 2.8 or higher will be considered for and justice admission with advanced standing. honours bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg 70 h a) students are required to complete 78 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 48 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 78 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 48 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 78 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 48 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 78 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 48 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 90 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 60 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 90 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 60 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. students are required to complete 36 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. students are required to complete 81 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 90 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 60 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. a) students are required to complete 90 credits of the four year degree at laurentian university; b)students are required to complete 60 credits of the three year degree at laurentian university. students are required to complete 72 to 66 credits (dependent on amount of credits awarded) of a four year degree at laurentian university. 3.0 not posted lauu not posted transfer agreement lauu 157 northern general lauu applicants will receive a maximum of 48 transfer credits to a maximum of 54 transfer credits depending on the arts disciplin chosen. applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete approximately six semesters, honours bachelor of arts 36 transfer credits depending on the 84 credits of the four year degree 3 years (of a four year (general), multiple arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. degree) majors deg 70 honours bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg 2.75 graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts honours bachelor of diploma with a minimum average of "a" or higher and seeking arts (general), multiple to enter into an bachelor of arts program at laurentian majors university will be considered for advanced standing. 158 general not posted not posted 159 lauu applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete approximately seven 24 transfer credits depending on the 96 credits of the four year degree semesters, 3.5 years (of a arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. four year degree) general graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts honours bachelor of diploma with a minimum average of "b" or higher and seeking arts (general), multiple to enter into an bachelor of arts program at laurentian majors university will be considered for advanced standing. graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "c+" or higher and honours bachelor of seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts program at arts (general), multiple laurentian university will be considered for advanced majors standing. 160 m n o 171 170 169 168 167 166 165 164 163 162 161 general general general general general general general general general general general general lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted d 172 general lauu not posted c 173 general lauu b 174 general a 175 e bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "a" or higher and seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts program at laurentian university will be considered for advanced standing. f applicants will receive a minimum of 48 transfer credits to a maximum of 54 transfer credits depending on the arts disciplin chosen. g 70 l 3.5 k deg j bachelor of arts (general) degree h i students are required to complete 42 to 36 credits (dependent on amount of credits awarded) of the approximately three three year degree at laurentian semesters, 1.5 years (of a university. three year degree) 70 70 3.0 3.5 70 deg 3.5 70 bachelor of arts (general) degree approximately six semesters, honours bachelor of arts 3 years (of a four year (general), multiple degree) majors deg 3.5 70 approximately four semesters, 2 years (of a three year degree) deg 3.0 70 70 applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete approximately six semesters, honours bachelor of arts 30 transfer credits depending on the 90 credits of the four year degree 3 years (of a four year (general), multiple arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. degree) majors deg 2.75 70 2.75 honours bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg 3.5 70 deg deg 3.0 bachelor of arts (general) degree bachelor of arts (general) degree deg 70 approximately five semesters, 2.5 years (of a three year degree) applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete approximately four 30 transfer credits depending on the 60 credits of the three year degree semesters, 2 years (of a arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. three year degree) bachelor of arts (general) degree 2.75 applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete approximately seven 24 transfer credits depending on the 96 credits of the four year degree semesters, 3.5 years (of a arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. four year degree) students are required to complete approximately four applicants will receive a maximum of 54 credits of the three year degree semesters, 2 years (of a 36 transfer credits. at laurentian university. three year degree) students are required to complete approximately seven applicants will receive a maximum of 102 credits of the four year degree semesters, 3.5 years (of a 18 transfer credits. at laurentian university. four year degree) students are required to complete approximately seven applicants will receive a maximum of 96 credits of the four year degree semesters, 3.5 years (of a 24 transfer credits. at laurentian university. four year degree) undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg honours undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg honours undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg students are required to complete approximately six semesters, honours undergraduate applicants will receive a maximum of 84 credits of the four year degree 3 years (of a four year degree (excluding arts 36 transfer credits. at laurentian university. degree) programs) deg 3.5 2.75 3.0 3.5 70 70 70 70 applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete approximately eight honours bachelor of arts 12 transfer credits depending on the 108 credits of the four year degree semesters, 4 years (of a four (general), multiple arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. year degree) majors deg bachelor of arts (general) degree applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete approximately five 24 transfer credits depending on the 66 credits of the three year degree semesters, 2.5 years (of a arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. three year degree) deg approximately four semesters, 2 years (of a three year degree) applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete approximately six semesters, 12 transfer credits depending on the 78 credits of the three year degree 3 years (of a three year bachelor of arts arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. degree) (general) degree applicants will receive a minimum of 36 transfer credits to a maximum of 42 transfer credits depending on the arts disciplin chosen. graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts bachelor of arts diploma with a minimum average of "b" or higher and seeking applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete (general), multiple to enter into an bachelor of arts program at laurentian 36 transfer credits depending on the 54 credits of the three year degree majors university will be considered for advanced standing. arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "c+" or higher and bachelor of arts seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts program at applicants will receive a maximum of students are required to complete (general), multiple laurentian university will be considered for advanced 24 transfer credits depending on the 66 credits of the four year degree majors standing. arts disciplin chosen. at laurentian university. students are required to complete graduates of a twoyear ontario college general arts diploma applicants will receive a minimum of 84 to 78 credits (dependent on honours bachelor of with a minimum average of "a" or higher and seeking to enter 36 transfer credits to a maximum of amount of credits awarded) of the arts (general), multiple into an bachelor of arts program at laurentian university will 42 transfer credits depending on the four year degree at laurentian majors be considered for advanced standing. arts disciplin chosen. university. students are required to complete 54 to 48 credits (dependent on amount of credits awarded) of the three year degree at laurentian university. graduates of a twoyear ontario college general arts diploma bachelor of arts with a minimum average of "a" or higher and seeking to enter (general), multiple into an bachelor of arts program at laurentian university will majors be considered for advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average honours bachelor of of "a" or higher and seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts arts (general), multiple program at laurentian university will be considered for majors advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average honours bachelor of of "b" or higher and seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts arts (general), multiple program at laurentian university will be considered for majors advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average honours bachelor of of "c+" or higher and seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts arts (general), multiple program at laurentian university will be considered for majors advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average bachelor of arts of "a" or higher and seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts (general), multiple program at laurentian university will be considered for majors advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average bachelor of arts of "b" or higher and seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts (general), multiple program at laurentian university will be considered for majors advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average bachelor of arts of "c+" or higher and seeking to enter into an bachelor of arts (general), multiple program at laurentian university will be considered for majors advanced standing. graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "a" or higher and seeking honours undergraduate to enter an undergraduate program (other than arts) at degree (excluding arts laurentian university will be considered for advanced programs) standing. graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "b" or higher and seeking honours undergraduate to enter an undergraduate program (other than arts) at degree (excluding arts laurentian university will be considered for advanced programs) standing. graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "c+" or higher and honours undergraduate seeking to enter an undergraduate program (other than arts) degree (excluding arts at laurentian university will be considered for advanced programs) standing. graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "a" or higher and seeking undergraduate degree to enter an undergraduate program (other than arts) at (excluding arts laurentian university will be considered for advanced programs) standing. m n o 179 178 177 176 general general general general general lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu lauu not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted not posted d 180 general lauu not posted c 181 general lauu b 182 general honours bachelor of 20011204 social work a 183 transfer agreement lake graduates of the developmental services worker diploma program at confederation college with an overall average of b+ (3.3 gpa out of 4) and a minimum average of 3.0 in field placements are eligible to apply to our 4 year honours bachelor of social work program. e f graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "b" or higher and seeking undergraduate degree to enter into an undergraduate program (other than arts) at (excluding arts laurentian university will be considered for advanced programs) standing. graduates of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average of "c+" or higher and undergraduate degree seeking to enter an undergraduate program (other than arts) (excluding arts at laurentian university will be considered for advanced programs) standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average honours undergraduate of "a" or higher and seeking to enter an undergraduate degree (excluding arts program (other than arts) at laurentian university will be programs) considered for advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average honours undergraduate of "b" or higher and seeking to enter an undergraduate degree (excluding arts program (other than arts) at laurentian university will be programs) considered for advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average honours undergraduate of "c+" or higher and seeking to enter an undergraduate degree (excluding arts program (other than arts) at laurentian university will be programs) considered for advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average undergraduate degree of "a" or higher and seeking to enter an undergraduate (excluding arts program (other than arts) at laurentian university will be programs) considered for advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average undergraduate degree of "b" or higher and seeking to enter an undergraduate (excluding arts program (other than arts) at laurentian university will be programs) considered for advanced standing. applicants who have completed 2 years of a threeyear ontario college general arts diploma with a minimum average undergraduate degree of "c+" or higher and seeking to enter an undergraduate (excluding arts program (other than arts) at laurentian university will be programs) considered for advanced standing. 184 confederation g h i j k l 70 70 3.0 3.5 70 undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg 3.0 70 students are required to complete approximately five applicants will receive a maximum of 66 credits of the three year degree semesters, 2.5 years (of a 24 transfer credits. at laurentian university. three year degree) students are required to complete approximately six semesters, honours undergraduate applicants will receive a maximum of 90 credits of the three year degree 3 years (of a four year degree (excluding arts 30 transfer credits. at laurentian university. degree) programs) deg 2.75 70 70 honours undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg 3.5 70 2.75 undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg 3.0 70 undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg 2.75 students are required to complete approximately five applicants will receive a maximum of 72 credits of the three year degree semesters, 2.5 years (of a 18 transfer credits. at laurentian university. three year degree) students are required to complete approximately four applicants will receive a maximum of 60 credits of the three year degree semesters, 2 years (of a 30 transfer credits. at laurentian university. three year degree) undergraduate degree (excluding arts programs) deg deg students are required to complete approximately eight honours undergraduate applicants will receive a maximum of 108 credits of the three year semesters, 4 years (of a four degree (excluding arts 12 transfer credits. degree at laurentian university. year degree) programs) deg students are required to complete approximately seven applicants will receive a maximum of 102 credits of the three year semesters, 3.5 years (of a 18 transfer credits. degree at laurentian university. four year degree) students are required to complete approximately five applicants will receive a maximum of 72 credits of the three year degree semesters, 2.5 years (of a 18 transfer credits. at laurentian university. three year degree) students will receive an honours bachelor of social work degree. students must enroll in the courses as specified in the lakehead university course calendar and maintain an overall average of 70%. students must complete year 2 and then must formally apply to the professional years of the honours bachelor of social work program. if a student is successful in gaining admission, the student must complete years 3 & 4 of the program. students are advised to have a second area of specialization, as it is necessary to limit admission to the professional years of the social work program due to a limited number of available field work placements and qualified field instructors. 3.0 out of 4 b students are required to complete approximately six semesters, applicants will receive a maximum of 78 credits of the three year degree 3 years (of a three year 12 transfer credits. at laurentian university. degree) students who have completed the first and second years of the program and are seeking admission to the professional years (third and fourth years), are required to formally apply to the office of admissions and recruitment in order that professional and academic suitability may be determined by the admissions committee of the department of social work. admissions criteria include academic standing, a written personal statement, references, work and volunteer experiences. once admitted into third year, a student who has related work experience with supervision from an approved supervisor in a social service agency is eligible to challenge the students will receive 5 full course equivalents and be placed in year 2 if they graduated after 2001 from the developmental services worker program. transfer credits that may be granted are social work 1100 (1 fce*) and 4 (fce*) electives.graduates prior to 2001 will receive 4 full course equivalent transfer credits. * full course equivalent m n o f students will receive 6 full course equivalents and be placed in year 2 if they have graduated after 2001 from the child & youth worker diploma program. transfer credits that may be granted are social work 1100 (1 fce*) and 5 (fce*) electives. graduates prior to 2001 will receive 4 full course equivalent transfer credits. * full course equivalent g students must enroll in the courses as specified in the lakehead university course calendar and maintain an overall average of 70%. students must complete year 2 and then must formally apply to the professional years of the honours bachelor of social work program. if a student is successful in gaining admission to the professional years, the student must complete years 3 & 4 of the program. students are advised to have a second area of specialization, as it is necessary to limit admission to the professional years of the social work program due to a limited number of available field work placements and qualified field instructors. h e graduates of the child & youth worker diploma program at confederation college with an overall average of b+ (3.3 gpa out of 4) and a minimum average of 3.0 (or 'p') in field placements are eligible to apply to the 4year honours bachelor of social work program. d honours bachelor of 20011204 social work students will receive credit for psychology 1100 (1.0 fce*), sociology 1100 (1.0 fce*), arts 100 (1.0 fce*), education 1499 (0.5 fce*), education 2399 (0.5 fce*), education 3297 (0.25 fce*) and education 310 x 3 (0.75 fce*). this is equivalent to one academic year (5 fce*). *full course equivalent. if students elect to choose a major other than sociology or psychology in the primary/junior division, additional firstyear courses as prerequisites to second and third year courses in such areas as english and history may have to be taken. c transfer agreement lake graduates of the twoyear early childhood education (ece) diploma program from confederation college with an overall ba/bed (primaryjunior gpa of 3.5 (75%) out of a 4 point scale in the final year of their program are eligible to apply. 20100101 specialization) b 185 confederation transfer agreement lake students will receive the following 5 full course equivalents: biology 200 (1 fce full course equivalent), biology 220 (1 fce), geography 200 (1 fce), environmental studies 100 (1 graduates from the environmental technician diploma from fce), and geography hbsc in water resource confederation college with an overall gpa of at least 3.0 from 1120/environmental studies 1120 (1 a 4 point scale or a b (70%) are eligible to apply. fce). 20090515 science a 186 confederation transfer agreement lake students are required to complete years 2, 3 and 4 courses as outlined in the lakehead university course calendar. to complete the fouryear honours bachelor of science in water resource science, students must take the following: 1st year biology 1130, biology 1110, geology 1111, geology 1131, 1 fce elective, math 2321, and one fce selected from geography 2211, geography 2251, geography 2351 and/or geography 3411 2nd year biology 2210 and one fce in biology from the biology requirements of the second, third, or fourth years for the water resource science degree; 0.5 fce in geography from the geography requirements of the second, third, or fourth years for the water resource science degree; geology 2214, geology 3311, chemistry 1110, chemistry 1130 and one fce elective 3rd year chemistry 2111, water resource science 4101*, water resource science 4630, geology 3130, geology 3410, geology 4011, geology 4137, 0.5 187 confederation deg 3.5 out of 4 b 3.3 out of 4 b l bachelor of arts (sociology or psychology) and bachelor of education (primary/junior) degrees deg 3.0 out of 4 b k students can complete the ba/bed program in three academic years. students will receive an honours bachelor of science (water resource science major) degree. deg i j students who have completed the first and second years of the program and are seeking admission to the professional years (third and fourth years), are required to formally apply to the office of admissions & recruitment in order that professional and academic suitability may be determined by the admissions committee of the department of social work. admissions criteria include academic standing, a written personal statement, references, work and volunteer experiences. once admitted into third year, a student who has related work experience with supervision from an approved supervisor in a students will receive an social service agency is honours bachelor of eligible to challenge the social work degree. students can complete the honours bachelor of science (water resource science major) in 3 years. students who do not have the necessary average to enter into the fourth year of the honours program will replace water resource science 4101 with one full course equivalent elective and will have the opportunity to receive a bachelor of science. m n o 189 188 algonquin general/degree spec lake general/degree spec lake transfer agreement lake b 190 general/degree spec lake a 191 c d e hbsc in applied bio 20091207 molecular science f graduates from the biotechnology technologist advanced diploma program from algonquin college with an average of 70% or a gpa of at least 3.0 out of a 4 point scale are eligible to apply. graduates of an ontario college twoyear social service worker diploma program with an overall average of b (3.0 gpa out of 4) and a minimum average of 3.0 (or 'p') in field honours bachelor of palcements are eligible to apply to the fouryear honours bachelor of social work program. 19900901 social work graduates of 6 semester (3 year) business administration advanced diploma programs with a minimum b (gpa=3.0) cumulative average in business courses are eligible to apply to the bachelor of administration program. in addition to the minimum admissions average, the following college courses are required: two semesters of accounting (finance and managerial), economics (micro and macro), communications (business writing and presentation), computing & information systems, corporate finance (not personal or financial accounting), human resources management/industrial bachelor of relations, marketing and statistics and one semester of administration transfer administration/management and production/operations management. 19700505 program graduates of a 6 semester (3 year) business administration advanced diploma with a minimum b+ (gpa=3.3) cumulative average in business courses are eligible to apply for the honours bachelor of commerce program. in addition to the minimum admissions average, the following college courses are required: two semesters of accounting (finance and managerial), economics (micro and macro), communications (business writing and presentation), computing & information systems, corporate finance (not personal or financial accounting), human resources management/industrial relations, marketing and statistics and one semester of administration/management, production/operations management. honours bachelor of commerce transfer 19700505 program students will receive an honours bachelor of social work degree. deg deg students will receive an honours bachelor of science in applied bio molecular science degree. students who do not have the necessary average to enter into the fourth year of the honours program will have the opportunity to receive a fouryear bachelor of science in applied biomolecular science degree. deg 3.3 out of 4 b+ 3.0 out of 4 b 3.0 out of 4 b 3.0 out of 4 b l h to complete the fouryear honours bachelor of science in applied bio molecular science, students must complete first year: anthropology 2110 (0.5 fce), chemistry 2211 (0.5 fce), biology 2230 (0.5 fce), chemistry 2231 (0.5 fce), math 1160 or math 1180 (1.0 fce), 1.0 fce elective from the list of recommended courses and 1.0 fce elective. second year: students must complete anthropology 3138 (0.5 fce), chemistry 3251 (0.5 fce), biology 3252 (0.5 fce), chemistry 3271 (0.5 fce), biology 3272 (0.5 fce), math 2321 (1.0 fce) or kinesiology 3030 (0.5 fce) and 0.5 fce elective plus 2.5 fce electives from the list of recommended courses. students who do not have the necessary average to enter into the fourth year of the honours program will have the opportunity to receive a fouryear bachelor of science in applied biomolecular science students who follow the regular course of study as outlined by this articulation agreement will be able to complete this program in two academic years. students who have completed the first and second years of the program and are seeking admission to the professional years (third and fourth years) of the honours bachelor of social work program, are required to formally apply to the office of admissions and recruitment in order that professional and academic suitability may be determined by the admissions committee of the department of social work. admissions criteria include academic standing, a written personal statement, references, work and volunteer experiences. once admitted into third year, a student who has related work experience with supervision from an approved supervisor in a students will receive a bachelor of administration degree. deg k students will be granted non transferrable credit for two years (10 full course equivalents (fce)) towards the honours bachelor of science in applied biomolecular science degree. students will receive credit for anthropology 1032 (0.5 fce), biology 1110 (0.5 fce), biology 1130 (0.5 fce), chemistry 1110 (0.5 fce), chemistry 1130 (0.5 fce), physics 1113 (0.5 fce), physics 1133 (0.5 fce), general science 110 (0.5 fce), biology 2171 (0.5 fce), biology 2711 (0.5 fce), biology 2910 (0.5 fce), anthropology 210 (0.5 fce), biology 210 (0.5 fce), chemistry 200 (1.0 fce), arts 110 (0.5 fce), arts 130 (0.5 fce), arts 2 10 (0.5 fce), general science 130 (0.5 fce), and general science 210 (0.5 fce). students must enroll in the specific courses for the program as outlined in the lakehead university course calendar and maintain a 70% average. students must complete year 2 and then must formally apply to the professional years of the honours bachelor of social work program. if they are successful in gaining admission, they must complete year 3 & 4 of the program. students are advised to have a second area of specialization, as it is necessary to limit admission to the professional years of the social work program due to a limited number of available field work placements and qualified field instructors. the program can be completed in one academic year. however, if additional courses are assigned it may take longer to complete the program. students will receive an honours bachelor of commerce degree. j students will receive 5 full course equivalents and placed in year 2 of the 4year honours bachelor of social work program. transfer credits that may be granted are social work 1100 (1 fce*) and 4 (fce*) electives. graduates prior to 2001 will receive 4 full course equivalent transfer credits. * full course equivalent students must enroll and complete the specific courses for the final year of the bachelor of administration degree program as outlined in the lakehead university courses calendar plus any other courses deemed missing following admission assessment. the program can be completed in two academic years (four semesters). however, if additional courses are assigned it may take longer to complete the program. i students will receive a block transfer so will receive credit for the first 2 years of the bachelor of administration degree program. students must enroll and complete the specific courses for the program as outlined in the lakehead university course calendar for years 3 and 4 plus any other courses deemed missing following admission assessment. students must maintain a 70% average. g students will receive a block transfer credit for the first 2 years of the honours bachelor of commerce degree program and will be placed into year 3 of the 4 year program. m n o i j k l 3.0 out of 4 b h students will receive a bachelor of engineering civil degree. deg 3.0 out of 4 b g students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july & august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "makeup" courses from our engineering technology program. successful completion of these summer transition courses, "makeup" courses if applicable and the final two years of the program as outlined in the lakehead university the program may be course calendar must be achieved completed in 2 years and 2 in order to graduate. months. students will receive a bachelor of engineering electrical degree. deg 3.0 out of 4 b f students will receive credit for up to two years of the bachelor of engineering degree program and will be placed into year 3 of the 4 year program. students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july & august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "make up" courses from our engineering technology program. students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july & august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "make up" courses from our engineering technology program. successful completion of these summer transition courses, "makeup" courses if applicable and the final two years of the programas outlined in the lakehead university the program may be course calendar must be completed in 2 years and 2 achieved in order to graduate. months. students will receive a bachelor of engineering chemical degree. deg e graduates of a civil engineering technology 3year college advanced diploma, or the equivalent, with an average* of at least 70% (gpa 3.0, b grade) in the final year of their program are eligible to apply for admission consideration to our bachelor of engineering program. applicants with two or more years of relevant postdiploma industrial experience must have a relevant technology diploma, or the equivalent, with an average* of at least 65% (gpa 2.5, c+ grade) in the final year of their program. *this average is based on the marks/grades bachelor of engineering received by the applicant in their first attempt in the required 19700509 civil transfer program courses in the final year of their technology program. students will receive credit for up to two years of the bachelor of engineering degree program and will be placed into year 3 of the 4 year program. students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july and august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "makeup" courses from our engineering technology program. students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july & august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "makeup" courses from our engineering technology program. successful completion of these summer transition courses, "makeup" courses if applicable and the final two years of the program at outlined in the lakehead university the program may be course calendar must be achieved completed in 2 years and 2 in order to graduate. months. d general/degree spec lake graduates of an electrical engineering technology 3year college advanced diploma, or the equivalent, with an average* of at least 70% (gpa 3.0, b grade) in the final year of their program are eligible to apply for admission consideration to our bachelor of engineering program. applicants with two or more years of relevant postdiploma industrial experience must have a relevant technology diploma, or the equivalent, with an average* of at least 65% (gpa 2.5, c+ grade) in the final year of their program. *this average is based on the bachelor of engineering marks/grades received by the applicant in their first attempt in (electrical) transfer the required courses in the final year of their technology program. 19700509 program students will receive credit for up to two years of the bachelor of engineering degree program and will be placed into year 3 of the 4 year program. students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july & august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "make up" courses from our engineering technology program. c 192 general/degree spec lake graduates of a chemical engineering technology diploma, or the equivalent with an average* of at least 70% (gpa 3.0, b grade) in the final year of their program are eligible to apply for admission consideration to our bachelor of egineering program.applicants with two or more years of relevant post diploma industrial experience must have a relevant technology diploma, or the equivalent, with an average* of at least 65% (gpa 2.5, c+ grade) in the final year of their program.*this bachelor of engineering average is based on the marks/grades received by the chemical transfer applicant in their first attempt in the required courses in the final year of their technology program. 19700509 program b 193 general/degree spec lake a 194 m n o j k l 3.0 out of 4 b i students will receive a bachelor of engineering mechanical degree. deg 3.0 out of 4 b h students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july & august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "makeup" courses from our engineering technology program. successful completion of the summer transition courses, "makeup" courses if applicable and then final two years of the program outlined in the lakehead university course the program may be calendar must be achieved in order completed in 2 years and 2 to graduate. months. students will receive a bachelor of engineering software degree. deg 3.0 out of 4 b g students will receive credit for up to two years of the bachelor of engineering degree program and will be placed into year 3 of the 4 year program. students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july and august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "make up" courses from our engineering technology program. students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july & august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "make up" courses from our engineering technology program. successful completion of the summer transition courses, "makeup" courses if applicable and then final two years of the program as outlined in the lakehead university the program may be course calendar must be achieved completed in 2 years and 2 in order to graduate. months. students will receive an honours bachelor of arts and science criminology degree. deg f graduates of a mechanical engineering technology 3year college advanced diploma, or the equivalent, with an average* of at least 70% (gpa 3.0, b grade) in the final year of their program are eligible to apply for admission consideration to our bachelor of engineering program. applicants with two or more years of relevant postdiploma industrial experience must have a relevant technology diploma, or the equivalent, with an average* of at least 65% (gpa 2.5, c+ grade) in the final year of their program.*this average is based on the bachelor of engineering marks/grades received by the applicant in their first attempt in (mechanical) transfer the required courses in the final year of their technology program. 19700509 program students may receive credit for up to two years of the bachelor of engineering degree program and will be placed into year 3 of the 4 year program. students must complete a series of transition courses during the months of july and august in the year of entry. applicant's transcripts and the college calendars are examined to determine if core courses are missing in the applicant's technology program. if core courses are missing, students will be asked to take "makeup" courses from our engineering technology program. students must complete the final 3 years of the honours bachelor of arts and science criminology major as outlined in the lakehead university course calendar plus any other courses deemed missing this program may be following admission assessment. completed in 3 years. e graduates of a computer engineering technology diploma, or the equivalent with an average* of at least 70% (gpa 3.0, b grade) in the final year of their program are eligible to apply for admission consideration to our bachelor of engineering program. applicants with two or more years of relevant post diploma industrial experience must have a relevant technology diploma, or the equivalent, with an average* of at least 65% (gpa 2.5, c+ grade) in the final year of their program. *this bachelor of engineering average is based on the marks/grades received by the (software) transfer applicant in their first attempt in the required courses in the final year of their technology program. 19990108 program students may receive credit for up to 6 full course equivalent courses towards the honours bachelor of arts and science criminology major program. this would place them into year 2 of the 4 year program. 3.0 (b or 70% 70 d general/degree spec lake graduates of diploma programs relating to criminology (e.g. police foundations, law & security administration, community & justice services, etc.) with a minimum overall "b" (70% or 3.0 gpa) average, are eligible to apply for admission consideration to our honours bachelor of arts and science (hbasc) criminology major program. deg c 195 general/degree spec lake honours bachelor of arts and science criminology transfer 20110801 program dependent on transfer credits awarded (credits assessed and awarded on a case by case bases). 3.5, (87.5%) c b 196 general/degree spec lake predominantly, applicants from a 2 year diploma will receive a maximum of 3 transfer credits depending on individual assessment and program of choice, applicants from a 3 year diploma will receive a maximum of 5 transfer credits depending on dependent on transfer credits individual assessment and program of awarded (credits assessed and choice. awarded on a case by case bases). normally, upon entry to a level i program, a threeyear program will be completed in three years. transfer students may receive up to 0.5 years of advanced credit reducing the time to bachelor of arts degree completion from 3 years to in a humanities or social 2.5 years. sciences discipline. deg a 197 not posted students will receive in the range of 3 15 units of advanced credit based on an approved list of course equivalencies as follows: hist 7001 = art hist 1a03 and 1aa3. engl 7002 a threeyear degree program = english 1c06. phil 7001 = philos requires the completion of a 1b03 and 1e03. psyc 7001 = psych minimum of 90 units. advanced 1a03 and 1aa3. soci 7001 = sociol credit (315 units, depending on 1a06. wmst 7001 = women st 1a03 assessment) will count towards the and 1aa3. total unit count required. undergraduate degree (multiple disciplines) general b.a. humanities or 20051201 social sciences lake 198 transfer agreement mcma students must be accepted to lakehead university before a transfer credit assessment is undertaken. official transcripts, a document evaluation fee ($55) and institutionally prepared course descriptions must be submitted to the office of admissions in order to process the transfer credit request. the office of admissions evaluates each student on a case by case basis. the amount of transfer credit received depends on a number of factors including grades, previous course work, and the program applied to at lakehead university. a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) must be achieved in an accredited two or three year diploma program for transfer credit to be considered. generally, a maximum of 3 full credits undergraduate degree may be awarded for two year diploma programs and a (multiple disciplines) maximum of 5 full credits for three year diploma programs. graduates of the oneyear certificate program at fanshawe who achieve a minimum overall gpa of 3.5 (87.5%) with no grade less than c may be admitted into humanities year i or social sciences year i with transfer credit granted as outlined under credit transfer. the following courses are excluded from the calculation of the overall gpa: general education qualifying courses, introductory language courses, and personal skills courses. in addition, fanshawe college will provide mcmaster university with a list of any new 7000level courses that may be added to the liberal studies program, which are not part of the liberal studies offerings each year and mcmaster reserves the right to exclude other courses in the gpa calculation. 199 fanshawe m n o i a threeyear degree program requires the completion of a minimum of 90 units. advanced credit (up to 30 units, depending on assessment) will count towards the total unit count required. normally, upon entry to a level ii program, a fouryear program will be completed in three years. transfer students may receive up to 1 full year of advanced credit reducing the time to completion from 4 years to 3 years, depending on the number of transfer credits awarded. h d e f graduates of the oneyear certificate program at fanshawe who achieve a minimum overall gpa of 3.5 (87.5%) with no grade less than c may be admitted into humanities year i or social sciences year i with transfer credit granted as outlined under credit transfer. the following courses are excluded from the calculation of the overall gpa: general education qualifying courses, introductory language courses, and personal skills courses. in addition, fanshawe college will provide mcmaster university with a list of any new 7000level courses that may be added to the liberal studies program, which are not part of the liberal studies offerings each year hon.b.a. humanities or and mcmaster reserves the right to exclude other courses in the gpa calculation. 20051201 social sciences students may receive up to 30 units of advanced credit based on an approved list of course equivalencies as follows: hist 7001 = art hist 1a03 and 1aa3. engl 7002 = english 1c06. phil 7001 = philos 1b03 and 1e03. psyc 7001 = psych 1a03 and 1aa3. soci 7001 = sociol 1a06. wmst 7001 = women st 1a03 and 1aa3. a fouryear degree program requires the completion of a minimum of 120 units. advanced credit (up to 30 units, depending on assessment) will count towards the total unit count required. g transfer agreement mcma b.a. humanities or 20051201 social sciences students will receive up to 30 units of advanced credit based on an approved list of course equivalencies as follows: hist 7001 = art hist 1a03 and 1aa3. engl 7002 = english 1c06. phil 7001 = philos 1b03 and 1e03. psyc 7001 = psych 1a03 and 1aa3. soci 7001 = sociol 1a06. wmst 7001 = women st 1a03 and 1aa3. c 200 fanshawe transfer agreement mcma graduates of the twoyear diploma program at fanshawe who achieve a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (75%), with no grade less than c, may be granted transfer credit as outlined under credit transfer and may be admitted directly into level ii of a program in humanities or social sciences if they have satisfied the discipline requirement for admission into that program. students may be granted additional credit depending on their overall standing in the diploma at the time of graduation. please note: the following courses are excluded from the calculation of the overall gpa: general education qualifying courses, introductory language courses, and personal skills courses. in addition, fanshawe college will provide mcmaster university with a list of any new 7000level courses that may be added to the liberal studies program, which are not part of hon.b.a. humanities or the liberal studies offerings each year and mcmaster reserves the right to exclude other courses in the gpa calculation. 20051201 social sciences a fouryear degree program requires the completion of a minimum of 126 units. advanced credit (60 credits) will count towards the total unit count 60 advanced standing transfer credits required. 66 credits must be will be awarded. completed at mcmaster university. b 201 fanshawe transfer agreement mcma bachelor of technology degree completion (manufacturing a 3year electronics engineering technology advanced engineering diploma from fanshawe college with a minimum cumulative gpa 3.0 or 75% is required for admission. 20100101 technology) a 202 fanshawe transfer agreement mcma bachelor of technology degree (energy a 3year electronics engineering technology advanced engineering diploma from fanshawe college with a minimum cumulative gpa 3.0 or 75% is required for admission. 20100101 technologies) a fouryear degree program requires the completion of a minimum of 126 units. advanced credit (60 credits) will count towards the total unit count 60 advanced standing transfer credits required. 66 credits must be will be awarded. completed at mcmaster university. a threeyear degree program requires the completion of a minimum of 90units. 60 of 90 units must be completed at mcmaster for a bachelor of arts degree in a humanities or social sciences discipline. students who achieve an academic average of 60% in the four core courses from six nations polytechnic will gain automatic 30 of 90 units will be awarded admission into second year studies of a threeyear bachelor of towards a bachelor of arts degree arts program. from mcmaster. j l normally, upon entry to a level ii program, a fouryear program will be completed in two academic years. transfer students may receive up to 1 full year of advanced credit reducing the time to completion from 3 years to 2 years, depending on the bachelor of arts degree number of transfer credits in a humanities or social awarded. sciences discipline. deg 3.0, (75%) 3.0, (75%) n/a c c k honours bachelor of arts degree in a humanities or social sciences discipline. deg 3.0 or 75% n/a 3.5, (87.5%) c students enter into the degree program in year 3 and would normally bachelor of technology complete the degree in 2/2.5 degree (manufacturing years. engineering technology) deg 3.0 or 75% honours bachelor of arts degree in a humanities or social sciences discipline. deg deg bachelor of technology degree (energy engineering technologies) 60% upon entry, 2 academic years (four semesters) will be required to complete the bachelor of arts degree threeyear bachelor of arts in a humanities or social degree program. sciences discipline deg students enter into the degree program in year 3 and would normally complete the degree in 2/2.5 years. 60% normally, upon entry to a level i program, a fouryear program will be completed in four years. transfer students may receive up to 0.5 years of advanced credit reducing the time to completion from 4 years to 3.5 years. 203 fanshawe transfer agreement mcma bachelor of arts 20100101 program students will receive in the range of 3 15 units of advanced credit based on an approved list of course equivalencies as follows: hist 7001 = art hist 1a03 and 1aa3. engl 7002 a fouryear degree program = english 1c06. phil 7001 = philos requires the completion of a 1b03 and 1e03. psyc 7001 = psych minimum of 120 units. advanced 1a03 and 1aa3. soci 7001 = sociol credit (315 units, depending on 1a06. wmst 7001 = women st 1a03 assessment) will count towards the and 1aa3. total unit count required. 204 fanshawe transfer agreement mcma graduates of the twoyear diploma program at fanshawe who achieve a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (75%), with no grade less than c, may be granted transfer credit as outlined under credit transfer and may be admitted directly into level ii of a program in humanities or social sciences if they have satified the discipline requirement for admission into that program. students may be granted additional credit depending on their overall standing in the diploma at the time of graduation. please note: the following courses are excluded from the calculation of the overall gpa: general education qualifying courses, introductory language courses, and personal skills courses. in addition, fanshawe college will provide mcmaster university with a list of any new 7000level courses that may be added to the liberal studies program, which are not part of the liberal studies offerings each year and mcmaster reserves the right to exclude other courses in the gpa calculation. 205 six nations poly m n o a b c d e f g h i j l m n determined on an individual basis. k deg students may receive up to 30 credits to put towards the degree of their students are eligible to receive no choice (credits are awarded on a case more than 1 years (two full terms) determined on an individual undergraduate degree by case basis). worth of credits. basis. (multiple disciplines) not posted mcma general 70 206 3.2 five semesters, 2.5 years (of bachelor of fine arts a four year degree) four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of fine arts four year degree) deg deg three to four semesters, 1.5 bachelor of science to 2 years (of a four year (honours) environmental degree) biology and technology deg 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.25 70 70 70 70 n/a bachelor of business administration bachelor of arts culture and the arts deg 3.0 five to six semesters, 2.5 to 3 years (of a four year degree) bachelor of fine arts three semesters, 1.5 years (of a three year degree) deg three consecutive semesters. 1.5 years (of a four year degree) deg maximum of 69 advanced standing credits will be awarded. applicants who have completed a threeyear diploma program in fine arts (advanced) from georgian college of applied art and technology with a minimum overall 70% average (3.0 gpa) will be considered for admission to the bachelor of fine arts (bfa) program with advanced standing to a maximum of maximum of 66 advanced standing 66 credits. credits will be awarded. maximum of 48 advanced standing credits will be awarded. maximum of 48 advanced standing credits will be awarded. students are required to complete 42 credits of the three year degree at nipissing university. all students admitted to the bfa are required to successfully complete the bfa portfolio review within their first 30 nipissing credits in order to remain in the bfa program. on top of this, 48 additional course credits must be completed to fulfill the requirements of the degree. students must complete 51 credits at nipissing university to graduate with this degree. all students admitted to the bfa are required to successfully complete the bfa portfolio review within their first 30 nipissing credits in order to remain in the bfa program. on top of this, 24 additional course credits must be completed to fulfill the requirements of the degree. all students admitted to the bfa are required to successfully complete the bfa portfolio review within their first 30 nipissing credits in order to remain in the bfa program. on top of this, 42 additional course credits must be completed to fulfill the requirements of the degree. students must complete three consecutive semesters of a n/a specially constructed program, specially constructed course no explicit advanced standing. regiment. not posted n/a transfer agreement nipi 3.25 fanshawe, sheridan, algonquin, or st. clair 207 college bachelor of science (biology, liberal science, environmental biology or technology programs) deg not posted students are required to complete 42 credits of the three year degree three semesters, 1.5 years at nipissing university. (of a three year degree) transfer agreement nipi maximum of 48 advanced standing credits will be awarded. 208 canadore not posted bachelor of science (honours) environmental biology and technology n/a transfer agreement nipi not posted bachelor of fine arts 3.25 209 canadore transfer agreement nipi not posted bachelor of fine arts applicants who have completed a threeyear diploma program in fine arts (advanced) from georgian college of applied art and technology with a minimum overall 70% average (3.0 gpa) will be considered for admission to the bachelor of fine arts (bfa) with advanced standing to a maximum 48 credits. applicants who have completed a threeyear diploma program in fine arts (advanced) from georgian college of applied art and technology with a minimum overall 70% average (3.0 gpa) will be considered for admission to the bachelor of arts (ba) in culture and the arts programs with advanced standing to a maximum 48 credits. deg 210 canadore transfer agreement nipi not posted bachelor of arts culture and the arts applicants who have completed a twoyear diploma program in fine arts from georgian college of applied art and technology with a minimum cumulative average of 70% (3.0 gpa) will be considered for admission to the bachelor of fine arts (bfa) program or the bachelor of (ba) program in culture and the arts with advanced standing to a maximum of 42 maximum of 42 advanced standing credits. credits will be awarded. bachelor of science (biology, or liberal science) 211 georgian transfer agreement nipi not posted bachelor of fine arts students are required to complete 42 credits of the three year degree three semesters, 1.5 years at nipissing university. (of a three year degree) 212 georgian transfer agreement nipi not posted maximum of 48 advanced standing credits will be awarded. 213 georgian transfer agreement nipi a wellqualified graduate of a threeyear program who's college work is appropriate to their chosen university program could receive up to 30 units of transfer credit. if a student has completed a twoyear program and performed well, transfer credit will be reviewed on a casebycase basis. credit beyond this may be given on an individual basis where the college programs is in a similar areas, and where academic record warrants special consideration. in the granting of credit, attention will be given to: 1. performance in the college program; 2. the duration of the college program; 3. the program taken at the college and the program to which entry is sought; 4. students secondary school record. each case will be considered individually on its own merits for the program undergraduate degree desired. please note that for all programs, a diploma must be (multiple disciplines) completed to be eligible to receive transfer credit. applicants who are graduates of approved threeyear business administration diploma from fanshawe college, sheridan college, algonquin college, or st. clair college with a minimum 3.2 gpa can be considered for admission to nipissings bachelor of commerce program through our college partnership program. admitted students would be able to complete the program at either fanshawe college, sheridan bachelor of business college, algonquin college or st. clair college in 3 consecutive administration semesters. applicants who are graduates of the environmental technician bachelor of science protection and compliance diploma program at canadore (biology, liberal college with a cumulative 3.25 gpa or better can be science, environmental considered for admission to biology, liberal science or biology or technology environmental biology and technology programs with programs) advanced standing to a maximum of 48 credits. applicants who are graduates of the former environmental protection technology diploma program at canadore college bachelor of science with a cumulative 3.25 gpa or better can be considered for (biology, or liberal admission to biology or liberal science programs with science) advanced standing to a maximum of 48 credits. applicants who are graduates of the former environmental protection technology diploma program at canadore college with a cumulative 3.25 gpa or better will be considered for admission to the environmental biology and technology degree program with advanced standing to a maximum of 69 credits. 214 georgian o a b c d e 70 l 3.2 k deg j bachelor of business administration 70 i three consecutive semesters. 1.5 years (of a four year degree) 3.0 bachelor of business administration deg not posted bachelor of fine arts transfer agreement nipi six semesters, 3 years (of a four year degree) 215 humber, mohawk f g h applicants who are graduates of approved threeyear business administration diploma from humber college and mohawk college with a minimum 3.2 gpa can be considered for admission to nipissings bachelor of commerce program students must complete three through our college partnership program. admitted students consecutive semesters of a would be able to complete the program at sheridan college in n/a specially constructed program, specially constructed course 3 consecutive semesters. no explicit advanced standing. regiment at sheridan college. all students admitted to the bfa are required to successfully complete the bfa portfolio review within their first 30 nipissing credits in order to remain in the bfa program. on top of this, 57 additional course credits must be completed to fulfill the requirements of the degree. applicants who have completed a twoyear diploma program in visual and creative arts from fleming college (haliburton school of the arts) with a minimum cumulative average of 70% (3.0 gpa) will be considered for admission to the bachelor of fine arts (bfa) program or the bachelor of (ba) program in culture and the arts or fine arts with advanced standing to a maximum of 33 advanced standing maximum of 33 credits. credits will be awarded. bachelor of fine arts 70 not posted b or better transfer agreement nipi deg 216 fleming bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors applicants who have successfully completed two year early childhood education, educational assistant, drug and alcohol counsellor, indigenous wellness and addictions prevention, mental health and addictions worker, social service worker or developmental services worker diploma programs at an ontario caat with a cumulative average of b or better can be considered for admission to bachelor of arts programs with maximum of 30 advanced standing advanced standing to a maximum of 30 credits. credits will be awarded. six semesters, 3 years (of a four year degree) bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors to be considered for a nipissing university degree, undergraduate students must successfully complete at least 30 credits at nipissing not posted 75 general/degree spec nipi 3.5 217 deg not posted bachelor of arts in criminal justice students must complete 78 out of (corrections, policing or 120 course credits at nipissing five to six semesters, 2.5 to 3 legal studies and university to graduate. years (of a four year degree) administration) general/degree spec nipi maximum of 42 advanced standing credits will be awarded. 218 70 maximum of 18 advanced standing credits will be awarded. seven semesters, 3.5 years (of a four year degree) b or better applicants who have successfully completed two year community and justice services (formerly correctional worker), police foundations or law clerk diploma programs at bachelor of arts in an ontario caat with a cumulative average of b+ (3.5 gpa) criminal justice or better can be considered for admission to the bachelor of (corrections, policing or arts in criminal justice program (corrections, policing or legal legal studies and studies and administration streams respectively) with administration) advanced standing to a maximum of 42 credits. applicants who have successfully completed two year community and justice services (formerly correctional worker), police foundations or law clerk diploma programs at an ontario caat with a cumulative average of b or better can be considered for admission to the bachelor of arts in criminal justice program (corrections, policing or legal studies and administration streams respectively) with advanced standing to a maximum of 18 credits. deg not posted bachelor of arts in criminal justice (corrections, policing or legal studies and administration) general/degree spec nipi bachelor of arts in criminal justice (corrections, policing or legal studies and administration) 219 applicants who have successfully completed a threeyear business administration diploma program at an ontario caat with a cumulative average of b+ (3.5 gpa) or better can be considered for admission to the bachelor of business administration degree program with advanced standing to a maximum of 60 advanced standing maximum of 60 credits. credits will be awarded. 75 bachelor of business administration 3.5 not posted deg general/degree spec nipi students must complete 102 out of 120 course credits at nipissing university to graduate. students must complete 60 credits of core requirements: acct 1107 introductory financial accounting ii; orgs 1136 introduction to organizational behaviour; orgs 1137 management of human resources; admn 1607 business mathematics; econ 1006 introduction to microeconomics; econ 1007 introduction to macroeconomics; mktg 1126 marketing concepts; tmgt 1106 introduction to technology management; admn 2136 research in management; acct 2146 management accounting and control i; admn 2167 business decision making; admn 2306 business ethics; admn 2606 business statistics; econ 2106 managerial economics; admn 3046 operations management; admn 3116 financial management i; admn 3117 financial management ii; tmgt 3856 all students admitted to the bfa are required to successfully complete the bfa portfolio review within their first 30 nipissing credits in order to remain in the bfa program. on top of this, 30 additional course credits must be completed to fulfill the requirements of the degree. four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of business four year degree) administration 220 applicants who have completed a threeyear diploma program in fine arts from an ontario caat with a minimum cumulative average of 70% (3.0 gpa) will be considered for admission to the bachelor of fine arts (bfa) program with advanced maximum of 60 advanced standing standing to a maximum of 60 credits. credits will be awarded. 70 bachelor of fine arts 3.0 not posted deg general/degree spec nipi four semesters, 2 years (of a bachelor of fine arts four year degree) 221 m n o a b c d e f g h i j k l 70 applicants who have completed a threeyear diploma program in fine arts from an ontario caat with a minimum cumulative average of 70% (3.0 gpa) will be considered for admission to the bachelor of arts (ba) program in culture and the arts with maximum of 42 advanced standing advanced standing to a maximum of 42 credits. credits will be awarded. 3.0 bachelor of arts culture and the arts students must complete 48 credits three to four semesters, 1.5 at nipissing university to graduate to 2 years (of a three year bachelor of arts culture with this degree. degree) and the arts deg not posted 70 general/degree spec nipi 222 3.0 maximum of 30 advanced standing credits will be awarded. bachelor of arts culture and the arts deg applicants who have completed a twoyear diploma program with a fine arts focus (i.e. fine arts, visual and creative arts, art and design) from an ontario caat with a minimum cumulative average of 70% (3.0 gpa) will be considered for admission to the bachelor of arts(ba) program in culture and the arts with advanced standing to a maximum of 30 credits. 70 bachelor of arts culture and the arts b or better 70 not posted deg b or better general/degree spec nipi 223 bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg maximum of 30 advanced standing credits will be awarded. bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors 75% graduates of a ontario colleges of applied arts and technology (caat) program who have achieved a cumulative average of b or better in a threeyear diploma program will be considered for admission to nipissing with advanced standing to a maximum of 30 credits. nipi students must complete 60 credits at nipissing university to graduate four sememsters, 2 years (of with this degree. a three year degree) students granted the maximum allowable transfer to be considered for a nipissing credits can expect to university degree, undergraduate complete a standard 4 year students must successfully degree in 3 years or a complete at least 30 credits at standard 3 year degree in 2 nipissing years. students granted the maximum allowable transfer credits can expect to complete a standard 4 year degree (eight terms) in 3.5 years (seven terms) or a standard 3 year degree (six terms) in 2.5 years (five terms). 75% 75% bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors general not posted deg 75% not posted 224 nipi degree requirements 5 credits/year over 4 years for a total of 20 credits. georgian students would be required to complete 1.5 credits (3 liberal studies courses) for first year and 1.5 credits for second year as well as 5 credits for third and 5 credits for fourth. total number of credits required to graduate would be 13 credits of 20 two three academic years, bachelor of fine arts credits (noted above). depending on courseload. degree deg to be considered for a nipissing university degree, undergraduate students must successfully complete at least 30 credits at nipissing general 20110901 bachelor of fine arts bachelor of fine arts degree graduates of a ontario colleges of applied arts and technology (caat) program who have achieved a cumulative average of b or better in a twoyear diploma program will be considered for admission to nipissing with advanced standing maximum of 18 advanced standing to a maximum of 18 credits. credits will be awarded. 225 transfer agreement ocad the purpose of this agreement is to provide students interested in pursuing a bachelor of fine arts (bfa) at ocad university with the opportunity to apply to this degree upon completion of the visual and creative arts diploma program at fleming college (vcad) with an average grade of at least b or 75% minimum in each course. upon admission, the credits required for completion of the foundation year at fleming college will be transferred as equivalent to the completion of first year, faculty of art at ocad university (3.5 studio credits). students would choose one of the following programs under this agreement: drawing & painting, photography or sculpture/installation. all students that apply to ocad university must meet our admissions english requirement. bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors 226 georgian 20100901 bachelor of fine arts degree requirements 5 credits/year over 4 years for a total of 20 credits. fleming college students are required to complete 2 credits to complete first year and 5 credits each for the remaining 3 years. the total credits to complete would be 3 years 5/year + 2 credits remaining for first year. the total number of credits to graduate would be 17 credits of 20 credits three academic years. (noted above). transfer agreement ocad students will receive all 7 first year, faculty of art studio courses (3.5 credit value) and 7 200/300 level the purpose of this agreement is to provide students (second/third year), faculty of art interested in pursuing a bachelor of fine arts (bfa) at ocad studio courses (3.5 credit value). the university with the opportunity to apply to this degree upon total credit value for the combined completion of the fine arts advanced diploma program two years is 7.0 credits. as the (fiaa) at georgian college with an average grade of at least b requirements of the first year of or 75% minimum in each course. upon admission, the credits study at ocad university include required for completion of the fiaa at georgian college will be some courses not offered in georgian transferred as equivalent to the completion of first year, college's fine arts advanced faculty of art (3.5 studio credits) and second year/third year diploma program (fiaa), graduates of studio courses (3.5 studio credits) at ocad university. this program are required to complete students would choose one of the following programs under three liberal studies courses (1.5 this agreement: criticism and curatorial practice, drawing & credit value) to fulfill the first year painting, integrated media, printmaking or requirement as well as three liberal sculpture/installation. all students that apply to ocad studies courses (1.5 credit value) to university must meet our admissions english requirement. fulfill the second year requirement. as the requirements of the first year of study at ocad university include some courses not offered in fleming college's visual and creative arts diploma program, graduates of this program are required to complete one studio course (0.5 credit value) as well as three liberal studies courses (1.5 credit value) to fulfill the first year requirement. these courses must be completed in the summer semester of the year granted admission but a student may carry one studio course (0.5 credit value) as well as one liberal studies course (excluding english) into second year (september). 227 fleming m n o f bachelor of fine arts e not posted bachelor of fine arts d ocad not posted c general ocad b 228 general baccalaurat en ducation (cycles primaire/moyen)/bache lor of education 20000509 (primary / junior) a 229 transfer agreement otta apregrave's deux anneacutees d eacut etudes en journalisme agrave la citeacute colleacutegiale (vous devez en sortir avec une moyenne au moins 70 p. 100), vous inscrire agrave baccalaurat spcialis universiteacute ottawa pour y faire cinq sessions en journalisme/honors d'eacutetudes (75 eacutedits). l'universiteacute; na pas de limites dinscription dans ce cas. 20100325 degree in journalism g apregrave's deux anneacutees d'eacutetudes en journalisme agrave la citeacute colleacutegiale (45 creacutedits), acheveacute es avec une moyenne d'au moins 70% (2.7), les eacutetudiants peuvent sinscrire agrave l'universiteacute ottawa pour y faire cinq (5) sessions d'eacutetudes (75 creacutedits). generally, college diploma courses transfer to ocad university at a value of 2:1. a maximum of 1.5 studio credits will be awarded if you are a newly admitted first year student who has not been granted advanced standing based on your portfolio review. a maximum of 1.5 history and theory of visual culture (visc) credits may be approved for transfer. only those diploma courses with a minimum 70% average will be eligible for consideration for transfer credit. contact hours must total a minimum of 36 hours for 0.5 credit of ocad university courses, with a minimum of three weeks' instruction. students must complete a minimum of 50 percent of your graduation requirements at ocad university. as well, two out of three final semesters prior to graduation (assuming a maximum of 3 transfer credits can completion of 2.5 credits per semester), including the final be awarded for classes undertaken at one, must be completed in residence at ocad university. other post secondary institutions. advance standing allows students to be granted admission into second year or the beginning of third year through the awarding of block studio credit based on a portfolio review and/or evidence of work completed in an art or design program at another post secondary institution. advanced standing is determined on a case by case basis by assessing the quality and range of the work in a students portfolio and assigned an amount of credit based on that work. placement ranges from the first to the third year of study. students who receive may still be required to take specified studio or liberal placement in second year or the studies courses at a lower year level in addition to their second beginning of third year depending on the strength of students portfolio or third year program requirements. l'universiteacute r'eacute servera un maximum de dix (10) places dans le programme de formation agrave enseignement, cycle primaire/moyen aux titulaires du diplocircme de la citeacute colleacutegiale qui ont aussi un diplocircme de baccalaureacuteat. la citeacute 230 colleacutegiale transfer agreement otta un diplocircme de la citeacute colleacutegiale en eacuteducation en services agrave l'enfance, un baccalaureacuteat universitaire et r'eacute; pondre aux critegraveres d'admission de la faculteacute, d'eacuteducation. la citeacute 231 colleacutegiale j k l 70% i 70% h deg bachelor of fine arts degree dependent on transfer dependent on transfer credits credits awarded (credits awarded (credits assessed and assessed and awarded on a awarded on a case by case bases). case by case bases). 70% n/a 70% 66% n/a deg baccalaureacuteat en eacuteducation une anneacute agrave la formation agrave; faculteacute l'enseignement cycles d'eacuteducation. primaire/moyen deg deux cheminements sont possibles les eacutetudiants peuvent d'abord inscrire au baccalaureacuteat speacute cialiseacute en journalisme agrave l'universiteacute et ensuite, apregrave's avoir reacuteussi 75 creacutedits (5 sessions d'eacutetudes), inscrire agrave la citeacute; colleacutegiale pour terminer le diplocircme en journalisme (45 creacutedits 4 sessions). les conditions agrave la fin des 9 d'admission sont celles en sessions d'eacutetudes, vigueur agrave l'universiteacute d'ottawa. l'eacutetudiant aura deux le nombre eacutetudiants du diplocirc mes le baccalaureacuteat programme de speacute cialiseacute en baccalaureacute at journalisme de speacutecialis eacute en l'universiteacute journalisme de université d'ottawa d'ottawa et le qui peuvent ecirctre admis diplocircme en journalisme de la au diplocircme en journalisme de la citeacute citeacute colleacutegiale. deg 70% dependent on the strength dependent on the strength of a of a students portfolio, students portfolio, determined on determined on a case by case bachelor of fine arts a case by case basis. basis. degree le programme r'eacute gulier du baccalaureacuteat en eacuteducation doit ecirctre compleacutet eacute. l'universiteacute va d'eacutecerner un diplocircme de baccalaureacuteat speacutecialis eacute en journalisme aux eacutetudiants qui auront obtenu 75 creacutedits de l'universiteacute et 45 creacutedits du programme de journalisme de la citeacute colleacutegiale (un total de 120 creacutedits). m n o n/a l h 70% n/a k g agrave; la fin des 9 sessions d'eacutetudes, l'eacute tudiant aura deux diplocirc mes le baccalaureacute at speacute cialis eacute en relations publiques et communication de l'universit eacute d'ottawa et le diplocirc me en relations publiques de la citeacute colleacute giale. deg 70% n/a j f l'universiteacute va d'eacutecerner un diplocirc me de baccalaureacute at speacutecialis eacute en relations publiques et communication aux eacute tudiants qui auront obtenu 75 creacutedits de l'universit eacute; et 45 creacute dits du programme de relations publiques de la citeacute colleacute giale (un total de 120 creacute dits). l'universit admettra les tudiants et tudiantes directement une passerelle offerte l't aprs avoir russi les cours de la passerelle, les tudiants et tudiantes seront accepts dans la deuxime anne du b.sc.a. en gnie programme de gnie lectrique de l'universit lectrique. d'ottawa deg 70% e les eacutetudiants ayants compleacutet eacute deux anneacutees d'eacutetudes en relations publiques agrave la citeacute colleacutegiale obtiendront 45 creacutedits. deg d avoir compleacutet eacute deux anneacute es d'eacutetudes en relations publiques agrave la citeacute colleacutegiale, avec une moyenne d'au moins 70% (2.7). l'universit accordera aux tudiants et tudiantes qui ont russi les cours des deux premires annes du programme en technologie du gnie lectronique de la cit collgiale ainsi que le cours de prparation quivalent au cours mat1720, avec une moyenne minimale de 70% (2.7), des quivalences correspondant une session d'tude temps plein (12 crdits) en vue de l'obtention d'un baccalaurat en gnie lectrique (b.sc.a. en gnie lectrique) 3,5 annes (passerelle l't et l'universit d'ottawa. trois annes d'tudes). les eacute tudiants et eacute tudiantes seront directement admis au programme de b.sc. speacutecialis eacute approfondi en informatique dans une passerelle offerte agrave l'eacute eacute. apregrave's avoir compleacute eacute la passerelle, les eacute tudiants et eacute tudiantes seront aussit ocirct accepteacute's dans la deuxiegrave me anneacutee du b.sc. speacute cialis eacute approfondi en informatique. c bac. spcialis en relations publiques et communication/public relations and 20100325 communications avoir complt les deux premires annes du programme en technologie du gnie lectronique de la cit collgialeainsi que le cours de prparation quivalent au cours mat1720, avec une moyenne minimale de 70% (2.7 gpa)./having completed the first two years of the program in electronics engineering technology la cit and the preparation equivalent in mat1720, with a minimum average of 70% (2.7 gpa). l'universiteacute accordera aux eacute tudiants et eacute tudiantes qui ont eacuteussi le programme de technologie du eacutenie informatique de la citeacute colleacute giale avec une moyenne minimale de 70% (2.7) jusqu agrave 15 creacute dits comme eacute quivalences en vue de l'obtention un b.sc. speacute cialiseacute approfondi 3,5 anneacute es passerelle'agrave; en informatique agrave l'universit l'eacute eacute et trois anneacute eacute d'ottawa. es d'eacutetudes b transfer agreement otta b.sc.a. en gnie lectrique/basc in 20100304 electrical engineering avoir compleacute eacute le programme de technologie du eacutenie informatique de la citeacute colleacutegiale avec une moyenne minimale de 70% (2.7)/have compleacute eacute program eacutenie computer technology the citeacute colleacute giale with a minimum average of 70% (2.7) a la citeacute 232 colleacutegiale transfer agreement otta b.sc. specialis approfondi en informatique/b.sc. 20100304 specialized in computer i deux cheminements sont possibles les eacute tudiants peuvent abord inscrire au baccalaureacute at speacutecialis eacute en relations publiques et communication agrave l'universiteacute et ensuite apregrave's avoir eacuteussi 75 creacute dits (5 sessions d'eacutetudes), inscrire agrave; la cité colleacute giale pour terminer le diplocirc me en relations publiques (45 creacute dits 4 sessions). les conditions d'admission sont celles en vigueur agrave l'universit eacute d'ottawa. le nombre eacute tudiants du programme de baccalaureacute at speacute cialis eacute en relations publiques et communication de l'universiteacute d'ottawa qui peuvent ecirc 233 la cit transfer agreement otta b.sc. spcialis approfondi en informatique de l'universit d'ottawa. 234 la cit m n o d e f g h graduates of the twoyear diploma program in journalism at admitted students will receive 45 algonquin college with a minimum cumulative gpa of 70% are transfer credits at the university of eligible for credit transfer at the university of ottawa. ottawa. the university will award an honours bachelor in public relations to students who have obtained 75 credits from the university and 45 credits from the public relations ontario college diploma program at algonquin college, for a total of 120 credits. c honours bachelor in 20100325 journalism graduates of the twoyear diploma program in public relations at algonquin college with a minimum cumulative gpa of 3.0 (70%) are eligible for credit transfer at the university of ottawa. students will complete the degree in 3.5 years (one bridge semester and three academic years). 108 credits must be achieved at the university of ottawa. b transfer agreement otta honours bachelor in 20100325 public relations the university will award students who have completed the electrical engineering technician program at algonquin college with an average of at least 68%, 15 credits of advanced completion of the electrical engineering technician (twoyear) standing to be applied to the related diploma program at algonquin college with an average of at university engineering degree (basc least 68%. in electrical engineering). a 235 algonquin transfer agreement otta basc in electrical 20100304 engineering the university will award an honours bachelor in journalism to students who have obtained 75 credits from the university and 45 credits from the journalism ontario college diploma program at algonquin college, for a total of 120 credits. 236 algonquin transfer agreement otta admitted students will receive 45 transfer credits at the university of ottawa. 237 algonquin i two routes to degree completion are possible: a) students are admitted to the journalism ontario college diploma program at algonquin college according to the respective college admission requirements in effect. after successful completion of the college program, students may apply to the university of ottawa. the university of ottawa will accept graduates of the college program who have a minimum final grade point average of 3.0 or higher. admission to the honours bachelor in journalism for graduates from the algonquin college journalism ontario college diploma program is not subject to limited enrolment. b) students apply for direct admission to the honours two routes to degree completion are possible: a) students are admitted to the public relations ontario college diploma program at algonquin college according to the respective college admission requirements in effect. after successful completion of the college program, students may apply to the university of ottawa. the university of ottawa will accept graduates of the college program who have a minimum final grade point average of 3.0 or higher. admission to the honours bachelor in public relations for graduates from the algonquin college program in public relations is not subject to limited enrolment. b) students apply for direct admission to the honours bachelor in the university will offer students immediate admission to a bridge program through a preferred admission channel. the bridge program is offered in the summer preceding the student's official admission to the program. upon completion of the bridge program, students are admitted into second year of their program. honours bachelor in journalism degree from the university of ottawa. deg 3.0 or 70% 3.0 or 70% n/a n/a n/a l deg 68% k honours bachelor in public relations degree from the university of ottawa. deg j basc in electrical engineering from the university of ottawa. m n o transfer agreement otta transfer agreement otta not posted bachelor of education 19990824 (primary/junior) basc in mechanical 20100304 engineering e 238 algonquin otta not posted d 239 algonquin general otta c 240 general not posted b 241 transfer agreement quee not posted a 242 algonquin transfer agreement quee the university will award students who have completed the first two years of the mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma program at algonquin college with an average of at least 68%, 15 credits of advanced standing to be applied to the related university engineering degree (basc in mechanical engineering). g students will complete the degree in 3.5 years (one bridge semester and three academic years). the student must achieve 117 credits at the university of ottawa. h f completion of the first two years of the mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma program at algonquin college with an average of at least 68%. determined on a case by case basis. potentially up to one academic year of study for a 2year diploma or two years for a 3year diploma. the university shall set aside, on an annual basis, a minimum of ten (10) places in its primary/junior teacher education program for graduates of the college's ece program who also hold a bachelor's degree and who the regular teacher education meet the requirements for admission. program must be completed. a maximum of 30 transfer credits for a 2year business related caat diploma or 60 for a 3year business related caat diploma. determined on a case by case basis. i j the university will offer students immediate admission to a bridge program through a preferred admission channel. the bridge program is offered in the summer preceding the student's official admission to the program. upon completion of the bridge program, students are admitted into second year of their program. in total the student will complete 3.5 basc in mechanical years (one bridge semester engineering from the and three academic years). university of ottawa. deg deg 73% or highe n/a n/a 68% n/a n/a n students must complete the oneyear teacher education bachelor of education program. primary/junior division deg dependent o a passing grade in the course. m bachelor of commerce (telfer school of management) deg l undergraduate degree (multiple disciplines) k dependent on transfer credits awarded (credits assessed and awarded on a case by case bases). 3.2 to 2.60 den/a b deg b average bachelor of computing (general) civil engineering degree deg two years, four semesters. dependent on transfer dependent on transfer credits credits awarded (credits awarded (credits assessed and assessed and awarded on a awarded on a case by case bases). case by case bases). students will receive 5 credits towards their bachelor of computing students must complete 2 years degree at queen's university. (10 credits) of a 3 year degree. up to 30 credits of transfer credits may be recognized depending on the university program requested and the ontario college studies completed (2 year diploma minimum). an early childhood education diploma from algonquin college, a bachelor's degree + admission requirements to the teacher education program. students applying to the telfer school of management can receive up to 30 credits in advanced standing after completing a twoyear program in a businessrelated field, or up to 60 credits after completing a threeyear program. student's files are evaluated on the basis of their secondary and post secondary studies. admitted students are given advanced standing for their course work if their performance and the course content have been judged to be appropriate for the program they are applying. it is the applicants' responsibility to provide all documents to allow for a complete evaluation of the courses taken elsewhere. to obtain a university of ottawa degree, a student must complete at least 50% of the program at the university of ottawa.the university will consider granting advanced standing for courses taken at other postsecondary institutions, provided that: a) the courses correspond to the required and/or optional courses in the program for which the candidate is applying; b) the credits for these courses were earned while the student was a degree candidate in a comparable program at a recognized university or college; c) the candidate has earned the passing grade in these courses; d) the number of credits claimed for the course does not exceed the total number of credits earned in the corresponding course offered at university of ottawa. if students have completed at least two years within the same program at an ontario college, up to 30 credits of transfer credits may be recognized depending on the university undergraduate degree program requested and the ontario college studies (multiple disciplines) completed. graduates of algonquin college's computer engineering technology computing science diploma can expect to receive bachelor of computing 5.0 credits (equivalent to 1 year) and can expect to be (general) completed in 2 years of fulltime study. student in the civil engineering technology program at st. lawrence college are eligible to apply to queen's civil engineering degree during the last semester of their college program. students apply to be admitted as a special student in the queen's firstyear engineering program. if admitted, students will be required to take two mathematics courses apsc 172 (calculus) and apsc 174 (linear algebra). students who successfully complete apsc 172 and apsc 174 are considered for upperyear admission to a degree program when a transcript indicating their final st. lawrence college marks is received by undergraduate admission. transfer credits granted depend on the courses taken in the st. lawrence college program and on the marks obtained. students must have a minimum cumulative b average at the time of application and at the time of graduation from st. lawrence to be considered for, and be civil engineering degree able to maintain their position in the program. bachelor of commerce (telfer school of management) 243 st. lawrence o a e i j k l h d g c students must complete 3.5 years (17 credits) of a 4 year degree or 3 years (15 bachelor of nursing credits) of a 4 year degree. science b students must complete 3.5 years (17 credits) of a 4 year degree or 3 years (15 credits) of a 4 year degree. 3.2 to 2.60 den/a n/a students may receive a minimum of 18 units (3 credits) and a maximum of 30 units (5 credits) depending on individual assessment. students must complete 3 faculty of engineering & years (15 credits) of a 4 year applied science (multiple degree. majors) deg 2.60 bachelor of nursing science students must complete 3 years (15 credits) of a 4 year degree. deg not posted graduates of a threeyear technology program may receive up to the equivalent of one year of university studies after they have completed their firstyear in the engineering program. the credits are granted to students who choose an engineering program that is similar to their college diploma program. these credits tend to be mostly at the second year level. students must first be accepted to queens and then need to have their former credits assessed for equivalency. this assessment is faculty of engineering & carried out by the office of the university registrar (our), students may receive a maximum of applied science admission services on a case by case basis; once complete 30 units (5 credits) depending on (multiple majors) students will be provided with a statement of transfer credit. assessment and department. f graduates of a threeyear college diploma program entering the school of nursing receive 18 credit units (3 credits) toward their degree program. also, depending on the similarity of their college program to the queen's nursing program, they may receive up to an additional 12 credit units (2 credits) as specified transfer credits. general/degree spec quee not posted 244 general/degree spec quee 245 b or a 2.7 gpn/a 3.2 to 3.7 depn/a n/a deg bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, bachelor of commerce, bachelor of computer science (multiple majors) deg 75% n/a students must complete 2 years (10 credits) of a 3 year degree or 3 years (14 to 15 queen's university credits) of a 4 year degree. undergraduate degree quee not posted bachelor of military arts and science deg 70% students must complete 2 years (10 credits) of a 3 year degree or 3 years (14 to 15 credits) of a 4 year degree. general quee students may receive a maximum of 10 credits, to be determined on a case by case basis by rmcc faculty; guided in part by provincial college to university transfer guides. students may receive a maximum of 11 credits, to be determined on a case by case basis by rmcc faculty; guided in part by provincial college to students are required to complete two years, four full university transfer guides. 19 credits of the 30 credit program. semesters ba of the 30 credits, at least 20 must be in arts, at least 15 must be rmcc credits, and at least 10 of the 20 credits in arts must be at the senior level. bsc of the 30 credits, at least 20 must be in students must complete 2 science, and at least 10 must be years (20 credits) of a 3 year rmc undergraduate earned through rmcc. degree. degree (multiple majors) deg candidates who have completed a threeyear caat diploma program or a fouryear caat degree program are eligible to be considered for admission with advanced standing and may receive up to 30.0 units (5 credits) in transfer credits (if students have a gpa of 3.2 or higher [commerce requires a 3.3, but implies the real minimum is 3.7]). credit is not granted for courses with a final grade lower than 1.7 (c ). students must complete a majority of their degree at queens with a residency requirement of 66 (of 120) credits of a honors degree and 48 (of 90) for a general degree. students must first be accepted to queens and then need to have their former credits assessed for equivalency. this assessment is carried out by the office of the university registrar (our), admission students may receive a maximum of queen's university services on a case by case basis; once complete students will 30 units (5 credits) depending on undergraduate degree be provided with a statement of transfer credit. assessment and department. general not posted rmc undergraduate degree (multiple majors) graduates of a threeyear college diploma program are eligible to receive a maximum of 30 credit units(the equivalent of one year or 5 credits) toward their queen's degree program in the faculty of arts & science (including fine art & music) and the schools of business and computing. students must first be accepted to queens and then need to have their former credits assessed for equivalency. this assessment is carried out by the office of the university registrar (our), admission services on a case by case basis; once complete students will be provided with a statement of transfer credit. initially, credits are granted as unspecified transfer credits at the first year level and count as electives toward the student's degree program. students who have been offered admission who would like to have some of their college courses assessed for possible specified transfer credits need to provide undergraduate admission with detailed course descriptions for the courses that they would like to have assessed. once undergraduate admission receives these course descriptions, the course descriptions are sent directly to the undergraduate bachelor of arts, chair(s) in the relevant department(s) for assessment. if a bachelor of science, course is determined to be equivalent to a queen's course bachelor of commerce, (thereby becoming a specified credit), the number of bachelor of computer unspecified transfer credits is changed accordingly. the science (multiple student still qualifies for a maximum of 30 credit majors) units (specified and unspecified). graduates of a twoyear diploma from algonquin, canadore, conestoga, durham, fleming, humber, niagara, seneca, st. lawrence and loyalist college's military arts and sciences diploma who have a gpa of 75% will be considered for admission to the royal military college's bachelor of military bachelor of military arts arts and science and be award a maximum of eleven transfer and science credits towards their degree. up to a maximum of 10 transfer credits may be granted for college courses (unless otherwise approved for a specific diploma or programme) based on provincial college to university transfer guides (ex. ontario council on articulation and transfer ; bccat; acat; atlantic provinces online transfer guide) and course reviews completed by faculty and approved by deans. in order for any college course to be used to meet the requirements of a specific rmc course (equivalency) or to be applied as part of a minor or concentration, approval of the applicable department prior to transfer credit assessment is required. not posted 246 transfer agreement rmcc not posted students must complete 2 years (10 credits) of a 3 year degree or 3 years (14 to 15 credits) of a 4 year degree. 247 rmcc students must complete 2 years (10 credits) of a 3 year degree or 3 years (14 to 15 credits) of a 4 year degree. algonquin, canadore, conestoga, durham, fleming, humber, niagara, seneca, st. 248 lawrence and, loyalist general students may receive a maximum of 30 units (5 credits) depending on assessment and department. 249 m n o e f 20010901 retail management students must complete years two, three, and four of the retail managment program. students may be required to complete three additional courses from the first year of the program. a minimum of three years fulltime study is required to complete this program. potential applicants should be aware that course availability cannot be guaranteed, and longer than three years may be required. for further information, applicants can contact undergraduate admissions and recruitment. students normally complete the fulltime program in three years. students are required to complete the parttime program in no more than eleven years. most students will complete the program in less time by planning their course selections carefully. students normally complete the fulltime program in three years. students are required to complete the parttime program in no more than eleven years. most students will complete the program in less time by planning their course selections carefully. d transfer agreement ryer 20030901 retail management a centennial college advanced diploma in biotechnology industrial microbiology with a minimum cumulative grade point average of b+ / 3.5 is required for admission consideration. students are granted advanced standing admission to third semester. additional upper year credit may be granted based on individual assessment. students must complete years two, three, and four in the retail management program. students may be required to complete three additional courses from the first year of the program. students normally complete the fulltime program in two years. students are required to complete the parttime program in no more than eight years. most students will complete the program in less time by planning their course selections carefully. c 250 seneca transfer agreement ryer bachelor of science 20040303 biology the twoyear ontario college diploma program in fashion merchandising (retail management major) program at fanshawe college with a minimum cumulative average of b / 3.0 is required for admission consideration. students are granted advanced standing admission to third semester. additional upper year credit may be granted based on individual assessment. all third and fourth year courses must be completed. to ensure adequate academic preparation, students will be required to complete up to six courses from second year, or provide evidence that equivalent courses have already been completed. b 251 george brown transfer agreement ryer 20070901 retail management the twoyear ontario college diploma in fashion arts (retail management major) program at humber college with a minimum cumulative average of b / 3.0 is required for admission consideration. successful applicants are admitted into the fifth semester of the business management program. to ensure adequate academic preparation, students will be required to complete up to six courses from second year, or provide evidence that equivalent courses have already been completed. a 252 centennial transfer agreement ryer 20070901 retail management a threeyear ontario college advanced diploma in business administration is required for admission consideration. the cumulative grade point average required for admission each year is determined on the basis of competition. candidates are encouraged to present a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher to maximize their chances for admission. the twoyear ontario college diploma program in fashion business at seneca college with a minimum cumulative average of b / 3.0 is required for admission consideration. 253 fanshawe transfer agreement ryer 20021001 business management g h i students normally complete the fulltime program in three years. students are required to complete the students must complete years two, parttime program in no students are granted advanced three, and four of ryerson's retail more than eleven years. standing admission to third semester. management program. students most students will complete additional upper year credit may be may also be required to complete the program in less time by granted based on individual three additional courses from the planning their course assessment. first year of the program. selections carefully. students normally complete the fulltime program in three years. students are required to complete the parttime program in no more than eleven years. most students will complete the program in less time by planning their course selections carefully. 254 humber general/degree spec ryer successful applicants will be admitted to first year, and granted transfer credit equivalent to one full year of study. students must complete years two, students are granted advanced three, and four of the retail standing admission to third semester. management program. students the twoyear diploma program in fashion management at additional upper year courses may be may be required to complete three george brown college with a minimum cumulative average of granted based on individual additional courses from the first b / 3.0 is required for admission consideration. assessment. year of the program. the following courses outline the curriculum: first semester: chy 142 (lecture only), cps 118, mth 131, pcs 120, second semester: chy 242, mth 231, pcs 130, third semester: blg 311, chy 361, mth 380, fourth semester: blg 400, chy 362, mth 480, fifth and sixth semester: blg 40a/b, sixth semester: blg 340, blg 888, cmn 600. in addition to the courses listed above, students are required to successfully complete two lower level liberal studies courses, three upperlevel liberal studies courses of which one must be eng 507, geo 702, hst 701, phl 709 or pol 507; plus a total of six professionallyrelated courses from the tables. 255 deg deg deg 3.2 or higher n/a 3.00 or b 3.00 or b 3.5 or b+ 3.00 or b 3.00 or b n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l deg j k bachelor of commerce (bcomm) in retail management ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. deg bachelor of commerce (bcomm) in retail management ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. deg bachelor of science (bsc) in biology ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. bachelor of commerce (bcomm) in retail management ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. bachelor of commerce (bcomm) in retail management ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. bachelor of commerce (bcomm) in business management ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. m n o 20030901 child and youth care e general/degree spec ryer 20020901 disability studies d 256 general/degree spec ryer early childhood 20020901 education c 257 general/degree spec ryer health services 20020901 management b 258 general/degree spec ryer a 259 f a three year ontario college advanced diploma in child and youth work with at least a b / 3.0 average, and nonacademic requirements as noted on our web site, are required for admission consideration. subject to competition, candidates may be required to present averages/grades above the minimum. note: potential students with extensive work experience in the field but with postsecondary academic credentials other than the threeyear ontario college advanced diploma in child and youth work, must apply to the fouryear program and be considered on an individual basis. an ontario college diploma in developmental services worker, or other disabilityrelated program with a concentration in the area of disability (e.g., social service worker), with at least a b+ / 3.5 cgpa is required for admission consideration. the diploma must include a one year introductory universitylevel humanities or social science course or equivalent. and two years (or equivalent) related work/advocacy experience. applicants without this may be accepted, but must either complete dst 80a/b: practicum in disability studies in the program or apply for exemption if achieved while in the program. applicants with less than a b+/3.5 cgpa in an acceptable college diploma program may be asked to complete up to two singleterm university level liberal studies courses prior to admission. applicants with other post secondary academic backgrounds and extensive work experience in the field may be considered on an individual basis. graduation from an ontario college diploma program in early childhood education, or its equivalent, with an overall average of b / 3.0 is required for admission consideration. plus all applicants must have completed three oneterm (or equivalent) liberal studies courses at the university level with minimum b / 70% grades prior to admission to the early childhood education program. one of the lower level liberal studies courses must be an english subject. college general education courses cannot be used as substitutions for university level liberal studies courses. these courses cannot be part of the ece diploma studies. these courses cannot be introductory level psychology or sociology. because of their relevance to the profession applicants are advised to complete introductory level psychology and sociology during their college studies. the health services management parttime degree program is designed to allow health practitioners to upgrade their education to the level of an undergraduate degree in theory and management of health sciences. health services management is intended for two separate applicant streams. the university welcomes and encourages applications from both of these groups as outlined graduation from a three year advanced diploma program in applied health science (e.g., nursing, medical laboratory technology, chiropody, radiology) from an ontario college, or the equivalent, with a grade average of b or higher. the diploma must include a one year introductory, universitylevel humanities course or the equivalent. plus, at least two years of professional experience in the health services field, as well as documentation of professional registration/certification where appropriate. note: students who wish to access upperlevel psychology, sociology, or economics courses must have an introductory universitylevel course in psychology, sociology, or economics or seek permission from the teaching department. candidates must be in possession of a bachelor's degree or higher in a field related to health sciences from an accredited university or a bachelor's degree, and at least two (2) years of professional experience in the health services field. applicants who have yet to finish their first degree, may be eligible for conditional acceptance contingent on their completing their degree requirements prior to the commencement of classes. n/a l 3.00 or b n/a k bachelor of arts (ba) in child and youth care ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. deg 3.5 or b+ b j bachelor of arts (ba) in disability studies ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. deg 3.00 or b n/a i students normally complete the fulltime program in two years, and are allowed up to four years. the number of years allowed to complete the parttime program is seven. bachelor of arts (ba) in early childhood education ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. deg b or better h credit for two years of a four year program is granted on the basis of the students must complete all courses advanced diploma in child and youth from years three and four of the work. child and youth care program. as a parttime program, students are required to complete the program in no more than eight years. most students will complete the program in less time by planning their course selections carefully. the completion time will vary with the number of courses taken each year. bachelor of health administration (bha) in health services management ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. deg g students normally complete the fulltime program in two years. students are required to complete the parttime program in no more than seven years. most students students must complete all courses will complete the program in successful applicants are admitted to from years three and four of the less time by planning their fifth semester of the program. program. course selections carefully. this is a speciallydesigned degree completion program for graduates of acceptable college programs. graduation from a relevant college program is required for admission and graduates must complete 28 one the number of credits required to term course equivalents to qualify for graduate from the program is 28 this bachelor's degree. oneterm course equivalents. on a parttime basis, students are required to complete the program in no more than eight years. this is a speciallydesigned degree completion program for graduates of acceptable college and university programs. graduation from a relevant program is required for admission and graduates must complete 22 one term course equivalents to qualify for this bachelor's degree. transfer credit may be available for any studies completed in addition to those students must complete 22 required for admission. courses. m n o c d e g h this is a speciallydesigned degree completion program for graduates of acceptable college programs. graduation from a relevant college program is required for admission and graduates must complete 24 one term course equivalents to qualify for this bachelor's degree. transfer credit may be available for any studies completed in addition to those students must complete 24 one required for admission. term course equivalents. b f the health information management parttime degree completion program is designed to allow health practitioners to upgrade their education to the level of an undergraduate degree in theory and management of health education.this program is intended for two separate, distinct applicant streams, and the university welcomes/encourages applications from both of these groups as outlined below. for individuals who are graduates of health record/health information accredited or recognized programs, having at least two years related experience in the field of health information and a grade average of "b" or better. documentation of professional registration/certification with the chima is also required. potential students with other postsecondary academic backgrounds and extensive work experience in the field will be considered on an individual basis. graduation from a threeyear advanced diploma in applied health science (e.g., nursing, medical laboratory technology, chiropody, radiology) from an ontario college, or the equivalent, with a grade average of b or higher. the diploma must include a oneyear introductory, universitylevel humanities course or the equivalent. candidates must have at least two years of professional experience in the health services field as well as documentation of professional registration/certification where applicable. potential students with other postsecondary academic backgrounds and extensive work experience in the field will be considered on an individual basis. applicants with a health information 20020901 management i j k l n/a general/degree spec ryer this is a speciallydesigned degree completion program for graduates of acceptable college programs. graduation from a relevant college program is required for admission and graduates must complete 25 one term course equivalents to qualify for students must complete 25 this bachelor's degree. courses. b or 3.0 260 graduation from the urban and regional planning technician gis diploma from mohawk college or the gis and urban planning diploma from fanshawe college with a minimum of a b/ 3.0 average overall is required for admission consideration. qualified applicants must successfully complete a 75 hour, threeweek spring/summer intensive block course (cvup 100) which is offered through the g. raymond chang school of continuing education. students must complete cvup 100 prior to their entry into the program. n/a urban and regional 20030601 planning 3.00 or b general/degree spec ryer students are granted 19 single semester courses out of a total of 40 required courses. bachelor of health administration (bha) in health information as a parttime program, management ryerson students are required to university degrees are complete the program in no equivalent to the more than eight years. most honours degree required students will complete the for admission program in less time by consideration for planning their course graduate studies and selections carefully. professional programs. deg bachelor of urban and regional planning (burpi) ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for the program is a twoyear graduate studies and degree completion program. professional programs. deg 261 graduates of a threeyear ontario college advanced diploma in business administration with a minimum cumulative average of b/3.0 are eligible to apply. due to competition, higher than the minimum average is typically required for admission. n/a business technology 20020901 mgt. direct entry 3.00 or b general/degree spec ryer n/a 262 3.00 or b students can complete the fulltime program in two years. students are required to complete the parttime program in no more than nine years. most students will complete the program in less time by planning their course selections carefully. students may complete the degree as a full time student bachelor of commerce in as little as four semesters (bcomm) in business by combining day and part technology time evening courses. management ryerson students are required to university degrees are complete the parttime equivalent to the program in no more than honours degree required seven years. most students for admission will complete the program in consideration for students are required to complete less time by planning their graduate studies and 21 courses. course selections carefully. professional programs. deg bachelor of commerce (bcomm) in business technology management ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. deg students must complete all courses from years three and four. to ensure adequate academic preparation, students will be required to complete up to six courses from first and second year, or provide evidence that equivalent courses have already been completed. c completion of the degree will take a minimum three years of parttime study though students are permitted a maximum of six admitted students are given students are required to complete years. this program is only advanced standing to the third year of all courses from the third and available on a parttime the program. fourth year of the program. basis. successful applicants are admitted into the fifth semester of the business technology management program. to ensure adequate academic preparation, students will be required to complete up to six courses from first and second year, or provide evidence that equivalent courses have already been completed. 3.00 or b general/degree spec ryer bachelor of social work (bsw) ryerson university degrees are equivalent to the honours degree required for admission consideration for graduate studies and professional programs. deg 263 the ted rogers school of business technology management will consider for admission graduates, of threeyear approved ontario college advanced diplomas with a specialization in computer programming, information technology or business technology telecommunications, who have achieved a minimum 20020901 mgt. advanced standing cumulative average of b/3.0. graduation from a social service worker diploma (or equivalent) from a canadian college, with at least a b / 3.0 average, and nonacademic requirements as noted on our website, are required for admission consideration. completion of three, oneterm, university liberal studies courses, one lowerlevel and two upperlevel, with at least a c level grade in each course. first year/first level (lower level) psychology, politics or sociology are not acceptable. completion of a prerequisite course, cvsw 015 foundations of social work ii with at least a b grade. only successful applicants will be preselected to take this course by undergraduate admissions in conjunction with the school of social work. liberal studies courses and employment prerequisites must be successfully completed prior to registration in cvsw 015. applicants will be selected based on postsecondary academic performance and/or employment in the social service field. general/degree spec ryer 20020901 social work 264 m n o d e 266 durham 265 transfer agreement tren transfer agreement tren general c 267 durham transfer agreement tren b 268 durham transfer agreement tren bachelor of science (honours) environmental resource 20100110 science a 269 durham transfer agreement tren bachelor of science in 20100201 forensic science ryer 270 durham transfer agreement tren f upon successful completion of the 5 semester biotechnology technologist advanced diploma program at fleming college, students with a minimum 75% cumulative program average will be eligible to make application to the forensic science program at trent university, subject to capacity, for admission to the bachelor of science in forensic science degree program on an advanced standing basis. note: admission to the b.sc.f.s. program is competitive and an average higher than 75% may be required for admission. transfer credit applications will be accepted after a student has confirmed their offer into an undergraduate degree program or received registration confirmation into a certificate program. ryerson reserves the right to assess transfer credits on an individual basis and to make such changes in transfer credit equivalencies, regulations and policies as may be required. courses from accredited colleges and institutions of technology may be considered for transfer credit when completed with a grade 70 percent or higher (where 70 percent equals 'b'). courses must have been taken within the past ten years to be eligible for transfer credit. students can apply for as many transfer credits as possible based on completed external courses, however, no more than a total of 50 percent of the program's curriculum requirements may consist of transfer credits. as transfer credit assessments are undertaken by school administration without direct consultation with a students chosen faculty or program specifics students are cautioned that not all granted transfer credits may be applicable to their program of study and graduation requirements. to determine what transfer credit(s) will apply to their program, fulltime students must undergraduate degree run an advisement report on ramss(ryerson's online student center). not posted (multiple disciplines) upon successful completion of the business administration accounting, business administration human resource management, business administration marketing, or business administration operations management advanced diploma program at durham college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to the business administration program at trent university, subject to capacity, for admission to the bachelor of business bachelor of business administration degree program on an advanced standing basis. 20110401 administration upon successful completion of the computer systems technology 3 year program at durham college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to trent university for admission to the bachelor of science (honours) computing systems degree program on an bachelor of science advanced standing basis. students who closely approximate (honours) computing this average will be considered on an individual basis, subject to capacity. 20090101 systems upon successful completion of the computer systems technology 3 year program at durham college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to trent university for admission to the bachelor of bachelor of science science (honours) specialization in computer science degree (honours) program on an advanced standing basis. students who closely specialization in approximate this average will be considered on an individual basis, subject to capacity. 20090101 computer science bachelor of science upon successful completion of the computer programmer (honours) computing analyst 3 year program at durham college, students with a systems, science minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make (honours) application to trent university for admission to the bachelor of specialization in science (honours) computing systems, science (honours) computer science or specialization in computer science or bachelor of science bachelor of science (honours) specialization in software engineering degree (honours) program on an advanced standing basis. students who closely specialization in approximate this average will be considered on an individual basis, subject to capacity. 20090101 software engineering upon successful completion of the environmental technology or pharmaceutical and food science technology advanced diploma program at durham college, graduates with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to the bachelor of science (honours) program at trent university. 271 fleming k l 70% j 3.00 or b n/a i deg 75% n/a h undergraduate degree (multiple disciplines) deg 75% g determined on a case by case basis. bachelor of business administration deg determined on a case by case basis. trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. bachelor of business administration determined on a case by case basis. trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors program at trent university. approximately 2 years honours degree. trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. bachelor of science in forensic science deg bachelor of science (honours) environmental resource science deg bachelor of business administration deg bachelor of science (honours) computing systems, science (honours) specialization in computer science or bachelor of science (honours) specialization in software engineering deg 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. trent university will grant direct entry and assign 7 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 13 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2.5 years honours degree. program at trent university. m n o a b c d e bachelor of science (honours), (jointmajor) or bachelor of arts 20100201 (honours), (jointmajor) k l n/a j 75% i bachelor of science (honours), (jointmajor) or bachelor of arts (honours), (jointmajor) deg h trent university will grant direct entry and assign 7 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 13 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2.5 years honours degree. program at trent university. n/a g f upon successful completion of the five semester biotechnology technologist advanced diploma program at fleming college, graduates with a minimum 75% cumulative program average will be eligible to make application to the bachelor of science (honours) or bachelor of arts (honours), jointmajor program at trent university. applicants must declare their choice of program at the time of initial application to trent. 75% n/a transfer agreement tren trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. 75% 272 fleming upon successful completion of the business administration accounting, business administration human resource management, business administration marketing, business administration materials management and distribution, international trade three year diploma programs at fleming college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to the business administration program at trent university, subject to capacity, for admission to the bachelor of business administration degree program on an advanced standing basis. bachelor of business administration deg bachelor of science (honours) specialization in computing science, bachelor of science (honours) computing systems or bachelor of science (honours) specialization in software engineering deg transfer agreement tren trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. 273 fleming upon successful completion of the computer engineering technology 3 year program or a computer programmer analyst advanced diploma at fleming college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to trent university for admission to the bachelor of science (honours) computing systems degree program on an advanced standing basis. students who closely approximate this average will be considered on an individual basis, subject to capacity. bachelor of business 20081201 administration bachelor of science (honours) specialization in computing science, bachelor of science (honours) computing systems or bachelor of science (honours) specialization in 20081201 software engineering n/a transfer agreement tren 75% 274 fleming bachelor of science (honours) environmental resource science deg upon successful completion of the environmental technology, fish and wildlife technology or ecosystem management three year advanced diploma programs at fleming college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to the environmental resource science program at trent university, subject to capacity, for admission to the bachelor of science (honours) degree program on an advanced standing basis. trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. bachelor of science (honours) environmental resource 20091101 science n/a transfer agreement tren 75% 275 fleming trent university will grant direct entry and assign 4 credits, follows, towards the successful completion of a degree bachelor of arts program. 1.0 engl 1000y, 1.0 phil students are required to complete (honours) or bachelor of 1001y, 1.0 psyc 1020h and psyc 16 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 3 to 3.5 years science (honours) 1030h, 1.0 soci 1000y. program at trent university. deg bachelor of arts (honours) or bachelor 20070101 of science (honours) n/a transfer agreement tren 75% 276 fleming deg upon successful completion of the general arts and science university transfer option program at fleming college, students with a minimum 70% average overall and a minimum of 65% in each of the transfer credit subjects will be eligible to make application to a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science program at trent university on an advanced standing basis. upon successful completion of the four semester police foundations diploma program at fleming college, graduates with a minimum 75% cumulative program average will be eligible to make application to the bachelor of arts (honours) program at trent university. bachelor of arts (honours) trent university will grant direct entry and assign 5 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 15 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 3 years honours degree. program at trent university. n/a bachelor of arts 20100201 (honours) 75% transfer agreement tren deg 277 fleming trent university will grant direct entry and assign 5 credits towards the successful completion of a 23credit students are required to complete bachelor of science bachelor of science(forensic science) 18 credits of the 23 credit program approximately 3.5 to 4 years forensic science degree. at trent university. bachelor of science 20100201 forensic science n/a transfer agreement tren 75% 278 fleming bachelor of science (honours), (jointmajor) or bachelor of arts (honours), (jointmajor) deg bachelor of science (honours), (jointmajor) or bachelor of arts 20100201 (honours), (jointmajor) trent university will grant direct entry and assign 5 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 15 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 3 years honours degree. program at trent university. transfer agreement tren upon successful completion of the four semester police foundations diploma program at fleming college, graduates with a minimum 75% cumulative program average will be eligible for admission to the bachelor of science in forensic science degree program on an advanced standing basis, subject to capacity. admission to the b.sc.f.s. program is competitive and an average higher than 75% may be required for admission. students who meet the terms of this agreement but who do not meet the cutoff grade for direct entry to the b.sc.f.s., or who prefer to pursue a b.sc.(hons.) or b.a.(hons.) joint major degree program will be offered admission to the arts and science program.in addition to meeting the competitive average required for admission to the b.sc.f.s. program, applicants to that program must also meet one of the following entrance requirements: (i) high school prerequisite courses: sbi4u biology, sch4u chemistry, engl4u english, mhf4u or mcv4u or mcb4u or mga4u mathematics (ii) fleming college preparatory health science or university science preparation: biology 1 (sci 9), chemistry 1 (sci 131), english 1 (comm 19), mathematics 1 (math 20) upon successful completion of the four semester police foundations diploma program at fleming college, graduates with a minimum 75% cumulative program average will be eligible to make application to the bachelor of science (honours) or bachelor of arts (honours), jointmajor program at trent university. applicants must declare their choice of program at the time of initial application to trent. 279 fleming m n o 284 loyalist 283 loyalist 282 loyalist 281 loyalist 280 georgian transfer agreement tren transfer agreement tren transfer agreement tren transfer agreement tren transfer agreement tren transfer agreement tren b 285 loyalist transfer agreement tren a 286 seneca general tren 287 c n/a l 75% n/a k deg 75% n/a j bachelor of science (honours) computing systems deg 75% n/a i trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. bachelor of science (honours), biology deg 75% h trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. bachelor of business administration deg n/a g trent university will grant direct entry students are required to complete and assign 10 credits towards the successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. bachelor of science (honours), chemistry 75% n/a dependent on transfer credits awarded (credits assessed and awarded on a case by case bases). trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. d e f upon successful completion of the computer programmer analyst 3 year program at georgian college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to trent university for admission to the bachelor of science (honours) computing systems degree program on an bachelor of science advanced standing basis. students who closely approximate (honours) computing this average will be considered on an individual basis, subject to capacity. 20081201 systems upon successful completion of the six semester biotechnology technologist or biofood (neutraceuticals) technologist advanced diploma programs at loyalist college, graduates with a minimum 75% cumulative program average will be eligible to bachelor of science make application to the bachelor of science (honours) program at trent university. 20100201 (honours), biology upon successful completion of the business administration, business administration human resource management, business administration materials management, or business administration accounting 3 year advanced diploma programs at loyalist college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make application to the business administration program at trent university, subject to capacity, for admission to the bachelor of business bachelor of business administration degree program on an advanced standing basis. 20101001 administration upon successful completion of the chemical (engineering) technologist 3 year advanced diploma program at loyalist college, graduates with a minimum 75% cumulative program average will be eligible to make application to the bachelor of science (honours) program at trent university. 75% n/a bachelor of science 20100201 (honours), chemistry deg 75% 70% bachelor of science (honours), computing systems bachelor of science (honours), environmental resource science deg bachelor of science (honours) computing systems, science (honours) specialization in computer science or bachelor of science (honours) specialization in software engineering deg 65% trent university will grant direct entry and assign 10 credits towards the students are required to complete successful completion of a 20credit 10 credits of a 20 credit honors approximately 2 years honours degree. program at trent university. deg predominantly, applicants from a 2 year diploma will receive a maximum of 5 transfer credits depending on individual assessment and program of choice, applicants from a 3 year diploma will receive a maximum of 7.5 transfer credits depending on dependent on transfer credits individual assessment and program of awarded (credits assessed and choice. awarded on a case by case bases). undergraduate degree (multiple disciplines) upon successful completion of the computer programmer/analyst 3 year program at loyalist college, students with a minimum 75% overall average will be eligible bachelor of science to make application to trent university for admission to the (honours), computing bachelor of bachelor of science (honours) computing systems degree program on an advanced standing basis. 20081201 systems upon successful completion of the six semester environmental bachelor of science technologist advanced diploma program at loyalist college, (honours), graduates with a minimum 75% cumulative program average environmental resource will be eligible to make application to the bachelor of science (honours) program at trent university. 20100201 science bachelor of science (honours) computing systems, science upon successful completion of the computer programming (honours) and analysis 3 year program at seneca college, students with a specialization in minimum 75% overall average will be eligible to make computer science or application to trent university for admission to the bachelor of bachelor of science science (honours) computing systems degree program on an (honours) advanced standing basis. students who closely approximate specialization in this average will be considered on an individual basis, subject to capacity. 20081201 software engineering applicants who have completed at least one year (two terms) in a canadian community college or an ontario college of applied arts and technology with a cumulative average of 65% will be considered for admission to trent university. courses from accredited colleges and institutions of technology may be considered for transfer credit when completed with a grade of 70% or higher. as a general guide, graduates of a twoyear highly academic college program can expect to receive up to 5.0 transfer credits. graduates of a threeyear highly academic program can expect to receive up to 7.5 credits (applicants who have completed less than one year of community college will be assessed for transfer credit eligibility on an individual basis). the total number of nontrent credits (either transfer credits or credits taken on letter of permission) may not exceed 10.0 for an honours degree and 7.5 for a general degree. specific degree requirements may mean that not all transfer credits awarded are applicable to a degree program. transfer credit is designated in three different ways:1. assigned credit is used when there is a trent university equivalent. 2. unassigned credit in a subject area is used for courses without trent university equivalents, but which are acceptable to a department as fulfilling subject requirements toward a degree in that department. individual departments may restrict the number of unassigned credits that may be undergraduate degree counted toward a degree in that department. 3. general (multiple disciplines) elective credit is used for courses which are judged to be not posted m n o 289 centennial 288 centennial bachelor of arts transfer agreement utor (scarbo20030901 journalism bachelor of science environmental science transfer agreement utor (scarbo20040901 & technology bachelor of science transfer agreement utor (scarbo20040901 applied microbiology e 290 centennial bachelor of arts new transfer agreement utor (scarbo20030901 media studies d 291 centennial bachelor of science transfer agreement utor (scarbo20030901 paramedicine c 292 centennial utor (missis not posted general/degree spec utor not posted b 293 general utor a 294 general not posted f applicants who are approved by the admissions office, and who hold a biotechnology technologist industrial microbiology advanced diploma from centennial college may receive a maximum of 6.5 course credits towards their bsc in applied microbiology from the university of toronto scarborough. applicants who are approved by the admissions office, and who hold an environmental protection technologist advanced diploma from centennial college may receive a maximum of 6.5 course credits towards their bsc in environmental science & technology from the university of toronto scarborough. applicants who are approved by the admissions office, and who hold an advanced diploma in journalism from centennial college may receive a maximum of 6.5 course credits towards their journalism degree from the university of toronto scarborough. applicants who are approved by the admissions office, and who hold a new media design certificate from centennial college may receive a maximum of 6.5 course credits towards their new media studies degree from the university of toronto scarborough. applicants who are approved by the admissions office, and who hold a paramedic diploma from centennial college may receive a maximum of 7 course credits towards their paramedicine degree from the university of toronto scarborough. being admitted into a program higher than first year, is based upon the level of performance demonstrated during the audition. applicants who wish to apply for advanced standing will be assessed at the time of their audition/interview. transfer credit for work done at another university will be assessed on the basis of individual course content, grade achieved and equivalency to courses at the university of toronto. candidates who have completed a postsecondary degree/diploma may be granted transfer credits to a maximum of a quarter of their total degree requirement credits (five credits) or up to a third of their total artist diploma requirement credits (dependent on the recriminating factors above). transfer credits are assessed after a student has received an offer of admission, paid the $30 transfer credit processing fee and submitted all required documentation specified in the offer of admission such as detailed course outlines. students are assessed on a case by case basis guided by factors such as content and level, credit weight of the course, academic structure of your previous institution, grading system used by your previous institution, grade achieved. students who have undertaken two years (four semesters) of fulltime study or less at a college of applied arts and technology (caat) are eligible for a maximum of 3.0 transfer credits (no transfer credits will be given to students who have completed one full year of study or under). students are eligible for a maximum of 5.0 transfer credits (4.0 credits at the 100level and 1.0 credit at the 200level) if they have completed three years (six undergraduate degree semesters) of fulltime study. note: for commerce and (multiple disciplines) management applicants, the maximum is 3.5 transfer credits. transfer credits are assessed after a student has received an offer of admission, paid the $30 transfer credit processing fee and submitted all required documentation specified in the offer of admission such as detailed course outlines. students are assessed on a case by case basis guided by factors such as content and level, credit weight of the course, academic structure of your previous institution, grading system used by your previous institution, grade achieved. a maximum of 5.0 transfer credits may be granted for completion of a 3 year diploma program depending on the academic content of the program completed. for completion of a 2 year diploma program up to a maximum of 2.0 unspecified credits may be undergraduate degree granted, depending on the academic content of the program (multiple disciplines) completed. graduates of durham college's computer systems technician diploma who have an average of 75 will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of information technology bachelor of information degree and be award a maximum of 45 transfer credits technology towards a 120 credit degree. bachelor of music 295 transfer agreement uoit not posted 296 durham a total of 13.5 credits must be students will receive a maximum of completed at laurier brantford to 6.5 credits towards their university of graduate with a ba honours toronto (scarborough) degree. degree. approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year bachelor of arts degree). journalism deg approximately three years, bachelor of science six semesters (of a four year environmental science & degree). technology deg approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year bachelor of science degree). applied microbiology deg 2.75 3.00 75 80 80 2.75 60% n/a 2.00 n/a n/a n/a l a total of 13.5 credits must be students will receive a maximum of completed at laurier brantford to 6.5 credits towards their university of graduate with a ba honours toronto (scarborough) degree. degree. approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year bachelor of arts new degree). media studies deg b average k a total of 13.5 credits must be students will receive a maximum of completed at laurier brantford to 6.5 credits towards their university of graduate with a ba honours toronto (scarborough) degree. degree. approximately two and a half to three years, five to six semesters (of a four year bachelor of science degree). paramedicine deg dependent o 60% j a total of 13.5 credits must be students will receive a maximum of completed at laurier brantford to 6.5 credits towards their university of graduate with a ba honours toronto (scarborough) degree. degree. bachelor of music deg i a total of 13 credits must be students will receive a maximum of 7 completed at laurier brantford to credits towards their university of graduate with a ba honours toronto (scarborough) degree. degree. determined on a case by case basis. undergraduate degree (multiple disciplines) h students may receive a maximum of 5 credits (one full year of studies), to be determined on a case by case determined on a case by case basis. basis. determined on a case by case basis by university of toronto mississauga admissions and the respective department applied to. g determined on a case by case basis by university of toronto mississauga admissions and the respective department applied to. deg students may receive a maximum of 5 credits (one full year of studies), to be determined on a case by case basis by the university of toronto mississauga admissions and the respective department applied to. dependent o 60% n/a deg 75% determined on a case by case basis by university of toronto's determined on a case by case basis by university of toronto's office of the faculty registrar and the respective department undergraduate degree applied to. (multiple disciplines) deg determined on a case by case basis by university of toronto's determined on a case by case basis by university of toronto's office of the faculty registrar and the respective department applied to. bachelor of information technology students may receive a maximum of 5 credits (one full year of studies), to be determined on a case by case basis by the university of toronto's office of the faculty registrar and the respective department applied to. students are required to complete two and a half years, 5 admitted students will receive 45 75 credits of the 120 credit semesters (of a four year credits of a 120 credit 4year degree. program. degree) m n o a b c d e f g h i graduates of durham college's computer systems technician diploma who have an average of 75 will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of information technology honours degree. student's must complete a five course bridge students are required to complete two and a half years, 5 bachelor of information semester and maintain a b average in order to be award a admitted students will receive 45 75 credits of the 120 credit semesters (of a four year technology honours maximum of 45 transfer credits towards a 120 credit degree. credits of a 120 credit 4year degree. program. degree) j bachelor of information technology honours k l deg 75% 75% n/a b b not posted bachelor of arts (honors) in criminology and justice deg 2.7 gpa transfer agreement uoit students are required to complete a five course bridge term and the two and a half years, 5 last two years of the four year semesters (of a four year degree. degree) bachelor of allied health science deg 297 durham students will receive advanced placement of two years, provided they successfully complete their one five course bridge term. approximately 2 years not posted students must complete 21 single semester credits of a 40 course credit degree. transfer agreement uoit students are granted a maximum of 19 single semester courses out of a total of 40 required courses. 298 durham graduates of durham college's child and youth worker diploma who apply for and successfully complete a five course bachelor of arts bridge semester and maintain a b average will be eligible for (honors) in criminology admission to uoit's bachelor of arts (honors) in criminology and justice and justice degree into the third year of a four year program graduates of durham college's dental hygiene diploma who have a gpa of 2.7 will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of allied health science degree. students may receive up to 57 advanced credits (19 courses) towards the 120 credit (40 course) honours degree. bachelor of allied health science 299 durham transfer agreement uoit b not posted 300 durham transfer agreement uoit bachelor of allied health science deg n/a transfer agreement uoit 301 durham transfer agreement uoit deg 60% 302 durham general/degree spec uoit bachelor of health science kinesiology 2.7 gpa 60% 303 rpn to bachelor of science in nursing 20050901 (honours) approximately 3 years approximately 2 years n/a 60% general/degree spec uoit students must complete 27 single semester credits of a 40 course credit degree. five academic semesters: one semester of four bridge courses (12 credits) then four additional semesters containing a combination of bachelor of arts core social science courses (honours) in criminology and electives (60 credits.) and justice deg b average 304 b students must complete 21 single semester credits of a 40 course credit degree. deg c+ 75% 72 credits must be completed at uoit. * four bridge courses (12 credits);* 20 third and fourth year required and elective courses (60 credits). six academic semesters: one semester of three bridge courses (9 credits) then five additional semesters containing a combination of nursing courses and electives bachelor of science in (78 credits.) nursing (honours) b average deg 87 credits must be completed at uoit: three bridge courses (9 credits); 26 third and fourth year required and elective courses (78 credits). eleven academic semesters: one semester of two bridge courses (6 credits) then nine additional semesters containing a combination of core allied health science courses (36 credits) and bachelor of allied health electives (21 credits). science (honours) deg bachelor of allied health science 20080901 (honours) bachelor of commerce honours graduates of durham college's fitness and health promotion diploma who have an overall b average or better will be students are granted a maximum of considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of health science 13 single semester courses out of a bachelor of health kinesiology degree. students will be granted an automatic total of 40 single semester course block transfer of 13 courses towards their degree. degree. not posted science kinesiology graduates of a threeyear advanced diploma from durham college who have an average of 75 will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of commerce honours degree. students will receive advanced student's must complete a five course bridge semester and placement of two years, provided bachelor of commerce maintain a b average after which they can apply for direct they successfully complete their one entry into the third year of a four year program five course bridge term. not posted honours graduates of a practical nursing diploma from durham college who have a gpa of 2.7 or higher will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of allied health science degree students are granted a maximum of bachelor of allied and receive up to 57 advanced credits (19 courses) towards 19 single semester courses out of a the 120 credit (40 course) degree. total of 40 required courses. not posted health science graduates from any ontario college diploma (2year) or ontario college advanced diploma (3year) in either correctional worker, community and justice services, law and security administration, or police foundations program will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of arts (honours) in criminology and justice. students will be required to complete four bridge subjects (abnormal psychology, bachelor of arts (hons) quantitative methods, research methods, and sociological in criminology and theories of crime) with an average grade of 73% to continue in block transfer of 48 credits toward the program. 120 credit degree. 20050101 justice applicants must be graduates of an approved registered practical nursing (rpn) ontario college diploma programs, with a minimum mid70s average or better. in addition, applicants must hold a current certificate of competence from the college of nurses of ontario. students will be required to complete three bridge subjects (information and communication technology in health care, professional accepted students will receive a block nursing bridge, and science bridge) with an minimum grade of transfer of 33 credits toward a 120 60% to continue in the program. credit degree. 63 credits must be completed at uoit: two bridge courses (6 credits); 19 addition required and elective courses (57 credits) general/degree spec uoit students are required to complete a five course bridge term and the two and a half years, 5 last two years of the four year semesters (of a four year degree. degree) graduates from any identified accredited health professional program, including addictions and mental health, biomedical engineering technology, dental hygiene, health information management, massage therapy, medical laboratory technician, medical laboratory technology, nursing (rpn and rn), occupational therapist assistant, opticianry, paramedicine, pharmacy technician, physiotherapist assistant, and respiratory therapy, with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of allied health sciences (honours) program. students will be required to complete two bridge subjects (academic writing: perspectives in health and mathematical reasoning in health accepted students will receive a sciences) with a minimum grade of "c+" in each course to block transfer of 57 credits toward the continue in the program. 120 credits required for degree. 305 m n o a b c d e f g h i j five academic semesters: one semester of five or six bridge courses (15 or 18 credits) then four additional semesters containing a combination of core bachelor of applied engineering courses and science in nuclear power electives (60 credits.) (honours) deg k l n/a 75 or 78 credits must be completed at uoit: five or six bridge courses (15 or 18 credits); 20 third and fourth year required and elective courses (60 credits) b average graduates of any ontario college advanced diploma (3year) in either chemical engineering technology, computer engineering technology, electrical engineering technologist, electromechanical engineering technology, electronics engineering technology, manufacturing engineering technology, or mechanical engineering technology, with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of applied science (honours) in nuclear power. students will be required to complete five or six bridge subjects (depending on previous diploma earned) (fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, mathematics foundations for engineers i, mathematical foundations for engineers ii, mathematical foundations for engineers iii, physics foundation for engineers, and additional course (if required)) with an average grade of "c" to continue in the program. for detailed admission and bridging requirements consult the bachelor of applied bachelor of applied science(honours) in nuclear power accepted students will receive a block science (hons.) nuclear https://connect.uoit.ca/uoit/program.do?from=subject&progr transfer of 42 or 45 credits toward the amid=235 website. 120 credits required for degree. 20100901 power 60% general/degree spec uoit n/a accepted students are eligible to enter the third year of the legal studies honours program after successful completion of the legal studies bridge and will receive a block transfer of 48 credits toward the 120 credits required for degree. 306 deg n/a 75 credits must be completed at uoit: five bridge courses (15 credits); 20 third and fourth year required and elective courses (60 credits) 75 credits must be completed at uoit: five bridge courses (15 accepted students will receive a credits); 20 third and fourth year block transfer of 45 credits toward the required and elective courses (60 120 credits required for degree. credits). students must complete 72 credits five academic semesters: at uoit. students must enter a one one semester of 4 bridge semester bridge program where courses (12 credits) then 4 they must achieve an overall b additional semesters or 2 average in the four prescribed academic years (20 courses courses. the legal studies bridge or 60 credit hours) program consists of the following containing a combination of bachelor of arts courses: public law, legal theory, core social science courses (honours) in legal research methods legal research and electives. studies b average general/degree spec uoit deg n/a 307 five academic semesters: one semester of five bridge courses (15 credits) then four additional semesters containing a combination of core information technology courses and electives (60 bachelor of information credits). technology (honours) a average graduates of any ontario college diploma (2year) or ontario college advanced diploma (3year) program in either court and tribunal administration, legal administration, law clerk or paralegal program will be considered for admission to uoit's legal studies bridge program. students will be required to complete four bridge subjects (public law, research legal studies bridging methods, legal theory and legal research methods) with an average grade of 73% to continue in the program. 20100901 program graduates of any ontario college diploma (2year) or ontario college advanced diploma (3year) in computer systems technology or related program, with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of information technology (honours) program. students will be required to complete five bridge subjects (computer architecture, discrete mathematics, introductory calculus, introduction to entrepreneurship, and one general or technical bachelor of information elective) with an average grade of "b" to continue in the 20100901 technology (honours) program. deg n/a general/degree spec uoit bachelor of information technology (honours) game development specialization b average 308 bachelor of health science (honours) kinesiology specialization deg graduates of any ontario college diploma (2year) or ontario college advanced diploma (3year) in game development or related program, with a minimum 80 average, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of information technology (honours) program with specialization in game development. students will be required to complete five bridge subjects (computer architecture, discrete bachelor of information mathematics, introduction to entrepreneurship, linear algebra accepted students will receive a block tech. (hons.) in game and physics for games, and object oriented programming) transfer of 45 credits toward the 120 with an average grade of "b" to continue in the program. credits required for degree. 20100901 dev. graduates of any ontario college advanced diploma (3year) in either print and broadcast journalism, public relations or advertising programs, with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of arts (honours) in communication. students will be required to complete two bridge subjects (developments in human communication and foundations of communication theory) with an average grade of "b" to continue in the program. graduates of any ontario college diploma (2year) or ontario college advanced diploma (3year) in a discipline outside of business, with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of commerce (honours). students will be required to complete five bridge subjects (finance i, finance ii, financial accounting, managerial accounting, statistics) with an average grade of b to continue in the program. graduates of an ontario college diploma (2year) in fitness and health promotion program, with a minimum mid70s average or better, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of health science (honours) program kinesiology specialization. general/degree spec uoit five academic semesters: one semester of five bridge courses (15 credits) then four additional semesters containing a combination of core game development courses and electives (60 credits.) five to six academic semesters: five or six semesters containing a combination of core kinesiology courses and electives (87 credits). n/a 309 accepted students will receive a block transfer of 33 credits toward the 120 87 credits must be completed at credits required for degree. uoit. b average bachelor of health science (honours) 20100901 kinesiology deg general/degree spec uoit five academic semesters: one semester of two bridge courses (6 credits) then four additional semesters containing a combination of bachelor of arts core communication courses (honours) in and electives (60 credits). communication 310 66 credits must be completed at uoit: two bridge courses (6 accepted students will receive a block credits); 20 third and fourth year transfer of 54 credits toward the 120 required and elective courses (60 credits required for degree. credits) bachelor of arts (honours) in 20100901 communication n/a general/degree spec uoit b average 311 deg bachelor of commerce (hons.) nonbusiness 20100901 diploma five academic semesters: one semester of five bridge courses (15 credits) then four additional semesters containing a combination of core business courses and bachelor of commerce electives (60 credits.) (honours) general/degree spec uoit 75 credits must be completed at uoit: five bridge courses (15 accepted students will receive a block credits); 20 third and fourth year transfer of 45 credits toward 120 required and elective courses (60 credits required for degree. credits) 312 m n o g h 75 credits must be completed at uoit: five bridge courses (15 credits); 20 third and fourth year required and elective courses (60 credits) or 25 second, third and fourth year required and elective courses (75 credits) c accepted students will receive a block transfer of 45 credits toward 120 credits required for degree (bridge option) or direct transfer of 45 credits toward 120 credits required for degree (direct entry option). b general/degree spec uoit d e f graduates of any ontario college advanced diploma (3year) in either accounting, marketing, human resources, finance, or operations, with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered for direct admission to the third year of uoit's bachelor of commerce (honours). students will have the bachelor of commerce choice to major in the same program they graduated from in college, or enter the comprehensive program. 20100901 (hons.) direct entry graduates of any ontario college diploma (2 year) in accounting, marketing, human resources, finance or operations, with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of commerce (honours). students will be required to complete five bridge subjects (finance i, finance ii, financial accounting, managerial accounting and one elective) with an average grade of "b" to continue in the program. alternatively, bachelor of commerce students can choose to receive 45 credit hours and enter (hons.) 2 year business directly into the second semester of second year of their bachelor of commerce (honours). 20100901 dip 78 credits must be completed at uoit: three bridge courses (9 credits) and a bridge module (0 credits); 23 required science and elective courses (69 credits). a 313 general/degree spec uoit accepted students will receive a transfer of 42 credits toward the 120 credits required for degree, consisting of the following: biol 1010u (biology i); chem 1010u (chemistry i); biol 2060u (introduction to microbiology and immunology); biol 2080u (biochemsitry i); chem 2030u (analytical chemistry) or chem 2130u (analytical chemistry for biosciences); chem 3830u (instrumental analytical chemistry); 3 science electives; 3 liberal studies electives; 2 general electives. i deg b average b average n/a n/a n/a o bachelor of commerce (honours) deg b average n/a n bachelor of commerce (honours) deg b average m bachelor of science (honours) in biological science deg dependent o determined on a case by case basis. l bachelor of arts (honours) in adult education and digital technology deg k six academic semesters: one semester of 3 bridge courses (9 credits) and one bridge module (0 credits) then five additional semesters containing a combination of core science courses and electives (69 credits). four academic semesters containing a combination of core adult education and digital technology courses (60 credits). undergraduate degree (multiple disciplines) 78% j determined on a case by case basis. deg four academic semesters containing a combination of core business courses and electives (60 credits). five academic semesters: one semester of five bridge courses (15 credits) then four additional semesters containing a combination of core business courses and electives (60 credits) or five semesters containing a combination of business courses and electives (75 credits). determined on a case by case basis. at waterloo one of the following: honours bachelor of arts in recreation and leisure studies, honours bachelor of arts in recreation and sport business, honours bachelor of arts in therapeutic recreation, bachelor of arts recreation and leisure studies (4 year general) 60 credits must be completed at accepted students will receive a block uoit consisting of 20 required transfer of 60 credits toward the 120 adult education and digital credits required for degree. technology courses (60 credits). graduates of the twoyear diploma in recreation and leisure services or recreation facility management at seneca college with a minimum average of 78% including a minimum of 70% in an english writing course will be eligible for transfer credits. seneca college graduates will be considered in the same applicant pool as internal transfer students and external transfer students, but will be given preferential consideration over all other college recreation and leisure studies programs where transfer credit agreements do not exist. each student's transcript will be assessed individually. this agreement recognized the high quality of courses that seneca college students currently take, and the confidence university of waterloo's department of recreation and leisure studies has overall total transfer credit is 5.0 in considering seneca college graduates for admission. units (10 term courses). 70% students will have to complete a total of 15 units (30 term courses) 3 fulltime years (6 at waterloo. semesters) 60 credits must be completed at accepted students will receive a block uoit consisting of 20 third and transfer of 60 credits toward the 120 fourth year required and elective credits required for degree. courses (60 credits). 314 graduates of any ontario college advanced diploma (3year) in biotechnology technologist , with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered for admission to uoit's bachelor of science (honours) in biological science. students will be required to complete three bridge courses (biology ii, chemistry ii and a general elective) and a bridge module (genes and inheritance) with an average grade of "b" to continue in the program. uoit not posted bachelor of science (hons.) in biological 20110901 science 315 general uoit general/degree spec uoit 316 general recreation and leisure 20100625 studies determined on a case by case basis. 317 transfer agreement wate bachelor of arts graduates of any relevant ontario college advanced diploma (honours) in adult (3year) with a minimum mid70s average, will be considered education and digital for direct admission to the third year of uoit's bachelor of arts (honours) in adult education and digital technology. 20100901 technology credits from other postsecondary institutions within and outside canada will be evaluated on an individual basis following acceptance of an offer. students must achieve a minimum 'b' grade in college course(s) in order to have the course(s) considered for transfer credit. at least half of a students courses must be from among uoit course offerings in order to meet the residency requirements for graduation. for direct equivalency, the course content from the host institution must meet a minimum 80 per cent content equivalency to a uoit course. previous course work for which undergraduate degree uoit does not offer a direct equivalency may be considered (multiple disciplines) for an unallocated elective credit. 318 seneca a b c d e f g h i j deg students will have to complete a total of 13.5 units (27 term courses) at waterloo. at waterloo one of the following: honours bachelor of arts in recreation and leisure studies, honours bachelor of arts in recreation and sport business, honours bachelor of arts in therapeutic recreation, bachelor of arts recreation and leisure studies (4 year general) graduates of the threeyear diploma in sports and recreation admin. at lambton college with a minimum average of 78% including a minimum of 70% in an english writing course will be eligible for transfer credits. lambton college graduates will be considered in the same applicant pool as internal transfer students and external transfer students, but will be given preferential consideration over all other college recreation and leisure studies programs where transfer credit agreements do not exist. each student's transcript will be assessed individually. this agreement recognized the high quality of courses that lambton college students currently take, and the confidence university of waterloo's department of recreation and leisure studies has in considering lambton overall total transfer credit is 6.5 college graduates for admission. units (13 term courses). approximately 3 fulltime years (5 6 semesters) recreation and leisure 20100625 studies students will have to complete a total of 15 units (30 term courses) 3 fulltime years (6 at waterloo. semesters) transfer agreement wate graduates of the twoyear diploma in recreation and leisure services at conestoga, fleming, humber, mohawk, and fanshawe college with a minimum average of 78% including a minimum of 70% in an english writing course will be eligible for transfer credits. conestoga, fleming, humber, mohawk and fanshawe college graduates will be considered in the same applicant pool as internal transfer students and external transfer students, but will be given preferential consideration over all other college recreation and leisure studies programs where transfer credit agreements do not exist. each student's transcript will be assessed individually. this agreement recognized the high quality of courses that conestoga, fleming, humber, mohawk and fanshawe college students currently take, and the confidence university of waterloo's department of recreation and leisure studies has in considering conestoga, fleming, humber, mohawk and overall total transfer credit is 5.0 fanshawe college graduates for admission. units (10 term courses). 319 lambton recreation and leisure 20100625 studies 3 fulltime years (6 semesters) transfer agreement wate total courses is 15 units (30 term courses) fanshawe, conestoga, fleming, humber, 320 mohawk graduates of the twoyear diploma programs in recreation and leisure services or recreation therapy at niagara college with a minimum average of 78% including a minimum of 70% overall total transfer credit is 5.0 in an english writing course will be eligible for transfer credits. units (10 term courses). recreation and leisure 20100625 studies at waterloo one of the following: honours bachelor of arts in recreation and leisure studies, honours bachelor of arts in recreation and sport business, honours bachelor of arts in therapeutic recreation, bachelor of arts recreation and leisure studies (4 year general) deg at waterloo one of the following: honours bachelor of arts in recreation and leisure studies, honours bachelor of arts in recreation and sport business, honours bachelor of arts in therapeutic recreation, bachelor of arts in recreation and leisure studies (4 year general) deg at waterloo one of the following: honours bachelor of arts in recreation and leisure studies, honours bachelor of arts in recreation and sport, honours bachelor of arts in therapeutic recreation, bachelor of arts in recreation and leisure studies (4 year general) deg transfer agreement wate 3 fulltime years (6 semesters) 321 niagara students will have to complete a total of 15.25 units (30.5 term courses) at waterloo. recreation and leisure 20100625 studies overall total transfer credit is 4.75 units (9.5 term courses). transfer agreement wate bachelor of science health sciences 322 loyalist 2.5 fulltime years (5 semesters) deg students will have to complete a total of 12.5 units (25 term courses) at waterloo. bachelor of science health sciences graduates of the twoyear diploma program in recreation and leisure services at loyalist college with a minimum average of 78% including a minimum of 70% in an english writing course will be eligible for transfer credits. graduates of a 2 or 3year diploma program from an ontario college must have a minimum cumulative average of b+ (78%) to be considered for admission. applicants must have the ontario grade 12 u programspecific course requirements (or equivalents). these required courses must be completed within 5 years of starting classes at waterloo. transfer credit varies depending on program applied to, high school and college background, level of completion of the college program, and course/program equivalency assessment. transfer credit will be considered only for courses relevant to studies within applied health sciences in which a minimum grade of b (70%) has been achieved. normally the maximum number of transfer credits available is 7.5 units (15 term courses). the maximum number of transfer credits available is 7.5 units (15 term courses). not posted general wate 323 k 78% 78% 78% 78% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% l b+ (78%) m n o wate not posted not posted bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors e general wate not posted d 324 general wate not posted c 325 general wate not posted b 326 general wate a 327 general bachelor of environmental studies (multiple majors) a) the maximum number of transfer credits available per year of college study is 2.5 units (5 term courses); b) a maximum of 7.5 units (15 term courses) may be awarded for graduates of a 3year program; c) in the case of planning degrees a maximum of 5.0 units (10 term courses) may be awarded. 70% 75% 85% (hi70% l deg b (75%) k bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg j 3.5 fulltime years (7 semesters) bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors 70% i students will have to complete a total of 17.5 units (35 term courses) at waterloo. 2.5 fulltime years (5 semesters) b (70%) h students will have to complete a total of 12.5 units (25 term courses) at waterloo. deg deg b (75%) 70% 85%(college dn/a bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors a) 3.5 fulltime years (7 semesters); b) 2.5 fulltime bachelor of years (5 semesters); c) 2 full environmental studies time years (4 semesters). (multiple majors) bachelor of accounting & financial management deg students will have to complete a total of 10 units (20 term courses) 2 fulltime years (4 at waterloo. semesters) students will have to complete a) a total of 17.5 units (35 term courses) at waterloo; b) a total of 12.5 units (25 term courses) at waterloo; c) a total of 10 units (20 term courses) at waterloo. determined on a case by determined on a case by case basis by determined on a case by case basis case basis by waterloo waterloo admissions. by waterloo admissions. admissions. f g graduates of a 1year diploma or certificate program from an ontario college must have a minimum cumulative average of b (75%) in college and have the minimum admissions average, including required courses, from high school for consideration to an arts regular program. students who do not meet the minimum admissions average from high school will need a minimum cumulative average of 85% in the 1year diploma or certificate program. transfer credit is awarded according to the nature and length of the diploma program completed and reflects groups of courses within those completed programs. courses must be of an academic nature in order to be considered for transfer credit. a grade of b (70%) or better is required in individual, transferable courses. as many as 2.5 the maximum number of transfer units (5 term courses) may be awarded for each year credits available is 2.5 units (5 term completed at college. courses). graduates of 2 and 3year diploma programs from an ontario college must have a minimum cumulative average of b (75%) from college to be considered for admission to the arts and the arts and business regular (noncoop) programs. applicants must also have a minimum of 70% in ontario grade 12 u english (or equivalent). graduates of 2 and 3year diploma programs are not eligible for admission to arts departmental coop and arts and business coop programs. transfer credit is awarded according to the nature and length of the diploma program completed and reflects groups of courses within those completed programs. courses must be of an academic nature in order to be considered for transfer credit. a grade of b (70%) or better is required in individual, transferable courses. as many as 2.5 units (5 term courses) may be awarded for each year completed at college. a maximum of the maximum number of transfer 7.5 units (15 term courses) may be awarded for graduates of a credits available is 7.5 units (15 term 3year program. courses). graduates of 4year applied bachelors degree programs from an ontario college must have a minimum cumulative average of 70% in the degree program to be considered for admission to arts regular programs and are not eligible for admission into coop programs. transfer credit is awarded according to the nature and length of the diploma program completed and reflects groups of courses within those completed programs. courses must be of an academic nature in order to be considered for transfer credit. a grade of b (70%) or better is required in individual, transferable courses. as many as 2.5 units (5 term courses) may be awarded for each year completed at college. a maximum of 10 units (20 term the maximum number of transfer courses) may be awarded to graduates of a 4year applied credits available is 10 units (20 term bachelor's degree program. courses). each year, there are a limited number of spaces in year 1 available for students wishing to transfer from ontario colleges of applied arts and technology (caat) or equivalents in other provinces and countries. candidates must have a minimum cumulative average of a (85%) in your college program. candidates must also have a minimum of 75% in ontario grade 12 u english (or equivalent) and must have completed the required ontario grade 12 u math courses (or equivalents). qualified applicants will be invited to write the accounting and financial management admissions assignment. graduates of 4year applied degree programs are not eligible for admission to accounting and financial management. transfer credits for college courses completed bachelor of accounting will be determined at the time of admission. generally, & financial students admitted to year 1 will not have previously management completed courses accredited towards their bafm degree. graduates of 2 and 3year college diploma programs must have a cumulative average of at least b (75%). for admission consideration to coop programs, higher averages are often required. applicants must also have the ontario grade 12 u programspecific course requirements or equivalents (dependent on major). transfer credit may be limited for environment programs due to degree requirements. transfer credit is assessed according to the nature and length of the college program completed. a grade of b (70%) or better is required in individual transferable courses in order to be considered for transfer credit. as much as 2.5 units (5 term courses) may be considered for each year completed at college. a maximum of 7.5 units (15 term courses) may be awarded for graduates of a 3year program, except planning where a maximum of 5.0 units (10 term courses) may be awarded. 328 m n o general wate wate not posted not posted d bachelor of science (multiple majors) bachelor of mathematics (multiple majors) e brescia university college agrees to consider for admission to fulltime study in year two of the the bachelor of science (honours) foods and nutrition program, qualified graduates of fanshawe's twoyear food and nutrition management diploma program who have complied with the following requirements: completion of the twoyear foods and nutrition management diploma program with a minimum overall average of "b+" or 3.5 gpa calculated on all courses within the diploma program only, and with no grades less than "c" or 2.0 gpa; completion of ontario secondary school biology (sbi4u); or brescia biology 0010 (biological systems); or fanshawe biology 1003 and 1008; or fanshawe biology 3009; or equivalent. completion of ontario secondary school chemistry (sch4u); or brescia chemistry 0010 (introductory chemistry); or fanshawe chemistry 1004 and 1006; or equivalent. f g graduates of a 2 or 3year diploma program must present a minimum cumulative average of 85%. applicants must also have the following ontario grade 12 u courses: advanced functions, calculus and vectors, english and one other grade 12 u course, or other equivalents, with a minimum overall average of a (80%). in addition, applicants to computing and financial management must have a minimum of 75% in grade 12 u english or equivalent. graduates of a 3year diploma program may be considered for up to 5.0 units (10 term courses) of nonmathematics (elective) transfer credit. the the maximum number of transfer minimum grade required in individual transferable courses is b credits available is 5 units (10 term (75%). courses). applicants to science programs must have adequate academic background in required subjects, including ontario grade 12 u courses in english, advanced functions, calculus and vectors, and 2 of biology, chemistry, earth and space science, mathematics of data management, or physics (or equivalents), with a minimum cumulative average of 75%. transfer credit varies depending on the program applied to, high school background, level of completion at college, and course/program equivalency assessment. transfer credit will be considered only for courses relevant to studies within science in which a minimum grade of b (75%) has been achieved. c 329 general 20110601 foods and nutrition b 330 transfer agreement west a 331 fanshawe h i j deg bachelor of mathematics (multiple majors) deg determined on a case by case basis by waterloo admissions. deg students will take a minimum of two to three years of fulltime study for a 15 course general bachelor bachelor of arts (multiple of arts degree. majors) deg bachelor of science (multiple majors) the number of courses required to complete a degree will be dependent on the degree objective. completion of a bachelor of science (honours) degree will take approximately three bachelor of science additional years of full time (honours), foods and study. nutrition students will have to complete a total of 15 units (30 term courses) 3 fulltime years (6 at waterloo. semesters) determined on a case by case basis by determined on a case by case basis waterloo admissions. by waterloo admissions. fanshawe students will receive credit equivelent to 7.0 courses toward the bachelor of science, foods and nutrition program. fanshawe: nutr 1011 + nutr 1012 = western advanced standing credit: foods and nutrition 1030 e. fanshawe: acct 1004 + hosp 1013 + fina 3038 + mgmt 1200 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 business 1020 trn credit fanshawe: writ 1042 = western advanced standing credit: writing 1020f/g. fanshawe: comm 3041 = western advanced standing credit: human ecology 2266f/g. fanshawe: sani 1007 + fdmg 1060 = western advanced standing credit: 0.5 year 1 foods and nutrition 1020 trn credit. fanshawe: students will be required to nutr 1018 + nutr 1017 = western complete thirteen (13.0) additional advanced standing credit: 0.5 year 1 credits.the number of courses foods and nutrition 1020 trn credit. required to complete a degree will fanshawe: fdmg 1029 +fdmg 3023 = depend on the ultimate degree western advanced standing credit: objective and the area of 0.5 year 2 foods and nutrition 2100 concentration chosen by the trn credit. fanshawe: nutr 3004 + applicant. all applicants who have completed either one year of the liberal studies major or the twoyear liberal studies general arts and sciences diploma as indicated above will receive transfer credit provided that: a) applicants achieve a minimum grade of "c" in each course considered for transfer credit; b) the courses considered for transfer credit have been pre approved by western (through appropriate university procedures including curriculum review). the following 7000 level courses have been approved: english, sociology, philosophy, psychology, women?s studies, and history of western art; students will be required to and c) fanshawe transcripts clearly complete eleven (11.0) to fourteen indicate "liberal studies, general arts (14.0) credits depending upon the and science division" so that western total number of transfer credits may identify potential applicants. no granted at the time of admission. credit will be given for courses the number of courses required to deemed by western to be equivalent complete a degree will depend on to courses below 1020 level or the ultimate degree objective and equivalent at western. all other the area of concentration chosen general arts and science students by the applicant. 20100531 this agreement relates to students studying in the liberal studies major within general arts and science at fanshawe. effective september 2010, the faculties of arts and humanities and social science at western each agree to accept a maximum of 30 students each september provided that: a) applicants completing either firstyear or secondyear of the liberal studies major will be admitted to: i. firstyear if they receive up to 2.5 transfer credits at western for courses completed in the liberal studies major; ii. secondyear if they receive 3.0 or more transfer credits at western for courses completed in the liberal studies major.b) those eligible for firstyear admission must have completed a minimum of 10 courses in the liberal studies program and have achieved a minimum overall 3.5 gpa with no grade less than "c". the following courses are excluded in the calculation of the overall gpa: courses entitled general education, qualifying courses, introductory language courses and personal skills courses. in addition, fanshawe will provide western with a list of any new courses that may be added to the liberal studies offerings each year and western reserves the right to exclude other courses in the gpa calculation. courses completed during the diploma program, which are not part of the liberal studies major, and courses completed after the completion of the diploma program will not be counted in the overall cumulative gpa. transfer agreement west bachelor of arts 332 fanshawe k m b (75%) l 85% b (75%) c 3.5 c b (75%) 3.00 n o f western agrees to consider for admission to fulltime study in year three of the the bachelor of management and organizational studies (bmos) finance and administration specialization, at the western main campus, qualified graduates of fanshawe's twoyear business accounting diploma program who have complied with the following requirements: notified the director of the bmos program byjune1st of the year in which they are seeking admission of their intention to apply, and provided uwo with academic transcripts by june 1st of that year; completion of the two year businessaccounting diploma program with a minimum overall average of 75 percent ("b+" 3.5 gpa) calculated on all courses within the diploma program only, and with no grade less than "c" or 2.0 gpa; completion within the two years immediately prior to applying to the bmos program of a prescribed set of courses within the business accounting diploma program; completion of mcv4u (calculus & vectors); or western math 0110a/b; or equivalent and have the written endorsement of the chair of lawrence kinlin school of business fanshawe. the total number of students registered in the program pursuant to this agreement will be restricted to a maximum of ten per year. the decision as to the number of students who will be registered in any academic year is solely that of uwo, will be reviewed annually, and is not subject to appeal by unsuccessful applicants. e bachelor of management and 20101130 organizational studies this agreement relates to students studying in the liberal studies major within general arts and science at fanshawe. effective september 2010, the faculties of arts and humanities and social science at western each agree to accept a maximum of 30 students each september provided that: a) applicants completing either firstyear or secondyear of the liberal studies major will be admitted to: i. firstyear if they receive up to 2.5 transfer credits at western for courses completed in the liberal studies major; ii. secondyear if they receive 3.0 or more transfer credits at western for courses completed in the liberal studies major.b) those eligible for firstyear admission must have completed a minimum of 10 courses in the liberal studies program and have achieved a minimum overall 3.5 gpa with no grade less than "c". the following courses are excluded in the calculation of the overall gpa: courses entitled general education, qualifying courses, introductory language courses and personal skills courses. in addition, fanshawe will provide western with a list of any new courses that may be added to the liberal studies offerings each year and western reserves the right to exclude other courses in the gpa calculation. courses completed during the diploma program, which are not part of the liberal studies major, and courses completed after the completion of the diploma program will not be counted in the overall cumulative gpa. d transfer agreement west bachelor of arts 4 yr. 20100531 or honours completion of the science laboratory technology advanced diploma from fanshawe college. no longer than 5 years should have elapsed between conferral of the advanced diploma and admission to western (exceptions will be considered on an individual basis). a minimum cumulative gpa of 3.0 is required on all courses taken toward completion of the advanced diploma. courses completed during the advanced diploma program, which are not part of the advanced diploma environmental technology program and courses completed after the completion of the advanced diploma program will not be counted in the overall cumulative gpa. a minimum grade of "c" / 60% is required in each course listed for advanced standing consideration as outlined in the "credit transfer" section.the 9.0 advanced standing credits credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module / degree combinations specified below. c 333 fanshawe transfer agreement west bsc environmental 20080601 science b 334 fanshawe transfer agreement west a 335 fanshawe g fanshawe students will receive "block credit" for these courses equivalent to the first two years of fulltime study (10 full course equivalents) in finance and administration specialization module of the bmos program. this credit is not transferable to other faculties or programs. the required fanshawe courses used to grant this block credit are: acct 1004 principles of accounting i, acct 1010 applied computer applications for accounting, acct 1011 principles of accounting ii, acct 3022 cost accounting i, acct 3036 accounting i, intermediate (or the former acct 3023) acct 3037, accounting ii, intermediate (or the former acct 3024) acct 3030, computer applications for accounting, intermediate busi 1005, introduction to business processes busi 1060, strategies for success comm 3020, professional communication or comm 5004, communication for the financial all applicants who have completed either one year of the liberal studies major or the twoyear liberal studies general arts and sciences diploma as indicated above will receive transfer credit provided that: a) applicants achieve a minimum grade of "c" in each course considered for transfer credit; b) the courses considered for transfer credit have been pre approved by western (through appropriate university procedures including curriculum review). the following 7000 level courses have been approved: english, sociology, philosophy, psychology, women's studies, and history of western art; and c) fanshawe transcripts clearly indicate "liberal studies, general arts and science division" so that western may identify potential applicants. no credit will be given for courses deemed by western to be equivalent to courses below 1020 level or equivalent at western. all other general arts and science students fanshawe: biol 1016 + 3010 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 biology. fanshawe: chem 1003 + 1012 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 1100a/b and 1200b. fanshawe: mthm 3030 + 3025 + 5008 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 math (antirequisite at western to calculus1000a/b, calculus 1100a/b, statistical sciences 1024a/b). fanshawe: phys 1001 + 1032 + 3003 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 physics. fanshawe: comm 1004 + 3005 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 arts (communications). fanshawe: physics 5001, biol 5003 = western advanced standing credit: 0.5 senior level science. fanshawe: chem 3002 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2213a/b* + 2273a* = 0.5 seniorlevel science option. fanshawe: chem 3003 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2272f. fanshawe: chem 5004 = bachelor of management and organizational studies, finance and administration specialization. deg 3.00 3.50 c c c l h i students need to successfully complete the following 10 full or equivalent courses, maintaining a cumulative and graduating average of at least 65%, with no sessional average (including summer session) less than 60%: year iii management and organizational studies 3310a/b and 3320a/b, management and organizational studies 3360a/b and 3361a/b, management and organizational studies 3372, economics 2150a/b and 2152a/b and one fullcourse or equivalent senior option from the faculty of arts and humanities. year iv management and organizational studies 3330a/b and 4410a/b, management and organizational studies 4460a/b and 4461a/b, one full course or equivalent from: anthropology 2262f/g, history 2125f/g, 2127f/g, 2207f/g, 2703 f/g, 2807 f/g; philosophy minimum two years of full 2074f/g, 2720f/g, 2730f/g, time study. bachelor of arts (multiple majors) 4 yr. or bachelor of arts honours (multiple majors) deg 3.00 gpa k students will take a minimum of three years of fulltime study for a 20 course (4 yr.) bachelor of arts or bachelor of arts honours degree. bachelor of science (environmental science major or chemistry and environmental science double minor) deg j the number of courses required to complete a degree will be dependent on the degree objective. completion of a 3 year bachelor of science degree will take approximately one additional year of full time study. students will be required to complete eleven (11.0) to fourteen (14.0) credits depending upon the total number of transfer credits granted at the time of admission. the number of courses required to complete a degree will depend on the ultimate degree objective and the area of concentration chosen by the applicant. an overall average of 60% is required in all courses taken at western, and a cumulative average of 60% is required on all courses taken toward each module at western, for graduation with a 3 year b.sc. degree. the 9.0 advanced standing credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module/degree combinations specified below. 3year bsc degree at western: (i) major in environmental science 9.0 advanced standing credits from fanshawe college + 6.0 courses to be taken at western: 6.0 courses toward major in environmental science 0.5 course: chemistry 2210a/b 0.5 course from: biology 2244a/b, statistical sciences 2141a/b, 2143a/b, 2233a/b, psychology 2810 (module will be 6.5 courses if psychology 2810 is taken) 0.5 course from: biology 2483a or 2485b 0.5 course at the m n o f completion of the environmental technology advanced diploma from fanshawe college no longer than 5 years should have elapsed between conferral of the advanced diploma and admission to western (exceptions will be considered on an individual basis). a minimum cumulative gpa of 3.0 is required in all courses taken toward completion of the advanced diploma. courses completed during the advanced diploma program, which are not part of the diploma environmental technology program and courses completed after the completion of the advanced diploma program will not be counted in the overall cumulative gpa. a minimum grade of "c" / 60% is required in each course listed for advanced standing consideration. the 9.0 advanced standing credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module / degree combinations. e bsc environmental 20080601 science completion of the science laboratory technology advanced diplomafrom fanshawe college no longer than 5 years should have elapsed between conferral of the advanced diploma and admission to western (exceptions will be considered on an individual basis). a minimum cumulative gpa of 3.0 is required on all courses taken toward completion of the advanced diploma. courses completed during the advanced diploma program, which are not part of the advanced diploma environmental technology program and courses completed after the completion of the advanced diploma program will not be counted in the overall cumulative gpa. a minimum grade of "c" / 60% is required in each course listed for advanced standing consideration. the 9.0 advanced standing credits credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module / degree combinations specified. d transfer agreement west bsc environmental 20080601 science completion of the environmental technology advanced diploma from fanshawe college no longer than 5 years should have elapsed between conferral of the advanced diploma and admission to western (exceptions will be considered on an individual basis). a minimum cumulative gpa of 3.0 is required in all courses taken toward completion of the advanced diploma. courses completed during the advanced diploma program, which are not part of the advanced diploma environmental technology program and courses completed after the completion of the advanced diploma program will not be counted in the overall cumulative gpa. a minimum grade of "c" / 60% is required in each course listed for advanced standing consideration. the 9.0 advanced standing credits credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module / degree combinations specified. c 336 fanshawe transfer agreement west bsc environmental 20080601 science b 337 fanshawe transfer agreement west a 338 fanshawe g fanshawe: biol 1016 + 3010 + envr 1014 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 biology. fanshawe: chem 1003 + 1012 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 1100a/b and 1200b. fanshawe: mthm 3030 + 3025 + 5008 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 math (antirequisite at western to calculus1000a/b, calculus 1100a/b, statistical sciences 1024a/b). fanshawe: phys 1001 + 1032 + 3003 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 physics. fanshawe: comm 1004 + 3005 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 arts (communications). fanshawe: chem 3002 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2213a/b* or 2273a* + 0.5 seniorlevel science option. fanshawe: chem 3003 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2272f. fanshawe: chem 3004 + 5005 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 3372f/g. fanshawe: envr 3001 + 3010 + 5003 fanshawe: biol 1016 + 3010 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 biology. fanshawe: chem 1003 + 1012 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 1100a/b and 1200 a/b. fanshawe: mthm 3030 + 3025 + 5008 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 math (antirequisite at western to calculus1000a/b, calculus 1100a/b, statistical sciences 1024a/b). fanshawe: phys 1001 + 1032 + 3003 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 physics. fanshawe: comm 1004 + 3005 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 arts (communications). fanshawe: physics 5001 biol 5003 = western advanced standing credit: 0.5 senior level science. fanshawe: chem 3002 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2213a/b* + 2273a* 0.5 seniorlevel science option. fanshawe: chem 3003 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2272f. fanshawe: chem 5004 = fanshawe: biol 1016 + 3010 + envr 1014 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 biology. fanshawe: chem 1003 + 1012 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 1100a/b and 1200b. fanshawe: mthm 3030 + 3025 + 5008 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 math (antirequisite at western to calculus1000a/b, calculus 1100a/b, statistical sciences 1024a/b). fanshawe: phys 1001 + 1032 + 3003 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 physics. fanshawe: comm 1004 + 3005 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 arts (communications). fanshawe: chem 3002 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2213a/b* 2273a* 0.5 seniorlevel science option. fanshawe: chem 3003 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2272f. fanshawe: chem 3004 + 5005 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 3372f/g. fanshawe: envr h an overall average of 60% is required in all courses taken at western, and a cumulative average of 60% is required on all courses taken toward each module at western, for graduation with a 3 year b.sc. degree. the 9.0 advanced standing credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module/degree combinations specified below. 3year bsc degree at western: (i) major in environmental science 9.0 advanced standing credits from fanshawe college + 6.0 courses to be taken at western: 6.0 courses toward major in environmental science 0.5 course: chemistry 2210a/b 0.5 course from: biology 2244a/b, statistical sciences 2141a/b, 2143a/b, 2244a/b, psychology 2810 (module will be 6.5 courses if psychology 2810 is taken) 0.5 course from: biology 2483a or 2485b 0.5 course at the an overall average of 60% is required in all courses taken at western, and a cumulative average of 60% is required on all courses taken twoard each module at western, for graduation with a 4 year b.sc. degree. the 9.0 advanced standing credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module/degree combinations specified below. 4year bsc degree at western (i) specialization in environmental science 9.0 advanced standing credits from fanshawe college + 11.0 courses to be taken at western: 8.5 courses toward specialization in environmental science 0.5 course: chemistry 2210a/b 0.5 course from: biology 2244a/b, statistical sciences 2141a/b, 2143a/b, 2244a/b, psychology 2810 (module will be 9.0 courses if psychology 2810 is taken) 0.5 course from: biology 2483a or 2485b 0.5 course an overall average of 60% is required in all courses taken at western, and a cumulative average of 60% is required on all courses taken toward each module at western, for graduation with a 4 year b.sc. degree. the 9.0 advanced standing credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module/degree combinations specified below. 4year bsc degree at western (i) specialization in environmental science 9.0 advanced standing credits from fanshawe college + 11.0 courses to be taken at western: 8.5 courses toward specialization in environmental science 0.5 course: chemistry 2210a/b 0.5 course from: biology 2244a/b, statistical sciences 2141a/b, 2143a/b, 2244a/b, psychology 2810 (module will be 9.0 courses if psychology 2810 is taken) 0.5 course from: biology 2483a or 2485b 0.5 course 3.00 gpa c c l bachelor of science (environmental science major or chemistry and environmental science double minor) deg 3.00 gpa c k the number of courses required to complete a degree will be dependent on the degree objective. completion of a 3 year bachelor of science degree will take approximately one additional year of full time study. bachelor of science (4 year): specialization in environmental science or specialization in environmental science + minor in chemistry or major in environmental science + major in chemistry or major in environmental science + minor in chemistry or major in chemistry and minor in environmental science deg 3.00 gpa j the number of courses required to complete a degree will be dependent on the degree objective. completion of a 4 year bachelor of science degree will take approximately two additional years of full time study. bachelor of science (4 year): specialization in environmental science or specialization in environmental science + minor in chemistry or major in environmental science + major in chemistry or major in environmental science + minor in chemistry or major in chemistry and minor in environmental science deg i the number of courses required to complete a degree will be dependent on the degree objective. completion of a 4 year bachelor of science degree will take approximately two additional years of full time study. m n o e bsc environmental 20080601 science d transfer agreement west bsc environmental 20080601 science c 339 fanshawe transfer agreement west bachelor of management and 20110601 organizational studies b 340 fanshawe transfer agreement west a 341 fanshawe f completion of the science laboratory technology advanced diploma from fanshawe college. no longer than 5 years should have elapsed between conferral of the advanced diploma and admission to western (exceptions will be considered on an individual basis). a minimum cumulative gpa of 3.0 is required on all courses taken toward completion of the advanced diploma. courses completed during the advanced diploma program, which are not part of the advanded diploma environmental technology program and courses completed after the completion of the advanced diploma program will not be counted in the overall cumulative gpa. a minimum grade of "c" / 60% is required in each course listed for advanced standing consideration. the 9.0 advanced standing credits credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module / degree combinations specified. completion of the environmental technology advanced diploma from fanshawe college. no longer than 5 years should have elapsed between conferral of the advanced diploma and admission to western (exceptions will be considered on an individual basis). a minimum cumulative gpa of 3.0 is required on all courses taken toward completion of the advanced diploma. courses completed during the advanced diploma program, which are not part of the advanced diploma environmental technology program and courses completed after the completion of the advanced diploma program will not be counted in the overall cumulative gpa. a minimum grade of "c" / 60% is required in each course listed for advanced standing consideration. the 9.0 advanced standing credits credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module / degree combinations specified. king's university college agrees to consider for admission to fulltime study in year three of the the bachelor of management and organizational studies (bmos) finance and administration specialization, at the king's university college campus at the university of western ontario, qualified graduates of fanshawe's twoyear business accounting diploma program who have complied with the following requirements: notified the king's registrar's office by march 1st of the year in which they are seeking admission of their intention to apply, and provided uwo with academic transcripts by june 1st of that year; completion of the two year business accounting diploma program with a minimum overall average of 75 percent ("b+" 3.5 gpa) calculated on all courses within the diploma program only, and with no grade less than "c" or 2.0 gpa ;completion within the two years immediately prior to applying to the bmos program of a prescribed set of courses within the business accounting diploma program (see credit transfer section below); fanshawe mathematics 014 and 014; completion of mcv4u calculus and vectors; or western mathematics 0110a/b (introductory calculus); or equivalent; and have the written endorsement of the chair of the lawrence kinlin school of business at fanshawe.the total number of students registered in the program pursuant to this agreement will be restricted to a maximum of fifteen (15) per year. the decision as to the number of students who will be registered in any academic g fanshawe: biol 1016 + 3010 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 biology. fanshawe: chem 1003 + 1012 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 1100a/b and 1200b. fanshawe: mthm 3030 + 3025 + 5008 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 math (antirequisite at western to calculus1000a/b, calculus 1100a/b, statistical sciences 1024a/b). fanshawe: phys 1001 + 1032 + 3003 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 physics. fanshawe: comm 1004 + 3005 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 arts (communications). fanshawe: physics 5001 or biol 5003 = western advanced standing credit: 0.5 seniorlevel science. fanshawe: chem 3002 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2213a/b* or 2273a* 0.5 seniorlevel science option. fanshawe: chem 3003 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2272f. fanshawe: fanshawe: biol 1016 + 3010 + envr 1014 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 biology. fanshawe: chem 1003 + 1012 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 1100a/b and 1200b. fanshawe: mthm 3030 + 3025 + 5008 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 math (antirequisite at western to calculus1000a/b, calculus 1100a/b, statistical sciences 1024a/b). fanshawe: phys 1001 + 1032 + 3003 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 physics. fanshawe: comm 1004 + 3005 = western advanced standing credit: 1.0 year 1 arts (communications). fanshawe: chem 3002 + 5001 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2213a/b* or 2273a* + 0.5 seniorlevel science option. fanshawe: chem 3003 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 2272f. fanshawe: chem 3004 + 5005 = western advanced standing credit: chemistry 3372f/g. fanshawe: envr 3001 + 3010 + 5003 fanshawe students will receive "block credit" for the equivalent to the first two years of fulltime study (10 full course equivalents) in the finance and administration module of the bmos program, not "advanced standing. this credit is not transferable to other faculties or progams. the required fanshawe courses used to grant this block credit are:acct 1004, principles of accounting i, acct 1010, applied computer applications for accounting, acct 1011, principles of accounting ii, acct 3022, cost accounting i, acct 3036, accounting i, intermediate (or the former acct 3023, intermediate accounting i) acct 3037, accounting ii, intermediate or the former acct 3024, intermediate accounting ii, busi 1005, introduction to business processes, busi 1060, strategies for success,comm 3020, professional communication or comm 5004, communication for the financial profession, (or the former comm h an overall average of 65% is required in all courses taken at western, and a cumulative average of 70% is required on all courses taken toward each honours specialization or major module (with a mark of at least 60% in each of these modular courses) at western, for graduation with a 4 year b.sc. (honours) degree. the 9.0 advanced standing credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module/degree combinations specified below. bsc (honours) degree at western (i) honours specialization in environmental science 9.0 advanced standing credits from fanshawe college + 11.0 courses to be taken at western: 8.5 courses toward honours specialization in environmental science 0.5 courses: chemistry 2210a/b 0.5 courses from: biology 2244a/b, statistical sciences 2141a/b, 2143a/b, an overall average of 65% is required in all courses taken at western, and a cumulative average of 70% is required on all courses taken toward each honours specialization or major module (with a mark of at least 60% in each of these modular courses) at western, for graduation with a 4 year b.sc. (honours) degree. the 9.0 advanced standing credits granted towards a degree at western can only be applied toward the module/degree combinations specified below. bsc (honours) degree at western (i) honours specialization in environmental science 9.0 advanced standing credits from fanshawe college + 11.0 courses to be taken at western: 8.5 courses toward honours specialization in environmental science 0.5 course: chemistry 2210a/b 0.5 courses from: biology 2244a/b, statistical sciences 2141a/b, 2143a/b, students need to successfully complete the following 10 full or equivalent courses, maintaining a cumulative and graduating average of at least 65%, with no sessional average (including summer session) less than 60%: year iii: management and organizational studies 3310a/b and 3320a/b, management and organizational studies 3360a/b and 3361a/b, management and organizational studies 3372, economics 2150a/b and 2152a/b, management and organizational studies 2285a/b, one halfcourse or equivalent from category b (arts & humanities). year iv: management and organizational studies 3330a/b and 4410a/b, management and organizational studies 4465a/b and 4466a/b, one full course or equivalent from: management and organizational studies 3401f/g, philosophy 2700f/g, 2074f/g, 2075f/g, one full course or l c k 3.00 gpa j 4 year bachelor of science (honours): honours specialization in environmental science honours specialization in environmental science + minor in chemistry major in environmental science + major in chemistry deg c i the number of courses required to complete a degree will be dependent on the degree objective. completion of a 4year bachelor of science (honours) degree will take approximately two additional years of full time study. 3.00 gpa c honours bachelor of science (4 year): honours specialization in environmental science or honours specialization in environmental science + minor in chemistry or major in environmental science + major in chemistry deg 3.5 the number of courses required to complete a degree will be dependent on the degree objective. completion of 4year bachelor of science (honours) degree will take approximately two additional years of full time study. bachelor of management and organizational studies, finance and mininum of two years of full administration time study. specialization deg m n o 342 fanshawe transfer agreement west transfer agreement west not posted not posted not posted bachelor of arts in social science degree bachelor of arts (no specific degree named in agreement) bachelor of arts in social science degree (multiple majors) e 343 fanshawe transfer agreement west bachelor of management and 20110601 organizational studies d 344 fanshawe transfer agreement west bachelor of arts (no specific degree named 20082001 in agreement) c 345 lambton transfer agreement west bachelor of arts (no specific degree named 20082001 in agreement) b 346 lambton transfer agreement west bachelor of science 20020901 environmental science a 347 lambton transfer agreement west bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors 348 confederation not posted general west 349 f g a total of 18.5 credits must be completed for a ba honours degree or 13.5 credits for a general degree. bachelor of management and organizational studies, honours mininum of two years of full specialization in time study. accounting deg dependent on program bachelor of arts in social chosen and credits awarded. science degree deg approximately 3.5 to 4 years bachelor of arts (no for an honours, or 2.5 to 3 specific degree named in years for a general degree. agreement) deg determined on a case by case basis bachelor of arts in social and dependent on program chosen dependent on program science degree (multiple and credits awarded. chosen and credits awarded. majors) deg 2.7 gpa 2.7 gpa 3.50 2.7 gpa 2.7 gpa 2.7 gpa c c c c c c c l determined on a case by case basis and dependent on program chosen and credits awarded. students need to successfully complete the following 10 full or equivalent courses, maintaining a cumulative and graduating average of at least 65%, with no sessional average (including summer session) less than 60%: year iii; mathematics 0110a/b and mathematics 1225a/b; management and organizational studies 2155a/b or 2181a/b; management and organizational studies 2285a/b; management and organizational studies 3320a/b and 3330a/b; management and organizational studies 3361a/b and 3363a/b; one half course or equivalent elective at the 2000+ level, other than economics 2222, statistics 2035, management and organizational studies 2242a/b, 2275a/b, 3360a/b, 3372, 3310a/b; one halfcourse from category b (arts & humanities): year iv; economics 2223a/b; management and organizational studies 2.7 gpa n/a k determined on a case by case basis bachelor of arts in social and dependent on program chosen dependent on program science degree (multiple and credits awarded. chosen and credits awarded. majors) deg 3.00 gpa j a maximum of 2 transfer credits will be awarded to successful applicants. lambton students will receive "block credit" for the equivalent to the first two years of fulltime study (10 full course equivalents) in the honours specialization in accounting module of the bmos program, not "advanced standing." this credit is not transferable to other faculties or progams. the required lambton courses used to grant this block credit are: accounting 1004 accounting theory & practicel; accounting 2004 accounting theory & practice iil; accounting 3803 intermediate accounting i; accounting 4803 intermediate accounting ii; accounting 5804 intermediate accounting iiil; accounting 3403 computerized accounting systems il; accounting 3505 computerized accounting systems ii; accounting 3603 auditingl; accounting 3204 management accounting i; accounting 4202 management accounting iil; business 6003 business project; economics 1113 deg determined on a case by case basis bachelor of arts in social students are granted a maximum of 2 and dependent on program chosen dependent on program science degree (multiple credits. and credits awarded. chosen and credits awarded. majors) deg students are granted a maximum of 2.5 credits. students will be required to complete thirteen (13.0) additional credits to fulfill the requirements approximately two and a half of an environmental science years, 5 semesters (of a four bachelor of science degree. year degree). environmental science deg i confederation students will receive credit equivelent to 7.0 courses toward the bachelor of science environmental science dependent on program chosen and credits awarded bachelor of arts determined on a case by case basis by the university of (general), multiple by western admissions. western's admissions staff. majors h graduates of fanshawe college's social service worker (fast track) with a minimum 2.7 gpa and no grade less than a 'c' may be eligible for up to 2 credits towards the bachelor degree at the university of western's king's university college. king's university college agrees to consider for admission to fulltime study in year three of the the bachelor of management and organizational studies (bmos) honours specialization in accounting, at the king's university college campus at the university of western ontario, qualified graduates of lambton's threeyear business administration accounting coop advanced diploma program who have complied with the following requirements: notified the king's registrar's office by march 1st of the year in which they are seeking admission of their intention to apply, and provided uwo with academic transcripts by june 1st of that year; completion of the threeyear business administration accounting coop advanced diploma program with a minimum overall average of 75 percent ("b+" 3.5 gpa) calculated on all courses within the advanced diploma program only, and with no grade less than "c" or 2.0 gpa; completion within the two years immediately prior to applying to the bmos program of a prescribed set of courses within the business administration accounting advanced diploma program; completion of mcv4u calculus and vectors; or western mathematics 0110a/b (introductory calculus); or equivalent; and have the written endorsement of the deam of the faculty of business at lambton.the total number of students registered in the program pursuant to this agreement will be restricted to a maximum of fifteen (15) per year. the decision as to the number of students who will be registered in graduates of lambton college's child & youth worker, and social service worker diploma programs with a minimum 2.7 gpa and no grade less than a 'c' may be eligible for up to 2.5 credits towards a bachelor degree at the university of western. graduates of lambton college's early childhood education diploma programs with a minimum 2.7 gpa and no grade less than a 'c' may be eligible for up to 2 credits towards a bachelor degree at the university of western. up to 7.0 transfer credits will be granted for students who have completed, since 1996, a threeyear environmental engineering technology diploma from confederation college with a minimum cumulative gpa of 2.7 as calculated by uwo's admission office, and have no mark less than a "c" in the corresponding courses. a maximum of 5 transfer credits will be awarded to successful applicants. graduates of fanshawe college's child & youth worker, child & youth worker (fast track), early childhood education, early childhood education (accelerated), and social service worker with a minimum 2.7 gpa and no grade less than a 'c' may be eligible for up to 3 credits towards the bachelor degree at the students are granted a maximum of 3 university of western's king's university college. credits. graduates of fanshawe college's law & security administration private security, police foundations, police foundations (accelerated) with a minimum 2.7 gpa will be granted the following transfer credits: one first year level in sociology, law and communications plus social work 020 towards the bachelor degree at the university of western's students are granted 1.5 credits. king's university college. applicants who have completed a threeyear caat program with a cumulative average of "b" (2.7 g.p.a.), or have a "b" average or better in the last two semesters of a threeyear caat program will be considered for admission and for advanced standing to a maximum of 5.0 courses in arts, science and social science or the first year of a professional program. transfer students who are admitted with advanced standing must complete a minimum of 10.0 courses including at least 5.0 senior courses (numbered 2000 4999) through the university of western ontario. the majority of courses in each module must be completed through the university of western ontario or one of the affiliated university colleges. m n o 354 algonquin 353 algonquin 352 algonquin 351 algonquin 350 algonquin transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors e 355 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors d 356 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors c 357 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b 358 algonquin transfer agreement wlub a 359 algonquin f g students will receive a total of 6 credits:3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of algonquin college's 2 year business marketing studies credit, 0.5 senior diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year leadership credits, 0.5 senior public bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of algonquin college's 2 year business accounting studies credit, 0.5 senior diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. society credit. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of algonquin college's 3 year business studies credit, 0.5 senior administration diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior higher will be considered for admission into a laurier leadership credits, 0.5 senior public brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with relations optional credit, 0.5 senior advanced standing. law & society credit. students will receive a total of 6 credits:3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. graduates of algonquin college's 2 year early childhood education diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 graduates of algonquin college's 2 year library and credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous information technician diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% credits, 0.5 senior contemporary or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier studies credits, 1.0 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior advanced standing. leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits:3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. graduates of algonquin college's 2 year law clerk diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a h i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg 75% n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple majors program (asap). deg 75% students will receive a total of 6 graduates of algonquin college's 2 year corporate security credits:3.5 junior miscellaneous and risk management diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% credits, 1.0 criminology credits, 0.5 or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier senior contemporary studies credits, brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 advanced standing. senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. graduates of algonquin college's 2 year community and justice services diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, graduates of algonquin college's 2 year paralegal diploma 0.5 senior contemporary studies with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts credits,1.0 senior law & society honours program with advanced standing. credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. graduates of algonquin college's 2 year police foundations diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. m n o graduates of algonquin college's 2 year outdoor adventure diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. g a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of algonquin college's 2 year tourism and travel diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a k transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of algonquin college's 2 year culinary mangement diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% j 360 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of algonquin college's 120 week ontario college students will receive a total of 5.5 certificate in developmental services worker (apprentice) credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for credits, 2.0 senior health studies admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts credits, ct225, 0.5 senior honours program with advanced standing. contemporary studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a i 361 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits,0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% f 362 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of algonquin college's 3 year massage therapy diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, five semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg e 363 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of algonquin college's 2 year practical nursing diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors d 364 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of algonquin college's 2 year dental hygine diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct240, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c 365 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of algonquin college's 3 year applied museum studies diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. b 366 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of algonquin college's 3 year advertising diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 367 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 368 algonquin transfer agreement wlub graduates of algonquin college's 2 year fitness and health promotion diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 369 algonquin m n o a b c d e j k l n/a i 75% h deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 370 algonquin n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% f g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies graduates of algonquin college's 2 year broadcasting credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous television diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year 0.5 senior public relations optional bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. course credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub graduates of algonquin college's 2 year broadcastingradio diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 371 algonquin a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. n/a students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior level credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 2.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits, 0.5 senior jouralism credits. 75% graduates of algonquin college's 3 year game development diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). 372 algonquin students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. n/a graduates of algonquin college's 2 year journalismprint diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 373 algonquin n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% graduates of algonquin college's 2 year professional writing diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub n/a 374 algonquin 75% a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior journalism credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional courses, 1.0 senior journalism credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors graduates of algonquin college's 2 year photography diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 375 algonquin deg a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. n/a graduates of algonquin college's 2 year interactive multimedia developer diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 376 algonquin three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). graduates of algonquin college's 2 year developmental services worker diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 377 algonquin deg graduates of algonquin college's 2 year social service worker diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, ct225, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. 378 algonquin m n o 379 algonquin transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 6 semester advanced diploma in business administration with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester business diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of algonquin college's 2 year public relations diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of algonquin college's 3 year child and youth worker diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. h 380 algonquin transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester early childhood education diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. f 381 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester native early childhood education diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. e 382 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester community and justice services diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 383 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester police foundations diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credit, 0.5 senior law & society credit. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior indigenous studies credits, 1.0 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c 384 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester tourism and travel diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. b 385 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester dental hygiene diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 386 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 387 cambrian transfer agreement wlub g students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. 388 cambrian bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors i j approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). m n o k l n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 391 cambrian transfer agreement wlub j 75% n/a h deg 75% n/a g bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a 392 cambrian bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 6 semester advanced diploma in graphic design with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. f bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester journalism diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. e bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% 393 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester journalismprint diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. d bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a 394 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester health information management diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a 395 cambrian transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, ct225, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits. b bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester paramedic diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg 75% n/a 396 cambrian graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester developmental services worker diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 7 semester advanced diploma in physical fitness and leisure management with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors deg 75% n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 389 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester practical nursing diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior level credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 2.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits, 0.5 senior jouralism credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 health studies credits. 390 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of cambrian college's 6 semester advanced diploma in animation with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 397 cambrian m n o 399 cambrian 398 cambrian transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 2 year business (coop) diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of canadore college's 2 year business diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 6 semester advanced diploma in public relations with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 6 semester advanced diploma in child and youth worker with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of cambrian college's 4 semester social service worker diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. g students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h 400 cambrian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 2 year business accounting diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. f 401 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year business administration diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credit. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credit, 0.5 senior law & society credit. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credit, 0.5 senior law & society credit. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. e 402 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year business administration (coop) diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 403 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year business administration accounting diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. c 404 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year business adminitration accounting (coop) diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 405 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 406 canadore transfer agreement wlub a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 407 canadore i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o 408 canadore transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year small business administration diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of canadore college's 3 year business administrationmarketing (coop) diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of canadore college's 3 year business administrationmarketing diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. g students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h 409 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. f 410 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of canadore college's 3 year business small credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, business administration (coop) diploma with a cumulative 0.5 senior contemporary studies gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program credits, 0.5 senior public relations with advanced standing. optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, graduates of canadore college's 2 year small business 0.5 senior contemporary studies management diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year credits, 0.5 senior public relations bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. e 411 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year hotel, resort and restaurant administration diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 412 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 2 year hotel, resort and restaurant management diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c 413 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 2 year recreation and leisure services diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. b 414 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year recreation and leisure services administration diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 415 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 416 canadore transfer agreement wlub graduates of canadore college's 2 year small business management (coop) diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 417 canadore i two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors e 418 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors d 419 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors f g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of canadore college's 2 year early childhood studies credits, 0.5 senior education diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year children's education and bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of canadore college's 2 year community and justice studies credits, 0.5 senior services diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of canadore college's 2 year law clerk diploma studies credits, 0.5 senior with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of canadore college's 2 year police foundations studies credit, 0.5 senior diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment and society optional credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. c 420 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 2 year pratical nursing diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 421 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year respiratory therapy diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 422 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 3 year food and nutrition administration diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of canadore college's 2 year environmental technician protection and compliance diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 423 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors h bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 424 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of canadore college's 2 year sport conditioning diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of canadore college's 2 year food and nutrition credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, management diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher 1.0 senior health studies credit, 0.5 will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year senior contemporary studies credits, bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. 425 canadore transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 426 canadore transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. 427 canadore m n o a b c d e f l n/a k 75% j deg i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors h a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. n/a graduates of canadore college's 2 year indigenous wellness and addicitons prevention diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors 428 canadore a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. graduates of canadore college's 2 year advertisingcreative media diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior indigenous studies credits, 0.5 senior human rights & human diversity credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 429 canadore deg graduates of canadore college's 2 year broadcastingradio diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier bachelor of arts brantford's advanced summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. 430 canadore n/a students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. 75% graduates of canadore college's 2 year broadcasting television and video production diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 431 canadore a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. n/a students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. 75% graduates of canadore college's 3 year journalism print and broadcasting diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub n/a 432 canadore 75% three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg graduates of canadore college's 2 year mental health and addictions worker diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub n/a 433 canadore 75% graduates of canadore college's 2 year social service worker diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub n/a 434 canadore 75% graduates of canadore college's 2 year recreation therapy diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub n/a 435 canadore 75% graduates of conestoga college's 2 year business insurance (coop) diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 436 conestoga m n o 75% n/a n/a l deg 75% n/a a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a h a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a g students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a f bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a e transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of conestoga college's 3 year business credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, administration financial planning diploma with a cumulative 0.5 senior contemporary studies gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program credits, 0.5 senior law & society with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits:3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of conestoga college's 3 year business studies credits, 0.5 senior administration managemen diploma with a cumulative gpa miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier leadership credits, 0.5 senior public brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with relations optional credits, 0.5 senior advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% d 437 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 3 year business administration marketing diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. a total of 15.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg c 438 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 3 year business administration materials and operations management diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 4.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct240, ct327, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors b 439 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year general arts and science diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. i two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters + one .5 credit course (of a four year degree) or 2 approximately full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). a 440 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year general business diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. graduates of conestoga college's 3 year business administration accounting diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 441 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies courses. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 442 conestoga transfer agreement wlub graduates of conestoga college's 2 year hospitality management hotel and restaurant (coop) diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. n/a 443 conestoga bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg 444 conestoga a) three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or; b) two years, four semesters bachelor of arts (of a four year degree). (honours) leadership bachelor of arts (honours) leadership a) a total of 15 credtis must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree in leadership; b) a total of 10 credtis must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree in leadership. not posted students will receive a maximum of 10 credits, 5 credits of which are guaranteed through completion of conestoga's post degree/post diploma graduate certificate in human resource management, and are allocated thusly: 4.0 senior ol credits including ol250, ol260, ol311 and ol312; 2.0 senior miscellaneous credits in leadership; 1.0 miscellaneous senior credit (the requirement to complete an online course will also be waived). transfer agreement wlub students who complete conestoga's post degree/post diploma graduate certificate in human resources management, and a previous diploma with a combined average in the two diplomas of 75% or better shall be eligible to enrol in the honours leadership program at laurier brantford. these students will receive 5.0 senior credits for their postdegree/postdiploma graduate certificate in human resources management. up to an additional 5.0 credits at the junior or senior levels may be awarded depending on the student's initial diploma. the specific credits that comprise the additional credits for the initial diploma shall be determined by the registrar of wilfrid laurier university, in consultation with representatives of the leadership program. 445 conestoga m n o f g h 448 conestoga 447 conestoga 446 conestoga transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year hearing instrument specialist diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of conestoga college's 2 year fitness and health promotion diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 health studies credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. e 449 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year occupational therapist assistant/physiotherapist assistant diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. d 450 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year paramedic diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c 451 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year practical nursing diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. b 452 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year recreation and leisure services diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. a 453 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 3 year respiratory therapy diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 454 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 455 conestoga transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of conestoga college's 2 year early childhood credits, 0.5 senior contemporary education diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will studies credits, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous 2.0 senior children's bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of conestoga college's 2 year hospitality and credits, 0.5 senior contemporary tourism management (coop) diploma with a cumulative gpa studies credits, 0.5 senior of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with leadership credits, 0.5 senior health advanced standing. studies courses. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of conestoga college's 2 year law and security credits, 0.5 senior contemporary administration production diploma with a cumulative gpa of studies credit, 0.5 senior 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with criminology credits, 1.0 senior law & advanced standing. society credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of conestoga college's 2 year police foundations studies credit, 0.5 senior diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. 456 conestoga i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o l n/a 460 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year journalism print diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. k 75% n/a 461 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year public relations diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. j deg 75% n/a 462 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% h a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg n/a f a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts (honours) multiple summer acceleration program (asap). majors 75% e graduates of conestoga college's 2 year social services diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. g students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct225, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg n/a d bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year advertising diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple majors program (asap). 75% c transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of conestoga college's 2 year broadcast radio diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg n/a b 457 conestoga transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors 75% a 458 conestoga transfer agreement wlub graduates of conestoga college's 2 year broadcast television diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg n/a 463 conestoga transfer agreement wlub 459 conestoga bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier bachelor of arts brantford's advanced summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors 75% n/a 464 conestoga transfer agreement wlub graduates of conestoga college's 3 year graphic design diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg 75% n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% graduates of conestoga college's 2 year journalism broadcast diploma with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credit, 0.5 senior law & society credit. 465 durham m n o c d e f bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 466 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration operations management from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration accounting from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 467 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business amdinistration marketing from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. g students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. h a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 468 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous administration human resources from durham college with a credits, 0.5 senior contemporary cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for studies credits, 0.5 senior admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts miscellaneous credits, 2.0 leadership honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 469 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 470 durham transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 2 year diploma in law and security administration from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 471 durham bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in court and tribunal agent/paralegal from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in legal administration/law clerk from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in professional golf credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous management business administration from durham college credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for 0.5 senior contemporary studies admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education studies credits, 0.5 senior from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year children's education and bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits:3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior criminology credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits. 472 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 473 durham transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in environtmental technology from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior level credits, 1.5 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. 474 durham bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior level credits, 1.5 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment & society optional credits. 475 durham i two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l graduates of a 2 year diploma in 911 emergency and call centre communications from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior level credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior health studies, 1.0 senior leadership credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in fitness and health promotion from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior level credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a j transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in pharmaceutical and food science technology from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a h 476 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in advertising from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior level credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg 75% g 477 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in animation digital arts from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior level credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors deg f 478 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in animation digital arts from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior level credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 2.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits, 0.5 senior jouralism credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors e 479 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in game development from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 480 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in graphic design from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: .5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. c 481 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in multimedia design from durham college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 482 durham transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 483 durham transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 484 durham m n o 485 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in business human resources from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business accounting from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credit. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h 486 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. g 487 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 2 year diploma in business information credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous systems from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% credits, 0.5 senior contemporary or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier studies credits, 0.5 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior advanced standing. leadership credit. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in business insurance from studies credits, 0.5 senior fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in business marketing from studies credit, 0.5 senior fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous, 1.5 senior leadership be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year credits, 0.5 senior public relations bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credit, 0.5 senior law & society credits. f 488 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in business purchasing from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. e 489 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration accounting from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 490 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration marketing from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. c 491 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in financial planning services from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 492 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 493 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 494 fanshawe i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o a b c d e 75% n/a l deg k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors n/a j a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% h g students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits. deg f graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in child and youth worker from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, ct225, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits. deg 495 fanshawe graduates of a 2 year diploma in developmental services worker from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors i approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 496 fanshawe students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors 497 fanshawe a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 498 fanshawe bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg 499 fanshawe bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 500 fanshawe deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub n/a 501 fanshawe 75% students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junor miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in law and security credits, 0.5 senior contemporary administration private security from fanshawe college with a studies credits, 1.0 senior criminology cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for credits, 1.0 senior law & society admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts credits, 0.5 senior health studies honours program with advanced standing. credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year law clerk diploma from fanshawe studies credits, 0.5 senior college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from studies credit, 0.5 senior fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and travel from studies credits, 1.0 senior fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year public relations optional credits, 0.5 bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior health studies, 1.0 senior leadership credits. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. graduates of a 2 year diploma in fitness and health promotion from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 502 fanshawe students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 503 fanshawe students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in pharmacy technician from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 504 fanshawe m n o n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. l 75% n/a 507 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in graphic design from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. k deg 75% n/a 508 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% 509 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors h bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a g bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a f i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg 75% n/a 510 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors e a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% n/a 511 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub d a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% n/a 512 fanshawe c a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors deg 75% n/a b bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in recreation and leisure services from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous, 2.0 senior health studies credit. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% a transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in respiratory therapy from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple majors program (asap). deg graduates of a 2 year diploma in social service worker from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 505 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in broadcasting radio from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will studies credit, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. 506 fanshawe transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in broadcasting television from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior graduates of a 2 year diploma in journalism broadcast from miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will journalism credits, 0.5 senior public be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year relations optional course credits; 0.5 bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, graduates of a 2 year diploma in multi media design and 0.5 senior contemporary studies production from fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with 0.5 senior public relations optional advanced standing. course credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. 513 fanshawe m n o 514 fleming transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. l n/a 515 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors k 75% n/a 516 fleming transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. j deg 75% n/a 517 fleming h bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a f bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in customs borders services law and security administration from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. e bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in community and justice services from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 518 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors d bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a 519 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors c bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a 520 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b i two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg 75% n/a 521 fleming transfer agreement wlub a three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% n/a 522 fleming a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and travel from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior indigenous studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits, 0.5 graduates of a 2 year diploma in security and risk senior human rights & human management from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of diversity credits, 0.5 senior 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier contemporary studies credits, 0.5 brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 advanced standing. senior criminology credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year law clerk diploma from fleming college studies credits, 0.5 senior with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from studies credit, 0.5 senior fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. g students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credit, 0.5 senior law & society credit. students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous administration human resources management from fleming credits, 0.5 senior contemporary college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credits, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 leadership bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education studies credits, 0.5 senior from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year children's education and bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in educational assistance from studies credit, 0.5 senior fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year children's education and bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior indigenous studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior human rights & human diversity credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 523 fleming m n o h 526 fleming 525 fleming 524 fleming transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in ecosystem management technician from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in ecosystem management technology from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in fish and wildlife technology from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in fish and wildlife technician from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. e 527 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 528 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in fitness and health promotion from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 health studies credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 529 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in health information management from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits,0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 530 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in massage therapy from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. b f g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in earth resources technician studies credits, 1.0 senior from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year environment and society optional bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in forestry technician from studies credits, 1.0 senior fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year environment and society optional bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment and society optional credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 531 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment and society optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 532 fleming transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct111, ct212, ct221, ct224, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment and society optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment and society optional credits. 533 fleming transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in drug and alchol counsellor credits, 0.5 senior contemporary from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher studies credits, 0.5 senior will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior health studies, 1.0 senior leadership credits. 534 fleming i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o f 538 georgian 537 fleming 536 fleming 535 fleming transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in native education community & social development from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration professional golf management from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in social service worker from fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. e 539 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. d 540 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. c 541 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in law and security administration from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 542 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 543 georgian transfer agreement wlub g students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior indigenous studies credits, 1.0 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior criminology credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credit, 0.5 senior law & society credit. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary fleming college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credit, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business studies credits, 0.5 senior administration marketing from fleming college with a miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for leadership credits, 0.5 senior public admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts relations optional credits, 0.5 senior honours program with advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. 544 georgian h a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o a d e f k l n/a j 75% h c deg g b bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and travel from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg 75% n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a transfer agreement wlub 545 georgian bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in tourism management from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% transfer agreement wlub 546 georgian i two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2.5 year diploma in practical nursing from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. 547 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in advertising from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg graduates of a 2 year diploma in dental hygiene from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 548 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in business marketing from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 549 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in graphic design production from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 550 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in developmental services worker from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, ct225, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. 551 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in social service worker from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 552 georgian transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 553 georgian transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. 554 georgian m n o 555 georgian transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in accounting diploma from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in child and youth worker from georgian college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. g students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration (co op) from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business managemen from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business marketing from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. h 556 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors f 557 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. e 558 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous administration (professional golf management) from humber credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be 0.5 senior contemporary studies considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optioinal credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 559 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 2 year diploma in business management credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous financial services from humber college with a cumulative gpa credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier 0.5 senior contemporary studies brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c 560 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. b 561 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in hotel and restaurant management from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 562 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 563 humber transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in accounting credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, diploma from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% 0.5 senior contemporary studies or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with credits, 0.5 senior public relations advanced standing. optional credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business studies credit, 0.5 senior administration from humber college with a cumulative gpa of miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier leadership credits, 0.5 senior public brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with relations optional credit, 0.5 senior advanced standing. law & society credit. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credit, 0.5 senior law & society credit. 564 humber i approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o a b c d e f l n/a k 75% j deg h bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and hospitality management business applications from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 565 humber deg graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism management travel industry services from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 566 humber deg graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in child and youth worker from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 567 humber deg graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 568 humber n/a g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. 75% graduates of a 2 year law clerk diploma from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple majors program (asap). transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 569 humber n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in paralegal education from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 570 humber students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in community and justice services from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 571 humber students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior criminology credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 572 humber students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in occupational therapist assistant/physiother apist assistant from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 573 humber students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 574 humber m n o bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a k graduates of a 2 year diploma in pharmacy technician from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg 75% n/a h transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in fitness and health promotion from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% n/a g 575 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% n/a f 576 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% e 577 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in massage therapy credits,0.5 senior contemporary from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher studies credits, 0.5 senior will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in recreation and leisure credits, 1.0 senior contemporary services from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% studies credits, 0.5 senior or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with leadership credits, 0.5 senior health advanced standing. studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in advertising and graphic studies credits, 0.5 senior design from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior higher will be considered for admission into a laurier leadership credits, 1.0 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with journalism credits, 0.5 senior public advanced standing. relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg d 578 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors c 579 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in broadcast television/videograp hy from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. b 580 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in broadcasting radio from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a 581 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in journalism print and broadcast from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 582 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. 583 humber transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 2 year diploma in advertising media sales from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 584 humber m n o f g h 585 humber transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year social services worker diploma from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year developmental services worker diploma from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in public relations from humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 5 credits students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, ct225, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. e 586 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in business from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credit, 0.5 senior law & society credit. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 587 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration general from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. c 588 humber transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration accounting from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 589 lambton transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 590 lambton transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 591 lambton transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma inhospitality and tourism management from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 592 lambton transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior graduates of a 2 year diploma in media communications from miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior humber college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will journalism credits, 0.5 senior public be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year relations optional course credits, 0.5 bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. 593 lambton transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business credits, 0.5 senior contemporary administration human resources from lambton college with studies credits, 0.5 senior a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for miscellaneous credits, 2.0 leadership admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts credits, 0.5 senior law & society honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business studies credits, 0.5 senior administration marketing from lambton college with a miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for leadership credits, 0.5 senior public admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts relations optional credits, 0.5 senior honours program with advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies courses. 594 lambton bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg i bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). m n o f deg 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a 596 lambton 595 lambton transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in culinary management from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits,0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits.. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education credits, 0.5 senior contemporary from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher studies credits, 2.0 senior children's will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year education and development credits, bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in law & security credits, 0.5 senior contemporary administration profession security from lambton college with studies credit, 0.5 senior a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts criminology credits, 1.0 senior law & honours program with advanced standing. society credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 597 lambton transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in massage therapy from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a 598 lambton transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 599 lambton transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a 600 lambton transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a h bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a 601 lambton transfer agreement wlub e bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a 602 lambton graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in sports and recreation administration from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. d bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors c bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% transfer agreement wlub b bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a 603 lambton a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. i approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg graduates of a 2 year diploma in social service worker from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. g students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced child and youth worker diploma from lambton college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. 604 lambton m n o 605 loyalist transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in accounting from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in accounting from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credit. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h 606 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in business from loyalist credits, 0.5 senior contemporary college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credit, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education studies credits, 0.5 senior from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year children's education and bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. f 607 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in customs border services from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. e 608 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in investigation and protection studies from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 609 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year paralegal diploma from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior indigenous studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior human rights & human diversity credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 1.0 senior criminology credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c 610 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. b 611 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 612 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 613 loyalist transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 2 year community and justice services worker diploma from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 614 loyalist i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a i bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a h bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, graduates of a 2 year diploma in customs and immigration 0.5 senior contemporary studies from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment & society optional credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% g transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in environmental technologist from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a f 615 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in fitness and health promotion from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a e 616 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credit, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg 75% d 617 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior level credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 2.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits, 0.5 senior jouralism credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors deg c 618 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in animation from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior journalism credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors b 619 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in photojournalism from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a 620 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in journalism:on line, print and broadcast from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. graduates of a 2 year diploma in advertising from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 621 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in radio broadcasting from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in enironmental technician from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 622 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment & society optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. 623 loyalist transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). 624 loyalist m n o f g 626 loyalist 625 loyalist transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors e 627 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 5.5 graduates of a 2 year developmental services worker diploma credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher credits, 2.0 senior health studies will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year credits, ct225, 0.5 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. contemporary studies credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 graduates of a 2 year social service worker diploma from senior children's education and loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be development credits, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in advertising from leadership credit, 1.0 senior mohawk with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be journalism credit, 0.5 senior public considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year relations optional credit, 0.5 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. media studies optional credit. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credit. d 628 loyalist transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in business from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. c 629 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b 630 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in television and credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous new media production from loyalist college with a cumulative credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a 0.5 senior public relations optional laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program course credits, 0.5 senior media with advanced standing. studies optional credits students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits. 631 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced child and youth worker diploma from loyalist college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 632 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced child and youth worker diploma from mohawk with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in business marketing from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will studies credit, 1.5 senior leadership be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year credits, 0.5 senior public relations bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. optional credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business studies credit, 0.5 senior administration from mohawk with a cumulative gpa of 75% or miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior higher will be considered for admission into a laurier leadership credits, 0.5 senior public brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with relations optional credit, 0.5 senior advanced standing. law & society credit. students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business accounting from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 633 mohawk transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. 634 mohawk deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a i bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a h bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. m n o e f bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors d transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors c 635 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in communications credits, 0.5 senior contemporary media tv from mohawk with a cumulative gpa of 75% or studies credit, 1.0 senior higher will be considered for admission into a laurier miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with journalism credits, 0.5 senior media advanced standing. studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education studies credits, 0.5 senior from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year children's education and bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. b 636 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in general arts and science from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 637 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in graphic design creative from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credit. 638 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in graphic design digital from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in communications media radio from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 639 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in journalism from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in educational assistant from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 640 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 4.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct240, ct327, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits:2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits. 641 mohawk transfer agreement wlub 642 mohawk students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior criminology credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits. transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in protection, security & investigations from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 643 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 644 mohawk bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 1 credit: 1.0 junior miscellaneous credits, hs101, hs203, ct222. transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 2 year diploma in ccupational therapist assistant/physiotherapist assistant from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 1 year diploma in prehealth from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 645 mohawk bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. l three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% n/a k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple majors program (asap). i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% j a total of 15.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg h a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. four years, eight semesters (of a four year degree). a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 19 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. m n o h a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. g f graduates of a 2 year diploma in pharmacy technician from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. e bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. d transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors c 646 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b 647 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 648 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 649 mohawk transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. 650 mohawk a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration human resources (coop) from niragara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will studies credit, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in recreation and leisure from studies credits, 1.0 senior mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year leadership credits, 0.5 senior health bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. studies credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 graduates of a 2 year social service worker diploma from senior children's education and mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will development credits, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous transfer credits, 1.0 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in urban and regional planning from mohawk college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 651 mohawk transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 652 niagara transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationmarketing (coop) from niragara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 653 niagara bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationoperations management (co op) from niragara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous administration international business from niragara college credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for 0.5 senior contemporary studies admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous honours program with advanced standing. credits, 0.5 senior journalism credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 654 niagara bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 655 niagara i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o 660 niagara 659 niagara 658 niagara 657 niagara 656 niagara transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors e 661 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors d 662 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors c 663 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b 664 niagara transfer agreement wlub a 665 niagara f g students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. h a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationaccounting (coop) from niragara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous administrationprofessional golf management (coop) from credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be 0.5 senior contemporary studies considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credit. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism management business development (coop) from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 2 year diploma in businessinternational credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous business from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier 0.5 senior contemporary studies brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in business sales and studies credits, 0.5 senior marketing from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier leadership credits, 0.5 senior public brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with relations optional credits, 0.5 senior advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in hospitality management credits, 0.5 senior contemporary hotel and restaurant (co op) from niagara college with a studies credits, 0.5 senior cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts leadership credits, 0.5 senior health honours program with advanced standing. studies courses. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business accounting from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in business general from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credit, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior graduates of a 3 year advanced child and youth worker contemporary studies credits, 0.5 diploma from niragara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% senior health studies credit, 1.5 or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier senior children's education and brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with development credits, 0.5 senior advanced standing. miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. i two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o 666 niagara transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in law and security administration from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in community and justice services (correctional worker) from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year social service worker diploma from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in educational assistant special needs support from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in fitness and health promotion from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. h 667 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year law clerk diploma from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. f 668 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior criminology credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment and society optional courses 0.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. e 669 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in environment technician field and laboratory (co op) from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: .0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. d 670 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in culinary management (co op) from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. c 671 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b 672 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 673 niagara transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 674 niagara transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in dental hygiene from niagara credits, 1.5 senior health studies college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be credits, 0.5 senior contemporary considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year studies credits, 0.5 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. 675 niagara bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors i j three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). m n o a b c d e f g h a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. j k l n/a students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. 75% graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub n/a 676 niagara 75% a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in pharmacy technician from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 677 niagara bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg 678 niagara bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credit, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits. i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 2 year diploma in recreation and leisure services from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 679 niagara n/a students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. 75% graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in broadcasting radio, television and film from niragara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 680 niagara students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in journalismprint from niagara college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 681 niagara students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in accounting from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 682 seneca n/a a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.5 senior leadership credits. deg graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in accounting and finance from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 683 seneca deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub n/a 684 seneca students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in accounting and payroll from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credits, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business insurance from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 685 seneca m n o e h d g c f b a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. j k l n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in business marketing from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 686 seneca students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.5 senior leadership credits. n/a graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationaccounting & financial planning from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 687 seneca students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. n/a graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationentrepreneurship and small business from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 688 seneca a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. n/a students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 75% graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationfinancial planning from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub n/a 689 seneca 75% a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 leadership credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationhuman resources from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg n/a 690 seneca bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. n/a 691 seneca students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma inbusiness credits, 0.5 senior contemporary administrationinformation systems from seneca college with studies credits, 0.5 senior a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & honours program with advanced standing. society credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 75% graduates of a 2 year diploma in creative advertising business stream from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration marketing from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). n/a 692 seneca a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors 693 seneca a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg 694 seneca three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier bachelor of arts brantford's advanced summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business credits,0.5 senior contemporary administrationretail management from seneca college with a studies credits, 0.5 senior cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts leadership credits, 0.5 senior public honours program with advanced standing. relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in creative advertising studies credits, 0.5 senior creative stream from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier leadership credits, 1.0 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with journalism credits, 0.5 senior public advanced standing. relations optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits,1.0 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. 695 seneca m n o 696 seneca transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in fashion business management from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. f g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education studies credits, 0.5 senior from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year children's education and bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in event marketing studies credits, 0.5 senior management coop specialization from seneca college with a miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for leadership credits. 0.5 senior public admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts relations optional credits, 0.5 senior honours program with advanced standing. media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h 697 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in general business from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credit, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior health studies courses. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. e 698 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 699 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in international business from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior journalism credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c 700 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in international business administration from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. b 701 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in international transportation and customs from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. a 702 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in real property administration from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 703 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in fashion business from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 704 seneca transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 2 year diploma in hospitality management hotel and restaurant from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 705 seneca i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o f g transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and traveleco adventure tourism and niche travel option from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and travel from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. e 706 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors d 707 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and travelflight credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous services option from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier 0.5 senior contemporary studies brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. c 708 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in library and information technician from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 709 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in court and tribunal administration from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 710 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year law clerk diploma from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. h a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 711 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year paralegal diploma from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and travel credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous corporate and leisure travel option from seneca college with credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for 0.5 senior contemporary studies admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. 712 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 713 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in environmental landscape management from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits. 714 seneca transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in visual merchansing from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 715 seneca transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment and society credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. 716 seneca i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o a b c d e f g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment & society optional credits. h l n/a k 75% j deg a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in environmental technician from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. transfer agreement wlub n/a 717 seneca 75% i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 718 seneca deg students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from credits, 0.5 senior contemporary seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be studies credit, 0.5 senior considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.0 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. graduates of a 2 year social service worker diploma from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors n/a transfer agreement wlub 75% 719 seneca deg graduates of a 2 year diploma in social service worker immigrants and refugees from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in digital media arts from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in social service worker gerontology from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% n/a transfer agreement wlub deg 75% 720 seneca bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). n/a 721 seneca a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 2 year veterinary technician diploma from credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be credits, 0.5 senior contemporary considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year studies credits, 1.5 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior hrhd credits. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier bachelor of arts brantford's advanced summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 722 seneca students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in broadcastingradio from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors n/a 723 seneca a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors 724 seneca a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg 725 seneca three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior graduates of a 2 year diploma in broadcastingtelevision from miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be journalism credits, 0.5 senior public considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year relations optional course credits, 0.5 bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies graduates of a 2 year diploma in corporate media from credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year 0.5 senior public relations optional bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. course credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits. 726 seneca m n o 730 sheridan 729 sheridan 728 sheridan 727 seneca transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in business administration marketing from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business adminstration human resources from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationfinance from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business administration accounting from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in businessgeneral from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in jornalismbroadcast from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in graphic design from seneca college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. f students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior media studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credit. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. g a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h e 731 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in ecommerce management from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.5 senior leadership credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 732 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in banking and wealth management from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. c 733 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 734 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 735 sheridan transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 736 sheridan bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg i bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). m n o 739 sheridan 738 sheridan 737 sheridan transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in social service worker gerontology from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. f g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in educational assistant from studies credit, 0.5 senior sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year children's education and bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior graduates of a 3 year advanced child and youth worker contemporary studies credits, 0.5 diploma from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% senior miscellaneous, 0.5 senior or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier health studies credit, 1.5 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with children's education and advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in community development studies credits, ct225, 0.5 senior (community worker outreach and development) from miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will public relations optional credits, 0.5 be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. health studies credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 graduates of a 2 year social service worker diploma from senior children's education and sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will development credits, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 1.0 senior hrhd credits. e 740 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and travel from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. d 741 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in community and justice studies from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. c 742 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b 743 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 744 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year paralegal diploma from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 2 year diploma in investigationpublic and credits: 3.5 junor miscellaneous private from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or credits, 1.5 senior criminology credits, higher will be considered for admission into a laurier 0.5 senior contemporary studies brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous advanced standing. credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. graduates of a 2 year diploma in social service worker immigrant and refugee stream from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 745 sheridan transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. 746 sheridan bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors i j three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. l a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. k a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a h a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. m n o 747 sheridan transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year pharmacy technician diploma from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in environmental science technician from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. g students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior environment & society optional credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h 748 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in advertising from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in businessaccounting from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in media studies miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher journalism credits, 0.5 senior public will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year relations optional course credits; 0.5 bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credit. f 749 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in applied photography from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. e 750 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in journalismbroadcast from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. d 751 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in journalismprint from sheridan college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. c 752 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors b 753 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a 754 sheridan transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a k two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg 75% n/a j a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% n/a i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg 75% a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 755 sheridan transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional courses, 1.0 senior journalism credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits. 756 st. clair m n o 759 st. clair 758 st. clair 757 st. clair transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in native early childhood education from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration accounting from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in international bussiness from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administration professional golf management from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in businessmarketing from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. f students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 1.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits. g a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h e 760 st. clair transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in educational assistant from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. d 761 st. clair transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in law and security administration from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. c 762 st. clair transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year law clerk diploma from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. b 763 st. clair transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 764 st. clair transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 765 st. clair transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior indigenous studies credits, 1.0 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior children's education and development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior criminology credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior law & society credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior law & society credits. 766 st. clair bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). m n o n/a l 75% n/a k deg 75% n/a j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% h a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a f g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 1.0 senior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% e graduates of a 2 year diploma in tourism and travel from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. deg d bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in dental hygiene from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors n/a c transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in medical laboratory science from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 75% b 767 st. clair transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. deg a 768 st. clair transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 2 year pharmacy technician diploma from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 769 st. clair bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. 770 st. clair graduates of a 2 year diploma in practical nursing from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. n/a bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors 75% transfer agreement wlub deg 771 st. clair bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. transfer agreement wlub students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. 772 st. clair n/a students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. 75% graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in advertising from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. deg bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer bachelor of arts acceleration program (honours) multiple (asap). majors transfer agreement wlub a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 773 st. clair students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year diploma in journalism print and new media from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 774 st. clair students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 1.5 senior children's education and development credits. n/a graduates of a 3 year advanced child and youth worker diploma from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg transfer agreement wlub a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 775 st. clair students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, ct225, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits. n/a graduates of a 2 year developmental service worker diploma from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 75% bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors deg transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 776 st. clair m n o 777 st. clair transfer agreement wlub transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationaccounting from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year diploma in business from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 2 year native community worker diploma from st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits. g students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior indigenous studies credits, 1.0 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. h 778 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors f 779 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors e 780 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 graduates of a 2 year diploma in businesshuman resources credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or credits, 0.5 senior contemporary higher will be considered for admission into a laurier studies credits, 0.5 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior advanced standing. leadership credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in early childhood education credits, 0.5 senior contemporary from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or studies credits, 0.5 senior higher will be considered for admission into a laurier miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with children's education and advanced standing. development credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous graduates of a 2 year diploma in community and justice credits, 0.5 senior contemporary services from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of studies credits, 0.5 senior 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with criminology credits, 0.5 senior law & advanced standing. society credits. students will receive a total of 5.5 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary graduates of a 2 year diploma in police foundations from st. studies credit, 0.5 senior lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year criminology credits, cc305, 1.0 senior bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. law & society credits. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. d 781 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. c 782 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in medical laboratory science from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credit, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior health studies credits. b 783 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year paramedic diploma from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. a 784 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. 785 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub graduates of a 2 year diploma in fitness and health promotion from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 786 st. lawrence i three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors m n o bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in business administrationmarketing from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. graduates of a 3 year advanced diploma in advertising integrated marketing communications from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. students will receive a total of 6 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits; 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 4.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 1.5 senior journalism credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional course credits, 0.5 senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 7.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior miscellaneous credits, 2.0 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior public relations optional credits, 0.5 senior law & society credits. g transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors graduates of a 2 year diploma in journalism from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. f transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors e 787 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors d 788 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors students will receive a total of 6 credits: 3.0 junior miscellaneous credits, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior graduates of a 2 year diploma in advertising from st. miscellaneous credits, 1.0 senior lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will journalism credits, 0.5 senior public be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year relations optional course credits, 0.5 bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. senior media studies optional credits. students will receive a total of 6.5 credits: 3.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior graduates of a 3 year advanced child and youth worker contemporary studies credits, 0.5 diploma from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of senior health studies credit, 1.5 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier senior children's education and brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with development credits, 0.5 senior advanced standing. miscellaneous credits. students will receive a total of 5 credits: 2.5 junior miscellaneous credits, ct224, ct345, 0.5 senior contemporary studies credits, 0.5 senior health studies credit, 0.5 senior children's education and development credits, 0.5 senior leadership credits, 0.5 senior hrhd credits. c 789 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20111201 majors college of applied arts & technology transfer credit will be assessed at the time of admission. assessments are automatically completed for all applicants presenting official final transcripts from postsecondary institutions. students admitted into unclassified studies or under academic probation, are not eligible to have transfer credits assessed until they are in a program leading to a degree. after being placed in a program students have 12 months to have your credit assessed. college of applied arts & technology transfer students will normally be award up to 2.5 credits for completion of one year of a program, up to 5.0 credits when a student has completed a two year program or up to 7.5 credits for a three year program. transfer credit is dependent upon the college program and courses completed, the grades achieved, and the program the applicant is entering at laurier. transfer credit is normally awarded in the form of junior non specific (elective) credits. courses in which you have achieved less than a b will not be considered for transfer credit. b 790 st. lawrence transfer agreement wlub bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20090101 majors a 791 st. lawrence wlub graduates of a 2 year social service worker diploma from st. lawrence college with a cumulative gpa of 75% or higher will be considered for admission into a laurier brantford 4 year bachelor of arts honours program with advanced standing. 792 st. lawrence general a) the maximum number of transfer credits available per year of college study is 2.5 units (5 term courses); b) a maximum of 7.5 units (15 term courses) may be awarded for graduates of a 3year program. 793 deg deg 75% 75% 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a l bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% n/a k bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg 75% j three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). two and a half years, 5 semesters (of a four year degree) or under 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors deg n/a i a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors 75% n/a h a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). approximately three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or approximately 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced summer acceleration program (asap). deg b (70%) a total of 12.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 13.5 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. three years, six semesters (of a four year degree) or 2 full years (including summer semester) through laurier brantford's advanced bachelor of arts summer acceleration (honours) multiple program (asap). majors deg a total of 14 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. a total of 15 credits must be completed at laurier brantford to graduate with a ba honours degree. bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors a) for a general degree without designation students must complete at this university a minimum of 5.0 senior credits (or equivalent); b) for an honours degree, all students must complete dependent on the program a minimum of 10.0 credits (or chosen and the number of equivalent) at laurier. transfer credits awarded. m n o a b c d e n/a l b (70%) k deg j bachelor of arts (honours) multiple majors b i dependent on the program chosen and the number of transfer credits awarded. 2.7 gpa bachelor of arts (honours) multiple 20090101 majors wlub deg general bachelor of arts (honours), multiple majors b 794 three years, six semesters. 3.0 bachelor of arts (honours), multiple 20000501 majors deg transfer agreement wind bachelor of science degree in general science 795 st. clair students should complete the degree in 1.5 years (3 semesters). 20000501 general science b transfer agreement wind 2.7 gpa 796 st. clair deg b bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors 20000501 bachelor of arts 3.0 b two and a half years, five semesters. transfer agreement wind b b honours bachelor of science (multiple majors) deg deg b bachelor of arts (general) in communication, media and film bachelor of applied science mechanical engineering automotive option or bachelor of applied science mechanical engineering automotive option co op deg students should complete the degree in 2.5 years (5 semesters). 797 st. clair f g h applicants from colleges accredited by the association for biblical higher education (abhe), formerly the accrediting association of bible colleges (aabc), may be granted advanced standing. two years study are required for applicants who did not previously complete the necessary minimum requirements for admission to the university (high school transcript may be required). a minimum of a b (70 percent) grade must have been attained in the appropriate course(s) for transfer credit consideration. only academic courses will be considered for transfer credit; no credit will be granted for professional courses such as education, administration, pastoral studies, counselling or courses of a doctrinal nature. usually not more determined on a case by case basis than 3.0 credits in religious studies will be considered for generally a maximum of 3 credits. by laurier brantford admissions. transfer credit. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to ten course equivalents (5.0 full credits). must complete a minimum of graduates of the twoyear diploma program in early childhood transfer credit is awarded for three years (30 semester courses, education at st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of b/2.7 approved courses with a minimum 15 full credits) for an honours ba are eligible to apply. grade of b. degree. students must complete a minimum of 13 semester courses (6.5 full credits, approximately one and a half academic years) at the graduates of the threeyear advanced diploma program in graduates will receive the equivalent university of windsor. please refer medical laboratory technology with a cumulative 3.0 g.p.a. of seventeen semester courses (8.5 to the most recent version of the (75 percent or the equivalent) and have completed their entire full credits) towards a bachelor of academic calendar for requisite coursework at st. clair college are eligible to apply. science degree in general science. courses. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to five semester course equivalents (2.5 full credits). transfer credit is awarded for approved courses with a minimum grade of b for courses consisting of must complete a minimum of two graduates of the developmental services worker program at nonmajor, introductorylevel courses and a half years (25 semester st. clair college who have a cumulative grade point average toward a bachelor of arts (general) courses, 12.5 full credits) for a equivalent b/2.7 are eligible to apply. degree. general ba degree. students must complete a minimum of 23 semester courses (11.5 full credits, approximately two and a half academic years) at the university of windsor. please refer to the most recent version of the academic calendar for requisite courses. must complete a minimum of two years (20 semester courses, 10 full credits) for a general ba degree in communication, media and film. two years, four semesters. graduates will receive the equivalent of seventeen semester courses (8.5 full credits) towards an honurs bachelor of science (multiple majors) degree. graduates of the threeyear advanced diploma program in medical laboratory technology with a cumulative 3.0 g.p.a. (75 percent or the equivalent) and have completed their entire coursework at st. clair college are eligible to apply. the student may receive the equivalent of 10 semster courses (5.0 full credits) from the department of communication, media and film. honours bachelor of science (multiple 20000501 majors) 798 st. clair transfer agreement wind transfer agreement wind 799 st. clair accepted students will receive the following credits: 85111, 85 133, 62140, 62126, 85 120, 62141, 64141, 85250, 85 student's must complete a 219, 85230, 85212, 85 minimum of 29 semester courses 233, 94330, 1 non technical (14.5 full credits) at the university elective of windsor. three years, six semesters. transfer agreement wind ba (gen) in graduates of the twoyear diploma program in journalism at communication, media st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of b are eligible to apply. 20000501 and film graduates of the threeyear mechanical engineering technology automotive product design advanced diploma program from st. clair college in the year 2001 or later, with no grades below c are eligible to apply. students must have an overall cumulative average of at least b and b grades in the fifteen core diploma program subjects in the list below. the recommendation of the dean of technology, reached through input from the appropriate program coordinator to the chair of mechanical technology is required in order for a student to mechanical engineering be accepted into the university phase of the articulation program. 20010503 automotive option 800 st. clair m n o transfer agreement wind degree completion 20061201 bachelor of arts 20050608 civil engineering graduates of the threeyear child and youth worker advanced diploma program at st. clair college with a cumulative average equivalent to a b or better will be eligible for entry into an appropriate level of a bachelor of arts (general) degree in the following programs: general psychology, child psychology and other majors. accepted students will receive twenty semester courses (10 full credits) towards a honours psychology, honours psychology with thesis, honours developmental psychology, honours developmental psychology with thesis and honours disability studies. accepted students will receive fifteen semester courses (7.5 full credits) towards a general bachelor of arts in psychology or child psychology. f g students who have completed the threeyear advanced diploma program at st. clair college with a cumulative average grade of b may receive up to 5.0 university credits (ten semester courses) for the following courses, provided they have passed the respective college courses with a grade of b or better: cvl105 + cvl604b, cvl205a + challenge exam*, cvl409 + cvl315, cvl304b + cvl306a, cvl300g + cvl400g + cvl500g + arc100ge, two non technical electives, cvl507 + cvl404a + cvl414, cvl600g + cvl608, cvl303b + cvl602b, cvl402a + cvl404a + challenge exam*. a minimum grade of b is required on the university challenge examination. students will be restricted to enrolling in the specific program (i.e., civil engineering) and will have to meet all regular requirements for graduation graduates of the threeyear advanced diploma program in from the college program. as civil engineering technology at st. clair college with a enhancements or curriculum changes cumulative average grade of b or gpa 3.0 are eligible to apply. occur both at the college and the graduates of the twoyear diploma in dental hygiene with a cumulative average grade of b may receive up to five university semester courses (2.5 graduates of the twoyear diploma in dental hygiene at st. full credits), provided they passed the clair college with a cumulative average grade of b and a grade respective college courses with a of b or better in all courses are eligible to apply. grade of b or better. e 801 st. clair transfer agreement wind cyw to ba (general) psychology or child 20090611 psychology graduates of the threeyear child and youth worker advanced diploma program at st. clair college with a cumulative average equivalent to a b or better will be eligible for entry into an appropriate level of a bachelor of arts (honours) degree in the following: honours psychology, honours psychology with thesis, honours developmental psychology, honours developmental psychology with thesis and honours disability studies. accepted students will receive fifteen semester courses (7.5 full credits) towards a general bachelor of arts in child psychology. d 802 st. clair transfer agreement wind cyw to ba (honours) 20090611 multiple majors graduates of the st. clair college threeyear child and youth worker advanced diploma with a cumulative average equivalent to b or better will be eligible to apply. c 803 st. clair transfer agreement wind child psychology for 20090611 cyw graduates b 804 st. clair transfer agreement wind a 805 st. clair h i students must complete a minimum of three years (30 semester courses, 15 full credits) for an honours bachelor of applied science in civil engineering degree. three years, six semesters. students must complete a minimum of two and a half years (25 semester courses, 12.5 full two and a half years, five credits) for a general ba degree. semesters. students must complete a minimum of 15 semester courses (7.5 full credits, approximately one and a half academic years) at the university of windsor. required courses are specific to the chosen one and a half years, three major. fulltime semesters. students must complete a minimum of 20 semester courses (10 full credits, approximately one and a half academic years) at the university of windsor. required courses are specific to the chosen major. please refer to the most recent version of the academic two years, four semesters. calendar for requisite courses. total courses: fifteen. major requirements: seven courses, including 46115, 46224, 46324, 46327, three 200, 300 or 400 level courses (excluding: 46220, 46223, 46333, 46322, 46323, 46330, 46 427, 46429). option requirements: three courses including: (a) two courses from languages or science; (b) one course from any area of study, excluding social sciences (excluding: 0795398). option requirements: five courses including: (a) 01150, 01151; (b) 02250; (c) two courses from any area of study, including psychology (excluding 46116, 46220, 46223, 46333, 46322, 46323, 46330, 46 427, 46429, 47210, 95 398). recommended course sequence third year: 01150, 01 151, 46115, 46224, 02250, two 200, 300 or 400level psychology courses. fourth year: 46324, 46 327, one 200, 300 or 400 level one and a half years, three psychology course. fulltime semesters. b l 3.0 k deg j honours bachelor of applied science in civil engineering b b b b b b b deg bachelor of arts (general) in psychology or bachelor of arts (general) in child psychology deg honours psychology honours psychology with thesis or honours developmental psychology or honours developmental psychology with thesis or honours disability studies. deg b bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg bachelor of arts (general) in child psychology m n o 809 st. clair 808 st. clair 807 st. clair 806 st. clair transfer agreement wind transfer agreement wind transfer agreement wind transfer agreement wind transfer agreement wind bachelor of arts (honours), multiple 20010118 majors cyw to bachelor of 20090611 social work honours 20061201 20000501 20000501 20000501 d 810 st. clair transfer agreement wind bachelor of science c 811 st. clair transfer agreement wind not posted bachelor of computer science b 812 st. clair transfer agreement wind not posted a 813 st. clair transfer agreement wind bachelor of arts (general), multiple 20010118 majors bachelor of arts (honours), multiple majors bachelor of social work (honours) bachelor of social work (honours) bachelor of arts (honours) in communication, media and film bachelor of social work (honours) bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg deg deg deg deg deg deg 3.0 g.p.a. (75n/a b b b b b 2.7 gpa 2.7 gpa b b b b b b b l must complete a minimum of three years (30 semester courses, 15 full credits) for an honours ba degree. bachelor of social work (honours) deg 3.0 g.p.a.or bn/a k must complete a minimum of three years (30 semester courses, 15 full credits) for an honours bsw three years, six semesters. degree. bachelor of science deg b j graduates of the threeyear child and youth worker advanced accepted students will receive twenty diploma program at st. clair college with a cumulative average semester courses (10 full credits) equivalent to a b or better will be eligible for entry into an towards an honours bachelor of appropriate level of a bachelor of social work program. social work. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may graduates of the twoyear diploma program in police receive the equivalent of up to 10 foundations at st. clair college or lambton college with a semester course equivalents (5.0 full cumulative average of b and at least a b or better in all credits) toward a bachelor of arts courses are eligible to apply. (honour) degree. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to 10 semester course equivalents (5.0 full credits) toward a bachelor of social work (honours) degree. must complete a minimum of one and a half years (13 semester courses, 6.5 full credits) of a one and a half years, three bachelor of science degree. semesters. bachelor of computer science deg three years, six semesters. the student may receive up to the equivalent of 17 semster courses (8.5 full credits) towards their bachelor of science degree. must complete a minimum of one and a half years (15 semester one and a half years, three courses, 7.5 full credits). semesters. bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors st. clair college graduates of the business administration information systems program with a 3.0 g.p.a. or better, who have completed specific courses will be considered for students admitted to the bachelor of admission to the general bachelor of computer science on an computer science (general) degree individual basis, subject to the approval of the dean of science, will be awarded a maximum of 15 and may receive up to fifteen semester course equivalents. semester courses (7.5 full credits). depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to 10 semester course equivalents (5.0 full credits) toward a bachelor of arts (general) degree. graduates of the twoyear diploma program in police foundations at st. clair college or lambton college with a cumulative average of b and at least a b or better in all courses are eligible to apply. b must complete a minimum of two years (20 semester courses, 10 full two years, four semesters. credits) for a general ba degree. e f g h i depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to ten course equivalents (5.0 full credits). bachelor of arts graduates of the twoyear diploma program in early childhood transfer credit is awarded for must complete a minimum of two (general), multiple education at st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of b/2.7 approved courses with a minimum years (20 semester courses, 10 full two years, four semesters. majors are eligible to apply. grade of b. credits) for a general ba degree. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to ten course equivalents (5.0 full credits). must complete a minimum of graduates of the twoyear diploma program in early childhood transfer credit is awarded for three years (30 semester courses, bachelor of social work education at st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of b/2.7 approved courses with a minimum 15 full credits) for an honours bsw (honours) are eligible to apply. three years, six semesters. grade of b. degree. must complete a minimum of the student may receive the three years (30 semester courses, ba (honours) in graduates of the twoyear diploma program in journalism at equivalent of 10 semster courses (5.0 15 full credits) for a honours ba communication, media st. clair college with a cumulative gpa of b are eligible to full credits) from the department of degree in communication, media and film apply. three years, six semesters. communication, media and film. and film. graduates of the twoyear diploma in dental hygiene with a cumulative average grade of b may receive up to students must complete a five university semester courses (2.5 minimum of three and a half years degree completion graduates of the twoyear diploma in dental hygiene at st. full credits), provided they passed the (35 semester courses, 17.5 full bachelor social work clair college with a cumulative average grade of b and a grade respective college courses with a credits) for an honours bachelor of three and a half years, seven (honours) of b or better in all courses are eligible to apply. grade of b or better. social work. semesters. students must complete a minimum of 20 semester courses (10 full credits, approximately two academic years) at the university of windsor. required courses are two years, four semesters. specific to the chosen major. 814 st. clair transfer agreement wind graduates of the twoyear diploma program in police foundations at st. clair college or lambton college with a bachelor of social work cumulative average of b and at least a b or better in all courses are eligible to apply. 20010118 (honours) a student may enter a bachelor of science program after completing the three year diploma in chemical engineering technology at st. clair college. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of seventeen semester course credits from chemistry and biochemistry. 815 st. clair. lambton m n o bachelor of human kinetics (honours kinesiology) sport management deg deg 2.7 3.0 or b b b b accepted students will receive transfer credit for up to ten semester courses (5.0 full credits). depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student will receive up to the equivalent of nineteen semester courses (9.5 full credits) from the departmentof chemistry and biochemistry l students will complete a bachelor of human kinetics degree in 4 semesters (2.0 years). bachelor of arts (honours), multiple majors 2.7 gpa b k three years, six semesters. bachelor of science (honours), departmentof chemistry and biochemistry deg 3.0 gpa b j graduates of the lambton college threeyear advanced diploma in sports and recreation administration prorgram with a cumulative average equivalent to a b or higher are eligible to apply. students should complete the degree in 2.5 years (5 semesters). 3.0 b i bachelor of human 20000501 kinetics graduates of the twoyear general arts and science diploma at lambton college program with a minimum grade of b are eligible to apply. h students must complete a miniumum of 4 semesters (10 full courses) to complete this bachelor of human kinetics degree. students will have to complete the following courses in order to fulfill the requirements of the bhk program with a major in sport management: 95211. principles of mental skills training 95265. functional anatomy 95280. fundamental mechanics of human motion 95200. health and wellness 95205. introduction to exercise physiology 95269. measurement and evaluation 95 270. research design 95240. historical perspectives on physical activity and sport in western civilization 95350. organizational behaviour two courses from: 95 210, 95 260, 95 285, 95222, 95 224. 9 sport management major courses. students must complete a minimum of 30 semester courses (15 full credits, approximately three academic years) at the university of windsor. required courses are specific to the chosen major. must complete a minimum of two and a half years (21 semester courses, 10.5 full credits) for an honours bsc degree from departmentof chemistry and biochemistry. bachelor of science (general) degree in biological sciences, biochemistry, or general science. deg bachelor of science (honours) degree in biological sciences, biochemistry, or general science. deg b g transfer agreement wind bachelor of arts (honours), multiple 20000501 majors graduates of the threeyear advanced diploma program in environmental technology at lambton college with a cumulative gpa of b/2.7 are eligible to apply. students should complete the degree in 2.5 years (5 semesters). deg graduates of the medical laboratory technology receive the equivalent of seventeen semester courses (8.5 full credits) towards a bachelor of science degree. graduates of the medical laboratory technology receive the equivalent of seventeen semester courses (8.5 full credits) towards a bachelor of science (honours) degree. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to five semester course equivalents (2.5 full credits) toward a bachelor of arts (general) degree. up to ten transfer credits may be given.the following transfer credits may be given by the university of windsor based on the required and elective courses taken by students of the massage therapy advanced a student may enter the bachelor of human kinetics diploma program at lambton: 0226 (movement sciences) program after completing the threeyear 100 for eng 103 and 203, 0246116 students must complete minimum for psy 100, 0355202, 0355204 and of thirty additional semester advanced diploma in massage therapy at lambton college 0355205 for bio 107, bio 117, bio courses (15 full credits) at the with a minimum cumulative average equivalent to a b or 207, bio 217 (must have all four), 03 university of windsor for a better and a grade of b or better for each college course or 60104 for mst 101, and 0795471, bachelor of human kinetics group of college courses for which transfer credit may be three years, six semesters. 0795498, 0795002, 0795002. granted. (honours) degree. students will receive the equivalent of up to 14 semester courses (7.0 full students must complete a credits) for all courses included in the minimum of 26 semester courses agreement in which they received a (13 full credits, approximately two minimum average grade of 3.0 and a half academic years) at the two and a half years, 5 (lambton college b). university of windsor. semesters. f 816 lambton transfer agreement wind 20000501 bachelor of science graduates of the threeyear advanced diploma program in medical laboratory technology at lambton college with a cumulative 3.0 g.p.a. (75 percent or the equivalent) are eligible to apply. students must complete a minimum of 13 semester courses (6.5 full credits, approximately one and a half academic years) at the university of windsor. required courses are specific to the chosen major. please refer to the most recent version of the academic calendar for requisite courses. students must complete a minimum of 23 semester courses (11.5 full credits, approximately one and a half academic years) at the university of windsor. bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors b e 817 lambton transfer agreement wind 20000501 bachelor of science graduates of the threeyear advanced diploma program in medical laboratory technology at lambton college with a cumulative 3.0 g.p.a. (75 percent or the equivalent) are eligible to apply. must complete a minimum of two and a half years (25 semester courses, 12.5 full credits) for a two and a half years, five general ba degree. semesters. b b d 818 lambton transfer agreement wind bachelor of science 20000501 (honours) graduates of the twoyear social service worker diploma program from lambton college with a cumulative average grade of b or better with a grade of b or better in all courses eligible to apply. deg 3.0 gpa c 819 lambton transfer agreement wind bachelor of arts (general), multiple 20010924 majors honours bachelor of human kinetics (movement sciences) degree deg b 820 lambton transfer agreement wind bachelor of human 20090408 kinetics (honours) bachelor of arts (honours) in psychology a 821 lambton transfer agreement wind graduates of the twoyear high affinity general arts and science psychology stream diploma at lambton college with a minimum cumulative average of 3.0 (lambton college b) are bachelor of arts eligible to apply to the honours bachelor of arts program 20090522 (honours) in psychology offered at the university of windsor. students will receive up to the equivalent of twenty semester credits (10.0 full courses) towards the bachelor of human kinetics (honours kinesiology) degree in sport management. transfer credit obtained through this articulation agreement is subject to reevaluation in cases where the student decides to transfer into another program at the university. 822 lambton transfer agreement wind students should complete the degree in 1.5 years (3 semesters). 823 lambton m n o 826 lambton 825 lambton 824 lambton transfer agreement wind transfer agreement wind transfer agreement wind transfer agreement wind graduates of the twoyear general arts and science diploma bachelor of social work at lambton college program with a minimum grade of b are eligible to apply. 20000501 (honours) bachelor of arts (general), multiple 20000501 majors f 827 lambton transfer agreement wind not posted e 828 lambton transfer agreement wind not posted d 829 lambton transfer agreement wind not posted c 830 lambton transfer agreement wind 19980930 bachelor of arts b 831 lambton transfer agreement wind a 832 fanshawe transfer agreement wind graduates of the twoyear general arts and science diploma at lambton college program with a minimum grade of b are eligible to apply. 833 fanshawe transfer agreement wind students who have completed the threeyear child and youth worker diploma from lambton college with a cumulative average grade of b or better may receive up to ten university credits, provided they passed the college courses, for which transfer credit may be granted, with a grade of b or better. students will not be restricted to enrolling in a specific program. the course credits received will be applicable to any ba program in the faculty of arts and social sciences, and students would have to meet all regular requirements for the respective major of their choice. graduates of the fanshawe college developmental services worker diploma program who have a cumulative grade point average equivalent to b or higher are eligible to apply. bachelor of social work (honours) bachelor of social work (honours) bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors deg deg deg deg b b 3.0 gpa 2.7 2.7 n/a n/a b b b l students must complete a minimum of 26 semester courses (13 full credits, approximately two and a half academic years) at the two and a half years, 5 university of windsor. semesters. bachelor of science deg k accepted students will receive transfer credit for up to ten semester courses (5.0 full credits). students will receive the equivalent of up to 14 semester courses (7.0 full credits) for all courses included in the agreement in which they received a minimum average grade of 3.0 (lambton college b). must complete a minimum of one and a half years (13 semester courses, 6.5 full credits) of a one and a half years, three bachelor of science degree. semesters. bachelor of science (honours) biological sciences j the student may receive up to the equivalent of 17 semster courses (8.5 full credits) towards their bachelor of science degree. must complete a minimum of two and a half years (24 semester courses, 12 full credits) of a two and a half years, five biological sciences degree. semesters. g h i students must complete a minimum of 20 semester courses (10 full credits, approximately two accepted students will receive academic years) at the university transfer credit for up to ten semester of windsor. required courses are courses (5.0 full credits). specific to the chosen major. two years, four semesters. students must complete a minimum of 30 semester courses (15 full credits, approximately three academic years) at the university of windsor. required courses are specific to the bachelor three years, six semesters. of social work program. the student may receive up to the equivalent of 16 semster courses (8 full credits) towards their biological sciences degree. students will complete a bachelor of arts degree in a honours bachelor of arts social sciences discipline in 7 in social sciences semesters (3.5 years). (multiple majors) deg students must complete a minimum of 20 semester courses (10 full credits, two academic years) for an honours degree or 10 semester courses (5 full credits, honours = two years, four one academic years) for a general semesters; general = one full bachelor of arts (multiple ba at the university of windsor. year, two semesters. majors) deg bachelor of science (honours) biochemistry deg deg 2.7 gpa 2.7 or b b b b b b b b b n/a bachelor of human kinetics (honours) bachelor of social work three years, six semesters. (honours) students must complete minimum of thirty additional semester courses (15 full credits) at the university of windsor for a bachelor of human kinetics three years, six semesters. (honours) degree. must complete a minimum of three years (30 semester courses, 15 full credits) for an honours bsw degree. bachelor of social work (honours) deg b the student may receive up to the equivalent of 20 semster courses (10 must complete a minimum of two full credits) towards their years (20 semester courses, 10 full biochemistry degree. credits) of a biochemistry degree. two years, four semesters. accepted students will receive twenty semester courses (10 full credits) towards any bachelor of arts program they choose. graduates of the twoyear recreation and leisure services diploma program with a cumulative average of 2.7 or b will be considered for advanced graduates of the twoyear recreation and leisure services standing for up to 10 semester bachelor of human diploma program at fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa courses (5.0 full credits) with no grade of 2.7 or average of b are eligible to apply. less than b. 20021128 kinetics (honours) depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to ten course equivalents (5.0 full credits). graduates of the twoyear diploma program in early childhood transfer credit is awarded for bachelor of social work education at fanshawe college with a cumulative gpa of b/2.7 approved courses with a minimum are eligible to apply. grade of b. 20000501 (honours) two years, four semesters. deg students who have completed the threeyear child and youth worker diploma from lambton college with a cumulative average grade of b or better may receive up to ten university credits, provided they passed the college courses, for which students must complete a transfer credit may be granted, with a grade of b or better. minimum of 20 semester courses students will not be restricted to enrolling in a specific (10 full credits, approximately one program. the course credits received will be applicable to any accepted students will receive twenty and a half academic years) at the bsw program in the faculty of arts and social sciences, and semester courses (10 full credits) university of windsor. required students would have to meet all regular requirements for the towards an honours bachelor of courses are specific to the chosen bachelor of social work respective major of their choice. social work. major. students must complete a transfer credit for up to five semester miniumum of 35 semesterlong long courses consisting of nonmajor, courses (17.5 full courses) to introductorylevel social science complete this bachelor of arts courses will be awarded. degree. bachelor of arts (multiple majors) graduates of the twoyear high affinity general arts and science psychology stream diploma at lambton college with a minimum cumulative average of 3.0 (lambton college b) are eligible to apply to the honours bachelor of social work 20090522 bachelor of social work program offered at the university of windsor. a student may enter a bachelor of science program after completing the threeyear diploma in chemical engineering technology from lambton college. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of seventeen courses from chemistry and biochemistry. not posted bachelor of science a student may enter a bachelor of science biological sciences program after completing the threeyear diploma in industrial hygiene technology from lambton college. depending upon bachelor of science the selected level and area of study, the student may receive (honours) biological the equivalent of sixteen courses towards a biological sciences degree. not posted sciences a student may enter a bachelor of science biochemistry program after completing the threeyear diploma in industrial hygiene technology from lambton college. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive bachelor of science the equivalent of twenty courses towards their biochemistry (honours) biochemistry degree. 834 fanshawe m n o a b c d e f graduates of the fanshawe college developmental services worker diploma program who have a cumulative grade point 19980930 bachelor of social work average equivalent to b or higher are eligible to apply. g h students must complete a transfer credit for up to five semester miniumum of 35 semesterlong long courses consisting of nonmajor, courses (17.5 full courses) to introductorylevel social science complete this bachelor of social courses will be awarded. work degree. i students will complete a bachelor of social work degree in 7 semesters (3.5 years). j honours bachelor of social work deg k l 2.7 or b b b transfer agreement wind b b 835 fanshawe honours bachelor of fine arts (visual arts) program deg b b transfer agreement wind deg b 836 fanshawe two and a half years, five semesters. deg must complete a minimum of two student may receive the equivalent of years (20 semester courses, 10 full up to 20 course equivalents (10 full credits) for a honours bachelor of two years, four semesters. credits). fine arts (visual arts) program. graduates of sheridan college who have completed a three year craft and design advanced diploma may apply for transfer into an appropriate level of the honours bachelor of fine arts (visual arts) program. transfer students must satisfy university regulations for transfer from colleges of applied arts and technology and meet the academic requirements and standards of the b.f.a. program. completion of the b.f.a. transfer credit may be granted for program in visual arts will normally require four terms of four semesters (10 courses, 20 academic work or the equivalent at the university of windsor. semester credits). bachelor of commerce (honours) in business administration bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors three and a half years, seven bachelor of social work semesters. (honours) transfer agreement wind students must complete a minimum of two and a half years (25 semester courses, 12.5 full credits) for a general ba degree. students must complete a minimum of three and a half years (35 semester courses, 17.5 full credits) for an honours bsw degree. 837 fleming students may receive the equivalent of up to five semester course equivalents (2.5 full credits) toward a bachelor of arts (general) degree. students may receive the equivalent of up to five semester course equivalents (2.5 full credits) toward an honours bachelor of social work degree. transfer agreement wind b 838 fleming b graduates of fanshawe college who have completed a three year fine art program may apply for transfer into an appropriate level of the honours bachelor of fine arts (visual arts) program. stundents must have a cumulative average of b (70%) and meet the academic requirements and standards of honours bachelor of the b.f.a. program. completion of the b.f.a. program in visual fine arts (visual arts) arts will normally require four terms of academic work or the equivalent at the university of windsor. not posted program students who have completed the oneyear certificate in general arts and science university transfer at sir sandford bachelor of arts fleming with a cumulative average grade of b and have passed (general), multiple the respective college courses with a grade of b or better are eligible to apply. 20050401 majors students who have completed the oneyear certificate in general arts and science university transfer at sir sandford fleming with a cumulative average grade of b and have passed bachelor of social work the respective college courses with a grade of b or better are eligible to apply. 20050401 (honours) students who have completed the oneyear certificate in general arts and science university transfer at sir sandford fleming with a cumulative average grade of b and have passed the respective college courses with a grade of b or better are eligible to apply. must complete a minimum of one and a half years (13 semester courses, 6.5 full credits) of a one and a half years, three bachelor of science degree. semesters. deg bachelor of arts (honours), multiple 20050401 majors the student may receive up to the equivalent of 17 semster courses (8.5 full credits) towards their bachelor of science degree. must complete a minimum of two and a half years (23 semester courses, 11.5 full credits) of a biological sciences degree. must complete a minimum of two years (23 semester courses, 11.5 full credits) of a biochemistry degree. students must complete a minimum of three and a half years bachelor of arts (35 semester courses, 17.5 full three and a half years, seven (honours), multiple credits) for an honours ba degree. semesters. majors transfer agreement wind graduates of mohawk college's threeyear diploma in medical laboratory technology with a 3.0 g.p.a. (75% or equivalent) may receive the equivalent of seventeen semester course credits towards a (general) bachelor of science degree. the student may receive up to the equivalent of 17 semster courses (8.5 full credits) towards their biological sciences degree. the student may receive up to the equivalent of 17 semster courses (8.5 full credits) towards their biochemistry degree. bachelor of arts (multiple majors) bachelor of science graduates of mohawk college's threeyear diploma in medical bachelor of science laboratory technology with a 3.0 g.p.a. (75% or equivalent) (honours) biological may receive the equivalent of seventeen semester course sciences credits towards a biological sciences degree. graduates of mohawk college's threeyear diploma in medical laboratory technology with a 3.0 g.p.a. (75% or equivalent) bachelor of science may receive the equivalent of seventeen semester course (honours) biochemistry credits towards a biochemistry degree. students may receive the equivalent of up to five semester course equivalents (2.5 full credits) toward a bachelor of arts (honours) degree. 839 fleming b 3.0 g.p.a. (75n/a not posted 2.7 gpa n/a deg transfer agreement wind completion of the b.f.a. program in visual arts will normally require four terms (two years) of academic work honours bachelor of fine or the equivalent at the arts degree from the university of windsor. school of visual arts deg b b bachelor of science 840 mohawk honours = three years, six semesters; general = two full bachelor of arts (multiple years, four semesters. majors) deg b 3.0 g.p.a. (75n/a deg deg not posted students must complete a minimum of four semesters (two years) at the university of windsor. students must complete a minimum of 30 semester courses (15 full credits, three academic years) for an honours degree or 20 semester courses (10 full credits, two academic years) for a general ba at the university of windsor. students can complete the degree is four five semesters (2 2.5 years), depending on courseload. bachelor of science (honours) biological sciences transfer agreement wind not posted accepted students will receive a maximum of ten semester courses (5 full credits) towards any bachelor of arts program they choose. students must complete a minimum of 23 semester courses (11.5 full credits, approximately two to two and a half academic years) at the university of windsor. required courses are specific to the bachelor of commerce program. two and a half years, five semesters. 841 mohawk transfer agreement wind bachelor of fine arts 20000501 (honours) graduates of the twoyear liberal arts diploma program from seneca college may receive transfer credit for up to ten courses. transfer credit is awarded for approved courses with a minimum grade of b. applicants may be granted a maximum of seventeen semester courses (8.5 full credits) towards the bachelor of commerce program. a remedial course in mathematics may be necessary in order for transfer students to pursue the firstyear mathematics course required in the bachelor of commerce program. 3.0 g.p.a. (75n/a 842 mohawk transfer agreement wind not posted graduates of threeyear ontario college advanced diploma business programs with a minimum cumulative average of b or better and a minimum grade of b in each transferable course or minimum cumulative average of b for each grouping of transferable courses are eligible to apply. accepted students may enter the honours business administration program after completing a threeyear advanced diploma in business program from any ontario college of applied arts and technology. such graduates may be granted up to seventeen semester course credits towards the bachelor of commerce (honours) in business administration degree. deg 843 sheridan transfer agreement wind bachelor of commerce 20090611 (honours) bachelor of science (honours) biochemistry 844 seneca general/degree spec wind two and a half years, five semesters. 845 m n o a b c d e j k l b i 70% h deg g bachelor of arts (general), multiple majors f two and a half years, five semesters. na applicants may be granted up to five semester courses (2.5 full credits) towards the bachelor of arts (general) degree. b b graduates of twoyear ontario college diploma protection, security & investigations (formerly law and security administration) programs with a minimum cumulative average of b or 70% and a minimum grade of b in each transferable course are eligible to apply. accepted students may enter the bachelor of arts (general) program after completing a two year diploma in protection, security & investigations (formerly law and security administration) from any ontario college of applied arts and technology. students that graduated from the former law and security administration program also fall under this transfer credit pathway. deg 2.7 bachelor of arts (general), multiple 20030604 majors bachelor of arts (honours) in disability studies deg general/degree spec wind three years (six academic semesters). bachelor of commerce (honours business administration) 846 three years (six semesters). students must complete a minimum of two and a half years (25 semester courses, 12.5 full credits) for a general ba degree. students must complete a minimum of 30 semester courses (15 full credits, approximately three academic years) at the university of windsor. overall course requirements: no more than 7 courses can be at the 100 level; in cases where a student previously completed a university course or courses, the course(s) will not be used to fulfil the thirty course degree requirements if they were used by the college of applied arts and technology to grant advanced standing to the diploma program. in such cases, the interdisciplinary disability studies committee will identify a substitute course requirement. major requirements: 18 courses, including:(a) two courses: 0246 115/0246116 (introductory psychology) (b) four disability studiesemphasis courses: 38101; 47210; two of: 0101204, 0101 209, 0124378, 0124471, 0126 accepted students will receive 10 semester courses (5 full credits) towards an honours bachelor of arts degree in disability studies. students must complete a minimum of 30 semester courses (15 full credits, approximately three academic years) at the university of windsor. b general/degree spec wind applicants may be granted a maximum of ten semester courses (5 full credits) towards the bachelor of commerce program. a remedial course in mathematics may be necessary in order for transfer students to pursue the firstyear mathematics course required in the bachelor of commerce program. 3.0 847 graduates of a twoyear diploma from an ontario college of applied arts and technology in health, human services or ba honours in disability social services programs with an overall b average or better studies for caat will be eligible for entry into the second year of the pre disability studies program. 20090601 graduate graduates of twoyear ontario college diploma programs in business with a minimum cumulative average of b are eligible to apply for transfer credit to the odette school of business administration at the university of windsor subject to the following: (a) applicants will be granted a maximum of two terms credit towards the bachelor of commerce program. (b) a remedial course in mathematics may be necessary in order for transfer students to pursue the firstyear mathematics course required in the bachelor of commerce (honours) in business administration degree. deg bachelor of commerce 20090611 (honours) bachelor of computer science (general) general/degree spec wind students can complete the required university of windsor courses over two academic years (four semesters). 848 students must complete a minimum of two years (17 semester courses, 8.5 full credits) for a general bachelor of computer science degree. bachelor of computer 20110211 science students admitted to the bachelor of computer science (general) degree completion program will obtain the equivalent of 1.3 years of advanced standing. students will be awarded 13 semester course transfers (6.5 full credits). additional credit for courses taken toward the caat diploma will not be permitted. general/degree spec wind graduates of threeyear computer science, computer engineering, computer systems, computer programming or information technology advanced diploma programs from an ontario college of applied arts and technology (caat with a gradepoint average of at least 3.0 out of 4.0 (or a cumulative average of at least a b grade), are eligible, within 10 years of graduation, to apply. graduates may apply for admission to the bachelor of computer science (general) degree program offered by the school of computer science at the university of windsor under the provisions of this agreement. in addition to the appropriate threeyear advanced diploma and grade point average, applicants to the bachelor of computer science (general) degree completion program are required to have successfully completed grade 12u advanced functions. the successful completion of grade 12u calculus and vectors is strongly recommended. 849 m n o a b c d e l b k i 3.0 gpa j h deg f g graduates of threeyear computer science, computer engineering, computer systems, computer programming or information technology advanced diploma programs from an ontario college of applied arts and technology (caat with a gradepoint average of at least 3.0 out of 4.0 or a cumulative average of at least a b grade), are eligible, within 10 years of graduation, to apply. any computing advanced diploma program from an ontario college of applied arts and technology (caat), that is broadly equivalent to the three year advanced diploma program t861 (computer systems technology networking) offered by st. clair college of applied arts and technology at windsor, ontario, with a grade point average of at least 3.0 out of 4.0 (or a cumulative average of at least a b grade), are eligible, within 10 years of graduation, for admission to bachelor of computer science (honours applied computing) degree program offered by the school of computer science at the university of windsor under the provisions of this agreement. graduates of caat program, students admitted to the bachelor of specified above, applying to the university of windsor for the computer science (general) degree bachelor of computer science (honours applied computing) completion program will obtain the degree program more than 10 years after completing the equivalent of 1.3 years of advanced diploma program, with a grade point average of at least 3.0 standing. students will be awarded 13 out of 4.0 (or a cumulative average of at least a b), will require semester course transfers (6.5 full the approval of the director of the school of computer credits). additional credit for courses science. in addition to the appropriate threeyear advanced taken toward the caat diploma will diploma and grade point average, applicants to the bachelor of not be permitted. bachelor of computer science (honours) in applied computing bachelor of computer science (honours) 20110311 applied computing b students can complete the required university of windsor courses over three academic years (six semesters). general/degree spec wind 2.7 gpa students must complete a minimum of three years (27 semester courses, 13.5 full credits) for a bachelor of computer science (honours) applied computing degree. 850 deg b b graduates of threeyear ontario college advanced diploma programs in business administration with a cumulative 3.0 gpa or b average are eligible to apply. applicants must still meet admissions requirements for the faculty of arts and social sciences labour studies program. must complete a minimum of three and a half years (35 semester bachelor of arts courses, 17.5 full credits) for an three and a half years, seven (honours), multiple honours ba degree. semesters. majors 2.7 gpa 3.0 gpa bachelor of arts (general labour 20110311 studies) graduates of a developmental services worker program who have a cumulative grade point average equivalent b/2.7 are eligible to apply. deg bachelor of arts (general labour studies) deg general/degree spec wind bachelor of arts (honours), multiple 20000501 majors must complete a minimum of three and a half years (35 semester courses, 17.5 full credits) for a bachelor of social work honours three and a half years, seven bachelor of social work degree. semesters. (honours) students can complete the required university of windsor courses over one and a half academic years (three semesters). 851 general/degree spec wind graduates of a developmental services worker program who bachelor of social work have a cumulative grade point average equivalent b/2.7 are eligible to apply. 20000501 (honours) students must complete a minimum of one and a half years (15 semester courses, 7.5 full credits) for a bachelor of arts (general) in labour studies degree. major requirements: a) thirteen labour studies courses: 54100, 54 105, 54200, 54204, 54/48225 or 54/34237, 54301, 54318, 54/48 326, 54/48332, 54/43349, 54/46 370, 54/53300, and 54401. other requirements: b) 01150 and 01 151.** (**where the applicant has completed courses equivalent admitted applicants will be awarded to 01150 and 01151, two other 15 semester course transfers (7.5 full courses from any area of study will credits). be substituted by the applicant. 852 general/degree spec wind depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to five semester course equivalents (2.5 full credits). transfer credit is awarded for approved courses with a minimum grade of b for courses consisting of nonmajor, introductorylevel courses toward a bachelor of arts (honours) degree (multiple majors). depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to five semester course equivalents (2.5 full credits). transfer credit is awarded for approved courses with a minimum grade of b for courses consisting of nonmajor, introductorylevel courses toward a bachelor of social work (honours) degree. 853 m n o a b c d e f graduates of threeyear ontario college advanced diploma programs in business administration with a cumulative 3.0 gpa or a b average are eligible to apply. g h i students must complete a minimum of two and a half years (25 semester courses, 12.5 full credits) for a bachelor of arts (honours labour studies) degree. of the 25 courses, no more than 7 can at the 100level.major requirements: a) fifteen labour studies courses: 54100, 54105, 54 200, 54204, 54/48225 or 54/34 237, 54/48326, 54301, 54318, 54/43349, 54/46370, 54/53300*, 54401, 54410 (double credit), 54/48428. other requirements: a) 01150 and 01151** b) 02250; c) one of 40234, 45275, 48210, or 48310; d) six courses from any area of study, with at least one at the 200level or above. (*a new course is being submitted with the title workplace equality, **where the applicant has completed students can complete the courses equivalent to 01150 and required university of admitted applicants will be awarded 01151, two other courses from windsor courses over two 15 semester course transfers (7.5 full any area of study will be and a half academic years credits). substituted by the applicant.) (five semesters minimum). j l b k 3.0 gpa bachelor of arts (honours labour studies) deg b bachelor of arts (honours labour 20110311 studies) 70% general/degree spec wind deg b 854 students must complete a minimum of three and a half years bachelor of arts (35 semester courses, 17.5 full three and a half years, seven (honours), multiple credits) for an honours ba degree. semesters. majors b bachelor of arts (honours), multiple 20030604 majors deg general/degree spec wind must complete a minimum of three and a half years (35 semester bachelor of arts courses, 17.5 full credits) for an three and a half years, seven (honours), multiple honours ba degree. semesters. majors 855 graduates of twoyear ontario college diploma protection, security & investigations (formerly law and security administration) programs with a minimum cumulative average of b or 70% and a minimum grade of b in each transferable course are eligible to apply. accepted students may enter the bachelor of arts (honours) program after completing a two year diploma in protection, security & investigations (formerly law and security administration) from any ontario college of applicants may be granted up to five applied arts and technology. students that graduated from semester courses (2.5 full credits) the former law and security administration program also fall towards the bachelor of arts under this transfer credit pathway. (honours) degree. depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to five graduates of the twoyear social service worker diploma semester course equivalents (2.5 full program with a cumulative average grade of b or better with a credits) toward a bachelor of arts grade of b or better in all courses eligible to apply. (honours) degree. bachelor of arts (honours), multiple 20010924 majors b general/degree spec wind b 856 deg students may receive the equivalent of up to ten semester course equivalents (5 full credits) toward a bachelor of arts (honours) degree. students who have completed the twoyear certificate in general arts and science diploma with a cumulative average grade of b and have passed the respective college courses with a grade of b or better are eligible to apply. bachelor of arts (honours), multiple majors not posted students must complete a minimum of three and a half years (30 semester courses, 15 full credits) for an honours ba degree. three years, six semesters. general/degree spec wind bachelor of arts (honours), multiple majors 857 bachelor of computer science (honours) b applicants may be granted up to five semester courses (2.5 full credits) towards the bachelor of social work (honours) degree. students can complete the required university of windsor courses over three academic years (six semesters). 70% graduates of twoyear ontario college diploma protection, security & investigations (formerly law and security administration) programs with a minimum cumulative average of b or 70% and a minimum grade of b in each transferable course are eligible to apply. accepted students may enter the bachelor of social work (honours) program after completing a twoyear diploma in protection, security & investigations (formerly law and security administration) from any ontario college of applied arts and technology. students that bachelor of social work graduated from the former law and security administration program also fall under this transfer credit pathway. 20030604 (honours) students must complete a minimum of three years (27 semester courses 13.5 full credits) for a honours bachelor of computer science degree. deg general/degree spec wind students admitted to the bachelor of computer science (honours) degree completion program will obtain the equivalent of 1.3 years of advanced standing. students will be awarded 13 semester course transfers (6.5 full credits). additional credit for courses taken toward the caat diploma will not be permitted. students must complete a minimum of three and a half years (35 semester courses, 17.5 full credits) for an honours bsw three and a half years, seven bachelor of social work degree. semesters. (honours) 858 graduates of threeyear computer science, computer engineering, computer systems, computer programming or information technology advanced diploma programs from an ontario college of applied arts and technology (caat with a gradepoint average of at least 3.0 out of 4.0 or a cumulative average of at least a b grade), are eligible, within 10 years of graduation, to apply. graduates may apply for admission to the bachelor of computer science (honours) degree program offered by the school of computer science at the university of windsor under the provisions of this agreement. in addition to the appropriate threeyear advanced diploma and grade point average, applicants to the bachelor of computer science (honours) degree completion program are required to have successfully completed grade 12u advanced functions. the successful completion of grade 12u calculus and vectors is strongly recommended. b bachelor of computer 20110211 science (honours) 3.0 general/degree spec wind deg 859 m n o 861 860 wind general/degree spec wind general/degree spec wind general/degree spec wind not posted not posted c 862 general not posted b 863 transfer agreement york not posted applicants who have graduated from a college of applied arts and technology threeyear program with a cumulative average successful applicants will receive one undergraduate degree of b will be considered for admission to second year of an year (two full terms) of advanced (multiple disciplines) appropriate program. standing in an appropriate degree. students of seneca's biotechnology technologist (research) advanced diploma who have completed five semesters with a normally applicants will receive 45 minimum grade point average of 3.3 (b+ or 75%) will be credits (equivalent of one and a half eligible for admission consideration, and granted 45 transfer years of university study) for five credits into the bachelor of science (technology) degree (bsc) semesters of the biotechnology in applied biotechnology. applicants must be recommended technologist (research) advanced applied biotechnology by seneca's program coordinator. diploma. students of seneca's liberal arts diploma who have completed one year with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%), and two 3credit yorkapproved seneca courses with a minimum grade of c in each, will be eligible for admission normally upon successful completion consideration. during the second year of the program, of all requirements, students will students must complete a specific 9credit course at york receive 42 credits (equivalent to one university and two 3credit yorkapproved courses at seneca, and a half years of university study) with a minimum grade of c in each. successful candidates who for the liberal arts diploma and 9 meet all of the above criteria are granted 42 transfer credits york university credits during their and may continue at york university to complete their studies at seneca, for a total of 51 undecided major honours bachelor of arts (ba) degree. credits. normally applicants will receive 45 credits (equivalent of one and a half years of university study) for the chemical laboratory technology pharmaceutical or chemical engineering technology advanced diploma. a 864 seneca transfer agreement york not posted administrative studies b l b n/a k deg b j bachelor of social work (honours). deg 3.3/b+/75% na bachelor of arts honours in disability studies students will be required to complete two full years (four semesters) or three full years (six semesters) depending on undergraduate degree degree chosen. (multiple disciplines) c n/a york university undergraduate degree bachelor of science (technology) applied biotechnology deg 3.0/b/70% na b two years (four semesters) of a three year degree or three years (six semesters) of a four year degree. students will have to complete 45 credits (normally one and a half years) for a bachelor of science (technology) degree (90 credits). york university undergraduate degree honours bachelor of arts (ba) deg 3.0/b/70% c bachelor of arts general labour studies deg students will have to complete 45 credits (normally one and a half years) for a bachelor of science (technology) degree (90 credits). students will have to complete 69 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of arts (ba) degree (120 credits). york university undergraduate degree honours bachelor of science (bsc) in chemistry (multiple majors) deg 3.0/b/70% n/a students will have to complete 69 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of arts (ba) degree (120 credits). students will have to complete a minimum of 75 credits (normally two and a half years) for an honours bachelor of science (bsc) degree (120 credits). york university undergraduate degree bachelor of administrative studies (bas) deg b students will have to complete a minimum of 75 credits (normally two and a half years) for an honours bachelor of science (bsc) degree (120 credits). students will have to complete a minimum of 45 credits (normally one and a half years) for a bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree (90 credits). deg students will have to complete a minimum of 45 credits (normally one and a half years) for a bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree (90 credits). normally applicants will receive 45 credits (equivalent of one and a half years of university study) for the accounting and finance advanced diploma. c graduates of seneca's accounting and finance advanced diploma with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) will be eligible for transfer credit consideration, and upon admission granted 45 transfer credits into the bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree. graduates who meet admission requirements, which may include a higher grade point average, and maintain a c or better in every course completed are eligible for 45 transfer credits. for admission to the bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree, students are required to have completed one 4u mathematics mhf4u (advanced functions), or the equivalent. 3.0/b/70% students will have to complete a minimum of 72 credits (normally two and a half years) for an honours bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree (120 credits). york university undergraduate degree honours bachelor of administrative studies (bas) deg normally applicants will receive 48 credits (equivalent of one and a half years of university study) for the accounting and finance advanced diploma. na students will have to complete 60 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of environmental studies (bes) degree (120 credits). 3.0/b/70% normally applicants will receive 60 credits (equivalent of two years of university study) for the civil engineering technology (cvt) advanced diploma. york university undergraduate degree honours bachelor of environmental studies (bes) deg graduates of seneca's accounting and finance advanced diploma with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) will be eligible for transfer credit consideration, and upon admission granted 48 transfer credits into the honours bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree. graduates who meet admission requirements, which may include a higher grade point average, and maintain a c or better in every course completed are eligible for 48 transfer credits. for admission to the honours bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree, students are required to have completed one 4u mathematics mhf4u (advanced functions), or the equivalent. graduates of seneca's civil engineering technology (cvt) advanced diploma with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) will be eligible for admission consideration, and granted 60 transfer credits into the honours bachelor of environmental studies degree, specializing in urban sustainability. students will have to complete a minimum of 72 credits (normally two and a half years) for an honours bachelor of administrative studies (bas) degree (120 credits). students will have to complete 60 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of environmental studies (bes) degree (120 credits). d e f g h i depending upon the selected level and area of study, the student may receive the equivalent of up to five must complete a minimum of graduates of the twoyear social service worker diploma semester course equivalents (2.5 full three and a half years (35 semester bachelor of social work program with a cumulative average grade of b or better with a credits) toward a bachelor of social courses, 17.5 full credits) for a three and a half years, seven grade of b or better in all courses eligible to apply. work (honours) degree. bachelor of social work (honours) semesters. 20010924 (honours) graduates of a minimum of a twoyear diploma from a college the student may receive the of applied arts and technology diploma in an area of health, equivalent of 10 semster courses (5.0 must complete a minimum of bachelor of arts human services or social services with an overall b average or full credits) towards their bachelor of three years (30 semester courses, honours in disability better may be admitted into second year of the predisability arts honours in disability studies 15 full credits) for a bachelor of studies program. degree. arts honours in disability studies. three years, six semesters. not posted studies must complete a minimum of one and a half years (15 semester courses, 7.5 full credits) of a bachelor of arts general labour one and a half years, three studies degree. semesters. 865 seneca transfer agreement york not posted administrative studies the student may receive the equivalent of 15 semster courses (7.5 full credits) towards their bachelor of arts general labour studies degree. 866 seneca transfer agreement york not posted environmental studies (urban sustainabilty) graduates of a 3 year caat business administration diploma with minimum b cumulative average may be admitted into bachelor of arts second year of the bachelor of arts general labour studies general labour studies program. 867 seneca transfer agreement york not posted graduates of seneca's chemical laboratory technology pharmaceutical or chemical engineering technology advanced diploma programs with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) will be eligible for admission consideration, and granted 45 transfer credits into the bachelor of science (bsc) degree in chemisty (multiple majors available). 868 seneca transfer agreement york bsc chemistry 869 seneca m n o d transfer agreement york c 870 sheridan transfer agreement york b 871 sheridan transfer agreement york a e f graduates of sheridan's media arts advanced diploma with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) will be eligible for admission consideration, and granted 60 transfer credits under this agreement. students may apply to the honours bachelor of fine arts (bfa) degree in film (screenwriting or film production). as part of the admission process, the york university department of film program coordinator may request an interview and/or a portfolio of the applicant's work. the joint program is a consecutive program not open to students with a time gap since they graduated from sheridan. g normally applicants will receive 60 credits (equivalent of two years of university study) for the theatre performance advanced diploma. l na k 3.0/b/70% na j york university undergraduate degree honours bachelor of fine arts (bfa) in film (screenwriting or film production) deg 3.0/b/70% na i students will have to complete 60 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of fine arts (bfa) degree in film (120 credits). york university undergraduate degree honours bachelor of arts (ba) in film (cinema & media studies) deg 3.0/b/70% na h students will have to complete 60 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of fine arts (bfa) degree in film (120 credits). students will have to complete 60 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of arts (ba) degree (120 credits). york university undergraduate degree honours bachelor of fine arts (bfa) in theatre deg 3.0/b/70% normally applicants will receive 60 credits (equivalent of two years of university study) for the media arts advanced diploma. film (screenwriting or film production) students will have to complete 60 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of arts (ba) degree (120 credits). york university undergraduate degree honours bachelor of environmental studies (bes) deg not posted students will have to complete 60 credits students will have to complete 60 (normally two years) for an credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of fine honours bachelor of fine arts arts (bfa) degree (120 (bfa) degree (120 credits). credits). students will have to complete 60 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of environmental studies (bes) degree (120 credits). normally applicants will receive 60 credits (equivalent of two years of university study) for the media arts advanced diploma. 872 humber not posted students will have to complete 60 credits (normally two years) for an honours bachelor of environmental studies (bes) degree (120 credits). na york university undergraduate degree (honours bachelor's) 3.0/b/70% students will have to complete a minimum of 78 credits (normally 2.5 years) for an honours bachelor's degree (120 credits). deg normally applicants will receive 60 credits (equivalent of two years of university study) for the ecosystem management technology advanced diploma. transfer agreement york environmental studies (environmental management) history, children's studies, undecided major, sociology, law and society, criminology, english, children's studies, communication studies, humanities, information technology. professional writing, administrative studies, business and society, economics. business economics, financial and business economics. human resources management, public administration, social work, sociology, political science, environmental studies, psychology, kinesiology and health science, health studies, chemistry, computer graduates of sheridan's media arts advanced diploma with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) will be eligible for admission consideration, and granted 60 transfer credits under this agreement. students may apply to the honours bachelor of arts (ba) degree in film (cinema and media studies). as part of the admission process, the york university department of film program coordinator may request an interview and/or a portfolio of the applicant's work. the joint film (cinema and media program is a consecutive program not open to students with a time gap since they graduated from sheridan. not posted studies) graduates of humbers's theatre performance advanced diploma with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) will be eligible for admission consideration, and granted 60 transfer credits into the honours bachelor of fine arts (bfa) degree in theatre (acting). graduates of humber's theatre performance advanced diploma prior to 2004 are not eligible for this agreement. to be admitted, students must be recommended by the director of the theatre performance program at humber, and successful in an interview/evaluation with the department of theatre. continuation in and graduation from the program will require that students achieve overall and major gpas of at least 5.0 (c+) on the work completed at york university. 20040415 theatre (acting) graduates of fleming's ecosystem management technology advanced diploma with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) will be eligible for admission consideration and granted 60 transfer credits into the honours bachelor in environmental studies (bes) degree, specializing in environmental management. 873 fleming not posted students will have to complete a minimum of 78 credits (normally 2.5 years) for an honours bachelor's degree (120 credits). york normally applicants will receive 42 credits (equivalent of one and a half years of university study) for a three year advanced diploma program, depending on the program. general applicants who have completed a threeyear (six semester) ontario college advanced diploma with sufficient amount of academic content (identified by york as a "highly academic" program ex. business, child & youth worker, early childhood education, general arts & science, liberal arts, police foundations, social services worker) and have achieved a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) and any specified prerequisites may be considered for admission to york university and will be eligible for transfer credit assessment. 874 m n o york not posted not posted d general york not posted c 875 general york b 876 general a 877 e history, children's studies, undecided major, sociology, law and society, criminology, english, children's studies, communication studies, humanities, information technology. professional writing, administrative studies, business and society, economics. business economics, financial and business economics. human resources management, public administration, social work, sociology, political science, environmental studies, psychology, kinesiology and health science, health studies, chemistry, computer history, children's studies, undecided major, sociology, law and society, criminology, english, children's studies, communication studies, humanities, information technology. professional writing, administrative studies, business and society, economics. business economics, financial and business economics. human resources management, public administration, social work, sociology, political science, environmental studies, psychology, kinesiology and health science, health studies, chemistry, computer history, children's studies, undecided major, sociology, law and society, criminology, english, children's studies, communication studies, humanities, information technology. professional writing, administrative studies, business and society, economics. business economics, financial and business economics. human resources management, public administration, social work, sociology, political science, environmental studies, psychology, kinesiology and health science, health studies, chemistry, computer g students will have to complete a minimum of 90 credits (normally 3 years) for an honours bachelor's degree (120 credits). h students will have to complete a minimum of 90 credits (normally 3 years) for york university an honours bachelor's undergraduate degree degree (120 credits). (honours bachelor's) students will have to complete a minimum of 90 credits (normally 3 years) for york university an honours bachelor's undergraduate degree degree (120 credits). (honours bachelor's) deg deg deg 3.0/b/70% 3.0/b/70% 3.0/b/70% na na na l f normally applicants receive 30 credits (equivalent of one year of university study) for a two or threeyear diploma or advanced diploma program, depending on the program. students will have to complete a minimum of 90 credits (normally 3 years) for an honours bachelor's degree (120 credits). students will have to complete a minimum of 96 credits (normally 3 years) for york university an honours bachelor's undergraduate degree degree (120 credits). (honours bachelor's) k applicants who have completed a two or threeyear (four or six semester) ontario college diploma or advanced diploma with sufficient amount of academic content (identified by york as a "highly academic" program ex. business, child & youth worker, early childhood education, general arts & science, liberal arts, police foundations, social services worker) and have achieved a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) and any specified prerequisites may be considered for admission to york university and will be eligible for transfer credit assessment. normally applicants receive 30 credits (equivalent of one year of university study) for a two or threeyear diploma or advanced diploma program, depending on the program. students will have to complete a minimum of 96 credits (normally 3 years) for an honours bachelor's degree (120 credits). j applicants who have completed a threeyear (six semester) ontario college diploma or advanced diploma with sufficient amount of academic content (identified by york as a "strongly academic" program ex. computer engineering technology, fitness & lifestyle management, graphic design, law clerk, prehealth science) and have achieved a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) and any specified prerequisites may be considered for admission to york university and will be eligible for transfer credit assessment. normally applicants will receive 24 credits (equivalent of one year of university study) for a twoyear diploma program, depending on the program. i applicants who have completed a twoyear (four semester) ontario college diploma with sufficient amount of academic content (identified by york as a "strongly academic" program ex. computer engineering technology, fitness & lifestyle management, graphic design, law clerk, prehealth science) and have achieved a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) and any specified prerequisites may be considered for admission to york university and will be eligible for transfer credit assessment. m n o not posted d york not posted c general york b 878 general a 879 e history, children's studies, undecided major, sociology, law and society, criminology, english, children's studies, communication studies, humanities, information technology. professional writing, administrative studies, business and society, economics. business economics, financial and business economics. human resources management, public administration, social work, sociology, political science, environmental studies, psychology, kinesiology and health science, health studies, chemistry, computer history, children's studies, undecided major, sociology, law and society, criminology, english, children's studies, communication studies, humanities, information technology. professional writing, administrative studies, business and society, economics. business economics, financial and business economics. human resources management, public administration, social work, sociology, political science, environmental studies, psychology, kinesiology and health science, health studies, chemistry, computer l na k 3.0/b/70% na j deg 3.0/b/70% i students will have to complete a minimum of 99 credits (normally 3 to 3.5 years) for an honours bachelor's degree (120 credits). deg h students will have to complete a minimum of 99 credits (normally 3 to 3.5 years) for an honours bachelor's degree (120 credits). students will have to complete a minimum of 105 credits (normally 3.5 years) york university for an honours bachelor's undergraduate degree degree (120 credits). (honours bachelor's) g normally applicants will receive 21 credits (equivalent of over one semester of university study) for a threeyear diploma program, depending on the program. students will have to complete a minimum of 105 credits (normally 3.5 years) for an honours bachelor's degree (120 credits). f applicants who have completed a threeyear (six semester) ontario college diploma or advanced diploma with sufficient amount of academic content (identified by york as a "sufficiently academic" program ex. civil engineering technician, corporate communication, ecotourism) and have achieved a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) and any specified prerequisites may be considered for admission to york university and will be eligible for transfer credit assessment. normally applicants will receive 15 credits (equivalent of one semester of university study) for a twoyear diploma program, depending on the program. york university undergraduate degree (honours bachelor's) applicants who have completed a twoyear (four semester) ontario college diploma with sufficient amount of academic content (identified by york as a "sufficiently academic" program ex. civil engineering technician, corporate communication, ecotourism) and have achieved a minimum overall grade point average of 3.0 (b or 70%) and any specified prerequisites may be considered for admission to york university and will be eligible for transfer credit assessment. m n o

ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire eric lav ig ne, a m an da b rijm ohan, jinl i y ang, m ary cath arine lennon cihe report 2016.02 a report to the ontario council for articulation and transfer appendix c institutional profiles (colleges) public policy and the attraction of international postsecondary students a report by: pathways to education and work group ontario institute for studies in education (oise) university of toronto 252 bloor st. west, 6th floor toronto, ontario m5s 1v6 canada www.oise.utoronto.ca/cihe please cite this publication as: brijmohan, a., yang, j., lavigne, e. & lennon, m.c. (2016) ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire, appendix c institutional profiles (colleges). toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. table of contents algonquin college ......................................................................................................................................... 4 cambrian college ........................................................................................................................................ 45 canadore college ........................................................................................................................................ 55 centennial college of applied arts and technology ................................................................................... 65 collge boral ............................................................................................................................................. 80 conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning.......................................................... 90 confederation college .............................................................................................................................. 124 durham college of applied arts and technology ..................................................................................... 139 fanshawe college of applied arts and technology .................................................................................. 151 fleming college ......................................................................................................................................... 167 george brown college of applied arts and technology ........................................................................... 182 georgian college ....................................................................................................................................... 200 humber college institute of technology and advanced learning ........................................................... 219 la cit collgiale ....................................................................................................................................... 245 lambton college ....................................................................................................................................... 258 loyalist college ......................................................................................................................................... 270 mohawk college of applied arts and technology .................................................................................... 280 niagara college of applied arts and technology ...................................................................................... 290 northern college ....................................................................................................................................... 315 sault college.............................................................................................................................................. 322 sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning .......................................................... 332 st. clair college of applied arts and technology ...................................................................................... 368 st. lawrence college ................................................................................................................................. 383 page 3 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college algonquin college of applied arts and technology is a publicly funded english-language college and member of polytechnics canada located in ottawa, ontario, canada. the college serves the national capital region and the outlying areas of eastern ontario, western quebec, and upstate new york. the college has three campuses; a primary campus located in ottawa, ontario, and secondary campuses located in perth, ontario, and pembroke, ontario. algonquin's focus is on technology and workplace needs. it has always been imperative for algonquin to stay ahead of emerging trends. there are over 16,000 full-time students in more than 180 programs. there are 155 ontario college programs, 18 apprenticeship programs, 16 co-op programs, 3 collaborative degree programs and 5 bachelor degree programs. algonquin offers the following bachelor degree programs: bachelor of applied arts (interior design); bachelor of applied business (ebusiness supply chain management); bachelor of applied business (hospitality and tourism management); bachelor of applied technology (photonics); and bachelor of building science. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/algonquin_college). partnership description: number 48 structure 20 universities, 24 public colleges, 3 aboriginal colleges geographical proximity 9 partners are within commutable range (>80 km) pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 582 1676 pathways with specific 1094 sending programs four generic sending programs are any ontario college advanced diploma, any ontario college certificate, any ontario college diploma and any university bachelor of arts degree. 10 specific sending programs are from 6 out of 22 colleges, college boreal, la cite, george brown college, northern college, sault college and seneca college page 4 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. page 5 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college table 1: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algoma university northern 782 8 0 12 12 algonquin college eastern 442 0 24 37 61 brock university southern 560 5 0 12 12 cambrian college northern 379 5 24 34 58 canadore college northern 329 4 24 32 56 carleton university* eastern 10 0 0 12 12 centennial college* metro toronto area 34 4 24 36 60 collge boral northern 372 5 24 31 55 conestoga college southern 89 5 24 36 60 confederation college northern 1364 16 24 35 59 durham college* central 59 4 24 34 58 fanshawe college southern 188 6 24 37 61 fleming college eastern 116 3 24 33 57 george brown college* metro toronto area 41 4 24 38 62 georgian college* central 81 5 24 39 63 humber college* metro toronto area 20 4 24 36 60 page 6 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 630 7 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 459 0 24 38 62 lakehead university northern 1449 16 0 12 12 lambton college western 285 7 24 33 57 laurentian university northern 478 5 0 12 12 le collge des grand lacs metro toronto area 441 4 0 1 1 loyalist college eastern 187 2 24 36 60 mcmaster university southern 509 5 0 12 12 mohawk college southern 88 5 24 37 61 niagara college southern 151 5 24 34 58 nipissing university northern 354 4 0 12 12 northern college northern 676 7 24 34 58 ocad university metro toronto area 441 4 0 12 12 ontario agricultural college southern 513 5 0 1 1 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1354 16 0 1 1 queen's university eastern 188 2 0 12 12 ryerson university metro toronto area 441 4 0 12 12 sault college northern 667 8 24 34 58 page 7 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways seneca college* metro toronto area 21 4 24 35 59 sheridan college* metro toronto area 46 4 24 35 59 six nations polytechnic institute southern 119 5 0 1 1 st. clair college western 791 8 24 38 62 st. lawrence college eastern 264 2 24 34 58 the michener institute metro toronto area 443 4 6 3 10 trent university eastern 264 3 0 12 12 university of guelph southern 513 5 0 12 12 university of ontario institute of technology central 391 4 0 12 12 university of ottawa* eastern 14 0 0 12 12 university of toronto metro toronto area 441 4 0 12 12 university of waterloo southern 540 5 0 12 12 university of windsor southern 800 7 0 12 12 western university southern 625 6 0 12 12 wilfrid laurier university southern 539 5 0 12 12 york university metro toronto area 442 4 0 12 12 582 1094 1676 grand total * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 8 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that algonquin college has formal agreements to accept students from. algonquin college enables specific and generic pathways to their programs. first listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at algonquin college. table 2: pathways by sending program algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate algonquin college total degree arts, fine arts and culture 74 72 72 4 222 any ontario college advanced diploma 24 24 24 72 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 page 9 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 26 24 24 74 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 any ontario college certificate page 10 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 le collge des grand lacs 1 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 the michener institute 1 any ontario college diploma 1 1 24 24 24 72 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 page 11 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 page 12 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions st. lawrence college college advanced diploma (3 yr) 1 college diploma (2 yr) college certificate 1 algonquin college total degree 1 design d'intrieur 3 1 1 1 1 3 3 fanshawe college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 la cit collgiale interior design arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities 20 20 20 60 any university bachelor of arts degree 20 20 20 60 algoma university 1 1 1 3 brock university 1 1 1 3 carleton university 1 1 1 3 lakehead university 1 1 1 3 laurentian university 1 1 1 3 mcmaster university 1 1 1 3 nipissing university 1 1 1 3 ocad university 1 1 1 3 queen's university 1 1 1 3 ryerson university 1 1 1 3 page 13 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total trent university 1 1 1 3 university of guelph 1 1 1 3 of technology 1 1 1 3 university of ottawa 1 1 1 3 university of toronto 1 1 1 3 university of waterloo 1 1 1 3 university of windsor 1 1 1 3 western university 1 1 1 3 wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 3 york university 1 1 1 3 20 20 20 60 20 20 20 60 algoma university 1 1 1 3 brock university 1 1 1 3 carleton university 1 1 1 3 lakehead university 1 1 1 3 laurentian university 1 1 1 3 mcmaster university 1 1 1 3 nipissing university 1 1 1 3 ocad university 1 1 1 3 university of ontario institute business any university business degree page 14 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total queen's university 1 1 1 3 ryerson university 1 1 1 3 trent university 1 1 1 3 university of guelph 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 university of ottawa 1 1 1 3 university of toronto 1 1 1 3 university of waterloo 1 1 1 3 university of windsor 1 1 1 3 western university 1 1 1 3 wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 3 york university 1 1 1 3 business/finance/administration 359 72 266 697 any ontario college advanced diploma 24 24 24 72 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 university of ontario institute of technology page 15 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 24 24 24 72 1 1 1 3 any ontario college certificate algonquin college page 16 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 page 17 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 24 24 24 72 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 any ontario college diploma page 18 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 page 19 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 page 20 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 business - human resources page 21 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 business - marketing page 22 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 page 23 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions st. lawrence college college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total 1 1 2 business administration accounting 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 page 24 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 business administration - general page 25 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 49 24 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 business administration - human resources page 26 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 1 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 48 24 72 business administration - page 27 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) degree algonquin college total marketing algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 page 28 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) algonquin college total degree seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 culinary/hospitality/tourism 19 19 1 1 1 1 2 2 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 hospitality and tourism management 2 2 conestoga college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 centennial college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 sault college 1 1 gestion htelire et de restaurant la cit collgiale hospitality administration - hotel and resort hospitality management - hotel fanshawe college hospitality management - hotel and resort page 29 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate hospitality management - hotel and restaurant algonquin college total degree 5 5 conestoga college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 cambrian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 hotel management 1 1 1 1 hospitality management - hotel, restaurant & resort confederation college hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and tourism durham college hotel and restaurant management george brown college health and medicine any university engineering and technology degree algoma university 20 20 20 60 1 1 1 1 page 30 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions any university health degree college advanced diploma (3 yr) 19 algoma university college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total 20 20 59 1 1 2 brock university 1 1 1 3 carleton university 1 1 1 3 lakehead university 1 1 1 3 laurentian university 1 1 1 3 mcmaster university 1 1 1 3 nipissing university 1 1 1 3 ocad university 1 1 1 3 queen's university 1 1 1 3 ryerson university 1 1 1 3 trent university 1 1 1 3 university of guelph 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 university of ottawa 1 1 1 3 university of toronto 1 1 1 3 university of waterloo 1 1 1 3 university of windsor 1 1 1 3 western university 1 1 1 3 wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 3 university of ontario institute of technology page 31 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions york university college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total 1 1 1 3 health, food and medical, recreation 75 75 75 225 any ontario college advanced diploma 25 25 25 75 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 page 32 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 the michener institute 1 1 1 3 25 25 25 75 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 any ontario college certificate page 33 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 the michener institute 1 1 1 3 25 25 25 75 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 any ontario college diploma page 34 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 the michener institute 1 1 1 3 72 72 72 science and engineering technology achitectural technology 57 273 10 10 page 35 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate algonquin college total degree centennial college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 any ontario college advanced diploma 24 24 24 72 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 page 36 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 24 24 24 72 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 any ontario college certificate page 37 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 24 24 24 72 1 1 1 3 any ontario college diploma algonquin college page 38 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 1 3 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 1 3 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 1 3 lambton college 1 1 1 3 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 page 39 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate algonquin college total degree st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 architectural technician 7 7 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 14 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 architectural technology algonquin college civil engineering technology page 40 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) algonquin college total degree loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 northern college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 construction engineering technician 6 6 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 northern college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 construction engineering technology 1 1 algonquin college 1 1 mechanical engineering technology 13 13 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 page 41 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college certificate college diploma (2 yr) algonquin college total degree durham college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 technologie du genie de construction 1 1 1 1 1 1 technologie de l'architecture la cit collgiale technologie du genie civil la cit collgiale technologie du gnie civil construction collge boral technologie du genie mechanique page 42 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate la cit collgiale algonquin college total degree 1 1 science and technology 20 20 20 60 any university engineering and technology degree 20 20 20 60 algoma university 1 1 1 3 brock university 1 1 1 3 carleton university 1 1 1 3 lakehead university 1 1 1 3 laurentian university 1 1 1 3 mcmaster university 1 1 1 3 nipissing university 1 1 1 3 ocad university 1 1 1 3 queen's university 1 1 1 3 ryerson university 1 1 1 3 trent university 1 1 1 3 university of guelph 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 university of ottawa 1 1 1 3 university of toronto 1 1 1 3 university of waterloo 1 1 1 3 university of ontario institute of technology page 43 of 397 institutional profile: algonquin college algonquin college receiving programs sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 yr) college diploma (2 yr) college certificate degree algonquin college total university of windsor 1 1 1 3 western university 1 1 1 3 wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 3 york university 1 1 1 3 660 371 565 grand total 80 1676 page 44 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college cambrian college cambrian college is a college of applied arts and technology in greater sudbury, ontario, canada. established in 1967, and funded by the province of ontario, cambrian has campuses in sudbury, espanola and little current. for the purposes of this analysis, only the main campus in sudbury has been used; branch campuses were not considered. cambrian works in partnership with school boards, training institutes, universities, and other institutions locally, nationally and internationally - in order to provide additional educational opportunities and to share expertise and resources. cambrians commitment to its many communities is evidenced by the wabnode institute, the colleges centre for the advancement of first nations education, and by its status as a leader in meeting the needs of persons with disabilities. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cambrian_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 partners 23 public colleges, 2 first nations institutes. college boreal is the only partner within commutable range (equal to or less than 80km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 240 pathways with specific 240 sending programs no generic pathways (i.e. students from any field area) are enabled transfer to cambrian college. all specific pathways into cambrian college for students from the discipline areas of business, finance, and administration. page 45 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 46 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college table 3: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region algonquin college eastern cambrian college pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways 475 5 0 10 10 northern 0 0 0 10 10 canadore college northern 124 1 0 10 10 centennial college metro toronto area 406 4 0 10 10 collge boral eastern 5 0 0 8 8 conestoga college southern 455 5 0 10 10 confederation college northern 1013 11 0 10 10 durham college central 386 4 0 10 10 fanshawe college southern 554 5 0 10 10 fleming college eastern 495 5 0 10 10 george brown college metro toronto area 411 4 0 10 10 georgian college central 301 3 0 10 10 humber college metro toronto area 386 4 0 10 10 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 161 2 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 492 5 0 10 10 lambton college western 651 6 0 10 10 page 47 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways loyalist college eastern 566 5 0 10 10 mohawk college southern 455 4 0 10 10 niagara college southern 517 5 0 10 10 northern college northern 309 4 0 10 10 sault college northern 316 4 0 10 10 seneca college metro toronto area 395 4 0 10 10 sheridan college metro toronto area 417 4 0 10 10 six nations polytechnic institute southern 485 5 0 1 1 st. clair college western 659 6 0 10 10 st. lawrence college eastern 643 6 0 10 10 0 240 240 grand total * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 48 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that cambrian college has formal agreements to accept students from. cambrian college enables specific pathways to their programs. first listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at cambrian college. table 4: pathways by sending program receiving programs at cambrian college sending institutions business/finance/administration college advanced diploma (3 year) cambrian college total college diploma (2 year) 142 98 240 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 49 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college receiving programs at cambrian college sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 year) cambrian college total college diploma (2 year) humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 page 50 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college receiving programs at cambrian college sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 year) cambrian college total college diploma (2 year) fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 business administration accounting page 51 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college receiving programs at cambrian college sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 year) cambrian college total college diploma (2 year) centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 page 52 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college receiving programs at cambrian college sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 year) cambrian college total college diploma (2 year) st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 business administration - general page 53 of 397 institutional profile: cambrian college receiving programs at cambrian college sending institutions college advanced diploma (3 year) cambrian college total college diploma (2 year) northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 142 98 240 grand total page 54 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college canadore college canadore college is a college of applied arts and technology located in north bay, ontario, canada. it was founded in 1967 as a campus of sudbury's cambrian college, and became an independent institution in 1972. the enabling legislation is the ministry of training, colleges and universities act canadore has a full-time enrolment of 3500 students and it has a summer arts program, "artsperience". the three main campuses of canadore are the aviation campus, commerce court campus, and the education centre (college drive campus). there are also satellite campuses in parry sound, mattawa, and west nipissing. for the purposes of this profile, only the main sudbury campus has been the subject of transfer policy analysis. canadore offers more than 80 full-time post-secondary programs, focused in several key academic sectors: aviation, business, communication arts, health sciences, hospitality and tourism, recreation and leisure, human services, information technology, law and justice, skilled trades, apprenticeship, "artsperience", preparatory studies, and marine nautical studies. (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/canadore_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 23 public colleges, and 2 first nations institutes no partners are within commutable range (meaning equal to or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 98 pathways with specific 98 sending programs no generic pathways established into programs at canadore college all specific pathways into the field of business/finance/administration; allows transfer into 2 yr diploma program. page 55 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 56 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college table 5: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 354 4 0 4 4 cambrian college northern 124 1 0 4 4 canadore college* northern 0 0 0 4 4 centennial college metro toronto area 356 3 0 4 4 collge boral eastern 125 2 0 4 4 conestoga college southern 405 4 0 4 4 confederation college northern 1099 12 0 4 4 durham college central 305 3 0 4 4 fanshawe college southern 504 5 0 4 4 fleming college eastern 374 4 0 4 4 george brown college metro toronto area 361 4 0 4 4 georgian college central 251 2 0 4 4 humber college metro toronto area 336 3 0 4 4 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 306 3 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 371 4 0 4 4 lambton college western 601 6 0 4 4 page 57 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways loyalist college eastern 400 5 0 4 4 mohawk college southern 404 4 0 4 4 niagara college southern 467 4 0 4 4 northern college northern 349 4 0 4 4 sault college northern 433 5 0 4 4 seneca college metro toronto area 345 3 0 4 4 sheridan college metro toronto area 367 4 0 4 4 six nations polytechnic institute southern 435 4 0 1 1 st. clair college western 678 6 0 4 4 st. lawrence college eastern 459 5 0 4 4 0 98 98 grand total * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 58 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that canadore college has formal agreements to accept students from. canadore college enables specific pathways to their 2 yeardiploma programs. first listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at canadore college. table 6: pathways by sending program canadore college receiving programs sending institutions business/finance/administration college diploma (2 year) 98 business - accounting 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 page 59 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college canadore college receiving programs sending institutions college diploma (2 year) lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 business - general 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 page 60 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college canadore college receiving programs sending institutions college diploma (2 year) georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 business administration - accounting 25 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 page 61 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college canadore college receiving programs sending institutions college diploma (2 year) fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 business administration - general 25 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 page 62 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college canadore college receiving programs sending institutions college diploma (2 year) collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 six nations polytechnic institute 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 grand total 98 page 63 of 397 institutional profile: canadore college page 64 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college centennial college of applied arts and technology centennial college of applied arts and technology is a diploma and degree granting college located in toronto, ontario, canada. it is the oldest publicly funded college in ontario. its four campuses are situated to serve the eastern portion of the greater toronto area. the four campuses for centennial college are centennial science and technology centre, the progress campus, the ashtonbee campus, and the story arts centre. within this institutional profile, the progress campus was used as the main campus for geographical reference; branch campuses of centennial college are not considered. centennial college offers programs in business, communication arts, community and consumer services, applied computing, engineering technology, health sciences, animation, music, theatre, film, and design. centennial college offers approximately 150 programs within the following certification levels: bachelors degree, diplomas, certificates, post-graduate certificates, and apprenticeships. centennial college serves a student-body of approximately 18,000 full time students, and 20,000 part-time students. (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/centennial_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 26 23 public colleges; 3 first nations institutes. 5 partners are within geographical proximity (equal or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 440 pathways with specific 440 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to centennial college diploma programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to centennial college diploma programs. partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 65 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 66 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college table 7: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 417 4 0 19 19 cambrian college northern 406 4 0 18 18 canadore college northern 356 3 0 18 18 centennial college metro toronto area 0 0 0 19 19 collge boral northern 399 4 0 16 16 conestoga college southern 105 1 0 20 20 confederation college northern 1391 14 0 18 18 durham college* central 42 1 0 18 18 fanshawe college southern 203 2 0 19 19 fleming college eastern 90 1 0 18 18 george brown college* metro toronto area 27 0 0 18 18 georgian college central 108 1 0 18 18 humber college* metro toronto area 40 0 0 18 18 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 540 5 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 433 4 0 18 18 page 67 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways lambton college western 300 3 0 18 18 loyalist college eastern 160 2 0 18 18 mohawk college southern 96 1 0 20 20 niagara college southern 159 2 0 18 18 northern college northern 703 7 0 18 18 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1381 13 0 1 1 sault college northern 694 7 0 18 18 seneca college* metro toronto area 13 0 0 18 18 sheridan college* metro toronto area 63 1 0 18 18 six nations polytechnic institute southern 127 1 0 1 1 st. clair college western 377 4 0 18 18 st. lawrence college eastern 237 2 0 18 18 0 440 440 grand total * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 68 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that centennial college has formal agreements to accept students from. centennial college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas/academic discipline. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at centennial college. table 8: pathways by sending program receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas business/finance/administration college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) 287 146 433 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 69 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 page 70 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business - human resources 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 page 71 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business - marketing 24 24 48 page 72 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 page 73 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 business administration accounting kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 page 74 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 business administration - general page 75 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business administration human resources 49 49 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 page 76 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) centennial college total conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 training institute 1 1 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 oshki-pimache-o-win education & page 77 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) business administration marketing 48 24 72 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 page 78 of 397 institutional profile: centennial college receiving programs - centennial college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) centennial college total college diploma (2 year) sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 7 7 5 5 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 2 2 conestoga college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 153 440 skills, trades and technologies automotive service technician level 1 motive power fundamentals grand total 287 page 79 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral collge boral collge boral is a french-language postsecondary training and learning institution serving northern and central southwestern ontario. collge boral has 7 campuses including sudbury, hearst, kapuskasing, nipissing, temiskaming, timmins, and toronto. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the sudbury campus was chosen as the main point of geographical reference; branch campuses were not considered in the pathway analysis. collge boral offers 87 postsecondary and apprenticeship programs in six fields of study (schools): the school of health sciences, the school of trades and applied technologies, the school of arts, the school of development and general sciences, the school of the environment and natural resources, snd the school of business and community services. collge boral has a student body of approximately 2000 students annually . (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coll%c3%a8ge_bor%c3%a9al). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 partners 23 public colleges; 1 public university; 1 first nations institute. 2 partners are within commutable range (>80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 123 pathways with specific 123 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to collge boral diploma programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to collge boral programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 80 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 81 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral table 9: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region algonquin college eastern cambrian college* pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways 477 5 0 5 5 northern 5 0 0 5 5 canadore college northern 125 1 0 5 5 centennial college metro toronto area 399 4 0 5 5 collge boral northern 0 0 0 5 5 conestoga college southern 448 4 0 5 5 confederation college northern 1008 11 0 5 5 durham college central 378 4 0 5 5 fanshawe college southern 547 5 0 5 5 fleming college eastern 487 5 0 5 5 george brown college metro toronto area 404 4 0 5 5 georgian college central 293 3 0 5 5 humber college metro toronto area 378 4 0 5 5 la cit collgiale northern 494 5 0 6 6 page 82 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways lambton college western 643 6 0 5 5 laurentian university* northern 7 0 0 1 1 loyalist college eastern 558 6 0 5 5 mohawk college southern 447 4 0 5 5 niagara college southern 509 5 0 5 5 northern college northern 304 4 0 5 5 sault college northern 311 3 0 5 5 seneca college metro toronto area 387 4 0 5 5 sheridan college metro toronto area 409 4 0 5 5 six nations polytechnic institute southern 477 5 0 1 1 st. clair college western 720 7 0 5 5 st. lawrence college eastern 633 6 0 5 5 0 123 123 grand total *numbers reflect feedback incorporated as of 27/11/15. * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 83 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that collge boral has formal agreements to accept students from. collge boral enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas/academic discipline transfer students are coming from. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at collge boral. numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with collge boral as of 27/11/15. table 10: pathways by sending program receiving program credential - collge boral college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) collge boral sending institutions & program areas business/finance/administration college advanced diploma (3 year) 72 49 121 business - accounting 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 page 84 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral receiving program credential - collge boral college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) collge boral sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business - general 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 page 85 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral receiving program credential - collge boral college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) collge boral sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration - accounting 48 48 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 page 86 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral receiving program credential - collge boral college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) collge boral sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 business administration - general 25 25 page 87 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral receiving program credential - collge boral college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) collge boral sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 page 88 of 397 institutional profile: collge boral receiving program credential - collge boral college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) collge boral sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) sheridan college 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 science and engineering technology 1 1 technologie du gnie civil construction 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 la cit collgiale science and technology chemistry laurentian university grand total 74 49 123 page 89 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning is a public college based in kitchener, ontario, canada, with an enrolment of 11,000 full-time students, 30,000 part-time students, 3,300 apprenticeship students. conestoga college currently has 7 campuses: doon campus, waterloo campus, cambridge campus, guelph campus, stratford campus, cambridge-downtown, and ingersoll skills training centre. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the doon campus was chosen as the main campus of geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in the pathway analysis. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/conestoga_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 24 partners 23 public colleges; 1 first nations institute 4 partners are within commutable range (> 80 km): humber college, mohawk college, sheridan college, six nations polytechnic institute pathways with generic sending programs 0 697 pathways with specific 697 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to conestoga college diploma/certificate programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to conestoga college diploma programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration, and in education, community, and social services. page 90 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 91 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college table 11: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 519 5 0 33 33 cambrian college northern 455 5 0 27 27 canadore college northern 405 4 0 22 22 centennial college metro toronto area 105 1 0 35 35 collge boral northern 448 4 0 19 19 conestoga college southern 0 0 0 41 41 confederation college northern 1441 15 0 26 26 durham college central 143 2 0 34 34 fanshawe college southern 118 1 0 33 33 fleming college eastern 194 2 0 24 24 george brown college metro toronto area 95 1 0 27 27 georgian college central 158 2 0 31 31 humber college* metro toronto area 79 1 0 33 33 la cit collgiale eastern 537 5 0 23 23 lambton college western 215 2 0 27 27 page 92 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college loyalist college eastern 264 3 0 25 25 mohawk college* southern 54 1 0 26 26 niagara college southern 130 1 0 33 33 northern college northern 752 8 0 24 24 sault college northern 744 8 0 22 22 seneca college metro toronto area 105 1 0 34 34 sheridan college* metro toronto area 71 1 0 34 34 six nations polytechnic institute* southern 66 1 0 1 1 st. clair college western 269 3 0 32 32 st. lawrence college eastern 341 3 0 31 31 0 697 697 grand total * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 93 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that conestoga college has formal agreements to accept students from. conestoga college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partner institutions, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at conestoga college. table 12: pathways by sending program receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) arts, fine arts and culture total partnership agreements to conestoga college 23 23 7 7 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 durham college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 3 3 fanshawe college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 advertising and marketing communications management interior design page 94 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) journalism total partnership agreements to conestoga college 5 5 algonquin college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 journalism - broadcast 3 3 conestoga college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 3 3 conestoga college 1 1 durham college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 147 458 1 1 journalism - print journalisme la cit collgiale public relations algonquin college business/finance/administration administration des affaires 214 97 page 95 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) la cit collgiale total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 1 8 8 canadore college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 durham college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 10 10 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 advertising and marketing communications business page 96 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) st. lawrence college 1 total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 business - accounting 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 page 97 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business - general 46 24 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 collge boral 2 72 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 page 98 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business - human resources 1 1 4 4 4 4 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 2 centennial college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 2 2 business - international business business - management page 99 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college humber college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 1 1 1 1 business - management and entrepreneurship algonquin college business - marketing 24 24 13 61 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 1 3 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 1 3 2 2 1 3 2 page 100 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 1 1 centennial college 1 1 business - purchasing 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 business (general) 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 9 9 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 business - operations conestoga college business (gebu) cambrian college business administration 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 page 101 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college centennial college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 northern college 1 1 48 18 66 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 business administration - accounting 2 2 page 102 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) 1 total partnership agreements to conestoga college humber college 2 la cit collgiale 2 lambton college 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 50 2 1 3 2 business administration - accounting (co-op and non co-op) conestoga college business administration - entrepreneurship and small business seneca college business administration - general 3 24 25 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 page 103 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 3 page 104 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) six nations polytechnic institute total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business administration - human resource management 2 2 loyalist college 1 1 northern college 1 1 10 10 algonquin college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 business administration - human resources business administration - international st. clair college business administration - international page 105 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college business centennial college 1 1 2 2 conestoga college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 business administration - management business administration - marketing 48 24 12 84 algonquin college 2 1 1 4 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 collge boral 2 1 conestoga college 2 1 1 4 confederation college 2 1 1 4 durham college 2 1 fanshawe college 2 1 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 la cit collgiale 2 1 1 4 3 3 1 1 4 4 3 page 106 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) lambton college 2 1 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 1 4 sheridan college 2 1 1 4 st. clair college 2 1 1 4 st. lawrence college 2 1 1 4 3 3 centennial college 1 1 durham college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 business administration - operations management business administration - purchasing and supply management seneca college business administration - retail management seneca college 1 total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 4 4 page 107 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) business administration - supply chain and operations management total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 george brown college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 business general 1 1 georgian college 1 1 business marketing 14 14 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college business administration (cornwall) st. lawrence college business administration (general business) algonquin college business administration (international business) algonquin college business administration (materials and operations) algonquin college business adminstration - international business management page 108 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 northern college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 general business 1 1 seneca college 1 1 1 1 1 1 commerce (business/affaire) collge boral entrepreneurship and small business business durham college human resources - business durham college page 109 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) human resources - business administration total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 seneca college 1 1 marketing - business 2 2 durham college 2 2 1 1 durham college 1 1 operations - business 1 1 durham college 1 1 3 3 cambrian college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 humber college 1 1 1 1 1 1 education, community and social services 132 132 binoojinyag kinoomaadwin native early childhood education 1 1 durham college international business seneca college international business administration marketing - business administration public relations publicit et communications marketing la cit collgiale page 110 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) st. clair college total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 1 13 13 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 24 community and justice services community and justice services worker loyalist college customs border service fleming college early childhood education page 111 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 page 112 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 cambrian college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 police foundations 21 21 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 early childhood education - binoojinyag kinoomaadwin cambrian college early childhood education - native concentration niagara college law and security administration page 113 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 13 13 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 protection, security and investigation page 114 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college humber college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 sault college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 social service worker 45 45 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 page 115 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 cambrian college 1 1 sault college 1 1 2 2 1 1 social service worker - immigration and refugees seneca college social service worker - native techniques de radaption et de justice pnale collge boral page 116 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) la cit collgiale total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 1 2 2 collge boral 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 2 collge boral 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 5 5 1 1 1 1 4 4 cambrian college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 77 77 11 11 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 techniques de travail social techniques des services policiers health, food and medical, recreation health informatics technology centennial college health information management science and engineering technology architectural technology page 117 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 computer programmer 18 18 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 architecture - construction engineering technology conestoga college computer engineering technology page 118 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 18 18 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 computer programmer analyst page 119 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to conestoga college georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 2 george brown college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 construction engineering technology construction engineering technology management fanshawe college electromechanical engineering technology sheridan college electromechanical engineering technology automation and robotics humber college page 120 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) electronics engineering technology total partnership agreements to conestoga college 2 2 durham college 1 1 humber college 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 algonquin college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 electronics engineering technology communications seneca college electronics engineering technology (co-op) instrumentation & control engineering technology lambton college manufacturing engineering technology (coop accelerated) fanshawe college mechanical engineering technology page 121 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) mechanical engineering technology automated manufacturing total partnership agreements to conestoga college 2 2 conestoga college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 1 1 1 1 mechanical engineering technology - design and analysis conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - design and drafting sheridan college mechanical engineering technology robotics and automation conestoga college mechanical engineering technology (co-op) niagara college programmer/information systems (core) durham college software engineering technology technologie de l'architecture la cit collgiale page 122 of 397 institutional profile: conestoga college receiving program credential - conestoga college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) technologie du genie de construction total partnership agreements to conestoga college 1 1 1 1 skills, trades and technologies 2 2 mechanical engineering technology automotive manufacturing 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 386 697 collge boral georgian college mechanical engineering technology automotive products design georgian college grand total 214 97 page 123 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college confederation college confederation college is a public college of applied arts and technology located in thunder bay, ontario, canada. confederation college has 7 campuses: the thunder bay campus, dryden campus, fort frances campus, geraldton campus, kenora campus, marathon campus, and sioux lookout campus. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the thunder bay campus was chosen as the main campus of geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in the pathway analysis. confederation college offers a full range of programs and educational services throughout the region, which includes full-time post-secondary programmes, part-time credit and non-credit courses, specialty programmes for business and industry, preemployment and skills training programmes, apprenticeship programmes and cooperative/workplace training programmes. confederation college has 3,200 full-time post-secondary students, 410 apprentices, 550 adult training students and 17,000 part-time & continuing education students. (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/confederation_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 26 25 public colleges; 1 first nations institute. oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute is the only partner that is within commutable range. (>80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 481 pathways with specific 481 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to confederation college diploma/certificate programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to confederation college diploma programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. 1 specific pathway allows transfer students into certificate program in medical technology at confederation college. page 124 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 125 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college table 13: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 1450 16 0 20 20 cambrian college northern 1013 11 0 21 21 canadore college northern 1099 12 0 20 20 centennial college metro toronto area 1391 14 0 20 20 collge boral northern 1008 11 0 18 18 conestoga college southern 1441 15 0 20 20 confederation college northern 0 0 0 19 19 durham college central 1370 15 0 20 20 fanshawe college southern 1381 14 0 20 20 fleming college eastern 1479 15 0 20 20 george brown college metro toronto area 1395 15 0 20 20 georgian college central 1285 14 0 20 20 humber college metro toronto area 1370 14 0 20 20 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 1018 11 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 1467 16 0 20 20 page 126 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways lambton college western 1272 13 0 20 20 loyalist college eastern 1550 16 0 20 20 mohawk college southern 1439 15 0 20 20 niagara college southern 1501 16 0 20 20 northern college northern 784 9 0 20 20 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute* northern 13 0 0 1 1 sault college northern 698 8 0 20 20 seneca college metro toronto area 1379 14 0 20 20 sheridan college metro toronto area 1401 15 0 20 20 six nations polytechnic institute southern 1469 15 0 1 1 st. clair college western 1273 13 0 20 20 st. lawrence college eastern 213 17 0 20 20 0 481 481 grand total * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 127 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that confederation college has formal agreements to accept students from. confederation college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas/academic disciplines. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at confederation college. table 14: pathway by sending program receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college business/finance/ administration 287 193 480 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 page 128 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 23 69 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 1 3 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 confederation college 2 2 page 129 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 business - human resources page 130 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 page 131 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas business - marketing college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 page 132 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business administration accounting 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 1 3 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 page 133 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business administration general 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 page 134 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 49 24 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 business administration - human resources page 135 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 1 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 page 136 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business administration marketing 48 24 72 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 page 137 of 397 institutional profile: confederation college receiving programs - confederation college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma college certificate (2 year) total partnership agreements to confederation college niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 health, food and medical, recreation medical laboratory technology cambrian college grand total 287 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 193 481 page 138 of 397 institutional profile: durham college durham college of applied arts and technology durham college of applied arts and technology is located in the durham region of canada with campuses in oshawa, ontario, and whitby, a learning site in pickering and community employment services in uxbridge, port hope, port perry, beaverton, oshawa and bowmansville. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the oshawa campus was chosen as the main campus of geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in the pathway analysis. durham college currently serves more than 30, 000 undergraduate students, 9,000 of which, are full-time. the college offers a wide range of programs in a number of different disciplines including business, information technology, media, art, design, general arts, science, skilled trades, justice, emergency services, health and engineering technology. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/durham_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 23 public colleges; 3 first nations institutes 5 partners are within commutable range. (>80km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 362 pathways with specific 362 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to durham college diploma/certificate programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to durham college diploma programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration, and in education, community, and social services. page 139 of 397 institutional profile: durham college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 140 of 397 institutional profile: durham college table 15: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways algonquin college eastern 329 4 0 15 15 cambrian college northern 386 4 0 15 15 canadore college northern 305 3 0 15 15 centennial college* metro toronto area 42 1 0 15 15 collge boral northern 378 4 0 15 15 conestoga college southern 143 2 0 15 15 confederation college northern 1370 15 0 15 15 durham college central 0 0 0 15 15 fanshawe college southern 241 2 0 15 15 fleming college* eastern 65 1 0 15 15 george brown college* metro toronto area 67 1 0 15 15 georgian college central 134 1 0 15 15 humber college* metro toronto area 73 1 0 15 15 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 517 6 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 408 4 0 15 15 page 141 of 397 institutional profile: durham college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways lambton college western 338 3 0 15 15 loyalist college eastern 136 1 0 15 15 mohawk college southern 141 1 0 15 15 niagara college southern 204 2 0 15 15 northern college northern 650 7 0 15 15 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1359 15 0 1 1 sault college northern 672 7 0 15 15 seneca college metro toronto area 50 1 0 15 15 sheridan college metro toronto area 104 1 0 15 15 st. clair college southern 414 4 0 15 15 st. lawrence college western 213 2 0 15 15 grand total eastern 0 362 362 * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 142 of 397 institutional profile: durham college pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that durham college has formal agreements to accept students from. durham college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas/academic disciplines transfer students are coming from. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at durham college. table 16: pathways by sending program receiving program credential - durham college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to durham college college diploma (2 year) business/finance/ administration 217 145 362 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 143 of 397 institutional profile: durham college receiving program credential - durham college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to durham college college diploma (2 year) humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 business - human resources page 144 of 397 institutional profile: durham college receiving program credential - durham college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to durham college college diploma (2 year) fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 business - marketing page 145 of 397 institutional profile: durham college receiving program credential - durham college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to durham college college diploma (2 year) collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 48 25 73 business administration accounting page 146 of 397 institutional profile: durham college receiving program credential - durham college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to durham college college diploma (2 year) algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 page 147 of 397 institutional profile: durham college receiving program credential - durham college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to durham college college diploma (2 year) seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business administration human resources 49 24 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 page 148 of 397 institutional profile: durham college receiving program credential - durham college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to durham college college diploma (2 year) mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 1 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business administration marketing 48 24 72 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 page 149 of 397 institutional profile: durham college receiving program credential - durham college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to durham college college diploma (2 year) george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 217 145 362 grand total page 150 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college fanshawe college of applied arts and technology fanshawe college of applied arts and technology is one of the largest colleges in ontario, canada. the college was established more than 45 years ago. its campuses, located in london, simcoe, st. thomas and woodstock, serve close to half a million people with education related services. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the london campus was chosen as the main campus of geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in the pathway analysis. more than 200 degree, diploma and certificate programs, as well as apprenticeship training are offered to approximately 43,000 students annually. each year the college attracts students from approximately 50 countries. fanshawe college has more than 167,000 alumni living and working around the world. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fanshawe_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 26 23 public colleges; 3 first nations institutes. no partners are within commutable range. (meaning equal to or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 502 pathways with specific 502 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to conestoga college diploma/certificate programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to fanshawe college diploma programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration, and in education, community, and social services. page 151 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 152 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college table 17: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 618 6 0 21 21 cambrian college northern 554 5 0 21 21 canadore college northern 504 5 0 21 21 centennial college metro toronto area 203 2 0 21 21 collge boral northern 547 5 0 18 18 conestoga college southern 118 1 0 21 21 confederation college northern 1381 14 0 21 21 durham college central 241 2 0 21 21 fanshawe college southern 0 0 0 20 20 fleming college eastern 292 3 0 20 20 george brown college metro toronto area 191 2 0 21 21 georgian college central 256 2 0 21 21 humber college metro toronto area 178 2 0 21 21 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 688 7 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 635 6 0 21 21 lambton college western 114 1 0 21 21 page 153 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college geographical data sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways loyalist college eastern 363 3 0 21 21 mohawk college southern 126 1 0 21 21 niagara college southern 204 2 0 21 21 northern college northern 851 8 0 21 21 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1371 14 0 1 1 sault college northern 685 7 0 21 21 seneca college metro toronto area 204 2 0 21 21 sheridan college metro toronto area 156 2 0 21 21 six nations polytechnic institute southern 117 1 0 1 1 st. clair college western 186 2 0 21 21 st. lawrence college eastern 440 4 0 21 21 0 502 502 grand total page 154 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college pathways by sending institutions the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that fanshawe college has formal agreements to accept students from. fanshawe college enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at fanshawe college. table 18: pathways by sending program receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas business/finance/administration college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) 287 194 481 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 155 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 page 156 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 business - human resources page 157 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 48 business - marketing page 158 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 page 159 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 business administration - accounting kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 page 160 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 business administration - general page 161 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 49 24 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 business administration - human resources page 162 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 1 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 page 163 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas business administration - marketing college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree fanshawe college total (2 year) 48 24 72 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 page 164 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas fanshawe college total college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 education, community and social services 21 21 21 21 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 early childhod education page 165 of 397 institutional profile: fanshawe college receiving program credential - fanshawe college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) fanshawe college total college diploma degree (2 year) niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 21 502 grand total 287 194 page 166 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college fleming college fleming college is a college of applied arts and technology in peterborough, ontario, canada. the college has more than 6,000 full-time and 10,000 part-time students and 65,000 alumni. fleming college features more than 100 full-time programs in community development and health, continuing education, environmental and natural resource sciences, general arts and science, justice and business studies, trades and technology, and visual and fine arts. fleming college is noted for its excellence in environmental and natural resources sciences as well as unique programs in business, museum management and cultural heritage, and social services. it also offers a number of post-graduate diplomas in geographic information systems (gis), aquaculture, and applied and community-based research. as well, fleming college has a computer security & investigations program, which is one of only three related programs in canada. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fleming_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 26 partners 23 public colleges; 3 first nations institutes. 2 college partners are within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km.) pathways with generic sending programs 0 385 pathways with specific 385 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to fleming college diploma programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to fleming college diploma programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 167 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 168 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college table 19: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways algonquin college eastern 329 3 0 16 16 cambrian college northern 495 5 0 16 16 canadore college northern 374 4 0 16 16 centennial college metro toronto area 90 1 0 16 16 collge boral northern 440 5 0 14 14 conestoga college southern 194 2 0 16 16 confederation college northern 1479 15 0 16 16 durham college* central 65 1 0 16 16 fanshawe college southern 292 3 0 16 16 fleming college eastern 0 0 0 16 16 george brown college metro toronto area 116 1 0 16 16 georgian college central 197 2 0 16 16 humber college metro toronto area 129 1 0 16 16 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 628 6 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 345 3 0 16 16 lambton college western 389 4 0 16 16 page 169 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college geographical data sending institution region loyalist college* eastern mohawk college distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways 73 1 0 16 16 southern 185 2 0 16 16 niagara college southern 248 2 0 16 16 northern college northern 712 8 0 16 16 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1470 15 0 1 1 sault college northern 783 8 0 16 16 seneca college metro toronto area 102 1 0 16 16 sheridan college metro toronto area 152 2 0 16 16 six nations polytechnic institute southern 216 2 0 1 1 st. clair college western 465 4 0 16 16 st. lawrence college eastern 150 2 0 16 16 0 385 385 grand total *blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 170 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that fleming college has formal agreements to accept students from. fleming college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at fleming college. table 20: pathways by sending program receiving program credential- fleming college total partnership agreements to fleming college sending institutions & program areas business/finance/administration college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) 287 98 385 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 page 171 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college total partnership agreements to fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 page 172 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college total partnership agreements to fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business - human resources 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 page 173 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) total partnership agreements to fleming college conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 24 24 1 1 business - marketing algonquin college page 174 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) total partnership agreements to fleming college cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 page 175 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college total partnership agreements to fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration accounting 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 page 176 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college total partnership agreements to fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 business administration - general page 177 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college total partnership agreements to fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business administration - human resources 49 49 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 page 178 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) total partnership agreements to fleming college confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 1 1 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 48 48 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute business administration - marketing page 179 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) total partnership agreements to fleming college algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 page 180 of 397 institutional profile: fleming college receiving program credential- fleming college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) total partnership agreements to fleming college sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 grand total 287 98 385 page 181 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college george brown college of applied arts and technology george brown college of applied arts and technology is a public, fully accredited college of applied arts and technology with three full campuses in downtown toronto, ontario. george brown college currently has 5 campuses: casa loma campus, st. james campus, waterfront campus, ryerson university campus, and the young centre for the performing arts. the waterfront campus was chosen as the geographical point of reference for this pathway analysis; as all remaining campuses are located in close proximity within the downtown core, distance parameters between partner institutions within this analysis can be approximated to be around the same to remaining campus locations. george brown offers a wide variety of programs in art and design, business, community services, early childhood education, construction and engineering technologies, health sciences, hospitality and culinary arts, preparatory studies, as well as specialized programs and services for recent immigrants and international students. the college offers 35 diploma programs, 31 advanced diploma programs as well as six degree programs, one in conjunction with ryerson university. currently, there are about 25,888 full-time students, including 3,553 international students, as well as 3,729 part-time students and 62,840 continuing education students. (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/george_brown_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 23 public colleges; 2 first nations institutes. 7 partners are within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 489 pathways with specific 489 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to george brown college diploma/degree programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to george brown college diploma/degree programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration, science/engineering technology, and in education, community, and social services. page 182 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 183 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college table 21: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways algonquin college eastern 442 4 0 21 21 cambrian college northern 411 4 0 19 19 canadore college northern 361 4 0 20 20 centennial college* metro toronto area 27 0 0 20 20 collge boral northern 404 4 0 18 18 conestoga college* southern 95 1 0 20 20 confederation college northern 1395 15 0 21 21 durham college* central 67 1 0 20 20 fanshawe college southern 191 2 0 22 22 fleming college eastern 116 1 0 19 19 george brown college metro toronto area 0 0 0 22 22 georgian college central 113 1 0 21 21 humber college* metro toronto area 34 0 0 21 21 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 543 5 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 459 4 0 21 21 lambton college western 287 3 0 19 19 page 184 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college geographical data sending institution region loyalist college eastern mohawk college* pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways 186 2 0 21 21 southern 71 1 0 21 21 niagara college southern 133 1 0 20 20 northern college northern 707 7 0 20 20 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1386 14 0 1 1 sault college northern 699 7 0 19 19 seneca college* metro toronto area 21 0 0 21 21 sheridan college* metro toronto area 38 0 0 20 20 st. clair college southern 364 3 0 21 21 st. lawrence college western 263 3 0 20 20 0 489 489 grand total * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 185 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that george brown college has formal agreements to accept students from. george brown college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas/academic disciplines that transfer students can come from. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at george brown college. table 22: pathways by sending program receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas business/finance/administration college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college 287 145 432 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 186 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business - general 46 46 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 page 187 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 business - human resources 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 page 188 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 48 1 1 2 business - marketing algonquin college page 189 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 page 190 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 business administration accounting kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 page 191 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business administration general 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 page 192 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration human resources 49 24 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 page 193 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 1 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 page 194 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college business administration marketing 48 24 72 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 page 195 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 education, community and social services 23 23 23 23 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 early childhood education page 196 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 34 34 16 16 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 science and engineering technology architectural technology page 197 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 15 15 algonquin college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 northern college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 civil engineering technology page 198 of 397 institutional profile: george brown college receiving program credential george brown college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to george brown college st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 3 3 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 57 489 construction engineering technology grand total 287 145 page 199 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college georgian college georgian college is a college of applied arts and technology in ontario, canada. it has 11,000 full-time and 28,000 part-time students across 7 campuses, the largest being in barrie. the barrie location is used as the geographical reference point for this institutional profile; all other branch campuses are not considered in the pathway analysis. georgian college offers academic upgrading, apprenticeship training, certificate, diploma, graduate certificate, college degree and university programs in such areas as aboriginal studies, automotive business, business and management studies, community safety, computer studies, design and visual arts, engineering technology and environmental studies, graduate certificate studies, health and wellness studies, hospitality, tourism and recreation, human services, liberal arts and university studies. georgian offers the following degrees: bachelor of business (automotive management), bachelor of business (golf management), bachelor of human services (police studies). (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/georgian_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 26 partners 23 public colleges; 3 first nations institutes. 1 partner is within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 429 pathways with specific 429 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to georgian college diploma all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to conestoga college diploma programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in arts, fine arts, culture, business, finance, or administration, education, community, and social services, health, food, and medical tech. page 200 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 201 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college table 23: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 400 5 0 17 17 cambrian college northern 300 3 0 18 18 canadore college northern 251 2 0 17 17 centennial college metro toronto area 108 1 0 17 17 collge boral northern 293 3 0 15 15 conestoga college southern 158 2 0 18 18 confederation college northern 1285 14 0 18 18 durham college central 134 1 0 19 19 fanshawe college southern 256 2 0 17 17 fleming college eastern 197 2 0 18 18 george brown college metro toronto area 113 1 0 15 15 georgian college central 0 0 0 23 23 humber college* metro toronto area 88 1 0 19 19 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 434 4 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 418 5 0 17 17 lambton college western 353 3 0 17 17 page 202 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college loyalist college eastern 268 3 0 19 19 mohawk college southern 157 2 0 18 18 niagara college southern 219 2 0 19 19 northern college northern 597 6 0 16 16 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1275 13 0 1 1 sault college northern 588 6 0 17 17 seneca college metro toronto area 97 1 0 16 16 sheridan college metro toronto area 119 1 0 18 18 six nations polytechnic institute southern 187 2 0 1 1 st. clair college western 429 4 0 20 20 st. lawrence college eastern 345 3 0 18 18 0 429 429 grand total * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 203 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that georgian college has formal agreements to accept students from. georgian college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at georgian college. table 24: pathways by sending programs receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas total partnership agreements to georgian college college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) arts, fine arts and culture 4 4 4 4 conestoga college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 6 367 1 1 georgian college 1 1 automotive business 1 1 georgian college 1 1 community and justice services business/finance/administration 215 146 administration des affairs marketing automobile business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 page 204 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 page 205 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas st. lawrence college college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 page 206 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business - human resources 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 page 207 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business - marketing 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 page 208 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration accounting 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 page 209 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas total partnership agreements to georgian college college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business administration automotive marketing 1 1 page 210 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) georgian college business administration - general total partnership agreements to georgian college 1 1 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 page 211 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business administration - human resources 49 49 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 page 212 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 1 1 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute business administration - marketing 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 page 213 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college college diploma degree (2 year) durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration professional golf management 1 1 georgian college 1 1 golf facilities operations management 1 1 page 214 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college college diploma degree (2 year) georgian college 1 1 golf facilty operations management 1 1 durham college 1 1 54 54 14 14 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 education, community and social services community and justice services law and security administration page 215 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college college diploma degree (2 year) cambrian college 1 1 police foundations 23 23 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 page 216 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college college diploma degree (2 year) seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 14 14 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 sault college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 2 2 protection security and investigation techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale page 217 of 397 institutional profile: georgian college receiving program credential - georgian college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to georgian college college diploma degree (2 year) collge boral 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 health, food and medical, recreation 4 4 business administration professional golf management 4 4 durham college 1 1 humber college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 68 429 grand total 215 146 page 218 of 397 institutional profile: humber college humber college institute of technology and advanced learning humber college institute of technology and advanced learning is a polytechnic college in toronto, ontario, canada. humber college currently has 3 campuses: humber north campus, humber lakeshore campus, and humber orangeville campus. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the humber north campus was chosen as the main campus of geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in this pathway analysis. humber offers more than 150 programs including: bachelors degree, diploma, certificate, postgraduate certificate and apprenticeship programs, across 40 fields of study. humber also provides academic advisors and resources, such as humber's career finder. most of humber's programs contain a practical experimental component to them, such as an internship, co-op, or field placement. beyond this, humber college also provides bridging (or bridge training) programs for internationally trained professionals in the fields of engineering and information technology. these bridging programs include: engineering software skills enhancement, mobile systems integration, .net developer bridging program. humber college serves 25,000 full-time students and 57,000 part-time students. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/humber_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 26 partners 23 public colleges; 3 first nations institutes. 7 partners are within commutable range; (equal or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 706 pathways with specific 706 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to humber college diploma/certificate programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to humber college diploma and degree programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 219 of 397 institutional profile: humber college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 220 of 397 institutional profile: humber college table 25: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 455 4 0 33 33 cambrian college northern 386 4 0 30 30 canadore college northern 336 3 0 28 28 centennial college* metro toronto area 40 0 0 32 32 collge boral northern 378 4 0 23 23 conestoga college* southern 79 1 0 25 25 confederation college northern 1370 14 0 28 28 durham college* central 73 1 0 26 26 fanshawe college southern 178 2 0 32 32 fleming college eastern 129 1 0 27 27 george brown college* metro toronto area 34 0 0 26 26 georgian college central 88 1 0 32 32 humber college metro toronto area 0 0 0 37 37 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 518 5 0 1 1 page 221 of 397 institutional profile: humber college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways la cit collgiale eastern 472 4 0 27 27 lambton college western 274 3 0 27 27 loyalist college eastern 200 2 0 29 29 mohawk college* southern 72 1 0 33 33 niagara college southern 131 1 0 28 28 northern college northern 682 7 0 28 28 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1360 14 0 1 1 sault college northern 673 7 0 25 25 seneca college* metro toronto area 34 0 0 31 31 sheridan college* metro toronto area 37 0 0 32 32 six nations polytechnic institute southern 103 1 0 1 1 st. clair college western 351 3 0 33 33 st. lawrence college eastern 277 3 0 31 31 0 706 706 grand total *highlighted in blue are sending partners that are within commutable range ( equal or less than 80 km). page 222 of 397 institutional profile: humber college pathways by program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that humber college has formal agreements to accept students from. humber college enables specific pathways to their college diploma, college advanced diploma, and degree programs. listed are the sending program areas/academic discipline that transfer students are coming from. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at humber college. table 26: pathways by sending program total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas arts, fine arts and culture college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree 21 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 fashion merchandising 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 1 1 1 1 advertising and graphic design humber college applied music mohawk college film and television production humber college graphic design graphic design production georgian college page 223 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas journalism college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree 2 2 centennial college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 durham college 1 1 humber college 1 1 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 music - performance 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 music and digital media 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 music industry arts 2 2 algonquin college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 journalism - online, print and broadcast loyalist college journalism - print and broadcast media arts music theater - performance st. lawrence college music theatre performance sheridan college page 224 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) st. clair college degree 1 1 1 1 1 1 107 588 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 14 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 television and new media production loyalist college business/finance/administration accounting seneca college accounting and finance seneca college administration des affaires comptabilite collge boral business 287 194 page 225 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree loyalist college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business - accounting 24 24 16 64 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 page 226 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 46 24 4 74 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral 2 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 page 227 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 1 4 niagara college 2 1 1 4 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 1 4 sheridan college 2 1 1 4 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 business - human resources page 228 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 20 68 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 business - marketing page 229 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 4 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 2 4 sheridan college 1 1 2 4 st. clair college 1 1 2 4 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 2 4 4 2 2 2 4 4 2 1 3 2 page 230 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) business administration degree 13 13 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 northern college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 business administration - management studies conestoga college business administration - accounting 48 25 16 89 algonquin college 2 1 1 4 cambrian college 2 1 1 4 canadore college 2 1 1 4 page 231 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree centennial college 2 1 collge boral 2 1 conestoga college 2 1 1 4 confederation college 2 1 1 4 durham college 2 1 fanshawe college 2 1 1 4 fleming college 2 1 1 4 george brown college 2 1 1 4 georgian college 2 1 1 4 humber college 2 1 1 4 kenjgewin teg educational institute 1 4 3 3 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 lambton college 2 1 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 1 4 st. clair college 2 1 1 4 1 1 4 4 page 232 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas st. lawrence college college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree 2 1 1 4 24 25 1 50 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 business administration - general 1 3 page 233 of 397 institutional profile: humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree total partnership agreements to humber college sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 49 24 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 business administration - human resources page 234 of 397 institutional profile: humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree total partnership agreements to humber college la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 1 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 48 24 72 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 business administration - marketing page 235 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business adminstration loyalist college business management humber college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 236 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree business marketing 3 3 algonquin college 1 1 humber college 1 1 northern college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 lambton college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 7 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 commerce collge boral entrepreneurship and small business business durham college fashion arts humber college fashion business fashion management george brown college public relations page 237 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree durham college 1 1 humber college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 relations publiques 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 30 30 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 centennial college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 sault college 1 1 5 5 algonquin college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 culinary/hospitality/tourism gestion hoteliere et de restaurant la cit collgiale hospitality and tourism management lambton college hospitality management - hotel fanshawe college hospitality management - hotel and resort hospitality management - hotel and restaurant page 238 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 cambrian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 hotel management 1 1 george brown college 1 1 hotel, resort and restaurant management 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 10 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and resort confederation college hotel and restaurant management canadore college tourism - travel and eco-adventure confederation college tourism and travel page 239 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree mohawk college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 humber college 1 1 tourisme et voyages 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 67 67 21 21 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 tourism management - business development niagara college tourism management - travel industry services education, community and social services child and youth worker page 240 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 13 13 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 community and justice services page 241 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 8 algonquin college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 community and justice services correctional worker niagara college community and justice services worker loyalist college parajuriste la cit collgiale paralegal page 242 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree st. clair college 1 1 paralegal education 1 1 humber college 1 1 19 19 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 police foundations page 243 of 397 institutional profile: humber college total partnership agreements to humber college receiving program credential - humber college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) degree st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 225 706 techniques de readaptation et de justice penale la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral grand total 287 194 page 244 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale la cit collgiale la cit collgiale (english: the city college) (branded la cit since november 12, 2013) is the largest frenchlanguage college in ontario. created in 1989, in ottawa (with a satellite campus in hawkesbury and a business office in toronto), la cit offers more than 90 programs to some 5000 full-time students from ontario, other parts of canada and foreign countries. many of its more than 90 training programs include the teaching of terminology in both of canadas official languages (french and english). the college also offers apprenticeship programs, in french, in the construction, motive power, service, and industrial sectors. la cit collgiale offers postsecondary training in the following fields: administration, applied sciences, apprenticeship programs, arts and design, communications, computers, construction and mechanics, electronics, aesthetics and, hairdressing, forest environment, health sciences, hospitality, housing and interior design, legal services, media, preparatory programs, security, social sciences, tourism and leisure. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/la_cit%c3%a9_coll%c3%a9giale). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 partners 23 public colleges; 2 first nations institutes. algonquin college is the only partner within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 360 pathways with specific 360 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to la cit collgiale diploma/certificate programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to la cit collgiale diploma programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 245 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 246 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale table 27: pathway by sending institution geographical data sending institution region algonquin college* eastern cambrian college pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways 20 0 0 15 15 northern 492 5 0 15 15 canadore college northern 371 4 0 15 15 centennial college metro toronto area 433 4 0 15 15 collge boral northern 494 5 0 13 13 conestoga college southern 537 5 0 15 15 confederation college northern 1467 15 0 15 15 durham college central 408 4 0 15 15 fanshawe college southern 635 6 0 15 15 fleming college eastern 345 3 0 15 15 george brown college metro toronto area 459 5 0 15 15 georgian college central 418 4 0 15 15 humber college metro toronto area 472 5 0 15 15 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 643 8 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 0 0 0 15 15 lambton college western 731 7 0 15 15 page 247 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale geographical data sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways loyalist college eastern 276 3 0 15 15 mohawk college southern 537 5 0 15 15 niagara college southern 589 6 0 15 15 northern college northern 717 7 0 15 15 sault college northern 800 8 0 15 15 seneca college metro toronto area 444 4 0 15 15 sheridan college metro toronto area 494 5 0 15 15 six nations polytechnic institute southern 558 6 0 1 1 st. clair college western 805 8 0 15 15 st. lawrence college eastern 205 2 0 15 15 0 360 360 grand total *highlighted in blue are the institutions that are within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km). page 248 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that la cit collgiale has formal agreements to accept students from. la cit collgiale enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at la cit collgiale. table 28: pathways by sending program receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) business/finance/administration college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale 214 146 360 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 249 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 page 250 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 business - marketing page 251 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 page 252 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business administration accounting 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 page 253 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 business administration - general page 254 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 48 24 72 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 business administration - marketing page 255 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 page 256 of 397 institutional profile: la cit collgiale receiving program credential - la cit collgiale sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) grand total 214 college diploma total partnership agreements to (2 year) la cit collgiale 146 360 page 257 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college lambton college lambton college is a college of applied arts and technology in sarnia, ontario, canada. there are approximately 3,500 full-time students, 6,500 part-time students and 500 international students. lambton college has postsecondary programs and apprenticeship, academic upgrading, part-time and training programs. programs offered at lambton college are offered through the following academic disciplines: school of technology, energy and apprenticeship school of business and information technology school of creative design school of community services and liberal studies school of fire sciences and public safety school of health sciences school of part time studies (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lambton_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 23 public colleges; 2 first nations institutes. no sending partners are within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 241 pathways with specific 241 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to lambton college diploma/certificate programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to lambton college diploma programs. all partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 258 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 259 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college table 29: pathways by sending institutions geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 715 7 0 10 10 cambrian college northern 651 6 0 10 10 canadore college northern 601 6 0 10 10 centennial college metro toronto area 300 3 0 10 10 collge boral northern 643 6 0 9 9 conestoga college southern 215 2 0 10 10 confederation college northern 1272 13 0 10 10 durham college central 338 3 0 10 10 fanshawe college southern 114 1 0 10 10 fleming college eastern 389 4 0 10 10 george brown college metro toronto area 287 3 0 10 10 georgian college central 353 3 0 10 10 humber college metro toronto area 274 3 0 10 10 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 784 7 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 731 7 0 10 10 page 260 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college geographical data sending institution region lambton college western loyalist college pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways 0 0 0 10 10 eastern 459 4 0 10 10 mohawk college southern 221 2 0 10 10 niagara college southern 300 3 0 10 10 northern college northern 947 9 0 10 10 sault college northern 577 6 0 10 10 seneca college metro toronto area 299 3 0 10 10 sheridan college metro toronto area 251 2 0 10 10 six nations polytechnic institute southern 212 2 0 1 1 st. clair college western 147 2 0 10 10 st. lawrence college eastern 536 5 0 10 10 0 241 241 grand total *highlighted in blue are the institutions that are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). page 261 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that lambton college has formal agreements to accept students from. lambton college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas/academic backgrounds. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at lambton college. table 30: pathway by sending programs receiving program credential lambton college sending institutions & program areas business/finance/administration business - general college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) 191 50 total partnership agreements to lambton college 241 23 23 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 page 262 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college receiving program credential lambton college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) total partnership agreements to lambton college lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 business - marketing page 263 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college receiving program credential lambton college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to lambton college college diploma (2 year) george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration accounting 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 page 264 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college receiving program credential lambton college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to lambton college college diploma (2 year) confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 business administration general page 265 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college receiving program credential lambton college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to lambton college college diploma (2 year) algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 page 266 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college receiving program credential lambton college sending institutions & program areas sheridan college college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to lambton college college diploma (2 year) 1 six nations polytechnic institute 1 2 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business administration human resources 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 page 267 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college receiving program credential lambton college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) total partnership agreements to lambton college loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 48 48 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 business administration marketing page 268 of 397 institutional profile: lambton college receiving program credential lambton college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) total partnership agreements to lambton college george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 grand total 191 50 241 page 269 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college loyalist college loyalist college (formally loyalist college of applied arts and technology) is an english-language college in belleville, ontario, canada. loyalist college is well known in the region for its journalism, photojournalism and radio and television broadcasting programs as well as its health services, police foundations and skilled trades programs. loyalist colleges serves a student body of over 3000 students at its belleville and bancroft campuses. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the belleville campus was chosen as the main campus of geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in the pathway analysis. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/loyalist_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 partners 23 public colleges; 2 first nations institutes. 2 partners are within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km): fleming college, st. lawrence college. pathways with generic sending programs 0 240 pathways with specific 240 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to loyalist college diploma programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to loyalist college diploma programs. partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 270 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 271 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college table 31: pathway by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 260 2 0 10 10 cambrian college northern 566 5 0 10 10 canadore college northern 400 5 0 10 10 centennial college metro toronto area 160 2 0 10 10 collge boral northern 558 5 0 8 8 conestoga college southern 264 3 0 10 10 confederation college northern 1550 16 0 10 10 durham college central 136 1 0 10 10 fanshawe college southern 363 3 0 10 10 fleming college* eastern 73 1 0 10 10 george brown college metro toronto area 186 2 0 10 10 georgian college central 268 3 0 10 10 humber college metro toronto area 200 2 0 10 10 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 696 7 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 276 3 0 10 10 lambton college western 459 4 0 10 10 page 272 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college loyalist college eastern 0 0 0 10 10 mohawk college southern 256 2 0 10 10 niagara college southern 318 3 0 10 10 northern college northern 746 8 0 10 10 sault college northern 854 9 0 10 10 seneca college metro toronto area 173 2 0 10 10 sheridan college metro toronto area 222 2 0 10 10 six nations polytechnic institute southern 287 3 0 1 1 st. clair college western 533 5 0 10 10 st. lawrence college* eastern 81 1 0 10 10 0 240 240 grand total *highlighted in blue are the institutions that are within commutable range. ( equal or less than 80 km). page 273 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that loyalist college has formal agreements to accept students from. loyalist college enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at loyalist college. table 32: pathway by sending program receiving program - loyalist college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (2 year) (3 year) business/finance/administration total partnership agreements to loyalist college 142 98 240 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 274 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college receiving program - loyalist college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma total partnership agreements to loyalist college college diploma (2 year) (3 year) humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 page 275 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college receiving program - loyalist college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma total partnership agreements to loyalist college college diploma (2 year) (3 year) durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 48 25 73 2 1 3 business administration accounting algonquin college page 276 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college receiving program - loyalist college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma total partnership agreements to loyalist college college diploma (2 year) (3 year) cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 page 277 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college receiving program - loyalist college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma total partnership agreements to loyalist college college diploma (2 year) (3 year) sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 business administration general page 278 of 397 institutional profile: loyalist college receiving program - loyalist college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma total partnership agreements to loyalist college college diploma (2 year) (3 year) la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 142 98 240 grand total page 279 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college mohawk college of applied arts and technology mohawk college of applied arts and technology is a public college of applied arts and technology located in the golden horseshoe of ontario, canada. mohawk has three main campuses: the fennell campus located in hamilton, the stoney creek campus located in stoney creek, and the mohawk-mcmaster institute for applied health sciences located at mcmaster university in hamilton. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the fennel campus was chosen as the main campus of geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in the pathway analysis. mohawk specialise in health science and engineering technology education and is the largest trainer of apprentices in ontario. the faculties include the mckeil school of business, faculty of media and entertainment, faculty of engineering technology, faculty of health sciences, and the faculty of community urban studiesto serve hamilton's growing immigrant population, mohawk offers english language training and innovative bridging programs for foreign-trained professionals in health sciences and engineering technology. mohawk offers two-year ontario college diplomas, three-year ontario college advanced diplomas, one-year ontario college graduate certificates and four-year collaborative degree programs, the latter in association with mcmaster university. mohawk currently offers more than 100 full-time programs, apprenticeship programs and more than 1,000 continuing education courses. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mohawk_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 24 partners 23 public colleges; 1 first nations institute. 4 partners are within commutable range (less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 167 pathways with specific 167 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to mohawk college diploma programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to mohawk college diploma programs. the majority of partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 280 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 281 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college table 33: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 511 5 0 7 7 cambrian college northern 455 5 0 7 7 canadore college northern 404 4 0 7 7 centennial college metro toronto area 96 1 0 7 7 collge boral northern 447 5 0 5 5 conestoga college* southern 54 1 0 7 7 confederation college northern 1439 15 0 7 7 durham college central 141 2 0 7 7 fanshawe college southern 126 1 0 7 7 fleming college eastern 185 2 0 7 7 george brown college* metro toronto area 71 1 0 7 7 georgian college central 157 2 0 7 7 humber college* metro toronto area 72 1 0 7 7 la cit collgiale eastern 527 5 0 7 7 lambton college western 221 2 0 7 7 loyalist college eastern 256 3 0 7 7 page 282 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college mohawk college southern 0 0 0 7 7 niagara college* southern 84 1 0 7 7 northern college northern 752 8 0 7 7 sault college northern 743 7 0 7 7 seneca college metro toronto area 91 1 0 7 7 sheridan college metro toronto area 37 0 0 7 7 six nations polytechnic institute southern 37 0 0 1 1 st. clair college western 298 3 0 7 7 st. lawrence college eastern 333 3 0 7 7 0 167 167 grand total *institutions highlighted in blue are partners within commutable range ( less than 80 km). page 283 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that mohawk college has formal agreements to accept students from. mohawk college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at mohawk college. table 34: pathways by sending program receiving program credential - mohawk college sending institutions & program areas business/finance/administration college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) 70 total partnership agreements to mohawk college 97 167 business - accounting 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 page 284 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college receiving program credential - mohawk college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) total partnership agreements to mohawk college la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 page 285 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college receiving program credential - mohawk college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) total partnership agreements to mohawk college fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 business - marketing page 286 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college receiving program credential - mohawk college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) total partnership agreements to mohawk college conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 24 25 49 1 1 2 business administration - general algonquin college page 287 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college receiving program credential - mohawk college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) total partnership agreements to mohawk college cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 page 288 of 397 institutional profile: mohawk college receiving program credential - mohawk college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) six nations polytechnic institute total partnership agreements to mohawk college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 70 97 167 grand total page 289 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college niagara college of applied arts and technology niagara college of applied arts and technology is a college of applied arts and technology within the niagara region of southern ontario, canada. the college has four campuses: the welland campus in welland, the niagara-on-the-lake campus in niagara-on-the-lake, the niagara falls campus in niagara falls and the taif campus in taif, saudi arabia. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the welland campus was chosen as the main campus of geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in the pathway analysis. with 10,550 full-time students, including more than 1,700 international students from more than 60 countries, the college offers over 100 post-secondary diplomas, baccalaureate degrees and advanced level programs. programs include more than 100 post-secondary and graduate certificate in the divisions of academic and liberal studies, business, hospitality and environmental, community and health studies, media, trades and technology, and the canadian food and wine institute. areas of specialization include advanced technology, applied health, community safety, media, food and beverage sciences, business, hospitality and tourism, and environment and horticulture, which are supported by unique learning enterprises in food, wine, beer, horticulture, dental, esthetics and hair. additionally, the continuing education division attracts approximately 9,000 registrations to more than 1,300 courses each year. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/niagara_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 40 partners. 13 universities; 24 colleges; 3 first nations institutes. 4 partners are within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km): brock university, mohawk college, sheridan college, six nations polytechnique institute. pathways with generic sending programs 0 461 pathways with specific 461 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to niagara college diploma/advanced diploma/degree programs. niagara college allows specific pathways for transfer students with a background in arts, fine arts, culture, business, finance, administration, and hospitality and tourism. the majority of the partnerships allow access for business transfer students. page 290 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college pathways by sending institutions the following table presents information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner (in the form of established sending partnership agreements), and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 291 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college table 35: pathways by sending institutions geographical data sending institution region algonquin college eastern brock university* distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways 573 5 0 18 18 southern 17 0 0 3 3 cambrian college northern 517 5 0 17 17 canadore college northern 467 4 0 17 17 centennial college metro 159 2 0 20 20 collge boral northern 509 5 0 19 19 conestoga college southern 130 1 0 19 19 confederation college northern 1501 16 0 18 18 durham college central 204 2 0 20 20 fanshawe college southern 204 2 0 20 20 fleming college eastern 248 2 0 18 18 george brown college metro toronto area 133 1 0 19 19 georgian college central 219 2 0 20 20 humber college metro toronto area 131 1 0 18 18 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 646 6 0 1 1 page 292 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college geographical data sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways la cit collgiale northern 589 6 0 18 18 lakehead university northern 1500 16 0 1 1 lambton college western 300 3 0 18 18 laurentian university northern 503 5 0 1 1 loyalist college eastern 318 3 0 17 17 mohawk college* southern 84 1 0 17 17 niagara college southern 0 0 0 20 20 nipissing university northern 467 5 0 1 1 northern college northern 813 8 0 17 17 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute nothern 1551 15 0 1 1 queen's university eastern 395 4 0 1 1 sault college northern 805 8 0 18 18 seneca college metro toronto area 153 2 0 20 20 sheridan college* metro toronto area 98 1 0 17 17 six nations polytechnic institute* southern 79 1 0 1 1 st. clair college western 374 4 0 20 20 st. lawrence college eastern 394 4 0 18 18 page 293 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college geographical data sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways trent university eastern 276 3 0 1 1 university of ontario institute of technology central 204 2 0 1 1 university of ottawa eastern 583 6 0 1 1 university of toronto metro toronto area 134 2 0 1 1 university of windsor southern 385 4 0 1 1 western university southern 210 2 0 1 1 wilfrid laurier university southern 150 2 0 1 1 york university metro toronto area 151 2 0 1 1 0 461 461 grand total *highlighted in blue are the partners that are within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km). **numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation process with niagara college as of 27/11/15. page 294 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions from which niagara college has formal agreements to accept students. niagara college enables specific pathways to diploma, advanced diploma, and degree programs. listed are the sending program areas/academic disciplines from which transfer students are coming. also included are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at niagara college. numbers presented in the following tables reflect feedback incorporated from the consultation process with niagara college as of 27/11/15. table 36: pathway by sending programs receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college 109 109 13 13 brock university 1 1 lakehead university 1 1 laurentian university 1 1 nipissing university 1 1 queen's university 1 1 trent university 1 1 technology 1 1 university of ottawa 1 1 bachelor of education primary/junior university of ontario institute of page 295 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college university of toronto 1 1 university of windsor 1 1 western university 1 1 wilfrid laurier university 1 1 york university 1 1 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 boreal college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cite college 1 1 child development practitioner page 296 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 early childhood education 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 boreal college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 page 297 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cite college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 boreal college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 police foundations page 298 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cite college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 page 299 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) social service worker college diploma degree (2 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 boreal college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cite college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 page 300 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 217 98 315 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 business/finance/administration page 301 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 business - general page 302 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business - human resources 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 page 303 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 page 304 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) st. lawrence college college diploma total partnership agreements to niagara college 1 1 business - marketing 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 page 305 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration accounting 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 page 306 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) humber college college diploma 2 kenjgewin teg educational institute total partnership agreements to niagara college 1 3 1 1 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 25 25 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 business administration - general page 307 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration - human 49 49 page 308 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college resources algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 page 309 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 1 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 48 48 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 business administration marketing page 310 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma total partnership agreements to niagara college college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 culinary/hospitality/tourism 1 18 1 1 2 1 1 2 culinary skills chef training collge boral gestion htelire et de restaurant la cit collgiale 16 35 1 1 1 1 1 1 hospitality and tourism management page 311 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma degree (2 year) lambton college hospitality management - hotel fanshawe college total partnership agreements to niagara college 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 4 hospitality management - hotel and resort centennial college 1 georgian college 1 sault college 1 1 2 1 1 5 17 1 1 hospitality management - hotel and restaurant 12 algonquin college centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 2 2 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 niagara college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 1 1 st. lawrence college page 312 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) total partnership agreements to niagara college college diploma degree (2 year) hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and resort confederation college 1 1 1 1 hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and tourism durham college 1 1 1 1 hospitality hotel and operations management 1 1 1 1 2 2 fleming college 1 1 humber college 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 durham college hotel and restaurant management hotel management george brown college hotel, resort and restaurant management centennial college health and medicine recreation and leisure studies brock university 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 313 of 397 institutional profile: niagara college receiving program credential - niagara college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) grand total college diploma 218 227 16 total partnership agreements to niagara college 461 page 314 of 397 institutional profile: northern college northern college northern college is a college of applied arts and technology in northern ontario. the college's catchment area extends across 58,000 square miles or 150,200 square kilometres. more than 65 communities within north eastern ontario are served by four campuses located in timmins (porcupine),kirkland lake, moosonee, and haileybury. for the purposes of this analysis, only the main campus (porcupine) is selected; branch campuses are not considered within this profile. annual enrolment is approximately 1,500 full-time students. annual part-time and continuing education enrolment exceeds 11,000 students. northern college offers certificate and diploma programs in business, office administration, computer studies, engineering technology and trades, health sciences and emergency services, human services, mining engineering technology, instrumentation, natural resources, police sciences, veterinary sciences, and welding engineering technology. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/northern_college_(ontario)) partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 24 23 public colleges; 1 first nations institute. no partner institutions are within commutable range (less than or equal to 80km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 119 pathways with specific 119 sending programs no generic transfer pathways to programs offered at northern college all specific transfer pathways to programs offered at northern colleges for students coming from a program in business, finance, and administration page 315 of 397 institutional profile: northern college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 316 of 397 institutional profile: northern college table 37: pathway by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 701 7 0 5 5 cambrian college northern 309 4 0 5 5 canadore college northern 349 4 0 5 5 centennial college metro toronto area 703 7 0 5 5 collge boral eastern 304 4 0 3 3 conestoga college southern 752 8 0 5 5 confederation college northern 784 9 0 5 5 durham college central 650 7 0 5 5 fanshawe college southern 851 8 0 5 5 fleming college eastern 712 8 0 5 5 george brown college metro toronto area 707 7 0 5 5 georgian college central 597 6 0 5 5 humber college metro toronto area 682 7 0 5 5 la cit collgiale eastern 717 8 0 5 5 lambton college western 947 9 0 5 5 loyalist college eastern 746 8 0 5 5 page 317 of 397 institutional profile: northern college mohawk college southern 752 8 0 5 5 niagara college southern 813 8 0 5 5 northern college northern 0 0 0 5 5 sault college northern 446 7 0 5 5 seneca college metro toronto area 691 7 0 5 5 sheridan college metro toronto area 713 7 0 5 5 six nations polytechnic institute southern 781 8 0 1 1 st. clair college western 1024 10 0 5 5 st. lawrence college eastern 805 9 0 5 5 0 119 119 grand total page 318 of 397 institutional profile: northern college pathways by sending institutions the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that northern college has formal agreements to accept students from. northern college enables specific pathways to their diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at northern college. table 38: pathways by sending programs receiving programs - northern college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) northern college total business/finance/ administration 70 49 119 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 page 319 of 397 institutional profile: northern college receiving programs - northern college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) northern college total humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 business administration general 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 page 320 of 397 institutional profile: northern college receiving programs - northern college sending institutions & program areas college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma (2 year) northern college total fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 70 49 119 grand total page 321 of 397 institutional profile: sault college sault college sault college (also referred to as sault college of applied arts and technology) is one of 24 publicly funded colleges in ontario. sault college is located in sault ste. marie, ontario, and began in 1965 as the ontario vocational centre. today, sault college offers full-time and part-time opportunities for students in postsecondary, apprenticeship, adult retraining, continuing education, and contract training program categories. sault college's full-time and part-time enrolment totals about 4,500 registrants annually. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sault_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 25 partners. 23 public colleges; 2 first nations institutes. no partners are within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km) pathways with generic sending programs 0 98 pathways with specific 98 sending programs no generic pathways are established for student-transfer into sault college. all specific pathways to 2 yr-college diploma program in sault college for students coming from business, finance, and administration. page 322 of 397 institutional profile: sault college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 323 of 397 institutional profile: sault college table 39: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 784 8 0 4 4 cambrian college northern 316 4 0 4 4 canadore college northern 433 5 0 4 4 centennial college metro toronto area 694 7 0 4 4 collge boral eastern 311 3 0 4 4 conestoga college southern 744 8 0 4 4 confederation college northern 698 8 0 4 4 durham college central 672 7 0 4 4 fanshawe college southern 685 7 0 4 4 fleming college eastern 783 8 0 4 4 george brown college metro toronto area 699 7 0 4 4 georgian college central 588 6 0 4 4 humber college metro toronto area 673 7 0 4 4 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 320 3 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 800 9 0 4 4 lambton college western 577 6 0 4 4 page 324 of 397 institutional profile: sault college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways loyalist college eastern 854 9 0 4 4 mohawk college southern 743 7 0 4 4 niagara college southern 805 8 0 4 4 northern college northern 446 7 0 4 4 sault college northern 0 0 0 4 4 seneca college metro toronto area 681 7 0 4 4 sheridan college metro toronto area 704 7 0 4 4 six nations polytechnic institute southern 772 8 0 1 1 st. clair college western 577 5 0 4 4 st. lawrence college eastern 929 9 0 4 4 0 98 98 grand total page 325 of 397 institutional profile: sault college pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that sault college has formal agreements to accept students from. sault college enables specific pathways to their programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at sault college. table 40: pathways by sending program receiving programs - sault college program areas and sending institutions business/finance/administration college diploma (2 year) 98 business - accounting 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 page 326 of 397 institutional profile: sault college receiving programs - sault college program areas and sending institutions business/finance/administration college diploma (2 year) 98 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 business - general 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 page 327 of 397 institutional profile: sault college receiving programs - sault college program areas and sending institutions business/finance/administration college diploma (2 year) 98 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 business administration - accounting 25 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 page 328 of 397 institutional profile: sault college receiving programs - sault college program areas and sending institutions business/finance/administration college diploma (2 year) 98 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 kenjgewin teg educational institute 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 business administration - general algonquin college 25 1 page 329 of 397 institutional profile: sault college receiving programs - sault college program areas and sending institutions business/finance/administration college diploma (2 year) 98 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 page 330 of 397 institutional profile: sault college receiving programs - sault college program areas and sending institutions business/finance/administration college diploma (2 year) 98 six nations polytechnic institute 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 grand total 98 page 331 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning is a diploma and degree granting polytechnic institute in ontario, with approximately 18,000 full-time students and 35,000 continuing education students. founded in 1967 the college offers programs in animation and illustration, music theatre, film and design, business, applied computing, engineering technology, community studies, and liberal studies. there are campuses in oakville, brampton, and mississauga. the oakville campus was selected as the main campus for sheridan college; branch campuses are not considered in this transfer profile analysis. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sheridan_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 43 partners 16 universities, 3 first nations institutes, 24 colleges 13 partners are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 128 1140 pathways with specific 1140 sending programs generic pathways are established with 8 partners: algoma university, algonquin college, brock university, laurentian university, nippissing university, university of ottawa, wilfred laurier university, york university. all specific pathways established for transfer students; saturation of transfer agreements allow access for transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, administration page 332 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 333 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college table 41: pathways by sending institutions geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algoma university northern 702 7 5 2 7 algonquin college eastern 478 4 36 54 90 brock university* southern 85 1 13 2 15 cambrian college northern 417 4 0 31 31 canadore college northern 367 4 0 24 24 carleton university eastern 486 5 0 2 2 centennial college* metro toronto area 63 1 0 46 46 collge boral northern 409 4 0 28 28 conestoga college* southern 71 1 0 42 42 confederation college northern 1401 15 0 30 30 durham college central 104 1 0 45 45 fanshawe college southern 156 2 0 49 49 fleming college eastern 152 2 0 37 37 george brown college* metro toronto area 38 0 0 44 44 georgian college central 119 1 0 45 45 humber college* metro toronto area 37 0 0 45 45 page 334 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college geographical data sending institution region kenjgewin teg educational institute northern la cit collgiale eastern lakehead university pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways 1550 24 0 1 1 494 5 0 46 46 northern 1400 15 0 2 2 lambton college western 251 2 0 37 37 laurentian university northern 403 4 2 2 4 loyalist college eastern 222 2 0 31 31 mcmaster university* southern 35 0 0 2 2 mohawk college* southern 37 1 0 50 50 niagara college southern 98 1 0 42 42 nipissing university northern 367 4 1 2 3 northern college southern 713 7 0 34 34 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1391 15 0 1 1 queen's university eastern 299 3 0 2 2 ryerson university* metro toronto area 39 1 0 2 2 sault college northern 704 7 0 29 29 seneca college* metro toronto area 56 1 0 48 48 sheridan college metro toronto area 0 0 0 54 54 six nations polytechnic institute* southern 66 1 0 1 1 page 335 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways st. clair college western 1441 21 0 42 42 st. lawrence college eastern 299 3 0 38 38 trent university eastern 180 2 0 2 2 university of guelph* southern 64 1 0 2 2 university of ontario institute of technology central 104 1 0 2 2 university of ottawa eastern 487 5 2 2 4 university of toronto* metro toronto area 40 1 0 2 2 university of waterloo southern 91 1 0 2 2 university of windsor southern 337 3 0 2 2 western university southern 162 2 0 2 2 wilfrid laurier university southern 90 1 2 2 2 york university* metro toronto area 46 1 67 2 69 128 1012 1140 grand total *highlighted in blue are institutions that are within commutable range ( less than 80 km). *numbers reflect feedback incorporated as of 27/11/15 page 336 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that sheridan college has formal agreements to accept students from. sheridan college enables specific pathways to their college diploma, college advanced diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at sheridan college. table 42: pathways by sending programs receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) arts, fine arts and culture college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 53 53 6 6 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 animation numerique 1 1 1 1 animation animation 3d advance - veuillez vous inscrire a animation collge boral page 337 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) animation-3d animation, art and design college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 1 1 1 1 1 1 durham college 1 1 animation-tradigital 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 creative photography 3 3 humber college 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 digital photography 9 9 durham college 3 3 lambton college 3 3 niagara college 3 3 6 6 georgian college 3 3 sault college 3 3 3 3 humber college animation-digital production creative photography - still and motion mohawk college design d'intrieur avanc digital photography and imaging independent digital photography page 338 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) seneca college 3 3 5 5 algonquin college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 3 3 3 3 6 6 algonquin college 3 3 fanshawe college 3 3 photography diploma 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 2 2 2 2 313 724 3 3 3 3 1 1 interior design photographie la cit collgiale photography photojournalism loyalist college business/finance/administration administration des affaires la cit collgiale administration des affaires - marketing 217 194 page 339 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) la cit collgiale college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 55 55 algonquin college 2 2 canadore college 4 4 centennial college 4 4 collge boral 4 4 conestoga college 4 4 fanshawe college 4 4 fleming college 4 4 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 4 4 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 4 4 northern college 4 4 sault college 4 4 st. clair college 5 5 administration des affaires-finance la cit collgiale administration des affaires-marketing la cit collgiale business page 340 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) st. lawrence college 5 5 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 business - (gebu) 3 3 cambrian college 3 3 business - (general) 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 1 1 1 1 business - (busi) business - aboriginal stream durham college business - accounting 24 24 19 67 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 1 3 canadore college 1 1 1 3 centennial college 1 1 1 3 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 1 3 durham college 1 1 1 3 fanshawe college 1 1 1 3 fleming college 1 1 2 page 341 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) george brown college 1 1 1 3 georgian college 1 1 1 3 humber college 1 1 1 3 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 1 3 mohawk college 1 1 1 3 niagara college 1 1 1 3 northern college 1 1 1 3 sault college 1 1 1 3 seneca college 1 1 1 3 sheridan college 1 1 1 3 st. clair college 1 1 1 3 st. lawrence college 1 1 1 3 2 2 2 2 12 36 business - busi loyalist college business - general 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 page 342 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 3 4 niagara college 1 3 4 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 1 2 1 4 5 1 page 343 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma degree (2 year) (3 year) st. lawrence college business - human resources sheridan college total 1 1 2 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 page 344 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business - management and entrepreneurship algonquin college business - marketing 4 4 4 4 24 24 6 54 algonquin college 1 1 1 3 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 1 1 3 3 page 345 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 business (gebu) 2 1 4 3 1 1 1 1 45 45 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 4 4 centennial college 4 4 confederation college 2 2 cambrian college business administration page 346 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) fleming college 4 4 george brown college 4 4 georgian college 4 4 humber college 4 4 la cit collgiale 1 1 loyalist college 4 4 mohawk college 4 4 niagara college 1 1 northern college 4 4 st. lawrence college 4 4 business administration - accounting 48 25 21 94 algonquin college 2 1 1 4 cambrian college 2 1 1 4 canadore college 2 1 centennial college 2 1 1 4 collge boral 2 1 1 4 conestoga college 2 1 1 4 confederation college 2 1 1 4 durham college 2 1 1 4 fanshawe college 2 1 1 4 3 page 347 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) fleming college 2 1 1 4 george brown college 2 1 1 4 georgian college 2 1 1 4 humber college 2 1 1 4 kenjgewin teg educational institute 1 1 la cit collgiale 2 1 1 4 lambton college 2 1 1 4 loyalist college 2 1 1 4 mohawk college 2 1 niagara college 2 1 1 4 northern college 2 1 1 4 sault college 2 1 seneca college 2 1 1 4 sheridan college 2 1 1 4 st. clair college 2 1 1 4 st. lawrence college 2 1 1 4 9 9 algonquin college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 business administration - finance 3 3 page 348 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 3 3 conestoga college 2 2 seneca college 1 1 1 26 business administration - financial planning business administration - general 25 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 page 349 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration - general business algonquin college business administration - human materials confederation college business administration - human resource management northern college business administration - human resources algonquin college 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 49 24 24 97 2 1 2 5 page 350 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 2 5 fleming college 2 1 2 5 george brown college 2 1 2 5 georgian college 2 1 2 5 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 northern college 2 1 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 2 2 2 5 5 5 3 1 page 351 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) sault college 2 1 seneca college 2 1 2 5 sheridan college 2 1 2 5 st. clair college 2 1 2 5 st. lawrence college 2 1 2 5 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 business administration - leadership and management fanshawe college business administration - leadership and managment fanshawe college business administration - management conestoga college business administration - marketing 3 48 24 12 84 algonquin college 2 1 1 4 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 collge boral 2 1 conestoga college 2 1 1 4 3 1 4 page 352 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) (3 year) confederation college 2 1 durham college 2 1 1 4 fanshawe college 2 1 1 4 fleming college 2 1 1 4 george brown college 2 1 1 4 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 1 4 st. clair college 2 1 1 4 st. lawrence college 2 1 1 4 1 1 business administration entrepreneurship and small business 3 1 1 4 4 page 353 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) seneca college business administration- entrepreneurship and small business seneca college business administration general lambton college business administration- management conestoga college business administration marketing seneca college business administration-entrepreneurship and small business seneca college business administration-general lambton college business administration-leadership and management fanshawe college business administration-management conestoga college business administration-marketing college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 13 page 354 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business human resources 5 5 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business management 5 5 page 355 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) humber college college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 5 5 4 4 humber college 4 4 business marketing 18 18 algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 northern college 2 2 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business management - financial services page 356 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) business-finance college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 3 3 centennial college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 4 4 durham college 3 3 lambton college 1 1 general - business 4 4 seneca college 4 4 general business 1 1 seneca college 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 21 21 entrepreneurship and small business - business human resources - business administration durham college human resources-business durham college marketing-business administration durham college techniques en administration des affaires la cit collgiale education, community and social services page 357 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) early childhood education college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 21 21 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 page 358 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 health, food and medical, recreation 1 1 fitness and lifestyle management 1 1 1 1 science and engineering technology 171 171 computer engineering technician 9 9 collge boral 1 1 fleming college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 1 1 1 1 24 24 algonquin college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 3 3 fleming college 3 3 humber college 3 3 george brown college computer engineering technologist collge boral computer engineering technology page 359 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) la cit collgiale 2 2 mohawk college 3 3 seneca college 3 3 sheridan college 3 3 1 1 algonquin college 1 1 computer programmer 10 10 algonquin college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 lambton college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 15 15 1 1 computer engineering technology computing science computer programmer analyst conestoga college page 360 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 sault college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 36 36 algonquin college 5 5 centennial college 1 1 durham college 5 5 fanshawe college 5 5 george brown college 5 5 georgian college 1 1 computer programmer/analyst conestoga college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer science technician sheridan college computer systems technician page 361 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) la cit collgiale 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 5 5 sheridan college 3 3 st. clair college 4 4 2 2 2 2 5 5 centennial college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 sheridan college 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 4 2 2 computer systems technician - network systems mohawk college computer systems technician - networking computer systems technician - software engineering sheridan college computer systems technician - software support mohawk college computer systems technician-network systems mohawk college computer systems technician-networking centennial college page 362 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) georgian college college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 2 2 2 2 2 2 17 17 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 computer systems technician-software support mohawk college computer systems technology computer systems technology network engineering and security analyst mohawk college computer systems technology networking page 363 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) algonquin college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 9 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 computer systems technology security algonquin college computer systems technology software development mohawk college computer systems technology software development and network engineering sheridan college computer systems technology systems analyst sheridan college electronics engineering technician page 364 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) niagara college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 8 centennial college 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 durham college 1 1 humber college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 electronics engineering technician - computers confederation college electronics engineering technology electronics engineering technology - industrial automation st. clair college internet communications technology sheridan college techniques des systemes informatiques page 365 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) la cit collgiale college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 42 42 41 41 algoma university 2 2 brock university 2 2 carleton university 2 2 centennial college 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 techniques du denie electronique la cit collgiale technologie de l'information - rseaux informatiques la cit collgiale technologie du gnie lectronique la cit collgiale technologie du genie electronique-industriel collge boral wireless/mobility telecommunications engineering technician algonquin college science and technology any computer-related degree page 366 of 397 institutional profile: sheridan college receiving programs - sheridan college sending institutions & programs college advanced diploma (3 year) college diploma sheridan college total degree (2 year) lakehead university 2 2 laurentian university 2 2 mcmaster university 2 2 nipissing university 2 2 queen's university 2 2 ryerson university 1 1 trent university 2 2 university of guelph 2 2 university of ontario institute of technology 2 2 university of ottawa 2 2 university of toronto 2 2 university of waterloo 2 2 university of windsor 2 2 western university 2 2 wilfrid laurier university 2 2 york university 2 2 1 1 1 1 601 1012 any computer-related degrees ryerson university grand total 217 194 page 367 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college st. clair college of applied arts and technology st. clair college of applied arts and technology is a college in south western ontario with campuses in the counties of essex and chatham-kent. the windsor-essex campus is chosen as the main campus for the geographical proximity analysis. st. clair college offers more than 100 diploma, certificate, and post-graduate certificate programs. the college also offers apprentice programs, english as a second language (esl) and post secondary career programs. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/st._clair_college). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 26 3 first nations institutes; 23 public colleges. no partners are within commutable range (approximately equal or less than 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 363 pathways with specific 363 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students into programs offered at st. clair college. all specific pathways for transfer students into programs offered at st. clair college; transfer agreements allow access for transfer students that have a background in business/finance/administration. page 368 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 369 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college table 43: pathways by sending institutions geographical data sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways algonquin college eastern 791 8 0 15 15 cambrian college northern 659 6 0 15 15 canadore college northern 678 6 0 15 15 centennial college metro toronto area 390 4 0 15 15 collge boral eastern 720 7 0 15 15 conestoga college southern 268 3 0 15 15 confederation college northern 1274 13 0 15 15 durham college central 415 4 0 15 15 fanshawe college southern 191 2 0 15 15 fleming college eastern 466 5 0 15 15 george brown college metro toronto area 364 3 0 15 15 georgian college central 430 4 0 15 15 humber college metro toronto area 351 3 0 15 15 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 860 8 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 852 8 0 15 15 lambton college western 148 2 0 15 15 page 370 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college geographical data sending institution region pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreement number of pathways loyalist college eastern 533 5 0 15 15 mohawk college southern 298 3 0 15 15 niagara college southern 374 4 0 15 15 northern college northern 1024 10 0 15 15 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1262 13 0 1 1 sault college northern 577 5 0 15 15 seneca college metro toronto area 378 4 0 15 15 sheridan college metro toronto area 329 21 0 15 15 six nations polytechnic institute southern 290 3 0 1 1 st. clair college western 0 0 0 15 15 st. lawrence college eastern 621 6 0 15 15 0 363 363 grand total * numbers reflect feedback incorporated from the consultative process with sheridan college as of 27/11/2015. page 371 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that st. clair college has formal agreements to accept students from. st. clair college enables specific pathways to their college advanced diploma, and college diploma programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at st. clair college. table 44: pathways by sending programs receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas business/finance/administration college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) 217 146 363 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 372 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 business - general page 373 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business - human resources 24 24 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 page 374 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business - marketing 24 24 48 page 375 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 page 376 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 business administration - accounting kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 page 377 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 25 25 algonquin college 1 1 cambrian college 1 1 canadore college 1 1 centennial college 1 1 collge boral 1 1 conestoga college 1 1 confederation college 1 1 durham college 1 1 fanshawe college 1 1 fleming college 1 1 george brown college 1 1 georgian college 1 1 business administration - general page 378 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) humber college 1 1 la cit collgiale 1 1 lambton college 1 1 loyalist college 1 1 mohawk college 1 1 niagara college 1 1 northern college 1 1 sault college 1 1 seneca college 1 1 sheridan college 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute 1 1 st. clair college 1 1 st. lawrence college 1 1 business administration - human resources 49 49 algonquin college 2 2 cambrian college 2 2 canadore college 2 2 centennial college 2 2 collge boral 2 2 conestoga college 2 2 page 379 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) confederation college 2 2 durham college 2 2 fanshawe college 2 2 fleming college 2 2 george brown college 2 2 georgian college 2 2 humber college 2 2 la cit collgiale 2 2 lambton college 2 2 loyalist college 2 2 mohawk college 2 2 niagara college 2 2 northern college 2 2 1 1 sault college 2 2 seneca college 2 2 sheridan college 2 2 st. clair college 2 2 st. lawrence college 2 2 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute business administration - marketing 48 24 72 page 380 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 page 381 of 397 institutional profile: st. clair college receiving programs - st. clair college sending institutions & sending program areas college diploma college advanced diploma (3 year) st. clair college total (2 year) sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 217 146 363 grand total page 382 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college st. lawrence college st. lawrence college is a college of applied arts and technology with three campuses in eastern ontario, namely brockville, cornwall, and kingston. for the purposes of this institutional profile, the kingston campus was selected as the main campus for geographical reference; branch campuses are not considered in this analysis. the college has approximately 6,700 full-time students and 20,000 part-time registrants in 89 academic programs and employs 829 full- and part-time staff; this includes 414 faculty. the school has one of the highest rated music theatre - performance programs in the country, which is located at the brockville campus. st. lawrence college has received accreditation to offer baccalaureate degree programs in the following areas bachelor of applied arts degree in behavioural psychology bachelor of science in nursing (bscn) bachelor of business administration (in partnership with laurentian university) in addition, st. lawrence college's graphic design program is a 3-year, ontario college advanced diploma program starting each september, located at the slc campus in kingston. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/st._lawrence_college,_ontario). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 26 partners 23 public colleges, 3 first nations institutes. loyalist college is the only partner within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km). pathways with generic sending programs 0 481 pathways with specific 481 sending programs no generic pathways are set up for transfer students with any program background to st. lawrence college diploma programs. all specific pathways are set up for transfer students to st. lawrence college diploma programs. partnership agreements allow access to transfer students coming with a background in business, finance, or administration. page 383 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/disciplinespecific. page 384 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college table 45: pathways by sending institutions geographical data sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways algonquin college eastern 189 2 0 20 20 cambrian college northern 643 6 0 20 20 canadore college northern 459 5 0 20 20 centennial college metro toronto area 237 2 0 20 20 collge boral eastern 634 6 0 18 18 conestoga college southern 341 3 0 20 20 confederation college northern 1627 17 0 20 20 durham college central 213 2 0 20 20 fanshawe college southern 440 4 0 20 20 fleming college eastern 150 2 0 20 20 george brown college metro toronto area 263 3 0 20 20 georgian college central 345 3 0 20 20 humber college metro toronto area 277 3 0 20 20 kenjgewin teg educational institute northern 775 8 0 1 1 la cit collgiale eastern 205 2 0 20 20 lambton college western 536 5 0 20 20 page 385 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college geographical data sending institution region loyalist college* eastern mohawk college pathway information (oncat data) distance (km) between institutions travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements number of specific agreements number of pathways 81 1 0 20 20 southern 333 3 0 20 20 niagara college southern 394 4 0 20 20 northern college northern 805 9 0 20 20 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1616 17 0 1 1 sault college metro toronto area 929 9 0 20 20 seneca college metro toronto area 250 2 0 20 20 sheridan college northern 299 3 0 20 20 six nations polytechnic institute southern 362 3 0 1 1 st. clair college western 621 6 0 20 20 st. lawrence college eastern 0 0 0 20 20 0 481 481 grand total *highlighted in blue are the institutions that are within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km). page 386 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that st. lawrence college has formal agreements to accept students from. st. lawrence college enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. listed are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at st. lawrence college. table 46: pathways by sending program receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas business/finance/administration college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs 287 194 481 business - accounting 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 page 387 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 46 24 70 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 1 1 business - general collge boral conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 page 388 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 24 48 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 business - human resources page 389 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 24 24 48 business - marketing page 390 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 page 391 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs sheridan college 1 1 2 st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 48 25 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 1 1 1 3 business administration accounting kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale 2 page 392 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 24 25 49 algonquin college 1 1 2 cambrian college 1 1 2 canadore college 1 1 2 centennial college 1 1 2 collge boral 1 1 2 conestoga college 1 1 2 confederation college 1 1 2 durham college 1 1 2 fanshawe college 1 1 2 business administration general page 393 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs fleming college 1 1 2 george brown college 1 1 2 georgian college 1 1 2 humber college 1 1 2 la cit collgiale 1 1 2 lambton college 1 1 2 loyalist college 1 1 2 mohawk college 1 1 2 niagara college 1 1 2 northern college 1 1 2 sault college 1 1 2 seneca college 1 1 2 sheridan college 1 1 2 1 1 six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college 1 1 2 st. lawrence college 1 1 2 49 24 73 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 business administration human resources page 394 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 1 1 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 page 395 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 48 24 72 algonquin college 2 1 3 cambrian college 2 1 3 canadore college 2 1 3 centennial college 2 1 3 collge boral 2 1 3 conestoga college 2 1 3 confederation college 2 1 3 durham college 2 1 3 fanshawe college 2 1 3 fleming college 2 1 3 george brown college 2 1 3 georgian college 2 1 3 humber college 2 1 3 la cit collgiale 2 1 3 lambton college 2 1 3 loyalist college 2 1 3 mohawk college 2 1 3 business administration marketing page 396 of 397 institutional profile: st. lawrence college receiving programs - st. lawrence college sending institutions and program areas college advanced diploma college diploma (3 year) (2 year) st. lawrence college total # of receiving programs niagara college 2 1 3 northern college 2 1 3 sault college 2 1 3 seneca college 2 1 3 sheridan college 2 1 3 st. clair college 2 1 3 st. lawrence college 2 1 3 287 194 481 grand total page 397 of 397

this resource provides practitioners with a summary of the main practices involved when creating new postsecondary programs in ontario. new program approval practices a summary of current program development typologies at ontario colleges and universities prepared by: joanne duklas, duklas cornerstone consulting research by: new program approval practices: a summary of current typologies at ontario colleges and universities prepared by: joanne duklas, duklas cornerstone consulting march 2015 funding for this research was provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer. the opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ontario council on articulation and transfer. 1|page acknowledgements appreciation is extended to dr. serge demers, george granger, stan taman, cheryl kennedy, sacha burrows, and gina marshall for reviewing the full report. appreciation is also extended to the following individuals for their assistance during the research and confirmation phases of this study. cheryl kennedy, curriculum consultant, conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning (conestoga college) christopher eaton, associate registrar and director, university of british columbia deanna underwood, manager of communications, ontario universities application centre (ouac) dr. donna woolcott, executive director, ontario universities council on quality assurance (the quality council) dr. james brown, chief executive officer, postsecondary education quality assessment board dr. jane harrison, director, academic programs, policies and quality assurance, university of toronto dr. karen belfer, executive director, ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) dr. robert fleming, executive director, british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat) dr. serge demers, registrar and secretary of senate, laurentian university genevive paquette, quality assurance associate, ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) george granger, executive director, ontario universities application centre (ouac) gina marshall, director, academic quality, centennial college of applied arts and technology (centennial college) janeen hoover, associate registrar, registration, records, and fees, conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning (conestoga college) jeanette miron, registrar and manager of institutional research, canadore college john curtis, registrar, centennial college of applied arts and technology (centennial college) karen creditor, chief executive officer, ontario college application service (ocas) mark lamontagne, academic director, quality learning, teaching and innovation, canadore college michael skolnik, professor, leadership, higher and adult education, oise university of toronto mike v. sekulic, university registrar, macewan university nevia jelenic, former associate director, financial aid, york university sacha burrows, degree programs and academic pathways consultant, conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning (conestoga college) 2|page stan taman, retired associate registrar, formerly with york university svetlana georgieva, graduate administrative services facilitator, university of windsor staff within the alberta innovation and advanced education agencies support branch, the education and training program coordination branch, and the campus alberta quality council secretariat staff within the colleges unit and the universities unit of the postsecondary accountability branch within the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities staff within the british columbia degree quality assessment board (dqab) of the ministry of advanced education 3|page contents acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................... 2 contents ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 tables ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 figures ........................................................................................................................................................... 6 helpful resources ......................................................................................................................................... 7 glossary ......................................................................................................................................................... 9 executive summary..................................................................................................................................... 10 section 1: a summary of current program development typologies at ontario colleges and universities .................................................................................................................................................................... 11 research approach ................................................................................................................................. 12 section 2: a general overview of typologies for new postsecondary programs ...................................... 13 general process overview ...................................................................................................................... 13 section 3: setting the context .................................................................................................................... 18 program approval authority ................................................................................................................... 18 colleges ................................................................................................................................................... 19 ontario colleges of applied arts and technology act, 2002 (ocaata) ............................................. 19 post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000 (psece act) .......................................... 19 college quality assurance process ..................................................................................................... 19 college new program approval process college certificates and diplomas ....................................... 22 mtcu review and approval of college certificates and diplomas ........................................................ 23 universities ............................................................................................................................................. 24 university quality assurance process ................................................................................................. 24 postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab) .............................................................. 27 mtcu new program approvals and consents for degrees .................................................................... 33 degree approvals ................................................................................................................................ 33 degree consents ................................................................................................................................. 35 section 4: nuances to the program typologies and related considerations ............................................. 38 apprenticeship credentials ..................................................................................................................... 38 unfunded programs ................................................................................................................................ 39 inter-institutional program partnerships ................................................................................................ 39 section 5: examples from institutions and allied organizations ................................................................ 41 4|page disciplinary emphasis.............................................................................................................................. 41 disciplinary and industry emphasis ........................................................................................................ 41 college examples related to new program creation processes ............................................................ 42 university examples related to new program creation processes........................................................ 46 section 6: additional considerations and related examples ..................................................................... 48 internal strategic and operational considerations ................................................................................ 48 broad consultation ............................................................................................................................. 48 external program launch timeline considerations ................................................................................ 51 section 7: the experience in other jurisdictions ........................................................................................ 54 a broad overview ................................................................................................................................... 54 british columbia ...................................................................................................................................... 55 alberta..................................................................................................................................................... 58 conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 62 appendix a: project terms of reference .................................................................................................... 64 appendix b: university program approvals process map .......................................................................... 65 appendix c: websites for university quality assurance processes (iqap) ................................................ 66 appendix d: typical internal considerations .............................................................................................. 67 appendix e: campus alberta quality councils degree program approval process flowchart september 2013 ............................................................................................................................................................ 68 references .................................................................................................................................................. 69 5|page tables table 1: characteristics of college baccalaureate degree approvals in selected jurisdictions ................. 54 table 2: university of british columbia undergraduate new program approval process ......................... 56 table 3: campus alberta six-sector model................................................................................................. 59 figures figure 1: overview of new postsecondary program creation typologies ................................................. 13 figure 2: high level milestones involved in new program processes ........................................................ 15 figure 3: ontario college quality assurance service - overview of new program approval processes for certificates & diplomas .............................................................................................................................. 22 figure 4: quality council's overview of protocols for undergraduate and graduate new program approvals .................................................................................................................................................... 26 figure 5: initial contact and start of application process .......................................................................... 29 figure 6: peqab review process ................................................................................................................ 30 figure 7: mtcu university new program approval process ...................................................................... 34 figure 8: mtcu consent process for degrees ............................................................................................ 37 figure 9: conestoga college: sample of approval process for ontario college certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, and graduate certificates ......................................................................................... 43 figure 10: conestoga's internal degree approval process ......................................................................... 45 figure 11: university of windsor new program approval process ............................................................ 47 figure 12: examples of internal departments involved in new program development processes ........... 49 figure 13: typical operational program launch timeliness using september as a proxy entry point for students ...................................................................................................................................................... 51 figure 14: new postsecondary program creation typologies .................................................................... 62 6|page helpful resources the following resource links are provided to assist administrators and academic pathway developers engaged in new program development. developers of new stand-alone programs and pathway programs are encouraged to first consult with institutional quality assurance offices and with the local academic unit and central academic division within their home college or university for information. acts ministry of training, colleges and universities act http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90m19_e.htm ontario college of applied arts and technology act, 2002 - http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_02o08f_e.htm ontario college of trades and apprenticeship act, 2009 - http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_09o22_e.htm post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2002 - http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_00p36_e.htm quality assurance agencies ontario college quality assurance service ocqas.org ontario universities council on quality assurance (the quality council) - oucqa.ca postsecondary education quality assessment board peqab.ca centralized application centres ontario college application services (ocas) ocas.ca ontario universities application centre (ouac) ouac.on.ca government resources caat extranet site (for legislation, regulations, ministers binding policy directives, operating procedures): http://caat.edu.gov.on.ca/ user name: caatsite password: 900mowat (case sensitive) college diploma and certificate program standards http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/progstan/intro.html degree authority in ontario - http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/programs/degreeauthority/ ministers binding policy directive (mbpd) framework for programs of instruction ministers binding policy directive (mbpd) funding approval of programs of instruction 7|page ministers operating procedure funding approval of programs of instruction procedures ontario qualifications framework - http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/programs/oqf/ canadian degree qualifications framework - http://www.caqc.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/cdqf-final.pdf council of ministers of education, canadas ministerial statement on quality assurance of degree education in canada - http://www.cicic.ca/docs/cmec/qa-statement-2007.en.pdf 8|page glossary aved british columbia ministry of advanced education bccat british columbia council on admissions and transfer cdog colleges degree operating group coda co-op diploma apprenticeship program cou council of ontario universities cvs ocqass credential validation service dqab degree quality assessment board (bc) mtcu or tcu ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities ocaata ontario colleges of applied arts and technology act, 2003 ocas ontario college application service ocav council of ontario universities ontario council of academic vicepresidents ocqas ontario college quality assurance service octaa ontario colleges of trades and apprenticeship act, 2009 oncat ontario council on articulation and transfer osap ontario student assistance program oqf ontario qualifications framework ouac ontario universities application centre pac program advisory committee pdac program development advisory committee peqab postsecondary education quality assessment board pqapa ocqass program quality assurance process audit psece act post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000 quality council ontario universities council on quality assurance 9|page executive summary this resource provides an overview of the participants, typologies, and timeframes involved in new program creation, approval, and launch that are followed by publicly funded, ontario postsecondary institutions. as oncat remains focused on enhancing transfer, pathway development, and interinstitutional joint programs in the province, the intention with this information is to demystify the current practices involved in new program creation, approval, and launch. the research indicates that as complexity and credential levels increase, so do the timelines and processes. this seems reasonable since quality assurance benchmarks and standards and the internal and external consultation expectations necessarily expand. the timeframes to create, develop, refine, and approve credentials delivered by colleges and universities vary: for certificates and diplomas, it typically takes approximately 1 to 1.5 years to conceive and ultimately launch a program. for degrees, whether at a college or university, the process takes approximately 2.5 to 3 years. with an eye to focusing specifically on the ontario college credentials (i.e., ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma, ontario college advanced diploma, and the ontario college graduate certificate) and baccalaureate degrees (whether offered by colleges or universities), this resource provides further details regarding internal institutional processes, explains the mandates and high level protocols followed by the quality assurance bodies, and shares information regarding the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu). examples are provided from specific institutions. it also touches briefly on apprenticeship programs and the ontario college of trades as there are times when such programs are offered through the colleges and, if tied to a credential, can result in additional funding allocations and program approval processes (e.g., under the co-op diploma apprenticeship program - coda). an overview is provided of the non-academic considerations institutions explore when creating new programs. in addition, the participation of system-wide opportunities to support program launch are identified as these can impact the timeframes. finally, a high-level overview is provided of select other jurisdictions. the research emphasizes the importance of internal quality assurance areas; staff within these areas were regularly identified as the main institutional partners with significant expertise in the areas of quality assurance and program development. further, they rely routinely on the external quality assurance bodies whose staff offer overarching knowledge of the quality assurance protocols for new programs. as this resource is focused solely on identifying current practices, readers are encouraged to deal directly with these internal professionals. this resource contributes to the governments provincial vision for enhanced pathways and related efficiencies as it provides a comprehensive overview of the new program approval typologies, timelines, and practices to assist pathway developers. 10 | p a g e section 1: a summary of current program development typologies at ontario colleges and universities the information in this resource identifies the various legislative and administrative bodies, policies, and practices involved in new program approvals within ontario with a focus on publicly funded college and university programs. the roles of the various organizations are identified and helpful resources are provided. for postsecondary programs, four main program creation typologies are evident, each with different timelines. section 2 provides an overview and outlines the major milestones typical of the more complex credentials. section 3 establishes the provincial context and elaborates on relevant acts and approval organizations with a focus on certificates, diplomas, and degrees. section 4 highlights select nuances that result in some of the differences in practices. institutional examples are shared in sections 5 and 6. also included is an overview of non-academic and project launch considerations. the last section (7) briefly explores other jurisdictional contexts. the intricacies of developing and creating new postsecondary1 programs and related inter-institutional program partnerships tend to be well understood by those in institutions tasked with steering new initiatives through governance processes; however, these protocols are less well understood by those with distance from the various processes. examples of practitioners who are more peripherally involved or impacted by new program approvals but that maintain an interest in having a holistic understanding of the process across institutions include academic and administrative institutional colleagues, allied organizations, student groups, and government staff members. while institutionally situated colleagues might have the benefit of relying on their internal quality assurance or governance staff to help them steward new initiatives, such resource personnel are not necessarily available or known by others with interest in this area. therefore, the intention of this resource is to help those who have less daily operational involvement in governance processes, particularly for those interested in developing interinstitutional programs. for the purposes of this information resource, inter-institutional program partnerships might be identified under a range of terms but are primarily understood to encompass joint programs, collaborative programs, or dual credential programs. considering oncats mandate, the resource is restricted to highlighting processes impacting new programs at ontario publicly funded colleges and universities. the resource does not include an examination of broader agreement mechanisms such as memorandums of understanding and articulations, more specific course-based initiatives such as crossregistration, or graduate programs. it also does not include a complete examination of other jurisdictions although this topic is briefly addressed. recommended best practices or alternate ways to 1 the credentials primarily considered in this resource include the following: ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma, ontario college advanced diploma, ontario college graduate certificate, the baccalaureate/bachelors degree, and the baccalaureate/bachelors degree honours (the latter includes college degrees). university graduate programs are not the focus of this resource given the mandate of oncat, the sponsor for this study. 11 | p a g e move forward are not identified in this resource as pursuing those kinds of enhancements rest with other bodies. the material is narrowly focused on surfacing the details of current practices and avoids making any comments or suggestions regarding already well-established practices or quality assurance frameworks in ontario. in doing so, the goal is to ensure those involved in pathway development projects, joint program creation, and related policy decision makers have a pragmatic indication of the processes and timeframes involved in bringing academic initiatives to fruition. the terms of reference guiding this project are contained in appendix a. those interested in creating new programs are encouraged to deal directly with the appropriate contacts at institutions. specifically, the local departmental leadership within an academic unit, the central chief academic officer, and the staff within the internal quality assurance department. the helpful resources provided at the beginning of this resource are intended to facilitate direct access to the most current information. research approach the research for this project used a variety of methods. it included an assessment of ontario institutional websites, a review of foundational documents, and interviews with stakeholders within select institutions and allied organizations. not all institutions in the province were interviewed for this study as the intention was to capture a generalized overview of processes and timelines. the interview selection process and the exploratory questions were mindful of institutional and credential differences. examining potential nuances relevant to joint program development formed part of the questioning. those interested in creating new programs are encouraged to consult institutional quality assurance personnel with knowledge of qualification frameworks and approval protocols. 12 | p a g e section 2: a general overview of typologies for new postsecondary programs general process overview2 in ontario, there are four main postsecondary typologies for new program creation evident in publicly funded institutions which are identified in figure 1. typically, the process followed depends very much on the sector, institution, the requisite quality assurance process, and the credential type under consideration. further, programs developed that cross both the college and university sectors are required to follow additional processes which can add to the timelines (j. brown, personal communications, january 2015). the focus of this study is on certificates, diplomas, and baccalaureate degrees offered by publicly funded colleges and universities (i.e., by member institutions of oncat). figure 1: overview of new postsecondary program creation typologies new program creation & approval typologies apprenticeship programs local college certificates specifically, programs offered through colleges certificates that don't require ocqas review program launch timeline: tends to happen rapidly program launch timeline: tends to happen rapidly may require additional approvals if tied to a college credential (e.g., coda funded programs) typically institutional approvals only (e.g., continuing education programs) ontario college credentials (not including degrees) ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma, ontario college advanced diploma, ontario college graduate diploma program launch timeline: generally 1 to 1.5 years ocqas: review and validation mtcu: funding and osap eligibility approval (if requested) 2 college and university degrees baccalaureate college and university degrees program launch timeline: generally a minimum of 2.5 to 3 years (and sometimes longer) peqab: review and provide consent recommendation for all college and some university degrees mtcu minister: consent to offer program and for funding and osap eligibility quality council: review and approve university degrees mtcu: approval for funding and osap eligibility (if requested) a helpful resources summary and a glossary are provided to assist the reader with accessing additional information and understanding the various acronyms. 13 | p a g e the approximate timeframes noted in figure 1 include conceptualizing a program idea at the discipline level; obtaining institutional decanal support; submitting early notification of a proposal to internal leadership and/or governance bodies; creating and submitting the program proposal to internal quality assurance offices; developing the proposal and engaging in consultation and refinement; obtaining formal indications of support; organizing potential site visits by external reviewers (or equivalent) and refining the proposal based on their input (if applicable); conducting further proposal reviews, consultations, and refinements; and receiving approvals from various levels of internal governance committees, external quality assurance offices (if applicable), and the mtcu (if applicable). the timeframe to fully execute the launch of a new program after receiving all approvals is not necessarily included in figure 1. there are examples of programs that have been created, developed, approved, and launched at a much faster rate as the apprenticeship and local college certificates indicate. mark lamontagne, academic director of quality, learning, teaching, and innovation at canadore college, indicated some programs at the college have taken 9 months to 1 year from point of inception to the final submission of proposals to all approving bodies (personal communications, december 2014). he attributes this to the focused centralization and expertise of resources dedicated to fully develop new program proposals (which situate within his department), decentralization of curriculum development to the academic units, and the streamlined and centralized approval process. institutional colleagues reported that as the complexity of credentials increased (or the number of institutions involved increased), more time was required. for this reason, some program proposals take longer than the timelines noted in figure 1. for example, when the program represents an interinstitutional joint program, timeframes are extended due to the complexities of coordinating between two or more partners, developing shared learning outcomes, program maps, policies, procedures, curriculum, and resourcing, and coming to joint decisions such as determining the credential type(s). figure 2 highlights typical milestones involved with the full new program creation process with a primary focus on credentials requiring external quality assurance review and validation. the research indicates that more complex credentials or the involvement of more than one institutional partner extend the timeframe required to create, approve, and launch a new program. 14 | p a g e figure 2: high level milestones involved in new program processes3 program concept conceived timeframe: generally 4 months to a year although can take much longer typically evolves at the discipline level through a faculty champion and with the support of the academic unit proposal developed, refined, and steered through internal administrative and governance processes timeframe: depends on credential, internal institutional processes, institution type, resources, quality assurance process, etc. coordinated by internal departments; influenced by internal governance processes, consultation, and operational realities program proposal assessed and approved by external quality assurance bodies timeframe: varies by quality assurance body and credential type timing affected by proposal completion, complexity, credential, fulfillment of quality benchmarks and standards, etc. program reviewed and approved for funding and osap eligibility by ministry of training, colleges and universities - if applicable timeframe varies depending on credential and institution type timing impacted by proposal completion, alignment with government policies, regulations, and differentiation framework, and institutional strategic mandate agreements program launch process begins (osap, student supports, application centres, marketing, implementation, resources, etc.) timeframe: typically minimum of 6 to 8 months (overlaps with some of the above processes to an extent) 3 dependent on target audience, application process, communication plans, and decision cycle this does not necessarily apply to apprenticeship programs (unless the result is a new college credential such as one that is coda funded), unfunded local college certificates, and other types of non-degree programs. 15 | p a g e it is possible to expedite new program proposal development, approval, and launch by overlapping processes at appropriate points and with due regard to the role of both internal and external approval bodies. however, the process undertaken depends on a number of factors including but not limited to the nature of the program; the type of institution; the available resources to develop the proposal and offer the curriculum; the needs of the intended student audience; the type of external consultation required (e.g., with accrediting bodies); the nature of internal governance processes; the degree of alignment with signed strategic mandate agreements; the quality assurance process that applies; the type and level of credential; and so forth. this is at minimum due to the necessity to carefully develop curriculum with appropriate and thoughtful learning outcomes. new postsecondary programs in publicly funded colleges or universities are typically conceived at the discipline level after which, if supported by the local department/school and dean, the proposals are further developed and reviewed by internal institutional departments. after this, program proposals move through the institutional consultation and governance approval process and are subsequently refined and enhanced. it is typically during this phase that consultation with outside experts, including regulatory and accrediting bodies (if applicable), unfolds in earnest although in some cases, external consultation of this nature occurs even earlier including at the point of inception. once approved internally, program proposals are then reviewed by sector specific quality assurance bodies. for the colleges, two organizations are involved: the ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) or the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab) depending on the credential type. for the universities, the responsible quality assurance body is called the ontario universities council on quality assurance (the quality council). where a university program or college degree program requires ministerial consent, the quality assurance body is peqab. institutions may consult with these bodies for guidance during proposal creation and development and prior to approval, a practice which is encouraged. the program proposals are sent to the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) for final review, approval and/or consent, and/or funding consideration. in the case of colleges, the proposals for ontario college certificates, ontario college diplomas, ontario college advanced diplomas, and ontario college graduate certificates are reviewed by the staff within the colleges unit of the mtcu postsecondary accountabilities branch. college degree proposals are subject to the consent process which involves a review by the mtcu staff within the universities unit of the postsecondary accountability branch, after which an initial decision is made by the minister on policy grounds whether the proposed program should be referred to peqab for review. the final decision whether to grant consent is made by the minister after peqabs recommendation. the universities unit also receives and reviews university program proposals, most of which require approval and not consent. for all approval or consent decisions, the ministry reviews various policy considerations including institutional fit, alignment with signed strategic mandate agreements, labour market demand, student demand, duplication, availability of placements, among others. more details regarding the approval and consent processes are described in section 3 of this resource. there are nuances to the above. for example, apprenticeship credentials require the leadership and engagement of the ontario college of trades. there are also strategic nuances that emerge. for example, a college or university may decide to launch a program without government funding. with specific reference to the university sector, an institution may decide to launch a program early with ministry funding pending approval. inter-institutional partnerships introduce another nuance. these 16 | p a g e tend to involve greater complexity which can increase the time involved to develop, review, and approve new program proposals. each of these examples can extend or shorten timelines for approval and full launch depending on local considerations. these nuances are explored further in section 4. much later in the process, institutions begin defining and establishing the implementation framework for new programs although final stages of the launch are affected by necessary respect for internal and external approvals.4 the process involves many internal considerations (and constituents) such as setting up the program at the academic departmental level; refining the curriculum details; and designing and implementing the supporting systems, procedures, protocols, and resources. it may also involve working with external parties (e.g., to confirm work integrated learning opportunities). it is also at this stage that active development of relevant marketing materials begins to emerge and, upon receipt of relevant approvals, eventually finalize. externally, institutions collaborate with organizations such as the centralized application centres and the mtcu's student financial assistance branch for osap approval to further implement programs. other external system-wide organizations such as the ontario college application service (ocas) and the ontario universities application centre (ouac) are active partners working in collaboration with institutions to fully establish and launch new programs. sections 5 and 6 provide examples to illustrate some of the approaches institutions employ to move through these processes. the next section provides an overview of the larger context for creation of new programs. as a general guideline, it can take a minimum of 1 to 1.5 years to fully launch a college certificate or diploma program and 2.5 to 3 years to fully launch a baccalaureate degree (whether college or university). these timeframes do not necessarily include launch and implementation after all approvals arrive. 4 further, there are specific rules governing when a program can be advertised to ensure the best interest of students are preserved and the internal and external governance approval processes are fully respected. institutional program developers are encouraged to deal directly with their internal quality assurance departments for guidance on this matter. 17 | p a g e section 3: setting the context5 program approval authority the mtcu minister maintains oversight for approving new programs that require government funding and, if applicable, for providing consent for new degree programs. government legislation that applies in this area includes the ministry of training, colleges and universities act, the post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000 (psece act), the ontario colleges applied arts and technology act, 2002 (ocaata), the ontario colleges of trades and apprenticeship act, 2009, and individual university statutes (mtcu, 2000, p. 2).6 with respect to the latter, each university has been authorized to grant degrees, diplomas, and certificates as a result of government statute or by royal charter (mtcu, 2000, p. 2). these various acts are supported by additional regulations. ontario regulations 279/027 and 391/118 identify the specific parameters governing the consent process which applies to colleges and those private institutions and select ontario publicly funded universities with limited statutory authority (algoma university and ocad university). in the case of colleges, these are called ministers binding policy directives (mbpd). the mtcu has introduced a new component to the program approval process which effects both colleges and universities; now, strategic mandate agreements (smas) signed with each institution will guide approvals at the ministry level. the process is further informed and shaped by the mtcus ontarios differentiation policy framework for postsecondary education (november 2013). colleges and universities (mtcu, 2014, p. 1), as part of the new mtcu program application process, are now required to identify alignment with the signed institutional sma and government policy directions such as the differentiation framework. for those not familiar with the ontario postsecondary system, further background information and specific smas are available online.9 within this broader context, ocqas, peqab, and the quality council are responsible for the oversight of the quality assurance processes in partnership with institutions for credentials within their individual 5 appreciation is extended to mtcu staff who reviewed and provided comments on the mtcu information in this resource. 6 ministry of training, colleges and universities act = http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90m19_e.htm post-secondary education choice and excellent act, 2000 = http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_00p36_e.htm ocaata = http://www.lawofcanada.net/statutes/s-o-2002-c-8-sched-f/ontario-colleges-of-applied-arts-andtechnology-act-2002 ontario college of trades and apprenticeship act, 2009 = http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_09o22_e.htm 7 http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/english/elaws_regs_020279_e.htm 8 http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2011/elaws_src_regs_r11391_e.htm 9 mtcu. (november 2013). ontarios differentiation policy framework for postsecondary education. http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/publications/policyframework_postsec.pdf list of current strategic mandate agreements: 2014-17 strategic mandate agreements: universities - http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/publications/vision/universities.html colleges - http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/publications/vision/colleges.html higher education quality council of ontario. (2013). quality: shifting the focus. a report from the expert panel to assess the strategic mandate submissions. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 18 | p a g e purview. the thoroughness and expertise within these organizations received high praise from the postsecondary constituents interviewed for this research. although overviews are provided below for each organization, institutions and interested community members should deal directly with institutional quality assurance offices when first enquiring about program approval practices.10 those programs that require external accreditation also must deal with professional organizations and regulatory bodies as part of the program creation and approval process (e.g., ontario college of trades, engineering, teaching, nursing, etc.). two of the acts with close relevance to the new program creation process in the college sector are described below. colleges ontario colleges of applied arts and technology act, 2002 (ocaata) the ontario colleges are governed by the ontario colleges of applied arts and technology act, 2002 (ocaata) which establishes the framework under which colleges can operate in ontario. this act outlines the overall mandate, governance structure, and authoritative reach of ministerial and lieutenant governor in council policy directives with respect to the colleges. fully enacted in 2005, it stipulates that the colleges are to offer a comprehensive program of career-oriented, postsecondary education and training to assist individuals in finding and keeping employment, to meet the needs of employers and the changing work environment and to support the economic and social development of their local and diverse communities (2002, section 2, subsection 2). the resulting ministers binding policy directive (mbpd) framework for programs of instruction11 served as the legislative imperative leading to the creation of the credential validation service (cvs), a key prong of the college systems quality assurance approval process for new programs. further, this mbpd encouraged the emergence of self-regulated quality assurance at the system level within the sector. post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000 (psece act) the post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000 (psece act) governs degree granting and use of the term university in ontario. the act specifies two ways to have the authority to grant a degree in ontario: 1) an act of legislature; or 2) the written consent of the minister of training, colleges and universities. the psece act established the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab) as an advisory body. as well, the act provided the colleges with the right to offer degrees, and acknowledged the role of the peqab to establish degree level standards in relation to this credential type (mtcu, 2005, pp. 3, 5). college quality assurance process for the past decade, the college sector has achieved several quality assurance initiatives. following the creation of ocaata and between 2003 and 2005, a joint working group of the ontario government and publicly funded colleges was struck and mandated to establish the following: 10 ontario college quality assurance service = www.ocqas.org ontario universities council on quality assurance (the quality council) = http://oucqa.ca/ postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab) = peqab.ca 11 http://www.accc.ca/wp-content/uploads/archive/es-ce/mtcucollegeframework.pdf 19 | p a g e a system-wide credentials validation service that will provide reasonable assurance that all postsecondary programs of instruction leading to [any credential identified in the credentials framework] [] offered by the colleges, regardless of funding source, conform to the credentials framework and are consistent with accepted college system nomenclature/program titling principles. (ministers binding policy directive framework for programs of instruction, p.4. 2009) this joint working group was called the coordinating committee of vice-presidents, academic (ccvpa)/colleges branch of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) working group. its mandate led to the creation of the cvs service, which then led to the inception of the non-mandated program quality assurance process audit (pqapa) service (ocqas, 2015a; g. paquette, personal communications, march 2015).12 pqapa focuses at the institutional level; it involves the regular and cyclical review of each colleges quality assurance processes and provides the standards for these processes (ocqas, 2015b). a pqapa pilot was run with five colleges in 2006 and formally evaluated by an external reviewer, dr. william massy, who confirmed that the pqapa reflected global best practices and was well suited to the needs of the ontario college system (ocqas, 2015a). all colleges are now part of the pqapa audit process since 2006, which was the pilot year; additional refinements including those of international reviewers has resulted in the institutional level quality assurance environment that informs best practices for program development processes in the current day for the college systems ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma, ontario college advanced diploma, and the ontario college graduate certificate. since the inception of ocqas in 2005, the pqapa process has become part of its array of quality assurance supports. ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) with the enactment of ocaata in 2005, the ontario government provided publicly funded colleges with the authority to approve programs of instruction and develop related quality assurance processes of the credentials defined for the colleges in the mbpd framework for programs of instruction (mtcu, april 1, 2005).13 colleges can award an ontario college credential once they have received validation from the credential validation service; should the college wish the program to receive government funding and the program to be eligible for the ontario student assistance program (osap), government funding approval is required. this provincial legislation led to the colleges creating the ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) which was established to provide efficient tools that ensure specific quality and consistency standards are met by the colleges of applied arts and technology in ontario (ocqas, 2015c). it is an arms-length body that does not report to either the ministry or colleges ontario although it maintains a collaborative relationship with each organization (g. paquette, personal communications, january 2015). ocqas supports program and institutional level quality assurance processes through two aforementioned primary services: the credential validation service (cvs) which focuses on program level quality assurance and the pqapa which focuses on institutional-level quality assurance (k. belfer, personal communications, december 2014).14 12 http://ocqas.org/?page_id=9179 http://www.accc.ca/wp-content/uploads/archive/es-ce/mtcucollegeframework.pdf 14 the pqapa process is outlined in detail on the ocqas website (http://ocqas.org/?page_id=9183 and http://ocqas.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/pqapa-process-revised-december-17-2014.pdf). 13 20 | p a g e as mentioned, the ocqas through the cvs maintains responsibility for reviewing new and existing programs that result in one of the following credentials: ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma, ontario college advanced diploma, and the ontario college graduate certificate. new and existing college degrees are reviewed by the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab).15 the mandate of the cvs is nested within the ministers binding policy directive (mbpd) framework for programs of instruction. this mbpd contains an outcomes oriented credentials framework for programs of instruction and emphasizes the role of ocqas (through the cvs) which is to provide reasonable assurance that all postsecondary programs of instruction .regardless of funding source, conform to the credentials framework and are consistent with accepted college system nomenclature/program titling principles (mtcu, april 2005, pp. 3-4).16 originally published in 2003 and revised in 2005, this mbpd recognizes the capacities of the colleges to conduct internal quality assurance and new program approvals (pp. 2-3, 5). it further emphasizes that colleges must meet all the requirements of a program standard, should a college choose to deliver a program of instruction for which a program standard has been established (pp. 4). 17 the evolving role ocqas approved by the ontario college systems committee of presidents in 2013, ocqass role will soon expand in 2015 to that of a formal accreditation body as the colleges will be moving to an institutionallevel accreditation process,18 which will replace the pqapa quality assurance audit (ocqas, 2015d). as a support for this evolution, the ocqas management board has approved accreditation standards many of which touch on program approval practices, demonstration of achieving expected learning outcomes, academic quality, student learning, and more. 19 the new standards will fall under the college quality assurance audit process (cqaap). the following demonstrates the impact accreditation standards will have on new program approvals (ocqas, 201d): specifically, reference [in the standards] is made to the fact that colleges are familiar with, and following current, accepted, evidenced-based practices and research related to the quality of their programs and student learning, and have policies and practices in place that are consistent with this evidence and research. the six accreditation standards will confirm as part of the accreditation process the following are in place at each college: a program quality management system that embeds quality assurance practices; supporting policies and practices that are transparent and effectively communicated to stakeholders and students; program design protocols that represent carefully established vocational learning outcomes; program delivery and student assessment methods that are consistently applied 15 peqabs scope also includes quality assurance reviews of undergraduate and graduate new and existing degree programs delivered by private colleges, out-of-province institutions, and international institutions wishing to operate in ontario. 16 http://www.accc.ca/wp-content/uploads/archive/es-ce/mtcucollegeframework.pdf and http://ocqas.org/?page_id=9149 17 the governments ontario qualifications framework provides qualification descriptions and standards for credentials ranging from certificates through to doctoral degrees (see http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/programs/degreeauthority/caatconsents.html). 18 http://ocqas.org/?page_id=9272 19 http://ocqas.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/cqaap-standards-2015-revised-january-13-2015.pdf 21 | p a g e and are in conformity with government requirements; and consistent, high quality availability and allocation of college wide resources to ensure student achievement of program vocational learning outcomes (ocqas, 2015e). in keeping with a focus on continuous improvement, these new standards are anticipated to have an impact on institutional level quality assurance practices although specific details were not available at the time this research was conducted (g. paquette, personal communications, january 2015). additional information is published on the ocqas website.20 the ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) is responsible for evaluating and verifying the ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma, ontario college advanced diploma, and the ontario college graduate certificate against the credentials framework for programs of instruction. it is also responsible for the program quality assurance process audit (pqapa) which is at the institutional level. college new program approval process college certificates and diplomas the external process for new certificate and diploma program approvals for the college sector is outlined in figure 3. the components highlighted in red (shaded) represent the ocqas focus. figure 3: ontario college quality assurance service - overview of new program approval processes for certificates & diplomas college: develops, refines, and approves new program proposal if seeking ministry funding and osap eligibility, college sends request and validation decision (mandatory) to ministry ocqas: assesses and validates proposal according to the ministry binding policy directive (process takes approximately 2 weeks) ocqas: communicates validation decision to college and ministry source: k. belfer, personal communications, 2014 20 http://ocqas.org/?page_id=9281 22 | p a g e ministry approves or denies funding and osap eligibiility request; college: may decide to proceed without funding and osap in keeping with the ministers binding policy directive (mbpd) framework for programs of instruction and the embedded ontario credentials framework, the mtcu requires that colleges adhere to specific program standards (where applicable) when developing new program proposals, when delivering new programs, and when executing the program review process (mtcu, 2015b).21 according to the ministry, program standards apply to all similar programs of instruction offered by colleges across the province and established programs; at this time, these include the following elements: vocationally specific learning outcomes...essential employability skills learning outcomes22 [and a]general education requirement (2015b). these standards are available online at the ministry website.23 when examining a new program proposal, ocqas conducts a detailed review to ensure the proposal aligns with the mbpd framework for programs of instruction, program standards (if existing), and system-wide titling protocols. further, anticipated learning outcomes are carefully considered to ensure the program is meeting the requirements for the appropriate credential level. according to karen belfer, executive director of ocqas, program standards are in place to ensure consistency across the system; where graduates across the province acquire the same vocational skills necessary to find employment in the field of study of the program they successfully complete (personal communications, january 2015). program descriptions are also in place to ensure consistency; however, colleges have more opportunity to adapt the language used when writing the vocational learning outcomes of the program. together, these standards and descriptions, the mbpd framework for programs of instruction, and the titling protocols guide colleges in the development of new programs.24 they serve as the framework that helps both the colleges and the mtcu define in which family of programs a new program will reside. as noted in figure 3, it takes approximately 2 weeks for ocqas to complete this review for each new program proposal. mtcu review and approval of college certificates and diplomas after the approval by the home institutions and verification by the ocqas cvs service, certificate and diploma programs for which colleges are seeking government funding are then sent by the college to the mtcu colleges unit in the postsecondary accountabilities branch for review and funding approval. according to mtcu staff, applications are accepted throughout the year, creating a more fluid approval process. as might be anticipated, it is worth noting that the volume on the college side is much higher than on the university side because of the college systems need to be readily responsive to labour market changes and intensities. as mentioned previously, mtcu first considers the proposals alignment with the smas, and its responsiveness to labour market demands. further, staff in the colleges unit conduct a policy review, confirm adherence and alignment to binding policy directives, and consider other government policy components when examining each proposal. for the funding review, the ministry examines the total number of hours included in the program, what constitutes those hours, and how these map back to existing programs. the timeframe for program approval reviews depends very much on the completeness of the college proposal, the response time of the college to any question that may arise (technical or otherwise), and the submission and review of any additional requested information. 21 http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/progstan/index.html http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/progstan/essential.html 23 sample: http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/progstan/essential.html 24 for further details on program standards and titling protocols, program developers should consult with college curriculum specialists. 22 23 | p a g e further, if a regulatory or accreditation approval is outstanding, this can further delay the review (sometimes upwards of three years). once approved, if a college modifies a program greater than 25%, it must be re-reviewed for any technical change considerations including, potentially, a new funding review (as opposed to a new policy review). universities university quality assurance process ontario universities have a long history of establishing robust quality assurance practices that spans several decades (quality council, 2015a). graduate programs have been reviewed for quality by the ontario council on graduate studies (ocgs) since the 60s and in the late 90s the council of ontario universities (cou) adopted procedures for the external auditing of university processes for reviewing undergraduate programs through the undergraduate program review audit committee (uprac) (2015a). requiring the adoption of new program procedures and conducting an arms-length periodic review of existing undergraduate programs were core elements of upracs quality assurance review (2015a). created in 2010, the ontario universities council on quality assurance (the quality council) replaced these policies and bodies; it operates as an arms-length, oversight body that conducts its work in accordance with the quality assurance framework25 approved by executive heads in 2010 (quality council, 2015b). given the specific legislative authority of universities to create and approve certificates, diplomas, and degrees, each maintains oversight for its new program approval process through a senate or board approved institutional quality assurance process (iqap) which has been ratified by the quality council. ontario universities council on quality assurance (the quality council) with respect to the quality council, its mission and mandate are defined in the quality assurance framework (quality council, 2015b). it oversees quality assurance processes for all levels of programs in ontarios publicly assisted universities, and helps institutions to improve and enhance their programs (2015b). the quality council ensures the following: the continuing achievement of a defined level of quality in the design and delivery of an institutions programs, with particular emphasis on the desired learning outcomes and ontarios degree level expectations, as well as on the monitoring of an institutions compliance with its institutional quality assurance process (iqap) in its cyclical program reviews. (2015b) degree level expectations are outlined in full on the quality council website.26 this body delivers its mandate in a manner that respects institutional autonomy. two internal committees support the work and decisions of the quality council: the appraisal committee which reviews and recommends new programs for approval at both the undergraduate and graduate levels (quality council, 2015c) and the audit committee which assesses an institutions adherence to its iqap and provides recommendations to the quality council (quality council, 2015d). 25 26 http://oucqa.ca/resources-publications/quality-assurance-framework/ http://oucqa.ca/framework/appendix-1/ 24 | p a g e figure 4 outlines the quality councils protocol for undergraduate and graduate new program approvals. an expedited approval process is possible for select program types (quality council, 2014, pp. 15-16). 27 program developers are required to consult with the institutional quality assurance office for clarification on whether a proposal is eligible for expedited review. a new program proposal following the process outlined in figure 4 is expected to be evaluated by institutions using iqap approved criteria such as alignment of the programs objectives with institutional mission and academic plans; appropriateness of admission requirements, structure, and assessment strategy given intended program learning outcomes and degree level expectations; evidence that the program is reflective of the current discipline, contemplating an appropriate delivery mode, and incorporates comprehensive plans for resources related to administration, faculty, staff, class size, etc.; and provides demonstrable indicators of achieving quality (pp. 8-11). an institutions iqap is expected to follow specific steps which are outlined in the quality councils quality assurance framework and, if a program is not eligible for expedited review, to include an external review (pp. 11-12). institutional support, review, and approval are required by each university before consideration of the new program proposal by the quality councils appraisal committee. institutional iqaps, guided by the quality assurance framework, emphasize an extremely broad and deep assessment of each new program. the quality council ensures the following (2015b): [t]he continuing achievement of a defined level of quality in the design and delivery of an institutions programs, with particular emphasis on the desired learning outcomes and ontarios degree level expectations, as well as on the monitoring of an institutions compliance with its institutional quality assurance process (iqap) in its cyclical program reviews. 27 new graduate diploma programs follow an expedited process (quality council, 2014, p. 9). 25 | p a g e figure 4: quality council's overview of protocols for undergraduate and graduate new program approvals source: quality council, 2014, p.9 each ontario university publishes the institutionally approved iqap on its website (see appendix c for the individual university website addresses). the published timeframe to review and approve new program proposals by the quality councils appraisal committee is 45 days; this assumes the proposal is complete and the appraisal committee does not require any additional information from the university (d. woolcott, personal communications, december 2014). program developers, through designated institutional quality assurance personnel and chief academic officers, routinely seek clarifications from the quality council secretariat regarding the approval process and which type of program initiatives require review by the appraisal committee (d. woolcott, personal communications, december 2014). the names, degrees, and a brief description of each approved program are posted routinely on the quality council website.28 select institutional examples are provided in sections 5 and 6 of this resource. 28 http://oucqa.ca/program-approvals-menu/program-approvals/ 26 | p a g e postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab) peqab is an arms-length, advisory agency for the mtcu which makes recommendations to the minister regarding applications for ministerial consent and other related matters in accordance with the postsecondary education choice and excellence act, 2000 (psece act) (peqab, 2009). according to its chief executive officer, dr. brown, peqabs scope of authority includes reviewing for quality assurance any type of undergraduate or graduate postsecondary program (public or private) offered by those colleges, universities, and other institutions not otherwise empowered by an act of the provincial legislature to offer a degree program in ontario (personal communications, march 2015). section 7 in the psece act outlines the composition, duties, powers, procedures, and other related matters for peqab (2000). for the most part, publicly funded ontario universities are not required to have their degree programs reviewed for quality assurance by peqab as they each have the right to grant certificates, diplomas, and degrees through provincial act of legislature (or royal charter) (j. brown, personal communications, december 2014). exceptions would be universities that have limits to their degree granting authority (i.e., algoma university and ocad university); in these cases, new programs that fall outside of the contours of each institutions statutory authority would need to be reviewed by peqab and would require ministerial consent. applications subject to peqab review are new degree programs and existing degree programs from publicly funded colleges, private postsecondary institutions located in ontario, postsecondary institutions from other provinces, international postsecondary institutions, and some joint programs between an ontario institution and an institution from outside of ontario. with respect to private institutions, peqab conducts two reviews: an organizational review29 and a program review. in 2000, the minister authorized publicly funded ontario colleges to offer applied bachelors degrees (mtcu, 2000). therefore, ontario colleges may participate in the program review process for new degree programs and those existing degree programs that are being renewed.30 program proposal applications for college degrees are received and then may be referred by the minister to peqab for review prior to consideration of consent. this unfolds after an initial policy review within the ministry and a recommendation to the minister. the qualifications descriptions and standards under the ontario qualifications framework (oqf) for these degrees are captured within 11 baccalaureate/bachelors degree: honours (mtcu, 2015c).31 the ontario qualifications framework is not binding on ontario universities; however, the degree-level standards are generally consistent between the quality council and peqab. in july 2009, peqab recommended and the minister dropped the requirement that college degrees include the term applied in their nomenclature (j. brown, personal communications, january 20, 2015). examples of college degrees using this new nomenclature are available on the peqab website.32 according to dr. brown, the timeframe to conduct a review and compile a recommendation takes on average approximately a year from the point of referral of an application to peqab through to delivery 29 the organizational review is focused on ascertaining an organizations resource and policy framework, financial robustness, and academic capacity, and its attention to the overall care of students. 30 review of previously approved programs happens five to seven years after first approval and every subsequent five to seven years. 31 the ontario qualifications framework is currently being reviewed by the mtcu and is subject to change. 32 http://www.peqab.ca/completed.html (retrieved january 20, 2015) 27 | p a g e of a recommendation to the minister for consent consideration (personal communications, january 20, 2015). the list of the publicly funded college degrees reviewed by peqab that have received ministerial consent is available online.33 with respect to new degree program approvals, peqab may establish review panels to assess the educational quality of proposed degree programs in ontario if an initiative has been referred to it by the minister (psece act, 2000, section 7, subsection 4). the minister has the authority to refer new program applications to peqab or another accrediting or quality assurance body (although the latter has not occurred) (section 5, subsection 2). figures 5 and 6 provide a summary of the application, review, and consent process followed by institutions for a new degree proposal that is subject to peqab review. peqabs one year timeline to review new proposals addresses those components identified in red (shaded) in figure 6. the duration is affected by a number of factors including the necessary time required by the peqab secretariat to receive and review the initial application and to identify potential subject matter experts for the quality assessment panels;34 the peqab board to approve the panel participants and the assessment strategy; the panel to conduct a site visit and create the final report; the institutions to respond to the findings; the peqab board to formulate the final recommendation; and the secretariat to write a recommendation and background report for the minister (j. brown, personal communications, january 20, 2015). the amount of documentation required to inform a final recommendation is extensive and driven by the evidence needed to satisfy the quality assurance benchmarks and standards for a degree level honours program (j. brown, personal communications, january 20, 2015). 33 http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/programs/degreeauthority/caatconsents.html potential candidates are identified as a result of national searches relevant to each program proposals disciplinary focus. 34 28 | p a g e figure 5: initial contact and start of application process step 1: institution may contact peqab (purpose: consultation on process, authority, plans) step 2: peqab refers institution to mtcu universities unit (purpose: to begin application process) step 3: mtcu unit receives fee and application (purpose: to review proposal application; assess alignment with provincial policy; compile recommendation to proceed or not) step 4: minister receives recommendation - if in support of the recommendation, the application is referred to peqab 29 | p a g e figure 6: peqab review process institution submits proposal to mtcu for new degree referred to peqab by minister peqab and secretariat secretariat considers application, posts it to peqab website for public comment, and identifies potential review experts peqab appoints quality assessment panel and determines assessment strategy quality assessment panel reviews program quality and institutional capacity against standards and benchmarks; conducts site visit compiles report institution has a maximum of three months to respond peqab considers application, panel report, institutional response, and commitments made by institution formulates and submits recommendation to minister minister considers proposal for consent source: adapted from peqab, 2014, pp. 9-10 when reviewing new program proposals, peqab determines who sits on the quality assessment panels (peqab, 2014, pp. 12-13) based on several criteria including evidence of possession of an advanced academic credential related to the subject area under review (normally at the terminal level in the field); 35 required or desired professional credentials and/or related work experience of substantial depth and 35 the peqab handbook defines a terminal academic credential as normally the doctorate with the exception of certain fields where a masters degree in the field/discipline is more typical (2014, p. 12). 30 | p a g e range; etc. (p. 12). as a norm, participants are invited to sit on a panel if they have evidence of a terminal degree (usually a doctoral degree) in the discipline under review. there are contractual, orientation, and logistical supports provided by the secretariat to the quality assessment panel. site visits are handled by both the panel participants (usually a chair and a subject matter expert) and the peqab senior policy advisor. with respect to the colleges, the review criteria and related benchmarks applied by peqab to assess a program application are outlined in its handbook for ontario colleges (new programs) (2014, pp. 14-33). these include a review and assessment of the following: program structure; degree level; admission, promotion, and graduation; program content; program delivery; capacity to deliver; credential recognition; regulation and accreditation; nomenclature; program evaluation; academic freedom and integrity; student protection; economic need; and non-duplication of programs. with respect to colleges, peqab has recently approved revisions to the nature of work integrated learning component, including more flexibility in its term.36 this handbook is updated annually by peqab, with the new edition published in june of each year.37 for colleges, peqab is focused on ensuring new degrees adhere to the governments ontario qualifications framework for honours bachelor degrees (peqab, 2014, p. 15), in keeping with government stated expectations (mtcu, 2015b). therefore, only four-year degrees have been approved to date. according to the ministry, these types of degree programs prepare a student for entry into graduate study in the field, second-entry professional degree programs or, depending upon content, employment in a particular field of practice or employment in a variety of fields (mtcu, 2015c). after assessing the new program and conducting the site visit, the chair and the subject matter expert compile the quality assessment panel report to which institutions are given 90 days to respond; the typical timeframe for response is 60 days. peqab is in the process of consulting the colleges to reduce the timeframe, both for the subject matter experts to deliver their report and for the college to respond (j. brown, personal communications, january 2015). the peqab senior policy advisor compiles a background report for the boards review, a body that meets six times per year at 2 month intervals.38 the board reviews all the material and crafts a final recommendation to the minister which may result in consent or denial of consent, and if consent, a period of consent--typically five to seven years--and any conditions of consent. as of 2015, the minister has also agreed to receive from peqab recommendations for a more flexible form of consent, seven year audit consents, which on renewal focus peqab processes on auditing the self-quality assurance processes for institutions which are mature in offering degree programs and which have a track record of honoring commitments. the secretariat staff compile two reports for the minister: the official recommendation from the peqab board and a background report to capture the rationale (particularly important if there are conditions or if there is a denial). 36 each program must meet a legislative requirement of a minimum of 14 weeks of work integrated learning. the peqab benchmarks and standards predate and, as such, served as the foundational base for the mtcu ontario qualifications framework (oqf) and the canadian degree qualifications framework entrenched within the council of ministers of education, canadas ministerial statement on quality assurance of degree education in canada which was signed by canadas provinces (j. brown, personal communications, march 2015); the oqf and the canadian framework were adopted in 2005 and 2007 respectively. 38 http://www.peqab.ca/meetingdates.html 37 31 | p a g e the above documents are forwarded to the minister who has the authority to rule on the program proposal application. if consent is not granted, the background report may be shared with the applicant with the approval of the minister. peqab is responsible for reviewing college degree proposals referred to it by the mtcu minister. it is further responsible for conducting institutional and program level audits for undergraduate and graduate programs delivered by other types of institutions wishing to operate in ontario (private colleges, other provinces institutions, international institutions). it is not responsible for ontario university quality assurance audits or degree program approvals unless ministerial consent is required and the proposal is referred to peqab by the minister. changes colleges ontario, the advocacy organization for the publicly funded provincial colleges (n.d.), has advocated previously for the refinement of the quality assurance approval process for college degrees. this position is echoed within a 2012 colleges ontario sponsored study by michael skolnik, rethinking the system of credentials awarded by ontarios colleges of applied arts and technology (june 2012, p. 3, 32-34) and noted in two publications by colleges ontario in 2012 and 2013 respectively: reaching new heights: differentiation and transformation in higher education (november 2013, p. 7) and empowering ontario: transforming higher education in the 21st century (september 2012, p. 11). subsequent to the publication of these documents, the peqab secretariat has been collaborating with the colleges to refine the current program approval process. collaborative venues exist to support these discussions such as the ontario college systems college degree operating group (cdog). this group maintains a website marketing the college degrees39 and runs an annual conference40 to advance its goals and collaborative learning conversations. this group also meets several times a year; therefore, the peqab secretariat has adopted the practice of putting on the cdog agenda for consultation, any changes to benchmarks, criteria, and processes affecting college degrees, while such changes are at the proposal stage (j. brown, personal communications, january 2015). peqab also consults the colleges ontarios coordinating committee of vps, academic, the body to which cdog reports. according to dr. brown, the peqab process has benefited from collegial input from cdog members particularly in the area of providing greater clarity regarding the expectations for benchmarks (e.g., what constitutes scholarly engagement, work integrated learning requirements, identifying faculty with 39 40 http://www.degreesindemand.ca/ http://www.senecac.on.ca/cdog/2014/present.html 32 | p a g e doctoral degrees,41 etc.). the previously mentioned seven year audit consent is a recent example of such a change, wherein peqab recommended to the minister that an expedited process be implemented for previously approved programs that have demonstrated consistently high quality (j. brown, personal communications, december 2015), which the minister accepted. this new peqab process would focus on the colleges demonstrated ability to self-quality assure renewal programs and is anticipated to be a much less involved and onerous process. there will be additional changes to peqabs criteria because its process, endorsed by the boards adoption of continuous improvement in quality assurance among its stated values, involves constant review of its criteria (personal communications, december 2015). therefore, those creating new college degree programs should reference the peqab website resource materials directly including the college specific handbook for ontario colleges and submission guidelines for ontario colleges (new programs).42 these are updated yearly in june. mtcu new program approvals and consents for degrees degree approvals in october 2014, the mtcu introduced new guidelines for approving university programs for those seeking funding and osap eligibility. figure 7 provides a high level overview of the new process; those components that involve the ministry are identified in red. appendix b provides a more detailed summary which is an excerpt from the october 17, 2014 memorandum distributed by the ministry to the sector.43 as a recommendation to the sector, the ministry, in its university program approval submission guideline (october 2014, p. 5), encouraged institutions to submit program proposals concurrently when making submissions to the quality council; however, indicated approval would remain outstanding until the quality assurance review and approval was finalized by the latter body. 41 note: in place of actual evidence of faculty with doctoral degrees on staff at the point of application, peqab will accept as part of the review process a doctoral hiring plan with an anticipated start date (j. brown, personal communications, january 20, 2015). 42 http://www.peqab.ca/handbooks.html 43 note: the ministry provides institutions with a list of core programs that do not require approval (mtcu, university program approval submission guidelines, october 2014, p. 15). currently, these include university undergraduate programs in the following areas: biological sciences (including biotechnology), english language and literature, french language and literature, general arts and science, humanities (including ancient and classical languages), mathematical sciences and computer studies, physical sciences, social sciences (including womens studies), and theology. core programs are currently under review by the ministry to ensure the currency of this list. 33 | p a g e figure 7: mtcu university new program approval process university notifies mtcu of internal and quality council approvals through application process mtcu staff provide recommendation to minister minister makes decision on application mtcu universities unit receives application & conducts initial review mtcu conducts policy, tuition, & funding review (to assign a funding weight) minister notifies university; distributes a "sector memo" to notify pse university community within 30 days, institution notified regarding review process expedited or secondary review mtcu's new criteria applied when assessing application the guidelines include criteria along with submission and review timeframes (e.g., mtcu, 2014, p. 1). specifically, mtcu now assesses new program approval applications against the following criteria (p. 2): 1. strategic mandate agreement alignment; 2. proposed tuition fee (including institutional and sector comparators), funding weight, and forpos code; 3. costs (including program financing considerations and capital cost implications); 4. justifiable duplication; 5. societal need and labour market demand; 6. student demand; 7. enrolment planning and graduate allocations; 8. experiential learning; and 9. program prioritization/program transformation initiatives. as noted in the ministrys university program approval submission guidelines, each of these criterion is evaluated according to specific considerations (pp. 1-3). for sma alignment, the ministry is looking for evidence of fit with existing university offerings, sma approved program areas of growth and strength, future plans, enrolment forecasts, and government direction; for tuition, internal consistency and alignment with sector comparators; for costs, the ability to fully establish the program without additional provincial funding; for justifiable duplication, evidence of appropriateness and consultation with other institutions and a rationale for why another program in the area is needed. with respect to 34 | p a g e societal need, labour market demand, and student demand, the ministry is looking for evidence that the program will produce graduates with strong employment opportunities and will attract interest. for experiential learning, the ministry wishes to ensure evidence of supply and the existence of sufficient placement opportunities for students. prioritization and transformation speak to a desire to see consistent alignment with transformation objectives in smas and to understand the impact on other internal programs (e.g., closures). enrolment planning and graduate allocations are intended to ensure fit and to avoid institutions inadvertently creating unfunded pressures in graduate programs. further, the ministry is expecting that institutions be at the appropriate stage of relevant professional accreditation processes (pp. 6-7). the ministry guidelines provide more details as well as the program approval certification form and the program approval request form (pp. 8-14). the mtcu now offers two types of review both of which are intended to ensure alignment with the governments differentiation policy framework44 and the smas: expedited review and secondary review (mtcu, october 7, 2014, p. 2). after an initial analysis by the universities unit of the mtcu postsecondary accountability branch,45 institutions are informed within 30 days as to the category of review that applies for any new program (p. 3). after the initial review and decision on process, the proposals are subject to closer examination to determine alignment with and fulfillment of the additional criteria noted above. expedited review applies in cases where universities submit complete program proposals that align with smas. if the minister does not require additional information or review, proposals deemed as eligible for expedited review are given priority in the approval process. for this process, the mtcu has provided specific target dates for decisions which potentially means these proposals can be finalized within four months assuming submission by the deadlines, proposal completeness, and no additional questions arise during the review process regarding the above remaining eight criteria (mtcu, october 7, 2014, p. 2, 3). proposals that fall into the secondary review category are reviewed after the expedited reviews and take longer to allow for appropriate follow up, consultation with the institution, and further assessment and review (p. 6). degree consents the mtcu consent process regarding new degrees is significantly different than the above approval process. ministerial consent related specifically to new programs is required if an institution plans to engage in any of the following (s. 2, psece act, 2000): 44 using the term university; granting a degree; providing a program or part of a program of post-secondary study leading to a degree to be conferred by a person inside or outside ontario; advertising a program or part of a program of postsecondary study offered in ontario leading to a degree to be conferred by a person in or outside ontario; http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/publications/policyframework_postsec.pdf the universities unit and the colleges unit of the mtcu postsecondary accountabilities branch are responsible for managing the relationships between the ministry and the institutions with a particular focus on administering accountability mechanisms such as new program approvals, key performance indicators, strategic mandate agreements (smas), and the program funding approvals process. 45 35 | p a g e selling, offering for sale or providing by agreement for a fee, reward or other remuneration, a diploma, certificate, document or other material that indicates or implies the granting or conferring of a degree. there are requirements in addition to those noted above such as the right to operate as a university in the province. as mentioned previously, in the college sector, consent is always required if an institution wishes to offer a new degree program whereas at the university level, if the new degree program falls outside of an institutions statutory mandate, a consent application is required. figure 8 outlines at a high level the consent process institutions follow. the items in red (shaded) identify the areas under the purview of the mtcu postsecondary accountability branch. this process may also apply when one institution with authority to grant a degree partners with a second institution that does not have authority to grant a degree or to offer a joint-program. when the minister provides consent, a letter of intent is first provided by the minister followed by a letter of consent from the assistant deputy minister. it is time limited, meaning an institution is required to reapply at a later point to renew the program. usually the time period for the initial consent is five to seven years, after which the institution is required to apply for consent again. unless there is a dramatic policy change, it is referred to peqab for an assessment and onto the deputy minister who has delegated authority from the minister to review the applications and peqab recommendations and to approve renewals. as described previously, peqab has recently begun to implement a seven year audit consents renewal process to expedite review of these renewals. 36 | p a g e figure 8: mtcu consent process for degrees institution receives approvals and submits application to mtcu postsecondary accountability branch, universities unit mtcu universities unit reviews peqab recommendation & conducts policy review mtcu universities unit provides recommendation to minister mtcu universities unit makes recommendation regarding peqab review peqab provides recommendation to mtcu if approved, minister makes time limited decision (typically 57 years); notifies institution minister may refer proposal to peqab peqab process unfolds 37 | p a g e section 4: nuances to the program typologies and related considerations there are situations that can decrease or extend the launch time for a new program. some are unique to the credential, to funding considerations related to institutional goals and/or target audience, and/or to whether more than one institution is involved (i.e., a joint program arrangement). examples are provided below. apprenticeship credentials apprenticeship programs represent a nuance to the new program creation process and an example of a credential that represents a somewhat unique category. typically, these are the fastest type of program to develop and launch. the ontario college of trades, established in april 2013, has the authority to regulate the skilled trades apprenticeships through its board of governors. specifically, it has the authority to create regulations regarding programs and training hours for apprentices (ontario college of trades, 2013). it executes its work in accordance with the ontario colleges of trades and apprenticeship act, 2009 (octaa) (section 11, 2009).46 when establishing training programs, the ontario college of trades works with organizations including colleges. in keeping with this and according to colleges ontario, 90% of in-school apprenticeship training is delivered through the ontario college system (colleges ontario, november 2013, p. 12). when a student completes such a program, the government awards the certificate of apprenticeship (mtcu, 2015b); the ontario college of trades now awards the certificate of qualification whereas before it used to be awarded by mtcu (ontario college of trades, 2013); and finally, the college awards the college certificate or diploma. for college delivered programs, the apprenticeship training opportunity might encompass pre-existing programs and/or courses within a college. these types of programs can be mounted and launched very quickly (assuming no additional college credential requiring further approvals is required). typically, the funding and target audience for these types of programs are known and readily available which also tends to expedite full launch. in 2013, mtcu released the co-op diploma apprenticeship program (coda) guidelines that specify the criteria for new program proposal approval and other relevant details (2013). according to these guidelines, a coda program enables individuals to train as apprentices, completing all in-school learning outcomes, and a minimum of four months on-the-job training in a specific trade, while concurrently obtaining a college diploma (mtcu, 2013, p. 3). as this category of program benefits from targeted funding, additional information is required as part of the program approval application which is outlined in the guidelines (pp. 8-10). examples include an approved sponsor in place to ensure apprenticeship placements as part of the work integrated learning component and demonstrating how the coda program will respond to current and emerging labour market needs of the trade (pp. 8, 9). new coda programs more closely follow the process outlined in figure 1, section 1 of this report with the addition of the apprenticeship requirements component. as a further note, it is not possible for a college to apply for coda funding until after the regular diploma is approved; further, there is a separate application and reporting and audit process. 46 http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_09o22_e.htm 38 | p a g e those wishing further information on apprenticeship programs in ontario are encouraged to review refling and dions apprenticeship in ontario: an exploratory analysis recently published by the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) (january 2015). unfunded programs at times institutions will decide to enact programs that do not receive ministry funding. one example of the former would be an unfunded apprenticeship program. another would be a local college certificate that does not receive government funding. with respect to universities specifically, an institution may make the decision to conduct an early launch with funding approval pending from mtcu (s. demers, personal communications, december 2014). it is important to stress that an institution can do this if an approval decision is pending; however, not if consent is required. there are implications when an institution proceeds with a funding decision pending. for example, the ministry will only fund a university program and provide osap eligibility for an entire fiscal year if approval occurs before february 1 (mtcu, p. 3, october 7, 2014). otherwise, all enrolled students are considered ineligible for funding for that year. plus, there is a risk that funding may not be approved. an institution would therefore need to consider the financial viability of a program in such a situation. given the expansion of the approval criteria and the increased emphasis on strategic mandate agreements, this could be a higher risk than in years past. further, part of the approval process for mtcu results in the assignment of a program code for financial aid funding through mtcu's student financial assistance branch. by moving forward with mtcu funding approval pending, the institution does so acknowledging that osap wont be available for a period of time. this may be a strain for students assuming the cohort is one which needs to rely on government financial aid. inter-institutional program partnerships in 2011, the ontario government through its ministry of training, colleges, and universities established a vision for credit transfer that stressed the following: ontario will have a comprehensive, transparent and consistently applied credit transfer system that will improve student pathways and mobility, support student success and make ontario a postsecondary education destination of choice. the credit transfer system will assist qualified students to move between postsecondary institutions or programs without repeating prior, relevant learning. (2011, p. 1) the policy framework for transfer outlines guiding principles that are intended to preserve concepts such as quality and academic integrity, full institutional participation, student success and mobility, efficiency and optimized approaches, fairness and equity, and transparency and consistency (p. 2). it also acknowledges the time and resources required for institutions to participate in actualizing the vision and incorporates into its strategy support for new partnerships (p. 3). while it is understood that a credit transfer system does not necessarily speak explicitly to program partnerships, there has been interest on the part of pathway developers to create and study interinstitutional partnerships. therefore, this vision is helpful support as the research findings from this project indicate that developing inter-institutional programs necessarily extends the time to develop, 39 | p a g e review, and approve new programs. generally, this means it will take more than 2 years to create interinstitutional programs. this is due to several factors. at the concept creation phase, there are typically greater complexities, resources, and time involved in developing the program concept and the related partnerships necessary to ensure the new proposal is sufficiently supported and robust. it is not unusual for the partnership to first require formal institutional approval by relevant parties after which the actual program requires varying levels of informal and formal consultation and approval. once internal approvals are finalized, joint programs may also require the involvement of two different quality assurance organizations because of the different standards and benchmarks overseen by each individual body. whether this occurs depends upon credential outcome intentions. it is also impacted by whether consent is required; if it is a new program for either or both partners, both parties are required to submit a consent application to mtcu simultaneously (unless, in the case of the college, the program has been previously approved) (mtcu, october 7, 2014, p.5). in the university sector, the quality councils quality assurance framework directly references joint programs and related new program approval processes. first, it defines joint programs as a program of study offered by two or more universities or by a university and a college or institute, including an institute of technology and advanced learning, in which successful completion of the requirements is confirmed by a single degree document (2014, p. 6). it further defines dual credential programs as [a] program of study offered by two or more universities or by a university and a college or institute, including institutes of technology and advanced learning, in which successful completion of the requirements is confirmed by a separate and different degree/diploma document being awarded by each of the participating institutions (p.6). since inter-institutional program partnerships at the undergraduate level can fall into either of these categories, both definitions apply. as such, creation of a new joint program is subject to the processes outlined in the quality councils quality assurance framework (d. woolcott, personal communications, december 2014). these joint programs will be required to follow the quality councils new program approval process whether the partner is another university or a college (2014b, p. 5). details on this process are outlined in the quality councils guide (pp. 5-6). the process emphasizes joint reviews and submissions, and joint consultation with faculty, staff, and students at both locations by both partners. for clarification on whether the new program approval process applies, pathway developers are encouraged to consult with their institutional quality assurance departments in the first instance; these areas routinely deal with the provincial quality assurance bodies and, therefore, are well positioned to provide clarity and consult further if necessary. different circumstances such as creating an inter-institutional program can extend the timeframes to create, approve, and launch a new program. 40 | p a g e section 5: examples from institutions and allied organizations the ontario colleges and universities interviewed for this project represent a diverse spectrum of both institutions and programs as they were of varying sizes, linguistic emphasis, types, complexity, and programmatic and geographic diversity. further, some of these schools engage actively with the apprenticeship process or external accreditation as part of the new program approval. in addition, institutional websites across the province were examined to benchmark findings further. examples to illustrate the complexities impacting new program creation processes are outlined below. disciplinary emphasis institutional colleagues interviewed for this project continually emphasized the importance of faculty when developing new programs; ideas for new proposals typically emerge from academic colleagues at the discipline level regardless of institution type. these individuals are considered primary drivers of academic innovation and often this expectation is nested firmly in internal quality assurance processes. as one example, the university of toronto entrenches a comprehensive peer review focus in its institutional quality assurance process (utqap) which is typical at ontario universities. according to dr. jane harrison, director, academic programs, policies and quality assurance at the university of toronto, the utqap enshrines the foundational principle of ensuring robust peer review by colleagues across a broad spectrum of areas: from within the programs home unit; from cognate units through the consultation process; from colleagues from peer institutions as part of the review process; from faculty colleagues through faculty level governance; from university colleagues through university level governance; and from colleagues from across the province (quality council) (personal communications, march 2015). consideration of mtcu requirements is also core to the process. the university of windsor provides another illustrative example of the academic disciplinary emphasis in new program development. in its procedures for initiating a new program proposal, it highlights the role of faculty and emphasizes the grassroots nature of the creation process (2014, p. 10). faculties and departments initiate new programs in response to the evolving needs of the local and global community and the emerging patterns of knowledge construction within and among disciplines. new programs are initiated with attention to curriculum design, the development of program learning outcomes, the alignment of effective teaching and assessment methods, and the responsible management of the requisite human, instructional and physical resources within the institution. disciplinary and industry emphasis for the colleges, the importance of a disciplinary emphasis as well as the involvement of industry are clearly evident as both these perspectives drive the initial creation of new program proposals. in the colleges, the faculty and academic areas are the primary drivers for conceptualizing new programs; further, the processes include extensive academic and administrative consultation to ensure program viability, available resources to support the program, and institutional fit. as an illustrative example of industry emphasis in the colleges, the program creation process is augmented by input from the college program advisory committees (pacs) which are mandated by the government as a result of the previously mentioned ministers binding policy directive framework for programs of instruction. 41 | p a g e the board of governors is to ensure that an advisory committee for each program of instruction or cluster of related programs offered at the college is established and is made up of a cross-section of persons external to the college who have a direct interest in and a diversity of experience and expertise related to the particular occupational area addressed by the program. the board of governors is to establish in by-law the structure, terms of reference, and procedures for program advisory committees (mtcu, 2005, p. 3). according to colleges ontario, these bodies are active participants in the creation of new programs and inform the development of both the program proposals and the learning outcomes (september 2012, p. 20). the involvement of pacs occurs prior to institutional approval being granted. as an illustrative example related to new programs, centennial college establishes ad-hoc pacs during the program development stage to provide the industry input (g. marshall, personal communications, march 2015). once the program is approved, centennial converts the ad-hoc pac to a standing pac (the same members may remain on the pac or new members may be added). conestoga college provides an interesting approach to ensure both a disciplinary and industry focus which is very similar to centennials. when creating a new degree program, a program development advisory committee (pdac) is created with voting membership from industry and non-voting membership from within the institution (s. burrows, degree programs consultant, january 2015). the pdac typically includes representatives from a variety of areas involved in creating the new degree such as from the degree area, the curriculum office, the library, and the co-op office. special guests are also invited as needed such as the registrar and the marketing team. conestoga pdacs serve in an advisory capacity and adhere to formally established and approved guidelines. whether existing or like conestogas pdac, these committees are considered an essential partner to facilitate informed creation and review of new programs. each ensures additional industry expertise and consideration of labour market needs and trends inform the development of the curriculum and a programs learning outcomes (g. marshall, personal communications, december 2014). college examples related to new program creation processes according to cheryl kennedy, a curriculum consultant for the conestoga college institute of advanced learning and technology, conestogas new program approval process carefully assesses the value of the program for students and industry, considers how best to embed quality in the program, and ensures significant alignment with learning outcomes and the ministers binding policy directive (mbpd) framework for programs of instruction and standards (personal communications, december 2014). using conestoga college as an example, figure 9 outlines a detailed internal process for new program development which results in college credentials requiring credential validation service (cvs) review. this process is not necessarily followed for apprenticeship programs. while different colleges may have different committee structures beneath the board level and different practices, the essence of the process remains very similar across institutions: ensuring academic unit/decanal support; encouraging industry input via the pacs; engaging in broad consultation; ensuring institutional viability, fit, and alignment with strategic mandate agreements; and involving internal levels of governance committees from program specific through to the board. 42 | p a g e figure 9: conestoga college: sample of approval process for ontario college certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, and graduate certificates "request for approval to proceed" document submission program planning and review committee program advisory committee endorsement program advisory committee (pac) or program development advisory committee (pdac) "request for approval to proceed" document submission academic forum program proposal package (called "data pack" at conestoga) and pac endorsement academic coordinating committee acasa summary; proposal approved advisory committee on academic and student affairs (acasa) acasa summary reviewed; proposal approved board of governors source: adapted from conestoga college, july 2014 in the above figure, the request for approval to proceed is a comprehensive document detailing the program, academic, and industry relevant labour market information; physical, financial, technological and academic resources; human resources; and other services needed to run the program. in addition, the proposal refers to the industry support received by the pdac or pac to date. the term data pack refers to the curriculum design proposal and includes the program description and graduate employment pathways; program outcomes; admission requirements and processes; course descriptions; course and program hours and credits; and the associated levelling semester by semester. as with all the publicly funded ontario colleges, conestogas board of governors approves the program proposal before it goes for evaluation to the credential validation service (cvs) and then onto the mtcu for funding consideration. according to cheryl kennedy, curriculum consultant at conestoga college, the operating principles that govern new program approval practices within the colleges as overseen by the cvs and mtcu, emphasize the following at minimum (personal communications, december 2014): 1. clearly specifying the target audience for a program; (for example, if the audience is known and very specific, the type of credential and/or curriculum can be developed with a high degree of focus. this ultimately advantages timelines.); 43 | p a g e 2. providing clarity regarding the type of program and credential desired; 3. developing the program in a collaborative manner and with a discipline focus; 4. satisfying a need evident in the market and ensuring there will be opportunities for graduates; 5. ensuring there are available resources for the program; 6. seeking assurances of quality by ensuring alignment with learning outcomes, benchmarks, and standards; 7. adhering to the ministers binding policy directive framework for programs of instruction and its embedded credentials framework as well as the program standards; and, 8. aligning with institutional mission and mandate and the strategic mandate agreement signed with mtcu. the colleges process for developing degree programs illustrates these principles in action. figure 10 represents a high-level overview of a systematic approach to degree program development, again using conestoga as an illustrative example. according to sacha burrows, degree programs and academic pathways consultant at conestoga college, the process outlined in figure 10 can take up to 2 years from the point of program conceptualization through to final submission to mtcu and peqab. with the addition of the final peqab review,47 mtcu approval, and subsequent program launch, an average of 2.5 to 3 years emerges (s. burrows, personal communications, january 2015). the college has incorporated a preapproval moment with mtcu to ensure the degree as it exists at that point in time is in keeping with broader provincial expectations. the approach of encouraging and systematizing internal and external consultation is evident at other institutions and is considered very helpful to ensure robust development of degree proposals (s. burrows, personal communications, january 2015). when creating the degree approval package, extensive consultation occurs with areas such as the curriculum office, library, it, facilities resources, finance, co-op, the registrar, academic operations, the pdac committee, and the various administrative and academic governance committees. throughout the entire process, the degree programs consultant and the curriculum consultant provide significant coordination support to ensure broad and deep consultation and to facilitate the development of appropriate learning outcomes in accordance with quality benchmarks and standards. conestoga college currently delivers 11 degrees and is a good example of the approach used at colleges to create degree programs. 47 conestoga supplies an initial submission which is reviewed by a quality assessment panel (qap) assigned by peqab and is the subject of an initial recommendation to the peqab board. conestoga responds to that recommendation (including providing additional materials, as required), and both the qap report and the response are added to the original submission to create the full, final submission considered by the peqab board and the mtcu (s. burrows, personal communications, march 2015). 44 | p a g e figure 10: conestoga's internal degree approval process develop new degree program concept research: industry, government, other existing pacs, students inform academic administration to ensure approval in principle designate a degree program developer potential program coordinator; possibly a phd create environmental scan academic and labour markets complete degree approval package part 1 and space requirements form consultation and initial program development seek approval to proceed program planning and review committee (pprc); academic forum (af) seek preapproval to proceed mtcu create program development advisory committee (pdac) develop program themes, design, learning outcomes; provide support complete degree approval package - part ii finalize program design, seek pdac recommendation and additional approvals (as necessary); support signatures attached send acasa summary and seek final approval academic coordinating committee (acc), advisory committee on academic and student affairs (acasa) seek final approval board (send acasa summary with proposal) develop peqab submission; external peqab, mtcu process unfolds full degree approval package, environmental scan, peqab standards source: adapted from conestoga college, degree development procedure map, august 2014 45 | p a g e university examples related to new program creation processes as mentioned previously, the new program approval process at universities is governed by approved institutional quality assurance processes (iqap) which are in keeping with the quality councils quality assurance framework.48 as an illustrative example of institutional processes and timeframes, the university of windsor publishes specific details including timeframes for new program approvals on their institutional website to guide the community in the creation of proposals.49 timeline workflow charts for three start dates are provided each of which speak to the point in time when new program proposal briefs are submitted to the quality assurance office: september, january and may respectively.50 while it depends on the type of program and whether or not an expedited review is possible, the overview in figure 11 outlines the typical milestones and potential timelines assuming a september submission of the new program proposal brief to the institutional quality assurance office (university of windsor, n.d.). assuming the various suggested processes unfold as expected, it may take close to 2 years from start to finish before a proposal reaches the point of being submitted for mtcu review and consideration. this does not include the time involved to conduct the mtcu review or the time involved to conduct the various implementation launch processes that emerge following final approvals. 48 http://oucqa.ca/ and http://oucqa.ca/framework/2-protocol-for-new-program-approvals/ www1.uwindsor.ca/graduate/approval-timeline-for-new-program-proposals 50 www1.uwindsor.ca/graduate/approval-timeline-for-new-program-proposals 49 46 | p a g e figure 11: university of windsor new program approval process request for approval in principle to proceed (mar-apr) academic administrative unit (aau) "new program notice of intent" submitted to quality assurance office (apr) quality assurance office provostial approval to proceed; establish consultation plan (mayjun) new program steering committee submit completed full "new program proposal brief" and mtcu approval form (sep) quality assurance office external reviewers chosen; site visit completed; report compiled (oct-jan) quality assurance office external reviewer report submitted (feb) external reviewers response to external reviewers report; proposal refinement and approval (feb-apr) aau & dean's reponse - revised proposal approved by aau council approval (late apr) faculty coordinating council approval (jun) provost approval (sep) senate program development committee approval (oct) senate approval (nov-dec) quality council approval mtcu source: adapted from university of windsor, january 2015 at the university of toronto, a minimum of 1.5 years is considered fairly typical (j. harrison, personal communications, december 2014). this does not include the time it takes to receive quality council approval, ministry approval, or to launch the program. using a university degree proposal as an example, adding in the 45 days for the quality council approval process and the 4 months minimum for the mtcu expedited review, then 2 years begins to emerge as an absolute minimum. adding in the program launch considerations and this extends the timeframe beyond the 2.5 years. most of the institutional time is spent on institutional program development, consultation, and approval. more 47 | p a g e generally and not atypical of most institutions, the sequencing of governance approval meetings was noted as an important consideration guiding the process (s. demers & j. harrison, personal communications, december 2014). section 6: additional considerations and related examples the internal and external quality assurance processes are critical components of the new program approval process. additional important considerations were identified by those interviewed for this project. these included the parallel need to consider and develop non-academic supports to ensure successful program creation and launch. further, that individual institutions and allied organizations operating at the system level routinely consider strategic and operational non-academic considerations. the next two sub-sections provide a high-level overview of each of these topics. internal strategic and operational considerations appendix d provides a summary of additional considerations that may or may not necessarily be captured in the quality assurance process for new programs. example topic areas include student support, development, and success; alignment with strategic mandate agreements (sma) and institutional mission; and a variety of resource and infrastructure considerations. this is not meant to be an all-inclusive summary; rather, it represents the typical and additional considerations colleges and universities explore when implementing a new program or pathway initiative. each of these areas requires significant consultation which informs and potentially affects, the timeframes for program approvals and launch. broad consultation broad consultation is a core principle for both the college and university new program creation and approval processes. examples include site visits by external reviewers (i.e., for the peqab and the quality councils quality assurance processes); the college pacs and pdacs mentioned earlier; the various levels of engagement with committees comprised of academic colleagues, administrative staff, and senior executives; and the deep consultation and review by internal academic governance committees and across respective institutions and relevant organizations (such as external accrediting bodies or the ontario college of trades). in addition to these examples, the research revealed that institutions have developed various approaches to ensure broad consultation beyond academic considerations. approaches are often entrenched in quality assurance protocols and/or the templates supporting the new program approval process. figure 12 identifies at a general level the internal departments consulted when creating a new program. these areas provide academic advice and logistical and implementation advice. 48 | p a g e figure 12: examples of internal departments involved in new program development processes institutional academic leadership / governance bodies administrative supports (e.g., institutional research, finance, it, facilities & space planning, etc.) program proponents; quality assurance departments academic resources (e.g., library, registrar's office, advising, academic calendaring and scheduling, etc.) student support areas (e.g., recruitment and marketing, career/ co-op offices, counselling, etc.) as an illustrative example, the university of torontos quality assurance department has created consultation venues and templates that ensure champions of new program proposals anticipate not only academic matters but additional issues such as tuition and funding considerations, administrative needs, and space/infrastructure requirements (j. harrison, personal communications, december 2014). for the university of toronto, these types of considerations are entrenched in a business essentials document template that is completed by developers of new program proposals. further, the process of creation, consultation, and approval of new programs at the university is tracked through a unique program approval database which is maintained by the quality assurance department. the university of toronto, as part of its new undergraduate program proposal template, also notes consideration of nonacademic items such as space and infrastructure needs (university of toronto, new undergraduate program proposal template, november 2014, p. 8).51 conestoga college provides another example. the request for approval to proceed template for new programs contains a number of criteria fairly typical for new program approval proposal forms such as 51 see also the quality councils sample program proposal brief: http://oucqa.ca/guide/10-sample-programproposal-brief/ 49 | p a g e proposed credential type; program name, description, and delivery method; admission and progression requirements; library resources; evidence of demand and need; alignment with organizational mandate; co-op and accreditation requirements; proof of support such as from the program advisory committee (pac); assessment of competition and duplication; projected enrolments; and required teaching resources (2012-14).52 in addition, it also includes questions regarding space allocation; capital and equipment resources; development costs; recruitment plans; financial plans; and tuition and funding expectations. according to cheryl kennedy, conestoga college, various parties are provided with opportunities to discuss proposals at pivotal stages (personal communications, march 2015). the program planning and review committee, for example, is a venue that invites open dialogue from various college areas. it has proven to be an efficient and effective method of engaging stakeholders, identifying potential operational and academic issues, and determining potential solutions and next steps before further work is completed on the proposal (c. kennedy, personal communications, march 2015). consultation along with broad and deep community engagement are foundational components of the process. canadore college provides another example of how an institution weaves the academic quality assurance process into a consultation framework to ensure the items in appendix d are considered. the colleges academic group has carriage of conducting the initial review of new program proposals after the dean and local academic unit have approved the proposal in principle. this committee is chaired by the vice president, academic. membership includes the director of quality, learning, teaching, and innovation (canadores quality assurance department), deans, the vice president academic, and, the registrar (m. lamontagne, personal communications, december 2014). after this and prior to going to the board, the proposals are vetted by the senior executive team of the college which includes the president, vice presidents, senior human resources consultants, and the director of corporate, community and alumni partnership. centennial college has a similar venue to canadores academic group called the program innovation and development committee (pid) which serves the same purpose and has similar membership (g. marshall, personal communications, december 2014). institutions have numerous tracking mechanisms and consultation opportunities in place to support new program development, refinement, and approval that complement the academic quality assurance processes and that further expedite consultation, timely program launches, and efficiencies. the next section explores the high-level practices involved in fully launching a program after all approvals arrive (or are pending). broad and deep consultation is a core component of new program development at both the colleges and universities in ontario. the necessity of this will extend timeframes and introduce complexities into the process. 52 https://myconestoga.ca/web/tlc/learn-about-program-development-and-approval-processes 50 | p a g e external program launch timeline considerations figure 13 outlines the typical external program launch considerations and related timing colleges, universities, and allied organizations reported preparing for when launching an approved program. for the sake of simplicity, the primary focus is on preparing for program launches that allow for students to start in the september entry point although it is very true that with the flexibility offered by the internet, it is possible to launch new programs at different points than is suggested with the timelines noted in figure 13. figure 13: typical operational program launch timeliness using september as a proxy entry point for students june, july, august by mid-august featuring new programs in marketing materials used for fall recruitment season (e.g. handbooks) marketing materials to key influencers (e.g., high schools, workplaces, etc.) by end of september/october fall student recruitment fair presence (college/university fairs) marketing to high school guidence counsellors, adult learning centres, community organizations, etc. by end of october starting in november programs set up at application centres important for receiving applications, making offers, and capturing yield and conversion data students begin applying for next september entry institutions begin making offers early spring/summer (varies by sector, target audience, and school) students encouraged to confirm offers for september entry 51 | p a g e the overview in figure 13 is specifically focused on highlighting recruitment related topic areas and associated timeframes for external communication opportunities tied to services provided or supported primarily by organizations operating at the systems level such as the provinces central application centres. it is not meant to highlight internal marketing and recruitment campaigns. typically, institutions interviewed for this project indicated approval of a program by november/december is considered somewhat late if the goal was to launch the program for students wishing to start in the following september. the rationale was that the primary recruitment season, the fall, has been missed by this point (s. demers, personal communications, december 2014). those interviewed also acknowledged that if a program was approved later, institutions do make best efforts to ensure a september intake occurs. examples of collateral used centrally to share information about new programs include the websites maintained by the ontario college application service (ocas) and ontario universities application centre (ouac). for ouac, an online resource called e-info is a primary tool for students applying;53 for ocas, a specialized, targeted website called collegesontario.ca is available to students.54 in addition, the sectors often launch specialized campaigns such as the college systems degrees in demand website maintained by the college degree operating group (cdog).55 major recruitment events occur to support both the colleges and universities. examples include the ontario college fair,56 the college information program,57 the ontario universities fair,58 and the ontario university information program.59 as another example, both sectors engage in extensive communication with local high school partners, which represent a key influencer group for direct entry students. each centre produces specialized publications for these types of audiences sharing information about a variety of topics including new program launches.60 when launching programs for non-direct entry students, institutions reported more nuances are required as appropriate to each target audience. an additional implementation consideration involves administratively establishing a new program in the government financial aid system to allow for enrolled students (or newly admitted students) to apply for osap. when a new academic program is approved for funding and osap eligibility, institutional financial aid offices initiate the administrative process and submit the request to mtcu's student financial assistance branch for osap approval (n. jelenic, personal communications, january 2015). these same institutional financial aid staff work in collaboration with the student financial assistance branch to establish the program cost codes in the osap system, which facilitates the processing of the financial aid applications for students. this designation process can take approximately 2 to 4 weeks. typically, students start completing osap applications in april for the upcoming september entry, therefore, it is helpful to begin this process as soon as possible after mtcu funding approval and osap 53 http://www.electronicinfo.ca/ http://www.ontariocolleges.ca/home 55 http://www.degreesindemand.ca/ 56 http://www.ocif.ca/ 57 http://www.ontariocolleges.ca/news/cip 58 http://www.ouf.ca/ 59 http://www.ouf.ca/uip/ 60 ocas = http://www.ocas.ca/e-materials.html; ouac = http://guidance.ouac.on.ca/in-the-loop-september2014/guidance-counsellor-resources/ 54 52 | p a g e eligibility of the new or modified program is received (n. jelenic, personal communications, january 2015). as another timeline consideration, while it is necessary to routinely update the oncat transfer database for students on the ontransfer.ca site, it is helpful for students if institutions ensure the oncat student transfer guide is updated well in advance of september.61 this is particularly appropriate as institutions begin making offers to transfer students january through to the summer for september entry (varies by institution). operational program launch considerations can extend the full launch of a new program by 6 to 8 months. this timeframe unfolds after all approvals arrive. institutions can shorten timelines by engaging in advance preparation while maintaining due regard for approval bodies and government regulations. launch timeframes are also influenced by the inherent needs of unique student audiences and their related decision cycle and subsequent entry point. 61 https://www.ontransfer.ca/www/index_en.php 53 | p a g e section 7: the experience in other jurisdictions a broad overview approaches to new program approvals vary by jurisdiction. michael skolnik in college baccalaureate degree approval processes in other jurisdictions (2013), provides a thoughtful summary of the approval typologies and quality assurance processes for college degree approvals across canada and in international jurisdictions. he also highlights the salient differences which are provided in table 1 (2013, page 28). while the primary focus of the study is on college degree approval processes given its sponsorship by colleges ontario, it is not restricted to that sector. for the purposes of this oncat resource, it helps to illuminate the different strategic approaches to program approval. table 1: characteristics of college baccalaureate degree approvals in selected jurisdictions jurisdiction program duration austria british columbia denmark finland florida germany 3 years 4 years 3-4, varies by program 3.5-4, varies by program 2 years (after two-year associate degree) 3-4 years, varies by program ireland 3-4 year degrees new zealand 3-4 year degrees netherlands 4 years source: adapted from skolnik, 2013 approval stages na 2 na 2 2 1 na 1 2 approval model program assessment program assessment program assessment process audit institutional accreditation choice of program assessment or institutional accreditation program assessment program assessment mixed definitions for each of the strategic approval models referenced in table 1 are outlined below (skolnik, 2013). program assessment: the program assessment model involves a full review of each and every program (p. 11). process audit: using the example of finland, new program approvals are handled by the institutions and the finish higher education evaluation council (fheec) audits the procedures (p. 10). institutional accreditation: using the us as the exemplar, skolnik indicates that institutions, rather than programs, are accredited as one of the components is to determine whether an institution has the capacity to ensure the quality of all its programs (p. 10). having noted this, he emphasizes that colleges offering first baccalaureate degrees undergo a more in-depth review. the last two categories represent a combination of one of the above or a mixed approach. bc is an example of a mixed jurisdiction where currently a significant number of public universities are exempt from review of new programs at the baccalaureate level or higher whereas all public colleges are subject to baccalaureate program specific reviews to inform the potential granting of consent by the minister of advanced education (m. skolnik, p. 11; r. fleming, personal communications, december 2014). 54 | p a g e british columbia in british columbia, the degree quality assessment board (dqab) is a ministry appointed advisory board for the minister that maintains responsibility for overseeing the degree level quality assurance process for both public and private institutions.62 the board is guided in its work by different acts including the degree authorization act which came into force in november 2003 (deqab, november 2006, p. 1). this act provided institutions other than publicly funded universities with the right to grant degrees. for the first time in british columbia, private and out-of-province public institutions have the means to legally grant degrees in british columbia and use the word university in their name without having their own statute. the consequential amendments to the act expanded the degree granting authority of british columbia public institutions to provide the opportunity for public colleges to grant applied baccalaureate degrees and public university colleges and provincial institutes to grant applied masters degrees. (p. 1) with the passing of this act, a new degree approval process was created and the dqab came into being. the university act and the college and institute act govern new program approvals for bc public universities and bc public colleges and institutes respectively. in either case, new programs must still be reviewed by the dqab prior to ministerial approval consideration (p. 2). applied degrees must have ministerial approval before being reviewed by dqab (pp. 2-3). dqabs external quality assurance process for new degree program proposals is available online.63 the minister, in november 2006, updated the exempt status criteria and guidelines which provide an expedited review for institutions with long standing capacity and rigorous quality assessment processes for successfully granting degrees (ministry of advanced education [aved], november 2006).64 any bc institution can apply for exempt status; if this is approved by the dqab, the quality assessment process would be expedited up to the degree level specified and the programs would be forwarded to the ministry for review and consent / approval after the requisite 30-day public advertisement on the ministrys degree quality assessment site (p. 1). institutions in this category do not require dqab review of new programs up to the level of degree for which they are approved for a specified time period; however, it is still within the ministers discretion to request a dqab review or recommendation if the circumstances warrant. the university of british columbia provides an example of how an institution in another jurisdiction approves new programs (see table 2).65 ubc has been approved for exempt status. 62 http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/degree-authorization/ see the following site for an overview of the process for non-exempt institutions: http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/degree-authorization/documents/workflow.pdf 64 see the following site for an overview of the process for exempt institutions: http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/degree-authorization/documents/workflow.pdf 65 http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/degree-authorization/documents/exempt_status.pdf 63 55 | p a g e table 2: university of british columbia undergraduate new program approval process66 steps 1 2 3 4 process new program begins development deans/provosts offices informed new unit planned (if applicable) proposal developed 5 proposal presented to relevant departmental committees for review and approval proposal presented for departmental approval proposal submitted to deans office for review 6 7 8 9 proposal prepared and submitted for review and approval by faculty committees; government ministry executive summary prepared additional formal consultation occurs 10 11 12 final proposal prepared reflecting all consultation proposal presented for final faculty approval proposal forwarded to vp students office 13 14 tuition proposal prepared vice-provost academic affairs signs the budgetary impact form, informs academic unit, forwards proposal to senate secretariat proposal sent to senate 15 16 17 upon senate approval, proposal forwarded to board of governors program proposal, tuition proposal (if applicable), and student consultation report considered 18 responsible unit academic unit academic unit/deans office proponent consults with committee of deans academic unit consults with other areas (library, other departments / faculties, etc.) e.g. curriculum committee, teaching and learning committee, etc. departmental committee includes formal consultation with vice-provost academic affairs academic units/faculty committees e.g., with academic units, library (for resources), senate secretariat (for form, format, and completeness), provost academic unit faculty committee vice-provost academic affairs forwards to vp students office; student consultation report provided requiring faculty response faculty vice-provost academic affairs senate curriculum committee and senate admissions committee sends the proposal senate board of governors (if a planned september intake, proposal submitted and approved no later than march/april meeting to accommodate ministry approval) vice-provost academic affairs proposal and executive summary forwarded to ministry of advanced education67 19 under expedited review, minister provides consent minister 20 if ministerial concerns, proposal referred to degree quality dqab assessment board (dqab) source: adapted from university of british columbia, new degree program proposals, november 14, 2014 joint program proposals at ubc are required to follow the above process; however, additional components apply. for example, requirements include expectations of coordination with the other partners, a review of the terms of agreement by university counsel before internal approval occurs, and a review of the proposal by the vancouver senate academic policy committee (university of british, february 2013). further, the partner may not necessarily have exempt status; therefore, the regular 66 note: this process is currently under review at ubc to refine the steps, examine consultation opportunities, and tighten approval timelines. 67 programs requiring ministry approval include new undergraduate programs and majors; new graduate programs; new degree credentials or significant revisions that result in credential renaming. non-degree programs do not require ministerial consent (university of british columbia, february 2013). 56 | p a g e program approval process would apply. the additional requirements would necessarily introduce greater complexity and timelines. ministry approval is required before admitting a student to a new ubc degree program even under the expedited process. although it is possible to advertise in advance after finalizing internal approvals, a proviso is required indicating the pending status of ministerial approval (university of british columbia, february 2013). according to bc dqab degree program review: criteria and guidelines, institutions are advised to submit proposals 12 18 months prior to the planned start-up date of the program to allow sufficient time for the quality assessment process to unfold and subsequent marketing and recruitment to occur (dqab, november 2006, p. 5). non-degree program approval processes are very different than degree program approvals. implemented in 2002 by aved, the approval authority is vested in the local institutions.68 for the new approval process, institutions submit their proposals to the online post-secondary institution proposal system (psips) to facilitate public input into the proposal development and for posting the follow up institutional response and outcomes (aved, july 2008, p. 1). eligible programs include new fields of study, new credentials, new options recognized on students transcripts, major program revisions, and programs originally offering credentials outside of bc that are now being offered inside bc (p. 3). standalone certificates are exempted (p.3). the bc new degree program approval process is different and yet similar in some ways to the process in ontario. dqab plays a more comprehensive, overarching role across all sectors which is supported by legislation, a scope of authority very different than the quality assurance bodies in ontario. however, dqab has also implemented an expedited process for approvals to support the sector for those institutions with a robust history with granting degrees. this is a strategy that is similar to other quality assurance bodies in the country. the internal institutional processes are similar to those in ontario in that there are numerous opportunities for internal and external consultation and active engagement of governing bodies. collaboration with other institutions in the case of inter-institutional program initiatives is the expected norm. further, the extensive timelines to allow for thoughtful proposal development, community engagement, and public launch are evident as might be expected given the comprehensive approach and application of program benchmarks and standards. 68 http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/degree-authorization/public/non-degree-program.htm 57 | p a g e alberta69 for publicly funded institutions, the program approval process is governed primarily by the ministrys post-secondary learning act (psla),70 which also provides the legislative framework for all postsecondary institutions operating in the province, campus alberta, and the campus alberta quality council (psla, 2004).71 as an example, it outlines the structure of the governance bodies within a postsecondary institution and each bodys individual scope of authority (such as which body has the authority to approve new programs and degrees). division 2 of the act specifically outlines the sixsector model of categorization and introduces the concept of campus alberta as consisting of membership of publicly funded institutions within each of the six sectors that are governed by particular mandates and authorized to offer credential types in alignment with the act (2003, chapter p-29.5, pp. 67-70). section 108 of the act stipulates the mandate and authority of the campus alberta quality council, which includes the power to review proposals for new degree programs (i.e., focused on assessing fulfillment of demonstrated need, institutional capacity to deliver a program, alignment with institutional mission, course and program transferability and portability, and contribution to system coordination) (p. 73). the act is supported by regulations which can impact program development and approval such as the campus alberta sector regulation (alberta regulation 239/2008),72 alternative academic council regulation (alberta regulation 219, 2006), 73 and the programs of study regulation (alberta regulation 91/2009).74 the campus alberta sector regulation specifies the six-sector model, which is summarized in table 3. further examples of supporting regulations are available on the government of alberta website.75 69 note: this section has been reviewed and commented upon by alberta ministry staff. http://eae.alberta.ca/ministry/legislation/psla.aspx 71 http://eae.alberta.ca/ministry/agencies/caadvisory/caqc.aspx 72 http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/regs/2008_239.pdf 73 http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/regs/2006_219.pdf 74 http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/regs/2009_091.pdf 75 http://eae.alberta.ca/ministry/legislation/psla.aspx 70 58 | p a g e table 3: campus alberta six-sector model sector comprehensive academic and research institutions baccalaureate and applied studies institutions polytechnical institutions comprehensive community institutions independent academic institutions specialized arts and cultural institutions assigned institutions athabasca university university of alberta university of calgary university of lethbridge grant macewan university mount royal university northern alberta institute of technology southern alberta institute of technology bow valley college grande prairie regional college keyano college lakeland college lethbridge college medicine hat college norquest college northern lakes college olds college portage college red deer college ambrose university canadian university college concordia university college of alberta the kings university college st. marys university alberta college of art & design the banff centre source: alberta regulation 239, 2008 with a focus on institutions that make up the six sectors, each has some form of internal quality assurance process and associated governance policies and procedures in place to manage the new program development and quality assurance processes. the campus alberta quality council is the quality assurance body that acts in an advisory capacity to the ministry in that it is responsible for making recommendations regarding new degrees under the act and the programs of study regulation76 for degree program proposals from institutions within the six sectors and any non-resident institution wanting to offer a degree program in alberta, other than a degree in divinity. it operates in a manner similar to bcs deqab and ontarios peqab although, and in comparison to the latter, it functions with a broader mandate and scope. diplomas and certificates are subject to a different process wherein the minister reviews and approves the programs after submission. these credentials are not reviewed by the campus alberta quality council.77 76 77 http://eae.alberta.ca/ministry/legislation/psla.aspx http://eae.alberta.ca/post-secondary/credentials/approvalprocess.aspx 59 | p a g e the campus alberta quality councils handbook: quality assessment and quality assurance (2013) provides a comprehensive overview of the particulars of the approval process for degree programs.78 proposals are submitted to the ministry and subject to a two-stage process that encompasses a system coordination review by the ministry and upon referral to the caqc, a quality review (alberta innovation and advanced education, august 2009).79 these reviews unfold for every degree including for those that are expedited. for the system coordination review, institutions are required to complete part a of the degree program proposal template for undergraduate programs which focuses on identifying an assessment of student and employer demand; the situation of the program in the context of campus alberta; and the financial viability of the program, including implications for students and taxpayers (p. 135). this information is then reviewed by the ministry and circulated to 26 postsecondary institutions in the province with the expectation that comments will be tabled within 30 days. following a positive system coordination review and after incorporating any changes resulting from the review, the institution provides the completed template (parts a and b) to the quality council. this represents the beginning of the quality review. at this stage, the full program details are provided with a goal to satisfy council that the level of learning to be achieved is consistent with that which is expected at the proposed degree level, that the program has sufficient breadth and rigour to meet national and international standards such as what is available in the canadian degree qualifications framework (appendix b, pp. 129-134) and that it is of comparable quality (p. 139). further, institutions are expected to outline how the program meets councils program quality standards and identify any unique features that set it apart (p. 139). the handbook outlines the 14 criteria underpinning the undergraduate program evaluation framework which include meeting expectations such as demonstrating fit and curriculum clarity, ensuring learning outcomes and student objectives are comparable to similar programs, establishing availability of resources to support the program, providing evidence of broad and relevant consultation occurred with both internal bodies and external institutions and other relevant licensing or regulatory bodies (for the latter, if applicable), etc. (pp. 171 to 174). the degree program template is provided in full in appendix c of the handbook. an overview of the approval process is provided in this oncat resource in appendix e. for the quality review, proposals are subject to a full review, partially expedited review, or fully expedited review,80 which result in different timelines for approvals (campus alberta quality council, may 2008). the comprehensive academic research institutions sector represents universities that are eligible for expedited quality review consideration for new programs given their long history and organizational capacity to provide degree programs. institutions in other sectors are also eligible to apply for an expedited review of a program proposal providing councils criteria are met. with respect to the timelines associated with the review categories noted above, proposals that require external peer review will take longer. recognizing that it is difficult to specifically identify new program approval timeframes, and timing is often affected by the quality of the written program proposal, a degree program proposal can take anywhere from 2 months to 2 years to move through the campus alberta quality council quality assurance review process. 78 http://caqc.gov.ab.ca/media/4650/handbook_july_2014.pdf http://www.caqc.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/flowchart.pdf 80 http://caqc.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/expedited_review_process_final__draft_6_may_08.pdf 79 60 | p a g e the ministrys approval process for certificates and diplomas in alberta is somewhat different than the degree quality assurance process. it is still necessary to ensure all program proposals are approved by the appropriate governance bodies at an institution and to demonstrate support was received by the chief academic officer and any external licensing or regulatory bodies if applicable (c. baldwin-dery, personal communications, february 2015). the review process of new certificate and diploma programs by the ministry focuses on determining evidence of support from external program advisory committees given the importance of satisfying vocational learning outcomes benchmarks, alignment with meeting labour market demand, etc. once institutions submit programs to the ministry, they are reviewed by alberta innovation and advanced education staff and a recommendation is tabled with the minister (or with the formally delegated designate) who then approves (or denies) program proposals (alberta innovation and advanced education, n.d.). there is no expedited process for these types of diploma and certificate credentials. the legislative framework, mandate, and scope of authority of quality assurance bodies, and approval processes vary depending on jurisdiction and institution. the provinces examined carefully embed quality assurance protocols to ensure program learning outcomes are met for each of certificates, diplomas, and degrees. bcs dqab recommends institutions submit proposals 12 to 18 months prior to a planned launch to ensure timely consideration. like the government and quality assurance bodies in ontario, both bc and alberta have introduced expedited review processes for new program approvals for eligible institutions. 61 | p a g e conclusion the information in this resource identifies the various participants involved in new program approvals within ontario and the typical approval typologies, processes, timelines, and practices. the research and scope of this resource focuses primarily on publicly funded postsecondary institutions (i.e., members of oncat). different methods comprised the information gathering process; it consisted primarily of reviewing institutional websites and foundational documents, and conducting select interviews. with a focus on college certificates and diplomas and college and university baccalaureate degrees at publicly funded ontario institutions, there are four main new program creation typologies, each with relatively unique processes and timelines. figure 1 from section 1 is provided once again as figure 14 as it provides a helpful summary. figure 14: new postsecondary program creation typologies new program creation & approval typologies apprenticeship programs local college certificates specifically, programs offered through colleges certificates that don't require ocqas review program launch timeline: tends to happen rapidly program launch timeline: tends to happen rapidly may require additional approvals if tied to a college credential (e.g., coda funded programs) typically institutional approvals only (e.g., continuing education programs) ontario college credentials (not including degrees) ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma, ontario college advanced diploma, ontario college graduate diploma program launch timeline: generally 1 to 1.5 years ocqas: review and validation mtcu: funding and osap eligibility approval (if requested) college and university degrees baccalaureate college and university degrees program launch timeline: generally a minimum of 2.5 to 3 years (and sometimes longer) peqab: review and provide consent recommendation for all college and some university degrees mtcu minister: consent to offer program and for funding and osap eligibility quality council: review and approve universitydegrees mtcu: approval for funding and osap eligibility (if requested) the ontario quality assurance agencies, ocqas, peqab, and the quality council, and the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) serve important roles in the province ensuring institutional alignment with the credential qualifications framework relevant to each credential and sector. faculty at the discipline level drive the academic innovation process informed by environmental scans, 62 | p a g e administrative colleagues, academic mission and mandate, strategic mandate agreements, and adherence to program standards (if applicable), benchmarks, and principles of academic quality. a scan of institutions and allied organizations has revealed that credential complexity and level result in extension of the time it takes to create, develop, and refine proposals; conduct necessary consultations and site visits (if applicable); move through governance processes; and seek final approvals internally and externally before program proponents can turn to the necessary task of fully launching the new program to students. the allied organizations that complement the work of internal and external quality assurance bodies such as ouac, ocas, cdog, and oncat along with internal institutional experts provide tremendous expertise and coordination capacity to ensure the successful launch of new programs. institutions report that timing in the recruitment cycle to ensure successful launch can delay the actual point when admitted students begin classes in the new program. this is not unusual and is to be expected. the overview of select jurisdictions suggests that ontario is similar to its provincial counterparts in terms of the depth and breadth of consideration for developing thoughtful, discipline driven new programs that adhere to outcomes oriented quality assurance benchmarks and standards. further, although it was difficult to obtain specifics on timelines, other provinces appear to experience expanded timelines as the credential level increases or the number of partners expand. expedited approvals are also evident in these other jurisdictions. having noted this, there are significant differences in legislation, scope of quality assurance bodies, and approaches between ontario and the two canadian provinces examined (alberta and bc). the purpose of this research is not to suggest changes in practices or to evaluate the efficacy of specific quality assurance processes, standards, and benchmarks as that type of analysis situates with other bodies; rather, it is to surface the general typologies, practices, and timeframes experienced by institutions and allied organizations when creating a new program. the goal is to provide pathway developers and supporting practitioners with a resource guide; thereby enhancing awareness in the province regarding the various considerations involved when creating and launching a new program. internal administrative staff that routinely support the implementation of new programs emerge as potential partners to those creating new programs. examples include administrative support staff within faculties or schools and centrally located registrarial staff. further, the staff within internal quality assurance departments at each institution who work in partnership with external quality assurance bodies are important guides in the new program development process as they serve as significant participants with broad and deep expertise surrounding the new program approval processes. those interested in developing new programs that will either exist within one institution or span institutions would be well served by relying on these professionals. 63 | p a g e appendix a: project terms of reference project: the research project is focused on identifying the current approval processes, timelines, and general typology for undergraduate new program development at select ontario colleges and universities. for the research, the goal is to identify and understand the program approval practices and governing frameworks at internal institutions, external allied organizations, and government, and to present the findings in one comprehensive report. unique components related to joint program development, if evident, will be identified and noted. currently, a comprehensive resource about general governance processes and timelines that crosses institutional type does not exist in ontario; the final deliverable for this project is intended to close that gap. final deliverable: a report of the findings will be produced and published in the oncat website for use by its members and allied organizations. it is anticipated that the material will assist those new to the pathway development process and those with institutionally specific expertise. it is further anticipated that the report will facilitate and expedite the development of new bi-lateral and multi-lateral pathway initiatives. please note, it is not the intention of this research to suggest new standards, procedures, or best practices. general research approach: the project will involve identifying and selectively interviewing relevant contacts at exemplar institutions and allied organizations, and researching foundational documents at the institutional and system level with a focus on those stakeholders involved in new program approvals. in the interviews, the intention is to surface specific examples, generic timelines, and details regarding governance approval processes related to new program development. it will not be possible to include all institutions in the interview process, nor feasible to conduct numerous interviews at selected institutions; however, institutions and allied organizations are welcome to submit comments and/or relevant foundational documents and studies (if available) to facilitate the research. these should be directed to the consultant, joanne duklas, at jduklas@cogeco.ca. how you can help: the project consultant on oncats behalf, is seeking identification of the individual at your organization responsible for either leading or supporting new program approvals who has knowledge of a portion of the new program approval process or has significant knowledge of the entire process of approvals from inception (i.e., idea formulation) through to final government approval. consultant: the consultant for the project is joanne duklas who is the researcher and consultant for duklas cornerstone consulting. she brings to the project expertise in new program approvals, strategic enrolment management, and pathway development. questions: consultant oncat joanne duklas researcher and consultant duklas cornerstone consulting tel: 905 877 7485 email: jduklas@cogeco.ca glenn craney, executive director or arlene williams, director, projects and programs oncat tel: 416 640-6951 emails: gcraney@oncat.ca and awilliams@oncat.ca 64 | p a g e appendix b: university program approvals process map progra m approval request submission template completed a nd s igned, submitted to mi nistry by cycl e deadline. universities ins titutions may s ubmit a pplications after s ubmission to the quality council (qc) a nd pri or to to the qc's a pproval being given. final mtcu a pproval is contingent on qc a pproval. deadline for program approval submission to ministry (beginning of program approval cycle) mtcu initial review mi ni stry receives s ubmissions and conducts an initial revi ew: 1. al i gnment to a program a rea of growth or s trength i n the sma; 2. rel ation to a ny mi nistry concerns or ca utions; a nd 3. compl eteness of the submission. the mi nistry will inform ins titutions whether their s ubmission qualifies for an expedited review, and whether a ny i nformation is missing from the s ubmission. expedited review for aligned programs the mi nistry will review a nd a nalyze each program approval submission for: 1. remaining eight cri teria a nd policy considerations. 2. confi rmation of quality council approval. revi ew may i nclude follow-up questions to universities. mtcu expedited review revi ew may ra ise i ssues requiring a dditional consideration. more review required further revi ew of any i ssues or return to institution for a dditional clarification, which ma y delay decision-making. approved inform institution, only once qua l ity council approval has been confirmed. secondary review for non-aligned programs mtcu secondary review the mi nistry will review a nd a nalyze each program approval submission for: 1. remaining eight cri teria and pol icy considerations. 2. confi rmation of quality council approval. revi ew may i nclude follow-up questions to universities. revi ew may ra ise issues requiring additional consideration. approved inform institution, only once qua l ity council a pproval has been finalized. not approved inform institution. more review required further revi ew of any i ssues or return to institution for a dditional clarification on s ubmission. source: ministry of training, colleges and universities. (october 7, 2014). updates to the university program approvals process [memorandum]. ontario: ministry of training, colleges and universities. 65 | p a g e appendix c: websites for university quality assurance processes (iqap) institution new program approval information algoma university http://www.algomau.ca/academics/office_of_the_dean/quality_assurance/ brock university http://www.brocku.ca/vp-academic/quality-assurance carleton university http://carleton.ca/provost/quality-assurance/ lakehead university http://vpacademic.lakeheadu.ca/?display=page&pageid=112 http://vpacademic.lakeheadu.ca/?display=page&pageid=116 laurentian university http://laurentian.ca/academic-accountability mcmaster university http://cll.mcmaster.ca/cou/quality/index.html http://www.nipissingu.ca/departments/admissionsregistrar/curriculum/pages/guidelines.aspx http://www.nipissingu.ca/academics/vp-academic-research/academic/programassessment/documents/nu%20iqap%2028jun13.pdf nipissing university ocad university http://www.ocadu.ca/about/governance/iqap.htm queen's university http://queensu.ca/provost/responsibilities/qualityassurance.html ryerson university http://www.ryerson.ca/provost/planning/curriculumquality.html trent university http://www.trentu.ca/vpacademic/pqac.php https://www.uoguelph.ca/secretariat/office-services-senate-senate-boards-and-standingcommittees-committee-quality-assurance/quality university of guelph http://www.uoguelph.ca/vpacademic/avpa/newprograms/ university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) university of ottawa university of toronto http://www.uoit.ca/footer/about/governance/quality-assurance-at-uoit.php http://www.uottawa.ca/about/sites/www.uottawa.ca.about/files/institutional-qualityassurance-process.pdf http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~vpdean/documents/revisedutqap_approvedsept2012web_0 00.pdf university of waterloo https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-reviews/ https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/curriculumdevelopment-and-renewal/program-review-accreditation university of windsor http://www1.uwindsor.ca/grad/new-program-proposals western university http://www.uwo.ca/pvp/vpacademic/iqap/ wilfrid laurier university http://legacy.wlu.ca/qao york university http://yuqap.info.yorku.ca/ 66 | p a g e appendix d: typical internal considerations strategic institutional considerations strategic student support needs marketing and recruitment registrarial and academic support services student retention and success support services 67 | p a g e support for student success alignment with strategic mandate agreement (sma) alignment with institutional mission, approved academic plans, strategic plans alignment with strategic enrolment management plan funding framework resource needs (faculty, library, infrastructure, space, etc.) institutional awards and bursaries and government financial aid academic advising additional supports unique to credential and student audience (e.g., work integrated learning, internships, apprenticeships, bridge programming, plar, etc.) institutional branding and new program launch communications plan and launch (tied to governance approval outcomes and timing) tactical level communications and implementation development and launch (admissions, registrarial, recruitment, etc.) establishing the academic calendar and scheduling student information system implementation (admission, program progression, graduation requirements, etc.) developing registrarial messaging, procedures, and training unique to program (for staff) creating academic and financial student support services counselling (e.g., supports for progression, student development, career development, for specific student groups such as those with disabilities, etc.) orientation (e.g., transfer student orientation, specialized transition counselling such as for a bridge/access program, etc.) retention supports (example: program credential and career supports, advising, etc.) work integrated learning supports (if applicable) appendix e: campus alberta quality councils degree program approval process flowchart september 2013 (campus alberta quality council, september 2013, p. 11) see: http://www.caqc.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/flowchart.pdf 68 | p a g e references alberta innovation and advanced education. 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executive summary the objective of this project was to create pathways between york university glendon colleges bachelor of arts programs and selected diploma programs of colleges of the greater toronto area (humber college, seneca college, centennial college, george brown college, la cit and collge boral). glendon college was interested in exploring transfer pathways with the colleges of the region in hopes of recruiting more francophone and francophile students and in response to the provincial need to increase access to french-language postsecondary education in central and southwestern ontario. this project was supported by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). by signing these articulation agreements, glendon college and the participating colleges intended to establish pathways for college graduates seeking to pursue further bilingual studies at glendon. demographic information collected from the colleges indicated that a great number of francophone students were currently studying at english-language colleges. there were also a great number of anglophone students who were previously enrolled in french-language immersion programs at englishlanguage secondary schools. the development of attractive pathways for these students seeking to continue their postsecondary education in a bilingual environment was one of the main priorities of this project. therefore, glendon endeavoured to work closely with these colleges offering programs in the greater toronto area to identify a number of select programs for which clear credit transfer opportunities could be identified. keeping in mind the provincial call to meet the needs of the francophone community and improve access to french-language college and university programs in central and southwestern ontario, glendon worked closely with gta colleges to identify select college programs for which college graduates could receive advanced standing at the university level. the project also took into account existing pathways and credit transfer opportunities already in place between ontario colleges and other faculties of york university. even though the initial plan was to develop a single agreement that would have included all participating colleges, it became quickly evident that a separate agreement needed to be developed for each college. one of the main reasons for this decision was that each college has very different pedagogical approaches to similar programs. the assessment of college programs and curricula as well as learning outcomes at both program and course levels allowed us to develop unique pathways that frenchlanguage college graduates could follow to pursue bilingual university education. as a result of these efforts, we were successful in identifying a series of bilingual programs in several disciplines that could be offered to francophone and francophile college graduates, allowing them to complete their studies at a bilingual university. as of march 15th 2017, the specific college articulation agreements are currently in final stages of revision and will be signed shortly in order to come into effect for students entering the university in the fall 2017. glendon and the participating colleges will now be working on establishing student support services to receive the first cohort of students and ensure a successful transition of these students from college programs to bilingual programs. all involved parties will collaborate to identify effective strategies to promote these pathways.

exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students report prepared for the college-university consortium council/ontario council on articulation and transfer by glen gorman, connie phelps, and robert carley conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning august 30, 2012 contents executive summary....................................................................................................................................... 4 section 1: introduction and background ...................................................................................................... 6 1.1 conestoga research project ............................................................................................................... 6 1.2 research objectives ............................................................................................................................ 7 section 2: method and procedure ................................................................................................................ 8 2.1 general ................................................................................................................................................ 8 2.2 qualitative data collection ................................................................................................................. 8 2.2.1 recruitment ................................................................................................................................. 8 2.2.2 participants .................................................................................................................................. 8 2.2.3 procedure ..................................................................................................................................... 9 2.3 quantitative data collection ............................................................................................................. 10 2.3.1 procedure ................................................................................................................................... 10 2.3.2 participants ................................................................................................................................ 11 section 3: findings ...................................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 quantitative analyses ....................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 transfer vs. non-transfer student profiles ................................................................................... 12 3.3 academic success ......................................................................................................................... 14 3.4 qualitative analyses.......................................................................................................................... 17 3.4.1 factors influencing the decision to transfer into a degree program to a diploma program. .... 17 3.4.2 barriers for diploma students wishing to transfer into a degree program................................ 19 3.4.3 supports for diploma students wishing to transfer into a degree program .............................. 21 3.4.4 suggested improvements for transferring from a diploma to a degree .................................... 23 section 4: summary and discussion ........................................................................................................... 25 references .................................................................................................................................................. 29 appendix a .................................................................................................................................................. 30 appendix b .................................................................................................................................................. 31 appendix c .................................................................................................................................................. 36 1|page list of tables table 1: transfer vs. non-transfer students within each degree program cohorts starting in 2007 through 2011 ................................................................................................................................. 11 table 2: age at program start .................................................................................................................... 13 table 3: gender ........................................................................................................................................... 13 table 4: country of birth ............................................................................................................................. 14 2|page list of figures figure 1. qualitative interview: number of participants from each degree program ................................. 9 figure 2. quantitative data: proportion of students from each degree program in the quantitative data .................................................................................................................................................................... 12 figure 3: current program gpa for transfer versus non-transfer students .............................................. 15 3|page executive summary using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the present study examined the experiences and outcomes of diploma to degree transfer students at conestoga college institute of technology and applied learning. generally, the results of this study show positive support for the credit transfer and pathway initiatives implemented by the ministry of training, colleges, and universities, in that transfer students tend to experience high levels of academic success in their postsecondary education pathway. subjectively, the study also demonstrated that students identified the positive value of obtaining a college degree. using structured interviews, we found that students generally had a positive experience with their chosen pathway through their postsecondary education (pse) experience. for those students who transferred in from a diploma, instead of viewing their diploma program as having been merely a means to get them into degree studies , students also saw added value in taking the diploma prior to entering the degree program. many felt that their diploma level study provided them with practical, hands-on experience, and that their program gave them a unique perspective not shared by non-transfer students. transfer students did, however, face some particular challenges. many expressed feeling underprepared for the degree program and felt that more information about what to expect in the degree program would have reduced or eliminated this issue. in addition to students positive subjective feelings about their education pathway, administrative data showed that transfer students benefited from their participation in the diploma program in both higher degree program gpa and fewer drop-outs relative to nontransfer students. to help improve the experiences and performance of diploma to degree transfer students, several recommendations are being suggested: 1. provide incoming diploma students information about their option to transfer into the degree program with advanced standing 4|page 2. continue to provide diploma students with detailed information about the transfer options throughout the diploma program through the form of seminars and workshops (including transfer requirements) 3. encourage diploma instructors to informally market the degree programs to their students 4. provide transfer students with additional supports and services to help them transition from the diploma to degree and cope with the additional workload in the degree program through: a. peer tutoring programs b. bridging programs c. increased integration of transfer students into the classroom environment implementing some of these suggestions may help transfer students manage their expectations about the transfer process (e.g., requirements to enter the degree program) and the degree program (e.g., workload), as well as provide them with additional tools (e.g., tutor or mentorship program) to succeed in the degree. 5|page section 1: introduction and background 1.1 conestoga research project in the 2010 heqco at issue paper, forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities, it was stated that enhancing transfer pathways from college to university has been suggested as a means of increasing access to university, particularly for students of traditionally under-represented or at-risk groups. improved pathways may also provide students with more accessible options in remote areas that are under-served by pse institutions. students who are not otherwise qualified for university, either through insufficient grades or deficiencies in prerequisite courses, may be provided an alternative pathway to university through initial preparation in the college system. while the data currently available in ontario are very disjointed, with no single complete source (until the ontario education number or oen is fully implemented), this paper has reported that the percentage of college graduates who later pursued a [university] degree rose from 5.3 per cent in 2001-2002 to 8.4 per cent in 2006-2007, and that indicators of transfer student success appear to be improving (heqco, 2010). meanwhile, several studies at b.c. universities have found that although transfer students perform well in universities, they tend to achieve somewhat lower grades in university courses than direct entry students (heslop, 2004). a key assertion of the heqco paper suggests that if student mobility is truly set as a priority for the pse system, then the system must also ensure that there are adequate levels of support services available to promote student success (heqco, 2010). in addition, the 2010-11 multi-year accountability agreement report back asked ontario colleges to provide examples of support services specifically designed to aid transfer students. taken together, these points support the need for research projects like the one described herein. currently, conestoga college institute of technology and applied learning is in the process of developing support services that specifically target transfer students (either internal transfers or transfer-ins from other pse institutions). through an in-depth qualitative and quantitative study, conestoga explored the successes and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students. six of nine degree programs are developing, or have developed, official pathways 6|page that involve bridge courses from related diploma programs. currently there are almost 500 students enrolled in these six degree programs, of which approximately 50 have transferred into year 2 or year 3 of their chosen degree. the results of this study not only provides the foundation for future research as the study group expands, but will begin to identify areas where conestoga could improve the services and/or supports we provide to our transfer students. sharing these results across the province will also support the development of similar services at other ontario colleges. 1.2 research objectives this study was designed to address the following research questions: 1. does the demographic profile of students, who transfer-into a degree program with advanced standing from a diploma program, differ from that of traditional students who began the degree program in year 1/level 1? 2. how does the academic performance of students who transfer-into a degree program with advanced standing from a diploma program compare to that of traditional students who began the degree program in year 1/level 1? 3. how do the graduation rates of students who transfer-into a degree program with advanced standing from a diploma program compare to that of traditional students who began the degree program in year 1/level 1? 4. if differences in academic standing or graduation rates exist between students who transferinto a degree program with advanced standing from a diploma program and traditional students who began the degree program in year 1/level 1, how do these differences correlate with specific demographic groupings such as international students or new immigrants? 5. what factors influence the decision to transfer into a degree program from a diploma program? 6. what barriers exist for diploma students wishing to transfer into a degree program? 7. what supports exist for diploma students wishing to transfer into a degree program? 8. how can the pathways from diplomas to degrees be improved? 7|page section 2: method and procedure 2.1 general to assess the outcomes of diploma to degree transfer students, a combination of qualitative and quantitative data were collected. for the qualitative portion of the study, students who had transferred from a diploma program to a degree program with advanced standing were recruited through program coordinators. volunteers participated in an interview session. quantitative data were obtained from the college student information system (sis). 2.2 qualitative data collection 2.2.1 recruitment the coordinators of several conestoga degree programs (i.e., accounting, audit and information technology; architecture project and facility management; community and criminal justice; integrated telecommunication and computer technologies; international business management; mechanical systems engineering) were contacted to request access to program students. they were also asked to identify any students who had transferred into the degree program with advanced standing. all of the coordinators agreed to participate and they were provided with a recruitment letter (see appendix a) that was emailed to qualified students. approximately 212 students were sent the recruitment email. interested students were asked to contact the research coordinator, who then arranged an interview session. students were offered a $20 conestoga bookstore gift card for taking part in the study. 2.2.2 participants interviews with 20 transfer students were initially sought for the qualitative portion of this study; however, only 19 participants volunteered to take part and of those 19, two failed to show up for the interview. thus data from 17 participants are included in the final report. of the 17, 6 (35%) were female and 11 (65%) were male. the average age of participants was 26 years. ages ranged from 21 to 48 years old. twelve of the 17 participants were born in canada; 8|page the other 5 were foreign born. twelve participants spoke english as their primary language, 4 spoke english as a second language and 1 participant was hearing impaired and utilized american sign language. the distribution of students among the various degree programs was as follows: 1 from mechanical systems engineering, 1 from integrated telecommunication and computer technologies, 1 from health informatics management, 2 from community and criminal justice, 3 from architecture project and facility management, 4 from accounting, audit and information technology, and 5 from international business management (see figure 1). 1 1 5 1 mechanical systems engineering integrated telecommunication and computer technologies 2 health informatics management community and criminal justice architecture project and facility management 3 4 accounting, audit and information technology international business management figure 1. qualitative interview: number of participants from each degree program 2.2.3 procedure interviews using a structured interview guide (see appendix b) were conducted with students who had transferred into a degree program with advanced standing. the interview guide contained a list of 17 predetermined questions centred on four general topics: primary college goals, factors influencing transfer decision, experiences with the transfer process, and 9|page experiences in the transfer program. interviews were conducted in a quiet classroom setting and involved one interviewer and an interviewee. the interviews were approximately 30-45 minutes in length. interviews were digitally recorded and were transcribed once the interview was completed. following transcription all electronic files were destroyed to protect the anonymity of the participants. transcribed files were then uploaded into nvivo 9. nvivo 9 was used to examine common themes that appeared in participants responses. the themes that emerged were then verified by the research coordinator. 2.3 quantitative data collection 2.3.1 procedure the college administration data base (sis) was used to gather secondary data on transfer students. conestoga offers a total of nine degree programs. information for students from the following degree programs was included: accounting, audit and information technology architecture project and facility management community and criminal justice health informatics management integrated telecommunication and computer technologies international business management mechanical systems engineering public relations the interior design degree program began in fall 2011 and as such students from this degree were not included in the study. the final data file included students date of birth, country of birth, gender, program, primary language, cohort start date, current standing (e.g., eligible to continue, discontinued, graduated, etc.), current gpa, previous pse, and high school grades. transfer status (i.e., transfer student vs. non-transfer student) was determined from separate lists provided by program coordinators. the data was entered into spss 18 (statistical package for the social sciences) which was used to conduct the quantitative analyses. 10 | p a g e 2.3.2 participants data for 772 students, from cohorts starting in 2007 through 2011, were gathered from the sis (see table 1 for a breakdown of students per program and figure 2 for the proportions of students in each program). of the 772 students, 291 (38%) were female, 480 (62%) were male, and 1 did not report gender. among the 772 students, 109 (14%) were transfer students, 661 (86%) were non-transfer students, and 2 (.26%) were of unknown status. the average student starting age across all programs was 21.5 years (minimum age = 18, maximum age = 52). for students primary language, 695 reported english as being their first language, 9 reported english as their second language and 68 failed to report their primary language. table 1: transfer vs. non-transfer students within each degree program cohorts starting in 2007 through 2011 degree program number of nonnumber of transfer total number of transfer students students students accounting, audit and 100 31 131 information technology architecture project and facility management community and criminal justice health informatics management integrated telecommunication and computer technologies international business management mechanical systems engineering public relations total 129 26 155 42 29 71 69 0 69 65 1 66 154 16 170 89 5 94 13 661 0 108* 13 769 *note: program was not reported for 1 transfer student 11 | p a g e 2% 12% bachelor of engineering (mechanical systems engineering) 17% 9% 9% 20% b.a.tech. (integrated telecommunication and computer technologies) b.a.tech.(architecture - project and facility management) bahsc-health informatics management (cooperative education) bachelor of business administration (international business management) 22% 9% bachelor of community and criminal justice figure 2. quantitative data: proportion of students from each degree program in the quantitative data section 3: findings 3.1 quantitative analyses 3.2 transfer vs. non-transfer student profiles to determine how to improve the experiences of diploma to degree transfer students thereby helping to ensure their success - policy makers and educators must first understand who these transfer students are. thus, we first compared the profiles of transfer students to those of non-transfer students. because transfer students pursued a college diploma before entering the degree program, it is no surprise that transfer students tend to be older on average at the start of the degree program than non-transfer students (see table 2, also see figure 3 for the age distribution of transfer and non-transfer students). beyond this, transfer students did not differ from non-transfer students in the proportions of males versus females 12 | p a g e (see table 3), or country of birth (see table 4). although age differences between transfer and non-transfer students are not surprising, it should be noted that because transfer students tend to be older, they likely experience different life situations than do non-transfer students. they may, for example, have additional family responsibilities or greater financial constraints. table 2: age at program start transfer students non-transfer students mean age 22.53 median age 21 age mode 20 minimum age 18 maximum age 50 21.33 20 19 18 52 note: the difference in starting age between transfer and non-transfer students was significantly different, t(766) = -2.26, p = .02. figure 3. distribution of age at the start of the program for transfer and non-transfer students table 3: gender male (#) 66 female (#) 43 total 109 non-transfer student 413 248 661 total 479 291 770 transfer student 2 note: there was no significant difference in the proportion of males to females based on transfer status, x (1, n = 770) = 0.15, p = .70. 13 | p a g e table 4: country of birth country of birth canadian born foreign born transfer student (#) 39 non-transfer student (#) 203 11 78 2 note: there was no significant difference in the proportion of canadian born foreign born based on transfer status, x (1, n = 331) = 0.72, p = .40. 3.3 academic success next, we wanted to determine whether transfer students differed from non-transfer students in their success outcomes. specifically, current program gpa, program sequence (i.e., whether students were completing the program on schedule or not) and continuity (i.e., whether students were remaining in the program or whether they discontinued the program) were examined.1 3.3.1 gpa using a regression analysis, transfer students gpa was compared to non-transfer students gpa. participants gender, high school english and math grades (see appendix c for a discussion of the use of high school grades), primary language, age at the start of the program, whether they had participated in previous postsecondary education, and whether they were canadian or foreign born were examined in the same analysis to control for these as alternative explanations. there was a main effect of transfer status, which indicated that transfer status was a significant predictor of students current gpa, b = 1.65, t = 1.98, p = .05, even controlling for all of the other factors. specifically, transfer students tended to perform significantly better (m = 3.90, sd = .76) than non-transfer students (m = 2.57, sd = .91) (see figure 3). transfer status did not interact with any of the other variables. 1 it was the authors intention to also examine student graduation rates, however, because degree programs are a recent offering at conestoga college there was insufficient numbers of graduates to perform a reliable analysis. 14 | p a g e 5 4.5 4 3.90 gpa 3.5 3 2.57 2.5 2 1.5 1 transfer students non-transfer students figure 4: current program gpa for transfer versus non-transfer students 3.3.2 sequence a chi-square analysis was conducted next to examine whether transfer students differed from non-transfer students in their propensity to remain on schedule in their program or not. while 9% of non-transfer students tended to be off-sequence which is slightly higher than 5% of non-transfer students, the analyses showed that students transfer status was not significantly related to whether they stayed in sequence or not, x2 (1, n = 770) = 2.06, p = .15. as the number of students available for analysis grows, it will be important to re-test this finding to assess whether the trend remains and becomes significance. further chi-square analyses were conducted to examine individual differences in whether transfer students and non-transfer students remained in sequence or not. first, participants gender was examined. there was a significant association between gender and the likelihood of students staying on sequence for non-transfer students, x2 (1, n = 661) = 4.47, p = .04, but not for transfer students, x2 (1, n = 661) = .001, p = .98. among non-transfer students, more male (10%) than female (6%) students went out of sequence in their program. one reason for the gender difference in remaining on-sequence for non-transfer students could be preparedness. in the current high school environment , which has had the cumulative effect of many government initiated positive discrimination efforts, females tend to take on a more 15 | p a g e demanding course load and achieve higher gpas than their male counterparts (peter & horn, 2005). they also tend to possess higher non-cognitive skills than males, such as organization, attentiveness, and seeking help from others (jacob, 2002; evans, 2008). together, these factors may better prepare females for success in pse than males. in the current study, however, we find no gender differences in remaining on-sequence for transfer students. this could be due to several factors. first, because transfer students tend to be older than non-transfer students and have already attended pse, this could eliminate the advantage of preparedness that females had over males in high school. second, it is possible that only males who performed well in the diploma program chose to continue on to a degree program; thus, male transfer students may reflect a subpopulation of males in general. no other associations were significant. 3.3.4 continuity whether students stayed in the program or chose to leave the program was examined next. a chi-square analysis showed that students transfer status was significantly related to whether they stayed in the program or not, x2 (1, n = 769) = 29.31, p < 001. compared to nontransfer students (32%), transfer students were significantly less likely to drop out of their degree program (6%). next we wanted to examine whether other individual difference factors were involved in whether differences existed in continuity for transfer students versus non-transfer students. for the next three chi-square analyses, the data file was split based on transfer status. first, we wanted to examine whether continuity rates differed for males and females within each transfer status. a chi-square analysis showed a significant association between students gender and whether they stayed in the program or not for non-transfer students, x2 (1, n = 661) = 5.66, p = .02, but not for transfer students, x2 (1, n = 108) = .34, p = .56. second, for non-transfer students, a higher proportion of male students (35%) discontinued their program before finishing than did female students (26%). this result is consistent with what was found above for sequence, and the two are related. it stands to reason that once students fall behind in their course schedule, it may be difficult to catch up, thus leading to higher dropout rates for off-sequence students. 16 | p a g e third, we examined whether having previous postsecondary experience influenced whether students were more likely to drop out of their program. by definition, all transfer students would have possessed previous postsecondary experience, thus only non-transfer students were included in this analysis. results showed that previous pse was significantly associated with whether non-transfer students stay in the program, x2 (1, n = 661) = 10.26, p = .001.. generally, non-transfer students with previous postsecondary experience were more likely to discontinue their program (39%) compared to students with no previous postsecondary experience (27%). it is possible that non-transfer students failure to complete previous pse program predicts whether they remained in the current degree program; however, insufficient data was available to reliably test this hypothesis. no other associations for individual differences were significant. 3.4 qualitative analyses 3.4.1 factors influencing the decision to transfer into a degree program to a diploma program. students were asked why they had decided to transfer into a degree program. generally, participants reported that their decision to transfer into the degree program from the diploma had to do with increasing their opportunities. one student thought that switching over to the degree would give me more opportunities to live the lifestyle that i want [accounting, audit and information technology]. a second student thought that the degree program would provide better education and better job opportunities and just further advance my career [architecture project and facility management]. a third student commented that it was my desire to be more educated and yeah, i thought it would be a good opportunity as well [community and criminal justice]. several students also felt that the diploma was simply not sufficient enough to enter the workplace. one student speculated that from an employers point of view a diploma doesnt really get the kind of job that i was hoping to get, so i realized that i did need to get some more 17 | p a g e education. [international business management] other students came to this conclusion through observing students who had graduated earlier. for example, one student said that i noticed thatstudents even from previous years who graduated with their college diplomathey hadn't gotten jobs. they were still looking for jobsi still wanted my degree because youprobably need a degree to geta little bit further [architecture project and facility management]. another student came to a similar conclusion through first-hand experience on the job market, and stated, i had looked for some jobs and realized that i wasn't going to find anything that i was completely satisfied with for the time being, so i decided that i should just go back to school and finish it up [accounting, audit and information technology]. some students worried that even if they did find work it would not be commensurate with their college education. one student experienced this, after i'd finished my diploma program i went to work for abouta year and a half and then, since i couldn't find anything that was actually related to managementthat's when i decided to come back to school and actually upgrade to something better [international business management]. many students felt that a degree would allow them to obtain a better career. highlighting this, one student stated i hope that i would get a better job andthere would be more job opportunities [community and criminal justice]. students provided several reasons why this might be the case. some students hoped that the co-op opportunities provided in the degree program would give them the added edge needed to be successful in the job market. one student claimed that having worked in the field and gaining experience nowwith the coop terms, talking to the employers andhror even at the career centre here, having the degree itself will help you get a lot further [architecture project and facility management]. others believed that the increased knowledge that they would gain in the degree program would be the key to success. one student went to a college[degree] program, and i did that for myself, my skills, my knowledge, to broaden my call to have an education because i believe education is still the best legacy [international business management]. still other students believed that obtaining a degree could lead to further opportunities such as the ability to obtain an accreditation or designation. one student felt that the degree program would give me the opportunity in the future if i wanted to go for a[n]accounting designation, i [need] a degree to 18 | p a g e do that [accounting, audit and information technology]. a second student decided to transfer into the degree program cause i wanted more than just an advanced diploma cause eventually i wanna go and get my mba so i need to get my university degree first, and in order to get your [mba] you need to also have your degree [international business management]. a third student claimed that id be eligible for cga/cma, hopefully ca. those are the main things cause i know in the working world todaythey look atthe letters on your name, its important and... i never really wanted to stop after collegei always wanteda designation at the end of the day. [accounting, audit and information technology] overall, students believed that a college degree is more vocationally focused than a university degree; thus, they see the practical value of a college obtained degree. specifically, students tended to believe that obtaining a college degree would help them to further their careers and, indeed, some believed that their opportunities would be limited or non-existent without it. 3.4.2 barriers for diploma students wishing to transfer into a degree program for most students, the transition from the diploma to the degree was a smooth process. although the majority of students reported not having faced any barriers, a few notable issues did emerge. some students mentioned concerns over the overall time commitment required to complete the degree. even though the length of time required was shortened due to transfer credits received in the diploma program, the time commitment seemed daunting to some students. one student was frustrated cause i went from a 2-year diploma to a 4-year degree after already having done a year of the diploma, plus i had done the general arts and science health option right before that. so it wasa lot of time [health informatics management]. similarly, a second student commented that i would say [it] is the time difference as opposed to starting thedegree and doing the transfer thing. itsalmost an extra two years. which isa littlelongmaybe five i think would be more realistic [accounting, audit and information technology]. another issue that some students faced was the difference in workload between the diploma and degree program. one student contrasted the diploma and degree program by 19 | p a g e saying [the degree] was difficult compared to the diploma program but i think that had to do more with the time constraints on it, especially with having seven classes [international business management]. another student was juggl[ing] the weight and try to manage my time and then, itshardercause you have a lot more work [architecture project and facility management]. a third student had a similar issue and stated, i found it really tough because i didnt feel that i was challenged as much in my previous program. ididnt really go into [the degree] witha mindset ofhow hard i was going to need to work and manage my time. ikinda got overwhelmed [international business management]. as a result of the increased workload some students also struggled with time management. one student thought that maybe the biggest thing id say is more time managementtheres a little bit more stuff to do so just manage your time, right, and youll be fine [accounting, audit and information technology]. one student believed that the reason for this was that its just more hours and its more difficult, people might not know what theyre getting themselves intoandbecause the ait program is newtheres no tutors available [accounting, audit and information technology]. this suggests that students may not be provided with enough information to build realistic expectations about the degree program, and that when the pressure builds, more support might be required to help manage the realities of the workload. some students also commented on difficulties with communication between themselves and the registrars office when registering for the program. one student in particular experienced a miscommunication regarding the transfer credits he would receive, saying at that time i was also told that all my [diploma] related courses would be considered throughout the schooling, however i found out that my [diploma] related courses taken in the first two years were [not] gonna be acceptedit was a bit fuzzy off the get go and i hadnt signed on anything so that was a little area of contention [international business management]. not unexpectedly, some students also cited financial difficulties. for example, one student had few problems but did comment that the issues that did exist were mostlyfinancial. that was the big one [health informatics management]. similarly, a second student had no difficulty except worry about financialissue[s] because that might add up 20 | p a g e to[an] incredible amount of money at the end of the degree program [community and criminal justice]. this last issue highlights some concerns that transfer students may experience to a greater degree than non-transfer students. because transfer students spend a longer period of time in pse, their financial burdens may be increased. although the majority of students had a good experience with the process of transferring from the diploma to the degree, the primary issue they had was related to communication. particularly they expressed that an improved line of communication between the college administrators and students regarding program expectations would help students manage their expectations better, perhaps reducing some of the pressure that transfer students feel. 3.4.3 supports for diploma students wishing to transfer into a degree program because most students interviewed were internal transfer students, they were already familiar with the conestoga environment and so did not require an orientation to the school. although orientations were offered, most students did not take advantage of them. when asked what supports or services were offered to help students who wished to transfer into the degree program, students discussed program coordinators and instructors as a major source of support. one student relayed that all the teachers were there and they would always be there to help you. so, its really goodand its an open door environment, so you just go up and don't have tocall in to talk to them. they're always there when you need them, as opposed towhen i wasdoing mydiploma program. you'd have to call and make an appointment and its a long procedure. if you see them, you see them. if you don't, you don't really get to see them [architecture project and facility management]. another student expressed that a lot of the professors were very helpfulthey were more than willing to talk to you after class and that was probably the only method of support that i really took advantage of [mechanical systems engineering]. a third student mentioned that [the coordinator] was pretty helpful. if i had any questions, i just went to him. he was reallygood at making himself available. really good at answering questions. really good at explaining a lot of the outline of the course. what do you have to take. what do you not have to take in terms of managerial courses and 21 | p a g e electives, and explaining all about how that worked. so i'd say he was definitely the best support i had [international business management]. these observations show that the instructors and coordinators have a high level of approachability which the students find valuable. in addition to commenting on the support provided by their instructors and coordinators, some students commented on support they received from peers. talking about entering the program, one student said that the students will actually show you around the college and help you, especially if you're walking around the schoolthere's students always helping you [accounting, audit and information technology]. another student mentioned how this support was apparent from the start of the program when i went to the orientationi was offered it and i went and i met some people from the program before the actual program started and i made friends almost instantly which was good [accounting, audit and information technology]. students also talked about the bridging programs as being helpful to their success in degree. they gave students the opportunity to meet other transfer students who would be in their program. in particular, one student pointed out that when we first started in the bridging modulethat's how we got to know each other, and then we came into our actual class and webranched in with everybody else, butever since then its still that the majority of the bridging students still hang out with the bridging students [architecture project and facility management]. a second student observed that the relationships started in the bridging program continued throughout the program by saying i guess, at the end of the day, say if you have a study group or something, its the bridging students, they all, they all will all help each other [architecture project and facility management]. in the bridging program students are also provided the opportunity to get to know their instructors prior to starting the degree. one student found this helpful because we met all the professorswe had lectures from them earlier, sobefore the semester started, [during bridging], we hadwe had lectures from them so we kinda got to know them [architecture project and facility management]. these experiences show that the bridging programs not only prepare students for the academic challenges that they may face in the degree program, but also assist them in forming a strong 22 | p a g e support network with other transfer students as well as with faculty members. many students commented that these relationships continued throughout the duration of the program. to assist with the additional challenges faced by transfer students, colleges may want to include more supports and services for students who are experiencing increased pressures, such as the tutor program suggested by one student. finally, increasing financial assistance to transfer students, perhaps through grants or scholarships, may make their additional financial burden more manageable. 3.4.4 suggested improvements for transferring from a diploma to a degree while most students were pleased with the pathway from the diploma to the degree, the most common suggestion that students made had to do with the information about the degree program. many students felt that more information about the program should have been made available for them to make a fully informed decision about their education path. one student wanted the administration to tell the students that its a lot moretheory basedwhat youre getting, entering into is a lot more different than the typical college environment [architecture project and facility management]. another student felt that the only thing would be for students who arebridgingwithin this school, maybe giving them a little bit more of a support system because we didnt know anything, we just had [the program coordinator] and that was it. so, we didnt have anything that we should be anticipating in the program or anything like that [international business management]. to alleviate some of the stress of transferring into a degree program, one student suggested that maybe a presentation onthe transition in generalof what you can expectwith [regards to] work[and] maybe hours [community and criminal justice]. although the students tended to praise the support provided by their instructors and coordinators, there seemed to be recognition that the support system should be widened. some students felt that some of the responsibility for providing information fell on their diploma instructors. particularly, one student commented that i think in the diploma program the professors could havebrought more awareness to [the degree program] [architecture project and facility management]. other students would have found additional information 23 | p a g e sessions about the degree programs useful. one student commented that there weren't anylittle extra sessions or seminarsexplainingthe pros and cons of bridging over. cause i kinda went into it blindfoldedly, i wasn't really sure what i was expecting. i waslooking for the course outlines online, kinda got an idea of what it would be about but i wasn't 100 per cent sure what i would be doing. that's, i guess, the only thing i had to kinda wait and see, which would have been better if i knew all along so in my first year i [could know]i wanted to do it but i wasn't sure but if we were given that opportunity to see what we would be doing in the 3rd or 4th year of this program, i think it would havehelp[ed] other studentssolidify the idea that they wanted to do it or not [architecture project and facility management]. students felt that they were lacking the information needed to properly plan the path from the diploma to the degree. because some students received the information about the degree requirements later in their diploma, they found that they had to work harder to meet those requirements. one student experienced this issue and thought that it would have been easier to know if, when you're taking the diploma, what you need togo into the degree. so, instead of having to go back and retake stuff to improveit would probably be easier just toknow exactly [what mark you] needto get intoadvanced standing [international business management]. another theme that appeared was related to marketing the program to diploma students. in particular, some students felt that it would have been valuable to be provided with more information about the degree in order to highlight the value of transferring into the degree program. one student thought that students should have been shown how this [the degree] complements your diploma. so, if you're in management, how doesthe international business degree programcomplement your diploma program. how is it going to increase your learning [international business management]? students had some definite ideas about improving the transfer from a diploma to a degree. most of the suggestions had to do with improving the flow of information about the degree program to the diploma students. students may have benefitted from more information, both about the requirements to get into the degree program with advanced standing and what to expect in the degree program, given at an earlier stage in the diploma. 24 | p a g e according to students, the information could be delivered through an increased marketing campaign targeted towards diploma students, promotion by diploma instructors and information sessions. section 4: summary and discussion increasingly, canadian students are following non-traditional pathways through postsecondary education. with more colleges offering degree programs, obtaining a degree is becoming more accessible to all students. as a result, it has become important to understand the experiences of students who transfer from a diploma to a degree program. the present research sought to better understand who these students are, why it is that they decide to transfer, whether they differ from non-transfer students, what challenges they face, and whether they are successful. the present study sheds light on some of these pertinent issues. using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, we examined the experiences of diploma to degree transfer students at conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning across eight different degree programs. transfer students tend to look much like non-transfer students. besides being older than non-transfer students at the start of the degree program, transfer students do not differ from non-transfer students in composition of gender or country of birth. however, it is possible that transfer students do differ from non-transfer students in ways not examined in the present research. in terms of academic success, transfer students tend to obtain higher gpas in the degree programs than do non-transfer students. generally, transfer students do not differ from non-transfer students in the extent to which they complete their scheduled courses on time. however, being a transfer student seems to be more beneficial for male students in this regard. non-transfer males are more likely to get off schedule with their course work than do nontransfer females, but this difference disappeared for transfer students. male and female transfer students are equally likely to remain on schedule in their degree programs. drop-out 25 | p a g e rates also tend to be lower for transfer students than for non-transfer students. once again, the difference was partially attributable to male students. for transfer students, gender did not influence dropout rates. for non-transfer students, on the other hand, males tended to drop out of the degree program to a greater extent than non-transfer females. why do students decide to transfer into degree programs to begin with? many diploma students felt that their diploma would provide them with limited career opportunities. they viewed obtaining a degree as a way for them to boost their career options. students recognized the value of college-based degree by expressing that a college level degree would provide them with the vocational experience they would not necessarily receive in a university context. having degree programs offered at the college also provided students with an accessible, natural and straightforward pathway into degree education. what were the challenges, or barriers, that transfer students faced? while most students were pleased with their education pathway, some students cited communication as being the main barrier with their transfer experience. several students expressed frustrations that the realities of the degree program did not fit with their expectations. the results of the study highlighted some areas for improvement that would help transfer students adjust to the transition from the diploma to the degree program. primarily, students commented that learning about the degree program at an earlier stage in the diploma program would have helped them plan the transition better. also, many thought that receiving more information about what to expect in the degree program, in terms of work load and the type of work, would have been beneficial. transfer students also expressed interest in receiving increased support and services, such as tutor or mentor programs. ultimately, transfer students tended to speak positively about their education pathway. the diploma provides students with the hands on aspect of the field that the degree does not and the degree program provides them with the theory for a greater understanding of the field. students tend to think that the two complement one another well. many were glad to have had the experience offered through both the diploma and the degree programs. transfer students academic outcomes seem to support the idea that transfer students do benefit from both 26 | p a g e unique experiences in that they tend to receive higher gpas and are less likely to drop out of the degree program. section 5: recommendations although the results of this study indicated positive outcomes for transfer students, we also identified several areas of improvement. in this section, we discuss several recommendations. these recommendations are not only specific to conestoga college but may be applicable to other ontario colleges which offer degree programs. 1. students expressed a desire for increased information about the degree program earlier in their postsecondary education. to assist in this dissemination of information, diploma instructors could more frequently discuss the option to transfer into the degree program with their students. students would benefit from this information early in their diploma program, but because some students may not decide to pursue a degree until later in the diploma program, efforts should be made to provide the information throughout the program. 2. students would benefit from additional sources of information about the potential diploma to degree pathway such as periodic seminars and workshops being offered at the college. in both information provided by diploma instructors, as well as in the seminars and workshops, specific information about the degree requirements should be offered. additionally, students would benefit from information about workload in order to form realistic expectations about what will be required. 3. because of the difference in workload from the diploma to the degree programs, transfer students could greatly benefit from workshops offered to help them learn how to better manage their time. these workshops could be offered separately, or as part of the bridging program. 4. many students made comments about the value of the bridging program. particularly, many formed a strong support network with other students in the bridging program. programs which do not offer bridging courses could consider alternative mechanisms for providing the non-academic aspects of bridging programs. 5. even when bridging programs were offered, some students found it difficult to adjust to the demands of the degree program. given the lower gpas of non-transfer students, additional services should be explored to support all degree students to overcome challenges they may be facing. particularly, offering tutoring or mentoring programs would help students deal with specific issues with which they may be having problems. 27 | p a g e 6. although not highlighted as a particular issue, several students experienced a certain amount of segregation when entering into the degree program. they commented that transfer students and non-transfer students tended to form their own separate groups. in some cases, instructors attempted to reduce the segregation by having the class complete group projects and ensuring that at least one transfer student was included in each group. for those students who experienced this, they felt a higher degree of integration into the class. more system wide integration methods, such as the one mentioned above, should be considered in each program to ensure that non-transfer students are more accepting of their transfer counterparts and transfer students feel more accepted into the class. 7. although we did not find many differences between transfer and non-transfer students, there may be important factors that were not captured in the present study. future research may benefit from expanding the student profile by examining additional factors such as socioeconomic status and first generation pse student status. ideally, multisite data with larger samples would provide a more comprehensive profile of transfer and non-transfer students. 8. although not the primary focus of this particular study, the results suggest that male non-transfer students tend to face unique challenges that impact their success, relative to transfer students and female non-transfer students. further research may want to examine the factors that influence male non-transfer student success and determine what can be done to help them overcome their obstacles to success. 28 | p a g e references camara, w., and g. echternacht. (2000). the sat i and high school grades: utility in predicting success in college. college board report no. rn-10. new york: college board. evans, h. (2008). value added in english schools. paper presented at the national conference on value-added modeling, madison, wi. retrieved april 3, 2009, from http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/news/events/12_hevans_vam_in_england_sessionvi.pdf garton, b. l., dyer, j. e., & king, b. o. (2000). the use of learning styles and admission criteria in predicting academic performance and retention of college freshmen. journal of agricultural education, 41, 2, 46-53. geiser, s., and santelices, m. v. (2007). validity of high-school grades in predicting student success beyond the freshman year: high-school record vs. standardized tests as indicators of four-year college outcomes. research & occasional paper series, cshe.6.07. berkeley, ca: university of california, center for studies in higher education. heslop, joanne (2004) alternate paths to sfu; a comparative academic performance study of b.c. college transfer students and b.c. direct entry secondary school students admitted to sfu from 1992 to 1999. british columbia council on admissions and transfer jacob, b.a. (2002). where the males arent: noncognitive skills, returns to school and the gender gap in higher education. economics of education review, 21(6), 58998. kerr, a., mccloy, u., liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. peter, k., and horn, l. (2005). gender differences in participation and completion of undergraduate education and how they have changed over time (nces 2005169). u.s. department of education, national center for education statistics. washington, dc: u.s. government printing office. 29 | p a g e appendix a cucc exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students recruitment email to: [name of transfer student as identified by the program coordinator] from: [name of the program coordinator] subject: diploma to degree transfer student research conestoga is interested in improving the experiences of students who have transferred into one of the nine degree programs we offer. this study will examine differences in the pathway that lead to the transfer (including reason for transferring), as well as both objective and subjective academic success for students with various backgrounds, including demographics and academic standing prior to the entering the degree program. the research is funded by the college-university consortium council (cucc) and is being conducted by members of conestogas institutional research and planning office. the researchers would like to interview 20 students who have transferred into a conestoga degree program. the interview will take approximately 30-45 minutes and participants will receive a gift card for the conestoga college book store. participants who take part in a phone interview will be offered a $20 gift card, participants who take part in a face-to-face interview will be offered a $30 gift card (to compensate for travel to doon campus). participants will be selected on a first-come-first-served basis; interviews will take place between march 21st and march 30th, 2012. if you are interested in participating in this study, please forward this email to glen gorman at ggorman@conestogac.on.ca and provide the following information: your name: your phone number: your program: your year: would you like to participate in a phone or in-person interview (please list one): if you would like to talk to glen before deciding, he can be reached at 519-748-5220 ext. 4927. please note that this study has received ethics approval from the conestoga college research ethics board. thanks for considering this request, [program coordinator] 30 | p a g e appendix b cucc interview guide prior to the interview if in-person: - confirm the interview time and place with the participant the day before the interview - provide the participant with detailed directions - book the interview room if by phone: - confirm the interview time with the participant the day before the interview - confirm contact information to have: - if phone interview: participants contact information - consent form - copy of the interview guide - recorder - pen and paper for notes ensure that the recorder is charged and that you are not recording over the previous session. record the participant id number on the recorder prior to the participant arriving or the phone call. introduction thank you for agreeing to be part of our study. during the interview the recorder will be running, just so i dont miss anything important that you have to say. at no time will your name be attached to this recording and it will be kept confidential while we are working on the project. when the project is completed, this recording will be permanently deleted. are we okay to proceed? great, im going to start the recorder now. [start recorder] the first thing im going to is read to you the information and consent letter. this will tell you what you will be asked to do during the interview, how the information gathered in the study will be used and what your rights are as a study participant. while im reading this, if you have any questions at any time please feel free to stop me and ask. is that ok? [wait for a response] [read information letter and consent form][in person: provide participants with a copy] do you have any questions? [if yes, answer. if no, continue] 31 | p a g e in person: if you still wish to participate, please sign the bottom of the consent form. phone: now that ive read you the information and consent letter do you still wish to participate? [if no, thank them for their time and end the call. if yes, continue] in this interview, im going to ask you to tell me about your experiences with transferring into a degree program. everybody responds to these questions differently, so you may have a lot or very little to say depending on your own views and experiences, however, it would be helpful if you could include as much detail as possible in order for us to gain a greater understanding of your experiences overall. primary college goals 1. what was your reason for going to college/pse? [q.1] (originally? for the diploma?) 2. what were your educational goals when you started your diploma/previous postsecondary experience? [q.2] (e.g., did you just want to get your diploma and then enter the workforce, or did you plan to go get a degree after your diploma, etc.) 3. when you started your diploma, where did you see yourself after finishing? [q.3] (what kind of job, etc.?) 4. were you satisfied with the diploma program? [q.4] factors influencing transfer decision 1. when did you decide to transfer into the degree program? [q.5] 2. what made you decide to transfer to a degree program? [q.6] (was that your plan all along? did it have something to do with job opportunities? or pay?) experience with the transfer process 1. how did you find the admission process into the degree program? [q.7] 32 | p a g e (did you have all of the requirements? if not, was the registrars office able to provide you with information about getting the requirements? did you have any credentials or courses that you felt should have counted towards the degree program but didnt?) 2. did you face any difficulties transferring into the degree program? [q.8] (did the process take long? how smoothly do you feel that the process went? what was your experience with the registrars office? how many people did you have to talk to before you were admitted?) 3. when you transferred into the degree program, what kinds of supports or services were offered to help you? [q.9] (welcome materials? orientation/introduction to program? processes? classmates?) 4. can you identify anything else you felt was acting as a barrier to transferring into the degree? [q.10] 5. were you satisfied with the transfer process? [q.11] experience in the transfer program 1. once you were in the program, what was it like? [q.12] (compared to the diploma program/previous pse? was it easy or difficult? how was the workload? did you enjoy it? how were your interactions with your peers?) 2. do you think your original diploma program/previous pse prepared you well for the degree program? [q.13] (how did you find the transition between the two programs? was it an easy or difficult transition? did you feel that you had gained enough knowledge in the diploma program to do well in the degree program? do you think your performance in the degree program would have been different if you hadnt first done the diploma program?) 3. did your career goals change over the course of your college education? [q.14] (how? between the diploma and degree?) 33 | p a g e 4. do you have any suggestions as to how the pathway from your diploma to degree can be improved? [q.15] (easier for future students?) 5. how do you feel about the current state of your education path? [q.16] (how do you feel about having taken your degree? has it impacted your life? how? what about the diploma? how do you feel about having taken that? has that impacted your life? how?) 6. are you currently satisfied with the degree program? [q.17] demographic questions now id like to gather some demographic information. this is just some details about you to help us better understand your answers. are you ready? ok, great. 1. the first thing id like you to tell me is where here were you born? [q.18] (prompts: how long did you live there, how long have you lived in canada, are you currently a canadian citizen, how long have you been a canadian citizen?) 2. what is your primary language? [q.19] 3. and how old are you? [q.20] 4. what program are you enrolled in? [q.21] 5. into which year of the program did you transfer in? [q.22] 6. what year of the program are you currently in? [q.23] 34 | p a g e 7. what post-secondary experience did you have prior to transferring? [q.24] 8. how old were you when you first started college? [q.25] 9. when you transferred into the degree? [q.26] thank you for completing the interview. now, ill stop the recorder. do you have any questions you wish to ask off-the-record? 35 | p a g e appendix c the ability of high school grades to predict postsecondary performance is well founded (e.g., camara & echternacht, 2000; garton, dyer, & king, 2000). while it is clearly important to control for the influence of high school grades when examining postsecondary performance, it does present certain challenges. the first issue we faced in the present study was in regard to the availability of complete records, specifically the data in the present study included incomplete high school records. the second issue was that of grade equivalency. specifically, student records contained grades for a variety of different types of courses: college versus university, general versus advanced, applied versus academic, oac, etc. this second issue was particularly problematic for the present study because the majority of the transfer students did not possess university level high school courses, thus making it difficult to compare high school grades for students who transferred into the degree program to those who did not. a third issue had to do with course codes. depending on when students went through high school, and where they did their schooling, they may have different codes representing the same, or similar, courses. according to a report published by the center for studies in higher education (2007), high school grades were found to be a better predictor of postsecondary performance than standardized testing. although standardized testing was found to be less reliable than high school grades in predicting pse, some of the issues we faced in the present study were irreconcilable given the nature of the grading system used in ontario and the rest of canada. while high school grades should undoubtedly be used when examining pse success, this information should be supplemented with standardized testing. without a standardized assessment of students academic abilities, making predictions based on their academic abilities prior to pse becomes very difficult, particularly in the case of transfer students. in the present study, we made every attempt to equate students high school math and english grades, with limited success. in particular we included only the grades of students who had completed the math and communications requirements for each of the programs. in cases where there were multiple options (e.g., the mechanical systems engineering requires one of either advanced functions or geometry and discrete mathematics or mathematics of data management), and 36 | p a g e students possessed grades for more than one of the options given, we calculated an average of the available options. one way in which to address this issue is to have students complete a standardized test of their academic abilities, particularly math and communications; this would allow us to be more certain of our conclusions when conducting research on postsecondary academic performance. these research issues may highlight a more systemic problem as well. our research indicates that high school grades are not the only important factor for determining performance in postsecondary education. many of the transfer students in the present study did not possess the high school requirements for admittance into a degree program, however, they still tended to outperform non-transfer students. this indicates that other factors, such as life experience, may also be important for determining student success. for example, many non-tradition students are those who have spent time in the workplace gaining practical experience. these experiences may even be a stronger indicator of success for these students than will their high school grades. further, this experience will not be reflected in their high school grades. thus, it is important for educators to understand what some of these other indicators might be and how to accurately assess them when making decisions about program admittance. further research in this area is warranted. 37 | p a g e

ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire eric lav ig ne, a m an da b rijm ohan, jinl i y ang, m ary cath arine lennon cihe report 2016.02 a report to the ontario council for articulation and transfer appendix d institutional profiles (universities) public policy and the attraction of international postsecondary students a report by: pathways to education and work group ontario institute for studies in education (oise) university of toronto 252 bloor st. west, 6th floor toronto, ontario m5s 1v6 canada www.oise.utoronto.ca/cihe please cite this publication as: brijmohan, a., yang, j., lavigne, e. & lennon, m.c. (2016) ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire, appendix d institutional profiles (universities). toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. institutional profiles table of contents algoma university .......................................................................................................................4 brock university ........................................................................................................................14 carleton university ...................................................................................................................25 lakehead university ..................................................................................................................34 laurentian university ................................................................................................................52 mcmaster university .................................................................................................................63 nipissing university ...................................................................................................................72 ocad university ........................................................................................................................81 queens university .....................................................................................................................85 ryerson university ....................................................................................................................88 saint paul university ...............................................................................................................106 trent university ......................................................................................................................112 university of guelph ...............................................................................................................120 university of guelph-humber..................................................................................................128 university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) ...............................................................139 university of ottawa ...............................................................................................................173 university of toronto ..............................................................................................................181 university of waterloo ............................................................................................................186 university of windsor..............................................................................................................191 western university .................................................................................................................203 wilfrid laurier university ........................................................................................................210 york university ........................................................................................................................219 page 3 of 226 algoma university algoma university was first established in 2008, as an independent, degree granting institution. algoma university focuses its mission to be a teaching-oriented, undergraduate university focusing catering to the needs of northern ontario, while maintaining strong roots in aboriginal culture and community teachings. the main campus of algoma university is located in sault ste. marie, ontario, canada, offering undergraduate university degrees in more than 30 academic programs catering to 1609 students. the bachelor programs range from 3 to 4 year degree programs, and are in the areas of accounting, anishinaabemowin (ojibwe language) biology, business administration, community development, community economic and social development, computer science, economics, english and film, finance and economics, fine arts, french, geography and geology, history and philosophy, law and justice, mathematics, music, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology. algoma university has two offsite campuses in brampton, with their program offerings in business administration, and the other in timmins, which offers programs more catered to social work and community development (retrieved from: https://algomau.ca/about/, https://algomau.ca/about/fast_facts/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/algoma_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships with public colleges. sault college is the only partner college within commutable range (less than or equal to 80km). approximately 38% of algoma universitys transfer students come from sault college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 120 550 pathways with specific 430 sending programs algoma university has two generic receiving pathways with all 24partnership colleges respectively, which are from any ontario college advanced diploma and any ontario college diploma. partnership colleges supply to 5 different specific program areas of algoma university: business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, science engineering & tech., health, food, medical & recreation, and forest, conservation, technician. algoma university currently has the majority of their receiving partnership agreements supplying program areas of science engineering & tech., and health, food, medical & recreation. page 4 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. past research suggested that reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time (frennette, 2003) institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 5 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university table 1: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institutions algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) pathway data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) algoma university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 783 8 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 northern 315 4 5 19 24 3 6 0.25 northern 431 5 5 18 23 0 0 0 metro 692 7 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 northern 310 3 5 6 11 0 0 0 southern 747 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 northern 703 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 durham college central 671 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 fanshawe college southern 685 6 5 18 23 0 0 0 fleming college eastern 693 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 george brown college metro 696 7 5 21 26 5 10 0.38 georgian college central 589 6 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 humber college metro 684 7 5 18 23 3 6 0.26 la cit collgiale eastern 797 9 5 6 11 0 0 0 lambton college western 576 5 5 18 23 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 848 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 739 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 niagara college southern 800 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 collge boral conestoga college confederation college page 6 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university geographical data sending institutions region distance (km) pathway data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) algoma university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range students per pathway ratio double northern college northern 590 7 5 19 24 3 6 0.25 sault college* northern 5.8 0 5 31 36 16 32 0.89 seneca college metro 680 7 5 22 27 4 8 0.30 sheridan college central 703 7 5 18 23 5 10 0.43 st. clair college western 578 6 5 18 23 0 0 0 st. lawrence college grand total eastern 928 9 5 18 23 0 0 0 120 430 550 42 84 0.15 38% 38% *institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km page 7 of 226 pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that algoma university has formal agreements to accept students from. algoma university enables both specific pathways and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at algoma university. table 2: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with algoma university generic sending programs any three-year program 48 any ontario college advanced diploma 48 algonquin college 2 cambrian college 2 canadore college 2 centennial college 2 collge boral 2 conestoga college 2 confederation college 2 durham college 2 fanshawe college 2 fleming college 2 george brown college 2 georgian college 2 humber college 2 la cit collgiale 2 lambton college 2 loyalist college 2 mohawk college 2 niagara college 2 northern college 2 sault college 2 seneca college 2 sheridan college 2 st. clair college 2 st. lawrence college 2 any two-year program 72 any ontario college diploma 72 algonquin college 3 cambrian college 3 8 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with algoma university 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 specific programs business/finance/administration 48 any ontario college advanced diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 page 9 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration advanced diploma collge boral la cit collgiale business/commerce or related diploma collge boral la cit collgiale education, community and social services community worker george brown college peace and conflict studies sault college social service worker cambrian college george brown college northern college sault college partnership agreements with algoma university 1 1 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 15 2 2 1 1 8 1 1 1 3 page 10 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs seneca college social service worker - immigrants and refugees seneca college social service worker - native specialization sault college health, food and medical, recreation adventure recreation and parks technician sault college any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college partnership agreements with algoma university 2 2 2 2 2 184 2 2 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 page 11 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college fitness and health promotion sault college science and engineering technology any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with algoma university 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 2 183 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 page 12 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college forest conservation technician sault college grand total partnership agreements with algoma university 4 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 550 page 13 of 226 institutional profile: brock university brock university brock university is a public research university located in st. catharines, in southern ontario. brock offers a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees. at the graduate level, brock offers 37 programs, including 6 phd programs. brock university is a primarily undergraduate university, which means it is less involved in graduate education, especially at the phd level and attracts a lower level of research income (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/brock_university). brock university has 7 academic faculties, which consist of applied health sciences, the goodman school of business, education, humanities, mathematics and sciences, social sciences, and the faculty of graduate studies. brock university is home to 594 faculty members, and caters to a student body of 14,727 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca for 2014). partnership description: number structure 24 partnerships with and only with all public colleges geographical proximity 3 college partners are within commutable range (less than 80km): mohawk college, niagara college, and sheridan college. approximately 58% of brock universitys transfer students come from commutable partners. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with generic 48 230 sending program pathways with specific 182 sending programs brock university has two generic pathways with all 24 partnership colleges respectively, which are from any two-year program and any three-year program. partnership colleges supply 6 specific program areas of brock university: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical, recreation, preparation and career planning, and science and engineering technology. brock university currently has the majority of their receiving partnership agreements supplying program areas of health, food, and page 14 of 226 institutional profile: brock university medical, recreation. pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 15 of 226 institutional profile: brock university table 3: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 14,727; percentage of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) pathways total transfer students student per pathway ratio double algonquin college eastern 560 5 2 8 10 11 22 2.2 cambrian college northern 504 5 2 5 7 5 10 1.4 canadore college northern 454 4 2 6 8 6 12 1.5 metro toronto area 145 1 2 8 10 13 26 2.6 collge boral northern 497 5 2 6 8 0 0 0.0 conestoga college southern 119 1 2 4 6 31 62 10.3 confederation college northern 1489 15 2 7 9 2 0 n/a central 191 2 2 7 9 10 100 11.1 southern 191 2 2 15 17 59 118 6.9 eastern 234 2 2 8 10 13 26 2.6 metro toronto area 120 1 2 5 7 30 60 8.6 centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range central 206 2 2 10 12 31 62 5.2 humber college metro toronto area 121 1 2 8 10 63 126 12.6 la cit collgiale eastern 577 5 2 3 5 1 2 0.4 lambton college western 288 3 2 7 9 10 100 11.1 loyalist college eastern 304 3 2 4 6 9 81 13.5 mohawk college* southern 70 1 2 21 23 147 294 12.8 19% niagara college* southern 17 0 2 16 18 191 382 21.2 25% page 16 of 226 institutional profile: brock university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) pathways total transfer students student per pathway ratio double northern college northern 800 8 2 5 7 2 4 0.6 sault college northern 792 8 2 5 7 1 2 0.3 140 1 2 5 7 29 58 8.3 85 1 2 8 10 79 158 15.8 363 3 2 7 9 9 18 2.0 381 4 2 4 6 8 16 2.7 48 182 230 760 1520 6.6 seneca college sheridan college* st. clair college st. lawrence college grand total metro toronto area metro toronto area western eastern % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range 10% 55% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. *numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with brock university (as of 27/11/2015). page 17 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that brock university has formal agreements to accept students from. brock university enables both specific pathways and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential (whether it be generic or specific). following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at brock university. numbers reflect the feedback incorporated from consultation with brock university as of 27/11/15. table 4: pathways by sending program sending institution programs any three-year program any three-year program algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any two-year program partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) generic sending programs 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 24 page 18 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture advanced filmmaking fanshawe college art fundamentals sheridan college broadcast journalism - television news fanshawe college broadcasting - television and communications media mohawk college journalism mohawk college public relations mohawk college theatre arts 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 page 19 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs fanshawe college visual effects and editing for contemporary media fanshawe college business/finance/administration human resource management/labour perspectives george brown college education, community and social services behavioural science technology st. lawrence college child and youth worker durham college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college emergency management sheridan college paralegal partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 74 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 20 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs seneca college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college college boreal durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cite collegiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 21 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker - native specialization sault college health, food and medical, recreation cardiovascular technology mohawk college dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college fitness and health promotion niagara college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale massage therapy algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college northern college massothrapie partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 88 1 1 20 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 6 3 3 18 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 22 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs collge boral pharmacy technician centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. clair college recreation and leisure services algonquin college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college seneca college recreation therapy confederation college mohawk college niagara college sport management niagara college preparation and career planning general arts and science degree transfer diploma niagara college science and engineering technology chemical engineering technology mohawk college partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 2 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 page 23 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs computer programmer analyst niagara college computer science technology diploma sheridan college computer systems technology-software development mohawk college winery and viticulture technician niagara college grand total partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 230 page 24 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university carleton university carleton university is a publicly funded university, offering more than 65 academic programs across a wide range of disciplines. currently, carleton university has 6 faculties: faculty of arts and social sciences, faculty of engineering and design, faculty of graduate and postdoctoral affairs, faculty of public affairs, faculty of science, and the sprott school of business. founded in 1942, carleton university is located just south of ottawas city centre, bordering the rideau river and rideau canal (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carleton_university#programs). carleton university caters to 19,979 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca for 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships with and only with all public colleges two college partners are within commutable range (less than 80 km): algonquin college, and la cit collgiale. approximately 79% of all transfer students come from colleges within the commutable range. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with generic 0 229 sending programs pathways with specific 229 sending programs carleton does not accept students from generic programs. carleton university accepts students from partner colleges in the following specific program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, social sciences and humanities, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical, recreation, preparation and career planning, and science and engineering technology. carleton university has the most receiving partnership agreements in the field of education, community, and social services. page 25 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 26 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university table 5: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 19,979 ; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college* cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) pathways data (oncat) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) carlton university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 10 0 0 35 35 96 192 5.49 northern 483 5 0 8 8 3 6 0.75 northern 363 4 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 metro toronto area 425 4 0 8 8 1 2 0.25 eastern 485 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 southern 528 5 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern 1458 16 0 6 6 0 0 0 central 337 4 0 9 9 0 0 0 southern 626 6 0 11 11 1 2 0.18 eastern 337 3 0 11 11 1 2 0.18 metro toronto area 450 5 0 6 6 0 0 0 central 410 5 0 8 8 2 4 0.50 metro toronto area 463 4 0 11 11 3 6 0.55 eastern 14 0 0 6 6 2 4 0.67 lambton college western 723 7 0 6 6 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 269 3 0 26 26 1 2 0.08 mohawk college southern 519 5 0 6 6 2 4 0.67 niagara college southern 582 5 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale* 77% 2% page 27 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university geographical data sending institution northern college sault college region distance (km) pathways data (oncat) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) carlton university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double northern 709 8 0 7 7 0 0 0 northern 792 9 0 5 5 0 0 0 metro toronto area 436 4 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 sheridan college central 486 5 0 7 7 0 0 0 st. clair college western 799 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 eastern 197 2 0 10 10 7 14 1.40 0 229 229 124 248 1.08 seneca college st. lawrence college grand total 79% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 28 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that carleton university has formal agreements to accept students from. carlton university enables only specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at carleton university. table 6: pathways by sending program sending institution programs arts, fine arts and culture applied museum studies algonquin college broadcasting radio algonquin college loyalist college seneca college broadcasting tv algonquin college fashion arts humber college journalism algonquin college sheridan college library and information technician algonquin college music industry arts algonquin college arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities bachelor of human services police studies georgian college business/finance/administration advertising and marketing comms management algonquin college business algonquin college canadore college confederation college durham college humber college partnership agreements carleton university 10 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 32 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 1 page 29 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college business - accounting fanshawe college loyalist college business - marketing fanshawe college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fleming college george brown college humber college loyalist college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - international business algonquin college seneca college business operations centennial college professional accounting algonquin college education, community and social services addiction counsellor northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 149 1 1 18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 30 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college fleming college humber college loyalist college niagara college st. lawrence college community worker george brown college corporate security and risk management algonquin college correctional worker canadore college loyalist college customs and border services loyalist college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 31 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs drug and alcohol counsellor fleming college early childhood education algonquin college canadore college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college loyalist college early childhood education diploma humber college investigative and protective studies loyalist college law clerk algonquin college fanshawe college mental health and addiction worker canadore college paralegal algonquin college fleming college humber college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 44 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 32 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation conestoga college fanshawe college readaptation et justice penale la cit collgiale social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college social service worker-gerontology seneca college health, food and medical, recreation fitness and health promotion algonquin college recreation and leisure services algonquin college strength and sport conditioning canadore college veterinary technician algonquin college preparation and career planning partnership agreements carleton university 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 40 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 33 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs general arts and science algonquin college science and engineering technology architectural technology loyalist college biotechnology technician loyalist college biotechnology technologist algonquin college canadore college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college chemical engineering technician loyalist college chemical engineering technologist durham college loyalist college computer programmer algonquin college computer systems technology seneca college environmental technician loyalist college geomatics technician algonquin college fleming college photonics engineering technologist algonquin college science and technology baccalaurat en biotechnologie la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 28 1 1 2 2 10 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 229 lakehead university lakehead university is a public research university with campuses in thunder bay and orillia, ontario, canada. lakehead university is a comprehensive institution, offering a range of degree and diploma program within its 10 faculties: our university is a comprehensive page 34 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university institution, which offers a broad range of degree and diploma programs within ten faculties: business administration, education, engineering, natural resources management, graduate studies, health and behavioural sciences, bora laskin faculty of law, science and environmental studies, social sciences and humanities. lakehead university is also home to the western campus of the northern ontario school of medicine (retrieved from https://www.lakeheadu.ca/academics/faculties; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lakehead_university). the school has more than 45,000 alumni. lakehead university serves an undergraduate population of 6,132 (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships only with public colleges. confederation college is the only one within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). approximately 22% of transfer students to lakehead university come from confederation college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 574 pathways with specific 574 sending programs currently, no approved generic receiving pathways to lakehead university. partnership colleges currently supply partnership agreements for 6 program areas: arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical, recreation; preparation and career planning; science and engineering technology. the largest sending program area is science and engineering tech. with 26% of the partnership agreements. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. page 35 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 36 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university table 7: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6,132; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college* durham college fanshawe college fleming college region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) lakehead university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 1449 16 0 30 30 8 16 0.53 northern 1013 11 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern 1098 12 0 17 17 3 6 0.35 metro toronto area 1389 15 0 24 24 0 0 0 northern 1007 11 0 14 14 0 0 0 southern 1438 15 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern 4 0 0 36 36 30 60 1.67 central 1369 15 0 24 24 4 8 0.33 southern 1380 14 0 28 28 8 16 0.57 eastern 1478 15 0 39 39 4 8 0.21 metro toronto area 1394 15 0 17 17 2 4 0.24 central 1284 14 0 33 33 15 30 0.91 metro toronto area 1369 14 0 22 22 13 26 1.18 la cit collgiale eastern 1466 16 0 15 15 0 0 0 lambton college western 1271 13 0 21 21 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 1548 16 0 29 29 2 4 0.14 mohawk college southern 1437 15 0 20 20 12 24 1.20 niagara college southern 1500 16 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern college northern 783 9 0 19 19 1 2 0.11 george brown college georgian college humber college 22% page 37 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university geographical data sending institution sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college region northern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) lakehead university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 697 8 0 29 29 3 6 0.21 1378 14 0 33 33 8 16 0.48 1400 15 0 15 15 7 14 0.93 western 459 4 0 22 22 0 0 0 eastern 1625 17 0 21 21 3 6 0.29 0 574 574 135 270 0.47 metro toronto area metro toronto area grand total 22% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 38 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university pathways by sending institutions the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that lakehead university has formal agreements to accept students from. lakehead university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at lakehead university. table 8: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with lakehead university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 63 any ontario college advanced diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 any ontario college diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 page 39 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration st. clair college graphic design algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college accounting - business administration durham college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111 1 1 1 1 page 40 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs administrations des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - comptabilit collge boral la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - marketing la cit collgiale business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 54 3 3 3 1 1 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 1 3 16 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 41 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs humber college lambton college niagara college northern college sault college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources algonquin college canadore college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources management loyalist college northern college business administration - international st. clair college business administration - international business algonquin college canadore college niagara college business administration - marketing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 42 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college human resources - business administration durham college marketing - business administration durham college education, community and social services child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 135 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 43 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs loyalist college northern college st. clair college law and security administration cambrian college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection security and investigation conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 49 2 2 2 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 44 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs protection, security & investigation conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college lambton college niagara college sault college st. clair college protection, security and investigation confederation college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with lakehead university 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 50 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 45 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 46 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs st. lawrence college recreation and leisure services confederation college recreation leisure services seneca college preparation and career planning general arts and science algonquin college collge boral confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college northern college st. lawrence college general arts and science - college exploration cambrian college niagara college general arts and science - diploma option conestoga college general arts and science - liberal studies sault college general arts and science - university profile sheridan college general arts and science- college exploration cambrian college general arts and science- diploma option conestoga college liberal arts centennial college seneca college st. clair college science and engineering technology biotechnology centennial college mohawk college biotechnology - advanced durham college seneca college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 62 38 3 3 3 3 3 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 2 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 2 2 9 3 3 3 153 2 1 1 2 1 1 page 47 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs biotechnology advanced centennial college fleming college biotechnology advanced algonquin college biotechnology technician canadore college conestoga college loyalist college biotechnology technologist algonquin college canadore college loyalist college st. lawrence college chemical engineering technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college chemical production and power engineering technology lambton college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college computer engineering technologist sault college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 48 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs computer engineering technology conestoga college fleming college humber college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer engineering technology computing science algonquin college computer systems technology - networking centennial college ecosystem management technician fleming college ecosystem management technology fleming college electrical engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college georgian college niagara college northern college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - control systems humber college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electronics engineering technology centennial college seneca college environment technician sault college environment technologist sault college environmental technician algonquin college confederation college fleming college partnership agreements with lakehead university 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 14 2 3 2 page 49 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs georgian college loyalist college sault college seneca college environmental technologist centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college seneca college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college seneca college environmental technology (co-op) georgian college fish and wildlife conservation technician sault college fish and wildlife technician fleming college fish and wildlife technology fleming college forest conservation technician sault college forest ecosystem management technician confederation college forestry and wildlife management technician/technologist collge boral forestry technician algonquin college fleming college mechanical engineering technology algonquin college centennial college durham college humber college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 2 1 2 10 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 31 4 4 6 6 4 3 4 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 1 1 5 2 3 9 1 1 1 1 page 50 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - design george brown college techniques en environnement forestier la cit collgiale technologie de l'environnement la cit collgiale technologie du gnie informatique collge boral la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 574 page 51 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university laurentian university laurentian university is a publicly funded, bilingual university located in sudbury. considered a mid-sized institution, laurentian university caters to 6,132 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). laurentian university offers programs from the follow faculties: faculty of arts, faculty of education, faculty of health, faculty of management, faculty of medicine, faculty of science, engineering & architecture, and the goodman school of mines. recently, in collaboration with lakehead university, laurentian currently features the east campus of the northern ontario school of medicine, offering various graduate level degrees. laurentian university is the largest bilingual provider of distance education in canada (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/laurentian_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 partnerships with all public colleges; 1 partnership with oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute. cambrian college and collge boral are the only sending colleges within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km). 32% of laurentians transfer student population comes from cambrian college and 12% come from collge boral. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 66 324 pathways with specific 258 sending programs laurentian university has two generic receiving pathways for students from any 3 yr ontario college advanced diploma (eng & french) or any 2 yr diploma. arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical recreation; science and engineering tech. laurentian university has a specific partnership agreement with la cit collgiale allowing students from administration des affaires-services financiers into their certificate of qualification. page 52 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 53 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university table 9: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6304; proportion of registered transfer students: 8% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) laurentian university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double algonquin college eastern 478 5 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 cambrian college* northern 10 0 3 26 29 42 84 2.90 canadore college northern 127 2 3 9 12 5 10 0.83 metro toronto area 392 4 3 9 12 0 0 0 collge boral* northern 7 0 0 17 17 16 32 1.88 conestoga college southern 441 4 3 9 12 0 0 0 confederation college northern 1005 11 3 9 12 0 0 0 central 372 4 3 8 11 0 0 0 southern 540 5 3 12 15 1 2 0.13 centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college eastern 481 5 3 10 13 0 0 0 metro toronto area 397 4 3 8 11 4 8 0.73 central 287 3 3 15 18 33 66 3.67 humber college metro toronto area 372 4 3 10 13 2 4 0.31 la cit collgiale eastern 495 5 0 16 16 4 8 0.50 lambton college western 637 6 3 9 12 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 551 5 3 11 14 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 440 4 3 10 13 1 2 0.15 niagara college southern 503 5 3 9 12 0 0 0 northern college northern 306 4 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 994 11 0 1 1 0 0 0 32% 12% page 54 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university geographical data sending institution sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college region northern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) laurentian university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 307 3 3 7 10 3 6 0.60 381 4 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 403 4 3 7 10 2 4 0.40 western 716 7 3 7 10 0 0 0 eastern 628 6 3 12 15 12 24 1.60 66 258 324 131 262 0.81 metro toronto area metro toronto area grand total 44% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 55 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that laurentian university has formal agreements to accept students from. laurentian university enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at laurentian university. table 10: pathways by sending program sending institutions programs laurentian university certificate of qualification degree generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college diplme d'tudes collgiales - niveau avanc collge boral la cit collgiale any two-year program any ontario college diploma 47 44 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 2 22 22 page 56 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college arts, fine arts and culture advertising cambrian college journalism - print cambrian college business/finance/administration administration des affaires - services financiers la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - comptabilit collge boral any ontario business/finance/administration college advanced diploma cambrian college centennial college conestoga college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college humber college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 58 1 1 23 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 page 57 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs la cit collgiale lambton college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. lawrence college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college diplme de 3 ans en administration des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale public relations cambrian college education, community and social services activation coordinator - gerontology george brown college adjoint juridique collge boral administration de la loi er de la scurit collge boral laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 2 2 2 2 1 31 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 1 1 1 1 154 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 58 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs administration de la loi et de la scurit collge boral la cit collgiale community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college niagara college sheridan college st. lawrence college developmental services worker cambrian college georgian college indigenous wellness & addictions prevention canadore college law & security administration cambrian college law and security administration cambrian college native early childhood education cambrian college oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 2 1 1 12 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 41 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 59 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 page 60 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college diagnostic medical sonography st. clair college diagnostic medical sonography - ultrasound cambrian college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale magnetic resonance imaging cambrian college fanshawe college medical radiation technology cambrian college outdoor adventure algonquin college physical fitness management cambrian college promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 3 3 3 4 2 2 5 2 3 5 2 3 24 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 61 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs collge boral promotion de l'activit physique et de la sant collge boral technologie en radiation mdicale collge boral science and engineering technology automation engineering technology cambrian college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college technologie du gnie chimique collge boral grand total laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 1 1 1 1 1 17 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 324 page 62 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university mcmaster university mcmaster university is a publicly funded university located in hamilton, ontario. mcmaster has 6 faculties: the degroote school of business, engineering, health, sciences, humanities, and social sciences. mcmaster serves an undergraduate population of 21,802. (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mcmaster_university; numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca in 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 partnerships with all public colleges; 1 aboriginal institute. 4 partner colleges are within commutable range (meaning equal to or less than 80 km): conestoga college, george brown college, humber college, six nations polytechnique. 21% of mcmasters transfer population comes from commutable partners. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 131 pathways with specific 131 sending programs mcmaster currently has no receiving partnerships from students of generic sending programs. mcmaster only accepts transfer students from arts, fine-arts, humanities, and social science, and science, engineering, and technology. 95% of mcmasters transfer partnership agreements receive students from science, engineering and technology. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. page 63 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 64 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university table 11: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 21,802; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical proximity data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral conestoga college* confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college* georgian college region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) mcmaster university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 509 5 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern 453 4 0 4 4 0 0 0 metro toronto area 94 1 0 9 9 2 4 0.44 northern 446 4 0 2 2 0 0 0 western 53 1 0 13 13 8 16 1.23 northern 1438 15 0 3 3 0 0 0 central 140 1 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 southern 126 1 0 13 13 6 12 0.92 metro toronto area 70 1 0 8 8 4 8 1.00 central 155 1 0 8 8 3 6 0.75 metro toronto area 70 1 0 8 8 8 16 2.00 la cit collgiale eastern 526 5 0 4 4 0 0 0 loyalist college humber college* eastern 254 2 0 3 3 0 0 0 mohawk college* southern 7 0 0 10 10 46 92 9.20 niagara college southern 92 1 0 5 5 5 10 2.00 northern college northern 750 8 0 2 2 0 0 0 sault college northern 741 7 0 3 3 0 0 0 metro toronto area 89 1 0 8 8 6 12 1.50 seneca college 8% 4% 8% 47% page 65 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university geographical proximity data sending institution sheridan college* six nations polytechnic* institute* st. clair college st. lawrence college region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) mcmaster university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double metro toronto area 37 0 0 10 10 6 12 1.20 6% western 37 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 western 300 3 0 4 4 0 0 0 eastern 331 3 0 2 2 0 0 0 131 131 97 194 1.48 grand total 21% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 66 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university pathways by sending institutions the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that mcmaster university has formal agreements to accept students from. mcmaster university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at mcmaster university. table 12: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with mcmaster university specific sending programs arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities bachelor of arts six nations polytechnic institute business/finance/administration business administration advanced diploma mohawk college preparation and career planning general arts and sciences - liberal studies fanshawe college science and engineering technology architectural technology algonquin college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college architecture-construction engineering technology conestoga college chemical engineering technology-automation stream mohawk college chemical engineering technologist sending institutional programs 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 4 125 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 page 67 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs collge boral loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college computer engineering technology mohawk college construction engineering technology george brown college construction engineering technology management fanshawe college construction engineering technologyconstruction management niagara college electrical engineering technologist collge boral electrical engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 page 68 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs fanshawe college niagara college northern college electrical engineering technology - automated systems georgian college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electrical engineering technology (accelerated) fanshawe college electrical engineering technology-control systems humber college electro-mechanical engineering george brown college electromechanical engineering technology sheridan college electro-mechanical engineering technology durham college humber college sheridan college electromechanical engineering technology automation and robotics george brown college electro-mechanical engineering technology automation and robotics centennial college electromechanical engineering technology building automation george brown college electronics engineering technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college humber college niagara college sheridan college electronics engineering technology telecommunications system partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 5 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 69 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs conestoga college electronics engineering technologycommunications seneca college electronics engineering technology-control systems seneca college energy systems engineering technology centennial college conestoga college st. lawrence college energy systems engineering technology - clean and renewable energy mohawk college energy systems technology cambrian college environmental - civil engineering technology conestoga college manufacturing engineering and technology welding and robotics conestoga college manufacturing engineering technology fanshawe college mechanical engineering technology algonquin college durham college fanshawe college george brown college humber college la cit collgiale mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology automated manufacturing conestoga college mechanical engineering technology automotive manufacturing georgian college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 16 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 70 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - design centennial college george brown college humber college mechanical engineering technology - design and analysis conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - design and drafting sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - industrial centennial college mechanical engineering technology - industrial design seneca college mechanical engineering technology - robotics and automation conestoga college mechanical engineering technology-building science seneca college mechanical engineering technology-design centennial college mechanical engineering technology-industrial centennial college mechanical engineeringtechnology algonquin college power engineering technology georgian college science laboratory technology fanshawe college technologie de l'architecture la cit collgiale technologie du gnie civil construction la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with mcmaster university 2 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 131 page 71 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university nipissing university nipissing university is a public liberal arts university located in north bay. nipissing university currently serves approximately 3,269 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). nipissing university comprises 3 faculties: the schulich school or education, the faculty of arts and science, and the faculty of applied and professional studies. nipissing university is known for its emphasis in education technology, and teacher preparation. nipissing offers the iteach program, the first to integrate teacher-training with mobile technology across all instructional arenas. as well, nipissing university is one of the largest providers of additional qualification courses for teachers (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nipissing_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 articulated agreements only with college partners. canadore college is the only partner college within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). 27% of the transfer students to nipissing come from canadore college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 24 180 pathways with specific 156 sending programs nipissing allows one generic pathway for students from any 3 yr diploma program from all the 24 college sending partners. nipissing receives students transferring from the following program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/admin, education, community and social services, health, food, and medical recreation, and science, engineering tech. 47% of the transfer agreements are receiving students from education, community and social services. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. page 72 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 73 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university table 13: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 3269; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) nipissing university (pathways) transfer students double students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 354 4 1 10 11 17 34 3.09 cambrian college northern 123 1 1 6 7 0 0 0 canadore college* northern 0 0 1 8 9 32 64 7.11 centennial college metro toronto area 356 3 1 9 10 5 10 1.00 collge boral northern 125 2 1 3 4 1 2 0.50 conestoga college southern 405 4 1 4 5 0 0 0 confederation college northern 1099 12 1 5 6 0 0 0 durham college central 305 3 1 5 6 1 2 0.33 fanshawe college southern 504 5 1 8 9 13 26 2.89 fleming college eastern 374 4 1 10 11 0 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 361 4 1 4 5 0 0 0 georgian college central 251 2 1 10 11 3 6 0.55 humber college metro toronto area 336 3 1 8 9 2 4 0.44 la cit collgiale eastern 371 4 1 1 2 0 0 0 lambton college western 601 6 1 10 11 6 12 1.09 loyalist college eastern 400 5 1 6 7 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 404 4 1 7 8 0 0 0 niagara college southern 467 4 1 6 7 1 2 0.29 % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 27% page 74 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) nipissing university (pathways) transfer students double students per pathway ratio northern college northern 349 4 1 5 6 0 0 0 sault college northern 432 5 1 5 6 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 345 3 1 5 6 0 0 0 sheridan college metro toronto area 367 4 1 6 7 22 44 6.29 st. clair college western 677 6 1 9 10 15 30 3.00 st. lawrence college eastern 459 5 1 6 7 2 4 0.57 24 156 180 120 240 1.33 grand total % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 27% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80 km page 75 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that nipissing university has formal agreements to accept students from. nipissing university enables generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at nipissing university. table 14: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with nipissing university generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 page 76 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs fine arts georgian college visual and creative arts fleming college business/finance/administration business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration advanced diploma algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college lambton college st. clair college honours bachelor of business administration algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college lambton college st. clair college education, community and social services partnership agreements with nipissing university 4 4 3 3 39 29 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 86 page 77 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral educational assistant fleming college partnership agreements with nipissing university 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 page 78 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs mohawk college st. clair college indigenous wellness and addictions prevention canadore college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with nipissing university 1 1 1 1 21 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 79 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation practical nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college science and engineering technology computer engineering technology humber college electromechanical engineering technology diploma humber college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college grand total partnership agreements with nipissing university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 180 page 80 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university ocad university ocad university is a publicly funded university, located in toronto, ontario, canada. ocad university was formerly known as the ontario college of art and design, and is considered canadas largest and oldest educational institute specializing in offering students art and design programs. ocad university currently caters to approximately 3,319 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). ocad university currently has faculties of art, design, liberal arts, and sciences in alternative programs. the school combines a studiobased education with liberal studies, which is recognised with a bachelor of fine arts (bfa), a bachelor of design (bdes), an interdisciplinary master's in art media and design (ma, mfa or m des), a master of fine arts in criticism and curatorial practice (mfa), a master of design in strategic foresight and innovation (mdes), an executive master of design in advertising (emdes), a master of design in inclusive design (mdes), and a graduate program in digital futures (graduate diploma and ma, mdes, mfa) (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ocad_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 14 partnerships only with colleges 6 colleges that are within commutable distance (meaning equal of less than 80 km): durham college, george brown college, humber college, mohawk college, seneca college, and sheridan college. ocad receives students from the commutable colleges, but only has established approved partnerships with 2 of these colleges: george brown college, and humber college. 83% of ocad universitys transfer students are coming from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 14 pathways with specific 14 sending programs ocad university currently has no generic partnerships from sending partners. ocad university accepts transfer students from programs of 3 discipline areas: arts, fine arts and culture, science and engineering tech; and skills, trades and technologies. 71% of the partnership agreements allow transfer from arts, fine arts, and culture. page 81 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 82 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university table 15: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 3,319; proportion of registered transfer students: 6% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region durham college* fanshawe college fleming college georgian college george brown college* humber college* mohawk college* seneca college* sheridan college* pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) ocad university (pathways) transfer students double central 69 1 0 0 0 1 southern 190 2 0 4 4 2 eastern 115 1 0 3 3 0 central metro toronto area metro toronto area 113 1 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 5 5 7 34 1 0 2 2 3 southern 71 1 0 0 0 metro toronto area 21 0 0 0 0 central 39 1 0 0 0 0 14 14 % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio 2 0 4% 4 1 0 0 4 n/a 14 2.8 29% 6 3 13% 1 2 n/a 4% 4 8 n/a 17% 4 8 n/a 17% 24 48 3.4 83% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 83 of 226 institutional profile: queens university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that ocad university has formal agreements to accept students from. ocad university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at ocad university. table 16: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with ocad university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 10 fashion techniques and design 1 george brown college 1 fine art 4 fanshawe college 4 interior decorating 1 humber college 1 jewellery arts 1 george brown college 1 visual and creative arts (vcad) 3 fleming college 3 science and engineering technology 1 architectural technology 1 humber college 1 skills, trades and technologies 3 game development: game animation 1 george brown college 1 game development: game modelling 1 george brown college 1 interaction design and development 1 george brown college 1 grand total 14 page 84 of 226 institutional profile: queens university queens university queens university is a public research-intensive university located in kingston, ontario, canada. queens offers programs in the following undergraduate, graduate and professional faculties and schools: faculty of arts and science, faculty of education, faculty of engineering and applied science, faculty of health sciences, faculty of law, smith school of business, school of graduate studies, and the school of policy studies (retrieved from: http://www.queensu.ca/academics/programs). queens university caters to 17,265 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca in 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 0 n/a queens university does not have any approved transferpartnership agreements (as reported to oncat in july of 2015). however, queens university is the recipient of transfer students from the following colleges: durham college, humber college, loyalist college, niagara college, seneca college, sheridan college, st. clair college, and st. lawrence college. loyalist college is the only sender of transfer students within commutable range. pathway description: (as taken from ontransfer.ca, july 2015). number pathways with generic 0 0 sending programs generic specific pathways with specific sending programs n/a n/a 0 page 85 of 226 institutional profile: queens university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 86 of 226 institutional profile: queens university table 17: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 17,265; proportion of registered transfer students: 0.43% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region algonquin college pathways data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) queens university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students students per pathway ratio double % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 188 2 0 0 0 0 0 n/a 213 2 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 277 3 0 0 0 2 4 n/a 82 1 0 0 0 1 2 n/a southern metro toronto area 395 4 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 250 2 0 0 0 5 10 n/a sheridan college central 299 3 0 0 0 2 4 n/a st. clair college western 613 6 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 3 0 0 0 0 4 8 n/a 22% 0 0 0 17 34 n/a 28% durham college humber college loyalist college* niagara college seneca college st. lawrence college* grand total eastern central metro toronto area eastern eastern 6% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range of queens university, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 87 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university ryerson university ryerson university is a public research university located in downtown toronto. the university has a focus on applied, career-oriented education. ryerson university caters to 23,281 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). ryerson university is home to canada's largest undergraduate business school, the ted rogers school of management, and canada's third largest undergraduate engineering school, the george vari faculty of engineering and architectural science, as well as the faculty of arts, faculty of communication & design, faculty of community services, and the faculty of science. in addition to offering full-time and part-time undergraduate and graduate programs leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, the university also offers part-time degrees, distance education and certificates through the g. raymond chang school of continuing education (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ryerson_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 54 30 colleges with four aboriginal and two private colleges; 23 universities 14 institutions are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). 94% of ryerson universitys transfer students are coming from commutable partners. pathway description: number internal 97 2496 agreements with college 374 pathways with generic 1952 sending programs pathways with specific 544 sending programs generic ryerson university has generic pathways with all partnership universities, sent from any bachelors degree, in business, health, and science. ryerson university does not have generic pathways with partnership colleges. specific the specific pathways concentrate on arts and humanities, business, education, health and medicine, health and recreation and science and technology. the universal specific sending programs are business administration, any two-year diploma in disability studies page 88 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university related fields and disciplines, early childhood education, at least two years undergraduate study in a health-related field and any ontario college advanced diploma in applied health science. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 89 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university table 18: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 23,281; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algoma university algonquin college brock university cambrian college canadore college carleton university centennial college* collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college* fanshawe college first nations technical institute fleming college george brown college* georgian college humber college* region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double northern 697 7 91 8 99 5 10 0.10 eastern 441 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 southern 121 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 northern 414 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 northern 364 4 0 13 13 0 0 0 eastern 451 4 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 25 0 0 17 17 71 142 8.35 eastern 406 4 0 14 14 0 0 0 southern 95 1 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 northern 1399 15 0 17 17 0 0 0 central 68 1 0 17 17 9 18 1.06 southern 191 2 0 17 17 5 10 0.59 eastern 210 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 114 1 0 16 16 1 2 0.13 metro toronto area 3 0 0 19 19 94 188 9.89 central 115 1 0 15 15 2 4 0.27 metro toronto area 34 1 0 16 16 36 72 4.50 22% 3% 29% 11% page 90 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double northern 547 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 457 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 lakehead university northern 1395 15 89 8 97 0 0 0 lambton college western 288 3 0 14 14 0 0 0 laurentian university le collge des grand lacs* loyalist college mcmaster university mohawk college* niagara college nipissing university northern college ocad university* ontario agricultural college oshki-pimacheo-win education & training institute queen's university royal military college of canada northern 398 4 90 8 98 0 0 0 metro toronto area 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 185 2 0 15 15 0 0 0 southern 71 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 71 1 0 16 16 5 10 0.63 southern 134 1 0 15 15 5 10 0.67 northern 362 3 90 8 98 0 0 0 northern 710 7 0 14 14 0 0 0 metro toronto area 1 0 73 1 74 0 0 0 southern 87 1 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 1388 15 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 264 3 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 261 3 6 0 6 0 0 0 2% page 91 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution ryerson university* saint paul university sault college seneca college* sheridan college* six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute* trent university university of guelph university of guelphhumber* university of ontario institute of technology* university of ottawa university of toronto* university of waterloo university of windsor western university region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double metro toronto area 0 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 450 4 89 7 96 0 0 0 northern 701 7 0 12 12 0 0 0 metro toronto area 20 0 0 17 17 53 106 6.24 16% central 39 1 0 16 16 42 84 5.25 13% southern 102 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 western 365 4 0 13 13 0 0 0 3 0 15 15 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 262 metro toronto area 1 eastern 144 2 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 87 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 34 1 88 8 96 0 0 0 central 68 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 451 4 90 8 98 0 0 0 metro toronto area 2 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 116 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 372 4 89 8 97 0 0 0 western 198 2 89 8 97 0 0 0 page 92 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution wilfrid laurier university york university* grand total region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double southern 115 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 40 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 1952 544 2496 329 658 0.26 94% *institutions highlighted blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80 km page 93 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that ryerson university has formal agreements to accept students from. ryerson university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at ryerson university. table 19: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with ryerson university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture fashion arts humber college fashion merchandising fanshawe college arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities any baccalaureate degree in the humanities or social sciences algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university ryerson university trent university university of guelph university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university 2 1 1 1 1 109 20 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 94 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university business any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph partnership agreements with ryerson university 89 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 698 677 32 31 31 31 31 31 31 24 31 1 31 31 31 31 page 95 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university any bachelor's degree. algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university business/finance/administration administration des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college partnership agreements with ryerson university 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 49 4 2 2 42 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 96 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college fashion business seneca college fashion management george brown college international business administration seneca college education, community and social services any two-year diploma in disability studies related fields and disciplines algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college first nations technical institute fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs partnership agreements with ryerson university 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 214 29 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 97 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute sault college seneca college sheridan college six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college st. lawrence college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community development work centennial college community worker george brown college community worker - outreach and development sheridan college developmental services worker algonquin college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 41 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 page 98 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college loyalist college northern college st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral la cit collgiale educational assistant - special needs support niagara college educational support / educational assistant conestoga college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 46 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 7 1 page 99 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs confederation college fleming college mohawk college northern college sheridan college st. clair college intervenor for deaf-blind persons george brown college interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap la cit collgiale mental health and addiction worker canadore college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques d'ducation spcialise collge boral la cit collgiale health and medicine partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 6 3 3 2 1 1 609 page 100 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university at least two years undergraduate study in a health-related field algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo partnership agreements with ryerson university 462 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 147 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 page 101 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university health, food and medical, recreation academic pathway for nurses george brown college any ontario college advanced diploma in applied health science algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college ontario agricultural college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with ryerson university 7 7 7 7 103 1 1 53 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 102 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college practical nursing / soins infirmiers auxiliaires algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 103 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college rpn bridging to university nursing centennial college science and engineering technology business administration - information systems confederation college durham college computer programmer analyst durham college gis and urban planning fanshawe college health information management fleming college george brown college st. lawrence college urban and regional planning technician geographic information systems (gis) mohawk college science and technology any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 8 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 704 704 33 32 32 32 33 32 33 24 32 4 32 32 32 32 32 32 33 32 32 32 page 104 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs western university wilfrid laurier university york university grand total partnership agreements with ryerson university 32 32 32 2496 page 105 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university saint paul university located in the heart of the nations capital, saint paul university (est. 1848) is the founding college of the university of ottawa, with which it has been federated since 1965. a bilingual institution, it offers undergraduate and graduate study programs. saint paul university currently houses four faculties: human sciences, philosophy, theology and canon law. within these faculties are housed programs in 19 disciplines, ranging from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. such disciplines include: anglican studies, biblical studies, canon law, canonical practice, conflict studies, counseling and spirituality, eastern christian studies, ecclesiastical administration, ethics, group facilitation, ministry, pastoral theology, philosophical theology, philosophy, public ethics, religious education, social communications, spirituality, and theology. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/saint_paul_university) saint pauls caters to 203 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 4 college only 2 college sending partners are within commutable range (less than 80 km): algonquin college, and la cit collgiale pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 64 pathways with specific 64 sending programs n/a saint paul university receives transfer students from a variety of disciplines: arts, fine arts, culture; business, finance, administration; education, community, and social services; health, food and medical recreation. 81% of the transfer agreements receive students from programs in education, community, arts, and social services. page 106 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. as the transfer student numbers were taken from graduate satisfaction survey (2013/2014) to provide a sense of which institutions students were transferring from, transfer students to saint paul university were not captured within the scope of our analysis. however, the 2014 transfer student numbers taken from cudo.cou.on.ca are listed below. page 107 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university table 20: pathways by sending institutions 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 203; proportion of registered transfer students: 24% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) saint paul university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students algonquin college* eastern 11 0 0 23 23 collge boral northern 491 5 0 9 9 eastern 11 0 0 17 17 eastern 203 2 0 15 15 0 64 64 la cit collgiale* st. lawrence college grand total double students per pathway ratio % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. **numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with saint paul university as of 27/11/15. page 108 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions to saint paul university. saint paul university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at saint paul university. numbers reflect feedback received from the consultation process with saint paul university as of 27/11/15. table 21: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with saint paul sending institution programs university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture journalism algonquin college journalisme la cit collgiale professional writing algonquin college radiodiffusion la cit collgiale relations publiques la cit collgiale business/finance/administration advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college public relations algonquin college publicit et communications marketing la cit collgiale education, community and social services adjoint juridique collge boral la cit collgiale early childhood education st. lawrence college child and youth worker 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 51 6 3 3 1 1 6 page 109 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university sending institution programs algonquin college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college st. lawrence college developmental services worker algonquin college law clerk st. lawrence college paralegal algonquin college paramedic algonquin college st. lawrence college police foundations algonquin college st. lawrence college practical nursing algonquin college social service worker algonquin college st. lawrence college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social - grontologie la cit collgiale techniques d'ducation spcialise la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale veterinary technician algonquin college health, food and medical, recreation massage therapy algonquin college practical nursing algonquin college respiratory therapy partnership agreements with saint paul university 3 3 4 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 5 2 3 1 1 4 2 2 1 1 6 3 3 1 1 2 2 6 3 3 1 1 5 2 2 1 1 1 page 110 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university sending institution programs algonquin college techniques des services en loisir la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with saint paul university 1 1 1 64 page 111 of 226 institutional profile: trent university trent university trent university is a publicly funded university, with campuses in durham, peterborough, and oshawa, ontario. trent university has 34 programs from across the faculties of arts, business, education, and science and technology comprising 19 individual disciplines, 8 interdisciplinary degrees, and 7 graduate programs. the university has continuing education opportunities offering personal and professional development courses and certificates including business and organizational communications, conflict resolution, leadership development, and teaching english as a second language (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/trent_university in august 2015; http://www.trentu.ca/academics/). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 22 only college sending partners. durham college, and fleming college are within commutable range (less than 80km). 20% of the transfer student population to trent university comes from fleming college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 5 137 pathways with specific 132 sending programs trent university allows transfer students from 2 generic sending programs. the first is from a general arts and science-universitytransfer program (2 from fleming college, 2 from durham college) and a 1 from liberal arts (1 from seneca college). trent university has specific receiving pathways into the following areas .arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical recreation; science and engineering tech. 66% of the receiving pathways are from program areas in science and engineering tech. page 112 of 226 institutional profile: trent university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. for the purposes of this geographical analysis, the peterborough campus was selected as the main location, as it serves the highest number of students. other branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 113 of 226 institutional profile: trent university table 22: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6,461; proportion of registered transfer students: 2% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college* fanshawe college distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) trent university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 264 3 0 1 1 5 10 10 northern 410 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 northern 311 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 metro toronto area 120 1 0 3 3 4 8 2.7 southern 222 2 0 5 5 1 2 0.4 northern 1396 15 0 2 2 12 24 12 central 78 1 2 20 22 0 0 0 southern 321 3 0 7 7 0 0 0 fleming college* eastern 60 1 2 29 31 42 84 2.7 george brown college metro toronto area 145 2 0 7 7 23 46 6.6 georgian college central 157 2 0 6 6 2 4 0.7 humber college metro toronto area 158 2 0 4 4 1 2 0.5 lambton college western 418 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 110 1 0 11 11 3 6 0.5 mohawk college southern 214 2 0 1 1 2 4 4 niagara college southern 276 3 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern college northern 658 7 0 1 1 0 0 0 20% page 114 of 226 institutional profile: trent university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) trent university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double sault college northern 698 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 131 1 1 10 11 4 8 0.73 sheridan college central 180 2 0 7 7 2 4 0.57 st. clair college western 494 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 st. lawrence college eastern 187 2 0 4 4 2 4 1 5 132 137 103 206 1.50 grand total 20% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 115 of 226 institutional profile: trent university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to trent university. trent university enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at trent university. table 23: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with trent university generic sending programs preparation and career planning general arts and science - university transfer fleming college general arts and science trent transfer durham college general arts and science university transfer fleming college liberal arts seneca college specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture journalism - broadcast and electronic media durham college journalism - web and print durham college business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college business administration fleming college loyalist college business administration - accounting durham college fleming college business administration - human resource management fleming college business administration - marketing fleming college 5 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 116 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs business administration - materials management fleming college loyalist college business administration-human resources management loyalist college human resources - business administration durham college international trade fleming college marketing - business administration durham college operations management - business administration durham college education, community and social services aboriginal community advocacy program confederation college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation practical nursing fleming college partnership agreements with trent university 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 117 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs george brown college science and engineering technology bio-food technologist loyalist college biotechnology - advanced fleming college biotechnology technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology loyalist college computer engineering technology fleming college humber college computer programmer sheridan college computer programmer analyst conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college loyalist college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer system technology durham college fanshawe college george brown college seneca college sheridan college computer systems technician niagara college computer systems technician - networking georgian college computer systems technology conestoga college durham college fanshawe college partnership agreements with trent university 1 90 1 1 5 5 1 1 1 1 5 2 3 3 3 36 3 6 3 6 3 4 2 3 3 3 6 6 10 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 10 1 3 1 page 118 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs fleming college george brown college sault college seneca college sheridan college ecosystem management technology fleming college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology durham college fleming college fish and wildlife technology fleming college pharmaceutical and food science technology durham college software engineering technology centennial college grand total partnership agreements with trent university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 3 3 137 page 119 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph university of guelph the university of guelph is a publicly funded research university in guelph, ontario, canada. the university of guelph consists of seven colleges whose undergraduate and graduate programs span the natural and physical sciences, social sciences and humanities: college of arts, college of biological science, college of business and economics, college of physical and engineering science, college of social and applied human sciences, ontario agricultural college, ontario veterinary college (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_guelph#profile_and_programs in august, 2015). the university of guelph is home to 18, 294 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 24 colleges only the following 5 sending college partners are within commutable range ( less than 80km commuting distance). centennial college, conestoga college, humber college, mohawk college, sheridan college. 74% of transfer students to the university of guelph come from commutable college sending partners. pathways with 1 137 generic sending programs pathways with 136 specific sending programs guelph allows 1 generic pathway, accepting students from a program from conestoga college in general arts and science. guelph allows specific pathways from the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture; culinary/hospitality/tourism; education, community and social services, and science and engineering technology. 75% of the sending partnership agreements are in the program areas of science, and engineering technology. page 120 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 121 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph table 24: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 18,294; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* region eastern northern northern metro toronto area pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) university of guelph (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 513 5 0 7 7 4 8 1.1 449 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 399 4 0 10 10 1 2 0.2 97 1 0 15 15 4 8 0.5 442 4 1 2 0 8 0 1 10 11 14 28 2.55 1434 15 0 2 2 0 0 0 136 2 0 8 8 1 2 0.25 125 1 0 6 6 7 14 2.33 college boreal conestoga college* confederation college nothern durham college fanshawe college central fleming college george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 186 2 0 9 9 2 4 0.44 88 1 0 4 4 3 6 1.50 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 150 2 0 6 6 4 8 1.33 72 1 0 3 3 39 78 26.00 la cit collgiale eastern 529 5 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 lambton college western 222 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 257 3 0 10 10 0 0 0 southern northern southern 4% 13% 2% 38% page 122 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph geographical data sending institution mohawk college* region southern niagara college northern college southern sault college northern metro toronto area seneca college sheridan college* st. clair college st. lawrence college northern central western eastern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) university of guelph (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 47 1 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 123 1 0 6 6 1 2 0.33 745 8 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 736 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 98 1 0 13 13 6 12 0.92 64 1 0 3 3 11 22 7.33 299 3 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 334 3 0 8 8 0 0 0 137 137 104 208 1.52 grand total 3% 11% 68% *blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 123 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of guelph. guelph enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at the university of guelph. table 25: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with university of sending institution programs guelph generic sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 1 general arts & science 1 conestoga college 1 specific sending programs culinary/hospitality/tourism 29 food and beverage management 1 george brown college 1 gestion htelire et de restaurant 1 la cit collgiale 1 hospitality administration 1 canadore college 1 hospitality administration - hotel and resort 2 fleming college 1 georgian college 1 hospitality management - food and beverage 1 fanshawe college 1 hospitality management - hotel 1 fanshawe college 1 hospitality management - hotel and resort 3 centennial college 1 georgian college 1 sault college 1 hospitality management - hotel and restaurant 6 algonquin college 1 conestoga college 1 niagara college 1 seneca college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and 1 page 124 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs resort confederation college hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and tourism durham college hospitality management - restaurant and catering centennial college hotel and restaurant management fleming college humber college hotel and tourism management lambton college hotel management george brown college tour mg - bus (2-yr) plus hos & tour - mgt sys (1-yr) niagara college tourism and travel algonquin college tourism management - business development niagara college tourism management - cultural & heritage tourism centennial college tourism management - travel industry services humber college tourism mgt - ti (2-yr) plus tourism & hosp ad (1-yr) humber college education, community and social services customs border service - law and security administration fleming college early childhood education conestoga college law and security administration cambrian college protection, security and investigation mohawk college science and engineering technology biotechnology mohawk college biotechnology - advanced fleming college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with university of guelph 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 103 4 4 8 4 4 page 125 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs biotechnology advanced algonquin college durham college seneca college biotechnology technician canadore college conestoga college loyalist college biotechnology technician - industrial microbiology centennial college biotechnology technologist canadore college loyalist college biotechnology technologist - advanced canadore college biotechnology technologist - industrial microbiology centennial college biotechnology technologist - research seneca college chemical engineering technology seneca college chemical laboratory technology - pharmaceutical seneca college computer programmer analyst durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college computer programmer/analyst conestoga college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer systems technology - systems analyst sheridan college environmental technician algonquin college centennial college confederation college fleming college partnership agreements with university of guelph 12 4 4 4 12 4 4 4 4 4 7 3 4 1 1 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 10 1 1 1 1 page 126 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs georgian college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college environmental technician - field and laboratory niagara college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college environmental technician - sampling and monitoring seneca college environmental technician - water and wastewater operations northern college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college seneca college landscape design fanshawe college natural environment technician - conservation and management sault college natural environment technologist - conservation and management sault college software engineering technology centennial college conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with university of guelph 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 137 page 127 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber university of guelph-humber the university of guelph-humber (also known as ugh) is collaboration between the university of guelph and humber college institute of technology & advanced learning and was established in 2002. it is located on humber's north campus in toronto, ontario, canada. the university offers seven four-year undergraduate academic programs, each of which grant a university honours degree from the university of guelph and a college diploma from humber college. the university offers an early childhood degree completion program (basc) and a justice studies degree completion program (baa). these degree completion programs allow professionals in the respective fields with a college diploma to earn their degree while working (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_guelph-humber). partnership description: number 24 structure colleges only. geographical 6 college sending partners are within commutable range (<80 km); proximity centennial college, conestoga college, georgian college, mohawk college, seneca college, and sheridan college. 30% of the transfer students-share to the university of guelph-humber, are coming from commutable partners. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with 14 266 generic sending programs pathways with 252 specific sending programs 1 generic pathway established with 14 college partners from the preparation and career planning stream. guelph-humber accepts transfer students from a general arts and science program. guelph-humber accepts transfer students from the following program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health food and medical, recreation. 69% of the partnership agreements allow transfer students from education, community and social services. page 128 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 129 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber table 26: pathways by sending institution geographic information sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) distance (km) between institutions region travel duration (hr) between institutions double distance (km) between institutions region eastern 455 4 1 12 13 1 2 0.15 northern 385 4 1 14 15 0 0 0 northern metro toronto area 335 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.00 40 1 0 13 13 0 0 0.00 collge boral conestoga college confederation college northern 378 4 0 10 10 0 0 0.00 southern 79 1 1 8 9 1 2 0.22 northern 1370 14 1 8 9 0 0 0.00 durham college fanshawe college central 72 1 0 12 12 0 0 0.00 southern 178 2 1 10 11 0 0 0.00 fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 129 1 0 13 13 0 0 0.00 31 0 1 8 9 0 0 0.00 georgian college 87 1 1 12 13 1 2 0.15 humber college central metro toronto area 0 0 0 15 15 6 12 0.80 la cit collgiale eastern 472 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.00 lambton college western 274 4 1 9 10 0 0 0.00 loyalist college eastern 200 2 1 13 14 0 0 0.00 mohawk college southern 72 1 1 13 14 0 0 0.00 niagara college southern 131 1 1 10 11 0 0 0.00 10% 10% page 130 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber geographic information sending institution northern college region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) distance (km) between institutions region travel duration (hr) between institutions double distance (km) between institutions region northern 682 7 0 8 8 0 0 0.00 673 7 1 7 8 0 0 0.00 seneca college northern metro toronto area 34 1 0 7 7 1 2 0.29 sheridan college central 37 1 1 11 12 0 0 0.00 st. clair college st. lawrence college western 351 3 0 10 10 0 0 0.00 eastern 277 3 1 11 12 0 0 0.00 14 252 266 10 20 0.08 sault college grand total 10% 30% * institutions within commutable range, equal or less than 80 km. page 131 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of guelph-humber. guelph-humber enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at he university of guelph-humber. table 27: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture business administration algonquin college collge boral conestoga college durham college fanshawe college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college journalism centennial college mohawk college journalism - online, print and broadcast loyalist college journalism - print and broadcast durham college humber college media communications humber college public relations cambrian college durham college humber college business/finance/administration accounting - business administration 21 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 28 1 page 132 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs durham college administration des affaires la cit collgiale business administration cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 185 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 133 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services worker loyalist college customs border service - law and security administration fleming college developmental services worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 25 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 134 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral la cit collgiale law and security administration cambrian college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 45 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 42 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 135 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation mohawk college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college social service worker - gerontology sheridan college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 page 136 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa partnership agreements with university of sending institution programs guelph-humber collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques des services policier la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation fitness and health promotion algonquin college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college fitness and lifestyle management george brown college physical fitness management cambrian college promotion de l'activit physique et de la sant collge boral generic sending programs preparation and career planning general arts and science algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 2 1 18 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 137 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. lawrence college grand total partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 266 page 138 of 226 institutional profile: uoit university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) is a public research university located in oshawa, ontario, canada. the university shares its campus with durham college. the university was founded in 2002 and accepted its first students in 2003, making it one of canada's newest universities. uoit caters to 8,727 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). uoit currently has 7 faculties: faculty of business and information technology, faculty of social sciences and humanities, faculty of education, faculty of energy systems and nuclear science, faculty of engineering and applied science, and a faculty of health sciences (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_ontario_institute_of_technology in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 colleges only. one partnership with the michener institute. 6 of the college sending partners are within commutable range (equal or less than 80km). 35% of all transfer students to uoit come from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 192 1257 pathways with specific 1065 sending programs within the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, health, food and medical, recreation, science, and engineering technology, uoit accepts transfer student from any ontario college diploma (2yr), and any ontario advanced diploma (3 yr). uoit also accepts a general arts and science program from durham college, and fleming college. uoit has specific partnerships across a variety of program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, health, food and medical, recreation, science, and engineering technology, business, finance, administration, skills, trades, and technologies, and education, community and social services. 35% of the partnership agreements with uoit take transfer students from education, community and social services. page 139 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 140 of 226 institutional profile: uoit table 28: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 8,727; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to mcmaster university number of specific agreement eastern 391 4 8 63 71 northern 385 4 8 42 50 northern metro toronto area 303 3 8 21 29 43 1 8 68 76 collge boral conestoga college confederation college northern 378 4 8 25 33 southern 142 2 8 49 57 northern 1370 15 8 30 38 durham college fanshawe college central 6 0 8 71 79 241 2 8 55 63 fleming college* george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 65 1 8 47 55 southern 67 1 8 30 38 estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 58 0.76 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0.05 93 186 2.35 3 6 0.10 9 18 0.33 2 4 0.11 1 2 0.04 3 6 0.10 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 134 1 8 48 56 73 1 8 55 63 la cit collgiale eastern 408 4 8 33 41 2 4 0.10 lambton college western 338 3 8 35 43 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 136 1 8 40 48 1 2 0.04 0 0 mohawk college southern 141 1 8 52 60 0 niagara college northern college southern 204 2 8 45 53 0 0 0 northern 650 7 8 24 32 0 0 0 18% 6% 1% 2% page 141 of 226 institutional profile: uoit geographical information sending institution sault college seneca college* sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute* grand total region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to mcmaster university number of specific agreement northern metro toronto area metro toronto area 672 7 8 31 39 50 1 8 60 68 104 1 8 50 58 western 415 4 8 50 58 eastern metro toronto area estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample 214 2 8 38 46 68 1 0 3 3 192 1065 1257 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 0 0 0 14 28 0.41 2 4 0.07 1 2 0.03 0 0 0 0 0 0 161 322 0.26 9% 35% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 142 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to uoit. uoit enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uoit. number reflect oncat data pulled as of 07/11/15. table 29: pathways by sending programs sending institution programs partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 24 1 1 page 143 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college arts, fine arts and culture advertising mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college centennial college durham college mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 67 3 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 144 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 145 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college broadcasting - radio, television and film niagara college broadcasting and film centennial college journalism centennial college mohawk college journalism - online, print and broadcast loyalist college journalism - print and broadcast durham college humber college techniques de travail social la cit collgiale business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college seneca college accounting - business durham college accounting - business administration durham college accounting and finance seneca college administration des affaires - compatabilite la cit collgiale administration des affaires comptabilit collge boral administration des affaires - marketing la cit collgiale advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college centennial college durham college mohawk college st. clair college st. lawrence college business - accounting algonquin college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 132 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 16 1 page 146 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs cambrian college canadore college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business - finance centennial college fanshawe college sheridan college business - financial services mohawk college business - human resources confederation college fanshawe college sheridan college st. lawrence college business - insurance fanshawe college seneca college business - marketing algonquin college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college humber college mohawk college northern college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 2 1 2 2 4 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 147 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs st. lawrence college business - operations centennial college durham college business - payroll and bookkeeping fanshawe college business - purchasing conestoga college fanshawe college business accounting - financial and credit management centennial college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college niagara college northern college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting and financial services sault college business administration - business operations management centennial college business administration - finance algonquin college sheridan college st. clair college business administration financial planning seneca college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 17 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 page 148 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs business administration - human resources algonquin college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources management fleming college loyalist college northern college business administration - leadership and management fanshawe college business administration - marketing algonquin college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - materials and operations management algonquin college business administration - operations management durham college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 2 page 149 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs niagara college business administration - purchasing and supply management seneca college business administration - supply chain and operations management conestoga college financial services - client services seneca college human resources - business durham college human resources - business administration durham college insurance mohawk college insurance - property and casualty conestoga college marketing - business durham college marketing - business administration durham college public relations cambrian college durham college humber college education, community and social services behavioural sciences seneca college child & youth worker northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 440 2 2 3 3 77 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 page 150 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college court and tribunal administration seneca college customs border service loyalist college customs border services loyalist college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 42 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 2 2 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 151 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs northern college st. clair college developmental services worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college st. clair college interventions aupres des personnes ayant un handicap la cit collgiale law & security administration cambrian college law and security administration cambrian college lambton college niagara college sault college st. clair college law and security administration - customs border services fleming college law and security administration private security mohawk college law and security administration - security and risk management fleming college law clerk algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 152 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college niagara college northern college seneca college st. lawrence college law clerk advanced durham college parajuriste la cit collgiale paralegal algonquin college durham college fleming college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college paralegal education humber college paramedic algonquin college cambrian college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college niagara college northern college st. clair college st. lawrence college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 16 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 16 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 84 4 4 4 4 page 153 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection security and investigation conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college protection, security and investigation cambrian college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 14 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 39 1 3 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 page 154 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs sault college st. clair college sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit collgiale social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college soins paramdicaux collge boral la cit collgiale techniques dducation spcialise (child and youth worker) collge boral techniques de readaptation et de justice penale la cit collgiale techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge boral techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques d'education specialisee collge boral la cit collgiale partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 3 3 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 6 2 4 page 155 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 8 4 4 188 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 156 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college assistant de l'ergothrapeute et assistant du physiothrapeute collge boral la cit collgiale biomedical engineering technology centennial college durham college biotechnology - advanced durham college fleming college cardiovascular technology mohawk college st. clair college dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college fitness & lifesytle management george brown college fitness and health promotion algonquin college centennial college conestoga college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 page 157 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college humber college loyalist college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college health informatics technology centennial college health information management fleming college george brown college st. lawrence college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale massage therapy algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college massothrapie collge boral mohawk college northern college medical laboratory science st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute medical laboratory technology cambrian college medical radiation technology algonquin college cambrian college confederation college fanshawe college occupational therapist assistant and partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 12 page 158 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs physiotherapist assistant canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fleming college georgian college humber college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college opticianry georgian college seneca college pharmacy technician centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. clair college practical nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 46 3 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 page 159 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college promotion de l'activite physique et de la sante collge boral radiological technology the michener institute respiratory therapy algonquin college canadore college conestoga college fanshawe college st. clair college the michener institute soins infirmiers auxiliaires collge boral la cit collgiale techniques pharmaceutiques collge boral la cit collgiale thrapeute respiratoire la cit collgiale preparation and career planning general arts and science durham college general arts and science - university transfer fleming college science and engineering technology 3d animation, art and design humber college alternative energy engineering technology lambton college animation algonquin college cambrian college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 8 4 4 4 4 372 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 page 160 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs loyalist college seneca college animation - digital arts durham college animation - digital production durham college animation 2d/3d collge boral animation 3d la cit collgiale animation 3d avance la cit collgiale any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 page 161 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college biomedical engineering technology - equipment and devices st. clair college biotechnology canadore college biotechnology - advanced algonquin college centennial college durham college fleming college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college biotechnology advanced algonquin college durham college biotechnology technologist canadore college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college biotechnology technologist - industrial partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 page 162 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs microbiology centennial college chemical engineering technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - environmental mohawk college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college chemical production and power engineering technology lambton college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college civil engineering technology - environmental conestoga college compter systems technician durham college computer and network support technician humber college computer and networking support technician humber college computer engineering technician fleming college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 page 163 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs george brown college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college mohawk college niagara college northern college sheridan college computer engineering technician - embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology conestoga college fleming college humber college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer engineering technology - computer science algonquin college computer engineering technology - computing science algonquin college computer engineering technology - embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology - networking st. clair college computer networking and technical support seneca college st. lawrence college computer programmer algonquin college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 18 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 21 2 2 2 1 2 2 page 164 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college computer programmer analyst cambrian college canadore college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college computer programmer/ analyst conestoga college computer programmer/analyst conestoga college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer security and investigations fleming college computer systems technician algonquin college canadore college centennial college collge boral durham college fanshawe college niagara college computer systems technician - network systems mohawk college computer systems technician - networking centennial college georgian college st. clair college computer systems technician - software support mohawk college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 2 2 2 2 2 28 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 10 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 2 1 1 page 165 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs computer systems technology algonquin college cambrian college centennial college durham college fanshawe college george brown college la cit collgiale mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer systems technology - network engineering and security analyst mohawk college computer systems technology - networking algonquin college centennial college st. clair college computer systems technology networking algonquin college centennial college computer systems technology - security algonquin college computer systems technology - software development mohawk college computer systems technology software development & network engineering sheridan college computer systems technology - software development & networking engineering sheridan college computer systems technology - systems analyst sheridan college contemporary web design durham college digital animation centennial college digital media arts seneca college electrical engineering technology algonquin college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 18 1 2 1 3 3 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 6 2 2 2 2 1 1 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 7 1 page 166 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college niagara college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - control systems humber college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electro-mechanical engineering technology durham college sheridan college electro-mechanical engineering technology automation and robotics centennial college humber college electro-mechanical engineering technology building automation george brown college electronics engineering technician - broadband cable seneca college electronics engineering technician communications seneca college electronics engineering technician - computers seneca college electronics engineering technician - control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology centennial college durham college humber college niagara college sheridan college electronics engineering technology - partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 167 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs communications seneca college electronics engineering technology communications seneca college electronics engineering technology - control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology - industrial automation st. clair college electronics engineering technology telecommunications conestoga college energy systems design technology st. clair college energy systems engineering technology centennial college conestoga college st. lawrence college energy systems engineering technology - clean and renewable energy mohawk college energy systems technology cambrian college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college sault college seneca college fire protection engineering technology seneca college fire science technology partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 page 168 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college game art and design centennial college game development algonquin college durham college george brown college niagara college game development technician st. lawrence college game programming george brown college humber college health informatics technology centennial college heating, refrigeration and air conditioning technology humber college heating, refrigeration, and air conditioning technology george brown college information technology support services conestoga college sheridan college instrumentation and control engineering technology lambton college instrumentation engineering technology industrial cambrian college interactive multimedia developer algonquin college internet applications and web development algonquin college durham college fanshawe college st. clair college manufacturing engineering technology fanshawe college manufacturing engineering technology - welding and robotics conestoga college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 page 169 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs mechanical engineering technology algonquin college durham college humber college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - automated manufacturing conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - automotive manufacturing georgian college mechanical engineering technology - automotive product design st. clair college mechanical engineering technology - automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - building sciences seneca college mechanical engineering technology - design centennial college george brown college mechanical engineering technology - design and analysis conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - design and drafting sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - industrial centennial college mechanical engineering technology - industrial design seneca college mechanical engineering technology - robotics and automation conestoga college mobile device integration - cloud infrastructure humber college multimedia 3d animation partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 170 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs humber college multimedia design and development humber college multimedia production confederation college power engineering technology cambrian college georgian college power engineering technology - chemical lambton college power engineering technology - mechanical st. clair college software engineering technician centennial college conestoga college software engineering technology centennial college conestoga college software engineering technology - interactive gaming centennial college techniques du gnie informatique collge boral technologie de l'environment la cit collgiale technologie du genie informatique collge boral la cit collgiale web animation and design georgian college web design and interactive media humber college wireless/mobility telecommunications engineering technician algonquin college wireless/mobility telecommunications engineering technology algonquin college skills, trades and technologies welding engineering technology northern college welding engineering technology - inspection partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 5 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 page 171 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1257 page 172 of 226 institutional profile: uoit university of ottawa the university of ottawa (uottawa or u of o) is a bilingual public research university in ottawa. the university offers a wide variety of academic programs, administered by ten faculties. it is a member of the u15, a group of research-intensive universities in canada. this research university is a member of the association of universities and colleges of canada. it functions on a semester system, operating fall/winter and spring/summer sessions. undergraduate programs comprise the majority of the school's enrolment, serving 28,537 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). excluding saint paul, the university conferred 5,101 bachelor's degrees, 194 doctoral degrees, 1,439 master's degrees and 2,135 first professional degrees in 2012 (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_ottawa in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 colleges only. 2 college partners are within commutable distance (meaning equal or less than 80 km); algonquin college, and la cit collgiale. 83% of the total transfer students to uottawa are from commutable partners. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 48 106 pathways with specific 58 sending programs uottawa has two generic receiving pathways for all sending college partners for students who have competed any ontario college advanced diploma (3 yr) or any ontario college diploma (2 yr). uottawa also accepts students with generic diploma programs in business, finance and administration. uottawa accepts students from the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, business, finance, administration, health, food, and medical recreation. 48% of the sending transfer agreements are from programs in business, finance, and administration. page 173 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 174 of 226 institutional profile: uoit table 30: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 28,537; proportion of registered transfer students: 2% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution algonquin college* cambrian college canadore college centennial college region eastern northern northern metro toronto area distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to uottawa estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 14 0 2 4 6 74 148 24.7 484 5 2 5 7 4 8 1.1 364 4 2 2 4 0 0 0 427 4 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 486 5 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 529 5 2 2 4 3 6 1.5 1459 16 2 2 4 0 0 0 338 4 2 2 4 2 4 1 628 6 2 2 4 0 0 0 collge boral conestoga college confederation college eastern durham college fanshawe college central fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 339 3 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 451 4 2 2 4 3 6 1.5 georgian college central 411 4 2 2 4 4 8 2 humber college la cit collgiale* central 464 4 2 2 4 2 4 1 6 0 2 5 7 86 172 24.6 lambton college western 724 7 2 2 4 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 270 3 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 mohawk college southern 520 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 niagara college northern college southern 583 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 710 8 2 2 4 0 0 0 southern northern southern eastern northern 39% 45% page 175 of 226 institutional profile: uoit geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to uottawa estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 793 9 2 2 4 0 0 0 seneca college northern metro toronto area 438 4 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 sheridan college central 487 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 st. clair college st. lawrence college western 801 8 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 201 2 2 4 6 8 16 2.7 48 58 106 192 384 3.6 sault college eastern grand total 83% *blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 176 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of ottawa. uottawa enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uottawa. table 31: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with university of ottawa generic sending programs any three-year program 24 any three-year college advanced diploma in a nonbusiness related field 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 any two-year program 24 any two-year college diploma in a non-business related field 24 sending institution programs page 177 of 226 institutional profile: uoit partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 7 journalism 1 algonquin college 1 journalisme 1 la cit collgiale 1 music and digital media 1 st. lawrence college 1 music and digital media program 1 st. lawrence college 1 music- performance diploma 3 cambrian college 3 business/finance/administration 50 any three-year college advanced diploma in a business related field 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 sending institution programs algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college page 178 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year college diploma in a business-related field algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 179 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college public relations algonquin college relations publiques la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation techniques des services en loisirs la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 106 page 180 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto university of toronto the university of toronto (u of t, utoronto, or toronto) is a public research university in toronto. as a collegiate university, it comprises twelve colleges that differ in character and history, each retaining substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs. u of t has two satellite campuses located in scarborough and mississauga. undergraduate the university of toronto offers about 700 undergraduate programs in humanities & social sciences, life sciences, physical & mathematical sciences, commerce & management, computer science, engineering, kinesiology & physical education, music and architecture. the university offers second entry professional programs in education, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, law and medicine. graduate the university of toronto offers 222 masters and doctoral level graduate programs in a wide variety of fields. this includes 59 professional graduate programs and 45 combined programs that include professional masters components. u of t also offers 44 collaborative programs. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_toronto#academics in august 2015). partnership description: number 5 structure colleges only geographical proximity 4 college partners are within commutable range (less than 80km commuting distance). u of t receives transfer students from 3 other colleges which do not have established transfer pathways set up. the three colleges are within commutable range. 95% of the estimated transfer student population to u of t are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 9 pathways with specific 9 sending programs u of ts sending partnerships are all with generic pathways, allowing students from the 5 college senders entry with programs in general arts and science. these college programs are all with the intent of the student transferring to university. 2 liberal arts programs (seneca-woodsworth joint transfer) page 181 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 182 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto table 32: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 34,562 ; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution agonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* durham college* fanshawe college region eastern northern northern metro toronto area central southern distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of toronto number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample 441 4 0 0 0 1 2 397 4 0 0 0 1 2 347 4 0 0 0 1 2 26 0 0 0 0 15 30 12% 68 1 0 0 0 6 12 5% 191 2 0 0 0 1 2 fleming college george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 115 1 0 0 0 3 6 4 0 0 2 2 25 50 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 99 1 0 0 0 2 4 35 0 0 2 2 19 38 loyalist college mohawk college* eastern 185 2 0 0 0 1 2 72 1 0 1 1 1 niagara college southern metro toronto area 134 1 0 1 1 21 0 0 2 40 1 0 364 4 262 3 seneca college* sheridan college* st clair college st lawrence college grand total southern central southern eastern estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 20% 19 15% 2 2 1% 1 2 2 2 27 54 27 21% 1 1 22 44 44 17% 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 9 9 128 256 36.6 95% page 183 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto *institutions within commutable range ( less than 80km) *numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with u of t (27/11/2015) page 184 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to u of t. u of t enables mostly generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at u of t. the following numbers reflect feedback incorporated from u of t consultation as of 27/11/15. table 33: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of toronto specific sending programs preparation and career planning general arts & science - degree transfer niagara college general arts & science - university profile sheridan college general arts & science - university transfer mohawk college general arts & science - college and university transfer humber college general arts and science humber college george brown college liberal arts seneca college seneca-woodsworth joint transfer program (from liberal arts) seneca college grand total 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 9 page 185 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo university of waterloo the university of waterloo (commonly referred to as waterloo, uw or uwaterloo) is a public research university with a main campus located in waterloo, ontario, canada. it was established to fill the need to train engineers and technicians for canada's growing postwar economy. it grew substantially over the next decade, adding a faculty of arts in 1960, and the college of optometry of ontario, which moved from toronto in 1967. currently, the university offers academic programs administered by six faculties and 10 faculty based schools: faculties faculty of applied health sciences faculty of arts faculty of engineering faculty of environment faculty of mathematics faculty of science faculty based schools school of public health and health systems school of accounting and finance balsillie school of international affairs university of waterloo school of architecture school of environment, enterprise and development school of planning david r. cheriton school of computer science school of optometry and vision science school of pharmacy (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_waterloo). uwaterloo is best known for their co-operative education programs. the university is coeducational, and has 29,004 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 10 colleges only 2 colleges listed are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). mohawk college is the only college partner that is in commutable range. though uwaterloo has no articulation agreement with conestoga college, 38% of the total transfer student population come from conestoga college. 42% of the transfer student population come from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic 1 12 sending programs pathways with specific 11 sending programs generic uwaterloo has 1 generic pathway from niagara college, allowing students to transfer from a general arts and science program. page 186 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo specific u waterloo has 11 specific pathways within the program areas of arts, fine arts, culture; business/finance/administration; health, food, medical, and recreation. the majority of the transfer agreements allow students to transfer from programs in the area of health, food, medical, and recreation. pathways by sending institution: the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 187 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo table 34: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 29,004; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution region algonquin college canadore college centennial college conestoga college* confederation college fanshawe college eastern northern metro toronto area northern northern southern distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of waterloo number of specific agreements estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 540 5 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 426 4 0 1 1 1 2 2 125 1 0 1 1 1 2 2 25 0 0 0 0 20 40 n/a 1461 15 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 108 1 0 3 3 4 8 2.67 fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 214 2 0 1 1 115 1 0 0 0 1 2 n/a georgian college 178 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 humber college central metro toronto area 99 1 0 1 1 3 6 6 lambton college western 205 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 loyalist college mohawk college* eastern 284 3 0 1 1 74 1 0 1 1 2 4 4 niagara college southern metro toronto area 151 2 1 0 1 6 12 12 125 1 0 0 0 5 10 n/a 91 1 0 0 0 4 8 n/a 361 4 0 0 0 1 2 n/a seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college southern central eastern 38% 0 0 4% page 188 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo grand total 1 11 12 52 104 8 42% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range ( less than 80km) page 189 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of waterloo. uwaterloo enables mostly specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uwaterloo. table 35: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of waterloo specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 2 fine arts - advanced 1 georgian college 1 interactive media design and production 1 fanshawe college 1 business/finance/administration 1 business-marketing 1 fanshawe college 1 health, food and medical, recreation 8 recreation and leisure services 7 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 humber college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 sports and recreation management 1 lambton college 1 generic sending programs preparation and career planning 1 general arts and science 1 niagara college 1 grand total 12 page 190 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor university of windsor the university of windsor (u of w or uwindsor) is a public research university in windsor, ontario, canada. uwinsor has an undergraduate population of 11,425 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). the university of windsor has nine faculties, including the faculty of arts, humanities and social sciences, the faculty of education, the faculty of engineering, odette school of business, the faculty of graduate studies, the faculty of human kinetics, the faculty of law, the faculty of nursing, and the faculty of science. through its various faculties and independent schools, windsor's primary research interests focus on automotive, environmental, and social justice research, yet it has increasingly began focusing on health, natural science, and entrepreneurship research. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_windsor) partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 all colleges st. clair college is within commutable range; 57% of all transfer students to uwindsor come from st. clair college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 6 306 pathways with specific 300 sending programs uwindsor allows a generic pathway in for students with a diploma in general arts and science from lambton college and fleming college. uwindsor has 5 specific pathways within the program areas of arts, fine arts, culture; business/finance/administration; education, community, and social services; and health, food, medical, recreation. 46% of transfer agreements are accepting students in program areas of education, community, and social services. page 191 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 192 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor table 36: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 11,425; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of windsor number of specific agreement transfer students in sample estimated number of transfer students estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 800 7 0 13 13 1 2 0.2 cambrian college northern 736 7 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 canadore college northern 686 6 0 8 8 0 0 0.0 centennial college metro toronto area 384 4 0 13 13 2 4 0.3 collge boral northern 729 7 0 8 8 0 0 0.0 conestoga college southern 300 3 0 10 10 3 6 0.6 confederation college northern 1267 13 0 10 10 0 0 0.0 durham college central 423 4 0 13 13 4 8 0.6 fanshawe college southern 200 2 0 15 15 7 14 0.9 fleming college eastern 473 5 3 13 16 2 4 0.3 george brown college metro toronto area 372 4 0 9 9 3 6 0.7 georgian college central 437 4 0 13 13 0 0 0.0 humber college metro toronto area 359 3 0 13 13 3 6 0.5 la cit collgiale la collge des grands lacs eastern 816 8 0 9 9 0 0 0.0 metro toronto area 373 4 0 4 4 0 0 0.0 lambton college western 116 1 3 17 20 3 6 0.3 loyalist college eastern 544 5 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 mohawk college southern 307 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.0 niagara college southern 385 4 0 12 12 1 2 0.2 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range page 193 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of windsor transfer students in sample estimated number of transfer students estimated number of students per pathway ratio northern college northern 1032 10 0 10 10 0 0 0.0 sault college northern 570 5 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 seneca college metro toronto area 385 4 0 12 12 2 4 0.3 sheridan college central 337 3 0 12 12 5 10 0.8 st. clair college* western 9 0 0 30 30 48 96 3.2 st. lawrence college eastern 621 6 0 11 11 0 0 0.0 6 300 306 84 168 0.5 grand total *institutions within commutable range ( equal or less than 80km) *numbers as of 09/11/15. estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 57% 57% page 194 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of windsor. university of windsor enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at the university of windsor. the following numbers reflect feedback incorporated as of 25/11/15. table 37: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of windsor generic sending programs preparation and career planning 8 general arts and science college exploration 1 lambton college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 general arts and science - psychology stream lambton college 2 2 general arts and science - university transfer fleming college 3 3 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture bachelor of craft and design (degree program) sheridan college general arts and science algonquin college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college northern college 20 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 195 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs sault college seneca college journalism st. clair college business/finance/administration business algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 2 2 49 24 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 25 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 196 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child and youth care algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college development services worker diploma (2 yr) partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 142 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 13 page 197 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college developmental services worker st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college (online) ducation en services l'enfance la cit collgiale partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 25 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 page 198 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs protection, security, and investigation cambrian college police foundations lambton college st. clair college protection, security and investigation algonquin college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social services worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 3 3 6 3 3 45 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 199 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs northern college sault college a seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation dental hygiene st. clair college massage therapy lambton college medical laboratory technician st. clair college medical laboratory technology lambton college recreation and leisure services fanshawe college sports and recreation management lambton college preparation and career planning general arts and science - university transfer fleming college science and engineering technology any ontario college computer technology advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 10 3 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 80 26 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 200 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college computer-related advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college chemical laboratory technology st. clair college civil engineering technology st. clair college computer systems technology - networking partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 50 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 page 201 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design st. clair college grand total partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 312 page 202 of 226 institutional profile: western university western university western university is a public research university located in london, ontario, canada. western university currently offers undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, and professional degrees through the following faculties: faculty of arts and humanities, richard ivey school of business, faculty of education, faculty of engineering, faculty of health sciences, faculty of information, and media studies, faculty of law, schulich school of medicine and dentistry, don wright faculty of music, faculty of science, and the faculty of social science. western's co-educational student body of over 24,000 represents 107 countries around the world and western scholars have established research and education collaborations and partnerships on every continent. there are more than 306,000 alumni who are active internationally, living and working around the globe (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_western_ontario) . in 2014, western university served 22,506 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 18 partners are all public colleges. fanshawe college and lambton college are the only partners within commutable range (>80km). 76% of the transfer students to western university come from fanshawe college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 2 56 pathways with specific 54 sending programs western university allows two generic pathways into their degree programs from students from fanshawe college. western university allows 54 specific pathways into their degree programs. the majority of pathways allow access for students coming from programs in science and engineering technology. page 203 of 226 institutional profile: western university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 204 of 226 institutional profile: western university table 38: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 22,506; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to western university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 625 6 0 1 1 2 4 4 canadore college northern 511 5 0 1 1 1 2 2 centennial college metro toronto area 209 2 0 2 2 1 2 1 confederation college northern 1362 14 0 1 1 0 0 0 consestoga college southern 125 1 0 0 0 3 6 n/a durham college central 248 3 0 1 1 3 6 6 fanshawe college* southern 8 0 2 27 29 105 210 7.2 fleming college eastern 298 3 0 2 2 0 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 197 2 0 2 2 4 8 4 georgian college central 262 3 0 2 2 3 6 3 humber college metro toronto area 184 2 0 0 0 3 6 n/a lambton college* western 95 1 0 3 3 3 6 2 loyalist college eastern 369 4 0 2 2 1 2 1 mohawk college southern 132 1 0 1 1 1 2 2 niagara college southern 210 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 northern college northern 857 9 0 1 1 0 0 0 sault college northern 665 6 0 2 2 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 210 2 0 3 3 4 8 2.7 sheridan college central 162 2 0 1 1 3 6 6 st clair college western 187 2 0 0 0 1 2 n/a estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 76% 2% page 205 of 226 institutional profile: western university st. lawrence college eastern 446 4 grand total 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 54 56 139 278 4.96 78% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range, meaning less than 80km. page 206 of 226 institutional profile: western university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that western university has formal agreements to accept students from. western university enables both specific and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at western university. table 39: pathways by sending program sending institution programs arts, fine arts and culture general arts and science - university preparatory studies major fanshawe college theatre arts fanshawe college business/finance/administration business - accounting fanshawe college business administration - accounting lambton college business-finance fanshawe college education, community and social services child and youth worker fanshawe college lambton college early childhood education fanshawe college general arts and science, first nations studies major fanshawe college police foundations fanshawe college social service worker fanshawe college lambton college social service worker - fast track fanshawe college health, food and medical, recreation culinary management nutrition partnership agreements with western university 3 2 2 1 1 6 4 4 1 1 1 1 8 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 4 2 page 207 of 226 institutional profile: western university sending institution programs george brown college food and nutrition management fanshawe college science and engineering technology chemical laboratory technology - science laboratory fanshawe college computer programmer analyst fanshawe college environment technician algonquin college environmental technician centennial college confederation college fleming college georgian college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college environmental technician - field and laboratory niagara college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college environmental technician - sampling and monitoring seneca college environmental technician - water and wastewater operations northern college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college seneca college natural environmental technician - conservation and management partnership agreements with western university 2 2 2 35 2 2 3 3 1 1 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 page 208 of 226 institutional profile: western university sending institution programs sault college natural environmental technologist - conservation and management sault college science laboratory technology fanshawe college grand total partnership agreements with western university 1 1 1 2 2 56 page 209 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university wilfrid laurier university wilfrid laurier university (commonly referred to as laurier or wlu), is a canadian public research university located in the heart of waterloo, ontario, canada. laurier is home to around 14,898 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). laurier university offers degree programs through its 6 faculties: faculty of arts, faculty of science, faculty of education, faculty of music, faculty of social work, and the laurier school of business and economics (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wilfrid_laurier_university in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 23 colleges only 2 college partners are within commutable range (meaning equal or less than 80km): conestoga college and mohawk college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 43 132 pathways with specific 89 sending programs laurier university allows two generic pathways from all partner colleges. students are allowed to transfer from any ontario college advanced diploma, (3 yr) or any ontario college diploma (2yr) laurier university allows specific pathways from business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical recreation. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. page 210 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 211 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university table 40: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 14,898; proportion of registered transfer students: 0.40% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to wilfred laurier university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 539 5 2 4 6 0 0 0 cambrian college northern 475 5 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 canadore college northern 425 4 2 3 5 0 0 0 centennial college metro toronto area 124 1 2 4 6 0 0 0 collge boral northern 468 5 0 3 3 0 0 0 conestoga college* southern 24 0 2 4 6 36 72 6 confederation college northern 1460 15 2 4 6 0 0 0 durham college central 162 2 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 fanshawe college southern 114 1 2 4 6 2 4 0.33 fleming college eastern 213 2 2 4 6 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 114 1 1 2 3 2 4 georgian college central 177 2 2 4 6 0 0 humber college metro toronto area 98 1 2 4 6 5 10 0.83 lambton college western 210 2 2 4 6 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 283 3 2 4 6 0 0 0 mohawk college* southern 73 1 2 5 7 25 50 3.57 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 41% 0.67 29% page 212 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to wilfred laurier university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio niagara college southern 150 2 2 4 6 9 18 1.5 northern college northern 772 8 2 4 6 0 0 0 sault college northern 763 8 2 4 6 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 124 1 2 4 6 2 4 0.33 sheridan college metro toronto area 90 1 2 4 6 3 6 0.5 st. clair college western 287 5 2 4 6 0 0 0 st. lawrence college eastern 360 3 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 43 89 132 87 174 1.32 grand total estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 70% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning less than 80km. page 213 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that laurier university has formal agreements to accept students from. laurier university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at laurier university. table 41: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college 22 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 21 1 1 page 214 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university sending institution programs canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs business/finance/administration any ontario business/finance/administration college advanced diploma collge boral any ontario college business advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college 44 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 215 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college business diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child & youth worker northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 43 1 1 20 1 1 1 1 1 page 216 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college techniques dducation spcialise collge boral health, food and medical, recreation partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 page 217 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs pre-health mohawk college pre-health certificate conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 132 page 218 of 226 institutional profile: york university york university york university, located in the gta, falls between the more research intensive and mainly undergraduate clusters. it is canada's third-largest university. it has eleven faculties, namely the faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, faculty of science, lassonde school of engineering, schulich school of business, osgoode hall law school, glendon college, faculty of education, faculty of health, faculty of environmental studies, faculty of graduate studies, the school of the arts, media, performance and design (formerly the faculty of fine arts), and 28 research centres (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/york_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 29 partners 4 aboriginal institutes, 24 public colleges, and the michener institute. 10 partners are within commutable range. ( meaning equal or less than 80 km distance). pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 1929 1960 pathways with specific 31 sending programs york university has two generic pathways with each partnership college, from any ontario college advanced diploma and any ontario college diploma. except for lambton college, each partnership college has 67 generic pathways (33 from any ontario college advanced diploma and 34 from any ontario college diploma) generic agreements with york university. york university has relatively small number of specific transfer agreements with its partnership colleges, which concentrates on arts, engineering, business and education. most of the specific sending programs are from seneca college. page 219 of 226 institutional profile: york university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 220 of 226 institutional profile: york university table 42: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 39,039; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to york university number of specific agreement estimated number of students per pathway ratio estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range algonquin college eastern 442 4 67 0 67 2 4 0.06 cambrian college northern 379 4 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 canadore college northern 329 3 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 metro toronto area 34 0 67 1 68 50 100 1.47 collge boral northern 372 4 67 0 67 6 12 0.18 conestoga college* southern 89 1 55 0 55 3 6 0.11 confederation college northern 1364 14 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 durham college* central 59 1 67 0 67 9 18 0.27 fanshawe college southern 188 2 67 1 68 2 4 0.06 first nations technical institute eastern 220 2 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 fleming college eastern 116 1 67 2 69 1 2 0.03 metro toronto area 41 1 67 0 67 28 56 0.84 7% central 81 1 67 1 68 24 48 0.71 6% metro toronto area 20 0 67 2 69 81 162 2.35 19% northern 512 5 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 la cit collgiale eastern 459 4 67 7 74 1 2 0.03 lambton college western 285 3 65 0 65 0 0 0.00 loyalist college eastern 187 2 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 centennial college* george brown college* georgian college* humber college* kenjgewin teg educational institute 12% 1% 2% page 221 of 226 institutional profile: york university geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to york university number of specific agreement estimated number of students per pathway ratio estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range mohawk college* southern 88 1 67 0 67 8 16 0.24 niagara college southern 151 2 67 0 67 4 8 0.12 northern college northern 676 7 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1354 14 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 sault college northern 667 7 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 seneca college* metro toronto area 21 0 67 14 81 151 302 3.73 36% sheridan college* metro toronto area 46 1 67 3 70 44 88 1.26 11% six nations polytechnic institute southern 119 1 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 st. clair college western 359 3 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 eastern 264 3 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 metro toronto area 20 0 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 0% 1929 31 1960 417 834 0.43 95% st. lawrence college the michener institute* grand total 2% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80km. page 222 of 226 pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that york university has formal agreements to accept students from. york university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at york university. table 43: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with york university generic sending programs any three-year program 955 any ontario college advanced diploma 955 algonquin college 33 cambrian college 33 canadore college 33 centennial college 33 collge boral 33 conestoga college 33 confederation college 33 durham college 33 fanshawe college 33 first nations technical institute 33 fleming college 33 george brown college 33 georgian college 33 humber college 33 kenjgewin teg educational institute 33 la cit collgiale 33 lambton college 31 loyalist college 33 mohawk college 33 niagara college 33 northern college 33 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 33 sault college 33 seneca college 33 sheridan college 33 six nations polytechnic institute 33 223 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs partnership agreements with york university st. clair college 33 st. lawrence college 33 the michener institute 33 any two-year program 986 any ontario college diploma 986 algonquin college 34 cambrian college 34 canadore college 34 centennial college 34 collge boral 34 conestoga college 34 confederation college 34 durham college 34 fanshawe college 34 first nations technical institute 34 fleming college 34 george brown college 34 georgian college 34 humber college 34 kenjgewin teg educational institute 34 la cit collgiale 34 lambton college 34 loyalist college 34 mohawk college 34 niagara college 34 northern college 34 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 34 sault college 34 seneca college 34 sheridan college 34 six nations polytechnic institute 34 st. clair college 34 st. lawrence college 34 the michener institute 34 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 9 fine art 1 fanshawe college 1 fine arts 1 georgian college 1 page 224 of 226 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs journalisme la cit collgiale media arts sheridan college publicit la cit collgiale relations publiques la cit collgiale theatre performance humber college visual and creative arts fleming college business/finance/administration accounting seneca college accounting and finance seneca college business - accounting centennial college humber college sheridan college education, community and social services education en services a 'enfance la cit collgiale social service worker seneca college social service worker - gerontology seneca college social service worker - immigrant and refugees seneca college techniques de travail social la cit collgiale techniques de travail social - gerontologie la cit collgiale preparation and career planning liberal arts seneca college science and engineering technology biotechnology advanced seneca college biotechnology technologist (research) partnership agreements with york university 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 page 225 of 226 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs seneca college chemical engineering technology seneca college chemical laboratory technology - pharmaceutical seneca college civil engineering technology seneca college ecosystem management technology fleming college environmental technology seneca college grand total partnership agreements with york university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1960 page 226 of 226

an analysis of caat transfer students academic performance at trent university dr. torben drewes, karen maki, kris lew, michelle willson, and kent stringham august, 2012 outline of the study this study considers 5 comparative questions about the academic performance of college transfer students in their baccalaureate completion studies at trent university. analysing the academic records of over 5 recent cohorts of at least 241 students each, it compares the performance of transfer and direct entry students, students transferring under a transfer agreement and those transferring outside an agreement, and graduates of the fleming college university transfer program relative to direct entry students. in addition, it investigates: the degree to which community college grades predict success rates in university1, and the variation of graduation rates and degree completion timelines between college transfer and direct entry students. findings based on average grades earned in baccalaureate study, college transfer students significantly outperformed direct entry high school admissions. college students who transferred under an articulation agreement (74.1% average gpa) outperformed all other categories including university transfers (72.6%), non-articulated transfers (69.6%), and high school direct entries (67.2%). findings from several different multivariate regression models reveal a significant 3% higher baccalaureate performance among females and 3% lower for first generation higher education students. based on a limited sample of college and university gpas, the study observes that college and university grades have a weak positive correlation. unadjusted drop-out rate2 comparisons found that students transferring under an articulation agreement are significantly less likely to drop out than any other group. using multivariate analysis to control for gender, age, first generation status and program choice, the drop-out rate of caat students entering under an articulation agreement was found to be dramatically lower than high school entrants. problematically, however, these observations compare students who have been 1 the data set used to pursue this question is limited to 2011/2012. the report notes that data limitations prevented the use of the common graduation within 6 years of admission completion rate measure. 2 2 granted transfer credits (and, therefore, are already advancing in their degree) with those entering directly from high school (and starting their studies at the beginning). to put high school entrants on an even footing, those who have earned 10 baccalaureate credits are compared with transfer students entering with an average of 9.2 transfer credits. the resulting drop-out rates are equivalent. the paper discusses the limitations of the findings, raises ancillary questions and suggests additional research questions. conclusions this report concludes that caat students who have come to trent have performed at least as well as those entering from high schools and their grades are as high. (p.17) the average grades of caat transfer students entering under an articulation agreement are significantly higher than direct high school entrants and their drop-out rates are lower. the drop-out rates for caat transfer and direct high school entry students are the same. (p. 17)

1 executive summary ontario colleges predominantly offer programming which leads to specific occupations in the labour market rather than further education. nevertheless, students and graduates are enrolling in many college programs with the intention to transfer to a university degree. early childhood education (ece) is a two year diploma program that prepares graduates directly for the labour market but also historically has had a high transfer rate to university. using the ece program in ontario as a case study, the interaction between the labour market and transfer to university was studied. several changes have occurred in the ece profession in ontario that have the potential to alter a students decision to transfer. these include the establishment of the college of early childhood educators in 2008, the phase-in of full-day kindergarten (fdk) between 2010 and 2014, the reduced demand for certified teachers, and the introduction of ece-related college degrees (starting in 2008). therefore, the overarching research question for this study is: how have the recent labour market and policy changes affected transfer to university for ece graduates? to answer this question analysis was performed on ece graduates at a province-wide and at a college-level. research questions: provincial-wide (ontario) what are the labour market trends for recent ece graduates in ontario? what are the trends in transfer rates to university after graduation from college ece programs? why do ece graduates transfer to university? have these reasons changed recently? what institutions and programs are ece transfers choosing? has the pattern changed? research questions: institutional-level analysis (seneca) what is the profile of ece entrants who aspire to transfer to university after graduation? what is the profile of ece graduates who transfer to university? what are the outcomes after transfer? methodology: there were two phases to the study. one was a provincial (ontario) analysis which included ece diploma graduates between the years 2007 and 2014. the graduate satisfaction survey, which is mandated and funded by the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities, was used to measure trends in employment, wages, transfer rates to university, and the transfer experience six months after graduation. the survey response rate was 70%, for a total sample of 18,165 respondents. the second phase focussed on 1) senecas ece students who entered the program between 2002 and 2014 and 2) senecas ece graduates between 2007 and 2014. for entrants, the academic and sociodemographic profiles of those who aspired to university at entry and those who did not were compared. the entrants sample size comprised of 5108 students. for graduates, the graduate satisfaction survey responses were linked to senecas comprehensive student information system, enabling the tracking of students from high school to college entry, graduation, and transfer to university. the sample size used for analysis contained 1503 ece graduates. the influence of sociodemographic and academic factors on the likelihood of aspiring to university and eventual transfer six months after graduation were assessed using both descriptive and regression models. sociodemographic factors included citizenship, age, and first language; academic factors included language proficiency (placement), high school background, previous university attendance and seneca gpa. in addition, a dataset developed previously containing all seneca students who had also attended york university was explored specifically for ece graduates to obtain a measure of outcomes after 2 transfer and mobility trends over time. this sample contained 472 ece graduates who had attended york university before or after enrolling in ece at seneca college. results: in 2014, ece graduates in ontario had an unemployment rate of 8%, half of the provincial average. hourly wages, when adjusted for inflation, have increased by 8% between 2007 and 2014 for ece graduates, compared to a drop of 6% for non-ece graduates. concurrently, the transfer rate to university has dropped from 17% in 2007 to 6% for 2014 graduates. at seneca college, ece entrants plans for university after graduation have dropped considerably in recent years, from 59% in 2009-10 to 35% in 2014-15, with plans for employment increasing from 26% to 46%. partially responsible for this result is a change in the composition of the students entering ece. in recent years ece students are more likely to be international, to be older and to have previously attended university. regression analysis showed that, controlling for other characteristics and year of entry, younger students, those who had taken university preparatory courses in high school, and those who obtained lower marks in high school were more likely to aspire to go on to university. similar to the trend seen provincially, transfer rates to university for senecas ece graduates dropped dramatically from 31% in 2007 to 6% in 2014. in addition to fewer entering students aspiring to transfer, the transfer rate for those who did aspire to go to university has also dropped. regression analysis showed that, independent of a variety of characteristics, those with aspirations for university, younger students, and those with higher seneca grades were more likely to transfer, whereas those with previous university, and those who graduated since 2010 were less likely. the independent effect of graduating year shows that the labour market and policy changes have had an effect in reducing transfer to university. for ece graduates from seneca who continued on to york between 2007 and 2012, 94% received at least one year of credit. between 2007 and 2011, 73% had already graduated or were in progress, with some of those who discontinued at york re-entering senecas bachelor of child development degree (bcd). recently, senecas bcd degree surpassed york as a degree destination for ece graduates, with 14% of senecas 2011-12 ece graduates continuing directly on to bcd, compared with 8% to york university. on a provincial level, university transfers who graduated from ece after 2010 were more likely to report that the program they transferred into was very related to their previous program, an increase to 54% from 45% in the 2007-2010 period. similarly, university transfers since 2010 were also more likely to report receiving more than one year of credit. post 2010, university transfers were less likely to cite needed for professional designation (-6.4%), or to pursue a different field of study (-3.6%) as reasons for transfer, indicative of both the regulatory changes in the field and an increase in alignment. conclusions: this paper demonstrates that a students decision to progress from a professional program like ece into university is not made in isolation from external factors. labour market conditions, the regulatory environment, and competition from related college degree offerings can all influence a students decision making. the results of this study suggest that, even when controlling for individual student characteristics that may influence transfer, transfer nevertheless declined as a result of, and concurrent with, the combined impact of changes to the ece profession in ontario.

project name: anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators executive summary the anishnaabemowin pathways project identified a pathway for students enrolled in the anishnaabemowin (ojibwe) language programming (anlp) program at georgian college to transfer seamlessly into lakehead universitys indigenous language teacher diploma (iltd) formerly native language teachers certificate program. this will be done through an integrated delivery format between georgian college (barrie) and lakehead university (orillia). prior to implementation, lakehead university will need to complete the revisions to its credential to meet new ontario college of teachers standards. as part of the oncat supported work, georgian also reviewed and revised its existing program with the help of language and subject matter experts and elders. we anticipate that students entering the sept 2017 cohort at georgian will have the option of moving into the iltd upon completion of the georgian program in 2019.

project number 2017-22 - accelerated curriculum for transfer opportunities pathways (actop) march 15, 2018 final report to oncat executive summary the objective of this project is to develop bilingual accelerated pathways between specific technical communication-related programs at both algonquin and la cit, and saint paul universitys social communication honours b.a. program via innovative new forms of intensive curriculum delivery, thereby enabling transfer students in these programs to complete their degree more rapidly in the official language of their choice. in todays employment market, many managerial positions require a minimum of a bachelors degree. those in possession of technical diplomas and who later desire career progression have to make a difficult decision: return to education or accept the limitations. the opportunity to combine a bachelors degree (theory) with a college diploma (technical) potentially eliminates that choice, and better prepares individuals for stronger career trajectories in their chosen field. the newly developed pathways permit students to potentially complete their certificate studies at either college in two years and then complete 60 university credits within a further calendar year, in either official language thus obtaining a b.a. (honours) in social communication at saint paul university. saint paul university faculty and staff worked rigorously to assess the college programs and courses and map appropriate learning-outcome equivalencies. as a result of these efforts, an equivalency map was developed for each of the communication related programs in both colleges, which can be used for future pathway projects. each college student from the mapped programs is eligible to apply for admission to the four-year saint paul university honours degree and, if accepted, to aim for completion of spu studies within 12 consecutive months. the year-long project resulted in the creation of 14 new articulation pathways which will offer students from both colleges even more options to pursue graduate studies in ontario. the college programs covered by the pathway agreements are: algonquin la cit photography photographie graphic design design graphique (lc) (3-years) broadcasting television production tlvisuelle broadcasting radio radio journalism journalisme public relations relations publiques advertising & marketing communications publicit et communication marketing this new agreement will allow new accelerated pathways of existing agreements in other disciplines to be implemented more easily in the future. although many meetings were held between participating institutions at all levels, and despite our best efforts to develop viable pathway options, we were not successful at implementing the accelerated program as planned in time to recruit students for the 2018 academic year. the prime reason was unforeseen delays prompted by the fiveweek ontario college strike which caused issues with our partners deliverables. for example, we were not able to obtain the necessary level of cross-institution dialogue required to ensure that our assumptions regarding core content and learning outcomes were accurate and appropriate. we were unable to survey as many students as planned. therefore advertising and marketing of the program was non-existent. however, the spirit of the program is completed and we were able to develop the suggested pathways. over the summer months, we will finalize the implementation process to implement these pathways immediately; we are confident we will be ready to launch the programs in the fall of 2018.

final report and summary accelerated curriculum for transfer opportunities pathways (actop) 2017-22 report prepared by pauline blanger and professor stephen stuart saint paul university (spu) march 15, 2018 list of participants and partner institutions algonquin college harpreet singh: academic manager, curriculum services collge la cit joseph aghaby: charg de projets, projets spciaux lise frenette, gestionnaire, projets spciaux chantal thiboutot, directrice prinicipale, planification institutionnelle et imputabilit saint paul university pauline blanger: manager of academic programs and strategic projects stephen stuart: lead professor (social communications) jean-marc barrette: vice rector academic and research saint paul manal guirguis-younger: dean, faculty of human science 2 contents list of participants and partner institutions .................................................................................................................................................................. 2 project purpose and goals ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 pathway development................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 rationale: ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 methodology.............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 meetings and consultations ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 program comparison and analysis .......................................................................................................................................................................... 10 implementation process and timelines ................................................................................................................................................................... 11 summary of pathways created .................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 promising practices and lessons learned ................................................................................................................................................................... 14 appendices:.................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 16 appendix a actop timelines and deliverables ............................................................................................................................................... 16 appendix b photo documents danalyse ............................................................................................................................................................. 20 appendix c actop draft of course scheduling scenarios ............................................................................................................................. 21 3 executive summary the objective of this project is to develop bilingual accelerated pathways between specific technical communicationrelated programs at both algonquin and la cit, and saint paul universitys social communication honours b.a. program via innovative new forms of intensive curriculum delivery, thereby enabling transfer students in these programs to complete their degree more rapidly in the official language of their choice. in todays employment market, many managerial positions require a minimum of a bachelors degree. those in possession of technical diplomas and who later desire career progression have to make a difficult decision: return to education or accept the limitations. the opportunity to combine a bachelors degree (theory) with a college diploma (technical) potentially eliminates that choice, and better prepares individuals for stronger career trajectories in their chosen field. the newly developed pathways permit students to potentially complete their certificate studies at either college in two years and then complete 60 university credits within a further calendar year, in either official language thus obtaining a b.a. (honours) in social communication at saint paul university. saint paul university faculty and staff worked rigorously to assess the college programs and courses and map appropriate learning-outcome equivalencies. as a result of these efforts, an equivalency map was developed for each of the communication related programs in both colleges, which can be used for future pathway projects. each college student from the mapped programs is eligible to apply for admission to the four-year saint paul university honours degree and, if accepted, to aim for completion of spu studies within 12 consecutive months. the year-long 4 project resulted in the creation of 14 new articulation pathways which will offer students from both colleges even more options to pursue graduate studies in ontario. the college programs covered by the pathway agreements are: algonquin la cit photography photographie graphic design design graphique (lc) (3-years) broadcasting television production tlvisuelle broadcasting radio radio journalism journalisme public relations relations publiques advertising & marketing communications publicit et communication marketing this new agreement will allow new accelerated pathways of existing agreements in other disciplines to be implemented more easily in the future. although many meetings were held between participating institutions at all levels, and despite our best efforts to develop viable pathway options, we were not successful at implementing the accelerated program as planned in time to recruit students for the 2018 academic year. the prime reason was unforeseen delays prompted by the five-week ontario college strike which caused issues with our partners deliverables. for example, we were not able to obtain the necessary level of cross-institution dialogue required to ensure that our assumptions regarding core content and learning outcomes were accurate and appropriate. we were unable to survey as many students as planned. therefore advertising and marketing of the program was non-existent. however, the spirit of the program is completed and we were able to develop the suggested pathways. over the summer months, we will finalize the implementation process to implement these pathways immediately; we are confident we will be ready to launch the programs in the fall of 2018. 5 project purpose and goals discussions began in november of 2015 as a simple exchange of ideas between spu and la cit concerning the possibility of creating a combined college and university ba degree where students would be enrolled in both institutions, in alternate sessions. the idea was to cultivate in our students both theoretical and practical skills simultaneously. as discussions progressed, it was evident that for this idea to become a reality, numerous modifications were needed (program, processes, regulations, fees etc.) in both institutions to adapt their courses to this type of program and course delivery. for example we discussed, professors teaching in both institutions, professors with different credentials in colleges and university, student access to libraries, sports services, medical clinics, timetables, sessional dates, tuition, withdrawals, what happens if a student fails a course, what kind of accreditations would students receive two separate degrees or a joint degree etc. it was clear to us that we might need to create a new university program which would have taken too much time and wasnt the goal. originally, only two of the institutions (spu and la cit) were involved in the dialogue and in the research that was done. both institutions wanted to know what kinds of mobility programs existed in particular collaborative programs. the following are a few of the research documents/articles we reviewed: - carleton university and algonquin college collaborative program in information technology fenshaw college and their partnerships with western university 3+2 program between algoma and brampton learning outcomes in credit transfer: a key tool for innovation in student mobility, prepared by nicole fallon for oncat integrated learning programs (ilps) for university-college collaborative degrees in ontario plus the review of the university/college collaborative program template both prepared by peter ricketts programmes conjoints des universits et collges, prepared by oncat. after some time, it was decided that the project would review existing 2+2 pathways, recognizing the same number of credits (60/120) but taken in a condensed period of time while also creating new pathways. 6 soon after, and because of saint paul universitys bilingual nature, we reached out to algonquin college to join the project and make of it a bilingual project. it became known as actop (accelerated curriculum transfer opportunities pathways). l'objectif principal tait de crer et de dvelopper des parcours acclrs bilingues, nouveaux et existants, entre des programmes spcifiques des communication et media la fois algonquin et la cit, et le programme de baccalaurat en communication sociale de l'universit saint-paul, grce de nouvelles formes novatrices de prestation intensive des programmes d'tudes, permettant ainsi aux tudiants de complter leur diplme plus rapidement dans la langue officielle de leur choix. le travail dcrit dans ce projet reconnat les forces de chaque tablissement par la cration d'un cheminement thorique pratique, technique et critique acclr o, grce un programme novateur d'tudes intensives, les tudiants dans l'une ou l'autre des langues officielles pourront terminer leurs tudes du niveau collgial en deux ans, puis complter les 60 crdits universitaires au cours d'une autre anne civile, obtenant ainsi un baccalaurat spcialis en communication sociale l'universit saint-paul. the primary goals of the project were to: 1. create and develop new and existing pathways to a ba (hons) in social communication with algonquin and la cit in specific technical fields as shown in the table above under the section executive summary, which were identified as priorities by project team members from all three institutions; 2. create and develop innovative and intensive curriculum delivery methods allowing students to complete their diploma and degree within a total of three calendar years; 3. create and develop innovative e-learning content allowing for students to complete their university studies wherever they are located; and 4. create and develop appropriate bridging courses where necessary. 7 pathway development rationale: currently, our existing articulation agreements define 2+2 programs whereby students at either algonquin or la cit undertake a 2-year certificate program in their chosen field of interest, and then transfer to saint paul university for a further 2 years of study, after which they earn a ba in a specific discipline, such as social communication. whilst acceptable for some students initially wishing to pursue a technical career, this 2+2 pathway can appear to be too long to others who could benefit from a university degree at some point in the future as their career progresses towards management, and they encounter barriers which a theory-based degree could help overcome. methodology meetings and consultations this project involved key faculty from each program at both partner institutions and saint paul university. an introductory meeting was held on april 12, 2017 with middle and senior management officials of all three institutions to present the project, confirm which programs were targeted for pathway development, and define deliverables and timelines. consult appendix a: actop timelines and deliverables a series of meetings with curriculum managers from all three institutions were held throughout the process. these meetings occurred by telephone or in person and varied from formal to informal depending on the subject at hand. a total of 20 planned meetings were held from the beginning of talks with la cit in 2015. both colleges submitted to the university their course outlines, course descriptions and learning objectives which were all necessary for the analysis and mapping of the identified programs. consultations were planned with all department heads and program directors who are subject-matter experts and to whom we could provide information on the project and get their buy-in. unfortunately, only one meeting transpired with the program directors of both colleges before the college strike. hence, since the return to work order, we have not been able to meet with these same directors to update them of the progress. 8 one algonquin college program director informed us that he would not be promoting one of the identified pathways as part of this project due to a prior relationship transfer agreement this department has with another university. however, the necessary work will be done to create the accelerated pathway for this particular program, but it will not be promoted internally. la proposition initiale du programme a t prsente quelques groupes d'tudiants de la cit, principalement relations publiques, journalisme, photographie et publicit et communication marketing o nous avons reu des commentaires positifs pour le projet en gnral et le programme acclr plus spcifiquement. consultations with algonquin students were not scheduled due to internal restrictions which the college was trying to resolve, and then the strike occurred. les descriptions de cours et les rsultats d'apprentissage pour les 14 programmes des deux collges ont t valus et compars aux exigences des cours individuels pour le baccalaurat en communications sociales. l'valuation a t faite par le professeur stephen stuart, professeur agrg de la facult des sciences humaines. voir photo appendice b key steps were: 1. ensure that the evaluations were each able to yield an equivalent of 60 credits to allow the articulation agreement to function correctly; 2. align all three of social communication programs core courses and get approved by senate; 3. establish a core of 60 credits (20 3-credit courses) from the ba (hons) social communication to form the discipline-specific pedagogical core of the critical and theoretical components of the articulation agreement; 4. ensure that the learning outcomes from each program are pedagogically respected; 5. create the intensive curriculum course content and support material for each of the 20 3-credit courses; 6. consult on the number of e-learning courses required; 7. develop the required specific e-learning modules; 8. create the program schedule and sequencing to optimize the flow of students through the program at saint paul university, respecting the need to provide an environment conducive to learning. 9. develop adequate and appropriate support mechanisms for students undertaking this innovative curriculum to ensure high satisfaction levels and low attrition rates and thus achieve their goal; 10. create an appropriate range of marketing and recruitment materials to best target the appropriate student population at each institution; and 11. consider the possibility to develop the flow of students into a bi-directional stream. 9 of all the academic session, the summer session, was the most challenging session to schedule courses to permit students to complete the program on time. five different timetable scenarios for the summer session were produced with the goal of querying students for their preference or comments on the best scenario. we thought it was important to consult the students because the program is very intensive and students were inquiring whether they could work during the summer period. see appendix c for scheduling scenarios discussions with spu (full-time and part-time) professors were coordinated by the vice-dean of the faculty, in person, by email and over the phone concerning the project focusing on the recruitment of professors and their interest in teaching in this accelerated program, especially since a good portion of the teaching will be done over the summer months. there was a potential delay in terms of gathering interests from spu part-time professors but we are fairly certain it will not become a material issue. for example, from the french professor pool, 14 professors were contacted by email, 12 called the vice-dean for more information, of the 12 who called, 9 nine showed interest in the project and in the possibility of teaching over the summer. meetings were held with the registrar and faculty administrative personnel to inform the parties as the project progressed. program comparison and analysis professor stuart determined that there were courses or course combinations taught in the two college programs that would be equivalent to courses in the ba social communications. also, it was determined from the beginning that college students would be required to complete all the obligatory courses in the ba. curriculum mapping focused on a review and comparison of learning outcomes for both sending and receiving programs. see appendix d and e as attachments. 10 based on the evaluations that were done in the identified programs, it was possible to award 60 credits towards the ba in social communications for most programs from la cit and algonquin college. these general credits are granted in recognition of the skills and knowledge acquired through the completion of the 2 or 3 year college diplomas. the course descriptions were matched in a grid to identify similarities between the college and university courses. when two similar courses are identified, a detailed analysis of the course outlines and learning objectives was required to ensure a minimum of 78-80% common content. as already mentioned above, in all programs, which are part of the project, the students must complete the compulsory courses of the program. certain elective courses were removed. this reduces the costs and time required of the student who already has a base of prior knowledge and experience in the field. it is possible that a bridge course could be necessary in the future. time will tell. if students seem to be struggling, we will add a zero credit bridge course. the academic advisors will be following this group of students diligently. in parallel to the one year accelerated pathway, 14 regular bilingual 2+2 pathways were developed with the ba in social communications. implementation process and timelines the pathway approval process at spu lies with the dean of the faculty, the vice-rector, academic and research and the program director. program changes such as those that social communications made to the content alignment of its three programs (certificate, b.a. with major and b.a. specialization) must be approved at the departmental level, faculty council, undergraduate studies committee and finally are approved by the senate. none of the approval processes affected the implementation timeline. although many meetings were held between participating institutions at all levels, and despite our best efforts to develop pathways, we were not successful at implementing the accelerated program as planned for the 2018 academic year. the prime causes were unforeseen delays prompted by the five-week ontario college strike which caused issues with our partners deliverables. for example, we were not able to obtain the necessary level of cross-institution dialogue required to ensure that our assumptions regarding core content and learning outcomes were accurate and appropriate, we were 11 unable to survey as many students as planned, and the planned consultations to support the development of the pathways after the strike were not possible, therefore advertising and marketing of the program was non-existent. however, the project did allow saint paul university to complete the analysis of the programs and develop suggested pathways. once normal working conditions resume at the partner institutions over the summer and after most of their students are off campus, we will finalize the schedule to implement these pathways immediately. we are confident we will be ready to launch the programs in september 2018. nevertheless, a separate agreement to facilitate the implementation of the 2+2 pathways between institutions for all 14 bilingual pathways and will come into effect immediately. these pathways will be entered on the spu website as well as the ontransfer database. key milestones table deadlines had to be adjusted on several occasions due to the absence of consultations to support the development of the pathways. see table that follows. 12 key milestones table (those that represent significant project progress) at the time of project delivery march 2018 id. title planned completion date current forecast completion date actual completion date 1 program evaluation, curriculum mapping and validation 30-july-17 15-nov-17 completed 2 determine and establish the 60 core credits ensure appropriate alignment of learning outcomes 30-july-17 30-nov-17 completed 15-aug-17 30-nov-17 completed 4 recruit part-time faculty for content delivery 15 sept-17 15-dec-17 in progress 5 finalise creation of course content and support material and mechanisms 30-dec-17 30-jan-18 completed 6 development of e-learning modules deployment of marketing and recruitment material fine tuning of all aspects of the project launch program 15-jan-2018 15-feb-18 in progress 30-dec-217 30-dec-17 01-aug-18 30-mar-2018 30-mar-18 01-sept-18 3 7 8 13 summary of pathways created regular 2+2 pathways were created where college students who graduate with a college degree and an average of 70% from the identified programs can apply to saint paul university and complete their ba within 2 years. a 12 month intensive accelerated pathway was created and will be implemented as of the fall. students must have an average of 70% and a college degree. promising practices and lessons learned the major obstacle for this project was the college strike and the non-existence of communication or dialogue with the college professors and students. the importance of communicating with all those involved was vital to the project, especially a project that involves more than one institution. la communication permet d'viter les malentendus et les surprises. par exemple, nous avons t informs que nous n'tions pas en mesure de sonder les tudiants de l'un des collges mi-chemin du projet. cette question aurait d tre aborde ds le dbut du projet, car il s'agissait d'une ressource essentielle pour la russite du projet. ds le dbut du projet, la volont des collges de conclure l'entente actop a t trs forte et le projet s'est poursuivi sans heurts jusqu' la grve des collges. partir de ce moment-l, nous n'avons pu communiquer avec aucun des professeurs ou tudiants des collges. conversations and dialogue must be structured. once the excitement of the project wears off so does the dialogue and enthusiasm. in some programs, there was less affinity than we would have liked which is why most of the credits recognized by the university were elective credits, which poses a challenge, especially when students want to complete a minor or major, in addition to their chosen specialization. it will not be possible with this project. management support is key. we realized how fortunate we were to have senior management support for our project. another lesson learned surrounds the timelines. it is imperative that all stakeholders adhere to the timelines and deliverables. 14 although our project is complete, the implementation is still a work in progress. the work completed with this project, becomes a valuable resource for future projects of this kind. 15 appendices: appendix a actop timelines and deliverables oncat 2017-22 accelerated curriculum for transfer opportunities pathways (actop) calendar of activities 2017-2018 (at the time of project delivery march 2018) updated jan 2018 dates and deadlines 10 march 2017 27 march 2017 actions & deliverables project /contract signed with oncat meeting with usp it director, vice rector and project lead to discuss eventual e-learning courses. assigned to p. blanger p.blanger status issues completed attendees: jean-marc barrette, s. stuart, a. sguin, p. blanger 4 april 2017 4 april 2017 6 april 2017 request a date to meet la cit college students who have not already taken part in one of the focus groups before the end of the session. request a date to meet with professors at colleges before the end of may . st 1 meeting with algonquin profs and planned second with la cit p.blanger s. stuart meeting with s. stuart, project lead to discuss timelines and project deliverables meeting between s. stuart and m. blais agreement on rationalization of the 20 obligatory courses of actop. plan meetings with part-time professors s. stuart p. blanger s. stuart algonquin meeting with profs confirmed for may 15 2017 completed emails sent to all spu profs. consultation completed hiring of profs in progress since project implementati on not possible until 16 the fall for the next academic year. 12 april 2017 inaugural meeting with colleges and spu. attendees: jean-marc barrette, stephen. stuart, harpreet singh sonu, joseph aghaby ,lise frenette the intended goals of the project are to: create and develop new and existing pathways (7 per college) to a ba (hons) in social communication between algonquin and la cit in specific technical fields. see appendix 1 create and develop innovative and intensive curriculum delivery methods allowing students to complete their diploma and degree within a total of three calendar vears; create and develop innovative e-learning content allowing for students to complete their university studies wherever they are located; and create and develop appropriate bridging courses where necessary; p. blanger completed s. stuart, p.blanger discuss plans for the frequency of future meetings between the institutions; focus group/survey college students in september/october 30 april 2017 exchange of the programs of study and detailed course outlines and learning objectives for social communications. use of dropbox exchange of the programs of study and detailed course outlines as well as learning objectives for the respective programs from algonquin college in h. singh sonu p. blanger j. aghaby s. stuart, social communications completed photography director: peter larock, 17 graphic design (3 yrs), broadcasting television, broadcasting radio journalism, public relations, and advertising &marketing communications (3 yrs). director: andy coxhead change des programmes dtudes, plans de cours et rsultats dapprentissages pour les programmes de la cit en photographie, design graphique (lc) 3 ans, production tlvisuelle, radio, journalisme, relations publiques, publicit et communications marketing . h. singh sonu p. blanger may 15 2017 individual meeting with algonquin team professors and la cit to present the project in detail. identify needs in terms of subject experts and counselors. h. singh sonu j. aghaby s. stuart p.belanger completed july 31 2017 social communications completes the content alignment of its three programs (certificate, b.a. with major and b.a. specialization.) outcome: identified usp content for actop enact ba program changes and process approvals s. stuart completed and approved by senate s. stuart completed october 2017 map algonquin colleges diploma programs and la cit college diploma programs onto the spu social communications degree program with the goal of identifying goals and gaps and preparing bridging classes as needed. undertake financial analysis to ensure fiscal viability of the program outcome: coherent map of actop content. 30 september january 2017 commence creation of course content and support material and mechanisms commence e-learning consultation recruit part-time faculty for content delivery j. aghaby s. stuart p. blanger j. aghaby h. singh sonu p.belanger s. stuart outcome: content development 18 18 october 2017 30 october 2017 request updates from colleges for submission of interim report submission of mid-project report. p. blanger completed completed p. blanger outcome: reporting and invoicing summer 2018 spring- summer 2018 summer 2018 verify if bursaries are available will osap be available for summer sessions will osap accept 1 year la cit and 1 year usp continue creation of course content and support material and mechanisms commence development e-learning modules commence creation of marketing and recruitment materials prepare contract for part-time profs outcome: content creation and actop marketing deployment of marketing and recruitment materials outcome: content creation and actop marketing winter 2018 - summer 2018 february 2018 meeting with personnel of the registrars office, recruitment and communications to discuss publicity & marketing of the project at spu and colleges add pathways to respective web sites. add pathways to ontransfer.ca prepare course timetable scenarios outcome: internal administration and recruitment preparation of final report due march 15, 2018 j. aghaby h. singh sonu la cit and algonquin will look into these areas and report back s. stuart p.blanger f. lavigne vice-rector academic and research completed in progress s. stuart p.blanger f.lavigne s. stuart f.lavigne v.khayat p.blanger p mazureck p. blanger march 2018 19 appendix b photo documents danalyse 20 appendix c actop draft of course scheduling scenarios actop schedule draft for spring/summer 2018 five courses delivered in a period of 14 weeks (including exam sessions) isc1308 12 weeks tuesdays x 3h (1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.) o course: may 1 july 17 o exam: july 24 isc2301 12 weeks tuesdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 1 july 17 o exam: july 31 week there are three long weekends in the period during which these courses will be delivered. o o o students will have no courses on the weekends, however they will have three exams in one week. isc2328 12 weeks wednesdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 2 july 18 o exam: july 25 isc2307 12 weeks = thursdays x 3h (1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.) o course: may 3 july 19 o exam: august 2 isc2326 12 weeks = thursdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 3 july 19 o exam: july 26 victoria day (monday may 21st) canada day (sunday july 1st) civic (monday august 6th) all five courses follow regular university calendar. it would however be wise to consider creating a break for these students in week seven of the twelve-week courses to allow them to prepare for mid-terms, integrate the knowledge and catch up with the content if necessary. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 isc1308 tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) exam isc2301 tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) isc2328 wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) isc2307 thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) isc2326 thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) course 14 15 exam exam exam exam 21 actop schedule draft for spring/summer 2018 five courses delivered in a period of 15 weeks (including exam sessions) there are three long weekends in the period during which these courses will be delivered. in this model the students would have to give up two out of three: isc1308 6 weeks = saturdays x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: may 5 june 9 o exam: june 16 isc2301 6 weeks =sundays x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: may 6 june 10 o exam: june 17 isc2328 12 weeks wednesdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 2 july 18 o exam: july 25 isc2307 6 weeks = saturdays x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: june 23 august 4 o exam: august 11 isc2326 6 weeks =sundays x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: june 24 august 5 o exam: august 12 week course isc1308 isc2301 isc2328 st victoria day (monday may 21 ) st canada day (sunday july 1 ) civic (monday august 6th) o o o students would have courses on the weekends prior to the statutory holidays marked in green. the first three courses follow regular university calendar. it would however be wise to consider creating a break for these students in week seven of the twelve-week course to allow them to concentrate on the exams for the two six-week courses. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) exam sun (6h) wed (3h) sun (6h) wed (3h) sun (6h) wed (3h) sun (6h) wed (3h) sun (6h) wed (3h) sun (6h) wed (3h) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 wed (3h) wed (3h) canada day canada day wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) exam sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) exam sun (6h) sun (6h) sun (6h) sun (6h) sun (6h) exam exam wed (3h) isc2307 sat (6h) isc2326 sun (6h) 22 actop schedule draft for spring/summer 2018 five courses delivered in a period of 14 weeks (including exam sessions) week isc1308 12 weeks tuesdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 1 july 17 o exam: july 31 isc2301 12 weeks wednesdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 2 july 18 o exam: july 25 isc2328 12 weeks thursdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 3 july 19 o exam: august 2 isc2307 12 weeks = weekends x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: may 5-6, june 2-3, july 7-8 o exam: july 28 isc2326 12 weeks = weekends x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: may 12-13, june 9-10, july 14-15 o exam: july 29 there are three long weekends in the period during which these courses will be delivered. in this model the students would not have to give up any out of three: o o o victoria day (monday may 21st) canada day (sunday july 1st) civic (monday august 6th) students would have no courses on the weekends prior to the statutory holidays marked in green. all five courses follow regular university calendar. it would however be wise to consider creating a break for these students in week seven of the twelve-week courses to allow them to prepare for mid-terms, integrate the knowledge and catch up with the content if necessary. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 isc1308 tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) exam exam isc2301 wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) exam exam isc2328 thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) exam exam isc2307 sat (6h) sun (6h) canada day canada day sat (6h) sun (6h) exam civic sat (6h) sun (6h) victoria day victoria day exam civic course isc2326 sat (6h) sun (6h) sat (6h) sun (6h) sat (6h) sun (6h) 15 23 actop schedule draft for spring/summer 2018 five courses delivered in a period of 14 weeks (including exam sessions) week there are three long weekends in the period during which these courses will be delivered. in this model the students would not have to give up any out of three: isc1308 12 weeks tuesdays x 3h (1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.) o course: may 1 july 17 o exam: july 24 isc2301 12 weeks tuesdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 1 july 17 o exam: july 31 isc2328 12 weeks wednesdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 2 july 18 o exam: july 25 students will have no courses on the weekends. isc2307 12 weeks = thursdays x 3h (5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) o course: may 3 july 19 o exam: august 2 it would however be wise to consider creating a break for these students in week seven of the twelve-week courses to allow them to prepare for mid-terms, integrate the knowledge and catch up with the content if necessary. isc2326 12 weeks = fridays x 3h (1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.) o course: may 4 july 20 o exam: july 27 o o o victoria day (monday may 21st) canada day (sunday july 1st) civic (monday august 6th) all five courses follow regular university calendar. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 isc1308 tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) exam isc2301 tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) tue (3h) isc2328 wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) wed (3h) isc2307 thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) thu (3h) isc2326 fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) fri (3h) course 14 15 exam exam exam exam 24 actop schedule draft for spring/summer 2018 five courses delivered in a period of 15 weeks (including exam sessions) with only 6-week courses isc1308 6 weeks = saturdays x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: may 5 june 9 o exam: june 16 isc2301 6 weeks =sundays x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: may 6 june 10 o exam: june 17 isc2328 6 weeks wednesdays x 6h (9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) o course: may 2 june 6 o exam: june 13 isc2307 6 weeks = saturdays x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: june 23 august 4 o exam: august 11 isc2326 6 weeks =sundays x 6h (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) o course: june 24 august 5 o exam: august 12 there are three long weekends in the period during which these courses will be delivered. in this model the students would have to give up two out of three: victoria day (monday may 21st) canada day (sunday july 1st) civic (monday august 6th) o o o students would have courses on the weekends prior to the statutory holidays marked in green. the first three courses follow regular university calendar. week course isc1308 isc2301 isc2328 it would however be wise to consider creating a break for these students in week seven of the twelve-week course to allow them to concentrate on the exams for the two six-week courses. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) exam sun (6h) wed (6h) sun (6h) wed (6h) sun (6h) wed (6h) sun (6h) wed (6h) sun (6h) wed (6h) sun (6h) wed (6h) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) sat (6h) exam sun (6h) sun (6h) sun (6h) sun (6h) sun (6h) exam exam exam isc2307 sat (6h) isc2326 sun (6h) canada day canada day 25

executive summary honours bachelors in computer science (hbsc) university transfer option oncat project 2016-24: final report the intent of this oncat funded project was to identify and develop multiple venues for credit transfer and increased mobility between the lakehead university undergraduate and graduate level degree offerings in computer science and related information technology diploma programs in ontario. the results of this project include the development/identification of: three diploma to degree block transfer agreements into the hbsc of computer science with three ontario colleges potential for the piloting a multi-lateral block transfer agreement for all diploma graduates of the two year computer programmer diploma in ontario pending the success of future block transfer students sent from the program specific pathways developed in this project an acceptance agreement between honours bachelor degrees offered by an ontario college and the masters of computer science program at lakehead university an accelerated diploma/certificate for both hbsc and masters level students seeking entry into a specific/specialized information technology (it) industry the project benefited greatly from the input, efforts and expertise of many college faculty, administration and staff at confederation college, georgian college and sheridan college. author: andrew heppner march 15, 2017

executive summary we addressed three research objectives by examining data from the toronto district school board. these data were from a cohort of students (n=16,364) that were in grade 9 in 2006 and were followed for eight years, until fall 2014. included in these data were ontario postsecondary application and enrolment information. our research objectives and findings were as follows: 1. to what extent are students graduating high school and directly entering college or university? forty-seven percent of the cohort transitioned directly from high school to university, while 13% transitioned directly from high school to college. over an additional three years of application cycles, 3% more students moved to postsecondary. 2. how can we look at movement between different postsecondary programs and institutions? students may start at a college and move to a different college, or change programs within the same institution. what factors are associated with such movements? eighty-five percent of students who confirmed a postsecondary place in 2011 were at the same institution in 2014. only 3% had changed institutions. among college students in the data set, 19% had confirmed university at an earlier date. in terms of students who appeared to have reverse transferred from university to college, exploratory analysis suggested that they were more likely to be from lower socioeconomic groups and be racialized (particularly black, south asian, or southeast asian). in terms of movement within college, 81% stayed in the same college and program, 8% changed programs within the same college, 5% went to similar programs at different colleges, and 6% went to different programs at different colleges. the only factor associated with college movement was duration of study; the longer students remained enrolled, the more likely they were to make some sort of movement. 3. how do pathways vary by individual characteristics? using an intersectionality framework, which understands race, class, gender, and special education needs status to be inextricably linked to the educational outcomes of young people, we investigated how these factors predicted postsecondary stem pathways (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in particular. race was associated with the five program pathways, with east asians dominating university stem at nearly 40% and blacks comprising only 7%. there was strong male representation in stem, and the gap was bigger at the college level (25% women, 75% men) than the university level (42% women, 58% men). social class was strongly associated with program of study, with high status parental occupations being associated with university stem and non-stem pathways. students with special education needs were more likely to be in college nonstem programs. academic program of study in grade 9/10 was more strongly related to university stem and non-stem than applied programs of study, which were more likely to be found in the college pathways. in terms of multivariate analyses, parental occupational status had a strong negative association with university stem for black students and a weak negative association with university stem for east asian students. parental occupational status had a strong negative association with college stem for east asian students. our findings revealed the importance of examining the ways that race, sex, class, and special education needs affect postsecondary pathways and movements within these pathways. we have uncovered some important correlates associated with transfer and program choice. social class and race were found to have associations with these pathways, particularly with regard to reverse transfer and stem program choice. in the case of the former, reverse transfer among certain racialized and lower ses groups may signal unpreparedness (or lack of social and cultural capital) for university environments. programs targeting first generation students at the university level may assist in retaining such students, but it is probably the case that more social and cultural capital development at the high school level would make such transitions less awkward for traditionally underrepresented students. our findings regarding the negative association between parental occupational status and university stem pathways for blacks may be indicative of the lack of perceived support and social networks within these academic areas. if, as suggested by american research, high status blacks are rejecting stem due to segregated social networks, much more must be done at the university level to recruit and create inclusive environments for racialized students in the sciences and beyond.

executive summary over the last twenty years, the ontario government sought to introduce greater financial sustainability in the postsecondary system through two major policy goals: greater institutional differentiation, and enhanced opportunities for student mobility, chiefly by way of credit transfer and institutional articulation agreements. in tracing the evolution of these policy priorities, the paper establishes that they constitute the bulk of the efficiency agenda. however, this paper asserts that in pursuing a system that features the characteristics of both policy towers, government will need to more strategically manage the policy levers at its disposal. for differentiation, this includes the deployment of funding envelopes that may be used to encourage institutions to focus on building their strengths, as well as attaching incentives to the strategic mandate agreement exercise. with respect to student mobility, it means working with institutions to pursue academic partnerships in all their forms, not blindly, but with purpose and in response to real student demand and well-understood patterns of student behaviour. this paper concludes with some key observations, which include: as part of the funding formula review for the university sector, establish an extra formula enrolment envelope to encourage institutions to increase the number of transfer students (through program partnerships, credit transfer and the creation of articulation agreements). o this would be in the form of a fixed per student dollar value that exceeds the biu value of the program in which the student enrols. request that institutions include as part of their strategic mandate agreement submission, a discussion of the institutions credit transfer capacity, how it speaks to the institutions mission, and how it will be achieved through the use of one or both student mobility tools. reimagine the distance component of the ontario student assistance program so that it meets the true costs associated with student mobility and supporting choice.

1 oncat project 2016-21 oncat final report: 2016-21- electrical techniques ontario college certificate to electromechanical engineering technician ontario college diploma march 15, 2017 bryan aitken project lead nadine cervi pathways research consultant david simon program and pathways development coordinator steve minten - elearning manager 2 oncat project 2016-21 project team the project team is comprised of representatives from lambton college, canadore college, conestoga college, niagara college and a hired project manager. lambton college project team members: 1. bryan aitken, project manager 2. steve minten, elearning manager 3. david simon, coordinator, program and pathways development 4. nadine cervi, associate faculty (english) and pathways research consultant 5. stephen tigchelaar, coordinator, electrical techniques canadore college project team members: 6. mark lamontange, dean, trades, technology, law and justice & part-time studies 7. steven lazarou, coordinator, electrical techniques conestoga college project team members 8. steve andrushak, program coordinator, electrical technician industrial program & electrical techniques program 9. josh hamilton, adjunct faculty, electro-mechanical engineering technology niagara college project team members: 10. jeff murrell, associate dean, school of trades 3 oncat project 2016-21 contents project team ______________________________________________________________________ 2 executive summary ________________________________________________________________ 4 project purpose and goals ___________________________________________________________ 5 pathway development ______________________________________________________________ 7 summary of pathway created _______________________________________________________ 10 promising practices and lessons learned ______________________________________________ 12 appendix a the draft bridging program outcomes and working plan ______________________ 14 appendix b mechanical principles bridge and mechanical practices bridge course outlines ____ 26 appendix c key milestones ________________________________________________________ 36 appendix d risk management _____________________________________________________ 37 appendix e course delivery mode recommendations __________________________________ 38 4 oncat project 2016-21 executive summary the goal of this project is to provide a pathway for students graduating from electrical techniques, ontario college certificate programs into receiving electromechanical engineering technician, ontario college diploma programs. canadore college, conestoga college, lambton college and niagara college have electrical techniques programs, while conestoga college and lambton college have an electromechanical diploma program. the original design team began the project by investigating the gaps in the knowledge between students from first-year electromechanical, and the one-year electrical techniques program. as anticipated, most of the gaps were mechanical in nature, with only a few gaps in electrical that could be picked up by modifications to current techniques programs. these gaps were also compared to the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) program standards to identify any deficiencies relative to these publications. there was a delay during the summer and early fall, 2016 while several key individuals changed roles, left for other colleges, or found other employment. a new project team was assembled in october 2016, after which time the original gap analysis was finalized and the outcomes for two bridging courses were created. the necessary gaps were covered by outcomes in two courses - the mechanical principles bridging course and the mechanical practices bridging course. the outcomes for these courses were approved by the working team early in 2017, and then further refined into two course syllabi by the project lead. a pivotal meeting was held on february 17, 2017, where the team approved the course outlines, and discussed the plan for the delivery mode for the two new bridging courses. the mechanical principles bridging course will be delivered in an entirely online format, while the mechanical practices bridging course requires verification of online skills. to accomplish this, a two-day intensive hands-on workshop will be required at the host college in addition to the online component. using innovative 360-degree video instruction to teach the elements of the hands-on skills, this provides students the necessary background to attend the workshop. the course outlines and the delivery plan will now be shared with the subject matter experts (sme) for the final phase of the project. the smes will work with instructional design staff and videographers to develop the full course content, resources and evaluation tools. this will include development of the two-day intensive workshop for the mechanical practices bridging course. this detailed design will commence in april 2017, with a completion date by december 2017. this will permit the first delivery of the bridging courses to begin during the spring term in 2018, which will align with larger groups of electrical techniques graduates. for system-wide application, any ontario college that hosts an electrical techniques program can utilize the bridging courses into their respective electromechanical programs. this type of collaboration and participation is an excellent way to create wonderful opportunities for students and graduates across the province. each college may have some specialty content in their respective program that may 5 oncat project 2016-21 require additional bridging if deemed essential, but this should be minimal. the bridge covers all of the necessary elements of the program standards published by the ministry of advanced education and skills development. project purpose and goals the electromechanical engineering technician, ontario college diploma is a two-year program that prepares graduates with the skills of both electricians and millwrights. with these skills, many career opportunities are available for a multi-discipline service technician in the fields of manufacturing, utilities, electrical and wind energy. since 2015, lambton college has seen an incredible increase in applications for both the electrical techniques, ontario college certificate program (20%) and the electromechanical engineering technician, ontario college diploma (100%). in this instance, the participating institutions recognize the importance of providing students, in service technician positions, with a strong skill set in both the mechanical and electrical fields. the overall goal of this pathways project is to develop an innovative (and collaborative) pathway that will allow students to receive both an electrical techniques, ontario college certificate and an electromechanical engineering technician, ontario college diploma in two years. the intended (and future) project goals include: 1. lambton colleges commitment to creating a pathway for electrical techniques, ontario college certificate graduates from canadore, niagara, lambton and conestoga into the electromechanical engineering technician, ontario college diploma. the following pathway with a bridge, will be created among lambton college, canadore college, conestoga college, and niagara college before expanding the pathway to other ontario colleges with the electrical techniques, ontario college certificate programs. 2. the future goal of the project is to expand the pathway to all ontario colleges that offer electrical techniques ontario college certificate programs once the pathway project has been completed. all parties are committed to running the pathway for as long as the two programs are active at each of the participating colleges. to ensure that the following pathway project was completed on-time, the project responsibilities were initially separated into two different phases with specific timelines for the lead college and partner institutions to follow. please see the original timeline below: phase one: may 2016 - lambton college and the partner institutions will create a project committee and enlist the required contacts at both institutions. the committee will work together to define what the seamless pathway will look like for students. 6 oncat project 2016-21 june 2016 - the project committee will determine a scheduled timeline of meetings in order to complete the project tasks. the committee will discuss the number of meetings that need to take place and the types of meetings (i.e. teleconference, in-person, etc.). october 2016 - documents such as course outlines, learning outcomes and syllabi will be submitted to the relevant committees at lambton college from canadore college, conestoga college, and niagara college for review and approval. december 2016 the interim report to oncat is submitted. january - february 2017 - the pathway developed will be signed and approved. once signed, a collaborative marketing strategy will be implemented by lambton college and the respected partners. march 15, 2017 - final report to oncat is submitted. phase 2: full curriculum development april december 2017 -fully develop the course curriculum for the two bridging courses. subject matter experts (sme) from partner colleges will supply the knowledge and the instructional design will be provided by lambton college. march 2017 - credit transfer information is shared with other colleges with the hopes to build a strong multilateral agreement with other colleges. submit the transfer agreement to the ontransfer database for current and prospective students. project management: the committee met (in the beginning) by telephone or email. the initial meetings were used to discuss the project expectations, confirm timelines, and individual responsibilities. the faculty leads for each committee reviewed the course outlines, course learning outcomes and syllabi to determine the appropriate credit transfer. once the pathway is completed, the bridge program will be developed. lambton (and partners) will identify the minimum grade point average (gpa) and other relevant eligibility standards for students for the established pathway. based off of the curriculum/course outline review, transfer credits that will be granted to students entering the pathway will be determined. when the agreement is complete, lambtons pathways research consultant will coordinate with oncat to update the course-to-course database with the relevant information. in addition, the pathways research consultant will be the lead communicator for students and faculty looking to receive information about the following pathway program at lambton college. 7 oncat project 2016-21 pathway development a) methodology the starting point for this project was the assembly of a project team with knowledge of either electrical techniques programs, electro-mechanical programs, or both if possible. a consultant was hired to perform a gap analysis of skills between the programs in their first year compared to maesd program standards. next, the team reviewed the gaps for accuracy and viability. after this review, a project lead was hired to take the gap analysis and develop course outcomes for the required bridging courses. these outcomes were reviewed by the team and once the review was completed, the course syllabi were developed. the review team approved the syllabus for each course (appendix b) and made recommendations as to the modes of delivery (appendix e), completing phase i of this project. this final design is presented for management approval in mid-march. a new working group of smes will be assembled to start the full curriculum content design, and this will be implemented through instructional design. the team is anticipating using 360-degree video technology as an innovative approach to technical teaching. due to personnel changes, on december 5, 2016, a meeting was held between the institutional partners (by phone) to discuss the revised work plan for moving forward with the project. at the meeting, it was recommended and agreed upon that we proceed with the development of the bridging course outcomes in a parallel process to the final gap analysis by each college. the revised plan below reflects the recommendation to proceed with the development of the bridging courses. the revised plan should not affect the deadlines for the project. revised work plan commencing december 6, 2016 item work description outcome assemble work team from the four partner colleges including lambton some of the individuals initially involved have changed positions and a new team needs to be assembled and meet to bring up to speed on the project. each college to review gap analysis for accuracy and any outlying gaps from their perspective coordinate and participate in this for lambton. team assembled and conference call team review gap analysis as it relates to their colleges and simultaneously the draft outcomes for the bridging courses develop bridging course outcomes for the two recommended courses lambton to develop and lead the bridging course outcomes conforming to maesd program standards also. timeline for completion by december first week completed summary of colleges gap results preliminary draft outcomes december 6 to january 16 completed no later than december 15 completed 8 oncat project 2016-21 interim report bryan aitken to prepare the interim report for oncat. final bridging outcomes lambton to prepare the final bridging outcomes, utilizing all the input received from the four colleges. moving forward with approved outcomes the team to review during this process. develop course outlines for the two bridging courses report submitted on time final approved outcomes completed january 18 completed final course outlines including outcomes and syllabus approval out outlines the team to review and approve the course outlines. final outlines pathway signed and approved work with colleges on final approval and develop a collaborative marketing strategy input to this process. bryan aitken and lambtons pathways research consultant to write the final report executive summary have team and management review. pathway approved final report to oncat december 15 final report approved january 30 completed february 6 completed march 1 march 15 note: the partner college teams have held face-to-face meetings on two occasions at conestoga college, which was the most central meeting location to all the partners. this type of meeting was deemed best for interaction during the initial gap analysis component, and also for the final review of the outcomes, syllabi, and delivery modes. additional full or partial team member meetings were conducted by teleconference because it was the most efficient use of peoples time to keep the project moving forward. b) program comparison and analysis the gap analysis for this project involved comparing the ministry program standard outcomes for both programs as well as a comparison of the four electrical techniques programs and the two electromechanical diploma programs for their relative compliance to the maesd standards. this created a summary of gaps that students would need to bridge for successful transfer from electrical techniques programs at any partner college to a host electromechanical diploma program. it was interesting to note the difference in college offering of electrical techniques and electromechanical diploma. specifically, very few of these differences were gaps as compared to the program standards, more tended to be areas of expertise where each college went beyond the program standard. examples of this are robotics at conestoga college and pumps and process systems at 9 oncat project 2016-21 lambton college. this does provide some challenges for students who are bridging into the host college programs, where they may need to pick up one of these additional specialty items as well. this anomaly will be addressed by each host college if necessary. as these topics are further enhanced in the second year of conestoga college and lambton college programs, it may not be necessary to provide students with anything more than the bridge resulting from this gap analysis and subsequent pathway development. after identifying the project team, a consultant was contracted to conduct an investigation of the gaps between the electrical techniques program standard, and the electromechanical technician program standard. the consultant also looked at each college program to determine any gaps that were evident from the standards. this gap analysis was then reviewed by each of the partner college (see appendix a). a contract was then released for a project lead, once the gaps were identified, to develop the program outcomes, and then to create the course syllabi necessary to address these gaps. the full curriculum design of the two courses, based on the course outlines developed during pathway design, are the following: 1. mechanical principles bridge 2. mechanical practices bridge the course outlines for the above courses are presented in appendix b. the curriculum design phase of this program will follow and be reviewed for quality assurance measures. note: the bridging method of providing a pathway from electrical techniques to electromechanical was determined to be the best method as agreed by all partner colleges involved. as described in this report, it was truly a collaborative effort of the colleges to determine the gaps and develop the bridge. worthy of note is the need to hold a two-day workshop to verify hands on skills for the mechanical practices course. this was supported by all partner colleges in addition to the online learning format of the bridge. in addition, the entry point for the pathway was quite clear from the outset of the project. students graduating from the electrical techniques program would be eligible to then complete the bridge over a spring semester online, progressing directly into the second year of a host colleges electromechanical diploma program. if any anomalies over and above the standard curriculum exist at a particular college, that college would deal with the requirements, but not impede a student entering the second year of an electromechanical diploma program. this may potentially require a student to take one additional course if the anomaly is deemed essential to their program. c) implementation process and timeline the pathway implementation process and timeline for this project will commence in may, 2018. the partner institutions have worked together to maintain the revised work plan timelines in order to meet the implementation date. please see below for the next implementation dates for moving forward with this pathway project: 10 oncat project 2016-21 action item pathway and bridge design implementation date march, 2017 bridge courses may, 2018 the communications plan will include the following steps: 1. first, each partner institution will receive a draft copy of the agreement for review. feedback regarding the agreement will be requested from all schools to ensure that the information is accurate. 2. next, the agreement, once approved, will be circulated to each partner institution for signatures. note: when the agreement is complete, lambton colleges pathways research consultant will coordinate with oncat to update the to update the course-to-course database with the relevant information 3. after the agreement is signed, an online and written marketing communications plan will be developed. this marketing plan will commence in january 2018. 4. finally, all partner institutions will update their schools website to include information on the transfer opportunities available for graduates of the electrical techniques ontario college certificate. summary of pathway created the table below provides details about the 2016-21 electrical techniques, ontario college certificate to electromechanical engineering technician, ontario college diploma pathway development project: pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. from: electrical techniques certificate to: electromechanical engineering technician diploma certificate to diploma 11 oncat project 2016-21 list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): lambton, conestoga, canadore and niagara may, 2018 january, 2018 lambton colleges pathways research consultant to coordinate with oncat to update the course-to-course database with the appropriate pathway details. electrical techniques program at any ontario college applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 2.0 minimum gpa or % required in specific courses n/a total number of transfer credits / full courses to be 45 of 86 credits granted at receiving institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): communications college orientation electrical theory electronic devices safety and electrical code electrical installation basics 12 oncat project 2016-21 basic mathematics drawing and schematics fundamentals of instrumentation general education elective total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 41 of 86 credits + 7 credits (2 bridging courses) one calendar year which includes the bridging program (i.e. september to august) conestoga college, electromechanical maintenance lambton college, electromechanical engineering technician promising practices and lessons learned a) promising practices an essential component of this pathway project is to provide a seamless pathway for students, enhancing their potential career options. each partner institution believed the pathway development could be done, thus emphasizing a clear project definition and goal which resulted in two bridging courses that will provide this pathway as anticipated. specifically, one practice that was implemented at the start of the pathway development was to have one college lead on the analysis and documentation, and then reviewed, critiqued, and enhanced by the partner team members. this practice was the most efficient way for moving this project forward. b) lessons learned one key lesson learned is to ensure that there are more than one manager and/or faculty aware of the project and content at each partner college. this project suffered from a significant delay when key personnel changes happened only 3 months into the analysis phase. this took another three to four months to recover from because new team members needed to be located and then engaged in what the project entailed. 13 oncat project 2016-21 a process such as this could get bogged down in the gap analysis. each partner must be willing to give and take on what gap is essential to the success of students taking such a pathway, or what gaps are of the nice to have type. once this type of dialogue and compromise can be followed, then a successful bridge that will produce a successful pathway can be forged. 14 oncat project 2016-21 appendix a the draft bridging program outcomes and working plan please see below for the draft bridging program outline and working plan: note: the text in red, with strikethrough, are items that were discussed and deemed not a necessary component of the bridge. gap module headings diploma outcomes gap module outcomes minimum requirement at end of year 1 online delivery modules drawing (cad) documents 11a) 9 a) to j) mechanical drawings/symbols schedule: follow maintenance schedules all (follow-up for further qualifications) charts, tables and graphs interpreting, organizing and preparing? a) prepare technical documentation such as operator procedures, maintenance procedures, repair procedures, and installation procedures b) interpret and use information from technical manuals c) manage electronic and/or paper-based systems to store and retrieve information d) maintain current, clear, and accurate graduates of an elt program will have varying exposure to cad software (some perhaps with none). individual colleges will need to decide on how much allowance students will be given to skill up into the particular cad of choice at the receiving institution. 2nd year level of learning students will need to read, interpret, and understand mechanical terms and definitions as well as symbols/ drawings defining inventory control processes. this is a gap of depth and breadth with respect to mechanical terms, definitions and symbols. all of this is basic theory / knowledge (suitable for online learning memorization, quizzes, etc.). this should also include a refresher on industrial electrical terms and symbols. 15 oncat project 2016-21 electromechanical engineering-related documents e) use records and inventories to prepare reports f) prepare and maintain parts inventory and installation records g) prepare and maintain maintenance and service logs h) document clearly work processes such as problem-solving methodologies, troubleshooting procedures, and prototype evolution (e.g., problems, modifications) i) follow established procedures of inventory control j) document the design, testing, modification, and application of electrical, electronic, and mechanical equipment and systems 3 b) math / science / engineering b) use a variety of references including colleagues, manufacturers' manuals, handbooks, and electronic references (e.g., internet, cloud-based) to complete troubleshooting for investigation (i.e. algebra, trigonometry, calculus) see: steve from conestoga 2nd year concept - they will get exposure to handbooks in an introduction to machining course, but mostly higher level when getting into manufacturers manuals, etc. machinists handbook becomes part of their toolbox needs to be listed as a resource. could be some value in having some content in an online module mechanical theory perhaps. some colleges dont have trigonometry, and others could use a refresher. 16 oncat project 2016-21 solve technical geometric problems involving length, perimeter, area, surface area, and volume of geometric figures using algebraic methods. statistics ? 5 e) use mathematical and scientific terminology accurately this will be covered off by the above. 3 c) apply mathematical and scientific analysis in accordance with the principles and practices of electromechanical engineering 6 r) apply superposition and thevenin's theorems to analyse ac and dc circuits 6 t) an analyse resistance, inductance, capacitance (rlc) circuits 6 u) identify, analyse, and distinguish waveform properties 6 g) solve efficiency, power loss, and energy problems in electrical and hydraulic systems 2nd year level of learning 2nd year level of learning - all colleges are doing loop analysis of circuits, for combination circuits, 3-wire edison circuit. 2nd year fundamental knowledge form dc theory is the foundation of all these concepts and should not need anything to prepare. 2nd year - there may be some of this at the identification and distinguish level in first year, but no analysis. 2nd year (only partially) this is power factor correction in electrical (definitely a second year concept). bridging gap is foundational hydraulic theory/principles. perhaps not the calculation aspect, but the foundational knowledge. does this tie in to geometry piece? this aligns with the gap in the math. learn geometry and apply it into hydraulic problems. 17 oncat project 2016-21 automation / robotics 8 (a-e) a) analyse the effectiveness of robots in a variety of industrial processes b) troubleshoot integrated robotic systems c) test a variety of digital display and recording processes and systems d) install, maintain and repair automated manufacturing equipment found in manufacturing facilities e) apply knowledge of robot operating protocol 2nd year, higher end application of both electrical and mechanical knowledge together in automation systems. electronic 6 v) identify and select analog semiconducting devices to meet job requirements and functional specifications electromechanical 12 k) mechanical theories 10 i) equipment processes systems sub-systems apply knowledge of safety products such as safety relays and safety interlock devices and ground fault circuit interrupters basic mechanical knowledge, conversions, weights, measurements, physics problems property of materials, laws for fluid and pneumatics pressures basic engineering principles (problem solving method) recognize the importance of using standardized parts to facilitate troubleshooting and reduce spare parts inventory 2nd year higher level of application of semiconductors fundamental exposure to basic semi-conductors in the elt program, but not higher level analysis. ground fault interrupters? recognize the proper application of ground fault interrupters, how they work and the correct application of them. basic mechanical knowledge focused on metrology, using the various measuring devices such as dial indicators, micrometers, verniers etc. 2nd year higher application of knowledge 18 oncat project 2016-21 5 c), d) and h) c) analyse properties of materials and assess their suitability for use in a mechanical system d) recognize the effects of manufacturing processes on materials and on the design and production of components h) apply knowledge of manufacturing techniques to support the manufacturing and handling of components 6 b) circuits: apply electromechanical knowledge to single- and three-phase industrial and domestic electrical distribution b) adhere to applicable workplace codes including those relating to electrical and mechanical work environments, explosive environments, hazardous material handling, and safety c) comply with all relevant occupational health and safety requirements1 and applicable sections of the technical standards and safety authority (tssa) and the ontario electrical safety code (oesc) e) test, store, and handle electrical, electronic, and mechanical equipment according to industry standards (e.g., american national standards institute, electrical codes) f) apply regulatory and licensing requirements (e.g., nema ratings) when completing installations, single phase is covered in elt. the third phase is in the 2nd year. 12 b) and c), e), f) and g) 2nd year metallurgy exposure to mechanical safety procedures around kinetic energy, heat, rotating equipment etc. as well as areas of tssa and occupational health and safety. 19 oncat project 2016-21 maintenance, and repairs of electrical, electronic, and mechanical equipment g) conduct safety inspections of the workplace to detect, report, and correct, where possible, hazardous conditions quality assurance iso standards 3 g) follow established service schedules 11 g) apply functional specifications, procedures, and relevant standards applicable to electromechanical engineering first year students are always following relevant standards; just the electromechanical engineering aspect is a bridging gap. 4 c) establish and follow regular inspection and service schedules computer skills hardware software programing 7 a) select, configure, install, and troubleshoot industrial communication protocols 7 c) apply knowledge of hardware and application software to maintain effective computer operations (e.g. write a maintenance procedure) same as 4 c) mechanical handbook already identified. see notes under 3b) above. 2nd year application in terms of establishing schedules not a bridging gap. bridge needed for basic programming, ios, relays, timers, counters, ladder logic (all under plc) perhaps specific only to some colleges? 2nd year higher level learning 2nd year knowledge plc/ automation note: some colleges have 2 plc courses with a 1st year plc course; therefore, they may want to consider offering it in 3rd term or in advance of 3rd term start for bridging students. 20 oncat project 2016-21 equipment 3 f) selection, purchase design requirements 2nd year machines and equipment course 2nd year part of metallurgy upgrade equipment when appropriate in-shop modules mechanical practical skills 1 j) fabricating: apply engineering principles to the analysis and construction of mechanical components and assemblies 1 f) machining: use basic machine shop skills such as turning, milling, metal bending, drilling, tapping, machining, and cutting according to job specifications 1 b) soldering: apply soldering and desoldering techniques assemble printed circuit boards (pcb) huge gap - how do we get them to cover the understanding here; do they need to take a machine course prior to starting the second year or could it be at the same time? could have them take the 1st year course while attending the 2nd year as it is not prerequisite; take gen ed in summer. gap? recommend that this is in electrical techniques courses. 1 c) 1 e) maintain, repair, and troubleshoot: gap? they will pick up the mechanical portion in the bridge somewhere. 21 oncat project 2016-21 11 b) and 11 d) mechanical practical skills (cont.) 5) a, b, e, f, g 3 a) repair and replace electrical, electronic, and mechanical components b) apply preventive and predictive maintenance techniques d) inspect components using appropriate measuring instruments as required support the design and production of mechanical components by assisting in the specification of manufacturing materials and processes (talk to elecmech faculty to find out at what level is required) a) troubleshoot, source, and select mechanical power transmission components and systems b) analyse mechanical components and prototypes used in manufacturing processes and systems e) use systematic approaches to assist in the identification and resolution of technical problems f) identify and apply material testing methods g) assist in sourcing material, tools, equipment, supplies, and services related to production of components measuring: use standard mechanical, electrical, and electronic testing and measurement equipment such as scopes, digital multimeter, protocol analysers, cable testers, calipers, verniers, and voltmeters this is a trade-related concept with application across all trades. 2nd year higher level of learning applying fundamental knowledge 2nd year knowledge metrology (note this is covered in lambtons 1107/ machining course) multimeters are covered in eltc 22 oncat project 2016-21 4 a) d) 6 w), 4 f), 4 h), g) 11 i) 3 d) 3 e) a) install, configure, and commission components, equipment, and systems d) select, install, troubleshoot, and repair and modify equipment to keep operations running efficiently electronic: software 6 w) analyse and troubleshoot circuits such as linear and non-linear amplifiers, oscillators, pulse circuits, and active filters using discrete components and integrated circuits, phase-locked loops (pll) and frequency synthesizers, power supplies, and semiconductor gating circuits 4 f) test, troubleshoot, and repair typical electromechanical systems such as replacing wiring, fluid power* valving, piping, and electromechanical devices g) repair electrical and electronic systems, including devices, subsystems, wiring, and cabling to circuit board level h) replace circuit boards (e.g., motherboards) mechanical: program test equipment to generate appropriate test vectors use the correct testing equipment and setup for the accurate assessment of equipment performance test, maintain, and repair equipment 2nd year applications these are also trade-related concepts so students will have foundational knowledge. 2nd year higher application of foundational knowledge 2nd year preventive and predictive maintenance 2nd year level vibration assessment, ultrasonic, etc. 2nd year ppm course 23 oncat project 2016-21 1 k) 3 h) 3 i) 4 f) apply knowledge of mechanical, electrical, electronic, and automation technologies to solve routine problems and complete electromechanical engineering tasks diagnose electromechanical system problems using appropriate test instrumentation, schematics, and technical reference manuals determine whether a fault is electrical, electronic, software, or mechanical in nature test, troubleshoot, and repair typical electromechanical systems such as replacing wiring, fluid power* valving, piping, and electromechanical devices this is a trade-related concept so students will have foundational knowledge. 2nd year automation course 2nd year automation course and equipment and machines 2nd year automation/ plc courses they will pick up introduction to the mechanical portion in the bridge somewhere. pumps and valves piping and seals: 1) describe the different types of pumps; ol 2) identify the different applications for the pumps and the various maintenance requirements for pumps; ol 3) identify the different types of valves used in industry and maintenance required; ol 4) identify the different types of piping, flanges and fittings; ol 5) interpret and create basic industrial piping isometrics; ol 6) demonstrate the ability to use piping related equipment; 2nd year 24 oncat project 2016-21 7) demonstrate the knowledge to select, install and maintain static and dynamic seals; 2nd year 8) demonstrate the ability to interpret seal catalogues; ol circuits 1 g) 1 h) 7 a) 6 b) 6 c) 6 d) 6 k) & l), o) and p) electrical: design, test, and troubleshoot electrical panel assemblies electronic: logic digital passive/active ac/dc h) analyse components of a breadboard and a pcb select, configure, install, and troubleshoot industrial communication protocol apply electromechanical knowledge to single- and three-phase industrial and domestic electrical distribution digital: select and troubleshoot analog and digital sensors 2nd year course 2nd year course 2nd year course this is a plc communication piece. 2nd year higher level application of knowledge have foundational knowledge of the edison circuit. gap of exposure to sensors what they are, what a proximity switch is, what a limit switch is. may be able to combine with hydraulics. use, adjust, and maintain instrumentation k) integrate electronic control equipment (e.g., discrete devices, plcs, sensors, robot application programs) into typical small computer integrated manufacturing (cim) work cell environments so that an overall system performs to specification boolean logic is a gap but the rest is higher level learning. 25 oncat project 2016-21 fluid power 6 f) 6 h) 6 i) 6 j) plc 6 e) l) apply boolean logic to industrial control systems o) analyse and troubleshoot circuits which have programmable logic devices (pld) p) analyse and troubleshoot combinational logic circuits, sequential logic circuits, and analog-to-digital and digitalto-analog conversion circuits build, test, and troubleshoot mechanical systems, pneumatic circuits, and hydraulic components and systems test and measure fluid pressures and flow characteristics test electrical, electronic, and mechanical controls used in electrical and fluid power* systems integrate motion control and electrical and fluid power* equipment apply, install, test, and troubleshoot programmable logic control (plc) systems, working with a variety of industrial components and machinery 2nd year hydraulics and pneumatics course need to bridge basic fluid power (pressure and flow characteristics). 2nd year hydraulics and pneumatics and automation courses need to bridge hydraulic/pneumatic/fluid power symbols 2nd year plc/automation 26 oncat project 2016-21 appendix b mechanical principles bridge and mechanical practices bridge course outlines mechanical principles bridge department course number: imt-xxx3 prepared by: approved by: approval date: approved for academic year: normative hours: co-requisites: pre-requisites: mth1084 or mth1105 bryan aitken, p. eng. draft january 30, 2017 2018-2019 45 course description this is one of two courses to bridge the gap from electrical techniques programs to electromechanical engineering technician programs. applied science principles will be applied to mechanical topics relevant to the profession, leading into applied topics of machine components and assemblies, machine drives, lubrication, and then applied to a systems overview of pneumatic, hydraulic and fluid systems. mechanical drawings and documentation will be introduced, as well as safety and maintenance programs. course learning outcomes / course objectives 1) establish and maintain safe work environment, habits, and procedures. 1.1 explain the necessary elements of safe work and a safe work environment. 1.2 describe how safe work habits are gained and maintained. 1.3 explain the purpose of plant safety programs, and typical structure. 1.4 describe the role of health and safety committee member from a maintenance employee perspective. 1.5 explain how safe work procedures are created, and the importance of following them in every situation. 2) interpret mechanical documents in preparation for electromechanical tasks. 2.1 read charts, tables, codes, standards, and other resource materials to extract usable data. 27 oncat project 2016-21 2.2 read and interpret orthographic projections, multiview projections, and auxiliary views of machine components. 2.3 read and interpret assembly and detail drawings of machine components including bills of material. 2.4 state the principles of geometric tolerancing and symbols. 2.5 read and interpret basic weld symbols. 2.6 read and interpret pneumatic and hydraulic component symbols in both ansi and iso systems. 3) define and calculate parameters required for mechanical tasks utilizing necessary principles of applied science. 3.1 state the basic principles of friction and stresses in machine parts with a nonmathematical approach. 3.2 calculate belt, chain, and gear drive speeds and speed ratios given the geometry of the system. 3.3 discuss, describe and/or identify various physical scientific properties and relate them to practical applications. 3.4 solve, analyze and summarize analytical and non-analytical problems involving velocity and acceleration, heat and energy, fluid power and hydraulics. 4) describe the purpose for, and explain the operation of typical mechanical components found in machinery. 4.1 explain the parts and application of the common types of journal and rolling-element bearings, including the necessary seals where applicable. 4.2 explain the basic operation of gear drives, belt drives, chain drives including couplings, clutches, and brake systems. 4.3 describe lubrication systems, standard oils and greases, and methods of lubrication. 5) explain the purpose for, and components of various electromechanical systems. 5.1 describe and apply the basic principles, terms, applications and safety procedures pertaining to pneumatic, hydraulic and fluid systems. 5.2 describe fundamentals of industrial hydraulics and the standard components. 5.3 describe the components and purpose of various types of equipment including; pumps, compressors and fans, stationary engines, conveyors, vessels and heat exchangers, furnaces and boilers. 6) describe the most common maintenance programs used in industry and identify the benefits and weaknesses of each. 6.1 describe/identify the various characteristics, measurements and analysis techniques with respect to commonly used maintenance practices. 28 oncat project 2016-21 learning resources required: 160101a safety legislation and industry policy in the trades 2.1 160101c hazardous materials and fire protection 2.1 160102a measuring 7.1 160102ba measuring tools - part a 11.0 160102bb measuring tools - part b 10.0 160102c layout 8.0 160102d metallurgy 6.2 160103aa hand tools part a 6.1 160103ab hand tools - part b 7.1 160103f threaded fasteners and locking devices 10.1 160103g non-threaded fasteners and locking devices 7.2 160103h installation and removal of fasteners 6.3 160103c grinders 6.1 160103d power saws 5.3 160104a drilling 9.1 160104b milling 8.1 160104c lathe components and accessories 6.0 160104d lathe operations 9.2 150102c speeds, feeds and cutting tools 5.0 160301g pneumatic systems 160301aa introduction to hydraulics-part a 160301ab introduction to hydraulics-part b supplemental: audels millwright and mechanics guide the starrett book for student machinists student evaluation term tests theory and calculations 20 machine parts and systems 30 documentation and maintenance 20 final exam comprehensive 70 30 grade scheme the round off mathematical principle will be used. percentages are converted to letter grades and grade points as follows: mark (%) grade grade point mark (%) grade grade point 94-100 a+ 4.0 67-69 c+ 2.3 87-93 a 3.7 63-66 c 2.0 80-86 a3.5 60-62 c1.7 77-79 b+ 3.2 50-59 d 1.0 73-76 b 3.0 0-49 f 0.0 70-72 b2.7 29 oncat project 2016-21 prior learning assessment students who wish to apply for prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) need to demonstrate competency at a post-secondary level in all of the course learning requirements outlined above. evidence of learning achievement for plar candidates includes: challenge exam course related information the course is structured with 3 hours of theory instruction/ week through the semester. theory lessons will require reading material from the textbooks in preparation for the lecture topics. attendance and participation in course materials and discussion groups, maintaining notes, completing self-directed study or assignments and successful completion of tests are all important components to successfully complete the course. there will be reading assignments associated with all of the topics covered. homework assignments will be given at the discretion of the instructor. students will be evaluated on the basis of attendance, participation, assignments, projects, homework and tests. late submissions will be penalized 10% per day unless arrangements were made in person for an extension. a maximum of 5 days late at which point a grade of zero will be awarded. department related information school of technology, energy & apprenticeship missed evaluation policy in general, only illness and domestic affliction (i.e. death in the family, sick children, legal appointments etc.) will be considered as valid reasons for a missed or late evaluation (test, quiz, assignment, or lab). in cases where, in the judgment of the instructor, other circumstances clearly beyond the control of the student (i.e. co-op job interviews, jury duty, etc.) have led to a missed evaluation, consideration may also be granted. in the event a student misses an evaluation, the student must attempt to: contact the instructor in advance, if at all possible, informing the instructor of the particular situation and attempt to make alternate arrangements. presented with a valid reason for a missed test, the instructor will consult with the student to set up a mutually agreeable test date. the instructor will provide a suitable test at that time and mark it. for other missed or late evaluations, the instructor may instill a penalty, any of which the student will be made aware of at the beginning of the course. in the event a student cannot contact the instructor in advance, the student must: inform the instructor in writing as soon as possible after the missed evaluation and attempt to make alternate arrangements. in all cases in which a student seeks remedy for a missed evaluation, the instructor may require a medical certificate or other substantiating documents by way of validation. when, in the judgment of the instructor, the students reason is invalid, the student shall be refused any further remedy. the decision of the instructor not to allow the student the opportunity to reschedule the evaluation may be appealed under the academic appeal policy which is available on the web under registration on the current student page. 30 oncat project 2016-21 college related information academic integrity lambton college is committed to high ethical standards in all academic activities within the college, including research, reporting and learning assessment (e.g. tests, lab reports, essays). the cornerstone of academic integrity and professional reputation is principled conduct. all scholastic and academic activity must be free of all forms of academic dishonesty, including copying, plagiarism and cheating. lambton college will not tolerate any academic dishonesty, a position reflected in lambton college policy. students should be familiar with the students rights and responsibilities policy, located on the mylambton website. the policy states details concerning academic dishonesty and the penalties for dishonesty and unethical conduct. questions regarding this policy, or requests for additional clarification, should be directed to the lambton college centre for academic integrity students with disabilities if you are a student with a disability please identify your needs to the professor and/or the accessibility centre so that support services can be arranged for you. you can do this by making an appointment at the accessibility centre or by arranging a personal interview with the professor to discuss your needs. student rights and responsibility policy acceptable behaviour in class is established by the instructor and is expected of all students. any form of misbehaviour, harassment or violence will not be tolerated. action will be taken as outlined in lambton college policy. date of withdrawal without academic penalty please consult the academic regulations and registrar's published dates. waiver of responsibility every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of this information as of the date of publication. the content may be modified, without notice, as deemed appropriate by the college. students should note policies may differ depending on the location of course offering. please refer to campus location specific policies: lambton college - sarnia campus: https://www.mylambton.ca/policies/ lambton college - non-sarnia campuses: https://www.mylambton.ca/cestar/student_policies/ 31 oncat project 2016-21 note: it is the students responsibility to retain course outlines for possible future use to support applications for transfer of credit to other educational institutions. mechanical practices bridge department course number: imt-xxx3 prepared by: approved by: approval date: approved for academic year: normative hours: co-requisites: pre-requisites: mth1084 or mth1105 bryan aitken, p. eng. draft january 30, 2017 2018-2019 60 course description this is the second of two courses to bridge the gap from electrical techniques programs to electromechanical engineering technician programs. this course will introduce general millwright maintenance skills and subsequently basic machine shop skills. the emphasis throughout will be the development of troubleshooting, measurement, and repair skills in a safe and effective manner. course learning outcomes / course objectives 7) develop and maintain a safe work environment, habits and procedures. 7.1 communicate effectively by means of verbal, written, and visual representation, about maintenance and machining operations and details. 7.2 explain the necessary elements of safe work methods, and define a safe work environment. 7.3 explain the necessary actions if something is deemed unsafe. 8) demonstrate proper basic mechanical maintenance skills following established procedures. 8.1 demonstrate precision measurement within given standards in imperial and metric units. 8.2 demonstrate skills in the use of hand and power tools commonly utilized in mechanical maintenance. 8.3 perform standard lubrication procedures on mechanical equipment. 8.4 diagnose operating problems with gear drives, belt drives, chain drives including couplings, clutches, and brake systems. 8.5 assemble and disassemble mechanical systems using arbor press, hydraulic press, air tools, pullers, splitters, and slide hammers. 9) demonstrate proper basic skills utilizing machines found in the typical machine shop. 32 oncat project 2016-21 9.1 9.2 9.3 select and apply the appropriate procedures, materials, and tools, for altering or producing mechanical components. correctly operate machine shop equipment to create part geometry to given tolerances and surface conditions. sketch assembly and component parts using orthographic, isometric and sectional views with relevant dimensions and notes. 10) troubleshoot and repair electro-mechanical equipment following accepted safety and maintenance procedures. 10.1 perform standard maintenance tests on mechanical power transmission systems. 10.2 perform measurement and analysis techniques utilized in commonly used maintenance practices. 11) demonstrate the ability to work as part of a team to safely perform shop exercises following written and verbal instructions. 11.1 follow maintenance procedures and safety protocols to perform specified tasks. learning resources required: 160201fa - lubrication part a - 6.0 - 52 160201fb - lubrication part b - 6.1 - 56 160202ba - antifriction bearings - part a - 7.0 - 56 160202bb - anti-friction bearings - part b - 6.1 - 52 160202c plain bearings - 5.1 - 56 160202da - bearing maintenance part a - 7.1 - 56 160202db - bearing maintenance part b - 7.1 - 36 160202da - belts part a - 8.0 - 48 160202db belts part b - 8.0 - 36 160202ea - chains part a - 7.1 - 52 160202eb - chains part b - 5.1 - 32 160202f - gearing fundamentals - 6.1 - 56 160202g - gear installation and maintenance - 7.1 - 44 160202h - variable-speed power transmission devices - 6.1 - 44 160202a - shafting, fits and accessories - 9.0 - 28 160202c - clutches and brakes - 4.1 - 44 160202b - couplings - 3.0 - 60 60105b - rim and face shaft alignment - 5.1 - 32 160204a - cross-dial alignment - 8.0 - 40 160403c advanced alignment - 6.0 - 48 160303a - laser shaft alignment - 4.1 - 24 160201e - bearing seals and pillow blocks - 6.1 - 44 supplemental: audels millwright and mechanics guide the starrett book for student machinists student evaluation term tests general maintenance machine shop practices 50 25 25 33 oncat project 2016-21 practical assessment hands-on two day assessment 20 final exam comprehensive 30 grade scheme the round off mathematical principle will be used. percentages are converted to letter grades and grade points as follows: mark (%) grade grade point mark (%) grade grade point 94-100 a+ 4.0 67-69 c+ 2.3 87-93 a 3.7 63-66 c 2.0 80-86 a3.5 60-62 c1.7 77-79 b+ 3.2 50-59 d 1.0 73-76 b 3.0 0-49 f 0.0 70-72 b2.7 prior learning assessment students who wish to apply for prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) need to demonstrate competency at a post-secondary level in all of the course learning requirements outlined above. evidence of learning achievement for plar candidates includes: challenge exam practical skills assessment course related information the course is structured with 3 hours of theory instruction/ week through the semester and a 2 day 14 hour on campus practical assessment of skills during a weekend towards the end of the program. theory lessons will require reading material from the textbooks in preparation for the lecture topics. attendance and participation in course materials and discussion groups, maintaining notes, completing self-directed study or assignments and successful completion of tests are all important components to successfully complete the course. there will be reading assignments associated with all of the topics covered. homework assignments will be given at the discretion of the instructor. students will be evaluated on the basis of attendance, participation, assignments, projects, homework and tests. late submissions will be penalized 10% per 34 oncat project 2016-21 day unless arrangements were made in person for an extension. a maximum of 5 days late at which point a grade of zero will be awarded. preparation for the practical assessment will be accomplished via high technology 360 videos throughout the term. attendance at the practical assessment is mandatory otherwise a passing grade will not be granted. department related information school of technology, energy & apprenticeship missed evaluation policy in general, only illness and domestic affliction (i.e. death in the family, sick children, legal appointments etc.) will be considered as valid reasons for a missed or late evaluation (test, quiz, assignment, or lab). in cases where, in the judgment of the instructor, other circumstances clearly beyond the control of the student (i.e. co-op job interviews, jury duty, etc.) have led to a missed evaluation, consideration may also be granted. in the event a student misses an evaluation, the student must attempt to: contact the instructor in advance, if at all possible, informing the instructor of the particular situation and attempt to make alternate arrangements. presented with a valid reason for a missed test, the instructor will consult with the student to set up a mutually agreeable test date. the instructor will provide a suitable test at that time and mark it. for other missed or late evaluations, the instructor may instill a penalty, any of which the student will be made aware of at the beginning of the course. in the event a student cannot contact the instructor in advance, the student must: inform the instructor in writing as soon as possible after the missed evaluation and attempt to make alternate arrangements. in all cases in which a student seeks remedy for a missed evaluation, the instructor may require a medical certificate or other substantiating documents by way of validation. when, in the judgment of the instructor, the students reason is invalid, the student shall be refused any further remedy. the decision of the instructor not to allow the student the opportunity to reschedule the evaluation may be appealed under the academic appeal policy which is available on the web under registration on the current student page. college related information academic integrity lambton college is committed to high ethical standards in all academic activities within the college, including research, reporting and learning assessment (e.g. tests, lab reports, essays). the cornerstone of academic integrity and professional reputation is principled conduct. all scholastic and academic activity must be free of all forms of academic dishonesty, including copying, plagiarism and cheating. lambton college will not tolerate any academic dishonesty, a position reflected in lambton college policy. students should be familiar with the students rights and responsibilities policy, located on the mylambton website. the policy states details concerning academic dishonesty and the penalties for dishonesty and unethical conduct. 35 oncat project 2016-21 questions regarding this policy, or requests for additional clarification, should be directed to the lambton college centre for academic integrity students with disabilities if you are a student with a disability please identify your needs to the professor and/or the accessibility centre so that support services can be arranged for you. you can do this by making an appointment at the accessibility centre or by arranging a personal interview with the professor to discuss your needs. student rights and responsibility policy acceptable behaviour in class is established by the instructor and is expected of all students. any form of misbehaviour, harassment or violence will not be tolerated. action will be taken as outlined in lambton college policy. date of withdrawal without academic penalty please consult the academic regulations and registrar's published dates. waiver of responsibility every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of this information as of the date of publication. the content may be modified, without notice, as deemed appropriate by the college. students should note policies may differ depending on the location of course offering. please refer to campus location specific policies: lambton college - sarnia campus: https://www.mylambton.ca/policies/ lambton college - non-sarnia campuses: https://www.mylambton.ca/cestar/student_policies/ note: it is the students responsibility to retain course outlines for possible future use to support applications for transfer of credit to other educational institutions. 36 oncat project 2016-21 appendix c key milestones the following table outlines the key milestones for the project: id. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 title original project meeting gap analysis work gap analysis discussion all partner colleges new team meeting regarding path forward and outcomes course draft learning outcomes final approved outcomes and methodology course outlines approved pathway developed, signed and approved final report to oncat planned completion date forecast forecast current completion completion forecast date as date as completion reported two reported date months ago last month actual completion date 25-05-16 24-06-16 24-06-16 25-05-16 24-06-16 24-06-16 30-11-16 5-12-16 12-12-16 31-10-16 18-01-17 12-12-16 31-12-16 18-01-17 18-01-17 30-01-17 28-02-17 30-12-16 28-02-17 30-01-17 28-02-17 17-02-17 31-03-17 15-03-17 15-03-17 15-03-17 15-03-17 37 oncat project 2016-21 appendix d risk management the following table below outlines the risks that were involved in the pathway project development: id. 1 risk loss of key project personnel mitigation plan (what is being done to prevent the risk) contingency plan (what will be done if the risk occurs) more than one individual involved where possible to maintain continuity likelihood of occurring low potential impact (dollar / schedule / quality etc.) would impact the schedule 38 oncat project 2016-21 appendix e course delivery mode recommendations mechanical principles bridge february 17, 2017 delivery modes: course learning outcomes / course objectives 12) establish and maintain safe work environment, habits, and procedures. 12.1 explain the necessary elements of safe work and a safe work environment. 12.2 describe how safe work habits are gained and maintained. 12.3 explain the purpose of plant safety programs, and typical structure. 12.4 describe the role of health and safety committee member from a maintenance employee perspective. 12.5 explain how safe work procedures are created, and the importance of following them in every situation. mode: online lecture materials, video links to safety videos as required, online quizzes for practice 13) interpret mechanical documents in preparation for electromechanical tasks. 13.1 read charts, tables, codes, standards, and other resource materials to extract usable data. 13.2 read and interpret orthographic projections, multiview projections, and auxiliary views of machine components. 13.3 read and interpret assembly and detail drawings of machine components including bills of material. 13.4 state the principles of geometric tolerancing and symbols. 13.5 read and interpret basic weld symbols. 13.6 read and interpret pneumatic and hydraulic component symbols in both ansi and iso systems. mode: online lecture materials, reference materials either online or in text that includes symbols introduction for mechanical systems, views, welds, and pneumatic and hydraulic components 14) define and calculate parameters required for mechanical tasks utilizing necessary principles of applied science. 14.1 state the basic principles of friction and stresses in machine parts with a nonmathematical approach. 14.2 calculate belt, chain, and gear drive speeds and speed ratios given the geometry of the system. 14.3 discuss, describe and/or identify various physical scientific properties and relate them to practical applications. 14.4 solve, analyze and summarize analytical and non-analytical problems involving velocity and acceleration, heat and energy, fluid power and hydraulics. mode: online lecture materials, sample problems, online quizzes for practice 39 oncat project 2016-21 15) describe the purpose for, and explain the operation of typical mechanical components found in machinery. 15.1 explain the parts and application of the common types of journal and rolling-element bearings, including the necessary seals where applicable. 15.2 explain the basic operation of gear drives, belt drives, chain drives including couplings, clutches, and brake systems. 15.3 describe lubrication systems, standard oils and greases, and methods of lubrication. mode: online lecture materials, video and photo links to show a variety of parts, drives, and lubrication systems, online quizzes for practice. text materials are the alberta learn modules that introduces this material 16) explain the purpose for, and components of various electromechanical systems. 16.1 describe and apply the basic principles, terms, applications and safety procedures pertaining to pneumatic, hydraulic and fluid systems. 16.2 describe fundamentals of industrial hydraulics and the standard components. 16.3 describe the components and purpose of various types of equipment including; pumps, compressors and fans, stationary engines, conveyors, vessels and heat exchangers, furnaces and boilers. mode: online lecture materials, video and photo links to show a variety of systems and assemblies, online quizzes for practice. text materials are the alberta learn modules that introduces this materials. 17) describe the most common maintenance programs used in industry and identify the benefits and weaknesses of each. 17.1 describe/identify the various characteristics, measurements and analysis techniques with respect to commonly used maintenance practices. mode: online lecture materials that outlines common maintenance programs, online quizzes for practice mechanical practices bridge february 17, 2017 delivery modes: course learning outcomes / course objectives 18) develop and maintain a safe work environment, habits and procedures. 18.1 communicate effectively by means of verbal, written, and visual representation, about maintenance and machining operations and details. 18.2 explain the necessary elements of safe work methods, and define a safe work environment. 40 oncat project 2016-21 18.3 explain the necessary actions if something is deemed unsafe. mode: online lecture materials, video links to safety videos as required, online quizzes for practice 19) demonstrate proper basic mechanical maintenance skills following established procedures. 19.1 demonstrate precision measurement within given standards in imperial and metric units. 19.2 demonstrate skills in the use of hand and power tools commonly utilized in mechanical maintenance. 19.3 perform standard lubrication procedures on mechanical equipment. 19.4 diagnose operating problems with gear drives, belt drives, chain drives including couplings, clutches, and brake systems. 19.5 assemble and disassemble mechanical systems using arbor press, hydraulic press, air tools, pullers, splitters, and slide hammers. mode: online lecture materials, 360-degree videos to be developed skills and tools are identified and demonstrated students interact with video later to show knowledge. suggested videos to develop are: a) use of mechanical measurement tools b) care and use of standard mechanical hand tools c) care and use of standard mechanical power tools d) basic diagnosis, disassembly, repair and assembly of drives and auxiliaries part a one day of two-day practical assessment at host college (7 hours) 20) demonstrate proper basic skills utilizing machines found in the typical machine shop. 20.1 select and apply the appropriate procedures, materials, and tools, for altering or producing mechanical components. 20.2 correctly operate machine shop equipment to create part geometry to given tolerances and surface conditions. 20.3 sketch assembly and component parts using orthographic, isometric and sectional views with relevant dimensions and notes. mode: online lecture materials, 360 videos to be developed skills and machines are identified and demonstrated students interact with video later to show knowledge. suggested videos to develop are: a) basic use of a metal lathe b) simple part machining with a metal lathe c) basic use of a milling machine d) simple part machining with a milling machine part b second day of two-day practical assessment at host college (7 hours) 21) troubleshoot and repair electro-mechanical equipment following accepted safety and maintenance procedures. 21.1 perform standard maintenance tests on mechanical power transmission systems. 41 oncat project 2016-21 21.2 perform measurement and analysis techniques utilized in commonly used maintenance practices. mode: online lecture materials, 360 video to be developed maintenance practices are identified and demonstrated students interact with video later to show knowledge. suggested video to develop: a) standard maintenance tests and measurements on a power transmission system 22) demonstrate the ability to work as part of a team to safely perform shop exercises following written and verbal instructions. 22.1 follow maintenance procedures and safety protocols to perform specified tasks. mode: online lecture materials, 360 videos to be developed how to identify safety issues and specify corrective action. suggest video to develop: a) investigation of a system for safety issues, and what recommendations to address

how student pathways affect labour market outcomes: evidence from tax-linked administrative data executive summary march 31, 2017 ross finnie michael dubois masashi miyairi executive summary the education policy research initiative (epri), a national research organization based at the university of ottawa, recently carried out a research project examining post-graduation outcomes of pse graduates by constructing and analyzing a dataset linking 14 canadian pse institutions administrative data to tax data held with statistics canada. one variable included in the administrative data classifies students by applicant type, such as direct entry from high school or transfer student. using information on the application types to their pse programs and earnings records surrounding their spells of studies, epri aimed to construct and compare the earnings profiles of students who followed different pse pathways. we first compared the post-graduation earnings outcomes of direct entry students with those of students from other application type categories. the direct entry graduates were further divided into two groups based on their age at graduation to partially account for differences in their previous schooling and labour market histories. while we found differences in first-year earnings and subsequent earnings growth across different pathways, these differences were quantitatively insignificant compared to those found with respect to other graduate characteristics. moreover, these earnings differences became quantitatively less significant relative to actual earnings levels as earnings generally grew at a robust pace after graduation. in addition, we took advantage of the unique features of the dataset that allowed us to observed graduates earnings even before graduation, and compared pre-schooling earnings to postschooling earnings across four groups formed by direct-entry status and age at graduation. this comparison produced arguably the most interesting findings as to earnings differences among graduates from different pathways, together with the earnings dynamics of the older non-direct entry graduates. while the younger groups had relatively low pre-schooling earnings, as would be expected, the older groups generally had established labour market experience and therefore the change in earnings of these students around their pse experiences could be interpreted in a value added perspective. most interestingly, those older students generally demonstrated substantial increases in earnings in their post-schooling years relative to their pre-schooling years: i.e., significant value added from their pse experiences. however, it is important to highlight data quality issues underlying these findings. since the applicant type variable had difficulty identifying the application types of all the graduates in the data, we could not examine potential heterogeneities among non-direct entry graduates. thus, while this project may have demonstrated fruitful approaches by which pse-tax linked data can be used to examine how pse pathways are related to both pre- and post-schooling outcomes, more thorough analysis requires higher-quality data on pse pathways, ideally full psis-type data for an entire jurisdiction so that specific pathways can be identified by the researcher by tracking students as they move through the entire pse system. .

anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next project name: generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators project number: 2016-19 maryann fifield report author(s): associate vice president academic date of submission: march 10, 2017 table of contents list of participants and partner institutions 3 executive summary 3 project purpose and goals 4 pathway development 5 a) methodology 5 b) program comparison and analysis 6 c) implementation process and timelines 7 promising practices and lessons learned 14 summary of pathway(s) created 14 financial report (separate document) 15 appendices 16 1.2 anishnaabemowin and language programming program - program summary current 2.2 anishnaabemowin and program development program - program summary - fall 2017 georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 17 18 2 list of participants and partner institutions georgian college michele obrien co-ordinator anishnaabemowin language programming (anlp) (project lead) bernice trudeau professor, anlp (faculty resource) james andrew baker professor, anlp (faculty resource) stephen pinney professor, anlp (faculty resource) tareyn johnson language learner (language learner resource) lorraine mcrae elder and language speaker ernestine baldwin elder and language speaker berdina johnston elder and language speaker (subject matter expert) emily norton elder and language speaker (subject matter expert) shirley john elder and language speaker (subject matter expert) loretta mcdonald elder and language speaker (subject matter expert) austen mixemong elder and language speaker (subject matter expert) roland st.germain elder and language speaker (subject matter expert) pat strong elder and language speaker (subject matter expert) maryann fifield, bscn, ma associate vice president academic (academic oversight) julie madden project support liliana degasperis program administration sandi pallister-gougeon program assistant (program resource) lakehead university bruce beardy, ma, b.ed co-ordinator, native language instructors program donald kerr, ph.d acting chair, aboriginal education (nlip subject matter expert) john omeara, ph.d dean, faculty of education (subject matter expert) executive summary the anishnaabemowin pathways project identified a pathway for students enrolled in the anishnaabemowin (ojibwe) language programming (anlp) program at georgian college to transfer seamlessly into lakehead universitys indigenous language teacher diploma (iltd) formerly native language teachers certificate program. this will be done through an integrated delivery format between georgian college (barrie) and lakehead university (orillia). prior to implementation, lakehead university will need to complete the revisions to its credential to meet new ontario college of teachers standards. as part of the oncat supported work, georgian also reviewed and revised its existing program with the help of language and subject matter experts and elders. we anticipate that students entering the sept 2017 cohort at georgian will have the option of moving into the iltd upon completion of the georgian program in 2019. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 3 project purpose and goal the projects purpose and goal is to establish an academic pathway that enables students who complete georgians anishnaabemowin language programming (anlp) two year program to move directly into the first term of lakeheads indigenous language teacher diploma (iltd) program. the new iltd, currently moving through lakeheads senate approval process, will consist of four four-week sessions delivered over four consecutive summers, plus additional coursework in the fall or winter terms, and completion of a student teaching practicum. following this model, it will take students on the lakehead thunder bay campus four years to earn this credential. in the pathway developed for this oncat funded project, lakehead has agreed to re-configure the four year model to be delivered in two years or less (depending on accreditation requirements from ontario college of teachers). therefore, students pursuing georgians twoyear anlp diploma and lakeheads nltc certification consecutively will finish both credentials in approximately four-years. georgian and lakehead agreed to work towards the following goals: conduct a detailed review of the learning outcomes and curriculum for both programs; ensure the programs are cohesive, meet targeted curriculum goals, and address issues of dialect; and integrate the programs to create a seamless pathway that provides graduates with a wide range of employment opportunities in a shorter timeframe. the key steps in achieving the goal of an integrated pathway for georgians anlp and lakeheads nltc programs included: detailed review of learning outcomes and curriculum from both programs, mapping lakeheads iltd admission requirement to the anlp exit/outcome requirements renew/restructure and enhance the two programs to ensure they are complementary and can be delivered to students appropriately. georgian and lakehead are collaborating on this pathway development. together, the two institutions will contract faculty curriculum consultants to work with anishnaabemowin language teachers/speakers who are the subject matter experts to do these reviews and complete the program enhancements. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 4 pathway development a) methodology lakeheads faculty of education offers the iltd program (previously the nltc) to educate fluent native speakers to teach their own language, usually in their home communities. iltd is the only program in canada that provides certified instruction for future instructors of ojibwe (anishinaabemowin) and cree (ininiimowin), two of the most important indigenous languages of canada. this program has an important legacy of language revitalization in the region, throughout ontario and beyond. by meeting the need for university-level education in language and teaching, this program has built individual and community-level capacity, and contributed to language and cultural development. it has also acted, and continues to act, as an access program for many students who spring from, what was previously a threeyear certificate program based on their native language, to further university studies and degree completion. in 2006, lakehead university established its satellite campus in orillia, which offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in arts and sciences, as well as programs in business, education, social work, criminology and media studies. together, georgian and lakehead are the two established postsecondary institutions that serve simcoe county and surrounding regions. lakehead and georgian recognize the value of university-college collaboration on delivery of degree-level education; the two institutions formalized their commitment to their partnership in 2012 with a goal to deliver integrated degree/diploma programs and reaffirmed their commitment in 2013. both lakeheads and georgians strategic mandate agreements (smas) highlight this collaborative plan to expand degree capacity. the two institutions have worked closely to develop a suite of high-calibre, applied, career-focused degrees, using a cost-effective model that is relevant to the new economy. an aboriginal language teaching program was identified as one of the integrated credential offerings for the lakehead-georgian partnership, based on regional demand and institutional capacity. this opportunity not only aligns with the truth and reconciliation commission of canada: calls to action, but specifically with call to action #14, which addresses the preservation, revitalization, and strengthening of aboriginal languages and cultures. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 5 b) program comparison and analysis georgian found the best strategy for program comparison and analysis for gaps was by working with the established curriculum team, elders and a wide range of subject matter experts (language speaking elders). the initial step was to look at lakeheads iltd program curriculum and compare it with georgians current program, anlp. we were looking for strengths in our anlp program that would provide the students with a pathway to the iltd program. meetings and discussions with lakeheads department led us to a decision to strengthen and balance the number of language courses the students would receive throughout the two-year program. a challenge for the comparison was keeping in mind that not all georgians students would be moving onto lakeheads iltd program. the strategy upon which the renewal was based, was to maintain the overall purpose of the original college diploma program, while also increasing opportunities in the program for students to read, write and speak the language. this was in addition to providing them and to provide them with the skills to go into a community or organization and create language programs. this was done, with the goal of creating a seamless pathway into iltd. georgians curriculum team, comprised of subject experts (faculty teaching in the program), our language speaking elders and experts in curriculum design, along with individuals from the centre for teaching and learning and the quality assurance department, analyzed each individual course and made significant changes to course descriptions, outcomes, content and evaluation. students who graduate from the anishnaabemowin and program development program, formerly known as the anishnaabemowin language programming program (appendices 1.2 and 2.2,) will have acquired necessary skills, practice and instruction to pass the admission requirements for the lakeheads iltd program. georgians team collaboratively worked on the program outline as a whole; including looking at the program name, descriptions, and outcomes. five new program outcomes were added to reflect the changes to the program. once approved by gcs academic council, the team continued to meet weekly to work on individual course outlines. the process was to begin with term 1 and work through to term 4. faculty who are presently teaching were consulted with regard to best practices regarding their course. the process was to start with the course title, followed by the description, outcomes, content, and evaluation always with a lens to how this met both the original mandates of the program, and also how it would align with lakeheads program. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 6 implementation process and timelines deliverables dates march 2016: conception deliverables actual deliverables met key activities: project startup march 28, 2016 meetings between lakehead and georgian to curriculum team assembled and ready review the oncat met with curriculum team to look proposal, review budget, at current anlp program review and refine the summary flow of term 1, 2, 3 critical path including and 4 sequence of courses for timelines and overall role two-year program clarification for the project looked at courses that needed determine meeting dates changing due to feedback from and locations elders, faculty and students for the last 4 years 2 cohorts of anlp. hold orientation for team looked at balance of faculty, curriculum reviewers and language language, program development resource people and culture in each term key milestones: role clarification; critical path and timelines (e.g., detailed project plan); staff contracted and orientation provided; project underway. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 7 date deliverables actual deliverables met key activities: scheduled conference call with lakehead outcomes: gather and review all program documents for discussed dates and initial both anlp and nltc planning until march 10th deadline for finishing the project and undertake review of marketing the project curriculum and learning 1st deliverable may 17th, review outcomes for the anlp and nltc all program documents map learning outcomes sent current anlp program and from anlp by year against course outlines to lakehead admission requirements gc curriculum team looked at the and learning outcomes of nltc curriculum to identify gaps each of the three sessions and to make changes to provide a of the ntlc program to seamless pathway for students determine alignments and process for gc is to make changes gaps to program outline first develop recommendations curriculum team worked on on how to restructure anlp program outline, description, and nltc to facilitate a name and individual course april - june 2016: seamless pathway for descriptions detailed review of concurrent delivery of the it was determined by the team to programs two programs, as well as change the name to reflect the enhancements (e.g., online changes to anlp component) that would new name anishnaabemowin benefit the programs and program development conduct a team meeting to (anpd), as there was a balance of review project to date language courses and courses to learn how to develop a language key milestones: program data collection; curriculum five new courses were added, review; synergies and gaps along with indigenous heritage, identified; means to tradition and culture address gaps identified; five courses were renamed, and 6 recommendations for courses will have anishnaabe change/revisions prepared; titles. consultation and agreement on the recommendations; approval of recommendations. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 8 date deliverables april - june 2016: detailed review of programs georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators actual deliverables met georgian college, indigenous studies curriculum team met every monday georgian college team made changes to curriculum after identifying gaps to provide course strengths for an easier transition to the nltc elders, students and faculty were consulted about changes, and approved all content may 2016, final program outline was sent to gc program curriculum approval committee and it was approved at that program level. conference call to lakehead discuss recommendations to present; gaps, changes, seamless pathway, on-line delivery lakehead to barrie gc campus one-year program - best possible pathway georgian college anpd program outline and name change approved by college-wide curriculum approval body, academic council june 2016 9 date deliverables key activities: complete curriculum modifications for both programs in accordance with each institutions curriculum development processes review pathway program and curriculum modifications with respective aecs and elder advisory circles develop additional component (e.g., online) that were identified, if any prepare interim report for july-november oncat 2016: conduct team meetings to develop pathway review project to date from altc to nltc key milestones: changes to curriculum made; interim report prepared and submitted to oncat (october) georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators actual deliverables met met with elders from the elders advisory circle went over the current program and presented proposed changes. . approval was granted curriculum modifications georgian college curriculum team met weekly and worked on individual course outlines for anpd; outcomes, content and evaluation term 1 to term 4 completed november 11, 2016 meeting at georgian college barrie campus with lakehead department leads and staff marketing plan needs to be determined and timeline of events block transfer agreement discussed and agreed to in principle. time line of program needs to be determined group decided spring 2019 needs to be the start date due to transfer credits and andp program mapping individual course outlines to be approved by vp of academics and then by the georgian colleges registrars office once up loaded then links can be sent to lakehead for the mapping 10 date deliverables 28 october 2016 submit interim report to oncat actual deliverables met interim report was submitted to oncat key activities: curriculum approval process curriculum through registrars office and modifications through quality assurance dept. final respective institutional approval from vp of academics channels and protocols for ratification/approval discussions with lakehead department leads key milestones: lakehead universitys coordinator fully approved curriculum of nltc resigned at both institutions going completion of curriculum mapping forward by lakehead university pending lakeheads acting coordinator of december 2016 prepared a curriculum analysis for january 2017: potential transfer credits from completion anlp and anpd to nltc georgian college curriculum leads were informed that there would be no transfer credits granted and students of anlp and anpd would need to be prepared to meet the admission requirements set out by lakehead university to enter into the nltc program it was agreed to re-visit the analysis of the credits earned toward the lakehead credential georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 11 date deliverables actual deliverables met key activities: conference call with lakeheads team for update on key milestones; marketing develop marketing/promotion plan and project completion for the new revisions to lakeheads program anishnaabemowin submitted to senate approval postsecondary learning process; decision in place as of pathway that will be sept 2017 executed by both the delivery of the nltc program institutions which also will have a new name prepare final report to indigenous language teachers oncat diploma program, will also need approval from the ontario college key milestones: of teachers project completion; joint lakehead university will submit marketing plan developed their new plan to the college in fall 2017 current plan is to deliver the iltd program at the barrie campus with its first intake in spring 2019 (no later than fall 2019) and run for a february 2017: minimum 16 months implementation meeting with vp of academics, georgian college and community liaison officer and anpd coordinator to discuss marketing plan for pathway due to nltcs coordinator resigning, contact and clarification on this role of marketing to be determined plan from georgian college mail out intro letter posters ads in newspapers; simcoe, grey bruce, north bay, sudbury, manitoulin, to communitys south of simcoe on reserve newspapers and newsletters georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 12 date deliverables actual deliverables met radio create ads for community radio; wasauksing, little current, cape croker, georgina island, cristian island and manitoulin island market to anishnaabe education and training circle members georgian colleges indigenous education advisory board comprised of over 21 communities and organizations outreach attend community education and career fairs spring and summer pow wows organize and attend community organizations meetings direct students organize on campus day events and tours with students registered in indigenous studies and language courses in district area high schools final meeting with the elders advisory circle the purpose of the meeting was to obtain final approval of finished program, anishnaabemowin and program development and update the elders on the planned partnership with lakehead university. the elders were very welcoming to the idea of the partnership and expressed the outcome of a student obtaining a teaching diploma would be beneficial for the communities. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 13 promising practices and lessons learned the best promising practice is to have a strong, collaborative team. develop a team with individuals that bring various strengths to the table. meet on a regular basis and commit to at least 3 hours a week for curriculum development. consult with subject matter experts, students, faculty, and individuals that have an added interest to the change process. curriculum team used as a reference the common european framework reference (cefr) model for the design of new courses. the common european framework reference (cefr) was developed by the council of europe to standardize second-language proficiency across several countries. cefr is a selfassessment tool for determining ones proficiency in a second-language through a series of can do statements to determine the skill level of the user. the cefr model has already been adapted to suit a variety of languages across europe and is ideal for standardizing second-language learning self-assessment. georgian decided to use the common european framework reference due to its success in its application across all the languages included in the council of europe as well as its adaptation to indigenous european languages such as romany. while we are aware that anishnaabemowin is very different from english and other european languages we recognized the highly flexible structure of the cefr rubric and determined it to be the best reference for our self-assessment tool. lessons learned be prepared for institution processes that are different than your own preparation for your own institutions changing processes. from the initial beginning of a project to the end date, could be a year, in that timeframe, changes to how an institution does a process, can change, even more than once prepare a contingency plan in the even that players change during the process or criteria required by third party provider changes. summary of pathway(s) created the basis for a pathway has been created. georgians program continues to be strong and prepare graduates to go into their community to assist in developing language skills. the framework for direct access into lakeheads native language teacher training program has been mapped and the pathway ready to be fully put in place. the community has been asking for a southern site (barrie or orillia) for the past decade and with the partnership between lakehead and georgian, we are getting closer to this reality. at this time, there is a delay in rolling out the actual pathway due to changes to the ontario college of teachers credential standards and the impact of these changes on the indigenous language teacher diploma program. once these changes have been sorted out and incorporated into the program, georgian and lakehead will continue to move this project forward. it is encouraging to the language revitalization champions in this region to see georgian and lakehead continuing to work closely together to meet the needs of the local indigenous community. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 14 financial report (separate document) georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 15 appendices 1.2 current program summary of anishnaabemowin and language programming program 2.2 approved program changes for fall 2017. anishnaabemowin and program development program. changes to the program are highlighted in red. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 16 appendix 1.2 anishnaabemowin and language programming program program summary current georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 17 appendix 2.2 anishnaabemowin and program development program program summary fall 2017 georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 18 department of aboriginal education anishnaabemowin pathways program proposal draft indigenous languages teacher diploma program faculty of education, lakehead university term 1 algonquian 1212: oral algonquian structure part 1 (methods) 0.5 fce practicum 1 educ aaxx: minimum 10 days practice teaching completed. term 1 educ 1xxx: mental health and aboriginal education (foundations) 0.5 fce, online term 2 algonquian 1232: oral algonquian structure part 2 (methods) 0.5 fce term 2 educ 2xxx: educational research and data analysis (foundations) 0.5 fce, online practicum 2 term 3 term 3 educ bbxx: minimum 20 days practice teaching completed, before start of 3rd summer. algonquian 2213: oral algonquian structure part 3 (methods) 0.5 fce educ 3xxx: technology as a teaching and learning tool (methods) 0.5 fce, online practicum 3 term 4 educ ccxx: minimum 50 days practice teaching completed before start of 4th summer. algonquian 2233: oral algonquian structure part 4 (methods) 0.5 fce educ 1351: nasl methods part 1 (methods) 0.5 fce educ 1352: nasl methods part 2 (methods) 0.5 fce educ 1353: nasl methods part 3 (methods) 0.5 fce education 1354: nasl methods part 4 (methods) 0.5 fce educ 1571: introduction to teaching (foundations) 0.5 fce educ 1572: educ 1573: current issues in native language education (foundations) 0.5 fce education 1574: approaches to bilingual education (foundations) 0.5 fce educ 0190: student teaching (methods) 0.5 fce educ 0290: student teaching (methods) 0.5 fce educ 0390: student teaching (methods) education 1599: reflection on student teaching 0.5 fce total fce: the development of the child (foundations) 0.5 fce 0.25 0.5 2.0 0.5 0.25 2.0 0.5 2.0 total fce for program: 10.5 minimum time to completion: 4 terms, including coursework and practicum. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 19 0.5 2.0 1 fce = 72 instructional hours = 6 credits when students have completed term 1 and practicum 1, they will be recommended to the college of teachers for a transitional certificate. when they have completed the entire program, they will be recommended for their certificate of qualification (restricted). georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 20 a minimum of 80 days of practicum will be completed: 10 days in the first term, 20 days in the second term, and 50 days in the third term. credit weighting of 1.0 fce will be assigned to the practicum, split over each practice teaching session as 0.25, 0.25 and 0.5 fce respectively. the minimum time to completion of the program is four terms. new courses the following new courses are being calendared: educ 1xxx: mental health and indigenous education focuses on the relationship between mental health, well-being and student achievement. an indigenous model of health will be used to describe the teachers role in health promotion, and identifying students who need additional intervention and support. supports available for both students and teachers will be addressed. credit weight: 0.5 fce offered online either in the fall or winter term. course will include the following learner outcomes: educate students of a program of professional education in child, youth and parental mental health issues relevant to the elementary and secondary school environment, particularly in indigenous schools and remote communities. the colleges standards of practice for the teaching profession and ethical standards for the teaching profession the policies, assessments and practices involved in responding to the needs and strengths of all students, including students identified as requiring special education supports. provide a safe, supportive, inclusive and engaging classroom environment for all students. educ 2xxx: educational research and data analysis focuses on how to access and make use of current educational research to inform ones knowledge and practice, and the use of data currently available on learners in ones classroom and school. assessing ones students to guide ones own practice. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 21 credit weight: 0.5 fce offered online either in the fall or winter term. course will include the following learner outcomes: use inquiry-based research, data and assessment and the selection and use of current instructional strategies to address student learning styles. learner assessment and evaluation. educ 3xxx: technology as a teaching and learning tool the use of technology to reach and teach students, both by distance learning and in the classroom and school. includes choosing and assessing technological resources, giving students tools to enhance the power of their learning and performance, and modeling knowledge creation and responsible use of technology. credit weight: 0.5 fce offered online either in the fall or winter term. course will include the following learner outcomes: locate and evaluate technology resources and tools for different purposes and to model critical viewing, representing, and thinking for students; use technology to enhance differentiation, collaborative learning, and construction and mobilization of knowledge as well as to encourage innovation, intellectual curiosity, and creativity: the policies, assessments and practices involved in responding to the needs and strengths of all students, including students identified as requiring special education supports; use of a variety of technology to enhance learning of students who are geographically dispersed over a wide area. the following course will be substantially altered (this may require a new course number): educ 1599: reflection on student teaching this seminar will involve reflection on students teaching placement experiences, and the use of data and research to inform practice. credit weight: 0.5 note: students will register for educ 1599 in their fourth summer of study, but will be expected to participate in the seminars in each of their second, third and fourth summers (12 hours/summer; total 36 hours instruction) course will include the following learner outcomes: georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 22 how to use educational research and data analysis. how to reflect and self-assess on ones practice in order to respond to changing and challenging conditions. how to reflect on ones own professional judgement, problem-solve, and learn from ones own practice. how to create and maintain the various types of professional relationships between and among members of the college, students, parents, the community, school staff and members of other professions. practice teaching requirements will be calendared as: educ aaxx: student teaching (indigenous languages) part 1 a practical placement in which students have extended opportunity to observe and practice teach in schools and classrooms appropriate to their level of study. the placements will be arranged by the students in accordance with the regulations for teacher certification in ontario, in conjunction with the faculty of education. credit weight: 0.25 offering: a total of 10 days to be completed before the second summer of study in the program. students will be recommended to the ontario college of teachers for an interim teaching certificate upon successful completion of the first summer of study and this practical placement. educ bbxx: student teaching (indigenous languages) part 2 a practical placement in which students have extended opportunity to observe and practice teach in schools and classrooms appropriate to their level of study. the placements will be arranged by the students in accordance with the regulations for teacher certification in ontario, in conjunction with the faculty of education. credit weight: 0.25 offering: a total of 20 days to be completed before the third summer of study in the program. educ ccxx: student teaching (indigenous languages) part 3 a practical placement in which students have extended opportunity to observe and practice teach in schools and classrooms appropriate to their level of study. the placements will be arranged by the students in accordance with the regulations for teacher certification in ontario, in conjunction with the faculty of education. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 23 credit weight: 0.5 offering: a total of 50 days to be completed before the fourth summer of study in the program. rationale the three new courses meet important needs in our students preparation to teach indigenous languages, particularly in remote communities. students will gain additional knowledge and skills in important areas of curriculum, such as assessment, meeting their students needs (such as by having an awareness of mental health issues relevant to the school context), and in the teaching context. relating theory to practice is a central focus of these three courses, and the revised educ 1599. students will also have a much improved and focused education in accessing research and making use of data to guide their teaching decision-making, and in reflecting on their own practice. educ 1599 is an important part of this. this seminar-style course will progressively move students through improved reflection on practice, and learning from their peers, as they complete their practicum requirements for the program. students will register for educ 1599 in their fourth summer, but will be expected to take part in the course in each of their 2 nd, 3rd and 4th summers, following completion of their three practicum components: educ aaxx, bbxx and ccxx. this course will be 12 hours each summer for 3 summers. calendaring the practicum as courses allows us to better record and reflect our students learning in the program and on their transcripts, and is a better indication of the work undertaken to complete the program. the three online courses allow our students to continue their education while also returning to their communities and families, and to employment. this is important in a fragile program where students are often coming to a large city for the first time, are committing to their education over a long period of time, and need to work over the course of the program. these particular courses will be taught online in a way that allows the students to reflect on their learning in concert with other students in the program. the three new online courses educ 1xxx, 2xxx and 3xxx may be offered in rotation, depending on student numbers. this allows us to have more participation and sharing of student learning in times when we have fewer students in a particular year of the program. upon successful completion of the program students will be recommended to the ontario college of teachers for their certificate of qualification (restricted), and also will have earned a diploma in teaching native languages. georgian college anishnaabemowin pathways developing the next generation of language teachers, programmers and language activators 24

oncat project 2016-35 transfer pathways from programs at la cit and collge boral to two programs at saint paul university final report february 2017 list of participants and partner institutions saint paul university jean-marc barrette vice-rector, academic and research pauline blanger manager, academic programs and strategic projects dr. aliaa dakroury director and professor, school of social communication jean-franois rioux director and professor, school of conflict studies sophie cloutier professor, public ethics cynthia bilodeau director and professor, human relations and spirituality collge la cit lise frenette manager, special projects joseph aghaby project lead collge boral jocelyne bdard project manager caton 2016-35 rapport final 2 contacts saint paul university pauline blanger manager, academic programs and strategic projects office of the vice-rector, academic and research 222 main street ottawa, on k1s 1c4 tel: 613-236-1393, ext. 2014 collge la cit lise frenette manager, special projects support services 801 aviation parkway ottawa, on k1k 4r3 tel: 613-742-2493, ext. 2023 collge boral jocelyne bdard project manager 21 lasalle boulevard sudbury, on p3a 6b1 tel: 1 -800-361-6673, ext. 2240 caton 2016-35 rapport final 3 table of contents 1- executive summary ................................................................................................................. 5 2- purpose and objectives of project ........................................................................................... 5 3- development of transfer pathways......................................................................................... 6 4- transfer pathways developed ................................................................................................. 8 4.1 pathways developed to the human relations and spirituality program at saint paul university..................................................................................................................................... 8 4.2 pathways developed to the public ethics program at saint paul university................... 9 4.3 pathways developed to the social communication program at saint paul university ... 9 4.4 pathways developed to the conflict studies program .................................................. 10 5- modified transfer pathways .................................................................................................. 10 6- best practices and education ................................................................................................ 11 6.1 best practices ................................................................................................................ 11 6.2 education ....................................................................................................................... 12 7- summary of articulations established ................................................................................... 12 8- appendices ............................................................................................................................ 14 caton 2016-35 rapport final 4 1- executive summary all of the agreements submitted in the january 2016 project proposal have been achieved. there are a total of 10 separate college programs that benefit from an agreement to four honours bachelors degrees at saint paul university. not only have we met our objectives, but have surpassed them by entering into seven agreements that were not in the january 2016 quote. the following college programs benefit from a first ever agreement with saint paul university: early childhood education (lc1, cb2), human resources management post-diploma (cb), paramedic (lc, cb), parajuriste (paralegal) (lc) and techniques de travail social grontologie (social services technician gerontology) (lc). the rigorous and steadfast work of the various work teams helped with this project being successfully carried out through the establishment of seamless processes and regular communication between the various stakeholders, among other things. these stakeholders have developed practical tools to facilitate their work. the teams hope to be able to continue with this momentum in the coming years. 2- purpose and objectives of project the objective of the project, as approved, was to develop transfer pathways based on the 2 + 2 principle, between three spu programs and 10 separate programs at colleges lc and cb. the 2 + 2 transfer pathways mean that the courses from a college program are credited as two years or 60 credits, and students can complete their university education in two years by earning 60 credits. the proposed match-ups were as follows: spu programs human relations and spirituality 1 2 lc programs ducation en services lenfance [early childhood education] techniques dducation spcialise [child and youth worker] techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale [correctional services worker] cb programs early childhood education peace and conflict studies human resources management child and youth worker la cit collge boral caton 2016-35 rapport final 5 public ethics ducation en services lenfance soins paramdicaux [paramedic] techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale techniques de travail social [social services technician ] techniques de travail social grontologie [social services technician - gerontology] techniques des services policiers [police foundations] journalisme [journalism] social techniques dducation spcialise communication techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale in bold: programs unique to each college. early childhood education peace and conflict studies human resources management paramedic social services technician police foundations child and youth worker the project started in 2016 aimed to continue this initiative and develop new pathways with a new spu program: public ethics. moreover, we wanted to develop new agreements for two programs unique to each college: la cit : techniques de travail social grontologie techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge boral: peace and conflict studies human resources management. two programs available at both colleges for which there were no agreements with spu were also added to this: early childhood education and paramedic. with the experience gained and contacts developed in 2015, we were optimistic about meeting the objectives set in the submission. 3- development of transfer pathways a) methodology the methodology used to develop these transfer pathways was developed intuitively and spontaneously. the goal of the partners was to respect the independence of the institutions while developing a simple and effective method. the method used to develop the new pathways is as follows: 1. the project leads from the two colleges forward to their spu colleague the following documents for each of the programs: program curriculum list of job skills acquired by the end of the program course outlines for the program grouped by stage caton 2016-35 rapport final 6 2. the spu project lead prepares an analysis grid that includes three columns: college program courses, spu program courses that are credited and courses that students will have to take (see appendix 1). an initial analysis is performed by the spu project lead. she identifies the most obvious courses that should be credited. 3. the documents from the colleges and the analysis grid are distributed to a professor or director of the spu program targeted by the agreement. 4. this person reviews the course outlines for the college programs and determines which courses in the university program are equivalent, in whole or in part, and merit credit. 5. the spu project lead prepares the form that will be forwarded to the registrar and that indicates: the name of the program and the college, the spu program involved and the courses that are credited (see appendix 2). this form is sent to the program director for discussion by the faculty and approval. 6. the registrar and vice-rector, academic, of spu are informed of the new transfer pathways through the form signed by the program director. 7. the colleges are informed of the results of the analysis and of the new transfer pathways approved. 8. the partners consult one another to draft a memorandum of understanding (see appendix 3) and the list of courses that students in the target college programs will have to take at spu (see appendix 4). 9. a press conference is organized to announce the new pathways and proceed with the signing of the memorandum of understanding (see appendix 5). 10. the partners promote the new pathways, especially on their respective websites and when spu representatives visit the classrooms of the college programs involved. b) program analysis to facilitate the analysis work of the spu representatives, the following principles were established: 1. the core academic courses of specialized bachelor's degrees are all credited in a block, because they are considered to be preparatory courses for postsecondary education geared toward students coming directly from high school. there are seven required courses and one elective, out of three, in the core courses. this represents a block of 24 credits that is credited de facto. 2. in the case of the core courses, the courses credited are credited because they are covered through the college program courses. sometimes, discrepancies will be found between the way concepts and ideas are presented at university and at college. nevertheless, the evaluator must focus on whether the ideas covered in a university course have been covered in college. caton 2016-35 rapport final 7 3. finally, elective courses are credited to meet the threshold of 30 transfer credits. c) implementation process and timelines the implementation process is very simple. spu informs the registrar of the new pathways developed and this information is noted so that when a graduate from program x is admitted to spu program y, the transfer credits appear on the academic record. on the college side, the project leads inform the directors, professors and students of the new transfer pathways developed. promotional activities are organized to raise the profile of these new agreements: web site, classroom visits made by graduates from the college (alumni of the program of study) who took advantage of the pathway and are continuing their studies at spu. 4- transfer pathways developed 4.1 pathways developed to the human relations and spirituality program at saint paul university the transfer pathways mentioned in the project have all been developed. here is the list of the programs and colleges in question: early childhood education la cit and boral child and youth worker la cit and boral techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale (correctional services worker) la cit peace and conflict studies boral human resources management post-diploma boral two agreements that were not announced in the project have been developed: parajuriste la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit the first program is related to law clerk and the second to techniques de travail social. these additions have been made upon the request by the coordinators of the two programs (parajuriste and grontologie), who want to have students take advantage of this highly advantageous pathway. the analysis of the course curricula of the college programs was carried out by the professors of the program at the university. for the vast majority of the agreements, the foundational courses were recognized, which represents about 24 university credits. the discipline-specific courses that correspond to subjects covered by the college education were credited. finally, optional courses were credited to reach the threshold of 60 credits granted. this agreement will allow college graduates to complete and enhance their education in the various aspects of human relationships and counselling. the knowledge acquired will help them caton 2016-35 rapport final 8 to better enter the job market, particularly at humanitarian and community organizations, schools and ecclesiastical environments. 4.2 pathways developed to the public ethics program at saint paul university. the transfer pathways mentioned in the project have all been developed. here is the list of the programs and colleges in question: early childhood education la cit and boral paramedic la cit and boral social services technician la cit and boral police foundations la cit and boral journalisme la cit techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit peace and conflict studies boral human resources management post-diploma boral an agreement that was not announced in the project has been added: child and youth worker la cit and boral professors of the program at la cit asked for this agreement to be added because of the affinity and excellent synergy between the two programs. they argued that special educators are faced more and more with situations that call on moral and ethical concepts. the analysis of the course curricula of the college programs was carried out by the professors and management of the program at the university. for all of the agreements, 24 credits were granted for the foundational courses. to that we can add between 3 (journalisme) and 12 credits (early childhood education, grontologie, police foundations) from the disciplinespecific courses. the optional courses of the university program were granted to reach the threshold of 60 recognized credits. this agreement will help graduates of 10 programs from the two colleges to be better equipped to enter the job market. the concepts and skills developed as part of their training will enable them to incorporate ethical considerations in their professional and personal interventions. these individuals will be distinguished by their insightful and well-considered opinions. 4.3 pathways developed to the social communication program at saint paul university the transfer pathways mentioned in the project have all been developed. here is the list of the programs and colleges in question: child and youth worker la cit and boral techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit two agreements that had not been announced in the project have been developed: parajuriste la cit caton 2016-35 rapport final 9 techniques de travail social grontologie la cit as previously mentioned, the first program is related to the law clerk program and the second to the social services technician program. much like the agreement with human relations and spirituality, the coordinators of both programs (parajuriste and grontologie) have asked that their program be able to benefit from this agreement. it was the director of the social communication program who analyzed the course curricula of the college programs. all of the foundational courses were granted to the vast majority of the college programs. in the case of parajuriste, for example, students will need to take four foundational courses. this situation can be explained by the fact that the first agreements entered into in 2015 included foundational courses. we will need to come back to this situation and revise it as needed. the agreement reached for social communication will enable graduates to improve their skills as communicators. they will have the opportunity to work as spokespersons, public relations agents or journalists, while having theoretical and practical expertise in a technical field. 4.4 pathways developed to the conflict studies program three pathways have been developed between the college programs and the conflict studies program at saint paul university. these new pathways, which were not a part of the project that was submitted, are as follows: parajuriste la cit techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit it is the program coordinators, on behalf of their students, who have asked for the development of these new pathways. the analysis of the course curricula of the college programs was done by the program director. all of the foundational courses were credited, which represents 24 credits. the disciplinespecific courses were credited when they correspond to college courses. in the three signed agreements, students will need to obtain 48 credits in discipline-specific courses and 12 credits in optional courses. for students in these three programs, training in conflict studies is another tool in their toolbox for them to enter their job market. these students will have the expertise to determine the causes of a conflict between individuals and to take part in its resolution, to the satisfaction of all parties. 5- modified transfer pathways changes were made in 2016-2017 to six agreements in order to make 2 + 2 agreements, namely: 60 credits granted and 60 credits to get at saint paul university. the changes made are the following: caton 2016-35 rapport final 10 saint paul university programs college programs collge changes # of credits granted social communication publicit et communication marketing la cit from 45 to 60 cr social communication radio la cit from 42 to 60 cr conflict studies law clerk la cit boral from 45 to 60 cr human relations and spirituality law clerk la cit boral from 45 to 60 cr to attain an increase in the credits granted, the number of credited foundational courses has increased, and optional courses have also been credited, as needed. thus, almost all of the agreements between the colleges and saint paul university are 2 + 2. all that remains is the agreement between the child and youth worker and the conflict studies program, which only recognizes 30 credits, and students need to obtain 90 credits. this situation will rectified in 2017-2018. 6- best practices and education 6.1 best practices communication among the institutions agreement authorities is vital. these discussions must be direct, dynamic and continual. these individuals also act as channels for internal dialogue with the professors and program directors and managers. two tools have been developed over the last year to facilitate discussions between the agreement authorities. a virtual space for submitting and modifying work files was created (dropbox), which has greatly facilitated the work and has helped stop the sending of files by email. furthermore, we created three templates for the four university programs. the first tool is the analysis chart that is intended for management and professors who need to determine the courses that will be credited. the second tool is the form submitted to the university registrar, which presents the credited courses and the courses that students will need to take based on their initial program, their college and their program at the university. finally, the last tool is the list of courses along with a brief of description of what students will need to take. caton 2016-35 rapport final 11 moreover, the partners have agreed that the new agreements would be for one year, automatically renewable. in the past, agreements were for five years. at the end of this period, a memorandum needed to be written in order to renew an ongoing agreement. this new approach will avoid having to draft a new memorandum for agreements that end. aside from the agreements signed this year, we amended the agreements from previous years, mentioning that they are now for one year, automatically renewable every year. 6.2 education it is important that the professors and managers of the university programs meet with their colleagues from the colleges to discuss potential agreements. these kinds of discussions often help in breaking down any final resistance or reservations about transfer agreements. professors from the partner institutions learn about the synergy between their programs and the benefits for students who would like to pursue their education at the university. managers of programs at the university must be engaged as soon as possible to carry out the work. the preparation of the analysis charts greatly facilitates their work and is highly appreciated. 7- summary of articulations established agreements reached between saint paul university and la cit and boral colleges - 2016 no saint paul university . programs college programs collge 1 social communication parajuriste la cit 2 social communication techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit 3 social communication techniques de travail social grontologie la cit 4 social communication child and youth worker both 5 public ethics early childhood education both 6 public ethics peace and conflict studies boral 7 public ethics human resources management post-diploma* boral 8 public ethics journalisme la cit 9 public ethics paramedic both 10 public ethics techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit 11 public ethics social services technician 12 public ethics techniques de travail social grontologie 13 public ethics child and youth worker both 14 public ethics police foundations both 15 conflict studies parajuriste both la cit la cit caton 2016-35 rapport final 12 16 conflict studies techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit 17 conflict studies techniques de travail social grontologie la cit 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 human relations and spirituality human relations and spirituality human relations and spirituality human relations and spirituality human relations and spirituality human relations and spirituality human relations and spirituality early childhood education both peace and conflict studies boral human resources management post-diploma* boral parajuriste la cit techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit techniques de travail social grontologie la cit child and youth worker both caton 2016-35 rapport final 13 appendices 1- example of analysis table 2- example of the form sent to the registrar of usp 3- memorandum of understanding, february 2, 2017 4- list of courses to be taken by graduates of the correctional services worker from la cit to the program of social communication at usp 5- press release february 1, 2017 6- amendment to the memorandum of understanding signed in january 2013 and february 2015 caton 2016-35 rapport final 14 tableau danalyse communications sociales techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge la cit programme du collge la cit quivalents st. paul, techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale thique publique formation fondamentale tape 1 014859cor thique professionnelle 014861cor ressources de radaptation et de justice pnale 020518cor sociologie et dviance 020519cor systme judiciaire et lgislation canadienne 020520cor psychologie du dveloppement humain 020521cor interactions et interventions 022552fra franais crit : grammaire et comprhension de texte 022554enl english i cours de fge au choix tape 2 014862cor intervention de groupes 014867cor criminologie 014868cor systme lgislatif pour les jeunes 014869cor tude des clientles adultes 020524cor approches en relation d'aide 020902cor rsolution de conflits et de crises 1. htp 1501 courants de la pense occidentale 2. htp1502 imaginaire artistique et littraire : expressions de lexprience humaine 3. htp1503 personnes, politique et plante 4. htp1504 foi, justice et bien commun 5. isc2709 pratique du franais 6. isc2714 parole publique 7. phi2581 le savoir humain 8. mis2503 religions du monde formation disciplinaire 9. isc2701 communications et organisations 10. isc2729 communication interpersonnelle 11. isc3720 stage 1 total de 33 crdits cours au choix 27 crdits cours complter st paul formation disciplinaire (51 crdits) cours obligatoires (33 crdits) 1. isc1708 initiation aux nouveaux mdias 2. isc1710 mthodes et recherche en communication 3. isc2706 mdias et thique 4. isc2707 introduction la communication 5. isc2726 presse : principes dcriture 6. isc2728 plan de communication 7. isc3700 thories de la communication mdiatise 8. isc3727 thories des communications sociales 9. isc3739 introduction aux relations publiques 10. isc4700 argumentation et communication persuasive 11. isc4706 analyse denjeux total de 33 crdits 022553fra rdaction technique et spcialise 022555enl english ii cours optionnels (18 crdits) 6 crdits parmi (niveau 2000) : tape 3 014864cor dpendances 014871cor techniques de scurit 020523cor tude des clientles jeunes 020900cor victimologie 020901cor psychologie et sant mentale 022609cor planification en milieu de vie 022638cor prparation la carrire 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. isc2713 journalisme lectronique isc2715 son et radio isc2717 vido i : les bases isc2731 conception de la socit isc2737 questions spciales 1 en communications sociales 6. isc2742 outils de la communication stratgique 6 crdits parmi (niveau 3000) : tape 4 014882prs sminaire d'intgration 014883stg stage pratique 1. isc3701 marketing des causes sociales 2. isc3702 mdias et dbats de socit 3. isc3705 psychosociologie de la communication de masse 4. isc3718 analyse de contenu 5. isc3731 connaissance des mdias 6 crdits parmi (niveau 4000) : 1. isc4702 communications sociales et mdias sociaux 2. isc4704interactions entre mdias et religions 3. isc4705 communications pour le dveloppement durable 4. isc4714 communication et anthropologie 5. isc4720 stage 2 6. isc4730 recherche ou travail dirig cours au choix : 9 crdits reconnaissance de 60 crdits 60 crdits complter n.b : les renseignements prsents dans ce document pourraient tre sujets changements par luniversit. matricule | student no: trjs techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale nom | surname: la cit prnom | given name: 60 crdits post code 1ere inscription 1st registration _______ 20__ formation fondamentale | foundational courses cours obligatoires (24 crdits) | compulsory courses (24 credits) cr ins reg 1 5 9 note mark eq htp1501/1101 courants de la pense occidentale | trends in western thought 3 htp1502/1102 imaginaire artistique et littraire: expressions de lexprience humaine | artistic and literary imagination: expressions of the human experience 3 eq htp1503/1103 personnes, politique et plante | people, politics and the planet 3 eq htp1504/1104 foi, justice et bien commun | faith, justice and the common good 3 eq isc2709/2309 pratique du franais | english composition 3 eq isc2714/2314 parole publique | public speaking 3 eq phi2581/2181 le savoir humain | human knowledge 3 eq religions du monde | world religions 3 eq exploration du phnomne sacr | exploring the sacred 3 comprendre la bible | understanding the bible 3 3 crdits parmi |3 credits from mis2503/2103 ou / or tho1706/1306 ou / or tho1707/1307 spcialisation en communications sociales | specialization in social communications cours obligatoires (60 crdits) | compulsory courses (60 credits) cr isc1708/1308 initiation aux nouveaux mdias | introduction to new media 3 isc1710/1310 mthodes et recherche en communication | communication research and methodology 3 isc2701/2301 communication et organisations | communication and organizations 3 isc2706/2306 mdias et thique | media and ethics 3 isc2707/2307 introduction la communication | introduction to communication 3 isc2726/2326 presse : principes dcriture | print media 1: writing principles 3 isc2728/2328 plan de communication | communication plan 3 isc3700/3300 thories de la communication mdiatise | theories of mediated communication 3 isc3727/3327 thories des communications sociales | theories of social communication 3 isc3739/3339 introduction aux relations publiques | introduction to public relations 3 isc4700/4300 argumentation et communication persuasive | argumentation and persuasive communication 3 isc4706/4306 analyse denjeux | stakes analysis 3 cours optionnels (24 crdits) | optional courses (24 credits) cr ins reg note mark eq ins reg note mark 9 crdits parmi (niveau 2000) | 9 credits from (2000 level) isc2713/2313 ou / or isc2715/2315 ou / or isc2717/2317 journalisme lectronique | electronic journalism 3 son et radio | sound and radio production 3 vido i : les bases | video 1: the basics 3 communication interpersonnelle | interpersonal communication 3 conception de la socit | conceptions of society 3 question spciales 1 en communications sociales | special topics in social communication 1 3 outils de la communication stratgique | strategic communication tools 3 ou / or isc2729/2329 ou / or isc2731/2331 ou / or isc2737/2337 ou / or isc2742/2342 eq 6 crdits parmi (niveau 3000) | 6 credits from (3000 level) isc3701/3301 marketing des causes sociales | social marketing 3 mdias et dbats de socit | media and great social debates 3 psychosociologie de la communication de masse | psycho sociology of mass communications 3 analyse de contenu | content analysis 3 connaissance des mdias| knowing the media 3 ou / or isc3702/3302 ou / or isc3705/3305 ou / or isc3718/3318 ou / or isc3731/3331 3 crdits parmi (niveau 3000) | 3 credits from (3000 level) isc3703/3303 dontologie de la communication | professional ethics in communication 3 conception dmission | creating media programming 3 photographie : smiologie de limage | photography: semiology of image 3 vido 3 : production avance | video 3: advanced production 3 questions spciales en communications sociales ii special topics in social communication ii 3 stage 1 | internship 1 3 pratiques contemporaines du journalisme | contemporary journalism practices 3 vido 2 : documentaire | video 2: documentary 3 ou / or isc3709/3309 ou / or isc3712/3312 ou / or isc3713/3313 ou / or isc3719/3319 ou / or isc3720/3320 eq ou / or isc3750/3350 ou / or isc3754/3354 6 crdits parmi (niveau 4000) | 6 credits from (4000 level) isc4702/4302 communications sociales et mdias sociaux | social communications and social media 3 interactions entre mdias et religions | media and religious traditions 3 communications pour dveloppement durable | communications for sustainable development 3 communication et anthropologie | communication and anthropology 3 stage 2 | internship 2 3 recherche ou travail dirig | research or directed study 3 ou / or isc4704/4304 ou / or isc4705/4305 ou / or isc4714/4314 ou / or isc4720/4320 ou / or isc4730/4330 cours au choix 36 crdits (6 crdits doivent tre de niveau 3000 ou 4000) elective courses 36 credits (6 credits must be of 3000 or 4000 level) opt1xxx cr ins/ reg note mark 3 eq 3 3 3 opt2xxx 3 eq 3 3 3 opt3xxx cours | course isc3713/ isc3313; isc3754/isc3354 isc3750/isc3350 3 pralables | prerequisites isc2717 / isc2317 isc2726/isc2326 eq liste des cours complter par les diplms du programme techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale du collge la cit inscrits au programme communications sociales de luniversit saintpaul formation disciplinaire (51 crdits) 33 crdits obligatoires isc1708 initiation aux nouveaux mdias initiation l'tude de quelques techniques de la communication et l'tude des mdias. introduction aux lois du langage de l'image, la photographie, au montage audiovisuel (image et son), l'informatique et aux nouvelles technologies de communication. isc1710 mthodes de recherche en communication bases en mthodologie de la recherche en communication. distinguer l'argumentation des dmarches empiriques. distinguer les approches qualitatives et quantitatives. fondements du travail qualitatif et quantitatif. isc2706 mdias et thique lments constitutifs du comportement thique. critres thiques de base en communication mdiatise. droits et liberts en situation communicationnelle. codes de dontologie des diverses institutions. analyse de cas rencontrs dans la pratique mdiatique persuasive et imaginaire. isc2707 introduction la communication initiation au langage de la communication. introduction aux principaux concepts de la communication. prsentation des modles utiliss en communication. fonctions de la communication. de la communication personnelle la communication mdiatise. isc2726 presse : principes d'criture rgles de l'criture d'information reliant l'apprentissage de l'criture de presse celui de la lecture de presse, et les rgles d'criture aux thories qui les clairent. techniques de base touchant la cueillette, le traitement et la diffusion de l'information dans la presse crite. nouvelle, reportage et chronique. exposs magistraux et ateliers pratiques. isc2728 plan de communication notions de campagne, d'objectifs, de public cible, de canal, d'environnement, etc. planification d'actions stratgiques. laboration du plan de communication et procdures d'valuation. gestion de projets. isc3700 thories de la communication mdiatise thories sur la nature et sur l'influence psychologique, sociale et culturelle de la communication mdiatise. introduction la comprhension des thories de la balle magique, de l'influence slective, de la diffrenciation sociale, de l'influence indirecte, de l'organisation sociale, de la construction sociale de la ralit, etc. isc3727 thories des communications sociales prsentation approfondie d'un certain nombre de thories. notamment : question des technologies et de leurs effets; question des rseaux et des systmes; question de la culture et du symbolique; question des conflits et des idologies; thories critiques; apport des neurosciences. isc3739 introduction aux relations publiques historique et modles de base. principaux programmes, instruments, publics, milieux de travail. management, marketing, publicit, affaires publiques. tude de cas. isc4700 argumentation et communication persuasive lments de thorie d'argumentation. notion d'argumentaire en communication. exercices de rdaction et d'intervention publique. isc4706 analyse denjeux dvelopper des aptitudes l'analyse de situations sociales ou de situations sociopolitiques. notions de situation, d'acteurs, de problmatiques, d'enjeux, de contraintes. reprage d'enjeux sociaux. reprage d'enjeux de communication. formulation d'analyse de cas. 6 crdits parmi (niveau 2000) isc 2713 journalisme lectronique initiation la recherche et la cueillette des nouvelles. procdures de vrification. initiation la rdaction pour les mdias lectroniques. initiation la prsentation des nouvelles. initiation lentrevue radiophonique et tlvisuelle. isc2715 son et radio le son pour la communication. qualits du son. techniques de prise de son. techniques de montage sonore. application la radio. initiation la ralisation et la mise en ondes. isc2717 vido i : les bases introduction au langage tlvisuel. prises des images et leur composition. prise de son, clairage et montage. exercices de base devant la camra. production d'un court reportage. cours pralable aux autres cours de vido. isc2731 conception de la socit grandes traditions de comprhension de la socit. notamment : la tradition fonctionnaliste (durkheim, malinowski); la tradition des groupes en conflit (le marxisme, le fminisme); les traditions interactionnistes; les conceptions conomiques du social. isc2737 question spciales en communications sociales tude dun sujet dactualit sous un angle et un clairage particuliers. isc2742 outils de la communication stratgique initiation aux outils de base d'une communication stratgique russie. outils de recherche et d'analyse. rdaction de messages et intgration l'illustration, la photo ou la vido. relations de presse et relations mdias. expositions et objets promotionnels. utilisation des mdias sociaux. 6 crdits parmi (niveau 3000) isc3701 marketing des causes sociales marketing gnral, marketing social, publicit sociale et phnomnes connexes. concepts fondamentaux et dmarche du marketing et de la publicit appliqus la promotion des ides, des valeurs et des causes sociales: analyse du produit, analyse de la clientle, dfinition des objectifs de marketing et de communication, valuation des campagnes. isc3702 mdias et dbats de socit cours sur les grands dbats sociaux relatifs aux mdias et aux nouveaux mdias. notamment : l'information et la sphre publique; la place des minorits; la grande culture et la culture populaire; les grandes peurs : le sexe, les rumeurs, la violence, la consommation, la mort, la religion. isc3705 psychosociologie de la communication de masse principales thories et principaux concepts de la psychologie sociale ncessaires la comprhension des phnomnes de communication, du cheminement de l'information et de ses effets. concepts classiques : attitude, attribution, persuasion, dissonance cognitive. concepts contemporains de la cognition sociale : biais, heuristics. isc3718 analyse de contenu mthode de l'analyse de contenu. tude critique du discours religieux dnomm et dnot dans les missions produites la radio et la tlvision et dans la presse crite. traitement des sujets religieux et la couverture donne aux vnements religieux. le religieux dans les autres productions. isc3731 connaissance des mdias dveloppement et avenir des grands mdias. logique commerciale et modles de financement. comprhension des enjeux des mdias dans leur contexte social. paysage mdiatique national et mondialisation. 6 crdits parmi (niveau 4000) isc4702 communications sociales et mdias sociaux notion de communication sociale. volution du web et avnement des mdias sociaux. types de mdias sociaux et principaux usages. mdias sociaux et pratiques actuelles de communication. isc4704 interactions entre mdias et religions heurts historiques entre mdias et religions. culture, religions et mdias. divergences et convergences possibles. religions et nouvelles technologies. isc4705 communications pour le dveloppement durable volution du concept du dveloppement durable et ses diffrentes dfinitions. rle et responsabilit de communications sociales dans le dveloppement durable. stratgies de communication pour sa mise en uvre. isc4714 communication et anthropologie notions de culture et de socialisation. mythes et rituels. imaginaire et rationalit. construction sociale du sens. figure de l'tre humain dans la culture mdiatique, figure retouche par l'exprience moderne de la communication sociale. communication institutionnalise. isc4720 stage 2 mis en pratique des connaissances acquises. activits encadres par un superviseur dans un milieu professionnel de communication. rdaction d'un rapport de stage. isc4730 recherche ou travail dirig tude individuelle ou en petit groupe d'un sujet rpondant aux besoins ou intrts particuliers d'tudiants. dossier de ralisation. possibilit de reconnatre une activit professionnelle pertinente en milieu d'information ou de communication. trois cours au choix pour un total de 9 crdits pour un total de 60 crdits n.b : les renseignements prsents dans ce document pourraient tre sujets changements par luniversit saintpaul communiqu de presse pour diffusion immdiate un diplme collgial et universitaire en quatre ans, cest possible ! signature dune entente entre luniversit saintpaul, la cit et le collge boral ottawa, le 1er fvrier 2017 afin de faciliter la transition des tudiants collgiaux vers des tudes universitaires, luniversit saintpaul, la cit et le collge boral ont procd aujourdhui la signature dune nouvelle ententecadre formalisant loctroi systmatique de crdits universitaires aux diplms de programmes offerts la cit et au collge boral. grce ce nouvel accord qui touche quatre programmes de luniversit saintpaul (b.a en communications sociales, b.a en tudes de conflits, b.a. en thique publique et b.a. en relations humaines et spiritualit), les tudiants diplms de la cit et du collge boral pourront profiter de 32 nouvelles ententes menant des tudes universitaires. en outre, quatre ententes existantes se verront bonifies. ainsi, les tudiants collgiaux et universitaires auront maintenant droit une panoplie doptions additionnelles afin de complter leur parcours acadmique 2+ 2 , soit lobtention dun diplme dtudes collgiales et dun baccalaurat en quatre ans. titre dexemple, les diplms de la cit en techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale auront droit un maximum de 60 crdits sils dcident de poursuivre un b.a. en relations humaines et spiritualit luniversit saintpaul. quant eux, les diplms du collge boral en tudes sur la paix et les conflits pourront dornavant recevoir jusqu 60 crdits sils choisissent de faire un b.a. en tude de conflits lusp. des annexes dtailles, expliquant les nouvelles ententes et celles modifies, sont jointes ce communiqu de presse (voir annexe 1 et annexe 2). en ontario, le conseil sur larticulation et le transfert de lontario (caton) travaille de concert avec les 44 tablissements denseignement postsecondaire financs par le gouvernement provincial afin damliorer le parcours des tudiants et de rduire les obstacles pour ceux qui cherchent effectuer un transfert de crdits. pour en apprendre davantage sur la reconnaissance de crdits en ontario, consultez le www.ontransfer.ca. citations ce que les tudiants cherchent, cest la possibilit dobtenir de bons emplois rapidement et davoir un cheminement de carrire prometteur. ce que les employeurs cherchent, ce sont des gens qui ont la fois des connaissances pratiques et thoriques, qui sont capables de travailler et de rflchir propos de leur travail. cest ce que cette double diplomation offre, en assurant la formation dune mainduvre hautement qualifie. chantal beauvais, rectrice de luniversit saintpaul la cit se rjouit de la poursuite de sa collaboration avec luniversit stpaul pour la mobilit de ses tudiants. les 20 nouvelles ententes qui sajoutent aux 13 en place tmoignent du succs du partenariat entre nos deux institutions. je suis donc ravie du fait que ces ententes favoriseront laccs un plus grand nombre de programmes complmentaires pour nos tudiants qui souhaitent complter leur formation au niveau universitaire. je tiens remercier les diffrents intervenants pour le travail effectu au cours des dernires annes. lise bourgeois, prsidente de la cit le collge boral sengage accrotre la mobilit tudiante et nous sommes particulirement fiers de nos ententes avec dautres tablissements de langue franaise. le parcours de transfert bilatral des programmes tudes sur la paix et les conflits (collge boral) et tudes de conflits (universit saintpaul) favorise la transfrabilit dtudiants des deux tablissements, ce qui ne peut tre que bnfique pour la communaut francophone de lontario ! daniel giroux, prsident du collge boral photo + bas de vignette en bref propos de luniversit saintpaul luniversit saintpaul est le collge fondateur de luniversit dottawa (1848), avec laquelle elle a conserv un lien de fdration depuis 1965. bilingue et chelle humaine, elle offre des programmes en communications sociales, counselling et psychothrapie, droit canonique, thique publique, tudes de conflits, philosophie, relations humaines et thologie. en 2017, elle procdera au lancement officiel de son cole dinnovation sociale. propos de la cit titre dtablissement phare de lenseignement collgial de langue franaise en ontario, la cit, le collge darts appliqus et de technologie, place la russite de ltudiant au premier plan, en lui offrant des installations la fine pointe de la technologie et un milieu dapprentissage ax sur des pratiques exprientielles modernes et tournes vers lavenir. les diplms du collge sont reconnus comme tant comptents, engags et cratifs, capables de contribuer au dveloppement conomique, social et culturel partout en ontario, au canada et ailleurs. propos du collge boral cr en 1995, le collge boral est un tablissement de formation et denseignement postsecondaire de langue franaise qui uvre au dveloppement durable de la communaut francophone de lontario. le collge boral offre un service guichet unique dans 7 campus et 36 centres daccs rpartis dans 25 communauts. plus de 70 ententes darticulation ont t tablies entre le collge boral et dautres tablissements de formation postsecondaire. de tous les collges de la province, boral enregistre le plus haut taux de satisfaction des tudiants, le plus haut taux dobtention de diplmes, le plus haut taux de satisfaction de ses diplms et le plus haut taux dobtention demploi ! 30 renseignements : sean burgess agent de communications, universit saintpaul 613 2361393, poste 2310 sburgess@ustpaul.ca pascale montminy gestionnaire, communications et relations publiques, la cit 613 7422483, poste 2463 pmontm@lacitec.on.ca jose campeaurousselle chef communications et relations mdiatiques, collge boral 705 5606673, poste 1235 josee.campeaurousselle@collegeboreal.ca media release for immediate release a college and university diploma in four years: its possible! agreement signed between saint paul university, la cit and collge boral ottawa, february 1, 2017 to help college students make the transition to university studies, saint paul university, la cit and collge boral today signed a new framework agreement formalizing the systematic granting of university credits to graduates of programs offered at la cit and collge boral. thanks to this new agreement, which affects four saint paul university programs (b.a. in social communication, b.a. in conflict studies, b.a. in public ethics, and b.a. in human relations and spirituality), graduates of la cit and collge boral can take advantage of 32 new agreements leading to university studies. furthermore, 4 existing agreements will be enriched. in this way, college and university students will now have access to a wide array of additional options to complete their 2 + 2 academic journey: a college diploma and a b.a. in four years. for example, graduates of la cit in techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale will receive up to 60 credits if they decide to do a b.a. in human relations and spirituality at saint paul university. graduates of collge boral in tudes sur la paix et les conflits can now receive up to 60 credits if they choose to do a b.a. in conflict studies at saint paul university. detailed explanations of the new and modified agreements are attached to this media release (see appendix 1 and appendix 2). the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) is working with the 44 postsecondary educational institutions funded by the provincial government to improve education pathways for students and to reduce the obstacles for those seeking to transfer credits. to find out more about the recognition of credits in ontario, visit www.ontransfer.ca. quotes students are looking for the possibility of getting good jobs quickly and having a promising career path. employers are looking for people who have both practical and theoretical knowledge, who are able to work and reflect on their work. that is what this double degree offers, by ensuring the formation of a highly qualified workforce. chantal beauvais, rector, saint paul university la cit is very excited to be continuing its collaboration with saint paul university to give our students greater mobility. the 20 new agreements being added to the 13 that are already in place are a sign of the success of the partnership between our two institutions. i am thrilled that these agreements promote access to a greater number of complementary programs for our students who want to complete their training at the university level. i would like to thank the various stakeholders for the work accomplished over the past few years. lise bourgeois, president, la cit collge boral is committed to increasing student mobility, and we are especially proud of our agreements with other frenchlanguage institutions. the bilateral transfer path of the tudes sur la paix et les conflits (collge boral) and conflict studies (saint paul university) programs promotes student transferability for both institutions, which can only benefit the francophone community in ontario! daniel giroux, president, collge boral photo + caption in brief about saint paul university saint paul university is the founding college of the university of ottawa (1848), with which it has been federated since 1965. bilingual and on a human scale, it offers programs in canon law, conflict studies, counselling and psychotherapy, human relations, philosophy, public ethics, social communication, and theology. in 2017, it will officially launch its school of social innovation. about la cit as a flagship for frenchlanguage college education in ontario, la cit, the college of applied arts and technology, makes student success a priority by offering students stateoftheart facilities and a learning environment based on modern, handson practices that are aimed towards the future. graduates of la cit are recognized as being competent, engaged and creative, able to contribute to economic, social and economic development throughout ontario, canada and internationally. about collge boral founded in 1995, collge boral is a postsecondary frenchlanguage training and educational institution that works for the sustainable development of the francophone community in ontario. collge boral offers a unique onestop service on 7 campuses and at 36 access centres in 25 communities. more than 70 articulation agreements have been established between collge boral and other postsecondary institutions. of all the colleges in the province, boral has the highest rate of student satisfaction, the highest rate of diploma completion, the highest rate of satisfaction by its graduates, and the highest rate of obtaining employment. 30 information: sean burgess communications officer, saint paul university 613 2361393, ext. 2310 sburgess@ustpaul.ca pascale montminy manager, communications and public relations, la cit 613 7422483, ext.2463 pmontm@lacitec.on.ca jose campeaurousselle head communications and media relations, collge boral 705 5606673, ext. 1235 josee.campeaurousselle@collegeboreal.ca

which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income mitchell steer, ursula mccloy, henry decock centre for research in student mobility, seneca college january 2018 esearch mobility 64-70 the centre for research in student mobility 8 the seneca way markham, on l3r 5y1 416-491-5050 x77939 senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility list of contacts ursula mccloy director, centre for research in student mobility seneca college ursula.mccloy@senecacollege.ca henry decock associate vice president, academic partnerships seneca college henry.decock@senecacollege.ca 1 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility table of contents list of contacts .............................................................................................................................................. 1 list of tables ................................................................................................................................................. 3 list of figures ................................................................................................................................................ 4 acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................... 5 abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 executive summary....................................................................................................................................... 7 introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 9 literature review ........................................................................................................................................ 10 methodology............................................................................................................................................... 11 dataset development ............................................................................................................................. 11 limitations .............................................................................................................................................. 14 results ......................................................................................................................................................... 15 analysis of entrants................................................................................................................................. 15 who aspires to attend university? .......................................................................................................... 19 grades and graduation rates ................................................................................................................. 23 who transfers? ....................................................................................................................................... 24 transfer experience ................................................................................................................................ 32 discussion and summary ............................................................................................................................ 34 references .................................................................................................................................................. 37 appendices.................................................................................................................................................. 39 2 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility list of tables table 1. distribution by income and parental education, college entrants, 2007-2014 .............................................16 table 2. demographic characteristics of college entrants, 2007-2014 .......................................................................16 table 3. program characteristics of college entrants, 2007-2014 ...............................................................................17 table 4. academic preparation of college entrants, 2007-2014 .................................................................................18 table 5. regression analysis: estimated propensity to aspire to university, college entrants, 2007-2014 .................21 table 6: average grades of college entrants by parental education and income, 2007-2014 ....................................23 table 7. transfer rates to university by sociodemographic characteristics, college graduates, 2008-2014 ...............25 table 8. transfer rates to university, by college program characteristics and academic performance, college graduates, 2008-2014 ..................................................................................................................................................25 table 9. regression analysis: propensity to transfer to university, college graduates, 2008-2014.............................30 3 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility list of figures figure 1. highest parental education attained, college entrants, 2007-2014 .............................................................15 figure 2. neighbourhood income distribution by parents education, college entrants, 2007-2014 .........................16 figure 3. university eligibility of college entrants, 2007-2014 ....................................................................................19 figure 4. aspirations for university, by parental education and neighbourhood income, college entrants, 2007-2014 .....................................................................................................................................................................................20 figure 5. graduation rates by neighbourhood income and parental education, college entrants, 2007- 2013* .......24 figure 6.transfer rates to university by parental education and income, 2008-2014 graduates ...............................27 figure 7. transfer rates by entering aspirations, neighbourhood income and parental education, 2008-2014 college graduates .....................................................................................................................................................................28 figure 8: decline in transfer rates over time, college graduates, 2008-2014..............................................................29 figure 9. information sources by parental education, % major source, university transfer students ........................32 figure 10. information sources by neighbourhood income, % major source, university transfer students ...............33 figure 11. satisfaction with academic preparation by parental education and income, university transfer students .....................................................................................................................................................................................34 figure 12. satisfaction with transition experience by parental education and income, university transfer students 34 figure 13. influences on transfer and the transfer experience ...................................................................................35 4 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility acknowledgements this project was funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). mustafizur rahman, john meskes, and michael cunningham of senecas information technology services department supported data extraction from senecas student information system. limin chen of senecas office of institutional research and planning was an invaluable source of information on all of senecas survey and data fields, while charlotte gayman of senecas testing centre provided information on the language placement tests and procedures. 5 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility abstract it is well understood that access to university varies considerably by parental education and neighbourhood income, whereas college tends to be accessed more equitably. one option to reduce this imbalance is the college to university transfer pathway. this study compares college students' university aspirations at entry, graduation rates, and transfer outcomes across socioeconomic status (ses) groups. ses groups were created by combining categories of parental education (university educated vs first generation) and neighbourhood income. the analysis combines administrative and survey data at a large toronto college from 2007 to 2014, to track 36,054 college entrants from high school until six months after college graduation. of these college entrants, 44% aspire to go to university and 14% of those who graduate transfer to university within six months. aspirations at entry and transfer after graduation vary considerably by ses group, as do academic preparation, language ability, and program of entry. two outcomes are evaluated using a series of probit models. parental education is found to be positively related to aspirations for transfer. transfer to university, on the other hand, appears to be most common specifically among low income, non-first generation students. generally, income and parental education play a significant but quantitatively small role in each of the relationships estimated. the next step will be to compare transfer and non-transfer students in a university population. keywords: income, parental education, college, transfer, university aspirations 6 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility executive summary low income students, and students who are the first in their family to complete post-secondary education (first generation), are underrepresented in university. this inequality has implications for economic and social mobility as well as for a wider sense of distributional fairness. because college 1 tends to be accessed more equitably, it has been suggested that college to university transfer pathways can help to provide university access to underrepresented groups. using data from a large toronto college, we compare college students' university aspirations at entry, graduation rates, and transfer outcomes across socioeconomic status (ses) groups to better understand how the college to university transfer pathway is being used, and by whom. methodology using administrative and survey data from 2007 to 2014, the study tracks 36,054 seneca college 2 entrants from high school until six months after college graduation. students are classified by neighbourhood income and parental education status, with 34% of entering students classified as low income, and 61.4% of students classified as first generation (neither parent has a university degree). a total of 7,638 students who graduated during the same seven-year period responded to the graduate satisfaction survey (76% response rate). of these graduates, 1,106 indicated that they had transferred to university six months after graduating from college. research questions include the following: 1. how do background characteristics in the college sample differ by income and parental education and what is the role of these factors in influencing a students aspirations for transfer to university? 2. what is the role of parental education and neighbourhood income in influencing transfer to university? 3. for those who do transfer to university, do transfer information sources differ across first generation and income groups? key findings student characteristics by socioeconomic status student demographics, program of study selection, and academic preparation all differ by parental education and income. only half of college entrants who were low income with university-educated parents reported english as their first language; similarly this group also had lower rates of canadian citizenship and increased likelihood of being placed below college-level english. regardless of income, students with university-educated parents are more likely to enter more advanced credentials, and were more likely to enter technology programs and less likely to enter community service. additionally, students with university-educated parents were more likely to have taken university preparation courses in high school, and to have previously attended university before entering college, regardless of income. 1 the term college used throughout this report refers to ontarios publically funded college system, consisting of 24 colleges of applied arts and technology (caats). 2 seneca college is one of ontarios 24 caats offering a range of credentials: certificates, diplomas, degrees and graduate certificates. the majority of senecas program offerings are 2- and 3- year diplomas. 7 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility plans for university overall, 49% of college entrants with university-educated parents planned to attend university after college compared to 43% of students without university-educated parents. however, students from higher income neighbourhoods proved no more likely than their peers to aspire to transfer. students who were low income but with university-educated parents were the most likely to have plans for university. these results held true when controlling for academic and program factors. transfer to university transfer to university was 3% points higher for college graduates who had a parent with a degree than those who did not, an affect that held when controlling for socio-demographic factors and grades. in contrast to parents education, this study showed that rates of transfer did not differ by income, with 31% of transfer students versus 32% of non-transfer students came from the lowest neighbourhood terciles. when combined categories of income and education were compared, graduates who were both low income, but had at least one parent with a degree, were 4% points more likely to transfer than the reference group who were both low income and did not have a parent with a degree. the graduates with the highest grades who aspired to go to university are the most likely students to transfer. among those who aspired to go to university, having a gpa above 3.5 was associated with a 21% point increase in likelihood of transfer compared to those with a gpa below 3.0. other factors such as program of study are also important in explaining transfer propensity. conclusions/policy implications overall, this study shows college students with university-educated parents are slightly more likely to aspire and to ultimately transfer to university. this is similar to previous research on university attendance for the high school population, however the gap seen in the current study comparing college transfers and non-transfers is much smaller. in contrast to studies on the high school population in which income has a large effect on who attends university, income had little or no effect on whether college graduates transfer. in fact, students who are both low income and have university educated parents are the most likely to aspire and to transfer to university compared to all other combinations of education and income. income however, plays an indirect effect, in that higher income students are more likely to obtain higher grades and to graduate, which are major factors in transfer. as the study focussed on transfer within the college population, it is important to contrast the composition of the college transfer population and the university population. other comparable data sources indicate that more than half of students at universities in toronto have a parent with a degree compared with just 31% of senecas transfer students (nsse, institutional data, 2011). similarly, on a provincial level, only 22% of university students come from the lowest income tercile of the ontario population, compared with 31% of senecas university transfer students (dooley, payne & robb, 2016). although the initial decision to attend college or university is influenced by parental education and income, students who attend college initially and then transfer to university differ only slightly from their college peers who do not transfer to university by these socioeconomic characteristics. for college graduates who continue on to university, academic performance, program choice, and aspirations for university at college entry are the key determinants. within the college population, college performance and aspirations for transfer are more important than sociodemographic factors on transfer rates, indicating this pathway may be more merit- and motivation-based. as well, the preliminary finding that transfer students who are lower income or do not have a university educated parent rely less on their parents and family and rely more on college advising services for information, underscores the role institutions can play. this suggests that facilitating and encouraging college to university transfer, as well 8 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility as supporting students academically to ensure they qualify, may be a vehicle to reduce the socioeconomic inequity in university attendance in ontario. introduction it is often asserted that the benefits of higher education should be accessible to young people regardless of socioeconomic status. problematically, low income and first generation students (the first in their family to attend post-secondary) are less likely to attend university, but are well represented within the college system (frenette, 2007; dooley, payne & robb., 2011; finnie, charles & missner, 2011). if students from underrepresented groups are unable to attain higher credentials, intergenerational social mobility may be severely limited. it has been suggested that having well-functioning transfer pathways to university may result in more low income and first generation students to access university than would otherwise be possible (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). 3 the ontario government has made enhancing access for groups of students who have traditionally been underrepresented in postsecondary education a priority. ontarios provincially funded universities and colleges are required in their strategic mandate agreements 4 to report their numbers of underrepresented groups, defined as aboriginal, first generation students, and students with a disability, as well as to describe their associated access initiatives. the ontario government itself has increased funding for low income students, lowering the actual, and perhaps more importantly, the perceived cost of postsecondary education. 5, 6 ontario also provides funding for first generation bursaries, ranging from $1000 to $3500 per eligible student. 7 it is important to note, however, that although ontarios financial support programs may ameliorate cost barriers facing prospective students, debt aversion, social factors, and imperfect information can still act as barriers for underrepresented groups (frenette & robson, 2011). the present study uses measures of both neighbourhood income and parental education to better understand the transfer behaviour of students entering a large toronto college during 2007 to 2014. this study examines the influence of neighbourhood income and parental education on aspirations for transfer to university, as well as on transfer status six months after graduation. the study aims to answer the following three research questions: 1. how do background characteristics differ by income and parental education and what is the role of these factors in influencing a students aspirations for transfer? 2. what is the role of parental education and neighbourhood income in influencing transfer to university? 3 note: different definitions exist for defining first generation students. each of the 45 publically funded colleges and universities has an agreement with maesd, highlighting institutional priorities. see: https://www.ontario.ca/page/college-and-university-strategic-mandate-agreements#section-2 5 for example, the 2016 ontario budget included the ontario student grant (osg), a single up-front grant, providing free tuition for students from families earning $50,000 or less. see: https://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/budget/ontariobudgets/2016/bk1.html. 6 until recently, a large portion of the tax transfer to students was only available in a non-refundable tax credit. this was more often used in the current period by high income students (neill, 2013). 7 https://www.osap.gov.on.ca/osapportal/en/a-zlistofaid/webucont033219.html 4 9 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility 3. for those who do transfer to university, do transfer information sources and satisfaction with transfer differ across first generation and income groups? literature review at present, college graduates in ontario have university transfer options available to them that provide access and/or university transfer credit (either block credit or course-by-course) to qualified students. however, admission and the amount of credit received are at the discretion of the receiving university and can vary widely. 8 enhancement of college to university pathways has been suggested as a way to increase system-wide access for underrepresented groups (andres & krahn, 1999; kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). however, the existing literature largely examines the differences in access and the success of various underrepresented groups, either within college or university, but not in terms of transfer between institutions. previous research indicates that higher parental income and education dramatically increase a students likelihood to attend university. using data from statistics canadas youth in transition survey (yits), butlin (1999) found that high school graduates with at least one parent who had a university education were substantially more likely to attend university than their first generation peers. in ontario, students from low income neighbourhoods, even when controlling for academic backgrounds, were 14 percentage points less likely to apply to university than those from high income neighbourhoods (dooley, payne & robb, 2009). however, a considerable body of research confirms that community college access is fairly equitable across income and parental education groups, unlike university access (berger, motte & parkin, 2009; norrie & zhao, 2011; drolet, 2005). focussing specifically on seneca college and its neighbouring universities, in 2011 32% of first year seneca students who knew their parents level of education had at least one parent with a university degree. 9 in contrast, in the same year, 54% of first year ryerson students, and 55% of york students reported having at least one parent with a degree.10 high educational aspirations, both in high school and in postsecondary, have been shown to positively influence eventual educational attainment. looker and thiessen (2004) found much higher aspirations for university among 15 year olds whose parents had postsecondary education, but such differences were reduced when holding other factors (e.g. academic performance, demographics and school experience) constant. in addition, other research has shown that although educational aspirations in high school were influenced by socioeconomic status, the realization of aspirations was not (homel & ryan, 2014). studies from ontario and british columbia indicate that within universities, underrepresented students are more prominent among the pool of transfer students and less so within the general university an inventory of ontarios college-university agreements is available at ontransfer.ca. more recently in ontario, the ontario council on admissions and transfer has been encouraging the creation of transfer pathways through funding provided by annual calls for proposals (see trick, 2013 for more on transfer agreements). 9 senecas statistic obtained from senecas entering student survey (the background data survey) using the full student population. 10 york (york office of institutional planning and analysis custom calculation) and ryersons (http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/upo/reports/undergrad/nsse/nsse2011hl.pdf) statistics obtained from the national survey for student engagement (nsse). 8 10 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility population (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; henderson & mccloy, 2017). however, american research found that 18% of students who were both low income and first generation transferred from college to university, compared with 53% of those who were neither (engle & tinto, 2008). research comparing post-high school pathways in edmonton and vancouver, found that the vancouver population had a somewhat more equitable access to postsecondary pathways, which the authors attributed to bcs more articulated system (andres & krahn, 1999). within ontario, graduates from higher income neighbourhoods were slightly more likely to transfer (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017a). however, studies within seneca college that have focussed on specific programs or populations have shown that once academic performance in college is controlled for, the effect of income on transfer disappears (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017b; mccloy, williams, baker & decock, 2017; mccloy, steffler, decock & bain-greenwood, 2017). these studies also showed that having at least one university educated parent, however, slightly increases the propensity to transfer even when controlling for a variety of factors. income or parental education may also be an important feature in the provision of transfer support services if, among students who do transfer, they impact where students obtain transfer information and their satisfaction with the transfer process. previous research on ontario graduates has shown that satisfaction with the transition experience was not affected by neighbourhood income (mccloy et al., 2017a). in another study of seneca students, students who received one- on- one advising at a transfer office were somewhat more likely to have a university educated parent, but did not differ on neighbourhood income (mccloy, baker, williams & decock, 2017). methodology dataset development a dataset was developed, based on three categories of students who entered the college during 2007 to 2014 including: 1. entrants: students who began their studies during the period 2007-2014. 11 2. graduates: graduates who completed their college credential and who responded to the graduate satisfaction survey (conducted six months after graduation), which includes questions about transfer to university. the analysis was limited to the first credential they completed at the college. 3. university transfers: students who indicated they transferred to university after college graduation. the linked dataset was created from the following sources: high school transcript, college entrance survey, english placement exam, college transcript, and graduate outcomes survey (gss). 12 the students permanent six-character postal code is used to attach census characteristics at the lowest level available (dissemination area level). excluded from the sample are older students (23 years of age and older upon on entry) and, those whose first program at the college was a graduate certificate. the for simplicity, the analysis focuses on the time leading up to a students first credential approved by the ontario maesd although 6% of the sample is observed completing multiple credentials. a students entering program is considered to be the first maesd-approved program the student is enrolled in. 12 students can enter and exit the college using multiple student ids, and can complete several credentials. to overcome these challenges, the study identified multiple records in the dataset, and where appropriate, combined records to form a complete student history. 11 11 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility sample was further narrowed to students with ontario high school records, and to those with valid ontario postal codes as their permanent address. the sample for the current study is comprised of 36,084 entrants, 10,102 graduates (7,638 of whom responded to the gss), and 1,106 transfer students (respondents who transferred to university). overall, 53% of college entrants between 2007 and 2014 fit the criteria for the study. only 8% of student records during this time frame were dropped due to incomplete or invalid information. demographic characteristics: starting age and graduation age are computed using the students date of birth and the term they are observed beginning/graduating from a ministry-funded program. gender and citizenship status are derived from the colleges student information system (sis). neighbourhood income: to obtain a measure of a students household income, the students sixcharacter permanent postal code from the colleges student information system was matched to 2006 dissemination areas (da) using the statistics canada postal code conversion file (pccf). a students neighbourhood income group is then derived by splitting the das into terciles of low, medium and high income based on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households. 13 in ontario, the average 2006 census da contains 236 economic families, making this a reasonably precise proxy for economic well-being. 14 parental education: information on the highest level of education attained by each parent was gathered from the entering student survey. the variable used in this report (whether either parent has a university degree) was derived from the question: the highest level of education completed by my father (mother)/guardian is (two separate questions for each parent). students who responded with i dont know to both parents education levels were classified as such and are referred to as the did not know group throughout this paper. 15 if neither parent was reported to hold a bachelors degree or higher, a student was classified as being first generation or parental education no degree. 16 this narrow classification was chosen for two reasons: firstly, because of the studys interest in understanding the influence of parental education on student transfer to university; and secondly, because a single response question requires students to select a single response when several may be applicable. for example, a parent may have completed a college credential and some university, but a neighbourhoods were given the weight of their overall population prior to creation of terciles. household equivalency measures were also computed and were used only to test for robustness of results. note: high income neighbourhoods were required to have an aggregated household income of over $93,494 (2006 dollars) and low income with less than $68,321. these cutoffs were constructed using all ontario das, using population weights, and dividing the result into thirds. 14 the use of neighbourhood income is validated in appendix 1 which breaks down neighbourhood income by deciles and compares it to the incidence of osap receipt. 15 this group is interesting because it appears to be similar in many respects to first generation students, especially in terms of their neighbourhood income profiles. not knowing their parents education levels may be a risk factor in itself, and removing some of the most disadvantaged students (including those from families that placed little emphasis on pse or had a non-traditional upbringing) from the sample may have a distorting effect. small cell sizes prevented reporting the did not know group at various stages of the analysis, but this group was at no time removed from the dataset. 16 typically, first generation status is broadened to include any postsecondary experience, and so we have used such a definition to test the robustness of our findings. 13 12 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility student can only select one (see figure 2). the category completed university serves to avoid ambiguity about the meaning of first generation. 17 combining ses measures: as income and education levels are inextricably linked, a series of combined categories were created to better understand how neighbourhood income and parental education are influencing student transfer behaviour. the pell institute used a similar approach in its analysis of low income and first generation students (engle & tinto, 2008). the advantage of this approach is that it separates students who have one risk factor (first generation or low income) from those who have both (first generation and low income). high school records: for those who attended an ontario high school, the colleges sis contains one record for every high school course a student took from grade 9 through to grade 12 (or oac). the subset used for analysis includes only those students who had a minimum of six senior courses from grade 11 and 12. from this subset of students, variables relating to an overall senior high school average, total number of courses failed, and course stream were created. for university admission from high school, students are required to have six university (u), mixed (m), or oac courses, with the minimum required grade average dependent on the selectivity of the institution. data from common university data ontario (cudo) indicate that 70% was the reported minimum secondary school average of full-time, first-year university students in 2013 (high schools in the greater toronto area (gta) tended to have higher averages compared to other high schools). students were considered eligible for university if their high school average (based on their top 6 grade 12 u/m/oac courses) was at least 70%. english-language proficiency: most entering students at seneca, depending on their program, are required to complete an english-language placement test (comprising a 300-word essay) to assess writing proficiency. students are also required to complete a computerized placement test (accuplacer) that assesses reading comprehension (120-point scale). based on the test results, students are placed in one of several levels of english-language proficiency and corresponding courses: 18 1. ell1 & ell2 (non-credit): english for english language learners whose test scores are two or three levels of proficiency below college-level english; 2. ell3 (non-credit): english for native-english speakers and for ell learners whose test scores are one level of proficiency below college-level english (at the more proficient end of the ell scale); and 3. college-level english (credit) and above. college-level english is required for all certificate/diploma programs. includes degree-level english and those exempted (high scorers). entering student survey fields: students are asked to complete a background survey as part of the mandatory english placement test. in cases where two or more complete surveys exist, the earliest record was kept to reflect the students true entering status. in addition to the above mentioned parental education variables, this survey provided the following information: a second meaningful definition of first generation was constructed to include any college, university or trades experience, regardless of the parents completion status. the results stemming from this classification are included in the two regression sections of the paper. none of the tables or figures in this report uses this classification. 18 see seneca college website, http://www.senecacollege.ca/testcentre/assessment.html 17 13 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility university aspirations upon college entry: after graduation from my program, i plan to . previous university: the last school i attended was. first language: the language i learned first was. whether either parent has a university degree: the highest level of education completed by my father (mother)/guardian is (two separate questions for each parent). college performance: full transcripts of all college students who had ever registered in a maesd approved program were extracted and overall gpa was calculated from the average of all credit courses taken. since the focus of this study is on transfer to university, calculation of the students overall gpa included courses that the student may have taken prior to completing their first credential, as they remain a part of the students transcript when applying. any courses completed after a student had graduated from their first credential were deliberately excluded from this calculation. these data also allow for computation of persistence measures (such as graduation status) within various timeframes, as well as for program-level details. transfer status and experience: the gss contains information on every college graduate from a maesd approved program in ontario. additionally, the survey asks the students for their employment status, employment outcomes, as well as if they went on to further education. for the sample, the survey has a response rate of 76% and asks the same questions in each year of the selected study period. a comparison of graduates and survey respondents on key demographics of interest is in appendix 2. the gss, mandated and funded by ontarios maesd, is administered to graduates approximately six months after graduation through telephone surveys conducted by an external service provider. 19 the use of these data allowed for the creation of a number of further education fields pertaining to a students status six months after graduation, including: transfer status did the student transfer to university? transfer experience was the student satisfied with their academic preparation and transition experience? these questions are limited to students who continued on to full time education. program of study: two classifications, entering program type and graduating program type, were created using program of study data from the sis and gss, respectively. as in a previous analysis by mccloy & liu, (2010) these classifications are based on the occupational cluster codes associated with the students first program at the college in the case of entering program, and with the first program graduated from in the case of a graduating program. programs that had a preparatory function were classified as specialized or non-specialized programs based on the content of the programming (e.g. a health, business, or pre-technology program is considered specialized, whereas a typical arts and science or college-access program is considered non-specialized). limitations several important factors are not addressed in this study due to data limitations. firstly, without a comparative university population, this study is unable to determine whether the transfer pathway is bringing a larger share of low ses students into university. secondly, students who transfer prior to on a system-wide level, the survey has primarily been used to gauge the performance of colleges on three of the five key performance indicators (kpis): graduate satisfaction, employment rate, and employer satisfaction each of which are tied to a modest amount of performance funding and are made public. 19 14 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility completing a college program are indistinguishable from those who discontinue from pse altogether. therefore, conclusions about the transfer intentions of the entering population and the transfer behaviour of the graduate population are limited in scope. thirdly, previous work has uncovered significant differences in transfer behaviours across regions of birth (mccloy, steffler, decock & baingreenwood, 2017). for this study, however, data limitations leave only a citizenship flag to identify recent immigrants; cultural differences among immigrants are going unobserved. fourth, aspirations for transfer and actual transfer are both reported at particular points in time, at college entry for aspirations, and six months after graduation for transfer. a students college experience may have had a role in changing a students aspirations, and a student may have transferred at a later date than six months after graduation. lastly, this study is based at a large urban college which may have differing opportunities for transfer, program mix, and student composition than others in the province and so caution should be used in extrapolating specific findings to the system as a whole. results analysis of entrants figure 1 contains the detailed breakdown of parents education. the vast majority had a minimum of a high school diploma, however a large share of students did not know their fathers (22%) or mothers education (19%). of the parents who did attend postsecondary, fairly equal numbers attended college or a trades program as had attended university. figure 1. highest parental education attained, college entrants, 2007-2014. 25% 22.9% 22.4% 20.5% 20% 17.5% 19.3% 17.3% 15% 10% 5% 12.2% 11.1% 10.1% 8.5% 2.9% 2.9% 8.3% 6.7% 3.6% 2.2% 3.5% 2.3% 3.4% 2.4% 0% father's education mother's education table 1 contains the breakdown by the socioeconomic categories described previously. almost one quarter of students had at least one parent with a degree, and 34% came from the lowest income tercile 15 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility for the ontario population. the seneca student population closely mirrors the overall ontario population, with a slight underrepresentation at the highest tercile for income. figure 2 shows how neighbourhood income differs by parental education. both first generation students and those who dont know their parents education are less likely to be from the highest income tercile. table 1. distribution by income and parental education, college entrants, 2007-2014. parental education status (parent with highest ed) neighbourhood income low income mid income high income total no degree (first generation) 21.4% 23.0% 16.9% 61.4% degree did not know total 7.3% 8.0% 8.8% 24.1% 5.4% 5.4% 3.7% 14.5% 34.1% 36.5% 29.4% 100.0% figure 2. neighbourhood income distribution by parents education, college entrants, 2007-2014. 40% 35% 30% 35% 38% 28% 30% 33% 36% 37% 37% 34% 36% 29% 26% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% no degree (first generation) degree low income did not know mid income total high income as summarized in table 2, important differences in demographic characteristics are evident across ses groups. non-canadian citizens are disproportionately represented among those who live in low-income neighbourhoods and have a parent with a degree. 20 students from higher income neighbourhoods are more often canadian citizens and are more likely to be male, to be slightly younger, and are more likely to report english as their first language. non-citizens include permanent residents, those with non-student visas, and refugees. those with student visas were removed from the sample. 20 16 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility table 2. demographic characteristics of college entrants, 2007-2014. characteristic da income group number of entrants % canadian citizen % < 20 years old at entry % male % english as first language low 7,727 88.7% 79.5% 45.4% 64.9% no degree (first generation) middle 8,310 94.1% 84.6% 45.9% 73.1% degree high 6,087 96.0% 86.7% 50.7% 79.2% low 2,624 80.2% 77.2% 51.7% 50.1% middle 2,900 90.1% 79.2% 55.0% 65.7% high 3,173 93.8% 80.2% 58.9% 75.7% note: appendix 3 offers a full descriptive table for all entering students including those who responded do not know when asked about their parents education. these students are present in all totals throughout the paper and in all of the regression models. the columns pertaining to these students are removed from the descriptive section for brevity. program selection can be influenced by socio-economic status and by a number of other factors (e.g. academic preparedness, aspirations). program choice may be reflective of aspirations and will present students with different transfer opportunities upon completion. for example, certain preparatory programs are designed specifically for transfer and the students in these programs are very likely to aspire and transfer to university, whereas those in technology programs may have more of a career focus. table 3 shows the differences in program selection across ses groups. regardless of neighbourhood income, first generation students are more likely to enter community service programs and less likely to enter engineering technology programs, and they are also more likely to enter programs of a shorter duration. in two extreme cases, 8% of the high income, non-first generation students select into degree programs, compared to 3% of those who are first generation and low income. table 3. program characteristics of college entrants, 2007-2014. parental education neighbourhood income 1-year certificate 2-year diploma 3-year advanced diploma 4-year degree business community services creative and applied arts health hospitality engineering/technology preparatory/upgrading - specialized preparatory/upgrading - unspecialized no degree (first generation) low mid high income income income 11.3% 11.3% 11.7% 55.3% 56.7% 55.7% 30.1% 28.2% 28.2% 3.3% 3.8% 4.3% 31.6% 29.1% 28.0% 19.2% 22.3% 22.9% 10.7% 11.2% 11.2% 4.1% 4.9% 5.0% 5.0% 4.0% 2.9% 15.2% 13.7% 14.3% 6.1% 6.0% 5.8% 8.2% 8.9% 10.0% degree low income 9.3% 46.8% 37.0% 6.9% 37.9% 12.2% 9.6% 4.0% 3.7% 19.9% 5.2% 7.6% mid income 9.2% 49.5% 32.9% 8.3% 33.2% 14.4% 11.9% 4.7% 3.0% 18.8% 5.5% 8.6% high income 9.2% 50.7% 32.1% 8.0% 32.4% 17.1% 11.8% 4.3% 2.4% 17.5% 5.0% 9.4% table 4 below summarizes the high school preparation of the entering college student sample. taking university preparation courses in high school is much more common among those who have a parent with a degree, whereas higher income students are only slightly more likely than lower income students 17 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility to have done so. hs grade distribution is similar among all groups, however, lower income students were more likely to have failed courses in high school, irrespective of parental education. english-language proficiency increases with both income and parental education. these differences in demonstrated language ability held true when restricting to only those who had reported english as their first language (not shown). first generation students were much less likely to have attended university, whereas students from lower income neighbourhoods were slightly less likely. for example, of high income, non-first generation students, 15% previously attended university compared to only 6% of students who were both from a low income neighbourhood and who were first generation. table 4. academic preparation of college entrants, 2007-2014. parental education neighbourhood income no degree (first generation) low inc mid inc high inc 7,727 8,310 6,087 number of entrants hs courses mostly univ prep high school gpa failed no senior hs courses last school was university college english course placement < 70% 70% -80% > 80% ell level 1& 2 ell-3* 51.7% 56.3% 36.9% 6.7% 47.0% 5.9% 9.0% 45.6% 53.7% 54.7% 38.2% 7.1% 53.2% 6.6% 5.9% 43.1% 54.9% 53.5% 38.9% 7.6% 59.4% 7.4% 3.7% 42.0% low inc degree mid inc 2,624 2,900 high inc 3,173 69.7% 53.6% 38.6% 7.8% 46.0% 11.7% 8.8% 41.0% 71.9% 52.9% 37.9% 9.2% 52.6% 13.7% 4.8% 35.1% 72.2% 51.3% 40.8% 7.9% 57.2% 15.3% 2.4% 32.4% college-level 45.4% 51.0% 54.4% 50.2% 60.1% 65.2% english & exempt note: *both english-language learners and native english speakers who scored one level of proficiency below college-level english entered the same course and could not be distinguished; labelled here as ell-3. students with university-educated parents are far more likely to be eligible for admission to university directly from high school. figure 3 shows that 32.7% of high income, non-first generation students had the high school courses and grades required for university entrance, compared with only 18.8% of low income, first generation students. differences by neighbourhood income were minimal within parental education groups, ranging from 19% to 21% for first generation students, and 29% to 33% for non-first generation students. 18 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility figure 3. university eligibility of college entrants, 2007-2014. 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 18.8% 20.0% 21.0% low income mid income high income 28.9% 30.7% 32.7% low income mid income high income 5% 0% no degree (first generation) degree note: black bars indicate the bounds of the 95% confidence intervals. university eligibility was defined as obtaining a 70% average in 6 u/ m/ or oac hs courses. who aspires to attend university? upon entry to the college, students were surveyed about their plans after graduation. figure 4 shows that for each neighbourhood income level, non-first generation students are more likely to have plans for university after graduation. low income, non-first generation students were the most likely to aspire to university (51.3%); whereas those who were high income and first generation were the least likely (40.7%). those who did not know their parents education had the lowest levels of university aspirations (see appendix 3). 19 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility figure 4. aspirations for university, by parental education and neighbourhood income, college entrants, 2007-2014. 60% 50% 40% 30% 51.3% 20% 43.7% 43.5% low income mid income 48.5% 47.0% mid income high income 40.7% 10% 0% high income no degree (first generation) low income degree note: black bars indicate the bounds of the 95% confidence intervals. who aspires to transfer? regression findings the descriptive results above indicate that first generation students are less likely to plan to attend university after graduation, while the results by neighbourhood income are more variable. model 1 in table 5 reports the results from combining education and income into a single variable. in models 2 and 3, income and parental education are presented separately along with a number of control variables at the individual level. in each case, probit models are used to estimate the relationships, and the outcome of interest is: did the student aspire to attend university upon entry to the college (no/yes)? model 1 shows that students from low income neighbourhoods with university-educated parents, are the most likely to aspire to transfer. when compared to students from low income neighbourhoods who are first generation, this group is 7% points more likely to aspire to transfer. models 2 and 3, which examines income and parental education separately, parental education plays a significant role in a students aspirations for transfer to university, whereas neighbourhood income plays a minimal role. once controlling for a variety of factors, the non-first generation students remain 6% points more likely to aspire to transfer than their first generation peers. in contrast, students from high income neighbourhoods are 2% points less likely to aspire to transfer compared to low income students. in the descriptive section, there is only a slight difference between males and females in transfer aspirations. in the regression models, however, male college entrants are 8% points less likely to aspire to transfer to university than females when holding other factors constant. after conducting analysis for males and females separately, it was further determined that parental education is a much stronger determinant of university aspirations among females than it is for males (not shown). 20 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility reporting from model 1, entering students over the age of 20 are 13% points less likely to aspire than their younger peers. those demonstrating lower levels of english-language proficiency (specifically those in level 1 & 2 english courses) are 3% points more likely to aspire than those placed in college-level english (or above). canadian citizens are 5% points less likely to aspire than non-citizens; those who spoke english as a first language are 8% points less likely; and those with previous university are 6% points less likely. students who took university preparation courses and achieved lower grades are substantially more likely to aspire to go to university than their peers. compared to two-year diploma entrants, students entering four-year degree programs and one-year certificate programs are 22% and 38% points less likely to aspire, respectively. those in three-year advanced diploma programs are 11% points more likely to aspire to transfer. not surprisingly, those in preparatory type programs are very likely to aspire to university, with hospitality and creative and applied arts entrants having the lowest propensity to aspire. additionally, recent years show that entering students have become significantly less likely to aspire to university. table 5. regression analysis: estimated propensity to aspire to university, college entrants, 2007-2014. reference group ses group (ref: first generation, low income) variables mid inc, first gen high inc, first gen low inc, degree mid inc, degree high inc, degree low inc, ukn parental ed mid inc, ukn parental ed high inc, ukn parental ed parental education alone (ref: first gen) 1+ parent with degree neighbourhood income alone (ref: low income) mid income starting program type (ref: business) community service aspirations for university (1) 0.002 (0.009) -0.024** (0.010) 0.073*** (0.013) 0.051*** (0.013) 0.042*** (0.012) -0.023 (0.014) -0.032** (0.014) -0.039** (0.016) did not know parental ed aspirations for university (2) 0.060*** (0.007) -0.025*** (0.009) high income creative and applied arts health hospitality engineering/technology 0.065*** (0.009) -0.221*** (0.009) -0.010 (0.016) -0.292*** (0.012) -0.046*** (0.009) 0.063*** (0.009) -0.222*** (0.009) -0.012 (0.016) -0.292*** (0.012) -0.046*** (0.009) aspirations for university (3) -0.003 (0.007) -0.018** (0.008) 0.063*** (0.009) -0.221*** (0.009) -0.009 (0.016) -0.292*** (0.012) -0.044*** (0.009) 21 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility preparatory/upgrading - specialized preparatory/upgrading - non specialized 0.204*** (0.024) 0.424*** 0.205*** (0.024) 0.424*** 0.206*** (0.024) 0.425*** (0.011) (0.011) (0.011) -0.380*** -0.380*** -0.382*** (0.020) (0.020) (0.020) advanced diploma 3-yr 0.105*** 0.105*** 0.105*** (0.008) (0.008) (0.008) degree 4-yr -0.219*** -0.220*** -0.213*** (0.016) (0.016) (0.016) status in canada (ref: no) canadian -0.048*** -0.050*** -0.057*** (0.012) (0.012) (0.012) gender (ref: female) male -0.083*** -0.084*** -0.082*** (0.007) (0.007) (0.007) age at entry (ref: under 20 yrs) 20 yrs+ -0.125*** -0.123*** -0.121*** (0.009) (0.009) (0.009) english placement (ref: college ell 1&2 0.028*** 0.029*** 0.025*** english & exempt) (0.007) (0.007) (0.007) ell 3* 0.027 0.028 0.020 (0.015) (0.015) (0.015) previous school attended (ref: last school attended university -0.057*** -0.059*** -0.050*** high school and other) (0.014) (0.014) (0.014) first language learned other -0.078*** -0.080*** -0.079*** (ref=english) (0.007) (0.007) (0.007) high school course type mostly yes 0.122*** 0.122*** 0.128*** u/m/oac (ref=no) (0.007) (0.007) (0.007) high school avg. (ref: < 70%) 70-80% -0.086*** -0.086*** -0.086*** (0.007) (0.007) (0.007) >80% -0.186*** -0.186*** -0.186*** (0.013) (0.013) (0.012) year of entry (ref: 2007) 2008.year -0.008 -0.008 -0.008 (0.012) (0.012) (0.012) 2009.year -0.024 -0.024 -0.025 (0.012) (0.012) (0.012) 2010.year -0.013 -0.012 -0.014 (0.012) (0.012) (0.012) 2011.year -0.013 -0.013 -0.015 (0.012) (0.012) (0.012) 2012.year -0.022 -0.021 -0.023 (0.012) (0.012) (0.012) 2013.year -0.040*** -0.038*** -0.041*** (0.012) (0.012) (0.012) 2014.year -0.043*** -0.041*** -0.044*** (0.012) (0.012) (0.012) observations 30,554 30,554 30,554 pseudo r2 0.1237 0.1226 0.1207 note: robust standard errors in parentheses; coefficients reported represent the marginal effects evaluated at the mean. ***p<0.01, **p<0.05; *both english-language learners and native english speakers who scored one level of proficiency below college-level english entered the same course and could not be distinguished; labelled here as ell-3. starting credential type (ref: 2-yr diploma) certificate 1 yr 22 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility grades and graduation rates academic performance in college (grades and graduation rates) is an important marker of success because to be eligible for many articulated pathways (and to maximize transfer credit), a college credential and a minimum college gpa must be attained. table 6 shows differences in average gpas across ses groups (graduates and non-graduates). 21 low income students have the lowest gpas, which differed little by parental education. students from middle and high income students have higher gpas with students who are both higher income and non-first generation having the highest gpas. table 6: average grades of college entrants by parental education and income, 2007-2014. parental education income group overall gpa (/4pt) sd of gpa no degree (first generation) low inc mid inc high inc 1.93 2.04 2.08 1.18 1.18 1.17 low inc 1.95 1.19 degree mid inc 2.11 1.18 high inc 2.15 1.17 figure 5 shows the share of students in each ses group who completed any program within 2x their initial programs length (+3 years for 4-year programs). 22, 23 those from higher income neighbourhoods had higher graduation rates, but no major differences exist between parental education groups. because of the possibility of early transfer, it is not known whether the differences in attrition are due to students leaving the pse system or switching institutions. level of high school preparation varies widely by ses gradients (mccloy et al., 2017). note that this will differ from the mtcu kpi rate for seneca because the maesd calculations provides for double the program length and grad certificates and degrees, and older students are excluded from this sample. 23 overall, the graduation rate (and rate of graduation with a 3.0 gpa or higher) for students from low income neighbourhoods is 40.0% compared to 45.4% for those from high income neighbourhoods (authors calculations are not shown). those from higher income neighbourhoods are also more likely to graduate with a gpa that facilitates transfer; 18.2% of low income college entrants graduate with a 3.0 gpa or higher, compared to 22.3% of those from high income neighbourhoods (data not shown). 21 22 23 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility figure 5. graduation rates by neighbourhood income and parental education, college entrants, 20072013*. 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 39.6% low income 43.6% 46.4% mid income high income no degree (first generation) 40.0% low income 45.3% 45.2% mid income high income degree *note: entrants of 1-, 2- and 3-year programs were given double the program length to graduate, and those entering degree programs were given an additional 3 years. others are considered to be in-progress. black bars indicate the bounds of the 95% confidence intervals. who transfers? of those students in the sample who graduated from at least one college program, gss provides information on their activity six months after graduation. these data were used to determine who transferred to university. table 7 shows the transfer rates for graduates by various characteristics. six months after graduation, 14.5% of the graduate sample reported being in university. transfer rates are highest among those who aspired to university upon entry to the college, as the transfer rate among these graduates is 25% compared to only 6% for those who did not indicate that they intended to transfer. transfer rates for males, females, canadian citizens, and non-canadian citizens were all similar, whereas younger graduates were more likely to transfer (17% vs 12%). interestingly, those who reported english as a first language had a lower transfer rate, whereas those with higher demonstrated language proficiency upon entry had higher transfer rates. 24 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility table 7. transfer rates to university by sociodemographic characteristics, college graduates, 2008-2014. group transfer rate number of respondents 7638 overall transfer rate to university 14.5% citizenship age at graduation gender first language english-language placement canadian 14.3% non-canadian 15.4% <22 yrs 17.4% 22 yrs+ 12.3% male 14.1% female 14.8% english 13.7% other 16.2% below college levels 1 & 2 9.9% below college level 3* 14.0% college level and above 15.4% note:*both english-language learners and native english speakers who scored one level of proficiency below college-level english entered the same course and could not be distinguished; labelled here as ell-3. table 8 shows the differences in transfer rates across credential types, as well as the graduating gpas. those completing advanced diploma programs had the highest transfer rate at 20%, whereas those who had completed a degree program had the lowest transfer rate at 8%. diploma and certificate programs had transfer rates of 14% and 9% respectively. non-specialized preparatory programs had the highest transfer rate by program type, as expected, given the nature of these programs. transfer rates range from 36.8% from these types of programs to a low of 2% for health programs. creative and applied arts and hospitality programs also had notably low transfer rates. as for graduating gpa, those with lower than 3.0 had a transfer rate of 10%, whereas those with a gpa between 3.0 and 3.5 had a transfer rate of nearly double that, at 19%. those with a gpa above 3.5 had a transfer rate of 20%. under many articulation agreements, many of the students with a gpa below 3.0 should be ineligible for transfer, yet 10% still do. 25 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility table 8. transfer rates to university, by college program characteristics and academic performance, college graduates, 2008-2014. group credential length credential type college gpa transfer rate 1-year certificate 9.2% 2-year diploma 14.1% 3-year adv. diploma 19.7% 4-year degree 7.8% business 16.1% community service 20.2% creative and applied arts 4.2% health 2.3% hospitality 3.0% engineering/technology 11.3% preparatory/upgrading specialized 9.1% preparatory/upgrading non-specialized 36.8% < 3.0 9.7% 3.0 to 3.5 18.7% above 3.5 19.8% figure 6 shows the transfer rates for graduates across six ses groups. graduates from low income neighbourhoods and whose parents have a degree have the highest transfer rates (19%), followed by non-first generation graduates from middle and high income neighbourhoods. in comparison, first generation graduates have lower transfer rates which are similar across income groups (between 13% and 14%). 26 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility figure 6.transfer rates to university by parental education and income, 2008-2014 graduates. 20% 15% 10% 5% 18.8% 13.2% 14.1% 13.9% low income mid income high income 16.4% 16.6% mid income high income 0% no degree (first generation) low income degree note: black bars indicate the bounds of the 95% confidence intervals. another way of looking at the transfer issue is to focus only on those graduates who, upon college entry, indicate they want to go to university. 24 overall, 25.1% of college entrants who planned to attend university after college transferred, compared with just 6.3% of those who entered college without plans. figure 7 shows that 23.2% of students who were low income and first generation converted their university aspirations into reality, by transferring to university within six months of graduation. this compares to 27% of aspiring first generation graduates (with only slight variation across income groups). for students who did not aspire to transfer upon entry to the college, it can be surmised that their aspirations changed over the course of their time at college. transfer rates in this group are still higher among those who have a parent with a degree (ranging from 6.7% to 10.3%) compared to those who do not (5.5% to 6.2%). 24 there are numerous alternative methods of computing transfer rates (see decock, 2007). 27 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility figure 7. transfer rates by entering aspirations, neighbourhood income and parental education, 20082014 college graduates. 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% low income mid income high income low income no degree (first generation) aspired mid income high income degree did not aspire note: black bars indicate the bounds of the 95% confidence intervals. figure 8 shows the general decline in transfer rates to university by college credential type. 25 of those who graduated from advanced diploma programs in 2010, 27% transferred to university, and this rate falls to 16% in 2014. graduates from two-year diploma programs experience a similar decline over the period of study, from 21% of graduates transferring in 2009 to 12% in 2014. 25 a total of 205 students who graduated from four-year programs (and responded to the gss) are excluded from figure 8. 28 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility figure 8: decline in transfer rates over time, college graduates, 2008-2014. transfer rate to university 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 academic year of college graduation 1 yr cert 2 yr dip 3 yr adv dip regression results who transfers? an earlier section of this report described the influence of the various demographic and sociodemographic factors on a college entrants aspirations for transfer. conditional on graduation, it is now possible to evaluate which students transferred to university within six months of graduating from a college program. a series of probit models were used to estimate the probability of transferring to university (0/1) and compute and report marginal effects at the means. models 1 and 2 in table 9 examine parental education and neighbourhood income as model covariates in isolation from one another. model 3 uses the combined measure found throughout the paper. model 4 estimates a students propensity to transfer using the full sample of gss respondents, but without controls for aspirations. model 5 estimates the same relationships as the first four, however the sample is restricted to only students who aspired to university in model 1, the non-first generation students were 3% points more likely to transfer compared to those who did not have university-educated parents. in model 2, neighbourhood income is found to be largely unrelated to a students propensity to transfer to university controlling for status in canada, gender, program, age, english proficiency, first language, and college performance. in model 3, using the combined specification observed throughout the paper, it becomes clear that students from the low income neighbourhoods and with a university-educated parent are the most likely to transfer (4% points more likely than first generation, low income students). focusing on the results from model 3, those who graduated in the fall are 18% points less likely than winter graduates to transfer to university within six months of graduating. this is likely due to the students graduation date being out of sync with the traditional university school year start (beginning in the fall). those over the age of 20 are 3% points less likely to transfer than their younger peers, and those who spoke english as a first language are also 3% points less likely. graduates with a 3.0 to 3.5 gpa and a 3.5 gpa+ are 8% and 9% points more likely (respectively) to transfer compared to those with a gpa lower than 3.0. those graduating from two- and three-year diploma programs are the most likely students to transfer to university. those in non-specialized preparatory programs (e.g. general arts type 29 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility programs) have a particularly high propensity to transfer; those in specialized preparatory programs (e.g. pre-technology type programs) are no more likely to transfer to university than the reference group of business graduates. entering students with a parent who has completed a university degree are more likely to transfer to university, but this is only significant among students from low income neighbourhoods. college performance, aspirations, and program characteristics are powerful predictors of transfer to university among college graduates, much more so than socioeconomic characteristics. as noted earlier in this paper, aspirations are strongly related to parental education; once aspiration to university is removed as a control variable, there is a significant gap in transfer propensity between parental education groups (model 4). much of the observed difference in transfer can be explained by initial aspirations, program choice upon entry to the college, and performance in a students college coursework. initial aspirations prove to be an important predictor of eventual transfer as those who indicated they intended to transfer were 11% points more likely to do so at graduation, all else equal. to examine how this group differs from sample at large, relationships are estimated among only those who aspired to transfer (model 5). for this group, high grades in college become a much stronger correlate of transfer compared with other iterations of the same model. in this case, those with a gpa of 3.0 to 3.5 and 3.5+ are 18% and 21% points, respectively, more likely to transfer compared to those with a gpa lower than 3.0. additionally, the significance of the ses variables vanishes from this new specification. this indicates that for those who initially wanted to transfer, grades are a determining factor for whether or not they are able to. it appears that the impact ses has on transfer outcomes is primarily by way of student aspirations. to understand if the transfer results are sensitive to changes in the definition of first generation, the definition of first generation was broadened from neither parent with a university degree or higher to neither parent attended any pse (including incomplete and complete college or trades, and incomplete university). under this broader definition, first generation students were no more or less likely to transfer than their peers (model not shown). this indicates that having a parent who is a degree holder matters more for university transfer than any parental pse experience. table 9. regression analysis: propensity to transfer to university, college graduates, 2008-2014. plans for university (ref: other aspirations) ses group (ref: first generation, low income) aspired to university mid inc, first gen high inc, first gen low inc, parental degree mid inc, parental degree high inc, parental degree (1) transfer to university (2) transfer to university (3) transfer to university 0.112*** (0.008) 0.114*** (0.008) 0.112*** (0.008) 0.002 (0.010) 0.002 (0.010) 0.042** (0.018) 0.029 (0.015) 0.022 (0.014) (4) transfer to uni no aspiration s control (5) transfer to uni aspirants 0.004 (0.010) 0.002 (0.011) 0.055*** (0.020) 0.037** (0.016) 0.029* (0.015) 0.004 (0.024) 0.006 (0.026) 0.041 (0.037) 0.059 (0.035) 0.033 (0.032) 30 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility low inc, ukn parental ed -0.005 (0.016) -0.017 (0.014) -0.002 (0.018) -0.002 (0.017) -0.017 (0.014) 0.001 (0.019) -0.010 (0.037) -0.052 (0.032) -0.012 (0.040) 0.039*** (0.012) -0.070*** (0.008) -0.074*** (0.010) -0.064*** (0.014) -0.028*** (0.010) 0.063 -0.002 (0.008) 0.000 (0.009) 0.038*** (0.012) -0.070*** (0.008) -0.074*** (0.011) -0.064*** (0.014) -0.027** (0.011) 0.069* 0.040*** (0.012) -0.070*** (0.008) -0.074*** (0.010) -0.063*** (0.014) -0.029*** (0.010) 0.064 0.051*** (0.013) -0.088*** (0.009) -0.088*** (0.011) -0.085*** (0.012) -0.039*** (0.011) 0.083* 0.051** (0.024) -0.120*** (0.020) -0.136*** (0.022) -0.110*** (0.038) -0.015 (0.024) 0.152 (0.039) 0.329*** (0.040) 0.331*** (0.039) 0.329*** (0.044) 0.445*** (0.077) 0.428*** (0.036) -0.089*** (0.020) 0.058*** (0.009) -0.051** (0.024) 0.002 (0.014) -0.002 (0.007) -0.030*** (0.011) -0.010 (0.007) -0.018 (0.019) 0.023 (0.036) -0.092*** (0.020) 0.058*** (0.009) -0.047* (0.024) -0.003 (0.014) -0.001 (0.007) -0.029** (0.011) -0.011 (0.007) -0.021 (0.019) 0.028 (0.036) -0.089*** (0.020) 0.058*** (0.009) -0.050** (0.024) 0.003 (0.014) -0.002 (0.007) -0.030*** (0.011) -0.010 (0.007) -0.018 (0.019) 0.023 (0.036) -0.121*** (0.021) 0.072*** (0.010) -0.071*** (0.025) -0.006 (0.015) -0.013* (0.008) -0.048*** (0.012) -0.006 (0.008) -0.014 (0.021) 0.019 (0.043) -0.173*** (0.041) 0.093*** (0.023) -0.054 (0.063) 0.018 (0.030) -0.002 (0.017) -0.076*** (0.028) -0.008 (0.017) -0.004 (0.042) 0.065 (0.014) -0.030*** (0.008) 0.075*** (0.008) 0.087*** (0.009) -0.015 (0.014) -0.030*** (0.008) 0.074*** (0.008) 0.088*** (0.009) -0.015 (0.014) -0.030*** (0.008) 0.075*** (0.008) 0.087*** (0.009) -0.016 (0.015) -0.042*** (0.008) 0.078*** (0.008) 0.085*** (0.010) -0.010 (0.037) -0.050*** (0.018) 0.175*** (0.018) 0.214*** (0.022) -0.029 mid inc, ukn parental ed high inc, ukn parental ed parental education alone (ref: parent no degree) 1+ parent with degree neighbourhood income alone (ref: low income) mid income starting program type (ref: business) community service did not know parental ed high income creative and applied arts health hospitality engineering/technology preparatory/upgrading specialized preparatory/upgrading non- specialized starting credential type (ref: 2yr diploma) 0.028*** (0.009) -0.010 (0.009) certificate 1-yr advanced diploma - 3yr degree - 4yr status in canada (ref: no) canadian gender (ref: female) male age at entry (ref: under 20 yrs) english-language placement (ref: collegelevel english) 20 yrs+ previous school attended (ref: high school and other non-university) english as first language ref: yes seneca gpa (ref: <3.0) last school attended university ell- level 1&2 ell level 3* 3.0 - 3.5 3.5+ summer 31 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility term graduated (ref: winter) academic year of graduation (ref: 2008) (0.009) -0.184*** (0.014) 0.011 fall 2009 (0.009) -0.184*** (0.014) 0.011 (0.009) -0.184*** (0.014) 0.013 (0.010) -0.189*** (0.015) 0.023 (0.021) -0.313*** (0.029) -0.160 (0.030) (0.030) (0.029) (0.031) (0.100) 0.016 0.014 0.017 0.030 -0.097 (0.028) (0.029) (0.028) (0.030) (0.099) 2011 0.015 0.013 0.016 0.026 -0.126 (0.028) (0.029) (0.027) (0.030) (0.099) 2012 -0.003 -0.005 -0.002 0.010 -0.177 (0.028) (0.028) (0.027) (0.029) (0.098) 2013 -0.012 -0.015 -0.011 -0.003 -0.181 (0.028) (0.028) (0.027) (0.029) (0.099) 2014 -0.000 -0.001 0.001 0.004 -0.168 (0.028) (0.029) (0.027) (0.029) (0.099) observations 6,605 6,605 6,605 6,615 2,906 pseudo r2 0.2238 0.2212 0.2241 0.1777 0.1778 note: robust standard errors in parentheses; coefficients reported represent the marginal effects evaluated at the mean. ***p<0.01, **p<0.05.; *both english-language learners and native english speakers who scored one level of proficiency below college-level english entered the same course and could not be distinguished; labelled here as ell-3. 2010 transfer experience graduates who transferred are asked about their use of a variety of information sources when they were making their decision. minimal differences exist by parental education (figure 9), however students who has a university educated parent were somewhat less likely to indicate they used college advising as a source, however, they were slightly more likely to approach their parents and family. figure 9. information sources by parental education, % major source, university transfer students. 45% 40% 35% 40% 35% 38% 38% 38% 34% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% no degree (first parent has degree no degree (first parent has degree no degree (first parent has degree generation) or higher generation) or higher generation) or higher info from college advising info from university advising info from parents & family note: questions about college and university advising were included only in the last two years of the study period (2013-2014) (n=324). those answering dont know, or refused are excluded. 32 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility figure 10 shows the results for the same questions by neighbourhood income. graduates from high income neighbourhoods were less likely to have used college advising as a major source. they were, however, more likely to use their family and parents as sources of information. these results suggest that graduates from lower income and/or without university educated parents, may seek out college advising sources, rather than their families for information. figure 10. information sources by neighbourhood income, % major source, university transfer students. 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 42% 42% 33% 35% 41% 36% 35% 39% 27% 10% 5% 0% low income mid income high income low income mid income high income low income mid income high income info from college advising info from university advising info from parents & family note: questions about college and university advising were included only in the last two years of the study period (2013-2014) (n=324). those answering dont know, or refused are excluded. figure 11 and figure 12 compare the satisfaction with academic preparation and the transfer experience by income and parental education. satisfaction across categories is high, with no discernable patterns by income and parental education evident. 33 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility figure 11. satisfaction with academic preparation by parental education and income, university transfer students. 100% 90% 80% 70% 31% 34% 40% 60% 28% 42% 49% 40% 38% mid income high income 50% 40% 30% 20% 54% 49% low income mid income 56% 55% 10% 0% high income low income no degree (first generation) parent has degree or higher satisfied very satisfied figure 12. satisfaction with transition experience by parental education and income, university transfer students. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 29% 36% 41% 35% 42% 46% 50% mid income high income low income 43% 44% 50% 40% 30% 20% 51% 10% 0% low income no degree (first generation) satisfied 43% 35% mid income high income parent has degree or higher very satisfied discussion and summary this paper has focussed on the role that parental education and neighbourhood income play in both students intentions to attend university after college, as well as the actual transfer after graduation. overall, 44% of entering students indicated that they intend to transfer to university. of those, 25% transferred to university after graduation, whereas only 6% of the group who did not report plans to 34 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility transfer ultimately did. therefore, understanding aspirations for transfer is an important step in understanding who eventually persists to transfer to university. figure 13 demonstrates the potential impact of aspirations on transfer outcomes and various influencers of a students aspirations. 26 aspirations may be influenced by a number of factors like parental education and income, but presumably can also be influenced by the various experiences that a student has while enrolled in college. conversely, a students aspirations can influence their program choice, performance in college, and ultimate decision to transfer. the intentions to transfer deserve special attention in this analysis of transfer outcomes. figure 13. influences on transfer and the transfer experience. university aspirations are highest among students who have a parent with a degree even when controlling for demographic and academic background, with 49% of non-first generation students aspiring to transfer compared to 43% of those who were first generation. students from high income neighbourhoods were slightly less likely than their peers to aspire to transfer. however, when both income and education categories are combined, students who are both low income, and have at least one university educated parent are mostly likely to aspire to university. when looking at a students ability to have gone to university from high school, it is clear that academic preparation varies widely across ses. first generation students are much less likely to take university preparatory courses required for university in high school, indicating plans to attend university likely started later in high school or in college. an estimated 33% of high income, non-first generation students could have received an offer from university with their high school transcript alone (of whom 41% attended university before seneca). this compares to only 19% of those who were both low income and first generation. as such, college may be a second chance for many students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who either did poorly in high school, and/or for those whose aspirations for university 26 figure 13 can be found as figure 1 in mccloy et al. (2016). 35 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility evolved later in high school or while in college and therefore did not take the required university preparation courses. transfer to university itself is also a pathway taken more often by non-first generation college graduates, as they had transfer rates that were 3% points higher than their first generation peers, even when controlling for sociodemographic factors and grades. college grades in particular appear to explain much of the differences observed from the point of graduation to that of transfer. among those who aspired to go to university, having a gpa above 3.5 (or 3.0 to 3.49) was associated with a 21% point (or 18% point) increase in likelihood of transfer compared to those with a gpa below 3.0. the graduates with the highest grades who aspired to go to university are the most likely students to transfer. college program choice is also tremendously important in explaining transfer propensity. overall, this study shows college students with university educated parents are slightly more likely to aspire and to ultimately transfer to university. this is similar to what is found for attendance in university directly from high school, however the effect is much less pronounced. in contrast to studies on the high school population, income has little or no effect on transfer, and students who are both low income and have university-educated parents are the most likely to aspire and to transfer to university. however, this must be contextualized in relation to how transfer students differ from their direct entry university peers. of those reporting their parents education, 32% of those who transferred had a parent with a degree, compared to 26% of those who did not transfer. in sharp contrast, over half of first year students at senecas neighbouring universities in toronto, ryerson and york, report having at least one parent with a degree. 27 in contrast to parents education, this study showed that rates of transfer did not differ by income, with 31% of transfer students versus 32% of non-transfer students came from the lowest neighbourhood terciles. previous research on direct entry ontario college and university students showed that 32% of college entrants come from the lowest income tercile, compared with only 22% of university students (dooley, payne & robb, 2016). therefore, it appears that although the initial decision to attend college or university is influenced by parental education and income, students who attend college initially and decide to continue on to university, differ only slightly by these socioeconomic characteristics. for college graduates who continue on to university, academic performance, program choice, and aspirations for university at college entry are the key determinants. within the college population, college performance and aspirations for transfer are more important than sociodemographic factors on transfer rates, indicating this pathway may be more merit- and motivation-based. as well, the preliminary finding that transfer students who are lower income or do not have a university educated parent rely less on their parents and family and rely more on college advising services for information, underscores the role institutions can play. this suggests that facilitating and encouraging college to university transfer, as well as supporting students academically to ensure they qualify, may be a vehicle to reduce the socioeconomic inequity in university attendance in ontario. york (york office of institutional planning and analysis custom calculation) and ryersons (http://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/upo/reports/undergrad/nsse/nsse2011hl.pdf) statistics obtained from the 2011 national survey for student engagement. 27 36 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility references andres, l. & krahn, h. 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(2017). from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. 37 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. looker, a. & thiessen, v. (2004). aspirations of canadian youth for higher education. ottawa: human resources and skills development canada. mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). what are the influencers of graduate satisfaction and labour market outcomes of ontario college graduates? an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey results. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. mccloy, u., steffler, m., decock, h. (2016). the impact of labour market and policy changes on university transfer: the case study of early childhood education. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. mccloy, u., steffler, m., decock, h. (2017b). pathways from seneca colleges liberal arts transfer program: from college entrance to university graduation. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. mccloy, u., steffler, m., decock, h. (2017a). the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of ontarios graduate satisfaction survey 20072015. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. mccloy, u., steffler, m., decock, h., bain-greenwood, f. (2017). from high school to graduation and beyond: pathways of young immigrants in a toronto college. toronto: centre for research in student mobility. mccloy, u., baker, v., williams, k., decock, h. (2017). seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an evaluation of outcomes. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. norrie, k. zhao, h. (2011). an overview of pse accessibility in ontario. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. neill, c. (2013). what you don't know can't help you: lessons of behavioural economics for tax-based student aid, commentary 393. toronto: cd howe institute. trick, d. (2013) college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 38 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility appendices 4,500 80% 4,000 70% 3,500 60% 3,000 50% 2,500 40% 2,000 30% 1,500 1,000 20% 500 10% 0% 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 income decile number of entrants 8 9 10 % of students in decile that receive osap number of entering students in da income decile appendix 1. neighbourhood income decile and osap use, college entrants, 2007-2014. 28 receiving osap appendix 2. comparison of samples, 2007-2014. variable characteristic number of students in dataset gender female male income low income mid income high income parental no degree (first gen) education graduates grad resp. gss 10,102 56.8% 43.2% 31.5% 36.7% 31.8% 63.1% 7,638 56.3% 43.7% 31.3% 37.0% 31.7% 62.8% 28 if a student received a loan from the ontario student assistant program (osap) at any point in their college program, they were deemed to be an osap recipient. this is used as an individual marker of demonstrated financial need. 39 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility appendix 3. full description of entering student sample. parental education neighbourhood income (da level) number of unique entrants canadian citizen <20yrs male english as first language high school courses mostly u/m/oac level below 70% hs gpa between 70% and 80% above 80%** had 6 or more 12u/m/oac courses best 6 <70% u/m/oac 70%-79% average >80% eligible for university with high school grades/courses last school attended was university english placed below- level 1&2 placement placed below- level 3 college level english + aspired to transfer to university entering 1 yr certificate credential 2 yr diploma length 3 yr adv. diploma 4 yr degree entering business program community service creative and applied health hospitality engineering/technology preparatory/upgrading - specialized preparatory/upgrading - unspecialized no degree (first generation) low mid high 7,727 8,310 6,087 88.7% 94.1% 96.0% 30.6% 39.5% 44.5% 45.4% 45.9% 50.7% 64.9% 73.1% 79.2% 51.7% 53.7% 54.9% degree did not know low 2,624 80.2% 27.7% 51.7% 50.1% 69.7% mid 2,900 90.1% 33.5% 55.0% 65.7% 71.9% high 3,173 93.8% 36.8% 58.9% 75.7% 72.2% low 1,942 90.2% 34.4% 54.0% 56.2% 49.2% mid 1,940 94.0% 44.7% 58.5% 64.5% 50.4% high 1,351 96.5% 46.7% 61.5% 69.4% 54.5% 56.3% 36.9% 6.7% 31.0% 39.3% 44.0% 16.7% 18.8% 54.7% 38.2% 7.1% 33.3% 40.0% 43.9% 16.1% 20.0% 53.5% 38.9% 7.6% 35.1% 40.2% 44.3% 15.5% 21.0% 53.6% 38.6% 7.8% 45.9% 36.9% 43.3% 19.7% 28.9% 52.9% 37.9% 9.2% 49.1% 37.4% 42.6% 19.9% 30.7% 51.3% 40.8% 7.9% 51.0% 35.7% 43.2% 21.1% 32.7% 61.1% 32.8% 6.1% 28.3% 43.2% 43.6% 13.1% 16.0% 57.0% 36.0% 7.0% 29.6% 42.3% 41.6% 16.0% 17.1% 54.6% 38.1% 7.3% 33.8% 44.2% 38.5% 17.3% 18.9% 5.9% 9.0% 45.6% 45.4% 43.7% 11.3% 55.3% 30.1% 3.3% 31.6% 19.2% 10.7% 4.1% 5.0% 15.2% 6.1% 6.6% 5.9% 43.1% 51.0% 43.5% 11.3% 56.7% 28.2% 3.8% 29.1% 22.3% 11.2% 4.9% 4.0% 13.7% 6.0% 7.4% 3.7% 42.0% 54.4% 40.7% 11.7% 55.7% 28.2% 4.3% 28.0% 22.9% 11.2% 5.0% 2.9% 14.3% 5.8% 11.7% 8.8% 41.0% 50.2% 51.3% 9.3% 46.8% 37.0% 6.9% 37.9% 12.2% 9.6% 4.0% 3.7% 19.9% 5.2% 13.7% 4.8% 35.1% 60.1% 48.5% 9.2% 49.5% 32.9% 8.3% 33.2% 14.4% 11.9% 4.7% 3.0% 18.8% 5.5% 15.3% 2.4% 32.4% 65.2% 47.0% 9.2% 50.7% 32.1% 8.0% 32.4% 17.1% 11.8% 4.3% 2.4% 17.5% 5.0% 3.8% 9.3% 53.5% 37.2% 41.6% 12.7% 52.0% 31.9% 3.4% 33.4% 18.6% 9.2% 3.3% 4.7% 15.7% 7.0% 4.3% 7.2% 48.0% 44.8% 41.6% 11.0% 52.3% 32.8% 4.0% 31.5% 20.7% 10.0% 2.9% 4.2% 15.5% 6.6% 5.4% 3.6% 48.1% 48.2% 39.0% 12.8% 51.0% 31.4% 4.8% 29.1% 21.4% 12.1% 3.8% 3.6% 14.8% 6.0% 8.2% 8.9% 10.0% 7.6% 8.6% 9.4% 8.2% 8.6% 9.2% 40

oncat project 2016-35 transfer pathways from programs at la cit and collge boral to two programs at saint paul university executive summary february 2017 executive summary all of the agreements submitted in the january 2016 project proposal have been achieved. there are a total of 10 separate college programs that benefit from an agreement to four honours bachelors degrees at saint paul university. not only have we met our objectives, but have surpassed them by entering into seven agreements that were not in the january 2016 quote. the following college programs benefit from a first ever agreement with saint paul university: early childhood education (lc1, cb2), human resources management post-diploma (cb), paramedic (lc, cb), parajuriste (paralegal) (lc) and techniques de travail social grontologie (social services technician gerontology) (lc). the rigorous and steadfast work of the various work teams helped with this project being successfully carried out through the establishment of seamless processes and regular communication between the various stakeholders, among other things. these stakeholders have developed practical tools to facilitate their work. the teams hope to be able to continue with this momentum in the coming years. 1 2 la cit collge boral

project number: 2015-02 executive summary acknowledgements northern college extends our sincerest thanks to oncat for financial support for this study. we would also like to acknowledge our partner institutions who so graciously gave of their time and knowledge to help us compile this information: cambrian college canadore college collge boral confederation college georgian college lambton college sault college 1|page revised may 9/16 project # 2015-02 measuring the cost of credit transfer executive summary: unique challenges faced by small colleges in implementing credit transfer processes, are the few, if any resources dedicated to credit transfer tasks. providing credit transfer requires an investment of time and human resources for each receiving institution. costing models for this process need to be identified within the context of small colleges. as this was an acknowledged need, the following eight colleges agreed to participate in this study: cambrian, canadore, collge boral, confederation, georgian, lambton, northern, and sault college. the process of credit transfer has been well described by camman, hamade, and zhou (2015) as the manner in which recognition is given for prior formal learning at an institution. the manner refers to process(es) and involves time spent on a) what a student provides as an educational record, b) the application of that record to what the institution offers, and c) compared with what the student wants to achieve. at a minimum, there are three steps to this process (junor & usher, 2008). the time taken for each step, or the volume of activity within each step is not clear within the literature. what is clear, is that there is a mapping that happens as part of the process (camman, stephane, & zhou, 2014). as with any research endeavor, the research questions guide the process and determine methodology. the research questions for this project were: what is the cost (both direct and indirect) of the student transfer process for small colleges? what are the results for learners who engage in this process? what is the formula to determine return on investment specific to the transfer process in a small college? these research questions are most readily answered through the methodology described. the rationale for the project rested with the concept of small colleges managing multiple activities with limited resources. the definition of small colleges in the context of this study was drawn from the provincial standards of less than 5000 full time equivalent funded enrollment students, less than 450 full time faculty and less than $90 million in annual budget. the determination of small was also based upon overall budgets of the colleges involved. one institution within the study did not fit the small college definition, however, as a mid-sized institution the opportunity to have additional colleges involved was valuable to the study. each college was aware of the participating colleges and there was full commitment to the recognition of their status as small, or in one case mid-sized, colleges. what became clear in the qualitative data was two distinct structures within the colleges studied. one structure was forming credit transfer as a distinct part of the colleges business administration. the other structure identified was termed established, as business practices were solidified around credit transfer. on the basis of this study alone, it was not possible to tell what the tipping point was between forming and established, but the tipping point appeared to be tied to volume of requests and culture of the institution. comparisons of the categories flowed from this initial structural finding of forming and established structure (see table 1). 2|page revised may 9/16 table 1 activity by structure activity forming established comments type of activity disbursed centralized about of the colleges in the study were established categories of people involved 4-6 3-6 categories included faculty, registrar clerk deans, coordinators, first year experience advisors process steps 3-4 3-4 in the established model the steps were shorter time varies predictable 10+ days at the most in the established model. not predicted in the forming model level of authority administrative clerical category of personnel doing the bulk of the work at a lower level in established student access website/manual processes website how did students find out about this process increase in requests yes yes requests are increasing for everyone enrollment impact not clear stabilizing this may offset attrition but not clear institutional priority high high clearly understood as a government priority perception getting easier easy now established protocols simplify this in the established structure 3|page revised may 9/16 challenges gathering the data transfer of data there are still challenges, but the types differ when the registrars were asked what the biggest challenge for them was in the credit transfer process, the responses were l similar in that it takes time to do this, and to have the right people involved with each individual request. when asked the same question with an institutional focus on the challenges, the responses were on the need for resources and efficient processes. table 2 provides comparative detail on registrars responses sorted by working structure. table 2 registrars activity by structure activity forming established change affecting revenue declining tuition revenue from fte fte 5 year average declining declining enrollment growth declining declining declining tuition revenue from fte track tc requests not all tracked well defined tracking potential to track costs number of tc requests increasing increasing potential to impact tuition revenue process requests time to process requests time to process requests cost impacts of human resource time challenges coordinating all the activities and human resources confidentiality, consistency more sophisticated needs as the evolution occurs a picture of aggregate enrollment is important to focus the discussion of student mobility around costs and return on investment. a comparison of credit transfer students to aggregate averages per institution follows in table 3. 4|page revised may 9/16 table 3 student mobility and full time equivalents (fte) for small colleges in this study category full time equivalent 5 year average by college (demonstrating institutional size) full time equivalent this year (demonstrating institutional size) credit transfer by individual students* total transfers of all colleges in the study credits transferred by course students 2428 2553 843 3910 *this number is minimal, as not all institutions counted or reported the individual students. the revenue for an individual college, from credit transfer appears to be 1% of the aggregate 5 year average, increasing to 1.9% of the current year revenue average. this represents a growing percentage that is fluid in the system. unfortunately, this revenue is not specifically tracked within the colleges, as noted by the finance offices who responded to the survey. an aggregate comparison of tuition source revenue and credit transfer value is provided in table 4. table 4 tuition source revenue and credit transfer value sources of revenue (small colleges) tuition revenue average for five years average revenue $11,338,867 tuition past year $9,996,883 credit transfer aggregate value $1,173,000 credit transfer average value per college $186,166 estimated actual revenue from transfer not tracked time on task estimates were based upon information gathered through the key informant interviews. the estimated time on task for each individual handling a portion of a credit transfer request was 15 to 20 minutes, or one-quarter to one third of an hour. as hourly wages could be determined from caat classification tables, costs for time on task could be estimated. in lieu of specific data about seniority, the middle of each range for each classification was used to estimate time on task from the lowest level of authority (lla), to the highest level of authority (hla). the resulting range of $73,000 to more than half a million indicates how vulnerable this process is to cost variations. table 5 summarizes direct costs based on the level of authority and estimated time on task. 5|page revised may 9/16 table 5 range of human resource and time costs processing per 15 minutes at lowest level of authority (lla) costs $6.25 per 15 minutes at highest level of authority (hla) $16.50 three people at lowest level of authority (3l) (minimal time) three people at highest level of authority (3h) (minimal time) ten people at lowest level of authority (10l) (minimal time) ten people at highest level of authority (10h) (minimal time) 3910 at lla minimal time 3l $18.75 $73, 312.50 3910 at hla minimal time 3h $157,905.00 3910 at lla minimal time 10l $198,577.50 3910 at hla minimal time 10h $511,990.00 $49.50 $62.25 $160.50 credit transfer appears to be a contact sport. regardless of automated systems available, at some point a direct contact is required between the transferring student and the receiving institution to determine what the student wants to take and how they will get credit for it. for planning purposes, colleges must look more closely at the credit transfer process and impact these process may have on a) overall enrollment and b) costs. these issues need to be included in enrollment estimates, strategic enrollment management strategies, and costing formulas. credit transfer to support student mobility is alive and well in these colleges. it is a high priority and colleges are making the investments to assure it happens. however, there appears to be a lack of understanding as to what these investments mean in terms of costs or solid estimates on return on investment. 6|page revised may 9/16 the sustainability of credit transfer ties directly to the question of return on investment, which in turn is linked to the costs incurred in giving credit transfer value. the issue of sustainability is an institutional and system wide question to be asked. small institutions in particular are more vulnerable, as they deal with smaller budgets and fewer students, yet required to maintain prescribed standards of student service. with external support currently provided, the impact on college finances has yet to be truly felt. students are benefiting from this process as seen by the thousands of credit transfers issued in this past academic year alone, in the small and mid-sized college included in this study (see table 3). the number of students reported is minimal given this was not tracked but at 843 it represents almost 20% of the average full time equivalent reported by the registrars. based upon the trend identified by registrars, this number will increase and continue to make up a respectable percentage of the student body, thus making the benefits increasingly visible over time. while not all colleges in this study had an established structure, it is still recognized that student mobility is a high priority given the emphasis placed on it by the provincial government. the interest in and attention to this group of students is demonstrated at every level of this study. going back to these same colleges in the next two years, would probably demonstrate established structures. there are costs to credit transfer that could only be estimated in this study. another estimate is the potential return on investment. however, the return on investment is not gleaned immediately and is not currently tracked by the colleges financial departments. similar to wealth accumulation, diverse investments reap the best long-term rewards and that is the essence of student mobility. diversifying their education over time and geography is the new normal for a student learning trajectory. as with any other wealth accumulation, the costs incurred are borne somewhere; how they are borne and the impact they have are the challenges that post-secondary education institutions have to face. recommendations from this study are intended for both college and system application, as applicable: recommendation one: the tipping point of forming to established be further explored to better understand and support how colleges can achieve cost effective transfer processes recommendation two: the tracking of costs, direct and where possible indirect, be established as a pilot project to better define how costs impact budgets recommendation three: the potential revenue gained by the receiving institution be monitored to determine viability and return on investment recommendation four: the role student transfer plays in strategic enrollment management be examined in depth for all institutions, not just small colleges 7|page revised may 9/16 recommendation five: a student outcome measurement project be established to define the cumulative benefits to students in the system. 8|page revised may 9/16

measures of student success and student experience following university/college transfers in northwestern ontario: final report july 17, 2012 1|page this report was produced by confederation college and includes data that was provided by lakehead university. both datasets from the college and lakehead university were analyzed and interpreted by confederation college. 2|page contents introduction.................................................................................................................................................. 4 literature...................................................................................................................................................... 4 methods ....................................................................................................................................................... 6 results ......................................................................................................................................................... 8 student transfer into confederation college ........................................................................................ 8 number of transfer students from all pse institutions to confederation college, 2005 to 2010 ............. 8 number of transfer students from lakehead university ........................................................................ 10 profile of all transfer students to confederation college ....................................................................... 11 success at previous institutions .............................................................................................................. 12 success/graduation rates of transfer students ..................................................................................... 13 grade analysis of successful transfer students ...................................................................................... 14 student transfer into lakehead university .......................................................................................... 15 number of confederation college students and graduates to lakehead university, 2005 to 2010....... 15 characteristics of transfer students confederation college to lakehead university, 2005-2010.......... 16 confederation college students receiving transfer credit to lakehead university ................................. 16 success/graduation rates of transfer students at lakehead university ............................................... 18 gpa analysis of confederation college transfers into lakehead university ........................................... 18 time between transfer ........................................................................................................................... 19 transfer student focus groups............................................................................................................. 20 transfer students to confederation college (7 students) ....................................................................... 20 transfer students to lakehead university (4 students) .......................................................................... 21 summary of results................................................................................................................................. 23 recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 24 references ................................................................................................................................................ 25 3|page introduction since 2001 student mobility has been on the rise across ontario (carter, coyle, leslie, 2011; kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010; college-university consortium council report, 2011). several studies summarize the trends and characteristics of transfer students using data from the existing graduate satisfaction surveys that are conducted at each of the 24 colleges of applied arts and technology (caat) (cucc, 2007; cucc, 2011; decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s & hu, b, 2011; kerr et al., 2010). confederation college took an opportunity to collaborate with the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat, formerly cucc) and lakehead university, our closest neighbouring institution, to investigate transfer student characteristics, patterns and experiences using more than results from the graduate satisfaction survey. data from our own registration office, from lakehead university, from transfer student focus groups and transfer student surveys was collected and analyzed to gain greater insight on transfer students. we are now in the process of creating better strategies to inform students who wish to transfer, and improve their overall transfer experience. outlined below is the relevant recent literature found on student mobility, the methods used to collect data in our study, the results from each method used, a summary of the results and the recommendations brought forth from the research project. literature transferring through universities and colleges can be difficult in ontario, partly due to the decisions made during the period colleges were being established. at this time, universities were already developed and growing in ontario, and discussions revolved around the need for a different type of education than what was being taught at universities (skolnik, 2010, p. 3). the plan for colleges was to focus on technical education that would help individuals develop the knowledge and skills necessary to keep up with technical advances (skolnik, 2010, p. 3). while planning the function of the colleges, transfer for students in occupational programs was not on the radar screen (skolnik, 2010, p. 6). ontario university leaders and the ontario government made the decision to reject a transfer function for the colleges believing that the colleges should not provide university-level general education courses (skolnik, 2010, p. 6). however, the founders of the colleges did not make this decision as a once-for-all-time choice; rather, the situation was going to be monitored continuously and modifications were supposed to be made where necessary and warranted (skolnik, 2010, p. 14). this monitoring has failed to occur and the original decision seems to have been set in stone, yet students still manage to successfully transfer between colleges and universities, indicating a need to change (skolnik, 2010, p. 14; kerr et al., 2011). 4|page counting the exact number of students that transfer between institutions in ontario is difficult to do because of the limit of system-wide sources of information (kerr et al., 2010, p. 6). instead of transfer student counts, studies generally make use of the graduate satisfaction survey that is conducted at each of the 24 caat colleges. the surveys are conducted six months after graduation from college and include questions on transfer. both cucc and the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) have reported on results from this survey. cucc reported on trends from the results between 2001 and 2010, and found that an increasing proportion of graduates further their education six months after graduation, an increase from 23% in 2001 to 28% in 2009 (cucc, 2011, p. 7). they also found that a larger amount of these transfers chose college over university to further their education, a trend that has been consistent between 2001 and 2009 (cucc, 2011, p. 10). heqco found that those transferring to college are more likely to be young, under 22 years of age, [and graduate] with a college certificate (kerr et al., 2010 p. 12; decock et al., 2011). college graduates transferring to university are more likely to be female, under age 22, graduating with a basic diploma or an advanced diploma (kerr et al., 2010, p. 11). in regards to geographic mobility, college graduates continuing their education tend to stay within the same geographic region as their originating college (kerr et al., 2010, p. 19). the experience of transfer students has also been reported through the graduate satisfaction survey results. regarding transition, it was found that college-bound graduates were slightly more satisfied with the transition experience than university bound graduates, but the level for both groups was high (kerr et al., 2010, p. 19). when asked about academic preparation for their current program and achievement of goals after graduation, both university and college transfer groups reported high satisfaction levels (kerr et al., 2010, p. 19). to find information on transfer articulations or agreements, the three most used sources of information included the college website, the university website and publications, and college faculty/counsellors (kerr et al., 2010, p. 22). those transferring to university made use of university websites more than college websites and those transferring to college made more use of college websites than university websites (decock et al., 2011, p. 42). success rates of transfer students have also been researched in terms of grades and graduation rates. heqco reported that a phenomenon known as transfer shock, which refers to the tendency of the gpa of college students to temporarily drop within the first year of university, has been found to occur in most college transfer students (kerr et al., 2010, p. 23). it is difficult for students to recover from this, even after two years in university (kerr et al., 2010, p. 23). transfer shock is not found in transfer students who move to college (kerr et al., 2010, p. 23). despite the advantages of providing consistent data on graduate transfer, the graduate satisfaction survey has limitations. for example, the survey only provides information on graduate status six months after college, leaving out information on students who transfer before graduation or years after graduation (decock et al., 2011, p. 10). reporting on only one group of transfer students, results in the graduate satisfaction survey represent the minimum amount of movement (decock et al., 2011, p. 10). addressing the challenges of finding a better, more systematic way of tracking transfer students in ontario can be difficult; however, have we attempted to address this in our research methods. 5|page methods the focus of this project was to find information on student success after transfer, the amount of credit transfer granted to students, and the student experience of transfer (please refer to appendix a for more details on the research focus). transfer students will be defined as students and graduates who move from a program at a college or university into either confederation college or lakehead university. direct entry students will be defined as students who move into either confederation college or lakehead university directly from high school. data was collected from confederation college, lakehead university and focus groups to gain a comprehensive understanding of transfer students and their experiences. the methods have been described in further detail below. confederation college transfer data analysis as the graduate satisfaction survey produces results exclusive to only one group of transfer students, the confederation college banner system was used to provide individual-level data that encompassed all students transferring into our college. information from 2005 to 2010 was gathered, and the data pulled included variables such as: name of the previous educational institution the student had attended, the program they previously attended, the program and date they successfully were admitted into confederation college, age, aboriginal status, first generation status, the start and end date of their term at the previous institution the amount of credit granted for their previous educational experience, the program they graduated from at confederation college and their graduation date. an analysis was conducted on the results to see how many transfer students we receive each year, the profile of the students, where the students are coming from, the success rates of the students, and the average gpa of students with certain credentials. in addition, information was gathered on the graduation rates of all college students from 2005 to 2010 and gpas were gathered from direct entry students for comparison. lakehead university transfer data analysis we worked with lakehead university to gather information on confederation college students and graduates who transferred to lakehead university. information provided from lakehead included results from 2005 to 2010 and the data pulled from their system included variables such as: the term the student enrolled at lakehead, gender, birth year, aboriginal status, first generation status, 6|page the number of previous institutions attended, the start and end date of the most recent confederation college program taken, the total transfer credits received for previous education at all institutions, the total transfer credits received for previous education at confederation college, the lakehead university program the student was first enrolled in, the first degree the student obtained and the degree date, the gpa of the first year of enrolment at lakehead university and the students enrollment status at lakehead university as of may 2012. an analysis of the data was conducted to see how many confederation college students transfer to lakehead university, the profile of the students, the success rates of students, and the length of time between their last confederation college program and enrolment at lakehead university. lakehead university also provided information on direct entry students that was used to compare results found in the transfer student data. best efforts were made to ensure compatibility between the two datasets however there were some differences between information provided by lakehead university and confederation college. lakehead university data did not include information on the previous program taken at confederation college and the credentials, if any, that were received from confederation college. confederation college data did not include information on the amount of credits gained from previous education at lakehead university. transfer student focus groups we partnered with northern insights, a division of generator, to create and conduct focus groups on transfer student experience. to create meaningful focus groups we had sent out an email survey to solicit information and participation (appendix b and c). two similar but separate surveys were sent. one was sent to 784 students and graduates who had transferred to confederation college and the other was sent to 462 students and graduates that transferred from confederation college to lakehead university. both surveys were closed march 30, 2012. focus groups were then conducted using a structured questionnaire (appendix d). 7|page results student transfer into confederation college number of transfer students from all pse institutions to confederation college, 2005 to 2010 our data tracked the number of transfer students who began a program starting in the winter term of 2005 until the fall term of 2010. overall, it was found that confederation college has received 1,167 confirmations from transfer students. figure 1 depicts the total number of transfer applications received over 2005 and 2010. figure 1 cc: all pse transfer applications: 2005 to 2010 250 number of transfer applications 200 150 100 50 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 the graph shows that the number of confirmations from transfer students is increasing gradually every year with a peak in 2009 of 239 students. the average percent increase over these five years is 6%. though 1,167 transfer applications into confederation were confirmed, further analysis in this paper is restricted to 1,124 students who received a gpa above 0.0. those who have transferred to confederation college come from various backgrounds, including an education at both types of institutions. figure 2 shows the number of transfers that have previous university, college or other experience. 8|page figure 2 cc: all transfers with previous pse experience 600 565 484 number of transfers 500 400 300 200 100 38 37 both university and college other post secondary institution 0 university college the majority of transfers to confederation over the past five years have come from university. lakehead university transfer students accounted for 75% of those transferring with previous experience at university and/or college (453 of 603 students). 9|page number of transfer students from lakehead university of the 1,124 students transferring to confederation college, 453 (40%) are from lakehead university. figure 3 shows a breakdown of the number of students and graduates transferring from lakehead university to confederation college by year. overall, there has been a 7% increase in the number transfer students from lakehead university to confederation college over five years. figure 3 number of transfers - lu to cc 120 number of transfers 100 80 60 40 20 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 10 | p a g e profile of all transfer students to confederation college the age of transfer students was recorded when they were enrolled in confederation college programs. ages ranged between 18 and 60, and the data showed the majority of transfer students were 20 (139 students), 21 (109 students), 22 (115 students) and 23 (108 students). figure 4 shows details on grouped age ranges. figure 4 age of transfer students 600 550 500 number of students 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 18 19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-55 56-60 age/age ranges in addition, the data also showed that overall there were more female transfer students (56%) than male (44%), that 133 (12%) indicated they were aboriginal and 64 (6%) indicated they were first generation. there may be more aboriginal and first generation students than depicted because not every aboriginal student will disclose aboriginal status and there was not a complete set of first generation data. of all transfer students, 186 (17%) had transferred between 2 or more institutions. 11 | p a g e success at previous institutions results showed that the majority of transfer students held a previous credential from another institution (57%). more students have degrees than diplomas, certificates and advanced diplomas. this is due to the number of transfer students that are coming from lakehead university. they account for 70% of transfer students with degrees. the table below displays the breakdown of students with previous credentials. degree 256 percentage of total transfer students (1,125) 23% diploma 187 17% certificate 182 16% advanced diploma 12 1% highest credential earned... # of transfer students with credential 12 | p a g e success/graduation rates of transfer students the success rate of transfer students was calculated by using the number of students who could have completed their program by winter 2011 and comparing it to the number of students who actually completed their program. we evaluated this graduation rate against the 2010-11 kpi graduation rate that is calculated each year. the kpi graduation rate tracks individual students who entered a program of instruction in a particular enrolment reporting period and assesses how many individuals completed that program in a time frame that is approximately 200% of the normal program distribution (mtcu, 2012, p. 3-4). this means that students are given a longer period than the normal length of a program to graduate, which is similar to the process we used to calculate the graduation rate of transfer students. overall, we found that 974 (87%) transfer students could have completed their program by the graduation dates tracked in our data. of the 974 students, 712 (73%) completed their program. the 2010-11 kpi overall graduation rate at confederation is 61% which demonstrates that transfer students into confederation college graduate at a higher rate than average. figure 5 shows transfer student graduation rates stratified by previous pse experience. figure 5 completion of confederation college program 450 413 400 number of transfer students 350 287 300 250 could complete their confederation college program in amount of time tracked by our data 226 187 200 153 150 completed confederation college program in amount of time tracked by our data 173 122 108 100 50 9 8 0 advanced diploma certificate degree diploma some previous college or university 13 | p a g e grade analysis of successful transfer students those who completed their program were grouped together with others who had the same highest level of education to calculate an average gpa. figure 6 shows the average gpa of students who hold previous credentials and those who have previous experience at a college and/or university. figure 6 grade point average of students who have completed their confederation college program advanced diploma some previous college or university grade point average (gpa) certificate diploma degree 3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4 those who have degrees seem to earn a higher gpa than those with other credentials or previous education. additionally, transfer students seem to perform better than direct entry students. direct entry graduates between 2005 and 2010 earned an average gpa of 3.34, which is slightly lower than what transfer students achieved. previous experience may give transfer students an added edge when it comes to completing assignments and studying for tests. they also may be more engaged in their classes. 14 | p a g e student transfer into lakehead university number of confederation college students and graduates to lakehead university, 2005 to 2010 per a letter of understanding, data supplied by lakehead university included information only on transfers from confederation college. between 2005 and 2010, lakehead university received a total of 1,035 transfer students and graduates who enrolled in their programs (figure 7). figure 7 transfers cc to lu: 2005 to 2010 250 number of transfer applications 200 150 100 50 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 the number of transfer students lakehead university receives from confederation college remains steady with no increase or decrease over the five year period. though 1,035 transfer students enrolled in lakehead from confederation, 939 received a gpa above 0.0. there may be a number of reasons why students enrolled into lakehead programs and did not achieve an average above 0.0. for a better understanding of the challenges these students face, a separate study should be conducted. further analysis in this paper is restricted to the 939 students who received a gpa above 0.0. 15 | p a g e characteristics of transfer students confederation college to lakehead university, 2005-2010 the age of confederation college transfer students was recorded when they were enrolled into lakehead university programs and is presented in figure 8. figure 8 age of cc-lu transfer students 600 550 500 number of students 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 18 19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 50-54 56-59 60-65 age/age ranges additionally, the data showed that year over year, more females from confederation college were transferring to lakehead university than males. of the 939 transfer students, 61% were female and 39% were male. also, 209 (22%) students indicated they were aboriginal and 224 (24%) indicated they were first generation. not every aboriginal student or first generation will disclose this status. confederation college students receiving transfer credit to lakehead university of the 939 transfer students from confederation to lakehead, 260 (28%) received credit for their previous education, and on average, these students earned four credits. figure 9 displays the total number of confederation college transfers into lakehead university by year and the total number of students that earned credit for their previous education at confederation college. 16 | p a g e figure 9 200 number of transfers receiving transfer credits, cc-lu 180 number of confederation transfers to lakehead 160 140 120 number of confederation transfers receiving credit at lakehead 100 80 60 40 20 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 most students do not receive credit for their previous experience at confederation college and this may be explained by the students previous educational experience and the transfer policies at lakehead university. according to lakeheads policies, those students who have completed a two or three year diploma program, with a 3.0 gpa or higher, are eligible to earn transfer credits. students who complete a one year certificate or upgrading do not have the opportunity to transfer their credits no matter their gpa (please refer to lakehead universitys website for more information (http://mycoursecalendar.lakeheadu.ca/pg94.html). the transfer students receiving credits are likely graduates from two and three year diploma programs. those who have not received credit are likely students from certificate or upgrading programs or students who have not completed their program. with missing variables on graduation and previous credential, it is difficult to fully understand. this is an area that will need further investigation. 17 | p a g e success/graduation rates of transfer students at lakehead university year 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 percentage of transfer students who have earned a degree from lakehead university 47% 39% 36% 20% 5% 2% percentage of transfers students who do not have a degree, but are still enrolled in lakehead university 9% 20% 31% 53% 85% 92% percentage of transfer students who do not have a degree and are not enrolled at lakehead university 44% 41% 32% 27% 10% 6% since lakehead university programs are 3 to 5 years in length, depending on the type of degree, and 2011 was the latest degree date given in the lakehead university dataset, 2005 may be the only accurate year to report graduation rates. it allows students six years to graduate. however, one year of data does not give enough information to see patterns or trends. in addition, it is important to note that the data included a combination of both full and part-time students which prevents us from drawing conclusions regarding graduation rates. further analysis will need to be conducted in this area to be able to accurately determine the success rates of transfer students. gpa analysis of confederation college transfers into lakehead university a comparison of gpa was not possible because only high school gpa for direct entry students and first year university gpas for transfer students were included in the dataset. in addition, missing information on full- and part-time student status may affect a gpa analysis. a better comparator and more information are needed for future research. 18 | p a g e time between transfer the caat graduate satisfaction survey reports on a minimum amount of mobility between institutions because it only tracks graduates six months after graduation. figure 10 shows the average amount of time it takes for students and graduates to transfer from one institution to another. figure 10 average time between transfer 4 3.5 3 years 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 confederation college to lakehead university all previous institutions to confederation college lakehead university to confederation college 19 | p a g e transfer student focus groups transfer students to confederation college (7 students) the participants in the confederation college group came from different types post secondary institutions. they were questioned on the differences between confederation college and their previous institution, their adjustment to confederation college, their personal motives for transferring and their feedback on the transfer process. when asked about the differences between institutions, the participants commented on the smaller class sizes at confederation college, which they preferred. smaller class sizes enabled the participants to get to know their classmates and professors, which allowed them to have a more personal learning environment. they also stated that classes were composed of students with diverse age ranges, from young to old. they commented that the learning pace was slower at confederation college, with more, yet less difficult homework. the participants seemed to like this as they had more time to work parttime hours and increase their income. they also favoured the lower tuition at confederation college and felt the college had prepared them well for a career. most participants noted that the credit transfer process was simple, timely and effective, and did not take long to complete. they agreed that the amount of transfer credits they received was the amount they expected and some had received even more than they had expected. a couple of issues brought forth from the participants were the long line-ups at the registration office and the fee associated with transfer credits. participants stated that transfer credits became costly once all credits were added up. another issue faced by transfer students is obtaining course outlines from discontinued courses. one participant spoke to this issue with his own experience. in regards to the adjustment to confederation college, all participants stated they felt academically prepared for their course work. many of them were not interested in their orientation as they had attended one at their previous institution. many felt that they would rather be informed about their professors, the facilities, their course-work and assignments rather than be entertained by social activities. they suggested that a program-specific orientation may be beneficial. participants stated career-related reasons when asked why they transferred to confederation college. finding a job, finding a steadier job, changing careers, upgrading education to qualify for professional designations were a few of the reasons stated. in addition, many individuals stated they chose confederation college primarily because of its location as they desired to stay in the region closest to their homes. transfer credits were also a reason for choosing confederation college. to improve the credit transfer process, participants suggested to remove the fee per transfer credit and to implement an online method for submitting credit transfer forms to avoid waiting in lines. in addition, participants recommended creating a transfer key, which would show students what courses they were exempt from. they suggested creating a print version for students who may not want to search online, and creating a key for each program and placing it on the programs website. in addition, they suggested publishing a sheet with credit transfer details and sending it with acceptance letters. 20 | p a g e survey results, transfers into confederation college (10 respondents) the survey that was sent to students who had transferred to confederation college reflected what was found in the focus group. most were satisfied with their transfer experience; only two participants had stated that the transfer experience did not match their expectations. many noted that the courses at their previous institution had academically prepared them for their studies at confederation college and that they had transferred for career-related purposes, for example for career advancement or because there were no jobs in their field. similar to what was found in the focus group, the main source of transfer information for participants was confederations website. participants came from various educational backgrounds. of the ten respondents, only four stated that they had come from lakehead university. transfer students to lakehead university (4 students) the confederation college group that transferred to lakehead university were asked the same questions posed to the previous group. they were asked about the differences between institutions, their adjustment to lakehead university, their personal motives for transferring and their feedback on the transfer process. the participants mentioned several differences between confederation college and lakehead university. they stated that class sizes and compositions varied. second year classes were large and consisted of younger students, while third and fourth year classes were smaller and consisted of older students from different educational backgrounds. the differences in class size and composition made it difficult for participants to get to know their classmates. they also noted the differences in tuition and course work. there were more independent readings per course and fewer assignments with much heavier weights, which put pressure on the participants. in regards to their transfer experience, two of the four participants were satisfied with the transfer process. two participants received the transfer credits they expected and received them in a reasonable amount of time. two found the process lengthy and frustrating and did not receive the amount of credit they had expected. this was due to a change in articulation agreements and to a lack of clear understanding which college courses counted for credits. interestingly, two participants noted that selecting electives at the university was frustrating because they were required to take second-year level electives. their selection was slim because many of the second year electives had a first year prerequisite. consequently, many students could not take a lot of electives that they wanted to take which they found annoying. most of the participants felt well-prepared for their course work and one found that her course work was repetitive because she had already learned the material at confederation college. these participants, similar to the participants from the previous group, did not attend their orientation and noted some of the same features that the other group would have liked to see. for example, a tour of the facilities, meeting with their professors and classmates, and a description of their specific courses and course work were some of the features the participants mentioned. also, they stated that they 21 | p a g e would like advice on formats of tests, how to study for these tests, and information on proper referencing and formatting. reasons for transfer were to attain higher levels of education for their careers. participants also wanted to continue their education to work at a particular desired position. to improve the transfer process and experience, participants suggested that an individual from the university deliver a presentation to those wishing to transfer. they felt that an in-class presentation would be a more personalized form of information, rather than the print and online advertisements that they receive. also, they recommended that lakehead university include information on which credits transfer as part of a students acceptance letter, so they would know exactly which courses had transferability. also, similar to the previous group, they mentioned that having an online system that described transferrable courses would be beneficial. survey results, confederation college transfers into lakehead university (12 respondents) the survey results reflected some of what was found in the focus groups. most respondents stated that they were satisfied with their transfer experience to lakehead university; only two stated that they were not satisfied and their expectations were not met. most of the participants responded that their program was very related to their previous confederation college program and they felt confederation college prepared them well academically for their studies at lakehead university. most respondents stated that their reason for transfer was because it was the next step in my educational path and to earn a degree. their major source for information on transferring to lakehead university was the universitys website and the staff/faculty at lakehead university. a couple of comments respondents made regarding transfer was the need for better communication between both institutions. this would help students and staff understand what is needed to transfer. 22 | p a g e summary of results overall, the number of transfer students to confederation college is increasing. the importance of proximity mentioned in the literature can be seen to play a role in choice of institution as almost half (40%) of our transfer students come from lakehead university. this seemed to also be confirmed in both focus groups. the profile of transfer students seemed to also match what was found in the literature as the majority of college and university transfer students were female and fell between the ages of 20 and 23. more than half of the students that transfer into confederation college hold a credential from another post secondary institution, and they seem to achieve a better overall gpa than direct entrants. though all transfer students into confederation college with a credential do well in their programs, those with a degree tend to achieve a better gpa and are more likely to graduate from their programs. lakehead university has received over 100 transfer students from confederation college year over year from 2005 to 2010. success rates including information on transfer student gpa and graduation rates will need further analysis due to missing variables in the dataset. based on the focus group discussions, students experience a number of issues transferring back and forth between colleges and universities. while it is difficult to draw conclusions due to the small focus group sizes, the students who transferred to confederation college appeared to be happy with the transfer experience. we identified a number of transfer issues that should be explored further in order to help improve the experience for students following a number of transfer pathways. 23 | p a g e recommendations confederation college should build a transfer key or guideline that can be used by perspective students who are looking to transfer here. not only was this noted as an important source of information in the graduate satisfaction survey, but it was also suggested by participants in both focus groups. these keys or guidelines could be included on a programs webpage for easy access and sent in acceptance letters so students are made aware of transfer credit opportunities. currently, on our admissions department webpage there is a list of articulation agreements under an articulation agreement tab. as some students may not be aware what an articulation agreement is, we could change the title to make it more understandable and posted on the websites of programs that have articulation agreements. in addition, we are also working on a project to better track transfer students and the courses they are exempted from. this tracking system could be used to see the amounts of credit granted to students and common courses they are exempted from. it may also give us a better way to define and observe affinity. finally, we are also in the process of increasing the number of articulation agreements between other colleges and universities. future research recommendations include: further examination of why roughly 75% of confederation college transfers to lakehead university receive no transfer credits at lakehead analysis on the number of graduates and non-graduates that transfer from confederation college to lakehead university and the level of affinity between programs. segregating full and part time transfer students to investigate patterns in gpa and graduation rates investigate ways to link individual records from ocas to ouac to examine and research program affinity and measures of success such as gpa and graduation rates to allow meaningful comparisons 24 | p a g e references carter, i., coyle, j., & leslie, d. (2011). easing the transfer of students from college to university programs: how can learning outcomes help? canadian journal of higher education, 41, 10-27. college-university consortium council. (2007). college-university transferability study. retrieved from http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_resea rch_reports_12.pdf college-university consortium council. (2011). college-university student mobility report. retrieved from http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_resea rch_reports_10.pdf decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s & hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario colleges who further their education an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities. (2012). graduation rate kpi calculation and reporting for the 2011-12 reporting year. retrieved from http://caat.edu.gov.on.ca/documents/gov&acc_current/english/kpi-graduationrate1112%20en.pdf kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. skolnik, micheal. (2010). a look back at the decision on the transfer function at the founding of ontarios colleges of applied arts and technology. canadian journal of higher education, 40, 120. 25 | p a g e appendix a college-university consortium council requests breakdown of research questions needs methods academic performance student success after transfer, including academic performance and/or graduation rates, compared to direct entry students and/or other appropriate student cohorts what is the success rate of transfer students? graduation rate academic performance what is the success rate of direct entrants? data on transfer and direct entry students from cohorts between 2005 and 2010 will be gathered from both of the registration services departments at confederation college and lakehead university. graduation rate credit transfer, including amount of credit, both specific and non-specific, granted to transfer students upon entry by program/major including reference to students original program of study what is the amount of credit offered to students who transfer? amount of credit allotted from programs with pathways amount of credit allotted from programs without pathways registration services departments at both confederation college and lakehead university will be asked to collect data on credit transfers offered. data will be collected on the credit transfers offered every year between 2005 and 2010. how do students perceive the process of transfer from college to university/university to college in terms of credit transfers? (e.g., how long did it take to receive notification of credits offered? what amount of transfer credits did they expect to receive?) student experience of transfer, including experiences during the process of transfer and experiences after transfer, such as communication of transfer credits granted, orientation to new institution, academic preparation for new institution etc. what are the differences between college and university in terms of social life, economic situation, etc.? contact information of students to create focus group and/or survey group focus and/or survey groups will be conducted on students who have transferred into confederation college and lakehead university between 2005 and 2010. what are students perceptions on the academic aspects of university/college? (e.g., were they academically prepared for the courses? were they prepared for the amount of homework? do they find college/university more difficult as compared to their previous academic experiences?) 26 | p a g e appendix b college/university student pathway survey confederation college is looking for insight from students who have transferred from a university or another institution into our college. we would like to understand the experiences of transfer students including, any challenges of transition, and strengths or weaknesses of the credit transfer process. the end goal is to make improvements to the transfer process here at confederation college. it should take approximately 3 to 5 minutes to complete. your participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time by closing the survey window. all responses will remain completely confidential and will be combined with all other responses to create an aggregate set of data. the aggregate data will be reviewed by a team working on the transfer process at confederation college. if you have any questions about the study, you may contact stephanie schutte, research analyst intern, at (807)4756596 or iresearch@confederationc.on.ca. page 1 college/university student pathway survey this section seeks to examine your satisfaction regarding your student tran... 1. how satisfied are you with your transfer experience to confederation college? j don't know k l m n j very dissatisfied k l m n j dissatisfied k l m n j neutral k l m n j satisfied k l m n j very satisfied k l m n 2. how well did your transfer experience match your expectations? j don't know k l m n j not well at all k l m n j not well k l m n j neutral k l m n j well k l m n j very well k l m n 3. imagine the perfect transfer experience from one educational institution to another. how close to this ideal was your transfer experience? j don't know k l m n j not close at all k l m n j not close k l m n j neutral k l m n j close k l m n j very close k l m n page 2 college/university student pathway survey 4. how related is/was your program at confederation college to your previous program at the other institution? j don't know k l m n j not related at all k l m n j not related k l m n j neutral k l m n j related k l m n j very related k l m n 5. do you feel the courses at your previous institution academically prepared you for your studies at confederation college? j yes k l m n j no k l m n j dont know k l m n j not applicable k l m n page 3 college/university student pathway survey please tell us a little more about your transfer 6. what are/were your reasons for transferring to confederation college? (please check all that apply) c i did not enjoy the program at my previous school d e f g c i wanted to relocate to another geographic location due to personal reasons d e f g c i wanted to switch into a new program, but my previous school did not offer that program d e f g c i was looking for a different approach to teaching and learning d e f g c it's the next step in my educational path d e f g c no jobs available in my previous field of study d e f g c to get a diploma d e f g c needed for professional designation d e f g c broaden education d e f g c encouragement from others (e.g., family, friends) d e f g c more opportunities for career advancement d e f g c upgrade/improve knowledge and skills in my previous field of study d e f g c there was a formal transfer agreement between my previous program and the program i transferred into d e f g c the company i am/was working for required it d e f g c other (please specify) d e f g 5 6 7. what sources of information did you use to help you in your transfer? (please check all that apply) c confederations web site d e f g c graduates who attended confederation college d e f g c confederations facebook page d e f g c campus tour d e f g c family and friends d e f g c staff/faculty at confederation college d e f g c coworkers d e f g c guidance counsellor d e f g c students attending confederation college d e f g c other d e f g page 4 college/university student pathway survey 8. what school did you transfer from? j lakehead university k l m n j another college k l m n j another university k l m n 9. in what year did you successfully transfer into a confederation college program? j 2010 k l m n j 2007 k l m n j 2009 k l m n j 2006 k l m n j 2008 k l m n j 2005 k l m n 10. confederation college has partnered with northern insights, a division of generator, to help with this research. northern insights will be conducting a focus group on this subject. meals will be provided and the group will discuss the topic of students transfer experience. would you be interested in participating in a focus group discussing student transfer experience? j yes k l m n j no k l m n page 5 college/university student pathway survey thank you for your interest! please let us know a good time for you to meet with a group and your preferred contact information. after the survey has been closed (on march 23rd) we will send you details about the focus group, including time and location. if you have any questions regarding the focus group, please contact giovanni scalzo, the researcher at northern insights, at giovanni@generatorad.com . 11. what month would you prefer to participate in a focus group? j march k l m n j april k l m n j may k l m n j any month is okay k l m n 12. what time of day during the week would you prefer to participate in a focus group? j morning k l m n j early afternoon k l m n j late afternoon k l m n j evening k l m n j any time is okay k l m n 13. what is your last name? 14. what is your first name? 15. what is your preferred email address? page 6 college/university student pathway survey final comments 16. we welcome any other comments you may have regarding your transfer experience or the transfer process at confederation college. 5 6 thanks for your time and participation! by completing the survey you are indicating an awareness of the purpose of this study and that you are participating voluntarily. page 7 appendix c college/university student pathway survey confederation college is looking for insight from students who have transferred from our college to lakehead university. we would like to understand the experiences of transfer students including, any challenges of transition, and strengths or weaknesses of the credit transfer process. the end goal of this research is to improve the transfer process at confederation college and to help our students succeed after transfer. it should take approximately 3 to 5 minutes to complete. your participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time by closing the survey window. all responses will remain completely confidential and will be combined with all other responses to create an aggregate set of data. the aggregate data will be reviewed by a team working on the transfer process at confederation college. if you have any questions about the study, you may contact stephanie schutte, research analyst intern, at (807)4756596 or iresearch@confederationc.on.ca. page 1 college/university student pathway survey this section seeks to examine your satisfaction regarding your student tran... 1. how satisfied are you with your transfer experience to lakehead university? j don't know k l m n j very dissatisfied k l m n j dissatisfied k l m n j neutral k l m n j satisfied k l m n j very satisfied k l m n 2. how well did your transfer experience match your expectations? j don't know k l m n j not well at all k l m n j not well k l m n j neutral k l m n j well k l m n j very well k l m n 3. imagine the perfect transfer experience from one educational institution to another. how close to this ideal was your transfer experience? j don't know k l m n j not close at all k l m n j not close k l m n j neutral k l m n j close k l m n j very close k l m n page 2 college/university student pathway survey 4. how related is/was your program at lakehead university to your previous program at confederation college? j don't know k l m n j not related at all k l m n j not related k l m n j neutral k l m n j related k l m n j very related k l m n 5. do you feel your courses at confederation college academically prepared you for your studies at lakehead university? j yes k l m n j no k l m n j dont know k l m n j not applicable k l m n page 3 college/university student pathway survey please tell us a little more about your transfer 6. what are/were your reasons for transferring to lakehead university? (please check all that apply) c i did not enjoy the program at my previous school d e f g c i wanted to relocate to another geographic location due to personal reasons d e f g c i wanted to switch into a new program, but my previous school did not offer that program d e f g c i was looking for a different approach to teaching and learning d e f g c it's the next step in my educational path d e f g c no jobs available in my previous field of study d e f g c to get a degree d e f g c needed for professional designation d e f g c broaden education d e f g c encouragement from others (e.g., family, friends) d e f g c more opportunities for career advancement d e f g c upgrade/improve knowledge and skills in my previous field of study d e f g c there was a formal transfer agreement between my previous program and the program i transferred into d e f g c the company i am/was working for required it d e f g c other (please specify) d e f g 5 6 7. what sources of information did you use to help you in your transfer? (please check all that apply) c lakehead's web site d e f g c graduates who attended lakehead university d e f g c lakehead's facebook page d e f g c campus tour d e f g c family and friends d e f g c staff/faculty at lakehead university d e f g c coworkers d e f g c guidance counsellor d e f g c students attending lakehead university d e f g c other d e f g page 4 college/university student pathway survey 8. in what year did you successfully transfer into a lakehead university program? j 2010 k l m n j 2007 k l m n j 2009 k l m n j 2006 k l m n j 2008 k l m n j 2005 k l m n 9. confederation college has partnered with northern insights, a division of generator, to help with this research. northern insights will be conducting a focus group on this subject. meals will be provided and the group will discuss the topic of students transfer experience. would you be interested in participating in a focus group discussing student transfer experience? j yes k l m n j no k l m n page 5 college/university student pathway survey thank you for your interest! please let us know a good time for you to meet with a group and your preferred contact information. after the survey has been closed (on march 23rd) we will send you details about the focus group, including time and location. if you have any questions regarding the focus group, please contact giovanni scalzo, the researcher at northern insights, at giovanni@generatorad.com . 10. what month would you prefer to participate in a focus group? j march k l m n j april k l m n j may k l m n j any month is okay k l m n 11. what time of day during the week would you prefer to participate in a focus group? j morning k l m n j early afternoon k l m n j late afternoon k l m n j evening k l m n j any time is okay k l m n 12. what is your last name? 13. what is your first name? 14. what is your preferred email address? page 6 college/university student pathway survey final comments 15. we welcome any other comments you may have regarding your transfer experience or the transfer process at confederation college. 5 6 thanks for your time and participation! by completing the survey you are indicating an awareness of the purpose of this study and that you are participating voluntarily. page 7 appendix d post-secondary schools & student mobility research may 2012 discussion guide introduction welcome and thank you for coming in today for the group discussion. my name is (moderator) and i am working with northern insights, a local research company, hired by confederation college and lakehead university. the purpose of today is to get your thoughts, opinions, and insights on student transfers among post-secondary schools. your input will be used to identify any issues with student transfers and in the potential development of improving the student transfer process and experience. you were invited because you have direct experience with student migration as transfer students. as we discussed, todays session will be approximately sixty to ninety minutes. there are no wrong answers but rather differing points of view. please feel free to share your point of view even if it differs from what others have said. we want you to feel comfortable in telling us your honest opinions. the discussion is being recorded so that we dont miss anything you have to say. people often say helpful things during these discussions and we cant write fast enough to get them all down. we will be on a first-name basis tonight, and we wont use any names in our reports. as stated on the permission/signature sheet, your name and the audio recordings will remain anonymous and confidential. does anyone have any questions? research targets date of focus group 1. college transfer students may 2, 2012 at 5:00 pm 2. university transfer students may 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm college transfer students focus group questions college transfer students segment will receive these questions: 1) research objective 1: to understand students perceptions on the differences between college and university a) what are the differences between college and university in terms of social life and your personal economic situation? were there any difficulties adjusting? b) what are the differences between college and university programs and courses, and student life? c) do you feel that one school prepared you for a career more than the other? 2) research objective 2: to understand students transfer experiences a) what do you think about the transfer process in terms of the amount of credits that transferred? b) how long did it take to be notified regarding what credits transferred? c) what amount of transfer credits did you expect to receive? did anyone receive more or less credit transfers relative to what they expected? d) were there any surprises after transferring? 3) research objective 3: to understand students adjustment to their new educational institute a) did you feel academically well-prepared for your courses and homework during your first semester after transferring? b) did you receive an orientation at your new school after transferring? c) are you finding university to be more difficult than college? 4) research objective 4: to understand students personal motives for transferring a) what is (are) your reason(s) for transferring? 5) research objective 5: to gain student feedback for improving the transfer process? a) how can the student transfer process be improved to make it smoother for future students? b) is there anything we have missed? university transfer students focus group questions university transfer students segment will receive these questions: 1) research objective 1: to understand students perceptions on the differences between college and university a) what are the differences between college and university in terms of social life and your personal economic situation? were there any difficulties adjusting? b) what are the differences between college and university programs and courses, campuses, and student life? c) do you feel that one school prepared you for a career more than the other? 2) research objective 2: to understand students transfer experiences a) what do you think about the transfer process in terms of the amount of credits that transferred? b) how long did it take to be notified regarding what credits transferred? c) what amount of transfer credits did you expect to receive? did anyone receive more or less credit transfers relative to what they expected? d) were there any surprises after transferring? 3) research objective 3: to understand students adjustment to their new educational institute a) did you feel academically well-prepared for your courses and homework during your first semester after transferring? b) did you receive an orientation at your new school after transferring? c) are you finding college to be more difficult than university? 4) research objective 4: to understand students personal motives for transferring a) what is (are) your reason(s) for transferring? 5) research objective 5: to gain student feedback for improving the transfer process? a) how can the student transfer process be improved to make it smoother for future students? b) is there anything we have missed? post-secondary schools & student mobility research focus group by my signature, i understand that: my participation in this project is limited to 60-90 minutes; there are no known physical, psychological, educational, economic or social risks associated with this research project; participation is voluntary and that i am free to withdraw at any time; and i am not obliged to answer any questions i find objectionable or which make me feel uncomfortable. by my signature, i acknowledge that i will be audio and video taped and release and waive the use of my comments (including audio taping of comments) for presentation purposes, though my identity will remain anonymous. print name signature appendix e measures of student success and student experience following university / college transfers in northwestern ontario table of contents introduction and methodology 1 results 3 transfer students to confederation college 3 research objective 1: to understand students perceptions on the differences between confederation college and other educational institutions 3 research objective 2: to understand students transfer experiences 4 research objective 3: to understand students adjustment to their new educational institution 4 research objective 4: to understand students personal motives for transferring 5 research objective 5: to gain student feedback for improving the transfer process 5 transfer students to lakehead university 5 research objective 1: to understand students perceptions on the differences between lakehead university and other educational institutions 6 research objective 2: to understand students transfer experiences 6 research objective 3: to understand students adjustment to their new educational institution 7 research objective 4: to understand students personal motives for transferring 8 research objective 5: to gain student feedback for improving the transfer process 8 appendices appendix 1: focus group 1 - transfer students to confederation college 9 appendix 2: focus group 2 - transfer students to lakehead university 26 appendix 3: interview - student transfer to lakehead university 35 introduction and methodology the purpose of this study is to examine the experiences and success of transfer students in both confederation college and lakehead university, with a focus on students who transfer between confederation and lakehead. confederation college and lakehead university are in a unique position. as the only two institutions in northwestern ontario, the region is a suitable environment for examining transfer students given that a significant portion of students in this region have attend one of these institutions. the five research objectives of this qualitative study are the following: 1. research objective 1: to understand students perceptions on the differences between confederation college lakehead university and other educational institutions 2. research objective 2: to understand students transfer experiences 3. research objective 3: to understand students adjustment to their new educational institution 4. research objective 4: to understand students personal motives for transferring 5. research objective 5: to gain student feedback for improving the transfer process transfer students in this study will be defined as students who move from a program at a college or university into either confederation college or lakehead university. potential research participants include anyone who satisfies the following criteria: individuals that began studying at confederation college between summer 2005 and summer 2010 individuals have previous experience at a different university or college before they started studying at confederation college individuals who satisfied both criteria were invited to participate in the research study. these individuals were contacted through their existing email addresses at either confederation college or lakehead university. in total, seven transfer students to confederation college participated in a focus group and three transfer students to lakehead university participated in a focus group. as a result of the relatively lower number of participants in lakehead university transfer focus group, an additional in-depth interview was conducted to collect additional data. in total, there were eleven participants in this study (see table 1). there was a $50 incentive for students to participate. the focus groups and interview all took place in the northern insights lab facility located in the shuniah building of confederation colleges main campus. table 1: focus groups and interview dates date may 2, 2012 may 9, 2012 may 17, 2012 focus group / interview focus group: transfer students to confederation college focus group: transfer students to lakehead university interview: transfer student to lakehead university 1 number of participants 7 3 1 the focus groups were moderator-led discussions. the interview was also conducted in a similar manner with an interviewer directing the conversation. the focus groups and interview introduced the purpose of the research study to the participants. each participant signed a consent form indicating knowledge of and compliance with the recording of the sessions. approval for reporting of voice recording was provided. the focus groups and interview were moderated by giovanni scalzo, and stephanie schutte assisted the moderator during the focus groups. a summary of the results of each focus group and interview can be found in the appendices section. a formal set of questions was explicitly drafted to help direct discussions in the focus groups and interview. follow-up questions were asked in addition to the preestablished questions to ensure that a thorough and complete data set would be available for analysis. this method of delivery allowed giovanni to tailor each focus group and interview to ensure that all topics related to the credit transfer process were discussed. 2 results the results are subcategorized into two sections. the first section consists of students that transferred to confederation college. these results are based on focus group 1 - transfer students to confederation college (see appendix 1). the second section encompasses other students that transferred to lakehead university. these results are based on focus group 2 - transfer students to lakehead university (see appendix 2) and on interview - student transfer to lakehead university (see appendix 3). transfer students to confederation college the following section is divided into each of the five research objectives. the participants consisted of university students that transferred from several universities and colleges in ontario. research objective 1: to understand students perceptions on the differences between confederation college and other educational institutions there are a number of items discussed regarding the differences between confederation college and participants previous educational institution. the number of students in each class is much lower relatively speaking. also, the participants tended to have the same students in their classes over the duration of their studies at confederation college. these smaller classes were favourable, and all participants stated they enjoyed knowing the names of their classmates and professors, and having a more intimate and personal learning environment. the classes also tended to be comprised of students of diverse age backgrounds, from young individuals who had graduated recently from high school to older individuals in their 40s. the learning pace was slower at confederation college relative to their previous institutions. some participants noted that the learning pace was particularly slower when computers were involved in classroom learning. the older students tended to experience more difficulty with computers, and so this was a factor that slowed down the learning pace. in terms of the workload, participants noted that the workload tended to be larger in amount and consist of more assignments and homework, but the work was not as difficult to complete. also, there was less independent reading outside of class. consequently, students had a more relaxed workload and learning atmosphere, both of which were positive benefits to the participants. the relaxed workload outside of classes also affected participants economically as well. since the workload was relatively lower than at their previous institution, many students were able to work more additional hours, which increased their income. another economic benefit that students noted was the low tuition rates at confederation college. furthermore, in terms of potential future economic benefit, all participants believe that confederation college had prepared them well for a career. 3 one comment generated by many participants was the scheduling of social events organized at confederation college. many participants mentioned that the social events tended to be scheduled at inconvenient times, usually during classes, and many did not attend these events. however, they did acknowledge the difficulty in scheduling these events since the student body of the college has a diverse age range with students at different life stages. research objective 2: to understand students transfer experiences the credit transfer process was simple, timely, and effective for most participants. many participants noted that the process did not take long to complete, and that everyone received the number of credit transfers they were expecting. two participants actually received more credit transfers than previously anticipated. however, two negative aspects of the credit transfer process that participants noted was the fee associated with each transfer credit, which is something that became costly once all transfer credits were tallied. moreover, participants noted that the lineup at the office to transfer credits was very busy and had long wait times. one student had difficulty locating the course outlines to discontinued courses from his previous institution, and so he encountered difficulty locating these outlines and obtaining the credit transfers. the duration to transfer the credits lasted over three weeks, and the participant was forced to stay in courses at confederation college for fear that his previously completed courses would not transfer. research objective 3: to understand students adjustment to their new educational institute the participants felt academically well-prepared for the program and coursework they undertook at confederation college. they noted that the coursework was more timeconsuming, but it was relatively easier and manageable. there were a number of interesting findings regarding participants feelings towards orientation. many of them did not attend their orientation and most of them had little interest in attending. some participants mentioned that they would prefer the social and learning aspects involved in orientation to be seperated into two distinct orientations. the participants experienced student life before, and as a result, were not too interested in participating in the more froshy aspects or social activities of orientation. the participants prefer to be informed rather than entertained at orientation. they would prefer to know about their professors, the campus facilities and buildings, their program, their coursework, and assignments. the participants prefer to know about their program in particular. one student even mentioned that she liked her orientation at her previous institution where her orientation included socializing with fellow classmates in her program. consequently, it may be beneficial to look into the possibility of including a program-specific portion of orientation in which incoming students can learn about their program, professors, assignments, and meet fellow classmates as opposed to students they may not interact with again. 4 research objective 4: to understand students personal motives for transferring the reason participants gave for transferring to confederation college was to find employment. finding a job, finding a steadier job, changing careers, upgrading education to qualify for professional designations, and other career-related factors were the key determinants in transferring to confederation college. one student transferred to confederation college to find employment in the education industry after realizing the current difficulties in finding a teaching position. another individual transferred to find a more steady employment that was not seasonal and varied in terms of what time of day he worked. one participant came to confederation college to complete a post-graduate certificate to qualify for a professional designation with her degree. finally, one participant studied a program at confederation college to see if she would enjoy a similar program at another university without leaving her hometown and investing a significant amount of money in moving and living expenses, and higher tuition fees. research objective 5: to gain student feedback for improving the transfer process many individuals stated they chose confederation college primarily because of its location. the participants are from thunder bay or northwestern ontario and wanted to remain in the region while studying. nevertheless, the transfer credits were also a factor in enticing them to choose confederation college. there were several recommendations that the students gave regarding the transfer process. the first is they would prefer the elimination of the fee per credit transfer. second, they recommended creating a key showing what credits transfer so that students can easily see what courses they are exempt from without having to call. regarding the key, the participants recommended creating a print version for those who may not want to use a computer or search online. also, they recommended creating a key on a per program basis and placing it on each programs web page on confederation colleges web site. third, the participants recommended including some details after credit transfers in student acceptance letters in case they did not search online or receive a print credit transfer key. finally, they recommended implementing an online method for submitting credit transfer forms, because the waiting line is too long. transfer students to lakehead university the following section is divided into each of the five research objectives. it is important to note that all students attended confederation college, and one participant previously attended another institution briefly for a year. 5 research objective 1: to understand students perceptions on the differences between lakehead university and other educational institutions the participants noted several differences between lakehead university and their previous institution. first, they noted that the number of students in a class varied according to each courses year level. second-year courses tend to have large class sizes, while third and fourth-year courses have smaller class sizes. participants stated that they did not always know all of their classmates like they did while attending their previous institution. in addition, the composition of the class varied between second-year courses and third and fourth-year courses. the participants found that second-year classes tended to be comprised of younger students between 19 and 23 years of age that recently graduated from high schools while third and fourth-year courses tended to have students that were around 25 years of age. also, students in third and fourth-year courses consisted of transfer students from other institutions, and individuals with previous work experience seeking to upgrade their education level. the participants stressed the financial costs associated with attending lakehead university. relative to college, the tuition cost was significantly higher as well as the cost and number of textbooks required for courses. finally, they stated that the coursework was structured differently at lakehead university as opposed to when they attended college. at lakehead university, there were fewer assignments, and so they were weighted higher as a portion of the final mark. in contrast, the college tended to have many more assignments, so there was less weight attributed to the final mark per assignment. lakehead university courses had fewer assignments and a higher weight allocation to the final mark put more pressure on students to do well on every assignment, while there was less pressure on assignments at the college since the weight allocated to the final mark was lower. moreover, the amount of independent reading required per course was significantly higher at lakehead university as opposed to the college. research objective 2: to understand students transfer experiences two of the four participants were content with the transfer process. they received the exact number of expected credit transfers, and the length of the credit transfer process was reasonable in terms of the length of time. one participant did not receive a credit transfer for her elective, and another participant did not receive some credit transfers. these two participants who experienced some difficulty with transferring described the process as lengthy and frustrating. 6 the participant who did not receive a transfer credit for her elective mentioned that it should made clearer at the start of college which credits will transfer and which ones will not. the other participant discussed in detail that the articulation agreement between confederation college and lakehead university had changed, and so there was a hassle involved in completing the transfer process. he was initially accepted, then rejected, and forced to reapply due to changes in the articulation agreement, which extended the length of the process, which was frustrating for him. also, two of the participants noted that selecting electives was frustrating. as transfer students, the participants were required to take second-year level electives, but they could not take many electives because many had a first-year prerequisite. consequently, many students could not take a lot of electives that they wanted to take, which they found annoying. research objective 3: to understand students adjustment to their new educational institute three participants noted that they were well-prepared for the coursework at lakehead university. one participant even noted that they found some of her classes repetitive because she had already learned much of courses material. one participant was a marketing student at confederation college, and noted he experienced some difficulty in courses of other functional business areas, such as human resources and accounting. however, he felt well-prepared in his marketing courses. none of the participants attended an orientation. several of them noted that they had been invited, but did not attend. however, they did disclose what they would like from an orientation. first, they would like a tour of the campus to learn where places like the cafeteria and gym are located. second, they would like an orientation specific to their program where they can meet fellow classmates and professors, and the specific courses and coursework they will have. also, the participants noted that they would like their professors to discuss proper referencing and formatting in advance so that it is not an issue once courses begin. many noted frustration with the different formatting and referencing depending on the professor of their course. the participants would like the professors of their program to tell them about the different types of test formats they can expect and advice on how to study for tests depending on its format. the participants noted that they and their fellow classmates were nervous about taking university-level exams and tests, and recommended that a discussion of exams and tests would have made them feel more relaxed. finally, the participants asked that professors inform them about online classes and warn them about the dangers of complacency associated with them. 7 research objective 4: to understand students personal motives for transferring the participants all transferred for the purpose of attaining higher levels of education for their careers. they all studied different subject areas, but all of them wanted to continue their education to enter the workforce at a particular desired position. research objective 5: to gain student feedback for improving the transfer process the participants noted that having an individual from the university visiting an actual classroom at confederation college and delivering a presentation about transferring would be a great way to inform students on the transfer process and what opportunities are available to them. they noted that they are bombarded with print and online advertisements, and so an in-class presentation would be very personal and informative for them. they recommended hosting the in-class presentations at an appropriate time so that students can make the appropriate arrangements to qualify to transfer. also, including what credits transfer and did not transfer in the acceptance letter to lakehead university would be beneficial so that students know exactly what has transferred. also, including a credit transfer online for each program would be beneficial so that students can easily and conveniently access it. 8

oncat project 2015-10 diploma/degree pathway: lakehead history degrees executive summary history is one of the most popular degrees sought in the social sciences and humanities at lakehead university and has the potential to be an attractive degree option for college transfer students. it is a discipline that combines content knowledge with the development and honing of analytical, critical thinking, writing, and communication skills that are highly sought after by employers. many of these foundational skills are developed as part of college diploma programs and are articulated by the associated program learning outcomes. however, college diploma programs do not always offer the content-based or process learning in courses that facilitate transfer of credits. it is an issue further compounded by 3-year and 4-year university degree level expectations as well as course and program level learner outcome requirements. this report covers the three phases of the project. 1) an analysis and evaluation of existing ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) projects, history specific and/or history related content offered by ontarios colleges, and progress towards the identification of partners, negotiations, and planning for next steps in the larger college-university pathway project focused on aspects of disciplinespecific process learning. method of analysis included survey of existing reports by collegeuniversity consortium council (cucc) and oncat, including the assessment of more than 280 courses offered by 20 colleges in ontario, the identification of colleges with a level of existing relevant course capacity and the gathering of secondary literature as well as telephone and in-person discussions. 2) the development of a skills/competencies based modular online bridging course that allows students who have completed college level history related courses to receive university level transfer credits at the first, second, and third year. 3) implementation of the pathway bridging course.

the bear research project executive summary it is time to take a candid look at the reasons for why first nations, mtis, and inuit (fnmi) students do not achieve the same levels of success in post-secondary schools as their non-fnmi peers. by tracking long-term and widespread deficiencies in the administration, funding and evaluation of fnmi education, it is clear that an astounding lack of oversight has directly impacted the quality of education that fnmi students who live both on and off reserve receive from kindergarten to grade twelve. when these students are sponsored by their communities at a considerable expense to attend post-secondary institutions, several issues become apparent. firstly, the majority of fnmi students who enroll in post-secondary programs are under-prepared, particularly in english and math. even when these students have attained a high school diploma, their academic skills are up to two grades below the levels required for many post-secondary programs; in addition, many fnmi students speak a first language other than english and struggle with esl issues. within the first few weeks of classes, it is understandable that these students often feel completely overwhelmed and discouraged. secondly, the majority of colleges and universities do not have processes in place to work with the students communities to follow the students progress and provide support, particularly at the start of the semester. even though starting a post-secondary program means the first time away from the reservation for many fnmi students, institutions expect students to understand the rules and norms and to meet expectations. the first few weeks of school are like living in a completely different country for some students; homesickness and loneliness are amplified by culture shock. thirdly, when fnmi cultures are represented in post-secondary institutions, the representations are often visible manifestations of culture. very rarely, if at all, are fnmi world views and perspectives acknowledged on a deeper pedagogical level in the way courses are developed, delivered or assessed. for many fnmi students, their post-secondary experiences are therefore contradictory and disconcerting: outwardly institutions may provide indigenous spaces, but the same institutions require fnmi students to internalize the beliefs and values of the school by adhering to mainstream, westernized philosophies and systems. in ways that go beyond the reasons listed here, the deck is stacked high against many fnmi students who want to attain post-secondary schooling. last year, a team at algonquin college decided that the time is right to re-think the opportunities available to fnmi students, and work on a new preparatory program called the bear program began. bear stands for building empowerment, achieving results. right from the beginning, the team wanted to emphasize that the goal of this preparatory one-year certificate program is to help students develop four interconnected sets of knowledge and abilities: academic skills, transferable skills, transcultural skills and career awareness. in order to build the bear program, the team held discussions and meetings with a variety of stakeholders including members from the communities of akwesasne pikwaganagan to understand the communities concerns and aspirations and to begin building collaborative relationships. starting with a review of the projects implemented by the algonquin college indigenous strategic partnerships team, additional research and best practices were analyzed to ascertain significant challenges facing our fnmi students and to explore effective ways to support learning in the four key skills areas to best prepare them for future success college and university and/or out in the workplace. the report concludes with an overview of the bear program model and with a call for further support from oncat and additional funding sources so that our team can proceed to the next phase and develop a practical, meaningful, replicable program that can be implemented by other institutions who share a deep desire to see our fnmi students to become empowered and achieve success.

transfer students in ontario: how are they faring? august, 2012 jo stewart and felice martinello, brock university outline of the study this study tracks the performance of a cohort of brock university baccalaureate students between 2008/09 and 2011/12 to determine the comparative success of direct entry and college and university transfer students. the studys data set shows brock students course attempts, withdrawal, academic credits, grades, graduations and other outcomes during this period. the report includes helpful contexts drawn from other recent literature on the subject. findings and discussion the research reports findings include the following: persistence: college transfer students are significantly less likely than non-transfer and university transfer students, to persist to year 4. there are big differences across major fields of study, with undeclared and general studies students exhibiting much lower persistence rates. but the difference between college transfer and non-transfer students is robust to controls for major. university transfer students have the same or higher persistence rates as nontransfer students in years 1, 2 and 3 but a significantly lower rate in year 4. credits earned: on average, college transfer students earn fewer credits in each year than nontransfer and university transfer students. the difference from non-transfer students is more than one full credit in year 4. cumulative grade averages: cumulative grade averages of college transfer students are lower than nontransfer students, but the differences are small and only statistically significant in the 3rd year. the differences are smaller and statistically insignificant when controls for gender and major are added. credits earned: on average, college transfer students received 2.7 transfer credits and university transfer students received 3.8. during years 1 and 2, college transfer students were able to convert course enrollments into credits at the same rates as non-transfer students, but in years 3 and 4, their performance on this measure declined. this occurs because college transfer students had a higher course withdraw rate in year 4 and much higher fail and course repeat rates in years 3 and 4. college and university transfer students attempt fewer credits than non-transfer students in each year of baccalaureate study. the largest difference is between 2 college transfer and non-transfer students in 4th year. this partly reflects the higher proportion of college transfer students who were enrolled on a part-time basis but also fewer course attempts by students classified as full time. degree completion: both college and university transfer students are significantly more likely than non-transfer students to complete a degree in 3 or 4 years. the rate of degree completion in 4 years is highest for university transfer students and lowest for non-transfer students. of those students who qualified for graduation, a significantly greater proportion of non-transfer students completed an honours degree. academic probation, remediation or suspension: college transfer students eligibility for academic probation, remedial programming or suspension was not significantly different than non-transfer students. university transfer students were less likely to be eligible for academic suspension. drawing from other recent related literature, the report considers the socio-economic differences between college transfer students and those defined as non-transfer and university transfer. on average, the college transfer group is more mature, and more likely to include students from lower-income families, with disabilities, aboriginal students, and first generation in college. the report suggests that further study is needed to ascertain links between these differences and their performance in baccalaureate study. conclusions the study concludes: university transfer students performed similarly to non-transfer students. the performance of college transfer students was very similar to that of nontransfer students over the first 2 year of study but, in the 3rd and 4th year college transfer students showed significantly poorer achievement. they were much less likely to persist to year 4 and earn academic credits from their course attempts. this difference relates to a greater propensity to withdraw from courses before completion and from failed and repeated courses. all transfer students attempt fewer courses in every year with the largest difference being in the 3rd and 4th year. however, this difference is more than offset by transfer credits earned. on average, transfer students used their transfer credits to graduate earlier and with lower level degrees than non-transfer students. the rates of academic suspension, participation in remediation programming, and graduation rates with pass degrees all suggest that college transfer students are, in general, capable of completing degrees in good time.

parcours de transferts des programmes de la cit vers des programmes de luniversit dottawa dans le domaine du gnie projet 2015-30 sommaire la cit et luniversit dottawa ont dcid dunir leurs efforts afin dexplorer les faons daccrotre la mobilit des tudiants du collge vers luniversit dans le domaine du gnie. pour ce faire, les deux partenaires ont procd lanalyse dtaille des programmes dans quatre disciplines du gnie soit le gnie mcanique, le gnie civil, le gnie lectrique et le gnie informatique. ils ont examin les orientations et approches gnrales des programmes de mme que les composantes spcifiques de chacun des cours qui y sont associs (rsultats dapprentissage viss, mthodes pdagogiques, matire couverte, modes dvaluations des apprentissages, etc.). cette analyse a bien entendu t ralise en tenant compte des exigences des organismes dagrment des programmes universitaires afin den prserver lintgrit. cette analyse nous a permis didentifier les quivalences de cours possibles dans chacun des programmes et les conditions requises pour permettre le transfert de crdits du collge vers luniversit. une trentaine de cours ont ainsi pu tre identifis au total. le travail se poursuit afin darriver la prparation dententes dans ces quatre disciplines. on prvoit que ces ententes pourront entrer en vigueur au dbut de lautomne 2017.

a collaboration of | une collaboration de executive summary rsum laurentian university, collge boral and la cit collaborated on a transfer agreement to accelerate the process of obtaining a bachelor of business administration for graduates of ontarios two francophone colleges. luniversit laurentienne, le collge boral et la cit ont collabor une entente darrimage acclrant lobtention dun baccalaurat en administration des affaires pour les diplms des deux collges francophones de la province. as of september 2016, graduates of the twoyear business administration programs (techniques en administrations des affaires) at collge boral and la cit will benefit from a practical 2+2 model allowing them to earn a bachelor of business administration (baccalaurat en administration des affaires) from laurentian university. according to the agreement, college graduates will need to complete the equivalent of two years of university studies as well as a statistics course to earn the degree. this transfer credit recognition in business is without precedent in the francophone community and among the most beneficial in ontario. ds septembre 2016, les diplms des programmes de deux ans en techniques en administration des affaires du collge boral et de la cit bnficieront dun modle avantageux de type 2 + 2 permettant dacqurir un baccalaurat en administration des affaires (b.a.a.) de luniversit laurentienne. selon cette entente, les diplms collgiaux nauront qu complter lquivalent de deux ans dtudes universitaires ainsi quun cours de statistique afin dobtenir leur diplme. cette reconnaissance est sans prcdent au sein de la communaut francophone dans le domaine de ladministration et figure parmi les plus profitables en ontario. students of collge boral and la cit who wish to pursue their studies through laurentian universitys faculty of management will also have the option to take their courses in french on campus or at a distance through a blended model. this added flexibility may allow them to enter the job market while completing their studies and pursuing their professional activities. furthermore, by combining a college diploma and a bachelors degree, these students will have a competitive advantage in the job market as well as access to several professional designations requiring a four-year degree. les tudiants du collge boral et de la cit dsireux de poursuivre leurs tudes la facult de gestion de luniversit laurentienne pourront galement accder leurs cours en franais soit sur campus ou distance selon un modle hybride. cette flexibilit permettra ceux qui dsirent entrer dans le monde du travail de complter leur formation distance tout en poursuivant leurs activits professionnelles. il va sans dire que la combinaison dun diplme collgial et dun baccalaurat fournira ces tudiants un avantage concurrentiel sur le march du travail et laccs plusieurs dsignations professionnelles qui exigent un baccalaurat. 2 a few words from our institutional leaders quelques mots de nos chefs institutionnels this agreement was implemented by laurentian university, collge boral and la cit and fits within their willingness to further progress the postsecondary education continuum in french on a provincial scale. as the first bilingual university designated under the french-language services act, laurentian also aims to recognize the quality of french-language training programs offered by the colleges and increase the francophone gateways to university studies for the benefit of students. mise sur pied par luniversit laurentienne, le collge boral et la cit, cette entente sinscrit dans une volont assume de faire progresser le continuum dtudes postsecondaire en franais, lchelle de lontario. en tant que premire universit bilingue dsigne en vertu de la loi sur les services en franais, la laurentienne veut reconnatre la qualit des programmes de formation en franais offerts au niveau collgial et augmenter les passerelles francophones menant au niveau universitaire pour le bnfice des tudiants. dominic giroux, president and vice-chancelor of laurentian university thanks to this new articulation agreement, collge boral and its partners will continue to collaborate closely at the provincial level to offer more flexibility to francophone students throughout ontario striving to reach their career goals. for collge boral, la cit and laurentian university, this initiative reflects a joint desire to work together within a concerted strategy that puts their students first. pierre riopel, president of collge boral dominic giroux, recteur et vice-chancelier de luniversit laurentienne par cette nouvelle entente darticulation, le collge boral et ses partenaires poursuivent une collaboration troite lchelle de la province afin doffrir aux tudiantes et tudiants francophones de tout lontario davantage de flexibilit dans latteinte et la ralisation de leurs objectifs de carrire. cette initiative tmoigne dune volont conjointe quont le collge boral, la cit et luniversit laurentienne de travailler ensemble dans le cadre dune stratgie concerte plaant ces tudiantes et tudiants au premier plan. pierre riopel, prsident du collge boral this new agreement stems from an innovative and strengthened collaboration and reflects a willingness shared by our three institutions to offer the very best training options to our students while further responding to the current and future realities of the job market. lise bourgeois, president of la cit cette nouvelle entente, une collaboration innovante et renforce, tmoigne dune volont commune entre nos trois tablissements doffrir nos tudiants et tudiantes ce quil y a de mieux comme options de formation tout en rpondant davantage aux ralits actuelles et futures du march de lemploi. lise bourgeois, prsidente de la cit 3 contents introduction.................................................................................................................................................... 5 transfer pathway .......................................................................................................................................... 5 initial analysis ............................................................................................................................................ 5 gap analysis of learning outcomes ......................................................................................................... 5 admission criteria ..................................................................................................................................... 6 curriculum requirements and pathway .................................................................................................... 6 delivery model .............................................................................................................................................. 6 learning outcomes ....................................................................................................................................... 7 best practices and lessons learned ........................................................................................................... 7 implementation and future developments ................................................................................................... 8 appendix a: transfer pathway...................................................................................................................... 9 appendix b: learning outcomes ................................................................................................................ 10 4 introduction a four-year university degree is a requirement for many professions in management such as accounting and human resources. according to anecdotal evidence, one third of graduates in business administration from collge boral and la cit wish to pursue university studies. this demonstrates an interest on the part of college students for undergraduate studies and a need for transfer pathways to facilitate student mobility. with very few educational opportunities available for francophone college graduates of business programs, laurentian university, collge boral and la cit collaborated on the development of a transfer pathway. with a students first philosophy, the three institutions produced a 2+2 degree pathway for graduates of the two-year programs in techniques en administration des affaires (business administration) of collge boral and la cit towards the baccalaurat en administration des affaires (bachelor of business administration (bba)) of laurentian university. transfer pathway initial analysis the development of the transfer pathway began with an initial analysis of transferability. based on this analysis, it was determined that a transfer pathway to the four-year bba degree was preferable to the 1 originally proposed honours bachelor of commerce (h.b.com.). both degrees require 120 credits . as the bba had less business course requirements than the h.b.com., it was deemed more advantageous for prospective transfer students. gap analysis of learning outcomes an in-depth review of the curriculum of both college programs was undertaken by seven subject matter experts from the faculty of management at laurentian university. they analyzed the potential gaps between the expected learning outcomes of the college and university programs. the subject matter experts noted the high quality and standards of the curriculum taught at collge boral and la cit. based on the analysis, 57 transfer credits out of a possible 60 were recognized from the two-year college programs towards the bba degree. the one area that demonstrated significant differences in the expected learning outcomes was business statistics. the compulsory college courses in this area covered approximately 50% of the required subject matter. since business statistics is a fundamental course and a prerequisite for many other courses within the bba program, it was deemed critical for students to undertake further studies in this area. in fact, the faculty of management at laurentian university had noted that academic success in statistics tends to lead to overall achievement in the program. for these reasons, transfer students will be required to complete a university course in business statistics. students at la cit that complete the statistics course 11325 qua will be eligible to receive a transfer credit for the bba degrees statistics requirement. as a result of the analysis, la cit revised this course slightly to align it better with the learning outcomes of the business statistics course at laurentian university. the subject matter experts also noticed several minor gaps during their analysis. many of these gaps are being addressed in a new course designed to provide learners with additional foundations in management (comm 1086 fondements complmentaires en gestion). this required course was 1 the credit scale at laurentian university is 3 and 6 credits. 5 developed specifically for transfer students in order to help them transition to university studies, further expose them to quantitative subjects and expose them to different learning methods used in management such as the case study method. admission criteria following discussions among administrators from laurentian university, collge boral and la cit, the following admission criteria to benefit from the degree pathway were established: ontario college diploma o collge boral: techniques en administration des affaires (2 years) or commerce (2 years) o la cit: techniques en administration des affaires (2 years) 70% average if the above conditions are met, students are eligible to receive 57 transfer credits towards the bba degree. curriculum requirements and pathway the pathway requires students to complete 63 university credits to obtain a bba degree from laurentian university. out of this number, 33 credits are required courses in business administration: comm 1056 f statistique de lactivit conomique comm 1057 f introduction la science de la gestion comm 1086 f fondements complmentaires en gestion comm 2016 f comptabilit et contrle de la gestion i comm 2017 f comptabilit et contrle de la gestion ii comm 2027 f gestion financire ii comm 2037 f gestion stratgique du marketing mix comm 2046 f gestion du comportement organisationnel comm 2056 f gestion des oprations i comm 4006 f gestion stratgique des organisations i : formulation comm 4007 f gestion stratgique des organisations ii : mise en oeuvre the remaining credits are electives. this pathway is equivalent to two years of university studies as well as a business statistics course. the pathway is simplified in appendix a. delivery model collge boral and la cit offer their two-year business administration programs in various locations in ontario. the college graduates who wish to pursue their studies at laurentian university will have the option to take their courses in french on campus in sudbury or at a distance through a blended model. the blended model, sometimes referred to as hybrid, combines asynchronous online learning with synchronous web conferences for the required courses in management. this will make the bba program more accessible to francophone students throughout the province. furthermore, the flexibility of the model may allow students to enter the job market while completing their degree studies and pursuing their professional activities. 6 during the project, laurentian university undertook the development and revision of a total of 19 blended courses to make this transfer pathway accessible to students. every course required the involvement of a development team including a coordinator, subject matter experts, instructional designers, editors and technologists. this methodology ensured a sound pedagogical approach and quality courses. learning outcomes after completing the bba program, students will have acquired competencies in the following areas: knowledge integration and application problem solving and critical thinking ethics and corporate social responsibility global learning teamwork oral and written communication a summary of the learning outcomes can be found in appendix b. best practices and lessons learned the development of the transfer agreement yielded several lessons learned and best practices. students first approach: putting students first was a major driver and a shared value for the three collaborating organizations during the development of the transfer agreement. this emphasis helped to orient discussions and decisions for the benefit of students. common goals: when collaborating with other parties, it is important to be focused on the common goals. for this project, the main mutual goals were to facilitate the mobility of students among the three institutions and most importantly increase access to postsecondary programs in french. media coverage: the project promoted the announcement of the transfer agreement through the use of free publicity such as a press conference, press releases and interviews to successfully obtain media coverage in print, online, radio and television. classroom presentations: the project presented the transfer agreement directly to students during classes. this provides a captive audience. it is important not only to focus on the graduating students but also those in their first year of studies to plant the idea for the future. information for instructors and staff: instructors and staff members at the sending and receiving institutions should be informed of the transfer agreement to help guide students. transfer pathway figure: clearly demonstrating the pathway in a simplified figure helps prospective students understand the requirements. supporters: it is very valuable to have key supporters within the organizations who will champion the cause along the way. alignment of learning outcomes: strong communication between the sending and receiving institutions regarding program learning outcomes is critical, especially when considering curriculum changes. a concerted effort should be made to align the learning outcomes to facilitate current and future transfer opportunities. 7 implementation and future developments the transfer pathway agreement was approved by the senate of laurentian university on october 20, 2015 and subsequently signed by the three postsecondary institutions on november 5, 2016. laurentian university will welcome graduates from collge boral and la cit under this transfer pathway starting in september 2016. the three organizations have started to promote the transfer agreement to students, administrators and instructors at the colleges. laurentian university is committed to the ongoing revisions of the blended courses and the development of additional courses in the future. this transfer pathway sets the stage to collaborate with other postsecondary institutions on additional articulation agreements. as a result of the public announcement of the new agreement with laurentian university, collge boral and la cit, all three institutions have received inquiries from other colleges about the transfer pathway. laurentian university plans to pursue these discussions. the province wide agreement that grants recognition for business diploma program transfers should greatly facilitate these discussions. another point that warrants further development is the significant difference in the expected learning outcomes. the major gap identified during the curriculum review was in the area of statistics. the three postsecondary institutions hope to bring together faculty members at the college and university levels to discuss the gaps and the possibility of making changes to the curriculum in the future. laurentian university would also like to explore a model pathway for the bba program at laurentian university to the new human resources program of collge boral. 8 appendix a: transfer pathway the following figure illustrates the transfer pathway. 9 appendix b: learning outcomes the following table summarizes the learning outcomes for the bba program of laurentian university. competency learning goal learning objectives knowledge integration and application to relate the implications and value what diverse learning opportunities bring to real world scenarios by integrating learning from a variety of contexts and disciplines covering personal interests and abilities, general education, degree program courses, and co-curricular activities. our students will connect personal experiences and academic knowledge to address complex unscripted real world problems. draw on diverse knowledge areas and modes of inquiry to benefit from multiple perspectives in identifying and choosing among multiple solutions to complex problems. adapt skills, abilities, theories, and methodologies gained in classroom situations and easily transfer them to new situations whether in the classroom or in the field. describe their personal development as learners, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts through self-assessment, reflective, or creative work. problem solving/critical thinking to demonstrate understanding of solving problems by defining the problem; developing a plan to solve the problem, collecting and analyzing information about the problem and solving the problem. our students will demonstrate the ability to define a problem. be able to identify strategies that can solve a defined problem. propose effective problem solutions or hypotheses. be able to evaluate potential problem solutions. be able to formulate solution implementation plans. ethics and corporate social responsibility to develop the knowledge and skills needed to exercise ethical leadership and decision-making as a foundation for business practices that respect and promote corporate social responsibility (csr). our students will easily articulate their core ethical and csr beliefs with depth and clarity. name and accurately explain the details of the ethical and csr theory or theories applied to a problem situation. recognize ethical and csr issues when presented in a complex, multilayered business management context and perceive the cross-relationships among the issues. independently and accurately apply ethical and csr perspectives/concepts to business management situations and will consider the full implications of the application. global learning to analyze and explore complex global challenges, collaborate our students will global self-awareness: rely on a mature, 10 respectfully with diverse others, apply learning to take responsible action in contemporary global contexts, and evaluate the goals, methods, and consequences of that action. integrated personal identity enriched by a systemic understanding of the interrelationships among the self, local and global communities, and the natural and physical world, and the integrated economic systems of the global business environment. perspective taking: understand the interrelationships between multiple perspectives, such as personal, social, cultural, disciplinary, environmental, local, and global. cultural diversity: learn respectfully about the cultural diversity of other people and how to bridge differences in collaboratively reaching common goals. personal and social responsibility: recognize their responsibilities to society-locally, nationally, and globally--and develop a perspective on ethical and power relations both across the globe and within individual societies by developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning and action. global systems: integrate how complex and overlapping worldwide systems, including those associated with the natural world and those developed by society influence how life is lived, how these systems are influenced and/or constructed, how they operate with differential consequences, how they affect the human and natural world, and how they can be altered. knowledge application: apply an integrated and systemic understanding of the interrelationships between contemporary and past challenges facing cultures, societies, and the natural world (i.e., contexts) on the local and global levels, through knowledge and skills gained from real-life problem-solving. teamwork to engage, synthesize and build upon the contributions of others to advance a common goal. our students will actively contribute to the team meeting. always have a positive attitude about the tasks. actively look for solutions to problems. consistently focus on what needs to be done. be working with others. oral communication to prepare and deliver purposeful presentations designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners attitudes, our students will organize content into a cohesive presentation employ imaginative, memorable, compelling and audience-appropriate language to 11 values, beliefs, or behaviours. written communication to develop and express ideas in writing by learning to work in genres and styles appropriate to business and management communication, using related technologies and integrating texts, data and images. enhance presentation effectiveness. understand how delivery techniques such as posture, gesture, eye contact, and vocal expressiveness influence audience perceptions of the presentation and speaker. include a variety supporting materials in their presentations, referring appropriately to information or analysis that significantly supports the presentation or establishes the presenter's credibility/authority on the topic. deliver a compelling central message in their presentations. our students will draft professional business-quality written documents that respond to the needs of a business audience. demonstrate subject mastery in their choice of content. apply formal and informal rules inherent in business writing. use credible, relevant business sources to develop their written ideas and arguments. draft written communications using graceful language that skilfully conveys precise meaning to readers with clarity and fluency, and is error-free. 12

3 executive summary studies on college to university transfer typically focus on a discrete aspect of the pathway, such as who aspires to transfer, who ultimately transfers and why, or outcomes after transfer to university. in contrast, this paper focuses on understanding the entire pathway, using the liberal arts transfer (lat) program at seneca college as a case study. senecas lat program evolved from a two-year general arts and science (gas) preparatory program launched in 1986, 1 into a joint university transfer program with york university in 1998. lat is both innovative and academically intense. students are required to take a full college course load, maintain an overall b average, and take college and university courses within the same academic year. lat graduates can potentially receive as much as two full years of credit towards a bachelor of arts degree at york. the analysis sample for this study included two populations: 1) 3,622 entrants who began the lat program at seneca in 20052012 and 2) 1,268 lat students/graduates who transferred to york university between 2002 and 2012. research questions included the following: what are the characteristics of students entering the lat program? what is the share of entrants who progress into second year and eventually graduate from lat? what share of lat entrants, including leavers and graduates, continue on to york? what are the sociodemographic and academic characteristics of those who transfer? what share of transfers graduate from york university? how do they perform at york academically? what are the sociodemographic and academic characteristics of those who are successful at york after transfer? method six datasets were linked to create a student-level dataset that includes the following variables: high school performance, neighbourhood income (using 2006 census data), aspirations for transfer, previous education, english-language proficiency, demographics, and seneca and york academic outcomes including grades, completion, withdrawal, transfer, and graduation. regression models (ols) were run to control for the independent effects of each variable, and multiple models were run with various subgroups. results progression to graduation from lat by the end of year two, 34% of all lat entrants had switched to another seneca program, 45% had left seneca without graduating, 10% had graduated from lat, and 11% were still enrolled in lat. by the end of year four, 15.2% of the entering cohort had graduated from lat. in 2008, the gas program was re-named the liberal arts transfer (lat) diploma program to better reflect the programs content and role as a pathway to a degree in the humanities and liberal arts. seneca entered into a joint agreement with university of toronto in 2008. this study, however, focuses on the seneca to york transfer pathway. 1 4 higher grades in high school (particularly in university preparatory courses) and college-level english at entry were important influencers on whether a student stayed on track in first year and completed the lat program on time. propensity to transfer to york university of the york stream entrants, 64% were under the age of 20, and 48% were male. eighty-nine percent were canadian citizens, with 73% reporting english as their first language. in terms of socioeconomic status, 71% did not have a parent with a university degree, and 24% came from lower income neighbourhoods, defined as the bottom tercile of the ontario population. over two- thirds of entrants took mostly university preparatory courses in high school, however 76% had averages under 70%. only 7% of the 20022010 york stream entrants had high school grades and courses required for university entrance in ontario, yet 82% had plans for university after graduation from college. many of these lat cohorts continued to struggle academically at college. over one-half left seneca without a seneca credential or without transferring to york. of those who graduated from lat, 61% transferred to york. more than one-quarter (26%) of entrants transferred to york by 2012, but less than half (12%) graduated from lat before transfer. nearly onequarter of lat entrants (23%) graduated from seneca, but did not transfer to york by 2012. academic performance in high school and at seneca (lat), english-language proficiency at college entry, and graduation before transfer were independent influencers on whether a student transferred to york. students who took mostly college preparation courses in high school and obtained an average of less than 70% were particularly at risk for not transferring or graduating. only 46% of those who did not both graduate from lat and transfer to york were placed in college-level english compared with 69% of those who both graduated and transferred to york. graduation from lat before transfer had a major influence on whether the student transferred, even when controlling for grades at seneca. obtaining a seneca gpa of greater than 3.0 increased the likelihood of transfer to york by over 40 percentage points, the largest influence of all variables. the influence of parental education, first language, and status in canada differed little across pathways. gender and age had little or no effect, nor did year of entry over the study duration. previous university did not affect propensity to graduate or transfer, but aspiration for university upon entry had an effect. aspiration for university was higher for both graduates and non-graduates who ultimately transferred to york, than for their non-transfer counterparts. post-transfer outcomes at york transfers who were lat graduates, non-canadian citizens, younger, and obtained good seneca grades were more likely to achieve a york gpa of 5.0 or higher, the minimum required for graduation with an honours degree from york. the transfers age did not influence their york gpa, but their neighbourhood income did. higher-income students were more likely to transfer and to attain a gpa of 5.0, but not more likely to graduate. compared to lat students who transferred without graduating from the program, those who graduated before transfer were more successful at yorkthey had more transfer credit and were stronger academically. there was a clear relationship between grades at seneca and performance at york, irrespective of graduation or articulation status at seneca. only half of transfers to york who had a seneca gpa of below 3.0 (70%) graduated, compared with the 70% of transfers with a gpa of 3.0 and above. graduates 5 of the articulated lat stream were the most likely to graduate from york (76%). they had the highest graduation rates and grades, took less time to complete, and were more likely to complete a four-year than a three-year degree program. graduates of the articulated stream who withdrew had a higher york average, at 66%, compared with 53% and 56% for lat non-graduates and lat non-articulated stream graduates respectively. more than half of those who transferred without completing lat ultimately withdrew from york. no clear relationship between high school grades and success after transfer could be established. likewise, a students first language and english-language placement at college entry were unrelated to their academic success at york. conclusions & recommendations students need comprehensive academic supports to ensure success in lat, from college entry through to university graduation. only about 16% of lat entrants ultimately graduated from york. seneca and york need to inform prospective students of lats intense academic requirements for completion, transfer, and graduation from york. current admission standards for lat are minimal, requiring only an ossd and grade 12 english. more than three-quarters of lat entrants had a high school average of less than 70% and nearly half did not place in college-level english. over half of transfers had a seneca gpa of less than 3.0, and half of those ultimately withdrew from york. the results of this study, however, also showed that some students performed well academically despite weak high school backgrounds. once they transferred, their high school performance was no longer a good indicator of how well they would perform at university, whereas their college grades were. the regression models showed an independent effect on graduating even when controlling for academic or sociodemographic factors, which likely related to a high level of student resilience or determination to finish a credential despite struggling academically. any review of admission standards will need to provide open access, allowing students who struggled in high school or performed poorly in a previous post-secondary program, to pursue a viable pathway to university. about half (51%) of the entering class did not graduate from seneca with any credential, and did not transfer to york. of those who did transfer, 20% did not graduate from lat or from york within the timeframe of the study. students need to have other credential options, such as an alternate diploma or degree pathway at seneca or other colleges.

executive summary: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion project: 2015-34: student redirect initiatives between fleming college and trent university submitted by: joe muldoon, project lead on august 19, 2016 authors: joe muldoon (trent university, project lead) hailey wright (trent university, co-lead coordinator), david adam baker (fleming college, co-lead coordinator executive summary in june 2015, trent university and fleming college began discussions regarding the existing general arts & science university transfer stream and the potential opportunity to expand it into the science and business disciplines. the goal of the pathway is to facilitate second-year entry into strategic bachelor of science majors and the bachelor of business administration programs, in addition to the existing bachelor of arts second-year entry and limited transferability into the bachelor of science degrees. moreover, both agreed to expand the pathway entry points from traditional fleming recruitment and admission processes and trents redirect upon application processes to include a trent redirect of students facing suspension from the university. the project secured funding in october 2015. from november 2015 to august 2016 new courses were developed by fleming and courses granted equivalency by trent. courses developed include: preparatory calculus, calculus i (60 hrs.), calculus ii (60 hrs.), biology i (60 hrs.), biology ii (60 hrs.), and introduction to management. all developed courses have received full equivalency approvals. trent and fleming are committed to a successful program launch and both institutions will continue to support student success through enhanced pathway opportunities.

executive summary lakehead university proposal diploma/ degree pathway: honours bachelors in outdoor recreation (hbor) oncat project 2015-22: final report the intent of this oncat funded project was to identify and develop credit transfer pathways from relevant college diplomas into the honours bachelor of outdoor recreation (hbor) program at lakehead university and to identify and develop diploma and certificate pathways for hbor graduates. the results of this project include the development/identification of: 1. nine diploma to degree block transfer agreements into the hbor degree program with four ontario colleges and one quebec college, 2. two accelerated college diplomas and one certificate for hbor graduates, and 3. a new hbor nature based therapeutic recreation degree concentration developed collaboratively by college and university staff and students, an external credentialing agency and employers in the community. the project benefited greatly from the input, efforts and expertise of many college faculty and staff at canadore college, confederation college, dawson college, georgian college and sault college. authors: andrew heppner and rhonda koster august 30, 2016

assessing determinants of academic success for college to university transfer in the diploma to degree program, woodsworth college faculty of arts and science, university of toronto cheryl shook, curtis norman, jennifer guyatt woodsworth college university of toronto march 8, 2016 1 acknowledgements this study was supported by many staff in the registrars office at woodsworth college, including dionne robles, betty lam-clarke and dr. sandra moffat. special thanks to yvette ali, associate faculty registrar, who provided assistance with data collection. thank to your our college partners at george brown college, humber college and seneca college and most of all to the diploma to degree students who participated in the program. 2 table of contents introduction and background.. 4 purpose and scope of study... 6 literature review. 7 environmental scan. 9 the facilitated transfer model (diploma to degree program).. 10 components of the diploma to degree program. 11 1. recruitment .. 11 2. admissions..12 3. transfer credit .13 4. academic advising 14 5. program choice 15 results and findings .16 role and importance of academic advising ..16 program choice.. 17 funding and finances 18 academic success . 21 first generation students 22 student motivation .. 22 gender balance .. 23 access to support services 24 student experience . 24 implications for the diploma to degree program .. 24 appendix a.. 26 works cited and consulted.. 31 3 introduction and background woodsworth college in the faculty of arts and science, university of toronto developed, with its college partners, a unique, student-success focused approach to support college to university transfer. woodsworth colleges facilitated transfer diploma to degree program began as a pilot in 2007 with seneca college and has now expanded to include george brown college and humber college. to date, 211 students have successfully transferred into degree studies. the diploma to degree program supports college to university transfer for students in a two-year, liberal arts diploma program into the faculty of arts and science with significantly enhanced transfer credits towards an honours bachelor of arts. woodsworth colleges model was developed in response to data indicating that college transfer students into the faculty of arts and science (fas) had retention and persistence rates significantly lower than other first entry undergraduates, including those admitted to the faculty of arts and science. in fact, the overall numbers of students entering degree studies after college at the university of toronto was low (see figure 1). __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the table below shows the number of students who transferred from ontario college programs from 20072011 and the number who withdrew. these figures raised the initial concerns about exploring an articulated agreement. the students who transferred into fas through the diploma to degree program during the pilot program persisted in greater numbers, supporting the facilitated transfer model. transfer student withdrawal ratios by institution, 2007-2011 registered sheridan george brown seneca humber centennial seneca woodworth facilitated transfer program all first entry undergraduates* withdrawals ratio 56 43 24 39 29 49 18 14 8 16 12 9 32.1% 32.6% 33.3% 41.0% 41.1% 18.0% 12,029 1,965 16.3% figure 1 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4 given the high withdrawal ratio of college transfers, senecas request to discuss the possibility of an articulated agreement with university of toronto raised some concerns from faculty and administrators in fas. key questions were raised: what supports would provide the best opportunity for academic success for students transferring from a two-year college program to degree studies at the u of t? how many transfer credits should the university grant upon transfer? in the faculty of arts and science, direct-entry students complete one year of study in a general admissions stream such as humanities, social sciences, life sciences, etc. if significant transfer credit was granted in this case, students would enter into second year courses having taken the prerequisite course(s) in a college program. in addition, these students would enter into specific programs of study for which they would need to meet program admission requirements. this was somewhat controversial given perceptions on college education at the time. despite the fact that college programs had evolved, there was still an institutional perception that college courses might not provide adequate preparation for university study (skolnick 2010). to address these concerns, faculty and administrators from seneca college, fas, and woodsworth college set out to develop a pilot pathway from college to university that would significantly increase transfer credit but also ensure that students would be able to enter academic programs well prepared. all students admitted to fas are also admitted to a college. woodsworth colleges experience and expertise supporting students entering university from many pathways, including the successful academic bridging program, made it the obvious gateway for college students transferring from college to an honours bachelor of arts program. 5 purpose and scope of study woodsworth college has collected data on students entering the faculty of arts and science at the university of toronto via the diploma to degree pathway since 2007. this study examines student academic success as well as the value of the facilitated model and its specific components. the study examines data associated with 385 students who participated, in any capacity, in the diploma to degree program since its inception in 2007. this includes students from the three partner colleges: george brown college, humber college and seneca college. the study is not limited to students who have successfully made the transition to university studies, but rather any student who attempted to make this transition through the diploma to degree pathway. for the purposes of this study, several existing data sources were consulted, including student academic records financial aid records academic advising notes in addition, the study highlights perspectives gained from interviewing staff at woodsworth college. also, all previous participants in the program were invited to participate in an anonymous survey and a subsequent interview. the survey questions focused on five key areas: demographics including parental educational attainment motivation and post-secondary goals financial need and work habits access of support resources at the college and university level positive interactions in the post-secondary environment 6 the survey was sent via email to all previous participants of the program at their university of toronto institutional email address. this resulted in a response rate just under 10%. this group of students was also invited to participate in a short interview to expand on the data covered by the survey. however, few individuals responded to this request. the interview data has been excluded from this study as there was not enough data to be included effectively. given the relatively small number of participants in the program up until this point, and the difficulty in contacting individuals who no longer have a relationship with the university of torontodue to graduation, withdrawal, etc.the resulting survey data set is quite small. for this reason, this study examines the intersection of the various data sets to draw conclusions on effective student support for college to university transfer students. literature review student success in college to university transfer in ontario in the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the literature exploring issues and trends in post-secondary education within ontario related to student mobility and academic success in college to university transfer. in part, this is a result of the support for research and data collection by the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) founded in 2005 and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) established in 2011. the heqco sponsored study, the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education: an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey (decok, mccloy, liu, & hu, 2011) is comprehensive and provides data to help those working with students to assess and compare the success of articulated agreements and pathways. this analysis and research is especially valuable as it draws upon information provided by students. students transferring from college to university value their college education. the majority are choosing a pathway from college to university prior to entering a college program. 7 in 2013, oncat released a summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research. participating universities provided information on the demographics of transfer students and measured their success in comparison with students entering university directly from high school (brown 2012; drewes, et. al. 2012; fisher, et. al.2012; stewart & martinello 2012; gerhardt, et. al. 2012). as the summary notes, results are not consistent for many reasons (programs, populations, geographic areas) but the overview and findings are valuable for highlighting some of the challenges students face in transferring from college to university. there are clearly opportunities for collaboration and sharing information on how best to support students. research on when and why students transfer (lang 2008; lennon, zhao, wang & gluszynski 2011; lang &lopes 2014) informs how we communicate with students about options and opportunities. this research is helpful for established pathways in strategic planning for recruitment, advising, and supporting students in transitioning from college to university. analyzing the demographics of participants tells us who transfers from college to university, renewing interest in access and identifying barriers to participation (finnie, mueller, sweetman & usher 2010; anisef, brown, & robson 2013; doran, ferguson, khan, ryu, naimool, hanson, & childs 2015; medovarksi, sanders, & visano 2015). despite support and targeted recruitment strategies, the literature points to continued challenges of recruiting and supporting underrepresented groups (stonefish, craig & oneil 2015). however, the literature also suggests that clearly defined pathways for college to university transfer are making pse more accessible for students (kerr, et.al. 2010). with increased access, there is a focus on best practices for supporting transition, developing learning outcomes and supporting student learning in general (carter, coyle & leslie 2001; acai & newton 2015). research exploring the effectiveness of institutional partnerships, specifically articulated agreements between colleges and universities (skolnick 2001; boggs & trick 2009) are important as we begin to review, enhance and expand existing pathways. 8 environmental scan every university in ontario admits college transfer students. most institutions will consider applicants who have completed at least one year of a diploma program. almost all institutions require the equivalent of a b average regardless of whether an applicant has completed 1, 2 or 3 years of a diploma or a certificate program. most universities provide information on what an applicant can expect with respect to transfer credit but there is no consistency. some indicate a maximum that can be awarded based on years completed in a college diploma program while others provide a range (3.0 to 5.0 credits awarded). some grant transfer credit for 1 year of study at college, others do not. a number of institutions advise applicants that transfer credit will be assessed on a case-by-case basis or will be determined at some point during the admission process. since universities have different grade point scales and credit values for courses, admission requirements and transfer credits awarded are not always comparable across institutions. students search for information about college and university programs on websites (decok et. al. 2011). all ontario universities provide information on admission for college transfer students on their sites. details about admission requirements, the application process, deadlines, transfer credits and contact information are available. however, information on cost, funding available, academic advising and supports are often elsewhere on the website and often targeted for the overall population or for students coming directly from high school. most information presented deals with the administrative process and less about the academic opportunities. in contrast, there are a few universities that speak directly to transfer students. noteworthy is brock universitys comprehensive guide for college transfer students and carleton universitys opportunities for college and university transfer students viewbook. each publication provides detailed information about transfer credit, specific pathways and tailored services and supports aimed directly at transfer students. 9 a number of universities have participated in studies measuring the success of college transfer students at their institutions and the results indicate that more are transferring especially into programs where a clear and delineated pathways are available (oncat 2013; decock et. al. 2011). the facilitated transfer program model (diploma to degree program) the facilitated transfer model was conceived as a series of academic, administrative, and financial supports that would alleviate or reduce the barriers and obstacles college diploma students might face in transferring to degree studies at the university of toronto. in addition, once admitted to fas, this facilitation would extend to degree completion to increase the opportunity for academic success. in this case, facilitation meant that dedicated staff would engage with diploma to degree students at all stages of the transfer process. this means that the staff supporting students through the application and admission process continued to work with students as they developed course enrolment plans, selected appropriate academic programs and persisted to graduation. one of the most unique features of the model is the visiting student component. students are required to complete at least a 0.5 full-course equivalent (fce) in fas with a minimum grade of 60% as a non-degree visiting student to be eligible for transfer. this course can be taken at any time after the student has completed their second semester in the two-year college program if their overall average thus far is in the b range and is accompanied by a recommendation from their college program advisor. completed course(s) taken as a visiting student can be transferred back to their diploma program for credit in a dual-credit model. students are eligible for bursary funding for the fas course and are given access to all of the facilities and services on the university of toronto campus. the purpose of this component is to give students an opportunity to have a 10 university experience and make an informed decision about whether transfer is the right decision. components of the diploma to degree program in reviewing the literature and consulting with those doing research in the area, staff developed the diploma to degree program while considering various perspectives, including recruitment; admissions, academic advising; transfer credit assessment; financial aid & advising; transition & student support services; program choice; and academic success. 1. recruitment historically, the faculty of arts and sciences recruitment strategy did not include efforts targeted at college transfer students. seneca college, however, saw an articulation agreement with the university of toronto as part of a strategy to recruit to their liberal arts diploma program. research suggests college students recognize the value added of a program that offers a pathway to degree studies (lang 2008). for seneca, a partnership with the university had the potential to enhance international recruitment, providing a pathway that would help build academic skills, including language skills. moreover, international students interested in pursuing degree studies at the university of toronto but were not directly admissible might be recruited to the diploma to degree program. both institutions recognize that colleges often recruit students from different applicant pools than universities (lang 2008). thus, it was appropriate and effective to give seneca (and later george brown and humber) responsibility for marketing and recruitment to their diploma programs, highlighting the opportunity to transfer to degree studies at the university of toronto. consultation and review of published material was coordinated to ensure information was clear, accurate, and encouraging. as part of the agreement, teams of fas advisors meet with students at their home college. the purpose of the college visits is to provide early academic advising to help students 11 determine if pursuing a degree at the university of toronto in the faculty of arts and science is the best fit (medovarski et. al. 2015). a general overview of the program is given to the group, including a detailed description of transfer credits. an opportunity for students to chat individually with an advisor is also offered. faculty at the colleges have noted that students appreciate the fact that the university comes to them. speaking to an advisor early is helpful, especially for those students with previous post-secondary experience, those with international status and/or students with disabilities. the opportunity for students to interact with an academic advisor rather than an admissions or recruitment staff was a key element of the programs development. the difference between contact with a recruitment officer and an academic advisor is depth of information pertaining to the academic opportunities that connect to an individual students goals, experiences and skills. students with unique or complex issues have an opportunity to work through these by connecting with someone who can provide comprehensive information about pathways to achieve academic goals. 2. admissions one of the barriers for students transferring from college to university is managing the bureaucracy and administration. this can be especially daunting for students who are the first in their family to attend post-secondary studies or students with disabilities (finnie et. al. 2010; kerr, et. al. 2010; drotos 2011; stewart, et. al. 2012; opidee 2015). this is especially true with respect to the university of toronto where students face a myriad of options, including admission stream, program, campus and college choices. woodsworths experience with students entering fas via multiple pathways indicates that a less bureaucratic, supportive and streamlined admission process can help reduce stress amid the various administrative challenges. 12 building upon woodsworth colleges existing, internal admission processes and with support from the ontario council on articulation and transfer, woodsworth developed an online application system for college students in our diploma to degree programs. staff work with college partners to facilitate receipt of transcripts and academic records. as part of the articulated agreements, application fees are waived, removing yet another administrative step and possible barrier in the admission process. as mentioned, the dedicated staff person responsible for the admission process is also the primary academic advisor for diploma to degree students. as a result, the applicants know exactly who to contact if they encounter difficulties or have questions about their application. the faculty and staff at the colleges also know who they can contact if questions or concerns arise at their end. information gathered and shared during the admissions process helps connects students to appropriate supports earlier and more effectively. 3. transfer credit increasing the number of transfer credits for college transfer students into fas was at the heart of the articulated agreements. fas went from awarding a maximum of 2.0 fces to a maximum of 6.0 plus any retained courses taken as a visiting student as part of the articulated agreement. courses completed at another university can also be assessed for credit. in discussions with faculty and students, it became clear that the two-year diploma programs were greater than the sum of their parts. in college programs, students work closely with instructors and each other. content courses are complimented by skills development courses, better preparing students to make the transition into university level work. while the fas does not grant credit for skills-based courses, it recognizes their value. thus, students who successfully complete a two-year diploma program as part of the articulated agreement are considered to have met the english facility requirements which normally require an applicant to have successfully completed four years or more of study in a country 13 where the dominant language is english. in addition, the combination of transfer credits awarded fulfill the breadth requirements necessary for an undergraduate degree, leaving students free to take courses necessary for completion of their program of study. on average, diploma to degree students complete 1.0 fce prior to transferring into degree studies. a fair number do the minimum required (0.5 fce) while some do as many as 5.0, significantly reducing the time it takes to complete an undergraduate degree. as part of the articulated agreements, specific transfer credits are pre-approved and this information is available to students on the program website. the programs across the three colleges are all different and available transfer credits vary. since students need to transfer into specific programs within fas, having more specified credits rather than general or block transfer credits is preferred. this is, in fact, why there are multiple bilateral agreements the number of transfer credits is consistent but the specific courses vary. 4. academic advising the facilitated model provides academic advice as early as the first semester of a two-year diploma program. the on-site advising sessions highlighted that many college students were either undecided about what to study at university and/or were making inappropriate choices given their academic background. many college students in a liberal arts diploma program indicated an interest in studying commerce or life sciences but few had the necessary required high school courses to pursue such programs. their college programs also did not offer courses in these areas. as a result, advising usually focuses on identifying interests, usually with reference to students successes in specific courses in their college program. early academic advising addresses short-term and long-term academic goals as well as financial planning. 14 5. program choice students transferring into degree studies can choose from what seems like an endless combination of specialists (10 to 14 courses), majors (6 to 8 courses) and minors (4 courses) to satisfy degree requirements. the advantage of choice for students is that their final transcript can be truly reflective of multiple academic interests and strengths. the challenge is the choice itself. in the development of the diploma to degree program, there was concern that transfer students from college would be disadvantaged with respect to program choice or that they would need to take many more courses in order to satisfy program requirements and incur additional cost and time to degree completion. 6. financial aid and advising financial concerns are often cited as one of the challenges for students in pse, especially those from underrepresented groups (finnie, et. al. 2010, 2008). students are advised that there is a cost savings given that college tuition is considerably less than tuition at university. diploma to degree students are encouraged to meet with a financial advisor to prepare a budget, discuss the value and challenges of part-time employment, and to review financial resources that can be accessed. bursary funding is available when taking university courses as a visiting student. 15 results and findings role and importance of academic advising the survey specifically asked students to answer questions about academic advising. just over 60% of respondents indicated that they had accessed academic advising while in college. this compares with just over 70% who indicated that they accessed academic advising while at university. just over 30% of the respondents indicated that they met with an advisor only when necessary. the highest percentage (45.5%) indicated they met with an advisor a few times (appendix a). to understand the role and effectiveness of academic advising we reviewed advising notes and interviewed the primary academic advisor for the diploma to degree programs. the advisor identified the following transition challenges: program selection and timetable planning students in liberal arts or general arts and science college programs are usually required to study full-time and most courses are required. there are limited options for electives. upon transferring into degree studies, students are often overwhelmed by choice. t the flexibility of university, including building a timetable, choosing appropriate courses to keep program options open, and even course load is often daunting without advising support. managing increased pressure and workload; time management after transferring, students describe feeling more anxiety in university and note an increase in workload. many discover that they cannot work as many hours and as a result, express concerns about finances. the additional pressures often trigger or exacerbate health issues that need to be addressed. 16 students entering university via non-tradition pathways may have done so because they faced challenges such as a learning disability, chronic health problem or other personal difficulties. it is not unusual for the diploma to degree program to be considered an option for students who have tried university and failed or who did not do as well as they might have in high school. for some students, the diploma to degree program can be a second chance for a degree. the academic advisor connects with students numerous times during their time as a visiting student and when they transfer into degree studies. advising with this group is much more deliberate than with other populations. connections are one-on-one, by email and by phone. except for the on-site visits, diploma to degree students usually need individual advising. information about choosing programs that is given to the overall fas population needs to be more explicit for the diploma to degree population in general because some programs are limited, depend on specific prerequisites and level of performance. contact with the departments sponsoring some programs is often necessary to determine eligibility and/or to advocate on a students behalf. throughout the academic session, the academic advisor checks-in with students, keeping the lines of communication open and monitoring student progress. program choice the data to date shows that college transfers are choosing program combinations similar to those of the overall fas student population. figure 2 shows the program combinations for students graduating with an hba in june 2015 in the faculty of arts and science, st. george campus alongside the program combination for 155 students who have completed or are completing a degree via the diploma to degree pathway. for fas the percentage of combinations has been relatively steady over the past few years. 17 figure 2 an undergraduate degree is comprised of 20.0 credits. the average number of credits at the time of graduation for the general fas population is 20.5. the average number of credits at the time of graduation for the diploma to degree population is 20.8 (this includes the transfer credits awarded). in other words, students transferring from college are not taking a greater number of credits to complete their undergraduate degree than the overall population. as previously noted, the diploma to degree students take on average 3 years to complete a degree after transferring. transfer students tend to choose at least one of their programs in a subject area where they received a specified transfer credit, suggesting that the disciplines they explore at the college level and the transfer credits awarded are strong predicators of what a student is likely to study at university. thus for students transferring from seneca (our largest data pool at present), the top program choices are philosophy, english and sociology. a great many students gravitate towards multidisciplinary programs as well, including criminology and sociolegal studies, equity studies, women and gender studies, employment relations and urban studies. 18 funding and finances advising notes for students considering the diploma to degree program highlight the importance that work plays for college students. a review of the advising files indicate 43% of the students worked on average 16 hours a week while studying full-time in their college program. this study found that 65% of the survey respondents worked during their college program. most worked in retail or in the service industry and just under 30% worked just under 20 hours a week. the financial equation for college students is complicated. a significant number access osap while in college and in addition, they are often employed. when they make the transition to university, the cost of tuition increases significantly and students quickly discover that they cannot work as many hours and still do well academically. university students in general work less than students in collegediploma to degree students move from an academic culture where more than half of the students work while studying to a world where fewer than 10% of the population are employed while pursuing their degree (university of toronto nsse data, 2014). data shows that 66.5% of diploma to degree students who transferred into degree studies accessed osap. of this group, 48% get maximum osap and qualify for the university of toronto advance planning for students (utaps) which essentially provides a bursary to cover the difference between osap and demonstrated need. in addition, there is bursary funding available from woodsworth college. figure 4 below identifies the funding sources for diploma to degree students. 19 figure 4 in 2013-14, 46% of the students registered in fas received osap. the data collected thus far shows that 66.5% of the diploma to degree students receive osap, indicating that this population has significantly greater financial need that the fas population. a recent study by alexander bowman and mesmin destin (2015) provides a conceptual framework for examining how an institution can best support students from low socioeconomic status (ses). the study uses the descriptors warm and chilly to describe how students feel about how their educational institution supports socioeconomic diversity. the study concludes that the recognition and the offer of support can have a positive impact on academic motivation and success for students with financial need. the deliberate messaging about the availability of funding for diploma to degree is one of the programs strengths. in recent years, woodsworth college has also attracted donor funding to support this group and can highlight this for students in the program. 20 figure 5 below shows the demographics of the diploma to degree receiving osap transferring into degree studies. figure 5 the majority of diploma to degree students receiving osap are between the ages of 20 and 29 and of this group, most are male. academic success a program that facilitates the academic success of students transferring from college to university can be measured in many ways. as noted above, diploma to degree students take similar combinations of programs and take on average the same number of credits to fulfill degree requirements as the general fas student population. in other words, they behave similarly to the general student population. since the potential for making poor program choices and/or of having to take additional courses is much greater without purposeful and targeted academic advising for the diploma to degree students we highlight this as an indication of student academic success. students transferring from the diploma to degree program do as well as other students academically. the average cgpa of the diploma to degree students who have graduated 21 with an hba is 2.87 in a 4.0 scale (b range). this compares well with the overall graduation class for woodsworth college in june 2015 where the average cgpa at graduation was 2.88. retention is more difficult to measure. there is no time limit for degree completion in fas at the university of toronto and students step out for many reasons, sometimes returning years later to continue their studies. in addition, students do not have to formally advise the institution they are withdrawing. to date 71.5% of the students who have transferred into degree studies have either graduated or are persisting towards their degree. the university of toronto reports a retention rate of 72.5% which is the proportion of first-time, full-time registrants of a four-year program graduating by the end of their sixth year (university of toronto performance indicators 2014). as previously noted, diploma to degree students graduate on average, 3 years after transferring from a two-year college program. first generation students when it comes to measures of success, one key indicator in the diploma to degree program has been the ability to engage students in degree studies who may not otherwise pursue university. this study found that just under 30% of student respondents mothers had completed a university degree and approximately 42% of respondents had a father who had completed degree studies. this highlights that the majority of students pursuing this pathway can be considered first-generation post-secondary students. this group has been identified as underrepresented in universities across ontario and there have been many targeted efforts to increase this groups educational attainment. the fact that the program provides another point of entry for these students is significant. student motivation amongst the survey respondents, 82% indicated that they entered their college program with the intention of transferring to degree studies. this supports the claim that this pathway provides an opportunity for colleges to recruit and attract a specific demographic of students. this also addresses the goal of broadening the spectrum of students who may access university programs. 22 interestingly, about 73% of respondents indicated that they entered the program to pursue higher education for personal interest. this supports the notion that this group of students may not enter with clear goals in mind. this makes early advising even more significant as risk of error when it comes to program and course selection is high. the fact that the data collected from student academic records indicates that students do not take longer to complete their degree and their program combination patterns are similar to direct-entry students suggests that the advising model of the program works to help students without specific academic goals at the onset make informed choices throughout their studies. approximately half of respondents indicated that they entered the diploma to degree program to pursue professional or career goals and/or to gain credentials to enter the workforce. the opportunity for advisors to identify these goals early through the high frequency of contact with students in the program contributes to students reaching their goals through the program. overall, students seem to be happy with the options presented to them as 79% of respondents felt that they were able to pursue courses that matched their initial interests in the diploma to degree pathway. gender balance in 2014, the university of toronto reported that 59% of the undergraduate population in fas was female (facts and figures 2014). in comparison, the percentage of females in the diploma to degree population is 50.8%. of those who have completed an undergraduate degree via diploma to degree pathways, 48% are female. the diploma to degree program is serving male students well, offering them a pathway to degree studies. the majority of diploma to degree students are between the ages of 20 and 29, suggesting that most have not entered their college program directly from high school. 23 access to support services notably, with the exception of personal counselling, respondents indicated that they accessed the various types of support services at the university in greater numbers than they did at the college level. in particular, more than twice the number of students sought support from a learning skills strategist while in university. this is significant as this is one of the embedded services woodsworth college offers to students in-house. student experience respondents to the survey indicated that they had more positive interactions with professors and course instructors at the college level. this is an area that may be addressed through programmatic efforts such as opportunities for students to develop skills they can use when communicating with their instructors. this result is unsurprising, given the differences of size and structure in the university and college environments, but this does provide an opportunity for further development of the program to address this particular student need. implications for the diploma to degree program the diploma to degree programs facilitated model provides early and deliberate academic advising to support students in making the decision to transfer to degree studies. financial advising should be comparably early, focused and deliberate to help students access all available funding. given that this population is more mature when they begin degree studies and will spend less time at university, maximizing funding as quickly as possible could enhance the students overall experience. working fewer hours could result in higher grades and better academic performance. planning early could open doors to internships (paid or unpaid) or an international experience such as summer abroad. currently, recruitment rests with college partners but profiling successful degree students on the diploma to degree site could enhance visibility of the pathways available, increasing participation. 24 the diploma to degree programs communication with students may benefit from some of the best practices of messaging to college transfers identified in the environmental scan. 25 appendix a survey protocol 1) please indicate which best describes your current status in the diploma to degree program? ________ registered in a two-year college program _________ registered in degree studies _________ currently completing a visiting student semester 2) are you the first in your family to attend college or university? yes no 3) if no, please indicate the highest level of education for your mother, father or guardian below: mother: _______ high school _______ college _______ undergraduate degree _______ graduate degree _______ other: _______________________________ father: _______ high school _______ college _______ undergraduate degree _______ graduate degree _______ other: _______________________________ 26 other guardian: _______ high school _______ college _______ undergraduate degree _______ graduate degree _______ other: _______________________________ 4) what was your initial motivation for pursuing degree studies? a. to pursue higher education for personal interest b. to meet parental or familial expectations c. to gain credentials necessary to achieve career goals d. to gain credentials necessary for graduate or professional degree programs e. other: ___________________ 5) what were the academic programs you had initially wanted to pursue when you were first interested in degree studies? 6) were you able to pursue courses that matched your initial interests? a. yes b. no 7) did you access osap or other government funding as a college student? yes no 8) have you or are you planning to access osap or other government funding while attending university? yes no 9) did you receive funding from other sources of financial assistance such as bursaries or grants? yes no 27 10) did you work while attending college? yes no if yes, how many hours per week did you work? 5 10 10 15 15 20 more than 20 hours 11) indicate the best description of the kind of work you were doing: labour (construction, landscaping, mechanical, etc.) retail (sales clerk, customer service, stock, etc.) service (food and drink, hospitality, call centre, etc.) domestic work (childcare, eldercare, housekeeping, etc.) business and financial (banking, consulting, resource industry, etc.) healthcare (medical office work, hospital staff, medical testing and/or imaging, etc.) other: 12) what do you hope to do upon completing your degree? enter the workforce pursue further education (graduate or professional program) other:_______________ 13) what services did you access in college? accessibility or disability support services career services academic advising personal counselling health services library and research services learning skills support writing or academic learning centre other: __________________________________________________ 28 14) what services did you access in university? accessibility or disability support services career services academic advising personal counselling health services library and research services learning skills support writing or academic learning centre other: __________________________________________________ 15) how often did you meet with an academic advisor at woodsworth college? a. not at all b. only when necessary c. a few times d. somewhat regularly e. frequently 16) how would you describe your interactions with professors and course instructors? a. exceptionally negative b. negative c. neutral d. positive e. exceptionally positive 17) how would you describe your interactions with woodsworth college registrars office staff? a. exceptionally negative b. negative c. neutral d. positive e. exceptionally positive 29 interview protocol 1) when did you decide that you wanted to pursue degree studies? a. before applying to college b. while completing your college program c. upon learning of the diploma to degree program during your studies 2) what factors impacted your decision to pursue degree studies? if this was not your initial goal, what caused you to consider this option? did you change your mind about pursuing degree studies at any point? 3) what were the advantages of transferring into degree studies through the diploma to degree program? 4) what were some of the disadvantages of transferring into degree studies through the diploma to degree program? what were some barriers or challenges you encountered? 5) how did you overcome or confront these challenges? 6) based on your experience, what are the primary differences between studying at a college compared to university? 7) what could the diploma to degree program do to help make the transition from college to university easier for students? 8) are there particular services that could be put in place to better support diploma to degree students? please describe. 30 works cited and consulted acai, anita., & newton, genevieve. 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(2010). students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. lang, daniel. (2008). articulation, transfer, and student choice in a binary post-secondary system. higher education: the international journal of higher education and educational planning. vol. 57. no. 3. p. 355-371. lang, daniel., & lopes, valerie. (2014). deciding to transfer: a study of college to university choice. college quarterly. vol. 17, no. 3, p. 1-18. medovarski, a., sanders, l., & spotton visano, b. (2015). is there a best fit? accessing alternative entrance pathways into an undergraduate degree for non-traditional students at york university. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. martinello, felice., & stewart, jo. (2015). transfer from college to one ontario university: a four-year outcome study. canadian journal of higher education. vol. 45, no. 1, p. 18-36. oncat. 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an analysis of caat transfer students academic performance at trent university august 2012 dr. torben drewes* karen maki** kris lew** michelle willson** kent stringham** * department of economics, trent university ** strategic enrolment management, trent university executive summary as ontarios transfer credit agenda moves forward, more empirical evidence is required on the performance of college students transferring to university programs. over the past several years, approximately 15 percent of incoming students at trent university came from colleges of applied arts and technology (caats). this report provides an assessment of their performance at trent in order to inform the larger debate about college transfers. the data refer to entrants from 200708 through 201112. in 200607, only 29 percent of ontario caat graduates who went on to pursue university studies received less transfer credit than they expected. about 84 percent were either satisfied or very satisfied with the preparation for university they received in their college program. in 2006, nipissing university found that caat entrants withdrew from studies at a higher rate (37%) than direct entry high school students (23.1%) but there was little difference between their grade point averages. york university also found that recent dropout rates were higher for caat entrants (35.2% compared to 23.9% in 2004) but did not examine gpas. at brock university, caat entrants were no less likely to withdraw from 200809 introductory courses or to receive failing grades in the first term. from the academic year 200708 through 201112, trent admitted 1,428 caat students, 5,499 high school entrants, 1,215 students from other universities and 1,242 others. of the caat students, 103 were admitted from the fleming college university transfer program designed to prepare students for university studies and a further 275 were admitted through another of the almost 50 articulation agreements trent has with colleges. caat entrants to trent are less likely to take arts programs (48%) than high school entrants (58.1%) and more likely to take science programs (28.3% compared to 23.1%). almost 34 percent of caat students at trent received no transfer credits, 42% received between 0.5 and 5.0 credits. almost 15 percent received 10 credits, which represents onehalf of the normal requirement for an honours degree at trent. caat entrants were more likely to be male than high school entrants, were appreciably older and slightly more likely to be first generation students. average grades at trent among caat students entering through articulation agreements were, on average, considerably higher than those of high school entrants (74.1% compared to 67.2%). caat transfers outside these agreements also achieved higher average grades (69.6%) but those from the fleming university transfer program (utp) were slightly lower (66.2%). when multivariate analysis is used to control for observable differences between groups that might be correlated with grades, caat articulation agreement i entrants continued to enjoy a substantial advantage over high school entrants (5.8 percentage points). differences between high school entrants and either fleming utp entrants or nonarticulation agreement entrants were not statistically significant. the dropout rates for caat entrants who entered trent outside of an articulation agreement or who have come from fleming colleges utp were not statistically different from that of high school entrants. the dropout rates for caat entrants coming to trent through an articulation agreement were substantially lower than the overall average for high school entrants, a finding largely explained by their advanced level of study upon arrival. before the results of this analysis can be used to predict the consequences of greater mobility from colleges to universities in ontario, better data is required to determine whether the performance of caat students who did come to trent can be extrapolated to those who did not. funding from the collegeuniversity consortium council is gratefully acknowledged. all opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by the cucc. correspondence regarding this paper should be addressed to dr. torben drewes, department of economics, trent university, 1600 west bank drive, peterborough, ontario, canada, k9j 7b8. email: tdrewes@trentu.ca ii table of contents i. introduction ...1 ii. literature review ...1 iii. a profile of new registrants ...4 iii.1 admissions rule for caat transfers.4 iii.2 how many? ...5 iii.3 how many came through articulation agreements? ............6 iii.4 what did they take? ....6 iii.5 how many transfer credits? ...7 iii.6 what did they look like? ..8 iv. academic performance ...9 iv.1 grades ..9 iv.2 progress toward degree completion ..13 v. conclusion ..17 appendix 1: aggregated fields of study ....19 appendix 2: multivariate analysis of grades ..20 references ..24 iii i. introduction one of the challenges in moving forward ontarios transfer credit agenda is the lack of empirical evidence to support anecdotal claims regarding community college transfer students performance in university programs. at trent university, a number of small, informal tracking studies in the past have focused on specific articulation agreements. these studies have demonstrated that students entering trent through the articulation agreements are performing as well as direct entry students in the specific programs studied. this report represents a more extensive analysis of college transfer student performance at trent university, inclusive of students entering through both articulated and nonarticulated pathways. given that students transferring from an ontario community college make up approximately 15% of incoming students at trent in a given year, we have a sufficiently large population of transfer students to produce a meaningful study. the specific research questions addressed in the report are: do college transfer students perform better than, worse than, or equal to direct entry students at trent university? do college transfer students entering through an articulation agreement perform better than college transfer students entering outside of an articulation agreement? do graduates of the fleming college university transfer program (utp) perform as well as students entering directly from high school? do community college grades predict success in university? do graduation rates and degree completion timelines vary between college transfer students and direct entry students? ii. literature review canadian evidence on student mobility between colleges and universities and the subsequent academic success of students who have moved is extremely limited.1 there are, however, several research reports that may provide context and comparison for our results. 1 . there is a body of american literature on mobility within postsecondary sectors. see, for example, nutting (2011), long and kurlaender (2008), and the national student clearinghouse research center (2012). in the american pse system, however, twoyear colleges have a mandated and critical transfer function purpose and lessons from the u.s. literature have limited relevance to the ontario system. 1 we can develop some sense of the extent of movement from colleges to universities from the results of decock et al. (2011). the graduate satisfaction survey (gss) is administered annually to graduates of ontario colleges as part of the provinces key performance indicators process. it was augmented in 200607 to include questions about reasons for pursuing further education, the amount of transfer credit received, satisfaction with the credit transfer process, and so on. since the gss is administered only 6 months after graduation, it will not capture transitions that take longer than that. also, it only surveys graduates and will therefore exclude those who leave college without graduating. nevertheless, some of the results are enlightening. among 2006 07 college graduates in ontario, 8 percent were pursuing university studies (either full time or parttime) 6 months later. another 17 percent were pursuing further college studies. those attending university were asked relative to what you expected, the amount of credit you received was . 58% said the same while another 14% said more. 29% received less credit than they expected. decock et al. examined the data to determine the types of students (gender, age, college program, etc.) most likely to continue on to universities after college. they report (p. 34): the largest percentage of students pursuing further education are under 22, began at small colleges in certificate preparatory/upgrading programs, and are enrolled fulltime; graduates from metro toronto colleges were more likely to enrol in a university degree program while graduates from the northern region were more likely to enrol in a college nondegree program; the combination of one and two year general arts and science programs constituted the highest number of college graduates attending university. the combination of business administration programs was second, and early childhood education was third; college graduates primarily attend university within the same region as the college from which they completed their studies. survey respondents continuing their studies were also asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the academic preparation for their current program in order to assess whether students perceive a gap between their college academic preparation and the needs in their new program. among college graduates continuing studies in university degree programs, 35 percent were very satisfied with their preparation and a further 49 percent were satisfied. the overall satisfaction level rises to 91 percent for graduates of preparatory programs. the extent of mobility between colleges and universities estimated by decock et al. is consistent with that found by martinello (2008) who used the first 3 cycles of the youth in transition survey for cohort b to look at student transitions between programs and 2 pse sectors. the yitsb cohort is a nationally representative sample of individuals who were 18 to 20 years old at december 31, 1999 and have been reinterviewed every 2 years, with the last interview taking place at the end of 2007 (cycle 5). the yits tracks very detailed information on programs of study for those attending pse and this program roster can be used to examine individuals moving between colleges and universities. among students whose first known program was at the bachelors level, approximately 12% wound up in a college program by the end of cycle 3. this includes both those who graduated from the bachelors program and those who proceeded to a college program without receiving the bachelors degree. a similar proportion of yitsb respondents whose first program was at the college level found their way into bachelors programs in a university. information on how well college students do once they arrive at universities is more limited and available only for selected institutions. nipissing university examined the academic success of caat transfers registering at nipissing over the period 1996 to 2006 (cucc, 2007a). three primary measures of academic success were used: completion of a degree versus withdrawal from the university, the number of failed credits as a percentage of credits attempted, and the students overall gpa. caat students were found to withdraw at a significantly higher rate (37.1 percent) compared to direct entry high school students (23.1 percent). although caat students had a higher failure rate for credits attempted (5.8 percent for caat students, 4.0 percent for high school students), there was little difference between the overall nipissing gpas of these groups. york university (cucc, 2007b) examined caat transfers over the same period, 1996 to 2006, a time period that saw caat transfers grow from 8.7 percent to 13.8 percent of all york university annual admissions. dropout rates for caat students fell significantly over the period, perhaps reflecting the growth in universitycollege collaborations that better prepare caat students for the transition to york. for example, the dropout rate measured three years after entry fell from 45 percent in 1996 to 35.2 percent in 2004. although falling, these dropout rates remain substantially higher than the rates among direct entry high school students, where the corresponding rates were 28.7 percent and 23.9 percent, respectively. similarly, although graduation rates among caat students rose over the period, they remained lower when compared to direct entry high school students. the 6 year graduation rate (i.e., the percentage who had graduated 6 years after entering) was 47.9 percent for caat students when measured in 2001 but 65.7 percent for direct entry high school students. the york study did not examine academic achievement as measured by grade point averages. brock university (stewart, 2012) analyzed course withdrawals from and grades in 2008 09 fullyear introductory courses. community college transfer students were found to achieve the same final course grades and were no more likely to withdraw from their courses or receive a failing grade in the first term when compared to students entering from high school. 3 iii. a profile of new registrants to provide context for the analysis of academic performance to follow, we first provide an overview of the students used in that analysis. iii.i admissions rules for caat transfers trents general admissions standard for caat students requires that they have completed at least one year in a canadian community college or ontario caat with a cumulative average of at least 65 percent. however, to be eligible for transfer credit consideration, the applicant must have achieved a minimum cumulative average of 70 percent. outside of articulation agreements that specify blocks of credit transfers, college applicants are considered for transfer credits on a coursebycourse basis. generally, graduates of a highly academic twoyear college program can expect to receive up to 5.0 transfer credits and graduates of threeyear programs can expect to receive up to 7.5 credits. twenty credits are required for a trent honours degree. trent has over 50 articulation agreements and memoranda of understanding with community colleges that specify required grades, transfer credits to be awarded, and degree completion requirements. eligibility for transfer credit through these agreements typically requires a minimum diploma average of 75 percent. the university performance of students entering trent through one of these agreements is of particular interest in this report. trent and sir sandford fleming college have collaborated in establishing a general arts and science university transfer program at the college. this program attracts students who have not previously considered themselves to have the potential for successful universities studies; who may have had previous unsuccessful postsecondary attempts; and those who do not meet the academic requirements for direct entry to university. trent grants four first year credits in english, philosophy, psychology, and sociology to graduates of the program who achieve an overall average of 70 percent with no individual grade of less than 65 percent in their literature, philosophy, psychology and sociology courses. some caution is required if the experience of college transfer students to trent is to be used to inform the debate about increasing the number of college students transferring to universities. if the admissions rules in place at trent have resulted in allowing only the most academically inclined college students to enter the university, the following results cannot be generalized to the rest of the college student population. without data on both college movers and stayers, we cannot determine the extent of this possible selectivity bias in our results. we can say, however, that the college grades 4 of those students admitted to trent are, on average, almost identical to the grades of all applicants. in other words, there appears to be no cherrypicking of the applications. iii.2 how many? figure 1 reports the sample sizes, years, and registration categories to be used in the analysis to follow. data are available on students applying to and registering at trent in the academic years 2007/08 to 2011/12, inclusive. the primary group of interest is, of course, students who came to trent from caats as new undergraduate students and we have no fewer than 241 observations in any year, allowing for fairly reliable and detailed analysis. the two comparator groups are students who had no prior postsecondary experience (high school students) and students transferring to trent from other universities. note that the high school group includes direct entry and delayed entry students from ontario high schools as well as students from other canadian high schools. international students are included in the analysis, although comparisons between them and caat transfers may not be particularly informative. other students are comprised of trent students whose registration has been reactivated or who have been readmitted to trent. we have excluded graduate and diploma students as well as those taking courses at trent on letters of permission. 5 iii.3 how many came through articulation agreements? trent has over 50 articulation agreements and memoranda of understanding with ontario caats. the number of caat transfers entering trent through these agreements is reported in table 1, as is the number of these transfers who entered after the ssfc university transfer program. since these students arrived at trent through initiatives undertaken to facilitate the transfer process, their performance will be of particular interest. table 1 caat transfers through articulation or university transfer programs articulation utprogram total caat total caat as % of all registrants iii.4 2007 n/a 12 262 2008 68 24 288 2009 62 19 323 2010 83 32 273 2011 62 16 255 14.8% 15.3% 16.8% 15.8% 13.3% what did they take? there are systematic differences in grades and retention across fields of study within any university. if caat transfers have patterns of enrolment across fields that are different than that of comparator groups, differences in academic achievement between the groups may be a spurious composition effect rather than an indicator of true differences in academic ability. as shown in figure 2, 48 percent of caat transfer students registered in arts programs, compared to 58 percent of high school entrants and 57 percent of transfer students from other universities.2 they were more likely than high school students to pursue studies in the sciences. this finding is not surprising, given that the majority of trent universitys articulation agreements provide pathways between high affinity science and business programs. 2 . the program of study used in figure 2 is the program initially taken by the individual upon entry to trent. definitions of programs are provided in appendix 1. registrants in bachelor of education are excluded from the analysis since the program represents a second entry program. 6 iii.5 how many transfer credits? an important reason for examining the performance of transfer students from caats to universities is addressing the question of whether their background preparation at a college is adequate for university level studies. in short, are college courses adequate substitutes for introductory university courses? this question is only interesting, however, if caat transfer students enter universities at an advanced stage. tables 2 and 3 explore how far along caat transfers are upon entry to trent. a full third of caat students transferring to trent received no credits for courses taken at college.3 a large proportion of this group includes students who have entered trent through preparatory programs in caats such as the health prep program which is recognized as equivalent to meeting high school entrance requirements for admission to the b.sc.n. as an upgrading program, it is not eligible for transfer credit consideration. further, prior to january 2011, trents transfer credit policy required applicants to have completed two years at a caat in order to be eligible for transfer credits. this policy was changed in january 2011, making students eligible for transfer credit consideration with one year of college. of the two thirds of students who received transfer credits, a quarter of them received more than the equivalent of one year of fulltime studies and almost 15 percent received 10 credits, the maximum number that trent accepts. 3 . at trent, 10 credits represent a fulltime load for two academic years. 7 table 2 credits transferred by caat registrants (all registration years pooled) number of credits transferred 0 0.5 5.0 5.5 9.5 10 total registrants proportion of registrants 33.8% 42.2 9.4 14.7 1,428 table 3 reports the average level of studies in the first year at trent by registrant type. the average level is determined as follows. first level courses (i.e., 1000 level) receive a weight of 1, second level courses a weight of 2, and so on. for each student, the average level is simply the credit weight average of these values. a student taking 5 full year equivalents of 1000 courses would have an average level of 1. a student taking 3 1000 courses and 2 2000 courses would have an average of (3 + 4)/5 = 1.4. according to table 3, and as expected, almost all students entering from high school carry only 1000 level courses. caat transfer students also tend begin their studies at trent in what would conventionally be described as first year, although the average level has been increasing significantly over the five years of data. but even in 2011, an average level of 1.5 represents an equal weighting of 1000 and 2000 level courses in the first year of studies at trent. it must be noted, however, that many caat transfer students, particularly those entering through an articulation agreement, had proceeded well into the upper year courses of their majors. the low values in table 3 may reflect lower level courses outside the major needed to meet breadth requirements in their programs of study. table 3 level of courses in initial year caat high school university transfers iii.6 2007 1.27 1.02 1.60 2008 1.37 1.02 1.79 2009 1.46 1.03 1.57 2010 1.43 1.02 1.69 2011 1.49 1.02 1.60 what did they look like? information on the personal characteristics of registrants is limited to age, gender, and selfreported first generation status (i.e., having parents without postsecondary education). given that these characteristics are correlates of academic performance it is important to understand differences in these characteristics between caat 8 registrants and the students to which they will be compared below. table 4 shows very pronounced differences in the age structures of the various categories of registrants. high school registrants fit the stereotype with an average age of less than 18 years with little variation within the group. a standard deviation of 1.4 implies that approximately 68% of individuals in this group will be between 16.2 and 19.0 years of age. caat registrants were, on average, much older and showed considerably more variability in their ages. medians may provide a more accurate measure of central tendency given the skewedness of the age distributions but, while the differences between the registrant types are somewhat muted, they remain large. caat registrants were closer to students entering from other universities in terms of age than they were to direct high school entrants. they were also less likely to be female than all other groups except international students and the most likely to be first generation students. table 4: age and gender comparisons type of registrant caat high school university transfer international continuing other mean 22.9 17.6 23.6 20.0 26.0 28.0 age std. dev. 5.9 1.4 6.8 5.2 8.3 10.1 gender median 21 17 22 18 23 25 % female 60.4% 63.2 68.7 57.3 68.7 69.2 first generation % 4.8 3.4 4.6 0.5 1.0 1.5 descriptive statistics refer to pooled data from all entry cohorts. iv. academic performance iv.1 grades the most direct and obvious measure of academic performance is the grade point average achieved by a student. our data include end of year grades for all registrants, averaged over the courses taken that year (as opposed to cumulative averages). for each individual, these term grades are averaged over the years in which the student is observed at trent, with the results reported in table 5.4 4 . results for international students and other entry types are not of particular interest and therefore are not reported in the table. 9 caat nonarticulation transfer students outperformed those entering trent from high school but achieved lower grade averages than students transferring from other universities. college students entering through articulation agreements achieved the highest mean term averages over their tenure at trent, with very significant gains over direct high school entrants.5 caat transfers from the university transfer program achieved grade averages one percentage point below the high school mean. table 5 term averages registrant type caat transfer nonarticulation caat transfer articulation caat transfer univ. transfer prog. high school university transfer average 69.6 74.1 66.2 67.2 72.6 the results of table 5 provide assurances that college students admitted to trent have largely met or exceeded the grade performance of other students. if broader lessons are to be drawn from these results, however, the analysis must be extended to try to understand the differences in table 5. we know, for example, that caat transfer students tended to be older, were more likely to be male, had different enrolment patterns at trent, and were more likely to be first generation students. in principle, it is possible that the differences reported in table 5 result from these factors and have nothing to do with a caat background (except, of course, for the fact that this background creates these patterns). to disentangle the true caat effect, we use multivariate regression which essentially controls for these factors and allows the following kind of hypothetical comparison: what was the average grade difference between caat transfers and high school entrants who were the same age, gender, first generation status, and in the same program mix at trent? unfortunately, we do not have the data required to resolve two questions of critical importance to the debate around expanding the transfer of caat students to universities: 5 to what extent can the performance of caat transfers to trent, relative to other students, be apportioned between innate academic ability and the suitability of college preparation for university studies (the nature vs. nurture issue), and are those caat students who actually transferred to trent representative of the students who would be encouraged to transfer in that expansion (the selectivity . caat transfers through the university transfer program have been excluded from this group. 10 issue). logic would suggest that caat transfers to trent are those who stood to gain the most and their academic success would be an upward biased estimate of the success of those left behind. table 6 reports the results of the multivariate regression model used to control for differences between the registrant groups that are correlated with both the type of registrant and with academic success6. the first model contains no controls and the coefficient estimates are simply differences in the raw means of grades between each reported group and high school registrants.7 i.e., the results of table 5 are reproduced by the regression, although now formal significance testing is provided. with the exception of the university transfer program students, all differences between high school entrants and others are significant. the second model (in column 2) adds the demographic variables available in the data (age, gender and first generation status). caat registrants entering trent outside articulation agreements now have only a small grade advantage over high school students. as reported above, caat students were considerably older, on average, than high school entrants. age is also a positive correlate of grade performance. the observed grade difference between this group and high school entrants may thus have more to do with their age than their origin. other outcomes remain the same in this model, including the finding that the difference between university transfer program students from fleming college and high school entrants is statistically insignificant. table 6 multivariate estimates of mean difference in grade (compared to high school entrants) caat nonarticulation caat articulation caat univ. transfer prog. university transfers no controls 2.39* 6.74* 1.59 5.39* controls for demographics 1.07* 6.18* 1.81 3.74* controls for program and demographics 0.65 5.80* 1.63 3.36* * indicates significance at the 5% level the third model adds additional controls for program and level of study and shows no significant difference between nonagreement caat transfers and high school entrants. the grade advantages of caat students transferring into trent through an articulation agreement or from other universities are somewhat reduced but remain statistically 6 . the methodology and full regression results are reported in appendix 2. . small differences in the outcomes are the result of the regression model dropping some observations with incomplete information on the covariates. 7 11 significant. students from the university transfer program are now estimated to have grades 1.6 percentage points lower than those of high school entrants, although this estimate is once again insignificant. although the regression results for other factors are not of direct interest to this report, it is interesting to note some of the outcomes. according to the third model, mean grades of female students are over three percentage points higher than males, everything else the same. this result is not surprising. the finding that mean grades for first generation students are more than three percentage points lower than nonfirst generation students is perhaps more interesting, given the scarcity of research on the issue in canada. the american literature tends to find lower grade point averages among first generation students who do access postsecondary education8. using canadian data, finnie et al. (2010) find that firstgeneration students in university have mean grades about 1.5 percentage points lower than other students. the analysis so far (including the regression results) has only considered grade performance at the level of means. it is of interest to examine the variability of grades to determine whether the grades achieved by caat students in their college programs have any power to predict trent grade performance. our data is somewhat restricted in this analysis by allowing observation on college grades only for those students registering at trent in 2010 and 2011. we therefore restrict the analysis to the predictive power of college grades of caat students first registering at trent in 2010 or 2011 to explain the grades they achieved in those years. the scattergram of trent grades mapped against college averages in figure 3 provides a visual sense of the correlation between the two sets of grades. each point represents a caat transfer to trent, with the individuals final college grade measured along the horizontal axis and his or her 2010 or 2011 overall trent average measured along the vertical axis. whereas there does appear to be some degree of correlation between the two, the strength of the relationship is quite weak. the coefficient of determination in a regression of trent grades against college grades is only 0.09, indicating that 9 percent of the variation in the former can be explained by variation in the latter. 8 . see, for example, chen and carroll (2005) for recent estimates. 12 iv.2 progress toward degree completion the second metric for assessing the academic success of caat transfers to trent is their progress toward degree completion. table 7 reports descriptive statistics on the status of caat transfers at the end of the 2010/11 academic year. graduation status is coded in the student records data but the other statuses are inferred. continuers are students who had not graduated by the end of 2010/11 and who registered again at trent in the 2011/12 academic year. dropping out status is assigned to students who had not graduated by the end of 2011/12 and did not register again at trent in the following year. note that dropped out should more rigorously be defined as dropping out of trent, since these students may have moved to another institution and not dropped out of postsecondary education. table 7 outcomes at april 2011 for caat transfers entering cohort 2007 (4 years) 2008 (3 years) 2009 (2 years) 2010 (1 year) graduated 51.2% 31.6 16.7 0.3 continuing 13.0% 33.0 54.5 78.3 dropped out 35.9% 35.4 28.8 21.3 13 the proportion of caat transfers who graduated by the end of 2011/12 naturally declines with later cohorts who obviously have had less time to complete their studies. similarly, the proportion who continued in their studies at trent beyond 2011/12 shows a corresponding increase. determining whether these values are good or bad is problematic. as with grades, we could compare graduation and continuation rates with those of direct high school entrants and or students transferring from other universities, but the patterns displayed by high school entrants may not be an appropriate benchmark, for two reasons. first, given the significant differences in age, high school entrants and college transfer students may well have different pathways through trent that are both optimal. for example, it might be that caat transfers are more likely to pursue parttime studies due to family responsibilities. longer times to graduation would then reflect choices rather than academic abilities. second, the majority of caat transfers begin their studies at trent with some transfer credits and are, therefore, already ahead of the game compared to high school entrants within their entering cohort.9 indeed, the graduation rate by 2011 for direct high school entrants in the 2007 cohort was 37.2 percent, considerably lower than that for caat transfers. clearly, this is not evidence that high school entrants have a lower probability of eventually completing their studies successfully. they simply begin with fewer university level credits. in the literature, graduation rates are typically calculated using a six year window in order to capture the true, eventual graduation probabilities of undergraduates. our data do not allow this calculation and we do not analyze graduation rates. it is clear, however, that dropping out is a poor outcome for any student and a higher rate by type of applicant cannot be justified in the same way that the pace of studies might. dropout rates for caat transfers, high school entrants and university transfer students are provided in figure 4. note that these are calculated by pooling all entering cohorts. caat entrants who do not come through an articulation agreement had a marginally higher dropout rate compared to high school entrants. the difference is more substantial for students coming through the university transfer program who had a dropout rate 5 percentage points higher than high school entrants, although this difference becomes statistically insignificant when we control for program choice and demographics. dropout rates among caat articulation agreement entrants, on the other hand, are remarkably lower than those among any other group (a finding we explain below). 9 . the average number of transfer credits among all caat transfers is 3.5. 14 the unadjusted dropout rate comparisons in figure 4 are informative but do not provide statistical tests of differences and, importantly, fail to account for underlying differences between the types of entrants that may be correlated with dropout decisions. caat transfer students tended to be older and less likely to be female compared to high school entrants and these differences may be causing some of the observed differences in dropout rates. as before, we can control for observable differences using multivariate regression and table 8 reports the results of a probit model of dropping out10. cohort dummy variables used to control for the differing entrance cohorts and the estimated coefficients (as reported in appendix 2) are interpreted as the marginal effect of the covariate on the probability of dropping out. thus, in table 8, the estimates for model (1) suggest that, controlling for gender, age, first generation status, and program choice, the dropout rate for caat students entering through articulation agreements was 18 percent below that of high school entrants. the rate for students coming from other universities is also lower, by 5 percent. there are no statistically significant differences between high school dropout 10 . a probit model is essentially a regression model that accounts for the fact that the dependent variable is coded as either 1 if the individual dropped out or 0 if the individual did not drop out. full results are provided in appendix 2. 15 rates and those of either caat students entering outside of articulation agreements or from the university transfer program at fleming college. table 8 probit estimates of dropout probability (compared to high school entrants) model (1) controls for program and demographics caat nonarticulation caat articulation caat univ. transfer prog. university transfers 0.014 0.183* 0.008 0.051* model (2) restricted to more than 5 accumulated credits** 0.007 0.129* 0.039 0.054* * indicates significance at the 5% level ** accumulated credits includes both transfer credits and those earned at trent. full model results are reported in appendix 2 controlling for observable demographic differences in estimating dropout rates is straightforward. there is, however, an additional difference between caat and high school entrants that is much more problematic from a statistical perspective. because many caat transfers arrive with credits in hand and high school entrants do not, the former are, on average, further along in their progress toward degree completion. this means that the average caat transfer students have a shorter exposure to the risk of dropping out and, being closer to completion, have a different costbenefit calculation for the decision to drop out. thus, the dropout probability cannot be expected to be constant as credits accumulate and some account should be taken of this in the comparison between the entrant types. the appropriate econometric methodology for handling the problem that dropout probabilities depend on the stage of credit accumulation would be survival analysis (also known as duration analysis) but our data are not up to the task of producing robust estimates using those techniques. to provide a rough indication of what might be expected when accounting for differences in starting positions, the probit model was reestimated using only those students who had gotten beyond the equivalent of an academic year of fulltime study (i.e., dropping any observations where a dropout occurred before the student proceeded beyond five credits). this has the effect of putting high school students on a more equal footing compared to the average caat entrant. the dropout rate for caat articulation students is now closer to that of high school entrants, as is expected given that the latter exhibit declining dropout rates through credit accumulation. indeed, dropout 16 rates estimated for high school students who have survived past 10 credits falls to 12.6 percent, close to the rate of 12.1 percent for articulation agreement entrants (who had, on average, 9.2 transfer credits accepted when they arrived at trent). dropout rates among the other two caat categories remain statistically equivalent to that of high school entrants. v. conclusion over the past five years, about 15 percent of all students first coming to trent arrived from a community college. this report has not addressed the question of why these students chose to continue their studies at trent, although for those entering through articulation agreements the motivation is fairly clear. the focus of the analysis has been on their academic performance at trent, as captured by two primary metrics: grade averages and dropout rates. we conclude that caat students who have come to trent have performed at least as well as those entering from high schools. their grades are as high as, and in the case of caat students entering through one of trents articulation agreements, significantly higher than direct high school entrants. dropout rates among the latter group are also lower than those of high school entrants while the rates of caat entrants coming from outside of these agreements or from fleming colleges university transfer program are the same. the findings on grades are consistent with those at nipissing university but our findings with respect to dropout rates appear to conflict with those at nipissing and york. these results certainly provide support for trents past efforts to build partnerships with and pathways from the college system. before using them to propose a wholesale increase in the flow of students from caats to universities, however, additional research is required. logic would suggest that those college students who did transfer to trent are those who stood the most to gain from that decision. extrapolating their academic success to those they left behind ignores the possibility of selfselection. clearly, data on both college movers and stayers is required to resolve this question and provide a more reliable inference on the potential academic success of new college transfers. as noted, our data did not include a sufficient number of cohorts to conduct analysis of graduation rates using the standard six year window from initial entry. a replication of this study in three or four years would permit such analysis. not every caat transfer to trent did well and further research is also required to understand why some were successful and others not. for example, caat students entering trent through articulation agreements were, on average, considerably more successful than other caat entrants. is this attributable to a higher than average academic ability among these students, a better than average preparation in college 17 courses, better program design, or some combination of these factors? answers to these questions are needed to fully understand what works and what does not work in the college transfer process. 18 appendix 1: aggregated fields of study fields of study aggregated field arts sciences arts and sciences business nursing specific programs honours arts, general arts, canadian studies, anthropology, cultural studies, environmental and resource studies, economics, english, french, geography, history, international development studies, indigenous studies, international political economy, hispanic studies, political studies, philosophy, psychology, sociology, womens studies, native studies honours sciences, general sciences, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer studies, environmental and resource sciences, forensics, mathematics, physics general arts and sciences, honours arts and sciences business administration bachelor of science nursing 19 appendix 2: multivariate analysis of grades consider a regression model in which term averages are regressed against a set of five binary indicator variables: caat = 1 if the term average is for a caat transfer student, = 0 otherwise; ut = 1 if the average is for a university transfer student, = 0 otherwise; intl = 1 if the average is for an international student, = 0 otherwise; cont = 1 if the average is for a continuing trent student, = 0 otherwise; and, other = 1 if the average is for any other student except high school, = 0 otherwise. in the following regression equation: avg = 0 + 1caat + 2ut + 3intl + 4cont + 5other the coefficient estimates are then interpreted as follows: for high school entrants, all right hand side variables equal zero, leaving e(avg) = 0. thus, the intercept (or constant) is the expected, or mean, term average for high school entrants. for caat transfers, caat = 1 and e(avg) = 0 + 1. the coefficient on caat then estimates the difference between the mean term averages of high school entrants and of caat transfers. similar interpretations apply to the remaining explanatory binary variables. the regression results for this model are reported in column (1) of table a1. what is gained by this methodology? first, the regression technique produces significance tests for differences between the term averages of the different categories of registrants. the values in parentheses below the estimated coefficients in table a1 are t values. the rule of thumb is that the t statistics must be more than 2 units away from 0 before accepting the coefficient estimate as being significantly different from 0. the t statistic on the nonarticulation agreement caat estimate is 5.86 so that we can say that term averages of these students are statistically different from those of high school entrants. grades among students from the university transfer program are not statistically different from those of high school entrants. the second advantage of the regression methodology is that we can simultaneously control for other factors that may be correlated with both the category of the registrant and the outcome variable (in this case, the term average). we have already seen, for example, that caat transfer students are considerably older, on average, than high school entrants. if age is positively associated with academic achievement, then the term average of caat transfers over high school entrants may 20 have to do simply with their age, not their origin. the multiple regression technique can be extended to include as many control variables as are appropriate and the interpretation of the coefficients remains the same: if age is added to the regression as a control, the estimated coefficient on caat is interpreted as the difference between the mean term average of caat transfers and the mean average of high school entrants, holding age fixed. in other words, how do term averages compare between caat transfers and high school entrants of the same age? column (2) of table a1 extends the regression model to include a binary indicator for gender (1 if female, 0 if male), a binary indicator for first generation status, and a continuous variable for age at the time of registration. age, gender, and first generation status matter for grades. according to the estimates in column (2), each additional year of age is associated with an average increase of 0.26 in the term grade and females have grades 3.3 percentage points higher than males. first generation students have averages that are 3.6 percentage points lower than others. all these estimates are strongly significant. once these factors are controlled for, the coefficient on nonarticulation caat falls: the coefficient on caat in the simple model was clearly picking up the influence of age and gender. the final column controls for the initial program of study, with arts programs as the reference class. note from column (3) that there are systematic differences in grades by program of study. since arts is the excluded, or reference, group, the coefficient on sciences suggests grades are 1.83 percentage points higher in the sciences than in the arts, controlling for gender, age, level of study and type of applicant. the arts and science, nursing, and business programs also have higher term averages compared to the straight arts. the primary result from column (3) is that, once age, gender, first generation status, and program of study are controlled for, students transferring from a caat to trent outside of articulation agreements or the university transfer program earn grades that are not statistically different from those earned by direct high school entrants. articulation agreement transfers have grades significantly higher. 21 table a1 multivariate analysis of term averages explanatory variable entrant cat. (ref. group = high school) caat not articulation caat articulation caat univ. transfer program university transfer international continuing other entry model (1) model (2) model (3) 2.38 (5.86) 6.74 ( 7.60) 1.59 (1.34) 5.40 (13.54) 4.27 (6.90) 4.29 (8.49) 3.81 (2.43) 1.07 (2.47) 6.18 (6.97) 2.12 (1.81) 3.74 (6.09) 3.74 (6.09) 1.90 ( 3.41) 1.02 ( 0.65) 0.26 (8.92) 3.27 (12.22) 3.58 (5.13) 0.65 (1.52) 5.80 (6.55) 1.63 (1.40) 3.36 (7.81) 3.02 (4.84) 1.71 (3.10) 1.33 ( 0.85) 0.27 ( 9.29) 3.11 (11.34) 3.51 (5.06) 60.68 (107.53) 0.06 8,893 1.83 (5.69) 3.58 ( 3.55) 2.12 (4.37) 3.98 (9.13) 59.67 (103.06) 0.07 8,893 age female (1 if yes, 0 if male) first generation (1 if yes, 0 if no) program of study (ref. group = arts) sciences artsci business nursing constant r2 no. of observations tstatistics in parentheses 67.18 (399.78) 0.03 8,893 22 table a2 probit estimates of dropout probability explanatory variable entrant cat. (ref. group = high school) caat not articulation caat articulation caat univ. transfer program university transfer international continuing other entry age female (1 if yes, 0 if male) first generation (1 if yes, 0 if no) program of study (ref. group = arts) sciences artsci business nursing cohort (ref. group= cohort 1) cohort 2 cohort 3 cohort 4 pseudo r2 no. of observations tstatistics in parentheses model (1) model (2) beyond 5 credits 0.014 (0.177) 0.183 ( 0.027) 0.008 (0.046) 0.051 ( 0.017) 0.020 (0.026) 0.009 (0.022) 0.139 (0.066) 0.008 (0.001) 0.030 (0.011) 0.301 (0.082) 0.006 (0.017) 0.129 ( 0.028) 0.039 (0.047) 0.054 ( 0.016) 0.017 (0.025) 0.031 (0.022) 0.117 (0.069) 0.005 (0.001) 0.029 (0.011) 0.373 (0.089) 0.065 (0.013) 0.065 (0.034) 0.047 (0.019) 0.220 (0.013) 0.021 (0.013) 0.054 (0.032) 0.034 (0.018) 0.174 (0.012) 0.038 (0.014) 0.083 (0.014) 0.169 (0.013) 0.042 (0.014) 0.078 (0.013) 0.154 (0.012) 0.05 7,476 0.05 6,669 23 references chen, x. and d. carroll (2005), first generation students in postsecondary education: a look at their college transcripts, washington, d.c.: u. s. department of education, national center for education statistics. college university consortium council (2007a), measuring the success of college transfer students at nipissing university: 19942005, available at: http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports /oncat_research_reports_17.pdf college university consortium council (2007b), an analysis of undergraduate students admitted to york university from an ontario caat between 1996 and 2006 available at: http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports /oncat_research_reports_16.pdf decock, h., u. mccloy, s. liu and b. hu (2011), the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education, heqco felice martinello (2008), student transitions and adjustments in canadian post secondary education, mesa project research paper 20087. available at: http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/rdc/rdcwp11.pdf finnie, r., s. childs and a. wismer (2010), first generation postsecondary education students, mesa project lslis research brief #2, toronto, on. hossler, d., d. shapiro, a. dundar, m. ziskin, j. chen, d. zerquera and v. torres (2012), transfer & mobility: a national view of predegree student movement in postsecondary institutions, national student clearinghouse research center signature report. long, b. and m. kurlaender, do community colleges provide a viable pathway to a baccalaureate degree?, national bureau of economic research, working paper 14367. nutting, a. (2011), community college transfer students probabilities of baccalaureate receipt as a function of their prevalence in fouryear colleges and departments, education economics, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 6587. national student clearinghouse research center (2010), transfer and mobility: a national view of predegree student movement in postsecondary institutions, nscrc. 24 stewart, j. (2012), are transfer students different? first year grades and course withdrawals, presented at student pathways in higher education conference, ontransfer, january 2627, 2012, toronto. 25

arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study an examination of current practices at canadian postsecondary organizations arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study an examination of current practices at canadian postsecondary organizations prepared for: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) by: joanne duklas (project lead) karen maki joanna pesaro jo-anne brady may 2014 copyright 2014 by the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfer 1 project leadership and sponsoring organizations project leadership the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) jointly led the national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study. arucc arucc is a professional body for higher education administrators and managers in canada. the association advances best practices and professional development in the area of academic administration including, but not limited to, admissions, registration, examinations, scheduling, transcripts, systems, records, calendars, scholarships and awards, secondary school liaison, and other activities or undertakings that may be deemed appropriate to the association. arucc is an associate member of the association of universities and colleges of canada and of the canadian council for the advancement of education (ccae). pccat pccat is a professional body for higher education admission and transfer credit professionals in canada. the purpose of pccat is to facilitate research about, and implementation of, policies and practices that support student mobility and granting of transfer credit both within and among provinces and territories in order to improve access to postsecondary education in canada. arucc pccat project steering group the research project benefited from the leadership provided by an arucc pccat steering group comprising the following representatives most of whom are executive members from the leading organizations: dr. robert adamoski, associate director, research, bc council on admissions and transfer (bccat) glenn craney, executive director, on council on articulation and transfer (oncat) and executive member, pccat dr. rob fleming, executive director, bc council on admissions and transfer (bccat) and executive member, pccat kathleen massey, university registrar and executive director enrolment services, mcgill university and executive member, pccat hans rouleau, university registrar, bishops university and president, arucc angelique saweckzo, associate vice president and university registrar, thompson rivers university and secretary/treasurer, arucc 2 arucc pccat project team the research was led by joanne duklas, owner of duklas cornerstone consulting, with the support of three senior research associates: karen maki, joanna pesaro and jo-anne brady. these four individuals are also the authors of this report. their combined backgrounds offer direct research and extensive work experience in the postsecondary sector with a specific focus on admissions and registrarial matters, standards development and student mobility. arucc pccat project advisory group a thirty-member advisory group, representative of postsecondary institutions and organizations across canada, provided integral guidance and advice. their input is gratefully appreciated. a list of the membership is available in appendix a. special mention special mention is appropriate for the following individuals who facilitated the consultation process: philip blanger, executive director, nb council on articulations and transfer (nbcat) lucy bellissimo, past-president of ontario university registrars association (oura) elise beauregard, chair, bci sous comit des registraires, quebec jeannie boyes, president, jb productions michle clarke, director, government relations and policy research, colleges and institutes canada (formerly the association of canadian community colleges) john curtis, registrar, centennial college and chair of the ontario colleges committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo) aaron house, president of oura sheldon macleod, assistant vice-president and registrar, crandall university and president of atlantic association of registrars and admissions officers (aarao) neil marnoch, registrar, university of manitoba and past-president of the western association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (warucc) karen mccredie, registrar, capilano university and president of warucc wayne paquet, director of enrolment services, agricultural campus, dalhousie university and arucc executive member this project and its researchers owe a debt of gratitude to the efforts of these many individuals, the steering committee, workshop participants and the many individuals from across canada who agreed to be interviewed for this project. 3 sponsoring organizations the arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study benefited from the generous sponsorship of the following organizations: alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat) campus manitoba higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat) ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) the research and consultation process would not have been possible without the support of the above organizations. 4 table of contents project leadership and sponsoring organizations ................................................................................... 2 project leadership ......................................................................................................................................................2 sponsoring organizations ..........................................................................................................................................4 table of contents.............................................................................................................................................. 5 list of tables .................................................................................................................................................... 10 list of figures................................................................................................................................................... 10 executive summary ......................................................................................................................................... 12 introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 17 background and context .............................................................................................................................. 18 project overview ............................................................................................................................................ 22 scope ........................................................................................................................................................................22 research objectives ..................................................................................................................................................22 principles governing research ..................................................................................................................................23 associations and organizations involved in the research process ..............................................................................24 methodology ...........................................................................................................................................................25 overview .............................................................................................................................................................25 methodological considerations and limitations ................................................................................................25 introduction to the research findings ...................................................................................................... 27 canada-wide research findings ................................................................................................................... 27 canadian system overview .......................................................................................................................................28 regional readiness .................................................................................................................................................30 national transcript standards ................................................................................................................................36 structures for transfer and mobility ......................................................................................................................37 national data collection and reporting ..................................................................................................................37 overview .............................................................................................................................................................37 canadian postsecondary electronic standards council (pesc) user group ........................................................38 canadian pesc user group activities ............................................................................................................................... 38 canadian emerging themes implications for transcripts and transfer credit nomenclature .................................40 international research findings ................................................................................................................. 46 australia ..................................................................................................................................................................47 system overview .................................................................................................................................................47 transcript standards and the australian higher education graduation statement ...........................................47 transfer credit nomenclature.............................................................................................................................48 europe......................................................................................................................................................................50 system overview .................................................................................................................................................50 european credit transfer and accumulation system (ects) ...............................................................................50 diploma supplement ...........................................................................................................................................50 united kingdom ........................................................................................................................................................52 5 system overview .................................................................................................................................................52 transcript standards and the higher education achievement report (hear)....................................................52 united states............................................................................................................................................................54 system overview .................................................................................................................................................54 transcript standards ...........................................................................................................................................54 transfer credit standards ...................................................................................................................................55 international emerging themes and opportunities for canada.................................................................................57 current canadian perspective on transcript and transfer credit practices .................................... 62 arucc pccat advisory group .................................................................................................................................62 canadian postsecondary institutional websites and sample review..........................................................................63 website review ...................................................................................................................................................63 transcript and transfer credit samples ..............................................................................................................64 conclusion ...........................................................................................................................................................66 regional workshop thematic findings .....................................................................................................................67 national survey findings .............................................................................................................................. 73 survey participant demographics .............................................................................................................................73 transcript practices .................................................................................................................................................77 the role of the transcript ...................................................................................................................................77 transcript responsibilities and usage of transcript guides ...............................................................................82 transcript decision authority ..............................................................................................................................84 transcript and grading publication practices .....................................................................................................84 common transcript components ........................................................................................................................86 probation and withdrawal notations .................................................................................................................91 awards ................................................................................................................................................................92 credit systems .....................................................................................................................................................94 repeated courses................................................................................................................................................95 alternative learning options offered or arranged by a particular institution ...................................................95 equivalent learning (e.g., plar, challenge exams) ............................................................................................98 assessment of international transcripts .............................................................................................................98 transfer credit ......................................................................................................................................................100 nomenclature ...................................................................................................................................................102 survey: emerging themes........................................................................................................................................108 emerging trends ...............................................................................................................................................108 potential components for future standards development ..............................................................................109 risks to developing standards ..........................................................................................................................109 promising examples ..........................................................................................................................................109 implications and concluding remarks..................................................................................................... 111 recommendations ..................................................................................................................................................116 #1 enhance the 2003 arucc transcript guide .................................................................................................116 #2 determine where to house the new guide ...................................................................................................116 #3 develop a national transfer credit glossary .................................................................................................116 #4 develop a sustainable and complementary communication, awareness and distribution plan for these resources ...........................................................................................................................................................117 6 #5 establish an awards program to recognize canadian promising practices .................................................117 #6 support the development and adoption of electronic transcript exchange standards ................................117 references....................................................................................................................................................... 119 appendices....................................................................................................................................................... 137 appendices tables .......................................................................................................................................... 139 appendices figures ........................................................................................................................................ 139 appendix a arucc pccat advisory committee members ...................................................................... 139 appendix b glossary ................................................................................................................................... 142 appendix c stakeholder interviewees/personal communication sources..................................... 145 appendix d1: methodology.......................................................................................................................... 146 appendix d2: definitions ............................................................................................................................... 152 appendix d3: research communications plan ......................................................................................... 154 appendix d4: research project launch letter .......................................................................................... 155 appendix d5: advance poll ........................................................................................................................... 157 appendix d6: sample workshop invitation ............................................................................................... 159 appendix d7: sample registration form ................................................................................................... 160 appendix d8: workshop agenda package .................................................................................................. 161 appendix d9: stakeholder interview questions ...................................................................................... 164 appendix d10: sample survey communications ....................................................................................... 165 appendix d11: sample submission protocols ........................................................................................... 167 appendix e: canadian regional findings ................................................................................................... 169 canadian degree qualifications framework ...........................................................................................................169 quality assurance in canada ..................................................................................................................................169 regional focus .......................................................................................................................................................169 atlantic canada.................................................................................................................................................170 overview ........................................................................................................................................................................ 170 maritime degree level qualifications framework ......................................................................................................... 170 data and research ......................................................................................................................................................... 171 spotlight on newfoundland and labrador ..................................................................................................................... 171 spotlight on new brunswick........................................................................................................................................... 171 quebec ..............................................................................................................................................................173 overview ........................................................................................................................................................................ 173 qualifications and quality assurance frameworks ........................................................................................................ 174 quality assurance ........................................................................................................................................................... 176 key resources for transcript standards ......................................................................................................................... 176 transfer credit nomenclature standards....................................................................................................................... 177 ontario ..............................................................................................................................................................179 overview ........................................................................................................................................................................ 179 7 the ontario qualifications framework .......................................................................................................................... 179 quality assurance ........................................................................................................................................................... 180 ontarios transfer database: ontransfer.ca ................................................................................................................. 181 research and reporting ................................................................................................................................................. 181 western canada ...............................................................................................................................................182 overview ........................................................................................................................................................................ 182 provincial qualifications frameworks ............................................................................................................................ 183 spotlight on alberta ....................................................................................................................................................... 183 spotlight on british columbia ......................................................................................................................................... 185 spotlight on manitoba .................................................................................................................................................... 189 spotlight on saskatchewan ............................................................................................................................................ 190 appendix f: canadian educational systems............................................................................................. 192 appendix g: international research .......................................................................................................... 193 australia ................................................................................................................................................................193 system overview ...............................................................................................................................................193 qualifications framework .................................................................................................................................193 data and research ............................................................................................................................................194 key strengths and emerging opportunities ......................................................................................................195 europe....................................................................................................................................................................195 system overview ...............................................................................................................................................195 qualifications frameworks ...............................................................................................................................196 european association for quality assurance in higher education (enqa) .......................................................197 data and reporting ...........................................................................................................................................197 united kingdom ......................................................................................................................................................198 system overview ...............................................................................................................................................198 qualifications frameworks ...............................................................................................................................198 england, wales and northern ireland ............................................................................................................................ 198 scotland ............................................................................................................................................................199 data and research ............................................................................................................................................200 united states..........................................................................................................................................................200 system overview ...............................................................................................................................................200 qualifications frameworks and quality assurance ..........................................................................................201 appendix h: transfer credit policies and nomenclature ...................................................................... 203 appendix i: advisory group demographics .............................................................................................. 207 appendix j: catalogue of postsecondary institutional samples provided ....................................... 212 appendix k: transcript and grading practices ........................................................................................ 215 appendix l: regional workshop background information ................................................................. 217 appendix m: national survey data ............................................................................................................ 219 private versus public ..............................................................................................................................................219 association memberships ........................................................................................................................................220 decision authority .................................................................................................................................................222 student demographic profile of institutional respondents ....................................................................................222 transcript responsibilities and usage of transcript guides .....................................................................................223 8 transfer guides, transcription practices and terminology usage ..........................................................................228 references for appendices ........................................................................................................................... 232 9 list of tables table 1: comparison of bc dqab transcript maintenance agreement requirements and arucc transcript guide.......................................................................................................................................... 34 table 2: contents of the australian higher education graduation statement .......................................... 49 table 3: outline structure for the diploma supplement ............................................................................ 51 table 4: summary of contents of the higher education achievement report .......................................... 53 table 5: overview of sample transcript components found in samples submitted ................................ 65 table 6: respondent type and number of unique organizations represented........................................ 73 table 7: membership and response rate analysis .................................................................................... 74 table 8: common and uncommon transcript components on institutional transcripts .......................... 87 table 9: presence of grade point average components on institutional transcripts ............................... 88 table 10: program and course components .............................................................................................. 89 table 11: progression and milestone practices versus the arucc transcript guide................................. 90 table 12: current state versus preferred future state for transfer guides ............................................ 102 table 13: operational nomenclature usage ............................................................................................ 106 table 14: additional areas important to future project phases .............................................................. 114 list of figures figure 1: student pathways to bc public pse institutions 2010/2011 and future student pathways, up to fall 2012 ...................................................................................................................................................... 35 figure 2: public versus private respondents .............................................................................................. 74 figure 3: functional area represented by pse institutional respondents ................................................ 75 figure 4: respondents by province ............................................................................................................. 75 figure 5: number of responding and non-responding pse institutions by province (with percentage response rates) .......................................................................................................................................... 76 figure 6: institutional type ......................................................................................................................... 77 figure 7: what should a transcript be? ...................................................................................................... 78 figure 8: level of agreement with arucc guide transcript principles ..................................................... 79 figure 9: can records be expunged upon successful appeal? .................................................................... 80 figure 10: level of agreement with the complementarity of co-curricular records and learning portfolios ..................................................................................................................................................... 81 figure 11: engagement with transcript standards, guides, practices and credentials ............................. 82 figure 12: usage of sections within the arucc transcript guide.............................................................. 83 figure 13: approval authority (transcript policy) versus institutional size................................................ 84 figure 14: predominant grading scales used at canadian institutions ..................................................... 85 figure 15: transcript legend and grading scale practices ......................................................................... 85 figure 16: withdrawal practices ................................................................................................................. 91 figure 17: academic probation practices ................................................................................................... 92 figure 18: transcript publication awards practices .................................................................................... 93 10 figure 19: repeated courses approach on transcripts .............................................................................. 95 figure 20: transcript practices and plans for alternative learning options offered by an institution ..... 96 figure 21: respondent perspective for transcript components for alternative learning......................... 97 figure 22: respondent perspective of treatment of transfer credit on institutional transcripts .......... 100 figure 23: agreement nomenclature in use in canada ........................................................................... 103 figure 24: program nomenclature in use in canada................................................................................ 104 figure 25: potential transcript components related to transfer credit ................................................. 107 11 executive summary the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) have collaborated to lead an extensive study to understand current transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices in canada. these findings will ultimately inform a comprehensive update and expansion of the 2003 arucc national transcript guide and potentially result in a searchable database of transcript practices and canadian transfer credit nomenclature. the ultimate goal is to enhance the clarity, consistency and transparency of the academic transcript and transfer credit resources that support student mobility. the specific deliverable for this phase was to identify and summarize canadian transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices, review four international jurisdictions as a means to highlight promising practices related to these two areas and, finally, to provide both an overview of systems and an initial examination of emergent perspectives and themes. the report purposefully avoids suggesting prescriptive solutions or outcomes; however, the findings from this study will provide a solid foundation from which to move forward the standards and terminology discourse in canada. this report collates the findings from the supporting research conducted from january through to april 2014. the report begins with an overview of background, context, scope, objectives and guiding principles for the project. the research was focused on the following objectives: articulating the enhancement requirements for the 2003 arucc transcript guide and testing its core principles and definitions; identifying at a specific, operational level the current transcript and transfer credit terminology practices in use across canada within postsecondary institutions and by associated organizations; highlighting gaps and opportunities in current transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices; providing a beginning understanding of the emergent thinking surrounding transcript and transfer credit terminology standards; conducting an initial jurisdictional review to identify promising practices in various jurisdictions (with a particular focus on europe, the united kingdom, united states and australia); informing a next phase of consultation, which will be tasked with deliberating and determining a transcript and transfer credit terminology standards guide(s). the following core principles underpinned the research process and guided efforts executed by the project team, under the leadership of the arucc pccat steering committee: supporting student mobility through enhanced clarity, transparency and consistency of transcript and transfer credit information as the primary underlying focus of the project; broad and deep consultation and engagement of individual, institutional and organizational stakeholders; 12 a focus on research, including being informed by previous research, collecting evidence of current practices, validating existing principles and illuminating emerging issues and trends; respecting institutional autonomy and culture; improving transparency and coherence; enhancing knowledge through exchange of information and promising practices during the research process. in keeping with the guiding principles, the research employed a variety of methods, which are described beginning on page 25 with additional details provided in appendices d1 through d11. these methods included an online poll completed by 25 participants on the project's national advisory committee, regional workshops with 103 participants across the country, and 25 individual stakeholder interviews. this input was used to guide development of a national survey targeted primarily to members of arucc and pccat. the survey was completed by 119 individuals, representing 105 institutions, for an organizational response rate of 57%. the project also received 145 samples of transcripts and transfer credit material from 44 postsecondary institutions and the xml data standards for electronic transcripts from the canadian post-secondary electronic standards council (pesc) user group. in addition, jurisdictional reviews were conducted to explore the current transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices, at both national and provincial/regional levels in canada. the four international jurisdictions, australia, europe, uk and the us, grounded this research in a global context. research findings are presented beginning on page 27, with a focus on canada. provincial and regional jurisdictional overviews (western canada, ontario, quebec, and atlantic canada) that informed the development of the canadian report are included in appendix e. the canadian jurisdictional overview highlights the combined strength and capacity of provincial responsibility for postsecondary education. particular attention to the work of provincial councils on articulations/admissions and transfer and related bodies1 is examined together with national strategy leadership and coordination achieved through the council of ministers of education, canada (cmec), and sector-specific bodies such as the association of universities and colleges of canada (aucc), colleges and institutes canada (formerly the association of canadian community colleges) and the conference board of canada, in addition to arucc and pccat. consistent themes related to transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards that emerged from the canadian jurisdictional research include the following: there is solid evidence of collaboration within jurisdictions to ensure quality of process, qualifications alignment, efficiencies and coordination and a growing research culture. the variability in regional, programmatic and linguistic nomenclature is evident across the country. 1 bccat, acat, campus manitoba, oncat, nbcat, the maritime provinces higher education commission and, for quebec, the ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche et de la science (mesrs) and the bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci) 13 there is emerging interest and work in the area of national electronic transcript exchange standards and practices, particularly as noted through the work of the member organizations of the canadian post-secondary electronic standards council (pesc) user group. it is important to note that while the scope of the research did not include data exchange protocols, this area was of significant interest among research participants. the project benefited from the cooperation of the canadian pesc user group, whose work is also profiled in the canadian jurisdictional overview. the increasing implementation of prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) structures (e.g., in alberta, saskatchewan, new brunswick and ontario) bring attention to the need for clear, transparent and appropriate transcription and transfer credit standards for credits achieved through plar. the growing adoption of online learning and blended learning models, and the emergence of massive open online courses (moocs) present questions with respect to assessment and transcription of alternate delivery format courses. there is a growing focus on learning outcomes as a mechanism to improve and enhance pathway development and credentialing. implications for transcripts and credit transfer must be considered. the international jurisdictional findings begin on page 46. each jurisdiction offers their own interesting credentialing approaches, and policies and practices related to transfer and mobility. simply transposing an international approach on canadian jurisdictions is neither suggested nor appropriate given the histories, cultures, and system norms with respect to institutional autonomy and local postsecondary frameworks. the research, however, provides an overview of common practices, new possibilities and collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries that may be helpful to national discussions. highlights of key themes and promising practices derived from the international research include the following: advantages to students and internationalization more generally when collaboration among and support for coordinating levers and organizations that enhance mobility are encouraged. this is evident whether it occurs within or across jurisdictional borders. policy development and coherence in the areas of credentialing and transfer credit nomenclature are enhanced as a result. as one example, in some of the international jurisdictions studied and with the help of coordinating agencies, qualifications frameworks situate the level of student learning achieved and facilitate interpretation and comparison of equivalencies for credential types across regions. providing an explanatory document with standard content to accompany the transcript and degree parchment or creating cross-jurisdictional standards to enhance clarity about the credential and its provider appears to be another typical outcome of collaboration. examples include the diploma supplement (eu), the higher education graduation statement (australia), the higher education achievement record (uk) and the transcript guide published by the american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (aacrao). each example is representative of best practice both nationally and internationally. 14 competency-based learning outcomes in these jurisdictions are increasingly being used to measure, assess, and compare student learning and are subsequently resulting in implications for transcription and transfer credit nomenclature. there is growing support for identifying and adopting standards for electronic data exchange and participating in international initiatives that support student mobility and data portability (e.g., the groningen declaration). findings from the canadian primary research are presented beginning on page 62 with the advisory poll, workshops, stakeholder interviews, and website and document sample review and on page 73 for the national survey results. further details of primary research findings are provided in the appendices. findings from the transcript research are extensive, with the following summary of highlights: respondents confirmed the currency of most of the transcript principles and definitions included in the 2003 arucc transcript guide. awareness and usage of the guide appears to be inconsistent. numerous examples were provided of needs for enhancements to the guide. there is continued evidence of ambiguity surrounding understandings of what constitutes an 'official' transcript and questions about related privacy and security considerations. there is substantial variability in definition and understanding of terms, as well as in practices of what should be included on the transcript. there is also considerable support for enhancing consistency and clarity of practice. variability in definitions of credit and credit weight stands out as presenting an opportunity for developing common usage and/or understanding. the transfer credit nomenclature and related policy research also revealed significant variability in approaches with respect to transfer credit guides and use of terminology at the strategic and operational levels for both pathway agreements and individual transcript assessment for transfer credit. guides and glossaries produced by provincial councils on admissions/articulation and transfer (e.g., bccat, acat and oncat) were highlighted as promising resources. respondents noted in particular the need to contemplate and potentially define standards for: transcripts and transfer credit assessment with specific reference to terminology for types of pathway agreements (e.g., articulation, degree completion, block transfer, and joint programs); alternative learning delivery such as online learning and experiential learning; competency-based education (e.g., learning outcomes); and equivalent learning (e.g., prior learning assessment and recognition - plar, challenge exams, etc.). additionally, respondents acknowledged the impact of regional, programmatic and linguistic nomenclature differences, which are often embedded in institutional policies and/or regulations. at the same time, actual data comparisons have revealed a number of common themes and practices, which are noted throughout the report. recommendations resulting from the research are presented beginning on page 111 within implications and concluding remarks. the findings achieved through this research demonstrate a high level of convergence among the themes derived from the advisory group, stakeholder interviews, jurisdictional research, and survey findings. such results validate and confirm the reliability of the research. at a high level, important findings include the following: 15 there is a tremendous will and engagement among arucc and pccat colleagues, as well as allied organizations to work towards refinements that will improve clarity, transparency, and mobility for students. while there is strong support for moving forward with transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards, there is an equal assertion that institutional autonomy be respected and that any such standards become recommended, not required practice. student mobility and the processes and structures that support it are subjects of increasing focus worldwide. there is significant opportunity to benchmark and learn from promising practices in regional, national, and international jurisdictions. six recommendations are offered to guide the next phase of the arucc pccat project: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. enhance the 2003 arucc transcript guide - the next phase of the arucc pccat project should further assess these findings, confirm that which is still current and relevant in the arucc transcript guide, and propose a series of potential content enhancements, changes and additions that should then be presented for consultation, review, refinement and endorsement by the community. determine where to house the new guide - an analysis should be conducted in the next phase to explore how best to present the information and ensure its currency and final location. develop a national transfer credit glossary - the feasibility of creating a single national glossary for transfer credit nomenclature should be explored, the specifics of which would be endorsed and supported by pccat, arucc, and the councils on admissions/articulation and transfer. the glossaries and terminology guides presented in this report, together with the frequently used terms identified through the survey will provide a helpful starting point for this work. assuming the support and resources are available, it may be possible to implement the new glossary in the next phase. develop a sustainable and complementary communications plan the guides and glossaries ultimately must be supported by a complementary communications plan to ensure regular awareness and usage of the tools. establish a national awards program to recognize and validate promising practices the two associations should consider developing a national awards program, ideally adjudicated by both arucc and pccat that acknowledges potential promising practice in canada and begins to bring external validation and visibility to models of interest throughout the country. support the development and adoption of electronic transcript exchange standards the next phase of the arucc pccat project should continue to ensure that the canadian pesc user group member organizations are consulted and engaged in this process. further, the ongoing project should be mindful of the opportunities presented by international opportunities such as the groningen declaration. the report includes an extensive reference list. a comprehensive series of appendices provide further insights into the themes and recommendations derived for this report. 16 introduction student mobility and progression are hallmarks of twenty-first century student success. students move between and among colleges, institutes, universities and the workplace. ensuring their qualifications and achievements are well understood and recognized is essential, whether students remain in their home provinces, transfer across canada or venture outside our boundaries for international experience and education. institutional official transcripts should be the passports to mobility. the official institutional transcript should provide clarity and transparency for prospective students to enable fair recognition of their qualifications and achievements. the last decades have witnessed a proliferation of educational opportunities. individual institutions have developed varying policies, guidelines, and procedures to present credentials and other relevant information on the transcript. the evolution of large-scale vendor administrative systems has had an impact on student record management and nomenclature that is reflected on student transcripts. the recognition of transfer credit, prior learning and credentials on transcripts varies across institutional and geographic boundaries, often creating impediments and barriers to student mobility and progression. the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) collaborated to lead an extensive research project designed to ultimately inform a thorough update to the 2003 arucc national transcript guide. additionally, this collaborative undertaking seeks to support the development of a searchable database of transcript practices and canadian transfer credit nomenclature. the final report from this research project follows. the report provides background and context for the project and a project overview including a summary of the research approach. the research findings begin with a canada-wide review (with supporting information in appendix e on the following regions - atlantic canada, quebec, ontario and western canada) and also include international research focusing on australia, europe, the united kingdom and the united states. the international research provides a system overview, description of qualifications frameworks and quality assurance, transcript standards, and policies and practices related to transfer and mobility for each country. the national survey findings are provided within the body of the report and are supported by an appendix containing more detailed findings. given the range of associations and acronyms mentioned throughout this report, a glossary is provided in appendix b. the scope of this report is to present findings that will inform the next phase of analysis and consultation, with the eventual goal of creating a guide that provides recommendations for canadian transcript content and presentation, and a compendium of transfer credit nomenclature. the report purposefully avoids suggesting prescriptive solutions or outcomes. the research process adhered to specific principles such as respecting institutional autonomy and provincial authority. these principles are outlined on page 23. interestingly and as the findings will demonstrate, the high degree of common practices across the country suggest that the previous 2003 arucc transcript guide and the work of provincial and national associations such as the two leading 17 this project and the sponsoring organizations have led to alignment of best practices across the country, which is promising for the next stage of the project. background and context over the past three decades, there has been a growing interest in student mobility both within provinces and across the country. as an illustration of this, arucc, pccat and the regional associations have a long history of commitment to developing standards for both transcripts and transfer credit mobility. in 1986, arucc created canadas first report on student records, a report of the task force on student records (1986). in 1998, the bc council on admission and transfer and the bc registrars association created one of canadas first transcript guides (british columbia registrars' association (bcra), 1998). this guide exists in the present day and provides a specific itemization of the components that should be present on the transcript. further to this and over the past twenty years, the bcra, bccat and the british columbia government ministry responsible for higher education have produced a number of guides to facilitate student mobility and transfer in the province, many of which are published on the bccat website (www.bccat.ca). in 2003, canadas first nation-wide transcript guide was published by arucc (2003) resulting from approximately a year of consultation and research with all levels and sectors across canadas postsecondary landscape. funded by the then human resources development canada, the research was supported by a national committee and regional registrarial associations from across the country. as with the previous two transcript guides, the reason for examining the area of national transcript standards remains consistent changes in postsecondary context and pedagogy, growing interinstitutional partnership arrangements both nationally and internationally, available technology, and demographic changes require a reconsideration of what should constitute the components and role of todays transcript. while the transcript still functions in some ways as an artifact of an institutions program offerings and a students educational path, the changing postsecondary landscape necessitates review and reconsideration. like the current arucc pccat study, the original 2003 guide focused on providing goodeven best practices (p. 10) without being normative [or]prescriptive (p. 10). the 2003 arucc guide is used in the present day; however, arucc members have indicated that it no longer meets all postsecondary transcription needs in light of todays realities and pressures. in 2002, the council on ministers of education, canada (cmec), endorsed a credit transfer improvement strategy, which was adopted by all members and is encapsulated in the 2009 ministerial statement on credit transfer in canada (2009). this document emphasized a number of commitments including facilitating student knowledge about credit transfer through clearly stated policies and procedures (p. 1). at the time of the 2009 cmec statement, a national working group compiled a cross-canada lens on the provincially-led action plans towards enhancing mobility in keeping with cmecs intention of building a pan-canadian system of credit transferover time, through an initial focus on developing 18 and enhancing strong provincial/territorial transfer systems (cmec working group on credit transfer, 2009, p. 1). the arucc pccat national project currently underway represents a continued effort to advance a national focus within postsecondary institutions by identifying the different transfer practices in place. with a specific focus on transfer credit nomenclature, there are numerous examples in different parts of the country wherein guides, policies, and subsequent glossaries have emerged in the past two decades. technology and the internet have aided the development of advanced transfer guides and/or transfer websites in the different provinces. some examples include the following: 1. bc transfer guide at bctransferguide.ca (bc council on admissions and transfer (bccat), 20042014); 2. alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) at http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/ (2009); 3. atlantic provinces community colleges consortium at http://www.apccc.ca/agreements/agreements.html ( (2014); 4. the annual 2012-2013 transfer guide for newfoundland & labrador at http://www.aes.gov.nl.ca/postsecondary/transferguide/index.html (newfoundland & labrador department of advanced education and skills, 2014); 5. the ontario ontransfer.ca, which features both a program transfer guide and a course transfer guide (ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), n.d.); 6. the new brunswick portal.nbcat.ca (new brunswick council on articulations and transfer, 2010). growing interest in student mobility and achieving principles inherent to the cmec statement are evident. the long standing interest and engagement in student mobility from organizations such as colleges and institutes canada (2011), the association of universities and colleges of canada (aucc) (2008; 2009), and the conference board of canada (2013) are further evidence of the commitment to enhancing canadas transfer milieu. in 2012, pccat conducted one of canadas first national mobility studies with the objective of understanding the nature and movement of students from one jurisdiction to another within canada (heath, 2012, p. 7). the study concluded that mobility appeared to be increasing but also amplified the challenges introduced by inconsistent data definitions and inaccessible data sources (p. 7). the research concluded that further pan-canadian studies would benefit from focusing on improving these areas; hence, the value of a project such as the arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study. it is generally understood that student mobility through credit recognition, transfer and admission to successive education levels is a cost-effective and efficient way to promote access to postsecondary education. when well supported, it also mitigates geographical barriers and carries with it the potential to facilitate a national network for education and workforce preparation and mobility. unfortunately, differences in transcript practices and credit transfer terminology often cause confusion and misunderstanding for both individuals moving across and within provincial boundaries. these 19 differences also affect the institutions that receive them, limiting recognition of previous studies whether between schools or progression through to graduate studies. while the pccat study on mobility concluded that the commitment espoused in the cmec principles is being actualized (p. 72), the challenges impeding sustainable change and study require additional attention. over time, education and training institutions have developed varying policies, guidelines, and procedures to recognize credentials from other canadian jurisdictions and different approaches to featuring relevant information on transcripts and in student information systems. typically, these standards are institutionally driven and either impacted by institutional policy and culture and/or information system platforms. issues arise on a number of fronts including but not limited to a lack of common terminology. terms and approaches may vary by region and institution, leading to difficulties in interpretation, mobility, and data sharing and analysis. the bccat credentialing practices for joint programs study served as an initial beta for the arucc pccat project (duklas, 2013). the focus of the bccat research was exclusively on transcript protocols for postsecondary institutions involved in joint program development. the findings, however, served to test the core research principles and methods, which are similar in nature to the national project. more importantly, it provided beginning evidence of the variety of transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices in use in one canadian region. this research served to confirm the appropriateness of and need for the arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study. another recently released oncat report noted similar challenges with transfer and highlighted nomenclature as one area of needed focus (arnold, 2014). as a relevant contextual point, the arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study also inventories various qualifications frameworks to provide background information given their value in informing and facilitating transfer and mobility. however, practitioners do not always understand the link of frameworks to transcription protocols. as the transcript is an artifact of an institutions quality, program offerings, and student learning experience, it is a passport for mobility. therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to consider credential outcomes, best practices and qualifications frameworks in relation to transcription and transfer nomenclature. qualifications frameworks come in many forms but often provide a map or legend of the credentials offered by a particular jurisdiction. further, some jurisdictions are engaging in exercises and forms of credentialing that intentionally provide evidence of how transcription and credentialing align with the local framework, thereby providing a means by which comparisons of outcomes across regions and sectors can occur. put another way, a transcript, transfer pathway, or potentially the terminology in use can lack meaning if an evaluator, assessor, or pathway developer does not understand the structure of the system from which these artifacts emerge. conversely, disconnects can emerge between practice and policy, which can adversely impede an institutions partnership and student mobility goals. the value of alignment is certainly true internationally and growing in importance nationally. while it is recognized that not all frameworks explicitly mention transcription or transfer nomenclature, there is an emerging trend to consider credentialing and transcription in these contexts. for these reasons, the 20 findings in this report and its appendices include information regarding qualifications frameworks in use or development elsewhere. 21 project overview scope the scope of the research project involved identifying the current practices across canada in two areas: transcript protocols and transfer credit terminology. the research also sought to provide evidence of common or promising practices. the project is part of a larger multi-year initiative to create a new transcript standards guide and a glossary of transfer credit terminology. the target audience for the research focused primarily on the arucc and pccat membership, which includes registrars (or designates) from public and private postsecondary institutions from across canada and other individuals with direct involvement in transfer credit assessment and/or policy development either at a school, in government or through another organization that maintains an interest in student mobility. it was not the intention of the research project to identify standards that should feature in a future transcript or transfer credit glossary of terms. that phase is intended to occur at a later stage. however, the findings from this research project will provide a solid foundation from which to move forward the standards and terminology discourse in canada. as an important aside, the scope of the research does not include electronic data exchange protocols as this is the focus of another project led by the canadian pesc user group. it also does not include a review of privacy legislation in each province in relation to transcripts and transfer credit. research objectives the research was focused on the following objectives: testing the core principles of the 2003 arucc transcript guide and articulating how it may be enhanced; identifying the current transcript and transfer credit terminology practices in postsecondary institutions and by associated organizations across canada; identifying differences in the various practices; providing an understanding of the emergent thinking surrounding transcript and transfer credit terminology standards; conducting a review to identify promising practices in various jurisdictions (with a particular focus on europe, the united kingdom, united states and australia); providing evidence to inform the development of a transcript and transfer credit terminology standards guide(s). 22 principles governing research the following principles guided the project team, working under the leadership of a steering committee comprised of members from both arucc and pccat: supporting student mobility the commitment to enhancing student mobility by capturing current practices and challenges nationally and internationally remained a core principle of the project. communication between and among institutions about academic achievements is facilitated when transcripts are appropriately reflective of the programs and progress students have achieved and the reporting is readily and easily understood. the advantages to students are many, including smoothing assessment and reducing confusion by receiving institutions, evaluators and employers. engagement primary consideration was given to ensuring broad support from the postsecondary sector and interested stakeholders across the country. from the initial poll, through the establishment of a multiregional advisory working group, workshops and interviews with practitioners in every province, to the comprehensive survey distributed widely to ensure both breadth and depth of input, the project was met with enthusiasm and deep engagement from all participants. research throughout the project, the focus was to conduct and compile comprehensive data about current practices and emerging issues and trends, while in no way attempting to influence practices, guide philosophies or prejudge outcomes. institutional autonomy and recognition of provincial authority the objective of this phase was to ensure that varying institutional cultures and practices as well as regional influences and authority were respected. the final report seeks to present the findings and high-level qualitative themes without judgment or bias. improving transparency and coherence the report attempts to enhance the transparency of current practices and to inform national discussion on the development of strategies and protocols. the intent is to provide background that identifies common and successful practices as well as challenges that might impede student mobility and progression, and ultimately to provide a basis for developing recommendations and guidelines to assist practitioners, students, and other interested parties. enhancing knowledge facilitating communication among institutional practitioners and enhancing understanding of current (and particularly common or promising) practices across canada and beyond informs and helps individuals in their own practice. developing common understanding about the current state and future 23 prospects for postsecondary transcripts is universally helpful and was a key principle guiding the work on this project. associations and organizations involved in the research process arucc is supported by its institutional membership base and provincially-based regional registrarial associations. pccat is comprised of individual membership and supported by the various councils on admission/articulation and transfer across the country. the regional registrarial associations include the following: atlantic association of registrars and admissions officers (aarao); bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci) sous comit des registraires - formerly la confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec (crepuq); ontario colleges committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo); ontario university registrars association (oura); western association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (warucc). the association des registraires des collges du qubec (arcq), the college/cegep registrars association in quebec, is not currently an affiliated member of arucc; however, this group was also included in the consultation process. the councils on admissions/articulation or similar provincial organizations include the following: alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat); british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat); campus manitoba; new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat); ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). in addition to the above, there were a number of educational organizations/associations that provided input into the research consultation process. primarily, participation was captured through stakeholder interviews supplemented by internet research, a process that is described further within the methodology section of this report. the interviewees represented the following organizations: bc campus; brandon university; campus manitoba; canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic), council of ministers of education, canada (cmec); colleges and institutes canada; conference board of canada; higher education quality council of ontario (heqco); manitoba council on post-secondary education (copse); ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche et de la science (mesrs); 24 thompson rivers university, open learning; university of saskatchewan; university of manitoba; world education services (wes). appendix c provides a listing of the stakeholders involved in the interview process. methodology overview the research process for the arucc pccat project employed a variety of strategies to achieve its objectives. to ensure all participants had a baseline understanding of the project, a communications plan was developed and select definitions were identified. a national advisory group comprising representatives primarily from postsecondary institutions across canada supported the project. this group responded to a preliminary poll distributed in the early research stages to help inform subsequent research and consultations. this ensured breadth and depth of consultation in the initial stage. the research included in-person and virtual workshops held in various regions across the country, stakeholder interviews, institutional sample transcript and policy reviews, website analysis, and internet research. throughout the project, a permission and notice of use message was represented in various settings to enhance the comfort level of respondents. the methods used are described in greater detail in appendix d1. to support the next phase of the arucc pccat project, samples of the definitions and various tools used are available in appendices d2 to d11. a comprehensive, online survey was developed and refined by the project team as a result of feedback captured from the research consultation process. the project team, members of the advisory group and members of the arucc pccat project steering group tested the online survey. the instrument was structured into four parts. the first section requested organizational demographic information to facilitate future data analysis. the second part focused on identifying institutional (or, in the case of quebec cegeps, governmental) transcript protocols and the third section focused on highlighting transfer credit practices. the latter had a particular additional focus on identifying transfer credit terminology. the last section of the survey focused on identifying promising practices, emerging trends, and articulating perspectives on future directions through questions probing principles and definitional terms. the survey was launched on march 5th and formally closed on march 28th, 2014. in addition, the survey remained open five extra days to facilitate late responses. the target audience for the research project primarily comprised registrars and those in organizations and institutions with direct involvement in transfer credit policy development and management. the particular focus was on arucc and pccat members. methodological considerations and limitations for the most part, the project experienced very few challenges during the research process other than a very tight timeline. there was extensive engagement from the canadian registrarial community, which 25 facilitated the success of the study. having noted this, there were some considerations that arose primarily with the national survey. first, the surveys online nature, while efficient and allowing for immediate feedback, prevented the interaction normally inherent to a focus group or interview setting; hence, the value of the workshops and the interviews. the nature of online surveys is such that it is difficult to adjust questions to facilitate response in a manner that allows for nuanced feedback. as a result, sometimes the respondents had difficulty understanding the intent of particular questions. the instrument was structured in such a manner as to provide an array of quantitative and open-ended qualitative responses to mitigate this situation. distribution of the national survey was reliant on association email lists. to obviate the impact and potential lack of currency of any given list, the national survey was cascaded to local regional association email lists. topic complexity was an initial concern. tying transcript and transfer credit nomenclature is a relatively obvious pairing in that one informs (or impedes) the other; however, both are individually robust and complex topics. as a result, it became somewhat of an early challenge to ensure the national survey addressed both topics. this was mitigated by involving the national advisory group in the testing process. again, as a result of the topic complexities, the length of the survey was noted by some respondents as a challenge. beta testing revealed that the estimated time of completion was 30 to 45 minutes; ultimately, the average time to completion ranged from 30 minutes to one hour. despite the time involved for respondents to complete the survey, the institutional response rate was 57%. nomenclature differences caused some initial concern with respect to the survey. while definitions were provided for select items, the entire instrument was designed to illicit information, in part, on terminology usage. therefore, it became necessary to avoid overly defining terms. the findings did reveal a significant range of terminology usage particularly on the transfer credit side. exploring the full nuances of this will become an important component of the next phase of the arucc pccat project. 26 introduction to the research findings the variety of research strategies pursued by the project team resulted in an array of findings, some of which were intentionally sought early as a means to identify the questions that should be featured either in the workshops or in the national survey (e.g., the advance poll distributed to the arucc pccat advisory group, the website review and the sample collection exercise). the canada-wide, regionspecific and international research occurred in parallel to much of the primary research. for the purposes of the report and in the interest of first establishing the larger context in which institutional transcription and transfer credit nomenclature is situated, the findings are presented in the following order: 1. canada-wide overview, incorporating regional overviews in appendix e;2 2. international overview; 3. current canadian perspectives on transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices; o arucc pccat advisory group findings; o website and sample review; o workshop findings; o national survey findings. at the end of each of these sections, the evident themes and recommendations are provided as a means to assist with informing the future phase(s) of this arucc pccat multi-year project. canada-wide research findings the canadian jurisdictional research focused both nationally and regionally. it revealed consistent themes as follows: solid evidence of collaboration within jurisdictions to assure quality of process, align qualifications, promote efficiencies and coordination, and advance a culture of research; regional, programmatic and linguistic nomenclature differences; growing interest in online learning; emerging interest and work in the area of national electronic transcript exchange standards and practices; increasing need for transcription and transfer credit standards in the area of prior learning assessment and recognition (plar); growing focus on learning outcomes as a mechanism to enhance pathway development and credentialing; lack of standardized transcript and transfer credit practices in many jurisdictions; continued interest in building on collaboration and trust. to facilitate establishing a larger contextual framework and to align this work with the international findings, the canada-wide section in appendix e provides a system overview and information on the 2 canadian regional reports are contained in appendix e. 27 national qualifications framework and quality assurance. below provides a regional snapshot, the current environment for transcript and transfer credit standards, and the status of the national data environment related to the projects focus. the canadian pesc user group is profiled below as well. all of this has been informed by regional research conducted throughout canada, the full details of which are available in appendix e. the regional findings in this appendix are presented in accordance with the structure of aruccs association: atlantic canada, quebec, ontario3 and the western provinces. the core relevance of that data is to provide specific examples of how each jurisdiction is contributing individually and collaboratively to ensure quality of process, alignment, efficiency, and coordination, particularly in the area of transfer. while more needs to be accomplished, the evidence shows there is a maturing and growing infrastructure within the different regions to support collaboration, evolution, and convergence of discussion and opportunity. the section on canada ends with a summary of the above findings along with details to situate each within the contextual implications for transcript and transfer nomenclature standards development. canadian system overview canada has among the highest postsecondary education attainment rates in the oecd. in 2011, 51% of canadas adult population held a tertiary education qualification, the highest rate among oecd countries, which had an average rate of 32% (oecd, 2013). postsecondary education in canada is the responsibility of each of the 10 provinces and three territories; unlike many countries, there is not a federal ministry or department of education. postsecondary education in canada encompasses all types of formal instructional programs beyond secondary school, including academic, vocational, technical, and continuing professional education offered primarily by universities, colleges, and institutes (canadian information centre for international credentials [cicic], 2009). while provinces have their own structures for postsecondary education, there is substantial similarity among the systems, with a mix of public and private institutions, and credential-granting authority being approved by the provincial and territorial governments. the traditional model of degrees being granted primarily by universities, and diplomas and certificates primarily by colleges and institutes is evolving and university colleges and some colleges now grant degrees in many jurisdictions. there are close to 250 (mostly) public and private institutions in canada with degree granting authority and over 150 recognized colleges and institutes that are focused primarily on diploma and certificate programs. in addition, there are approximately 1300 private career colleges in canada that are registered or licensed by a provincial or territorial government (cicic, 2009). appendix f provides a graphical representation of similarities and differences in the structure of provincial and territorial education systems in canada (cicic, 2010). despite having decentralized responsibility for education, coordinated pan-canadian strategy and action is achieved in part through the council of ministers of education, canada (cmec), an intergovernmental body with representation of all 13 provinces and territories (council of ministers of education, canada 3 the ontario colleges committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo) and the ontario university registrars association (oura) each hold separate seats on the arucc executive; however, for the purposes of this study, all consultation and the resultant findings were pursued collaboratively. as an example, the two groups participated in a shared workshop. 28 [cmec], n.d.a.). in learn canada 2020 (council of ministers of education, canada [cmec], 2008), the provincial and territorial ministers of education articulated their vision for quality lifelong learning opportunities for all canadians, recognizing the direct link between a well-educated population and (1) a vibrant knowledge-based economy in the 21st century, (2) a socially progressive, sustainable society, and (3) enhanced personal growth opportunities for all canadians (p. 1). one of the eight key activity areas specified in the plan is to enhance and stabilize the long-term capacity of postsecondary systems to meet the training and learning needs of all canadians seeking higher education learning opportunities (p. 2). to this end, credit transfer is one of six themes of focus to achieve that goal. cmec has introduced a working group on credit transfer that reports annually and ministers of education have endorsed the ministerial statement on credit transfer in canada (council of ministers of education, canada [cmec], 2009). cmec has asserted that a pan-canadian system of credit transfer should be encouraged (council of ministers of education, canada [cmec], n.d.b.). a key unit of cmec is the canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic), formed in 1990 after canada signed the unesco convention on the recognition of studies, diplomas and degrees concerning higher education in the states belonging to the europe region[which] promotes international mobility by advocating wider recognition of higher education and professional qualifications (canadian information centre for international credentials [cicic], 2014). through their website, www.cicic.ca, cicic provides comprehensive information on the postsecondary system and credentials in canada, serving individuals and institutions both within and outside of the country. cicic also represents canada in a number of global associations and working groups focused on student mobility, such as the european national information centres (cicic, 2014). beyond cmec, further national postsecondary system collaboration is achieved through sector-specific associations such as the association for universities and colleges of canada (aucc) and colleges and institutes canada. aucc provided ongoing monitoring and analysis for canadas university system during the development of the bologna process and the european higher education area, and submitted updates to the system through the statement on canadian universities and the bologna process (2008) and the bologna process and implications for canadas universities (2009). in the conclusions of the 2009 report, aucc notes, [t]he increasing focus in europe, as part of the bologna process, on learning outcomes and student-centred education presents a challenge to canadian higher education institutions and systems to closely examine policies and procedures on admissions, curriculum and program design, as well as the measurement of student accomplishments (p. 14). it adds, the bologna process poses a challenge to other higher education systems such as canadas to put their own houses in order, and simultaneously offers an opportunity to develop international partnerships and collaboration and research (p. 14). colleges and institutes canadas transfer, articulation and pathways (tap) committee has been working on ways to enhance transfer for some time, and is looking to advance transferability principles to guide 29 members efforts. examples of questions related specifically to transfer nomenclature that have arisen through taps work and that of the recognition of learning network, include the following: what is a transfer student? what is plar and how is it impacting transferability? what is assigned versus unassigned credit? (michle clarke, personal communication, january 17 and 24, 2014). in 2013, the joint presidents working group of colleges and institutes canada and aucc was formed and serves as an excellent example of strategic level engagement across the college and university sectors on the topic of student mobility (michle clarke, personal communication, january 17 and 24, 2014). the joint committee may explore issues related to the need for better transfer data to track the state of mobility in canada, the potential and impacts of plar, and curriculum design potential for joint programs. further, the conference board of canada (2013) introduced the centre for skills in post-secondary education (cspse) in 2013, with 35 investor members, including colleges, universities, councils on articulation and transfer, and sector associations, and a five year mandate to examine advanced skills and postsecondary education challenges facing canada today. among the examples of potential initiatives identified in the centres research plan are the following: 1. create a national system that maximizes the opportunities for domestic and international student mobility across provinces and among institutional categories. 2. create a national credit transfer and recognition facility similar to what currently exists in western canada. 3. create a national credential recognition facility for newcomers to canada (p. 17). diana mackay, director of education confirms that there is strong alignment between the centres objectives and the arucc pccat national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study (personal communication, january 31, 2014). at a meeting of the conference boards quality network for universities in february 2014, university vice-presidents, academic and leaders from pccat participated in a working session on the cspse and formed a coalition of the willing to move this agenda forward (diana mackay, personal communication, february 17, 2014). regional readiness as illustrated by the findings of the regional/provincial jurisdictional overviews in appendix e, wellestablished structures are in place in some regions across canada and others are under development, creating synergies that will help to drive progress toward achieving cmecs credit transfer and student mobility goals. below are some illustrative examples. 30 best practice the councils on admissions/articulations and transfer are receiving accolades for the work in the area of transfer. to illustrate, bccat was routinely mentioned in all the primary research venues. the acat transfer best practices (alberta council on admissions and transfer, 2013) and transfer alberta, its online portal, were cited in the western workshops and in stakeholder interviews as examples of best practice. in ontario, oncat has also launched a new course-to-course transfer guide (ontario council on articulation and transfer [oncat], 2014), significantly enhancing transparency and access to information for students, which is receiving strong support from stakeholders. in manitoba, campus manitoba is soon to launch its new site for students (dave neale, personal communications, march 2014). the new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat) has launched a transfer site as well and augments it with instructional tutorials to facilitate information access (nbcat.ca). these organizations are engaging in and also exploring new methods to encourage knowledge mobilization through conferences, research, communications and inter-provincial memoranda of understanding. as one example, acats new spotlight publication (2014) provides updates on the work of acat and profiles trends, best practices, research, innovative admissions and transfer initiatives. cmec ministerial statement on quality assurance regions across canada have endorsed the cmec ministerial statement on quality assurance of degree education in canada, which includes the canadian qualifications framework (council of ministers of education, canada, 2007). further, there is a government ministry in each province/territory with responsibility for postsecondary education; typically quality assurance is locally governed by some form of degree authorization act and/or institutional charter. cross-jurisdictional collaboration in 2009 the atlantic provinces community college consortium and the association of atlantic universities signed a memorandum of understanding (mou) outlining guiding principles, operating principles and implementation guidelines to enhance transfer and mobility opportunities for students in the atlantic provinces. the mou (2009) recognizes institutional autonomy, yet outlines common approaches to transfer agreements (by block transfer, course-by-course transfer, or entry to a specified year), basis of admission, and coordination and dissemination of information pertaining to transfer pathways. as another significant example of the interest in inter-provincial exchange focused on facilitating dialogue and collaboration, the various jurisdictions in the west have come together beginning in 2010 to form the western canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (westcat) (council of ministers of education, canada (cmec), 2011, p. 13; western canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (westcat), 2009). its mandate is to encourage and facilitate inter-provincial access, mobility, and transfer of credits for students moving among british columbia, alberta, saskatchewan, and manitoba (western canadian consortium on admissions and transfer [westcat], n.d.). 31 transfer portals, guides and nomenclature many of the regions have developed transfer portals,4 which include glossaries and guides5 to facilitate transfer and transfer literacy for students and other constituents. the challenge, revealed by this projects research, is not all terms and definitions always align. transfer credit nomenclature development has occurred in some jurisdictions across canada, which serves as a foundation for national work in this area. examples include the glossaries available on select websites of councils on admission/articulation and transfer6 and, to a lesser extent with limited scope, inter-institutional definitions in frameworks (ontario universities council on quality assurance, 2010, pp. 4, 6). the quebec bci has produced guidelines for inter-quebec partnerships that provides some nomenclature guidance (confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec, 2013). the relevance of the work of the various regions to the arucc pccat research project is best illustrated through the following comment: the more commonalities we can build in our terminology and understanding, the more effective we can become (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014). government support provincial governments are providing extensive funding and support, enabling significant research and advancements in the area of transfer. as one example, the ontario ministry of training colleges and universities (mtcu) has provided significant funding to advance transfer in the province and has tabled a policy statement for credit transfer, which was adopted by all postsecondary institutions in the province (government of ontario, 2011). it reads as follows: ontario will have a comprehensive, transparent and consistently applied credit transfer system that will improve student pathways and mobility, support student success and make ontario a postsecondary education destination of choice. the credit transfer system will assist qualified students to move between postsecondary institutions or programs without repeating prior, relevant learning (p. 1). campus manitoba provides another example. it is part of the manitoba governments support framework for transfer with a specific mission to serve as a conduit to provide access to college and 4 examples include nbcats credit transfer portal (www.portal.nbcat.ca), bccats portal (bctransfer.ca), and oncats website (ontransfer.ca), which features a program transfer guide and a course transfer guide. campus manitoba is soon to launch a similar portal (dave neale, personal communication, january 21, 2014). 5 acat: http://alis.alberta.ca/ps/ep/aas/ta/sta/search.html; oncat: http://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php?page=the_ontario_postsecondary_transfer_guide; bccat: http://www.bctransferguide.ca/; nfld &lab: http://www.aes.gov.nl.ca/postsecondary/transferguide/tgdecember6_2012withoutmap.pdf 6 bccat: http://www.bctransferguide.ca/resources/glossary/; oncat: http://ontransfer.ca/index_en.php?page=glossary; acat: http://alis.alberta.ca/ps/ep/aas/ta/faq/glossary.html 32 university courses and programs for manitobans through distributed learning mechanisms including the internet. campus manitoba supports students by providing services that remove barriers and enable the achievement of educational goals (campus manitoba, n.d.). it has recently been re-envisioned7 (government of manitoba, 2013) and now will focus on two new spheres of activity: (i) establishing a new platform that helps manitoba deal with technology and online learning, and (ii) addressing and advancing manitobas lack of progress on the provincial transfer credit platform (dave neale, personal communication, january 21, 2014; jeffrey kehler, personal communication, february 13, 2014). government regulations there are examples of sectors that adhere to transcript and transfer frameworks that specify detailed practices and terminology due to government regulations. for example, the quebec college system uses a transcript template, available in both french and english depending on the colleges language of instruction that is enshrined in le rglement sur le rgime des tudes collgiales, rrec/college education regulations, cqlr, article 31 (vincent petitclerc, personal communication, february 13, 2014). as another example, the private schools in bc are governed by a transcript maintenance agreement administered by the degree qualifications assessment board (dqab), the provincial body responsible for quality assurance assessment of degree-level programming (bc ministry of advanced education, n.d.). the agreement defines explicitly what should be present on a transcript. in table 1, the differences to the 2003 arucc transcript guide are highlighted to illustrate the points of divergence in transcript standards for one regional sector. although somewhat different than the above two examples, the ontario government is implementing a transfer accountability framework with a supporting glossary, funding model and a set of performance indicators (fougre, m., golets, s., & smith, g., 2012). research a number of organizations across the country with funding support from their government have developed or are developing a research agenda to enhance understandings and develop empirical evidence of student mobility patterns, challenges, and student success, and to consider new system models. bccat provides the longest standing example of research contributions8 and most recently initiated and sponsored the beta study for the arucc pccat national project, bccat credentialing practices for joint programs (duklas, 2013). the province-wide research project amplified the nomenclature challenges in the area of joint program terminology and provided insights regarding joint program identification on transcripts and parchments (2013, pp. 12-17). 7 campus manitobas original mandate was to provide regional online support through 14 learning centres, which were subsequently closed in june 2013. 8 http://bccat.ca/system/history/ 33 table 1: comparison of bc dqab transcript maintenance agreement requirements and arucc transcript guide transcript component bc dqab transcript maintenance agreement requirements arucc transcript guide student information the student's name, contact information, and student id number. essential (student contact information discretionary for privacy reasons) basis of admission the qualifications that form the basis for the student's admission to the institution. not recommended (essential for student database) information about any credits transferred, entrance examinations and prior learning assessment used for admission or advanced placement. recommended for transfer credits, courses/credits accepted (discretionary for grades accepted, cumulative transfer of credits, block transfer, lop, student exchange, plar; entrance exams essential for student database) not addressed the name(s) of any other postsecondary institution(s) attended by the student, and the dates of attendance. academic history institutional information the name and completion date of any degree, diploma or certificate earned by the student before registering at the institution. not addressed the dates of the student's admission and completion or withdrawal from his/her program(s) of study. essential (period of attendance, withdrawal date from institution essential; withdrawal from program/course discretionary) the date(s) of each academic semester or term during which the student studied at the institution. essential (period of attendance) a list of all courses completed, in progress or withdrawn from at the institution. essential a list of credits and grades earned by the student. the student's grade point average per academic term and overall. a notation of academic suspension, dismissal or probation if any of these actions has been taken against the student. essential recommended recommended (essential for suspension or dismissal) academic awards or honours given to the student. internal recommended; external not recommended the name of any degree earned by the student and the date the degree was granted by institution. essential the institution's name, location, and address. the institution's grading key. essential this addresses trust and validation principle the name and authorized signature of the registrar or similar official. this addresses trust and validation principle the institution's seal. this addresses trust and validation principle the date on which new information was last added, and the date the transcript was issued to the student or other body. essential source for dqab transcript information: ministry of advanced education. (n.d.). private and out-of-province public institutions ministrys requirements. retrieved from http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/degreeauthorization/private/ministers-requirements.htm#maintenance, march 28, 2014. 34 figure 1 provides an overview of student mobility numbers from british columbias student transitions project (bc ministry of advanced education, n.d.). while comparable data is not available from other canadian provinces, it demonstrates that students are combining attendance at a number of schools all the way through their educational journey; suggesting that a shift is occurring with regard to long-held understandings regarding the concepts surrounding transfer, transcript standards and transfer credit nomenclature more generally (rob fleming; robert adamoski, personal communication, january 23, 2014). figure 1: student pathways to bc public pse institutions 2010/2011 and future student pathways, up to fall 2012 source: bc ministry of advanced education. (n.d.). the student transitions project. retrieved from bc ministry of advanced education http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/student_transitions/, may 1, 2014. a study recently released by oncat (arnold, 2014) highlights the challenges to transfer literacy from asymmetries that are introduced by nomenclature that is not universally aligned or understood. in ontario, there has been a recent proliferation of research studies both published and in progress through heqco and oncat on system policy and design, including design for transfer (hicks, weingarten, jonker, & liu, 2013; higher education strategy associates, 2012; trick, 2013; weingarten, hicks, jonker, & liu, 2013); students experiences of transfer (decock, mccloy, liu, & hu, 2011; oncat, 2013; wilson, mccaughan, & han, 2011); and academic performance of transfer students (drewes, maki, lew, willson, & stringham, 2012; gerhardt, arai, carroll, & ackerman, 2012; oncat, 2013; stewart & martinello, 2012). the value of projects such as the arucc pccat study is such that a detailed examination and creation of standards and glossaries would be beneficial to advancing mobility. 35 national transcript standards the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) is the professional association for registrars, admission directors, student records managers, student services managers, and other student services areas in universities and community colleges in canada. to facilitate networking, collaboration and professional development on a regional basis arucc has a regional structure, comprising the following five sub-associations: western association of registrars of universities and colleges (warucc), ontario universities registrars association (oura), ontario colleges committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo), bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci) sous comit de registraires, and the atlantic association of registrars and admissions officers (aarao). the more detailed jurisdictional reports in appendix e highlight transcript and transfer credit practices in regions and provinces in canada. aruccs national transcript guide for use in canadian postsecondary institutions (2003), which is a focus of this study, was developed to assist institutions in determining what information to record on the transcript and how to record the needed information, so that the transcript accurately and equitably reflects educational achievements, and the information it conveys is clear and unambiguous for present and future users (p. 10). chapter iii of the guide, transcript data elements, is an effort to list, classify and, where warranted, to define in an as exhaustive and as unambiguous a manner as possible, all data elements discussed in relation to the postsecondary transcript in canada, whether they are recommended for inclusion or not (p. 10). the guide also includes, in chapter iv, discussion of current issues of the day with respect to the postsecondary transcript, including topics related to security and privacy of the student record; electronic transcripts; the co-curricular record; the need to keep abreast in global developments related to transcripts and mobility, including impacts of the lisbon convention and the introduction of the diploma supplement in the european higher education area; external learning; and the national student identifier (pp. 37-47). appendix b of the guide (pp. 55-65) includes a glossary of canadian postsecondary transcript terminology. the canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic) also includes a comprehensive guide of postsecondary education terminology on its website. originally created in 2003 and updated in 2012, the glossary functions in a wiki-style, in which professionals can make comments and suggest revisions to entries as appropriate. the guide is widely used and is intentionally developed for a broad audience. given its diverse constituency and international focus, cicic recognizes that specific sectors within postsecondary education may need to develop their own glossaries with more specific definitions (natasha sawh, personal communication, february 3, 2014). the 2003 arucc national transcript guide is the only national transcript guide specifically created for canadian postsecondary institutions. 36 structures for transfer and mobility given the provincial responsibility for postsecondary education in canada, it follows that structures responsible for transfer and mobility are also provincially focused. six provinces have a distinct council or organization responsible for leadership of infrastructure, programs, and research to enhance transfer and mobility in their jurisdictions, as follows: british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat); alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat); campus manitoba; ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat); bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci); new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat). an overview of each of these organizations and their activities is provided within the respective regional reports in appendix e. on a national level, the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat), formally incorporated in 2013 (pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer [pccat], n.d.), is the national organization focused on the facilitation of policies and practices that support student mobility within and among provinces and territories and granting of transfer credit in order to improve access to post-secondary education in canada (pccat, n.d.). the member organizations and institutions supporting pccat and arucc often publish transfer credit glossaries to assist in developing a common understanding of nomenclature in their respective province or institution each of which are developed and managed independently. appendix h contains an inventory of institutions that, as part of this research, identified their transfer credit policies. this will be an important resource to inform the next phase of the study. national data collection and reporting overview given provincial jurisdiction for postsecondary education in canada, the majority of data reporting occurs at the provincial level, through institutions accountability requirements for government funding. at the national level, statistics canada operates the postsecondary information system (psis) (government of canada, statistics canada, 2013), a national survey through which universities, colleges, and vocational and trade training centres report annual program and student-level data. reports from psis data focus primarily on planning, policy, and labour-force supply analysis, aimed at enhancing canadas economic position both nationally and globally. psis data do not track student mobility currently. the pccat study, student mobility in canada across canadian jurisdictions, (heath, 2012) reported findings from 41 postsecondary institutional respondents to its national survey on student mobility. while there is considerable agreement among data elements that ought to be collected, the study 37 concluded that attention needs to be paid to developing comparable business and reporting practices that will enable better data collection and research about postsecondary mobility patterns in canada. in addition, as noted above, a number of public and private policy, research and advocacy organizations also conduct research and produce reports related to a wide range of postsecondary issues, including student mobility. notable among these, with a national scope, are the conference board of canada, aucc, colleges and institutes canada, higher education strategy associates, and statistics canada, among others. canadian postsecondary electronic standards council (pesc) user group in april 2013, arucc signed a memorandum of understanding with the postsecondary electronic standards council, which is an american professional association based in washington d.c. with an international mission to enable cost-effective connectivity between data systems to accelerate performance and service, to simplify data access and research, and to improve data quality along the education lifecycle (p20w education standards council (pesc), 2013, p. 1). in 2011, the canadian pesc user group was established with a mandate to ensure pesc's mission and all its deliverables, including the development and release of pesc-approved standards that support and incorporate canadian-based stakeholder interests. since october 2011, the canadian pesc user group has been educating the sector on pesc standards and garnering interest and participation from various parties, including individual postsecondary institutions, vendors, and bodies such as arucc, statistics canada, cmec, and pccat (canadian pesc user group, 2014). the arucc pccat project complements the efforts and projects of the canadian user group. additionally and as previously mentioned, canadian pesc user group members are represented on the arucc pccat advisory working group. canadian pesc user group activities the members of the canadian pesc user group are currently working to develop a canadian transcript exchange network (canadian pesc user group, 2014). the goal of this initiative is to create a national student-centric network that is based on pesc xml standards (pesc, n.d.) with a priority on the electronic exchange of canadian high school transcripts. the network will exist within and between canadian provinces and territories, and be scalable to postsecondary transcripts, as well as to other stakeholders who need access to canadian institutional official transcripts. the most active provinces of the group at present are alberta, british columbia, and ontario, primarily because each already has centralized application services. however, representatives from other provinces are also involved on a regular basis, notably saskatchewan and new brunswick. below are examples of initiatives undertaken and successes achieved by user group member organizations within the last 12 months (canadian pesc user group, 2014): 38 douglas college is now sending transcripts in pesc xml to bccampus9 for the ontario universities application centre (ouac) to retrieve via the web and subsequently forward to ontario universities (bccampus, 2014). in british columbia, the pesc standard is now used for the transcript exchange service for six postsecondary institutions, using bccampus as the exchange hub. applyalberta (apas) and ontario colleges application services (ocas) are working on a canadian pesc high school transcript implementation guide to complement the existing pesc guide and make recommendations for the canadian sector. it is slated to be finalized at the may 2014 spring pesc data summit. ocas and ouac have partnered to allow ouac to receive completed secondary school transcripts in pesc xml for non-direct entry applicants by leveraging ocass electronic transcript management system (etms) service.10 in ontario, two colleges are now sending their transcripts to the ocas hub in pesc xml and one university is in the testing phase towards doing the same with the ouac hub. new brunswick has approval for a province-wide project to collect secondary school grades via pesc xml and anticipates that the infrastructure could be ready for interprovincial transcript data exchange by 2016. nova scotia has begun a project to establish a provincial transcript service for high school and postsecondary institutions, which may become a joint venture between nova scotia and new brunswick. the members of the canadian pesc user group are facilitating collaboration within each jurisdiction, nationally and internationally by developing advisory groups and memorandums of understanding, and pursuing board membership, conference roundtable exchanges and more. as an example of local collaborative efforts, a transcriptsbc standards reference group was established in british columbia in september 2013 with a mandate to create a reference group for pesc xml data standards (bccampus, 2014). this group is facilitated by bccampus and there are currently six member institutions: douglas college, kwantlen polytechnic university, langara college, simon fraser university, university of british columbia, and university of the fraser valley. the member institutions exchange e-transcripts using the pesc xml transcript standards via the bccampus transcriptsbc hub. its intentions include working collaboratively to develop solutions relating to transcript data exchange, ensuring alignment with print versus electronic transcripts, applying consistent pesc xml data elements for transcript information for use across institutions on an ongoing basis, developing common testing scenarios to facilitate robust and efficient implementation, and facilitating pesc adoption and data exchange at all levels operating within the sector (e.g., graduate, undergraduate etc.). as an international example of collaboration, canadian pesc user group and arucc members are also participating in the groningen declaration initiative, which is an international data exchange group 9 bccampus is a publicly funded organization that uses information technology to connect the expertise, programs, and resources of all b.c. post-secondary institutions under a collaborative service delivery framework (bccampus, n.d.). 10 at the may 2013 spring pesc data summit, ocas was awarded the 2012 pesc best practices award for its etms service. 39 focused on student mobility (see page 61) (groningen declaration on digital student data repositories worldwide, 2012). canadian emerging themes implications for transcripts and transfer credit nomenclature there are eight themes that emerged from the canadian jurisdictional research. these include collaboration, infrastructure readiness, nomenclature differences, online learning, electronic transcript data exchange, and equivalent learning (e.g., plar). each are addressed below. 1. collaborative effort to ensure quality of transcript and transfer credit assessment processes, understanding and recognition of credentials across jurisdictions, and supporting infrastructures the regional overviews in appendix e provide compelling evidence of readiness, action and capacity for the evolving provincial and national discourse on transcription and transfer credit nomenclature standards. the provincial government ministries and their councils on articulation/admissions and transfer, the regional associations of arucc, and provincial research bodies like heqco appear to be individually and collectively committed to continue improving the research, policy, evidence, levers, and infrastructures to support enhancements. building trust among institutions and across jurisdictions is seen as a key enabler to moving forward in the area of transcript and transfer credit nomenclature development. developing a coherent shared language of learner pathways and mobility is also a priority in many regions. transfer is certainly part of mobility, but there is much more, including pathways, plar, and movement between education and the labour force. the promise of this project for helping to build a common and shared nomenclature for transcripts and transfer credits, as well as a shared understanding of how each institution transcripts transfer credits is appealing (ann marie lyseng and eric dohei, personal communication, february 4, 2014). 2. regional, programmatic, and linguistic nomenclature differences the research revealed the importance of being mindful of the differences between the francophone and anglophone population within canada. differences in terminology can become a barrier, not just in the translation between french and english, but also between different french speaking regions, such as between quebec and acadia (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014). the same was true across the different english speaking regions within canada. as one example relevant to the transfer nomenclature world, atlantic registrarial practitioners reported that the word residency is not universally understood across the region and tends to be avoided in favour of a more narrative descriptor approach. as another example, some institutions and/or programs use the term units versus credits or units versus crdits. 40 the dqab transcript maintenance plan, which governs private and out-of-province institutions in british columbia, is another illustration. the comparison to the arucc guide provided in table 4 introduces interesting points of discussion when examining practices and standards. as the bccat credentialing practices for joint programs study found (duklas, 2013), sometimes identifying common terminology can facilitate moving forward opportunities for change. the next phase of the arucc pccat project should include further analysis and identification of the array of terminology in use across canada as a means to acknowledge the nuances introduced by programmatic, regional and linguistic differences. 3. transcript and transfer credit practices specific recommendations for improvements that emerged from the workshops and stakeholder interviews include: building a common understanding of what to include on the transcript; ensuring that the transcript reflects the totality of the students academic learning; moving towards a commonly understood grading and credit counting system; and automating transcript and transfer credit processes wherever possible. feedback received from world education services (wes) (margarita sianou, personal communication, february 25 and 27, 2014) detailed typical challenges in assessing canadian transcripts, including the following: differentiating the length of different types of degrees; a lack of recording of previous study for transfer students, including previous institutions and credits transferred; and evaluating degree granting authority of faith-based schools. wes (2012) has furthered its work in this area by collaborating with stakeholders to develop and promulgate the adoption of best practices such as through publication of its best practices: strategies and processes to obtain authentic international educational credentials. its research and consultations confirm the value of developing common terminology, documentation practices and selective harmonization (p. 4). while the focus of some of this work is on credential evaluation and recognition, the principle value to enhanced mobility is clearly emphasized. the research being undertaken by arucc and pccat complements efforts such as these. the next phase of the arucc pccat national project should have as a final deliverable the creation of a practice standards guide for transcripts and a transfer credit glossary, both of which leverage todays web-based technology. 41 4. electronic transcript exchange standards and practices developing electronic transcript exchange standards and practices routinely emerged in the consultation process for the arucc pccat national project. the interest, when expressed, was at times nested in a contextual frame as contributors to the study acknowledged the importance of data exchange protocols but also emphasized that the data delivery model should not drive the creation of overall transcript and transfer credit standards and principles. the distinction was aptly expressed by mike sekulic, university registrar at grant macewan university: it is important to avoid confusing the information delivery method [i.e. electronic or paper] with the academic and philosophically derived principles about what a transcript is and what should be featured on a transcript. the culture, history and values of an institution can affect what goes on a transcript and is a conceptual perspective that cant be fully captured in data exchange protocols but that should be captured in a transcript guide (personal communication, february 4, 2014). the findings indicate an appetite for developing better data exchange and reporting protocols with a caution to preserve the distinctiveness of the role differential between delivery mechanisms, systems, institutional autonomy, privacy regulations, and academic policy. the partnerships developed between organizations like arucc, pccat, and the canadian pesc user group are helpful in this context as the collaboration ensures ongoing dialogue and alignment in the creation of standards. the next phase of the arucc pccat project should continue to encourage collaboration with the canadian pesc user group to facilitate the development of electronic transcript exchange informed by sector input. 5. prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) is receiving significant attention across the country, as evident in stakeholder interviews nationally and in new brunswick, ontario, and alberta (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014; glenn craney, personal communication, january 23, 2014; ann marie lyseng and eric dohei, personal communication, february 4, 2014; michle clarke, personal communication, january 17 and 24, 2014), as well as in the workshops conducted in support of this research. examples are found across canada. in manitoba, plar is in place at all universities and colleges and is well established (jeffrey kehler, personal communications, february 13, 2014). the saskatchewan government is emphasizing a plar mandate. the new brunswick prior learning assessment and recognition action group (nbplar) was formed in 2010 and has realized significant progress in developing a provincially coordinated approach for the assessment and recognition of prior learning (both formal and informal) in the academic, employment and regulatory sectors aimed at resulting in savings of time and money for individual clients, organizations and practitioners (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014). 42 participants in the aarao workshop also emphasized the importance of plar, particularly among the college sector. in ontario, the use of plar seems to be thoroughly implemented and integrated across the college system; however, its support and adoption is inconsistent among ontario universities. the provincial student associations are advocating for greater use of plar. initiatives underway at ryerson university and the university of guelph have potential to inform the rest of the provincial university system. enhancing the systematic use of plar is seen to be an important tool to ensure that the student transcript is a true reflection of all learning that has taken place and been assessed, whether formal or informal (glenn craney, personal communication, january 23, 2014). in alberta, acat recognizes the need for more pervasive attention to and adoption of plar in order to fully support transfer initiatives. meeting the needs of aboriginal communities and integrating aboriginal institutions into the transfer system is also an area of growing focus in alberta. plar is seen as a potentially helpful tool to assist in the recognition of traditional knowledge (ann marie lyseng and eric dohei, personal communication, february 4, 2014). key issues of concern that pertain to this project include whether credits awarded based on plar should be distinguished on the transcript, transferability of plar credits, and whether method of learning should be recorded. the next phase of the arucc pccat project should explore the range of practices and suggest recommendations on transcription and transfer credit protocols for review and consideration by the sector. 6. expanded focus on learning outcomes expanded use of learning outcomes is seen to be an important tool and enabler of credit transfer. learning outcomes can serve as a tool for quality; a mechanism to align learning with what knowledge and skills students need to have on completion of a program; a means to talk with employers outside of the academy about what graduates bring to the workplace; and as part of ensuring a common language is developed when placing ontario in the global academic environment (martin hicks, personal communication, february 20, 2014). as examples of recent work in this area, heqco has invested heavily in learning outcomes as a core research area (martin hicks, personal communication, february 20, 2014), and oncat requires the use of learning outcomes as a framework for new pathway development projects (glenn craney, personal communication, january 23, 2014). alberta is also examining learning outcomes more closely (ann marie lyseng and eric dohei, personal communication, february 4, 2014), and bccat (fitzgibbon, 2014) has just published a research report, learning outcomes and credit transfer: examples, issues and possibilities. in canada, the tendency has been towards developing bilateral, and sometimes multilateral, articulation agreements, based on very close review and mapping of curriculum and/or course outcomes from one credential to another. this approach is very useful in facilitating student flexibility in transferring credits 43 prior to program or credential completion as needs and circumstances arise. however, this approach can be time and resource intensive for jurisdictions lacking the appropriate history, culture, and infrastructure. it also is difficult to have broad impact at the pan-canadian system level using this approach alone (diana mackay, personal communication, january 31, 2014). research and pathway development initiatives underway in ontario and british columbia, with a particular focus on credentialbased pathways as complements to course and block credit equivalencies, have potential to inform the system and supplement other successful transfer models. as a relevant point, the focus in some international jurisdictions is to understand credentials and movement between credentials in terms of, what rights - in terms of access to further study or access to a profession - does this credential give the holder? (natasha sawh, personal communication, february 4, 2014). canadian higher education practitioners need to monitor global developments with respect to learning outcomes, transfer models and related nomenclature, and regionally specific transcription standards development. 7. online learning online learning is another phenomenon receiving considerable attention across canada, with specific implications for this transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study. there is currently debate across the postsecondary education system as to whether the transcription of online and experiential learning courses is or should be different from standard face-to-face courses. this question will gain increasing importance as blended teaching and course delivery models gain prominence. given that online courses are typically free of geographical constraints, they have also become an important accessibility option for campus-based students to augment courses taken on their home campus in summer; for part-time and mature students to juggle work, family and school; and to expand access to topics and professors not available at a given institution. the challenge remains for institutions is to ensure program eligibility and appropriate transcription and recognition of such courses. similarly, massive open online courses (moocs) present challenges in how to assess, and if appropriate, how to evaluate for transfer credit and how to transcript. these matters have direct relevance to transcription and nomenclature. the next phase of the arucc pccat project will want to examine course mode of delivery and its potential impact on transcription and transfer credit standards development. 44 8. additional emerging considerations an additional emerging consideration from the regional research impacting transcripts and transfer credit includes the potential of cip codes11 as a tool for assessing program alignment in pathway development (glenn craney, personal communication, january 23, 2014). dual credits represent another priority receiving attention particularly in alberta (ann marie lyseng and eric dohei, personal communication, february 4, 2014). there is strong support for enhancing transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards in the various regions across canada, and for the current approach to the national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study, with its broadly consultative approach, working from a practitioner base within the profession. 11 cip codes refers to classification of instruction programs (statistics canada, 2010). 45 international research findings in parallel to the national survey, the research included a review of credential and transfer credit practices in select international jurisdictions: australia, europe, the uk, and the us. the intent was to provide benchmarking opportunities and to identify promising practices. the research also served to establish a global context for the importance of transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards for students and policy makers. in appendix g and for each region, a system overview is provided along with a summary of its structure relevant to transcription and transfer credit nomenclature. credential and transfer supports, and related research infrastructures are identified below along with potential promising practices. this section concludes with a summary of themes evident internationally that will help to inform future consultation focused on developing transcript standards and transfer credit nomenclature. these are noted below and are, from a holistic perspective, examples of suggested system tools or levers to enhance transparency and mobility. each of these is described in further detail at the end of this section. collaboration and supporting coordinating levers and organizations that enhance mobility within and across jurisdictions; tools such as qualifications frameworks to situate learning and facilitate interpretation and comparisons of credential equivalencies; credentialing approaches such as an explanatory document to accompany the transcript and parchment and/or the existence of nation-wide credentialing standards; a competency-based learning outcomes approach; standards for electronic data exchange; participation in international initiatives that support student mobility and data portability (e.g., the groningen declaration). the international regions selected for this study demonstrate overall similarities in postsecondary education systems to canada. for example, with the us, the american collegiate association of registrars and admissions officers (aacrao) has published a comprehensive transcript guide, the aacrao 2011 academic record and transcript guide (2011), which is similar to the arucc transcript guide. the same organization maintains a long-standing commitment to transfer pathway development and publishes resources such as its comprehensive, online transfer credit practices of designated institutions (2012). this tool provides details on transfer practices at institutions across the us and presents the information within a standardized framework using consistent nomenclature. according to a 2011 survey and study published by the institute for international education, joint and double degree programs in the global context: report on an international survey (obst, kuder, & banks, 2011), these areas have very active institutions that are developing joint partnerships with higher education institutions from around the world (p. 10). most tend to be developing relationships with schools from india, china, europe, uk, and the us (p. 13). australia tends to have a similar level of activity with indonesia and singapore. therefore, their collective expertise in the area of student mobility is very robust. 46 each profiled jurisdiction also present interesting examples of credentialing and transfer credit initiatives that are relevant to this study. the european higher education area, through the bologna process, has innovated the diploma supplement, which is a multi-country example of supplementing transcripts with a document that introduces an academic artifact that confirms consistency, clarity, and quality of the credential. australia and the uk offer similar examples in the australian higher education graduation statement and the higher education achievement record respectively. these regions are differently structured and governed in comparison to canada; however, provide some interesting insights. electronic data exchange and the portability of student data emerged as themes regardless of region. both are viewed as mechanisms to facilitate mobility and efficiencies beyond regional borders. there are emerging opportunities for data coordination, sharing and collaboration on an international scale that have significant implications for transcription and transfer credit nomenclature. australia system overview the commonwealth department of education is responsible for higher education and research in australia. each state and territory government also has a department of education, though the specific departmental names may vary. the tertiary education system in australia comprises higher education and vocational education and training. the university system includes 37 public and three small private australian universities. internationalization is a prominent feature of australian higher education, with international students making up 25.7% of the student population in 2012 (department of industry innovation science research and tertiary education, 2013). there are approximately 140 other higher education providers in australia, but they are mostly small, and account for 7% of all higher education students. the tertiary education quality and standards agency (teqsa) is an independent agency established by the australian government, with responsibility for regulatory and quality oversight of the system (commonwealth of australia, 2013a). in addition, teqsa maintains and publishes a national register of higher education providers, which serves as the authoritative information source of registered higher education providers in australia (tertiary education quality and standards agency, commonwealth of australia, 2013). further details on the australian educational system along with information on the qualifications framework are contained in appendix g. components of direct relevance to transcription and transfer credit nomenclature are described below. transcript standards and the australian higher education graduation statement the research has not revealed documentation of country-wide transcript standards for australia. however, in 2013, the government of australia, through the department of industry, innovation, science, research and tertiary education, introduced guidelines for the australian higher education graduation statement (ahegs) (department of industry, innovation, science, research and tertiary education, commonwealth of australia, 2013), which is modelled after the european unions diploma 47 supplement. the guidelines define required and optional elements to be included in each of the five sections of the graduation statement, which are listed in table 2 below. the ahegs is distinct from academic transcripts issued by institutions in that it is only issued at course completion and a separate graduation statement is issued for each credential that is achieved (department of education, employment and workplace relations, commonwealth of australia, p. 10). guidelines for the ahegs also define requirements for representing jointly-badged qualifications, nested degrees and double/combined degrees on the graduation statement. as an illustrative example of how the system works, an institution such as the university of queensland distributes the institutional transcript and the ahegs upon graduation (university of queensland, 2013). at the university of queensland, students can contact the institution directly to obtain a new ahegs, an institutional transcript, a testamur and a certificate of award (each come with additional fees). the latter is a letter from the university providing information on the degrees awarded along with their conferral date (2013). the institutions transcript contains a listing of all courses taken along with respective results. transfer credit nomenclature there does not appear to be a national directory of transfer agreements with supporting nomenclature, which could be a result of the size and complexity of institutions or the broad expectations for pathways from one credential to another that are included in the australian qualifications framework (aqf). there are numerous pathway opportunities and resources at the regional and institutional level such as those offered by tafe sa of the government of southern australia, which offers courses and pathway opportunities for students in vocational education and training programs (government of southern australia, n.d.a.). tafe sa offers an online searchable database of university credit pathways and course equivalencies (government of southern australia, n.d.b.). examples of specific institutional efforts are readily available. as an illustration, charles darwin university (n.d.) provides policy-based pathway descriptions on its website, based on requirements of the australian qualifications framework. griffith university has a particularly comprehensive website that outlines the variety of pathway opportunities to the institution.12 the university of canberra (2013) hosts a detailed course-to-course transfer database on its institutional website. there are also examples of institutional glossaries typically at the institutional level, some of which include transfer-specific terminology (university of south australia, n.d.; open universities australia, n.d.). 12 http://www.griffith.edu.au/pathways 48 table 2: contents of the australian higher education graduation statement compulsory items front page optional items ahegs logo statement on the ahegs certification institutional logo section 1 family name the graduate given name date of birth student number section 2 name of the award (& specialization) the award detail, including admission requirements, duration of study, language of instruction and aqf level features of course (e.g., placements, overseas study) pathways to further study course accreditation section 3 the awarding institution awarding institution section 4 course details additional course details the graduates academic achievements key to grading special achievements, recognition and prizes section 5 description of the australian higher education system introduction australian qualifications framework admission quality source: guidelines for the australian higher education graduation statement. (department of industry, innovation, science, research and tertiary education, 2013). 49 europe system overview the bologna process is at the core of the eus efforts to enhance compatibility and coherence of participating nations academic qualifications. the bologna process has been able to bring about systemwide change through the implementation of trust-building tools aimed at increasing transparency across national jurisdictions and at bringing about convergency of systems (education, audiovisual and culture executive agency [eacea], 2012, p. 9). key bologna structures, resources and tools that have been developed to achieve a high level of comparability, compatibility and exchange among higher education systems in europe include: the three-cycle system and the overarching european higher education area qualifications framework (eheaqf), which aligns with the existing european qualifications framework for lifelong learning (eqf); the european credit transfer system (ects); the diploma supplement; and quality assurance structures (2012, p. 9). given their direct relevance to transcription and transfer credit nomenclature, the ects and the diploma supplement are described below. further details on the broader european education system are contained in appendix g. european credit transfer and accumulation system (ects) the ects is a tool that helps to design, describe, and deliver study programmes and award higher education qualifications (european union, 2014d). typically used in conjunction with outcomes-based qualification frameworks, the ects supports transparency and recognition in the assessment of qualifications. the ects allows students to accumulate the credits they earnin a transparent and comparable way. [and] it facilitates the transfer of learning experiences between different institutions (european union, 2014b, p. 3). three key features of the ects are the provision for credits to be awarded based on learning achieved in non-higher education contexts; that ects should support credit accumulation, not just credit transfer; and that the system include transfer credit ranges for qualifications at the bachelor and masters level (eacea, 2012, p. 30). the ects functions as a web-based tool, using course catalogues, detailed program descriptions, and course descriptions that include learning outcomes (expressed as what students are expected to know, understand and be able to do) and the workload (expressed as the time students typically need to achieve these outcomes). each learning outcome is expressed in terms of credits, with a student workload ranging from 1 500 to 1 800 hours for an academic year, and one credit generally corresponds to 25-30 hours of work (european union, 2014d). diploma supplement the diploma supplement is typically used in parallel with the ects. it provides a standardised description of the nature, level, context, content and status of the studies completed by the holder of a higher education diploma (european union, 2014b, p. 3). the diploma supplement is produced by higher education institutions and is awarded free of charge in a major european language, on completion of a credential, according to standards agreed to by the european commission, the council of europe and unesco (european union, 2014e). every higher education institution taking part in the new erasmus+ education, training, and youth program has agreed to issue the diploma supplement in conjunction with its higher education diploma (european union, 2014b). the diploma supplement has 50 eight required sections, as illustrated in table 3. the outline is accompanied by extensive explanatory notes about the information to be included, as well as sections on principles, guidelines and a comprehensive glossary of terms used in the diploma supplement (european commission, 2002-2014). the europass website provides examples of the diploma supplement for a range of ehea member countries (european union, 2014f). table 3: outline structure for the diploma supplement supplement category student information qualification type qualification level contents and results gained qualification function additional information certification of supplement national higher education system information note supplement component family name given name date of birth (day/month/year) student identification number (if available) name of qualification title conferred (if applicable and in original language) main field of study for qualification name and status of awarding institution (in original language) name of institution administering qualification if different from awarding institution (in original language) language of instruction/examination level of qualification official length of program access requirements mode of study program requirements program details (e.g., modules or units studied) individual grades/marks/credits obtained from transcript grading scheme and, if available, grade distribution overall classification of qualification (in original language) access to further study professional status (if applicable) additional information (if relevant) further information sources date signature capacity official stamp or seal where information isn't provided, a rationale is needed. source: http://www.ehu.lt/files/diploma%20supplement_en.pdf, retrieved march 1, 2014. to encourage and monitor adoption of and compliance with these tools, the european commission has a certification-type process that awards labels to higher education institutions that demonstrate they are implementing the ects and/or the diploma supplement correctly. through the labelling process, important issues related to differences in the development and implementation of national qualifications frameworks, use of learning outcomes, and in the measurement of student workload have emerged. an expert working group has been assembled to address these issues and the outcomes of 51 their work will be presented in the new ects user guide, anticipated in 2015 (european union, 2014b). institutions value the labelling process because it certifies a level of transparency and state of progress that strongly support[s] the internationalization of curricula (p. 9). united kingdom system overview responsibility for higher education in the united kingdom is delegated to england, scotland, wales, and northern ireland. higher education institutions are independent, self-governing bodies established by royal charter or legislation, and most are partially funded by government. there are 133 members of universities uk, which includes the executive heads of all of the universities in the united kingdom and some colleges of higher education (universities uk, 2013a). in addition, there are over 550 institutions that offer courses leading to a degree, but who do not have the authority to award degrees; a university or higher education college that has degree granting authority validates their courses (government of alberta, 2007). further details on the overall uk system are provided in appendix g. transcript standards and the higher education achievement report (hear) in the uk, the academic registrars council (academic registrars council (arc), n.d.) is the professional organization for senior managers responsible for academic administration of student matters in publicly funded universities and colleges of higher education in the united kingdom (p. 1). while the organization, like arucc, appears to provide services, such as professional development opportunities and practitioner groups focused on admissions, assessment, and student records, there does not appear to be a publicly accessible transcript guide similar to the arucc guide. in 2003, higher education institutions in the uk agreed to issue a diploma supplement-like document to all graduates, in accordance with the berlin communique of the bologna process and conforming to the strict guidelines set out by the uk national recognition information centre (naric) and the europe unit of universities uk (uk higher education europe unit, 2006). following subsequent years of consultation and trials for an appropriate solution for the united kingdom (universities uk, 2007; universities uk, 2012), the higher education achievement report (hear) was introduced in 2012, as a [c]oncise, electronic document produced by a higher education institution which provides a record of a students achievement during their time in higher education. a maximum of six pages longit must adhere to a standard templateand be verified by the academic registrar or equivalent officer in each institution to confirm credibility (universities uk, 2012, p. 5). the hear conforms to the data fields required for the diploma supplement, yet is distinct in that it is [a]n electronic rather than paper document; is an ongoing record that is updated throughout the students career with the institution.; and it contains information about the students non-academic achievements that can be verified and validated by the institution (ecctis, 2013). universities uk (2014) has produced a hear reference pack for institutions, which includes an overview of the contents of the hear/diploma supplement, detailed commentary defining what is to be included in each section, a checklist for implementation, and standardized information on the national education system. the hear comprises eight main sections, following the format of the european diploma supplement, as 52 seen in table 4 below. bringing it all together introducing the hear (universities uk, 2012) also includes a comprehensive glossary of acronyms and terms (pp. 26-27) and an exemplar hear document (pp. 46-57). table 4: summary of contents of the higher education achievement report item components 1. information identifying the holder of the qualification 1.1 family name(s) 1.2 given name(s) 1.3 date of birth (day/month/year) 1.4 student identification number or code (if available) 2. information identifying the qualification 2.1 name of qualification and (if applicable) title conferred 2.2 main field(s) of study for the qualification 2.3 name and status of awarding institution 2.4 name and status of institution (if different from 2.3) administering studies (in original language) 2.5 language(s) of instruction/examination 3. information on the level of the qualification 3.1 level of qualification 3.2 official length of programme 3.3 access requirement(s) 4. information on the contents and results gained 4.1 mode of study 4.2 programme requirements 4.3 programme details (e.g., modules or units studied), and the individual grades / marks / credits obtained (if this information is available on an official transcript this should be used here) 4.4 grading scheme and, if available, grade distribution guidance 4.5 overall classification of the qualification (in original language) 5. information on the function of the qualification 5.1 access to further study 5.2 professional status (if applicable) 6. additional information 6.1 additional awards (accredited performance in non-academic contexts) 6.2 additional recognized activities undertaken by students which demonstrate achievement 6.3 university, professional and departmental prizes 6.4 further information 7. certification of the hear 7.1 date 7.2 signature 7.3 capacity 7.4 official stamp 9. information on the national higher education system source: higher education achievement report a reference pack for institutions. universities uk, 2014, pp.2-4. the international education guide for the assessment of education from the united kingdoms of great britain and northern ireland (government of alberta, 2007) provides a comprehensive overview of history and development of the secondary and postsecondary education system in the uk. considerable detail is provided with respect to program opportunities, admission requirements, grading, and 53 progression. the document also includes numerous examples of certificate and degree parchments and transcripts from a variety of higher education institutions in the united kingdom (pp. 63-80). united states system overview higher education in the united states is a decentralized, complex system with approximately 4,500 colleges, universities and junior colleges, including but not limited to public and private universities and colleges, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and technical colleges. adding to the complexity is a combination of national, state, and institutional responsibility for postsecondary education. the national government, through the us department of education (usde), establishes policies related to federal funding, predominately research and financial aid, administers the distribution of those funds, collects data and oversees research, identifies and focuses national attention on major issues in education, and enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination in programs that receive federal funds (united states department of education, 2013). states are engaged in transcript and transfer practices applicable to their two- and four-year public institutions. examples include common course numbering (e.g., florida) and block transfer mandates (e.g. oregon). beyond the scope of federal and state engagement, institutions continue to exert a significant degree of autonomy, especially among private institutions. further details on the us system are contained in appendix g. components directly related to the arucc pccat project scope are described below. transcript standards the american association of collegiate registrars and admission officers (aacrao) represents 2,600 institutions in 40 countries, and is a recognized authority on student admissions, academic records and enrolment services, particularly in north america. it produces an authoritative academic record and transcript guide (2011), which provides a summary of best academic transcript practices of relevance in the us context and categorizes information for inclusion on the credential as: essential; recommended; optional; not recommended. the guide acknowledges the substantial variability among student information databases and transcript practices across institutions and is not exhaustive. it contains a number of sections including a very helpful section that explores the area of electronic data exchange of transcript information. with respect to transcript electronic data exchange and reporting, the nces institute of education sciences issues data standards and guidelines, including the common education data standards (ceds) project, which is a national collaborative effort to develop voluntary, common data standards for a set of education data elements (us department of education, common education data standards, n.d.). the purpose is to streamline data exchange and analysis, but there are no elements explicitly applicable to transcript reporting. transcripts are used in many nces studies and require standardized coding, 54 which is done by the researchers after-the-fact using a taxonomy system called the college course map (ccm) as there is no standardization for transcript recording (institute of education sciences, n.d.). the aacrao guide addresses electronic data exchange of transcript information and demonstrates a helpful example of how one region has integrated that topic with transcript standards. transfer credit standards aacrao (2012) has also published transfer credit practices of designated educational institutions, a voluntary exchange of information on practices for the acceptance of transfer credit. further, it offers a section on national transfer credit practices on its website that is only accessible to aacrao members (2012). this particular resource provides, by institution, information on accreditation, higher level credit transfer protocols, types of degrees and programs offered, contact information, whether or not plar is accepted, and if an appeals process for transfer credit is in place. it uses a standardized nomenclature in that the categories and types of transfer credit available are subject to specific definitions. the website also includes a joint statement on the transfer and award of credit signed by the following national associations: aacrao, the american council on education and the council for higher education accreditation (american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (aacrao), 2001). although there are no nationwide standardized rules for transfer and requirements vary by institution, most states have developed transfer systems and policies to support within state student mobility. the use of learning outcomes as a basis for transfer is well-established in the us, with notable examples in pennsylvania and oregon (fitzgibbon, 2014). an example of a multi-state initiative is the interstate passport initiative, a transfer framework of the western interstate commission for higher education (2013) to facilitate students in five western states (california, hawaii, north dakota, oregon, and utah), in transferring from community colleges to four-year institutions by focusing on learning outcomes. participation at the institution, system or state level is voluntary. a specific state example of a system that offers streamlined and readily understood transcripts and transfer credit is the north dakota university system (ndus) that has instituted a statewide initiative to make it possible for students to easily transfer from one campus to another within the system (north dakota university system (ndus), n.d.a.). to do so requires an articulation agreement. ndus stipulates minimum content for each agreement (including department and program name of both the sending and receiving institutions, specific admission requirements to the program, an outline of the program specifying the courses and credits to be earned, completion requirements, timeline for completion, and signatures and dates authorizing the agreement). ndus also has a general education requirement transfer agreement (gerta) that outlines an approved set of general education courses that are transferable among university system campuses and north dakotas five tribal colleges. the transfer of coursework among university system campuses, the tribal colleges and north dakota private colleges is made easier by the use of a common course numbering system (north dakota university system (ndus), n.d.b.). 55 the american council on education (ace) (2014) has a college credit recommendation service (credit) whose purpose is to connect workplace learning with colleges and universities by helping people get academic credit for formal courses and examinations taken outside of traditional degree programs. ace provides course equivalency information to make appropriate recommendations for college credit, but institutions make local decisions about awarding credit. despite this, there is evidence of nomenclature differences. for example, credit for prior learning goes by different names including pla, experiential learning and alternative or equivalent credit. transfer is an important element in the us higher education system. peter and cataldi (2005), in their study the road less traveled? students who enrol in multiple institutions, found that attending more than one institution during the course of undergraduate enrolment is a common practice (p. viii). the national center for education statistics (nces) (us department of education, office of postsecondary education, n.d.) has conducted or sponsored many studies on student transfer behaviour, compiling data and statistics on the number and percentage of students who, for example, transfer from two-year institutions to four-year institutions, four-year institutions to other four-year institutions, two-year to two-year, and so on, and the characteristics of the students and the programs they transfer among. the national student clearinghouse research center, amongst its many activities, monitors student mobility on a national scale across close to 4,000 participating colleges and universities (national student clearinghouse research center, spring 2014). in transfer & mobility: a national view of predegree student movement in postsecondary institutions, the clearinghouse conducted a five-year longitudinal study of 2.8 million students who began postsecondary studies in 2006 (hossler, d., shapiro, d., dundar, a., ziskin, m., chen, j., zerquera, d., torres, v., 2012, february) and found that one-third of all students change institutions at some point before earning a degree, a rate consistent across all types of institutions outside of the for-profit sector (p. 5). of those, 25% transfer more than once. the report concludes by noting the potential for changing the paradigm (p. 48) when examining supports for institutions and transfer students: the growing emphasis on holding institutions accountable for student success has, to some extent, reinforced the traditional reporting paradigm in which the institution is the unit of analysis and students are viewed as simply entering, progressing linearly, and completing a degree or not. indeed, to date much of what we know about student success focuses on the efforts of individual institutions, through programs and policies, to improve student persistence and graduation at the institution of original enrollment. we know far less about the factors associated with student success for mobile students. the analyses in this report suggest that a new view may prove useful, in which students are the unit of analysis and institutions are viewed as stepping stones along a diverse set of educational paths (p. 8). the national center for education statistics has also examined enrolment in institutions in the us and notes that more than 45% of postsecondary students are enrolled in two-year, public colleges (institute of education sciences: national center for education statistics [nces], 2012, december, p. 4). the work of organizations such as the nces, the national clearinghouse and aacrao help to illustrate the value of taking a national lens in the area of transfer in addition to a local view. 56 international emerging themes and opportunities for canada through our review of transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards and practices in four international jurisdictions, and both broad and deep investigation of practices in canada at the national and regional/provincial levels, we have observed a number of themes. by sharing these, the authors are not suggesting any or all are what canadian jurisdictions should implement going forward; rather, the intention is to present opportunities for benchmarking and to encourage additional dialogue appropriate for subsequent phases of the project. in general, systems designed to support transfer and mobility seem to have in common a number of core components that serve as tools or levers to enhance clarity, coherence, confidence, and transparency in the postsecondary education system, for students, institutions, and employers. these core components include strong evidence of collaboration (e.g. through a central coordinating agency or group of agencies); alignment of credentials (e.g., through standards development and/or a qualifications framework, typically built on learning outcomes); advancement of common practices and/or a standardized document that accompanies the academic transcript and degree parchment to provide clarity and further detail about the credential awarded. not exclusive to any particular region and yet highly relevant was the theme of electronic data exchange and the portability of student data. these areas are being viewed as mechanisms to facilitate mobility and efficiencies beyond regional borders. each of these is described further below. system coordination in the european union, each country has responsibility for its higher education system, yet the development of the bologna process and the subsequent formation of the european higher education area provide an overarching framework for coherence and compatibility of postsecondary education credentials across europe. in the united kingdom, the quality assurance agency plays such an overarching role, even though scotland, england, wales, and northern ireland each have authority over local postsecondary systems. in australia, the australian qualifications framework council, an agency of the government of australia, informs the work of each sector. coordination occurs at the local level with each sector developing qualifications that adhere to the aqf. in canada and the united states, where responsibility for postsecondary education is decentralized to the provinces/states (although in the us there is also federal involvement), responsibility for structures to support transcription standards and student mobility also falls within provincial/state and institutional authority. that said, there is strong national coordination on major issues in postsecondary education at the government level through the united states department of education and the council of ministers of education, canada, respectively, as well as through sector-based professional organizations such as pccat and arucc. most relevant to this project are the american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (aacrao) and the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc), who have each produced guides for recommended standard practices for academic transcripts. 57 the international research suggests that the engagement of national organizations working together is critical to achieving synergistic improvements in the areas of transcript standards and transfer credit. alignment of credentials collaboration within and across jurisdictions tends to be supported by coordinating levers and tools that enhance mobility. as an example, a qualifications framework serves as the primary context for understanding the continuum and relationship of qualifications offered in some of the jurisdictions studied. typically providing an overview of the credentials, admissions requirements, normative duration of each qualification, and a series of statements describing learning expectations (expressed as learning outcomes), a qualifications framework assists in the comparison of credentials and nomenclature across geographic and systemic jurisdictions which, in turn, is argued facilitates mobility (ulicna, d.; coles, m.; makulec, a.; duda, a.; schaepkens, l.; charalambous, s.; mernagh, e., 2011). qualifications frameworks are typically used in conjunction with a diploma supplement or similar standardized document explaining the credentials. the focus of qualifications frameworks is clearly on learning outcomes that can be demonstrated and assessed rather than on course inputs. while a number of qualifications frameworks also include a measure of hours or credits typically required for each credential, they emphasize that such measures are intended as an indicator of effort required. in sum, a qualifications framework is one of the components of a sample toolkit that assists in aligning understandings of systems and nomenclature. of the international jurisdictions studied as part of this research, the united states is the only jurisdiction that does not have a national qualifications framework. as noted earlier in this report, the comprehensive australian qualifications framework (aqf) provides a national standard against which all postsecondary institutions credentials can be compared. one feature of the aqf that appears to stand-out for its potential to enhance transparency, clarity, and as a result, student mobility, is the aqf pathways policy, which documents the expected level of advanced standing credit to be awarded toward a higher qualification in the same or a related content area. while not part of the european higher education area (ehea), australia has always had three-year undergraduate degrees, which meant it could comfortably align its qualifications with the bologna three-cycle system. australia has aligned its qualifications framework with those of several countries in the asia pacific and has been an active participant in discussions of a potential asia pacific qualifications framework (apec secretariat, 2009). in sum, aligning qualifications frameworks has been achieved for the uk (quality assurance agency for higher education, 2013), europe, and australia (ulicna, d.; coles, m.; makulec, a.; duda, a.; schaepkens, l.; charalambous, s.; mernagh, e., 2011). in canada, aucc has played an important role in monitoring developments in the ehea and in briefing canadian universities. it is a strength for canada that it has a qualifications framework that is endorsed and adopted by the jurisdictions across the country. future phases of the arucc pccat project may wish to further explore and integrate the work that aucc has done regarding alignment of the canadian degree qualifications framework with the bologna three- 58 cycle framework. as such a suggestion, while inter-related to nomenclature and transcription, requires further study and is beyond the scope of this arucc pccat research, it is noted in the context of the advantages various elements contribute to transcription and transfer nomenclature and for enhanced mobility, clarity and transparency more generally. further, as the government of canada has established a goal to work with the provinces and territories, canadian educational institutions, and other stakeholders to double the size of our international student base from 239,131 in 2011 to more than 450,000 by 2022 (government of canada, foreign affairs, trade and development canada, 2014, p. 11), it will also be critical that standards and guidelines are developed to efficiently and effectively assess international transcripts. adoption of common or best practices or an explanatory document that accompanies the transcript and degree/diploma parchment among the jurisdictions that appear to be most systemically organized around a coherent transfer and mobility structure (europe, united kingdom, and australia), a document has been introduced that is, at a minimum, issued in addition to the academic transcript and parchment upon graduation, and that provides a detailed description of the program and courses completed and the system and authority that has issued the credential, according to a pre-determined and jurisdictionally approved standard. in the european higher education area, this document is the diploma supplement; in the united kingdom, it is the higher education achievement record; and in australia, it is the australian higher education graduation statement. in each of these jurisdictions, there are regulatory or certification processes in place to ensure compliance with the system-wide standards. the development of the diploma supplement through the bologna process and the european higher education area is very significant for canada. in addition to providing information on a students learning outcomes, the diploma supplement helps to understand and situate a credential within a countrys postsecondary qualifications. the current practice is that an international assessor has to take a transcript from an institution in canada and map it to a postsecondary education system or qualifications framework. the diploma supplement puts those two pieces together (natasha sawh, personal communication, february 4, 2014). similar documents, such as the higher education achievement record in the uk and the higher education graduation statement in australia, serve the same purpose. in the united states and canada and in the absence of such documents, the academic transcript with its accompanying key, and the degree parchment are the official declarative documents. assessors often use these documents and, for international assessment, do so in conjunction with a qualifications framework (where available), to fully understand the credentials; hence the inclusion of questions in the national survey for this project to confirm whether admission assessors actually use qualifications frameworks. within north america, transcript guidelines produced by aacrao and arucc respectively are intended to be descriptive of recommended practice, rather than prescriptive of required practice, recognizing that institutional autonomy governs actual practice. therefore, testing the usage and awareness of these guides were equally important questions to probe in the national survey. 59 the european diploma supplement, the australian higher education graduation statement (hegs), the uk higher education achievement record (hear), the american aacrao transcript guide, and the aacrao transfer credit practices database are all promising practices that can inform credential and transfer credit nomenclature standards development in canada. competency-based learning outcomes and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) the focus on competency-based learning outcomes is another key initiative that is emerging across the european higher education area, as well as in australia, the united states and, as the earlier research shows, in canada. the focus changes from these are the courses i took to this is what i learned and what i can do (natasha sawh, personal communication, february 3, 2014). this shift in focus helps employers to understand and compare credentials. related to a focus on learning outcomes is prior learning assessment and recognition (plar), or other methods used to recognize learning achieved in informal contexts with academic credit. while plar and its implications for transcripts and transferability of credits was a strong theme across the canadian research, it was also evident in our international jurisdictional research, referenced as student-centred education, and recognition of experiential education. learning outcomes are increasingly being used as a tool in a wide variety of contexts, including for quality assurance, accountability, in curriculum mapping, joint program development, and to compare student learning for transfer decisions. this area bears close monitoring by those involved in transcription and transfer credit nomenclature development. electronic data exchange electronic data exchange was a continual theme that emerged in the research. technology creates opportunities to enhance both the content and distribution/transmission of higher education transcripts to broaden e-transcripts to become e-portfolios for students, containing more information about their college and university education and experiences. in etranscripts: reflecting student learning and showcasing unique university experiences, nguyen and kallman (2012) propose that the transcript be re-envisioned to provide more robust information providing evidence of learning, growth and outcomes. they argue that the transcript should evolve with the evolution of technology and uses the example of stanford university envisioning a secure, linkable etranscript integrated with a students electronic portfolio. further, pittinsky (february 10, 2014), in extending the transcript, suggest that the traditional transcript, which has gravitated to a basic document structure and contains courses, grades, and credits in some chronological sequence, should be extended to include co-curricular and competency-based 60 information. he proposes the development of a postsecondary achievement report (par) as a concise, electronic document that provides a standardized, machine-readable report of the full range of higher education experience. he suggests that britains higher education achievement report and australians higher education graduation statement could serve as models. groningen declaration there is international interest in the portability of student data as a means to enhance mobility. this desire has resulted in the creation of the groningen declaration, which is both a movement and document that was signed on april 16 2012 in the netherlands (groningen declaration on digital student data repositories worldwide, 2012). the goal of the declaration is student mobility: [d]igital student data portability and digital student data repositories are becoming increasingly concrete and relevant realities, and in the years to come, they will contribute decisively to the free movement of students and skilled workers on a global scale (2012, p. 1). the declaration is a commitment to create convergence rather than uniformity, and the consideration of data security, privacy, identification, compatibility, comparability, and more (2012, p. 1). it includes a vision for phasing out paper exchange. as of april 2013, canada is not a signatory. organizations in the following countries have signed the declaration: australia, belgium, the peoples republic of china, france, italy, mexico, romania, the us, india, netherlands, norway, russian federation, south africa, and the uk. the full declaration is available online13 and members of arucc and the canadian pesc user group participated in the global 2014 groningen declaration conference in washington d.c. the timeliness of the work of arucc, pccat and the canadian pesc user group is striking in light of the groningen declaration. future phases of the arucc pccat project will want to contemplate the implications and opportunities introduced by the work of the canadian pesc user group and the groningen declaration. 13 http://groningendeclaration.net/ 61 current canadian perspective on transcript and transfer credit practices the early advance poll, the jurisdictional workshops held for practitioners across canada and the national survey represented three examples of primary research and consultation for this study with those involved in both transcript and transfer credit work. the website and sample review also contributed to this section. in total, the primary research, in addition to the 23 stakeholder interviews included the following: advance poll by advisory group - 25 participants; website review - approximately 70; sample analysis - 44 institutions submitted 145 samples of transcripts, legends, transfer credit policies, transfer credit supplementary information, and related documents; workshops - 103 postsecondary participants from public and private colleges, institutes, universities (both undergraduate and graduate); national survey - 119 participants - primarily postsecondary (public and private) from registrarial operations (57% institutional response rate; most schools and organizations had one person respond). the findings from each are described in turn below. given the size of the national survey, it is covered separately beginning on page 73. arucc pccat advisory group information on the advisory groups demographics and contributions are in appendix i. to assist with the research, an advance poll was sent of which twenty-five (25) responses were received, for a response rate of 93%. the information provided informed the development of the national survey and the workshops. the insights provided by the respondents through the advance poll served to identify emergent themes and potential questions that required validation by a national survey. these early indicators helped to inform the appropriateness of and need for this type of research and the value of standards guides and glossaries. 62 canadian postsecondary institutional websites and sample review as part of the jurisdictional research, approximately 70 university and college websites from across canada were reviewed with a goal to inform development of the national survey questions. in addition, 44 universities and colleges submitted 145 sample transcripts, policy and procedure documents, and forms for review and comparison. a full catalogue of samples received is included in appendix j of this report. website review a select number of canadian university websites were accessed in search of transcript policies and practices, and transfer credit nomenclature practices as they relate to transcripts. the review revealed that universities do not commonly post detailed information specifically related to official transcripts and that there is little consistency about what information is available. the information that is available is normally published on the registrars webpage and/or in the university academic calendar. all universities examined post information about how to order transcripts and the associated charges and caveats (e.g., that normally a transcript will not be produced and/or released for students with outstanding debts) but very limited information, if any, was posted about the content or substance of the transcript. most universities indicate that the transcript is a confidential document and will only be released upon request of the student, normally directly to a third party as requested or stamped issued to student if provided directly to the student. many universities indicate a definition of a transcript, with the majority indicating that the transcript is an official copy of the students complete academic record and separate copies for different degree programs will not be issued. most universities provide information about transfer credit in greater or lesser detail and many publish course equivalency tables, but there is little or no reference to how these will be presented on transcripts. a review of selected colleges14 revealed that, as with universities, colleges provide information to students or former students about how to order a transcript and many colleges post relatively detailed summaries of academic policies and procedures but it is unclear from the websites how these translate into transcript presentation or notation. there is a great deal of evidence online regarding institutional grading scales for both colleges and universities. appendix k provides a summary of institutional websites demonstrating practices of providing more detail about what is included in institutional grading scales, how to interpret the information and, to a lesser extent, how to read a transcript. the university of saskatchewan (2011) also posts a comprehensive nomenclature report to support consistent language incorporating all policies, rules and procedures or academic and administrative nomenclature, but does not articulate what specific nomenclature, codes or symbols are used on the official transcript. this comprehensive nomenclature policy appeared to be a relatively unique institutional practice in canada. 14 cegep transcript policy is legislated by the quebec government and is outlined in the quebec section of this report. 63 as previously mentioned, appendix h provides an inventory of the transfer credit and nomenclature policies available at a sampling of canadian institutions, which were provided as a result of the national survey. those with published transfer credit nomenclature are noted. transcript and transfer credit samples universities and colleges were asked to provide samples of institutional transcripts and associated legends/keys, as well as policies, procedures and guidelines related to transfer credit and nomenclature. as noted, 44 institutions provided a total of 145 samples for review. the variety received presented a wide range of practices. in addition, the world education services (wes) staff in new york city provided a summary of transcript elements they would consider best practice to facilitate evaluation and assessment, and supplied samples from four canadian universities to illustrate the practices they would like to see. transcripts an overview of the various university and college transcripts reveals wide variation in practices with very few particular patterns consistent among colleges, universities or regions. trends that were evident are noted below. most, but not all, institutions use some form of security paper and seal for official transcripts and display the name and location of the institution, the date of issue of the transcript and the registrars electronic signature. some universities include accreditation-related information, e.g., member of association of universities and colleges of canada, association of the commonwealth, international association of universities. most institutions indicate that the transcript is only official if issued directly to a receiving institution and/or the transcript is clearly marked issued to student if not forwarded directly to an institution. student identifiers include name and identification number, and sometimes the birthdate, normally only the month and day. in some cases, previous names are also included on the transcript. most transcripts include a legend or key with the grading scale(s) and explanation of other codes, symbols and notations. all transcripts provide a chronological summary of registered courses, usually in ascending order (i.e., most recent last) although the chronology may be within academic careers (e.g., undergraduate followed by graduate). based on the samples submitted for the arucc pccat project, table 5 provides an overview of what is regularly included and what is sometimes included. the world education services (wes) is a non-profit organization that conducts research and annually conducts more than 100,000 credential assessments internationally (2014). wes, when reviewing transcripts, also looks for and routinely requests the following information as, according to wes, it would appear this type of information is not always readily available (margarita sianou, personal communication, february 25 and 27, 2014): degree length (e.g., three-year general, four-year degree); whether lab components are included in a course (e.g. physics, with lab); 64 the major (minor) if the degree is not completed (normally included for completed degrees); list of credits needed for diploma/degree completion; course code definitions on the transcript legend (i.e., include clear criteria of unit value and definitions); transfer credits (i.e., include academic institution and source e.g., course, exam-based, ib, ap, etc.). table 5: overview of sample transcript components found in samples submitted transcript component normally included credentials granted e.g., degrees, diplomas, certificates and date of conferral program registration information (e.g., degree/diploma program, academic plan or concentration [e.g., major/minor]) term and date (year) course information including course number, course title, grade, units of course weight, grade points, remarks or notations if applicable; no grade or grade points listed if course(s) in progress total units of course weight (credits earned) and grade points to calculate gpa (by term; cumulative) calculated gpa (term and cumulative) academic standing other term honours e.g., deans honour list issued to student (where applicable) sometimes included academic probation suspension or expulsion for academic discipline (not clear if time limited) suspension or expulsion for non-academic discipline (not clear if time limited) total credits required for credential (quebec universities - considered best practice by wes) total credits earned, differentiating transfer credits and institution credits transfer credits most universities include credits granted from other institutions or programs. most, but not all, include the name of the institution the credits are transferred from. some list the specific course or course equivalent (considered a best practice by wes) (margarita sianou, personal communication, february 25 and 27, 2014) but some only list the number of credits granted. many indicate if the credit was earned 65 on academic exchange, letter of permission, a previous institution or from ib or ap credits. some institutions cite if the credit was granted as plar. normally transfer credits are listed at the beginning of the transcript. numerous examples of transfer credit policies were submitted as part of the research study, some of which include references to nomenclature. appendix h provides the inventory and identifies those wherein transfer nomenclature is embedded. most universities and colleges have clearly articulated policies and procedures for assessing and awarding transfer credit. samples of institutional policies, procedures, and/or forms were submitted from 24 institutions, some of which were also noted in the survey responses. many colleges submitted policies and procedures related to plar, but no universities. one university submitted a sample transcript for a nursing program showing credit recognized from prior learning, a practice that was not uncommon for ontario universities admitting registered nurses to complete a degree. from the samples submitted it appears that, in general, colleges (and former colleges) provide greater clarity and breadth of information about transfer credits. transfer credits are listed at the beginning of the transcript showing the transferring institution and date, the course number and title (or noted as unspecified) and the credit hours awarded. the end of the transcript shows the overall credits earned, differentiating those transferred and those earned at the college. grades are not transferred with credits and therefore are not included in the gpa calculation. samples submitted from universities predominately state the transferring institution or source (e.g., ib, ap) and the total credits transferred; in some cases the course numbers of credits transferred are listed in a string with the credit weights but no further detail is supplied nor is it clear how the credits factor into the total credits required or earned for the degree. electronic transcripts the pesc xml college transcript implementation guide was also submitted. the guide provides a brief description of data elements (tags) and indicates whether the element is required or optional. the recommended use column reflects recommendations from the pesc approved college transcript schema, standards of good practice as defined by the aacrao transcript guide, and generally recommended practices for exchanging electronic transcripts. conclusion there appears to be a wide variation in practice among universities and colleges in canada about what is included on an official transcript, how it is displayed, and what information is available on institutional websites describing policies and practices with respect to transcripts. transfer credit policies and practices also appear unique to institutions, with a general trend to being more transparent to prospective students about what they might expect when transferring institutions. many, however, continue to reserve decisions on transfer credit until after admission, if pre-arranged agreements and articulation paths are not in place. institutions and users of transcripts (postsecondary institutions, employers, governments and non-governmental agencies) would clearly benefit from greater 66 consistency and transparency in transcript production. the development of a national transcript guide could be extremely useful in assisting institutions in defining policies and practices, but its value will be realized only if it is widely communicated and used across the canadian postsecondary sector. regional workshop thematic findings the background details regarding the regional workshops are contained in appendix l. all regional associations which are allied with arucc actively supported these workshops. six occurred either in person, through teleconference or both and involved arucc and pccat representatives from across canada. in total, 103 individuals primarily from postsecondary institutions, participated in the workshops. the exchanges within the workshops provided a rich opportunity to explore a number of topics of relevance to the arucc pccat research. the thematic findings are shared below. themes 1. affirming the value of the 2003 arucc transcript guide across the country, a proportion of workshop participants were aware of and used the 2003 arucc transcript guide. in general, they found it a useful, practical and relevant resource in the following broad areas: as an articulation of standards and principles; to clarify common terminology and provide definitions; to underscore the role of the transcript; as a practical framework, especially in the ranking of transcript elements as essential, recommended, optional, or not recommended; as a means to describe and to promote a vision for best practice in transcript annotations and relevant practices/processes; as representative of a canadian postsecondary culture that values best practice research and awareness. the guide was considered useful in influencing and framing institutional transcript standards and policy, and as a foundation for the development of or enhancements to student information systems. 2. lack of awareness of the 2003 arucc transcript guide while some workshop participants used and valued the guide, some participants indicated a lack of awareness of the guides existence and were only made aware of it by virtue of the announcement of the arucc/pccat national study. had they known about it sooner, these participants indicated they would have found the guide a useful resource. even fewer were aware of the aacrao transcript guide. additionally, some registrarial participants did not know where to access these guides. there is a lack of awareness that resources such as the arucc and aacrao transcript guides exist. 67 3. 2003 arucc transcript guide enhancement needs gaps identified in the current guide relate to a shifting landscape, resulting in a need to test whether principles and recommendations articulated in the guide are still relevant and valid in the present and emergent context. examples include the following: new and emerging technological advancements that need to be considered and anticipated overall: o changes to how courses are delivered; o advancements that affect inter-institutional exchange of transcripts; growing number of institutional partnerships with divergent customs and standards; increasing student mobility; new legislation such as privacy; a need to explore the legal contours of a transcript (i.e., what represents a current and common definition of what a trusted transcript document means?). workshop participants pointed to terminology used in the guide that was rapidly becoming obsolete such as correspondence courses or electronic data interchange (edi) and which needed to be updated. in addition, they identified a need for the guide to address how changes in traditional classroom delivery of courses: distance education, online or blended delivery, as well as the proliferation of moocs should or should not be reflected on a transcript. institutions are challenged by how to navigate and create joint transcripts and to reconcile different transcript expectations and practices of institutional partners, especially in the international realm. it was noted by workshop participants and survey respondents that there is sometimes misalignment between the 2003 arucc guide and other expectations, which can then lead to variable approaches. examples include the protocols for electronic data exchange in some jurisdictions, the requirements of vendor developed student information systems, and the different requirements embedded in government-mandated policies such as the bc governments transcript maintenance agreement (dqab). 4. 2003 arucc transcript guide enhancement recommendations the following represents an overview of the main suggestions to strengthen future editions of the guide: include more detail on transcript practices with less emphasis on history and context; build on current technology to enhance its usability; represent more equitably all postsecondary options in canada; reassess and reconsider the transcript element ranking recommendations in the guide (essential, recommended, optional, not recommended) for currency and relevance, and balance with broader institutional or collective jurisdictional goals; provide a rationale for practices recommended in the guide such as that all credentials should be displayed on a single transcript; 68 include a rationale for ranking of elements (essential, recommended, etc.) and place transcript element ranking recommendations within the context of applicable laws or protocols; provide greater detail on best practices such as transfer credit, partnerships, grading, progression, academic history, co-curricular records, legends, etc.; include samples of best practice transcripts in the guide as a visual aid to institutions; simplify the language used in the guide. some non-university participants found the current guide to be too university focused and would appreciate it be expanded to enhance the presence of colleges. it was suggested that the current guides ranking of elements (essential, etc.) is too narrow. these recommended rankings should be reassessed in light of broader institutional goals to ensure the transcript standards are aligned with and not a barrier to important jurisdictional or institutional initiatives such as the automation of transfer credit between and amongst institutions. a rationale for these rankings and for other practices identified in the guide would be helpful. rather than the guide simply indicating that it is not recommended, it would be indispensable to know what has underpinned the recommendation such as human rights legislation or other applicable laws, best practice protocols, etc. structural changes to the guide would improve readability and usability: suggestions included providing an index and using current technology (e.g., pop-up windows to supply definitions without cluttering the document). 5. electronic transmission of transcripts many workshop participants identified this aspect of transcript delivery as needing extra attention in the guide. as electronic exchanges of transcripts are becoming more common, this is forcing the reexamination of the definitions of official versus unofficial transcripts. depending on the jurisdiction, transcripts exchanged electronically through collective initiatives may not include the same level of detail available through a paper transcript such as program of study and credential, or grading schemes and scales, leading to challenges in interpretation. participants identified the opportunity to align this project with work being done by the member organizations of the canadian pesc user group. 6. institutional autonomy participants across the country stressed the importance of institutional autonomy; it was cited as the key component that takes precedence over best practices related to transcript and transfer credit pathway development. the point was made that institutionally-specific academic governance committees have ultimate authority and their decisions supersede best practice standards. 69 some jurisdictions/postsecondary institutions do not have explicit overarching transcript annotation and nomenclature policies outside of policies on grading and/or academic honesty. other institution types within some jurisdictions must conform to government-set standards and protocols on transcripts such as quebec colleges and cegeps as well as some university programs that are closely allied with government-regulated programs such as education, apprenticeship, etc. within their own institutions, participants found it invaluable to point to and use best practice resources such as the arucc and similar guides to help shape and inform policy and practice, and to promote consistency internally. 7. influence of student information systems on transcript standards across the country, workshop participants emphasized the influence vendor products are having on standards development. also apparent was evidence that lack of resources for systems development (whether for internally built or to customize vendor products) impedes institutional ability to implement best practice in terms of both transcript and transfer credit terminology standards. in the first instance, examples were cited wherein new systems purchased from vendors lacked the capacity to incorporate established canadian standards or institutional standards. alternatively, once bought systems were implemented, evolving to those standards represented additional costs to institutions making changes unattainable. with regard to systems built within an institution, the same challenges were evident in the workshop conversations. in a few instances, the changes brought on by new systems purchased from vendors were viewed positively as it compelled the institutions to re-examine critically the relevance and viability of past practice. 8. variable jurisdictional/institutional approaches to transcript annotations institutions across the country identified a variety of practices used in annotating academic history including by chronology, program, level, or method of admission. a great number of differing practices were noted in terms of what appears on an institutional transcript including but not limited to the inclusion of non-credit courses, non-academic notations, milestones, grades for courses transferred from other institutions, credit weights and values, calculation of averages, progression toward credential, credential conferred, dates of program/credential, courses taken elsewhere while still at home institution, academic honesty issues, grading practices, graduate milestones, cotutelle arrangements, etc. 9. variable jurisdictional/institutional approaches to transfer credit nomenclature some provincial/regional or association guidelines on transfer credit nomenclature were cited by participants as having variable definitions posted. amongst and within institutions, inconsistencies were noted regarding how transfer credit earned through partnerships are identified on the transcript and in the terminology used. 70 it was noted that terminology that may be considered typical in some jurisdictions is not well understood or used in the same way by other institutions. to illustrate, residency, which is a term used by many institutions to describe the minimum number of credits that must be taken at an institution in order to qualify for a credential, is avoided by some as it is ambiguous and confusing to students. residency could apply to medical students, provincial legislation governing who is considered a resident of a canadian province, etc. by way of another example, letter of permission is a term not used in quebec universities for transfer activities among quebec universities; instead, this process is called the inter-university transfer agreement (clara spadafora, personal communications, march 4, 2014), the term exemption can sometimes mean a student has been given an equivalence in ontario colleges, whereas in quebec colleges and cegeps, exemption has not been used in decades, although it still appears on the transcript legend. the term has been replaced by dispensation, which means that the student has been excused from taking a core course for the diploma, usually for compelling medical reasons. the interchangeable and differing use of advanced standing as well as transfer credit and equivalency were also highlighted. some institutions have already started to move away from partnership terminology that is too explicit and potentially misleading (e.g., 2 + 2 or joint partnerships) and are opting for more generic language such as transfer agreements. the workshop findings highlighted the degree of difference in transfer nomenclature across regions and nationally. 10. identification of and reflection on best practices when asked for examples of best or promising practices in the realm of transcript standards and transfer credit nomenclature, workshop participants tended to identify the various councils on admission and transfer, especially the pioneering cats such as bccat and acat, which represent a collective or jurisdictional approach. the aacrao transcript guide was also identified by a few institutions as providing a useful resource; however, it was not generally well known or used amongst the participants. participants expressed a desire for greater best practice identification and research in the following areas: how or whether to reflect institutional partnerships on transcripts; whether to include grades earned at other institutions either through partnerships or on a letter of permission/inter-university transfer on home transcript; how or whether plar or challenge exam should be annotated on a transcript; the role of the co-curricular record in an academic transcript; validating translations of a home institutions transcript; 71 the organization of academic history on a transcript and the role of milestones, both nonacademic and academic; identification of fraud or academic honesty issues on a transcript; legends and customization or standardization of institutional transcripts. 11. focus on principles and rationale although much detail was provided during workshop discussions that pointed to differing methods, standards and reasons for same across institutions, workshop participants stressed the need for a robust framework to guide the development and enhancement of transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards. the clear articulation of principles and a sound rationale to underpin recommendations were viewed as providing invaluable guidance to institutions and jurisdictions. 12. valuing the consultations one immediate positive outcome of conducting the consultations through workshops was that they provided an opportunity and a forum for colleagues from a variety of institutions and jurisdictions to share their own policies, practices and approaches, and to reflect on a desired future state. the opportunity to discuss issues relevant to transcripts and transfer credit in a collective setting allowed representatives to hear first-hand from other colleagues, and to interact immediately with the information provided. this helped spark new ideas or approaches to take back to their respective institutions. the workshops also served to enhance engagement in the arucc pccat project and to encourage participation in the national survey. workshop participants sent a clear signal of support for transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards development. 72 national survey findings the findings from the national arucc pccat survey are detailed and extensive. appendix m contains more detailed data; a separate csv file was also provided to arucc and pccat leadership under separate cover. identified below are the higher level findings to inform the next phase of the project. as a codicil, what follows are preliminary findings. a future phase of the arucc pccat project will want to conduct a more detailed analysis of the data to confirm the potential next steps i.e., suggested emergent standards. survey participant demographics the survey was distributed primarily through the arucc and pccat listservs. a total of 119 individuals accessed the survey of which 10 provided only partial responses.15 as depicted in table 6, there were 108 respondents representing 96 unique postsecondary institutions and 11 respondents representing 9 unique non-postsecondary organizations. as a result, there were 105 different and unique organizations involved in the survey. table 6: respondent type and number of unique organizations represented respondent type postsecondary nonpostsecondary total responses number of total responses additional responses per organization total number of unique organizations 108 11 12 2 96 9 119 14 105 determining response rate is somewhat complex for this project primarily because membership to pccat is at the individual level whereas for arucc, it is at the organizational level. table 7 provides an overview. a total of 183 organizations within arucc and pccat received the invitation (postsecondary institutions and non-postsecondary organizations).16 therefore, the organizational response rate to the survey was 57% considering the organizations evident in the membership within both arucc and pccat. 15 as these ten completed questions beyond institutional demographic information, their responses were included in the final results. 16 the survey invitation was subsequently cascaded to a variety of listservs such as warucc, oura, oura graduate, cralo, aarao, bci, bccat, oncat, etc., which, in many instances, duplicated the membership of arucc and pccat. in cases such as the bccat listserv, a number of additional non-pse organizations were represented; however, the core invitees and subsequent respondents represented arucc and pccat members. for arucc, associate and regular members were counted, not corporate or honorary members as the latter two groups are not represented on the arucc listserv. 73 table 7: membership and response rate analysis assoc. total members * total organizations total nonpse institutions total pse institutions represented pccat arucc 137 183 79 183 32 7 47 176 pse organization duplicate members between arucc and pccat non-pse institutional duplicate members between arucc and pccat total unique organizations that received invitation total unique organizations that responded to survey organizational response rate 40 0 183 105 57% * institutional for arucc; individual for pccat of those that responded on behalf of postsecondary institutions, 17 (16%) represented private sector institutions (see figure 2).17 this is not surprising as most of the members in arucc and pccat are from either public postsecondary institutions or, to a lesser extent, non-profit or government organizations. figure 2: public versus private respondents respondent profile the respondents to the survey from postsecondary institutions were primarily represented by those working within the central registrarial, admissions and/or enrolment services area (see figure 3). seventy-four (74, 85%) of the respondents from the central registrarial area were from the public sector and 13 (15%) were from the private sector. 17 the additional responses per institution are included in the balance of the report. 74 figure 3: functional area represented by pse institutional respondents central registrarial area 87, 81% transfer offices 12, 11% graduate 3, 3% central administration 4, 4% student affairs 1, 1% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 number of respondents (total responses = 107) regional demographics ontario (32, 30%), british columbia (31, 29%) and alberta (15, 14%) had the largest participation in the survey. figure 4 provides the overall findings. figure 5 depicts the postsecondary institutional data by province. as an important note, the quebec cegeps are legislated with respect to transcript and transfer credit nomenclature. therefore, one government official participated in the survey on behalf of all the quebec cegeps and colleges; the quebec results throughout this report need to be considered within that context. it is also for this reason, that the quebec cegep/college results are not included in figure 5. to balance these findings, the quebec section of the jurisdictional research provided additional details on the practices for cegeps and colleges (see appendix e). figure 4: respondents by province ontario 32, 30% british columbia 31, 29% alberta 15, 14% quebec 9, 8% saskatchewan 6, 6% manitoba 5, 5% nova scotia 4, 4% new brunswick 4, 4% pei 1, 1% nfld & labrador 0 nwt, yukon, nunavut 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 number of respondents (total = 107) 75 30 35 figure 5: number of responding and non-responding pse institutions by province (with percentage response rates) 100 number of provincial institutions 90 80 responding institutions 70 non-responding institutions 60 50 provincial response rate is reported above each column 52% 40 22 30 20 10 0 87% 4 22% 35% 56% 11 13 24 26 45% 6 7 5 36% 50% 4 18 7 4 4 1 50% 14 1 5 0% 0% 3 sources: the number of institutions per province were taken from provincial ministry websites and/or were provided by local sources within each province.18 institutional type figure 6 provides a summary of institutional type as reported by the respondents. sixty-eight (68, 63%) of the respondents were from universities; 31 (29%) were from colleges (one of which was the government cegep representative); 5 (5%) were from an institute; 1 (1%) was from a theological institution; and 3 (3%) reported other. 18 ab = mike sekulic, personal communications, may 14, 2014; bc = includes public and private schools that are members of bccat; mb = includes private and faith-based schools - jeffrey kehler, personal communications, may 14, 2014; nb, ns, pei, nfld & lab = phil blanger, personal communications, may 14, 2014; on = includes redeemer (member of oura per aaron house, president, oura); sask = alison pickrell and russ isinger, personal communications, may 14, 2014 76 figure 6: institutional type university 68, 63% college 31, 29% institute 5, 5% other 3, 3% faith-based 1, 1% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 number of respondents (n=108) transcript practices the role of the transcript all participants were offered the opportunity to comment on the principles and protocols entrenched in documents such as the arucc transcript guide. figure 7 contains the findings on what respondents feel a transcript should and should not represent. a significant number agreed or strongly agreed that transcripts should: only be released upon student request or court order (97, 95%); be a high level document highlighting academic achievement and relevant academic milestones (79, 78%); be determined by institutional history, evolution, policies and regulations and be subject to legal constraints (88, 87%); contain a students complete and academic history at a particular institution (95, 93%); should not represent a subset of a students academic record (73, 73%). respondents were invited to provide further clarification or commentary regarding the role of a transcript. examples provided included emphasizing the importance of separating the academic transcript from the co-curricular summary (perhaps through creation of a secondary supplement), ensuring the transcript contained sufficient information to support an accurate interpretation of a students educational history (with examples provided), and to consider exploring the creation of some form of diploma supplement similar to what is available in europe and other regions. 77 figure 7: what should a transcript be? a transcript should.... be a record of the entire pse experience including curricular and co-curricular learnings (n=100) 9 21 27 only be released upon student request or by court order (n=102) 65 be a high level document highlighting academic achievement and relevant milestones of an academic career (n=101) 46 26 65 15 8 62 contain complete and accurate academic history in a particular institution (n=102) 5 9 32 33 be determined by institutional history, evolution, policies and regulations and subject to legal constraints (n=101) represent a subset of the academic record (n=100) 34 7 14 10 3 30 39 311 2 41 34 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% respondent percentage strongly agree agree no opinion disagree strongly disagree the respondents were also asked to identify their level of agreement with the transcript principles entrenched in the arucc guide. figure 8 provides the findings. most of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the 2003 arucc transcript guide principles although there appeared to be some ambiguity around the concept of a receiving institution being the verifier of what constitutes an official transcript. the community of registrarial and transfer pathway experts confirmed the enduring validity of many of the core transcript definitions and principles entrenched in the 2003 arucc transcript guide. 78 a transcript... figure 8: level of agreement with arucc guide transcript principles should not normally reflect retroactive application of policy changes (n=102) 44 is a complete and historically accurate image of the academic record; therefore, results should not be expunged (n=101) 45 should display all academic credentails and reflect the entire academic experience (n=100) 40 15 32 11 56 is an official document when verified by the receiving institution (n=101) 31 a document whose official status is determined by both the sending and receiving institution (n=102) 33 32 50 is a trusted document and all efforts should be made to avoid undermining this trust (n=102) 93 10 3 5 6 13 31 3 22 6 3 14 1 9 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage strongly agree agree no opinion disagree strongly disagree what constitutes official? the qualitative findings suggest there are divergent viewpoints regarding what constitutes official and some degree of trust in accepting a transcript from a student in a sealed envelope as official. unfortunately, there have been reported occurrences wherein such sealed envelopes have been easily replicated (brazao, 2008); therefore, this view is subject to challenge. defining and securing endorsement of what constitutes an official transcript is also an area of potential exploration and resolution given the advancements in the area of document fraud. it is noted that the 2003 arucc transcript guide spoke directly to this same issue and provided specific guidance. as an important additional point, electronic data exchange holds the promise of virtually eliminating document fraud. partial transcripts and expunging student records figure 7 indicates that 73% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that a transcript should represent a subset of the student record. however, select institutional respondents reported a plan to create program specific transcript supplements in response to student requests. this approach stands in contrast to the strongly held view that transcripts should be representative of the entire academic history (95% strongly agreed or agreed; see figure 7). in another part of the survey respondents were asked to identify if their institution distributed partial transcripts. ten (10, 13%) out of 77 respondents indicated they engaged in this practice; 67 (87%) did not. 79 as with the previous question and related to the topic of partial transcripts, the respondents were invited to identify additional principles that should guide transcripts. according to three respondents, expunging student record information from a transcript was noted as necessary in the case of administrative error, under extraordinary circumstances beyond a students control, or for legal reasons (e.g., witness protection). transparency, coherency, and qualitative explanations were recommended when altering a record. the respondents, in another section of the survey, provided evidence indicating that in practice more than half (i.e., 50, 66%, of 76 respondents) removed courses and/or grades as a result of an appeal (see figure 9). figure 9: can records be expunged upon successful appeal? no, 26 (34%) yes, 50 (66%) most of the registrarial respondents and transfer pathway experts reported a lack of support for altering student transcript history or distributing partial transcripts. co-curricular record in figure 7 above, there is evidence of diversity of opinion regarding co-curricular information being part of the transcript. while a larger proportion (43, 43%) disagreed or strongly disagreed with including this information on transcripts, 27 (27%) indicated no opinion and approximately 30 (30%) agreed with including this information. in another section of the survey, respondents were asked to identify their level of agreement with the complementarity to transcripts of co-curricular records and learning portfolios (see appendix d2 for the definitions provided to assist respondents with this question). figure 10 provides the findings. a larger proportion of the community agreed or strongly agreed that both are complements to the institutional transcript. qualitative commentary further suggested there is value in keeping them as separate 80 entities. respondents were also asked if they included extra-curricular, non-academic activities on a transcript. thirteen (13, 17%) out of 77 indicated yes, 57 (74%) indicated no, and 7 (9%) indicated not applicable. for those that responded in the affirmative, types of co-curricular information captured varied. examples included participation in formal group discussions on topical issues, service experience such as internship for non-credit, continuing studies, and leadership and non-academic components that are part of the program requirements. additional commentary from respondents suggested that verification, standards, access to opportunities, and assessment protocols of co-curricular components are such that institutional effort needs to occur to normalize the type and quality of information that is represented. further, respondents emphasized that non-academic co-curricular information was not appropriate to reflect on a transcript. the term co-curricular record was also raised as a point of confusion as record is sometimes replaced with portfolio or transcript. it was also noted by respondents that these kinds of initiatives serve different purposes and roles that, while complementary, are not the same as that of the transcript; it was further stressed that converging the information on one document can result in tensions between the purpose and role of each. figure 10: level of agreement with the complementarity of co-curricular records and learning portfolios a 'learning portfolio' should be in addition to and complement the official transcript. a 'co-curricular' record should be in addition to and complement the official transcript. 13 46 17 30 52 17 10 3 12 4 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage (n=102) strongly agree agree no opinion disagree strongly disagree further consultation in a next project phase regarding co-curricular records with respect to the transcript seems to be a reasonable suggestion given the findings surrounding this topic. the registrarial community and transfer pathway experts demonstrated awareness of and support for co-curricular records and learning portfolios as potential complements to the official transcript. 81 transcript responsibilities and usage of transcript guides of the total 108 respondents, 88 from both postsecondary and non-postsecondary organizations indicated involvement in establishing transcript standards and practices. their expertise informed the responses to current transcript practices in the survey. figure 11 provides a more distilled view of those 88 that indicated responsibility for setting transcript standards or practices: 77 (88%) out of 88 reported working directly with student information systems (sis) and transcripts; 65 (75%) out of 87 reported they used the arucc transcript guide; and 21 (31%) out of 68 reported they used the aacrao transcript guide (57, 84% did not). these findings are not too surprising as it was not unusual to hear in workshops that people hadnt heard of and/or did not use the two guides, particularly the aacrao transcript guide. does the respondent... figure 11: engagement with transcript standards, guides, practices and credentials establish transcript standards or practices (n=118)? 30 88 use the arucc transcript guide (n=87)? 22 65 work directly with sis and transcripts (n=88)? 11 77 use the aacrao transcript guide (n=78)? 57 21 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage no yes of the 65 (75%) that used the arucc transcript guide, figure 12 illustrates respondents perspective on the most useful sections of the guide from highest to lowest. those that responded other stressed the necessity of more guidance regarding the annotation of cumulative grade point averages, external awards and transfer credit. they also indicated support for the categorization approach currently in the guide (i.e., not recommended, optional, recommended, essential). this information is helpful to know when contemplating the components that would be useful in a future iteration of the guide. 82 figure 12: usage of sections within the arucc transcript guide * respondents could identify more than one item when responding to this question. when asked the question what insights might the aacrao transcript guide lend to canadian transcript standard development? there were 17 qualitative responses provided. examples included protocols for handling fraudulent transcripts, transcription of non-traditional learning, continuing education, and recording academic and disciplinary actions. there was stronger qualitative support for developing universal best practice standards including for those related to electronic transcripts (9, 53%, out of 17 respondents). how the aacrao guide displays specific transcript components was cited as helpful by two respondents. since a similar model exists in the arucc transcript guide, that was also noted as a format to continue and expand. the findings suggest that arucc will want to identify and implement mechanisms to ensure the practitioners are routinely advised of the existence of a canada-wide transcript guide. 83 transcript decision authority when examining the findings regarding the highest authority at an institution with the power to approve transcript policy, the two most common mentioned were the academic senate/governing council (30, 42%) or the registrar (21, 30%). figure 13 compares the findings against institutional size; it would seem that for smaller institutions, the authority is relatively similar between academic senates/governing councils and the registrar with the authority of the academic senates/governing councils increasing as the institutions size grows. when comparing the findings against institutional type, the universities and colleges align with these findings (see appendix m, figure m6). figure 13: approval authority (transcript policy) versus institutional size acdemic senate/governing council 10 5 registrar 1 5 12 other 4 2 1 president/provost/vp 1 1 faculty/school dean 1 20% 1 1 1 external body 10% 1 1 1 0% 3 1 1 1 i don't know 2 2 3 board of governors 9 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage (n=71) 0-4,999 5,000-9,999 10,000-14,999 15,000-19,999 >20,000 transcript and grading publication practices figure 14 provides an overview of the predominant grading scales used at any given institution in canada.19 approximately 30% employ a letter grade with an associated grade point scale. the rest are spread over five other approaches. 19 respondents were asked to identify the predominant grading scale; not if any particular grading scale was the only one in use at their institution. 84 predominant grading scale systems figure 14: predominant grading scales used at canadian institutions letter grade with a grade point 24, 32% zero to 100 % 13, 17% four-point 12, 16% letter 10, 13% letter grade with a % 9, 12% other 6, 8% nine-point 2, 3% first, second, thirdclass ten-point pass or fail 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 number of responses (total = 76) figure 15 provides an overview of some of the more common transcript legend and grading scale/systems publication practices. these are relevant as they can potentially impact transparency, coherence and ultimate assessment accuracy. for example, if it is not easy to find a grading scale in order to interpret results for admission entry or transfer credit assessment, mobility is potentially impeded. similarly, if an institution has more than one grading scale and does not include the relevant grading scale with the transcript, it could cause potential evaluation errors. at minimum, the task of the assessor becomes more difficult when they have to seek out additional information that perhaps is not readily available. figure 15: transcript legend and grading scale practices grading scale posted in calendar (n=75) 57, 76% grading scale posted on web (n=75) 18, 24% 62, 83% grading scale posted on transcript (n=78) 13, 17% 74, 95% post legend on web (n=76) 4, 5% 41, 54% include key or legend with transcript(n=77) 35, 46% 74, 95% >1 grading scale per institution (n=77) 3, 5% 43, 56% >1 transcript legend per institution (n=76) 24, 32% 0% 34, 44% 52, 68% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage yes no 85 the findings indicate many institutions publish their grading scales/systems in a variety of locations including with the transcript. these practices are particularly helpful given the evidence indicating more than one grading scale (43, 56%) or transcript legend (24, 32%) per institution in figure 15. the diversity of grading systems and the evidence of common practices for publishing grading scales and transcript legends suggest an opportunity exists to use this data to inform future standards development and recommended practices. common transcript components one of the objectives of the research was to identify the most common components featured on institutional transcripts. the comparison of practices to the arucc transcript guide assists in identifying divergent approaches and potential opportunities for further consultation. components that exist but are not addressed in the current guide provide some insights into areas requiring confirmation and/or enhancement. for example, personal information such as student email and date birth need to be carefully considered given the privacy implications. further, the category assignments emphasized in the 2003 arucc transcript guide might need to be reconsidered in light of current realities. these findings represented a complement to the samples submitted as part of this project (see appendix j). table 8 provides an overview of the percentage of institutions that feature particular components relating to student and institutional demographics. each is compared to the arucc transcript guide as a means to providing a beginning insight into the potential gaps.20 20 specific findings related to the tables in this section are available in appendix m. 86 table 8: common and uncommon transcript components on institutional transcripts transcript component institutional information 100% percentage of institutional respondents 90807060502099% 89% 79% 69% 59% 49% essential institutional name essential institutional location essential student id at institution essential student name student mailing address student email provincial education # student date of birth admission test scores admission admission basis prior secondary or postsecondary attended prior studies arucc transcript guide transcript issue date branch campus location student identification less than 20% date prior credential received prior credential earned postsecondary credits earned at high school prior postsecondary school name prior postsecondary period of attendance prior postsecondary credential received prior postsecondary date credential received 87 not specified essential (official name) no bearing on transcript discretionary (day, month) discretionary not specified not specified; institutional qualifying exam essential when program requirement not recommended pse name essential for joint and collaborative partnerships not specified not specified not specified essential for joint and collaborative partnerships not specified program essential discretionary as demonstrated in table 9, institutional respondents reported that it is very uncommon to publish cumulative grade point average information on a transcript. it will be interesting in a next phase to examine if this kind information would be considered relevant and necessary. table 9: presence of grade point average components on institutional transcripts percentage of institutional respondents transcript component 100% 9099% 8089% 7079% 6069% 5059% 2049% less than 20% class averages overall cumulative average by academic career at institution overall cumulative average by program not specified by session term average discretionary cumulative gpa recommended not specified by program session average arucc transcript guide recommended demonstrated competencies recommended narrative evaluation essential when no other type of grading used program and course component practices at canadian institutions vary and are mostly aligned or closely aligned to the 2003 arucc transcript guide for those items identified as essential. this speaks to the degree of enduring support for the guidelines proposed in the original guide, which is a helpful indicator of the value of the current arucc pccat project. approaches to identifying credit related items are not necessarily aligned with the guide. table 10 provides the details. there are areas that are growing in focus such as transfer credit and course mode of delivery. as the latter is not a component that is addressed currently in the guide, it might be a relevant addition given an increasing focus on student mobility. 88 table 10: program and course components transcript component 100% 9099% major minor specialization course identifier course name course grade essential course location course in progress course mode of delivery credits per course/units per course credit summary credit details credits earned credits taken arucc transcript guide essential (program of study identification) varies with institutional practice varies with institutional practice varies with institutional practice varies with institutional practice essential (discipline identifier also essential) program type course details less than 20% program name program details percentage of institutional respondents 807060502089% 79% 69% 59% 49% essential not specified not specified not specified essential recommended (cumulative credit value earned) essential (also cumulative credit value earned) recommended (term credit value attempted) progression and milestone practices, when contrasted against the arucc transcript guide, provide some interesting examples of divergence, as presented in table 11. as an illustrative point, the date the program is completed is relevant to those students that finish their program well in advance of a convocation date. having this component on a transcript might very well assist registrarial operations by 89 reducing the need for customized letters and help students with securing employment. it, however, is currently not a specified element in the 2003 guide. table 11: progression and milestone practices versus the arucc transcript guide percentage of institutional respondents transcript component graduate studies activities 100% 9099% 8089% 7079% 6069% 5059% advancement or admission to candidacy (or graduate internal promotion) graduate thesis / dissertation title identified graduate comprehensive exams complete graduate thesis/dissertation completed/defended 2049% graduation requirements met program progression activities essential essential not specified not specified not specified practicum / apprenticeship requirements complete accreditation met graduation activities arucc transcript guide professional certification received professional activities less than 20% discretionary (if part of program requirements) discretionary (if part of program requirements) not specified credential awarded essential date credential conferred essential not specified graduation date satisfactory completion of institutional qualifying exams date program completed first year/"freshman" year complete essential (if program requirement) recommended not specified additional areas identified by respondents that are not currently covered by the guide touch on a range of topics, including program transfer notations, conditional approval of progress, successful completion of internships, graduate school milestones or other requirements (e.g., completed, unsatisfactory, in progress, ethics requirements, thesis ranking for oral and written components, promotion to phd, graduate workshops, exhibitions for fine arts students), undergraduate standing each term, and noncourse related milestones relevant to program success or requirements (e.g., academic integrity, workplace health and safety training, english language proficiency and satisfying related requirements). 90 whether any of these are relevant additions to the inventory of transcript protocols requires further discussion and debate. probation and withdrawal notations withdrawal practices at canadian institutions are somewhat varied. figure 16 contains the findings. as a set of more common themes, voluntary and involuntary withdrawal and non-academic discipline tend not to be reported, which is in keeping with the arucc guide. of interest, 35 of 75 institutions (47%) indicated they do not report academic misconduct/dishonesty on a transcript. the arucc guide recommends reporting this information. forty-eight (48, 64%) noted withdrawal due to academic performance is reported (6 indicated for a specified time period), which is noted as an essential notation in the arucc guide if it is for withdrawal from the institution; the guide indicates it is a discretionary measure whether or not to note withdrawal from a course or a program. withdrawal notations on transcript figure 16: withdrawal practices voluntary withdrawal (n=75) 23 involuntary withdrawal (e.g. for compassion) (n=75) non-academic discipline (n=74) academic misconduct/dishonesty (n=75) 20 6 2 48 1 50 11 4 53 17 academic performance (n=75) 2 21 42 4 35 6 2 26 1 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100% response percentage reported permanently reported, time limited not reported not applicable expunging student records was already highlighted previously. in any of the above, when respondents reported the item as noted on transcript, it is typically removable with appeal or application. several indicated that a w or withdrawn extenuating circumstances is noted on the transcript, or converted to a retroactive drop or withdrawal. figure 17 provides the findings regarding academic probation. forty-five (45, 59%) reported noting academic probation on the transcript. the arucc guide indicates it is essential to notate academic performance when it results in removal from an institution; it suggests a discretionary approach for all others. of those that do note it, most do not remove it. 91 academic probation practices figure 17: academic probation practices is academic probation noted on transcripts (n=76)? if noted, is it removed after the probation period (n=74)? 45 7 27 40 4 27 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage yes no not applicable awards figure 18 outlines the transcript publication practices for awards and bursaries at the respondent institutions. a number of qualitative comments across all categories were shared: the largest concerns with sharing awards information on transcripts indicated that doing so would disclose personal financial information and therefore be a breach of confidentiality and privacy; that bursaries were not related to academics and therefore not appropriate for the transcript; or that doing so was not their institutions practice. for the latter, some respondents referred to current institutional policy precluding the reporting although most reported they did not know the reason. select respondents suggested that awards were not considered relevant to the academic record; hence, the lack of reporting. the approach regarding needs-based bursaries is not surprising given the privacy considerations. the one institution that did report these indicated student permission was sought first. external awards were confirmed by respondents as difficult to identify and verify; therefore, these findings are not surprising. 92 figure 18: transcript publication awards practices need-based bursaries 75, 99% 1, 1% external awards 62, 82% 14, 18% internal awards 52, 69% 23, 31% 18, 24% other honours 0 10 20 58, 76% 30 40 50 60 70 80 number of respondents no yes the findings regarding internal awards was interesting in that most indicated no and yet the arucc guide recommends their inclusion. with respect to honours, 47 institutional respondents provided qualitative commentary regarding the types of honours that are reflected on transcripts. deans honour list (cited 22 times) and graduated with distinction (18) were the most popular. other examples cited included honours, high honours, with honours, presidents honour list, and graduation honours. a couple of institutions reported the governor generals academic gold medal, the governor generals collegiate bronze medal and the lieutenant governors silver medal. although there is an arucc transcript standard for citing both internal and external awards, it would appear that practices are varied across the country. given the findings across the range of transcript components, a future phase of the arucc and pccat project will want to examine the opportunity of reconfirming, refining or adding transcript standards in a number of areas. 93 credit systems in response to an open-ended question on their institutions definition of credit, 76 respondents offered a range of comments, with the following themes most prevalent: a credit as having a direct relationship to lecture or instructional contact hours, with the majority indicating that 3.0 credits equaled a one term course and 6.0 a two term or a full year course; as an indicator of value and as a required component of a credential (certificate, diploma, degree); as a measure of effort or workload required by a student to meet learning goals. six (6, 9%) did not use a credit system. in the application of credit hours and weighting, the following is a snapshot only of common institutional responses: responses by term ranged from a minimum weighting of .5 through to 4 credits translating into instructional hours per course from 33 to 69; responses by sampling of credentials were as follows: o for a two-year diploma, credit weighting ranged from 12 to 63 total credits, with some institutions stating this varied by program. the majority indicated 60 total credits. o for an undergraduate degree (general), 15 to 126 credits were noted, with the majority indicating 120 credits were typically required. o for a masters program response varied widely from 6 to 90 credits required. sometimes the credit totals were program dependent or expressed in terms of course work per year. in this category, there is little consistency. fifty-one (51, 66%) out of 75 report explanations of their credit systems and weighting on transcripts. with the broad array of differing practices and publication approaches amongst canadian institutions regarding credit weighting systems, best practice would point to ensuring that a guide to interpreting an institutions credit system be available on a transcript key or legend. opportunities to suggest standards for this area should be explored further in a next phase. 94 repeated courses the arucc transcript guide is silent on standards related to repeated courses; therefore, it is an area that deserves further probing. most institutional respondents reported students were allowed to repeat courses at their institution (69, 91%) although there is a small number (7, 9%) who do not allow this for successfully completed courses. it is further evident from the findings that institutions take a varied approach when coding the results on transcripts (figure 19).21 the respondents indicated that most note all tries; however, the next popular approach is to code the highest result. the findings indicate varied approaches and yet a seeming common practice (i.e., all tries), which is highly transparent. figure 19: repeated courses approach on transcripts all tries 61 highest 17 most recent 14 second try 10 8 other 1 0 7 20 9 6 7 11 2 7 10 10 first try results are averaged 10 3 1 5 11 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 number of responses per category yes no not applicable alternative learning options offered or arranged by a particular institution one of the areas that bears closer examination is to understand the practices and perspectives related to alternative learning options22 available to students and offered or arranged by their own institution. the respondents with direct expertise in the area of transcripts and student records were asked to identify the institutional practices or intentions for transcripts related to a group of items that could be loosely captured under this area. figure 20 provides the details. 21 not all the 65 institutional respondents to this question provided a response to each of these categories. for the purposes of this report, alternative learning (e.g., study abroad, etc.) refers to learning options organized for a school for its students that is other than equivalent learning (e.g., plar, challenge credit). equivalent learning, again for the purposes of this report, is intended to refer to plar and challenge credit. 22 95 figure 20: transcript practices and plans for alternative learning options offered by an institution work abroad non-credit (n=69) 1 6 work abroad for credit (n=71) 25 7 study abroad non-credit (n=70) 5 6 6 37 22 36 25 34 study abroad for credit (n=71) 56 non-credit tutorials focused on academic integrity (n=72) 8 non-credit graduate activities (n=72) 7 5 27 4 item learning portfolio (n=71) course/program learning outcomes or skills development (n=72) 1 13 8 23 34 26 37 32 22 10 10 37 24 15 23 30 credit courses offering experiential learning (n=72) course mode of delivery (e.g., blended, online, classroom) (n=72) co-op, internships or field courses if academic credit is not allocated (n=69) co-op, internships or field courses if academic credit allocated (n=71) 8 22 3 4 5 37 36 2 6 32 24 non-credit courses (n=72) co-curricular record (n=70) 4 20 31 4 13 63 28 4 4 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage on transcript under discussion for transcript not proposed unaware of discussions related to transcripts points of divergence are evident regarding non-credit activities, the co-curricular record, learning outcomes and credit courses offering experiential learning. respondents provided some additional qualitative commentary to support their responses to this question. one institution reported applying a course credit model for non-credit work abroad as a means to capture the information on a transcript; another reported having the capacity to produce a separate non-credit transcript; and a select few indicated that the co-curricular record was a separate document or that their institution did not deliver study or work abroad or non-credit courses so these items did not apply. all 119 respondents including those that did not have direct involvement with managing transcripts or students records were invited to identify the items offered or arranged by a particular institution for its own students that, in their opinion, should be on a transcript. figure 21 provides the data. 96 figure 21: respondent perspective for transcript components for alternative learning work abroad non-credit (n=97) 35 work abroad for credit (n=99) 12 study abroad non-credit (n=100) 19 item 18 28 42 29 29 co-op, internships or field courses if academic credit is not 12 allocated (n=100) co-op, internships or field courses if academic credit allocated 23 (n=99) 15 31 36 10 38 30 3 30 48 39 4 9 48 33 course mode of delivery (e.g., blended, online, classroom) (n=100) 15 39 33 3 14 1 50 23 course/program learning outcomes or skills development (n=99) 8 60 43 non-credit courses (n=100) 5 39 45 non-credit tutorials focused on academic integrity (n=100) non-credit graduate activities (n=98) 13 29 29 study abroad for credit (n=100) 2 10 credit courses offering experiential learning (n=97) 44 6 11 64 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage not recommended optional recommended essential overall, there appears to be convergence around confirming existing practices such as for-credit work or study abroad, non-credit courses, courses offering experiential learning (i.e., to have them on the transcript), and non-credit and credit co-op (i.e., to have both represented on the transcript). there appears to be divergence of opinion surrounding reconsidering current practices related to for-credit work abroad, non-credit study abroad, non-credit tutorials focus on academic integrity, non-credit graduate activities, learning outcomes, and course mode of delivery. a future phase of the arucc pccat project should explore if there are potential recommended standards evident for alternative learning options offered by an institution to its own students. 97 equivalent learning (e.g., plar, challenge exams) the area of equivalent learning was probed in the survey. out of 75 respondents, 42 (56%) indicated they used an explicit identifier for equivalent learning experiences. eighteen (18, 24%) did not and 15 (20%) answered not applicable. for those that did use an identifier, details were requested. seventeen (17) indicated they used notations such as plar, pl, pla, prior learning credits, or terms such as prior learning assessment. some noted chal, ch, or challenge exams in the transfer credit section of the transcript. when coding equivalent learning as transfer credit, respondents reported assigning codes such as tr, cr, ecr or sl without a grade (and noted no grade was included in the gpa calculation). others used credit granted or credits earned. notations reported as commonly used on french language transcripts include eq (no grade), k for course exemption or a v for a successfully completed course taken outside of quebec. when no explicit identifier was used in the case of 18 respondents, challenge exams and plar were noted as transfer credit or given internal course credit (7 respondents). some respondents reporting including grades in the assessment or providing specific course exemption or indicated they are considering this topic for the future. one institution reported using nc (i.e., no credit) to indicate unsuccessful challenge exams. the research indicates there is no apparent common practice for whether or not an institution codes equivalent learning or conversely even how it is coded. this validates the findings of the canadian jurisdictional research. a future phase of the arucc pccat project will want to consider transcription of equivalent learning such as plar and challenge courses when developing standards and practice recommendations. assessment of international transcripts the international jurisdictional research emphasized the value of qualifications frameworks and supplements as tools, along with transcript guidelines and standards, to facilitate coherency, transparency, and objective review of transcripts. as a test of the accuracy of this view and as a means to validate the value of these kinds of mechanisms, the national survey also incorporated questions surrounding the use of qualifications frameworks. of those that have expertise in the area of transcript standards and practices, 69 responded to the question do you reference qualifications frameworks when looking at credentials from other countries? forty-six (46, 67%) indicated yes; 23 (33%) indicated no. forty-nine (49, 70%) out of 70 respondents indicated the existence of a pan-canadian international credential framework would improve the assessment of international transcripts. two (2, 3%) indicated no and 19 (27%) indicated depends. some of those that responded depends indicated that the level of detail and the availability of sample international institutional transcripts would be important. two indicated that variable program or accreditation requirements might hamper this process. another expressed a worry about how a credentials framework would align with their particular provinces framework; a related concern was raised about preserving institutional autonomy. one person indicated support as long as the outcomes 98 resulted in improved qualified assessment. currency of information was raised and it was also acknowledged that contradictory advice sometimes results from using outside sources. this line of questioning also presented an opportunity to ask institutional respondents if there were particular international transcripts that represented promising practice. examples suggested included some of the us universities (no names provided although north dakota schools were identified in one of the workshops) and the taiwanese postsecondary institutions (i.e., the specificity accorded start dates, graduation dates, program names, grading scales, institutional names, ministry approval and signing authorities was applauded). specific examples provided included the university of baghdad, college of engineering, the international islamic university in malaysia, the international baccalaureate transcripts and the european credit transfer and accumulation system (ects). the findings suggest validation for the role of qualifications frameworks when examining transcript standards. the next phase of the arucc pccat project will want to deepen the identification and analysis of promising transcript examples from other jurisdictions with the support of canadian institutions. 99 transfer credit transcripts and the treatment of transfer credit became a necessary area of exploration during the research as a means to understand transfer credit nomenclature and how it is operationalized. it was also critical to capture perspective on principles as presented in figure 22. figure 22: respondent perspective of treatment of transfer credit on institutional transcripts partnership types should influence what appears on a transcript (n=106). partnerships should be reflected on transcripts like internal partnerships (n=108). institutions should develop transcript practices locally and by program in a customized fashion (n=108) institutional policy should be harmonized to avoid ad hoc transcript policies and practices (n=108) a jurisdictional transcript standard should be developed that preserves institutional autonomy (n=107) an institution should not publish student information from another partner school (n=108) 4 33 10 30 9 31 35 49 25 24 16 18 30 27 17 11 1 15 35 21 42 7 12 56 29 transcripts at receiving and/or sending institutions should contain transfer details to enhance mobility (n=106) 12 56 18 9 31 32 one institution should hold the official transcript (n=106) 25 9 29 20 4 8 9 8 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage strongly agree agree no opinion disagree strongly disagree most of the respondents out of the original 119 (whether from an institution or not) responded to these questions. agreement or strong agreement was evident for the following: institutional policy should be harmonized to avoid ad hoc transcript policies and practices (80, 74%); a jurisdictional transcript standard should be developed that preserves institutional autonomy (88, 82%); transcripts at receiving and/or sending institutions should contain transfer details to enhance mobility (69, 65%). there appears to be almost equal division of perspective on the following: partnership types should influence what appears on a transcript; institutions should develop partnerships locally and by program in a customized fashion an institution should not publish partner information from another school; one institution should hold the official student record. 100 although not all the questions were featured in both studies, some of these findings closely align with the data from the bccat credentialing practices for joint program study (duklas, 2013, pp. 20, 21, and 24). specifically, in the following areas: transcription of joint program details, harmonizing institutional policy and concurrence with one institution being the holder of the official record information for those students enrolled in joint programs. all respondents to the survey (both institutional and non-institutional) were asked if they have involvement in setting transfer credit standards or practices. of the total 119, 102 responded and of those, 76 (75%) indicated yes. in response to the question do you have or are you developing a transfer credit guide, standard, glossary or terminology policy whether at your institution or organization? 63 (72%) of 87 respondents indicated yes. when asked if their organizations policies and practices represented promising practice, 36 out of 48 indicated yes as a result of their sense of alignment within their jurisdiction and positive student feedback. five of these 36 specifically indicated they felt their institutional policies and practices were indicative of their leadership across canada. as previously mentioned, a sampling of the list of policies provided by respondents is in appendix h. those that responded no (12) typically cited lack of currency, inconsistencies, and decentralized internal processes at the institutional level. all survey respondents were asked to share their opinion on what should be in a transfer guide. table 12 provides an overview of the current practices and the proposed future state for transfer credit guides. areas not currently in transfer guides, but which respondents indicate should be included represent particular opportunities to close existing gaps. 101 table 12: current state versus preferred future state for transfer guides guide component in guide currently (<50%) listing of transfer credit agreements course grade required to be considered for transfer credit in guide currently (50% or higher) should be in a guide (50% or higher) entering average required to be eligible for transfer credit fees if applicable for credit assessment lifespan of approved course equivalencies limitations on age of courses to be considered for transfer credit limitations on types of courses that are eligible for transfer credit (e.g., plar, online, field courses) limitations on amount of credit that can be transferred process for applying for transfer credit process through which transfer credit equivalencies are assessed residency requirement timelines for credit transfer assessment transfer credit appeal process glossary of transfer credit terminology nomenclature as the primary focus for the transfer credit portion of the project was on terminology, current practices was an important area to probe.23 figure 23 provides the findings regarding agreement nomenclature use in canada.24 the most common agreement terms used are listed in order of popularity below. the italicized terms were also found to be common in the bccat credentialing practices for joint program study (duklas, 2013, p. 11). memoranda of understanding; block transfer agreements; articulated agreements; pathway agreements; numeric titling agreements; bridge/bridging programs or agreements. 23 the terms tested on the survey are in use across canada and emerged from a web review of exiting transfer credit policies and glossaries. 24 respondents did not always identify a response for each term; number of respondents per term ranged from 78 to 85. 102 figure 23: agreement nomenclature in use in canada unidirectional bilateral transfer agreements 13 10 memoranda of understanding (mous) 14 43 pathway agreements agreement term 41 32 25 numeric titling agreements (e.g. '2+2', '3+1, etc.) 28 22 laddering agreements 8 18 24 articulated agreements 25 32 21 15 10 8 37 51 0% 8 14 21 40 bi-lateral / multi-lateral agreements 24 37 26 block transfer agreements 8 32 10 bridge / bridging programs or agreements 22 26 15 jointly sponsored agreements 7 2 4 9 21 11 2 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage in use (definition exists) in use (no definition) not in use not applicable figure 24 highlights the terminology in use in canada to describe transfer credit programs. the most popular listed in order of occurrence are below. the items in italics were also found to be common in the bccat credentialing study for joint programs study (duklas, 2013, p. 12). degree/diploma completion programs; joint programs; collaborative programs; dual/double credential programs. despite these terms being commonly used, many respondents noted that formal definitions do not exist. 103 figure 24: program nomenclature in use in canada joint programs 28 program term dual / double credential programs 24 22 19 cotutelle (graduate level) 12 2 conjoint programs 12 2 collaborative programs 27 9 0% 21 14 21 7 13 42 7 10% 21 21 37 integrated programs 14 46 degree or diploma completion programs 12 11 27 36 25 co-registration programs 17 21 41 20% 30% 40% 50% 5 22 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage in use (definition exists) in use (no definition) not in use not applicable the findings suggest that varied terminology is in use across canada to describe transfer agreements and programs. there is also evidence from other research to suggest that these types of terms might potentially have different meanings even within the same sector, which can cause challenges. as one example, the canadian association of graduate studies (cags) conducted a study (hall, 2012) that somewhat replicated a joint programs study conducted for the institute of international education (obst, kuder, & banks, 2011). the purpose of the cags study was to examine canadian implementation of dual/double and joint degree options including cotutelles (hall, 2012, p. 2). one of the findings concluded that the terms joint and dual are defined differently on [campuses] than at the beginning of [the cags] survey [and that].such definitions can cause problems (p. 12). while certainly not the primary finding of the research, it does serve to provide another illustration that nomenclature usage is affecting understanding. as another recent provincial example, christine arnold (2014) in transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries, reported findings from a study that involved a document analysis of over 70 transfer documents and focus groups with more than 100 administrators across 13 ontario postsecondary institutions (six colleges and seven universities) (p. 5). one of her many findings focused on the nomenclature confusion students experience in the area of transfer and the implications the resulting asymmetries have for transfer literacy (pp. 5, 20-23).25 her study goes into extensive 25 transfer literacy is defined by arnold as the ability to comprehend credit transfer procedures, policies and outcomes. it refers to a set of knowledge and skills that allow individuals to advise and/or make informed decisions about admission and 104 detail on the confusion caused for students with regard to agreement terminology differences and one of her primary concluding recommendations is to create standard credit transfer terminology (p. 7). given arnolds recommendation, it is relevant to note that the ontario universities council on quality assurance has, on the part of universities, addressed inter-institutional partnerships in its framework (2010, pp. 4-6) in that it has defined the following terms: collaborative program; conjoint degree program; cotutelle; dual credential program; joint degree program. as reported in arnolds study, the detail inherent to agreements is such that nomenclature challenges remain readily apparent because the terms used in these agreements and the structure on institutional websites vary (arnold, 2014, p. 50). organizations such as the councils on admission and transfer in various regions define transfer programs on their websites and use terms such as accelerated program, articulation agreement, bridge course or program, collaborative program, degree completion program, joint or integrated program, etc. although these various initiatives are helpful and informative, the definitions for agreements and programs across all these platforms are sometimes similar but they are not necessarily always fully congruent. table 13 identifies the usage for some of the more common operational transfer credit terms. the most popular are highlighted in the far right column; those with a red checkmark were reported in use by 80% or more of the respondents. these findings provide a beginning indicator of the more common terms in use across canada, which will assist with informing the next phase of the project. developing common definitions for these terms might also be a productive start for the next phase of the arucc pccat project. mobilization of academic credits between colleges and universities to avoid the repetition of course work, lack of financial assistance and misaligned institutional and program fit (arnold, 2014, p. 4). 105 table 13: operational nomenclature usage term advance credit advanced standing assigned credit block transfer challenge test cluster credit course credit exclusion course equivalency/ equivalent course substitute course transfer map credit dual credit elective credit equivalent credit exemption inter-university transfer letter of permission not to do program transfer residency requirement specified credit transfer courses transfer credit transferable courses unassigned or unallocated credit unspecified credit waiver in use (<50% of responses) in use (>50% of responses) > 80% or higher responses practices for transfer credit at the operational level in the area of transcripts were also probed in the survey. of the 78 respondents to the question are any of these inter-institutional partnerships reflected on your transcripts? 26 (33%) indicated yes. it is noted that within the 2003 arucc transcript guide, adding the names of all partner institutions is considered essential whether the relationship involves degree or non-degree studies. it is silent regarding partnership type. 106 the respondents included both those within and outside of institutions but who have involvement in setting transfer credit standards. they were asked to identify which of the following items in figure 25 should be on a transcript. the scale used in the arucc transcript guide was employed (i.e., not recommended, recommended, optional, essential). while the guide touches on the topic of transfer credit, the community suggested greater detail was needed; hence, why this line of questioning was added to the survey. figure 25: potential transcript components related to transfer credit block transfer credit 5 potential transcript components grades earned from equivalent experience (e.g. plar) 26 15 failed grades 17 24 passed grades 4 name of sending program 14 32 grade equivalents 30 course-specific transfer credit 7 type of inter-institutional partnership 6 33 21 1 19 2 19 2 57 9 actual grades from sending institution 6 36 11 16 3 21 17 24 3 26 21 19 8 40 21 9 17 source of transfer credit identity of sending institution 8 39 5 34 6 32 8 20 12 9 2 7 46 38 2 12 8 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage not recommended recommended optional essential not sure/no opinion as these findings illustrate, there is strong support in the community to encourage greater detail on institutional transcripts about transfer credit and inter-institutional partnerships. since the 2003 arucc transcript guide is similarly supportive of such an approach, these findings provide support for moving more assertively in this direction. having noted this, approximately 30% do not recommend adding grades or grade equivalents. this appears to be an area of potential consultation as there is also a significant number that indicated passed grades should be added. there were 65 respondents that provided additional suggestions as to the defining principle of what transfer credit information should appear on a transcript. the comments generally fell into the following three categories: clarity emphasizing where the transfer credit came from, what was specifically awarded, what type was awarded and how much credit was awarded; transparency display the information necessary to ensure any other organization that might read or assess the transcript fully understands what was awarded but to do so for successfully transferred courses only; 107 level of detail provide sufficient detail so that it is clearly understood how transfer credit awarded apply to the program or the credential. the question was also asked if a supplementary document with the details of transfer credit should accompany a transcript. of the 82 respondents to this question, 58 (71%) indicated no. a number reported that they already do this and provided specifics on what is identified. these approaches indicate a level of positive transparency and are indicative of best practice. survey: emerging themes all respondents to the survey were asked to contribute to a series of questions regarding emerging trends, particular components that would benefit from standards development, and potential risks. each was also asked to identify any best or promising examples. emerging trends eighty-one (81) respondents offered reflections on trends impacting transcripts and transfer credit nomenclature development. the following nine areas were highlighted: electronic transcript data exchange standards this item came up often. online learning questioning revolved around transcription of mode of delivery, and how to validate, assess and transcribe it (if appropriate). this was a common theme. mobility, internationalization and transfer opportunities a number of respondents suggested that international standards might offer some insights on additional future approaches and considerations. inter-institutional partnerships and related programming - there was acknowledgement that growth in the number, breadth and types of partnerships is creating challenges for policy, transcription and nomenclature development. government focus respondents noted the interest by governments in mobility and the investment in infrastructures to ensure support and research in the area. learning outcomes/competency based models there is growing interest in these topics as potential mechanisms to inform and influence transcription and transfer credit practices. equivalent learning (e.g., plar) transcripting and assigning transfer credit consistently and accurately in the area of equivalent learning are becoming increasing areas of focus. co-curricular records26 interest in developing co-curricular records continues to grow. dual credits this is a growing interest area that is likely to impact transcription and transfer credit practices. 26 co-curricular records are not new to canada. the university of manitoba was likely one of the first canadian universities to offer students a co-curricular record (neil marnoch, personal communications, february 4 2014). it was created in the mid-90s, called a transcript annex, and was an additional page to the transcript. it provided a limited array (approximately 20) of activities. the university has subsequently launched a co-curricular record separate from the transcript that contains approximately 300 activities. 108 potential components for future standards development forty (40) respondents provided insights on how future standards development might be facilitated by the addition of specific components. most confirmed the importance of emerging trends and the need to improve standards and nomenclature in a manner that encouraged objective and transparent review processes in the areas of transcription and transfer credit. there were cautions expressed about the importance of getting it right in canada before adopting international approaches, interest in significantly improving transcription practices and guidelines in the area of transfer credit, and operational recommendations such as discouraging complete institutional customization, and both encouraging and discouraging reporting of mode of delivery and identifying course work taken at satellite campuses. while the views were somewhat different with regard to the latter two, the basic principle of not disadvantaging the students was the underlying shared premise. risks to developing standards survey respondents (62) offered cautions and codicils to standards development. these recommendations fall into five general categories: institutional autonomy versus uniformity a number recommended a set of guidelines and a lexicon of suggested terms that were not prescriptive and respected institutional autonomy and regional (i.e., provincial) and linguistic (english/french) diversity. misinterpretation the respondents emphasized the need for context and not simply a lexicon of terms or an inventory of standards. rationales were recommended to situate guidelines into a nuanced framework informed by principles. nimbleness and innovation versus restrictive constraints any guidelines and terminology should be appropriately cast so as not to restrict institutional mobility and innovation. this was considered particularly important in light of changing technology. resources there were concerns raised about the impact of standards and terminology on systems in light of limited resources. jargon versus simplicity the respondents urged future standards and terminology lexicons to be transparent and simplistic with an emphasis away from becoming jargon. privacy regulations and legal considerations careful consideration of student privacy and potential legalities were stressed as considerations that affect and therefore should inform transcription practices particularly. promising examples twenty six (26) respondents provided perspective and cited promising examples. collaborative governance and consultation bodies were both cited as important enablers for developing promising practice. electronic transfer of transcript data was noted a number of times as enabling standards development and sharing of student information (whether as pdfs, xml or edi). general commentary at the operational level suggested being mindful of international jurisdictions and their interpretation of canadian transcripts (the diploma supplement was highlighted as a best practice in this context), emphasizing the value of promoting detailed transcript legends and greater use of cumulative average calculations on transcripts (e.g., by program). oncat, bccat, cicic and acats glossaries were each 109 identified as promising best practices although some thought these tools should be expanded.27 finally, some mentioned the value of their institutional and provincial course equivalency databases as facilitating on many levels including in the area of standardizing nomenclature. mcgills is particularly interesting in this regard as it is not restricted to canadian institutions i.e., students can search course equivalencies (and non-equivalencies) from around the world.28 the bccat joint program transcription study and the arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature study identified promising practices; therefore, a future phase of the project will want to enhance awareness of these promising practices and facilitate opportunities to identify alternate options and related policies and nomenclature to assist practitioners. qualitative comments from respondents reinforce and validate the major themes highlighted through the quantitative survey, workshops, and jurisdictional research conducted for canada and internationally. 27 28 https://alis.alberta.ca/ps/ep/aas/ta/faq/glossary.html#transferstudent https://nimbus.mcgill.ca/ceq-pub/search/searchequivalency 110 implications and concluding remarks the focus of the research was to identify the current and potentially common practices in canadian higher education institutions and related organizations for transcript and transfer credit nomenclature and to identify promising practices and related initiatives in four international regions (australia, europe, uk and the us). the objectives supporting the research included testing concurrence with the core principles and definitions embodied in the 2003 arucc transcript guide and identifying enhancement requirements. additionally, it was important to confirm the current protocols and points of difference respecting transcript and transfer credit terminology at canadian postsecondary institutions as other research has shown that practices are variable and causing confusion and reporting challenges. the research also served to inform an understanding of the communitys perspective on emerging trends and risks, and common, promising or successful practices. the overarching objective of the findings was to provide a baseline against which future standards development on behalf of arucc, pccat and their members in the areas of transcription and transfer credit nomenclature may be undertaken. a variety of research approaches was followed incorporating web-based research of approximately 70 canadian institutions, relevant literature review, regional workshops with 103 participants across the country, 25 individual stakeholder interviews, an advance online poll to 27 of the participants on the project's national advisory committee and a national survey targeted primarily at the membership of the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat). the survey was in the field during the month of march 2014 and was completed by 119 individuals representing 105 institutions, for an organizational response rate of 57%. the project also received 145 samples of transcripts and transfer credit material from 44 postsecondary institutions and the xml data standards for electronic transcripts from the canadian pesc user group. research findings demonstrated a high level of convergence among the themes derived from the advisory group, stakeholder interviews, jurisdictional research and survey findings. this serves to validate and confirm the reliability of the research. at a high level, key learnings from this research include the following: there is a tremendous will and engagement among arucc and pccat colleagues, as well as allied organizations to work towards refinements that will improve clarity, transparency and mobility for students. there is significant evidence of common practices across the country, which speaks to the success of combined efforts of national and provincial organizations and local institutions to support best practices and to the enduring influence of resources such as the 2003 arucc transcript guide. while there is strong support for moving forward with transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards, there is an equally strong assertion that institutional autonomy be respected and that such standards become recommended, not required practice. 111 student mobility and the processes and structures that support it are the subject of increasing focus worldwide. there is significant opportunity to benchmark and learn from promising practices in regional, national and international jurisdictions. more specific findings from the research are highlighted below. the transcript research revealed the following: the community of postsecondary and non-postsecondary survey respondents confirmed the currency of most of the transcript principles and definitions entrenched in the 2003 arucc transcript guide, an exercise which confirms the fundamental strategic core of the document. there is growing evidence of ambiguity surrounding understandings of what constitutes an 'official' transcript and questions about the related privacy and security considerations. although 75% of survey respondents indicated they used the guide, the workshop findings suggested there seems to be a lack of usage or awareness of the 2003 arucc transcript guide. a statement routinely made was that this project actually improved awareness of the arucc transcript guide. while there is evidence of common practices, there are examples of varied practices in terms of display and usage of transcript components to a very detailed level even for those noted as 'essential' in the guide. there were also specific examples provided for enhancement needs to the guide particularly related to assignment for select transcript components, transfer credit and inter-institutional partnerships, cumulative grading practices, credit weighting systems, repeated courses practices, alternative learning opportunities (e.g., non-credit, study abroad, etc.), equivalent learning (e.g., plar) and co-curricular record information. the community also expressed interest in having examples (or recommendations) of promising transcript layouts. there were also recommendations to leverage the internet and other technological solutions and to present the outcomes in a user friendly, dynamic, online format. the transfer credit nomenclature and related policy research revealed significant variability in approaches with respect to transfer credit guides and use of terminology at the strategic and operational levels for both inter-institutional agreements and individual transcript assessment for transfer credit within provincial jurisdictions and across canada. a number of organizations provided examples of policies and definitions. the different terms to describe types of agreements and programs for partnerships were extensive, although it became possible through the research to identify the more commonly used terms. as another illustration, how institutions define credit is relatively consistent at a higher level; however, it serves as an example where challenges arise when further probing occurs. the variable approaches to defining credit weight and the lack of consistency with providing transparent and explicit explanations of credit weighting systems on transcripts emerged as two significant gaps. the information for both transcript practices and transfer credit nomenclature provide a significant platform from which to continue the consultation and development of standards and glossaries. the 112 community signaled significant appreciation for this project, its principled and collaborative approach to broad and deep consultation, and its potential for providing outcomes of direct use and relevance to institutions and regulatory bodies across the country. the research also revealed a lack of awareness of shared or promising practices either in canada or available internationally. although select examples were provided and are mentioned throughout the report (e.g., bccat, acat), respondents to the national survey or in workshops named relatively few promising practices outside their jurisdiction. with respect to international promising practice, awareness of the american aacrao transcript guide appears limited and only one person mentioned the aacrao transfer credit practices database. vary rarely was the european diploma supplement identified and the australian and uk credential certificates were never mentioned. these findings legitimized the cross-canada and international research. examples of international credentialing models and information about qualifications frameworks and other tools to support student mobility became necessary inclusions in the research and subsequent report in light of their implications for transcript standards and transfer credit nomenclature development. the community was also polled for their insights on potential emerging or longstanding and yet unresolved considerations that should inform future consultations for the arucc pccat project. one finding was the interest in encouraging the alignment of core components of transcripting protocols and transfer credit terminology. this was both a subtext and a direct desire often expressed throughout the consultation process both in person and through the qualitative commentary provided in interviews, in the advance poll and through the national survey. there was also significant and continual acknowledgement of the impact of regional, programmatic and linguistic nomenclature differences that are often widely embedded in institutional policies and/or regulations. comments were shared that these differences contributed, as a result, to misalignment with what is normally considered principled best practice; might signal a better practice and potential standard to be commonly endorsed; and/or were indicators of a uniqueness of a particular slice of the postsecondary sector that requires preservation. as a smaller finding, there was evidence of perceptions of difference (i.e., expressed as we are different and unique institutions and therefore need to be recognized as such). actual data comparisons have revealed a number of common themes and practices, which are noted throughout the report. the community signaled the need to contemplate and potentially define standards for: (i) transcripting and transfer credit assessment (and related terminology); (ii) alternative learning delivery such as online learning and experiential learning; (iii) competency-based education (e.g., learning outcomes); and, (iv) equivalent learning (e.g., plar, challenge exams, etc.). also requested were examples of promising practice and establishing shared norms for transfer credit nomenclature. the complementary opportunities presented by the work of the member organizations of the canadian pesc user group and individual institutions in the area of electronic data exchange and etranscripts were evident as was the desire by the community to understand and contribute to electronic transcript standards development. the findings were coupled with suggestions to avoid allowing the delivery 113 model, systems and data exchange standards to drive principles and practices for transcripts and transfer credit nomenclature. the international research confirmed the value of a central body or collaborating agencies such as the model established by arucc and pccat as a necessary ingredient along with alignment with jurisdictional and internationally available qualifications frameworks to ensure the comprehensive development of standards and nomenclature that support the movement of students. examples were provided of international jurisdictions that have successfully created standards and/or credentialing models that enhance transparency, consistency and portability. creation of standardized approaches to credentials also seems to be a characteristic of these international jurisdictions (e.g., shared graduation credentials, definitions, standards and principles). in keeping with the above, additional considerations that helped to inform the six recommendations are outlined in table 14. these points are emphasized in the interest of ensuring the next project phase is mindful of these areas of further exploration. table 14: additional areas important to future project phases topic 2003 arucc transcript guide enhancements and transfer credit nomenclature areas requiring further exploration examining and assessing specific recommendations provided during this phase of the research to inform development of a guide and glossary specific transcript components creating a future enhanced guide for transcription informed by research findings alternative learning options (e.g. study abroad, non-credit, etc.) arranged by individual institutions for their students creating recommended transcript principles and standards for alternative learning options informed by common practices equivalent learning options (e.g. plar, creating recommended principles and standards for the additional considerations the recommendations from this phase of research will inform a revised online transcript guide resource and a national transfer credit glossary. areas requiring enhancement were extensive (e.g., alternative learning, co-curricular record information, equivalent learning, transfer credit, inter-institutional programs, credit systems, nomenclature for inter-institutional and transfer credit partnerships, programs and assessment, etc.). for the transfer credit glossary in particular, an analysis of variable approaches should occur to identify competing and contradictory definitions. common practices need to be carefully considered in consultation with the community when suggesting a way forward for particular standards. examples requiring enhancements include areas such as grading systems; transcript legends; credits and credit weighting; repeated courses; program transfer notations; conditional approval of progress; successful completion of internships; graduate school milestones or other requirements (e.g., completed, unsatisfactory, in progress, ethics requirements, thesis ranking for oral and written components, promotion to phd, graduate workshops, exhibitions for fine arts students); undergraduate standing each term. the community has signaled the currency of the 2003 transcript principles which endorse the preservation of the academic nature of the document as a primary characteristic of the official transcript, i.e., it represents a ratified artifact of the academic educational experience at an institution. careful consideration needs to be given to developing standards for alternative and near academic options (e.g., non-credit, study abroad, and non-course related milestones relevant to program success or requirements such as academic integrity, workplace health and safety training, english language proficiency, etc.). the variable representation on transcripts of equivalent learning is extensive in canada, which findings suggest is impeding mobility. 114 challenge credit, etc.) transfer credit guides principles data exchange standards future consultation enhance awareness of promising practices other associations qualifications framework developments with a specific focus on credentialing and nomenclature examples in international jurisdictions transcription standards and transfer credit nomenclature for equivalent learning options informed by common practices and jurisdictional models creating standards for transfer credit guides ensuring simplicity and clarity in the creation of standards and nomenclature. integrating the pesc electronic data exchange standards as appropriate (and identifying areas of complementarity and alignment with transcription standards and transfer credit nomenclature) developing methods for continuing to engage the community in a manner that deepens the input and richens the assessment and endorsement of both transcription standards and transfer credit nomenclature developing a mechanism to routinely highlight awareness and external validation of promising practices developing a communications plan that informs other organizations of the launch of the new guide and glossary comparing the existing international credentialing models and transfer credit nomenclature to canadian examples to inform next phase consultations (future planned changes in these international jurisdictions should be identified along with associated underlying driving principles) avoiding jargon the project should also monitor the international groningen declaration, which focuses on data portability and student mobility. existing annual, bi-annual and bi-ennial meetings of core associations are appropriate and opportune venues to encourage engagement in the next project phase. canadian associations: canadian association of graduate studies (cags), provincial registrars association, association of catholic colleges and universities of canada, canadian bureau of international education, canadian association of college and university student services (cacuss), polytechnic canada, the private post-secondary association of bc (ppsabc), and the canadian association of prior learning assessment international associations: american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (aacrao), association of biblical higher education, association of commonwealth universities, association of american universities, association of private sector colleges and universities (apscu), the pacific association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (pacrao), upper midwest association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (umacrao). if applicable to the scope of the project, further explore and integrate auccs alignment efforts of the canadian degree qualifications framework to the bologna three-cycle framework. as a significant strength, canada has a qualifications framework that is endorsed and adopted by the jurisdictions across the country. 115 recommendations the following six recommendations are noted to inform the next phase of the arucc pccat project. #1 enhance the 2003 arucc transcript guide the next phase of the arucc pccat project should further assess these findings, confirm that which is still current and relevant in the arucc transcript guide, and propose a series of potential content enhancements, changes and additions that should then be presented for consultation, review, refinement and endorsement by the community. #2 determine where to house the new guide an analysis should be conducted in the next phase to explore how best to present the information and ensure its currency and final location. a. leveraging the capacity of the internet and housing it within the arucc website are two potential considerations. b. the timing and availability of resources may be such that actual implementation could occur in a later phase. c. ensure the final guide and/or glossary is informed by and provides specific links to promising practices either in canada or in other jurisdictions to enhance awareness of alternate approaches. #3 develop a national transfer credit glossary explore the feasibility of creating (and potentially implementing) a single national glossary for transfer credit nomenclature the specifics of which would be endorsed and supported by pccat, arucc and the councils on admission/articulation and transfer. the glossaries and terminology guides presented in this report, together with the frequently used terms identified through the survey will provide a helpful starting point for this work. a. ideally, it would be populated initially as part of the arucc pccat project. to maintain currency, the functionality should allow for local updating (e.g., by institutions or other relevant organizations e.g., transfer councils) and be linked to local sites. b. its initial creation should be informed by the existing glossaries on websites overseen by councils on admissions/articulation and transfer as referenced in this report, with additions resulting from evidence of more commonly used terms, such as those identified through this research. c. the core audiences that would benefit would be institutional stakeholders, and, ideally, guidance counsellors, parents and students. d. currency, relevance, adoption and usage will be influenced and somewhat complicated by institutional policies and systems and, potentially, government regulations and/or reporting requirements. therefore, the first iteration may wish to focus initially on publishing the more commonly shared terms along with their associated definitions (whether for agreements, programs or operational level terms) and to do so in a manner that acknowledges and accommodates any diversity and/or jurisdictional provincial nuances. 116 e. in terms of currency and utility, the model provided by the cicic and the aacrao transfer credit databases provide interesting approaches, which should be examined as part of the next phase. #4 develop a sustainable and complementary communication, awareness and distribution plan for these resources the guides and glossaries ultimately must be supported by a complementary communications plan to ensure regular awareness and usage of the tools. #5 establish an awards program to recognize canadian promising practices the two associations should consider developing a national awards program, ideally adjudicated by both arucc and pccat that acknowledges potential promising practice in canada. a. in this way, promising practices would be routinely shared and profiled and receive external validation and confirmation of their stature as a potential best practice. b. if accepted, the next phase of the project could readily include creation of an awards framework for review and potential adoption by one of or both of the two national associations. #6 support the development and adoption of electronic transcript exchange standards the next phase of the arucc pccat project should continue to ensure that the canadian pesc user group member organizations are consulted and engaged in this process. a. at minimum, the findings suggest it would make sense to incorporate a subset of electronic transcript data standard information into a future transcript guide similar to the example provided by the american aacrao transcript guide. b. further, the ongoing project should be mindful of the opportunities presented by international opportunities such as the groningen declaration. recommendations 1 through 6 could readily inform and shape the next phase of an arucc pccat project focused on transcript standards and transfer credit terminology. although the following suggestion is potentially beyond the purview of pccat and arucc, the diversity of nomenclature available to describe inter-institutional agreement and program references is such that it may be necessary for some kind of high level transfer terminology framework to be created, reviewed and refined for consideration by appropriate provincial and national bodies with interest in the area of transfer. based on an examination of the examples provided by international and select domestic organizations, each term and its associated definition would be well served if the following characteristics were addressed as a minimum: its core defining feature and the credential or credentials that should be awarded (e.g., one or two credentials, diploma plus degree, etc.). the evidence and the examples provided by the canadian association of graduate studies (cags) research (hall, 2012) on usage of the term joint program, arnolds (2014) research on diverse nomenclature and its impact on transfer literacy, the qualifications frameworks research gathered as part of this study and the example provided by the ontario universities quality assurance framework (with specific reference to the 117 definitions provided in that document for inter-institutional partnerships) are compelling. these findings coupled with the diversity of practice evident in this report and the previously published bccat credentialing practices for joint programs (duklas, 2013) suggest some direction is needed. specifically, there is an opportunity to encourage further dialogue and potential resolution at the most strategic level and through the appropriate decision authorities in a fashion that is informed by academic principles and expertise. the work of international organizations in the area of inter-institutional partnership development should also be considered when exploring potential definitions. 118 references academic registrars council (arc). 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(2014). welcome. retrieved from wes: http://www.wes.org/ca/, april 4, 2014. 135 appendices 136 appendices appendices....................................................................................................................................................... 137 appendices tables .......................................................................................................................................... 139 appendices figures ........................................................................................................................................ 139 appendix a arucc pccat advisory committee members ...................................................................... 139 appendix b glossary ................................................................................................................................... 142 appendix c stakeholder interviewees/personal communication sources..................................... 145 appendix d1: methodology.......................................................................................................................... 146 appendix d2: definitions ............................................................................................................................... 152 appendix d3: research communications plan ......................................................................................... 154 appendix d4: research project launch letter .......................................................................................... 155 appendix d5: advance poll ........................................................................................................................... 157 appendix d6: sample workshop invitation ............................................................................................... 159 appendix d7: sample registration form ................................................................................................... 160 appendix d8: workshop agenda package .................................................................................................. 161 appendix d9: stakeholder interview questions ...................................................................................... 164 appendix d10: sample survey communications ....................................................................................... 165 appendix d11: sample submission protocols ........................................................................................... 167 appendix e: canadian regional findings ................................................................................................... 169 canadian degree qualifications framework ...........................................................................................................169 quality assurance in canada ..................................................................................................................................169 regional focus .......................................................................................................................................................169 atlantic canada.................................................................................................................................................170 quebec ..............................................................................................................................................................173 ontario ..............................................................................................................................................................179 western canada ...............................................................................................................................................182 appendix f: canadian educational systems............................................................................................. 192 appendix g: international research .......................................................................................................... 193 australia ................................................................................................................................................................193 system overview ...............................................................................................................................................193 qualifications framework .................................................................................................................................193 data and research ............................................................................................................................................194 key strengths and emerging opportunities ......................................................................................................195 europe....................................................................................................................................................................195 system overview ...............................................................................................................................................195 qualifications frameworks ...............................................................................................................................196 137 european association for quality assurance in higher education (enqa) .......................................................197 data and reporting ...........................................................................................................................................197 united kingdom ......................................................................................................................................................198 system overview ...............................................................................................................................................198 qualifications frameworks ...............................................................................................................................198 scotland ............................................................................................................................................................199 data and research ............................................................................................................................................200 united states..........................................................................................................................................................200 system overview ...............................................................................................................................................200 qualifications frameworks and quality assurance ..........................................................................................201 appendix h: transfer credit policies and nomenclature ...................................................................... 203 appendix i: advisory group demographics .............................................................................................. 207 appendix j: catalogue of postsecondary institutional samples provided ....................................... 212 appendix k: transcript and grading practices ........................................................................................ 215 appendix l: regional workshop background information ................................................................. 217 appendix m: national survey data ............................................................................................................ 219 private versus public ..............................................................................................................................................219 association memberships ........................................................................................................................................220 decision authority .................................................................................................................................................222 student demographic profile of institutional respondents ....................................................................................222 transcript responsibilities and usage of transcript guides .....................................................................................223 transfer guides, transcription practices and terminology usage ..........................................................................228 references for appendices ........................................................................................................................... 232 138 appendices tables table m1: student demographics of institutions .. table m2 - which of the following are included on the transcript? ......... table m3: which position or approval body has the final authority to establish transfer credit nomenclature at your institution? table m4: which components are currently in the transfer guide or policy at your organization? .. table m5: which of the following should be in an organizations transfer policy or guide? .. table m6: which of the following inter-institutional partnership terminology is in use at your institution? ........... table m7: what transfer credit terminology is currently in use at your organization? .......... table m8: which of the following transfer credit information should be on a transcript? .......... 222 224 227 228 228 229 230 231 appendices figures table e1: comparison of bc dqab transcript maintenance agreement requirements and arucc transcript guide . table l1: jurisdictional workshops table l2: themes provided at the point of workshop registration. figure m1: functional area represented by respondents - public versus private ... figure m2: respondents by province - public versus private ... figure m3 : institutional type; private versus public .. figure m4: association memberships identified by survey respondents figure m5: association memberships as reported by individual members; public versus private figure m6: approval authority by institutional type .. figure m7: respondents involvement with transcript standards and practices . figure m8: institutions allowing students to repeat courses . figure m9: what occurs with grades on the institutional transcript when credit is transferred? .. figure m10: identify the applicable transcript notation practice for each source of transfer credit or timing of assessment figure m11: are any of these inter-institutional partnership terms included on the institutional transcript? . figure m12: is there a document regarding transfer credit in addition to the transcript that should be provided to a student? ......... 139 189 217 218 219 219 220 220 221 222 223 224 226 227 230 231 appendix a arucc pccat advisory committee members jeff adams, executive director, enrolment services, university of manitoba (mb) brier albano, assistant registrar, student engagement, medicine hat college (ab) gagan basi, associate registrar, university canada west (bc) barry billing (representing canadian pesc user group - national), business systems analyst, ontario college application centre (on) mark bishop, registrar, university of new brunswick saint john (nb) john curtis (chair of cralo) registrar, enrolment services - student and community engagement, centennial college (on) barb davis (arucc executive representative), registrar, brock university (on) barb elich, registrar, briercrest college (sk) chris harris, registrar, new brunswick community college (nb) robert hensley, registrar, kwantlen polytechnic university (bc) david j. hinton, registrar, university of new brunswick fredericton (nb) mary hodder, office of the registrar & enrolment services, vancouver community college (bc) janeen hoover, associate registrar, registration, records and fees, conestoga college (on) jeannette miron, registrar and manager of institutional research, canadore college (on) gerry kendall, retired registrar from university of alberta and special advisor to the university of alberta provost (ab) josie lalonde, associate director, student services student systems & records, school of graduate studies, university of toronto (on) marie-france lanteigne, registraire en chef, collge communautaire du nouveau-brunswick (nb) clay macdougall (arucc executive), deputy registrar, humber college (on) david marasco, university registrar, secretary of senate & accessibility director, office of the registrar, algoma university (on) darcy mccardle, assistant registrar, university of prince edward island (pei) patsy macdonald, registrar, nova scotia community college (ns) grant mcmillan, university registrar, office of the registrar, trinity western university (bc) 140 neil mort, director of enrollment and student services, fairleigh dickinson university (bc) ada ness, associate registrar, enrolment services, office of the registrar, university of alberta (ab) trish nuyten, registrar, registrars office and student services, red deer college (ab) chris parker, registrar, student affairs, registrars office, mount allison university (nb) karen preston, registrar, st. thomas university (nb) kara reich, registry officer, kings university college (ab) pascal robichaud, registraire, universit de moncton (nb) colin russell, university registrar, student services, instructor, department of english, university of winnipeg (mb) mike sekulic, registrar, grant macewan university (ab) jo skillings, security systems analyst, office of the registrar, western university (on) clara spadafora, manager, student records, enrolment services, mcgill university (qc) deb stava, registrar and director, institutional research, northwest community college (bc) al wiseman, university secretary & registrar, university of the fraser valley (bc) 141 appendix b glossary acronym / shortened title name region aacrao american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers us aarao atlantic association of registrars and admissions officers eastern canada acat alberta council on admissions and transfer alberta aec attestation dtudes collgiales quebec ahegs australian higher education graduation statement australia apas applyalberta alberta aqf australian qualifications framework australia arc academic registrars council uk arcq quebec arucc association des registraires des collges du qubec association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada aucc association of universities and colleges of canada canada aved bc ministry of advanced education british columbia bccat british columbia (bc) council on admissions and transfer british columbia bci bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (formerly crepuq) quebec bcra british columbia registrars association british columbia bec bulletin dtudes collgiales quebec caat college of applied arts and technology ontario cags canadian association of graduate studies canada capla canadian association of prior learning assessment canada ccae canadian council for the advancement of education canada ccm college course map us cdn pesc user group ceds canadian post-secondary electronic standards council (pesc) user group canada common education data standards us ceec commission dvaluation de lenseignement collgial quebec cegep collges denseignement gnral et professionnel quebec cep programmes proposals evaluation commission quebec chea council for higher education accreditation us cicic canadian information centre for international credentials canada cip classification of instructional programs canada cmec council of ministers of education, canada canada copse manitoba council on post-secondary education manitoba cou council of ontario universities ontario cqlr college education regulations quebec cralo ontario colleges committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers ontario credit college credit recommendation service us crepuq la confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec (now bci) quebec cspse cudo centre for skills in post-secondary education (conference board of canada) common university data, ontario canada ontario 142 canada dcs diploma of college studies quebec dec diplme dtudes collgiales quebec dqab bc degree qualifications assessment board british columbia eacea education audiovisual and cultural executive agency europe ects european credit transfer and accumulation system europe ehea european higher education area europe eheaqf european higher education area qualifications framework europe enqa european association for quality assurance in higher education europe eqar european quality assurance register europe eqf european qualifications framework for lifelong learning europe esg europe fheq standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the european higher education area electronic transcript management system, ontario college application service (ocas) framework for higher education qualifications fqehea framework for qualifications of the european higher education area gerta us gpa north dakota university system: general education requirement transfer agreement grade point average hear higher education achievement report uk heqco higher education quality council of ontario ontario hesa higher education statistics agency uk ipeds integrated postsecondary education data system (ipeds), national center for education statistics (nces) institutional policy on the evaluation of student achievement / politique institutionnelle dvaluation des apprentissages us iut inter-university transfer agreement quebec lop letter of permission canada mels ministre de leducation, du loisir et du sport quebec mesrs ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche et de la science (mesrs) quebec mooc massive open online course international mou memorandum of understanding international mphec mtcu maritime provinces higher education commission ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities atlantic provinces ontario naric national recognition information centre uk nbcat new brunswick council on articulations and transfer new brunswick nces national center for educational statistics (nces) us ndus north dakota university system us ocas ontario college application service ontario ocqas ontario college quality assurance service ontario oecd organization for economic co-operation and development international oen ontario education number ontario oncat ontario council on articulation and transfer ontario etms ipesa/piea 143 ontario england, wales, ireland europe international quebec oqf ontario qualifications framework ontario ouac ontario universities application centre ontario oura ontario university registrars' association ontario pccat pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer canada pesc post-secondary electronic standards council canada petl department of post-secondary education, training and labour new brunswick plar/pla prior learning assessment and recognition international psis postsecondary student information system canada qaa quality assurance agency for higher education uk quality council rrec ontario quebec scqf ontario universities council on quality assurance le rglement sur le rgime des tudes collgiales, loi sur les collges d'enseignement gnral et professionnel (college education regulations, general and vocational colleges act) scottish credit and qualifications framework sracq service rgional d'admission au collgial de qubec quebec sram service rgional d'admission du montral mtropolitain quebec srasl service rgional d'admission des cgeps du saguenay-lac-saint-jean quebec ssd secondary school diploma quebec taars transfer agreement archival retrieval system alberta tluq tl-universit quebec teqsa tertiary education quality and standards agency australia unesco united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization international uqam universit du qubec montral quebec warucc wes western association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada world education services western canada international westcat western consortium on admissions and transfer western canada 144 scotland appendix c stakeholder interviewees/personal communication sources interviewee/source alison pickrell ann marie lyseng organization university of saskatchewan alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) bonnie day marianopolis college cathy van soest clara spadafora bccampus mcgill university client services manager senior manager, management of academic records dave neale diana mackay dr. rob fleming dr. robert adamoski campus manitoba conference board of canada bc council on admissions and transfer (bccat) bc council on admissions and transfer (bccat) executive director director, education executive director associate director, research eric dohei alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) manager, acat secretariat erin ohara council on post-secondary education, government of manitoba senior policy analyst, policy and legislative affairs gilles leblanc association des registraires des collges du qubec (arcq) vice-prsident, arcq glenn craney ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) executive director greg link thompson rivers university open learning director of admissons and enrolment services jeff adams jeffrey kehler university of manitoba council on post-secondary education, government of manitoba executive director, enrolment services policy and program analyst kinney butterfield strategic policy and programs division, ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities team lead strategic policy transformation branch margarita sianou world education services (wes) deputy executive director, evaluation services martin hicks higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) executive director, data and statistics michle clarke colleges and institutes canada director, government relations and policy research mike sekulic murray kerr natasha sawh grant macewan university brandon university canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic) new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat) university registrar director of admissions coordinator, cicic russ isinger tom brophy university of saskatchewan brandon university sylvie richard institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) university registrar associate vice president (student services and enrollment management) and university registrar registrar vincent petitclerc ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche et de la science (mesrs) coordonnateur de la sanction et des objets d'tudes collgiales phil blanger 145 title director of enrolment and student affairs senior manager, learner pathways and acat secretariat manager, registrar services and systems executive director appendix d1: methodology definitions select definitions were used to assist the research process (see appendix d2). having noted this, the nature of a standards and nomenclature project implies that different definitions and use of terminology are under review. as such, grounding research in specific definitional terms becomes somewhat challenging. this was particularly true for this study given that foundational documents such as the 2003 arucc transcript guide and provincial and/or institutional glossaries were being researched and reviewed. however, it became important to identify initial definitions to ensure respondents to the national survey and participants in the workshops were speaking a common language at select points. target audience the research was targeted at arucc and pccat members. arucc membership is institutionally-based and typically includes registrars and directors of admission along with their support teams, whereas pccat is composed of individual members from both postsecondary institutions and other organizations within the private, government and non-profit sectors. typically, pccat members are also policy and curricular pathway developers and transfer student advisors who may or may not come from an institutional setting. therefore, the target audience for the research project primarily comprised registrars and those with roles in organizations and institutions with direct involvement in transfer credit policy development and management. the various workshops, stakeholder interviews, poll and survey were developed recognizing the above and that more than one individual at any given institution or organization may need to respond to research questions. more than one response per institution was encouraged to ensure maximum expertise was represented in the research process. communications appendix d3 contains the communications plan for the research process. it was deliberately crafted to complement the diverse constituencies involved in arucc and pccat. distribution channels were also carefully considered. all communication went to the listservs of both national organizations. the project launch letter was also distributed to academic leadership across the country (such as institutional vice president academics). to raise awareness about the project, an electronic version was sent to designated contact members of the association of universities and colleges of canada (aucc), colleges and institutes canada, the canadian pesc user group, the canadian information centre for international credentials and the canadian association of graduate studies (cags). appendix d4 contains the original project launch letter. a generic project email was established to facilitate ongoing contact between the research team and members of arucc and pccat (arucc.pccat.project@gmail.com). it was widely advertised in all project materials. 146 advisory group the research process was supported by a national advisory group, formed with the intention to ensure breadth and depth in the subsequent consultation stages. membership on this committee was voluntary and resulted from a call to arucc regional associations via formal request from the president/chair of the respective regional associations. in addition, pccat executive members were asked to identify interested volunteers. the project lead along with the senior research associates conducted additional outreach with the intended goal of ensuring representative membership from regions and institutions across canada. appendix a contains a list of participants in the advisory group. advance national poll to inform the questions on the national survey and subsequent research, a bilingual (french/english) online advance poll was distributed to the advisory group members. it was in the field for a two-week period in january 2014. the poll identified early indicators of usage and enhancement needs for the 2003 arucc transcript guide; advice on the research process and the national survey; and successful or promising practices in canada and internationally. appendix d5 contains the poll questions. jurisdictional research regional workshops workshops in each region were offered via teleconference, in-person or both. sessions were organized in consultation with regional registrarial associations; specifically, warucc, oura, cralo, bci, and aarao. the quebec cegep organization (arcq) and the quebec ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche et de la science (mesrs), the higher education ministry that governs cegep transcript protocols, were also consulted. the invitation for the workshops was distributed through the arucc and the regional registrarial association email lists under the signature of the president of each organization. at least two reminders were sent through the same distribution channels. appended to the invitation was an online registration form which included open ended questions to allow registrants to make suggestions for additions to the workshop discussion. appendices d6 and d7 contain samples of the invitation and registration form. a standardized approach characterized the methodology for the workshops. materials provided to registrants in advance included an introductory presentation about the national project, a structured agenda, a summary of the project scope and open-ended questions to guide the discussions. all of these materials were available in both english and french. appendix d8 contains the workshop agenda package. in the case of the oura/cralo and the bci workshops, the sessions were co-located with the annual oura conference and the bci bi-annual meeting respectively to facilitate maximum attendance. in the case of warucc, three separate teleconferences were held to achieve the same end. the aarao workshop ran as a standalone opportunity in nova scotia at dalhousie universitys agricultural campus; it was supported by teleconferencing capacity. 147 stakeholder interviews stakeholder interviews were conducted to ensure individuals and organizations with extensive involvement in the areas of either transcript standards or transfer credit pathway and nomenclature development or both were captured in the research process. provincial and national organizations with involvement in these areas were targeted as the goal was to obtain a comprehensive understanding, identify promising practice and situate the research project within a canadian context. standardized questions were developed as a guide for the initial group of interviewees, which are available in appendix d9. additional organizations identified as a result of recommendations from particular interviews expanded the list from the original number and further interviews were subsequently conducted with this second group. all interviews were conducted over a two-month period in january and february. appendix c provides the complete list of people interviewed. web and literature research web and literature research extended the analysis across canada and internationally. the goal with the in-canada research was to amplify and place into context the findings from the poll, the workshops and the national survey. the canada and regional findings are captured in various sections of this report and the appendices (particularly appendix e). an examination of four international regions revealed high level themes that suggest promising practice: europe, australia, united kingdom (uk) and the united states (us). the rationale for choosing these regions was directly related to the extent of transfer credit, joint program and/or transcript standards development occurring in each. for example, with the us, the american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (aacrao) has published a comprehensive transcript guide, the aacrao 2011 academic record and transcript guide (2011). the same organization maintains a long standing commitment to transfer pathway development and publishes resources such as a comprehensive, online resource, transfer credit practices of designated institutions (2012) that provides details on transfer practices at institutions across the us. european counterparts have innovated the diploma supplement, which is a multi-country example of supplementing transcripts with a document that confirms consistency and quality. australia and the uk offer similar examples. as another validation for the regions selected for international jurisdictional research, according to a 2011 survey and study published by the institute for international education, joint and double degree programs in the global context: report on an international survey, these regions were the most active participants from a sample set of 245 higher education institutions (obst, kuder, & banks, 2011, p. 10). institutions from these regions are partnering with others from around the world including with schools 148 from india, china, europe, uk and the us (2011, p. 13). australia tends to have a similar level of activity with indonesia and singapore. institutional sample collection and web review a review of select institutional websites of large and small colleges and universities in canada demonstrated the array of published information about transcript policies and content, transfer credit policies and student mobility nomenclature. academic calendars published on the web, as well as registrarial websites and academic senate/council polices, were examined for institutional norms that were not always transparent. the results are included in section of the report that focuses on the website and sample review (beginning on page 63). along with the invitation for the national survey, members of arucc and pccat were asked to submit samples of their institutional or organizational policies for transcript and transfer credit (with respect to the latter, particularly as it related to transfer credit terminology). in consultation with a representative of the arucc executive, an online dropbox was created to support sample submissions. alternatively, institutional representatives could send samples via email to the arucc pccat project lead or submit them in person at a workshop. submission protocols were provided to institutional representatives (both english and french) in the dropbox (see appendix d11). institutions were asked to submit samples of the following: transcripts; transcript keys/legends; grading scales; transcript policies; transfer credit policies and/or protocols; transfer credit nomenclature documentation (if available); sample transfer credit agreement that speaks to credentialing and transcription protocols (if available); any standards documents in addition to aacrao and arucc transcript guides. national bilingual survey a comprehensive, online survey was developed and refined as a result of feedback captured from the research and consultation process. it was developed and tested by the researchers, members of the advisory group and members of arucc pccat project steering group. the goals of the survey questions included the following: 1. identify gaps and confirm the currency and relevancy of the 2003 arucc transcript guide and, potentially, the 2011 aacrao transcript guide. 2. capture and aggregate the array of transcript practices and transfer credit terminology evident in canada. 149 3. begin to understand the levers that govern approval of current transcript standards and transfer credit terminology in the various jurisdictions. 4. capture a preliminary understanding of the overarching principles that should govern future standards development. 5. garner a stronger appreciation of the perspectives of the various stakeholders involved in transcript and transfer credit work. it was not the intention of the survey instrument to advance actual standards as such consultation and research will inform the next phase of the multi-year project. the instrument was structured into four parts: the first section captured organizational demographic information to facilitate future data analysis. the second focused on identifying institutional, governmental or jurisdictional transcript protocols and the third section focused on highlighting transfer credit practices and terminology. the last section of the survey requested respondents identify promising practices, emerging trends and perspectives on principles and future directions. given the diversity of expertise required to inform this research, the entire population of the arucc and pccat membership base was invited to participate in the survey. there are 182 member institutions in arucc at present. further, most institutions participate in the regional associations, particularly those that are publicly funded.29 the existence of online survey capacity with advanced customization facilitated the efficient collection of data from across the sector and from multiple stakeholders. logic was built into the survey to allow respondents from these various backgrounds, both institutional and non-institutional, to participate. due care was taken to ensure broad distribution and to maximize response rates. in keeping with the bilingual mandate of the two lead organizations and to enhance access, the survey was available in both french and english. the distribution channels for the survey instrument were online and through listservs held by arucc, pccat, warucc, oura, cralo, aarao, and bci. it was also forwarded to the quebec arcq and quebec mesrs, to the cicic credential evaluator listserv and to select other private schools that are not currently members of either pccat or arucc. potential respondents for the national survey were reminded in the workshops to complete the national survey and were sent an advance notification one week prior to the launch. the latter referenced the many sponsors for this research with the intention to demonstrate the provincial and national interest in this project. the survey was launched on march 5th and two reminders were sent each of which emphasized the march 28th closure. presidents of each regional association were asked to further distribute the survey and these notifications to their provincial membership listservs. a notice of closure was sent on april 2nd. 29 as arucc and pccat have private sector membership, the survey was also distributed to the private sector membership. 150 permission of use and disclosure at each stage in the research process, respondents to polls and surveys and participants in workshops were asked to provide permission to use their input and samples for the research project. as publication of the report would be without restriction on both the arucc and pccat websites, any individual quoted in the final report provided written permission of use either during the stakeholder interview process or during the draft report stage. in addition, all respondents and interviewees were advised of the plan to publish the final report. the following is an example of a permission of use and disclosure statement which was used for the national survey instrument: by completing this survey, you are considered to have provided permission for your responses to be used to inform the research for the arucc/pccat national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature project. the findings from the survey will be used to contribute to the development of a final report which will be submitted to arucc and pccat and subsequently made available publicly. individual responses will remain anonymous in published reports unless specific permission is obtained from the original author. 151 appendix d2: definitions 1. co-curricular record a document that summarizes a students activities beyond the classroom and the learning outcomes achieved for pursuing those efforts in a manner that is branded by the institution (elias & drea, winter 2013). 2. cotutelle a customized program of doctoral study developed jointly by two institutions for an individual student in which the requirements of each universitys doctoral programs are upheld, but the student working with supervisors at each institution prepares a single thesis which is then examined by a committee whose members are drawn from both institutions. the student is awarded two degree documents though there is a notation on the transcripts indicating that the student completed his or her thesis under cotutelle arrangements (ontario universities council on quality assurance, 2010, p. 6). 3. inter-institutional used to describe joint programs that occur between institutions; including dual degree, coregistration. 4. intra-institutional used to describe joint programs that occur within two different programs, faculties or schools within an institution. 5. joint program [a] programme offered jointly by different higher education institutions irrespective of the degree (joint, multiple and double) awarded [sic] (european consortium for accreditation in higher education, 2007, p. 1). 6. learning portfolio a flexible, evidence-based tool that engages students in the process of continuous reflection and collaborative analysis of learning. as written text, electronic display, or other creative project, the portfolio captures the scope, richness and relevance of students intellectual development, critical judgment, and academic skills. the portfolio focuses on purposefully and collaboratively selected reflections and evidence for both improvement and assessment of students learning (zubizarreta, 2009, p. 20). 7. mobility the ability to move freely from one jurisdiction to another and to gain entry into an academic institution, trade, or profession without undue obstacles or hindrances. (canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic), 2013). 152 8. session defined as studies, course or series of courses covering a period of time from between four to eight months30 (duklas, arucc academic calendar study, 2014). 9. term defined as studies, course or series of courses covering a period of time that is four months of study or less31 (duklas, arucc academic calendar study, 2014). 10. transcript an official document that identifies courses taken (title and course number), credits and grades achieved, and credentials or qualifications earned32 (canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic), 2013). 11. transfer of credits/credit transfer the acceptance or recognition of credits by a host institution on the basis of successful completion of courses at another educational institution within or outside the jurisdiction in order to minimize the duplication of learning. also called credit transfer (canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic), 2013). 30 a recently published arucc academic calendar study identified this terminology is sometimes used interchangeably with term; hence, the need for a definition for this study. 31 a recently published arucc academic calendar study identified this terminology is sometimes used interchangeably with session; hence, the need for a definition for this study. 32 the definition of transcript entrenched within the 2003 arucc transcript guide is being assessed through the arucc pccat national project. 153 appendix d3: research communications plan communication milestone timeframes deliverable by end of december project launch: by january 13 by end of january establish project email: arucc.pccat.project@gmail.com develop project launch communications develop initial workshop format: organize and schedule first workshop (oura/cralo), support online registration and related communications establish advisory group: conduct call for volunteers via regional associations create and distribute project launch notification: finalize and launch project launch letter via distribution channels establish advisory group: finalize membership in national advisory group create and launch advance poll: develop and launch advance poll (english and french) close and analyse advance poll national survey: finalize draft and beginning testing survey with advisory group members; develop supporting communications (to include: a/ initial pre-notification letter to target audience for national survey; b/ launch email; c/ two reminder emails; d/ survey closing notice) regional workshops: finalize methodology, agendas, handouts and supporting communications (english and french) sample collection: develop and launch online portal for institutional sample collection by end of february workshops: complete regional workshops sample collection: continue capturing institutional samples national survey: continue testing, developing and translating survey march 5 national survey: launch bilingual (english and french) online survey and supporting communications to arucc, pccat, warucc, oura, cralo, aarao, bci, arc, ciciccmec listservs march 17 communications: survey & sample submission reminder march 24 communications: survey & sample submission reminder end of march national survey: close survey sample collection: close sample collection exercise april 15 submit draft report may 15 submit final english report may to june translate final report 154 appendix d4: research project launch letter association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada association des registraires des universits et collges du canada information release date: january 10, 2014 from: pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfer (pccat); association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) to: arucc and pccat members; registrarial regional associations; canadian association of graduate studies (cags); provincial councils on admissions/articulation and transfer and related bodies (bccat, nbcat, acat, oncat, heqco); association of canadian community colleges and its members;33 association of universities and colleges of canada (aucc) and aucc members; canadian information council for international credentials, council of ministers of education, canada (cicic cmec); canadian postsecondary electronic standards user group (cdn pesc) re: launch of the arucc/ pccat national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards research project dear colleagues: we are writing to you today to introduce you to an exciting research project being launched by the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) and the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat). the research will focus on identifying current transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices evident across canada and in other jurisdictions. the results of the research will inform future consultation toward the objective of developing a comprehensive canadian standards guide for transcripts and transfer credit nomenclature. student mobility and progression are among the hallmarks of 21 st century student success. students move between and among colleges, institutes, universities and the workplace. ensuring their qualifications and achievements are well understood and recognized is essential, whether they remain in their home provinces, transfer across canada and/or venture outside our boundaries for international experience and education. 33 now called colleges and institutes canada 155 institutional academic transcripts should be the passports to mobility in their presentation of both the institution and the student record, providing a transparent means to enable fair recognition of qualifications. the last decades have witnessed a proliferation of educational opportunities, and varying policies, procedures and nomenclature have been developed to present credentials, transfer credit, institutional partnerships and other relevant information on the transcript. the evolution of large-scale vendor administrative systems has had an impact on student transcripts. the recognition of prior learning and credentials on transcripts varies across institutional and geographic boundaries. the confluence of these factors often results in creating impediments and barriers to student mobility and progression. we have engaged a project team led by joanne duklas, duklas cornerstone consulting, and her associates karen maki, jo-anne brady and joanna pesaro to conduct the research project under the leadership and direction of a joint arucc/pccat steering committee (robert adamoski, bccat; glenn craney, oncat; rob fleming, bccat; kathleen massey, mcgill university; hans rouleau, bishops university; angelique saweczko, thomson rivers university). the project team brings a wealth of experience in academic reporting and student pathways, a solid understanding of current and emerging issues relevant to student mobility and progression, and a network of contacts throughout the sector. the research project will review current practices and identify the gaps and the required enhancements to the 2003 arucc national transcript guide in particular and with transfer credit nomenclature more generally. the project team will work closely with members of arucc and pccat, and other stakeholders, to gain insights into existing practices, challenges and opportunities for improvement. extensive consultation with university and college registrars, international offices, graduate studies professionals and other professionals engaged in developing and promoting transfer pathways will occur over the next few months. a variety of methods will be used to solicit information and feedback including polling, a comprehensive national survey to arucc and pccat members, sample collection, workshops and individual consultations. this will be complemented by select stakeholder interviews and research into other jurisdictions to understand thematic challenges along with unique practices and solutions across the postsecondary sector, both locally and globally. the data collected in this research phase will inform subsequent stages to ultimately culminate in the creation of a standards guide. the guide will be intended to be descriptive rather than prescriptive, to provide a valuable and essential aid to producers and reviewers of student transcripts. this project will realize many tangible and tangential benefits to canadian postsecondary education in that it will advance the mobility objectives at many levels within and surrounding the sector. we hope that you will support the project and encourage participation in the consultation process in the first quarter of 2014. if you have any questions or comments about this data collection phase of the project, please e-mail arucc.pccat.project@gmail.com . sincerely, hans rouleau registrar, bishops university president, association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) phil blanger executive director, new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat) chair, pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) 156 appendix d5: advance poll the information provided by respondents to the poll will be used to assist the researchers for the national project. the intention of the poll is to begin to identify potential gaps and enhancement requirements to the 2003 arucc national transcript guide. in addition, the researchers are seeking advice on the research process; the format of a national survey to collect data on transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices and standards; and successful practices locally available and in other jurisdictions. to that end, the first and second parts of the poll contain questions regarding the national survey and transcript standards and practices. the last section contains questions regarding transfer credit nomenclature. questions regarding this poll or the project should be directed to arucc.pccat.project@gmail.com poll information: it will take approximately 30 minutes to complete the following poll. to assist with formulating your responses, please review the 2003 arucc transcript guide available online at http://arucc.ca/documents/transe.pdf thank you for contributing to this important research project. permission and notice of use: by completing this survey, you are considered to have provided permission for your responses to be used to inform the research for the arucc/pccat national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature project. the findings from the poll will be used to inform the development of a national survey and a final jurisdictional report. individual responses will remain anonymous in published reports unless specific permission is obtained from the original author. 1. please provide your contact information. this information will be used if your responses require additional clarification and follow up by the researchers. 2. which association membership is held by your institution? 3. identify which individual(s), position(s) or office(s) would be best suited at your institution to respond to a national survey regarding transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards? the two national associations are seeking to ensure the research identifies transcript and transfer credit nomenclature practices affecting all levels and types of postsecondary institutions. please consider these components when responding to this question. 4. identify the components of the 2003 arucc transcript guide that have proven most useful in your work at your institution. check all the sections below in the guide that apply. the guide is available online at the following url should you wish to review it while responding to this question: http://arucc.ca/documents/transe.pdf o o o o o o o o basis of admission current transcript issues and issues for further study external learning recognized by the issuing institution identification of issuing institution identification of the student record of studies pursued student academic statuses and other statuses statement of graduation 157 o o transcript issuance information other, please explain 5. what enhancements to the 2003 arucc national transcript guide would you recommend? the guide is available online at the following url should you wish to review it while responding to this question: http://arucc.ca/documents/transe.pdf 6. do you use the aacrao 2011 academic record and transcript guide in your professional work? 7. if yes, identify the components of the 2011 aacrao academic record and transcript guide that have proven most useful in your work at your institution? 8. are there particular challenges you have encountered when developing or implementing transcript policies, processes or standards at your institution? 9. given your response, were there particular benefits your institution or organization would have realized if you had enhanced national guidelines on best practices in transcript policies, standards etc.? please explain how and provide examples. provide url links to policies or practices you reference in the above (not including the arucc or aacrao guides). if the documents referenced are not available online, send them to arucc.pccat.project@gmail.com 10. please provide examples of successful practice that you are familiar with related to transcript standards policy development either at your institution or elsewhere. this information will assist the researchers with expanding the jurisdictional research and identifying successful practice. 11. are you aware of any successful practices either within or external to your jurisdiction related to transfer credit nomenclature practices? 12. given there are no transfer credit nomenclature policies, standards or practices at your institution or provided provincially, what challenges and opportunities does this present? 13. in your work, provide examples of successful practice in your own or other jurisdictions related to transfer credit nomenclature standards and/or policy development that you have encountered. this information will assist the researchers with expanding the jurisdictional research. if you have no suggestions, skip this question. 14. what emerging issues or trends do you anticipate are likely to impact transcript and/or transfer credit nomenclature standards? are there particular components that would be informed by enhanced standards development? how? 15. are there any other suggestions or comments you would like to share regarding the arucc/ pccat national project to assist with the research process? 158 appendix d6: sample workshop invitation we are pleased to invite you to an in-person consultation opportunity for the arucc pccat transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards project. this event is co-sponsored by aarao, arucc and pccat. the information release for the project is attached. the in-person workshop details are as follows: online registration form: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/aarao_arucc_pccat_workshop_registration_form/ date: february 24 time: 10 to 2 location: ca douglas board room cumming hall dalhousie university agricultural campus 62 cumming drive truro, nova scotia project leader for workshop: joanna pesaro, senior research associate (the bios for both joanna and joanne duklas, the arucc pccat project lead, are attached.) each institution is asked to send at least one representative who should come prepared to share and discuss the following: their institution's current transcript and transfer credit policies and practices recommendations for principles to guide standards development any implementation challenges with implementing transcript and transfer credit standards examples of best or promising practice either at their institution or elsewhere participants are also asked to review in advance the 2003 arucc transcript guide as we will be discussing identified gaps and needed enhancements. http://arucc.ca/documents/transe.pdf sample transcripts, legends, grading scales, and transfer credit nomenclature are requested submitted in advance by february 14 via the password protected dropbox for the project. also needed are examples of transcripts showing notations related to transfer credit and inter-institutional (external) partnerships. once you register for a session, you will be sent an invitation to join the online dropbox. after you accept the invitation you will be able to upload your samples. the agenda for the workshop will be distributed closer to the day. thank you for supporting the arucc pccat project! 159 appendix d7: sample registration form registration information: please complete the following form to register for the arucc / pccat workshop. this consultation opportunity is intended to provide a venue for registrarial and admissions administrators and pathway coordinators to contribute to the national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards project. there is no charge for participation. due to space limitations, institutions are asked to limit participation to no more than two representatives. thank you for contributing to this important research project. 1. please provide your contact information. 2. which association membership is held by your institution? check all that apply. atlantic association of registrars and admissions officers (aarao) american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (aacrao) association of registrars for the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer other, please specify... ______________________ 3. is anyone else from your institution attending the arucc/pccat workshop? 4. please provide the contact information for the additional person attending the workshop. 5. to assist the arucc/pccat workshop organizers, please identify what transcript practices and standards you would like discussed in the workshop. 6. to assist the arucc/pccat workshop organizers, please identify what transfer credit nomenclature practices and standards you would like discussed in the workshop. 7. are there any other suggestions or comments you would like to share regarding the arucc/ pccat national project to assist with the workshop or the research more generally? after you complete this registration form, you will be sent an invitation to an online dropbox. once you accept that invitation, you will be able to load your institution's samples of transcripts and transfer credit policy / terminology to the dropbox site. we ask that you do this no later than february 14. these samples will be used by the researchers and fellow workshop participants to inform the discussions and the project research. 1. do you give your permission for the institutional samples you provide to be used as research documentation for the arucc / pccat national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards project? 160 appendix d8: workshop agenda package date: february 24 time: 10-2 teleconferencing details: toll free: 1-877-394-5901, access code: 4030745 location: ca douglas board room cumming hall dalhousie university agricultural campus 62 cumming drive truro, nova scotia agenda welcome and introductions workshop goals project: clarification / questions regarding purpose, scope or methods roundtable discussion: transcript standards roundtable discussion: transfer credit terminology roundtable discussion: research, best practice, overall recommendations next steps closing comments encl. appendix a: project scope snapshot appendix b: discussion questions additional documents project overview presentation 161 project scope snapshot this phase of the project is specifically focused on highlighting the current practices across canada in two areas: transcript protocols and transfer credit terminology. the ultimate goal of the overall project is to create a new transcripts standards guide and a glossary of transfer credit terminology. it is not the intention of the national survey to identify the standards that should feature in a future transcript or transfer credit guide / glossary of terms. that phase of the project is intended to occur at a later stage. however, the findings from this national survey will provide a solid foundation from which to move forward the standards and terminology discourse in canada. further, the scope of the project does not include data exchange protocols as this is the focus of another project led by the canadian post-secondary electronic standards council (cdn pesc) user group. it also does not include a review of privacy legislation in each province in relation to transcripts and transfer credit. goals of the national survey the overarching goals of the national survey include the following: capturing insights from arucc and pccat members on the current state as it relates to transcript and transfer credit nomenclature protocols identifying promising and/or successful practices informing the parallel jurisdictional research and literature review create a common understanding of the current practices in canada specific objectives the survey is intended to do the following: identify gaps and confirm the currency of the 2003 arucc transcript guide and, potentially, the 2011 aacrao transcript guide capture and aggregate the array of transcript practices and transfer credit terminology evident in canada begin to understand the levers that govern approval of current transcript standards and transfer credit terminology in the various jurisdictions capture a preliminary understanding of the overarching principles that should govern future standards development garner a stronger appreciation of the perspectives of the various stakeholders involved in transcript and transfer credit work 162 workshop discussion questions transcript standards arucc transcript guide: http://arucc.ca/documents/transe.pdf does your provincial/regional association have additional standards or guidelines with respect to transcript standards? do you (and your staff) use the arucc transcript guide? o if not, why not? what are the key strengths of the guide? what are the gaps in the guide that we have an opportunity to address? what are the key differences between institutional types? o college and university transcripts? o certificates, diplomas and degrees? o undergraduate and graduate levels? o apprenticeships? what are the unique issues for transcripts for joint partnerships? transfer credit terminology does your provincial/regional association have standards or guidelines with respect to transfer credit nomenclature? what challenges do you experience in assessing transcripts from other institutions for transfer and transfer credit? what complaints/confusion do you hear from students with respect to transfer credit nomenclature? are there differences in transfer credit terminology o among colleges, universities and institutes? undergraduate and graduate levels? o with apprenticeships? are there any issues that are specific to joint programs and other forms of academic partnerships? jurisdictional best practices, research, and overall recommendations if you were to imagine a university, college or institute or perhaps even another jurisdiction that seems to be getting it right either in transcript standards or transfer credit, what specific examples come to mind? o why? what seems to be the key ingredients that make them successful? what types of standards or terminology, either for transcripts or transfer credit that are currently used at your institution might be useful to others? how might a transcript and transfer credit terminology standards guide assist you o in the policy realm? in the operational realm? with reporting? if you were to identify a priority focus for the new guides, what would that be? what should be the principles for such a guide? do you have any recommendations for other research reports, jurisdictional practices or thought leaders that we should be sure to include in this project? 163 appendix d9: stakeholder interview questions 1. what is your assessment of the current state of standards for transcripts and transfer credit nomenclature in your jurisdiction? (i.e., is the jurisdiction just starting to consider standards? is there support and engagement within the jurisdiction? is there a mature system that others can learn from?) 2. what are the key strengths or enabling features of transfer and mobility in your jurisdiction? are you aware of particularly promising practices in other jurisdictions that we should be aware of? 3. what do you perceive to be the barriers or challenges? 4. how might the presentation of transfer credit and overall student mobility on transcripts be improved to help improve the students experiences? 5. what is your advice regarding current practice and standards refinement? 6. note that we are concurrently conducting a poll of registrarial and mobility leaders in each canadian jurisdiction to inform development of a comprehensive national survey. do you have any specific recommendations for the survey? 7. are there any jurisdictional reports (jurisdictional overview; research or policy-based reports) that would be relevant to this project and that they are able to share with us or refer us to? 8. who are key thought and action leaders in your jurisdiction that we should be sure to include in our consultations? 9. are you aware of any emerging issues or trends do you anticipate are likely to impact transcript and/or transfer credit nomenclature standards, or that would be informed by enhanced standards development? 10. are there any additional comments or advice for the project team? 11. request permission to use their interview input and any relevant documentation in the final jurisdictional report. do they wish to receive a summary of the interview to confirm that it clearly represents their input, or if any responses require clarification or additional information? 164 appendix d10: sample survey communications sample survey launch letter: dear colleagues, you are receiving this note as a member of the arucc or pccat listservs. we are writing at this time to ask for your participation on a national survey soliciting information and perspectives on current and potential future principles and practices related to canadian university and college transcripts and transfer credit nomenclature. http://fluidsurveys.com/s/arucc_pccat_transcript_transfer_credit_survey/langeng/ we are asking that you complete the survey by: friday, march 28, 2014 this survey is a significant component of the joint arucc/pccat consultation and research project that may ultimately inform an update to the arucc national transcript guide and the development of a searchable database of transcript practices and canadian transfer credit nomenclature that was described in the fall 2013 arucc contact newsletter. as we announced in our january 10, 2014 letter, a research team led by joanne duklas, duklas cornerstone consulting, is undertaking the consultative process under the leadership of a joint arucc/pccat steering committee. the information provided on the survey will be complemented by research gathered through consultation at regional association meetings, workshops, institutional interviews, and interjurisdictional research. the intention of the survey is to identify gaps and potential enhancements to the 2003 arucc national transcript guide and to identify successful practices and emerging trends across canada in transcript standards and transfer credit terminology. the research team will compile the results of the full research and consultative process in a final report that will be presented at the arucc biennial 2014 meeting in quebec city in june. we encourage you to actively participate in the research by completing the survey to ensure that your institutions practices and terminology are captured and reflected in the final report. the research team would also value receiving samples of your institutional transcripts and policies or guidelines related to transfer credit nomenclature where applicable. if you have samples to share or questions regarding the survey in particular or the research project in general, contact arucc.pccat.project@gmail.com. thank you in advance for taking your valuable time to provide your input through this survey. your experience and insights will be of tremendous assistance. sincerely, hans rouleau registrar, bishops university president, association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) 165 phil blanger executive director, new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat) chair, pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (pccat) sample reminder letter: dear colleagues, we are writing to follow-up on our march 5, 2014 correspondence encouraging you to participate in the national survey soliciting information and perspectives on current and potential future principles and practices related to canadian university and college transcripts and transfer credit nomenclature. if you have not yet responded to the survey, we urge you to take the time now. the survey may be accessed through http://fluidsurveys.com/s/arucc_pccat_transcript_transfer_credit_survey/ we recognize your time is valuable and stretched; however and if you have not yet had a chance to respond to the survey, we seek your assistance to ensure our research team has a robust set of data that may be used to inform future consultation targeted directly at the development of transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards. such standards will assist institutions and students in the pursuit and recognition of student educational pathways and academic performance. a reminder also that the research team is requesting that you contribute samples of your institutional transcripts and policies or guidelines related to transfer credit. if you have not already done so, contact arucc.pccat.project@gmail.com and an invitation to the online dropbox for samples will be arranged. the samples will be used only to assist the researchers to identify current practices. questions regarding the survey in particular or the research project in general should be directed to arucc.pccat.project@gmail.com. the survey will close on march 28. thank you for providing your valuable experience and insights through this survey. sincerely, joanne duklas arucc pccat project lead 166 appendix d11: sample submission protocols sample instructions, notice of use and permission to use an online dropbox has been created to house samples for the project. an invitation to the dropbox was sent to you along with these instructions. once you accept that invitation, you will be able to access and load samples to this dropbox through a personal password that you create. the notice of use and permission statement is below. the privacy policy for dropbox is available for viewing in dropbox. types of documents required: transcripts (scanned versions of paper transcripts and, if possible, an example of an electronically submitted transcript if the latter is different from the paper transcript) transcript keys/legends grading scales transcript policies transfer credit policies and/or protocols transfer credit nomenclature documentation (i.e., terminology used at your institution regard transfer credit or advanced standing) sample transfer credit agreement that speaks to credentialing and transcription protocols (if available) any standards documents you might use in addition to aacrao and arucc transcript guides (note, we have the bc transcript maintenance agreement information for private schools and do not require this to be uploaded) transcripts the following instructions are intended to ensure the transcript samples provided adhere to privacy regulations and are as complete as possible. file saving protocol: in the file title, ensure you type your institutions name along with the name of the document being shared (e.g., myuniversity_sampletranscript1). upload your document to the dropbox folder for the province that is home to your main institutional campus. rather than load a real student transcript, it is advisable to create a test student file and to populate relevant information on the sample transcript. it is important for the researchers and institutional participants in the workshops to clearly see and understand how records information regarding students is captured on a transcript; therefore, please ensure your test example features specific details on programs, degree and course information, grades, notations, exit and progression information and anything else that your institution normally shares. ideally, include an example of a record that demonstrates how transfer credit and interinstitutional joint programs are featured (including dual degrees if applicable). be sure to upload the grading scales and transcript legends/keys used at your institution. 167 if your institution has more than one grading scale or transcript legend, load all of them. identify in the file title which faculty, school or program uses that particular transcript (or grading scale). ensure your transcript samples have sample noted (and avoid overlaying this on top of any relevant information. transfer credit nomenclature the following instructions are intended to assist you with loading your transfer credit samples. file saving protocol: in the file title, type your institutions name along with the name of the document being shared (e.g., myuniversity_transfercreditnomenclaturepolicy). upload your document to the provincial dropbox folder that is home to your main institutional campus. if your transfer credit nomenclature policy or regular transfer credit policy is available on the web, please note the url in a word file and load it to dropbox. a brief description of terminology / nomenclature used in day-to-day practice. notice of use the samples provided will become part of the research documentation for the project and will only be used for the arucc pccat national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards project. all material loaded will become resource documentation for this project. the samples will be housed in a password protected online dropbox, which will be passed to arucc upon completion of the project. any institutional representative that loads samples to the dropbox will be able to see the samples loaded by other institutions, which is helpful to those participating in consultation sessions as they will be able to review materials in advance. the samples will remain behind the online password protected dropbox and will not be publicly shared. at no point will a particular example be published unless specific permission is formally sought and granted by the issuing institution. permission by loading your institutions samples to the dropbox, you provide permission to arucc and pccat and its contracted researchers to review and use the materials to inform the research for the arucc pccat national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards project and to publish findings derived from a review of the documentation. specific samples will not be published without explicit permission being provided from your institution. 168 appendix e: canadian regional findings canadian degree qualifications framework34 in 2007, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for advanced education adopted the ministerial statement on quality assurance of degree education in canada (council of ministers of education, canada [cmec], 2007). the statement contains three sections: canadian degree qualifications framework; procedures and standards for new degree program quality assessment; and procedures and standards for assessing new degree-granting institutions. the canadian degree qualifications framework contains two sections: descriptions of degree categories, similar to those used in the eu and many other jurisdictions; and degree level standards, which stipulate demonstrable transferable learning skills and level of mastery for a body of specialized knowledge in six dimensions (p. 5), for the bachelors, masters and doctoral degree. components of the framework are summarized in described in detail in the cmec ministerial statement on quality assurance of degree education in canada (pp. 2-7). as is illustrated in the provincial/regional jurisdictional overviews below, select sectors and/or jurisdictions have developed their own qualifications frameworks some of which are limited in scope. typically, these provide further specificity for their jurisdictions credentials, while aligning with the national degree framework. quality assurance in canada the ministerial statement on quality assurance of degree education in canada (cmec, 2007) outlines broad parameters for standards and procedures in quality assessment for new degree programs. the standards reference alignment with the national degree qualifications framework and evaluation against published criteria for a set of commonly used elements, including academic content, program content, program delivery, governance, human resources, physical resources, credential recognition, regulation and accreditation, and program evaluation (pp. 8-10). the statement is written in a manner that is broad enough to be accommodated within the autonomous provincial and institutional quality assurance bodies. canada does not have a formal accreditation system for postsecondary institutions; however, institutional and provincial quality assurance processes for degree, diploma and certificate programs in universities, colleges and institutes typically serve as a proxy for accreditation, given their focus. further, membership in national sector organizations, such as aucc is sometimes also considered a proxy for accreditation. in addition, a number of professional associations and agencies perform an accreditation function at both the program and graduate level for regulated professions such as medicine, nursing, pharmacy and engineering. regional focus given the uniqueness of each region, even within each province/territory, the research suggested a more focused lens on specific areas would be a beneficial addition to the research. while it was not possible to research every province or territory, the regional association structure that aligns with 34 http://www.cicic.ca/docs/cmec/qa-statement-2007.en.pdf 169 arucc provided a ready framework to shape both the consultation process and the capture of findings (i.e., atlantic canada, quebec, ontario and western canada). detailed findings for each are described below. atlantic canada overview the maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec) is an agency of the council of atlantic premiers that provides advice to ministers responsible for postsecondary education in new brunswick, nova scotia and prince edward island. newfoundland and labrador is not a member of mphec and operates as its own jurisdiction. for that reason, a spotlight on newfoundland is provided below. in 2005, the commissions mandate was renewed, with the proclamation of the maritime provinces higher education act, giving primary focus to improving and maintaining the best possible service to students as life-long learners (maritime provinces higher education commission, n.d.a.). the nine objectives articulated in the revised mandate span quality assurance, access, cooperation and collaboration, data and research, and system-wide efficiency. there are currently seventeen post-secondary institutions within the scope of the mphec, fifteen of which are publicly-funded universities. of these, three also offer college-level or technology-based certificate and diploma programs [and] the remaining two institutions offer primarily college-level programs [sic] (maritime provinces higher education commission, n.d.a.). in 2009 the atlantic provinces community college consortium and the association of atlantic universities signed a memorandum of understanding (mou) outlining guiding principles, operating principles and implementation guidelines to enhance transfer and mobility opportunities for students in the atlantic provinces. the mou (2009) recognizes institutional autonomy, yet outlines common approaches to transfer agreements (by block transfer, course-by-course transfer, or entry to a specified year), basis of admission, and coordination and dissemination of information pertaining to transfer pathways. maritime degree level qualifications framework the mphec adopted the maritime degree level qualifications framework in 2006, as an adaptation of the canadian degree qualifications framework adopted by cmec (2013).35 the qualification framework covers requirements for degrees at the baccalaureate, masters and doctoral level. each credential is described according to the following elements: 1. 2. 3. 4. overall program design and outcome emphasis; preparation for employment and further study; length of program; demonstration of learning on the following eight dimensions: 35 more details on the maritime degree level qualifications framework is available at http://www.mphec.ca/resources/degreelevelframeworken.pdf. 170 i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. depth and breadth of knowledge in the field depth and breadth of knowledge outside of the field conceptual and methodological awareness level of analytical skill professional capacity/autonomy level of communication skills awareness of limits of knowledge (pp. 21-24). data and research data collection, analysis and publication are a key part of mphecs mandate. reports are produced on enrolment and credentials granted, measures of student outcomes, research funding, tuition fees, and trends in maritime higher education (maritime provinces higher education commission, n.d.b.). in addition, mphec has conducted a number of studies measuring transfer activity among universities in new brunswick, nova scotia and pei. the mpec maritime university statistics website also includes definitions of commonly used terms although these are not at the level of specificity of transfer credit nomenclature or transcript standards. spotlight on newfoundland and labrador the public postsecondary education system in newfoundland and labrador includes one university, memorial university, with six campuses (including one in harlow, england and one on the french island of st. pierre), and one college, college of the north atlantic, with 17 campuses, including one in qatar. together, the two institutions enrol approximately 26,000 students (canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic), 2010). newfoundland and labradors council on higher education is a joint venture of memorial university, the college of the north atlantic and the government of newfoundland and labrador, with responsibility to make recommendations for system-wide policy, planning, coordination and articulation (government of newfoundland and labrador, 2007). the council also publishes the annual newfoundland and labrador transfer guide (government of newfoundland and labrador, department of advanced education and skills, 2012), that provides details of credit transfer agreements for courses and programs, both within the provincial postsecondary system (including advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses) and from provincial institutions to out-of-province institutions, such as university of new brunswick and athabasca university. the transfer guide also includes comprehensive sections on terminology (pp. 85-87) and admissions and transfer policies (pp. 93-103). spotlight on new brunswick the department of post-secondary education, training and labour (petl) is responsible for postsecondary education in new brunswick. the system includes four publicly funded universities and two publicly funded colleges with a total of 18 campus, in addition to two specialized institutions, the new brunswick college of craft and design and the maritime college of forest technology/collge de technologie forestire des maritimes. there are also a number of small, private denominational universities/colleges, for-profit private degree granting institutions and private training institutions. degree granting institutions in new brunswick adhere to the maritime degree level qualifications 171 framework. new brunswick is an officially bilingual province, with 32% of the province french-speaking and 64% english-speaking (canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic), 2014). credit transfer in new brunswick is considered a work in progress (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014). the new brunswick council on articulations and transfer (nbcat) was established in 2010 as a participatory council with a mandate that included the improvement of educational opportunities for new brunswick learners through inter-institutional mobility. the council, through its committee of contact persons, has a continuing responsibility for facilitating credit transfer and prior learning assessment amongst participating postsecondary institutions. in support of this responsibility, nbcat has adopted a set of principles for credit transfer, based on the following key documents: the ministerial statement on credit transfer in canada, council of ministers of education, canada, 2005; the memorandum of understanding between atlantic canadian universities and community colleges for the encouragement of transfer agreements, june 2009; and new brunswicks guide to transfer of credits between community colleges and universities, august 2000 (nb council on articulations and transfer [nbcat], n.d.). the ultimate goal is to create a more integrated postsecondary practice in new brunswick that is respectful of institutional autonomy and makes progress towards the provinces plan aimed at transforming postsecondary education (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014). nbcat has also articulated a set of principles to support the objectives outlined in the memorandum of understanding between atlantic canadian universities and community colleges for the encouragement of transfer agreements (2009) and new brunswicks own goals with respect to enhancing transfer and mobility, including a recognition of the following: students should not have to repeat formal learning experiences. learning contexts may be different; however, they can still be equivalent with respect to content and standards. credit transfer can occur in many forms, including prior learning assessment and recognition (plar). appropriate policies and procedures are required to ensure that credit transfer initiatives are implemented in a consistent and transparent manner (nb council on articulations and transfer [nbcat], n.d.). like the atlantic provinces mou, nbcats principles also recognize that individual institutions retain autonomy with respect to program structure and content, admissions, and decisions about transfer credits. new brunswick credit transfer portal the new brunswick credit transfer portal36 was developed by the department of post-secondary education, training and labour, in collaboration with postsecondary institutions. the portal includes both course-to-course equivalencies and a database of formal transfer agreements, listing sending and receiving institutions and high level information on qualification requirements and transfer credits to be 36 see www.portal.nbcat.ca 172 awarded (typically block credit). information is populated and updated by the individual institutions. while initially there was some reluctance, institutions have responded positively to the enhanced efficiencies for students and administrators resulting from having course equivalencies on the portal. nbcat continues to work with postsecondary institutions to improve the course evaluation process, to build new pathways and to promote the credit transfer portal to students, parents, guidance counsellors and employers. while individual institutions in new brunswick have transfer guides or policies designed to assist students, there is not a jurisdictional guide to transcript or transfer credit nomenclature. nbcat (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014) notes that an effective transfer guide will service a number of purposes, including assisting students and institutions to build a commonly understood terminology, as well as providing a tool to help achieve quality assurance. the relevance to the arucc pccat research project is best illustrated through the following comment: the more commonalities we can build in our terminology and understanding, the more effective we can become (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014). with respect to data and research, nbcat is working with mphec to try to expand research to include college transfers in addition to degree level mobility. in the meantime nbcat has developed a benchmarking model, shared with mphec, that can track the number of credit transfers awarded in each of its member institutions in new brunswick (including colleges) by category and source (in province, out of province, international) (philip blanger, personal communication, january 21, 2014). quebec overview in september 2012, postsecondary education in quebec became the responsibility of the newly-created ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche, de la science et de la technologie (mesrst).37 prior to 2012, all levels of education were under the auspices of le ministre de leducation, du loisir et du sport (mels) (ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche, de la science et de la technologie, 2012-2013, p. 3). mels retains responsibility for primary and secondary school education. postsecondary education is offered through both public and private institutions, the majority of which offer instruction in french. according to the systme de gestion des donnes uniques sur les organismes (ducation, loisir, et sport qubec, n.d.), an online searchable institutional database maintained by the ministry, quebecs postsecondary education landscape includes 20 universities (three of which are english) and an array of institutions classified under collgial: 48 public cegeps (collges denseignement gnral et professionnel), 25 subsidized private colleges, 26 licensed, non-subsidized private colleges and a further category of collgial institutions called coles gouvernementales du collegial. quebec students enter the college system after completing secondary/secondaire v, equivalent to 11 years of study, and earning a secondary school diploma (ssd). students planning to enter university are 37 as of april 2014, the mesrst has been renamed the ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche et de la science (mesrs) (vincent petitclerc, personal communication, may 6, 2014). 173 enrolled in a variety of college/cegep pre-university programs that lead to a diploma of college studies (dcs); in french, le diplme dtudes collgiales (dec), which generally take two years of full-time study to complete. students may also be enrolled in technical dcs/dec programs that are normally completed within three years of full-time study that lead to employment but does not preclude university study. college/cegep graduates start university in quebec after completing the requirement for the dcs/dec and may complete an undergraduate degree in three years of full-time study depending on the program. quebec universities offer a full range of educational opportunities at both the undergraduate and graduate levels while the institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) offers programs at the masters, doctoral and postdoctoral levels at four locations in quebec (sylvie richard, personal communication, march 31, 2014; institut national de la recherche scientifique, 2011). in french, levels are called cycles with le premier cycle referring to undergraduate study. masters/doctoral programs can be referred to as deuxime/ troisime cycle respectively, or as tudes suprieures or tudes avances. according to cicic, the universit du qubec, the largest university in canada, is made up of six constituent universities, two specialized schools, one research centre, and the tl-universit specializing in distance education. it is the only university in the country that truly constitutes a province-wide system, similar to some state universities in the united states (canadian information centre for international credentials, 2010b). qualifications and quality assurance frameworks a/ college system the quebec college system is regulated through the college education regulations, general and vocational colleges act; in french le rglement sur le rgime des tudes collgiales, loi sur les collges d'enseignement gnral et professionnel (rrec) (college education regulations, 2014). the rrec sets out the parameters for awarding a college credential issued by the ministry upon the recommendation of the college. this includes frameworks for admission, student achievement, and the required components of a college program. government regulation stipulates that all colleges/cegeps must articulate their own rigorous, transparent, cohesive policy as per the institutional policy on the evaluation of student achievement - ipesa/politique institutionnelle dvaluation des apprentissages piea (college education regulations, 2014, p. division vi). quality assurance is achieved through the commission dvaluation de lenseignement collgial (ceec), an independent public quality assurance organization mandated specifically to enhance the quality, credibility, and recognition of education offered in qubecs colleges (commission dvaluation de lenseignement collegial, 2009, pp. 11-12). 174 other jurisdictional supports and collaborative efforts to promote collaboration, communication, and exchange of ideas on issues of relevance to registrars and registrarial staff, the association des registraires des collges du qubec (arcq) was formed in 1979 (arucc, fall 1979/winter 1980). as part of this project, the arcq executive were consulted and through their vice-president, gilles leblanc, provided initial insights, guidance and referrals on college system practices and policies of interest to this project (gilles leblanc, personal communication, january 31, 2014). b/ universities the bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci), a consortium of quebec universities, has a broad mandate to provide oversight and institutional support, and to liaise with government, professional associations and other relevant organizations such as funding agencies. membership is voluntary. since 1963 and prior to january 2014, bci was known as the conference of rectors and principals of quebec universities; in french, la confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec (crepuq) (bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci), 2014). as outlined on its website, bcis mandate spans the spectrum of academic and administrative considerations of a university and works through a mechanism of standing committees and subcommittees comprising senior administrators for all major sectors of university activities. amongst bcis many responsibilities, the following is a sampling only as it relates to the arucc pccat national transcript and transfer credit nomenclature standards research project. further details of bcis various activities can be found on their website: periodic audits of current academic programs through the program evaluation review commission; in french, la commission de vrification de lvaluation des programmes (cvep); evaluation of proposals for new programs by its new program evaluation commission; in french, la commission dvaluation des projets de programmes (cep); administration of the agreement to transfer credits that permits a student registered at one quebec university (home university) to take a course at another quebec university (host university) that cannot be taken at the home university (inter-university transfer agreement iut). this also involves managing the online system for the iut process. coordination of student exchange programs; electronic transmission of college transcripts to quebec universities; statistics (admission, student exchange programs, university libraries, etc.). bci also provides a permanent forum for the exchange of ideas for administrators, which promotes the harmonization of policies and procedures in many different areas. one such forum or sub-committee is composed of quebec university registrars, where bci provides support for dialogue and collaboration. (bureau de coopration interuniversitaire [bci], n.d.a.). 175 quality assurance existing programs: bcis program evaluation review commission (cvep) audits institutional policies and practices within the frame of reference defined in the policy of qubec universities on the periodic evaluation of current academic programs (bureau de coopration interuniversitaire, n.d.b.). each university is required to create an evaluation policy for existing programs while these institutional evaluation policies and practices are reviewed by bci's commission de la vrification de l'valuation des programmes (cvep). cyclical academic unit reviews are intended to go beyond program reviews; they will allow the university, the faculties, and the units themselves to assess their objectives, priorities, activities and achievements, and to compare themselves to equivalent units in peer institutions, with a view to improving quality and maintaining excellence. academic unit reviews will help to ensure that the units objectives are aligned with faculty and university priorities and plans, as well as meeting the requirements of the bci policy (mcgill university, 2011, p. 1). new programs: new programs leading to a university degree (bachelor's, master's, or doctoral) are submitted to la commission dvaluation des projets de programmes (cep) through bci, which renders an opinion as to academic quality. the minister reviews the opinion. decisions on funding for new programs are made based on the provisions in the document entitled procdure lie l'examen d'opportunit des projets de programmes conduisant un grade prsents au ministre de l'ducation, du loisir et du sport aux fins de financement. these complementary mechanisms are designed to assess each institution's proposed programs and to ensure the relevance of university program offerings (canadian information centre for international credentials [cicic], 2010c). the following evaluation criteria are used by the cep in its deliberations of new programs: 1. relevance of the program profile, which includes o the match between the level of training and the degree granted; o the clarity of the program and degree titles and their relevance to the programs learner outcomes; 2. academic framework (admission requirements, duration and course load, grading, etc.); 3. activities (program structure and content, adequacy of proposed activities for producing the learning outcomes); 4. human resources (qualifications and contributions of the faculty members involved); 5. material resources (support for students program activities such as libraries, computer facilities, laboratories, classrooms, financial assistance for graduate studies, etc. (confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec, 2013). key resources for transcript standards the college system - bulletin dtudes collgiales (bec) according to vincent petitclerc (personal communication, february 13, 2014), the coordonnateur de la sanction et des objets dtudes collgiales of the mesrs, the mesrs regulates and oversees transcript standards and protocols for all quebec colleges and cegeps (private, public, french- or english- 176 speaking), enshrined in le rglement sur le rgime des tudes collgiales, rrec/college education regulations, cqlr, article 31. as a result, the college system benefits from having the same transcript template, available in both french and english depending on the colleges language of instruction, and follows the coding as set forth in the rrec regarding course withdrawals, equivalencies, grading scale and practices, etc. recipients of college transcripts can expect to find all elements in the same place from college to college as well as a consistent presentation of program and credential progression (bonnie day, personal communications, february 20, 2014). through the coordonnateur de la sanction et des objets d'tudes collgiales, the mesrs makes available and updates regularly a transcript administrative guide for registrarial staff. in section 5.3.6 (under remarques) , the guide includes a description and usage of key codes and elements found in the transcript such as ab, di, ea, ec, eq, ex, in, it, su. each transcript is accompanied by a legend, which explains all such abbreviations used in the transcript. in addition, the definition of certain terms used such as equivalence, substitution, dispense, unit are found in rrec rlrq c c-29, r 4; in english: college education regulations, cqlr c c-29, r 4 (college education regulations, 2014). the coordonnateur de la sanction et des objets d'tudes collgiales (mesrs) works closely with his arcq colleagues and is also aware of and has used transcript resources such as the arucc guide (vincent petitclerc, personal communication, february 11, 2014). universities as part of a consultation with bcis sub-committee of quebec university registrars on february 20, 2014, it was reported that each individual institution is responsible for setting its own transcript standards and practices. of note, the university of quebec network of universities issues harmonized transcripts, with some minor institutional differences. the sub-committee of quebec university registrars produces a guide called guide des registraires du qubec : pratiques et priorits updated january 2012, which touches on all the various responsibilities of a university registrar to offer practical tips, advice and resources. as one example of particular relevance to this project, in the section on transcripts the guide refers quebec registrars to the 2003 arucc transcript guide for guidance (confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec, 2012). as an aid to credential assessors, bci publishes and makes available online a comparative table of grading and progression standards and practices for each of the quebec universities. bci makes clear, however, that institutions publish their own grading policies and are the only official source for this information (confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec [crepuq], 2005). transfer credit nomenclature standards college/cegep each college is responsible for determining its own transfer credit policy. this is done in the context of ipesa, which specifies the process of matching performance criteria/learning outcomes, as provided by the mesrs, with actual achievements. some regional admission centres such as the service rgional 177 d'admission du montral mtropolitain (sram) also offer a comparative evaluation service for colleges.38 regardless, the academic decisions on equivalencies remain an institutional purview. the terminology used, however, is defined through the ipesa framework. the rrec includes definitions for course, credit, program, standard, objective along with dispensation, substitution, equivalency to cite a few examples (vincent petitclerc, personal communication, february 13, 2014). certain terms that deal with equivalencies are prescribed by the rrec and have specific usages. for example, equivalence (eq on the transcript) means that a student has previously attained the objectives and standards of the course for which the eq is requested but only granted for attainment of course competencies if it has taken place in one of the following circumstances: (i) through previous studies, but not at another cegep; and (ii) through on-the-job-training. if a student has taken a course deemed comparable within the same college or at another college/cegep (course replacement), the term substitution (su) is applied (vanier college, 2011). universities according to cicic, there is no provincial guide covering equivalencies or transfers, but quebec university registrars use specific resources, in particular to determine possible equivalencies. one such resource is the guide des niveaux de formation pour l'admission gnrale des candidats non qubcois published under the auspices of the confrence des recteurs et principaux des universits du qubec (now bci) (canadian information centre for international credentials [cicic], 2010c). responsibility for recognizing training from another country lies with quebec institutions (schools, colleges, and universities). as well, the ministre de limmigration, de la diversit, et de linclusion (midi) provides academic equivalency assessments, mostly for labour market purposes, but these can also be used by educational institutions (cicic, 2010c). however, guidelines for inter-quebec partnerships are available through a document produced by bci (confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec, 2013). definitions are provided for programs offered conjointement, par extension ou en association (confrence des recteurs et des principaux des universits du qubec, 2012, p. 4). a listing of all the partnerships by program are included in the guide. individual institutions publish their own policies on transfer. as one example, mcgill university designed a basic math and science equivalence table39 to assist with transfer credit assessment. according to clara spadafora (personal communications, february 5, 2014), the table holds a collection of transfer credit information that has been used to assess for and apply transfer credit to mcgill student records. the content is maintained and updated regularly. 38 with some exceptions, applicants to cegeps apply for admission through one of three regional admission services, not to individual cegeps: quebec city (service rgional d'admission au collgial de qubec - sracq), metropolitan montreal (service rgional d'admission du montral mtropolitain - sram), and saguenay-lac-saint-jean (service rgional d'admission des cgeps du saguenay-lac-saint-jean - srasl) (ministre de l'enseignement suprieur, de la recherche, de la science et de la technologie, 2013). 39 http://www.mcgill.ca/mathscitable/ 178 ontario overview the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) has legislative responsibility for ontarios postsecondary education system. in november 2013, mtcu released ontarios differentiation policy framework for postsecondary education (government of ontario, 2013a), which set the foundation for broader postsecondary system transformation by publicly articulating government expectations and aligning the mandates of ontarios colleges and universities with government priorities (p. 6). the framework outlined new policy levers, including proposed metrics for each of the six components of the differentiation policy framework (jobs, innovation and economic development; teaching and learning; student population; research and graduate education; program offerings; and institutional collaboration to support student mobility (pp. 14-16), and a strategic mandate agreement process, through which institutions articulate their unique mandates, strengths, and aspirations...and outlinehow [their] mission and activities align with ontarios vision for postsecondary education (p. 17). ontarios policy statement for credit transfer (government of ontario, 2011) was articulated by the mtcu in february, 2011, as follows: ontario will have a comprehensive, transparent and consistently applied credit transfer system that will improve student pathways and mobility, support student success and make ontario a postsecondary education destination of choice. the credit transfer system will assist qualified students to move between postsecondary institutions or programs without repeating prior, relevant learning (p. 1). the policy statement, which was endorsed by postsecondary institutions, also outlines the goals, guiding principles, strategy, roles and responsibilities of the government, postsecondary education institutions, and the role of oncat. oncat was established by mtcu in 2011 to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 44 publicly funded postsecondary institutions (ontario council on articulation and transfer [oncat], 2014). it is led by an executive director who reports to a board of directors, comprising senior leaders in the college and university sectors, students, and community members. representatives of each of the 44 member institutions make up the oncat council. key activities of oncat include enhancing the provision of information about transfer and mobility opportunities for students; supporting postsecondary institutions in building and enhancing mobility pathways; and sponsoring a research and data collection program to improve understanding of transfer patterns and experiences in the province (oncat, 2014). oncat is funded by the government of ontario. the ontario qualifications framework the ontario qualifications framework (oqf)40 was developed by the provincial government and includes apprenticeship certificates, the qualifications for private career colleges, the qualifications 40 http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/postsec/oqf.pdf 179 awarded by publicly-assisted colleges of applied arts and technology (caats) and degrees offered by publicly-assisted universities and other authorized providers (government of ontario, 2009a). the oqf (government of ontario, 2009b) is represented as a continuum of credentials, including five levels of certificates (levels 1 5), three levels of diplomas (levels 6 8), a post-graduate certificate (level 9), bachelors degree (level 10), honours bachelors degree (level 11), masters degree (level 12) and doctoral degree (level 13).41 the framework describes each credential according to the following eleven elements: overall program design and outcome emphasis; preparation for employment and further study; typical duration; admission requirements; provider; qualification awarded; depth and breadth of knowledge; conceptual and methodological awareness, research and scholarship; communication skills; application of knowledge; professional capacity/autonomy. quality assurance quality assurance for ontario universities is guided by the ontario universities council on quality assurance (the quality council), which stipulates the process and requirements for new degree program proposals, program revisions, and cyclical quality assurance audits for undergraduate and graduate programs in the quality assurance framework (ontario universities council on quality assurance, 2012). notably, the quality assurance framework requires institutions to report on how both new and existing degree programs meet the university undergraduate and graduate degree level expectations, a learning outcomes-based framework built on the oqf (pp. 30-34). it also defines inter-institutional partnerships and credentialing expectations, a unique feature for canadian quality assurance documents (pp. 4,6). the ontario mtcu publishes provincial program standards that define the vocational requirements and essential employability skills, both expressed in terms of learning outcomes, for the majority of high enrolment college diploma programs (government of ontario, 2013b). the ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) is the independent, arms-length body that delivers credentials validation and quality assurance services for the college system in ontario. like the quality assurance process for universities, ocqas stipulates process and content requirements for proposals for new certificate, diploma and degree programs, and for cyclical review of existing programs offered through ontarios colleges (ontario college quality assurance service, 2014). 41 http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/programs/oqf.pdf 180 in addition to the system-wide quality assurance structures, colleges and universities have internal quality assurance processes that are regulated through their institutional governance structures. final funding approval for new programs in the college and university systems rests with the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities. ontarios transfer database: ontransfer.ca oncat manages ontransfer.ca is populated by institutions featuring over 600 college-to-college, college-to-university, and university-to-university transfer pathways available to students in ontario. it features both a program transfer guide and a course transfer guide. site functionality enables students to enter the program they have completed, enter the program they would like to complete, and then search and compare pathways available to them according to elements such as required grades, transfer credits to be awarded, and expected time to completion. general transfer policies and links to transfer advisors at each institution are provided. the site also includes guidance to assist students at all levels high school, college and university to plan their postsecondary pathway at any stage. a comprehensive glossary and guide to the postsecondary education system in ontario is provided. research and reporting postsecondary institutions currently report data on transfer students to the mtcu through funding and accountability agreements. a number of initiatives currently underway in ontario are designed to improve the collection and availability of data with respect to student mobility. the introduction of the ontario education number (oen), extended to the postsecondary education sector in 2013 by mtcu, will enable institutions to confidently track students as they move among institutions. work is underway in the ministry on the development of a credit transfer accountability framework in consultation with oncat and postsecondary institutions. the goal with this new framework is to provide key indicators to support a more robust and significantly expanded range of data elements, in order to better measure credit transfer activity and progress against system-wide goals. the development of the accountability framework will be informed by the results of oncats data availability survey and pilot studies currently underway with colleges and universities to assess the readiness of institutions to begin reporting on data elements (kinney butterfield, personal communications, march 18, 2014). the accountability framework will also include a detailed glossary of terms. with centralized application centres for both the college and the university systems, ontario also has a wealth of applicant-level data, including previous postsecondary institutions attended, available to individual institutions and to the system, through the ontario college application service (ocas) and the ontario universities application centre (ouac). further, sector policy, research and advocacy organizations for the university and college sectors also collect system-level data and publish issuefocused reports, fact sheets and position papers. the council of ontario universities (cou) maintains the common university data, ontario (council of ontario universities, 2013),42 and colleges ontario publishes annual key performance indicator reports for all colleges (colleges ontario, n.d.). 42 http://www.cou.on.ca/statistics/cudo 181 largely through the support of the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) and oncat, there has been a recent proliferation of research studies both published and in progress on system policy and design, including design for transfer (hicks, weingarten, jonker, & liu, 2013; higher education strategy associates, 2012; trick, 2013; weingarten, hicks, jonker, & liu, 2013); students experiences of transfer (decock, mccloy, liu, & hu, 2011; oncat, 2013; wilson, mccaughan, & han, 2011); and academic performance of transfer students (drewes, maki, lew, willson, & stringham, 2012; gerhardt, arai, carroll, & ackerman, 2012; oncat, 2013; stewart & martinello, 2012). western canada overview amongst the western provinces and territories different types of attention are paid to different aspects of postsecondary education including in the areas of transcript standards and transfer credit. therefore, while the provinces/territories are grouped in accordance with the arucc structure, it is not meant to suggest that a universal brush is being applied to describe the western region as to do so would be misleading. while there are similarities, there are differences. for example, there are very mature transfer credit frameworks in both bc and alberta led by bccat and acat respectively. acat was highlighted as a best practice example for both plar and transfer credit in the research for this project. the acat transfer best practices was cited in the workshops and in stakeholder interviews as an illustration (alberta council on admissions and transfer, 2013). bccat was often mentioned as a best practice model in the advance poll, the national survey and across a number of workshops and interviews in various regions in canada. both organizations conduct extensive research and collaborative activities in the areas of admission and transfer. the breadth and depth of activities in these two provinces is why each are spotlighted below. from a system perspective, nunavut, northwest territories, yukon, saskatchewan and manitoba are currently at different evolutionary phases for a variety of reasons particularly in the area of transfer because of the complexity and the number of institutions within each region (council of ministers of education, canada (cmec), 2011). the northwest territories has only one institution, aurora college, which maintains membership in acat and colleges and institutes canada (p. 22). nunavut is pursuing an adult learning strategy focused on quality assurance and transfer and has considered developing a coordinating body for transfer (p. 25). it maintains a strong focus on sustaining and supporting inuit values and advancing supports such as plar. the yukon has only one college and therefore maintains membership in organizations such as bccat, warucc, arucc and acat to facilitate sharing of best practices and maintenance of a focus on transfer (p. 39). in the case of saskatchewan, the provincial government closed down the council on articulation and transfer and renewed its focus on plar (government of saskatchewan, n.d.). in manitoba, the government recently closed satellite service locations under the purview of campus manitoba, the organization with the mandate to facilitate transfer and online learning in the province (government of manitoba, 2013). having noted this, there are some interesting developments emerging such as in saskatchewan and manitoba which are spotlighted below. 182 as a significant example of the interest in inter-provincial exchange focused on facilitating dialogue and collaboration in the region, the various jurisdictions have come together beginning in 2010 to form the western canadian consortium on admissions and transfer (westcat) (council of ministers of education, canada (cmec), 2011, p. 13; wescat, 2009). its mandate is to encourage and facilitate inter-provincial access, mobility, and transfer of credits for students moving among british columbia, alberta, saskatchewan, and manitoba (westcat, n.d.). provincial qualifications frameworks other than the canada-wide degree qualifications framework and unlike atlantic canada with its mphec, western canada does not have a region-wide qualifications framework nor is one being suggested as each province/territory maintains responsibility for postsecondary education and related quality assurance. further, regions in the west and westcat (westcat, n.d.) have endorsed the cmec ministerial statement on quality assurance of degree education in canada, which includes the canadian qualifications framework (council of ministers of education, canada, 2007). in all cases, there is a government ministry with responsibility for postsecondary education and typically quality assurance in each region is governed by some form of degree authorization act and/or institutional charter. spotlight on alberta the ministry of innovation and advanced education has responsibility for postsecondary education in alberta. the campus alberta concept was created in 2002 to formalize and encourage collaboration among the provinces 26 publicly funded postsecondary institutions (government of alberta, n.d.a). the roles and mandates policy framework for albertas publicly funded advanced education system (government of alberta, advanced education and technology, 2007), outlines six categories of postsecondary institutions in alberta, and defines the learner focus, types of academic programming and research activity for each category of institution. the six categories of institutions are: comprehensive academic and research institutions; baccalaureate and applied studies institutions; polytechnical institutions; comprehensive community institutions; independent community institutions; specialized arts and culture institutions. the campus alberta quality council (government of alberta, 2011) is an arms-length agency responsible for the review of all new degree program proposals (at the baccalaureate, masters and doctoral levels) and the periodic review of existing degree programs in alberta, whether offered by resident, nonresident, public or private institutions. the council makes recommendations to the minister of innovation and advanced education. the comprehensive campus alberta quality assessment and quality assurance handbook (campus alberta quality council, 2013) defines the processes and requirements, including typical admission requirements, degree structure, number of credits and content areas for specific degree programs (e.g., business administration, education, nursing, music). in new program proposals and program review reports, institutions must demonstrate that programs meet expectations of the canadian degree qualifications framework (council of ministers of education, 183 canada, 2007) on the following six dimensions: depth and breadth of knowledge, knowledge of methodologies and research, application of knowledge, communication skills, awareness of limits of knowledge, and professional capacity/autonomy. for credit programs at the certificate and diploma level, the education and training program coordination branch of the ministry of innovation and advanced education reviews and approves new program proposals. recently, the ministry of innovation and advanced education introduced annual letters of expectation, as another lever in guiding institutional alignment with the governments desired directions for advanced education. the letters of expectation, which define the goals, objectives and desired outcomes for each institution, are signed by the deputy premier and board chair for each institution (government of alberta, innovation and advanced education, n.d.b). alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) the alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) was established in 1974 as an independent body to support stakeholders with the development of policies, procedures and guidelines that promote student mobility through all levels of the postsecondary education system. its focus includes ensuring the transferability of courses and programs, and enhancing access through initiatives such as prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) (government of alberta, advanced education and technology, 2009). the acat website includes links to transfer alberta (government of alberta, advanced education and technology, 2014), a searchable registry of transfer agreements. the transfer database, called the transfer agreement archival retrieval system (taars), enables students to search by course or program for transfer, and to search for transfer opportunities by sending or receiving institution. it also maintains historical records of agreements. transfer pathways also include advanced placement courses, international baccalaureate and apprenticeships. the website provides information to assist students in planning their postsecondary education journey. it also includes a comprehensive glossary, which has recently been revised and updated to a single common glossary used across all transfer alberta sites (ann marie lyseng, personal communication, february 4, 2014). transfer alberta is introducing a mobile app in summer of 2014. like bccat, the guide and glossary were mentioned in the projects advance poll, stakeholder interviews and the national survey as examples of canadian best practice. data and research the alberta student number (asn), introduced in 2001, supports the tracking of student mobility throughout the alberta postsecondary education system; however, it does not currently enable the tracking of actual credit transfer. acat posts an extensive range of reports and publications on its website, including student enrolment and tracking reports, by institution; graduate reports; and annual transfer patterns reports (alberta council on admissions and transfer, 2009). acats new spotlight publication (2014), which provides updates on the work of acat and profiles trends, best practices, research, innovative admissions and transfer initiatives, is proving to be very 184 successful in communicating information with institutions. the challenges that remain are (a) how to get institutions to share information with acat, and (b) for acat to be more effective in reaching students and parents in the general public with its message (ann marie lyseng and eric dohei, personal communication, february 4, 2014). spotlight on british columbia in bc, the ministry of advanced education maintains responsibility for postsecondary education overseeing public and private or out-of-province institutions along with private career training organizations. degree granting private and non-bc public institutions are required to obtain government authorization under the degree authorizations act to deliver degree programs in the province (2013). the government further designates institutions under the education quality assurance (eqa) program, which results in a seal of quality being assigned to those offering approved postsecondary education (government of british columbia, ministry of advanced education, 2013). bc quality assurance in bc, the current quality assurance mechanisms include those available and mandated by institutional senates and governing councils, the bc education quality assurance (eqa) designation (bc centre for international education [bccie], n.d.), and the degree qualifications assessment board (dqab) (ministry of advanced education, n.d.). the bc eqa is a brand of quality designation for postsecondary institutions. it is a seal with global recognition that is intended to symbolize quality and consumer protection. its requirements are mandated by the bc ministry of advanced education (aved) and it is administered by the bc centre for international education. the dqab is the provincial body responsible for quality assurance assessment of degree-level programming. it makes recommendations to approve new degree programs at bc postsecondary institutions in accordance with the bc degree authorization act, as well as the college and institutes act, and the various public university acts. bc council on admissions and transfer transfer is heavily promoted on the council website and reflects a close to 50 year historical focus on student mobility (british columbia council on admissions and transfer, 2014a). the bc council on admissions and transfer (bccat) was created in 1989, marking its 25th anniversary in 2014. it is now tasked with overseeing the bc transfer system and facilitating admission, articulation and transfer arrangements among bc post-secondary institutions (british columbia council on admission and transfer (bccat), 2014b). it further coordinates transfer activities, promotes student mobility, conducts related research and maintains online tools to support educational planning. in research interviews for the arucc pccat project, bccat was routinely cited as an example of best practice in the area of systems and structure to support student transfer. bc is also a province that demonstrates complex and high volumes of student mobility. extensive research conducted by the student transitions project and supported by bccat has tracked the volume of student movement between postsecondary institutions at 55,000+ in 08/09, 09/10 & 10/11, with annual increases in 11/12 and 12/13 (british columbia council on admissions and transfer, 2013). 185 transcripts and transfer credit the section on background and context at the beginning of the research report (section 7) amplifies the degree to which bccat has supported and influenced national research and engagement with admissions transcript standards and transfer. beginning with the 1998 creation of a bc transcript guide and the launch of bctransferguide.ca in 2005, it also launched canadas first web-based transfer credit equivalency system in 2001, the 2008 best practice guide: a resource for receiving institutions and a subsequent one for sending institutions (british columbia council on admissions and transfer, 2014a). bccat also initiated and sponsored the initial research beta study for the arucc pccat national project, bccat credentialing practices for joint programs (duklas, credentialing practices for joint programs, 2013). this province-wide research project amplified the nomenclature challenges in the area of joint program terminology and provided insights regarding joint program identification on transcripts and parchments (2013, pp. 12-17). the findings concluded that inter-institutional partnerships and related nomenclature do impact credentials; however, the degree, approaches and level of detail varied by institution. the participants in the survey for the bccat joint program credentialing practices study were also asked questions regarding transfer nomenclature and principles related to credentialing, which served as a basis for the arucc pccat study. as an example, one finding from the bccat study was support for reflecting joint program details on both transcripts and parchments as a means to enhance transparency, clarity and mobility (2013, p. 20). the arucc pccat national survey contained similar questions to capture perspectives on this issue nationally. according to bccat, the bc system has a long and established foundational history in the area of course-to-course transfer with mechanisms in place to resolve curricular changes that emerge (rob fleming and robert adamoski, personal communication, january 23, 2014). an ongoing focus is to ensure that effective course and block credit assessment processes do not overlook other potential issues (e.g., relating to credential laddering to the baccalaureate level). the area of establishing credential level learning outcomes is one that needs further exploration in canada. according to bccat, qualifications frameworks represent an interesting mechanism to assist with furthering discussions and reducing the hurdles students are experiencing when moving between sectors and jurisdictions across canada (rob fleming and robert adamoski, personal communication, january 23, 2014; fitzgibbon, 2014). within the bc jurisdiction, the general sense is that transcription practices arent creating significant challenges for students; however, there appears to be variability around reportable items such as admission categories (e.g., basis of admission) and whether these are captured in information systems, and consistently featured on transcripts (rob fleming and robert adamoski, personal communication, january 23, 2014). potential hurdles emerge due to a gap in systematic identification of transfer students. as one result, students may not obtain a transfer credit assessment of prior postsecondary studies unless they request a review. reporting may also be impacted. of special note and in relation to the area of transcription, the private schools in bc are governed by a transcript maintenance agreement administered by the degree qualifications assessment board (dqab), the provincial body responsible for quality assurance assessment of degree-level programming 186 (ministry of advanced education, n.d.). the agreement defines explicitly what should be present on a transcript. in table e1, the differences to the 2003 arucc transcript guide are highlighted to illustrate the points of divergence in transcript standards for one regional sector. 187 table e1: comparison of bc dqab transcript maintenance agreement requirements and arucc transcript guide transcript component details arucc transcript guide student information: basis of admission the student's name, contact information and student id number. essential (student contact information discretionary for privacy reasons) not recommended (essential for student database) academic history institutional information the qualifications that form the basis for the student's admission to the institution. information about any credits transferred, entrance examinations and prior learning assessment used for admission or advanced placement. recommended for transfer credits, courses/credits accepted (discretionary for grades accepted, cumulative transfer of credits, block transfer, lop, student exchange, plar; entrance exams essential for student database) the name(s) of any other postsecondary institution(s) attended by the student, and the dates of attendance. not addressed the name and completion date of any degree, diploma or certificate earned by the student before registering at the institution. not addressed the dates of the student's admission and completion or withdrawal from his/her program(s) of study. essential (period of attendance, withdrawal date from institution essential; withdrawal from program/course discretionary) the date(s) of each academic semester or term during which the student studied at the institution. essential (period of attendance) a list of all courses completed, in progress or withdrawn from at the institution. essential a list of credits and grades earned by the student. the student's grade point average per academic term and overall. essential recommended a notation of academic suspension, dismissal or probation if any of these actions has been taken against the student. recommended (essential for suspension or dismissal) academic awards or honours given to the student. internal recommended; external not recommended the name of any degree earned by the student and the date the degree was granted by institution. essential the institution's name, location and address. the institution's grading key. essential this addresses trust and validation principle the name and authorized signature of the registrar or similar official. this addresses trust and validation principle the institution's seal. this addresses trust and validation principle the date on which new information was last added, and the date the transcript was issued to the student or other body. essential source for dqab transcript information: ministry of advanced education. (n.d.). private and out-of-province public institutions ministrys requirements. retrieved from http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/degree-authorization/private/ministersrequirements.htm#maintenance, march 28, 2014. 188 data and research bccat publishes a robust repository of research studies all of which are accessible on its website at http://bccat.ca/publications/. figure e3 provides an overview of student mobility numbers from british columbias student transitions project (bc ministry of advanced education, n.d.). while comparable data is not available from other canadian provinces, it demonstrates that students are combining attendance at a number of schools all the way through their educational journey; suggesting that a shift is occurring with regard to long-held understandings regarding the concepts surrounding transfer, transcript standards and transfer credit nomenclature more generally (rob fleming; robert adamoski, personal communication, january 23, 2014). according to bccat, the value of projects such as the arucc pccat study are such that a detailed examination and creation of standards and glossaries would be beneficial to advancing mobility. figure e1: student pathways to bc public pse institutions 2010/2011 and future student pathways, up to fall 2012 source: bc ministry of advanced education. (n.d.). the student transitions project. http://www.aved.gov.bc.ca/student_transitions/ spotlight on manitoba overview in manitoba, the ministry of advanced education and literacy is responsible for postsecondary education with the support of the council of post-secondary education (copse), a provincial government agency that is responsible for planning and coordinating the development of a post-secondary education system that promotes excellence and accessibility, facilitates the coordination and integration of services and facilities, and promotes fiscal responsibility and accountability. copse reviews and approves university and college programming and provides advice and policy direction to the government (council on post-secondary education, n.d.). 189 transfer campus manitoba is part of the governments support framework for transfer with a specific mission to serve as a conduit to provide access to college and university courses and programs for manitobans through distributed learning mechanisms including the internet. campus manitoba supports students by providing services that remove barriers and enable the achievement of educational goals (campus manitoba, n.d.). it has recently been re-envisioned43 (government of manitoba, 2013) and now will focus on two new spheres of activity: (i) establishing a new platform that helps manitoba deal with technology and online learning, and (ii) addressing and advancing manitobas lack of progress on the provincial transfer credit platform (dave neale, personal communication, january 21, 2014; jeffrey kehler, personal communication, february 13, 2014). in early spring of 2014, campus manitoba will be launching ecampusmanitoba.com, which will be initially focused on the provision of online learning courses. embedded within this site will be a transfer credit component that will demonstrate how courses transfers are occurring between institutions. conceptually, this site will be similar to e-campus alberta.44 campus manitoba is also being asked by the provincial government to establish a provincial course database which may lead to the creation of a manitoba council on admissions and transfer as well as the migration of existing systems to a provincial database (dave neale, personal communication, january 21, 2014; jeffrey kehler, personal communication, february 13, 2014). this database is considered the foundational entity to ensure longterm deepening of pathways and student mobility in the province. currently, intra-provincial collaboration has been confirmed through institutional signatories to a memorandum of understanding signed in 2011 the work of which is being sustained through a recently struck working committee led by campus manitoba (council on post-secondary education, 2011). data and research the manitoba council on post-secondary education (copse) maintains responsibility for research and is currently undertaking a project with vice president academics at provincial institutions to create a taxonomy of credentials in the province. the process will build on the statistics canada credential taxonomy and consider the ontario qualifications framework and the cmec qualifications framework. copse is also considering a potential student movers study to expand on early research. spotlight on saskatchewan overview in keeping with the cmec canadian qualifications framework, saskatchewan authorizes degrees for both private and public institutions under the degree authorization act and those approved are granted a saskatchewan higher education quality assurance board seal of approval (saskatchewan higher education quality assurance, 2012). the saskatchewan government has also adopted the recognizing 43 campus manitobas original mandate was to provide regional online support through 14 learning centres, which were subsequently closed in june 2013. 44 see http://www.ecampusalberta.ca/ 190 prior learning (rpl) in saskatchewan: provincial policy framework in 2004 and has made this a recent focus in the province (government of saskatchewan, n.d.). transcript and transfer approximately three years ago, the government closed the council on admissions and transfer and dismantled the online transfer guide. however and more recently, an action committee on growth and sustainability was created with the broad purpose to bring together senior leaders from siast, the university of saskatchewan, the university of regina, and the ministry of education to work collaboratively on problems of common interest. a sub-committee on credit transfer and learning pathways was established, and a memorandum of understanding is being developed in which the institutions will commit to leading and articulating a province-wide, student-centered, credit transfer model. this initiative is encouraging a renewed interest and engagement in transfer activities, building on the many local transfer credit developments at the level of institutions (alison pickrell, russ isinger, personal communication, january 24, 2014). moreover, select institutions are undertaking further research in the area of transfer, to better understand student pathways, and the success of transfer students. interestingly and as an illustration of promising practice in the area of transcript and records management, the university of saskatchewan is one of the few institutions in canada with a formal nomenclature policy in place, a document that ensures a common and coherent understanding of the adopted terminology related to areas such as admissions, records and transfer.45 its intention includes ensuring common language and support for the decision accountability structure particularly in relation to registrarial activities (russ isinger, personal communication, january 24, 2014). 45 see http://www.usask.ca/secretariat/documents/nomenclature.php 191 appendix f: canadian educational systems source: canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic). (2014). canadas education systems. provided by natasha sawh, coordinator, cicic. june 11, 2014. 192 appendix g: international research australia system overview the commonwealth department of education is responsible for higher education and research in australia. each state and territory government also has a department of education, though the specific departmental names may vary. the tertiary education system in australia comprises higher education and vocational education and training. the university system includes 37 public and three small private australian universities. internationalization is a prominent feature of australian higher education, with international students making up 25.7% of the student population in 2012 (department of industry innovation science research and tertiary education, 2013). there are approximately 140 other higher education providers in australia, but they are mostly small, and account for 7% of all higher education students. the tertiary education quality and standards agency (teqsa) is an independent agency established by the australian government, with responsibility for regulatory and quality oversight of the system (commonwealth of australia, 2013a). in addition, teqsa maintains and publishes a national register of higher education providers, which serves as the authoritative information source of registered higher education providers in australia (tertiary education quality and standards agency, commonwealth of australia, 2013). qualifications framework all higher education and vocational education and training credentials in the tertiary education system are governed by the australian qualifications framework (aqf) (australian qualifications framework council, 2013), a comprehensive framework which is collectively owned by the commonwealth, state and territory education, training and employment ministers. the aqf is the national policy for all regulated qualifications. introduced in 1995 and updated in 2011, the aqf provides a taxonomy for learning outcome expectations expressed as knowledge, skills, application of knowledge and skills, and volume of learning for each type of qualification. in addition, the framework defines typical expectations for pathways, assessment, and accreditation for all qualifications in higher education and vocational education and training. beyond providing a framework that builds confidence in australian qualifications, the objectives of the aqf demonstrate a national commitment to transfer and mobility, with reference to the development and maintenance of pathways; easy movement between education and training sectors and the labour market; support for lifelong learning; and support and enhancement of international mobility of graduates (p. 9). the ten levels of the aqf include senior secondary certificates of education, four levels of certificates and a diploma, advanced diploma, associate degree, degree and post-graduate qualifications. the qualifications that can be accredited using the accreditation process in the vocational education and training sector include certificates i iv, diplomas, advanced diplomas and graduate certificates and diplomas. the qualifications that can be accredited using the accreditation process in higher education 193 include diplomas, advanced diplomas, associate degrees, and degrees and all post-graduate qualifications. key content of the aqf includes: o o o o aqf level descriptors, which distinguish between level and qualifications types to give the freedom to add or remove qualification types without destroying the integrity of the aqf and its levels. aqf qualification type specifications, which define detailed specifications for each type of qualification along five dimensions (summary, skills, application of knowledge, and volume of learning), nomenclature requirements, pathways available to holders of each qualification, and responsibility for accreditation and development of each type of qualification (australian qualifications framework council, 2013, pp. 21-63). aqf qualifications issuance policy, which describes the entitlements of graduates of each type of qualification to receive a testamur and record of results documenting the program they have completed, as well as specific requirements to ensure the security, integrity, consistency and transparency of these documents (pp. 69-74). aqf qualifications pathways policy, is designed to support and enhance student progression into and between aqf qualifications, and to maximize the credit students receive for learning already achieved in previous qualifications. the pathways policy outlines a series of principles to be used in credit transfer decisions, including the recognition of learning, regardless of how, when and where it was acquired (p. 78), that assessments be evidence-based and consistently applied; allow for credit to be used to meet specific program requirements; and be formally documented for the students. notably, the pathways policy specifies that institutions negotiating credit transfer agreements take into account learning outcomes, volume of learning, program of study, including content, and learning and approaches to assessment (pp. 77-80). further, the policy also asserts, as a basis of negotiations, specific expectations for the proportion of advanced standing credit to be awarded towards a higher level aqf qualification in the same or a related discipline (p. 79). o aqf qualifications register policy, developed to ensure that information about aqf qualifications is publicly available, that aqf and non-aqf qualifications are readily distinguishable, to ensure the accuracy of any publicly available registers or databases about aqf qualifications, and to ensure that appropriate records are kept of all aqf qualifications issued (pp. 83-85). the aqf also includes a glossary, defining key words and phrases in the context of their use in the levels, qualification type specifications or policies. it represents an interesting approach to achieving alignment across the spectrum including through to the area of transcription and transfer nomenclature. data and research australias national centre for vocational education research conducts, as one aspect of its many functions, the longitudinal surveys of australian youth research program that tracks students as they move from school to post-school contexts. data are available on a cohort basis and a series of research reports, technical reports, briefing papers and discussion papers provide an evidence-based 194 understanding of school and post-school transitions for australian youth. available reports address a wide range of issues, including school-work transitions, employment outcomes, and preferred educational pathways; however, there do not appear to be studies focusing specifically on jurisdictional mobility (department of education, commonwealth of australia, 2014). key strengths and emerging opportunities australia appears to have invested considerably in the development of purpose-built standards and structures in support of student mobility. the comprehensive australian qualifications framework provides a national standard against which all nationally recognized credentials qualifications can be compared (including postsecondary institutions). one feature of the aqf that appears to stand-out for its potential to enhance transparency, clarity, and as a result, student mobility, is the aqf pathways policy, which documents the expected level of advanced standing credit to be awarded toward a higher qualification in the same or a related content area. while not part of the european higher education area, australia has undertaken to align the aqf with the bologna process. australia has also aligned its qualifications framework with those of several countries in the asia pacific and has been an active participant in discussions of a potential asia pacific qualifications framework (apec secretariat, 2009). europe system overview while each country in the european union (eu) is responsible for its own education and training systems, policy directions are established by the european commission to address issues of common concern, including skills deficits in the workforce and global competition. in education and training 2020, the european union (european union, 2014a) has defined its framework for education and training, with member states agreeing to the following four objectives to address these challenges by 2020: making lifelong learning and mobility a reality; improving the quality and efficiency of education and training; promoting equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship; and enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training (p. 1). the bologna process is at the core of the eus efforts to enhance compatibility and coherence of participating nations academic qualifications in order to achieve the above objectives. in the 15 years since its inception, the bologna process has come to be recognized internationally as a model of multinational cooperation to enhance quality, transparency and mobility for learners in the higher education system in europe, and on a global scale, to support the participating nations capacity to compete and succeed. a key outcome of the bologna process has been the establishment of the european higher education area (ehea), launched in 2010, with 28 member states and 47 countries. (european union, 2014b). the ehea was meant to ensure more comparable, compatible and coherent systems of higher education in europe (european higher education area [ehea], 2010). the number and type of institutions varies by country, but typically includes a mix of publicly and privately funded institutions, both academically and professionally oriented (education, audiovisual and culture executive agency [eacea], 2012, p. 22). there is also substantial variation in the size of the student 195 population among the 47 member countries, with students from the following five countries making up more than 50% of total ehea student numbers: russia, turkey, ukraine, germany and the united kingdom (2012, p. 19). the bologna process has been able to bring about system-wide change through the implementation of trust-building tools aimed at increasing transparency across national jurisdictions and at bringing about convergency of systems (2012, p. 9). key bologna structures, resources and tools that have been developed to achieve a high level of comparability, compatibility and exchange among higher education systems in europe include: the three-cycle system and the overarching european higher education area qualifications framework (eheaqf), which aligns with the existing european qualifications framework for lifelong learning (eqf); the european credit transfer system (ects); the diploma supplement; and quality assurance structures (2012, p. 9). qualifications frameworks while the bologna declaration initially called for the adoption of a two-cycle system based on undergraduate and graduate qualifications, the system was adapted at the 2003 berlin conference to include studies at the doctoral level as the third cycle. subsequent conferences defined expectations for completion of a qualification at one level to provide access to qualifications at the next level (i.e., completion of a first-cycle degree should give access to a second-cycle degree), and identified the need to include pre-first cycle qualifications (2012, pp. 31-36). in a framework for qualifications of the european higher education area, the bologna working group on qualifications frameworks (2005) recommended the adoption of a three-cycle framework for qualifications in the european higher education area, and that the dublin descriptors be adopted as the cycle descriptors for the framework (p. 101).46 further, guidelines were proposed for the range of credits typically associated with completion of each cycle and the criteria and procedures through which nations could assess the compatibility of higher education frameworks with the european higher education area qualifications framework (eheaqf) (pp. 102-103). in parallel to the development of the european higher education area qualifications framework, the european qualifications framework for lifelong learning (eqf) was adopted by the european union in 2008 to encompass all education and training qualifications in europe, including those aligned with the bologna framework. the eqf is a learning outcomes-based framework with eight levels, ranging from one (basic) to eight (advanced), describing what learners know, understand and are able to do. the eqf is inclusive of all types of education, training and qualifications, from school education to academic, professional and vocational learning (european union, 2014c). while the eqf directly incorporates the cycle descriptors of the bologna framework, it does have its own separate level descriptors (european higher education area, 2008, p. 2). the eqf provides a common reference framework for european higher education institutions to compare national qualifications systems. through the compare qualifications frameworks feature on 46 the term dublin descriptors was coined in march 2004 after a meeting in which it was agreed to adopt the terms to describe the characteristics of the cycles awards all of which, along with the diploma supplement, emerged as part of the bologna process (european university association, 2004). 196 the eqf portal, participating countries are able to compare national qualifications frameworks and levels along a set of 10 benchmark criteria and procedures that have been agreed to by the eqf advisory group (european union, 2010). comparison results are displayed in terms of how the qualifications levels of the selected country relate to the eight reference levels of the eqf in terms of learning outcomes: knowledge, skills and competences (european union, 2013). european association for quality assurance in higher education (enqa) the european association for quality assurance in higher education (enqa) and the european quality assurance register (eqar) work together to encourage cooperation among individual countries quality assurance agencies in meeting the standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the european higher education area (esg). the overarching objective is to create an overall quality culture rather than a tick-box procedure (european union, 2014g, p. 9). the internal and external advantages of an enhanced focus on quality assurance is articulated by the eus commissioner for education, culture, multilingualism and youth, as follows: quality assurance is the basis for building trust in our education systems and we need to make greater use of its potential as a catalyst to modernise our universities and vocational education colleges. our aim is to drive up standards in a way that encourages diversity and employability rather than uniformity (european union, 2014h, p. 1). the european standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the european higher education area (esg) were developed to respect the principles of institutional autonomy and national variations in responsibility and authority for quality assurance. principles of the esg stress that quality assurance should focus on the following: [t]he interests of students as well as employers and the society more generally in good quality higher education; the central importance of institutional autonomy, tempered by a recognition that this brings with it heavy responsibilities; [and] the need for external quality assurance to be fit for its purpose and to place only an appropriate and necessary burden on institutions for the achievement of its objectives (education, audiovisual and culture executive agency [eacea], 2012, p. 63). data and reporting key achievements in implementation of the bologna process are reported in the european higher education area in 2012: bologna process implementation report (eacea, 2012). despite acknowledged challenges in standardized data collection across all 47 countries of the ehea, the report provides extensive statistical data, explanatory notes and scorecard indicators across a range of areas including: student mobility; social and economic data on student life; outcomes and employability; and quality assurance. the report also includes a comprehensive glossary and methodological notes. 197 united kingdom system overview responsibility for higher education in the united kingdom is delegated to england, scotland, wales and northern ireland. higher education institutions are independent, self-governing bodies established by royal charter or legislation, and most are partially funded by government. there are 133 members of universities uk, which includes the executive heads of all of the universities in the united kingdom and some colleges of higher education (universities uk, 2013a). in addition, there are over 550 institutions that offer courses leading to a degree, but who do not have the authority to award degrees; a university or higher education college that has degree granting authority validates their courses (government of alberta, 2007). the quality assurance agency for higher education (qaa) is an independent body that provides advice, guidance and support to uk colleges, universities and other institutions to support the best possible higher education experience for students in the uk (quality assurance agency for higher education, n.d.). the qaa publishes the uk quality code for higher education (quality assurance agency for higher education, 2014), which defines expectations in terms of academic standards, quality and information provision that must be met by all higher education providers. it also conducts peer reviews of institutions and publishes reports of the findings. in addition, the qaa publishes a wide range of research reports and reference guides on academic standards and quality, and provides advice to government on proposals for new institutions wanting degree granting authority. qualifications frameworks47 the qaa has developed two frameworks that describe and organize the achievements represented by higher education qualifications in the united kingdom, including degrees, diplomas, certificates and other academic awards granted by a higher education provider with degree awarding authority. one framework applies to higher education qualifications in england, wales and northern ireland, and a second defines qualification requirements in scotland (quality assurance agency for higher education, n.d.b.). england, wales and northern ireland48 the framework for higher education qualifications (fheq) (quality assurance agency for higher education, 2008) has five levels, three at the undergraduate level and two post-graduate levels. these are numbered 5-8 in the fheq, building on levels 1-3, which precede higher education in the national qualifications framework. each level in the framework has a descriptor that reflects the distinct levels of intellectual achievement associated with that qualification (p. 7). the descriptors include two parts: a statement of outcomes that a holder of the qualification should be able to demonstrate and a statement of the more general capabilities that a student would be expected to have developed (p. 14). many 47 http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuringstandardsandquality/qualifications/pages/default.aspx http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/informationandguidance/pages/the-framework-for-higher-education-qualifications-inengland-wales-and-northern-ireland.aspx 48 198 academic programs also develop subject-specific benchmarks that define specific outcomes for learning in a particular subject area (p. 26). complementary to the fheq is the higher education credit framework for england, recognizing that credit is widely used by higher education providers in england, wales and northern ireland (p. 27). the fheq also includes sections on naming qualifications, awarding qualifications, definitions, and an annex that describes the alignment between the fheq and the framework for qualifications of the european higher education area (fqehea). the generic qualification descriptors for each cycle of the fqehea use the dublin descriptors from the bologna process and are built on the following elements: knowledge and understanding, applying knowledge and understanding, making judgments, communication skills, and learning skills (quality assurance agency for higher education, 2011, pp. 21-25). as reported in the overview for the european union, the bologna process was developed as a means of promoting mutual recognition of qualifications, demonstrating transparency of systems and easing the mobility of staff and students across higher education in europe (quality assurance agency for higher education, 2010, p. 1). one of the key features of the bologna process is that each country has responsibility to develop a national qualifications framework, and to validate that framework against the overarching fqehea. the verification report was completed and approved by the uks quality assurance agency in 2009 (2010). the uk has aligned the higher education qualification levels for england, wales and northern ireland, the higher education credit framework for england, and the first, second and third cycles of the framework for qualifications of the european higher education area (universities uk guild he, 2013). scotland49 the framework for qualifications of higher education institutions in scotland is part of the more comprehensive scottish credit and qualifications framework (scqf) (quality assurance agency for higher education, 2001). like the fheq for england, wales and ireland, both the scqf and the higher education framework are outcomes-based structure[s] that make explicit the nature, level and volume of outcomes (p. 3). the scqf features twelve levels, with the honours, masters and doctoral degrees placed at levels 10, 11 and 12 respectively in the framework. at the honours degree level, the scottish higher education framework is in broad alignment with the fheq, and at the post-graduate level, the two frameworks share common structures, qualification titles, and qualification descriptors (p. 4). below the honours degree level, the scqf reflects the unique range of qualifications in scotland. each qualification in the scqf is defined by both a generic qualification descriptor and a description of the typical number of credits required to achieve and be able to demonstrate the learning of that outcome. qualification descriptors include three parts: a general description of the qualification, a statement of general outcomes that students achieving that qualification should be able to demonstrate, and a statement of wider general abilities that holders of the qualification should be able to demonstrate (p. 7). many academic disciplines also include subject-specific benchmarks. the inclusion of credit requirements is designed as a measure of the volume of outcomes. [o]ne credit point 49 http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/informationandguidance/pages/fheq-scotland.aspx 199 represents the learning outcomes expected to be achieved by the average learner at the relevant level in 10 hours of total learner effort (p. 7). it is noted, though that credit is a measure of outcome, not of study time (p. 7). the scqf explicitly states that while the framework is designed to support lifelong learning by enabling, where appropriate, the transfer of credit between programmes and between institutions.it is not a mandatory process, and individual institutions remain solely responsible for all matters of credit recognition towards their awards (p. 8). the sqcf also includes an annex on qualification nomenclature (pp. 23-24), which details terminology requirements relating to the level, nature and subject of each qualification. to assist students in understanding the relationships among qualifications frameworks and the resulting potential transferability of their qualifications across the united kingdom, scotland, wales, europe, and the european higher education area, the qaa has produced a simple brochure, qualifications can cross boundaries a rough guide to comparing qualifications in the uk and ireland, that provides a comparison of the regions respective qualifications frameworks (quality assurance agency for higher education, 2013).50 data and research the higher education statistics agency collects a wide range of data from universities and colleges of higher education, on behalf of government in the uk. hesa provides data to authorized users and publishes reports on the performance of higher education institutions, research output, mobility, graduate employment, student access and retention, and learning/learning outcomes, among other topics (higher education statistics agency, n.d.). universities uk conducts and publishes wide ranging higher education policy and analysis research, including participation rates, funding, economic impact, globalization, mobility and regulation. it also publishes annual patterns and trends and facts and figures reports, providing snapshots of the system (universities uk, 2013b). united states system overview higher education in the united states is a decentralized, complex system with approximately 4,500 colleges, universities and junior colleges, including but not limited to public and private universities and colleges, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and technical colleges. adding to the complexity is a combination of national, state, and institutional responsibility for postsecondary education. the national government, through the us department of education (usde) establishes policies related to federal funding, predominately research and financial aid, administers the distribution of those funds, collects 50 http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/informationandguidance/documents/quals_cross_boundaries.pdf 200 data and oversees research, identifies and focuses national attention on major issues in education and enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination in programs that receive federal funds (united states department of education, 2013). states are engaged in transcript and transfer practices applicable to their two- and four-year public institutions. examples include common course numbering (e.g., florida) and block transfer mandates (e.g. oregon). beyond the scope of federal and state engagement, institutions continue to exert a significant degree of autonomy, especially among private institutions. qualifications frameworks and quality assurance the united states does not have a national framework for qualifications; however, the lumina foundation for higher education (2011), prompted and informed by the development of qualifications frameworks in other countries (p. 3), introduced a degree qualifications profile that proposes specific learning outcomes that benchmark the associates, bachelors, and masters degrees.[defining] expected learning outcomes that graduates need for work, citizenship, global participation and life (p. 1). through focusing on conceptual knowledge and essential competencies and their applications, the degree profile illustrates how students should be expected to perform at progressively more challenging levels. students demonstrated achievement in performing at these ascending levels creates the grounds on which degrees are awarded (p. 1). the degree profile describes five basic areas of learning: broad, integrative knowledge; specialized knowledge; intellectual skills; applied learning, and civic learning (p. 4). quality assurance in higher education in the united states is achieved through the accreditation process. the council for higher education accreditation (chea) is a private, non-profit organization that coordinates accreditation activity. it comprises approximately 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities and recognizes 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations. according to chea, accreditation in higher education is a collegial process of self-review and peer review for improvement of academic quality and public accountability of institutions and programs. this quality review process occurs on a periodic basis, usually every 3 to 10 years (council for higher education accreditation , 2012, p. 2). accreditation is required by both the federal and state governments for provision of funds to institutions and students in the form of financial aid. while there are no specific criteria, standards or framework for transcripts or transfer as part of the accreditation process, judith s. eaton (2012), in an overview of u.s. accreditation reflects as follows: accreditation is important to students for smooth transfer of courses and programs among colleges and universities. although accreditation is but one among several factors taken into account by receiving institutions, it is viewed carefully and is considered an important indicator of quality (p. 3). all degree-granting, accredited colleges and universities represented in the national centre for educational statistics (nces) integrated postsecondary education data system (ipeds) are eligible for 201 inclusion in the carnegie classifications (carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching, n.d.). the carnegie classification of institutions of higher education, developed by the carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching, is a framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in u.s. higher education (n.d.). institutions are classified in categories predominately according to the degrees granted (associate, bachelors, masters, doctorate [research, professional or other doctorate]). 202 appendix h: transfer credit policies and nomenclature51 institution transfer credit resource provides nomenclature definitions? acsenda alberta council on admissions and transfer http://acsenda.com/asm%202013%20nov_calendar%20full.pdf http://alis.alberta.ca/ps/ep/aas/ta/faq/glossary.html transferalberta.ca yes yes alexander college http://www.alexandercollege.ca/admissions/academic-calendar/ http://www.alexandercollege.ca/academic-programs/bc-transfer-system/ yes athabasca university ug transfer credit policy: http://ous.athabascau.ca/policy/registry/ugtransfercredit.htm gr transfer credit policy: http://ous.athabascau.ca/policy/registry/gradtransfer.htm transfer credit search site: https://secure3.athabascau.ca/tcas/ student appeals policy: http://ous.athabascau.ca/policy/registry/stud_acad_appeals.htm student appeals procedures: http://ous.athabascau.ca/policy/registry/stud_appeals_procedure.htm transfer credit section in calendar: http://calendar.athabascau.ca/undergrad/current/page06_08.php calendar glossary: http://calendar.athabascau.ca/undergrad/current/page12.php yes bccat www.bccat.bc.ca http://www.bctransferguide.ca/ http://www.bctransferguide.ca/resources/glossary/ yes briercrest college http://www.briercrest.ca/media/685046/full%20college%20calendar%202014-15.pdf#page=15 yes british columbia institute of technology http://www.bcit.ca/admission/transfer/ http://www.bcit.ca/admission/transfer/plar.shtml http://www.bcit.ca/files/pdf/policies/5103.pdf http://www.bcit.ca/files/pdf/policies/5100_glossary.pdf yes brock university http://www.brocku.ca/webcal/2014/undergrad/ no canadian association of graduate studies http://www.cags.ca/documents/agreements/grdt_trnsf_agrm.pdf http://www.cags.ca/documents/publications/best_practices/best_practices_dual_joint_degrees.pdf yes canadian mennonite university http://www.cmu.ca/academics.php?s=calendar http://www.cmu.ca/docs/academic/cmu_academic_calendar_2013-14.pdf yes canadore college http://www.canadorecollege.ca/transferguide http://www.canadorecollege.ca/sites/default/files/images/policies%20and%20procedures/a9%20rpl%20pol icy-14.pdf http://www.canadorecollege.ca/sites/default/files/images/policies%20and%20procedures/a8-graduation14.pdf yes cape breton university http://www.cbu.ca/academic-calendar yes capilano university www.capilanou.ca/current/transfer www.capilanou.ca/www.capilanou.ca/current/policies/academic-policies.html yes centennial college http://www.centennialcollege.ca/transfercredit http://www.centennialcollege.ca/pdf/policies/recognitionofpriorlearningpolicy.pdf http://www.centennialcollege.ca/pdf/policies/transfercreditprocedures.pdf no yes yes 51 these urls either were provided by the institutional respondents to the national survey or resulted from a review of institutional websites as part of the study. 203 certified general accountants association of canada www.accountantstocanada.org www.accountantstocanada.org; http://www.cga-ontario.org/laps_badmin_tc.aspx no cicic http://www.cicic.ca/en/410/guide-to-terminology-usage-in-the-field-of-credentials-recognition-incanada.canada yes concordia university college of alberta www.concordia.ab.ca/calendar www.albertatransfer.ca www.transferalberta.ca yes corpus christi college http://corpuschristi.ca/policies/academic no george brown http://www.georgebrown.ca/gbcca/current_students/registrars_office/academic_policies_(pdf)/office_of_t he_registrar_policies.aspx http://www.georgebrown.ca/transferguide/ gbc registrar's office policies yes georgian college info sheets - http://www.georgiancollege.ca/admissions/credit-transfer/ policies 2, 3 and 5 - http://www.georgiancollege.ca/admissions/policies-procedures/ yes government of manitoba council on postsecondary education (copse) http://www.copse.mb.ca/credit_transfer.html yes government of quebec http://www2.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/dynamicsearch/telecharge.php?type=3&file=/c_29/c29r4.h tm no grande prairie regional college grant macewan university http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/ppp.pdf yes http://www.macewan.ca/wcm/executiveandgovernance/boardofgovernors/policymanual/#2; policies c2010, c2030, c2035 http://www.macewan.ca/wcm/executiveandgovernance/boardofgovernors/policymanual/#2 no kings university registry.kingsu.ca/calendar http://registry.kingsu.ca/calendar/calendarpdf/glossary.pdf registry.kingsu.ca/calendar/calendarpdf/application admission registration.pdf#page=11 yes kwantlen polytechnic university kpu.ca no langara college http://www.langara.bc.ca/registration-and-records/resources/glossaries/index.html yes mcgill university http://www.mcgill.ca/study/university_regulations_and_resources/undergraduate/ug_gi_transfer_credits http://www.mcgill.ca/students/transfercredit/current/ http://www.mcgill.ca/study/20142015/university_regulations_and_resources/undergraduate/ug_gi_advanced_standing_transfer_credits http://www.mcgill.ca/study/20142015/university_regulations_and_resources/undergraduate/ug_gi_transfer_credits http://www.mcgill.ca/study/20142015/university_regulations_and_resources/undergraduate/gi_quebec_inter_university_transfer_agreement _mcgill_students http://www.mcgill.ca/study/2014-2015/sites/mcgill.ca.study.20142015/files/undergraduate_programs_courses_and_university_regulations_2014-2015.pdf yes mcmaster university http://future.mcmaster.ca/admission/transfer-credit/ no 204 medicine hat college www.transferalberta.ca https://www.mhc.ab.ca/~/media/files/pdf/calendar/2013_2014/2013_2014calendar_edit.ashx yes mount allison university transfer credit policies are included in the following sections of the academic calendar: http://www.mta.ca/academic_calendar/_3.html#_3.10 http://www.mta.ca/academic_calendar/_10.html#_10.5 http://www.mta.ca/academic_calendar/_2.html#_2.1 http://www.mta.ca/academic_calendar/_10.html#_10.10.2 yes niagara college http://www.niagaracollege.ca/content/credittransferanddegreecompletion/degreeanddiplomaopportuniti es/glossaryofterms.aspx yes north island college http://www.nic.bc.ca/services/recordsandregistration/glossary.aspx yes ocad university http://www.ocadu.ca/prospective_students/transfer_pathways/#advanced+standing http://www.ocadu.ca/assets/pdf_media/ocad/students/office_of_the_registrar/1020+letter+of+permission. pdf http://www.ocadu.ca/students/records_registration/forms.htm#change+of+majorprogram http://www.ocadu.ca/assets/pdf_media/ocad/prospective/application_forms/tofcfaq.pdf www.uoit.ca/transfercredit www.uoit.ca/ted http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/index_en.php?page=glossary yes queens university http://www.queensu.ca/admission/apply/transfercredit/definitions.html yes red river college of applied arts, science and technology http://www.rrc.ca/files/file/policies/new/a14%20prior%20learning%20assessment%20and%20recognition. pdf http://www.queensu.ca/admission/apply/transfercredit/definitions.html yes royal roads university https://student.myrru.royalroads.ca/academic-regulations/section-1-credit-and-registration yes ryerson university http://www.ryerson.ca/calendar/2014-2015/pg3534.html http://www.ryerson.ca/calendar/2013-2014/pg3534.html http://www.ryerson.ca/currentstudents/transfercredits/prospective/faq/index.html yes seneca college http://www.senecacollege.ca/degreetransfer/guide/ no simon fraser university http://www.sfu.ca/students/calendar/2014/summer/fees-and-regulations/admission/undergraduateadmission.html#transfer-credit http://www.sfu.ca/students/admission-requirements/canadian-transfer/college-university.html.html http://www.sait.ca/about-sait/policies-and-procedures.php http://www.sait.ca/programs-and-courses/full-time-studies/academic-calendar-information/glossary-ofterms.php yes http://sites.stfx.ca/registrars_office/academic_calendar http://sites.stfx.ca/registrars_office/sites/sites.stfx.ca.registrars_office/files/academic_calendar2013_2014.p df yes st. thomas university http://w3.stu.ca/stu/administrative/registrar/services/calendar2013.aspx yes thompson rivers university http://www.tru.ca/policy.html http://www.tru.ca/policy/allpolicy.html yes trent university www.trentu.ca/transfer yes trinity western university https://www1.twu.ca/undergraduate/admissions/transfer-students/credit http://www.alexandercollege.ca/academic-programs/bc-transfer-system/ http://bccat.ca/system/policies/ yes ontario council on articulation and transfer southern alberta institute of technology st. francis xavier university 205 yes yes university of alberta http://www.registrar.ualberta.ca/calendar/glossary/information/240.html yes university of fraser valley https://www.ufv.ca/admissions/admissions/transfer/ https://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/secretariat/policies/transfer-credit-(107).pdf http://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/human-resources/learning--development/training-for-deptheads/transfer+credit+request+2012.pdf https://www.ufv.ca/admissions/forms/ http://www.ufv.ca/calendar/winter-summer-2014/general/regulationsandpolicies.htm https://www.ufv.ca/about_ufv/glossary/ http://www.ufv.ca/calendar/winter-summer-2014/general/glossary.htm http://www.ulaval.ca/sg/reg/reglements/reglement_des_etudes.pdf (document en voie de rvision) yes university of lethbridge http://www.uleth.ca/ross/sites/ross/files/imported/academic-calendar/2014-15/glossary.pdf yes university of manitoba http://umanitoba.ca/student/admissions/documents/articulation-agreements.html yes university of northern bc http://www.unbc.ca/calendar/undergraduate/regulations yes university of regina http://www.uregina.ca/gencal/ugcal/ http://www.uregina.ca/gradstudies/grad-calendar/index.html yes university of saskatchewan http://www.usask.ca/secretariat/documents/studentmobilityterminology.pdf http://policies.usask.ca/policies/academic-affairs/nomenclature-report.php yes university of sherbrooke http://www.usherbrooke.ca/programmes/references/reglement/definitions/ yes university of toronto www.uot.ca/transfercredit www.uoit.ca/calendar yes university of victoria http://web.uvic.ca/calendar2013/ yes university of waterloo graduate studies calendar http://gradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca/page/gso-transfer-credit canadian universities graduate transfer agreement http://cags.ca/agreements.php ontario visiting graduate student plan http://www.cou.on.ca/policy-advocacy/graduate-education/ontariovisiting-graduate-students http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/academic_policies/index.html http://gradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca/page/gso-transfer-credit http://gradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca/page/gso-ovgs http://gradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca/page/gso-cugta http://gradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca/page/gso-regulations http://uwaterloo.ca/graduate-studies/faculty-and-staff/admissions-recommendation-process-andprocedures/dual-phd-degrees-cotutelle yes western university http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/academic_policies/admission.html yes wilfrid laurier university https://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=2256&p=9615 https://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=2016&p=16861 http://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=1928&p=6567 http://www.wlu.ca/calendars/glossary.php?cal=1&y=61 http://www.wlu.ca/calendars/section.php?cal=1&s=644&y=61 yes york university http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/policies/index-policies.html; http://calendars.registrar.yorku.ca/; http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/transfercredit; http://www.ontransfer.ca/ yes university of laval 206 yes appendix i: advisory group demographics the advisory group for the project was volunteer; therefore, its composition is relevant to the findings as it provides a beginning indicator of the type and degree of engagement the project encouraged. it also provides an early example of the depth and breadth of consultation that occurred to support this initiative. at the time the advance poll was distributed, the membership totalled 27. ultimately and once the national survey was ready to be tested, the advisory group comprised 35 college and university representatives from both canadian public and private postsecondary institutions. twenty-two (22) were from universities and 13 were from colleges. a representative from the canadian pesc user group was also a member. although predominantly english, there were representatives from bilingual institutions. figure i1 provides the breakdown of members by province; figure i2 illustrates the data by registrarial regional association. figure i1: provincial representation on national project advisory group ontario 9 new brunswick 7 british columbia 7 alberta 6 manitoba 2 nova scotia 1 prince edward island 1 quebec 1 saskatchewan 1 newfoundland & labrador northwest territories, yukon, nunuvut 0 2 4 6 8 number of advisory group representatives 207 10 figure i2: representatives by regional association regional associations cegep cralo 4 oura 4 aarao 9 bci 1 warucc 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 number of representatives on advisory group the participation was high particularly from the eastern and western provinces. the advisory group proved a critical resource for the advance poll and when encouraging engagement in the workshops and national survey. advance poll findings in response to the question asking who should complete the national survey? the answers were unanimous that it be the registrars offices in the first instance registrars, associate registrars, records and admission directors. there were also references to articulation or pathway coordinators, whether located in a registrarial office or in a vp (academic) office. thirteen respondents (52%) out of 25 indicated more than one individual at their institution would need to participate in the national survey because of the requisite expertise. therefore, the decision was made to allow a census approach for the survey and not restrict access to one respondent per institution. in response to the question asking what types of samples in addition to transcripts and transfer credit glossaries and policy documents would be helpful to the research process? other documents recommended for review included: bcs transcript maintenance agreement for private and out-of-province public institutions functioning in bc; o this agreement is overseen by the degree quality assessment board (dqab) of the ministry of advanced education (bc ministry of advanced education, n.d.). electronic transcripts formats, policies and guidelines; 208 the definitions and practices related to international credentials offered by the canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic);52 letter of permission (lop) forms, transfer credit forms, recruitment material (to see various customs and practices). of 23 respondents, 19 (83%) indicated they use the 2003 arucc transcript guide. of the 17 that responded to which sections have proven most useful in their work, 15 (88%) indicated the material on student academic statuses and other statuses was the most used. otherwise, all other sections seemed relatively equal in usefulness. the respondents ranked the following sections usefulness, which are listed in descending order (n=17):53 student academic status and other statuses (15, 88%); statement of graduation (12, 71%); basis of admission; transcript issuance information (11, 65% each); external learning recognized by the issuing institution; identification of the student; record of studies pursued; current transcript issues and issues for further study (10, 59% each); identification of the issuing institution (6, 35%); other (3, 18%). in the section under other, respondents stressed the value of establishing protocols for awards/scholarships and co-curricular transcripts. of 21 respondents, only 7 (33%) use the aacrao 2011 academic record and transcript guide. of those who do, the most useful components identified included:54 database and academic transcript components (note: database elements were explicitly excluded from the 2003 arucc transcript guide) (4, 57%); information on the transcript key; current issues; database, academic record and transcript distinctions; security of records (3, 43% each); fraudulent transcripts; transcription of non-traditional work; electronic transcripts (2, 29% each). the following additional themes were apparent: o electronic transcripts respondents suggested attention should be paid to polices, guidelines, and formats for e-transcripts as this delivery approach represents an opportunity to provide more information about the student than available on the paper version. this validates the importance of the project being led by the canadian pesc user group. in keeping with this theme, pesc was cited as a successful practice for electronic transcript standards, which is not surprising since the value of electronic data exchange is well known as are the opportunities for different models (fain, 2014). 52 http://terminologies.cicic.ca respondents could choose more than one response. twenty-three (23) out of 25 responded to this question. 54 respondents could provide more than one answer to this question. 53 209 o o o o o principles and rationales a suggestion was made to be transparent regarding the rationales for including certain components on a transcript. there also seemed to be a suggestion that provincial requirements introduced areas of difference between local and national best practice. an example was provided by the area of basis of admission (e.g., the dqab transcript maintenance agreement requirements in bc mentioned previously). student mobility, equivalent learning and clarity around transfer credit consistent transcript and transfer credit practices were identified as a vehicle for enhancing student mobility. therefore, suggested areas of improvement to future guides included introducing consistent practices for identifying sources of transfer credit on transcripts and for program partnerships, and plar. it was suggested by respondents that when developing a guide and/or glossary it would be valuable to probe transfer credit sources, their differences, what credit is applied to which program and how such assignments should feature on a transcript. awards and scholarships how and when to feature awards and scholarships on a transcript appears to be an area deserving guidance in a future guide. additional challenges according to respondents, there is a need to examine concepts such as unofficial versus official transcripts; privacy and record security; identification of mode of instruction; the nuances introduced by different types of partnerships and degrees; and academic versus non-academic discipline. additional examples identified included co-curricular activities; learning portfolios; transfer allocation based on learning outcomes; granting credit for moocs (i.e., massive open online courses) and more. these topics were suggested as potential areas of exploration particularly in terms of their impact, if any, on transcription and credentialing protocols. guide structure comments were shared about carefully considering the structure of a guide and its resulting utility, a topic of discussion for a later project phase. the other series of questions focused on explicitly probing the area of transfer credit. seventeen (17, 81%) of the 21 schools responded in the affirmative with regard to having a transfer credit policy either locally or provincially authored. five of the 17 indicated theirs was currently under review. seven of the 17 indicated a provincial source for their transfer credit policy (i.e., published by either bccat or acat). seven (7) responded to the question are you aware of successful practices? five (5) cited bccats online transfer guide as a best practice. on an operational level, the respondents recommended consistent policies and practices (or consistent communication of institutional practices) are necessary to resolve the following types of questions: what should be the minimum grade required to allocate transfer credit? should the grade from the sending institution be transferred? should that grade (or equivalent) be included in grade point average (gpa) calculations? how should this information be presented on a transcript (according to source or timing)? should there be standard terminology and a harmonized approach for transcripting credit for equivalent learning (e.g., prior learning assessment, challenge exams)? what is and what should be the role of faculty and program areas in transfer credit assessment and approval? are there any best practices in this area? 210 how should different types of transfer be transcripted (e.g., course-to-course transfers, block transfers, articulation agreements, etc.)? 211 x x alberta concordia university college keyano college alberta alberta medicine hat college alberta red deer college x x x x x x x alberta x university of alberta x alberta british columbia british columbia simon fraser university x x british columbia trinity western university x x british columbia upper canada west x x manitoba booth university college brandon university x x manitoba manitoba canadian mennonite university university of manitoba x x new course development/transfer of courses and programs pesc xml college transcript implementation guide x alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) - principles, policies and procedures calendar section on transcripts transfer credit articulation procedure (aug 2009) x university of calgary capilano university manitoba other transfer credit policy x academic standing policy transfer credit nomenclature x prior learning assessment policy transcript legend/key athabasca university transcript information page transcript alberta province name of institution or organization appendix j: catalogue of postsecondary institutional samples provided x x x x x x transfer credit equivalency form transfer credit equivalency form explanation of categories x x x x (pro pose d) x 212 new brunswick college of craft and design new brunswick new brunswick community college memorial university nfld and labrador nova scotia cape breton university nova scotia institute for human services education nova scotia ontario ontario ontario nova scotia college of early childhood education universit saint-anne brock university canadore college other x x transfer, equivalency, challenge and plar credit assessment form course release request; # credits awarded experiential prior learning assessment and recognition (application and contract) x x x x x x x x nova scotia academic standing policy x x new brunswick prior learning assessment policy transcript information page transfer credit policy transfer credit nomenclature transcript legend/key name of institution or organization universit de moncton transcript province new brunswick x x x summary of block transfer advanced standing arrangements o athabasca o upei o mount st. vincent x x x x x x grading scale x x draft jan 2014 x centennial college x x x x 213 x transfer credit faq/instructions x grading policy equivalence and substitution procedures ontario conestoga college george brown college ontario georgian college ontario mcmaster university ryerson university university of ontario institute of technology university of waterloo ontario ontario ontario x x x x university of toronto ontario western university holland college quebec quebec sask. sask. bishop's university mcgill university universit de montral concordia university briercrest college and seminary university of saskatchewan other academic standing policy prior learning assessment policy transcript information page x registrar office policies grading scales http://www.georgebrown.ca/tran sferguide/ x x x grading scale x x x x x x graduate examples confirmation of transfer credits letters (ib and postsecondary) x x x collaborative and plar x x x x quebec x york university ontario quebec transfer credit policy x x pei transfer credit nomenclature x x ontario transcript legend/key transcript name of institution or organization province ontario x dacum letter letter from registrar explaining change in rating for competency based learning x x x x x x x x x x x 214 appendix k: transcript and grading practices55 institution name athabasca university transcript website http://ous.athabascau.ca/policy/registry/graduategrading.htm bow valley college http://www.bowvalleycollege.ca/documents/executive/policies/learners%20and%20academic%20practices/gradi ng%20policy_april11.pdf https://onlineservices.concordia.ab.ca/pdf/transcriptinformationsheet.pdf concordia university college of alberta grant macewan university lethbridge college medicine hat college 55 http://www.macewan.ca/contribute/groups/public/documents/document/pfw_003528.pdf https://www.lethbridgecollege.ca/sites/default/files/imce/policies_procedures/academic_programming_%26_inst ructional/grading-app-a.pdf https://www.mhc.ab.ca/~/media/files/pdf/calendar/archives/2010-11regspolicies.ashx mount royal university norquest college http://www.mtroyal.ca/cs/groups/public/documents/pdf/ssdata_transcript_legend.pdf northern alberta institute of technology olds college http://www.nait.ca/91989.htm portage college http://www.portagecollege.ca/services_for_students/grading_system.htm red deer college http://rdc.ab.ca/current-students/class-info/grades-exams/grading-system southern alberta institute of technology http://www.sait.ca/documents/about%20sait/policies%20and%20procedures/academic%20student/pdf/ac-3-11_gradingprogressionprocedures.pdf the king's university college https://registry.kingsu.ca/calendar/calendarpdf/academic%20information.pdf university of alberta http://www.registrarsoffice.ualberta.ca/en/assessment-and-grading/students/grading-system-explained.aspx university of calgary http://www.ucalgary.ca/pubs/calendar/current/f-2.html british columbia institute of technology http://www.bcit.ca/files/records/pdf/keytogrades.pdf camosun college http://camosun.ca/about/policies/education-academic/e-1-programming-&-instruction/e-1.5.pdf capilano university http://www.capilanou.ca/workarea/downloadasset.aspx?id=23108 college of the rockies https://www.cotr.bc.ca/reg-info/cotr_web.asp?idnumber=163 columbia college http://www.columbiacollege.ca/registrations-and-records/college-calendar#grading-system coquitlam college http://www.coquitlamcollege.com/pdf_downloads/handbook.pdf douglas college http://www.douglas.bc.ca/calendar/general-information/grading.html emily carr university of art and design justice institute of british columbia kwantlen polytechnic university langara college http://www.ecuad.ca/studentservices/academic_advising/grade_point_average assiniboine community college brandon university http://public.assiniboine.net/portals/0/documents/pdfs/current-students/201314%20academic%20policy%20handbook.pdf http://www.brandonu.ca/calendar/files/2011/03/ugrad-2011-2012.pdf canadian mennonite university http://www.cmu.ca/students.php?s=registrar&p=policies http://www.norquest.ca/resources-services/student-life/student-policies/grading-practices.aspx http://www.oldscollege.ca/assets/oldscollege/shared/bottomnav/administration/policies/d/d19%20grading.pdf http://www.jibc.ca/sites/default/files/governance/policies/pdf/policy_grading.pdf http://www.kpu.ca/calendar/2013-14/academic-affairs/grades.pdf http://www.langara.bc.ca/registration-and-records/resources/grading-and-withdrawals/grades-notations.html these websites resulted from internet research for the study. 215 providence college & theological seminary http://www.providenceuc.ca/resource/file/college/registrar/uccatacadinfo.pdf collge communautaire du nouveau-brunswick mount allison university college of north atlantic memorial university of newfoundland acadia university http://www.ccnb.nb.ca/media/28459/renseignements-et-r%c3%a8glements-version-finale-ccnb-english-20132014-2013-04-15-ca-.pdf atlantic school of theology dalhousie university http://www.astheology.ns.ca/webfiles/ast-2013-2014-academic-calendar.pdf saint mary's university algonquin college http://www.mta.ca/academic_calendar/ch06.html http://www.cna.nl.ca/registration/academic-regulations.asp#10 https://www.mun.ca/regoff/calendar/sectionno=regs-0661 http://central.acadiau.ca/registrar/faculty_information/grading_system http://www.dal.ca/campus_life/student_services/academic-support/grades-and-student-records/grade-scale-anddefinitions.html http://www.smu.ca/webfiles/smuundergraduatecalendar20142015.pdf http://www3.algonquincollege.com/directives/policy/aa14-grading-system/ centennial college http://centennialcollege.widencdn.net/embed/download/c1d4d61fd98191feda8de63600a3aff1 http://www.centennialcollege.ca/printshop/academicpolicies.pdf george brown college of applied arts & technology https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.georgebrown.ca/gbcca/current_students/registrars_office/academic _policies_(pdf)/office_of_the_registrar_policies.aspx&sa=u&ei=ffhau5kqdmhjyghz24hobw&ved=0cauqfjaa&cli ent=internal-udscse&usg=afqjcne0lf75tjch8hr3zia9mazt4w5sgqigcim6yagvkigoaw&ved=0cacqfjac&client=internal-udscse&usg=afqjcne3vhriughjiozvvnzd6w3v_kht4w http://www.georgebrown.ca/policies/ http://www.senecacollege.ca/registrar/records/senecatranscript.html http://www.senecacollege.ca/academic-policy/ http://gpe.concordia.ca/documents/grading-1.pdf seneca college concordia university mcgill university briercrest college http://www.mcgill.ca/study/20142015/university_regulations_and_resources/undergraduate/gi_grading_and_grade_point_averages http://www.briercrest.ca/media/265597/seminary%20academic%20handbook%202012-13.pdf campion college c/o university of regina http://www.uregina.ca/student/registrar/assets/docs/pdf/the_grading_system_at_ur.pdf university of toronto http://www.transcripts.utoronto.ca/guide/ (guide of reading a transcript) carleton university http://carleton.ca/registrar/your-record/transcript/transcript_validation/ western university http://www.registrar.uwo.ca/student_records/transcripts/index.html http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2014/pg99.html http://www.queensu.ca/registrar/currentstudents/transcripts.html queens university university of saskatchewan okanagan college http://students.usask.ca/current/academics/grades/grading-system.php first nations university of canada http://www.fnuniv.ca/current-students/grading http://webapps-5.okanagan.bc.ca/ok/calendar/calendar.aspx?page=gradingpractices retrieved april 6, 2014 216 appendix l: regional workshop background information table l1 identifies the six regional workshops held across canada to support the research for the arucc pccat study. the leadership within the different provincial associations allied with arucc facilitated the organization of these sessions and determined the approach; hence, the value of the regional focus. table l1: jurisdictional workshops target audience date attendance location regions covered warucc #1 february 4 12 teleconference warucc #2 february 4 13 teleconference alb, bc, man, sask, (note: no attendees from yukon, nwt or nunavut) as above warucc #3 february 6 15 teleconference as above oura/cralo february 12 34 toronto ontario bci (formerly crepuq) february 20 12 bci office, montreal quebec universities aarao february 24 17 dalhousie, truro, nova scotia nb, pei, nfld & lab, ns participants in the workshops primarily came from the leadership within registrarial operations. positions represented included executive directors of enrolment services, registrars and/or associate registrars, admissions directors/clerks/coordinators, recruitment coordinators, graduate studies managers, coordinators of transfer credit services and/or pathway development, plar advisors, managers of frontline student services, and assessment officers. also represented were assistant or associate vice presidents and one dean. workshop registrants were asked to provide permission for use of their transcripts for the project. out of 81 registrants56, 84% (68) indicated yes, which demonstrates the degree of willingness of registrarial colleagues to share their practices as a means to work towards a best practice. those that did not provide samples did not always provide a rationale; those that did indicated that their institutional policy and/or practice prevented them from widely sharing their institutional transcripts. thematic findings by requesting that each workshop participant register in advance, it was possible to capture their thoughts on higher level issues related to the study. interestingly the thematic findings were consistent regardless of location. table l2 provides a summary. these insights assisted in preparing for workshop discussions and further research. 56 the total number of people that registered in advance for the workshops equaled 109. 217 table l2: themes provided at the point of workshop registration transcript and workshop themes from advanced registrants number of times topic mentioned transcript standards for equivalent or alternate learning and transfer credit 26 electronic exchange of transcript data 9 guide enhancement 7 notations (how, what, when should these be on a transcript) 4 transcript key (review, clarify) 4 transcript presentation/ layout 3 data sharing methods grades format definition of "official" transcript privacy standards (third party access) other 2 2 2 2 enhancement examples create a standard for representing the following on transcripts: transfer credit, advanced standing, block transfer, plar, non-credit, grades, joint degrees, recording courses, grades, ncr?cr? what's counted? and where? what are the data formats and standards? evaluate practices in other jurisdictions for ideas; explore emerging trends e.g., consider technology, new forms of partnerships; explore alternate platforms for sharing best practices e.g., develop a web-based portal to search for standards and definitions; ensure all levels and sectors are represented; conduct a "comparative regional cross walk of terms" to identify similarities and differences e.g., units versus credits, withdrawals, no credit retained, etc. some examples needing attention: disciplinary decisions, convocation decisions, academic decisions, course codes and nomenclature should the components in the guide be re-evaluated in the current context? how can these be aligned to match or facilitate electronic data exchange? samples: display of former names; accreditation status; definition of credit or unit and its weighting what are some of the best practices for transcript data sharing? pdf? electronic? other? what is the best practice standard? what does "official" really mean? what approaches comprise best practice? 2 timing of assessment of transfer credit - does this impact the amount allocated? how does transfer credit decisions impact on government financial aid? if not, should it? provincial identifier 1 should it be on or off transcript? experiential information 1 should it be on the transcript? how? security 1 how can security measures improve transcript security? credit algorithms (credit system versus credit hours) 1 co-curricular record 1 what exists at the different institutions? how do they define "credit"? create a standard and a method for representing co-curricular information; should it be on a transcript? 218 appendix m: national survey data private versus public figure m1: functional area represented by respondents - public versus private central registrarial area 13, 14% transfer offices 2 10, 11% graduate 3, 3% central administration 74, 82% 22 student affairs 01 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 number of responses private public figure m2: respondents by province - public versus private ontario 1 31 british columbia 8 alberta 23 4 quebec 1 saskatchewan 1 manitoba 1 nova scotia 11 8 5 4 4 new brunswick 1 pei 1 3 nfld & labrador 0 nwt, yukon, nunavut 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 number of respondents (total responses = 107) private public 219 30 35 figure m3: institutional type; private versus public association memberships figure m4: association memberships identified by survey respondents (n=107) 220 figure m5: association memberships as reported by individual members; public versus private the other memberships held by the respondents (or their institution) are quite extensive and further demonstrate the broad range of associations many of which touch on the world of transcripts and transfer credit. the ones that have some type of engagement in transcript standards and/or transfer credit policy/nomenclature are important to highlight as this information may inform future project phases. the canadian associations include the canadian association of graduate studies (cags), provincial registrars associations, the association of catholic colleges and universities of canada, the canadian bureau of international education, the canadian association of college and university student services (cacuss), polytechnic canada, the private post-secondary association of bc (ppsabc), and the canadian association of prior learning assessment. the international association memberships mentioned by respondents that have engagement in the areas of transcripts and/or transfer credit include the american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (aacrao), the association of commonwealth universities, the association of american universities, the association of biblical higher education, the association of private sector colleges and universities (apscu), the pacific association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (pacrao), and the upper midwest association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers (umacrao). the latter two are regional associations of aacrao. 221 decision authority figure m6: approval authority by institutional type board of governors 2 1 decision authority faculty or school dean 1 president/provost / senior vp team 1 vp academic / provost 1 registrar 4 institutional academic senate or governing other 5 3 4 1 1 16 1 21 4 1 2 2 4 i don't know 2 external 1 1 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% response percentage (n=71) college/cegep institute university theological institute / seminary other student demographic profile of institutional respondents table m1: student demographics of institutions part-time students heads 0-4,999 5,000-9,999 10,00014,999 15,00019,999 >20,000 private 15 (24%) 1 (6%) 0 0 1 (13%) full-time students public 48 (76%) 17 (94%) 9 (100%) 1 (100%) overall % of whole 63 64% 15 (36%) 18 18% 1 (6%) 9 9% 0 1 1% 0 7 (88%) 8 8% 0 222 private public 27 (64%) 15 (94%) 8 (100%) 12 (100%) 23 (100%) overall % of whole 42 42% 16 16% 8 8% 12 12% 23 23% transcript responsibilities and usage of transcript guides figure m7: respondents involvement with transcript standards and practices figure m8: institutions allowing students to repeat courses failed courses (n=75) passed courses (n=76) 75, 100% 7, 9% 0% 10% 69, 91% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% response percentage no yes 223 70% 80% 90% 100% grade related components equivalent learning basis of admission identifying information table m2 - which of the following are included on the transcript? transcript component on transcript not on transcript not applicable total responses date transcript issued to student 77 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 77 location of institution 70 (92%) 6 (8%) 0 (0%) 76 location of institutional satellite or branch campus student attended 8 (10%) 44 (57%) 25 (33%) 77 name of institution 77 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 77 provincial education number assigned to each student 21 (28%) 47 (63%) 7 (9%) 75 student date of birth 58 (75%) 18 (23%) 1 (1%) 77 1 (1%) 74 (97%) 1 (1%) 76 student identification number assigned by your institution 75 (97%) 2 (3%) 0 (0%) 77 student mailing address 31 (42%) 43 (58%) 0 (0%) 74 student name 75 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 75 the actual basis of admission category 15 (20%) 58 (77%) 2 (3%) 75 name of the secondary school attended prior to entry 5 (7%) 69 (90%) 3 (4%) 77 date the student received a secondary school credential (i.e., the graduation date) admission test scores 6 (8%) 68 (88%) 3 (4%) 77 2 (3%) 69 (91%) 5 (7%) 76 credential awarded from secondary school (or equivalent e.g., ged) 7 (9%) 66 (87%) 3 (4%) 76 post-secondary credits earned in secondary school 32 (42%) 38 (49%) 7 (9%) 77 previous colleges or universities attended 34 (44%) 41 (53%) 2 (3%) 77 period of attendance at prior post-secondary institutions credential received from prior post-secondary studies 12 (16%) 62 (82%) 2 (3%) 76 16 (21%) 59 (78%) 1 (1%) 76 date credential received from prior post-secondary studies 10 (13%) 65 (84%) 2 (3%) 77 plar, challenge tests 42 (56%) 18 (24%) 15 (20%) 75 class averages (e.g., class rank, class averages, grades distributions, etc.) overall cumulative average by academic career (i.e., all studies at a particular level) 15 (20%) 56 (74%) 5 (7%) 76 40 (53%) 31 (41%) 5 (7%) 76 overall cumulative average by program 22 (30%) 48 (65%) 4 (5%) 74 session average ("session" is defined as studies from between four to eight months) 24 (32%) 40 (54%) 10 (14%) 74 term average ("term" is defined as four months of study or less) 43 (57%) 30 (40%) 3 (4%) 76 narrative evaluation 9 (12%) 53 (70%) 14 (18%) 76 student email 224 course / credit information program information grades included on a transcript when courses are repeated demonstrated competencies 6 (8%) 54 (70%) 17 (22%) 77 highest 17 (50%) 10 (29%) 7 (21%) 34 most recent 14 (47%) 10 (33%) 6 (20%) 30 first try 8 (31%) 11 (42%) 7 (27%) 26 second try 10 (37%) 10 (37%) 7 (26%) 27 all tries 61 (94%) 3 (5%) 1 (2%) 65 2 (7%) 20 (74%) 5 (19%) 27 20 (27%) 55 (73%) 0 (0%) 75 1 (5%) 9 (43%) 11 (52%) 21 results are averaged if failed at another institution other program name 75 (97%) 2 (3%) 0 (0%) 77 program type (e.g., diploma in..., certificate of..., honours bachelor of ...) 67 (87%) 10 (13%) 0 (0%) 77 major 50 (67%) 8 (11%) 17 (23%) 75 minor 39 (53%) 14 (19%) 20 (27%) 73 specialization 46 (61%) 14 (19%) 15 (20%) 75 credits per course/units per course 75 (99%) 1 (1%) 0 (0%) 76 course grade 73 (97%) 2 (3%) 0 (0%) 75 course identifier 73 (96%) 3 (4%) 0 (0%) 76 course location 9 (12%) 59 (80%) 6 (8%) 74 course in progress 65 (87%) 8 (11%) 2 (3%) 75 name of course 74 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 74 5 (7%) 67 (89%) 3 (4%) 75 credit summary 45 (62%) 25 (34%) 3 (4%) 73 credits earned 64 (84%) 11 (15%) 1 (1%) 76 credits taken 56 (74%) 19 (25%) 1 (1%) 76 5 (7%) 52 (69%) 18 (24%) 75 15 (20%) 35 (46%) 26 (34%) 76 1 (1%) 61 (79%) 15 (20%) 77 graduate thesis/dissertation completed/defended 28 (37%) 20 (27%) 27 (36%) 75 graduation date 68 (88%) 7 (9%) 2 (3%) 77 practicum or apprenticeship requirements complete 37 (49%) 22 (29%) 17 (22%) 76 requirements for graduation met 30 (39%) 42 (55%) 5 (7%) 77 professional certification received 2 (3%) 53 (70%) 21 (28%) 76 credential received 63 (83%) 10 (13%) 3 (4%) 76 date credential conferred 61 (82%) 7 (10%) 6 (8%) 74 date program completed 33 (43%) 41 (54%) 2 (3%) 76 4 (5%) 40 (52%) 33 (43%) 77 course mode of delivery accreditation requirements met graduate comprehensive exams completed progression and milestone information first year / "freshman" year completed advancement or admission to candidacy (or graduate internal promotion) satisfactory completion of institutional qualifying exams graduate thesis/dissertation title identified 3 (4%) 36 (48%) 36 (48%) 75 20 (26%) 28 (36%) 29 (38%) 77 extra-curricular, non-academic information 13 (17%) 57 (74%) 7 (9%) 77 225 23 (31%) 51 (68%) 1 (1%) 85 internal 23 (31%) 52 (69%) 0 (0%) 75 need-based bursary awards 75 (99%) 1 (1%) 0 (0%) 76 external awards and scholarships 14 (18%) 62 (82%) 0 (0%) 76 other honours (e.g., dean's honour list) 58 (76%) 18 (24%) 0 (0%) 76 block transfer credit 48 (66%) 18 (25%) 7 (10%) 73 course-specific transfer credit 55 (76%) 17 (23%) 1 (1%) 73 name of sending institution 56 (78%) 14 (19%) 2 (3%) 72 3 (4%) 62 (87%) 6 (9%) 71 type of inter-institutional partnership (e.g., joint program, dual degree, co-registration, etc.) 13 (18%) 50 (69%) 9 (13%) 72 sources of transfer credit (e.g., exchange, letter of permission, college / university transfer, secondary school (ib, ap, gce)) 23 (32%) 42 (58%) 7 (10%) 72 sending institution information awards and scholarships credit system / weighting name of sending program figure m9: what occurs with grades on the institutional transcript when credit is transferred? 226 figure m10: identify the applicable transcript notation practice for each source of transfer credit or timing of assessment. table m3: which position or approval body has the final authority to establish transfer credit nomenclature at your institution? faculty or school council faculty or school dean institutional senate / governing council board of governors program area registrar vice president academic / provost don't know other count percentage 1 1 28 3 1 12 5 2 10 2% 2% 44% 5% 2% 19% 8% 3% 16% 227 transfer guides, transcription practices and terminology usage table m4: which components are currently in the transfer guide or policy at your organization? listing of transfer agreements course grade required to be considered for transfer credit entering average required to be eligible for transfer credit fees, if applicable, for credit transfer assessment included not included not applicable 40 (66%) 19 (31%) 2 (3%) 54 (89%) 6 (10%) 1 (2%) 24 (39%) 23 (37%) 15 (24%) 17 (27%) 11 (18%) 34 (55%) lifespan of approved course equivalencies 25 (40%) 26 (42%) 11 (18%) limitations on age of courses to be considered for transfer credit 30 (48%) 20 (32%) 12 (19%) limitations on types of courses that are eligible for transfer credit (e.g., plar, online, etc.) 29 (47%) 21 (34%) 12 (19%) 51 (82%) 7 (11%) 4 (7%) limits to amount of credit that can be transferred process for applying for transfer credit 52 (84%) 5 (8%) 5 (8%) process through which transfer credit equivalencies are assessed 34 (57%) 23 (38%) 3 (5%) residency requirements 46 (77%) 4 (7%) 10 (17%) timelines for credit transfer assessment 31 (50%) 26 (42%) 5 (8%) transfer credit appeal process 24 (39%) 28 (45%) 10 (16%) glossary of transfer credit terminology 31 (50%) 25 (40%) 6 (10%) table m5: which of the following should be in an organizations transfer policy or guide? not recommended optional recommended essential listing of transfer agreements 4 (5%) 20 (23%) 33 (38%) 31 (35%) course grade required to be considered for transfer credit entering average required to be eligible for transfer credit 0 (0%) 3 (3%) 17 (19%) 68 (77%) 4 (5%) 20 (23%) 28 (32%) 36 (41%) fees, if applicable, for credit transfer assessment 4 (5%) 8 (9%) 29 (33%) 47 (53%) lifespan of approved course equivalencies 2 (2%) 13 (15%) 36 (41%) 36 (41%) limitations on age of courses to be considered for transfer credit limitations on types of courses that are eligible for transfer credit (e.g., plar, online, etc.) 2 (2%) 9 (10%) 32 (37%) 44 (51%) 4 (5%) 8 (9%) 32 (36%) 44 (50%) limits to amount of credit that can be transferred 0 (0%) 3 (3%) 18 (21%) 67 (76%) 228 process for applying for transfer credit 1 (1%) 3 (3%) 29 (33%) 55 (63%) process through which transfer credit equivalencies are assessed residency requirements 3 (3%) 15 (17%) 35 (40%) 35 (40%) 2 (2%) 7 (8%) 19 (22%) 59 (68%) timelines for credit transfer assessment 1 (1%) 13 (15%) 47 (53%) 27 (31%) transfer credit appeal process 1 (1%) 11 (13%) 45 (52%) 30 (35%) glossary of transfer credit terminology 0 (0%) 9 (10%) 42 (48%) 36 (41%) table m6: which of the following inter-institutional partnership terminology is in use at your institution? term used; official definition exists term used; official definition does not exist term not used not applicable articulated agreements 51 (60%) 21 (25%) 11 (13%) 2 (2%) bi-lateral / multi-lateral agreements 21 (26%) 15 (18%) 37 (45%) 9 (11%) block transfer agreements 40 (48%) 32 (38%) 8 (10%) 4 (5%) bridge / bridging programs or agreements 26 (32%) 21 (26%) 25 (31%) 10 (12%) collaborative programs 25 (31%) 21 (26%) 21 (26%) 14 (17%) conjoint degree programs 12 (15%) 2 (3%) 46 (57%) 21 (26%) cotutelle (graduate level) 12 (16%) 2 (3%) 36 (47%) 27 (35%) dual / double credential programs 22 (27%) 19 (23%) 27 (33%) 14 (17%) joint programs 28 (35%) 24 (30%) 17 (21%) 11 (14%) jointly sponsored agreements 8 (10%) 10 (13%) 37 (47%) 24 (30%) laddering agreements 15 (19%) 18 (23%) 32 (41%) 14 (18%) numeric titling agreements (e.g., "2+2", "3+1", etc.) 22 (28%) 26 (33%) 24 (30%) 8 (10%) pathway agreements 25 (30%) 28 (34%) 22 (27%) 8 (10%) integrated programs 9 (11%) 7 (9%) 41 (52%) 22 (28%) co-registration programs 12 (15%) 7 (9%) 42 (51%) 21 (26%) memoranda of understanding (mous) 43 (51%) 32 (38%) 7 (8%) 2 (2%) unidirectional bilateral transfer agreements 13 (17%) 10 (13%) 41 (53%) 14 (18%) degree or diploma completion programs 37 (46%) 21 (26%) 17 (21%) 5 (6%) 229 figure m11: are any of these inter-institutional partnership terms included on the institutional transcript? yes no it depends table m7: what transfer credit terminology is currently in use at your organization? term used; official definition exists term used; official definition does not exist term not used term not relevant for our type of institution advance credit 15 (19%) 12 (15%) 47 (60%) 4 (5%) advanced standing 49 (59%) 24 (29%) 9 (11%) 1 (1%) assigned credit 22 (29%) 10 (13%) 41 (54%) 3 (4%) block transfer 40 (49%) 30 (37%) 11 (13%) 1 (1%) challenge test 38 (48%) 18 (23%) 21 (26%) 3 (4%) cluster credit 2 (3%) 3 (4%) 63 (83%) 8 (11%) course credit exclusion 17 (22%) 14 (18%) 41 (53%) 5 (7%) course equivalency/ equivalent 47 (57%) 34 (41%) 2 (2%) 0 (0%) course substitute 25 (31%) 21 (26%) 31 (38%) 4 (5%) course transfer map 4 (5%) 5 (7%) 61 (79%) 7 (9%) credit 69 (82%) 13 (16%) 2 (2%) 0 (0%) dual credit 22 (28%) 20 (25%) 32 (41%) 5 (6%) elective credit 44 (57%) 23 (30%) 8 (10%) 2 (3%) equivalent credit 29 (38%) 28 (36%) 19 (25%) 1 (1%) exemption 35 (45%) 26 (33%) 13 (17%) 4 (5%) inter-university transfer 11 (15%) 5 (7%) 51 (67%) 9 (12%) letter of permission 49 (59%) 17 (21%) 12 (15%) 5 (6%) "not to do" 4 (5%) 2 (3%) 59 (76%) 13 (17%) program transfer 26 (33%) 16 (21%) 32 (41%) 4 (5%) residency requirement 60 (74%) 10 (12%) 9 (11%) 2 (3%) specified credit 24 (31%) 13 (17%) 39 (50%) 2 (3%) transfer courses 30 (38%) 25 (31%) 22 (28%) 3 (4%) transfer credit 67 (80%) 13 (16%) 4 (5%) 0 (0%) 230 transferable courses 31 (39%) 29 (37%) 18 (23%) 1 (1%) unassigned/ unallocated credit 23 (29%) 17 (21%) 36 (45%) 4 (5%) unspecified course 12 (15%) 13 (17%) 49 (63%) 4 (5%) unspecified credit 22 (29%) 15 (20%) 37 (48%) 3 (4%) waiver 18 (24%) 20 (26%) 34 (45%) 4 (5%) table m8: which of the following transfer credit information should be on a transcript? not recommended recommended optional essential uncertain / no opinion block transfer credit 5 (6%) 26 (32%) 8 (10%) 40 (49%) 3 (4%) course-specific transfer credit 7 (8%) 21 (25%) 8 (10%) 46 (55%) 2 (2%) grade equivalents (i.e., grades converted to local receiving institution's scale) 30 (36%) 6 (7%) 32 (38%) 9 (11%) 7 (8%) actual grades from sending institutions 32 (38%) 5 (6%) 34 (40%) 12 (14%) 2 (2%) identity of sending institution 4 (5%) 14 (16%) 11 (13%) 57 (66%) 0 (0%) name of sending program 16 (19%) 9 (11%) 39 (46%) 19 (22%) 2 (2%) type of inter-institutional partnership 6 (7%) 20 (24%) 38 (45%) 12 (14%) 8 (10%) source of transfer credit 8 (9%) 24 (28%) 33 (38%) 19 (22%) 2 (2%) passed grades 17 (20%) 13 (16%) 17 (20%) 36 (43%) 1 (1%) failed grades 24 (30%) 9 (11%) 21 (26%) 21 (26%) 6 (7%) grades earned from assessment of external equivalent experience 15 (18%) 17 (21%) 21 (26%) 26 (32%) 3 (4%) figure m12: is there a document regarding transfer credit in addition to the transcript that should be provided to a student? yes no 231 references for appendices alberta council on admissions and transfer. (2009). student mobility reports. retrieved from acat, research: http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/new_format_include/research/, april 4, 2014. alberta council on admissions and transfer . (2014, january). spotlight. retrieved from acat: http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/spotlight-january-2014.pdf. alberta council on admissions and transfer. (2013). transfer best practices. retrieved from http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca/pdfs/best_practices_in_transfer_final.pdf. american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers [aacraco]. (2011). the aacrao academic record and transcript guide. washington, dc: aacrao. american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers [aacrao]. (2012). transfer credit practices of designated educational institutions (tcp) 2012. washington, dc: aacrao. associations of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada [arucc]. 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transfer pathways between glendon college and the gta colleges multiple college pathways to a bachelor of arts degree completion program final report prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) as of march 31, 2017 table of contents 1. executive summary.....3 2. methodology....................5 3. pathway development process.7 4. partners and identified pathways..9 5. implementation date and duration ....13 6. advertising and promotion...13 7. successes and challenges .....13 8. lessons learned14 9. appendix a: transfer articulation agreements.15 oncat project 2014-36 final report 2 1. executive summary the objective of this project was to create pathways between york university glendon colleges bachelor of arts programs and selected diploma programs of colleges of the greater toronto area (humber college, seneca college, centennial college, george brown college, la cit and collge boral). glendon college was interested in exploring transfer pathways with the colleges of the region in hopes of recruiting more francophone and francophile students and in response to the provincial need to increase access to french-language postsecondary education in central and southwestern ontario. this project was supported by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). by signing these articulation agreements, glendon college and the participating colleges intended to establish pathways for college graduates seeking to pursue further bilingual studies at glendon. demographic information collected from the colleges indicated that a great number of francophone students were currently studying at english-language colleges. there were also a great number of anglophone students who were previously enrolled in french-language immersion programs at englishlanguage secondary schools. the development of attractive pathways for these students seeking to continue their postsecondary education in a bilingual environment was one of the main priorities of this project. therefore, glendon endeavoured to work closely with these colleges offering programs in the greater toronto area to identify a number of select programs for which clear credit transfer opportunities could be identified. keeping in mind the provincial call to meet the needs of the francophone community and improve access to french-language college and university programs in central and southwestern ontario, glendon worked closely with gta colleges to identify select college programs for which college graduates could receive advanced standing at the university level. the project also took into account existing pathways and credit transfer opportunities already in place between ontario colleges and other faculties of york university. even though the initial plan was to develop a single agreement that would have included all participating colleges, it became quickly evident that a separate agreement needed to be developed for each college. one of the main reasons for this decision was that each college has very different pedagogical approaches to similar programs. the assessment of college programs and curricula as well as learning outcomes at both program and course levels allowed us to develop unique pathways that frenchlanguage college graduates could follow to pursue bilingual university education. oncat project 2014-36 final report 3 as a result of these efforts, we were successful in identifying a series of bilingual programs in several disciplines that could be offered to francophone and francophile college graduates, allowing them to complete their studies at a bilingual university. the specific college articulation agreements are currently being taken through the different institutional approval processes and will come into effect for students entering the university in the fall 2017. glendon and the participating colleges will now be working on establishing student support services to receive the first cohort of students and ensure a successful transition of these students from college programs to bilingual programs. all involved parties will collaborate to identify effective strategies to promote these pathways. oncat project 2014-36 final report 4 2. methodology this project was meant to review several programs offered by colleges in the greater toronto area in order to identify possible pathways for francophone and francophile students. even though the project team included one project coordinator from glendon college and one contact person in each college, the team relied heavily on subject matter experts and glendon and college department chairs were consulted throughout the process. staff members from academic services at all institutions were also engaged in the pathway development process to ensure consistency with existing institutional credit transfer policies and ease of implementation and clarity for future students. 1. from 2014 to early 2016, glendon college carefully preselected the potential diploma programs from the colleges that would be a best fit for a number of identified glendon programs. given that multiple colleges were involved, it was decided early on in the process to focus on the most common university transfer programs offered by colleges. 2. these selections were made based on a detailed analysis of program overviews and curricula descriptions. this process turned out to be long due to staff turnover at both glendon college and several colleges. 3. programs with strong application and hands-on components were excluded given that it was difficult to establish equivalencies between the learning outcomes of such programs and the learning outcomes established in the glendon ba matrix. 4. after the preselection process was completed, in the summer of 2016, the project coordinator reached out and contacted the colleges to request data on their francophone students enrolled in each of the programs that had been preselected for a potential pathway. this was another step in the program selection process to ensure that the program selected for possible pathway development were actually the ones that were in high demand among francophone and francophile students. 5. glendon college corresponded with the colleges all summer long to ensure that the requested information was collected and the curriculum analysis and comparison could begin. oncat project 2014-36 final report 5 6. colleges would share course outlines and curriculum documentation and it would be reviewed by glendon faculty, be deemed equivalent, and worked into a pathway agreement drafted by the project coordinator. 7. once key eligible programs were identified and potential equivalencies were identified, glendon project coordinator met with glendon department chairs to review and validate the proposed course curriculum equivalencies and program pathway. the input and support of the respective glendon program chairs was considered critically necessary to ensure that learning outcomes, course content, pedagogy and delivery methods were acceptable to maintain the integrity of the university program and ensure student success. 8. the york university transfer equivalency database was reviewed following the development of the curriculum map to determine which college programs may already have been deemed acceptable for articulation with a york university program and could be worked into the pathway without requiring additional course development. 9. by fall of 2016, all the analyses were completed, all the programs had been reviewed, and credit equivalence was weighed and identified. 10. following a series of focus group sessions and meetings with staff and administration at both glendon and colleges, the project coordinator then processed all of the acquired data, results and resources to produce detailed comprehensive drafts of the agreements that were completed in winter of 2017. 11. glendon college project coordinator worked with the academic assessor at glendon college, and the office of the vice-provost academic of york university to inspect and review course equivalencies, admission requirements for students, and blocks of credits that would be granted to ensure congruency with current credit transfer policy at york university. 12. as of march 31, 2017, all proposed agreements have been submitted to the office of the vice-provost academic of york university for review and approval. oncat project 2014-36 final report 6 3. pathway development process phase one: pathway development activity completion date current forecast completion date college program overview and preselection of potential programs for a pathway towards glendon 2014- 2016 requesting and compiling data on francophone students enrolled in each college programs july 15, 2016 meeting of seneca college june 2016 meeting of centennial college july 2016 meeting of collge boral june 2016 meeting of collge la cit august 30, 2016 meeting of george brown college september 6, 2016 meeting of humber college august 17, 2016 preliminary research on comparable pathways august 2016 consultation with glendon and york central academic assessors september 2016 curriculum analysis and review of potential models for collaboration october 2016 meeting with glendon department chairs november 2016 oncat project 2014-36 final report 7 detailed curriculum analysis complete and equivalencies identified and approved by the department chairs january 2017 development and review of admission requirements february 2017 preparation of first drafts of pathway february 15, 2017 consultation on the drafts body with all colleges february 21, 2017 meeting with glendon academic assessor march 14, 2017 second drafts of pathway complete march 14, 2017 meeting with the office of the vice-provost academic of york university march 23, 2017 meeting with academic assessor march 27, 2017 final drafts of pathway complete march 28, 2017 submission of final drafts for approval by the vice-president academic and provost of yorku april 3, 2017 final approval of pathway agreements approved by all colleges april 28, 2017 phase two: implementation communication on pathways to prospective students june 15, 2017 first intake of student into degree completion pathway oncat project 2014-36 september 7, 2017 final report 8 4. partners and identified pathways sending actual agreement details program/partner previous agreement details (if applicable) or york transfer policy glendon credits college granted receiving by program glendon humber college glendon college receiving program credits granted by glendon general arts and science any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 45 any bachelor of arts degree developmental services worker any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 45 community & justice services any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 30 social service worker any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 45 child & youth care (advanced diploma) any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 48 any bachelor of arts degree any bachelor of arts degree any bachelor of arts degree any bachelor of arts degree police foundations any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 36 sending program/partner actual agreement details seneca college glendon college receiving program liberal arts university transfer any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) behavioural sciences any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) oncat project 2014-36 credits granted by glendon 48 42 final report any bachelor of arts degree 45 through york agreement 30 -no agreement 30 -no agreement 30 -no agreement 42 -no agreement 30- no agreement previous agreement details (if applicable) or york transfer policy glendon credits college granted receiving by program glendon any bachelor 48of arts through degree york agreement any bachelor 30- no of arts agreement 9 degree any bachelor 30- no of arts agreement degree social service worker- with gerontology and immigration options any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 45 child & youth worker (advanced diploma) any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 48 any bachelor 42- no of arts agreement degree police foundations any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 36 any bachelor 30- no of arts agreement degree sending program/partner actual agreement details centennial college glendon college receiving program social service worker any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) police foundations any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) sending program/partner actual agreement details george brown college glendon college receiving program general arts and any bachelor of arts degree science two-year (90 or 120 credits) diploma community worker any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) oncat project 2014-36 credits granted by glendon 45 36 credits granted by glendon 45 45 final report previous agreement details (if applicable) or york transfer policy glendon credits college granted receiving by program glendon any 30- no bachelor agreement of arts degree any 30- no bachelor agreement of arts degree previous agreement details (if applicable) or york transfer policy glendon credits college granted receiving by program glendon any 30- no bachelor agreement of arts degree any 30- no bachelor agreement of arts degree 10 social service worker any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 45 child & youth care (advanced diploma) any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 48 sending program/partner actual agreement details collge la cit glendon college receiving program techniques de travail social techniques de travail social grontologie ducation en services lenfance journalisme relations publiques adjoint juridique parajuriste any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) credits granted by glendon 45 any bachelor of arts degree any bachelor of arts degree 30- no agreement 42- no agreement previous agreement details (if applicable) or york transfer policy glendon credits college granted by receiving glendon program bachelor of 36- through arts, glendon psychology agreement any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 45 bachelor of arts, psychology 36- through glendon agreement any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 45 bachelor of arts, psychology 36- through glendon agreement any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 30 36- through glendon agreement any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 30 any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 30 bachelor of arts, multidisciplinary studies bachelor of arts, multidisciplinary studies any bachelor of arts degree any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) 30 any bachelor of arts degree 24-no agreement oncat project 2014-36 final report 36- through glendon agreement 24-no agreement 11 sending program/partner actual agreement details collge boral glendon college receiving program techniques de travail social any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) ducation en services lenfance any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) adjoint juridique any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) oncat project 2014-36 previous agreement details (if applicable) or york transfer policy credits glendon credits granted college granted by by receiving glendon glendon program 45 bachelor of 30arts, through sociology glendon agreement 45 bachelor of 30arts, through psychology glendon agreement 30 bachelor of 30arts, through philosophy glendon agreement final report 12 5. implementation date and duration the articulation agreements signed between york university glendon college and the participating colleges will be valid until 2022. at the end of that period, after a joint postmortem of the partnership activities, the agreement may be renewed. at any time, one of the parties may cancel this transfer agreement with a six-month notice, in writing, to the other party. 6. advertising and promotion once the articulation agreements are signed, glendon college and the participating colleges agree to implement a marketing strategy targeting the francophone community as well as students who attended french-language immersion programs during their secondary school years. the promotion of the identified pathways will be done at the recruitment, admission and academic advising levels. all the parties of this project will ensure the promotion of the pathways during special marketing and recruitment events. 7. successes & challenges the main success of the project was that we were able to establish and agree on different pathways that would facilitate student mobility of a particular group of students that normally do not avail themselves of transfer pathways between sectors and between different linguistic groups. on one hand, the project allowed us to target francophone students seeking to pursue a bachelors degree in the greater toronto area; thereby increasing access to french-language university pathways in central and southwestern ontario. on the other hand, by targeting anglophone college graduates who attended french-language immersion programs at english-language secondary schools prior to enrolling at a college, the project allowed us to identify a number of very attractive college-university pathways that would enable these students to be able to pursue a bilingual bachelors degree, after an english-language college program. the exploration of the pathways was also a valuable learning experience at the institutional level as it initiated new relationships and opened conversations between glendon and local colleges. glendon was initially planning to develop a single agreement that would have included all colleges but it became quickly evident that the development of separate agreements for each college was necessary, given that each college has a very different pedagogical approach to similar programs. the identification of credit equivalencies between bilingual university programs and english-language college programs presented some challenges. while learning outcomes can be a useful tool when analyzing programs for a pathway, a course level assessment is also essential as learning outcomes can be subjective to a program or to an institutional orientation. oncat project 2014-36 final report 13 another challenge was the constant academic and curriculum changes within institutions. as institutions review their programs, these identified pathways will have to be revised to ensure that students are not presented with pathway opportunities that no longer exist. some colleges expressed an interest in the development of potential pathways for some of glendons new programs such as communication and biology. unfortunately, given that these programs are still fairly new and that upper years were still in the developmental phase, it was decided not to include them at this time. finally, the project encountered some challenges in the identification of maximum credits for college programs. this was mainly due to the fact that glendon programs had additional bilingualism requirements, i.e. students have to take a minimum of 6 credits at the 3rd and 4th year levels to demonstrate their second language proficiency. as of march 31st 2017, the specific college articulation agreements are currently in final stages of revision and will be signed shortly in order to come into effect for students entering the university in the fall 2017. glendon and the participating colleges will now be working on establishing student support services to receive the first cohort of students and ensure a successful transition of these students from college programs to bilingual programs. all involved parties will collaborate to identify effective strategies to promote these pathways. 8. lessons learned in order to maintain the quality standards of university-level education while granting advanced standing to college graduates, we must conduct a very thorough curriculum analysis to ensure integrity of the program, including appropriate affinity of the diploma program to support degree learning outcomes. this ensures students being admitted with advanced standing are not at a disadvantage. it is critical to allocate sufficient time to the curriculum mapping process. it is important to remember that with the introduction of experiential education in university programs, the line of demarcation between applied and academic programs is becoming more blurry. the labour market needs and skills required to be successful in a particular field should be the driving force behind the development of articulation agreements and not merely an exercise of granting a large number of credit equivalencies to college programs. oncat project 2014-36 final report 14 9. appendix a: transfer articulation agreements transfer credit articulation agreement between glendon college of york university and centennial college of applied arts and technology 2017-2022 glendon college of york university represented by the principal of glendon college, donald ipperciel, 2275 bayview ave, north york, ontario, m4n 3m6 centennial college of applied arts and technology represented by the president and ceo of centennial college, ann buller 941 progress ave, toronto, ontario, m1k 5e9 preamble: given the desire of both glendon college of york university and centennial college of applied arts and technology to continue to enhance and improve access for college graduates to further their education through bachelor degree programs at glendon college; given that the common goal of both postsecondary education institutions is to meet the growing demands for student mobility; given that glendon college and centennial college of applied arts and technology are willing to collaborate to meet the needs of the francophone community and improve access to french-language college and university programs in the regions of central and southwestern ontario; given the existing affinities (curricular and pedagogical) and the strong academic alignment between the selected centennial college programs and degree programs at glendon college; oncat project 2014-36 final report 15 and in view of the mutual commitments stated in this document, the parties agree to the following: transfer from centennial college to glendon college, york university a) eligibility a. graduates of one of the diploma programs identified in schedule 1 at centennial college may be considered for admission to glendon college programs identified in the same schedule. b. students applying to glendon college after having graduated from one of the programs identified in schedule 1 at centennial college must have graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and have met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. ( for specific program requirements visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon ) c. graduates of the programs identified in schedule 1 will be granted a block of transfer credits when entering glendon programs and will be deemed to have satisfied course requirements as per schedule 1. d. it is important to note that depending on the electives chosen at centennial college and glendon college, a student may need to complete more than the minimum credits required for a total of 90 or 120 credits in order to meet glendon college graduation requirements. see schedule 1 for details on transfer credit and specified course equivalents. e. glendon college does not limit the number of eligible graduates from the identified programs of centennial college. b) admission candidates from the identified programs of centennial college wishing to take advantage of this agreement must follow this procedure: 1. candidates must apply to glendon college, york university by following the steps identified on the admission website (http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/applying/onlineapp). 2. the application must be received no later than april 1st (for each fall term) or december 7th (for each winter term) in order to qualify for admission. 3. all students must submit an official transcript confirming overall gpa and current enrolment at centennial college or graduation from the specified programs in schedule 1. 4. if only a partial transcript is sent, the admission offer will be conditional to the presentation of a full transcript confirming overall required gpa for semesters completed and graduation from the programs in schedule 1. c) glendon college degree and bilingual requirements 1. students must complete a minimum of 90 credits to obtain a bachelor of arts degree and a minimum of 120 credits to obtain a bachelor of arts with honours degree from glendon college. depending on course waivers and degree program chosen, students may be required to complete more than 120 credits to graduate. 2. all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; oncat project 2014-36 final report 16 -courses in any discipline which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. 3. students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. d) right to refuse glendon college, york university reserves the right to refuse admission to students who are not qualified as determined by the above criteria. promotion and advertising centennial college and glendon college will mention the transfer credit articulation agreement in promotional materials and advertisements, on websites, and during relevant events pertaining to their respective programs. each party agrees to receive approval from the other prior to engaging in promotional activities. student support centennial college and glendon college agree to identify individuals who will serve as contacts between the two institutions for the support of students applying to glendon college under the terms of this transfer credit articulation agreement. exchange of information a) each spring centennial college will inform glendon college of any changes in the curriculum of the programs mentioned in schedule 1 or of its course descriptions. b) each spring glendon college will inform centennial college of any changes in its admission requirements. c) transfer credit and waivers identified in this agreement are based on curriculum in effect during the 2016-2017 academic year. any changes in the curriculum or in the description or mnemonic of courses of the programs mentioned in schedule 1 must be reported to the partner institution in order to guarantee that transfer credits will be granted as stated in this agreement. amendment the agreement may be amended at any time by the written agreement of centennial college and glendon college. the party wishing to amend the agreement shall provide the other with written notice of the nature of the amendment. any mutually agreed amendment will not affect current programs, until the completion of said programs, unless agreed otherwise in writing between the parties. amendments will not reset the renewal date unless agreed to by both parties. date of effect the agreement shall cover a period of five (5) years starting september 4th, 2017. at the end of this period there will be a joint review of the partnership activities. at any time, either party may cancel this transfer credit articulation agreement provided written notice is given six months in advance. in the event of termination, the students who have already been enrolled and accepted shall be permitted to complete their activities in accordance with the terms of this agreement. freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa) notwithstanding any other term of this agreement, both parties recognize and agree that each institution may have independent obligations under the freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa) or other legislation and that nothing in this agreement prohibits either party from complying with such obligations. oncat project 2014-36 final report 17 agreement signatories the parties signed in toronto, in duplicate, on the ______________________ centennial college of applied arts and technology _____________________________ ann buller president & ceo york university ______________________________ rhonda lenton vice-president academic & provost glendon college ______________________________ donald ipperciel principal oncat project 2014-36 final report 18 schedule 1 transfer from centennial college to glendon college centennial college glendon college social service worker bachelor of arts in psychology, sociology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) police foundations bachelor of arts in psychology, sociology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) oncat project 2014-36 final report 19 transfer from the social service worker program of centennial college to the bachelor of arts in psychology, sociology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the social service worker diploma program at centennial college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 45 credits graduates of the centennial college social service worker diploma receive 45 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the social service worker program. centennial glendon gned 129 principles of psychology * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 sswr 201 social issues and political gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 process sswr 203 power and social movements gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; oncat project 2014-36 final report 20 -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 21 transfer from the police foundations program of centennial college to the bachelor of arts in psychology, sociology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the police foundations diploma program at centennial college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 36 credits graduates of the centennial college police foundations diploma receive 36 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 36 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the police foundations program. centennial glendon gned 129 principles of psychology * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 gned 500 global citizenship: from social gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 analysis to social action *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 22 transfer credit articulation agreement between glendon college of york university and george brown college of applied arts and technology 2017-2022 glendon college of york university represented by the principal of glendon college, donald ipperciel, 2275 bayview ave, north york, ontario, m4n 3m6 george brown college of applied arts and technology represented by _______________________________, _________________, 200 king st east, toronto, ontario, m5a 3w8 preamble: given the desire of both glendon college of york university and george brown college of applied arts and technology to continue to enhance and improve access for college graduates to further their education through bachelor degree programs at glendon college. given that the common goal of both postsecondary education institutions is to meet the growing demands for student mobility. given that glendon college and george brown college of applied arts and technology are willing to collaborate to meet the needs of the francophone community and improve access to french-language college and university programs in the regions of central and southwestern ontario. given the existing affinities (curricular and pedagogical) and the strong academic alignment between the selected george brown college programs and degree programs at glendon college. and in view of the mutual commitments stated in this document, the parties agree to the following: oncat project 2014-36 final report 23 student transfer from george brown college to glendon college, york university e) eligibility a. graduates of one of the diploma programs identified in schedule 1 at george brown college may be considered for admission to glendon college programs identified in the same schedule. b. students applying to glendon college after having graduated from one of the programs identified in schedule 1 at george brown college must have graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and have met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. ( for specific program requirements visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon ) c. graduates of the programs identified in schedule 1 will be granted a block of transfer credits when entering glendon programs and will be deemed to have satisfied course requirements as per schedule 1. d. it is important to note, that depending on the electives chosen in george brown college program and the desired program at glendon college, a student may need to complete more than the minimum credits required for a total of 90 or 120 credits in order to meet requirements and graduate from glendon college. see schedule 1 for details on transfer credit and specified course equivalents. e. glendon college does not limit the number of eligible graduates from the identified programs of george brown college. f) admission candidates from the identified programs of george brown college wishing to take advantage of this agreement must follow this procedure: 1) candidates must apply to glendon college, york university by following the steps identified on the admission website (http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/applying/onlineapp). 2) the application must be received no later than the stated deadline for fall and winter terms in order to qualify for admission. 3) all students must submit an official transcript confirming overall gpa and current enrolment at george brown college or proof of graduation from the specified programs in schedule 1. 4) if only a partial transcript is sent, the admission offer will be conditional to the presentation of a full transcript confirming overall gpa for semesters completed and graduation from the programs in schedule 1. g) glendon college degree and bilingual requirements 1) students must complete a minimum of 90 credits to obtain a bachelor of arts degree and a minimum of 120 credits to obtain a bachelor of arts with honours degree from glendon college. depending on course waivers and degree program chosen, students may be required to complete more than 120 credits to graduate. 2) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. oncat project 2014-36 final report 24 students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. h) right to refuse glendon college, york university reserves the right to refuse admission to students who are not qualified. promotion and advertising george brown college and glendon college will mention the transfer articulation agreement in promotional materials and advertisements pertaining to their respective programs, during related special events and in their websites, upon approval. student support george brown college and glendon college agree to identify individuals who will serve as contacts between the two institutions for the support of students applying to glendon college under the terms of this transfer articulation agreement. exchange of information d) each spring george brown college will inform glendon college of any changes in the curriculum of the programs mentioned in schedule 1 or of its course descriptions. e) each spring glendon college will inform george brown college of any changes in its admission requirements. f) transfer credit and waivers identified in this agreement are based on curriculum in effect during the 2016-2017 academic year. any changes in the curriculum or in the description or mnemonic of courses of the programs mentioned in schedule 1 must be reported to the other partnering institution in order to guarantee that transfer credits will be granted as stated in this agreement. update during the implementation period of this transfer articulation agreement, the details can be updated, without a new version of this transfer articulation agreement having to be signed. date of coming into effect the transfer articulation agreement comes into effect and be implemented at the date of signature and will be valid for a period of five years. at the end of this period there will be a joint review of the partnership activities. at any time, one of the parties may cancel this transfer articulation agreement with a six month notice in writing to the other party. in the event of termination, the students who have already been enrolled and accepted shall be permitted to complete their activities in accordance with the terms of this agreement. freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa) notwithstanding any other term of this agreement, both parties recognize and agree that each institution may have independent obligations under the freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa) or other legislation and that nothing in this agreement prohibits either party from complying with such obligations. agreement signatories the parties signed in duplicate: oncat project 2014-36 final report 25 date and place ___________________ george brown college of applied arts and technology _____________________________ name title date and place __________________ york university ______________________________ rhonda lenton vice-president academic & provost date and place ___________________ glendon college ______________________________ donald ipperciel principal oncat project 2014-36 final report 26 schedule i transfer from george brown college to glendon college george brown college glendon college general arts and science two-year any bachelor of arts degree community worker bachelor of arts in political science or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) social service worker any bachelor of arts degree child & youth care bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) oncat project 2014-36 final report 27 transfer from the general arts and science two-year diploma program of george brown college to any bachelor of arts program of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the two year general arts and science diploma program at george brown college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 45 credits graduates of the george brown college general arts and science diploma receive 45 transfer credits when admitted to any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the general arts and science program. george brown glendon humn1029 introduction to philosophy i gl/phil 1611 3.00 introduction philosophy i gl/phil 1612 3.00 introduction philosophy ii gl/psyc 2510 6.00 introduction psychology humn1030 introduction to philosophy ii ssci1012 introduction to psychology i * to to to ssci1015 introduction to psychology ii * ssci1013 introduction to sociology i gl/soci 2510 6.00 principles of sociology ssci1014 introduction to sociology ii ssci 1106 introduction to research gl/soci/math 2610 3.00 introduction to statistics *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement oncat project 2014-36 final report 28 a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 29 transfer from the community worker program of george brown college to the bachelor of arts in political science or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the community worker diploma program at george brown college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 45 credits graduates of the george brown college community worker diploma receive 45 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in political science or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the community worker program george brown glendon gssc1089 political science gl/pols 2xxx 6.0 (core course) cwrk2032 global politics gssc1064 introduction to sociology gl/soci 2xxx 3.0 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 30 transfer from the social service worker program of george brown college to any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the social service worker diploma program at george brown college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 45 credits graduates of the george brown college social service worker diploma receive 45 transfer credits when admitted to any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the social service worker program george brown glendon gssc1064 introduction to sociology gl/soci 2xxx 3.0 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 31 transfer from the child & youth care advanced diploma program of george brown college to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: c) having graduated from the child & youth care advanced diploma program at george brown college. d) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 48 credits graduates of the george brown child & youth care advanced diploma receive 48 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied all the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in child & youth care program. george brown glendon gssc1105 introduction to psychology * gl/psyc 2xxx 3.0 psy3008 psychopathology i * gl/psyc 2xxx 3.0 gssc1138 introductory sociology gl/soci 2xxx 3.0 psy3009 psychopathology ii * gl/psyc 2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. oncat project 2014-36 final report 32 b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 33 transfer credit articulation agreement between glendon college of york university and the humber college institute of technology and advanced learning 2017-2022 glendon college of york university 2275 bayview ave, north york, ontario, m4n 3m6 the humber college institute of technology and advanced learning 205 humber college blvd., toronto, ontario, m9w 5l7 preamble: given the desire of both glendon college of york university and the humber college institute of technology and advanced learning to continue to enhance and improve access for college graduates to further their education through bachelor degree programs at glendon college. given that the common goal of both postsecondary education institutions is to meet the growing demands for student mobility. given that glendon college and the humber college institute of technology and advanced learning are willing to collaborate to meet the needs of the francophone community and improve access to frenchlanguage college and university programs in the regions of central and southwestern ontario. given the existing affinities (curricular and pedagogical) and the strong academic alignment between the selected humber college programs and degree programs at glendon college. and in view of the mutual commitments stated in this document, the parties agree to the following: oncat project 2014-36 final report 34 student transfer from humber college to glendon college, york university i) eligibility a. graduates of one of the diploma programs identified in schedule 1 at humber college may be considered for admission to glendon college programs identified in the same schedule. b. students applying to glendon college after having graduated from one of the programs identified in schedule 1 at humber college must have graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and have met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. ( for specific program requirements visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon ) c. graduates of the programs identified in schedule 1 will be granted a block of transfer credits when entering glendon programs and will be deemed to have satisfied course requirements as per schedule 1. d. it is important to note, that depending on the electives chosen in humber college program and the desired program at glendon college, a student may need to complete more than the minimum credits required for a total of 90 or 120 credits in order to meet requirements and graduate from glendon college. see schedule 1 for details on transfer credit and specified course equivalents. e. glendon college does not limit the number of eligible graduates from the identified programs of humber college. j) admission candidates from the identified programs of humber college wishing to take advantage of this agreement must follow this procedure: 5) candidates must apply to glendon college, york university by following the steps identified on the admission website (http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/applying/onlineapp). 6) the application must be received no later than the stated deadline for fall and winter terms in order to qualify for admission. 7) all students must submit an official transcript confirming overall gpa and current enrolment at humber college or proof of graduation from the specified programs in schedule 1. 8) if only a partial transcript is sent, the admission offer will be conditional to the presentation of a full transcript confirming overall gpa for semesters completed and graduation from the programs in schedule 1. k) glendon college degree and bilingual requirements 3) students must complete a minimum of 90 credits to obtain a bachelor of arts degree and a minimum of 120 credits to obtain a bachelor of arts with honours degree from glendon college. depending on course waivers and degree program chosen, students may be required to complete more than 120 credits to graduate. 4) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. oncat project 2014-36 final report 35 students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. l) right to refuse glendon college, york university reserves the right to refuse admission to students who are not qualified. promotion and advertising humber college and glendon college will mention the transfer articulation agreement in promotional materials and advertisements pertaining to their respective programs, during related special events and in their websites, upon approval. student support humber college and glendon college agree to identify individuals who will serve as contacts between the two institutions for the support of students applying to glendon college under the terms of this transfer articulation agreement. exchange of information g) each spring humber college will inform glendon college of any changes in the curriculum of the programs mentioned in schedule 1 or of its course descriptions. h) each spring glendon college will inform humber college of any changes in its admission requirements. i) transfer credit and waivers identified in this agreement are based on curriculum in effect during the 2016-2017 academic year. any changes in the curriculum or in the description or mnemonic of courses of the programs mentioned in schedule 1 must be reported to the other partnering institution in order to guarantee that transfer credits will be granted as stated in this agreement. update during the implementation period of this transfer articulation agreement, the details can be updated, without a new version of this transfer articulation agreement having to be signed. date of coming into effect the transfer articulation agreement comes into effect and be implemented at the date of signature and will be valid for a period of five years. at the end of this period there will be a joint review of the partnership activities. at any time, one of the parties may cancel this transfer articulation agreement with a six month notice in writing to the other party. in the event of termination, the students who have already been enrolled and accepted shall be permitted to complete their activities in accordance with the terms of this agreement. freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa) notwithstanding any other term of this agreement, both parties recognize and agree that each institution may have independent obligations under the freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa) or other legislation and that nothing in this agreement prohibits either party from complying with such obligations. agreement signatories the parties signed in duplicate: oncat project 2014-36 final report 36 date and place ___________________ the humber college institute of technology and advanced learning _____________________________ date and place __________________ york university ______________________________ laurie rancourt senior vice president, academic rhonda lenton vice-president academic & provost date and place ___________________ date and place __________________ glendon college _____________________________ tracy fattore associate vice president, administrative services oncat project 2014-36 _______________________________ donald ipperciel principal final report 37 schedule 1 transfer from humber college to glendon college humber college glendon college general arts and science any bachelor of arts degree developmental services worker bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) community & justice services bachelor of arts in psychology, sociology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) social service worker bachelor of arts in psychology, sociology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) child & youth care bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) police foundations bachelor of arts in sociology, psychology, political science or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) oncat project 2014-36 final report 38 transfer from the general arts and science diploma of humber college to any bachelor of arts program of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the two year general arts and science diploma program at humber college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 45 credits graduates of the humber college general arts and science diploma receive 45 transfer credits when admitted to any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the general arts and science program. humber glendon gphl 110 introduction to philosophy gl/phil 1611 3.00 introduction to philosophy i gsoc 110 sociology 1: introduction gl/soci 2510 6.00 principles of sociology gsoc 210 sociology 2 gpol 200 political science : international gl/pols 2xxx 6.0 ( core course) relations gpol 220 political science : introduction to political theory glit 110 forms of literature gl/en 1602 6.00: the literary text: genres and approaches phil 227 business ethics gl/phil/econ/sosc 3642 3.00 business ethics 3) bilingual requirement oncat project 2014-36 final report 39 a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 40 transfer from the developmental services worker diploma of humber college to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the developmental services worker diploma program at humber college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 45 credits graduates of the humber college developmental services worker diploma receive 45 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the developmental services worker program. humber dsw 159 diagnosis * glendon abnormal psychology/dual gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 41 transfer from the community & justice services diploma of humber college to the bachelor of arts in sociology, psychology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the community & justice services diploma program at humber college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 30 credits graduates of the humber college community & justice services diploma receive 30 transfer credits when admitted to any the bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 30 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied one of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the community & justice services program. humber glendon soci 150 sociology: introduction gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 psyc 150 psychology: introduction * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 42 transfer from the social service worker diploma of humber college to the bachelor of arts in sociology, psychology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the social service worker diploma program at humber college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 45 credits graduates of the humber college social service worker diploma receive 45 transfer credits when admitted to any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the social service worker program. humber glendon ssw 101 urban sociology gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 ssw 102 human growth and behaviour * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement: a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 43 transfer from the child & youth care advanced diploma of humber college to the bachelor of in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the child & youth care advanced diploma program at humber college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 48 credits graduates of the humber college child & youth care advanced diploma receive 48 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 48 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied all the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the child & youth care program. humber glendon cyc 213psychology of mental health and gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 illness 1 * cyc 324 psychology of mental health and gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 illness 2 * cyc 212 psychology of the family * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. oncat project 2014-36 final report 44 b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 45 transfer from the police foundations diploma program of humber college to the bachelor of arts in sociology, psychology, political science or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the police foundations diploma program at humber college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 36 credits graduates of the humber college police foundations diploma receive 36 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in political science or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 36 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the police foundations program. humber glendon pols 150 introduction to politics gl/pols 2xxx 3.0 ( core course) pfp 151 contemporary social problems gl/soci 2xxx 3.0 psyc 150 psychology: introduction * gl/psyc 2xxx 3.0 soci 150 sociology: introduction gl/soci 2xxx 3.0 psyc 224 psychology: social * gl/soci 2xxx 3.0 or gl/psyc 2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: oncat project 2014-36 final report 46 -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 47 transfer credit articulation agreement between glendon college of york university and seneca college of applied arts and technology 2017-2022 glendon college of york university represented by the principal of glendon college, donald ipperciel, 2275 bayview ave, north york, ontario, m4n 3m6 seneca college of applied arts and technology represented by _______________________________, _________________, 1750 finch ave e, north york, ontario, m2j 2x5 preamble: given the desire of both glendon college of york university and seneca college of applied arts and technology to continue to enhance and improve access for college graduates to further their education through bachelor degree programs at glendon college. given that the common goal of both postsecondary education institutions is to meet the growing demands for student mobility. given that glendon college and seneca college of applied arts and technology are willing to collaborate to meet the needs of the francophone community and improve access to french-language college and university programs in the regions of central and southwestern ontario. given the existing affinities (curricular and pedagogical) and the strong academic alignment between the selected seneca college programs and degree programs at glendon college. and in view of the mutual commitments stated in this document, the parties agree to the following: oncat project 2014-36 final report 48 student transfer from seneca college to glendon college, york university m) eligibility a. graduates of one of the diploma programs identified in schedule 1 at seneca college may be considered for admission to glendon college programs identified in the same schedule. b. students applying to glendon college after having graduated from one of the programs identified in schedule 1 at seneca college must have graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and have met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. ( for specific program requirements visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon ) c. graduates of the programs identified in schedule 1 will be granted a block of transfer credits when entering glendon programs and will be deemed to have satisfied course requirements as per schedule 1. d. it is important to note, that depending on the electives chosen in seneca college program and the desired program at glendon college, a student may need to complete more than the minimum credits required for a total of 90 or 120 credits in order to meet requirements and graduate from glendon college. see schedule 1 for details on transfer credit and specified course equivalents. e. glendon college does not limit the number of eligible graduates from the identified programs of seneca college. n) admission candidates from the identified programs of seneca college wishing to take advantage of this agreement must follow this procedure: 9) candidates must apply to glendon college, york university by following the steps identified on the admission website (http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/applying/onlineapp). 10) the application must be received no later than the stated deadline for fall and winter terms in order to qualify for admission. 11) all students must submit an official transcript confirming overall gpa and current enrolment at seneca college or proof of graduation from the specified programs in schedule 1. 12) if only a partial transcript is sent, the admission offer will be conditional to the presentation of a full transcript confirming overall gpa for semesters completed and graduation from the programs in schedule 1. o) glendon college degree and bilingual requirements 5) students must complete a minimum of 90 credits to obtain a bachelor of arts degree and a minimum of 120 credits to obtain a bachelor of arts with honours degree from glendon college. depending on course waivers and degree program chosen, students may be required to complete more than 120 credits to graduate. 6) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. oncat project 2014-36 final report 49 students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. p) right to refuse glendon college, york university reserves the right to refuse admission to students who are not qualified. promotion and advertising seneca college and glendon college will mention the transfer articulation agreement in promotional materials and advertisements pertaining to their respective programs, during related special events and in their websites, upon approval. student support seneca college and glendon college agree to identify individuals who will serve as contacts between the two institutions for the support of students applying to glendon college under the terms of this transfer articulation agreement. exchange of information j) each spring seneca college will inform glendon college of any changes in the curriculum of the programs mentioned in schedule 1 or of its course descriptions. k) each spring glendon college will inform seneca college of any changes in its admission requirements. l) transfer credit and waivers identified in this agreement are based on curriculum in effect during the 2016-2017 academic year. any changes in the curriculum or in the description or mnemonic of courses of the programs mentioned in schedule 1 must be reported to the other partnering institution in order to guarantee that transfer credits will be granted as stated in this agreement. update during the implementation period of this transfer articulation agreement, the details can be updated, without a new version of this transfer articulation agreement having to be signed. date of coming into effect the transfer articulation agreement comes into effect and be implemented at the date of signature and will be valid for a period of five years. at the end of this period there will be a joint review of the partnership activities. at any time, one of the parties may cancel this transfer articulation agreement with a six month notice in writing to the other party. in the event of termination, the students who have already been enrolled and accepted shall be permitted to complete their activities in accordance with the terms of this agreement. freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa) notwithstanding any other term of this agreement, both parties recognize and agree that each institution may have independent obligations under the freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa) or other legislation and that nothing in this agreement prohibits either party from complying with such obligations. agreement signatories the parties signed in toronto, in duplicate: oncat project 2014-36 final report 50 date signed ___________________ seneca college of applied arts and technology _____________________________ laurel schollen vice-president academic date signed __________________ york university ______________________________ rhonda lenton vice-president and provost date signed ___________________ glendon college ______________________________ donald ipperciel principal oncat project 2014-36 final report 51 schedule i transfer from seneca college to glendon college seneca college glendon college liberal arts university transfer any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) behavioural sciences bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) social service worker- with gerontology and immigration options bachelor of arts in sociology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) child & youth worker bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) police foundations bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree (90 or 120 credits) oncat project 2014-36 final report 52 transfer from the liberal arts university transfer program of seneca college to any bachelor of arts program of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the liberal arts university transfer diploma program at seneca college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 48 credits graduates of the seneca college liberal arts university transfer diploma receive 48 transfer credits when admitted to degree studies in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 48 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied all the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the liberal arts university transfer program. seneca glendon psy191 foundation of psychology i * gl/psyc 2510 psychology 6.00 introduction to principles of psy291 foundations of psychology ii * scl191 introduction to sociology i: social gl/soci 2510 inequality sociology 6.00 scl291 introduction to sociology ii: social inequality ykl100 introduction to world literature i gl/en 1602 6.00: the literary text: genres and approaches ykl200 introduction to world literature ii ykc 100 critical thinking i gl/modr 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 ykc 200 critical thinking ii gl/modr 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 psy100 introduction to psychology * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 oncat project 2014-36 final report 53 mth458 calculus i gl/math 1930 3.00 calculus i mth459 calculus ii gl/math 1940 3.00 calculus ii *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. *depending on the language placement test, students from seneca college may be exempt from introductory courses in french and/or spanish if they have completed fls100 or spn100, fls200 or spn200. oncat project 2014-36 final report 54 transfer from the behavioural sciences program of seneca college to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the behavioural sciences diploma program at seneca college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 42 credits graduates of the seneca college behavioural sciences diploma receive 42 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 42 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the behavioural sciences program. seneca glendon psy100 introduction to psychology * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 psy206 personality behaviour * and abnormal gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement: a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 55 *depending on the language placement test, students from seneca college may be exempt from introductory courses in french if they have completed fls100 oncat project 2014-36 final report 56 transfer from the social service worker program- (with gerontology and immigration options) of seneca college to the bachelor of arts in sociology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the social service worker diploma program (with gerontology and immigration options) at seneca college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 45 credits graduates of the seneca social service worker diploma receive 45 transfer credits when admitted to any bachelor of arts in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 45 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the social service worker -gerontology or immigration- programs. seneca glendon sll307 sociology: a practical approach gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 swl102 diversity: awareness and practice gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 wir408 migration and trauma gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 swl401 social policy gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 3) bilingual requirement: a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: oncat project 2014-36 final report 57 -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. *depending on the language placement test, students from seneca college may be exempt from introductory courses in french if they have completed fls100 oncat project 2014-36 final report 58 transfer from the child & youth worker advanced diploma program of seneca college to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the child & youth worker advanced diploma program at seneca college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 48 credits graduates of the seneca college child & youth worker diploma receive 48 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 48 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied all the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the child & youth worker program. seneca glendon cyw605 child trauma and abuse * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 cyw503 child and adolescent mental gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 health disorders * ssw102 diversity: awareness and practice gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement: a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; oncat project 2014-36 final report 59 -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. *depending on the language placement test, students from seneca college may be exempt from introductory courses in french if they have completed fls100 oncat project 2014-36 final report 60 transfer from the police foundations program of seneca college to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree of glendon college 1) admission requirements: a) having graduated from the police foundations diploma program at seneca college. b) having graduated with a minimum overall gpa of 3.0 (b or 70%) and met any additional program or degree specific admission requirements to be considered for admission to glendon college. to check specific program requirements, please visit https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon . 2) specified transfer credits granted: transfer credit block: 36 credits graduates of the seneca college police foundations diploma receive 36 transfer credits when admitted to the bachelor of arts in psychology or any bachelor of arts degree in glendon college, york university. general education requirements satisfied: based on the 36 transfer credits to be granted under this agreement, students will be deemed to have satisfied two of the three categories of the general education requirements for glendon college. specified subject/program requirements satisfied the listing below shows specific course requirements that may be satisfied depending on the courses completed in the police foundations program. seneca glendon psy100 introduction to psychology * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 pfd360 youth in conflict with the law gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 pfd450 diversity and first nations gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *courses in psychology may be satisfied provided that a grade of c or better has been obtained. 3) bilingual requirement: a) all students admitted to glendon must satisfy the bilingual requirement. in order to do so, students must successfully complete six credits in each official language (french and english) at glendon from the following two categories: -courses at the second-year level and above in french as a second language and/or in english as a second language; -courses in any discipline and which are designated as satisfying the bilingual requirement. b) students must complete a language placement test at glendon to determine their level in each official language. oncat project 2014-36 final report 61 *depending on the language placement test, students from seneca college may be exempt from introductory courses in french if they have completed fls100 oncat project 2014-36 final report 62 entente darticulation entre le collge universitaire glendon de luniversit york et le collge boral 2017-2022 le collge universitaire glendon, universit york reprsent par le principal du collge glendon, donald ipperciel, 2275 bayview ave, north york, ontario, m4n 3m6 le collge boral reprsent par _______________________________, _________________, 21 lasalle blvd, sudbury, ontario, p3a 6b1 prambule: compte tenu de la volont du collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york et du collge boral de continuer amliorer l'accs aux tudes postsecondaires universitaires pour les diplms des collges et accrotre les possibilits de formation. tant donn que l'objectif commun des deux tablissements d'enseignement postsecondaire est de rpondre la demande croissante de la mobilit des tudiants. tant donn que le collge universitaire glendon et le collge boral sengagent rpondre aux besoins de la communaut francophone et encouragent la mise en uvre de projets amliorant l'accs aux programmes collgiaux et universitaires de langue franaise dans la rgion du centre-sud-ouest de l'ontario. compte tenu des affinits existantes (curriculaires et pdagogiques) et lalignement acadmique entre les programmes collgiaux slectionns du collge boral et les programmes universitaires au collge universitaire glendon. et compte tenu des engagements mutuels noncs dans le prsent document, les parties conviennent de ce qui suit: oncat project 2014-36 final report 63 transfert du collge boral vers le collge glendon universitaire de luniversit york a) eligibilit a. les diplms de l'un des programmes du collge boral mentionns dans l'annexe 1 peuvent tre admissibles aux programmes du collge universitaire glendon identifis sur la mme annexe. b. les tudiants qui font une demande au collge glendon aprs avoir obtenu leur diplme du collge boral dans l'un des programmes identifis sur l'annexe 1 doivent avoir obtenu une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre considrs l'admission glendon. (pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, visitez https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon). c. les diplms des programmes du collge boral identifis dans l'annexe 1 recevront un bloc de crdits lorsqu'ils entreront dans les programmes de glendon et seront considrs comme ayant satisfait certaines exigences, sil y a lieu, conformment ce qui est mentionn dans lannexe 1. d. il est important de noter que selon les cours suivis dans le programme du collge boral et le programme dsir au collge universitaire glendon, un tudiant peut avoir besoin de complter plus que le nombre minimum de crdits requis pour un total de 90 ou 120 crdits pour rpondre aux exigences et obtenir le diplme de glendon. voir annexe 1 pour plus de dtails sur le transfert des crdits et lquivalence de cours spcifiques. e. le collge universitaire glendon ne limite pas le nombre des tudiants qui seront admis glendon en provenance des programmes identifis du collge boral. b) admission les candidats des programmes identifis du collge boral souhaitant profiter de cette entente doivent suivre la procdure suivante: 1. les candidats doivent prsenter une demande au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york en suivant les tapes indiques sur le site web d'admission (http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/applying/onlineapp). 2. la demande doit tre reue au plus tard le 1er avril (pour la session d'automne) ou le 7 dcembre (pour la session dhiver). 3. tous les tudiants doivent soumettre un relev de notes officiel confirmant la moyenne pondre cumulative et l'inscription actuelle au collge boral ou l'obtention du diplme des programmes mentionns dans l'annexe 1. 4. si seul un relev de notes partiel est envoy, l'offre d'admission sera conditionnelle la prsentation d'un relev de notes complet confirmant la moyenne pondre cumulative des semestres termins et l'obtention du diplme des programmes de l'annexe 1. c) exigences du diplme de glendon et exigences de bilinguisme 1) les tudiants doivent complter un minimum de 90 crdits pour obtenir un baccalaurat s arts et un minimum de 120 crdits pour obtenir un baccalaurat s arts spcialis du collge oncat project 2014-36 final report 64 universitaire glendon. selon le programme d'tudes choisi, les tudiants peuvent tre tenus de complter plus de 120 crdits pour obtenir leur diplme. 2) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences: - complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). -complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. les tudiants doivent passer un test de langue glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. d) droit de refus le collge universitaire glendon de luniversit york se rserve le droit de refuser l'admission aux tudiants qui ne remplissent pas toutes les conditions. promotion et publicit le collge boral et le collge universitaire glendon mentionneront l'entente d'articulation dans les documents promotionnels et les publicits relatives leurs programmes respectifs, lors d'vnements spciaux et sur leurs sites web, une fois approuv. soutien aux tudiants le collge boral et le collge universitaire glendon conviennent d'identifier les personnes qui serviront de contact entre les deux institutions pour le soutien des tudiants qui font une demande au collge universitaire glendon aux termes de cette entente darticulation. change dinformation a) chaque printemps, le collge boral informera le collge universitaire glendon de tout changement apport au curriculum des programmes mentionns dans l'annexe 1 ou de ses descriptions de cours. b) chaque printemps, le collge universitaire glendon informera le collge boral de tout changement dans ses conditions d'admission. c) les crdits de transfert identifis dans la prsente entente sont bass sur le curriculum d'tudes en vigueur au cours de l'anne acadmique 2016-2017. tout changement dans le curriculum ou dans les descriptifs ou mnmonique des cours des programmes mentionns dans lannexe 1 doit tre signal l'autre institution partenaire afin de garantir que les crdits de transfert seront accords comme indiqu dans lentente. mise jour durant la priode de mise en uvre de cette entente darticulation, les dtails peuvent tre mis jour, sans qu'il soit ncessaire de signer une nouvelle version de cette entente darticulation. date dentre en vigueur l'entente darticulation entrera en vigueur et sera mise en uvre compter de la date de signature de lentente et sera valide pour une priode de cinq ans. la fin de cette priode, il y aura un examen oncat project 2014-36 final report 65 conjoint des activits de partenariat. tout moment, l'une des parties peut annuler cette entente darticulation avec un pravis crit de six mois. en cas de rsiliation, les tudiants qui sont dj accepts et inscrits sont autoriss mener bien leurs activits conformment aux termes de la prsente entente. loi sur laccs l'information et la protection de la vie prive(laipvp) nonobstant toute autre disposition de la prsente entente, les deux parties reconnaissent et conviennent que chaque institution peut avoir des obligations indpendantes en vertu de la loi sur l'accs l'information et la protection de la vie prive (laipvp) ou d'autres lois et qu'aucune disposition du prsent accord n'interdit une partie de se conformer ces obligations. signataires de lentente les parties ont sign en double exemplaire : le ____________ `____________ le___________ ______________ collge boral universit york _____________________________ ______________________________ prnom et nom titre rhonda lenton vice-prsidente acadmique & provost le____________ ________________ collge universitaire glendon ______________________________ donald ipperciel principal oncat project 2014-36 final report 66 annexe 1 transfert du collge boral au collge universitaire glendon collge boral collge universitaire glendon techniques de travail social baccalaurat s arts en sociologie, psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) ducation en services lenfance baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) adjoint juridique tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) oncat project 2014-36 final report 67 transfert du programme de techniques de travail social du collge boral vers le baccalaurat s arts en sociologie, psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission: a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme de techniques de travail social au collge boral. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence d'admission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys: bloc de crdits: 45 crdits les diplms du programme de techniques de travail social du collge boral reoivent 45 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale satisfaites sur la base des 45 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait deux des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits la liste ci-dessous indique les exigences particulires des cours qui peuvent tre satisfaites selon les cours pris dans le programme de techniques de travail social. collge boral glendon trs 1022croissance et dveloppement de gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 la personne * soc 1001 introduction la sociologie gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 trs 1025 politiques sociales gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *les cours en psychologie peuvent tre satisfaits condition quune note de c ou plus soit obtenue. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). oncat project 2014-36 final report 68 complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 69 transfert du programme dducation en services lenfance du collge boral vers le baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission: a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme dducation en services lenfance au collge boral. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence d'admission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys: bloc de crdits: 45 crdits les diplms du programme dducation en services lenfance du collge boral reoivent 45 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale satisfaites sur la base des 45 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait deux des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits la liste ci-dessous indique les exigences particulires des cours qui peuvent tre satisfaites selon les cours pris dans le programme dducation en services lenfance. collge boral glendon ese1005 dveloppement de lenfant i * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 psy1002 introduction la psychologie * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 ese1009 dveloppement de lenfant ii * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *les cours en psychologie peuvent tre satisfaits condition quune note de c ou plus soit obtenue. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). oncat project 2014-36 final report 70 complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 71 transfert du programme dadjoint juridique du collge boral vers tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission: a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme dadjoint juridique au collge boral. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence d'admission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys: bloc de crdits: 30 crdits les diplms du programme dadjoint juridique du collge boral reoivent 30 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale sur la base des 30 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait une des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits pas dexigence spcifique satisfaite. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 72 entente darticulation entre le collge universitaire glendon de luniversit york et le collge la cit 2017-2022 __________________________________________________________________________ le collge universitaire glendon, universit york reprsent par le principal, donald ipperciel, 2275 bayview ave, north york, ontario, m4n 3m6 le collge la cit lise bourgeois 801, promenade de laviation, ottawa, ontario, k1k 4r3 prambule : compte tenu de la volont du collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york et du collge la cit de continuer amliorer l'accs aux tudes postsecondaires universitaires pour les diplms des collges et accrotre les possibilits de formation. tant donn que l'objectif commun des deux tablissements d'enseignement postsecondaire est de rpondre la demande croissante de la mobilit des tudiants. tant donn que le collge universitaire glendon et le collge la cit sengagent rpondre aux besoins de la communaut francophone et encouragent la mise en uvre de projets amliorant l'accs aux programmes collgiaux et universitaires de langue franaise dans la rgion du centre-sud-ouest de l'ontario. compte tenu des affinits existantes (curriculaires et pdagogiques) et lalignement acadmique entre les programmes collgiaux slectionns de la cit et les programmes universitaires au collge universitaire glendon. et compte tenu des engagements mutuels noncs dans le prsent document, les parties conviennent de ce qui suit: oncat project 2014-36 final report 73 transfert du collge la cit vers le collge universitaire glendon de luniversit york e) eligibilit a. les diplms de l'un des programmes du collge la cit mentionns dans l'annexe 1 peuvent tre admissibles aux programmes du collge universitaire glendon identifis dans la mme annexe. b. les tudiants qui font une demande au collge universitaire glendon aprs avoir obtenu leur diplme du collge la cit dans l'un des programmes identifis sur l'annexe 1 doivent avoir obtenu une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre considrs l'admission glendon. (pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, visitez https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon). c. les diplms des programmes du collge la cit identifis dans l'annexe 1 recevront un bloc de crdits lorsqu'ils entreront dans les programmes du collge universitaire glendon et seront considrs comme ayant satisfait certaines exigences, sil y a lieu, conformment ce qui est mentionn dans lannexe 1. d. il est important de noter que selon les cours suivis dans le programme du collge la cit et le programme dsir au collge universitaire glendon, un tudiant peut avoir besoin de complter plus que le nombre minimum de crdits requis pour un total de 90 ou 120 crdits pour rpondre aux exigences et obtenir le diplme de glendon. veuillez vous rfrer lannexe 1 pour plus de dtails sur le transfert des crdits et lquivalence de cours spcifiques. e. le collge universitaire glendon ne limite pas le nombre des tudiants qui seront admis glendon en provenance des programmes identifis du collge la cit. f) admission les candidats des programmes identifis du collge la cit souhaitant profiter de cette entente doivent suivre la procdure suivante : a. les candidats doivent prsenter une demande au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york en suivant les tapes indiques sur le site web d'admission (http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/applying/onlineapp). b. la demande dadmission doit tre reue au plus tard le 1er avril (pour la session d'automne) ou le 7 dcembre (pour la session dhiver) c. tous les tudiants doivent soumettre un relev de notes officiel confirmant la moyenne pondre cumulative et l'inscription actuelle la cit ou l'obtention du diplme des programmes mentionns dans l'annexe 1. d. si, seul un relev de notes partiel est envoy, l'offre d'admission sera conditionnelle la prsentation d'un relev de notes final confirmant la moyenne pondre cumulative des semestres termins et l'obtention du diplme des programmes de l'annexe 1. g) exigences du diplme du collge universitaire glendon et exigences de bilinguisme a. les tudiants doivent complter un minimum de 90 crdits pour obtenir un baccalaurat s arts et un minimum de 120 crdits pour obtenir un baccalaurat s arts spcialis du oncat project 2014-36 final report 74 collge universitaire glendon. selon le programme d'tudes choisi, les tudiants peuvent tre tenus de complter plus de 120 crdits pour obtenir leur diplme. b. tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. h) droit de refus le collge universitaire glendon se rserve le droit de refuser l'admission aux tudiants qui ne remplissent pas toutes les conditions. promotion et publicit le collge la cit et le collge universitaire glendon mentionneront l'entente d'articulation dans les documents promotionnels et les publicits relatives leurs programmes respectifs, lors d'vnements spciaux et sur leurs sites web, une fois approuv. soutien aux tudiants le collge la cit et le collge universitaire glendon conviennent d'identifier les personnes qui serviront de contact entre les deux tablissements pour le soutien des tudiants qui font une demande dadmission au collge universitaire glendon aux termes de cette entente darticulation. change dinformation d) chaque printemps, le collge la cit informera le collge universitaire glendon de tout changement apport au curriculum des programmes mentionns dans l'annexe 1 ou de ses descriptions de cours. e) chaque printemps, le collge universitaire glendon informera le collge la cit de tout changement dans ses conditions d'admission. f) les crdits de transfert identifis dans la prsente entente sont bass sur le curriculum d'tudes en vigueur au cours de l'anne acadmique 2016-2017. tout changement dans le curriculum ou dans les descriptifs ou mnmonique des cours des programmes mentionns dans lannexe 1 doit tre signal l'autre institution partenaire afin de garantir que les crdits de transfert seront accords comme indiqu dans lentente. mise jour durant la priode de mise en uvre de cette entente darticulation, les dtails peuvent tre mis jour, sans qu'il soit ncessaire de signer une nouvelle version de cette entente darticulation. date dentre en vigueur oncat project 2014-36 final report 75 l'entente darticulation entrera en vigueur et sera mise en uvre compter de la date de signature de lentente et sera valide pour une priode de cinq ans. la fin de cette priode, il y aura un examen conjoint des activits de partenariat. tout moment, l'une des parties peut annuler cette entente darticulation avec un pravis crit de six mois. en cas de rsiliation, les tudiants qui sont dj accepts et inscrits sont autoriss mener bien leurs activits conformment aux termes de la prsente entente. loi sur laccs l'information et la protection de la vie prive(laipvp) nonobstant toute autre disposition de la prsente entente, les deux parties reconnaissent et conviennent que chaque institution peut avoir des obligations indpendantes en vertu de la loi sur l'accs l'information et la protection de la vie prive (laipvp) ou d'autres lois et qu'aucune disposition du prsent accord n'interdit une partie de se conformer ces obligations. signataires de lentente les parties ont sign en double exemplaire : le _____________________ le ____________________________ collge la cit universit york _____________________________ lise bourgeois prsidente ______________________________ rhonda lenton vice-prsidente acadmique & provost le ______________________________ collge universitaire glendon ______________________________ donald ipperciel principal oncat project 2014-36 final report 76 annexe 1 transfert du collge la cit au collge universitaire glendon collge la cit collge universitaire glendon techniques de travail social baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) techniques de travail social - grontologie baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) ducation en services lenfance baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) journalisme tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) relations publiques tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) adjoint juridique tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) parajuriste tout baccalaurat s arts (90 ou 120 crdits) oncat project 2014-36 final report 77 transfert du programme de techniques de travail social du collge la cit vers le baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission : a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme techniques de travail social grontologie du collge la cit. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence d'admission supplmentaire spcifique au programme pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys : bloc de crdits : 45 crdits les diplms du programme techniques de travail social du collge la cit reoivent 45 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale satisfaites sur la base des 45 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait deux des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits la liste ci-dessous indique les exigences particulires des cours qui peuvent tre satisfaites selon les cours pris dans le programme de techniques de travail social. la cit glendon 15540 psy psychologie du dveloppement gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 i* 15541 psy psychologie du dveloppement gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 ii * 15857 tts approches en sant mentale * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 11580 tts relations interculturelles gl/soci 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *les cours en psychologie peuvent tre satisfaits condition quune note de c ou plus soit obtenue. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: oncat project 2014-36 final report 78 a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 79 transfert du programme techniques de travail social grontologie du collge la cit vers le baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission : a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme techniques de travail social-grontologie du collge la cit. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence dadmission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys : bloc de crdits : 45 crdits les diplms du programme techniques de travail social du collge la cit reoivent 45 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale satisfaites sur la base des 45 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait deux des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits la liste ci-dessous indique les exigences particulires des cours qui peuvent tre satisfaites selon les cours pris dans le programme techniques de travail social - grontologie. la cit glendon 15540 psy psychologie du dveloppement gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 i* 15541 psy psychologie du dveloppement gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 ii * 15857 tts approches en sant mentale * gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 *les cours en psychologie peuvent tre satisfaits condition quune note de c ou plus soit obtenue. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : oncat project 2014-36 final report 80 complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 81 transfert du programme ducation en services lenfance du collge la cit vers le baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission : a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme ducation en services lenfance du collge la cit. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence dadmission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys : bloc de crdits : 45 crdits les diplms du programme ducation en services lenfance du collge la cit reoivent 45 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts en psychologie ou tout baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale satisfaites sur la base des 45 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait deux des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits la liste ci-dessous indique les exigences particulires des cours qui peuvent tre satisfaites selon les cours pris dans le programme dducation en services lenfance. la cit glendon 22582 psy psychologie du dveloppement gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 de lenfant de 4 ans * 22694 psy psychologie du dveloppement gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 de lenfant de 5 12 ans * 22698 fam particularits et troubles du gl/psyc 1xxx/2xxx 3.0 dveloppement * *les cours en psychologie peuvent tre satisfaits condition quune note de c ou plus soit obtenue. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). oncat project 2014-36 final report 82 complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 83 transfert du programme journalisme du collge la cit vers tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission: a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme journalisme du collge la cit. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence dadmission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys: bloc de crdits: 30 crdits les diplms du programme de journalisme du collge la cit reoivent 30 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale sur la base des 30 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait une des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits pas dexigence spcifique satisfaite. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 84 transfert du programme relations publiques du collge la cit vers tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission : a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme relations publiques du collge la cit. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence d'admission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys: bloc de crdits: 30 crdits les diplms du programme relations publiques du collge la cit reoivent 30 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale sur la base des 30 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait une des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits pas dexigence spcifique satisfaite. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 85 transfert du programme adjoint juridique du collge la cit vers tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission : a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme adjoint juridique du collge la cit. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence d'admission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys : bloc de crdits: 30 crdits les diplms du programme adjoint juridique du collge la cit reoivent 30 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale sur la base des 30 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait une des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits pas dexigence spcifique satisfaite. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 86 transfert du programme parajuriste du collge la cit vers tout baccalaurat s arts du collge universitaire glendon 1) exigences dadmission : a) avoir obtenu son diplme du programme parajuriste du collge la cit. b) avoir obtenu son diplme avec une moyenne pondre cumulative de 3,0 (b ou 70%) et avoir satisfait toute exigence d'admission supplmentaire spcifique au programme choisi pour tre admis au collge universitaire glendon. pour vrifier les exigences spcifiques pour chaque programme, veuillez visiter https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/faculty/glendon. 2) transfert de crdits octroys : bloc de crdits: 30 crdits les diplms du programme parajuriste du collge la cit reoivent 30 crdits de transfert lorsqu'ils sont admis au baccalaurat s arts au collge universitaire glendon de l'universit york. exigences dducation gnrale sur la base des 30 crdits de transfert accords en vertu de la prsente entente, les tudiants auront satisfait une des trois catgories des exigences d'ducation gnrale du collge universitaire glendon. cours spcifiques/ exigence de programme satisfaits pas dexigence spcifique satisfaite. 3) exigences de bilinguisme: a) tous les tudiants admis glendon doivent satisfaire l'exigence de bilinguisme. pour ce faire, les tudiants doivent russir au moins six crdits dans chacune des deux langues officielles (franais et anglais) glendon. il existe deux possibilits pour satisfaire ces exigences : complter six crdits dans les cours de franais langue seconde (fsl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur) ou danglais langue seconde (ensl- au niveau 2000 ou suprieur). complter au moins six crdits dans des cours de toute discipline enseigns en franais ou en anglais et qui satisfont l'exigence de bilinguisme. b) les tudiants doivent passer un test de comptence linguistique glendon pour dterminer leur niveau dans chaque langue officielle. oncat project 2014-36 final report 87 oncat project 2014-36 final report 88

assessing the effectiveness of ontario college preparatory programs offered at durham college executive summary 1. purpose of the study the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and outcomes of students that enrol in ontario college preparatory programs at durham college, especially for further education. literature review demonstrates that the three factors that are widely believed to be important contributors to student success in a postsecondary environment are: academic preparation for the rigours of postsecondary education, social integration into a postsecondary environment, and clarity of academic and career goals. these factors are particularly relevant in the discussion of preparatory programs, because preparatory programs are intended as a means to prepare students for further post-secondary education. there are many factors that can influence students to enrol in these programs, and therefore students often enter these programs with a variety of goals and expectations. in order to explore the experiences of students in durham college preparatory programs, this study is divided into three stages and is based on seven research questions. stage i: enrolled in a preparatory program 1. what are the career/educational objectives of students in the preparatory programs? 2. what were the experiences of the students in the preparatory programs? 3. did the preparatory program meet the expectations? stage ii: transition to a subsequent postsecondary program 4. did the preparatory program students subsequently enrol in a postsecondary program? 5. what factors, if any, can predict the likelihood of preparatory program students continuing postsecondary education? 6. what are the motivations and transfer experiences of students who transfer to a subsequent postsecondary program of study? stage iii: validation of outcomes in subsequent postsecondary programs 7. are outcomes such as academic performance, retention rates and graduation rates of students with a prior postsecondary program comparable to students without prior preparatory or postsecondary program experience? 1 2. methodology the data for this project was collected in two stages. first, all of the 2,885 students who were enrolled in any of the eight durham college preparatory programs between 2008-09 and 2012-13 were invited to participate in an online survey. the study population for this project was comprised of the 202 preparatory program students who participated in the survey. these survey respondents were offered the opportunity to volunteer for focus group participation. in the second stage, some of the survey respondents participated in focus groups to provide further feedback on their experiences in the preparatory programs as well as subsequent postsecondary programs. also, to gather feedback from current preparatory program students, an additional focus group was conducted that was comprised of students who were enrolled in a preparatory program in winter 2014. there were six focus groups conducted that included a total of 23 participants. for some additional analyses and comparisons, student academic and administrative data was also collected from the durham college student information system. exploratory analyses, means-testing, and regression were conducted on the survey and administrative data to address the research questions. the analyses further informed the focus group questions and discussions. 3. key findings the key findings for this study were: 1. durham college preparatory programs are effectively supporting students with both academic preparation and social integration. approximately 82.1% of survey respondents indicated that their preparatory program met their expectations. 2. in addition to academic preparedness and social integration, students also indicated that they expect preparatory programs to help them in developing clear academic goals and career clarity. 3. in both the survey and in the focus groups, students indicated the need for greater academic rigour in the preparatory programs. this was particularly articulated by students with prior university postsecondary credentials. 4. the majority of survey respondents sought subsequent postsecondary education with 73.1% indicating that they continued on to further study after enrolling in a preparatory program. in fact, 63.5% of the study population continued on to further study at durham college. 5. in subsequent postsecondary diploma and advanced diploma programs, students who completed a preparatory program at durham college had higher retention rates, but took longer to graduate, than students who did not have prior preparatory program experience at durham college. 6. study participants have indicated a need for greater academic rigour in the preparatory programs. this is further reinforced by the finding that the preparatory programs at durham college appear to prepare students better for two-year diploma programs than three-year advanced diploma programs. 2 7. overall, students were satisfied with the admission process and their transition to subsequent postsecondary programs, but had specific suggestions for improvements, which are listed in the conclusions section of the report. 8. findings of this study lend credence to the value of using graduation rate as an assessment metric for preparatory programs. 4. conclusions and recommendations this study demonstrates that well-articulated academic goals, social integration into a postsecondary environment, the development of clear career goals, perceived usefulness of courses, and supportive faculty and administrative staff are all important factors that contribute to positive student experiences in preparatory programs, and influence student decisions to pursue subsequent postsecondary education. based on the results of this study, the following is a list of some of the recommendations put forward in this report for the improvement of student experiences in preparatory programs: 1. further efforts should be directed towards clarifying the purpose of preparatory programs, encouraging students to explore student-program fit, and offering suggestions for alternative programs where applicable. in particular, students with prior university credentials need to be offered an alternative pathway of exploring college programming. 2. the definition of preparatory programs should be expanded beyond academic preparedness. in addition to academic preparedness, the development of both clarity of academic and career goals were identified by respondents as critical deliverables for an effective preparatory program. 3. there should be greater emphasis placed on field-specific preparatory programs. participants who were enrolled in field-specific preparatory programs were more engaged and had greater commitment towards further postsecondary education than students in more generalised programs. students in these programs noted that field-relevant programming enabled them to successfully transition to subsequent postsecondary programs. 4. review curriculum and workloads. participants in both the survey, as well as the focus groups indicated that workloads that were too light, and programs with curriculum that was too easy needed to be addressed. suggestions were made to make some of these programs more academically rigorous in order to better prepare students for their subsequent programs of study. 5. it is important for institutions to provide preparatory program students with timely and readily available information to assist in the transition to subsequent postsecondary programs. students extensively indicated the need for proactive academic and career advising and the need for information support when transitioning into further postsecondary study. 6. more effort should be made to promote the availability of student support services. use of student services was fairly low amongst survey respondents and focus group participants. additionally, a number of survey respondents and focus group participants acknowledged the importance of student academic learning services (sals) at durham college. 3

table of contents 1. executive summary .............................................................................................................. 3 2. transfer pathways ................................................................................................................ 3 2.1 stage management technician to drama studies ................................................... 3 2.2 drama studies to stage management technician .................................................. 4 3. value added ........................................................................................................................... 4 4. best practices and teachings .............................................................................................. 5 4.1 best practices................................................................................................................. 5 4.2 teachings ....................................................................................................................... 5 5. planned implementation dates ........................................................................................... 5 6. summary table of transfer pathways ............................................................................... 6 2 oncat 2014-20 final report 1. executive summary this project aims at establishing a reciprocal pathway (bi-directional) between the stage management technician program at collge boral and the drama studies program at york university's glendon campus. these institutions share a mutual interest in developing an innovative and cooperative pathway between these programs, in order to allow students to acquire at the same time the technical, technological, practical, and theoretical knowledge in performance and theatrical productions in french, with the ultimate goal of serving the francophone communities in southern ontario. as part of the established framework agreement, graduates from the stage management technician program at collge boral have the option of accessing the drama studies program (120 credits) at york university's glendon campus and obtaining a specialized honours ba. a total of 42 credits will be awarded. likewise, the graduates of the drama studies program at york university's glendon campus (90 or 120 credits) have the option of accessing the 2nd year of the stage management technician program offered at collge boral and obtain an ontario college diploma. in order to do so, they must pass three upgrading courses delivered in hybrid mode in the spring semester of each year. these courses consist of two (2) weeks of distance education and three (3) intensive weeks of laboratory training offered at collge boral's sudbury campus. 2. transfer pathways the bidirectional transfer pathways between these two programs were developed by conducting a comparative analysis of the program curriculum, course content, and learning outcomes related to the courses. this analysis was carried out by the respective teams of professors from each institution's program. rigorous work processes were developed and used to determine the relevance and content of transfer pathways' content between the programs, while focusing on the value added and the creation of conditions that assure students' success. the work was done in two stages. the first was to study and develop the transfer pathways for students who graduate from the stage management technician program to the drama studies program. the second aimed at establishing the pathways for students who graduate from the drama studies program to the stage management technician program. 2.1 stage management technician to drama studies the results of the analysis have allowed professors to determine the courses that boral stage management technician graduates must take in order to obtain a specialized honours ba in drama studies (120 credits) from york university's glendon campus. a 3 oncat 2014-20 final report specialized pathway has been developed to facilitate the students' entry into the program. graduates from the stage management technician program at collge boral have the option of accessing the drama studies program (120 credits) at york university's glendon campus and obtaining a specialized honours ba after having successfully completed the program's courses, in accordance with the specialized pathway established and specified in appendix 1 of the agreement signed between both institutions. students who meet the admission criteria and the drama studies program requirements specified in said agreement will receive a credit transfer of 42 out of a total 120 credits. 2.2 drama studies to stage management technician the results of the analysis have allowed professors to determine the courses required for drama studies graduates of york university's glendon campus (90 to 120 credits) to obtain an ontario college diploma in borals stage management technician program. a specialized pathway has been developed to facilitate the students' entry into the program. graduates from the drama studies program at york university's glendon campus (90 or 120 credits) have the option of accessing the 2nd year of the stage management technician program (2 years) at collge boral and obtaining an ontario college diploma after having met the admission criteria and successfully completing the program courses, in accordance with the specialized pathway established and specified in appendix 2 of the agreement signed between both institutions. the admission criteria list the courses that must be taken and successfully completed in the drama studies program, in addition to three upgrading courses to be completed during the colleges spring semester, as well as industry related health and safety training. the upgrading courses provide accelerated training in the following fields: initiation la rgie techniques de sonorisation, and techniques dclairage. they are offered in hybrid mode (two weeks online and three weeks face-to-face learning at borals sudbury campus). students who meet the admission criteria and requirements of borals stage management technician program specified in said agreement will receive a credit transfer of 46 out of a total of 91 credits. 3. value added students who take advantage of this transfer pathway will not only benefit from obtaining two diplomas but will also have a better understanding of related techniques, stage management, and the field of performing arts. for example, they can orchestrate their own show, work simultaneously in both professions, direct show productions, start 4 oncat 2014-20 final report a show production company or manage a performance theatre or production organization. the employment opportunities are numerous and diversified. 4. best practices and teachings 4.1 best practices it proved very important to maintain regular and fluid communication between the teams, not only to ensure effective communication, but also to maintain the passion for stimulating creativity and open-mindedness throughout the process. 4.2 teachings the development of structured analysis tools to guide and document the work done by subject experts was essential and vital to us. these tools must be improved in order to be used in developing future framework agreements with other institutions. 5. planned implementation dates the work to publish the agreements on the institutions' websites and on ontransfer is currently underway. these agreements have been published internally. promotional activities aimed at students will be organized over the next few months. the first offering of the three upgrading courses is planned for the spring of 2016. 5 oncat 2014-20 final report 6. summary table of transfer pathways collge boral program stage management technician york university's glendon campus program drama studies (90 or 120 credits) 6 average require d b (70%) average require d n/a oncat 2014-20 final report credits you will receive from york university's glendon campus 42 credits you will receive from collge boral 46 york university's glendon campus program drama studies (120 credits) collge boral program stage management technician 7 oncat 2014-20 final report

extension of the utsc-seneca college arts & science transfer agreement to woodsworth college, u of t and york university paula green, riaz saloojee & henry decock oncat final report - project 2016-25 march 2016 1 executive summary this project was developed to explore the credit transfer pathway opportunities, into the bachelor of science degree programs at york university and the university of toronto, woodsworth college, st. george campus, for graduates of seneca colleges arts and science university transfer (asu) diploma program. the asu diploma program was developed by seneca college in collaboration with staff from the university of toronto, scarborough. the goal therefore was to explore the possibility of expanding this pathway agreement to include york university and the university of toronto, woodsworth college. the arts and science university transfer diploma program retains some of the foundational elements of the liberal arts transfer (lat) program, formerly general arts and science (gas), except for the addition of specific science courses in chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics. the program began in fall 2015 with one section, and as of winter 2016, there have been three additional intakes. the first group of graduates will complete their program in april 2017 and most will apply for admission to york university and the university of toronto, for programs beginning in fall 2017. students entering york university, having graduated from the arts and science university transfer (asu) program, will receive 48 block transfer credits towards a 120 credit, honours degree program. this is an enhanced block, as typically most diploma programs are awarded 45 block credits. since the course assessment and mapping at university of toronto, woodsworth college, began in 2017, the outcome of the credit transfer process here is pending, and so, at this time is unknown. students entering york university, having graduated from the arts and science university transfer (asu) program, will receive 48 block transfer credits towards a 120 credit, honours degree program. this is an enhanced block as typically, most diploma programs are awarded 45 block credits. since the course assessment and mapping at university of toronto, woodsworth college, began in 2017, the outcome of the credit transfer process here is pending, and so, at this time is unknown. 2 program description with the success of the liberal arts transfer (lat) program (formerly, general arts and science-gas), seneca college collaborated with the university of toronto, scarborough to develop the arts and science university transfer (asu) program. the arts and science university transfer program enables graduates to enter into the bachelor of science degree program at the university, with foundational courses/ credits in science. the courses include biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, along with general education credits (previously established in the liberal arts transfer program) that were approved and accepted for transfer credits at the university. with the success of the seneca college and university of toronto, scarborough agreement, the project proposed the development of a similar pathway agreement with york university and university of toronto, woodsworth college. in this pathway agreement, graduates of the arts and science university transfer (asu) program receive a combination of block and specified course credits upon the successful completion of the asu program when they are admitted to the university. project implementation & mapping york university admissions for the course mapping process at york university, the science and general education courses within the arts and science university transfer diploma program were identified. next it was determined whether the science courses in particular, met the threshold for admission to the university. the participation in and completion of a postsecondary program at the college, which in this case is the asu program, was central to the decision-making regarding admission for entrance into the university. all of the science courses within the asu program were evaluated as having met the threshold for admission to york university. first year science credits and general education courses within most postsecondary programs, courses are scaffolded to ensure that the foundational competencies are achieved as students move through each level/ year of their studies. another aspect of the course mapping process was the assessment of the asu courses, to determine whether their course content was aligned to the course and program learning outcomes for first year courses, within the science degree programs at the university. the faculty of science at york university began their review of the science courses in spring/ summer 2016. however, the discussions between the seneca college sending program and the faculties that would potentially receive most of the asu graduates did not begin in earnest until fall 2016. as the process progressed, other faculties at york university, including the faculty of health and the faculty of engineering were brought onboard, because they offered bsc degrees within their respective programs. course outlines were requested from seneca college and sent to the office at admissions at york university. in-turn the outlines were sent to the undergraduate program directors, associate deans, program coordinators and chairs to be reviewed. the course outline reviews involved multiple inputs from the staff who assessed academic content, for alignment to learning outcomes, with the first year 3 science courses offered in the various degrees. the highly aligned courses were then granted course credit exclusion status by york university. all of the science courses that were evaluated met the threshold for first year york university credits with the exception of biology. the chemistry, mathematics and physics were given the course credit exclusion designation by york university. therefore, in the resulting articulation agreement, a block of 48 credits was granted to students who complete the asu program and transfer to york university. as well, within the block credits, the specified general education electives were indicated. initially though, thirty-six block transfer credits were granted. however, based on the general education electives satisfied within asu, of the york degree program areas, and the agreement by the asu program to have students complete york approved electives, the block credits granted were increased to 48. therefore, as stated in the york university credit articulation agreement guidelines, with the granting of 48 or more block credits, all of the general education electives required for a science (bsc) degree are deemed to have been satisfied. accordingly, asu students transferring to york university will have completed all of their non-science requirements for their bsc. the york articulation agreement is being finalized. students completing the asu diploma will be able to transfer into bsc and ba programs within the faculty of science, faculty of health, lassonde school of engineering as well as other faculties at york university, as of fall 2017 university of toronto, woodsworth college, st. george staffing transitions at seneca college, affected the communication timelines for connecting with university of toronto. the documentation from seneca college to the university of toronto, woodsworth college, st. george campus, was sent early in 2017 to the office of the assistant principal and registrar for dissemination. seneca college is awaiting the outcome of those reviews. lessons learned since there wasnt agreement for biology, the program faculty teaching the courses at york university and seneca college, who also had program coordination responsibilities, met for a discussion about the curriculum gaps. although the latter was identified, the challenge however became that the science courses in the asu program developed by seneca college were modelled to align with the first year science program requirements at university of toronto, scarborough. accordingly, the recommended changes proposed by york university for the biology course revision, were out of sync with the university of toronto, scarborough, requirements. therefore, the revisions requested by york university to the biology courses will not proceed at this time. one of the realizations emerging from this project was that there was no guarantee that the acceptance of a course by one institution should assume/ preclude acceptance by another. the results from the woodsworth college mapping exercise are pending and so it would be interesting to see whether they are aligned with the university of toronto, scarborough or with york university. staffing vacancies, administrative turnovers and transition at both seneca college and york university created some initial implementation delays with the course mapping process. however, the project was able to remain on track towards completion. pending the outcome of the course mapping process at university of toronto, woodsworth, cross-institutional conversations are likely to begin between york 4 university, university of toronto and seneca college, to potentially look at common course outcomes for first year science courses, particularly biology.

final report and summary oncat project 2015-17 privileged right of passage: pathways between collge boral and laurentian university report prepared by the office of francophone affairs june 2016 summary as part of this project, we successfully developed 10 articulation agreements. four of them are for students who have completed or will complete a one-year certificate at collge boral. previously, it was impossible for these students to transfer college credits to university programs. now, they are eligible for up to 30 credits, which is equivalent to a full year of studies. in addition to these agreements, three agreements were developed with the department of psychology - one of which is a 2+2. finally, three agreements in physical education and health were improved. these agreements stand out from the others because the learning outcomes have been compared and students can take advantage of several specific credits instead of only elective credits. most of the agreements are at the approval stage with the senate of laurentian university. unfortunately, we learned in april that two steps were added to the approval process, which delayed the process. however, we are confident that the agreements will be approved by fall 2016. in following this process, we are pleased to announce that one of the outcomes will be that all francophone articulation agreements shall also apply on the english side - thus for any other college that offers the same program toward our francophone and anglophone programs (when both options exist). table of contents summary ........................................................................ 2 table of contents ........................................................... 3 new boral-laurentian transfer pathways .................... 4 best practices and lessons learned ............................... 6 status of transfer pathways and agreements developed and important dates (pending approvals)..................... 9 appendix a ................................................................... 11 appendix b ................................................................... 15 appendix c.................................................................... 19 new boral-laurentian transfer pathways following is a list of the 19 new transfer pathways that were developed or analysed between collge boral and laurentian university as part of this project. # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 from the collge boral program programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) [general arts and sciences] - one year programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year techniques de soins vtrinaires [veterinary care technician] - two years technique de travail social [social service worker] (tosc) two years technique de travail social (tosc) two years ducation en services lenfance [early childhood education] (geen) two years ducation en services lenfance (geen) two years technique dducation spcialise [child and youth worker] (tesq) three years technique dducation spcialise (tesq) three years adjoint juridique [law clerk] two years adjoint juridique two years technologie de larchitecture [architectural technician] promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant [physical education and health] (two years) promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant [health promotion] (two years) promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant [sport psychology] (two years) to this program at laurentian university number of credits granted prior to 2016 number of credits granted following transfer pathway approval arts gnraux [general arts] none sciences none 9-12, 6, 3 (sciences) tude de lenvironnement [environmental studies] none 24 psychologie [psychology] none 30 sociologie [sociology] none - mathmatiques [mathematics] none 24 zoologie [zoology] 30 30 psychologie 30 60 sociologie 30 30 psychologie 30 51 sociologie 30 30 psychologie 30 66 sociologie 30 30 psychologie 30 30 sociologie 30 30 architecture - - promotion de la sant [health promotion] 30 39 promotion de la sant 30 39 promotion de la sant 30 39 15-30, 12, 6 (arts) see appendices a, b and c for a detailed description of each of the new transfer pathways. additionally, see the following attached documents for an even more detailed analysis of the mapping process. file name information sheets description 1 2 3 4 physical education analysis memorandum of agreement learning outcomes analysis for: technique de travail social ducation en services lenfance technique dducation spcialise adjoint juridique learning outcomes analysis for the physical education programs amended memorandum of agreement best practices and lessons learned the process followed to complete this project this year was effective in certain respects, but we learned many lessons that will lead to changes for the next agreements to be developed. following are steps of the process followed this year, the new process suggested, the reasoning behind the changes and a short analysis at the end of the section. process followed to complete this project this year: 1. conduct preliminary analysis and determine the programs for which articulation is an option and those for which articulation is not an option. 2. foster commitment and interest of staff from both institutions toward the project. 3. consult the deans, directors and professors involved to confirm which articulations will be possible this year. 4. draft the initial report. 5. identify the articulation model to be developed for each program. 6. compare the learning outcomes and the course outlines of the programs for which articulation has been deemed possible (in 1), and identify the number of credits that can be recognized by laurentian as well as the necessary pathways. 7. obtain the approvals required in order to establish the articulation. 8. draft the interim report. 9. review certain existing articulations. 10. develop technical descriptions that specify the pathway for students who want to benefit from the articulations developed. 11. formalize the amendment to the umbrella agreement. 12. develop an excel tool to facilitate the management of articulation agreements between laurentian university and collge boral. this tool allows 1) easier initial learning outcome comparison, and 2) easier agreement maintenance, when changes occurs to the programs. 13. draft the final report. new process for developing pathways and articulation agreements: following a trial of the aforementioned procedure to try to develop 19 articulations between collge boral and laurentian university in 2015-2016, we have determined that a more effective process may be followed to develop pathways and articulation agreements. this process is described in the table on the next page and includes the identification of the person(s) who will complete each step, as well as some notes and explanations. table - new proposed process: step # 1 description who will facilitate or coordinate? consult the departments, directors and deans, in person (officer) and in writing (associate vice-president), to identify the transfer pathways and articulation agreements to be developed. identify the articulation model to be developed for each agreement or transfer pathway. - lu project officer articulation agreements, - associate vice-president or executive, academic and francophone affairs 3 gather and exchange the course outlines, course descriptions, curricula, etc., necessary for analysis. - lu project officer articulation agreements 4 analyse and compare the learning outcomes and course outlines of the programs to then identify the number of credits that can be recognized by laurentian as well as the necessary pathways. - the departments and faculties sometimes prefer to have this step initially completed by the project officer. - then, the department can approve, but this step is only necessary when the agreement requires new equivalencies (that have never been recognized by the admissions department). 5a following analysis, if the pathway or articulation agreement developed does not require anything new, the pathways defined may be added to the memorandum of articulation agreements or sent to the admissions department. this department will be in charge of adding the agreements on ontransfer.ca (provincial website for students seeking possible pathways and articulation agreements). if the articulation agreement or pathway requires a credit transfer that has no precedent (where a credit transfer has never been given), it must go through the department. when the nature of the articulation agreement or pathway proposed is new or requires a significant - lu project officer articulation agreements - admissions officer 2 5b 5c - lu project officer articulation agreements notes and explanations (best practices and lessons learned) this step will ensure the cooperation and participation of participants because the projects will come from them and not the administration. possible models: - diploma to ba - ba to diploma - parallel programs - joint programs - etc. the ideal is to be able to compare the college learning outcomes with the university learning outcomes, but these are not always available, so sometimes it has to be done from the course outline or even the course description. - when there is good affinity between the programs, credits may sometimes be given for specific courses. this is especially the case when learning outcomes are the same or very similar. we aim for common learning outcomes to be 80% in a course in order to give credit. - when there is less affinity between the programs, generic credits are given. for example arts9100 (for first-year courses) or arts9200 (for second- to fourth-year courses). some rules must be followed in order to give credits. see appendix a. - lu project officer articulation agreements - director of the department - lu project officer articulation agreements - departments, faculties, committee members and senate when the articulation agreement must go through this process, it is important to factor in the time required to do this. a 6 7 change in the method of approval by the admissions department, the agreement must go through a process. this includes the following steps (in order): approval by the department; approval by the faculty; approval by the ara; information to the cpf; approval by the senate inform the following departments when an agreement has been approved: admissions office; office of the registrar; liaison; marketing; executive team; faculty; review the agreement based on the identified frequency or when there are changes to the programs. minimum of five months is required for this process, but it often takes longer because of the changes to be made to the documents, objections by certain committees, etc. - lu project officer articulation agreements since the scope of this project was quite large, we discovered many winning practices and learned many lessons. these are summarized in the above table, in the notes and explanations (best practices and lessons learned) column. in short, the most significant best practice is to have the analysis and the majority of the analysis work performed by the oncat project officer, before requesting approval from the department. with respect to the lessons learned, the two most significant are 1) always consult the departments and deans before submitting project requests to oncat - it is important that the ideas come from the ground up - and 2) plan enough time for the approval of articulation agreements, because there are many committees and steps that must be followed before having a project go through to the university. important definitions transfer pathway: a predetermined path for a student wishing to transfer from a specific program at a postsecondary institution to a specific program at laurentian university (or vice-versa) articulation agreement: an agreement that stipulates, among other things, that two or more institutions agree to increase access to postsecondary programs of study in french, as well as mobility between institutions through credit transfers. an articulation agreement may include one or more pathways between institutions. pathway: courses or modules that must be completed by the student in order to access a program and take advantage of an articulation agreement. status of transfer pathways and agreements developed and important dates (pending approvals) following is a table that describes the status of transfer pathways and agreements developed as part of this project, as well as relevant comments for each. arts gnraux sept. 9 agreement of the senate 1 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) [general arts and sciences] - one year approval process delayed 2 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year sciences sept. 9 agreement of the ara to this program at laurentian university approval process delayed 3 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year tude de lenvironnement sept. 9 agreement of the faculty # from the collge boral program approval process delayed 4 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year psychologie sept. 9 agreement of the department analysis completed approval dates approval process delayed 5 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year sociologie 6 programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) - one year mathmatiques 7 techniques de soins vtrinaires - two years zoologie technique de travail social (tosc) two years sociologie 10 ducation en services lenfance (geen) two years psychologie - - - - - canceled - program restructuring approval process delayed - - sept. 9 - psychologie 9 - sept. 9 - sept. 9 8 technique de travail social (tosc) two years - comments limited affinity approval process delayed - - canceled - program restructuring approval process delayed 11 ducation en services lenfance (geen) two years sociologie 12 technique dducation spcialise (tesq) three years psychologie 13 technique dducation spcialise (tesq) three years sociologie - - - - canceled - program restructuring 14 adjoint juridique two years psychologie - - - - limited affinities 15 adjoint juridique two years sociologie - - - - canceled - program restructuring 16 technologie de larchitecture architecture - - - - deferred to next year (at the deans request) 17 promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (two years) promotion de la sant approval process delayed 18 promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (two years) promotion de la sant approval process delayed 19 promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant (two years) promotion de la sant approval process delayed - - - sept. 9 - - canceled - program restructuring approval process delayed appendix a three new transfer pathways between: the collge boral promotion de lactivit physique [fitness promotion] program and three francophone programs in laurentian universitys cole des sciences et de lactivit physique [school of human kinetics] these transfer pathways would be added to the appendixes of the memorandum of articulation agreements between collge boral, laurentian university and the university of sudbury (2014-2019). two of the three transfer pathways are improvements to transfer pathways developed in a 2007 agreement. one of the three transfer pathways (psychologie du sport) is new. for each of the three transfer pathways in this document: - the student must always complete the required courses for the degree(s) chosen, except when a specific equivalent credit is granted by the university upon admission. - a cumulative grade-point average (gpa) at college of at least 3.2 or 80% is required to be eligible for these transfer pathways. - a letter of recommendation is required to be eligible for these transfer pathways. - although the credits granted by this agreement count toward more than one year of study, it is possible that the student may not be able to complete the bachelors degree within the two or three years following registration due to the university course schedules or the prerequisites for certain required courses. transfer pathway n 1 promotion de lactivit physique (boral) to ducation physique et sant (edph) (laurentienne) diploma from collge boral transfer to laurentian university toward: promotion de lactivit physique baccalaurat en ducation physique et sant [ba in sport and physical education] (two years) specific courses to be completed at collge boral credits granted by laurentian bio1026 anatomie et physiologie 1 [anatomy and physiology 1] edph 1506 anatomie et kinsiologie i [anatomy and kinesiology i](3cr) bio1027 anatomie et physiologie 2 [anatomy and physiology 2] edph 1507 anatomie et kinsiologie ii [anatomy and kinesiology ii](3cr) spr1013 activit physique et sant [physical activity and health] edph 1006 science dexercice, mieuxtre et sant [science of exercise, wellbeing and health] (3cr) spr1006 nutrition edph 4507 nutrition (3cr) spr1014 activits physiques ii apprentissage moteur [physical activity ii - motor learning] edph 2206 apprentissage moteur (3cr) [motor learning] inf1064 culture technologique [technology culture] cosc 9100 - logiciels dapplications [software applications] (3cr) fra1005 franais [french] fran 9100 (3cr) eng1003 english communications i engl 9100 (3cr) soc1010 communication interpersonnelle [interpersonal communication] sosc 9100 (3cr) spr1020 leadership ii sosc 9200 (3cr) spr1011 - activit physiques i techniques et tactiques [physical activity i - techniques and tactics] edph 9100 (3cr) spr1005 physiologie de la performance [physiology of performance] edph 9100 (3cr) spr1003 valuation de la condition physique [fitness assessment] edph 9100 (3cr) 126 (credits) cole des sciences de lactivit physique ----------total: 39 credits number of credits to be completed*: 87 *for more information about the list of courses to be completed at laurentian university to obtain the aforementioned ba, visit laurentian university's website (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/education-physique) or meet with an advisor at the centre for academic excellence (ext. 3346). note that the number of credits to be completed may change if changes are made to the edph program. transfer pathway n 2 promotion de lactivit physique (boral) to promotion de la sant (laurentian) diploma from collge boral transfer to laurentian university toward: promotion de lactivit physique ba in promotion de la sant 124.5 (credits) (two years) cole des sciences de lactivit physique specific courses to be completed at collge boral credits granted by laurentian bio1026 anatomie et physiologie 1 [anatomy and physiology 1] edph 1506 anatomie et kinsiologie i [anatomy and kinesiology i](3cr) bio1027 anatomie et physiologie 2 [anatomy and physiology 2] edph 1507 anatomie et kinsiologie ii [anatomy and kinesiology ii](3cr) spr1013 activit physique et sant [physical activity and health] edph 1006 science dexercice, mieux-tre et sant [exercise science, wellness and health] (3cr) spr1006 nutrition edph 4507 nutrition (3cr) spr1014 activits physiques ii apprentissage moteur [physical activity ii motor learning] edph 2206 apprentissage moteur (3cr) [motor learning] inf1064 culture technologique [technology culture] cosc 1017 - logiciels dapplications [software applications] (3cr) fra1005 franais [french] fran 9100 (3cr) eng1003 english communications i engl 9100 (3cr) soc1010 communication interpersonnelle [interpersonal communication] sosc 9100 (3cr) spr1020 leadership ii sosc 9200 (3cr) spr1011 - activit physiques i techniques et tactiques [physical activity i - techniques and tactics] edph 9100 (3cr) spr1005 physiologie de la performance [physiology of performance] edph 9100 (3cr) spr1003 valuation de la condition physique [fitness assessment] edph 9100 (3cr) ----------total: 39 credits number of credits to be completed*: 85.5 *for the list of courses to be completed at laurentian university to obtain the aforementioned ba, visit laurentian university's website(https://laurentienne.ca/programme/education-physique) or meet with an advisor at the centre for academic excellence (ext. 3346) for more information. note that the number of credits to be completed may change if changes are made to the program. transfer pathway n 3 promotion de lactivit physique (boral) to psychologie du sport (laurentian) diploma from collge boral transfer to laurentian university toward: promotion de lactivit physique baccalaurat en psychologie du sport [ba in sport psychology] (two years) specific courses to be completed at collge boral bio1026 anatomie et physiologie 1 edph 1506 anatomie et kinsiologie i (3cr) bio1027 anatomie et physiologie 2 edph 1507 anatomie et kinsiologie ii (3cr) spr1013 activit physique et sant edph 1006 science dexercice, mieuxtre et sant (3cr) spr1006 nutrition edph 4507 nutrition (3cr) spr1014 activits physiques ii apprentissage moteur edph 2206 apprentissage moteur (3cr) inf1064 culture technologique cosc 1017 - logiciels dapplications (3cr) fra1005 franais fran 9100 (3cr) eng1003 english communications i engl 9100 (3cr) soc1010 communication interpersonnelle sosc 9100 (3cr) spr1020 leadership ii sosc 9200 (3cr) spr1011 - activit physiques i techniques et tactiques edph 9100 (3cr) spr1005 physiologie de la performance edph 9100 (3cr) spr1003 valuation de la condition physique edph 9100 (3cr) 124.5 (credits) cole des sciences de lactivit physique credits granted by laurentian ----------total: 39 credits number of credits to be completed*: 85.5 *for the list of courses to be completed at laurentian university to obtain the aforementioned ba, visit laurentian university's website(https://laurentienne.ca/programme/education-physique) or meet with an advisor at the centre for academic excellence (ext. 3346) for more information. note that the number of credits to be completed may change if changes are made to the program. appendix b four new transfer pathways for one-year college programs laurentian university - 2016 oncat project these transfer pathways will be added to appendix 1 of the memorandum of articulation agreements between collge boral, laurentian university and the university of sudbury (2014-2019). for each of the four transfer pathways in this document: - a one-year college certificate makes the student admissible to the university; however the cumulative grade-point average (gpa) at college and the affinities between the program of study shall determine the number of credits granted to the student. - the student must always complete the required courses for the degree(s) chosen, except when a specific equivalent credit is granted by the university upon admission. - although the credits granted by the university sometimes represent the equivalent of one, two or even three year(s) of study, it is possible that the student may not be able to complete the ba within the two or three years following registration due to the university course schedule or because of the prerequisites for certain required courses. transfer pathway n 1 general transfers certificate collge boral (one year) programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) transfer to laurentian university toward: bachelor of arts other programs specific courses to be completed at collge boral cumulative gradepoint average (gpa) at college credits granted by laurentian from 3.2 to 4.0 between 15 and 30 credits* from 2.8 to 3.19 12 credits* from 2.4 to 2.79 6 credits* from 3.2 to 4.0 between 9 and 12 credits* from 2.8 to 3.19 6 credits* from 2.4 to 2.79 3 credits* students choice students choice *based on the level of affinity with the program of study transfer pathway n 2 pasc to psychologie a cumulative grade-point average (gpa) at college of at least 3.2 or 80% is required to be eligible for this articulation. certificate collge boral (one year) transfer to laurentian university toward: programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) bachelor of arts in psychologie specific courses to be completed at collge boral credits granted by laurentian fra1005 and fra1006 psy1001 and psy1002 fran9100 (6) psyc1105 (6) six courses among: social sciences humanities arq1005 dro1000 gen1018 gen1046 gen1054 jur1011 loi1000 loi1001 loi1004 pol1000 soc1001 soc1002 soc1010 tox1000 art1001 eng1003 eng1004 gen1038 gen1040 gen1047 gen1053 gen1055 gen1036 sgs1002 sgs1006 combination of (18) credits: sosc 9100 or huma 9200 ----------total: 30 credits required first-year courses to be completed at laurentian university*: - lang1005 grammaire applique la rdaction [applied grammar in writing] *the first-year courses to be completed at laurentian university may change when changes are made to the program curriculum. please see laurentian universitys website for a current list of required first-year courses (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba) or meet with an advisor at the centre for academic excellence (ext. 3346) for more information. transfer pathway n 3 pasc to tudes de lenvironnement a cumulative grade-point average (gpa) at college of at least 3.0 or 75 % is required to be eligible for this articulation. certificate collge boral (one year) transfer to laurentian university toward: programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) bachelor of arts in tudes de lenvironnement specific courses to be completed at collge boral credits granted by laurentian fra1005 and fra1006 fran9100 (6) three courses among: bio1000 bio1013 bio 1026 bio1016 bio 1027 chi1000 ctn 1001 ctn 1001 inf1078 inf1072 inf1039 inf1042 inf1046 mat1028 mat1026 mat1006 mat1018 phy1000 psa1005 psa1006 scen9100(3) arts9100(6) three courses among: social sciences humanities arq1005 dro1000 gen1018 gen1046 gen1054 jur1011 loi1000 loi1001 loi1004 pol1000 soc1001 soc1002 soc1010 tox1000 art1001 eng1003 eng1004 gen1038 gen1040 gen1047 gen1053 gen1055 gen1036 sgs1002 sgs1006 combination of (9) credits: sosc 9100 or huma 9200 ----------total: 24 credits required first-year courses to be completed at laurentian university*: - envi1406 environnement i [environment i] - envi1507 environnement ii [environment ii] - lang1005 grammaire applique la rdaction *the first-year courses to be completed at laurentian university may change when changes are made to the program curriculum. please see laurentian universitys website for a current list of required first-year courses (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba) or meet with an advisor at the centre for academic excellence (ext. 3346) for more information. transfer pathway n 4 pasc to mathmatiques a cumulative grade-point average (gpa) at college of at least 3.0 or 75 % is required to be eligible for this articulation. certificate collge boral (one year) transfer to laurentian university toward: specific courses to be completed at collge boral credits granted by laurentian programme gnral darts et de sciences (pasc) mathmatiques fra1005 and fra1006 fran9100 (6) two courses among: bio1000 bio1013 bio 1026 bio1016 bio 1027 chi1000 ctn 1001 ctn 1001 inf1078 inf1072 inf1039 inf1042 inf1046 mat1028* mat1026* mat1006* mat1018* phy1000 psa1005 psa1006 scen9100(3) arts9100(3) four courses among: social sciences humanities arq1005 dro1000 gen1018 gen1046 gen1054 jur1011 loi1000 loi1001 loi1004 pol1000 soc1001 soc1002 soc1010 tox1000 art1001 eng1003 eng1004 gen1038 gen1040 gen1047 gen1053 gen1055 gen1036 sgs1002 sgs1006 combination of (12) credits: sosc 9100 or huma 9200 ----------total: 24 credits required first-year courses to be completed at laurentian university*: - math1036 calcul 1 [calculus 1] - math1037 calcul 2 [calculus 2] - math 1056 mathmatiques discrtes i [discrete mathematics i] - math 1057 algbre linaire i [linear algebra i] - lang1005 grammaire applique la rdaction *the first-year courses to be completed at laurentian university may change when changes are made to the program curriculum. please see laurentian universitys website for a current list of required first-year courses (https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba) or meet with an advisor at the centre for academic excellence (ext. 3346) for more information. note: although the grade 12 advanced functions 4u course is required to enter the ba - mathmatiques program, two college courses in mathematics are equivalent to a 4u mathematics course. appendix c transfer pathways between various collge boral programs and laurentian universitys psychology program collge boral program credits granted by laurentian first- and second-year courses to be completed at laurentian university** notes ducation en services lenfance (geen) two years (diploma) psyc 1105 (6) huma 9100 (6) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (21) ----------total: 51 credits* lang 1005 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) collge boral students must pass psy 1001 and psy 1002 to obtain their credits for psyc 1105. techniques de travail social (tosc) two years (diploma) soci 1015 (6) huma 9100 (9) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (30) ----------total: 60 credits* psyc 1105 (6) lang1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) collge boral students must pass soc 1001 and soc 1002 to obtain their credits for soci 1015. psyc 1105 (6) huma 9100 (9) cosc 1701 (3) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (27) ----------total: 66 credits* lang 1005 (6) psyc 2005 (6) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2127 (3) collge boral students must pass psy 1001 and psy 1002 to obtain their credits for psyc 1105. techniques dducation spcialise (tesq) three years (diploma) *although we grant the number of credits indicated, to complete a ba, the student must still meet the requirements of the degree. in some cases, and for certain combinations of degrees, the student may have to exceed the total of 120 credits to obtain the ba sought, because the majority of credits given are for electives. *the first- and second-year courses to be completed at laurentian university may change when changes are made to the program curriculum. please see laurentian universitys website for a current list of required first- and second-year course: https://laurentienne.ca/programme/psychologie-ba or meet with an advisor at the centre for academic excellence (ext. 3346) for more information. for each of the above transfer pathways: - a minimum college grade-point average of 3.0 or 75% is required to obtain the credits indicated. - although the credits granted by the university sometimes represent the equivalent of one, two or even three year(s) of study, it is possible that the student may not be able to complete the ba within the two or three years following registration due to the university course schedule or because of the prerequisites for certain required courses.

student success factors: durham college fast track programs 1 abstract research has shown that there is considerable interest among ontario students in obtaining multiple credentials from both universities and colleges. for colleges wishing to attract university graduates and offer a practical, hands-on experience that will improve graduates employability, a better understanding of the experiences and outcomes of students moving from university to college is required. this study focuses on university graduates who have enrolled in accelerated (fast track) diploma programs at durham college. the college has been offering fast track program options within the school of science and engineering technology for the last four years. these programs are geared toward domestic and international students who hold a bachelor of science or bachelor of engineering degree, depending on the program. to understand the experiences of fast track students and outcomes of graduates, this study employs a mixed methods design that includes a survey of fast track students and graduates, and focus groups with fast track students. this data is also supplemented by information from the durham college student database, and data available from the 2010-11 and 2011-12 kpi student and graduate satisfaction surveys. upon project completion, there are three key recommendations that can improve the experience of fast track students at durham college: (1) increase pathway affinity and simplify the transfer process; (2) strengthen and enrich the field placement opportunity; and (3) develop relevant and opportune social opportunities to encourage school-life balance. in addition, there are three key recommendations to improve the outcomes of fast track graduates: (1) provide more assistance to fast track graduates to locate employment; (2) foster connections between field placements and future employment opportunities; and (3) set expectations early on and develop a support network for at-risk students. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 2 student success factors: durham college fast track programs 3 section i: background purpose of the study this study focuses on the experiences and outcomes of university graduates that have enrolled in accelerated (fast track) diploma programs at durham college. durham college has been offering fast track program options within the school of science and engineering technology for the last four years. programs include biomedical engineering technology, biotechnology technologist, chemical engineering technology, electronic engineering technology, environmental technology, and pharmaceutical and food science technology. these programs have been developed for both domestic and international students who hold a bachelor of science or bachelor of engineering degree, depending on the program. eligible students can take advantage of the compressed opportunity to complete their advanced diploma requirements in two semesters. research questions to better understand the experiences and outcomes of durham college fast track students and graduates, the following research questions are addressed in this report: 1. what are the experiences of students entering fast track programs at durham college, and how can we develop strategies that will improve the experience? a. why do students choose to enrol in a fast track program? b. what success factors do students and graduates identify? c. what is the level of affinity between students prior education and their fast track program? d. to what extent are students entering fast track programs / graduates who completed fast track programs satisfied with their transfer experience? e. what strategies could durham college implement to improve fast track students satisfaction with their transfer experience? 2. what are some of the specific outcomes of students that complete fast track programs? a. how do completion rates differ, if at all, between fast track students and students who complete the full three-year program? b. what is the correlation between students first term marks and program completion? c. how do employment rates differ, if at all, between fast track students and students who complete the full three-year program six months after graduation? d. what best practices can be identified from examining the differences in completion rates, employment rates, and the relationship between first term marks and program completion? student success factors: durham college fast track programs 4 definitions of key terms the following is a list of key terms that are used throughout this report: banner: durham colleges student record information system cou: council of ontario universities fast track program: a compressed opportunity to complete advanced diploma requirements in two semesters kpi: key performance indicator kpi graduate satisfaction survey: annual telephone survey conducted by mtcu among a sample of graduates who attended colleges in ontario kpi student satisfaction survey: annual online survey conducted by mtcu among a sample of students attending colleges in ontario mtcu: ministry of training, colleges and universities ocas: ontario college application service oncat: ontario council on articulation and transfer three-year program: standard advanced diploma program (six semesters) limitations of the study although the objectives of this research have been achieved, generalizability of the findings is limited. the survey and focus group were conducted among small samples of fast track students and graduates at durham college (n=26 and n=10, respectively). because of the small sample sizes, results for key subgroups (e.g. students vs. graduates, cohort, etc.) could not be compared. in addition, the focus is on durham college students only. therefore, conclusions and recommendations must be interpreted within this particular context. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 5 section ii: literature review ontarios further education boom according to colleges ontario (2009), the movement of students from university-to-college and college-to-college in ontario has become more common in recent years. based on kpi student satisfaction survey responses in 2007-08, colleges ontario indicates that approximately 17% of college students had previous university experience and 9% had a university degree. the same survey indicates that a growing percentage of college students are attending college to prepare for further college or university study increasing from 16% in 2000-01 to 21% in 2007-08. data from the ontario college application service (ocas) shows that in 2007, the percentage of applicants with university experience (12.6%) had more than doubled since 2000. similarly, the 2005 council of ontario universities (cou) graduate survey showed that 11.5% of university graduates were attending college six months after graduation and 9.4% of university graduates were attending college two years after graduation. clearly, there is considerable interest among ontario students in obtaining multiple credentials. in the past, the movement of students was thought to be a linear flow or pipeline from high school to college and to university. that movement was considered unidirectional, with some exits occurring at each connection point. the term reverse transfer, used to describe the movement of students from university-to-college, confirms the once accepted view of student movement through the pipeline (vaala, n.d.). however, goyder suggests that we should consider changing our thinking from levels of higher education to combinations of higher education (2009) with students moving in multiple directions through the education system. further education and the labour market the new website for the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) promotes ontario college graduate certificates and accelerated diploma programs to university graduates as a way of gaining additional job-specific skills that build on their degree foundation. the oncat website states: you want to build on your postsecondary knowledge and experience, add a specialization, or develop additional skills to advance your career. ontario colleges offer scores of programs designed or adapted specifically for university graduates. these programs have been developed in collaboration with experts from the employment sector and often include practical work experience. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 6 similarly, the message to college graduates interested in graduate certificate programs proclaims the following: programs include specialized skills and knowledge to prepare graduates for immediate entry to a career field; [programs are] sometimes designed to provide advanced study in a defined discipline for graduates of college diploma or advanced diploma programs; [programs are] sometimes designed to provide a highly focused employment related credential for graduates of a university degree program in an unrelated discipline; [programs are] normally completed in one year (two academic semesters); and [programs] require a college diploma or university degree or equivalent, plus additional requirements specific to the program. although it is generally assumed that multiple postsecondary credentials will lead to better labour market outcomes, research indicates that earnings vary by credential or type of postsecondary experience obtained, field of study, the timing of credential completion, as well as student characteristics (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). for colleges wishing to attract university graduates and offer a practical, hands-on experience that will improve graduates employability, a better understanding of the student success factors and outcomes for students moving from university-to-college and college-to-college is required. in line with the ministry of training, colleges and universities policy statement on ontarios credit transfer system (http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca), there is a desire on the part of colleges to increase and improve student transfer pathways, including university-to-college pathways and college-to-college pathways. thus, this study will build on previous research to identify best practices and strategies for improving the experience and outcomes of fast track students at durham college. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 7 section iii: methodology population and sample this research project involves full-time students who enrolled in a fast track program in the 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12 academic years. in 2009-10, 24 full-time students enrolled in a fast track program as of the november audit headcount. these numbers have grown to 45 in 2010-11 and 56 in 2011-12. data collection methods the methodology for this research is a non-experimental mixed methods design, which concurrently utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data. first, primary quantitative data is based on an online survey of fast track students and graduates (please refer to appendix a for a copy of the questionnaire). secondly, primary qualitative data is based on focus groups with current fast track students (please refer to appendix b for a copy of the discussion guide). finally, this research is also supplemented with information contained in durham colleges student database (banner) and data from the ministrys kpi student and graduate satisfaction surveys from the past three years. a. online survey target respondent: sample source: sample size: response rate: field dates: completion length: screening criteria: incentive: weighting: summary all durham college fast track students and graduates were invited to participate in the survey durham colleges banner system total of 26 completed surveys (19 current students and 7 graduates) 26 of 125 (21%) march 5th to march 28th, 2012 approximately 10 minutes, on average provision of informed consent prior to completing survey entry into a draw for a chance to win 1 of 3 best buy gift cards valued at $100 none required; sample is representative of the student population respondents were asked a set of questions to understand their university background, reasons for choosing their program, support services accessed, and anticipated/actual outcomes. the survey data was quantified and reported, and used to inform the identification of some of the common themes that were explored in the student focus groups. where possible, results from students and graduates are compared and contrasted. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 8 b. focus group target respondent: sample source: sample size: session dates: group length: screening criteria: incentive: summary after completing the online survey, all respondents were invited to participate in the focus group to explore key themes in greater detail durham colleges banner system/online survey total of 10 focus group participants (current students) march 29th, 2012 (12-1pm); april 5th, 2012 (2-3pm) 60 minutes (2 sessions) provision of informed consent prior to participating in focus group pizza lunch provided to participants a set of open-ended questions was designed to elicit information at a deeper level, particularly to understand their reasons for attending the fast track program, their transfer and adjustment experience, their experiences in the fast track program, support services accessed, and goals upon graduation. common themes from the focus group are identified and described in further detail throughout the report. c. supplemental data data from banner, kpi student satisfaction survey and kpi graduate satisfaction survey has been extracted to identify and compare student completion rates, employment rates, and to determine the correlation between entering marks and program completion. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 9 section iv: data analysis data analysis has been divided into two subsections: fast track student experiences and fast track graduate outcomes. within each subsection, relevant research questions are analyzed independently and then findings are summarized to identify strategies for improvement. to provide context, the following table displays a demographic summary of the fast track student universe (2009-10 to 2011-12), survey respondents and focus group participants: universe total sample sizes gender male female age group less than 21 21-25 26-30 31-35 more than 35 fast track program biomedical engineering technology biotechnology technologist chemical engineering technology electronics engineering technology environmental technology pharmaceutical and food science technology current academic year/year of entry 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 graduation status current student graduate prior education completed university degree other agreed to participate in focus group yes no online survey focus groups n=125 n=26 n=10 54% 46% 50% 50% 80% 20% 0% 54% 26% 6% 14% 0% 73% 19% 0% 8% 0% 60% 30% 0% 10% 1% 30% 8% 1% 17% 43% 0% 19% 15% 4% 15% 46% 0% 10% 10% 10% 10% 60% 19% 36% 45% 4% 23% 73% 0% 10% 90% 45% 55% 73% 27% 100% 0% 100% 0% 100% 0% 100% 0% n/a n/a 38% 62% 100% 0% student success factors: durham college fast track programs 10 experiences of students entering fast track programs why do students choose to enrol in a fast track program? among durham college fast track students and graduates, motivations for enrolling in a fast track program are directly linked to improving labour market opportunities. the primary reason is to gain hands-on experience while secondary reasons include a desire to enhance current skills, a desire to learn a new, specialized skill and unemployment (see figure 1.1). figure 1.1: reasons for enrolling in fast track program (n=26) 73% i wanted to get hands-on experience i wanted to enhance my present skills 50% i wanted to learn a new, specialized skill 50% 46% i was unemployed just completed degree and logical next step 8% the program was recommended to me 8% other 4% q10a. why did you decide to take a fast track program? (source: online survey, durham college, march 2012) focus group participants indicated that they had trouble locating employment and felt their prospects would improve if they supplemented their university education with an additional credential that offered real world experience. all agreed that the hands-on experience gained through college education is valuable and important. many linked this type of experience with increased employment opportunities and easier entry into the labour market. one student emphasized the importance of gaining hands on experience in a college environment: university doesn't provide too much hand-on [experience] with [the] equipment used in everyday labs in the outside world. in the kpi student satisfaction survey, which is conducted on an annual basis, respondents were asked to identify the single most important factor in their decision to attend durham college. among fast track students who attended the college in the past three years (2009-10 to 2011-12), leading factors included offered the program i wanted (53%) and co-op work opportunities (25%). on the other hand, students taking the three-year advanced diploma program indicated that program offerings (38%) and location (35%) were the top factors motivating their decision to attend durham college. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 11 what success factors do students and graduates identify? there is a strong perception among fast track students and graduates that positive labour market outcomes are driven by a combination of theoretical education and practical application of academic coursework (see figure 2.1). while most are confident that their ability to gain employment will improve, fewer strongly agreed that they are currently earning or will be able to earn more money after completing a fast track program. this implies that fast track programs offer better opportunities to be employed but not necessarily better paid. by enrolling in a fast track program, almost all (92%) strongly agreed or agreed that they will be in a better position to reach their career goals after completing a fast track program. the majority are also positive about having practical experience, gaining a new, specialized skill, having access to improved job prospects and having additional skills to advance their careers. when asked what factors helped them personally succeed in their program, many echoed that practical experience (e.g. lab work, field placements) was a key component of their success. figure 2.1: perceived value of complekng a fast track program (n=26) strongly agree berer posiponed to reach my career aspirapons agree 20% 72% 40% have pracpcal experience that i previously lacked have a new, specialized skill 36% have access to berer job prospects 31% have addiponal skills to advance my career able to earn more money 48% 52% 54% 42% 12% 92% 88% 85% 42% 48% 88% 85% 60% q17a. please indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements. (source: online survey, durham college march 2012) in addition to describing the importance of gaining practical exposure, fast track students and graduates also suggest that the workload and expectations are very high, and hence, strong time management skills and organizational skills are vital for success in a fast track program. one survey respondent stated there is just so much work. the sheer volumes of reports required every week is beyond intense. if you're not always on top of your homework and motivated to get it done, you'll be so far behind, it'll seem impossible to catch up. to be successful, focus group participants also felt that prospective students should be well prepared and expect to do a lot of work in a short period of time. some felt that fast track coursework is not more difficult or challenging compared to what they learned in university, student success factors: durham college fast track programs 12 but the volume of assignments and tests is considerably higher. most agreed that they had little time for social activities or employment, and had to dedicate most of their time to studying and completing academic assignments or tests. to cope with the amount of work, focus groups indicated that students often rely on support from other students and instructors. one student suggested, having small class sizes gives the students a chance to talk with the professors. and, unlike university, these professors have spent most of their adult lives 'in industry' and are extremely helpful when it comes to asking for advice on anything to do with jobs. focus group participants generally agreed that college faculty and staff were more approachable than in university, and that their industry experience should be seen as an invaluable resource for incoming fast track students. what is the level of affinity between students prior education and their fast track program? key factors affecting student satisfaction research suggests satisfaction with a new program or institution may be influenced by the length of time between completion of one program, and enrolment in another. some studies (e.g. hango, 2011) have shown that university students who delay their transfer can find it more difficult to adjust to a postsecondary environment. most university graduates surveyed transferred to a fast track program fairly soon after completing their degree and some even did so immediately (see figure 3.1). the majority of students and graduates enrolled in a fast track program at durham college within five years of graduating from university; 31% enrolled immediately after completing their university education, 27% enrolled after one year and 35% enrolled after two to five years. very few (8%) waited more than five years before beginning their fast track program. figure 3.1: length of time between graduakon and fast track (n=26) 31% immediate 27% one year prior 35% two to ve years prior six to ten years prior more than ten years prior 0% 8% q9a. when did you graduate? (source: online survey, durham college, march 2012) another factor that may have an impact on fast track student satisfaction is the affinity between a students university education and their fast track program. it is sometimes assumed that university and college graduates will continue their education in a related field of student success factors: durham college fast track programs 13 study; however, this is not always the case and often depends on program availability and labour market conditions. in fact, slightly less than half of students and graduates surveyed (44%) indicated that their degree was in the same field of study as their fast track program (see figure 3.2). overall, 24% said their fast track program was highly related while 20% said it was only somewhat related to their degree. when asked if they faced any difficulties prior to enrolling, one student stated, my university degree did not relate to my fast track program, and that this made the admissions process challenging. figure 3.2: anity between previous educakon and fast track program (n=25) highly related, 24% not related, 56% somewhat related, 20% q9b. is your degree in the same field of study as your fast track program? (online survey, march 2012) q9c. how related is your degree to your fast track program (source: online survey, durham college, march 2012) to what extent are students entering fast track programs / graduates who completed fast track programs satisfied with their transfer experience? when asked to rate their satisfaction, the majority of students and graduates (69%) indicated they were very satisfied or satisfied with their transfer experience (see figure 4.1). however, 19% were neutral and although few, 12% indicated they were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied. this level of indifference is something that should continue to be monitored over time. figure 4.1: transfer experience saksfackon (n=26) 31% very sapsed 38% sapsed 19% neutral unsapsed very unsapsed 8% 4% q16a. overall, how would you rate your experience in transferring to your fast track program? (source: online survey, durham college, march 2012) when asked to provide more clarity in the focus group, many said that they were satisfied with their fast track program overall, particularly the helpfulness of the instructors, practical application of the course content, and increased opportunities for employment. however, student success factors: durham college fast track programs 14 despite high overall satisfaction, students and graduates did experience some pre- and post- enrolment difficulties, particularly in terms of the admissions process/prerequisites, acceptance requirements, placement/career opportunities, and scheduling. pre-enrolment difficulties figure 4.2 outlines some of the difficulties students and graduates of durham college fast- track programs faced when entering their new program and institution. the majority of those surveyed suggested that they had no difficulties, with 76% indicating that they experienced no difficulties in the transition prior to enrolment in their new program. the primary difficulties faced by fast track students and graduates when entering their new program at durham was finding out about the student services offered at the college, and determining whether the program was right for them. 36% of students and graduates who were surveyed indicated that they either agreed or strongly agreed that they experienced difficulties both finding out about what student services were offered at durham college, and determining whether or not the program was a good fit. some students and graduates also reported that they had difficulties related to the admissions process at durham college. approximately one quarter of those surveyed either agreed or strongly agreed that they had difficulties connecting to admissions, and 8 percent indicated that they had difficulties finding out whether their degree met the programs admission requirements. some focus group participants elaborated on this particular issue. many were required to provide detailed proof that they met the requirements of the program and submit multiple transcripts, which were often difficult to obtain (particularly for international students and those who did not recently complete their degree). this suggests that admission requirements may not be well communicated to prospective students and many have to make extra efforts to demonstrate their qualifications that they were not completely prepared for. aside from these challenges, one in three students and graduates also indicated that they experienced difficulties connecting with someone from the program, and finding their way around campus. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 15 figure 4.2: diculkes experienced prior to enrolment in fast track (n=26) strongly agree agree no diculpes 32% 4% finding out about student services determining whether the program was right for me 32 36% 36% 36% 8% connecpng to someone from the program finding my way around campus 44% 24% 32% 32% 4% 20% connecpng to admissions 76 32% 24% degree met admissions 4 4% 8% q11. please indicate the extent to which you experienced any difficulties transitioning to a new program/institution prior to enrolling? (source: online survey, durham college, march 2012) post-enrolment difficulties similar to the results of figure 4.2, most students and graduates (84%) of durham college fast track programs strongly agreed or agreed that they had no difficulties with the transition to their new program after enrolment (see figure 4.3). the primary difficulties that some students did face were accessing career information, determining what student services durham college offers and connecting with someone from their program outside of class hours. figure 4.3: diculkes experienced a>er enrolment in fast track (n=26) strongly agree i had no diculpes aaer starpng classes accessing career informapon finding out what student services are oered connecpng with someone from pgm. outside of class adappng to a new insptupon accessing it services accessing learning support services agree 28% 56% 4% 21% 84% 25% 21% 21% 8% 12% 20% 8% 12% 13% 13% 8% 8% q13. please indicate the extent to which you experienced any difficulties transitioning to a new program/institution after starting classes? (source: online survey, durham college, march 2012) student success factors: durham college fast track programs 16 overall, focus group participants felt that the college atmosphere was very different from what they had become accustomed to while in university. students agreed that classes are less formal, students are more disruptive and because requirements are compressed, the workload is much heavier. in addition, because of the heavy workload, very few felt they had any time for a social life. this was exacerbated by the fact that students often did not feel a connection between themselves and their three-year regular program counterparts, primarily due to the differences in academic experience and age. one student commented that it was difficult adjusting to the class style, the other students and teachers. all very different than [what] i was used to. on a positive note, while the environment often made it difficult for fast track students to make social connections with other peers, college professors were perceived as more supportive and more approachable than university professors. some even helped prepare their students for the labour market by providing interview tips and lists of potential employers. one respondent mentioned i really liked how closely all the instructors worked with the students in their classes, and that for the most part professors instruct their own laboratory sessions (this is not the case in university). student services needs fast track students and graduates were most likely to report using the computer commons, the library, food services, the bookstore, study spaces and career services (see figure 4.4). however, many mentioned that it was often difficult to find study spaces and computers on campus and many of the study spaces did not meet laptop requirements. one respondent stated, there is just not enough space! and, where there is space, there are either no plugs or the outlets are broken. in addition to these concerns, participants in the focus group also indicated that they could have been provided with more information about career services and resume development. all agreed that this was the most important service, and overall, they were much less concerned with taking advantage of academic or learning support services (e.g. peer tutoring and student liaison advising) since they already had post-secondary experience. these findings are not very surprising since the majority enrolled in their fast track program to augment their university education with hands-on experience and increase their employment opportunities. thus, career-building supports (e.g. resume writing, interview preparation, etc.) would be most beneficial for this particular group of students. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 17 figure 4.4: usage of student services (n=25) high use computer commons 64% 24% 28% library food services bookstore low use 52% 56% 8% 20% 20% health and medical services 8% financial aid 8% sports and recreapon sals 0% peer tutoring 0% student liaison advising 0% 60% 48% 56% 40% 28% csd 4% 60% 40% 36% 76% 76% 56% career services 80% 68% study space 88% 48% 8% 44% 28% q14. [students] which student services have you accessed to date/[graduates] did you access? (source: online survey, durham college, march 2012) what strategies could durham college implement to improve fast track students satisfaction with their transfer experience? in terms of strategies/recommendations for improvement, students and graduates of fast track programs had five key suggestions: i. ii. iii. iv. v. increase fast track program awareness and comprehension; clarify entry requirements and simplify the admissions process; improve class scheduling and loosen time requirements; expand focus on and enrich practical experience; and provide more assistance to students to locate field placement opportunities. first, given the substantial benefits of fast track programs, students and graduates suggest that awareness levels, particularly among current university students, need to increase. one student made this very clear suggesting fast track programs could be made better if durham college student success factors: durham college fast track programs 18 were to advertise them better. i think this would attract more prospective students. i had no idea that this program even existed until a few months before i started it. in addition to awareness, many members of the focus group believed they did not have a strong understanding of how the program worked or what it would actually entail. one in three strongly agreed or agreed that they experienced difficulties determining whether the program was even right for them. students did not always realize what type of commitment the program required and were surprised by the fast pace and workload when they started classes. students said they did not receive a lot of information prior to starting their classes. second, there seems to be some confusion around entry requirements. approximately 8% of students and graduates strongly agreed or agreed that they experienced difficulties finding out whether their degree even satisfied admission requirements. focus group participants also expressed that program prerequisites did not always correspond with the actual course material. in some cases, the material was perceived as too easy or a repeat of what they already learned in university; however, in other cases, it was perceived as too advanced or too difficult. overall, most felt the admissions process could be simplified. more specifically, many indicated there should be greater clarification around who would be a good candidate for a fast track program as well as closer links between what is required for acceptance into the program and what is actually being taught. third, there were some notable concerns regarding class scheduling and time requirements. focus groups showed that fast track students have little to no time for social activities and most could not work part-time while completing their diploma. many indicated that the stress levels are very high because of competing priorities and deadlines. some felt frustrated because classes are not evenly distributed throughout the school week leading to some extremely long days on campus. in addition, breaks between classes are perceived as either too short or too long, thus making it even more difficult to achieve a school-life balance. despite these concerns, most felt that the compressed format was important because it allowed them to get out into the labour market more quickly. fourth, many students believed that fast track programs would be more attractive to employers if they were re-classified as graduate certificates or graduate diplomas (rather than advanced diplomas). some felt that this type of classification would better signify the applied nature of the programs. in addition, some indicated that prospective students would benefit from an increased focus on laboratory experience rather than theory. hands-on learning (with high program affinity) was identified as the most important aspect of fast track programs among the vast majority of fast track students. finally, students would have preferred a higher level of support to find a placement. while many enjoyed the opportunity, there often were not enough placements available to students, particularly those with a direct relation to their program. most felt they would have benefitted student success factors: durham college fast track programs 19 from more assistance finding a placement. one student suggested that program graduates could become ambassadors for durham college to provide support to current fast track students and help them locate potential placement, and even employment opportunities. when asked to describe strategies that durham college could implement to improve the experience of fast track students, one respondent wanted the college to help students get work placements, not tell students to find ones on their own. it was very difficult trying to find a placement in such a short time frame while having 7 to 8 courses a semester. another specified, i think it would be better if there was more selection and guidance with regard to student placements. some also would have preferred to extend coursework over the fall and winter semesters (to ease workload) and then complete their placement in the summer months. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 20 outcomes of students that complete fast track programs how do completion rates differ, if at all, between fast track students and students who complete the full three-year program? for the following analysis, completion rates for fast track programs are based on standard program length. to be considered complete, a fast track student must meet all program requirements within two semesters. however, it would be unfair to only compare completion rates for one-year fast track programs to full three-year programs. to provide a more holistic view, completion rates for full three-year programs have been viewed in two ways: overall completion rates (see figure 6.1) and final year completion rates (see figure 6.2). the former is based on standard program length (to be considered complete, a student must meet all program requirements within six semesters). the latter is based on the length of the final year only (to be considered complete, a third year student must meet all of their third year requirements within two semesters). encouragingly, the heavy workload and fast pace do not seem to have a notable impact on completion of a fast track program. regardless of program, completion rates of fast track programs are strong and significantly higher when compared to three-year advanced diploma programs. the vast majority of fast track students complete their program within the required two semesters, compared to less than half of three-year students completing their program within the required six semesters (depending on the program). figure 6.1: overall completion rates* by program type completion term* winter 2010 winter 2011 winter 2012 three fast three fast three fast program type year track year track year track 42% 100% 43% 80% 41% 91% total (72/173) biomedical engineering technology biotechnology technologist chemical engineering technology electronic engineering technology environmental technology pharmaceutical and food science technology (24/24) 39% n/a 48% 100% 50% 100% 28% n/a 48% 100% 48% 100% (9/23) (14/29) (11/22) (13/47) (15/31) (10/21) (6/6) (4/4) (6/6) (8/8) (74/174) 41% (7/17) 55% (36/45) n/a 65% (71/175) 41% (9/22) 33% (51/56) 0% (0/1) 87% (16/29) (11/17) (10/30) (13/15) 52% 100% 35% 100% 32% n/a 34% 100% 44% 90% 44% 100% (12/23) (14/44) (15/34) 37% (10/27) (1/1) (9/10) 88% (15/17) (8/23) (14/41) (16/36) 61% (14/23) (5/5) (1/1) (5/5) 93% (27/29) total three fast year track 42% 89% (217/522) 40% (25/62) 45% (111/125) 0% (0/1) 79% (40/88) (30/38) 46% 100% 31% 100% (31/68) (41/132) 46% (46/101) 48% (34/71) (10/10) (1/1) 95% (20/21) 93% (50/54) based on standard completion rates (i.e. three-year students who started in fall 2007 and completed in winter 2010, started in fall 2008 and completed in winter 2011 and started in fall 2009 and completed in winter 2012; fast track students who started in fall 2009 and completed in winter 2010, started in fall 2010 and completed in winter 2011 and started in fall 2011 and completed in winter 2012). only students who started in a fall semester have been included. (source: durham college banner system, june 2012) student success factors: durham college fast track programs 21 when comparing the full program length of fast track programs (i.e. one year) to just the final year of study in full three-year programs, completion rates are more similar than when comparing fast track completion rates with full three year advanced diploma completion rates. completion rates of fast track programs are still generally higher than final year completion rates of advanced diploma programs. this could perhaps be attributed to the fact that fast track students have previously graduated from a university degree program and are more accustomed to heavy academic workloads. figure 6.2: final year completion rates* by program type completion term* winter 2010 winter 2011 winter 2012 third fast third fast third fast program type year track year track year track 78% 100% 64% 80% 64% 91% total (72/92) biomedical engineering technology biotechnology technologist chemical engineering technology electronic engineering technology environmental technology pharmaceutical and food science technology (24/24) 90% n/a 78% 100% 73% 100% 62% n/a 100% 100% 77% 100% (9/10) (14/18) (11/15) (13/21) (15/15) (10/13) (6/6) (4/4) (6/6) (8/8) (74/115) (36/45) 70% n/a (7/10) 73% 65% (71/111) 53% (9/17) 71% (51/56) 0% (0/1) 87% (16/22) (11/17) (10/14) (13/15) 67% 100% 89% 100% 58% n/a 50% 100% 63% 90% 70% 100% (12/18) (1/1) (14/24) (15/24) 59% (10/17) (9/10) 88% (15/17) (8/9) (14/28) (16/23) 70% (14/20) (5/5) (1/1) (5/5) 93% (27/29) total third fast year track 68% 89% (217/318) 68% (25/37) 74% (111/125) 0% (0/1) 79% (40/54) (30/38) 74% 100% 56% 100% (31/42) (41/73) 74% (46/62) 68% (34/50) (10/10) (1/1) 95% (20/21) 93% (50/54) based on standard final year completion rates (i.e. three-year students who started their third year in fall 2009 and completed in winter 2010, started their third year in fall 2010 and completed in winter 2011 and started their third year in fall 2011 and completed in winter 2012; fast track students who started in fall 2009 and completed in winter 2010, started in fall 2010 and completed in winter 2011 and started in fall 2011 and completed in winter 2012). only students who started in a fall semester have been included. (source: durham college banner system, june 2012) while completion rates are very high for fast track programs, completion rates for the fast track biotechnology technologist program have been fluctuating year over year, and tend to be lower than other fast track programs. this is something that should continue to be monitored to ensure there are no systemic issues influencing this programs rate of attrition. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 22 what is the relationship between students first term marks and program completion? there is a strong relationship between first term gpa (grade point average) and program completion rates for both fast track and three-year advanced diploma students (see figures 7.1 and 7.2, respectively). consistently, gpas are lower among students who did not complete their program in the required time frame. to improve the transfer experience of students and eventual outcomes of graduates, it is important to identify these at-risk students early on and provide support to address their specific needs. this type of support can help further strengthen fast track programs at durham college. figure 7.1 correlation between first term gpa and completion (fast track students) first term fall 2009 fall 2010 fall 2011 complete incomplete complete incomplete complete incomplete status (n=24) (n=0) (n=36) (n=9) (n=51) (n=6) average gpa 3.93 n/a 3.96 2.18 3.79 0.09 0.00 to 0.99 0% n/a 0% 22% 0% 100% 1.00 to 1.99 0% n/a 3% 33% 2% 0% 2.00 to 2.99 21% n/a 14% 11% 20% 0% 3.00 to 3.99 25% n/a 28% 11% 31% 0% 4.00 or higher 54% n/a 56% 22% 47% 0% figure 7.2 correlation between first term gpa and completion (three year students) first term fall 2007 fall 2008 fall 2009 complete incomplete complete incomplete complete incomplete status (n=72) (n=101) (n=74) (n=100) (n=71) (n=104) average gpa 3.56 2.01 3.68 1.98 3.98 2.31 0.00 to 0.99 0% 31% 1% 32% 0% 21% 1.00 to 1.99 3% 13% 1% 18% 0% 14% 2.00 to 2.99 24% 28% 20% 24% 7% 25% 3.00 to 3.99 38% 19% 38% 15% 39% 29% 4.00 or higher 36% 10% 39% 11% 54% 11% student success factors: durham college fast track programs 23 how do employment rates differ, if at all, between fast track students and students who complete the full three-year program six months after graduation? unlike completion rates, employment rates six months after graduation are generally higher for regular three-year advanced diploma programs compared to equivalent fast track programs (see figure 8.1). this is an area of concern given that the primary drivers of fast track enrollment are related to finding employment and enhancing labour market outcomes. overall, the biotechnology technologist and pharmaceutical and food science technology fast track programs have the lowest employment rates among recent graduates (six months after graduation). according to service canada, the labour market for these types of occupations may be limited in the coming years because the actual value (after inflation) of investments in the chemical industry (which include the pharmaceuticals and drug manufacturing sectors) fell by almost 75% between 2001 and 2010. survey year program type figure 8.1 employment rates* by program type 2010-11 2011-12 three fast three fast year track year track total biomedical engineering technology biotechnology technologist chemical engineering technology electronic engineering technology environmental technology pharmaceutical and food science technology 73% 60% 75% n/a 100% n/a 56% 40% 60% 67% 67% 100% 100% 100% 80% n/a 92% n/a 75% 50% 88% 83% 86% 80% 88% 33% (37/51) (3/4) (5/9) (6/9) (8/10) (9/12) (6/7) (9/15) (2/5) (1/1) (2/4) (4/5) 90% (42/47) (7/7) (3/5) (7/7) (11/12) (7/8) (7/8) 63% (12/19) (4/6) (1/1) (5/6) (2/6) total three fast year track 81% (79/98) 62% (21/34) 91% n/a 57% 55% 81% 100% 87% n/a 80% 70% 87% 54% (10/11) (8/14) (13/16) (19/22) (16/20) (13/15) (6/11) (2/2) (7/10) (6/11) source: kpi graduate satisfaction survey, which is conducted six months after graduation and funded by the ministry of training colleges and universities. 2009-10 graduates completed the survey in 2010-11 while 2010-11 graduates completed the survey in 2011-12. moreover, among fast track graduates who did find employment six months after graduation over the past two years, 23% indicated they were only working part-time hours (see figure 8.2). this is slightly higher than the percentage of three-year students who indicated they were only working part-time (17%). student success factors: durham college fast track programs 24 figure 8.2: full-time versus part-time employment full time three year (n=94) part time 83% 77% fast track (n=26) 17 100% 23 100% q16. how many hours per week do/did you work at your job, excluding overtime? (source: 2010-11 and 2011-12 kpi graduate satisfaction surveys, mtcu) only 57% of fast track graduates indicated that their job is related or partially related to the program they graduated from, compared to 64% of employed graduates of full three-year advanced diploma programs (see figure 8.3). figure 8.3: graduates working in a field related to their program very related three year (n=94) fast track (n=28) somewhat related 49% 36% 15 21 64% 57% q20. was this job related to the program that you graduated from? (source: 2010-11 and 2011-12 kpi graduate satisfaction surveys, mtcu) in addition, despite holding a university degree, most employed fast track graduates (64%) indicated that a high school diploma or college diploma were the highest levels of education student success factors: durham college fast track programs 25 needed to attain their current position. only 8% of fast track graduates reported that their job required them to have a university degree (see figure 8.4). figure 8.4: highest level of educakon needed for current role three year (n=76) university degree fast track (n=25) 4% 8% 59% college diploma 36% 16% high school diploma 28% 21% other credenpal 28% q19. when you were selected for this job, what was the highest level of educational needed to get this job? (source: 2010-11 and 2011-12 kpi graduate satisfaction surveys, mtcu) despite low employment rates and a lack of related employment, the majority of employed fast track graduates (88%) from the past two years felt that the skills they developed in their program were extremely helpful or helpful in terms of locating employment (see figure 8.5). although still high, fewer three-year graduates (73%) felt the same way. figure 8.5: helpfulness of program skills in locakng employment extremely helpful three year (n=79) fast track (n=25) helpful 35% 44% 38 73% 44 88% q21. to what extent did the skills you developed during college help you get your job? (source: 2010-11 and 2011-12 kpi graduate satisfaction surveys, mtcu) student success factors: durham college fast track programs 26 moreover, when asked to think about the demands of their job, 25% of fast track graduates said they were very satisfied with the preparation they received from their program and another 54% said they were satisfied with this aspect (see figure 8.6). albeit slightly lower, satisfaction ratings were similar among three-year graduates. figure 8.6: saksfackon with program's preparakon for the job market very sapsed three year (n=93) fast track (n=28) 23% 25% sapsed 53 54 76% 79% q22. thinking about the demands of this job, how satisfied are you with each of the following aspects of your program? (source: 2010-11 and 2011-12 kpi graduate satisfaction surveys, mtcu) what best practices can be identified from examining the differences in completion rates, employment rates, and the relationship between first term marks and program completion? fast track programs are often perceived as a way to move students through college programs more quickly and reduce their chances for attrition. completion rates are very strong among fast track students with almost all students completing their programs within the standard time frame (i.e. two semesters). additionally, fast track students are significantly more likely to complete their programs than three-year students who are enrolled in the same programs. however, although still relatively high, on average, only three quarters of biotechnology technologist students end up completing the program in two semesters. thus, it is important to determine the barriers to completion of this program and identify strategies to improve retention. although fast track graduates have a university degree as well as an advanced college diploma, employment rates are generally better for three-year graduates (who may or may not have more than one credential). while employed graduates found their programs helpful in locating employment and were satisfied with the preparation they received for the job market, many had yet to find a job six months after graduation and a high proportion were working part-time. furthermore, many did not find a job that was related to the program they graduated from. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 27 these are substantial areas of concern particularly since improving employment opportunities is the primary reason why students enrol in a fast track program. although labour market conditions are outside the control of the college, job searching strategies and career counselling are examples of how the college might help to improve fast track employment rates. since the program is so compressed, it may be difficult to offer as much support to these students; however, guidance from the college would help ease the transition to the labour market and increase employment. these and other best practices to improve fast track student outcomes are discussed in greater detail in the recommendations section (please refer to section v). section v: conclusions and recommendations conclusions to improve students satisfaction and graduates employability, this research has focused on developing a better understanding of the experiences and outcomes of students moving from a university degree to a fast track college diploma. this understanding can help develop strategies that will enrich the experience of these students and improve the outcomes of those who complete their diploma program. university-to-college transfer students come to college armed with different knowledge and experiences than regular students. coming from a university environment, their needs and expectations are decidedly different from students who are entering college directly from high school. in particular, this study focused on fast track students at durham college. for the last four years, durham college has been offering fast track program options within the school of science and engineering technology. these programs were developed for both domestic and international students with a bachelor of science or bachelor of engineering degree, depending on the program. eligible students can take advantage of the compressed opportunity to complete their advanced diploma requirements in two semesters. the first part of this study examined the transfer experiences of fast track students and graduates. overall, students are positive about fast track programs at durham college and most end up completing their programs, but this research revealed that there are some opportunities to increase satisfaction and engagement. students identified five strategies that durham college could implement to improve fast track students satisfaction with their transfer experience including increasing fast track program awareness and comprehension, clarifying entry requirements and simplifying the admissions process, refining class scheduling and loosening time requirements, expanding focus on and enriching practical experience, and providing more assistance to students to locate placement opportunities. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 28 the second part of this study examined the outcomes of fast track graduates. although it is generally assumed that multiple postsecondary credentials will lead to better labour market outcomes, this is not always the case. while program completion rates are very strong, particularly compared to three-year programs, employment rates (six months after graduation) are actually lower, on average (62% versus 81%, respectively) for fast track graduates. moreover, among those who are employed, 23% are working in part-time positions and only 57% indicate that they are working in a field related to their program. there is clearly an opportunity to improve the labour market outcomes of students who complete fast track programs. recommendations for improving the experiences of fast track students from this research, we have identified three key recommendations that can improve the experience of fast track students at durham college: (1) increase pathway affinity and simplify the transfer process; (2) strengthen and enrich the field placement opportunity; and (3) develop relevant and opportune social opportunities to encourage school-life balance. increase pathway affinity and simplify the transfer process students are increasingly pursuing multiple credentials through the postsecondary education system. according to college ontario, the movement of students between colleges and universities is becoming more common. students attending ontario colleges are more likely to have previous postsecondary experience than in the past, and this trend is growing. therefore, the continued development of university-to-college pathways is critical. more importantly, these pathways should have a high degree of affinity to ease the transition process. program affinity between the college and other postsecondary institutions needs to improve as this has been defined by the oncat as one of the elements making current college-university partnerships successful. however, over one half of fast track students and graduates surveyed indicated that their fast track program was not at all related to their university degree. some study participants said they were dissatisfied with the lack of fit between what they learned in their degree program and what they were learning at durham college. focus groups also revealed that the program requirements did not always correspond to course material. related to program affinity, a clearly defined articulation agreement will also have a significantly positive impact on students transferring into fast track programs. a colleges ontario report (2008) indicates that the ability of colleges to provide clear information is currently hampered by a lack of common terminology related to transfers (e.g., equivalency, advanced standing, exemption, substitution) and their appropriate uses in credit recognition (2008). student success factors: durham college fast track programs 29 a lack of clear information about the transfer process was a frequently cited issue by students and graduates. many students experienced difficulties determining whether their degree satisfied admission requirements. there was often confusion about prerequisites and miscommunications about transcripts. some did not feel prepared for the heavy workload and competing time commitments. student and graduate focus groups highlighted the need to simplify the admissions process, clarify requirements, and provide more information to students so they can make informed decisions about their education. to increase student success, admissions criteria should also emphasize program rigour so there are no surprises upon enrollment. strengthen and enrich the field placement opportunity university graduates who enter a fast track program at durham college are predominantly looking to gain hands-on experience to strengthen their resume and find employment. this is often a driving factor in their pursuit of further education and emphasizes the importance of finding relevant and meaningful field placement opportunities. focus groups revealed that students were excited about their programs field placement opportunities. many had already experienced some difficulties finding meaningful employment and as a result, were looking to develop the practical skills to give them an edge in the labour market. students look to field placement as a way to develop the hands on experience that is needed to complement the theoretical background they have already gained in previous education. despite the importance that many place on field placement, many of the students included in this study indicated that due to the heavy workload in the program, they struggled to find the necessary placements, and some even indicated that professors provided little or no guidance to help. this was evident as students surveyed indicated that accessing placement/career information was the primary difficulty they experienced after enrolment in the program. many indicated they ended up in a placement that was not highly related to their program or was a departure from the type of career they were hoping to find. in addition, some argued that their experience with field placement was often too rushed and not meaningful enough to make a positive impact on their career search. a compressed program requires an intensive time commitment from students. a support network that includes professors, fast track graduate ambassadors, peers and career service staff, could help alleviate some of the added stress of finding placements. this type of support is particularly important given that many students cited a lack of school-life balance while completing their fast track program. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 30 develop relevant and opportune social opportunities to encourage a school-life balance a solid support network is also important for other areas of college life as balancing schoolwork, a social life and in some cases, part-time work, can be challenging for students. fast track students, in particular, need to find strategies to manage their fast-paced workload. it is also important that students develop time management skills that would provide them with the ability to allot time for social activities. almost all focus group participants agreed that they spent most of their time studying for tests or working on assignments and did not have much time for a social life. moreover, because of the age gap, many were unable to connect with younger three-year advanced diploma students who may have shared classes with them. fast track students have already graduated from university and thus, their experiences and needs are quite different from the majority of other students. they are also strong academically and do not see a lot of value in academic supports such as student liaisons or peer tutors; however, other types of on- campus resources or supports could help alleviate the stresses of a demanding program. focus groups highlighted the need to offer unique, voluntary social networking opportunities for fast track students and their peers. ultimately, these opportunities need to be tailored toward the needs and wants of this particular group. some examples might include peer study groups, group fitness challenges or lunch and learn sessions. peer study groups would give fast track students the opportunity to lean on other students to ask questions, help solve complex problems, and take advantage of other students strengths. group fitness challenges would provide fast track students with a list of nutrition and wellness activities that exist outside the gym and help them stay motivated in a team environment. finally, fast track student lunch and learn sessions could include speakers such as former graduates, professors or industry employers to provide students with a wider support network and focus on relevant issues such as, interviewing skills, resume writing and employment opportunities. recommendations for improving the outcomes of fast track graduates in addition to improving the experience of current students, we have also identified three key recommendations to improve the outcomes of fast track graduates: (1) provide more assistance to fast track graduates to locate employment; (2) foster connections between field placements and future employment opportunities; and (3) set expectations early on and develop a support network for at-risk students. provide more assistance to fast track graduates to locate employment student success factors: durham college fast track programs 31 the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) promotes accelerated diploma programs (i.e. fast track programs) to university graduates as a way of gaining additional job- specific skills that build on their degree foundation. students generally enter into fast track programs with the intention of gaining practical experience to build on their theoretical knowledge and find employment after graduation. however, while completion rates are very strong among fast track students with almost all students completing their programs within the standard time frame (i.e. two semesters), employment rates (six months after graduation) are not nearly as robust. although fast track graduates have a university degree as well as an advanced college diploma, employment rates are generally better for three-year graduates. while employed graduates found their programs helpful in locating employment and are generally satisfied with the preparation they received for the job market, many had yet to find a job six months after graduation and many were working part-time at the time of the survey. furthermore, many indicated they were working in positions that were not related to the program from which they graduated. these are substantial areas of concern particularly since improving employment opportunities is the primary reason why students enrol in a fast track program. by their very nature, fast track programs are so compressed that there is little time to provide students with the preparation they require for the job market. nonetheless, skills like resume writing, interviewing, and networking should all be incorporated (where possible) into the curriculum. in particular, the field placement is a good place to integrate career-building techniques such as networking (this is discussed in further detail below). as mentioned earlier, since time is a barrier, lunch and learn sessions could also provide fast track students with valuable lessons from former graduates, professors and industry-specific employers. proactive strategies such as these can help improve the eventual outcomes of fast track graduates in the labour market. foster connections between field placements and future employment opportunities the field placement is an opportunity for students to gain valuable practical experience in the field in which they hope to find employment. it can provide students with soft skills such as interpersonal, communication and teamwork skills and ideally, it provides work experience that is directly related to the students area of study. many fast track students believed they could leverage their placement opportunity into a future career. this is not surprising since the main reason for enrolling in a fast track program is to complement university education with job- ready experience. however, focus groups revealed that students were often disappointed with their placement experience and many did not feel the opportunity was meaningful. by meaningful, many indicated the placement was not related to their program, did not offer enough work experience (observation rather than participation) and supervisors did not or could not provide constructive feedback. in some cases, there also seemed to be a lack of communication student success factors: durham college fast track programs 32 between professors and field supervisors so students often felt they were not always supported by the college, and program faculty. to improve employment rates among fast track students, the field placement opportunity should be well connected to the labour market in order to bolster students employability. this should be the place where students can learn what will be expected of them in the workforce, and apply what is being taught in the classroom. placement opportunities should give students the experience they need to be successful in the job market. set expectations early on and develop a support network for at-risk students there is a strong relationship between first term grades and final program completion rates. while most fast track students are strong academically, those who have below average grades in their first semester are often at risk of leaving. this underscores another area in which setting expectations during the admissions process (for example, emphasizing heavy workload and conflicting time demands), and providing a support network, could benefit fast track students. fostering collaboration in classrooms (e.g. having students work together or evaluate one another) is one way to help build a support network. professors can also continue to let students ask questions and when needed, meet with them after hours to provide extra help. these small steps can help further strengthen fast track programs at durham college. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 33 references association of canadian community colleges. (2011). transferability and post-secondary pathways: the role of canadian colleges and institutes. ottawa, on: author. boothby, d. & drewes, t. (2004). postsecondary education in canada: returns to university, college and trades education. peterborough, on. colleges ontario. (2009). student mobility between ontarios colleges and universities. toronto, on: author. durham college. (2012). fast track student focus groups. oshawa, on: office of research services and innovation. durham college. (2012). fast track student and graduate survey. oshawa, on: office of research services and innovation. goyder, j. (2009, december). from levels to combinations: examining new vocational strategies within post-secondary education. presentation conducted at the higher education and social statistics conference, montreal, qc. hango, darcy. (2011). length of time between high school graduation and enrolling in postsecondary education. ottawa, on: statistics canada. kerr, a., mccloy, u., liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto, on: higher education quality council of ontario. ministry of training colleges and universities (2010, 2011, 2012). kpi graduate satisfaction survey. toronto, on: author. ministry of training, colleges and universities. (n.d.) policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system. retrieved december 8, 2011, from http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/document.html student completion rates. (2012). retrieved june 17, 2012 from durham colleges banner student information system. vaala, l. (n.d.). attending two-year college after attending a four-year university in alberta, canada. lethbridge, ab. welcome to ontransfer. (2011). retrieved december 8, 2011 from http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/index_en.php student success factors: durham college fast track programs 34 zhang, f. (2007). seamless pathways to lifelong learning: csa recommendations for improving transferability and mobility. toronto, on: college student alliance. appendices appendix a: fast track student and graduate online survey durham college is conducting this survey as part of a research project to better understand the experiences of students in fast track programs. fast track programs are designed for students who have already completed a degree program. eligible students can take advantage of the compressed, fast-track opportunity to complete their advanced diploma requirements in two semesters. this study will explore the transfer from the degree program to the accelerated program. this study will also explore anticipated and/or actual outcomes after graduation, including completion rates and employment rates. the purpose of the research project is to develop strategies that will improve the student experience. we are interested in hearing about your experiences. your participation is completely voluntary. only the research team will have access to your responses. responses to the questions will not be linked to individual respondents in any reporting and no one will be identifiable in any reporting. if you decide not to participate, there will be no impact on your future dealings with durham college. if you decide to participate in the survey, you may end the survey at any time without giving a reason; in this case, any data you have provided will not be used. if you decide to participate, all of your responses will be kept confidential. if you have any questions you do not feel comfortable answering, please skip them. the data will be stored on a secure durham college server. all data collected from this survey will be destroyed seven year after the full completion of all reports as per durham college policy. the survey will take less than 15 minutes to complete. by completing the survey, you will be entered into a draw for one of three prizes of a best buy gift card valued at $100. if you have any questions or concerns, please contact debbie mckee demczyk, principal investigator, at debbie.mckeedemczyk@durhamcollege.ca 1. [computed] number of surveys completed: 26 2. informed consent: by checking the yes box below, you confirm that you have read and understand the information about this research project. you agree to voluntarily participate in this research and give your consent freely. you understand you can withdraw from the survey at any time, without penalty, and you do not have to give any reason for withdrawal. yes, i give my full consent to participate in this study. no, i do not want to continue with this survey. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 35 demographics 3. please identify the fast track program that you enrolled in: biomedical engineering technology biotechnology technologist chemical engineering technology electronic engineering technology environmental technology pharmaceutical and food science technology 4. in which academic year did you enrol in this fast track program? 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 5. [computed] graduated yes [if q2 = 2009-10 or 2010-11] no [if q2 = 2011-12] 6. your current age: less than 21 21-25 26-30 31-35 more than 35 7. your gender: male female 8. the education you completed before entering this program: (select all that apply) university degree [if yes, go to next question] other: please specify: ________________________ 9a. when did you graduate? [only for those who completed a university degree] the academic year immediately preceding enrolment in the fast track program one year prior two to five years prior six to ten years prior student success factors: durham college fast track programs 36 more than ten years prior 9b. is your degree in the same field of study as your fast track program? yes no not applicable: please explain: ________________________ 9c. [if yes at q9b] how related is your degree to your fast track program? highly related somewhat related not at all related decision to enrol/transfer 10a. why did you decide to take a fast track program? (select all that apply) i just completed my degree and this was the logical next step i was unemployed i wanted to get hands-on experience i wanted to enhance my present skills i wanted to learn a new, specialized skill the program was recommended to me my employer paid for all/part of the fees other: please specify: _________________________________ 11. please indicate the extent to which you experienced any difficulties transitioning to a new program/institution prior to enrolling. prior to enrolling, i had difficulties strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 1 finding out whether my degree met the admissions requirement. 2 connecting with someone from admissions. 3 connecting with someone from the program. 4 finding out what student services are offered. 5 finding my way around campus. 6 determining whether the program was right for me. student success factors: durham college fast track programs 37 7 i had no difficulties in the transition prior to enrolling. 12. please describe any other difficulties you faced prior to enrolling: ___________________________ experiences while in the program 13. please indicate the extent to which you experienced any difficulties transitioning to a new program/institution after starting classes. after starting classes, i had difficulties strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 1 connecting with someone from the program outside of class hours. 2 finding out what student services are offered. 3 accessing career information. 4 adapting to a new institution. 5 accessing it services. 6 accessing learning support services. 7 i had no difficulties in the transition after starting classes. 14. please describe any other difficulties you faced after starting classes: _________________________ 15. which student services have you accessed to date [current students]/did you access [graduates]? [fourth and fifth column only appear if yes in column three] service 1 2 3 student academic learning services (sals) centre for students with disabilities peer tutoring yes/no (15a) yes no if yes (15b) high use low use yes no high use low use yes high use student success factors: durham college fast track programs any difficulties? please describe: (15c) 38 4 computer commons 5 library 6 study space 7 food services 8 student liaison advising 9 bookstore 10 sports and recreation 11 health and medical services 12 career services 13 financial aid/ scholarships/bursaries no yes no yes no yes no yes no yes no low use high use low use high use low use high use low use high use low use high use low use yes no yes no yes no yes no yes no high use low use high use low use high use low use high use low use high use low use 16a. overall, how would you rate your experience in transferring to your fast track program? very satisfied satisfied neutral unsatisfied very unsatisfied 16b. additional comments on your transfer experience: ________________________________________ perceptions about the value of a fast track program 17a. please indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements. [for current students] after completing a fast track program, i will strongly student success factors: durham college fast track programs disagree agree strongly 39 disagree agree 1 have access to better job prospects. 2 be able to earn more money. 3 be better positioned to reach my career aspirations. 4 have real-world, practical experience that i previously lacked. 5 have a new, specialized skill. 6 have additional skills to advance my career. 17a. please indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements. [for graduates] after completing a fast track program, i strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 1 have access to better job prospects. 2 am able to earn more money. 3 am better positioned to reach my career aspirations. 4 have real-world, practical experience that i previously lacked. 5 have a new, specialized skill. 6 have additional skills to advance my career. 17b. please describe any additional factors that make a fast track program attractive to prospective students: ________________________________________________________________ success factors 18. reflecting on your experiences both while deciding to enrol and after you enroled, what factors would you say have helped you personally to succeed that you would like to share with prospective students so that they can be successful? ________________________________________________ strategies that durham college could implement 19. reflecting on your experience both while deciding to enrol and after you enroled, what strategies could durham college implement that would make fast track programs better? student success factors: durham college fast track programs 40 think about the application process and the program itself. ______________________________________ additional comments 20. please provide any additional comments that would be helpful in this study: ___________________ 21. would you be willing to participate in a focus group to explore these topics further? yes no draw for $100 best buy gift card (optional) please provide the following information if you wish to have your name included in the draw for three $100 best buy gift cards. your personal information will not be connected to any survey responses and will only be used for purposes of the draw. name _________________________________________________ email __________________________________________________ phone _________________________________________________ student success factors: durham college fast track programs 41 appendix b: fast track student focus group discussion guide introduction review information letter review confidentiality explain nature of research project, role of note taker, pi max time 1 hour participants may withdraw at any time informed consent ensure signed consent forms received from all participants questions why did you choose to enrol in a fast track program? o why durham college? o why not a full three-year option? o impact on personal life (especially for those with families, commuters, working) describe your transfer experience o challenges getting information? o hard to return to school? o feel supporting by the college? by family and friends? describe your experience in your program and how you think it will affect your career after graduation o better job prospects? o if working promotion? more pay? o new job/career opportunities? o what are your goals? what student services are you using? o why or why not? what would you recommend to prospective students thinking about enrolling in a fast track program? o why? student success factors: durham college fast track programs 42 what would you recommend to durham college administration to improve fast track programs o why? student success factors: durham college fast track programs 43 student success factors: durham college fast track programs 44

the cost of recruiting and admitting transfer students: results of a survey of ontario colleges and universities david trick, phd david trick and associates inc. david.trick@gmail.com www.davidtrick.com may 2016 financial support for this research was provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). contents summary .......................................................................................................................... 1 introduction ...................................................................................................................... 2 rationale and hypotheses ................................................................................................... 2 what the literature says ..................................................................................................... 3 methodology...................................................................................................................... 5 selection of participating colleges and universities ................................................................ 6 survey protocol and definitions ........................................................................................... 6 findings ............................................................................................................................ 8 total costs ..................................................................................................................... 9 total unit costs .............................................................................................................10 allocation of expenditure by activity ................................................................................13 unit costs by activity ......................................................................................................14 effect of institutional size ...............................................................................................16 effect of student mix .....................................................................................................18 table: summary of findings...............................................................................................19 observations ....................................................................................................................21 areas for further research ..................................................................................................23 conclusion ........................................................................................................................24 acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................26 bibliography .....................................................................................................................27 1 summary the research questions addressed in this paper are: what are the costs that ontario universities and colleges experience in recruiting, admitting and integrating transfer students? how do these compare with the costs of recruiting, admitting and integrating students directly from secondary school? nine institutions were surveyed (4 colleges, 5 universities), and focus groups were held to solicit comments from survey participants. the survey found that costs were higher for transfer students than for direct-entry students, by 72% per application and by 19% per registrant. this pattern was more pronounced for the universities surveyed than for the colleges. the cost difference was primarily attributable to higher admissions costs for transfer students. institutional spending per applicant for recruitment was lower for transfer students than for direct-entry students. spending per registrant for integration of transfer students (e.g. orientation and academic advising) was higher than for direct-entry students at universities and lower at colleges. participants in focus groups confirmed that applications from transfer students require greater manual processing than those from direct-entry students. the development of recognized pathways reduces admissions costs for students who adhere to these pathways, but a large share of transfer applicants do not follow established pathways and so require a customized evaluation. participants in focus groups said that recruitment expenditure on transfer students was lower than on direct-entry students because there are fewer channels for reaching transfer students. expenditures for transfer students are probably under-reported in this survey due to difficulties in separating these expenditures from those for other students. some participants in focus groups said that current expenditures on transfer students may not be well-aligned with institutional goals and strategies and so may evolve in future. the survey data support the hypothesis that it costs more to recruit, admit and integrate a transfer applicant than to do the same for a direct-entry applicant. in addition, institutions are conscious that the potential revenue from a transfer student will be lower than for a direct-entry student, because the transfer student will spend fewer years at the institution before graduating. this incentive structure suggests the need for a continuing role for government in financially supporting universities and colleges in recruiting, admitting and integrating transfer students. accurate data on unit costs, coupled with data on new transfer enrolments using the ontario education number, may provide a formulaic basis for distributing government funds. 2 introduction the principal research questions addressed in this paper are: what are the costs that ontario universities and colleges experience in recruiting, admitting and integrating transfer students? how do these compare with the costs of recruiting, admitting and integrating students directly from secondary school? increasingly institutions and policymakers in ontario are focusing on the financial issues involved in improving inter-institutional pathways. this interest comes after a long period in which the primary policy focus was on barriers to transfer posed by system design and institutional missions. focusing on financial issues encourages consideration of whether, and in what circumstances, transfer is rational. for a student, the incentive to transfer may be affected by the total duration of the transfer pathway (from initial registration to ultimate credential), the direct costs of tuition and related expenses, and the opportunity cost of remaining in school rather than being in the workforce. for a government, the attractiveness of a transfer arrangement may be affected by the number of years that an operating grant must be provided in support of each students education. elsewhere i have argued that both governments and students have an interest in efficient transfer that is, transfer that provides maximum credit for the students prior learning and so minimizes that cost to government and the cost to the student. (trick, 2013) for an institution, the financial incentive to recruit, admit and integrate transfer students is affected by the costs of doing so and the potential revenue from these students. this paper is a contribution to understanding those costs better. rationale and hypotheses there are reasons to believe the costs associated with transfer students are higher than those for direct-entry students. the literature on types of costs suggests that there is merit at looking at a broad range of costs. i group these under three headings: recruitment, admissions and integration. recruitment prospective transfer students are not found in the same places as direct entrants from secondary school. institutions need to create specific strategies and tools to recruit transfer students. i test this hypothesis: hypothesis #1: recruitment cost per applicant is higher for transfer students than for direct-entry students, because prospective transfer students are found in smaller pools and are more likely to require individualized contact. 3 admissions admission for transfer students requires special handling and is more complex than for directentry students (where admissions are based almost exclusively on grade 12 marks). i test this hypothesis: hypothesis #2: admissions cost per applicant is higher for transfer students than for direct-entry students, because admissions may require special handling. integration transfer students may require special supports to integrate them into their new institution and ensure success. i test this hypothesis: hypothesis #3: integration cost per applicant is higher for transfer students than for direct-entry students, because the cost of developing and offering integration services is high relative to the number of students. what the literature says there is a very limited literature from canada and the u.s. that offers insights on how to assess the cost of admitting transfer students. i have used these insights, interpreted through the lens of ontarios unique approach to transfer, to provide a basis for developing the methodology for this project. the relevant literature addresses these questions: what types of costs might be relevant in assessing the costs of transfer students? what methodology would be appropriate for gathering data on costs? what types of costs might be relevant in assessing the costs of transfer students? most of the literature on registration and transfer students is outward-focused, i.e. it focuses on the students, the options available to them, the potential benefits for student accessibility, and the impediments they may face. almost none of the literature is focused inward on what institutions do or what costs are incurred. ott and cooper (2014, 17), writing in the journal of the american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers, report that they found no literature ... that focuses primarily on the transfer credit evaluation process and its effectiveness for students. further, no literature examines the transfer credit evaluation process from the perspective of those who participate in the process e.g. transfer admissions counselors, transfer credit evaluators and transfer academic advisors. ott and cooper compare six small universities to highlight the differences in how they process transfer applications: 4 breadth of involvement: some universities handle the transfer decision entirely in the technology: some universities use technology for every step of the transfer admission office of admissions. others involve the academic department in every transfer decision. process except student advising. others use a paper-based system. staffing: staffing levels in registrars offices differed widely, apparently based on historical budgeting practices. ott and cooper did not collect cost data, but one implication of their research is that we should not expect costs to be similar at every institution. cuseo (2001) lays out a series of institutional barriers faced by students interested in transfer to a four-year institution. many barriers are institutional or procedural and so would be difficult to assign a cost to (e.g. courses not designed to transfer; transfer students being offered admissions only after all other categories of applicants have received offers). barriers whose costs might be relevant for our purposes include: lack of a transfer articulation officer at either the two- or four-year school inter-institutional transfer agreements that are not adhered to by deans or department chairs at four-year institutions1 little or no special assistance for transfer students in securing off-campus housing little or no post-transfer adjustment and support to help transfer students adapt to a different institutional culture. jenkins et al. (2014, 8-9) offer a list of good practices that suggests some additional areas of potential costs: establishing a university office on a college campus to provide guidance to potential transfer students, or locating transfer specialists at the college during regular office hours creating a campus home on the university campus for students transferring from other institutions, to provide guidance and services to help student avoid transfer shock funding scholarships specifically for transfer students having an admissions process separate from that for students who enter as freshmen, with a system for evaluating transfer applications which may be labor-intensive coordination, communication and engagement, both with community college partners and within the university. what methodology would be appropriate for gathering data? i found one jurisdiction that has attempted to quantify the costs of transfer to institutions. ott and cooper (2014, 22) make a similar comment that articulation agreements do not necessarily speed admission decisions or reduce costs. they say the agreements are time-consuming to construct and impossible to keep up to date, so manual review of applications is necessary. 1 5 jarvis (2004) estimated the total cost of the articulation process in british columbia postsecondary education institutions, as managed by bccat via the online transfer guide. the b.c. model is based on a system of articulation arrangements developed under the auspices of bccat by faculty and administrators from the postsecondary institutions. jarviss study therefore focused on the cost of developing and maintaining these arrangements, rather than on the cost of processing student applications. jarvis explicitly did not look at the cost of transferring credits on a case-by-case basis where there is no articulation agreement. jarviss methodology suggests some issues for consideration: the costs were mostly slices of an individuals time.2 the costs in b.c. for the most part the interview sampling was broad enough to be seen to be valid, even though it was not random. jarvis conducted forty individual interviews with individuals representing consisted of time spent by administration and faculty members at the various institutions. there was no formal tracking of this time, so the methodology called for interviewing a range of participants at different levels of the institution and asking them to estimate their time commitment. ten receiving institutions, five sending institutions and ten disciplines. the institutions represented a range of types (universities, university colleges, and colleges), sizes and geographic regions. the data suggested a wide range of costs. for each data category, jarvis reported the mean and the 1st and 3rd quartiles, to reduce the impact of outliers. multiple methodologies were used to extrapolate from survey respondents to the system as a whole. two extrapolation methods were used, to provide a reasonableness test. methodology based on this literature as it relates to higher education in ontario, i adopted two methodologies: survey: i conducted a survey of 9 (originally 10) colleges and universities. i asked focus groups: i presented the participants with a summary of the survey findings and them to report on their actual costs in 2014-15 in recruiting, admitting and integrating transfer students, and i asked them to report the same costs for direct-entry students. the criteria for selection of the participants, survey protocol and definitions are provided below. solicited their observations on how the findings might be interpreted. jarvis differs from ott and cooper, who also pointed to technology as a significant cost. this reflects jarviss focus on the articulation process rather than case-by-case admissions. 2 6 selection of participating colleges and universities two criteria were applied in selecting the participating institutions: the institutions collectively should be broadly representative of ontarios publicly-funded institutions. the institutions should be willing to engage in a challenging data collection exercise. the participating institutions are broadly representative of ontarios publicly-funded institutions based on the criteria shown in table 1. they are not a random sample and are not intended to be statistically representative of the system as a whole. table 1: participating institutions universities large toronto (> 20,000 students) ryerson medium-sized university of ontario institute of technology windsor large non-toronto (> 20,000 students) western northern laurentian seneca colleges niagara* canadore confederation *a second institution in this category withdrew from the survey for internal reasons. survey protocol and definitions a survey questionnaire in excel format was developed, tested on two institutions (one college, one university), revised, and distributed to all participating institutions. the registrar at each institution was the principal point of contact. registrars were asked to report costs on behalf of their institution as a whole, not just the registrars office. costs were requested for the 2014-15 fiscal year or for a 12-month period that closely aligns to that year. institutions were assured that no data would be published that are attributable to individual institutions. these definitions and instructions were provided to survey respondents. 7 transfer student transfer student, for purposes of this project, was defined as a student transferring among ontarios publicly funded postsecondary institutions. the transfer may occur in any direction including diploma-to-degree, diploma-to-diploma, apprenticeship-to-diploma, degree-todiploma, and degree-to degree. the student may or may not have completed a prior credential. where a transfer student is transferring from one completed credential to another credential, the credentials may be college certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas or degrees; university first-entry degrees; or apprenticeship certificates. students enrolling directly from ontario secondary schools students enrolling directly from ontario secondary schools, for purposes of this project, were defined as a student admitted based on his/her ontario secondary school marks. typically these are recent graduates. institutions were asked to exclude students who present out-of-ontario credentials, or who seek advanced standing based on out-of-province postsecondary credits, or who receive special consideration as mature applicants. out of scope institutions were asked to exclude costs associated with these students: students applying for admission to university graduate programs and second-entry programs. students applying for admission to college graduate certificates. exception: these students are in-scope if they are assessed for advanced standing in the graduate certificate program. students transferring to or from an out-of-province institution students who are jointly registered at a college and university. recruitment "recruitment" was defined to mean activities to identify and attract potential students. in general, this means activities up to the time that the student submits an application. examples of recruitment activities include market research, strategy development, website, social media, print publications, advertisements, recruitment events, presentations at schools or other institutions, campus tours, information systems (such as customer relationship systems), and other related activities. institutions were asked to exclude the cost of communications that are not directed at recruitment (such as reputational communications, announcements of awards and appointments, communications for current students and employees, etc.). 8 admissions "admissions" was defined to mean activities related to processing the application, determining whether the student should be offered admission, and making the offer of admission. in general, this means activities from the date the student submits the application to the date the student is offered admission, or is advised that no offer will be made. examples of admissions activities include assessment of eligibility; offer packages; information systems; adding new courses to the inventory of recognized courses; adding new pathways to the inventory of recognized pathways; and other related activities. institutions were asked to include assessment of transfer credits and advanced standing under "admissions", even if the institution's practice is to do assessments after offers of admissions are made. institutions were asked to exclude the cost of financial aid. integration "integration" was defined to mean activities related to conversion, registration, orientation and early retention. in general, this includes activities from the date the student receives the offer to (at the latest) the end of the student's first semester. examples of integration activities include events and communications for students receiving offers; admissions advising; orientation and special events for new students; financial aid advising; information systems; and other related activities. institutions were asked to exclude academic upgrading courses, academic advising, or career advising. findings this section reports the findings from the survey. to give due regard to the differences among institutions, i focus on two types of indicators: totals and averages for the participating institutions: these indicators are not weighted by institutional size. this means the institutions that serve larger numbers of students have the largest effect on the average. institutional counts: these indicators count how many institutions reported a certain fact (e.g. reported that expenditure on x was higher than expenditure on y). these indicators count each institution equally, regardless of size. as an indicator of variance, i report how many institutions are outliers from the average. i believe these indicators, taken together, give the most accurate summary of the full data set, while maintaining the confidentiality of each institutions data. given the relatively small 9 number of institutions reporting and the wide variances, i believe these indicators are preferable to the alternative of reporting medians and quartile values. i report certain data separately for colleges and universities. the small number of institutions and the need to protect confidentiality mean there are limits on what is reported at this level. total costs what is the balance between total operating expenditure on transfer students and total operating expenditure on direct-entry students? the nine institutions reported collectively spending $5.623 million (25.7% of total reported costs) on activities related to transfer students, versus $16.734 million (74.3%) on activities related to direct-entry students. table 1 shows the share of total expenditure devoted to transfer students, and compares this to transfer students share of applicants and registrants. table 1 shows that expenditure on transfer students exceeds these students share of applicants and registrants. this pattern is more pronounced among the universities. for the colleges, the transfer students share of expenditure, applicants and registrants is fairly similar. table 1: transfer expenditures, applicants and registrants as a share of total, by type of institution transfer expenditure as a transfer transfer share of total applicants as a registrants as a operating share of total share of total expenditure applicants registrants all institutions 25.7% 16.7% 22.6% colleges 20.6% 20.4% 22.8% universities 27.4% 15.7% 22.3% total= transfer + direct-entry there was variation around the percentages shown in table 1: three institutions (2 colleges, 1 university) reported that less than 20% of their total reported costs related to transfer students. two institutions (both universities) reported that more than 40% of their total reported costs related to transfer students. 10 how do total capital costs for transfer students compare to total capital costs for direct-entry students? capital costs related to transfer students were reported to be zero at most institutions and were small (< $40,000) in all other cases. the total reported was $60,100 (16.7% of total reported capital costs). capital costs related to direct-entry students were reported to be zero in several institutions and were small (< $75,000) in all other cases, with one exception. the total reported was $299,600. given the small amounts, no further analysis was done of the capital costs data. some participants in focus groups noted that capital costs are highly variable from year to year, and the survey year may not be representative. total unit costs how do total operating costs per application received for transfer students compare to those for direct-entry students? at the nine institutions collectively, total operating costs per application received were $199, versus $116 for direct-entry students. the cost for transfer students was 72% higher than for direct-entry students. table 2 shows the cost per applicant, broken down by activity and type of institution. the patterns for universities and colleges were different. total operating costs per application received were higher for transfer students than for direct-entry students at 5 institutions (4 universities, 1 college), and lower at 4 institutions (1 university, 3 colleges). 11 table 2: operating expenditure per applicant on transfer students and direct-entry students, by activity and type of institution (dollars) transfer direct-entry students students difference all institutions recruitment 53 57 -4 -7% admissions 112 41 71 172% integration 34 18 16 89% total 199 116 83 72% colleges recruitment admissions integration total 42 175 36 252 106 162 170 439 -65 13 -135 -186 -61% 8% -79% -42% universities recruitment admissions integration total 73 141 39 253 91 31 18 141 -18 110 20 113 -19% 356% 111% 80% there was variation around these figures: three institutions (2 universities, 1 college) reported that their cost-per-applicant for transfer students was less than $100. four institutions (2 universities, 2 colleges) reported that their cost-per-applicant for transfer students was greater than $300. three institutions (1 university, 2 colleges) reported that their cost-per-applicant for direct-entry students was less than $100. two institutions (both colleges) reported that their cost-per-applicant for direct-entry students was greater than $300. how do total operating costs per student registered for transfer students compare to those for direct-entry students? total costs per student registered are of interest because an institutions revenues depend on actual registrations. this metric in effect shows the cost of bringing in one revenue-generating student. 12 at the nine institutions collectively, total operating costs per transfer student registered were $764, versus $644 for direct-entry students. the cost for transfer students was 19% higher than for direct-entry students. table 3 shows the cost per registrant, broken down by activity and type of institution. the patterns for universities and colleges were different. total operating costs per student registered were higher for transfer students than for direct-entry students at 5 institutions (4 universities, 1 college), and lower at 4 institutions (1 university, 3 colleges). table 3: operating expenditure per registrant on transfer students and direct-entry students, by activity and type of institution (dollars) transfer direct-entry students students difference all institutions recruitment 203 315 -112 -35% admissions 431 230 202 88% integration 129 99 30 30% total 764 644 120 19% colleges recruitment admissions integration total 97 808 75 980 106 452 459 1,017 -9 355 -383 -37 -9% 79% -84% -4% universities recruitment admissions integration total 328 619 183 1,129 597 213 99 908 -269 406 84 221 -45% 191% 84% 24% there was variation around these figures: 3 institutions (1 university, 2 colleges) reported that their cost-per-registrant for transfer students was less than $350. 2 institutions (1 university, 1 college) reported that their cost-per-registrant for transfer students was greater than $1,500. 2 institutions (both colleges) reported that their cost-per-registrant for direct-entry students was less than $350. 13 2 institutions (1 university, 1 college) reported that their cost-per-registrant for directentry students was greater than $1,500. allocation of expenditure by activity what is the allocation of expenditure among recruitment, admissions and integration? the nine institutions reported spending $5.623 million on activities related to transfer students and $16.286 million on activities related to direct-entry students. the allocation by activity and type of institution is shown in table 4. the table shows that, for both colleges and universities, expenditures for admissions accounted for a greater share of total expenditure for transfer students compared with direct-entry students. table 4: allocation of operating expenditure for transfer students and direct-entry students, by activity all institutions recruitment admissions integration total amount ($ millions) transfer students direct-entry students difference 26.6% 56.5% 16.9% 100.0% 5.623 48.9% 35.7% 15.4% 100.0% 16.286 -22.3% 20.8% 1.5% colleges recruitment admissions integration total amount ($ millions) 18.4% 67.2% 14.4% 100.0% 1.164 32.8% 41.6% 25.5% 100.0% 4.498 -14.4% 25.6% -11.1% universities recruitment admissions integration total amount ($ millions) 28.7% 53.7% 17.6% 100.0% 4.459 55.0% 33.4% 11.6% 100.0% 11.788 -26.3% 20.3% 6.0% 14 there was variation around these figures: for transfer students, admissions was the largest of the three categories for 7 of the 9 institutions. two institutions (1 university, 1 college) reported that recruitment was their largest category. for direct-entry students, recruitment was the largest of the three categories for 7 of the 9 institutions. two institutions (1 university, 1 college) reported that admissions was their largest category. unit costs by activity how do recruitment costs per application received for transfer students compare to those for direct-entry students? since the number of applications received is primarily related to recruitment activities, i focus here on the cost of recruitment per application received. recruitment costs per application received were higher for transfer students than for directentry students at 4 institutions (3 universities, 1 college), and lower at 5 institutions (2 universities, 3 colleges). at the nine institutions collectively, recruitment costs per application received were $53, versus $57 for direct-entry students. the cost for transfer students was 7% lower than for direct-entry students. there was variation around these figures: 2 institutions (both colleges) reported that their recruitment cost-per-applicant for transfer students was less than $25. 2 institutions (1 university, 1 college) reported that their recruitment cost-per-applicant for transfer students was greater than $75. 1 institution (a college) reported that its recruitment cost-per-applicant for direct-entry students was less than $25. 4 institutions (2 colleges, 2 universities) reported that their recruitment cost-perapplicant for direct-entry students was greater than $75. how do admissions costs per application received for transfer students compare to those for direct-entry students? since the cost of admissions is related to the number is applications received, i focus here on the cost of admissions per application received. 15 admission costs per application received were higher for transfer students than for direct-entry students at 7 institutions (5 universities, 2 colleges), and lower at 2 institutions (both colleges). at the nine institutions collectively, admissions costs per application received were $112, versus $41 for direct-entry students. the cost for transfer students was 172% higher than for directentry students. there was variation around these figures: 3 institutions (2 universities, 1 college) reported that their admissions cost-per-applicant for transfer students was less than $60. 4 institutions (2 universities, 2 colleges) reported that their admissions cost-perapplicant for transfer students was greater than $200. 2 institutions (1 university, 1 college) reported that their admissions cost-per-applicant for direct-entry students was less than $25. 2 institutions (both colleges) reported that their admissions cost-per-applicant for directentry students was greater than $75. how do integration costs per student registered for transfer students compare to those for direct-entry students? since the cost of integration is largely (though not exclusively) related to the number of students who register, i focus here on the cost of integration per student registered. integration costs per registrant were higher for transfer students than for direct-entry students at 6 institutions (4 universities, 2 colleges), and lower at 3 institutions (1 university, 2 colleges). at the nine institutions collectively, integration costs per registrant were $129, versus $99 for direct-entry students. the cost for transfer students was 30% higher than for direct-entry students. there was variation around these figures: 3 institutions (2 universities, 1 college) reported that their integration cost-perregistrant for transfer students was less than $70. 2 institutions (2 universities) reported that their integration cost-per- registrant for transfer students was greater than $200. 4 institutions (2 universities, 2 college) reported that their integration cost-perregistrant for direct-entry students was less than $55. 3 institutions (1 university, 2 colleges) reported that their integration cost-per- registrant for direct-entry students was greater than $200. 16 effect of institutional size are there economies of scale in recruitment, admissions and integration? the variances in these data raise the question whether there are significant economies of scale in recruitment, admissions and integration activities. if so, we might expect institutions with larger numbers of applications or registrants to have lower unit costs. the available data provide modest evidence in favour of the hypothesis that institutions with larger numbers of applications or registrants have lower unit costs, for both transfer students and direct-entry students. the evidence is limited due to the small number of participating institutions. the following four charts show the evidence. in each case, the number of applicants or registrants is plotted on the x-axis. to protect institutional confidentiality, the x-axis is not labelled. in all four charts, the pattern suggests economies of scale. on each chart, universities are marked with a diamond and colleges with a circle. chart 1: transfer applications: cost per application, versus number of applications received $500.00 $400.00 $300.00 $200.00 $100.00 $- 17 chart 2: direct-entry applications: cost per application, versus number of applications received $1,400.00 $1,200.00 $1,000.00 $800.00 $600.00 $400.00 $200.00 $- chart 3: transfer registrants: cost per registrant, versus number of registrants $3,500.00 $3,000.00 $2,500.00 $2,000.00 $1,500.00 $1,000.00 $500.00 $- 18 chart 4: direct-entry registrants: cost per registrant, versus number of registrants $4,000.00 $3,000.00 $2,000.00 $1,000.00 $- effect of student mix does student mix affect costs? another explanation for the variances in these data might be the institutional mix of transfer and direct-entry students. we might hypothesize that institutions that rely on transfer students for a high share of their total entrants spend more per application and more per registrant. this might be because they have a strong business need to attract transfer students and so are prepared to spend more; or it might be because institutions that spend the most per student have greater success in attracting students. the available data do not support this hypothesis. among the institutions reporting, transfer students account for between 8% and 38% of the pool of applications (i.e. transfer plus directentry applications). they account for between 5% and 60% of registrants. analysis of these data (not shown here) suggests that student mix and unit expenditure are unrelated. 19 table: summary of findings table 5 summarizes the findings of the preceding section. in this table, higher means the cost for transfer students was found to be higher than for direct entry students. lower means the opposite. table 5: summary of findings metric total costs total operating expenditure total capital expenditure total unit costs findings total expenditure on transfer students is 25.7% of total, or $5.6 million). this is higher than transfer students total share of applications (16.7%) and registrations (22.6%). total expenditure on transfer students is lower (transfer is 16.7% of total, or $60,000) expenditure per application received average cost for transfer students is $199 ($83 higher, i.e. 72% higher than direct-entry) expenditure per student registered average cost for transfer students is $764 ($120 higher, i.e. 19% higher than direct-entry) allocation of costs by activity allocation of costs among recruitment, admissions and integration higher for transfer students at 5 institutions (of 9) higher for transfer students at 4 universities (of 5) lower for transfer students at 3 colleges (of 4) higher for transfer students at 5 institutions (of 9) higher for transfer students at 4 universities (of 5) lower for transfer students at 3 colleges (of 4) share of expenditure allocated to admissions is higher for transfer students allocation for transfer students: 26.6% recruitment, 56.5% admissions, 16.9% integration allocation for direct-entry students: 48.9% recruitment, 35.7% admissions, 15.4% integration 20 metric unit costs by activity findings recruitment cost per application received average cost for transfer students is $53 ($4 lower, i.e. 7% lower than direct-entry) admissions cost per application received average cost for transfer students is $112 ( $71 higher, i.e. 172% higher than direct-entry) integration cost per student registered explanations for variances are there economies of scale? does student mix affect costs? lower for transfer students at 5 institutions (of 9) higher at 3 universities (of 5) lower at 3 colleges (of 4) higher for transfer students at 7 institutions (of 9) higher for transfer students at 5 universities (of 5) higher for transfer students at 2 colleges (of 4) average cost for transfer students is $129 ( $30 higher, i.e. 30% higher than direct-entry) higher for transfer students at 6 institutions (of 9) higher for transfer students at 4 universities (of 5) higher for transfer students at 2 colleges (of 4) based on limited evidence, yes. unit costs at smaller institutions tend to be higher than at larger institutions, for both transfer and direct-entry students. based on limited evidence, no. unit costs appear to be independent of each institutions mix of transfer and direct-entry students. 21 observations total expenditure per applicant for transfer students is higher than for direct-entry students. this finding is clearly true for the universities surveyed. among the colleges surveyed, the evidence for this finding is mixed. some participants in focus groups suggested that, over time, the expenditure pattern for colleges will become more like that for universities, with specialized activities for recruiting and admitting transfer students that require additional expenditures. the potential revenue from transfer students is lower than for direct-entry students, so the potential return on this expenditure is lower. focus group participants were conscious that transfer registrants were likely to spend a shorter time at their institution than direct-entry students, and so their revenue potential is lower. a student transferring to a university typically spends two to three academic years at the university, compared with four years for a direct-entry student in an honours program. a student transferring to a college typically spends one academic year. many transfer students simply wish to complete a few credits needed to complete a credential. from this perspective the potential return on an institutions investment in recruitment, admissions and integration is lower for transfer students than for direct-entry students. the principal driver of higher expenditures per applicant for transfer students is the higher expenditure on admissions activities. i began by hypothesizing that expenditures per applicant for transfer students would be higher for recruitment, admissions, and integration. the data suggest that the principal driver of higher expenditures is admissions activities. in explaining higher admissions expenditures, participants in focus groups pointed to the costs of manually evaluating prior credits for advanced standing. some institutions are investing in information technology systems to automate these evaluations; however, creating and maintaining these systems have their own costs. the development of recognized pathways reduces admissions costs for students who adhere to these pathways, but a large share of transfer applicants do not follow established pathways and so require a customized evaluation. 3 as well, pathways are not static, and there are costs in updating pathways as programs change. up-to-date information on course content and faculty qualifications may be especially important in granting advanced standing in programs that are externally accredited. this behaviour is not unique to ontario. california has had a well-articulated 2+2 transfer system from colleges to universities since the 1960s, yet about two-thirds of the students who transfer to state public universities do not follow the articulated pathway. (trick 2013, 17) 3 22 in contrast, applications from ontario direct-entry students are processed in an automated way. students courses and marking schemes are well-known across the province and are generally comparable from one secondary school to another. contrary to my initial hypothesis, recruitment expenditures per applicant are lower for transfer students than for direct-entry students. participants in focus groups noted the difficulty in designing a recruitment campaign targeted at transfer students. in the university sector, clear channels exist for reaching direct-entry students, such as large recruitment fairs, secondary school visit programs, and campus open houses. institutions may make substantial investments in order to compete in these channels. similar channels for prospective transfer students, if they exist, tend to be smaller. this means spending opportunities are more limited. in some cases transfer recruitment is an add-on to recruitment for direct-entry students (e.g. an insert in the institutions viewbook), so costs are low. in the college sector, recruitment activities are wide-ranging: more than half of new entrants to college come from the workforce (rather than from secondary schools), and so colleges market themselves to a much broader audience than universities do. expenditures on transfer-specific recruitment (such as transfer fairs) are inevitably small as a proportion of the overall recruitment budget. some participants said that their institution recruits province-wide for direct-entry students but only recruits locally for transfer students. this difference in strategy may also explain some of the difference in costs. among the universities surveyed, integration expenditures per applicant are about twice as high for transfer students as for direct-entry students. (they are also about twice as high per registrant, which may be the more relevant measure for this expenditure category). in the colleges sector, expenditures in this category are much lower for transfer students than for direct-entry students. participants in focus groups attributed the higher university expenditures to a lack of economies of scale: for example, the cost of developing and offering a customized orientation program for transfer students are high even though the number of participants will be smaller than at a similar program for direct-entry students. expenditures for transfer students are probably under-reported in this survey. a common theme in focus groups for this study was the difficulty in separating expenditures for transfer students from other expenditures. participants said that, overall, actual expenditures related to transfer students are probably higher than they were able to document and report. many recruitment activities attract potential transfer applicants even if the activities are not specifically aimed at those applicants. this is true even of activities specifically 23 aimed at other types of applicants, such as those from secondary schools. advertising in public media is especially difficult to assign to a particular category of students. some admissions systems do not flag transfer applicants until late in the admissions process when a student has been granted advanced standing. for this reason, many admissions expenditures are difficult to assign to a particular category of students. many integration activities (such as orientation and academic advising) are not specifically aimed at different categories of students and do not track which students used the services. some activities reported in this survey involve slices of time. for example, a faculty member or academic advisor may spend time assessing an incoming students prior transcripts; or an academic leader may spend time developing new pathways and encouraging institutional buy-in to new relationships. this time is not specifically measured and must be estimated. current expenditures may not be optimal expenditures. the premise that institutional budgets are well-aligned with institutional goals and strategies should be questioned, for several reasons: lack of information: it is clear from this survey that most institutions do not routinely historically-driven budget processes: some participants in focus groups said that, at calculate the unit costs of recruiting and admitting different classes of students, because their financial systems do not make it easy for them to do so. their institutions, the budget for recruiting transfer students was historically-based and was not regularly reviewed. this observation is consistent with the vast literature on budgeting in public and publicly-supported organizations showing that rational budgeting is the exception rather than the rule. changes in the external environment: some participants said that their expenditures on transfer students were likely to become more strategic in the near future, as the softening of the potential market of direct-entry students has led many institutions to look more carefully at other potential markets. these observations suggest that current budgets may not be static, and they give some grounds for optimism. the sharing of cost information among institutions might support institutional learning about what activities and expenditure levels work well in different circumstances, potentially leading to budget re-allocations in future. areas for further research the most important area for further research suggested by this study is to explore the variances among institutions. the variances raise questions about why institutions engaged in similar activities report widely different unit costs. 24 some of the differences are undoubtedly due to challenges in applying a standard set of data questions to information systems that are not designed to readily answer those questions. i have also found some modest evidence that economies of scale are an explanation. smaller institutions tend to have higher unit costs than larger ones. lack of economies of scale may affect activities related to transfer students more than activities related to direct-entry students, because the former group is smaller. further research might examine these issues: impacts of differences in institutional type: there may be differences between impacts of differences in institutional strategies and processes: all institutions colleges and universities in terms of how they recruit, admit and integrate transfer students. the two broadest metrics of unit cost -- expenditure per application received and expenditure per student registered show higher expenditures on transfer students at the majority of universities, but lower expenditures at the majority of colleges. a closer examination might explore these differences. for example, some colleges devote considerable resources to recruiting university graduates for college graduate certificates; graduate programs were out-of-scope for this project, so these expenditures were excluded from the survey. make a commitment to pursuing transfer students, but they differ in terms of how many students they seek, where they seek them from, and how they pursue them. they also differ in their processes for assessing applications, awarding transfer credits, and integrating incoming registrants. a comparison of strategies and processes, based on interviews and other information provided by institutions, might identify the range of practices and the different costs involved. student perspectives: participants in focus groups noted that, while pathways are improving, the admissions process for transfer students requires a large number of touch points as students apply and submit transcripts, transcripts are evaluated by the receiving institution, additional information is sought, etc. student financial aid was noted as a particularly complex area: incoming transfer students may begin the semester as full-time students and then reduce their course load to part-time when their prior credits are recognized, which in turn reduces their eligibility for government student assistance. tracking of students perspectives on ease of transfer might be valuable. conclusion for institutions and policy makers, the primary lesson from this study is that, based on the evidence presented, it really does cost more to recruit, admit and integrate a transfer applicant than to do the same for a direct-entry applicant. institutions that pursue transfer students engage in distinct recruitment activities, and they invest time in assessing potentially complex applications. if the share of applicants who become registered students is high as it is, on average, for the institutions participating in this survey then the cost gap between transfer students and direct-entry students is substantially reduced. even so, institutions face the reality 25 that the potential revenue from a transfer student will be lower than for a direct-entry student, because the transfer student will spend fewer years at the institution before graduating. this incentive structure suggests the need for a continuing role for government in financially supporting universities and colleges in recruiting, admitting and integrating transfer students. in the absence of this support, the incentive to focus on direct-entry students will remain strong. participants in focus groups affirmed the importance of the ontario governments credit transfer institutional grants, which make available modest funding to each university and college for data collection and reporting, transfer facilitation, student support, and update or expand existing credit transfer pathways. accurate data on unit costs, coupled with accurate data on new transfer enrolments from the ontario education number, may provide a formulaic basis for distributing these funds. supporting colleges and universities in recruiting, admitting and integrating transfer students will become even more important if the ontario government chooses to align transfer more closely with its goals for accessibility. i have argued elsewhere that the ontario government should have quantitative goals for baccalaureate degree completion, including goals for how transfer will contribute to overall completion. (trick 2013, 33-38) there is good reason to believe that college-to-university transfer could provide better access and better education for some students than direct entry to university degree programs. colleges have succeeded in attracting many demographic groups that are statistically underrepresented at universities, including students from the lower income quartiles, indigenous students, students with disabilities, and students from small communities and rural areas. colleges provide a distinctive form of education since they are primarily teaching-oriented institutions: most classes have fewer than 30 students, and classes of over 60 students are rare. a strategic policy for higher education needs to recognize these linkages. high levels of degree completion are valuable for individuals and for the economy as a whole; large pools of students are underrepresented at present in degree programs; college-to-university transfer can be a viable pathway to degree completion for many students. a similar argument can be made in the opposite direction: for many university students, the university-to-college pathway is a viable way of combining a degree with career-oriented professional studies. a policy that sets ambitious goals for degree completion, including targets for how transfer will contribute to these goals, would be a large step forward in ontario higher education. supports for institutions to reach these targets including supports that address the challenges in recruiting, admitting and integrating transfer students can be an important part of this policy. 26 acknowledgements many people from ontarios colleges and universities generously assisted this research. the author is especially grateful to these colleagues who went to extraordinary lengths to supply data and good advice: canadore college: jeannette miron, registrar and manager of institutional research laurentian university: serge demers, registrar and secretary of senate confederation college: don duclos, registrar niagara college: adam dusome, registrar, and jordan charron, manager, enrollment services ryerson university: charmaine hack, university registrar, and julie zahab, director of administration and special projects seneca college: sharon kinasz, m.ed., registrar university of ontario institute of technology: brad macisaac, assistant vice president, planning and analysis, and registrar western university: glen tigert, university registrar, and brandi borman, transfer credit specialist university of windsor: alice miller, registrar. joanne duklas of duklas cornerstone consulting provided expert advice on an early version of the survey instrument. a number of valuable perspectives were provided by participants at a presentation of an earlier version of this paper at the oncat student pathways in higher education conference in toronto on april 25, 2016. warmest thanks are owed to the ontario council on articulation and transfer for its financial support for this research, and to glenn craney and arlene williams for initiating the project and providing the encouragement and advice that were essential to its completion. the author alone is responsible for the final text. 27 bibliography cuseo, joe (2001). the transfer transition: student advancement from 2-year to 4-year institutions. los angeles: eric clearinghouse for community colleges. ott, alexander p., and bruce s. cooper (2014). transfer credit evaluations: how they are produced, why it matters. college and university, 89:4. 14-25. jenkins, davis, alison kadlec, and james votruba, (2014). the business case for regional public universities to strengthen community college transfer pathways (with guidance on leading the process). maximizing resources for student success project. washington d.c.: hcm strategists. jarvis, j., and associates (2004). articulation costing: phase ii. vancouver: b.c. council on admission and transfer. trick, david (2013). college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario.

parcours de transferts des programmes de la cit vers des programmes de luniversit dottawa dans le domaine du gnie projet 2015-30 personnes ressources principales : linda pietrantonio vice-rectrice associe, programmes universit dottawa et chantal thiboutot directrice principale, planification institutionnelle la cit le 17 mars 2017 liste des participants universit dottawa linda pietrantonio, vice-rectrice associe, programmes marcel turcotte, vice-doyen aux tudes de premier cycle, facult de gnie maha manoubi, assistante de recherche, facult de gnie lise detellier, agente principale des projets spciaux luciana vaduva, agente principale des politiques scolaires rachel ouellette, chef de cabinet la cit chantal thiboutot, directrice principale, planification institutionnelle patrice supper, directeur de linstitut de la technologie annie chartrand, directrice dappui au bureau de la vice-prsidente lenseignement lise frenette, gestionnaire des projets spciaux joseph aghaby, charg de projet 2 table des matires sommaire 4 1. intentions et objectifs du projet 4 2. laboration de parcours de transfert 4 2.1 mthodologie 4 2.2 comparaison et analyse du programme 5 2.3 processus de mise en uvre et chanciers 6 3. sommaire des parcours de transfert crs 7 4. pratiques prometteuses et leons retenues 8 3 sommaire la cit et luniversit dottawa ont dcid dunir leurs efforts afin dexplorer les faons daccrotre la mobilit des tudiants du collge vers luniversit dans le domaine du gnie. pour ce faire, les deux partenaires ont procd lanalyse dtaille des programmes dans quatre disciplines du gnie soit le gnie mcanique, le gnie civil, le gnie lectrique et le gnie informatique. ils ont examin les orientations et approches gnrales des programmes de mme que les composantes spcifiques de chacun des cours qui y sont associs (rsultats dapprentissage viss, mthodes pdagogiques, matire couverte, modes dvaluations des apprentissages, etc.). cette analyse a bien entendu t ralise en tenant compte des exigences des organismes dagrment des programmes universitaires afin den prserver lintgrit. cette analyse nous a permis didentifier les quivalences de cours possibles dans chacun des programmes et les conditions requises pour permettre le transfert de crdits du collge vers luniversit. une trentaine de cours ont ainsi pu tre identifis au total. le travail se poursuit afin darriver la prparation dententes dans ces quatre disciplines. on prvoit que ces ententes pourront entrer en vigueur au dbut de lautomne 2017. 1. intentions et objectifs du projet la cit et luniversit dottawa collaborent depuis plusieurs annes afin daccrotre la mobilit des tudiants francophones et laccs aux programmes dtudes postsecondaires en franais. par lentremise de plusieurs ententes darrimage, les deux tablissements offrent aux tudiants des parcours leur permettant de passer du collge vers luniversit qui tiennent compte de la formation collgiale dj acquise. parmi ces ententes, on trouve deux ententes darrimage dans le domaine du gnie, soit en gnie informatique et en gnie lectrique. ces ententes doivent cependant tre mises jour la lumire de changements rcents aux curricula. lobjectif du projet tait dabord de faire la mise jour des deux ententes existantes. dans un deuxime temps, on voulait examiner la possibilit dlargir les parcours de transferts existants dautres disciplines du domaine du gnie (mcanique et civil). pour ce faire, on proposait de procder un examen dtaill des orientations, des approches pdagogiques, des travaux pratiques de mme que des modes dvaluation des objectifs dapprentissage. une analyse des cursus et des plans de cours tait galement propose afin de dterminer les cours des programmes de la cit qui pourraient tre crdits dans le cadre dun transfert vers un programme de luniversit dottawa. 2. laboration de parcours de transfert 2.1 mthodologie une premire rencontre entre les reprsentants de la facult de gnie de luniversit dottawa et linstitut de la technologie de la cit sest tenue en mai 2016 afin didentifier les paramtres de lanalyse tre ralise. une fois ces paramtres fixs, les responsables de projets des deux tablissements ont travaill avec leurs collgues experts des programmes de la facult de gnie 4 et de linstitut de la technologie afin de raliser les analyses requises. une analyste a collabor avec eux afin de complter le travail. les principales tapes de lchancier rvis se rsument comme suit : mai septembre 2016 : tablissement des paramtres du projet et examen des orientations et des approches pdagogiques utilises dans les programmes de gnie de la cit et de luniversit dottawa. septembre 2016 mars 2017 : analyse des cursus et des plans de cours et comparaison des contenus de cours pour chacun des programmes; dtermination des quivalences totales ou partielles en fonction des lments manquants dans les cours collgiaux. mars 2017 : identification des transferts de crdits possibles pour chacun des programmes et discussions concernant les parcours potentiels. avril juillet 2017 : conclusion des discussions concernant les transferts possibles et mise au point des ententes. aot 2017 : ratification et mise en vigueur des ententes. 2.2 comparaison et analyse du programme les analyses ont port sur les programmes universitaires et collgiaux suivants : la cit universit dottawa technologie du gnie civil b.sc.a. en gnie civil technologie du gnie mcanique b.sc.a. en gnie mcanique technologie du gnie informatique b.sc.a. en gnie informatique ou b.sc.a. en gnie logiciel programmeur informatique ou techniques des systmes informatiques techniques du gnie lectronique b.sc.a en gnie lectrique technologie du gnie lectronique 5 les principales sources dinformation qui ont t utilises dans le cadre de lanalyse, pour chacun des programmes, sont les suivantes : les objectifs et les rsultats dapprentissage les approches pdagogiques les plans de cours les travaux pratiques et ateliers le nombre dheures contact les modes dvaluation des apprentissages le contenu dtaill des cours les qualifications des professeurs on a procd lanalyse des quivalences entre les cours en faisant la fois une valuation quantitative et une valuation qualitative des contenus. lvaluation quantitative a consist en une comparaison des heures consacres lenseignement magistral des cours en plus des sances de laboratoires, les lectures et les travaux dirigs. cette comparaison sest galement tendue lanalyse des mthodes dvaluation des apprentissages pour chaque programme (nombre, frquence, envergure, etc.). on a galement considr les exigences relatives aux cours pralables dont on doit tenir compte lors de llaboration des parcours de transferts. pour complter lvaluation quantitative, on a ralis une valuation plus qualitative des objectifs et des contenus de chacun des cours. il va sans dire que lanalyse a t ralise en tenant compte des exigences strictes de lagrment des programmes par le bureau canadien d'agrment des programmes de gnie (bcapg) ainsi quen sassurant de prserver lintgrit des programmes dtudes et de satisfaire aux rglements scolaires pertinents, notamment lexigence de rsidence lie la diplomation. 2.3 processus de mise en uvre et chanciers le processus de mise en uvre est relativement simple. une fois que les reprsentants de la facult de gnie de luniversit dottawa et de linstitut de la technologie de la cit se sont entendus sur le contenu et les conditions des transferts, le tout doit tre approuv par le doyen de la facult puis, par la vice-rectrice associe, programmes. une fois ratifie, les renseignements relatifs aux ententes sont communiqus au service du registraire de luniversit afin dtre mise en application. les tudiants en provenance des programmes de la cit bnficieront de ces ententes au moment de leur inscription. de part et dautre, on diffusera les renseignements relatifs aux ententes auprs des units concernes et on mettra en place des mcanismes de promotion des parcours (notamment via les sites web respectifs des deux institutions). le travail pour llaboration des parcours de transferts de crdits est toujours en cours. nous avons d rviser notre chancier initial puisque le processus danalyse a t plus long que prvu. nous avons maintenant tout en main pour dfinir les parcours. nous croyons tre en mesure de le faire dici la fin du mois daot 2017. les modles de parcours qui seront dvelopps au cours des prochains mois pourront alors tre partags publiquement. 6 3. sommaire des parcours de transfert crs la facult de gnie de luniversit dottawa offre dj des crdits pour lquivalent de 5 cours (deux en mathmatiques, deux en sciences et un cours optionnel) aux tudiants en provenance des collges. il sagit dune pratique bien tablie depuis plusieurs annes qui ne ncessite aucune entente comme telle. lexercice que nous avons men dans le cadre du prsent projet nous a permis didentifier plusieurs cours de la cit qui pourront faire lobjet de transferts de crdits dans les programmes de luniversit dottawa. en voici un rsum succinct : gnie mcanique des transferts de crdits sont possibles dans 13 cours de 1re, 2e et 3e anne gnie civil des transferts de crdits sont possibles dans 13 cours de 1re, 2e et 3e anne gnie lectrique des transferts sont possibles dans 6 cours de 1re, 2e et 3e anne gnie informatique et gnie logiciel des transferts sont possibles dans 10 cours de 1re, 2e et 3e anne les deux ententes existantes en gnie entre les deux tablissements, soit en gnie lectrique et en gnie informatique, pourront ds lors tre mises jour et de nouvelles ententes pourront tre dveloppes en gnie civil et gnie mcanique. en plus de ces possibilits de transferts de crdits, le prsent projet aura permis luniversit dottawa et la cit de dvelopper un autre type de partenariat qui vient enrichir lexprience des tudiants en gnie. en effet, tout en travaillant lanalyse des programmes en vue de dvelopper des ententes de mobilit, nous avons ralis un projet pilote visant offrir des tudiants de luniversit dottawa une exprience pratique la cit. ainsi, un atelier de mcanique a t dvelopp par la cit et offert aux tudiants de luniversit sur une base volontaire. intitul sous le capot de lauto - comprendre la conception des automobiles latelier tait dcrit comme suit dans la publicit transmise aux tudiants de luniversit dottawa : cet atelier permettra aux tudiants provenant de disciplines varies de comprendre comment diagnostiquer des dfaillances causes par des systmes lectriques, lectroniques ou mcaniques et exposera les sources primaires de ces dfaillances. les tudiants apprendront comment amliorer et intgrer la conception des composantes et des systmes dune automobile. les concepts cls de cet atelier comprennent : les enjeux produits par lintgration des systmes lectriques, lectroniques ou mcaniques; les contraintes physiques produites par la ralit; les causes primaires de dfaillances; les outils disponibles pour diagnostiquer et rparer les dfaillances dune automobile. chaque tudiant aura lopportunit de travailler sur un vhicule automobile fourni par la cit et ainsi apprendre : 7 poser le diagnostic d'un vhicule qui dmarre, mais ne se met pas en marche ; trouver la cause d'un vhicule qui a un manque de puissance et/ou une augmentation de la consommation d'essence en considrant tous les aspects qui pourraient influencer cette condition. latelier a t offert 15 tudiants (une quarantaine de demandes, mais un nombre de places limit) provenant des programmes suivants : gnie mcanique (8), logiciel (2), civil (2), lectrique (2), biomdical (1). ces tudiants taient inscrits en 1re anne (5), 2e anne (2), 3e anne (5) et 4e (3) anne luniversit dottawa. le taux de satisfaction des participants a t excellent. nous sommes davis que ce genre dactivit est une avenue de collaboration porteuse entre nos deux institutions. en effet, le caractre complmentaire de certaines de nos formations - plus pratiques au niveau collgial et plus thoriques au niveau universitaire - est apparu vident lors de notre examen des cursus. ce genre de collaboration est envisageable dans les deux sens, en particulier dans les volets pratiques des formations universitaires et collgiales. cela viendrait enrichir les formations de part et dautre en plus dexposer les tudiants aux programmes collgiaux et universitaires. cela est assurment une piste de collaboration que les deux tablissements souhaitent continuer explorer. 4. pratiques prometteuses et leons retenues bien que nous soyons satisfaits des rsultats que nous avons obtenus dans le cadre du prsent projet, nous ralisons que nous avons peut-tre t un peu ambitieux lorsque nous avons tabli lchancier. le travail danalyse a en effet pris beaucoup plus de temps que nous lavions anticip. le projet se poursuivra donc au-del de lchancier initial. nous sommes toutefois srs que les possibilits de transferts de crdits identifies dans le cadre de ce projet pourront tre officialises par des ententes au cours des prochains mois. des rencontres sont dailleurs prvues en ce sens ds le mois davril. tel quindiqu dans la section prcdente, nous sommes galement enthousiastes face aux collaborations possibles au niveau de la formation pratique des tudiants des deux tablissements. ce genre dactivits dapprentissage exprientiel est dfinitivement prometteur et nous continuerons explorer les avenues possibles en ce sens. 8

measures of student success and student experience following university/college transfers in northwestern ontario: final report confederation college of applied arts and technology with data provided by lakehead university july 17, 2012 1. outline of the study this study investigates transfer student characteristics, patterns and experiences drawing on data from the graduate satisfaction survey, confederation college and lakehead university student registration and performance tracking datasets, transfer student surveys and focus groups. the datasets were developed for lakehead and confederation students enrolled during the 2005 2010 period. these included such variables as previous education, age, aboriginal and first generation status, amount of credit granted and program of study. while best efforts were made to ensure comparability of the datasets, there were some differences that limited comparative findings and conclusions about trends in student transfer success in college and university and comparisons of full- and part-time students. recommendations for future data collection and research are proposed. 2. findings 2.1 findings from data analysis inbound transfer confirmations to confederation college have grown by an annual average of 6% over the 5 year period of this study. a higher proportion of transfer students have come from university than college and the number of transfers from lakehead increased 7% in 5 years. the age of these students ranges from 18 to 60 with most being in the 20 to 23 cohort (p. 23). somewhat more females (56%) than males (44%) transferred. self-disclosure may underestimate the level of aboriginal (12%) and first generation (6%) participation. the completion rates of transfer students entering confederation exceeds the colleges 2010-2011 kpi overall graduation rate (61%) by 12%. average gpas of transfer students are slightly higher than direct entry students (3.4). transfers from confederation to lakehead remain steady over this period: they tend to be female (61%) and, based on self-disclosure, 22% aboriginal and 24% first generation. 2 twenty eight percent of confederation-to-lakehead transfers received credit for their prior study (an average of 4 credits each). graduate satisfaction survey data suggest that the typical time transferring students take between institutions ranges between 1.5 and 3.5 years, the shortest being confederation to lakehead transfers and the longest being from all other institutions to confederation. 2.2 focus group findings transfers to confederation college the findings drawn from the focus groups tended to confirm or enrich those from the data analysis and surveys. when transfer students compared their confederation experience with their prior institution, they note institutional differences including the colleges smaller class sizes which offer a more personal learning environment and connections to classmates and professors. the college pace of learning is seen as slower, the workload greater but the assignments less demanding. the college program was described as having prepared them well for a career. (p. 20) also, the college tuition is lower and the more free time allows them to pursue part time work. the credit transfer process into the college was seen as simple, timely and effective and granted the anticipated transfer credits. suggestions for improvement include online submission of credit transfer applications to reduce line-ups, moderation of special transfer fees, enhanced availability of course outlines for discontinued courses and transfer keys. (p. 20) 2.3 focus group findings transfers to lakehead university based on a smaller sample (n=4), the study considered transfers from confederation to lakehead. the differences related to class size and composition, cost and the nature of workloads. transfer students noted the significantly younger student body in first and second year classes as compared to older and more diverse 3rd and 4th year classes. they particularly noted the additional pressure from different expectations; particularly, the universitys more independent readings per course and fewer assignments with much heavier weights. satisfaction with the college-to-university transfer experience was mixed. some found the process lengthy and frustrating, did not receive the amount of credit they had expected, expectations were unclear and registration processes presented barriers. they recommended that a university representative present to prospective transfer students in college, approval letters include information on which credits transfer and 3 the online availability of transfer credit information. most felt they were well-prepared for their course work. transfer students recommended orientation programs that afford opportunities to meet professors and classmates; understand specific courses and coursework; and get advice on formats of tests, study methods, and the proper referencing and formatting of papers. students transferring into lakehead were motivated by career priorities. 2.4 survey findings survey results from 12 respondents transferring from confederation into lakehead concluded that most were satisfied with the transfer experience, found their new program very related and felt academically prepared. their major source of transfer information was the universitys website and staff/faculty. survey results from 10 respondents transferring into confederation concluded that most were satisfied with the transfer experience. they felt academically prepared, transferred for career reasons and confirmed that their main source of information was the website 3. results and conclusions the number of transfers into confederation is increasing and proximity plays an important role in that choice. the majority of transfer students are satisfied with their transfer experience, are female and fall between the ages of 20 and 23. the study concludes that transfer students into confederation achieve a better gpa than direct entrants. those who hold a degree achieve both a better overall gpa and are more likely to graduate than other transfer students. the study identified a number of transfer issues that should be explored further in order to help improve the experience for students. (p. 23) 4. recommendations: as an aid to prospective transfer students, confederation college should develop a transfer key or guideline for each program and make it available on the program webpage and in acceptance letters. increase the number of transfer agreements. make currently available transfer agreements easier to find on the website. 4 develop better tracking of transfer students including exemptions and credits earned. further research might include: o further examination of why roughly 75% of confederation college transfers to lakehead university receive no transfer credits at lakehead; o analysis of the number of graduates and non-graduates that transfer from confederation college to lakehead university and the level of affinity between programs; o segregating full and part time transfer students to investigate patterns in gpa and graduation rates; and o investigate ways to link individual records from ontario college admission service (ocas) and ontario university admission centre (ouac) to examine and research program affinity and measures of success such as gpa and graduation rates to allow meaningful comparisons.

table of contents 1. executive summary ............................................................................................................... 3 2. development of transfer paths ........................................................................................... 3 2.1 culinary management (collge boral) to the hotel and restaurant management program (la cit) .............................................................................................. 3 2.2 occupational therapist assistant/physiotherapist assistant (la cit) to the massage therapy program (collge boral) ......................................................................... 3 2.3 social services technician/social services technician - gerontology/business administration (la cit) to the funeral services education program (collge boral) .. 4 2.4 paramedic (collge boral) to the advanced paramedic program (la cit)........ 4 2.5 civil engineering - construction (la cit) to the construction technician in mining and civil engineering program (collge boral) ...................................................... 4 2.6 3. other articulations developed ..................................................................................... 5 best practices and teachings ............................................................................................... 5 3.1 best practices................................................................................................................. 5 3.2 teachings ....................................................................................................................... 6 4. planned implementation dates ............................................................................................ 6 5. summary table of articulations established ...................................................................... 7 2 oncat 2014-16 final report 1. executive summary this project aimed to build a bridge between programs in the trades, health and business fields from collge boral and collge la cit. these institutions share a mutual interest in exploring innovative transfer paths between certain programs, to help students not only acquire technical, technological, practical and theoretical knowledge, but also benefit from expertise and partnerships with the regional industry of each institution, with the ultimate goal of serving francophone communities in ontario. the results of the analysis of various transfer path projects were that some of them proved achievable while others couldn't be established due to a lack of affinity between the programs. rigorous work processes were developed and used to determine the relevance and contents of transfer paths between the programs, while focusing on the value added and the creation of conditions that would assure students' success. 2. development of transfer paths 2.1 culinary management (collge boral) to the hotel and restaurant management program (la cit) the transfer path between these two programs was developed by analysing the program curricula, course content and learning outcomes related to the courses. this analysis was completed by the teams of professors of the collge la cit and collge boral programs. the results helped the professors determine the courses that students who had graduated from the culinary management program at collge boral should take in order to earn a hotel and restaurant management diploma from collge la cit. students who take advantage of this transfer path will have a very extensive knowledge of the culinary and hotel industries. they will be able to run their own business or hold management positions in businesses in the hotel or tourist industry because they will be able to properly control all main cost factors. the articulation agreement between collge boral and collge la cit is presented in the summary of agreements established, which is presented in section 5 of this report. students will receive a block transfer of 891 course hours and will have to complete 703 course hours in a one-year program designed specifically for them in order to earn the diploma from la cit college. 2.2 occupational therapist assistant/physiotherapist assistant (la cit) to the massage therapy program (collge boral) 3 oncat 2014-16 final report the transfer path between these two programs could not be established. experts in the field performed a comparative analysis of the program standards. the analysis was inconclusive and instead helped identify significant differences demonstrating the impossibility of establishing an articulation between the programs. 2.3 social services worker/social services worker gerontology/business administration (la cit) to the funeral services education program (collge boral) the transfer path between these programs could not be established. the subject experts analysed the program curricula, course content and learning outcomes related to the courses. a simple comparative analysis of the program curricula quickly showed that it was impossible to establish such transfer paths. 2.4 paramedic (collge boral) to the advanced paramedic program (la cit) the transfer path between these two programs was developed by analysing the program curricula, course content and learning outcomes related to the courses. this analysis was completed by the teams of professors of the collge la cit and collge boral programs. the agreement guarantees the admission of students from the paramedic program at collge boral to the advanced paramedic program at collge la cit. three places are reserved for students who have graduated from the paramedic program at collge boral; the conditions for admission differ based on the grade earned in the spm1004 course comprehensive review : graduates from the paramedic course at collge boral who earned a grade of 70% or above in the spm1004 course - comprehensive review are exempt from the admission test. graduates from the paramedic course at collge boral who earned a grade below 70% in the spm1004 course - comprehensive review must take the admission test. candidates who achieve a grade below 70% on the admission test will be offered remedial activities throughout the summer. candidates who have participated in these remedial activities will be able to take the admission test again before the semester starts. the articulation agreement between collge boral and collge la cit is presented in the summary of agreements established, which is presented in section 5 of this report. 2.5 civil engineering - construction (la cit) to the construction technician in mining and construction engineering technology program (collge boral) the transfer path between these two programs was developed by performing a comparative analysis of program standards and an analysis of curricula, course content 4 oncat 2014-16 final report and learning outcomes related to the courses. this analysis was completed by the teams of professors of the collge la cit and collge boral programs. the articulation agreement between collge boral and collge la cit is presented in the summary of agreements established, which is presented in section 5 of this report. students will receive a block transfer of 86 credits out of a total of 129 credits. they will have to complete 43 credits to obtain the collge boral diploma. 2.6 other articulations developed the analysis work and search for transfer path opportunities helped identify agreements that could be established and that we successfully concluded, as outlined in the periodic report. social services worker, child and youth worker, community and justice services, practical nursing, paramedic, police foundations - collge boral programs to the mental health and addiction program at collge la cit. the articulation agreement between collge boral and collge la cit is presented in the summary of agreements established, which is presented in section 5 of this report. the agreement provides for the automatic admission to this post-graduate program following submission of an application through the ontario college application service and graduation from the collge boral in one of these programs. social services worker, child and youth worker, community and justice services, and early childhood education from collge boral to the autism and behavioural science program at collge la cit. the articulation agreement between collge boral and collge la cit is presented in the summary of agreements established, which is presented in section 5 of this report. the agreement provides for the automatic admission to this post-graduate program following submission of an application through the ontario college application service and graduation from the collge boral in one of these programs. 3. best practices and teachings 3.1 best practices it proved very important to maintain regular and fluid communication between the teams of experts, not only to ensure effective communication, but also to maintain the interest that stimulates creativity and open-mindedness throughout the process. the identification of a resource person in each institution also facilitates exchanges and file management. this person must know not only the programs and how they operate, but also the institution, its policies, guidelines and decision-making authorities in order 5 oncat 2014-16 final report to move the work forward while meeting deadlines. finally, this person must be able to identify the key people within the institution who need to be involved in the process. it is essential to keep an open mind and be ready to seize opportunities to establish transfer paths when they present themselves. 3.2 teachings the development of analysis tools to support the work of the subject experts and document the work appeared of utmost importance to us. given that we are working on many agreements at the same time, it is essential to keep an updated work schedule and to plan follow-up meetings and determine expected outcomes in relation to the schedules. despite the fact that transfer paths may appear realistic at the outset, a preliminary analysis may lead us to quickly conclude that there is no affinity between the programs. 4. planned implementation dates the agreements established are currently in force; students can benefit from them immediately. the work to publish the agreements on the institutions' websites and on ontransfer is currently underway. these agreements were published internally, for the schools and the members of their respective teams. promotional activities aimed at students will be organized over the next few months. 6 oncat 2014-16 final report 5. summary table of articulations established collge boral program average required credits you will receive from collge la cit collge la cit program early childhood education geen n/a admission autism and behavioural science practical nursing siax n/a admission mental health and addiction paramedic ambp n/a admission mental health and addiction paramedic ambp n/a admission advanced paramedic child and youth worker tesq n/a admission autism and behavioural science child and youth worker tesq n/a admission mental health and addiction community and justice services corq n/a admission autism and behavioural science community and justice services corq n/a admission mental health and addiction police foundations - tspq n/a admission mental health and addiction social services worker - tsoc n/a admission autism and behavioural science social services worker - tsoc n/a admission mental health and addiction culinary management gcul n/a block transfer of credits (advanced placement) collge la cit program civil engineering technology - construction 7 average required 2.0 oncat 2014-16 final report credits you will receive from collge boral block transfer of credits (advanced placement) hotel and restaurant management collge boral program construction engineering technology civg 8 oncat 2014-16 final report

wilfrid laurier university waterloo | brantford | kitchener | toronto niagara college photonics diploma & laurier bachelor of science in photonics photonics engineering diploma to bachelor of science photonics pathway with bridging semester final report: curriculum analysis and program plan submitted by: john fraser, project lead authors: john fraser (wlu project lead), sally heath (wlu project consultant), jeffrey post (ncc project co-lead) date: december 15, 2015 2 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan contents introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 3 niagara college photonics engineering technology program learning outcomes ................................ 3 wilfrid laurier university bachelor of science photonics learning outcomes ...................................... 3 learning outcomes comparison chart..................................................................................................... 4 curriculum analysis process .................................................................................................................... 5 identified gaps and bridging program plan ............................................................................................. 5 appendix 1: niagara photonics engineering technology program learning outcomes..................... 8 appendix 2: niagara college photonics engineering technology curriculum map ........................... 9 appendix 3: laurier bachelor of science in photonics program learning outcomes ....................... 10 appendix 4: laurier bachelor of science in photonics curriculum map .......................................... 11 appendix 5: program learning outcomes comparison chart ........................................................... 13 appendix 6: course by course comparison....................................................................................... 16 appendix 7: proposed ncc photonics engineering technology wlu photonics pathway (3+2) 20 appendix 8: course descriptions for bridging courses ...................................................................... 22 photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 3 introduction the purpose of this project is to create a pathway for student graduating from niagara colleges two and three year photonics diploma programs into wilfrid lauriers honours bachelor of science in photonics degree program. the methodology proposed was to examine the program learning outcomes (plos) and curriculum maps of each of the programs and use that to determine where the niagara college graduates would be prepared to enter the photonics bsc curriculum. the goal of the pathway is to produce graduates who have the complementary skills and knowledge that come from meeting the learning outcomes for the niagara photonics engineering technology diploma and the laurier honours bachelor of science in photonics. a further goal is to make completion of these two credentials efficient for students, by granting significant transfer credit to niagara students entering the laurier program. in five years of study, students will complete two credentials which would ordinarily require seven years of study. the curriculum analysis has been conducted with care and precision, so as to ensure that students undertaking the pathway are equipped to complete it successfully. this report summarizes the process undertaken by both institutions to compare plos and curriculum maps, the challenges encountered when using such an approach, a detailed description of the curriculum analysis that took place, and the conclusions drawn about the entry point and proposed curriculum for students pursuing the niagaralaurier photonics pathways. niagara college photonics engineering technology program learning outcomes the use of learning outcomes at ontario colleges is part of well a well-established system. all college programs, including certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, graduate certificates and bachelor degrees have ministry approved program outcomes attached to each program of instruction. this ensures that similar programs at different colleges teach to the identical learning outcomes, creating a consistent and transparent system of post-secondary education. often, programs will include provincial learning outcomes, validated through the credential validation service (cvs) along with college specific outcomes, unique to the particular college offering the program. often, these unique outcomes can be regionally focused. the province follows a clearly defined cycle to update program learning outcomes. bringing together the colleges that offer the cluster of programs being updated, colleagues will work together with industry partners and the ministry to ensure updated standards reflect the emerging needs of the programs being discussed. the learning outcomes for the three year advanced diploma in photonics engineering technology were recently updated in 2013. as this program is only offered at niagara college several accrediting bodies were consulted in the process. the new standards were designed in a manner that will allow the program to easily achieve accreditation with the accreditation board for engineering and technology (abet), the canadian technology accreditation board (ctab), and the international society for optics and photonics should the program to choose to move towards accreditation. wilfrid laurier university bachelor of science photonics 4 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan learning outcomes using an outcomes-based approach to curriculum design and review is still relatively new in the ontario university sector. prior to the introduction of new institutional quality assurance procedures (iqap) in 2011, there were no institutional requirements for programs to define learning outcomes at the program level. since 2011, program level learning outcomes have been integrated into the new program development and cyclical review processes, but the uptake and interest in this approach has varied across the university, with many programs only creating learning outcomes when they are scheduled for cyclical reviews. this is the case for the bachelor of science in photonics program, which created learning outcomes during its last cyclical review in 2012-2013. the learning outcomes for this program were derived initially from two sources: the institute of physics which accredits programs in the united kingdom and ireland, and the australian institute of physics which accredits programs in australia. the plos were assembled by the department chair for the self-study, but these outcomes have not yet informed the photonics curriculum to a meaningful extent. during the curriculum analysis process for this project, the plos created for the cyclical review were revisited and revised based on committee input. the plos are now more reflective of the programs goals but do not yet have widespread currency within the department or its curriculum. as noted below, the plos of the laurier photonics program emphasize the acquisition and demonstration of advanced knowledge in areas related to physics and photonics. students are expected to integrate their learning from a variety of courses and disciplines and apply this knowledge to solve complex problems. it is expected that they can communicate their ideas clearly and demonstrate the ability to complete work both independently and in team settings. preparation for future employment is valued by the program, but more in a self-directed manner than taught and assessed directly in the curriculum. the curriculum map included here as appendix 3 indicates how the photonics plos are addressed across the four year curriculum. at laurier, a scale of introduce, reinforce, met is traditionally used to map undergraduate curricula to more accurately demonstrate how students knowledge and skills are developed progressively across courses. prior to participating in this project, the photonics program did not have a map for its curriculum. through the process of examining their plos and mapping the photonics curriculum to these outcomes, the program has a better sense of how to communicate how students knowledge and skills are developed across the curriculum. learning outcomes comparison chart in undertaking the curriculum analysis for the two programs, several options were considered with regard to comparing the learning outcomes across the niagara and laurier programs. early attempts were made to map the niagara courses to the laurier outcomes and vice versa, but none of these attempts generated useful results for the committee. part of the challenge in comparing the programs using a learning outcomes framework is the way in which the plos have been integrated into each program. at niagara the plos govern the curriculum to a far greater extent than they do at laurier, where they were created primarily for accountability purposes. in trying to visualize how the goals and outcomes of each program were different, the plos of each program were compared across the ocav undergraduate degree level expectations (udles). the plos of each program were mapped to the six udle categories. this analysis proved fruitful because it illuminated the highly complementary character of the two programs learning outcomes. as can be seen in appendix 5 , the emphasis of the plos for the niagara diploma are on students ability to apply the knowledge that they are learning to do and construct devices, photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 5 as well as to equip them with the skills necessary to succeed in related fields of employment. by contrast, the plos of the laurier photonics program are less heavily weighted on doing than knowing, with a stronger emphasis on advanced knowledge in physics and photonics and the ability to use this knowledge in combination with mathematical skills to solve defined and undefined problems. the two programs have different emphases that when combined, are quite complementary to one another. curriculum analysis process the goal of the curriculum analysis was to arrive at program design that would enable students to efficiently meet the requirements of the two programs, while maximizing successful outcomes for students following the pathway. the curriculum analysis was challenging for several reasons: a. knowledge acquisition in the physical sciences is highly cumulative, making appropriate course sequencing especially important. b. as noted above, the learning outcomes of the two programs are complementary. as a result, there was very little straightforward transfer of learning from the niagara programs to the laurier program. c. furthermore, at the commencement of the process, the laurier photonics bsc plos had not yet achieved currency or undergone mapping. as part of the curriculum analysis, the plos were interrogated and revised and a map was prepared (see appendices 3 and 4). d. the niagara college diploma programs recently underwent significant revisions. because many of the courses in the revised program have yet to be taught, detailed teaching and learning plans (tlps, analogous to lauriers syllabi) were not available for all courses. given these circumstances, members of lauriers photonics program felt that the only way an accurate curriculum analysis could be conducted was by examining the content of each of the courses taught at both niagara and laurier. this was accomplished by looking closely at both the niagara and laurier course syllabi and consulting with faculty in both programs. by doing a course-by-course comparison, topics and courses considered key to achieving the laurier plos were identified. appendix 6 identifies the course-by-course analysis done by laurier faculty members to determine which courses niagara graduates would need to take in order to successfully meet the learning outcomes of the laurier photonics bsc program. identified gaps and bridging program plan appendix 7 outlines the sequencing of courses for students pursuing the pathway programs, including the courses identified as necessary pre-requisites for niagara graduates to complete prior to entering the photonics program. the bridging program courses are both in mathematics, reflecting the fact that mathematics is an essential tool for understanding and solving problems in physics. lauriers math assistance centre offers several programs designed to address gaps in students mathematics background. the calculus preparation evaluation identifies the first-year calculus course for which a student is best prepared. depending on the students level of preparation and aptitude for mathematics, there are a number of potential courses through which students could attain the skills necessary to begin the laurier photonics program. the math assistance centre also offers a series of pre-calculus modules to 6 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan help students address gaps in their preparation. calendar descriptions for bridging courses are provided in appendix 8. photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 7 appendices appendix 1: niagara photonics engineering technology program learning outcomes appendix 2: niagara college photonics engineering technology curriculum map appendix 3: laurier bachelor of science in photonics program learning outcomes appendix 4: laurier bachelor of science in photonics curriculum map appendix 5: program learning outcomes comparison chart appendix 6: course by course comparison appendix 7: proposed ncc photonics engineering technology wlu photonics pathway (3+2) appendix 8: course descriptions for bridging courses 8 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan appendix 1: niagara photonics engineering technology program learning outcomes vocational learning outcomes: photonics engineering technology modified from the outcomes generated at the photonics advisory committee meeting, june 14, 2012 the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: 1 design, construct and test laser devices and systems. 2 design, construct and test photonic/optical components and systems 3 design, construct and test electronic systems 4 construct and test opto-mechanical components and systems 5 apply health and safety practices to minimize exposure to unsafe conditions and ensure a safe working environment for oneself and co-workers. 6 perform tasks in accordance with relevant law, policies, procedures, standards, regulations and ethical principles. apply the principles of mathematics and science to analyze and solve 7 technical problems related to photonics technology. 8 apply the principles of physical and natural science. communicate information effectively, credibly, and accurately for the 9 installation, maintenance, repair and manufacture of components. 10 manage, evaluate and document data. 11 manage, lead and work in a team to meet target goals. evaluate and analyze systemic problems and produce troubleshooting 12 techniques to address these problems. apply strategies for ongoing personal and professional development to 13 enhance performance as a photonics professional. select for purchase equipment, components, and systems that fulfill job 14 requirements and functional specifications. 15 implement and conduct quality control and quality assurance procedures. apply business/management principles, ethics, sustainability, contracts, codes 16 and standards. manage projects adhering to the standards of the project management body 17 of knowledge (pmbok). research, analyze, prepare, document, submit and defend a technology 18 report. appendix 2: niagara college photonics engineering technology curriculum map 9 10 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan appendix 3: laurier bachelor of science in photonics program learning outcomes honours bachelor of science in photonics program learning outcomes 1. demonstrate a basic knowledge of the physics core areas: mechanics, thermodynamics, waves, electricity and magnetism, electronics, optics, and modern physics. 2. demonstrate knowledge of advanced physics concepts in classical mechanics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, electromagnetic theory, and condensed matter physics. 3. demonstrate advanced knowledge in fibre optics, lasers, photonic devices, and electro-optics. 4. use appropriate knowledge and skills to solve physics problems with well-defined solutions as well as tackle open-ended problems. 5. interpret a physics problem into a mathematical form for description, analysis and solution using appropriate problem solving skills in calculus to the level of differential equations and vector field calculus, linear algebra, transforms, complex numbers, series, trigonometry, complex analysis, special functions, and probability and statistics. 6. expand knowledge and range of perspectives through non-science electives. 7. demonstrate computational skills for algorithm development using programming languages to the level of scientific programming. 8. competently and safely use a range of measurement and data analysis tools to collect data with appropriate precision and carry out the subsequent analysis with due regard to the uncertainties. 9. conduct independent investigations by methods that include experimentation, analysis, and synthesis of information. 10. communicate complex information effectively and concisely by means of written documents, presentations or discussion. 11. understand and interpret complex concepts and information precisely in order to construct logical arguments. 12. demonstrate an ability to work effectively both independently and in groups. 13. demonstrate ethical scientific behaviour. 14. use practical knowledge and skills to identify and secure future career opportunities. photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 11 appendix 4: laurier bachelor of science in photonics curriculum map ma121 pc120 pc132 ma201 ma205 pc200 pc212 ma255 pc221 pc235 pc237 pc242 pc300 pc321 pc344 pc364 pc481 pc315 pc331 pc360 pc454 pc482 pc421 pc474 pc481 i r i i i/ r r i i r r r r r r m m 2. demonstrate knowledge of advanced physics concepts in classical mechanics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, electromagnetic theory, and condensed matter physics. 3. demonstrate advanced knowledge in fibre optics, lasers, photonic devices, and electro-optics. 4. use appropriate knowledge and skills to solve physics problems with well-defined solutions as well as tackle open-ended problems. 5. interpret a physics problem into a mathematical form for description, analysis and solution using appropriate problem solving skills in calculus to the level of differential equations and vector field calculus, linear algebra, transforms, complex numbers, series, trigonometry, complex analysis, special functions, and probability and statistics. 6. expand knowledge and range of perspectives through nonscience electives. i i i i i i i i i i r r r r r r r r r r r r r r m i i i i i i i i i i i i i i r r r r r r r r r r r r r m m i i i r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r m m m m m i i i i i i i r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r / m m m m i, r, m 7. demonstrate computational skills for algorithm development using programming languages to the level of scientific programming. 8. competently and safely use a range of measurement and data analysis tools to collect data with appropriate precision and carry out the subsequent analysis with due regard to the uncertainties. 9. conduct independent investigations by methods that include experimentation, analysis, and synthesis of information. 10. communicate complex information effectively and concisely by means of written documents, presentations or discussion. 11. understand and interpret complex concepts and information precisely in order to construct logical arguments. 12. demonstrate and ability to work effectively both independently and in groups. i 13. demonstrate ethical scientific behavior. 14. use practical knowledge and skills to identify and secure future career opportunities. electives ma110 i cp114 pc131 1. demonstrate a basic knowledge of the physics core areas: mechanics, thermodynamics, waves, electricity and magnetism, electronics, optics, and modern physics. cp104 ma122 legend: i = introduce r = reinforce m = met required courses ma110 or ma103 honours photonics program learning outcomes i i i i i i i i i r r r r r r i i r i i i i r i i r i r r i i r i i i r r i i r r r i i r i i i r r i i r i r i i i i i i i i i i i r i i i i i i i i i i r r r r i i i i i i i i i i r r r r r r m r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r / m r r r r r r r r r r r r r / m r / m r / m r r r r r r r / m r / m r / m r i m m m r r m m r r r m m r m m m m m r r m m m r m r / m r / m m m m m m m r m m i i r r r 12 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 13 appendix 5: program learning outcomes comparison chart undergraduate degree level expectations niagara college photonics engineering technology program learning outcomes depth and breadth of knowledge knowledge of methodologies manage, evaluate and document data. research, analyze, prepare, document, submit and defend a technology report. wilfrid laurier photonics bsc learning outcomes demonstrate a basic knowledge of the physics core areas: mechanics, thermodynamics, waves, electricity and magnetism, electronics, optics, and modern physics. demonstrate knowledge of advanced physics concepts in classical mechanics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, electromagnetic theory, and condensed matter physics. demonstrate advanced knowledge in fibre optics, lasers, photonic devices, and electro-optics. competently and safely use a range of measurement and data analysis tools to collect data with appropriate precision and carry out the subsequent analysis with due regard to the uncertainties. conduct independent investigations by methods that include experimentation, analysis, and synthesis of information. 14 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan undergraduate degree level expectations application of knowledge communication skills awareness of limits of knowledge niagara college photonics engineering technology program learning outcomes design, construct and test laser devices and systems design, construct and test photonic/optical components and systems design, construct and test electronic systems construct and test opto-mechanical components and systems apply health and safety practices to minimize exposure to unsafe conditions and ensure a safe working environment for oneself and co-workers. apply the principles of mathematics and science to analyze and solve technical problems related to photonics technology. apply the principles of physical and natural science. evaluate and analyze systemic problems and produce troubleshooting techniques to address these problems. implement and conduct quality control and quality assurance procedures. communicate information effectively, credibly, and accurately for the installation, maintenance, repair and manufacture of components. wilfrid laurier photonics bsc learning outcomes use appropriate knowledge and skills to solve physics problems with welldefined solutions as well as tackle openended problems. interpret a physics problem into a mathematical form for description, analysis and solution using appropriate problem solving skills in calculus to the level of differential equations and vector field calculus, linear algebra, transforms, complex numbers, series, trigonometry, complex analysis, special functions, and probability and statistics. demonstrate computational skills for algorithm development using programming languages to the level of scientific programming. communicate complex information effectively and concisely by means of written documents, presentations or discussion. understand and interpret complex concepts and information precisely in order to construct logical arguments. expand knowledge and range of perspectives through non-science electives. photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 15 undergraduate degree level expectations autonomy and professional capacity niagara college photonics engineering technology program learning outcomes apply health and safety practices to minimize exposure to unsafe conditions and ensure a safe working environment for oneself and co-workers. perform tasks in accordance with relevant law, policies, procedures, standards, regulations and ethical principles. manage, lead and work in a team to meet target goals. apply strategies for ongoing personal and professional development to enhance performance as a photonics professional. select for purchase equipment, components, and systems that fulfill job requirements and functional specifications. apply business/management principles, ethics, sustainability, contracts, codes and standards. manage projects adhering to the standards of the project management body of knowledge (pmbok). wilfrid laurier photonics bsc learning outcomes demonstrate an ability to work effectively both independently and in groups. demonstrate ethical scientific behaviour. use practical knowledge and skills to identify and secure future career opportunities. 16 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan appendix 6: course by course comparison the following table provides an overview of the process undertaken at laurier to match courses completed by students in the niagara photonics engineering technology program with those that comprise the laurier bachelor of science in photonics. to undertake this analysis, laurier faculty examined the syllabi and teaching and learning plans for each of the niagara course in order to confirm which topics were taught within a course and which were missing. if the niagara courses met the threshold of approximately 80%, they were considered to be a match for an existing laurier course and therefore not required of students in the pathway. year/term year 1 f wlu course ncc course cp104 ctec1544 (ends in 2015) ma110 (or ma103) math1331 missing topics 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 1. 2. numbers variables expressions functions loops statements nested loops arrays lists text processing recursion multivariable calculus missing labs math1431 ma122 no match pc131/pc132 phys1220+phys1630 comments ncc makes change to cover these missing topics in capzt1011 starting 2015. match (multivariable calculus offered as separate course ma212 ) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. rotation rolling torque and angular momentum fluids equilibrium and elasticity entropy gravitation (part) no match for pc131 photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 17 year/term wlu course ncc course missing topics comments elective year 1 w year 2 f cp114 no match ma121 no match pc120 elnc1430 ma201 no match ma205 no match pc200 elnc1220 pc212 elnc1320 elective year 2 w ma255 no match match 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. electric field gauss' law electric potential magnetic fields magnetic fields due to currents match 18 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan year/term wlu course ncc course pc221 elnc1220, elnc1320, elec1532 pc235 no match pc237 phtn1100, 1215, 1220, 1530 pc242 match missing topics 1. 2. 3. 4. year 3 f pc300 no match pc344 no match pc364 ctec1339 phtn1334 1. 2. 3. phtn1220, 1334, 1531 1. 2. 3. elective pc315 match match pc321 pc481 year 3 w special relativity schroedinger eq. and applications atomic structure molecular structure comments no match multiplexing switching digital to analog conversion theory on planar waveguide structures, and cylindrical fiber signal degradation in optical fibers; labs no match no match photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 19 year/term wlu course ncc course pc331 no match pc360 no match pc454 no match missing topics comments elective year 4 f pc482 phtn1100,1300, 1400, 1500, 1531 match pc421 phtn1531, phtn1500 no match pc474 phtn1334, phtn1220 electives year 4 w 1. 2. electives optical network examples sunet and ethernet wavelength-divisionmultiplexing (wdm) no match 20 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan appendix 7: proposed ncc photonics engineering technology wlu photonics pathway (3+2) honours photonics (bsc) (pathway for ncc 3 year photonics engineering technology diploma students) the aim of the pathway of bsc program is to develop a strong understanding of the theory and application of photonics, with specific emphasis on data communications and networks, and with practical hands-on exposure to optics, fibre optics, and lasers giving the pathway students to graduate with a valuable mix of skills and knowledge. given the potential importance of photonics to future technological developments in many areas, students with this combination of practical, theoretical, and research skills would be very well-positioned to meet the needs of emerging technology fields. the program consists of 20 full-credit courses (or equivalent). this schedule serves as a guide to the order that the courses may be taken. students may follow a different schedule of their choice, subject to academic regulations, including course pre-requisites. bridging gap courses 1 1.ma201 multivariable calculus and 2.ma122 introductory linear algebra fall term year 3 pc131 mechanics ma121 introduction to mathematical proofs ma205 differential equations i 1.0 elective credits year 4 pc321 quantum mechanics i pc344 thermodynamics & statistical physics pc364 data communications and networks pc481 fibre optics 0.5 elective credits winter term cp114 data structure ma255 continuous and discrete transforms pc235 classical mechanics pc315 intro to scientific computation pc360 electromagnetic theory pc331 quantum mechanics ii pc454 solid state physics pc474 optical networks pc421 photonic devices 0.5 elective credits regulations 1. program must include at least 9 and no more than 11 senior physics credits. 1 the courses listed for the bridging gap are the recommended courses to ensure that students have the mathematics skills necessary to complete the required courses. however, each students level of preparation will be assessed through the math assistance centres calculus preparation evaluation. on the basis of this assessment, a suitable suite of bridging courses will be recommended. photonics curriculum analysis and program plan - 21 2. the electives must include at least 0.5 senior credit in physics. 3. for progression into the next year, and for graduation, the requirement will be a minimum cumulative gpa of 5.00 (c) calculated on the physics courses and a minimum overall gpa of 5.00 (c). 4. candidates who have passed all courses of the final year, but have failed to obtain the requisite average for an honours degree, may elect to receive a general degree in physics. 5. maximum of 7 100-level credits are allowed. notes all courses listed are one-half credit, except for courses denoted as follows: * 1 credit course 0.25 credit course 22 - photonics curriculum analysis and program plan appendix 8: course descriptions for bridging courses ma122 introductory linear algebra 0.5 credit systems of linear equations; algebra of complex numbers; algebra of matrices with real and complex entries; determinants and their applications; vector geometry in r2 and r3; spanning, linear independence and linear transformations in rn and cn ; introduction to eigenvalues and eigenvectors; applications of linear algebra. ma201 multivariable calculus 0.5 credit vector functions; differential and integral calculus of functions of several variables, including vector fields; line and surface integrals including green's theorem, stokes' theorem and the divergence theorem. other potential bridging courses: ma110 introduction to differential and integral calculus 1.0 credit a thorough introduction to limits of functions. continuity and its consequences. rational, algebraic and transcendental functions and geometric relationships. theory and applications of differential and integral calculus of functions of a single variable. the fundamental theorem of calculus and techniques of integration. introduction to multivariable calculus and applications.

oncat project 2015-12 final report march 18, 2016 ji ae rhee centennial college sean woodhead centennial college creating low affinity pathways executive summary i executive summary purpose of project since the inception of the ontario council on articulation and transfer, over 1200 pathways have been listed on ontranfser.ca, and many are formed between high affinity programs. the ontario college student profile is, however, changing. today, an increasing number of college students are non-direct applicants and 44% of these students have completed some form of prior postsecondary education (pse). in response, colleges in ontario are exploring ways to create pathways that meet diversified student demands. with the system placing most of its focus on high affinity pathways development, there exists a low affinity pathways void. since a majority of students who continue their education at diploma or degree level pursue a completely different field, colleges and universities alike should seek out this call to action in identifying what means exist to articulate minimization of learning redundancies between two programs of low curricular affinity. targeting low affinity pathways between high enrolment, high employment competition programs against low enrolment, low employment competition programs seems like a logical place to start this work. in addressing the current paucity of pathways between different fields, this project explores the creation of system-wide low affinity pathways based on programs at centennial college. contained within this report is an explanation of how the project was undertaken, what programs were investigated and the results of such, limitations discovered before or during this process, pathways to be developed as a result of this work, and future considerations. methodology this project has been designed to support outcomes-based curriculum affinity assessment between programs from different disciplines. there were three different stages to the project: 1) program-program identification, 2) curriculum mapping, and 3) low affinity articulation. first, overenroled and underenroled programs were identified by analyzing fall 2015 data from centennials corporate planning and institutional research (cpir) team records, aismartr reports, and the banner student information system. underenroled programs were limited to programs within the school of business (sb) and school of engineering technology and applied creating low affinity pathways executive summary ii science (setas), based on skilled worker shortages and ontario college application service applicant data. then, programs were narrowed down by admission requirements, curriculum affinity, and career prospects. programs requiring a pse credential for admission, having 0% curriculum affinity, and resulting in no prospective career convergence were excluded. finally, program learning outcomes (plos) were mapped to confirm the pursuit of potential pathways. based on the above process, law clerk to office administration (executive) or office administration (health services), and architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology or mechanical engineering technology were identified as programs eligible for building pathways. to identify both overlaps and gaps in program curriculum, researchers mapped the outcomes of the sending programs courses in semester one and two against the receiving programs. by comparing all the course learning outcomes (clos) of the sending program to the course-bycourse clos of the receiving program, it was possible to identify combinations of clos that could be used to meet course requirements. according to centennial colleges transfer credit procedures policy, 80% affinity between clos results in granting credit; therefore, this criterion was used to recommend the granting of credit at the end of this mapping process. results through mapping program-to-program clos, the following pathways were created for students who have finished semester 2 of: - law clerk to 1) office administration (executive): full credit for up to six courses, self-directed learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for four 2) office administration (health services): full credit for up to six courses, self-directed learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for four creating low affinity pathways executive summary iii - architectural technology to 1) energy systems engineering technology: full credit for up to four courses, self-directed learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for one 2) mechanical engineering technology industrial: full credit for up to four courses, selfdirected learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for one 3) mechanical engineering technology design: full credit for up to four courses, selfdirected learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for one limitations though this report was prepared through careful examination and analysis of data, the researchers are aware of its shortcomings: - potential low affinity pathways were without any complete plo matches, therefore elements of performance were excluded from consideration in order to preserve the possibility of creating any new system-wide pathways. - emsi data was limited by breakdown of job prospects for instructional programs. while the cip website offers up to a tertiary level of breakdowns (e.g., 52.0402 for executive assistant/executive secretary), emsi only provides data up to the secondary level (e.g., 52.04 for business operations support and assistant services). consequently, queried jobs had to be edited to match more specific career prospects. - due to restraints on time and resources, researchers were unable to survey demand for potential low affinity pathways. without this, student satisfaction and utilization can only be speculated. conclusions with an increasing number of students returning to pse, there is an ever-growing need for pathways built between low affinity fields. this project addresses that need by creating the creating low affinity pathways executive summary iv pathways from law clerk to office administration (executive) or office administration (health services), and architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology or mechanical engineering technology. centennials sb, setas and the researchers pathways team will collaborate to create and implement new model routes for these pathways within the coming school year. the process of building these pathways resulted in valuable lessons learned and reflections that could help facilitate the development of more daring, creative pathways as well as the undertaking of other related projects in the future. the valuable lessons learned during the process of this research were 1) that various educators within centennial could have different perceptions of program job prospects, and 2) that some college staff have concerns regarding the pathways mandate; beliefs that this agenda can lead to other colleges stealing their students. though the authors of this report take no opinion on the aforementioned concern, it is important to note this feedback received from multiple staff involved. also, the project resulted in two recommendations for best practices: 1) curriculum training for subject matter experts (smes) to avoid confusion regarding outcome mapping vs. week-byweek achievement mapping, and 2) maintaining current, relevant, and measurable plos and clos that reflect the most recent practices and technologies in a measurable manner. over the course of this project, researchers discovered potential topics for further research 1) exploring dual diploma pathways or new advanced diploma and graduate certificate combinations for future projects to offer programs with added value to students, and 2) exploring the educational goals and employability expectations of students entering programs with low (sometimes even negative) job prospects. creating low affinity pathways executive summary v introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 1 methodology.......................................................................................................................................................... 2 identifying overenroled and underenroled programs ......................................................................................... 3 identifying underenroled programs with high job prospects............................................................................... 4 identifying potential pathways............................................................................................................................ 5 factor 1. program admission requirements .................................................................................................... 6 factor 2. program learning outcomes ............................................................................................................ 6 factor 3. career prospects .............................................................................................................................. 7 in-depth comparison of plos.......................................................................................................................... 8 mapping program-to-program course learning outcomes.................................................................................. 8 law clerk to office administration (executive) ................................................................................................ 9 law clerk to office administration (health services) ..................................................................................... 10 architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology ............................................................ 11 architectural technology to mechanical engineering technology .................................................................. 11 results ................................................................................................................................................................. 12 law clerk to office administration (executive) .................................................................................................. 13 law clerk to office administration (health services) ......................................................................................... 13 architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology ............................................................... 14 architectural technology to mechanical engineering technology ...................................................................... 15 limitations ........................................................................................................................................................... 16 conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................... 17 lessons learned ............................................................................................................................................... 17 reflections upon best practices and future considerations ............................................................................... 18 best practices 1. curriculum training for subject matter experts (sme) ......................................................... 18 best practices 2. maintaining current, relevant, and measurable plos and clos .......................................... 18 creating low affinity pathways executive summary vi future considerations................................................................................................................................... 18 references ........................................................................................................................................................... 20 appendices .......................................................................................................................................................... 21 appendix 1. overenroled programs and job prospects .................................................................................. 21 appendix 2. underenroled programs and job prospects (sob and setas) ...................................................... 22 appendix 3. comparison of program learning outcomes (plos).................................................................... 24 appendix 4. mapping program-to-program course learning outcomes (clos) .............................................. 28 appendix 5. model routes ............................................................................................................................ 50 creating low affinity pathways executive summary vii introduction ontario postsecondary education (pse) pathways development has been a boon for lifelong learning. since the inception of the ontario council on articulation and transfer, over 1200 pathways have been listed on ontranfser.ca (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2015), and many are formed between high affinity programs. these high-affinity pathways are to support mobility along an academic trajectory that, assumedly, corresponds with vocational advancement. the ontario college student profile is, however, changing. today, 65.3% of college students are non-direct applicantsa 4 percentage point increase from a decade agoand 44% of these students have completed some form of prior pse. and, over half of graduates will continue to college to gain an additional certificate or diploma (colleges ontario, 2015). as more students enrol in college with prior pse credits and/or life experience, colleges in ontario are exploring ways to create pathways that meet diversified student demands. with the system placing most of its focus on high affinity pathways development, there exists a low affinity pathways void. since a majority of students who continue their education at diploma or degree level pursue a completely different field (wheelahan, childs, yang, lavigne, brijmohan, & moodie, 2015), colleges and universities alike should seek out this call to action in identifying what means exist to articulate minimization of learning redundancies between two programs of low curricular affinity. targeting low affinity pathways between high enrolment, high employment competition programs against low enrolment, low employment competition programs seems like a logical place to start this work. in addressing the current paucity of pathways between different fields, this project explores the creation of system-wide low affinity pathways based on programs at centennial college. contained within this report is an explanation of how the project was undertaken, what programs were investigated and the results of such, limitations discovered before or during this process, pathways to be developed as a result of this work and future considerations. creating low affinity pathways 1 methodology this project has been designed to support outcomes-based curriculum affinity assessment between programs from different disciplines. there were three different stages to the project: 1) program-program identification, 2) curriculum mapping, and 3) low affinity articulation. data and colleague experiential knowledge from various sources was used by the researchers to connect high enrolment, high employment competition programs with low enrolment business and engineering technology programs that yield high employment prospects. the latter programs were selected based on skilled worker shortages and ontario college application service applicant data. programs qualifying for this project were identified based on administrative data (i.e., enrolment numbers, student attrition, and curriculum/course delivery class sizes) and job prospects. administrative data was gathered through both centennials corporate planning and institutional research (cpir) team records, aismartr reports, and the banner student information system. for job prospecting, economic modeling specialists international (emsi) data was used. emsi was fitting for this project since it collects and synthesizes labour market data from a variety of sources: canadian business patterns (cbp), national household survey 2011, census 2006, census 2001, survey of employment, payrolls and hours (seph), labour force survey (lfs), canadian occupational projection system (cops), cansim, and postsecondary student information system (psis). data from emsi included detailed reports on job prospects by program and occupation. all gathered data was supplemented by experiential knowledge acquired from administration and support staff regarding enrolment trends and centennial graduate success. faculty subject matter experts (smes) were consulted during the evaluation of program learning outcomes (plos) and course learning outcomes (clos). potential pathways were then identified by narrowing down the programs by admission requirements, learning outcomes, and career prospects. programs that require a diploma or degree for admission, have no affinity between learning outcomes, and have no overlap in creating low affinity pathways 2 career prospects were excluded. with the remaining programs, an in-depth comparison of plos (created by schools, meeting mtcu vocational learning outcomes) and clos was conducted to build pathways. identifying overenroled and underenroled programs based on fall 2015 records from centennial cpir, aismartr reports, and banner, the researchers identified currently high enrolment, high employment competition programs that qualify for consideration in articulating with low enrolment, low employment competition programs. high enrolment programs were rated from highest to lowest enrolment. first, the difference between caat ii numbers and 1) number of class seats built per program semester, 2) number of seats within registration blocks, and 3) number of students registered in at least one course falling under their program semesters one and two was calculated. the average of these differences was used to arrive at whether a program is overenroled or underenroled. mindful of concerns about the possible underutilization of newly developed pathways, researchers excluded any program with fewer than three students overenroled. the researchers then gathered data reports from emsi. job prospects were identified by narrowing down emsi data by location (ontario), program, target occupations, and projected job growth for 2016-2022 (appendix 1). listing all 522 occupations by lowest to highest job growth, job growth for each quartile was calculated: table 1. average job growth for all occupations (ontario) by quartile 0-25% job growth -3.7% quartile 26-50% 2.0% 51-75% 76-100% 5.7% 8.6% any program with lower than 2% projected job growth (the median for all occupations in the province) was categorized as low prospect. accordingly, the following overenroled programs were identified as having low job prospects, and therefore eligible for further analysis: creating low affinity pathways 3 table 2. programs with low job prospects program code program name job prospects 2804 law clerk -1.10% 6450 music industry arts & perform. -4.50% 5110 massage therapy -3.20% 6402 journalism 0.90% 3115 architectural technology co-op -1.50% identifying underenroled programs with high job prospects underenroled programs within the school of business (sb) and school of engineering technology and applied science (setas) that meet the scope of this project were identified based on 2015 fall admissions data from centennial cpir as well as emsi data. programs were first sorted by highest to lowest underenrolment, using the same procedure outlined in identifying overenroled programs with low job prospects. to allow for the revision of model routes to build new pathways, any non-diploma programs or programs with fewer than two intakes (i.e. only one start date per school year) per school year were excluded from this project. building pathways leading to programs with only one annual start date would result in students waiting two semesters to register for missed courses. emsi data was then narrowed down by location (ontario), program, target occupations, and projected job growth for 2016-2022 to display relevant job prospects (appendix 2). with average job growth for all occupations in ontario at 3% for all jobs combined (emsi, 2015), any program with higher than 3% projected job growth was categorized as high prospect. the following underenroled programs in sb and setas were identified as having high job prospects, and therefore eligible for further analysis: creating low affinity pathways 4 table 3. programs with high job prospects program code program name job prospects 2603 sob - office admin medical 4.60% 2606 sob - office admin executive 4.10% 2419 sob - international business co-op 3.20% 2416 sob - bus. admin. leadership & mgmt. 3.30% 3119 setas - sftwr eng techy-inter ga co-op 4.10% 3407 setas - biomedical engineering tech 5.60% 3703 setas - mech eng technology - design 6.90% 3417 setas - biomedical eng techy co-op 5.60% 3714 setas - mech eng technology-ind. co-op 6.90% 3109 setas - software eng tech-interactive 4.10% 3756 setas - energy syst. engin. technology 6.20% 3508 setas - health informatics technology 5.30% 3704 setas - mech eng technology - ind. 6.90% 3538 setas - health inform. techy ft co-op 5.30% identifying potential pathways three factors were considered when narrowing down the overenroled and underenroled programs to identify potential pathways: 1) program admission requirements: programs requiring a pse credential were excluded 2) program learning outcomes: programs with 0% curriculum affinity were excluded creating low affinity pathways 5 3) similarities in program career prospects: programs with no prospective career convergence were excluded factor 1. program admission requirements the following programs were excluded since they are fast-track, requiring a college diploma or university degree in the same or related discipline for admission: biotechnology (fast-track) (3621) biotechnology - advanced (co-op) (fast-track) (3632) health informatics technology (co-op) (fast-track) (3538) software engineering technology (fast-track) (3429) factor 2. program learning outcomes a comparison of plos resulted in the exclusion of the following overenroled programs with no affinity with underenroled programs as candidates for potential pathways: music industry arts and performance (6450) massage therapy (5110) journalism (6402) also, the following underenroled programs with no plo affinity with overenroled programs were excluded from potential pathways: business administration international business (co-op) (2419) business administration - leadership and management (co-op) (2416) software engineering technology interactive gaming (co-op)(3119) biomedical engineering technology (3407) biomedical engineering technology (co-op) (3417) software engineering technology interactive gaming (3109) health informatics technology (3508) creating low affinity pathways 6 factor 3. career prospects the following programs remained after narrowing down potential matches by factor 1 and 2: table 4. programs remaining after elimination by factor 1 and 2 school department program enrolment sob law clerk law clerk (2804) over sob office admin office administration (executive) (2606) under sob office admin office administration (health services) (2603) under setas abes* architectural technology (co-op) (3115) over setas amat** energy systems engineering technology (3756) under setas amat mechanical engineering technology industrial (co-op) (3714) under setas amat mechanical engineering technology industrial (3704) under setas amat mechanical engineering technology design (3703) under *abes: applied biological and environmental sciences ** amat: advanced manufacturing and automation technology the overenroled law clerk (2804) program was identified as potentially connecting to the underenroled office administration (executive) (2606) or office administration (health services) (2603) programs. the programs have career opportunities that involve overlapping clerical duties supporting office professionals. in terms of current hourly median wage, legal secretaries are earning $19.74 while office/administrative clerks, assistants, and secretaries are earning $19.03 (emsi, 2015). the overenroled architectural technology (co-op) (3115) program was a potential match with the overenroled energy systems engineering technology (3756), mechanical engineering technology industrial (co-op) (3714), mechanical engineering technology industrial (3704), or mechanical engineering technology design (3703) programs. all aforementioned five programs are accredited by the canadian technology accreditation board (ctab). in terms of skills and work environment, architectural technology graduates would utilize cad skills in the workplace, just like mechanical engineering technology graduates; mechanical engineering technology graduates have the potential to work in architectural, engineering, manufacturing, and related services, creating a slight overlap with architectural technology graduates. current hourly median wages are $30.01 for mechanical engineering technologists and $28.72 for energy systems engineering technologists, making their skills more lucrative than those of architectural technologists at $22.96. creating low affinity pathways 7 at this stage, both sb and setas were notified of potential programs for pathways. the data received a go-ahead from chairs and deans. in-depth comparison of plos a comparison of plos was conducted (appendix 3) between the programs remaining after the evaluation of factor 3 to confirm the pursuit of potential pathways. the plos of law clerk were compared to those of office administration (executive) (2606) as well as office administration (health services) (2603); architectural technologys plos were compared to those of energy systems engineering technology (3756), mechanical engineering technology industrial (co-op) (3714), mechanical engineering technology industrial (3704), and mechanical engineering technology design (3703).* the following table shows the number of partial and potential plo matches between the analyzed programs: table 5. partial and potential plo matches between programs law clerk office administration (executive) # of plos partial and potential matches 13 13 office administration (health services) # of plos partial and potential matches 10 10 a. technology energy systems engineering technology # of plos partial and potential matches 11 4 mechanical engineering technology* # of plos partial and potential matches 13 6 * all mechanical engineering technology program variations here share the same mtcu programs standards and therefore have the same plos within centennial mapping program-to-program course learning outc omes based on the potential pathways identified in the previous section, the outcomes of each programs courses (meeting the plo requirements shared by programs across ontario public colleges) in semester one and two were mapped against each other (appendix 4). overlapping general education electives (gned) and communication courses (comm) were given credit. creating low affinity pathways 8 using model route courses (appendix 5), all clos of law clerk were compared to course-bycourse clos of office administration (executive) (2606) as well as office administration (health services) (2603). this was to see if any combination of clos from law clerk could be used to meet the course requirements of office administration (executive) or office administration (health services). according to centennial colleges transfer credit procedures policy, 80% affinity between clos results in granting credit; therefore, this criterion was used to recommend the granting of credit at the end of this mapping process. the same procedure was repeated for architectural technologys clos analyzed against those of energy systems engineering technology (3756), mechanical engineering technology industrial (co-op) (3714), mechanical engineering technology industrial (3704), and mechanical engineering technology design (3703).** after recognizing the common learning of plos branching over clos, the next step was to further assure these could qualify as system-wide pathways. this was done through utilizing centennials banner transfer course articulation form and the transfer credit check form was used to identify current program-specific equivalent courses (e.g., senecas ldp 311 introduction to legal documentation production is equivalent to centennials oagn 116 word processing applications) among ontario colleges. the granting of gned and comm credit equivalencies would depend on each colleges program structure, since some program model routes include neither in semester 1 or 2. ** all mechanical engineering technology programs here share the same course combinations, and therefore the same clos for semester one and two. law clerk to office administration (executive) table 6. clo mapping of law clerk and office administration (executive) lc to oa exec oa exec course oagn 115 oagn 116 comm 160/161 comm 170/171 # of clos p ? 4 5 3 3 1 1 0 0 % of out of clos 75.00% 60.00% % of + p out of clos 100.00% 80.00% comments give credit give credit credit through evaluation credit through creating low affinity pathways 9 gned gned oagn 118 oagn 113 oagn 119 oagn 124 oagn 125 oagn 123 5 6 4 6 10 4 2 2 1 1 1 0 2 1 2 5 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 40.00% 33.33% 25.00% 16.67% 10.00% 0.00% 80.00% 50.00% 75.00% 100.00% 40.00% 25.00% evaluation credit through evaluation credit through evaluation slight knowledge gap slight knowledge gap slight knowledge gap slight knowledge gap no match no match law clerk to office administration (health services) table 7. clo mapping of law clerk and office administration (health) lc to oa health oa health course oagn 115 oagn 116 0 0 % of out of clos 75.00% 60.00% % of + p out of clos 100.00% 80.00% 0 0 0 0 1 0 40.00% 33.33% 16.67% 16.67% 10.00% 0.00% 80.00% 50.00% 100.00% 66.67% 40.00% 25.00% # of clos p ? 4 5 3 3 1 1 5 6 6 6 10 4 2 2 1 1 1 0 2 1 5 3 3 1 comm 160/161 comm 170/171 gned gned oagn 118 oagn 113 oagn 124 oagn 127 oagn 125 oagn 123 comments give credit give credit credit through evaluation credit through evaluation credit through evaluation credit through evaluation slight knowledge gap slight knowledge gap slight knowledge gap slight knowledge gap no match no match creating low affinity pathways 10 architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology table 8. clo mapping of architectural technology and energy systems engineering technology a tech to m eng m eng course mt 121 # of clos p ? % of out of clos % of + p out of clos 6 6 0 0 100.00% 100.00% % of ? out of clos 0.00% 8 7 7 4 9 5 7 6 7 9 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 62.50% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 75.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 57.14% 57.14% 50.00% 44.44% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% comm 170/171 gned 500 comm 160/161 math 170 mt 106 math 180 mt 102 phys 100 gned 212 mt 103 mt 153 mt 237 mt 256 comments give credit credit through evaluation credit through evaluation credit through evaluation slight knowledge gap no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match no match architectural technology to mechanical engineering technology table 9. clo mapping of architectural technology and mechanical engineering technology a tech to energy s energy s course mt 121 # of clos p ? % of out of clos % of + p out of clos 6 6 0 0 100.00% 100.00% % of ? out of clos 0.00% 8 11 7 5 0 0 1 0 0 7 0 4 62.50% 0.00% 0.00% 75.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 63.64% 57.14% comm 170/171 gned 500 comm 160/161 math 170 robo 115 math 180 comments give credit credit through evaluation credit through evaluation credit through evaluation slight knowledge gap no match no match creating low affinity pathways 11 phys 100 robo 234 eset 122 eset 121 robo 112 eset 111 9 5 6 10 8 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 44.44% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% no match no match no match no match no match no match results through mapping program-to-program overarching plos and underlying clos, the following pathways were created: law clerk to o office administration (executive) (2606) o office administration (health services) (2603) architectural technology to o energy systems engineering technology (3756) o mechanical engineering technology industrial (co-op) (3714) o mechanical engineering technology industrial (3704) o mechanical engineering technology design (3703) these pathways include self-directed learning to be completed during the term before the receiving programs semester 3. for self-directed learning, sme(s) for each course will put together a d2l online learning package that addresses the gaps in knowledge pertaining to the clos that were only partially met. at the discretion of the sme(s), some of these courses' learning gaps will be combined into one learning package (e.g., oagn 118 transcription techniques 1 and oagn 119 transcription techniques 2). learning packages will consist of a combination of some of the following instructional content and assessment methods: readings, presentations, lectures, multimedia, short response questions, exercises, and quizzes. an assigned instructor will provide a score and feedback for the assessments. upon completing the online learning packet's assessments at an average of c- or higher (60%+), the student will receive equivalency for the course(s) covered by self-directed learning. creating low affinity pathways 12 law clerk to office administration (exec utive) students who have finished law clerk semester one and two entering semester three of office administration (executive) (2606) will be exempted from taking: oagn 115 introduction to word processing oagn 116 word processing applications comm 160/161 college communications 1 comm 170/171 college communications 2 gned general education elective gned general education elective they will participate in self-directed learning for: oagn 113 microcomputers 1 oagn 118 transcription techniques 1 oagn 119 transcription techniques 2 oagn 124 financial procedures based on this self-directed learning, students will participate in a prior learning assessment and recognition assessment and upon being assigned a grade, will be exempted from taking the above courses. students will take the full version of the following courses: oagn 123 microcomputers 2 oagn 125 office procedures and communications law clerk to office administration (heal th services) students who have finished law clerk semester one and two entering semester three of office administration (health services) (2603) will be exempted from taking: oagn 115 introduction to word processing oagn 116 word processing applications comm 160/161 college communications 1 creating low affinity pathways 13 comm 170/171 college communications 2 gned general education elective gned general education elective they will participate in self-directed learning for: oagn 113 microcomputers 1 oagn 118 transcription techniques 1 oagn 124 financial procedures oagn 127 machine transcription based on this self-directed learning, students will receive credit equivalency after successful completion and will be exempt from taking the above courses. students will take the full version of the following courses: oagn 123 microcomputers 2 oagn 125 office procedures and communications architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology students who have finished architectural technology semester one and two entering semester three of energy systems engineering technology (3756) will be exempted from taking: mt 121 applied statics comm 160/161 college communications 1 comm 170/171 college communications 2 gned 500 global citizenship: from social analysis to social action they will participate in self-directed learning for: math 170 technology mathematics 2 based on this self-directed learning, students will receive credit equivalency after successful completion and will be exempt from taking the above courses. students will take the full version of the following courses: creating low affinity pathways 14 math 180 technology mathematics 3 phys 100 physics robo 112 electric circuits robo 115 computer aided drafting robo 234 electronic devices eset 111 energy, environment and society eset 121 fabrication and installation eset 122 chemistry applications and climate architectural technology to mechanical engineering technolog y students who have finished architectural technology semester one and two entering semester three of mechanical engineering technology (3714, 3704, and 3703) will be exempted from taking: mt 121 applied statics comm 160/161 college communications 1 comm 170/171 college communications 2 gned 500 global citizenship: from social analysis to social action they will participate in self-directed learning for: math 170 technology mathematics 2 based on this self-directed learning, students will receive credit equivalency after successful completion and will be exempt from taking the above courses. students will take the full version of the following courses: math 180 technology mathematics 3 phys 100 physics mt 102 properties of materials mt 103 machine shop mt 106 autocad/blueprint reading mt 153 mechanical drafting (inventor) creating low affinity pathways 15 mt 237 manufacturing processes mt 256 applied electricity gned 212 ethics in technology and the environment limitations though this report was prepared through careful examination and analysis of data, the researchers are aware of its shortcomings. first, while program plos and clos were closely met, elements of performance were excluded from consideration when creating low affinity pathways. this is because potential pathways identified through mapping program-to-program course learning outcomes were already without any complete plo or clo matches. striving to meet 80% or more of the elements of performance (a standard centennial practice) at that stage would have eliminated the possibility of creating any new pathways. also, emsi data was limited by breakdown of job prospects for instructional programs. programs data was displayed according to cip canada codes (e.g., 52 for business, management, marketing and related support services). while the cip website offers up to a tertiary level of breakdowns (e.g., 52.0402 for executive assistant/executive secretary), emsi only provides data up to the secondary level (e.g., 52.04 for business operations support and assistant services). consequently, queried jobs had to be edited to match more specific career prospects. for instance, the initial query for 52.04 contained shippers, receivers, and advertising managers and had to be edited to accurately reflect relevant jobs (e.g., secretaries (except legal and medical), executive assistants, general office clerks, etc.) for recent graduates of the office administration (executive) program. the same procedure was followed for all other evaluated programs and job prospects. another limitation is that due to restraints on time and resources, researchers were unable to survey demand for potential low affinity pathways. without this, student satisfaction and utilization can only be speculated. creating low affinity pathways 16 conclusion many current pathway agreements aim to connect college students to diplomas or degrees within the same field of study. but since over half of the students going back for additional postsecondary education choose a different field of study, there is an ever-growing need for pathways built between low affinity fields. this project addresses that need by creating the following pathways: law clerk to office administration (executive) or office administration (health services) architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology or mechanical engineering technology centennials sb, setas and the researchers pathways team will collaborate to create and implement new model routes for these pathways within the coming school year. though matching programs are still within the same schools (sb and setas) because of the projects aim to connect programs with similar career prospects, the process of building these pathways resulted in valuable lessons learned and reflections that could help facilitate the development of more daring, creative pathways as well as the undertaking of other related projects in the future. lessons learned two valuable lessons were learned during the process of this research. one lesson is that various educators within centennial could have different perceptions of program job prospects. some stakeholders have anecdotally said that, contrary to emsi 20162022 forecasts, their program graduates have great job prospects. others have identified programs with emsi-defined high employment prospects as having low job prospects. the second lesson is that some college staff have concerns regarding the pathways mandate; beliefs that this agenda can lead to other colleges stealing their students. it is true that, in creating low affinity pathways 17 highly competitive markets like the greater toronto area, pathways proliferation are creating opportunities for students to change college mid-stream. this in turn places additional pressure on colleges to performsomething that the authors of this report take no opinion on. still, it is important to note this feedback received from multiple staff involved. reflections upon best practices and future considerations during the course of this project, researchers arrived at some reflections regarding best practices and considerations for future projects. best practices 1. curriculum training for subject matter experts (sme) often, smes are not curriculum experts. this results in confusion when evaluating matching outcomes, since some smes would strive to match specific week-by-week achievements (e.g., using formulas to calculate interest in excel) instead of higher-level learning outcomes (e.g., preparing spreadsheets by entering formulas and functions in excel). such instances highlighted the need to provide curriculum training to smes participating in similar future projects. best practices 2. maintaining current, relevant, and measurable plos and c los mapping plos and clos resulted in the discovery of some outdated and/or vague outcomes. for instance, one course plo is phrased as manage a personal computer. even taking the elements of performance into account, this could mean such a wide variety of things that more specificity is necessary. program curriculums could be improved by a more frequent review of plos and clos in response to the most recent practices and technologies in a measurable manner. future considerations the search for potential pathways resulted in the consideration of program connections such as journalism to international business, massage therapy to office administration, and music industry arts and performance to business management. though these were not mapped because there were no overlapping plos, there remains the possibility of exploring dual diploma pathways or new advanced diploma and graduate certificate combinations for future projects to offer programs with added value to students. creating low affinity pathways 18 in addition, reflecting upon the goal of this project to provide pathways to students in overenroled programs with low job prospects, researchers began to wonder why students initially choose to enrol in such programs. there is a widespread assumption that college programs are more focused on vocational skills, and therefore immediate employment, than university programs are. even mtcu college program standards are set through vocationally specific learning outcomes and essential employability skills. despite this, many students continue to enrol in programs that face relatively high competition in the job market. an interesting question for future research would be the educational goals and employability expectations of students entering programs with low (sometimes even negative) job prospects. creating low affinity pathways 19 references colleges ontario. (2015). environmental scan 2015: student and graduate profiles. toronto: colleges ontario. retrieved from http://www.collegesontario.org/research/2015_e nvironmental_scan/co_envscan_15_student&gradprofiles_web.pdf emsi. (2015). emsi q3 2015 data set. economic modeling specialists international. retrieved from https://e.economicmodeling.com/analyst/?t=216gj#h=55h5n&page=program_r eport ontario council on articulation and transfer. (2015). oncat 2014-2015 annual report. toronto: oncat. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/annualreport_ 2014-2015_eng.pdf wheelahan, l., childs, r., yang, j., lavigne, e., brijmohan, a., & moodie, g. (2014, april 21). pathways in ontario and canada: where do students go and what do they do? a preliminary analysis. lecture presented at the 4th annual student pathways in higher education conference in marriott downtown eaton centre hotel, toronto. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/presentations_2015/4e.pdf creating low affinity pathways 20 appendices appendix 1. overenroled programs and job prospects programs not considered for pathways: non-diploma programs overenroled programs with low (<2%) job prospects in ontario program code 3822 program name 6438 publish.-book, mag., electron. 51 police foundations 9252 bridging to un - intl level 1 3419 software eng technology co-op 3.5% 2804 law clerk -1.1% 1812 culinary skills- chef training 1832 culture & heritage site manage 8214 mp-truck & coach technician 2.7% 6460 dance performance 7.3% 6450 music industry arts & perform. -4.5% 1203 social service worker 6.9% 5110 massage therapy -3.2% 2809 business - int'l business 3.4% 2507 business operations management 3.3% 9320 fitness and health promotion 4.6% 3612 biotechnology advanced co-op 5.6% 3404 computer sys technician - net 6.8% 1213 workplace wellness & health 6402 journalism 0.9% 2483 business - finance 2.3% 3518 health informatics tech co-op 5.3% 1824 tourism and travel 5.4% 3601 biotechnology 5.6% 2719 bus admin-human resource co-op 5.6% 2860 human resources management 3115 architectural technology co-op -1.5% 6420 graphic design 2.1% 2409 international business 3.2% 2405 business admin - accounting 2.5% 4221 environmental technician 4.8% 4232 environmental technology co-op 4.8% electrical engineering techn job prospects 2.6% 3.2% creating low affinity pathways 21 3755 energy syst. engin. technician 6.2% 3405 computer sys technology - net 6.8% 0101 computer comm networks co-op 6.8% 3701 mech eng technician - design 6.9% 0617 public relations management 2701 office administration-general 9310 health foundations 2805 business - marketing 6616 general arts & science - eap appendix 2. underenroled programs and job prospects (sob and setas) programs not considered for pathways: non-diploma programs or fewer than two intakes per school year underenroled programs with high (>3%) job prospects in ontario program code 2844 program name (sob) job prospects 2709 business admin-human resources 2470 court support services 2415 bus admin - accounting co-op 2.50% 2603 office admin - medical 4.60% 2606 office admin - executive 4.10% 2460 fashion business & management 2528 project management 2419 international business co-op 2870 paralegal 2416 bus. admin. leadership & mgmt. 2843 financial planning 2803 business 2846 marketing - sales & acct. mgt. 2403 business admin - marketing 2506 business - operations 2801 business - accounting 2517 business operations mgmt.co-op 2508 bus. admin. - entrepreneurship 2122 business foundations 2125 pre-business strategic management - account 3.20% 3.30% -0.70% -0.60% creating low affinity pathways 22 program code 3119 program name (setas) 3105 architectural technology -1.5% 3407 biomedical engineering tech 5.6% 3101 architectural technician -1.5% 3703 mech eng technology - design 6.9% 3218 computer repair & maintenance 3602 biotechnology advanced 4201 environmental technician 3417 biomedical eng techy co-op 5.6% 3631 food science technology ft 0% 4202 environmental technology 3002 technology foundations - icet 3714 mech eng technology-ind. co-op 6.9% 3621 biotechnology ft 5.6% 3109 software eng tech-interactive 4.1% 4212 environmental technology co-op 3506 medical laboratory technician 3756 energy syst. engin. technology 6.2% 3632 biotechnology advanced ft coop 5.6% 3508 health informatics technology 5.3% 4222 environmental technology 3704 mech eng technology - ind. 6.9% 3538 health inform. techy ft co-op 5.3% 3429 software eng technology ft 4.1% 4116 auto & robotics tech co-op 1.6 3232 electronic eng techy ft co-op 0.9 3222 elect eng technology ft 0.9 3205 electronics eng. technician 0.9 3135 architectural techy ft co-op 3125 architectural technology ft sftwr eng techy-inter ga co-op job prospects 4.1% creating low affinity pathways 23 appendix 3. comparison of program learning outcomes (plos) p = partial match, ? = potential match law clerk to office administration (executive) office admin exec - plos apply scheduling, task coordination, and organizational skills to facilitate the completion of tasks and to meet deadlines in the workplace. assess, establish, and maintain data management systems to ensure organized electronic and paper records for the workplace. law clerk - plos support the needs of clients and legal professionals through the use of accurate terminology and professional communication strategies, both orally and in writing. complete all work within routine and unexpected time lines and limitation periods within the legal environment. use current and relevant electronic and print resources, within the legal environment, to conduct legal research, to assist with file and evidentiary management, to facilitate communication and generate legal documentation, complying with current regulations and procedures. research and summarize the presenting legal issues, applying knowledge of substantive law, to support the legal team. apply rules of procedure to support best legal practices. coordinate the receiving, analyzing, distributing, and responding to electronic and paper communications to facilitate the flow of information in the workplace. produce accurate financial records for the workplace within a specified time frame by compiling information and using appropriate software. produce accurate business correspondence by a specified deadline using available computer technology. p use effective interpersonal skills in the workplace to assist the completion of individual and team tasks, to ensure effective customer service, and to promote the image of the organization. research, develop, and present a report substantiating the selection of resources or services for the workplace using written and oral presentation techniques and appropriate technology. provide technical support and training related to computer software to others in the workplace as required. organize meetings, conferences, special events, and travel including the preparation of related documentation. ? p p p use the internet and its tools in a business setting to enhance communication and business opportunities. manage a personal computer. demonstrate administrative skills to enhance the effective operation of the workplace. p p p troubleshoot and show initiative in the production of accurate, organized business documents within a specified time rame. p p p p p p p conduct oneself professionally in adherence to the guidelines of the law society of upper canada. carry out clerical and administrative duties for the operation of a variety of legal environments. outline strategies for ongoing professional development to ensure continuing competence as a law clerk. p ? p p p act equitably and justly with diverse populations*. provide support for legal professionals in courts and administrative tribunals within the legal system. creating low affinity pathways 24 law clerk to office administration (health services) office admin health - plos apply scheduling, task coordination, and organizational skills to facilitate the completion of tasks and to meet deadlines in the medical environment. law clerk - plos support the needs of clients and legal professionals through the use of accurate terminology and professional communication strategies, both orally and in writing. complete all work within routine and unexpected time lines and limitation periods within the legal environment. use current and relevant electronic and print resources, within the legal environment, to conduct legal research, to assist with file and evidentiary management, to facilitate communication and generate legal documentation, complying with current regulations and procedures. establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. coordinate the organizing, processing, and responding to electronic and paper communications to facilitate the flow of information in the medical environment. produce accurate financial and billing records for the medical environment within a specified time frame by compiling information and using appropriate software. p produce accurate medical correspondence and reports by a specific deadline using available computer technology as well as by applying recording, editing, and language skills. use effective interpersonal skills in the medical environment to assist the completion of individual and team tasks, to ensure effective client service, and to promote the image of the organization. ? ? p troubleshoot and show initiative in the creation and production of accurate, organized medical documents within a specified time frame. provide technical support and training related to computer software to others in the medical environment as required. use the internet and its tools in a medical environment to enhance communication and business opportunities. demonstrate administrative skills to enhance the effective operation of the workplace. p p p p p p p p p p research and summarize the presenting legal issues, applying knowledge of substantive law, to support the legal team. apply rules of procedure to support best legal practices. conduct oneself professionally in adherence to the guidelines of the law society of upper canada. carry out clerical and administrative duties for the operation of a variety of legal environments. p ? p outline strategies for ongoing professional development to ensure continuing competence as a law clerk. act equitably and justly with diverse populations*. provide support for legal professionals in courts and administrative tribunals within the legal system. creating low affinity pathways 25 architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology energy tech - plos analyze and solve complex technical problems through the application of the theoretical principles of renewable and clean energy systems and technologies. a tech - plos* obtain, analyze, prepare, and revise specifications* and other project documents used in design* and construction. analyze electrical and/or mechanical components, processes and systems through the application of engineering principles to construct various types of energy systems. analyze and prepare graphics and other technical documents to appropriate engineering and architectural standards using industry-specific software and procedures. assemble and troubleshoot working prototypes of sustainable energy systems and subsystems to meet job requirements, functional specifications and relevant standards; and integrate renewable and clean energy technology into the system design. adhere to the legal, regulatory and health and safety codes and guidelines. contribute to the financial and technical planning and implementation of sustainable construction and development projects. practice principles and ethics associated with environmental management issues. apply principles of networking, instrumentation and other related technologies to monitor and control energy systems in residential or smallscale industrial or commercial facilities. apply strategies, practices and techniques to manage and optimize the generation, capture, storage, integration and distribution of renewable (e.g. wind, solar, geothermal etc.) and clean energy (e.g. nuclear) using conventional and emerging technologies such as smart metres and smart grids. analyze, assemble and retrofit existing conventional systems applying green energy management techniques for efficient and clean energy generation and distribution. p prepare estimates of time, costs, and quantity, and participate in the tendering process. solve technical problems related to building projects through the application of principles of building science* and mathematics. p p contribute to the design* of architectural projects. ? contribute to the analysis, planning, and preparation of site planning documents. p participate in sustainable design* and building practices. assist in the planning, scheduling, and monitoring of building projects. use a variety of troubleshooting techniques and test equipment to identify problems with electrical and/or mechanical components of conventional, renewable and clean energy technologies. p p ? * architectural technology plos with no energy systems engineering technology plo matches are omitted from this table due to scaling limitations. creating low affinity pathways 26 architectural technology to mechanical engineering technology mech tech - plos monitor compliance with current legislation, standards, regulations and guidelines. plan, co-ordinate, implement and evaluate quality control and quality assurance procedures to meet organizational standards and requirements monitor and encourage compliance with current health and safety legislation, as well as organizational practices and procedures. develop and apply sustainability* best practices in workplaces use current and emerging technologies* to implement mechanical engineering projects. analyze and solve complex mechanical problems by applying mathematics and fundamentals of mechanical engineering. prepare, analyze, evaluate and modify mechanical engineering drawings and other related technical documents. a tech plos* prepare, read, interpret, and revise drawings, and other graphical representations used in building projects. design, manufacture and maintain mechanical components according to required specifications. establish and verify the specifications of materials, processes and operations for the design and production of mechanical components. plan, implement and evaluate projects by applying project management principles. develop strategies for ongoing personal and professional development to enhance work performance. apply business principles to design and engineering practices. p obtain, analyze, prepare, and revise specifications* and other project documents used in design* and construction. p solve technical problems related to building projects through the application of principles of building science* and mathematics. ? contribute to the design* of architectural projects. p contribute to the analysis, planning, and preparation of site planning documents. ? participate in sustainable design* and building practices. assist in the planning, scheduling, and monitoring of building projects. design and analyze mechanical components, processes and systems by applying fundamentals of mechanical engineering. p ? ? ? * architectural technology plos with no mechanical engineering technology plo matches are omitted from this table due to scaling limitations. creating low affinity pathways 27 appendix 4. mapping program-to-program course learning outcomes (clos) course code: programname(abbreviated)-semester-course (e.g., law clerk semester 1 laws105 would be lawc1-laws105) = match, p = partial match, ? = potential match identical courses (e.g., comm 160/161 to comm 160/161) and general education electives (gned) were not mapped. courses oagn 113, oagn 115, oagn 118, oagn 124, oagn 116, oagn 123, and oagn 125 that overlap between programs office administration (executive) (2606) and office administration (health services) (2603) have been mapped only once against law clerk. courses phys 100, math 170, mt 121, and math 180 that overlap between programs energy systems engineering technology (3756), mechanical engineering technology (3714, 3704, 3703) have been mapped only once against architectural technology. courses from law clerk or architectural technology with no matching clos are omitted from tables in this section due to scaling limitations. law clerk to office administration (executive) courses law clerk to office admin - executive/health oagn113 oaex1-oagn113-produce and manage electronic files and folders using windows oaex1-oagn113-create effective file management systems for academic course folders and files oaex1-oagn113-develop a powerpoint presentation using microsoft office powerpoint 2013 oaex1-oagn113-enhance a powerpoint presentation using smartart graphics, charts, tables, and animation oaex1-oagn113-describe the key features and functions of outlook 2013 oaex1-oagn113-produce accurate and professional e-mails using my centennial and microsoft outlook 2013 lawc1-laws105-the ability to touch keyboard at a minimum rate of 30 words per minute (gross) with 98% accuracy. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of basic microcomputer concepts, such as the windows operating systems, file management, e-mail and the internet. p lawc1-laws105-knowledge of the legal office environment including general procedures and practices in the legal office, procedures for opening and maintaining client records, and the applicable legal terminology for these procedures lawc1-laws105-the ability to prepare legal correspondence using word processing software and appropriate precedents while applying proofreading, editing and critical thinking skills. lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. creating low affinity pathways 28 lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. law clerk to office admin - executive/health oagn115 lawc1-laws105-the ability to touch keyboard at a minimum rate of 30 words per minute (gross) with 98% accuracy. oaex1-oagn115-show the ability to touch keyboard at a minimum rate of 30 words per minute (gross) with 98% accuracy. oaex1-oagn115-apply word processing commands and tools to format documents. oaex1-oagn115-produce memos and letters using word processing software. oaex1-oagn115-create tables using word processing software to present data in documents. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of basic microcomputer concepts, such as the windows operating systems, file management, e-mail and the internet. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of the legal office environment including general procedures and practices in the legal office, procedures for opening and maintaining client records, and the applicable legal terminology for these procedures lawc1-laws105-the ability to prepare legal correspondence using word processing software and appropriate precedents while applying proofreading, editing and critical thinking skills. lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. creating low affinity pathways 29 lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. p p lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. p lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. p p oaex1-oagn118proofread common business documents (print and electronic) for errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation and syntax oaex1-oagn118-apply correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation in common print and electronic business documents lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. law clerk to office admin - executive/health oagn118 oaex1-oagn118-use appropriate business communication reference books oaex1-oagn118-edit business documents and email messages for complete information, accuracy of facts, consistency in style and format, and correct word usage oaex1-oagn118communicate (speak, listen, read) effectively in a business setting lawc1-laws105-the ability to touch keyboard at a minimum rate of 30 words per minute (gross) with 98% accuracy. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of basic microcomputer concepts, such as the windows operating systems, file management, e-mail and the internet. p lawc1-laws105-knowledge of the legal office environment including general procedures and practices in the legal office, procedures for opening and maintaining client records, and the applicable legal terminology for these procedures lawc1-laws105-the ability to prepare legal correspondence using word processing software and appropriate precedents while applying proofreading, editing and critical thinking skills. p p p p creating low affinity pathways 30 lawc1-laws114-distinguish among various courts and modes of civil procedures. identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of action and statements of claim. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading notices of action and statements of claim. lawc1-laws114-identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of intent to defend and statements of defence. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading notices of intent to defend and statements of defence. lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading and service of typical litigation documents. lawc1-laws114-identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of motion and affidavits in support. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to motions. lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to default proceedings. lawc1-laws114-distinguish among counterclaims, cross-claims, third and fourth party claims. lawc1-laws114-recall appropriate behaviors during discovery procedures lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply several privileges as these apply to discovery procedures. lawc1-laws114-read and analyse, together with group members and/or independently, given, precedent, litigation documents recording a civil action and/or motion. lawc1-laws114-read and analyze, together with group members and/or independently, given, precedent, litigation case(s) and/or case scenario(s) giving rise to a civil action and/or motion. lawc1-laws114-prepare, together with group members, document(s) related to civil litigation. p p p p lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. creating low affinity pathways 31 lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. p p p p lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. law clerk to office admin - executive/health oagn124 oaex1-oagn124-apply the percentage formula to business applications manually or by using excel. oaex1-oagn124-apply rates of change to a variety of applications. oaex1-oagn124calculate interest on credit cards oaex1-oagn124calculate taxable income for individuals. oaex1-oagn124-perform portion and basic amount comparisons to solve marketing problems. oaex1-oagn124-perform trend calculations by application of rates of change. p p lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. p p p lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. creating low affinity pathways 32 law clerk to office admin - executive/health oagn116 oaex1-oagn116-show the ability to touch keyboard at a minimum rate of 40 words per minute (gross) with 98% accuracy. oaex1-oagn116-apply word processing commands and tools to format documents. oaex1-oagn116-produce business documents in a mailable form to intermediate productionlevel standards using word processing software. oaex1-oagn116-prepare documents using tables and graphics to present data. oaex1-oagn116-use word processing tools to format various components and styles of reports. lawc1-laws105-the ability to touch keyboard at a minimum rate of 30 words per minute (gross) with 98% accuracy. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of basic microcomputer concepts, such as the windows operating systems, file management, e-mail and the internet. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of the legal office environment including general procedures and practices in the legal office, procedures for opening and maintaining client records, and the applicable legal terminology for these procedures lawc1-laws105-the ability to prepare legal correspondence using word processing software and appropriate precedents while applying proofreading, editing and critical thinking skills. lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. p p p p p p lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. creating low affinity pathways 33 law clerk to office admin - executive/health oagn123 oaex1-oagn123-plan, create and test spreadsheets for a variety of business needs; i.e. cash flow analysis, budgeting, cost estimating, inventory management and financial reporting. oaex1-oagn123-analyse and interpret data for problem solving and decision-making processes. oaex1-oagn123-create and apply graphical representations of data for business presentations. oaex1-oagn123-employ reports for analysis, problem solving and decision-making. lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. p lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. law clerk to office admin - executive/health oagn125 oaex1-oagn125explain the impact of effective communication skills on the success of any organization. oaex1-oagn125apply techniques of effective listening. oaex1-oagn125communicate appropriately with any level of coworker, client, customer, etc. oaex1-oagn125engage in meetings. oaex1-oagn125use professional telephone techniques. oaex1-oagn125respond to all requests in the workplace in a timely and professional manner. oaex1-oagn125assist in resolving customer/client problems. oaex1-oagn125describe and perform basic office procedures to support the activities of a business. oaex1-oagn125understand and apply human relations principles to maintain effective business relationships. oaex1-oagn125apply organizational and time management skills to enhance productivity. lawc1-laws114-distinguish among various courts and modes of civil procedures. identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of action and statements of claim. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading notices of action and statements of claim. creating low affinity pathways 34 lawc1-laws114-identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of intent to defend and statements of defence. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading notices of intent to defend and statements of defence. p lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading and service of typical litigation documents. ? lawc1-laws114-identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of motion and affidavits in support. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to motions. p p lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to default proceedings. ? p lawc1-laws114-distinguish among counterclaims, cross-claims, third and fourth party claims. lawc1-laws114-recall appropriate behaviors during discovery procedures lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply several privileges as these apply to discovery procedures. lawc1-laws114-read and analyse, together with group members and/or independently, given, precedent, litigation documents recording a civil action and/or motion. lawc1-laws114-read and analyze, together with group members and/or independently, given, precedent, litigation case(s) and/or case scenario(s) giving rise to a civil action and/or motion. lawc1-laws114-prepare, together with group members, document(s) related to civil litigation. p p p p lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. p lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. creating low affinity pathways 35 lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. p lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. law clerk to office admin - executive oagn119 oaex1-oagn119demonstrate an understanding of the application of correct sentence structure, parts of speech, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, word usage and punctuation to business documentation oaex1-oagn119research and effectively summarize articles for a presentation and develop an effective and accurate powerpoint presentation of summarized material oaex1-oagn119-provide constructive peer criticism of presentations oaex1-oagn119-apply proofreading editing, grammar and spelling skills and utilize critical thinking and time management skills in the production of documentation and presentation lawc1-laws105-the ability to touch keyboard at a minimum rate of 30 words per minute (gross) with 98% accuracy. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of basic microcomputer concepts, such as the windows operating systems, file management, e-mail and the internet. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of the legal office environment including general procedures and practices in the legal office, procedures for opening and maintaining client records, and the applicable legal terminology for these procedures lawc1-laws105-the ability to prepare legal correspondence using word processing software and appropriate precedents while applying proofreading, editing and critical thinking skills. p p lawc1-laws114-distinguish among various courts and modes of civil procedures. identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of action and statements of claim. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading notices of action and statements of claim. creating low affinity pathways 36 lawc1-laws114-identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of intent to defend and statements of defence. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading notices of intent to defend and statements of defence. lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading and service of typical litigation documents. lawc1-laws114-identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of motion and affidavits in support. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to motions. lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to default proceedings. lawc1-laws114-distinguish among counterclaims, cross-claims, third and fourth party claims. lawc1-laws114-recall appropriate behaviors during discovery procedures lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply several privileges as these apply to discovery procedures. lawc1-laws114-read and analyse, together with group members and/or independently, given, precedent, litigation documents recording a civil action and/or motion. lawc1-laws114-read and analyze, together with group members and/or independently, given, precedent, litigation case(s) and/or case scenario(s) giving rise to a civil action and/or motion. p p lawc1-laws114-prepare, together with group members, document(s) related to civil litigation. lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. creating low affinity pathways 37 lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. p lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. law clerk to office administration (health services) courses law clerk to office admin - health oagn127 oahealth1-oagn127transcribe handwritten, verbal, and digital audio files of dictated business documents and apply spelling and advanced rules of: grammar, punctuation, capitalization, expression of numbers, abbreviations, plurals, possessives, compound words, word usage oahealth1-oagn127produce accurate, finalform documents within specific deadlines. oahealth1-oagn127define and implement business vocabulary. oahealth1-oagn127interpret and accurately follow verbal and written instructions. oahealth1-oagn127determine suitable format for documents, using appropriate word processing features. oahealth1-oagn127prioritize transcription assignments and meet deadlines. lawc1-laws105-the ability to touch keyboard at a minimum rate of 30 words per minute (gross) with 98% accuracy. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of basic microcomputer concepts, such as the windows operating systems, file management, e-mail and the internet. lawc1-laws105-knowledge of the legal office environment including general procedures and practices in the legal office, procedures for opening and maintaining client records, and the applicable legal terminology for these procedures lawc1-laws105-the ability to prepare legal correspondence using word processing software and appropriate precedents while applying proofreading, editing and critical thinking skills. p creating low affinity pathways 38 lawc1-laws114-distinguish among various courts and modes of civil procedures. identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of action and statements of claim. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading notices of action and statements of claim. lawc1-laws114-identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of intent to defend and statements of defence. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading notices of intent to defend and statements of defence. lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to pleading and service of typical litigation documents. lawc1-laws114-identify and analyze typical structural components associated with notices of motion and affidavits in support. read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to motions. lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply rules, general procedures and timing related to default proceedings. p p p p p p lawc1-laws114-distinguish among counterclaims, cross-claims, third and fourth party claims. lawc1-laws114-recall appropriate behaviors during discovery procedures lawc1-laws114-read, recall and apply several privileges as these apply to discovery procedures. p lawc1-laws114-read and analyse, together with group members and/or independently, given, precedent, litigation documents recording a civil action and/or motion. lawc1-laws114-read and analyze, together with group members and/or independently, given, precedent, litigation case(s) and/or case scenario(s) giving rise to a civil action and/or motion. lawc1-laws114-prepare, together with group members, document(s) related to civil litigation. lawc1-laws310-demonstrate a minimum keyboarding speed of 40 wpm in order to pass the course. ? creating low affinity pathways 39 lawc1-laws310-prepare legal correspondence, memoranda of law, basic legal and civil litigation documents using word processing and legal office specific software and appropriate precedents in a computer networked environment. p lawc1-laws310-prepared spreadsheets including entering, editing and copying cell entries, formulas and functions, including absolute and relative cell references, and applied formatting. lawc1-laws310-applied proofreading, editing, grammar and spelling skills; worked independently; and applied critical thinking skills in the production of neat and accurate legal documents and correspondence. p lawc1-laws310-organized and maintained legal client files in a professional manner. architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology courses omitted maps for eset 111, robo 112, eset 121, eset 122, and robo 234 which have no overlap. architectural technology toenergy systems engineering technology / mechanical engineering technology phys100 esys1phys100-use units and unit conversions as they relate to physical quantities involved in problemsolving. esys1phys100perform operations involving vector quantities. esys1-phys100solve basic problems in linear and multidimensional motion with constant acceleration. esys1phys100explain newtons laws and the effects of force on motion. esys1phys100-solve systems involving common forces in nature. esys1phys100calculate torque, tension and compressive forces. esys1phys100discuss conservation of energy in the conversion between potential and kinetic energy. esys1phys100-solve basic problems involving rotational motion. esys1phys100-apply principles of rotation transfer to solving gear and pulley connected by belt systems. arch1-math111-perform arithmetic operations with real numbers, including those in engineering notation. arch1-math111-apply appropriate mathematical laws and principles to perform fundamental algebraic operations and solve linear equations. arch1-math111-handle calculations in british units ? arch1-math111-make geometric constructions and solve problems involving triangles, circles and sectors. arch1-math111-solve for area and perimeter of composite figures. arch1-math111-use an appropriate scientific calculator to facilitate arithmetic and trigonometric computations. creating low affinity pathways 40 arch1-math111-perform fundamental operations/calculations involving the trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions using the degree system of angular measure. arch1-math111-apply knowledge of vectors to vector addition problems arch1-arap124-identify the correct physical dimension and corresponding units in both imperial and metric systems. arch1-arap124-understand and solve basic static problems using force vectors and moments: newton's laws, mathematical and graphical techniques of vectors. arch1-arap124-use free body diagrams and conditions of equilibrium to perform operations involving concurrent and coplanar vectors. ? ? ? ? ? ? arch1-arap124-calculate cross sectional properties of structural members: center of gravity, moment of inertia, radius of gyration. arch1-arap124-calculate end reactions in beams based on the external forces. ? arch1-math112-rearrange linear, quadratic and cubic formulae arch1-math112-perform operations on vectors both graphically and with trigonometry; resolve vectors. arch1-math112-apply the sine and cosine rules to solve oblique triangles in applied situations. arch1-math112-calculate surface areas and volumes of prisms, pyramids and spheres. arch1-math112-solve quadratic and cubic equations as they relate to areas and volumes. arch1-math112-identify, define and describe conic sections ? arch1-math112-identify and calculate slopes of edges and faces in solids. arch1-matm122-prepare building envelope designs and details for various building types. arch1-matm122-select materials and assembly methods for different parts of a building envelope. arch1-matm122-compare different materials responding to design requirements and identify materials compatible with structural system requirements. arch1-matm122-identify different structural systems and the forces impacting building structures. ? arch1-matm122-describe scenarios where coordination may be necessary with different disciplines during the design and construction phases of a project. arch1-matm122-identify the different types of building operating systems. creating low affinity pathways 41 architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology / mechanical engineering technology math170 esys1-math170perform operations/calculations involving trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions using both the degree and radian systems of angular measure. esys1-math170solve oblique triangles using the sine law and cosine law. esys1-math170graph trigonometric functions arch1-math111-apply appropriate mathematical laws and principles to perform fundamental algebraic operations and solve linear equations. esys1-math170apply a variety of techniques for factoring algebraic expressions esys1-math170perform operations with algebraic fractions esys1-math170solve quadratic equations using various methods and applied problems involving quadratics esys1-math170use an appropriate scientific calculator to perform all required computations arch1-math111-handle calculations in british units p arch1-math111-make geometric constructions and solve problems involving triangles, circles and sectors. arch1-math111-solve for area and perimeter of composite figures. arch1-math111-use an appropriate scientific calculator to facilitate arithmetic and trigonometric computations. arch1-math111-perform fundamental operations/calculations involving the trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions using the degree system of angular measure. esys1-math170graph parabolas using the vertex and intercepts ? ? p ? p arch1-math111-apply knowledge of vectors to vector addition problems arch1-arap124-identify the correct physical dimension and corresponding units in both imperial and metric systems. arch1-arap124-understand and solve basic static problems using force vectors and moments: newton's laws, mathematical and graphical techniques of vectors. arch1-arap124-use free body diagrams and conditions of equilibrium to perform operations involving concurrent and coplanar vectors. arch1-arap124-calculate cross sectional properties of structural members: center of gravity, moment of inertia, radius of gyration. arch1-arap124-calculate end reactions in beams based on the external forces. arch1-math112-rearrange linear, quadratic and cubic formulae arch1-math112-perform operations on vectors both graphically and with trigonometry; resolve vectors. arch1-math112-apply the sine and cosine rules to solve oblique triangles in applied situations. arch1-math112-calculate surface areas and volumes of prisms, pyramids and spheres. arch1-math112-solve quadratic and cubic equations as they relate to areas and volumes. p p p creating low affinity pathways 42 arch1-math112-identify, define and describe conic sections arch1-math112-identify and calculate slopes of edges and faces in solids. architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology / mechanical engineering technology mt121 p esys1-mt121define scalar and vector quantities esys1-mt121resolve vectors and determine resultants of vectors esys1-mt121define and calculate moments and couples esys1-mt121-draw free body diagrams and apply the equilibrium equations esys1-mt121define friction force and apply the laws of friction esys1-mt121define and determine centroid, center of gravity, and moment of inertia arch1-math111-perform arithmetic operations with real numbers, including those in engineering notation. arch1-math111-apply appropriate mathematical laws and principles to perform fundamental algebraic operations and solve linear equations. arch1-math111-handle calculations in british units arch1-math111-make geometric constructions and solve problems involving triangles, circles and sectors. arch1-math111-solve for area and perimeter of composite figures. arch1-math111-use an appropriate scientific calculator to facilitate arithmetic and trigonometric computations. arch1-math111-perform fundamental operations/calculations involving the trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions using the degree system of angular measure. arch1-math111-apply knowledge of vectors to vector addition problems arch1-arap124-identify the correct physical dimension and corresponding units in both imperial and metric systems. arch1-arap124-understand and solve basic static problems using force vectors and moments: newton's laws, mathematical and graphical techniques of vectors. arch1-arap124-use free body diagrams and conditions of equilibrium to perform operations involving concurrent and coplanar vectors. arch1-arap124-calculate cross sectional properties of structural members: center of gravity, moment of inertia, radius of gyration. arch1-arap124-calculate end reactions in beams based on the external forces. arch1-math112-rearrange linear, quadratic and cubic formulae arch1-math112-perform operations on vectors both graphically and with trigonometry; resolve vectors. p arch1-math112-apply the sine and cosine rules to solve oblique triangles in applied situations. arch1-math112-calculate surface areas and volumes of prisms, pyramids and spheres. creating low affinity pathways 43 arch1-math112-solve quadratic and cubic equations as they relate to areas and volumes. arch1-math112-identify, define and describe conic sections arch1-math112-identify and calculate slopes of edges and faces in solids. arch1-matm122-prepare building envelope designs and details for various building types. arch1-matm122-select materials and assembly methods for different parts of a building envelope. arch1-matm122-compare different materials responding to design requirements and identify materials compatible with structural system requirements. arch1-matm122-identify different structural systems and the forces impacting building structures. p arch1-matm122-describe scenarios where coordination may be necessary with different disciplines during the design and construction phases of a project. arch1-matm122-identify the different types of building operating systems. architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology / mechanical engineering technology math180 arch1-math111-perform arithmetic operations with real numbers, including those in engineering notation. arch1-math111-apply appropriate mathematical laws and principles to perform fundamental algebraic operations and solve linear equations. esys1-math180perform algebraic operations with exponents and radicals ? esys1-math180perform mathematical operations with complex numbers in rectangular and polar form. esys1-math180solve exponential, logarithmic, radical and trigonometric equations with a variety of algebraic methods esys1-math180perform operation with matrices esys1-math180apply matrices to solve a system of linear equations esys1-math180simplify trigonometric expressions and prove trigonometric identities ? arch1-math111-handle calculations in british units arch1-math111-make geometric constructions and solve problems involving triangles, circles and sectors. arch1-math111-solve for area and perimeter of composite figures. arch1-math111-use an appropriate scientific calculator to facilitate arithmetic and trigonometric computations. arch1-math111-perform fundamental operations/calculations involving the trigonometric and inverse trigonometric functions using the degree system of angular measure. esys1-math180use an appropriate scientific calculator to perform all required computations. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? arch1-math111-apply knowledge of vectors to vector addition problems arch1-arap124-identify the correct physical dimension and corresponding units in both imperial and metric systems. creating low affinity pathways 44 arch1-arap124-understand and solve basic static problems using force vectors and moments: newton's laws, mathematical and graphical techniques of vectors. arch1-arap124-use free body diagrams and conditions of equilibrium to perform operations involving concurrent and coplanar vectors. arch1-arap124-calculate cross sectional properties of structural members: center of gravity, moment of inertia, radius of gyration. ? arch1-arap124-calculate end reactions in beams based on the external forces. arch1-math112-rearrange linear, quadratic and cubic formulae arch1-math112-perform operations on vectors both graphically and with trigonometry; resolve vectors. ? ? arch1-math112-apply the sine and cosine rules to solve oblique triangles in applied situations. ? ? ? arch1-math112-calculate surface areas and volumes of prisms, pyramids and spheres. arch1-math112-solve quadratic and cubic equations as they relate to areas and volumes. arch1-math112-identify, define and describe conic sections ? arch1-math112-identify and calculate slopes of edges and faces in solids. ? architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology robo115 esys1robo115comprehend some of the fundamental graphic language concepts of mechanical engineering drafting (csa standards). esys1robo115properly utilize the autocad graphic interface and command/menu system. esys1robo115access standard drawing templates and set-up the drawing environment and scale. esys1robo115effectively use the fundamental drawing commands of the autocad software. esys1robo115employ the autocad software to prepare precise and fully annotated multi-view twodimensional orthographic engineering drawings & graphics, including full and partial sections, all of which properly adhere to csa. esys1robo115-use the fundamental commands in the inventor software to develop precise 3d solid models. esys1robo115-use the database from any 3d solid model to create proper detail, sectional drawings and exploded views. esys1robo115-use the database resulting from any 3d assembly to create proper general assembly (ga) and working drawings (as per csa standards). esys1robo115organize and manage (ie: save and retrieve) drawing files. esys1robo115manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects. esys1robo115-take responsibility for one's own actions, decisions, and consequences. arch1-arch101-organize architectural design relationships and detailing for residential design and construction including sustainable design and construction features. creating low affinity pathways 45 arch1-arch101-develop basic freehand drawing skills to be better able to understand construction details prepared by a supervisor in an office. arch1-arch101-prepare a partial set of residential design and construction drawings using computer aided drafting skills. ? ? arch1-arch101-apply and comply with relevant portions of the current ontario building code as required for a building permit application. arch1-arch101-draw architectural details for a wood frame residential building clad in masonry veneer and siding. arch1-arch101-review and implement barrier-free design elements for a residential project. arch1-arch102-gain an understanding of current 2d autocad drafting and printing commands using short-cut commands, menus and icons. arch1-arch102-use appropriate drafting commands with respect to lineweight, dimensioning, hatching and scale. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? arch1-arch102-draw partial construction plans, sections, details and elevations for a sample residence using basic 2d cad commands and plotting styles in paper space. arch1-arch102-produce measure drawing sketches, plans and elevations of a small residential space. arch1-arch121-prepare architectural design and construction detailing associated with industrial buildings. ? ? arch1-arch121-develop intermediate freehand drawing skills by preparing sketch designs and construction details arch1-arch121-prepare a partial set of industrial design and construction drawings using computer aided drafting skills ? ? arch1-arch121-achieve compliance for building permit applications by applying relevant portions of the current ontario building code arch1-arch121-draw architectural details for a masonry and steel framed structure arch1-arch121-determine structural requirements for a masonry and steel industrial building using pre-design structural tables ? arch1-arch121-review and implement sustainable architecture and barrier-free design elements for an industrial building creating low affinity pathways 46 architectural technology to mechanical engineering technology courses omitted maps for mt 103, gned 212, mt 153, mt 237, and mt 256 which have no overlap. architectural technology to mechanical engineering technology arch1-matm101-examine materials and methods related to residential construction. arch1-matm101-distinguish the sequence of construction. arch1-matm101-relate critical documentation to building design and residential construction. arch1-matm101-incorporate sustainable construction materials, methods and techniques. arch1-matm101-construct a house model to reinforce comprehension of wood framing system. arch1-matm122-prepare building envelope designs and details for various building types. arch1-matm122-select materials and assembly methods for different parts of a building envelope. arch1-matm122-compare different materials responding to design requirements and identify materials compatible with structural system requirements. meng1-mt102compare the mechanical and physical properties of various engineering materials including metals, polymers, composite materials, and ceramics. meng1-mt102recognize the types of tests used to obtain mechanical properties of materials. ? ? ? ? ? ? meng1-mt102understand how mechanical and physical properties are related to internal structure. meng1-mt102recognize how engineering applications are related to mechanical properties arch1-matm122-identify different structural systems and the forces impacting building structures. arch1-matm122-describe scenarios where coordination may be necessary with different disciplines during the design and construction phases of a project. arch1-matm122-identify the different types of building operating systems. creating low affinity pathways 47 architectural technology to mechanical engineering technology mt106 meng1-mt106develop and sketch standard orthographic views for basic parts and distinguish between first and third angle projection drawings. meng1-mt106apply correct drafting practices for dimensioning and sectioning of mechanical components. meng1-mt106identify various threaded fasteners and other standard machine components. meng1-mt106demonstrate an understanding of standard drafting symbology & annotation and gd&t(geometric dimensioning & symbology). meng1-mt106interpret and prepare precise, fully annotated and dimensioned mechanical engineering drawings/graphics which conform to current csa standards. meng1-mt106execute the autocad software to prepare precise,fully annotated multiview twodimensional orthographic engineering drawings & graphics that comply with current csa and industry standards. meng1-mt106organize, manage, save and retrieve drawing files. arch1-arch101-organize architectural design relationships and detailing for residential design and construction including sustainable design and construction features. arch1-arch101-develop basic freehand drawing skills to be better able to understand construction details prepared by a supervisor in an office. arch1-arch101-prepare a partial set of residential design and construction drawings using computer aided drafting skills. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? arch1-arch101-apply and comply with relevant portions of the current ontario building code as required for a building permit application. arch1-arch101-draw architectural details for a wood frame residential building clad in masonry veneer and siding. arch1-arch101-review and implement barrier-free design elements for a residential project. arch1-arch102-gain an understanding of current 2d autocad drafting and printing commands using short-cut commands, menus and icons. arch1-arch102-use appropriate drafting commands with respect to lineweight, dimensioning, hatching and scale. arch1-arch102-draw partial construction plans, sections, details and elevations for a sample residence using basic 2d cad commands and plotting styles in paper space. arch1-arch102-produce measure drawing sketches, plans and elevations of a small residential space. arch1-arch121-prepare architectural design and construction detailing associated with industrial buildings. arch1-arch121-develop intermediate freehand drawing skills by preparing sketch designs and construction details arch1-arch121-prepare a partial set of industrial design and construction drawings using computer aided drafting skills ? ? creating low affinity pathways 48 arch1-arch121-achieve compliance for building permit applications by applying relevant portions of the current ontario building code arch1-arch121-draw architectural details for a masonry and steel framed structure arch1-arch121-determine structural requirements for a masonry and steel industrial building using pre-design structural tables arch1-arch121-review and implement sustainable architecture and barrier-free design elements for an industrial building creating low affinity pathways 49 appendix 5. model routes model routes were provided by program coordinators and administrative assistants. law clerk semester 1 comm 160/161 gned gned laws 105 laws 111 laws 221 semester 2 comm 170/171 laws 112 laws 114 laws 115 laws 310 office administration (executive) semester 1 comm 160/161 gned oagn 113 oagn 115 oagn 118 oagn 124 semester 2 comm 170/171 oagn 116 oagn 119 oagn 123 oagn 125 office administration (health services) semester 1 comm 160/161 gned oagn 113 oagn 115 oagn 118 oagn 124 semester 2 comm 170/171 oagn 116 oagn 123 oagn 125 oagn 127 creating low affinity pathways 50 architectural technology semester 1 arch 101 arch 102 comm 170/171 envr 101 gned math 111 math 101 semester 2 arap 124 arap 121 envr 123 gned 500 math 112 matm 122 energy systems engineering technology semester 1 eset 111 robo 112 robo 115 phys 100 math 170 comm 160/161 semester 2 eset 121 eset 122 mt 121 robo 234 math 180 gned 500 comm 170/171 mechanical engineering technology the model routes for mechanical engineering technology industrial (co-op) (3714), mechanical engineering technology industrial (3704), mechanical engineering technology design (3703) are identical for semester one and two. semester 1 mt 102 mt 103 mt 106 phys 100 math 170 gned 212 comm 160/161 semester 2 mt 121 mt 153 mt 237 mt 256 math 180 gned 500 comm 170/171 creating low affinity pathways 51

are excess credits for college-to-university transfer students a concern? a case study within the ontario context robindra sidhu, sylvia lin, yvette munro, richard smith, julie parna, emilie de oca sarasua york university march 31, 2016 oncat project 2014-32 1 oncat project 2014-32 2 are excess credits in college-to-university transfer students a concern? a case study within the ontario context introduction access to a flexible post-secondary education (pse) system one that has multiple pathways, permits student transfer between institutions and affords timely credential attainment not only allows students to discover their strengths and interests, but empowers them to develop, adapt and enhance their knowledge and/or skills as required. an accessible pse system is particularly important during periods of economic restructuring that may arise from technological innovation, global competition and environmental change. ideally such a system enables individuals to take advantage of opportunities that may arise in a fluid economic environment. indeed, as a recent oecd report (international labour office, 2011) highlighted, the collective economic prosperity of a given society not only depends on the knowledge and/or skills that its citizens possess on but how effectively their knowledge and skills are deployed. from a purely utilitarian perspective, a timely and efficient pse system (that includes student mobility or transfer) is one where students take only those courses that are deemed necessary for credential attainment and no more. excessive accumulation of credits, particularly for collegeto-university transfer students, could be symptomatic of articulation problems in the program/degree structure, the transfer processes or both. regardless of whether they are college-to-university transfer students or non-transfer university students, the accumulation of excess credits may cause delays in credential attainment, and introduces extra costs through tuition and possibly delays in entering the workforce.1 excess credits also introduce additional costs for the government as well as the public who support pse institutions because students may be taking longer than they need to attain the credential (kinne, blume & roza, 2011 american research suggests that excess credits are indeed being generated by university graduates. excess credits are seen to represent inefficiencies that result in personal and system-wide costs (kinne, blume, & roza, 2013; complete college america 2011). consequently, it is important to note that many of the policy actions to mitigate excess credits described later in this report are american examples, and may not necessarily generalize to the 1 it is important to point out that excess credits are not necessarily problematic for students. excess credits may have intrinsic value that is not easily captured or quantified in a systematic way and may reflect the natural inclination of emerging adults to explore new possibilities (arnett, 2000, 2004). oncat project 2014-32 3 ontario context. as such, one of the underlying motivations for this paper is to seek evidence about whether the phenomenon of excess credits exists in the ontario context, particularly for college-to-university transfer students, in what programs and degree types they occur, what factors generate them and what if anything should be done to mitigate them. in our scan of the literature, we found only one instance of canadian research examining the existence of excess credits and no explicit policy actions pertaining to the mitigation of excess credits. indeed, research from british columbia suggests that excess credits resulting from college-to-university transfer is not an issue (pendleton, 2010). this report found no evidence that students had to catch-up when transferring from one institution to another and was taken as evidence that the british columbia2 system was able to provide seamless transfer. the author found that students tended to choose all the appropriate transferrable courses and sequence all the prerequisites and requirements so that slip-ups" were negligible. pendleton (2010) also demonstrated that transfer students took slightly fewer courses than direct-entry students. this applies to transfer students who registered in honours programs and combined programs. in addition, transfer students also performed as well as non-transfer students in terms of grade point average (gpa). whether there are analogous findings in the ontario context is an open question, given the unique ways in which the higher education system has evolved across canada and united states. (jones, skolnik, & soren, 1998; skolnik, 2010) ontario context: a gradual transformation of the pse system the present incarnation of the ontario pse system dates back to just over a half a century, with the establishment of two parallel sectors: colleges of applied arts and technology (caats) and universities (skolnik, 2010). an ongoing challenge for ontario is to increase the flexibility of its pse system by transforming it from being a binary system (where high school students who were streamed into the vocationally oriented college sector were generally not expected nor permitted to transfer to the university sector and vice versa), to an articulated system that facilitates the mobility of qualified students to transfer between and within the each of the college and university sectors, so that students are able to attain the credential(s) and type of education that reflects the combination of skills and knowledge that suit their needs (decock, mccloy, liu, & hu, 2011; rae, 2004, p 19;wilson, 2009) articulated pse systems, where both oncat project 2014-32 4 sectors work to forge educational pathways between them, reflects what has historically occurred by design, in jurisdictions across canada such as british columbia and alberta and elsewhere in the united states (dennison, 2000; gaber, 2010; skolnik, 2010). for example, in british columbia the college sector has a transfer function in addition to vocational training. they provide the first two years of a university education and then permit students to the students to complete the third and fourth year at the university (dennison, 2000; gaber, 2010). such a system assures university accessibility, enables students to save money by studying close to the community, enabling them to reduce lodging and tuition costs compared to university. despite the legacy design of the ontario pse system, arrangements to promote student mobility between the sectors has grown, albeit gradually. in the 1990s college leaders argued that college students needed analytical, theoretical, and transferable knowledge as well as technical skills as well as to succeed in the workforce (ontario ministry of colleges and universities, 2000; skolnik, 2008). during this period student transfer between certain colleges and universities was increasingly possible on a bilateral or multilateral basis, through articulation agreements and block transfer policies. by the 2000s co-operation between the sectors led to the creation of joint diplomas and joint degree programs and in some cases shared campuses like seneca@york (1999) and university of guelph-humber (2002). in order to facilitate greater collaboration between the two sectors and support the development of both bilateral and multilateral transfer pathways, the college and university consortium council (cucc) was established in 1996. cucc also disseminated information on articulation agreements between institutions through the ontario college university transfer guide (ocutg). in 2011 the ontario government issued a statement on credit transfer that participating colleges and universities would adopt a collegial approach in a manner that: requires institutions to optimize pathways for students and minimizes barriers to their mobility by basing agreements on maximum recognition of students previous learning experiences, while taking into account the background and knowledge required for academic success post-transfer; recognizes student success is paramount oncat project 2014-32 5 awards qualifying students transferring between ontarios publicly assisted colleges and universities with credit for relevant learning already demonstrably completed at the appropriate level of mastery that same year the ontario council on admissions and transfer (oncat) was established to replace the cucc. oncat not only supports the development of college-university articulation arrangements, but it also promotes research with a view to reducing the barriers associated with student transfer between institutions. students can access online information about student transfer through an online portal called ontransfer. over the past two decades, college-to-university transfer has become an important pathway for degree attainment for some ontario students. college to university transfer applicants through ouac increased from 7,059 in 1996-97 to 16,154 in 2007-08.3 this represents an average of 9.7%4 of all ontario university applicants during this period. the number of university registrants with previous college experience was 2,542 in 1996-97 and increased to 5,110 in 2007-08. this represents an average of 5%5 of all ontario university registrants with some previous college attendance (colleges ontario, 2009). more recent data based on publicly accessible multi-year accountability agreement (myaa) reports for ontario universities suggest that between 2009 and 2013 the average proportion of college-to-university transfer students was approximately 4.2%s6 out of an average total of 85,715 registered students. the ongoing development of a robust college-to-university transfer system partially supports two related government goals: first, to improve access to university, particularly those who are in under-represented groups such as students with disabilities, aboriginal students (ogilvie & eggleton, 2011) and first generation students (clark, moran, skolnik, & trick, 2009). colleges have a disproportionate number of students from these groups (colleges ontario, 2011) 3 ouac totals understate the total number of transfer students because some of these applicants apply directly to universities. 4 between 2003-04 and 2007-08 this percentage was closer to 11.7%. this period includes the double cohort. grade 13 was abolished in spring 2003 and 2003-04 represented the first year where students in grade 12 and grade 13s would enter post-secondary education at the same time. 5 between 2003-04 and 2007-08 this percentage was closer to 5.4% 6 note that this figure is a conservative estimate because it only accounts for students who used the ontario university application center. oncat project 2014-32 6 and college-to-university transfer represents an opportunity to enable such groups to have access to a university baccalaureate. second, to increase capacity of the university system to meet the needs of future enrolment growth associated with population growth, particularly in the greater toronto area (gta), while at the same time constrain costs (clark, moran, skolnik, & trick, 2009). developing a seamless college-to-university transfer system enables students to attain their credentials in a timely manner (without excess credits) and ensures that the pse system is graduating the maximum number of students relative to the financial resources invested both by the student and the government/public alike. in other words, finding efficiencies will incrementally increase the capacity of the system and constrain costs.7 conceptions of excess credits: three perspectives in discussing excess credits, it is important to consider three distinct perspectives: student perspective. students perceive excess credits through their full experience in pse, regardless of whether it occurred in one institution or more than one institution. in this context excess credits may be based on any course that the student is required to take to attain their degree, but is nonetheless perceived to be duplicate learning by the student (whether it is indeed the case). for example, in some cases the student may be required to repeat courses because they did not receive a high enough grade or took courses that did not contain sufficient academic content. excess credits may also include transfer credits that are unallocated within the students degree program because any remaining slots within the program (i.e. electives) have already been allocated. institutional perspective. institutions might operationally define excess credit as any amount of credit that is greater than the required number of credits that is necessary to obtain the credential that is sought. (as will be seen from american examples below, the definition of greater can be expressed as an arbitrary percentage of the overall degree program). such a definition does not necessarily track the full life cycle of the student, and may only include an 7 furthermore costs of the pse system are also constrained if the first two of years of a university education occur at the colleges and the final year two years are at the university (trick, 2013). however, such a proposal is controversial: a substantial proportion of funding received by ontario universities is based on enrolment. a two plus two design would represent a reduction of funding to universities (see clark, trick, & van loon, 2011; . oncat project 2014-32 7 accounting of the number of credits attempted, repeated and/or earned at a specific institution (and if transfer is involved, accounts for the total number of credits required at the receiving institution for credential attainment). pan-institutional perspective. in terms of a pan-institutional perspective, the conception of excess credits rests on the assumption that baccalaureate credential attainment requires a certain number if credits. this perspective involves a full accounting of all credits attempted, repeated and/or earned from across all pse institutions that the student attended (i.e., colleges and universities) across ontario. such an accounting requires that a system is in place for capturing such data. due to limitations in our ability to capture data at a pan-institutional level, for the purposes of the present investigation we define excess credits from the perspective of the institution. how are excess credits generated? american research (kinne et al., 2013) finds that excess credits are generated when university students (presumably including transfer students): enter university with an undecided major or change their major. also see (pendleton, 2010). enrol in programs that have highly prescribed curricula or enrol in double majors. in such instances it can be difficult to allocate transfer credits because there is no space to allocate them within the degree program. study abroad in programs whose credits do not fulfill degree requirements. are unable to access required courses yet need to keep taking classes to remain enrolled at a certain level so that they may access financial aid. face unclear degree requirements. (also see pendleton, 2010). based on our experiences of working with students, these reasons are applicable to our own institution. additionally, based on anecdotal evidence, excess credits may be generated if students take more credits than necessary out of interest, want to improve their grade point average or they may take credits in block sizes that do not fit into the degree program. oncat project 2014-32 8 policy actions to mitigate excess credits canadian context. at present, the phenomenon of excess credits in both transfer and non-transfer students has received little attention amongst researchers and policy-makers within canadian provincial jurisdictions. as indicated earlier, empirical evidence from the sole canadian study suggests excess credits are not a concern at least within british columbia (e.g., pendleton, 2010). however, without research from different provinces, it is not clear whether generation of excess credits is a problem elsewhere in canada. there is very little explicit policy pertaining to the mitigation of excess credits. rather, provincial policy focuses upon ensuring student mobility between college and university sectors, and supporting efforts to mitigate barriers that lead to timely credential acquisition. a number of provincial articulation councils and governments have asserted the importance of recognizing students prior relevant work so that students do not repeat prior work that is of an equivalent level. for example, in february 2011, the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities released its policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system announcing changes to publicly funded colleges and universities over a five year period. the policy statement outlines a vision for the province as follows: ontario will have a comprehensive, transparent and consistently applied credit transfer system that will improve pathways and mobility, support student success and make ontario a postsecondary education destination of choice. the credit transfer system will assist qualified students to move between postsecondary institutions or programs without repeating prior, relevant learning. (ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011) while there is no specific reference to excess credits, the policy statement suggests a desire on the part of government, to reduce and/or eliminate the accumulation of excess credits suggesting the potential costs to students and the system associated with an inefficient transfer system or institutional processes. specifically, the policy statement views an improved transfer system as one that offers cost savings for students and their families, government and the public through the elimination of credit duplication(ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). the policy statement also includes language or terminology that signals the governments interest in improving consistency across the system, providing accurate oncat project 2014-32 9 information for students, maximizing recognition of prior learning and reducing costs through timely completion of credentials. in its annual estimates briefing book 2015-16, the ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities reaffirms its commitment to ensuring students do not have to unnecessarily repeat prior relevant learning and know in advance how much credit they can expect to receive when transferring institutions saving students time and money(ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011) the ontario governments policy statement echoes what a number of provincial articulation councils have asserted in terms of the recognition of students prior relevant work that is of an equivalent level, thereby mitigating extra work on the part of the student. for example, the british columbia council on articulation and transfer indicated that students should not be required to retake courses successfully completed elsewhere, nor should they expect to receive duplicate credit for equivalent courses.(british columbia council on articulation and transfer, 2010) similarly, the alberta council on articulation at transfer also indicated: barriers to student mobility shall be minimized. the integrity of educational programs and certification must, however, be maintained. a student should not be required to repeat previous learning experiences in which competence has been demonstrated nor should more transfer credit be granted than previous learning experiences would warrant for successful completion of the program. (alberta council on articulation and transfer, 2009) viewed through the lens of minimizing excess credits at the pan-institutional level (accounting for credit accumulation throughout the student life cycle across both college and university sectors), these statements can be characterized as the preservation of college credits in the college-to-university transfer process (c.f. roksa & keith, 2008) and ensuring open pathways to student mobility. financial levers to improve articulation. another method used by government to leverage system transformation or institutional change is the use of funding incentives where government monies either through special grants or enveloped funding is tied to articulated oncat project 2014-32 10 policy goals. for example, in ontario, within the same year as the release of its policy statement on ontarios credit transfer system, the government launched the credit transfer institutional grant. the funding program is $9.8m in total and is distributed among colleges and universities8 based on each institutions provincial share of transfer students (excluding internal transfer students). the funding programs stated objective is to enhance credit transfer for students in the publicly assisted postsecondary education system across the province by: improving transparency and access to information about pathways and credit transfer; supporting student success for transfer students; and expanding and improving student transfer pathways that respond to student demand. (ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2015). while again there is no specific reference to excess credits, the funding program allows colleges and universities to undertake activities that facilitate transfer and support students under the same principles as outlined in the policy statement, including the elimination of credit duplication. american context. concern about excess credits in the united states has a higher profile relative to canada. in recent years, a number of research (kinne et al., 2013; zeidenberg, 2012)9 and advocacy papers (campaign for college opportunity, 2014; complete college america, 2011; lumina foundation, 2011 ) have highlighted the cost of excess credits to students both in terms of time and money and to governments and tax payers who support pse systems. although some states do not have an explicit excess credits policy, others have acted by ensuring that students have access to improved counselling and awareness of degree requirements and by and limiting degrees to 120 credits or its equivalent (kinne et al., 2013). in an era of fiscal restraint and heightened public scrutiny about public finances, some states have sought to mitigate the cost of excess credits by shifting the burden to students by charging student extra tuition for taking credits beyond a certain threshold. table 1 lists a number of states who have adopted policies to apply a tuition surcharge on credits beyond a certain threshold (calculated as a percentage of a 120 credit baccalaureate degree). in addition, table 1 lists the year the policy was implemented, updated or changed and websites where this information can be obtained. the effectiveness of such policy actions in curbing excess credits is unclear. where information is publicly accessible (e.g. grove, 2007), the policy of student 8 9 for universities in 2015-16 it is $5.88m (the same amount as in 2014-15). zeidenbergs (2012) research focuses upon excess credits within community colleges. oncat project 2014-32 11 tuition surcharges on excess credits has worked in some states in terms of reducing excess credits but not in others. in 2014, florida began to penalize institutions a proportion of their funding (state university system of florida board of governors, 2015). the effectiveness of such a policy remains to be seen. present investigation no prior research within the ontario context has been conducted to evaluate whether graduating with excess credits exists as a phenomenon for university graduates. using a casestudy approach with york university as an example the present investigation seeks to assess the extent to which college-to-university transfer students are able to graduate without excess credits compared to students who entered the university system directly from high school. york university has been at the forefront of credit transfer with a history of working with ontarios community colleges dating back to the 1970s. between 2011 and 2013, an estimate of at least 3000 college-to-university transfer students graduated from in york universitys undergraduate programs. york university offers multiple options for transfer across many academic disciplines through block credit policies, articulated transfer pathways and joint/collaborative programs with colleges.10 research questions using york university as a case study, we investigate the phenomenon of excess credits at an institutional level using the following research questions: 1. what is the extent of excess credits between college-to-university transfer students and non-transfer students? 2. what factors are contributing to the accumulation of excess credits? 10 in 1991 york university established a block credit transfer policy (decock, lacoste, & pitt, 2014) that enables students to obtain credit or course waivers based on college courses with a grade of 70% or greater, subject to space availability (see trick, 2013 p. 20). the policy allows for the transfer of a predetermined number of university credits based on a number of factors such as the alignment of the college program with the university program and the duration of the college program (craney, 2012). the block transfer policy does not require the student to make a special application to the university. for example, a student with a liberal arts diploma from college would be able to obtain transfer credits toward a york university bachelor of arts degree. it should also be noted that while credits are transferred as a block, there are courses within the block that can be specified to be deemed as having the equivalent level of content and consequently these courses map one to one to courses at university. oncat project 2014-32 12 3. what are the top programs where excess credits are generated? method this study used institutional data of york university to assess the extent to which excess credits, defined as earned credits greater than 120,11 were accumulated by transfer and nontransfer students upon graduation from 2011 to 2013. quantitative analysis was performed to examine demographic characteristics as well as academic features that may have contributed to the accumulation of excess credits. the analysis also focused on the difference between transfer and non-transfer students within a group of certain feature. the impacts of programs or program groupings, previous post-secondary education (pse) experience and transfer credits awarded were of particular interest. developing the analytical sample the analytical sample primarily consisted of graduates who attained their first honours bachelors degrees from york university between calendar year 2011 and 2013, inclusive. capturing the students on graduation provided a means to evaluate their earned credits at a fixed state as the credits could vary any time prior to completion of the program. the choice of the first honours bachelors degree was to ensure that 120 credits were required to obtain the credential. following this line of logic, the following cases were excluded from the sample: where the students had already attained another honours bachelors degree (internationally or domestically from another university, if reported); where the degree captured between 2011 and 2013 was a second-entry degree: consecutive bachelor of education (bed), juris doctor (jd) and bachelor of laws (llb); 11 students must successfully complete 120 credits with a specified minimum gpa to attain a four-year baccalaureate degree at york university. a full year course is typically weighted at 6 credits and a half year course is typically weighted at 3 credits. based on these weightings, 120 credits are the equivalent of 20 full-year courses. oncat project 2014-32 13 where the degree captured between 2011 and 2013 required more than 120 earned credits to graduate where the students graduated with double major, or with certificate(s) (also required more than 120 earned credits); where students were in a nursing program.12 determining students transfer status transfer status was defined by whether at least one unspecified13 additional credit from an institution other than york university was granted. students who indicated that they had attended other pse institutions prior to coming to york university but received no transfer credits for previous studies were excluded from the study. we arrived at a final sample of 11,402 students, 3686 (32.3%) of whom were considered transfer students. defining excess credits in order to assess the magnitude of excess credits accumulated upon graduation, we focused on the number of earned credits. earned credits incorporated transfer credits into credits attempted (i.e. credits taken) at york university after subtracting credits failed and credits repeated.14 based on whether the earned credits were equal to or greater than 120 upon graduation, the sample was divided into two groups for the likelihood of exceeding 120 to be quantitatively evaluated. out of the total sample, 4659 (40.9%) students graduated with more than 120 earned credits. analyses 12 collaborative nursing students are not considered to be transfer students because their studies at the college are degree level courses approved by york. the second entry and internationally educated nurses programs have specialized requirements due to accreditation requirements 13 an unspecified credit represents a credit that can be flexibly allocated to the receiving program. at point of graduation these credits may be counted towards the 120 credits that are required for a four-year degree. 14 earned credits = credits attempted (i.e. taken) at york university credits attempted with failed grade credits repeated for grade improvement + unspecified additional credits granted for pse experiences from other institutions. oncat project 2014-32 14 we employed three types of analyses to examine and compare distributions of earned credits between different sub-groups: (1) first, odds15 were computed to determine how likely a sub-group was to exceed 120 against not; (2) secondly, odds ratios16 were developed between transfer and non-transfer students to gauge the specific impact of being a transfer student in a given sub-group; (3) lastly, means and medians and standard deviations were compared to describe the distributions in terms of centre and spread. the analyses were conducted across a wide range of selected demographic characteristics and academic features.17 demographic characteristics demographic characteristics presented in the paper included gender, age, immigration status, mother tongue, and commuter status. age, immigration status and commuter status were associated with the enrolment record of the first year at york. commuter status was derived from local residential postal codes which were matched against those of on-campus residences. academic features academic features encompass whether the student graduated with a concurrent bachelor of education (bed), whether the student changed faculty, degree type or program between the first year of registration and graduation, whether the student graduated with distinction, number of repeated courses, degree type, program or program grouping, previous pse experience, transfer credits awarded, final grade point average (gpa) and time-to-completion. all academic variables were based on final or last known results. repeated courses. repeated courses would occur if and when a student who had completed a course with a passing grade decided to take it again for grade improvement. the grade of the more recent attempt would replace the old grade, resulting in more credits taken, but the same earned credits. although the number of repeated courses did not affect the number of 15 oddsx = the number of students who earned more than 120 credits the number of those who earned exactly 120 credits, within subgroup x. 16 odds ratiox = oddstransfer oddsnon-transfer, within subgroup x. 17 for a full list of variables and corresponding frequency distributions, refer to appendix. oncat project 2014-32 15 earned credits, it could have an indirect effect via the trait that might be linked to tendency to pursue perfection, academic curiosity or perseverance. degree type. a total of 13 types of degrees appeared in the sample: ba (bachelor of arts), bas (bachelor of administrative studies), bdem (bachelor of disaster and emergency management), bdes (bachelor of design), bes (bachelor of environmental studies), bfa (bachelor of fine arts), bhrm (bachelor of human resources management), bhs (bachelor of health studies), bpa (bachelor of public administration), bsc (bachelor of science), bsw (bachelor of social work), iba (international bachelor of arts), and ibsc (international bachelor of science). program or program grouping. individual programs, represented by majors, were assigned specialization major (spemaj) codes as defined by the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) in the university statistical enrolment report (user). the codes served as a standard categorization tool to sort programs into 10 main groups, each represented by the first digit of spemaj: general arts and science and interdisciplinary studies (0), education, physical education, sports, recreation and leisure (1), fine and applied arts (2), humanities and related (3), social sciences and related (4), agricultural and biological sciences (5), engineering and applied sciences (6), health professions and occupations (7), mathematics and physical sciences (8), and not applicable or not reported (9). we kept sizable individual majors separate to conserve the individuality of the programs while grouping the others into their respective spemaj groupings to complete the categorization. the stand-alone majors were: kinesiology (kine), design (desn), music (musi), visual arts (visa), communication studies (comn), english (en), history (hist), administrative studies (adms), criminology (crim), economics (econ), environmental studies (enst), law and society (laso), psychology (psyc), sociology (soci), and social work (sowk). previous pse experience. we compiled all previous institutions reported on students application files and extracted information on institutional types. four categories of previous pse experience were constructed as follows: previously attended colleges only, previously attend universities only, previously attended other types of institutions only (any other types of oncat project 2014-32 16 pse institutions including but not limited to cegep18, foreign post-secondary institutions, teachers colleges, bible colleges, food safety schools, flight academies), and previously attended multiple types of institutions. final gpa. cumulative overall final gpa upon graduation was converted from a grade scale to a numerical point-value scale using the following assignment: a+ equals 9, a equals 8, b+ equals 7, b equals 6, c+ equals 5, c equals 4, d+ equals 3, d equals 2, e equals 1, and f equals 0. time-to-completion. time-to-completion, measured in years, was calculated as the calendar years elapsed between the first year of registration and the year of degree conferral, notwithstanding academic activities or registration status in between. since the standard program lengths for all programs in this study are four years, the difference can be attributed to partial workloads, stop-outs, and transfer credits awarded. 18 cegep stands for collge d'enseignement gnral et professionnel. oncat project 2014-32 17 results what is the extent of excess credits between college-to-university transfer students and non-transfer students? table 2 describes the total number of earned credits by the sample of students at graduation. as can be seen, 59.14% of the credits are earned by students who graduate with 120 credits and 40.86% of the credits are earned by students who have excess credits. overall, the odds of students graduating with excess credits are .69, regardless of transfer status. when the total number of earned credits is further broken down by transfer status (nontransfer vs transfer), one can see a striking pattern. the odds of a non-transfer student accumulating excess credits by the time they graduate are .57, which is lower than the overall odds of .69. by contrast, the odds for transfer students to accumulate transfer credits are 1.00. in other words, transfer students have greater odds for accumulating excess credits. to understand the range and magnitude of excess credits that transfer students and nontransfer students earned for a 120 credit degree, it is useful to examine figure 1. this figure displays the distribution of earned credits by both groups at the time of graduation. as can be seen from the histogram, both groups earn a range of total credits by the time they graduate (from 120 to 200 credits), with most students earning approximately 120 credits. note that the distribution is skewed, and as such, when describing the summary statistics it is important to consider both the mean and the median. the median is not influenced by extreme values. it is clear from table 2 that by the time students graduated, transfer students earned an average of 126.22 credits and a median of 121 credits, and non-transfer students earned 123.05 and a median of 120 credits. these values indicate that the amount of excess credit in transfer students appears to be relatively small: 6.22 credits above 120 or 5.2 % in excess and 1 credit above 120 when considering the median or .83 % in excess. non-transfer students also earned excess credits, but to a smaller extent: 3.05 credits above 120 or 2.54 % in excess. when considering the median, there is no evidence of excess credits in non-transfer students as a group. thus, the magnitude of excess credits for both groups is quite small relative to american reports (campaign for college opportunity, 2014; complete college america, 2011; florida department of education, 2005; kinne et al., 2013; zeidenberg, 2012). oncat project 2014-32 18 what factors potentially contribute to the accumulation of excess credits? by how much do they contribute? demographic characteristics. according to table 3 when considering the entire sample regardless of transfer status, an examination of the odds of accumulating earned excess credits or not students who are male, 20 years or older, permanent residents on a visa, and students whose mother tongue was not english or lived in residence had greater odds for excess credits. when considering transfer status, an examination of the odds ratio indicates that being a transfer student and: being either a male, older over 26 years of age,19 a permanent resident, had a mother tongue other than english, living in residence one had greater odds for accumulating excess credits. across the demographic characteristics presented in table 3, it can be seen that on average transfer students earned between 4.28 (19 years old) and 9.29 (permanent residents) excess credits and a median of between 0 and 3 excess credits.20 non-transfer students earned on average earned 2.51 (18 years old) and 5.62 (23 years old) excess credits and a median between 0 and 1.5 credits. on balance it appears that transfer students accumulate slightly more excess credits than non-transfer students when examining the students across these demographic characteristics. academic features. according to table 4 when considering the entire sample regardless of transfer status students have higher odds of accumulating excess credits if they: changed faculty, degree type or program; graduated with distinction, or repeated two or more courses. they also have higher odds if they completed a bachelor of administrative studies, bachelor of fine arts or bachelor of science degree.21 transfer students with these characteristics have even higher odds ratios.22 transfer students pursuing either of these three 19 while it does indicate that those 18 or younger have greater odds for excess credits, this finding needs to be interpreted with caution due to the low frequency counts that are used to calculate the ratios. 20 excluding variables with low cell counts 21 while it does indicate that having a bachelor of public administration or international ba is associated with excess credits, this finding needs to be interpreted with caution due to the low frequency counts that are generating the ratios. 22 the bachelor of disaster and emergency management, bachelor of public administration, international bsc degree types appear to have ratios that would indicate that one has greater odds for accumulating excess credits, however because the cell sizes are low these findings should be interpreted with caution. oncat project 2014-32 19 degrees have greater odds for accumulating excess credits, partly due to being enrolled in a specific program (and possibly its structure)23 and partly due to the transfer process.24 the data also indicate that transfer students pursuing bachelor of arts or bachelor of health studies degrees have greater odds for accumulating excess credits and that this effect, which could be attributed to the transfer process rather than the degree structure.25 table 4 shows that when students made a change in faculty, degree type or degree program, transfer students earned an average of between 5.44 to 10.66 excess credits and a median range of between 0 and 6 excess credits. in contrast non-transfer students earned an average of between 3.99 and 5.38 excess credits and a median range of between 0 and 1 excess credits. for students who repeated courses, transfer students earned an average of between 7.44 and 9.79 excess credits and a median range of between 3 and 6 excess credits while non-transfer students earned an average of 3.4 and 5.17 excess credits and a median range of between 0 and 1 excess credits. across degree types transfer students earned an average of between 2.96 to 12.27 excess credits and a median range of 0 and 8 excess credits.26 thus it is apparent that when students made changes in their programs or repeated courses, they were apt to accumulate excess credits. transfer students were less likely to make changes or repeat courses but when they did, the odds of accumulating of excess credits were compounded. students who graduated with distinction had greater odds for accumulating excess credits and this effect was compounded if they were transfer students. note however the magnitude of the excess is relatively small as seen in table 4. are excess credits a concern? amount of credits taken, failed, final gpa and time to completion. when examining the efficiency of credential attainment as well as student performance it is important to note the amount of credits taken and failed, and students final gpa and time to completion (see table 5). if credits accumulated also include those passed, failed or repeated, 23 this is evidenced by the fact that the odds in table 4 are greater than the threshold of .69 this is evidenced by the fact that the odds ratios in table 4 are greater than the threshold of 1.75 25 this is evidenced by the fact that the odds in table 4 for each of the degrees are below the threshold value of .69 but the odds ratio in table 4 is above the threshold of 1.75. 26 this range excludes bachelor of human resource management and international bachelor of science, because the data contributing to the means and medians contain low cell frequencies. 24 oncat project 2014-32 20 then the median for the full sample is 6.64 excess credits and the median is 3. for students who graduate in excess of 120 credits, transfer students graduate with an average 14.93 excess credits and a median of 12 credits. however, it is important to note students that non-transfer students who graduate with more than 120 credits accumulate an average excess of 12.4 credits and a median of 9 credits. indeed, the difference between the two groups is 3 credits based on the median. in terms of academic performance, it appears that on average students fail .59 credits regardless of transfer status. transfer students fare better than non-transfer students: transfer students fail below the average (.41 credits) and non-transfer students fail above the average (.67 credits). furthermore, transfer students have higher gpas compared to non-transfer students (i.e., a median gpa of 6.55 vs 6.34 on a 9 point scale). students who graduated with excess credits had slightly higher gpas compared to students who did not (i.e., 6.44 vs 6.38).27 in terms of the number of credits granted to transfer students, students who graduate with excess credits also receive more transfer credits (i.e., an average of 37.53 vs 30.77 for those who graduate do not graduate with excess credits). finally, in terms of time to completion, students who accumulate excess credits took longer to complete their degrees, compared to students who did not (i.e., a median of 6 vs 5 calendar years). transfer students took less time to complete their degrees compared to nontransfer students (i.e., a median of 5 vs 6 calendar years). it is also interesting to note that transfer students received a median of 30 credits which is the equivalent of 5 full-year courses and which would take a full time student one academic year to complete. this would account for why a transfer student would complete one year less than a non-transfer student. what are the top programs where excess credits are generated? according to table 6 when considering the entire sample and regardless of transfer status the programs that have greater odds for excess credits for students, based on the odds are: kinesiology, music, other subjects in the fine and applied arts program group, english, administrative studies, agriculture and biology, and math and physics. based on the odds ratio, 27 it should be noted that transfer students also take fewer university credits, and therefore have fewer opportunities to perform poorly or fail their courses. oncat project 2014-32 21 the following programs are where transfer students accumulate a greater number of excess credits: kinesiology, other subjects in the social sciences program group, english, administrative studies, and agriculture and biology. it is important to note that music and math and physics are examples of programs where excess credits are likely generated due to the program but not the transfer process that is, transfer students do not have any greater odds for excess credits compared to non-transfer students. in contrast, environmental studies, law and society and other subjects in the social sciences area are programs that on the whole are not at risk for generating excess credits, however when comparing transfer students to non-transfers students, transfer students have greater odds for generating excess credits. the magnitude of excess credits for the aforementioned programs is graphically depicted in figure 2. does previous type of pse and number of transfer credits have an impact on excess credits, final gpa and time to completion for transfer students? according to table 7, it is clear that the odds of accumulating excess credits are greater when transfer students have a previous university credential or multiple credentials from a combination of colleges and universities, compared to a previous college credential. this is likely due to the fact that those with prior university or multiple credentials obtain a greater number transfer credits (as seen in the table) that are not allocated into their degree programs. indeed, the bottom panel of table 7 reveals that students who receive more than 31 transfer credits have greater odds of accumulating excess credits by the time they graduate. in terms of final gpa, transfer students with a prior university credential, multiple credentials or other only credential have a median gpa that is greater than the overall median. transfer students who completed college credential have a lower median gpa. a similar trend appears for the mean gpas for each of the prior credential types, with the exception of those who have multiple credentials. as seen from the lower panel of table 7, final gpa is also related to the number of transfer credits granted the greater the number of transfer credits, the higher the mean and median gpa. in terms of time-to-completion, transfer students with a previous university credential, complete faster than the overall average and median time. furthermore, the more transfer credits are granted, the faster the student will complete their credential, but the more likely he or she will accumulate excess credits. oncat project 2014-32 22 oncat project 2014-32 23 discussion it is reasonable to question whether college-to-university transfer students within ontario accumulate excess credits by the time they graduate, given the fact that pse continues to undergo a gradual transformation from a binary system to an increasingly complex articulated system. to ensure student mobility between sectors and institutions, the students prior relevant learning experiences are recognized at the receiving institution where students receive transfer credit. whether students are able to have their transfer credit allocated to their degree program is central to the issue of whether college-to-university transfer students are graduating with excess credits, particularly in the context of block transfer. the accumulation of excess credits could be seen to be symptomatic of problems that may depend on the structure of the receiving program or the transfer process itself. identifying the locus of articulation problems is an important first step toward developing a more seamless transfer system. the present investigation is the first within ontario to examine whether the phenomenon of excess credits exists amongst transfer and non-transfer students, what its magnitude is, what factors are associated with them, in what degree types and programs they occur and whether anything should be done to mitigate their occurrence. as indicated earlier, this research was conducted at the institution level rather than the pse system level and utilized york university as a case study. it does not examine the full pse experience. it also focuses exclusively on block transfer as it is the most common form of transfer at york university.28 does the phenomenon of excess credits exist? if so, how much excess? 28 other models of transfer at york university include the dual credential model where students are able to obtain a credential from both institutions sequentially. for example, seneca college students in the civil engineering technology advanced diploma program can obtain an honours bachelors degree in environmental studies with two additional years of study at york university. a second model of transfer includes collaborative and joint programs. for example, students in nursing will enrol in the first two years of their program at college and complete the last two years at york university. collaborative programs such as nursing are designed to meet the requirements of an external accreditation body. joint programs allow the student to follow a three or four-year university degree program and then add an extra year to obtain practical experience while earning a college certificate. examples include the joint program in psychology and rehabilitation services. oncat project 2014-32 24 as outlined previously, the costs associated with excess credits are manifold and therefore the mitigation of excess credits along with potential gains in efficiencies could lead to a range of possible benefits.29 all of the aforementioned possibilities depend on the existence of excess credits and its magnitude. our investigation reveals that excess credits do indeed exist for both college-to-university transfer students and non-transfer students, though the magnitude of excess credits is not particularly large especially, if we compare it to that reported in the american literature (e.g., campaign for college opportunity, 2014; complete college america, 2011; florida department of education, 2005; kinne, blume, & roza, 2013; zeidenberg, 2012) in the american literature the average reported excess credits ranges between 13.5 to 16 excess credits based on a 120 credit four-year degree program (complete college america, 2011; kinne et al., 2013). in the present investigation, the average magnitude of excess credits for transfer students is approximately 6.22, which is approximately the equivalent of one full year course. note that this average includes the entire distribution, depicted in figure 1 and includes relatively infrequent, extreme cases. however, if we consider the median which is not affected by extreme cases, the magnitude of excess credit for transfer students drops to only 1 credit. for non-transfer students the magnitude of excess credits is 3.05 credits on average this is roughly equivalent to one half-year course. when we consider the median, then as a group, the magnitude of excess credits drops to zero for non-transfer students. in other words, individuals from both groups can accumulate a small amount of excess credits, with transfer students likely to accumulate a bit more excess credits. the question of whether this magnitude of excess credits represents a need for policy action is explored further below. factors that are associated with excess credits the demographic characteristics of students and the academic features that are associated with the accumulation of excess credits provide a context that informs the development of potential policy actions to minimize excess credits, should they be required. furthermore, it also 29 indeed, by minimizing excess credits, one could potentially decrease students' time to completion, reduce delays from students entering the workforce, reduce tuition costs to students, reduce costs to governments and tax payers who support the pse system and incrementally increase the capacity of the system by freeing new seats for the next cohort of students. oncat project 2014-32 25 informs decision makers in terms of which students are likely to require support so that they may complete their degree program in a timely fashion. demographic characteristics. while there is growing evidence from ontario to suggest that female students are more likely than male students to engage in college-to-university transfer (confederation college, 2012; drewes, maki, lew, wilson, & stringham, 2012; kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010; smith, deacock, lin, sidhu, & mccloy, in press.; stuart & martinello, 2012) the current investigation shows that male transfer students have greater odds of accumulating excess credits than female transfer students. this finding is consistent with research examining transfer students in british columbia (pendleton, 2010).30 age is also an important: research focusing college-to-university transfer students in ontario suggests that age is negatively related with time to completion and probability of credential attainment (smith et al., in press). the present investigation adds that older transfer students who reach the point of graduation have greater odds of accumulating excess credits.31 with the exception of visa students, demographic characteristics that do not describe the majority, such as permanent residents (versus canadian citizens), having a mother tongue other than english and living in residence (versus those who commute) are also associated with the accumulation of excess credits in transfer students. it is also worth noting that all of the aforementioned characteristics are associated with the accumulation of excess credits in non-transfer students as well, but to a lesser extent. visa students on the other hand, do not accumulate excess credits, possibly because they may face pressures to complete their degree program within a certain time frame. academic features. prior research has identified that students who change their program of study will likely accumulate excess credits (kinne et al., 2013; pendleton, 2010). the current investigation confirms these findings by demonstrating that when both transfer or non-transfer students make any sort of change to their faculty, degree type or program they have greater odds 30 one untested hypothesis could be that transfer patterns are gendered. for example, males may transfer into male dominated fields such as the stem (science, technology engineering or math) fields. some of these areas of study are precisely where students accumulate excess credits, regardless of transfer status (see table 4 & 6). future research is required to test this hypothesis fully. as discussed later in this paper, excess credits could also have something do to with the program structure. 31 this may be due to the fact that age is confounded with the number of previous credits earned. older students are likely to have earned more transfer credits in the past, however as will be discussed later in this paper, these credits cannot be allocated to the degree program because there is not enough space to accommodate them and therefore they become excess credits. oncat project 2014-32 26 in accumulating excess credits. additionally, transfer students have greater odds in accumulating excess credits compared to non-transfer student for these variables. the effect of changing faculties is complex. transfer students are less likely to change faculty after transfer, but have greater odds of accumulating excess credits if they do. students often change academic paths, particularly at transition points. previous research revealed that up to 49% of transfer students changed their majors at some point during their time at university (smith et al., in press).32 such changes can lead to more time spent at the receiving institution. this pattern of change is consistent with the arnetts notion of emerging adulthood which occurs between the late teens to the mid-twenties: the age group we are investigating. emerging adulthood is marked by personal experimentation and exploration as individuals discover their authentic identities (arnett, 2000, 2004). the present investigation also revealed that students who graduate with distinction those with high grades accumulate more excess credits. untested explanations could be that students with higher grades may be more curious, have an intrinsic motivation to accumulate excess credits for their own edification, or add credits to improve their chance of success in graduate or professional school. our data shows that non-transfer students are more likely repeat courses. however, if transfer students choose to do so, then they have greater odds of accumulating excess credits. locus of excess credits: program/degree structure, transfer process or both? given that there is evidence that some transfer and non-transfer students accumulate excess credit, it is useful to examine whether the locus of the excess credit generation is within the structures of degrees or programs at the receiving institution or within student mobility processes. if excess credits generated by the (receiving) program or degree structure, certain programs and degree types should have greater odds of accumulating excess credits than the overall average of all programs, regardless of transfer status. if the transfer process is solely responsible for the accumulation of excess credits, the transfer population should generate more excess credits than the non-transfer population but the program itself should not generate more excess credits on average than all the others. if both program structure and transfer process are 32 defined as a college major that was different from their university major based on spemaj coding oncat project 2014-32 27 implicated in the accumulation of excess credits, one would be able to detect differences in terms of specific programs relative to excess credits across all programs combined, and also detect differences between transfer and non-transfer students. despite the relatively low levels of excess credits reported in this study, understanding the extent of excess credits, and knowing where they are being generated, gives us insight in terms of where to focus in efforts to mitigate them. program/degree structure. the locus of excess credits was not found in degree structure per se (as seen in figure 6.). however, if we focused at the level of individual programs (and program groups) it was clear that students who enrolled in music, agriculture & biology area or the math & physics area had greater odds in accumulating excess credits (see figure 5). both transfer and non-transfer students accumulated excess credits, though transfer students earned slightly more. the differences between the transfer and non-transfer groups are reported in figure 5 with the differences between the groups ranging between 3 and 8 credits based on the median, and 5.08 and 8.29 credits based on the mean. however, it is important to emphasize that the odds of accumulating excess credits were not greater for transfers students versus non transfers students in these programs (as reported under odds ratio, table 6) which bolsters the claim that the locus of excess credits from the program/degree structure and not the transfer process. these findings suggest that certain programs have curricula that are prone to the slight accumulation of excess credits. we can only speculate why this may be the case. anecdotally, it may be that music students are taking extra courses out of interest, gaining skill or they may be delaying their entry in to the labour market. students who change programs and opt for music may be required to take additional courses to make up for required background skills that are lacking. students in the math and physics area may be taking extra courses to increase their averages in order to gain admission to graduate school. additional research is required to fulsomely understand why excess credits are found in these programs/program areas. transfer process. at least two programs served as examples of where the locus of excess credits could be traced to some aspect of the transfer process, though the evidence pertaining to excess credits was not strong. as seen in figure 5, the history program and the law and society program had excess credits, where the odds of students accumulating excess credits oncat project 2014-32 28 differed according to transfer status.33 in these programs the level of excess credits varied as a function of transfer status. that is, transfer students had greater odds of accumulating excess credits compared to non-transfer students. however, these programs overall (i.e., ignoring transfer status) did not have greater odds than all the programs combined in the accumulation of excess credits. the differences between transfer and non-transfer students was between 2.24 and 2.57 excess credits based on averages. however, based on medians, these differences dropped to zero credits between the groups. a cautious interpretation would suggest one could investigate whether something systematic is indeed occurring in the transfer process that results in a small amount of excess credits for some transfer students. however, on balance, the cause for concern appears minor. when focusing on degree structure, a similar pattern appears for the ba degree. as seen on figure 6, there is a difference of 2.36 excess credits between transfer and non-transfer students based on means. however, this difference drops to zero excess credits if medians are considered. again, a cautious interpretation would warrant further attention to the transfer process, to investigate the source of excess credits in some transfer students. both transfer process and program/degree structure. according to figure 5, kinesiology, english and administrative studies were programs where the odds of excess credits were greater than all the programs combined, regardless of transfer status. these programs also had greater odds for transfer students accumulating excess credits relative to non-transfer students. the differences between transfer and non-transfer students in terms of average excess credits ranged from 3.02 credits to 5.02 credits. if medians were considered, then the difference between the groups would be 3 credits. at the level of degree program, the bachelor of administrative studies (bas), bachelor of fine arts (bfa) and bachelor of science (bsc) are degree programs with greater odds of excess credit accumulation compared to all other degree types combined. in addition, transfer students also have greater odds than non-transfer students in accumulating excess credits. as seen in figure 6, the difference between transfer students and non-transfer students ranges 33 the design program also showed a similar pattern, but because there were fewer than 30 transfer students in some of the cells used to compute the odds ratio, the results were not considered to be reliable had to be treated with caution. oncat project 2014-32 29 between 4.98 to 6.88 excess credits on average. if medians are considered, then the difference between the groups is between 3 and 6 credits. given this pattern of results, one would have to investigate both the program structure and the transfer process to further uncover the source the excess credits. how do transfer students fare? the academic success of transfer students and the number of transfer credits they receive play an important role in ensuring that college-to-university students have a good chance of attaining a baccalaureate credential in a timely and efficient manner. however, research about how college-to-university transfer students perform academically is mixed. a review paper by oncat (2013) reports that college-to-university transfer students have higher cumulative gpas than non-transfer students, particularly if the program discipline is related what they studied in college and students receive a substantial block of transfer credits (oncat, 2013). trick (2013) indicates that once at university, transfer students have gpas that are equal to or slightly lower than those of non-transfer students. stuart & martinello (2012) found no differences between transfer and non-transfer students in terms of first-year gpa. the present investigation revealed that transfer students who had a previous university credential, or a combination of college and university credentials, had better gpas than the median of all transfer students at graduation. however, transfer students who had college as a previous credential had a lower gpa than the median. baccalaureate credential attainment in a timely fashion is more likely for students who receive block credit transfer or large amounts of credit because it leaves students with fewer credits remaining to complete their program. ontario research has revealed that college-touniversity transfer students who received advanced standing or block transfer outperformed direct-entry students in terms of gpa in the first semester of university (brown, 2012; drewes et al., 2012). oncat project 2014-32 30 can the recognition of too many transfer credits be the source of excess credits? are excess credits an artefact of the block transfer process? the present investigation confirms that students who received a large block of credits, completed their credentials faster, with a median time of 4 years.34 however, receiving a large block of credits also increased the odds that transfer students would accumulate excess credits. this may be due to the fact that students do not have any space left to allocate the transfer credits within their chosen degree programs, because they have more transfer credits than can be allocated. this is an artefact of the block transfer process. if a student received 40 transfer credits and only 30 credits could be allocated to his 120 credit degree program, he would have 10 unallocated excess transfer credits but would not necessarily attain his credential any faster. he would still need to complete 90 credits at the receiving institution. another student who received 30 transfer credits and is transferring into the same program would also need to complete 90 credits at the receiving institution. both students could spend the same amount of time at the receiving institution but the latter student would end up with no excess credits from an institutional perspective. this phenomenon is evident in the present investigation. figure 4 shows that the more transfer credits students receive above 30 transfer credits, the more excess credit they tend to accumulate. maximal recognition of prior work that cannot be accommodated into a prospective degree program can be a source of excess credits. are excess credits a concern? even if the block credit system is predisposed to generating excess credits, the present investigation suggests that at york the magnitude of excess credits is small and localized. continual monitoring of excess credits is still warranted to inform decision makers about why the excess credits are being generated. the strength of a block-credit policy is that it offers a simplified set of rules that allow for a large volume of students records to be processed. students do not need to apply to receive credits. these credits are allocated to areas outside of the core degree program (i.e., electives), and occasionally to core degree courses where there is a substantial overlap of course content at 34 this includes students who had a prior university credential or a combination of university and college credentials. oncat project 2014-32 31 the same level of study.35 due to its inherent flexibility the block transfer system is efficient and sustainable, even when programs or courses change at the sending institution. in addition, block transfer affords the following advantages at the receiving institution: block transfer facilitates the recognition of college level course work where there is no direct one to one equivalent content mapping between college courses and university courses. however, groups of college courses may map to specific university courses. in other words, credit transfer assessment is based on the program and not necessarily individual course review. block credit allows for the flexibility in that it can easily accommodate program changes which occur on a relatively high level of frequency (see smith et al., in press). transfer credits that were previously assessed to satisfy a specific major are converted to satisfy the elective requirements of the new program. credits are not removed but re-assigned. excess credits: a positive aspect? although it is beyond of the scope the present investigation, it is important to consider the positive aspects of excess credits from a student-centric, life-course perspective. one could argue that the generation of excess credit may be evidence that a student has found the program appropriate to his inclination and ability. excess credits may reflect the students attempt to acquire additional skills or knowledge that couldn't otherwise be gained inside a program. a history student might take an accounting course to gain useful knowledge for life postgraduation, or an accounting student might want to take a history course to round out his knowledge. the age group of the students examined in the present investigation largely correspond to the period of emerging adulthood (arnett, 2000, 2004). this period is characterised by exploration and change. our previous research can confirm that college-touniversity transfer students do indeed make program changes at relatively high rates by the time they graduate (smith et al., in press), which is consistent with arnetts notion of exploration during emerging adulthood (2000, 2004). 35 it is probably more accurate to describe the transfer policy as a hybrid between course-by-course and block transfer. within the block of credits, courses that have both equivalent content and level can be transferred on a course-by-course basis. oncat project 2014-32 32 limitations of the present investigation and directions for future research the results of the present investigation are not necessarily generalizable to other university institutions within the province because they do not all have a block transfer system. however, they may be inform those institutions who may be considering the adoption of a block transfer policy as a complement to their existing transfer polices as the volume of transfer students grows. a full investigation of the phenomenon of excess credits is warranted at the paninstitutional level but will not be possible until there is a means and process for sharing institutional data among institutions. oncat project 2014-32 33 references alberta council on 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(2004). postsecondary review, higher expectations for higher education: working through the possibilities. toronto, on:government of ontrio. retrieved from http://www.ontla.on.ca/library/repository/mon/9000/246962.pd roksa, j., & keith, b. (2008). credits, time, and attainment: articulation policies and success after transfer. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 30(3), 236254. http://doi.org/10.3102/0162373708321383 skolnik, m. l. (2008). theorizing about the emergence of the community college baccalaureate. community college journal of research and practice, 33(2), 125150. skolnik, m. l. (2010). a look back at the decision on the transfer function at the founding of ontarios colleges of applied arts and technology. canadian journal of higher education, 40(2), 117. smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (in press). transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto, on : higher education quality council of ontario. state university system of florida board of governors. (2015). performance funding metrics: oncat project 2014-32 36 percent of bachelors degrees awarded without excess hours. overview of methodology and procedures. retrieved from http://www.flbog.edu/about/budget/docs/performance_funding/pbf--excess_hrs-methodology_2015-11-21.pdf stuart, j., & martinello, f. (2012). are transfer students different? an examination of first-year grades and course withdrawals. canadian journal of higher education, 42(1), 2542. trick, d. (2013). college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context. toronto, on: higher education quality council of ontario.. retrieved from http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/transfer arrangements trick eng.pdf wilson, d. n. (2009). reverse transfer constraints upon planning post-secondary programs in ontario, canada. in r. l. raby & e. j. valeau (eds.), community college models: globalization and higher education (pp. 414428). london: springer. zeidenberg, m. (2012). valuable learning or spinning their wheels ? understanding excess credits earned by community college associate degree completers. community college research center (working paper number 44). new york city, new york (april). http://doi.org/10.1177/0091552115571595 oncat project 2014-32 37 table 1. a list of american states who charge students for excess credits in an effort to mitigate them. state arizona excess credit threshold (as of 2015) greater than 145 credit hours (i.e. > 145/120 or greater than 120%) student penalties legislative authority year implemented examples of institutions tuition surcharge arizona state legislature (a.r.s. 151626) 2005 arizona state university florida state legislature 1009.286, florida statutes 2009 florida state university website https://students.asu. edu/tuitionsurcharge $135 per credit hour up to 945 for 7 or more credits $207 per credit hour up to $2,484 for 12 or more credits florida greater than 120% (2009) greater than 115% (between fall 2011 and summer 2012) greater than 110% (since fall 2012) oncat project 2014-32 50% tuition surcharge http://registrar.fsu.edu/excess_hours/ 100% tuition surcharge 100% tuition surcharge 38 table 1. continued. excess credit threshold (as of state 2015) student penalties massachusetts greater than 118% north carolina greater than 140 50% tuition credits (116%) surcharge legislative year authority implemented massachusetts board of higher education north carolina general assembly (code 1162012 143.7) , state board of governors examples of institutions university of massachusetts , boston texas in excess of 30 credit hours (since fall 2006) oncat project 2014-32 not to exceed the nonresident rate texas legislature texas education code 54.014 https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg02-65-05 texas education code: http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/docs /ed/htm/ed.54.htm 1999 2006 https://www.umb.edu/bursar/tuition_an d_fees http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegi slation/statutes/pdf/bysection/chapter_1 16/gs_116-143.7.pdf north carolina state university in excess of 45 not to exceed credit hours (fall the non1999 to summer resident rate 2006) website university of texas, dallas 39 https://www.utdallas.edu/registrar/legisl ative-policies/excessive-hours/ table 1. continued. excess credit threshold (as of 2015) student legislative year penalties authority implemented tuition surcharge (the difference code of between virginia 2006 in-state 23-7.4:f and out of state fees) examples of institutions greater than wisconsin 165 credits (137.5%) 100% tuition surcharge 2004 university of wisconsinmadison https://registrar.wisc.edu/excess_cumulative_credits. htm greater than 135% (2003) tuition surcharge 2003 utah state university http://www.usu.edu/registrar/htm/tuition/payment/ surcharge> greater than 125% (2013) out of state fees state virginia utah greater than 125% oncat project 2014-32 utah state board of regents 2013 website http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/23-7.4/ https://advising.usu.edu/advisors/news/surcharge 40 table 2. total number of earned credits at graduation: total and by transfer status. total freq. n % 6743 4659 11402 59.14 40.86 100.00 by transfer status nontrans transfer over 120 earned credits = 120 > 120 total odds (>120 / =120) .69 4902 2814 7716 1841 1845 3686 .57 1.00 123.05 120 126.22 121 earned credits mean median 124.07 120 note. freq. = frequency, trans = transfer oncat project 2014-32 41 excess credits 42 table 3. total, mean and median number of earned credits at graduation as a function of excess credits (or not) and transfer status for various demographic variables. gender female male total age upon entry <=17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 >=26 by transfer status & earned credits non-transfer transfer mean of earned credits odds ratio median of earned credits earned credits odds =120 >120 (>120 / =120) =120 >120 =120 >120 (>120 / =120)trans / (>120 / =120)non-trans non transfer transfer total non transfer transfer total 4489 2254 6743 2826 1833 4659 .63 .81 .69 3271 1631 4902 1721 1093 2814 1218 623 1841 1105 740 1845 1.72 1.77 1.75 122.80 123.50 123.05 126.04 126.52 126.22 123.83 124.51 124.07 120 120 120 120 123 121 120 120 120 44 3131 1243 695 466 295 223 147 105 386 6735 22 1511 846 593 458 292 224 142 121 436 4645 .50 .48 .68 .85 .98 .99 1.00 .97 1.15 1.13 .69 42 3057 990 316 173 99 67 39 19 94 4896 17 1434 617 287 190 91 62 27 19 64 2808 2 74 253 379 293 196 156 108 86 292 1839 5 77 229 306 268 201 162 115 102 372 1837 6.18 2.22 1.45 .89 .83 1.12 1.12 1.54 1.19 1.87 1.74 121.58 122.51 123.11 124.47 125.08 125.06 125.62 124.44 123.71 122.99 123.05 123.00 125.17 124.28 125.23 125.65 126.18 126.32 126.47 127.56 128.84 126.21 121.73 122.59 123.38 124.88 125.42 125.82 126.12 126.01 126.91 127.71 124.07 120 120 120 120 121 120 120 120 121.5 120 120 123 121 120 120 120 122 121 123 123 123 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 121 120 123 123 120 total immigration status canadian citizen 5932 3874 .65 4497 2513 1435 1361 1.70 123.01 125.72 123.78 120 120 permanent resident 528 562 1.06 314 252 214 310 1.80 123.59 129.29 126.33 120 123 visa - other 24 18 .75 10 6 14 12 1.43 122.75 125.27 124.31 120 120 visa - student 259 205 .79 81 43 178 162 1.71 122.85 125.68 124.92 120 120 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 mother tongue english (and other) 5090 3236 .64 3746 2014 1344 1222 1.69 122.92 125.51 123.72 120 120 other lang only 1653 1423 .86 1156 800 497 623 1.81 123.41 127.84 125.02 120 123 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 commute / residence (1st year) commuter 6173 4249 .69 4458 2553 1715 1696 1.73 123.05 126.14 124.06 120 120 in residence 570 410 .72 444 261 126 149 2.01 123.05 127.22 124.22 120 123 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 note. odds, odds ratios and means that underlined have values greater the overall total corresponding value. bolded and underlined values are derived from cells that are greater than 30. trans. = transfer; lang = language. oncat project 2014-32 42 120 121 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 excess credits 43 table 4. total, mean and median number of earned credits at graduation as a function of excess credits (or not) and transfer status for various academic features mean of earned median of earned earned credits odds by transfer status & earned credits odds ratio credits credits non non non-transfer transfer transfer transfer total transfer transfer (>120 / (>120 / =120)trans / =120 >120 =120) =120 >120 =120 >120 (>120 / =120)non-trans changed faculty no 6110 3835 .63 4400 2250 1710 1585 1.81 122.67 125.67 123.67 120 120 yes 633 824 1.30 502 564 131 260 1.77 125.38 130.83 126.84 121 126 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 changed degree type no 5938 3665 .62 4281 2187 1657 1478 1.75 122.72 125.44 123.61 120 120 yes 805 994 1.23 621 627 184 367 1.98 124.74 130.66 126.55 121 126 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 changed program no 4686 2875 .61 3303 1663 1383 1212 1.74 122.52 125.52 123.55 120 120 yes 2057 1784 .87 1599 1151 458 633 1.92 123.99 127.88 125.09 120 123 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 graduated with distinction no 4769 3238 .68 3533 2024 1236 1214 1.71 122.98 125.82 123.85 120 120 yes 1974 1421 .72 1369 790 605 631 1.81 123.22 127.01 124.60 120 122 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 repeated courses no repeats 4844 2967 .61 3431 1713 1413 1254 1.78 122.63 125.53 123.62 120 120 1 1243 949 .76 974 597 269 352 2.13 123.40 127.98 124.70 120 123 2 336 379 1.13 255 254 81 125 1.55 124.72 127.44 125.50 120 123 >=3 268 343 1.28 214 238 54 105 1.75 125.17 129.79 126.37 121 126 total 6691 4638 .69 4874 2802 1817 1836 1.76 123.07 126.24 124.10 120 121 note. odds, odds ratios and means that underlined have values greater the overall total corresponding value. bolded and underlined values are derived from cells that are greater than 30. oncat project 2014-32 43 total 120 123 120 120 123 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 122 123 120 excess credits 44 table 4. continued. earned credits odds =120 (>120 / =120) >120 by transfer status & earned credits non-transfer transfer =120 >120 =120 >120 s odds ratio (>120 / =120)trans / (>120 / =120)non-trans mean of earned credits non transfer transfer median of earned credits total non transfer transfer total degree type ba 4537 2293 .51 3230 1295 1307 998 1.90 122.32 124.68 123.11 120 120 120 bas 582 511 .88 371 207 211 304 2.58 123.02 128.00 125.37 120 123 120 bdem 3 1 .33 3 1 . 123.00 123.00 . 120 120 bdes 155 87 .56 141 64 14 23 3.62 122.00 125.92 122.60 120 123 120 bes 158 51 .32 114 27 44 24 2.30 121.21 123.90 122.08 120 120 120 bfa 409 445 1.09 353 345 56 100 1.83 124.89 130.45 125.90 120 126 123 bhrm 96 87 .91 94 46 2 41 41.89 122.44 136.47 125.73 120 135 120 bhs 99 61 .62 68 31 31 30 2.12 122.49 128.97 124.96 120 120 120 bpa 4 10 2.50 1 6 3 4 .22 124.29 123.86 124.07 123 123 123 bsc 491 1037 2.11 437 761 54 276 2.94 125.39 132.27 126.88 122 128 123 bsw 206 67 .33 91 26 115 41 1.25 121.21 122.96 122.21 120 120 120 iba 3 6 2.00 2 4 1 2 1.00 125.50 130.00 127.00 126 126 126 ibsc 3 2 1 128.50 181.00 146.00 128.5 181 136 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 120 note. odds, odds ratios and means that underlined have values greater the overall total corresponding value. bolded and underlined values are derived from cells that are greater than 30. trans. = transfer; ba = bachelor of arts; bas = bachelor of administrative studies; bdem = bachelor of disaster and emergency management; bdes = bachelor of design; bes = bachelor of environmental studies; bfa = bachelor of fine arts; bed = bachelor of education ; cons = concurrent; bhrm = bachelor of human resource management; bhs = bachelor of health studies; bpa = bachelor of public administration; bsc = bachelor of science; bsw = bachelor of social work; iba = international bachelor of arts; ibsc =international bachelor of science. oncat project 2014-32 44 excess credits 45 table 5. mean and median number of credits taken, failed, transfer credits granted, final gpa and time to completion as a function of graduating with excess credits or not. trans. credits taken credits failed cred. final gpa time to completion non non non non transfer transfer total transfer transfer total transfer transfer transfer total transfer transfer total mean earned credits =120 earned credits >120 total median earned credits =120 earned credits >120 total 122.20 132.40 125.92 121.36 134.93 128.15 121.97 133.40 126.64 .54 .89 .67 .27 .54 .41 .47 .75 .59 30.77 37.53 34.15 6.43 6.42 6.43 6.60 6.65 6.62 6.48 6.51 6.49 5.68 6.01 5.80 4.72 4.96 4.84 5.42 5.59 5.49 120 129 123 120 132 123 120 129 123 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 30 30 30 6.35 6.33 6.34 6.5 6.6 6.55 6.38 6.44 6.4 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 6 5 note. bolded and underlined means or medians have values that are greater the overall total corresponding value. trans. cred. = transfer credits received; gpa = grade point average oncat project 2014-32 45 excess credits 46 table 6. total, mean and median number of earned credits at graduation as a function of excess credits (or not) and transfer status for various program groups & detailed programs. by transfer status & earned mean of earned median of earned earned credits odds credits odds ratio credits credits non-transfer transfer (>120 / (>120 / =120)trans / non non =120 >120 =120) =120 >120 =120 >120 (>120 / =120)non-trans transfer transfer total transfer transfer total detailed programs 0-gen a&s, mult 15 22 1.47 10 15 5 7 .93 122.72 124.25 123.22 121 123 121 1-kine 683 484 .71 589 372 94 112 1.89 123.21 126.73 123.83 120 123 120 2-desn 155 87 .56 141 64 14 23 3.62 122.00 125.92 122.60 120 123 120 2-musi 87 178 2.05 72 137 15 41 1.44 128.41 133.49 129.48 126 129 126 2-visa 217 128 .59 189 103 28 25 1.64 123.22 129.00 124.10 120 120 120 2-x-other 291 242 .83 248 174 43 68 2.25 123.06 129.07 124.31 120 123 120 3-comn 184 95 .52 104 43 80 52 1.57 122.28 123.82 123.01 120 120 120 3-en 296 221 .75 239 138 57 83 2.52 123.15 126.84 124.15 120 123 120 3-hist 254 154 .61 202 105 52 49 1.81 122.66 125.23 123.30 120 120 120 3-x-other 439 298 .68 299 169 140 129 1.63 122.94 124.89 123.65 120 120 120 4-adms 552 494 .89 348 200 204 294 2.51 123.08 128.10 125.47 120 123 120 4-crim 212 82 .39 160 57 52 25 1.35 122.05 122.96 122.29 120 120 120 4-econ 135 69 .51 60 24 75 45 1.50 122.61 123.37 123.05 120 120 120 4-enst 158 51 .32 114 27 44 24 2.30 121.21 123.90 122.08 120 120 120 4-laso 260 98 .38 198 54 62 44 2.60 121.67 123.91 122.34 120 120 120 4-psyc 738 425 .58 525 258 213 167 1.60 122.66 124.76 123.34 120 120 120 4-soci 588 178 .30 398 100 190 78 1.63 121.68 122.51 121.97 120 120 120 4-sowk 206 67 .33 91 26 115 41 1.25 121.21 122.96 122.21 120 120 120 4-x-other 1073 660 .62 759 337 314 323 2.32 122.51 126.84 124.10 120 123 120 5-agri & biol 73 347 4.75 69 266 4 81 5.25 127.20 135.49 128.88 123 131 125 8-math & phys 99 264 2.67 65 140 34 124 1.69 124.97 130.59 127.42 122 126 123 9-other 28 15 .54 22 5 6 10 7.33 121.44 125.63 123.00 120 123 120 total 6743 4659 .69 4902 2814 1841 1845 1.75 123.05 126.22 124.07 120 121 120 note. odds, odds ratios and means that underlined have values greater the overall total corresponding value. bolded and underlined values are derived from cells that are greater than 30. spemaj = speciality major; gen a&s = general arts & sciences; edu. (kine.) = education (kinesiology); sci. = science; agri. & biol.= agriculture & biology; math. & phys.= mathematics & physics; multi = multidisciplinary, kine = kinesiology; desn = design; musi = music; visa = visual arts; comn = communications; en = english; hist = history; adms = administrative studies; crim = criminology; econ = economics; enst = environmental studies; laso = law and society; psyc = psychology; soci= sociology; sowk = social work spemaj codes: 0 = general arts and science and interdisciplinary studies; 1 = education, physical education, sports, recreation and leisure; 2 = fine and applied arts; 3 = humanities and related; 4 =social sciences and related; 5 = agricultural and biological sciences ; 6 = engineering and applied sciences; 7 = health professions and occupations; 8 = mathematics and physical sciences ; 9 = and not applicable or not reported; x specific subjects that are part of the program area that have been collapsed together. . oncat project 2014-32 46 excess credits 47 table 7. total, mean and median number of earned credits, transfer credits, final gpa and time to completion as a function of previous post-secondary education and number of transfer credits granted for transfer students only. earned credits odds earned credits transfer credits final gpa time to completion =120 >120 (>120 / =120) mean median mean median mean median mean median 1.colleges only 2.universities only 3.other 4.multiple 800 446 231 210 576 488 360 272 .72 1.09 1.56 1.30 123.87 127.06 129.18 127.88 120 123 123 123 28.93 41.05 34.88 41.71 30 36 30 39 6.40 6.79 6.84 6.61 6.32 6.84 6.85 6.58 4.93 4.56 4.82 4.71 5.00 4.00 5.00 4.00 total 1687 1696 1.01 126.25 121 35.14 30 6.62 6.54 4.78 5.00 1 - 14 15 - 29 30 31 - 45 46 - 60 61 - 90 355 367 585 259 216 59 344 270 380 329 283 238 .97 .74 .65 1.27 1.31 4.03 124.89 123.71 123.82 126.24 127.56 140.23 120 120 120 123 123 138 ------- ------- 6.54 6.54 6.53 6.56 6.84 7.07 6.48 6.41 6.42 6.47 6.86 7.14 5.53 5.19 4.87 4.71 4.00 4.06 5.00 5.00 5.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 total 1841 1844 1.00 126.22 121 35.14 30 6.62 6.55 4.84 5.00 previous pse transfer credits note. bolded and underlined means or medians have values that are greater the overall total corresponding value. oncat project 2014-32 47 excess credits 48 figure 1. distribution of earned credits by transfer status. oncat project 2014-32 48 excess credits 49 figure 2. mean number of credits earned at graduation as a function of transfer status and detailed program/program group. oncat project 2014-32 49 excess credits 50 figure 3. total number of transfer credits, mean number of credits earned, final gpa and time to completion for transfer students as a function of previous post-secondary education. oncat project 2014-32 50 excess credits 51 figure 4. mean number of credits earned, final gpa and time-to-completion by transfer credits (transfer students only). oncat project 2014-32 51 excess credits 52 program structure transfer process music = (3, 5.08) kinesiology = (3, 3.52) agriculture & biology = (8, 8.29) math & physics = (4, 5.62) *history = (0, 2.57) english = (3, 3.69) *law & society = (0, 2.24) administrative studies = (3, 5.02) both figure 5. locus of excess credits: program structure, transfer process or both? note. values in parentheses represent the difference of earned credits between transfer and non-transfer students. the first value represents the median and the second value represents the mean. * based on the median value the difference is actually zero credits. oncat project 2014-32 52 excess credits 53 degree structure transfer process bas = (3, 4.98) bfa = (6, 5.56) bsc = (6, 6.88) ba* = (0, 2.36) both figure 6. locus of excess credits: degree structure, transfer process or both? note. values in parentheses represent the difference of earned credits between transfer and non-transfer students. the first value represents the median and the second value represents the mean. * the difference is actually zero credits if the median value is considered. oncat project 2014-32 53 excess credits 55 appendix 1. variables examined and frequency distributions demographics academic features freq. n gender female male total age upon entry <=17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 >=26 % 7315 4087 11402 64.16 35.84 100.00 66 4642 2089 1288 924 587 447 289 226 822 11380 .58 40.79 18.36 11.32 8.12 5.16 3.93 2.54 1.99 7.22 100.00 total immigration status canadian citizen 9806 permanent resident 1090 visa - other 42 visa - student 464 total 11402 mother tongue english (and other) 8326 other lang only 3076 total 11402 commute / residence (1st year) commuter 10422 in residence 980 total 11402 oncat project 2014-32 86.00 9.56 .37 4.07 100.00 73.02 26.98 100.00 91.41 8.59 100.00 freq. n % changed faculty no 9945 87.22 yes 1457 12.78 total 11402 100.00 changed degree type no 9603 84.22 yes 1799 15.78 total 11402 100.00 changed program no 7561 66.31 33.69 total 11402 100.00 graduated with distinction no 8007 70.22 yes 3395 29.78 total 11402 100.00 academic features freq. n previous pse & transfer credits . % repeated courses no repeats 7811 1 2192 2 715 bpa 611 total 11329 repeated credits no repeats 8468 1159 >5 1702 total 11329 degree type 6830 bas 1093 bdem 4 bdes 242 bes 209 bfa 854 bhrm 183 bhs 160 bpa 14 bsc 1528 bsw 273 iba 9 ibsc 3 total 11402 68.95 19.35 6.31 5.39 100.00 74.75 10.23 15.02 100.00 59.90 9.59 .04 2.12 1.83 7.49 1.60 1.40 .12 13.40 2.39 .08 .03 100.00 detailed programs 0-gen a&s, mult 1-kine 2-desn 2-musi 2-visa 2-x-other 3-comn 3-en 3-hist 3-x-other 4-adms 4-crim 4-econ 4-enst 4-laso 4-psyc 4-soci 4-sowk 4-x-other 5-agri & biol 8-math & phys 9-other total 55 37 1167 242 265 345 533 279 517 408 737 1046 294 204 209 358 1163 766 273 1733 420 363 43 11402 .32 10.24 2.12 2.32 3.03 4.67 2.45 4.53 3.58 6.46 9.17 2.58 1.79 1.83 3.14 10.20 6.72 2.39 15.20 3.68 3.18 .38 100.00 previous pse 1.colleges only 2.univ. only 3.other only 4.multiple total transfer credits 1 14 15 29 30 31 45 46 60 61 90 total freq. n % 1376 934 591 482 3383 40.67 27.61 17.47 14.25 100.00 699 637 965 588 499 297 3685 18.97 17.29 26.19 15.96 13.54 8.06 100.00

oncat final report june 30, 2017 project name: technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges project number: 2015-19 lead college: fanshawe college report authors: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. tracy gedies, director, centre for academic excellence, fanshawe college mary harrison, faculty, centre for academic excellence, fanshawe college (on leave) gabriela kongkham-fernandez, pathways coordinator, fanshawe college (on leave) colleen kelsey, pathways coordinator, fanshawe college mary wilson, director, centre for academic excellence, niagara college stephen speers, chair, trades and apprenticeship, conestoga college wayne ostermaier, associate dean, skilled trades and apprenticeship, mohawk college mark lamontagne, dean, trades, technology, law and justice and part-time studies, canadore college 9. david baker, pathways coordinator, fleming college 10. tony dipetta, associate professor teacher education, faculty of education, brock university oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges table of contents 1. table of contents......2 2. list of participants and partners.....3 3. executive summary..4 4. project purpose and goals..5 5. pathway development..8 a. methodology..8 b. program comparison and analysis: best practices and lessons learned..10 c. implementation process and timelines..16 6. summary of pathway(s) created..19 7. references20 8. appendix 1 additional activities................................................21 page 2 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges list of participants and partner institutions partner institutions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. fanshawe college (lead) niagara college conestoga college mohawk college canadore college fleming college college boreal brock university ontario council for technology education (octe) participants 11. tracy gedies, director, centre for academic excellence, fanshawe college 12. mary harrison, faculty, centre for academic excellence, fanshawe college (on leave) 13. gabriela kongkham-fernandez, pathways coordinator, fanshawe college (on leave) 14. colleen kelsey, pathways coordinator, fanshawe college 15. mary wilson, director, centre for academic excellence, niagara college 16. stephen speers, chair, trades and apprenticeship, conestoga college 17. wayne ostermaier, associate dean, skilled trades and apprenticeship, mohawk college 18. mark lamontagne, dean, trades, technology, law and justice and part-time studies, canadore college 19. charlotte primeau, director of continuing education, collge boral 20. david baker, pathways coordinator, fleming college 21. tony dipetta, associate professor teacher education, faculty of education, brock university 22. dave lewis, president, ontario council for technology education (octe) additional partners 1. 2. 3. 4. ministry of education ontario college of teachers (oct) thompson rivers university (tru) institute of technology sligo page 3 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges executive summary the technological education pathway development (tepd) project was a collaborative initiative funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). participants included: fanshawe college, niagara college, conestoga college, mohawk college, fleming college, canadore college, collge boral and brock university, and the ontario council for technology education (octe). tepd originated as a college to university transfer initiative with the intention to provide skilled tradespeople with an incentive to pursue a credential in technological education, and to address existing structural inequities affecting technological educators professional and educational trajectories. technological education teachers have been underserved with limited access to professional development and/or career advancement opportunities within the k-12 education system. supported by research, best practice, and consultations with sector leaders, tepd explored the development of a multilateral pathway to provide degree completion opportunities for technological education teachers and teacher candidates (see pathway model, p. 19). the originally proposed pathway was developed to allow candidates with a diploma the opportunity to earn a bachelor of education upon successful completion of the revised four semester technological teacher education program at brock university. after stakeholder consultation, and due to different constraints, the focus of the project shifted to explore out-ofprovince degree completion opportunities with the institute of technology sligo and thompson rivers university (tru) (see appendix 1, spec sheet, p. 23). ultimately, because of insurmountable obstacles beyond tepds control the project discontinued its oncat funding as the change in scope fell outside oncats mandate to support ontario pathway development. due to substantial learning, the project team plans to seek alternate funding to: facilitate degree completion opportunities for technological educators through it sligo and tru. develop and deliver additional qualification (aq) schedule f courses amongst the participating colleges and additional basic qualification (abq) courses in collaboration with brock university and the ontario college of teachers (oct). support a longitudinal research study on the degree completion pathway candidates. build relationships between college and high-school educators in the technological education fields. this project provides smoother pathways for technological education teachers toward leadership opportunities. the tepd team feels that having leaders in ontarios secondary system who understand and have a background in technological education will strengthen ties between secondary and post-secondary technological and vocational programming options. not only will this benefit technological education teachers, the colleges, and the students who pursue college studies, but tepd believes it would ultimately benefit the forecast of the trades in ontario and assist in enhancing equity and collegiality across all levels of education in ontario. tepd believes that we in ontario can learn from our out-of-province and international colleagues and continue advocating for a more efficient and articulated system of higher education. page 4 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges project purpose and goals the original objective of the tepd project was to work with brock university to develop a multilateral articulation agreement from ontario college diploma and advanced diploma programs which align with the 10 broad-based technology areas covered by ontario technological education curriculum to a bachelor of education degree awarded by brock university. historically, technological education teacher candidates without a first degree who complete teachers college graduate with a certificate or diploma of education, while their degreed counterparts receive the bachelor of education degree, having completed the exact same curriculum. tepd coincided with the launch of ontarios new 2-year teacher education curriculum; now that the b.ed. would be two years, it seemed an opportune time to explore pathways to the b.ed. since the original oncat proposal, the projects scope and goals have shifted, yet its spirit of recognizing learning outcomes, encouraging lifelong learning, and promoting equity within the education system have remained constant. project challenges including apprenticeship: tepd consulted with the executive and a group of approximately 50 board leads of the ontario council for technology education (octe) about the project. octe made it clear that prioritizing the degree completion of technological education teachers with a diploma/advanced diploma would further segregate an already divided group of professionals. octe articulated this divide as teachers with a degree versus teachers without a degree; they do not further distinguish between those with a diploma versus an apprenticeship. octe recommended a new direction to tepd: either the pathway agreement needed to include technological education teachers with an apprenticeship background, or the project should not move forward. it became clear that to pursue the original project goal would not be in the best interest of technological education teacher candidates, nor the profession. therefore, in accordance with tepds research-informed best practices (see best practices and lessons learned, p 10), the group agreed to expand the scope of the project to include degree completion opportunities for those with an apprenticeship background. octe was also concerned that teachers who had completed their teaching credential under the 1-year model be granted the opportunity to apply their learning and experience toward a degree completion. brock university unable to support pathway agreement: the project team encountered a major obstacle from brock university, the primary university partner in the project. in early may 2016, members of tepd met with various members of brocks administration, including representatives from the registrars office. during that meeting, it became clear that brock university would not develop a pathway agreement pertaining to the bachelor of education degree because it is a professional program of study; this concern had not been raised before this meeting, and was therefore new information for the tepd team. regulatory body limitations: tepd had been in close consultation with the regulatory body, the ontario college of teachers (oct), since the beginning of the project. early in the project, members of the oct were optimistic that if a university partner would recognize a pathway to the b.ed. for technological education teachers, then the oct page 5 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges could recognize that degree as an acceptable post-secondary degree for the purposes of interpreting its regulations (for instance, several professional development opportunities which ultimately lead to leadership opportunities require the candidate to hold an acceptable post-secondary degree.) however, upon further discussion and consultation, it came to light that the oct would not recognize the b.ed. as an acceptable post-secondary degree. the oct clarified the work that teacher candidates complete during their two years at teachers college cannot be double counted; that is to say, it cannot count as teacher training and also count toward the completion of a related degree program. the original pathways model that tepd developed proposed to draw upon prior post-secondary education and/or vocational work experience in conjunction with 2 years of teachers college to produce a 90 credit ontario degree. although, according to the octs regulations, an acceptable post-secondary degree must consist of at least 90 ontario credits (i.e. at least a 3-year ontario degree), the original pathways model would not be acceptable because it relied on the double counting of the 2 years of teachers college. it was now clear that this strategy would be unacceptable to both our university partner and the regulatory body. in an earlier report, tepd had indicated to oncat that if brock university would not recognize the pathway, a contingency plan could be to work with queens university, whose technological education program is also running. given this new information from the ontario college of teachers, it no longer made sense to pursue the original pathway model with any ontario university partner. next steps for tepd oct recommendations: given these major considerations which necessarily shifted the projects scope, the tepd team regrouped to re-examine its objectives. ultimately, the team determined that the projects goal was to facilitate degree completion for technological education teachers in order that they may pursue professional development opportunities, including pathways to leadership. further, the degree completion needed to recognize the richness of technological education teachers knowledge and backgrounds, both vocational and pedagogical. the oct confirmed that it would find as an acceptable post-secondary degree a degree that was granted in part through advanced standing, as long as the transcript indicated that the degree was 90 or more ontario equivalent credits and as long as the teacher training itself wasnt a component of that advanced standing. oct confirmed that it sligo and tru were acceptable degree completion options. octe has given a strong endorsement of the new model (see pathway model, p. 19). brock partnership aq and abq courses: tepd has a further opportunity to collaborate with brock university and other ontario faculties of education. the partner colleges involved in tepd have become interested in continuing to be a part of the landscape of technological teacher education in ontario, and are interested in offering additional qualification (aq) schedule f courses and perhaps eventually additional basic qualification (abq) courses at our institutions. moreover, this college alliance with teacher education in ontario would highlight the contribution ontarios colleges of applied arts and technology make to higher education in the province. while tepd predicts these benefits to the colleges, we also foresee benefits to technological education teachers, including the professional development inherent to the aqs and the opportunity to return to the college system where candidates may have completed their apprenticeship and/or post-secondary training and, therefore, where they know what to page 6 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges anticipate in terms of the colleges community, currency, infrastructure, and high quality of educational content and delivery. moreover, reconnecting with the college environment will assist technological education secondary school teachers in advising their students about the range of quality vocational education available in ontarios colleges. this will enhance the awareness of ontarios young people regarding their post-secondary options, and may particularly enhance their understanding of apprenticeship programming, an area of focus for the ministry of advanced education and skills development. because the tepd partnering colleges have grown to include canadore, conestoga, fanshawe, fleming, mohawk, boral and niagara, the regional and bilingual availability of technological education aqs would also be enhanced; historically, these aqs have not run. the oct is enthusiastic about the colleges interest in offering aqs, and has advised regarding the process we would follow in order to be accredited to do so. at this time, only ontario faculties of education can offer abqs, so the college partners are interested in further discussions with brock and others in order to potentially offer abqs as satellite locations of the university faculty. page 7 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges pathway development a) methodology how do ontarios colleges serve the needs of technological education in ontario? we cross-referenced ontario diploma/advanced diploma college programs with the descriptions of the technological teachable subjects in ontarios technological education curriculum to determine that each of the 10 technological teachable subjects has 1 or more ontario college diploma/advanced diploma or apprenticeship program counterparts accountable to mtcu published program standards (including general education and essential employability skills components) (ministry of education, 2009a; 2009b; mtcu, n.d.). ontarios colleges demonstrate accountability to quality assurance: each college has completed the program quality assurance process audit administered by the ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas), a non-governmental body. is there a demand for technological education in ontario? ontario college of teachers (oct) reports that technological educators have a stronger rate of employment than general educators in ontario (oct, 2013). according to oct, approximately 50% of technological educators were eligible to retire in 2010 (york university, n.d.). our university co-applicant and a representative from the ontario secondary school teachers federation (osstf) report that it has historically been a challenge to recruit and retain students for the 2 term model of technological education. due to the work experience required of prospective technological educators, teacher education usually represents a career change, often requiring candidates to leave an existing job, resulting in personal and financial stress. given this context, we anticipate that recruitment and retention of candidates to a 4 term model will pose even greater challenges. oct lists 17 institutions providing teacher education in ontario. of those, 7 institutions have recently offered technological education programs. as a result of the new 4 term model of teacher education, the majority of those technological education programs have been cancelled or are on hold. brock university has recently convened the technological education consortium of ontario (teco), and is presently developing a revised 4 term model which will include flexible delivery options to meet the needs of technological education in ontario. brock launched their program january, 2017. in the next year, only york university and queens university will offer technological education in ontario; we anticipate that fewer training opportunities will result in less competition, further increasing employment opportunities for technological educators. york university offers both a consecutive bed, open to individuals who have a degree in a related technology field that aligns with the technological education curriculum, and a concurrent bed, open to york university students who are pursuing a degree in a related technology field who are currently in the third year of their program. queens universitys model will admit candidates holding a diploma/advanced diploma or apprenticeship, but although diploma-holding and degree-holding candidates within the technological education stream complete the same curriculum, the former group is awarded a diploma in page 8 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges education while the latter group is awarded a bachelor of education (oct, n.d.; queens university, 2014-2015; n.d.; york university, n.d.). who would benefit from the articulation agreement? technological education in ontarios secondary schools: due to health and safety considerations, there is a need for ontario to recruit and retain qualified, and, where relevant, certified, technological educators to teach the 10 subjects (code, 2013). technological industries in ontario: offering the technological subjects in secondary schools is an investment in the future of ontarios economy and its technological industries. an article in canadian business indicates that it has been estimated by skills canada, a group that promotes careers in skilled trades and technologies to canadian youth, that by 2020 one million skilled trade workers will be needed (clancy, 2014). ontarios colleges: offering excellent secondary school curriculum in the 10 technological subjects will affect recruitment of students to ontarios colleges. brock university: with a projected shortage of technological educators in ontario and a significantly reduced supply of technological education programs, this articulation agreement was intended to position brock to fill a distinct need in ontarios market. the agreement would allow technological educators the flexibility to pursue general studies teachables and/or the opportunity to pursue leadership roles within secondary schools and/or school boards. considerations/action items for the articulation agreement: consult with the technological education consortium of ontario (teco) regarding logistics of proposed articulation agreement. consult ontario regulation 347/02, section 9 & ontario regulation 176/10, sections 1.3 and 1.4 for teacher certification requirements and admission requirements for teacher education. consult with the ontario universities council of quality assurance, the ontario qualifications framework, and the undergraduate level degree expectations. discuss the implications for this articulation agreement of universities adopting learning outcomes (woolcott & robinson, 2012). explore the history of the work experience requirement for technological educators and its relation to the skilled trades certifying bodies. investigate impact of flexible delivery options on recruitment/retention of technological educators in 4 term model. consult with oct, osstf, the ontario english catholic teachers association (oecta), and the qualifications evaluation council of ontario (qeco) to investigate the proposed articulation agreements effect on professional standing and development (e.g. pay scale; eligibility for additional qualifications). consider including university general education elective(s) for bridging college and university curriculum. note opportunities for future exploration: e.g., building plar for technological educators eligible to train as teachers who hold neither a diploma nor a degree. page 9 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges b) program comparison and analysis: best practices and lessons learned due to the nature of the outcomes of this project, the best practices and lessons learned has become the focus of our program analysis. best practices the tepd operates through the following set of best practices rooted in research on the principles which guide transfer and articulation in the sector, province, and country. tepd makes a commitment to: 1. act in the best interest of students and the profession of technological education by ensuring that students have the appropriate knowledge and experience for success in technological education without being required to duplicate prior learning, and that they are awarded a credential reflective of their professional preparation. a. establish the proposed pathway(s) alongside the development of the traditional routes to accreditation as a technological educator so that students have options for pursuing the path most appropriate to their professional goals. 2. communicate the opportunities, terms, and expectations of the pathway agreement(s) clearly, consistently, and transparently to students and other internal and external stakeholders. a. promote the pathway(s) to students and provide resources for advising and support as needed (see appendix 1, spec sheet, case studies, p. 23). b. ensure consistency in the application of the pathway so that students to whom the pathway does not apply will understand and recognize why. 3. research, collect, and share data to ensure the demand for, and the viability and potential risks of, the proposed pathway(s) and to evaluate the pathway(s) following implementation. a. determine how the pathway will be evaluated, e.g.: the number of students who use the pathway; the academic and/or professional success of students; the number of colleges and universities included in the pathway; how or whether the pathway impacts provincial or regulatory decisions or policies; how or whether the pathway affects the supply of skilled and qualified technological educators in all regions of ontario, etc. b. provide students with opportunities to give feedback about the pathway(s) both pre- and post-implementation. c. conduct due diligence to assess any potential risks associated with the pathway(s), and balance potential risks against anticipated gains/benefits. 4. align the terms of the pathway agreement(s) to the policies, practices, and regulations of relevant governmental, institutional, and accrediting bodies including, page 10 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges but not limited to, the tepd institutional partners, the mtcu, the moe, oncat, oct, and ocot. a. ensure the terms of the pathway agreement(s) will result in a students professional compliance with all relevant regulatory and accrediting bodies. b. report regularly to oncat on the progress of the pathway development and agree to the fair distribution of oncat related funds among the tepd institutional partners. c. promote pathway agreement(s) through relevant institutions and governmental and accrediting bodies. 5. agree upon the methods for developing the pathway(s), reviewing academic rigour, and terminating agreement(s), e.g.: include input from a variety of players, including subject matter experts, quality assurance and curriculum development professionals, and higher education administrators; identify the crucial factors for negotiation in the design and development of pathway(s) (e.g. learning outcomes; credential frameworks; institutional transfer practices); explore opportunities for the pathway(s) to be assessed and reviewed by peers who are subject matter, institutional, and/or procedural experts; generate factors for stakeholders to consider when rendering decisions about the pathway(s); provide a list of potential decisions and prompt a rationale regarding a given decision. a. protect student best interest and prioritize fairness by proactively determining a grandfathering procedure in the event that the partners or functions of the pathway(s) change. b. agree on a process to follow in the event that one or more institutional partners decides to terminate their role in the pathway(s), or to stipulate only certain partners within the multilateral agreement (e.g. if a sending or receiving institution declines to work with one institutional partner but agrees to continue working with other institutional partners). 6. set and adhere to reasonable timeframe expectations for developing, reviewing, maintaining, and updating the pathway agreement(s). a. determine a mechanism for ensuring the pathway agreement(s) remain(s) up-todate, and assign roles and responsibilities among the tepd team for this maintenance procedure. b. provide a rationale when proposing changes to the pathway(s). c. develop an instrument for reporting major modifications to any element of the pathway(s) among all tepd partners and relevant stakeholders. lessons learned 1. clearly identify the project scope, risks and constraints although the tepd project has evolved, its original direction and scope allows the team to remain focused and thoroughly consider deviations from the original intent. a. developing guiding principles aligned to the project scope helped set the tone for the future direction of tepd and provided a point of reference while the project developed. page 11 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges b. in the same way, being mindful of the projects constraints and risks enabled a proactive approach to look for alternative solutions when things went in different directions. for example, the team anticipated that institutional frameworks might pose a constraint to advance the proposed pathway; this prompted us to identify additional potential pathway partners earlier in the project. 2. maintain a collaborative approach and foster trust both among team members and among stakeholders a key for successful pathways is fostering trust among all key players about the quality, standard and outcomes of qualifications, and trust between institutions (wheelahan, 2015). the latter is built on confidence in the institutions people and processes (ibid). a. identifying the potential benefits for the different team members and stakeholders ensured a collaborative approach from the inception of the project. tepd has touched different levels of education; identifying and highlighting the benefits of the project for the ontario education system has allowed the team to explore pathways beyond traditional education pathways and it has also helped maintain communication and collaboration with our different stakeholders: ontario colleges and brock university: tepd is committed to student success and mobility; fills a distinct need in ontarios market; can affect student recruitment and retention and also support graduates success. ontarios secondary schools: tepd helps preserve programming; addresses health & safety concerns; combines vocational and pedagogical knowledge to inspire student interest technological industries in ontario: tepd responds to ontarios skilled trades shortage; reflects relationship between education and labour market teaching profession: tepd advocates for the best interest of the profession; strives to not further segregate the different cohorts of teacher candidates b. capitalizing on the different team members perspectives, skill sets and networks allowed tepd to look at situations from different angles and find collaborative solutions. the tepd team has participation from the college and university sectors, whose different contributions and links to external stakeholders have complemented each other; members with a background in the trades, for instance, have been crucial to help advocate for the best interest of the profession, while curriculum specialists helped provide a structured approach, data management and strong research skills. c. identifying key external stakeholders and capitalizing on their perspectives and networks advanced the project and allowed us to maintain a spirit of cooperation. key stakeholders for tepd have been the technological education consortium of ontario (teco), the ontario council for technology education (octe), the page 12 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges ontario college of teachers (oct), the ontario secondary school teachers federation (osstf), the ministry of education (moe), the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd), and the potential partner universities for degree completion, each of them with different perspectives, mandates and input. we cant highlight enough the importance of recognizing and listening to all the players, as well as understanding their norms and concerns. 3. manage stakeholder expectations tepds direction, its goals, and ultimately the evolving iterations of the pathways model have been influenced by the challenges of working with and managing different stakeholders, including an accrediting body, at a time of change and increased complexity. as a result of this, being able to manage stakeholders expectations is a valuable asset to increase buy-in and to navigate different institutional frameworks. a. awareness of the political context, the different stakeholders agendas, their governance structures and regulations helped tepd to navigate different institutional protocols and practices. as part of this and with the intention of educating each other, team members were constantly encouraged to learn from and about each others contexts, as well as the environment surrounding external stakeholders. b. being prepared to ask the difficult questions and challenge entrenched regulations has allowed tepd to navigate the system, find alternatives to traditional solutions and evolve. c. avoid silo conversations which could exist even within the same institution. for tepd particularly, tracking all the threads in the conversation, ensuring clear and transparent communication, sharing information, keeping records and triangulating versions of events have proved valuable when dealing with different stakeholders agendas and governance frameworks. d. viewing feedback and critique as productive conflict; they are both an opportunity to strengthen the project and move it forward. at several points during the project, stakeholders expectations seemed beyond the scope of the project, undoable, or conflicting. tepd has been an incredibly resilient team, ready to look for alternatives, find middle ground and make things work. e. use provincial conferences, stakeholders meetings and other platforms to showcase and advance the project. the team has presented at conferences such us the ontario council of articulation and transfer (oncat), the pan canadian consortium on admission and transfer, (pccat), the curriculum developers affinity group (cdag), the society for teaching and learning in higher education (stlhe), and the ontario council for technology education page 13 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges (octe). these have been enlightening experiences to better understand the field, promote the project and acquire new resources and contacts. 4. research, collect and manage data for better decision making striving to find data and understanding how data interrelate increases the teams ability to look at the overall picture of what is happening both within the field and around it; it also allows the team to link that information and strategize more effectively while de-mythologizing information that has been operating. the inconsistency and lack of data available has been a constant roadblock for tepd. a. critically question different data sets, especially in contexts where data drives decisions. for instance, tepd has noted the ways in which data may be used to tell conflicting stories about the state of things, depending on which stakeholders present it. b. advocate for data tracking, sharing and transparency to inform the current project and other related projects and activities. for example, although there are precedents for other pathways projects involving apprenticeship programs in the province, information on the evolution and results of such projects has not always been forthcoming. tracking and sharing data would allow for more consistency with previous projects and provide the opportunity to build upon them or learn from them, reducing the need for a piecemeal approach. the tepd project has also reiterated the need for consistent and detailed data gathering and tracking at the institutional level, and has highlighted the usefulness of such data to the building of programming and pathways. 5. advocate for the projects core principles when managing constraints, risks and expectations the three constraints of a project (scope, resources and time) might many times compete with each other. for instance, if a team decides to enlarge the scope of a project, this might affect the other constraints. furthermore, working with different stakeholders, agendas, and timelines along the way may pull the project in different directions. advocating for the projects core principles has helped manage constraints, risks and expectations, while maintaining a balance between project scope and flexibility. a. act in the best interest of students and the profession. this core principle became one of tepds lessons learned and has also encouraged the team to think outside the box and look for alternatives. an early version of the pathway model which suggested the project would only affect those technological education teachers with a diploma background, rather than also including those with an apprenticeship background. the team received the clear message that this avenue would further divide this group of teachers and therefore negatively affect the profession. now the team has established opportunities for degree completion for future and current teachers of diverse educational backgrounds and advocating for the potential pathways to be inclusive. page 14 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges b. advocate for the value of the skilled trades at every level; from the field of technological education, specifically (including secondary school technological education, apprenticeship preparation, diplomas and advanced diplomas aligned to the 10 broad-based technological teaching subjects, and technological teacher education), to the over-arching context of applied, technical skills to society at large (including the daily lives of individuals, industries and the global community). c. value and recognize prior learning. tepd has faced varied and inconsistent responses when dealing with different stakeholders and their diverse approaches to prior learning assessment and recognition (see appendix 1, spec sheet, p. ). this reality has sparked the creation of a separate project to research literature and processes in plar and develop a set of best practices in the province. d. conduct due diligence and consider the reputation of partner institutions when exploring pathways and articulation agreements. this aligns with the need to act in the best interest of students and is especially important when working with an accrediting body. 6. a square peg does not fit in a round hole technological education is a unique field within education and ontario secondary schools, with its own challenges and opportunities. technological education reflects a way of learning that is more often experiential, tactile, and activity based. yet technological teacher education is often subject to the norms and contexts structuring general studies teacher education which tend to take a different approach to pedagogy. a. look for ways to truly understand the projects landscape. it has taken some digging and looking beyond the obvious and the apparent. b. think outside the box. when considering and designing pathways, advocating for the best interest of the profession and promoting pathways between different sectors of education, the team has gone beyond traditional approaches to explore alternative pathways and solutions. we have found that some current practices and regulations have been designed to account for general studies teachers, and the technological education teachers are expected to adapt to the system that is built around their general studies colleagues. while we continue to advocate for more streamlined pathways and regulations in the province, the current lack of provincial opportunities to accommodate the needs of these particular candidates has prompted the team to look at out-of-province and international partnerships and opportunities. c. remain flexible and adaptable as the project grows and evolves, while still adhering to best practice and the project goals. the flexibility and evolution of our project is reflected throughout the adaptation of the 19 different versions of our page 15 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges pathways model. oncats understanding of this evolution and their support of necessary adjustments has been key to continue to delve into alternatives to meet the project goals. 7. review previous projects in the field and their lessons learned there is no need to reinvent the wheel. consulting with other projects in the field can inform the project, build upon the success of others or help the team learn from their mistakes. a. learning from other models of collaboration between the college and university sectors within and outside the province, such as teco, the guelph-humber experience, the bachelor of early childhood education (bece) model between brock university and niagara college, the irish qualification framework, or the bologna process, have provided insight on how to build upon institutional strengths, work within institutional policies and constraints, and recognize and advocate for the value of prior learning. c) implementation process and timelines process description and timeline complete rationale if incomplete january 2015: the tepd team consulted with teco members and with representatives from oct, osstf, oecta, and qeco. n/a march june 2015: the team met monthly to complete mapping and organize consultation meetings. n/a march 2015: the team met with the faculty of education, brock university to discuss articulation agreement. n/a april 2015: the team met with teco, oct, osstf, oecta, and qeco to discuss implications of proposed articulation agreement. n/a may 2015: the team met with the faculty of education, brock university to discuss the memorandum of understanding (commitment to develop the formal multilateral articulation agreement). n/a tepd invited to attend octe conference and provide project update to octe board leads and octe executive. octe provide feedback to include apprenticeship in the model or discontinue the project. page 16 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges process description and timeline complete june 2015: the team to present proposed articulation agreement to ccvpa. x september december 2015: the team met monthly to discuss articulation details. rationale if incomplete because project was modified after presentation to octe in may, tepd did not present to ccvpa. during this time, the team continued to work with octe and oct to explore degree completion pathways. n/a n/a november 2015: pathways project team to meet with brock. n/a november 2015: the team to discuss implementation of articulation agreement with ccvpa. x december 2015: submit articulation agreement to brock senate for approval. x tepd did not present to ccvpa as the team continued to work with octe and oct to determine degree completion pathways. june 2016: promote articulation agreement. x january 2017: launch articulation agreement to coordinate with the launch of brocks 4 term technological education program. x september 2015: the team met with teco, oct, osstf, oecta, and qeco to discuss implications of proposed articulation agreement. october 2015: tepd invited to provide project update to octe board leads. introduced pathways best practices and revised tepd model to include apprenticeship. may-june 2016: tepd met with brock university to confirm proposed tepd degree completion model would not meet registrar requirements. n/a tepd began to explore alternative out of province degree completion options with established articulation partners. tepd contacted oncat to conclude funded project and prepare final report. page 17 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges process description and timeline complete rationale if incomplete n/a fall 2016: tepd worked extensively with oct, it sligo, tru and octe to affirm degree completion options would meet oct regulations and provide pathways to leadership and general studies teachables. n/a january 2017: resubmitted oncat rfp for renewal of funding. n/a february 2017: presented degree completion opportunities at the tech. educators board leads meeting. n/a march 2017: received notification from oncat regarding project focus being outside oncat mandate. oncat sends letter of support. n/a september 2016: oct confirmed requirements for an acceptable postsecondary degree as defined by ontarios teachers qualifications regulation. tepd developed pathway spec sheet based on pathway best practices. it sligo and tru selected as pathway partners based on fulfillment of spec sheet requirements. tepd team met, including brock, to discuss next steps for promoting degree completion, octe conference in may 2017, and delivering aq schedule f courses at consortium colleges. representatives from it sligo and tru presented degree completion details to tepd team. provided q and a. page 18 of 27 summary of pathways created: tepd pathway model (version 20) proposed pathway timeline 5 years (ft) apprenticeship diploma or advanced diploma 1 or 2 years (ft) apply to brock oct accredited curriculum certificate of education minimum 1 year (ft) degree completion options tru and it sligo pathways available (2-6 years (pt)) leadership / administrative degree holders can take: principal certain aqs/abqs; refer to the ontario college of teacher's "prerequisites for admission to additional qualifications and programs" principal's qualifications; refer to the ontario college of teacher's "prerequisites for admission to additional qualifications and programs" including: any schedule a abq in primary, junior, intermediate or senior (only junior required as member holds gr. 9/10 and 11/12 tech ed) certain aqs/abqs to certify for a general studies teachable general studies teachable legend program/courses credential received under development schedule b abq courses and schedule f aq courses (with brock or queens at canadore, conestoga, fanshawe, mohawk or niagara) without the proposed pathway, it would take candidates a minimum of 10 years to be eligible for any schedule a abq (5 years work/pse + 2 years teacher ed + 3 years to earn bachelors degree) to qualify for principal's qualification courses. with the proposed pathway, candidates could be eligible for schedule a abqs in 8 years. page 19 of 27 oncat final report (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges references clancy, c. (2014, june 25). shortage of skills workers could jeopardize canadas economic future. canadian business. retrieved from http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/employmentminister-tells-skills-summit-canada-will-face-gap-in-trades-workers/ council of ontario directors of education (code). (2013). student safety in secondary technological education grades 9 to 12: a resource for school administrators. retrieved from http://www.pshsa.ca/elearningassets/code/drafts/tech/student%20safety%20in%20secondar y%20technological%20education%20grades%209%20to%2012%20output/story_content/external_ files/safety%20secondary%20technology%20education%20june%2018.pdf ministry of education. (2009a). the ontario curriculum, grades 9 and 10: technological education. retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/teched910curr09.pdf ministry of education. (2009b). the ontario curriculum, grades 11 and 12: technological education. retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/2009teched1112curr.pdf ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu). (n.d.). published college program standards. retrieved from http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/progstan/index.html ontario college of teachers (oct). (n.d.). teacher education program providers. retrieved from http://www.oct.ca/becoming-a-teacher/requirements/teacher-education-program-providers ontario college of teachers (oct). (2013). transition to teaching 2013. retrieved from http://www.oct.ca//media/pdf/transition%20to%20teaching%202013/en/transitiontoteaching201 3.pdf queens university. (2014-2015). faculty of education: academic calendar 2014-2015. retrieved from http://www.queensu.ca/calendars/education/technological_education_fall_winter_program.html queens university. (n.d.). faculty of education: technological education. retrieved from http://educ.queensu.ca/tech woolcott, d. & robinson, c. (2012). ontario universities council on quality assurance [powerpoint slides]. retrieved from http://www.queensu.ca/sgs/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.sgswww/files/files/facultyqualityassurance/queens_u_feb_14_2012_dle_and_los.pdf york university. (n.d.). technological education: concurrent and part-time consecutive bed. retrieved from http://edu.yorku.ca/files/2014/06/teched_flyer.pdf wheelahan, l. (2015). trust and the importance of educational inputs. in m. wilson & j. bridge (eds.), learning outcomes: building better pathways or building pathways better? (p. 4). toronto: oncat. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/presentations_2015/5a.pdf page 20 of 27 oncat final report - appendix 1 (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges appendix 1 additional activities when tepd realized brock university was unable to support the development of the proposed pathway agreement and oct confirmed there were regulatory limitations, tepd concluded the oncat funded portion of the project. however, appendix 1 outlines additional tepd pathway project activities that have continued beyond the funded activity, and future project plans. addressing critical issues based on expansive consultation with partners, it has been determined that there is need for this project to continue. it has become clear that this project addresses two critical issues: 1. technological education teachers and college professors with a diploma or apprenticeship background have been disadvantaged and underserved with limited access to professional development and/or advancement opportunities due to a lack of transparent, clearly communicated, pathway opportunities that act in the best interest of students and the profession of technological education. 2. technological education is facing a crisis-level teacher shortage within the next 5-10 years which has the potential to negatively impact technological education delivery in the high school system, thereby limiting potential applicant interest for technological education related programs including apprenticeship in the college system. by providing pathway opportunities to this group, this project has the potential to enhance equity and collegiality across all levels of education in ontario, benefit technological education through degree pathways and professional development, and positively impact the trades holistically. evolution of the tepd project from the beginning of the tepd project to its current state, the focus has evolved to include: 1. out of province degree completion pathways tepd has pursued degree completion pathway opportunities for non-degreed technological educators and college professors with established pathway partners outside of ontario specifically thompson rivers university in british columbia and it sligo in ireland. these pathways were developed to align with the tepd best practices and provide a mixture of credit transfer and prior learning recognition and assessment (plar) for relevant teaching experience, field experience, and/or education/course work including apprenticeship. 2. development and delivery of schedule f aq courses in spring 2017, the consortium received initial support from oct regarding its governance framework submission. the project team plans to develop and implement aq courses in 2017/18. tepd has expanded to include seven ontario colleges, including collge boral. the participating ontario colleges represent a diverse geographical area and will include english and french offerings. page 21 of 27 oncat final report - appendix 1 (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges 3. development of additional resources spec sheet: tepd has developed a comprehensive spec sheet for technological educators to compare and contrast degree completion pathway options at it sligo and thompson rivers university based on their background and skills. both options provide a vocation focus as well as a general studies focus so candidates will have a choice in their pathway (see pathways model, p. 19). this document was developed by tepd in consultation with octe, oct, it sligo, and tru. page 22 of 27 oncat final report - appendix 1 (project number: 2015-19) tepd spec sheet item # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 variables thompson rivers university it sligo official institutional recognition credential granted different degree options (vocational/business)* bachelor of general studies bachelor of technology bachelor of technology, trades and technology leadership type of credential bb, bsc or beng (3 years) bb (hon), bsc (hon) beng (hon) (4 years) hons ba (4 years) hons ba (4 years) hons ba (4 years) diploma 2 years advanced diploma 1 year diploma 2 years advanced diploma 1 year diploma 2 years advanced diploma 1 year tbd tbd tbd continuous continuous continuous business, fine and performing arts business business length of time to complete full 1 year time length of time to complete part 1 year business time 2 years vocational recognition and credit transfer for one or more of the following vocational work experience teaching experience teaching certificate trade qualification ontario college certificate ontario college diploma ontario college adv.diploma process interview plar assessment bridging might be required intake fall second teachable available options see credentials below (item 20) fees & course delivery 16 full time fees 17 full time course delivery 18 part time fees 19 part time course delivery can $11,400 / year; or 7,500 / year. note: preferential tuition pricing as per colleges ontario agreement. typically 60 credits / 1 year; or 30 credits / semester; or can $7500 / year* 120 credit degree; or 30 credits / year; or fulltime 3-5 courses / maximum 6 modules (courses) / semester. semester.** can $3,400 to $6,750 / year; or 2,250 to 4,450 / year. can $750 / course*+ note: per current on-line distance learning program pricing. typically 30 credits / 1 year; or 120 credit degree 15 credits / semester; or enrolment is course by course. student determines program maximum 3 modules (courses) / semester pace. note: exception for bb in management applications (60 ects credits in 1 year) can $7500 / year* can $7500 / year* 120 credit degree; or 30 credits / year; or courses are 3.0 credits; or 5 courses / semester.** 120 credit degree; or 30 credits / year; or courses are 3.0 credits; or 5 courses / semester.** can $750 / course*+ can $1000 / course*+ 120 credit degree enrolment is course by course. student determines program pace. 120 credit degree enrolment is course by course. student determines program pace. other considerations 20 additional information bsc (hon) in construction project management bsc in environmental management bsc (hon) in environmental management bachelor of business in management applications bsc in manufacturing management bsc (hon) in quality management & technology beng in mechatronics beng (hon) in mechatronics *average fees depend on the type and number of courses taken within a program. this number is based on taking 10 courses/30 credits per year. **to remain active in a program it is suggested that students take 1 course every two years. there is no formal full-time or part-time status other than what is required for student loan stipulations, e.g., 3 courses continuously. *+this is an approximate/average cost (tuition + materials). course tuition varies by individual course. check individual courses for specific fees. contact information 21 websites www.itsligo.ie/onlinelearning www.tru.ca/distance/programs/tech http://www.tru.ca/distance/program www.tru.ca/distance/programs/tech nology/bachelor-technologys/general-studies/bachelor.html nology/bachelor-of-technology.html leadership.html 22 email contacts patrick lynch, international manager, it sligo (lynch.patrick@itsligo.ie) donald poirier, senior director, strategic partnerships, thompson rivers university (dpoirier@tru.ca) important notes prior learning assessment and recognition note: admission requirements for graduate studies are at the discretion of each institution. it is the responsibility of applicants to be aware of recognition of prior learning policies as it relates to credit transfer and prior learning. tuition note: tuition and fees are subject to change. 22 page 23 of 27 oncat final report - appendix 1 (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges candidate case studies: the tepd project team developed case studies showcasing different backgrounds and skills of degree completion candidates. it sligo and thompson rivers university assessed these case studies, and provided an estimate of the amount of credit transfer and recognition each would receive. the case studies were distributed to octe members at the 2017 octe conference. case study 1 auto service technician experience details ossd automotive service technician apprenticeship and certification of qualification (mtcu) truck and coach apprenticeship and certificate of qualification (mtcu) university courses (marketing, communications, geography, economics) additional formal education (incl abqs, aqs, etc) several automotive updates aqs small powered equipment abq construction abq co-op part 1 aq religion part 1and 2 aq religion specialist aq trade qualifications automotive service technician and truck and coach technician trade-related training/certification education work experience too many to list teaching related experience 25 years supply teacher (1 year) transportation technology co-op teacher (10 years) school board roles: oyap, shsm, scwi, co-op, and technology leader (16 years) trade work experience car dealership service advisor (3 years) auto service technician (5 years) it sligo recommendation rpl for advanced entry into certificate in automation & instrumentation (1 year) transfer into bachelor of engineering in mechatronics (2 year) bachelor of technology: o 57 credits completed, 63 credits to complete bachelor of technology, trades and technology leadership: o 60 credits completed, 60 to complete, 15 credits through possible plar secondary education post-secondary education thompson rivers university recommendation page 24 of 27 oncat final report - appendix 1 (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges case study 2 design experience details secondary education post-secondary education ossd 2 year diploma furniture products from ontario college 2 year diploma broadcast television from ontario college diploma in education from university (technology) additional formal education (incl abqs, aqs, etc) guidance, part 1 cooperative education, part 1, 2 honours technology specialist religious education, part 1 design and technology, part trade qualifications n/a trade-related training/certification autocad, level 1, 2, 3, 4 advanced c.n.c. for woodworkers environmental design sketching and drafting education work experience secondary school teacher various schools and locations (15 years) school board, various roles (8 years) ministry, various roles (4 years) trade work experience cabinet and furniture maker, private company (1 year) cabinetmaker, private company (1 year) production manager / furniture maker, antiques (5 years) it sligo recommendation direct entry into bachelor of business management in applications (1 year) direct entry into bachelor of construction management (2 year) bachelor of technology o 57 credits completed, 63 credits to complete bachelor of technology, trades and technology leadership o 60 credits completed, 60 credits to complete, 15 credits through possible plar or thompson rivers university recommendation page 25 of 27 oncat final report - appendix 1 (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges case study 3 electrician experience details secondary education post-secondary education additional formal education (incl abqs, aqs, etc) trade qualifications ossd n/a n/a licensed electrician and registered fire alarm technician trade-related training/certification corporate health and safety training certificate in management (c.i.m) (offered through ontario university) registered fire alarm technician health and safety training master electrician training kawasaki robotics training kuka robotics training electrical apprenticeship program advanced programmable logic controllers education work experience lab operations manager at ontario college (5 years) technologist at ontario college (2 years) non-ft professor for electrical apprenticeship program at ontario college instructor for highs school oyap programs curriculum development workshop facilitator for school board trade work experience it sligo recommendation thompson rivers university recommendation construction and maintenance electrician, ft, private company (3 years) construction and maintenance electrician, pt, private company pt (2 years) construction and maintenance electrician, apprenticeship to ft (10 years) direct entry into bachelor of business management in applications (1 year) direct entry into bsc contraction management (2 year) direct entry into bsc in quality (2 year) bachelor of technology o 57 credits completed, 63 to complete bachelor of technology, trades and technology leadership o 60 credits completed, 60 to complete, 15 credits through possible plar page 26 of 27 oncat final report - appendix 1 (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios college 1. communicating resources and pathways the tepd team is working with octe to promote the degree completion pathways via the octe website. octe has a provincial membership of over 5000 members. between january to march 2017, the octe website has been visited by 3132 users, and 51,710 webpages have been viewed. screen shots have been provided below of the degree completion resources posted online. for full details please see www.octe.ca. 2. relationship building with octe the tepd project is working to improve communication and awareness between college faculty and secondary school teachers within the technological education community; thus enhancing working relationships and a shared understanding of technology vocations, education systems, and most importantly our students. we plan to continue fostering these relationships by applying our tepd best practices and lessons learned to positively impact the technological education system within ontario. page 27 of 27

executive summary (project number: 2015-19) technological education pathway development project: a multilateral articulation agreement between brock university and ontarios colleges executive summary the technological education pathway development (tepd) project was a collaborative initiative funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). participants included: fanshawe college, niagara college, conestoga college, mohawk college, fleming college, canadore college, collge boral and brock university, and the ontario council for technology education (octe). tepd originated as a college to university transfer initiative with the intention to provide skilled tradespeople with an incentive to pursue a credential in technological education, and to address existing structural inequities affecting technological educators professional and educational trajectories. technological education teachers have been underserved with limited access to professional development and/or career advancement opportunities within the k-12 education system. supported by research, best practice, and consultations with sector leaders, tepd explored the development of a multilateral pathway to provide degree completion opportunities for technological education teachers and teacher candidates (see pathway model, p. 19). the originally proposed pathway was developed to allow candidates with a diploma the opportunity to earn a bachelor of education upon successful completion of the revised four semester technological teacher education program at brock university. after stakeholder consultation, and due to different constraints, the focus of the project shifted to explore out-of-province degree completion opportunities with the institute of technology sligo and thompson rivers university (tru) (see appendix 1, spec sheet, p. 23). ultimately, because of insurmountable obstacles beyond tepds control the project discontinued its oncat funding as the change in scope fell outside oncats mandate to support ontario pathway development. due to substantial learning, the project team plans to seek alternate funding to: facilitate degree completion opportunities for technological educators through it sligo and tru. develop and deliver additional qualification (aq) schedule f courses amongst the participating colleges and additional basic qualification (abq) courses in collaboration with brock university and the ontario college of teachers (oct). support a longitudinal research study on the degree completion pathway candidates. build relationships between college and high-school educators in the technological education fields. this project provides smoother pathways for technological education teachers toward leadership opportunities. the tepd team feels that having leaders in ontarios secondary system who understand and have a background in technological education will strengthen ties between secondary and postsecondary technological and vocational programming options. not only will this benefit technological education teachers, the colleges, and the students who pursue college studies, but tepd believes it would ultimately benefit the forecast of the trades in ontario and assist in enhancing equity and collegiality across all levels of education in ontario. tepd believes that we in ontario can learn from our out-of-province and international colleagues and continue advocating for a more efficient and articulated system of higher education. page 1 of 1

pathway transfer to postsecondary: table of contents o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 1 please note that the authors are very cognizant of the fact that these students were all successful completers of the course, and there are no interviews from city school participants who did not graduate in this study. o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

rapport final parcours de transferts des programmes de la cit et du collge boral vers des programmes de luniversit saint-paul caton projet 2014-17 prsent au conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario par le collge la cit juin 2015 sommaire excutif trois programmes collgiaux offerts par la cit et le collge boral ont vu leur cheminement reconnu menant une entente avec trois programmes de baccalaurat de luniversit saint-paul. la plupart des ententes conclues permettront aux diplms des programmes concerns des collges dobtenir leur baccalaurat de luniversit en deux ans. ces ententes, ralises la suite de plusieurs rencontres entre les reprsentants des divers programmes et dune analyse rigoureuse des plans de cours par les experts de contenu, offriront aux tudiants des deux collges francophones de la province encore plus doptions pour la poursuite dtudes suprieures en franais en ontario. les programmes viss par les ententes darrimage sont : collge la cit et collge boral universit saint-paul adjoint juridique techniques des services policiers techniques de travail social communications sociales adjoint juridique techniques des services policiers techniques de travail social relations humaines et spiritualit adjoint juridique techniques des services policiers techniques de travail social tudes de conflits la promotion de ces nouvelles ententes auprs des diplms des collges a permis luniversit saint-paul de recevoir une trentaine de demandes dinscription pour la rentre scolaire 2015; de ce nombre, vingt-cinq proviennent de la cit. description des ententes dans le cadre de lentente caton impliquant luniversit saint-paul, le collge boral et la cit, trois ententes distinctes ont t signes. la plupart des ententes sont fondes sur le principe 2 + 2, cest--dire que ltudiant qui a obtenu son diplme collgial se voit crditer 60 crdits dun programme de baccalaurat de 120 crdits de luniversit saintpaul. ltudiant peut donc normalement dcrocher son baccalaurat en deux ans. les programmes de luniversit saint-paul engags dans cette entente sont les suivants : relations humaines et spiritualit tudes de conflits communications sociales oncat 2014-17 rapport final page 2 les programmes des deux collges (la cit et boral) engags dans cette entente sont les suivants : adjoint juridique techniques des services policiers techniques de travail social il ny a que pour le programme adjoint juridique que le principe du 2 + 2 nest pas respect. ainsi le baccalaurat en tudes de conflits accordera 45 crdits aux diplms collgiaux du programme adjoint juridique. consquemment, les tudiants devront complter 75 crdits. dans le cas du programme relations humaines et spiritualit, 45 crdits sont accords aux diplms du programme adjoint juridique de la cit et 48 crdits aux diplms du mme programme du collge boral. la diffrence des crdits accords sexplique par le nombre dheures de stages, plus grand au collge boral. les diplms du programme adjoint juridique inscrits en relations humaines et spiritualit devront donc obtenir 75 crdits pour ceux provenant de la cit et 72 crdits pour ceux de boral. les annexes 2 et 3 prsentent lensemble des cheminements proposs. les normes de programme les normes ou objectifs des programmes concerns ne sont aucunement modifis la suite des ententes conclues. les programmes conservent leur identit propre. meilleures pratiques la volont des deux collges de parvenir de telles ententes tait trs grande. cependant, du ct de luniversit saint-paul, des intervenants ont manifest une certaine rserve, alors que la direction de luniversit tait enthousiaste lide dtablir de nouvelles passerelles avec les collges. les quelques rserves exprimes ont t balayes la suite de rencontres entre les professeurs des programmes concerns. une meilleure comprhension de la ralit des programmes des collges et de la ncessit, pour les tudiants collgiaux, dobtenir un baccalaurat a permis une ouverture significative, ce qui a eu pour effet dtablir le principe du 2 + 2, lorsque cela est possible et pertinent, avec les programmes concerns. les meilleures pratiques retenues de cette exprience sont les suivantes : limportance indniable dobtenir lappui des directions des tablissements concerns dans la ralisation dentente darrimage. la ncessit de rencontres entre les professeurs des collges et de luniversit pour changer sur les objectifs de leurs programmes et les contenus de leurs plans de cours. oncat 2014-17 rapport final page 3 la mise sur table des difficults et des obstacles pour obtenir des discussions franches et honntes. le respect et lacceptation des intervenants quant aux limites acadmiques et professionnelles de leurs partenaires dans la mesure o elles sont clairement justifies. ltablissement essentiel dun climat de confiance et douverture entre les partenaires. notons galement que les tudiants ont exprim une grande satisfaction des ententes conclues. plusieurs ont indiqu quils envisageaient srieusement la possibilit de poursuivre des tudes luniversit saint-paul, compte tenu de la possibilit de dcrocher un baccalaurat. la suite de la ralisation de ce projet tripartite, les partenaires ont exprim favorablement le dsir de collaborer nouveau en bonifiant des accords existants et en tablissant de nouvelles ententes. des liens se sont crs entre les reprsentants des tablissements partenaires et tous voient dimportants avantages poursuivre dans cette voie. mise en uvre les trois ententes conclues sont dj mises en uvre. elles sont publies sur les sites web des tablissements postsecondaires et sur ontransfer. une confrence de presse sest tenue le 27 avril 2015 la cit pour annoncer lentente entre le collge boral, le collge la cit et luniversit saint-paul. la rectrice de luniversit saint-paul et la prsidente de la cit ont sign le protocole au campus principal de la cit tandis que le prsident du collge boral effectuait le geste symbolique en vidoconfrence. au 11 juin 2015, une trentaine dtudiants des collges (plus de 25 de la cit) ont fait une demande dadmission dans lun des trois programmes touchs par lentente. de ce nombre, prs de la moiti sont dj inscrits et le processus se poursuit pour les autres. oncat 2014-17 rapport final page 4 annexe 2 - cheminement des cours la cit adjoint juridique vers communications sociales anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1501 htp1503 6 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (27 crdits au total tals sur lanne 1 et 2)* isc1708 isc2701 isc2706 isc2707 isc2728 isc2729 isc3727 isc3739 isc4700 cours optionnels 21 crdits parmi :* isc2713 isc2731 isc2742 isc3700 isc3701 isc3702 isc3703 isc3705 isc3718 isc3731 isc3750 isc4702 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 24 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 5 anne 2 formation fondamentale phi2581 3 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (*cours complter) + cours optionnels (*cours complter) 27 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 6 cheminement des cours la cit techniques des services policiers vers communications sociales anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1501 htp1503 6 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (27 crdits au total tals sur lanne 1 et 2)* isc1708 isc2701 isc2706 isc2707 isc2728 isc2729 isc3727 isc3739 isc4700 cours optionnels 21 crdits parmi : isc2713 isc2731 isc2742 isc3700 isc3701 isc3702 isc3703 isc3705 isc3718 isc3731 isc3750 isc4702 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 24 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 7 anne 2 formation fondamentale phi2581 3 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (*cours complter) + cours optionnels (*cours complter) 27 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 8 cheminement des cours la cit techniques de travail social vers communications sociales anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1502 isc2714 6 crdits programme principal cours au choix cours obligatoires (27 crdits au total tals sur lanne 1 et 2)* isc1708 isc2701 isc2706 isc2707 isc2728 isc2729 isc3727 isc3739 isc4700 cours optionnels 21 crdits parmi : isc2713 isc2742 isc3700 isc3701 isc3702 isc3703 isc3718 isc3731 isc3750 isc4702 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 24 crdits total 30 crdits anne 2 formation fondamentale htp1504 3 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (*cours complter) + cours optionnels (*cours complter) 27 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 9 annexe 3 - cheminement des cours collge boral techniques des services policiers vers relations humaines et spiritualit anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1501 htp1502 isc2714 9 crdits anne 2 formation fondamentale htp1503 htp1504 phi2581 9 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires igl1503 igl2526 ipa2522 ipa2523 ipa2526 ipa2527 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 21 crdits programme principal cours obligatoires ipa3501 ipa3521 ipa4521 ipa4522 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : igl2536 ecs2523 ecs2591 ecs2592 ecs2928 3 crdits parmi : ecs3523 igl3512 ipa3524 phi3707 phi3709 18 crdits cours au choix total 30 crdits cours au choix total 3 crdits 3 crdits rapport final 30 crdits page 10 cheminement des cours collge boral techniques de travail social vers relations humaines et spiritualit anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1501 htp1502 isc2714 9 crdits programme principal cours au choix total cours obligatoires igl1503 ipa2522 ipa2523 ipa2527 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 15 crdits 6 crdits 6 crdits 30 crdits programme principal cours au choix total cours obligatoires ipa3501 ipa3521 ipa3522 ipa4522 12 crdits 9 crdits anne 2 formation fondamentale htp1503 htp1504 phi2581 9 crdits oncat 2014-17 rapport final 9 crdits 30 crdits page 11 cheminement des cours collge boral adjoint juridique vers relations humaines et spiritualit anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1502 isc2714 6 crdits programme principal cours au choix total cours obligatoires ipa2521 ipa2523 ipa2526 ipa2527 ipa3501 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 18 crdits 6 crdits 6 crdits 30 crdits programme principal cours au choix total cours obligatoires ipa3521 ipa3522 ipa4521 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : ecs2523 ecs2591 ecs2592 ecs2928 igl2536 3 crdits parmi : ipa2524 ipa2525 tho2589 tho2715 15 crdits 12 crdits anne 2 formation fondamentale phi2581 3 crdits oncat 2014-17 rapport final 12 crdits 30 crdits page 12 anne 3 formation fondamentale programme principal cours obligatoires ipa4522 cours optionnels 6 crdits parmi : ecs3523 igl3512 ipa3524 phi3707 phi3709 3 crdits parmi : ipa4523 ipa4524 ipa4525 12 crdits oncat 2014-17 rapport final cours au choix total 12 crdits page 13 cheminement des cours collge boral techniques des services policiers vers tudes de conflits anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1501 htp1502 isc2714 9 crdits programme principal cours au choix cours obligatoires ecs2511 ecs2512 ecs2591 ecs2592 pol1501 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : ipa1522 psy1502 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 21 crdits total 30 crdits anne 2 formation fondamentale htp1503 htp1504 phi2581 9 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours au choix cours obligatoires ecs2721 ecs3540 ecs4501 ecs4502 cours optionnels 6 crdits parmi : ech3710 ech3720 ech3740 ech4720 ecs2524 ecs2928 ecs3523 ecs3524 ecs3723 ecs4530 18 crdits 3 crdits rapport final 3 crdits total 30 crdits page 14 cheminement des cours collge boral techniques de travail social vers tudes de conflits anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1501 htp1502 isc2714 9 crdits programme principal cours au choix cours obligatoires ecs2511 ecs2512 ecs2591 ecs2592 pol1501 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : ipa1522 psy1502 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 21 crdits total 30 crdits anne 2 formation fondamentale htp1503 htp1504 phi2581 9 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours au choix cours obligatoires ecs3525 ecs4501 ecs4502 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : ech3710 ech3720 ech3740 ech4720 ecs2524 ecs2526 ecs2928 ecs3523 ecs3524 ecs3723 ecs4530 12 crdits 9 crdits rapport final 9 crdits total 30 crdits page 15 cheminement des cours collge boral adjoint juridique vers tudes de conflits anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1502 htp1503 isc2714 9 crdits programme principal cours au choix cours obligatoires ecs2503 ecs2511 ecs2512 ecs2591 ecs2592 pol1501 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : ipa1522 psy1502 21 crdits total 30 crdits anne 2 formation fondamentale htp1504 phi2581 6 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours au choix cours obligatoires ecs2504 ecs2721 ecs3525 cours optionnels 3 crdits parmi : ech3710 ech3720 ech3740 ech4720 ecs3523 ecs3524 ecs3723 ecs4530 3 crdits parmi : ecs2524 ecs2526 ecs2928 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 18 crdits 6 crdits rapport final 6 crdits total 30 crdits page 16 anne 3 formation fondamentale oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours au choix cours obligatoires ecs3540 ecs4501 ecs4502 9 crdits 6 crdits rapport final 6 crdits total 15 crdits page 17 cheminement des cours collge boral adjoint juridique vers communications sociales anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1501 htp1503 6 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (27 crdits au total tals sur lanne 1 et 2)* isc1708 isc2701 isc2706 isc2707 isc2728 isc3727 isc3739 isc4700 cours optionnels 21 crdits parmi : isc2713 isc2729 isc2731 isc2742 isc3700 isc3701 isc3702 isc3703 isc3705 isc3718 isc3731 isc3750 isc4702 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 24 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 18 anne 2 formation fondamentale phi2581 3 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (*cours complter) + cours optionnels (*cours complter) 27 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 19 cheminement des cours collge boral techniques des services policiers vers communications sociales anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1501 htp1503 6 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (27 crdits au total tals sur lanne 1 et 2)* isc1708 isc2701 isc2706 isc2707 isc2728 isc2729 isc3727 isc3739 isc4700 cours optionnels 21 crdits parmi : isc2713 isc2731 isc2742 isc3700 isc3701 isc3702 isc3703 isc3705 isc3718 isc3731 isc3750 isc4702 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 24 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 20 anne 2 formation fondamentale phi2581 3 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (*cours complter) + cours optionnels (*cours complter) 27 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 21 cheminement des cours collge boral techniques de travail social vers communications sociales anne 1 formation fondamentale htp1502 isc2714 6 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (27 crdits au total tals sur lanne 1 et 2)* isc1708 isc2701 isc2706 isc2707 isc2728 isc2729 isc3727 isc3739 isc4700 cours optionnels 21 crdits parmi : isc2713 isc2742 isc3700 isc3701 isc3702 isc3703 isc3718 isc3731 isc3750 isc4702 3 crdits parmi : mis2503 tho1706 tho1707 24 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 22 anne 2 formation fondamentale htp1504 3 crdits oncat 2014-17 programme principal cours obligatoires (*cours complter) + cours optionnels (*cours complter) 27 crdits rapport final cours au choix total 30 crdits page 23

transferability expectations and realities: predictors of success and satisfaction from student transfer experiences sean woodhead centennial college rachel oh centennial college cite this publication in the following format: woodhead, s. & oh, r. (2016). transferability expectations and realities: predictors of success and satisfaction from student transfer experiences. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. transferability expectations and realities acknowledgements acknowledgement and gratitude are extended to the following individuals who made significant contributions to the success of this project: gabriella selvarajah for focus group and interview facilitation and transcribing, and sumeth tanyaovalaksna for leading statistical analysis. we would also like to thank dr. christine helen arnold and jeff burrow for their advice throughout the project. 3 sean woodhead and rachel oh table of contents executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . purpose of the study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . research questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . institutional context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . review of arnold and woodhead (2015) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . data collection and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . data collection summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . demographic profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . prior postsecondary and rpl credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . understanding of transfer credit and plar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . expected and actual rpl credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rpl information sources and available supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . applying for credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . expectation-satisfaction with rpl credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . application timing preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . satisfaction with college, program and rpl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . transfer credit success predictors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rpl credit satisfaction predictors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . results: 2013-14 and 2014-15 aggregate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . transfer credit success predictors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rpl credit satisfaction predictors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . college satisfaction predictors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . discussion and conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix a- letter of invitation to participate pre-survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix b- pre-survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix c- letter of invitation to participate post-survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix d- post-survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix e- letter of invitation to participate focus group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix f- focus group protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appendix g- focus group consent letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 8 9 9 10 10 11 12 12 13 14 15 15 20 27 31 34 37 41 42 44 51 53 55 55 57 59 61 61 62 64 67 70 77 80 86 89 91 transferability expectations and realities executive summary ontario has been decisive in driving recognition of prior learning, and so it is appropriate to better understand institutional responses to this direction. this report summarizes the current state of credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition, collectively referred to as recognition of prior learning (rpl), at centennial college. the topic of ontario rpl is particularly important in light of an increasing number of students accessing credit transfer pathways, as well as continued use of course-to-course transfer credit and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) applications. examining the rpl mechanism through the student experience lens is important. while institutions will mindfully and with purpose create, sometimes, robust information dissemination and support systems, occasionally such systems fail to adequately serve those for which it was intended. using expectation-reality gaps as a barometer of student experience helps centennial college on two fronts: 1) front end information dissemination and expectation management, and 2) back end support services. this study uses a mixed methods design of pre-post surveying, focus groups and interviews to address three questions: 1) what expectation-reality gaps exist for incoming centennial college rpl students (awarded credit and benefits; resources, sources and support; and policies and procedures)? 2) does the first term academic progression affect students satisfaction and attitudes regarding program and rpl experiences? 3) what aspects of rpl affect rpl success, satisfaction with the rpl process and centennial college satisfaction? a non-probability convenience sample was collected from the 417 rpl students across the fall, winter and summer cohorts of 2014-15. in total, 140 students (34%) completed the pre-survey and 98 of the 140 students (70%) completed the post-survey. twenty-seven students participated in focus groups and interviews. chi-square analysis was used to compare respondent data (from surveying) and population data (from college records), and this determined that the respondent group sample is representative of the population. the demographic profile of an average centennial college student is one who is classified as a domestic student in their 20s and enrolled in a diploma program. the average student will have attended 1 prior postsecondary institution, applies for 1-2 transfer credits with varying success rates across schoolsschool of community and health studies students are most successful. centennial college rpl students experience an increased perceived understanding of credit transfer and plar from an offer of admission to the end of their first term. a significant difference was found for understanding of transfer credit between these two time periods: 60% of students have an understanding of transfer credit and its policies at offer of admission, and this jumps to 93% at the end of the first term. the same significant trend is observed with plar, albeit less pronounced. comparatively, students have a much better initial understanding of transfer credit than plar. for the most part, the respondents report that they prefer to apply for transfer credit at the beginning of their program and are satisfied with the amount of credit they receivestudents state 5 sean woodhead and rachel oh that they consider it a validation of their prior learning. however, plar applicants show some uncertainty or dissatisfaction with the lack of credit they receiveperhaps attributable to only having a mediocre understanding of plar and its policies. those who do receive credit, students claim they were able to reduce their course load, which resulted in them having more free time to focus on their other courses and employment. while the data show evidence of students developing realistic expectations in some areas, there are multiple occurrences of statistically significant gaps between expectations and realities. student expectations noticeably fall short for those who expect more than three transfer credits and those who expect plar credit. sizeable (10%+) expectation-reality gaps also exist across numerous other variables: reduced course load benefit, reduced educational costs benefit, additional time for employment benefit, clear information regarding eligible transfer credits, assistance with understanding rpl decisions, assistance managing the rpl file, program advising and assistance with grade calculation. many students stated that they had to research on their own to determine how the transfer credit application process worked, with the majority of students finding information via the centennial website or through contacting a centennial college staff member. some students who spoke with a centennial college staff member found that they received inconsistent information and were often sent to speak with more than one staff member. the majority of students expected that a transcript and course outline would be required in order to demonstrate completion of similar course content, however, international students and students who had been away from post-secondary school for a greater length of time, stated difficulties in obtaining a course outline. many students cite the secondary submission of a transcript to be unnecessary if they submit the same one for admission purposes. once students completed their transfer credit application using the online application system, they expressed their gratitude over the streamlined process, ease of use and quickness of the online system. many students stated that they received a transfer credit decision anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, which was much faster than they had expected. in regards to rpl process satisfaction, respondents find the process fair (59%), quick (61%) and clear (55%). students do not experience a change in opinion on these three facets of satisfaction across the first term, suggesting that movement through the rpl process bears no effect. rpl students are overwhelmingly satisfied with centennial college (78%) and their program (82%). the researchers also sought predicting factors related to rpl success and satisfaction. the only significant predictor found for rpl success was the perceived fairness of the process. despite findings from arnold and woodhead (2015) that credit transfer understanding plays a role in rpl success, those findings were not replicated in the analysis of the three 2014-15 cohorts. interestingly, satisfaction with the rpl process revealed two significant predictors. first, success rate has an effect on satisfaction; a likely explanation is that a higher success rate yields a narrower expectation-reality gap and leads to a more satisfying experience. second, perceived quickness of the rpl process is also a predictor of satisfaction. this may be explained by students past experiences with slow, bureaucratic processes at other educational institutions. this study also aggregated data between the 2013-14 cohorts from arnold and woodhead (2015) and the 2014-15 cohorts for this study. this leads to a data set that is approximately double in size, 6 transferability expectations and realities and thus may produce more predictors through regression analysis. the aggregate data set offers two predictors for rpl success: ontario pse credential and fqc. for predicting rpl credit satisfaction, post-awareness of transfer credit and fqc are predictors of satisfaction. the analysis yields predictors of college satisfaction as well: clarity and program satisfaction. it is possible that students look to clarity of information and overall opinions of their program as a means to gauge centennial college qualityand by extension satisfaction with the institution. a few recommendations arise from the results that pertain to centennial college rpl policy and practice. while these recommendations are specific to centennial college, other colleges would be welcome to consider similar adoptions to their own institutional practices. all efforts should be undertaken to maintain a process that is fair, quick and clear: consistent decision-making: a fair process requires consistency on at least two fronts. one, decisions must be consistent with posted standards (e.g. 80% affinity). two, decisions must be consistent across applicants. ability to achieve this consistency hinges on clear, published criteria for assessment along with robust transfer credit assessment training for all staff. while centennial currently does both to some degree, it is suggested that the college revisit this and look to see how consistency can be further improved. policies and procedures: administrators should change policy to allow students to use two courses from their previous institution to apply for one transfer credit at centennial. this would allow students to apply for more transfer credits when one course alone does not meet 80% affinity. increase initial support: centennial now has dedicated pathway advisors to provide advice and guidance to prospective centennial students. between these advisors and the dedicated advisors for incoming students, there is great capacity for initial rpl support to be improved, including the promotion of ontransfer.cas course transfer function, so that students can make more accurate choices when applying for transfer credit. in order to accomplish this, rpl staff experts need to transfer knowledge and expertise to these student-facing advisors. further automate processes: centennial has an online transfer credit application system that allows students to upload transcripts and outlines; this same system allows faculty to assess applications and render decisions. however, many students cite frustration with having to upload transcripts after already providing them as part of their college applications. the college and students would both benefit from streamlining of transcript submissions, as well as incorporation of plar self-assessments into the online system. access to other institution outlines: while this is more of a system-wide recommendation, students find it challenging to find course outlines for courses previously taken at other institutions. the ontario pse system should consider developing a central repository of outlines/syllabi that is accessible for college staff and students. a satisfying experience for students seems to hinge most on fqc. an rpl process that is fair, quick and clear promotes satisfaction with the rpl process. perhaps most importantly for college consideration, a fair, quick and clear rpl process appears to promote satisfaction with the college itself. 7 sean woodhead and rachel oh glossary this report uses the same glossary as in arnold and woodhead (2015): credit transfer refers to the overarching system of transferring credit. transfer credit refers to the awarding of course credit for previously completed credit obtained at a recognised postsecondary institution (centennial college, 2014). prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) refers to the process that gives adult learners the opportunity to gain credit for formal, non-formal and/or informal learning. learners follow a process that allows them to identify, describe and demonstrate past learning that was obtained through a collection of study, life and work experiences (centennial college, 2014). recognition of prior learning (rpl) is an all-encompassing term that refers to all advanced standing, credit transfer, and prior learning assessment and recognition processes. central to rpl processes are the assessments of prior learning in an effort to evaluate the learners sufficient demonstration of learning outcomes (centennial college, 2014). expectations refer to students self-reported rpl anticipated outcomes. realities refer to administrative data and students self-reported rpl experiences that occurred within the first term. population refers to all students across the fall, winter and summer 2014-15 cohorts who met the selection criteria and were therefore eligible to participate in the distributed surveys. respondents refer to those students who completed a minimum of 85% of both the pre- and post-surveys. reduced course hours refers to the credit hours associated with courses awarded transfer credit and/or plar. rpl success rate refers to the fraction of transfer and plar credits awarded relative to the amounts for which students applied. 8 transferability expectations and realities introduction postsecondary education (pse) institutions have positioned themselves as support systems for lifelong learning. alongside the lifelong learning trend is the emerging pressure to better recognise the prior learning of students. while the academic merits of minimising learning redundancies are occasionally challenged by concerns regarding quality, ontario has been decisive in its movement towards maximizing credit recognition while attempting to maintain qualitythe two ought not be mutually exclusive. for five years, ontario has established and grown robust support in an effort to answer this call for greater system efficiency. the pse system continues to enjoy a period of extensive credit transfer growth (oncat, 2015; oncat, 2014). this growth takes the form of numerous bilateral and multilateral partnerships among a diverse group of postsecondary education institutions, greater acceptance of course transfer credit and a renewed focus on prior learning assessment and recognition (plar). this, in turn, has led to enhancement of credit transfer (and less so plar) resources across pse institutions. what is less known is how students experience credit transfer within the institution, and even less is known about how this is experienced from university to college or college to college. as much credit transfer and plar occurs at the beginning of the program, conceivably this may adjust student perceptions of their college experience. examining these experiences may offer important findings for pse stakeholders: what does a credit transfer experience look like after many years and ongoing credit-transfer investments, are there relationships between recognition of prior learning (rpl) and key performance indicators (e.g., college satisfaction, program satisfaction), and what has been done correctly and what needs to be improved regarding rpl policies and practices? this research study investigates student-held rpl expectations and realities while also exploring relationships between two layers: transfer experience and satisfaction. by investigating this topic, the researchers hope to: 1) provide a contribution to the discourse on rpl in ontario that has practical applicability and is empirically rigorous; 2) nurture discussion at ontario colleges regarding available rpl supports and how they could be better tailored for student need and demand; and 3) offer important considerations for centennial college as it continues to enhance its rpl policies and practice. purpose of the study the purpose of this research is to investigate the incoming transfer student experience between offer of admission and end of first term at centennial college. most specifically, this study seeks to measure and explain the following within the context of credit transfer and plar: student expectations, realities, self-adjusted perceptions and satisfaction. findings from this research may offer support to both researchers and practitioners for further study. there is scant research on student credit transfer experiences and even less so in an ontario college context that also includes plar. also, there is little research that employs interpretive 9 sean woodhead and rachel oh statistical analysis to explore relationships between rpl experience variables and, separately, rpl success, rpl satisfaction and college satisfaction. while the findings are not intended to be extrapolated to the system level, the researchers believe this study can initiate important policy and process discussions at the system, institutional and program levels in exploring ways to enhance rpl service and student success in a manner that maximises student satisfaction. research questions this research extends from the arnold and woodhead (2015) examination of transferability expectation-reality gaps and corresponding relationships with satisfaction and rpl success. this project has been designed to address the following questions: 1) what expectation-reality gaps exist for incoming centennial college rpl students (awarded credit and benefits; resources, sources and support; and policies and procedures)? 2) does the first-term academic progression affect students satisfaction and attitudes regarding program and rpl experiences? 3) what aspects of rpl affect rpl success, satisfaction with the rpl process and centennial college satisfaction? findings from this study are hoped to offer important insights into the centennial college transfer student experience. the results of this study are intended to inform further policy and process enhancements at centennial college. this research has not been designed for results to be scalable across the ontario postsecondary system. institutional context centennial college is the oldest publicly funded college in ontario, having operated since 1966. the college offers a wide range of programming, including certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, graduate certificates and baccalaureate degrees, across four campuses and additional learning sites. in 2014-15, the college hosted approximately 19,681 full-time students from over 130 different countries, making centennial one of the most diverse postsecondary institutions in all of canada. credit transfer and plar are loosely coupled at centennial college into one mechanism: rpl. significant reforms have been made to policies, procedures and processes at centennial to better support student self-assessment and advocacy for recognising their prior learning; the reforms include an online application system and student plar self-assessment against course learning outcomes. effective spring 2016, centennial college will be implementing a new service called centennial advising and pathways services. as part of this service enhancement, college advisors will take on more professional advisor responsibilities; in turn, it is expected that professional advising quality and capacity will increase. offering high-quality pathways for advising and peer mentoring, including on matters of transfer credit and plar, will be among the aims of this endeavour. this aligns with four of the seven recommendations from arnold and woodhead (2015); specifically, increase initial support, further automate and streamline processes, improve rpl staff visibility and expertise, and integrate peer mentoring into rpl advising. 10 transferability expectations and realities review of arnold and woodhead (2015) arnold and woodhead (2015) explored transferability expectation-reality gaps and searched for links between these gaps, rpl success and rpl satisfaction. student expectations, which are developed in advance of attending the institution, are a determinant of rpl satisfaction (british columbia council on admissions and transfer, 2012; decock, mccloy, liu, & hu, 2011). understanding expectation formation is, thus, critical to properly understanding relationships between student expectations, realities and effects on satisfaction. arnold & woodhead (2015) draw from the literature three main tenets of a satisfying transfer experience (andres, 1999; arnold, 2012; bccat, 2012; handel, 2006; laanan, 1996; roksa & keith, 2008; townsend & wilson, 2006; usher & jarvey, 2012): 1) clear and accurate information, 2) robust pathway support services, and 3) improved transfer opportunities and processes. expectancy theory, which belongs to the behavioural psychology discipline, is used by the authors in developing a conceptual framework to explain student expectation formation, how students navigate through realised expectation-reality gaps and resultant impacts on perceptions of the system. this theory is rooted in the work of victor vroom (1964), who employs a psychological perspective in explaining that, as conscious agents of action, we establish expectations and choose action based on an iterative and cyclical process of creating, assessing and revising perceptions, attitudes and beliefs in an effort to maximise pleasure (i.e. benefit) and minimise pain (i.e. damage). arnold and woodhead (2015) explain that each individual student will move through this process, navigating in a way that is meaningful to themselves, with the intent of minimising learning redundancy. in their findings, the authors draw the following conclusions: 1. students understanding of credit transfer and plar improve throughout the first term, more comprehensively with the former than the latter; 2. the main perceived benefits of rpl are reduced course load and limited learning redundancy. students have unmet expectations regarding tuition reimbursement for reduced full-time course load; 3. primary sources of information for rpl include the college website, on-campus staff and social networks; 4. students accurately predict the amount of transfer credit they will receive and strive for a high transfer-credit-application success rate; conversely, students overestimate the amount of plar credit they will receive; 5. students have high levels of satisfaction with program and college choice, rpl process fairness, and rpl process quickness; 6. students have a descending level of satisfaction across the first term with rpl clarity and straightforwardness; 7. predictors of satisfaction with rpl credit received include rpl success rate, rpl process fairness and rpl process quickness; and 8. predictors of rpl success rate include prior understanding of ontario pse and credit transfer. the authors complete their report by offering seven recommendations: increase initial support, further automate and streamline processes, centralise rpl support, improve staff visibility and expertise, incorporate peer mentoring, revise policies and manage expectations. 11 sean woodhead and rachel oh methodology this study employs arnold and woodheads (2015) research design to capture students expectations and realities while exploring relationships between resultant gaps and satisfaction. this design employs both quantitative (i.e. pre-test survey questionnaire, post-test survey questionnaire and college administrative data) and qualitative (i.e. focus groups and interviews) methods. a non-probability convenience sample was taken from among centennial college students who applied for transfer credit or plar during their first term of study, which could be either a fall, winter or summer intake. the pre- and post-test survey questionnaires were designed to measure indicators derived from the literature as being facets of a quality rpl experience and/or having an impact on student expectations, realities or satisfaction related to rpl (e.g. sources of rpl information, understanding of rpl policies/processes and rpl satisfaction). centennial college research ethics board (reb) approval was secured prior to conducting this work, and all modifications to the study throughout its entirety were also approved by the reb. recruitment students recruited to participate included: 1) first-term students, 2) students who submitted a transfer credit or plar application, and 3) students who stayed enroled through the first term in a certificate, diploma, advanced diploma, graduate certificate or baccalaureate program. these students were identified by student number and were sent an email invitation to participate (appendix a). the research study comprised a three-stage design (see figure 1): 1. pre-survey: students were sent an invitation to participate in a pre-test survey questionnaire (appendix b), consented to participate, and respondents completed the survey through fluidsurveys, were informed of post-test survey questionnaire and had an opportunity to consent for post-survey follow-up. 2. post-survey: pre-survey respondents who consented to follow-up were invited to participate (appendix c) in a post-test survey questionnaire (appendix d) and had an opportunity to consent to focus group or interview follow-up. 3. interviews/focus groups: interested respondents were invited to participate in focus groups or interviews (appendix e) and were scheduled accordingly; a protocol was established to help facilitate semi-structured focus groups and interviews. consent and incentives respondents were fully informed prior to participation and provided explicit consent by ticking a box before survey access. for focus groups and interviews, consent was procured via written confirmation, and all participants were made aware that they were being audio recorded. confirmation of confidentiality was delivered to all respondents prior to their participation. incentives were provided to all respondents, in an effort to recognise that their time and effort was valued. for survey participation, students received raffle tickets for a tablet. there was subsequently one winner at the end of the research study. for participation in the post-test survey questionnaire, respondents also received a $15.00 tim hortons gift card. for participation in the 12 transferability expectations and realities focus group or interview, which lasted approximately 60 minutes, each respondent received a $20.00 cash honorarium. figure 1 | three-stage design summary (from arnold & woodhead, 2015) pre-survey invitation at the beginning of the third week of classes, a pre-survey 'letter of invitation to participate' was sent to students who met the selection criteria. the survey remained open for a period of three weeks. this stage was repeated for each cohort (september, january and may). pre-survey reminders weekly reminder emails were sent to transfer-credit and plar students who had not yet responded to the survey. these emails were sent until the survey closed at the end of the third week. post-survey invitation students self-selected whether to participate in the postsurvey. three weeks prior to the start of the centennial college exam period, students who decided to participate were sent a 'letter of invitation to participate'. the survey remained open for a period of three weeks. this stage was repeated for each cohort (december, april and august). post-survey reminders weekly reminder emails were sent to transfer-credit and plar students who had not yet responded to the survey. these emails were sent until the survey closed at the end of the third week. focus groups/ interviews students self-selected whether to partipate in a focus group/interview. students signed up for a 60-minute focus group if they wished to discuss their transfer-credit and plar experiences. students who were unable to attend one of the scheduled focus group sessions were sent an email request asking them to participate in a phone interview. this stage was repeated for each cohort (december, april and august). data collection and analysis quantitative data were derived from three sources: 1) administrative data (i.e. banner by elucian system of record), 2) the pre-test survey questionnaire and 3) the post-test survey questionnaire. administrative data were collected in order to test whether the respondent group was representative of the population. the administrative data consisted of demographic information, program of study and approvals of rpl applications. 13 sean woodhead and rachel oh pre-test and post-test survey questionnaire data were collected via fluidsurveys. data were cleaned in fluidsurveys and excel, and they were exported to spss along with the corresponding codebook. in a few instances, students did not complete all questions. for interval questions, missing data were replaced with mean scores. for likert-scale questions, median values were assigned to missing data. all data analyses (e.g., cross-tabulation, cross-validation and regression analysis) were completed using spss. qualitative data were derived from two sources: 1) focus groups and 2) interviews. interviews were only completed by respondents who were unable to attend scheduled focus groups. audio recordings of these sessions were transcribed and then codified and assessed for emergent themes and trends using the arnold and woodhead (2015) method. data collection summary the following is a summary of all data collected for the purposes of this research study (table 1): 98 pre- and post-survey matches were attained from a population of 417 students; the pre-test survey response rate was 34%; the post-test survey response rate was 70%; 27 students participated in focus groups and interviews; and no respondents chose to withdraw from the research study. table 1 | data summary population pre-survey respondents post-survey respondents focus groups and interviews cohort i fall 258 82 56 15 cohort winter 132 49 36 10 14 ii cohort summer 27 9 6 2 iii total 417 140 98 27 transferability expectations and realities results throughout this analysis, population refers to all students across the fall, winter and summer 2014-15 cohorts who met the selection criteria and were therefore eligible to participate in the distributed surveys. this was determined by taking administrative data from the system of record of anyone who applied for transfer or plar credit. respondents refers to those students who completed a minimum of 85% of both the pre- and post-surveys. demographic profile a series of demographic variables has been used to make comparisons between the respondent and population groups: age, gender, domestic/international status, time passed since secondary school, program credential and school (table 2). the table presents the percentage of various respondents demographics in comparison to the population. the percentage comparison gives only a rough estimation, but it does not test the hypothesis as to whether respondent profiles are different or similar to the population. to achieve this objective, a chi-square contingency table is applied in the analysis. a chi-square analysis of respondents and population demographics are used to test the hypothesis that respondents represent the population (table 3). a comparison of the respondent and population frequencies in the demographic profiles (i.e. age, gender, status, time passed since secondary school, program credential and school) is completed with chi-square analysis. as the table shows, none of the demographic parameters of the respondents are significantly different from those of the population. the rpl population averages 27 years of age, and the average age of the respondents is 26. figure 2 suggests that respondents have a greater percentage in the 25-29 age group compared to the population. however, the chi-square analysis shows no statistically significant difference [2(df = 4) = 2.64, p = .62]. in terms of mean ages for the respondents (m = 26.13, sd = 6.38) and population (m = 26.64, sd = 7.38), the t-test indicates that there is no difference (t = 0.63, p = 0.53). figure 2 | age distribution rpl student age (years) 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% <20 20-24 25-29 30-39 40 respondents 5% 44% 36% 10% 5% population 6% 46% 28% 12% 8% 15 sean woodhead and rachel oh table 2 | demographic comparisons respondent population 42% 58% 40% 60% 5% 44% 36% 10% 5% 6% 46% 28% 12% 8% 89% 11% 83% 17% 0% 14% 16% 53% 17% 1% 20% 21% 46% 12% 1% 3% 52% 20% 2% 10% 48% 19% 23% 19% 0% 1% 1% 1% 0% 14% 59% 1% 17% 48% gender male female average age (years) <20 20-24 25-29 30-39 >40 status domestic international average time passed since secondary school (years) <1 1-2 3-4 5-9 >10 program credential centennial certificate ontario college certificate ontario college diploma ontario college advanced diploma ontario college graduate certificate ontario college baccalaureate bachelor of nursing (centennial-ryerson) school advancement business community and health studies communications, media and design continuing education engineering technology and applied science hospitality, tourism and culinary arts transportation 2% 1% 3% 2% 23% 25% 0% 3% 1% 1% 16 transferability expectations and realities table 3 | chi-square analysis: demographic variables variable 2 p-value degrees of freedom age gender status time passed since secondary school program credential school1 2.64 0.72 2.00 3.48 .62 .40 .16 .32 4 1 1 3 5.31 5.12 .26 .16 4 3 the vast majority of transfer-credit applicants have domestic status, while also showing subtle differences between the respondent and population groups for domestic and international students (figure 3). there may be a lower number of international students who apply for transfer credit because they need to submit a credential evaluation with their application which is an extra step and there is a cost associated with it. in focus groups, international students did mention the credential evaluation as a being a barrier for them. the chi-square analysis suggests no significant difference between these two subgroups [2(df = 1) = 2.0, p = .16], so we can state that the respondent group is representative of status. figure 3 | status distribution status 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% domestic international respondents 89% 11% population 83% 17% only business, community & health studies, and engineering technology & applied science were tested, as these schools account for 94 of 98 respondents and the remaining schools respondent subgroups are too small to test. 1 17 sean woodhead and rachel oh figure 4 | time passed distribution time passed since high school 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% less than 1 year respondents population 1% 1-2 years 3-4 years 5-9 years 10+ years 14% 16% 53% 17% 20% 21% 46% 12% there are no participants in the category of less than 1 year, and only 1% of the population falls into this category. to overcome the limitation of the 2 test, this category is combined with the 1-2 years group. approximately half of students who applied for rpl have been out of high school for 5-9 years and almost 80% have been out of high school for at least 3 years (figure 4). this is to be expected as students need to either possess post-secondary credit or have relevant experience to apply for rpl. there is no statistically significant difference [2 (df = 3) = 3.48, p = .32] between the respondents and the population. college diploma program students represent the highest ratio of rpl applicants, followed by the college graduate certificate, college advanced diploma and ontario college certificate (figure 5). categories with a small number of participants are consolidated to test the hypothesis; thus, the bachelor of science nursing, college baccalaureate and centennial college certificate programs are combined into one category to facilitate the 2 testing. again, no statistically significant difference is observed between the respondents and the population [2 (df = 4) = 5.31, p =.26]. the last component of the demographic profile is the school of study, which reveals the school of community and health studies to host the largest number of rpl students, both in the respondent group and the population. fifty-nine percent of respondents and 48% of the population are attending this program (figure 6). since there are no respondents from the school of advancement and school of hospitality, tourism and culinary arts, these categories are combined with the school of transportation and school of continuing education for hypothesis testing. the school of study analysis was thus reduced to four categories, among which there is no statistically significant difference [2(df = 3) = 5.12, p = .16]. 18 transferability expectations and realities figure 5 | program credential distribution credential 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% ontario college certificate centennial college certificate college graduate certificate college diploma program college advanced diploma college degree program bachelor of nursing respondents 3% 1% 23% 52% 20% 0% 1% population 10% 2% 19% 48% 19% 1% 1% figure 6 | school distribution school of study 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% communit y and health studies continuing education engineerin g technolog y and applied science hospitality, tourism and culture transporta tion advancem ent business communic ation media and design respondents 0% 14% 2% 59% 1% 23% 0% 1% population 1% 17% 3% 48% 2% 25% 3% 1% 19 sean woodhead and rachel oh prior postsecondary education and rpl credit comparisons are also conducted between the respondent group and the population regarding prior postsecondary education and number of rpl credits (table 4). almost all respondents had some postsecondary education prior to joining centennial college; 32% had attended an ontario university and 26% an ontario college (figure 7). about 10% to 13% of respondents indicated that they attended university or college outside ontario, 9% attended an international college and 3% were former international university students. table 4 | previous postsecondary and rpl credit comparisons previous postsecondary education no answer college - ontario college - out of province college- international university - ontario university - out of province university - international number of pse institutions no pse institution one pse institution two pse institutions three pse institutions transfer credit(s) application (average) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 transfer credit(s) awarded (average) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 plar credit(s) application 0 1 2 3 plar credit(s) awarded 0 1 2 3 reduced course hours 0 hours 1-50 hours 51-100 hours 101-150 hours 151-200 hours >200 hours 20 respondents 7% 26% 10% 9% 32% 13% 3% population 12% 32% 12% 3% 19% 15% 7% 7% 63% 29% 1% 12% 63% 24% 1% 3% 40% 18% 14% 9% 4% 12% 3% 42% 19% 12% 9% 3% 12% 21% 40% 13% 12% 5% 2% 7% 32% 35% 13% 8% 4% 3% 5% 95% 4% 1% 0% 96% 3% 1% 0% 97% 2% 1% 0% 99% 1% 0% 0% 23% 36% 13% 15% 4% 9% 34% 30% 16% 9% 4% 7% transferability expectations and realities it is noted here that about 30% of respondents indicated that they had previously enroled in more than one postsecondary institute. chi-square analysis of the respondent records and the admin database shows no statistically significant difference [2 (df =6) = 9.49, p = 0.15], suggesting that the categories of population in the administrative database are fairly well represented by the respondents (table 5). perhaps surprisingly, most students only applied for one transfer credit and did not apply for plar. in testing whether the respondent group is representative of the population, a chi-square analysis is used for testing the null hypothesis. table 5 | chi-square analysis of postsecondary education and credit awarded variable 2 p-value degrees of freedom postsecondary education postsecondary institute number rpl credit(s) application rpl credit (s) awarded reduced course hours success rate by program (only 3 schools) average hours saved by the program expected and transfer received expected and plar received expected and actual benefits of credit transfer 9.49 2.29 1.34 5.22 9.80 4.66 1.46 8.28 7.56 10.49 .15 .32 .93 .39 .08 .10 .69 .02 .02 .03 6 2 5 5 5 2 3 2 2 4 information sources for transfer credit 4.18 support for credit transfer/plar 12.63 documentation used in submitting 1.90 transfer/plar applications .84 .02 .75 8 5 5 a majority of respondents (63%) reported that they had attended one pse institution, but a considerable number (29%) indicated that they had attended two institutes (figure 8). one percent reported that they had attended three institutes. only 7% reported that they had no previous exposure to a pse institute which could be because they applied for plar where previous postsecondary education is not needed. the population data also show a similar pattern to those of the respondents. there is no statistically significant difference between the respondents and the population [2 (df = 2) = 2.29, p = .32]. in terms of prior education and experience relevant to centennial college, 57% of participants reported that they had completed university, college or vocational schools; 29% were employed in a job related to their enrolment, 24% had relevant hobbies, 20% volunteered in the field of study and 12% had completed a workshop. this diversity of prior learning sources is important (figure 9). while transfer credit only allows for formal prior learning sources (i.e. university and college), this breadth of sources has applicability to plar. 21 sean woodhead and rachel oh figure 7 | previous pse distribution previous postsecondary education 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% none college ontario college out of college province international university ontario university out university of province international respondents 7% 26% 10% 9% 32% 13% 3% population 12% 32% 12% 3% 19% 15% 7% figure 8 | number of attended institutions number of posecondary institutions 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% none one institution two institutions three institutions respondents 7% 63% 29% 1% population 12% 63% 24% 1% 22 transferability expectations and realities figure 9 | sources of relevant prior learning prior education and experience of relevance to centennial college program 57% 29% 24% 20% 12% post-secondary education work hobby volunteer workshops rpl credit-application patterns are similar between the respondents and the population (figure 10). the survey responses indicate that all of the respondents applied for transfer credit or plar, with a majority applying for one course, followed by two, three and four courses. interestingly, approximately one in ten students will apply for six or more transfer creditsequal to one or more semesters of study. one student applied for 31 credits and was awarded 18 credits; another applied for 19 credits and received 12. the transfer credit application trends of the respondent group reflect the population application trends observed through the admin database. statistical analysis does not detect any significant difference between the respondent group and the population, 2 (df = 5) = 1.34, p =.93. figure 10 | application for rpl credit(s) rpl applications (number of courses) 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 respondents 3% 40% 18% 14% 9% 4% 12% population 3% 42% 19% 12% 9% 3% 12% 23 sean woodhead and rachel oh a comparison now follows of rpl credit awarded to the two study groups (figure 11). the graph shows a similar pattern to those in the rpl credit application. a majority of students in the respondent group (40%) and the population (35%) received one credit award, followed by those who received no credit award, as illustrated in the graph. again, statistical analysis showed no significant difference between the two groups, 2 (df = 5) = 5.22, p = 0.39. figure 11 | rpl credit awarded rpl credit(s) awarded 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 respondents 21% 40% 13% 12% 5% 2% 7% population 32% 35% 13% 8% 4% 3% 5% figure 12 | success rate by school success rate by school 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% business community and health studies engineering technology and applied science total respondents 61% 71% 55% 64% population 43% 55% 60% 51% 24 transferability expectations and realities a majority (71%) of participants in the community and health studies program received transfer credit awards. the other two groups are business and engineering technology, which had 61% and 55% success rates, respectively (figure 12). the success rates of the respondents (business and health studies) appear higher than those in the population data banks; however, engineering has a lower rate of success. on average, 64% of respondents received a tcr award in comparison to 51% of the population. figure 13 | reduced course hours reduced course hours 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 0 hours 1-50 hours 51-100 hours 101-150 hours 151-200 hours >200 hours respondents 23% 36% 13% 15% 4% 9% population 34% 30% 16% 9% 4% 7% in terms of total credits awarded to the three largest programs, respondents received 42 credits in business school, 86 in health studies and 46 in engineering school. for the population, the college awarded 145 credits to students in the business school, 234 to students in health studies and 194 to students in engineering school. a comparison of these numbers reveals no statistically significant difference [2 (df = 2) = 4.66, p = .10] between the respondent and the population groups. about 77% of the respondents experience a reduction in course hours (due to rpl credit approvals), as opposed to 66% of the population (figure 13). the reduction varies from 1 to >200 hours, with 36% of the respondents obtaining between 1 and 50 hours. on average, the respondent group had 81.14 hours of reduction per student, while the population had 68.18 hours. the independent t-test does not show a significant difference in mean values between the categories t(503) = 1.20, p =0.23. 25 sean woodhead and rachel oh figure 14 | success rate by credential success rate by credential 120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% centennial college certificate ontario college ontario college ontario college ontario college advanced graduate certificate diploma diploma certificate respondents 0% 68% 100% 75% 81% population 60% 44% 54% 66% 49% among the respondents who applied for transfer credits, the ontario college diploma (ocd) program had the largest number of applicants (51), followed by 22 applicants in an ontario college graduate certificate program and 20 in an ontario college advanced diploma program. there are only a few remaining respondents in the other credential categories. three ontario college-certificate students applied for a total of 7 credits, and all were successful (100%). twenty students in advanced diploma programs applied for 69 credits, but they received 47 (68%). of the diploma student group, 51 applicants applied for 140 courses, and they were awarded 105 credits (75%). graduate certificate students applied for a total of 26 courses, and they received 21 transfer credits (81%) (figure 14). the above pattern is reflected in the population, with 196 students applying for credit in a diploma program, 79 applicants in the ocgc and 79 applicants in the ocad. however, the success rates in the population are smaller than those of the respondents in every category except for the centennial college certificate. the comparison of frequencies with chi-square analysis only accounted for three credentials (diploma, advanced diploma and graduate certificate) because the number of respondents in other groups was very small (1 for centennial college certificate and 3 for ontario college certificate). chi-square analysis of the three programs yields a value of 2(df =2) = 0.17, p = 0.91. this implies that there is no significant difference between the frequencies of respondents and the population. 26 transferability expectations and realities figure 15 | average hours saved average hours saved 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 business engineering technology and applied science community and health studies communication, media, and design average respondents 167 131 81 42 105 population 152 135 72 48 102 on average, respondents in business, engineering technology and health studies saved 167, 131 and 81 hours, respectively (figure 15). these numbers are quite similar to those averages in the administrative database. the analysis of the 2x4 matrix does not indicate any statistically significant difference between the two groups with 2 (df = 3) = 1.46, p = 0.69. understanding of transfer credit and plar the remaining results for this study are derived exclusively by analysing the respondent group. student understanding of transfer credit and plar is examined at three distinct time periods: at offer of admission (time 1), on the first day of class (time 2) and near the end of the first term (time 3). time 1 and time 2 responses were collected by the pre-survey, and time 3 responses were collected by the post-survey. the results of the three questions were then compared with analysis of variance for statistically significant differences. across time, there is an upward trend of students reporting that that they understand credit transfer and its related policies (figure 16). by extension, there is a downward trend of students reporting that they do not understand transfer credit. an analysis of the data shows an increasing agreement of understanding the transfer credit policies and procedures with average mean changes from time 1 (m = 3.42) to time 2 (m=3.96) and time 3 (m = 4.17). there is a significant difference in the level of agreement, with p < .05 for the three conditions [f(2, 291) = 13.51, = 0.000]. post hoc analysis with bonferroni correction suggests that both time 2 and time 3 are significantly different from time 1. however, there is no significant difference between time 2 and time 3. 27 sean woodhead and rachel oh figure 16 | understanding of credit transfer and policies understanding of transfer credit, policies and procedures 70% time 1 time 2 time 3 60% 60% 48% 50% 41% 40% 30% 22% 19% 20% 10% 33% 32% 8% 11% 10% 2% 7% 1% 3% 3% 0% understanding of transfer credit, understanding of transfer credit, understanding of transfer credit, policies and procedures at offer policies and procedures at first policies and procesures at end of of admission class first term stronly disagree disagree neither agree or disagree agree strongly agree another method of analysis is the repeated-measures anova, which is available in spsss general linear model (glm). this method assumes equal variance among the differences of pairs in data. thus, the variance of differences between time 1, time 2 and time 3 are roughly equal. therefore, if (time 1 time 2) (time 2 time 3) (time 1 time 3), then there is a sphericity assumption. spss uses mauchlys test to check whether data are departed from sphericity. if data violate sphericity assumptions, degrees of freedom will need adjustment with either greenhouse and geisser or huynh and feldt. mauchlys test of the sample indicates that the assumption of sphericity has been violated, 2(2) = 14.04, p = .001; therefore, the degrees of freedom were corrected using huynh-feldt estimates of sphericity ( = .89). this demonstrates that there is a significant difference in the understanding of transfer credit and its related policies, where f(1.79, 169.75) = 17.42, p < .001. post hoc analysis with bonferroni correction suggests that there are significant differences in student understanding between offer of admission and at the first class, as well as between offer of admission and at the end of the term. however, there is no significant difference in understanding between the first class and the end of the term. understanding of plar somewhat differs from understanding of transfer credit, as there is less overall understanding of plar. further, while there is an upward trend in plar understanding across time, this trend is not as pronounced as the increase in understanding of transfer credit (figure 17). the same analysis of transfer credit was also applied to plar. student agreements gradually increase from time 1 to time 2 to time 3, respectively, with mean value changes from 2.91 to 3.15 to 3.51. the anova shows a significant difference among the three values [f (2, 291) = 6.12, p = 28 transferability expectations and realities 0.002]. post hoc analysis with bonferroni indicates that student agreement at time 3 is statistically significantly greater than at time 1. there is no significant difference between time 1 and time 2 or between time 2 and time 3. figure 17 | understanding of plar understanding of plar, policies and procedures time 1 50% time 3 time 2 47% 45% 39% 40% 35% 30% 29% 28% 23% 25% 20% 15% 10% 19% 17% 14% 19% 15% 12% 15% 10% 9% 4% 5% 0% understanding of plar, policies understanding of plar, policies understanding of plar, policies and procedures at offer of and procedures at first class and procedures at end of first admission term stronly disagree disagree neither agree or disagree agree strongly agree the logic for repeated-measures anova is also applied to the understanding of plar and policies. mauchlys test of the sample indicates that the assumption of sphericity has been violated, 2(2) = 7.04, p = .03; therefore, the degrees of freedom were corrected using huynh-feldt estimates of sphericity ( = .95). the result shows that there is a significant difference in understanding of the plar policies, f(1.90, 184.61) = 14.20, p < .001. post hoc analysis with bonferroni correction suggests that both time 2, and time 3 are significantly different from time 1. there is also a significant difference between time 2 and time 3. similar to the survey data, during the focus groups and phone interviews, students expressed a strong understanding of the term transfer credit, whereas knowledge of the term plar credit was significantly weaker. this could be attributed to the fact that the majority of the students interviewed were students who had applied for transfer credit. students were asked what it means to be a transfer student or a plar student, which resulted in students providing definitions for what transfer credit means. overall, students expressed that transfer credit is the process of gaining credit for skills and experiences that were previously gained at another institution to avoid 29 sean woodhead and rachel oh repetition of course material. the following are ways in which students described their understanding of what it means to be a transfer student: its just taking the same skills that youre learning here from somewhere else, and just bringing them here. dont repeat the same work, if you took [a] computers course at the other school, why are you taking it again when you come here? so its just giving you credit for the work that youve done. just the fact that you [went] to a previous post-secondary school and are able to use some of those credits to complete your new program faster. students were also asked about which recognition of prior learning policies and procedures was clearly outlined at the point of intake. students expressed a lack of understanding about what plar is and the process for obtaining plar credit. oh yeah! i didnt i wasnt aware of the plar process. the plar cost $175. i saw the posters all over the school about plar, but i didnt really i dont know the timing of it. its just written to get more information on it. i was, uh, given the choice to take just the plar and have someone gauge my knowledge. i thought i understood [that] plar is just an interview. i learned that because i thought it was an actual examination, i had to study, but someone told me they just the advisor told me, its just an interview to see where your knowledge is. i wasnt sure about one of the steps because it said somewhere that before i paid my fees i have to write the exam within 6 months. but i wasnt sure if that was true or not for the plar. although students had a strong understanding of what transfer credit means, it appeared that many students found out about the process of applying for transfer credit after they received their offer of admission, which can be seen in the survey data by the increase in understanding of the term transfer credit and the policies and procedures as the semester went on. i did this all in the summer, so i had to really look online through mycentennial or even centennial college to see how the process is. i didnt know until i came in and spoke to the advisor again after i got accepted to centennial. no one really told me about it. no one sent me any notices about it, it was just i had to google it, because i thought i could get a transfer credit. 30 transferability expectations and realities expected and actual rpl credit figure 18 | expected and actual transfer credit received 80% expected and actual transfer credit received 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% no transfer credit 1-3 courses of transfer credit more than 3 courses expected 7% 67% 26% actual 18% 69% 13% the data show a close match of expectations and realities for those who received one to three transfer credits, with expectations being surpassed for those who expected no transfer credit and expectations not met for half of those who expected more than three transfer credits (figure 18). chi-square analysis suggests a significant difference between transfer credit expectations and realities [2 (df = 2) = 8.28, p = 0.016]. a great majority of students (74%) did not expect to receive plar credits, which was confirmed in their beliefs in the post-test survey. this is due to the fact that the large majority of survey respondents only applied for transfer credit. about 15% of students expected to receive some plar credits but did not. in total, only 11% of respondents received any plar credit. as the graph suggests, the percentage of participants who received one to three courses is lower in actuality than in expectation (figure 19). this is also true for people who applied for three or more credits (6% vs. 2%). chi-square analysis shows a significant expectation-reality gap for plar credit [2 (df =2) = 7.56, p = 0.02]. 31 sean woodhead and rachel oh figure 19 | expected and actual plar credit received expected and actual plar received 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% no plar credit 1-3 courses of plar credit more than 3 courses expected 74% 20% 6% actual 89% 9% 2% a comparison between the pre-test and post-test respondents has been completed regarding their understanding of the benefits of credit transfer (figure 20). about 91% of participants during the pre-test believed that credit transfer would reduce their course load, but this expectation decreased to 74% in the post-test. about 54% of participants thought it would reduce the educational and opportunity cost, but only 20% retained the same opinions at the end of the course. statistical analysis suggests a significant difference [2(df =4) =10.49, p = 0.033] in the distribution of the frequencies among the five types of benefits, meaning there is a significant expectation-reality gap across the five benefits. during the focus groups and phone interviews, students emphasised that the main benefit to receiving recognition or prior learning credit was that they were able to reduce their course load, which allowed them to focus more on their other courses and their employment. they also expressed that it was a validation of their previous learning and they did not have to waste time and money to repeat previous learning. 32 transferability expectations and realities figure 20 | expected and actual benefits of credit transfer and/or plar. expected and actual benefits of credit transfer and/or plar 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% reduced course load limited repetition of reduced educational previous learning or opportunity costs additional time for employment adiitional time for family pre-test 91% 64% 54% 49% 33% post-test 74% 63% 20% 34% 30% the survey shows a significant drop from the expectation to the actual reduced educational and opportunity cost benefit, which was also highlighted in student focus group and interview responses. many students expressed frustration that they did not receive a refund for courses for which they received a transfer credit. this is often a result of centennials fee structure, as students do not receive a refund unless they receive enough recognition of prior learning credit that they are able to reduce their course load by a semester or more. so that saves you time, that reduces your load [so] that you can concentrate on other [important] courses which you are studying. rather than studying [what] you are already studied, its better to learn something which is adding a value to your degree or to your knowledge. im very happy [that] i didnt have to take an extra course. thats just more stress on me, and im also working full time so thats helpful for sure. i dont need to waste more time or more money to do the same thing. i mean, yes it was like less workload, but the same time im able to focus on those courses, right? because theyre really, really important. instead of rushing through my things. as the majority of students only received 1-3 credits, they were not eligible for a refund. also, in cases when students did receive a larger number of transfer credits, due to the nature of scheduling centennial courses, there was less flexibility to change a students model route to allow for reduced semesters. additionally, they found the cost of plar to be a barrier, and students who had 33 sean woodhead and rachel oh international credentials found the cost of a credential evaluation to be expensive. students outlined their concerns regarding the lack of cost benefits and cost barriers: the only thing i didnt like [was] how each course is paid as one whole [and not per] course im used to taking things as each course, you know what i mean. so i can be flexible on how much i can take. here its like you pick the whole thing and you pay one straight fee. itd be nice if i got some money back, though. apparently, some w-e-s evaluation that i didnt know about was needed. and when i found out that i had to pay for it, i didnt have the money at the time, so i just didnt continue. though not a question that was addressed in the surveys, when students were asked during the focus groups and interviews if their experience had differed from that of their high school counterparts, students often expressed the benefit of possessing a certain level of mastery and maturity that was lacking among students who came to college straight from high school. they felt that they possessed more academic, employment and life experiences which made them more knowledgeable about college policies, procedures and the expectations of post-secondary institutions. they also noted that their academic skills and strategies were better developed than those of their high school counterparts. well for one, i think that when you do attend another post-secondary institution, you are kind of well versed in the rules and the expectations especially. you know things about deadlines and [how] there are no extensions. and small things, you know, make the biggest difference. aside from your education, you have those skills. youre able to you know have that maturity. we have an advantage as well of how to predict outcomes and to have a better study strategy [over] somebody who is coming from high school. i feel like i have a better overall understanding of material, even though its something completely new to me in a sense. i do feel like i can think in a broader perspective. i just find going back after doing a university degree [to be] very helpful in terms of [understanding] how to write essays. i understand how to study, what to study, what not to study. [i am p]robably in a better situation than someone coming right out of high school. i think theres a difference between like the high school way you learn and the university or college way you learn. rpl information sources and available supports students reported on what sources of information they use to become informed on matters of transfer credit and plar, and this was completed in both the pre- and post-test (table 6). 34 transferability expectations and realities table 6 | information sources for transfer credit centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and co-workers secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counsellor(s) other institution staff other institution website family other expectation (pre-test) 61% 41% reality (post-test) 62% 32% 20% 15% 18% 15% 13% 6% 12% 11% 10% 5% 8% 7% 6% 6% the results suggested that the centennial college website and on-campus staff were the most sought-after resources for information about credit transfer. nearly 90% of the respondents utilised multiple sources of information to learn about credit transfer. while it is interesting that the percentage scores for most information sources dropped between the pre- and post-test, statistical analysis of the pre- and post-test surveys does not yield a significant difference in the distribution of frequencies from these sources of information [2(df = 8) = 4.18, p = 0.84]. similarly to the survey results, during focus groups and interviews students frequently referenced receiving most of their information regarding recognition of prior learning through the centennial college website: i knew that i could apply for it online because it was i think it was a little icon on the side of the screens for like centennial, that you could transfer over credits, and i knew that you were able to in any case. i looked [on] the website and i thought i could ... i found everything i need to know, literally. how they work, how to regist[er] and [use] mycentennial. so for me, it was really straightforward. i checked on their website centennials website, [to learn] which documents were required, how many credits i could get. the other main source of information students said they utilised was information and advising provided from centennial college staff, especially from enrolment services and from advisors, faculty and coordinators in the academic schools: 35 sean woodhead and rachel oh when i was applying for transfer credit, i had one of the actual people who were reviewing it contact me to give me my best options. when i applied to a program that i wished to attend, i first was able to see the list of all the courses that i would be taking in the whole program at mycentennial. i noticed there was an english course and that it required a previous test in english, entrance testing. so i called the admissions office and found out [from admissions] that i could actually apply [for] the transferring of credits and got a brief explanation of how to do it. they basically say, go to my.centennial, and youll be able to find it. so, i went on the website, and i also went to i believe the english department to review the process of how to do an english credit transfer. i inquired with my program coordinator [about] which credits i could transfer from [the institution] to centennial, and she advised me that math wasnt one of them, even though i took math at [the institution]. first even before i applied for the program at centennial. i came in walked into the school and spoke to the advisor concerning how, is there a way like they would take some courses that i completed previously in a university [and] transfer [them] over. at that point, they informed me that the transfer credits should be done online. respondents reported expected and actual use of centennial rpl support functions (table 7), and downward trending gaps were observed across all six functions: clear information (-26%), guidance on application procedures (-6%), assessment and decision assistance (-23%), rpl file management (-30%), program advising (-16%) and grade calculation assistance (-18%). what respondents were not asked is, of these support functions, which were expected to exist and how valuable were they to the student rpl experience. table 7 | available rpl supports clear info regarding eligible transfer credits guidance on application procedures assistance understanding transfer credit and/or plar assessments and decisions assistance managing your transfer credit/plar file program advising assistance with grade calculation expectation (pre-test) 81% 55% reality (post-test) 55% 49% 53% 30% 49% 33% 22% 19% 17% 4% unlike the rpl sources of information results, the difference in pre- and post-test results is statistically significant regarding support functions, 2 (df = 5) = 12.63, p = 0.02, meaning students recanted previously held beliefs that they accessed support. in attempting to explain this finding, it is possible that at the end of the term students became increasingly critical of the support they received and thus disqualified its status as actual support. 36 transferability expectations and realities concerning our focus groups and interviews, there was very little confusion about how to actually submit a transfer-credit application. however, students did reference frustration about the support they received after they submitted their transfer-credit applications, which may account for the perceived drop in available supports from the pre- to the post-survey, especially among students who were initially denied their transfer credit. at the point of the pre-survey, many students may not have received recognition of their prior learning decisions, so they may not have been able to accurately gauge the assistance they would have received with understanding assessments and decisions and managing their rpl file. students wanted to be able to have a dialogue with the person who assessed their transfer of credit so that they could know more specifically why it was denied. they also expressed difficulties with multiple re-submissions of transfer credit applications. because the course outline didnt really say much about the accounting part of it, they kept rejecting it, but on the syllabus, like, not the course outline. but the grading scheme [] all the information she wanted was there. so i actually had to email her that separately, talk to her about it, like this is what i had, so i think it would be better if we could have a face to face [and] be like, yeah, this is the work, this is this, this is what we learned, so all this. and um in terms of credit, i almost got most of them some of them i didnt, and i didnt understand why i didnt. where [were] they getting this information from? only when i had deny, deny, deny i requested talking to a supervisor it was like all one and not the other. and that was fine. that was explained to me. i thought it would be a lot quicker than what it was. she was saying its they want you to do all the work and send in the stuff but if you dont do it right they say, like, to read the course outline, and then check your course outline and see if they match, but thats open to interpretation, like yeah, yeah that matches, that matches, but in there theyre going no! they just throw it back at you, and youre like rejected. okay, what do you need then? applying for rpl credit a great majority of students indicated in the pre-test survey that they used academic transcripts (92%), followed by course outlines (75%) and course descriptions (65%). the post-test survey displayed a slightly different trend, with course outlines (91%) followed by transcripts (89%), course descriptions (70%) and others (7%). the other category comprises a small number of independent study, community activity, portfolio, hobbies, and seminar and non-credit university/college courses (figure 21). 37 sean woodhead and rachel oh figure 21 | documentation used in submitting transfer/plar applications documentation used in submitting transfer/plar applications 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% academic transcripts course outlines course descriptions paid or volunteer work or assignments others pre-test 92% 75% 65% 10% 9% post-test 89% 91% 70% 7% 10% there is no statistically significant difference between the pre- and post-test surveys, 2 (df = 5) = 1.90, p = .75. students were asked to identify the five steps in the transfer/plar process (figure 22). this task acts as a means to measure true understanding of the transfer credit process; subsequently, it offers an interesting comparison with perceived transfer credit process clarity. the analysis gives some latitude to participants in identifying the process, i.e. if students identified any of these three steps (completing the application, submitting the application and providing documentation) as steps 2, 3 or 4 or any sequence of these three steps, it is considered correct. however, students had to identify step 1 (confirm requirement) and step 5 (decision received) correctly. the pre-test and post-test of the above criteria are compiled and presented in figure 21. the information collected from the above paragraphs reduced the identification process to three steps: beginning, middle and final steps. based on the above criteria, each student could get a maximum of 5 marks if he or she identified the five steps correctly. because the same students identified the five steps on both the pre- and post-test, the paired t-test is applied to see whether the students improved their understanding of the process at the end of the course. the results suggest that the students improved their understanding of the process at the end of their course, with mean values increasing from 3.08 to 3.53, t(97) =-2.37, p = 0.015. 38 transferability expectations and realities figure 22 | identification of steps in the transfer process identified correct steps in the transfer credit process 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% confirm requirements complete application submit application provide documentation decision received pre-test 40% 65% 70% 69% 61% post-test 47% 70% 77% 81% 79% pre- and post-survey results indicate that fewer than half of the students confirmed requirements for transfer credit and/or plar with an advisor as their first step. this is likely due to the fact that many students sought out recognition or prior learning information on their own, as survey results indicate that less than half of the students used a centennial college staff member as a source of information about recognition of prior learning. during focus groups and interviews, students were asked to outline the process and stages that they went through to apply for transfer credit and plar. students all outlined the same middle steps for applying for transfer credit, as they are all completed at the same time with the online system. however, students received different types of advising. some students received advising prior to submitting their applications, whereas some received it during the process if they had difficulty and some sought advice afterward for more clarification. the majority of students stated that they knew a transcript and course outline would be used to evaluate a transfer credit. so i knew that they would need my transcripts just to see that i actually did pass the course. and i did [think] i would need the course syllabus. well from previous experience back home i would expect that you need to have the course outline and the syllabus and, you know, something your transcript to show what grade you received in the application. some students were surprised that they needed to submit a course outline and had difficulty obtaining one, especially if they were an international student or if they had been out of formal schooling for a long time. 39 sean woodhead and rachel oh because i studied abroad, it was a[n] issue for me to get a course outline. they probably finished that thing 10 years ago or 12 years ago, and i just how [am] i going to get that? i mean that time barely computers just speaking in a third-world country, coming here and well you need learning objective or course outline. i cant get that. and its in another language, on top of all that. i didnt know about the outlines because, like, what if i were a student that took a program, like, a couple of years ago? and how would i show a proof of the subject outline that i have from [the] previous [program]? because you know how they change it. they update it all the time, right? i expected it to be somewhat easy, but then there w[ere] some steps i didnt know, like i thought you needed a high mark to get your credit transferred, but i didnt know you [needed] to send in a course outline as well, which wasnt easy for me because some of the courses i took a long time ago, and [i dont] have the outline. so it was kind of hard for me to pull that up because the course wasnt there [any]more. it wasnt on the site. so i had to message or do a lot to get the outline back. others expressed dissatisfaction that they had to submit a transcript, as they thought their transcript would already be on file with centennial so they would not need to re-submit it. i thought that theyre stored somewhere like where to do a transfer credit that they could just look at it and be like, oh yeah, he actually has a transfer. but they told me that i had to request the number the electronic transcript, and that takes several business days to occur. so thats what i really did not appreciate. we send you the official transcript ... why on earth do we have to send you a copy and paste on [microsoft word] version of the same outline? when you can just get it straight from the official school get the official outline. [what] i didnt really like the most was the fact that i had to reorder my transcript from [the institution]. i just want to be able to apply to centennialthey stored all my credit information somewhere, so that when i apply for a transfer credit, i could just immediately start the process, as soon as possible. and they have a copy of my actual transcript somewhere, stored on the database. meanwhile, a few students thought that the information would be sent directly from their previous institution or that centennial would request it from their institution so that it would be official. well, i just expected to have the, you know my university send the transcript from there directly to school here, and they would do everything from there. 40 transferability expectations and realities i figured they would contact the advisors or the coordinators at the other school, and get all the information from them. they wanted the course outlines, they wanted the transcripts. if you have the transcripts of that specific year, specific course you can always go to the the professor of the school and ask them to fax you a copy of the transcript. whereas what i did was copy and paste the course outline from the internet. you can edit, add [and] remove where they had facts from the school and no one would be able to interfere with the course outline. the majority of students only had to submit a transcript and a course outline, as the online system only allows students to upload those two documents. centennials new online system was intentionally designed that way in an attempt to maintain a consistent process across the college. previously, when students submitted paper transfer credit applications, there were many instances when students were asked to provide additional documentation to support their transfer credit applications, such as assignments and essays. in the case of one student, they were asked to provide additional assignments to the transfer credit assessor: but i didnt know theyd ask for assignments. i thought that they were just going to ask for course syllabus [and] the transcript to see what grade you got. expectation-satisfaction with rpl credit in the pre-test survey, those who agree and strongly agree that they expected to receive credit for all rpl applications make up 47% and 46% of the respondents, respectively (figure 23). in the post-test, the number of respondents who are satisfied with the amount of credit received declined to 40% and 16%. the percentage decreased even more regarding the post-test plar to 12% of participants who agreed and 3% who strongly agreed. this graph suggests that students disagree with the amount of credit they received from the college. anova statistics also confirm this graph, with mean values declining from the pre-test (4.32) to post-test transfer credit (3.17) to post-test plar (2.81). these are significantly different, f (2,291) = 50.18, p <.00. post hoc with bonferroni correction indicates that the pre-test is significantly different from the two post-tests. there is no statistically significant difference between the two post-tests (transfer credit and plar credit). 41 sean woodhead and rachel oh figure 23 | expectation/satisfaction with transfer credit and plar credit received expectation/satisfaction with transfer credit and plar credit received 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% strongly disagree disagree neither agree/disagree agree strongly agree pre-test 1% 0% 6% 47% 46% transfer credit 17% 12% 14% 40% 16% plar credit 12% 7% 65% 12% 3% preference: start of term v. continuous rpl applications respondents also gave their opinions whether they preferred to apply for all transfer credits/plar at the beginning of their program in the pre-survey and then in the post-survey indicated whether they actually did apply for all their transfer credits at the beginning of their program (figure 24). the mean value of the pre-test (m = 3.83) is almost the same as that of the post-test (m = 3.69). figure 24 | application timing applied for all credit at beginning of program 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% strongly disagree disagree neither agree/disagree agree strongly agree pre-test 4% 7% 20% 35% 34% post-test 7% 13% 12% 31% 37% 42 transferability expectations and realities there is no statistically significant difference of opinions between the pre- and post-test, t(97) = 0.79, p = .43. sixty-nine percent of respondents state a preference for applying all rpl credit at the beginning of the term. related questions were asked during the pre and post surveys. during the pre-survey, students were asked whether they prefer to apply for transfer credit and plar at multiple points in the program. in the follow up post-test, students were asked whether they expect to apply for additional transfer credit and plar throughout the course of their program (figure 25). the three columns of each category reflect the opinions of respondents for pre-test, post-test for transfer credit and post-test for plar. the average mean scores of the three questions are 3.19 (pre-test), 3.16 (post-test for credit transfer) and 2.46 (post-test plar). the decline in mean values is statistically significant, f(2, 291) = 9.79, p <.00. the post hoc with bonferroni control indicates that the post-test (plar) is significantly different from the pre-test and the post-test (credit transfer). there is no statistically significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test (credit transfer). this could be due to the fact that the presurvey question joined transfer credit and plar together in one question, whereas in the postsurvey they were separated into two separate questions about whether students intended to apply for additional transfer credit or plar. in the pre-survey when students were answering about whether they preferred to apply for transfer credit and/or plar at multiple points throughout their program they may have been referring more to transfer credit when they answered, which would affect why less students responded that expected to apply for more plar during their program. figure 25 | expectation of future transfer/plar credit applications expectation of future applications 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% strongly disagree disagree neither agree or disagree agree strongly agree pre-test 14% 14% 25% 25% 22% post transfer credit 14% 17% 23% 29% 17% post plar credit 27% 25% 27% 15% 6% 43 sean woodhead and rachel oh satisfaction with college, program and rpl an investigation into rpl student satisfaction with the college, program and rpl process now follows. only a small percentage of students in the pre- and post-test surveys disagreed with the statement you are satisfied with choosing centennial college. about 78% (agree and strongly agree) of students in both the pre-test and post-test surveys were satisfied with choosing the college as their postsecondary institute (figure 26). figure 26 | satisfaction with centennial college satisfaction with centennial college 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% strongly disagree disagree neither agree or disagree agree strongly agree pre-test 1% 2% 19% 50% 28% post-test 2% 4% 17% 52% 25% there was no significant difference between the pre- and post-test surveys, t(97) = 0.324, p = 0.747. interestingly, respondents may show an even greater affinity with their program (80-84%) than with the college (figure 27). a large percentage of respondents agree (40%) or strongly agree (44%) with the questions in the pre-test survey. both categories show slight downward shifts in the post-test, while the disagreement categories are relatively unchanged. pair-wise t-test shows no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test [t (98) =1.11, p =0.271]. 44 transferability expectations and realities figure 27 | program satisfaction with centennial college program satisfaction at centennial college 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% strongly disagree disagree neither agree or disagree agree strongly agree pre-test 2% 1% 13% 40% 44% post-test 3% 1% 16% 39% 41% satisfaction with rpl is split into three separate factors: 1) fairness, 2) quickness and 3) clarity. responding to the fairness of transfer credit from participants shows an overall 61% agreement with the statement in the pre-test questionnaire (figure 28). the ratio slightly decreases to 57% in the post-test survey. the slight difference in percentage is shifted to the neither agree/disagree category in the post-test. generally, participants did not change their opinions in the post-test, as is reflected in the pair-wise t (97) =.614, p = 0.54. figure 28 | rpl satisfaction perceived fairness 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% fairness of transfer credit/plar decisions strongly disagree disagree neither agree or disagree agree strongly agree pre-test 10% 9% 19% 40% 22% post-test 7% 14% 22% 37% 20% 45 sean woodhead and rachel oh a majority of students agreed with the statement that centennial college quickly awards transfer credit/plar (figure 29). in the pre-test, the agree and strongly agree categories added up to 62%, while the disagree categories tallied to 18%. these percentages remained stable in the posttest survey with pairwise t(97) = 0.38, p = 0.71. figure 29 | rpl satisfaction perceived quickness quickness of transfer credit/plar decisions 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% strongly disagree disagree neither agree or disagree agree strongly agree pre-test 8% 10% 20% 36% 26% post-test 9% 9% 18% 38% 26% focus groups and phone interviews indicated that a lot of students were surprised that the transfer credit application would be online, so this may have impacted why they thought the process would be quick, as online processes are sometimes perceived to be quicker. i didnt expect i would have to do everything online. but it was, like, really convenient, is all i have to say because, yeah, everything is so, like, automated. like, when i did it before at another college, it was like you had to fill out everything by hand and then go to somebody in person. when i appl[ied] for the transfer credits, i was really surprised because this is really streamlined. like everything is online. the majority of students also felt that they received their transfer credit decisions a lot quicker than they expected to. most students reported that they received a decision in anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks: 46 transferability expectations and realities i definitely thought that i wouldnt find about the credit transfer for a few weeks. thats how long [the previous institution] took. they took forever for me to find out, but i really liked that centennial let us let me know within i think a week. i thought that it would take a little longer. i think my first credit was approved within two days, the gned; that was pretty fast. i probably thought it would take like a week. but it only took two days. however, some students expressed that they had to wait a couple of months for a decision. this could be the result of students having to re-submit documentation multiple times or it could be the result of students applying in the summer. because the online transfer credit system was launched across all academic schools in summer 2015, there were some delays in transfer-credit decisions over the summer because full-time faculty were on summer vacation. thus, it took some time to find and train contract faculty to conduct transfer credit assessments. over the past, i dont know, maybe three to four weeks they notified me when statuses were updated, and i guess more towards the last month in august right before school [i] got kinda worried ... so i did make a couple of calls, even [in] july and stuff, like that asking centennial, okay, like, how does this work? how come im not seeing any changes because i had course selection over july i think? i applied in the second week [after] starting college for the transfer credit, and i received the transfer credit in i think [the] ninth week or tenth week because, by the end of that time, i dont know why that was happening, but i asked many, many times whats happening, whats happening? but there was no direct person that i could speak to about my transfer credit. two months ... it was in the summer, and i didnt really start until september. so i didnt think there was any rush to do them. for clarity in the transfer credit and plar process, the pre- and post-test yielded relatively the same results, with 54% (agree and strongly agree) in the pre-test and 55% in the post-test survey for the same categories (figure 30).there is a 2% increase in the strongly disagree category of the post-test survey. overall, there is no statistical difference [t(97) =-0.32, p = 0.75] between the pretest and the post-test, indicating that participants did not change their opinions. 47 sean woodhead and rachel oh figure 30 rpl satisfaction perceived clarity clarity of transfer credit/plar process 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% strongly disagree disagree neither agree or disagree agree strongly agree pre-test 7% 19% 20% 32% 22% post-test 9% 19% 17% 34% 21% during the focus groups and phone interview, students were asked to comment on what policies and procedures were clearly outlined. one of main trends was that students commented that the online transfer credit application process was simple and clearly outlined: i didnt expect it to be so simple and convenient; you just have to, like, upload a couple files and stuff, and that was it. i found the application process pretty simple. i was just trying to find out how it was going to be, and then there was like a kind of step-bystep guide on the website. i just kind of followed it. it was really nice that you advertise like how to use this whole system and how fast it is. so it encourages people to actually use it. i looked in the website, and i thought i could [have] found... i found everything i need to know, literally. how they work, how to regist[er] and my.centennial. so for me it was really straightforward. students also stated they knew that there needed to be similarities between their previous course and the centennial course in which they wanted to gain a transfer credit: 48 transferability expectations and realities i would need my transcripts to actually see that i took the courses, and they also need my syllabus, to see what actually was what actually was done in the course so the people at centennial can actually see that actual equivalence to the courses at centennial. and if [the equivalence is proven], i guess then it can be reasonably awarded, the transfer credit. i knew that we needed our grades, our transcripts and obviously like the course outline, course syllabus so they could match up like if the course has the same information that people are already saying. although most students who participated in a phone interview had applied for transfer credit rather than plar, those students who knew what plar was did comment that information about plar being available was clear on course outlines and mentioned in classes. well, on the course description, it actually says if you can plar out of it. i really like that. like right on the first page of the course description it says eligible for plar: yes or no . well its like the plar process was explained very well in each class, so its a lot of information about plar. students were also asked to specifically comment on policies and procedures that were not clearly outlined. students stated that they had a hard time finding course outlines for courses they wanted to transfer so they did not know if the content was similar. within the online transfer credit system, students are able to see the course description and course learning outcomes for courses in their model route, but because the online system was new and centennial was integrating it with a new online course outline system, there were some courses where the information was not uploaded into the transfer-credit application system. in these cases, students were provided with contact information for their academic school so that they could reach out to the school to receive a course outline. also, some students tried to find course outlines prior to logging into the online application system, so they experienced difficulty because not all course outlines are provided on the centennial college website. i guess during the summer when i did it, when i applied for transfer, the course outline for centennial college courses wasnt actually on the website, so you couldnt tell what they actually wanted for the two englishes. i guess one was about essay writing, [and] the other one was about old works or poems and books. some of them do and some of them dont have like a course outline for the course youre trying to get credit for, like it would say something like, oh, well, the course outline is not available at this time. please contact a professor or something like that. its a bit of a hassle when you cant really see what the courses [are]. 49 sean woodhead and rachel oh like it was a pretty straightforward process, the only, i guess, problem that was a little bit frustrating for lack of a better word, was when some of the credits didnt have the descriptionlike you had to contact the school, and sometimes its hard to get the right person. that was the only time that it was i guess a little bit annoying. students also expressed that they were unsure of whom to go to for advising on recognition of prior learning. this could be because in promotional materials students are told to speak with a schoolbased advisor for recognition of prior learning, but at the time of the focus groups and interviews each academic school had its own advising model, so there were no specific contact names listed. centennial has since moved to a more consistent college-wide pathways advising model. it was just too much walking around. i thought one-stop shop, you got the hub, they help you there, not go upstairs to see the business people, go down the hall to see the gned people, [then the] l-block down here to see the comm people. like you didnt really know contact information, like call this extension or email this person. the information wasnt readily available to you, to go diggin, searchin from one department to another tryin to find who knows what. when i went to inquire about transfer credit, there was no one that i could speak to directly for the transfer credit, and i ha[d] to go to wherever to explain it to someone, and then they explain[ed] to someone that this is the case and this is the thing. so i would prefer if i can speak to someone straight away about my transfer credit. students also still expressed some confusion over what criteria were used for making transfercredit decisions: how somebody actually looks at and compares it. like whats the guidelines that theyre using to look at? ... i think itd be cool to know what theyre grading or judgement scheme is. [i] just wasnt aware that it didnt have to be, like, exact matches. i wasnt sure which courses i c[ould] get an exception from, and it was just really hard for me to verify and you get declined offers. students also mentioned that it was unclear that transfer credit was an option, and they had to search for transfer credit information because they were not provided with the information upon intake. others stated that they found out information from friends or from professors during class. these recommendations for more avenues to disseminate information will be explored in the recommendations section. 50 transferability expectations and realities transfer credit success predictors this section of the analysis searches for predicting factors that could make students successful in obtaining credit transfers. the success rate is the dependent variable in the study. it is defined as the ratio of rpl award/ rpl application. of the 98 respondents, 94 students applied for tcr credits. only one person applied for both tcr and plar credits. three students who did not apply for tcr did put in an application for plar credit, however. multiple variables are tested as predictors, including, gender, age, time passed since high school, previous postsecondary education and program of study. the first stage of this study is to look at the bivariate correlation between the various independent variables and the success rate. table 8 | correlation matrix of various predictors and success rate 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 1 .09 -.14 .13 .08 .09 -.00 -.02 .11 .23** .49** .38** .44** 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 -.08 .16 -.25* .24* -.24* .13 .12 .07 .08 .10 .16 1 -.13 .94** -.05 .10 -.20 -.07 .08 -.14 -.01 .00 1 -.08 .13 -.16 .02 .01 .05 .16 .11 .19 1 .00 .05 -.04 -.08 -.00 -.26* -.12 -.04 1 -.27 -.40** -.23 -.06 .12 .09 .15 1 -.23* -.13 .10 .03 -.10 -.12 1 -.20 -.07 -.07 -.04 .06 1 .05 .07 .01 -.21* 1 .18 .13 .22* 1 .61** .52** 1 .58** *. p< .05, **. p< .01 1: success rate 3: age 5: time passed since high school 7: university outside the province 9: college outside the province 11: fairness 13: clarity 2: domestic 4: gender (female 1) 6: ontario university 8: ontario college 10: post awareness of tcr 12: quickness there are four significant correlations between the success rate and four independent variables (table 8). these are the post-test perceptions of fairness, clarity and quickness and post-test awareness of credit transfer policy. no significant correlation is found between success rate and previous postsecondary education. there is a high correlation (r = .94) between time passed since high school and age, suggesting that the two variables represent the same construct. therefore, time passed since high school is excluded from the regressions. in addition, the last three variables (fairness, quickness and clarity) have high correlations among themselves. the second phase of the analysis is the hierarchical multiple linear regressions (hmr), in which variables were entered as a block into the equation (table 9). demographics (age and gender) were 51 sean woodhead and rachel oh the first block to be entered, followed by previous postsecondary education (university and college) and the post perception of clarity, quickness, fairness and awareness of the credit transfer process. school of study should not be a factor for success rate because individuals would obtain transfer credit based on their previous postsecondary education and experience, not on the schools that they are attending. table 9 | regression weights of independent variables, predicting the success rate variable step 1 constant gender (female 1) age step 2 constant gender (female 1) age attended ontario university attended ontario college step 3 constant gender (female 1) age attended ontario university attended ontario college post-test perception of fairness b se .79 .09 -.01 .18 .08 .01 .12 -.12 .79 .09 -.01 .05 -.02 .20 .08 .01 .10 .10 -.20 .04 -.01 .02 .01 .15 .21 .08 .01 .09 .09 .03 r2 .03 adj.r2 r2 .01 .03 .04 -.01 .01 .25 .21 .21 .11 -.13 .06 -.03 .04 -.06 .03 .01 .47** **coefficient is significant at .01 r2 = .03 (p > .05) for step 1, r2 = .01 (p > .05) for step 2, r2 = .21 (p < .01) for step 3 one issue that researchers usually come across in the combination of a large number of variables and small sample size is the overfitting of the equation. tabachnick and fidell (2012) suggest that the sample size should not be smaller than 50 + 8m, where m is the number of independent variables. therefore, a sample size of 98 should not fit more than 6 variables. other scholars, such as hair, black et al. (2010) recommend 15:1 as an ideal ratio of records to variables. here, i started with eight independent variables and decided which variable should be eliminated later in the analysis with collinearity diagnostics (tolerance and variance proportion). hmr analyses data by entering variables into blocks of independent variables. the first block usually behaves as a covariate (also known as control); the subsequent blocks are the variables of interest that analysts want to use for prediction. the common practice is to enter data based on the sequence of less controllable to more controllable by participants. the first block of hierarchical mlr to be entered is respondents age and gender, leaving domestic status out of the first block. students who would obtain transfer credit are more likely to have previous postsecondary education in ontario. because the majority of participants previously attended either an ontario university or an ontario college, these two variables were selected for entry into the second block. the third block is the opinion and attitude of the participants, which 52 transferability expectations and realities included perception of fairness, perceptions of quickness, perception of clarity and post-test awareness of the tcr policies and procedures. the first block reports r2 =.03, p =.21. this is not significant, and neither age nor gender predicts the respondents success rate. the second block, which comprised previous postsecondary education background, is not significant. this block only made minor changes ( r2 = .01, p = .78). the last block made a significant contribution to the equation, as r2 increased by .21, p = .00. table 9 also suggested that perception of fairness is the reason why the third block significantly improved the r2 value. post-test awareness of tcr, post-test perception of quickness and post-test awareness of clarity did not significantly contribute to the prediction of the success rate. the final model is significant, with f(5, 92) = 6.01, p <.00. rpl credit satisfaction predictors all participants answered the question about their satisfaction with centennial college. their opinions about the college were generally positive with regard to the amount of credit awarded, the quickness of the decision to award and the fairness of the decision to award. more than 50% suggested that the process of obtaining credit is straightforward and clearly outlined. these are good indicators that students are satisfied with centennial college. table 10 | correlation matrix of various predictors and post-test satisfaction with the amount of tcr 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 .08 .18 .13 .22* .12 .16 .23* .10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 .42** .36** .22* -.05 .30** .14 .63** 1 .61** .52** -.09 .67** .49** .37** 1 .58** -.05 .61** .38** .28** 1 .03 .54** .44** .43** 1 -.02 -.09 .02 1 .59** .27** 1 .19 1 *. p< .05, **. p< .01 1: post-test awareness of tcr policy 3: post-test rpl fairness 5: post-test rpl clarity 7: post-test satisfaction with tcr amount 9: post-test college satisfaction 2: post-test program satisfaction 4: post-test rpl quickness 6: post-test number of info sources 8: rpl success rate the last section of this study tested seven variables as to whether they could be used as predictors of students satisfaction of tcr received at centennial college (table 10). the correlation matrix shows a number of significant correlations among these nine variables. the collinearity diagnostic from spss will be used as a guide to exclude independent items that are related among themselves. the control variable is the pre-test expected tcr approval. 53 sean woodhead and rachel oh the study simulated the first regression study with a three-step hmr (table 11). the analysis went through three iterative processes because of the interferences from the collinearity of the two variables (post-test fairness and post-test satisfaction with the selected program). table 11 | regression weight of independent variables, predicting post-satisfaction with the amount of tcr awarded variable step 1 constant pre-test expected tcr award step 2 constant pre-test expected tcr award success rate step 3 constant pre-test expected tcr award success rate post-test awareness of tcr award satisfaction with choosing centennial college post-test perception of quickness of tcr awards b se b 3.49 -.13 .24 .08 -1.66 2.01 -.10 2.06 .28 .06 .29 -.13 .58** .22 -.09 1.41 .04 .12 .46 .66 .06 .28 .13 .12 .09 -.12 .40** .03 .07 .43** r2 .03 adj.r2 r2 .02 .03 .36 .35 .34 .54 .52 .18 **coefficient is significant at .01 r2 = .03 (p > .05) for step 1, r2 = .34 (p < .01) for step 2, r2 = .18 (p < .01) for step 3 the last block (step 3) is free from collinearity among the independent variables, and the final model is significant f(5,92) = 21.62 and accounted for 54% of the variance in post-test satisfaction with the amount of credit transfer. success rate and post-test perception of quickness make significant contributions to the transfer credit satisfaction equation. 54 transferability expectations and realities results: 2013-14 and 2014-15 aggregate transfer credit success predictors the regression studies combined the survey data from 2013-14 and 2014-15 into a total of 192 samples. the aim of this section is to search for the predicting factors that enable students to obtain transfer credits, which will reduce education time and expenses. success rate is defined as the ratio of credit award/credit application. among the 192 respondents, 189 students expected to receive a credit award. prior to the regression study, it is a common practice to peruse the relationship among the variables by conducting a bivariate correlation among the dependent and independent variables. a total of 13 variables are included in the correlation study. these are success rate, gender, age, time passed since high school, domestic status, post awareness of tcr, fairness, quickness, clarity and previous university/college attendance (inside and outside ontario). table 12 | bivariate correlations between success rate and other variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 1 .09 -.05 .07 .05 .07 -.03 .11 .-.04 .31** .36** .27** .27** 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 .03 .16 -.18 .25** -.23** .13 -.14 -.11 -.13 -.03 .-.13 1 -.03 .16* .25* -.23** .13 .14 .12 .05 .17* .12 1 -.09 .10 -.12 .05 .07 .16* .17* .11 .14* 1 .04 .12 -.15 -.13 -.10 -.13 -.03 -.13 1 -.04 -43** -.19** .14 .05 .03 .02 1 -.31** -.17* .02 -.02 -.15* -.15* 1 -.04 .09 .07 .08 .16* 1 .03 .06 -.01 -.08 1 .54** .38** .34** 1 .52** .53** 1 .60** *. p < .05, **. p <.01 1: success rate 3: age 5: time passed since high school 7: university outside ontario 9: college outside ontario 11: fairness 13: clarity 2: domestic status 4: gender 6: ontario university 8: ontario college 10: post awareness of tcr 12: quickness there are 25 pairs of significance among the 91 pairs of correlation (table 12). success rate appears to correlate with post awareness of tcr and perceptions of fairness, quickness and clarity. these last four variables also correlate among themselves, but they are not greater than .60. nevertheless, these variables will be checked with multicollinearity diagnostics in the next section. domestic status is correlated with university attendance, but not significantly correlated with college attendance. 55 sean woodhead and rachel oh the next section is the regression analysis (table 13). hierarchical linear multiple regression (hmr) is the method of choice because it allows investigators to enter variables in a block. the common practice is to enter in a sequence of time (past to present and/or uncontrollable to controllable). for example, age and gender are not controllable by the respondents; therefore, they are candidates for early entry. previous university or college attendance is in the middle, followed by the perceptions of quickness, fairness and clarity. thus, it is reasonable to enter variables into three blocks. table 13| hmr with success rate as the dependent variable variable b se step 1 constant age gender time passed since high school .78 -.01 .09 .01 .15 .01 .07 .01 step 2 constant age gender time passed since high school ontario university/college (onuc) .66 -.01 .07 .01 .33 .15 .01 .07 .01 .13 .29 -.01 .03 .01 .28 .11 .18 .01 .06 .01 .13 .03 step 3 constant age gender time passed since high school ontario university/college fairness, quickness, clarity (fqc) * p = .05, **. p = .01. r2 r2 .02 adj. r2 -.01 .06 .03 .04 .14 .11 .08 .02 -.05 .11 .06 -.05 .08 .08 .20 -.05 .04 .10 .17** .29** the first regression equation, which utilised 12 independent variables, produced an adjusted r2 of .13. this means the tolerance values of each individual variable must be greater than .87. there were several variables that had tolerance values less than this cutoff point. these values with low tolerance are previous university and college attendance (on university .51, outside on university .73, on college .50 and outside on college .76), fairness (.53), quickness (.55), clarity (.50), domestic status (.74) and post-awareness of tcr (.67). because the standardised coefficients of on university and on college were statistically significant, the two variables were combined and averaged into a single variable (onuc). the same situation also applied to fairness, quickness and clarity (fqc). the two newly created variables (onuc and fqc) were used as new variables and reanalysed with hmr. this is a procedure recommended by leach, barret and morgan (2008) on how to handle multicollinearity. the second regression result is shown in table 13 with only five variables left in the equation. table 2 also indicates that the two newly created independent variables (onuc and fqc) significantly contributed to the regression model. it also shows that when gender, age, domestic 56 transferability expectations and realities status and time passed since high school (block1) were entered, they did not significantly predict the success rate, f(3,153) = .86, p = .46. adding block 2 (onuc) did not significantly predict the success either, f(4, 152) = 2.24, p = .07. the entire group of variables (block 3), however, predicted the success rate, f(5,151) = 4.71, p < .01, r2 = .14 and adj. r2= .11. all variables in the equation have tolerance in the range of .95 to .99. these values are free from multicollinearity, as they are above the cutoff .89 (1 - .11). the final equation for this model is: success rate = .29 -.01age + .03gender + .01time passed + .28 onuc + .11fqc the equation comprises five variables that do not violate the overfitting rule. tabachnick and fidell (2012) recommend that researchers use the formula 50 +8m, where m is the number of variables. hair, black, babin, and anderson (2010) use a ratio of 15:1 for cases/variables. this study has 162 participants; therefore, it can afford to have at least 11 independent variables. rpl credit satisfaction predictors a large majority of respondents are happy with the chosen programs (83%) and centennial college (80%). the bivariate correlations (table 14) show that six variables are significantly correlated with student satisfaction with the amount of tcr awarded. these variables are post awareness of tcr, satisfaction in the chosen program, fairness, quickness, clarity and satisfaction with choosing centennial college. they also correlate among each other, as the r-values fall in the range of .22 to .60. these are in the acceptable range, and researchers should not be concerned with multicollinearity. more than 50% of respondents indicate that centennial college shows its fairness and quickness in awarding the credits. more than 57% agree that the processes of obtaining credits are clearly outlined. on average, students used three documents to apply for credits. table 14 | bivariate correlation between satisfaction with the amount of tcr awarded and other variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 1 .77** .33** .68** .50* .38** .06 .31** 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 .26** .54** .38** .34** .09 .22* 1 .36** .31** .20** -.03 .67* 1 .52** .53** .10 .31** 1 .60** -.04 .27** 1 .02 .34** 1 .01 *. p < .05. **. p <.01 1. 3. 5. 7. satisfaction with amount of tcr satisfaction with the chosen program quickness number of documents 2. 4. 6. 8. post awareness of tcr awarded fairness clarity satisfaction with choosing cc the hierarchical multiple linear regression (table 15) starts with entry of block 1, which includes a number of documents and post awareness of tcr. it is followed by block 2, with the addition of 57 sean woodhead and rachel oh fairness, quickness and clarity. the last block adds satisfaction with the program and satisfaction with choosing centennial college. table 15 | hmr with satisfaction with the amount of tcr awarded as the dependent variable variables step 1 constant post awareness of tcr number of document step 2 constant post awareness of tcr number of document fairness quickness clarity step 3 constant post awareness of tcr number of document fairness quickness clarity satisfy with the program satisfy with choosing cc *. p =.05, **. p =.01 b se .49 .78 -.01 .24 .05 .06 -.35 .56 -.02 .39 .17 -.10 .24 .05 .05 .06 .05 .05 -56 .56 -.02 .39 .17 -.12 -.05 .14 .31 .05 .05 .06 .05 .06 .08 .08 r2 adj.r2 r2 .59 .59 .59 .71 .70 .12 .71 .70 .01 .77** -.01 .55** -.02 .34** .17** -.09 .55** -.02 .34** .17** -.12* -.04 .10 the first block, comprising of two variables (i.e. number of document, post awareness of tcr) significantly predicted student satisfaction with the amount of tcr awarded (stcr), f(2,189) = 135.94, p <.01. the second block (fairness, quickness and clarity) also significantly predicted the stcr with f(5, 186) = 88.97, p <.001 with adj.r2 =.70. this is a large effect size, and centennial college should try to maintain its current achievement. the last block added satisfaction with the program and satisfaction with choosing centennial college. this is also significant, with f (7,184) = 34.40, p < .01, but the change in r2 is very small (r2 = .01). this implies that satisfaction with the program and satisfaction with choosing centennial college did not contribute to the equation. however, the last block has an additional significant variable (clarity) with = -.12, p = .03. although eight variables were utilised in this study, there was no indication of multicollinearity issues. all independent variables had tolerance values greater than 0.3 (1.0-.70). the final equation for this model is: satisfaction with the amount of tcr awarded = -.56 + .56 post awareness of tcr - .02 number of document + .39 fairness + .17 quickness - .12 clarity 58 transferability expectations and realities .05 satisfaction with the program + satisfaction with choosing cc. college satisfaction predictors a large majority of respondents are happy with the chosen programs (83%) and centennial college (80%). the bivariate correlations (table 16) show that five variables are significantly correlated with student satisfaction with choosing centennial college (scc). these variables are post awareness of tcr, satisfaction in the chosen program, fairness, quickness and clarity. they also correlate among each other, as the r values fall in the range of .20 to .60. these are in the acceptable range, and the researchers should not be concerned with multicollinearity. more than 50% of respondents indicate that centennial college shows fairness and quickness in awarding the credits. more than 57% agree that the processes of obtaining credits are clearly outlined. on average, students used three documents to apply for credits. table 16 | bivariate correlation between satisfaction and other variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 .22** .67** .31** .27* .34** .01 1 .26** .54** .38** .34** .09 1 .36** .31** .20** -.03 1 .52** .53** .10 1 .60** -.04 1 .02 1 *. p < .05. **. p <.01 1. satisfaction with choosing centennial 3. satisfaction with the chosen program 5. quickness 7. number of documents 2. post awareness of tcr 4. fairness 6. clarity the hierarchical multiple linear regression starts with entry of block 1. it is followed by block 2, with the addition of satisfaction with the program, fairness, quickness and clarity. the regression of the satisfaction with choosing centennial college performs better than the success rate equation. the first entry block, comprising two variables (number of document and post awareness of tcr), significantly predicted scc, f(2,189) =4.81, p <.01. the second entry block (satisfaction with program, fairness, quickness and clarity) also significantly predicted the scc with f(6, 185) = 30.12, p <.001 with adj.r2 =.48. this is a large effect size, and centennial college should try to maintain its current achievement. table 17 also indicates that satisfaction with the program ( = .65, p < .01) and clarity ( = .26, p < .01) significantly contributed to the prediction of student satisfaction with centennial college. 59 sean woodhead and rachel oh table 17 | hmr with satisfaction with cc as the dependent variable variables step 1 constant post awareness of tcr number of document step 2 constant post awareness of tcr number of document fairness quickness clarity satisfied with the program b se 3.42 .16 -.01 .26 .05 .07 .22** -.01 .81 -.04 .02 -.01 -.07 .20 .66 .28 .05 .05 .06 .05 .05 .06 r2 .05 adj.r2 .04 r2 .05 .49 .48 .45 -.01 .02 -.01 -.09 .26** .65** *. p =.05, **. p =.01 again, there was no collinearity issue in the equation, as tolerance values are in the acceptable range of .52 to .99. however, post awareness of tcr was significant ( = .22, p < .01) in step 1, but became insignificant in step 2 ( =.01, p = .97). reviewing the spss collinearity diagnostics table indicates that the post awareness of tcr had a variance proportion of .36, which is below the cutoff value of .50. however, stepwise regression suggests that clarity ( = .63, p < .01) and satisfaction with the program ( = .21, p < .01) are the only two variables that contribute significantly to the prediction of scc. this implies that post awareness of tcr does not make a significant contribution to the equation. stepwise regression also yields an identical r2 of .49. the regression equation for this model is: satisfaction with centennial college = .81 - .04 awareness of tcr + .02 number of document -.01 fairness - .07quickness + .20clarity + .66 satisfaction with the program . 60 transferability expectations and realities discussion and conclusion the conclusion of this report provides a summary of the findings and a few policy and practice recommendations for centennial college. this is based on results from the representative sample of the 417 students who applied for transfer credit or plar in the 2014-15 academic year. summary the vast majority of rpl students are domestic students enroled in programs from one of three schools: the school of business, school of community and health studies, and school of engineering technology and applied science. close to half of the rpl applicants are enroled in a two-year diploma program, and they are on average 26-27 years of age. roughly 20% of applicants apply for only one transfer credit (with another 30% applying for 2-3 transfer credits), demonstrate a 58% success rate, and will save on average 104 hours of time by not being in class. conversely, only 4% of rpl students apply for plar, and they are slightly less likely to be successful than their credit-transferring counterparts. centennial college rpl students experience an increased perceived understanding of credit transfer and plar from an offer of admission to the end of their first term. a significant difference was found for understanding of transfer credit between these two time periods: 60% of students have an understanding of transfer credit and its policies at offer of admission, and this jumps to 93% at the end of the first term. the same significant trend is observed with plar, albeit less pronounced. a test used in the survey to measure students actual understanding of proper steps corroborated these findings. for the most part, the respondents report that they prefer to apply for transfer credit at the beginning of their program and are satisfied with the amount of credit they receive. however, plar applicants show some uncertainty or dissatisfaction with the lack of credit they receiveperhaps attributable to only having a mediocre understanding of plar and its policies. while the data show evidence of students developing realistic expectations, there are multiple occurrences of statistically significant gaps between expectations and realities. student expectations noticeably fall short for those who expect more than three transfer credits and those who expect plar credit. sizeable (i.e. +10%) expectation-reality gaps also exist across numerous other variables: reduced course load benefit, reduced educational costs benefit, additional time for employment benefit, clear information regarding eligible transfer credits, assistance with understanding rpl decisions, assistance managing the rpl file, program advising and assistance with grade calculation. rpl students are overwhelmingly satisfied with centennial college (78%) and their program (82%). in regards to satisfaction with the rpl process itself, respondents find the process fair (59%), quick (61%) and clear (55%). students do not experience a change in opinion on these three facets of satisfaction across the first term, suggesting that movement through the rpl process bears no effect. the researchers also sought predicting factors related to rpl success and satisfaction. the only significant predictor found for rpl success was the perceived fairness of the process. despite 61 sean woodhead and rachel oh findings from arnold and woodhead (2015) that credit transfer understanding plays a role in rpl success, those findings were not replicated in the analysis of the three 2014-15 cohorts. interestingly, satisfaction with the rpl process revealed two significant predictors. first, success rate has an effect on satisfaction; a likely explanation is that a higher success rate yields a narrower expectation-reality gap and leads to a more satisfying experience. second, perceived quickness of the rpl process is also a predictor of satisfaction. this may be explained by students past experiences with slow, bureaucratic processes at other educational institutions. this study also aggregated data between the 2013-14 cohorts from arnold and woodhead (2015) and the 2014-15 cohorts for this study. this leads to a data set that is approximately double in size, and thus may produce more predictors through regression analysis. the aggregate data set offers two predictors for rpl success: ontario pse credential and fqc. for predicting rpl credit satisfaction, post-awareness of transfer credit and fqc are predictors of satisfaction. unexpectedly, the analysis yields predictors of centennial college satisfaction as well: clarity and program satisfaction. it is possible that students look to clarity of information and overall opinions of their program as a means to gauge centennial college qualityand by extension satisfaction with the institution. recommendations a few recommendations arise from the results that pertain to centennial college rpl policy and practice. while these recommendations are specific to centennial college, other colleges would be welcome to consider similar adoptions to their own institutional practices. all efforts should be undertaken to maintain a process that is fair, quick and clear: consistent decision-making: a fair process requires consistency on at least two fronts. one, decisions must be consistent with posted standards (e.g. 80% affinity). two, decisions must be consistent across applicants. ability to achieve this consistency hinges on clear, published criteria for assessment along with robust transfer credit assessment training for all staff. while centennial currently does both to some degree, it is suggested that the college revisit this and look to see how consistency can be further improved. policies and procedures: administrators should change policy to allow students to use two courses from their previous institution to apply for one transfer credit at centennial. this would allow students to apply for more transfer credits when one course alone does not meet 80% affinity. increase initial support: centennial now has dedicated pathway advisors to provide advice and guidance to prospective centennial students. between these advisors and the dedicated advisors for incoming students, there is great capacity for initial rpl support to be improved, including the promotion of ontransfer.cas course transfer function, so that students can make more accurate choices when applying for transfer credit. in order to accomplish this, rpl staff experts need to transfer knowledge and expertise to these student-facing advisors. 62 transferability expectations and realities further automate processes: centennial has an online transfer credit application system that allows students to upload transcripts and outlines; this same system allows faculty to assess applications and render decisions. however, many students cite frustration with having to upload transcripts after already providing them as part of their college applications. the college and students would both benefit from streamlining of transcript submissions, as well as incorporation of plar self-assessments into the online system. access to other institution outlines: while this is more of a system-wide recommendation, students find it challenging to find course outlines for courses previously taken at other institutions. the ontario pse system should consider developing a central repository of outlines/syllabi that is accessible for college staff and students. in conclusion, students have their expectations met across a number of variables. primarily, students are generally precise in their transfer-credit applications, and there are minimal gaps regarding expected resources and sources of information. despite this, sizeable gaps do exist regarding information clarity and various supports. first-term progression produces little difference in rpl student attitudes, although students understanding of both credit transfer and plar increases. this understanding is very important, as it is suggested that there is a relationship between transfer-credit understanding and rpl satisfaction, as well as between that understanding and rpl success. a satisfying experience for students seems to hinge most on fqc. an rpl process that is fair, quick and clear promotes satisfaction with the rpl process. perhaps most importantly for college consideration, a fair, quick and clear rpl process appears to promote satisfaction with the college itself. 63 sean woodhead and rachel oh references andres, l. (1999). investigating transfer: the students perspective. vancouver, bc: british columbia council on admissions and transfer. andres, l. (2001). transfer from community college to university: perspectives and experiences of british columbia students. the canadian journal of higher education, 31(1), 3574. arnold, c. (2012). transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. arnold, c., & woodhead, s. (2015). transferability expectations and realities: an analysis of incoming centennial college learner expectations, realities and self-adjusted perceptions. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. british columbia council on admissions and transfer. (2012). improving the bc transfer experience: feedback from students. retrieved from http://www.bccat.ca/pubs/ bcstats12.pdf. carter, i., coyle, j., & leslie, d. (2011). easing the transfer of students from college to university programs: how can learning outcomes help? canadian journal of higher education, 41(2), 1027. centennial college. (2014). recognition of prior learning policy. retrieved http://www.centennialcollege.ca/pdf/policies/recognitionofpriorlearningpolicy. pdf from college-university consortium council. (2011). college-university student mobility report. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_ reports/oncat_research_reports_10.pdf. colleges ontario. (2009). 2009 environmental scan. retrieved http://www.collegesontario.org/research/2009-environmental-scan.html. from colleges ontario. (2014). 2014 environmental scan. retrieved http://www.collegesontario.org/research/2014_environmental_scan.html. from decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s., & hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their educationan analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto, on: higher education quality council of ontario. flaga, c. t. (2006). the process of transition for community college transfer students. community college journal of research and practice, 30(1), 319. gawley, t., & mcgowan, r. (2006). learning the ropes: a case study of the academic and social experiences of transfer students within a developing university-college framework. college quarterly, 9(3), 1-18. hair jr., j. f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson r.e. (eds.). (2010). multivariate data analysis. upper saddle river, nj, pearson prentice hall. 64 transferability expectations and realities handel, s. (2006). transfer students apply to college, too. how come we dont help them? chronicle of higher education, 54(9), b20. hood, l., hunt, e., & haeffele, l. m. (2009). illinois post-secondary transfer students: experiences in navigating the higher education transfer system. planning and changing, 40(1/2), 116131. kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto, on: higher education quality council of ontario. kelly, g. a. (1955). the psychology of personal constructs. new york: norton. laanan, f. s. (1996). making the transition: understanding the adjustment process of community college transfer students. community college review, 23(4), 6984. leach, n. l., barret, k. c., & morgan, g. a. (2008). spss for intermediate statistics: use and interpretation (3rd ed.). new york, ny: lawrence erlbaum associates. lincoln, y. s., & guba, e. g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. newbury park, ca: sage. ministry of training, colleges and universities. 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(2008). credits, time, and attainment: articulation policies and success after transfer. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 30(3), 236254. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. tabachnick, b. g., & fidell, l. s. (2012). using multivariate statistics. boston, ma: pearson education, inc. townsend, b. k., & wilson, k. (2006). a hand hold for a little bit: factors facilitating the success of community college transfer students to a large research university. journal of college student development, 47(4), 439546. 65 sean woodhead and rachel oh usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges: summary report. toronto, on: higher education strategy associates. vroom, v. h. (1964). work and motivation. new york, ny: wiley. 66 transferability expectations and realities appendix a transferability expectations and realities survey 2014/2015 letter of invitation greetings, we are writing to request your participation in the research study entitled, transferability expectations and realities. for 5 minutes of your time, you will receive an opportunity to win an ipad 5th generation. there will be additional participation opportunities to win a tablet and/or receive a cash honourarium. as an incoming centennial college student with potentially relevant prior learning, you have been identified as a participant candidate for this study. your candidacy for participation has been based upon your application for transfer credit and/or prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) for the 2014-2015 academic year. before you decide whether to participate, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. please take a moment to read the details of this study and its benefits. who is conducting the study? all research will be carried out at centennial college under the supervision of rachel oh, pathways advisor and sean woodhead, manager, pathways and academic partnerships what is the purpose of the study? the purpose of this study is to collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability. study results may inform college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. what will you need to do if you take part? as a part of this study, we are asking you to participate in a survey discussing your: 1) knowledge of credit transfer and plar concepts; 2) expectations for credit transfer and plar processes and outcomes; and 3) satisfaction with the current credit transfer and plar system in place at centennial college. this survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete and you will receive an ipad 5th generation raffle ticket. in addition, we will collect information from your academic record regarding demographics, registered courses and recognition of prior learning (rpl) applications. 67 rachel oh and sean woodhead you will be asked to provide consent to be a part of this research study by checking a box on the survey itself. in providing consent, you confirm that you have been given the opportunity to discuss the study, all of your questions have been answered and you agree to participate. who is organizing and funding the research? this study is organized and funded by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). in 2011, the provincial government announced funding of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system objectives include: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework; 2) developing more transfer opportunities; 3) providing on campus advisors and orientation programs; and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). centennial college is supporting this provincial initiative by participating in and leading many transferability projects, including this study, which will provide fruitful recommendations regarding necessary rpl support structures. what are the possible disadvantages in taking part? there are no foreseeable risks associated with participating in this study. the research risk is extremely low. you will be instructed to share and disclose only that information with which you are comfortable. the data collected is not sensitive and there is no more risk involved than in everyday interactions. what are the benefits of taking part? participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. in identifying rpl reality-expectation gaps, colleges and universities can use the study results to: 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding their effectiveness in communicating credit transfer and plar rights and responsibilities; 2) participate in expectation management at the point of admission; and 3) develop or revise support structures that facilitate the translation of relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit. will my taking part in this study be kept confidential? yes, all responses will be kept strictly confidential and your involvement is voluntary. you may withdraw at any time or decline to answer any question with which you are uncomfortable. you will not be judged or evaluated and you will not be at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the study results. your identity will be kept anonymous within all research writing and publications. contact and further information 68 transferability expectations and realities if you are interested in participating in the transferability expectations and realities research study, please complete the following survey. your contribution to this study is greatly appreciated. responses are requested by [insert date]. http://fluidsurveys.com/s/transferabilityexpectationsandrealities4/ if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study, please contact ethics@centennialcollege.ca or the chair, dr. lynda atack at latack@centennialcollege.ca. we are happy to answer any questions you may have about this study. please keep a copy of this letter for your records. sincerely, rachel oh pathways advisor centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 racheloh@centennialcollege.ca 69 sean woodhead manager, pathways & academic partnerships centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca rachel oh and sean woodhead appendix b transferability expectations and realities survey 2014/2015 pre-survey sent from manager, pathways & academic partnerships to incoming centennial college students who have applied for transfer credit and/or plar credit _______________________________________________________________ this survey will collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability adjusted between the initial point of intake and near the first terms end. this survey is being conducted by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). all answers will be kept strictly confidential and used for statistical purposes. while participation in this survey is voluntary, your cooperation is important to ensure that the information collected in this survey is accurate and comprehensive. this survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. students who complete the survey will receive a raffle ticket to be entered into a draw for an ipad 5th generation. participant consent: i have been given the opportunity to discuss this study. all of my questions have been answered to my satisfaction. i agree to take part in this study and understand that i am free to withdraw at any time. _______________________________________________________________ student number: ________________________ program: __________________________ demographics 1. where was your high school located? within canada (please specify province) ___________________ outside of canada (please specify country) ___________________ 2. what was your overall average grade in high school? 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f 70 transferability expectations and realities 3. what was your overall average grade at your previous post-secondary institution? 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f 4. between finishing high school and enroling in your current centennial college program, the following amount of time has passed: less than 1 year 1-2 years 3-4 years 5-9 years 10+ years did not graduate high school 5. 6. 7. (please select all that apply) prior to enroling at centennial college you: were employed in a job that is related to your current program volunteered in a role that is related to your current program had a hobby or hobbies related to your current program completed university, college, polytechnic and/or vocational/technical education related to your current program completed workshops or seminars that were not for college or university credit and related to your current program (please select all that apply) if you completed postsecondary education prior to enroling at centennial college, what form of education did you complete? attended a canadian college, polytechnic and/or vocational/technical institution attended a canadian university attended an international college, polytechnic and/or vocational/technical institution attended an international university did not study at a university, college, polytechnic and/or vocational/technical institution you expect to complete your program within: one year two years three years four years five years more than five years do not expect to complete my program 71 rachel oh and sean woodhead 8. ideally, you hope to complete most courses with grade points of: 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f 9. realistically, you expect to complete most courses with grade points of: 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f credit transfer and plar concepts 10. (please rank on the scale) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you understood the term credit transfer and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree 11. neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) at the moment that you attended your first class at centennial college, you understood the term credit transfer and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree 12. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you understood the term prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree disagree 72 neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree transferability expectations and realities 13. (please rank on the scale) at the moment that you attended your first class at centennial college, you understood the term prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree 14. disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please select all that apply) your understanding of credit transfer has been informed by: family secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and coworkers centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff other institution website other institution staff oncat website other: ______________________ 15. (please select all that apply) your understanding of plar has been informed by: family secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and coworkers centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff other institution website other institution staff oncat website other: ______________________ expectations and preferences 16. at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to obtain: no transfer credit 1 transfer credit 2 transfer credits 3 transfer credits 4 transfer credits 5 transfer credits 6 transfer credits 7 or more transfer credits 73 rachel oh and sean woodhead 17. 18. 19. at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to obtain: no plar credit 1 plar credit 2 plar credits 3 plar credits 4 plar credits 5 plar credits 6 plar credits 7 or more plar credits (please select all that apply) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to use the following documentation and/or experiences to determine whether to submit an application for transfer credit and/or plar credit: academic transcript(s) course description(s) course outline(s)/syllabi assignments and/or assessments portfolio(s) independent study, personal projects and/or reading community and family activities paid or voluntary work, travel and/or military service hobbies and/or professional associations non- university and/or college courses and/or training programs seminars and/or workshops other (please rank all that apply in order) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to complete the following steps when applying for transfer credit and/or plar credit: confirm requirements for transfer credit and/or plar with an advisor transfer credit and/or plar assessment received (awarded or denied) provide documentation (e.g. transcript(s), course outline(s) etc.) for transfer credit(s) and/or complete plar assessment(s) with an rpl assessor complete the transfer of credit application and/or plar application submit all applications and any applicable fees 74 transferability expectations and realities 20. 21. 22. (please select all that apply) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to experience the following forms of credit transfer and/or plar support: clear information regarding eligible transfer credits guidance on application procedures program advising assistance with grade calculation(s) assistance managing your transfer credit and/or plar files (e.g. deadlines, transcript(s), documents etc.) assistance understanding transfer credit and/or plar assessments and all decisions (please select all that apply) at the moment that you received an offer of admission to centennial college, you expected to experience the following benefits if awarded transfer credit and/or plar credit? limited repetition of previously learned material reduced course load reduced time to completion reduced educational or opportunity costs additional time for family additional time for employment (please rank on the scale) when you applied for transfer credit and/or plar credit, you expected the application to be approved and the requested credit to be awarded. strongly disagree 23. neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you would prefer to apply for all your transfer credit and/or plar credit at the beginning of your program. strongly disagree 24. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you would prefer to apply for your transfer credit and/or plar at multiple points throughout your program. strongly disagree disagree 75 neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree rachel oh and sean woodhead satisfaction 25. (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with choosing centennial college for your postsecondary education. strongly disagree 26. strongly agree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you believe centennial college quickly awards transfer credit and/or plar credit. strongly disagree 29. agree (please rank on the scale) you believe centennial college fairly awards transfer credit and/or plar credit. strongly disagree 28. neither disagree nor agree (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with your choice of program at centennial college. strongly disagree 27. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) the process of obtaining transfer credit and/or plar credit at centennial college was straightforward and clearly outlined. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree ______________________________________________________________________ thank you! we appreciate you taking the time to complete this survey. your feedback is important to us and will assist in improving centennial colleges credit transfer and plar system. if you have any questions about this survey, please contact sean woodhead at swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca. please check the box below if you wish to participate in a 5 minute follow-up survey in (december/april/august). you will receive an additional two raffle tickets for the ipad 5th generation draw for your participation. 76 transferability expectations and realities appendix c transferability expectations and realities follow-up survey 2014/2015 letter of invitation greetings, thank you for taking the time to participate in the transferability expectations and realities research study. we enjoyed learning about your initial: 1) knowledge of credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) concepts; 2) expectations for credit transfer and plar processes and outcomes; and 3) satisfaction with the current credit transfer and plar system in place at centennial college. having almost completed your first term at centennial college, you will have now experienced the credit transfer and/or plar system in relation to your coursework. therefore, we are contacting you at this time to participate in a follow-up survey. we would like to hear about your first term and the realities you have experienced. before you decide whether to participate, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. please take a moment to read the details of this study and its benefits. who is conducting the study? all research will be carried out at centennial college under the supervision of rachel oh, pathways advisor and sean woodhead, manager, pathways and academic partnerships. what is the purpose of the study? the purpose of this study is to collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability. study results may inform college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. what will you need to do if you take part? at this stage in the study, we are asking you to participate in a follow-up survey discussing your: 1) knowledge of credit transfer and plar concepts; 2) realities of credit transfer and plar processes and outcomes; and 3) continued satisfaction with the current credit transfer and plar system in place at centennial college. this survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. you will receive a $15.00 tim hortons gift card as well as two additional raffle tickets for an ipad 5th generation draw! 77 rachel oh and sean woodhead you will be asked to provide consent to be a part of this research study by checking a box on the survey itself. in providing consent you confirm that you have been given the opportunity to discuss the study, all of your questions have been answered and you agree to participate. who is organizing and funding the research? this study is organized and funded by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). in 2011, the provincial government announced funding of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system objectives include: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework; 2) developing more transfer opportunities; 3) providing on campus advisors and orientation programs; and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). centennial college is supporting this provincial initiative by participating in and leading many transferability projects, including this study, which will provide fruitful recommendations regarding necessary recognition of prior learning (rpl) support structures. what are the possible disadvantages in taking part? there are no foreseeable risks associated with participating in this study. the research risk is extremely low. you will be instructed to share and disclose only that information with which you are comfortable. the data collected is not sensitive and there is no more risk involved than in everyday interactions. what are the benefits of taking part? participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. in identifying rpl reality-expectation gaps, colleges and universities can use the study results to: 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding their effectiveness in communicating credit transfer and plar rights and responsibilities; 2) participate in expectation management at the point of admission; and 3) develop or revise support structures that facilitate the translation of relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit. will my taking part in this study be kept confidential? yes, all responses will be kept strictly confidential and your involvement is voluntary. you may withdraw at any time or decline to answer any question with which you are uncomfortable. you will not be judged or evaluated and you will not be at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the study results. your identity will be kept anonymous within all research writing and publications. 78 transferability expectations and realities contact and further information if you are interested in continuing your participation in the transferability expectations and realities research study, please complete the following follow-up survey. your contribution to this study is greatly appreciated. responses are requested by [insert date]. http://fluidsurveys.com/s/transferabilityexpectationsandrealitiesfollow-up4/ if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study please contact ethics@centennialcollege.ca or the chair, dr. lynda atack at latack@centennialcollege.ca. we are happy to answer any questions you may have about this study. please keep a copy of this letter for your records. sincerely, rachel oh pathways advisor centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 racheloh@centennialcollege.ca 79 sean woodhead manager, pathways & academic partnerships centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca rachel oh and sean woodhead appendix d transferability expectations and realities follow-up survey 2014/2015 post- survey sent from manager, pathways & academic partnerships to incoming centennial college students who have applied for transfer credit and/or plar credit _______________________________________________________________ this survey will collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability adjusted between the initial point of intake and near the first terms end. this survey is being conducted by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). all answers will be kept strictly confidential and used for statistical purposes. while participation in this survey is voluntary, your cooperation is important to ensure that the information collected in this survey is accurate and comprehensive. this survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete. students who complete the survey will receive a $15.00 tim hortons gift card as well as two additional raffle tickets for an ipad 5th generation draw! gift cards will be mailed to students home addresses or made available for pick-up at centennial college. participant consent: i have been given the opportunity to discuss this study. all of my questions have been answered to my satisfaction. i agree to take part in this study and understand that i am free to withdraw at any time. _______________________________________________________________ student number: ________________________ program: __________________________ demographics 1. has your program at centennial college changed since enrolment? yes, a program changed has occurred no, a program change has not occurred 2. you expect to complete your program within: one year two years three years four years five years 80 transferability expectations and realities more than five years do not expect to complete my program 3. ideally, you hope to complete most courses with grade points of: 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f 4. realistically, you expect to complete most courses with grade points of: 90% - 100% a+ 80% - 89% a 75% - 79% b+ 70% - 74% b 65% - 69% c+ 60% - 64% c 55% - 59% d+ 50% - 54% d 0% - 49% f credit transfer and plar concepts 5. (please rank on the scale) you are aware of and understand the term credit transfer and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree 6. neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you are aware of and understand the term prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) and the policies and procedures regarding the awarding of credit. strongly disagree 7. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please select all that apply) your understanding of credit transfer has been informed by: family secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and coworkers 81 rachel oh and sean woodhead centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff other institution website other institution staff oncat website other: ______________________ 8. (please select all that apply) your understanding of plar has been informed by: family secondary school teacher(s) and/or guidance counselor(s) centennial college recruitment team or their agents friends and coworkers centennial college website centennial college on-campus staff other institution website other institution staff oncat website other: ______________________ realities and additional expectations 9. for your current centennial college program you obtained: no transfer credit 1 transfer credit 2 transfer credits 3 transfer credits 4 transfer credits 5 transfer credits 6 transfer credits 7 or more transfer credits 10. for your current centennial college program you obtained: no plar credit 1 plar credit 2 plar credits 3 plar credits 4 plar credits 5 plar credits 6 plar credits 7 or more plar credits 11. (please select all that apply) you utilized/referenced the following documentation and/or experiences when submitting an application for transfer credit and/or plar credit: academic transcript(s) course description(s) course outline(s)/syllabi assignments and/or assessments 82 transferability expectations and realities portfolio(s) independent study, personal projects and/or reading community and family activities paid or voluntary work, travel and/or military service hobbies and/or professional associations non- university and/or college courses and/or training programs seminars and/or workshops other 12. (please rank all that apply in order) you completed the following steps when applying for transfer credit and/or plar credit: 13. 14. 15. confirm requirements for transfer credit and/or plar with an advisor transfer credit and/or plar assessment received (awarded or denied) provide documentation (e.g. transcript(s), course outline(s) etc.) for transfer credit(s) and/or complete plar assessment(s) with an rpl assessor complete the transfer of credit application and/or plar application submit all applications and any applicable fees (please select all that apply) you experienced the following forms of transfer credit and/or plar support: clear information regarding eligible transfer credits guidance on application procedures program advising assistance with grade calculation(s) assistance managing your transfer credit and/or plar files (e.g. deadlines, transcript(s), documents etc.) assistance understanding transfer credit and/or plar assessments and all decisions (please select all that apply) you experienced the following benefits having been awarded transfer credit and/or plar credit: limited repetition of previously learned material reduced course load reduced educational or opportunity costs additional time for family additional time for employment n/a (please rank on the scale) you applied for all your transfer credit and/or plar credit at the beginning of your program. strongly disagree disagree 83 neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree rachel oh and sean woodhead 16. (please rank on the scale) you expect to apply for additional transfer credit during the course of your program at centennial college. strongly disagree 17. disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you expect to apply for additional plar credit during the course of your program at centennial college. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree satisfaction 18. (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with choosing centennial college for your postsecondary education. strongly disagree 19. strongly agree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with the amount of plar credit you have currently been awarded at centennial college. strongly disagree 22. agree (please rank on the scale) (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with the amount of transfer credit you have currently been awarded at centennial college. strongly disagree 21. neither disagree nor agree (please rank on the scale) you are satisfied with your choice of program at centennial college. strongly disagree 20. disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) you believe centennial college fairly awards transfer credit and/or plar credit. strongly disagree disagree 84 neither disagree agree strongly agree transferability expectations and realities nor agree 23. (please rank on the scale) you believe centennial college quickly awards transfer credit and/or plar credit. strongly disagree 24. disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree (please rank on the scale) the process of obtaining transfer credit and/or plar credit at centennial college was straightforward and clearly outlined. strongly disagree disagree neither disagree nor agree agree strongly agree ______________________________________________________________________ thank you! we appreciate you taking the time to complete this survey. your feedback is important to us and will assist in improving centennial colleges credit transfer and plar system. if you have any questions about this survey, please contact sean woodhead at swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca. please check the box below if you wish to participate in a 60 minute focus group discussing your credit transfer and/or plar experiences. students will receive a $20.00 cash honourarium for their participation. in addition, complimentary pizza and drinks will be served at each focus group session! 85 rachel oh and sean woodhead appendix e transferability expectations and realities focus group letter of invitation greetings, thank you for taking the time to participate in the transferability expectations and realities research study. we enjoyed learning about your: 1) knowledge of credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) concepts; 2) expectations and realities; and 3) satisfaction with the current recognition of prior learning (rpl) system in place at centennial college. we are contacting you at this time in response to your interest in participating in a 60 minute focus group discussing your credit transfer and/or plar experiences. a focus group consists of a small number of individuals brought together to discuss their perceptions, opinions and beliefs on a specific topic. questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. before you decide whether to participate, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. please take a moment to read the details of this study and its benefits. who is conducting the study? all research will be carried out at centennial college under the supervision of rachel oh, pathways advisor and sean woodhead, manager, pathways and academic partnerships. what is the purpose of the study? the purpose of this study is to collect information on students transfer and plar credit experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability. study results may inform college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. what will you need to do if you take part? at this stage in the study, we are asking you to participate in audiotaped, semi-structured focus group that will center on the existence of expectationreality gaps and rationales for these gaps (student estimations of relevant prior learning and institutional communication of expectations and standards). your insights will reveal how support structures can be constructed and/or revised to provide a more productive system. the focus group will be audio taped with your permission. approximately eight to ten 86 transferability expectations and realities students will participate in each 60 minute semi-structured focus group. due to the confidential nature of this study you will be asked to keep all discussion that takes place within the focus group private. you will receive a $20.00 cash honourarium for your participation! you will be asked to provide consent to be a part of this research study by written confirmation at the commencement of the focus group. in providing consent you confirm that you have been given the opportunity to discuss the study, all of your questions have been answered and you agree to participate. who is organizing and funding the research? this study is organized and funded by centennial college and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). in 2011, the provincial government announced funding of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system objectives include: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework; 2) developing more transfer opportunities; 3) providing on campus advisors and orientation programs; and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). centennial college is supporting this provincial initiative by participating in and leading many transferability projects, including this study, which will provide fruitful recommendations regarding necessary rpl support structures. what are the possible disadvantages in taking part? there are no foreseeable risks associated with participating in this study. the research risk is extremely low. you will be instructed to share and disclose only that information with which you are comfortable. the data collected is not sensitive and there is no more risk involved than in everyday interactions. what are the benefits of taking part? participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. in identifying rpl reality-expectation gaps, colleges and universities can use the study results to: 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding their effectiveness in communicating credit transfer and plar rights and responsibilities; 2) participate in expectation management at the point of admission; and 3) develop or revise support structures that facilitate the translation of relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit 87 rachel oh and sean woodhead will my taking part in this study be kept confidential? yes, all responses will be kept strictly confidential and your involvement is voluntary. you may withdraw at any time or decline to answer any question with which you are uncomfortable. you will not be judged or evaluated and you will not be at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the study results. your identity will be kept anonymous within all research writing and publications. contact and further information if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study please contact ethics@centennialcollege.ca or the chair, dr. lynda atack at latack@centennialcollege.ca. we are happy to answer any questions you may have about this study. please keep a copy of this letter for your records. sincerely, rachel oh pathways advisor centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 racheloh@centennialcollege.ca 88 sean woodhead manager, pathways & academic partnerships centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca transferability expectations and realities appendix f transferability expectations and realities focus group consent letter [insert date] to the participants in this study, the purpose of this study is to collect information on students credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) experiences, especially at the point of intake. the data will be used to measure incoming student expectations against subsequent received credit, as well as student perceptions regarding transferability. study results may inform college and/or system-wide policy and process improvements. all research will be carried out at centennial college under the supervision of rachel oh, pathways advisor and sean woodhead, manager, pathways and academic partnerships. in 2011, the provincial government announced funding of nearly $74-million over five years to operate a new centralized system that facilitates transfers among institutions. new centralized credit system objectives include: 1) reducing the need for students to repeat coursework; 2) developing more transfer opportunities; 3) providing on campus advisors and orientation programs; and 4) refining a centralized website that will assist students in identifying credits for transfer (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). centennial college is supporting this provincial initiative by participating in and leading many transferability projects, including this study, which will provide fruitful recommendations regarding necessary recognition of prior learning (rpl) support structures. the audiotaped, semi-structured focus group will center on the existence of expectation-reality gaps and rationales for these gaps (student estimations of relevant prior learning and institutional communication of expectations and standards). your insights will reveal how support structures can be constructed and/or revised to provide a more productive system. the focus group will be audio taped with your permission. approximately eight to ten students will participate in each 60 minute semi-structured focus group. due to the confidential nature of this study you will be asked to keep all discussion that takes place within the focus group private. you will receive a $20.00 cash honourarium for your participation! 89 rachel oh and sean woodhead participation in the research study benefits participants and the scholarly community. in identifying rpl reality-expectation gaps, colleges and universities can use the study results to: 1) motivate discussion within institutions regarding their effectiveness in communicating credit transfer and plar rights and responsibilities; 2) participate in expectation management at the point of admission; and 3) develop or revise support structures that facilitate the translation of relevant prior learning into postsecondary credit. involvement in the study is voluntary. you may withdraw at any time or decline to answer any question with which you are uncomfortable. you will not be judged or evaluated and you will not be at risk of harm. all data collected from individuals who choose to withdraw will be removed from the study results. your identity will be kept anonymous within all research writing and publications. if you have any questions related to your rights as a participant in this study please contact ethics@centennialcollege.ca or the chair, dr. lynda atack at latack@centennialcollege.ca. thank you in advance for your participation. sean woodhead manager, pathways & academic partnerships centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 swoodhead@centennialcollege.ca rachel oh pathways advisor centennial college po box 631, station a toronto, canada, m1k 5e9 racheloh@centennialcollege.ca by signing below, you are indicating that you are willing to participate in the study, you have received a copy of this letter and you are fully aware of the conditions above. name: ____________________________ signed: ____________________________ date: ____________________________ please initial if you agree to have the focus group audio taped: ____ please initial indicating you have received your $20.00 honorarium: ____ 90 transferability expectations and realities appendix g transferability expectations and realities focus group protocol focus group protocol 60 minute session i. settling in (5 mins) a. welcome focus group participants to the session. b. research team introduction. c. describe the purpose of the study. d. describe the voluntary nature of participation and ask participants if they are comfortable having their discussion audio recorded. inform participants that those who wish to withdraw from the study may do so at any time; all data collected from these individuals will be removed from the transcripts. thank and dismiss those who are not interested in continuing their participation. remind participants that due to the confidential nature of this study they will be asked to keep all discussion that takes place within the focus group private. e. ask the focus group members to introduce themselves and state their program at centennial college. ii. clarifying terms and concepts (10 mins) a. what does it mean to be a transfer student and/or plar student? do you use these terms to refer to your situation? b. has your experience at centennial college differed from that of your high school counterparts? (prompts: admissions, financial, coursework) c. from your experience, map/illustrate the process for receiving transfer credit and/or plar at centennial college? please include all required processes/stages. what processes/stages were you not aware of upon intake? iii. warm up information matrix (15 mins) a. ask participants to fill in a matrix identifying incoming expectations for credit transfer and/or plar at centennial college and their rationale. identify credit transfer and plar expectations separately (if applicable). grades previous program/ coursework application/ documentation expectation(s) rationale(s) 91 policies/ procedures timing assessment/ amount of credit awarded rachel oh and sean woodhead b. reporting out i. at the point of intake, what expectations did you hold for credit transfer/plar? ii. what was your rationale for these expectations? iii. what resources and/or sources informed your expectations? iv. v. realities and satisfaction (25 mins) a. what criteria does centennial college use to award transfer credit? were you aware of these criteria from the point of intake? b. are you satisfied with the amount of credit you have been awarded? reasons for dissatisfaction? (prompts: original course or program was not designed for transfer; courses could not be used toward certificate/diploma/degree; did not know or understand transfer requirements) c. what policies and procedures for obtaining transfer credit and/or plar credit at centennial college were clearly outlined at the point of intake? d. what policies and procedures for obtaining transfer credit and/or plar credit at centennial college were not clearly outlined at the point of intake? e. what support structures can be constructed and/or revised to provide a more productive system at centennial college? wrap-up (5 mins) a. summarize the main themes of the conversation what did the research team hear? go around the room to see if the participants agree with the summary and to see if they have anything to add, amend, etc b. have we missed anything? is there anything else that you wish to share that we havent asked? thank participants for their time. ask if they have any questions. provide contact information if participants have anything additional they would like to share. 92

executive summary the present investigation is the first large scale study within a single ontario institution to examine whether the phenomenon of excess credits exists amongst transfer and non-transfer students. the study examines: the magnitude of excess credits, factors associated with excess credits, the degree types and programs in which they occur and what, if anything, should be done to mitigate their occurrence. the accumulation of excess credits could be seen to be symptomatic of problems that may depend on the structure of the receiving program or the transfer process itself. using york university as a case study, the present investigation revealed that the magnitude of excess credits was extremely small and localized to a small number of programs/degrees. that being said, continual monitoring of programs and degree structures is warranted so that decision makers can take action to mitigate the existence of excess credits.

final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion project: 2015-34: student redirect initiatives between fleming college and trent university submitted by: joe muldoon, project lead on august 19, 2016 authors: joe muldoon (trent university, project lead) hailey wright (trent university, co-lead coordinator), david adam baker (fleming college, co-lead coordinator) final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion 1 table of contents introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2 project timeline ............................................................................................................................................ 2 discussion...................................................................................................................................................... 3 design........................................................................................................................................................ 3 project requirements and learning outcomes ........................................................................................ 3 course development and curriculum analysis process ........................................................................... 4 challenges ................................................................................................................................................. 4 successes .................................................................................................................................................. 5 appendix 1.0 - degree requirement charts .................................................................................................. i appendix 2.0 - learning outcome comparison ........................................................................................... iii introduction to financial accounting....................................................................................................... iii introduction to management .................................................................................................................. iv microeconomics........................................................................................................................................ v macroeconomics...................................................................................................................................... vi preparatory calculus ............................................................................................................................... vii calculus i ................................................................................................................................................ viii calculus ii ................................................................................................................................................. ix biology i..................................................................................................................................................... x biology ii................................................................................................................................................... xi appendix 3.0 - course development approvals ......................................................................................... xii final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion 2 introduction the purpose of this project is to develop streams within fleming colleges (fleming) general arts & science university transfer program to facilitate a process for redirecting students facing suspension from trent within business and the sciences. the projects approach was to examine the existing fleming university transfer articulation agreement to trent university (trent), and relevant quantitative evidence and program mapping to determine its feasibility. the goal of the pathway is to facilitate second-year entry into strategic bachelor of science majors and the bachelor of business administration program, in addition to the existing bachelor of arts second-year entry and limited transferability into the bachelor of science degrees. this pathway will have three distinct entry points: traditional fleming recruitment and admission processes, trents redirect upon application, and trents suspension redirect process. a redirected suspension student will complete the certificate and transition into second-year studies of a degree program; this is identical to a student who entered into the university transfer program through flemings traditional recruitment and admission process or trents re-direct upon application process. this report will detail the processes taken to identify appropriate courses, course development, and program design successes and challenges, and provide best practices and lessons learned. project timeline the university transfer pathway between fleming and trent has been a longstanding success for both institutions and the students it serves. the project was modelled after similar oncat funded initiatives. the initial discussion of this project began at a meeting between fleming and trent administration in early may 2015. during that meeting, an expansion was proposed to the existing university transfer pathway where trent would redirect suspended students to flemings general arts & science university transfer instead of trent enforcing the traditional one-year suspension from the university. trent highlighted the need that any redirect or suspension redirect pathway would need to allow seamless second-year entry into specific bachelor of science majors and the bachelor of business administration program because of their persistently high first-year suspension rates. currently, the general arts & science university transfer program has a social science and humanities emphasis through its multidisciplinary approach to literature, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. this program attracts students wishing to survey the humanities discipline; lack the academic credentials to meet university admission requirements; or previously attempted university studies. fleming currently has formal articulation agreements with trent, carleton university, and the university of windsor; each agreement grants one-year of appropriate academic credit into select degree programs. in addition, trent and fleming entered into an informal redirect upon admission agreement in 2014 to give an option to unqualified trent applicants a pathway to achieve a degree in four years. early in june 2015, a decision was made to develop stream options within the existing university transfer program. the project team performed an analysis of trents first-year major requirements that identified key courses that required development for the business and science streams. additionally, fleming faculty identified the courses that are integral to the university transfer program, which ensures student success and maintains its program vocational outcomes. the courses deemed integral are mandated program requirements of the three-stream options. final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion 3 excluding existing one-to-one equivalents, the initial proposal outlined course development in the areas of accounting, biology, environmental studies, indigenous studies, introductory management, and mathematics. the projects compressed timelines (funding awarded in november 2015) forced both institutions into a highly interactive and collaborative relationship: release of trent course outlines to fleming, joint faculty meetings to discuss course pedagogy, and peer review of course outlines and lesson plans. the success of the project is attributed to the joint faculty and administration collaboration at all stages. regretfully, the original implementation of the new university transfer stream pathways for fall 2016 was unrealistic. both institutions are committed to the projects implementation and success; the university transfer streams provide a unique opportunity to those students that wish to survey humanities, science and business disciplines, lack the university admission requirements, or an alternative to trents academic suspension policy. discussion design trent and fleming reached a consensus on which streams and corresponding courses would have the greatest mutual benefit. as part of the curriculum development process, fleming faculty reviewed trents course outlines and consulted with trent faculty when necessary regarding textbook selection and delivery patterns. fleming consulted trent faculty early in the development process to ensure the courses would meet trents equivalency threshold. courses developed include preparatory calculus, calculus i (60 hrs.), calculus ii (60 hrs.), biology i (60 hrs.), biology ii (60 hrs.), and introduction to management. refer to appendix 2.0 for a course learning outcome comparison chart. fleming is continuing to work on finalizing how the multiple streams will operate within the existing university transfer program. fleming has included an equivalent preparatory calculus course in addition to the two calculus equivalents. this preparatory course ensures that students have the necessary background knowledge and understanding to succeed in an introductory university calculus course. further, it allows students without a high school grade 12 u mathematics credit access to the university transfer - science stream. project requirements and learning outcomes previous pathway developments between trent and fleming utilized a standard approach for equivalency analysis. fleming would share course outlines and curriculum documentation and it would be reviewed by trent faculty, be deemed equivalent, and worked into a pathway agreement. understanding the overall project goal of on-time degree attainment and the timeline the project team was presented with the team assessed the way in which course review is typically orchestrated between the two institutions and decided on a unique approach. the proposed streams have been mapped in a way that ensures students have the prerequisites to provide entrance in program specific second year courses (appendix 1.0). the proposed streams create a seamless transfer into the following trent degree programs: business administration (bba), economics (ba or bsc), biology (bsc), math (ba or bsc), psychology (ba or bsc), english literature (ba), philosophy (ba) and sociology (ba). students are able to apply for, and declare majors outside of these listed final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion 4 programs, but not all transfer credits may be usable towards degree requirements nor would students have the prerequisites to enter directly into the second-year of the desired program. the transfer equivalency database was reviewed following the development of the curriculum map to determine which fleming courses may already have been deemed equivalent and could be worked into the pathway without requiring additional course development. the benefit of this approach was it allowed the team to adhere to project deadlines. further, it allows course delivery at fleming to be viable as a single course spans multiple college programs. this preliminary work allowed trent to make recommendations to fleming regarding course development. devising a curriculum map in the preliminary stages allowed for a more focused course development. course development and curriculum analysis process curriculum analysis is highlighted as a best practice. following the preferred curriculum map, department heads and designated faculty members at fleming and trent were asked which courses would best fit in the new streams. the initial step in the curriculum analysis was to share current trent course outlines with fleming. this provided fleming faculty the framework to ensure the courses had enough learning outcome overlap to constitute an equivalency following development. subsequent to the distribution of the course outlines, subject matter experts met to explore course pedagogy and delivery pattern nuances. following the meetings, faculty began ongoing email consultation and collaboration. once fleming had established a skeletal course outline, learning outcomes, lecture and seminar topics, it was shared with trent. trent subject matter experts reviewed the skeletal outline and, if appropriate, awarded an inprinciple equivalency (appendix 3.0). after full development, trent subject matter experts reviewed the complete outline and related documentation to determine its equivalency. equivalencies for all developed courses were awarded. challenges despite the many successes, the project team faced challenges internally. the project received its approval midway through the fall academic term; this midterm approval prevented fleming from beginning the development process until the end of the term. full-time faculty received development release time as part of their winter and spring teaching assignments. as discussed in the project requirements and learning outcomes section an initial scan for existing equivalencies was conducted. trent and fleming currently have multiple pathways between the business administration programs at the two institutions and as such, felt that an equivalency would already exist for contemporary issues in management. it was discovered that although these business pathways do in fact award trents admn 1000h credit within the transfer credit block, this credit is awarded on full program learning outcomes as opposed to a one-to-one course equivalent. an attempt was made to have an existing fleming course reviewed for equivalency to admn 1000h but a recommendation was made by trent faculty to develop a new course as substantial differences were seen between the two outlines. this resulted in new course development and the submitted course outline has been awarded an equivalency to trents admn 1000h course. final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion 5 at present, trent has an internal program, which supports newly suspended students to re-enter the university without completing the standard one-year suspension. this program known as fresh start allows students to petition to stay at trent on a reduced course load under close supervision of academic advisors. the project team has faced some challenges in moving forward with a suspension redirect process as it conflicts with an existing institutional program aimed at supporting student success within trent. the trent project team has recommended that both the fresh start program and the bi-directionalremediation program can coexist and ultimately the student will decide which suspension outcome is best suited to their needs. trent students facing suspension will meet with trent academic advisors and be presented with the option to make an appeal to become a part of the fresh start program or to participate in the pathway with fleming. this option supports the desire for these students deciding the direction of their educational journey and ensures that staff supports are in place to assist with the decision making process. the project team identified a research opportunity in this area regarding success rates and re-admission into full-time learning at trent. following implementation of the additional university transfer streams and a cohort of redirected suspension students from trent, the institutions commit to tracking and interpreting data relating to the transfer of students and the success rates of each of the programs presented to at-risk students. successes among the many successes experienced, the most beneficial has allowed trent and fleming administration to hold a greater understanding of each others practices including trents equivalency evaluation process and flemings program design and structure. this understanding will help support ongoing projects and collaborations. the collaborative measures taken throughout the stages of curriculum mapping, course development and curriculum analysis for equivalency have led to a successful outcome of robust bachelor of science and bachelor of business administration pathways. students enrolled in any stream, regardless of how they entered, will have the opportunity to receive full trent credit for their learning at fleming. another benefit is participating students will not have to enroll into a summer bridge in order to enter secondyear programming at trent. the project team views this as a monumental success of the curriculum planning and a best practice in student mobility as it allows students to receive full credit for the learning completed in the academic year and eliminates the need for off-term study. the project is evidence that college curriculum developed and structured in a specific manner can allow for one-to-one college to university equivalents in the sciences and business disciplines. further, the program and its streams are not the pure delivery of university curriculum at the college, but provide the necessary preparatory curriculum and applied learning where necessary to ensure student success. the success of the project is attributed to the joint institutional faculty and administration collaboration at all project stages. the faculty pedagogy discussions have been a learning experience for each institution's faculty and administration. although the project has reached its end, there are still required areas to address in order to work towards successful implementation of the developed streams. both trent and fleming recognize the final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion 6 validity and benefit of the streams and are committed to launching and enrolling students through traditional direct-entry recruitment, redirect upon application and the redirect of first year suspension students at trent. in order to establish program viability fleming must ensure the streams have the required enrollment. further, the administrative teams will continue to collaborate regarding policies and procedures relating to student admission and enrolment, data sharing and agree to ensure the work completed through the project is implemented. fleming is committed to offering the expanded university transfer program however administrative and resource allocation decisions remain outstanding. fleming must ensure these streams are viable within the existing university transfer program model. these decisions have resulted in a delay in the stream implementation. moreover, trent is committed to re-directing at the point of admission or advising suspended students of the opportunity to participate in the suspension redirect pathway. these commitments to collaboration and full project execution span beyond the formal duration of this project. this project highlights trents and flemings commitment towards student mobility. final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion i appendix 1.0 - degree requirement charts appendix 1.0 is developed from the trent university academic calendar and shows an overview of degree credit requirements and how the articulated credits map into each of the degrees; ba, bsc and bba. program requirements for ba (honours) anticipated courses granted through transfer equivalencies from fleming must meet requirements for specific program as dictated in academic calendar 20.0 overall credits 5.0 credits a minimum of 7 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level a maximum of 7 credits at the 1000 level 5.0 at the 1000 level a minimum of 3 credits with a grade of 60% of higher leading to majors in different disciplines potential credits to be awarded in: english philosophy psychology sociology arts program requirements for bsc (honours) anticipated courses granted through transfer equivalencies from fleming must meet requirements for specific program as dictated in academic calendar 20.0 overall credits 5.0 credits 14.0 science credits (including 1.0 in math but not from math 1001h, 1080h, 2080y, 2084h or 2085h) 4.0 science credits to be awarded (math, biol, econ, psyc) a minimum of 7 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level a maximum of 7 credits at the 1000 level 5.0 credits at the 1000 level a minimum of 3 credits with a grade of 60% of higher leading to majors in different disciplines potential credits to be awarded in: mathematics biology psychology economics english final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion ii program requirements for bachelor of business administration anticipated courses granted through transfer equivalencies from fleming must meet requirements for specific program as dictated in academic calendar 20.0 overall credits, 11.5 program credits 5.0 credits 6.5 admn credits consisting of admn 1000h, 1021h, 2010h, 2021h, 2100h, 2220h, 2510h, 3021h, 3200h, 3300h, 3400h, 4030h and 4101h admn 1000h, admn 1021h 3.0 admn credits in addition to the above at the 3000 level or beyond 2.0 econ credits consisting of econ 1010h, 1020h, 220h, and 2250h econ 1010h, econ 1020h a minimum of 7 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level a maximum of 7 credits at the 1000 level 5.0 credits at 1000 level a minimum of 3 credits with a grade of 60% of higher leading to majors in different disciplines potential credits to be awarded in: business administration economics mathematics english arts final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion iii appendix 2.0 - learning outcome comparison introduction to financial accounting fleming college (acct 72) course learning outcomes explain what accounting is and identify the users and uses of accounting information trent university (admn 1021h) course learning outcomes ability to record the financial transactions of a business entity and to create a set of financial statements at the end of an operating cycle identify and distinguish between various generally accepted accounting principles an understanding of the objectives and functions of the accrual accounting system and the role of gaap and ifrs in the completion of annual financial statements state and utilize the basic accounting equation, analyse the interrelationships of the balance sheet, statements of income, retained earnings and cash flow demonstrate the ability to analyse, journalize and post accounting transactions including month-end and year-end adjustments demonstrate the ability to prepare an adjusted trial balance and financial statements identify and prepare the various sections of a classified balance sheet and a multiple-step income statement prepare and describe the accounting entries required for merchandising activities. explain the perpetual and periodic methods for recording inventory explain internal control and accounting procedures as they relate to cash, temporary investments and receivables the development of professional accounting literacy skills final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion iv introduction to management fleming college (tba) course learning outcomes analyse key internal and external forces that shape any industry and organization trent university (admn 1000h) course learning outcomes introduce the foundations of management and business fields of study and practice describe the underlying philosophies of management and types of role managers have within organizations introduce multiple important current issues and ideas facing managers and the wider community related to management, organization and business analyze the unique organizational structures of organization to identify the impacts on culture, work environment and hr practices appreciate these issues as interesting, important, practical, contested, challenging, multi-perspectival, multi-faceted judge the ethics of a business decision making process using various models and theories introduce central managerial functions and modern variants of them debate the business case for implementing sustainable practices in business develop stronger critical, analytical, contextual, communicational and interpersonal skills, particularly relating to business and management create a professional code of ethics including behaviour, representation, interpersonal skills, communication styles, trade and negotiation, selfmanagement, corruption develop a strong foundation for engaging in the varieties of organizational and managerial issues studied both within trents business administration program as well as within other programs at trent university final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion v microeconomics fleming college (busn 18) course learning outcomes recognize and assess the fundamental economic principles and problems apply the principles of supply and demand to the product and factor markets analyze the different types of elasticity and how this concept influences business decisions interpret and critique the influence that government has on the individual and on the firm trent university (econ 1010h) course learning outcomes understand the notions of scarcity, choice and tradeoffs for consumers, producers, and the economy understand the laws of supply and demand and how they impact on outcomes appreciate why outcomes get altered when factor influencing supply and demand change identify factors that may impede markets from achieving state of rest discuss and analyze the choices made by the consumer understand consumer behaviour in light of constraints outline and calculate how firms make decisions in competitive markets identify various factors that allow production to take place describe and explain the various market structures and how they affect consumer and producer decisions understand various types of costs in both short-run and long-run summarize why markets fail and critique what has been done to correct these issues characterize different types of market structure and appreciate which is preferable for a healthy economy interested in maximizing social welfare analyze the issues of income distribution (and poverty) and recommend potential solutions understand why there may be market failure. appreciate how regulation and government intervention may be required to bring desired outcomes in an economy identify the pros and cons of free trade across both individuals and nations; understand international trade restrictions final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion vi macroeconomics fleming college (busn 13) course learning outcomes define, explain, interpret, and compare key economic indicators of the economy of canada and of other countries trent university (econ 1020h) course learning outcomes ability to solve every day macroeconomic problems become familiar with the methodology and terminology commonly used demonstrate an understanding of relationships between macroeconomic principles and selected current or historical issues of social justice and social welfare identify historically important times in canadian economic history and their impact on todays economy demonstrate an understanding of relationships between specific macroeconomic models and selected political philosophies describe and explain the fundamental macroeconomic problems and tradeoffs faced by policy makers discuss the role of government policy in stabilizing the canadian economy describe the role of the ministry of finance and the bank of canada in controlling fluctuations in the business cycle understand fundamental concepts in the field introduced to key measures such as total output, total employment (or unemployment), aggregate expenditure, the general price level, etc. understand how they all react and interact with one another, as the economy functions and operates explain how a modern economy works; analyze key issues such as budget deficits, inflation, what causes interest rates to rise final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion vii preparatory calculus fleming college (tba) course learning outcomes understand notations and the algebraic properties of real and rational numbers trent university course learning outcomes understand notations and the algebraic properties of real numbers establish the concepts of functions with different forms explore the properties of functions in their different forms sketch graphs of functions and evaluate their values sketch graphs of functions and evaluate their values at different points solve problems involving polynomial and rational functions solve problems involving polynomial, rational, exponential, logarithmic and trigonometric functions solve problems involving logarithmic functions solve simple sequences and series solve simple sequences and series manipulate elementary linear inequalities and equations manipulate elementary linear inequalities and equations formulate and evaluate mathematical models as applications of functions formulate mathematical models as applications of functions final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion viii calculus i fleming college (tba) course learning outcomes compute limits of functions, using both direct and indirect methods trent university (math 1110h) course learning outcomes compute limits of functions, using both direct and indirect methods determine whether functions are continuous and where, and identify and classify points of discontinuity determine where and whether the functions are continuous, and identify and classify points of discontinuity differentiate and antidifferentiate a wide class of single-variable functions, such as polynomials, algebraic functions, trigonometry functions , exponential and logarithmic functions, and sums, products, quotients, compositions and inverses of these functions differentiate and antidifferentiate a wide class of single-variable functions, including polynomials, algebraic functions, trigonometric functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, and sums, products, quotients, compositions, and inverses of these functions. integrate such functions using methods up to and including substitution. integrate single-variable functions (such as those mentioned above) using methods up to and including substitution use the first and second derivatives and asympototics of a function to obtain qualitative information about that function, such as intervals of increase or decrease, concavity, maxima and minima, existence and uniqueness of roots use the properties of function to sketch the graph of the function (and its derivative) use derivatives to solve applied problems including rate of change, linear approximation and optimization understand the meaning of core calculus concepts in simple applications to physics, engineering, economics, biology, chemistry and other sciences use integration to compute areas under curves, volumes and surface areas of rotationally symmetric solids recall various abstract concepts such as continuity, derivatives, integrals, and antiderivatives to understand the main ideas in the proofs of some of the major classical results of calculus recognize various abstract concepts of calculus to understand and use the statements of others use the first and second derivatives and asymptotics of a function to obtain qualitative information about that function, such as intervals of increase or decrease, concavity, maxima and minima, existence and uniqueness of roots. use this information to sketch the graph of the function use derivatives to solve applied problems involving rate-of-change, linear approximation, and optimization. understand the meaning of core calculus concepts in simple applications to physics, engineering, economics, biology and other sciences use integration to compare areas under curves, volumes and surface areas of rotationally symmetric solids have sufficient abstract conceptual understanding of continuity, derivatives, integrals, and antiderivatives to understand the main ideas in the proofs of some of the major classical results of calculus and understand and use the statements of others final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion ix calculus ii fleming college (tba) course learning outcomes compute definite and indefinite integrals of many functions using various substitutions, integration by parts, and/or partial fractions trent university (math 1120h) course learning outcomes compute definite and indefinite integrals of many functions using various substitutions, integration by parts, and/or partial fractions identify and evaluate improper integrals identify and evaluate improper integrals use integrals to compute the arc-length of curves, the areas of surfaces of revolution, and centres of mass of various objects compute limits of sequences, using both direct (e.g.. algebraic) and indirect e.g. squeeze-play) methods use various tests to determine whether a given series converges or not, and be able to compute the sum of some (e.g. geometric series) use various tests to determine the radius and interval of convergence of a power series use taylor's formula to find the taylor series of a function at a point, and be able to use a remainder term to estimate how close a taylor polynomial is to the original function recall various abstract concepts such as continuity, derivatives, integrals, and antiderivatives to understand and apply the main ideas in the proofs of some of the major classical results of calculus.(e.g. the comparison and ratio tests) recognize various abstract concepts of calculus (as listed above) to understand and apply them (e.g. term-by-term differentiation and integration of taylor series inside the radius of convergence use integrals to compute the arc-length of curves, the areas of surfaces of revolution, and centres of mass of various objects compute limits of sequences, using both direct (e.g.. algebraic) and indirect e.g. squeeze-play) methods use various tests to determine whether a given series converges or not, and be able to compute the sum of some (e.g. geometric series) use various tests to determine the radius and interval of convergence of a power series use taylor's formula to find the taylor series of a function at a point, and be able to use a remainder term to estimate how close a taylor polynomial is to the original function have sufficient abstract conceptual understanding of continuity, derivatives, integrals, and antiderivatives to understand the main ideas in the proofs of some of the results and techniques used in the course (e.g. the comparison and ratio tests), and the statements of various others well enough to use them (e.g. term-by-term differentiation and integration of taylor series inside the radius of convergence) final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion x biology i fleming college (tba) course learning outcomes describe examples of biological interactions that occur from the individual to the ecosystem level of organization trent university (biol 1020h) course learning outcomes understand biological interactions that occur from the individual to the ecosystem level of organization explain the importance of biodiversity and the factors that influence it state the basic principles of evolution, including historical aspects, key processes, and current thinking on the origin and history of life understand the definition of biodiversity and factors that influence it understand the basic principles of evolution (historical aspects and key processes) apply knowledge gained from the course to investigate current issues in biodiversity understand the current thinking on the origin and history of life apply the scientific method to plan and carry out laboratory investigations and field work within a collaborative group gain an appreciation for the importance of an understanding of biology as an informed citizen select and use appropriate numeric, symbolic, graphical, and linguistic modes of representation to communicate scientific ideas, plans, and experimental results use the scientific method as it applies to biology communicate the procedures and results of scientific investigations by displaying evidence and information, either in writing or using a computer, in various forms, including flow charts, tables, graphs, and laboratory reports develop the habit of taking clear and useful notes while doing lab and field work carry out the independent laboratory and field work analyze data and use introductory statistics critically evaluate your own work and the work of others communicate scientific findings write a clear, concise and well-organized and well-produced report practice asking questions and seeking ways to answer them appreciate the advantages and constraints of working in small groups synthesize and apply knowledge gained from the course final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion xi biology ii fleming college (tba) course learning outcomes describe, at a basic level, the molecular processes underlying cell structure and function, including differentiation into various cell types, metabolism, the cell cycle, and cellular basis of disease trent university (biol 1030h) course learning outcomes have a basic understanding of the molecular process underlying the cell explain how genetic mechanisms relate to the evolution and development of various organisms understand genetic mechanisms related to evolution and development of various organisms analyse current biological research and issues using a basic knowledge of molecular biology and critical thinking skills be able to design and carry out controlled experiments apply the scientific method to plan and carry out laboratory investigations within a collaborative group be familiar with cellular types, processes, diseases and cycles be able to write the results of a laboratory experiment in a proper scientific format develop critical thinking and analysis skills of current biological research select and use appropriate numeric, symbolic, graphical, and linguistic modes of representation to communicate scientific ideas, plans, and experimental results communicate the procedures and results of scientific investigations by displaying evidence and information, either in writing or using a computer, in various forms, including flow charts, tables, graphs, and laboratory reports final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion xii appendix 3.0 - course development approvals trent course fleming course existing or new development faculty feedback approval business administration stream admn 1021h acct 72 existing approved equivalency admn 1000h busn 188 existing admn 1000h tbd new development approved equivalency econ 1010h busn 18 existing approved equivalency econ 1020h busn 13 existing approved equivalency -courses are different both in terms of content not constituted as equivalent. new and work produced by student course development required -course requires research proposal and paper with multiple reviewed sources -course is light in elements of critical thinking exercises and academic research final report: fleming college & trent university university transfer expansion xiii trent course fleming course existing or new development faculty feedback approval science stream math 1001h tbd new development approved equivalency math 1110h tbd new development approved equivalency math 1120h tbd new development approved equivalency biol 1020h tbd new development approved equivalency biol 1030h tbd new development approved equivalency [end of document]

oncat continuing education credential completion strategy: final report project number: 2016-30 lead institution: mohawk college, in partnership with fanshawe college report authors: alison horton, jim vanderveken, nair lacruz, jessica bugorski and bobbijo sawchyn submission date: wednesday, march 15, 2017 oncat continuing education credential completion strategy: final report list of partner institutions: mohawk college fanshawe college list of primary contacts: cebert adamson, director of academic operations alison horton, dean of business, media and entertainment and continuing education list of participants steering committee members: alison horton, dean, business, media and entertainment and continuing education jim vanderveken, dean interdisciplinary studies dan mckerrall, associate dean, continuing education deb calarco, director of enrolment services and systems richard wiggers, associate dean, school of interdisciplinary studies nair lacruz, program manager, continuing education jessica bugorski, chair, school of language and liberal studies, fanshawe college bobbijo sawchyn, project manager working group members: nair lacruz, program manager, continuing education jennifer potton-roberts, program coordinator, liberal studies deb calarco, director of enrolment services and systems jessica bugorski, chair, school of language and liberal studies, fanshawe college lina bomardieri, manager of enrolment services and systems christine boyko-head, curriculum design specialist bobbijo sawchyn, project manager project consultants: rose gilles, associate director of student recruitment linda basso, pathways coordinator sara gluchowski, director, project management office julienne weed, manager of marketing and media strategy for questions or further information regarding this project, please contact mohawk college: nair lacruz, program manager, continuing education e: nair.lacruz@mohawkcollege.ca 1 table of contents: executive summary 3 project purpose and goals 4 pathway development: methodology 6 pathway development: program comparison and analysis 8 pathway development: implementation process and timelines 8 summary of pathways created 9 promising practices and lessons learned 10 appendices 13 2 executive summary: in partnership, mohawk college and fanshawe college worked to create pathways within their respective general arts and science programs. general arts and science, unique in being largely options-based and offered through both part-time and full-time deliveries, was leveraged within the project to facilitate credit transfer opportunities and enhance flexibility for students, in particular for those going through an academic transition. the main goals of the project were to map post-secondary credits from institutions within the colleges catchment area on both a course-to-course and course-to-program outcome basis. data resulting from the process was to be compiled by establishing a database. the project was to culminate in sending course credit transfer decisions to oncat. in total, 3,435 course transfers were approved from 35 institutions with a particular focus on mcmaster university, university of guelph, sheridan college, seneca college and niagara college. of the courses assessed by mohawk, 173 were approved for course-to-course transfer and 3,263 were approved as course-to-program outcome(s) transfer. areas of focus included business, humanities, and liberal arts as they proved to have the highest transfer rates with respect to general arts and science. both the certificate and diploma offerings of the program were considered. at mohawk college the pathway(s) created throughout the project render students eligible for course to program transfer for all seven first year options-based courses. eligible students may be exempt from the remaining mandatory courses, however transfer credits must align with the residency policy. fanshawe college agreed to allow nine credits (roughly three courses) from any program for transfer into their general arts and science program, raising the likelihood that a student would only need one additional semester of study to complete a one-year certificate. the process was formalized and degree audits were updated so that the nine standard (non-elective) credits would automatically populate the student evaluations (eval) allowing them to see immediately which credits they had already completed toward a one-year general arts and science certificate. as more of general arts and science has moved to an online delivery, fanshawe is now able to offer program completion to online-only students as well. the first of its kind within general arts and science as well as continuing education, the project at hand shed light on new approaches to credit transfer within the program as well as within the full-time and part-time academic areas. mohawk college, as the lead of the project, created a cross-disciplinary steering committee and working group that leveraged the different strengths, knowledge, and background of its members, amplifying the ability to overcome challenges. in addition, it was important to recognize the differences between programs, policies, and procedures at the two participating institutions. mohawk and fanshawe worked towards the common project goal while tailoring processes to individual institutional policies. the two 3 schools leveraged their excellence in academic programming and student-centred approach to create novel opportunities for credential completion. overall, having a strong, dedicated and collaborative team ensured that project deliverables were met effectively and on time. in the end, project goals were met and the team continues to communicate and market the credential completion opportunity for implementation in fall, 2017. without the project funding, this initiative would likely not have carried forward. mohawk and fanshawe would like to take the opportunity to recognize and acknowledge the support and contribution from oncat. project purpose and goals: the oncat general arts and science credential completion project between mohawk and fanshawe was facilitated with the purpose of streamlining pathways into the general arts and science program with a particular focus on furthering opportunities for early leavers. recent years have shed light on the benefits of helping to facilitate student transfer within the province. with the unique nature of general arts and science, this project allowed for the creation of pathways that bridges different academic areas. explored in more detail throughout the report, the general arts and science program not only supports receiving pathways from a diverse range of academic areas but also prepares students to continue their educational path upon completion, should they choose to do so. prior to the commencement of this project, the project team observed a 2014/2015 provincial college graduation rate reported at 65.8%. within mohawk alone, the number of early leavers within the past five years was over 14,000. these student leavers range from those who may have no credits to those who have completed many; the total includes any student who was registered after 10 days and who have left the college without completing a credential. noting these numbers, mohawk and fanshawe both saw an opportunity to re-engage these former students. in doing so, the colleges could work to enhance graduation rates within the two institutions with hopes to contribute to the overall success rate across ontario. the general arts and science credential completion strategy will therefore reach out to students who had left their program prior to graduation or alternatively, provide additional options to those students thinking of making an educational transition. this outreach will also consist of a community strategy to engage early leavers of other post secondary institutions. general arts and science - an overview: at mohawk college, the general arts and science program is currently offered in two streams: as a one-year certificate and as a two-year diploma. it is unique in that the program is based on optional courses, allowing students to pursue their own area of interests within the breadth of subjects offered. in order to successfully complete the credential, first-year students (for both streams) must complete three mandatory courses: 4 credas101, first year foundations; comm11040 or commll041, communications; and ssci10051, introduction to critical thinking. the remaining seven courses to be completed within the first year are chosen from a list of those that are options-based. these courses range in subject area from art through the ages to preparatory chemistry, giving the student flexibility in their studies depending on where their interest and/or career aspirations lie. should students wish to pursue the two-year diploma, the following academic year requires the completion of 12 mandatory courses. a comprehensive program of studies for both the certificate and diploma programs, with listed optional courses, can be found in appendix b. the general arts and science program is currently available to students in the full-time academic area as well as through continuing education and part-time studies. one of the major goals of this project is to create full-time, part-time, in-class and fully online delivery methods to increase flexibility for students. students wishing to pursue the credential can, therefore, do so with a learning environment that best suits their personal preferences, lifestyle, and demands outside of the classroom. at fanshawe, general arts and science is a transitional program for students. not only is it a pathway into further education but also a pathway out of the college and into other areas of study. many students begin their post-secondary education in vocationally-specific programming, only to discover that their initial selection was not the right program fit. traditionally, many of these students are formally redirected to general arts and science to complete a credential, but historically, very few credits transferred over: most often level-one and/or level-two writing courses and perhaps a general education elective course. as this pathway is established internally at fanshawe, the college sought to find an external partner with whom to pair. mohawk college provided this fit given the similar natures of the general arts and science program. although credit completion may arguably happen through continuing education, the guiding principles are very similar. fanshawe also believes it has an opportunity to share online curriculum for our outgoing students. continuing education - an overview: the continuing education department at mohawk and fanshawe exist to provide students with opportunities to pursue or continue studies based on individual needs. types of programs available range from local certificates to advanced ontario college graduate certificates, and are delivered to a diverse student audience of those pursuing courses for recreation or a specialty credential in their profession. programs offered through continuing education are meant to be flexible and can therefore be taken part-time and/or online to accommodate for personal lifestyles and commitments (ie. fulltime job, family, financial limitations, etc.). in doing so, programs can be made available to nontraditional students that may not be able to attend class full-time. the general arts and science 5 program is currently available through full-time and continuing education at mohawk and fanshawe colleges. taking all of the above into consideration, the goals of the project were the following: to map transfer credit pathways between mohawk and fanshawes general arts and science programs; to map post-secondary credits from colleges and universities within mohawks catchment area on a course-to-course and course-to-program basis to the general arts and science certificate and diploma programs; to expand the general arts and science programs to be available through online delivery; and to automate the transfer process by establishing a database and expanding the exemption repository at each institution, accompanied by uploading transfer decisions to the oncat credit transfer database. the project was designed to be unique in two distinct ways: it was one of the first of its kind to look at general arts and science, a flexible program that could facilitate course to program transfer over and above course to course. in addition, it was one of the first projects to focus on transfer within continuing education and online learning in ontario. the project provides flexibility by enhancing pathway opportunities, while also offering full-time, part-time and online learning environments for early leavers and non-traditional student audiences. upon successful completion of the oncat general arts and science credential completion project, mohawk and fanshawe have taken important steps forward in providing innovative academic pathways in ontario. as of fall 2017, students will have additional credential completion opportunities that were not previously available within the postsecondary system. pathway development: methodology due to each institutions unique approaches with respect to credit transfer, program delivery, and academic policies, the project methodologies applied by fanshawe and mohawk differed. rationale and further insight can be found in section 8: promising practices and lessons learned. 1. mohawk began by identifying a project steering committee and working group with representation from both of the participating colleges. the steering committee, made up of senior academic administration including deans, associate deans, associate registrar and program management, was assigned to provide oversight and strategic guidance on the project. at mohawk college the working group, comprised a cross-disciplinary team of general arts and science program leads (full-time and continuing education), a curriculum specialist, members of the registrar along with the project manager, was assembled and convened on a weekly basis throughout the course of the initiative. additional expertise was sought from pathways, marketing and business solutions as needed. 2. the project manager and program manager at mohawk college drafted a project charter outlining a work plan for the working group according to scheduled timelines and budget. the 6 charter was passed by the steering committee and referred to as a resource throughout the project to ensure deliverables were being met. 3. fanshawe and mohawk college met to discuss potential credit transfer decision strategies for program outcome credit transfer analysis. consultation and sharing of best practices between the colleges occurred multiple times during the project as needed. 4. to begin mapping post-secondary credits, areas with highest mobility rates into and out of general arts and science were identified. as a result, the three academic areas mohawk college chose for primary focus were business, liberal arts and community studies. 5. the working group then identified post-secondary institutions within mohawks catchment area to map for potential pathways and credit transfer. wanting a combination of both colleges and universities, those chosen to pursue were mcmaster university, university of guelph, seneca college, sheridan college and niagara college. it should be noted that others of interest were identified, however institutions were limited to those with course outlines readily accessible online. 6. members of the working group created a comprehensive database including all course outlines available within the three subject areas listed in 4. from the institutions identified in 5. courses were then assessed by the curriculum design specialist; all outlines were noted for transfer potential as according to mohawks policy on credit transfer (appendix c). the type of transfer was noted within the database: those that met program learning outcomes, or those with potential to be recognized as course-to-course equivalencies. 7. course outlines for the general arts and science programs at mohawk and fanshawe were exchanged for course-to-course and course-to-program credit transfer pathway assessment. courses were added to the database as articulated in 6. 8. potential course-to-course equivalents were compiled by the working group into a secondary document and distributed to subject matter experts for transfer assessment. 9. previous course-to-course credit transfer approvals within general arts and science were extracted from the internal mohawk exemption tool database. transfers approved within the past five years were reviewed by the program coordinator and program manager; those eligible for transfer were added to the project database. 10. the working group compiled the data into a comprehensive spreadsheet for the general arts and science program administrators within full-time studies and continuing education. this spreadsheet was used to in order to facilitate automatic transfer and will continue to grow as more students transfer into the general arts and science program. 11. in order to facilitate online delivery program gaps were first identified by both colleges, noting web-based courses that were not currently offered by the college. 12. mohawk college formed a pathways and marketing sub-group to develop a promotions and communications plan. both full-time and continuing education were involved in the discussion to facilitate a joint marketing strategy to highlight the options for students when considering general arts and science. 13. the continuing education program manager and project manager at mohawk college worked closely with business solutions to facilitate the equivalency data upload to oncat. members from the working group formatted information from the project database to a working document compliant with oncat guidelines. business solutions then converted the file to usable form and sent information as per indicated by oncat. 7 14. march 15 onward past project completion, members of the working group will be implementing the communications and marketing plan, making the developed general arts and science credit transfer pathway available to students for the fall 2017 term. pathway development: program comparison and analysis due to the nature of the general arts and science program, there were two distinct modes of transfer: course-to-course equivalencies or course-to-program outcomes. the flexibility in program options, therefore, provided additional opportunity for credit recognition. at mohawk college course outlines were assessed on an individual basis. unless rendered ineligible as per the policies on credit transfer, courses were approved as options-based, contributing to the higher-level program learning outcomes (appendix a). in comparison to the general arts and science program of studies (appendix b), courses with course-to-course potential were then flagged for further assessment by the subject matter expert. all courses were analyzed with the specific course outline available, and the gaps identified were therefore strictly on the basis of not meeting policy. with an acknowledgment to the skills and knowledge gained through prior study in a previous semester, fanshawe college agreed to allow nine credits from any program to transfer into the general arts and science program, thus raising the likelihood that a student would only need one additional semester of study to complete a one-year certificate. the process was formalized and their degree audits were updated so that the nine standard (non-elective) credits would automatically populate the student evaluation courses (eval). students could immediately see what credits they had already completed toward a one-year general arts and science certificate. as more of general arts and science has moved to an online delivery, fanshawe is now able to offer program completion to online-only students as well. for mohawk college the unique nature of the project allowed for collaboration not only between partner institutions but also between multiple areas within the institution including the full-time and part-time academic areas, the registrars office, corporate reporting, marketing, recruitment as well as business solutions. inter-departmental collaboration was facilitated through weekly working group meetings. as a result, the project not only reinforced relationships between departments but also ensure alignment within the project with respect to academics, implementation, communications and marketing. monthly and often bi-weekly meetings occurred between fanshawe college and mohawk college. pathway development: implementation process and timelines due to the nature of the programs, incoming transfer students to general arts and science will be assessed at the discretion of the program administrator(s). although each student will be in their own individual case, the process has now been streamlined and automated with the creation of a comprehensive database. decisions from the course outline assessment have been documented, including denials with rationale, and are available for reference. 8 senior leadership, including associate deans and deans of corresponding subject areas, as well as the registrar and vice president academic, are aware of the initiative. however, for reasons stated above formal approval of the pathway is not needed for implementation. at mohawk college marketing and communication of the program and transfer options will comprise of a soft launch in spring and will continue to progress throughout the summer for implementation of the transfer opportunities for fall 2017. summary of pathways created: mohawk approved 3,435 of courses for credit transfer. of those, 173 were approved for course to course equivalencies, and 3,263 will be recognized as contributions toward options-based courses. a breakdown of credits approved by institution and subject area can be found in table 1. these transfer credits will be made automatically in accordance with the policy. institution number of courses approved mcmaster university 567 niagara college 478 seneca college 859 sheridan college 697 university of guelph 646 other 188 total 3,435 table 1. summary of the number of courses evaluated by institution. the program of studies for the general arts and science certificate and diploma programs have been included in appendix b. at mohawk, completion of the certificate program requires the completion of three mandatory courses: first year foundations, communications, and introduction to critical thinking. these are complemented by the seven additional optionsbased courses students must take for their credential. the pathway(s) created throughout the project facilitate transfer for all first year options-based courses. example: a student has successfully completed the first year in an ontario business program but decided to pursue another credential as opposed to returning for the third semester. in alignment with the general arts and science program of studies at mohawk college, this student could be eligible up to seven option courses (21 credits) in the program, potentially only having to complete the three mandatory courses listed above. in the event the transferring student has completed equivalents for those three, they may be rendered exempt, however, transfer credits must align with the residency policy. 9 in addition, transferring students would also be eligible to enter into mohawk colleges general arts and science two-year diploma program upon successful completion of remaining first-year courses, if applicable. displaying course to course equivalency for the three that are mandatory within the first year may render transitioning students eligible to directly enter third or fourth semester of the diploma program. it should be noted that the database created throughout the course of the project does not preclude students coming from other institutions or academic areas. in such cases, transfer credits will be assessed on an individual basis and decisions will be documented in the database for future reference in addition to being uploaded to oncat. students can therefore come to general arts and science for transfer credit from any academic area from any ontario post-secondary institution. credits will be assessed using the same parameters as within this project for transparency and consistency. as previously discussed, the subject matter within the general arts and science program lends itself to flexibility for lifelong learning. if they so choose, students can pursue a wide variety of programs upon completion of the certificate or diploma. the program can therefore be considered a gateway into such programs as health, communications, social sciences, pure sciences or creative arts. promising practices and lessons learned: the first of its kind within general arts and science as well as continuing education, the project at hand shed light on new approaches to credit transfer within the program and the full-time and part-time academic areas. in doing so, novel best practices and lessons were learned throughout the course of the initiative. the creation of a steering committee and dedicated cross-disciplinary working group assisted in overcoming challenges and questions arising from this innovative approach. in addition, expertise from different areas across the college provided unique perspectives when approaching challenges and idiosyncrasies. first, it quickly became apparent that credit transfer processes, policies, and approaches can differ across institutions. this was the case between mohawk and fanshawe when developing the general arts and science transfer pathway. together, the institutions worked toward the common project goal while tailoring processes to individual institutional policies. the two schools leveraged their excellence in academic programming and student-centred approach to create novel opportunities for credential completion. when creating pathways opportunities it was quickly realized that only those institutions with course outlines readily accessible online could be included in the assessment. this therefore limited the assessment to the following institutions: mcmaster university, university of guelph, niagara college, seneca college, and sheridan college. previously approved credit transfers were also leveraged, and where appropriate, included in the oncat database transfer. 10 throughout the course outline assessments, a number of idiosyncrasies were noted, namely the differences in course documentation between colleges and universities. while colleges have moved to an outcomes-based approach, universities may deviate from this. in addition, it was found that course outlines could vary between different offerings of the same course. in comparing curriculum, these two factors could cause some uncertainty and difficulty in determining whether or not courses could be deemed equivalent. when an outcomes comparison was not available, the assessment was deferred to the comparison of modules and course content. the team at mohawk college initially developed a rubric with the intention of creating a standard by which credit transfer decisions were made. however, when putting the rubric to practice, it was noted the rubric could not support the idiosyncrasies and challenges described above. in discussion within the working group, it was decided that the team would take a student-serving and holistic approach described in the pathway development: methodology section. as a best practice, it should be noted that each course outline was verified for compliance with the policy on credit transfer (ie. comparable course hours, credit value and within an acceptable timeframe). members of the project working group partnered closely with the department of business solutions to ensure all course data was uploaded to oncat effectively. while the working group ensured that all essential information was included, business solutions formatted the data into a usable format. collaboration between the academic areas and business solutions was essential in leveraging the strengths of both areas to support the data upload for mohawk college. at fanshawe, the key to the projects success was internal promotion. it has taken approximately two full years of discussion with the registrars office, advising centre, student success advisors, and coordinators to encourage them to identify and re-recruit their early leavers to come to general arts and thus stay a student at fanshawe college. beyond emails with all of the information and speaking with shareholders, fanshawe did not have to do any other type of promotion internally. now, the college ensures it is an ongoing conversation. when working with general arts and science programs, other institutions should consider the purpose of their program: preparatory, upgrading, community integration, etc. for fanshawe college, the pathway creation happened relatively seamlessly because they returned to their core work: preparing students for their future (whether this involves future education or not) and giving them a chance to experience post-secondary success in a supportive environment with multiple completion options (face-to-face, online, full-time, part-time, etc.). the other important piece is the ongoing conversation about completion pathways; everyone who has an advising role with students must know what options are available and how they can work for students. overall, the steering committee and working groups saw opportunity to enhance the breadth of academic pathways for students while positively impacting credential completion rates across 11 the institutions. having a strong, dedicated and collaborative team ensured that project deliverables were met effectively and on time. in the end, project goals were met and the team continues to communicate and market the credential completion opportunity for implementation in fall, 2017. mohawk and fanshawe would once again like to take the opportunity to recognize and acknowledge the support and contribution from oncat. 12 appendix a: general arts and science program learning outcomes vocational standards the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: 1. analyze the influence of social and natural forces on historical and contemporary issues and events at a level required by colleges, universities and the workplace. 2. demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively at a level required by colleges, universities and the workplace. 3. demonstrate clarity and flexibility of thought by utilizing critical thinking processes and problem solving techniques at a level required by colleges, universities and the workplace. 4. demonstrate research and essay writing skills according to academic conventions at a level required by colleges, universities and the workplace. 5. demonstrate collaborative and personal skills at a level required by colleges, universities and the workplace. essential employability skills all graduates with the following ontario college credentials, ontario college certificate, ontario college diploma and ontario college advanced diploma, must be able to reliably demonstrate essential employability skills in a combination of the following 11 skill areas: 1. communicate clearly, concisely and correctly in the written, spoken and visual form that fulfills the purpose and meets the needs of the audience. 2. respond to written, spoken or visual messages in a manner that ensures effective communication. 3. execute mathematical operations accurately. 4. apply a systematic approach to solve problems. 5. use a variety of thinking skills to anticipate and solve problems. 6. locate, select, organize and document information using appropriate technology and information systems. 7. analyze, evaluate and apply relevant information from a variety of sources. 8. show respect for diverse opinions, values, belief systems and contributions of others. 9. interact with others in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and the achievement of goals. 10. manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects. 11. take responsibility for one's own actions, decisions and consequences. 13 appendix b: mohawk general arts and science program of studies mohawk college: general arts and science (230), ontario college certificate course number course name credit course hours 3 42 mandatory courses credas101 first year foundations options group(1): select 1 comm11040 communication d 4 56 commll041 communication 3 42 options group(2): select 3 biol10006 preparatory biology 4 56 hist10010 history:myth and reality 3 42 mathma006 mathematics 1 - general arts and science 3 42 opelas921 g.a.s. option 1 3 42 opelas922 g.a.s. option 2 3 42 opelas923 g.a.s. option 3 3 42 psycss156 introductory psychology 3 42 ssci10005 plagues and people: a history of disease and 3 42 medicine 14 ssci10037 environmental sustainability 3 42 ssci10058 aging in society 3 42 sscias106 popular culture 3 42 sscias107 introductory anthropology 3 42 ssciss105 canadian politics 3 42 ssciss108 introductory sociology 3 42 ssciss170 human relations 3 42 ssciss299 society, technology and social issues 3 42 course number course name credit course hours 3 42 mandatory courses ssci10051 introduction to critical thinking options group(1): select 4 arttas202 art through the ages 3 42 chempe106 preparatory chemistry 4 56 comm10044 literature for general arts & science 3 42 hist10020 history of war and society: 20th century 3 42 hlthas108 issues in health and healing 3 42 15 mathma018 math 3 42 opelas924 g.a.s. option 4 3 42 opelas925 g.a.s. option 5 3 42 opelas926 g.a.s. option 6 3 42 opelas927 g.a.s. option 7 3 42 physpe108 preparatory physics 4 56 psyc10015 human sexuality 3 42 psycss271 developmental psychology 3 42 ssci10048 introduction to globalization 3 42 ssci10052 introduction to forensic anthropology 3 42 ssci10055 social entrepreneurship 3 42 sscias105 race and ethnic dynamics 3 42 ssciss109 sociology: diversity and social change 3 42 mohawk college: general arts and science (208), diploma program semester 1 course # course title hrs/wee total hours k credas101 first year foundations 3.00 42.00 4.00 56.00 options group(1): select 1 comm11040 communication d 16 commll041 communication 3.00 42.00 options group(2): select 3 biol10006 preparatory biology 4.00 56.00 hist10010 history:myth and reality 3.00 42.00 mathma006 mathematics 1 - general arts and science 3.00 42.00 opelas921 g.a.s. option 1 3.00 42.00 opelas922 g.a.s. option 2 3.00 42.00 opelas923 g.a.s. option 3 3.00 42.00 psycss156 introductory psychology 3.00 42.00 ssci10005 plagues and people: a history of disease and 3.00 42.00 medicine ssci10037 environmental sustainability 3.00 42.00 ssci10058 aging in society 3.00 42.00 sscias106 popular culture 3.00 42.00 sscias107 introductory anthropology 3.00 42.00 ssciss105 canadian politics 3.00 42.00 ssciss108 introductory sociology 3.00 42.00 ssciss170 human relations 3.00 42.00 ssciss299 society, technology and social issues 3.00 42.00 hrs/wee total hours semester 2 course # course title k ssci10051 introduction to critical thinking 3.00 42.00 options group(1): select 4 arttas202 art through the ages 3.00 42.00 chempe106 preparatory chemistry 4.00 56.00 comm10044 literature for general arts & science 3.00 42.00 17 hist10020 history of war and society: 20th century 3.00 42.00 hlthas108 issues in health and healing 3.00 42.00 mathma018 math 3.00 42.00 opelas924 g.a.s. option 4 3.00 42.00 opelas925 g.a.s. option 5 3.00 42.00 opelas926 g.a.s. option 6 3.00 42.00 opelas927 g.a.s. option 7 3.00 42.00 physpe108 preparatory physics 4.00 56.00 psyc10015 human sexuality 3.00 42.00 psycss271 developmental psychology 3.00 42.00 ssci10048 introduction to globalization 3.00 42.00 ssci10052 introduction to forensic anthropology 3.00 42.00 ssci10055 social entrepreneurship 3.00 42.00 sscias105 race and ethnic dynamics 3.00 42.00 ssciss109 sociology: diversity and social change 3.00 42.00 hrs/wee total hours semester 3 course # course title k credss428 labour studies 3.00 42.00 histas405 history of western civilization 1 3.00 42.00 psolas301 inquiry 3.00 42.00 psycas407 abnormal psychology (g.a.s.) 3.00 42.00 sscias303 introduction to philosophy 3.00 42.00 wmnsas305 women's studies 3.00 42.00 hrs/wee total hours semester 4 course # course title 18 k commas401 introduction to applied research 3.00 42.00 econ10000 political economy 3.00 42.00 psycss182 social psychology 3.00 42.00 sscias304 world religions; a comparative study 3.00 42.00 sscias403 history of western civilization ii 3.00 42.00 sscias406 independent study 3.00 42.00 19 appendix b: fanshawe general arts and science program of studies (degree audit report) catalog: 2016/2017 program: gap1 name: general arts and science-one year department: gen - language & liberal studies academic ps level: ccd: 7 - 2acadsem/600-700 hrs credential: ontario college certificate grade scheme: lg2 gap1 - general arts & science major: one yr co-op n/a indicator: academic program requirement total credits: 30.00 gpa 2.000 requirement: minimum d grade: div: gen - language and liberal studies residency reqmt: 8.00 residency reqmt 2.000 gpa: academic requirement: gap1.psp16 gen arts & sci -1 yr- post-secondary prep studies major: gap1 grade scheme: lg2 minimum gpa: 2.000 minimum grade: subrequirement: gap1 - writ take writ-1030 (students who place out of the writ assessment must take 3 additional elective credits at the post-secondary level.) group 1 total total ge hours credits writ-1030 reason & writing 1 45.00 3.00 group 2 subrequirement: gap1 - mandatory take all of the following mandatory courses: total total ge hours credits comm-3073 communications for general arts 45.00 3.00 huma-1021 discovering the humanities 45.00 3.00 ** sosc-1012 discovering the social sciences 45.00 3.00 ** subrequirement: gap1 - electives take 18 elective credits at the post-secondary level. at appendix b: fanshawe general arts and science program of studies (degree audit report) least 9 credits must be general arts and science elective credits. group 1 group 2 approved by chair/manager: approved by dean: general education approved by(as appropriate): department and date: date: date: degree audit report catalog: 2016/2017 program: gas1 department: gen - language & liberal studies academic level: ps ccd: 8 - 4acadsem/1200-1400hrs credential: ontario college diploma name: general arts and science grade scheme: lg2 gas1 - general arts and major: science co-op indicator: n/a academic program requirement total credits: 60.00 gpa 2.000 requirement: minimum grade: d div: gen - language and liberal studies residency reqmt: 15.00 residency reqmt 2.000 gpa: academic requirement: gas1.psp16 gen arts & sci -2 yr- post-secondary prep studies major: gas1 grade scheme: lg2 minimum gpa: 2.000 minimum grade: subrequirement: gas1 - writ take writ-1030 (students who place out of the writ assessment must take 3 additional elective credits at the post-secondary level.) group 1 total total ge hours credits writ-1030 reason & writing 1 45.00 3.00 group 2 subrequirement: gas1 - mandatory degree audit report take all of the following mandatory courses: total total ge hours credits comm-3073 communications for general arts 45.00 3.00 huma-1021 discovering the humanities 45.00 3.00 ** sosc-1012 discovering the social sciences 45.00 3.00 ** subrequirement: gas1 - electives take 48 elective credits at the post-secondary level. at least 39 credits must be general arts and science elective credits. group 1 group 2 approved by chair/manager: approved by dean: general education approved by(as appropriate): department and date: date: date: appendix c: credit transfer policies mohawk college policy on credit transfer: https://www.mohawkcollege.ca/sites/default/files/corporate%20policies%20and%20procedures /credit%20transfer%20policy.pdf all policies at mohawk college: https://www.mohawkcollege.ca/about-mohawk/leadership-and-administration/policies-andprocedures/corporate-policies-and fanshawe policy on credit transfer: https://www.fanshawec.ca/programs-and-courses/pathways-and-credit-transfer

an examination of the academic and professional success of nipissing universitys bachelor of commerce college partnership program (bcommcpp) final report may 2014 prepared for: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) prepared by: natalya brown and liam mcalear nipissing university school of business bcommcpp academic and professional success table of contents page 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. list of tables executive summary introduction 1.1 problem statement 1.2 research questions 1.3 previous research background information 2.1 description of bba and bcomm programs 2.2 admission requirements 2.3 progression requirements 2.4 program overlap data and methodology 3.1 target populations 3.2 data sources 3.3 method of analysis 3.4 characteristics of survey participants 3.5 scope results 4.1 overall gpa 4.2 performance in core courses 4.3 retention, withdrawal and graduation 4.4 continuing education 4.5 employment success concluding remarks notes and corrections references appendices 8.1 appendix a: tables 8.2 appendix b: graduate academic and professional success survey 2 3 5 5 5 5 8 8 8 10 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 15 15 15 17 18 18 21 22 23 25 25 63 1 list of tables table 1 table 2 table 3 table 4 table 5 table 6 table 7 table 8 table 9 table 10 table 11 table 12 table 13 table 14 table 15 table 16 table 17 table 18 table 19 table 20 table 21 table 22 table 23 table 24 table 25 table 26 table 27 table 28 table 29 table 30 table 31 table 32 table 33 2 description of variables survey respondents by degree program breakdown of survey participants by gender and degree program breakdown of survey respondents by year of birth and degree program breakdown of survey respondents by year of graduation and degree program breakdown of survey respondents by area of specialization/stream and degree program grade conversion scale gpa comparison between programs for 2011 intake cohort correlation between entry gpa and exiting gpa overall gpa within common courses for bba and bcomm students yearly course grade breakdown between bba, distance and cpp students results of correlation test for course gpa, class location and class size overall class sizes within common courses for bba and cpp students yearly course class size for bba and cpp students progression by intake year cohort and program question: did you complete your bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance degree within your expected time frame? question: since your graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance, have you been enrolled in courses for credit, leading to a degree, diploma or certificate, at any postsecondary institution? question: what was the main type of postsecondary institution in which you were/are enrolled? question: do you currently have a job or are you selfemployed? fulltime versus parttime employment by degree program terms of employment by degree program question: is your bba/bcomm degree required for your main position? question: how related is your main position to the bba/bcomm program from which you graduated? time taken to find employment after graduation by degree program question: for your main position, how many people does your organization employ? question: what is your annual income from your current main position (before deductions in canadian dollars)? ordinal logistical regression on current annual income question: six months after you completed your bba/bcomm program, did you have a job or were you selfemployed? employment status six months following graduation terms of employment six months after graduation question: was your bba/bcomm required for the main position you held six months after graduation? question: how related was the main position you held six months from graduation to the bba/bcomm program from which you graduated? question: what was your annual income from the main position you held six months after graduation (before deductions in canadian dollars)? page 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 37 38 39 41 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 57 58 59 60 61 62 bcommcpp academic and professional success executive summary nipissing universitys bachelor of commerce college partnership program (bcommcpp) began in 2009 with three college partners algonquin college, fanshawe college and sheridan college. since that time, the program has grown to include six college partners (at seven campuses). the most recent addition, lambton college, was added in september 2013. the bcommcpp is a 90credit business degree designed specifically for graduates of threeyear business diploma programs from nipissings partner colleges. with the marketplace increasingly demanding university credentials, the college partnership program (cpp) has a lot of potential for continued growth. nipissing also offers a 120credit bachelor of business administration (bba) on its main campus in north bay, as well as the 90credit bachelor of commerce degree via distance learning (bcommdistance). the purpose of this study is to investigate the academic and professional success of graduates of the bcommcpp compared to that of graduates of nipissings other business programs. academic success is measured by grade point averages (gpas), graduation rates and length of time to complete the degree. professional success is measured by employment rates, annual income, length of time taken to find employment after graduation, and the relevance of employment to the program of study. highlights our findings suggest that the academic performance of students in the bcommcpp program is on par and in some areas better than those students in the bba and bcommdistance. professionally, bcomm cpp students appear to be experiencing the same degree of success in the job market in comparison to their bba counterparts. for the 2011 intake cohort, the mean university gpa of bcommcpp students was higher than that of bba students and that difference is statistically significant. bcommdistance students had the lowest mean university gpa for that cohort. however, bcommcpp students take a greater proportion of secondyear level courses, so the performance of students in core courses that are common to both degrees and for more cohorts was also compared. when comparing the overall gpa for core courses common to the bba and bcomm degree, the overall core course mean gpa tends to be lower for students in the bba program. while bba students and bcommcpp students had comparable grades in the majority of core courses, there were a handful of courses for which bcommcpp students significantly but not consistently outperformed their bba counterparts. in terms of entry gpa being a good predictor of university gpa, across all programs there was a weak positive relationship between entry and university gpa. the correlation was strongest for the bba (0.518) and weakest for the bcommcpp (0.354). in terms of withdrawal and graduation rates, we compared the rates for students who had completed the second year of the bba to incoming students in the bcommcpp (specifically, the 2009 intake cohort for the bba was compared to the 2011 intake cohort for the bcommcpp). not surprisingly, the graduation rate is higher for the 12month bcommcpp (77% compared to 74% of students that had completed the second year of the bba). the bcommcpp had a 16.3% withdrawal rate for the 2011 intake cohort. the withdrawal rate was 8.6% for the students who had completed the second year of 3 the bba for the 2009 intake cohort. historically, the bba has its highest withdrawal rate between the first year and second year of the program. one hundred and ninetyone graduates participated in the graduate academic and professional success survey, with the majority indicating that they had graduated from the bba program. the overwhelming majority of graduates surveyed indicated that they had completed their program of study in their expected time frame, and this was consistent across the three programs under study. analysis of the employment indicators suggests comparable employment success between bba and bcommcpp graduates in terms of employment rates, the length of time to find employment after graduation, the percentage of graduates with permanent positions, and the percentage of graduates with positions related to their field of study. bba graduates were slightly more likely than their bcommcpp counterparts to earn an income over $40,000. bcommdistance graduates, who tended to be older, were more likely to be in the higher income brackets. across all three programs, about onethird of graduates surveyed indicated that they had continued their education at the postsecondary level, with the largest group doing this in order to acquire professional certification by a licensing body. our results suggest that bcommcpp students are performing as well academically if not better than bba students. further investigation into the relationship between course delivery method and subject matter is required in order to understand the impact of the unique type of blended delivery method offered by nipissing university on student success. given the comparable employment success between graduates of the bcommcpp and bba programs, a survey of employers may be useful in terms of understanding how the marketplace distinguishes between graduates of the two programs. a followup graduate professional success survey should be conducted in 35 years in order to determine if there are differences in the long term employment experiences of graduates from the various programs. over the next year, the bba will be available to college partnership and distance students. the analysis of student and graduate performance between these programs will be simplified as the progression and core requirements will be more uniform. 4 bcommcpp academic and professional success 1. introduction nipissing universitys school of business offers two business degrees: a 120credit bachelor of business administration (bba) and a 90credit bachelor of commerce (bcomm). the bba is delivered primarily oncampus and is targeted at directentry students1; meanwhile, the bcomm can be completed through distance and blended delivery at a college partnership campus. the bcomm is designed to appeal to college transfer and mature students. the bachelor of commerce college partnership program (bcommcpp) uses a unique blended delivery model online instruction with university faculty combined with inclass sessions held on the respective college campuses (meaning that students do not have to relocate). the bcommcpp grew out of the school of businesss existing distance education program (bcomm distance) and was launched in september 2009. existing courses were redeveloped and new courses were developed with the blended delivery format in mind. this form of blended delivery provides course content online as well as inclass. course instructors are responsible for the online material and all assessments while course facilitators hold weekly sessions with students on their respective campuses. 1.1 problem statement how does the academic and professional success of graduates of nipissing universitys bcommcollege partnership program compare to that of graduates of other business programs at nipissing university? 1.2 research questions the problem statement outlined above will be addressed with the following research questions: r1. how do bcommcpp students perform academically in comparison to students in nipissings other business programs? r2. to what extent does academic success in college predict academic success in nipissings bcommcpp? r3. how does the professional success of graduates of the bcommcpp compare to that of graduates of nipissings other business programs? 1.3 previous research program review in 2010 in 2010, after the initial year of the bcommcpp, a review of the program was conducted by the university. the resulting report showed that the retention rate was 96% in the first year, with 90% of students completing the program within the expected timeframe of 12 months (nipissing university, 2010). seventyone percent of the students surveyed indicated satisfaction with the program (nipissing university, 2010). for the majority of courses, the average grades received by bcommcpp students were higher than those received by their counterparts in the bba program in previous years (nipissing 1 in september 2013, bcommcpp students had the option of transitioning into the bba at their college campuses, and as of january 2014, students could register directly for the new bba college partnership program. within the next year, the bba will be available completely online. 5 university, 2010). other than a few challenges in the implementation of the program, the bcommcpp was deemed a success after its inaugural year. college transfer students versus direct entry students studies conducted in british columbia and alberta suggested that college transfer students tended to earn lower grades in university courses than direct entry students; this could be attributed in part to the higher level of diversity in the pool of college transfer students (heslop, 2001; university of calgary, 2008). a subsequent study by heslop (2004) at simon fraser university found that college transfer students performed on par with direct entry students after controlling for secondary school achievement. studies at nipissing university and brock university found no significant difference between the final gpa of college transfer students and direct entry students (nipissing university, 2007; stewart and martinello, 2012). there is limited research available on the employment outcomes of college and university graduates who pursued nontraditional paths towards their university degrees (kerr et al., 2010). previous research has focused on the labour market outcomes of graduates with multiple credentials or previous postsecondary education. for example, dubois (2007) found that the earnings premium associated with a previous postsecondary education was between 6 percent and 17 percent, depending on the nature of the previous postsecondary education received. however, boothby & drewes (2006) found that individuals with more than one postsecondary education credential experienced a smaller earnings premium than those who had only one postsecondary education credential, suggesting that the benefits to added credentials may not justify the added costs. by comparing the academic and professional success of graduates of the three business programs at nipissing university, we may be able to shed more light on the experiences of college transfer students relative to direct entry students in the context of a canadian university. blended delivery a blended approach to learning offers the advantages of facetoface connections between students and instructors, while also offering the advantage of online learning tools (reynolds and paulus, 2009). a significant amount of research has been done on the topic of blended or hybrid learning in the university environment, primarily in the united states (for example see tullock, 2000; mccambpell, 2001; barnum and paarman, 2002; young, 2002; bates and pool, 2003; voos, 2003, and phillips, cummings, lowe and jonasdwyer, 2004). however, less research has been conducted on blended learning in the college environment or the collegeuniversity partnership environment in canada (waldman and smith, 2013). waldman and smith (2013) conducted a recent study at sheridan college exploring the effect of learning mode on student success, using the students final gpa as an indicator of success. when comparing the predicted final gpa of a student in a hybrid course versus a typical student in a traditional facetoface course for various levels of standing gpa, they found that while there was virtually no difference for students with very high standing gpas, students with low standing gpas had a slightly lower final gpa when taking a course in the hybrid format. this stands in contrast to the results found by means et al. (2010), who found that hybrid instruction gave students a small advantage over purely facetoface instruction in the university environment. previous research has not revealed a significant relationship between course delivery method and withdrawal rates, when controlling for demographic and academic performance (dzuiban et al, 2004; waldman and smith, 2013). our findings may provide insight on the 6 bcommcpp academic and professional success impact of the blended delivery method on student success and withdrawals rates from within a college university partnership environment in canada, keeping in mind the uniqueness of the blended delivery model offered by the bcommcpp. 7 2. background 2.1 description of programs nipissing universitys school of business offers two business degrees: a 120credit bachelor of business administration (bba) and a 90credit bachelor of commerce (bcomm). while the bba is delivered primarily oncampus and is targeted at directentry students, the bachelor of commerce degree can be completed through a number of methods and is designed to appeal to college transfer and mature students. there are currently three options through which students may obtain a bcomm degree. the first bcomm option is the traditional oncampus route where students can complete their degree on nipissings main campus in north bay. students also have the option of enrolling in the bcomm distance learning program which allows them to complete the degree fully online from any location around the world. the final option of obtaining nipissings bcomm degree, and the focus of this study, is the bcommcollege partnership program (bcommcpp). the bcommcpp is designed specifically for threeyear business diploma graduates from one of nipissings college partners: algonquin college, centennial college, fanshawe college, lambton college, sheridan college and st. clair college. students who graduate with a threeyear business diploma from a college partner with a minimum gpa of 72% are eligible to enter this program. the bcommcpp uses a unique blended delivery model which offers the benefits of both online and bricks and mortar learning. inclass sessions are held on the respective college campuses meaning students do not have to relocate. 2.2 admission requirements applicants from ontario secondary schools the general admission requirements for any program at nipissing university is the completion of the ontario secondary school diploma, with a combination of a minimum of six 4u and/or 4m courses, and an overall average of 70% in those courses. both the bba and bcomm programs require the applicant to have a 4u english course; however the bba recommends applicants to have successfully taken a 4u mathematics. any student entering the bba without a 4u mathematics course will be required to complete math 1911 finite mathematics or math 1912 elementary calculus in their first year to be able to progress through the program. applicants from ontario colleges of applied arts and technology (caat) applicants to nipissing university who have studied at an ontario college of applied arts and technology may qualify for admission if they meet the minimum admissions requirements outlined below. specific subject requirements for particular degrees must be met through prior grade 12 studies or equivalent courses at the college level. meeting the minimum requirements will not guarantee admission to certain programs. admission to some programs is highly competitive and admission is selective. 8 bcommcpp academic and professional success bachelor of business administration applicants who have achieved a cumulative average of b or better in a threeyear program will be considered for admission to nipissing university with advanced standing to a maximum of 30 credits. applicants who are graduates of a threeyear business administration diploma at an ontario caat with a cumulative 3.2 gpa can be considered for admission to the bachelor of business administration degree with advanced standing to a maximum of 60 credits. admitted students would be able to complete their program at nipissing university in north bay or through one of our college partners (fanshawe college, sheridan college, algonquin college, centennial college, st. clair college, and lambton college). applicants who have completed a twoyear program or two years of a threeyear program and who have achieved a cumulative average of b or better will be considered for admission with advanced standing to a maximum of 18 credits. applicants who are graduates of a twoyear business administration diploma at an ontario caat with a cumulative 3.2 gpa can be considered for admission to the bachelor of business administration degree with advanced standing to a maximum of 42 credits. admitted students would be able to complete their program at nipissing university in north bay or at one of our college partners (fanshawe college, sheridan college, algonquin college, centennial college, st. clair college, and lambton college) by using a combination of online, and where available, blended delivery courses. bachelor of commerce applicants who are graduates of a threeyear business administration diploma at an ontario caat with a cumulative 3.2 gpa can be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce degree with advanced standing to a maximum of 45 credits. admitted students would be able to complete their program at nipissing university in north bay, through one of our college partners (fanshawe college, sheridan college, algonquin college, centennial college, st. clair college, and lambton college) or online as an independent learner. applicants who are graduates of a twoyear business administration diploma at an ontario caat with a cumulative 3.2 gpa can be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce degree with advanced standing to a maximum of 30 credits. admitted students would be able to complete their program at nipissing university in north bay or at one of our college partners (fanshawe college, sheridan college, algonquin college, centennial college, st. clair college, and lambton college) by using a combination of online, and where available, blended delivery course. graduates from other ontario colleges with a threeyear business diploma and a minimum overall average of 72 percent may be considered for entry into the bcomm program at any of the locations above. however, these applications are considered on a case by case basis and may require some students to take more than 15 courses. 9 2.3 progression requirements to progress through a bachelor of business administration, a student must achieve a minimum average of 70% (b) in the program, and must also include an additional 6 credits at the 4000 level in business for a bba (honours), while students completing the bba (fouryear) must achieve a minimum average of 60% (c) in the program. these averages are in addition to specific courses required as prerequisites for more advanced or indepth courses in the upper years. to graduate with a bachelor of business administration (honours) or a bachelor of business administration (fouryear), students must complete 120 credits, including 60 credits of corerequired courses, with the remaining credits going towards electives, of which 6 credits must be in the humanities and 6 credits must be in the sciences. for the bachelor of commerce (general) a student needs to successfully complete a total of 90 credits, including 45 credits of core required courses. the remaining 45 credits are electives that allow the student to take courses from any department. graduates from nipissing university partner colleges (algonquin, centennial, fanshawe, lambton, sheridan & st. clair) with a threeyear business diploma and a minimum overall average of 72 percent may be granted up to 45 credit advanced standing towards the 90credit bcomm degree for the cpp or distance program. for most students, this means they can obtain their bcomm degree by only having to complete 15 courses. 10 bcommcpp academic and professional success 2.4 program overlap below are core courses that are required for all nipissing university school of business programs: acct 1107 introductory financial accounting ii 3 cr. admn 1607 business mathematics 3 cr. econ 1006 introduction to microeconomics 3 cr. econ 1007 introduction to macroeconomics 3 cr. mktg 1126 marketing concepts 3 cr. orgs 1136 introduction to organizational behaviour 3 cr. orgs 1137 management of human resources 3 cr. acct 2146 management accounting and control i 3 cr. admn 2306 business ethics 3 cr. admn 2606 business statistics 3 cr. mktg 2127 marketing for managers 3 cr. admn 3046 operations management 3 cr. admn 3056 economic and management decision making 3 cr. admn 3116 financial management i 3 cr. tmgt 3856 information systems 3 cr. admn 4606 business strategy and policy i 3 cr. 11 3. data and methodology 3.1 target populations the two target populations studied are as follows: graduates and current students of nipissings bcommcpp from 2009 onwards. this includes students that were located at algonquin college, centennial college, fanshawe college, st. clair college, and sheridan college from 20092013. graduates and current students of nipissings other business programs including the bcomm distance and bba. gpa data from intake cohorts from 20092012 were analyzed. 3.2 data sources the data on overall program gpa were obtained for the 2011 intake year, that is, for students that began their respective programs in 2011. data for the core course gpa were obtained for students enrolled in those courses between 2009 and 2012. nipissing universitys alumni database and the database of the universitys office of institutional research were used as the primary sources of graduate contact information, gpa, graduation and withdrawal data. data pertaining to employment after graduation were obtained through an online survey administered to the target populations on fluid surveys. for the online survey we targeted graduates of the school of business who graduated between 2009 and 2013. eight hundred and one potential respondents were identified and contacted via email by the universitys office of institutional research. as an incentive for participation, respondents were given the option of entering a draw for $500 gift cards to future shop upon completion of the survey. in the end, 191 responses were obtained, for a participation rate of 24%. other data sources include the review of nipissing universitys bachelor of commerce college partnership program: successes, shortcomings, and solutions to build a strong program that was prepared in october 2010. please see table 1 in appendix a for a description of the variables used in our analysis. 3.3 method of analysis r1. how do bcommcpp graduates perform academically in comparison to graduates of nipissings other business programs? in order to answer our first research question, we analyzed differences in the mean overall gpa between students in each program for the 2011 intake cohort. we compared the course gpas for courses that were common to the bba and bcomm degrees for students enrolled between 2009 and 2012 (see section 2.4 program overlap for the full list of courses). we also compared retention, withdrawal and graduation rates for several cohorts, as well as program completion times. r2. to what extent does academic success in college predict academic success in nipissings bcomm cpp? the purpose of this question is to compare the relative preparedness of entrants for academic success in their respective programs by comparing entering gpa with exiting gpa. in this report, we examined the 12 bcommcpp academic and professional success correlation between entry gpa and exiting gpa for the cohort that began their respective programs in 2011, as this was the only year for which sufficient data was readily available for all three programs. r3. how does the professional success of graduates of the bcommcpp compare to that of graduates of nipissings other business programs? in order to answer this question we examined the current employment history of graduates of the three programs, as well as their employment history six months and one year postgraduation. we also compared the nature of employment (e.g. fulltime, parttime, permanent, contract, casual etc.), relation to the program of study, and time taken to find employment. 3.4 characteristics of survey participants when the survey closed on january 31st 2014, there were 191 survey participants, giving us a decent response rate of 23.8%. of these participants, 179 indicated that they had graduated from the three degree programs under comparison. more than half of the survey respondents graduated from the bba program (54.5%), while 26.2% indicated that they graduated from the bcommcpp program and 13.1% indicated that they graduated from the bcommdistance program. the remaining participants (6.3%) indicated that they graduated from the bcomm program offered at the north bay campus. the distribution of survey participants by program is given in appendix a: table 2. there were more female participants than male participants in our sample of graduates from the bba and bcommcpp programs, while the majority of our bcommdistance participants were male (see table 3). the survey participants ranged in age from 23 years to 58 years. overall, the average age of survey participants was 29 years, which is also the average age of bcommcpp survey participants. bba participants were slightly younger with an average age of 27 years and bcommdistance participants were on average 10 years older than bba participants (see table 4). the largest group of participants were recent graduates, as 55.3% of participants indicated that they graduated between 2012 and 2013 (see table 5). accounting was the largest stream or area of specialization for bba and bcommcpp graduates surveyed, while human resources/organizational studies was the largest stream or area of specialization for bcommdistance graduates surveyed (see table 6). the top three industries for the bba graduates surveyed were finance and insurance (18.1%), education services (10.6%), and other services (18.1%). for the bcommcpp graduates surveyed, the top two industries were finance and insurance services (32%) and other services (13.5%). meanwhile, more than half of the bcommdistance graduates surveyed indicated that they were in the finance and insurance industry (52%). 3.5 scope in order to compare the performance of students in the fouryear bba with those in the 12month bcommcpp, we had to ensure that we were comparing students of similar or equal academic standing. for example, when comparing the withdrawal, graduation, and retention rates, we compared students who had completed two years in the bba with those entering the bcommcpp, given the transfer credits granted to bcommcpp entrants. also, the comparison of exiting gpa is made more difficult by the fact that bcommcpp students take a greater percentage of 2000level courses and they are not required to take 4000level courses, in contrast to their bba counterparts. bcommcpp students are also not subject to same breadth requirements as bba students, as discussed in section 2.3. 13 these results were also constrained by data availability and the format of the available data. as stated earlier, the only cohort for which entering gpa and exiting gpa was readily available for all programs under study was the cohort that entered the university in 2011. we were unable to acquire data for additional cohorts in the time allowed. in addition, we had to use college gpa as the entering gpa for college transfers as data on their high school gpa was not readily available. the grades for bba students were only available as percentages, while the students grades from the cpp were available as letter grades. to allow for comparison between these two different grading scales, nipissing universitys parameters for the relation of letter grades to percentages was used as the basis for conversion. from there, the percentage grades were converted to letter grades. once all grades were converted to letter grades, it was necessary to assign a numerical value (on a 12point scale) to each grade level in order to determine whether there was any statistically significant difference between the gpas of the students in the cpp and those in the bba program. as with conversions of this nature, information is lost. please refer to table 7 in appendix a for the conversion scale. finally, the majority of participants in the graduate academic and professional success survey were graduates of the bba program. bcommcpp graduates represented 26% of our survey sample, while bcommcpp students represented 13%. the overwhelming majority of graduates surveyed graduated in either 2012 or 2013, making it difficult to analyze longer term employment experiences. 14 bcommcpp academic and professional success 4. results 4.1 overall grade point average (gpa) we compared the entry gpas and university gpas of the 2011 intake cohort for the three programs (bba, bcommdistance, bcommcpp). this cohort was chosen due to the availability of data, as well as the large size of the cohort in the cpp that year. the gpas were converted from letter grades into numerical values (e.g. f=0, a+=12). see table 7 for the full conversion table. table 8 shows the mean statistics for the entry and university gpas for each program and college partner. first, note that the mean university gpa of the cpp students is higher than that of the bba students, which is in turn higher than the university gpa for students in the distance program. furthermore, the standard deviation from the mean university gpa tends to be higher for bba students. also, the standard deviations for the mean university gpas are higher than that of the mean entry gpas for all programs except for the program at fanshawe. when comparing the overall gpa means, there was a statistically significant difference in performance based on a students program type, f (4, 658) = 22.32, p < .0005; wilks = .775, partial 2 = .12. across all three programs, the correlation between entrance gpa and university gpa is a weak but significant positive relationship at .354 using pearsons correlation. this means university gpas is positively related to the entry gpa with higher entrance gpas partially predicting students current university gpas. the correlation was strongest for the bba (0.518) and weakest for the bcommcpp (0.354, ). see table 9 in appendix a. 4.2 performance in core courses given the differences in the length of the programs and the progression requirements, in order to thoroughly compare the differences in academic performance between bba, bcommdistance and bcommcpp students, it is necessary to explore the grades in core courses that are common between the programs. as noted in section 2.3, there are 16 core courses that are common across the programs. by comparing grades scores from the core courses for a larger number of intake cohorts, we hope to identify gaps, if any, in performance in specific subject areas within business administration. when comparing the overall gpa for core courses taken by both bba students and bcomm students, bba core course grades were lower than bcommcpp core course grades by a margin between approximately 1% and 5%, while the core course grades for bcommdistance students was not significantly different than that of bba students. table 10 in appendix a shows the mean grades, number of sections within all courses used to find the averages, and the average standard deviation percentage points that different sections were away from the mean percentages. courses in which bcommcpp students have fared better than their bba counterparts include tmgt3856 information systems, admn4606 business strategy and policy i, mktg2127 marketing for managers, admn2167 business decision making2 and orgs1137 management of human resources. for the remaining core 2 admn2167 business decision making was removed as a required course for both the bba and bcomm in the 20122103 academic year. 15 courses the average grades for each program were more comparable across the years. table 11 in appendix a shows the breakdown of average course grade by course and program. anova tests were conducted to determine whether there were circumstances under which statistically significant differences could be found between the students in the various programs. except for acct 4836 and admn4606, which had very few sections to compare on a yearly basis, all other courses listed in table 11 were analyzed. no courses showed a consistent statistically significant difference between bba students and bcommcpp students for all the years examined. however, specific courses showed sufficient evidence of differences in student performance at the 5% level (ie. p =0. 05) for specific years. the following is a list of those courses and the year(s) in which the differences were found: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. acct2146 management accounting and control i (20092011) admn2167 business decision making (2010) admn3046 operations management(2009) admn3116 financial management i (2012) mktg2127 marketing for managers (2012) 6. orgs1136 introduction to organizational behaviour (2011) 7. orgs1137 management of human resources (2011) in seeking possible explanations for the differences in the performance of students in the various programs in the common core courses, size, and location of the class were two factors for which we were able to account3. overall, there was no strong correlation between class size or class location in regard to bba and bcommcpp students. however, for specific courses (acct2146, admn2167, admn2306, admn3046, admn3116, mktg2127, orgs1136 and tmgt3856) differences in students performance could be partially explained by differences in class size and/or class location. courses in 2012 seemed to be the most effected by the location or size of the class, with a total of five courses displaying a medium to strong correlation between course grade and the size of class (4 courses) or the location (1 course). the least effected year was 2010 with no statistically significant relationship discovered between course grade and class size or location. location was noted as having a medium effect on students grades for admn2306 (2011), admn3046 (2011) and admn3116 (2012), though in acct2146 (2009) there was a very strong effect. size of class was found to have a strong negative effect on course grades, thus the larger the classes became, the lower the grades were likely to be in that class. results of the correlation tests are in shown in table 12. on average, bba students in north bay had classes anywhere between 1.5 to 2 times the size of those in the bcommcpp program. though the correlation results stipulate class size can affect the average grade in a course, future studies will need to consider the variables such as assessment tools and evaluation schemes. table 13 shows the overall mean class sizes for the different programs, while table 14 shows the class sizes broken down by course, year and location. 3 regression analysis was not used in this case due to location and class size having a very strong statistically significant correlation to each other. 16 bcommcpp academic and professional success 4.3 retention, withdrawal and graduation we examined the retention, withdrawal and graduation rates from several intake cohorts for the four year bba program and the 12month cpp. since the bcommdistance program is usually done parttime, a comparison of retention, withdrawal, and graduation would not be feasible. as mentioned in the admission requirements, graduates of a threeyear business administration diploma at an ontario caat with a cumulative 3.2 gpa can be considered for admission to the bachelor of commerce degree with advanced standing to a maximum of 45 credits. therefore, when college transfer students enter the bcommcpp, they are the equivalent of a student between the second and third year of the bba program. table 15 in appendix a shows the progression of students by intake cohort. 2009 intake cohort for the bba program, 59% (26 of 53) students graduated from this cohort in 2013, with 14% currently completing their studies, and 27% leaving the program. the year with the greatest loss of students came between 3rd and 4th with 15% of the student population deciding to leave the program. of the students that completed the second year of the bba, 74% (26 of 35) graduated from the program in 2013. for the cpp, 83% (63 of 76) of students remained in their program from 2009 to 2010. out of that group, 94% (59 of 63) graduated from the program in 2010 while a total of 14% of the intake cohort left the program. 2010 intake cohort for the bba, 74% (35 of 47) of students stayed in the bba from 2011 to 2012, with 72% (34 of 47) progressing to the 2nd year. of the students that made it to the 2nd year, 79% (27 of 34) of that group moved from 2nd to 3rd year. moving from 2012 to 2013, 94% (33 of 35) of the remaining students from 2012 remained in the bba, with 81% (22 of 27) of 3rd year students successfully moving into 4th year, and only 3% (1) leaving the program. as of 2013, 1 student from this cohort has graduated, while 89% (31 of 35) are currently completing the degree. for the cpp, 83% (55 of 66) of the intake cohort graduated, 3% are currently completing their degree as of 2013. fifteen percent (10) of cpp students left between 2nd and 3rd year. 2011 intake cohort for the bba, 81% (30 of 37) of students remained in the bba between 2012 and 2013. out of that group, 67% (25) successfully moved from 2nd to 3rd, obtaining necessary averages and credits to progress between 2012 to 2013, while 14% (5 of 37) failed to progress to the 3rd year in 2013. 19% (7 of 37) of the students in this 2011 cohort left the program between 2nd and 3rd year. for the cpp, 77% (104 of 135) of students who entered the program in 2011 graduated, and 6% (9 of 135) are currently taking an extended period to complete the degree. the remaining 22 students (16%) have left the program without completing the necessary courses to obtain a degree. 21 students left between 2nd and 3rd year, and another student leaving during the 3rd year. time to completion 17 as part of the online survey, respondents were asked whether they completed their program within their expected time frame. for the bba, 88.5% of respondents indicated that they had completed their program within their expected time frame, compared to 88% of the bcommdistance students and 98% of the bcommcpp students. the higher percentage for the bcommcpp program is not surprising given the shorter length of the program. see table 16 in appendix a. 4.4 continuing education of the 179 participants that indicated the degree program from which they graduated, 61 (34.1%) indicated that they had subsequently enrolled in courses for credit, leading to a degree, diploma or certificate at a postsecondary institution. of the bcommcpp graduates surveyed, 38% indicated that they subsequently enrolled in courses for credit, compared to 31.7% of bba and 36% of bcomm distance graduates surveyed (see table 17). this difference was not statistically significant. the largest group of graduates that subsequently enrolled in courses for credit did this in order to receive a professional certification by a licensing body (e.g. hrpa, ca). more than half of the bcommcpp graduates that subsequently enrolled in courses for credit did this in order to receive a professional certification, compared to 44% of bcommdistance and 45% of bba graduates surveyed. seven of the 10 graduates surveyed that indicated that they had subsequently pursued graduate study were bba graduates (see table 18). 4.4 employment success we measured employment success by employment status, annual income, the length of time to find employment after graduation, the percentage of graduates with permanent positions, and the percentage of graduates with positions related to their field of study. the survey questionnaire can be found in appendix b. table 19 in appendix a shows the current employment status of survey participants by program of study. ninetyfour percent of the bba graduates surveyed were either selfemployed or in a paid position. for bcommcpp graduates surveyed, the percentage was slightly lower at 92%. all the bcomm distance graduates surveyed were either selfemployed or in a paid position. of the bba graduate respondents currently employed, 89.4% indicated that their employment was either full time or both parttime and fulltime4. the percentages for the bcommdistance and bcommcpp graduates were lower but not statistically significantly so, at 87.5% and 82.1%, respectively (see table 20 in appendix a). table 21 in appendix a shows the terms of current employment for participants by degree program. for the bcommcpp graduate respondents with employment, 79.5% indicated that their current position was permanent, compared to 77.4% of employed bba graduate respondents, and 87% of employed bcommdistance graduate respondents. for the bba, 42.4% of the graduates surveyed indicated that their degree was required for their current position, compared to 28.2% of cpp graduate respondents and 29.2% of bcommdistance graduate respondents (see table 22 in appendix a). the difference in these proportions between bba and cpp graduates is statistically significant at the 5% level. for the 4 some of the graduates surveyed held more than one position. that is, some graduates held a parttime position in addition to their fulltime position. 18 bcommcpp academic and professional success cpp, 59% of the graduates surveyed indicated that their current position was related to their program of study, compared to 54.4% of bba graduate respondents and 45.8% of bcommdistance respondents (see table 23 in appendix a). table 24 in appendix a shows the time taken to find employment after graduation by degree program. for the bba graduate respondents, 60% were employed immediately after or within a month of graduation compared to 61.5% and 75% of bcommcpp and bcommdistance graduate respondents, respectively. only 5.1% of bba graduates surveyed took more than a year to find employment after graduation, compared to 7.7% of bcommcpp graduates and 12% of bcommdistance graduates surveyed. a significantly larger percentage of bcommcpp graduates were employed with small organizations (that is, an organization with 25 employees or less) when compared to bcommdistance and bba graduates surveyed. the graduates of the three programs were equally likely to be employed with a large organization (that is, an organization with 1000 employees or more). see table 25 in appendix a. when looking at annual income from their main current position, cpp and bba graduates had similar annual incomes, while bcommdistance graduates had higher annual incomes. twentythree percent of bcommcpp graduates surveyed and 25.5% of bba graduates surveyed indicated that the annual income from their main position ranged between $25,000 and $39,999. the percentage of bcomm distance students in that income category was 16.6%. there was a difference between the percentages of graduates making $40,000$54,999 38.3% of bba graduates and 33.3% of cpp graduates earned income within this range. the difference in the percentage of bba graduate respondents earning $40,000 or more (63.8%) compared to bcommcpp graduate respondents (51.3%) was only significant at the 10% level. meanwhile, the bcommdistance graduates surveyed had the highest annual incomes of the graduates from the three programs, with 70.8% earning more than $40,000 and 58.3% earning $55,000 or more in their main position. see table 26 in appendix a. finally, an ordinal logistical regression was conducted to determine if the participants current annual income varied by degree program. after accounting for age, gender, size of organization, industry and the nature of employment (i.e. selfemployed, parttime versus fulltime), only the bcommdistance graduates were more likely to be in the higher income brackets. bba graduates and bcommcpp graduates were equally likely to be in the higher income brackets. not surprisingly, male graduates who worked fulltime at a large firm, and who were born before 1964 were more likely to be in the higher income brackets. the impact of industry of employment was not significant. the results of the ordinal logistical regression are presented in table 27 in appendix a. six months after graduation of the 125 survey participants that graduated prior to july 2013, 84 (67%) were bba graduates, 25 (20%) were bcommcpp graduates, and 16 (12.8%) were bcommdistance graduates. the difference in employment rates between the graduates of the bba, bcommcpp, bcommdistance graduates six months after graduation was not statistically significant (see table 28). across the three programs, there was also no statistically significant difference in the proportions of graduates that were employed full time, held permanent positions, or held positions that were related to their degree six months after 19 graduation (see tables 2931). for bba graduates who were employed six months after graduation, 34.2% indicated that their degree was required for the position, compared to 30.6% of bcommcpp graduates (see table 32). this difference was only significant at the 10% level. finally, half of the bcommcpp graduates had an annual income of over $40,000 six months after graduation, compared to 31.6% of bba graduates. due to the small number of bcommcpp graduates, this difference was only significant at the 10% level. more than threequarters of the bcommdistance graduates earned an annual income of over $40,000 six months after graduation. once again, this is not unusual, given that the bcommdistance program appeals to mature working professionals. table 33 shows the breakdown of survey respondents by annual income from their main position six months after graduation by degree program. 20 bcommcpp academic and professional success 5. concluding remarks the results of this study may provide insight on the impact of the blended delivery method on student success and withdrawals rates from within a collegeuniversity partnership environment in canada, keeping in mind the uniqueness of the blended delivery model offered by the bcommcpp. we found that the mean university gpa of bcommcpp students was higher than that of bba students and that difference is statistically significant. meanwhile, bcommdistance students had the lowest mean university gpa for the cohort studied. in addition, the average grade across core courses tended to be lower for students in the bba and bcommdistance programs compared to those in the bcommcpp. while bba students and bcommcpp students had comparable grades in the majority of core courses, there were a handful of courses for which bcommcpp students significantly but not consistently outperformed their bba counterparts. this difference in performance needs to be analyzed further. as we know, students and their learning behaviour are affected by the methods of assessment utilized (gordon & debus, 2002). in this study we were only able to account for class size and class location; however, given the importance of assessment tools and the weighting of components in course evaluation schemes we need more information. we also need to look further at the performance in specific courses. for example, cpp students performed significantly better for most of the years under study in acct2146 management accounting and control i. it may be the case that this style of blended delivery may work better for some courses over others. the difference in withdrawal and graduation rates between the bba students and bcommcpp students was not statistically significant. there was a weak but positive correlation between entering gpa and university gpa. the correlation was not as strong for bcommcpp students as it was for bba students, suggesting that academic success in college may not be as strong a predictor of success in the bcomm cpp as high school success is for success in the bba program. by comparing the professional success of graduates of the three business programs at nipissing university, we hoped to shed more light on the experiences of college transfer students relative to direct entry students in the context of a canadian university. analysis of the employment indicators suggests comparable employment success between bba and bcommcpp graduates in terms of employment rates, the length of time to find employment after graduation, the percentage of graduates with permanent positions, and the percentage of graduates with positions related to their field of study. bba graduates were slightly more likely than their bcommcpp counterparts to earn an income over $40,000. bcommdistance graduates, who tended to be older, were significantly more likely to be in the higher income brackets. given the comparable employment success between graduates of the bcommcpp and bba programs, a survey of employers may be useful in terms of understanding how the marketplace distinguishes between graduates of the two programs. a followup graduate professional success survey should be conducted in 35 years in order to determine if there are differences in the long term employment experiences of graduates from the various programs 21 6. notes and corrections in september 2013, bcommcpp students had the option of transitioning into the bba at their college campuses, and as of january 2014, students could register directly for the new bba college partnership program. within the next year, the bba will be available completely online. in the preliminary report for this study, dated january 2014, the bcommcpp program was described throughout as an 18month program. the program is designed to be completed in 3 semesters. with the availability of courses during the summer, most students complete the program in 12 months. thus, the program is described throughout this final report as a 12month program. in some instances in the preliminary report, data for the overall program gpa were incorrectly identified as being collected for those students who graduated in 2011. to clarify, the data on overall program gpa were obtained for the 2011 intake year, that is, for students that began their respective programs in 2011. data for the core course gpa were obtained for students enrolled in those courses between 2009 and 2012. 22 bcommcpp academic and professional success 7. references barnum, c., & paarmann, w. (2002). bringing induction to the teacher: a blended learning model. t.h.e. journal, 30, 5664. bates, a.w., & poole, g. (2003). effective teaching with technology in higher education: foundations for success. san francisco, ca: josseybass. boothby, d. and drewes, t. (2006). postsecondary education in canada: returns to university, college and trades education. canadian public policy, 32(1),122. dubois, j. (2007) outcomes for alternative pathways. ottawa: human resources and social development canada catalogue no. hs28114/2007e dziuban, c.d., hartman, j. l., and moskal, p.d. (2004) three aln modalities: an institutional perspective. in j.c.j. bourne (ed), elements of quality online education: into the mainstream (pp. 127148). needham, ma: sloan center for online education. gordon, c., & debus, r. (2002). developing deep learning approaches and personal teaching efficacy within a preservice teacher education context. british journal of educationalpsychology, 72, 483511. heslop, j. (2001) profile of b.c. college transfer students admitted to b.c. universities 1994/95 tp 1998/99. vancouver: british columbia council on admissions and transfer. heslop, j. (2004.) alternate paths to sfu: a comparative academic performance study of b.c. college transfer students and b.c. direct entry secondary students admitted to sfu from 1992 to 1999. vancouver: british columbia council on admissions and transfer. kerr, a., mccloy, u., liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario mccambell, b. (2001). blending the basics. principle leadership, 2, 7172. means, b., toyama, y., murphy, r., bakia, m., and jones, k. (2010). evaluation of evidencebased practices in online learning: a metaanalysis and review of online learning. center for technology in learning, u.s. department of education. nipissing university (2007). measuring the success of college transfer students at nipissing university 19942005. cucc. retrieved on october 28, 2013 from http://www.ontransfer.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_re ports_17.pdf nipissing university (2010). review of nipissing universitys bachelor of commerce college partnership program: successes, shortcomings, and solutions to build a strong program, november 2010 phillips, r.a., cummings, r., lowe, k., & jonasdwyer, d. (2004). rethinking flexible learning in a 23 distributed learning environment: a universitywide initiative. educational media international, 41, 195 205. reynolds, m. and paulus, d. (2009). the best of both worlds: hybrid learning. proceedings of the 2009 midwest section conference of the american society for engineering education. stewart, j. and martinello, f. (2012). are transfer students different? an examination of firstyear grades and course withdrawals. canadian journal of higher education 42(1), 2542. tulloch, j.b. (2000). sophisticated technology offers higher education options. t.h.e.journal, 28, 5859. university of calgary (2008) performance of college transfer students at the university of calgary 2005 06. calgary: office of institutional analysis, university of calgary. retrieved on october 28, 2013 from: http://oia.ucalgary.ca/system/files/644_2731.pdf voos, r. (2003). blended learning: what it is and where might it take us? sloanc view, 2, 35. waldman, j., & smith, c. e. (2013). hybrid learning in a canadian college environment. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario young, j.r. (2002). hybrid teaching seeks to end the divide between traditional and online instruction. the chronicle of higher education, 48, a33a34. 24 bcommcpp academic and professional success 8. appendix 8.1 appendix a: tables table 1 description of variables variable entrance gpa university or exiting gpa retention rate withdrawal rate graduation rate mean grade/course gpa location size common course description this is the average of the grade point values that students have earned for credit courses either while attending high school or college, and before they enter university. this is the average of the grade point values that students have earned for credit courses they have taken throughout university, that is, their exiting gpa. the number of students who start at a school and go on to the next year(s) at the same university. the number of students who started at a school or a particular stage of the school, yet do not continue in the following year(s) at the same university. the percentage of a cohort that successfully graduated within a specific timeframe. mean grade or course gpa is the total sum of percentage grades divided by the number of students who completed the class and received a final grade. the location of the program (ie. sheridan college, nipissing university, fanshawe college, etc.) the number of students within the specific course at each location. courses taken by students in the bba, distance learning and bcomm cpp programs. 25 table 2 survey respondents by degree program program bba bcommdistance bcommcpp all bcommcpp algonquin college bcommcpp centennial college bcommcpp fanshawe college bcommcpp sheridan college bcommcpp st. clair college other total 26 number of respondents 104 25 50 11 4 15 13 7 12 191 percentage of respondents (%) 54.5 13.1 26.2 5.8 2.1 7.9 6.8 3.7 6.3 100.0 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 3 breakdown of survey participants by gender and degree program gender male female no answer total all 78 89 12 179 bba 45 53 6 104 bcommdistance 14 8 3 25 bcommcpp 19 28 3 50 27 table 4 breakdown of survey respondents by year of birth and degree program year of birth 1964 or earlier 19651974 19751984 1985 or after no answer total 28 all 5 11 28 125 22 191 bba 2 1 11 83 7 104 bcommdistance 3 7 6 6 3 25 bcommcpp 0 3 10 34 3 50 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 5 breakdown of survey respondents by year of graduation and degree program year 2009 or earlier 2010 2011 2012 2013 no answer total all 21 21 36 35 64 2 179 bba 21 15 21 20 27 0 104 bcommdistance 0 1 6 4 12 2 25 bcommcpp 0 5 9 11 25 0 50 29 table 6 breakdown of survey respondents by area of specialization/stream and degree progam stream general accounting economics hr/org. studies marketing technology management other total 30 all 26 62 10 35 37 1 8 179 bba 13 32 10 16 29 1 3 104 bcommdistance 10 0 0 10 1 0 4 25 bcommcpp 3 30 0 9 7 0 1 50 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 7 grade conversion scale percentage grade 0%49% 50%53% 54%56% 57%59% 60%63% 64%66% 67%69% 70%73% 74%76% 77%79% 80%86% 87%92% 93%100% letter grade f d d d+ c c c+ b b b+ a a a+ value in calculation 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 31 table 8 gpa comparison between programs for 2011 intake cohort n entgpa bba 8.27 1.792 32 7.84 1.919 124 9.37 1.417 18 9.39 1.501 7 8.86 1.464 cpp fanshawe 28 9.50 1.374 cpp sheridan 46 9.37 1.404 cpp st. clair 25 9.36 1.497 total 333 8.64 1.767 bba 177 6.05 2.503 32 4.78 2.459 124 8.21 1.888 18 7.94 2.287 7 6.86 2.911 cpp fanshawe 28 8.75 1.005 cpp sheridan 46 8.20 1.809 cpp st. clair 25 8.20 2.062 333 6.73 2.576 cpp all campuses cpp algonquin cpp confederation bcomm-distance cpp all campuses cpp algonquin cpp confederation total 32 std. deviation 177 bcomm- distance univgpa mean bcommcpp academic and professional success table 9 correlation between entry gpa and exiting gpa bba entgpa pearson correlation entgpa 1 univgpa ** .518 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n univgpa pearson correlation 177 177 ** 1 .518 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 177 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 177 bcomm-distance entgpa pearson correlation entgpa 1 univgpa .396* sig. (2-tailed) n univgpa .025 32 32 * 1 pearson correlation .396 sig. (2-tailed) .025 n 32 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). 32 bcomm-cpp entgpa pearson correlation entgpa 1 univgpa .354** sig. (2-tailed) n univgpa pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) .000 124 124 ** 1 .354 .000 n 124 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 124 33 table 10 overall gpa within common courses for bba and bcommcpp students. class gpa location north bay distance learning sheridan college fanshawe college algonquin college confederation college st. clair college centennial college total 34 mean 71.7577 70.5371 no. of sections 89 65 std. deviation 4.38021 6.75186 75.9195 78.5881 86 42 4.92457 3.84993 74.6896 27 5.45422 73.2751 6 4.56636 76.2802 73.0472 13 5 2.55229 4.19660 73.9141 334 5.69914 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 11 yearly course grade breakdown between bba, distance and cpp students course ye ar acct 2146 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 tmgt 3856 admn 4606 mkgt 2127 admn 3116 acct 4836 admn 1606 admn 2167 admn location north bay mean grade 71.03 79.13 79.43 77.14 72.04 69.18 76.17 69.95 distance learning mean grade 55.00 52.05 67.42 70.37 74.29 78.27 74.10 75.00 sheridan college mean grade 84.91 72.40 79.43 85.96 75.97 71.09 75.42 79.89 fanshawe college mean grade algon. college mean grade 82.44 70.88 77.50 80.18 71.28 72.65 73.46 76.86 76.97 76.24 77.09 79.45 71.35 68.67 73.21 72.50 78.83 70.34 79.58 75.34 79.58 83.00 79.44 81.31 71.90 64.60 65.23 66.68 70.33 80.63 73.75 60.63 63.40 65.12 67.67 67.52 72.34 67.33 57.29 57.83 68.23 82.78 74.53 70.34 72.55 82.07 77.91 73.07 66.10 69.40 72.64 72.60 70.13 66.64 75.92 72.36 72.64 76.55 76.61 75.53 75.49 79.04 77.57 82.28 78.70 79.06 75.57 70.29 75.69 78.55 75.31 76.71 83.50 84.24 73.12 77.17 73.84 78.88 82.27 confeder. college mean grade st. clair college mean grade centen. college mean grade 74.25 74.88 76.71 73.55 77.43 74.23 77.27 76.08 75.17 74.74 74.13 74.00 62.33 74.46 73.78 64.00 62.25 80.53 70.40 64.50 82.64 72.75 79.08 78.11 72.25 78.17 80.10 73.71 78.00 76.85 79.52 35 2306 admn 3046 orgs 1136 orgs 1137 36 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 76.05 71.75 71.79 63.46 70.97 66.76 71.64 76.04 72.39 74.85 74.01 70.05 72.51 75.86 67.38 73.20 70.12 74.45 68.62 65.63 65.03 83.50 75.86 70.67 74.24 81.68 64.88 79.77 76.27 74.92 76.68 66.97 71.49 77.94 75.69 83.96 77.00 75.17 78.29 75.19 76.14 73.08 76.24 76.57 79.44 80.79 87.17 79.17 81.32 80.35 75.06 84.50 73.83 71.71 73.50 75.56 75.17 73.07 76.63 74.83 76.16 65.86 75.15 75.55 76.67 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 12 results of correlation tests for course gpa, class location and class size correlations control variables size course gpa correlation location .002 significance (2-tailed) df location course gpa 1.000 .966 0 331 correlation .002 1.000 significance (2-tailed) .966 df 331 0 correlations control variables location course gpa correlation significance (2-tailed) df size course gpa 1.000 correlation size -.198 .000 0 331 -.198 1.000 significance (2-tailed) .000 df 331 0 37 table 13 overall class sizes within common courses for nipissing university bba and cpp students. average class size location north bay distance learning sheridan college fanshawe college algonquin college confederation college st. clair college centennial college total 38 mean n 38.3146 22.3846 89 65 std. deviation 10.44531 8.80996 16.0814 18.8810 86 42 6.52816 7.11303 14.2963 27 4.66422 6.0000 6 1.89737 23.3077 17.2000 13 5 3.52100 3.11448 23.5928 334 12.32939 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 14 yearly course class size for bba and cpp students. course yr acct 2146 09 tmgt 3856 admn 4606 mkgt 2127 admn 3116 acct 4836 admn 1606 admn 2167 admn 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 location north bay mean size 37.50 fanshawe college mean size algon. college mean size 7.00 sheridan college mean size 13.00 47.50 39.50 42.00 32.50 43.00 33.50 36.00 20.00 26.67 18.00 14.00 15.50 20.00 37.00 9.50 15.50 11.00 21.00 15.00 22.50 18.00 9.00 8.00 10.00 11.00 33.00 36.00 13.00 14.00 16.25 24.00 20.50 29.00 49.00 49.00 33.00 25.33 17.00 26.50 14.00 10.00 13.50 14.00 16.00 19.00 35.50 41.50 27.00 34.00 24.00 30.00 20.00 21.00 22.00 24.50 12.50 8.50 16.00 9.00 13.00 23.00 35.00 5.50 15.00 9.00 21.50 15.00 24.50 43.50 36.50 38.00 39.50 34.33 distance learning mean size 15.00 14.00 22.00 17.00 21.00 10.00 16.50 15.00 22.00 7.00 23.00 18.00 30.00 17.00 7.00 14.00 16.00 20.00 13.00 24.00 18.00 33.00 17.00 10.00 25.00 17.00 15.00 confeder. college mean size st. clair college mean size centen. college mean size 4.00 25.00 24.00 22.00 7.00 26.00 26.00 24.00 18.00 23.00 16.00 17.00 9.00 10.50 9.00 9.00 12.00 17.00 15.00 6.00 28.00 4.00 24.00 18.00 24.00 12.00 10.00 24.00 17.00 12.00 21.00 39 2306 admn 2307 admn 3046 orgs 1136 orgs 1137 40 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 09 10 11 12 29.00 30.80 28.33 57.00 48.00 41.00 36.00 50.00 30.00 30.50 31.00 28.00 36.50 22.00 35.00 33.00 24.00 63.50 58.50 44.33 36.00 57.50 49.00 38.33 33.67 12.50 34.00 26.00 35.67 22.00 22.00 12.00 20.00 22.00 16.00 15.50 24.00 18.00 18.50 16.00 22.50 18.00 21.00 16.00 24.50 14.50 12.50 13.50 13.00 18.00 32.00 24.00 23.00 23.00 16.00 34.00 14.00 16.00 19.00 21.00 18.00 31.00 17.00 17.00 16.00 24.00 17.00 10.00 9.00 6.00 27.00 16.00 12.00 19.00 14.00 20.00 22.00 15.00 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 15 progression by intake year cohort and program cohort intake year 2009 following years 2010 2011 2012 2013 total graduates program year 1 2 3 4 bcomm 0 76 0 0 bba 53 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 graduates 1 2 3 4 graduates 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 graduates 0 2 2 0 59 0 0 4 0 5 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 42 0 0 65 0 5 35 0 0 0 6 32 0 0 0 6 26 26 41 table 15 (contd) progression by intake year cohort and program cohort intake year 2010 following years 2011 2012 2013 total graduates 42 program year 1 2 3 4 bcomm 0 66 0 0 bba 47 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 graduates 1 2 3 4 graduates 1 2 3 4 graduates 0 1 6 0 49 0 1 3 0 5 0 0 2 0 1 55 1 34 0 0 0 6 27 0 0 0 9 22 1 1 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 15 (contd) progression by intake year cohort and program cohort intake year 2011 following years 2012 2013 total graduates program year 1 2 3 4 bcomm 0 135 0 0 bba 49 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 graduates 1 2 3 4 graduates 0 3 24 0 87 0 1 8 0 17 104 4 33 0 0 0 5 25 0 0 0 43 table 16 question: did you complete your bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance degree within your expected timeframe? response no yes total 44 all 16 163 179 bba 12 92 104 bcommdistance 3 22 25 bcommcpp 1 49 50 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 17 question: since your graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program, have you been enrolled in courses for credit, leading to a degree, diploma or certificate, at any postsecondary institution? response no yes no answer total all 116 61 2 179 bba 70 33 1 104 bcommdistance 16 9 0 25 bcommcpp 30 19 1 50 45 table 18 question: what was the main type of postsecondary institution in which you were/are enrolled? postsecondary institution community college technical institute university undergraduate university graduate university professional school (e.g. nursing, law) professional certification offered by a licensing body (e.g. hrpa, ca) other total 46 all 8 1 6 bba 5 0 4 bcommdistance 0 0 1 bcommcpp 3 1 1 10 2 7 0 1 2 2 0 29 15 4 10 4 61 2 33 1 9 1 19 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 19 question: do you currently have a job or are you selfemployed? response yes, paid position yes, selfemployed yes, both paid position and selfemployed no, neither no answer total all 145 5 8 bba 88 2 4 bcommdistance 24 1 0 bcommcpp 33 2 4 9 12 179 6 4 104 0 0 25 3 8 50 47 table 20 fulltime versus parttime employment by degree program employment status parttime fulltime both parttime and full time no answer total 48 all 20 132 5 bba 10 83 1 bcommdistance 3 20 1 bcommcpp 7 29 3 22 179 10 104 1 25 11 50 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 21 terms of employment by degree program response contract six months or less contract between six and twelve months contract twelve months or longer permanent casual selfemployed no answer total all 1 bba 1 bcommdistance 0 bcommcpp 0 8 5 0 3 14 11 2 1 124 5 4 23 179 72 3 1 11 104 21 0 1 1 25 31 2 2 11 50 49 table 22 question: is your bba/bcomm degree required for your main position? response yes, it is required no, but it is strongly recommended no, any university degree is sufficient no, any college degree is sufficient no, some college or university is sufficient no, a high school diploma is sufficient not specified no answer total 50 all 57 35 bba 39 15 bcommdistance 7 6 bcommcpp 11 13 19 14 2 3 11 5 1 5 5 3 0 2 19 11 4 2 12 33 191 5 12 104 4 1 25 3 11 50 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 23 question: how related is your main position to the bba/bcomm program from which you graduated? not related somewhat related related no answer total all 21 53 84 33 191 bba 12 30 50 12 104 bcommdistance 6 7 11 1 25 bcommcpp 2 14 23 11 50 51 table 24 time taken to find employment after graduation by degree program time taken had a job lined up before graduation less than 1 month between 1 and 3 months between 3 and 6 months between 6 months and 1 year more than 1 year no answer total 52 all 82 bba 46 bcommdistance 18 bcommcpp 17 21 25 19 10 13 16 13 6 0 0 1 2 7 8 5 2 11 23 191 5 5 104 3 1 25 3 8 50 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 25 question: for your main position, how many people does your organization employ? no. of employees 1 to 25 26 to 99 100 to 199 200 to 499 500 to 999 1000 or more dont know/prefer not to say no answer total all 37 22 6 10 6 67 9 bba 20 17 2 5 3 42 5 bcommdistance 4 1 2 2 2 12 1 bcommcpp 13 4 2 3 1 13 3 179 10 104 1 25 11 50 53 table 26 question: what is your annual income from your current main position (before deductions in canadian dollars)? annual income 0 $24,999 $25,000 $39,999 $40,000 $54,999 $55,000 $69,999 $70,000 $84,999 $85,000 $99,999 $100,000 or higher prefer not to say no answer total 54 all 18 39 52 25 12 3 6 5 31 191 bba 8 24 36 16 6 0 2 2 10 104 bcommdistance 2 4 3 4 3 3 4 1 1 25 bcommcpp 8 9 12 5 3 0 0 2 11 50 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 27 ordinal logistical regression on current annual income case processing summary n marginal percentage current annual income public administration finance and insurance education services large firm male self employed only part-time bcomm-distance bcomm-cpp 0 - $24,999 17 11.9% $25,000 - $39,999 33 23.1% $40,000 - $54,999 48 33.6% $55,000 - $69,999 24 16.8% $70,000 - $84,999 12 8.4% $85,000 - $99,999 3 2.1% $100,000 or higher 6 4.2% .00 133 93.0% 1.00 10 7.0% .00 107 74.8% 1.00 36 25.2% .00 131 91.6% 1.00 12 8.4% .00 81 56.6% 1.00 62 43.4% .00 76 53.1% 1.00 67 46.9% .00 139 97.2% 4 2.8% .00 127 88.8% 1.00 16 11.2% .00 122 85.3% 1.00 21 14.7% .00 110 76.9% 1.00 33 23.1% 5 3.5% born 1965-1974 11 7.7% born 1975-1984 23 16.1% 104 72.7% 143 100.0% 1.00 born 1964 or earlier age range born 1985 or later valid missing total 12 155 55 model fitting information model -2 log chi-square df sig. likelihood intercept only 365.665 final 276.922 88.744 12 .000 goodness-of-fit chi-square df sig. pearson 1420.229 384 .000 deviance 226.996 384 1.000 pseudo r-square cox and snell .462 nagelkerke .479 mcfadden .185 parameter estimates estimate 0 - $24,999 std. error wald df sig. -3.032 1.628 3.467 1 .063 $25,000 - $39,999 -.914 1.641 .310 1 .578 $40,000 - $54,999 1.068 1.634 .427 1 .513 $55,000 - $69,999 2.419 1.626 2.213 1 .137 $70,000 - $84,999 3.690 1.639 5.072 1 .024 $85,000 - $99,999 4.250 1.658 6.569 1 .010 public administration .773 .627 1.518 1 .218 finance and insurance .244 .395 .384 1 .536 education services .656 .606 1.172 1 .279 large firm 1.421 .352 16.337 1 .000 female -.724 .328 4.864 1 .027 self employed only -.643 1.010 .406 1 .524 -3.547 .671 27.963 1 .000 bcomm-distance 1.728 .564 9.386 1 .002 bcomm-cpp -.107 .406 .069 1 .792 born 1964 or earlier 2.067 .933 4.910 1 .027 born 1965-1974 -.105 .701 .022 1 .881 born 1975-1984 .538 .468 1.319 1 .251 threshold location part-time only 56 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 28 question: six months after you completed your bba/bcomm program, did you have a paid job or were you selfemployed? response yes, paid position yes, selfemployed yes, both paid position and selfemployed no, neither total all 110 0 2 bba 74 0 2 bcommdistance 14 0 0 bcommcpp 22 0 0 13 125 8 84 2 16 3 25 57 table 29 employment status six months following graduation employment status parttime fulltime both parttime and full time no answer total 58 all 14 91 6 bba 10 63 3 bcommdistance 1 12 0 bcommcpp 3 16 3 14 125 8 84 3 16 3 25 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 30 terms of employment six months following graduation response contract six months or less contract between six and twelve months contract twelve months or longer permanent casual selfemployed no answer total all 7 bba 6 bcommdistance 0 bcommcpp 1 4 3 0 1 10 9 0 1 85 4 0 15 125 55 3 0 8 84 12 0 0 4 16 18 1 0 3 25 59 table 31 question: was your bba/bcomm required for the main position you held six months after graduation? response yes, it is required no, but it is strongly recommended no, any university degree is sufficient no, any college degree is sufficient no, some college or university is sufficient no, a high school diploma is sufficient not specified no answer total 60 all 34 27 bba 26 13 bcommdistance 4 3 bcommcpp 4 11 7 5 1 1 9 6 2 1 8 6 0 2 21 17 1 3 5 14 125 3 8 84 2 3 16 0 3 25 bcommcpp academic and professional success table 32 question: how related was the main position you held six months after graduation to the bba/bcomm program from which you graduated? not related somewhat related related no answer total all 24 26 61 14 125 bba 18 18 40 8 84 bcommdistance 3 2 8 3 16 bcommcpp 3 6 13 3 25 61 table 33 question: what was your annual income from the main position you held six months after graduation (before deductions in canadian dollars)? 0 $24,999 $25,000 $39,999 $40,000 $54,999 $55,000 $69,999 $70,000 $84,999 $85,000 $99,999 $100,000 or higher no answer total 62 all 19 47 27 9 3 3 3 14 125 bba 14 38 19 3 0 1 1 8 84 bcommdistance 1 2 2 3 1 2 2 3 16 bcommcpp 4 7 6 3 2 0 0 3 25 bcommcpp academic and professional success 8.2 appendix b: graduate academic and professional success survey your details q01: which nipissing university school of business program were you enrolled in? _ bachelor of commerce distance learning program (bcommdistance) _ bachelor of commerce college partnership program at (bcommcpp) _ algonquin college _ centennial college _ fanshawe college _ sheridan college _ st. clair college _ bachelor of business administration (bba) q02: month and year of graduation (mm/yy): _ _/_ _ q03: for the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program in which you were enrolled, what was your area of concentration/specialization/stream? _ accounting _economics _finance _marketing _management (general) _human resources/organizational studies _technology management _other (please specify): ______________________________________________ q04: did you complete your bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance degree within your expected timeframe? _yes _no, i took longer than expected _no, i finished sooner than expected 63 your academic history since graduation q05: since your graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program, have you been enrolled in courses for credit, leading to a degree, diploma or certificate, at any postsecondary institution? _ yes _no (please skip to q10) q06: what was the main type of postsecondary institution in which you were/are enrolled? _ technical institute _community college _ university undergraduate _ university graduate _ university professional school (e.g. law, nursing) _ professional certification offered by a licensing body (e.g. hrpa, ca) _ other. please specify _____________________ q07: what was/is the name of the postsecondary institution you attended or are currently attending? if there is more than one institution, please list all and indicate which institution you have spent most time at. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ q08: in what field of study was/is your enrolment subsequent to graduation from the bba/bcomm cpp/bcommdistance program? _____________________________________________________________________________________ q09: were/are you enrolled in this subsequent educational program primarily as _ a fulltime student _ a parttime student _ combination of fulltime and parttime 64 bcommcpp academic and professional success your employment status since graduation q10: prior to your graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program, were you ever employed fulltime (not including summer jobs)? _ yes _ no q11: since your graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program, have you had a paying job (including selfemployment)? _ yes (please skip to q13) _ no q12: please indicate the main reason why you have not worked at all since you completed the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program. _unable to find a job (please go to q50) _did not like the job i had (please go to q50) _family responsibilities (please go to q50) _health reasons (please go to q50) _going to school (please go to q50) _travelling(please go to q50) _wanted to take time off (please go to q50) _ retirement (please go to q50) _ other (please specify): ___________________________________________________________________________ q13: how long did it take you to find employment after graduating from the bba/bcommcpp/bcomm distance program? _ i had a job lined up before graduation _ less than 1 month _ between 1 and 3 months _ between 3 and 6 months _ between 6 months and 1 year _ more than 1 year q14: how has your employment status changed in the past two years? _ i changed jobs 65 _ i am working for the same employer, but in a different position _ i became employed _ i became unemployed _ my employment status has not changed i am with the same employer, same position _ my employment status has not changed i am unemployed _ my employment status has not changed i went back to school q15: do you currently have a job or are you selfemployed? _yes, a paid position (please skip to q18) _ yes, selfemployed (please skip to q18) _yes, both paid position and selfemployed (please skip to q18) _no, neither q16: are you currently unemployed, that is, are you currently out of work and actively looking for work? _ yes (please skip to q27) _ no, i am not actively looking for work q17: please indicate the main reason why you are currently not looking for work. _unable to find a job (please skip to q27) _recently laid off/dismissed (please skip to q27) _did not like the job i had (please skip to q27) _family responsibilities (please skip to q27) _health reasons (please skip to q27) _going to school (please skip to q27) _travelling (please skip to q27) _wanted to take time off (please skip to q27) _ retirement (please skip to q27) _ other (please specify): ___________________________________________________________________________ 66 bcommcpp academic and professional success q18: your current employment is _ parttime _ fulltime _ both parttime and fulltime q19: you are employed in _ 1 job _ 2 jobs _ 3 or more jobs q20: how would you describe the terms of your current employment for your main position (the one with the most hours)? _ contract six months or less _ contract between six months and 12 months _contract 12 months or more _ permanent _casual _ selfemployed q21: is your bba/bcomm degree required for your main position (the one with the most hours)? _ required _strongly recommended _ any university degree was sufficient _ any college degree was sufficient _some college or university was sufficient _a high school diploma was sufficient _ not specified q22: how related is your main position (the one with the most hours) to the the bba/bcomm cpp/bcommdistance program from which you graduated? 67 _ not related _ somewhat related _ related _ dont know q23: what is the title for your main position (the one with the most hours)? title of position: __________________________________________________ q24: for your main position, which industry best describes the organization you currently work for? _ agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting _mining, oil and gas _utilities _construction _manufacturing _wholesale trade _retail trade _transportation and warehousing _telecommunications _finance and insurance _real estate and rental leasing _professional, scientific and technical services _management of companies and enterprises _administrative and support _waste management and remediation services _education services _health care and social assistance _arts, entertainment and recreation 68 bcommcpp academic and professional success _tourism and hospitality _food services _public administration _other services (please specify): _________________________________________________ _dont know q25: for your main position, how many people does your organization employ? _ 1 25 _ 26 99 _ 100 199 _ 200 499 _500 999 _ 1000 or more _dont know _rather not say q26: what is your annual income from your current main position (before deductions)? _ $0 $24,999 _$25,000 $39,999 _$40,000 $54,999 _$55,000 $69,999 _$70,000 $84,999 _$85,000 $99,999 _$100,000 or higher _prefer not to say 69 if you graduated after july 2013, please skip to q51 your employment history six months after graduation q27: six months after you completed the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program, did you have a paid job or were you selfemployed? _yes, a paid position (please skip to q30) _yes, selfemployed (please skip to q30) _yes, both selfemployed and paid position (please skip to q30) _no, neither q28: were you unemployed, that is, were you out of work and actively looking for work during the six months following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program? _ yes (please go to q39) _ no, i was not actively looking for work q29: please indicate the main reason why you were not looking for work during the six months following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program. _unable to find a job (please skip to q39) _recently laid off/dismissed (please skip to q39) _did not like the job i had (please skip to q39) _family responsibilities (please skip to q39) _health reasons (please skip to q39) _going to school (please skip to q39) _travelling (please skip to q39) _wanted to take time off (please skip to q39) _ retirement (please skip to q39) _cant remember (please skip to q39) _ other (please specify): ___________________________________________________________________________ q30: your employment during the six months following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcomm distance program was _ parttime _ fulltime _ both parttime and fulltime 70 bcommcpp academic and professional success q31: you were employed in _ 1 job _ 2 jobs _ 3 or more jobs q32: how would you describe the terms of your employment for your main position (the one with the most hours) during the six months following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program? _ contract six months or less _ contract between six months and 12 months _contract 12 months or more _ permanent _casual _ selfemployed q33: was your bba/bcomm degree required for your main position (the one with the most hours) during the six months following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program? _ required _strongly recommended _ any university degree was sufficient _ any college degree was sufficient _some college or university was sufficient _a high school diploma was sufficient _ not specified q34: how related was your main position (the one with the most hours) to the the bba/bcomm cpp/bcommdistance program from which you graduated? _ not related _ somewhat related _ related 71 _ dont know q35: what was the title for your main position (the one with the most hours)? title of position: __________________________________________________ q36: for your main position during the six months following graduation from the bba/bcomm cpp/bcommdistance program, which industry best describes the organization you currently work for? _ agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting _mining, oil and gas _utilities _construction _manufacturing _wholesale trade _retail trade _transportation and warehousing _telecommunications _finance and insurance _real estate and rental leasing _professional, scientific and technical services _management of companies and enterprises _administrative and support _waste management and remediation services _education services _health care and social assistance _arts, entertainment and recreation _tourism and hospitality _food services _public administration 72 bcommcpp academic and professional success _other services (please specify): _________________________________________________ _dont know q37: for your main position during the six months following graduation from the bba/bcomm cpp/bcommdistance program, how many people did your organization employ? _ 1 25 _ 26 99 _ 100 199 _ 200 499 _500 999 _ 1000 or more _dont know _prefer not to say q38: what was your annual income from your main position during the six months following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program (before deductions)? _ $0 $24,999 _$25,000 $39,999 _$40,000 $54,999 _$55,000 $69,999 _$70,000 $84,999 _$85,000 $99,999 _$100,000 or higher _ prefer not to say 73 if you graduated after december 2011, please skip to q51 your employment history two years after graduation q39: two years after you completed the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program, did you have a paid job or were you selfemployed? _yes, a paid position (please skip to q42) _yes, selfemployed (please skip to q42) _yes, both selfemployed and paid position (please skip to q42) _no, neither q40: were you unemployed, that is, were you out of work and actively looking for work the two years following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program? _ yes (please go to q51) _ no, i was not actively looking for work q41: please indicate the main reason why you were not looking for work during the two years following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program. _unable to find a job (please skip to q51) _recently laid off/dismissed (please skip to q51) _did not like the job i had (please skip to q51) _family responsibilities (please skip to q51) _health reasons (please skip to q51) _going to school (please skip to q51) _travelling (please skip to q51) _wanted to take time off (please skip to q51) _ retirement (please skip to q51) _cant remember (please skip to q51) _ other (please specify): ___________________________________________________________________________ q42: your employment during the two years following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcomm distance program was _ parttime _ fulltime _ both parttime and fulltime 74 bcommcpp academic and professional success q43: you were employed in _ 1 job _ 2 jobs _ 3 or more jobs q44: how would you describe the terms of your employment for your main position (the one with the most hours) during the two years following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program? _ contract six months or less _ contract between six months and 12 months _contract 12 months or more _ permanent _casual _ selfemployed q45: was your bba/bcomm degree required for your main position (the one with the most hours) during the two years following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program? _ required _strongly recommended _ any university degree was sufficient _ any college degree was sufficient _some college or university was sufficient _a high school diploma was sufficient _ not specified q46: how related was your main position (the one with the most hours) to the the bba/bcomm cpp/bcommdistance program from which you graduated? _ not related _ somewhat related _ related 75 _ dont know q47: what was the title for your main position (the one with the most hours)? title of position: __________________________________________________ q48: for your main position during the two years following graduation from the bba/bcomm cpp/bcommdistance program, which industry best describes the organization you currently work for? _ agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting _mining, oil and gas _utilities _construction _manufacturing _wholesale trade _retail trade _transportation and warehousing _telecommunications _finance and insurance _real estate and rental leasing _professional, scientific and technical services _management of companies and enterprises _administrative and support _waste management and remediation services _education services _health care and social assistance _arts, entertainment and recreation _tourism and hospitality _food services _public administration 76 bcommcpp academic and professional success _other services (please specify): _________________________________________________ _dont know q49: for your main position during the two years following graduation from the bba/bcomm cpp/bcommdistance program, how many people did your organization employ? _ 1 25 _ 26 99 _ 100 199 _ 200 499 _500 999 _ 1000 or more _dont know _rather not say q50: what was your annual income from your main position during the two years following graduation from the bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program (before deductions)? _ $0 $24,999 _$25,000 $39,999 _$40,000 $54,999 _$55,000 $69,999 _$70,000 $84,999 _$85,000 $99,999 _$100,000 or higher 77 your demographic details q52: gender _ male _ female _ prefer not to say q53: year of birth (yyyy) : ____ _ prefer not to say q54: do you have any comments about your bba/bcommcpp/bcommdistance program or career path? ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ 78

building empowerment, achieving results the bear program research report oncat project number 2015-36 sherryl fraser, chair, general arts & science, algonquin college dwight powless, community liaison resource, algonquin college andre obonsawin, manager, indigenous initiatives, algonquin college adele yamada, professor, general arts & science, algonquin college submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer october, 2016 we are thankful for the funding provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer that made this research project possible. the findings and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ontario council on articulation and transfer. the bear program research project contents 1. prologue .................................................................................................................................................................. 4 2. a renewed call to action ................................................................................................................................. 7 3. dialogue and discoveries .............................................................................................................................. 13 3.1 student performance reports (2009-2015) ................................................................................ 14 3.2 supporting aboriginal people for labour market entry (saplme) project ................... 15 3.3 developmentor program .................................................................................................................. 16 3.4 indigenous youth educational persistence (iyep) study ....................................................... 17 4. findings as foundational .............................................................................................................................. 17 4.1 english and math preparedness ........................................................................................................ 17 4.2 historical, social and institutional impacts .................................................................................. 21 4.3 individual and community support ................................................................................................ 25 4.4 transferable skills................................................................................................................................... 27 4.5 career path awareness ......................................................................................................................... 30 5. indigenous perspectives ............................................................................................................................... 31 5.1 community partnerships ..................................................................................................................... 34 5.1.1 algonquins of pikwakanagan ........................................................................................................ 34 5.1.2 mohawk council of the akwesasne ............................................................................................ 36 5.2 new communication strategies ........................................................................................................ 38 6. best practices ..................................................................................................................................................... 39 6.1 community-based assessments ........................................................................................................ 42 6.2 week-long orientation .......................................................................................................................... 43 6.3 regular student meetings .................................................................................................................... 43 6.4 housing considerations ........................................................................................................................ 43 7. the bear program model ............................................................................................................................ 44 7.1 bear orientation .................................................................................................................................... 47 7.2 bear curriculum ..................................................................................................................................... 47 7.3 bear coaching ......................................................................................................................................... 51 8. next steps ........................................................................................................................................................... 51 9. references ........................................................................................................................................................... 54 2 the bear program research project list of figures figure 1: figure 2: figure 3: figure 4: figure 5: the bear program constructed through the medicine wheel ................................................. 33 tentative curriculum for semester 1.................................................................................................... 48 tentative weekly schedule for semester 1 ........................................................................................ 49 tentative curriculum for semester 2.................................................................................................... 50 tentative weekly schedule for semester 2 ........................................................................................ 50 list of acronyms aandc department of aboriginal affairs and northern development afn assembly of first nations bear building empowerment, achieving results cican colleges and institutes canada crm customer relationship management fnmi first nations, mtis, and inuit gas general arts and science isp indigenous strategic partnerships mctu - ministry of training, colleges and universities oncat ontario council on articulation and transfer ossgd ontario secondary school graduation diploma rcap royal commission on aboriginal people saplme - supporting aboriginal people for labour market entry ti tungasuvvingat inuit trc - truth and reconciliation commission wpd workplace and personal development 3 the bear program research project 1. prologue the building empowerment, attaining results (bear) certificate program is being developed through partnerships between the algonquin college general arts and science department, the algonquin college indigenous strategic partnerships (isp) team, and the first nations communities of ahkweshsne and pikwaganagon. the stakeholders who are building the bear program educators, administrators, community leaders, parents and students are taking to heart the call to action put forward by the truth and reconciliation commission (trc) to create meaningful learning opportunities for our first nations, mtis and inuit (fnmi) youth. on december 3, 2014, algonquin college signed the colleges and institutes canadas (cican) historic indigenous education protocol, an inspirational document that reaffirms the colleges commitment to indigenous education and provides a vision of how it will strive to improve and better serve indigenous peoples (algonquin college signs, 2014, para. 1). six months later in the fall of 2015, two members of the general arts and science (gas) department, sherryl fraser (chair) and adele yamada (communications professor) and two members of the indigenous strategic partnerships (isp) team at algonquin college, dwight powless and andre obonsawin, began a series of discussions that focused on the research findings of the isp team and the experiences of gas aboriginal studies professors to better understand the challenges facing fnmi students in gas and in the wider college. as discussions progressed, the team members realized that for a significant number of fnmi students, there is a disconnection between the students entry level knowledge and skills and the requirements and expectations of the college programs in which they enroll. further, for a significant number of students, this learning gap is not being adequately addressed or managed within current college program offerings and as a result, these students are unable to complete their programs successfully. 4 the bear program research project it became evident that there is a need for a preparation-type program for fnmi students on several levels. firstly, as one of the largest colleges in ontario, algonquin college is positioned to take a leadership role in meeting its obligations to the promises embedded in the indigenous education protocol. as a signatory, the college recognize[s] that indigenous education emanates from the intellectual and cultural traditions of indigenous peoples in canada and believe[s] that indigenous education will strengthen colleges and institutes contribution to improving the lives of learners and communities (indigenous education protocol, 2016, para. 3). secondly, despite persistent calls for restructuring and systematizing the fnmi education system so that access to learning opportunities is equitable for all canadian children and youth, resource deficiencies and administrative failings have profoundly affected fnmi students. even after having obtained an ontario secondary school graduation diploma (ossgd), an alarming number of fnmi students are not prepared for the demands of post-secondary programs and require additional learning support and skills development in order to be ready for college. thirdly, communities faced with limited post-secondary education budgets require a way to help guarantee a meaningful return on the funds they invest in their members college education. too often, fnmi communities find themselves sponsoring enthusiastic, optimistic young adults who on paper appear ready to tackle post-secondary studies but who soon discover the harsh reality that their 12 years of education have not prepared them in the same way as their non-fnmi peers. the bear program is designed with the intention of mitigating educational deficits, developing new skills, building new relationships, and creating new opportunities for fnmi youth. there is a huge economic imperative to ensure that fnmi communities have access to high-demand diplomas and degrees so that fnmi youth are able to develop the skills, knowledge and abilities the canadian workforce will require. sharpe & arsenault (2009) state that fnmi people have a significant role to play in the economic future of canada: 5 the bear program research project although indian and northern affairs canada (inac) expects the aboriginal population to experience demographic trends similar to those of the general canadian population (declining birth rates and an aging population), the aboriginal population will remain significantly younger and maintain its high growth rate relative to the non-aboriginal population for at least the next 20 years (inac and cmhc, 2007). indeed, the aboriginal population is expected to grow at an annual rate of 1.47 percent between 2006 and 2026 compared to the non-aboriginal rate of 0.73 percent per year. owing to its high growth rate and favourable age structure, the aboriginal population is expected to account for at least 12.7 percent of labour force growth and 11.3 percent of employment growth from 2006 to 2026 (p. 9). simple demographic calculations do not tell the whole story, though. if labour market projections factor in that current fnmi participation and employment rates lag behind non-fnmi rates, and if these rates increase such that fnmi population levels reach 2006 non-fnmi levels by 2026, then the aboriginal population will account for 19.9 percent of labour force growth and 22.1 percent of employment growth over the 2006-2026 period (sharpe & arsenault, 2009, p. 9). the researchers further state: if in fact aboriginal education is not made a priority, the drag on canadian productivity caused by below-average aboriginal education will grow as the aboriginal populations share of canadas labour force increases over time (ibid.). now is the time to stop and redirect both the proverbial buck and the real bucks towards fnmi education. to fulfil algonquin colleges commitment to the indigenous education protocol, to work towards building new relationships with fnmi communities, and to provide educational opportunities to eager fnmi youth, the bear team pledged to develop a program to provide fnmi learners with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful either in additional post-secondary programs or as employable workers and to help communities leverage and maximize limited funding. envisioning this new program as a preparatory pathway program led the group to consider the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) as a partner, and in october 2015 the algonquin team submitted a proposal to explore a range of research findings with the purpose of developing a model for the building empowerment, attaining results (bear) program, a pathway that provides students 6 the bear program research project with the opportunity to prepare for further college studies or to enter the workforce after attaining an ontario college certificate. we wish to thank oncat for their generous support, and we are looking forward to their continued assistance as the bear program is designed and implemented. 2. a renewed call to action we believe that success in providing education to [first nation] students can be achieved only if their needs and aspirations are appropriately identified and served by an education system that is designed to meet them (office of the auditor general of canada, april 2000, chapter 4: indian and northern affairs canada, elementary and secondary education). despite auditor general sheila frasers call to action in 2000, and her subsequent condemnation in 2010 of the federal governments failure to appropriately identify and serve the educational needs of fnmi youth, the educational arrangements in place for fnmi communities remain largely ineffective. nationally, graduation rates for on-reserve schools are under 40 percent whereas over 75 percent of the non-fnmi population graduates from high school with a recognized diploma (afn, 2012). this discrepancy results from various factors. in contrast to non-fnmi canadians whose education is provincially-funded and regulated, fnmi education begins at the federal level where formulas are applied to ascertain direct transfers, and funds are allocated to programs such as the first nations student success program (afn, 2012; bains, 2014). from the federal level, funds are distributed to seven aboriginal affairs and northern development offices across the country, and these offices then distribute funds to the first nations communities within their regions. the education board for each community makes the choice to pay for on-reserve education or to pay for off-reserve education in provincial schools (bains, 2014). to gain a deeper understanding of the processes affecting both the nature and delivery of fnmi education, the onreserve education system and the education contracts arranged between first nations communities and provincial school boards need further examination. 7 the bear program research project on-reserve education occurs outside of provincial jurisdiction, and neither the curriculum nor teacher certification is regulated or monitored to establish compliance with provincial standards (mendelson, 2008; bains, 2014). remote fnmi communities have no choice but to organize and deliver education from jk to middle school on-reserve; however, even when fnmi communities opt to fund their own schools and create and deliver curricula based on fnmi world views and cultural values, the processes or mechanisms that assess equivalencies between on-reserve education and off-reservation (provincial) education are not standardized. as a result, fnmi communities are facing situations where first nations youth graduate from education institutions on-reserve but cannot demonstrate a recognizable diploma to a workplace or post-secondary institution (canada, aandc, 2014). in other words, on-reserve education is viewed as sub-standard. in fact, according to the associate director of the fraser institute centre for aboriginal policy studies, there are no minimum legislated education standards for on-reserve first nations students. canadian taxpayers are funding an education system in first nations communities that has no legislated mandate for a core curriculum meeting provincial standards, no requirement that educators in first nations schools have provincial certification, and no requirement for first nations schools to award a recognized provincial diploma (bains, 2014, p. 1). this failure to institute a process to manage and correlate on-reserve education with provincial standards is not the only oversight. in ontario, approximately 40 percent of fnmi students live on reserves but attend school off reserve (bains, 2014). a portion of the federal funding must be distributed to the provincial schools to cover these education costs; however, there is no standardized process in place to regulate and oversee the tuition agreements that are set up between fnmi communities and individual school boards to pay for students who live on-reserve but who leave the reserve to attend provincial elementary and high schools. in 2012 the ontario auditor general found that of the 25 first nations communities surveyed, only 9 had valid tuition agreements in place and that the remaining 16 had either an expired agreement or no agreement at all (ontario, auditor general, 8 the bear program research project 2012). further, it was found that some first nations had been overbilled. in one case, a community was overcharged $700,000 in one year; in another case, a community paid $1.3 million over and above the basic tuition fees over a three-year period before realizing that the services they were charged for were actually included in the base fees (bains, 2014). more distressing was the discovery that some local school boards over-identified fnmi students as special needs students requiring special testing in addition to equipment and services, the costs of which (over $100,000 in one community) were charged back to the first nation but which were rarely available to the students to use once in school (ibid., 2014). inequality extends past invisible borders. in 2012, after three years of negotiating with the provincial and federal governments, the band school in the waywayseecappo community four hours west of winnipeg, manitoba was finally allowed to join the local school board. per-student funding within the waywayseecappo community equated to $7,200 per year whereas students at rossburn collegiate, a school five kilometres away under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, were being funded at a rate of $10,500 per student annually (sniderman, 2012). by adjusting jurisdictional authority and having the waywayseecappo community school join the local school board, the federal government was compelled to match the provincial student funding. the waywayseecappo community saw a $1.2 million increase ($3,200 each for 300 students) in its annual educational budget (ibid.). in achieving funding parity with provincially-funded schools, this community was able to invest in human capital and physical resources, investments that have led to tangible improvements such as increases in student reading scores. the waywayseecappo story highlights the fact that significant funding differences exist between on-reserve and provincially-funded schools; it is estimated that some fnmi communities receive up to 40 percent less funding per student (ibid.). not only are fnmi communities disadvantaged by the lack of monitoring by either the ministry of education or the department of aboriginal affairs and 9 the bear program research project northern development canada to prevent underfunding in comparison with provincial funding and overcharging for off-reserve education, there is no fully defined, regulated system in place to ensure that a comprehensive, standardized education is being provided to these students. this is the inconceivable reality for many fnmi communities in ontario and throughout canada. despite a long history of research and rhetoric that includes the statement of the government of canada on indian policy (also known as the 1969 white paper), the 2002 and 2011 reports of the governor general of canada, the 2011 report of the standing senate committee on aboriginal peoples, and provincial initiatives such as the ontario first nation, mtis, and inuit education policy framework published in 2007 and the aboriginal post-secondary education and training policy framework published in 2011, educational opportunities for fnmi learners remain constricted and lag far behind those of non-first nations students. the fact that as recently as three or four years ago, first nations communities in ontario were outrageously overcharged by provincial school boards drives home the point that the fnmi education system, a system that should be on par with the provincial education systems across the country, a system that should be comprised of a series of steps and processes and checks and balances to ensure fairness and accountability, is profoundly broken. the adage coined by renowned management consultant joseph juran that 90 percent of failures are caused by the process and only 10 percent of failures are caused by people sums up the ineffectiveness of the fnmi education experience. ndp mp charlie angus is less objective. he views the lack of government initiative to solve long-term fnmi education issues as a form of educational apartheid which is based on a system of racist discrimination in how students are funded (sniderman, 2012, para. 10). many of the findings in this research report lend credence to mr. angus opinion: the onus is on educational institutions to build new relationships with the over 1.4 million (stats can, 2011) people who belong to fnmi communities to ensure that their children have access to the same educational opportunities and future possibilities as their non-fnmi peers. 10 the bear program research project twenty years ago, the royal commission on aboriginal peoples (1996) identified an education structure that outlined functions and responsibilities for local communities, nations, multi-nation organizations, and canada-wide networks (rcap, 1996, 5.10.3 in mendelson, 2008, p. 13). echoing the need to develop a clearly defined and operationalized education system, twelve years ago, in sharing our success: ten case studies in aboriginal schooling, bell et. al. (2004) concluded that three recommendations for fnmi education were imperative: 1. recognize and empower aboriginal school boards in ways similar to those in provincial/territorial systems; 2. provide sufficient funding to develop and support a level of educational infrastructure and services equivalent to those provided by provinces and territories; and 3. articulate an accountability framework that defines the relationships and responsibilities of educational stakeholders for the provision of educational equity and excellence for all aboriginal students (bell et al., 2004, p. 323). four years later, mendelson (2008) analyzed fnmi education statistics and found that , the absence of a legal framework for education of on-reserve first nations residents is much more than a technical issue: it is reflective of an ongoing vacuum in federal policy which is stifling efforts to improve education for residents on reserve (p. 3). his proposal to implement a first nations education authority act is founded on the tenet that the act would be shaped in partnerships with fnmi communities (ibid., p. 17). over the last few years, algonquin college has seen an increasing number of fnmi students choose to come and study here as their first choice. at this time, there are approximately 1,200 self-identified fnmi students enrolled in programs at the college, so there is a significant need to continue open dialogues with communities to ensure that fnmi students requirements are met. appreciating fnmi communities as preferred clients with whom to establish effective working relationships is a step towards creating new and different partnerships. according to information obtained by the gas chair, the college receives revenue of close to $1 million for every 150 11 the bear program research project students who enroll in programs (reference). with the concepts of process and accountability at its core, the bear program is built on the principles of inclusion, collaboration and responsibility. in recognizing the need to include effective communication strategies as well as focused, individualized support, the bear program provides an opportunity to shift the relationship between the college and fnmi communities towards a long-term partnership model that embraces customer relationship management (crm) principles. on a basic level customer relationship management is a strategy for understanding your customers and their needs in order to optimize your interactions with them (canada business network, 2016, para 1). in keeping with this principle, discussions and consultations with stakeholder communities over the past few years have helped identify some of the key issues facing our fnmi students including academic skill gaps in english and math, unfamiliarity with post-secondary institutional norms and expectations, lower confidence levels and poor self-esteem, and an underdeveloped awareness of career options. at algonquin college, projects implemented by the workplace and personal development and indigenous strategic partnerships teams over the past four years have illuminated similar issues and have led to findings and insights that inform the design of the bear program. in addition to providing students with a unique preparatory pathway on the way to further post-secondary education or to entering the workforce, this one-year ontario certificate program helps to accomplish two of the goals mandated by the 2015 truth and reconciliation commission of canada: calls to action report, namely to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation and to help improve education attainment levels and success rates (trc, 2015, p. 6). first nations, mtis and inuit students have waited long enough for the opportunity to be empowered through education. 12 the bear program research project 3. dialogue and discoveries programs designed to support post-secondary fnmi learners must start with a comprehensive understanding of the reasons for why these learners have struggled to be successful in postsecondary studies. with respect to research, the aboriginal post-secondary education and training policy framework (2011) mandates that performance measure strategies such as the following must be implemented: the development of standardized data-collection approaches; the development of policies to better identify aboriginal learners/clients; program evaluations; improved tracking of, and results-based reporting on, aboriginal postsecondary education investments; and improved reporting back to aboriginal communities and the postsecondary education and training sectors on their collective achievements (p. 18) over the past few years, the workplace and personal development (wpd) and indigenous strategic partnerships (isp) teams at algonquin college have met this mandate by implementing programs, conducting studies and sharing data to identify the barriers and opportunities for indigenous educational persistence and employment success (powless & manning, 2015, p. 1). studies by the wpd and isp teams include the aboriginal student academic performance reports (part i and ii) and the indigenous youth educational persistence study. programs developed and implemented by the isp team include the supporting aboriginal people for labour market entry (saplme) program and the developmentor program. in the spirit of collaboration and exchange, algonquin college hosted two days of dialogue in february 2014 and february 2015, and participants included representatives from community organizations, the ministry of training, colleges and universities 13 the bear program research project (mtcu), and algonquin college. key features and findings of the projects were shared with participants; questions and discussion points that arose from these dialogues became the starting points for additional areas of research. an analysis of the wpd and isp teams work demonstrates how the assumptions of crm techniques, sound business practice, collaborative efforts, and thoughtful process integration have led to significant findings and vital insights which have informed the design of the bear program curriculum and its delivery. 3.1 student performance reports (2009-2015) as a starting point, these reports analyzed the results for students who self-identified as aboriginal according to questions similar to the canada census question set regarding aboriginal ancestry. using indigenous organization and/or entity sponsor lists, students who were sponsored by a community were identified. then this list of students was reconciled with the complete list of students who self-identified as aboriginal to determine the number of students who were sponsored and who were not sponsored. non-sponsored refers to students who were not receiving any funding support from an fnmi community or band, and sponsored refers to students who were being sponsored by a community or band as detailed in the algonquin college registration database. the isp team examined specific data relating to enrollment, retention, performance and completion measures of sponsored fnmi students and compared the results with self-identified fnmi students and to the college population overall. key findings indicate that rather than withdrawing from programs that may not be suitable (i.e. academically demanding, mismatched career focus) early in the semester, over 40 percent of sponsored students withdraw at the end of the semester. further, this statistic is cause for concern because it highlights the fact that a significant number of students are getting to the last level (semester 2 or 4), but they are not graduating due to incomplete and failed courses accumulated throughout their program. as far as the college is concerned, these students show on record as being retained even though they were 14 the bear program research project unable to complete their programs. in addition, high numbers of students are being assessed with an all fs category which means that they either failed all of their courses or did not write final exams but were still registered in the system (manning, powless & doyle, 2013). other findings identified that sponsored students (almost 40 percent) were enrolled in the faculty of arts, media and design, and that about 45 percent of the students were registered in one-year gas certificate programs which are often perceived as preparatory programs (ibid.). additionally, sponsored students were found to switch programs at a rate of 1.60 as compared to a rate 1.3 for selfidentified indigenous students and a rate of 1.28 for the college overall (ibid.). 3.2 supporting aboriginal people for labour market entry (saplme) project in a two-year collaboration with several fnmi community organizations, the isp team developed the saplme program to help 57students (selected on the basis of perceived above average english and math skills) decide on a career path by focusing on students strengths, abilities and values (manning, 2013). the following components comprised the program: 1. academic and personal strength assessment both english and math skills were assessed through a series of tests at the algonquin college career and academic access centre. the results for english showed that of the students tested only 33 percent met the minimum college preparedness requirement. further, individual esl assessments that included 30 minutes of speaking and 30 minutes of writing indicated that 89 percent of the students showed esl-related language difficulties. math testing revealed that out of the group, only 51 percent of the students met the pre-requisites for basic math at the college level. additional assessment included the myers-briggs type indicator and the strong interest inventory, and the results were used to tailor the vocational counselling portion of the program. 2. vocational counselling over three half-day sessions, students participated in workshops that helped them first to 15 the bear program research project identify possible career options that fit with their strengths and interests, and then to assess the values of organizations and employers to align them with the students preferences, and finally to determine their ideal job. 3. one-on-one career counselling the next step in the program provided an opportunity for students to meet with a career coach to discuss their career choices and develop a learning action plan that detailed the steps, skills and certifications required to achieve their chosen career. 4. training and certification in whmis and first aid to enhance their skills set and add to their resumes, students were provided with opportunities to receive training and certification in either whmis or cpr/first aid. 3.3 developmentor program set up as a voluntary, one-to-one training and coaching program, the developmentor program has assisted students find, prepare for and sustain employment with partnering companies. over the past five years, the employment coach has guided students in discovering their physical, emotional, developmental and environmental needs in term of studying and working. through weekly meetings, the coach has helped students understand how their behaviours and soft skills impact their employment experience. once students are deemed ready to work by the coach, they are permitted to apply for jobs and begin working. however, during the first eight weeks of employment, students continue to receive enriched support and feedback through meetings with the employment coach and the work supervisor. at final count, all of the students who were placed in jobs as an outcome of the developmentor program have remained successfully employed. 16 the bear program research project 3.4 indigenous youth educational persistence (iyep) study many important ideas and revelations emerged from the two days of dialogue. one of these ideas focused on the fact that despite facing many adversities, some fnmi students demonstrate resilience and persist in attaining a post-secondary qualification. they are able to overcome obstacles and challenges and succeed in moving through education and establish productive careers. taking a qualitative research approach, the study involved a comprehensive analysis of persistence research and models of resilience coupled with data compiled from in-depth interviews with 13 people all of whom are fnmi, have completed a post-secondary program, and who are considered to be resilient. 4. findings as foundational the wpd and isp teams efforts to understand and assess the educational experiences of fnmi students have helped to differentiate and articulate the challenges that these students face in moving away from their communities, in entering college underprepared for academic and social challenges, and in finding their voices as they navigate different cultural and social situations. the work of the wpd and isp teams is augmented with additional research findings from a variety of sources to inform the ways in which the bear program design and implementation can promote success in post-secondary programs. 4.1 english and math preparedness the admission process at algonquin college is two-tiered. students are eligible to attend the college if they have the following: an ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) or equivalent; or an academic and career entrance (ace) certificate; or 17 the bear program research project a general educational development (ged) certificate; or mature student status (19 years of age or older and without a high school diploma at the start of the program) depending on the program, additional criteria may apply such as a minimum mark (for example, 65%) in a grade 12 english credit or minimum math requirements. a number of gas certificate programs have a grade 12 english credit as a requirement, but for many of these programs there is no minimum grade requirement. this means that students who graduated from high school with scores as low as a d in grade 12 english courses are eligible to apply for programs within gas (and some other college departments). the fact that college entrance is possible with mature student status without a high school diploma means that the level of student preparedness is widely variable and difficult to assess prior to program entrance. however, all college programs (except those that fall under academic upgrading) presuppose english language abilities sufficient to function in a school environment: to be able to read and understand information posted online by the institution and by professors, to navigate websites and the college learning management system, and to be able to demonstrate that learning objectives have been met. the student performance reports showed significant academic skills differences between the experiences of sponsored and non-sponsored students particularly in relation to multiple program attempts. the findings indicated that 42.7 percent of sponsored students enrolled in more than one program, and although the data could not capture specific reasons, the results suggest that sponsored students who are not successful in a first attempt at a program will switch to a different program to keep trying to attain a certificate or diploma (manning, powless & doyle, 2013). one of the main reasons for failures in the first program attempts relates to the level of preparedness for college in english and math. according to powless and manning (2015), of the sponsored students who write entrance tests as part of the application process, approximately 80 percent fail because 18 the bear program research project of a lack of competency in english and 25 percent fail because of a lack of competency in math. when students are unable to gain entrance to their program of choice due to academic underpreparedness, their next option is often to apply for certificate programs in general arts and science (gas). enrollment statistics bear this out: of the total number of sponsored students at algonquin college, the lowest numbers (7 percent and 12 percent respectively) are enrolled in diploma programs in media and design and technology and trades whereas more than three times as many students 30 percent are enrolled in certificate programs in gas. even though a large number of sponsored students enroll in one-year programs in gas, the graduation rate for these students is only about 30 percent. in other words, even though about a third of sponsored students are attempting certificate programs (rather than more academically rigorous two-year diploma programs) more students are being unsuccessful than are actually being successful. the findings from the saplme program echo the persistent problem of academic underpreparedness. the inuit students invited to participate were identified as more likely to benefit from the program based on their perceived above average skills in english and math. however, when english and math tests were administered by the algonquin college career and academic access centre (caac), the results indicated significant gaps in foundational skills. out of the 45 students tested, only 14 met the very minimum english skill level required for college (powless and manning, 2015). further, the scores for 20 percent of the students who took part were so low that this group was ineligible for the upgrading program (ibid.). these findings support the perception held by educators, administrators and students themselves that the education being provided to fnmi students is not comparable to non-fnmi students, and that in fact, fnmi students could sometimes be up as far as two grades behind (mendelson, 2008). the message from both the student performance reports and the saplme program is clear: a significant number of fnmi students are underprepared in english and math skills. statistics canada (2011b) reports that 19 the bear program research project aboriginal people have lower literacy and numeracy scores than their non-aboriginal counterparts (para. 5), and additional research from a variety of sources (canada millenium scholarship foundation, 2005; malatest, 2010) has tracked language barriers and lack of academic skills as impacting fnmi students ability to be successful in the first years of post-secondary education. according to fisher and hoth (2010), the centrality of language proficiency to college success has been demonstrated repeatedly by research findings indicating that postsecondary underachievement, failure, and attrition are highly correlated with academic under-preparedness, especially with respect to deficits in language proficiency (p. 12). in terms of building curriculum for the bear program, it is clear that developing english and math skills to a level of college preparedness must be a core objective; however, it is also evident that for many fnmi students, english is a second or third language. understanding this reality is key to being able to provide students with the kind of learning support they need to overcome english language knowledge gaps. studies of language and ego and second language learning and acquisition highlight several salient points that need to be considered. vygotsky (1978) believed that language is critical in the process of cognitive development and forms from social interactions. cognitive functions are affected by the beliefs, values and tools of intellectual adaptation of the culture in which a person develops and are therefore socio-culturally determined; the way that fnmi students think about the world is determined by the language(s) they use to interact with the world. when an additional language is being learned (i.e. english or french in school), intellectual and emotional impacts are numerous. krashen (1988) postulated five hypotheses regarding second language learning, and the fifth, the affective filter, outlines that a number of 'affective variables' play a facilitative role in second language acquisition. these variables include motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. for some 20 the bear program research project fnmi students, low motivation, a lack of self-esteem and anxiety can combine to 'raise' the affective filter and form a 'mental block' that prevents successful language learning. an understanding of how ways of thinking and feeling are shaped by language and factor into second language learning is embedded in the bear program. in developing english teaching and learning methods in particular, attention will be given to promoting bi-cultural knowledge and transcultural skills so that students are able to overcome language learning barriers. the goal is that students will be able to build cultural capital (bourdieu, 1986) such that they feel confident and empowered expressing their thoughts and ideas in their first language as well as in english. 4.2 historical, social and institutional impacts when fnmi individuals who had not completed high school were asked why they were reluctant to try to further their education, the reasons most often cited were unpreparedness and lack of confidence (stats can, 2011b). even when individuals make the decision to attend post-secondary programs, malatest (2002) suggests that family and personal issues affect fnmi students ability to focus on schooling; on average, fnmi students tend to be older, tend to require child-care services, and tend to incur greater education costs as a result of living in rural and northern locations (holmes, 2005). indeed, issues relating to health, family, and finances can impact all post-secondary learners; however, fnmi students must find ways to manage these issues while experiencing the postsecondary system through intangible screens such as the long-term and wide-reaching impacts to fnmi communities that occurred as a result of complex interactions between fnmi people and colonial settlers. the royal commission on aboriginal people (rcap) (1996) found that many of the issues that face fnmi communities today including a loss of pride and spirituality (malatest, 2002, p. 15) stem from the disconnectedness, stress and pain experienced by communities when children were ripped from their families and forced to attend residential schools. according to larsen, jensen 21 the bear program research project & jensen (2014), social problems during childhood have a significant influence on educational choices. the authors found that students who had to deal with mental health issues, alcoholism and criminality were less likely to continue school beyond the mandatory primary education in denmark and that dealing with social problems accounted for 38.6 percent of the difference in probability for leaving the school system. they concluded that social problems can explain up to 30 percent of the difference in educational outcomes among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds (ibid.). this finding is particularly relevant with respect to mature fnmi students who begin college programs without having achieved an ossd; not graduating from high school could very well be the result of emotional, mental, and social issues that began in childhood and continue to affect their well-being. assimilationist policies such as enfranchisement have pervaded all areas of fnmi education and have led some communities to have an understandably wary and guarded view of post-secondary education. stereotypes and discrimination cannot be discounted either in working towards a deeper understanding of the barriers that fnmi students face. in their research, kirkness and barnhardt (1991) found that discrimination was the most compelling disincentive towards higher learning. rather than promoting openness and inclusion, post-secondary institutions represented impersonal, intimidating and hostile environments (p. 16) which failed to recognize aboriginal peoples cultural knowledge, traditions or core values and which demanded that they assume the trappings of a new form of reality significantly different from their own (ibid.). although it is unfair and unreasonable to assume that fnmi students, especially those coming from remote, isolated communities, should readily and easily adapt to a new reality of conventional institutional norms and expectations and should somehow understand and function within these unfamiliar systems, this is the expectation at college or university. when students struggle, the typical institutional response is to view lack of performance issues in terms of low achievement 22 the bear program research project or high attrition or poor retention and as failures on students parts rather than as a failure of the institution to perceive barriers inherent in the processes and practices of the institution itself (ibid.). an understanding of the complex nature of historical, social and institutional barriers for fnmi students, particularly for sponsored students who come from communities far away, underpins the design of the bear program and informs the curriculum content, delivery, and assessment methods. the research for the bear program acknowledges that skills required for success in post-secondary must be learned in the context of the non-indigenous culture and that the challenge for indigenous students is often the struggle to maintain their traditional identity while adapting to non-indigenous expectations (manning, 2016, p. 4). for sponsored students, the decision to attend college also means a move away from their community. some students perceive the move as an opportunity to feel free and experiment with adult behaviours; others, particularly those who do not live in student residences develop connections to the new place physically, emotionally, and cognitively at a much slower rate (holton, 2014). the researchers concluded that moving away to school is not just a stage of life; the experience is likened to a series of micro-encounters at different times in different locations which all require differing levels of connection. in terms of developing the bear program, these findings highlight the need for communities, administrators, and educators to be aware of the effects that adjusting and re-adjusting to the many micro-encounters of college life can have on students within the program. excitement and anticipation can quickly turn to confusion, loneliness, and homesickness unless first-year college students can establish attachments with faculty and other students and find a sense of place in the new school community at the very start of the program. renowned scholar and retention theorist, vincent tinto, has identified three key factors that must be evident to students to retain them in post-secondary learning environments: 23 the bear program research project students are more likely to persist and graduate in settings that take advising seriously; that provide clear, consistent, and easily accessible information about institutional requirements, that help students understand the roadmap to completion, and help them understand how they use that roadmap to decide upon and achieve personal goals. second, students are more likely to persist and graduate in settings that provide support - academic, social, and personal - in ways which is both available and connected to other parts of their collegiate experience. third, students are more likely to persist and graduate in settings that involve them as valued members of the institution. frequency and quality of contact with faculty, staff, and students has repeatedly been shown to be an independent predictor of student persistence (2002). research on person-centred approaches in education reinforces tintos ideas and identifies learning benefits that occur from circles of care. in her study of students who transitioned back to mainstream education after having had negative experiences, corrigan (2014) found that transition planning meetings that included the students, their parents, the teachers, the principals, and education psychologists were essential to establishing a circle of trust that viewed young people as the experts in their own lives, able to identify their particular needs and aspirations but in need of guidance. having several supporters involved in planning a learning path helped students feel fully engaged in the process which led to a deeper sense of empowerment and increased ownership of the learning plan (ibid.). as the students were tracked over the course of their transition back to mainstream education, increased school attendance, improved emotional understanding, improved social interaction skills and academic progress were observed (ibid.). the bear program is based on a person-centred approach so that from the time the students begin discussions with their education counsellors in the community through to the first week of classes with their new professors and beyond, students feel that they have the support of a team who has their best interests at heart. in researching individual education plans (ieps), szidon, ruppar & smith (2015) noted that with a solid plan in place, teams can work toward developing instructional opportunities to foster skill development and effectively evaluating progress for their students (p. 151). the premise underlying the bear program is one of highly supported individualized learning 24 the bear program research project to encourage agency and enable students to work at their own pace and with different starting points and objectives depending on their skills, abilities, and needs. 4.3 individual and community support perhaps one of the most important themes that emerged through the research findings is the connection between being successful (i.e. achieving personal goals) and having a support system (i.e. a family members, school counsellors, professors, fellow students, and friends) in place while in school. corrigan (2014) identified champions individuals who supported and advocated on behalf of students as intrinsic to successful transitions back to mainstream education. similarly, success in the developmentor program is directly attributable to the regular one-on-one meetings between the employment coach and the students, where in that particular space and time every week, thought and attention was focused specifically on the concerns, questions, and efforts of individual students. counselling sessions provided time for self-reflection, for evaluating goals and plans, and for developing new ways of perceiving the worlds of work and school. the meetings with the coach enabled students to consider their own values and beliefs and to think about how their own expectations reflected those of the college and those of an employer. in terms of the value of individualized support, the iyep report highlights similar findings, namely that fnmi individuals who were successful (i.e. attained a post-secondary degree), identified particular people in their lives with whom they felt a supportive bond. in many cases, encouragement and examples of meaningful and successful life choices came from parents, grandparents and other role models in the community. discussions with elders afforded learners opportunities to engage with deeper beliefs, attitudes and values inherent in fnmi cultures that provided these successful individuals with a scope for establishing self-identity and self-awareness. the capacity to articulate a strong sense of self has been identified as key in being able to move from a subjective world view to a more objective worldview, a shift that leads to a view of the self as 25 the bear program research project transcultural, as able to adapt to the non-indigenous cultural norms without losing traditional values (manning, 2016, p. 21). the ability to acknowledge different sets of norms and function effectively within both cultural milieus is a key objective of the bear program. opportunities to deepen transcultural understandings will be integrated into the curriculum. it was clear from the developmentor program outcomes that one-to-one coaching sessions created time and space for students to ask questions, assess their feelings, consider new ideas, and develop new understandings of school and work cultures. the same strategy will be applied in the bear program where weekly one-to-one coaching meetings are built into the curriculum to give students individual attention and boost motivation. kyndt et. al. (2015) studied changes in motivation as students moved from secondary to postsecondary education and found increases in autonomous motivation can lead to adaptive achievement outcomes as internal identification factors change. the research suggests that students who may not have felt motivated in high school will experience a change in motivation and personal agency during their transition to postsecondary education as new skills and knowledge are acquired (ibid.). the bear program will help students capitalize on this shift and build transcultural skills throughout the year. discovering abilities to function successfully in the college environment will foster self-empowerment as students navigate institutional norms and meet college expectations. along with providing a safe and comfortable space for students to communicate openly about their academic progress and school-related concerns, the coaching sessions are also an access point to information related to health issues (physical and mental), financial questions, housing concerns, daycare questions, and other areas, and the bear program coaches will be trained to refer students to college services as needed. however, the coaching component will also help students objectively assess their own goals, skills and challenges. asselin (2014) recommends using a person-centred tool called a summary of performance to help students through this process. the summary 26 the bear program research project includes an overview of academic skills including reading, writing, and math skills; cognitive skills such as problem solving, communication skills, and the ability to pay attention; and functional skills that include independent living skills and self-determination. as they progress through the program and work weekly with their coaches, students will have opportunities for personal development and growth: self-awareness, self-advocacy, and decision-making are critical skills for successful transition to the college environment (asselin, 2104, p. 229). the success of these strategies are born out statistically: transition program students were twice as likely as other students to graduate from college on time (ibid.). by building one-to-one coaching sessions into the bear program, students will have a time and place to discuss their present college situation and explore possible career options. woven into these discussions will be conversations about the value and importance of transferable skills. 4.4 transferable skills in conjunction with developing academic skills, providing opportunities to build soft skills is a key component of the bear program. high school students in ireland have the opportunity to take an optional non-academic year devoted to personal and social development. this transition year offers a holistic school experience that builds knowledge of future careers, broadens conceptions of the world, and fosters self-awareness and social confidence (clerkin, 2012). non-academic activities within the transition year were found to improve study skills and enabled an increased capacity for self-directed learning (ibid.). although the bear program is academic, transferable skills will be taught and practiced in courses focusing on self and career exploration: the possession of competent study skills such as those expected of transition year students, e.g. time management, use of appropriate information resources, and productive communication with teachers, has been shown to predict academic performance and retention rates among first-year college students (robbins et al., 2004, p. 9). 27 the bear program research project interpersonal communications, time management and computer competency are intrinsic to the bear program curriculum. in this technology-driven age, there is an assumption that all young adults are computer literate digital natives; however, anecdotal evidence shows that some fnmi students have limited computer experience and need guidance and exposure to a variety of computer-assisted learning environments to help develop computer literacy skills. as a mobile learning institution, algonquin college is committed to technology-assisted program delivery. in order to provide individualized learning opportunities, the bear program will include online learning programs such as plato, course software designed for individualized module-based learning in a variety of subjects including math and english. effective technology integration supports learning when it is routine, transparent and connected with the curriculum. the bear program will use to technology to facilitate individual learning in conjunction with active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to realworld experts (why integrate technology, 2008, para. 2). of particular relevance is the finding that in over ten years of studying technology integration in schools, researchers found that students who experienced a deliberate alignment of curriculum and instruction with relevant technology outperformed their peers, and that these positive effects were especially significant for the most disadvantaged students who struggled with english language proficiency (appalachia regional comprehensive centre, n.d.). using technology in classrooms is becoming commonplace; however, even with the move towards mobile learning environments that are meant to enhance pedagogy and improve students learning experience, the majority of post-secondary institutions have yet to adapt standard classroom designs to reflect a more connected, participant-centred approach. this oversight is significant in the design of the bear program. the findings from a study conducted at the university of minnesota point to a strong connection between the interpersonal skills that students develop and 28 the bear program research project use in the classroom and the actual physical environment. using a quasi-experimental design, whiteside, brooks, and walker (2010) partnered with an instructor who taught the same course to two sections of students in radically different classrooms. the researchers found that the active learning centres (alcs), which featured circular tables large enough for eight or nine students, laptop computer connections to large lcd screens, and 360degree glass marker boards around the classroom, facilitated student learning far beyond their initial expectations. they reported that students who took the course in the alc had a more engaging learning experience that forced discussion and thinking and promoted teamwork and collaboration; moreover, the evidence suggests strongly that, independent of other factors, technologically-enhanced classrooms that provide circular tables to facilitate discussion have a significant, positive impact on student grades (whiteside, brooks, and walker, 2010). the design of the physical learning space for the bear program is critical from a pedagogical perspective. a comfortable learning space that encourages inquiry-based instruction has four key underlying modes: flexibility, sensory stimulation, technology support, and a decentering of the room so that there is no single front or focal point (collier, watson & ozuna, 2011). in this way, a perception of equity and equivalence is achieved within the space itself. classrooms that diverge from the standard system of rows of seats and a podium at the front may serve as an indicator to fnmi students of an institutional shift in support of other learning modalities and transcultural skills development where alternative forms of learning (i.e. student-centred, professor-facilitated) take place. environments that encourage interaction, discussion and teamwork reflect the kind of skills most valued by employers interpersonal and communication skills that are foundational in career planning. 29 the bear program research project 4.5 career path awareness the supporting aboriginal people for labour market entry (saplme) project highlighted the importance of focused career exploration. a combination of personality and interest inventory tests helped students identify potential career options, and then one-to-one discussions with career counsellors helped students map out the pathways (i.e. education, training, apprenticeships, etc.) needed to pursue particular careers. discussions with saplme participants revealed that up until the time of the project, many of them had never had opportunities to think about a career as a trajectory of different challenges and experiences. the participants stated that the writing and planning exercises and the counselling sessions helped them gain a much broader understanding of the scope of career possibilities and the essential requirements for a variety of careers; moreover, this knowledge had a significant impact on their motivation to start on a career path (manning, 2013). building on these findings, the bear program design will include career exploration in the curriculum through one-to-one personal development sessions with the coaches as well as in-class learning, guest lectures and field trips. in the same way that english and math skills development will be facilitated through individual online learning, applications such as career cruising (https://public.careercruising.com/en/) will be part of the bear program curriculum. students will research and compile information on a wide range of jobs and will have opportunities to participate in on-campus class visits and off-site information interviews with professionals to gain a deeper understanding of the skills and abilities related to a variety of occupations. depending on the connections that bear program stakeholders are able to cultivate in the business community, there may be opportunities for students to experience brief job placements and internships. using the developmentor program findings as a guide, weekly coaching sessions will include discussions related to career interests and options. certain aspects of career planning and job search can be standardized course components; however, 30 the bear program research project other learning activities will be intentionally flexible and learner-centred so that students can explore and develop individual approaches and pathways. the goal of the bear program is to transition fnmi students from feeling under-prepared and aimless to feeling ready to take purposeful steps towards their future. for some students, completion of the preparatory bear program may lead to further education; for others, the path may lead directly to employment. in both situations, the aim is to ensure that they feel empowered and motivated to start along their path. 5. indigenous perspectives the bear program began out of a strong desire to build a program that promotes the educational and personal successes of our fnmi students. in the process of the research and discussions, various iterations of the bear program what it should include, how it should be organized, what it should encourage, and who would best benefit have emerged and taken shape. surprisingly, the process of creating a transitional pathway for students has also led the team to reflect on the ways that the college functions as an institution. indeed, research findings indicate that in order for fnmi students to be successful, institutions also need to transition and embrace new ways of perceiving the learning experiences of these students. this knowledge must be integrated into the program to expand expectations and create cultural capacity within the college environment itself that reflects fnmi experiences and world views. with over 600 first nations (stats can, 2016) and multiple mtis and inuit communities across canada, it is misleading to presume that every community shares the same cultural values or follows similar traditions; each community is unique and has its own particular teachings. however, all nations honour interconnectedness as a fundamental truth. in many fnmi communities, the circle represents interrelatedness and the wholeness of connection. to a great 31 the bear program research project extent, developing the bear program has been a circular activity as ideas and information have come into conversations time and again, and as perceptions and assumptions have been unravelled, reassembled, and rethought. one of the threads woven through discussions with the algonquins of pikwakanagan, with members of the ahkweshsne community, and with staff and faculty at algonquin college relates to the concept of indigenizing the program. the cican indigenous education protocol mandates that fnmi world views need to be incorporated into the content and delivery of the college curriculum to capture and reflect history, including oral history, as understood by indigenous peoples, across curriculum; promote and support the preservation of indigenous languages; embed intellectual and cultural traditions of indigenous peoples; combine educational pedagogy and epistemology infused with elder/mtis senator knowledge; confront the legacy of residential schools, recognizing the challenge of institutional settings and supporting healing and reconciliation; and recognize that indigenous knowledge can benefit all learners (e.g. environment, justice) and have processes for two-way sharing (e.g. both scientific and traditional ways) (cican, 2016, indigenous learners). as the bear program curriculum is developed, the intent is to combine fnmi perspectives with pedagogical approaches and knowledge that sustains and supports transcultural skills development. according to nicole bell, an anishinaabe professor at trent university, one of the important symbols in fnmi cultures is the medicine wheel: in many indigenous cultures, the medicine wheel metaphor contains all of the traditional teachings and can therefore be used as a guide on any 32 the bear program research project journey, including the educational process. while there is some variation in its teachings and representations, the underlying web of meaning to medicine wheels remains the same: the importance of appreciating and respecting the ongoing interconnectedness and interrelatedness of all things. therefore, there is no right or wrong way of representing or using medicine wheels: all forms hold particular meaning to the various indigenous nations while all transmit a common understanding of the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of all things (bell, 2014, para. 2). borrowing from a holistic viewpoint, the bear program is conceptualized as integrating and interconnecting four fundamental capacities essential to helping our students become successful postsecondary learners, and by extension, successful employees. just as the components of the medicine wheel variously represent the relationships that exist between the seasons, the compass points, the elements, etc., the four pillars of the bear program include transcultural skills, academic skills, transferable skills, and pathway planning skills. by transposing these skills onto a circle similar to a medicine wheel, the interrelationships and interconnections become visible. f igure 1: the bear p rogram constructed through the medicine wheel 33 the bear program research project 5.1 community partnerships part of what makes the bear program unique is the way in which the program has been developed in partnership with the fnmi communities who want to see alternatives available to their members. the first part of this paper outlines the challenges that fnmi communities face in allotting limited funds to on-reserve and off reserve k-12 education; post-secondary education also falls under the purview of community education managers. not only must they contend with discrimination in the education non-system, when it comes time to allot post-secondary funds, education liaison officers face extremely difficult choices. just as the trc findings and resulting calls to action begin with a true understanding of the lived experiences of fnmi people, the bear program team sought input from members of the fnmi communities to better understand the struggles they face in sponsoring students in programs at algonquin college. meeting with community leaders, elders, education liaison officers, parents and students to listen to their concerns, understand their struggles and appreciate their hopes has helped to shape the bear program. 5.1.1 algonquins of pikwakanagan on jan. 21, 2016 from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm at the pikwakanagan education office (1657a mishomis inamo, pikwakanagan, on k0j 1x0), the bear program team of sherryl fraser, dwight powless, andre obonsawin, and adele yamada met with the following pikwakanagan community members to discuss the bear program: della meness, education department manager; annette sarazin , post-secondary counsellor; janey commanda, community representative; and teresa kohoko, administrative assistant. over the course of the meeting, the members shared a variety of thoughts and concerns, highlights of which are summarized as follows: 34 the bear program research project there was agreement that some students are not academically prepared to enter postsecondary programs, but they are eager to try college as an opportunity to experience living away from the community in an urban environment. the council members shared that about five to ten community members per year attend programs at algonquin college. the success rate (i.e. successful completion of their program) is about 35 percent. the members told the group that a number of community members left school at a young age and have not been able to return. these students have reading and writing scores equivalent to grade 4 or 5. the group decided that community members in this situation would not be suitable bear program candidates. the minimum level for english and math should be around a grade 10 to grade 11 skill level. knowledge gaps larger than this may not be possible to fill in two semesters of the bear program. at the time of the meeting, the education department had started revising the postsecondary sponsorship application process to increase the robustness of the process to ensure that students are clear on their responsibilities and duties in terms of monthly check-ins, class attendance, mid-term and final grades as part of their sponsorship. members of the community expressed concern about the kind of courses that would be included in the bear program and stressed that for the program to be of greatest benefit to their students, opportunities to achieve college-level credits (i.e. year one english, math and science course credits) eligible for transfer towards future college (and/or university) programs should be provided. in addition to offering college-level courses, the education council shared their desire for fnmi-focused courses to be included in the preparatory program as well. the overall sense 35 the bear program research project was that the bear courses should blend fnmi perspectives and traditional ways of teaching with mainstream english, math and science courses in a way that enhances both fnmi cultural knowledge and western knowledge systems. the pikwakanagan education department continues to be enthusiastic about the bear program and about working together with the algonquin college team to develop a transition program for its community members. 5.1.2 mohawk council of the akwesasne on february 10, 2016 a meeting was held at the akwesasne mohawk board of education (ambe), 191 rita lane, akwesasne, ontario. the participants included norma sunday, post-secondary administrator, nathan sunday, youth coordinator, and sandra rourke, secondary school coordinator and three members of the bear program team, dwight powless, andre obonsawin, and adele yamada. over the course of two hours, many aspects related to the bear program were discussed: the education manager shared concerns regarding the accuracy of the final high school grades obtained by some of the students. the council members perceive that students are graduating from high school with passing grades (ds) without actually having achieved the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in post-secondary programs. in particular, the council members noted that high school english, math and science marks did not always accurately reflect the students abilities in these areas and that as a consequence, the students often face challenges in post-secondary programs in which these courses are prerequisites. the council members expressed concern that issues with high school grade inflation are endemic. they perceive that there is a mindset to pass first nations students with d 36 the bear program research project grades even if their actual skills and knowledge are lower rather than investing time and additional support to ensure that the students achieve legitimate passing marks. the council shared with us that sensitive, difficult situations occur when the education officers meet with students and their parents to discuss post-secondary options. grades above an f (i.e. cs and ds in grade 12 english, math and science classes) are sufficient to graduate from high school and obtain an ossgd, and having achieved a high school diploma, students and their parents believe that college is the next logical step. however, years of experience has shown the education officers that students who graduate with cs and ds in english, math and science classes are underprepared for college courses. when they track these students college experiences, they find that they often end up failing one or more of the courses within their college program. the education council expressed their wish to have access to a college program that would simultaneously satisfy their students (and their parents) desire to be in a post-secondary program, a right that many community members feel should be available to all students who graduate from high school while offering the prospect of genuine success to the students. as discussions continued, it was clear that the education council sees the bear program as a way to satisfy the students and their parents and to ensure that limited education funds are spent wisely. the members were enthusiastic about having methods in place to assess student suitability while still living in the community as students start looking at college programs. the education council noted that there were community members who would benefit from a program like the bear program but whose academic skills were too weak for the program. the idea of a pre-bear program was raised briefly. 37 the bear program research project the education council stressed that they were very pleased to know that as a preparatory program, the bear program falls under a different funding source than other post-secondary schooling. this means that students who are successful in the bear program will be eligible to pursue further post-secondary educational opportunities and receive the maximum allowable funding. the education manager emphasized that community based assessments (in the form of english and math placement tests such as those offered through accuplacer software) could be used to assess student skills prior to applying for college programs. the council members reiterated the need to track students performance during the semester to be able to offer support as needed. they feel that it is essential to establish processes for regular communication and checking in with students. some of the concerns expressed by the participants at pikwakanagan were echoed in the meeting at akwesasne. in particular, both communities expressed the desire to feel confident in sponsoring all of their students, even those with borderline grades and vague career aspirations. the fact that the bear program is designed to support development in four key areas academic skills, transferable skills, transcultural skills, and career awareness as students work towards attaining an ontario college certificate satisfies the councils mandate to fund post-secondary education in a financially sustainable way. 5.2 new communication strategies communities are sponsoring students to attend algonquin college at a significant cost, but there are few systems in place either on the part of the community or on the part of the collegeto support the financial and social investment that these communities are making towards their young members post-secondary education. extrapolating from the wpd research has provided 38 the bear program research project insight into the complex relationships that affect the way that information is shared between the communities and the college. non-sponsored students have a direct relationship with the college in the sense that all information relating to institutional processes, academic expectations, program content, and individual assessments is communicated directly between the college and the student (barring occasional situations in which the college is authorized by a student to share information with his/her parent or guardian or other party). in other words, in the relationship between the college and the non-sponsored student, the student is viewed as the client and the college is the education provider. when they sponsor community members to attend post-secondary institutions, bands contribute a sizable investment towards their members future; however, the current system does not adequately reflect the role of the bands in monitoring and encouraging these sponsored students. rather than acknowledging the role that bands could and should play in supporting their members post-secondary efforts, community stakeholders are often left out of the communications loop because information sharing processes have not been clearly established. by acknowledging the fnmi communities as clients and including them in all communications, institutions can capitalize on the opportunity to establish vital relationships with the sponsoring fnmi communities and help leverage positive relationships between the college and the student, the band and the student, and the college and the band to create circles of care for fnmi sponsored students. developing efficient and effective communication strategies with communities as part of the program delivery differentiates the bear program from other college programs. 6. best practices several key components of successful transition programming emerged from research by roybal (2014) who concluded that at least three to five of strategies need to be included to achieve 39 the bear program research project successful results as students move from middle school to high school. similar methods can be implemented in the transition from high school to the bear program: planning sessions between middle school and high school (collaboration between community postsecondary liaison(s) and college personnel) involvement of parents in school activities (community engagement) assistance for students with homework (1 hour per week of one-on-one with a program coach) block schedules for core classes (the bear curriculum uses block schedules for math and english) small learning communities (the bear program will have a maximum of 24 students) celebration of student successes classes on study skills such as test-taking skills, note-taking skills, or time management (transferable skills learning and practice are embedded in all courses as well as personal development sessions with the coach) as roybal (2014) states: many strategies are available to promote successful transition to high school; however, research indicates that one or two strategies are not sufficient to meet the needs of all students (p. 480), a rationale that underpins the search for best practices. scanning preparatory and transition programs offered at post-secondary institutions across canada highlights several components that will be incorporated into the bear program. the mikmaw kinamatnewey of nova scotia is a community organization committed to helping first nations 40 the bear program research project learners prepare for post-secondary education. this group found that best practices in supporting learners can be categorized as follows: 1. access and attraction the goal is to support aboriginal communities in promoting the importance of higher education in achieving quality jobs and autonomy for communities. the methods include running career fairs and information sessions and proactive recruitment practices such as informative pamphlets, websites and summer camps to attract prospective students. it is recommended that the focus be on aboriginal males as well as females with dependants as these groups are typically underrepresented in post-secondary recruitment. education officers can also take time to inform students of high demand employment options within their community to help them choose realistic, practical programs. lastly, recruitment can be directed towards younger fnmi students in middle school (or earlier) so that students view post-secondary education as a realistic option for their future. 2. post-secondary entrance a key process in creating successful transition programs is ensuring that post-secondary institutions establish flexible admission policies that address the special circumstances of fnmi students without lowering admissions standards. in other words, admissions standards should evaluate students on a holistic level by considering such things as transcripts, life experiences, references and interviews. 3. collaboration and communication working with post-secondary institutions, communities are able to set up coordination committees that set and implement priorities around key community-driven programs. these committees are also able to negotiate the number of seats in particularly high-demand programs in colleges and universities that may be designated to fnmi students who meet 41 the bear program research project program requirements and whose communities are in need of specifically trained workers (oneca, 2011). another collaborative community effort to address student needs in post-secondary is the aboriginal transitions research project which involved the indigenous adult and higher learning association of british columbia, heiltsuk college, the nicola valley institute of technology, and the university of victoria. the research culminated in the publication of the aboriginal student transitions handbook in 2011 which is a 30-page document that offers a comprehensive step-by-step overview of the move from a community to a new city to attend school. creating a handbook similar to this one in collaboration with communities would offer students in the bear program (and those interested in the program) a chance to consider many aspects of post-secondary education. 6.1 community-based assessments at the nicola valley institute of technology in british columbia, fnmi students are provided with an assessment of english and math skills to check students suitability for particular college and university programs. the comprehensive assessment takes place in the community and includes the following: in community assessment preparation, assessment invigilation (english and math), assessment reviews, the creation of individual education plans for each prospective learner, and a summary that highlights and identifies possible educational priorities and opportunities for the community. the series of meetings provides the prospective learner with the experiential learning and information necessary to start and/or return to their education journey, and if computer space is available, a career cruising workshop can also be administered. by aligning individual student assessment and career planning with the needs of the band, the community can implement longterm education and employment strategies to support the community socially and economically. 42 the bear program research project 6.2 week-long orientation as part of the aboriginal education and access program at the red river college in winnipeg, manitoba and at the native access program at lakehead university, north bay, ontario, fnmi students are provided with a week-long orientation session. rather than trying to condense information into two or three days, the institutions take a full week to acclimatize students. explanations of academic courses are supplemented with information from a variety of support services so that within the first week, students are able to set up access to all of their electronic requirements (i.e. college email, wifi, lms, etc.), acquire textbooks and bus passes, and experience college services including the library, the fitness centre, security protocols, and trips off campus. the bear program is being designed as a 14-week fall semester so that the first week will be devoted entirely to orientation activities and sessions. 6.3 regular student meetings in early september 2016, lakehead university native access program (nap) coordinator jerrilynn orr shared several insights in phone conversation with adele yamada. as was clear through the isp teams findings, jerri-lyn emphasized the need to meet one-on-one with students regularly. with an average of 30 students in the nap annually the current system requires students to meet with counsellors regularly. new students are able to meet with their counsellors every two weeks, and second semester students tend to have one meeting per month. however, in cases where students leave the program and return later, mandatory weekly meetings are implemented to offer as much support as possible. 6.4 housing considerations jerri-lynns conversation was candid with respect to the main issues facing students in the nap. since starting work with the nap in 2013, jerri-lynn has perceived housing issues as the main 43 the bear program research project concern for students. lakehead university is experiencing a housing shortage, and jerri-lynn finds that there are very few affordable options for the fnmi students who move to the city from their communities. anecdotally, jerri-lynn feels that about 30 percent of the students end up leaving the nap because they cannot find appropriate housing; the stress and anxiety caused by housing issues has a huge impact on the students ability to manage their schoolwork and be successful in their courses. along with housing issues, access to daycare is also a huge concern for many of the nap students. at present there are no housing or daycare facilities set up on campus to accommodate fnmi students and their families. this issue does not offer a best practice per se, but it supports the need for on-campus or close to campus housing for fnmi students. at this time, providing accessible on-campus housing is outside of the purview of the bear program; however, increasing study time, building relationships with local elementary and secondary schools to support fnmi students families, creating opportunities for fnmi students to develop connections with the college community by living on or close to campus are all benefits that are possible when long commutes are eliminated. living close to the campus can help free up time to study and complete coursework, and it can also help create a sense of rootedness. de beer et al. (2009) suggested that a lengthy commuting time led to students feeling a reduced sense of belonging or connection with the institution. as the bear program nears implementation, consideration will be given to establishing housing options that reduce stress and anxiety, support time management strategies and encourage campus-centred living. 7. the bear program model discussions with our community partners emphasized the requirement for the preparatory bear program to be an ontario certificate program that fulfils two needs: 44 the bear program research project 1. students attain knowledge and skills in preparation for finding employment and/or 2. students graduate with post-secondary credits that can be applied to further studies. community members suggested that core subjects such as english, math and science be included in the bear program so as to maximize possible future pathways to health and community care professions and business and entrepreneurship programs; however, as the next phase begins, attention will be given to building a curriculum that reflects the experiences of fnmi students and that includes fnmi knowledge and perspectives. for example, the work of dr. greg cajete highlights how indigenous ways of knowing and being are part of a philosophy that signifies the relationship with the land and all life forms, and one that guides learning, development and behavior for indigenous people (cajete, 1994). as community members requested, fnmi perspectives will be incorporated and woven into the curriculum. in order to qualify as an ontario certificate program, the bear program must meet the following criteria: 1. the number of hours of instruction must be between 600-700 hours; and 2. a communications course (level 1) must be included in the curriculum in its first year, the bear program pilot will accommodate between 20 and 24 students. at this time, the communities of pikwakanagan and akwesasne are enthusiastic to enrol their students. 7.1 student selection strengthening the relationship between the college and the community is vital for several reasons that start with setting up initial community-based assessment (cba) strategies to help education officers identify bear program candidates. once the bear program is available, education liaison officers and managers will have an alternative program offering for their student clients who want to enroll in a post-secondary program but are not yet strong candidates for standard college 45 the bear program research project programs. students who have poor academic records or who may have left high school without graduating, who are undecided about their careers, who have struggled with learning, or who have low self-confidence are the kind of students who are suitable for the bear program. in the next phase of the bear program design, processes for community-based assessment and introductory pathway planning will be developed in collaboration with the communities. borrowing from the nicola valley example, additional practices could include one or more of the following: computer testing (i.e. accuplacer) for english and math within the community, writing samples administered in the community but assessed by college faculty, candidate interviews in the community or at the college with representatives from the community and the college, personality tests, discussions with referees, and career exploration tools such as career cruising could all be built into the community-based assessment process. one of the key issues concerns identifying the minimum skill levels required for the bear program. in discussions with community members, participants mentioned that some of the students who want to pursue post-secondary education test at a grade 5 or 6 level for english and math. although the bear program is designed to provide an intensive focus on english and math in the first semester, expecting students to build five years worth of knowledge in 14 weeks is unrealistic. students whose skills are between grade 10 and grade 12 are likely to be the best candidates, depending on additional criteria relating to their motivation for starting a post-secondary program and their career objectives. at the application stage, the goal is to gather sufficient information about the candidates situation and to start the process of building a circle of care for students who enroll in the program. students who do not meet the minimum qualifications will not be eligible for the bear program; however, once the bear program is implemented, there may be opportunities to look at building transition-type programs for fnmi adults who require significant academic skills 46 the bear program research project upgrading and learning support in a precursor to the bear program. 7.1 bear orientation the start of the school year is one of the most nerve-wracking times for new students as so many life changes moving into a new home, figuring out transportation, finding daycare and settling children into new schools, etc. occur within the first week or two. planning to have orientation spread out over a week meets two important objectives: it provides students who come from away with a buffer of a day or two in case the move to ottawa is problematic, and it provides a chance for students to pace their adjustment to life at the college. research findings indicate that establishing connections with people at the college administrators, faculty, and fellow students within the first two weeks increases the likelihood of students completing their programs successfully. rather than launch into course work immediately, holding various sessions for students throughout the first week facilitates opportunities for them to find the information they need as they need it, a method that supports a learner-centred approach. the first week also enables students to assess the suitability of the program as they meet one-on-one with the coaches. specific elements of the orientation will be decided in the next phase of development; however, designating a full week for orientation is factored into the curriculum, that is classes and instructional hours are calculated over a 14-week semester in the fall and a 15-week semester in the winter. 7.2 bear curriculum to meet the requirements for college certificate programs, there will be approximately 22 hours of classes per week in the first semester that will take place in a dedicated space. ideally, the classroom will reflect the learner-centred set-up (i.e. a flexible space with circular tables) with all 47 the bear program research project required technology to support a mobile learning environment. the research identified the need to focus on english and math skills development initially, so over 160 hours in the first semester are allotted to these two courses. based on the information shared with the communities and discerned through research and best practices, additional courses that build skills and knowledge in relation to health and well-being and career explorations are also vital. although specific components of individual courses (i.e. learning outcomes and essential employability skills) will be determined in the next phase, a tentative plan has been developed. f igure 2: tentative curriculum for semester 1 name hours/week notes total hours 112 english 8 hrs/week - plato used for individualized learning; class lectures and activities math 1 4 hrs/week - plato used for individualized learning; class lectures and activities 56 personal development 1 hr/week - meet with coach once a week during eng. or math time - weekly meetings + 6 hr project 20 health and wellness 3 hrs/week - aspects of physical and mental health 42 computer foundations 3 hrs/week - acsis, blackboard, etc. outlined during orientation; microsoft office (word, powerpoint, excel) 42 career exploration 4 hrs/week - variety of lessons/activities (guest speakers, field trips, independent and group work, etc.) 56 total hours for semester 1 328 again, taking into consideration best practices and research findings, the tentative weekly schedule for the bear program reflects a practical start time to accommodate students who may have to manage child care and commuting. time for completing homework, going to the library, going to the gym, etc. is also built into the two-hour daily break from monday to thursday, and finishing classes at 3:00 pm enables students to schedule personal and family time into every day. 48 the bear program research project having the career exploration as the sole class on fridays provides flexibility (i.e. the time of the class can be adjusted) to accommodate guest speakers and field trips. f igure 3: tentative weekly schedule for semester 1 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 monday tuesday wednesday thursday english english english english friday career exploration math 1 health and wellness math 1 computer foundations to meet the requirements for an ontario college certificate, a level one communications course must be included, so the communications skills enl5000g course, identical to the course taught in the first semester to gas students, will be included in the second semester. components of the enl5000g course will be considered and elements of the course will be scaffolded into the first semester english classes to support continuity and cohesive learning. as the next phase of the bear program project gets underway, discussions with content specialists at algonquin college will take place to determine the feasibility of including a level one math course and/or science course during the winter semester. the community discussions highlighted the desire to build exemption opportunities into the bear program, and so the goal moving forward is to identify math and science courses that could be included in level two and that would enable students to attain college credits transferable to future college (and potentially university) programs. the tentative curriculum is as follows: 49 the bear program research project f igure 4: tentative curriculum for semester 2 name hours/week communication i enl5000 4 hrs/week - equivalent to the enl5000 course taught in first semester of gas programs math 2 (mathematics mat0010) (or science course) personal development 4 hrs/week - continuation of math 1 (or equivalent to the mat0010 taught in first semester of gas programs) - possible switch to level one science - meet with coach once a week during career dev. or math 60 canadian culture 4 hrs/week - overview of aspects of canadian history, society, etc. - opportunities to build fnmi perspectives into the course - could have an arts focus as well - music, theatre, dance, literature, etc. 60 computer applications 3 hrs/week - web-based applications 45 career development 6 hrs/week - variety of lessons/activities (guest speakers, field trips, ind. and group, etc.) 90 1 hr/week notes total hours 60 15 total hours for semester 1 330 total hours for full year 658 the second semester classes will continue to take place in the space dedicated for the bear program and will follow a schedule similar to the first semester for continuity: f igure 5: tentative schedule for semester 2 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday career development comms. skills enl5000 personal dev. career development comms. skills enl5000 personal dev. computer applications math 2 (or science) canadian culture math 2 (or science) canadian culture the next phase of the bear program development will focus on the staffing and space requirements 50 the bear program research project needed to deliver the proposed curriculum. 7.3 bear coaching the research demonstrates that when students are provided with one-on-one coaching and are able to create a connection with their coach, they are given opportunities to access the information they require in a timely manner. in response to research findings, the bear program includes a personal development course which focuses primarily on the student meeting with his/her coach for one hour every week to discuss academic concerns and personal issues that may require the coach to help arrange or to suggest additional counselling or support. the one-hour long meeting time is essential to the program; it is vital that the students are given the time they need to work on any aspect of their school experience that is influencing their ability to be successful. every bear student will have a designated time to meet with his/her coach every week; however, the coaching sessions will take place at the same time as the english and math classes. depending on where students are weaker or stronger, they will either miss one hour a week of english or one hour a week of math to attend their one-on-one coaching session. the bear program will require a minimum of two qualified coaches to work with 10 to 12 students each per week and in additional meeting times if needed. dedicated space for the coaches to meet with their students is also required. 8. next steps over a year ago, the bear project team began a journey to better understand the learning experiences of the fnmi students attending algonquin college. weekly team discussions acted as 51 the bear program research project a springboard for extensive research and outreach to fnmi communities to garner a deeper knowledge of the challenges that face students and the opportunities to make a positive, transformational impact in their lives. the research findings in this paper are necessarily broad as there are a multitude of factors to consider. kleinman (2001) highlights that, a successful transition requires an understanding of what is necessary in college as well as the ability to acquire new behaviors and attitudes (p. 8); an indigenous perspective broadens this understanding so that all stakeholders in the communities and institutions acknowledge that the teaching and healing process is evolutionary and cyclical in nature, as is the continuum of medicine wheels, beginning with a desire to understand and identify with the balance, wholeness and interconnectedness expressed in the medicine wheel (bell, 2014). the purpose of this paper is to develop an awareness of the interrelationship between the four pillars on which the bear program is based academic skills, transcultural skills, transferable skills and career awareness and to emphasize that building these skills requires communities and post-secondary institutions to collaborate to develop processes and practices that work to deliver appropriate curricula in ways that are empathetic and encouraging. earlier in the paper, the saplme project was described as an opportunity for 57 inuit students, clients of the tungasuvvingat inuit (ti) centre, to explore career readiness. after completing the program, a number of students were excited to enroll in an adult high school in ottawa to attain their grade 12 credits and start on their career paths; however, all of them ended up dropping out. joan cunha, the employment officer for ti, decided to enroll in the classes herself to see what the school was like. ms. cunha found out that the high school made no effort to welcome or relate to the inuit students, and she quickly understood why her clients were compelled to drop out. with increased institutional awareness and understanding, however, the eagerness and determination that these students felt at the start of their journey could have been nurtured and validated. this 52 the bear program research project is precisely what the preparatory bear program plans to provide to its students a welcoming, supportive environment and plenty of meaningful, practical opportunities to become an empowered lifelong learner. in presenting these research findings the bear program team has met its initial mandate to establish a clear rationale for the development and implementation of a new preparatory program for fnmi students. within the next few months, the team plans to transform the theoretical plans outlined in this paper into a reality for fnmi learners. we are committed to building an effective, replicable preparatory program that can be implemented at other post-secondary schools as required. continued support from oncat and funding from additional sources will be essential to ensure that the bear program pilot will be up and running at algonquin college in fall 2017. we are excited to welcome fnmi students and work with them and their communities to develop expand the leadership capacity of fnmi people. in our estimation, there is no program more deserving of the time, energy and money it will take to support our fnmi students on their journeys, wherever their paths may take them. .if we start down a road of shared reconciliation and restitution, we will have taken a crucial step in building a sense of ourselves and the country. it is a matter of being true to who we are, to what is fair and possible here. that consciousness, that sense of ourselves, will solidify our ability to live together and to do so in an atmosphere of justice. john ralston saul, the comeback 53 the bear program research project 9. references aboriginal transitions research project. 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final report research related to postsecondary student mobility assessing the effectiveness of ontario college preparatory programs offered at durham college submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer november 2014 student success factors: durham college preparatory programs 1 abstract according to the ministry of training, colleges and universities, preparatory or pre-programs of instruction are defined as programs that provide students with foundational and/or specific skills required for admission to other college programs of instruction from which they will graduate. preparatory programs have become a popular choice for students who are uncertain of their specific career goals and provide an opportunity to sample various skills areas. all ontario colleges offer a variety of preparatory programs, with over twenty different preparatory programs available. durham college began offering preparatory programs in 1999 and currently offers eight of these programs, with an enrolment of over 2,600 students over the last five years from 2008-09 to 2012-13. this study seeks to understand the outcomes of students who have enrolled in preparatory programs. historically, the graduation rates for the preparatory programs have been low. however, graduation rates alone do not present a complete picture of the successful outcomes for preparatory programs since students may transfer to another postsecondary program without graduating from the preparatory program. student pathways are an especially important option for the preparatory program students and need to be examined from the point of entry into the preparatory programs. this study included students who enrolled in a one-year preparatory program at durham college from 2008-09 until 2012-13, and examines the various pathways followed by these students. students were invited to participate in an online survey and offered the opportunity to volunteer for focus group discussions. findings from the survey were analyzed and further explored in-depth during the focus group discussions. the analysis was further enhanced with administrative data on academic outcomes. this study demonstrates that well-articulated academic goals (or educational plans), social integration achieved during the preparatory program, career clarity, perceived usefulness of assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 2 the courses, and supportive faculty and administrative staff play important roles in students experiences and decisions to continue with subsequent postsecondary education. the key findings from this study were: 1. durham college preparatory programs are effectively supporting students with academic preparedness and social integration. 82.1% of the respondents indicated that the preparatory program met their expectations. 2. in addition to academic preparedness and social integration, students expect preparatory programs to help them with developing academic goal clarity and career clarity. 3. 73.1% of the respondents sought subsequent postsecondary education. based on the administrative data, 63.5% of the study population returned for subsequent postsecondary education at durham college itself. most of the students who re-enrolled at durham college sought two-year diploma or three-year advanced diploma program. respondents who enrolled at other postsecondary institutions primarily enrolled in undergraduate degree programs. 4. students who had completed preparatory programs at durham college had higher retention rates but took longer to graduate from the subsequent diploma or advanced diploma programs than the students who did not have prior preparatory program experience at durham college. 5. students indicated the need for greater academic rigour in some of the preparatory programs. in addition, preparatory programs at durham college seem to prepare students more adequately for two-year diploma programs than three-year advanced diploma programs. 6. students were generally satisfied with the admission process and the transition to subsequent postsecondary program but had specific suggestions for improvements enumerated in the conclusion of the study. 7. findings of the study lend credence to the value of using graduation rate as an assessment metric for the preparatory programs. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 3 table of contents section i: background ................................................................................................. 6 purpose of the study .................................................................................................... 6 research questions ...................................................................................................... 7 definitions of key terms .............................................................................................. 8 limitations of the study ............................................................................................... 8 section ii: literature review ....................................................................................... 9 academic preparedness ............................................................................................... 10 social integration.......................................................................................................... 11 clarity of academic goals and expectations ................................................................ 12 clarity of career goals and expectation....................................................................... 13 section iii: methodology .......................................................................................... 15 population and sample .............................................................................................. 15 data collection methods ........................................................................................... 15 section iv: data analysis ........................................................................................... 17 stage i: enrolled in a preparatory program subsection 1: careers and objectives of preparatory students .......................... 19 subsection 2: experiences of students in preparatory programs ....................... 20 subsection 3: student expectations and preparatory programs ......................... 22 stage ii: application to a subsequent postsecondary program subsection 4: subsequent postsecondary program enrolment .......................... 25 subsection 5: predictors of further postsecondary education ........................... 27 subsection 6: motivations and transfer experience of students ........................ 29 assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 4 strategies that support student transfer experience .................... 29 stage iii: validations of outcomes in subsequent postsecondary programs subsection 7: academic performance, retention and graduation rates ........... 39 section v: conclusions and recommendations ................................................. 42 references ..................................................................................................................... 47 appendices appendix a: online student survey questionnaire ........................................................ 50 appendix b: focus group interview guide ..................................................................... 61 assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 5 section i: background purpose of the study this study focuses on the experiences and outcomes of students who have enrolled in ontario college preparatory programs at durham college. durham college, specifically, began offering preparatory programs in 1999 and currently offers eight of these programs two of which became available to students as recently as september 2012. with an enrolment of over 2,600 students over the last five years, preparatory programs at durham college have become a popular choice for students who are uncertain of their specific career goals and provide an opportunity to sample various skills areas; however, data about the experiences of students in these programs is limited. the preparatory programs examined in this study in an effort to understand student experiences include the following: o business fundamentals o community services and child studies foundations o emergency services fundamentals o foundations in art and design o general arts and science o general arts and science health o pre-media o trade fundamentals *please note that community integration through co-operative education was not included in the study because the supports offered to the students in this program are distinct from other preparatory programs and would not have been reflective of the overall student population enrolled in preparatory programs at durham college. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 6 research questions to understand the experiences and outcomes of durham college preparatory students, there are seven research questions under investigation. the study evaluates preparatory program students motivations, experiences and outcomes while they are enrolled in the preparatory program, and then again, when they are enrolled in subsequent postsecondary program. finally the study provides an alternative validation on the outcomes of preparatory students who undertake further education. stage i: enrolled in a preparatory program 1. what are the career/educational objectives of students in the preparatory programs? 2. what were the experiences of the students in the preparatory programs? 3. did the preparatory program meet the expectations? stage ii: transition to subsequent postsecondary program 4. did the preparatory program students subsequently enrol in a postsecondary program? 5. what factors, if any, can predict the likelihood of preparatory program students continuing postsecondary education? 6a. what are the motivations and transfer experiences of students who transfer to a subsequent postsecondary program of study? 6b. what strategies assist the preparatory program students in their transfer to a subsequent program of study? stage iii: validation of outcomes in subsequent postsecondary programs 7. are the outcomes of academic performance, retention rates, and graduation rates of students with a prior postsecondary program comparable to students without a prior preparatory or postsecondary program experience? where possible, a comparison of students enrolled in the different preparatory programs will be presented. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 7 definitions of key terms the following is a list of key terms used throughout this report: banner: durham colleges student record information system kpi: key performance indicator kpi graduate satisfaction survey: annual telephone survey conducted by mtcu among a sample of graduates who attended colleges in ontario mtcu: ministry of training, colleges and universities ocas: ontario college application service oncat: ontario council on articulation and transfer ontario college preparatory program: programs that are rooted in preparing students to begin pursuing post-secondary studies and to assist them in obtaining a targeted set of vocationally specific skills limitations of the study the study includes the entire preparatory program student population across five academic years. however, 7% of the study population responded to the survey questionnaire, and the respondent demographic was positively skewed towards females. wherever possible, survey findings have been additionally validated through administrative data available for the entire study population. additionally, there was wide variability between preparatory programs on some of the dimensions assessed; hence, the findings should be carefully interpreted in the context identified. overall, the findings of the study are fairly generalizable across the preparatory programs offered at durham college. however, further investigation would be required to assess whether the findings are also applicable to preparatory programs at other ontario postsecondary institutions. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 8 section ii: literature review there is little opposition to the notion that postsecondary education is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the social, economic and cultural development within societies. postsecondary education is often tied to both individual economic and social achievement, as well as provincial and national economic growth (berger, motte & parkin, 2009; deloitte, 2011; wilson, mccaughan & han, 2011). at the individual level, it is widely held that possession of a postsecondary credential is directly related to an individuals employment outcomes as well as earnings potential. literature suggests that unemployment rates are generally lower amongst those with postsecondary credentials, while incomes tend to be higher, when compared to those individuals who do not attend a postsecondary institution (berger et al., 2009; deloitte, 2011; wilson et al., 2011). similarly, research indicates that the vast majority of parents now expect that their children will attend some form of postsecondary institution following their completion of high school (educational policy institute, 2008). the widespread belief in the importance of postsecondary education, and the benefits that often accompany earning a postsecondary credential, have led to substantial research into the potential barriers to student success in a postsecondary environment. much of the literature emphasizes two key stages where a student may face barriers to participation in postsecondary education. first, literature explores the factors that influence student decisions on whether to enrol in postsecondary education. various studies explore the reasons students choose not to enrol in further study following high school, and what methods should be employed to influence more students to continue on to postsecondary education (wilson et al., 2011; berger et al., 2009; deloitte, 2011). the second stage is once a student is enrolled in a postsecondary environment. the focus of research then tends to shift to exploring the factors that influence student persistence in postsecondary education. persistence generally refers to the commitment that individuals have to completing their postsecondary education once they have initially been enrolled. research on persistence tends to explore the reasons why students drop out of their postsecondary institution, and what institutions can do to improve student experiences and improve retention rates. whether discussing barriers to student enrolment or persistence in postsecondary education, there is an almost unanimous belief in the fact that postsecondary education is becoming increasingly important, and it is essential that individuals have the opportunity to both enrol in, and complete postsecondary programs. one of the methods that institutions often employ to both improve access to postsecondary education for individuals while also improving persistence and retention rates is the use of preparatory programs that are designed to provide students with certain knowledge and skills that will help them to be better prepared for further education. preparatory programs in ontario provide students with a complexity of knowledge that focuses on preparing students to begin their postsecondary education, or may provide students with vocationally specific skills (ministry of training, colleges and universities [mtcu], 2009). preparatory programs are important in this context because the benefits that assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 9 accompany enrolment in a preparatory program often mitigate the effect of factors that can prevent students from enrolling, or staying enrolled, in postsecondary education. academic preparedness academic preparedness is one of the largest barriers to postsecondary education, and is one of the most important predictors of whether an individual will attend a postsecondary institution, or complete a postsecondary program (gorman, tieu & cook, 2013; wilson et al., 2011; berger et al., 2009; deloitte, 2011; looker, 2002; educational policy institute, 2008; tinto, 1975; bailey and karp, 2003; grosset, 1991). a positive sense of ones readiness for the academic demands of higher education is often cited as being one of the most important factors influencing student success in postsecondary education (grosset, 1991; mueller, 2007; tinto, 1975). there are a number of specific facets of academic preparedness that play a large role in influencing whether or not individuals actually attend a postsecondary institution or complete a postsecondary program. not surprisingly, one of the most common topics surrounding academic preparedness and its impact on postsecondary education is a students academic experiences prior to enrolling in their current postsecondary educational institution. student grades, as well as the level of academic rigour students face while in high school, is believed to play a large role in predicting whether individuals will succeed in postsecondary education (tinto, 1975; grosset, 1991; baker and velez, 1996; harackiewicz, barron, tauer & elliot, 2002). much of the literature on student persistence in postsecondary education suggests that an individuals educational experiences prior to college entry, including their measured academic ability as demonstrated through grade performance in high school, is very much related to that individuals success in college (tinto, 1975). academic preparedness has a significant impact on students self-efficacy beliefs. it plays such a large role in student success in postsecondary education because often students do not (or do not believe) that they have either the grades, or the skills that are required to succeed in a postsecondary environment. students often cite having marks that were too low, or simply not being accepted to their program of choice as important factors in their decisions not to attend postsecondary education (looker, 2002; grosset, 1991). similarly, failure to meet the academic demands of a postsecondary institution can sometimes be traced back to a students poor academic performance in high school or their lower academic ability (tinto, 1975; grosset, 1991; baker and velez, 1996; harackiewicz et al., 2002). academic advising plays an important role in helping prepare students for the rigour of postsecondary education, and is recurrently emphasized as an important tool that should be used to mitigate the effect of student perceptions of being underprepared for postsecondary studies. often it is stressed that work needs to be done in order to bridge the gap between high school and college by helping students in areas such as time management and preparing for tests, as well as helping students with core competencies such as math and literacy (grosset, 1991; deloitte, 2011). students who struggle with these core competencies are more assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 10 likely to face challenges in postsecondary education (grosset, 1991; deloitte, 2011). similarly, academic advisors are important to student success because it is necessary for students to have access both in class and out of class support when they are dealing with both personal and academic difficulties (grosset, 1991). social integration while much of the literature on success in postsecondary education focuses on the importance of academic preparedness for a rigorous educational environment, another major factor that is argued to influence student success is the social integration into a postsecondary environment (tinto, 1975; kuh, 1995; grosset, 1991; christie & dinham, 1991; pascarella, 1980; pascarella, 1984; stage, 1989). an individual may be able to integrate well into the academic domain of a postsecondary institution; however, a lack of integration into the social system of the college can often lead to low levels of commitment and feelings of disengagement. the lack of social integration increases the probability that a student will leave the college to pursue other opportunities (tinto, 1975; kuh, 1995; pascarella, 1980; christie & dinham, 1991; stage, 1989; grosset, 1991). the factors that contribute to student success in postsecondary education are said to be undergoing continuous modification based on a students interaction with the college environment (pascarella, 1980; christie & dinham, 1991; tinto, 1975; stage, 1989; grosset, 1991). this is emphasized by pascarella (1980) who mentions the important influence of a students interpersonal environment. a students interpersonal environment is the climate of attitudes and behaviours of those that a student is in direct and constant contact (pascarella, 1980: 546). students social integration is impacted by involvement in social activities and also their interaction with members of the postsecondary environment including peers, faculty members and administrative and support personnel (tinto, 1975; pascarella, 1980; grosset, 1991; kuh, 1996). tintos (1975) model of persistence in postsecondary education suggests that college dropouts generally perceive themselves as having less social interaction than those students who succeed in a postsecondary environment. one of the key aspects of social integration into a postsecondary education is the relationship that is developed between students and their peers (tinto, 1975; grosset, 1991; kuh, 1996; pascarella, 1980; christie & dinham, 1991). emphasis is often placed on the idea that a students postsecondary experiences are positively impacted by more frequent interaction with peers, often through involvement in extra-curricular activities, friendship associations, or living on campus in residence, for example (tinto, 1975; grosset, 1991; pascarella, 1980; christie & dinham, 1991). similarly, other students and peers are also an important aspect of cognitive development and the learning experience while enrolled in postsecondary education, and relationships between students should be encouraged through group classroom activities, or even peer tutoring activities (kuh, 1996; grosset, 1991). much of the literature on student success in postsecondary education stresses that social integration into a postsecondary institution is heavily reliant on a students ability to develop meaningful relationships with faculty members (tinto, 1975; pascarella, 1980; kuh, 1996; assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 11 wilson et al., 2011; pascarella, 1980; christie & dinham, 1991; grosset, 1991). in order to promote and enhance social integration into a postsecondary environment, it is important that faculty members not only develop relationships with students while in the classroom, but they should also develop relationships with students outside of the classroom (tinto, 1975; pascarella, 1980; grosset, 1991). evidence suggests that often, non-formal relationships developed between students and faculty members outside of the classroom can impact an individuals personal development while enrolled in postsecondary education (pascarella, 1980). relationships between students and faculty members outside of the classroom is said to have a measurable impact on a number of educational outcomes including educational aspirations, intellectual and personal development, academic achievement, career aspirations and potential career mobility, student satisfaction with a particular postsecondary institution, and a students persistence in postsecondary education (tinto, 1975; pascarella, 1980; grosset, 1991). essentially, an opportunity for increased interaction with faculty members, both academically and non-academically, helps to foster a formal sense of purpose for students in a postsecondary setting (pascarella, 1980). the importance of out-of-classroom experiences for students in postsecondary education also reinforces the important roles played by not only faculty and peers, but also by administrative personnel and others that are associated with the support services available at an institution (tinto, 1975; grosset, 1991; pascarella, 1980; wilson et al., 2011; gorman et al., 2013; wilson et al., 2011). faculty members are often the most common point of contact for students and it is important for them to also act as a bridge between the classroom and the out of class support that is available for students who experience both personal and academic difficulties (grosset, 1991; pascarella, 1980). relationships between students and advisors, be it academic advisors or personal support counsellors, emphasise the importance of the postsecondary environment beyond the transmission of facts and knowledge (pascarella, 1980). clarity of academic goals and expectations when discussing his seminal predictive model of student persistence in college, tinto (1975) stresses the importance of understanding student expectations, goals, and motivations. he suggests that it is important to understand a students academic and educational goal commitment, because it is sometimes educational goals that influence how an individual will interact with the college and its environment. often it is the interaction between a students academic performance, social integration, and goal commitment that impacts their postsecondary experiences (pascarella, 1980; stage, 1989; tinto, 1975; harackiewicz et al., 2002). for example, pascarella, smart and ethington (1986) suggest that the stronger a students social and academic integration into a college environment, the greater the students commitment to the goal of college graduation. similarly, when referring to the interaction between goal commitment and other predictors of student persistence in postsecondary education, others suggest that it is goal commitment itself that acts a significant predictor of both academic and social integration (stage, 1989; harackiewicz et al., 2002). assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 12 students who enter postsecondary education with a particular set of academic goals in mind or those who develop strong commitments to academic goals while enrolled in postsecondary education, are often cited as being more likely to persist than those who do not have any goals. the idea is that the more committed a student is to a clear academic goal or educational plan, the more likely that student is to remain committed to their institution and therefore persist in their program of study (tinto, 1975; grosset, 1991; stage, 1989; harackiewicz et al., 2002; sewell and shah, 1967). for example, grosset (1991) suggests that students who enter postsecondary education with higher degree aspirations and the intention of completing at least a bachelors degree, are more likely to persist than those with lower, or no degree aspirations. similarly, in a study that examines educational goals from a more micro perspective, harackiewicz et al. (2002) suggest that even goals as simple as academic performance goals can influence a students experiences in their postsecondary program. harackiewicz et al. suggest that students with set performance goals generally attain higher grades than those without performance goals in mind, and this can often have long term influences on a students experiences in postsecondary education. access to information such as the availability of various types of postsecondary programs, the costs and benefits associated with postsecondary education, and potential programs for future study is an integral aspect of student success in postsecondary education. if students have the resources necessary to make informed decisions about their academic aspirations and educational goals, they are more likely to succeed in a postsecondary environment (educational policy institute, 2008; grosset, 2001; deloitte, 2011; berger et al., 2009). providing students with access to enhanced academic planning early on in their postsecondary academic career is argued to be an important aspect of helping students to craft their educational goals and aspirations (grosset, 1991; wilson et al., 2011; educational policy institute, 2008). grosset (1991) suggests that providing orientation programs early in the enrolment process that make students aware of program possibilities, course selections, and other administrative information would help to enhance student persistence in postsecondary education. clarity of career goals and expectations when tinto (1975) refers to student goals and commitments as being major predictors of student success in postsecondary education, the reference is not only to educational goals, but also to the importance of occupational and career related goals. student commitment to a particular career path is widely believed to be one of the most significant factors contributing to student success in postsecondary education (deloitte, 2011; wilson et al., 2011; educational policy institute, 2008; looker, 2009). individuals with clear and coherent occupational goals are often cited as being significantly more likely to enrol in postsecondary education, than those who remain undecided on their intentions following high school (tinto, 1975; parkin & baldwin, 2009; gorman et al., 2013; grosset, 1991; berger et al., 2009). similarly, indecision surrounding where an individual intends to go following the completion of a postsecondary program is also cited as an important influence on whether an individual will find value in the program that assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 13 they are enrolled in, and consequently, whether they will remain enrolled in that program (tinto, 1975; wilson et al., 2011; gorman et al., 2013; berger et al., 2009). an example that emphasizes the important role that colleges play in helping students to develop occupational and career goals is the changing nature of university and college transfer patterns amongst students. literature suggests that students in postsecondary education are increasingly attending multiple institutions over the duration of their studies (boswell, 2004; wilson, 2009). in the past, credit transfer discussions, particularly in the united states, focussed on the role that community colleges have played in preparing students for transfer for further study in a degree program at a university (boswell, 2004; wilson, 2009). however more recently, the paths of student transfer in the postsecondary educational environment have not been so clear. increasingly, researchers are making note of the process of reverse transfer in postsecondary education. reverse transfer refers to students who have completed at least some level of university education who enrol in college programs following their university experiences. this process is important in the context of students setting clear occupational goals, because one of the main factors that contributes to the process of reverse transfer is the fact that students often view the community college setting as a way to improve their occupational skills, gain training to get a job and discover career interests (wilson, 2009). much of the literature on student persistence in postsecondary education looks to tintos model of student persistence as its framework. however, it should also be noted that there are some who suggest that tintos model alone does not reflect the unique characteristics of all students in the postsecondary system. some argue that tintos model is too macro, and that variables such as student ethnicity, age, and the type of institution (i.e. university or college), for example, should be studied in more detail to account for the different experiences that particular groups of students may face while enrolled in postsecondary education (metz, 2002). the literature that specifically reviews educational effects of postsecondary preparatory programs is relatively sparse, and research that investigates aspects related to some of the intended outcomes of preparatory programs is fragmented. preparatory programs, such as the ones that are explored in this project, are intended as a means to prepare students for the rigours of postsecondary education and to help them to be successful in their paths of future studies. preparatory programs are an important tool that can be used as a means to improve the postsecondary experience of students. preparatory programs help students to prepare academically for the rigours of postsecondary education, they introduce students to the social aspects of postsecondary environment, and they help students to develop clear academic goals as well as clear career goals. by providing students with support in the academic and social realms of postsecondary education, and by helping them to develop clear goals for the future, preparatory programs are believed to improve student participation in postsecondary education, as well as student persistence and retention in postsecondary education. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 14 section iii: methodology population and sample the study population (n=2,885) is comprised of students who were enrolled in the eight preparatory programs at durham college from 2008-09 through 2012-13. the study population was invited to participate in an online survey and subsequent focus group. an additional population sample was included for students enrolled in preparatory programs at durham college during winter 2014. data collection methods the methodology for this research is a nonexperimental mixed methods design. the study population (n=2,885) was invited to participate in an online survey. the online survey questionnaire explored the motivations, experiences, and outcomes of the respondents (n=202; please refer to appendix a for the survey questionnaire). the survey respondents were further invited to volunteer for focus group discussions (n=23; please refer to appendix b for the discussion guide). to validate the information provided by survey respondents during focus group discussions, an additional focus group was conducted with preparatory program students who were enrolled in the winter 2014 session. primary sources of quantitative information were administrative data in the banner student information system, ocas applications data, data collected through the online survey (n=202), and kpi graduate survey data. primary qualitative data was collected from five focus groups of survey volunteers, and an additional group of the winter 2014 preparatory program students. a. online survey target respondent: sample source: sample size: field dates: completion length: screening criteria: incentive: weighting: all durham college preparatory students enrolled between 200809 and 2012-13 were invited to participate in the survey durham colleges banner system total of 202 completed surveys (15 students from 2008; 30 from 2009; 41 from 2010; 40 from 2011; and 76 from 2012) november 15,2013 to january 10, 2014 approximately 15 minutes, on average provision of informed consent prior to completing survey entry into a draw for a chance to win 1 of 3 best buy gift cards valued at $100 none required assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 15 summary respondents were asked a set of questions to understand their background, reasons for choosing their program, support services accessed, and anticipated/actual outcomes. the survey data was quantified and reported, and used to inform the identification of some of the common themes that were explored in the student focus groups. where possible, results from students from different programs are compared. b. focus group target respondent: sample source: sample size: session dates: group length: screening criteria: incentive: summary after completing the online survey, all respondents were invited to participate in the focus group to explore key themes in greater detail durham colleges banner system/online survey total of 23 focus group participants february 19, 2014 (12-1pm); february 20, 2014 (12-1pm); february 22, 2014 (11:30am-12:30pm); february 25, 2014 (6-7pm); march 3, 2014 (12-1pm); february 11, 2014 (12-1pm). 60 minutes (6 sessions) provision of informed consent prior to participating in focus group pizza lunch provided to participants a set of openended questions was designed to elicit information at a deeper level, particularly to understand their reasons for attending the preparatory program, their experiences in the preparatory program, support services accessed, and goals upon graduation. common themes from the focus group are identified and described in further detail throughout the report c. supplemental data additional validation analysis was conducted based on the administrative data derived from the durham college banner system for students who were enrolled in diploma and advanced diploma programs at durham college during 2012-13. specifically, data from banner was extracted to identify and compare student retention and graduation rates, and to determine whether there is any difference between students: assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 16 (i) (ii) (iii) with prior preparatory experience at durham college and students who do not have preparatory program experience at durham college; with preparatory program experience at durham college who enrolled in diploma programs compared to those who enrolled in advanced diploma programs, and the extent to which enrolling in a preparatory program contributed to their overall success. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 17 section iv: data analysis the following table provides a summary of the overall preparatory student universe (2008-09 to 2012-13), online survey respondents, and focus group participants in this study: universe total sample sizes online survey focus groups n=2,885 n=202 n=23 gender male female 41% 59% 29% 71% 11% 89% first generation status yes no 23% 77% 27% 73% 28% 72% age group less than 21 21-25 26-30 31-35 more than 35 11% 67% 16% 2% 4% 23% 51% 18% 2% 7% 28% 44% 22% 0% 6% year of entry into preparatory 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 14% 16% 19% 23% 28% 7% 15% 20% 20% 38% 0% 0% 22% 11% 67% preparatory program business fundamentals community services and child studies foundations emergency services fundamentals foundations in art and design general arts and science general arts and science health stream pre-media trade fundamentals 5% 1% 3% 9% 39% 35% 4% 2% 3% 6% 5% 9% 24% 48% 3% 2% 6% 9% 11% 17% 22% 28% 0% 6% agreed to participate in focus group yes no n/a n/a 33% 67% 100% 0% please note that percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 18 various analysis was conducted to assess the differences between the student cohorts from each of the five academic years, as well as to assess any differences between first generation and non-first generation students. no significant differences were found between these groups; hence, subsequent analysis included all of the student population across five academic years included in the study. it is noted, however, that there is a significantly larger female participation in the surveys and focus groups. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 19 stage i: enrolled in a preparatory program subsection 1: what are the career/educational objectives of students in the preparatory programs? this study explored the primary purpose(s) for which students at durham college enrolled in the preparatory programs. the online survey respondents were offered choices that corresponded with academic preparation, career clarity, social integration, other, or no specific goals, and asked to identify their primary goal. the majority of the durham college preparatory program students indicated academic preparation, either specifically for a particular postsecondary program or general academic skills (see figure 1.1) as their primary motivation for enrolling in the preparatory program. this finding is consistent with the purpose of the preparatory programs as defined by the ministry of training, colleges and universities. it is interesting to note, however, that almost one-quarter of the respondents indicated their primary goal as career clarity, either directly identifying it as a goal or through exploration of postsecondary programs available. this indicates that the preparatory programs, in addition to preparing students for other postsecondary programs, may need to play an active role in providing career exploration and guidance. further analysis indicates that students in preparatory programs such as trade fundamentals and general arts and science-health, which had greater occupational focus and hence fewer but better articulated pathways to postsecondary diploma programs, placed less emphasis on career clarity as a goal. in comparison, students in the preparatory programs such as, business fundamentals or premedia, which were field-specific but not occupation-specific and hence connected to greater number of pathways to postsecondary programs, placed a greater emphasis on career clarity. figure 1.1: goals of preparatory program students (n=202) prepare for specific diploma/undergraduate postsecondary program(s) (n=95) 46.8% improve general academic skills (n=28) 13.8% explore different post-secondary programs available (n=27) 13.3% clarify career expectations (n=23) 11.3% familiarize yourself with college culture and environment (n=9) 4.4% other (n=12) 5.9% did not have specific goal(s) (n=9) 4.4% 0% 10% assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 20% 30% 40% 50% 20 social integration, as identified through familiarizing with college culture and environment, was a less prominent reason among students who previously completed a university degree. improving grades and acquiring the prerequisites required for the intended postsecondary program were some of the other goals identified for undertaking the preparatory program. subsection 2: what were the experiences of the students in the preparatory programs? students were invited to identify the various skill-sets that they were able to develop because of their experiences in the preparatory programs (see figure 1.2). the extent to which respondents agreed with various skills development ranged from 75% to 92%. academic preparation (development of academic skills, gain knowledge about area of interest) skills were rated highest while career clarity (clarify career goals expectations, better understanding of postsecondary programs) were rated relatively lower. social integration related skill-set (develop sense of belonging with the college, explore student services available on campus) were in the mid-range except understanding of social opportunities available to students, which were rated relatively lower. figure 1.2: experiences with skills development in preparatory programs (% strongly agree/agree) develop my academic skills (n=200) 92% gain knowledge about my area of interest (n=201) 84% understand academic workload expectations (n=201) 80% develop a sense of belonging with the college (n=200) 82% explore student services available on campus (n=200) 84% understand social opportunities available to me (n=200) 75% clarify my career goals expectations (n=196) 77% develop a better understanding of different postsecondary programs available (n=199) 77% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% the motivations and experiences of students were explored in-depth in the focus groups. focus group discussions indicated that the students who enrolled in the preparatory programs to improve academic skills or gain specific knowledge had the most successful experience. students whose primary motivation was to gain career clarity had limited success in their experiences in the preparatory program while students who did not have any articulated goal assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 21 had the least successful experience in the program. focus group participants emphasized the value of experiential learning, importance of faculty support, and the elective courses that can help inform career decisions. student support services usage by preparatory program students: durham college offers support to students through a number of services. this study explored the usage of seven particular student support services: academic learning services, career services, continuing education, diversity office, financial aid, international office, and office of the registrar. table 1.1 presents the usage of support services by the survey respondents. the majority of survey respondents indicated sporadic use of applicable services. of all the services used, student academic learning services was used more frequently than other services. table 1.1 registrar (n=198) 28% once a week 3% academic learning services (sals) (n=201) financial aid (n=198) career services (n=198) continuing education (n=198) other; please specify (n=115) diversity office (n=198) international office (n=196) 41% 44% 68% 79% 89% 96% 97% 17% 5% 4% 2% 4% 1% 2% student support service - preparatory program never once a month 13% once a term 57% 15% 13% 5% 3% 4% 1% 1% 26% 38% 24% 16% 3% 2% 1% it is interesting to note that the office of the registrar services were not used most frequently but were used by the greatest number of respondents (57%). further analysis indicates that the office of the registrar service usage was higher (84.1%) for the respondents who enrolled in a subsequent postsecondary program as compared to the respondents who did not (63.4%). in addition, continuing education usage was higher for respondents who did not enrol in subsequent postsecondary programs (31.7%) as compared to respondents who did enrol in subsequent postsecondary programs (19.7%). this may imply that either the preparatory program students seek flexibility through continuing education, or may be seeking alternative further education opportunities through continuing education. logistic regression analysis was conducted to further assess the impact of service usage on students decision to continue with postsecondary education after the preparatory program. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 22 the results indicated that students who use the office of the registrar during their preparatory year are significantly more likely to re-enrol while the students who use the continuing education office during their preparatory year are significantly less likely to re-enrol in subsequent postsecondary education. additionally, student academic learning services (sals) has a relatively high usage frequency. the impact of this service on students experience and success was particularly evident in survey comments as well as during focus group discussions. take advantage of sals. awesome resource! student academic learning services (sals) was consistently acknowledged as an excellent resource by focus group participants in multiple discussion groups. there were a number of students who acknowledged that sals played an important and amazing part in their experiences while enrolled in the preparatory program; they particularly appreciated the help they received from the members of the academic learning services. specific mention was made of the fact that representatives from sals visited classes to discuss advising services for skills such as biology and mathematics. subsection 3: did the preparatory program meet the expectations? students were offered a dichotomous response to indicate whether the preparatory program met their expectations. the majority (82.1%) of survey respondents indicated that the preparatory program met their expectations. knowledge and support of the faculty were cited as primary reasons for the program meeting the expectations. the professors were not only knowledgeable, but incredibly helpful and involved in the success of their students. respondents who indicated that their expectations were not met, were invited to share the reason(s). the primary reasons cited for failing to meet the respondents expectations were that the courses were not sufficiently challenging, and the programs did not help in further academic/career decision-making. some of the comments shared by respondents were it just felt like a high school program very dumbed down; it seemed more like a waste of time because i didn't learn anything i needed to for my career choice. focus group discussions yielded an interesting insight into these survey comments. a few of the focus group participants had prior postsecondary experience at university, and had enrolled in the durham college preparatory programs to prepare for a career choice transition. this observation indicates that assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 23 there may be some students in the preparatory program whose skill-sets are already beyond the preparatory programs academic preparedness mandate, and that these students in particular may need more challenging courses or alternative pathways. there was wide variability across the programs (see table 1.2); however, caution is urged with interpretation due to small sample sizes of some of the programs. table 1.2 program expectations met (%) business fundamentals (n=7) 71.4% community services and child studies foundations (n=13) 84.6% emergency services fundamentals (n=10) 60.0% foundations in art and design (n=19) 94.7% general arts and science health (n=95) 90.5% general arts and science (n=49) 71.4% pre-media (n=5) 60.0% trade fundamentals (n=3) 33.3% overall (n=201) 82.1% some of the variability in the perception of programs usefulness is better explained through the primary motivation of the students enrolling in the preparatory programs rather than the specific program itself. a greater percentage of students whose primary goal was academic preparation (see table 1.3) had their expectations met as compared to students whose primary goal was career clarity. however, two-tailed z test was not significant for differences between academic preparation and career clarity groups, z=1.36, p<.05. table 1.3 prepare for specific diploma/undergraduate post-secondary program(s) (n=94) 86.3% improve general academic skills (n=28) 82.1% explore different post-secondary programs available (n=27) 77.8% clarify career expectations (n=22) 73.9% familiarize yourself with college culture and environment (n=9) 88.9% other (n=12) 66.7% did not have specific goal(s) (n=9) 66.7% social integr. academic preparation expectations met (%) career clarity primary goal assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 24 the analysis of student motivations, experiences, and satisfaction in the preparatory programs affirms that the preparatory programs at durham college are successfully delivering their primary mandate of academic preparedness, especially where there is significant academic goal clarity already present among students. however, there is an expectation among a significant percentage of students on gaining career clarity, and clarity of academic goals, through preparatory programs. this indicates that preparatory programs could better meet student expectations if their purviews were expanded to include more curriculum and advising on academic goals and career clarity as additional learning outcomes. to further explore the aspects of academic goals and career clarity as outcome expectations from the preparatory programs, a comparative analysis was conducted between programs(s) with general learning outcomes and program(s) where learning outcomes are connected with specific field(s) of study. the majority of respondents in both general arts and science (n=49), and field-specific preparatory program(s) (n=152) indicated that the programs met their expectations. however, a higher percentage (29%) of those enrolled in general arts and science programs indicated that the program did not meet their expectations as compared to those enrolled (14%) in field-specific preparatory programs. this difference is statistically significant, z=2.23, p<.05. these results suggest that students enrol in the preparatory programs with the expectation that they will be provided exposure to specific field(s) of study, and programs of study, regardless of the type of preparatory program in which they have chosen to enrol. preparatory program graduates satisfaction was further explored through kpi graduate survey data available. kpi graduate information corresponding to the 2008 to 2012 students was extracted as a sample and analyzed. the kpi graduate survey invites the graduates to indicate whether they would recommend the program to others. 87.0% of the graduates (n=740) from the preparatory programs who graduated over the 2009 to 2013 period indicated that they would recommend their respective preparatory program to others. there was a minor difference between the graduates of general arts and science program and the graduates of field-specific preparatory programs. 86.7% of the general arts and science (excluding the health stream) graduates (n=391) indicated that they would recommend the program to others as compared to 87.4% graduates (n=349) in other preparatory programs. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 25 stage ii: application to a subsequent postsecondary program subsection 4: did preparatory program students subsequently enrol in a postsecondary program? there were 202 participants in the online survey. of these, 90 graduated from the program and 67.8% (n=61) of the graduates subsequently returned for a postsecondary program at durham college. of the remaining 112 respondents who did not graduate from the preparatory program, 73.2% (n=82) returned for a subsequent postsecondary program at durham college. in comparison, amongst the entire preparatory program population for this study (n=2885), 893 students graduated, and of these graduates, 66.3% (n=592) subsequently returned for a postsecondary program at durham college while 1992 students did not graduate, and of these students, 62.2% (n=1240) re-enrolled in a subsequent postsecondary program. this analysis does not take into account any students who may have continued postsecondary education at other institutions; hence, these estimates of further education are likely to be under-estimates. the above finding has conflicting implications for the role of graduation rate in assessing the preparatory programs. survey results indicate that a greater proportion of students who did not graduate returned for subsequent enrolment in postsecondary programming, 73.2% as compared to 67.8%. in comparison, the results for the overall study population indicate that a greater proportion of students returned for subsequent postsecondary if they graduated, 66.3% in comparison to 62.2%. this study examines the role of graduation from the preparatory program in further detail in subsections 5 and 7. overall, survey results indicate that 73.1% of the students enrolled in a subsequent postsecondary program (table 2.1). respondents indicating not applicable included personal reasons such as moving, family, disability, or non-acceptance in the subsequent program of choice. table 2.1 enrol in subsequent postsecondary program (n=201) yes (n=147) 73.1% no (n=38) 18.9% prefer not to answer (n=10) 5.0% not applicable (n=6) 3.0% assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 26 of the students (n=147) who enrolled in a subsequent postsecondary program, 88.4% students indicated the preparatory program helped inform their choice of subsequent postsecondary program. the above observation in conjunction with the discussion on clarity of academic goals and career clarity in stage i implies that students in the preparatory programs who are able to achieve academic and career clarity are more likely to utilize pathways to pursue subsequent postsecondary programs. of the 147 survey respondents who pursued subsequent postsecondary programs, 71.9% (n=106) re-enrolled at durham college. of these (n=106) students who re-enrolled at durham college, 80.2% (n=85) were enrolled in a postsecondary program that was related to the preparatory program they had undertaken. additionally, figure 2.1 presents the distribution of subsequent postsecondary credentials undertaken by students who re-enrolled at durham college. figure 2.1: credential distribution - durham college (n=106) continuing education (n=8), 7.5% one year certificate (n=9), 8.5% bridge (undergraduate) program (n=8), 7.5% three year diploma (n=26), 24.5% two year diploma (n=55), 51.9% assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 27 of the 41 preparatory program students who re-enrolled at an institution other than durham college, 19.5% considered application to only one college/university indicating a dedicated interested in that institution. of the students who re-enrolled at an alternate college or university (n=41), 61.0% (n=25) reported being enrolled in a postsecondary program that was related to the preparatory program they had undertaken. additionally, figure 2.2 presents distribution of the subsequent postsecondary credentials at those institutions. the majority of students (41.5%) who did not re-enrol at durham college for a subsequent postsecondary program actually enrolled in an undergraduate degree program. figure 2.2: credential distribution - other institutions (n=41) one year certificate (n=4), 9.8% undergraduate degree (n=17), 41.5% graduate certificate (n=1), 2.4% three year diploma (n=2), 4.9% two year diploma (n=17), 41.5% subsection 5: what factors, if any, can predict the likelihood of preparatory program students continuing postsecondary education? logistic regression was conducted to investigate the factors that may contribute to preparatory program students decision to pursue further postsecondary education. the type of preparatory program (i.e., general versus field-focused), skills learned during preparatory programs, preparatory program outcome status, and demographic variables were examined as possible factors that may predict preparatory students decision to enrol in a subsequent postsecondary program. table 2.2 presents the results of the logistic regression analysis. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 28 table 2.2 independent variable age gender graduation program type development of academic skills develop a sense of belonging with the college gain knowledge about area of interest understand academic workload expectations understand social opportunities available explore student services available clarify career goals and expectations develop a better understanding of available programs 0.67 0.98 2.15 0.86 0.25 0.77 0.11 -0.68 -0.25 0.09 0.01 standard error 0.23 0.49 0.57 0.52 0.39 0.40 0.37 0.41 0.43 0.38 0.42 -0.13 0.46 constant pseudo r x n *p < 0.05 **p < 0.10 significance 0.022* 0.044* 0.000* 0.094** 0.518 0.053** 0.767 0.101 0.554 0.802 0.988 0.774 -3.49 0.23 40.77 p<.001 172 results indicate that preparatory program students who believed that the program helped them develop a sense of belonging with the college (i.e., social integration) were significantly more likely to enrol in further education. additionally, students who were enrolled in the fieldspecific preparatory programs, and the students who graduated from the preparatory program were significantly more likely to pursue further postsecondary education. the strongest predictor of student decisions to pursue further education is whether they graduated from their preparatory program. also, females and relatively older students were more likely to continue on to further education following enrolment in a preparatory program. these results indicate that the program completion and hence graduation rate is an important indicator of the preparatory programs successful performance. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 29 subsection 6: what are the motivations and transfer experiences of students who transfer to a subsequent postsecondary program of study? what strategies assist the preparatory program students in their transfer to a subsequent postsecondary program of study? motivations of survey respondents enrolled in subsequent postsecondary program: it is helpful to understand students motivation(s) for continuing with subsequent postsecondary education before a discussion on development and deployment of effective strategies to promote this transfer. figure 2.3 presents some of the reason(s), as indicated by the survey respondents, for continuing with subsequent postsecondary education. please note that the respondents were allowed to indicate multiple reasons, if applicable. figure 2.3: reasons for undertaking a subsequent postsecondary program 0% 20% 40% 60% this was the logical next step in my educational path (n=86) 58.5% i wanted to increase my educational qualifications (n=76) 51.7% the institution was close to home/family (n=61) 41.5% i wanted to further enhance my present skills (n=47) 32.0% i changed my career path (n=46) 31.3% i wanted to get hands-on experience (n=44) i was unemployed (n=14) other (n=8) 80% 29.9% 9.5% 5.4% it is interesting to note that logical next step in my educational path was deemed to be the primary reason. this indicates that these students had an educational path that was mapped out apriori, and that the reasoning for the future path had led them to pursuing a subsequent postsecondary program as a logical step. this finding has important implications for assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 30 institutions wanting to develop and deploy strategies to promote pathways for their preparatory programs. it indicates that while academic preparedness is an important goal for the preparatory programs, it is equally important that students be offered advising and opportunities to develop a well-articulated educational plan while they are still enrolled in the preparatory program(s). this is especially important, given that 88.4% of the survey respondents who pursued subsequent postsecondary programs indicated that the preparatory program helped inform their choice. motivations of survey respondents not enrolled in subsequent postsecondary program: to help identify the strategies that support student transfer, it is also important to understand the experiences of the preparatory program students who decided not to pursue subsequent postsecondary education. 27.0% (n=54) of the survey respondents who did not continue postsecondary education (n=28), or preferred not to answer the question (n=10), or did not deem the question of pursuing further postsecondary as applicable, were invited to indicate the specific reason why they did not continue. figure 2.4 presents results for these 54 respondents who indicated a reason for not continuing with postsecondary program. figure 2.4: reasons for not undertaking subsequent postsecondary program 0% 10% 20% other (n=15) 30% 27.3% financial affordability (n=13) 23.6% did not have a good experience in the preparatory program (n=10) 18.2% not interested in further post-secondary education (n=7) 12.7% family responsibilities (n=5) 9.1% gainfully employed (n=5) 9.1% some of the reasons offered as other were inability to decide on a program or career, nonacceptance in the subsequent program of choice, or that a few were still enrolled in the preparatory program. 18.2% (n=10) of these respondents indicated that they did not have a good experience in the preparatory program. to assess the quality of students experiences with the preparatory assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 31 programs, satisfaction levels of the respondents who did not continue with postsecondary program were explored. table 2.3 presents results for satisfaction with the preparatory program for the three groups of students not pursuing postsecondary education: (i) students who categorically identified as not pursuing postsecondary education, (ii) students who indicated that they would not prefer to answer the question, and (iii) students who indicated that pursuing subsequent postsecondary education was not applicable to them. overall, 75.5% of these students were satisfied with the preparatory program at durham college. table 2.3 transfer to subsequent postsecondary program satisfaction no (n=38) prefer not to not applicable answer (n=10) (n=5) overall very satisfied/satisfied 76.9% 70.0% 60.0% 75.5% very unsatisfied/unsatisfied 20.5% 30.0% 40.0% 24.5% respondents who indicated that they were not satisfied with the preparatory program were offered an additional opportunity to comment. comments indicated that students were disengaged because either the courses were not useful or the faculty and/or administrative staff were perceived as non-supportive. one of the respondents commented, the program should be put together in a different way. i found it hard to take the program seriously. lack of academic goal and career clarity was an issue as well: i went to figure out what i wanted to do, and after the two semesters i still didn't really know. i guess that's more on me than the program. another important aspect that should be explored for the preparatory programs is the concept of student-program fit. student-program fit is often discussed in the context of other postsecondary programs but rarely for preparatory programs. one of the respondents commented, the program would have been helpful to me if i wanted to raise my marks higher if i wanted to go into a certain career from the program. i didn't end up completing the program because the classes were the exact same classes i took in high school that i was not interested in. i am now in another preparatory program i enjoy more due to a different career choice. these 54 survey respondents were asked to indicate whether durham college could have influenced their decision to not pursue postsecondary education. five of the respondents indicated that the college could have influenced their decision positively by either providing timely administrative support, engaging and challenging curriculum, or supportive faculty. students intending to enrol in preparatory programs should be encouraged to articulate their academic goals and investigate earlier during the enrolment process whether the program is a good fit. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 32 the above discussion indicates that while some student interests may be served through generic preparatory programs such as general arts and science, other student interests may be better served through occupational cluster-specific preparatory programs. students may need advising and support to determine the best preparatory program fit for them the very first time. student advising and support have a significant impact on student experiences. well-articulated academic goals (or educational plans), career clarity, perceived usefulness of the courses, support from faculty, and administrative staff play an important role in students experiences and decision to continue with subsequent postsecondary education. the transfer experience of students who enrolled in a subsequent postsecondary program: the survey respondents who transferred to a durham college postsecondary program were invited to share their transfer experience and indicate whether they had any difficulty with the transition to their subsequent postsecondary program. table 2.4 presents the results of all the survey respondents who attended a subsequent postsecondary program, either at durham college or a different postsecondary institution. the majority (73.2%) of respondents indicated that they did not have difficulties in transitioning to the subsequent postsecondary program. however, about 30% of the respondents indicated difficulty with specific aspects of the transition experience as indicated in table 2.4. table 2.4 % agree/ strongly agree difficulty in transitioning to subsequent postsecondary i had no difficulties in the transition connecting with someone from financial aid (i.e. for osap, scholarships) determining whether the program was right for me understanding the admission requirements connecting with someone from admissions connecting with someone from the program all postsecondary institutions durham college 73.2% (n=127) 28.9% (n=121) 28.4% (n=134) 27% (n=141) 25.5% (n=137) 23.8% (n=130) 76.1% (n=92) 28.2% (n=85) 27.6% (n=98) 24.3% (n=103) 20.4% (n=98) 22.1% (n=95) a greater percentage (76.1%) of students who continued their subsequent postsecondary education at durham college had a better transitioning experience than students (73.2%) who enrolled at other postsecondary institutions. students continuing at durham college identified understanding admission requirements as a key hurdle, particularly the admission grade requirement for the intended subsequent postsecondary program. in addition, osap services were identified as a barrier to transition. transitioning students at other postsecondary assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 33 institutions identified administrative services such as access to transcripts and financial aid as some of the key hurdles. the transfer experience of students was further explored in-depth during the focus group sessions. focus group participants identified lack of information about paths of further study or potential career paths as a key barrier to further education. researchers prompted further discussion on the optimal timing of the availability of such information. participants recommended discussions on potential programs of future study to be held in the preparatory program orientation week itself to help them choose an educational path and elective courses. other participants suggested that such information sessions should be held twice: once during orientation week as an introduction to the potential fields of study and again in november when students have become familiar with the various programs and have a better idea of what educational paths are possible. regardless of when students would prefer to receive information surrounding future programs of study and educational paths, nearly all focus group participants indicated that they would have appreciated more information from sources such as school offices, other students, faculty members, and external industry representatives. there was also discussion on the lack of readily available information about the credit transfer process. while many of the participants were satisfied with the information that they received about transferring credit and indicated that the process was easy, a few others indicated that the onus of finding information about the transfer credit process was placed on the students themselves. participants suggested that the college provide links to future programs of study directly on the preparatory programs web pages. a number of focus group participants also discussed the importance of the relationship between durham college and the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit), given that the institutions share a campus. participants indicated their appreciation for the process when a representative from uoit visited the classroom to provide information about related programs at uoit and discussed potential programs of study. however, there was significant variability between the participants of various preparatory programs. focus group participants from some of the programs were particularly frustrated with the perceived lack of communication between durham college and uoit, especially with exchange of information via administrative processes. survey respondents were further invited to reflect on their satisfaction with the transitioning experience, and if not satisfactory then to reflect the reason(s). table 2.5 presents the summary of responses. overall, 94.6% of the respondents were satisfied with their transitioning experience. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 34 table 2.5 students who pursued subsequent postsecondary education yes no overall (n=147) % satisfied/very satisfied 95.2% 92.7% 94.6% the survey further explored academic preparedness perceptions of the respondents who continued further education. 85.7% of the respondents who continued with postsecondary (n=147) indicated that their preparatory program helped them to prepare academically for the subsequent postsecondary program. respondents identified the following as some of the particular ways in which preparatory program particularly helped them to successfully transition to subsequent postsecondary program: gain knowledge in specific subjects, such as, biology, math, chemistry and others; understand workload and assignment expectations; identify helpful academic resources; develop study and time-management skills; learn how to get around in the campus and settle into lifestyle; gain transferable credits; and improve grades. though the program i am in right now is 3x harder than the preparatory, i would say it still helped me because i gained a lot of self-confidence and self-discipline from the preparatory. i had a taste for what it takes to succeed. of the remaining 14.3% survey respondents who did not believe that their preparatory programs helped them prepare academically for subsequent postsecondary, a majority identified insufficiently challenging courses and light workloads as the primary reasons. focus group discussions further delineated the role of preparatory programs in preparing for further postsecondary education. the majority of focus group participants provided positive feedback on their preparatory programs and agreed that they would recommend the program to others. however, a few of the focus group participants had prior learning experiences at assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 35 universities, and suggested a need for individually customized learning and greater experiential learning. focus group participants also mentioned the importance of the social integration into the college environment that they received by enrolling in their preparatory program. they acknowledged that preparatory programs allowed them to take a more gradual step into postsecondary education to help them feel more comfortable. relationships with other classmates were another important aspect that was acknowledged, and participants indicated that classmates often acted as sources of information and created a social environment that made them feel more comfortable in a college setting. the most significant challenge identified by focus group participants was that the preparatory programs were too easy, and that the workload itself was not challenging. this was expressed as a concern across a range of participants, but particularly by participants who had a prior postsecondary experience at university. however, there was significant variability across programs and respondents from at least one program (general arts and science-health) indicated that their workload was adequately challenging. while many students indicated that the workload in their preparatory program was not particularly challenging, the majority of focus group participants agreed that their experiences in the program did help to prepare them for further education. a number of participants suggested that the skills that were taught in their preparatory program prepared them for further study by providing them some interaction with a variety of useful skills. for example, students in the foundations of art and design and emergency services fundamentals programs, indicated that their preparatory program introduced them to a number of different fields and requisite skills. thus, the programs not only helped them to choose the field in which they wanted to continue their education, but also provided them with a basic understanding of the foundational skills in the specific field to further build in their subsequent academic program. student support services usage by students in subsequent postsecondary programs: survey respondents also indicated their usage of the student support services during their subsequent postsecondary program. table 2.6 presents the usage of support services by these students. the aggregate pattern of service usage by respondents during the subsequent postsecondary program was quite similar to that during the preparatory program, except for student academic learning services. the office of the registrar and student academic learning services were used more frequently than other services. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 36 table 2.6 never once a week once a month once a term registrar (n=103) 30% 2% 13% 55% academic learning services (sals) (n=102) 38% 15% 16% 31% financial aid (n=103) 43% 3% 15% 40% career services (n=102) 71% 4% 4% 22% continuing education (n=102) 84% 0% 4% 12% other; please specify (n=55) 87% 7% 4% 2% diversity office (n=102) 98% 0% 1% 1% international office (n=101) 98% 0% 1% 1% student support service additional strategies suggested for successful transition: specific strategies to improve preparatory programs: survey respondents were invited to share their thoughts on the strategies that could be implemented in the preparatory programs to make them better, and make it easier to apply for a subsequent postsecondary program. there was significant variability in the comments across the preparatory programs but a fair level of consistency within each program. some of the specific suggestions were: communications and computer courses with greater relevancy; greater focus on apa formatting and essay writing than grammar and punctuation; no general education (gned) courses; more challenging curriculum; more intense workload that is reflective of the subsequent postsecondary program; better use of dc connect to post all materials such as lectures, homework assignments, and grades online; better understanding of electives and their applicability for credit transfer in various postsecondary programs; greater experiential learning or a day of exposure to a related postsecondary program (for example, allow foundations in arts students to get exposure to graphic design, game development and other postsecondary classrooms); visit from admissions office; job shadowing to inform awareness of prospective careers; and assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 37 visit from career services. specific strategies for admission process subsequent postsecondary program: survey respondents were invited to identify specific difficulties they may have experienced with the application process and to share suggestions for strategies that could be implemented to address the difficulties. most of the respondents indicated that the admission process was easy to understand and execute, and they did not have any difficulties. however, some respondents did indicate specific difficulties that they faced. some of the issues identified by these respondents are as follows: timely and better understanding of the admission requirements including grade average for the subsequent postsecondary program; getting students to understand what their academic goals need to be in order to be considered for admission to their program of choice at the very beginning. timely and easy access to durham college preparatory program transcripts; more guidance with program selection; and better availability of online information on program pathways and transfer credits applicable to the subsequent postsecondary program. some of the specific strategies suggested by students to make the transition to the subsequent postsecondary programs easier include: centralization of information and resources that are relevant to preparatory program or transfer students; online tutorial to better understand the process, deadlines and website navigation; identification of related program pathways, pre-requisites, and credit transfers on the preparatory program web pages; timely availability of online information especially with respect to transfer credits applicable to a subsequent postsecondary program; cross training of liaisons in academic schools in applicable program pathways; presentations by admissions office in the preparatory program classrooms; more support with financial aid/osap application; and additional avenues of communication with the office of the registrar (other than phone or in-person visit). be aware of the rules and regulations of the program, which apply to credit. as well, make it easier to apply previous credits to future program. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 38 most of the respondents were satisfied with the preparatory programs and the subsequent admission process. in addition to the desire for a more challenging curriculum and workload, most of the strategies suggested were focused on the availability of information and support on understanding postsecondary program pathways, pre-requisites for admission to these programs, and information on the credit transfer framework. subsequent postsecondary program outcomes: finally, survey respondents were asked to provide their current outcome status for the subsequent postsecondary program in which they were enrolled. table 2.7 presents the outcome results. table 2.7 subsequent postsecondary outcome (n=147) % graduated 42.9% currently enrolled 43.5% not completed or enrolled 11.6% not reported 2.0% a significant majority of the students (86.4%) have either graduated or are making progress towards graduation from the subsequent postsecondary program. some of the reasons cited by students (11.6%) for not completing the subsequent postsecondary program were healthrelated, financial, family responsibilities, or gainful employment. the above results indicate that the preparatory program survey respondents experience successful outcomes in their subsequent postsecondary programs. to investigate whether the results from the survey are generalizable, an alternative student population was analyzed. results of the analysis from this analysis are presented in subsection 7. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 39 stage iii: validation of outcomes in subsequent postsecondary programs subsection 7: are outcomes such as academic performance, retention rates, and graduation rates for students with a prior postsecondary program comparable to students without a prior preparatory or postsecondary program experience? the survey results for this study indicated that academic preparedness, which is an important goal for preparatory programs, is being successfully delivered at durham college since 86.4% of the survey respondents who continued with postsecondary education had either graduated or are well-placed to graduate. however, there may be some concern that these survey findings are based on respondents self-reports and may suffer from positive bias. the validity and generalizability of the survey results would be further endorsed if the results could also be investigated based on factual administrative data on outcomes. in this regard, a comparison of the outcomes for the group of students in diploma programs (including advanced diploma) who have prior preparatory program experiences with the outcomes of those others do not have such experience, would be of particular interest. for the proposed additional analysis, administrative data on students enrolled in two-year diploma and three-year advanced diploma programs at durham college in fall 2012 was extracted. the dataset was comprised of 3,828 first year students, of which 7.1% (n=271) had prior preparatory program experience at durham college. unfortunately, data limitations do not allow for identification of any students who may have had preparatory program experience or prior postsecondary experience at other institutions. an assumption was made that the remaining students did not have prior preparatory or postsecondary experience. while the researchers recognize that it is a broad assumption, it is deemed acceptable because the impact of this assumption places an even more rigorous burden on any positive findings for the preparatory program students. the grade point average (gpa) of students who had prior preparatory program experience was compared for their performance during the preparatory program and then again in the subsequent postsecondary program. average gpa for the group of students who had prior preparatory program experience at durham college, after the first semester of their preparatory program, was 3.12 (n=260). for these students again, their average gpa after first semester in the subsequent diploma or advanced diploma program was 2.86 (n=258). as indicated in the previous sections, the survey respondents had expressed that their workloads in their preparatory programs had not been particularly challenging. this decline in academic performance from 3.12 to 2.86 supports their perceptions that the curriculum and workload in the preparatory programs need to be sufficiently demanding to prepare them for the rigorous academic demands of the diploma programs. gpa comparisons were also made for the group of students who had prior preparatory program experience at durham college to the group of students that were assumed to not have any assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 40 prior preparatory experience. diploma program students were assessed separately from the advanced diploma students. for the students (n=210) in the two-year diploma programs, the gpa at the end of the first semester was higher for those with a preparatory experience (m=2.93, sd=1.13) than the students (n=2,783) with no prior preparatory program experience at durham college (m=2.89, sd=1.35). however, the difference in the mean gpa of the two groups was not statistically significant, t(255)=0.55, p=.058. levenes test indicated unequal variances (f = 18.57, p <.001), so degrees of freedom were adjusted from 2991 to 256. in comparison, for the advanced diploma program, the gpa at the end of the first semester was lower for the students (n=61) with a preparatory experience (m=2.47, sd=1.23) than the students (n=770) with no prior preparatory program experience at durham college (m=2.75, sd=1.41). however, again the difference in the mean gpa of the two groups was not statistically significant, t(829)=1.49, p=.64. even though the findings for first term gpa differences between the group of students in diploma and advanced diploma programs is non-conclusive, it is noted that the mean gpa of the preparatory program experience student group is higher in diploma programs than advanced diploma program. this may imply that the preparatory programs are better preparing the students for rigours of diploma programs than advanced diploma programs. further, table 3.1 presents the retention rates for the two groups across various semesters. while the gpa comparison indicates that students without a preparatory experience fare better, results in table 3.1 indicate that students with a preparatory experience are more likely to persist with their postsecondary education. at the end of the second year, the retention rate for those with a preparatory experience is approximately 10% higher. while students with a preparatory experience have slightly lower gpa, they are more persistent with their studies. this finding lends credence to the high levels of graduation and persistence rates indicated by the survey respondents. table 3.1 fall 2013 diploma and advanced diploma students with: fall 2012 winter 2013 fall 2014 winter 2014 prior preparatory progam experience at durham college 100% (271) 90.4% (245) 78.6% (213) 79.0% (214) 100% (3,557) 87.7% (3,120) 73.6% (2,618) 70.9% (2,523) no prior preparatory program experience at durham collee assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 41 graduation rate was assessed for students who had enrolled in the diploma programs since only diploma students could have graduated in the shortest possible time until april 2014. of the 210 diploma program students who had prior preparatory program experience at durham college, and were enrolled in first year in fall 2013, 59 had graduated by april 2014. in comparison, of the 2,783 diploma program students who had no prior preparatory program experience at durham college and were enrolled in first year in fall 2013, 1117 had graduated by april 2014. an independent two-sample t-test indicated that the graduation rate was significantly higher for students without prior preparatory program experience at durham college (42.5%) than for students with prior preparatory program experience at durham college (28.1%), t(249) = 4.37, p < .001, d=.14. levenes test indicated unequal variances (f = 170.01, p <.001), so degrees of freedom were adjusted from 2991 to 249. thus, a greater proportion of students without prior preparatory program experience are likely to graduate in the shortest possible time. however, this does not imply that students with prior preparatory experience at durham college have overall poorer graduation rate. given the higher retention rates for students with preparatory program experience, and the high long-term graduation rates, it is logical to infer that students with prior preparatory program experience at durham college have greater persistence, and take longer time to graduate from the diploma programs than their counterparts who do not have prior preparatory program experience at durham college. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 42 section v: conclusions and recommendations the ministry of training, colleges and universities, ontario defines preparatory or preprograms of instruction as programs that provide students with foundational and/or specific skills required for admission to other college programs of instruction from which they will graduate. currently, durham college offers eight preparatory programs and the purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the preparatory programs being offered. this study demonstrates that well-articulated academic goals (or educational plan), social integration achieved during preparatory program, career clarity, perceived usefulness of the courses, and supportive faculty and administrative staff play an important role in students experiences and decision to continue with subsequent postsecondary education. awareness of the purpose(s) of preparatory programs and alternative pathways: while most of the participants were quite well versed with the primary purpose of preparatory programs, interestingly there were a few who had enrolled in the preparatory program with gainful employment as an objective and were disappointed with the outcome of the preparatory program. similarly, some of the participants who had prior postsecondary university experience had enrolled in the preparatory program to help them with career transition; these participants were particularly disappointed with the level of challenge experienced in the curriculum and workload. this implies that further efforts could be directed towards clarifying the purpose of the preparatory programs, encouraging students to explore student-program fit, and offering suggestions for alternative programs where applicable. expand definition of preparatory program beyond academic preparedness: student experiences and outcomes in the preparatory program were assessed through an online survey, focus groups, and administrative data. in keeping with the intended definition of the preparatory programs, students identified academic preparedness as a primary goal for these programs, and majority were satisfied with this key aspect of the various preparatory programs at durham college. thus, the preparatory programs at durham college, as assessed on the key dimension of academic preparedness, were highly effective. additionally, this study identified additional expectations that the preparatory program students had from their respective programs. of these, development of clear academic goals and career clarity were identified as critical deliverables for an effective preparatory program. participants identified that the development of a subsequent educational plan, which would act as a roadmap for pathway(s) to other postsecondary programs, was critical for their successful transition to subsequent diploma or advanced diploma postsecondary programs. participants identified a multiple, specific strategies that the college could help employ to support students with the development of academic goals. participants indicated that a well-articulated assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 43 educational plan or pathway would seamlessly connect to intended careers goals. career clarity through exploration of the postsecondary programming available to them was an important requirement identified by the preparatory program students. hence, one of the key recommendations of this study is that the definition of the preparatory program be expanded to include the following as deliverables in the program learning outcomes and curriculum: development of clear academic goals through development of an educational plan while students are still enrolled in the preparatory program; and development of career clarity through exploration of various postsecondary programs related to the preparatory program undertaken. greater emphasis on field-specific preparatory programs: one of the interesting findings for this study was that participants who were enrolled in the field-specific preparatory programs were more engaged, had greater commitment towards postsecondary education, and had better subsequent outcomes. while improving grade average was a goal for some of the participants, a significant majority of the students in fieldspecific preparatory programs indicated that relevant programming better allowed them to develop academic and behavioural skills that enabled them to successfully transition to subsequent postsecondary programs. in contrast, students in general preparatory programs had a greater sense of being "academically adrift" and unable to articulate a clear career focus that would allow them to direct their effort and commitment in a progressive manner. thus, this study recommends that greater development support and emphasis be accorded to the preparatory programs that are relevant to a given occupational cluster. based on participant feedback, one of the recommendations was to explore the possibility of introducing a general arts and science-engineering stream at durham college. please note that durham college has introduced a science and engineering stream for general arts and science students as of fall 2013. review curriculum and workloads: participants from a number of preparatory programs identified non-relevant courses, easy curriculum content, and light workload as aspects that needed to be addressed to make the preparatory program experiences more meaningful and rigorous. participants particularly emphasised the need for academic rigour; they perceived it as a critical pre-requisite for a successful experience in their subsequent postsecondary education. other specific strategies to improve preparatory programs: communications and computer courses with greater relevancy; greater focus on apa formatting and essay writing than grammar and punctuation; no general education (gned) courses; more challenging curriculum; more intense workload that is reflective of subsequent postsecondary program; assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 44 better use of dc connect to post all materials such as lectures, homework assignments and grades online; better understanding of electives and their applicability for credit transfer in various postsecondary programs; workshops/sessions on further education/career path exploration during preparatory program orientation week and again in november; greater experiential learning, or a day of exposure to related postsecondary program (for example, allow foundations in arts students to get exposure to graphic design, game development and other postsecondary classrooms); visit from admissions office; job shadowing to inform awareness of prospective careers; visit from career services; and visit from uoit admissions office. provide timely and readily available information to assist in transition to subsequent postsecondary program: preparatory program students extensively indicated the need for pro-active academic and career advising, and need for informational support in successfully transitioning to the subsequent postsecondary program. participants were generally satisfied with the current admission process in place but offered specific suggestions for informational awareness, especially with regard to admission requirements and transfer credits, and administrative support. specific strategies for admission process subsequent postsecondary program: survey respondents were invited to identify specific difficulties they may have experienced with the application process and to share suggestions for strategies that could be implemented to address the difficulties. most of the respondents indicated that the admission process was easy to understand and execute, and that they did not have any difficulties. however, a few of the respondents did indicate specific difficulties that they faced. the following are the issues identified by the respondents: timely and better understanding of the admission requirements including grade average for the subsequent postsecondary program; timely and easy access to durham college preparatory program transcripts; more guidance with program selection; and better availability of online information on program pathways and transfer credits applicable to the subsequent postsecondary program. some of the other information related specific strategies suggested by students to make the transition to the subsequent postsecondary programs easier were: assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 45 centralization of information and resources that are relevant to preparatory program or transfer students; online tutorial to better understand the process, deadlines and website navigation; identify related program pathways, pre-requisites, and credit transfer opportunities on the preparatory program web pages; timely availability of online information especially with respect to transfer credits applicable to subsequent postsecondary program; cross training of liaisons in academic schools in applicable program pathways; invite admissions office to visit the preparatory program classrooms; more support with financial aid/osap application; and additional avenues of communication with the office of the registrar (other than phone or in-person visit). promote use of student support services: use of the student support services, except for office of the registrar and student academic learning services (sals), was particularly low for preparatory program students both during the preparatory program tenure as well as during the subsequent postsecondary program. sals was the only student support service that was positively and overwhelmingly acknowledged in the survey comments as well as during focus group discussions. given preparatory program students' need for career advising, in addition to academic advising, it is recommend that the preparatory students' be made more aware of the resources available to them. provide multiple means of communication with the college administration: one of the key recommendations made by participants, both through survey comments and focus group discussions, was that it would be helpful to have multiple means of communication with the office of the registrar. participants indicated that live online interactions or email communications would reduce the frustration and time required for phone call assistance, and would be more helpful than the static online faq webpage. emphasize importance of graduation rate for preparatory programs: significance and fairness of graduation rate as an evaluative metric for the preparatory program is often debated. one of the reasons why graduation rate is not deemed as a fair metric to assess the effectiveness of the preparatory programs is that often students transfer into subsequent diploma or advanced diploma programs without completing the entire preparatory program or graduating from it. while this concern is fairly warranted, this study demonstrates that the graduation from the preparatory program is a strong predictor of the transition into subsequent postsecondary program. given that the primary mandate of the preparatory programs is to prepare the students for subsequent postsecondary program, this study supports the use of graduation rate as a metric for assessment of the effectiveness of preparatory programs. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 46 implications for graduation rate in diploma programs: further, the study indicated that students with prior preparatory experience at durham college have higher retention rates but take longer to graduate from the diploma programs. this finding affirms that preparatory programs have a positive impact on what otherwise may have been an academically vulnerable population. this finding also implies that the current kpi graduation rate calculation methodology which allows for an extended period of time for inclusion of graduates makes it an appropriate and robust measure. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 47 references bailey, t. r., & karp, m. j. m. (2003). promoting college access and success: a review of credit based transition programs. retrieved from http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:172603. baker, t. l. & velez, w. (1996). access to and opportunity in postsecondary education in the united states: a review. sociology of education, 69, 82-101. baldwin, n. & parkin, a. (2009). persistence in post-secondary education. in j. berger, a. parkin & a.motte (eds.), the price of knowledge: access and student finance in canada (5-25). montreal, qc: millennium scholarship fund. berger, j. & parkin, a. (2009). the value of a degree: education, employment and earnings in canada. in j. berger, a. parkin & a. motte (eds.), the price of knowledge: access and student finance in canada (5-25). montreal, qc: millennium scholarship fund. borden, v. m. h. (2004). accommodating student swirl: when traditional students are no longer the tradition. change, 36(2), 10-17. christie, n. g. & dinhman, s.m. 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(1986). long-term persistence of two-year college students. research in higher education, 24(1), 47-71. pascarella, e.t., & terenzini, p.t. (2005). how college affects students: vol. 2 a decade of research. san francisco: john wiley & sons, inc. sewell w. h., & shah, v. p. (1967). socioeconomic status, intelligence and the attainment of higher education. sociology of education, 40(1), 1-23. stage, f. k. (1989). motivation, academic and social integration and the early dropout. american educational research journal, 26, 385-402. stage, f. k. (1989). reciprocal effects between the academic and social integration of college students. research in higher education, 30(5), 517-530. tinto, v. (1975). dropout from higher education: a theoretical synthesis of recent research. review of educational research, 45(1), 89-125. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 49 wilson, d. n. (2006). reverse transfer constraints upon planning post-secondary programs in ontario, canada. in r. l. raby, e. j. valeau (eds.), community college models (401-415). northridge, ca: springer. wilson, s., mccaughan, k & han, s. (2011). alternative pathways to university admission: an examination of academic advising within the niagara college/brock university partners program. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 50 appendices appendix a: assessing the effectiveness of ontario college preparatory programs offered at durham college (introduction) durham college is conducting this survey as part of a research project to better understand the experiences of students in preparatory programs. preparatory programs are designed for students who are uncertain of their specific career goals and would like to explore various skills areas before making a decision to pursue the specific postsecondary diploma, advanced diploma or undergraduate degree. this study will explore the preparedness and transfer experiences of the students from the preparatory program to the subsequent postsecondary program. this study will also explore anticipated and/or actual outcomes after graduation, including completion rates, and employment rates. the purpose of the research project is to develop strategies that will improve the student experience. were interested in hearing about your experiences. your participation is completely voluntary. only the research team will have access to your responses. responses from the individual respondents will be linked to your prior administrative data (biographical, academic, program and graduate data) for the purpose of statistical analysis but no respondents will be identifiable in any reporting. if you decide not to participate, there will be no impact on your future dealings with durham college. if you decide to participate in the survey, you may end the survey at any time without giving a reason; in this case, any data you have provided will not be used. if you decide to participate, all of your responses will be kept confidential. if you have any questions you do not feel comfortable answering, please skip them. the data will be stored on a secure durham college server. all data collected from this survey will be destroyed seven years after the full completion of all reports as per durham college policy. the survey will take less than 15 minutes to complete. by completing the survey, you will be entered into a draw for one of three prizes of a best buy gift card valued at $100. if you have any questions or concerns, please contact rashmi gupta, principal investigator, at rashmi.gupta@durhamcollege.ca (informed consent) by checking the "yes" box below, you confirm that you have read and understand the information about this research project. you agree to voluntarily participate in this research and give your consent freely. you understand you can withdraw from the survey at any time, without penalty, and you do not have to give any reason for withdrawal. i consent to participate in this survey. o yes, by responding to this survey i acknowledge that i understand and accept the terms described above, and give my full consent to participate in this study. o no, i do not want to continue with this survey. [survey will terminate if this is selected] assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 51 (demographics) your current age: less than 21 21-25 26-30 31-35 more than 35 your gender: male female prefer not to answer are you the first member of your immediate family to attend a post-secondary institution? yes no assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 52 section a: experiences in the preparatory program please identify the preparatory program that you enrolled in at durham college: business fundamentals community services & child studies foundations emergency service fundamentals general arts and science general arts and science - health preparation foundations in art and design premedia trades fundamentals in which academic year did you enrol in this preparatory program? 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 please indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements about the purpose of preparatory programs. a preparatory program should allow you to: strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 1 enhance academic skills 2 gain exposure to the college culture and environment 3 gain knowledge about an area of interest 4 clarify career goal expectations 5 become better prepared for further postsecondary education which of the following was your primary goal in undertaking a preparatory program? improve general academic skills familiarize yourself with college culture and environment explore different postsecondary programs available prepare for specific diploma/undergraduate postsecondary program(s) clarify my career expectations did not have specific goal(s) other (please specify): _________________________________ assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 53 please indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements about your experiences in the preparatory program: the preparatory program allowed you to: strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 1 develop academic skills 2 develop a sense of belonging with the college 3 gain knowledge about your area of interest 3 understand academic workload expectations 4 understand social opportunities available 5 explore students services available on campus 6 clarify career goal expectations 7 develop a better understanding of different post-secondary programs available please indicate the extent to which you used any of the following services during the time you attended durham for your preparatory program at least at least at least once service. never once per once per per week semester month 1 career services 2 diversity office 3 continuing education 4 financial aid office 5 international office 6 registrars office 7 academic learning services (sals) 8 other (please specify below) (other text box)________________________________________________ did this preparatory program meet your expectation(s)? yes please describe the most helpful aspect of the preparatory program: (text box) no assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 54 please describe the most challenging aspect(s) of the preparatory program: (text box) reflecting on your experiences, are there any additional factors that helped you succeed in your college program(s) which you would like to share with prospective students? (text box)________________________________________________ did you subsequently re-enrol/transfer to a postsecondary program? yes no prefer not to answer not applicable - please explain: ________________________ (if yes above, then proceed to section b, otherwise proceed to section d) (if yes above) what was the name of the post-secondary program that you subsequently enrolled in or transferred to? (text box)______________________________ assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 55 section b: decision to enrol/transfer to subsequent post-secondary program overall, would you agree that the preparatory program at durham college helped inform your choice of the subsequent post-secondary program? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree (if disagree or strongly disagree) please describe how the preparatory program did not help inform your choice: (text box) was this post-secondary program at durham college? yes no prefer not to answer (if yes, include next 2 questions then section c part 2; if no or prefer not to answer, go directly to section c - part 1) would you consider the subsequent post-secondary program to be related to the preparatory program? yes no not sure how many comparator colleges/universities in ontario were you considering prior to reenroling at durham college? none 1 2 3 more than 3 assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 56 section c: subsequent post-secondary program (part 1) which of the following institutions did you attend (or are still attending) immediately after completing the preparatory program at durham college? (drop down list of ontario colleges and universities) other (please specify): ____________ which credential did you enrol in at the above college/university? one year certificate two year diploma three year diploma undergraduate degree graduate certificate was this post-secondary program related to the preparatory program at durham college? yes no not sure how many comparator colleges/universities in ontario did you consider prior to re-enroling? none 1 2 3 more than 3 (section c part 2) why did you decide to enrol in this post-secondary program? (select all that apply) was the logical next step in educational path unemployed wanted to get hands-on experience wanted to enhance present skills wanted to further educational qualification changed career path institution was close to home/family other (please specify) _________________________________ please indicate the extent to which you experienced any difficulties transitioning to the subsequent post-secondary program/institution. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 57 prior to enrolling, you had difficulties... 1 understanding the admission requirements 2 contacting someone from admissions 3 contacting someone from the program 4 contacting someone from financial aid office (i.e. for osap, scholarships) 5 determining whether the program was the right fit 6 had no difficulties in the transition strongly disagree disagree agree strongly not agree applicable please describe any other specific difficulties you may have faced during the admission process: (text box) ______________________ overall, how would you rate your experience in transferring to your subsequent postsecondary program? very satisfied satisfied unsatisfied very unsatisfied (if unsatisfied or very unsatisfied) please describe how your transfer experience was unsatisfactory: (text box) overall, did the prior preparatory program at durham college help you to be academically prepared for this post-secondary program? yes how did the prior preparatory program help you, specifically? (text box) please describe how the prior preparatory program did not help: (text box) no did you graduate from the subsequent program? yes no, please explain:________________ assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 58 please indicate whether you used any of the following services during the subsequent program at durham college. at least once never per semester at least once per month at least once per week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 career services diversity office continuing education financial aid office international office registrar academic learning services (sals) 8 other (please specify below) (other text box)________________________________________________ strategies for successful transition reflecting on your experience with the admission process, what strategies could be implemented that would make applying to subsequent post-secondary programs easier? (text box)______________________ reflecting on your experience with the program itself, what strategies could durham college implement that would make the preparatory programs better? (text box)_______________________ additional comments please provide any additional comments/suggestions that you may want to share: (text box) ______ (skip over section d) assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 59 section d: experience after durham college preparatory program please rate your experience with the preparatory program at durham college: very satisfied satisfied unsatisfied very unsatisfied based on the rating you have indicated above, please provide any additional comments or suggestions regarding your experience. please include details regarding issues, concerns and expectations: (text box) __________________________ why did you choose not to pursue further education? financial affordability family responsibilities gainfully employed not interested in further post-secondary education did not have a good experience in the preparatory program other (please specify):__________________________________ (if unsatisfied or very unsatisfied above) please indicate the extent to which the following aspects had a positive impact on your experience with the preparatory program. not at all minimally somewhat highly impacted impacted impacted impacted 1 2 3 4 interactions with faculty students service usage availability of social opportunities content of program (if unsatisfied or very unsatisfied above) are there any factors that could have impacted your decision to attend further post-secondary education? yes o please explain if durham college could have done anything to contribute to your decision: (text box) no overall, what aspect(s) of the preparatory program at durham college did you find most relevant and/or useful (please be as specific as possible). (text box)____________________________________________ assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 60 focus group sign up we would like to further explore your experiences through 1-hour long focus groups in february 2014. these focus groups will be conducted at durham college - oshawa campus. all focus group participants will receive a pizza lunch and a $25 gift card for shoppers drug mart. would you be willing to participate in one of these focus groups? yes no (if yes above) please provide your current contact information below you will be contacted about the focus groups by rashmi gupta (manager, office of research services and innovation) or joshua gerrow (jr. research analyst). name: (text box) preferred email: (text box) preferred phone#: (text box) optional entry form for prize draw by completing this survey, you are eligible to include your name in a draw for one of three $100 best buy gift cards. if you would like to be included, please click on the link below to sign up for the draw. a new window will open where you will be asked for your full name, your e-mail and your phone number please be assured that your personal information will not be connected to any survey responses and will only be used for purposes of the draw. (link) durham college draw entry form links to external draw form; asks for name, phone number and/or email. * note: the draw entry form web page is entirely separate from this survey, and data is stored in a separate database. no ip tracking is performed, which means that there will be no way to connect your survey responses to your draw entry. this is done to ensure and protect your anonymity and privacy. * please ensure to "send answers" on the next page, after providing your information for the draw. assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 61 appendix b: focus group questions assessing the effectiveness of ontario college preparatory programs offered at durham college introduction review information letter review confidentiality explain nature of research project, role of note taker, pi max time 1 hour participants may withdraw at any time informed consent ensure signed consent forms received from all participants questions why did you choose to enrol in the postsecondary program? o why durham college? o impact on personal life (especially for those with families, commuters, working) describe your transfer experience o challenges getting information? o hard to decide on a program/school? o feel supporting by the college? by family and friends? describe your experience in the preparatory program and how you think it will/has affect(ed) your choice or academic performance in the current postsecondary program o better aware of college culture? o better aware of the services and facilities at the college? o fit better with the classmates? o better prepared academically? o communications with/access to professors o interaction with student liaison o what are your goals? what student services are you using? o why or why not? assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 62 what would you recommend to prospective students thinking about enrolling in a preparatory program? o why? what would you recommend to durham college administration to improve preparatory programs? o why? assessing effectiveness of durham college preparatory programs 63

seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility executive summary seneca college is a recognized leader in the field of student transfer and pathways, both nationally and internationally, not just because of its focus on numbers of agreements, but also because of its comprehensive student advising, advocacy, assessment, and development of quality pathways. the degree and credit transfer office (dcto) at seneca provides a variety of integrated services to prospective and current students and alumni. these services include degree transfer advisement on new and existing program pathways diploma to diploma, diploma to degree, and degree to graduate studies and connecting students with other resources and information to support their academic goals. the transfer outcomes of seneca students who have used the dcto services makes for an ideal case study, with findings that could benefit other colleges and universities. senecas dcto was established in 2001 after some investigation pointed to a gap in the provision of information for students. at the time, nearly 44% of incoming students indicated that they planned on pursuing further education after completing their program at seneca (36% at a university) and yet few services existed to support students interested in obtaining further education. previous reviews of dcto services have focused on the experiences of students using the dcto, particularly its flagship publication, the degree transfer guide, providing the dcto with useful but limited feedback. the purpose of the current study is to understand which segments of the seneca student body are making use of the advising services, and which are not, particularly among those who indicated aspirations for university when they entered seneca. secondly, the study aims to understand the transfer rates and experiences of those who used the dcto advising services versus those who did not. these two research components are discussed in part 1 and part 2, respectively, of this report. research questions part 1. what is the profile of students who use the dcto transfer advising services? how do the sociodemographic and academic backgrounds upon college entry differ between dcto users and non-users? do motivations for college and program selection differ upon college entry for dcto users and nonusers? how many students who aspire to university use the dcto services? how many students who use the services entered college without plans for transfer? how do the profiles of these groups of students differ? how do academic outcomes (graduation rates and grades) differ between dcto users and nonusers? part 2. transfer rate to university and transfer experiences what is the transfer rate to university for those who used the dcto versus those who did not? for graduates who transferred to university, did dcto users differ from non-users in terms of their reasons for transfer, sources of information on transfer, or reported satisfaction with the transition experience? for transfers, does the choice of university or university program differ for those who used the dcto versus those who did not? 1 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility methodology the study used a linked student-level database containing the full student population at seneca. students whose first semester was between the summer of 2007 and the fall of 2014, and whose first program was not a degree or a graduate certificate program, were included in the study. visits to the dcto were captured up until october 13, 2016. in total, 59,942 students fit these criteria and were included in the profile of dcto users (part 1 of study). part 2 of the study, transfer outcomes, included a subset of the part 1 sample of those who had graduated from a seneca diploma or certificate program, had completed the provincially mandated graduate satisfaction survey, and whose first visit to the dcto was less than two months after graduation. this resulted in a sample of 13,607 graduates. results part 1: profile of students who used the dcto advising service users of the dcto were much more likely to have had plans for university when they first entered college, compared to those who did not use the dcto services (65% vs. 37%). younger students, females, and those with a parent with a degree were more likely to use the dcto, whereas canadian citizens and those whose first language was english were less likely. there were no differences by income or osap 1 receipt. students who used the dcto had somewhat stronger academic backgrounds, with 67% of users and 56% of non-users taking mostly university preparatory high school courses, and were somewhat more likely to have a high school average over 70% (50% vs. 45%). however, they were less likely to have previously attended college or university. users of the dcto were much more likely to have entered a three-year advanced diploma program compared to non-users (47% vs. 30%) and to have entered a business program (53% vs. 35%). students who used the dcto were much more likely to obtain higher grades at seneca and to graduate, even when student aspirations, sociodemographic, previous academic, and program factors are taken into consideration. part 2. transfer rate and experiences overall, 58% of dcto users furthered their education within six months of graduation compared to 25% of graduates who did not use the dcto; 44% of graduates who transferred to university had used the dcto advising services, whereas 10% of non-users transferred. this difference held true even when controlling for differences in academic performance, student aspirations and a variety of other factors. in total, 20% of transfers to university used the dcto. although this share differed little by student characteristics, 32% of university transfers from business programs and 29% of transfers from advanced diploma programs used the dcto, compared to the average program rate of 20%. of those who aspired to university at college entry, half of dcto users transferred to university, compared to 22% of non-users. overall, york and ryerson predominate as universities of choice. transfers who used the dcto were much more likely than non-users to transfer to ryerson (30% vs. 17%), with users and non-users equally likely to transfer to york. 1 the ontario student application program (osap) provides eligible postsecondary education students with various types of assistance based on financial need. 2 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility graduates who use the dcto are much more likely than non-users to transfer into business at university (52% vs. 25%) and less likely to transfer into humanities or the social sciences. users of the dcto are equally as likely as non-users to transfer into a related program. the reasons for transferring to university were similar between users and non-users, with career advancement and obtaining a credential cited by almost nine in ten transfers. dcto users were more likely than non-users to cite the potential for higher income (76% vs. 70%) and the presence of a transfer agreement (55% vs. 49%) as major reasons. dcto users make more use of most information sources, particularly college sources. graduates satisfaction with the transition experience (83%) and their academic preparation (87%) for transfer is high for both dcto users and non-users, with little difference between the two groups. conclusions overall, students who use the dcto services have similar sociodemographic and academic backgrounds to other college students, indicating that the services have a fairly equitable reach. however, users seem to be concentrated in programs with a large number of transfer agreements, and therefore the provision of outreach may be necessary for those who are navigating pathways with few or no agreements. those who use the services perform extremely well academically in college compared to non-users, likely because they are highly motivated to obtain the grades required to transfer, and possibly because they benefit from dcto advising services as well as referrals to academic advising. the most significant and positive finding of the study is the high transfer rates to further education and specifically to university for users of the dcto advising services. recommendations to enhance usage include reaching out to students (with aspirations for transfer) early on in their program, as well as to faculty and programs whose students are under-represented among dcto users. 3

finance and wealth management project 2015-11 specialized transfer project: finance and wealth management kings university college and fanshawe college final report and executive summary authors: marilyn mason and tracy cunningham, kings university college at western university march 28, 2016 1 specialized transfer program: finance and wealth management kings university college at western university and fanshawe college final report to oncat introduction through the generosity of an oncat grant, beginning march 30, 2015 and continuing to september 15, 2016, kings university college at western university and fanshawe college have developed a unique pathway earning the two year diploma and the three year degree in finance within a four year period. these graduates, in addition to earning a degree and a diploma from both institutions, will also possess a number of certifications (granted by professional finance and banking associations) which will further enhance their career opportunities. project chronology the phase one of the project was twofold. a series of meetings were held with faculty, senior administration and staff to share information about their respective programs and begin to plan a pathway which would both facilitate the earning of both credentials in a shortened time as well as integrate the curriculum and insure an excellent student experience. secondly a series of consultations with mtcu, industry partners, regulatory bodies such as the financial planning standards council, the canadian securities institute, the chartered financial analysts institute and the investment funds institute of canada, employers (both local and regional), alumni and students insured that we meet the expectations of all the stakeholders. in phase two (in which we are nearing completion); we have had consultations at various levels of faculty and administration resulting in modifications- pedagogical and administrative. the pathways are fully developed both for future students, current students as well as graduates from either program who wish to access a path to complete the other credential. we are encouraged that in addition to providing a pathway to future students, we are also serving our current students as well as our past graduates. we are happy to report that the fanshawe college board of directors has approved and endorsed this pathway at their meeting last month. consultations with kings and western have progressed on schedule and it is our expectation that this new pathway/articulation will be on the agenda of the western senate in either may or june. our communications program has been developed and is planned to be 2 completed by fanshawe and kings this summer in order to be fully in place for the fall recruitment season. in the final stage, phase three, we will implement the plans we have finalized for admissions, registration and timetabling. we will also provide student focused programs of transfer assessment, student counselling and special orientation sessions. while undertaking these essential administrative functions, we will establish a joint industry and institutional advisory group which will, in its meetings, establish metrics to enable its ongoing assessment of this pathway. creation of pathways this project supported the creation of a pathway for students to undertake a diploma in finance and a degree in finance in four years rather than the former five. the program plan and curriculum is found in the attached appendix i. in addition, pathways were mapped for graduates of the finance diploma and graduates of the finance degree who wished to complete the other credential. in addition, pathways were mapped for students who are currently registered in either the diploma or degree in finance. in this way, individuals in different circumstances can benefit from the development of this program. kings and fanshawe share a successful history of creating and implementing agreements: the 2+2 program in accounting (2 year diploma program and two years of the bmos accounting or finance and accounting) as well as long standing agreements with the social services worker diploma, child and youth care (formerly cwy), early childhood education and the new developmental services worker. we are now undertaking a project to provide a pathway between police foundations and criminology. learning outcomes kings university college at western university the degree courses at kings require that we follow the framework and expectations listed below. as this program incorporates the existing finance major which has already been approved through the western university senate, the degree courses within this program meet the learning outcomes for degree students. 3 - following western iqap (institutional quality assurance process) based on the quality assurance framework for ontario; university undergraduate degree level expectations (uudles) these will be replaced by westerns degree outcomes once they are approved. o depth and breadth of knowledge o knowledge of methodologies o application of knowledge o communication skills o awareness of limits of knowledge o autonomy and professional capacity fanshawe college the business-finance program standard is appended at the end of this document. (appendix ii) the program standard for the business-finance program of instruction leading to an ontario college of diploma delivered by ontario colleges of applied arts and technology (mtcu funding code 50201) was approved by the ministry of training, colleges and universities in september 2009. successes and challenges building on the longstanding relationship that fanshawe and kings share with the success of other agreements (particularly in business), we were able to quickly identify which courses were transferable between the program for the initial program mapping. we benefited from the knowledge gained by the experience of the collaborative programs at fanshawe and western (nursing, mtp). in particular, the fanshawe-western experience with registration, fees and student service practices assisted greatly in our planning of this pathway. after the initial mapping of the curriculum by administrative personnel based on preestablished course transfer practice, faculty discussions were initiated. we were fortunate that the faculty at fanshawe and kings saw the benefit of this project. we were also very fortunate that the faculty had collaborated previously which had established good rapport and mutual respect. in fact, the coordinator of the finance program at fanshawe is a graduate of kings. we also have faculty who are cross-appointed at both institutions. 4 the initial academic discussions focused on the integration and pacing of curriculum. as a result, we insured that both the diploma and degree requirements were met without repeating content. we also discussed fully the arrangement of courses which would best provide an integrated learning experience. however with a change of departmental leadership at kings, we did not fully anticipate that our consultation would require additional time and consideration. we also discussed a change in the length of the program which lengthened discussion as well as creating delay in the approval process. despite these unexpected events, we believe that the involvement of more faculty expertise and leadership as well as the consideration of other program plans was extremely valuable. these challenges created a stronger and more robust pathway. this academic discussion was complimented by focus groups with industry partners, employers, professional associations, alumni and students. the endorsement of this project by all the stakeholders increased our already strong confidence that this program would provide strong career opportunities for its graduates. with this significant consultation process, we believe we have developed a student-focussed pathway which meets the academic requirements of the credentials while responding to the requirements of the professional accreditation organizations and expectations of employers. meeting these expectations will also insure the satisfaction of our students and the success of our graduates. implementation with the approval of the pathway at fanshawes board of director on february 6, 2016 and the upcoming approval at the spring meeting of western university senate, we will begin to promote the program in the upcoming fall recruitment season with the admissions of the first group for september 2017. these milestones will complete the project as described and intended in the project agreement. 5 concluding remarks kings and fanshawe are very excited with the creation of this pathway in finance and wealth management. we believe that it will provide a wonderful academic experience as well as long term career opportunities for students. our stakeholders in the community (such as employers, alumni and professional associations) believe that this joint initiative will have very positive results of members of the community who will benefit from the service and expertise of these grads. this project has further strengthened the wonderful relationship of kings and fanshawe. the pleasure, as well as productivity, of the collaboration has created another oncat initiative in police foundations and criminology. the lessons learned on this project resulted in our new project plan including a longer consultation and approval process. we wish to extend our sincere thanks for the support of oncat, both financial and collegial, which enabled the completion of this worthy project. the collaboration with our oncat colleagues has been as positive and enjoyable as with our fanshawe and kings friends. 6 appendix 1 course progression by year program year institution course code course name credits 1 1 1 kings kings kings kings 1 kings 1 1 kings kings elective (1000 level) econ1022b math1225b economics algebra category b (arts) credit introduction to business elective .5 .5 1.0 1 econ1021a math1229a category b (arts) credit bus1220e 2 fanshawe writ1032/34 .5 .5 5.0 .5 2 fanshawe busi1068 2 fanshawe fina1024 2 fanshawe fina1053 economics calculus total courses reason and writing effective meetings & presentations financial planning mutual funds in canada 2 fanshawe mktg1012 .5 2 2 fanshawe fanshawe math1057 comm3020 2 fanshawe insr3014 introduction to marketing math of finance business communications life & health insurance planning 2 fanshawe fina3032 .5 2 fanshawe fina1013 investment in canada retirement planning 2 fanshawe fina1025 .5 2 fanshawe fina1040 3 kings econ2220a 3 kings econ2222a individual taxation consumer credit total courses intermediate macroeconomics i econometrics 1 pre-requisite courses req. for licensing 1.0 1.0 .5 .5 cfp core mutual finds licensing .5 .5 .5 writ-1032 or writ-1034 .5 cfp core and life licensing csc 1 .5 .5 6.0 .5 .5 cfp core and rrc econ 1021 +1022 + 1.0 math year 1 econ 1021 +1022 + 1.0 math year 1 7 3 kings bus 2257 3 kings 3 kings actuarial sciences 2053 econ2221b 3 kings econ2223b 3 kings 2xxxe 4 fanshawe fina3036 4 fanshawe 4 accounting and business analysis actuarial sciences 1.0 5.0 year 1 courses intermediate macroeconomics ii econometrics 2 .5 econ 1021 +1022 .5 econ 2222a 1.0 math yr 1 senior essay course (2000 level or above) total courses comp. financial plan 1.0 fina3041 portfolio management .5 fina-1024, fina-1013, insr-3014 fina-3032 fanshawe fina3030 tax planning .5 fina-1025 4 fanshawe fina1012 .5 insr-3014 4 fanshawe mgmt3059 .5 fina-1024, fina-1013 4 fanshawe laws3018 4 4 kings kings mos 3310 mos 3312 4 kings econ 3370 4 kings elective 2000+ level risk management & estate planning strategic client engagement business law total courses finance for mos derivatives securities for mos international finance elective 2000+ level total courses 1.0 5.0 .5 .5 3.0 .5 .5 .5 csc2 and cfp core cfp core cfp core and rrc bus 2257 econ 2300 mos 3310 econ 2221 .5 2.0 the above model represents the pathway of courses that a student will be required to take following admission to the cohort directly in year one. to facilitate transfer between the diploma and the degree, for those students who do not choose this program directly out of high school, students will be able to receive advanced standing credit from either the diploma or the degree as outlined in the chart below. additional or alternate credit may considered depending on elective courses taken at either institution. 8 fanshawe course kings course course weight year writ 1032/134 + comm 3020 communications 1020 trn 1.0 1 marketing 1012 fina 3041 fina 3036 + mgmt 3059 marketing 1020 trn economics 2300 a/b business 2100 trn total courses: 0.5 0.5 1.0 3.0 1 2 2 9

the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of ontarios graduate satisfaction survey 2007-2015 centre for research in student mobility executive summary the ability of ontario college students to transfer credits to the university sector in ontario has been an ongoing issue for many years. progress toward a more seamless postsecondary education system has been slow and steady (crsm, 2015), culminating in the announcement in 2011 by ontarios ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) of a new provincial credit transfer framework, committing $73.7 million over five years. this report describes provincial trends in college transfer to university using data from the ontario college graduate satisfaction survey (gss) for the years 2007 to 2015. the study tracked the volume of graduates moving between college and university, and their characteristics and experience of transfer. of the 694,379 graduates, 444,451 participated in the gss, for an average response rate of 64%. the research questions include: 1. what are the trends in transfer to further education after graduation? a. which institutions and programs are college graduates choosing? has the distribution changed among institutions, credentials or programs? b. are graduates entering programs that more closely align with their college credential? has the amount of reported transfer credit changed? c. what is the student profile of college graduates who transfer? d. why do college graduates transfer to university? e. what information sources on transfer are graduates using? 2. are college transfers to university satisfied with their academic preparation and transition experience? 3. what factors, including socioeconomic and transfer-specific characteristics, influence the transfer rate and satisfaction with the transition experience? the study incorporates new variables including disability and aboriginal self-identity to test whether students who are under-represented in the direct entry pathway to university, are also underrepresented in the college-to-university transfer pathway. the first section of this report shows the full complement of transfer pathways for all college graduates. the remaining sections focus on transfer to university programs for college graduates of one-year certificate and two-and three-year diploma programs, excluding college degree and graduate certificate programs. results transfer rates the overall percentage of college graduates furthering their education has been fairly stable at approximately 26%. however, the percentage transferring to a university program has decreased, from 8% in 200607 to 5.5% by 201415. in contrast, the share transferring to a college program has increased, from 17% to 19.1% over the same period. when graduate certificate and college degree programs are excluded from the analysis, the transfer rate declines from 8.3% to 6.3%. controlling for any changes in the composition of students, programs, or college profiles, the regression models show that 1 the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of ontarios graduate satisfaction survey 2007-2015 centre for research in student mobility the graduating years of 2012 to 2015 had significantly lower transfer rates than the 2007 reference year. factors that may have contributed to this trend include: the increased number of students, particularly international students, entering college with a degree; the increase in pathway options to a degree, such as college degree programs and access programs in university; increased student spaces in universities due to shrinking demographics; and greater awareness of the career options for graduates with a college credential (non-degree). ontario college graduates who were less likely to transfer were female, older, international, originally from neighbourhoods that were low-income or where english was the first language, and graduates whose campus of college graduation was beyond a commuting distance to university. graduates who reported a disability were slightly less likely to transfer, and aboriginal students were equally as likely to transfer. graduates of advanced diploma and community service and preparatory/upgrading programs were more likely to transfer. transfer largely occurred within related fields of study. major shifts in regional transfer rates occurred in 2007 to 2015. in 2007, metro toronto and the surrounding central region had much higher transfer rates than the rest of the province; by 2015, however, their rate was similar to that of other provincial regions. la cit collgiale continues to have the highest percentage of graduates who transfer, at 14% in both 2007 and 2015, whereas durham college has experienced the highest rate increase and now has the second highest rate in the province at 9% vs 6.6% in 2007. in terms of absolute numbers of transfers, the larger metro toronto colleges still predominate, with humber, seneca, and george brown ranked in the top three. york and ryerson universities continue to rank first and second in the volume of transfers received, with university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) moving toward a tie with the university of ottawa for third place. however, when the amount of transfer is weighted to enrolment, the northern universities are receiving a much larger share of transfer students compared to other ontario universities across the province. transfer experience overall, university transfers reported being satisfied with their academic preparation (85%), the collegeto university transition (81%), and their college education (87%). these values have been stable since 2007. university transfers who made use of information were more satisfied with their transition experience, particularly those who used college sources (5 percentage points more likely to be satisfied) or university sources (3 percentage points more likely). graduates who transferred for academic or program related reasons were more satisfied with their transition experience, whereas those transferring due to encouragement from others, or to advance their careers or employment outlook, did not differ in their satisfaction level. as might be expected, transfer credit that either met or exceeded expectations is a very large influencer on satisfaction with the transition experience. as well, receiving transfer credit and transferring to a related program area are also positive influencers on transfer. the timing of notification of credit is not significant. 2 the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of ontarios graduate satisfaction survey 2007-2015 centre for research in student mobility conclusions the study of transfer rates, the transfer experience, and trends over time is a complex endeavor, particularly in a dynamic environment with shifting student aspirations and demographics, a proliferation in new program offerings at colleges and universities, and changing labour market demand. further research should focus on areas such as the role of college-university transfer for groups traditionally under-represented in university, and the effectiveness of current transfer agreements to support students. the creation of data infrastructure using the ontario education number can provide central tracking of transfer rates, so that transfer can be measured by student demographics, region, transfer credit, and student retention and success after transfer. administrative data, however, cannot capture the student perspective, and an ongoing reliance on survey data such as the ontario college graduate satisfaction survey, together with other qualitative research, will be required. 3

executive summary this project aimed at establishing a reciprocal pathway (bi-directional) between the stage management technician program at collge boral and the drama studies program at york university's glendon campus. these institutions shared a mutual interest in developing an innovative cooperative relationshippathway between these programs, in order to allow students to acquire at the same time the technical, technological, practical and theoretical knowledge in performance and theatrical productions in french, with the ultimate goal of serving the francophone communities in southern ontario. in the established framework agreementas part of the agreement established, graduates from the stage management technician program at collge boral have the option of accessing the drama studies program (120 credits) at york university's glendon campus and obtaining a specialized honours ba. a total of 42 credits will be awarded. likewise, the graduates of the drama studies program at york university's glendon campus (90 or 120 credits) have the option of accessing the 2nd year of the stage management technician program offered at collge boral and obtain an ontario college diploma. in order to do so, they must pass three upgrading courses delivered in hybrid mode in the spring semester of each year. these courses consist of 2two weeks of distance education and 3three intensive weeks of laboratory training offered at collge boral's sudbury campus. 2 oncat 2014-20 sommaire excutif

project number 2014-25 integrated learning programs (ilps) for university-college collaborative degrees in ontario final report to oncat executive summary todays employers need students with practical skills, excellent education and the ability to think creatively, innovate, and solve complex problems. the aim of this project was to create a new program model to integrate university degree and college diploma curricula into a single, four-year degree/diploma program. based upon the successful partnership between carleton university and algonquin college in the delivery of their bachelor of information technology programs, the integrated learning program (ilp) model is designed to maximize institutional strengths, integrate university and college learning outcomes, reduce duplication and redundancies, and decrease the time to get highly qualified and trained graduates into employment. the ilp project was a collaborative initiative between two universities (carleton and ocad u) and two colleges (george brown and algonquin). the aim of the project was to develop a generic ilp model that could be used by any partnering university and college in ontario to develop an ilp degree based upon an existing college diploma. the generic template was developed using three program developments between the four partnering institutions: a business administration degree in finance between carleton and george brown college, which will integrate george browns advanced diploma in finance with carletons bachelor of commerce degree for a bachelor in financial services; a degree in fashion concept design between gbc and ocad u that will integrate gbcs fashion techniques and design diploma program and ocad us material art & design program; and a new bachelor of information technology (bit) program in information resource management (irm) between carleton and algonquin based upon algonquins two-year library and information technician diploma program. project management the ilp project steering committee met three times during the course of the project, twice at carleton (may 2014 and march 2015) and once at george brown (october 2014). in between there were numerous meetings between the partners both for the development of the three new programs and the development of the generic templates. the generic template forms part of the deliverables to oncat while the three programs will be finalized and completed after the completion of the oncat project as they constitute the ip of the partnering institutions and require appropriate internal and external approvals before they can be implemented. oncat deliverables there are two deliverables that are being provided to oncat as a result of this project. 1. university-college integrated learning program (ilp) template: this template has been developed using the experience between carleton and algonquin college in the development of the bachelor of information technology (bit) degree, and through testing on the development of a new bit program in information resource management and on the development of a bachelor of financial services between carleton and george brown college. further testing was undertaken in the exploration of program options between george brown college and ocad u. this generic template covers the administrative, academic, regulatory, and financial processes to be followed by a university and a college wishing to develop an ilp degree program based upon an existing college diploma. the template defines the processes for the development of the pathways and bridges (if necessary) based on a learning outcomes framework of an integrated curriculum which meets the academic requirements of both the degree and the diploma, as well as the administrative and regulatory processes and procedures required to manage the operational relations between the two institutions and the students in the program. this template is based upon the ontario quality assurance framework, including the procedures and steps in the program development, assessment and approval processes; however, it would be possible for institutions outside ontario to use the template and adapt it to the provincial quality assurance regime as appropriate. the financial model provides the high level framework for the financial arrangements and the allocation of resources between the partner institutions. this model is based entirely upon the carleton-algonquin bit program, but expanded into a generic framework that can be applied to the development of new ilp programs between a university and a college. the financial model is specific to ontario given that it is based upon the biu funding formula, which is unique to ontario within canada. 2. detailed financial statement of the project: the final budget report provides a full statement of the use of resources during the project, including the use of inkind and oncat funded components of the project. ilp program development status in addition to the generic template being provided to oncat, this project also involved the development of three new ilp programs as described above. the development of these programs is not part of the deliverables to oncat, but they do constitute important outcomes of the ilp project. the three programs are in various stages of development and approval, as follows: carleton-algonquin bit program in information resource management (irm): this program has been fully developed and has been approved by the senate of carleton university and approved by algonquin college as meeting the requirements of the diploma in library and information technician diploma program. the program has now been submitted to the ontario universities council on quality assurance for approval and will be submitted to the ministry of training, colleges, and universities for funding approval in april 2015. pending external approvals, the first intake of students in this program is anticipated for september 2016. carleton-george brown bachelor of financial services: the bulk of the curriculum for this program has been developed, and the results of the employment demand market survey will be available later in april. once the market demand has been determined, the financial model for the program will be finalized and the program will move through carleton universitys program approval and quality assurance processes. the program will allow graduates from george browns advanced diploma in finance to bridge into the ilp program as well as new students to commence the program as a four-year ilp degree/diploma program. it is anticipated that if the program approval process goes smoothly it would be possible to launch the program in september 2017. ocad u-george brown degree in material art & design with a specialization in fashion: the initial discussions between george brown college and ocad u were based upon enhancing the existing articulation agreements between ocad u material art and design and gbc school of design, such that: (a) there is better communication of articulation requirements for gbc students at the beginning of their programs; (b) gbc students have opportunities to take courses at ocad u prior to articulating; and/or (c) ocad u liberal arts and science requirements can be counted as electives or program requirements in the gbc diploma programs. using the template developed under this ilp project, the two institutions are exploring the development of a fashion specialization in the ocad u material art & design program using a combination of ocad u and gbc courses. this program is still in the early stages of development and it is not possible at this time to determine the likely time of development or potential launch. also, ocad u and gbc are working collaboratively to explore the possibility of one or more joint degree programs, possibly in accessory design, and to develop a model or models for future implementation. future developments the outcomes of this project provide the generic template to promote and expand the development of ilp degrees in ontario. by developing the integrated curriculum that delivers on the learning outcomes and academic requirements of both a degree and a diploma in four years, ilp programs present an opportunity to offer ontario students alternative ways to undertake their post-secondary education that maximize the strengths of both a university and college education. the generic template provides the pathway for universities and colleges in ontario to collaborate in the development of what has been a proven success story for carleton university and algonquin college. peter ricketts, ba (hons), phd provost and vice-president (academic) march 31, 2015

university to college transfer students exploring motives and characteristics executive summary november 28, 2013 executive summary it has become progressively more common for students to transfer between postsecondary institutions in ontario. several studies that have examined mobility trends and transfer student characteristics indicate that the pathways students use to access postsecondary education are becoming more diversified. to date research has generally focused most on college students who transfer to university, but relatively less is known about the movement from university to college. therefore, confederation college conducted this study to focus on students who transferred to confederation college from university between 2010 and 2012. the main objective was to discover why students choose to attend college after attending university. other important themes were also examined, including student characteristics, academic performance, program choice, transfer experience, and students overall experience. data was collected via online surveys and two focus groups. participants included students who are either currently enrolled at, or had previously attended, confederation college and who had any amount of previous university experience. the survey questions were guided from both the research objective and previous research into university-college student mobility. from a total of 234 potential transfer students, 30 completed the survey, for a response rate of 13%. the survey also included an invitation to participate in one of two focus groups, each with a moderator to guide the discussion. a total of 17 students participated in the focus groups. the data show that in university, most students had been enrolled in the social sciences or humanities (50%), education (20%), or science and mathematics (16.7%), with a small number in business or natural resource programs. in contrast, in college most students enrolled in programs in the school of health and community services (56%), followed by the school of business, hospitality and media arts (20%), the school of aviation (13%) and the school of engineering technology and trades (10%). when asked about factors motivating program choice, students most often stated that they chose their university program due to general interest (46%), followed by specific career related goals (36%). the most common response for choosing their college program was for career related goals (66%). more than half of students stated that their college program was related to their university program. a high proportion of students (80%) reported that they were not employed in a job related to their program after university and believed that university did not prepare them for employment; however, 100% of respondents feel that college is preparing them for employment. in terms of the transfer experience itself, students gave a variety of responses. some were able to transfer credits quickly and easily, while others experienced difficulties or disappointment such as when courses were refused for transfer that they felt should have been accepted. the findings of this study will be used to further improve the transfer processes at confederation college. a recommendation for future research is to further investigate the findings on academic performance. the groups in this study consisted of both transfer students who had received a university degree and those who had some university experience but had not completed a credential. more informative results and differences may emerge by looking at students who have completed university and students who have not completed as two separate groups.

creating of new diploma to degree pathway for social services worker (ssw) college diploma graduates school of social work executive summary oncat project 2014-01 march 19, 2015 executive summary the school of social work at ryerson university aimed to create a new program that provides a direct entry into the second year of its bachelor of social work (bsw) program for college graduates with a social services worker (ssw) diploma, who have less than two years of cumulative paid experience in the social work field. ssw graduates have strongly advocated for new pathways into university level social work education. in response, ryerson university has modified its bachelor of social work curriculum to make it more appropriate for such student group. the demand for this new pathway is evident in the number of applications ryerson university has received for the 201415 academic year: 320 applications for 30 spaces. in the past, due to systematic barriers, ssw diploma graduates were unable to access bsw education, immediately upon graduation. their only point of entry was to start the bsw program form year one, at the same level as students with a high school diploma. following extensive meetings with external stakeholders, ryerson university was able to determine the synergies between the ssw college diploma program and the bachelor of social work program, which were used to begin internal dialogues regarding college graduates holding an ssw diploma. through the process of determining and implementing the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program admissions criteria, all key departments were consulted, including the faculty of community services, curriculum advising office, universitys planning office, and the office of the registrar and the admissions office. in an effort to ensure a seamless integration of students into the new bsw program stream, ryerson university has implemented numerous operational adjustments that are in direct correlation with several internal units, such as the recruitment office, scheduling and timetabling, student affairs coordinator office and field education office. in its inaugural year, the direct entry to 2nd year of the bsw program has met its target and has an excellent development potential. at present, ryerson university has increased its enrollment numbers for this bsw program stream from 30 to 90 for the 2015-16 academic year.

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2016-32 enhancing the psw to pn bridge through responsive pathway redesign december 22, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to enhance an educational pathway between the personal support worker certificates (psw) to conestogas practical nursing diploma program (pn). the goal of this project was to redesign a pathway to the practical nursing (pn) diploma for personal support workers (psw). through an integrated program design, curriculum was intentionally developed to meet the diverse learning needs of the personal support worker. the implementation of the new psw to pn redesign and related curriculum enhances the student experience while ensuring that graduates obtain the knowledge, skills, and judgement to successfully complete the canadian practical nursing registration exam. standardized admission processes further strengthened the bridge resulting in what we expect will be improved student retention and success. this unique pathway provides opportunities for psws to continue to work part-time gaining valuable experience in the health-care field, while working towards their diploma; typically requiring one to two days per week. this certificate to diploma pathway provides students an opportunity to explore health care as a psw, helping meet their goals of becoming a nurse, for those wishing to do so. the opportunity to provide highly engaging and interactive learning opportunities allows psws to engage in continuing education and has implications for meeting needs-based workforce demands. this format will engage students who may otherwise be unable to enter full-time programming. it is our intent to increase student retention and success by strengthening integrated knowledge-practice learning by utilizing online, clinical and simulation-based learning opportunities. improved retention, student success and satisfaction were key priorities of this pathway redesign. this pathway redesign strengthens both the academic rigor of the pathway and better supports the needs and expectations of our future students. 1 project overview: phase one program mapping and gap analysis: relevant program design matrices, learning outcomes, and all course outlines for the psw program were reviewed by the pn team. additionally, program maps demonstrating how the program learning outcomes are met through the individual program curriculum were supplied. faculty completed a comprehensive gap analysis for the pathways (appendix a), and the following recommendations were shared with the team to ensure strong pathways between the programs: a) representatives recommends the following bridging courses be offered to bridge students, as shown in detail in appendix b: course title college reading & writing skills safety in the workplace human physiology introduction to pharmacotherapeutics 1 professional nursing 1 adult development and aging info5rmation and communication technologies general elective nursing concepts 2 pathophysiology and pharmacotherapeutics 2 professional nursing 2 human development and health promotion nursing lab 2 general elective course code comm1085 ohs1320 pnur1143 pnur1153 pnur1157 pnur1165 pnur1174 pnur1228 pnur1243 pnur1257 pnur1265 pnur1275 delivery hours 45 15 45 15 45 30 15 42 60 60 45 30 30 42 credits 3 1 3 1 3 2 1 3 4 4 3 2 2 3 b) representatives recommend the following courses be added to the bridge curriculum for delivery beginning in the 2016/17 academic year: course title psw to pn concepts 1: assessment psw to pn nursing lab & practice 1 psw to pn nursing practice 2 course code pnur**** pnur**** pnur**** delivery hours 28 hours 28 hours 132 hours phase two pathway development: both program teams recognized the importance of creating accessible pathways of education for students, while maintaining program integrity and providing improvements to strengthen student success. phase two of the project included the development of a program pathway, including bridging courses that addressed gaps in knowledge, skills and/or abilities identified through the gap analysis completed in phase one (appendix a). once the bridge was developed, the minimum gpa and other relevant eligibility standards for students seeking admission to these established pathways were determined. also identified were the courses for which transfer credit is to be granted to students entering via each established pathway, as well as the remaining courses to be completed at conestoga. see appendix b and c for details regarding the academic bridge and appendix d for complete pathway details. phase three: pathway publication and final report conestogas psw and pn teams have partnered to complete all analyses and conclusions that support the objectives of project 2016-32, including: a curriculum and gap analysis of the pathways (appendix a), a corresponding explanation of bridge curriculum and scheduling (appendix b), required pathway documentation (appendix d), and a detailed financial statement (provided in a separate excel sheet, as requested by oncat). complete pathway details will be submitted at ontransfer.ca by march 15, 2016. the credit transfer and registrars offices of the partner institutions will be appropriately informed of the new pathway details.. 3 viability report and best practices: through the major program review and oncat proposal, it was determined that the psw to pn bridge would serve as a sustainable option for psw graduates to obtain their practical nursing diplomas. the following best practices were brought forward: 1) psw to pn bridge students require additional socialization to the nursing professional role. it was determined that all psw to pn bridge students would enter into pn program at level 3 (appendix c). this served to increase professional socialization, critical thinking, and concentrated efforts as a full-time student earlier to promote successful program completion, increase retention and student satisfaction. 2) psw to pn bridge students prefer a faster pathway. the previous pathway was 3 years and 8 months in total. students had a difficult time connecting knowledge over the longer timeframe. it was determined that students would best succeed over a shorter duration. the redesigned bridge can now be completed in as little as 2 years and 4 months. 3) psw to pn bridge students require deeper connections across curriculum. curriculum was mapped across both programs, and a new integrated curriculum approach was designed through impactful and intentional design one that emphasizes interprofessional practice realities. lab, clinical courses, and theoretical concepts for clinical reasoning and practice were stacked within a semester to promote student success, and further integrate learning across the semesters (new from previous design). 4) private career college psw graduates had historically struggled to complete the psw to pn bridge successfully, resulting in attrition and decreased student retention. it was decided that psw grads with private career college certificates would be required to complete one of conestogas enhanced personal support worker programs to be eligible for entry into the psw to pn bridge. 5) previous psw to pn bridge students struggled with math concepts, translating across pharmacology and clinical courses with the pn program. it was decided that a new math entry requirement would be introduced to help students succeed in the psw to pn bridge, and increase requisite knowledge in support of student preparedness. this also promotes consistency between the psw to pn bridge and pn program admission requirements. 6) the admission process was identified as an area that required standardization. the full admission process has now moved from the school of health and life sciences & community services to the registrars office to ensure consistency, improve efficiency, and ensure adequate rigor to the admission process. appendix a: findings of gap analysis the following is a curriculum and gap analysis of psw to pn based on a learning outcomes framework. method: the collaborative process outlined below formulated the method of the psw to pn pathway redesign: phase one: major program review [mpr] (february to april, 2016) team- based critical review and reflection grounded the mpr process. through analysis of the mpr, the team identified gaps and opportunities for enhancements and planning towards a new pathway for psw to pn. the team focused on enhancing student success and retention, while addressing the rigor, quality and sustainability of the program. nursing and psw program advisory committees and key stakeholders were engaged in meaningful and strategic discussions. key stakeholders included employers, instructors, the pn program and psw program staff, and current students. the three 125-hour enhanced personal worker programs (1. acute care; 2. community-based care, and; 3. palliative-end-of-life care) were reviewed and implemented as eligibility criteria for psws with a credential from a private career college in order to best prepare them for continued academic success. phase two: program mapping & design (april to june, 2016) the i4 pedagogical framework was used to guide program redesign and curriculum development in addition to the cno entry-to-practice competencies. learning outcomes from conestogas psw program (version 1609) were compared against the learning outcomes from the pn diploma. a gap analysis was done to identify psw outcomes that achieved outcomes defined for practical nursing. for each pn program outcome, gaps and their remediation were assessed and documented. please see the table in the gap analysis: personal support worker (1609) practical nursing (1609). the breadth of knowledge and experience the psw brings to the pn program was acknowledged during program design and mapping of learning outcomes and course outlines from the psw and pn programs. this process identified curriculum overlap that required reinforcement and gaps needing to be addressed. phase three: program implementation & delivery (june to september, 2016) potential psw to pn bridge students were contacted in june with updated program admission requirements, the new admission process, and delivery design for the new bridge starting fall 2016. the first cohort of the program was implemented for fall 2016, with an intake of 32 students. phase four: accreditation & program approval (ongoing) the new psw to pn design will be submitted for program approval with the ministry of advanced 5 education and skills development. findings: many of the applied competencies developed in the psw program address the technical competencies in semester 1 of the pn program. opportunities to exempt psw students from partial courses of an applied nature were identified. recommendations: 5 key areas were found to have gaps between the psw program curriculum and the pn program curriculum: entry-to-practice competencies from the college of nurses of ontario professional, legal and ethical standards specific to nursing critical thinking leadership comprehensive nursing assessments across the lifespan, including nursing diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation psw graduates wishing to bridge to the pn program need to take 3 tailored courses in the bridge to meet additional competencies. conclusions: a pathway for psw students is feasible based on the capabilities of psw program graduates. the pathway will acknowledge the psw knowledge, skills and work experience in applied areas of the practical nursing program, resulting in a part-time pathway from psw to pn. gap analysis: personal support worker (1609) practical nursing (1609) practical nursing outcomes conestoga college personal support worker outcomes conestoga college gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap 1. achieve the entry to practice competencies of the college of nurses of ontario (cno) and the program standards of the [ministry]. no outcomes apply here. the gap here is very significant difference between psw and pn graduates. while psw graduates will graduate with strong knowledge and skills around communication skills and basic care, they will be completely lacking knowledge and skills pertaining to assessments, nursing skills required for entry to practice, nursing process, critical thinking, and decision making. students will be required to take pn semester 3 and 4 full-time to promote socialization to the role of the professional nurse 2. communicate with clients, families and communities to enhance personcentred care. 4. participate as a member of the interprofessional care team and maintain collaborative working relationships, accept and integrate constructive feedback, and use effective and appropriate communication and relationship skills to provide supportive client-centered care in a variety of care settings. 5. provide client-centered and clientdirected care that promotes independence and is based on ethical principles, sensitive to diverse client and family values, beliefs and needs and which follows the direction of the interprofessional care team. psw graduates typically have an advantage upon main stream pn students in terms of communication outcomes and the gap is in the context of the nursing differences of the nursing role and communication. psw to pn bridge students will take: information and communication technologies professional nursing 1, 2 and 3 to enhance skills 3. manage information within a professional, legal, and ethical framework using technology appropriately. 11.observe, report and document relevant client information using the appropriate mode of verbal or written communication and written or electronic documentation in a timely manner and in accordance psw graduates come with a basic understanding of documentation legislation and ethics; however, it is pertinent to the psw role. psw to pn bridge students will take information and communication technologies course and professional nursing 1, 2 and 3 to enhance knowledge on ethical 7 practical nursing outcomes conestoga college 4. demonstrate collaborative practice and leadership supportive of care delivery and team effectiveness.. 5. conduct equitable and just relationships with clients and members of the health care team. personal support worker outcomes conestoga college with the required employer policies and procedures and applicable legislation. 14. identify and report situations of neglect and potential, alleged or witnessed/actual incidents of abuse of clients, family, care partners, and/or psws and respond in accordance with all applicable legislation and employer policies and procedures. 10. assist in the provision of clientcentered, culturally relevant, palliative and end of life care to clients, their families and care partners including observing, reporting, documenting and transferring accountability in accordance with the plan of care/service plan. no outcomes directly apply to leadership 9. assist family and care partners who are caring for dependent individuals, considering clients and family choices, the direction of the plan of care/service plan, and the psws professional boundaries. 12. understand how to establish and maintain helping and professional relationships with clients, their families and care partners and support systems which reflect open communication, advocacy, professional boundaries, employers policies and adherence to confidentiality and privacy legislation. gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap psw graduates lack knowledge on professional, legal and ethical standards specific to nursing frameworks and professional and legal nursing implications the gap here is in regards to leadership skills for the psw. all students will take professional nursing 4: leadership the gap here is incomplete. the psw graduate has a foundational communication skills knowledge, but require additional learning in the role and context of the nurse. students will take: professional nursing 1 professional nursing 2 professional nursing 3: foundations for community practice in addition, students will complete 2 clinical courses, and consolidation where these skills can be applied. practical nursing outcomes conestoga college 6. assess clients across the life span, in a systematic and holistic manner. 7. plan safe and competent nursing care, based upon a thorough analysis of available data and evidenceinformed practice guidelines. personal support worker outcomes conestoga college gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap 11. observe, report and document relevant client information using the appropriate mode of verbal or written communication and written or electronic documentation in a timely manner and in accordance with the required employer policies and procedures and applicable legislation. psw graduates have a basic understanding of observations with a focus on how age related changes impact care, and holistic care. there is a gap here in regards to systematic nursing assessment. students will need to take a shortened version of the following courses to address the gap: nursing lab and practice 1 nursing concepts 1: assessment no outcomes apply here. psw graduates have a basic knowledge and skill to perform basic care that is including in nursing care (bathing, transfers, feeding, and supporting care) there is a gap here in regards to providing the full scope of nursing care, analyzing data and evidenced informed practice guidelines 8. select and perform nursing interventions using clinical judgment, in collaboration with the client and, where appropriate, the health care team that promote health and wellbeing, prevent disease and injury, maintain and/or restore health, promote rehabilitation, and/or provide palliation. no outcomes apply here. 9. evaluate the outcomes resulting from all interventions in the nurseclient interaction and modify the plan of care as required. no outcomes apply here. the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered in the psw certificate program as it is specific to nursing, so bridge students will have to complete all the material pertaining to this outcome. the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered in the psw certificate program as it is specific to nursing, so students will complete all other nursing lab, practice and concepts course in entirety to meet this gap students will need to take a shortened version of the following courses to address the gap: nursing lab and practice 1 nursing concepts 1: assessment students will complete all other nursing lab, practice and concepts course in entirety to meet this gap students will need to take a shortened version of the following courses to address the gap: nursing lab and practice 1 nursing concepts 1: assessment nursing practice 2 students will take in entirety the 2nd through 4th semester of the pn program to achieve this outcome. students will need to take a shortened version of the following courses to address the gap: 9 practical nursing outcomes conestoga college personal support worker outcomes conestoga college gap in knowledge and skills bridge students will have to complete all the material pertaining to this outcome. 10. promote healthy and safe work environments in a variety of health care settings. 11. practice in a self-regulated, professional and ethical manner, complying with relevant legislation and with the standards of both the regulatory body and the practice setting to provide safe and competent client care. 11. observe, report and document relevant client information using the appropriate mode of verbal or written communication and written or electronic documentation in a timely manner and in accordance with the required employer policies and procedures and applicable legislation. 3) act responsibly and be accountable for ones own actions while recognizing the boundaries of knowledge and skills within the psw role that necessitates using problem solving, time management, stress management and critical thinking skills and strategies and requires collaboration with the client, family, care partners, supervisor and/or other members. no outcomes apply here. the gap here is incomplete- i.e. psw students have baseline knowledge on healthy and safe work environments, but require additional knowledge on the nurses role in achieving this outcome remediation of gap nursing lab and practice 1 nursing concepts 1: assessment nursing practice 2 students will take in entirety the 2nd through 4th semester of the pn program to achieve this outcome. students will need to take a shortened version of the following courses to address the gap: nursing lab and practice 1 nursing concepts 1: assessment nursing practice 2 students will take in entirety the 2nd through 4th semester of the pn program to achieve this outcome. the gap here is complete- psw graduates require knowledge on the nursing professional as self-regulated, ethics, and standards of practice for the regulatory body. students will take: professional nursing 1 professional nursing 2 professional nursing 3: foundations for community practice in addition, students will complete 2 clinical courses, and practical nursing outcomes conestoga college personal support worker outcomes conestoga college gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap consolidation where these skills can be applied. 11 appendix b: bridging documentation new program summary map psw-pn bridge map semester 1 foundations for practical nursing science nursing theory pnur1165 adult development & aging semester 2 exposure to professional practice 1 semester 3 exposure to professional practice 2 completion of pn1 potential to enter fulltime semester 4 development of professional practice 1 pnur1143 human physiology pnur1153 introduction to pharmacotherapeutics pnur1243 pathophysiology & pharmacology 2 pnur1157 professional nursing 1 pnurxxxx psw to pn concepts 1: assessment pnur1257 professional nursing 2 pnur1265 human development & health promotion nursing practice pnur1174 information and communication technologies ohs1320 safety in the workplace pnurxxxx psw to pn nursing lab & practice 1 semester 5 development of professional practice 2 pnur1228 nursing concepts 2 pnur1275 nursing lab 2 pnurxxxx psw to pn nursing practice 2 general knowledge for personal development comm1085 college reading and writing skills elective elective full time pn3 1077 practical nursing program appendix c: psw to pn bridge pathways - courses and semesters 13 appendix d: pathway documentation pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: personal support worker to: practical nursing pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: certificate to diploma none september 2016 pending program approval conestogas credit transfer office phone: 519-748-5220 ext. 3656 credittransfer@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): psw certificate from a 1 year ontario college program minimum average of 75% are required: grade 12 english, c or u grade 12 mathematics, c or u grade 11 or 12 biology, c or u grade 11 or 12 physics or chemistry, c or u, or grade 11 or 12 science, c or u applicant currently working as a psw applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: psw certificate from a 1 year ontario college program minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum average of 75% are required: minimum average of 75% are required: grade 12 english, c or u grade 12 mathematics, c or u grade 11 or 12 biology, c or u grade 11 or 12 physics or chemistry, c or u, or grade 11 or 12 science, c or u minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) minimum 6 out of 24 credits transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): -students who successfully completed an english language course eligible for credit transfer will receive credit transfer for comm1085 -conestoga psw grads will receive exemption from ohs132- safety and the workplace - students may be eligible for credit transfer of electives pending previous academic history -students will be granted exemption of hours from first semester pn lab and concept courses ( newly designed shorter course are offered to bridge students, to account for previous knowledge and experience). total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be 25% or 7 of 29 (psw to pn bridge + pn program) 15 completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled fulltime: list of eligible institutions and their programs psw to pn bridge + pn program- 2 years 4 months first 1 year 8 months are offered part-time last 8 months - full-time ontario college 1-year psw programs other colleges will be reviewed on an individual basis private career college students will be required to complete the conestoga college certificate;- enhanced personal support worker to be eligible for consideration to the bridge

1 from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students claire henderson, academic research inc. ursula mccloy, seneca college march 2017 oncat ref# 2016-10 research 2 contact information ursula mccloy, phd claire henderson ursula.mccloy@senecacollege.ca claire@academicagroup.com the centre for research in student mobility, academica group inc. seneca college www.academicagroup.ca senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch 131 wharncliffe road south, 8 the seneca way london, ontario n6j 2k4 markham, on l3r 5y1 519.433.8302 ext. 224 416-491-5050 x77936 from application and beyond 3 table of contents executive summary ........................................................................................................................ 4 introduction ................................................................................................................................... 10 purpose of study ....................................................................................................................... 10 research questions ................................................................................................................... 10 literature review...........................................................................................................................11 research method .......................................................................................................................... 12 results ........................................................................................................................................... 15 phase one applicant profiles................................................................................................. 15 sociodemographic characteristics ........................................................................................ 15 academic characteristics...................................................................................................... 16 decision-making process ..................................................................................................... 18 phase two follow-up survey results ................................................................................... 23 college students who aspired to a degree........................................................................... 23 transfer experience of college-to-university transfer students......................................... 26 university transition experience of college transfers vs. those with no previous pse .... 29 conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 33 references ..................................................................................................................................... 35 from application and beyond 4 executive summary it has been well established that different segments of the population are more or less likely to aspire to and attend college or university. in particular, students with disabilities, low income students, first generation students, students from rural communities, indigenous students, and male students are less likely to attend university. these disparities in access are primarily a university issue, in that these groups are not generally underrepresented in colleges relative to the population. based on these findings, it has been suggested that enhancing the college-touniversity pathway may be a vehicle to reduce inequities in university access (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). the purpose of this study was to examine the profiles and pathways of college-to-university students in order to enhance our understanding of who is accessing this transfer pathway, and their unique needs and experiences. to do this, the motivations, experiences, and outcomes of four groups of ontario students were examined: 1) college applicants who aspired to complete a 4-year degree; 2) college applicants who did not aspire to complete a 4-year degree; 3) university applicants with a completed college credential; and, 4) university applicants with no previous pse. this study also contributes to the literature by offering insights into the factors that may contribute to the persistence and success of transfer students. the study had two phases. in phase one, academica groups university and college applicant study (ucas) database was utilized in order to compare college applicants who aspired to a degree to those who do not, and to compare university applicants who had a previous college credential to those who had no previous pse experience. the results are based on a sample of over 125,000 ontario college and university applicants who participated in the ucas between 2010 and 2015. this included 70,813 survey respondents who had applied to ontario universities, and 57,839 survey respondents who had applied to ontario colleges. in the second phase, an online survey instrument was designed to track the pathways of applicants following their application to postsecondary education. in addition to demographic questions, the survey asked about students decision making process, application outcomes, motivations, postsecondary goals, use of support resources, and the transfer experience. 2,093 respondents completed the survey and were included in the analysis. from application and beyond 5 for analysis in both phase one and phase two, survey respondents were organized into four pathway groups: aspirants: college applicant whose highest planned level of education is a 4-year degree program or graduate level university program (masters, phd etc.) non-aspirants: college applicant whose highest planned level of education is a college certificate, diploma or advanced diploma college transfer students: university applicants who completed a college credential or trades / vocational / technical school program university students with no previous pse: university applicants whose highest level of education was a high school diploma four research questions guided this study: 1. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? 2. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? 3. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? 4. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? key findings related to each research question are summarized below, along with conclusions and next steps. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? ontario college applicants who aspired to complete a university degree differed from those who did not aspire to a degree on a number of characteristics. rural students, those with dependents, first generation students, students with a disability, indigenous students, caucasian/white students, students born in canada, and those who primarily spoke english at home made up a significantly larger proportion of the do not aspire to a degree group, compared to the aspire to a degree group. conversely, south asian, chinese, and black students, females, single students, and those under age 25 made up a larger proportion of the aspire to a degree group. from application and beyond 6 interestingly, there was no difference between the two groups in the two socioeconomic indicators examined (use of government loans, and household income). academically, college applicants who aspired to a degree tended to have slightly higher high school gpas than those who did not aspire to a degree, and a slightly greater percentage had taken university preparatory courses in high school. there were also some notable differences in the decision-making profiles of the two groups. while the most commonly reported reason for applying to pse among both college applicants with degree aspirations and those without was to prepare to enter their chosen career, a larger proportion of applicants with degree aspirations stated that pursuing further graduate or professional study, giving back to society, and becoming actively involved in student life were reasons for applying. further, a larger proportion of aspirants reported using almost every information source in researching their pse options. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? the profiles of university applicants with a previous college credential and those with no previous pse experience also differed significantly, with many of the traditionally underrepresented groups in university making up a larger proportion of the population with a previous college credential. in particular, there was a larger percentage of first generation students, students with a disability, lower income students, indigenous students, black students, and rural students in the previous college credential group compared to the university applicant group with no previous pse. these findings support previous research that suggested the college-touniversity pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). academically, university applicants who had completed a college credential were much less likely to have taken university preparatory courses in high school than those with no previous pse experience, and their average high school gpa was significantly lower. more applicants with a previous college credential reported that hybrid/blended learning was their preferred from application and beyond 7 course delivery format, though overall on-campus courses were preferred by the largest proportion of both groups. motivations for applying to pse and information sources used differed between these two groups as well, though the most striking finding was that university applicants with a previous college credential showed a much greater certainty that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career and that their academic program was right for them. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? of the college applicants with degree aspirations who responded to the follow-up survey, about half still aspired to complete a degree, 13.4% had successfully transferred, and 39.4% no longer had aspirations for a degree. while just over one-third of those who no longer aspired reported that their interests had simply changed, an equal proportion stated that they no longer planned to attain a degree because they could not afford university. among college students who still aspired to complete a degree, approximately one-third did not know whether there was a formal transfer agreement in place between their college program and the university program they would apply to, and two-fifths did not know how much credit they expected to receive for their college education. lack of guidance on application procedures, a lack of clarity between various credit granting processes, and finding/confirming requirements for transfer credits were the most frequently anticipated challenges. however, 42% said they did not expect to experience any challenges in transferring to university. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? university students with a previous college credential were less satisfied than non-transfer students with all aspects of their universitys application and transition process that were examined. areas where the largest proportions of college-to-university transfer students felt their university needed improvement was in relation to academic orientation, providing information about the admissions process and requirements, providing information about required courses, and campus orientation. from application and beyond 8 in comparison to non-transfer students, college-to-university transfer students were more likely to participate in classroom discussion and engage in studentfaculty interactions such as discussing assignments/grades, ideas, and career plans, but were less likely to engage in oncampus volunteer activities, student clubs, and cultural events. in terms of on-campus resources, financial aid and personal counseling were accessed by a greater proportion of college-to-university transfer students than non-transfer students, but fewer accessed orientation programs and recreation and athletic facilities. conclusions the results of this study confirm previous research showing that the college-to-university transfer student population has a relatively large proportion of traditionally under-represented groups compared to those who are entering university from high school, supporting the idea that the college-to-university pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). these students were shown to be highly engaged in their learning and academically confident, a finding also supported in previous research (pendleton and lambert-maberly, 2006). however, the results also suggest that more work needs to be done to support both the admissions process and the university transition experience. traditional university channels for information provision, such as viewbooks, brochures, open houses, and university fairs are not being heavily accessed by college-to-university transfer students. rather these students seem to rely more on interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances, such as emails and phone calls with university staff, talking with a professor, and informal visits to campus. similarly, university orientation programming is often geared primarily to the directentry student and transfer students are much less likely to participate. orientation, particularly to the academic expectations of university, was a key area where transfer students felt their university needed to improve. while college-to-university transfer students tend to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom is also challenge. this is likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial support. developing flexible ways to enrich the non-academic experience of college-to-university transfer students should be priority. from application and beyond overall, increasing the number of students utilizing the college-to-university transfer pathway should help to reduce inequities in overall university participation; however, the results also demonstrated that there are still inequities in the aspirations of college students that reproduce those seen in the college-university divide. these inequities require further attention. 9 from application and beyond 10 introduction it has been well established that different segments of the population are more or less likely to aspire to and attend postsecondary education (pse). in particular, students with disabilities, low income students, first generation students, students from rural communities, indigenous students, and male students are less likely to attend university (finnie et al, 2011). the underrepresentation of such groups is primarily a university issue, however, as they are not generally underrepresented in colleges relative to the general population. therefore, it has been suggested that enhancing the college-to-university pathway may be a vehicle to reduce inequities in university access (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). purpose of study the purpose of this study was to profile and examine the pathways of college-to-university students in order to enhance our understanding of the needs and experiences of students who access this transfer pathway. to do this, the motivations, experiences and outcomes of four groups of ontario students were examined: 1) college applicants who aspired to complete a 4-year degree; 2) college applicants who did not aspire to complete a 4-year degree; 3) university applicants with a completed college credential; 4) university applicants with no previous pse. this study also contributes to the existing literature by offering insight on the factors that impact the persistence and success of transfer students. research questions the following research questions guided the study: 1. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? 2. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? from application and beyond 11 3. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? 4. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? literature review over the past two decades, college-to-university transfer has become an important pathway for degree attainment for many ontario students. as a result, research exploring issues and trends related to the experiences and outcomes of ontarios transfer students has increased significantly (smith et al., 2016; oncat, 2013). ten years ago, decock (2006) found that there was an increasing number of college students who wished to attend university after graduation, rather than enter the workforce. the results of this study suggested that more and more students were entering college with the intent of transferring to university, leading to the conclusion that students are consciously enrolling in colleges for the purpose of transferring to university even though colleges and their programs were not established for this function. research examining the different pathways between colleges and universities has consistently shown that college-to-university transfer students tend to belong to underrepresented groups such as those with disabilities, aboriginal students, and first generation students (kerr et al., 2010; sidhu et al., 2016). the question of why students aspire to transfer to degree programs has also been considered. according to a recent study (gorman et al., 2012), many college students feel that their diploma provides them with limited career opportunities and view obtaining a degree as a way to enhance their career options. indeed, research indicates that some of the most common reasons ontario students transfer from college to university is because they want to prepare for future career opportunities, increase their earning potential, and/or upgrade their training and skill set (oncat, 2013; smith et al., 2016). continued investigation into the characteristics and experiences of the college-to-university transfer pathway is needed, as those who aspire to transfer to obtain a degree do not necessarily reach their intended goals (smith et al., 2016). understanding why some achieve their goals while others do not may enable the creation of support to facilitate the college to university pathway, which can help to reduce access inequalities (kerr et al., 2010). from application and beyond 12 improvement to the transfer system alone, however, does not guarantee that the transfer process will take place. students perceptions of real and/or anticipated opportunities and challenges may be influenced by factors such as institutional structure, academic standards, accessibility, financial assistance, and the availability of student services. research method the first phase of this project utilized 2010-2015 data from academica groups university/college applicant study (ucas) 1 database in order to compare college applicants who aspired to a university credential to those who did not, as well as to compare university applicants with previous college credentials to those without previous postsecondary experience. descriptions of each group and the corresponding sample size are provided in table 1 and table 2. 1 for more than a decade, academica groups ucas study has been providing universities and colleges across canada. each year, approximately 15,000 to 20,000 applicants to ontario colleges and universities participate in the online survey, undertaken in partnership with the ontario colleges application service (ocas) and participating ontario postsecondary institutions. from application and beyond 13 table 1 description of college applicant ucas sample college applicants aspire to a degree do not aspire to a degree remainder of sample (excluded from analysis) n size 22,600 35,239 14,579 description responses to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain?, were degree or postgrad credential; did not have a degree already responses to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain? were 1, 2, or 3 year cert/ diploma; did not have a degree already response to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain? was dont know or indicated they already had a degree (separate question) table 2 description of university applicant ucas sample university applicants previous college credential no previous pse remainder of sample (excluded from analysis) n size 2,759 68,054 7,249 description applicants to an ontario university whose highest level of education was a completed college or trades credential applicants to an ontario university whose highest level of education was a high school diploma university applicants with incomplete pse, or university degrees in the second phase, an online survey was conducted to track the pathways of applicants following their application to postsecondary education. of the four groups examined in the phase one data analysis, the survey followed up with the aspire to a degree, previous college credential, and no previous pse groups. in addition to demographic questions, the survey asked about students decision making processes, application outcomes, motivations, postsecondary goals, access to support resources, and the transfer experience. the survey invitation was sent to 51,132 college and university applicants who had completed the ucas between 2010 and 2015, met the study criteria, indicated they were interested in participating in further research, and had provided a valid email address. 3,007 individuals from application and beyond 14 responded to the survey. of these, 914 were disqualified. 2 2,093 respondents completed the survey for a response rate of 6%. the survey was in field from november 1 to december 9, 2016. respondents were organized into four pathways based on their survey responses: no longer aspire respondents indicated that they had not attained a university credential and no longer planned to do so (n=185) still aspire respondents indicated that they had not yet entered university but that they still planned to do so in the future (n=221) transferred respondents indicated that they had entered university after completing college (n=122) no previous pse respondents indicated that they had entered university and did not have any previous pse experience (n=1,551) 2 respondents invited to the survey from the university applicant pool were disqualified if they indicated that they ended up attending a university outside of ontario or did not attend university. respondents invited to the survey from the college applicant pool were disqualified if they indicated that they did not end up attending college. from application and beyond 15 results phase one applicant profiles in this section, we present the phase one research results, which involved an analysis of 2010 to 2015 ucas data comparing college applicants who aspired to a degree to those who did not, as well as comparing university applicants with a previous college credential to non-transfer students. sociodemographic characteristics table 1 presents the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents. compared to nonaspirants, significantly more college applicants who aspired to complete a university degree were female, under age 25, black, chinese, south asian, and single or never married. there was a significantly smaller proportion who were caucasian/white, born in canada, spoke english at home, lived in a rural community, had a disability, were first generation, and had dependents under age 15. there were also several significant differences between university applicants who were college transfer students and those who had no previous pse. compared to those with no previous pse, a significantly greater proportion of college transfer students were female, caucasian/white, indigenous, black, and born in canada. in addition, significantly more transfer students were from a rural area, identified as having a disability, were first generation students, supported dependents, had an income less than $60,000, and were using government loans to pay for their education. compared to college transfer students, a greater proportion of university applicants with no previous pse were less than age 25, chinese, south asian, and single. from application and beyond 16 table 3 sociodemographic characteristics college applicants aspire to a do not aspire to a degree degree 59.1% 52.8% % female university applicants previous college no previous credential pse 57.3% 54.1% % <25 years old 86.1% 81.8% 19.8% 99.7% % caucasian/white 56.2% 65.0% 60.7% 49.2% % indigenous 5.5% 6.5% 4.9% 2.0% % black 11.1% 8.6% 9.6% 6.6% % chinese 5.3% 3.9% 5.7% 16.3% % south asian 7.8% 4.3% 8.1% 15.3% % born in canada 78.9% 86.4% 71.5% 67.6% % english spoken at home 79.0% 86.3% 82.0% 71.8% - - 5.8% 6.1% % rural 23.2% 32.2% 20.3% 15.8% % with a disability 10.5% 13.8% 9.3% 4.5% % first generation 19.9% 25.0% 22.0% 10.6% % single, never married 83.8% 80.6% 82.9% 91.9% % with dependents <15 7.2% 9.5% 8.4% 0.7% % income <$60,000 35.9% 37.1% 40.9% 23.2% % using govt loans 24.6% 24.7% 24.0% 17.0% % international 3 academic characteristics with respect to academic background, a significantly higher proportion of college applicants who aspired to a university degree indicated that they took mostly university preparatory courses while in high school (27.1%) than did non-aspirants (23.8%). those who aspired to a degree were also significantly more likely to have obtained a high school gpa higher than 85% (figure 1). significantly more university applicants who had no previous pse indicated taking university preparatory courses (89.7%) while in high school compared to college transfer students (36.7%). 3 for ontario colleges, international students do not apply through ocas and therefore were not included in the survey results for college applicants. from application and beyond 17 those with no previous pse were also more likely to have a high school grade average greater than 85% (figure 1). figure 1 high school grades by pathway with regards to preferred type of program delivery, differences between college applicants who aspired to a university degree and those who did not were not particularly noteworthy. however, there were some important differences between college transfer students and those with no previous pse. while in-class/on-campus courses were heavily favoured by both groups, college transfer students showed a greater preference for hybrid/blended and online/distance courses than those with no previous pse (table 4). from application and beyond 18 table 4 preferred course delivery format college applicants do not aspire to a aspire to a degree degree university applicants previous no previous college pse credential online/distance 2.3% 2.7% 4.7% 1.8% in-class/oncampus 75.3% 77.4% 65.9% 77.6% hybrid/blended 18.4% 15.8% 26.4% 15.3% no preference 4.0% 4.0% 3.0% 5.2% decision-making process career preparation was the most important reason for applying to pse for college applicants regardless of whether they aspired to a university degree (figure 3). not surprisingly, a significantly larger proportion of applicants with aspirations for a degree reported that completing courses necessary to transfer to a university was a reason for applying compared to those who did not aspire to a degree. there was also a much larger proportion of degree aspirants reporting that pursuing further graduate or professional study, giving back to society, and becoming actively involved in student life were reasons for applying. among university applicants, the most commonly selected reasons for pursing pse were similar between college transfer students and those with no previous pse; however, the no previous pse group tended to have a larger proportion of respondents selecting each reason (figure 3). when compared to those with no previous pse, applicants with a college credential were significantly more likely to state that one of their reasons for applying to pse was to advance in their current career, to complete courses necessary to transfer to a different college or university, or because they could not find a job. applicants with no previous pse were much more likely to state that they were pursing pse to become actively involved in student life and campus activities, because their friends or teachers expected/encouraged them to go, and to meet new people. from application and beyond 19 figure 2 reasons for applying to pse college applicants do not aspire to a aspire to a degree degree university applicants no previous college previous credential pse to prepare to enter my chosen career 81.5% 80.6% 68.7% 82.6% to explore options for my future 66.5% 62.7% 64.0% 76.3% for personal and intellectual growth 68.7% 60.6% 72.3% 79.3% to increase my knowledge and understanding of an academic field 68.6% 59.9% 72.1% 80.0% to increase my earning potential 61.4% 57.5% 64.9% 66.9% to pursue future graduate or professional study 59.6% 39.2% 62.8% 69.8% to meet new people 48.8% 45.2% 39.9% 65.0% 42.0% 39.9% 40.4% 43.1% 36.8% 33.3% 28.2% 52.3% to improve my leadership skills 37.5% 31.7% 36.9% 48.1% to enable me to "give back" to society 34.6% 26.0% 35.9% 39.4% to become actively involved in student life and campus activities 29.6% 23.4% 24.6% 50.0% to advance in my current career 22.9% 20.9% 37.4% 19.8% to improve my social status 24.2% 20.7% 25.4% 27.5% to complete the courses necessary to transfer to a (different) university 23.9% 7.2% 10.2% 4.9% i could not find a job 4.6% 6.7% 7.5% 1.5% to complete the courses necessary to transfer to a (different) college 6.7% 4.0% 4.5% 2.1% i could not think of anything else to do after high school 4.1% 4.0% 2.4% 7.2% none of the above 0.3% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% to enhance my self-confidence and selfesteem my parents/friends/teachers expected or encouraged me to go in terms of information sources used when researching their pse options, more college applicants who aspired to a university degree reported using almost every information source than those who did not aspire to a degree (figure 2). the largest differences were in relation to the use of macleans rankings, university/college fairs, talking to a professor, and high school presentations/visits. from application and beyond 20 among university applicants, those who were transferring from college were more likely to report talking to a professor or accessing an institutional calendar as sources of information. however, they were less likely to report accessing almost every other information source, with the exception of institutional websites. figure 3 information sources college applicants aspire to a do not aspire degree to a degree university applicants previous college no previous credential pse institution website 87.3% 82.6% 89.9% 90.9% viewbook 68.3% 59.9% 58.5% 87.1% education-related web-portals 78.9% 74.7% 63.7% 83.3% brochures 54.5% 45.7% 53.4% 76.6% current students/graduates 55.6% 47.3% 61.2% 72.7% emails after application 60.3% 55.8% 63.4% 69.9% hs presentations/visits 42.8% 34.8% 24.5% 67.0% friends 50.6% 45.2% 56.3% 66.0% parents/family members 42.6% 37.1% 41.5% 64.8% guidance counsellor 45.3% 40.7% 20.5% 53.4% teacher 35.7% 29.7% 18.2% 53.1% mail received after application 43.7% 40.1% 45.7% 52.1% university/college fair 28.8% 21.6% 21.7% 51.2% maclean's ranking 12.8% 5.9% 25.7% 48.9% open house 36.4% 36.3% 22.4% 44.4% formal tour 27.8% 25.0% 20.2% 44.2% calendar 35.7% 30.5% 47.7% 42.9% informal/unofficial visit 28.8% 24.5% 34.0% 38.5% facebook 29.6% 27.8% 24.0% 35.1% phone calls after application 33.5% 28.4% 32.3% 33.2% talking to a professor 27.8% 22.5% 39.1% 29.1% when asked about their certainty that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career, the difference between college applicants who aspired to a university credential and those who did not was statistically significant but small and there was no difference in the level of certainty from application and beyond 21 that their academic program was right for them (figure 4). among university applicants, however, a much higher percentage of college transfer students indicated that they were very certain that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career, and that their academic program was right for them, when compared to those with no previous pse (figure 4). figure 4 program certainty % very certain academic program is the path to a satisfying career % very certain academic program is right for them 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 48.3% 51.6% 51.1% 44.2% 43.6% 44.8% 38.3% 40% 30.6% 30% 20% 10% % do not aspire to a degree aspire to a degree college applicants previous college credential no previous pse university applicants for all respondents, the single most important factor in their decision process when considering pse options was program reputation (figure 5). overall academic reputation was slightly more important to college applicants who aspired to a degree than those who did not, while proximity of the institution to home was slightly more important to applicants who did not aspire to a degree. differences between university applicants with no previous pse and college transfer students were more pronounced. when compared to university applicants with no previous pse, a significantly greater percentage of transfer students indicated institutional proximity to their home as the single most important factor. in contrast, university students with no previous pse from application and beyond 22 were significantly more likely to have made their decision based on factors such as academic reputation and campus experience. figure 5 factors contributing to pse options college applicants aspire to a degree university applicants do not aspire to a previous college no previous degree credential pse strong reputation in my specific program of interest 36.3% 32.9% 36.1% 37.6% strong overall academic reputation 11.3% 7.9% 15.8% 21.1% institutions were close to home 17.1% 21.5% 17.8% 7.0% strong reputation for graduates having good careers 17.7% 19.3% 12.4% 15.6% financial reasons 5.3% 6.1% 5.1% 3.5% strong reputation for campus experience 2.8% 2.6% 1.7% 6.7% strong reputation for teaching 3.2% 2.7% 2.1% 2.5% where my friends are going 1.0% 1.3% 1.0% 0.6% none of the above 5.4% 5.7% 8.1% 5.2% from application and beyond 23 phase two follow-up survey results results of the follow-up survey conducted with college applicants who aspired to a degree, university applicants with a previous college credential, and university applicants with no previous pse are presented in this section. college students who aspired to a degree of the 469 college applicants surveyed who had originally aspired to complete a university degree, 13.4% indicated that they had transferred to a university, 47.1% indicated that they still aspired to a complete a university degree, and 39.4% no longer had aspirations for a degree. differences in gender, age, and first generation student status were examined, but only gender was found to be significantly related to aspiration outcomes; 63.4% of women still aspired to a degree or had transferred to university compared to 52.9% of men. of those who no longer intended to pursue a university degree, the top two most commonly reported reasons were a change in their interests and an inability to afford university (figure 6). other reasons reported by at least one-quarter of respondents were that they had a job, preferred college, and felt they did not need a university education. interestingly, reasons related to the transfer process itself, such as its complexity, pre-requisites, provision of transfer credit, or receiving an offer, were far down the list. from application and beyond 24 figure 6 reasons for no longer wanting to attend university interests have changed 36.8% cannot afford university 36.2% have a job 29.7% prefer college 28.6% do not need university education 28.1% does not suit my learning style 16.8% family obligations 10.3% too many pre-requisites 9.7% health reasons inflexible course delivery 7.0% 4.3% transfer process too complicated 3.2% was not accepted 2.7% did not receive enough transfer credit 2.7% my parents wanted me to go 2.7% universities are too far from home other 1.6% 2.2% among those who still planned to pursue a university degree, most said that the university program they intended to take was related to their previous program (86.0%) and half were aware of a formal transfer agreement between their current/past college program and the university program they would apply to (50.7%). one third of respondents, however, did not know if there was a formal transfer agreement (33.9%). while respondents varied in how much credit they estimated they would receive, two-fifths reported that they did not know (figure 7). from application and beyond 25 figure 7 estimated transfer credit expect to receive 1 semester 8.1% 2 semesters 3 semesters 15.4% 5.9% 4 semesters or more none 21.3% 6.8% don't know 42.5% over half of those who still aspired to a university degree said that they anticipated experiencing challenges when transferring to a university program from college (57.9%). the most common anticipated challenges associated with transferring were a lack of guidance on application procedures, a lack of clarity between various credit granting processes, and finding/confirming requirements for transfer credits (figure 8). only 24.4% indicated that they had met with an academic advisor to discuss transferring to university. from application and beyond 26 figure 8 anticipated challenges when transferring to university lack of guidance on application procedures 29.0% 27.1% 25.3% 21.3% 21.3% 21.3% 17.2% 15.8% 15.4% 15.4% 11.8% lack of clarity between credit granting processes finding/confirming requirements for transfer credit i won't receive the amount of credits i was expecting application process will be too complicated submitting applications inconsistent/inadequate information from sources access to transcripts the amount of time for a response will be too long lack of clear documentation requirements assistance with grade calculation(s) adjusting to academic rigour of university other 1.8% 4.1% no challenges anticipated 42.1% transfer experience of college-to-university transfer students university applicants who indicated they had previously completed a college credential were asked a series of questions about their transfer experience. these results are presented here. transfer credits college-to-university transfer students most commonly found out they were receiving credit when they received their offer of admission, or at/before registration, and most said that the timing was acceptable to them (table 6). the actual amount of credit received varied, although the most common scenario was for students to have received credit for two semesters of their university program, followed by no credit (table 6). among those who applied for credit, almost half received the same amount of credit as they expected (48.4%), while one in three students indicated that they received less than expected (33.0%), and 11.0% received more than expected. just under half of college-to-university transfer students stated that there was a formal transfer agreement between their past college program and the university program they enrolled in (45.9%). from application and beyond 27 table 5 approval process, amount of credit, & timing how much credit did you receive? when did you find out you were receiving credit? was this timing acceptable to you? % 23.0% 15.6% 23.8% 6.6% 18.9% 12.3% 32.0% 25.4% 17.2% 1.6% 2.5% 6.6% 14.8% 87.1% 12.9% none 1 semester 2 semesters 3 semesters 4 semesters or more don't know with offer of admission at or before registration after registration have not heard yet have not applied for credit yet am not applying for credit don't know yes no when asked to reflect back on how well they understood the transfer process before they applied to university, transfer students were four times more likely to indicate that they did not understand the process at all before applying (22.1%) than to say that they completely understood (5.7%) (figure 9). figure 9 understanding of transfer process before applying to university not at all 22.1% slightly 15.6% moderately 43.4% very completely 13.1% 5.7% from application and beyond 28 resources the top three most commonly used resources for information on transferring to university were a university website or publication, university staff, and other students (figure 10). figure 10 sources of information used regarding transferring to university university website / publications 63.9% university staff 36.9% other students 32.8% college faculty/program coordinators 27.0% parents / family 25.4% college staff 23.8% college website / publications 23.0% ontario college university transfer guide ontransfer.ca other 7.4% 4.9% 1.6% student services only 37.7% of college-to-university transfer students said that their college offered advising with respect to helping students transfer to university. of these, about half used the services at their college (54.3%), and most found the services to be very or extremely helpful (72.0%). with regard to the university that they transferred into, more than half stated the university offered student advising to help them with the transfer process (55.7%). of these, 70.6% said they used this service and 66.7% rated the overall helpfulness of these services as either extremely or very helpful. satisfaction just over three-fifths of those who transferred said they were satisfied overall with the transition from college to their university program (60.7%). only 12.8% said that they were dissatisfied. from application and beyond 29 challenges the most commonly experienced challenge that students experienced when transferring to university was a lack of guidance on application procedures (25.4%), followed by not receiving the amount of credit they were expecting (23.0%). 37.7% of transfer students reported no challenges when transferring to university. table 6 challenges experienced did not experience any challenges lack of guidance on application procedures i didn't receive the amount of credits i was expecting inconsistent or inadequate information from various sources finding/confirming requirements for transfer credit lack of clarity between various credit granting processes submitting applications lack of clear documentation requirements the amount of time it took to get a response was too long access to transcripts; multiple transcript requests for course credits applied in different areas of same institution assistance with grade calculation(s) the application process will be too complicated other % 37.7% 25.4% 23.0% 18.9% 18.0% 16.4% 14.8% 13.9% 11.5% 11.5% 9.0% 4.1% 1.6% university transition experience of college transfers vs. those with no previous pse the phase 1 results showed that university applicants with a previous college credential are a very different population than university applicants with no previous pse. this section follows up with these applicants after their entrance to university to compare the transition experience of the two groups. satisfaction when asked to rate their university with respect to various factors related to the application and transition process, university students with no previous pse experience tended to rate their university more favourably than college transfer students (table 8). for example, 36.8% of nontransfer students rated special programs to orient you to campus and campus activities as outstanding compared to 28.7% transfer students, and about one-quarter of transfer students felt from application and beyond their university needed improvement in the area of providing information about the admission process and admission requirements (24.0%), compared to only 10.0% of university students with no previous pse. 30 31 table 7 student ratings of their university application/transition process college transfer special programs to orient you to campus and campus activities special programs to orient you to academics and academic expectations timeliness of application processing timeliness of notification of your acceptance providing information about the admission process and admission requirements for your chosen major providing information about the general education requirements for your chosen major providing information about the required courses for your chosen major no previous pse needs improvement satisfactory outstanding needs improvement satisfactory outstanding 22.8% 48.5% 28.7% 16.9% 46.3% 36.8% 35.5% 12.4% 12.4% 47.7% 62.0% 57.0% 16.8% 25.6% 30.6% 24.9% 7.8% 8.3% 51.2% 52.8% 45.2% 23.8% 39.4% 46.5% 24.0% 48.8% 27.3% 10.0% 49.8% 40.1% 21.5% 53.7% 24.8% 13.7% 50.4% 35.9% 23.3% 53.3% 23.3% 17.6% 46.4% 36.1% 32 academic preparation looking back to when they began university, the majority of respondents from both groups tended to say that they felt they were moderately to completely prepared for university (table 9). the only significant difference was that a larger proportion of college transfer students said they were moderately prepared compared to those with no previous pse. table 8 how academically prepared do you feel you were for university? completely very moderately slightly not at all college transfer students 11.5% 23.8% 50.0% 10.7% 4.1% no previous pse 12.4% 29.0% 38.6% 13.5% 6.4% engagement transfer students were more likely to participate in classroom discussion (59.8%) than nontransfer students (40.2%). they were also more likely to discuss their assignment and/or grades with instructors (31.1% vs. 21.9% non-transfer students), discuss ideas with a faculty member (38.5% vs. 26.5% non-transfer students), or discuss their career plans and ambitions with faculty (21.3% vs. 16.4% non-transfer students). in contrast, university students with no previous pse were more likely to participate in oncampus community service or volunteer activities (25.4% vs. 13.1% transfer students), engage in student clubs or special interest groups (32.6% vs. 12.3% transfer students), and/or attend campus cultural events (16.7% vs. 10.7% transfer students). resources in terms of types of services used, university students with no previous pse were significantly more likely than college transfer students to use recreation/athletic facilities and orientation from application and beyond 33 programs/activities. transfer students were more likely to use financial aid services and personal counselling. figure 11 university resources used 73.8% library resource centre 71.6% 61.5% academic advising 61.8% 68.0% financial aid services 53.8% 41.8% recreation and athletic facilities 65.1% 33.6% orientation programs/activities 56.7% 36.1% career/employment services 44.5% 34.4% personal counselling 25.8% 18.9% tutoring services 15.9% peer mentoring services 14.8% prior learning and assessment none of the above 16.2% college transfer no previous pse 8.2% 4.6% 7.4% 2.1% conclusion a growing body of literature has documented the motivations, experiences and challenges of ontario postsecondary students who have transferred from college to university (e.g., decock, 2006; oncat, 2013; sidhu et al., 2016; smith et al., 2016). the present investigation contributes to this literature by examining the profiles and experiences of college-to-university transfer students and college students who aspire to complete a university degree in order to expand upon the current knowledge base. the results of this study confirm previous research showing that the college-to-university transfer student population has a relatively large proportion of traditionally under-represented groups compared to those who are entering university from high school. this supports the idea from application and beyond 34 that the college-to-university pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). these students were shown to be highly engaged in their learning and academically confident, a finding also supported in previous research (pendleton and lambert-maberly, 2006). this is positive news for retention, as greater studentfaculty interaction has been shown to be positively correlated with student persistence (dwyer, 2015). however, the results also suggest that more work needs to be done to support both the admissions process and the university transition experience. traditional university channels for information provision, such as viewbooks, brochures, open houses, and university fairs are not being heavily accessed by college-to-university transfer students. rather these students seem to rely more on interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances, such as emails and phone calls with university staff, talking with a professor, and informal visits to campus. similarly, university orientation programming is often geared primarily to the direct-entry student and transfer students are much less likely to participate. orientation, particularly to the academic expectations of university, was a key area where transfer students felt their university needed to improve. while college-to-university transfer students tend to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom is also challenge. this is likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial support. developing flexible ways to enrich the non-academic experience of college-to-university transfer students should be priority. overall, increasing the number of students utilizing the college-to-university transfer pathway should help to reduce inequities in overall university participation; however, the results also demonstrated that there are still inequities in the aspirations of college students that reproduce those seen in the college-university divide. these inequities require further attention. from application and beyond 35 references arnold, c. h., & woodhead, s. 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(2006). undergraduate student survey on student satisfaction & engagement: transfer student experience vs direct entry student experience. vancouver: british columbia council on articulation and transfer. sattler, peggy, academica group inc. (2010). from postsecondary application to the labour market: the pathways of under-represented groups. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. sidhu, r., lin, s., munro, y., smith, r., parna, j., de oca sarasua, e., (2016) are excess credits for college to transfer students a concern? a case study within the ontario context. ontario council on articulation and transfer. smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. toronto: colleges ontario & higher education strategy associates. retrieved from http://www.collegesontario.org/research/externalreports/credit%20transfer%20summary%20report.p df

creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions executive summary introduction student mobility is a critical priority within the province of ontario (oncat, 2014). with technological advances and a global economy educational needs and opportunities for post-secondary students have greatly increased. not only are post-secondary institutions focusing on local and domestic student entry but global, as well. appropriate protocol and partnerships must be in place to assure a full range of student mobility options. these protocols must recognize previous academic achievements, to give credit where credit is due. students are increasingly interested in completing/furthering their studies in different cities, provinces, and countries. the students of today are more mobile than ever before, and mobility is something they consider a right, not a privilege. students are aware mobility is an option but do not always know what is available, what a personalized learning path could look like and how to access it. students are looking for return on investment for their education dollars. solid credit transfer/articulation agreements between post-secondary institutions guarantees seamless student mobility. building the post-secondary culture that supports these seamless opportunities is a fundamental part of this process. examining a culture of mobility to determine needs of small institutions, fosters growth in articulation, pathways and ultimately seamless student mobility for students to and through, those same small institutions. literature review as student mobility demand increases, the need for institutions to be responsive and articulate in managing student mobility must become part of the institutional culture (voorhees & harvey, 2005). where this culture already exists, it is important to understand the value system supporting it, while finding indicators that predict culture, such as institutional value systems, the established norms, or goals of that institution (katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, 2016). value systems as a driver for institutional quality have already been affirmed (penner, 2007). value systems in relation to a culture of mobility need to be explored. understanding the culture of an institution and impacts on student mobility, builds knowledge around institutional processes that further the integration and sustainability of credit transfer (harrison, 2005). practices which support and enhance mobility will be examined as to their relationship to and within, institutional culture (velden, 2012). core concepts of culture have been researched by katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas (2016). their research stipulates a specific culture cannot be described exactly, as each culture has routine habits, reactions and emotional responses, unique to that organization or institution. katzenbach et. al. (2016) described ten key principles to motivate a change in culture (to replace it with something entirely new and different). these principles are deemed to be more effective than formally mandated change, and are practical for organizational development. the principles themselves need to be linked to a values system, to be sustainable and to change culture. the ten principles (katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, 2016) 1. 2. 3. 4. work with and within your current cultural situations change behaviours and mind-sets will follow focus on a critical few behaviours deploy your authentic informal leaders 1|page creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions executive summary 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. dont let your formal leaders off the hook link behaviours to business objectives demonstrate impact quickly use cross-organizational methods to go viral align programmatic efforts with behaviours actively manage your cultural situation over time the researchers preliminary concept of a culture of mobility is: an organizational culture where student mobility is valued, articulated in behaviours, and demonstrated in actions. environmental scan credit transfer is a larger issue than ontario. alberta, british columbia and new brunswick all have councils on articulation and transfer. within europe a special organization of the european commission is dedicated to student mobility, although the mandate is broader than the councils in canada. information about these various entities help place the importance of student mobility into context for postsecondary institutions in ontario. to understand student mobility within the ontario postsecondary system, it is important to describe credit transfer as a priority in ontario. mandated in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 public postsecondary institutions and defined as a member-driven organization to work with all public colleges and universities to enable a system of credit transfer to develop as rapidly as possible, while also respecting institutional autonomy (oncat, 2016). by 2015, there were 21,500 transfer students in ontario, with a comprehensive provincial data base to track and monitor transfer activities. this data base is fed by the 45 postsecondary institutions in ontario. credit transfer activity is part of the premiers mandate letter to the minister responsible for higher education (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2016). methodology the goals of this project were to: define a culture of mobility determine best practices determine challenges in creating and sustaining a culture of mobility to achieve these goals, ten (10) small institutions participated to determine the culture of mobility within their institution. research questions posed reflect the goals of this research project. the research questions are: 1. what is a culture of mobility? a. why is a culture of mobility important? b. what are the key determinants of a culture of mobility? c. what values are demonstrated in a culture of mobility? d. why do small institutions want or need a culture of mobility? e. how can a culture of mobility be created and sustained? 2|page creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions executive summary findings qualitative data and key themes the researchers chose to assess the key informant data using the prescribed themes of values, behaviours, and investment. these three themes encompass kukas (2012) indicators, muellers theories, (2014 &2015) and are mapped to katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, (2016) ten principles of culture. to validate these perscribed themes, the mapped themes to katzenbach et.als principles are shown in table 2. table 1 themes mapped to principles principle identified by katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, 2016 work with and within your current cultural situations dont let your formal leaders off the hook align programmatic efforts with behaviours actively manage your cultural situation over time themes values link behaviours to business objectives focus on a critical few behaviours change behaviours and mindsets will follow behaviours deploy your authentic informal leaders demonstrate impact quickly use cross-organizational methods to go viral investments 3|page description prescribed theme cross referenced with principles work with and within your current cultural situations to articulate values dont let your formal leaders off the hook requires senior leaders in an organization to identify and demonstrate values align programmatic efforts with behaviours requires an organization to align values to practices/ behaviours actively manage your cultural situation over time means pay attention to culture and values and how they are demonstrated/expressed link behaviours to business objectives to ascertain how a certain behaviour will achieve an objective focus on a critical few behaviours to attempt to change/enhance/promote these behaviours, as required change behaviours and mind-sets will follow, behaviours should reflect values and changed behaviour reinforces value deploy your authentic informal leaders, invest in the change with time and messaging demonstrate impact quickly once the investment has paid off use cross-organizational methods to go viral, invest in spreading the message in a variety of formats across the institution creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions executive summary values there were four distinct values expressed in the key informants interviews: access, student success, faculty engagement, and student mobility. the value of access was typically linked to the value of student success. one comment from a college we want to use student mobility as a way to promote their success. another value expressed by the participants was faculty engagement, which could also be described as participation within a culture of mobility. student mobility as a concept was identified as a value from the data. a profound comment came from one of the universities learning is fluid and flows through different generations and cultures, mobility is part of that. behaviours the researchers asked specifically about new procedures put into place to support student mobility. the most common response to this question, was the use of technology or a dedicated human resource to manage the process. use of a data base for centralizing records was mentioned, as well as moving information to the website to assure students could access more information and begin the process. the institutions website was the most frequently used resource for information. a practice identified by several of the participants, was the move to bring pathways and articulation into the new program development process. the behaviours and practices of an institution around communication are intertwined. one college supplied a list of the new vocabulary in their college, related to student mobility; course equivalence, course exemption, learning outcomes, common curriculum, transfer credit articulation, student pathways block transfers, and prior learning assessment recognition (plar). another practice noted by most of the participants was the monitoring of pathways and recognition that some were underutilized. investment a number of institutions utilized student mobility processes as a means to address strategic enrollment management strategies (sem). the interviewees were asked how they felt about sharing waitlists, when programs were full, as a promoter of mobility and access for learners. this appeared to be a novel concept for most of the institutions, and three were very keen on the idea. the majority of the institutions were hesitant about the concept but found it interesting while one institution was neutral. as one institution stated the biggest challenge is leaving old ways of doing things behind. when specifically asked about program ownership as an issue, the responses were mixed. some institutions acknowledged this can be a challenge while others said they had not encountered it. quantitative: data analysis a section on strategic enrolment management (sem) was included on the survey with four values related statements measuring sem and level of authority. the statements were: my supervisor encourages credit transfer activity; my supervisor supports my activity related to credit transfer; student mobility directives originate from the executive level in my organization; the activities for student mobility are directly connected to our institutions strategic enrollment management plan. aggregated averages were used and aggregating the four statements created a maximum of 20 for this section. figure 2 shows the stacked aggregate averages of the four statements linking student mobility, sem and level of authority with organizational culture and value. 4|page creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions executive summary university of sudbury northern lambton lakehead la cite confederation college boreal canadore cambrian algoma 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00 16.00 18.00 20.00 my supervisor encourages credit transfer activity. my supervisor supports my activity related to credit transfer. student mobility directives originate from the executive level at my institution. the activities for student mobility are directly connected to our institution's strategic enrollment management plan. figure 1 aggregate totals for strategic enrollment management and level of authority communication about processes is necessary to assure students access mobility opportunities. the survey had a series of statements dedicated to ease of access and use, both in terms of information and accompanying process. statements reflect individual behaviours and institutional practices. the statements were: information about credit transfer is easy to find for students; information about credit transfer is easy to find for staff; processes for credit transfer are easy to find; processes for credit transfer are easy to use; i can explain student mobility options and decision steps to the students in our department; our graduating students know about future mobility options when they leave our institution. figure 6 shows the results of this section, by sector, college and university. 5|page creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions executive summary 5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 easy for students easy for staff processes easy to processes easy to find use colleges can explain to students graduates know universities figure 2 comparison by sector for information on decision making interesting to the researchers, was the pattern of almost parallel lines that occurred. the overall results for this section show lower averages then previous sections, with a range of 3.26 by universities when responding to it is easy for me to explain to students their mobility options to a high of 4.00 by colleges in response to i can explain student mobility options and decision steps to the students in our department. best practices and lessons learned what is a culture of mobility? in the literature review, a preliminary definition of the culture of mobility was given as a culture of mobility indicator could be defined by demonstration of these key principles referring to the ten principles identified by katzenbach, oelshlegel, &thomas, 2016. the researchers theorized, a culture of mobility exists on a spectrum. this spectrum has stages the researchers have identified as forming, established, mature and ideal. why is a culture of mobility important? culture reflects what is important to an institution (watkins, 2013). a culture of mobility positions the institution for seamless program delivery, improved access for learners, a stronger success strategy, and participation in a system wide approach to education. this was noted in the environmental scan, articulated in the qualitative data, and supported in the quantitative data. credit transfer, pathways, and articulation are priorities for the province (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2016), and the need for student mobility will increase as global approaches to student mobility become a reality (voorhees & harvey, 2005). 6|page creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions executive summary what are the key determinants of a culture of mobility? the key determinants of a culture of mobility are those behaviours/practices which demonstrate mobility being achieved within their institution (kuka, 2012). returning to muellers 2014 work, culture is expressed, demonstrated, and exhibited. most notably those determinants are the values expressed, communication about mobility with evidence of information sharing, language, including a lexicon around student mobility, and engagement at all levels of authority in the commitment to student mobility. what values are demonstrated in a culture of mobility? values associated with a culture of mobility are identified in this study: access, student success, faculty engagement and mobility. this does not mean there are no other values associated with student mobility, further exploration would undoubtedly find more however, and these four values were clearly defined within this study. why do small institutions want or need a culture of mobility? given the mandate for all institutions in ontario to promote student mobility, credit transfer and articulation, the need for a culture of mobility is clear (ontario council on articulation and transfer, 2016). mobility is a government priority, the need for mobility is going to grow and understanding mobility with all of its nuances will increase. the environmental scan gives more detail on the global nature of student mobility. how can a culture of mobility be created and sustained? based upon the findings in this study, the ten participating institutions can be plotted on a mobility spectrum to identify their cultural stage. using this benchmark, an institution can make an informed choice as to which stage of the spectrum it should be. setting a goal of movement on the spectrum would generate practices that demonstrate values, further entrenching their culture of mobility. conclusions culture is a dynamic organism in an organization. the culture of mobility seen in this research exist on a spectrum. the spectrum has four distinct stages: forming where the culture tends to be dispersed; established where the culture is centralized and more automated; mature where the activities become proactive and future focused and ideal where there is perfect alignment between mission, values and behaviours/practices. the ten institutions in this study appear to be in the late forming stage to the early mature stages, and each institution has a unique story to tell. institutions are willing to make the investments in mobility to assure they are meeting the values they espouse around access and student success. the interest and enthusiasm for this project encouraged the researchers and point to many new areas of exploration in relation to the culture of mobility spectrum. 7|page creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions executive summary recommendations the researchers view this study as a middle point in exploring culture as it relates to mobility. there is much work to do, to assure seamless mobility for students in ontario. recommendations from this study are made based upon that idea. recommendation one: an inventory of underutilized pathways be compiled with an assessment of why the pathways are underutilized recommendation two: a trial of best practices applied to specific cultures be tested to determine impact and movement on the culture of mobility spectrum recommendation three: an exploration of processes for student application to a college or university which results in an automated pathway generated for the student be completed recommendation four: a formal corporate lexicon of mobility be established provincially and published on the oncat website recommendation five: an exploration of a formal process to share waitlists for oversubscribed programs in colleges or universities be considered 8|page

university to college transfer students exploring motives and characteristics final report november 28, 2013 confederation college collaborated with the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) to focus on students who transferred to confederation college from university between 2010 and 2012, specifically examining what motivates them to make such a decision. data was collected via online surveys and focus groups from confederation college students and graduates who have any amount of previous university experience. results indicate that students main reason for attending college after university was to gain skills to further employment opportunities. we are hopeful this project will help further knowledge into transfer students motives, which can aid in increasing student satisfaction, learning opportunities, ease of access, and quality of program delivery in colleges. university to college transfer students contents introduction ..............................................................................................................................................................3 literature review ....................................................................................................................................................4 data sources .....................................................................................................................................................4 mobility .............................................................................................................................................................5 trends in pse ...................................................................................................................................................6 student characteristics ...................................................................................................................................6 other jurisdictions...........................................................................................................................................7 current study...........................................................................................................................................................8 survey and focus group methodology ...............................................................................................................9 information on university students who transferred to confederation college ..................................9 survey methodology .......................................................................................................................................9 focus group methodology ............................................................................................................................9 results of system data..........................................................................................................................................10 results of survey data ..........................................................................................................................................12 academic performance .................................................................................................................................14 program choice .............................................................................................................................................15 employment ...................................................................................................................................................15 transfer process .............................................................................................................................................16 reason for transfer .......................................................................................................................................16 overall experience ........................................................................................................................................17 analysis of focus groups.....................................................................................................................................18 student characteristics .................................................................................................................................18 reasons for transferring ..............................................................................................................................19 academic performance .................................................................................................................................19 employment/career ......................................................................................................................................20 program choice .............................................................................................................................................20 transfer experience .......................................................................................................................................21 financial considerations ..............................................................................................................................21 1 university to college transfer students perceived value .............................................................................................................................................22 summary of results ..............................................................................................................................................23 limitations ......................................................................................................................................................24 recommendations .........................................................................................................................................24 future directions ...........................................................................................................................................24 references ...............................................................................................................................................................26 appendix a ............................................................................................................................................................29 appendix b .............................................................................................................................................................33 2 university to college transfer students introduction in 2009, ontarios colleges proposed four goals to help improve the quality of higher education, one of which involved enhancing student mobility (colleges ontario, 2009). as such, mobility within postsecondary education is an important factor to assess, and it is becoming progressively more common for students to transfer between institutions (colleges ontario, 2009). because of this increase in student mobility, several studies have examined mobility trends and transfer student characteristics with data collected from various sources (e.g., graduate satisfaction survey, student satisfaction survey, university/college applicant survey, etc.). results from these sources indicate that the pathways students use to access postsecondary education are becoming more diversified; students do not always follow the traditional linear path from high school to either college or university (bayard & greenlee, 2009; colleges ontario, 2013; kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; usher & jarvey, 2012). previous research into student mobility generally focused most on college students who transfer to university; consequently, much information has been collected pertaining to this facet of mobility (colleges ontario, 2008; maclennan, 2002), but relatively less is known about the movement from university to college. to add to the literature, confederation college collaborated with the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) to focus on students who transferred to confederation college from university between 2010 and 2012, while specifically examining what motivates them to make such a decision. data was collected via online surveys and two focus groups. participants included students who are either currently enrolled at, or had previously attended, confederation college and who have any amount of previous university experience. discovering what motivates a student to attend college after university can help inform best practices to ensure that students needs are being met before, after, and during transfer. additionally, further knowledge into transfer students motives can aid in increasing student satisfaction, learning opportunities, ease of access, and quality of program delivery in colleges. the report includes a literature review relevant to university-college mobility, the methods used to collect survey data and conduct focus groups, the results from both methods, a summary of the results, and discussion regarding limitations, recommendations, and future directions. 3 university to college transfer students literature review data sources listed below are several surveys that measure trends and student characteristics in postsecondary education (pse) in ontario. university/college applicant study (ucas) this survey measures demographics and key decision factors in choosing a college including academic, financial, outcome, campus, and nurturing factors. the ucas contacts approximately 250,000 university/college applicants each spring, and is the largest survey of pse applicants in north america. national graduates survey (ngs) this survey examines factors including: employment success since graduation, employment secured and relation to field of study, employment satisfaction, rates of unemployment/underemployment, and postsecondary influence on present career achievement. the survey is administered to pse graduates at two and five years following graduation. ontario university graduate survey this survey is administered via mail two years following graduation. it examines factors including employment and further education of ontario university graduates. key performance indicator surveys (kpi) additional surveys are grouped under the kpi surveys and include the student satisfaction survey, the graduate satisfaction survey, and the employer satisfaction survey. these surveys are designed to measure how well ontarios 24 colleges are performing in comparison to the goals delineated by the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu). the surveys measure the five kpis: graduate employment rate, graduate rate, employer satisfaction rate, graduate satisfaction, and student satisfaction. the student satisfaction survey is administered in class to college students during their second semester; the graduate satisfaction survey is administered to graduates six months after graduation, and the employer satisfaction survey is administered to employers five weeks after the graduate survey is complete. gaps in transfer student information while the purpose of these surveys is to gather information on the performance of the colleges and universities, they also are able to provide some insights on transfer students and their reason for transfer. much of the literature uses information from these surveys to help explain motives; however, these surveys are not designed to collect all the relevant information on the transfer students. for example, the graduate satisfaction survey is only conducted on graduates six months following graduation which may not capture students who transferred to another institution before graduation, 4 university to college transfer students or subsequent to six months following graduation. in addition, data on transfer applicants can only be tracked if students voluntarily include a university transcript or degree in their college application; some applicants may not have shared such information. the present study attempts to add to the current information by providing an additional examination of students who have transferred to confederation college from university. mobility recently, much attention has been directed towards student mobility within and between postsecondary institutions and sectors, as increasing ease of transfer has emerged as an important factor in the quality of pse (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010; speers, 2012). the term mobility encompasses an array of transfer options for students, and may refer to the transfer of students between colleges, between universities, from college to university, or from university to college. the number of students embarking on these non -traditional pathways to pse is increasing; the route from high school directly to either university or college is no longer the norm (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010; liu, 2013). results from the 2012 university/college applicant study show that 31% of ontario college applicants are transfer students, and an additional 15% of college applicants have some previous postsecondary experience (colleges ontario, 2012). in this vein, colleges ontario (2013), found that the number of non-direct college applicants (includes applicants with delayed entry or previous pse experience) is increasing; in the 2012-13 year, 65.5% of college applicants were non-direct applicants, while only 34.5% of college applicants applied directly from high school. this report included information on pse applicants from 2003-2013, and found the number of non-direct applicants has increased since the 200304 year, when 58.8% of college applicants were non-direct and 40% of applicants were direct entry. this report (colleges ontario, 2013) also found that in 2012-13, 42% of applicants had some previous postsecondary experience (includes those with and without credentials); 24% of applicants had completed pse (12% from university), and 18% had incomplete pse. it is clear that the number of students diverging from the traditional path is on the rise; as such, it is vital to understand as much as possible regarding students pathways within pse. as mentioned above, it is evident that student mobility is an emerging area of interest in pse. accordingly, research into student mobility and non-traditional pathways in pse has been recognized as a priority for the major pse research institutions in canada, including oncat (formerly the college university consortium council), the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco), and colleges ontario. oncat was established in 2011, and seeks to support collaboration between ontarios colleges and universities, and support student transfer between them. oncat also sponsors and provides funding for research involving transfer and mobility in ontario. heqco formulated a research plan in 2005 to better understand and develop different models of pse and collaboration between institutions; as such, understanding student mobility is a priority for their research mandate. finally, as mentioned previously, colleges ontario (2009) proposed enhancing student mobility as one of its four goals for improving pse. in view of the fact that the major pse research institutions in canada recognize the importance of student mobility en masse, there are several studies examining various facets of mobility, some of which are outlined below in terms of trends and student characteristics. 5 university to college transfer students trends in pse several reports show that the number of transfer students with university experience has increased, including students with university degrees and students with some previous university experience. for example, the findings from the 2008 colleges ontario study demonstrate that in 2007-08, 37% of college students had some previous experience with pse, and nine percent were university graduates. similarly, in 2011, the college-university consortium council (cucc) reported that proportionally, the number of college attendees with a university degree is slightly increasing; in 2001-02, 7.3% of college students had a university degree; the number increased somewhat to 8.3% in 2006-07, and increased again to 9.8% in 2009-10 (cucc, 2011a). when the cucc considered any amount of pse experience, the proportions significantly increased, with 21.3% of students having either a college or university diploma or degree, and 20.8% having some pse experience in 2009-10. colleges ontario (2009) reports that student mobility and transfer is becoming more common; 17% of college students have some previous university experience, and nine percent have graduated from university. according to data collected from the college application survey, 13 %of college applicants indicated past university experience, and 11% of first year college registrants indicated previous university experience. additionally, in a 2005 survey on university graduates conducted two years after graduating, it was found that of those who furthered their education six months following graduation, 11.5% went to college, and two years after graduation 9.4% of graduates were attending college (colleges ontario, 2005). taken as a whole, these studies collectively demonstrate the increasing number of college students with previous university experience. student characteristics surveys collecting data on pse experiences examine not only trends, but student demographics and characteristics as well. sources indicate that students who diverge from the traditional pse pathways often have certain characteristics, making them a distinct group in regards to age, gender, language, and program choice. in 2013, colleges ontario examined college applicants and found that the average age for a non-direct applicant (those not applying directly from high school) is 25.6 years, which is significantly older than the average age of the direct applicant (those applying directly from high school), which is 19.8 years. non-direct applicants are slightly more likely to be male (53% male, 47% female). however, college applicants with postsecondary experience are more likely to be female; 55% of applicants with incomplete pse are female, while 45% are male. for applicants with complete pse (those with a diploma or degree), 59% are female, and 41% are male (colleges ontario, 2013). when specifically looking at the college applicant who had graduated from university, it is found that those who are university graduates are most likely to: be female, be older than 25 years, enroll in a post-basic certificate, have a first language that is not french or english, and choose a college program related to government or real estate. (cucc, 2011b). it was also found that most of them had taken a program in humanities, social sciences, or business in university (colleges ontario, 2009). additionally, as part of its improving college system pathways project, colleges ontario (2008) 6 university to college transfer students examined students motives into why they move. the most common answer was interest in a new field, followed by better employment and personal/social reasons. in a 2012 study of college transfer students by colleges ontario, 52% of respondents had previously attended university (the remaining had transferred from a different college). for the students with previous university education, 49% had been enrolled in an arts program, and such students were most likely to enroll in either a business or a health science program in college. results demonstrated that when switching schools, approximately 75% of students changed their field of study. the majority of participants (slightly above half) cited their main reason for switching programs was to enhance career prospects. additional motives for switching included convenience of the college geographical location, and a penchant for the colleges teaching/learning styles (usher & jarvey, 2012). another aspect of interest in applicants is who influenced their pse decisions. colleges ontario (2004) examined data from the college applicant survey regarding the degree of influence that other individuals exerted on choosing the college of interest for applicants. noticeable differences were found between the direct entry applicants and the group applying who had previous pse. it was found that as a group, those with previous pse rated the influence of others as less of a factor in their decision. for the direct entry group, 40% said parents influenced them the most, 14% said friends influenced them the most, and 12% said their main influence was a college representative. the group with previous pse reported that friends were the greatest influence (29%), and reported less parental influence (25%) and less college representative influence (8%). another significant difference was the degree of influence from other family members, which only 6% of the direct entry group rated as a main influence, compared with 16% of the group with previous pse. previous research into demographics and characteristics of mobile and transfer students show that they are a distinguishable group. the current study is hoping to examine this group further by discovering what motivates these students to attend college after attending university. other jurisdictions in canada, alberta, british columbia, and quebec have emerged as having the most established transfer systems for students moving between postsecondary institutions and sectors (heqco, 2010). these provinces all have systems in place meant to recognize and transfer students credits, which adds great ease to the transfer process. the canadian council on learning (2009) reports that student mobility is highest in provinces with recognized systems that transfer credits, such as british columbia and quebec. for example, in british columbia, 49% of canadians aged 18-74 have attended more than one postsecondary institution; in quebec, 47% have, and in ontario, only 39% have. suggested reasons for this smaller percentage in ontario include its original design of its pse system, which was meant to be binary and recognized college and universities being separate sectors; this model decreases the ease of student mobility between sectors (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). british columbia has a unique and world renowned transfer system, and is one of the best examples of a successful transfer system in canada. bekhradnia bahram, of the higher education policy institute in the united kingdom, declared british columbia has taken the california model and developed it into 7 university to college transfer students what is possibly the most extensive credit accumulation and transfer arrangement in the world (cowin, 2013, p. 8). the bc system allows students to be mobile, while receiving credit for what they have done at previous institutions. the system has in place policies, guidelines, and articulation agreements to aid in mobility and transfer, and has directed research efforts into the continuous improvement of this system (bccat, 2013). a 2013 study by bc stats examined motivations for mobility of postsecondary students. results of this study showed that students main motive for moving from one institution to another was because they decided to pursue a program that was not available at their original institution. it was also found that only 20% of mobile students reported some dissatisfaction with the process of credit transfer. the bc postsecondary system illustrates an exemplary model for student transfer and mobility. from the abovementioned information, it is evident that student mobility is on the rise in ontario; as such, postsecondary research institutions have conducted much research in this area. previous studies indicate that student mobility is becoming more common, and mobile students have distinct and identifiable characteristics. further studies are needed to gain a comprehensive understanding of student mobility to ensure students have access to the highest quality postsecondary education. this study will aid in a more complete understanding of mobility by examining students motives for transferring from university to college. current study the current study examined previous university students who attended confederation college between 2010 and 2012. the main objective was to discover why students choose to attend college after attending university. other important themes were also examined, including student characteristics, academic performance, program choice, transfer experience, and students overall experience. 8 university to college transfer students survey and focus group methodology information on university students who transferred to confederation college the data from our system comprises information on university students who transferred into confederation college from 2010 to 2012. the known variables included the term students were admitted in, the program they were admitted to, the previous institution they attended and the amount of credit they were given for their university experience. this data was analyzed with data from the previous study, measures of student success and student experience following university-college transfers in northwestern ontario (2012), to find trends. survey methodology there were 234 students who transferred to confederation college from university between 2010 and 2012. these students were contacted via email and invited to participate in the survey (please refer to appendix a for a copy of the survey). the survey questions were guided from both the research objective and previous research into university-college student mobility. from this, themes emerged that were deemed important to examine. these included student characteristics, academic performance, program choice, employment, transfer experience, reason for transfer, and students overall experience. the survey included an invitation to participate in one of two focus groups. in addition to the email invite, posters were put up around campus and in-class announcements were made in classes with a high number of previous university students in an effort to attract more participants. the survey was open from september 20th until october 11th, 2013. focus group methodology we collaborated with northern insights (a division of generator), to help establish a discussion guide (appendix b) and moderate the focus groups. two focus groups were conducted during the month of october, 2013. in total, there were 17 students that participated in the focus groups (see table 1). the focus groups were conducted at the northern insight lab facility located in the shunia building of confederation colleges main campus. date october 9, 2013 from 12:30 pm to 1:10 pm october 16, 2013 from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm focus group #1 #2 number of participants 9 8 table 1 the focus groups were led by a moderator who introduced the purpose of the research study to the participants. all participants signed a consent form indicating knowledge of, and compliance with, the recording of the focus groups. participants were also given $50 gift cards for their participation. 9 university to college transfer students a formal set of questions was explicitly drafted to help guide discussion in the focus groups, based on a preliminary analysis of the survey results that helped identify themes that warranted further exploration. follow-up questions were asked in addition to the pre-established questions to ensure that a thorough and complete data set would be available for analysis. this method of inquiry allowed the moderator to guide the discussion of each focus group to ensure that all topics related to student transfers were discussed. results of system data using the results of the system data we were able to update some of the tables from the previous study, measures of student success and student experience following university-college transfers in northwestern ontario (2012), and add new information specific to the current topic. the number of university transfers from university to confederation college from 2005 to 2012 was extracted from the data. the average percent change between 2005 and 2012 was calculated to find the relative change in the number of university transfer students over this period of time. an average percent change of 0.04 between 2005 and 2012 suggests that there has been no significant increase or decrease in the number of transfer students from university to college, meaning that the number of university transfers has been relatively stable here at confederation college (details displayed in figure 1). number of transfers from university to confederation college number of transfers 140 123 120 100 83 89 94 114 100 95 77 80 60 40 20 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 figure 1 10 2009 2010 2011 2012 university to college transfer students additionally, the number of transfers exclusively from lakehead university to confederation college was also extracted from the data. percentage change was calculated from 2005 to 2012 to find the relative change in the number of transfers over this period of time. the average percentage change between these years was found to be 0.04, suggesting that the number of transfers from lakehead university has been relatively stable (details displayed in figure 2). number of transfers from lakehead university to confederation college number of transfers 120 103 100 80 70 69 2006 2007 82 76 61 59 67 60 40 20 0 2005 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 figure 2 furthermore, the percentage of transfers from lakehead university was calculated using the university transfer data. as mentioned in our previous study, most university transfer students to confederation college are from lakehead university and this held true in 2011 and 2012 as well. between 2005 and 2012, 76% of university transfers had attended lakehead university (details in table 2). year # of university student transfers # of lakehead university transfers % of lakehead university transfers 2005 83 59 71 2006 89 70 78 2007 94 69 73 2008 100 76 76 2009 123 103 83 2010 114 82 71 2011 77 61 79 2012 95 67 71 total 775 587 76 table 2 program choice was also extracted from the data. programs were organized into the four schools at confederation college: the school of aviation, school of business, hospitality and media arts, school of engineering technology and trades, and school of health and community services, negahneewin. the data in figure 3 demonstrates that transfer students are more likely to choose programs in the school of health and community services, negahneewin and the school of business, hospitality and media arts. 11 university to college transfer students transfer student program choice number of transfer students 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 school of aviation 9 6 4 10 8 14 9 5 school of business, hospitality and media arts 28 35 37 23 38 32 20 24 school of health and community services, negahneewin 32 34 39 51 57 48 36 50 school of engineering technology and trades 14 14 14 16 20 20 12 16 figure 3 results of survey data number of university transfer students the number of university transfer students who were admitted into a college program from 2010 to 2012 was tracked. there were 234 university transfer students admitted in the timespan. from a total of 234 potential students, 30 completed the survey, for a response rate of 13%. results are listed below for characteristics of students, academic performance, program choice, employment, and transfer process. characteristics of university transfer students there were more female respondents (76.7%) than male (23.3%), which is consistent with other literature regarding transfer students. students ages range from 20 years to 35 years plus, with most students being between the ages of 20-24 (63.3%). details for age range group distribution are shown in figure 4. 12 university to college transfer students age groups of transfer students number of students 20 15 10 5 0 20-24 25-30 30-35 35 + age ranges figure 4 results indicate that the majority of students report their first language as english (96.7%) or french (3.3%). this finding differs from previous studies, which find the majority of transfer students report having a first language other than english or french. also, the majority of students (77%) transferred from lakehead university, which is the closest postsecondary institution to confederation college. more students had received a university credential (57%) than had not (43%). detailed results for amount of university education obtained are shown in figure 5. amount of university experience did not complete first year completed first year completed second year completed third year completed fourth year completed fifth year received bachelor's degree received honour's degree 0 2 4 6 number of students figure 5 13 8 10 university to college transfer students academic performance students seemed to report that they did well in both university and college. while the majority of students reported that they performed well academically in university (60% reported having grades above 70), more students reported having higher grades in college (96% reported having grades above 70). details comparing university and college academic performance are shown in figure 6. academic percentage range college vs. university academic performance below 50% 50-59% 60-69% 70-79% university 80-89% college 90%+ 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 number of students figure 6 in addition, more students reported finding university more challenging than college. results are shown in figure 7. level of difficulty perceived difficulty of college & university very difficult difficult neutral university easy college very easy 0 5 10 15 number of students figure 7 14 20 25 university to college transfer students program choice students were asked what university program they were enrolled in and which college program they transferred to. in university, most students were enrolled in a social science and humanities program (50%), followed by education (20%) and science and mathematics programs (16.7%). a small amount of students were from business or natural resource programs. in college, most students enrolled in programs in the school of health and community services, negahneewin (56%), followed by the school of business, hospitality and media arts (20%), the school of aviation (13%) and the school of engineering technology and trades (10%). students were given an open ended response option to describe why they chose their university and college programs. responses were coded to find common themes. the most common response students gave for choosing their university program was general interest (46%) followed by a specific career related goals (36%). the most common response for choosing their college program was for career related goals (66%). additionally, when asked whether they believed their college program was related to their university program, more students reported that their college program was either very or slightly related to their university program (55%) than not related at all (45%). detailed results are shown in figure 8. figure 8 employment 80% of students reported that they were not employed in a job related to their program after university and believed that university did not prepare them for a employment; however, 100% of respondents feel that college is preparing them for employment. 15 university to college transfer students transfer process 78.6% of students were aware they could transfer credits prior to registering for classes, and 17.9% were aware they could transfer credits after registering for classes. only 1 respondent indicated he/she was unaware of the option to transfer credits. 100% of students said they were interested in transferring credits and 50% of students reported satisfaction with the credit transfer process (more detail in figure 9). figure 9 students were given an open ended response to comment on their transfer experience. some students reported that no improvement was needed to the process. students that noted dissatisfaction with the process made suggestions for improvement. these suggestions were coded to find the most common responses. one common remark was to make transferring credits easier by allowing students to transfer credits before registration and applying broader acceptance standards to university credits. common responses also revolved around the dissatisfaction of the price of transferring credits and having to pay for transfer credits. some students also noted the differences between college and university as frustrating because of the increased amount of workload. one student suggested having an orientation for university transfer students to help students adjust to college life. reason for transfer the main reason indicated by students as to why they transferred to college was more opportunities for career advancement (67%). additional reasons are listed in the table 3. 16 university to college transfer students reason more opportunities for career advancement broaden education i was looking for a different approach to teaching and learning financial reasons no jobs available in my previous field of study i wanted to switch into a new program encouragement from others personal/social reasons i did not enjoy the program at university upgrade/improve knowledge and skills to get a diploma/certificate needed for professional designation other reasons percentage of students 67% 37% 33% 30% 30% 27% 23% 23% 23% 20% 10% 1% 10% table 3 overall experience 87% of students rated their overall experience as either good (37%) or excellent in college (50%). details are shown in figure 10. overall college experience experience rating don't know excellent good fair poor 0 2 4 6 8 10 number of students figure 10 17 12 14 16 university to college transfer students analysis of focus groups student characteristics there were a total of 17 students who participated in the focus groups (nine in focus group #1, eight in focus group #2). the focus groups participants were mostly female (82%). participant university attended 1 university of western ontario 2 lakehead university 3 lakehead university 4 lakehead university 5 lakehead university 6 lakehead university 7 lakehead university 8 lakehead university 9 lakehead university 10 lakehead university 11 lakehead university 12 lakehead university 13 lakehead university 14 lakehead university university program geography concurrent education (sciences) & mba artspsychology arts-english concurrent education (sciences) arts-english artspsychology sciencesapplied biomolecular science concurrent education (psychology) sciences biology and chemistry concurrent education (arts) nursing arts psychology commerce 18 university graduate college graduate environmental technician yes no hr management yes yes pre-health yes no recreational therapy no no instrumentation yes no hr management yes no recreational therapy yes no medical lab assistant yes no early childhood education no no aviation yes no aviation yes no hr management yes yes hr management yes no hr management no no college program university to college transfer students 15 lakehead university 16 lakehead university 17 lakehead university concurrent education (arts) concurrent education (arts) outdoor recreation dental assistant no yes hr management no no civil engineering technology no no table 4 65% of focus group participants had graduated from university, and 76% of participants were still in the process of completing their college program. the large majority of participants had previously attended lakehead university (the closest neighboring postsecondary institution). in regards to program choice at university, most participants (41%) were enrolled in an arts program, 29% were enrolled in concurrent education, and 24% of participants were enrolled in a science program. reasons for transferring results from the focus group showed that the main reason students transferred to college was job related. 88% of participants stated that a key reason for their transfer to college was to gain new skills or build on existing skills in order to increase their job prospects. students who were university graduates experienced a lack of job opportunities upon completing their university programs, and felt that the college could help them increase their employability. thats why i switched, because there were no jobs. take a college course because its job oriented after graduation. additionally, participants reported that they wanted to continue their postsecondary studies at an institution that taught practical skills and had a different teaching style than university, as illustrated by one students statement: i went to university for four years and i didnt do one presentation. i did a few essays but it was mostly just read the textbook and do the exam. thats it. it was not hands-on at all and i needed something that was more hands-on and got you in the community using your skills. academic performance the participants academic performances at university varied. four participants mentioned that they performed well academically at university, while another five participants indicated that they performed poorly at university. the participants attributed their poorer university performances to a 19 university to college transfer students lack of motivation, the teaching/learning style at university, and being younger and less mature while in university. students generally reported that they performed better in college, which they attributed to the different teaching/learning style, the more personalized attention from instructors, being older and more mature, and being more motivated. here they know when youre not in class and if you miss a few classes and theres always, like life coaches coming in to talk to you and theyre always just helping you further your education so that you can get a job. employment/career the majority of participants (82%) reported that they did not find employment in their field of study after completing university, while 12% reported finding a job after university. many stated that they did not know what type of job they could get with their degree and felt they did not receive much direction from their universities in regards to employment opportunities. some participants stated that there were no jobs at all available in their field. i switched because there were no jobs. participants stated that one of the draws of college was that they could take a co-op placement to gain work experience, and noted that this is a good opportunity to gain practical skills, make connections, and potentially find a job. participants in programs without a co-op (i.e., aviation or human resource management) stated that while no career placement exists, the classes are still very practical and the skills taught can be easily transferred into the professional working environment my program didnt have a co-op but one of the draws to the college was that its even more hands on. when i left the hr program here, youre actually able to do something. program choice table 4 suggests that the majority of participants were studying different programs at confederation college after attending university; however, some participants explained why they perceived their university and college programs were related. some students suggested that they could apply the theory they learned in university to the hands-on skills they were learning in college. this is illustrated in the following student comment: the human resource management program felt like it complemented psychology. i was really interested in the science side of psychology, so i was interested to see kind of more the theory side with human resources because you apply it more practically, but you can also go into ergonomics with health and safety and that kind of thing 20 university to college transfer students on a broader level, the majority of participants that studied the social sciences at university transferred into social science programs at confederation college. also, the majority of participants studying the natural sciences in university transferred into the natural science program. in regards to why participants chose their college program, most stated that they chose it for the end goal of getting a job once they graduate. participants also noted that they were interested in their program. end goal and it was recommended kind of an interest in the end goal. theres a goal there and this is how i get to it. transfer experience approximately half of the participants did not experience any issues during the transfer process from university to college. when speaking to participants about their transfer experience, most exclusively discussed transfer credits and the transfer credit process. when asked about their transfer experience, some students reported satisfaction because their transfer credits were processed quickly and easily. other students who were enrolled in a post diploma program had no issues to report because they could not transfer credits. those who seem dissatisfied shared some of their frustrations, including difficulty tracking down course outlines from their completed university courses which are required to assess the applicability of specific transfer credits. they also expressed frustration with their university because they had to pay a fee for course outlines that were required in the transfer process. also, some participants had issues transferring credits at confederation college as they had courses refused for transfer that they felt should have been accepted. students who were satisfied with the transfer process noted that professors at the college were helpful in reviewing course outlines and recommending transfer credits. financial considerations the findings regarding financial considerations were mixed. in the first focus group, a majority of the participants stated that financial considerations did play a role in their decision to switch from university to college, citing the relatively lower cost of tuition and shorter program length as the two primary deciding factors. nevertheless, it is important to understand that the primary reason these participants switched from university to college was not because of lower tuition rates or the opportunity cost associated with forgoing additional annual income (since college programs are typically shorter in length than university programs). the students switched from university to increase the likelihood of procuring employment after completing their program. these individuals were also looking to enroll in a 21 university to college transfer students program that suited their interests and would provide them with more job opportunities upon completion of their respective programs of study. one participant stressed the following with regard to the financial considerations of attending confederation college: i would just add that its notit wasnt like, oh look at this, it [college] is much cheaper than university. it was just an added bonus, like after i applied and saw the prices. perceived value the majority of participants (94%) felt they had received (or are currently receiving) value for their money at confederation college. some stated that they perceive they will get their moneys worth after they graduate and have a job in their field of study. 22 university to college transfer students summary of results this study was conducted to better understand the reasons why students transfer from university to college. the findings from both the survey and focus groups suggest that the key reasons students transfer are career-related. when explicitly asked why they decided to attend college, students discussed their need for practical skills and experience that they could include in a resume, as well as wanting to make career changes, the need for a clearer career path, and the difficulty in finding a job after university. even when discussion was focused on teaching styles, students mentioned the practical skills they were learning from instructors who were working in the field, and how this would better prepare them for a career. when other reasons for transferring were suggested in the focus groups, such as academic performance, placement opportunities, financial considerations, program length, and program choice, the students tended to disregard these. instead, most students noted that these were additional advantages of transferring. students discussed topics such as the improvement in their academic performance, the importance of placement opportunities, the advantageous shorter program length that would get them into the field faster, and how they enjoyed that their program choice was related to their previous university program. in addition, student feedback on program choice also helped to provide more evidence that one of the main reasons students transfer is career oriented. the transfer survey included an open ended question on the programs students took in university and college, and why they selected these programs. in choosing their university program, students mentioned interest as a reason more often than a specific career goal (46% interest compared to 36% career related). in contrast, in choosing their college program, students more often commented on career related reasons (66%). these results suggest that students are more likely to choose their college program for career related end goals, and provide more evidence that students transfer from university to college for career related reasons. this study had a higher number of students from university programs involving social sciences and humanities (50%). also, there were a higher number of university students transferring to college programs in the school of health and community services, negahneewin (57%), and the school of business, hospitality and media arts (20%). this is similar to the findings in the literature review. when asked whether students believed that their college and university programs were related, the survey results demonstrated that 55% of participants believed their programs were related. in addition, it was found that in one focus group 75% of students believed their programs were related. when focus group participants were asked why they thought their programs were related, the responses seemed to suggest that students could apply the theory they learned in university to their college program and that they could apply it to their hands-on learning at college in a meaningful way. 23 university to college transfer students this may help explain the higher numbers of social science and humanities students and the higher number of transfer students in health, community service or business programs; social science and humanities university students may see the relation of the theory they have learned in university to health, community service or business programs in college and select these programs more often. limitations the most pressing limitation of the current study was the small sample size (n=30). a small sample size makes it difficult to generalize results to the larger population. one reason for the small sample size is that the population participants were selected from was relatively small in itself (234 possible students). despite the small sample size, there were similarities between our sample and previous findings in the literature regarding student characteristics. for example, the students who responded to the survey were mostly female (76.7%) and between the ages of 20 to 24 (63.3%). most students were previously enrolled in a university social sciences and humanities program (50%), and most were enrolled in a program in the school of health and community services in college (56%). these similarities suggest that our results could be generalized to the larger university to college transfer population. to increase our sample size in the future, more aggressive recruitment strategies will be employed, such as more in-class presentations in programs with a high number of previous university students. despite the small amount of students who completed the survey, the desired amount of participants for the focus groups was achieved. recommendations one of the recommendations for future research is to further investigate the findings on academic performance. it should be noted that the focus groups consisted of both transfer students who had either received a university degree and who had not completed university. though the study findings demonstrate students transfer for mainly career related reasons, more informative results and differences may emerge by looking at students who have completed university and students who have not completed as two separate groups. another recommendation for future research is to find out whether transfer students choose college as part of an educational pathway. since there are a high number of students who have completed their university program and a high number of students that choose their university program out of interest, it is possible to infer that students may be choosing their university programs out of interest, and after this decide on a career path that suits their university program. future directions the findings of this study will be used to further improve our transfer processes at confederation college. this study, including the survey and focus group feedback, will be useful in implementing changes to the transfer process. feedback and results will be included in a report that will be presented 24 university to college transfer students to our academic council here at confederation college; a council which leads the development and implementation of academic vision, standards and processes at the college. as students pathways to postsecondary education are becoming more diverse, it is important to understand what motivates them along their educational journey. using a survey and focus groups, this study investigated why students who previously attended university decide to attend college. in vein with previous literature, results demonstrated that students decide to attend college to gain skills and further their employment opportunities. being aware of students main motive for attending college can help ensure student satisfaction and program quality, while helping to inform best practices. 25 university to college transfer students 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(2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. toronto: colleges ontario. retrieved from http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0cdk qfjaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collegesontario.org%2fresearch%2fexternalreports%2fcredit%2520transfer%2520summary%2520report.pdf&ei=jimlur3asi6yagyxodwbw&usg=afqjcnhqzuk4_rhldqytaxuqr46cdjnhw&bvm=bv.50723672,d.awc 28 appendix a transfer student experience survey appendix b student transfer research october, 2013 discussion guide introduction welcome and thank you for coming to todays group discussion. my name is (moderator) and i am working with northern insights, a local research company, hired by confederation college. the purpose of today is to gather your thoughts, opinions, and insights on why you transferred from your university to confederation college. as we discussed, todays session will be approximately sixty minutes. there are no wrong answers but rather differing points of view. please feel free to share your point of view even if it differs from what others have said. we want you to feel comfortable in telling us your honest opinions. the discussion is being recorded for reporting purposes and all responses will be without attribute. as stated on the permission/signature sheet, your name and the audio recordings will remain anonymous and confidential. does anyone have any questions? research targets date of focus group 1. focus group 1 october 9, 2013 at 12:30 pm 2. focus group 2 october 16, 2013 at 12:30 pm research objective: to discover why students transfer from university to college. what are your reasons for switching from university to college? a. academic performance how did you perform academically in university? has your academic performance changed since you started studying at the college? how so? why do you think your academic performance has changed since arriving at college? b. employment/career what were your job prospects after university? was it hard to find a job after university related to what you studied? did you find a job after university? was the job related to what you studied at university? were college placement programs a factor in deciding to start studying at the college? is the college a part of your overall career path? is the college an important part of your career path? if so, how is it important? of the students who have already graduated from the college, how many of you have found a job? was the job related to what you studied at the college? is this job the next step in your career path? do you feel that continuous learning/training is important once you graduate from the college and begin your career? if so, how is continuous learning/training important to your career? do you think the college could play a role in your continuous learning/training once you begin your working career? if yes, how? c. program choice is the program you took at university related to your program at the college? what are your reasons for selecting your program at the college? did you select it out of interest or for a desired end goal? d. transfer experience are you satisfied with your transfer experience? why or why not? is there any way the transfer experience could be improved? what did you like about university and college? what did you dislike? where did you receive information about the student transfer process? how knowledgeable were you of student transfer process? (did you know which courses could be transferred as credits, how to transfer credits) e. financial considerations did you switch from university to college due to financial reasons? if so, for what reasons (cost of tuition, lesser time commitment creating more working hours)? did you feel you were getting your moneys worth at university? do you feel you are (have) getting (gotten) your moneys worth at confederation college? how so? wrap-up thank you for taking the time to come in and participate in this study. your thoughts and opinions are greatly valued and will truly help in our strategies going forward. student transfer research focus group by my signature, i understand that: my participation in this project is limited to 60 minutes; there are no known physical, psychological, educational, economic or social risks associated with this research project; participation is voluntary and that i am free to withdraw at any time; and i am not obliged to answer any questions i find objectionable or which make me feel uncomfortable. by my signature, i acknowledge that i will be audio and video taped and release and waive the use of my comments (including audio taping of comments) for presentation purposes, though my identity will remain anonymous. print name signature

transfer student persistence at algonquin college and university of ottawa by ross finnie graduate school of public and international affairs and education policy research initiative, university of ottawa dejan pavlic education policy research initiative, university of ottawa stephen childs education policy research initiative, university of ottawa victoria e. daz school of political studies and institutional research and planning, university of ottawa pierre mercier school of psychology and institutional research and planning, university of ottawa oct. 26, 2013 wayne lewrey institutional research and planning, algonquin college corresponding author: ross finnie (rfinnie@uottawa.ca) transfer student persistence at algonquin college and university of ottawa abstract this report examines the persistence or retention of students who transfer from algonquin college to the university of ottawa or vice versa by comparing transfer student retention rates to students who are directly admitted at either institution on the basis of their high school record. after identifying the overall differences in the rates of each group at each institution, we use a logistic regression framework to examine the extent to which various student characteristics (age, sex, high school performance, etc.) explain these differences. algonquin college transfer students are considerably more likely to leave the university of ottawa than our high school comparison group. the risk is especially pronounced for transfer students who begin their university studies on a part-time basis. we are not able to identify any clear reasons for the higher leaving rates based on the explanatory variables included in our models. perhaps most notably, high school grades do not explain them. while the transfer effect disappears when entry age is taken into account, due to transfer students being older, on average, and leaving rates being generally higher in the estimated models, closer inspection reveals that the effects of age are quite different for the two groups, meaning that a different analytical approach is needed to identify the sources of the observed differences in retention rates between the high school entry and transfer groups. in contrast, the university of ottawa transfer students are no more likely to leave algonquin college than the high school comparison group at that institution. interestingly, they are more likely to leave, other factors held constant, when we take high school grades which are higher for the transfer students into account. i acknowledgments the authors would like to express their thanks to reza mashaie at the university of ottawa and tom friesen and max figueredo of algonquin college for their excellent work in providing us with data, and for conversations regarding the institutional arrangements and other contextual factors which were so important to understanding the data used in this analysis. the authors also wish to thank the college-university consortium council for their financial support, which made this report possible. responsibility for the analysis and the opinions expressed in the report remain solely with the authors. ii contents i. introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................... 1 ii. methodology......................................................................................................................................................................... 2 ii.1. dataset construction ................................................................................................................................................ 2 institutional samples.................................................................................................................................................... 2 explanatory variables .................................................................................................................................................. 3 ii.2. matching transfer students .................................................................................................................................. 5 ii.3. persistence measure ................................................................................................................................................. 5 ii.4. model framework ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 iii. results ................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 iii.1. descriptive results .................................................................................................................................................. 7 iv. models.................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 iv.1. university of ottawa models................................................................................................................................ 7 iv.2. algonquin college models................................................................................................................................... 10 v. further work ..................................................................................................................................................................... 12 vi. conclusion.......................................................................................................................................................................... 13 iii introduction once students are at a given pse institution, a number of pathways are open to them, including graduation, switching to a different program, or leaving the pse institution altogether, either abandoning pse studies or choosing to study elsewhere. differing pathways also exist upon graduation: some students will enter the workforce, others will choose to pursue more education. education in ontario is provided by universities and colleges. the two systems have different governing structures, government oversight and often differing mandates and are thus often seen as entirely separate vehicles for providing post-secondary education (pse). however, the two systems are not mutually exclusive. students attending (or graduating from) college may wish to continue their studies at a university. indeed, universities may have collaborative programs with colleges, or policies to recognize some college credits either on the basis of a college program or on a case-by-case basis. conversely, students attending universities may choose to transfer to college either before graduating or after. indeed, colleges can attract university graduates by offering a number of accelerated programs that specifically target university students. certain canadian provinces, alberta and british columbia in particular, have moved to a more articulated education system where education received in college will formally qualify for transfer credit at a given university institution. the recognition of credits under an articulated system is based on a broader list of programs and collaborating institutions. indeed, the college system in these provinces is meant to provide a host of programs with educational content in some ways parallel to that of the affiliated university providers. in comparison, the pse system in ontario is more fractured. historically, it has not been designed in such a way as to ensure that the content of college courses is substantially similar to courses in a university program even within the same subject matter, and articulation agreements between colleges and universities are generally structured on a program by program basis at the institutional level. nonetheless, college students do transfer from college to university and the opposite pathway also occurs. in this context, the government of ontario has indicated its desire for greater collaboration between colleges and universities, and more standardized procedures for recognition of college credit in university programs, in particular. essentially, transfers to be made easier. in this report, we investigate one important aspect of this set of issues by presenting the findings of an empirical analysis of the persistence or retention of transfer students in comparison to students entering university or college taking a more standard pathway by entering university or college directly after high school. to carry out this this analysis, we use data from one college and one university across which transfers are, in relative terms, fairly common the university of ottawa and algonquin college. the two institutions collaborated in this project by providing data on transfer students before and after their moves, along with comparable data on comparison groups of high school entry students at each institution. administrative data have much to recommend them for the analysis of student persistence. firstly, usual concerns about sample attrition and bias are minimized as the researchers have access to the whole population of students in any given year at each institution. secondly, administrative data are 1 by nature longitudinal or at least can be arranged into a longitudinal form from the crosssectional files which are initially provided which allows us to track students year-over-year and thus determine their persistence. in this analysis, we examine both sides of the transfer equation. firstly, we compare students who transfer from algonquin college to the university of ottawa with direct high-school entry students attending the university of ottawa. we then reverse the exercise and compare transfer students from the university of ottawa with direct high-school entry students attending algonquin college. to make the comparisons in which we are interested, we use a modeling framework which allows us to first identify the extent of any overall differences in persistence rates across the different groups, and to then identify which student characteristics (e.g., gender, high school grades, program of study) are positively or negatively related to student retention, to finally assess whether differences in these factors help explain the observed differences. the report is organized as follows. we begin by describing the administrative data of the university of ottawa and algonquin college and how we constructed the datasets used in our analysis, including the restrictions that were imposed in order to generate the specific samples employed, and the definition of the persistence measures used in the analysis. next, we lay out the descriptive statistics, which includes plotting the leaving rates of high school entry and transfer students across cohorts. the following section presents our regression modeling results, where we identify the overall differences in leaving rates between high school entry and transfer students, and investigate the degree to which differences in the underlying student characteristics drive the observed differences. we conclude the report by summarising our main findings and noting possible avenues for further research. methodology dataset construction one challenge in working with institutional data is that many key variables needed for any analysis must be constructed from a variety of different administrative databases held by the institutions. our challenge here was all the greater due to the uniformity of data required from transfer and nontransfer students in order to estimate models where direct comparisons are possible. this uniformity was required in a context where there is little similarity in the general structures of the underlying databases from which data were drawn. therefore, our challenge was not only to navigate through each administrative system on its own, but also to construct datasets, and undertake the analysis, in such a way as to make our analysis files essentially similar and thus comparable across the two institutions. institutional samples our analysis is not based on the entire student body at university of ottawa and algonquin college. at both institutions, we look at two separate samples. the first sample is what we term our high school entry sample. this includes students who enter either institution on the basis of their high school grades, and not on a transfer basis from another pse institution. it is important to note that while it is expected that most of the students opting for this path are likely to enroll right after 2 completion of high school, this need not be the case. an older student who nevertheless applies to either institution based on his or her high school record will also be included in this sample. the second sample is our transfer sample which includes students who transfer from algonquin college to the university of ottawa or vice versa. whereas the high school entry samples are provided by each institution, more effort is required to match the transfer students at their origin and destination institutions, which we discuss in greater detail below. finally, we combine these two samples to obtain our pooled sample that contains all of our high school entry and transfer students. it should be noted that that each institution collects different kinds of information on a student transferring in from another institution depending on the receiving institutions need. for example, while the university of ottawa does not record high school grades for students admitted on the basis of college studies nor their place of residence before entering pse, this information might be useful for analysis. one richness of the matching procedure is to add this possibility we test the value of this superior information by comparing models which include only the information on transfer students held by the destination institution to models which take advantage of the data exchange conducted between the two institutions for this study. in particular, estimating the former restricted information models also allows us to compare the results obtained for transfer students from algonquin college to the university of ottawa with all ontario college transfer students admitted to the university of ottawa, and thus assess the likely generalisability of our algonquin-specific analysis to the more general population of college student transfers. we present those results after the main findings of the report which focus on the richer data available from the data transfers carried out for the study. explanatory variables to capture changes in the institutional environment over time, we separate students into cohorts. at the university of ottawa cohorts are identified according to the first fall session in which a student registered after being admitted to that institution. at algonquin college, cohorts are identified by observing the first term the student appears in the algonquin registration file. we assign them a cohort by looking at the fall term of that academic year. the cohort variable is also used to calculate the students age at entry at algonquin college. the students date of birth is provided in the student records and their age as of september 1st of their cohort year is therefore straightforward to calculate. rather than including the age directly into our models, we construct several age categories for students from either institution: below 18, 18, 19, 20-22, 23-26 and 27 and above. as gender continues to be a source of significant difference in research on postsecondary education access and persistence, it is one of our basic variables. high school grades have proven to be a strong predictor of future success in a number of persistence studies; therefore, we were highly interested in obtaining high school grades for as many students as possible. the university of ottawa calculates and provides a high school admission average for all students whose basis of admission is the high school record. this average is based on the top six strongest high school grades in the final year of high school. algonquin college does not necessarily place the same weight on high school grades: grades calculations in 3 college are generally of lesser import than in university, and individual college programs will place varying degrees of importance on a students high school record. nonetheless, as our overall goal is to make our data as comparable as possible, algonquin college is able to provide a high school grade flat file. this file details the students high school performance course-by-course. since ontario academic credits1 (oac) was only a requirement for university and not for college when it existed, we calculate the students top six grades for college either from grade 12 or grade 12 and any oac courses available. these high school grades enter into the model using a set of standard high school categories corresponding to letter grades: a+, a, a-, b+, b, c+, c or below. we expect differences in persistence to emerge based on a students post-secondary program choice. considering the number of programs available at both institutions studied, we need to aggregate a number of programs based on their similarity. for the university of ottawa, we choose the faculty a student enrolls into. no exact analogue to faculty exists at algonquin college, but the program owner classification captures similar information. since program owner categories are slightly more fluid than university faculties, that is, college programs may change their respective owners over time, we match that program level data to the current (as of the 2013 academic year) program owner. this means that we may not match historical program owner definitions, but this solution allows for a consistent definition for the analysis. many program owners at algonquin college are faculties; therefore, to make our terminology between the university of ottawa and algonquin college consistent, we will refer to all program owners as faculties in this report. we note that although students may change faculties over the course of their studies, to simplify the analysis, we concern ourselves only with the first faculty of registration and we do not take into account switching to other faculties. we include two variables based on geographic information contained within the student records. past research suggests that geography plays a role not only in access to pse but also persistence. for both institutions, students were classified as coming from a rural or urban area and as being local or non-local student based on the postal code of their address of origin and classified according to statistics canadas definitions of census metropolitan areas. two variables included for analysis at the university of ottawa cannot be constructed at algonquin college. the first is a students main official language. this variable is available at the university of ottawa as it is a bilingual institution. the main usage language is recorded for all students, including not only for students entering from high school, but also for algonquin college transfers. the second variable included in the university of ottawa analysis is a students early grade point average (gpa at the end of the first semester). therefore, we are able to analyze how student performance in the first semester affects persistence at the university. unfortunately, we are not (yet) able to do this on the algonquin side of the analysis. finally, in pooled models, where transfer and high school entry students are present together, a transfer variable is coded in order to flag students who are transferring algonquin college to the university of ottawa, or vice versa. the transfer variable therefore allows us to compare the two groups. in addition, at the university of ottawa, we have the ability to identify students who the ontario academic credit was a fifth year of secondary school education designed for students preparing for post-secondary education that previously existed in the province of ontario until 2003. 1 4 transfer into the university with enough extra credit to advance into an upper year (generally, year 2). we can also identify those students who are enrolled on a part-time basis as early as in the middle of their first semester. this is more frequently the case for the transfer students. matching transfer students when the university of ottawa admits a student, it identifies his or her basis of admission, i.e. the main past academic record on which the decision is made. since the university of ottawa records the name of the institution where the basis of admission was acquired, this was used to identify students coming from algonquin college. these records were selected and an encrypted list of names and birth dates was sent to algonquin college where staff were able to match their own records for the students that had transferred to the university of ottawa based on a students first name, last name, and birthdate. algonquin college also utilized soundex matching in order to capture spelling variations of phonetically similar names. the matching of students transferring from the university of ottawa to algonquin college proceeded slightly differently, as there was no specialized university basis of admission from which we could narrow down the list of student records at the destination institution. fortunately, algonquin college does have access to the information contained in the ontario college application service (ocas) database for its students. ocas specifically asks the applicants for names of institutions they have either attended or have also applied to. this text field was parsed by algonquin college for all the different variants of the name university of ottawa (in english and french). this list was then given to the staff at the university of ottawa who proceeded to match all the records on the basis of first and last name, as well as birth date. the information given by algonquin college includes all the students who applied to algonquin college they did not necessarily attend the college. therefore, students who cancelled their enrollment at algonquin college were dropped from this dataset: although their intention was to transfer to algonquin college, they never, in fact, did. in addition, our matches included students who did not necessarily attend the university of ottawa but who declared the university as one of the places they applied. this creates a situation where a student very well may attend algonquin college first, followed by attending the university of ottawa rather than the other way around. in order to make sure that our transfer students are real transfers, students whose start dates at algonquin college precede their start dates at the university of ottawa are excluded from the analysis since they are not actual transfer students. persistence measure although the concept of persistence is relatively simple, student persistence can be measured in a number of ways. we may be interested in knowing student persistence in the next semester, next year, or some other time period. we are interested in observing whether a student leaves over a certain time period (which, as described, will vary depending on the institution). for example, if our persistence measure is persistence up to the beginning of second year, then a student is counted as a leaver if he or she leaves by that point; otherwise, he or she is counted as a continuer. the leaving variable is thus binary in nature: a student either leaves or does not. however, other possibilities exist: most notably, a student may also graduate. 5 since we have two distinct samples one from a university, and one from a college it becomes difficult to enact the same persistence measure on both due to differing lengths of programs. for example, most undergraduate programs at the university of ottawa have a normal completion time of four years. as with most universities, some three-year and five-year programs also exist. for university students, we therefore look at students who are still in attendance by the third year. we censor students who graduate before this time, but expect that very few students will be able to graduate by then. as with the university of ottawa, programs at algonquin college can be of varying length; however, program length with some exceptions is generally shorter, and can be as little as one year in certain instances. therefore, the persistence measure we adopt is shorter: we look at the number of students who still attend college by the second (rather than third) year. rather than bring the two measures back to their lowest common denominator, namely one year, we chose to measure retention as far into the program as possible on the grounds that all occurrences of leaving before the degree is complete are part of one and the same phenomenon of unsuccessful studies. the treatment of graduates depends on the institution. we add the graduates and continuers together into our positive outcome at algonquin college. the reasoning here is pragmatic: whereas there will be very few students graduating university of ottawa by the beginning of third year, there will be a substantially larger group of students who finish a program at a college in a year. censoring these students from our models may skew our persistence model in unintended ways. model framework a standard logit regression framework is used in this research which may be expressed as follows: y = x + where y is the leaving measure (with a null value indicating a student has continued and the value of one indicating a student has left), x represents a set of covariates that influence y, and represents the coefficients associated with each of the variables included in x; is the error term. once the raw logit model results are generated, we compute the marginal effects for each model in order to facilitate the interpretation of the results. the results presented in this report can be interpreted as the change in the leaving rate (in percentage points) for students with that characteristic. we calculate several model specifications. in one set of models, henceforth termed separate variables models, the explanatory variables are included individually without controlling for any other independent variables. the purpose of this is to understand the relationship between retention and each predictor under study. these results are provided in appendix tables. however, the main focus of the paper is on a set of joint variables models where independent variables are included simultaneously in the equation system in order to assess their unique effects. in addition, the models are computed either for high school entry alone, pooled high school entry and transfer entry, and, finally, transfer entry alone. these sets of analyses are conducted for both the university of ottawa and algonquin college. 6 results descriptive results although the primary focus of this paper is retention modeling, raw leaving rates and sample distributions by different characteristics are detailed in the appendix for the university of ottawa (table a1) and for algonquin college (table a2). the leaving rate of the university of ottawa students by cohort vary whether they are high school entry students or transfers. however, it is clear from the outset that transfer students have higher leaving rates. their leaving rates vary from 25% to 38%, with the lowest being observed in the first cohort analyzed. leaving rates rise thereafter and peak in 2003 at 37.5%. they then fall to 26.1% and begin to sharply increase again from 2007 onwards. high school student leaving rates vary between 17% and 22%. interestingly, leaving rates shrink from 1997 to 2003 when they are lowest (16.7%). this is the same year when transfer leaving rates are highest. whereas the transfer dropout rate decreases thereafter, it increases for the high school entry students, peaking at 22.4% in 2005 stabilizing in the vicinity of 21% thereafter. one possible explanation for this can be the change in the ontario high school curriculum introduced around 2003, the year of the so-called double cohort. ontario abolished year 13, which was only required for the students in tending to attend university, thus potentially diminishing their level of readiness. at the same time, some of the material which used to be covered in year 13 was adapted and inserted in years 11 and 12 for all, potentially increasing the level of readiness for students going to college relative to their predecessors. the raw leaving rate of algonquin college students varies from 21% to 31% for high school students and from 23% to 39% for transfer students. the trend in leaving rates between the two groups is almost diametrically opposed, especially in the beginning: high school students are least likely to leave in 2003 (21.2%); in contrast, this is the year that the transfer students are most likely to leave (38.6%). leaving rates for high school students rise thereafter and stabilize between 28% and 30%, though the peak leaving rate is observed in the final cohort analyzed, at 30.5%. this pattern is consistent with the explanation offered above about the impact of the change in the ontario high school curriculum. transfer student leaving rates decrease every year after 2003 until 2009 when they record their lowest rate (23.4%). an uptick (to 27.2%) occurs in the final year we observe where the leaving rates in both groups are much closer we have no explanation for the retention pattern of university to college transfers but also no clear expectation of it to be influenced by the high school curriculum change. models this section presents the modeling results, first at the university of ottawa and then at the algonquin college. interesting similarities or differences in transfer leaving patterns between the two institutions are noted. university of ottawa models we start the university of ottawa analysis by focusing on the universitys high school sample. we present the joint model analysis of this sample in table 1; we also make the results of the separate model available in appendix table b. the joint high school model includes only the university of ottawa students who are admitted to the university on the basis of their high school record. we present this model briefly in order to give 7 context to our pooled model which will follow. we note that a number of variables affect retention. as was the case in the univariate results, students from earlier cohorts are less likely to leave than those entering university after the double cohort year (2003) even when multiple other variables are part of the equation. males are more likely to leave, as are rural and students who reside outside the ottawa area. younger students are considerably less likely to leave than older ones (in particular, the 20-22 and 23-26 age categories). these general patterns are maintained once we take high school grades into account. high school performance itself seems to have a large effect on retention, with the students with highest grades being significantly less likely to leave than those with the lowest grades. the addition of the faculty variable to the model does not dramatically affect the overall pattern; however, it does show us that choice of faculty plays a considerable effect on persistence. in particular, students from arts and engineering faculties appear to be considerably more likely to leave than students from business administration and especially our reference group, health sciences. finally, we add in university of ottawa grades for the first fall semester; although the overall results remain similar, the effect of the high school grades is greatly diminished. this is not surprising since significant correlation between high school and pse grades is inevitable. next, we turn to the pooled sample, which include the students having transferred from algonquin college to the university of ottawa in addition to the high school entry students. the analysis proceeds in a fashion similar to the joint model just described and the results are presented in table 2 and the separate model available in appendix table c. a separate model block is added which captures our set of transfer variables: the transfer indicator, year of study upon entrance (advanced standing), and attendance status. in this first model block, we find that transfer students from algonquin college are more than 6 percentage points more likely to leave by the third year of their studies at the university of ottawa than high school entry students. the role that attendance status plays in this model is striking: part time students are more than 24 percentage points more likely to leave than those attending full time. finally, we note that whether a student is entering first or second year does not appear to play a large effect in transfer persistence; however, those entering into third year are considerably less likely to leave. this is perhaps unsurprising, considering their advanced standing. our second model block adds background information, such as cohort, gender, age, and geographical origin, to both the high school and transfer students. once we add this information, transfer students are no more likely to leave than high school students. the transfer effect disadvantage disappears as soon as we add the background variables, and this is maintained when we take high school grades, faculty and the university of ottawa starting grades into account. the various independent variables from gender through to pse grades behave similarly to what was observed in the high school sample alone. the disappearance of the transfer disadvantage is striking. since the transfer effect disappears as soon as we add our background variables, a stepwise approach is used to back up and isolate which specific independent variable(s) capture the variance initially associated with being a transfer student. as shown in table 4, the transfer effect remains largely unchanged with the addition of most independent variables, even increasing slightly when adding only the non-local variable to the transfer variables. 8 the only exception is that the transfer effect is effectively wiped out when age is entered. this occurs because in effect transfer students are systematically older by virtue of having gone to college first. in table a1, we can see that the majority of high school entry students (48%) are 18 while the majority of transfers (47%) are 25. once age is controlled for, the different leaving rates of transfer students disappears. at least a couple of hypotheses can be offered. one would be that what causes the elevated risk for transfer/older students is something about their academic path. for example, students who go to college do not generally take the same courses during their final high school year as those who go to university, so they may be less well prepared for university-type courses when they transfer. we cannot test this hypothesis with the data at hand, but this could be investigated by including the specific types of courses taken in high school (and the marks gained in these different types of courses) in the analysis. another hypothesis relates to how the social interests and pressures of older students may be different from younger students. for example they may be under higher pressure to work while studying because they are beginning a family or have otherwise established a lifestyle that takes more money to support. there is one piece of evidence in the data which converges with this and it is the fact that they more frequently study part time at the university. this would be consistent with more hours being devoted to work outside the program of study. we now turn our attention to the transfer-only model in order to examine the particular characteristics which may affect persistence among transfer students alone. the effects of these characteristics may be partly or wholly different than the effects found in the high school only or in the pooled models. the transfer-only joint variables results are presented in table 3, while the separate variable models are in appendix table d. the transfer model block is no longer present since, by definition, all students in this sample are transfers. we do keep the attendance status and year of study upon entrance indicators, however. the part-time effect here is even larger than it is in the pooled models, with students who start part-time being 27.5 percentage points more likely to leave than those entering as full time students. this is a very large effect that could be explained by a host of possibilities, including labour force attachment, family obligations, motivation, etc. clearly, more data are necessary to explain this effect. the effects of the year of study upon entrance are not significant in any year, although they become so once the background variables are added to the model. transfer students entering in second year are 10 percentage points less likely to leave in the model which includes background characteristics; and those entering in third year are 12.7 percentage points less likely to leave. attendance status is the only other significant variable. no other variable is significant in the background model and even our point estimates sometimes follow different patterns than what we see in the pooled model. in general, the addition of high school grades does not seem to play a significant role, unlike for high school students. the addition of faculty is notable insofar as it does not seem to matter: unlike in our pooled model, faculty selection does not have statistically significant effects on persistence. finally, the addition of starting first semester post-secondary grades does little to change our estimates. the large parttime effect is slightly diminished, while the year of study upon entrance persistence effects shrink 9 in the second year and are no longer statistically significant in the third. interestingly, the choice of faculty, in particular engineering, becomes important, as engineering students are 16.9 percentage points less likely to leave than those in health sciences once their first semester grades are taken into account. post-secondary grades themselves do matter, with students with very low grades far more likely to leave. considering that persistence and pse grades are inevitably linked, it is in fact surprising that higher leaving rates are only associated with students with very low grades (d+ or below). we now turn back to our pooled models in order to investigate the specific background variable(s) which explain the transfer effect. to do so, we run a set of regressions using our pooled sample where we add the background variables one at a time. these results are shown in table 4. the transfer effect remains largely unchanged with the addition of our variables, even increasing slightly when we only add the non-local variable to our transfer variables. the only exception is that the transfer effect is effectively wiped out when we add the age variable. this would suggest that it is a difference in the average age of the transfer group that explains their higher leaving rates, this conclusion is further substantiated by our observation that most students in the highschool entry model are in the youngest age categories, whereas transfer students are likely to be older. however, recalling our previous analysis of the transfer-only model, age does not actually appear to have any significant effect on leaving rates for transfer students specifically. this is unlike high school entry students and also somewhat unexpected given the stepwise regressions on the pooled direct entry and transfer models reported above, which showed that the older age of transfer students seems to be related to the higher overall leaving rates of transfer students. age seems to be a transfer disadvantage. it should be noted however, referring back to table a1, that the majority of the transfer students fall in the categories of age 20 and above and that, in these age categories, their leaving rates fall in the same range (24-35%) as high school entry students (25-29%). so the lack of an age effect may not necessarily contradict the rest of the evidence. we also wish to briefly discuss the results we obtain by running the alternative algonquin college sample and all ontario colleges sample which is based only on the information obtained from the university of ottawa without applying our matching procedures. the results are very similar to our matched algonquin sample, particularly as they pertain to transfer student effects and how they change across the different specifications of our pooled models (found in appendix tables h and j). this provides at least some evidence that the results we find for algonquin transfers may generalise to the more general population of college transfers. algonquin college models we now reverse our analysis by examining students transferring from the university of ottawa to algonquin college and comparing them with students who attend the college on the high school basis of admission. once again, we start with the high school entry model which we present in table 5. the separate model specifications are available as a reference in appendix table e. turning to our background model, we see similar but not identical patterns as what we observe in our corresponding university of ottawa model. males are more likely to leave than females, although this effect is halved once we take high school grades into account. interestingly, rural students are slightly less 10 likely to leave, a result opposite to what we find at the university of ottawa. however, the effect is small and disappears when we add high school grades. the non-local effect exists and mirrors what we find at the university of ottawa: students outside the ottawa area are more likely to leave. not only does this effect not disappear when adding faculty or high school variables but it becomes larger once we do this. students starting at age 18 or less are more likely to leave than those aged 19 while those in the 20-22 age bracket are more likely to leave than those aged 19. the leaving rates return to below that of the 19 years old for students aged 23 and above, although the importance of this observation is diminished by the fact that they represent less than 7% of the sample. this general pattern does not vary dramatically when faculty and high school grades are added to the model. as with the university of ottawa, faculty selection itself matters. with high school grades in the model, students entering the areas of health, public safety & community, business, or algonquin college in the ottawa valley are less likely to leave than hospitality and tourism, while arts, media and design, and technology and trades (once we add in high school grades) faculties are considerably more likely to leave than students from other faculties. finally, high school grades follow the expected pattern: students with higher grades are less likely to leave than those with lower grades. the results of the algonquin college pooled models are presented in table 6 and the separate models are available in appendix table f. these are constructed in a manner similar to the equivalent for the university of ottawa with the following caveats. to start, we only include the transfer variable. unfortunately, we do not (yet) have information on attendance status as we do with the university of ottawa set, so we cannot include an analogous variable. also missing is a variable which includes any advanced standing at algonquin college. at first, the findings appear very different from those at the university of ottawa as students transferring from the university of ottawa to algonquin college are no more likely to leave than those entering from high school. furthermore, leaving rates of university to college students become negative with the addition of the faculty variable. however, in the full model which includes high school grades, transfer students are shown to be 4.9% more likely to leave than the direct entry from high school students. hence, for the same set of high grades, the transfer students have higher leaving rates than their counterparts who enter on the high school basis of admission. in other words, a transfer student is more likely to leave his or her chosen program than an algonquin student with the same top six high school average. these results show the importance of taking account of an extended set of factors when analysing the relative leaving rates of direct entry and transfer students. other variables from our background, faculty and high school models change slightly, but not dramatically; perhaps most interestingly, the higher leaving rates among males are entirely erased once we take high school grades into account. we next present a similar model specification computed only for the university of ottawa students transferring to algonquin college. these results are available in table 7 and separate specification models are in appendix table g. our examination of the transfer students immediately shows differences from both high school entry and (to a slightly lesser extent) pooled models. whereas the 2003 (double) cohort shows the lowest rates of leaving in the high school model, the trend among the transfer students is reversed and they are most likely to leave in that year. the effect is large, although only slightly statistically significant (p < 0.1). 11 unlike what we find in our analysis of the university of ottawa dataset, a relatively large number of variables retain their statistical significance in the transfer model. unexpectedly, we have an interesting switch in gender persistence. while not statistically significant in the background model, once we add the faculty and high school grades to our model, males are over 5 percentage points less likely to leave. the rural and non-local effects are not statistically significant in any of our model specifications. however, age has dramatic effects on persistence. younger students are considerably more likely to leave. the sample size, especially for students below 18 years of age, is small but the effects large. clearly, there is something unpredictable for a group of students who have managed to attend university at such an early age and then transfer to college. students younger than 18 are 36.6 percentage points more likely to leave than our reference group by second year in our background model, and the effect is diminished by just over a percentage point when we add faculty choice and high school grades into our model. those who are 18 years of age do only slightly better: they are over 29 percentage points more likely to leave than our omitted group (19) across our different model specifications. whereas the 20 to 22 age category is associated with higher leaving rates in both our high school and pooled models, here they are almost 8 percentage point less likely to leave in every specification. the leaving rates are even lower for our next two age categories: the 23 to 26 year olds have leaving rates that are over 11 percentage points lower than our reference group, while those 27 and above are around 10 percentage points (and over 11 percentage points once we add all the variables) less likely to leave. since colleges have set up a concerted effort to appeal to university graduates by offering short intensive skill training and enhancement programs, the low leaving rates of older age groups may possibly be explained by relatively short nature of such programs, as well as increased motivation from students to obtain or enhance particular skills. more information about program pathways would help us in disentangling these effects. interestingly, and somewhat similar to what we find at the university of ottawa, choice of faculty does not seem to have a statistically significant positive or negative persistence effect. as with the university of ottawa, high school grades seem to play little overall effect for the transfer students from this set. students with the highest grades (a+) are considerably less likely by 11.5 percentage points to leave than the reference group (b+), although the effect is not reliable at the .05 level. no other high school grade category provides statistically significant results. further work this report presents some initial results from ongoing research collaboration between the university of ottawa, algonquin college and the education policy research initiative (epri). the work of gathering the data and putting it into a form suitable for analytical work represents the majority of person-hours of this project. in the immediate future, two key sets of data could be added to the existing file. the first is data on student grades earned at algonquin college. the time and resource requirements for calculating a grade point average for each student over the entire time period prevented its inclusion in this report. we anticipate that work will proceed as resources become available at algonquin. the second dataset that can be added is census information based on the students postal code from their original application to the university of ottawa or algonquin college. this includes 12 information of the average socio-economics status in the students neighbourhood. this can serve as a proxy for students family background characteristics that are otherwise unavailable. overall, it becomes clear that we need to take into account the different underlying model structure between transfer and high school entry students. this is especially true for our university of ottawa analysis. we may be able to refine our models either by adding interaction terms to our pooled model, or possibly employing some sort of a non-linear decomposition technique. conclusion the use of datasets from the university of ottawa and algonquin college has enabled us to undertake a rich multivariate analysis of the comparative leaving rates of students at the college and at the university, including those who switch from one to the other. we find that algonquin college students transferring to the university of ottawa are considerably more likely to leave their studies by year 3 (the leaving measure used in the analysis) than direct entry students. this effect appears to be explained by transfer students being older, but further investigation would be required to better understand what these age effects are capturing. also of interest is that few of the explanatory variables included in the retention models turned out to be statistically significant for the transfer-students-only sample, further pointing to the precise reasons for their higher leaving rates being left unexplained in our analysis. of most interest in this respect is, perhaps, that high school grades do little to explain the higher leaving rates of transfer students: they do not appear to be leaving more because they were poorer students to start with. the reverse analysis of university of ottawa students transferring to algonquin college gives us a different picture. overall, these transfer students prove to be no more likely to leave than high school entry students. after controlling for faculty selection using our modelling analysis, however, transfer students are, ceteris paribus, found to be less likely to leave suggesting that they tend to have higher enrolment rates in programs which have higher leaving rates overall, but do not have the overall higher leaving rates one might expect as a result. conversely, we find higher leaving rates on the part of university transfer students to college than for non-transfer direct entry college students when grades are controlled for. in other words, the university of ottawa transfer students to algonquin college have better grades than non-transfer students, but their leaving rates are not as a result of that lower than direct entry algonquin college students. this analysis has used an innovative data matching approach and a variety of empirical methods to provide a unique analysis of leaving rates of college and university students to compare the record of direct entry students to those who transfer from the other sector. further analysis could go in a number of directions. one such direction would be to extend the analysis to other/more institutions either side in order to see how the results found here compare to other sets of students. one way to do this would be to restrict the analysis to using the data directly available to each institution on their transfer students, thus rendering any such analysis much less complex as compared to going to the first institution attended to get data for the transfer students. such an analysis could likely scale up 13 relatively easily, especially if based on the use of the psis (post-secondary information system) administrative data available already being gathered from pse institutions by statistics canada. an alternative approach would be to dig deeper into the leaving rates found here to help us better understand the observed patterns and what gives rise to them. in this case, more data would be required on students backgrounds, including their detailed post-secondary and even high school records such as which particular courses they took, how they did in each course, etc. such an approach may be possible with psis, but would require a much more complex analysis which linked students to their prior histories in this way. the other option would be more data sharing across pse institutions of the type used here. we are just beginning to tap into the potential of administrative data. the analysis reported here is but one step on that path. 14

pathways from sault college diploma programs in natural environment and outdoor studies to a bachelor of science at algoma university final report march 31, 2015 oncat project number 2014-04 project leads: dawn elmore, manager, academic development and quality algoma university 1520 queen street east sault ste. marie, ontario p6a 2g4 krista pearson, registrar/international sault college 443 northern avenue sault ste. marie, ontario p6b 4j3 executive summary this project brought together university and college staff and faculty to complete speciallydesigned degree-completion curriculum in the fields of environmental science and natural environment and outdoor studies. the project resulted in the development of five pathways from the following sault college diploma programs into a bachelor of science (environmental science) at algoma university: i. ii. iii. iv. v. natural environment technician conservation and management diploma (co-op) natural environment technologist conservation and management diploma (co-op) forest conservation technician diploma (co-op) fish & wildlife conservation technician diploma (co-op) adventure recreation and parks technician diploma (co-op) this project strategically linked university and college curriculum to facilitate the blending of theoretical knowledge with practical skill development in high-demand fields. the resultant pathways build on the strengths of algoma university and sault college by leveraging faculty expertise and community resources. graduates will be well-positioned to move into the labour market in the algoma region or elsewhere with a strong grounding in the key concepts and theories in the environmental sciences coupled with practical field skills and techniques. introduction the purpose of this collaborative project between algoma university and sault college was to complete specially designed degree-completion curriculum that built on the unique needs of the region and the strong regional-economic partnership between the two institutions. this project focused on the development of diploma-to-degree transfer arrangements from sault college diploma programs in the school of natural environment and outdoor studies (neos) to a bachelor of science (honours) in environmental science. given the wealth of natural resources and systems in sault ste. marie and the surrounding area, a collaboration between algoma university and sault college that leveraged faculty expertise and community resources in the fields of natural environment and outdoor studies and environmental science was a natural choice. the objective was to build pathways that would be replicable in the future with other institutions yet would also reflect the unique strengths of the two partners and the algoma region. each year, sault college prepares for enrolment of approximately 100 students amongst its natural environment diploma programs. likewise, the bachelor of science (honours) in biology at algoma university has seen 128% growth in enrolled majors since 2008. the bachelor of science (honours) in environmental science is a new program offering at algoma university that is about to be submitted for ministerial consent through the review process of the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab). it is expected the new environmental science program will be a popular offering, and will see steady growth following its approval. the fields of natural and applied science have seen job gains in recent years. consultations with local employers suggest an appropriate mix of theoretical and hands-on field experience is much needed in the local market. this project aimed to build pathways that would be highly 3|page desirable to students and would provide the employer-desired blend of theoretical and applied education. pathway development project timelines the following table outlines the key activities and timelines that were associated with the project, and the expected implementation schedule for future activities. phase one: pathway development activity meeting of algoma university and sault college leadership team preliminary research on comparable pathways project team meeting curriculum analysis and review of potential models for collaboration detailed curriculum analysis complete preparation of first draft of pathway selection of gap analysis consultant facilitated gap analysis session second draft of pathway and bridge complete bachelor of science (environmental science) program approved by algoma university senate consultation on bridging mathematics requirement and potential on-line component final review of pathway and bridge curriculum by project team submission of proposal for on-line mathematics bridge courses submitted to the shared online course fund pathway agreements approved by science division at algoma university bachelor of science (environmental science) program proposal, including degree completion curriculum, submitted to minister of training, colleges and universities partnered event for faculty and students of algoma university and sault college phase two: implementation* ministerial consent for bachelor of science (environmental science) received final approval of pathways by the algoma university senate communication on pathways to prospective students first intake of student into degree completion pathway completion date may 31, 2014 may 31, 2014 june 30, 2014 july 31, 2014 july 31, 2014 july 31, 2014 august 31, 2014 september 30, 2014 october 3, 2014 october 31, 2014 october 31, 2014 november 14, 2014 december 31, 2014 april 30, 2015 october 31, 2015* april 30, 2016* may 31, 2016* june 30, 2016* september 1, 2016* *implementation dates are tentative and are influenced by the requirement for algoma university to seek ministerial consent for new programs through the review process of the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab). timelines associated with the review process are approximate and outside of the control of the institution and the project team. 4|page pathway development process this project used a systematic process to facilitate pathway development. the project team included subject matter experts from the university and the college, as well as staff and administration for guidance and support. the project began with the subject matter experts of algoma university and sault college sharing information on the diploma and degree programs. this project involved constructing pathways into a degree program that has not yet received ministerial consent. in this context, algoma university faculty shared details on the program development process, program curriculum, and feedback from the advisory committee on the incorporation of experiential learning into the bachelor of science (honours) in environmental science. the sault college diploma programs are well-established. sault college faculty shared details on course curriculum, student demographics, and graduate outcomes for all diploma programs in the school of natural environment and outdoor studies (neos). while the funding was originally received to develop pathways from three neos diploma programs, these preliminary conversations identified five diploma programs with high affinity to the proposed bachelor of science (honours) in environmental science. the five diploma programs identified were as follows: i. ii. iii. iv. v. natural environment technician conservation and management diploma (co-op) natural environment technologist conservation and management diploma (co-op) forest conservation technician diploma (co-op) fish & wildlife conservation technician diploma (co-op) adventure recreation and parks technician diploma (co-op) the project team completed a preliminary review of the detailed course outlines for core courses in each of the five neos diploma programs and the bachelor of science (b.sc.) degree program. this preliminary analysis resulted in a unique approach to developing pathways into the b.sc. degree program. transfer pathways typically follow a bottom to top approach where students earn transfer credit in the first or second year of the degree program and then ladderin to program curriculum at either the second or third year. the preliminary curriculum analysis demonstrated the diploma graduates of neos programs are highly skilled in specific practical knowledge and skills that are developed in years two, three, and four of the b.sc. degree program. however, portions of the breadth of first-year introductory science content (mathematics, chemistry, biology) were not covered in sufficient depth in the diploma curriculum. it became clear that a hybrid approach to pathway development was needed where students would be required to complete most of the compulsory year one curriculum in the b.sc. program and would then receive credit for particular courses and course groupings in each of years two to four. in order to do the preliminary analysis, courses in the diploma programs were grouped together. a first draft of each of the five pathways was created where groups of courses as a package were considered to have met the learning outcomes of various courses in the b.sc. degree program. following the preliminary curriculum analysis, the project team engaged a consultant to facilitate a gap analysis process that would further refine the pathways. the team selected a consultant with extensive experience building college-to-university pathways and new degree programs using an outcomes-based approach. the project team participated in a half-day session which included an introduction to gap analysis based on learning outcomes and a collaborative exercise where diploma program outcomes were compared to degree program 5|page outcomes and the university undergraduate degree level expectations (uudles). the primary outcome of the gap analysis exercise included the identification of a need for a bridge in mathematics for diploma graduates who have not completed mhf4u (advanced functions) or the equivalent in secondary school. the college outreach and support office in the office of the registrar at algoma university played a key role in taking the findings of the gap analysis and preparing and refining drafts of the pathways. the process also resulted in the identification of innovative ways for the institutions to collaborate outside of the curriculum including faculty from each institution visiting the other as guest speakers, joint field camp activities, student presentations between institutions, and social events around shared interests (i.e. outdoor club, biology club). final revisions to the pathway curriculum were completed over the fall term in 2014. a joint meeting was held to further explore the mathematics bridge. the project team created two pathways for each neos diploma programs one that included a mathematics bridge for students who have not completed mhf4u or the equivalent, and one for students who have the requisite background in mathematics to enter the pathway directly. as outlined in the project plan, at this point there was consideration for the incorporation of an on-line component. a collaborative proposal was developed and submitted to the shared online course fund for on-line versions of math 1911 (precalculus) and math 1912 (elementary calculus). these algoma university courses together constitute the equivalent of the mathematics admission requirements for students to the b.sc. program. the proposed online versions of the courses were aimed at college transfer students who require a bridge in mathematical preparedness prior to entering a university program. the proposed new online courses would include the same curriculum as the courses currently cover in class, yet would be co-developed with sault college to ensure the course design and delivery facilitates a seamless transition for college transfer students who wish to pursue a university degree where mathematics is a prerequisite for entry. the objective is that the course would be taken in the final year of college for students interested in a seamless transition to university programs requiring mathematical preparedness. the project team is still awaiting a final decision from the ministry of training, colleges and universities on the funding. alternatives for students to meet the mathematics requirements were also explored by the project team. the final degree completion curriculum was incorporated into the proposal for ministerial consent for algoma universitys bachelor of science (honours) in environmental science. the application is undergoing final revisions and is expected to be submitted to the minister of training, colleges and universities by the end of april 2015. the science division at algoma university has approved each of the five pathways for inclusion in the proposal. once the b.sc. program receives ministerial consent, the developed pathways can proceed through the algoma university senate for approval and the pathways can be communicated to prospective students and posted to the ontransfer database. overall, the process resulted in a framework that is highly replicable for other diploma-to-degree pathways in the sciences. this project built on a strong institutional partnership based on common regional-economic objectives. once implemented, the pathway will facilitate seamless transfer for students that is grounded in a shared commitment to post-secondary education in the natural sciences in the algoma region. 6|page project outcomes the project resulted in the following outcomes: diploma-to-degree pathways for graduates of the five sault college diploma programs listed below into the proposed bachelor of science (honours) in environmental science at algoma university o natural environment technician conservation and management diploma (co-op) o natural environment technologist conservation and management diploma (coop) o forest conservation technician diploma (co-op) o fish & wildlife conservation technician diploma (co-op) o adventure recreation and parks technician diploma (co-op) completion of a detailed curriculum and gap analysis for each of the five pathways development of a mathematics bridge for students who have not completed mhf4u or the equivalent submission of a funding proposal to the shared online course fund for the development of collaborative on-line versions of courses that would serve as a mathematics bridge and could be taken in a students final year of study at sault college completion of the diploma-to-degree and gap analysis sections of the application for ministerial consent for a bachelor of science (honours) in environmental science identification of areas for collaboration between algoma university and sault college outside of the academic curriculum 7|page

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2015-14 pathways from policing and security diplomas to conestogas bachelor of community and criminal justice program march 24, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to establish educational pathways for students holding a two year diploma from police foundations (pf) or protection, security and investigation (psi) programs into the bachelor of community and criminal justice (bccj) program. as part of its cyclical renewal process, the bccj program recently updated its program design to strengthen both its capacity to prepare graduates for the changing landscape of community and criminal justice, and to improve opportunities for graduates of pf and psi programs to enter the degree program at a more advanced level. the latter was intended to better align diploma-to-degree pathways with student expectations of a two-plus-two post-secondary education opportunity. the focus of the present project was to consider and identify how pathways to the updated bccj design could be strengthened to benefit the widest range of students across the province, while recognizing that the provincial program standards for the pf (mtcu funding code 53008, august, 2012) and the psi (mtcu funding code 53007, january, 2010) programs may not emphasize community/ social justice aspects of policing and security to the extent that conestoga has incorporated them as important elements of the renewed bccj program design. while both of these broad areas continue to emphasize sector specific knowledge and instrumental skills in their in-house training programs, recruitment goals are evolving towards an emphasis on more integrated perspectives and softer skill sets deemed essential to effective practice within increasingly diverse and collaborative environments beset by complex issues that challenge unitary perspectives. the current project resulted in several useful results: a) a clearer articulation of the criteria and corresponding rationale for advanced standing entry into the updated bccj program from pf and psi diploma programs; b) better defined bridging courses to enable this pathway; and c) a better sense of which pf and psi diploma programs are best positioned for advanced standing entry to the bccj program through the specified bridge. as anticipated, only a segment of current pf and psi diploma programs would lend themselves to enhanced advanced standing entry into year 3 of the updated bccj program. based on our analysis, the majority of these programs either: a) lack published information to enable a detailed fit/gap assessment, and/or b) continue to emphasize a more traditional, specialized and instrumental approach to education that does not overtly incorporate theory or applied strategies of community wellbeing, and the correspondingly blended and collaborating roles for public and private safety practitioners, as emphasized in the bccj. 1 however, this project can support further pathway development from the remaining programs by identifying the features of policing and security focused diploma streams that appear best aligned, not only with existing provincial program standards, but with the community justice and inter-professional elements conestoga believes to be of emerging value as sector needs evolve and become refined across ontario. project overview: phase one program mapping and gap analysis: background the renewal report received by the bccj program from the quality assessment panel assigned by the postsecondary education quality assessment board (january 2016) applauded the program for its proposed design enhancements. this included the opportunity supported by the present oncat funded project to optimize opportunities for advanced standing entry to the program for policing and security diploma graduates. a significant evolution of the public safety paradigm in ontario and across the country has taken place over the past several years. this has involved a re-conceptualization of the work, roles and educational qualifications of public safety practitioners. employers in this sector are increasingly placing a premium on integrative knowledge and application, rather than on the more traditional silos of specialized technical knowledge and instrumental skills. this trend reflects the growing importance of integrative knowledge and skills for inter-disciplinary and inter-professional collaboration across multiple sectors in support of risk management and operational effectiveness. in response to these changes and public policy priorities, the bccj program design was updated. the proposed enhancements to the programs curriculum map involve moving from streams of specialization in policing and corrections to an intentionally integrated focus on community safety and criminal and social justice. the updated bccj program design rebalances and refines the integration of: theory, analytic thinking, communication, stakeholder engagement, and applied skills in the context of an enhanced student learning journey. this developmental process is intended to serve as a bridge to practice producing preferred graduates for careers in collaborative, risk based public safety and community wellbeing. in addition to strengthening its capacity to prepare graduates for the changing landscape of community and criminal justice, the updated bccj program design aimed to improve opportunities for graduates of protection, security and investigation (psi) or police foundations (pf) programs to enter the degree program at a more advanced level. the latter was intended to better align diploma-to-degree pathways with student expectations of a two-plus-two post-secondary education opportunity. an initial set of summer courses was specified to allow graduates of the updated psi and pf programs at conestoga to successfully transition into the bccj program in year 3, rather than year 2, as has been the case historically. the focus of the present project was to consider and identify how the proposed pathways to the updated bccj design could be strengthened to benefit a wider range of ontario graduates of psi and pf programs, while recognizing that the provincial program standards for the diploma programs, which are six and four year old, respectively, may no longer reflect the leading needs of the policing and security sectors. method engagement with heads of community services at a 2014 meeting of the heads of community services, representatives from conestoga college engaged those present in a discussion to determine: (a) the extent to which current psi and pf programs were being updated to reflect the changing provincial paradigm in public safety; and (b) the appetite to review and potentially update/consolidate the two program standards to reflect emerging sector changes (e.g., as addressed in the future of policing project). the proximal aim of that discussion was to inform the program 2 updates being contemplated as part of the major program review of conestogas psi and pf programs and the program renewal underway for the bccj program. during the discussion with the heads of community services, it became clear that while a small number of colleges appeared to have begun to update their programs to be more reflective of emerging needs in policing and security, the more widespread view supported the retention of a more traditional approach to student education and training. development of bridging criteria the pf/psi and bccj program representatives on the project team provided relevant program design matrices, learning outcomes, and course outlines. program maps demonstrating how the program learning outcomes are met through the individual program curriculum were reviewed. publicly available pf and psi diploma program information was gathered from ontario college websites. a number of these diploma programs lacked published information on program and course outcomes to enable a detailed fit/gap assessment. however all of them must adhere to the provincial program standards published by the ministry of training, colleges and universities for the psi (mtcu funding code 53007, january, 2010) and the pf (mtcu funding code 53008, august, 2012) programs. the project team completed a gap analysis for the pathways (appendix a), and a set of criteria with accompanying rationale were identified to guide the review and refinement of effective pathways between the programs. in order to meet the standards of the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab) related to advanced standing and degrees, the gap analysis must be detailed enough to ensure integrity of the program, including appropriate affinity of the diploma program to support degree learning outcomes. this ensures students being admitted with advanced standing are not at a disadvantage. because the bccj program incorporates elements outside of traditional pf and psi skillsets, an analysis of the program standards alone was not sufficient for this particular degree program. instead, program/course descriptions and publicly available information related to program/course outcomes were assessed and coded by the project team according to their likely sufficiency of preparation. as anticipated, the gap analysis showed that pf and psi programs that incorporate elements related to collaborative risk based public safety and community wellbeing provide sufficient preparation for advanced standing entry to the bccj program, as the degree program redesign was heavily focused on incorporating the emerging industry paradigm. the new advanced standing bridge was predicated on conestogas updated psi and pf diploma programs, and emphasizes integrated, inter-professional and multi-sector learning as a key foundation for an effective bridging experience. the criteria for sufficiency of fit for bridging were as follows: 1. degree to which the program predominantly focuses on social justice components as opposed to the instrumental skills for law 2. degree to which the program focuses on knowledge and skills for inter-professional and multisector practice (e.g. lacks community policing, crime prevention, etc.) 3. degree to which the program focuses on the knowledge & skills needed to work with diverse populations (e.g. cultural, mental health, etc.) 4. degree to which the program addresses personal wellness & resilience other than fitness 5. degree to which the program focuses on ethics and professionalism 6. degree to which the program integrates research, evidence/data gathering and analysis 3 identification of bridging courses we propose the following bridging courses in order to achieve an 80% equivalency ratio with required bccj courses in the first and second years of the degree program so as to optimize the sufficiency of preparation for advanced standing entry into year 3 of the updated degree. two key areas of focus for the bridging courses are proposed: (1) applications of social and restorative justice with at-risk populations; and (2) client focused engagement, services and supports with an integration of elements including: diversity of client experiences who is the client client engagement and interviewing ecological perspectives on human development developmental neuroscience attachment and self-regulation broad determinates of health and wellbeing a) bccj recommends the following bridging courses be offered to students from the institutions with psi/pf programs sufficient affinity to years 1 and 2 of the bccj program, as identified in appendix a and shown in detail in appendix b: course title applications of social and restorative justice client focused engagement, services and supports course code tbc delivery hours 30 credits 2 tbc 30 2 b) prospective sender programs that would like to increase affinity and formalize advanced standing opportunities with the bccj program may consider incorporating the following course content into their curricula for better alignment: conestoga course title applied ethics crime prevention and community safety conestoga course code ccj 72000 conestoga delivery hours 45 gaps where programs identify a course on ethics, focus is restricted to professional codes of conduct related to law enforcement rather than also including more theoretical perspectives on ethical behavior. ccj 74100 45 all programs have good focus on the criminal justice system and legislation most programs focused on instrumental skills with limited emphasis on social justice and/or root determinates of crime which inform contemporary best practices in crime prevention (e.g., crime prevention through social development) 4 youth justice ccj 74200 45 all programs have youth justice legislation but appear to lack focus on developmental characteristics of youth themselves which place them at risk for involvement with the criminal justice system as victims and/or perpetrators recommend additional focus on youth development and associated risk factors, beyond typical focus on youth focused legislation and its implementation within criminal justice system (e.g., youth criminal justice act, trauma informed approaches) phase two pathway development: the project team recognizes the importance of creating accessible pathways of education for students, while maintaining program integrity and providing for student success in light of the updated bccj program design/program curriculum map, and the changing needs of public safety practitioners and employers. phase two of the project included the development of a program pathway, including bridging courses, addressing the gaps in knowledge, skills or abilities identified through the gap analysis completed in stage one (appendix a). this phase included a scan of ontario policing and security programs (pf and psi) to determine eligible programs outside of conestoga. those programs with lower overall scores appear to be ones whose pf and psi programs continue to emphasize a more traditional, specialized and instrumental approach to education in policing and security. these programs have not incorporated content in community wellbeing, and the correspondingly blended and collaborating roles for public and private safety practitioners in significant enough amounts to create affinity with the bccj. fewer colleges have pf/psi programs emphasizing knowledge and skills related to: relationship development collaboration contextual complexity crime prevention restorative justice youth focused (rather than legislation focused) youth justice ethics lifespan and career span focused health, wellness and resilience client focused interviewing and assessment skills once the bridges were developed, the minimum gpa and other relevant eligibility standards for students seeking admission via these established pathways were reviewed. also identified were the courses for which transfer credit will be granted to students entering via each established pathway, as well as the remaining courses to be completed at conestoga. see appendix b for details regarding bridging curriculum and appendix c for complete pathway details. phase three: heads of community services outreach and final report conestoga has completed all analysis and gathered feedback and recommendations from across the ontario college system to support the objectives of project 2015-14: pathways from policing and security diplomas to conestogas bachelor of community and criminal justice program, including: a curriculum and gap analysis of the pathways (appendix a), a corresponding explanation of bridge curriculum and scheduling (appendix b), required pathway documentation (appendix c), and a detailed financial statement (provided in a separate excel file, as requested by oncat). conestoga will submit complete pathway details at ontransfer.ca. at that time, the credit transfer and 5 registrars offices of the appropriate institutions will be appropriately informed of the new pathway details, per appendix c. to support pathway development relevant to a broader scope of programs and institutions, conestoga has outlined below how the processes and best practices learned from this project can be leveraged to facilitate further, system wide pathway development based on analysis of program standards. 6 lessons learned: the focus of the present project was to consider and identify how pathways to the updated bccj design could be strengthened to benefit the widest range of pf and psi students from across the province. provincial program standards for pf and psi programs (pf, mtcu funding code 53008, august, 2012; psi, mtcu funding code 53007, january, 2010) no longer fully align with the updated bccj program outcomes, as designed in consultation with the program advisory committee comprised of industry representatives, including from policing and security sectors. while both of these broad areas continue to emphasize sector specific knowledge and instrumental skills in their in-house training programs, recruitment goals are evolving towards an emphasis on more integrated perspectives and softer skill sets deemed essential to effective practice within increasingly diverse and collaborative environments. at a provincial level, a number of pf and psi programs emphasize a more traditional, specialized and instrumental approach to education that does not include enough curriculum related to community wellbeing, and the correspondingly blended and collaborating roles for public and private safety practitioners to ensure substantial affinity with the bccj program. therefore, only a segment of current pf and psi diploma programs would lend themselves to enhanced advanced standing entry into year 3 of the updated bccj program. while course descriptions were generally available online, the majority of these diploma programs either lack published information about program and course learning outcomes which would enable a detailed fit/gap assessment to be conducted outside of a formal research agreement. this project can support further pathway development from programs that have less affinity with bccj by identifying the features of policing and security focused diploma streams that appear best aligned, not only with existing provincial program standards, but also with evolving and pressing sector needs across ontario. the current project resulted in several useful results: o a clearer articulation of the criteria and corresponding rationale for advanced standing entry into the updated bccj program from pf and psi diploma programs; o better defined bridging courses to enable this pathway; o a better sense of which pf and psi diploma programs are best positioned for advanced standing entry to the bccj program through the specified bridge; and o suggested ways in which prospective sender programs may enhance alignment with the bccj program to initiate a formal advanced standing pathway for their diploma graduates. 7 appendix a: gap analysis for policing and security programs the following is a curriculum and gap analysis of protection, security and investigation (psi) programs and police foundations (pf) programs to the bccj based on a learning outcomes framework. method: we analyzed the fit between the pf and psi programs at prospective sending institutions by reviewing and mapping curriculum at two levels. 1. course-specific fit against bccj year 1 and year 2 courses. using publicly available program and course information a coding scheme was developed to compare courses in pf and psi programs at prospective sender institutions to courses in the first and second years of conestogas bccj program. the results of a qualitative analysis of alignment based on available information were assigned numerical, ordinal, scores for their degree of alignment. the psi and pf program courses were rated as: high (numerical score of 3); medium (numerical score of 2); low (numerical score of 1); or not able to be determined/none (numerical score of 0). a cutoff score of 30 was used to identify potential sender programs. 2. general, program level emphasis. bridging criteria were derived from the clusters of bccj program outcomes identified in the updated program design. these criteria reflect key areas of learning that are tied to provincial degree-level standards and graduate capabilities for effective practice in collaborative risk-based community safety and well-being. together, these define the key emphases of the bccj program. pf and psi programs were rated as high, medium or low affinity with the bridging criteria. those programs demonstrating sufficient affinity on both levels of analysis (scores of 30 or more for course specific fit and bridging criteria ratings of medium or high on 5 of the 6 criteria, with at least two highs. findings: among the 20 pf programs with course information we were able to compare to the year 1 and 2 of the bccj program, 5 programs were identified as having sufficient affinity* to warrant their consideration as candidates for advanced standing bridging into year 3 of the bccj program. these programs are delivered at the following colleges: fanshawe college fleming college humber college northern college sault college of these, fleming college had the highest level of overall fit, with an overall score of 39. among the 13 psi programs with course information we were able to compare to the year 1 and 2 of the bccj program, 2 programs were identified as having sufficient affinity* to warrant their consideration as candidates for advanced standing bridging into year 3 of the bccj program. these programs are delivered at the following colleges: fanshawe (admission through pf, year 1) loyalist college together, the above programs/colleges are identified as the sending institutions for the purposes of the present report. 8 *conestoga has determined sufficient affinity with consideration of the standards and benchmarks of the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab). in order to meet the peqab standards related to advanced standing and degrees, conestoga must ensure integrity of the program. to achieve this, conestoga includes an assessment of appropriate affinity of the diploma program to support degree learning outcomes. 9 recommendations: 1. it is recommended that graduates of the pf and psi programs classified above as having as sufficient affinity for ease of advanced standing entry into year 3 of the bccj program be admitted once they have successfully completed the required bridging courses. 2. it is recommended that the overall academic average for advanced standing admission be raised from 70% to 75%. 3. it is recommended that graduates of pf and psi programs either having insufficient affinity or not able to be classified in terms of the ease of advanced standing entry into year 3 of the bccj program would be required to enter the program in year 1. 4. it is recommended that pf/psi programs determined to have insufficient affinity consider including new or additional attention to the following areas of high relevance to the new landscape of policing/security: relationship development collaboration contextual complexity crime prevention restorative justice youth focused (rather than legislation focused) youth justice ethics lifespan and career span focused health, wellness and resilience client focused interviewing and assessment skills conclusions: a pathway for pf/psi graduates students appears feasible based on our assessment of the affinity of the identified programs with the bccj program. further engagement with the heads of community services is warranted in order to explain and invite opportunities for greater provincial alignment to the identified diploma-to-degree pathway. with implementation of the proposed pathway in the context of the updated bccj program design (following mtcu consent renewal), advanced standing entry from identified sender institutions will be evaluated for relationship to student success and retention. 10 gap analysis: bachelor of community and criminal justice program outcomes (2240c updates to code number tbc) institutions with psi/pf programs identified as having sufficient affinity conestoga bccj pathway criteria police foundations programs gap in knowledge and skills protection, security & investigation programs 1. degree to which the program predominantly focuses on social justice components as opposed to the instrumental skills for law enforcement/protection fleming (h) humber (h) fanshawe (h) sault (m) northern (m) fanshawe (h) loyalist (m) 2. degree to which the program focuses on knowledge and skills for inter-professional and multisector practice (e.g. lacks community policing, crime prevention, etc.) 3. degree to which the program focuses on the knowledge & skills needed to work with diverse populations (e.g. cultural, mental health, etc). fleming (h) humber(h) fanshawe (h) northern (h) sault (m) fanshawe (h) loyalist (h) fleming (h) fanshawe (h) sault (h) northern (h) humber (m) fanshawe (h) loyalist (h) sault (h) fleming (m) fanshawe (m) humber (l) northern(l) via proposed bridge course via inter-disciplinary focus of both proposed bridge courses intentionally integrated throughout updated bccj program design 4. degree to which the program addresses personal wellness & resilience other than fitness all programs have good focus on the criminal justice system and legislation most programs focused on instrumental skills with limited emphasis on social justice. little evident emphasis on interprofessional collaboration remediation of gap fanshawe (m) loyalist (m) most programs offered a course on diverse populations however attention to the skills required to work with these populations was lacking in available information none of the programs are client focused or have skills related to client assessment, engagement, goal setting and interviewing unlike most programs which focus largely on vocational fitness requirements, these programs appear to offer some attention to health and wellness via proposed bridge course intentionally integrated throughout updated bccj program design element of professional awareness and self-reflection threaded and integrated intentionally throughout updated program design 11 institutions with psi/pf programs identified as having sufficient affinity conestoga bccj pathway criteria police foundations programs gap in knowledge and skills protection, security & investigation programs 5. degree to which the program focuses on ethics and professionalism fleming(h) northern (h) humber (m) fanshawe (m) sault (m) fanshawe (m) loyalist (m) 6. degree to which the program integrates research, evidence/data gathering and analysis fleming (h) humber (h) fanshawe (m) sault (m) northern (m) fanshawe (m) loyalist (l) where programs identify a course on ethics, focus is restricted to professional codes of conduct related to law enforcement rather than also including more theoretical perspectives on ethical behaviour limited attention to research, evidence/data gathering and analysis remediation of gap professional awareness and selfreflection threaded and integrated intentionally throughout updated program design greater emphasis on research skills threaded throughout upper years of updated bccj program design in support of students entering directly from high schools and via advanced standing 12 appendix b: bridging documentation there will be 2 bridging courses available during spring/summer semester, as listed below. course title applications of social and restorative justice client focused engagement, services and supports course code tbd tbd course description delivery format this course introduces students to social issues and concepts of social justice and restorative justice, including social determinates of health. key topics will include structural explanations of social inequality, and values, theories and practices of social justice and restorative justice. approaches to social justice and restorative justice will be introduced and critically appraised in relation to vulnerable and marginalized populations. students will begin the creation of a learning portfolio that will chronicle their learning process in the program and facilitate their reflections of learning about the field. this course introduces students to basic theory and practice skills related to client focused engagement, and client focused services and supports related to community justice and criminal justice. the course will review and integrate knowledge applied skills focusing on: diversity of client experiences to understand the life experiences of those with whom one may work; ethics; client engagement and interviewing; ecological perspectives on human development; developmental neuroscience, attachment and self-regulation; broad determinates of health and wellbeing. 30 hrs online 30 hrs hybrid (10 hrs online; 20 hrs one week in-class) 13 appendix c: pathway documentation pathway 1: protection, security and investigation diplomas pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: protection, security and investigation diploma pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. degree completion list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: to: bachelor of community and criminal justice n/a august 2017 (if bccj design renewal approved for implementation in 2017-18) bachelor of community and criminal justice (1240c, version 1701 and subsequent versions) program versions prior to fall 2017 delivery are ineligible for this pathway opportunity contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/1240c.jsp program coordinator: jennifer robinson, (519) 748-5220 ext: 3905 jrobinson@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: betty lou harris, (519) 748-5220 ext: 3665 bharris@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the 2-year diploma in police foundations from eligible institutions with a minimum of 75% average may apply for advanced standing into the bachelor of community and criminal justice degree. interested graduates must submit application through ontariocolleges.ca, choosing the advanced standing application option. successful applicants must complete a bridging semester offered may to july, consisting of the following courses: applications of social and restorative justice client focused engagement, services, and supports applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes 14 minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: 75% n/a 40 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 1 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 1 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 1 total number of p r o g r a m courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 20 out of 40 courses transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first two years of the bachelor of community and criminal justice program with the exception of the bridging semester 20 out of 40 courses and 1 co-op term 2 bridge courses in order to graduate from the bachelor of community and criminal justice program, advanced standing students must successfully complete: 1. the bridging semester courses 2. years 3 and 4 academic terms 3. one co-op work term and two unpaid educational placements anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled fulltime: list of eligible institutions and their programs number of academic semesters: 4 academic terms plus 1 co-op work term number of years: 2 + summer protection, security and investigation diploma: fanshawe college; loyalist college. 15 pathway 2: police foundations diplomas pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: police foundations diploma pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. degree completion list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: to: bachelor of community and criminal justice n/a august 2017 (if bccj design renewal approved for implementation in 2017-18) bachelor of community and criminal justice (1240c, version 1701 and subsequent versions) program versions prior to fall 2017 delivery are ineligible for this pathway opportunity contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/1240c.jsp program coordinator: jennifer robinson, (519) 748-5220 ext: 3905 jrobinson@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: betty lou harris, (519) 748-5220 ext: 3665 bharris@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the 2-year diploma in police foundations from eligible institutions with a minimum of 75% average may apply for advanced standing into the bachelor of community and criminal justice degree. interested graduates must submit application through ontariocolleges.ca, choosing the advanced standing application option. successful applicants must complete a bridging semester offered may to july, consisting of the following courses: applications of social and restorative justice client focused engagement, services, and supports applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 75% 16 minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 40 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 1 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 1 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 1 total number of p r o g r a m courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 20 out of 40 courses transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first two years of the bachelor of community and criminal justice program with the exception of the bridging semester 20 out of 40 courses and 1 co-op term 2 bridge courses in order to graduate from the bachelor of community and criminal justice program, advanced standing students must successfully complete: 1. the bridging semester courses 2. years 3 and 4 academic terms 3. one co-op work term and two unpaid educational placements anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled fulltime: list of eligible institutions and their programs number of academic semesters: 4 academic terms plus 1 co-op work term number of years: 2 + summer police foundations diploma: fanshawe college; fleming college; humber college; northern college; sault college. 17

2016 hob transfer agreement steering committee cookson, jeannine ma oncat project: 2014-03 pilot implementation: ontario system level transfer agreements for ontario colleges heads of business final report march 2016 (with adjustments - may 16, 2016) hob transfer agreement steering committee table of contents executive summary .................................................................................................................................. 3 background and project goals ............................................................................................................ 4 project team .............................................................................................................................................. 5 projected timeline ................................................................................................................................... 5 key milestones ........................................................................................................................................... 7 outcomes ................................................................................................................................................. 13 outstanding implementation hurdles ............................................................................................. 13 data management of transfer credits .................................................................................................. 13 centralized resource site...14 ontransfer.ca agreement template. 14 alignment of transcript data15 maintaining alignment of curriculum ..15 tracking of students and metrics..15 ontransfer.ca hob pathways revision..16 conclusion.... 16 appendix a system-wide transfer agreement template.....18 appendix b - process flow system-wide college transfer agreements ....25 appendix c - terms of reference transfer agreement steering committee......26 appendix d - frequently asked questions (faqs)......31 appendix e - curriculum pathway guide - core course comparison ....33 2 hob transfer agreement steering committee pilot implementation: ontario system level transfer agreements for ontario colleges heads of business final report march 2016 cookson, jeannine ma executive summary in september of 2013 the 24 ontario colleges delivering business programs had agreed to four, system- level transfer agreements. these agreements would allow students in specific programming areas, the ability to seamlessly transfer from one college to another college within the same program. transfers could occur at the completion of year 1 or at the completion of year 2, without academic penalty or impact to completion time. as this was the first of such agreements in ontario, this project would serve to implement the 4 college-to-college business transfer agreements, engage participating stakeholders and provide a road map for other agreements of this nature. the original goal of the project was to achieve the implementation through three key milestones, management, integration and establishing a method to maintain/sustain these agreements. management the primary focus under management of the pilot implementation project was ensuring the equitable, timely implementation of the agreements across the province. it should be well noted, the ontransfer.ca site at the beginning of this project was in its infancy as it related to transfer agreements of this magnitude. at the same time, the heads of business hob, agreements were being forged and signed, oncat was developing the ontransfer.ca pathways site. since both were crafted independently of each other, the first goal was to ensure there would be a template for the crafting of future agreements. in addition, the communication of these agreements had been sporadic and required a defined communication framework to ensure all stakeholders were informed of agreements during their development. integration the implementation project, spear headed by the heads of business needed to ensure a broad outreach to all stake holders, from chairs, to admissions officers to pathway advisors to program coordinators. through college workshops and the development of specific tools like; curriculum pathway guides, presentations, word documents and ongoing updates, each college began to explore their specific internal processes. essentially ensuring each college had the tools necessary to interpret and implement the agreements as written. maintain/sustainability the ultimate goal for these and other agreements is their long term sustainability. it should be noted that had it not been for the reciprocity and enthusiasm of the heads of business, agreements of this nature may not have 3 hob transfer agreement steering committee been forged. it will be that same commitment that will continue to ensure every effort will be taken so that no student will be disadvantaged, should they choose to transfer now and in the future. as one of the first tasks undertaken was to establish the terms of reference for the hob -transfer agreement steering committee (tasc), from both a sustainability and a best practices perspective, it is anticipated that the continued and ongoing work of this committee will be crucial to the future of this system-wide agreement and any further and incremental improvements in the processes needed to support system-wide transferability objectives. also, in light of a key outcome of the first (2015) business educators forum, coming together on common ground having been organized, tasc recognizes that the sustainability of the system-wide transfer agreements rests on the ongoing alignment of curriculum and the ability for the programming areas to continue to dialogue around shared outcomes. despite the tremendous strides that have occurred as it pertains to student mobility in ontario, at the conclusion of this project, a significant number of outstanding implementation hurdles have been uncovered. notwithstanding the enthusiasm of the hob, many of these hurdles are beyond their scope and purview. without immediate action taken to resolve these issues, the hob agreements will be unsustainable within the year. with that strong possibility, the accompanying recommendations have been made. background & project goals the ontario colleges heads of business (hob) has worked for several years to develop pathways for students in business-related postsecondary programs. in 2010, the heads of business (hob) received support from the college university consortium council (cucc) to develop province-wide college to college transfer protocols for accounting programs and human resources programs. this work expanded in 2011 to include the development of business administration and marketing transfer protocols. hob successfully collaborates with the mtcu and cucc/oncat to develop (4) four transfer agreements agreement date ontario college heads of business transfer agreements october 2011 1. february 2013 2. february 2013 3. february 2013 4. student transfer within accounting diploma and advanced diploma programs: mtcu # 50100 & 60100 student transfer within business diploma and advanced diploma programs mtcu # 50200 & 60200 student transfer within human resources diploma and advanced diploma programs mtcu #50223 & 60223 student transfer within business marketing diploma and advanced diploma programs mtcu #52900 & 62900 the agreements were based the premise that all college programs satisfy the provincial program standards within their curriculums. hob members were confident, that they could support a transfer grouping credits from the first year, to the second year and second year, to the third year of the identified programs. however, mapping exercises showed that only 60% of the courses were completely aligned as equivalent across the system. this presented implementation challenges as related to the function of the registrars office and transfer credit because while the agreements were based on the foundation of common learning outcomes, the implementation systems and processes of the participating colleges are largely course based. 4 hob transfer agreement steering committee the primary outcome of this project was to: conduct the system-level implementation of the 4 college-to-college business transfer agreements where possible, assist oncat in furthering the 3 diploma-to-degree business transfer agreements engage all participating stakeholders. act as a pilot for ontarios post-secondary education system to develop protocols and processes for implementation of other transfer agreements (current and future). project team senior project manager jeannine cookson, cookson consulting group inc. hob - transfer agreement steering committee mary pierce; co-chair helene vukovich; co-chair joan campbell; alvina cassiani doug clark john conrad gary hallam sharon kinasz janice lamoureux marianne marando tina montgomery amy morrell karen murkar chair lawrence kinlin school of business, fanshawe college associate dean, centre for business, george brown college dean, school of business, media studies, creative arts & design, it, & culinary arts, cambrian college (from october 2015) dean, school of business humber college director of business, justice and science programs, northern college (to december 2014) associate dean school of business st. lawrence college executive dean, school of business & hospitality, conestoga college registrar, seneca college (from january 2016) registrar, fanshawe college (from january 2016) director of marketing, seneca college (from january 2016) dean of business, community services & school of the arts, college boreal chair, marketing and entrepreneurship school of business, centennial college (from may 2015) chair, school of accounting and financial services, seneca college projected timeline the projected timeline for the ontario system level transfer agreements implementation was: april 2014 hiring of senior project manager and scoping of initial requirement consultation with oncat regarding marketing update presentation for oncat conference may - august 2014 5 project plan templates and presentation at hob annual general meeting hiring of project coordinator/content specialist development of communication/marketing plans and first integration meetings complete gathering and input of transferable credits into oncat database hob transfer agreement steering committee september - december 2014 stakeholder consultations/project plan and implementation templates developed first marketing implementation in association with oncat report back at hob fall meeting guidelines for service standards developed january - june 2015 first full implementation phase engaging colleges other stakeholder groups, direct audience marketing. report back on progress with degree agreements progress on full implementation templates and best practice templates consultation with other oncat project teams for sharing of learning report presentation at oncat conference full interim report submitted march 31, 2015. report back to hob agm july - december 2015 second phase implementation january march 2016 6 college to college full consultations on progress and implementation lessons learned documentation of full statuses and reports back to stakeholders. final report development and submission key milestones key milestones table planned completion date title forecast completion forecast current date as completion forecast reported date as completion two reported date months last report. ago actual completion date manage manage 1 manage 2 manage 3 position profile templates for resources to assist with systemwide transfer agreement implementation: project manager; project coordinator/ content specialists complete project plan template with milestone and work-back objective with input from hob transfer agreement initiative co- chairs and executive director, oncat complete 01-april-14 18-aug-14 31-oct-14 01-jan-15 01-apr-15 15-feb-15 15-feb-15 sept. 2015 report templates for updates on implementation schedule and results-templates to be developed in close collaboration with oncat, ccvpa, registrars, and the committee of registrars admissions & liaison officers (cralo) complete create agreement template complete (appendix a) define process flow for future agreements complete approved by ccvpa (appendix b) define implementation process employed during hob execution of project with narrative and lessons learned. complete 15-mar-15 final draft 31-mar-16 april 2015 final draft 31-mar-16 march 2016 hob transfer agreement steering committee key milestones table planned completion date title manage 4 documentation of lessons learned and best practices for implementation of system-level transfer agreements. complete developing/implementing system - wide transfer agreements the lessons learned complete integrate 1 detailed communication plan outlining strategy for communicating with all stakeholders (oncat, hob, ontario colleges, ontario universities, committee of registrars, faculty, advisors at each college, ocas, accreditation bodies, marketing departments, pan canadian consortium on admissions and transferability (pccat) etc.) complete create timeline of hob implementation. complete final draft dec 2015 forecast completion forecast current date as completion forecast reported date as completion two reported date months last report. ago actual completion date final draft dec 2015 march 2016 final draft: sept. 2015 march 2016 integrate integrate 2 internal college communication template and interinstitutional materials related to the impact of system level integration of transfer agreements. complete create: communication documentation to advise of pathways and actionable items: 8 final draft: sept. 2015 hob transfer agreement steering committee key milestones table title - power point - word document , - email templates - monthly progress updates - faq (appendix d) - cpg core course comparison (appendix e) outcome: overall communication plan and materials which can be leveraged by other projects planned completion date final: april 2015 forecast completion forecast current date as completion forecast reported date as completion two reported date months last report. ago final: sept 2015 actual completion date sept 2015 all documents currently available in hob resource site located on projects page of oncat web site integrate 3 sample communication eco-system mappings that confirm the status of various initiatives being implemented across the college system that will impact transfer agreement pathways and activities. discussion with various heads groups to garner support for these transfer agreements and other college pathways - presentation to cralo sept 2014 & dec 2015 - presentation to heads of marketing hom october 2014 cralo and hom represented on tasc as of january 2016 9 hob transfer agreement steering committee key milestones table planned completion date title forecast completion forecast current date as completion forecast reported date as completion two reported date months last report. ago actual completion date maintain/sustain maintain / sustain 1 maintain/ sustain 2 terms of reference for a system-level transfer agreement steering committee complete plan/facilitate steering committee - pathways sustainability workshop - complete 27-jan-15 27-jan-15 27-jan-2015 22-jan- 2016 create terms of reference for hob steering committee complete. approved by hob membership (appendix c) sept 2015 sept 2015 october 2015 not applicable not applicable 20-nov-14 maintenance plan outlining the strategy to maintain currency of system-level transfer agreements incomplete ensure all signing colleges approve the ontransfer pathway agreements complete develop model to sustain the 4 hob agreement program curricula and all pathways. incomplete funding removed from implementation due to learning outcomes nature of work required. facilitate college coordinators conference for may 2015 in conjunction with oncat, focusing on transfer agreement 10 na hob transfer agreement steering committee key milestones table title implementation, learning outcomes, best practices and college degrees. complete utilize outcomes from the conference to establish, exemplars ie. course, term learning outcomes, yearly learning outcomes. incomplete funding removed from project. request from oncat due to learning outcomes nature of work. gather feedback from all stake holders on implementation successes, challenges, and opportunities. complete planned completion date forecast completion forecast current date as completion forecast reported date as completion two reported date months last report. ago jan. 2016 jan. 2016 may 2015 march 2016 dec 2015 na jan. 2016 jan. 2016 march 2016 prepare final recommendations on project deliverables. complete maintain / sustain 3 documented processes to maintain currency of system-level transfer agreements incomplete during 2015, it was deemed that a key enabler of this deliverable would be that of aligning learning outcomes for all core courses. however, it was also deemed unrealistic to complete that work, considering the complexity and timeframe which would be required. discussions regarding this potential enabler, which in turn can ensure maintenance of the system-level transfer agreements, potentially should 11 actual completion date march 2016 march 2016 march 2016 na hob transfer agreement steering committee key milestones table title planned completion date forecast completion forecast current date as completion forecast reported date as completion two reported date months last report. ago actual completion date be taken up further by the oncat group working on learning outcomes projects. maintain / sustain 4 templates and sample materials for orientation of new staff to system - level transfer business agreements (protocols, processes, best practices, etc.) dec 2015 dec 2015 dec. 2015 mar 2015 mar 2015 march 2016 jan 2016 jan 2016 march 2016 mar 2016 mar 2016 may 2016 complete see hob project page on oncat web site maintain / sustain 5 12 guidelines of service standards for students seeking transfers complete ensure all colleges are able to implement the hob pathways. - initial college outreach - work with cralo and hob to establish consistency among all colleges - create system/service expectations in conjunction with cralo and hob - conduct follow up discussion/survey with all stakeholders - share outcomes through workshop/presentations/webinars outcomes one of the primary outcomes of the hob-transfer agreements and subsequent implementation within the colleges, has been the strong reciprocity between the colleges. within the heads of business leadership it is very evident that each college is prepared to ensure a student transferring between colleges at the end of year one or two of his/her program is not disadvantaged. at the outset of the implementation project it was believed the communication stream was confined to that of the vpas, academic departments, offices of the registrar and marketing. a recent survey of the implementation process at the various colleges, helped to define the vast breadth of stakeholders within the college community who are charged with managing the transfer process. moving forward they will need to be enveloped into the communication fold. in many cases, college registrars and other enabling areas within the colleges, have adapted their internal processes in order to support these agreements and assist in the processing of transfer students. however, that is not the case system wide. some academic leaders, continue to struggle with their internal college, departmental processes, as they attempt to apply the framework of the agreements. outstanding hurdles to sustainability and implementation in the march 2015 report to oncat, the heads of business transfer agreement steering committee, began to identify a number of implementation hurdles for which it anticipates, if left unaddressed, will continue to negatively impact the sustainability of these and any other future system-wide agreements. they present roadblocks to a smooth transfer system notwithstanding the enthusiasm and motivation of the heads of business. it is deemed that all of these hurdles are either beyond the scope of this project or that of the heads of business they require advocacy and influence of other actors in the post-secondary system. data management of transfer credits as these agreements have been implemented, there has been a primary concern around the notion of seamless processing of the student transfer. there is clearly a high degree of interdependency and need for further automation of the inter-college transfer credit recognition systems; that need for seamlessness has implications for processes and systems provided by oncat, the colleges and ocas. as mentioned earlier, resolving this issue is beyond the scope of the hob pilot implementation project, however, it is important to note that the project has been and continues to be impacted somewhat negatively as a result (both the hob project and other emergent system-wide pathways initiatives). the current hob -transfer agreements are dependent upon a manually updated excel spread sheet, curriculum pathway guide (cpg). with no electronic link from the program transfer system to the course credit transfer system, the colleges will be dependent upon the on-going maintenance of the curriculum pathway guides. for example: currently in order to ensure a student is eligible to transfer under the framework of these agreements, a manual review of the student transcript is required, in addition, a manual assessment based on the curriculum pathways guides (cpg) is also required. a more robust course equivalencies data base would eliminate the need for the cpg entirely and provide up-to-date program information. hob transfer agreement steering committee recommendation: oncat to enhance its course equivalencies database or data management transfer credit systems in order to improve functionality and simplify the transfer process. centralized resource site as the hob agreements were being introduced to the provincial college community, a need arose for a centralized resource site that could house shared documents and tools. this resource site will become a critical tool as natural transition occurs within the individual colleges. in the duration of this pilot project alone 50% of the heads of business originally involved in the negotiating of these agreements are no longer in these positions. some of the shared documents included: - the original agreements. general information around curriculum alignment and the implementation of the agreements updates on provincial issues impacting curriculum and updates on the implementation progress the curriculum pathway guides mentioned above. an faqs document to assist colleges as they encountered issues when processing a transfer student these documents need to be accessible by multiple individuals within each of the colleges. both on the advising of transfer students and ensuring academic curriculum alignment. currently these resources are housed on the project page of the oncat web site. this model cannot be sustained without dedicated personnel overseeing and amending as necessary. in addition, it is very difficult for users to locate as it is amidst all other oncat projects. these tools need to be easily accessible by the end users. a more suitable and accessible location for this material is necessary to support these and other agreements. recommendation: as all participating colleges require the ability for multiple users to access documentation related to the project, there should be a secure electronic document repository (i.e. dedicated website with password-protected access, enabling version control and document tracking). ontransfer.ca agreement template improvements to the ontransfer.ca site and the functionality of the pathways agreement template has been identified as desirable. the current ontransfer.ca site does not support the marketability of the hob pathways. some focus on alignment of this data base to the needs of the user, is critical to the marketability and success of these pathways. for example: when searching for a possible program transfer in ontransfer.ca, the pathway summary page, provides information but it is also an opportunity to encourage/entice a student to consider transferring to another institution. unfortunately, the first piece of information a prospective student sees is the terms for renewal or cancellation of the agreement. perhaps a necessary piece of information but not the first thing a prospective transfer student should see. in addition, a concerted effort towards the marketing and promotion of ontransfer.ca within the colleges is necessary to engage faculty and students alike. recommendation: that oncat focus on reviewing the current ontransfer.ca site improving the marketability and functionality of the site and fields of information. 14 hob transfer agreement steering committee alignment of transcript data a number of desired transcript changes have been identified that if implemented could tremendously help simplify the transfer process. these changes are beyond the scope of the heads of business. below are the recommended information required to efficiently assess a student transcript for transfer purposes: identify the program of study identify the mtcu# for program of study all general education courses identified program completion status, at the end of each semester/year. i.e. first year complete recommendation: as provincially funded institutions with provincially aligned vocational standards for these programs as well as many others, it is only logical that the transcript information, shared provincially should be consistent from college to college. although a long term project, a provincial policy towards college transcript alignment will greatly assist the transfer process. in addition, an eye towards potential modifications required to ensure a pan canadian alignment would also prove beneficial. maintaining alignment of curriculum there will be an ongoing need for an annual review and reconciliation of changes made to each colleges curriculum in order to sustain these agreements. this review would ensure all signing colleges continue to remain aligned with the curriculum frame work of the agreements. its inevitable that curriculum changes will occur and annual reviews of each of the four program areas (accounting, marketing, hr, business administration) would require input from program coordinators associated with the various programs. as of the conclusion of this project it was still uncertain as to how an annual review and updating could be facilitated. one solution may be the creation of affinity groups through the heads of business. it will be left in the hands of the hob tasc to discuss this concept with the hob membership at the may 2016 agm. recommend further discussion with oncat and the heads of business to ascertain the makeup and role of affinity groups and how they can be supported long term. tracking of students and metrics currently the data surrounding the number of students who have benefited from the hob-transfer agreement is limited and if available has been manually tracked. it is believed, there has been less than 5 at each college since november 2014. as these and other transfer agreements unfold, there will be an ongoing need for data surrounding movement of students and their ultimate academic success. currently, all applications are filtered through the ontario college application system ocas however the level (year/semester) at which a student may apply, is left to the discretion of the individual college and specific program. there is no means of identifying an ontransfer.ca pathways applicant. the best way to potentially track student mobility and success is through the ontario education number oen. at present there is no automated internal mechanism within the college systems to capture and track a student transferring through these agreements and their academic progress, other than face-to-face dialogue. given the system-wide impact of these agreements, a standardized recording of this data will be required and is at this point beyond the scope of the heads of business. 15 hob transfer agreement steering committee recommendation: as per the above recommendation surrounding enhancement of the course equivalencies database or data management transfer credit systems, it is believed that this work could also serve to improve the tracking of students. in addition, greater utilization of the oen would be a strongly recommended method of tracking student mobility. ontransfer.ca hob pathways revision during the implementation process, the hob tasc recognized that one of the hurdles in the implementation of the agreements hinged on terminology that had been used in the original crafting of the agreements and subsequently used in the pathways now posted to the ontransfer.ca site. the agreements had been written in two sections, using the term block transfer. when in reality, the more appropriate terminology should have been recognition of credit. the required change was communicated to oncat and the ontransfer.ca coordinator. the following modifications, required on the ontransfer.ca hob pathways, for all programs, will be completed by the end of august 2016: pathway details 2.7 credit transfer admitted transfer students will be granted by their receiving college an agreed number of academic credits: termed a block credit transfer which will include specific credits and exemptions. change to: admitted transfer students will receive, credit recognition for all credits earned within the defined program at the sending college, which will include specific credits and exemptions. 2.8 # of credits number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving institution block transfer of all first year credits. change to (for diploma programs): recognition of all first year credits earned and change to (for advanced diploma programs): recognition of all first and second year credits earned conclusion overall the processing of transfer students within ontario colleges has become much more open and transparent. there is evidence of a cultural change as it relates to accepting credit from other colleges. the work driven by the hob has paved the way for other system-wide agreements to guide in the crafting and communication of a newly forged pathway. knowledge of oncat and the ontransfer.ca site is much greater, as are the tools available for advising students. 16 hob transfer agreement steering committee most importantly the internal dialogue has begun. where by the colleges are reviewing their internal processes and trusting their academic partners. although not as smoothly as had originally hoped, the spirit of the agreement is being supported. however, despite these great intentions, without a concerted effort towards resolving the identified hurdles the hob agreements will be unsustainable within the year. 17 hob transfer agreement steering committee appendix a system wide transfer agreement template the following system pathway template can be used to forge pathway agreements among participating institutions. it will also provide the necessary information to oncat for posting to the ontransfer.ca site once agreement has been secured. it can be used for both college and university pathways alike. section 1: basic information the basic information section includes the pathway category, type and the implementation and expiry date of the agreement. the section is for administrator view only and is not seen on the public facing website. 1.1 pathway category system pathway 1.2 pathway type credit transfer or degree-completion 1.3 implementation date (yyyy-mm-dd) 1.4 expiry date (yyyy-mm-dd): should be a common date agreed upon by the transfer steering committee. determine the length of time the committee is comfortable going without review 7 years allows for sufficient time to assess the success of the pathway and develop a good method of sustaining/maintaining the agreement. section 2: pathway information: this section includes the information students and the public will see in their transfer guide search results. 2.1 title of pathway: be specific in the title of the pathway. include the mtcu # of the program(s): example: business year 1 to business administration advanced diploma year 2 mtcu code # 60200 one agreement for a program discipline may create multiple pathways. for example; the business diploma 2 year program and the 3 year business administration advanced diploma was written as one agreement but created 6 pathways. utilize a table to define the pathways. this will assist oncat when moving the agreement to a pathway. 2.2 terms for renewal or cancellation: provide a statement outlining expectations should a college need to withdraw from the agreement prior to the renewal date. acknowledge any external accrediting bodies which may impact the feasibility of the agreement. describe any conditions applicable in the event of a cancellation of the agreement. example: colleges offering programs in fire science may adjust the conditions for transfer to reflect external changes in standards, professional accreditation or certification requirements. the changes must conform to the timelines set by the accrediting organization. individual colleges may withdraw from the agreement with the following conditions: the decision is implemented after formalized student information sources are updated accordingly students currently registered in the degree program are able to complete their program of study external regulations permitting, degree programs will continue to accept transfer student for a two additional years. 18 hob transfer agreement steering committee in the unlikely event that the agreement is terminated at the end of the initial term, students enrolled in the diploma transfer stream or transfer prerequisite pathway will be continue to be eligible to transfer for an additional two years. 2.3 eligibility for the pathway: keep in mind the principles behind these agreements. a student has already been admitted into a post secondary institution, they should not be required to repeat the same admission process again. use generic terminology to identify the possibility of additional admission criteria. for example: french language proficiency and possibley issues of capacity. example: to qualify for transfer from the first year of the ontario college business diploma to the second year of the ontario college business diploma offered by another college, the student must: have completed the first year of the business diploma program meet any other admissions requirements of the receiving college student application will be through the ontario college application system (ocas) and must conform to the published time lines. www.ontariocolleges.ca admissions will be subject to the processes of the college being applied to. where application numbers exceed the capacity of any college, additional selection and approval requirements may apply. regardless of the level at which a student was originally admitted into the diploma program and/or the admission standard at the time, students will be accepted for transfer based on their successful completion of the required first year of the business diploma program at the point of transfer. 2.4 graduated from the program at the sending institution: used for articulation agreements, example diploma completion to degrees, or 2 year diploma to 3 year diploma. 2.5 required gpa (x.xx gpa or x/x+/x or xx%): when building a system wide agreement use the lowest common denominator for transfer. recommend using % as there is no consistency in gpa calculation across the system. for example: the business agreements used 50% 2.6 minimum grade in required courses (x/x+/x-): as with above, define the lowest grade which can be accepted for this pathway should be identified. for example: the business agreements used d 19 yes no hob transfer agreement steering committee 2.7 credit transfer: this is a system- wide agreement therefore a generic reference to credits received may need to be used. given the liberal nature of the business agreements and their relationships with external associations it was useful to include a statement pertaining to the students responsibility. example: admitted transfer students will be granted by their receiving college an agreed number of academic credits: termed a block credit transfer which will include specific credits and exemptions. grade equivalencies are addressed by this transfer pathway agreement as follows: participating colleges will accept the course pass designation for all other colleges regardless of specific grade earned, wherever specific grades or grade point averages (gpas) are required, the grade given by the originating college will be accepted, transfer credit for courses will typically be recorded on the receiving college transcript in terminology such as transfer credit or exemption rather than a grade, whenever transfer students pursue professional certification and they require final grade evidence of completion of a professional course requirement from another college, they must obtain transcript evidence of grades from the college at which the course was taken. 2.8 number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving institution (must be expressed as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): since there could be an exhaustive number of permeations a generic reference to credits may be required example: block transfer of all first year credits or recognition of all first year credits earned. 2.9 anticipated time to complete the credential at the receiving institution if enrolled full-time: the system wide agreements need to be consistent. however, it is recognized that at some institutions the delivery schedule of needed courses may prevent a student from completing within the defined time frame. example: students transferring from the first year of an ontario college business diploma to the second year of the business diploma program at another college: can anticipate time to completion to be one (1) year. *please note: time to completion may be altered by course availability 2.10 number of semesters to complete the credential based on full-time study: 2.11 credentials to be granted on successful completion of all required components: use the ministry approved nomenclature for the program(s). example: business administration advanced diploma 20 see pathway hob transfer agreement steering committee section 3 : receiving institution information: the receiving institution information section describes the credential, discipline, program area and title of the program that the student will be transferring into. the credits they must achieve at their receiving institution are defined. students and the public will see this information in their transfer guide search results. approval party name(s) and date of approval are for administrator view only. 3.1 degree 3.2 credential: diploma advanced diploma certificate ontario certificate program discipline: this field is consistent with the ontario college application system (ocas) discipline fields example: science and technology/ business and finance administration etc. 3.3 program area: can repeat above or use program title example: engineering and technology 3.4 program title: use the ministry approved nomenclature for the program(s). individual colleges may adjust this should the name of their program not be consistent with the common nomenclature. example: business administration accounting 3.5 date of approval by receiving institution (yyyy-mm-dd): this date will be populated by each participating college once the staged pathway has been approved on the ontransfer.ca site. 3.6 approving party name(s): identify who the approving authority is for this pathway. for community colleges, the vice president academic is generally applicable. more than one person can be identified. please include name and title. example: sally provost vice president academic vpa 3.7 credits that must be achieved at the receiving institution: when working with a system-wide agreement use terminology that can be applied to all institutions. the number of credits required to complete, may vary at each college. example from the business agreements: students will be required to take the outstanding number of course credits, in order to satisfy the remaining learning outcomes of the program of study. students are required to meet the progression and graduation requirements as defined by the receiving college in order to satisfy the credential. please discuss with the transfer advisor for further information students will be required to take no less than 25% of the course credits at the receiving college. 21 hob transfer agreement steering committee 3.8 summarized credits that must be achieved at the receiving institution an average number of credits/courses can be used. or the highest number required based on course mapping. 3.9 college specific information required ontransfer.ca site contact procedure: the contact information in this section is specific to the institution and for the pathway identified above. you may include one or more contacts. this can be a program coordinator, advisor, faculty etc. ensure you provide a link to the specific program web page provide: name of college name of advisor phone number email address program administrator (if able to speak to terms and conditions of agreement) section 4: college administration and agreement maintenance this section is specifically for the college administration of the agreement. the content will not be posted to the oncat web site. 4.1 curriculum alignment define the expectation of each college to ensure they meet the framework of this agreement. include all courses and sequencing agreed to. include in a separate appendix if necessary. example: the business agreements used a table. see appendix a of this template 4.2 inter college/university management of this agreement. the following lists the requirements of all participating colleges for continued inclusion in the agreement and the role the steering committee plays in ensuring compliance/adherence to the agreement. example: 4.2.1 reporting to the heads of ________________ and answerable to the college committee of vice presidents academic (ccvpa), this transfer agreement will be subject to monitoring by a ______________transfer steering committee (steering committee) the steering committees mandate is: i. to annually collect and review measurement data on the effectiveness of the transfer process and report to the heads of __________________ ii. to maintain confidentiality of personal and individual college information, iii. to receive and deal with concerns within its mandate, iv. to propose academic improvements to the heads of ____________________; v. pursue admission information and data collection issues to the registrars committee and route other concerns to the responsible individuals or groups, vi. to prepare the end-of-contract-term summative report for the heads of __________________ and the ccvpa, and 22 hob transfer agreement steering committee vii. at the end of the first term of the agreement, to recommend continuation, adjustment or retirement of the agreement and of the steering committee. 4.2.2 it is understood that the steering committee will assume oversight responsibilities within its mandate for additional applicable transfer initiatives as they are implemented. in this context, they will recommend adjustment to the committees membership, mandate, scope and continuation as needed. 4.2.3 the steering committee will promptly address any urgent concerns within its mandate. critical issues requiring ongoing monitoring include but are not limited to any non-compliance with the established program requirements, concerns expressed by the professional organizations or any changes to the external rules governing college programs. 4.2.4 the steering committee will table with the heads of ________________________ an annual progress report on the transfer program. any significant problems that fall within the mandate of the steering committee, the heads of _______________________ or its members will be addressed in a timely fashion: those beyond their mandate will be forwarded to those responsible for appropriate action. issues related to application, admission, and information will be forwarded through the registrar representative to the provincial college registrars committee. 4.2.5 at the end of the initial seven year term, a summative report will be tabled by the steering committee recommending any further changes in the overall transfer agreement and its renewal. this report will be finalized in consultation with the heads of _______________________ and subsequently forwarded to the provincial college ccvpa and the registrars group. 4.3 list of participating institutions provide a list of all institutions participating in this agreement. include within the document or on a separate appendix. 4.4 statement of acceptance the heads of ____________________ recommend acceptance of this agreement by the coordinating committee of college vice presidents academic, ccvpa for immediate communication/distribution the ontario council on articulation & transfer oncat , council of registrars and associate leaders of ontario cralo and their respective colleges. signed: ________________________________________ date: ___________________________ chair; heads of ___________________ motion to accept: signed: _________________________________________ date:___________________________ chair; ccvpa oncat communication date: ____________________________________________ 23 appendix a oncat pathways agreement template typical college business diploma courses general twoyear and three-year business and business administration programs for students planning to continue 2nd yr. diploma studies at another college course completion by end of the first year of the 2 yr business or 3 yr business admin. diploma program for students planning to continue 3rd yr diploma studies at another college course completion by end of second year of the 2 yr. business or 3 yr. business administration diploma program transfer prerequisites for business administration diploma graduates into business degree programs offered by collaborating ontario universities1 accounting introductory financial accounting management accounting communications business writing effective communications computers business computer applications economics microeconomics macroeconomics math business math2 marketing introductory customer relations operations human resources management business law organizational behaviour statistics ethics 1 yes yes yes yes yes yes (recommended have one economics) yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes per transfer agreement business administration college to university being finalized as of february, 2013 if school only offers math of finance, it should be indicated that is the math course they will include if participating in this agreement 22 yes yes yes yes yes yes appendix b - process flow system-wide college transfer agreements action vpa heads group sponsoring group develops agreement, including list of all participating colleges. all participants ensuring consultation with respective vpa. colleges may choose to participate or not. ccvpa liaison maintains communication with the heads group and ccvpa final agreement presented at heads group meeting for "motion of acceptance". project lead identified. signed by presiding chair ccvpa signed agreements presented at ccvpa for "motion of acceptance" signed by presiding ccvpa chair accepted agreements forwarded to oncat for initial data entry and cralo for distribution among college registrars distributed through vpa's to all colleges. oncat cralo draft agreements posted to www.ontransfer.ca. awaiting review by project lead agreement forwarded to cralo for distribution among registrars project lead review of draft agreement with oncat approve for staging colleges college ensures ability to facilitate the agreement according to internal policies and procedures email sent to college oncat contact of pathway agreement pending approval. each college confirms acceptance of the agreement on www.ontransfer.ca agreement live on ontransfer.ca for confirmed colleges only heads group ongoing annual review to ensure effective sustainability. agreements recorded at respective college to be implemented and promoted according to college practice. hob transfer agreement steering committee appendix c system-wide transfer agreement terms of reference transfer agreement steering committee effective: approved: next review: march 2014 october 2015 march 2019 facilitating ease of transfer for business students in ontario colleges. 1.0 function the heads of business transfer agreement steering committee (tasc) as appointed by the heads of business ontario (hob). report as a sub-committee of that group and are answerable to the coordinating committee of vice presidents academic (ccvpa) 1.2 the hob transfer agreement steering committee within its mandate is responsible for overseeing the: development communication process ongoing sustainability and maintenance of all approved transfer agreements within the business portfolio of programs in ontarios colleges. 1.3 specific functions include: 26 1.3.1 collect and review all data and issues pertaining to the implementation of all hob transfer agreements on an annual basis. 1.3.2 provide an annual update to the hob membership during the implementation period of the agreements. any significant issues that fall within the mandate of the steering committee, the hob or its members will be addressed in a timely fashion. issues or concerns beyond the mandate of the transfer agreement steering committee will be hob transfer agreement steering committee forwarded to the individuals responsible for appropriate action. issues related to application, admission, and information will be forwarded through the registrar representative to the provincial college registrars committee. 2.0 1.3.3 create an annual opportunity for faculty to review the core learning outcomes as defined by the agreement and sustained through the program teams. 1.3.4 update annually any shared documentation for the purpose of facilitating the long term success of the various hob transfer agreements. i.e. course exemplars and curriculum pathway guides 1.3.5 review annually, required course sequencing for all colleges associated with the various agreements. 1.3.6 assume oversight responsibilities within its mandate for additional business transfer initiatives as they are implemented. in this context, they will recommend adjustment to the committees membership, mandate, scope and continuation as needed. 1.3.7 promptly address any urgent concerns within its mandate. critical issues requiring ongoing monitoring include any non-compliance with the established program requirements, concerns expressed by the professional organizations or any changes to the external rules governing college programs. 1.3.8 table at the end of the initial seven year term, a summative report recommending any further changes in the overall transfer agreement and its renewal. this report will be finalized in consultation with the hob and subsequently forwarded to the provincial college ccvpa and the registrars group. membership and terms of office 2.1 27 this committee is comprised of members from the hob. ideally one representative for each of the 4 geographic jurisdictions for ontario colleges. voting membership: 1 rep - northern colleges 1 rep - central colleges 1 rep - eastern colleges 1 rep - western colleges 1 rep - francophone college, if not represented above. ex officio: 1 rep council of registrars and admissions liaison officers (cralo) 1 rep heads of marketing (hom) hob transfer agreement steering committee 3.0 2.2 terms of office: each member shall serve a term of no less than 3 years with an opportunity to sit for a second term. in order to ensure the knowledge base of this committee, steps should be taken to ensure a rotation of membership including the introduction of only one new member per year. 2.3 chair: the chair/co-chairs will be voted upon by the sitting committee members serving a term of no less than 2 years. guiding principles in the execution of their responsibilities, the transfer agreement steering committee will work to sustain the following guiding principles and ensure that any additional pathways created are done so, within the spirit of these guiding principles: 3.1 the transfer agreement steering committee for the hob including any sub committees creating pathway opportunities for students, will strive to ensure: 3.1.1 all discussions/actions maintain confidentiality of personal and individual college information 3.1.2 students can complete their programs on time 3.1.3 all decisions will support a students ability to achieve credential completion without jeopardizing their opportunity for additional higher education 3.1.4 the focus will be on student success/satisfaction 3.1.5 transparency of pathway opportunities for students 3.1.6 all meetings are conducted within an environment among committee members and partnering colleges that promotes openness and sharing 3.1.7 students receive fair, easy and timely responses 3.1.8 colleges shift their focus on output rather than input 3.1.9 a collaborative and collegial working environment for all colleges 4. meetings and conduct of business the transfer agreement steering committee shall meet a minimum of once per month during the initial implementation phase of an agreement. at the discretion of the committee this can be reduced as implementation progresses. 5. annual reporting an annual report containing key success measures will be prepared for, reviewed by and reported through the business transfer agreement steering committee for the purpose of: 5.0.1 the early identification and correction of any confusion or problems in the overall agreement and its administration, 28 hob transfer agreement steering committee 5.0.2 5.0.3 5.0.4 the early identification of any significant problems with student preparation and the timely and confidential communication of those too the originating college, the provision of data to support ongoing professional associations and accrediting agencies recognition, and academic planning. 5.1 without limiting any future reporting requirements of the ccvpa, cop, related government agencies or mtcu, relevant data and reports containing only system aggregate data will be shared with the business transfer agreement steering committee, the heads of business, the committee of registrars and with the college signatories to the agreement. 5.2 working with the college registrars, the transfer agreements steering committee will facilitate the preparation of the following reports: 5.2.1 a report of the application, registration and graduation data for transfer students provided in chart form by program, semester, originating and receiving college, will be made available to the steering committee, 5.2.2 a report on the gpa of transferring students by program, semester and receiving college, will be made available to the steering committee, 5.2.3. reports on the gpa of transferring students by program, semester and originating and receiving college will be made available confidentially to only the authorized representatives of the originating college. 5.3 additionally, the college schools of business and their registrars will collect information and report to the steering committee on: 5.3.1 transfer student satisfaction and 5.3.2 any anecdotal issues with the transfer process. 5.4 to deal in a timely fashion with critical issues that may emerge during the life of the agreement, the steering committee may be requested to provide, or require additional information. 6. references hob -transfer agreement for business/business administration mtcu# 50200 and 60200 hob -transfer agreement for business- accounting/business administration- accounting mtcu# 50100 and 60100 hob -transfer agreement for business- hr/business administration- hr mtcu# 50223 and 60223 hob -transfer agreement for business- marketing/business administration- marketing mtcu# 52900 and 62900 29 hob transfer agreement steering committee 7. attachments the transfer agreement steering committee as of january 2016 30 voting membership joan campbell alvina cassiani john conrad gary hallam tina montgomery amy morrell karen murkar mary pierce; co - chair helene vukovich co-chair cambrian college humber college st. lawrence college conestoga college college boreal centennial college seneca college fanshawe college george brown college joan.campbell@cambriancollege.ca alvinacassiani@humberc.ca jconrad@sl.on.ca ghallam@conestogac.on.ca tina.montgomery@collegeboreal.ca amorrell@centennialcollege.ca karen.murkar@senecacollege.ca mpierce@fanshawec.ca hvukovic@georgebrown.ca ex officio hom marianne marrando seneca college marianne.marando@senecacollege.ca cralo sharon kinasz janice lamoureux seneca college fanshawe college sharon.kinasz@senecacollege.ca jlamoureux@fanshawec.ca project mgr. jeannine cookson cookson consulting group inc. jeanninecookson@rogers.com hob transfer agreement steering committee appendix d frequently asked questions (faqs) system wide transfer agreements implementation programs program name(s) mtcu# mtcu# business / business administration 50200 60200 business- accounting / business administration - accounting 50100 60100 business human resources / business admin. - human resources 50223 60223 business marketing / business admin. - marketing 52900 62900 eligibility 1. students must be in good standing at the end of the first or second year at the sending college. 2. students must meet any other admission criteria as described by the receiving college i.e. french language competency assessing credit earned how many course credits, is a receiving college required to provide? a transfer student must receive recognition for all credits received within the applicable program at the sending college. one or two years depending on the pathway this may be recognized as an exemption, external credit or transfer credit individual college web sites can provide the necessary data. how does a receiving college know if a student has taken the required number of credits? or what is the curriculum pathway guide (cpg)? the core courses" are identified with all other courses delivered at each college, for comparison purposes. how should a transfer students credits be recognized? 31 a curriculum pathway guide will be available to provide quick access to all 24 colleges curriculum for the purpose of assessing credit earned and for mapping the students necessary learning outcomes. the curriculum pathway guide provides a central reference of all like programs in the province of ontario, mapped to the framework of each agreement. a credit can be identified as external credit transfer credit or exemption, based on individual college practice. hob transfer agreement steering committee is the receiving college required to review course outlines/syllabus prior to granting credit? our policy dictates a 60% pass as the minimum grade for accepting external credits. if a student has an external credit or plar credit on their transcript, are they required to present evidence of the original documentation? our internal process dictates approval for credit can only be granted by the course department head not just the head of business. progression/graduation our college policy stipulates a student must attain a minimum overall average of 60% to graduate. our program requires students maintain a 60% average to enter the second/third year of our program. will a transfer student attain a minimum of 25% of our curriculum to receive our diploma? no. these agreements are founded on significant curriculum mapping. all courses delivered within the ontario college system have been deemed acceptable recognition of credit earned and should be recognized as such. for the purpose of the four business agreements, if 50% is recognized as a pass at the sending college, it is to be recognized as a pass at the receiving college. all external credits, exemptions and plar are to be accepted by the receiving college. a student should not be required to submit evidence a second time. these agreements came to be after significant curriculum mapping including all service courses, in particular communications and math. they have been endorsed/signed by all vice president academics and are therefore supported by all department heads. students are required to meet the receiving colleges graduation policies. students should be advised by the transfer advisor as to the applicability of their transfer credits, in the overall calculation for graduation purposes. the language of the agreements recognizes a pass as a pass regardless of grade earned or overall gpa. transfer students will be required to meet the receiving colleges progression and graduation policies in order to graduate and complete their credential. yes, transfer for these agreements will continue to support this policy. a transfer student will still complete greater than 25% of the curriculum at any receiving college regardless of pathway. sustaining the agreements for 7 years is there a specific curriculum that all colleges are required to deliver? can we make changes to our programs? other pathway agreements 32 each agreement identifies core courses to be delivered by the completion of the first year and the second year of study. all colleges delivering the applicable programs as of 2013 were to have aligned their curriculum to meet these minimum requirements. currently colleges are asked to forestall any curriculum changes until a sustainability plan can be forged among the heads of business. hob transfer agreement steering committee appendix e - curriculum pathway guide - core course comparison core course comparsion march-16 business accounting diploma & advanced diploma mtcu# 50100 & 60100 business human resources diploma & advanced diploma mtcu# 50223 and 60223 business marketing diploma & advanced diploma mtcu# 52900 & 62900 admission requirements admission requirements admission requirements admission requirements transfer agreement transfer agreement transfer agreement transfer agreement 2 communications - effective /////////////////////////////// 3 business computer applications 4 business math 5 marketing - introductory year one core courses /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// math /////////////////////////////// 4 /////////////////////////////// 5 2 business writing 3 college communications 4 business computer applications 5 business math /////////////////////////////// microeconomics /////////////////////////////// 6 4 year two core courses year one core courses 1 introductory accounting 2 management accounting 1 financial accounting fundamentals ii 2 business writing 2 business writing 3 micro /////////////////////////////// 2 /////////////////////////////// 3 business computer applications 4 business math 5 introduction to marketing /////////////////////////////// human resources management /////////////////////////////// 5 year two core courses 1 business writing /////////////////////////////// 6 year two core courses 1 year two core courses /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// see year 1 1 communications microeconomics 2 microeconomics 3 macro economics organizational behaviour 4 organizational behaviour 3 organizational behaviour 3 organizational behaviour /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 4 gened 4 gened 5 marketing customer relations /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 5 sales/selling 6 human resources /////////////////////////////// see year 1 7 operations management /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// or / macroeconomics /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 5 accounting information systems 6 intermediate accounting i 7 intermediate accounting ii /////////////////////////////// 8 quantitative methods i /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 9 management acccounting fundamentals /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 10 corporate finance 5 training and development /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// or /macroeconomics additional core courses 8 business law additional core courses or /macro economics 4 year two core courses communications - effective /////////////////////////////// 3 year one core courses 1 introductory accounting additional core courses year one core courses 2 year one core courses 1 financial accounting fundamentals i year one core courses year one core courses 1 accounting - introductory year one core courses business/business administration - general mtcu# 50200 & 60200 /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 6 compensation /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 7 occupational health and safety /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 8 recruitment and selection /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 13 core courses 33 /////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////// 14 core courses 14 6 advertising/integrated marketing comms /////////////////////////////// 7 marketing research core courses 12 core courses

1 executive summary oncat project 2015-17 privileged right of passage: pathways between collge boral and laurentian university report prepared by the office of francophone affairs june 2016 2 summary as part of this project, we successfully developed 10 articulation agreements. four of them are for students who have completed or will complete a one-year certificate at collge boral. previously, it was impossible for these students to transfer college credits to university programs. now, they are eligible for up to 30 credits, which is equivalent to a full year of studies. in addition to these agreements, three agreements were developed with the department of psychology - one of which is a 2+2. finally, three agreements in physical education and health were improved. these agreements stand out from the others because the learning outcomes have been compared and students can take advantage of several specific credits instead of only elective credits. most of the agreements are at the approval stage with the senate of laurentian university. unfortunately, we learned in april that two steps were added to the approval process, which delayed the process. however, we are confident that the agreements will be approved by fall 2016. in following this process, we are pleased to announce that one of the outcomes will be that all francophone articulation agreements shall also apply on the english side - thus for any other college that offers the same program toward our francophone and anglophone programs (when both options exist).

oncat pre-health project phase two: 2014-15 continuation to full implementation college alignment of pre-health programs to facilitate student entry to high affinity college and university certificate, diploma, advanced diploma and degree programs march 31, 2015 contents executive summary ..................................................................................................... 3 introduction .................................................................................................................. 4 appendix a: survey of college intentions to offer new pre-health sciences programs ................................................................................................................... 10 appendix b: summary of college intentions to offer new pre-health sciences programs ................................................................................................................... 11 appendix c: revised exemplar for mathematics, pathways to diplomas and degrees ................................................................................................................................... 13 appendix d: templates of forms for submission ...................................................... 18 appendix e: partial list of destination programs at ontario colleges for graduates of the pre-heath science pathway to certificates and diplomas and pre-health science pathway to diplomas and degrees ................................................................................................................................... 74 heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 2 march 31, 2015 executive summary the oncat pre-health project phase two was a continuation of an earlier project designed to enhance the mobility of students whose goal was to pursue a postsecondary program in the health sciences. in order to facilitate student entrance to these programs, the pre-health project phase one had as its goal the development of pre-health programming in colleges that would incorporate common program learning outcomes and system-wide exemplars for the core courses in the programs. the outcome of the project was a recommendation that two levels of pre-health programming be implemented: one to prepare students for certificate and diploma programs and one to prepare them for advanced diploma and degree programs. the goals of phase two were to complete the work of phase one by finalizing system agreement on the content of the two programs and identifying strategies to facilitate system adoption of the programs that would meet the requirements of the two approval bodies, the ministry of training, colleges and universities and the credentials validation service of the ontario colleges quality assurance service. the results of phase two include broad system concurrence with the learning outcomes of the new programs and acceptance of the course exemplars, agreement of all stakeholders on the processes for college implementation of the new programs, and the identification of a range of potential destination programs that goes well beyond the initial target of health science programs. the project was not able to complete the consultation process with all stakeholders in the college and university system because of delays in the external approval processes. however, the team has developed a communications plan and is prepared to extend its work until june 30, 2015 in order to complete it. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 3 march 31, 2015 introduction pre-health sciences programs are two semester ontario college certificate programs designed to prepare students for entry into health science or other high affinity science-related programs at the ontario college certificate, diploma or advanced diploma, and the college or university baccalaureate degree levels. the programs are of particular interest to ontario high school graduates who do not meet the entry requirements for these programs or who do not feel appropriately prepared to be successful in their program of choice for reasons such as missing prerequisite subjects, insufficiently high grades in prerequisite subjects or length of time since completion of secondary school. they are also of interest to mature students and/or candidates who did not complete secondary school or who completed secondary school outside of canada. although all 24 public colleges in ontario offered programs designed to prepare students for entry into health programs under a variety of titles, prior to 2012, there was no formal alignment of program learning outcomes, with programs being designed variously for entry to diploma or degree programs, and to nursing and other high affinity science-based programs. over time, and particularly with the emergence of baccalaureate degree programs offered by colleges, a strong feeling that there was a need for two levels of pre-health programming one to prepare students for entry into programs at the certificate and diploma levels and one designed to prepare them for entry into the advanced diploma and degree programs emerged within the college community. as an interest in ensuring maximum student mobility became more prevalent, it was also felt that it was critical for the core learning outcomes of pre-health programs to be aligned under a provincial standard to facilitate student mobility and admission into health programs. in 2012, the ontario college heads of health sciences received funding from the ontario council on admissions and transfer (oncat) to support the development of a province-wide alignment of policy, practice and program learning outcomes to facilitate student mobility and inter-college admissions and credit transfer for health sciences and other high affinity programs. the goal of this work was to widen the opportunities for graduates by ensuring that graduates of pre-health sciences programs would be able to meet the admission requirement of health sciences and related programs across the province at either the diploma or degree (college or university) level upon the completion of appropriate required courses. at the completion of phase one of the project, two programs had been developed: the standard stream, intended to prepare graduates for admission to college certificate and diploma programs, and the advanced stream, designed to prepare graduates for entry to college advanced diploma programs and to college or university degree programs. program outcomes were developed for both programs as well as course exemplars for core science and mathematics subjects for the programs. recommendations regarding on-going review of the programs and exemplars, implementation policies and practices and the potential establishment of sets of program standards for pre-health sciences programs by the ministry of training, colleges and universities were also developed as part of phase one. in order to engage the college community in a discussion of the outcomes of this project and to pursue system consensus on the program learning outcomes and course exemplars, oncat agreed to fund a second phase of the project. the goals of phase two included: heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 4 march 31, 2015 1. finalize system agreement on the program learning outcomes for pre-health sciences standard and advanced program streams; 2. finalize system agreement on learning outcomes for course exemplars in biology, chemistry mathematics and physics at the standard and advanced levels; 3. work with the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) and the credential validation service (cvs) to determine appropriate procedures for implementation of two new programs, pre-health sciences standard and pre-health sciences advanced; 4. provide advice and assistance to colleges regarding the cvs and mtcu procedures and forms for adoption of new program(s); 5. recommend to the vice-presidents academic of the colleges to encourage mtcu to adopt the program learning outcomes of the two new programs as provincial program standards; 6. provide stakeholder groups with the history of the project and seek agreement that completion of the pre-heath science programs will meet admissions requirements for allied health and high affinity science-related diploma and degree programs. stakeholder groups in the ontario colleges include: a. vice-presidents academic, b. deans of health sciences, c. deans of interdisciplinary studies (responsible for pre-health sciences programs offered under the general arts and science umbrella) and d. registrars of ontario colleges. stakeholder groups in ontario universities include: a. deans of nursing and health sciences and b. registrars of ontario universities. phase two was approved in the summer of 2014 and work commenced in july of 2014. the project continued to be chaired by dr. cassandra thompson, dean of the school of health and wellness, georgian college and marlene raasok, executive dean, conestoga college, both of who are members of the heads of health sciences committee. program descriptions for the two new pre-health program streams were drafted and program nomenclature and descriptions were discussed with tim klassen, executive director, ontario colleges quality assurance service (ocqas) which operates the credentials validation service (cvs), the organization that validates learning outcomes for new and modified college programs. discussions were also held with representatives of the mtcu regarding program titles, determination of program funding parameters and processes for colleges to adopt one or both of the new programs. also discussed were potential issues that would need to be addressed in the event that some colleges chose not to implement either of the new programs. in october, 2014, dr. maureen callahan was engaged as project manager for phase two, when dr. mccolm was unable to continue with the project. in october, 2014, a working group was struck to finalize program descriptions, program learning outcomes and recommended program titles to enable a final consultation process with the college system heads of health science, heads of interdisciplinary studies, college registrars, the cvs and the mtcu. the group met via teleconference several times in october, november and early december and made presentations to the heads of health sciences, heads of interdisciplinary studies and college registrars. some modifications to course exemplars were discussed and recommended and final heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 5 march 31, 2015 program learning outcomes and course exemplars for the program courses for the two new pre-health programs were approved by the team. these were then shared with the coordinators and academic administrators responsible for the pre-health sciences programs at all 24 colleges. initially, it had been anticipated that the new pre-health programs would be developed and submitted for approval as provincial programs rather than as submissions by individual colleges, thus requiring that a process by which all colleges could indicate their agreement with the learning outcomes and course exemplars be developed. however, in discussions with the cvs and the mtcu over the fall of 2014, it emerged that colleges would be required to submit proposals for new programs or program modifications individually. in order to ensure that the alignment of program learning outcomes and the framework of course exemplars were maintained, the working group agreed that it would develop templates for the required cvs and mtcu documents to assist the colleges in developing their submissions. in mid-december, a survey of college intentions regarding offering one or both of the proposed new programs was developed and circulated. the survey also asked colleges to identify any current articulation agreements for their pre-health programs to ensure that these would be included in discussions with the universities offering baccalaureate nursing programs. the survey is attached as appendix a. in january and february, 2015, several follow-up contacts were made with the colleges in order to ensure that the data on college intentions were as complete as possible. by the end of february, 2015, it was clear that there was a high level of system consensus on the program outcomes and course exemplars as demonstrated by the following summary of college intentions: 21 of 24 colleges intend to implement one or both of the new pre-health sciences pathways programs: four will offer pathways to certificates and diplomas only; six will offer pathways to diplomas and degrees only; and 11 will offer both programs. implementation dates run from fall 2015 to fall 2017. the pre-health programs at two colleges are currently in program review and a decision on implementation of one or both of the new programs will be made following the completion of the program review process. one college does not intend to offer either of the new pre-health sciences pathways programs. the summary of college intentions regarding the pre-health sciences pathways programs is attached as appendix b. at the request of the mtcu, this summary was expanded to include the mtcu code under which each college is currently reporting pre-health sciences student enrolment as well as the aps code for the program at each college. the mtcu also requested that the date each college intended to suspend enrolment in its current pre-health sciences program be included. in order to provide this information, the following assumptions were made: a. colleges reporting pre-health under mtcu code 41601 would suspend their current program when they implement the new program and colleges implementing both new programs would suspend their current program when they implement the first of the new programs. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 6 march 31, 2015 b. however, recognizing that there may be january intakes that do not complete until december and that colleges will need to take the program suspension to their board for approval, we entered a suspension date four months after the implementation of the new (or first new) program. e.g., if a college intends to implement one of the new pre-health programs in september 2015, it would suspend its current program as of december 2015. c. colleges reporting pre-health program activity under mtcu code 44700 will not suspend program 44700 as they may have other gas activity reported under that code that will continue to run. we then sent this summary to our college contacts and requested that they correct any inaccuracies in the data. program learning outcomes (goal one) system agreement on the proposed learning outcomes is strong. as noted above, only one college has indicated that it does not currently plan to proceed with either of the new programs. two colleges have not yet committed to either of the new programs because they are currently in the process of program review with their pre-health programs. we understand that these two colleges will decide on implementation of the new programs when they have completed their program review process. the proposed learning outcomes for the two new programs were submitted to the cvs for validation. as part of the validation process, the cvs suggested modifications to the vocational learning outcomes (vlos) as developed by the project team. the team was concerned that the revised vlos did not adequately distinguish between the levels of learning outcomes of the two programs and that the graduate outcomes were not clearly stated. the team reviewed the vlos and developed alternative wording to ensure that the outcomes of the new programs in terms of preparing graduates for entry to certificate, diploma, advanced diploma and degree programs were clearly stated and that both potential students and stakeholders at receiving institutions would have a clear understanding of how graduates would be prepared to be successful in specific programs. the revised vlos were submitted to the cvs and have been validated. although the wording of the revised program vlos is different from that originally discussed with college representatives, the team relied on the content of the course exemplars in developing them and is confident that they are consistent with the core outcomes of the programs that colleges have reviewed and approved. we do not anticipate that the colleges will find the revised vlos problematic in any way. course exemplars for new pre-health pathways programs (goal two) in the fall of 2014, following suggestions from members of the project team, some modifications were made to the biology course exemplars for both programs and in january and february, 2015, modifications were made to the math exemplar for the pathways to diploma and degrees stream developed during phase one of the project. the new math exemplar is attached as appendix c. the team is now in agreement with the course descriptions and detailed outlines for all course exemplars and course codes will be developed for posting on the oncat site. these exemplars were included in the package of materials circulated to all colleges during the process of establishing college intentions to implement the new programs. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 7 march 31, 2015 as the individual colleges modify their pre-health programs to be consistent with the new program(s), they are modifying their courses or developing new ones to be consistent with the program vlos and the course exemplars. once this process is completed, colleges will be able to post their course equivalencies to the program exemplars on the oncat website. process for implementation of new pre-health pathways programs (goals three and four) as discussed above, several meetings were held with the cvs and mtcu regarding implementation of the two new programs. it was determined that each college would need to file separate applications with both cvs and mtcu but that a template could be prepared with detailed program information to assist colleges with the process. it was also agreed that colleges currently offering a pre-health sciences program could opt to apply for either a new program or a program modification in order to implement either or both of the two new programs. detailed templates of the required forms for both cvs and mtcu approval were prepared by the working group and circulated to all colleges. four teleconferences were scheduled at which colleges could ask questions and seek clarification on completion of the forms and the implementation process. the project manager also responded to individual questions following the teleconferences. when the vlos for the programs were modified in consultation with the cvs, we modified the templates and circulated them to all colleges. we believe that all 21 colleges that have elected to implement one or both of the new programs are currently in the process of completing the forms for submission to cvs and mtcu. copies of the final templates of the forms are attached as appendix d. adoption of program learning outcomes as provincial program standards (goal five) the project team approached the coordinating committee of vice-presidents academic (ccvpa) to request that the committee approach the mtcu to request that the program learning outcomes when approved by the cvs and the mtcu be adopted as the provincial program standards. discussions were held between the project co-chairs and representatives of the mtcu and it is our belief that the mtcu will implement the program learning outcomes for the two new pathways programs as provincial program standards. discussion with stakeholder groups re agreement that graduates of pre-health programs will meet admissions requirements for allied health and high affinity science and technology diploma and degree programs (goal six) as noted above, the initial plan to submit the two new pre-health programs as a system approval rather than individual college approvals was not considered an appropriate strategy by the cvs and mtcu. consequently, we changed our implementation plan to include consultations with the vice-presidents academic. as the program learning outcomes for the two new pre-health sciences pathways programs have just recently been approved, the team has not been able to have discussions with stakeholders regarding formal statements that graduates of these programs will be considered eligible for admission to specific programs at individual institutions. however, we have undertaken an analysis of the admissions requirements for allied health and other high affinity certificate, diploma, advanced diploma and degree programs at ontario colleges. through this process, we have found that the courses included in the pre-health sciences programs are prerequisites for admission into many college heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 8 march 31, 2015 programs beyond the health sciences. it should be noted that many science-related programs in the colleges are classified as technology programs. however, because many of them have biology, chemistry and/or physics as admissions requirements, we found that graduates of the pre-health sciences programs could be eligible for many technology programs at the diploma and advanced diploma levels. as an example, there are four degree programs and over 25 advanced diploma programs in health sciences and technology currently offered by ontario colleges which could be open to graduates of the pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees program. there are a similar number of health sciences and technology diploma programs for which graduates of the pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas could be eligible. a list of likely destination programs for gradates of the two pre-health sciences programs is attached as appendix e. consequently, we recommend that the planned consultation with the heads of health sciences at the colleges be expanded to include the heads of technology and that the colleges be requested to review the program learning outcomes and course exemplars to determine which of their programs will be open to graduates of the new pre-health science programs. the university bachelor of science in nursing is a logical destination program for graduates of the pathway to diplomas and degrees. however, we believe that there are likely many other sciencerelated programs offered at universities for which graduates of this pathway program could be eligible. we would like to pursue identification of these programs in the april through june 2015 period if an extension to this project could be approved. we propose that formal consultation with deans and registrars take place in the spring of 2015 with the intent of reaching formal agreements by the end of june, 2015. we anticipate that it will also be necessary to work with college registrars to identify strategies that will enable those colleges who plan to implement one or both of the new pre-health sciences pathways programs in fall 2015 to do so within the constraints of the current admissions cycle. we will seek the assistance of colleges ontario and its coordinating committees and of the council of ontario universities to identify an appropriate and efficient consultation process. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 9 march 31, 2015 appendix a: survey of college intentions to offer new pre-health sciences programs college: ___________________________________ current pre-health sciences programs do you currently offer any pre-health/science programs? _____yes _____no for each pre-health/science program you currently offer, please provide the following information: program 1 name of program: __________________________________ this program meets or exceeds the learning outcomes of proposed program (select a or b) a b there are currently bilateral articulation agreements between this program and the following programs/institutions: 1. university: ____________________________ destination program: ____________________ 2. university: ____________________________ destination program: ____________________ 3. university: ____________________________ destination program: ____________________ program 2 name of program: __________________________________ this program meets or exceeds the learning outcomes of proposed program (select a or b) a b there are currently bilateral articulation agreements between this program and the following programs/institutions: 1. university: ____________________________ destination program: ____________________ 2. university: ____________________________ destination program: ____________________ 3. university: ____________________________ destination program: ____________________ new program implementation plan if program a (destination certificate or diploma programs) is approved, our college will commit to meeting the new learning outcomes by: (insert date) _____________________________ if program b (destination advanced diploma or degree) is approved, our college will commit to meeting the new learning outcomes by: (insert date) ____________________________________ information source: (insert name, position and contact information) heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 10 march 31, 2015 appendix b: college summary of college intentions to offer new pre-health sciences programs current program title curren t mtcu code curren t aps code expected date of suspensio n will implement pre-health pathways to certificate s and diplomas expected date of implementatio n expected date of implementatio n sept. 2017 will implemen t prehealth pathways to diplomas and degrees yes yes yes sept. 2017 yes sept. 2015 yes sept. 2015 no na algonquin general arts and science 44700 01345 cambrian pre-health sciences pre-health sciences indigenous p-h studies pre-health health foundation s pre-health sciences pre-health sciences pre-health sciences general arts and science 41601 01248 na other gas program options will continue dec. 2015 41601 01153 dec. 2015 41601 01193 dec. 2015 41601 41601 01200 01276 dec. 2015 dec. 2015 yes sept. 2015 no na 41601 01111 dec. 2016 yes sept. 2016 yes sept. 2017 41601 01219 dec. 2015 yes sept. 2015 yes sept. 2015 41601 01165 dec. 2015 yes sept. 2015 yes sept. 2015 44700 01141 under review pre-health sciences preparatory health science pre-health sciences pre-health sciences general arts and science 41601 01099 na other gas program options will continue dec. 2016 yes sept. 2016 yes sept. 2016 41601 01188 dec. 2016 yes sept. 2016 yes sept. 2016 41601 01201 dec. 2016 tbc yes sept. 2016 41601 01155 dec. 2015 no na yes sept. 2015 44700 01276 na other gas program options no na yes sept. 2017 canadore canadore centennial centennial collge boral conestoga confederatio n durham fanshawe fleming george brown georgian humber heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report sept. 2017 under review page 11 march 31, 2015 lambton la cit collgiale loyalist mohawk niagara northern sault seneca sheridan st. clair st. lawrence pre-health sciences pre-health sciences pre-health sciences pre-health pre-health sciences pre-health sciences pre-health sciences pre-health sciences general arts and science 41601 01058 will continue dec. 2015 41601 01135 dec. 2015 yes sept. 2015 no na 41601 01112 dec. 2015 yes sept. 2015 yes sept. 2015 41601 41601 01219 01180 dec. 2015 tbc sept. 2015 01207 dec. 2015 na yes under review yes sept. 2015 41601 yes under review no 41601 01158 dec. 2016 yes sept. 2016 yes sept. 2016 41601 01227 dec. 2016 no na yes sept. 2016 44700 01197 no na yes sept. 2015 pre-health sciences pre-health sciences 41601 01170 na other gas program options will continue na no na no na 41601 01184 dec. 2015 yes tbc yes sept. 2015 heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report yes sept. 2015 no na sept. 2015 page 12 march 31, 2015 appendix c: revised exemplar for mathematics, pathways to diplomas and degrees college system exemplar course outline pre-health sciences pathways to diplomas and degrees course name: mathematics for the health sciences date revised: february 4, 2015 revised by: joanne maclellan afshin azari-vala diane bergeron sherry king cathy skimson cambrian college george brown college college la cite confederation college conestoga college total hours of instruction: minimum 90 hours to meet course outcomes prerequisite(s): college determined corequisite(s): college determined course description: by the end of this course, students will have demonstrated the ability to evaluate a variety of arithmetic and algebraic expressions and apply these principles to typical situations that arise in the health care fields. concepts studied include numeracy fundamentals; systems of measurement and dimensional analysis; algebra, with an emphasis on analytical techniques; and evaluating systems of linear equations. students will develop essential critical thinking and problem-solving skills through exposure to application problems, including dosage calculations, solution dilutions, concentrations and ph. students will use numerical methods to calculate measures of center and variation, along with graphs, charts, and tables to effectively describe, analyze and interpret data. empirical and theoretical probability of simple events using key rules of probability will be calculated. students will distinguish between discrete and continuous probability distributions and describe key features of the standard normal distribution. students will calculate probabilities and values using the standard normal distribution, and calculate confidence intervals for means and proportions and apply descriptive and inferential statistics to the health care field. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 13 march 31, 2015 course outcomes: 1. correctly perform multi-step mathematical operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exponentiation with numbers in their various forms- whole, integers, and rational (fractions and decimal) numbers. 2. simplify algebraic expressions using commutative, associative, and distributive properties and by applying the rules of exponents. 3. convert weight, volume, length, and temperature measurements within and across the us customary and si (metric) measurement systems. 4. apply significant figure and rounding rules to mathematical calculations. 5. solve a variety of health-care related application questions, including percents, proportions, and formula substitution. 6. evaluate systems of linear equations graphically and mathematically. 7. determine the theoretical or empirical probability of a simple event or combination of events for discrete sample spaces using the additive and multiplication rules for probability 8. explain the role of data in statistical studies and the importance to ensuring data collection is reliable. 9. construct, interpret, and analyze statistical tables and graphical summaries. 10. mathematically determine statistical measures of center and variation for numerical and graphical data and interpret the result. 11. distinguish between discrete and continuous probability distributions 12. demonstrate an understanding of continuous probability distributions and describe key features of the standard normal distribution 13. calculate probabilities and values using the normal distribution table and apply normal distribution and the central limit theorem to appropriate health care situations. 14. estimate the confidence interval for means and proportions detailed course content: when you have earned credit for this course, you will have demonstrated an ability to: 1. numeracy fundamentals 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 identify numbers in their various forms: whole numbers, integers, and rational numbers (fractions and decimals) identify and correctly use inequality symbols, absolute values, and exact numbers evaluate numerical exponential and square root expressions evaluate multi-step mathematical expressions with numbers in their various forms: whole, integers, and rational (fractions and decimal) numbers. perform ratio/proportion calculations. solve percent expressions by equation or proportion. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 14 march 31, 2015 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 convert between ratios, fractions, decimals, and percents. apply ratios and percent formulas to solve health-related application problems such as dosage, mixtures, and solutions. determine the number of significant figures in a measurement. apply the rules of addition/subtraction and multiplication/division to determine the appropriate number of significant digits in the answer. apply the rules for rounding. express numbers in scientific notation. apply properties of exponential expressions to scientific notation. define the metric system (si) prefixes. perform metric system conversions without the use of a conversion chart. perform dimensional analysis for us customary and metric measurement system conversions. convert between the common temperature measurement systems (c, f, k). solve application problems involving perimeter, area, volume and capacity of simple geometric figures. 2. algebra 2.1 simplify algebraic expressions by commutative, associative, and distributive properties. 2.2 evaluate algebraic expressions by substituting known values for the variables. 2.3 multiply and divide monomials. 2.4 use the rules of exponents to simplify expressions. 2.5 solve rational equations containing constant denominators 2.6 solve word problems by translating verbal phrases into algebraic expressions. 3. linear equations 3.1 solve systems of two variable linear equations by graphing, substitution, or addition/subtraction methods. 3.2 predict x-y intercepts algebraically. 3.3 construct an x-y scatter plot given a set of ordered pairs. 3.4 differentiate between independent and dependent variables. 3.5 predict the value for the dependent variable based on a given regression equation. 3.6 determine whether a correlation is significant. 4. exponentials and logarithms 4.1 identify the graph of a basic exponential or logarithmic function. 4.2 solve exponential and logarithmic (base 10) equations. 4.3 apply exponential equations to solve exponential growth, decay, and isotope half life application problems. 4.4 use logarithmic equations to determine solution ph and hydrogen ion concentration. 4.5 rewrite equations in exponential or logarithmic form. 5. probability heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 15 march 31, 2015 5.1 explain the concept of probability. 5.2 construct sample spaces and determine the probability of a simple event. 5.3 describe simple, mutually exclusive, and non-mutually exclusive probability 5.4 determine the complement of an event. 5.5 use the additive and multiplicative rules of probability. 5.6 determine event probabilities by constructing and interpreting contingency tables. 6. statistics 6.1 describe the meaning of the term statistics, why statistics are important in the health sciences, and the role of statistics in the research process. 6.2 describe the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics. 6.3 define and explain the differences between a population and a sample, a population parameter, and sampling statistic. 6.4 state and explain the differences and similarities between different sampling methods. 7. organizing data 7.1 differentiate between qualitative and quantitative data. 7.2 construct and interpret common graphical representations of data, including histograms, bar charts, and pie charts. 7.3 define the term frequency and calculate a frequency distribution, relative frequency distribution, and cumulative frequency distribution. 7.4 construct and interpret frequency tables for nominal and ordinal data. 8. data management 8.1 explain why central tendency and dispersion are important. 8.2 calculate the mean, median and mode for a set of data and explain what these measures represent. 8.3 identify the types of variables that the mean, median, and mode are most appropriate. 8.4 describe skewness and how it affects the mean. 8.5 define the term outlier and its impact on central tendency and dispersion. 8.6 calculate variance, standard deviation, range, inter-quartile range, and percentiles. 9. probability distributions 9.1 differentiate between discrete and continuous probability distributions. 9.2 determine event probabilities for a given discrete probability distribution. 9.3 explain the concept of the standard normal distribution and its importance for inference. 9.4 calculate event probabilities based on transforming raw scores to z-scores and percentiles and understand how they are applied to decision-making situations. 9.5 transform z-scores into raw scores given an event probability. 9.6 apply the central limit theorem for means and proportions. 9.7 estimate the confidence interval for means and proportions. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 16 march 31, 2015 required student resources (including textbooks and workbooks): textbooks and resources will be at a post-secondary level, samples may be provided optional resources: evaluation: in order to successfully complete this course, the student is required to meet the following evaluation criteria: individual testing will account for least 60% of the final grade academic policies: specific to the institution grading system: specific to the institution heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 17 march 31, 2015 appendix d: templates of forms for submission 1. mtcu request for approval for funding form: pre-health sciences pathways to certificates and diplomas 2. mtcu request for approval for funding form: pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees 3. cvs application form for program proposal: pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas 4. cvs application form for program proposal: pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 18 march 31, 2015 ministry of training, colleges and universities colleges of applied arts and technology request for approval for funding form pre-health project members - please complete highlighted areas. request for new postsecondary program request for modification to existing postsecondary program provide existing mtcu code and aps number: mtcu 41601 aps 01155 (programs may need to migrate to this code) college contact person responsible for this proposal: name: e-mail: title: telephone: program information college: program title: pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas program duration: 2 semesters proposed date of implementation: enter month and year proposed classification of instructional program codes, formatted as 51.000. health services/allied health/health sciences general this is a post-secondary program that prepares students for admission into health and sciences programs. for additional information, please refer to most recent classification of instructional programs (cip) canada published by statistics canada, available on http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. projected four-digit national occupational classification codes (3 maximum), formatted as ####: 1. 2. 3. for additional information, please refer to most recent national occupational classification (noc) canada published by statistics canada, available on http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. proposed annual tuition fee for this program (at implementation): attestation i attest that the following six criteria have been evaluated and met for the proposed program: heads of health project, phase two: final report pageprogram 19 the sciences credentials validation service (cvs) has confirmed that the proposed of march 31, 2015 request for new postsecondary program request for modification to existing postsecondary program provide existing mtcu code and aps number: mtcu 41601 aps 01155 (programs may need to migrate to this code) college contact person responsible for this proposal: name: e-mail: title: telephone: program information college: program title: pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas program duration: 2 semesters proposed date of implementation: enter month and year proposed classification of instructional program codes, formatted as 51.000. health services/allied health/health sciences general this is a post-secondary program that prepares students for admission into health and sciences programs. for additional information, please refer to most recent classification of instructional programs (cip) canada published by statistics canada, available on http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. projected four-digit national occupational classification codes (3 maximum), formatted as ####: 1. 2. 3. for additional information, please refer to most recent national occupational classification (noc) canada published by statistics canada, available on http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. proposed annual tuition fee for this program (at implementation): attestation i attest that the following six criteria have been evaluated and met for the proposed program: the credentials validation service (cvs) has confirmed that the proposed program of instruction conforms to the credentials framework and is consistent with accepted nomenclature or the program of instruction has been granted ministerial consent. there is either demonstrated, a) labour market and student demand, or b) societal need and student demand for the program. a relevant program advisory committee is in place and has recommended the program. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 20 march 31, 2015 the program content and delivery is and will be compliant with all requirements of regulatory bodies responsible for the field of study or other regulatory bodies related to the field of study. please list all applicable mandatory and those voluntary regulatory bodies considered relevant to the program: not applicable the program meets the relevant program standards where they exist and essential employability skills and general education requirements. the board of governors and president has approved the program of instruction. other attachments requirements for ontario college certificate, diploma, advanced diploma, and graduate certificate: 1.1 program delivery information (pdi) section 1.2 high demand program comparator information section (if seeking approval to charge a high demand tuition fee) 1.3 strategic mandate agreement alignment section 1.4 program comparator section 1.5 credentials validation service application for program validation and validation letter requirements for college baccalaureate degrees in an applied area of study: 1.1 program delivery information (pdi) section 1.2 high demand program comparator information section for college baccalaureate degrees in an applied area of study, please see the directives and guidelines for applying for ministerial consent under the post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000 for the complete submission requirements for applicants, the consent process and the policy considerations that inform the ministers decisions. _________________________ ________________ name: president date this application must be approved and signed by the college president in order to be considered complete. send one complete copy of this submission to: pseprogramsubmissions@ontario.ca. for further information, contact: college program approvals, colleges unit, ministry of training, colleges and universities, mowat block, 7th floor, 900 bay street, toronto, on m7a 1l2 (416-325-2887). heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 21 march 31, 2015 1.1 program delivery information (pdi) section total hours per student program title: pre-health sciences pathway for certificates and diplomas college: indicate the number of hours that a student is required to spend in each instructional setting in each semester or level of this program. all hours in all instructional settings are to be noted. funded instructional settings* ** sample hours for a 14 week semester semester/level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 total classroom instruction 219 219 438 laboratory/workshop/ fieldwork 42 42 84 261 261 522 independent (self-paced) learning one-on-one instruction clinical placement field placement/work placement small group tutorial total ** sample hours for a 15 week semester funded instructional settings* semester/level 1 2 3 classroom instruction 237 237 474 laboratory/workshop/ fieldwork 45 45 90 4 5 6 7 8 9 total independent (self-paced) learning one-on-one instruction clinical placement heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 22 march 31, 2015 field placement/work placement small group tutorial total 282 282 non-funded instructional settings* semester/level 1 2 3 564 4 5 6 7 8 9 total co-op work placement - mandatory co-op work placement - optional total *definitions for each instructional setting can be found in appendix a. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 23 march 31, 2015 1.2 high demand program* comparator information section annual tuition fees based on two-semester year college: program title: proposed annual tuition fee for this program: $ if this program is high demand, please provide comparator information**. please note you must use a program at another college as a comparator. mtcu code college program name tuition fee $ $ $ $ $ *definition of high demand program (formerly "additional cost recovery" or acr): a program of instruction eligible for general purpose operating grant funding for which colleges have the discretion to charge fees above the maximum permitted for regular-fee programs. this discretion is allowed for applied degree, post-basic or baccalaureate of nursing programs and/or for basic programs which have been determined to meet each of the following three criteria: 1) there is high demand for instructional space; 2) graduates have above-average prospects for employment; and 3) graduates have the potential to earn an above-average income. all post-basic, college baccalaureate degrees in an applied area of study and baccalaureate of nursing programs are automatically considered high demand. basic programs are considered high demand if they satisfy the above 3 criteria. **comparator tuition fee should not include ancillary fees and can be found here: http://caat.edu.gov.on.ca/htmlpages/finance_eng.html if no comparator program exists, please refer to the tuition and ancillary fees operating procedure, the guidelines for the implementation of the tuition fee policy for colleges of applied arts and technology. for further assistance, please contact the ministry of training, colleges and universities, colleges finance unit at 416-325-5426. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 24 march 31, 2015 1.3 strategic mandate agreement (sma) alignment section ** sample only please complete for your college. section a (required for expedited and full review) please indicate the program area of strength or growth identified in your colleges signed sma to which this program approval request aligns. health and pathways: it prepares students with the pre-requisite admission requirements for entry into health and sciences programs at the college. please explain how this program is aligned with the indicated program area of strength or growth. (150 words recommended maximum) this proposal is to align our current programs with the proposed new learning outcomes for the standard stream based on the work from the pre-health oncat project. does your colleges sma note that further discussion or information would be required during approvals? yes no if yes, please complete section b. section b (required for full review only) please include the relevant note from your colleges sma that indicates further discussion or information is required. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 25 march 31, 2015 please outline a rationale, including evidence, to support the consideration of this program approval request. (400 words recommended maximum) pre-health sciences programs are a two semester post-secondary programs that prepare students to be admitted and to be successful in health sciences programs offered at colleges. the applicants to these programs are students who do not meet the admission requirements for health sciences programs generally because they have not completed the required high school science and math requirements or achieved the required grades for entry. all twenty-four colleges in ontario offer a pre-health sciences programs using a variety of titles. some programs were explicitly designed for admission to diploma studies, and some for admission to degree level studies particularly nursing; still other programs appear to prepare for admission to both levels. as a result of this diversity of nomenclature and purpose which has led to confusion both for applicants and receiving health sciences programs, an oncat pre-health project was initiated in 2012-13. this project resulted in the development of two levels of program outcomes and two program descriptions: 1. prehealth sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas and 2. pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees. colleges may choose to offer one or both programs. for background and evidence please refer to the report of the heads of health sciences pre-health sciences project july 17, 2013. please provide evidence that a relevant program advisory committee has recommended the program. include attachments as required. (400 words recommended maximum) the oncat pre-health sciences project has had the support of the vice-presidents academic, heads of health sciences and heads of interdisciplinary studies coordinating committees of the colleges. in addition 21 colleges have indicated their intent to offer one or both of the programs; two other colleges are currently reviewing their pre-health programs and will make a decision regarding implementation at the end of those processes. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 26 march 31, 2015 1.4 program comparator section sample only complete with information from your college. sample information listed below. key performance indicators (kpis) please complete this table with the three most recent years of published data* for similar programs at your college only (minimum one, maximum three). similar programs may include programs at the same or different credential levels, and transfer opportunities. please add additional rows as needed. program 20112012 20122013 20132014 employment rate** na na na employment rate in a related field*** na na na academic year of graduation mtcu title mtcu code graduate count *kpis are to be calculated in accordance with the methods prescribed by mtcu. kpis are based on graduates of mtcu approved full-time postsecondary programs whose funding status is shown in the graduate record layout as mtcu operating grant, co-op diploma apprenticeship or second career, and who were surveyed by telephone. ** employment rate = (number of survey respondents employed full-time or part-time, related or unrelated) / (number of survey respondents in labour force) *** employment rate in a related field = (number of survey respondents employed full-time or part-time, related) / (number of survey respondents in labour force) additional explanation/information that contextualizes the kpi outcomes above, such as student demand or labour market analysis, may be provided. (400 words recommended maximum) depending on the admitting program, students from pre-health programs may not require full credential in order to gain admission into some health and other high affinity programs. for example some practical nursing programs only require the math, chemistry and/or biology and not the pre-health graduate certificate. how many other colleges within your region are approved for funding to offer programs in this same mtcu code? enter number of colleges in your region offering pre-health program heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 27 march 31, 2015 *please refer to the aps-mtcu table available on the caat extranet site, in the programs section, for a complete list of programs approved for funding through the college funding framework, at http://caat.edu.gov.on.ca/ (user name: caatsite; password: 900mowat). heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 28 march 31, 2015 1.5 credentials validation service application for program validation and validation letter please note that the ministry is requesting that colleges now submit all program documentation for a program funding approval request directly to the ministry. please append the following documentation to this application: 1. credentials validation service validation (cvs) letter 2. credentials validation service application for program validation heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 29 march 31, 2015 appendix a instructional settings the following definitions are to be used by colleges when completing the program delivery information to calculate program funding parameters form required for ministry-funded programs of instruction classroom instruction: instruction that may be provided in a setting in which individuals do not require access to equipment, except as listed below: situations in which microcomputer labs are used for instruction in standard word processing, spreadsheet, and database software packages traditional classrooms and lecture halls virtual classrooms used in on-line learning situations in which laboratories and workshops may be used for convenience laboratories/workshops/fieldwork: scheduled hours of activities intended to give students hands-on experience; this instructional setting is characterized by: activities in which students are provided with instruction and are directly supervised by college staff. settings either inside college facilities (e.g., laboratories, workshops) or outside college facilities (e.g., fieldwork) in which individual students are required to use instructional equipment and/or supplies. these settings do not include situations in which microcomputer labs are used for instruction of standard word processing, spreadsheet, and database software packages or situations in which laboratories and workshops are used for convenience. independent (self-paced) learning: student directed learning in which contact with college staff is limited to situations in which advice or solutions to specific problems is sought; usually online learning. one-on-one instruction: those exceptional situations in which college academic staff can provide instruction to only one student at a time, e.g. in a flight simulator or on top of an electrical tower. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 30 march 31, 2015 clinical placement: scheduled hours of activities intended to give students hands-on experience in a hospital or health care setting; this instructional setting is characterized by: activities that are an integral component of the curriculum of the program and necessary for the successful completion of the program. activities in which students are continually supervised directly by college staff or individuals working on behalf of the college. field placement/work placement: scheduled hours of activities intended to give students hands-on experience in the workplace and for which the students do not typically receive a regular salary or wage from the employer; this instructional setting is characterized by: activities that are an integral component of the curriculum of the program and are necessary for the completion of the program. activities in which college staff do not directly supervise students and for which college staff undertake one or more of the following activities: - make periodic site visits - ensure that assignments given to students and the work being done by students are suitable for the program - monitor the students progress in the field placement activity - help address problems encountered by students in the field or work placement activity - evaluate students performance in the field or work placement activity co-operative education work placement: education at work ontario (www.ewo.ca), a regional association of the canadian association for cooperative education, defines a co-op program as follows: a co-operative education program is one that formally integrates a student's academic studies with work experience. the usual plan is for the student to alternate periods of experience in career-related fields according to the following criteria: each work situation is approved by the co-operative education institution as a suitable learning situation the co-operative education student is engaged in productive work rather than merely observing heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 31 march 31, 2015 the co-operative education student receives remuneration for the work performed the co-operative education student's progress on the job is monitored by the co-operative education institution the co-operative education student's performance on the job is supervised and evaluated by the student's employer the time spent in periods of work experience must be at least thirty percent of the time spent in academic study. small group tutorial: instructional activity that must occur in small group settings (usually 5-10 students) and in which individual students do not require access to equipment except as indicated below: situations in which microcomputer labs are used for the instruction of standard word processing, spreadsheet, and database software packages situations in which laboratories and workshops are used for convenience heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 32 march 31, 2015 ministry of training, colleges and universities colleges of applied arts and technology request for approval for funding form pre-health project members - please complete highlighted areas. request for new postsecondary program request for modification to existing postsecondary program provide existing mtcu code and aps number: mtcu 41601 aps 01155 (programs may need to migrate to this code) college contact person responsible for this proposal: name: e-mail: title: telephone: program information college: program title: pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees program duration: 2 semesters proposed date of implementation: enter month and year proposed classification of instructional program codes, formatted as 51.000. health services/allied health/health sciences general this is a post-secondary program that prepares students for admission into health and sciences programs. for additional information, please refer to most recent classification of instructional programs (cip) canada published by statistics canada, available on http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. projected four-digit national occupational classification codes (3 maximum), formatted as ####: 1. 2. 3. for additional information, please refer to most recent national occupational classification (noc) canada published by statistics canada, available on http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. proposed annual tuition fee for this program (at implementation): attestation i attest that the following six criteria have been evaluated and met for the proposed program: heads of health project, phase two: final report pageprogram 33 the sciences credentials validation service (cvs) has confirmed that the proposed of march 31, 2015 request for new postsecondary program request for modification to existing postsecondary program provide existing mtcu code and aps number: mtcu 41601 aps 01155 (programs may need to migrate to this code) college contact person responsible for this proposal: name: e-mail: title: telephone: program information college: program title: pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees program duration: 2 semesters proposed date of implementation: enter month and year proposed classification of instructional program codes, formatted as 51.0000: health services/allied health/health sciences general this is a post-secondary program that prepares students for admission into health and sciences programs. for additional information, please refer to most recent classification of instructional programs (cip) canada published by statistics canada, available on http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. projected four-digit national occupational classification codes (3 maximum), formatted as ####: 4. 5. 6. for additional information, please refer to most recent national occupational classification (noc) canada published by statistics canada, available on http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. proposed annual tuition fee for this program (at implementation): attestation i attest that the following six criteria have been evaluated and met for the proposed program: the credentials validation service (cvs) has confirmed that the proposed program of instruction conforms to the credentials framework and is consistent with accepted nomenclature or the program of instruction has been granted ministerial consent. there is either demonstrated, a) labour market and student demand, or b) societal need and student demand for the program. a relevant program advisory committee is in place and has recommended the program. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 34 march 31, 2015 the program content and delivery is and will be compliant with all requirements of regulatory bodies responsible for the field of study or other regulatory bodies related to the field of study. please list all applicable mandatory and those voluntary regulatory bodies considered relevant to the program: not applicable the program meets the relevant program standards where they exist and essential employability skills and general education requirements. the board of governors and president has approved the program of instruction. other attachments requirements for ontario college certificate, diploma, advanced diploma, and graduate certificate: 1.1 program delivery information (pdi) section 1.2 high demand program comparator information section (if seeking approval to charge a high demand tuition fee) 1.3 strategic mandate agreement alignment section 1.4 program comparator section 1.5 credentials validation service application for program validation and validation letter requirements for college baccalaureate degrees in an applied area of study: 1.1 program delivery information (pdi) section 1.2 high demand program comparator information section for college baccalaureate degrees in an applied area of study, please see the directives and guidelines for applying for ministerial consent under the post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000 for the complete submission requirements for applicants, the consent process and the policy considerations that inform the ministers decisions. _________________________ ________________ name: president date this application must be approved and signed by the college president in order to be considered complete. send one complete copy of this submission to: pseprogramsubmissions@ontario.ca. for further information, contact: college program approvals, colleges unit, ministry of training, colleges and universities, mowat block, 7th floor, 900 bay street, toronto, on m7a 1l2 (416-325-2887). heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 35 march 31, 2015 1.1 program delivery information (pdi) section total hours per student program title: pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees college: indicate the number of hours that a student is required to spend in each instructional setting in each semester or level of this program. all hours in all instructional settings are to be noted. ** sample hours for a 14-week schedule semester/level funded instructional settings* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 total classroom instruction 234 238 472 laboratory/workshop/ fieldwork 42 56 98 276 294 570 independent (self-paced) learning one-on-one instruction clinical placement field placement/work placement small group tutorial total funded instructional settings* ** sample hours for a 15-week schedule semester/level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 total classroom instruction 250 260 510 laboratory/workshop/ fieldwork 45 60 105 independent (self-paced) learning one-on-one instruction heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 36 march 31, 2015 clinical placement field placement/work placement small group tutorial total 295 320 non-funded instructional settings* semester/level 1 2 3 615 4 5 6 7 8 9 total co-op work placement - mandatory co-op work placement - optional total *definitions for each instructional setting can be found in appendix a. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 37 march 31, 2015 1.2 high demand program* comparator information section annual tuition fees based on two-semester year college: program title: proposed annual tuition fee for this program: $ if this program is high demand, please provide comparator information**. please note you must use a program at another college as a comparator. mtcu code college program name tuition fee $ $ $ $ $ *definition of high demand program (formerly "additional cost recovery" or acr): a program of instruction eligible for general purpose operating grant funding for which colleges have the discretion to charge fees above the maximum permitted for regular-fee programs. this discretion is allowed for applied degree, post-basic or baccalaureate of nursing programs and/or for basic programs which have been determined to meet each of the following three criteria: 1) there is high demand for instructional space; 2) graduates have above-average prospects for employment; and 3) graduates have the potential to earn an above-average income. all post-basic, college baccalaureate degrees in an applied area of study and baccalaureate of nursing programs are automatically considered high demand. basic programs are considered high demand if they satisfy the above 3 criteria. **comparator tuition fee should not include ancillary fees and can be found here: http://caat.edu.gov.on.ca/htmlpages/finance_eng.html if no comparator program exists, please refer to the tuition and ancillary fees operating procedure, the guidelines for the implementation of the tuition fee policy for colleges of applied arts and technology. for further assistance, please contact the ministry of training, colleges and universities, colleges finance unit at 416-325-5426. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 38 march 31, 2015 1.3 strategic mandate agreement (sma) alignment section ** sample only please complete for your college. section a (required for expedited and full review) please indicate the program area of strength or growth identified in your colleges signed sma to which this program approval request aligns. it aligns with health and pathways to degrees, as it prepares students with the pre-requisite admission requirements for entry into health and or degree programs of study. please explain how this program is aligned with the indicated program area of strength or growth. (150 words recommended maximum) currently georgian offers a pre-health program with approximately 650 students. this proposal is to align our current program with the proposed new learning outcomes for the advanced stream from the pre-health oncat project. does your colleges sma note that further discussion or information would be required during approvals? yes no if yes, please complete section b. section b (required for full review only) please include the relevant note from your colleges sma that indicates further discussion or information is required. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 39 march 31, 2015 please outline a rationale, including evidence, to support the consideration of this program approval request. (400 words recommended maximum) pre-health sciences programs are two semester post-secondary programs that prepare students to be admitted and to be successful in health sciences programs at either the diploma or the degree level of studies offered at colleges and universities. the applicants to these programs are students who do not meet the admission requirements for health science programs generally because they have not completed the required high school science and math requirements or achieved the required grades for entry. all twenty-four colleges in ontario offer a pre-health sciences programs using a variety of titles. some programs were explicitly designed for admission to diploma studies, and some for admission to degree level studies particularly nursing; still other programs appear to prepare for admission to both levels. as a result of this diversity of nomenclature and purpose which has led to confusion both for applicants and receiving health sciences programs, an oncat pre-health project was initiated in 2012-13. this project resulted in the development of two levels of program outcomes and two program descriptions: 1. prehealth sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas and 2. pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees. colleges may choose to offer one or both programs. for background and evidence please refer to the report of the heads of health sciences pre-health sciences project july 17, 2013. please provide evidence that a relevant program advisory committee has recommended the program. include attachments as required. (400 words recommended maximum) the oncat pre-health sciences project has had the support of the vice-presidents academic, heads of health sciences and heads of interdisciplinary studies coordinating committees of the colleges. in addition 21 colleges have indicated their intent to offer one or both of the programs; two other colleges are currently reviewing their pre-health programs and will make a decision regarding implementation at the end of those processes. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 40 march 31, 2015 1.4 program comparator section sample only complete with information from your college. sample information listed below. key performance indicators (kpis) please complete this table with the three most recent years of published data* for similar programs at your college only (minimum one, maximum three). similar programs may include programs at the same or different credential levels, and transfer opportunities. please add additional rows as needed. program 20112012 20122013 20132014 employment rate** na na na employment rate in a related field*** na na na academic year of graduation mtcu title mtcu code graduate count *kpis are to be calculated in accordance with the methods prescribed by mtcu. kpis are based on graduates of mtcu approved full-time postsecondary programs whose funding status is shown in the graduate record layout as mtcu operating grant, co-op diploma apprenticeship or second career, and who were surveyed by telephone. ** employment rate = (number of survey respondents employed full-time or part-time, related or unrelated) / (number of survey respondents in labour force) *** employment rate in a related field = (number of survey respondents employed full-time or part-time, related) / (number of survey respondents in labour force) additional explanation/information that contextualizes the kpi outcomes above, such as student demand or labour market analysis, may be provided. (400 words recommended maximum) depending on the admitting program, students from pre-health programs may not require full credential in order to gain admission into some health programs. for example some practical nursing programs only require the math, chemistry and/or biology and not the pre-health graduate certificate. how many other colleges within your region are approved for funding to offer programs in this same mtcu code? enter number of colleges in your region offering pre-health program *please refer to the aps-mtcu table available on the caat extranet site, in the programs section, for a complete list of programs approved for funding through the college funding framework, at http://caat.edu.gov.on.ca/ (user name: caatsite; password: 900mowat). heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 41 march 31, 2015 1.5 credentials validation service application for program validation and validation letter please note that the ministry is requesting that colleges now submit all program documentation for a program funding approval request directly to the ministry. please append the following documentation to this application: 3. credentials validation service validation (cvs) letter 4. credentials validation service application for program validation heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 42 march 31, 2015 appendix a instructional settings the following definitions are to be used by colleges when completing the program delivery information to calculate program funding parameters form required for ministry-funded programs of instruction classroom instruction: instruction that may be provided in a setting in which individuals do not require access to equipment, except as listed below: situations in which microcomputer labs are used for instruction in standard word processing, spreadsheet, and database software packages traditional classrooms and lecture halls virtual classrooms used in on-line learning situations in which laboratories and workshops may be used for convenience laboratories/workshops/fieldwork: scheduled hours of activities intended to give students hands-on experience; this instructional setting is characterized by: activities in which students are provided with instruction and are directly supervised by college staff. settings either inside college facilities (e.g., laboratories, workshops) or outside college facilities (e.g., fieldwork) in which individual students are required to use instructional equipment and/or supplies. these settings do not include situations in which microcomputer labs are used for instruction of standard word processing, spreadsheet, and database software packages or situations in which laboratories and workshops are used for convenience. independent (self-paced) learning: student directed learning in which contact with college staff is limited to situations in which advice or solutions to specific problems is sought; usually online learning. one-on-one instruction: those exceptional situations in which college academic staff can provide instruction to only one student at a time, e.g. in a flight simulator or on top of an electrical tower. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 43 march 31, 2015 clinical placement: scheduled hours of activities intended to give students hands-on experience in a hospital or health care setting; this instructional setting is characterized by: activities that are an integral component of the curriculum of the program and necessary for the successful completion of the program. activities in which students are continually supervised directly by college staff or individuals working on behalf of the college. field placement/work placement: scheduled hours of activities intended to give students hands-on experience in the workplace and for which the students do not typically receive a regular salary or wage from the employer; this instructional setting is characterized by: activities that are an integral component of the curriculum of the program and are necessary for the completion of the program. activities in which college staff do not directly supervise students and for which college staff undertake one or more of the following activities: - make periodic site visits - ensure that assignments given to students and the work being done by students are suitable for the program - monitor the students progress in the field placement activity - help address problems encountered by students in the field or work placement activity - evaluate students performance in the field or work placement activity co-operative education work placement: education at work ontario (www.ewo.ca), a regional association of the canadian association for cooperative education, defines a co-op program as follows: a co-operative education program is one that formally integrates a student's academic studies with work experience. the usual plan is for the student to alternate periods of experience in career-related fields according to the following criteria: each work situation is approved by the co-operative education institution as a suitable learning situation the co-operative education student is engaged in productive work rather than merely observing heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 44 march 31, 2015 the co-operative education student receives remuneration for the work performed the co-operative education student's progress on the job is monitored by the co-operative education institution the co-operative education student's performance on the job is supervised and evaluated by the student's employer the time spent in periods of work experience must be at least thirty percent of the time spent in academic study. small group tutorial: instructional activity that must occur in small group settings (usually 5-10 students) and in which individual students do not require access to equipment except as indicated below: situations in which microcomputer labs are used for the instruction of standard word processing, spreadsheet, and database software packages situations in which laboratories and workshops are used for convenience heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 45 application form for program proposal pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas college pre-health project members - please complete highlighted areas. a. funding request: this proposal will be sent to the mtcu for approval for funding. yes no b. college name: click here to enter college name c. college contact(s): person responsible for this proposal. name: click here to enter text. title: telephone: e-mail: name: title: telephone: e-mail: d. proposed program title: pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas e. proposed credential: please select one (1). local board approved certificate ontario college certificate ontario college diploma ontario college advanced diploma ontario college graduate certificate f. program maps (appendix a): please complete and attach the two (2) program maps. form 1- vocational program learning outcomes form 2- essential employability skills outcomes g. program description (appendix b): please complete and attach the program description form. h. program curriculum (appendix c): please complete and attach the program curriculum form. i. regulatory status form (appendix d): please complete and attach the regulatory status form. j. date of submission to cvs: march 27, 2015 for cvs use only k. date of cvs response: click here to enter a date. l. cvs validation decision: proposal validated. aps number: reason: 46 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 proposal not validated. reason: m. cvs signature: send the completed form and required appendices to: belfer@ocqas.org. for detailed information on how to complete the application form for program proposal, please refer to the instructions for submission of program proposal document at www.ocqas.org. 47 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 introduction the process established by the credentials validation service (cvs) is designed to be a streamlined, seamless, effective, and efficient process that will allow colleges to submit and receive validation requests and decisions in a timely manner. the document with the instructions to complete this form (cvs instructions for submission of program proposal) is available to all colleges on the ocqas website (www.ocqas.org). 48 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 f. program maps (appendix a): form 1 - vocational program learning outcomes column 1 provincial vocational program outcomes column 2 proposed program vocational learning outcomes provincial program standard, or column 3 course title / course code please complete only column 3 i.e., enter the course title and course code for the courses at your institution that will meet the learning outcomes in column 2. you may enter multiple courses if that is how your curriculum is constructed. provincial program description mtcu code: use the mtcu code for your current program i.e., 41601 if offered as pre-health sciences or 44700 if offered as gas discuss and analyze biological concepts and systems of human biology, specifically cells, tissues and organ systems, and identify their relation to homeostasis, health, wellness and the human body. discuss and analyze biological concepts and systems of human biology, specifically cells, tissues and organ systems, and identify their relation to homeostasis, health, wellness and the human body. courses listed below are for example only; enter course titles and codes for your institution discuss the fundamental concepts of chemistry, specifically the properties of matter and organic compounds, and apply them to processes and applications related to health, wellness and the human body. apply concepts of mathematics and statistics to interpret health care data and solve typical mathematical problems in health care and related science professions. discuss the fundamental concepts of chemistry, specifically the properties of matter and organic compounds, and apply them to processes and applications related to health, wellness and the human body. apply concepts of mathematics and statistics to interpret health care data and solve typical mathematical problems in health care and related science professions. chemistry for life sciences biology for life sciences; biol1200 chem1050 math for science and technology math 1007 49 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in written, spoken, and visual form using language and terminology appropriate and relevant to health and other science-related fields. investigate future careers in health sciences and other high affinity fields and identify appropriate postsecondary programs to prepare for chosen career communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in written, spoken, and visual form using language and terminology appropriate and relevant to health and other science-related fields investigate future careers in health sciences and other high affinity fields and identify appropriate postsecondary programs to prepare for chosen career scientific and technical communications comm 1050 scientific and technical communications comm 1050 education and career planning edcp 1010 discuss strategies for ongoing personal and professional development. discuss strategies for ongoing personal and professional development. education and career planning edcp 1010 add additional rows as required to complete the mapping exercise for the program as you intend to offer it. 50 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 f. program maps (appendix a): form 2 essential employability skills outcomes skill categories communication defining skills essential employability skills outcomes course title / course codes skill areas to be demonstrated by the graduates the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: (as indicated in appendix a) reading writing speaking listening presenting visual literacy communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in the written, spoken, and visual form that fulfils the purpose and meets the needs of the audience complete mapping to identify the courses in which each outcome will be achieved. enter multiple courses if that is how your curriculum is constructed. e.g. scientific and technical communications comm 1050 numeracy understanding and applying mathematical concepts and reasoning analysing and using numerical data 6. 7. respond to written, spoken, or visual messages in a manner that ensures effective communication scientific and technical communications comm 1050 execute mathematical operations accurately 51 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 skill categories critical thinking & problem solving information management inter-personal defining skills essential employability skills outcomes course title / course codes skill areas to be demonstrated by the graduates the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: (as indicated in appendix a) conceptualizing analysing synthesizing evaluating decision-making creative and innovative thinking gathering and managing information selecting and using appropriate tools and technology for a task or a project computer literacy internet skills team work relationship management conflict resolution leadership networking apply a systematic approach to solve problems use a variety of thinking skills to anticipate and solve problems 8. locate, select, organize, and document information using appropriate technology and information systems analyse, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources show respect for the diverse opinions, values, belief systems, and contributions of others interact with others in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and the achievement of goals 52 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 skill categories personal defining skills essential employability skills outcomes course title / course codes skill areas to be demonstrated by the graduates the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: (as indicated in appendix a) manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects take responsibility for ones own actions, decisions, and consequences managing self managing change and being flexible and adaptable engaging in reflective practice demonstrating personal responsibility 53 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 g. program description (appendix b) program description provide a brief description of the program, similar to what might be used as, or found in, advertising or a calendar description. this program is designed to prepare graduates for admission to ontario college certificate and diploma programs at ontario colleges of applied arts and technology in the health sciences or other related programs in the biological or chemical sciences. the program provides students with the knowledge and skills in communication, mathematics, human anatomy, biology and chemistry needed to be successful in health and science-related college programs. in addition, the program provides students with the opportunity to learn about potential careers in the health sciences and to identify other college programs focusing on the biological or chemical sciences that will enable them to achieve their career objectives. this is a two-semester certificate-level program leading to an ontario college certificate. laddering opportunities provide a brief description of known laddering into and from the proposed program, e.g. certificate to diploma, diploma to degree, apprenticeship to college, diploma to apprenticeship, college to college, diploma to college degree, etc. it is expected that graduates of the pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas program will be eligible to apply for admission to multiple health and/or science programs in ontario colleges of applied arts and technology at the certificate or diploma level. occupational areas provide a brief description of where it is anticipated graduates will find employment. upon successful completion of the program, the student will be eligible to apply for admission to the first year of a health and/or science-related certificate or diploma program at an ontario college of applied arts and technology. the curriculum has been designed to meet subject-specific entrance requirements. successful completion of the program does not guarantee entry into any specific program. proposed program vocational learning outcomes provide the list of the proposed program vocational learning outcomes. these outcomes should be listed, verbatim as they appear in appendix a- form 1. the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: discuss and analyze biological concepts and systems of human biology, specifically cells, tissues and organ systems, and identify their relation to homeostasis, health, wellness and the human body.; 54 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 discuss the fundamental concepts of chemistry, specifically the properties of matter and organic compounds, and apply them to processes and applications related to health, wellness and the human body. apply concepts of mathematics and statistics to interpret health care data and solve typical mathematical problems in health care and related science professions. communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in written, spoken, and visual form using language and terminology appropriate and relevant to health and other science-related fields. investigate future careers in health sciences and high affinity fields and identify appropriate postsecondary programs to prepare for chosen career discuss strategies for ongoing personal and professional development. admission requirements identify the admission requirements for the program. minimum admission requirements for this program include: ossd or equivalent or mature student status. please refer to each college for specific admission information. 55 | p a g e ontario college quality assurance service (ocqas) cvs application form for program proposal revised january 13, 2015 march 30, 2015 h. program curriculum (appendix c) **these course descriptions are the exemplar descriptions. colleges must update with information specific to the program at their institution. course codes and titles must align with oncat exemplar course descriptions (listed below). semester course code/ course title (as indicated in appendix a) general education course total course hours course description (indicate with an x) 1 and/or 2 biolxxxx / biology for health sciences standard approx. 90 hours this course will introduce the student to the basic concepts of biology, both general and human. the course begins with an overview of life and biological systems. this is followed by an introduction to human biology as it relates to health and wellness. emphasis is placed on organization of the body into cells, tissues and organ systems. topics include characteristics, classification and organization of life, cell structure and function, homeostasis, anatomy and physiology of human organ systems, immune function, and an introduction to infectious organisms. by the end of the course, students will have an appreciation of the complexity of the human body and its functions. 1 and/or 2 chemxxxx / chemistry for health sciences standard approx. 90 hours in chemistry for health sciences, students will learn the fundamentals of chemistry with real life examples and apply them in processes and applications that relate to health care fields. the concepts studied will include the study of matter and chemical bonding, quantities in chemical reactions, solutions and solubility, acids and bases. students will also develop an understanding of organic compounds- their nomenclature, structure, properties based on intermolecular forces and reactions. these topics will have a strong health science emphasis and will provide students with a chemistry perspective of health and the human body. the chemistry concepts will continually highlight the connections of chemistry with health, medicine and research areas. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 56 march 30, 2015 1 and/or 2 mathxxxx / math for health sciences standard approx. 90 hours by the end of this course, students will have demonstrated the ability to evaluate a variety of arithmetic and algebraic expressions and apply these principles to typical problems that arise in the health care fields. concepts studied include numeracy fundamentals; systems of measurement and dimensional analysis; algebra, with an emphasis on analytical techniques; and evaluating systems of linear equations. students will develop essential critical thinking and problem-solving skills through exposure to application problems, including dosage calculations, solution dilutions, concentrations, and ph. students will use numerical methods along with graphs, charts, and tables to effectively describe data, calculate the empirical and theoretical probability of simple events using key rules of probability, and apply descriptive and inferential statistics to applications from the health care fields. 1 and/or 2 commxxxx / communications determined by college. determined by college. 1 and/or 2 gnedxxxx / general education determined by college. determined by college. 1 and/or 2 other course offerings determined by college. determined by college. x add additional rows as required to complete the curriculum chart. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 57 march 30, 2015 i. regulatory status form (appendix d) please complete the following: there is a legislative requirement that program graduates must be certified or licensed by a regulatory authority to practice or work in the occupation mandatory recognition of a regulatory authority exists and is being sought. (please refer to section a below- mandatory regulatory requirements) there is or is not a voluntary (i.e., not required by legislation) licensing or certification for entry to practice in the profession or trade. yes no voluntary recognition of a regulatory authority is being sought. (please refer to section b below- recognition by voluntary association) voluntary recognition is not being sought*. please explain why: no regulatory organization. *note: there may be titling implications for programs that are not seeking recognition in an area where existing programs have secured recognition. a. mandatory regulatory requirements where licensing or certification is required by legislation for entry to practice in the profession or trade, the ministry of training, colleges and universities requires that colleges ensure that their programs will meet the requirements of the regulatory body in order to be approved for funding. name of regulatory authority: status (please select all that apply) accreditation or approval by the regulatory authority / designated third party received. date of recognition: the college is working toward accreditation with the regulatory authority/ designated third party. describe current status of application: expected date of recognition: the regulatory authority does not accredit educational programs directly or through designated third party. formal acknowledgement (e.g. in its published or legislated registration requirements) that the program graduates will be eligible to write any required certifying or registration exam(s) or that the program is otherwise recognized for the purposes of certifying or registering a graduate is being sought. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 58 march 30, 2015 please submit an acknowledgement and/or evidence from the regulatory authority regarding the status of the recognition. b. recognition by voluntary association colleges may choose to have a program accredited or recognized by a voluntary membership organization or association. graduate eligibility for association recognition or adherence to standards imposed by the body is a recommendation and not a requirement for program funding approval by the ministry of training, colleges and universities. name of voluntary association: status (please select all that apply) the college is working toward recognition. describe current status of application: expected date of recognition: recognition has been received. date of recognition: type of recognition (e.g. accreditation, graduates eligible to write membership exams, etc.): the association does not recognize educational programs directly or through designated third party. formal recognition (e.g. in its published requirements) that the program graduates will be eligible to write any required certifying or registration exam(s) or that the program is otherwise recognized for the purposes of certifying or registering a graduate is being sought. please submit an acknowledgement and/or evidence from the regulatory authority or voluntary association regarding the status of the recognition. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 59 march 30, 2015 application form for program proposal pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees college pre-health project members - please complete highlighted areas. a. funding request: this proposal will be sent to the mtcu for approval for funding. yes no b. college name: click here to enter college name c. college contact(s): person responsible for this proposal. name: click here to enter text. title: telephone: e-mail: name: title: telephone: e-mail: d. proposed program title: pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees e. proposed credential: please select one (1). local board approved certificate ontario college certificate ontario college diploma ontario college advanced diploma ontario college graduate certificate f. program maps (appendix a): please complete and attach the two (2) program maps. form 1- vocational program learning outcomes form 2- essential employability skills outcomes g. program description (appendix b): please complete and attach the program description form. h. program curriculum (appendix c): please complete and attach the program curriculum form. i. regulatory status form (appendix d): please complete and attach the regulatory status form. j. date of submission to cvs: march 27, 2015 for cvs use only k. date of cvs response: click here to enter a date. l. cvs validation decision: proposal validated. aps number: reason: proposal not validated. reason: heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 60 march 30, 2015 m. cvs signature: send the completed form and required appendices to: belfer@ocqas.org. for detailed information on how to complete the application form for program proposal, please refer to the instructions for submission of program proposal document at www.ocqas.org. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 61 march 30, 2015 introduction the process established by the credentials validation service (cvs) is designed to be a streamlined, seamless, effective, and efficient process that will allow colleges to submit and receive validation requests and decisions in a timely manner. the document with the instructions to complete this form (cvs instructions for submission of program proposal) is available to all colleges on the ocqas website (www.ocqas.org). heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 62 march 30, 2015 f. program maps (appendix a): form 1 - vocational program learning outcomes column 1 provincial vocational program outcomes column 2 proposed program vocational learning outcomes provincial program standard, or course title / course code important information: please complete only column 3 i.e., enter the course title and course code for the courses at your institution that will meet the learning outcomes in column 2 provincial program description mtcu code: use the mtuc code for your program, i.e., use 41601 if offered as pre-health sciences or 44700 if offered as gas analyze biological concepts such as homeostasis and apply them to the study of human anatomy and physiology. column 3 analyze biological concepts such as homeostasis and apply them to the study of human anatomy and physiology. courses listed below are for example only; enter course titles and codes for your institution biology for life sciences; biol1100 analyze key concepts and principles of general and organic chemistry, and explain the impact of chemical reactions and biochemistry on the human body. analyze key concepts and principles of general and organic chemistry, and explain the impact of chemical reactions and biochemistry on the human body. chemistry for life sciences analyze appropriate mathematical concepts to solve typical health-field-related calculations and apply concepts of probability, descriptive and inferential statistics to interpret health and science-related data. communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in written, spoken, and visual form using language and terminology appropriate and relevant to health and other science-related fields. analyze appropriate mathematical concepts to solve typical health-field-related calculations; and apply concepts of probability, descriptive and inferential statistics to interpret health and science-related data. communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in written, spoken, and visual form using language and terminology appropriate and relevant to health and other science-related fields. math for science and technology heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report chem1150 math 1007 scientific and technical communications comm 1050 page 63 march 30, 2015 optional physics vlo optional physics vlo analyze the fundamental laws of physics and discuss how they apply to human health and wellness. analyze the fundamental laws of physics and discuss how they apply to human health and wellness. investigate future careers in health sciences and other high affinity fields and identify appropriate postsecondary programs to prepare for chosen career. investigate future careers in health sciences and other high affinity fields and identify appropriate postsecondary programs to prepare for chosen career. discuss strategies for ongoing personal and professional development. discuss strategies for ongoing personal and professional development. physics for life sciences phys 1000 leave blank if your college does not plan to offer physics as part of the program scientific and technical communications comm 1050 education and career planning edcp 1010 education and career planning edcp 1010 add additional rows as required to complete the mapping exercise for the program as you intend to offer it. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 64 march 30, 2015 f. program maps (appendix a): form 2 essential employability skills outcomes skill categories communication defining skills essential employability skills outcomes course title / course codes skill areas to be demonstrated by the graduates the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: (as indicated in appendix a) reading writing speaking listening presenting visual literacy communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in the written, spoken, and visual form that fulfils the purpose and meets the needs of the audience complete mapping to identify the courses in which each outcome will be achieved. enter multiple courses if that is how your curriculum is constructed. e.g. scientific and technical communications comm 1050 numeracy critical thinking & problem solving understanding and applying mathematical concepts and reasoning analysing and using numerical data conceptualizing analysing synthesizing evaluating decision-making creative and innovative thinking heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report respond to written, spoken, or visual messages in a manner that ensures effective communication execute mathematical operations accurately apply a systematic approach to solve problems scientific and technical communications comm 1050 page 65 march 30, 2015 skill categories information management inter-personal personal defining skills essential employability skills outcomes course title / course codes skill areas to be demonstrated by the graduates the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: (as indicated in appendix a) use a variety of thinking skills to anticipate and solve problems locate, select, organize, and document information using appropriate technology and information systems gathering and managing information selecting and using appropriate tools and technology for a task or a project computer literacy internet skills analyse, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources team work relationship management conflict resolution leadership networking show respect for the diverse opinions, values, belief systems, and contributions of others interact with others in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and the achievement of goals managing self managing change and being flexible and adaptable engaging in reflective practice demonstrating personal responsibility manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects take responsibility for ones own actions, decisions, and consequences heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 66 march 30, 2015 skill categories defining skills essential employability skills outcomes course title / course codes skill areas to be demonstrated by the graduates the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: (as indicated in appendix a) heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 67 march 30, 2015 g. program description (appendix b) program description provide a brief description of the program, similar to what might be used as, or found in, advertising or a calendar description. this program is designed to provide students with the core knowledge, skills and abilities fundamental to academic success in health sciences and other high affinity programs at the diploma, advanced diploma or degree level. students will develop their knowledge and skills in communication, mathematics, human anatomy, biology, (insert physics if your program will include it) and organic/inorganic chemistry so they are well-prepared for the rigours of their next academic program. in addition, the program provides students with the opportunity to learn about potential careers in the health sciences and to identify other programs focusing on the biological or chemical sciences that will enable them to achieve their career objectives. this is a two-semester certificate-level program leading to an ontario college certificate. laddering opportunities provide a brief description of known laddering into and from the proposed program, e.g. certificate to diploma, diploma to degree, apprenticeship to college, diploma to apprenticeship, college to college, diploma to college degree, etc. it is expected that graduates of the pre-health sciences pathway to diplomas and degrees program will be eligible to apply for admission to multiple health and/or science programs at the diploma or advanced diploma level at an ontario college of applied arts and technology and to many health and/or science programs at the degree level at an ontario college or university. the curriculum has been designed to meet subject-specific entrance requirements. successful completion of the program does not guarantee entry into any specific program. occupational areas provide a brief description of where it is anticipated graduates will find employment. upon successful completion of the program, the student will be eligible to apply for admission to the first year of a health and/or science-related diploma, advanced diploma or degree program at an ontario college of applied arts and technology and to many health or science related degree programs at ontario universities. the curriculum has been designed to meet subject-specific entrance requirements. successful completion of the program does not guarantee entry into any specific program. proposed program vocational learning outcomes provide the list of the proposed program vocational learning outcomes. these outcomes should be listed, verbatim as they appear in appendix a- form 1. the graduate has reliably demonstrated the ability to: analyze biological concepts such as homeostasis and apply them to the study of human anatomy and physiology. ; heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 68 march 30, 2015 analyze key concepts and principles of general and organic chemistry, and explain the impact of chemical reactions and biochemistry on the human body. analyze appropriate mathematical concepts to solve typical health-field-related calculations and apply concepts of probability, descriptive and inferential statistics to interpret health and science-related data. communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in written, spoken, and visual form using language and terminology appropriate and relevant to health and other science-related fields. optional vlo for physics: remove if physics will not be part of your program. analyze the fundamental laws of physics and discuss how they apply to human health and wellness. investigate future careers in health sciences and other high affinity fields and identify appropriate postsecondary programs to prepare for chosen career discuss strategies for ongoing personal and professional development. admission requirements identify the admission requirements for the program. minimum admission requirements for this program include: ossd or equivalent or mature student status. please refer to each college for specific admission information. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 69 march 30, 2015 h. program curriculum (appendix c) **these course descriptions are the exemplar descriptions. colleges must update with information specific to the program at their institution. course codes and titles must align with oncat exemplar course descriptions (listed below). semester course code/ course title (as indicated in appendix a) general education course total course hours course description this course will enable the student to develop a foundation in the fundamental concepts of biological sciences with application to a systematic study of the human body. the student will study and explore cell biology, genetics, evolution and microbiology and physiology with an emphasis on understanding the underlying concepts and principles and applying them to a diversity of body systems. chemistry for health sciences (advanced) will enable students to deepen their understanding of chemistry through the study of atomic and molecular structure, chemical systems and equilibrium, electrochemistry, energy changes and rates of reactions, and organic chemistry. these topics will have a strong health science emphasis and will provide students with a chemistry perspective of health and the human body. by the end of this course, students will have demonstrated the ability to evaluate a variety of arithmetic and algebraic expressions and apply these principles to typical situations that arise in the health care fields. concepts studied include numeracy fundamentals; systems of measurement and dimensional analysis; algebra, with an emphasis on analytical techniques; and evaluating systems of linear equations. students will develop essential critical thinking and problem-solving skills through exposure to application problems, including dosage (indicate with an x) 1 and/or 2 biolxxxx / biology for health sciences advanced approx. 120 hours 1 and/or 2 chemxxxx / chemistry for health sciences advanced approx. 90 hours 1 and/or 2 mathxxxx / math for health sciences advanced approx. 90 hours heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 70 march 30, 2015 1 and/or 2 (optional) physxxxx / physics for the health sciences approx. 60 hours 1 and/or 2 commxxxx / communications determined by college. 1 and/or 2 gnedxxxx / general education 1 and/or 2 other course offerings x calculations, solution dilutions, concentrations and ph. students will use numerical methods to calculate measures of center and variation, along with graphs, charts, and tables to effectively describe, analyze and interpret data. empirical and theoretical probability of simple events using key rules of probability will be calculated. students will distinguish between discrete and continuous probability distributions and describe key features of the standard normal distribution. students will calculate probabilities and values using the standard normal distribution, and calculate confidence intervals for means and proportions and apply descriptive and inferential statistics to the health care field students apply critical thinking and problemsolving techniques to physics concepts related to the health science field. concepts studied include kinematics, forces, work, energy and power, thermodynamics, fluids and pressure, nuclear physics, electrostatics, magnetism, waves and electromagnetic radiation. determined by college. determined by college. determined by college. determined by college. determined by college. add additional rows as required to complete the curriculum chart. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 71 march 30, 2015 i. regulatory status form (appendix d) please complete the following: there is a legislative requirement that program graduates must be certified or licensed by a regulatory authority to practice or work in the occupation mandatory recognition of a regulatory authority exists and is being sought. (please refer to section a below- mandatory regulatory requirements) there is or is not a voluntary (i.e., not required by legislation) licensing or certification for entry to practice in the profession or trade. yes no voluntary recognition of a regulatory authority is being sought. (please refer to section b below- recognition by voluntary association) voluntary recognition is not being sought*. please explain why: no regulatory organization. *note: there may be titling implications for programs that are not seeking recognition in an area where existing programs have secured recognition. c. mandatory regulatory requirements where licensing or certification is required by legislation for entry to practice in the profession or trade, the ministry of training, colleges and universities requires that colleges ensure that their programs will meet the requirements of the regulatory body in order to be approved for funding. name of regulatory authority: status (please select all that apply) accreditation or approval by the regulatory authority / designated third party received. date of recognition: the college is working toward accreditation with the regulatory authority/ designated third party. describe current status of application: expected date of recognition: the regulatory authority does not accredit educational programs directly or through designated third party. formal acknowledgement (e.g. in its published or legislated registration requirements) that the program graduates will be eligible to write any required certifying or registration exam(s) or heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 72 march 30, 2015 that the program is otherwise recognized for the purposes of certifying or registering a graduate is being sought. please submit an acknowledgement and/or evidence from the regulatory authority regarding the status of the recognition. d. recognition by voluntary association colleges may choose to have a program accredited or recognized by a voluntary membership organization or association. graduate eligibility for association recognition or adherence to standards imposed by the body is a recommendation and not a requirement for program funding approval by the ministry of training, colleges and universities. name of voluntary association: status (please select all that apply) the college is working toward recognition. describe current status of application: expected date of recognition: recognition has been received. date of recognition: type of recognition (e.g. accreditation, graduates eligible to write membership exams, etc.): the association does not recognize educational programs directly or through designated third party. formal recognition (e.g. in its published requirements) that the program graduates will be eligible to write any required certifying or registration exam(s) or that the program is otherwise recognized for the purposes of certifying or registering a graduate is being sought. please submit an acknowledgement and/or evidence from the regulatory authority or voluntary association regarding the status of the recognition. heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 73 march 30, 2015 appendix e: partial list of destination programs at ontario colleges for graduates of the preheath science pathway to certificates and diplomas and pre-health science pathway to diplomas and degrees program baccalaureate degree programs athletic therapy, (bahs) biotechnology (bat) exercise science and health promotion (bahs) medical radiation sciences nursing (collaborative) paramedicine (bsc.) radiation therapy therapeutic recreation advanced diploma programs accupunture biomedical engineering technology biotechnology advanced biotechnology technologist chemical engineering technology chemical laoratory technology chemical production and engineering power civil engineering technology dental hygiene dental technology denturism diagnostic medical sonography environmental technologist food service technology hearing instrument specialist massage therapy medical laboratory science medical laboratory technology medical radiation technology pharmaceutical and food science technology physical fitness management power engineering technology number of colleges offering program number of subjects required or recommended 1 2 1 5 3-5 5 1 20 1 1 1 4 3-5 4 5 2 1 2 6 2 7 3 1 2 3-5 2-5 4-5 3-4 3-4 4 9 7 1 1 2 5 1 1 5 3 1 4 1 2-3 4-5 5 5 4-5 2-5 2 4 3-4 4 4 4-5 4 1 1 5 4 heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 74 march 30, 2015 respiratory therapy veterinary technology diploma programs assistant de l'ergothrapeute et assistant du physiothrapeute assistant en pharmacie-vente au dtail biotechnology technician chemical engineering technician civil engineering technician environmental technician veterinary technology (associate diploma) 7 2 3-5 4 tbc 1-2 tbc tbc tbc tbc tbc tbc 4 4-5 4 2-3 4 4 note: this is a partial list only heads of health sciences project, phase two: final report page 75

which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility executive summary low income students, and students who are the first in their family to complete post-secondary education (first generation), are underrepresented in university. this inequality has implications for economic and social mobility as well as for a wider sense of distributional fairness. because college 1 tends to be accessed more equitably, it has been suggested that college to university transfer pathways can help to provide university access to underrepresented groups. using data from a large toronto college, we compare college students' university aspirations at entry, graduation rates, and transfer outcomes across socioeconomic status (ses) groups to better understand how the college to university transfer pathway is being used, and by whom. methodology using administrative and survey data from 2007 to 2014, the study tracks 36,054 seneca college 2 entrants from high school until six months after college graduation. students are classified by neighbourhood income and parental education status, with 34% of entering students classified as low income, and 61.4% of students classified as first generation (neither parent has a university degree). a total of 7,638 students who graduated during the same seven-year period responded to the graduate satisfaction survey (76% response rate). of these graduates, 1,106 indicated that they had transferred to university six months after graduating from college. research questions include the following: 1. how do background characteristics in the college sample differ by income and parental education and what is the role of these factors in influencing a students aspirations for transfer to university? 2. what is the role of parental education and neighbourhood income in influencing transfer to university? 3. for those who do transfer to university, do transfer information sources differ across first generation and income groups? key findings student characteristics by socioeconomic status student demographics, program of study selection, and academic preparation all differ by parental education and income. only half of college entrants who were low income with university educated parents reported english as their first language; similarly this group also had lower rates of canadian citizenship and increased likelihood of being placed below college level english. regardless of income, students with university- educated parents are more likely to enter more advanced credential, and were more likely to enter technology programs and less likely to enter community service. additionally, students with university educated parents were more likely to have taken university preparation courses in high school, and to have previously attended university before entering college, regardless of income. 1 the term college used throughout this report refers to ontarios publically funded college system, consisting of 24 colleges of applied arts and technology (caats). 2 seneca college is one of ontarios 24 caats offering a range of credentials: certificates, diplomas, degrees and graduate certificates. the majority of senecas program offerings are 2- and 3- year diplomas. 7 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility plans for university overall, 49% of college entrants with university-educated parents planned to attend university after college compared to 43% of students without university-educated parents. however, students from higher income neighbourhoods proved no more likely than their peers to aspire to transfer. students who were low income but with university educated parents were the most likely to have plans for university. these results held true when controlling for academic and program factors. transfer to university transfer to university was 3% points higher for college graduates who had a parent with a degree than those who did not, an affect that held when controlling for socio-demographic factors and grades. in contrast to parents education, this study showed that rates of transfer did not differ by income, with 31% of transfer students versus 32% of non- transfer students came from the lowest neighbourhood terciles. when combined categories of income and education were compared, graduates who were both low income, but had at least one parent with a degree, were 4% points more likely to transfer than the reference group who were both low income and did not have a parent with a degree. the graduates with the highest grades who aspired to go to university are the most likely students to transfer. among those who aspired to go to university, having a gpa above 3.5 was associated with a 21% point increase in likelihood of transfer compared to those with a gpa below 3.0. other factors such as program of study are also important in explaining transfer propensity. conclusions/policy implications overall, this study shows college students with university educated parents are slightly more likely to aspire and to ultimately transfer to university. this is similar to previous research on university attendance for the high school population, however the gap seen in the current study comparing college transfers and non-transfers is much smaller. in contrast to studies on the high school population in which income has a large effect on who attends university, income had little or no effect on whether college graduates transfer in this study. in fact, students who are both low income and have university educated parents are the most likely to aspire and to transfer to university compared to all other combinations of education and income. income however, plays an indirect effect, in that higher income students are more likely to obtain higher grades and to graduate, which are major factors in transfer. as the current study focussed on transfer within the college population, it is important to contrast the composition of the college transfer population and the university population. other comparable data sources indicate that more than half of students at universities in toronto have a parent with a degree compared with just 31% of senecas transfer students (nsse, institutional data, 2011). similarly, on a provincial level, only 22% of university students come from the lowest income tercile of the ontario population, compared with 31% of senecas university transfer students (dooley, payne & robb, 2016). although the initial decision to attend college or university is influenced by parental education and income, students who attend college initially and then transfer to university differ only slightly from their college peers who do not transfer to university by these socioeconomic characteristics. for college graduates who continue on to university, academic performance, program choice, and aspirations for university at college entry are the key determinants. within the college population, college performance and aspirations for transfer are more important than sociodemographic factors on transfer rates, indicating this pathway may be more merit- and motivation-based. as well, the preliminary finding that transfer students who are lower income or do not have a university educated parent rely less on their parents and family and rely more on college advising services for information, underscores the role institutions can play. this suggests that facilitating and encouraging college to university transfer, as well 8 which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income centre for research in student mobility as supporting students academically to ensure they qualify, may be a vehicle to reduce the socioeconomic inequity in university attendance in ontario. 9

2016 hob transfer agreement steering committee cookson, jeannine ma oncat project: 2014-03 pilot implementation: ontario system level transfer agreements for ontario colleges heads of business executive summary march 2016 with adjustments as of may 16, 2016 pilot implementation: ontario system level transfer agreements for ontario colleges heads of business executive march 2016 cookson, jeannine ma executive summary in september of 2013 the 24 ontario colleges delivering business programs had agreed to four, system- level transfer agreements. these agreements would allow students in specific programming areas, the ability to seamlessly transfer from one college to another college within the same program. transfers could occur at the completion of year 1 or at the completion of year 2, without academic penalty or impact to completion time. as this was the first of such agreements in ontario, this project would serve to implement the 4 college-to-college business transfer agreements, engage participating stakeholders and provide a road map for other agreements of this nature. the original goal of the project was to achieve the implementation through three key milestones, management, integration and establishing a method to maintain/sustain these agreements. management the primary focus under management of the pilot implementation project was ensuring the equitable, timely implementation of the agreements across the province. it should be well noted, the ontransfer.ca site at the beginning of this project was in its infancy as it related to transfer agreements of this magnitude. at the same time, the heads of business hob, agreements were being forged and signed, oncat was developing the ontransfer.ca pathways site. since both were crafted independently of each other, the first goal was to ensure there would be a template for the crafting of future agreements. in addition, the communication of these agreements had been sporadic and required a defined communication framework to ensure all stakeholders were informed of agreements during their development. integration the implementation project, spear headed by the heads of business needed to ensure a broad outreach to all stake holders, from chairs, to admissions officers to pathway advisors to program coordinators. through college workshops and the development of specific tools like; curriculum pathway guides, presentations, word documents and ongoing updates, each college began to explore their specific internal processes. essentially ensuring each college had the tools necessary to interpret and implement the agreements as written. maintain/sustainability the ultimate goal for these and other agreements is their long term sustainability. it should be noted that had it not been for the reciprocity and enthusiasm of the heads of business, agreements of this nature may not have been forged. it will be that same commitment that will continue to ensure every effort will be taken so that no student will be disadvantaged, should they chose to transfer now and in the future. as one of the first tasks undertaken was to establish the terms of reference for the hob -transfer agreement steering committee (tasc), from both a sustainability and a best practices perspective, it is anticipated that the continued and ongoing work of this committee will be crucial to the future of this system-wide agreement and any further and incremental improvements in the processes needed to support system-wide transferability objectives. also, in light of a key outcome of the first (2015) business educators forum, coming together on common ground having been organized, tasc recognizes that the sustainability of the system-wide transfer agreements rests on the ongoing alignment of curriculum and the ability for the programming areas to continue to dialogue around shared outcomes. despite the tremendous strides that have occurred as it pertains to student mobility in ontario, at the conclusion of this project, a significant number of outstanding implementation hurdles have been uncovered. notwithstanding the enthusiasm of the hob, many of these hurdles are beyond their scope and purview. without immediate action taken to resolve these issues, the hob agreements will be unsustainable within the year. with that strong possibility, the accompanying recommendations have been made.

transferability expectations and realities: predictors of success and satisfaction from student transfer experiences executive summary sean woodhead centennial college rachel oh centennial college please refer to full report for citation purposes, and cite as: woodhead, s. & oh, r. (2016). transferability expectations and realities: predictors of success and satisfaction from student transfer experiences. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. sean woodhead and rachel oh executive summary ontario has been decisive in driving recognition of prior learning, and so it is appropriate to better understand institutional responses to this direction. this report summarizes the current state of credit transfer and prior learning assessment and recognition, collectively referred to as recognition of prior learning (rpl), at centennial college. the topic of ontario rpl is particularly important in light of an increasing number of students accessing credit transfer pathways, as well as continued use of course-to-course transfer credit and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) applications. examining the rpl mechanism through the student experience lens is important. while institutions will mindfully and with purpose create, sometimes, robust information dissemination and support systems, occasionally such systems fail to adequately serve those for which it was intended. using expectation-reality gaps as a barometer of student experience helps centennial college on two fronts: 1) front end information dissemination and expectation management, and 2) back end support services. this study uses a mixed methods design of pre-post surveying, focus groups and interviews to address three questions: 1) what expectation-reality gaps exist for incoming centennial college rpl students (awarded credit and benefits; resources, sources and support; and policies and procedures)? 2) does the first term academic progression affect students satisfaction and attitudes regarding program and rpl experiences? 3) what aspects of rpl affect rpl success, satisfaction with the rpl process and centennial college satisfaction? a non-probability convenience sample was collected from the 417 rpl students across the fall, winter and summer cohorts of 2014-15. in total, 140 students (34%) completed the pre-survey and 98 of the 140 students (70%) completed the post-survey. twenty-seven students participated in focus groups and interviews. chi-square analysis was used to compare respondent data (from surveying) and population data (from college records), and this determined that the respondent group sample is representative of the population. the demographic profile of an average centennial college student is one who is classified as a domestic student in their 20s and enroled in a diploma program. the average student will have attended 1 prior postsecondary institution, applies for 1-2 transfer credits with varying success rates across schoolsschool of community and health studies students are most successful. centennial college rpl students experience an increased perceived understanding of credit transfer and plar from an offer of admission to the end of their first term. a significant difference was found for understanding of transfer credit between these two time periods: 60% of students have an understanding of transfer credit and its policies at offer of admission, and this jumps to 93% at the end of the first term. the same significant trend is observed with plar, albeit less pronounced. comparatively, students have a much better initial understanding of transfer credit than plar. executive summary 2 transferability expectations and realities for the most part, the respondents report that they prefer to apply for transfer credit at the beginning of their program and are satisfied with the amount of credit they receivestudents state that they consider it a validation of their prior learning. however, plar applicants show some uncertainty or dissatisfaction with the lack of credit they receiveperhaps attributable to only having a mediocre understanding of plar and its policies. those who do receive credit, students claim they were were able to reduce their course load, which resulted in them having more free time to focus on their other courses and employment. while the data show evidence of students developing realistic expectations in some areas, there are multiple occurrences of statistically significant gaps between expectations and realities. student expectations noticeably fall short for those who expect more than three transfer credits and those who expect plar credit. sizeable (10%+) expectation-reality gaps also exist across numerous other variables: reduced course load benefit, reduced educational costs benefit, additional time for employment benefit, clear information regarding eligible transfer credits, assistance with understanding rpl decisions, assistance managing the rpl file, program advising and assistance with grade calculation. many students stated that they had to research on their own to determine how the transfer credit application process worked, with the majority of students finding information via the centennial website or through contacting a centennial college staff member. some students who spoke with a centennial college staff member found that they received inconsistent information and were often sent to speak with more than one staff member. the majority of students expected that a transcript and course outline would be required in order to demonstrate completion of similar course content, however, international students and students who had been away from post-secondary school for a greater length of time, stated difficulties in obtaining a course outline. many students cite the secondary submission of a transcript to be unnecessary if they submit the same one for admission purposes. once students completed their transfer credit application using the online application system, they expressed their gratitude over the streamlined process, ease of use and quickness of the online system. many students stated that they received a transfer credit decision anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, which was much faster than they had expected. in regards to rpl process satisfaction, respondents find the process fair (59%), quick (61%) and clear (55%). students do not experience a change in opinion on these three facets of satisfaction across the first term, suggesting that movement through the rpl process bears no effect. rpl students are overwhelmingly satisfied with centennial college (78%) and their program (82%). the researchers also sought predicting factors related to rpl success and satisfaction. the only significant predictor found for rpl success was the perceived fairness of the process. despite findings from arnold and woodhead (2015) that credit transfer understanding plays a role in rpl success, those findings were not replicated in the analysis of the three 2014-15 cohorts. interestingly, satisfaction with the rpl process revealed two significant predictors. first, success rate has an effect on satisfaction; a likely explanation is that a higher success rate yields a narrower expectation-reality gap and leads to a more satisfying experience. second, perceived quickness of executive summary 3 sean woodhead and rachel oh the rpl process is also a predictor of satisfaction. this may be explained by students past experiences with slow, bureaucratic processes at other educational institutions. this study also aggregated data between the 2013-14 cohorts from arnold and woodhead (2015) and the 2014-15 cohorts for this study. this leads to a data set that is approximately double in size, and thus may produce more predictors through regression analysis. the aggregate data set offers two predictors for rpl success: ontario pse credential and fqc. for predicting rpl credit satisfaction, post-awareness of transfer credit and fqc are predictors of satisfaction. the analysis yields predictors of college satisfaction as well: clarity and program satisfaction. it is possible that students look to clarity of information and overall opinions of their program as a means to gauge centennial college qualityand by extension satisfaction with the institution. a few recommendations arise from the results that pertain to centennial college rpl policy and practice. while these recommendations are specific to centennial college, other colleges would be welcome to consider similar adoptions to their own institutional practices. all efforts should be undertaken to maintain a process that is fair, quick and clear: consistent decision-making: a fair process requires consistency on at least two fronts. one, decisions must be consistent with posted standards (e.g. 80% affinity). two, decisions must be consistent across applicants. ability to achieve this consistency hinges on clear, published criteria for assessment along with robust transfer credit assessment training for all staff. while centennial currently does both to some degree, it is suggested that the college revisit this and look to see how consistency can be further improved. policies and procedures: administrators should change policy to allow students to use two courses from their previous institution to apply for one transfer credit at centennial. this would allow students to apply for more transfer credits when one course alone does not meet 80% affinity. increase initial support: centennial now has dedicated pathway advisors to provide advice and guidance to prospective centennial students. between these advisors and the dedicated advisors for incoming students, there is great capacity for initial rpl support to be improved, including the promotion of ontransfer.cas course transfer function, so that students can make more accurate choices when applying for transfer credit. in order to accomplish this, rpl staff experts need to transfer knowledge and expertise to these student-facing advisors. further automate processes: centennial has an online transfer credit application system that allows students to upload transcripts and outlines; this same system allows faculty to assess applications and render decisions. however, many students cite frustration with having to upload transcripts after already providing them as part of their college applications. the college and students would both benefit from streamlining of transcript submissions, as well as incorporation of plar self-assessments into the online system. access to other institution outlines: while this is more of a system-wide recommendation, students find it challenging to find course outlines for courses previously taken at other executive summary 4 transferability expectations and realities institutions. the ontario pse system should consider developing a central repository of outlines/syllabi that is accessible for college staff and students. a satisfying experience for students seems to hinge most on fqc. an rpl process that is fair, quick and clear promotes satisfaction with the rpl process. perhaps most importantly for college consideration, a fair, quick and clear rpl process appears to promote satisfaction with the college itself. executive summary 5

pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges, and universities centre for policy in aboriginal learning, confederation college executive summary the centre for policy in aboriginal learning (cpal) (confederation college), in partnership with trent university (trent) and the first nations technical institute (fnti) undertook a project, entitled, pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities. this work aims to address a gap in supporting and advancing learning opportunities for indigenous learners, and learners pursuing indigenous studies, through the creation and formal recognition of indigenous specific learning pathways. earlier phases of this work resulted in the successful development of an indigenous learners pathways across partners, where articulation agreements, academic bridging and comprehensive wrap around supports for learners were key components of the pathways model. building off the success of the earlier phases of this work, this project entered into a phase iii, by expanding partnerships with additional interested colleges and universities across ontarios postsecondary, including partnerships with algoma university, algonquin college, canadore college, lakehead university, lambton college, northern college, mohawk college and sault college. representatives from partnering institutions, who form the steering committee, met in person throughout the year to explore and identify opportunities for partnership, collaboration, and pathways development across their institutions. this phase of the project relied upon shared group values, practices, and processes to guide the different stages of this work, which included: formal partnership and relationship building, building a common ground, and collaborative and informed action in the creation of pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions. in the exploration and creation of pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions, pathways were defined as the direct transfer of credits from one program to another, in line with the definition used ministry of advanced education and skills development, government of ontario. however, partners were encouraged to consider pathways broadly, so that they were mindful of wholistic wrap around supports and services that would be available to learners throughout a pathway. partners sought to create pathways that were obvious in terms of alignment across programs or that were reflective of the enrolment of their indigenous learners within their institutios. partners also sought to create pathways that would help to address current gaps in indigenous education, or that would help to meet needs of indigenous communities. this work resulted in a diverse list of 18 pathways that vary in type (e.g. diploma to degree, dual diploma, etc) across 9 institutions, with additional formal and informal partnerships around supporting indigenous learners. the pathways and partnerships identified offer opportunities for learners to build upon their education in the fields of indigenous studies, social services, environmental studies/science, business, education, general arts and science, governance, nursing, social sciences, history, aviation and language. the next steps of this work are to continue to build upon the support for and implementation of pathways for indigenous learners across our institutions, and to expand the circle to include additional interested partners.

laurentian university tracking student success for credit transfer students at laurentian contract file 2013-05 christine blais, phd executive director, centre for academic excellence meghan harper, ma, academic advisor, centre for academic excellence laurentian will: 1) implement systems and programming that are targeted towards the transfer student population,2) improve the initial student experience, and 3) create a welcoming atmosphere where transfer students feel they can belong. page 1 of 19 page 2 of 19 table of contents introduction 4 review of literature 4 demographics 4 context 5 laurentian experience 8 quantitative data 8 qualitative data 13 programming proposals 16 conclusions 18 references 19 page 3 of 19 page 4 of 19 tracking student success for credit transfer students at laurentian introduction the new http://ontransfer.ca web-site/ database is the site to visit if a student is debating whether or not to attend or transfer to another post-secondary institution in ontario. guidance is available to the student who wishes to begin at a college and transfer to a university once they have an established career path, to the student who has decided to change career paths, or to the student who wishes to combine the theoretical and procedural aspects of the discipline. this web-site is a wonderful planning tool. in some cases, once the student has been admitted and is enrolled at a university the path is often no longer as well defined. this is the case at laurentian university. this project evolved in order to answer questions before targeted programming could be developed. review of literature demographics transfer students are likely the most diverse group of students in terms of the range of ages as well as their individual and unique situations. it is more common for transfer students to work full- or part-time jobs at the same time as completing courses1, course loads can vary from fullto part-time, and transfer students often carry extra responsibilities, including dependent family members.2 despite this diversity the main academic concerns of transfer students are generally consistent. transfer students are often preoccupied with the length of time they have to graduation: they want to know how quickly they can finish their education.3 financial concerns are a major preoccupation of transfer students, as they feel that they have already put in time and money at another institution. a third concern is with the number and actual transfer of credits approved for transfer. the concern over credits and finances often determines their decision whether or not to take the shortest route to graduation.4 1 gard, dwight r. et al., student perceptions of factors contributing to community-college-to-university transfer success, community college journal of research and practice 36, 11 (2012): 840. 2 davies, timothy gray, transfer student experience: comparing their academic and social lives at the community college and university, college student journal (march 1999): 11. 3 mcgowan, rosemany a. & timothy gawley, the university side of the college transfer experience: insights from university staff, college quarterly 9, 3 (summer 2006): 4. 4 ibid., 8-9. page 5 of 19 when a transfer student arrives at university, they often experience transfer shock, a term coined by j. hills in 1965. nacada refers to transfer shock as the tendency of students transferring from one institution of higher education to another to experience a temporary dip in grade point average during the first or second semester at the new institution.5 the student may find that the campus culture is so different from the campus they previously attended that it takes some time for them to adjust to a new way of doing things. students who experience transfer shock often find registration difficult. many college transfers expect a schedule to be created for them as it was in high school and college. transfer students can feel out of place and unwelcome, as they are truncated in to the university and join a program at mid-point, rather than commencing at the beginning.6 transfer students initially experience confusion with terminology and filter information through the framework of their previous institution.7 differing ways of counting credits, different academic regulations, and a different registration process are all areas of confusion for this population. many transfer students also report a lack of communication as a major struggle. in general, some students report a need to be selfreliant and resort to asking friends or family members for advice before asking university staff, either because the university did not communicate sufficiently or the information that was received was unclear.8 transfer student programming therefore plays a major role in retention strategies. a need for individual attention at the beginning of their studies should be a primary focus of transfer student programming. the culture of canadian colleges is very hands-on and individualistic. when students arrive at university, they look for that relationship to continue with university staff and do not want to feel like they are just a number.9 universities who are receiving transfer students need to consider the background of transfer students and make an effort to be as welcoming as possible, making the student feel comfortable. in order to ensure a smooth and friendly transfer experience, the first and most important consideration that universities should strive for is to make clear [that] their doors are open. 10 context the ontario college-university degree completion accord (march, 1999) provides a model for articulating the 2-year and 3-year college diploma programs to the 3-year and 4-year degrees and indicates the additional university studies required to complete the degree (see table 1). 5 thurmond, karen. transfer shock: why is a term forty years old still relevant? nacada clearinghouse academic advising resources (2007): http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/resources/clearinghouse/view-articles/dealing-withtransfer-shock.aspx#sthash.f5wexlml.dpuf 6 davies, 5. 7 mcgowan, 7. 8 gard, 834. 9 davies, 5. 10 mcclure, ann. targeting transfers: community colleges, universities, and states working together to improve the transfer process, university business (november 2008): 32. page 6 of 19 table 1: degree completion model calculation matrix college degree completion from college diploma program to university degree will require: 3-year related college diploma 2-year related college diploma university 3-year degree 4-year degree program program (15 full courses) (20 full courses) (90 credits) (120 credits) 1-1.4 years 1.4-1.8 years (5-7 full courses) (30-42 credits) 1.4-1.8 years (7-9 full courses) (42-54 credits) 2.4-2.8 years (7-9 full courses) (42-54 credits) (12-14 full courses) (72-84 credits) the ontario undergraduate student alliance prepared a policy paper on student mobility (2012). their recommendations included: student mobility refers not to just the physical ability of a student to move from one institution to another, but the more comprehensive understanding of a student as an independent agent, who as their own needs and desires change, needs the ability to move from one institution to another to achieve their desired educational result, be it a college certificate, diploma, or undergraduate degree. the policy has been broken into four key pillars which cover the mobility needs of students in the post-secondary sector in ontario: transparency, consistency, student support, and the future of credit transfer (ontario undergraduate student alliance, 2012). transparency students must be able to appeal credit transfer decisions to a higher institutional authority. every institution should publish a database of credits recognized as transferrable. institutions should work together to develop a common format for their credit transfer policies, utilizing consistent language. consistency ontario universities should fully recognize any first or second year level courses successfully completed at another accredited ontario university. where possible, these credits should count towards a students chosen field of study. the government or the council of ontario universities should facilitate regularly scheduled meetings for program chairs of similar programs to work towards designing common content and learning outcomes for first- and second-year undergraduate courses at ontario universities. page 7 of 19 the government should mandate that all per-course minimum grade requirements be set at the passing grade, as defined by the receiving institution. to better facilitate student mobility, ontario universities should develop robust learning outcome measurements that could be consistent across institutions. to facilitate credit transfer, ontario universities should develop a mechanism to collectively share all course descriptions and syllabi. the government should audit institutional residency requirements in all programs, and encourage or mandate reductions of those above 50 per cent. student support to ensure system-wide mobility, the government must mandate that all credit transfer administration fees be removed through its existing ancillary fee regulations. adequate bridging programs must be in place at all ontario post-secondary institutions. program eligibility requirements for the ontario student assistance program should be amended to grant financial assistance to students enrolled in bridging programs. universities should use direct funding from government to hire credit transfer advisors that guide students throughout the transfer system, as well as facilitate orientation for incoming students. the future of credit transfer the ontario council on articulation and transfer should develop annual provincewide campaigns to inform students of the opportunities available to them. the government should use direct funding and accountability agreements to incent and mandate institutions to create more multi-lateral articulation agreements and purpose-built pathways for transfer. the ontario council on articulation and transfer should continue to fund research projects on all aspects of student mobility. (ontario undergraduate student alliance, 2012) the college student alliance (2012) put forth a paper on credit transfer and student mobility in ontario in which they made 16 recommendations. 1. the government must ensure that students are refunded for their successful exemption credit and that students are charged tuition on a per-credit basis. 2. encourage institutions and organizations to use the same terminology where possible. 3. institutions must build transfer considerations into the early development of new program and other business planning. 4. institutions must clearly communicate the principles and processes of transfer to students very early in the application process. 5. the provincial government, institutions and pse stakeholders should work to achieve 100% credit recognition for students transferring from a high-affinity program at one ontario college to another. 6. stakeholders must better communicate the transfer processes and transfer page 8 of 19 opportunities to students. 7. ensure adequate resourcing of the administrative function within every institution to co-ordinate and track the processing of agreements. 8. institutions must provide training and support to ensure consistency and efficiency in the credit transfer system. 9. provide a forum or other mechanism for sharing for an open and informed inter-institutional discussion of admissions and transfer issue. 10. enhance system-wide principles, policies, and procedures to continuously improve student transfer systems across canada. 11. forging credit transfer pathways should be maintained as a key priority in the efforts to achieve a minimum 70% pse participation rate and to avoid a shortage of skilled workers. 12. in order to remain globally competitive, canada must pay attention to the international activity related to credit transfer to see what the possibilities exist in our system to improve standardizations to increase mobility to and from canada. 13. the government and college stakeholders should better promote college degrees as a viable alternative to university degrees to help eliminate degree biases that currently exist. 14. maintain and expand degree-granting opportunities at colleges across ontario. 15. stakeholders and government should work to create permanent working groups like those that exist in bc and alberta to facilitate transfer efforts. 16. simplify the look of the ontario qualifications framework for user-friendliness. the conclusion must be that many voices have expressed opinions and much work needs to be done to clarify the system. the laurentian experience the laurentian university senate approved a general policy on the transfer of course credits in november 1994 which has remained in effect. the policy states: to facilitate program completion by undergraduate students seeking to transfer course credit from one ontario university to another, the universities comprising the council of ontario universities agree to implement the following principles: (a) acceptance of transfer credits among ontario universities shall be based on the recognition that, while learning experiences may differ in a variety of ways, their substance may be essentially equivalent in terms of their content and rigour. insofar as possible, acceptance of transfer should allow for the maximum recognition of previous learning experience in university-level courses. page 9 of 19 (b) subject to degree, grade and program requirements, any course offered for credit by one university shall be accepted for credit by another ontario university when there is essential equivalency in course content. students enter laurentian university from a variety of sources defined by specific admission requirements. the admission categories are outlined in table 2 table 2: admission categories categories sec school ontario current sec school ontario prior & other sec school canadian sec school international bacc caat transfer sec school international univ transfer international univ degree international international college univ canadian transfer univ degree canadian internal transfer college transition cegep transfer canadian college mature students table 3 and figure 1 indicate that while the number of applicants with college credit transfers for full-time study has dropped in recent years, the number of part-time applicants has remained relatively constant, perhaps indicating an overall preference/need for part-time programming. table 3: number of new applicants from the fall term 2003 to 2013 on all campuses. full-time plein temps part-time temps partiel total 2003f 2004f 2005f 2006f 2007f 2008f 2009f 2010f 2011f 2012f 2013f 842 1073 1112 1098 1007 872 885 918 902 841 714 159 163 136 158 155 153 161 150 146 135 165 1001 1236 1248 1256 1162 1025 1046 1068 1048 976 879 page 10 of 19 figure 1: number of new applicants from the fall term 2003 to 2013 on all campuses number of college transfer applicants 1400 1200 number of applicants 1000 800 part-time - temps partiel 600 full-time - plein temps 400 200 0 2003f 2004f 2005f 2006f 2007f 2008f 2009f 2010f 2011f 2012f 2013f laurentian university has not had a tracking mechanism that could yield information on program affinity for any student. it can, however, provide information about which programs the student with transfer credits are applying to. table 4 describes the ten disciplines most students applied for during the last five years (2009 o 2013). for example, looking at table 4, we see that in 2013, 879 students with transfer credits applied to laurentian university and 766 indicated one of the top ten as their area of choice. while some programs such as nursing have limited entry, 410 students were quite specific in their choice. the point of interest is that 356 (46.5%) of the students with transfer credits indicated 3 or 4 year arts or science. these four categories do not indicate the majors or minors of interest in the application stage. table 4: top 10 disciplines into which college students applied to at laurentian university from 2009 to 2013 arts - 4 year arts - 3 year social work business admin science - 4 year science - 3 year nursing commerce and adm human kinetics ducation 2009f 230 225 110 76 53 52 49 48 41 31 arts - 3 year arts - 4 year social work business admin science - 4 year commerce and adm science - 3 year nursing ducation human kinetics 2010f 220 213 150 94 65 54 51 41 29 29 arts - 4 year arts - 3 year social work business admin science - 4 year commerce and adm science - 3 year ducation nursing engineering 2011f 217 211 158 103 61 50 46 36 35 29 social work arts - 4 year arts - 3 year science - 4 year business admin commerce and adm engineering human kinetics science - 3 year nursing 2012f 176 171 170 89 73 52 35 32 31 26 social work arts - 4 year business admin science - 4 year arts - 3 year commerce and adm nursing psychology science - 3 year engineering table 5 reports the number of college transfer credit students entering laurentian university on all campuses. as the applications transform to enrolments the number of college transfer credit 2013f 177 156 95 91 84 48 40 26 25 24 page 11 of 19 students enrolling seems higher than the application numbers. this is due to the difficulties tracking the data from the multiple articulation agreements. enrolments have been fairly constant since 2007. table 5: number of college credit transfer student entering lu on all campuses headcount - ug 2003f 2004f 2005f 2006f 2007f 2008f 2009f 2010f 2011f 2012f 2013f full-time - plein temps 503 949 1,181 1,357 1,367 1,376 1,486 1,558 1,582 1,532 1,462 part-time - temps partiel 528 504 531 630 628 620 648 655 599 632 610 1,031 1,453 1,712 1,987 1,995 1,996 2,134 2,213 2,181 2,164 2,072 total figure 2: number of college transfer students entering laurentian university 2,500 number of students 2,000 30% 32% 31% 31% 1,500 30% 27% 29% 29% 31% 35% part-time - temps partiel 1,000 full-time - plein temps 51% 69% 500 68% 69% 69% 70% 70% 73% 71% 71% 65% 49% 0 table 6: top 10 disciplines into which college transfer students entered at laurentian university arts - 4 years social work arts - 3 years business administration science - 4 year commerce and administration engineering arts - 3 ans human kinetics psychology 2009f 2010f 2011f 2012f 2013f 319 331 308 310 278 143 180 219 237 252 411 389 375 324 248 236 260 251 255 226 46 64 69 70 62 46 38 58 55 56 25 29 35 34 45 71 73 57 40 42 46 37 31 35 31 22 9 7 8 29 page 12 of 19 table 6 describes the top 10 choices of students enrolling as college credit transfer students. of the 1,269 students who reported these choices, 630 (49.6%) were interested in 3 or 4 year arts or science programs. table 7: the admission funnels for full-time college transfer students from the laurentian university main campus. term acant offer conf reg offer/acant% conf/acant% reg/acant% 2003f 480 347 250 199 72.29% 52.08% 41.46% 2004f 621 498 325 263 80.19% 52.33% 42.35% 2005f 644 530 332 277 82.30% 51.55% 43.01% 2006f 588 456 300 237 77.55% 51.02% 40.31% 2007f 531 430 255 202 80.98% 48.02% 38.04% 2008f 452 349 186 137 77.21% 41.15% 30.31% 2009f 470 380 243 196 80.85% 51.70% 41.70% 2010f 467 380 263 204 81.37% 56.32% 43.68% 2011f 434 349 227 184 80.41% 52.30% 42.40% 2012f 468 381 241 190 81.41% 51.50% 40.60% 2013f 445 383 257 179 86.07% 57.75% 40.22% total 5600 4483 2879 2268 80.05% 51.41% 40.50% figure 3: college transfer admission funnels 2003-2013 700 admission funnel numbers 600 500 400 acant 300 offer 200 reg conf 100 0 the table and figure above (table 7 and figure 3) which display the admission funnels for fulltime college transfer students from the laurentian university main campus, confirms tables 4 and 6. for example, in 2013 laurentian university sent offers to 383 of the 445 students who had applied as transfer credit students. in other words, lu sent offers to 86% of the students. page 13 of 19 of the 383 students who were sent offers of admission, 257 students responded (67% positive response rate). however, of the 257 who confirmed their registration only 179 (46%) followed through and actually registered. from the offer of admission stage to the registration stage laurentian university lost 204 (53%) potential students. to summarize, only approximately 46%, year after year, actually register for courses at lu. to quote finnie (2008) so much movement suggests that a portion of the students are either turned off by their experience, dont have enough information going in, or are unprepared. information for this report was collected from various north american universities, peer reviewed journals, and the nacada website. in addition, a transfer student survey was sent out to each of the 1200 transfer students that began at laurentian in 2013. the aim of this survey was to collect feedback from transfer students about laurentians current processes and supports. the data was collected until november 29th, giving the respondents 30 days to complete the survey. qualitative data in an attempt to hear laurentian voices focus groups in both english and french were organized. despite repeated efforts, both had very limited success in attracting participants but those who participated did provide some interesting and valuable feedback. a. focus group results summary of discussion: topic 1: orientation event should have two different components: a larger group for general questions and information, but also one-on-one time for specific, personal questions orientation could be program specific, to make the general information sessions more specific to a certain area could also be by faculty area there should be student mentors that are available to share their experience and help guide students through the transition to university life these students should be fresh transfers preferably 2nd year at laurentian so that they remember the specific issues they encountered as a new student an initial contact should be made during the summer to help students get their feet planted and get registration sorted out the actual orientation event should take place in late august or early september and should be a weekend event on a saturday afternoon/sunday mid-morning topic 2: initial support students should be contacted as soon as possible, definitely within first 1-2 months page 14 of 19 have peer mentors available to answer questions they should have an obvious way of being identified: t-shirts there needs to be an increased awareness of the resources that are available need more promotion during the first 2 weeks (before drop/add deadline), there should be a mobile booth at different locations on campus with an advisor who can answer basic course selection questions there should always be advisors on drop-in duty to be accessible to students personal touches are very important i.e. a specific letter with a contact persons name and information at the bottom lu should make use of a texting utility where students can quickly send off a text to get an answer to a simple question this could be called texts for excellence or text-cellence topic 3: registration lu needs to communicate using clear language and have clear program requirements webadvisor should have a way to print a formatted weekly schedule there should be a system of follow-ups to tie up loose ends and ensure that students have chosen the correct courses it shows investment in the student to make sure they had all of their questions answered introduce student mentors who have fresh experiences and remember what was difficult in the transition to help new students topic 4: academic support overall, transfer students coming from college find the transition to the new academic level intimidating it is important for lu to communicate to students what they can expect during the transition time what is different and how do they need to adjust o topics to be covered: expect larger classes less individualized attention what the profs expect from you academic support available (writing assistance and tutoring) transfer credits and how they apply to degree the important dates should be posted up everywhere and provided to students three-tiered mentoring program o first contact another student who is finishing their first year of the program that the student can relate to and share experiences with (provide cautionary tales/experiences what they did wrong that another student should avoid) o senior student someone who can share information and resources to ensure that the students questions get answered page 15 of 19 o staff mentor/academic advisor to go over course selection and ensure the student has what they need to graduate cae needs to be proactive in promotion but also in contacting students to provide that personal touch the above-mentioned rotating booth should begin again in november to provide students with information about academic support if they arent meeting their grade requirements topic 5: communication students found that there was a 1-2 month gap in communication between the initial offer and the registration package (one student cited this as the reason he would rate lu 4 out of 5 for excellence had there been a communication in between, he would have given a 5 out of 5) registration information not clear enough for transfer students better promotion and material (using emails or posters and pamphlets) students who are new to the area also want to know about sudbury tourism and specific features o where are the grocery stores o how much is rent (average) o what is downtown and where is it o what is the transit system like o what activities are there to do (sudbury wolves) o where are some good restaurants and/or bars o provide a map of the city o where is the greyhound bus station o are there cross-country trails? o where are the health related resources letters with information should be signed with the name of the contact person who can help, not the manager or director that that person reports to there should be one place to get all of your questions answered lu needs to make sure that they are providing accurate information there should be opportunities to participate in live chats and/or texting to get answers information should be in obvious places topic 6: main concerns of transfer students credit transfers ** program requirements * how far away am i from graduation? how do i find help on campus? specific scholarships/bursaries for transfer students (do not qualify for entrance awards) be able to put a face to a need a specific person to contact page 16 of 19 b. survey results the survey was targeted at 1,200 students with transfer designation. the survey, developed in survey monkey, was sent 3 times: january 2013, may 2013 and september 2013. a total of 85 students responded equivalent to a 7% response rate. programming proposals recognizing the unique needs of transfer students, it is important to fashion specific supports and services for this population. transfer students look for their support to be very utilitarian in approach, looking for the answer(s) to their overarching question: what do i need to do to obtain this degree and move on to my professional career?11 1. orientation there are a few considerations to be made when considering planning a transfer student orientation event. firstly, a common barrier to orientation events for transfer students is their external commitments such as work and family life. transfer students are often unable to attend full-day events.12 secondly, transfer students are often slightly older. transfer students are less interested in the high-energy excitement of freshman orientation events and do not want to feel that they are wasting their time at such an event. they would rather receive the essential information such as how to interpret transfer credit reports, how to understand course codes and credits, how to register, what supports are available, etc. this type of information is more valuable if it is delivered in a timely manner. students should have this information in the month of august so that they are able to register for the correct courses in a timely manner. orientation for transfer students should take the form of an evening session in august. the event could be repeated 2-3 times during the month of august to allow for the maximum number of students to attend. the event would provide essential information in a short period of time, allowing for questions at the end. essential information includes: academic advising, academic supports, students engagement (getting involved), and fees. after attending an evening orientation session, transfer students would also be encouraged to participate in the september welcome convocation and orientation. sample orientation schedule: 6:30pm official welcome (5 mins) 6:35pm intro to laurentian university (15 mins) - bilingual/tricultural nature of lu - campus map (virtual campus tour) - essential services 6:50pm student testimonial (current transfer student) (5 mins) 7:00pm advising session (45 mins) - how to read transfer credit report 11 12 mcgowan, 8. davies, 12. page 17 of 19 - how to apply your transfer credits to your degree - how to count credits and interpret course codes - how to register 7:45pm learning assistance centre presentation (15 mins) - promotion of centre and supports offered - emphasis on writing and research 8:00pm student engagement (15 mins) - how to get involved at lu - co-curricular record 8:15pm student fees (15 mins) 8:30pm question period - should have a representative from student fees present to answer questions 9:00pm reception/mingle/networking time 2. registration handbook/pamphlet laurentians current registration handbook is geared towards high school graduates only and does not include any information for transfer students. students therefore either register for the wrong courses (as they register for 1st year courses without considering their transfer credits), or they are left confused and without direction. correct literature will be developed that is geared towards transfer students and their registration needs. the information that a transfer student needs to know will be condensed into a small 10-15 page booklet. information they require: - important dates - checklist for registration - contact info - campus map - academic support - transfer credit info - registration process - blank timetables - fees - orientation info - departmental contact info providing transfer students with their own specific guide with the correct information would eliminate confusion and misinformation, open lines of communication, and improve retention. 3. online registration guide creating an online registration tutorial provides students with an avenue to be self-reliant and access accurate information quickly and easily. such a guide will walk students through the registration process and will direct students to their department and the centre for academic excellence for additional assistance if necessary. this guide will be available through lunet and will be a basic introduction to laurentians systems and processes. page 18 of 19 conclusion laurentian will: 1. implement systems and programming that are targeted towards the transfer student population, 2. improve the initial student experience, 3. create a welcoming atmosphere where transfer students feel they can belong. page 19 of 19 references ashby, j.d., wall, h.w., & osipow, s.h. (1966). vocational certainty and indecision in college freshmen. personnel and guidance journal, 44, 1037-1041. baird, l.l. (1967). the undecided student how different is he? american college testing report no.22. iowa city: american college testing program. davies, timothy gray. transfer student experience: comparing their academic and social lives at the community college and university. college student journal (march 1999): 1-14. gard, dwight r. et al. student perceptions of factors contributing to community-college-to-university transfer success. community college journal of research and practice 36, 11 (2012): 833-848. gordon, v.n. (1998). career decidedness types: a literature review. the career development quarterly, 46, 386-403. mcclure, ann. targeting transfers: community colleges, universities, and states working together to improve the transfer process. university business (november 2008): 32-33. mcgowan, rosemany a. & timothy gawley. the university side of the college transfer experience: insights from university staff. college quarterly 9, 3 (summer 2006): 1-17. ontario college-university degree completion accord (1999) retrieved from http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/publications/credittransfere.pdf on november 2013. ontario undergraduate student alliance prepared a policy paper on student mobility (2012). thurmond, karen. transfer shock: why is a term forty years old still relevant? nacada clearinghouse academic advising resources (2007): williamson, e.g. (1937). scholastic motivation and the choice of a vocation, school and society, 46, 353357. withem, ryan d. the ignored population: transfer students. the mentor: an academic advising journal (april 4, 2007): 1-4. ziller, r.c. (1957). vocational choice and utility for risk. journal of counseling psychology, 4, 61-64. http://collegestudentalliance.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/student-mobility-and-credit-transfer-inontario-may-2012-tamara-popovic.pdf http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/resources/clearinghouse/view-articles/dealing-with-transfershock.aspx#sthash.f5wexlml.dpuf

student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges executive summary alex usher paul jarvey executive summary student pathways increasingly rely on transfer between postsecondary institutions as greater numbers of students move between institutions, pursue multiple credentials, or return to postsecondary education. in order to improve pathways within and between colleges, to understand the barriers that may exist for students, and to develop strategies to improve student mobility, ontario colleges embarked on the improving college system pathways (icsp) project. the following pages report the results of a study that sought to support the objectives of the icsp by developing a better understanding of the experiences of transfer students. it investigated the sources of their satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and potential barriers to credit transfer between ontario colleges. between january and june 2012, 232 students at 23 colleges across ontario colleges were interviewed about their experiences with credit transfer. they were asked to discuss the difficulty of the credit transfer process overall, how helpful they perceived the assistance that they received to be, and a series of questions designed to look for potential barriers to credit transfer between ontario colleges. broadly, students overall satisfaction with their new school was closely correlated to the perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process and the perceived helpfulness of college staff during the transfer process. overwhelmingly, students in the ontario college system who participated in this study expressed positive feelings about their institution, the staff they interacted with, and their experiences with the credit transfer process. some students nevertheless experienced difficulties and expressed dissatisfaction. each of the seven points below discusses a practice or policy which appears to have contributed to the credit transfer process and affected related student experiences, thus offering an area of potential improvement for some ontario institutions: the accessibility and completeness of basic information about the process. both staff and students rely on information about how to progress through the process, who to contact, required documentation, deadlines, and the simple fact that credit transfer is possible. a large majority of respondents reported looking for this information on the website of their current college. the accessibility and completeness of detailed information about the process, such as which prior credits might be eligible for transfer, and how credit transfer might affect schedules, tuition, and other factors. this information was often looked for online, and often provided in person, by staff or faculty. respondents most positive experiences originated from interactions with staff that were both effective and personable. similarly, their worst experiences stemmed from instances where they perceived that they had been treated poorly. respondents reflected positively when the process was streamlined and simple. avoiding the resubmission of documents, reducing the number of forms and approvals required, and designing page 1 for single-point of contact interactions can help to reduce the complexity of the application process for students. collecting course outlines was commonly reported to be difficult and time consuming, especially for students with a longer gap between prior and current pse. respondents reported a number of ways in which institutions helped them with these difficulties, including helping them to contact their prior institution to request the documents, not requiring outlines to be submitted for courses that have been assessed for other students, and accepting unofficial outlines or otherwise being flexible about the documentation requirements. students who waited one week or less to learn the results of their applications for credit transfer were more likely to express lower perceived difficulty, and higher overall satisfaction. students who understood the reasons why their credit application was denied rarely expressed frustration. making the rationale clear can help to encourage positive student experiences. page 2

wilfrid laurier university brantford | waterloo | kitchener | toronto oncat project 2014-07 developing a comprehensive diploma-to-degree online ba/bsc in policing at wilfrid laurier university report prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) by dr. lauren eisler and valerie clement wilfrid laurier university february 28, 2015 table of contents section one: introduction ........................................................................................................... 3 section two: program development process & dates of implementation.................................. 4 section three: analysis of the program ..................................................................................... 6 program learning outcomes.................................................................................................. 6 undergraduate degree level expectations and program learning outcomes ....................... 9 course descriptions ..............................................................................................................11 appendix 1: bd macknight consulting final report .................................................................17 appendix 2: curriculum map .....................................................................................................27 section one: introduction this project originally proposed to develop a comprehensive diploma-to-degree program for students who had earned a diploma in police foundations from algonquin, cambrian, canadore, confederation, durham, fanshawe, georgian, humber, lambton, loyalist, mohawk, niagara, northern, sault, seneca, sheridan, st. lawrence, fleming or st. clair college. laurier sought the development of a 2-year curriculum that admitted students who had demonstrated the core competencies outlined in the police foundations program standard and who had subsequently been employed by a policing department or division in ontario. through numerous consultations and after receiving the consultants report from the interviews conducted with police leaders across canada (discussed in more detail in section two: program development process), as well as with the difficulty incurred trying to include science-based forensics courses into the limited space for curriculum in this 2+2 degree program, it was decided that changes were required to the original proposal. as such, the new proposal is for an honours bachelor of arts in policing, which will be a 20.0 credit undergraduate degree delivered in the faculty of human and social sciences (fhss). students admitted to this program must be serving police officers and have successfully completed a related college diploma program. the specialized program will be delivered fully online in order to meet the demands of students work schedules, as well as to make the degree available to officers across the country. section two: program development process & dates of implementation the dean of the faculty of human and social sciences (fhss) began discussions with faculty regarding a possible degree in policing as early as 2010. evidence of changes to the demands of police in responding to societal issues had become apparent to both police leadership and to faculty members, particularly those in criminology. a program development committee on policing studies consisting of the dean and faculty from criminology, psychology and leadership (three of the four programs in fhss), was struck to explore the idea for this program. the committee researched the scope of the curriculum, potential enrolment, the policies related to the transition from college/career to degree programs, and how to make career advancement visible and easy to navigate. in order to move the project forward and to provide a communication link to police organizations, bd macknight consulting was hired to provide support and advice to the committee. barry macknight has significant experience in the field of policing and a multitude of contacts in the leadership of police organizations. bd macknight consulting led interviews with 34 police leaders across canada (not including manitoba and newfoundland and labrador), which validated the committees discussions and provided further insight into areas where a policing degree could support and complement police development. the experience and input of the consultant has helped to ensure the curriculum addresses the educational needs of police officers and agencies, while the committee has continued to ensure the educational integrity and quality of the courses. the final report from the consultant has been included as appendix 1 below. aside from interviews conducted by the consultant, conversations have also been held over the past three years with police administration and officers in brantford and waterloo, as well as with members of the ontario provincial police and the ontario police college. the need for programs that recognize the challenges faced by officers looking to upgrade their educational qualifications and the fact that many officers cannot participate in programs that employ traditional models of delivery were stressed, as well as the fact that police organizations need officers who are better equipped to understand the complex dynamics of policing in a modern liberal democracy. representatives from the ontario police college met with the committee to express their support and contribute ideas on pathways and curriculum for this program. they confirmed that candidates holding university degrees were generally preferred for leadership roles in the police force and that they expect having a university undergraduate degree will become a requirement for most police leadership roles in the near future. the timely development of this degree was strongly encouraged and possible routes to undergraduate, as well as graduate studies, in collaboration with the opc were discussed. the college representatives contributed their course outlines and program information, and also reviewed how a partnership with laurier might benefit police through a transfer credit agreement towards a university degree. a research assistant and two part-time criminology masters students were hired to research information on programs at other institutions in canada, the united states and the united kingdom, and to further assist with the development of course offerings and program outcomes. led by the associate dean of program development, the research assistants have also contributed to program goals, course development and selection of offerings. working in collaboration with the educational developer in the centre for teaching innovation and excellence, they identified and presented course learning outcomes to the committee. collaboration with the centre for teaching innovation and excellence was ongoing throughout the research and proposal drafting stages. the committee worked with the manager of online learning to determine the capabilities and potential limitations of an online degree. lauriers online learning department is recognized by the province as a leader in quality online learning. the centre for online learning has expressed their support for and approval of this first complete online degree of its kind in canada and the first intentionally online degree at laurier. recruitment and admissions have also expressed their support for the policing program, stating that it is well-suited to be the first online degree. they believe that with the large target audience and support from police leadership, launching this program will be a low risk endeavour. throughout the summer and early fall 2014, the new program proposal for an honours bachelor of arts in policing was written by the central academic unit in consultation with the program development committee. among other details, the proposal package includes the program rational, course descriptions, learning objectives and measurable outcomes. the proposal was passed through the fhsss divisional council on october 6, 2014. following this, the program review sub-committee approved the proposal to move forward to external review and selected reviewer candidates, based on suggestions made by the program development committee. in january 2015, a desk review of the proposed policing program was conducted by dr. rick ruddell (university of regina, external reviewer, lead reviewer) and dr. judy eaton (internal reviewer). the external reviewers report was sent to laurier early in 2015. the report was generally very supportive and positive, suggesting 19 recommendations for expansion and consideration. the program development committee has drafted and submitted the internal response to the external reviewers report, which responds to each recommendation individually. where agreed upon and possible, the recommendations have been incorporated into the new program proposal. the proposal was approved by the senate academic planning committee at their meeting on march 23, 2015. sapc reviewed the proposal package and made a recommendation to senate. senate finance also reviewed the proposal package to assess the resource implications of the proposed program and made a recommendation to senate at their march 25, 2015 meeting. finally, senate will review the proposal package, as well as the recommendations from sapc and senate finance, at their april 15, 2015, meeting. senate will vote on whether to approve the proposal package and send it forward to the quality council for approval and to the ministry of training, colleges, and universities (mtcu) for funding approval. it is at this point that laurier may advertise the program with the permission of the vice-president: academic. factoring in time for quality council and mtcu processes, a january 2016 launch date is expected. section three: analysis of the program program learning outcomes due to the entry requirements for the program, all incoming students will be granted 10.0 transfer credits. 6.0 credits will be granted for a related college diploma (prior learning assessment on an individual basis will be given for students who have a mix of college and/or university credits, but no diploma or degree). 3.0 credits will be granted for any police academy/police college diploma and 1.0 credit will be granted for the mandatory completion of the ontario police college (opc) front line supervisor (fls) course, which is being made fully available online. in addition, students will be required to have a minimum of one year full-time work experience in a policing organization. requiring students to have successfully completed a college degree program reflects the interests of province of ontario in increasing collaborations, partnerships and pathways between colleges and universities. this degree draws on the expertise of both college and university institutions to provide state-of-the art instruction and pedagogy in policing. the inclusion of the opc fls course is based on recommendations from the strategic human resources analysis of public policing in canada to increase collaboration, cost savings and efficiencies by sharing the design, development and delivery of training for skills and knowledge that are common to policing across jurisdictions.1 students would be granted 1.0 transfer credit for the successful completion of this course, which is offered online by opc and has attracted students globally. the fls course has three-modules that are designed for officers within the promotional process or new police patrol supervisors who have been supervising for one year or less. it includes curricula on communication skills, leadership, organizational skills, performance management, and self-management, as well as extensive journaling exercises. if this course has not been completed prior to enrollment in the policing degree at laurier, students will have until the completion of the degree program to fulfill the fls course requirement. although related college diplomas in addition to police foundations will be accepted for admission, the learning outcomes for the ba in policing will primarily build upon the prior learning experiences that students in police foundations programs receive. the police foundations diploma programs at ontarios publicly-funded colleges share started program learning outcomes that address vocational competencies, general education competencies and essential employability skills.2 as such, the program learning outcomes for the ba in policing will include the vocational learning outcomes that inform all police foundations diploma programs, which are as follows: 1 2 strategic human resources analysis of public policing in canada, pp. 5. police foundations program standard, mtcu, august 2010. 1. complete all tasks in compliance with pertinent legislation, as well as policing standards, regulations and guidelines. 2. analyze all relevant information and make effective and legally defensible decisions in accordance with ethical and professional standards. 3. be accountable for ones actions when carrying out all tasks. 4. develop and implement ongoing effective strategies for personal and professional development. 5. ensure the respect of human rights and freedoms in all interactions. 6. work co-operatively in multidisciplinary teams to achieve mutual goals. 7. collaborate in the development and implementation of community policing strategies. 8. monitor, evaluate and document behaviours, situations and events accurately and discreetly in compliance with legal, professional, ethical and organizational requirements. 9. mitigate risks and maintain order by applying effective strategies in crisis, conflict and emergency situations. 10. take positive actions to help crime victims. 11. conduct investigations by collecting, documenting, preserving and presenting admissible evidence. on this foundation of vocational skills and general education, the ba in policing strives to provide an educational experience that allows students to deepen their knowledge base in the psychological, sociological, leadership and technical aspects of police work; achieve a greater degree of intellectual autonomy; and pursue professional advancement. through the below listed program learning outcomes, it is expected that upon completion of the ba in policing, students should be able to: demonstrate knowledge of historical, social and political contexts in the development of modern police response strategies in canada. articulate the major methodological, theoretical and political debates in contemporary criminology and criminal justice. select appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods and apply these methods to analyze and interpret data. interpret research projects and results in law enforcement, including data collection, organization, and reporting of findings. apply criminological and psychological theories and perspectives to interpret and critique contemporary law enforcement issues (e.g. corruption, excessive force, racial profiling, cybercrime, youth crime). demonstrate an understanding of and appreciation for the complexity of indigenous justice systems and identify the role of law enforcement officials in first nations communities. demonstrate intercultural competence and sensitivity and apply these skills in working with marginalized populations. acknowledge the implications that group-based biases, such as racial, religious, and gender, have on law enforcement work. utilize leadership skills to conduct and evaluate performance assessments for law enforcement personnel. review and interpret policy surrounding law enforcement program development, implementation and evaluation. recognize and assess the limits of law enforcement interventions. demonstrate knowledge of the effects and consequences of experiencing trauma and critical incidents to develop the ability to maintain resiliency in personal and professional relationships. develop and demonstrate personal wellness and self-care strategies (e.g., resilience, renewal). respond to criticism and feedback respectfully and non-defensively. engage in ethical conduct in police work and accept accountability for ones actions. maintain neutrality to resolve/stabilize personal and professional conflict involving marginalized populations such as those living in poverty, first nations, and minority populations. communicate clearly and confidently both orally and in writing to different audiences. craft and deliver arguments using sound reasoning and argumentation. collaborate and communicate courteously and respectfully with different stakeholder groups (e.g. peers, police chiefs, government agencies, community, first nations). recognize the role of social media in law enforcement and use discretion, courtesy and professionalism when using social media platforms. recognize the importance of and develop an interest in staying current with best practices. undergraduate degree level expectations and program learning outcomes the following table demonstrates the alignment between the program learning outcomes for the ba in policing with the institutional and provincial undergraduate degree level expectations (udles). the program outcomes were developed using the udles as a framework to ensure that in demonstrating achievement of the program outcomes upon completion of their degree, students had also met the udles. alignment between undergraduate degree level expectations and program learning outcomes undergraduate degree level expectation category depth and breadth of knowledge knowledge of methodologies associated ba policing program learning outcome(s) demonstrate knowledge of historical, social and political contexts in the development of modern police response strategies in canada articulate the major methodological, theoretical and political debates in contemporary criminology and criminal justice demonstrate an understanding of and appreciation for the complexity of indigenous justice systems and identify the role of law enforcement officials in first nations communities select appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods and apply these methods to analyze and interpret data interpret research projects and results in law enforcement, including data collection, organization, and reporting of findings application of knowledge communication skills awareness of limits of knowledge apply criminological and psychological theories and perspectives to interpret and critique contemporary law enforcement issues (e.g. corruption, excessive force, racial profiling, cybercrime, youth crime) demonstrate intercultural competence and sensitivity and apply these skills in working with marginalized populations demonstrate knowledge of the effects and consequences of experiencing trauma and critical incidents to develop the ability to maintain resiliency in personal and professional relationships develop and demonstrate personal wellness and self-care strategies (e.g., resilience, renewal) communicate clearly and confidently both orally and in writing to different audiences recognize the role of social media in law enforcement and use discretion, courtesy and professionalism when using social media platforms craft and deliver arguments using sound reasoning and argumentation collaborate and communicate courteously and respectfully with different stakeholder groups (e.g. peers, police chiefs, government agencies, community, first nations) recognize and assess the limits of law enforcement interventions acknowledge the implications that group-based biases, such as racial, religious, and gender, have on law enforcement work autonomy and professional capacity respond to criticism and feedback respectfully and nondefensively engage in ethical conduct in police work and accept accountability for ones actions utilize leadership skills to conduct and evaluate performance assessments for law enforcement personnel review and interpret policy surrounding law enforcement program development, implementation and evaluation recognize the importance of and develop an interest in staying current with best practices maintain neutrality to resolve/stabilize personal and professional conflict involving marginalized populations such as those living in poverty, first nations, and minority populations course descriptions in order to achieve the program learning outcomes, all students in the honours ba degree in policing will take 20 required courses for a total of 10.0 credits, as outlined below. the required courses introduce students to a broad variety of concepts in policing, specifically targeting the areas of concentration where police leaders believe further training is required. the courses have been labeled to reflect the level of expected analysis students will be undertaking. a curriculum map demonstrating the relationship between the required courses in the program and the program learning outcomes has been included as appendix 2. there are five courses that are prerequisites to all other courses, namely: pd100 models of policing pd101 communications for policing pd200 police psychology pd201 intercultural communication in policing pd202 leadership and career development in law enforcement these courses introduce topics and skills that are fundamental for all other courses. once the introductory courses are completed, courses can generally be re-ordered based on availability and interest. only three courses have additional prerequisites (pd400 research methods ii, pd402 indigenous peoples political structures, and pd403 immigration and conflict zones). these courses build on knowledge gained in the pre-requisite lower-level courses. pd100 models of policing (0.5 credit) this course reviews international models of policing to trace the development of modern police response strategies in canada. the course traces the historical, social, and political contexts surrounding the incorporation of police response strategies over time. students will theorize about how the role and nature of police work differs under each model of policing, and identify solutions to problems that modern strategies face. pd101 communications for policing (0.5 credit) this course will provide an introduction to research and theories in the field of interpersonal communications and how this information relates to individuals inside and outside of organizations. communication skills are probably the single most important skill required to be successful in business and in personal relationships. research has shown that effective communications skills are as necessary to career advancement as technical competence, work experience and academic qualifications. in addition, this course focuses on building and enhancing your knowledge in the kinds of communications skills that employers expect. pd200 police psychology (0.5 credit) this course will introduce students to the techniques used to measure and assess police personnel, and deepen their understanding of the on-the-job experiences that can affect the mental health of police personnel. students will learn about intelligence and personality testing, the effects of experiencing trauma and compassion fatigue, the importance of stress management, self-care, and fit-for-duty assessments. pd201 intercultural communication in policing (0.5 credit) intercultural communication in policing introduces students to the field of intercultural communication in order to recognize the challenges faced by law enforcement officials in understanding and interpreting the behaviours, actions, and attitudes of individuals in conflict within their own communities, within the larger community, and with the law. topics include postmodern theory, post marxism and cultural studies, critical race theory, race, racism, and representation. pd202 leadership and career development in law enforcement (0.5 credit) increasingly, leadership skills, capacity, and awareness are needed by members of todays law enforcement organizations. this course provides an overview of the leadership approaches historical and contemporary, the role of context in determining leadership approaches, the crucial relationship of leadership and followership, and leadership strategies for building relationships and motivating others. self-awareness is a fundamental element to leadership development. through self-assessments and leadership skills development exercises you will also have the opportunity to gain insights into your own leadership style the strength of your style and ways to enhance your leadership skills and capacity. pd203 diversity & inclusion within the force (0.5 credit) introduces students to topics to contribute to a working environment that is equitable and free of discrimination, harassment and disruptive of systems of advantage. students will recognize and welcome the strengths of diversity within the force. topics include the difference between diversity and inclusion (and the benefits of each), hegemonic masculinity, privilege, intersectionality, and allyship. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd204 reasoning and argumentation in the criminal justice system (0.5 credit) this course focuses on developing the principles of logical reasoning and argumentation. students will be able to identify arguments, analyze their structure, and critically assess their validity. by learning the necessary skills to analyze informal reasoning, students will improve their reasoning, cognitive, communication, and critical thinking skills, contributing to their ability to present sound arguments. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd205 psychology and law enforcement (0.5 credit) this course will apply psychological principles and concepts to law enforcement. students will increase their competency and understanding of interviewing, interrogation, hostage negotiation, eyewitness testimony, and offender profiling. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd300 research methods i (quantitative methods) (0.5 credit) an introduction to statistical and geographic research methods, with an emphasis on the understanding and use of these procedures in law enforcement. students will become familiar with designing research questions, constructing hypotheses, identifying types of variables, assessing reliability and validity, selecting appropriate research methods, and understanding elementary quantitative and spatial data analysis. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd301 policing a complex and diverse community (0.5 credit) examines key historical and sociopolitical issues in law enforcement practices to recognize their impact on marginalized populations. students will expand their cultural awareness and improve intercultural communication skills to work more effectively and judiciously in a diverse community. topics include critical race theory, cultural diversity and sensibility, tactical communication practices, and racial profiling. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd302 indigenous communities and policing (0.5 credit) this course examines historical trauma and its generational impacts on first nation peoples. students will learn from elders to better understand respectful ways of practicing law enforcement in first nations communities and with indigenous peoples. they will learn to engage and acknowledge the varying supports and integral roles law enforcement officers offer in first nations communities. the goal of this course is for law enforcement officials to gain a diverse understanding of the issues that face first nations communities. z prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd303 mental health, addiction, and crime (0.5 credit) this course focuses on the interaction between mental health, addiction, and crime as faced by officers in the line of duty. this course exposes students to various mental health and substance abuse disorders using real case scenarios alongside the students personal experiences. students will become familiar with risk assessment and management techniques, anti-drug legislation in canada, the controlled drugs and substance act, and legislative progress made on the war on drugs. by the end of this course, students will be aware of the victimization/stigma associated with mental health, substance abuse disorders, and criminal justice policy. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd304 domestic violence (0.5 credit) this course provides an in-depth analysis of issues surrounding domestic violence, including gendered power relationships, under the broader framework of the sociology of gender. students will examine the various manifestations of domestic violence, including physical, sexual, psychological, social, and economic abuse of intimate partners, children, and elders. the types of interventions used to address domestic violence, as well as their costs, benefits, and limitations will be considered. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd305 media, social media, and crime (0.5 credit) this course will examine the impacts of social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, and youtube on law enforcement and investigation practices. students will learn how to effectively communicate with the general public through social media platforms. students will be exposed to the current policies and legislation dealing with social media including the freedom of information act, protection of privacy, and delivering sensitive information. conversely, students will be exposed to cultural criminal theories, critical marxist theories, and foucauldian theory. in addition, students will identify how real-time virtual public platforms allow law enforcement officials to discover, conduct, and analyze evidence in solving online crimes. in turn, law enforcement officials will be able to use social platforms as agents of social control to assist in reducing the amount of online/virtual deviance, i.e., cyberbullying. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd306 ethics, corruption, and police accountability (0.5 credit) this course will explore contemporary issues of ethics, corruption, and accountability for law enforcement personnel. specifically, this course will also explore how police institutions, the media, the public, and overseeing bodies respond to allegations of unethical or improper conduct by law enforcement. students will apply relevant criminological theories to understand well-known cases of police corruption, racial profiling, noble cause policing, and use of excessive force. students will understand how the powers afforded to police may be used to both uphold and undermine legitimate police practices. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd400 research methods ii (qualitative methods and legal research) (0.5 credit) this course provides students with training in qualitative and legal research methodologies. the content of this course is divided into three sections. the first segment is designed to introduce students to the various epistemological differences between qualitative and quantitative methodology. the second segment exposes students to qualitative research design including research ethics, theoretical grounding, data collection techniques, and organization, interpretation, and reporting of data findings. the third section provides students with the opportunity to build on their knowledge, communication, and analytical skills to make effective and legally defensible arguments. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202, pd300 pd401 civil unrest: the state's use of force against its citizens (0.5 credit) this course is designed to allow students to build upon either their work experience and/or previous security training. in this course, students will learn how to apply use of force theory along with the basic physical skills required to de-escalate/escape, mediate or gain control of human crisis situations. students will use a multidisciplinary theoretical approach to identify the root causes of civil unrest and the importance of social media. using case studies as examples, students will learn how to communicate, manage, and ensure officer safety mechanisms such as principles of riot control that are set in place during periods of citizens/ civil unrest. topics include the legal provisions for the use of force, the fleeing felon rule, police acts and standards, and liability of police use of force. by the end of the course, students will have the knowledgeable and transfer skills to control and prevent civil riots using the appropriate force. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 pd402 indigenous peoples political structures (0.5 credit) first nations political structures introduces students to first nations peoples laws and institutions, and criminal justice systems. in this course, students will gain awareness of the importance of preserving indigenous justice systems. students will develop an understanding of the effects of western judicial systems and the strains they create for first nations peoples relationships with western governments. topics include indigenous identities, government policy implications, tensions between law enforcement officers and indigenous peoples on and off reserves, self-development, and colonialism. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202, pd302 pd403 immigration and conflict zones (0.5 credit) an emphasis will be placed on providing law enforcement officers with the necessary skills to recognize, accept, and be mindful of ethnic, racial, gender, religious and other forms of diversity within canada. using current case examples, students will be able to understand the importance of collaboration/consultation with community agencies, stakeholders, and police chiefs to formulate new tactical approaches to crime within conflict zones. by the end of this course, students will have achieved the necessary skills to identify, address, and maintain neutrality to resolve/stabilize external involvement with marginalized populations such as people living in poverty, first nations, and ethnic minorities. additionally, they will have gained the necessary skills in resolving and stabilizing personal conflict within a multicultural workplace. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202, pd301 pd404 cybercrime (0.5 credit) this course offers an in-depth exploration of the legal, social, and technical issues related to cybercrime within a globalized context. emerging legal responses to cybercrime will be discussed with reference to challenges facing law enforcement. applied issues in cybercrime will also be considered, including the collection of digital forensic evidence, the preservation of rights guaranteed under the charter, and the logistics of leading cybercrime investigations across international jurisdictions. relevant criminological theory will be used to guide discussions of the methods and motivations of cybercriminals. prerequisites: pd100, pd101, pd200, pd201, pd202 appendix 1: bd macknight consulting final report appendix 2: curriculum map required courses program learning outcomes demonstrate knowledge of historical, social and political contexts in the development of modern police response strategies in canada articulate the major methodological, theoretical and political debates in contemporary criminology and criminal justice select appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods and apply these methods to analyze and interpret data interpret research projects and results in law enforcement, including data collection, organization, and reporting of findings apply criminological and psychological theories and perspectives to interpret and critique contemporary law enforcement issues pd100 pd101 i i i i pd200 i pd201 pd202 pd203 pd204 i/r pd205 r i i i pd300 i/r r pd301 pd302 r r r r pd303 pd304 pd305 pd306 pd400 r r r r m r r pd403 r/m r/m r pd402 pd404 m i r pd401 r r/m m r/m m m m required courses program learning outcomes pd100 demonstrate an understanding of and appreciation for the complexity of indigenous justice systems and identify the role of law enforcement officials in first nations communities demonstrate intercultural competence and sensitivity and apply these skills in working with marginalized populations acknowledge the implications of racial biases on law enforcement work utilize leadership skills to participate in and evaluate performance assessments for law enforcement personnel review and interpret policy surrounding law enforcement program development, implementation and evaluation recognize and assess the limits of law enforcement interventions demonstrate knowledge of the effects and consequences of pd101 pd200 i i i pd201 pd202 pd203 pd204 pd205 pd300 pd301 pd302 pd303 pd304 pd305 pd306 pd400 pd401 pd402 pd403 i r m i/r r r m m i/r r r r r/m m m r r r r r pd404 i i i i i i/r i/r r r r r r r/m r/m m r r r/m r/m m m m m m required courses program learning outcomes pd100 experiencing trauma and critical incidents to develop the ability to maintain resiliency in personal and professional relationships develop and demonstrate personal wellness and self-care strategies (e.g., resilience, renewal) respond to criticism and feedback respectfully and non-defensively engage in ethical conduct in police work and accept accountability for ones actions maintain neutrality to resolve/stabilize personal and professional conflict involving marginalized populations such as those living in poverty, first nations, and minority populations communicate clearly and confidently both orally and in writing to different audiences craft and deliver arguments using sound reasoning and argumentation pd101 pd200 pd201 i i i/r i i i/r pd203 pd204 pd205 pd300 pd301 pd302 i i i pd202 r pd303 pd304 r r r r r r i i r r r i/r r r i pd306 pd400 r r r r r r/m r r r pd401 pd402 pd403 pd404 r/m r/m i r pd305 m m m r/m r/m r/m m m r/m m m m m m m required courses program learning outcomes collaborate and communicate courteously and respectfully with different stakeholder groups (e.g. peers, police chiefs, government agencies, community, first nations) recognize the role of social media in law enforcement and use discretion, courtesy and professionalism when using social media platforms recognize the importance of and develop an interest in staying current with best practices legend i = introduce r = reinforce m = met / mastered pd100 pd101 i i pd200 pd201 pd202 pd203 i/r r r pd204 pd205 pd300 pd301 pd302 r r r pd303 pd304 i pd306 r i/r r r r pd400 pd401 r/m i i pd305 r r r/m pd402 pd403 pd404 m m m r/m r/m m m m m

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2014-22 pathways from the software engineering technology diploma program at centennial college to the bachelor of applied health information science degree at conestoga college december 23, 2014 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) and centennial college (centennial) have worked in partnership to establish educational pathways from centennials software engineering technician diploma program (hereafter set) into conestogas bachelor of applied health information science program (hereafter bahis). students from centennials program will be required to take 5 academic semesters, and 1 coop semester. project overview: stage one - gap analysis: the set project members discussed the project expectations, and confirmed timelines and individual responsibilities for the set gap analysis and bridging development, by telephone and email. it was determined that a site visit would not be required. centennial provided the set program design matrix, learning outcomes, and all course outlines for the programs to conestoga. additionally program maps demonstrating how the program learning outcomes are met through the set program curriculum were supplied. conestoga completed a comprehensive gap analysis on june 30th, 2014 for the set program into bahis. (appendix a). in sharing their findings with centennial, the following recommendations were made to ensure strong pathways from set to the bahis degree: the pathway should be able to be completed in two calendar years. 1 stage two - agreement: conestoga and centennial recognize the importance of creating accessible pathways of education for students, while maintaining program integrity and providing for student success. stage two of the project included the development of a program pathway, including bridging courses, addressing the gaps in knowledge, skills or abilities identified through the gap analysis completed in stage one (appendix a). once the bridge was developed, conestoga identified the minimum gpa and other relevant eligibility standards for students seeking admission to bahis via these established pathways. conestoga also identified the courses for which transfer credit will be granted to students entering via each established pathway, as well as the remaining courses to be completed at conestoga. set pathway overview: after completing a bridge course, transfer credit will be granted for the first two years of the bahis program with the exception of the following courses: biomedical concepts l health informatics l health information management l governance & structures of hc systems solving problems in hi biomedical concepts ll clinical systems l introduction to data analysis biomedical concepts lll health information management ll these courses must be completed in addition to the regular year 3 and year 4 courses. year 3 and 4 credits will be granted for 2 breadth electives, management & organizational behaviour, and project management. credit will be given for 1 of 2 co-op terms. an overview of pathway requirements is as follows: # of bridging courses required: 1 # of transfer credits granted to graduates: 17 # of credits to be taken at conestoga, plus # of co-op terms: 30 + 1 co-op there are no fast track opportunities. see appendix b for details regarding bridging curriculum and appendix c for complete pathway details. stage three: final report conestoga and centennial have partnered to complete all analysis and conclusions that support the objectives of project 2014-22: pathways from the software engineering technology diploma program at centennial college to the bachelor of applied health information science degree at conestoga college, including: a curriculum and gap analysis of the pathways (appendix a), a corresponding explanation of bridge curriculum and scheduling (appendix b), and a detailed financial statement (appendix d). centennial set faculty and interested centennial students will be given the opportunity to tour conestogas facilities. conestogas bahis administrators and faculty will be given the opportunity to tour centennial facilities. conestoga will post the complete pathway details at ontransfer.ca on december 23, 2014, and the credit transfer and registrars offices of both conestoga and centennial have been appropriately informed of the new pathway details, per appendix c. the pathway will be implemented in august, 2015. 3 appendix a: gap analysis for set the following is a curriculum and gap analysis of set to the bahis based on a learning outcomes framework. method: learning outcomes from centennials set program (versions 3408 and 3409/3419) were compared against the learning outcomes from the bahis degree. a gap analysis was done to identify set outcomes that achieved outcomes defined for bahis. for each bahis program outcome, gaps and their remediation were assessed and documented. please see the table in the gap analysis: software engineering technician program outcomes (3408) table, below. findings: many of the technical competencies developed in the set program address the technical competencies of the bahis program. there are opportunities to exempt set students from courses of a technical nature. recommendations: set students require courses from the bahis degree in healthcare, biomedicines and health informatics to complete established degree requirements. conclusions: a pathway for set students is feasible based on the technical capabilities of set program graduates. much of the pathway design would bypass the technical curriculum in the bahis degree. gap analysis: software engineering technician program outcomes (3408) conestoga bachelor of applied health information science centennial software engineering technician program outcomes (3408) 1. apply theory and practice of managing data, information, and knowledge using appropriate information and communication technologies for the purpose of improving health care processes and decision-making to achieve better health of individuals, populations, communities, and society. no outcomes apply here. 2. manage healthcare information systems, including planning, analysis, design, development, implementation, maintenance, and evaluation. (2) "design, implement, test and document software systems based on specifications and software engineering methodologies," (4) "test, verify, and evaluate procedures to assess software quality and improve software performance.", (5) "design, model, implement, and maintain a database" and (6) "develop and maintain software systems through the application of networking concepts." gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap the gap here is very significant and is, in some respects, at the heart of the difference between set and ahis graduates. while set graduates will enter with strong knowledge and skills around information and communication technologies, they will be completely lacking knowledge and skills pertaining to health processes and environments; collecting, managing and utilizing data & information in healthcare settings; supporting and implementing knowledge management and decision support in health care contexts. years 1 & 2: some elements of "health informatics i" would be needed, but for the following: "solving problems in hi", "health information management 1, 2" years 3 & 4: take full "health informatics ii & iii", "hc quality improvement", "decision support in hc" & "health information management 3" courses set graduates typically exceed ahis students in terms of this outcome and the gap is really only in the knowledge of the types of clinical systems found in the various care settings from years 1 & 2: a summary module from "clinical systems i" that focuses on an overview of the types of cis's used in the various care settings. other than that, students are well-suited to jump right to the following course: years 3 & 4: take full "clinical systems ii" course 5 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science 3. integrate healthcare information systems within and among various healthcare organizations. 4. assess, monitor and ensure the efficient operation and evolution of applications, core computer functions and networks in a variety of healthcare settings. centennial software engineering technician program outcomes (3408) gap in knowledge and skills outcomes (5) "design, model, implement, and maintain a database", (6) "develop and maintain software systems through the application of networking concepts" and (7) "analyze, design, and implement integrated solutions that address issues of security." set graduates typically exceed ahis students in terms of technology skills so they are well-suited to integrate information systems so the gap is really one in: i.) the healthcare specific integration technologies - e.g. ihe, dicom & hl7 ii.) the knowledge of the types of clinical systems found in the various care settings from years 1 & 2: a summary module from "clinical systems i" that focuses on an overview of the types of cis's used in the various care settings. other than that, students are well-suited to jump right to the following courses: years 3 & 4: take full "clinical systems ii" and "systems integration" courses the gap here is very minimal. set graduates typically exceed ahis students in terms of technology skills so they have much of the skills and capabilities associated with this outcome; the gap is really one of knowledge of the types of clinical systems found in the various care settings from years 1 & 2: a summary module from "clinical systems i" that focuses on an overview of the types of cis's used in the various care settings. other than that, students are well-suited to jump right to the following courses: years 3 & 4: take full "clinical systems ii" (deeper into various types of clinical systems and care settings) and "systems integration" (more focused on evolution of clinical systems) courses (4) "test, verify, and evaluate procedures to assess software quality and improve software performance.", (5) "design, model, implement, and maintain a database" and (6) "develop and maintain software systems through the application of networking concepts." 5. analyze, evaluate and apply best practices in health informatics and health information management in order to support client-centered, safe, high quality health care. no outcomes directly support this program outcome. there may be indirect support for the hi aspect of this outcome in the fact that much of hi overlaps with technology domains. 6. integrate knowledge of the healthcare delivery system into functionality of health information systems and information management in health care. no outcomes apply here. while set students can bridge into the ahis degree with strong technology and programming skills they will have very little direct support for hi knowledge and skills (e.g. hi ii course outcomes 1 to 3 may be supported already) and no support for him. as such they will need the full complement of hi & him courses. the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered at all in the set diploma program so bridge students will have to complete all the degree material pertaining to this outcome. remediation of gap years 1 & 2: take full "health informatics i", "solving problems in hi", "introduction to him", "health records concepts" courses years 3 & 4: take full "health informatics ii & iii", "hc quality improvement" & "advanced him" courses years 1 & 2:take full "governance & structures in hc" course conestoga bachelor of applied health information science 7. apply biomedical and health concepts to the development of healthcare information systems and information management in health care. 8. apply the concepts of organizational behavior, culture, human relations, leadership, and change management to improve development, adoption, and management of health informatics solutions in health care. 9. communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with members of an inter-professional healthcare team. 10. apply the principles and skills of project management to health informatics and health information management initiatives. centennial software engineering technician program outcomes (3408) no outcomes apply here. outcomes (8) "work effectively as a member of a software development team on the design, implementation and testing of a software system where no one person has " and (9) "contribute to the successful completion of the project applying the project management principles in use." may apply here. outcome (8) "work effectively as a member of a software development team on the design, implementation and testing of a software system where no one person has complete knowledge of the entire system." and outcome (9) "interpret, create, and present work-related documents and information effectively and accurately." may apply here. outcome (8) "work effectively as a member of a software development team on the design, implementation and testing of a software system where no one person has " may apply here. gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered at all in the set diploma program so bridge students will have to complete all the degree material pertaining to this outcome. years 1 & 2: take full "biomedical concepts i & ii" courses years 3 & 4: take full "biomedical concepts iii" course while there is some set outcomes supporting this outcome there is considerable absence in terms of the theories of management and organization behaviour, and an even larger gap around the tools and techniques in support of change management. years 3 & 4: take full "mgmt & org behaviour" or "change management" courses gap here, if it exists at all, is small and may be limited to a lack of application of skills in a professional setting, unless of course the set program is a co-op program. the gap may be closed through the verbal and written communication skills developed in remaining courses, plus the co-op work term experience; additionally, in terms of specific courses: years 3 & 4: take full "adult training & education" course no gap here - set program has a "cnet 307 it project management" course which is similar to "project mgmt" course in ahis degree. knowledge and skills pertaining to this outcomes will only be enhanced through the co-op experience and projects & workintegrated-learning opportunities in the degree completion. 7 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science 11. adhere to professional, ethical and legal codes and standards, including ensuring privacy and confidentiality of health information. 12. create and deliver educational material to healthcare professionals in use of information technology to support and improve health care processes. 13. conduct and evaluate research using theory and practice of health informatics and health information management to contribute to evidence based practice in health care. centennial software engineering technician program outcomes (3408) gap in knowledge and skills outcome (10) "analyze the social, ethical, and legal issues that face software engineers to contribute in a positive and productive manner in society." even if the set graduate has had opportunities to adhere to ethical principles and practice, and privacy and confidentiality, in a professional setting, there is most likely still a gap in the absence of a healthcare context, and the special nature of privacy and confidentiality in such settings. some aspects of this outcome may be acquired through co-op experience in a healthcare setting years 3 & 4: take full "security, privacy & confidentiality" & "advanced him" (more for legal codes and standards) courses no outcomes apply here. the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered at all in the set diploma program so bridge students will have to complete all the degree material years 3 & 4: take full "adult training & education" course the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered at all in the set diploma program so bridge students will have to complete all the degree material years 1 & 2: take full "introduction to data analysis" course years 3 & 4: take full "research methods & statistics", "epi, pop'n & public health" & "decision support in hc" courses gap here, if it exists at all, is small and can be closed through a variety of means during degree completion. can be acquired partially through extracurricular activities ahis students commonly engage in through memberships is groups as nihi's nsf and coach. it also comes through an attitude fostered in remaining completion courses. years 3 & 4: take full "adult training & education" course in most cases there will be a gap here, especially in terms of the experiences being in a healthcare context. acquired throughout the work-integrated learning opportunities that arise in the remaining courses in the degree completion, as well as through co-op experiences. requirement for work experience before applying. no outcomes apply here. 14. develop plans for lifelong learning and professional development. no outcomes apply here. 15. apply health informatics and health information management knowledge and skills during work integrated learning opportunities in health care related organizations. no set outcomes apply here. it is possible the student could have engaged in some experience in a healthcare context, through co-op or some other form of workintegrated learning. remediation of gap gap analysis engineering technology program outcomes (3409/3419) conestoga bachelor of applied health information science centennial software engineering technology program outcomes (3409/3419) 1. apply theory and practice of managing data, information, and knowledge using appropriate information and communication technologies for the purpose of improving health care processes and decision-making to achieve better health of individuals, populations, communities, and society. no outcomes apply here. 2. manage healthcare information systems, including planning, analysis, design, development, implementation, maintenance, and evaluation. (2) "design, implement, test and document software systems based on specifications and software engineering methodologies," (4) "test, verify, and evaluate procedures to assess software quality and improve software performance.", (5) "design, model, implement, and maintain a database" and (6) "develop and maintain software systems through the application of networking concepts." gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap the gap here is very significant and is, in some respects, at the heart of the difference between set and ahis graduates. while set graduates will enter with strong knowledge and skills around information and communication technologies, they will be completely lacking knowledge and skills pertaining to health processes and environments; collecting, managing and utilizing data & information in healthcare settings; supporting and implementing knowledge management and decision support in health care contexts. years 1 & 2: some elements of "health informatics i" would be needed, but for the following: "solving problems in hi", "health information management 1, 2" years 3 & 4: take full "health informatics ii & iii", "hc quality improvement", "decision support in hc" & "health information management 3" courses set graduates typically exceed ahis students in terms of this outcome and the gap is really only in the knowledge of the types of clinical systems found in the various care settings from years 1 & 2: a summary module from "clinical systems i" that focuses on an overview of the types of cis's used in the various care settings. other than that, students are well-suited to jump right to the following course: years 3 & 4: take full "clinical systems ii" course 9 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science centennial software engineering technology program outcomes (3409/3419) gap in knowledge and skills 3. integrate healthcare information systems within and among various healthcare organizations. outcomes (5) "design, model, implement, and maintain a database", (6) "develop and maintain software systems through the application of networking concepts" and (7) "analyze, design, and implement integrated solutions that address issues of security." set graduates typically exceed ahis students in terms of technology skills so they are well-suited to integrate information systems so the gap is really one in: i.) the healthcare specific integration technologies - e.g. ihe, dicom & hl7 ii.) the knowledge of the types of clinical systems found in the various care settings from years 1 & 2: a summary module from "clinical systems i" that focuses on an overview of the types of cis's used in the various care settings. other than that, students are well-suited to jump right to the following courses: years 3 & 4: take full "clinical systems ii" and "systems integration" courses the gap here is very minimal. set graduates typically exceed ahis students in terms of technology skills so they have much of the skills and capabilities associated with this outcome; the gap is really one of knowledge of the types of clinical systems found in the various care settings from years 1 & 2: a summary module from "clinical systems i" that focuses on an overview of the types of cis's used in the various care settings. other than that, students are well-suited to jump right to the following courses: years 3 & 4: take full "clinical systems ii" (deeper into various types of clinical systems and care settings) and "systems integration" (more focused on evolution of clinical systems) courses 4. assess, monitor and ensure the efficient operation and evolution of applications, core computer functions and networks in a variety of healthcare settings. (4) "test, verify, and evaluate procedures to assess software quality and improve software performance," (5) "design, model, implement, and maintain a database" and (6) "develop and maintain software systems through the application of networking concepts." 5. analyze, evaluate and apply best practices in health informatics and health information management in order to support client-centered, safe, high quality health care. no outcomes directly support this program outcome. there may be indirect support for the hi aspect of this outcome in the fact that much of hi overlaps with technology domains. 6. integrate knowledge of the healthcare delivery system into functionality of health information systems and information management in health care. no outcomes apply here. while set students can bridge into the ahis degree with strong technology and programming skills they will have very little direct support for hi knowledge and skills (e.g. hi ii course outcomes 1 to 3 may be supported already) and no support for him. as such they will need the full complement of hi & him courses. the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered at all in the set diploma program so bridge students will have to complete all the degree material pertaining to this outcome. remediation of gap years 1 & 2: take full "health informatics i", "solving problems in hi", "introduction to him", "health records concepts" courses years 3 & 4: take full "health informatics ii & iii", "hc quality improvement" & "advanced him" courses years 1 & 2: take full "governance & structures in hc" course conestoga bachelor of applied health information science 7. apply biomedical and health concepts to the development of healthcare information systems and information management in health care. 8. apply the concepts of organizational behavior, culture, human relations, leadership, and change management to improve development, adoption, and management of health informatics solutions in health care. 9. communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with members of an inter-professional healthcare team. 10. apply the principles and skills of project management to health informatics and health information management initiatives. centennial software engineering technology program outcomes (3409/3419) no outcomes apply here. outcomes (8) "work effectively as a member of a software development team on the design, implementation and testing of a software system where no one person has " and (9) "contribute to the successful completion of the project applying the project management principles in use." may apply here. outcomes (8) "work effectively as a member of a software development team on the design, implementation and testing of a software system where no one person has ", (9) "contribute to the successful completion of the project applying the project management principles in use." and (10) "interpret, create, and present work-related documents and information effectively and accurately." outcome (9) "contribute to the successful completion of the project applying the project management principles in use." gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered at all in the set diploma program so bridge students will have to complete all the degree material pertaining to this outcome. years 1 & 2: take full "biomedical concepts i & ii" courses years 3 & 4: take full "biomedical concepts iii" course while there is some set outcomes supporting this outcome there is considerable absence in terms of the theories of management and organization behaviour, and an even larger gap around the tools and techniques in support of change management. years 3 & 4: take full "mgmt & org behaviour" or "change management" courses gap here, if it exists at all, is small and may be limited to a lack of application of skills in a professional setting, unless of course the set program is a co-op program. the gap may be closed through the verbal and written communication skills developed in remaining courses, plus the co-op work term experience; additionally, in terms of specific courses: years 3 & 4: take full "adult training & education" course no gap here - set program course in project management is similar to "project mgmt" course in ahis degree. knowledge and skills pertaining to this outcomes will only be enhanced through the co-op experience and projects & workintegrated-learning opportunities in the degree completion. 11 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science 11. adhere to professional, ethical and legal codes and standards, including ensuring privacy and confidentiality of health information. 12. create and deliver educational material to healthcare professionals in use of information technology to support and improve health care processes. 13. conduct and evaluate research using theory and practice of health informatics and health information management to contribute to evidence based practice in health care. centennial software engineering technology program outcomes (3409/3419) gap in knowledge and skills outcome (11) "analyze the social, ethical, and legal issues that face software engineers to contribute in a positive and productive manner in society." even if the set graduate has had opportunities to adhere to ethical principles and practice, and privacy and confidentiality, in a professional setting, there is most likely still a gap in the absence of a healthcare context, and the special nature of privacy and confidentiality in such settings. some aspects of this outcome may be acquired through co-op experience in a healthcare setting years 3 & 4: take full "security, privacy & confidentiality" & "advanced him" (more for legal codes and standards) courses no outcomes apply here. the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered at all in the set diploma program so bridge students will have to complete all the degree material years 3 & 4: take full "adult training & education" course the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not covered at all in the set diploma program so bridge students will have to complete all the degree material years 1 & 2: take full "introduction to data analysis" course years 3 & 4: take full "research methods & statistics", "epi, pop'n & public health" & "decision support in hc" courses gap here, if it exists at all, is small and can be closed through a variety of means during degree completion can be acquired partially through extracurricular activities ahis students commonly engage in through memberships is groups as nihi's nsf and coach. it also comes through an attitude fostered in remaining completion courses. years 3 & 4: take full "adult training & education" course in most cases there will be a gap here, especially in terms of the experiences being in a healthcare context. acquired throughout the work-integrated learning opportunities that arise in the remaining courses in the degree completion, as well as through co-op experiences. requirement for work experience before applying. no outcomes apply here. 14. develop plans for lifelong learning and professional development. outcome (12) "identify and implement strategies to improve job performance and promote personal and professional growth." 15. apply health informatics and health information management knowledge and skills during work integrated learning opportunities in health care related organizations. no set outcomes apply here. it is possible the student could have engaged in some experience in a healthcare context, through co-op or some other form of workintegrated learning. remediation of gap appendix b: bridging documentation set pathway delivery schedule required set_p1_fall biomedical concepts i clinical systems i health informatics i introduction to data analysis web application development i co-op & career preparation (no credit) health information management i set_p2_winter clinical systems ii governance & structures of hc systems solving problems in hi web application development ii health information management ii information technology planning and procurement set_p3_spring co-op term set_p4_fall biomedical concepts ii breadth elective iv health informatics ii research methods & statistics user training & adult education systems analysis & design bahs(him) program exemptions for set pathway y1/s1/fall exempted courses information systems i academic communication required biomedical concepts i health informatics i health information management i y1/s2/winter exempted courses database concepts i group dynamics information systems ii programming concepts i required governance & structures of hc systems solving problems in hi y2/s3/fall exempted courses database concepts ii professional communication programming concepts ii required biomedical concepts ii clinical systems i introduction to data analysis 13 set pathway delivery schedule bahs(him) program exemptions for set pathway set_p5_winter biomedical concepts iii decision support in health care epidemiology, population & public health security, privacy & confidentiality systems integration health information management iii set_p6_spring change management health care quality improvement health informatics iii visual design interpersonal conflict management exempted courses exempt breadth elective i - iii project management database concepts i database concepts ii database concepts iii group dynamics health informatics field studies information systems i information systems ii management & org behaviour professional communication programming concepts ii programming concepts i co-op term academic communication y2/s4/winter exempted courses database concepts iii health informatics field studies elective required biomedical concepts iii health information management ii y3/s5/fall required health informatics ii research methods & statistics user training & adult education web application development i co-op & career preparation (no credit) systems analysis & design y3/s6/winter exempted courses breadth elective iii management & org behaviour project management required epidemiology, population & public health web application development ii information technology planning and procurement y3/s7/spring exempted courses: co-op term y4/s8/fall required: co-op term set pathway delivery schedule bahs(him) program exemptions for set pathway y4/s9/winter required breadth elective iv clinical systems ii decision support in health care security, privacy & confidentiality systems integration health information management iii y4/s10/spring exempted courses breadth elective i required change management health care quality improvement health informatics iii visual design interpersonal conflict management 15 appendix c: pathway documentation pathway details title of pathway: from: software engineering technology to: bachelor of applied health information science pathway type: list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: degree completion conestoga college, centennial college date the pathway is put into effect: august 2015 expiry date: expiry is four (4) years from implementation. in order to maintain currency, you will be required to review the mapping for this pathway the year before expiry. program designs for which this pathway is eligible: terms for renewal or cancellation: year/s or version/s: n/a contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/1131c.jsp all conestoga pathways will have a default review date of three years from the date of implementation. pathways may have a shorter review date if substantive curriculum changes are made to either the sending or receiving program. students enrolled in the receiving institution at the time of any change or notice of termination will be given the opportunity to complete their studies based on the terms of the transfer pathway in effect at the time of their enrollment. program coordinator - name, phone, email: justin st-maurice, 519-7485220 x 2593, jstmaurice@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates with a system engineering technology (set) diploma with a minimum b average may apply for advanced standing into the bachelor of applied health science in health informatics management degree. once they are given an offer of admission by conestoga, applicants must successfully complete a bridging module consisting of 1 week of full-time studies at the end of august before beginning full-time studies in september. the bridging module consists of a 45 hour course comprised of lectures and a project. students enter into a modified year 3. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 3.0 (b average) minimum gpa or % required in specific courses n/a total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: 46 co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 2 total number of p r o g r a m courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled fulltime: list of eligible institutions and their programs number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 2 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 1 16 transfer credit will be granted for the first two years of the bachelor of applied health information science program with the exception of the following courses: biomedical concepts l, health informatics l, health information management l, governance & structures of hc systems, solving problems in hi, biomedical concepts ll, clinical systems l, introduction to data analysis, biomedical concepts lll, and health information management ll, these courses must be completed in addition to the regular year 3 and 4 courses. year 3 and 4 credits will be granted for 2 breadth electives, management & organizational behaviour, and project management. credit will be given for 1 of 2 co-op terms. 30 all required courses listed in appendix b. number of academic semesters: 5 + 1 co-op number of years: 2 centennial college systems engineering technology (3409/3419/3408 ), conestoga college systems engineering technology 17 appendix e: key milestone table id. 1 2 3 title set program evaluation and gap analysis program bridge mappings oncat posting and final report planned completion date forecast completion date as reported two months ago forecast completion date as reported last month 01-apr-30 n/a n/a 30-jun-14 30-june 14 30-aug-14 31-dec-14 n/a n/a n/a n/a 30-jun-14 30-june 14 31-dec-14 23-dec-14 current forecast completion date actual completion date 19

wilfrid laurier university brantford | waterloo | kitchener | toronto project 2015-28 executive summary enhancement of existing and creation of additional diploma to degree pathways between wilfrid laurier university & conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning report prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) by dr. lauren eisler and valerie clement september 30, 2016 executive summary project 2015-28 sought to build upon the success of oncat project 2014-06 by continuing to enhance existing and create new academic pathways within the comprehensive partnership between wilfrid laurier university (laurier) and conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning (conestoga) through their memorandum of understanding (mou). this project also sought to continue to enhance the transferable model that was developed as part of project 2014-06. as such, the two main components of this project were to: 1) identify fully the opportunities for joint academic and shared administrative services/infrastructure in brantford; and 2) create tools and models that can expedite/facilitate new partnerships and joint programming across ontarios postsecondary education system. in order to identify opportunities for shared administrative services and infrastructure on the brantford campuses, executive bodies from laurier and conestoga have been working to draft collaboration agreements to append to the memorandum of understanding that was signed in 2013. it was originally proposed that six potential areas for partnerships be explored to build upon the strengths of both institutions. during the scope of this project, some ideas were explored, while others were added or developed in an altered form. in total, four joint programs were successfully developed: conestogas autism and behavioural science graduate certificate with lauriers honours bachelor of arts in community health; conestogas sustainable business management (formerly green management) and community and social service management graduate certificates with lauriers honours bachelor of arts in society, culture, and environment; conestogas community and social service management graduate certificate with lauriers honours bachelor of arts in human rights and human diversity; and conestogas human resources management and career development practitioner graduate certificates with lauriers new honours bachelor of arts in work and employment. additionally, a new integrated program was developed - conestogas integrated media marketing user experience with lauriers new bachelor of arts in experience design - and is currently awaiting approval by the ministry of advanced education and skills development. three opportunities for future collaborations were also identified as part of this project. the creation of new academic pathways for students inevitably led to tools and models to be developed to help facilitate joint programming. while many of the tools, models, and best practices were developed as part of project 2014-06, some have been revised and other ones have been created, including marketing initiatives. templates and copies of the service processes have been appended to the final report for use as a transferable model in ontarios post-secondary education system. 2

seneca colleges degree and credit transfer oce: a prole of users and an examination of outcomes ursula mccloy, victoria baker, kathleen williams & henry decock seneca college oncat project 2015-04 december 2017 research mobility 564-70 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility list of contacts ursula mccloy director, centre for research in student mobility seneca college ursula.mccloy@senecacollege.ca victoria baker manager, degree and credit transfer office seneca college victoria.baker@senecacollege.ca henry decock associate vp, academic partnerships centre for research in student mobility seneca college henry.decock@senecacollege.ca kathleen williams research analyst, centre for research in student mobility seneca college kate.williams@senecacollege.ca 1 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility acknowledgements this project was funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). mitchell steffler, former research analyst at the centre for research in student mobility, contributed to the creation of the linked dataset. mustafizur rahman, john meskes, and michael cunningham of senecas information technology services department supported data extraction from senecas student information system. limin chen of senecas office of institutional research and planning was an invaluable source of information on all of senecas survey and data fields, while charlotte gayman of senecas testing centre provided information on the language placement tests and procedures. kriss bacon of senecas degree and credit transfer office (dcto) extracted the data from the dcto advisement appointment database and jennifer kloosterman provided information and feedback pertaining to the history of the dcto. 2 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table of contents list of contacts .............................................................................................................................................. 1 acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... 2 executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 4 research questions ................................................................................................................................... 4 methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 5 results ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 conclusions ............................................................................................................................................... 6 introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 7 history and background ............................................................................................................................ 7 previous evaluation ................................................................................................................................... 8 research questions ....................................................................................................................................... 8 methodology ................................................................................................................................................. 9 analysis sample ......................................................................................................................................... 9 data sets .................................................................................................................................................... 9 analytic methods .................................................................................................................................... 13 model building ........................................................................................................................................ 13 limitations ............................................................................................................................................... 14 results ......................................................................................................................................................... 14 part 1. profile of entering students by university aspirations and subsequent use of dcto .................. 14 part 2. transfer outcomes ....................................................................................................................... 25 regression analysis ................................................................................................................................. 42 key findings................................................................................................................................................. 42 part 1. profile of dcto users ................................................................................................................... 42 part 2. transfer outcomes ....................................................................................................................... 43 conclusion and recommendations ............................................................................................................. 44 references................................................................................................................................................... 46 appendices .................................................................................................................................................. 47 3 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility executive summary seneca college is a recognized leader in the field of student transfer and pathways, both nationally and internationally, not just because of its focus on numbers of agreements, but also because of its comprehensive student advising, advocacy, assessment, and development of quality pathways. the degree and credit transfer office (dcto) at seneca provides a variety of integrated services to prospective and current students and alumni. these services include degree transfer advisement on new and existing program pathways diploma to diploma, diploma to degree, and degree to graduate studies and connecting students with other resources and information to support their academic goals. the transfer outcomes of seneca students who have used the dcto services makes for an ideal case study, with findings that could benefit other colleges and universities. senecas dcto was established in 2001 after some investigation pointed to a gap in the provision of information for students. at the time, nearly 44% of incoming students indicated that they planned on pursuing further education after completing their program at seneca (36% at a university) and yet few services existed to support students interested in obtaining further education. previous reviews of dcto services have focused on the experiences of students using the dcto, particularly its flagship publication, the degree transfer guide, providing the dcto with useful but limited feedback. the purpose of the current study is to understand which segments of the seneca student body are making use of the advising services, and which are not, particularly among those who indicated aspirations for university when they entered seneca. secondly, the study aims to understand the transfer rates and experiences of those who used the dcto advising services versus those who did not. these two research components are discussed in part 1 and part 2, respectively, of this report. research questions part 1. what is the profile of students who use the dcto transfer advising services? how do the sociodemographic and academic backgrounds upon college entry differ between dcto users and non-users? do motivations for college and program selection differ upon college entry for dcto users and nonusers? how many students who aspire to university use the dcto services? how many students who use the services entered college without plans for transfer? how do the profiles of these groups of students differ? how do academic outcomes (graduation rates and grades) differ between dcto users and nonusers? part 2. transfer rate to university and transfer experiences what is the transfer rate to university for those who used the dcto versus those who did not? for graduates who transferred to university, did dcto users differ from non-users in terms of their reasons for transfer, sources of information on transfer, or reported satisfaction with the transition experience? for transfers, does the choice of university or university program differ for those who used the dcto versus those who did not? 4 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility methodology the study used a linked student-level database containing the full student population at seneca. students whose first semester was between the summer of 2007 and the fall of 2014, and whose first program was not a degree or a graduate certificate program, were included in the study. visits to the dcto were captured up until october 13, 2016. in total, 59,942 students fit these criteria and were included in the profile of dcto users (part 1 of study). part 2 of the study, transfer outcomes, included a subset of the part 1 sample of those who had graduated from a seneca diploma or certificate program, had completed the provincially mandated graduate satisfaction survey, and whose first visit to the dcto was less than two months after graduation. this resulted in a sample of 13,607 graduates. results part 1: profile of students who used the dcto advising service users of the dcto were much more likely to have had plans for university when they first entered college, compared to those who did not use the dcto services (65% vs. 37%). younger students, females, and those with a parent with a degree were more likely to use the dcto, whereas canadian citizens and those whose first language was english were less likely. there were no differences by income or osap 1 receipt. students who used the dcto had somewhat stronger academic backgrounds, with 67% of users and 56% of non-users taking mostly university preparatory high school courses, and were somewhat more likely to have a high school average over 70% (50% vs. 45%). however, they were less likely to have previously attended college or university. users of the dcto were much more likely to have entered a three-year advanced diploma program compared to non-users (47% vs. 30%) and to have entered a business program (53% vs. 35%). students who used the dcto were much more likely to obtain higher grades at seneca and to graduate, even when student aspirations, sociodemographic, previous academic, and program factors are taken into consideration. part 2. transfer rate and experiences overall, 58% of dcto users furthered their education within six months of graduation compared to 25% of graduates who did not use the dcto; 44% of graduates who transferred to university had used the dcto advising services, whereas 10% of non-users transferred. this difference held true even when controlling for differences in academic performance, student aspirations and a variety of other factors. in total, 20% of transfers to university used the dcto. although this share differed little by student characteristics, 32% of university transfers from business programs and 29% of transfers from advanced diploma programs used the dcto, compared to the average program rate of 20%. of those who aspired to university at college entry, half of dcto users transferred to university, compared to 22% of non-users. overall, york and ryerson predominate as universities of choice. transfers who used the dcto were much more likely than non-users to transfer to ryerson (30% vs. 17%), with users and non-users equally likely to transfer to york. 1 the ontario student application program (osap) provides eligible postsecondary education students with various types of assistance based on financial need. 5 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility graduates who use the dcto are much more likely than non-users to transfer into business at university (52% vs. 25%) and less likely to transfer into humanities or the social sciences. users of the dcto are equally as likely as non-users to transfer into a related program. the reasons for transferring to university were similar between users and non-users, with career advancement and obtaining a credential cited by almost nine in ten transfers. dcto users were more likely than non-users to cite the potential for higher income (76% vs. 70%) and the presence of a transfer agreement (55% vs. 49%) as major reasons. dcto users make more use of most information sources, particularly college sources. graduates satisfaction with the transition experience (83%) and their academic preparation (87%) for transfer is high for both dcto users and non-users, with little difference between the two groups. conclusions overall, students who use the dcto services have similar sociodemographic and academic backgrounds to other college students, indicating that the services have a fairly equitable reach. however, users seem to be concentrated in programs with a large number of transfer agreements, and therefore the provision of outreach may be necessary for those who are navigating pathways with few or no agreements. those who use the services perform extremely well academically in college compared to non-users, likely because they are highly motivated to obtain the grades required to transfer, and possibly because they benefit from dcto advising services as well as referrals to academic advising. the most significant and positive finding of the study is the high transfer rates to further education and specifically to university for users of the dcto advising services. recommendations to enhance usage include reaching out to students (with aspirations for transfer) early on in their program, as well as to faculty and programs whose students are under-represented among dcto users. 6 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility introduction seneca college is a recognized leader in the field of student transfer and pathways, both nationally and internationally, not just because of its focus on numbers of agreements, but also because of its comprehensive student advising, advocacy, assessment, and development of quality pathways. the degree and credit transfer office (dcto) at seneca provides a variety of integrated services to prospective and current students and alumni. these services include degree transfer advisement on new and existing program pathways diploma to diploma, diploma to degree, and degree to graduate studies and connecting students with resources and information to support their academic goals. as a central repository for transfer agreements, the dcto works closely with academic departments to establish and develop partnerships with universities and colleges, negotiates new articulation agreements, and updates existing ones to reflect curriculum changes and improvements. the dcto facilitates a college-wide transfer credit process that enables students who present previous postsecondary education to obtain transfer credit; promotes and establishes pathways from other institutions into certificate, diploma and degree programs; and continues to build its online equivalency database of transfer credit rules in senecas student information system. at present, no other postsecondary institution in the province has a comparable centralized system of degree and credit transfer, one that also services the needs of prospective and current students and alumni through advisement, access to resources, and detailed pathway information. the transfer outcomes of seneca students who have used the dcto services makes for an ideal case study, with findings that could benefit other colleges and universities. history and background senecas dcto was established in 2001 following an investigation that revealed the need for more comprehensive information on transfer for students. at the time, nearly 44% of incoming students indicated they planned on pursuing further education after completing their program at seneca (36% at a university) and yet few services were available to support students interested in further education. the dcto was among the first of its kind in ontario to act as a central repository for all agreements, and to offer a high level of advisement on pathway options for students. the office evolved from a single staff member, with student services providing degree transfer advisory and support services, to include a fulltime, degree and credit transfer coordinator with support from career services. in september 2011, provincial infrastructure changes took effect: the college university consortium council (cucc) became known as the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the ontario college university transfer guide (ocutg) was replaced by a new online system, ontransfer.ca, designed to showcase available pathways between ontario colleges and universities, and to include course-to-course equivalencies between institutions. at this time, colleges and universities throughout the province began to use ministry 2 funding to establish their own pathways and/or credit transfer departments, in alignment with the ontarios focus on expanding the number of transfer pathways available to students. 2 ontario ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd). 7 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility in 2012, seneca moved the dcto from student services to the academic portfolio, to better align with the colleges academic goals. this change in structure allowed seneca to leverage its knowledge and experience in the area of pathways and to expand its already robust department, with pathway opportunities catapulting as a key differentiator for prospective and current students and alumni. the implementation of senecas new student information system (sis) in 2015, spearheaded the creation of the colleges internal transfer credit system for processing incoming credits and pathways. this initiative enabled the dcto, in collaboration with the registrars office, to provide a centralized service for all related pathways and transfer credit inquiries, both incoming and outgoing. the priorities of the dcto and supports offered are described in appendix 1. previous evaluation the dcto recently began evaluating its services, particularly its flagship publication, the degree transfer guide. a 2015 survey delivered to students who had seen a degree transfer advisor during the academic year, asked a series of questions related to the students advisement experience. more than threequarters (76%) of respondents stated that they had read the guide prior to their degree transfer advisement appointment; 65% of those who had read the guide reported that it was useful to very useful. in response to the question about the usefulness of their individual advising appointment, 63% found it useful or very useful, with 31% finding it very useful. in the following year, the dcto and senecas marketing and communications department organized two focus groups to better understand how the degree transfer guide was being utilized and whether such a detailed hard copy resource was needed on an annual basis. the first focus group included students who had recently consulted with transfer advisors at the dcto, and were likely familiar with the guide because of their connection to advisors. the second group comprised students who worked within the student services department and were likely seeing the book for the first time at the focus group. the results showed that students are using the guide, and consider it to be valuable resource, and that it is typically used in conjunction with one-on-one degree transfer advisement or with web/online searches. research questions part 1 of this report analyzes data from senecas student information system to identify which segments of the student population use the dcto services. part 2 looks at graduate outcomes, and compares the transfer rates and experiences of those who use the dcto advising services versus the outcomes for graduates who do not. the research questions for parts 1 and 2 are as follows: part 1. what is the profile of students who use the dcto transfer advising services? how do the sociodemographic and academic backgrounds upon college entry differ between users and non-users? do motivations for college and program selection differ upon college entry for non-users and users? how many students who aspire to university use the dcto services? how many students who use the service entered college without plans for transfer? how do the profiles of these groups of students differ? how do the academic outcomes (graduation rates and grades) differ between users and non-users? 8 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility part 2. transfer rate to university and transfer experiences what is the transfer rate to university for those who used the dcto versus those who did not? for graduates who transferred to university, did dcto users differ in terms of their reasons for transfer, sources of information on transfer, or reported satisfaction with the transition experience? for transfers, does the choice of university or university program differ for those who used the dcto versus those who did not? methodology analysis sample the study included students who met all of the following criteria: they were in their first semester of a ministry-approved program between the summer of 2007 and the fall of 2014; they had completed the entering-student survey; and their first program was not a degree or a graduate certificate program. students visits to the dcto were captured up until october 13, 2016. in total, 59,942 students met these criteria and were included in part 1 of the study, the profile of dcto users. part 2 of the study drew from the same sample of students, focussing on those who had graduated by 2014 (n=19,029). of those who graduated, 72% completed the gss (13,776). further excluding those who had switched programs and graduated from a degree or a graduate certificate program (n=64), or whose first visit to the dcto was more than two months after graduation 3 (n=105) resulted in a final sample of 13,607 graduates. data sets figure 1 depicts the datasets that were linked for this study, and the details and variables contained in each. to facilitate the linking of datasets, a master id was assigned to match as many records between the datasets as possible and to remove duplicates. this process entailed verifying a students identity using a combination of first name, last name, date of birth, and postal code, as well as the alternate ids already identified within the colleges system. 3 the two month cap was set based on the time frame between graduation and the survey date (6 months). after visiting the dcto students would only have approximately 2 months from the visit to apply and enrol in university. 9 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility figure 1. linked student-level dataset, seneca college entering student survey & placement testing high school transcripts intentions after graduation, previous education, language skill level and demographics seneca student information system demographics, grades, and enrollment status (ontario college application service via seneca student information system) 2006 census neighbourhood income, linked using permanent postal code kpi graduate satisfaction survey transfer status and experience linked student- level seneca dataset dcto user database (student id as unique identifier) high school records for every seneca student who attended an ontario high school, the colleges student information system contains one record for every high school course taken from grade 9 through to grade 12. the subset used for this studys analysis included only those students who had a minimum of six courses from grade 11 or 12. the overall senior high school average was calculated from all grade 11 and 12 course grades. to get a sense of whether the student struggled in high school, the total number of grade 11 or 12 courses failed was also calculated. two variables were created to indicate whether a student took a mainly university preparatory course stream or a college preparatory course stream, defined as mostly u and mostly c respectively. the variable mostly u was defined as having a minimum of half of grade 11 and 12 courses that were of the university (u) or university/college (m) preparatory type, whereas mostly c was defined as having a minimum of half of grade 11 and 12 courses that were of the college preparatory type (c). additionally, an eligible for admission to an ontario university variable was created. for university admission, ontario high school students are required to have at least six grade 12 u or m courses, with the high school average requirement at the discretion of the institution. a review of entrance high school averages reported by ontario universities in the common university data ontario (cudo) indicates that the minimum reported secondary school average is approximately 70%. therefore, high school students are considered eligible for university entrance if their high school average is at least 70% in their top six grade 12 u/m courses. income for a proxy of each students household income, the students permanent postal code was matched to household income data from the 2006 census. using the six-digit permanent postal code in the colleges 10 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility student information system, each student from ontario was assigned to a 2006 dissemination area (da) using a 2011 statistics canada postal code conversion file (pccf). if a students permanent postal code was missing or invalid, the ontario high school postal code was used. a students neighbourhood income group was derived by splitting the das into income terciles of low, medium and high, based on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households. in addition to neighbourhood income, whether a student ever received a loan from the ontario student assistance program (osap) at any point in their college program was used as an individual marker of demonstrated financial need. english-language placement testing most entering students at seneca, depending on their program, are required to complete an englishlanguage placement test (comprising a 300-word essay) to assess writing proficiency. students are also required to complete a computerized placement test (accuplacer) that assesses reading comprehension (120-point scale). based on the test results, students are placed in one of several levels of englishlanguage proficiency and corresponding courses. 4 1) ell1 & ell2 (non-credit): english for english language learners whose test scores are two or three levels of proficiency below college-level english 2) ell3 (non-credit): english for native-english speakers and for ell learners whose test scores are one level of proficiency below college-level english (at the more proficient end of the ell scale) 3) college-level english (credit) and above. college-level english is required for all certificate/diploma programs. includes degree-level english and those exempted (high scorers) entering-student survey during the mandatory placement testing, all entering seneca students must complete a background survey, which includes the following questions: university aspirations upon entry to the college: after graduation from my program, i plan to previous university: the last school i attended was first language: the language i learned first was whether either parent has a university degree: the highest level of education completed by my father/guardian is (includes a separate question for maternal education) main reason for choosing seneca, and specifically, main reason for choosing program at seneca my main activity in the past twelve months in cases where two or more completed surveys existed, the earliest record was used to reflect a students true entering status. the previous university variable is limited in scope because entering students are asked only about the last school they attended and not whether they have ever attended university or have completed a credential. program of entry and graduation only students who enrolled in full-time programs approved by the ministry of advanced education, skills and development (maesd) were included in the study. seven program area groupings were derived from maesds occupation cluster classification system and have been described previously (mccloy & liu, 4 see seneca college website, http://www.senecacollege.ca/testcentre/assessment.html 11 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility 2010). for the analysis of the student profile (part 1), the first program and credential enrolled in were used. for part 2, the analysis of graduates who transferred, the program of graduation was used. college performance overall gpa was calculated from the average of all credit courses ever taken at seneca up to the first credential a student completed. in part 1, the student profile, gpas were grouped into four categories: below 2.0, 2.0 to less than 3.0, 3.0 to 3.49, and 3.5 and above. 5 in part 2, for the transfer analysis of graduates, gpas were grouped into three categories: less than 3.0, 3.0 to 3.49, and 3.5 and above. graduation rates graduation rates were calculated in two ways. one rate represents the share of students who had graduated from their first program within the standard program length; the other represents the share who had graduated from their first program within one year of the standard program length. degree and credit transfer office database degree transfer advisement takes place on a weekly basis across all four of senecas main campuses. senecas newnham campus (one of the largest college campuses in canada) offers advisement appointments one to two times per week, as well as a day of walk-in advisement when no appointment is necessary. prior to the first advisement appointment, each individual is asked to complete an appointment card which gathers information about contact information (name, student id), demographics (age, gender, international status), college gpa, current program, previous education, top four institutions and programs being considered, and intention to complete/not complete the current seneca program. the back of the appointment card has an open ended area for the advisor to write notes based on the discussion, attach any email correspondence, and to indicate whether the appointment was formal, scheduled appointment, an appointment over the phone, or a drop-in. this information has been tracked and housed within an internal database dating back to october 2003. for the current study (with ethics approval), the dcto user database was linked via the student id to the existing research database maintained by the centre for research in student mobility (crsm) for all students who first started at seneca between 2007 and 2014. transfer rates and the experiences of transfer students additional outcomes were obtained from the graduate satisfaction survey (gss) administered by maesd for the years 200708 to 201314. 6 the survey asks graduates about their education and labour market activity during a specified reference week six months after graduating. 5 these categories were used in a previous study on seneca students, and were intended to correspond approximately to being at risk of not graduating, average, and honours (lopez-rabson & mccloy, 2013). senecas current academic policy requires a 1.7 gpa to graduate, and a 3.55 gpa to graduate with honours. see www.senecacollege.ca/academic-policy/ 6 the gss is administered to all college graduates with an ontario college credential from a publicly funded college of applied arts and technology (caat) in ontario. the survey is administered approximately six months after graduation through telephone surveys conducted by an external service provider to whom the colleges provide contact information and graduate characteristics such as age, gender, and program of study. the graduate record file of each college is examined by college auditors and reported to maesd. see http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/documents/graduateandemployerkpisurveys2015-16surveycycle.pdf 12 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility the first question on the gss asks whether the respondent is enrolled in full- or part-time education in the reference week. if the response is yes, the following information is gathered: institution name and type: a drop down list of names of ontario publically funded postsecondary institutions is provided to the interviewer. these institutions are subsequently grouped into university, college, or other education. starting in 201011, specific institution names were provided as open-ended responses to other university, other college, and other education. the current study, reviewed, cleaned and recoded all of these open field responses as needed. some responses were found to be on the list of ontario postsecondary institutions, whereas others were mislabeled as colleges or universities. unknown institution names were researched online to determine the appropriate institution type. college or university credential: survey responses were classified as degree, certificate/diploma, degree offered jointly with a college or university, or as no credential specified. university program of study entered: these were classified according to the university student information system (usis). 7 reasons for furthering their education: a series of questions, each with a response option of major, minor, or not a reason. transfer experience: respondents who indicated they were enrolled full time in further education were asked in detail about their transfer experience, perceptions, and information sources: transfer credit: reported amount, satisfaction with, and timing of notification relatedness of university program entered to program of graduation whether student would have been accepted without college graduation when decided to transfer information sources (major, minor, not a source) satisfaction with academic preparation and the transition experience analytic methods both descriptive and regression techniques were used to estimate the effect of use of the dcto on college performance and transfer to university after graduation. descriptive results for each outcome of interest are presented for these analyses by selected characteristics. to control for the independent effects of each variable, regression models were used for each outcome of interest. either, linear regression with robust standard errors or logistic regression was used to estimate the effect of dcto use on each outcome of interest. linear regression with robust standard errors was used when the outcome of interest was a continuous variable and logistic regression was used when the outcome of interest was a dichotomous categorical variable. for all regression analyses, the dataset was restricted to individuals with complete data for all variables included in the regression model. model building for each multivariable regression model, the inclusion of each variable was assessed independently by removing each variable from the multivariable model one at a time. if the independent variable of interest or its corresponding standard error changed by greater than or equal to 10% upon removal of a 7 http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/document/3124_d3_t4_v1-eng.pdf 13 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility variable, the variable was included in the model. additionally, the likelihood-ratio (lr) test was used to assess whether inclusion of the variable significantly improved model fit. a variable was kept in the multivariable model if its inclusion statistically improved the fit of the model as determined by a lr test pvalue of <0.05. variables for students gender and age were include in all regression models regardless of their statistical significance. limitations the graduate satisfaction survey asks graduates to report on their status during a specified reference week six months after graduating, which may result in a limited sampling for the following reasons: an underestimate of a transfer rate, particularly for students who graduate in the fall term because their reference week would be in june/july, a non-traditional enrolment semester. the six-month timeframe would not include those who enrolled in university after that time. as this is a graduate survey, students who transferred without graduating are not counted. other research has shown (e.g., smith et al., 2016) that as many as half of those who transfer from college are not graduates. this intent of this research is not to measure the quality of dtco advising, nor to evaluate its effectiveness. dcto users may include those dealing with challenging issues, such as aspiring for university when an alternate route, individualized to their specific circumstances, maybe more appropriate. however, accounting for those who have aspirations for transfer serves to reduce some of the selection bias in the gss. results part 1. profile of entering students by university aspirations and subsequent use of dcto the majority (61%) of students both did not plan to attend university and did not register with the dcto (figure 2). a further 36% of students, despite aspiring to university, did not register with the dcto. in total, 2,156 students over the eight-year study received one-on-one advising from the dcto. the majority (65%) of these users stated they had plans for attending university at college entry compared to 37% of non-users at entry who had plans for university. detailed numbers by year of entry are in appendix 2. 14 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility figure 2. seneca students use of dcto and aspirations for university at entry, 20072014 dcto users & no university plans at entry, 746, 1% did not use dcto & university plans at entry, 21,350, 36% dcto users & university plans at entry, 1,406, 2% did not use dcto & no university plans at entry, 36,333, 61% between 3% and 4% of all students make use of the dcto, a rate that is fairly consistent over time (table 1). students with plans for university are far more likely to use the dcto, averaging 6.2% compared to 2% of those originally without plans for university. table 1. share of students who use the dcto, by university plans at entry, 20072014 entry year % all students 3.6% % students without university plans at entry 1.7% % students with plans for university 6.1% 2007 2008 4.1% 2.0% 6.9% 2009 3.5% 1.7% 6.6% 2010 3.2% 2.0% 5.4% 2011 3.4% 1.9% 5.9% 2012 4.1% 2.6% 6.7% 2013 3.7% 2.3% 6.3% 2014* 3.1% 1.8% 5.6% total 3.6% 2.0% 6.2% notes: each academic year contains summer, fall and winter. *the winter semester is not included for 2014. entry students for later years had less time to access the dcto and therefore the usage numbers may be lower. the dcto asks students to list their top choices for postsecondary institution and program. table 2 shows the distribution for their first choice by geographic region and institution type. most students who visit the dcto have plans for university, with 85% having a university in mind, 5% a college, and 10% 15 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility undecided about their specific choice. of those whose first choice is a university, most are planning on studying in ontario (94%), with 3% choosing other regions in canada, and another 3% choosing to study outside of canada. table 2. first choice of institution, by institution type and region, dcto users, 20072014 region college university total % ontario 106 1,725 1,831 84.9% british columbia -- 26 27 1.3% quebec -- 11 12 0.6% prairie region 0 10 10 0.5% atlantic region 0 11 11 0.5% usa 0 20 20 0.9% outside north america 0 36 36 1.7% 209 9.7% 2,156 100.0% unknown/ undecided total 108 1,839 --too low to report sociodemographic characteristics younger students, females, and those with a parent with a degree were more likely to use the dcto (table 3). canadian citizens and those whose first language was english were less likely to use the dcto. there were no evident patterns for income level, with neighbourhood income and the incidence of osap receipt not differing by dcto usage. younger students and those who had at least one parent with a degree were more likely to have planned for university. there was little difference in university plans for the other characteristics studied such as as gender, status in canada, or income. 16 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 3. sociodemographic characteristics of seneca entrants, by use of dcto and aspirations for university, 20072014 did not use dcto number age at entry (yr.) gender status in canada english as a first language parental education neighbourhood income osap recipient <19 19 20 & over male female citizen student visa other* yes degree no degree unknown low middle high yes no univ plans at entry 36,333 24.4% 16.0% 59.6% 49.6% 50.3% 73.3% 13.5% univ plans at entry 21,350 37.3% 22.9% 39.8% 50.4% 49.6% 75.3% 11.5% total 57,786 29.2% 18.5% 52.3% 49.9% 50.0% 74.0% 12.8% no univ plans at entry 746 30.4% 15.0% 54.6% 44.8% 55.2% 68.4% 13.1% 13.2% 59.2% 26.1% 61.1% 12.8% 39.1% 34.4% 26.4% 44.0% 13.2% 56.4% 29.4% 58.5% 12.2% 39.0% 35.2% 25.8% 47.6% 13.2% 58.1% 27.3% 60.1% 12.6% 39.1% 34.7% 26.2% 45.3% 18.5% 52.0% 29.6% 60.1% 10.3% 40.4% 34.6% 25.0% 50.9% dcto users univ plans at entry 1,406 44.8% 21.1% 34.1% 45.9% 54.1% 70.8% 14.4% total 2,156 39.7% 19.1% 41.2% 45.5% 54.5% 69.8% 14.1% 14.9% 52.2% 35.1% 54.6% 10.2% 35.7% 36.6% 27.7% 46.9% 16.2% 52.0% 33.2% 56.5% 10.3% 37.4% 35.9% 26.7% 48.3% note: total columns include the 61 survey participants (1 dcto user and 60 non-users) who did not respond to the questions on graduate plans. *other status in canada includes non-canadian citizens who pay domestic student fees, including those with non-student visas, refugees, or permanent residents. academic background students who used the dcto had stronger academic backgrounds in high school (table 4). dcto users were much more likely than non-users to have taken mostly university preparatory courses, at 67% versus 56% respectively, which may indicate early aspirations for university. users were somewhat more likely to have over a 70% average and to have failed fewer courses, and subsequently were more likely than non-users to have been eligible for university acceptance based on their high school grades. 8 for both users and non-users, those who had planned on attending university were more likely to have taken mainly university preparatory courses, but were also more likely to have achieved poorer grades and failed more courses. those who had both plans for university at entry and did not use the dcto, had the poorest grades and the highest course failure rate of all four groups. 8 note that the definition used here for university eligibility is a minimal standard. prerequisites and grades differ greatly by university and program, and therefore some students may not have been eligible for their specific program of interest. 17 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 4. high school background of seneca students, by use of dcto and aspirations for university at entry, 20072014 number high school course type high school aver. (gr. 11 & 12) number of hs course failures (gr. 11 & 12) eligible for univ. mostly u/m <70% 7080% >80% none 13 4+ yes no univ plans at entry 23,110 52.6% 50.0% 40.0% 10.0% 56.8% 32.4% 10.8% 21.1% did not use dcto univ plans total at entry 15,767 60.4% 38,937 55.8% no univ plans at entry 463 62.2% 61.6% 33.2% 5.2% 45.6% 38.5% 15.9% 18.5% 54.7% 37.3% 8.0% 52.2% 34.9% 12.9% 20.0% 45.1% 44.1% 10.8% 59.0% 32.4% 8.6% 24.4% used dcto univ plans at entry total 1,018 69.4% 1,482 67.1% 51.6% 40.3% 8.2% 56.0% 35.2% 8.8% 25.7% 49.5% 41.5% 9.0% 57.0% 34.3% 8.8% 25.3% with regard to language proficiency and subsequent dcto use, non-users who did not have university plans at college entry had a marginally higher reading comprehension score, and a slightly higher likelihood of being placed in college level english (table 5).the language proficiency of dcto users differed little by plans for university. overall, dcto users and non-users had similar levels of language proficiency. table 5. language proficiency of seneca students, by use of dcto and aspirations for university at entry, 20072014 reading comprehension writing assessment college english course placement average accuplacer score average writing score (essay) ell level 1& 2 ell-3* collegelevel english & exempt no univ plans at entry 71.1 did not use dcto univ plans total at entry used dcto univ plans at entry total 69.5 70.5 67.8 69.9 no univ plans at entry 72.4 2.27 2.25 2.26 2.25 2.26 2.25 16.5% 14.4% 15.8% 16.0% 13.4% 14.4% 37.1% 46.4% 42.8% 42.8% 39.2% 45.0% 38.6% 45.4% 41.2% 45.4% 40.3% 45.3% note: *both english-language learners and native english speakers who scored one level of proficiency below college-level english entered the same course and could not be distinguished; labelled here as ell-3. 18 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility in addition to high school grades and language proficiency, previous education is also a key element of academic background. 9 users of the dcto were more likely than non-users (63% vs. 55%) to have no previous postsecondary education (figure 3). students with plans for university were more likely to have last attended high school and much less likely to have attended college/trades/ upgrading or university, for both users and non-users. the high rate of previous university attendance for the group who used the dcto but did not start college with plans for university (18%) is interesting, and could be an area for further research. figure 3. last school attended, by use of dcto and aspirations for university at entry, 20072014 80% 60% 50% 69% 66% 70% 55% 49% 63% 53% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 26% 21% 19% 4% no univ plans at entry 11% 4% univ plans at entry 23% 17% 24% 18% 5% 4% total secondary school 4% 4% no univ plans at entry did not use dcto 18%15% 14%13% univ plans at entry total used dcto college/ trades/ upgrading university other program area and credential plans for university and subsequent use of the dcto both varied greatly by credential type (table 6). students who entered one-year certificate programs were both less likely to have had plans to enter university upon entry and to use the dcto. in contrast, 47% of students who used the dcto were enrolled in advanced diploma programs compared to only 30% of non-users. almost half of those who both had plans for university and used the dcto were enrolled in advanced diploma programs, compared to just over a quarter of those who neither had plans for university nor used the dcto. distinctive patterns of dcto use and plans for university were also seen for the program area. business programs, irrespective of plans for university, comprised over half of the dcto users, compared to 35% of non-users. preparatory/upgrading programs are also of note, with as high a rate of aspirations for university, but a lower share of those using the dcto. students in the liberal arts transfer (lat) program, the largest of the preparatory/upgrading programs and offered jointly with several universities, are already well informed about their university pathway and therefore require less external support and advice. 9 the survey is limited in that it asks only about the most current education attended, not the highest, and therefore it is unknown whether a credential has been completed. 19 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 6. first program area and credential, by use of dcto and aspirations for university at entry, 20072014 credential type program area certificate 1-yr diploma 2-yr advanced diploma 3-yr business community services creative and applied arts health hospitality preparatory/ upgrading engineering/ technology did not use dcto no univ univ plans plans at at entry entry 15% 9% 59% 54% 26% 37% 12% 57% 30% used dcto no univ plans at entry 11% 45% 45% total total univ plans at entry total 5% 46% 49% 7% 46% 47% 12% 57% 31% 34% 15% 36% 18% 35% 16% 50% 18% 54% 19% 53% 19% 36% 16% 17% 7% 13% 6% 2% 4% 13% 5% 5% 9% 3% 2% 18% 5% 4% 12% 2% 4% 9% 2% 1% 8% 2% 2% 9% 5% 4% 12% 15% 16% 16% 11% 12% 12% 15% the entering student survey asks students to indicate the single main reason for choosing seneca college (table 7). as expected, students who indicated they planned to attend university were most likely to cite university preparation as their main reason and less likely to cite program availability and career as the main reason. of those with initial plans for university, those who eventually used the dcto were more likely than those who did not to cite university preparation as their main reason, indicating they were likely more certain of their plans. university preparation was the least cited reason for those who entered college without plans for university, both for dcto users and non-users. it is interesting to note that the group of students who did not have plans for university but subsequently used the dcto, were most likely to cite faculty reputation (17%) as their main reason, indicating a group that is likely highly motivated by academic reasons. a possible reason for this finding is that students interest in their chosen field of study fuels aspirations to continue on after college. 20 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 7. main reason for choosing seneca, by subsequent use of dcto and aspirations for university at entry, 20122014 did not use dcto used dcto no univ plans at entry 39% univ plans at entry total univ plans at entry 21% total grand total 34% no univ plans at entry 32% 25% 25% 34% 22% 12% 19% 23% 11% 16% 19% to prepare for university 3% 35% 14% 4% 44% 28% 15% campus is close to home 12% 11% 12% 13% 9% 11% 12% good reputation of the faculty 12% 9% 11% 17% 8% 12% 11% i have family and friends who attended or are currently attending seneca seneca's campus is attractive to me 6% 5% 6% 5% 4% 5% 6% 5% 4% 4% 5% 2% 4% 4% my first choice program was available at seneca to further advance my career note: this question were only asked since 2012 (n=24,405) academic outcomes by university aspirations and use of dcto students who used the dcto obtained much higher grades in college than non-users, with 53% obtaining a gpa of over 3.0 compared to 33% of non-users (figure 4). this held true whether or not the student had aspirations for university at college entry. most provincial pathways require a minimum gpa of 3.0 to be considered for transfer. those who had used the dcto and had indicated their choice of an ontario university would have been informed of this requirement. students with plans for university achieved slightly lower grades, likely associated with a slightly weaker academic background upon college entry. the highest performers were those who did not have plans for university at college entry, but who subsequently used the dcto. their strong performance in college may have contributed to their decision to attend university. the group that had plans for university, but did not use the dcto, performed the poorest; this group had the weakest academic background at college entry, and continued to struggle in college. 21 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility figure 4. cumulative gpa (up to first credential), by university aspirations at entry and use of dcto, 20072014 160% 3.03 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2.31 11% 13% 22% 16% 1.94 27% 26% 49% 37% 2.40 2.18 18% 15% 26% 41% 2.00 34% 25% 29% 11% no univ plans at univ plans at entry entry total gpa 2.00-2.99 24% 27% 1.60 26% 26% 1.20 35% 33% 15% 14% no univ plans at univ plans at entry entry did not use dcto gpa 0-1.99 2.80 total college gpa 120% 2.90 2.83 140% 0.80 0.40 0.00 used dcto gpa 3.00-3.49 gpa 3.5-4.00 average gpa note: 523 students in sample had missing gpas and are not shown; one was a dcto user and 522 were non-users. as would be expected, graduation rates show a similar pattern as grades when considering university aspirations and dcto usage. users are much more likely than non-users to graduate within a year of the expected date (83% vs. 50%), and those with plans for university (both users and non-users) are also somewhat less likely to graduate (figure 5). a similar pattern is seen for graduating on time. the students who are further along in their program have been in the college longer and therefore have had more time to access the dcto services, which partially accounts for the stronger academic outcomes of dcto users. in contrast, poorly performing students likely are aware that they are not performing well enough to qualify for transfer, and therefore they do not seek out the dtco services. however, the nature of the advising services may also serve to enhance academic performance. the dcto will review a students grades with them, advise them to re-take specific courses to improve their overall gpa if necessary, and refer them to other services such as academic advising. as well, the dcto encourages students to complete their program before transferring, emphasizing the differential transfer credit and transfer agreement options that accompany the credential. 10 the dcto may discuss the value in obtaining the college credential for employability purposes, as a back-up plan should the transfer to university not work out because of a change of student plans, or because of academic difficulties in university. in addition, the dcto provides advisement around switching programs to a two year from a three year diploma so that a student can still graduate if their goal is to transfer sooner than their anticipated graduation date. 10 for example, transfer agreements between ryerson and seneca require graduation from seneca. http://www.senecacollege.ca/degreetransfer/guide/ryerson-university.html 22 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility figure 5. graduation rates, by university aspirations and use of dcto, 20072014 100.0% 87.3% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 63.1% 53.4% 41.2% 60.0% 82.6% 61.1% 50.4% 45.5% 37.4% 31.3% 30.0% 80.6% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% no univ plans at entry univ plans at entry total no univ plans at entry did not use dcto graduate on time univ plans at entry total used dcto graduate+1 yr notes: in total, 23,056 students in the sample had not yet completed the standard program length and were excluded from the analysis. for the calculation providing one extra year to graduate, 23,561 students were excluded. the simple relationship between use of the dcto and college grades and graduation rates, as described above, is more complex when high school background is examined closely. previously it was shown that users of the dcto had slightly higher high school grades and were more likely to have taken university preparatory courses (table 4), which generally translates into improved academic outcomes in college. additionally, the comparison of gpa for students by use of the dcto may be somewhat misleading because students who do very poorly early in their program and withdraw will have had less opportunity to access the dcto services. to control for this factor, those students who left within their first semester are excluded from the analysis (table 8) of academic outcomes by high school grades for dcto users and non-users. across high school course grades and course types, users of the dcto still achieved higher gpas than non-users and were more likely to graduate, with the exception of students with high school grades over 80%. this group was equally likely to graduate on time regardless of dcto use. the gap between users and non-users is particularly large for those with lower high school grades and for those who did not take mostly university prep courses in high school. 23 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 8. academic outcomes, by high school background and use of dcto, 20072014. college gpa high school course type mostly u/m high school aver. (gr. 11 & 12) graduation rate (on time) did not use dcto 1.97 total used dcto no used dcto 2.78 2.00 yes 2.86 2.40 <70% 2.57 7080% >80% total total 57.6% did not use dcto 32.1% 2.42 62.2% 45.2% 45.9% 1.81 1.84 52.0% 27.7% 28.6% 3.04 2.57 2.59 70.6% 51.2% 52.0% 3.34 3.21 3.22 68.6% 69.2% 69.2% 2.83 2.22 2.24 60.6% 39.5% 40.4% 32.9% note: excludes those who left in their first semester of college program. dcto users have higher graduation rates than non-users across all program areas and credentials (table 9). in particular, the largest gap in graduation rate between users and non-users is for those in advanced diploma programs, at 66% versus 38%. table 9. graduation within standard program length, by university aspirations and use of dcto, 20072014 (program and credential) credential type program area certificate 1-yr diploma 2-yr advanced diploma 3-yr business community services creative and applied arts health hospitality preparatory/ upgrading engineering/ technology total no univ plans at entry 28.6% 45.2% 41.1% did not use dcto univ plans at entry total 17.3% 32.3% 34.4% 25.5% 40.5% 37.9% no univ plans at entry 34.9% 64.6% 73.6% 43.5% 48.9% 31.4% 39.2% 38.6% 44.8% 41.6% 31.2% 61.3% 45.4% 17.3% used dcto univ plans at entry total 30.9% 61.2% 63.0% 33.1% 62.2% 66.0% 72.4% 73.3% 62.2% 75.3% 65.1% 74.7% 39.6% 53.8% 50.0% 52.0% 42.8% 39.6% 23.3% 56.7% 44.3% 20.6% na 64.7% 31.6% 57.1% 72.7% 35.6% 42.9% 67.9% 34.0% 36.9% 29.7% 34.3% 58.6% 46.8% 50.0% 41.2% 31.3% 37.4% 63.1% 60.0% 61.1% note: n size too low to report 24 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility part 2. transfer outcomes transfer rates results from the graduate satisfaction survey 11 provide information on whether students subsequently transferred to further education, where they transferred to, and their experience of transfer. dcto users: transfer intentions versus transfer outcomes two data sources were used to provide information on a students choice of institution, including a questionnaire administered to students prior to meeting with a dcto advisor and the graduate satisfaction survey which asks about the university college graduates who transferred. focussing specifically on dcto users, degree pathways by first choice of institution at the dcto visit are shown in table 10. of dcto users who indicated their first choice of institution was a university, 46% transferred to a university degree program. of those whose first choice of institution was college, or who were unsure, 24% transferred to a college degree program, and a further 27% transferred to a college non-degree program. table 10. transfer to degree or non-degree programs by first-choice institution, dcto users, 20072014 university college & unknown 295 17 college & unknown percent 45.8% 23.9% 87 19 13.5% 26.8% 13.8% 262 644 35 71 40.7% 100% 49.3% 100% 41.5% 100% count transferred to degree transferred to nondegree not in further ed. total university total total percent 43.6% note: degree programs include college and university-college collaborative degrees. non-degrees include college and university certificates and diplomas, continuing education courses, and any other education taken outside of a college or university. graduates who had indicated at their dcto visit that their first choice of institution was a university were more likely to eventually transfer (table 11), at 47% compared to 18% for those who chose a college or were undecided. those whose first choice was a university in ontario were more likely to transfer than those whose first choice was outside ontario (48% vs. 27%). 11 the gss is administered by telephone six months after graduation. 25 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 11. transfer rate to university, by first choice plans at dcto visit, 20072014 first choice institution* first choice university region college & unknown university total ontario outside ontario total did not transfer 58 transferred total 13 71 transfer rate to university 18.3% 343 401 318 25 343 301 314 292 9 301 644 715 610 34 644 46.7% 43.9% 47.9% 26.5% 46.7% note: *numbers too low to separate those whose first choice was a college from those whose first choice was unknown or undecided table 12 contains a comparison of the distribution of first choice universities at the dcto visit versus the distribution of the actual chosen university based on the gss. york and ryerson universities predominate, both as the initial first choices for students visiting the dcto and the ultimate institutions of transfer. within dcto users, the distribution of institutions of transfer is fairly similar to students original plans, although some differences exist. relative to initial plans, graduates are somewhat less likely to transfer to university of toronto, an other university, or mcmaster, and are more likely to attend york, ryerson, university of ontario institute of technology (uoit), lakehead, or windsor. interestingly, this finding also reflects the high number of transfer opportunities available at these institutions. when comparing the actual transfer pathways by dcto use, york, university of toronto, and other universities comprised a larger share of non-users than users. for york and university of toronto, a likely reason (as previously discussed) is the movement within the lat program, a large structured articulated program in which students need less external transfer advising. a much high higher share of those who used the dcto transferred to ryerson, likely because a large number of dcto users are in business, a key program focus among ryersons transfer pathways. 26 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 12. distribution of university choice, by dcto use, initial plans versus ultimate transfer outcome, 20072014 york ryerson toronto university (other) uoit lakehead guelph mcmaster brock trent carleton ontario college of art and design algoma western windsor nipissing wilfrid laurier waterloo laurentian ottawa queens guelph humber first choice of university dcto users - first choice university 48.8% 27.5% 4.6% 6.5% 2.1% 1.2% 1.8% 1.5% 0.5% 0.2% 0.5% 0.2% 0.1% 0.5% 0.3% 0.3% 0.8% 0.7% 0.3% 0.8% 0.3% 0.5% university of transfer, % of total university transfers dcto users did not use dcto total 50.3% 30.3% 2.2% 1.9% 4.1% 1.9% 1.9% 0.3% 1.0% 0.6% 0.6% 0.0% 53.2% 16.8% 7.6% 6.7% 3.1% 2.7% 2.1% 1.3% 1.1% 1.2% 0.5% 0.7% 52.6% 19.4% 6.5% 5.8% 3.3% 2.6% 2.1% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% 0.6% 0.6% 0.3% 0.3% 1.3% 0.3% 0.6% 0.0% 0.6% 1.0% 0.0% 0.3% 0.6% 0.5% 0.3% 0.5% 0.3% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% note: the first choice sample is restricted to those who indicated their first choice was a university. results are shown as a share of the total. further education pathways by dcto use overall, 58% of dcto users went on to some type of further education compared to 25% of graduates who did not use the dcto (table 13). graduates who had used the dctos advising services were much more likely to transfer to university than non-users (44% vs. 10%), and somewhat more likely to transfer into a college degree program (2.5% vs. 1.1%). non-dcto users were somewhat more likely to transfer into a college non-degree program. 27 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 13. further education pathways of graduates, six months after graduation, by dcto use, 20072014 institution credential count university university degree university certificate/ diploma degree offered jointly with a college university: no credential specified college degree college certificate/ diploma degree offered jointly with a university college: no credential specified 266 18 used dcto % total by institution type 37.2% 2.5% 25 3.5% 5 college other education not in further education total count 1,051 92 did not use dcto % dcto total by users institution type 8.2% 0.7% 92 0.7% 0.7% 59 0.5% 18 75 2.5% 10.5% 146 1,638 1.1% 12.7% ** ** 84 0.7% ** ** 26 0.2% 7 297 715 1.0% 41.5% 100% 93 9,611 12,892 0.7% 74.6% 100% 43.9% 13.6% 1.0% 41.5% 100% 10.0% 14.7% 0.7% 74.6% 100% note: **counts too low to show overall, 12% of graduates in the sample transferred to university within six months, of those, almost 20% visited the dcto (figure 6). in contrast only 2% of those who didnt transfer visited the dcto. 28 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility figure 6. transfer rate to university by dcto use, six months after graduation, 20072014 used dcto n=314 (20%) transferred n=1608 (12%) did not use dcto n=1294 (80%) graduate sample n=13,607 used dcto n=401 (2%) did not transfer n=11,999 (88%) did not use dcto n=11,598 (98%) table 14 shows the transfer rate to university by initial plans for university and use of the dcto any time up to two months after graduation. these rates also differ by initial plans for university and term of graduation. one-quarter of those with plans for university transferred compared with just 5% of those who did not have plans upon entry. half of those who used the dcto and started college with plans to transfer transferred, compared with 33% of those without initial plans but who subsequently used the dcto. within the group who did not use the dcto, aspirations still mattered, with 22% of those who aspired to university subsequently transferring, compared to 4% of transfers who did not aspire at college entry. table 14. transfer rate to university, by university aspirations at entry and use of dcto, 20072014 count plans for university at entry did not use dcto dcto users no plans for university at entry did not use dcto dcto users total did not transfer transferred did not transfer transferred did not transfer transferred did not transfer transferred 3,239 935 241 236 8,333 358 159 78 13,579 % total population 24% 7% 2% 2% 61% 3% 1% 1% 100% transfer rate 22.4% 49.5% 4.1% 32.9% 11.8% 29 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility the timing of the survey, at six months after graduation, leads to some spurious results, particularly for fall graduates. graduates who complete in december will be surveyed in june, a non-traditional semester, and will be asked about their current enrolment. 12 the differences in transfer rates by semester of graduation are accounted for in table 15. overall, those who graduated in winter, the traditional semester of graduation, had higher transfer rates (14.8%), followed by summer graduates (10%). of dcto users who graduated in the winter semester, 52% were enrolled in university the following fall, compared with 13% who did not use the dcto. when the results are subdivided according to whether the graduate had plans for university at entry, the trend by semester still holds. table 15. transfer rate to university, by university aspirations, use of dcto, and semester graduated, 20072014 plans for university at entry no plans for university at entry total grand total did not use dcto dcto users total did not use dcto dcto users total did not use dcto dcto users count summer 19.3% fall 6.2% winter 28.5% total 22.4% 47.8% 22.0% 3.3% 16.4% 6.9% 1.1% 56.2% 31.7% 5.2% 49.5% 25.2% 4.1% 30.2% 4.0% 8.0% 2.7% 1.1% 3.0% 41.5% 6.2% 13.0% 32.9% 4.9% 10.0% 41.0% 10.0% 2,956 11.0% 3.2% 2,295 52.0% 14.8% 8,356 44.0% 11.8% 13,607 transfer to university by sociodemographic characteristics and dcto use across all sociodemographic characteristics, the users of the dcto had much higher transfer rates than non-users (table 16). for both users and non-users, graduates who entered college at a younger age had a higher transfer rate, with the largest gap in transfer between dcto users and non-users being those who entered under the age of 19. over half (52%) of those who started college under the age of 19 and who used the dcto subsequently transferred, compared to 43% of 19-year-old entrants and 35% of entrants ages 20 years and over. graduates on a student visa had a much lower transfer rate for both users and non-users, partially because of their high rates of previous university attendance (data not shown). similarly, graduates who reported english as their first language had a somewhat higher transfer rate, particularly within the dcto users group. transfer rates differed little by parental education, neighbourhood income, or osap receipt. graduates who had a least one parent with a degree were slightly more likely to transfer overall (13% vs. 11%), as were those from higher income neighbourhoods. however, within the dcto users group, there was a slightly different pattern, with middle income students having slightly higher transfer rates, and those who did not report on their parents education having lower transfer rates. 12 a number of universities such as ryerson (which receives a high share of seneca transfers) only offer a fall semester intake. 30 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 16. transfer rate to university, by sociodemographic characteristics and use of dcto, 20072014 total age at entry (yr.) gender status in canada english as a first language parental education neighbourhood income** osap recipient <19 19 20 & over male female cdn citizen student visa other* yes no degree no degree unknown low middle high no yes did not use dcto 12,892 13.6% 13.0% 7.4% 10.1% 10.0% 10.8% 5.2% 10.2% 10.3% 9.7% 11.5% 9.3% 10.4% 9.8% 10.9% 11.6% 9.4% 10.8% dcto users total 715 51.6% 43.4% 35.4% 43.0% 44.5% 46.3% 33.8% 40.6% 47.2% 40.1% 44.7% 44.8% 35.8% 42.2% 50.0% 42.9% 46.8% 40.4% 13,607 16.5% 14.8% 8.4% 11.8% 11.8% 12.7% 6.5% 12.1% 12.1% 11.4% 13.4% 11.2% 11.5% 11.6% 12.9% 13.4% 11.3% 12.4% % transfers who used dcto 19.5% 24.4% 17.8% 15.3% 18.6% 20.3% 19.0% 22.6% 20.8% 19.1% 20.2% 20.8% 18.9% 14.1% 20.0% 19.5% 18.4% 21.1% 17.6% notes: *other status includes permanent residents, refugees, and those eligible to pay domestic student fees (non-student visas). **visa students excluded from neighbourhood income analysis transfer to university by program and dcto use across all credentials and most program areas, those who used the dcto had much higher transfer rates (table 17). the transfer rate for graduates of certificate programs was three times higher than the rate for those who did not use the dcto. the rate was 4.5 times higher for diploma graduates and 3.4 times higher for advanced diploma graduates. overall, graduates from more advanced credentials also have higher transfer rates, for both users and non-users of the dcto. across program areas, almost half of graduates from business and community services who used the dcto transferred to university, at a rate three to five times higher than non-users. the lack of gap in transfer rates between dcto users and nonusers in preparatory/upgrading programs largely reflects the particular nature of senecas preparatory programs. in the current sample, lat program comprises 30% of graduates in the preparatory programs and 68% of transfers. as described previously, lat has a structured articulated pathway with several universities, and therefore students are not as likely to require advising services external to what their program or university partner offers. transfers to university who had graduated from three-year diploma programs were much more likely to have used the dcto compared to those who had transferred from other credentials. almost a third of business transfers were dcto users, the highest proportion of transfers of all program areas. these differences in usage may serve to highlight specific program areas requiring additional transfer outreach. 31 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 17. transfer rate to university, by credential and program area and use of dcto, 20072014 # transfers credential type program area total certificate 1-yr diploma 2-yr advanced diploma 3-yr business community services creative and applied arts health hospitality preparatory/ upgrading engineering/ technology transfer rate % transfers who used dcto used dcto total 132 1,003 473 did not use dcto 8% 9% 14% 23% 42% 48% 8% 11% 18% 5% 17% 29% 590 447 9% 14% 48% 48% 12% 17% 32% 19% 92 5% 19% 5% 5% 16 13 288 2% 2% 28% 20% 22% 31% 2% 3% 29% 13% 15% 3% 162 8% 32% 9% 12% 1,608 10% 44% 12% 20% table 17 shows the top 10 programs ranked by number of transfers to university, the results aligning with those seen previously with the broader program categories. the two-year general arts and science program had the highest transfer rate, but because it is a structured articulated program, dcto use was very low. dcto use by business programs is also high, with the business administration programs having a higher rate of dcto use compared to accounting programs. the community service programs have high rates of transfer, but of those who transferred, fewer used the dcto compared to users who transferred from business programs. 32 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 18. top 10 transfer programs, by number of transfers and use of dcto, 20072014 # transfers general arts and science - 2yr early childhood education social service worker business administration management police foundations accounting general arts - 1 yr business administration human resources accounting and finance business administration marketing total all programs transfer rate % transfers who used dcto dcto users total 197 140 134 102 did not use dcto 65% 13% 21% 23% 57% 39% 66% 59% 64% 15% 25% 31% 2% 19% 23% 43% 101 80 66 53 16% 10% 25% 18% 48% 51% 33% 60% 18% 13% 25% 27% 16% 23% 8% 45% 51 48 14% 27% 38% 59% 16% 36% 25% 46% 1608 10% 44% 12% 20% note: programs are classified using maesds aps program title. transfer to university by previous university and dcto use overall, the transfer rate to university was lower for those who had previously attended university, at 9% compared to 13% for transfers with no previous university (figure 7). however, within the group of dcto users, there was no difference in the transfer rate by previous university. non-users who had previously attended university had a lower transfer rate than dcto users, but when initial plans for university at college entry are taken into consideration, transfer rates do not differ by previous university. those with previous university are less likely to aspire to university after graduation, resulting in the lower transfer rate overall for those with previous university. however, different patterns emerge within the dcto users group, with no overall difference in transfer between those with or without previous university. those with aspirations for university at entry are also more likely to transfer, but within that group those with previous university are more likely to transfer. within the group of dcto users who did not originally plan on university, those without previous university were more likely to transfer. for the dcto users who did not plan for university at entry, those without university may have been more motivated to continue. however, those who both had plans at entry and had used the dcto were highly motivated. the differences in transfer rate likely were related to academic outcomes because those with previous university in this group (aspirants/dcto users) obtained a higher gpa compared to with no previous university (3.19 vs. 3.08). 33 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility figure 7. transfer rate by previous university, plans for university at entry and use of dcto, 20072014 70% 58% 60% 48% 50% 40% 34% 30% 27% 22% 23% 20% 10% 0% 44% 44% 11% 4% 4% did not aspire aspire 13% 8% total did not aspire did not use dcto aspire total dcto users no previous university 9% grand total previous university note: the survey does not distinguish between incomplete or complete university or by canadian versus non-canadian university. transfer to university by seneca grades and dcto use those who transferred to university had a higher college gpa than those who did not transfer, at 3.23 compared to 3.06 (table 18). this gap in gpa also holds when looking at dcto usage, with the gap in college gpa between transfers and non-transfers slightly larger for dcto users (at 0.21 vs. 0.16 for nonusers). table 19. college gpa, by transfer to university and use of dcto, 20072014 cumulative college gpa did not use dcto dcto users total did not transfer 3.06 3.04 3.06 transferred 3.22 3.25 3.23 total 3.08 3.13 3.08 graduates who used the dcto had higher transfer rates than non-users at each gpa level, with graduates who obtained a gpa under 3.0 having lower transfer rates than graduates with higher gpas (table 19). interestingly, despite a lower rate of transferring, dcto users with a gpa below 3.0 were almost as likely to use the dcto as those with higher gpas. table 20. transfer rate to university by college gpa and use of dcto, 20072014 total # transfers college gpa <3.0 3.0-3.49 3.5+ total did not use dcto 1,294 7.2% 12.8% 11.3% 10.0% dcto users 314 33.6% 50.4% 49.1% 43.9% total 1,608 8.5% 15.1% 13.2% 11.8% % transfers who used dcto 18.8% 20.3% 19.3% 19.5% 34 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility with the exception of the group that did not aspire to university at entry, but did use the dcto, the transfer rate was almost double for those who obtained a college gpa of 3.0 or over 13 compared to those with a gpa under 3.0. the group that did not use the dcto and that did not indicate aspirations for university at college entry had very low transfer rates, indicating a lack of interest in transferring throughout their college program. as mentioned previously, a high proportion (27%) of this group had previously attended university, which likely contributed to the low interest in transfer. the transfer rates were similar for dcto users whose college gpas were under 3.0 regardless of whether or not they aspired to university at college entry. however, only about half of those who transferred had gpas above 3.0, indicating that a large proportion of eligible, potential transfers still were not motivated to transfer despite registering with the dcto. to summarize, initial aspiration to university remained a factor in transfer. the highest transfer rates, at almost 60%, were for the group that aspired for university at entry, used the dcto, and had a gpa of 3.0 or over. the numbers did not change materially when the transfer rates of dcto users were further broken down by university as first choice of institution. figure 8. transfer rate to university, by university plans, college gpa and use of dcto, 20072014 70% 60% 57% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 37% 33% 27% 34% 29% 14% 7% 5% 5% 3% did not aspire to aspired to university at entry university at entry 34% 51%49% 34% 13%11% total did not aspire to aspired to university at entry university at entry did not use dcto total dcto users <3.0 3.0-3.4 3.5+ institution and program of transfer geographically, users and non-users of the dcto are much more likely to transfer locally, with almost four of five transferring to a university in the metro toronto area (table 21). the main difference between dcto users and non-users is in the distribution of transfer to universities either outside of ontario or to non-publically funded ontario universities. 13 a gpa of 3.0 is the minimum published standard for most ontario universities. 35 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility table 21. distribution of university transfers, by region and dcto use, 20072014 metro toronto, ontario central ontario northern ontario southwestern ontario eastern ontario ontario - private canada - outside ontario international unknown did not use dcto 78.2% 5.6% 3.9% 3.6% 1.9% 1.2% 2.6% 1.6% 1.4% 100% dcto users 82.8% 5.7% 3.2% 4.1% 2.2% 0.0% 0.3% 0.3% 1.3% 100% total 79.1% 5.6% 3.8% 3.7% 2.0% 0.9% 2.1% 1.4% 1.4% 100% graduates who use the dcto are much more likely to transfer into business at university and less likely to transfer into humanities or the social sciences, at 52% vs. 25% (figure 9 & table 22). figure 9. distribution of university transfers, by university program and dcto use, 20072014 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 did not use dcto dcto users total the top transfer pathways shown in table 22 are a combination of the college program from which the student graduated and the university program entered. overall, both dcto users and non-users are transferring within related programs. dcto users are concentrated in two transfer pathways college business to university commerce fields, and college community services to university social sciences fields. these two pathways alone comprise 72% of all dcto users. for transfers who did not use the dcto, pathways are more diversified, and as described previously, with a much lower share of business students and a higher share of students from preparatory programs. movement from preparatory 36 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility upgrading to social sciences or the humanities is again reflective of the lat program, in which students are unlikely to require advice on transferring. table 22. distribution of top 10 college-to-university program transfer pathways, by dcto use, 20072014 college-to-university program pathway business to commerce community services to social sciences preparatory/ upgrading to social sciences business to social science preparatory/upgrading to humanities engineering to engineering & applied sciences creative and applied arts to humanities engineering to math & physical sciences creative and applied arts to fine arts community service to humanities % of all college to university pathways used dcto did not use dcto total 49.0% 22.5% 1.3% 7.2% 1.0% 2.6% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 2.0% 85.8% 22.0% 23.4% 9.3% 6.0% 6.2% 4.2% 2.4% 2.2% 2.1% 1.1% 78.8% 27.4% 23.2% 7.7% 6.3% 5.1% 3.8% 2.0% 1.8% 1.7% 1.2% 80.3% figure 10 contains the results of the survey question on the relatedness of the graduates university program with their college program. transfers who had used the dcto were no more likely to enter a related program, with almost 90% of users and non-users moving into related programs. figure 10. relatedness of university program to college program of graduation, by dcto usage, 20072014 50% 41% 40% 43% 41% 47% 46% 47% 30% 20% 10% 0% 12% 10% 11% 1% 1% 1% not related at all somewhat related non-dcto user very related dcto user don't know total transfer experience reasons for continuing dcto users and non-users have very similar motivations for transfer, with career advancement and obtaining a credential cited for almost nine in ten transfers (figure 11). dcto users are more likely than non-users to cite the potential for higher income (76% vs. 70%) and the presence of a transfer agreement (55% vs. 49%) as major reasons. it seems plausible that users of the dcto would be somewhat more motivated by a transfer agreement, or that more would be transferring within a formal agreement; however, it is unclear why they would be more likely to cite a higher income as a major reason for transfer. 37 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility figure 11. reasons for continuing to further education, % major, university transfers, 20072014 more opportunities for career advancement 90% 89% to get diploma/ certificate/ degree 89% 85% gain theoretical knowledge/ broader education 70% 74% upgrade/ improve skills 74% 72% potential for higher income 70% 76% 73% 70% interest in further/ more in-depth training in field 58% 56% needed for professional designation there was a formal transfer agreement between your previous and your current program encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) 55% 49% 40% 40% 26% 29% interest in pursuing a different field of study 15% 18% no work/ job available in your field of study 7% 5% company required/ paid for it 0% dcto user 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% non-dcto user information sources graduates who transfer to university make a fairly high use of a variety of sources of information. university website or publications is the most commonly used source for both dcto users and non-users, with 56% citing it as a major source (figure 12). for all other information sources, dcto users were more likely than non-users to indicate that each source was major. however, the largest gap between users and non-users is the use of college sources of information, whereas the gap is much smaller for university and personal sources such as family or other students. it would appear that users of the dcto are actively seeking out information from several sources at the college. the high proportion of non-dcto users (38%) who indicated that college credit transfer advising services was a major source of information highlights the broader role of the dcto. in addition to one-on-one advising, which is captured in the present study, the office also maintains a website and hosts degree fairs and information sessions. as well, the advising services offered by the dcto were likely captured in the responses to use of college faculty/ counselor/program coordinators (50% vs 38%, dcto users vs non-users), and college administration (33% vs 25% dcto users vs non-users). the largest gap in use of information sources between dcto users and non-users is the ontario college university transfer guide (ocutg), at 45% versus 25% as a major source. this question was designed to capture use of the ocutg. however, it is very likely that in response to the question on ocutg usage, 38 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility transfers are referring to senecas own degree transfer guide, which is not listed as an information source in the questionnaire, but is published annually, both on the dcto website and in hard copy, and is used as a key reference by advisors at the dcto and the college at large (faculty, academic advisors, etc.). college hard copies, also listed on the questionnaire, likely refers to the senecas degree transfer guide. figure 12. information sources for graduates transferring to full-time university programs, % major, 20072014 56% 54% 57% university website/ publications 41% 43% 40% university credit transfer advising services* 41% 38% college faculty/ counselors/ program coordinators 39% 44% 38% college credit transfer advising services* 34% 40% 33% college website other students (including current and former college and university students) 34% 37% 34% university staff (including registrars office, faculty, etc.) 34% 36% 34% parents and family 32% 35% 31% ontario college university transfer guide (ocutg)** 25% college administration, i.e. registrars office, student services 29% 26% 25% 19% 18% ontransfer.ca website* 17% 15% college hard copy publications 0% total 50% dcto user 10% 20% 45% 33% 26% 26% 30% 40% 50% 60% non-dcto user note: the question was as follows: when making your plans for further education, were each of the following a major source of information, minor source of information or not used at all? *asked since 2013 only; **asked before 2013 only; in 2013 the ocutg question was replaced with the ocutg website address (ontransfer.ca). transfer credit in the absence of university administrative data on the college graduates (transfers) they received, a comparison of dcto users and non-users is therefore based on the graduates estimate of the amount of transfer credit they received. graduates who used the dcto reported receiving more transfer credit, with 55% of users reporting more than a year compared to 45% of non-users (figure 13). this result may imply that the dcto users are making more informed decisions about where to transfer based on credit options. however, as already shown, users and non-users differ by types of credential, program area, 39 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility selection of university, and academic performance, and therefore care should be taken in interpreting the results. 14 figure 13. estimated amount of credit of university transfers, %, 20072014 40% 36% 32% 35% 28% 30% 25% 20% 32% 32% 19% 17% 30% 17% 15% 10% 5% 0% 6% 7% 3% non-dcto user less than half a year about half a year 6% 5% dcto user one year one to two years 7% total two or more years don't know note: for survey years 2009 to 2012, a logic skip error led to university transfers not being asked this question. after 2008, the category two years or more was split into separate categories: two years, and more than 2 years. from 2013 onward, these two categories were combined. graduates who did not register with the dcto made the transfer decision earlier compared to users, with 44% versus 39% having decided before entering their college program (figure 14). in contrast, 47% of users compared to 41% of non-users decided during their program. this finding may indicate that those who use the dcto are still in the decision making and planning stage while at college. however, as mentioned previously, the rate of dcto use is much lower for those in the lat program, into which students enter with the intention of transferring. when lat graduates are taken out of the analysis, dcto users are marginally more likely than non-users (42.5% vs. 44.2%) to have decided before or after the start of college. 14 an attempt was made to parse out these different variables by transfer credit; however n sizes became too small for effective analysis. 40 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility figure 14. timing of decision to further their education, dcto users and non-users, 20072014 50% 45% 47% 44% 41% 43% 42% 39% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 10% 10% 9% 5% 0% non-dcto user dcto user before entering at the start total during after completion graduates are asked about their satisfaction with the transition experience and their academic preparation for transfer. for both questions, respondents indicated high rates of satisfaction, with 87% satisfied or very satisfied with their academic preparation for university, and 83% satisfied or very satisfied with the transition experience (figure 15). there is little difference in satisfaction between users of the dcto and non-users. regression analysis of this question at the provincial level has shown that many variables influence satisfaction with the transition, including, gender, age, transfer factors, and reasons for transferring, and therefore it is not surprising that use of the dcto alone would show an effect (mccloy et al., 2017). figure 15. satisfaction with academic preparation and the transition experience, by use of dcto, 20072014 60% 50% 40% 48% 38% 50% 49% 38% 37% 45% 38% 50% 46% 37% 34% 30% 20% 10% 0% non-dcto user dcto user total satisfaction with academic preparation very dissatisfied dissatisfied non-dcto user dcto user total satisaction with transition experience neither satisfied nor dissatisfied satisfied very satisfied 41 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility regression analysis use of dcto younger students, females, students with a parent with a degree, non-canadian citizens, and osap recipients (when neighbourhood income is controlled for) are more likely to use the dcto (appendix 4, appendix 5). academically, placing into college level english, taking mainly university preparatory courses in high school, and obtaining a high school average over 70% also increased the likelihood of using the dcto. in particular, students who indicated that they planned to attend university when they started college, were 2.7 times as likely to seek out advising at the dcto. students enrolled in three year diplomas, and business areas were also more likely to use the dcto. academic performance and graduation rate the descriptive analysis showed large differences in college grades and graduation rates between users and non-users of the dcto (appendix 4, appendix 5). however, since it was also shown that users of the dcto also had stronger academic backgrounds entering college, regression models were run to see if there was an independent effect of using the dcto. the results showed that even when controlling for a variety of socioeconomic, program and academic factors known to affect academic performance, use of the dcto had an independent effect on college grades and the graduation rate. dcto users were approximately three times as likely to graduate on time, and had a college gpa approximately .7- .8 points higher than those who did not use the dcto. transfer to university college graduates who had visited the dcto were four times as likely to attend university, even when controlling for academic performance in high school and college, initial plans for transfer to university, and college program and credential chosen, all of which have been shown to have major roles in the likelihood of transfer (appendix 9). older students, students whose first language was english, and who did not have a parent with a degree were less likely to transfer. graduates of preparatory/ upgrading and community services were more likely to transfer than graduates of business programs, which in turn were more likely to transfer than all other program areas. graduates of two and three year programs were three times and five times as likely, respectively, to transfer than graduates of one year credentials. key findings part 1. profile of dcto users students background users of the dcto were much more likely to have had plans for university when they first entered college, compared to those who did not use the dcto (65% compared to 37%). younger students, females, and those with a parent with a degree were more likely to use the dcto, whereas canadian citizens and those whose first language was english were less likely to use the dcto. there were no evident patterns by income. students who used the dcto had somewhat stronger academic backgrounds, with 67% of users versus 56% of non-users taking mostly university preparatory high school courses (an early indication of university aspirations), and were somewhat more likely to have over a 70% average 42 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility (50% vs. 45%). there were, however, only minimal differences in language test scores at entry. dcto users were less likely to have previously attended college/trades/ upgrading (18% vs. 23%), or to have attended university (15% vs. 17%). users of the dcto were much more likely than non-users to enter a three-year advanced diploma program (47% vs. 30%) and less likely to enter a one- or two-year program. dcto users were also much more likely to have entered a business program (53% vs. 35%) than those who did not use the dcto. reasons for initially choosing seneca were similar between dcto users and non-users. however, those who indicated they had plans for university (both users and non-users) were less likely to cite availability of program and career advancement as major reasons, and much more likely to cite university preparation than those who did not have plans for university. academic outcomes students who used the dcto were academically much more successful than non-users, both in terms of graduation rates and grades. users obtained a much higher gpa (2.90 vs. 2.18), with 83% graduating within one year of their programs standard length, compared to only 50% of non-users. these differences hold even when accounting for differences in the composition of the two groups, such as academic background, or program and credential of entry, and when removing all those who withdrew in their first semester. the egression models showed that controlling for socioeconomic and academic factors, users of the dcto were three times as likely to graduate on time, and obtained a college gpa of approximately 0.8 points higher than those who did not use the dcto. part 2. transfer outcomes transfer rates overall, 58% of dcto users furthered their education within six months of graduation compared to 25% of graduates who did not use the dcto; 44% of graduates who transferred to university had used the dctos advising services, whereas 10% of non-users transferred. transfer rates to university are higher for those who graduated in the traditional spring semester (enter university in the fall), with 52% of spring graduates who were dcto users transferring, compared with 13% of non-users. within the group who indicated they had plans for university at entry, half of dcto users transferred compared to 22% of non-users. almost one-third of those who entered college without plans for university, but subsequently used the dcto, ultimately transferred. only 4% of those who neither had plans for university, nor visited the dcto, subsequently transferred. having previously attended university did not affect the propensity to transfer within the group of dcto users. however, non-users who previously attended university had a lower transfer rate than non-users with no previous university (8% vs. 11%). dcto users who indicated their first choice of institution was a university in ontario were more likely than non-users to transfer. cumulative college gpa was similar for users and non-users, with average gpas higher for the groups who transferred. only one-third of dcto users with gpas below 3.0 ultimately transferred 43 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility compared with half of those with gpas of 3.0 and over. however, the percentage of transfers who used the dcto was similar at each gpa level. overall, 20% of transfers to university used the dcto. this percentage differs little by student characteristics, with the exception of younger transfers who were more likely to use the dcto. there were, however, large differences by credential and program area: 29% of three-year diploma transfers used the dcto compared to 17% and 5% for one- and two-year programs respectively. across program areas, the highest usage of dcto was in business, at 32% of transfers, whereas preparatory/upgrading programs had the lowest rate of usage, at 3%. regression analysis shows that when controlling for sociodemographic, academic and program factors, as well as plans for university users of the dcto were four times as likely to transfer to university after graduation. institutions and programs of transfer overall, york and ryerson predominate as universities of choice. transfers who used the dcto were much more likely to transfer to ryerson than non-users (30% vs. 17%), and less likely to transfer to the university of toronto or a university outside of ontario. graduates who use the dcto are much more likely than non-users to transfer into business at university (52% vs. 25%) and less likely to transfer into humanities or the social sciences. users of the dcto are equally as likely to transfer into a related program as non-dcto users. transfer experience the reasons for transferring to university were similar between users and non-users, with career advancement and obtaining a credential cited for almost nine in ten transfers. dcto users were more likely than non-users to cite the potential for higher income (76% vs. 70%) and the presence of a transfer agreement (55% vs. 49%) as major reasons. dcto users make more use of a variety of information sources. however, the gap between users and non-users in making use of information sources is the largest for college sources, with a much smaller gap for university and personal sources. dcto users are also more likely to make use of the transfer guide and hard copy publications. users and non-users indicate similar usage of university sources and personal sources (family, other students). graduates satisfaction with the transition experience (83%) and their academic preparation (87%) for transfer is high for both dcto users and non-users, with little difference between the two groups. conclusion and recommendations overall, students who used the advising services at senecas dcto differ little upon entry to seneca in terms of their academic backgrounds and sociodemographic factors. however, dcto users are more likely to have enrolled in business and advanced diploma programs, and the vast majority had plans for university at entry. the high usage of dcto by business students and those from advanced diploma programs is likely related to the high number of transfer agreements in these areas. a similar pattern is seen within the population who ultimately transferred to university. transfers who used the dcto had similar characteristics as non-users; however three-year diploma and business transfers were much more likely to have used the dcto. therefore, dcto users seem to be concentrated in programs with a large 44 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility number of agreements, and outreach may be necessary to provide support for those who are navigating pathways with few agreements. once at seneca, students who registered with the dcto performed far better academically than nonusers, even when controlling for academic background and program area. there are likely several subpopulations in this group: 1) those who started college highly motivated to transfer and therefore performed well; 2) those who did not have plans for transfer but as a result of doing well, decided to continue on to university; and 3) those with high aspirations for university who may have not been doing particularly well at the time of the dcto visit, but who received academic advising either from the dcto or by referral and improved as a result. the most significant and positive finding of this study is the high transfer rates to further education and specifically to university for users of the dcto. expanding the services to reach more students would therefore be of great benefit. recommendations to accomplish this include: 1) reaching out to students early in their program who are interested in transfer. the entering student survey, which was used to identify entrants who aspired to university in this report, could be used to reach those who indicated interest in university. the survey is completed after admission, but just before entry to college, with information identifying individuals who expressed an interest in transfer, and who could be contacted and informed about the colleges provision of transfer services. 2) targeting program areas in which students, despite an interest in transferring, utilize the dcto to a lesser degree. this includes areas outside of business, such as engineering and creative and applied arts. as faculty were a major source of information for students who transferred, targeting faculty and programs within these areas may serve to bridge the gap in dcto usage. 3) enhance focus on career opportunities associated with transfer pathways. graduates who transfer indicate career opportunities as the number one reason for transferring, and likely would benefit from more information on these options. 45 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility references smith, r., decock, h., lin, d., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in higher education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council ontario (heqco). mccloy, u. & liu, s. (2010). what are the influencers of graduate satisfaction and labour market outcomes of ontario college graduates? an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey results. toronto: heqco. mccloy, u., steffler, m. & decock, h. (2017). the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of ontarios graduate satisfaction survey 20072015. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). 46 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility appendices appendix 1. priorities of the degree and credit transfer office and supports offered to students the dcto has three main priorities, which taken together, unify its service delivery model: 1. collaboration with internal stakeholders 2. fostering strategic relationships and partnerships 3. supporting students supports provided to students include: on-campus opportunities including annual events, fairs, workshops, and information sessions to engage students and connect them directly with partner institutions. a robust website featuring student and alumni stories on the experience of transfer, and an e-copy version of the degree transfer guide (also available in hard copy) with detailed information on all informal and formal pathways available to seneca students, by program. an active social media presence to advance outreach and connectivity to students. degree transfer advisors to assist students throughout the transfer process, and to liaison with partner institutions, ensuring that the information on transfer is clear and aligns with the respective articulation agreement (should one exist). appendix 2. seneca students use of dcto and aspirations for university by year of entry, 20072014 did not use dcto dcto users no univ plans univ plans at total no univ plans at univ plans at total at entry entry entry entry 2007 3811 2925 6736 65 190 255 2008 3791 2739 6530 76 202 278 2009 4816 2657 7506 82 187 271 2010 5053 2966 8056 101 168 269 2011 4786 2737 7554 94 171 267 2012 5011 2798 7809 136 200 336 2013 5037 2574 7612 117 172 289 2014* 4028 1954 5983 75 116 191 total 36,333 21,350 57,786 746 1,406 2,156 notes: each academic year contains summer, fall and winter. *the year 2014 does not include the winter semester. for later entry years, students have not had as much time to access the dcto and therefore the usage numbers may be lower. total column numbers include 107 respondents who did not respond to the graduate plans question (4 dcto users, and 103 nondcto users) 47 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility appendix 3. college gpa and previous university of dcto users who graduated, 20072014 gpa 0-1.99 gpa 2.00-2.99 gpa 3.00-3.49 gpa 3.5-4.00 average gpa last school attended was university did not use dcto no univ plans at univ plans at entry entry 7.1% 14.6% 31.8% 41.6% 26.2% 25.1% 34.9% 18.7% 3.10 2.80 27.4% 13.1% total 9.6% 35.1% 25.9% 29.4% 3.00 22.1% no univ plans at entry 4.8% 31.5% 27.0% 36.7% 3.17 15.6% used dcto univ plans at entry 6.9% 38.1% 30.0% 25.1% 3.01 12.5% total 6.1% 35.8% 29.0% 29.0% 3.06 13.7% appendix 4.regression analysis: factors influencing use of dcto, college gpa, and time to graduation; students with an ontario high school record variables dcto user (ref=no) labels yes visited dcto age at entry (yr) (ref=<19) 19 0.793*** (0.058) 0.698*** (0.047) 0.824*** (0.049) 1.257** (0.113) 20 & over sex (ref=female) male status in canada (ref=canadian) non-canadian citizen first language learned (ref=english) other parental education (ref: parent has no degree/unknown) neighbourhood income (ref=low) degree 1.161** (0.071) middle high osap recipient (ref=no) yes program area (ref=business) community service creative and applied arts health hospitality preparatory/upgrading engineering/technology credential type (ref=certificate 1yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) outcome of interest college gpa grad on time 0.735*** 3.033*** (0.021) (0.233) -0.008 0.968 (0.014) (0.039) 0.277*** 1.477*** (0.013) (0.052) -0.159*** 0.709*** (0.011) (0.022) 0.060*** (0.019) 0.026** (0.012) 1.173*** (0.065) 0.949 (0.078) 0.241*** (0.034) 0.318*** (0.060) 0.558*** (0.111) 0.468*** (0.061) 0.481*** (0.041) 0.889 (0.130) 1.401** (0.220) 0.064*** (0.012) 0.075*** (0.013) 0.074*** (0.011) 0.414*** (0.017) 0.283*** (0.018) 0.283*** (0.023) 0.354*** (0.028) -0.078*** (0.022) 0.014 (0.016) -0.064*** (0.020) -0.095*** (0.023) 1.900*** (0.091) 1.131** (0.057) 1.853*** (0.130) 1.890*** (0.156) 0.874** (0.054) 0.850*** (0.043) 1.158*** (0.062) 1.572*** (0.099) 48 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility high school course type mostly u/m (ref=no) high school average (ref=<70%) yes 70-80% >80% number of hs course failures gr. 11&12 (ref=none) 1-3 more than 3 eligible for university (ref=no) yes college english course placement (ref=college english/exempt) ell level 1 or 2 below college/ ell level 3 did the student plan to go to university? (ref: no) constant yes observations observations constant 1.465*** (0.089) 1.224*** (0.076) 1.348*** (0.143) 0.901 (0.057) 0.653*** (0.069) 0.785** (0.092) 0.876** (0.053) 2.707*** (0.165) 0.028*** (0.005) 0.0774 39,945 0.350*** (0.012) 0.507*** (0.013) 1.003*** (0.020) -0.299*** (0.012) -0.597*** (0.018) 0.122*** (0.015) -0.394*** (0.022) -0.248*** (0.012) -0.074*** (0.011) 1.702*** (0.029) 0.304 38,993 1.667*** (0.057) 1.959*** (0.066) 3.176*** (0.192) 0.644*** (0.022) 0.391*** (0.022) 1.114** (0.047) 0.557*** (0.033) 0.730*** (0.024) 0.880*** (0.028) 0.307*** (0.023) 0.1253 24,331 notes: standard errors in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05; empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance; a linear model was run for college gpa (continuous outcome), whereas a logistic model was run for dcto use and graduation rate (0/1 outcome); graduation rate is the proportion of students who graduated any program on time. appendix 5. regression analysis: factors influencing use of dcto, college gpa, and time to graduation; all students variables dcto user (ref=no) labels yes dcto user age at entry (yr) (ref=<19) 19 0.755*** (0.048) 0.651*** (0.035) 0.746*** (0.036) 1.345*** (0.095) 1.192** (0.090) 1.166*** (0.061) 1.256*** (0.061) 0.961 (0.068) 0.244*** (0.030) 0.354*** (0.061) 0.654*** 20 & over sex (ref=female) male status in canada (ref=canadian) other* student visa first language learned (ref=english) other parental education (ref: parent has no degree/unknown) program area (ref=business) degree community service creative and applied arts health hospitality outcome of interest college gpa grad on time 0.800*** 3.006*** (0.018) (0.191) -0.177*** 0.781*** (0.014) (0.027) 0.107*** 1.121*** (0.012) (0.033) -0.371*** 0.580*** (0.010) (0.014) 0.387*** 1.534*** (0.015) (0.057) 0.389*** 2.103*** (0.016) (0.086) 0.077*** (0.011) 0.024** (0.011) 0.353*** 1.552*** (0.014) (0.059) 0.342*** 1.104** (0.015) (0.044) 0.426*** 2.003*** (0.021) (0.119) 0.184*** 1.304*** 49 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility preparatory/upgrading engineering/technology credential type (ref=certificate 1yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) college english course placement (ref=college english/exempt) ell level 1 or 2 below college/ ell level 3 did the student plan to go to university? (ref: no) last school attended a university or degree polytechnic? (ref=no) constant yes (0.100) 0.480*** (0.053) 0.450*** (0.033) 0.708*** (0.082) 1.274 (0.160) 0.693*** (0.055) 0.814*** (0.041) 2.656*** (0.130) (0.025) -0.153*** (0.016) 0.112*** (0.014) -0.554*** (0.016) -0.397*** (0.011) -0.210*** (0.010) 0.588*** (0.013) 2.291*** (0.015) 0.178 58,400 yes constant 0.048*** (0.007) 0.0733 58,909 observations (0.082) 0.626*** (0.031) 0.957 (0.037) 1.336*** (0.058) 1.666*** (0.084) 0.456*** (0.018) 0.595*** (0.015) 0.743*** (0.019) 2.011*** (0.066) 0.637*** (0.036) 0.0831 36,088 notes: standard errors in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05; empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance; a linear model was run for college gpa (continuous outcome), whereas a logistic model was run for dcto use and graduation rate (0/1 outcome); graduation rate is the proportion of students who graduated any program on time. other status in canada includes non-canadian citizens who pay domestic student fees, including those with non-student visas, refugees, or permanent residents. appendix 6. socioeconomic profile, by transfer to university and use of dcto, 20072014 number age at entry (yrs.) gender status in canada english as a first language parental education neighbourhood income osap recipient <19 19 20 & over male female citizen student visa other yes degree no degree unknown low middle high yes nontransfer 11,598 27% 15% 58% 42% 58% 72% 13% 16% 58% 27% 62% 11% 38% 35% 28% 43% did not use dcto transfer total 1,294 39% 20% 41% 43% 57% 78% 6% 16% 60% 32% 57% 11% 34% 35% 31% 47% 12,892 29% 15% 56% 42% 58% 72% 12% 16% 58% 28% 61% 11% 37% 35% 28% 44% nontransfer 401 38% 18% 44% 42% 58% 68% 12% 20% 51% 30% 60% 11% 39% 30% 32% 48% dcto users transfer total 314 51% 18% 31% 40% 60% 77% 8% 16% 58% 31% 62% 8% 34% 36% 30% 41% 715 44% 18% 38% 41% 59% 72% 10% 18% 54% 30% 61% 9% 37% 33% 31% 45% 50 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility appendix 7. percentage with previous university, by university plans and transfer, 20072014 did not use dcto aspire 13% 13% 13% 9% 13% 11% 12% 13% 13% did not transfer transferred total did not transfer transferred total did not transfer transferred total dcto users total did not aspire 27% 28% 27% 19% 14% 17% 27% 25% 27% total 23% 17% 22% 13% 13% 13% 16% 23% 22% appendix 8. college gpa of graduates, by transfer status and use of dcto, 20072014 3.50 3.22 3.06 3.08 3.04 total did not transfer 3.00 3.25 3.13 3.06 total did not transfer 3.23 3.08 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 did not transfer transferred did not use dcto transferred dcto users transferred total total appendix 9. regression analysis: influences on transfer to university. variables labels dcto user (ref=no) yes age starting college (yr) (ref=<19) 19 20 & over status in canada (ref=canadian citizen) graduates with ontario hs records 4.147*** (0.459) 0.881 (0.085) 0.678*** (0.059) other* student visa first language learned (ref=english) other 1.291*** (0.101) all graduates 4.085*** (0.387) 0.998 (0.087) 0.668*** (0.051) 1.082 (0.106) 0.581*** (0.074) 1.236*** (0.090) 51 seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes centre for research in student mobility parental education (ref: parent has no degree/unknown) program area (ref=business) degree community service creative and applied arts health hospitality preparatory/upgrading engineering/technology credential type (ref=certificate 1yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) high school course type mostly u/m (ref=no) high school average (ref=<70%) yes 70-80% >80% eligible for university (ref=no) yes college english course placement (ref=college english/exempt) ell level 1 or 2 1.260*** (0.104) 1.251** (0.136) 0.426*** (0.064) 0.216*** (0.063) 0.256*** (0.096) 5.292*** (0.842) 0.805 (0.102) 2.635*** (0.435) 3.940*** (0.737) 1.198** (0.107) 0.740*** (0.062) 0.722** (0.096) 1.344*** (0.126) 1.215*** (0.082) 1.144 (0.104) 0.466*** (0.060) 0.208*** (0.056) 0.303*** (0.090) 5.627*** (0.761) 0.726*** (0.077) 3.181*** (0.466) 4.890*** (0.804) 0.677*** (0.084) below college/ ell level 3 0.838** (0.058) did the student plan to go to university? yes 3.940*** 4.866*** (ref: no) (0.316) (0.334) term graduated (ref=winter) summer 0.803** 0.840** (0.078) (0.068) fall 0.137*** 0.201*** (0.024) (0.026) college gpa (<3.0) 3.0-3.4 2.670*** 2.322*** (0.242) (0.180) 3.5+ 2.987*** 2.521*** (0.309) (0.207) constant constant 0.015*** 0.014*** (0.003) (0.002) 0.2484 0.2484 observations 8,728 13,364 notes: standard errors in parentheses; *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05; *other status in canada includes non-canadian citizens who pay domestic student fees, including those with non-student visas, refugees, or permanent residents. all graduates includes international students as well as domestic students who did not attend an ontario high school; therefore hs variables are not included in the model. 52

three-partner collaborative evaluation of student transition, performance, experience, and outcomes in practical nursing (pn) nursing degree (bscn) bridging education phase ii report a research project funded by the college university consortium council (cucc) and collaboratively conducted by researchers at: university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) durham college (dc) georgian college (gc) a research project funded by the college university research team members directly involved in this phase of the project include: primary investigators: sue coffey, rn, phd (uoit) gail lindsay, rn, phd (uoit) susan sproul, rn, mscn (dc) co-investigators: marianne cochrane, rn, mscn (dc) katherine cummings, rn, mscn (dc) amanda laird, rn, msc (uoit) karen macdonald, rn, ma (gc) sandra mairs, rn, mscn (dc) research support: shelley bouchard, rn, mscn (project coordinator) zainab lulat, rn, bscn (research assistant) nadia salamat, rn, bscn (research assistant) 1 executive summary this report details data analysis conducted for phase ii of the cucc-funded project: threepartner collaborative evaluation of student transition, performance, experience, and outcomes in practical nursing (pn) nursing degree (bscn) bridging education, a collaborative research project between the university of ontario institute of technology, durham college, and georgian college. between april 2012 and june 2012, data in the form of quantitative surveys and qualitative exploration of student experience was collected from a total of 156 current rpn-bscn students, past students, and workplace contacts. of the total respondents, 131 fully completed questionnaires were submitted by current students. this data (n = 131) was used for the statistical analysis component of this report. additionally, email notification was sent to all current students offering them an opportunity to participate in the research if they had not done so already, resulting in collection of data from an additional 2 current students that is included in the qualitative data analysis (n =133). for the purposes of the analyses presented in this report, a 10% difference in response patterns between students at the two campuses (oshawa campus university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) and durham college (dc) shared campus and georgian college (gc) campus) was arbitrarily deemed to be a significant difference. additionally, the threshold for a significant response rate was also arbitrarily set for the purposes of this report in this case at 60%. this report provides data analysis around the following five focal areas of investigation. in all areas, important insight into student experience, student behaviours, and student life context is gleaned. student experience and evaluation of the program is very positive overall. however, there are important lessons in terms of facilitators and barriers identified by current students and the degree to which academic services are accessed and evaluated as effective or ineffective. differences in response patterns, particularly around facilitators and barriers and academic services, between students enrolled at the oshawa campus (uoit-dc shared campus) and the georgian campus are concerning. the data does not allow us to determine if these differences are related to: the actual services and supports themselves how students are oriented to and made aware of the services and supports at the different campuses the program model where students are integrated with other university students on one campus (oshawa campus) and take classes in a cohort model on the other campus (georgian campus) other factors, such as student differences not identified in this data collection regardless, this information provides us with insight into the need to tailor our orientation and ongoing communication with students in such a manner that we provide clear and consistent 2 messaging about those factors, supports, and services which promote success according to student experience. area of inquiry #1: understanding our student population of the 131 current students who participated in this phase of data collection, 55 (42%) are enrolled at the georgian campus and 76 (58%) are enrolled at the oshawa dc-uoit campus. because one student was a transfer student between campuses, at times there is a minor variation in this number (i.e., 54 and 77) depending on where this student was enrolled at the time of the data collection or the point in time to which information collected refers. the majority of students (76%; n=94) are completing the program on a full-time basis. the difference in commute times for students attending the two campuses is relatively small. the average commute time for students attending the georgian campus to attend class is approximately 13 minutes longer, each way. while age ranges from 21-57, the majority (74%) of current students range in age from 25-44 years of age. male students are in the minority representing only about 8% of the total respondents. just over half (51.1%) of the students who took part in this data collection phase responded that they are currently married. well over half of our students (georgian combined 59.3%; oshawa combined 61.0%; overall 60.3%) have dependent care responsibilities, with the majority of these related to children under the age of 18. the time between completing pn diploma programs and beginning the bridging program ranges from 0-15 years for oshawa students (average = 3.39 years) and 0-29 years for georgian students (average = 3.03 years). close to one-third of students concurrently work full-time as rpns. in addition to working within nursing, 6.6% work full-time outside of nursing. another 45.3% of students work part-time in nursing as rpns while 8% work part-time outside of nursing. finally, 17.2% of current students work casual in nursing while 5.8% work casual outside of nursing. the vast majority (65%) of students work between 24-40 hours per week, with 9% working greater than 40 hours per week. close to one third of our students gave up full-time employment. median family income was just barely into the $50,000-$70,000 category, with the mean and mode falling in the $30,000-50,000 category. close to one-quarter of our students had an average family income of <$30,000. concurrently, 15% of our students indicated an average family of income of >$90,000. the vast majority of students (82%) anticipate completing the rpn to bscn program with some degree of student debt. the average anticipated student debt approached $20,000 at each site. the majority of students (n=88) are able to access some funding, including government program such as the ontario student assistance program (osap), employer support, and the nursing education initiative (sponsored by the ministry of health and long-term care) . the emerging picture is one in which students are concurrently working full-time, studying full-time, and caring often for multiple dependents in the context of lives with many responsibilities. area of inquiry #2: student experience year by year through the pn-bscn bridging program throughout the program, students experience challenges in relation to the workload and managing multiple demands on their time. these findings are highly consistent with the data 3 collected in 2009-2010 and analyzed as part of phase i of this study. additionally, we see a progressive change in attitude and orientation of students as they move through the program. learning requirements and expectations that students experience in the university setting are seen as significantly different than the learning contexts that most students have previously experienced in college settings. these differences relate both to level of difficulty, and to the expectations of independence and self-directedness. student respondents in year 1 and year 2 express a higher degree of frustration with this context, while students in year 3 focus more on their feelings of confidence and mastery. area of inquiry #3: facilitators and barriers to success in the rpn-bscn bridging program in terms of employment factors, while students from both campuses generally responded that work schedule flexibility promoted success, significantly more students from oshawa responded positively to this item and significantly more students from georgian identified the lack of flexibility as a barrier to success. in terms of personal factors, support received from colleagues and employers was significantly more pronounced with the oshawa students in terms of promoting success versus the georgian students. similarly, the lack of colleague support was a significantly greater barrier to success for georgian campus students than for oshawa campus students. a wide range of differences are seen when examining academic factors that promote or are barriers to success. students from both campuses generally perceived the overall program of study in a very positive light, with very few identifying the program of study as a barrier and the vast majority seeing it as promoting success. the trend across evaluation of academic factors reveals that oshawa students have much more positive perceptions of factors promoting success. area of inquiry #4: supports and services accessed and their effectiveness the degree to which students are accessing some of the academic services available to them is very positive. for students enrolled at the oshawa campus in particular, 8 of the 10 academic services examined were accessed by more than two-thirds of the students. the only two services not accessed to this degree were the counseling centre and the centre for students with disabilities, both services which would be expected to show a lower rate of use. for students enrolled at the georgian campus, while only three services meet this level of use (faculty, program coordinator, academic advisor), an additional two services were accessed by at least half of the participants in the barrie cohort (financial aid, library/librarian). the greatest access of services is similar across students groups at both campuses: a) program coordinator, b) faculty, and c) academic advisor. the fact that students enrolled at the oshawa campus evaluated the effectiveness of all academic services that were queried at >60% threshold, albeit an arbitrary designation for this report, is highly encouraging. additionally, 5 of the 10 services under examination were evaluated by students on the georgian campus as effective at >60% threshold (academic advisor, program coordinator, peer tutoring, faculty, and the library/librarian). the greatest 4 areas of satisfaction for users of services on both campuses were identified as being: a) program coordinator, faculty, and the library/librarian. it is noteworthy that in general, the services that are most utilized are also most highly evaluated. there is a very significant difference in the degree to which students are accessing academic services on the two campuses. a total of 7 of the 10 services were accessed significantly more (i.e., >10% difference in relative use) by students at the oshawa campus than at the georgian campus. these services include: writing centre, academic advisor, peer tutoring, library/librarian, health centre, counselling centre, and centre for students with disabilities. the juxtaposition of this finding of significantly less use of support services by georgian campus students with anecdotal student feedback from this group that they feel there needs to be more support available to them is concerning and highlights the need to address the underlying cause. six academic services (writing centre, library/librarian, financial aid, health centre, counselling centre, and the centre for students with disabilities) showed a significant difference in the degree to which they were assessed as effective by students at the different campuses. all of the academic services provided for students at the oshawa campus were evaluated by users as effective at or above the 60% threshold (arbitrarily deemed as satisfactory for the purposes of this study). when evaluated by students enrolled in the georgian cohort, a total of five services fell below the 60% threshold for satisfaction when looking at level of effectiveness. these include the writing centre, financial aid, health centre, counselling centre, and centre for students with disabilities. area of inquiry #5: student experience of changes to self and professional role across all years, students perceive personal gains which they see as a credit to themselves. sometimes they feel supported in achieving these gains, but sometimes perceive a lack of support. as students progress through the program, they describe increasingly positive personal attributes that they see as part of their role and self-identification as a nurse. critical thinking and understanding the impact of ones actions as a nurse are enhanced with increased knowledge and skill, as well as application of theory and research. while there is reference to growth in relation to professional work as a nurse, respondents focussed even more heavily on personal growth that then leads to changes as a professional. additional areas of inquiry due to challenges with data collection, two additional areas of inquiry (area of inquiry #6: workplace contact experience of having employees enrolled in the program; area of inquiry #7: past student experience of the program) will be reported in december 2012. 5 dissemination activities this report describes current dissemination activities related to phase 1 and phase 2 of this project. one poster presentation and one oral presentation have successfully been delivered. one oral presentation is accepted for september 2012, and two additional submissions are under review through a peer-review process. financial reporting requirements please find attached the financial reporting documents related to this phase of the project. fictional student composites meet gwen & anna: composites of current students at each of the rpn to bscn program campus sites (june 30, 2012) on both the oshawa and barrie sites for the uoit-dc-gc rpn to bscn program, most students have never been to university before. they are awarded 33 transfer credits on admission and complete the program in approximately three years, which entails studying year-round for 2 of the 3 years. the oshawa students tell us they graduated from their practical nurse program anywhere from 0-15 years ago and the georgian students 0-29 years ago. a composite story has been created to show our research data in an accessible format to personalize our findings. two students who are entering the summer semester, an integrated clinical-theory course between second and third year, discuss their experience with the rpn to bscn program. interestingly, and unbeknownst to our gwen and anna, second year rpn to bscn bridging program students have a higher attrition rate than the four-year collaborative bscn program students. we listen to them reflect on their experience and end the composite with a look into the future for our two students, based on third year student feedback during our research processes. gwen on the oshawa campus of uoit-dc my name is gwen and i am 35 years old. i graduated 3 years ago from a practical nursing program. i am one of twenty-nine students in year two at the oshawa campus, who took part in the rpn to bscn program research, conducted during the may 2012 orientation to a summer clinical course. my rpn to bscn courses are mostly face-to-face on the oshawa campus of uoitdc. this year we integrated with the collaborative bscn program students in many of our classes. in some of the courses, we are taught with health sciences students. i am married, like over half of the students in my class. i am a bit concerned as a few of my colleagues marital status has changed over the past year. in my program, three-quarters of us have children under the age of 18. i have a two year old son and a four year old daughter. one of my worries is having good childcare for them. 6 i have the option of completing my program of study on a full-time or part-time basis, but have remained full-time. my commute time to school is of an hour and to clinical its almost an hour. if i dont have our family car to use, it sure helps to have good transit available. i work 31 hours per week in complex continuing care in a hospital, about the same hours that i worked in first year. like about half of my class, i gave up full-time employment in my first year back at school. our family income is now $50,000 a year and i worry it will go down if i need to work less in my third year. i hear it is demanding to finish the program. i anticipate having $18,000 school-caused debt upon graduation. like the majority of my peers, i have some education funding support from my employer and from the government. it is important to me to be successful in this program and it helps that i have work schedule flexibility, job security, work support for continuing education, and especially support from my work peers. it has also helped to be able to take a leave of absence from work when i need more time for my studies. of course, i need more than support at work and my family matters a lot to my success. my personality helps too! at school, there are a number of services for students success on campus and i have accessed the academic advisor, program coordinator, faculty, and computer/it support, but i think the computer fees in my tuition are too high. i like the mix of online and face-to-face classes, as well as practicum opportunities for areas of practice not in my practical nurse program. the writing and math requirements in my courses support me towards my career transition in nursing. the writing centre and library also help me to be successful at school. i like the tutors and teaching assistants (tas) in my big classes although many of my classmates dont think they learn as much from a ta. the campus facilities are good for students if you need a health centre or counselling. overall i like the program and feel it will make me successful as a nurse. anna on the barrie campus of georgian college my name is anna and i am 35 years old. i finished my practical nurse program three years ago. i am one of eighteen students in year two at the georgian campus, who took part in the rpn to bscn program research, conducted in the may 2012 orientation to a summer clinical course. almost half of my class is married although several of us have changed our living arrangements since coming into the program. like most of my classmates, i have children two school-age daughters. i would have preferred to come to school part-time but only full-time is offered at this campus. the only way to go part-time is to break an arm or to fail a course. it takes me about an hour to commute to classes but i go to clinical close to my home so that is only a half hour trip. i work 24 hours per week in long-term care which is slightly less than i worked in first year. i gave up my full-time rpn job to come to school. almost half of us in my class did that and i would do it again. our family income is about $50,000 per year and i will have a student debt of $17,000 by the end of this program. like the majority of my classmates, i am eligible for education funding support from my employer and government. i have to wait for my osap information to come in the mail directly from uoit or travel to oshawa to get it, which frustrates me. 7 i like the flexibility i get from my workplace to attend school and the support of job availability for rns. when i dont have support about arranging my schedule from my nursing colleagues at work, it makes school more difficult. jobs for rpns are not as available in my area. my colleagues at school have been together since we started the program last year. we have all our classes together except for electives which i took online because i didnt feel that there were many options for me at this campus and i like that flexibility anyway. we never see nursing students that are in another collaborative program at the georgian campus or have classes with non-nurses, except for online courses. i know my colleagues well and who to work with in group assignments. some of my peers havent gotten over some issues about organization in the program from first year and bring them up at class meetings with the admin staff. so i dont go to those meetings. at school, i have a program coordinator for support about my courses and i like the class formats and scheduling. online courses are especially good for me, although, there is little computer access and it support on campus. id like more help but havent accessed the on-campus resources as yet. i think the program will help me be successful as a nurse. and, we asked gwen and anna what they would tell a student who is coming into year two to expect in the rpn to bscn program. they answered students should expect program challenges, challenges to work-life balance, independent learning and offered tips for success. the program challenges included financial pressures, stress, program issues with level of difficulty and disorganization, and technology (cost and skills for online learning). in terms of work-life balance, our second year students advise first year students to understand that school changes your life completely, not to work full-time, to be flexible in scheduling activities and that supports are available if you are resourceful. gwen and anna cautioned that there is a lot of studying to do and not to get behind as there is a lot of responsibility for self-directed learning and you have to ask for help. finally, their tips for success include time management and priority setting within realistic goals, being open to new ideas and taking risks. overall, our students recognize school must be a priority that changes life in relation to family and work. they see themselves as key to strategies for independent learning and success; they say expect to study hard and to be frustrated with the workload. we then asked anna and gwen how being in the rpn to bscn program has changed them personally. they have made many personal gains but feel a lot of stress. they report being frustrated with courses that dont enhance clinical knowledge, feel more tired and critical. while they are more knowledgeable, they cant wait for school to be over to get their personal lives back and to get active again. on the other hand, they tell us they look for opportunities and feel more resourceful. their confidence has increased and they take pride in the leadership now shown in personal and professional life. they state their knowledge and skills have grown, especially their critical thinking anna and gwen say they see things from a broader perspective and from multiple angles. they have learned to be organized and to do research knowing they cant just assume anything. while they give credit to themselves for determination and commitment, they can grudgingly give credit to the school for some of their personal growth. 8 they claim to respond better to adversity and rise to challenges that require empathy and resilience. we then inquired about how being in the program has changed anna and gwen as a nurse. they grouped their answers into three areas of change: application of knowledge and critical thinking, change of character, and professional growth. they report a broadened nursing focus that includes the whole healthcare team, global issues and a deeper understanding that nursing includes health teaching and research in practice. their health assessment skills and appreciation for systemic problems have grown. the increased knowledge and application of that knowledge comes with a critical eye and feeling more competent. anna and gwen find it hard to separate the personal and professional so see themselves changed as nurses in terms of being more caring and compassionate, more evidence-based, and more appreciative about life after meeting patients who are living with complex health challenges. while it is hard to find a happy balance with work, school, and life, anna and gwen are determined to reach their goal of achieving a bscn and becoming an rn. they are studying harder in second year and using their learning at work. they appreciate the role of the rn more since starting this program and are excited about the possibilities for themselves. what anna and gwen will experience in their third year, according to their peers who are a year ahead, are more confidence, more positivity, and insight into their accomplishments over time in the program. as teacher-researchers, we hope that meeting anna and gwen makes reading the research report compelling. while we celebrate with the students the areas that are going well, we are concerned about the emerging picture in which students are working and studying concurrently, both with heavy workloads, and at the same time carrying multiple personal responsibilities. they have substantial financial challenges despite receiving some external funding. while resources are available, students experience barriers to success and there are significant differences in the degree to which students are accessing and evaluating the effectiveness of services. all of these factors must be considered in our program and curriculum content, delivery, and expectations. 9 list of tables table 1: update on deliverables for phase 2 summary of data collection: phase ii table 2: overview of all respondents for phase 2 table 3: current student participants (included in statistical analysis) table 4: current student participants by program year table 5: current student participants by educational site table 6: current student participants (round 2- extended participation invitation) table 7: workplace contact participants table 8: past student participants area of inquiry #1: understanding our students table 9: respondents by campus (current students-georgian and oshawa/uoit campus) table 10: respondents by program year table 11: full-time versus part-time (personalized study plan) status table 12: current student commuting requirement by campus table 13: age of respondents (current students) table 14: gender of respondents (current students) table 15: gender of respondents (current students) table 16: marital status table 17: dependent care responsibilities table 18: area of nursing practice table 19: summarized nursing areas of specialization for current students table 20: employment status in nursing (rpn) table 21: average # of hours worked per week in any type of employment table 22: average hours worked each week by program year and site table 23: students who gave up a full-time job for school table 24: average annual family income table 25: estimated student debt by program site table 26: estimated student debt by program year and site table 27: estimated student debt for rpn to bscn students (all sites) table 28: additional funding derived from x (multiple) number of sources table 29: number of additional funding sources accessed by students table 30: campus comparison of scholarship/grant recipients table 31: additional funding students accessed (scholarships/grants/bursaries) area of inquiry #2: student experience year by year through the rpnbscn program table 32: themes related to rpn-bscn student experience year by year through the program table 33: overarching themes 10 area of inquiry #3: facilitators and barriers to success in the rpnbscn bridging program table 34: employment factors that promote success table 35: employment factors promoting success by campus table 36: employment factors that are barriers to success table 37: employment factors that are barriers to success table 38: personal factors that promote success table 39: personal factors that promote success by campus table 40: personal factors that are barriers to success table 41: personal factors that are barriers to success table 42: academic factors that promote success (part a) table 43: academic factors that promote success (part b) table 43: academic factors that promote success (part b) table 44: summary of academic factors promoting success table 45: academic factors that are barriers to success (part a) table 46: academic factors that are barriers to success (part b) table 47: summary of academic factors that are barriers to success table 48: other factors promoting success table 49: other factors promoting success table 50: other factors that are barriers to success table 51: other factors that are barriers to success area of inquiry #4: supports and services accessed and their effectiveness table 52: academic services ranked by participants table 53: supports and services accessed and their effectiveness (combined campuses) table 54: combined number of students accessing services on both campuses table 55: combined evaluation of effectiveness of support services on both campuses table 56: supports and services accessed and their effectiveness (oshawa campus) table 57: supports and services accessed and their effectiveness (georgian campus) table 58: comparison of academic services accessed by campus table 59: comparison of academic services not accessed by campus table 60: relative comparative degree to which academic services are accessed more frequently by oshawa students table 61: comparative perceived effectiveness of academic services by campus by users of services table 62: percentage of respondents by campus who found academic services they accessed to be effective table 63: percentage of respondents by campus who found academic services they accessed to be ineffective table 64: perceived effectiveness of academic services by students who indicated accessing the services (oshawa campus) 11 table 65: perceived effectiveness of academic services by students who indicated accessing the services (georgian campus) table 66: top 3 academic services accessed (combined and by site) area of inquiry #5: student experience of changes to self and professional role table 67: overview of themes related to student perception of changes in self as a person table 68: overarching themes related to changes to self as a person table 69: themes related to student perception of changes in self as a nurse table 70: overarching themes related to changes to self as a nurse 12 table 1: update on deliverables for phase 2 phase ii apr 1, 2012 june 29, 2012 project activity secure ethical approval at all 3 partner sites collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data required action/description submit reb documents to ethics review committees at all sites and secure reb approval at all sites ensure all members of the research team, research coordinator, and research assistants have completed mandatory research ethics training develop: online questionnaires, focus group, face to face, and telephone interview guides online journaling exercise train research assistants and research coordinator in use of interview guides schedule and conduct focus group interviews with current students to explore further their experiences as they progress through the program schedule and conduct face to face and telephone interviews with past students (graduates and students who have left the program) schedule and conduct focus group and face to face interviews with employers transcribe audiotapes from focus groups and interviews status notes completed ethical approval in place at all 3 partner sites the tri-council ethics tutorial has been completed by all members listed on the reb applications completed for current students through a consultative process, it was determined that the most expeditious route by which data could be collected from the largest number of current student participants was through the use of online qualitative and quantitative data collection (lime survey). in lieu of focus groups, participants were given the opportunity to answer qualitative questions focusing on their experience of the year of the program they were just completing. responses were analyzed using nvivo9, with the identification of common themes and the use of multiple researchers assigned to each question to allow for interrater reliability workplace contacts were given the option of completing the survey online or by a face-to-face or telephone interview. interviews were conducted, responses transcribed, and themes identified through a multimember research team. team members collaborated in the development of the ongoing for workplace contacts and past students 13 report to cucc analyze data using nvivo9 develop categories and themes related to the data that provide insight into the research questions provide a full report to cucc based on defined deliverables, including minimally results of data analysis examining the following questions: what is the student experience year by year through the pn-bscn bridging program (taking a snapshot in winter 2012)? what do students perceive as barriers and facilitators to their success as they move through the program? what kinds of supports (academic, personal, financial, employer, etc.) are they accessing, to what degree, and how effective are these? how is the students experience of self and professional role changed through the educational experience? completed qualitative questions, the identification of quantitative measures with proven validity and reliability measures, and extensive collection of demographic data not available through phase 1 student tracking information see tables 2-70 for a summary of data analysis with interpretation of findings and suggestions for next steps 14 summary of data collection: phase 2 project activity: collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data component a: current student data collection data collection with current students for phase 2 of this study took place largely over the months of april-may 2012, with data analysis occurring in june of 2012. a total of 156 current rpn-bscn students, past students, and workplace contacts completed quantitative surveys and qualitative exploration of student experience. this data is represented in tables 2-6. of the total respondents, 131 fully completed questionnaires were submitted by current students through data collection that took place concurrent to dc-uoit-gc learning experiences (introduction to summer clinical courses for students completing year 1 and year 2 of the program, canadian registered nursing exam (crne) preparation course for students completing year 3 (completion of the program of study). this data (n = 131) was used for the statistical analysis component of this report and is summarized in table 2, which presents an overview of respondents. additionally, email notification was sent to all current students offering them an opportunity to participate in the research if they had not done so as part of the scheduled activities. through this broadcast, an additional 4 students completed questionnaires, with only 2 fully completed, for a total of n =133 current student participants included in the qualitative analysis. table 2: overview of all respondents for phase ii date of data gathering participant category #of survey respondents completed surveys incomplete or partial data eliminated surveys april 24, 2012 to 8 may, 2012 current students 139 131 6 2 june 8, 2012 to june 11, 2012 current students (2nd retrieval) 4 2 2 - may 18, 2012 to june 18, 2012 past students 7 2 5 - may 22, 2012 to june 01, 2012 institutional contacts 6 5 1 - 156 140 14 2 total note: raw data from 2 students removed prior to statistical analysis r/t failure to consent as per instruction 15 table 3: current student participants (included in statistical analysis) date of survey participant category campus site number of participants year 3 georgian campus 14 year 3 oshawa campus 15 year 2 georgian campus 18 year 2 oshawa campus 29 year 1 georgian campus 22 year 1 oshawa campus 33 total completed surveys 131 incomplete data set 6 total participants 137 april 24, 2012 may 1, 2012 may 7, 2012 may 8, 2012 may 7, 2012 may 8, 2012 table 4: current student participants by program year year 3 2 1 incomplete data set total table 5: current student participants by educational site number of participants 29 47 55 6 137 campus site number of participants 55 76 6 137 georgian campus oshawa campus incomplete data set total table 6: current student participants (round 2- extended participation invitation) date of data collection june 8-11, 2012 number of participants 4 completed survey incomplete data 2 2 16 component b: workplace contact data collection data collection for workplace contacts related to phase 2 deliverables took place in late may, 2012. data analysis followed in mid-june 2012. as per our research ethics board approval, current students were invited to provide workplace contact information for a person within their healthcare organization who would be able and/or willing to provide information about the workplace experience of having students undertaking pn-bscn education. a total of 6 workplace contacts were provided by current students. of these, 5 fully completed either telephone interviews or submission of an electronic mixed method questionnaire. table 7 provides an overview of these counts. as a result of this relatively low number of responses, we have elected to continue to try to collect data and will report on the results of workplace contact interviews in a subsequent report. table 7: workplace contact participants number of participants complete incomplete 6 5 1 component c: past student data collection despite significant efforts to reach graduates and students who have left the rpn-bscn program for a variety of reasons, we ultimately only received responses from 7 past students. of those responses, 2 were fully completed questionnaires, 2 partially completed (with data sets complete enough to be included in some of the analyses), and 3 were too incomplete for any relevant analysis (table 8 provides a summary of this data). this noted challenge in securing follow-up data from graduates is a significant finding, leading to the introduction of discussion around development of stronger alumni structures within this program (discussion tabled for fall 2012). additionally, phase iii is designed to allow insight into the experiences and perceptions of new graduates (those completing the program this spring will be contacted for follow-up over the fall). it is hoped both that: a) this finding of challenges in contacting past students will inform processes used in phase iii, and b) the data collected in phase iii will be able to give us further insight into perceptions of past students. table 8: past student participants date of survey completed surveys partially completed incomplete surveys total surveys may 18, 2012 to june 18, 2012 2 2 3 7 17 area of inquiry #1: understanding our students in order to understand our student body as a whole, we asked our participants questions about their personal, educational, and employment circumstances at the beginning of our limesurvey questionnaire. our rpn to bscn program is available on two campuses about a 90 minute drive apart. students take the program on a full-time (3-year) or part-time basis, and have diverse lifestyles and life circumstances. it is important to know the continuum of what characterizes our students in the rpn to bscn program. we were especially interested in identifying the competing priorities in our students lives and any changes in their life circumstances (employment status, income, etc.) during the program. we know that students find the program intense and demanding and wondered how this manifested in their daily lives. this analysis will increase our ability to anticipate and orient mature students to the realities of post-secondary education. distribution by campus, program year, ft or pt (personalized) study plan, and commute tables 9-12 provide an overview of the respondents for this phase of the study. of the 131 current students who participated in this phase of data collection, 55 (42%) are enrolled at the georgian campus and 76 (58%) are enrolled at the oshawa dc-uoit campus (see table 9). number of respondents across year 1 and year 2 of the program were fairly similar (42% of respondents were completing year 1 of the program, 36% of respondents were completing year 2 of the program, and 22% of respondents were completing year 3 of the program (see table 10). of current students who indicated whether they were completing full-time or part-time (personalized) study plans, 76% (n=94) were completing the program on a full-time basis. for logistical reasons, students enrolled in the georgian cohort are currently only offered full-time admission. this fact likely skews enrolment toward full-time status, despite what student preference might otherwise be (see table 11). table 9: respondents by campus (current students - georgian and oshawa/uoit campus) 18 table 10: respondents by program year table 11: full-time versus part-time (personalized study plan) status table 12 provides an interesting comparison of commute times for students to the various campuses and to their clinical requirements. while we had previously been under the impression that commuting was a much more significant issue for students attending the georgian campus, data reveals that the difference in commute times for students attending the various campuses is not as large as had been thought. the average commute time for students attending the georgian campus to attend class is approximately 13 minutes longer (georgian 66 min; oshawa 53 min), each way, with students in year 1 of the program showing similar commute times. the average commute to clinical requirements for students attending the georgian campus is actually approximately 4 minutes shorter each way than students attending the oshawa dc-uoit campus. regardless of the finding that commute times are not as variable 19 as was anticipated, it is clear that students in general are commuting a significant distance to study in this program, regardless of which campus they are admitted to. table 12: current student commuting requirement by campus oshawa dc-uoit campus average commute to school (min) average commute to clinical (min) georgian campus year 1 students year 2 students year 3 students all years year 1 students year 2 students year 3 students all years 66 min 46 min 50 min 53 min 66 min 63 min 68 min 66 min 53 min 55 min 29 min 49 min 62 min 30 min 37 min 45 min basic demographics: age and gender tables 13-15 provide an overview of some relevant basic demographic information about our students. while age ranges from 21-57, the vast majority (74%) of respondents (current students) range in age from 25-44 years of age (see table 3). typical of gender distribution in nursing education both provincially and nationally, male students are in the minority representing only about 8% of the total respondents (see tables 14 & 15). table 13: age of respondents (current students) 20 table 14: gender of respondents (current students) male female total missing system total frequency percent valid percent cumulative % 11 118 129 8.0 86.1 94.2 8.5 91.5 100 8.5 100 8 5.8 137 100 table 15: gender of respondents (current students) marital status and dependent care responsibilities tables 16 and 17 provide data that gives us a glimpse into the personal lives of our students. overall, just over half (51.1%) of the students who took part in this data collection phase responded that they are currently married, with a higher percentage of oshawa students (57.9%) married than georgian students (41.8%). not surprisingly, we see the corollary with students identifying as currently single, with a slightly higher proportion of georgian students (36.4%) falling into this category than oshawa students (30.2%). participants were also asked to indicate if their marital status had changed over the course of their studies. a total of 12 students (9.2%) from both campuses indicated some type of change, with an even distribution between both campuses. 21 table 16: marital status single married common law separated divorced widowed no answer oshawa count percent 23 30.2% 44 57.9% 4 5.3% 2 2.6% 1 1.3% 0 0.0% 3 3.9% georgian count percent 20 36.4% 23 41.8% 5 9.1% 2 3.6% 2 3.6% 2 3.6% 1 1.8% combined count percent 43 32.8% 67 51.1% 9 6.9% 4 3.1% 3 2.3% 2 1.5% 4 3.1% table 17 provides very interesting insight into one of the unique, but not surprising features of the student population enrolled in the rpn to bscn program. well over half of our students (georgian combined 59.3%; oshawa combined 61.0%; overall 60.3%) have dependent care responsibilities, with the majority of these related to children under the age of 18. this finding warrants further exploration in terms of unique factors that may contribute to challenges in completing this type of educational program. table 17: dependent care responsibilities total students georgian year 1 22 georgian year 2 18 georgian year 3 14 georgian combined 54 oshawa - year 1 33 oshawa - year 2 29 oshawa - year 3 15 oshawa combined 77 131 # student with dependents % by year and site 11 50% 14 77.7% 7 50% 32 59.3% 15 45.5% 21 72.4% 11 73.3% 47 totals 79 61.0% 60.3% 22 practice focus, concurrent employment in nursing, hours worked the time between completing pn diploma programs and beginning the bridging program ranges from 0-15 years for oshawa students (average = 3.39 years) and 0-29 years for georgian students (average = 3.03 years). tables 18-22 summarize data relevant to concurrent work that students undertake while studying. areas of practice ranged from high acuity in-patient areas to community-based care (see tables 18-19). close to one-third (32%; n=41) of students concurrently work full-time as rpns (see table 20). in addition to working within nursing, 6.6% (n=9) work full-time outside of nursing. another 45.3% of students (n=58) work part-time in nursing as rpns while 8% (n=11) work part-time outside of nursing. finally, 17.2% (n=22) of current students work casual in nursing while 5.8% (n=8) work casual outside of nursing. the vast majority (65%; n=80) of students work between 24-40 hours per week , with 9% working greater than 40 hours per week (see tables 21 & 22). the emerging picture is one in which students are concurrently working full-time, studying full-time and caring often for multiple dependents. given that this type of bridging education is often considered compressed, this combination of school, work, and life obligation is a very important consideration, both in reviewing program requirements and in being able to appropriately advise students about what undertaking this program will mean to their lives. table 18: area of nursing practice current practice area(s) number of responses percentage of responses long term care/gerontology 54 29.3% general medicine 30 16.3% emergency department 16 8.7% general surgery 14 7.6% rehabilitation 11 6.0% in-patient psychiatry 8 4.3% homecare 6 3.3% cardiology/cardiac surgery 6 3.3% post-partum 5 2.7% operating room/pacu 4 2.2% orthopaedics 4 2.2% specialty out-patient dept. 4 2.2% family practice 3 1.6% other community-based practice 3 1.6% neurology 3 1.6% paediatrics 3 1.6% oncology/haematology 3 1.6% correctional nursing 2 1.1% other in-patient practice 2 1.1% obstetrics/labour & delivery 2 1.1% total responses 182 100% please note: the data contains dual responses as participants are working in more than one practice area 23 table 19: summarized nursing areas of specialization for current students current practice area(s) hospital-based care long term care/gerontology community-based care rehabilitation total responses number of responses 105 54 14 11 184 percentage of responses 57.1% 29.3% 7.6% 6.0% 100% please note: the data contains dual responses as participants are working in more than one practice area table 20: employment status in nursing (rpn) table 21: average # of hours worked per week in any type of employment 24 table 22: average hours worked each week by program year and site total participants total # of responses 0 hrs 1-10 hrs 11-20 hrs 14 14 1 0 15 15 1 1 18 17 1 2 29 28 1 0 23 22 1 0 32 29 2 2 3 7 5 20 21-30 hrs 31-40 hrs 40+ hrs n/a total work hours 4 1 0 412/14 29.42 hours 4 1 0 369.5/15 24.63hours 3 0 1 401.5/17 23.62 hours 9 4 1 873/28 31.18 hours 6 1 1 588.5/22 26.75 hours 12 6 4 3 856.5/29 29.53 hours 49 32 11 6 georgian - year 3 1 7 oshawa - year 3 4 4 georgian - year 2 1 10 oshawa - year 2 5 9 georgian - year 1 6 7 oshawa - year 1 response per category total participants 125 165.13/6 = 27.52 average hours georgian 53 79.79/3 = 26.60 average hours oshawa 72 85.34/3 = 28.44 average hours table 23 summarized responses around leaving full-time employment to attend school. close to one third of all of our students (n=42; 32%) gave up full-time employment, with a higher proportion of georgian campus students responding affirmatively to this question. when asked if they could do this over again, would they make this same decision again to leave full-time employment for school, the vast majority (n=37= 90.5%) said that they would. table 23: students who gave up a full-time job for school oshawa count percent georgian year 1 students year 2 students year 3 students all years year 1 students year 2 students year 3 students all years 5 15.2% 11 37.9% 5 33% 21 27.6% 7 31.8% 10 55.6% 4 28.6% 21 38.2% 25 income, student debt, and scholarships/bursaries tables 24-28 reveal important data regarding finances for our current students, including income, anticipated student debt, and access to scholarships and bursaries. median family income was just barely into the $50,000-$70,000 category, with the mean and mode falling in the $30,000-50,000 category. it is very important to note that close to one-quarter of our students (23%; n=28) had an average family income of <$30,000. concurrently, 15% of our students indicated an average family of income of >$90,000 (n=19) (see table 24). table 24: average annual family income the vast majority of students anticipate completing the rpn to bscn program with some degree of student debt. of the 127 students who responded to the question asking that they estimate the amount of student debt they will have accrued by the time they complete the program, 82% (n=104) estimate some degree of debt. tables 25-27 provide overviews by year, program site, and total summary. there was a high degree of similarity in terms of anticipated debt regardless of site of enrolment, with the average anticipated student debt approaching $20,000 at each site (georgian $17,130; oshawa $18,219). the median and mode anticipated debt category was $10,000-$20,000 for students at both sites. this information is particularly concerning given the data presented in table 24 which shows, by and large, relatively low to moderate income for students, despite their continued employment throughout the program. 26 table 25: estimated student debt by program site table 26: estimated student debt by program year and site estimated debt as a result of the program >$40,000 $30,000-$40,000 oshawa yr 3 $20,000-$30,000 georgian yr 3 $10,000-$20,000 oshawa yr 2 $5,000-10,000 georgian yr 2 oshawa yr 1 $0-$5,000 georgian yr 1 no debt no response 0 2 4 6 8 # of respondents 27 table 27: estimated student debt for rpn to bscn students (all sites) tables 28-31 depict the degree to which students enrolled in the rpn to bscn program are accessing funding from other sources. the majority of students (n=88) are able to access some funding, including government program such as the ontario student assistance program (osap), employer support, and the nursing education initiative (sponsored by the ministry of health and long-term care) which makes $1500 available for nurses to upgrade their education through a variety of mechanisms. the largest number was able to access funding through their employer (23%). the proportion of students who access some type of grant, scholarship or other educational funding support across each campus is very similar (oshawa 67.5%; georgian 64.8%). worthy of note, a significant portion of students (37.5%) are accessing financial support through more than one source. details provided by respondents about the actual extent of this funding are not specific enough to report on actual amounts, but the picture of students working too much, likely earning too little, and accruing debt despite receiving some external funding is a very significant finding. table 28: additional funding derived from x (multiple) number of sources georgian 1 oshawa 1 georgian 2 oshawa 2 georgian 3 oshawa 3 funded participants 12 20 13 19 11 13 88 1 source 2 sources 3+ sources 10 1 1 13 7 0 8 4 1 11 7 1 8 3 0 5 7 1 55 29 4 percent 62.5% 33.0% 4.5% 28 table 29: number of additional funding sources accessed by students percent percent of students utilizing additional funding sources 62.5% 33% 4.5% 1 source 2 sources 3 or more sources table 30: campus comparison of scholarship/grant recipients 29 understanding our students section summary of the 131 current students who participated in this phase of data collection, 55 (42%) are enrolled at the georgian campus and 76 (58%) are enrolled at the oshawa dc-uoit campus, with 76% (n=94) completing the program on a full-time basis (for logistical reasons, students enrolled in the georgian cohort are currently only offered full-time admission).the difference in commute times for students attending the various campuses is not as large as had been thought. the average commute time for students attending the georgian campus to attend class is approximately 13 minutes longer, each way. while age ranges from 21-57, the vast majority (74%) of respondents (current students) range in age from 25-44 years of age. typical of gender distribution in nursing education both provincially and nationally, male students are in the minority representing only about 8% of the total respondents. just over half (51.1%) of the students who took part in this data collection phase responded that they are currently married, with a higher percentage of oshawa students (57.9%) married than georgian students (41.8%). not surprisingly, we see the corollary with students identifying as currently single, with a slightly higher proportion of georgian students (36.4%) falling into this category than oshawa students (30.2%). well over half of our students (georgian combined 58.2%; oshawa combined 61.8%; overall 60.3%) have dependent care responsibilities, with the majority of these related to children under the age of 18. the time between completing pn diploma programs and beginning the bridging program ranges from 0-15 years for oshawa students (average = 3.39 years) and 0-29 years for georgian students (average = 3.03 years). areas of practice ranged from high acuity in-patient areas to community-based care. close to one-third (32%) of students concurrently work full-time as rpns. in addition to working within nursing, 6.6% work full-time outside of nursing. another 45.3% of students work part-time in nursing as rpns while 8% work part-time outside of nursing. finally, 17.2% of current students work casual in nursing while 5.8% work casual outside of nursing. the vast majority (65%) of students work between 24-40 hours per week, with 9% working greater than 40 hours per week. close to one third of all of our students (32%) gave up full-time employment. median family income was just barely into the $50,000-$70,000 category, with the mean and mode falling in the $30,000-50,000 category. close to one-quarter of our students (23) had an average family income of <$30,000. concurrently, 15% of our students indicated an average family of income of >$90,000. the vast majority of students (82%) anticipate completing the rpn to bscn program with some degree of student debt. the average anticipated student debt approached $20,000 at each site (georgian $17,130; oshawa $18,219). the majority of students (n=88) are able to access some funding, including government program such as the ontario student assistance program (osap), employer support, and the nursing education initiative (sponsored by the ministry of health and long-term care) . 30 table 31: additional funding students accessed (scholarships/grants/bursaries) additional funding sources: scholarships/grants/bursaries sources of funding additional funding derived from x number of sources campus year georgian 1 oshawa 1 georgian 2 oshawa 2 georgian 3 oshawa 3 total % of category funded participants total participants 12 20 13 19 11 13 88 67.2% 22 33 18 29 14 15 131 employer university service organization professional association nursing education initiative other total 4 3 1 5 5 0 4 3 0 7 2 1 3 0 0 6 4 0 29 17 2 23.2% 13.6% 1.6% 1 4 2 3 4 3 17 13.6% 2 8 9 14 7 8 48 38.4% 4 20 4 26 1 19 1 28 0 14 2 23 12 total 125 9.6% percent 100% 1 source 10 13 8 11 8 5 55 62.5% 2 sources 1 7 4 7 3 7 29 33.0% 3 or more sources 1 0 1 1 0 1 4 4.5% 31 area of inquiry #2: student experience year by year thorugh the rpn-bscn program a total of 133 current students were asked to respond to the question: if you met a student who is coming into your year of the program, what would you tell them to expect? responses were analyzed using nvivo9 software. responses were coded and themes were identified to two levels of abstraction. table 32 provides an overview of the themes that were identified and table 33 provides a summary. for all 3 years of the program, students identified what they perceived to be program challenges, what they felt were tips for success for their year of the program, and ideas related to work-life balance. unique to year 2 was the identification that students should be prepared for a large amount of independent learning. given that year 2 includes a fair amount of online learning and a higher requirement for selfdirected learning strategies, this makes sense. unique to year 3 was the identification of positive outcomes for students. consistent with the data previously analyzed in phase 1 of this study, the progression for students from resistance to change through years 1 and 2, to excitement and encouragement around positive personal and professional change is reflected in the responses. table 32: themes related to rpn-bscn student experience year by year through the program year of analysis to 2 levels of examples from each year program abstraction year 1 a) program challenges b) tips for success c) work-life balance a) heavy course load b) need to be self-directed c) the school is dedicated to your success but you need to work hard d) a lot of online work a) buddy with people who will help, not party b) stay on top of your studies c) make school a priority d) work hard and keep your head down a) consider location of school, work and childcare b) hard to work, take care of a family and go to school at the same time c) dont fall behind d) lots of reading and independent work 32 year 2 a) program challenges a) b) c) d) b) tips for success a) time management and priority setting important b) be open to new ideas and take risks c) set realistic goals; have a what if plan d) expect to study hard a) supports are available if you are resourceful b) be flexible in scheduling academic and nonacademic activities c) expect life to change completely d) do not work full-time a) do a lot of studying and do not get behind b) lots of responsibility c) lots of self-directed learning d) do everything yourself with little help a) faculty can be disorganized b) lots of research papers to write c) takes money to do this a) lots of theory and writing but not enough practicum a) expect to be challenged b) be sure it is what you really want to do c) support is readily available at uoit d) it takes time, money and a supportive family a) only work casual or part-time (and not at all in the last year) b) dont leave electives until the final semester c) increased workload with clinical placements d) be organized and take it one day at a time a) program demands commitment that can be life altering b) you are almost done; hang in there c) make school a priority d) the program requires true dedication, thoughtfulness and attention c) work-life balance d) independent learning year 3 a) program challenges b) tips for success c) work-life balance d) positive outcomes expensive program including laptops stress -- need family support program difficult and disorganized technology need computer skills for online learning (ie adobe connect) 33 table 33 provides an overall synopsis of the qualitative analysis when students were asked to provide a description of each year in the program. throughout the program, students experience challenges in relation to the workload and managing multiple demands on their time. these findings are highly consistent with the data collected in 2009-2010 and analyzed as part of phase i of this study. additionally, consistent with those previously reported findings, we see a progressive change in attitude and orientation of students as they move through the program. learning requirements and expectations that students experience in the university setting are seen as significantly different than the learning contexts that most students have previously experienced. these differences relate both to level of difficulty, and to the expectations of independence and self-directedness. student respondents in year 1 and year 2 express a higher degree of frustration with this context, while students in year 3 focus on the feelings of confidence and mastery. table 33: overarching themes themes a) the program is intense and demanding. b) students describe the need to implement strategies for academic success and worklife balance. life through the duration of the program will be different for students and their families. c) the first 2 years of the program are more often characterized by struggle and frustration with workload, whereas the final year of the program reveals insight into accomplishments. summary of comments there are many comments about the heaviness of the workload and the need for time management and organization. students recognize school must be a priority and that it changes a persons life in relation to family, work, and the composition of their personal life. students resist program requirements initially, feeling burdened with the demands they experience in multiple areas of their lives students experience a struggle to become selfdirected, more independent learners than in their past educational experiences, but see this skill as valuable as they complete the program. 34 area of inquiry #3: facilitators and barriers to success in the rpn-bscn bridging program exploring students perceptions of those elements in their personal, social, work, and educational life that support their success (or fail to do so) enables us to gain greater insight into how we can provide the highest quality educational experience and maximize both student learning and student support. through careful attention to this data, we have a singularly important opportunity to understand student experience and to impact student learning. for the data that was analyzed in relation to those factors that student perceive to be barriers and facilitators to success in the rpn to bscn bridging program, a 5-point likert scale was used (1 = a strong barrier to my success, 2 = somewhat a barrier to my success, 3 = neither promotes my success nor creates a barrier, 4 = somewhat promotes my success, 5 = strongly promotes my success). responses were analyzed based on whether respondents identified factors, which were clustered around areas of employment, personal, academic, and other (general), as either a barrier or facilitator to success. participants were also asked to identify which academic services they accessed and to what degree they perceived these services to be effective or ineffective. again, a 5-point likert scale was used (1 = somewhat ineffective, 2 = neither effective nor ineffective, 3 = somewhat effective, 4 = very effective, 5 = not accessed). for all of this data, comparisons between response patterns of students enrolled at the georgian (barrie) off-site campus and the oshawa (uoit-durham college) campus are made. these comparisons provide very important information in terms of the areas of similarity and in particular the areas of difference between student perceptions around facilitators, barriers, services accessed, and evaluation of academic services. as a general benchmark, this report will highlight areas of difference in response patterns between students on the 2 campuses when those differences are greater than 10%. these areas are highlighted in the charts in yellow and provide insight into areas of difference that warrant greater exploration and direct effort to remedy. as context for this section, it is helpful to keep in mind that where designated oshawa, students attend class on the uoit-durham college campus and are integrated with other university students. where designated georgian, students attend class on the georgian campus through an off-site satellite offering of the bridging program in partnership with georgian college and where students complete the program in a cohort model, access largely georgian academic services, and are only integrated with other university students in a select number of online courses. there is no integration of our georgian students with the general or nursing gc population of students. 35 employment factors tables 34 and 35 highlight those employment factors (schedule flexibility, job security and availability, support and peer attitudes) identified by current students as either moderately or significantly promoting their success in the program. if we arbitrarily use a 60% response rate as a measure of a significant response, we are able to identify a number of employment factors that current students see as important in promoting success. students from the oshawa campus identified work schedule flexibility, job security, work support for continuing education, and peer attitude to continuing education as important employment factors promoting success. students from the georgian campus identified work schedule flexibility, job availability for rns, and work support for continuing education as important employment factors promoting success. differences were noted between cohorts across two factors. oshawa students identified more strongly the impact of flexible work schedules and job security. table 34: employment factors that promote success georgian oshawa combined work schedule flexibility job security job availability for rns job availability for rpns work support for continuing education availability of a leave of absence peer attitude to continuing education 60.4% 73.6% 68.0% 56.2 % 66.2 % 62.1 % 61.5 % 52.8 % 56.6 % 53.8 % 56.4 % 55.3 % 64.8 % 68.1 % 66.7 % 36.4 % 45.6 % 42.0 % 56.6 % 62.5 % 60.0 % table 35: employment factors promoting success by campus 36 tables 36 - 37 look at student perceptions of employment factors that they see as a barrier to their success in the program. in terms of barriers to success, the vast majority of responses for both oshawa students and georgian campus students fell below 20%. however, similar to the response pattern around facilitators, georgian campus students perceived the lack of work schedule flexibility as a much more significant barrier than did oshawa campus students. additionally, georgian campus students identified job availability for rpns as a more significant barrier to their success in the program. this finding is important in light of the data presented in table 23, which showed that 38.2% of georgian campus students had given up full-time rpn positions to complete the program. table 36: employment factors that are barriers to success georgian oshawa combined work schedule flexibility job security job availability for rns job availability for rpns work support for continuing education availability of a leave of absence peer attitude to continuing education 30.2% 19.5% 24.0% 24.5% 19.8% 21.8% 19.2% 18.5% 18.9 % 19.3 % 8.4 % 13.0 % 22.2 % 18.0 % 19.8% 22.7% 23.5 % 23.2 % 17.0 % 15.3 % 16.0 % table 37: employment factors that are barriers to success 37 personal factors tables 38-39 highlight those personal factors (support from family and colleagues, previous skills such as computer literacy, and work-life balance), which students identified as promoting their success in the program. students from the oshawa campus identified all listed personal factors as promoting success at >60% mark, and in several cases >80% of students identified a factor a significant to promoting success (family support, technical skill set, personality traits). georgian campus students also identified many of these personal supports as promoting success. however, while students from both campuses showed similar response patterns related to technical and writing skills, personality traits and work-life balance, it is interesting to note that support from employers and work colleagues was much more highly represented in the oshawa students. family support, while not reaching the 10% threshold identified as a significant difference between groups for the purposes of this report, was notably more highly represented by oshawa students as well. these findings are worthy of further examination. table 38: personal factors that promote success family support colleague support employer support technical skills writing skills personality traits work-life balance (determination) georgian oshawa combined 76.4 % 85.0 % 81.3 % 52.8 % 70.2 % 62.8 % 52.7% 65.8% 60.2% 81.8 % 81.3 % 81.5 % 77.8 % 77.4 % 77.5 % 94.6 % 89.5 % 91.6% 79.7 % 73.7 % 76.1 % table 39: personal factors that promote success by campus 38 tables 40-41 present data examining these same personal factors, this time looking at what students perceived to be barriers to success. once again, responses indicated that few students perceived these factors to be barriers to success, with most falling well below 20% response rates. a single area of significant difference is seen in relation to the level of support from work colleagues. as we continue data collection with institutional contacts, this area of difference is worthy of further examination. table 40: personal factors that are barriers to success family support colleague support employer support technical skills writing skills personality traits (determination) work-life balance georgian 12.8 % 21.9 % 23.7 % 12.7 % 9.3 % 5.4 % 14.9 % oshawa 8.2 % 9.5 % 20.6 % 9.3% 13.4 % 10.5 % 14.5 % combined 10.1 % 14.8 % 21.9 % 10.7 % 11.7 % 8.4 % 14.6 % table 41: personal factors that are barriers to success 39 academic factors a large number of academic factors were examined, such that the data is broken up into 2 segments, part a and part b. tables 42-45 present findings from assessment of academic factors, part a, while tables 46-49 summarize those findings from part b. tables 42-43 highlight academic factors (part a and part b) identified by current students as promoting their success in the program. of all the areas of inquiry, this focus shows the greatest degree of variability between students attending classes on the oshawa campus and those attending classes on the georgian campus. for this reason, data will first be described campus by campus. as seen in tables 42-43, more than 60% of the students at the oshawa campus rated the following academic factors as promoting their success: academic advisor program coordinator faculty computer access and it support online learning face-to-face learning clinical learning program writing requirements program math requirements overall program of study online format of classes face-to-face format of classes scheduling of classes (day/time and place) a review of the data presented in tables 42-43 shows that >60% of georgian campus students rated the following academic factors as promoting their success: program coordinator online learning face-to-face learning clinical learning overall program of study online format of classes face-to-face format of classes scheduling of classes (day/time and place) these results, which in many cases show well over three-quarters of students at the oshawa campus perceiving the identified academic factors as promoting their success, are very highly endorsing of the academic supports and the academic structure of the program. 40 however, it is essential to glean from these patterns of response any differences in student perceptions by campus of the academic factors that promote their success. comparison of these findings between the two campuses (and therefore between the two types of program offerings) is illuminating. students at the oshawa campus were more than twice as likely to identify the writing centre and the library/librarian as promoting success. other significant differences are seen in students perceptions of whether faculty, face to face learning, and clinical learning promote success. in all instances, oshawa students rated these factors as significantly more likely to promote success. additionally, and not surprisingly, oshawa students cited computer access and it support as much more positively promoting success. given that students who enrol in this program through the dc-uoit campus are part of the laptop program with extensive it support, this finding is not surprising and is confirmation that these services are important for student success. however, this finding must be tempered with data presented as part of the phase i analysis, revealing significant student discontent with having to pay for the laptop program. while students are clearly evaluating it support and the laptop program as promoting their success, they do not share the same enthusiasm with having to pay for this service. this finding is highly relevant as uoit embarks on a wide-scale evaluation of the future directions of their technology-enhanced educational supports. a pattern worthy of identification is that in all cases of significant difference for academic facilitators, part a, oshawa students evaluated these more highly than georgian students. table 43 continues to reveal very significant differences in students perceptions related to academic factors promoting support in the program (part b). students completing the program at the oshawa campus rated the positive impact of tutors and tas 2-4x more positively than students attending classes at the georgian campus. students at the oshawa campus were also much more positive with respect to both program writing requirements and program math requirements, as well as the program of study overall. the only academic factor that georgian campus students rated more positively as promoting success than oshawa students was online courses. given that commute times to campus and clinical do not vary to the degree we had expected between these groups, the travel time to attend class cannot be considered the overriding rationale for this finding. table 44 provides a summary of these findings. further examination related to the very different student experiences of academic supports is critical to understanding what promotes success with this type of educational offering. however, the following areas of difference are most critical to examine: areas where oshawa students rated academic factors significantly more promoting success: writing centre computer access and it support clinical learning abilities library/librarian private tutors/editors 41 tutorial assistants program writing requirements program math requirements overall program of study face to face format of classes areas where georgian students rated academic factors significantly more promoting success: online class format tables 45-47 examine student response patterns in relation to academic factors that are perceived to be barriers to their success. in general, the degree to which students perceived any of the identified academic factors to be barriers to success was quite low, generally falling well under 20% for all categories. this finding is again highly endorsing of student perception of academic factors impacting their success in the program. comparison of differences between student response patterns for the two campuses (hence the two types of program offerings) is again valuable. only two areas of significant variability across program types were seen. table 45 reveals that respondents at the georgian campus were more than twice as likely to identify computer access and it support as a barrier than students at the oshawa campus (21.2%; 8.4%) the preceding discussion around the availability of the laptop program at the oshawa campus but not at the georgian campus is once again relevant to this finding. on the other hand, students at the oshawa campus were almost twice as likely to perceive tutorial assistants as a barrier to their success as georgian students (31.8%; 16.7%). this finding must also be considered in light of table 43, which shows that for oshawa students, a virtually equivalent number of students experienced tutorial assistants as promoting their success, as those who saw them as barriers to their success (31.9%; 31.8%). 42 table 42: academic factors that promote success (part a) writing centre academic advisor program coordinator faculty computer access and it support online learning face to face learning clinical learning abilities library/ librarian georgian 21.7 % 54.9 % 69.3 % 52.4 % 44.2 % 75.5 % 68.0 % 75.9 % 26.7 % oshawa 52.1 % 60.8 % 70.3% 62.8 % 72.2 % 77.0 % 77.0 % 87.8 % 52.9 % combined 40.1% 58.3 % 69.8 % 59.3 % 60.5% 76.4 % 75.0 % 82.8 % 42.6 % table 43: academic factors that promote success (part b) course offering private tutor/editor tutorial assistants program writing requirements program math requirements program of study online format face to face format scheduling (day/time) scheduling (place) georgian 16.3 % 7.2 % 37.3 % 50.0 % 69.8 % 81.1 % 70.3 % 67.9 % 68.5 % oshawa 34.8 % 31.9 % 63.5 % 65.8 % 82.8 % 72.6 % 83.5 % 64.8 % 69.9 % combined 27.5 % 22.2% 52.8 % 59.2% 75.3 % 76.2 % 78.0 % 66.1 % 68.4 % 43 table 44: summary of academic factors promoting success 44 table 45: academic factors that are barriers to success (part a) writing centre academic advisor program coordinator faculty computer access and it support online learning face to face learning clinical learning abilities library/ librarian georgian 15.2 % 15.7 % 9.6 % 16.8 % 21.2 % 13.2 % 13.2 % 7.4 % 11.1 % oshawa 11.2 % 11.6 % 9.5 % 11.4 % 8.4 % 10.9 % 12.2 % 5.4 % 8.6 % combined 12.8 % 13.3 % 9.6 % 12.7 % 13.7% 11.8 % 12.6 % 6.2 % 9.5 % table 46: academic factors that are barriers to success (part b) course offering private tutor/editor tutorial assistants program writing requirements program math requirements program of study online format face to face format scheduling (day/time) scheduling (place) georgian 16.3 % 16.7 % 15.7 % 13.5 % 5.7 % 18.9 % 13.0 % 22.7 % 14.8 % oshawa 25.7 % 31.8 % 14.9 % 13.6 % 2.8 % 15.0 % 9.6 % 20.3 % 15.1 % combined 22.0 % 26.0% 15.2 % 13.6 % 4.1 % 16.6 % 11.0 % 21.3 % 14.9% 45 table 47: summary of academic factors that are barriers to success 46 other factors tables 48-49 highlight other factors that the research team considered potentially relevant for students success. these include things like: a) some university non-academic services (e.g., the health centre, counselling services, financial aid office, etc.); b) access to resources such as child care, a vehicle, transit system, and c) personal coping mechanisms such as outlets for stress, hobbies, and physical activity. if we continue to use the 60% response rate as the indicator of significance, none of these factors significantly promote success. however, we are able to identify significant differences in response patterns between oshawa and georgian students (hence students completing the two different types of program offerings). oshawa students all identified the following factors as significantly more important in promoting their success: health centre, counselling centre, stable family income, and access to public transit. tables 50-51 provide data around student response rates in relation to whether these other factors are barriers. two areas that are clearly identified as barriers by students are: a) financial (georgian 46.2%; oshawa 44.3%) and stable family income (georgian 35.2%; oshawa 28.2%). a significant difference between the two groups can be seen in the degree to which oshawa students identified access to child care as a barrier to success close to twice as often as georgian campus students did. facilitators and barriers section summary the data described in this section of the report provides excellent insight into the school, work, and personal lives of the current student complement of the rpn-bscn bridging program offered through the university of ontario institute of technology, durham college, and georgian college. the picture that emerges is one that reveals many more differences in the student responses by campus (and hence program type) than might have been anticipated. in terms of employment factors, while students from both campuses generally responded that work schedule flexibility promoted success, significantly more students from oshawa responded positively to this item and significantly more students from georgian identified the lack of flexibility as a barrier to success. in terms of personal factors, support received from colleagues and employers was significantly more pronounced with the oshawa students in terms of promoting success versus the georgian students. similarly, the lack of colleague support was a significantly greater barrier to success for georgian campus students than for oshawa campus students. a wide range of differences are seen when examining academic factors that promote or are barriers to success. students from both campuses generally perceived the overall program of study in a very positive light, with very few identifying the program of study as a barrier (georgian 5.7%; oshawa 2.8%) and the vast majority seeing it as promoting success (georgian 69.8%; oshawa 82.8%). the trend across evaluation of academic factors reveals that oshawa students have much more positive perceptions of factors promoting success. understanding this difference in student experience of academic factors across campuses, and in particular amongst students at the georgian campus, is essential to ongoing program development and improvement. the following section, which focuses on which academic services are accessed by students and how they are perceived, will aid in this evaluation. 47 table 48: other factors promoting success financial health centre counselling centre stable family income access to a vehicle access to public transit access to childcare recreation physical activity hobbies volunteer work outlets for stress release georgian 40.4 % 22.2 % 7.0 % 44.4 % 70.4% 30.7 % 41.5 % 24.4 % 35.5% 28.3 % 11.9% 51.0 % oshawa 42.9 % 40.3% 23.8 % 59.2 % 76.4 % 49.2% 34.9 % 31.3 % 43.4 % 35.4 % 17.5 % 48.5 % combined 41.8 % 37.0 % 16.9 % 52.8 % 73.8 % 36.5 % 37.5 % 28.6 % 40.1 % 32.4 % 15.3 % 49.6% table 49: other factors promoting success 48 table 50: other factors that are barriers to success georgian oshawa combined financial health centre counselling centre stable family income access to a vehicle access to public transit access to childcare recreation physical activity hobbies volunteer work outlets for stress release 46.2 % 44.3 % 45.1 % 11.1 % 16.5% 14.2 % 15.0 % 22.2 % 20.0 % 35.2% 28.2 % 31.2 % 13.0% 12.5 % 12.7% 23.0 % 16.9% 19.2 % 17.1 % 31.7 % 25.9 % 13.2 % 20.9 % 17.8% 18.8% 21.7 % 20.5% 19.5 % 21.5 % 20.7 % 14.2% 23.8 % 20.0 % 25.5% 20.6 % 22.6% table 51: other factors that are barriers to success 49 area of inquiry #4: supports and services accessed and their effectiveness from a list of 10 academic services (see table 52), participants were asked to indicate which services they had accessed and using a 4 point likert scale (1 = somewhat ineffective, 2 = neither effective nor ineffective, 3 = somewhat effective, 4 = very effective) rate the degree to which these services were effective. table 52: academic services ranked by participants type of service writing centre site- specific, shared, or mixed service site specific academic advisor program coordinator peer tutoring faculty shared site specific library/librarian site specific financial aid shared health centre counselling centre centre for students with disabilities site specific site specific site specific (with requirement to register with centre at uoit for georgian students) site specific mixed notes there is a focus on use of the writing centre as an academic support beginning in the bridge term in a mandatory course taken by all students: hlsc1300u information and communication technology in health care change in program coordinator at gc in fall 2011 uoit has a peer tutoring program some faculty are site specific, in some courses faculty from uoit travel to gc to teach or teach gc students online there is a focus on use of library resources beginning in the bridge term in a mandatory courses taken by all students: hlsc1300u information and communication technology in health care while in the past documents could be transferred from the oshawa campus to the georgian campus financial aid office, they now are mailed directly from financial aid at the oshawa campus to students at their home address uoit has a reciprocal agreement for students to use services provided by georgian, but students must register at the uoit centre for students with disabilities 50 tables 53-55 provide a summary of supports and services accessed by all respondents (oshawa and georgian campuses) when data from respondents at both sites is merged. they also indicate the degree to which respondents indicated that they found these services to be effective, using the 4-point likert scale (1 = somewhat ineffective, 4 = very effective). however, it must be noted that the overall pattern of responses varies so greatly between campuses that the merged data provides little insight into student behaviour and evaluation of academic services. rather, the following pages will additionally provide an analysis of student responses site by site. table 53: supports and services accessed and their effectiveness (combined campuses) writing centre academic advisor program coordinator peer tutors faculty library/ librarian financial health aid centre number of students who accessed service/support 62 86 99 62 97 75 71 average of likert scale: 1-4 for effectiveness 2.95 2.95 3.36 2.82 3.29 3.21 2.58 counselling centre centre for students with disabilities 59 46 41 2.73 2.54 2.68 table 54: combined number of students accessing services on both campuses table 55: combined evaluation of effectiveness of support services on both campuses effectiveness of support services accessed combined campuses 4 3 2 1 0 2.95 academic advisor 3.36 2.82 program peer tutoring coordinator 3.29 3.21 faculty library services 2.58 financial 2.73 2.54 2.68 health centre counselling centre for centre students with disabilities 51 services access comparison of respondents from oshawa campus and georgian campus tables 56 provides an overview of the degree to which students enrolled at the oshawa campus accessed the identified services and their evaluation of the effectiveness of these services, showing a breakdown of student responses. table 57 provides this same data for students enrolled at the georgian campus. with table 58, we begin an analysis of the relative use of services by students at the various campuses. tables 58-59 provide the same data, from opposite viewpoints. in the bar graph, we depict the degree to which the 10 identified academic services were accessed (not yet considering student evaluation of the effectiveness of these services) by campus location. this data reveals striking differences in the degree to which students are accessing almost all academic services. if we continue to use a 10% difference in response patterns as an indicator of a significant difference, we are able to see that oshawa campus students are accessing the following services significantly more: writing centre, academic advisor, peer tutoring, library/librarian, health centre, counselling centre, and the centre for students with disabilities. table 60 provides a summary of the degree to which oshawa campus students are more often accessing these seven identified services, and the similar pattern of use for the 3 services which show no significant difference (program coordinator, faculty, financial aid). as table 60 reveals, the relative difference in the use of academic services by students at the oshawa and georgian campuses is striking, ranging from 1.18 times greater use (academic advisor) to 1.72 times greater use (health centre). four key services (writing centre, peer tutoring, health centre, and the centre for students with disabilities) show patterns of greater use in excess of 1.5 times the use by oshawa students as by georgian campus students. in all of these instances, services are campus specific. while the temptation may exist to characterize students who attend the georgian campus offering of the collaborative rpn-bscn program as commuters who travel significantly greater distances (and who are therefore less likely to use campus services), our investigation of commuting times for students does not support this assumption. as presented in table 12, commuting times for students across campuses are quite similar, with an average difference of just 13 minutes longer for georgian campus students. this significant and concerning differential pattern of use of academic services between campuses is a priority to resolve. many of these services are intimately associated with the expectations of self-directed learning required for university education (e.g., writing centre and library/librarian), while others have the potential to very positively impact both student learning and student experience of the program and educational institution. 52 table 56 supports and services accessed and their effectiveness (oshawa campus) writing centre academic advisor program coordinator peer tutoring faculty library/ librarian financial health centre counselling centre centre for students with disabilities total responses somewhat ineffective neither effective or ineffective somewhat effective 69 70 72 66 71 70 63 64 57 52 2 8 3 6 5 3 10 6 6 6 10 6 8 6 3 3 6 9 5 3 18 20 12 18 18 23 17 13 14 13 very effective 16 21 35 14 32 23 11 15 5 3 not accessed 23 15 14 22 13 18 19 21 27 27 no response 7 6 4 10 5 6 13 12 19 24 total students =76 percent of students somewhat ineffective neither effective or ineffective somewhat effective 2.9% 11.4% 4.2% 9.1% 7.0% 4.3% 15.9% 9.4% 10.5% 11.5% 14.5% 8.6% 11.% 9.1% 4.2% 4.3% 9.5% 14.1% 8.8% 5.8% 26.1% 28.6% 16.7% 27.3% 25.4% 32.9% 27.0% 20.3% 24.6% 25% very effective 23.1% 30% 48.6% 21.2% 45.0% 32.9% 17.5% 23.4% 8.8% 5.8% not accessed 33.3% 21.4% 19.4% 33.3% 18.3% 25.7% 30.2% 32.8% 47.4% 52% 53 table 57 supports and services accessed and their effectiveness (georgian campus) writing centre academic advisor program coordinator peer tutoring faculty library/ librarian financial health centre counselling centre centre for students with disabilities total students =50 total responses somewhat ineffective neither effective or ineffective somewhat effective 45 45 49 45 46 44 43 41 40 40 4 4 3 3 1 1 8 3 3 3 5 5 3 3 6 5 5 6 5 3 7 12 11 10 15 8 8 6 7 6 very effective 2 9 24 2 17 9 6 1 0 0 not accessed 27 15 8 27 7 21 16 25 25 28 no response 5 5 1 5 4 6 7 9 10 10 percent of students somewhat ineffective neither effective or ineffective somewhat effective 8.9% 8.9% 6.1% 6.7% 2.2% 2.3% 18.6% 7.3% 7.6% 7.5% 11.1% 11.1% 6.1% 6.7% 13.0% 11.3% 11.6% 14.6% 12.5% 7.5% 15.6% 26.7% 22.4% 22.2% 32.6% 18.2% 18.6% 14.6% 17.5% 15% very effective 4.4% 20% 53.3% 4.4% 37.0% 20.5% 13.6% 24.4% 0 0 not accessed 60% 33.3% 16.3% 60% 15.2% 47.7% 37.2% 61.0% 62.5% 70% 54 table 58: comparison of academic services accessed by campus table 59: comparison of academic services not accessed by campus 55 table 60 relative comparative degree to which academic services are accessed more frequently by oshawa students oshawa % accessed georgian % accessed relative comparison writing centre academic advisor program peer faculty coordinator tutoring library/ librarian financial health aid centre counselling centre for centre students with disabilities 66.7% 78.6% 80.6% 66.7% 81.7% 74.3% 69.8% 67.2% 52.6% 48% 40% 66.7% 83.7% 40% 84.5% 52.5% 62.8% 39% 37.5% 30% (relative degree to which the service is cited as accessed by oshawa students vs georgian students) 1.67 x more often 1.18 x more often 1.67 x more often 1.42 x more often 1.72 x more often 1.40 x more often 1.6 x more often effectiveness of services tables 61-65 provide an overview of respondents perceptions of the effectiveness of the services. in order to create meaningful comparisons, the percentages used reflected the views of those students who indicated that they had accessed each of the services (i.e., for example, what percentage of students who indicated that they had accessed the writing service rated it as effective, neither effective nor ineffective, or ineffective). for clarity with these comparisons, the two categories of somewhat effective and very effective were merged. table 61 provides a great deal of insight into students perceptions of the effectiveness of services that they are accessing. while services are generally evaluated positively, there are some distinct areas of concern as well as very illuminating patterns of variation between students at the oshawa campus and the georgian campus. additionally, five of the previously cited 7 services which are accessed more frequently by oshawa campus students are also rated as more effective by oshawa campus students (writing centre, library/librarian, health centre, counselling centre, and the centre for students with disabilities). all of these are services offered separately on each campus. while significantly fewer (>10%) students accessed their academic counsellor and peer tutoring from the georgian cohort than students enrolled on the oshawa campus, their evaluation of the effectiveness of these services was similarly positive. additionally, there was a greater than 10% variance in the degree to which students who accessed the financial aid office found it to be effective, with oshawa students also finding this service to be more effective. table 62 provides another view for comparison of effectiveness of services by users at each campus. additionally, table 63 presents data comparing responses from users of academic services who indicated that they found them to be ineffective. a variance of >10% between 56 campus cohorts was only identified for the writing centre, with 4.3% of users at the oshawa campus rating it as ineffective and 22.2% of users at the georgian site rating it as ineffective. when considering the degree to which students found services ineffective, two areas stand out: financial aid was identified by over 20% of students from both campuses (oshawa 22.7%; georgian 29.6%) as ineffective. this is a shared service operated by uoit. additionally, close to one quarter of users of the centre for students with disabilities (oshawa 24%; georgian 25%) rated it as ineffective. this is an independent service operated by each campus, but with a service agreement between uoit and georgian college which requires that all students register with the centre at uoit to access services. additionally, when evaluated by students who had accessed the 10 specific services under examination, all of the academic services provided for students at the oshawa campus were evaluated by users as effective at or above the 60% threshold (arbitrarily deemed as satisfactory for the purposes of this study). three services in particular stand out for the positive evaluation at >80% effective by oshawa campus students: a) the program coordinator (81%), b) faculty (86.2%), and c) the library/librarian (88.5%). when evaluated by students enrolled in the georgian cohort, a total of five services fell below the 60% threshold for satisfaction when looking at level of effectiveness. these include the writing centre (50%), financial aid (51.9%), health centre (48.3%), counselling centre (46.7%), and centre for students with disabilities (50%). all of these services except financial aid are independent services. financial aid is a shared service, with students at the georgian campus working with personnel from the oshawa site by various methods of face to face and long distance communication. two services stand out for positive evaluation above the 80% effective level: a) program coordinator (85.4%) and faculty (82%). tables 61, 64-65 provide comparisons of the degree to which users of services rated them as ineffective, neither effective nor ineffective, or effective. table 66 provides a summary of the top 3 academic services accessed by students (combined and by campus). it is worthy of note that given all the differences in response patterns amongst students at the two program sites (and hence students completing the program via the different types of program offerings), the top 3 services accessed are surprisingly identical (program coordinator, faculty, and academic advisor). 57 table 61: comparative perceived effectiveness of academic services by campus by users of services table 61: comparative perceived effectiveness of academic services by campus by users of those services ineffective neither effective or ineffective effective writing centre academic advisor program coordinator peer tutoring faculty library/ librarian financial health centre counselling centre centre for students with disabilities oshawa 4.3% 14.5% 5.2% 13.6% 8.6% 5.8% 22.7% 1.4% 20% 24% georgian 22.2% 13.6% 7.3% 16.7% 2.6% 4.3% 29.6% 18.7% 20% 25% oshawa 21.7% 10.9% 13.8% 13.6% 5.2% 5.8% 13.6% 20.9% 16.7% 12% 27.8% 16.7% 7.3% 16.7% 15.4% 21.7% 18.5% 37.5% 33.3% 25% oshawa 73.9% 74.5% 81% 72.8% 86.2% 88.5% 63.6% 65.1% 63.3% 64% georgian 50% 70% 85.4% 66.7% 82% 73.9% 51.9% 48.3% 46.7% 50% indep shared indep indep mixed indep shared indep indep indep x x x x x x x x georgian type of service (independent, shared, or mixed) oshawa services with < 60% satisfaction services with >10% variance between campuses georgian x x x 58 table 62: percentage of respondents by campus who found academic services they accessed to be effective 59 table 63: percentage of respondents by campus who found academic services they accessed to be ineffective ineffective - effectiveness of support services 35 30 percent 25 20 15 29.6 10 20 25 20 14 13.6 5.2 4.3 18.7 16.7 14.5 13.3 5 24 22.7 22.2 8.6 7.3 2.6 5.8 4.3 0 writing centre academic advisor program coordinator peer tutoring faculty oshawa library/libarian financial health cente counselling centre centre for students with disabilities georgian 60 table 64: perceived effectiveness of academic services by students who indicated accessing the services (oshawa campus) table 65: perceived effectiveness of academic services by students who indicated accessing the services (georgian campus) 61 table 66: top 3 academic services accessed (combined and by site) table 66: top 3 academic services accessed combined oshawa georgian program cooordinator 99 out of 126 students (79%) 58 out of 76 students (76%) 41 out of 55 students (75%) faculty 97 out of 126 students (77%) 58 out of 76 students (76%) 39 out of 55 students (71%) academic advisor 86 out of 126 students (68%) 55 out of 76 students (73%) 30 out of 55 students (55%) access and evaluation of effectiveness of academic services section summary this data presented in this section of the report continues to provide insight into the behaviours and experiences of students in the rpn-bscn bridging program. there are some very positive and encouraging findings. in particular the degree to which students are accessing some of the academic services available to them is very positive. for students enrolled at the oshawa campus in particular, 8 of the 10 academic services examined were accessed by more than two-thirds of the students. the only two services not accessed to this degree were the counseling centre and the centre for students with disabilities, both services which would be expected to show a lower rate of use. for students enrolled at the georgian campus, while only three services meet this level of use (faculty, program coordinator, academic advisor), an additional two services were accessed by at least half of the participants in the barrie cohort (financial aid, library/librarian). the greatest access of services is similar across students groups at both campuses: a) program coordinator, b) faculty, and c) academic advisor. the fact that students enrolled at the oshawa campus evaluated the effectiveness of all indicated academic services at >60% threshold, albeit an arbitrary designation for this report, is highly encouraging. additionally, 5 of the 10 services under examination were evaluated by students on the georgian campus as effective at >60% threshold (academic advisor, program coordinator, peer tutoring, faculty, and the library/librarian). the greatest areas of satisfaction for users of services on both campuses were identified as being: a) program coordinator, faculty, and the library/librarian. it is noteworthy that in general, the services that are most utilized are also most highly evaluated. once again, however, the picture that emerges is one that reveals many more differences in the student responses by campus (and hence program type) than might have been anticipated. there is a very significant difference in the degree to which students are accessing academic services on the two campuses. a total of 7 of the 10 services were accessed significantly more (i.e., >10% difference in relative use) by students at the oshawa campus than at the georgian 62 campus. these services include: writing centre (accessed 1.67 times more by oshawa students), academic advisor (accessed 1.18 times more by oshawa students), peer tutoring (accessed 1.67 times more by oshawa students), library/librarian (1.42 times more often by oshawa students), health centre (accessed 1.72 times more by oshawa students), counselling centre (accessed 1.4 times more by oshawa students), and centre for students with disabilities (accessed 1.6 times more by oshawa students). the juxtaposition of this finding of significantly less use of support services by georgian campus students with anecdotal student feedback from this group that they feel there needs to be more support available to them is concerning and highlights the need to address the underlying cause of this behaviour. six of the academic services under examination (writing centre, library/librarian, financial aid, health centre, counselling centre, and the centre for students with disabilities) showed a significant difference in the degree to which they were assessed as effective by students at the different campuses (i.e., a variance of >10% for the purposes of this report). all of the academic services provided for students at the oshawa campus were evaluated by users as effective at or above the 60% threshold (arbitrarily deemed as satisfactory for the purposes of this study). when evaluated by students enrolled in the georgian cohort, a total of five services fell below the 60% threshold for satisfaction when looking at level of effectiveness. these include the writing centre, financial aid, health centre, counselling centre, and centre for students with disabilities. all of these services except financial aid are independent services for each campus. 63 area of inquiry #4: student experience of changes to self and professional role a total of 133 current students were asked to respond to the questions: how has being in the program changed you as a person? how has being in the program changed you as a nurse? data was collected online in a text-based qualitative data collection format. responses were analyzed using nvivo9 software. responses were coded and themes were identified to two levels of abstraction by multi-member teams who compared use of coding strategies/labels for inter-rater reliability. tables 67-68 provide an overview of the themes that were identified across each of the years of the program. when considering how participation in the program has changed them as a person, the only common theme identified across all three year of the program was that of personal gains. across all years, personal gains included increased confidence and increased knowledge and critical thinking abilities. additionally, in year 2 and year 3, respondents saw personal gains in terms of changes in their character, such as patience, independence, resourcefulness, and maturity. for year 1 students, two additional themes were identified: a) perspective, characterized by the development of different ways of looking at issues and adapting to them; and b) time management, focusing on the challenges with limited available time and strategies for balancing life in the face of time pressures. for year 2 students, one additional theme, labelled stress was identified. respondents referred to the degree to which they experienced stress related to both school and other life demands. no additional themes were identified for year 3 students. table 68 provides an overview of the themes identified related to student perception of changes in self as a person, as well as a summary of the examples provided by respondents. across all years, students perceive personal gains which they see as a credit to themselves. sometimes they feel supported in achieving these gains, but sometimes perceive a lack of support. as students progress through the program, they describe increasingly positive personal attributes that they see as part of their role and self-identification as a nurse. 64 table 67: overview of themes related to student perception of changes in self as a person program analysis to 2 levels of examples from each year year abstraction year 1 a) personal gains b) perspective d) time management year 2 a) personal gains b) stress year 3 a) personal gains a) more confident b) more knowledgeable c) better critical thinking d) smarter a) cant get anywhere with instructors [so need] to balance home and school responsibilities b) caused me to look at stress coping mechanisms c) have become motivated and disciplined d) learning has brightened me up and helped gain that spark to heal others a) focus on achieving best grades possible b) concentrate on school work c) quality family time more than quantity d) school full-time and work full-time means no time for anything else a) changes in character (increase in patience, independence, look for opportunities, enjoy life, resourceful) b) changes in confidence (more leadership in personal and professional life, pride), c) changes in knowledge (increased critical thinking, grown in knowledge and skills, broader perspective, see from multiple angles) d) taught me to organize and research not just to assume a) frustrated with courses that dont enhance clinical knowledge b) feel more stressed and more critical c) more tired, less active, less personal life d) more knowledgeable but more stressed out cant wait for school to be over a) increased resilience, develop new ways to deal with touch situations b) change character (appreciation, empathy, growth, matured, proud, self-aware) c) confidence (great sense of accomplishment, positive outlook, stronger person) d) knowledge (critical thinking, technology/computer skills, deeper understanding of pathophysiology, of career options) 65 table 68: overarching themes related to changes to self as a person themes summary of comments a) students are able to see personal gains with credit to themselves, the school and sometimes (in their opinion) despite the school students report focusing on their studies with determination and commitment, sometimes with and sometimes without perceived school support. personal changes are specific to responding to adversity and to rising to a challenge engendering b) consistent upward trend in broader perspectives and claims of resilience, positive personal attributes that empathy and appreciation. constitute self as nurse when considering how participation in the program has changed them as a nurses, three common themes were identified across all 3 years of the program. respondents wrote of their self-assessment of enhanced application of knowledge and critical thinking. as students progressed in the program, the degree to which they focussed on application of theory and research to practice and their appreciation of the need to make independent decisions about the care they provided also increased. respondents also wrote of changes in their character as nurses, identifying increased levels of confidence, ability to think ahead and plan, increased capacity for caring and greater focus on caring and compassion. finally, the theme of professional growth was identified across all three years. respondents wrote of broadening their focus, becoming lifelong learners, becoming more professional, and seeing the potential for career advancement. table 70 provides an overview of the themes identified related to student perception of changes in self as a nurse, as well as a summary of the examples provided by respondents. critical thinking and understanding the impact of ones actions as a nurse are enhanced with increased knowledge and skill, as well as application of theory and research. while there is reference to growth in relation to professional work as a nurse, respondents focussed even more heavily on personal growth that then leads to changes as a professional. 66 table 69: themes related to student perception of changes in self as a nurse program analysis to 2 examples from each year year levels of abstraction a) deeper understanding of illness and patient year 1 a) application of knowledge and b) ensure what i am observing makes sense with my interventions critical thinking c) skills were mastered b) change in character c) professional growth year 2 a) application of knowledge and critical thinking b) change of character c) professional growth year 3 a) application of knowledge and critical thinking b) change of character c) professional growth d) a) b) c) d) a) b) c) d) a) b) c) d) a) b) c) d) e) a) b) c) d) a) b) c) d) a) b) c) d) a) b) c) d) using skills and concepts practically at work accountable and conscientious caring more theory behind skills confidence increased more resourceful and organized more consciousness of impact of my actions mature and accountable be professional using critical thinking at work to figure out why and where pain is, instead of going for the medication first broadening nursing focus to health care system and global, including health teaching and research in practice complete better health assessments and understand systemic problems more depth of knowledge, more critical eye more knowledgeable therefore more competent more caring and compassionate more evidence-based so more confident appreciate life more after meeting patients who are really sick recognize all who are involved in the circle of care hard to find a happy balance with work and school and life determination to reach goal lifelong and self-directed learning understand role of rn and excited about possibilities feel like studying harder use learning at work think beyond what is presented to understand pts condition communicate more effectively increased critical thinking, knowledge and skills incorporate theory into practice with insight into caring behaviours and theoretical foundations see clients more holistically more confidence, ability to think ahead better nurse ready for challenges; feel self-reliant more confident broadening nursing focus better understanding of health and its impact on society career advancement opportunities joy of learning confused original reasons for admission changing 67 table 70: overarching themes related to changes to self as a nurse themes summary of comments a) critical thinking & understanding of impact of ones action and ones role are enhanced with increased knowledge, skill and theory/research base many respondents provided examples where they focussed on self-assessment of professional growth through critical thinking, knowledge enhancement, and skill acquisition. many examples were cited of how the personal and b) growth shows up in professional professional are connected in becoming a registered work, but is integral to the nurse. personal development that occurs because of the program 68 additional areas of inquiry two additional areas of data collection were conducted as part of phase ii of this project. area of inquiry #6 focussed on the workplace contact experience of having employees enrolled in the program. area of inquiry #7 focussed on past student experience in the program. data collection for both these areas of inquiry took place in april- early june 2012. current students were invited to provide workplace contact information for a person within their healthcare organization who would be able and/or willing to provide information about the workplace experience of having students undertaking pn-bscn education. a total of only 6 workplace contacts were provided by current students. of these, 5 fully completed either telephone interviews or submission of an electronic mixed method questionnaire. as a result of this relatively low number of responses, we have elected to continue to try to collect data and will report on the results of workplace contact interviews in a subsequent report. despite significant efforts to reach graduates and students who have left the rpn-bscn program for a variety of reasons, we ultimately only received responses from 7 past students. of those responses, 2 were fully completed questionnaires, 2 partially completed (with data sets complete enough to be included in some of the analyses), and 3 were too incomplete for any relevant analysis). this noted challenge in securing follow-up data from graduates is a significant finding, leading to the introduction of discussion around development of stronger alumni structures within this program). phase iii of this is designed to allow insight into the experiences and perceptions of new graduates (those completing the program this spring will be contacted for follow-up over the fall). it is hoped both that: a) this finding of challenges in contacting past students will inform processes used in phase iii, and b) the data collected in phase iii will be able to give us further insight into perceptions of past students, albeit recent graduates. due to these challenges with data collection, these two additional areas of inquiry (area of inquiry #6: workplace contact experience of having employees enrolled in the program; area of inquiry #7: past student experience of the program) will be reported on in the december 2012 final report. 69 dissemination activities data from this research project has been disseminated through the following academic presentations: coffey, s., lindsay, g., sproul, s., laird, a., byrne, c., erwin, e., cochrane, m., cummings, k., macdonald, k., mairs, s., munro-gilbert, p., vogel, e., bouchard, s., lulat, z., salamat, n. evaluation of student experience and performance in rpn-to-bscn education. rpnao educators conference, toronto (june, 2012) [poster presentation] coffey, s. & anyinam, c. (2012). higher education in nursing: innovative programs meet our duty to both society and our profession. rnao nursing: caring to know, knowing to care international conference, jerusalem, june 2012. the following presentations have been accepted through a peer-reviewed process: coffey, s., lindsay, g., sproul, s., laird, a., byrne, c., erwin, e., cochrane, m., cummings, k., macdonald, k., mairs, s., munro-gilbert, p., vogel, e., bouchard, s., lulat, z., & salamat, n.). bridging education shapes the future of nursing. submitted to 4th biennial nursing conference, faculty of nursing, university of windsor (september, 2012) coffey, s., lindsay, g., sproul, s., laird, a., byrne, c., erwin, e., cochrane, m., cummings, k., macdonald, k., mairs, s., munro-gilbert, p., vogel, e., bouchard, s., lulat, z., salamat, n. evaluation of student experience and performance in rpn-to-bscn education. submitted to rpnao 54th annual general meeting and conference: putting knowledge and compassion into action. toronto, september 2012. 70 financial reporting please find attached the financial reporting for this project. a pdf of the signed version of this document was transmitted electronically on june 28, 2012. as per our communication from cucc on march 13, 2012, funds allocated to phase 1 of this project but not yet spent will be carried over to phase 2. if you would like us to provide an updated budget to reflect this, we would be happy to do so. 71 the research team gratefully acknowledges the generous participation in this research of students enrolled in the collaborative durham college university of ontario institute of technology georgian college rpn to bscn bridging program. 72

oncat project 2015-12 final report march 18, 2016 ji ae rhee centennial college sean woodhead centennial college creating low affinity pathways 0 executive summary purpose of project since the inception of the ontario council on articulation and transfer, over 1200 pathways have been listed on ontranfser.ca, and many are formed between high affinity programs. the ontario college student profile is, however, changing. today, an increasing number of college students are non-direct applicants and 44% of these students have completed some form of prior postsecondary education (pse). in response, colleges in ontario are exploring ways to create pathways that meet diversified student demands. with the system placing most of its focus on high affinity pathways development, there exists a low affinity pathways void. since a majority of students who continue their education at diploma or degree level pursue a completely different field, colleges and universities alike should seek out this call to action in identifying what means exist to articulate minimization of learning redundancies between two programs of low curricular affinity. targeting low affinity pathways between high enrolment, high employment competition programs against low enrolment, low employment competition programs seems like a logical place to start this work. in addressing the current paucity of pathways between different fields, this project explores the creation of system-wide low affinity pathways based on programs at centennial college. contained within this report is an explanation of how the project was undertaken, what programs were investigated and the results of such, limitations discovered before or during this process, pathways to be developed as a result of this work, and future considerations. methodology this project has been designed to support outcomes-based curriculum affinity assessment between programs from different disciplines. there were three different stages to the project: 1) program-program identification, 2) curriculum mapping, and 3) low affinity articulation. first, overenroled and underenroled programs were identified by analyzing fall 2015 data from centennials corporate planning and institutional research (cpir) team records, aismartr reports, and the banner student information system. underenroled programs were limited to programs within the school of business (sb) and school of engineering technology and applied creating low affinity pathways 1 science (setas), based on skilled worker shortages and ontario college application service applicant data. then, programs were narrowed down by admission requirements, curriculum affinity, and career prospects. programs requiring a pse credential for admission, having 0% curriculum affinity, and resulting in no prospective career convergence were excluded. finally, program learning outcomes (plos) were mapped to confirm the pursuit of potential pathways. based on the above process, law clerk to office administration (executive) or office administration (health services), and architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology or mechanical engineering technology were identified as programs eligible for building pathways. to identify both overlaps and gaps in program curriculum, researchers mapped the outcomes of the sending programs courses in semester one and two against the receiving programs. by comparing all the course learning outcomes (clos) of the sending program to the course-bycourse clos of the receiving program, it was possible to identify combinations of clos that could be used to meet course requirements. according to centennial colleges transfer credit procedures policy, 80% affinity between clos results in granting credit; therefore, this criterion was used to recommend the granting of credit at the end of this mapping process. results through mapping program-to-program clos, the following pathways were created for students who have finished semester 2 of: - law clerk to 1) office administration (executive): full credit for up to six courses, self-directed learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for four 2) office administration (health services): full credit for up to six courses, self-directed learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for four creating low affinity pathways 2 - architectural technology to 1) energy systems engineering technology: full credit for up to four courses, self-directed learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for one 2) mechanical engineering technology industrial: full credit for up to four courses, selfdirected learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for one 3) mechanical engineering technology design: full credit for up to four courses, selfdirected learning and credit equivalency after successful completion of self-directed learning for one limitations though this report was prepared through careful examination and analysis of data, the researchers are aware of its shortcomings: - potential low affinity pathways were without any complete plo matches, therefore elements of performance were excluded from consideration in order to preserve the possibility of creating any new system-wide pathways. - emsi data was limited by breakdown of job prospects for instructional programs. while the cip website offers up to a tertiary level of breakdowns (e.g., 52.0402 for executive assistant/executive secretary), emsi only provides data up to the secondary level (e.g., 52.04 for business operations support and assistant services). consequently, queried jobs had to be edited to match more specific career prospects. - due to restraints on time and resources, researchers were unable to survey demand for potential low affinity pathways. without this, student satisfaction and utilization can only be speculated. conclusions with an increasing number of students returning to pse, there is an ever-growing need for pathways built between low affinity fields. this project addresses that need by creating the creating low affinity pathways 3 pathways from law clerk to office administration (executive) or office administration (health services), and architectural technology to energy systems engineering technology or mechanical engineering technology. centennials sb, setas and the researchers pathways team will collaborate to create and implement new model routes for these pathways within the coming school year. the process of building these pathways resulted in valuable lessons learned and reflections that could help facilitate the development of more daring, creative pathways as well as the undertaking of other related projects in the future. the valuable lessons learned during the process of this research were 1) that various educators within centennial could have different perceptions of program job prospects, and 2) that some college staff have concerns regarding the pathways mandate; beliefs that this agenda can lead to other colleges stealing their students. though the authors of this report take no opinion on the aforementioned concern, it is important to note this feedback received from multiple staff involved. also, the project resulted in two recommendations for best practices: 1) curriculum training for subject matter experts (smes) to avoid confusion regarding outcome mapping vs. week-byweek achievement mapping, and 2) maintaining current, relevant, and measurable plos and clos that reflect the most recent practices and technologies in a measurable manner. over the course of this project, researchers discovered potential topics for further research 1) exploring dual diploma pathways or new advanced diploma and graduate certificate combinations for future projects to offer programs with added value to students, and 2) exploring the educational goals and employability expectations of students entering programs with low (sometimes even negative) job prospects. creating low affinity pathways 4

mobility of international students in ontario colleges henry decock, ursula mccloy, mitchell steer centre for research in student mobility, seneca college march 2017 esearch mobility 64-70 the centre for research in student mobility 8 the seneca way markham, on l3r 5y1 416-491-5050 x77939 senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch 1 executive summary since 2009, the ontario college system has experienced a dramatic growth in international students dramatically exceeding that of ministry-funded students at the system level; 246.0% and 11.4% respectively. despite this growth, international students at ontario colleges have not been the subject of studies especially as they compare to the domestic student population. enrolment continues to grow unabated, yet colleges are struggling to understand the demographic characteristics of international students, aside from their country of origin, let alone their outcomes post-graduation. utilizing two provincially mandated surveys, student satisfaction and graduate satisfaction, this report answers two questions: 1. how do international and domestic students differ in ontario colleges? 2. how does college-to-university transfer differ for international and domestic students in ontario? part one includes is an analysis of the demographic characteristics of age, gender, and first language learned along with the academic characteristics of previous education, program of choice, and related skill development. then, because of the large percentage of international students entering college with previous university, the same analysis is conducted for this sub-group. based on the student satisfaction survey from 2011 to 2014 international students are older, male and are most likely to be enrolled in business. international students are significantly more likely to come with a university degree and compared to their domestic counterpart are likely to enroll in graduate certificates, are younger, and are seeking support for writing and speaking skills. part two examines transfers various components including the rate, timing of decision, sources of information, destination program and satisfaction with the experience. based on the graduate satisfaction survey from 2007 to 2015 the transfer rates for international graduates are lower than that of their peers and are declining over time. international graduates are more likely to make their decision about transfer after completing their program; report getting more transfer information from the college; and have higher levels of satisfaction with their transfer experience and academic preparation. the growth of international students at ontario colleges of applied arts and technology is an important trend to both individual colleges and the system. because international students are rapidly becoming a singularly large portion of the college population, with different characteristics than their domestic peers, policy makers need to be receptive and responsive to their needs. with half of international students having completed a university degree the extent to which this reality affects pedagogy needs to be examined further. the transfer rate is dropping which suggests international students are primarily using college as a second credential and not as an automatic stepping stone to university. finally, those students who are transferring to university are more likely to use college resources for information about transfer which should prompt institutions to examine their services in this area. 2 introduction international students have become an important part of post-secondary education in canada. the number of international students has risen 84% between 2003 and 2013, and most precipitously since canada introduced the canadian experience class as part of its new immigration policy changes. 1 another report published by the higher education quality council of ontario (williams, k., williams, g., arbuckle, a., walton,roberts, m., & hennebry, j., 2015) 2 describes the political and economic climate, as well as the policy changes in that climate over time. the political climate for international students has changed dramatically, and more recently, the policy environment has adapted to increase the number of international students admitted into canadas post-secondary institutions. these changes include streamlining application processes and revising policies regulating off-campus work and postgraduation work permits. students from india and china have recently had greater ease in accessing canadian post-secondary education with policy changes, though financial restrictions have become a potential barrier to access. 3 with these changes, according to the williams et. al. (2015), ontario has become the primary destination for international students in canada. ontario-bound international students show a growing tendency to study in the college sector, with over 50% of new entrants attending a college in 2012 (williams et al., 2015). despite this growth, international students at ontario colleges have not been the subject of studies especially as they compare to the domestic student population. enrolment continues to grow unabated, yet colleges are struggling to understand the demographic characteristics of international students, aside from their country of origin, let alone their outcomes post-graduation. this report is an attempt to capture this data utilizing two provincial surveys in an attempt to ignite future research. 4 international student growth in ontario colleges since 2009, the ontario college system has experienced a dramatic growth in international students. the range of growth for individual colleges varies from 110%to 3,246%, with an individual enrolment count in 2015 from 24 students to 5,365 students. international student growth far exceeds that of ministry-funded students at the system level; 246.0% and 11.4% respectively. in a closer examination of individual colleges, international students are compensating for a decline in domestic students and has allowed for the continual growth in student enrolment. 1 see cbie report: http://monitor.icef.com/2015/02/canada-introduces-new-process-international-studentshoping-immigrate/ 2 williams, k., williams, g., arbuckle, a., walton-roberts, m., & hennebry, j. (2015). international students in ontarios postsecondary education system, 2000-2012: an evaluation of changing policies, populations and labour market entry processes. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 3 see report on international students: http://www.heqco.ca/en-ca/research/respub/pages/internationalstudents-in-ontario%e2%80%99s-postsecondary-education-system-2000-2012.aspx 4 the report benefitted from some earlier work of julien declaire for a previous cbie report; and it is supported by matthew duncans production design and graph development. 3 table 1. full time enrollment in ontario colleges, 2009 & 2015 domestic international region 2009 2015 growth 2009 2015 growth toronto 54,098 62,485 15.5% 6,303 16,303 158.7% central 43,134 49,021 13.6% 1,720 8,753 408.9% southwestern 28,497 31,377 10.1% 968 3,746 287.0% eastern 29,946 32,805 9.5% 696 2,730 292.2% northern 13,472 12,749 -5.4% 174 2,583 1384.5% source: ontario college application service the growth of international students is apparent in all regions across the province with the northern region increasing its international student enrolment by 1,384.5%, and toronto colleges increasing by 158.7%. toronto colleges have grown by 10,000 international students since 2009, almost four times the international student enrolment of northern colleges in 2015. the number of international students at the four toronto colleges is almost half (47.8%) of the total international student population in all 24 ontario colleges of applied arts and technology. international students also represent an increasing proportion of the total full-time student population. the chart below shows the percentage of international students as a proportion of the total full-time student population in 2009 and in 2015 for each region. the northern region exhibits the highest growth in proportion, with 1.3% in 2009 and 16.8% in 2015; the toronto colleges continue to lead the system with 20.7% of its full-time student population consisting of international students. 4 figure 1. total student population: 2009 and 2015 percentage of international students 25% 20.7% 20% 16.8% 15.2% 15% 10.7% 10.4% 10% 7.7% 3.8% 5% 3.3% 2.3% 1.3% 0% toronto central southwestern 2009 eastern northern 2015 source: ontario college application service note total student population includes international students and those funded under the ontario governments general purpose operating grant (gpog). slow growth or declining domestic students, decreased funding, 5 provincial government encouragement and the potential for increased revenue have all combined to make the recruitment of international students a priority. indeed, all of the reasons combined suggests ontario colleges are becoming more dependent on international student enrolment. research questions 1. how do international and domestic students differ in ontario colleges? for those with a university credential, how do outcomes differ? 2. how does college-to-university transfer differ for international and domestic students in ontario? data sources two distinct provincial datasets, the provincially mandated student satisfaction survey (sss) and the graduate student survey (gss), are used to understand key differences between international and domestic students. the sss helps quantify characteristics, while the gss allows for an examination of transfer to further education, including choice of institution destination and reasons for continuing their education. 5 see http://collegesontario.org/policy-positions/budget-submissions/co%202016%20budget%20web_2.pdf 5 student satisfaction survey the student satisfaction survey is an annual paper-based survey administered to students in all programs enrolled in the second semester and higher, across ontario. 6 administered in the classroom, the survey asks questions relating to teaching, the program, college services, and engagement while collecting self-reported socio-demographic information. the survey captures approximately 65% of students enrolled in the ontario college system. since 2011, the survey has asked respondents to selfidentify as international students, enabling researchers to distinguish them from domestic students. samples of study table 2. ontario student satisfaction survey, 2011-2014 total domestic international total non-unique observations in sss (2011-2014) 539,656 - - first year survey respondents only 275,327 - - observations with valid international/ domestic status 269,389 242,299 27,090 graduate satisfaction survey the graduate satisfaction survey is administered to all college graduates with an ontario college credential from a publically funded college of applied arts and technology (caat) in ontario. 7 it is administered approximately six months after graduation through telephone surveys conducted by an external service provider to whom the colleges provide contact information and graduate characteristics such as age, gender, and program of study. the mtcu uses the results to gauge the performance of colleges on three of the five key performance indicators (kpis) graduate satisfaction rate, employment rate, and employer satisfaction rate each of which are tied to a modest sum of performance funding and are made public. additionally, the survey asks the student if they went on to further education. the survey has an average response rate of 67% over the study period and asks the same core questions for each year of the study. graduates who indicate they are working full or part time are asked several employment-related questions. full time students are not asked any labour market questions. 6 for a look at the 2015-2016 survey handbook, see: https://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/documents/kpistudentsatisfactionandengagementsurvey.pdf 7 see the ministry of training, colleges and universities (2009). framework for programs of instruction. 6 table 3. ontario graduate satisfaction survey, 2007-2014 total domestic international total number of graduates (2007-2015) 694,379 622,115 72,264 survey respondents (64%) 444,451 410,141 34,310 students who transferred to university 30,683 29,529 1,154 results how do domestic and international students differ? when it comes to international students in ontario, toronto dominates (williams et al., 2015). while the growth in international students has grown at a faster rate in the rest of the province, toronto colleges still represent almost half of the total international student population, compared with only one-third of ministry-funded enrolment. the toronto colleges also represent a different domestic student dynamic each with a significant second language population fueled by new canadians. toronto colleges arguably represent a different environment for the international student, possibly reflected in some of the dimensions uncovered in the data presented here. toronto colleges are represented by centennial, george brown, humber and seneca; the rest of the province consists of the remaining 20 including the two french speaking colleges, boreal and la cite. for purposes of all of the demographic characteristic comparisons, the discussion will distinguish between toronto and the rest of ontario. demographic characteristics age international students are older than the domestic student overall with more in the 21- 25 and 26-30 age categories than domestic for both toronto colleges and the rest of ontario. as with domestic students, toronto international students are older than their ontario counterpart. 7 figure 2. age categories comparing domestic and international, toronto and rest of province, 2011 2014. 60% 50% 50% 48% 40% 31% 30% 23% 19% 20% 14% 10% 5% 3% 3% 4% 0% less than 21 21-25 26-30 31-35 toronto international rest of province international toronto domestic rest of province domestic more than 35 gender international students are more likely to be male compared to their domestic counterparts. this difference is especially outside of toronto in which case, the gender pattern is almost the mirror opposite for domestic students. the extent to which the gender enrolment pattern is a function of programs of choice is explored further later in this report. figure 3. gender comparing domestic and international, toronto and rest of province, 2011 2014. 100% 80% 60% 57.1% 56.8% 48.4% 51.4% 42.9% 55.2% 44.6% 42.5% 40% 20% 0% international domestic international toronto rest of province female male domestic 8 first language not surprisingly, the survey reports considerable difference in first language between international students and domestic students. of note is the considerable difference between toronto and the rest of ontario in the number of domestic students who identify other as their first language. with almost a quarter of domestic students identifying other as their first language, there exists the possibility that international students could feel more at home in the toronto colleges. figure 4. first language learned comparing domestic and international, toronto and rest of province, 2011 2014. 100.0% 86.7% 78.0% 80.0% 75.5% 64.1% 60.0% 40.0% 20.0% 31.2% 23.4% 20.9% 7.8% 0.0% international domestic international toronto domestic rest of province english other french equally surprising is the number of international students in the rest of the province who responded with english as their first language, at almost one-third (31.2%). the survey does not help us identify the countries, but this result does suggest different countries of origin for international students who enroll in colleges outside of the city of toronto. the number of domestic students in the rest of the province whose first language is english is also higher than in toronto colleges; consequently, the gap between reported first languages is approximately the same. previous education the student satisfaction survey asks to list the highest credentials earned prior to enrolling in their program. figure 5 shows the highest reported earned credential of international and domestic student respondents. the difference is dramatic. for the years 2011 to 2014, 43.5% of international students entered colleges across the province having already earned a university degree, compared to only 11.4% of domestic students. the student satisfaction survey reports on the percentage of its students with previous education without distinguishing between international and domestic students. these numbers show how the international students can inflate the figures. 9 figure 5. education completed before entering this program, domestic and international, 2011 2014. 100% percentage of first year students 90% 11.4% 80% 70% 43.5% 32.4% 60% 50% 19.3% 40% 30% 54.6% 20% 33.9% 10% 0% domestic high school diploma international pse below degree completed university other/none figure 6 shows the percentage of domestic and international student entrants with a completed university degree in each of the four years of this report. the percentage of entering international students holding a university degree has been demonstrably higher than their domestic counterparts; and for both there has been an increase since 2011. the completion of a previous credential has an impact on the academic aspirations of students after graduation. figures 7 and 8 compare post-college goals of domestic and international students for those with a completed university degree and those without, respectively. there is minimal difference between domestic and international students who have completed a degree with international students responding with less than 2 percentage point more likely to say their goal was to prepare for further studies. remarkably, there is no difference when those without a degree: domestic and international students entered their program with the goal of preparing for further studies at an approximate rate of 22% in the 2014 reporting year. 10 figure 6. total number of students entering college with a completed degree, 2011 2014. percentage of first year ontario college students with completed university 50% 45% 45.1% 40.1% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 10.7% 15% 12.5% 10% 5% 0% 2011 2012 domestic 2013 2014 international figure 7. students who indicate prepare for further studies as a goal, those who have completed university, 2011 2014. percentage of students that indicate prep as a goal students entering with completed university 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 8.7% 8.0% 6.4% 6.1% 0% 2011 2012 2013 academic year domestic international 2014 11 figure 8. students who indicate prepare for further studies as a goal, without completed university, 2011 2014. percentage of students that indicate prep as a goal other without completed university 25% ~22% ~25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2011 2012 2013 2014 academic year domestic international in this question, the academic goals of both groups are the same. international students may have other ultimate motivations, such as remaining in canada to work with eventual hope to immigrate, but the desire for enhancing their academic credentials remains the same as their domestic counterparts. students with completed university given the observed difference in incoming credentials and the concomitant goals, this section provides a brief description and comparison of only those domestic and international students who entered college with a completed university degree. figure 9 represents the standard demographic characteristics: age, gender, first language and parental education. the latter is of growing interest among educators. the data on parental data (to measure first generation post-secondary) was asked in only the previous two survey cycles so the number of respondents is less than the other characteristics listed. 12 percentage of students with completed university figure 9. demographic characteristics of student with completed university, 2011 2014. 80% 70% 73% 71% 68% 60% 60% 50% 46% 46% 39% 40% 30% 25% 20% 10% 0% female 26 and older english parent has pse gender age first language parent education domestic international percentage of students enrolled in credential type figure 10. credential selection, those who have completed university and other, 2011 - 2014 100% 80% 60% 40% 50.6% 54.1% domestic international 55.3% 44.7% 20% 0% domestic international completed university 1 yr certificate 1 yr grad cert other 2 yr diploma 3 yr adv. diploma 4 yr degree 13 domestic students with previous university are far more likely to be female (68%) than their international counterparts. whereas more than two-thirds are female, the gender split for international students is more equal, with only 46% being male. the larger number of male international students is consistent with the discussion earlier. at the same time, international students with a degree are younger than domestic students with 39% older than 26 as compared to 46% respectively. not surprisingly, these domestic students are considerably more likely to identify english as their first language. what may be surprising is the number of international students (25%) who answered the same, similar to the rest of the international student population and reflecting diversity in the countries of origin. finally, this group of international students is less likely than the domestic student to report having at least one parent with previous post-secondary credentials. those students who had completed university were more likely to enroll in a graduate certificate at a rate of 44.7% for domestic and 55.3% for international. while these results may be expected, it is worth noting the large percentage of university educated students who are enrolled in other types of credentials. the two-year diploma remains common even among this group of students. percentage enrolled in each program type figure 11. program selection of students with completed university, 2011 2014. 48% 50% 40% 32% 30% 20% 10% 19% 9% 14% 12% 17% 8% 15% 7% 10% 4% 3% 2% 0% domestic international business programs are the most common choices for both domestic and international students, with almost half (48%) of the latter selecting from this area. the creative and social service type programs are considerably less likely to be selected by international students, second most common at 17% are the engineering/technology group of programs. the differences in program selection between international and domestic students clearer when drilling down into the specific program of choice as shown in table 4. this table illustrates how international students with university degrees are gravitating to business graduate certificates. the top program for domestic students, human resources management, stems from business as well, and is in the top 5 for 14 international students; nevertheless, the choices for domestic students are broadened into the social service type programming. on the other hand, the most popular choices for domestic and international students who had not completed a university degree before enrolling has more similarities. business continues to be selected more by international students, but they are enrolling also in the early childhood education two-year diploma and the general arts and science certificate programs. the latter would likely be used as a preparatory to further college level programming. table 4. top five programs selected, those that completed university and other, domestic vs. international, 2007-2014 completed university domestic international other 1 human resources management* 1 general arts and science - one-year 2 public relations* 2 police foundations 3 practical nursing 3 preparatory health sciences 4 early childhood education 4 early childhood education 5 collaborative nursing 5 practical nursing 1 international business management* 1 hospitality management 2 project management* 2 business 3 human resources management* 3 general arts and science - one-year 4 global business management* 4 business - accounting 5 personal financial services* 5 early childhood education *graduate certificate programs finally, international students with completed university are not only enrolling for the content of the various disciplines, they are enrolling also to gain additional so-called soft skills as illustrated in tables 5 and 6 below. the student satisfaction survey asks students to indicate to what extent specific attributes of programs and services are important and to what level of satisfaction they perceive these same attributes. developing speaking and writing skills were deemed to be more important for international students; and when asked about their satisfaction (table 5), international students were much more likely to be satisfied or very satisfied with these attributes of the program. indeed, international students were more satisfied with the overall facilities, resources, and services offered by the colleges, a reflection of their general college experience and support in making the transition to a new country. 15 table 5. criteria being reported as important, students with completed university. student satisfaction survey, 2011 2014. percentage of students reporting criteria as being important domestic international concern of people at this college for your success 96% 95% overall college experience 98% 98% helpfulness of teachers outside of class 96% 95% quality of learning experiences in this program 100% 99% overall quality of facilities and resources in college 98% 99% program develops your speaking skills 88% 94% program develops your ability to work with others 95% 97% program develops your writing skills 80% 86% table 6. students reporting satisfied/very satisfied, students with completed university. student satisfaction survey, 2011 2014. percentage of students reporting satisfied/very satisfied with domestic international program develops ability to work with others 83% 84% program helps you understand further education opportunities 53% 61% program helps develop speaking skills 66% 71% program helps develop writing skills 54% 64% concern of people at this college for your success 68% 61% employment/placement/career services 41% 45% overall college experience 72% 75% overall quality of facilities and resources in college 70% 82% importance of helpfulness of teachers outside of class 71% 68% overall quality of services in the college 63% 72% overall quality of learning experiences in this program 80% 79% this college provides information on social opportunities 50% 55% 16 college graduates in ontario in this section the focus shifts to data from the graduate satisfaction survey where the answer to the research question on the transfer rate of international students can be derived. the individual colleges provide the list of graduates after each term to the ministry for use by an external firm to conduct a telephone survey. the file provided by the colleges identifies the students as either ministry-funded or international and the survey firm attempts to reach as many students as possible. in the student satisfaction survey the students are anonymous and all respondents are included when calculating the official key performance indicator (kpi) results. for all official graduate kpis, international students are not included. in all cases, the results for international students are not reported separately. ontario college graduates as the number of international students grows within the system a concomitant increasing percentage of ontario college graduates reflects this student profile. figure 1 quantifies the overall expansion of the system since 2007 as well as the more than quadrupling percentage of international student graduates. this growth is across the province with the colleges outside of toronto accelerating at a faster rate. almost a quarter of toronto college graduates are international students compared to the rest of ontario at 13% making for the overall percentage 17 in the 2015 reporting year. ontario college graduates 100,000 30% 24% 25% 80,000 20% 60,000 17% 13% 40,000 15% 10% 9% 20,000 4% 2% 0 5% 0% 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 academic year ontario college graduates all ontario metro rest of ontario percentage of graduates have international status figure 12. ontario college graduates, 2007 2015. and continuing the previous sections description of program types, international students are graduating from business programs in far greater numbers than any other area (45 percent). engineering/technology type programs are the second most at 21 percent whereas the social and service type programs rank considerably lower for international students and as compared to domestic students (see figure 13). 17 figure 13. program type, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 50% 45% percentage of graduates 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 21% 21% 19% 20% 15% 13% 12% 10% 6% 5% domestic international 5% 5% 12% 21% 8% 8% 6% 0% figure 14. program duration, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 60% 51% 52% percentage of graduates 50% 40% 28% 30% 20% 10% 21% 18% 12% 8% 9% 2% 1% 0% 1yr certificate 2yr diploma domestic 3yr advanced diploma international 4yr degree 1yr grad certificates 18 the two-year diploma program remains the most common length of program in the system even though the recent emphasis is on the development of graduate certificates. naturally, therefore, the largest percentage of graduates across the system for both domestic and international stem from the two-year diploma. the difference between the two groups is highlighted in the percentage of graduates from the one-year certificates and the graduate certificates at polar opposites. whereas as 21 percent of domestic graduates are from one-year certificates this program duration accounts for only 8 percent of international; and for graduate certificates, the percentages are 9 and 28 respectively. these results are not surprising given the earlier discussion of previous credentials. figure 15. select demographic characteristics of ontario college graduates, 2007 2015. graduates in ontario (2007-2014) 70% 49% 50% 20% 10% 40% 38% 40% 30% 60% 57% 60% 43% 40% 34% 27% 11% 0% 21 and under 22 to 25 26 and over age female male gender domestic international consistent with that discussion, as well, the age of international graduates is higher than their domestic counterpart. figure 15 shows the age categories and gender of all graduates comparing domestic and international students. (the graduate file contains a limited number of demographic characteristic categories unlike the student satisfaction survey containing several self-reported dimensions.) domestic and international student graduates are distinguished by gender as well. domestic graduates are almost 60 percent female compared to that same percentage representing the number of male international graduates. the difference is partially a function of type of program with a greater percentage of domestic graduates stemming from social service programs typically dominated by female students. transfer rate to university by length of program this final section addresses the college-to-university transfer rate of international students from 20072015 for the different length of programs. transfer rates for toronto colleges have been higher historically compared to those in other parts of the province; therefore, this discussion begins with that analysis. 19 in 2007, the transfer rate for international students was comparable to that of domestic students as shown in figure 16. except for a jump in 2010, the transfer rate for international students in toronto has been in decline, down to 2.0 percent in 2014. in the rest of the province, the transfer rate for international students dropped significantly after 2010 to the same level international students in toronto colleges. the transfer rate for domestic students in the rest of the province has also gone down but not to the same extent, and is now less than one percentage point different than the toronto college transfer rate. it would appear international students have become less inclined to use the college system as a stepping stone into a university credential, certainly immediately following graduation. one factor may be the changes in rules to allow student work longer after graduation, which does not preclude a student from seeking another credential several years later. figure 16. transfer rate all ontario college domestic and international graduates, comparing toronto and the rest of the province, 2007 2014 12% 10% 8% 7.0% 6.1% 6% 4% 2% 2.0% 0% 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 toronto domestic toronto international rest of province domestic rest of province international 2014 transfer rates to university vary by length so the following description focuses on the different forms. table 7 shows the percentage of ontario college graduates respectively who transfer to university six months after graduation according to the graduate survey responses in the reporting years 2007 to 2015 from the credentials offered at colleges in the system. for each of the credential types the percentage of transfer to university has declined for both domestic and international such that the rate for the latter is consistently less overall now. (domestic students completing degrees and international graduate certificate graduates are exceptions.) for domestic students, there has been a steady decline; for international students, the decline has been more precipitous. 20 in 2007, the transfer rate to university of domestic and international graduates from one-year certificate programs was relatively equal at 5.4% and 5.0% respectively. the percentage for domestic students gradually declined over the years to a low of 4% in 2014 with a reported rate of 4.7% in 2015. the rate for international students spiked to 7.8% in 2008, exceeding that of domestic, then dropped dramatically reaching a low of less than 2% in 2013 before a slight increase to 3.3% in 2015. the 2015 international student transfer rate represents less than half of the peak in 2008. the transfer rate for domestic two-year diploma graduates declined by slightly more than two percentage points (from 8.4% to 6.2%) in the years displayed here, while the transfer rate of international students declined much more rapidly. in 2007, the transfer rate exceeded that of domestic students by one percentage point (9.4% compared to 8.4%) but then proceeded fall precipitously to a low of less than two percent before settling at 2.4% in 2015. the seven percentage point drop occurred in spite of ongoing growth in international student enrolment. the transfer rate for advanced diploma programs show a slightly different but familiar pattern for both domestic and international graduate students. for both types of students the transfer rate exceeds that of the one year certificates and two year diplomas. for domestic students the transfer rate rose slightly from 10.5% in 2007 to a peak of 12.0% in 2010 before it began a slow decline to 8.7% in 2015. the rate for international student graduates fluctuated in the 2007 2009 years, hit a peak of 17.8% in 2010 exceeding the domestic student rate by 7 percentage points. after 2010, the rate suffered dramatic a decline and eventually dropping to 3.9% in 2015 almost 4 percentage points below the rate for domestic students. table 7. transfer rate by credential of ontario college graduates, international and domestic, 2007 2015 domestic international 2007-2010 2011-2015 1 year - certificate 5.9% 5.0% 2 year - diploma 7.8% 6.8% 3 year advanced diploma 10.4% 10.8% 4 year honours degree 2.8% 5.2% 1 year - graduate certificate 4.7% 4.4% 1 year - certificate 5.2% 2.7% 2 year - diploma 7.0% 2.6% 3 year advanced diploma 14.5% 5.8% 4 year honours degree 1.1% 0.9% 1 year - graduate certificate 1.1% 1.5% 21 amongst these three credentials, the rapid decline in transfer to university for international students occurred most predominantly after the 2010 reporting year. the increase for domestic students from degrees and for international students from graduate certificates is worthy of further investigation. transfer rate to university by program type given the change in transfer rates for international students after the 2010 reporting year, the following analysis divides the comparison between the two periods and looks specifically at the program type across all credentials. table 8 lists the seven program types offered by colleges across ontario identifying the transfer rate for the reporting years 2007 to 2010 and 2011 to 2015 for both domestic and international students. table 8. transfer rate by program type, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 domestic program type international 2007/10 2011/15 2007/10 2011/15 business 8.3% 7.6% 9.3% 3.7% community service 12.6% 11.3% 4.9% 1.9% creative and applied arts 4.6% 4.0% 3.4% 1.9% health 3.2% 2.7% 2.2% 0.5% hospitality 2.7% 2.5% 2.2% 1.3% preparatory/upgrading 16.8% 13.6% 9.0% 3.6% engineering/technology 4.0% 3.9% 3.3% 1.6% as discussed, there has been a gradual decline in transfer rates for domestic students and the decline is seen across all program types. in some, like hospitality and engineering/technology, the difference is marginal. the overall drop is accounted for largely within the program types which have shown historically higher rates of transfer: community service and preparatory/upgrading programs. the latter set of programs continue to have the highest rate of transfer but witnessed a 3.2 percentage point decline in transfer rates to 13.6% in the 2011 to 2015 reporting years. for international students the rapid decline in transfer rates is marked in business programs and in the preparatory/upgrading categories. in the 2007-2010 reporting years, business international graduates in business were transferring to university at a rate of 9.3%; in the 2011-2015 reporting years that percentage dropped to 3.7%. this difference represents the dramatic decline witnessed in the three year diploma programs which consists of a large number of business programs. in a very similar manner, the percentage of international graduates of preparatory/upgrading programs dropped in the same time period from 9.0% to 3.6%. this type of programs are populated largely by one year certificate and a small number of two-year diploma general arts & science program. and although the transfer percentage of community service is only have of the business and preparatory/upgrading programs, it also declined in the same proportion, accounting for the overall drop in two-year diploma programs as discussed above. 22 transfer student analysis examining experiences of domestic and international students who transferred to university the graduate satisfaction survey attempts to understand the rationale for transfer asking graduates who are enrolled to state whether a preset list of possibilities was a major, minor or not a reason for transferring to university. table 9 represents the percentage of domestic and international transfer students who answered major or minor for each of the reasons in the 2007 to 2015 reporting years. the last column in the table calculates the percentage point difference of international graduates to that of domestic graduates. table 9. reasons for transferring to university, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 domestic international % pt. diff. potential for higher income 91% 84% -8% no work/ job available in your field of study 44% 46% 2% to get diploma/ certificate/ degree 96% 93% -3% interest in further/ more in-depth training in field 92% 86% -6% interest in pursuing a different field of study 57% 68% 11% needed for professional designation 79% 81% 2% gain theoretical knowledge/ broader education 95% 88% -7% encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) 76% 71% -4% more opportunities for career advancement 97% 93% -5% upgrade/ improve skills 94% 94% 0% 67% 70% 3% 17% 31% 14% there was a formal transfer agreement between your previous and your current program company required/ paid for it international graduates identified upgrading/improving skills as the major or minor reason for 94% of those who transferred, the highest in the list of possibilities. more opportunities for career advancement was the highest amongst domestic graduates at 97%, the second highest for international graduates tied with obtaining a credential which was number three for domestic. the top three reasons for domestic and international were the same, albeit in a slightly different order. information sources for transfer the graduate satisfaction survey also seeks to ascertain the sources of information to inform transfer from those graduates who indicate they are enrolled in another post-secondary program on a full or part time basis. respondents were asked to identify whether the source was a major, minor, or not a source. table 10 shows the percentage who responded major or minor for domestic and international graduates with the last column calculating the percentage point difference between the two groups. 23 table 10. information sources for transfer, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 domestic international % pt. diff. college website 68% 77% 9% college hard copy publications 49% 62% 13% college faculty/ counselors/ program coordinators 73% 73% 0% college administration, i.e. registrars office, student services 64% 74% 11% university website/ publications 87% 88% 1% university staff (including registrars office, faculty, etc.) 75% 81% 6% other students (including current and former college and university students) 74% 77% 3% ontransfer.ca web site 50% 56% 6% parents and family 70% 68% -2% college credit transfer advising services 62% 69% 6% university credit transfer advising services 64% 74% 9% the responses in the years 2007 to 2015 show how the international student utilizes college sources in greater numbers than their domestic counterparts whether that be the website, hard copy publications, administration or transfer advising services. a university website or publication and university staff are the two most common sources for both groups but overall, international students seem to be using all available sources in greater numbers. the exception is parents and family, but the percentage point difference is small. and, even though the ontransfer website is used more by international than domestic transfer students (56 and 50 percent respectively), it had the most number who identified it as not a source for information on transfer. timing of decision to further education respondents who answered the graduate satisfaction survey and who transferred to another postsecondary program were asked to think back to when they made their decision. the possible categories are before entering, at the start, during their studies, and after completion of the program. both domestic and international graduates stated, in equal numbers, their decision was made before entering their program (39%) or at the start of their education (5%) as shown in figure 17. the two groups of students differed in the percentage of respondents who determined they would transfer after completing their program. for international students, it was 18 percent as compared to domestic students at 11 percent. the reason for difference is not apparent except for the responses to the question of skill development in the earlier discussion. recall, international students saw the development of writing and speaking skills as important and were more satisfied with the teaching of these skills in their program. perhaps the confidence in their abilities in these area upon completion of the program prompted them to seek additional credentials. 24 figure 17. timing of decision to further education, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 50% 44% percentage of university transfers 45% 40% 39% 39% 37% 35% 30% 25% 18% 20% 15% 11% 10% 5% 5% 5% 0% domestic before entering international at the start during after completion transfer pathways in an earlier discussion, the data showed international students enrolled largely in business programs and therefore represented the highest percentage of graduates regardless of length of program. table 11 represents the cross tabulation of college program of graduates with the university program in which they are enrolled. the table measures the extent of program affinity. by this measure, international students graduating from business programs are enrolling into business programs at a university, demonstrating a close affinity with their college education. overall, 49 percent of international college graduates enrolled in a university business program, the highest percentage of any discipline. domestic graduates, on the other hand, were more likely to enroll in a university program within the social sciences with an overall percentage of 37. graduates of community service programs were the largest source but the total includes those emanating from business, creative arts, technology and preparatory programs (see table 12). while also showing a close affinity with the sending program for domestic students, the data in both tables reflect the differing enrolment patterns of domestic and international students. 25 table 11. sending (college) and receiving (university) programs of international students, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 gener al arts & scienc e edu cati on fine & applied arts hum aniti es social sciences (including commerce) commerce/ business/ administration 0% 0% 1% 1% 13% 44% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3% 0% 0% 0% 1% 1% 0% 0% health 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% hospitality 0% 0% 0% 0% preparatory/ upgrading 0% 1% 0% 1% engineering/ technology 0% 0% 0% 0% total 1% 1% 2% 3% business community service creative and applied arts agriculture & biological sciences engineering & applied sciences health profess ions mathematical & physical sciences not reported/ not applicable / other total 0% 1% 0% 1% 4% 65% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 4% 0% 0% 0% 1% 0% 0% 1% 0% 3% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 4% 3% 1% 0% 1% 1% 2% 1% 12% 0% 1% 0% 7% 0% 2% 1% 11% 19% 49% 1% 9% 3% 6% 6% 100% table 12. sending (college) and receiving (university) programs of domestic student, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 gener al arts & scienc e edu cati on fine & applied arts hum aniti es social sciences (including commerce) commerce/ business/ administration agriculture & biological sciences engineering & applied sciences health profess ions mathematical & physical sciences not reported/ not applicable / other 0% 0% 0% 1% 3% 18% 0% 0% 0% 1% 1% 24% 0% 5% 0% 1% 25% 1% 0% 0% 1% 0% 1% 36% 0% 0% 2% 2% 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 7% health 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 2% 0% 0% 3% hospitality 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 2% 1% 1% 1% 2% 6% 1% 1% 0% 5% 0% 1% 18% 0% 0% 0% 0% 1% 0% 1% 6% 0% 1% 0% 11% 2% 7% 4% 7% 37% 21% 2% 6% 8% 3% 4% 100% business community service creative and applied arts preparatory/ upgrading engineering/ technology total total satisfied with transfer experience and academic preparation this last section examines the level of satisfaction with the transfer experience and the academic preparation of transfer students. respondents are asked to answer on a five point likert scale ranging from very dissatisfied to very satisfied. figures 18 and 19 document the results for domestic and international students of each question respectively, showing the percentage who were satisfied and very satisfied. international transfer students were more satisfied overall than domestic transfer students (87% versus 81% respectively). the former were more inclined to answer satisfied whereas domestic appeared more very satisfied; nevertheless, international students responded more positively to the question on transfer experience. 26 percent satisfied or very satisfied with overall transfer experience figure 18. student satisfied or very satisfied with transfer experience, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 70% 59% 60% 50% 44% 37% 40% 28% 30% 20% 10% 0% satisfied very satisfied domestic international figure 19. student satisfied or very satisfied with academic preparation for current program of study, ontario college graduates, 2007 2015 70% 64% 60% title 50% 47% 37% 40% 26% 30% 20% 10% 0% satisfied very satisfied the same pattern occurs with the question about academic preparation. international students are more likely to be satisfied; and overall they are more satisfied than the domestic transfer students, 90% compared to 84% respectively. the level of satisfaction and entry into a university could be attributed to their desire to develop particular skills and their reported satisfaction with the program on these matters discussed earlier. 27 summary of results this report is an attempt to shed some light onto the demographic characteristics of a growing international college student population in ontario and to document the academic outcomes specifically as it relates to transfer to a university. a comparison is made to the domestic student population using the provincial student satisfaction survey and the graduate satisfaction survey answering the two research questions: how do international and domestic students differ in ontario colleges? and, how does college-to-university transfer differ for international and domestic students in ontario? in terms of differences of demographic and academic characteristics, the report shows: international students are becoming a much larger share of the college population. international students are attracted to business programs. international students are older and more likely to be male. almost half of international students with a university degree are selecting into non-grad certificate programs. relative to domestic students, international students are coming in with higher levels of education (specifically university degrees) in this subgroup of university educated students, international students are likely to enroll in graduate certificates, are younger, and are seeking support for writing and speaking skills the university educated international student is more satisfied with program in the development of these skills; and are more satisfied with the overall resources and services provided by the colleges. with respect to academic outcomes after graduation, the report shows international students are a growing percentage of college graduates with a larger percentage emanating from business programs and graduate certificate programs. international students are more likely to make their decision about transfer after graduating from their program. transfer rates for international graduates are lower than that of their peers, and transfer rates are declining over time. international students are more likely to enroll in a business program at a university showing a close affinity with their college program. international students report getting more transfer information from the college, and less from family. international students have higher levels of satisfaction with their transfer experience and academic preparation. 28 conclusions the growth of international students at ontario colleges of applied arts and technology is an important trend to both individual colleges and the system. because international students are rapidly becoming a singularly large portion of the college population, with different characteristics than their domestic peers, policy makers need to be receptive and responsive to their needs. the data, from two provincially mandated surveys, provides some important demographic and academic characteristics. relative to domestic students, international students are older, with a gender and male. international students appear to enroll for different reasons, a factor which can be mined further by examining questions related to student engagement in the student satisfaction survey. there are demonstrated differences between international students enrolled in toronto colleges and those enrolled in colleges for the rest of ontario. the choice of programs for international students in the rest of the province is more in the area of engineering/technology which are traditionally male dominated and as such, reflect a larger number of male students. a larger number in international students in the rest of the province whose first language is english, also leads to a conclusion of different country of origin as compared to international students at toronto colleges. there exists, as well, a significant difference in the previous education of international students. almost half have completed a university degree which in turn translates into a larger percentage enrolling in graduate certificate programming. the extent to which this reality affects pedagogy needs to be examined further. the large number of university educated students, regardless of programs, contributes, in part, to a decreasing number of international students transferring to a university in pursuit of a degree. indeed, it appears international students are primarily using college as a second credential, particularly in recent years, and not as an automatic stepping stone to university. the international students who are transferring to university are more likely to use college resources for information about transfer which should prompt institutions to examine their services in this area. overall the international student appears satisfied with their experience; it is, therefore, incumbent upon colleges to understand the population and continue to provide the necessary resources for this burgeoning population.

4 oncat project 2016-10 from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students executive summary it has been well established that different segments of the population are more or less likely to aspire to and attend college or university. in particular, students with disabilities, low income students, first generation students, students from rural communities, indigenous students, and male students are less likely to attend university. these disparities in access are primarily a university issue, in that these groups are not generally underrepresented in colleges relative to the population. based on these findings, it has been suggested that enhancing the college-touniversity pathway may be a vehicle to reduce inequities in university access (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). the purpose of this study was to examine the profiles and pathways of college-to-university students in order to enhance our understanding of who is accessing this transfer pathway, and their unique needs and experiences. to do this, the motivations, experiences, and outcomes of four groups of ontario students were examined: 1) college applicants who aspired to complete a 4-year degree; 2) college applicants who did not aspire to complete a 4-year degree; 3) university applicants with a completed college credential; and, 4) university applicants with no previous pse. this study also contributes to the literature by offering insights into the factors that may contribute to the persistence and success of transfer students. the study had two phases. in phase one, academica groups university and college applicant study (ucas) database was utilized in order to compare college applicants who aspired to a degree to those who do not, and to compare university applicants who had a previous college credential to those who had no previous pse experience. the results are based on a sample of over 125,000 ontario college and university applicants who participated in the ucas between 2010 and 2015. this included 70,813 survey respondents who had applied to ontario universities, and 57,839 survey respondents who had applied to ontario colleges. in the second phase, an online survey instrument was designed to track the pathways of applicants following their application to postsecondary education. in addition to demographic questions, the survey asked about students decision making process, application outcomes, motivations, postsecondary goals, use of support resources, and the transfer experience. 2,093 respondents completed the survey and were included in the analysis. from application and beyond 5 for analysis in both phase one and phase two, survey respondents were organized into four pathway groups: aspirants: college applicant whose highest planned level of education is a 4-year degree program or graduate level university program (masters, phd etc.) non-aspirants: college applicant whose highest planned level of education is a college certificate, diploma or advanced diploma college transfer students: university applicants who completed a college credential or trades / vocational / technical school program university students with no previous pse: university applicants whose highest level of education was a high school diploma four research questions guided this study: 1. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? 2. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? 3. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? 4. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? key findings related to each research question are summarized below, along with conclusions and next steps. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? ontario college applicants who aspired to complete a university degree differed from those who did not aspire to a degree on a number of characteristics. rural students, those with dependents, first generation students, students with a disability, indigenous students, caucasian/white students, students born in canada, and those who primarily spoke english at home made up a significantly larger proportion of the do not aspire to a degree group, compared to the aspire to a degree group. conversely, south asian, chinese, and black students, females, single students, and those under age 25 made up a larger proportion of the aspire to a degree group. from application and beyond 6 interestingly, there was no difference between the two groups in the two socioeconomic indicators examined (use of government loans, and household income). academically, college applicants who aspired to a degree tended to have slightly higher high school gpas than those who did not aspire to a degree, and a slightly greater percentage had taken university preparatory courses in high school. there were also some notable differences in the decision-making profiles of the two groups. while the most commonly reported reason for applying to pse among both college applicants with degree aspirations and those without was to prepare to enter their chosen career, a larger proportion of applicants with degree aspirations stated that pursuing further graduate or professional study, giving back to society, and becoming actively involved in student life were reasons for applying. further, a larger proportion of aspirants reported using almost every information source in researching their pse options. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? the profiles of university applicants with a previous college credential and those with no previous pse experience also differed significantly, with many of the traditionally underrepresented groups in university making up a larger proportion of the population with a previous college credential. in particular, there was a larger percentage of first generation students, students with a disability, lower income students, indigenous students, black students, and rural students in the previous college credential group compared to the university applicant group with no previous pse. these findings support previous research that suggested the college-touniversity pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). academically, university applicants who had completed a college credential were much less likely to have taken university preparatory courses in high school than those with no previous pse experience, and their average high school gpa was significantly lower. more applicants with a previous college credential reported that hybrid/blended learning was their preferred from application and beyond 7 course delivery format, though overall on-campus courses were preferred by the largest proportion of both groups. motivations for applying to pse and information sources used differed between these two groups as well, though the most striking finding was that university applicants with a previous college credential showed a much greater certainty that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career and that their academic program was right for them. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? of the college applicants with degree aspirations who responded to the follow-up survey, about half still aspired to complete a degree, 13.4% had successfully transferred, and 39.4% no longer had aspirations for a degree. while just over one-third of those who no longer aspired reported that their interests had simply changed, an equal proportion stated that they no longer planned to attain a degree because they could not afford university. among college students who still aspired to complete a degree, approximately one-third did not know whether there was a formal transfer agreement in place between their college program and the university program they would apply to, and two-fifths did not know how much credit they expected to receive for their college education. lack of guidance on application procedures, a lack of clarity between various credit granting processes, and finding/confirming requirements for transfer credits were the most frequently anticipated challenges. however, 42% said they did not expect to experience any challenges in transferring to university. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? university students with a previous college credential were less satisfied than non-transfer students with all aspects of their universitys application and transition process that were examined. areas where the largest proportions of college-to-university transfer students felt their university needed improvement was in relation to academic orientation, providing information about the admissions process and requirements, providing information about required courses, and campus orientation. from application and beyond 8 in comparison to non-transfer students, college-to-university transfer students were more likely to participate in classroom discussion and engage in studentfaculty interactions such as discussing assignments/grades, ideas, and career plans, but were less likely to engage in oncampus volunteer activities, student clubs, and cultural events. in terms of on-campus resources, financial aid and personal counseling were accessed by a greater proportion of college-to-university transfer students than non-transfer students, but fewer accessed orientation programs and recreation and athletic facilities. conclusions the results of this study confirm previous research showing that the college-to-university transfer student population has a relatively large proportion of traditionally under-represented groups compared to those who are entering university from high school, supporting the idea that the college-to-university pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). these students were shown to be highly engaged in their learning and academically confident, a finding also supported in previous research (pendleton and lambert-maberly, 2006). however, the results also suggest that more work needs to be done to support both the admissions process and the university transition experience. traditional university channels for information provision, such as viewbooks, brochures, open houses, and university fairs are not being heavily accessed by college-to-university transfer students. rather these students seem to rely more on interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances, such as emails and phone calls with university staff, talking with a professor, and informal visits to campus. similarly, university orientation programming is often geared primarily to the directentry student and transfer students are much less likely to participate. orientation, particularly to the academic expectations of university, was a key area where transfer students felt their university needed to improve. while college-to-university transfer students tend to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom is also challenge. this is likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial support. developing flexible ways to enrich the non-academic experience of college-to-university transfer students should be priority. from application and beyond overall, increasing the number of students utilizing the college-to-university transfer pathway should help to reduce inequities in overall university participation; however, the results also demonstrated that there are still inequities in the aspirations of college students that reproduce those seen in the college-university divide. these inequities require further attention. 9

student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges final report alex usher paul jarvey table of contents executive summary....................................................................................................................................... 1 introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 methodology................................................................................................................................................. 5 instrument design & implementation ...................................................................................................... 5 sample selection ....................................................................................................................................... 6 data collection summary .......................................................................................................................... 7 definitions used in this report .................................................................................................................. 8 results: demographics.................................................................................................................................. 9 results: sources, destinations and timing ................................................................................................. 10 results: the transfer process ..................................................................................................................... 14 timing of transfer.................................................................................................................................... 14 reasons for transfer ................................................................................................................................ 15 sources of information ........................................................................................................................... 16 source of assistance at destination institution ....................................................................................... 19 consistency of information provided ..................................................................................................... 19 the application process .......................................................................................................................... 20 credits awarded ...................................................................................................................................... 21 credit granting decisions and explanations ............................................................................................ 23 level of understanding ........................................................................................................................... 25 overall satisfaction ..................................................................................................................................... 26 perceived difficulty of credit transfer ........................................................................................................ 28 demographic factors............................................................................................................................... 28 prior program of study completion ........................................................................................................ 29 the application process .......................................................................................................................... 29 explanation for credits received ............................................................................................................. 31 time to complete application and learn result....................................................................................... 31 other factors ........................................................................................................................................... 32 a closer look at perceived difficulty ........................................................................................................ 32 perceived helpfulness of assistance received ........................................................................................... 34 age .......................................................................................................................................................... 35 i gap length ............................................................................................................................................... 35 the application process .......................................................................................................................... 35 explanation for credits received ............................................................................................................. 36 other factors ........................................................................................................................................... 37 a closer look at assistance ...................................................................................................................... 38 supplemental factors of note .................................................................................................................... 40 students who chose not to apply for credit ........................................................................................... 40 level of understanding ........................................................................................................................... 41 other suggestions from respondents ..................................................................................................... 42 conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 43 appendix a: data collection instrument and phone script ........................................................................ 46 online screener & demographics ........................................................................................................... 47 call script / questionnaire ...................................................................................................................... 51 appendix b: summary of statistical tests ................................................................................................... 62 tables table 1: process summary flow chart ........................................................................................................... 6 table 2: data collection summary ................................................................................................................ 8 table 3: age and gender characteristics of the sample vs. the population .................................................. 9 table 4: count of respondents by prior institution .................................................................................... 10 table 5: source vs. destination program of study (all respondents) .......................................................... 12 table 6: source and destination program of study by source institution type .......................................... 13 table 7: destination program choice by prior institution type .................................................................. 13 table 8: summary of reasons for transfer .................................................................................................. 15 table 9: sources of information .................................................................................................................. 16 table 10: sample characteristics: application for and receipt of transfer credits ..................................... 22 table 11: summary of credits recieved and shortening of current program of study ............................... 22 table 12: summary of receipt of expected credits and explanation for decision ...................................... 23 table 13: summary of reason for not applying .......................................................................................... 40 ii figures figure 1: source and destination program type ......................................................................................... 11 figure 2: proportion of prior credential completed ................................................................................... 11 figure 3: change in program of study overall and by institution type ....................................................... 12 figure 4: length of gap between source and destination institution......................................................... 14 figure 5: point of application for credit transfer ........................................................................................ 14 figure 6: summary of source of assistance................................................................................................. 19 figure 7: time to prepare application ........................................................................................................ 21 figure 8: time to learn result of application............................................................................................... 21 figure 9: satisfaction with explanation of decision .................................................................................... 24 figure 10: level of understanding of the credit transfer process now and at the start of the credit transfer application process ....................................................................................................................... 25 figure 11: overall satisfaction with program of study................................................................................ 26 figure 12: helpfulness vs. overall satisfaction with program of study ....................................................... 27 figure 13: difficulty vs. overall satisfaction with program of study ........................................................... 27 figure 14: overall perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process ........................................................ 28 figure 15: age vs. perceived difficulty of credit transfer ............................................................................ 29 figure 16: completion of prior program of study vs. perceived difficulty.................................................. 29 figure 18: time of application vs. perceived difficulty ............................................................................... 30 figure 19: receipt of expected credits vs. percieved difficulty .................................................................. 30 figure 20: satisfaction with explanation for decision vs. perceived difficulty............................................ 31 figure 21: time required to prepare application and supporting materials vs. difficulty .......................... 31 figure 22: time until respondent learned the result of their application vs. difficulty .............................. 32 figure 23: summary of helpfulness of assistance received ........................................................................ 34 figure 24: age vs. helpfulness of assistance received ................................................................................ 35 figure 25: receipt of credit vs. helpfulness ................................................................................................ 36 figure 26: explanation of decision vs. helpfulness ..................................................................................... 36 figure 27: time required to prepare application and supporting materials vs. helpfulness ..................... 37 figure 28: time until respondent learned the result of their application vs. helpfulness ......................... 37 figure 29: level of understanding and shortening of program of study .................................................... 41 iii executive summary student pathways increasingly rely on transfer between postsecondary institutions as greater numbers of students move between institutions, pursue multiple credentials, or return to postsecondary education. in order to improve pathways within and between colleges, to understand the barriers that may exist for students, and to develop strategies to improve student mobility, ontario colleges embarked on the improving college system pathways (icsp) project. the following pages report the results of a study that sought to support the objectives of the icsp by developing a better understanding of the experiences of transfer students. it investigated the sources of their satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and potential barriers to credit transfer between ontario colleges. between january and june 2012, 232 students at 23 colleges across ontario colleges were interviewed about their experiences with credit transfer. they were asked to discuss the difficulty of the credit transfer process overall, how helpful they perceived the assistance that they received to be, and a series of questions designed to look for potential barriers to credit transfer between ontario colleges. broadly, students overall satisfaction with their new school was closely correlated to the perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process and the perceived helpfulness of college staff during the transfer process. overwhelmingly, students in the ontario college system who participated in this study expressed positive feelings about their institution, the staff they interacted with, and their experiences with the credit transfer process. some students nevertheless experienced difficulties and expressed dissatisfaction. each of the seven points below discusses a practice or policy which appears to have contributed to the credit transfer process and affected related student experiences, thus offering an area of potential improvement for some ontario institutions: the accessibility and completeness of basic information about the process. both staff and students rely on information about how to progress through the process, who to contact, required documentation, deadlines, and the simple fact that credit transfer is possible. a large majority of respondents reported looking for this information on the website of their current college. the accessibility and completeness of detailed information about the process, such as which prior credits might be eligible for transfer, and how credit transfer might affect schedules, tuition, and other factors. this information was often looked for online, and often provided in person, by staff or faculty. respondents most positive experiences originated from interactions with staff that were both effective and personable. similarly, their worst experiences stemmed from instances where they perceived that they had been treated poorly. respondents reflected positively when the process was streamlined and simple. avoiding the resubmission of documents, reducing the number of forms and approvals required, and designing page 1 for single-point of contact interactions can help to reduce the complexity of the application process for students. collecting course outlines was commonly reported to be difficult and time consuming, especially for students with a longer gap between prior and current pse. respondents reported a number of ways in which institutions helped them with these difficulties, including helping them to contact their prior institution to request the documents, not requiring outlines to be submitted for courses that have been assessed for other students, and accepting unofficial outlines or otherwise being flexible about the documentation requirements. students who waited one week or less to learn the results of their applications for credit transfer were more likely to express lower perceived difficulty, and higher overall satisfaction. students who understood the reasons why their credit application was denied rarely expressed frustration. making the rationale clear can help to encourage positive student experiences. page 2 introduction student pathways often rely on transfer between postsecondary institutions as greater numbers of students move between institutions, pursue multiple credentials, or return to postsecondary education. the proportion of college applicants in ontario who carry previous postsecondary experience has increased steadily in recent years. 37% of college students reported prior pse in the 2007-08 student satisfaction survey (ontario ministry of training, colleges, and universities, mtcu), a number that rose to 41% in the 2010-11 student satisfaction survey. the same survey also asked students what their main goal was in applying for postsecondary education, finding that the proportion of students who attended in order to prepare for further university of college study rose from 16 per cent in 2000 to 19 percent in 2010-2011. the ability of students to receive credit for their prior educational experiences affects their ability to move between institutions, and as explored in this report, experiences with credit transfer are closely correlated to overall student satisfaction. the following pages report the results of a study that sought to better understand the experiences of transfer students, the sources of their satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and potential barriers to credit transfer between ontario colleges. students were asked to discuss the difficulty of the credit transfer process overall and how helpful they perceived the assistance that they received to be. both of these variables are closely correlated to overall satisfaction, and are used throughout this report as dependent variables (see perceived difficulty, page 27, and perceived helpfulness of assistance received, page 34). the mandate for this study began in 2006, when ontario colleges embarked on the improving college system pathways (icsp) project in order to improve pathways within and between colleges, to understand the barriers that may exist for students, and to develop strategies to improve student mobility. the icsp identified some dissatisfaction with the existing credit-transfer process1 and proposed a second phase of research to explore the sources of that dissatisfaction. this report, student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges, summarizes the findings of the second phase of research. this study supports the objectives of the icsp by: i. ii. offering further insight into the issues identified by icsp research; and, identifying and exploring potential barriers to alternative pathways, including both college-to-college transfers and university-to-college transfers. this study was commissioned in full by colleges ontario, and overall direction for the project was provided by the vice-presidents academic pathways taskforce. funding for this project was provided by the college university consortium council (now the ontario council on articulation and transfer). 1 see colleges ontario (2008). improving college systems pathways project highlight report, pp. 2. page 3 page 4 methodology this research used a sample survey methodology to collect mixed quantitative and qualitative data about the credit transfer experiences of students at ontario colleges. the research instrument combined an online survey with a telephone interview. this methodology permitted analysis of the factors that contribute to difficulties experienced by transfer students, and also gave respondents an opportunity to communicate their experience in detail. this instrument collected data on a range of related topics, exploring the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction for transfer students. instrument design & implementation administrative staff at each participating college identified transfer students who meet the selection criteria (see below). a randomly-selected subset of 100-120 eligible students was invited to participate via email. the email invitation indicated the purpose of the interview, its length and the types of information that would be collected. it also explained the inventive payment, which consisted of a $40 gift card for amazon.ca or itunes.ca. students who chose to participate were directed to the first part of a two-stage questionnaire. the first stage was administered in the form of an online survey that screened respondents for eligibility, and collected basic information about the respondents demographic profile and academic history. this simplified the sample selection process and shortened the length of the second stage (the telephone interview). upon completing the online screener, eligible respondents were asked to choose a time for a telephone interview. a member of the research team called the student at the selected time, and administered the second stage of the survey instrument, which consisted of a medium-length (30 minute) telephone questionnaire. page 5 table 1: process summary flow chart 1: email invitation potential respondents (students meeting the research criteria) were identified by administrative staff at each target college. an email invitation was distributed to 100-120 randomly selected student who meet the selection criteria. the invitation included a link to the online screener. 2: online screener basic demographic information was collected, followed by basic information about the respondent's academic history. this permitted both an automatic screening process that confirmed the respondent was eligible to participate, and reduced the length of the screener. 3: telephone interview scheduled after completing the screener, respondents selected a time to be called for a telephone interview. 4: telephone interview a detailed questionnaire was administered to the respondent by telephone. 5: analysis and reporting the results were analysed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative metodologies a summary of local findings was distributed to each college at which research was conducted. sample selection the sample targeted: a. recently transferred students (i.e., fall 2010 semester and more recently) entering a new institution; b. students who transferred from an ontario college or university program; c. students classified as a domestic student; and d. students who are not currently enrolled in a graduate certificate program. students were invited to participate if they met the above selection criteria. these criteria were designed to ensure that participants had recently experienced a transfer process; that the sample would include respondents transferring from universities and from colleges; that the sample would include students who might have been eligible to participate but had chosen not to apply and/or had not received credits; and, that the sample excluded international students, graduate students, and students transferring from outside ontario. page 6 a total of 232 complete responses were collected between february and july of 2012. between 9 and 11 respondents were interviewed from every ontario college except one: la cit college was excluded due to very low response to the email invitation (only one student responded). while students invited to participate constitute a random sample of the potentially eligible student population at ontario colleges, only those students who chose to participate were included. it is therefore possible that self-selection bias may have affected the results. furthermore, there are potential differences in the ways in which institutions collect and maintain the student data that is used to identify eligible respondents. neither of these potential sources of bias were controlled in this study. while hesas prior research in the canadian postsecondary sector has not found these biases to significantly impact findings in similar studies,2 the presence of these potential sources of bias need to be kept in mind when analysing these results. data collection summary on average the pre-screener was completed in three minutes and four seconds. the telephone interviews were completed in an average of 26 minutes. the response rate to the invitation email varied dramatically between institutions, a fact we were told to expect by registrarial staff, who warned that the quality of their email lists varied. across all ontario colleges, the average response rate was 16.7%, but varied from a high of 30.0% to a low of just 7.6% of the respondents screened, 247 out of 605 were eligible to participate, or 40.8%. 23 respondents, or 9.3%, did not answer their phone at the scheduled time. no respondents chose to withdraw from this study. 2 bias in student surveys can be examined through comparison to independent sources of data such as statistics canada administrative and survey data. on the whole, the only significant biases in students surveys are related to gender females tend to be more willing to respond to survey requests than males. however, since gender is not a factor in the results of this factor, we believe it is relatively safe to assume that the effect of self-selection bias is not of particular importance in this instance. page 7 table 2: data collection summary algonquin boreal cambrian canadore centennial conestoga confederation durham fanshawe fleming george brown georgian humber lambton loyalist mohawk niagara northern sault st. clair st. lawrence seneca sheridan total participants invited 120 150 120 120 100 120 120 120 120 120 120 100 120 120 120 600 120 126 120 120 120 150 120 total participants screened 21 69 33 20 21 36 20 30 29 16 22 13 15 18 17 46 24 17 25 31 30 20 13 total participants scheduled 11 9 11 11 10 11 11 12 11 11 11 11 10 11 11 10 11 11 11 9 11 11 10 total participants interviewed 11 9 10 11 10 10 9 11 9 11 11 10 10 11 9 9 11 10 11 10 11 9 9 definitions used in this report when a student transfers from institution a to institution b, regardless of program of study, level of study, or gap between the two institutions, institution a is referred to as the source or prior institution, and institution b is referred to as the destination or current institution. respondents can have multiple source institutions, but only one destination institution. page 8 results: demographics a series of demographic characteristics were collected from each respondent in order to better categorize their responses and to provide deeper insight into the credit transfer process. in addition to providing an opportunity to adjust for differences between the sample characteristics and those of the general population, they were also used to check for demographic-based sources of barriers. a demographics snapshot of the sample used in this study notes a slightly higher number of females than in the population of students at ontario colleges. age shows some differences between the sample and the general population, especially among respondents under 21 years old an expected result in the context of the eligibility criteria, which require respondents to have prior postsecondary experience and thereby excludes some younger potential respondents. table 3: age and gender characteristics of the sample vs. the population sample (our results) population (all ontario college students) gender male female 36% 63% 48% 52% age <21 21-25 26-30 31-35 >35 11% 53% 20% 9% 5% 39% 39% 10% 4% 7% page 9 results: sources, destinations and timing the sample was controlled to include between nine and eleven respondents from each participating ontario college. the sample was not controlled for prior institution. respondents reported prior pse experience at 44 different ontario institutions, with the most common being fanshawe college, university of guelph-humber, george brown college, and algonquin college. table 4: count of respondents by prior institution prior institution fanshawe college university of guelph humber george brown college algonquin college lakehead university university of windsor university of ottawa york university fleming college nipissing university st lawrence college brock university niagara college cambrian college laurentian university st clair college centennial college mcmaster university sheridan college trent university university of ontario university of waterloo count of respondents 11 11 10 10 9 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 prior institution university of toronto university of western ontario wilfrid laurier university carleton university conestoga college georgian college mohawk college queens university algoma university durham college sault college canadore college loyalist college uoit guelph university humber college northern college ottawa university seneca college ryerson university confederation college la cit collgiale count of respondents 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 the source institution of respondents was evenly split between colleges and universities, with 52 per cent reporting that their prior institution was a university, and 47 per cent reporting that it was a college. roughly half of all respondents reported that they were previously enrolled in a degree (which is what one would expect given that roughly half of respondents were previously at universities), while 13 per cent and 34 per cent reported enrolment in a certificate and diploma, respectively. among students whose source institution was a college, 28 per cent reported being enrolled in a certificate program, and 71 per cent reported being enrolled in a diploma program. page 10 figure 1: source and destination program type source program type source program type 13% 34% diploma degree certificate 51% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% destination program type certificate degree diploma certificate degree diploma students were also asked to estimate how much of their previous program of study had been completed. because different programs and colleges have different program milestones and may measure completion in different ways, respondents were asked to estimate the total fraction of the program of study that was completed, rather than to provide the length of time they had been enrolled. 41 per cent of students indicated that they had completed all of the requirements of a prior credential. the remaining 59 per cent of respondents indicated that they had partially completed their credential. figure 2: proportion of prior credential completed less than one-quarter 17% about one quarter 41% 14% about half about three quarters 17% 6% 4% more than three-quarters (but not all) all (all required credits were completed) a majority of respondents chose to pursue a program of study that was in a different field from their prior program of study. this was true of 73 per cent of respondents whose prior institution was a university, while 52 per cent of respondents from a college reported transferring to a different program of study. page 11 figure 3: change in program of study overall and by institution type 4% university 73% 25% 34% 62% college 52% 0% different program of study 20% 45% 40% same program of study 60% 80% 100% unknown by and large, the main trend among respondents was a movement towards business and community service programs. health and health sciences programs were also an attractive destination for transferees (though a substantial number also transferred out of this area). table 5: source vs. destination program of study (all respondents) health and health sciences technology other 9 1 74 4 2 1 14 14 15 4 3 46 2 12 2 5 24 1 2 8 1 14 0 3 6 1 1 11 36 39 52 26 12 arts 11 21 business 2 5 community services health and health sciences technology 3 7 3 other 0 total 18 2 total community services 13 business 19 arts prior program of study current program of study source program of study varied between respondents whose prior institution was a college and those whose prior institution was a university. respondents previously attending a university were significantly more likely to have transferred from an arts program than from any other type of university page 12 program, and also significantly more likely than college students to have come from arts.3 respondents previously attending a college were, on the contrary, more likely to have transferred from a community services program. there were no significant differences in destination program of study students from both colleges and universities clustered in business, health, and community services programs. table 6: source and destination program of study by source institution type source program arts business community services health and health sciences technology other (blank) college 13% 13% 27% university 49% 3% 14% 11% 10% 8% 5% 26% 5% 4% 16% college university destination program 11% 7% arts 22% 22% business 18% 19% community services health and health 28% 31% sciences 11% 12% technology 7% 5% other 4% 3% (blank) students coming from university arts programs did not tend to remain in arts programs. of the 14 students coming from a college arts program, 5 (36%) chose to continue their studies in an arts program. in contrast, of the 60 respondents coming from a university arts program, only 6 (10%) reported choosing an arts program. no major differences were reported by respondents coming from other fields of study. table 7: destination program choice by prior institution type business community services health and health sciences technology other arts (college) 5 4 3 1 1 0 14 arts (university 6 17 18 12 8 1 60 total arts prior program of study current program of study the proportion of the prior program of study that had been completed before transferring does not appear to have an effect on whether or not the current program of study was different from the previous program of study. the proportion of respondents reporting that they chose a program of study that was different from their previous program was 66% and 61%, for those who had completed and not completed their previous program, respectively. 3 please see appendix b for a summary of statistical calculations used in this report. page 13 results: the transfer process timing of transfer respondents were asked about the length of time that elapsed between leaving the prior program of study and enrolling in the current program of study. this, it was hypothesized, might have a significant effect on transfer credit experiences: students who came straight from another institution might be more likely to have a good experience because they would have had assistance available to them by both a sending and receiving institution. figure 4: length of gap between source and destination institution 12% 37% 19% four months or less more than 4 months but less than two years between two and five years more than five years 30% respondents were also asked at what point they applied for credit transfer. more than half of respondents applied during the first semester after classes had started, while roughly one-quarter applied before classes started but after registering. figure 5: point of application for credit transfer 3% 2% 13% 54% 27% after registering at current institution, but before classes started after classes started, but during first semester any time after first semester at same time as applying for current program of study before applying page 14 reasons for transfer respondents were asked why they chose to continue their postsecondary studies at their current institution. overwhelmingly, respondents mentioned career-related issues. a total of 43 students cited issues related to their long-term earning potential (included below under career opportunities). only two respondents reported that their decision was motivated by dissatisfaction with the teaching or program at their previous institution. note that these categories are not mutually exclusive. table 8: summary of reasons for transfer reason for transfer improve career opportunities field of interest changed did not like university learning style or environment location (moved or transferred to be closer to home) to prepare for further education cost (tuition and related expenses) number of respondents 111 50 18 17 6 4 several students also responded that they transferred specifically to have access to cooperative education programs at their destination institution, in the belief that this would improve their employment outcomes. several respondents also transferred because they felt the destination program was high-quality. when i first went to college i started off in international trade but i didn't like it after a while and i didn't pursue work in that career ... it turns out that i like accounting more than i thought i would back in high school. i chose my current school because i felt the hands on teaching at college would be better for me than the theoretical teaching at university. new career opportunities - after graduating from university when i saw what the employment pool was for people with my degree i didn't have enough hands on experience to get the kind of job i wanted. i was out of school for 16 years so i felt i was lacking education. i am transitioning jobs. i normally work in admin/office setting; now i am going to be working in the community helping other people. i wanted to carry on where i left off 16 years ago. only two respondents transferred due to low satisfaction or a negative experience at a prior institution. this strongly suggests that transfers need to be conceived of as being related to pull factors rather than push factors. page 15 sources of information respondents were asked if they had sought information from any sources other than staff at their prior and current institutions, and asked to indicate which of those sources they found the most useful. roughly half of respondents (98) reported looking online on the website of their current institution, and seven reported looking at the website of their previous institution. ten students reported looking for additional information from friends and colleagues. three respondents relied on a printed description of the process they received from a departmental coordinator or the registrars office. one respondent reported relying on www.ocutg.on.ca. notably, 14 respondents could not remember where they looked for information. table 9: sources of information source of information (other than staff) website of current institution could not remember friends and colleagues website of previous institution other number of respondents 114 14 12 10 3 five respondents reported that information retrieved online was better than information received in person from staff. one student commented that the availability of information about the process is tied to a perception of accountability: i just think that for these kinds of processes, when theyre advertised, online, and the policy is clear, the college is being held accountable. it means that you have some assurance that a process is being followed. a similarly-sized group of respondents reported asking for information from their previous institution but receiving none. my previous institution didn't provide me with any information i met with an advisor [at my source institution] to try to find out about credit transfer, and they didnt really tell me anything just said to go talk to my [current institution] . all respondents were also asked what information would have been most useful to them when they first started the credit transfer process. the most common response was that no additional information would have been useful at the time, and that all the needed information was available. a total of 91 respondents, or 39 per cent, did not feel that additional information was needed. page 16 the second most common response pointed to a lack of basic information about the process being available. a total of 69 respondents, or 30 per cent, felt that basic information about the credit transfer process such as who to contact, what documentation was required and relevant deadlines, would have been the most useful to them. many respondents reported finding basic information online, but a substantial group of others could not locate the information they expected to find online. [the hardest part was] figuring out where to begin. i wasn't sure who to contact, whether i needed to talk to my [source or destination] college. i didnt know how to go about finding someone to talk to, i just didn't know where to begin. a lack of basic knowledge about the process (and difficulty finding basic knowledge about the process) clearly contributed to the frustration of some students. there was no process. there was no formal office where someone reviewed your transcript. there was no clear information on what steps or info you needed." the third most common reply looked to detailed information about the credit transfer process, including how credit transfer would affect course scheduling, whether credits could affect osap eligibility, how prior courses were assessed during the credit transfer application process, and why a fee was required. a total of 60 respondents, or 26 per cent, pointed to this type of information. among these, roughly one-third of respondents (19) said that a better sense of what course credits might be eligible for transfer would have been the most useful to them. i would have liked to know what they were looking for during the transfer credit process. initially, when i decided to transfer credits, i used english course credits, but they were not acceptable because my courses were mainly literature-based english courses, while the college wanted an english course with more writing components. if they told me that upfront, it would have been easier. i am taking fewer classes but i did not know that i would have to pay for the courses again because i am receiving osap and i have to pay fulltime tuition. i would have liked to know that. it's not fair to pay twice, definitely not. several respondents noted that this uncertainty meant they paid to have credits assessed that were denied and expressed frustration that they paid fees which could have been avoided. while payment only for successful credit evaluation would create several unpleasant and unethical incentives for institutions, a better understanding of the criteria used to decide credit transfer might lead students to be more selective in choosing which credits to submit for evaluation. a more pressing concern sprung from a combination of this uncertainty and the length of the decision-making process. several students who attended courses for which they thought they might later receive credit pointed to this uncertainty page 17 as a source of concern. in particular, they were concerned with how much effort a student will put into a course they might not in fact be required to complete. the fourth most common reply was simply knowing that credit transfer was possible. a total of 35 respondents, or 15 per cent, specifically cited this when asked what information would have been most useful at the beginning of the process. throughout the interviews, respondents from many different institutions noted that the possibility of credit transfer was an area where better information was needed. many respondents told the interviewers that they did not know about credit transfer until after their courses had started, and four reflected that many people dont apply simply because they dont know it is possible. some colleges appear to be proactive on this issue. "the program coordinator told us that credit transfer was possible. on the first day of our orientation, they went through all the details of the school. one of the things they spoke about was credit transfer. they told us where to go, who to talk to, and what to bring. they made us feel very well prepared. " it would have been nice to know how to do it before i actually attended the college. i learned most of that when i arrived - but i would have appreciated feeling prepared before starting. a small group of students commented that they would have liked to have been directly notified of the result of their applications (i.e., whether or not credit had been granted). while respondents were not asked about this directly, some volunteered information about how they were informed of the results. some reported being told the results in person during an office visit, while others reported being sent an email confirming that their credit had been received (and providing guidance about what to do next to receive course exemptions and make any necessary changes to course schedules). other students, however, indicated that they were not informed of the results of their application. eight reported continually checking their student records online to see if credit had been granted. while this factor was not directly measured, the frequency with which it was volunteered by respondents indicates its importance. it took two months before the registrar finally removed the courses from my schedule, and i had to keep checking online and going back to make sure the courses were removed, so that i didn't get an incomplete in those courses. five students reported that they were informed of the result of their application by email, and that the email contained a link to a rationale for why they were granted or not granted credit. no students indicated that they needed information about what schools might have programs that accept credit transfer. again, this is consistent with the idea that transfer is a pull issue rather than a page 18 push issue; students find their desired new program and go there they arent by and large engaged in a random search for new programs because they dislike their old ones. source of assistance at destination institution respondents reported receiving assistance from a variety of different staff members at their current institution. a large majority of students reported receiving assistance from faculty, a category that included departmental coordinators, professors, and deans. another 41 per cent of students received assistance from staff, such as counsellors, student services staff, academic advisors, admissions officers, and staff in the registrars office. eight students were unsure who provided them with assistance. figure 6: summary of source of assistance 8% 41% 51% faculty staff unsure there is an important lesson here. students clearly think of faculty as front-line staff people whom they can approach for assistance with administrative problems. consistency of information provided students were asked whether the information they received from staff was consistent, both within their current institution, and between their previous and current institutions. the majority (85 per cent) of respondents reported that the information they received was consistent within their current institution. the 25 per cent who did not feel the information they received was consistent provided a variety of reasons. at several institutions, students felt that staff did not have a clear understanding of the credit transfer process. multiple copies of transcripts were not needed although i was told this initially. (the respondent was initially informed that copies of transcripts had to be submitted at two different offices, but later learned that this was not the case.) page 19 i met two different people because the exemptions would have been in two different programs - both told me i would not receive exemption based on the usual process - for the psychology course i was told that the new dean was more strict about how old the courses could be to qualify me for exemption. i feel like nobody knew what was going on. i had to figure it out myself. i kept getting told that i needed to talk to different people. i would go to one person and they would tell me i had to talk to a different person, i'd go to them, and they would tell me i had to talk to a different person. that was because of lack of knowledge on the part of my teachers and the registrar's office. i went to my program coordinator first and [he/she] told me to speak to each teacher individually. but they told me i needed to speak to the program coordinator. [he/she] sent me back to my teachers, who had then been informed that i needed to speak to the department coordinators for my elective courses. so then i found the coordinators of each department and they were very helpful and made the process easy for me - but it was finding the right people i needed to be speaking to that was difficult. all students but one reported that the information they received was consistent between their current and prior institutions. twelve respondents used this question as an opportunity to comment on the fact that their current institution was more helpful than their prior institution. the application process the application process typically consisted of completing an application form, having it signed or approved by an appropriate departmental representative and submission of both the form and supporting documentation to the registrar or transfer coordinator. respondents were also asked how long it took to prepare the application for credit transfer, (including all supporting documentation), and how long it took for them to learn the result. the amount of time taken for both processes varied substantially, with some respondents reporting very long time periods (longer than a month), and a majority reporting that both processes took less than one week. page 20 figure 7: time to prepare application 9% one day or less 34% 16% longer than one day and less than one week more than one week but less than three more than three weeks 42% respondents waited an average of two weeks to learn the result of their application. roughly one-fifth learned within one day of applying, sometimes because they were given the results on the spot. a small group of 14 respondents waited over a month to learn the result of their application. figure 8: time to learn result of application 8% 21% one day or less longer than one day and less than one week 35% more than one week but less than one month 36% more than one month once students were informed of the result, they may also have contacted a staff person to make changes to their course schedule to accommodate the exemptions resulting from the credit granted (if any). credits awarded respondents were included in this research whether or not they applied for transfer credits, and whether or not they received credit(s). while the majority of the sample both applied for and received credits, this is not true for an important fraction of the sample. page 21 table 10: sample characteristics: application for and receipt of transfer credits did you receive transfer credits? no did you apply for transfer credits? yes no 13% 7% yes 4% 75% the amount of credit received was estimated in two ways: the number of credits received, and the amount by which the respondents programs of study were shortened. for the most part, there numbers were very small, with roughly 60% of students receiving fewer than 5 credits. when looking at the amount by which respondents program of study was shortened, a more detailed picture emerges. a large proportion of respondents (38 per cent) received transfer credit for more than four courses but only four per cent reported that their program of study was shortened by a semester or more. for 32 respondents who received credit for more than four courses, credit transfer did not have an effect on the length of the current program of study. table 11: summary of credits recieved and shortening of current program of study number of credits received length by which current program of study was shortened less than one semester or not at all one semester or more, but less than two two semesters or more, but less than three three semesters or more, but less than four four semesters or more % 80% 8% 9% 2% 1% count 144 14 17 4 1 0-4 78% 14% 6% 0% 0% 5-8 23% 64% 12% 0% 0% 9-12 4% 7% 41% 0% 0% >13 5% 14% 41% 100% 100% the above table illustrates something important about credit transfers in college: for the most part, students transferring in are not in fact shortening their programs of study by very much only 13% of students who received transfer credit shortened their programs by as much as a year. there are two reasons for this. first, recall from figure 3 (page 12) that most students are transferring not just form one program to another, but are actually switching fields of study altogether. therefore, it is unlikely that many students possess much in the way of pre-requisites, simply because their prior field of study can be quite distant from their new one. second, it is important to remember that most college programs unlike their university counterparts tend to be somewhat more lockstep (i.e. a greater proportion of courses are prescribed, a lower proportion are elective) in nature. there are simply fewer general credits available to be awarded based on previous experience. page 22 credit granting decisions and explanations overall, 69 per cent of respondents reported that they had received all of the credit that they expected to receive. out of the total sample of students, 53% also received an explanation for why they were granted or not granted credit. some of those respondents who were given explanations received all the credit they expected, while others did not. respondents were more likely to receive an explanation if they did not receive all of the credit for which they applied. table 12: summary of receipt of expected credits and explanation for decision were you granted the credits that you expected to receive yes no no 80 (41%) 12 (6%) yes 54 (28%) 48 (25%) did you receive an explanation for why you were granted or not granted credits? the large majority (77 per cent) of the respondents who received an explanation were satisfied with that explanation. dissatisfaction with the explanation was reported almost exclusively by those respondents who had not received all the credit they expected. therefore, there is necessarily some doubt about the degree to which dissatisfaction with explanations are in fact expressions of dissatisfaction with results. still, the fact that a majority of those rejected remained satisfied with the explanations given suggests that schools are effectively explaining rejections in the large majority of instances. page 23 figure 9: satisfaction with explanation of decision all respondents respondents who received the credit they expected respondents who did not receive all the credit they expected 2% 23% 46% 54% 77% 98% satisfied with the explanation dissatisfied with the explanation reasons for dissatisfaction varied. some of the most common explanations were that the explanation did not contain clear or sufficient information on why the decision was made, the respondent disagreed with the decision, or in a few isolated cases, the respondent described receiving a brief and dismissive explanation directly from staff. it was brief and they told me i wasn't eligible for a transfer credit because they weren't similar enough. when i looked at it there were a few differences but that happens between schools. i don't how long they took to review the application and course outlines but i didn't think it was fair. they didn't provide enough detail as to why i wasn't eligible. i really don't think they assessed it fairly. once i saw how they did it, it was too late to get it fixed. i was not satisfied with what i was told by the registrar's office. i feel like they just gave me a cursory answer and then blew me off. but i got a great explanation from the teachers - they actually explained why i was getting exempted. page 24 level of understanding when asked to rate their current level of understanding the transfer process, most respondents described their level of understanding as a 1 or 2 on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is very clear understanding and 5 is no understanding at all. students were also asked to estimate what their level of understanding was when they started the credit transfer process. 33 per cent of respondents indicated that they had no understanding at all when they started the process. neither current level of understanding nor past level of understanding were correlated to overall satisfaction with program, perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process, or the level of helpfulness of assistance received. figure 10: level of understanding of the credit transfer process now and at the start of the credit transfer application process current understanding 4% understanding at the start of the credit transfer process 7% 17% 17% 41% 33% 15% 31% 1 (very clear understanding) 2 3 4 5 (no understanding at all) 16% 19% 1 (very clear understanding) 2 3 4 5 (no understanding at all) page 25 overall satisfaction this research examined variables that affect respondents perceptions of institutional performance, and how these perceptions ultimately affect satisfaction with the program itself a variable designed to imitate student satisfaction key performance indicator (kpi) data that is collected annually across all ontario colleges. every student was asked, how satisfied are you with your program overall? this variable was complemented by two related dependent variables: the overall difficulty of the credit transfer process and the perceived helpfulness of the assistance received from staff. together these variables present an opportunity for in-depth analysis that is explored in the following pages. on average, overall satisfaction was high, with approximately 83 per-cent reporting that they were satisfied (1 or 2 on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is very satisfied and 5 is very dissatisfied). it is worth noting that a large proportion of the students who described encountering problems during the credit transfer process nevertheless reported high levels of satisfaction overall. figure 11: overall satisfaction with program of study 2% 4% 11% 1 (very satisfied) 2 51% 32% 3 4 5 (very dissatisfied) satisfaction was significantly correlated to both the difficulty of the credit transfer process and to the perceived helpfulness of staff. respondents who found the process easy (easy or very easy) were less likely to express dissatisfaction with their program of study overall (very dissatisfied or dissatisfied). similarly, those who were satisfied (very satisfied or satisfied) were much more likely to have rated the assistance they received as being more helpful. page 26 figure 12: helpfulness vs. overall satisfaction with program of study 1 (very helpful) 2 1 (very satisfied) 2 3 3 4 4 5 (very dissatisfied) 5 (not helpful at all) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% figure 13: difficulty vs. overall satisfaction with program of study 1 (very easy) 2 1 (very satisfied) 2 3 3 4 4 5 (very dissatisfied) 5 (very difficult) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% difficulty and helpfulness close relationships to overall satisfaction underline these variables importance to student experiences, and to the administrative functions of the institution. because of this relationship, and because these two variables are actionable (i.e., because they can be directly affected by institutional policy), they are explored in greater detail in the following pages. page 27 perceived difficulty of credit transfer participants were asked the question how difficult did you find the process overall? the open phrasing of this question meant that any type of difficulty would contribute to respondents sentiments. it was not asked of students who did not receive credit, or who were granted credit automatically (without taking any action). after answering this question, students were asked to identify what they felt was the most difficult part of the process overall. while respondents were very positive overall, responses to both the qualitative and quantitative components of these questions varied between different sub-groups of respondents. overall, a majority of respondents (60%) felt that the credit transfer process was easy (1 or 2 on a 5-point scale where 1 is very easy and 5 is very difficult). figure 14: overall perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process 7% 12% 33% 1 (very easy) 2 3 4 21% 5 (very difficult) 27% demographic factors age was weakly correlated to perceived difficulty. respondents aged 21 to 15 were being more likely to describe the process as easy (1 or 2 on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is very easy and 5 is very difficult) than were respondents aged 26 to 30. note that while other age groups appear to show different levels of perceived difficulty, these results are not significant due to lower sample sizes in these age groups. page 28 figure 15: age vs. perceived difficulty of credit transfer >35 1 (very easy) 31-35 2 26-30 3 4 21-25 5 (very difficult) 18-20 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% prior program of study completion of those respondents who had not completed a prior program of study, 13% reported that the process of credit transfer was difficult (difficult or very difficult). of those who had completed a prior program of study, 27% reported that the process was difficult. interestingly, the number of credits transferred did not have a significant effect on perceived difficulty. figure 16: completion of prior program of study vs. perceived difficulty complete 1 (very easy) 2 3 4 incomplete 5 (very difficult) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% the application process the application process was investigated through a series of questions asking students to describe their participation in the process, the actions required, supporting documentation needed, and the amount of time required. respondents were also asked how difficult they found the process to be, and invited to describe the most difficult part. while the process overall was similar between the majority of applicants, a small minority had highly divergent experiences. page 29 a weak, but statistically significant correlation was found between difficulty of the process and the time of application. students who applied any time after first semester were significantly less likely to rate the process as easy (1 or 2 on a scale from very easy at all to very difficult) than were respondents who applied for credit at the same time as their application for admission or before applying. figure 17: time of application vs. perceived difficulty any time after first semester 1 (very easy) after classes started, but during first semester 2 3 after registering at current institution, but before classes started 4 5 (very difficult) at same time as applying for current program of study or before applying 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% most of the respondents received all of the credit that they expected. a correlation was observed between this variable and level of difficulty, with students who received the credits they expected significantly more likely to rate the process as very easy. these respondents were also significantly less likely to rate the process as very difficult. while its not surprising that students who received the transfer credits they expected were more likely to reflect positively upon the process, its important to note that these students were also more likely to express overall satisfaction with their program of study. figure 18: receipt of expected credits vs. percieved difficulty 1 (very easy) did not receive all expected credit 2 3 4 received all expected credit 5 (very difficult) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% page 30 explanation for credits received those who were satisfied with the explanation were much more likely to have found the credit transfer process to be easier. figure 19: satisfaction with explanation for decision vs. perceived difficulty satisfied with the explanation 1 (very easy) 2 3 4 dissatisfied with the explanation 5 (very difficult) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% time to complete application and learn result students were asked to estimate the amount of time it took them to prepare the application and all supporting materials, and how long it took for them to learn the result of their application. both these measures were correlated to students perceptions of the difficulty of the credit transfer process and to overall satisfaction with program of study. student who took less than one week to prepare their application and supporting documentation were more likely to reflect positively on all aspects of the experience. this was especially true for level of difficulty, where respondents were also much more likely to rate the process as difficult (4 or 5 on a scale from 1 to 5). figure 20: time required to prepare application and supporting materials vs. difficulty more than three weeks 1 (very easy) more than one week but less than three 2 3 longer than one day and less than one week 4 5 (very difficult) one day or less 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% page 31 similarly, students who took more than one month to learn the result of there application were less likely to find the process easy (1 or 2 on the same scale) and more likely to find the process difficult (4 or 5) than were other respondents. students who waited one week or more were less likely to find the process easy (1 or 2) than were respondents who waited for less than a week. figure 21: time until respondent learned the result of their application vs. difficulty more than one month 1 (very easy) more than one week but less than three 2 longer than one day and less than one week 3 4 5 (very difficult) one day or less 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% the strong connection that these figures describe was reflected by student qualitative commentary throughout the interviews. students frequently reported that the most difficult part of the process was waiting to know what the result of their application would be, sometimes attending classes for which they would be exempted if their application was successful. similarly, students often pointed to the amount of time and effort required to retrieve course outlines as the most difficult part. in three isolated cases, the long amount of time required by the process made credit transfer impossible because the semester in which the credit would have been applied was completed. other factors there was no relationship between perceived difficulty of transfer process and gender, the type of prior program (diploma, degree, or certificate), the proportion of prior program of study completed, or the subject of prior program of study (after controlling for the effect of the current institution). a closer look at perceived difficulty a more nuanced picture emerged when respondents were asked what the most difficult part of the process was. more than anything else, respondents pointed to difficulties collecting course outlines. page 32 all of my course outlines were 5 hours away in storage because i moved, so it was tough to find them... it would not have been as difficult if i had known before moving and starting at school that i would need to get all this information. there were five other areas in which respondents identified difficulties: i. ii. iii. finding basic information about the process (such as whom to contact, and what documentation was required). finding advanced information about the process, including what courses might be eligible for credit, how applications are assessed, and how credits might affect course schedules. attending a course for which credit might later be granted. this difficulty was noted by students at almost every college, who reported attending and sometimes even completing assignments in a course that they would be exempt from if their application was successful. the most difficult part was the stress of not knowing what was going on - it was recommended to me that i sit in for the [class] until i could schedule that appointment and get signoff for that exemption, so that i wouldnt fall behind. iv. v. paying the fee. paying the fee was the most difficult part of the process for some respondents. while in some cases the concern was purely financial, in others it stemmed from a lack of understanding of why a fee was required, or a sense of unfairness relating to paying to have courses assessed even if credit was not granted, and paying the same tuition even if credit was granted. poor service experiences. a small number of respondents reported negative experiences with staff members. they reported that staff were unable to answer basic questions about the process, provided incorrect answers, or sent the student on to a different, inappropriate staff person. several students reported a negative personal interaction with a staff member, and several reported that the lines to see the appropriate staff person were too long. the perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process, and the sources of those difficulties, suggest overall that no serious barriers to credit transfer exist at ontario colleges. each of the areas listed above is a potential area for improvement that may help to prevent difficult experiences from occurring and improve student experiences related to credit transfer. as is explored in the following section, perceived difficulty was often closely tied to the help that was received from faculty and staff. page 33 perceived helpfulness of assistance received how helpful was the assistance you received? this question asked students to rate the assistance that they received from college staff during the transfer process, regardless of the nature of that assistance. this question provided a high-level and quantitatively comparable assessment of interactions with college staff during the credit transfer process. this question was followed by an opportunity for respondents to express what made the assistance helpful or unhelpful. it was only asked of respondents who indicated that they had a direct interaction with staff. the majority of respondents (74 per cent) received assistance with the credit transfer process from staff. when asked how helpful the assistance received was (on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is very helpful and 5 is not helpful at all), 49 per cent of respondents replied that they found the assistance to be very helpful. figure 22: summary of helpfulness of assistance received 2% 9% 1 (very helpful) 15% 2 49% 3 4 5 (not helpful at all) 25% page 34 age a weak correlation existed between age and the helpfulness of the assistance received from staff, with younger respondents (aged 18-20) being less likely to find the assistance they received helpful (1 or 2 on a scale from 1 to 5), than students aged 26-30. because most respondents were in these two age groups, the differences observed between other groups reflected a small number of responses and were not significant. figure 23: age vs. helpfulness of assistance received >35 1 (very helpful) 31-35 2 26-30 3 4 21-25 5 (not helpful at all) 18-20 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% gap length a weak relationship was observed between gap length and perceived helpfulness of the assistance received. students reporting a gap length of more than 5 years were more likely to rate the assistance they received as helpful (1 or 2 on a scale from 1 to 5), than were other respondents. the application process there was no relationship between the time of application and whether the assistance received was helpful. a correlation was observed between whether or not the expected credits were granted and the perceived helpfulness of assistance provided. students who received the credits they expected were significantly more likely to rate the assistance received as very helpful. these respondents were also significantly less likely to rate the assistance received as not helpful at all. while its not surprising that students who received the transfer credits they expected were more likely to reflect positively upon the process, its important to note that this also translated into higher overall satisfaction with their program of study. page 35 figure 24: receipt of credit vs. helpfulness 1 (very helpful) did not receive all expected credits 2 3 received all expected credits 4 5 (not helpful at all) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% explanation for credits received those who were satisfied with the explanation were much more likely to have found the assistance that they received to be helpful (1 or 2 on a scale from 1 to 5). satisfaction with the explanation was also correlated with overall satisfaction with the program of study and with the perceived difficulty of the credit transfer process. figure 25: explanation of decision vs. helpfulness satisfied with the explanation 1 (very helpful) 2 3 4 dissatisfied with the explanation 5 (not helpful at all) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% respondents were also asked how long it took to prepare the application for credit transfer, including all supporting documentation, and how long it took for them to learn the result. these measures were correlated to students perceptions of how helpful the assistance they received was. across all of these measures, student who took less than one week to prepare their application and supporting documentation were more likely to reflect positively on all aspects of the experience: they were less likely to find assistance unhelpful (4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5), and less likely to find the process difficult (4 or 5 on a scale from 1 to 5). page 36 figure 26: time required to prepare application and supporting materials vs. helpfulness more than three weeks 1 (very helpful) more than one week but less than three 2 3 longer than one day and less than one week 4 5 (not helpful at all) one day or less 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% similarly, the time it took to learn the result of their application for credit transfer was also connected to perception of helpfulness. the large majority of students (twelve out of fourteen) who found the assistance unhelpful (4 or 5 on a scale from 1 to 5) waited for more than one week to learn the results of their application. figure 27: time until respondent learned the result of their application vs. helpfulness more than one month 1 (very helpful) more than one week but less than three 2 3 longer than one day and less than one week 4 5 (not helpful at all) one day or less 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% other factors no correlation was observed between the helpfulness of assistance received and gender, the type of prior program of study (diploma, degree, or certificate), the proportion of prior program of study completed, or the subject of prior program of study (after controlling for the effect of the current institution). page 37 a closer look at assistance respondents were also asked about the type of assistance they received. the two most common responses were that students received help understanding the basics of the credit transfer process and retrieving supporting documentation. the program coordinator went the extra mile. i only had an unofficial copy of my transcript with me so he/ she told me to take 20 minutes while he/she went and got a copy of my transcript from their records. that saved me time and another visit. a small proportion of students (16 per cent) received assistance from their prior institution. in almost all cases, the assistance consisted of helping the respondent to retrieve course outlines and transcripts required for the credit application process. in two cases, the assistance consisted of explaining the basics of credit transfer, and pointing the respondents towards appropriate contacts at their current institution. as above, while large differences existed between institutions on this metric, the number of responses per institution is too low to make comparisons between institutions. this question was only asked of respondents who indicated they had received assistance from their current institution, as a consequence the number of responses per institution is as low as 5 in some cases. the most common source of a positive impression was from instances where staff dealt with the issues brought to them promptly and effectively. in these cases, the staff person had the knowledge and resources to help the student, or knew the appropriate staff person to deal with their appropriate concern. respondents also pointed to friendly, personalized service as a positive factor. the staff at [current institution] showed they cared about me as an individual. i felt like a number at [my source institution], it's like a mill there, just pumping out students. respondents also commonly noted the speed with which they were helped as a source of satisfaction. this closely matches quantitative findings related to the time taken by the credit transfer process (above). negative impressions of the assistance received focused on two areas. first, inability to provide the assistance needed, such as the inability to provide the correct answer to a question posed. second, students reacted negatively to being sent to the incorrect office to have their question answered or issue dealt with. many of these students felt they were being bounced around between offices or passed on to another staff member. in a small number of isolated cases respondents also perceived that they had been treated poorly by staff. page 38 no one kept me updated on the situation. i had to keep going back to ask questions, it wasn't easy because people seemed not to be really aware of the process. i had to go ask different people just to get an answer, and even then a couple of them told me completely different things. academic advising and admissions people weren't clear on the process and didn't even know where to get the form, which was very irritating. i went to my program coordinator with all my questions - and [he/she] found the forms for me and told me what documents i would need to get. they didn't give me any help in understanding the rest of the process of how to get the credits transferred from my other school or what was needed. i had to go to the website and figure it out myself -- i got the impression that not many people come from university, and the staff aren't sure how to go about it. they were abrupt, a little rude, and very standoffish and it was very intimidating. the way they talked to me was not how you would expect to be talked to as someone paying you to come to the school. page 39 supplemental factors of note students who chose not to apply for credit a small group of 40 students may have been eligible for credit transfer but chose not to apply. while 16 of these respondents offered no reason for not applying for credit transfer, the rest gave explanations that fell into four different categories. ten respondents did not apply because they did not think that their application for credit would be successful. eight could have applied, but chose not to because they wanted to improve their knowledge of the course material. nine were unaware that credit transfer was possible, and two did not apply because they felt that the application process required too much effort. table 13: summary of reason for not applying reason for not applying for credit transfer did not think credit would be granted unaware that credit transfer was possible wanted to re-take the course material it was too much work to apply number of respondents 10 9 8 2 three other students also indicated in later questions that they felt the process was too much hassle, in both cases after being discouraged by an initial impression. my teacher wasn't sure what the process was and suggested i go to either to the registrar's office or to student services. she really had no idea. i decided based on that that it might be too much hassle. one student did not apply for all eligible credits so that they could maintain full-time status for student funding. i didn't apply because of my funding. i could have received credit for courses i'm having to take but i couldn't get more credit transfer because then i wouldn't be fulltime, and that would cut off my second career funding. no one really explained other options to me, if there are any. page 40 level of understanding while less powerfully connected to satisfaction than either helpfulness of assistance recieved or overall difficulty, level of understanding was also found to have connections to other parts of the data. first, respondents who had applied for credit transfer were more likely to report high levels of understanding. similarly, the amount of credit received and the amount by which the program length of respondents was shortened was also correlated to level of understanding. respondents who received more than 4 credits, or whose programs of study were shortened by a full semester or more, reported higher levels of understanding. figure 28: level of understanding and shortening of program of study shotened by less than one semester or not at all 1 (very clear understanding) 2 3 4 shortened by a semester or more 5 (no understanding at all) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% interestingly, no other factors had significant relationships with level of understanding. some of the more notable variables tested, and found to have no relationship, include: from whom assistance was received whether or not any assistance was received from the current or previous institution whether or not the respondent looked for information elsewhere where the respondent looked for additional information length of the gap between prior and current program of study type of institution and level of study at both prior and current institution age and gender whether or not the prior program of study was completed page 41 other suggestions from respondents throughout the interviews, respondents were given several opportunities to voice areas of concern. the last of these asked students if there was anything that they would improve about the credit transfer process overall. responses to this question typically reflected the difficulties faced by individual respondents. the most common responses to this question have already been covered in depth earlier in this report. some of the more unique suggestions for improvement are listed below. a small number of students pointed to standardizing courses across the ontario college sector. some respondents felt it was counterintuitive to discover that foundational courses were different between institutions, and felt that it would make sense to standardize course outlines across institutions. ontario as a whole needs to make their course outlines clear across the board - so if you do a program in one school it should be the same in another school because you're in the same province. so if i transfer program credits from one school to another i should be able to get transfer credit. that's why i had to do an extra year and why i had to go to two separate previous schools because some of my credits. similarly, a small group of four respondents noted that inconstancy of processes and practices across colleges caused them some confusion, as they initially made assumptions about the process at their current institution that later turned out to be false. contrary to prior findings from the icsp, this difficulty was only mentioned by a very small proportion of students and caused no more than minor and easily resolved confusion for all four respondents. building a publicly available database of transferrable courses was suggested by three respondents. they envisioned a system by which institutions could share information about which courses had been approved for credit transfer, make this information available to students, and provide a venue to exchange related information such as course outlines. i had to call the college, get directed to the right office, get it in the right format (pdf) by email and so on. i wish it was something you get when you graduate in digital format (proof of enrolment, course outlines, etc. would have been handy that's for sure). or i wish there was a shared database for all the schools that would tell you what courses qualify - like the schools could all link up and make it easier to access page 42 conclusion overwhelmingly, students in the ontario college system who participated in this study reflected positively on their institution, the staff they interacted with, and their experiences with the credit transfer process. the analysis above investigates a broad series of potential barriers to credit transfer, and catalogues factors that have contributed to both negative and positive experiences for students. these experiences were very positive overall, with few students expressing dissatisfaction, even among those who experienced difficulties along the way. several areas were identified in which practices at top-rated institution differed from those at other institutions. each of the seven recommendations below discusses a practice or policy which appears to have facilitated the credit transfer process where it was encountered. each represents a potential guideline for future practice in the ontario college sector. i. colleges with the most positive responses ensured that staff and students had easy access to basic information about the credit transfer process. basic information includes the fact that credit transfer is possible, how to progress through the credit transfer process (explicitly), required documentation, contact information (which offices or individuals should be contacted for each step of the process) and important dates and deadlines related to the process. this information is crucial for students interested in initiating the credit transfer process, and for any staff who might assist them. information needs to be accessible to staff as well as to students, and should be prepared with both audiences in mind. early knowledge of credit transfer allows students to start the process earlier, making it less likely that they will face time constraints or have to attend courses for which they expect to later receive credit a common complaint among respondents. one student suggested making credit transfer a prominent part of the common application form on www.ontariocolleges.ca, and another suggested sending a letter or email about credit transfer to all new students with prior pse experience. students at three colleges reported being told about credit transfer during a presentation or student orientation. overall, respondents indicated that they looked to the website of their current college more often than any other resource. ii. colleges with the most positive responses also provided detailed information about the process. after students initiated the credit transfer process, it was common for them to have more detailed questions about which of their credits might be eligible, and how credit transfer might affect them. detailed information should include details about the assessment process so that students can make a reasonably accurate guess as to whether their application will be successful (possibly including a list of courses that have been accepted for transfer credits in the past) and a clear description of how credits might affect scheduling and osap eligibility. making this information publicly available can help staff and students avoid serious problems (like dropping to part-time page 43 status and inadvertently initiating osap loan repayment), and provides a resource to answer common questions. most students looked for this information on the website of their current institution. iii. colleges with the most positive responses demonstrated a culture of effective service. respondents most positive experiences originated from interactions with staff who were both effective and personable. similarly, their worst experiences stemmed from instances where they perceived they had been treated poorly. in many cases, students described ending up in the office of a sympathetic dean, faculty member, or other staff person who helped them initiate the process or deal with an issue. a system in which many different staff and faculty understand the basics of the credit transfer process is more robust, and reduces the chances that students will be frustrated by a staff member who is unable to assist or provides inaccurate information. "i sought help from the registrars office, buts they incorrectly told me that my previous courses would not qualify for transfer. after that, i went to one of my profs who was extremely helpful. [he/she] explained the forms, explained the process, helped me complete the forms, signed the forms for me, examined my transcript to make sure my grades were acceptable, and looked through the course outlines in detail." iv. colleges with the most positive responses had streamlined credit transfer application processes. wherever possible, avoiding the re-submission of documents, reducing the number of forms and approvals required, and designing for single-point of contact interactions can help to reduce the complexity of the application process for students. v. colleges with the most positive responses provided support to students experiencing difficulty obtaining course outlines or course descriptions. collecting course outlines was commonly reported to be difficult and time consuming, especially for students with a longer gap between prior and current pse. respondents reported a number of ways in which institutions helped them with these difficulties, including helping them to contact their prior institution to request the documents, not requiring outlines to be submitted for courses that have been assessed for other students, and accepting unofficial outlines or otherwise being flexible about the documentation requirements. vi. colleges with the most positive responses assessed applications in one week or less. students who waited one week or less were more likely to express lower perceived difficulty, and higher overall satisfaction. setting a one week-turnaround as a service benchmark would thus be an effective step to improving the credit transfer experience. similarly, top-rated institutions promptly notified students of the results of the credit transfer application (by email or page 44 otherwise). this practice reduced delays between the assessment of the credit transfer application and the applicant learning the result. vii. colleges with the most positive responses provided justifications for both assessment results and policy positions. students who understood the reasons why their credit application was denied rarely expressed frustration. very few students both understood the rationale for the decision and disagreed with it. making the rationale clear can help to encourage positive student experiences. this also applies to fees paid for credit transfer assessments, impacts on course schedules (or lack thereof), and consistency of tuition fees despite credits granted. page 45 appendix a: data collection instrument and phone script page 46 online screener & demographics module a a1 please enter your current email address. (please use your college email address.) your email address will be removed prior to any analysis. it will be not possible to associate your identifiable information with the rest of the survey data. [text entry, validated] a2 age [drop-down] [1] under 18 [2] 18-20 [3] 21-25 [4] 26-30 [5] 31-35 [6] 36-40 [7] 41-45 [8] 46-50 [9] 51-55 [10] 56-60 [11] 61 and older a3 gender [1] m [2] f a4 [if none of the above, terminate] in which institution are you currently enrolled? [drop down list of all target schools, plus none of the above] page 47 a5 [if no, terminate] did you begin studies at your current university or college, anytime between summer 2010 and now? [yes/no] a6 [if no , terminate] were you previously enrolled at a different postsecondary institution? (i.e., a different university, college, or private career college) [yes/no] a7 please select the month and year when you started at your current institution: [month] [year] a8 what was the length of time between when you left your previous institution and when you began at your current one? [1] four months or less [2] more than 4 months but less than two years [3] between two and five years [4] more than five years a9 what is the name of the institution that you attended prior to your current school? [text entry] a10 [if 3, terminate] is that a university, college, or private career college? [1] university [2] college [3] private career college a11 [if outside, terminate] where is that institution located? [1] in ontario page 48 [2] outside ontario a12 [if 4, terminate] is your current program a certificate, diploma, degree, or graduate certificate program? [1] certificate [2] diploma [3] degree [4] graduate certificate a13 [if 4, terminate] was your previous program a certificate, diploma, degree, or graduate certificate? [1] certificate [2] diploma [3] degree [4] graduate certificate a14 what percentage of program credits, approximately, had you completed before transferring? [1] less than one-quarter [2] about one quarter [3] about half [4] about three quarters [5] more than three-quarters (but not all) [6] all (all required credits were completed) [end pre-screener survey] [begin scheduling application] you are eligible to participate in this survey! you will now be directed to a page where you can choose a time for your telephone interview. the information you provide below will be removed prior to any analysis. it will be not possible to identify your survey responses. s1 select date and time for interview s2 name page 49 s3 phone number s4 email (please use your college email address. ensure that this is the same as the email you entered earlier) secondary email (optional) page 50 call script / questionnaire [before interview, confirm that the email address matches the data file. if no match exists, the first question must be to clarify email address. if no match can be found, module a must be repeated by phone.] hello. may i please speak with _____? my name is ____. im calling from higher education strategy associates on behalf of colleges ontario. according to my records you scheduled an interview with us today at ____. this call will take approximately 30 minutes. are you available now? [if no, reschedule the call and enter the new appointment into the scheduling application] i will be asking you a series of questions about the experience you had when you started at your current institution. once weve finished, you will be emailed a $40 gift certificate for your choice of amazon.ca or itunes.ca. do you have any questions before we begin? i would like to start by asking you a few questions about your current institution, and about the institution you transferred from. identification module i1 based on these two questions, did you receive credit for courses taken at your respondents are classified as: previous institution? a: applying receivers b: applying non-receivers c: non-applying receivers d: non-applying non-receivers all questions from this point forward indicate which groups will be asked. note that different versions of similar questions exist in some instances. i2 did you apply separately to have credits transferred? prompt: did you do anything to try to have your credits transferred? page 51 module b: reason for transfer b1 thinking back to your decision to attend your current institution, what is the main reason you chose to continue post-secondary studies? [open response] [do not read list, but select from list below if appropriate or type in their reason. select multiple if necessary] had to change institutions because i moved dissatisfied with program dissatisfied with instruction changed mind about career direction/field of study to improve my employment opportunities module c: the transfer process c1 ab at what point did you apply for credit transfer? prompt: was it at the same time as your application for your current program of study, after you registered at your current institution, but before classes started, or, after classes started? [select from list below if appropriate or type in their reason.] [1] at same time as applying for current program of study [2] after registering at current institution, but before classes started [3] after classes started, but during first semester [4] any time after first semester [if other, please specify] c2 ab what did the application for credit transfer consist of? page 52 prompt: transcripts, course descriptions, full course outlines, or a test of your knowledge? c3 abcd what is your current program of study? [do not read list, select or enter response as required] [1] arts [2] business [3] community services [4] health and health sciences [5] technology [98] other (specify) [note to interviewers: classify the response using the rubric below] arts includes media, journalism, fine and performing arts, fashion, advertising, graphic design, film and television production, broadcasting, horticulture, and general arts and science programs. business includes business, entrepreneurial studies, management, finance and taxation, accounting, chef training and culinary management, office administration, computer programming, human resources, hospitality and tourism, hotel management, court/tribunal agent, legal assistant, and aviation programs community services includes police and law, correctional services, library and education, child/youth services, social workers, developmental services, and public relations. health includes paramedics, dentistry, nursing, kinesiology and sports medicine, fitness and health promotion, pharmacy, animal care and veterinary studies, and health technology. page 53 technology includes architecture, automotive, engineering, machining, welding, and other trades. c4 abcd [if no, unhide c5] was your field of study at your previous institution the same as it is now? [yes/no] c5 abcd [hide by default] what was your previous program of study? [do not read list, select or enter response as required] [1] arts [2] business [3] community services [4] health and health sciences [5] technology [98] other (specify) [note to interviewers: classify the response using the rubric below] arts includes media, journalism, fine and performing arts, fashion, advertising, graphic design, film and television production, broadcasting, horticulture, and general arts and science programs. business includes business, entrepreneurial studies, management, finance and taxation, accounting, chef training and culinary management, office administration, computer programming, human resources, hospitality and tourism, hotel management, court/tribunal agent, legal assistant, and aviation programs community services includes police and law, correctional services, library and education, child/youth services, social workers, developmental services, and public relations. health includes paramedics, dentistry, nursing, kinesiology and sports medicine, fitness and health promotion, pharmacy, animal care and veterinary studies, and health technology. technology includes architecture, automotive, engineering, machining, welding, and other trades. page 54 c6 cd why didnt you try to have credits from your previous field of study transferred? [open response] [do not read list, but select from list below if appropriate or type in their reason. select multiple if necessary] [1] didnt know it was possible to transfer credits [2] felt that the process was too much work [3] assumed would not receive any credits c7 ac how many courses did you receive credit for when you transferred? c8 ac by how much was the length of your current program reduced due to the credits transferred? [do not read the below , select as appropriate based on the response] [1] less than one semester [2] one semester or more, but less than two [3] two semesters or more, but less than three [4] three semesters or more, but less than four [5] four semesters or more c9 c did you receive any explanation why you received these credits? prompt: what was the reason? c10 abcd did you expect to receive any course credits that you were not granted? [note to interviewers: if necessary, clarify that credits refers to credits granted for courses taken at the previous institution.] c11 ab [if no, skip c12] did you receive any explanation for why you were granted or not granted credit? page 55 [yes/no] c12 ab were you satisfied with that explanation? page 56 [read for groups a and b only:] i would now like to ask you about the steps you went through to have credits transferred. module d: barriers and assistance d1 ab thinking only about the process of credit transfer at your current institution, on a scale from 1 to 5, did you find this process easy or difficult, where 1 is very easy and 5 is very difficult? [1] very easy [2] easy [3] neither easy nor difficult [4] difficult [5] very difficult d2 ab what was the most difficult part of transferring credit? please explain why. prompt: is there anything in particular that discouraged you, or made it more difficult for you to apply for and receive transfer credits? d3 ab how long did it take you to prepare your credit transfer application and all the supporting material needed? d4 ab once you had sent your documents to the institution, how long did it take before you learned the result? d5 abcd thinking about your current institution, did you receive [if student did not receive any help relating to credit transfer, specifically? assistance, skip d6, d7, d8, d9, d10] [select from list below if appropriate or type in their response. select multiple if necessary] [1] counselling department [2] student services [3] professors or departmental coordinators [4] academic advisor [5] unsure (respondent is not sure what their role was) page 57 d6 abcd what did they do to assist you? d7 abcd on a scale from 1-5, how helpful was the assistance that you received, where 1 is very helpful and 5 is not helpful at all? [1] extremely helpful [2] very helpful [3] somewhat helpful [4] minimally helpful [5] not helpful at all d8 abcd please explain what made the assistance helpful or not. d9 abcd was the information you received consistent? d10 abcd was the information you received clear and easy to understand? d11 abcd did you receive any help relating to credit transfer, [if student did not receive specifically, from your previous institution? assistance, skip d12, d13, d14, d15, d16] [select from list below if appropriate or type in their reason. select multiple if necessary] [1] counselling department [2] student services [3] professors or departmental coordinators [4] academic advisor [5] unsure (respondent is not sure what their role was) d12 abcd what did they do to assist you? d13 abcd on a scale from 1-5, how helpful was the assistance that you received, where 1 is very helpful and 5 is not helpful at all? page 58 [1] extremely helpful [2]very helpful [3] somewhat helpful [4] minimally helpful [5] not helpful at all d14 abcd please explain what made the assistance helpful or not. d15 abcd was the information you received consistent? d16 abcd was the information you received clear and easy to understand? d17 abcd were there any ways in which the information provided to you by your previous and current institutions differed? prompt: please explain the differences. d18 abcd [if no, skip d14] did you look for information on credit transfer anywhere else? [please list sources mentioned] d19 abcd which of these did you find most informative? d20 abcd how well do you feel you understand the credit transfer process? please rate your understanding on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is very clear understanding and 5 is no understanding at all. [1] very clear understanding [2] moderate understanding [3] some understanding [4] minimal understanding [5] no understanding at all page 59 d21 ab looking back on your experience, do you feel that you clearly understood the transfer process before you decided to commit to it? please rate your understanding on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is very clear understanding and 5 is no understanding at all. [1] very clear understanding [2] moderate understanding [3] some understanding [4] minimal understanding [5] no understanding at all d22 abcd what additional information would have been most useful to you at the time? [clarify if necessary: when you were considering transferring] module e: reflections, expectations and suggestions e1 abcd on a scale from 1-5, how satisfied are you with your current program of study, where 1 is very satisfied and 5 is very dissatisfied? [1] very satisfied [2] satisfied [3] neither satisfied nor dissatisfied [4] dissatisfied [5] very dissatisfied e2 abcd what are the reasons for your satisfaction / dissatisfaction? e3 abcd thinking about the credit transfer processes from beginning to end, is there any way they could be improved? prompt: is there anything that could have made this page 60 process easier for you, or helped you to make a better decision? thats all the questions i have for you. thank you very much for your participation. to thank you for your time im pleased to offer you a $40 gift certificate for your choice of amazon.ca or itunes.ca. which would you prefer? the certificate will be sent electronically to the email you provided. is your email address [confirm email address]? thank you. page 61 appendix b: summary of statistical tests the two tables below provide a summary of the statistical tests performed in the course of this report. only tests yielding results that are significant at p = 0.05 are listed, with the exceptions of two results that were significant at p = 0.10. a non-parametric measure (spearmans rho) is applied in all bivariate testing involving questions that use likert scale responses, as it cannot reasonably be assumed that options on a likert scale are linearly distributed a condition of parametric tests such as pearson correlation. table 1: summary of statistical tests: bivariate correlations (spearmans rho) variable 1 overall satisfaction with program of study (question e1) overall satisfaction with program of study (question e1) overall satisfaction with program of study (question e1) overall satisfaction with program of study (question e1) overall satisfaction with program of study (question e1) difficulty of the credit transfer process (question d1) difficulty of the credit transfer process (question d1) difficulty of the credit transfer process (question d1) difficulty of the credit transfer process (question d1) difficulty of the credit transfer process (question d1) difficulty of the credit transfer process (question d1) perceived helpfulness of variable 2 difficulty of the credit transfer process (question d1)* perceived helpfulness of assistance received (question d7) time required to complete the application (question d3)* time elapsed before the result learned (question d4)** current understanding of the credit transfer process (question d20) completion of prior credential (question a14) n correlation coefficient significance (2-tailed) 180 .137 .049 162 .239 .002 181 .171 .021 181 .168 .023 227 -.145 .029 182 .155 .037 time required to complete the application (question d3) 182 .260 000 time elapsed before the result learned (question d4) 182 .169 .022 182 .205 .006 93 .429 .000 140 .414 .000 140 .168 .032 expected transfer credits were received (question c10) satisfaction with explanation given (question c12) perceived helpfulness of assistance received (question d7) expected credits received page 62 assistance received (question d7) perceived helpfulness of assistance received (question d7) perceived helpfulness of assistance received (question d7) perceived helpfulness of assistance received (question d7) current understanding of the credit transfer process (question d20) (question c10) satisfaction with explanation given (question c12) 76 -.651 .000 time required to complete the application (question d3) 140 .167 .049 time elapsed before the result learned (question d4) 140 .350 .000 191 -.131 .070 amount by which program of study was shortened due to transfer credits received (question c8) table 2: summary of statistical tests: independent samples means comparison (mann-whitney u) variable 1 perceived helpfulness of assistance received (question d7) difficulty of the credit transfer process (question d1) variable 2 age (by 5-year band, comparison of respondents aged 26-30 and those aged 18-20, question a2) age (by 5-year band, comparison of respondents aged 21-25 and those aged 26-30, question a2) asymp. significance (2-tailed) n u 55 606.5 .047 182 374 .091 page 63

1 stewart-martinello final report august, 2012 transfer students in ontario: how are they faring? jo stewart and felice martinello brock university st. catharines, ontario, l2s 3a1 jstewart@brocku.ca fmartinello@brocku.ca august, 2012 we would like to thank melissa dol for her valuable assistance with data collection. we also thank the brock registrars office for permission and help with the data. i. background 2 examining the success of transfer students has become a priority in ontario in recent years (policy statement, 2011; kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010) due to the large number of postsecondary students in ontario transferring from college to university to complete a degree (association of colleges of applied arts and technology of ontario, 2005; embelton, 2008). given this large migration from college to university, it is vital that institutions in ontario engage in research to help determine what outcomes best define success amongst this population of students, how to best measure those outcomes, how transfer students are faring according to those measures, and how to foster success in these students. despite the apparent need for research in this area, relatively few empirical studies have been completed to examine student success amongst college-to-university transfer students in ontario. the current study was initiated to investigate the level of success amongst transfer students at one university in ontario. research focusing on how college transfer students may be a unique cohort compared to university-to-university transfer students, and those entering university from secondary school is extremely important because each of these groups may have different learning needs and expectations that could affect their success. learning how college students may be different from the other two groups is also important when initiating programs that may enhance the success and retention of college transfer students in university programs. researchers at various ontario universities have completed research on the success of transfer students from a variety of programs and perspectives (an analysis, 2008; bell, 1998; craney, 2012; measuring the success, 2007; menard et al, 2012; stewart & martinello, 2012). some have found that college transfer students have lower retention and graduation rates than non-transfer students (craney, 2012; menard et al, 2012). others have found that college transfer students are as successful as others 3 when graduation is the variable that is used to define success (bell, 1998). one concern is that of the few studies that have examined college-to-university transfer in ontario, all have identified student success differently. this leads to difficulty interpreting the often conflicting results. according to stewart and martinello (2012), there are difficulties when examining the change in grade point average (gpa) of students who transfer from college to university as a measure of student success. difficulties arise when one attempts to compare grades received from two institutions that may have different course requirements or student expectations. rather than focus on gpa, these researchers examined different outcomes experienced by transfer students in first-year classes at one ontario university during the 2008-09 academic year. in their study, college-to-university transfer students were compared to university-to-university transfer students, and those entering university from secondary school on factors that included university gpa, course withdrawals before completion, and the academic outcome for those students who failed the first term of their courses. when compared to students entering university from secondary school, stewart and martinello (2012) report that college transfer students perform no better or worse in terms of course grades and the likelihood of withdrawing from a course before completion. it was also found that college students who failed their first term were able to demonstrate better academic performance in their second term compared to the non-transfer students in the sample. there was also indirect evidence for a drop in gpa from college to university. stewart and martinello (2012) examined transfer student performance in first-year courses in 2008-09. the students in that sample have now had the opportunity for four years of study at brock. this study examines the performance of these students up to the end of the 2011-12 academic year in order to determine whether the college transfer students who began their studies at brock university in 2008 have continued to succeed. specifically, the 4 performance of the three groups (college transfer, university transfer, and secondary school entrants) who took introductory-level social sciences courses at brock university in 2008-09 were compared on a number of variables including number of credits attempted and completed, grade point average, total number of course withdrawals and degree attainment after four years of study at brock university. in the discussion that follows, it should be noted that a typical fulltime student with a full course load completes five credits per year towards a three-year, fifteen credit pass ba, or towards a four-year honours or non-honours ba with major. ii. data the data consist of individual observations on 2,594 brock undergraduate students. of these, 155 of the students are transfers from community colleges, 72 are transfers from other universities and the remaining 2,367 are non-transfer students who entered brock from high school with no transfer credits from other post secondary institutions. the students are a subset of those examined in stewart and martinello (2012). all of the students were enrolled in at least one first year social sciences course in the fall and winter terms of the 2008-09 academic year. in this paper, however, the sample is restricted to only first year brock students; i.e., those who had not enrolled in courses at brock previously and had no brock credits before 2008-09. the original selection of students from first year social science courses means that the sample is generally not representative of the student population at brock. we do not believe that this is a significant problem, however, because the differences between the sample and the brock student population are not large. for example, female students make up 63% of the sample while they comprised 59% of the student population at brock in the fall of 2008. not surprisingly, the sample has higher proportions of students majoring in the social sciences (roughly 30% in the 5 sample versus 25% for brock as a whole) and in the humanities (roughly 17% in the sample versus 14% for brock as a whole). conversely, faculty of business students are underrepresented in the sample (roughly 2% in the sample versus 15% for brock), as are faculty of science students (roughly 3% in the sample versus 6% for brock as a whole). students with majors in applied health sciences make up 15.3% of the sample and this is quite close to the 16.6% found in the brock student population. the sample includes students from all faculties since brock students must take a first year social science course as part of their degree breadth requirements. the percentages of brock students in the various faculties are taken from the web pages of the brock office of institutional analysis (brock office, 2012) and they exclude general studies and undeclared students. students who are completing general studies degrees are admitted to that program either upon accepting an offer of admission from the university, or upon choosing to complete that degree program. students who are considered undeclared are typically those who once had a major discipline of study, but who were adjudicated out of their programs due to poor academic performance in major courses. the data report on several academic outcomes for each student: number of courses completed, withdrawals from courses, number of credits earned, grade averages, graduations, and major field of study for the fall terms to the summer terms of 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11, and for the fall and winter terms of 2011-12, which are the most recent data available at the time of writing. for the discussions that follow years 1, 2, 3, and 4 refer to the 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12 academic years described above, respectively, and not to the students academic program years. all data were obtained from the registrarial record at brock university. iii. method and results 6 students progress through their post-secondary programs is a complicated, multidimensional process with many different characteristics. this means that many different measures can be used to compare the progress of different groups of students. our approach is to examine the various measures of students progress one at a time in separate subsections below. in every case the comparison is between the particular type of transfer student (college or university) and non-transfer students. for each measure, bullet points at the start of the subsection state the basic conclusions and then a fuller exposition follows. the results for college transfer and university transfer students are usually presented separately within each subsection since they are usually different from one another. but the results for both university and college transfers are presented together in a few of the subsections below when they are similar to one another. the basic method is to calculate the averages or frequencies of particular measures of students progress separately for college transfers, university transfers, and non-transfer students and then compare each type of transfer student to non-transfer students. the hypothesis that there is no difference between transfer and non-transfer students (in the average value or frequency of the measure) is then tested separately for college and university transfer students. the p values for the hypothesis tests are reported and cases where the hypothesis is rejected at the 1%, 5% and 10% significance levels are identified. rejection of the hypothesis means that there are statistically significant differences between that type of transfer students and non-transfer students in that measure of students progress. the simple comparisons of progress measures reported below do not control for the effects of other student characteristics such as gender or major field of study. to address this, all 7 of the comparisons between transfer and non-transfer students are repeated with regression analysis and controls for students gender and major. the dummy variables representing students major fields of study are often statistically significant in the regressions while gender, surprisingly, is usually not. overall however, the regression analyses, with the controls for gender and major, yield essentially the same results as the simple comparisons shown below. thus, to save space, none of the regression estimate results are reported here, but they are available upon request. the discussions below comment on whether the regression analysis produced the same or slightly different results from those reported in the tables. data on other student characteristics such as family background and socio-economic status are not available in the data. last, the following nomenclature is used to describe students activity in their programs at brock. if a student enrols in a course and does not drop the course before the end of the twoweek add/drop registration period then that course counts as an attempt. students may withdraw from a course after the add/drop registration period so not all course attempts are completed. course withdrawals must occur before a specified date (usually the end of the eighth week of the term). if a student withdraws before this date, no final grade is assigned, and there is no academic penalty for the attempt. if the student does not withdraw from a course before the last withdrawal date then the course attempt is deemed to have been completed and a final grade is assigned regardless of whether the student actually attended the course or wrote the final exam. for completed course attempts, there are three possible outcomes: a failing final grade (less than 50%) is assigned so the student does not earn the credit value of the completed course attempt. this is a failed course attempt. a passing final grade (50% or higher) is assigned but the student has previously completed and passed the course (i.e., the student is repeating the course in an attempt to 8 achieve a higher grade) so the student does not earn the credit value of the course. this is referred to as a repeated course attempt. a passing final grade (50% or higher) is assigned and credit has not previously been given for the course, so the student earns the credit value of the course. this is a passed course attempt. the numbers of attempts and withdrawals, and the numbers of failed and repeated course attempts, are all measured by the credit values of the courses involved. a. student persistence or attrition college transfer students have lower persistence up to year 3, but the differences are small and not statistically significant. college transfer students are much less likely to persist to year 4 and the difference is statistically significant. university transfer students have higher persistence up to year 3, but the differences are small and not statistically significant. university transfer students are much less likely to persist to year 4, given that they persisted to year 3, and the difference is statistically significant. persistence is defined by whether students attempt at least one course in an academic year given that they persisted (attempted at least one course) in an earlier year. persistence occurs when students enrol in courses regardless of what happens later in the course. students may withdraw from the courses before completion, or complete the courses and earn their credit values or not, and the enrollment still counts as an attempt. the persistence measures are adjusted for graduations in either 2010 or 2011. if students have graduated they are not included in the any of the subsequent years measures of persistence. the first three rows of table 1 show persistence from one year to the next. they show the percentage of students who attempted at least one course in that year given that they attempted at least one course in the previous year. the last two rows of table 1 show three and four year measures of persistence starting from year 1 (2008-09). the penultimate row shows the 9 percentage of students who attempted at least one course in year 3 (2010-11), given that they attempted at least one course in year 1. the last row shows persistence from year 1 (2008-09) to year 4 (2011-12). college transfer students compared to non-transfer students, college transfers are less likely to persist from year 1 to year 2 but the difference is small and statistically insignificant. college transfer and nontransfer students are virtually identical in their persistence from years 2 to 3. college transfer students, however, are much less likely to attempt courses in year 4, given that they attempted courses in year 3, and the difference is statistically significant. again, the measure of persistence from year 3 to year 4 excludes all students who graduated at the end of years 2 or 3. the three and four year measures of persistence (reported in the last two rows of table 1) show the same basic results. persistence from year 1 to year 3 is lower than non-transfer students but not significantly different. persistence from year 1 to year 4 is much lower than non-transfer students and the difference is statistically significant at very low levels. probit regression analysis of persistence, with controls for students gender and major field of study, show the very same results for college transfer students compared to non-transfer students. female students are estimated to have higher persistence but the difference is not statistically significant. there are large and statistically significant differences in persistence across majors. not surprisingly, undeclared and general studies students have significantly lower persistence than students in other major fields of study. 10 table 1. students persistence: percentage of students attempting courses in the later year given attempts in the earlier year nontransfer college transfer university transfer year 1 to year 2 85.4 82.1 (p=0.27) 91.2 (p=0.18) year 2 to year 3 89.1 89.3 (p=0.96) 89.3 (p=0.96) year 3 to year 4 92.3 84.4b (p=0.013) 81.3b (p=0.02) year 1 to year 3 77.2 74.3 (p=0.42) 82.3 (p=0.35) years 1 to year 4 71.1 56.5a (p=0.001) 66.7 (p=0.53) notes: a b , , or c signify a statistically significant difference between transfer and non-transfer students at the 1%, 5% or 10% significance levels, respectively. p values for the hypothesis test of no difference between transfer and non-transfer students are shown in parentheses. chi squared tests on 2 x 2 contingency tables between the occurrences (i.e., whether they attempted courses or not), are used to test for statistically significant differences for each case. percentages, rather than frequencies, are shown because we believe that they convey more information in an easier to read manner. university transfer students unlike college transfers, university transfer students are more likely than non-transfer students to persist from year 1 to year 2. like college transfers, university transfer students have virtually the same persistence rates as non-transfer students from year 2 to year 3, but significantly lower persistence rates from year 3 to year 4. year 1 to year 3 persistence is higher than non-transfer students, but the difference is not statistically significant. the very high attrition from third year to fourth year makes the year 1 to year 4 persistence rate lower for university transfer students compared to non-transfer students, but the difference is not large due to the higher persistence early in their programs and it is not statistically significant. 11 the regression estimates yield essentially the same results after controlling for the effects of gender and major field of study. b. number of credits earned college transfers students earn fewer credits in every year and the differences are statistically significant university transfer students earn significantly fewer credits in years 3 and 4. they also earn fewer credits in year 1 but the difference is much smaller and not statistically significant. table 2 reports the average number of credits earned by transfer and non-transfer students over various years and multi-year periods. the first four lines report the average number of credits earned in each of the first four years. students are included only if they attempted at least one course in that year. the last three lines show the average sum of credits earned over the first two, first three, and all four academic years, respectively. for the multi-year averages, students had to have been enrolled continuously. this means that they had to have attempted at least one course in every year covered by the time period. a student would earn five credits over the fall and winter terms of an academic year if they successfully completed a full course load. college transfer students on average, college transfers students earn fewer credits in every year than non-transfer students and the differences are statistically significant. the differences in years 1 and 2 are only around a quarter of a credit. but college transfer students earn almost 0.7 fewer credits in year 3, on average, and the difference grows to over one full credit in year 4. 12 regression analysis shows essentially the same results after adjusting for gender and major field of study, although the differences in credits earned are estimated to be smaller than those shown in table 2 after adjusting for major field of study and gender. table 2. average number of credits earned nontransfer college transfer university transfer year 1: fall 2008 to summer 2009 4.13 3.87c (p=0.054) 3.95 (p=0.30) year 2: fall 2009 to summer 2010 4.26 4.03c (p=0.06) 4.23 (p=0.87) year 3: fall 2010 to summer 2011 4.40 3.72a (p=0.00) 4.02c (p=0.068) year 4: fall 2011 to winter 2012 4.16 3.08a (p=0.00) 3.50b (p=0.01) years 1 & 2: fall 2008 to summer 2010 8.70 8.29b (p=0.046) 8.35 (p=0.28) years 1 to 3: fall 2008 to summer 2011 13.5 12.2a (p=0.00) 12.6c (p=0.057) years 1 to 4: fall 2008 to winter 2012 18.0 14.4a (p=0.00) 17.0b (p=0.048) notes: a b , , or c signify a statistically significant difference between transfer and non-transfer students at the 1%, 5% or 10% significance levels, respectively. p values for the hypothesis test of no difference between transfer and non-transfer students are shown in parentheses. t- tests for the differences between the means of two samples are used to test for statistically significant differences. the variances of the two samples are not assumed to be equal. university transfer students table 2 shows that university transfer students also earn fewer credits than non-transfer students in every year but the differences are smaller. in year 1, for example, the differences in average credits earned are less than 0.2 credits and it is not statistically significant. in year 2 university transfers earn virtually the same number of credits as non-transfer students. much 13 larger and statistically significant differences occur in years 3 and 4, however, with university transfers accumulating 0.38 fewer credits in year 3 and 0.66 fewer credits in year 4, on average. the regression estimates show virtually the same results. the estimated differences for years 2, 3, and 4 are roughly as large as those shown in table 2, but they are statistically significant at much lower significance levels. c. average grades college transfer students have lower cumulative grade averages, but only the year 3 difference is statistically significant. university transfer students have higher cumulative grade averages up to year 3, but the differences are not statistically significant. the results above show clearly that transfer students earn fewer credits in each year than non-transfer students. this section and the next three sections explore the reasons why they earn fewer credits. in this section we compare the cumulative grade averages of each type of student. lower grades would mean fewer passed courses and fewer credits earned. table 3 shows the average of students cumulative average course grade in each year. only students who completed at least one course in that year are included. college transfer students table 3 shows that college transfer students have lower cumulative grade averages in all years, compared to non-transfers, but only the year 3 difference is statistically significant. this result is also sensitive to the addition of controls for students gender and major field of study. the differences between college transfer and non-transfer students grade averages are estimated to be much smaller and statistically insignificant when those controls are added in the regression analysis. 14 table 3. average of students cumulative grade average nontransfer college transfer university transfer year 2: 2009-10 68.5 67.4 (p=0.19) 69.9 (p=0.16) year 3: 2010-11 70.7 68.9b (p=0.03) 72.1 (p=0.23) year 4: 2011-12 72.1 70.7 (p=0.15) 71.8 (p=0.84) notes: a b , , or c signify a statistically significant difference between transfer and non-transfer students at the 1%, 5% or 10% significance levels, respectively. p values for the hypothesis test of no difference between transfer and non-transfer students are shown in parentheses. t- tests for the differences between the means of two samples are used to test for statistically significant differences. the variances of the two samples are not assumed to be equal. university transfer students compared to non-transfer students, university transfer students had higher cumulative grade averages by the ends of years 2 and year 3 but neither of the differences are statistically significant. the regression estimates, however, yield somewhat stronger results. after controlling for gender and major, the grades advantages for university transfers are estimated to be at least as large as those shown in table 3 and they are statistically significant for year 2. by the end of year 4, the grade average for university transfer students has fallen below that of non-transfers but the difference is small and statistically insignificant. the regression analysis shows a bigger decrease, but the estimate is also statistically insignificant. d. converting course attempts into academic credits college transfer students were less able to earn credits from their course attempts in years 1, 3 and 4; and the year 3 and 4 differences are large and statistically significant. higher proportions of failed and repeated courses in years 3 and 4, and more course withdrawals in years 1 and 4 accounted for the lower conversion rates. 15 university transfer students were more successful at converting course attempts into credits than non-transfer students in most years but all of the differences were small and statistically insignificant. differences in average grades do not appear to be large enough to explain why transfer students earn so many fewer credits in each year of their brock programs. this section addresses the question of why transfer students earn fewer credits more directly by examining the rates at which students are able to earn academic credits from their course attempts. table 4 reports a credit attempt conversion rate that measures the percentage of attempts where the academic credit is received. specifically, the attempt conversion rate equals the number of credits earned divided by the number of credit attempts over the time period (and multiplied by 100 to make it a percentage). the rate is less than 100% (i.e., credits earned were less than the number of credit attempts) if students withdrew from courses before completion, received failing grades in their completed courses, or repeated courses that they had already passed. only students who attempted at least one course in that academic year, or in the last year of the period for multiyear time spans, are included in the calculation of the credit attempt conversion rate. college transfer students over years 1 and 2, college transfer students were able to convert attempts (course enrolments) into credits at roughly the same rates as non-transfer students. in year 1, college transfers were less successful, but the difference in the conversion rate is only 1.2 percentage points. in year 2, college transfer students actually earned more credits from their attempts, but the difference is very small. in year 3, and especially in year 4, however, college transfer students were much less successful at converting course attempts into credits and the differences 16 are statistically significant. the regression estimates show virtually the same results after controlling for gender and students major field of study. further analysis investigated why college transfer students were less able to earn credits from their course attempts, but the detailed results are not shown in order to save space. the estimates show that college transfer students were more likely to withdraw from their course attempts before completion in all years. in year 1, for example, non-transfer students withdrew from six percent of their course attempts while college transfers withdrew from 7.9 percent, and the difference is statistically significant at the ten percent level. the difference is much larger in year 4, where non-transfer students withdrew from 4.2 percent of their course attempts while college transfers withdrew from over 10 percent. in years 2 and 3, college transfers also withdrew from more of their courses but the differences were small (less than two-thirds of a percentage point) and statistically insignificant. the higher withdrawal rates for college transfers are statistically significant if multi-year periods (e.g. years 1 and 2, years 1 to 3, or years 1 to 4) are considered. the hypothesis tests for no difference in withdrawal rates between transfer and nontransfer students are adjusted for the fact that the majority of students do not withdraw from any of their courses in a given year, leaving a large mass point at zero in the distribution of withdrawal rates across students. tobit regression analysis is used to make the adjustment for the mass point and similar results were obtained with and without the controls for gender and major field of study. we also examined the differences in outcomes when students did not withdraw and completed their courses. specifically, we examined the rates at which students received failing grades in their courses or repeated courses that they had already passed. in either case, the 17 students did not earn any credit even though the course was completed. the distributions of failed and repeated courses also have a large mass point at zero because the majority of students do not fail or repeat any courses in a year. again, tobit regression analysis is used to adjust for the skewed distribution and controls for gender and major make little difference to the estimates. college transfer students were actually less likely than non-transfers to fail or repeat their completed courses in years 1 and 2 but the differences were small and far from being statistically significant. in years 3 and 4, however, college transfer students were much more likely to have failed or repeated their completed courses and the differences are statistically significant. thus, the lower conversion rates of attempts into credits for college transfer students in years 3 and 4 are due to higher proportions of failed or repeated courses in those years. but higher withdrawal rates also contributed to the lower attempt conversion rates in year 1 and especially in year 4. university transfer students table 4 shows that university transfer students were more successful at converting attempts into credits in years 1, 2 and 3, but not in year 4. when the individual year rates are averaged over the multi-year periods, university transfers have higher conversion rates over all of the multi-year periods. but none of the differences, either for single years or over multi-year periods, are statistically significant. the regression estimates show virtually the same results after controlling for gender and students major field of study. 18 table 4. average credit attempt conversion rate: percentage of the academic credits attempted that were awarded nontransfer college transfer university transfer year 1: fall 2008 to summer 2009 84.4 83.2 (p=0.6) 87.3 (p=0.31) year 2: fall 2009 to summer 2010 86.6 87.1 (p=0.81) 90.0 (p=0.22) year 3: fall 2010 to summer 2011 90.7 86.4c (p=0.098) 91.9 (p=0.63) year 4: fall 2011 to winter 2012 92.1 82.5b (p=0.018) 91.0 (p=0.77) years 1 & 2: fall 2008 to summer 2010 88.4 87.5 (p=0.6) 89.2 (p=0.70) years 1 to 3: fall 2008 to summer 2011 91.5 89.1c (p=0.092) 92.3 (p=0.69) years 1 to 4: fall 2008 to winter 2012 93.1 89.1b (p=0.014) 94.2 (p=0.44) notes: a b , , or c signify a statistically significant difference between transfer and non-transfer students at the 1%, 5% or 10% significance levels, respectively. p values for the hypothesis test of no difference between transfer and non-transfer students are shown in parentheses. t- tests for the differences between the means of two samples are used to test for statistically significant differences. the variances of the two samples are not assumed to be equal. differences in course withdrawal rates appear to account for most of the differences shown in table 4. university transfers students were less likely to withdraw from their courses before completion in years 1, 2 and 3, but the differences were larger in year 2, and especially large in year 1. the difference reversed in year 4, and university transfers were more likely than non-transfers to withdraw from their courses, leading to the lower percentage of attempts converted into credits in year 4. university transfer students also had lower failure and repeated courses rates in years 2, 3 and 4 (but not in year 1), but all of the differences were quite small 19 and not statistically significant so they only made small contributions to the differences shown in table 4. e. differences in number of attempts college transfer students attempt fewer credits than non-transfer students in every year. the differences are larger in later years and all of the differences are statistically significant. university transfer students attempt fewer credits than non-transfer students in every year but the differences are not as large as with college transfers. the differences in years 1, 3 and 4 are statistically significant. it is clear that the differences in average grades and attempt success rates shown in the two previous subsections cannot explain why transfer students accumulate so many fewer credits in each year of their brock programs. college transfer students were less successful at earning credits from their attempts in years 3 and 4, but the difference is not nearly large enough to explain the differences in total credits completed. compared to non-transfer students, university transfers earned more credits from their attempts in most years so lower success or attempt conversion rates do not account for the fewer credits earned in each year. the main reason why both types of transfer students complete fewer credits is that they attempt (enrol in) substantially fewer courses in each year. table 5 shows the number of credit attempts over the various years. only students who attempted at least one course (i.e., were still attending brock) in that year are included. college transfer students table 5 shows that college transfer students attempt fewer courses in each year, on average, and the differences are statistically significant. the difference is particularly large in year 4 with college transfers attempting 0.83 fewer credits than non-transfer students. the 20 regression estimates show virtually the same results after controlling for gender and students major field of study. it is important to consider whether the smaller number of attempts shown in table 5 is due solely to a larger proportion of part time students among college transfers. according to this scenario, full-time college transfer students attempt the same number of credits as full time nontransfer students, and part-time college transfer students attempt the same number of credits as part time non-transfer students. but college transfer students are much more likely to be parttime students, which makes the overall average number of attempts lower for college transfer students. figure 1 shows that. figure 1 shows the distribution of attempts for each type of student in every year. note that the scales showing the percentage of students with each number of attempts (the y axes) vary from year to year, but are the same for each type of student in a given year. students who attempted more than seven credits worth of courses are omitted from figure 1 to keep more manageable scales on the horizontal axis. it is not difficult to attempt more than seven credits because the first three years include the spring and summer terms and withdrawals from courses count as attempts. but only a few students attempt more than seven credits in any year so the truncation does not affect the results. 21 figure 1. distributions of credits attempted year 2: 2009/10 non-transfers 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted college transfers college transfers 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted university transfers 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted university transfers 40 40 30 percent percent university transfers 50 30 20 20 10 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted 20 10 10 60 50 40 30 20 10 30 50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted percent percent 30 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted percent percent percent percent 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted 40 college transfers university transfers non-transfers 40 10 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 non-transfers 50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted college transfers 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 year 4: 2011/12 percent percent percent non-transfers 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 year 3: 2010/11 percent year 1: 2008/09 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 number of credits attempted figure 1 shows that attempting five credits was the dominant choice for non-transfer students in every year. college transfers, however, were much less likely to attempt five credits and much more likely to attempt 3 to 4.5 credits. so the lower average number of attempts by college transfers was not due solely to a higher proportions of part time students attempting just one or two credits per year. figure 1 shows that college transfers did have higher proportions of part time students (i.e. students attempting just one or two credits), especially in years 1, 3 and 4. but the bigger difference from non-transfer students is the much higher proportions of college transfers attempting 3 to 4.5 credits, versus the five credits attempted by non-transfers. 22 table 5. average number of course attempts nontransfer college transfer university transfer year 1: 2008-09 4.86 4.63b (p=0.011) 4.48a (p=0.00) year 2: 2009-10 4.84 4.63b (p=0.017) 4.65 (p=0.14) year 3: 2010-11 4.77 4.18a (p=0.00) 4.29a (p=0.007) year 4: 2011-12 4.46 3.63a (p=0.00) 3.81a (p=0.00) notes: a b , , or c signify a statistically significant difference between transfer and non-transfer students at the 1%, 5% or 10% significance levels, respectively. p values for the hypothesis test of no difference between transfer and non-transfer students are shown in parentheses. t- tests for the differences between the means of two samples are used to test for statistically significant differences. the variances of the two samples are not assumed to be equal. university transfer students the analysis and discussion set out for college transfers, above, holds for university transfer students as well. the only difference is that the lower number of courses attempted in year 2 is statistically significant at only the 15% level. f. total number of credits earned, including transfer credits on average, college transfer students start their brock programs with 2.7 transfer credits. the difference between college transfer and non-transfer students in total numbers of academic credits narrows each year and falls to zero by year 4 on average, university transfer students start their brock programs with 3.8 transfer credits. the difference between university transfer and non-transfer students in total numbers of academic credits narrows slowly each year, but it remains large and statistically significant by years 4. transfer students may choose to attempt and earn fewer credits in each year because they know that they do not have to earn as many credits as non-transfer students; they already have 23 some transfer credits when they start their brock programs. if transfer students plan to graduate after three or four years, as non-transfer students typically plan to do (but usually do not -- see below), then they do not have to complete as many brock credits in each year as non-transfer students. figure 2 shows the average total number of credits accumulated after each year, including transfer credits, for students who attempted courses in each of the preceding years. the shaded areas shows 95% confidence intervals for the average total number of credits. college transfer students on average, the college transfer students were awarded 2.7 transfer credits before the start of the 2008-09 academic year. thus the left hand graph in figure 2 shows college transfer students starting out with 2.7 more credits than non-transfer students. but the difference in the total number of credits narrows each year as non-transfer students accumulate more credits in each year. the gap narrows most quickly in year 4. by the end of the winter term of year 4, college transfer students who attempted courses in year 4 ended up with virtually the same total number of credits (on average and including transfer credits) as non-transfer students. university transfer students university transfer students received an average of 3.8 transfer credits before the start of the 2008-09 academic year. thus the right hand graph in figure 2 shows university transfer students starting out with 3.8 more credits than non-transfer students. as with college transfers, the gap in total credits narrows each year as non-transfers earn more credits in each year. but university transfers complete more brock credits than college transfers, on average, so the gap narrows more slowly. the higher initial number of credits and the smaller difference in credit 24 accumulation rates means that university transfer students who attempted courses in year 4 still had 1.5 more total credits, on average, than non-transfer students by the end of year 4. figure 2. average accumulated credits, including transfer credits college transfer versus non-transfer students university transfer versus non-transfer students 95% confidence interval is shaded 95% confidence interval is shaded 20 20 15 number of credits number of credits 15 college transfer students 10 university transfer students 10 non-transfer students 5 non-transfer students 5 0 0 pre-brock year 1 year 2 year 3 year 4 pre-brock year 1 year 2 year 3 year 4 g. differences in graduation college transfer students are much more likely to have graduated by spring 2012 and to have received a pass (three year) degree rather than an honours degree. both differences are statistically significant. university transfer students are much more likely to have graduated by spring 2012 and to have received a pass (three year) degree rather than an honours degree. but only the former difference is statistically significant. given that transfer students have more credits than non-transfer students, once their transfer credits are included, do they use their extra credits to graduate sooner than non-transfer students? do they graduate with higher level or similar undergraduate degrees? table 6 shows the percentages of students who graduated within three years or less (i.e., in 2010 or 2011) and within four years (i.e., by the spring convocation of 2012 --the latest data 25 available). both college and university transfer students are much more likely to graduate before non-transfer students and all of the differences are statistically significant. fewer than five percent of non-transfer students graduate within three years of their start at brock, while almost a quarter of college transfers and fully a third of university transfer students graduate within three years. the differences between transfer and non-transfer students are smaller for graduation by spring of their fourth year, but the basic result is unchanged. both types of transfer students are more likely to have graduated by spring of 2012. probit regression estimates show virtually the identical results for graduations after controlling for gender and major field of study. table 6. percentage of students graduating within three years and within four years nontransfer college transfer university transfer percentages graduating in three years or less (i.e., in 2010 or 2011) 4.31 23.2a (p=0.00) 33.3a (p=0.00) percentages graduating within four years (i.e., by spring 2012 convocation) 35.6 45.81a (p=0.01) 52.8a (p=0.00) notes: a b , , or c signify a statistically significant difference between transfer and non-transfer students at the 1%, 5% or 10% significance levels, respectively. p values for the hypothesis test of no difference between transfer and non-transfer students are shown in parentheses. chi squared tests on 2 x 2 contingency tables between the occurrences (i.e., whether they graduated or not), for the different cases are used to test for statistically significant differences. percentages, rather than frequencies, are shown because we believe that they convey more information in an easier to read manner. brocks degrees can be classified into three types: pass degrees require completion of 15 credits with at least a 60% grade average, among other requirements. this degree is often referred to as a three year degree. major degrees require completion of 20 credits with at least a 60% grade average, among other requirements. this degree is also called a four year, non-honours degree. honours degrees require completion of 20 credits. students must achieve a 70% grade average over credits in their major field of study and a 60% grade average over their other courses, among other requirements. 26 table 7 reports the highest degrees received for each type of student. highest degree received is used because a few students graduated with pass degrees and 2011 and then upgraded and graduated with major or honours degrees in 2012. specifically, table 7 shows the percentage of graduants with each type of degree. in this case the hypothesis tests check whether the relative frequencies of the three different outcomes graduating with a pass, major or honours degree - are the same for transfer and non-transfer students. table 7. highest degree awarded, as a percentage of the total number of graduants pass degree major degree honours degree p value for whether transfer students have the same relative frequencies nontransfer college transfer university transfer 30.8 50.7 44.7 8.9 7.0 10.5 60.3 42.3 44.7 (p=0.003)a (p=0.15) notes: a b , , or c signify a statistically significant difference between transfer and non-transfer students at the 1%, 5% or 10% significance levels, respectively. p values for the hypothesis test of no difference between transfer and non-transfer students are shown in parentheses. chi squared tests on 3 x 2 contingency tables between the occurrences (i.e., the number graduating with each type of degree) are used to test for statistically significant differences. percentages, rather than frequencies, are shown because we believe that they convey more information in an easier to read manner. table 7 shows that, among students who graduated on or before the spring of 2012, transfer students are much more likely to have graduated with a pass degree and much less likely to have graduated with an honours degree. the differences between non-transfer and college transfer students are statistically significant. the differences between non-transfer and university transfer students are not statistically significant at conventional levels, partly due to the smaller number of university transfer students. 27 an important caveat is that only about a third of non-transfer students, and only around half of transfer students have graduated by spring of 2012 (see table 6), so the distributions of highest degrees may change as higher proportions of each type of students graduates. h. academic suspension and the boost program college transfer students are not significantly different from non-transfer students in their eligibility for academic suspension, boost participation and success, or subsequent suspension. university transfer students are less likely to be eligible for academic suspension, compared to non-transfer students, and the numbers involved are too small to report further statistics. if students have poor academic results, they are put on probation. poor academic results generally means a grade average below 60%, but there are several other conditions and contingencies. if students continue to perform poorly while on probation then they are put on academic suspension. suspended students cannot take courses for one year, but they can restart their programs (on probation) after the one-year break. in recent years, suspended students have had the option of enrolling in brocks boost program. a suspended student who enrols in the boost program does not have to interrupt their studies. their suspension is revoked and they can enrol in a reduced load of regular classes in the next fall term as long as they successfully complete a learning skills program. students can only enrol in the boost program once. if they continue to under achieve in their courses, after their initial suspension was revoked and after completing the boost learning skills program, then they are suspended and cannot enrol in any brock courses for one academic year. table 8 shows various statistics related to academic suspension and the boost program for transfer and non-transfer students. 28 table 8. academic suspension and the boost program nontransfer college transfer university transfer percentage of students eligible for academic suspension and, therefore, eligible for the boost program 10.3 10.3 (p=0.98) 4.2c (p=0.09) percentage of students eligible for boost who enrolled in the program 57.2 56.3 (p=0.94) percentage of boost participants who successfully completed the learning skills program 90.5 100.0 (p=0.31) percentage of successful boost participants placed on academic suspension in the next year 32.1 40.0 (p=0.61) notes: a b , , or c signify a statistically significant difference between transfer and non-transfer students at the 1%, 5% or 10% significance levels, respectively. p values for the hypothesis test of no difference between transfer and non-transfer students are shown in parentheses. chi squared tests on 2 x 2 contingency tables between the occurrences (e.g. being eligible for boost) are used to test for statistically significant differences. percentages, rather than frequencies, are shown because we believe that they convey more information in an easier to read manner. table 8 shows that virtually identical percentages of college transfer and non-transfer students are eligible for academic suspension and the boost program. a much smaller percentage of university transfer students are eligible for suspension and the boost program. the number of eligible university transfers students is so small, in fact, that it is not prudent to report the subsequent statistics on boost participation and success and subsequent suspensions for that group. table 8 shows that boost participation rates are also almost identical for college transfer and non-transfer students. college transfer student have higher completion rates in the boost learning skills program, compared to non-transfer students, but the difference is far from statistically significant. college transfer students are also more likely to be suspended for poor academic results after having successfully completed the boost program, but again, the 29 observed difference is far from statistically significant. the number of students affected is generally not large enough to generate statistically significant. iv. conclusion a data set showing brock students course attempts, withdrawal, academic credits, grades, graduations and other outcomes from the fall term of 2008-09 to the winter term of 2011-12 was collected. all of the students in the data set started their first year of study at brock in the fall term of 2008. the data were used to compare the progress of transfer students from other universities and community colleges to the progress of non-transfer students in their brock programs. the biggest difference between transfer and non-transfer students is that transfer students enroll in (attempt) fewer courses in every year. the differences are especially large in the third and fourth years of study. the smaller number of attempts is the most important reason why transfer students earned fewer academic credits in each year. in the third and fourth years of their studies at brock, transfer students earned anywhere from 0.4 to more than 1.0 fewer academic credits, on average, compared to non-transfer students. of course transfer students also have their transfer credits, in addition to the brock credits that they earned. the transfer credits more than offset the smaller number of brock credits earned with the one exception of college transfer students in year 4. transfer students use the additional credits to graduate earlier than non-transfer students, on average. transfer students also graduate with lower level degrees, which also helps them to graduate earlier. among students who graduated in or before the spring of 2012, transfer students were much more likely to be awarded pass (fifteen credit) degrees rather than honours degrees or degrees with major (20 credit degrees). 30 aside from the differences noted above, the performance of college transfer students was very similar to that of non-transfer students over the first two years of study at brock. this confirms the stewart and martinello (2012) finding that the grades and course withdrawal rates of college transfer students were similar to non-transfer students in selected first year courses. college transfer students were not significantly different from non-transfers in their persistence to the start of year 3, second year grades, and ability to earn academic credits from their course attempts in years 1 and 2, although college transfer students were slightly more likely to withdraw from courses before completion. in their third and fourth years, however, college transfer students showed significantly poorer achievement in their programs than non-transfer students. they were much less likely to persist to year 4, even after adjusting for their earlier graduations, and they were much less able to earn academic credits from their course attempts. their lower success rates in course attempts was due to both a greater propensity to withdraw from courses before completion (especially in year 4) and from many more failed and repeated courses. in general, transfer students from other universities had outcomes that were more similar to those of non-transfer students. aside from the fewer credits attempted and earned and the differences in graduations rates noted above, most of the differences between university transfer and non-transfer students were not statistically significant. this is partly due to the smaller sample size for university transfer students, but many of the differences were small as well. university transfer students generally outperformed non-transfer students over the first three years of their brock programs. university transfers had higher persistence and average grades, and they were better able to earn academic credits from their course attempts, mainly due to fewer withdrawals from courses before completion. the performance advantage reversed in 31 year 4, however, in all of those measures. but again, most of the differences, both positive and negative, were small and mostly statistically insignificant. it seems clear that college students who transferred to university are different, on average, from students who transferred from other universities, and non-transfer students. although students transferring to university programs from college were similar to other students during the first half of their degree studies, they show significantly poorer performance over the final two years of their studies. although this variable was not measured in the current sample, it seems apparent that students transferring to university from college will be older than non-transfer students given that they have spend two or more years completing a work in a college program. other researchers have found that there are other key socio-economic differences between college transfer and non-transfer students. these include higher proportions of students from lowerincome families, and more students with disabilities, aboriginal students and first-generation students in college transfer groups (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). these differences may account for the poorer performance amongst college transfer students in their later years. competing demands as students move along in their degree programs may result in lower performance because degree programs tend to become more challenging as students proceed. this may also account for the fact that college transfer students were more likely than non-transfer students to graduate with a three-year degree (as opposed to a four-year degree). they may not have had the socio-economic resources to continue in what would be a fifth, sixth, or even seventh year of post secondary studies for them. the rates of academic suspension, participation and success in a remediation program, and graduation rates with pass degrees all suggest that college transfer students are, in general, capable of completing degrees in good time. this is important information to consider when 32 determining whether college students should be encouraged to transfer to university. the evidence suggests that they can, in fact, be encouraged because those who have transferred have been able to succeed in university courses and graduate. their poorer performance in years 3 and 4 and, by extension, their lower likelihood of going on to graduate studies does not detract from this point. an important caveat, however, is that the evidence suffers from a self-selection problem. all of the transfer students in our sample voluntarily chose to transfer, so they may have systematically different characteristics (possibly unobservable) from other college students whose academic records also make them eligible for a transfer to university. estimating the impact of the self-selection of transfers on the results is an important topic for future work. as for support for college transfer students, it is notable that academic support programs in universities are mostly focused on first and second year students, the years when college transfer students do not appear to require more help compared to non-transfer students. there are fewer academic support programs targeted at third and fourth year students, which is when college transfer students have poorer academic results and require more help. further investigation needs to be made into the specific types of supports that college transfer students might need in order to effectively complete their upper-year courses. these could range from socio-economic and family support for those from lower-income households, to intrusive academic advising (transfer students had typical academic success in years 1 and 2 so they may delay too long before seeking academic advice), to learning skills programs with more emphasis on higher level academic skills rather than high school remediation, to more support for students with disabilities and first-generation students. the supports would provide the tools that transfer students need in order to more efficiently earn degrees at a higher level than it seems they are 33 able to earn at the time of writing. socio-economic and family support would provide financial resources, while advising and learning skills support would provide them with the program knowledge and academic skills base needed to efficiently complete more credits each year. if college transfer students were to receive these supports, especially in their upper years, they may find it easier to complete more courses each year and upper-level degrees (i.e., honours and nonhonours four-year degrees). in turn, this would allow more college transfer students to have access to graduate and professional programs. references 34 an analysis of undergraduate students admitted to york university from an ontario college of applied arts and technology (caat) between 1996 and 2006. college university consortium council website: www.cuccontario.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports _16.pdf association of colleges of applied arts and technology of ontario (2005). student mobility within ontarios postsecondary sector. website: http://www.ocutg.on.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_res earch_reports_13.pdf bell, s. (1998). college transfer students: a canadian case. community college journal of research and practice, 22(1). website: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=18&sid=789067c4-5e96-4ae6-ba2a2fc85337eb5d%40sessionmgr14&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zszzy29wzt1zax rl#db=aph&an=493762 brock office of institutional analysis. brock university. website: http://brocku.ca/finance/faculty-and-staff/institutional-analysis craney, g. (2012). college credit transfer & collaboration at york university. student pathways in higher education conference proceedings (www.cuccontario.ca/www/index_en.php?page=student_pathways_conference_recap) embelton, s. (2008). a decade of history: comparing ontario secondary and college (caat) transfer students at york university. website: www.pccat.ca/storage/pccat2008/presentations/york.pdf kerr, a., mccloy, u., liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. higher education quality council of ontario. website: http://books2.scholarsportal.info/viewdoc.html?id=/ebooks/ebooks0/gibson_cppc/201103-23/1/10443684# measuring the success of college transfer success at nipissing university, 1994-2005. (2007). college university consortium council website: www.cuccontario.ca/www/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/oncat_research_reports _17.pdf menard, k., liu, y., zhang, j., kielar, m. (2012). a longitudinal analysis of the college transfer pathway at mcmaster. student pathways in higher education conference proceedings (www.cuccontario.ca/www/index_en.php?page=student_pathways_conference_recap) policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system. ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities website: www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/eopg/publications/credittransfere.pdf 35 stewart, j. & martinello, f. (2012). are transfer students different? an examination of first year grades and course withdrawals. canadian journal of higher education, 42(1). 1-24.

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2015-15 pathways from conestogas health office administration diploma to conestogas bachelor of applied health information science march 15, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to establish an educational pathway between the health office administration diploma (hoa) to the bachelor of applied health information science (honours) (bahis). this project has further supported pathway development relevant to this broader scope of programs and institutions by leveraging processes and best practices learned to support pathway development from office administration medical (oam) programs into conestogas bachelor of applied health information science. project overview: phase one program mapping and gap analysis: the hoa program representatives provided relevant program design matrices, learning outcomes, and all course outlines for the hoa program to the bahis team. additionally, program maps demonstrating how the program learning outcomes are met through the individual program curriculum were supplied. conestoga recognizes that the hoa program has unique program standards, not applied across the ontario college system. to ensure this project provides transfer benefits across the province, the bahis team also compared provincial learning outcomes from oam, and used the program at mohawk as an exemplar for the gap analysis. during the analysis, it because evident that the hoa program also meets the office administration medical (329) provincial program outcomes. the bahis faculty completed a comprehensive gap analysis for both the hoa and oam pathways into bahis (appendix a), and the following recommendations were shared with the hoa team to ensure strong pathways between the programs: a) the following bridge course is appropriate for hoa and oam students, as shown in detail in appendix b: 1 course title course code delivery hours credits pathway bridge for bahis him 1030 15 1 phase two pathway development: the program teams recognize the importance of creating accessible pathways of education for students, while maintaining program integrity and providing for student success. phase two of the project included the development of a program pathway, including a bridge course, addressing the gaps in knowledge, skills or abilities identified through the gap analysis completed in stage one (appendix a). once the bridge was developed, the minimum gpa and other relevant eligibility standards for students seeking admission via the hoa pathway was determined. also identified were the courses for which transfer credit will be granted to students entering via the established pathway, as well as the remaining courses to be completed at conestoga. see appendix b for details regarding bridging curriculum and appendix c for complete pathway details. conestoga will utilize the same bridge and pathway parameters for an oam-bahis pathway, based on the similarity between the two gap analyses. the completion and publication of the oam pathway is outside of the scope of this project, but will be promoted on ontransfer.ca upon finalization. phase three: pathway publication and final report conestogas hoa and bahis teams have partnered to complete all analysis and conclusions that support the objectives of project 2015-15: pathways from conestogas health office administration diploma program to conestogas bachelor of applied health information science, including the additional development of medical office administration medical (329) diploma programs to conestogas bachelor of applied health information science (honours), including: a curriculum and gap analysis of the pathways (appendix a), a corresponding explanation of bridge curriculum and scheduling for the hoa pathway (appendix b), required pathway documentation (appendix c), and a detailed financial statement (provided in a separate excel sheet, as requested by oncat). conestoga will post complete hoa-bahis pathway details at ontransfer.ca on march 15, 2016. at that time, the credit transfer and registrar office will be appropriately informed of the new pathway details, per appendix c. conestoga will engage other ontario colleges with oam programs following the submission of this final report to oncat to confirm details and customize pathway eligibility, where necessary. conestoga is pleased to have leveraged best practices learned in the development process for the hoabahis pathway to inform the creation of an office administration medical to bahis pathway. the hoa program meets the oam provincial learning outcomes, and the gap analyses are almost identical. best practices and system-wide application: conestoga found the strategy taken in creating the pathway from hoa into bahis to be quite effective. the mapping tool (as provided in appendix a) provided not only clarity through the mapping process, but is easily understood by reviewers not involved in the mapping exercise. further, as the map provides information on both the program outcomes compared and the courses used to remediate gaps, the documentation can be reviewed for currency and updated with ease. conestoga has also used a pathway summary sheet (appendix c) as an internal document to capture key details of the pathway developed. this sheet is adapted from the required fields to post a pathway at ontransfer.ca. conestoga believes it to be a best practice to build on the expertise of oncat for the communication of this pathway to prospective students, other postsecondary institutions, and internally. the clean table format is also effective for conestogas central administration to post and store pathways within the ontransfer.ca and internal repositories, and serves as a strong snapshot for regulatory bodies, where required. conestogas bahis team had previously developed four pathways into the bahis program (him, cp, cpa, and set). the team has been able to refine its process and supporting documentation for pathway development and apply it to the hoa and oam pathway development to improve accuracy and efficiency. additionally, the bahis team have a high degree of familiarity with their own curriculum and mapping courses to their program outcomes. this familiarity comes from previous pathway development and a recent successful canadian health information management association accreditation process. this knowledge and experience improves the teams efficiency in mapping and gap analyses. finally, working with a program team (hoa) that is on the same campus as the bahis team improved the efficiency of the process. given the effectiveness of the process outlined above, conestoga was able to go beyond a viability analysis related to an office administration medical to bahis pathway, to conduct the full gap analysis and pathway development process using the oam program standards. the mapping to program standards ensures easy application to all compliant oam programs across the ontario college system, thus efficiently providing more benefits to the system as a whole. 3 appendix a: gap analysis for hoa and oam the following is a curriculum and gap analysis of both hoa to the bahis and oam to the bahis based on a learning outcomes framework. method: learning outcomes from conestogas hoa program were compared against the learning outcomes from the bahis degree. a gap analysis was done to identify hoa outcomes that achieved outcomes defined for bahis. for each bahis program outcome, gaps and their remediation were assessed and documented. please see the table a.1. gap analysis: health office administration program outcomes, below. when the gap analysis for the hoa to the bahis program was completed, the team subsequently followed the same process to compare provincial learning outcomes from oam to the bahis program. the team used mohawk colleges oam program for a more in depth review of courses. for each bahis program outcome, gaps and their remediation were assessed and documented. please see the table a.2 gap analysis: office administration medical (329) program outcomes, below. findings: many of the competencies developed in both the hoa and oam programs address the competencies of the bahis program. there are opportunities to exempt hoa and oam students from courses of a similar nature. recommendations: hoa and oam students require technical courses from the bahis degree such as clinical/information systems, databases, data, programming, and informatics to complete established degree requirements. conclusions: a pathway for hoa and oam students is feasible based on the capabilities of hoa and oam program graduates. much of the pathway design would focus on the technical curriculum in the bahis degree. a.1: gap analysis: health office administration program outcomes conestoga bachelor of applied health information science 1. apply theory and practice of managing data, information, and knowledge using appropriate information and communication technologies for the purpose of improving health care processes and decision-making to achieve better health of individuals, populations, communities, and society. 2. manage healthcare information systems, including planning, analysis, design, development, implementation, maintenance, and evaluation. 3. integrate healthcare information systems within and among various healthcare organizations. conestoga colleges health office administration diploma gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap apply specific administrative skills required to work in the medical, dental, and specialized health office environments. apply various approaches for managing health records in a variety of health care settings. demonstrate computer skills appropriate for non-medical and medical environments. the gap here is quite significant. while hoa/oam graduates will enter with strong knowledge and skills around health processes and environments; collecting, managing and utilizing data & information in healthcare settings; supporting and implementing knowledge management and decision support in health care contexts, they will be lacking considerable knowledge and skills pertaining to information and communication technologies. years 1 & 2: take full "information systems i & ii", "clinical systems i", "database concepts ii & iii" & "solving problems in hi" courses years 3 & 4: take full "health informatics ii & iii", "clinical systems ii", "systems integration", "hc quality improvement" & "advanced him" courses apply various approaches for managing health records in a variety of health care settings. the gap here is very significant, both in terms of depth and new material covered. an environmental scan of diploma courses indicates in most cases only 1 or 2 technology-centric courses, and if there are technical courses, they typically have no coverage of the analysis, design, development & implementation phases years 1 & 2: take full "clinical systems i", "information systems i & ii", "programming concepts i & ii", "database concepts ii & iii" courses years 3 & 4: take full "web applications development i & ii", "clinical systems ii" and "systems integration" courses apply various approaches for managing health records in a variety of health care settings. demonstrate computer skills appropriate for non-medical and medical environments. the gap here is very significant, both in terms of depth and new material covered. years 1 & 2: take full "clinical systems i", "information systems i & ii", "programming concepts i & ii", "database concepts ii & iii" courses years 3 & 4: take full "web applications development i & ii", "clinical systems ii" and "systems integration" courses 5 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science 4. assess, monitor and ensure the efficient operation and evolution of applications, core computer functions and networks in a variety of healthcare settings. 5. analyze, evaluate and apply best practices in health informatics and health information management in order to support client-centered, safe, high quality health care. conestoga colleges health office administration diploma demonstrate computer skills appropriate for non-medical and medical environments. demonstrate professional behaviour. apply the principles of health care terminology in both verbal and written form. demonstrate effective practice management skills in a variety of health office settings apply the integrated health and business knowledge and skills necessary to work in a variety of health settings demonstrate effective practice management skills in a variety of health office settings demonstrate the administrative and communication skills necessary to manage a patient care unit in the hospital setting. 6. integrate knowledge of the healthcare delivery system into functionality of health information systems and information management in health care. gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap the gap here is very significant, both in terms of depth and new material covered. a review of hoa diploma courses indicates in most cases only 1 or 2 courses with a technology focus. years 1 & 2: take full "clinical systems i", "information systems i & ii", "programming concepts i & ii", "database concepts i, ii & iii" courses years 3 & 4: take full "web applications development i & ii", "systems analysis & bpm", "clinical systems ii" and "systems integration", "it procurement" courses there is a gap in informatics theory, however, the gap is more in terms of depth in coverage. this will be covered through additional courses and a bridge course. years 1 & 2: take full "solving problems in hi" course years 3 & 4: take full "health informatics ii & iii" & "advanced him" courses no gap - outcome is fully accounted for no remediation required conestoga bachelor of applied health information science 7. apply biomedical and health concepts to the development of healthcare information systems and information management in health care. conestoga colleges health office administration diploma 8. apply the concepts of organizational behavior, culture, human relations, leadership, and change management to improve development, adoption, and management of health informatics solutions in health care. 9. communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with members of an inter-professional healthcare team. 10. apply the principles and skills of project management to health informatics and health information management initiatives. apply health teaching concepts in a variety of settings apply the principles of health care terminology in both verbal and written form demonstrate effective practice management skills in a variety of health office settings. demonstrate the administrative and communication skills necessary to manage a patient care unit in the hospital setting. communicate effectively with patients, their families, colleagues, the public and other members of the health care team. gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap the gap here is minimal. years 3 & 4: one module from "advanced him" course applied through the bridge course. this area is covered very well. the gap is more around more advanced tools and techniques in support of change management. years 3 & 4: take full "mgmt & org behaviour" and "change management" courses communicate effectively with patients, their families, colleagues, the public and other members of the health care team. no gap - outcome is fully accounted for no remediation required demonstrate effective practice management skills in a variety of health office settings. the gap here is significant years 3 & 4: take full "project mgmt" course 7 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science conestoga colleges health office administration diploma 11. adhere to professional, ethical and legal codes and standards, including ensuring privacy and confidentiality of health information. 12. create and deliver educational material to healthcare professionals in use of information technology to support and improve health care processes. 13. conduct and evaluate research using theory and practice of health informatics and health information management to contribute to evidence based practice in health care. 14. develop plans for lifelong learning and professional development. 15. apply health informatics and health information management knowledge and skills during work integrated learning opportunities in health care related organizations. demonstrate effective practice management skills in a variety of health office settings. the gap here is in terms of depth and application. apply health teaching concepts in a variety of settings. demonstrate professional behaviour. the gap here is minimal, and will be covered through application in a number of bahis courses. no outcomes apply here. no outcomes apply here. gap in knowledge and skills work effectively both independently and as a member of a health care team remediation of gap years 3 & 4: take full "security, privacy, and confidentiality" course years 1 & 2: presentations in courses such as hi i and solving problems in hi help develop these skills the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not well covered in the hoa diploma program so pathway students will have to complete all the degree material years 1 & 2: take full "introduction to data analysis" course years 3 & 4: take full "research methods & statistics", "epi, pop'n & public health" & "decision support in hc" courses gap here, if it exists at all, is small and can be closed through a variety of means during degree completion. can be acquired partially through extracurricular activities ahis students commonly engage in through memberships is groups as nihi's nsf and coach. it also comes through an attitude fostered in remaining completion courses. years 3 & 4: take full "adult training & education" course hoa students will have some experience through their field placement. however, there will be a gap here, especially in terms of the experiences. acquired throughout the work-integrated learning opportunities that arise in the remaining courses in the degree completion, as well as through co-op experience. a.2. gap analysis: office administration medical (329) program outcomes conestoga bachelor of applied health information science office administration - medical diploma (329) 1. apply theory and practice of managing data, information, and knowledge using appropriate information and communication technologies for the purpose of improving health care processes and decision-making to achieve better health of individuals, populations, communities, and society. 2. manage healthcare information systems, including planning, analysis, design, development, implementation, maintenance, and evaluation. gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap apply scheduling, task coordination, and organizational skills to facilitate the completion of tasks and to meet deadlines in the medical environment. establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. coordinate the organizing, processing, and responding to electronic and paper communications to facilitate the flow of information in the medical environment. the gap here is quite significant. while oam graduates will enter with strong knowledge and skills around health processes and environments; collecting, managing and utilizing data & information in healthcare settings; supporting and implementing knowledge management and decision support in health care contexts, they will be lacking considerable knowledge and skills pertaining to information and communication technologies. years 1 & 2: take full "information systems i & ii", "clinical systems i", "database concepts ii & iii" & "solving problems in hi" courses years 3 & 4: take full "health informatics ii & iii", "clinical systems ii", "systems integration", "hc quality improvement" & "advanced him" courses establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. . the gap here is very significant, both in terms of depth and new material covered. an environmental scan of diploma courses indicates in most cases only 1 or 2 technology-centric courses, and if there are technical courses, they typically have no coverage of the analysis, design, development & implementation phases years 1 & 2: take full "clinical systems i", "information systems i & ii", "programming concepts i & ii", "database concepts ii & iii" courses years 3 & 4: take full "web applications development i & ii", "clinical systems ii" and "systems integration" courses 9 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science office administration - medical diploma (329) 3. integrate healthcare information systems within and among various healthcare organizations. 4. assess, monitor and ensure the efficient operation and evolution of applications, core computer functions and networks in a variety of healthcare settings 5. analyze, evaluate and apply best practices in health informatics and health information management in order to support client-centered, safe, high quality health care. establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. provide technical support and training related to computer software to others in the medical environment as required. gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap the gap here is very significant, both in terms of depth and new material covered. years 1 & 2: take full "clinical systems i", "information systems i & ii", "programming concepts i & ii", "database concepts ii & iii" courses years 3 & 4: take full "web applications development i & ii", "clinical systems ii" and "systems integration" courses provide technical support and training related to computer software to others in the medical environment as required. use the internet and its tools in a medical environment to enhance communication and business opportunities. the gap here is very significant, both in terms of depth and new material covered. a review of oam diploma courses indicates in most cases only 1 or 2 courses with a technology focus. years 1 & 2: take full "clinical systems i", "information systems i & ii", "programming concepts i & ii", "database concepts i, ii & iii" courses years 3 & 4: take full "web applications development i & ii", "systems analysis & bpm", "clinical systems ii" and "systems integration", "it procurement" courses establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. coordinate the organizing, processing, and responding to electronic and paper communications to facilitate the flow of information in the medical environment. use effective interpersonal skills in the workplace to assist the completion of there is a gap in informatics theory, however, the gap is more in terms of depth in coverage. this will be covered through additional courses and a bridge course. years 1 & 2: take full "solving problems in hi" course years 3 & 4: take full "health informatics ii & iii" & "advanced him" courses conestoga bachelor of applied health information science office administration - medical diploma (329) gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap individual and team tasks and to promote the image of the organization. 6. integrate knowledge of the healthcare delivery system into functionality of health information systems and information management in health care. 7. apply biomedical and health concepts to the development of healthcare information systems and information management in health care. establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. coordinate the organizing, processing, and responding to electronic and paper communications to facilitate the flow of information in the medical environment. use the internet and its tools in a medical environment to enhance communication and business opportunities. establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. coordinate the organizing, processing, and responding to electronic and paper communications to facilitate the flow of information in the medical environment. produce accurate medical no gap - outcome is fully accounted for no remediation required the gap here is minimal. years 3 & 4: one module from "advanced him" course applied through the bridge course. 11 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science office administration - medical diploma (329) 8. apply the concepts of organizational behavior, culture, human relations, leadership, and change management to improve development, adoption, and management of health informatics solutions in health care. correspondence and reports by a specified deadline using available computer technology as well as by applying recording, editing, and language skills. apply scheduling, task coordination, and organizational skills to facilitate the completion of tasks and to meet deadlines in the medical environment. establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. coordinate the organizing, processing, and responding to electronic and paper communications to facilitate the flow of information in the medical environment. use effective interpersonal skills in the workplace to assist the completion of individual and team tasks and to promote the image of the organization. gap in knowledge and skills this area is covered very well. the gap is more around more advanced tools and techniques in support of change management. remediation of gap years 3 & 4: take full "mgmt & org behaviour" and "change management" courses conestoga bachelor of applied health information science office administration - medical diploma (329) 9. communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with members of an inter-professional healthcare team. 10. apply the principles and skills of project management to health informatics and health information management initiatives. 11. adhere to professional, ethical and legal codes and standards, including ensuring privacy and confidentiality of health information. produce accurate medical correspondence and reports by a specified deadline using available computer technology as well as by applying recording, editing, and language skills. use effective interpersonal skills in the workplace to assist the completion of individual and team tasks and to promote the image of the organization. use effective interpersonal skills in the workplace to assist the completion of individual and team tasks and to promote the image of the organization. troubleshoot and show initiative in the creation and production of accurate, organized medical documents within a specified time frame. establish and maintain data management systems to organize electronic and paper records for the medical environment. coordinate the organizing, processing, and responding to electronic and paper communications to facilitate the flow of information in the medical environment. gap in knowledge and skills remediation of gap no gap - outcome is fully accounted for no remediation required the gap here is significant years 3 & 4: take full "project mgmt" course the gap here is in terms of depth and application. years 3 & 4: take full "security, privacy, and confidentiality" course 13 conestoga bachelor of applied health information science office administration - medical diploma (329) 12. create and deliver educational material to healthcare professionals in use of information technology to support and improve health care processes. 13. conduct and evaluate research using theory and practice of health informatics and health information management to contribute to evidence based practice in health care. 14. develop plans for lifelong learning and professional development. 15. apply health informatics and health information management knowledge and skills during work integrated learning opportunities in health care related organizations. troubleshoot and show initiative in the creation and production of accurate, organized medical documents within a specified time frame. provide technical support and training related to computer software to others in the medical environment as required. no outcomes apply here. no outcomes apply here. demonstrate administrative skills to enhance the effective operation of the workplace. gap in knowledge and skills the gap here is minimal, and will be covered through application in a number of bahis courses. remediation of gap years 1 & 2: presentations in courses such as hi i and solving problems in hi help develop these skills the gap here is complete - i.e. this is an area not well covered in the oam diploma program so pathway students will have to complete all the degree material years 1 & 2: take full "introduction to data analysis" course years 3 & 4: take full "research methods & statistics", "epi, pop'n & public health" & "decision support in hc" courses gap here, if it exists at all, is small and can be closed through a variety of means during degree completion. can be acquired partially through extracurricular activities ahis students commonly engage in through memberships is groups as nihi's nsf and coach. it also comes through an attitude fostered in remaining completion courses. years 3 & 4: take full "adult training & education" course oam students will have some experience through their field placement. however, there will be a gap here, especially in terms of the experiences. acquired throughout the work-integrated learning opportunities that arise in the remaining courses in the degree completion, as well as through co-op experience. a.3 progression through hoa program pathway to bachelor of applied health information science health office administration/office administration medical (329) diploma pathway sequence (based on 2014 design) hoa_s1_fall clinical systems i database concepts ii health informatics i information systems 1 introduction to data analysis epidemiology, population & public health (op: heal73000) hoa_s2_winter database concepts iii health information management ii information systems ii information technology procurement programming concepts i solving problems in hi hoa_s3_spring co-op term hoa_s4_fall co-op & career preparation (no credit) health informatics ii programming concepts ii research methods & statistics systems analysis & design web application development i management & org behaviour (op: bus71220) program requirements and exemptions y1/s1/fall exempted courses academic communications biomedical concepts i health information management 1 required health informatics i information systems 1 y1/s2/winter exempted courses database concepts i governance & structures of hc systems group dynamics required information systems ii programming concepts i solving problems in hi y2/s3/fall exempted courses biomedical concepts iii professional communication required clinical systems i database concepts ii 15 hoa_s5_winter clinical systems ii decision support in health care health information management iii security, privacy & confidentiality systems integration web application development ii hoa_s6_spring breadth elective change management conflict management health care quality improvement health informatics iii visual design exempt academic communications biomedical concepts iii biomedical concepts i biomedical concepts iii breadth elective co-op term database concepts i governance & structures of hc systems group dynamics health informatics field studies health information management 1 professional communication project management user training & adult education introduction to data analysis programming concepts ii y2/s4/winter exempted courses biomedical concepts iii health informatics field studies user training & adult education required database concepts iii health information management ii y3/s5/fall exempted courses breadth elective required co-op & career preparation (no credit) health informatics ii research methods & statistics systems analysis & design web application development i y3/s6/winter exempted courses breadth elective project management required information technology procurement web application development ii required (alternate) management & org behaviour (op: bus71220) epidemiology, population & public health (op: heal73000) y3/s7/spring required co-op term y4/s10/spring required breadth elective change management conflict management health care quality improvement health informatics iii visual design y4/s8/fall exempted courses co-op term y4/s9/winter exempted courses breadth elective required clinical systems ii decision support in health care health information management iii security, privacy & confidentiality systems integration 17 appendix b: bridging documentation there will be one bridging course available, as listed below. course title him 1030 course code pathway bridge for bahis course description this course serves as a bridge to diploma students who are beginning conestogas bachelor of applied health information science degree program. the course will enable students to use professional communication skills through the review of the fundamentals of healthcare, information technology and relational databases. course outcomes successful completion of this course will enable the student to: demonstrate professional communication skills, verbally and in writing describe the complexities of information technology and its application to healthcare. describe the canadian healthcare system as a human system. discuss trends in healthcare and healthcare information technology. identify types of health information systems, and vendors that develop them. design and use a relational database. appendix c: pathway documentation c.1. hoa bahis pathway details pathway details title of pathway: from: health office administration use official program/credential titles to: bachelor of applied health information science pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: conestoga college august 2016 bahis 1601 program design this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating bahis 1601. program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/1131c.jsp program coordinator: justin st-maurice (519) 748-5220 ext: 2593 jstmaurice@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: dianne gross, (519) 748-5220 ext: 3660 dgross@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the 2-year diploma in health office administration with a minimum b average may apply for advanced standing into the bachelor of applied health science in health informatics management degree. once they are given an offer of admission by conestoga, applicants must successfully complete a bridging module consisting of 1 week of full-time studies at the end of august before beginning full-time studies in september. the bridging module consists of a 45 hour course comprised of lectures and a project. students enter into a modified year 3. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 3.0 (b average) minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: n/a 46 19 co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 3 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 3 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 2 total number of p r o g r a m courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of p r o g r a m courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 15 out of 46 courses transfer credit will be granted for the first two years of the bachelor of applied health information science program with the exception of the following courses: health informatics l, information systems i, information systems ii, programming concepts i, solving problems in hi, clinical systems l, database concepts ii, introduction to data analysis, programming concepts ii, database concepts iii, and health information management li. these courses must be completed in addition to the regular year 3 and 4 courses. year 3 and 4 credits will be granted for 2 breadth electives, and project management. credit will be given for 1 of 2 co-op terms. 31 out of 46 courses and 1 co-op term (include the bridge course) all required courses listed in appendix b. anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled fulltime: number of academic semesters: 5 + 1 co-op list of eligible institutions and their programs conestoga college: - health office administration number of years: 2

2016 hob transfer agreement steering committee cookson, jeannine ma developing & implementing system-wide transfer agreements in ontario colleges the lessons learned - executive summary hob transfer agreement steering committee developing & implementing systemwide transfer agreements in ontario colleges the lessons learned cookson, jeannine ma executive summary in september of 2013 the 24 ontario colleges delivering business programs had agreed to four, system- level transfer agreements. these agreements would allow students in specific programming areas, the ability to seamlessly transfer from one college to another college within the same program. transfers could occur at the completion of year 1 or at the completion of year 2, without academic penalty or impact to completion time. as this was the first of such agreements in ontario, this project would serve to implement the 4 college-to-college business transfer agreements, engage participating stakeholders and provide a road map for other agreements of this nature. the original goal of the project was to achieve the implementation through three key milestones, management, integration and establishing a method to maintain/sustain these agreements. management the primary focus under management of the pilot implementation project was ensuring the equitable, timely implementation of the agreements across the province. it should be well noted, the ontransfer.ca site at the beginning of this project was in its infancy as it related to transfer agreements of this magnitude. at the same time, the heads of business hob, agreements were being forged and signed, oncat was developing the ontransfer.ca pathways site. since both were crafted independently of each other, the first goal was to ensure there would be a template for the crafting of future agreements. in addition, the communication of these agreements had been sporadic and required a defined communication framework to ensure all stakeholders were informed of agreements during their development. integration the implementation project, spear headed by the heads of business needed to ensure a broad outreach to all stake holders, from chairs, to admissions officers to pathway advisors to program coordinators. through college workshops and the development of specific tools like; curriculum pathway guides, presentations, word documents and ongoing updates, each college began to explore their specific internal processes. essentially ensuring each college had the tools necessary to interpret and implement the agreements as written. 2 hob transfer agreement steering committee maintain/sustainability the ultimate goal for these and other agreements is their long term sustainability. it should be noted that had it not been for the reciprocity and enthusiasm of the heads of business, agreements of this nature may not have been forged. it will be that same commitment that will continue to ensure every effort will be taken so that no student will be disadvantaged, should they chose to transfer now and in the future. in august 2014, a project manager was secured to provide the colleges with a single point of contact, to help ensure consistency in interpretation and implementation of the agreements across all 24 colleges, simultaneously. however, prior to the colleges complete understanding of the nuances of the agreements and the implementation hurdles facing them when admitting students, colleges ontario and oncat announced the signing of these exemplary agreements on november 24th, 2014. this early announcement, necessitated a pilot implementation process that would not be the ideal example for other system wide pathways. throughout the implementation journey, a number of success were achieved; a communication framework for college-to-college pathways and the terms of reference for the transfer agreement steering committee were developed and approved. all 24 business schools in the ontario colleges have greater curriculum transparency. in addition the colleges in general, are better prepared to recognize and implement these and other agreements. in addition to the successes, a number of hurdles were also uncovered, which if unaddressed will negatively impact the sustainability of these agreements in the long term. many of these hurdles are beyond the scope of the heads of business. through the documenting of this journey and the lessons learned along the way, recommendations have been made, that if addressed, could serve to assist in the sustainability of these agreements and future development of other agreements. 3

1 three-partner collaborative evaluation of student transition, performance, experience, and outcomes in practical nursing (pn) nursing degree (bscn) bridging education phase 1, 2 and 3 reports sue coffey, rn, phd (uoit), gail lindsay, rn, phd (uoit), susan sproul, rn, mscn (durham) et al. university of ontario institute of technology (uoit), durham college and georgian college 2012 1. outline of the study this study of practical nursing diploma graduate transfer student performance, experience, and outcomes in nursing degree (bscn) completion has focused on 5 key areas of inquiry: understanding the transfer student population, tracking the student experience through the degree completion process, identifying facilitators and barriers to success, assessing the use and effectiveness of student supports and services, and investigating student perceptions of changes in self and professional roles. the focus of this study is the pn-bscn pathway to the uoit bscn offered on both the uoit/durham and georgian campuses. the programs offered at both campuses include a common nursing/ science/ english bridge program, provide a common curriculum, pursue the same learning outcomes and employ consistent block credit practice (with 59% of diploma graduates receiving the basic 30 33 block transfer credits and 41% receiving additional transfer credits). while all students are completing the same degree, the phase 1 report outlines some significant differences in the student experience including: a full-time 8 consecutive semester option, a part-time 12 non-consecutive semester alternative, a variety of bridging, technology use, and integration strategies, and different campus support services. the uoit, durham and georgian data referenced in this study is drawn from the academic history, registration, grade level, and graduation information for 432 students admitted between 2005 and 20121. critical and complementary to institutional data are written and telephone survey results capturing a range of student and graduate demographic, perception and satisfaction information. in addition, employer agencies were polled regarding their experiences with their rpn employee participation in the program and the support offered to them. (phase 3 report, p. 3) the findings of the studys three separate phases are integrated and summarized below. 1 data collection for the collaborative bscn began as early as 2003 (phase 1 report, p.14) 2 2. findings the reports note significant and even dramatic differences between student survey responses by campus. some of these differences are attributed to program type (phase 2 report, p. 47) and others to the nature of on-campus services and regional resources. this summary reports aggregate data except where differences are particularly instructive to the broader understanding of the transfer process. 2.1 the student population based on survey responses, students in the pn-bscn program range in age from 18 to 58 with a mean age of 32 years, median of 33 and mode of 22. forty two percent are enrolled at the georgian campus and 58% at oshawas uoit/durham. male students are in the minority (8%). close to one-third entered the program from full-time employment and most have never attended university. over half (57.1%) describe their current specialization as hospital based care; 29.3% as long term care/gerontology; 7.6% as community-based care; and 6% as rehabilitation. (phase 2 report, p. 24) the overall admission average is 80.9% ranging from 65% to 98%. (phase 3 report, pp. 30 31) a large proportion of these students have external stresses and obligations. their commute time to campus is between and just over an hour. over half are married; an equal proportion have dependent care responsibilities; close to one-third work full-time; and another 45% work part-time most in nursing. beyond their studies, they report working an average of 27.5 hours per week. the mean and mode of family income fall within the $30,000 to $50,000 range and close to one-quarter average less than $30,000 (phase 2 report, p.3). 82% of the students anticipate graduating with student debt and, on average, anticipate that this will approach $20,000. financial pressures are significant. students are typically balancing full-time employment, studying full-time and often caring for multiple dependents (phase 2 report, p. 49). despite external stresses and obligations, these students see their program in a very positive light. 2.2 transfer student experience and success the analysis of entrance and ongoing program gpas for 7 years beginning in 2005 found that the pnbscn bridging students perform not only at a comparable level [to those in the collaborative program], but in almost all cases at a significantly superior level. (phase 1 report, p. 15) there is a flattening of this trend in ethics and leadership courses: this raises questions of not only learning new material but unlearning old ideas. even with working an average of 27.5 hours per week, 77% of the graduates complete the program in 3 years. there is evidence that 41% of transfer students receiving more than the minimum transfer credit are more likely to be successful (phase 1 report, pp. 16 & 29) with an average bridge grade of 78.23%. (phase 3 report, p. 34). transfer students with previous university exposure are more likely to complete the degree (92%) than those with no previous university exposure (76%). 3 students in this program experience challenges and stress related to managing multiple demands on their time (phase 2 report, p. 3). it follows that on average they demonstrate a higher attrition rate, most of that being in the bridge term, (phase 3 report, p. 4) and require more time to degree completion than those in the collaborative bscn program. the reports on this research frequently return to the observation that a higher proportion of pn-bscn students in good academic standing drop out, stop out2, and/or take longer to complete degree study. they recommend that this significantly different pattern of program completion warrants further research. all pn-bscn graduates who were interviewed have passed the rn examination, 97% on the first try. (phase 3 report, p. 34) students report the university learning requirements and expectations as significantly different than most students had previously experienced in college. these differences relate both to level of difficulty, and to the expectations of independence and self-directedness (phase 2 report, p.34). the study notes that this is most strongly felt in the first 2 years and is replaced in year 3 by feelings of confidence and mastery (p. 4). the student survey responses also suggest that in years 1 and 2 resistance to change is followed by excitement and encouragement around positive personal and professional change (p. 32). 2.3 facilitators and barriers to success this study considered three categories of factors that could facilitate or block success: employment, personal, and academic. employment factors: possibly reflecting the nature of regional employment opportunities, student perceptions differed significantly by campus. by combining the data, however, the most often cited employment factors that promote success are: work schedule flexibility (reported by 68% of the respondents), work support for continuing education (66.7%), job security (62.1%), and peer attitude to continuing education (60%). (phase 2 report, p. 36) given the time and financial pressures these students are under, it is not surprising that work schedule flexibility is the most often cited workplace factor in promoting success and its absence is the most significant barrier. other factors promoting success and facilitating flexibility include: i) access to a vehicle; ii) a stable family income; iii) access to public transit; and iv) child care. (phase 2 report, p. 48) personal factors: the study found that the most often cited personal factors that promote success are: personal traits such as determination (91.6%), technical skills (81.5%), family support (81.3%), writing skills (77.5%), 2 stop-out is used here to describe students in good academic standing who do not enrol in their program for one or several semesters and return later to continue their studies. 4 work-life balance (76.1%), colleague support (62.8%), and employer support (60.2%). (phase 2 report, p.27) when considering barriers to success, students were most likely to report: employer support (21.9%), colleague support (14.8%), and work-life balance (14.6%). (phase 2 report, p. 39). reflecting the relatively low to moderate income for students, despite their continued employment throughout the program (phase 2 report, p. 26), they most frequently report financial challenges, particularly any instability in family income, as barriers to success. about 2/3 of the students are scholarship and/or grant recipients, largely reflective of the one-time-only nursing education initiative funding of $1500 provided by the ministry of health and longterm care that is available to nurses seeking ongoing education. academic factors: the reports data shows dramatic differences by campus but over 60% of students from both campuses identified the following as important academic facilitators of their success: the program coordinator, online learning and class format, face-to-face learning and class format, clinical learning, overall program of study, and scheduling of classes (including day, time and location). based on aggregated data, students are most likely to access, and to highly rank the effectiveness of the program coordinator, faculty, and academic advisors. 2.4 supports and services the campus-to-campus comparison of the perceptions and levels of use of supports and services3, highlights a disconnect at one campus between a comparatively low rate of support service access and a high frequency of recommending the provision of additional support services. the report recommends that the underlying cause for this disconnect needs to be addressed. more generally, students at both campuses were most likely to access the faculty, the program coordinator and the academic advisor. not surprisingly, the services that are most utilized are also most highly evaluated (phase 2 report, p. 62). 2.5 student experience of changes to self and professional role first year students particularly noted changes in their perspective (the development of different ways of looking at issues and adapting to them (phase 2 report, p. 64)) and time management was a theme 3 those interested in the significantly different student perceptions and levels of use of services and program supports provided at the georgian and uoit/durham campuses should reference the phase 2 report. 5 in responses. throughout their program, students describe increasingly positive personal attributes that they see as part of their role and self-identification as a professional (p. 5); increased confidence, knowledge and critical thinking abilities (p. 64). there was also an increased focus on application of theory and research to practice and a growing appreciation of the need to make independent decisions about the care they provide (p. 66). finally, students found themselves growing as professionals: broadening their focus, becoming lifelong learners, becoming more professional, and seeing the potential for career advancement (p. 66). enhanced confidence, ability to plan ahead, and capacity for caring was also noted. particularly in year 3, the issue of stress management became significant. 2012 surveys of recent graduates identified several themes related to their transition from student to professional and from pn to rn. these include: the heightened professional expectations of them, the greater demand for critical thinking and a broader perspective in their work, a stronger focus on inter-professional collaboration, a greater requirement to draw upon their leadership knowledge and skills, and the challenges of bringing new knowledge into practice in an environment that may not be open to change. 2.6 employer perceptions employers of the pn-bscn program graduates agree that support for employees to enhance their professional credentials reflects well on the employers. the most frequently mentioned employer supports involve flexible workloads (including educational leaves-of-absence) and financial assistance (including scholarships and bursaries). while these were the two challenges with which employers are able to offer assistance, employer respondents also raised concerns about the difficulty of employee/students in the program maintaining a healthy work-life balance. 2.7 predictors of program success this study identified significant positive relationships between bridge gpa and both entrance gpa and the additional transfer credit awarded upon admission. (phase 3 report, pp. 4 & 41-42) the authors, however, found no significant difference in mean admission gpa for students who have completed the program verses those who [withdrew] (phase 3 report, p. 4). their findings support the conclusion that admission gpa is a positive predictor of gpa at graduation but it does not predict persistence in the program. the study further grouped students by the college from which they earned their pn and compared their admission and bridge program gpas. in this comparison, student bridge program gpas range from being 4% higher to 7% lower than their college gpa. (phase 3 report, p. 36) on average, however, bridge program gpas are only several percentage points lower than their pn gpa. 3. broader conclusions about transfer the authors of this report have refrained from extrapolating their findings in an effort to draw broader conclusions about transfer students in general. the findings, however, highlight the significant financial, academic and life-balance pressures faced by mature students in higher education particularly by women in professional programs. they include student perceptions of their own challenges and growth through the years of their degree studies in a way that can be used to inform the academic planning of 6 other transfer pathways. the study further describes student perceptions of success facilitators and barriers and the resources and supports seen to be most needed, accessed and helpful. concurrently, the study offers an object lesson on the variation of student views, insights into the needs that can be anticipated, a thoughtful analytical methodology, and campus-specific baselines for the study of similar programs. in this, the study better informs both admission decisions and the design of student advisory and support services. it contributes to the greater evidence-based insight [needed] into students who undertake non-traditional paths to university education ... [who] arrive with both life experience and life demands that play into academic success [and] may be critical to both curricular development and student support. (phase 3 report, p. 44)

transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries university of toronto/ontario institute for studies in education (oise) christine helen arnold 2012 outline of the study this research examines the extent to which the ontario college-to-university transfer information system is performing efficiently and identifies symmetries (congruities) and asymmetries (incongruities) in stakeholders (government, agencies, institutional administrators and students) understanding of this process (p. 9). specifically, the study focuses on transfer literacy the ability to comprehend credit transfer procedures, policies and outcomes. it refers to a set of knowledge and skills that allow individuals to advise and/or make informed decisions about admission and the mobilization of academic credits between colleges and universities to avoid the repetition of coursework, lack of financial assistance and misaligned institutional and program fit (p. 8-9). as a lens to analyze and interpret results, the study utilizes concepts from contract theory, a branch of economic research which investigates how stakeholders interact and form contractual arrangements often in the presence of asymmetric information (p. 19). a qualitative methodology was employed, which included both a review of over 70 documents representative of credit transfer deliberations in the province from 1999-2012, as well as focus groups with institutional administrators involved in the advisement of students and/or the evaluation of transfer credit. overall, 13 ontario postsecondary institutions (six colleges and seven universities) participated in this research (p. 16). the process involved: 1) documentation of information needs and responsibilities, 2) analysis of the degree of completeness in terms of the effectiveness and sustainability of existing and relevant information, 3) identification of internal and external factors that impact on performance and the formation of an action plan (p. 20). the research establishes a baseline of credit transfer information that government, agencies and institutions view as being necessary to navigate the transfer system (p. 14). in areas where information/knowledge problems were found to exist among government, agencies, institutions and students, strategies have been recommended to address the imbalances. findings symmetries: similar credit transfer arguments, concepts and priorities were named and elaborated upon by government/agencies and institutional administrators. the documents reviewed outline guidelines for the acceptance of college coursework, timelines for completion and strategies for the creation and maintenance of college-university relations (p. 28). institutional administrators also collectively discussed these guiding principles. symmetries were further identified with regard to information about admissions, articulation and transfer models in ontario. institutional responsibility to offer admission to those students whose academic backgrounds indicate that they are likely to succeed in university programs was discussed in detail (p. 28). the elements identified as being necessary for admission by both stakeholder groups include: gpa, programspecific criteria, external accreditation requirements, workplace demands and available seats in university programs (p. 28). symmetries regarding articulation and transfer models centered on programming, learning outcomes, innovation, trust and respect, governance and shared resources (p. 28-29). additionally, this research identified a few specific symmetries existent between institutional administrators and students that contribute to the success of some transfer pathways. this appears to be particularly true for pathways defined by well-publicized articulation agreements. typically, students in successful pathways that have been informed of gpa requirements and transfer expectations during their diploma studies recognize the value of combining diploma and degree coursework and appreciate that transferring under an agreement will optimize their transferable academic credits. however, even in these instances, the inconsistent provision of information and use of varying terminology can be difficult for students to comprehend and apply (p. 32). asymmetries: the study also identified a number of asymmetries in which different levels of knowledge appear to erode the effectiveness of the transfer process. asymmetries were identified between government/agencies and institutional administrators in areas where administrators (government) would directly benefit from additional information about the credit transfer process from government (administrators). these incongruities would be addressed by: expansion of institutional credit review procedures via internal centralized databases for course-to-course transfer and posting on the ontario postsecondary transfer guide, which will require annual review for the distribution of accurate credit evaluation information (p. 30); provision of informational resources regarding electronic administrative management systems/degree planning tools (p. 30) to streamline the submission of credit transfer applications and required documentation, posting of evaluation results, viewing of academic history and degree planning in consideration of awarded credit (p. 30); implementation of a comprehensive research agenda including the institutional tracking of transfer students across all colleges and universities (p. 30). since this research concluded, government and oncat have worked with institutions to construct, populate and disseminate information regarding course-to-course transfer. what once was a sizeable asymmetry is now being partially remedied. management systems/planning tools and data initiatives are receiving attention but will require much work. asymmetries were identified between institutional administrators and students in areas where students would directly benefit from additional information about the credit transfer process from administrators (government). while there is an expectation that students should have welldeveloped transfer literacy in order to navigate the admissions and transfer process, administrators revealed that increased and clarifying information is required at times. as a result, the report notes that students can find the credit transfer process to be baffling (p. 25). asymmetries between administrators and transfer students that contribute to confusion were identified in eight overarching areas: 1) evaluation of credits (advanced standing, direct entry, equivalency, etc.); 2) application process and required documentation; 3) credit transfer portfolio (location, unit[s] and personnel involved); 4) gpa calculation; 5) reach backs; 6) degree and program requirements; 7) variations in structure (program and institution type); 8) policies and affiliated terminology (p. 34). administrators provided several examples of items students struggle to comprehend within each area. these include: limitations to the acceptability of college diploma/degree credits for university credit. credits will generally not be accepted on a one-for-one basis, and typically must meet affinity, prerequisite and gpa requirements (p. 6); credit transfer terminology used by universities (p. 5), a requirement which would be aided by enhancing the clarity and consistency in the various credit transfer terms used within the system (p. 20); location of sites where information is housed (p. 5); nature of the process competitive and multistage with unique demands at each juncture (p. 5). each course and/or program choice can potentially limit the use of transfer credits (p. 50); relationships among program options, future graduate education and career goals (p. 5); greater flexibility inherent in university programs compared to college and the attendant obligation to take responsibility for enrolling in all coursework, selecting electives and meeting breadth requirements (p. 6). the study identifies several challenges that need to be considered when framing a plan of action. first, protocols governing students private information and institutional program records can have the effect of limiting the retrieval of academic documentation that would round out and verify a students past education and credit transfer application(s) (p. 46). second, academic regulations such as those that inhibit the transfer of college degree credits for university credit, are generally not posted publicly (p. 47). third, heterogeneity in academic regulations across institutions, (including those related to grading scales, gpa calculations, credit values/weight, credit evaluation fees and timing, course repeats and declarations of previous postsecondary education) often results in disconnected advising practices (p. 47). lastly, high school guidance counsellors are a critical link in the communications channel and may not always possess current and complete information required to assist students with their postsecondary education choices (p. 49). the report details the themes summarized above and adds insight by including supporting statements from the focus groups. recommendations the study offers six substantial recommendations for the improvement of transfer literacy among stakeholders: 1) develop a searchable centralized database for identifying previous student registrations and the electronic archiving of course outlines/descriptions to assist advisors when conducting transfer credit evaluations. 2) institute and publicly post policies regarding the evaluation of applied degree credits at ontario universities to reflect the changing degree granting role and responsibilities of colleges. 3) establish more transparent and system-wide academic regulations across institutions to assist both institutional administrators and students in their efforts to bridge disconnected institutional practices. 4) educate students about credit transfer pathways and institutional offerings earlier in their educational careers so both high school guidance counsellors and students understand the function and flexibility of a postsecondary education. 5) create standard credit transfer terminology as a key step in the clarification of articulation agreements and transfer models. 6) open communication lines and resource sharing among college and university credit transfer advisors/counsellors to enhance understanding of the relationship between degree and program requirements and the application of transfer credits earned through prior study (p. 7).

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca executive summary oncat project 2014-22 pathways from the software engineering technology diploma program at centennial college to the bachelor of applied health information science degree at conestoga college december 23, 2014 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) and centennial college (centennial) have worked in partnership to establish educational pathways from centennials software engineering technician diploma program (hereafter set) into conestogas bachelor of applied health information science program (hereafter bahis). students from centennials program will be required to take 5 academic semesters, and 1 coop semester.

pathway transfer to postsecondary executive summary

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2016-32 enhancing the psw to pn bridge through responsive pathway redesign december 22, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to enhance an educational pathway between the personal support worker certificates (psw) to conestogas practical nursing diploma program (pn). the goal of this project was to redesign a pathway to the practical nursing (pn) diploma for personal support workers (psw). through an integrated program design, curriculum was intentionally developed to meet the diverse learning needs of the personal support worker. the implementation of the new psw to pn redesign and related curriculum enhances the student experience while ensuring that graduates obtain the knowledge, skills, and judgement to successfully complete the canadian practical nursing registration exam. standardized admission processes further strengthened the bridge resulting in what we expect will be improved student retention and success. this unique pathway provides opportunities for psws to continue to work parttime gaining valuable experience in the healthcare field, while working towards their diploma; typically requiring one to two days per week. this certificate to diploma pathway provides students an opportunity to explore health care as a psw, helping meet their goals of becoming a nurse, for those wishing to do so. the opportunity to provide highly engaging and interactive learning opportunities allows psws to engage in continuing education and has implications for meeting needsbased workforce demands. this format will engage students who may otherwise be unable to enter fulltime programming. it is our intent to increase student retention and success by strengthening integrated knowledgepractice learning by utilizing online, clinical and simulationbased learning opportunities. improved retention, student success and satisfaction were key priorities of this pathway redesign. this pathway redesign strengthens both the academic rigor of the pathway and better supports the needs and expectations of our future students. 1

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2015-14 pathways from policing and security diplomas to conestogas bachelor of community and criminal justice program march 24, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to establish educational pathways for students holding a two year diploma from police foundations (pf) or protection, security and investigation (psi) programs into the bachelor of community and criminal justice (bccj) program. as part of its cyclical renewal process, the bccj program recently updated its program design to strengthen both its capacity to prepare graduates for the changing landscape of community and criminal justice, and to improve opportunities for graduates of pf and psi programs to enter the degree program at a more advanced level. the latter was intended to better align diploma-to-degree pathways with student expectations of a two-plus-two post-secondary education opportunity. the focus of the present project was to consider and identify how pathways to the updated bccj design could be strengthened to benefit the widest range of students across the province, while recognizing that the provincial program standards for the pf (mtcu funding code 53008, august, 2012) and the psi (mtcu funding code 53007, january, 2010) programs may not emphasize community/ social justice aspects of policing and security to the extent that conestoga has incorporated them as important elements of the renewed bccj program design. while both of these broad areas continue to emphasize sector specific knowledge and instrumental skills in their in-house training programs, recruitment goals are evolving towards an emphasis on more integrated perspectives and softer skill sets deemed essential to effective practice within increasingly diverse and collaborative environments beset by complex issues that challenge unitary perspectives. the current project resulted in several useful results: a) a clearer articulation of the criteria and corresponding rationale for advanced standing entry into the updated bccj program from pf and psi diploma programs; b) better defined bridging courses to enable this pathway; and c) a better sense of which pf and psi diploma programs are best positioned for advanced standing entry to the bccj program through the specified bridge. as anticipated, only a segment of current pf and psi diploma programs would lend themselves to enhanced advanced standing entry into year 3 of the updated bccj program. based on our analysis, the majority of these programs either: a) lack published information to enable a detailed fit/gap assessment, and/or b) continue to emphasize a more traditional, specialized and instrumental approach to education that 1 does not overtly incorporate theory or applied strategies of community wellbeing, and the correspondingly blended and collaborating roles for public and private safety practitioners, as emphasized in the bccj. however, this project can support further pathway development from the remaining programs by identifying the features of policing and security focused diploma streams that appear best aligned, not only with existing provincial program standards, but with the community justice and inter-professional elements conestoga believes to be of emerging value as sector needs evolve and become refined across ontario.

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2015-18 pathways between ontario woodworking postsecondary programs and cabinetmaking trade curriculum march 15, 2016 project overview: phase one program mapping: the partner institution project members visited conestoga on december 2, 2015 to tour the woodworking facilities, discuss project expectations, and confirm timelines and individual responsibilities for gap analyses and bridge development between programs. the partner institutions provided to conestoga relevant program design matrices, learning outcomes, and all course outlines for applicable programs. additionally, program maps demonstrating how the program learning outcomes are met through the individual program curriculum were supplied. conestoga completed a preliminary comparison of the applicable programs to determine possible pathways. in sharing their findings with the partner institutions, conestoga made the following recommendations: 1) use the mtcu framework 2) k of vocational outcomes (mtcu descriptions 44300; 54300; 64300) to support comparison of program outcomes and curriculum mapping, given the differences in outcome statements 3) use the apprenticeship curriculum standard cabinetmaker (438a) at standard outcome and sub-outcome level for curriculum mapping to assess coverage of apprenticeship curriculum provided by the 1, 2 and 3 year programs. 4) discuss differences in admission requirements if relevant to the pathways phase two gap analysis: conestoga completed a comprehensive gap analysis for the pathways, as determined in phase one of the 1 project. the following is a curriculum gap analysis resulted from the comparative study of the woodworking programs at 4 participating colleges based on two reference learning outcomes frameworks. the current (2015) version of each participating program was compared at program outcome level and course level with the other programs through the reference frameworks and where applicable, academic pathways were developed. the following programs participated in this mapping exercise: 1. humber college: cabinet making certificate and industrial woodworking technician diploma 2. st. clair college: woodworking technician diploma 3. georgian college: cabinetmaking techniques certificate 4. conestoga college: woodworking technician diploma and woodworking technology advanced diploma method: complete information, including program design, admission requirements, program outcomes and course outlines, was collected for phase 1 of the project. the first stage of the gap analysis consisted of a comparison of program admission criteria across the participating programs. appendix d provides the details of this comparison. in stage two of the gap analysis, participating programs were compared at the program vocational learning outcomes level and at course level. learning outcomes from each program were compared within two available frameworks. the first framework used in this analysis consists of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) program descriptions number 44300, 54300, and 64300. these descriptions provide the validated program vocational learning outcomes. the matrices in appendix a reflect the way each of the programs at the participating colleges meet the mtcu validated program outcomes through local program outcome and courses. the second framework used in this analysis consists of the cabinetmaking apprenticeship standard 438a issued in may 2010 by the ontario college of trades (ocot). each program was mapped against the apprenticeship standard outcomes and sub-outcomes, at local program outcome and course level. the gap analysis aimed to identify which mtcu vocational outcomes and apprenticeship outcomes or suboutcomes (if any) are not achieved through the pedagogic activities in each program. where a local program outcome was not identified to map to the framework, the team listed the courses in the program that satisfy the identified outcome. gaps and their remediation were assessed and documented. the results of this analysis are described below and the supporting mapping documentation is presented appendix e. findings: 1. admission requirements: there is strong alignment between the admissions requirements in the programs involved in the resulting pathways. although georgian is the only institution that does not require a grade 12 mathematics course, a 45 hour course in mathematics in the first semester ensures students are brought to the required level for transfer into semester 2 of other woodworking programs. this difference was not identified as a gap and no remedies were required. please see appendix d for further detail. 2. program comparison through the mtcu framework: overall the majority of the program outcomes in the mtcu descriptions 44300, 54300 and 64300 respectively are met by the corresponding programs. the evolution of the program curriculum and the alignment with the newer apprenticeship standard has created, in some cases small gaps in the way the mtcu description outcomes are being met by individual programs. the details of this analysis can be found in table 1, table 2, table 3 and table 4 in appendix e. here is a summary of this analysis: o o all programs meet all the outcomes of the mtcu description 44300. there are no gaps between the program outcomes at the certificate level. the following exceptions were noted in the diploma outcomes comparison using the 54300 mtcu description framework: outcome 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer the role of the production engineer is not explicitly covered in st. clairs and humbers diploma programs outcome 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture antique furniture is not a subject covered in the st. clair and conestoga diploma programs remediation: the terms and concepts in these outcomes were deemed outdated and the group will propose the removal or upgrading of these outcomes at the next mtcu review (scheduled for 2018-2019). these outcomes were not considered essential in the development of pathways o as expected, a certain number of the program outcomes in the advanced diploma mtcu description 64300 program were not covered in the certificate or diploma programs, only in the advanced diploma program: outcome 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. outcome 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. outcome 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. outcome 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. outcome 6.b.understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. outcome 6.c. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. outcome 7.a. develop a quality assurance program for wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. outcome 12. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. outcome 13. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. remediation: these gaps are covered in the courses in year 3 of the advanced diploma program. the course comparison analysis supports this dimension by providing additional details in cases where the coverage is partial. 3. program comparison through the apprenticeship standard framework the vast majority of the apprenticeship standard outcomes and sub-outcomes are covered in the two and three year programs at the participating colleges. a detailed analysis was conducted, where each apprenticeship outcome was aligned where applicable with a program outcome; consecutively, each component sub-outcome was mapped to courses in the program that support them. the detail analysis for each program is presented below. due to the large volume of information contained in these tables, e.g. all the outcomes and sub outcomes of the apprenticeship standard and the courses that support them for each of the programs, the information is embedded as excel spreadsheets as opposed to word tables. o the following exceptions were noted: i. st. clair college woodworking technician diploma 1. s1471.1 stationary machines: 1.4; 1.5; 1.6 3 2. s1475.3 cost estimating: 3.3 3. s1477.2 woodworking shop productivity and efficiency: 2.2; 2.3; 2.4; 2.5 4. s1478.1 cabinet design: 1.3; 1.4 5. s1478.2 materials selection: 2.3 6. s1478.4 cabinet/furniture construction: 4.4 7. s1478.5 quality assurance: 5.1; 5.2; 5.4; 5.5 8. s1478.6 packing and shipping: 6.1; 6.2; 6.3; 6.4; 6.5 9. s1480.1 site safety and environment: 1.2 10. s1480.3 windows, doors and stairs: 3.4 ii. humber college industrial woodworking technician diploma 1. s1478.5 quality assurance: 5.2; 5.6 2. s1478.6 packing and shipping: 6.1; 6.2; 6.3; 6.4; 6.5 - will cover in next iteration 3. s1480.1 site safety and environment: 1.2 - will cover in next iteration; iii. georgian college cabinetmaking techniques certificate 1. s1461.2 general safety standards: 2.3; 2.8 2. s1468.2 cutting tool performance: 2.2 3. s1478.5 quality assurance: 5.4 4. s1478.6 packing and shipping: 6.1; 6.2; 6.5 iv. conestoga college woodworking technician and technology all sub-outcomes are covered o the analysis indicated that certain sub outcomes are not explicitly covered at course outcome level, although the overall student learning ensures the outcome is being met. a detailed presentation of the analysis for each institution is available in the following, embedded spreadsheets: conestoga humber georgian stclair woodworking technology woodworking apprenticeship technician cabinetmaking comparison.xlsx apprenticeship techniques woodworking comparison.xlsx apprenticeship technician comparison.xlsx apprenticeship comparison.xlsx o o o where applicable the course review process will strive to incorporate more explicitly the apprenticeship sub-outcomes currently marked as not covered. overall, it is evident that the two and three year programs facilitate the accomplishment of student learning outcomes from all three levels of the apprenticeship curriculum standard; in the case of georgian college, the apprenticeship standard levels i and ii sub-outcomes are covered well. as a result the group would like to explore the creation of a pathway that would allow graduates of the diploma or advanced diploma programs to be exempt from the in-school portion of all three levels of the cabinetmaking apprenticeship, and graduates from georgians certificate program to be exempt from level i and level ii. this process requires further exploration with the appropriate branch at mtcu and ontario college of trades. recommendations: the pathways established through these process fall into two main categories: mid-stream pathways, mostly from semester 1 of one program to semester 2 of another program, of equal or higher credential level; and pathways for graduates of a 1 year program into the 2 and 3 year programs. each pathway was analyzed at outcome, course design and practical project level, and in some cases instead of a bridging course, the receiving institution indicated that the interview with the program coordinator will provide information about the student level of outcome accomplishment. as such, no bridging is required for the programs in this situation, however the transferring student might be asked to sit for an evaluative computer test or complete a project. a second recommendation that resulted from this project is that a better alignment of the vocational outcomes can be accomplished through an update process similar to the mtcu standard review or development process. the three mtcu descriptions: 44300, 54300, and 64300 are scheduled for review and consolidation into standards in 2018. until then, the group agreed that outcomes review as a result of internal program reviews activities will be communicated to the partners in pathways and will ensure pathway integrity. the outcomes were not reviewed at this time, but maintained as they are stated for 20162017 in mtcu documentation and at each institution as it was felt this work was outside of the current project scope. a third recommendation stems from the established extensive coverage these programs provide for the cabinetmaking apprenticeship curriculum. as a result, the partner institutions would like to propose the creation of a pathway that will enable graduates of the one year cabinetmaking techniques certificate (georgian) to be exempt from the first two levels of in-school training and the graduates of the 2 and 3 year woodworking diplomas (conestoga, humber, st.clair) to be exempt from all three levels of in-school training of the apprenticeship program. these two pathways are not presented in the documentation attached to this report, only the evidence that supports them. their creation would need to involve approval from ontario college of trades and ensure it meets the conditions set forth by this organization. the partner institutions would be interested in completing a project focused on this particular set of pathways. the partner institutions recognize the importance of creating accessible pathways of education for students, while maintaining program integrity and providing for student success. phase three of the project included the development of program pathways, including bridging courses, addressing the gaps in knowledge, skills or abilities identified through the gap analysis completed in stage two (appendix a). once the pathways were developed, the minimum gpa and other relevant eligibility standards for students seeking admission via these established pathways were determined, during a second meeting held on march 11, 2016 at conestoga college. also identified were the courses for which transfer credit will be granted to students entering via each established pathway, as well as the remaining courses to be completed. see appendix a for details regarding bridging curriculum and appendix b for complete pathway details. phase three: articulation agreements and final report conestoga and the other 3 institutions have partnered to complete all analysis and conclusions that support the objectives of project 2015-18: pathways between ontario woodworking postsecondary programs and cabinetmaking trade curriculum, including: a curriculum and gap analysis of the pathways, a corresponding explanation of bridge curriculum and scheduling (appendix a), required pathway documentation (appendix b), and a detailed financial statement (appendix c). complete pathway details at ontransfer.ca upon final approval of the memorandum of understanding and articulation agreements within each institution. at that time, the credit transfer and registrars offices of the partner institutions will be appropriately informed of the new pathway details, per appendix b. the pathways will be implemented in 2017. the receiving institution specified in a given pathway will be responsible for the upload and maintenance of pathway information at ontransfer.ca. executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga), georgian college, humber college and st. clair college (herein referred to 5 as the partner institutions) have worked in partnership to establish educational pathways between woodworking and cabinetmaking programs, including: - certificate to diploma and advanced diploma pathways - diploma to diploma and advanced diploma pathways, and - mid-stream pathways for both categories above. in total, 13 pathways were established, as follows: - pathway 1: humber cabinet making and humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) - pathway 2: humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology - pathway 3: conestoga woodworking technician to humber woodworking technician (mid-program) - pathway 4: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology - pathway 5: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to humber industrial woodworking technician - pathway 6: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to st.clair woodworking technician - pathway 7: st. clair woodworking technician to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) - pathway 8: humber cabinet maker to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) - pathway 9: humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician to st.clair woodworking technician (mid-stream) - pathway 10: st. clair woodworking technician to humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician (mid-stream) - pathway 11: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician (mid-stream) - pathway 12: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) - pathway 13: conestoga woodworking technician to st. clair woodworking technician (mid-program) best practices: over the various phases of project 2015-18, the partner institutions identified the following best practices: when multiple institutions are involved, a common framework of vocational outcomes makes program comparison possible. for programs with a strong application and hands-on component, mapping curriculum between two institutions establishing a pathway is accomplished through a review of course outlines as well as practical projects at various stages in the program. the partner institutions also learned that planned time allocation for detailed mapping activities and review of final documentation as well as additional curriculum support can make the process more effective. conclusions: this project established 13 pathways for students in the woodworking and cabinetmaking programs at the participating 4 colleges: 1. from georgian cabinetmaking techniques to : a. conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathway 4 b. st.clair woodworking technician pathway 6 c. humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking pathway 5 2. from humber cabinet maker to: a. conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathway 1 b. georgian cabinetmaking techniques pathway 8 c. st.clair woodworking technician pathway 9 3. from humber industrial woodworking technician to: a. conestoga 2 year and conestoga 3 year pathway 2 b. st.clair woodworking technician pathway 9 4. from st.clair woodworking technician to: a. conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathways 11 and 12 b. georgian cabinetmaking techniques pathway 7 c. humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician pathway 10 5. from conestoga woodworking technician to: a. st.clair woodworking technician pathway 13 b. humber industrial woodworking technician pathway 3 the pathways, as depicted above, have been established with consideration of the academic and practical abilities of students at the sending institutions. these pathways provide opportunity for student mobility across the province and for academic continuity should they intend on furthering their study. the project provided supporting evidence for establishing future pathways between the post-secondary programs at the participating colleges and the cabinetmaking apprenticeship. 7 appendix a: gap analysis: pathway 1: humber cabinet making and humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) pathway 1 humber 2 year student to conestoga 3 year.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 4) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. no gaps in learning outcomes other than the ones mentioned above were identified for this pathway. no bridging courses are necessary for this pathway. pathway 2: humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology pathway 2 humber 2 year student to conestoga 3 year.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 4) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. no gaps in learning outcomes other than the ones mentioned above were identified for this pathway. the transferring student will be required to complete the following courses that address gaps identified through the course to course comparison. there will be 3 bridging courses available during one semester as listed below: course title advanced computer applications computerized product development ii finishing iii theory course code comp2010 dsgn2130 wood2070 pathway 3: conestoga woodworking technician to humber woodworking technician (midstream) pathway 3 conestoga 2 year student to humber 2 year.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 4) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. no gaps in learning outcomes other than the ones mentioned above were identified for this pathway. no bridging courses are necessary for this pathway. as a result of the interview with the program coordinator, the transferring student might be required to complete a project that includes self-study and execution of bending and laminating. pathway 4: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathway 4 georgian student to conestoga 2 and 3 year.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 2 and table 4) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the identified gaps in learning outcomes include outcomes 14, 15, 16, 17, 23 and 26 from mtcu 54300 and 2b., 2c, 3c, 4b g, 5b, 6a 7b., 9, 10, 11, 12. the comparison of course content and the position of the courses in the receiving institution program design ensures that these gaps will be addressed in the courses the student is completing at conestoga. therefore, no bridging courses are necessary for this pathway. as a result of the interview with the program coordinator, the transferring student might be required to sit for an evaluative computer aptitude test relating to computer drafting to ensure student success in the subsequent courses in the program. pathway 5: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to humber industrial woodworking technician pathway 5 georgian student to humber 2 years.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 2) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the identified gaps in learning outcomes include outcomes 14, 15, 16, 17, 23 and 26 from mtcu 54300. the comparison of course content and the position of the courses in the receiving institution program design ensures that these gaps will be addressed in the courses the student is completing at humber. therefore, no bridging courses are necessary for this pathway. as a result of the interview with the program coordinator, the transferring student might be required to complete a project that includes self-study and execution of bending and laminating. pathway 6: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to st.clair woodworking technician pathway 6 georgian student to stclair.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 2 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the identified gaps in learning outcomes include outcomes 14, 16, 23 and 26 from mtcu 54300. the comparison of course content and the position of the courses in the receiving institution program design ensures that most of these gaps will be addressed in the courses the student is completing at st.clair. there will be 2 bridging courses available during one semester, as listed below: course title renovation carpentry outdoor structures course code bdt219 crp211 9 pathway 7: st. clair woodworking technician to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (midstream) pathway 7 stclair student to georgian.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 2 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. there are no outcome gaps identified for this pathway. based on the comparison of course content, there will be 1 bridging course available during one semester as listed below: course title finishing processes course code cabt1012 pathway 8: humber cabinet maker to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) pathway 8 humber student to georgian.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 2 and table 1) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. there are no outcome gaps identified for this pathway. based on the comparison of course content, there will be 1 bridging course available during one semester as listed below: course title finishing processes course code cabt1012 pathway 9: humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician to st.clair woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway 9 humber 1&2 year student to stclair.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. there are no outcome gaps identified for this pathway. based on the comparison of course content, no bridging is required for this pathway. pathway 10: st. clair woodworking technician to humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway 10 st.clair student to humber 1&2 years.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 1 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. there are no outcome gaps identified for this pathway. based on the comparison of course content, no bridging is required for this pathway. however, for students coming into this pathway from the cabinet making certificate, arrangements have to be made to facilitate completion of the required number of general education electives in the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program. pathway 11: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician (midstream) pathway 11 stclair student to conestoga 2 years.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 4 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the following outcome gaps were identified for this pathway: 12, 15 and 17 from mtcu 54300. these outcome gaps will be addressed in the subsequent courses in semesters 2, 3 and 4. students must complete comm1085 college reading and writing skills before graduation. this course is offered in multiple sections in every semester. course title college reading and writing skills course code comm1085 pathway 12: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology (midstream) pathway 12 stclair student to conestoga 3 years.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 4 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. the following outcome gaps were identified for this pathway: 3c, 4d 4.g, 6b, 6c, 7a, 11-14 from mtcu 64300. these outcome gaps will be addressed based on the students point of entry as described below: to enter at semester 2 level, no bridging is required for this pathway. however, students must complete comm1085 college reading and writing skills before graduation. this course is offered in multiple sections in every semester. 11 course title college reading and writing skills course code comm1085 to enter at semester 4 (year 2 level) students must complete comm1085 college reading and writing skills before graduation. this course is offered in multiple sections in every semester. additionally, there will be 4 bridging courses available during one semester as listed below: course title course code cnc (woodworking) mach1020 finishing ii - practical wood1070 machining ii - practical wood1080 finishing 2 theory wood1170 pathway 13: conestoga woodworking technician to st. clair woodworking technician (midprogram) pathway 13 conestoga 2 year student to stclair.xlsx the gap analysis for this pathway is based on the outcome comparison (table 4 and table 3) and course to course comparison using course outlines and project descriptions. no gaps were identified in the program outcomes. to enter at semester 2 level, no bridging is required for this pathway. to enter at semester 4 (year 2 level) students must complete the following 2 bridging courses, which will be available during one semester. outlines for each of these courses follow. course title renovation carpentry outdoor structures course code bdt219 crp211 appendix b: pathway documentation pathway 1: humber cabinet making and humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: from: humber cabinet making certificate and use official program/credential titles humber industrial woodworking technician diploma to: conestoga woodworking technician diploma conestoga woodworking technology pathway type: certificate to diploma and advanced diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma and advanced diploma mid-stream list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technician (#0054) 1701 design and forward conestoga woodworking technology (#0804) 170 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0054.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: students that have successfully completed the first semester of the humber cabinet making certificate program with a minimum of 60% average students that have successfully completed the first semester of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program and / or the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program students that have successfully completed the first two semesters of 13 the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the conestoga woodworking technician program and the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program. students that have successfully completed the first two semesters of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, no bridging courses are required for this pathway. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no only successful completion of the required number of academic semesters for the specific pathway minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 29 courses for the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program 55 courses for the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 note: conestoga offers a co-op version of the woodworking technology advanced diploma program. transfer into the second semester of this program would enable the student to complete the co-op design without any bridge courses. total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: 7 out of 29 courses for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway 7 out of 55 for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 15 of 29 courses for the semester 2 certificate or diploma to year 2 semester 3 diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma or the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma the following year 2 courses will be considered for advanced standing: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: wood2037 machining 3 practical entr1011 entrepreneurship 22 out of 29 courses for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway 48 out of 55 courses for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 14 of 29 courses for the semester 2 certificate or diploma to year 2 semester 3 diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2 (year 1), 3 and 4 (year 2) for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway semesters 3 and 4 (year 2) for the semester 2 certificate or diploma to semester 3 (year 2) diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete: semesters 2 (year 1), and all the academic terms in year 2 and 3 for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway note: this pathway allows students to complete the coop version of the program without any additional bridging anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: number of years: 1.5 (3 academic semesters) for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 3 academic terms number of years: 2.5 (5 academic semesters) for the semester 1 certificate or diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 5 academic terms list of eligible institutions and their programs humber college: - humber cabinet making (30991) - humber industrial woodworking technician (30891) 15 pathway 2: humber industrial woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: humber industrial woodworking technician diploma to: conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma diploma to advanced diploma degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technology (#0804) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0804c.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the third year of the conestoga woodworking technology program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging courses are required for comp2010 advanced computer applications dsgn2130 computerized product development ii wood2070 finishing iii theory applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 55 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 if the student from the sending institution pursues entry into the co-op stream of the program, an additional pathway, not represented here, will need to be developed. total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 30 out of 55 courses for the diploma to advanced diploma courses for the diploma to advanced diploma pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first two years of the conestoga woodworking technology program plus the following two courses from the third year: wtce1003 elective: general education entr1011 entrepreneurship 25 out of 55 for the diploma to advanced diploma pathway, including the bridging courses in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete year 3 academic terms (2 in total) for the diploma to advanced diploma pathway plus the bridging courses anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs comp2010 advanced computer applications dsgn2130 computerized product development ii wood2070 finishing iii theory for the diploma to advanced diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 humber college: - humber industrial woodworking technician (30891) 17 pathway 3: conestoga woodworking technician to humber woodworking technician (mid-program) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: conestoga woodworking technician diploma to: humber industrial woodworking technician diploma diploma to diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 humber industrial woodworking technician diploma 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.humber.ca/program/industrialwoodworking-technician program coordinator: drew aaslepp, (416) 675-6622 ext. 78059 drew.aaslepp@humber.ca eligibility for the pathway: students in the conestoga woodworking technician program that have completed the first year of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the third semester of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the transferring student might be required to complete a project that includes self-study and execution of bending and laminating. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% minimum gpa or % required in specific courses n/a total number of courses in the humber program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the humber program design: 20 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at humber in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 13 out of 20 courses for this diploma to diploma pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first and second year of the conestoga woodworking technology program 7 out of 20 courses in order to graduate from the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete year 2 academic term (1 in total) anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs for this diploma to diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 1 academic terms number of years: 1 conestoga college: - woodworking technician diploma (0054) 19 pathway 4: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to conestoga woodworking technician and conestoga woodworking technology pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: georgian cabinetmaking certificate to: conestoga woodworking technician diploma and conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma pathway type: certificate to diploma degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. certificate to advanced diploma list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technician (#0054) 1601 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1601. conestoga woodworking technology (0084) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701 contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0804c.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: students who have completed the first semester of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technician program or in the second year of the conestoga woodworking technology program graduates of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the conestoga woodworking technician program or in the second year of the conestoga woodworking technology program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, no bridging courses are required. the interested student may sit for an evaluative computer aptitude test relating to computer drafting following the interview with the program coordinator. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no for the mid-stream transfer only successful completion of semester 1 is required yes for the certificate to diploma pathway yes for the certificate to advanced diploma pathway minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: 60% n/a 29 courses for the conestoga woodworking technician diploma 55 courses for the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: 7 out of 29 courses for the certificate semester 1 to diploma semester 2 pathway 7 out of 55 courses for the certificate semester 1 to advanced diploma pathway 15 out of 29 courses for the certificate to diploma year 2 pathway 17 out of 55 courses for the certificate to advanced diploma year 2 pathway for the certificate to semester 2 diploma and advanced diploma pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program and the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program for the certificate to year 2 diploma and advanced diploma pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first year of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program and the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 22 out of 29 courses for the certificate to semester 2 diploma pathway 48 out of 55 courses for the certificate to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 14 out of 29 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway 38 out of 55 courses for the certificate to advanced diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2, 3, and 4 (one half of year one and the entire year 2) or the entire 2 semesters 3 and 4 21 in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technology program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or year 2 and year 3 academic terms anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: for the certificate to semester 2 diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 3 academic terms number of years: 1.5 for the certificate to advanced diploma semester 2 pathway number of academic semesters: 8 academic terms number of years: 2 note: this pathway allows transferring students to complete the co-op option of the program. for the certificate to year 2 diploma pathway number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 for the certificate to advanced diploma year 2 pathway number of academic semesters: 4 academic terms number of years: 2 list of eligible institutions and their programs georgian college: - cabinetmaking techniques pathway 5: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to humber industrial woodworking technician pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: georgian cabinetmaking certificate to: humber industrial woodworking technician diploma certificate to diploma degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; st. clair college; humber college september 2017 humber industrial woodworking technician (30891) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.humber.ca/program/industrialwoodworking-technician program coordinator: drew aaslepp, (416) 675-6622 ext. 78059 drew.aaslepp@humber.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the third semester of the humber industrial woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, no bridging courses are required for this pathway. the interested student might be asked to complete bending and laminating self-study and a project. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for 60% 23 this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses n/a total number of courses in 20 courses for the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma the humber program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at humber in order to graduate: 11 out of 20 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first two semesters of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program 9 out of 20 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway program completion requirements: in order to graduate from the humber industrial woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semester 3 academic term anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: for the certificate to diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs georgian college: - cabinetmaking techniques number of academic semesters: 1 academic term number of years: 1 pathway 6: georgian cabinetmaking techniques to st.clair woodworking technician pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: georgian cabinetmaking certificate to: st.clair woodworking technician diploma certificate to diploma degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: st. clair college; humber college; conestoga college september 2017 st.clair woodworking technician (30891) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.stclaircollege.ca/programs/postsec/woodwork/ program coordinator: roy bottoset, 519-972-2727, ext. 4407 rbottoset@stclaircollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: graduates of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the st.clair woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging courses are required for this pathway: bdt 219 renovation carpentry crp 211 outdoor structures applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for 60% 25 this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the st.clair program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 22 courses for the st.clair woodworking technician diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at st.clair in order to graduate: 10 out of 22 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first year of the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program 12 out of 20 courses for the certificate to diploma pathway including the bridge course program completion requirements: in order to graduate from the st.clair woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete the second year of study anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: for the certificate to diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs georgian college: - cabinetmaking techniques number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 pathway 7: st. clair woodworking technician to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: st. clair woodworking technician diploma to: georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate diploma to certificate mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: humber college; conestoga college september 2017 georgian cabinetmaking techniques 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.georgiancollege.ca/academics/full-timeprograms/cabinetmaking-techniques-cabt/overview-tab/ program coordinator: kim woodman (705) 728-1968 ext. 5231 kim.woodman@georgiancollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: students in the st. clair woodworking technician program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum average of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technician program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging course is required: cabt1012 finishing processes applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% 27 minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the georgian program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 18 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at georgian in order to graduate: program completion requirements: anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5 out of the 18 courses transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program 13 out of 18 courses in order to graduate from the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program, advanced standing students must successfully complete the remainder year 1 academic terms (semesters 2 and 3) plus the bridge course number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 st. clair college: - woodworking technician diploma (t805) pathway 8: humber cabinet maker to georgian cabinetmaking techniques (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: humber cabinet maker certificate to: georgian cabinetmaking techniques certificate certificate to certificate mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: st.clair college; conestoga college september 2017 georgian cabinetmaking techniques 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.georgiancollege.ca/academics/full-timeprograms/cabinetmaking-techniques-cabt/overview-tab/ program coordinator: kim woodman (705) 728-1968 ext. 5231 kim.woodman@georgiancollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: students in the humber cabinet maker certificate program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum average of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging course is required: cabt1012 finishing processes applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% 29 minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the georgian program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 18 total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at georgian in order to graduate: program completion requirements: anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 5 out of the 18 courses transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program 13 out of 18 courses in order to graduate from the georgian cabinetmaking techniques program, advanced standing students must successfully complete the remainder year 1 academic terms (semesters 2 and 3) plus the bridge course number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 humber college: - cabinet maker certificate pathway 9: humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician to st.clair woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: humber cabinet maker certificate and humber industrial woodworking technician diploma to: st.clair woodworking technician diploma pathway type: certificate to diploma mid stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma mid stream list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: georgian college; conestoga college september 2017 st.clair woodworking technician (30891) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.stclaircollege.ca/programs/postsec/woodwork/ program coordinator: roy bottoset, 519-972-2727, ext. 4407 rbottoset@stclaircollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending students in the humber cabinet maker certificate program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the st.clair woodworking technician program students in the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the st.clair woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, there are no bridging courses required. yes 31 institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the st.clair program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: 60% n/a 22 courses for the st.clair woodworking technician diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at st.clair in order to graduate: 6 out of 22 courses for both certificate to diploma and diploma to diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program 16 out of 22 courses must be completed for both versions of the pathway program completion requirements: in order to graduate from the st.clair woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete the remainder of the first year and the second year of study anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: for both certificate to diploma and diploma to diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs humber college: - cabinet maker - industrial woodworking technician number of academic semesters: 3 academic terms number of years: 1.5 pathway 10: st. clair woodworking technician to humber cabinet maker and humber industrial woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: st. clair woodworking technician diploma to: humber cabinet maker certificate and humber industrial woodworking technician diploma pathway type: diploma to certificate mid-stream and degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma mid-stream list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; conestoga college; september 2017 humber cabinet maker certificate humber industrial woodworking technician diploma 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.humber.ca/program/industrialwoodworking-technician program coordinator: drew aaslepp, (416) 675-6622 ext. 78059 drew.aaslepp@humber.ca eligibility for the pathway: applicant must have graduated from the students in the st. clair woodworking technician program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program. applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, there are no bridging courses required for this pathway. however, for students coming into this pathway from the cabinet making certificate, arrangements have to be made to facilitate completion of the required number of general education electives in the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program. no 33 program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the humber program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the humber program design: 60% n/a 13 for the cabinet making certificate 20 for the industrial woodworking technician diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at humber in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 5 out of 13 courses for the cabinet making certificate 5 out of 20 courses for the industrial woodworking technician diploma for the diploma to certificate pathway, transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the humber cabinet making certificate or industrial woodworking technician diploma program as applicable 8 out of 13 courses for the cabinet making certificate 15 out of 20 courses for the industrial woodworking technician diploma in order to graduate from the humber cabinet making certificate program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semester 2 and semester 3 courses (2 in total) in order to graduate from the humber industrial woodworking technician diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semester 2 and semester 3 courses (2 in total) anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs for both versions of this pathway number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 st. clair college: - woodworking technician diploma (t805) pathway 11: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technician (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: st.clair woodworking technician diploma to: conestoga woodworking technician diploma diploma to diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: georgian college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technician (#0054) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0054.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending students that have successfully completed the first semester of the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, there are no bridging courses required for this pathway. however, students must complete comm1085 college reading and writing skills before graduation. this course is offered in multiple sections in every semester. no only successful completion of the courses in the first semester 35 institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: 60% n/a 29 courses for the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 6 out of 29 courses for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma 23 out of 29 courses for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technician diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2 (year 1), 3 and 4 (year 2) for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: number of years: 1.5 (3 academic semesters) for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs humber college: - st.clair woodworking technician diploma program pathway 12: st.clair woodworking technician to conestoga woodworking technology (mid-stream) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: st.clair woodworking technician diploma to: conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma diploma to advanced diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: georgian college; humber college september 2017 conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma (#0804) 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. contact procedure: program website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/0054.jsp program coordinator: dennis harlock, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2272 dharlock@conestogac.on.ca admissions officer: darlene lavigne, (519) 748-5220 ext.: 2331 dlavigne@conestogac.on.ca eligibility for the pathway: students that have successfully completed the first semester of the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the conestoga woodworking technology diploma program note: this pathway allows the student to complete the co-op design of the program students that have successfully completed the first yearof the st.clair woodworking technician diploma program with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the conestoga woodworking technology diploma program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning 37 across the sending institutions program, the following courses are required for this pathway: to enter at semester 4 (year 2 level) comm1085 college reading & writing skills mach1020 cnc (woodworking) wood1070 finishing ii - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical wood1170 finishing 2 theory note: the pathway with the entry point in the second year of the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma provides access only into the non-co-op design. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: no only successful completion of the courses in the first semester or the first year respectively minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 60% minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the conestoga program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the conestoga program design: n/a 55 courses for the conestoga woodworking technology advanced diploma program for the pathway with entry into semester 2: total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 3 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 3 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 3 for the pathway with entry into year 2: total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 3 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 3 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 3 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: 6 out of 55 courses for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 10 out of 55 courses for the year 1 diploma to year 2 advanced diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first year of the conestoga woodworking technician diploma for the year 1 diploma to year 2 advanced diploma pathway total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at conestoga in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 49 out of 55 courses for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway 45 out of 55 courses for the year 1 diploma to year 2 advanced diploma pathway in order to graduate from the conestoga woodworking technology diploma program, advanced standing students must successfully complete semesters 2 (year 1), and all the academic and co-op semesters for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway all academic semesters from year 2 and year 3 for the year 1 diploma to year 2 advanced diploma pathway plus the bridging courses anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: number of years: 2.5 for the semester 1 diploma to semester 2 advanced diploma pathway list of eligible institutions and their programs st.clair college: - st.clair woodworking technician diploma program 39 pathway 13: conestoga woodworking technician to st. clair woodworking technician (mid-program) pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: from: conestoga woodworking technician diploma to: st. clair woodworking technician diploma diploma to diploma mid-stream degree completion, certificate to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation: program designs for which this pathway is eligible: contact procedure: georgian college; humber college september 2017 st. clair woodworking technician 1701 design and forward this pathway is not eligible for program designs predating 1701. program website: http://www.stclaircollege.ca/programs/postsec/woodwork/ program coordinator: roy bottoset, 519-972-2727, ext. 4407 rbottoset@stclaircollege.ca eligibility for the pathway: applicant must have students in the conestoga woodworking technician program that have completed the first semester of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second semester of the st. clair woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, no additional bridging courses are required for this pathway: students in the conestoga woodworking technician program that have completed the first year of study with a minimum of 60% average may apply for advanced standing into the second year of the st. clair woodworking technician program applicants must submit a transcript to the admissions officer and attend an interview with the program coordinator. based on the program outcome analysis and the evaluation of learning across the sending institutions program, the following bridging courses are required for this pathway: bdt 219 renovation carpentry crp 211 outdoor structures no graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of courses in the st. clair program design, not including co-op: co-op opportunities in the st. clair program design: 60% n/a 22 courses for the st. clair woodworking technician diploma total number of co-op opportunities in the program: 0 number of co-ops required for graduation from the full program: 0 number of co-ops to be completed by advanced standing students: 0 total number of pro gram courses for which credit will be granted: transfer credits granted: 6 out of 22 courses for the diploma to diploma pathway with entry point in the second semester 10 out of 22 courses for the diploma to diploma pathway with entry point in the third semester transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first semester of the st. clair woodworking technician diploma program if the entry point is semester 2 transfer credit will be granted for a maximum of the first year of the st. clair woodworking technician diploma program if the entry point is year 2 total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at st. clair in order to graduate: program completion requirements: 16 out of 22 courses for the diploma to diploma pathway with the semester 2 entry point 12 out of 22 courses for the diploma to diploma pathway with the year 2 entry point in order to graduate from the st. clair woodworking technician program, advanced standing students must successfully complete if they enter in semester 2, the year 1 semester 2 and year 2 academic terms plus the additional bridging courses: bdt 219 renovation carpentry crp 211 outdoor structures if they enter in year 2, year 2 academic terms and the additional bridging courses: bdt 219 renovation carpentry 41 anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: crp 211 outdoor structures for this diploma to diploma pathway with the entry point is semester 2: number of academic semesters: 3 academic terms number of years: 1.5 for this diploma to diploma pathway with the entry point is year 2: number of academic semesters: 2 academic terms number of years: 1 list of eligible institutions and their programs conestoga college: - woodworking technician program appendix c: financial statement final budget project budget details can be found in schedule b of the oncat project 2015-18: pathways between ontario woodworking postsecondary programs and cabinetmaking trade curriculum agreement. a detailed financial statement was provided separately to oncat. 43 appendix d cabinetmaking techniques ontario college certificate georgian cabinetmaking ontario college certificate humber woodworking technician ontario college diploma conestoga woodworking technicianontario college diploma st. clair ossd or equivalent wit - grade 12 english (c or u) math in the program - allows for inter-college transfer ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) or equivalent including these required courses: grade 12 english (eng4c or eng4u or equivalent) grade 12 mathematics (map4c, mct4c, mdm4u, mcb4u, mga4u, mcv4u or mhf4u or equivalent) two grade 11 or grade 12 c, m or u courses in addition to those listed above or mature student status or college or university transfer status all applicants whose first language is not english must meet humbers english language proficiency policy ontario secondary school diploma (ossd), or equivalent, grade 12 compulsory english, c or u, or equivalent, or conestoga college preparatory communications (comm1270) grade 12 mathematics, c or u, or equivalent, or conestoga college preparatory mathematics for trades (math1420) or 19 years of age or older with mature student status (see mature student definition for details.) ossd with the majority of courses at the college (c), university (u), university/college (m) or open (o) level qualify for admission to this program. mature students - see admission procedures for details. admission selection is based on the academic criteria indicated. meeting minimum eligibility requirements does not guarantee admission. an academic strength is calculated by averaging the submitted marks of required subjects. if more than one mark is received for a required subject, the highest mark will be used in the calculation. ten (10) additional marks are added to each advanced level, oac, u, u/c, and postsecondary course used in the calculation of academic strength. program requirements applicants are assumed to have basic computer literacy. industrial woodworking technician - ontario college diploma humber ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) or equivalent including these required courses: grade 12 english (eng4c or eng4u or equivalent) grade 12 mathematics (map4c, mct4c, mdm4u, mcb4u, mga4u, mcv4u or mhf4u or equivalent) two grade 11 or grade 12 c, m or u courses in addition to those listed above or mature student status or college or university transfer status all applicants whose first language is not english must meet humbers english language proficiency policy. admission selection is based on the academic criteria indicated. meeting minimum eligibility requirements does not guarantee admission. woodworking technology ontario college advanced diploma conestoga ontario secondary school diploma (ossd), or equivalent, or 19 years of age or older with mature student status (see mature student definition for details.) grade 12 compulsory english, c or u, or equivalent, or conestoga college preparatory communications (comm1270) grade 12 mathematics, c or u, or equivalent, or conestoga college preparatory mathematics for trades (math1420) an academic strength is calculated by averaging the submitted marks of required subjects. if more than one mark is received for a required subject, the highest mark will be used in the calculation. ten (10) additional marks are added to each advanced level, oac, u, u/c, and postsecondary course used in the calculation of academic strength. appendix e table 1: mtcu vocational outcomes comparison humber college humber mtcu comparison map.xlsx 44300 (certificate) humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 1. apply the fundamentals of mathematics to the solution of routine problems in their discipline. 2.5. demonstrate dimensioning skills in both imperial and metric scales. iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 3.2. idetify and describe safety issues specific to the woodworking lab. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 2. perform all industrial woodworking activities safely and demonstrate the ability to react to emergency situations properly. 3.3. identify and describe humber college safety policies. 3.4. identify and describe humber college safety policies for the lab. 45 44300 (certificate) humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 3. store, test and select the various grades of wood and related building materials. 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary powered machinery. 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 5. determine joinery requirements for various types of construction through the assessment of material characteristics and end use suitability. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.1. identify and demonstrate correct use of manual drafting equipment. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 152: finishing 1 iwwt 205: finishing 2 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 6. perform sanding operations to the determined industrial standards. 7. select and apply adhesives common to the trade, utilizing related clamping and applicating tools and equipment. 44300 (certificate) 8. perform finishing operations utilizing materials and processes common to the wood products industry. 9. select and apply hardware and fasteners used in the manufacturing of furniture, cabinets, and millwork. 10. install residential and commercial cabinets. humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 152: finishing 1 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 205: finishing 2 4.1 describe and or construct the following types of case construction at a basic level: traditional (face frame) construction; 32 millimetre construction systems; kitchen cabinets; web frame case construction iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 5.1. install drawer and door components in a bank of cabinets using standard european style kitchen hardware. 5.1. install drawer and door components in a bank of cabinets using standard european style kitchen hardware. 5.3. scribe an upper cabinet to a typically uneven wall using portable power tools to simulate installation onsite. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 47 44300 (certificate) humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 2.1. identify and demonstrate correct use of manual drafting equipment. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.2. produce lettering and line work suitable for working shop drawings. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.3. identify and properly use typical terminology and abbreviations in regards to shop drawings. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.4. identify and properly use typical drawing symbols, graphics and conventions in regards to shop drawings. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.5. demonstrate dimensioning skills in both imperial and metric scales. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.6. describe and demonstrate the drawing techniques of orthographic projection. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 44300 (certificate) 12. develop acceptable business practices and communication skills to ensure customer and employer satisfaction throughout industry. 13. perform basic computer keyboard operations. humber cabinetmaking program outcomes courses 2.7. draw an isometric drawing of a given object. produce a rendering (perspective drawing) of a given object. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.8. prepare typical shop drawings for a given object, using proper symbols and conventions: (a) front view, top view and right side or end; (b) sections views where necessary; (c) title box and specifications iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading 49 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 209: shaping operations 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 152: finishing 1 iwwt 205: finishing 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 6. use basic hand tools. 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 7.1 describe and or construct the following types of case construction at a basic level: traditional (face frame) construction; 32 millimetre construction systems; kitchen cabinets; web frame case construction iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. 51 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods 12. communicate effectively. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications 8.1 the students will demonstrate basic knowledge of the following using toolpath software designed for use on the axyz cnc router: safety operations and regulations; introduction to toolpath iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business 16. apply simple business practice procedures. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture. 5.2. identify and complete basic repairs to a piece of broken furniture. the repairs shall be of a level suitable to the nature of the furniture, the structural demands imposed by use and also take into account the ability of the student. iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 5.1. install drawer and door components in a bank of cabinets using standard european style kitchen hardware. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 19. design and construct a variety of architectural millwork products. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column 21. design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 209: shaping operations iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 209: shaping operations 22. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; 8.1 the students will demonstrate basic knowledge of the following using toolpath software designed for use on the axyz cnc router: safety operations and regulations; introduction to toolpath iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 23. create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or 8.1 the students will demonstrate basic knowledge of the following using toolpath software designed for use on the axyz cnc router: safety operations and regulations; introduction to toolpath iwwt 154: basics of cad (auto sketch) iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 24. design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 25. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 152: finishing 1 53 54300 (diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 205: finishing 2 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 27. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods 28. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 207: operating your own business 26. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 1.a. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 1.b. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 2.a. set up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 2.b. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling 2.c. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 209: shaping operations 2.d. finish a variety of woodworking projects using state-of-the-art finishing procedures and production techniques. 7.1 describe and or construct the following types of case construction at a basic level: traditional (face frame) construction; 32 millimetre construction systems; kitchen cabinets; web frame case construction iwwt 152: finishing 1 iwwt 205: finishing 2 iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 55 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 2.e. use basic hand tools. 1.1. identify and apply the safety rules related to the application and operation of the various hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machines covered in iwwt 102 power tools 1 and iwwt 150 power tools iwwt 102: power tools 1 3.a. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 7.1 describe and or construct the following types of case construction at a basic level: traditional (face frame) construction; 32 millimetre construction systems; kitchen cabinets; web frame case construction iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 100: general drafting and blueprint reading iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 154: basics of cad (auto sketch) iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 3.b. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 3.c. develop complete working drawings using autocad. 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 4.a. understand basic principles of work measurements, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications iwwt 207: operating your own business 4.b. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business 4.c. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 1.2. complete a required project based on course requirements. the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 1.3. design/build or build a final project based on course requirements. the student must have his or her design checked by the instructor prior to commencing the project. once the project has been approved, the student will produce a working drawing, a bill of materials, and an order of operations prior to commencing the project. students will be expected to obtain their own materials through a local supplier. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 208: cabinet construction 3 iwwt 207: operating your own business 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. not covered 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. not covered 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. not covered 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. not covered 5.a. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry. iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column 57 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 5.b. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. 9.1 describe and demonstrate the following types of bending at a basic level: lay-up and pressing of flat and curved veneered panels; vacuum pressing; cold pressing; steam bending; laminating a curve; brick laying a curve; kerf-cutting; form work; some of the bending listed above done in a group setting. iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods iwwt 209: shaping operations iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 6.a. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 154: basics of cad (auto sketch) iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 6.b.understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 6.c. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 206: computer woodworking applications 7.a. develop a quality assurance program for wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. 0 not covered 7.b. apply testing techniques including simple computer analysis on a variety of raw materials and assembled products. 0 not covered 8. appreciate the history of furniture styles. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling 64300 (advanced diploma) humber industrial woodworking technician program outcome courses 9. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. 9.2 construct a cabinet in a partnership with another student during a deadline period demonstrating: following directions; division of labour; working to a deadline; the ability to collaborate; working as a team. iwwt 103: fundamentals of design and joinery iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 iwwt 153: bending and laminating methods 10. apply simple business procedures. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business 11. restore antique furniture based on the evaluation and estimation of repair costs. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 210: installation, site work and repair 12. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. not covered 13. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. 3.1. identify and describe safety issues related to woodworking. iwwt 101: shop practices and material handling iwwt 102: power tools 1 iwwt 150: power tools 2 14. communicate effectively in speech and writing as well as graphically. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column iwwt 207: operating your own business iwwt 105: cabinet construction 1 iwwt 151: cabinet construction 2 59 table 2: mtcu vocational outcomes comparison georgian college georgian mtcu comparison map.xlsx 44300 (certificate) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes courses 1. apply the fundamentals of mathematics to the solution of routine problems in their discipline. 9. apply mathematical solutions for cabinetmaking applications. math1007 mathematics techniques 2. perform all industrial woodworking activities safely and demonstrate the ability to react to emergency situations properly. 1. perform cabinetmaking activities safely to industry standards cabt1010 hand and power tools cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation 3. store, test and select the various grades of wood and related building materials. 5. select various grades of lumber and building materials cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary powered machinery. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 5. determine joinery requirements for various types of construction through the assessment of material characteristics and end use suitability. 2. determine joinery requirements for various types of cabinetmaking construction including sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units cabt1013 joinery and fastening 6. perform sanding operations to the determined industrial standards. 6. perform sanding and adhesive operations to industry standards cabt1016 finishing applications cabt1020 advanced projects 7. select and apply adhesives common to the trade, utilizing related clamping and applicating tools and equipment. 6. perform sanding and adhesive operations to industry standards cabt1016 finishing applications cabt1020 advanced projects 8. perform finishing operations utilizing materials and processes common to the wood products industry. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1016 finishing applications cabt1020 advanced projects 9. select and apply hardware and fasteners used in the manufacturing of furniture, cabinets, and millwork. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1016 finishing applications cabt1020 advanced projects 10. install residential and commercial cabinets. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications cabt1018 construction applications 44300 (certificate) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes courses 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 2. determine joinery requirements for various types of cabinetmaking construction including sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units cabt1013 joinery and fastening 12. develop acceptable business practices and communication skills to ensure customer and employer satisfaction throughout industry. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1019 preproduction planning 13. perform basic computer keyboard operations. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column drft1009 technical drawings 61 54300 (diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes courses 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. not covered 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. not covered 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1016 finishing applications 6. use basic hand tools. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 5. select various grades of lumber and building materials cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1018 construction applications included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1021 furniture design included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column communications course 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. 12. communicate effectively. 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications cabt1020 advanced projects cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation communications course drft1009 technical drawings 54300 (diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. not covered 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. not covered 16. apply simple business practice procedures. not covered 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture. not covered 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications 19. design and construct a variety of 8. produce cabinets and other architectural millwork products. architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications depending on the optional practical modules chosen: 21. design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; not covered 22. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; not covered 23. create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or not covered 24. design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications 6. perform sanding and adhesive operations to industry standards 25. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. 26. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. courses cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation cabt1020 advanced projects cabt1011 cabinetmaking applications cabt1020 advanced projects cabt1015 trim and mouldings cabt1021 furniture design cabt1012 finishing processes cabt1020 advanced projects not covered 63 54300 (diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcomes courses 27. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 28. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation 64300 (advanced diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcome courses 1.a. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 1.b. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 5. select various grades of lumber and building materials cabt1017 cabinetmaking materials 2.a. set up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 2.b. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. not covered 2.c. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. not covered 2.d. finish a variety of woodworking projects using state-of-the-art finishing procedures and production techniques. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1012 finishing processes cabt1016 finishing applications 2.e. use basic hand tools. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary machinery. cabt1010 hand and power tools 3.a. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 7. select and apply finishes and hardware used in manufacturing of furniture, cabinets and millwork cabt1012 finishing processes cabt1016 finishing applications 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications 3. interpret drawings for production planning and estimating cabt1018 construction applications 3.b. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 3.c. develop complete working drawings using autocad. drft1009 technical drawings cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation not covered 65 64300 (advanced diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcome courses 4.a. understand basic principles of work measurements, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation cabt1019 preproduction planning 4.b. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. not covered 4.c. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. not covered 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. not covered 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. not covered 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. not covered 5.a. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry. 8. produce cabinets and other architectural specialties including millwork and mouldings to be installed in residential and commercial applications 5.b. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. cabt1018 construction applications 6.a. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. not covered 6.b.understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. not covered 6.c. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. not covered 7.a. develop a quality assurance program for wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. not covered not covered not covered 7.b. apply testing techniques including simple computer analysis on a variety of raw materials and assembled products. not covered 8. appreciate the history of furniture styles. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column 9. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. cabt1021 furniture design 10. apply simple business procedures. not covered not covered 64300 (advanced diploma) georgian cabinetmaking techniques program outcome courses 11. restore antique furniture based on the evaluation and estimation of repair costs. not covered 12. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. not covered 13. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. 1. perform cabinetmaking activities safely to industry standards cabt1010 hand and power tools cabt1014 cabinet construction and installation 14. communicate effectively in speech and writing as well as graphically. included in courses but not captured in program outcomes. see next column communications course 67 table 3: mtcu vocational outcomes comparison st.clair college st.clair mtcu comparison map.xlsx 44300 (certificate) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 1. apply the fundamentals of mathematics to the solution of routine problems in their discipline. 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. bdt 106 carpentry calculations bdt 117 print reading & estimating 2. perform all industrial woodworking activities safely and demonstrate the ability to react to emergency situations properly. 3. store, test and select the various grades of wood and related building materials. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary powered machinery. 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 5. determine joinery requirements for various types of construction through the assessment of material characteristics and end use suitability. 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 6. perform sanding operations to the determined industrial standards. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 7. select and apply adhesives common to the trade, utilizing related clamping and applicating tools and equipment. 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 8. perform finishing operations utilizing materials and processes common to the wood products industry. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 9. select and apply hardware and fasteners used in the manufacturing of furniture, cabinets, and millwork. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 219 renovation carpentry bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 302 materials i bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 219 renovation carpentry bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork 44300 (certificate) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 10. install residential and commercial cabinets. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 12. develop acceptable business practices and communication skills to ensure customer and employer satisfaction throughout industry. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. bdt 106 carpentry calculations arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 16. apply simple business practice procedures. bdt 117 print reading & estimating 13. perform basic computer keyboard operations. 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications. arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control 69 54300 (diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. bdt 302 materials i 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 219 renovation carpentry bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 309 architectural millwork 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 6. use basic hand tools. 6. use basic hand tools. 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 303 machining theory ii bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 410 stair design/ manufacturing bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 406 millwork installation mechanics bdt 302 materials i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 106 carpentry calculations arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 54300 (diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. bdt 221 custom cabinetry 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. bdt 219 renovation carpentry crp 211 outdoor structures bdt 308 design studio bdt 410 stair design/ manufacturing 12. communicate effectively. 12. communicate effectively. 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications. 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 16. apply simple business practice procedures. 16. apply simple business practice procedures. arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 106 carpentry calculations bdt 117 print reading & estimating bdt 117 print reading & estimating 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture. not covered 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 19. design and construct a variety of architectural millwork products. 19. design and construct a variety of architectural millwork products. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 404 wpcomputerized kitchen design bdt 407 computer numeric control bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 410 stair design/ manufacturing depending on the optional practical modules chosen: 71 54300 (diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 21. design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: (a) design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; (b) understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; (c) create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or (d) design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. bdt 309 architectural millwork 22. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: (a) design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; (b) understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; (c) create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or (d) design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. bdt 407 computer numeric control 23. create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: (a) design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; (b) understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; (c) create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or (d) design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. arc 204 building cad ii 24. design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. not covered 25. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. 21. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. bdt 218 wood finishing bdt 303 machining theory ii 26. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. 22. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. bdt 117 print reading & estimating 27. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. 23. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. bdt 117 print reading & estimating 28. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 24. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. bdt 302 materials i 64300 (advanced diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 1.a. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. bdt 302 materials i 1.b. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. bdt 302 materials i 2.a. set up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 2.b. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 216 wood finishing bdt 219 renovation carpentry bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 309 architectural millwork 2.c. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 303 machining theory ii bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork bdt 410 stair design/ manufacturing 2.d. finish a variety of woodworking projects using state-of-the-art finishing procedures and production techniques. 2.e. use basic hand tools. 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. bdt 216 wood finishing 6. use basic hand tools. bdt 116 machining theory i bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 406 millwork installation mechanics 3.a. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork 3.b. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. bdt 106 carpentry calculations arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 3.c. develop complete working drawings using autocad. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 73 64300 (advanced diploma) st. clair college woodworking technician program outcomes courses 4.a. understand basic principles of work measurements, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. bdt 106 carpentry calculations bdt 117 print reading & estimating 4.b. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 4.c. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 23. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. bdt 117 print reading & estimating 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. not covered 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. not covered 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. not covered 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. not covered 5.a. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. bdt 125 machining practice i bdt 221 custom cabinetry bdt 308 design studio bdt 309 architectural millwork 5.b. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. bdt 106 carpentry calculations arc 125 building cad i arc 204 building cad ii 6.a. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: (a) design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; (b) understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; (c) create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocrat computer program; or (d) design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. bdt 309 architectural millwork table 4: mtcu vocational outcomes comparison conestoga college conestoga mtcu comparison map.xlsx 44300 (certificate) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 1. apply the fundamentals of mathematics to the solution of routine problems in their discipline. 16. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. oper2120 shop management mgmt1230 time and motion study ii: work measurement mgmt1220 time and motion study i: work design qual3030 quality control 2. perform all industrial woodworking activities safely and demonstrate the ability to react to emergency situations properly. 2. safely use basic hand tools, and portable power tools. wood1010 woodworking techniques i wood1025 machining i - practical 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. manu3060 automated manufacturing mach2045 computer machining theory/practical wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets 37. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. plan1010 woodworking facilities planning i plan1020 woodworking facilities planning ii 1. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 7. describe the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. matr1030 materials wood1025 machining i - practical 24. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. matr1030 materials wood2020 woodworking techniques iii 2. safely use basic hand tools, and portable power tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. mach1020 cnc (woodworking) wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets 3. store, test and select the various grades of wood and related building materials. 4. select, maintain and operate hand tools, portable power tools and stationary powered machinery. matr1030 materials 75 44300 (certificate) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 4. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of hand tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 21. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. wood2100 architectural techniques 36. understand the fundamentals of product testing and analysis and perform strength tests on a variety of furniture joints and components. qual3030 quality control 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 21. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 8. perform finishing operations utilizing materials and processes common to the wood products industry. 6. perform a variety of industrial wood finishing techniques. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory wood1070 finishing ii - practical 9. select and apply hardware and fasteners used in the manufacturing of furniture, cabinets, and millwork. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. wood1080 machining ii - practical 5. determine joinery requirements for various types of construction through the assessment of material characteristics and end use suitability. 6. perform sanding operations to the determined industrial standards. 7. select and apply adhesives common to the trade, utilizing related clamping and applicating tools and equipment. 44300 (certificate) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 10. install residential and commercial cabinets. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets 11. produce sketches and shop drawings of common furniture and cabinet units and component parts; and interpret blueprints for production planning and estimating. 12. develop acceptable business practices and communication skills to ensure customer and employer satisfaction throughout industry. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading dsgn1020 product engineering 18. apply simple business practice procedures. entr1011 entrepreneurship 13. perform basic computer keyboard operations. 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications. drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading comp1250 computer drafting 77 54300 (diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 1. understand the structure of wood, and how this structure and wood's mechanical and physical properties relate to the working properties of wood and its performance in use. 1. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. matr1030 materials 2. set-up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. wood1010 woodworking techniques i wood1025 machining i - practical 3. perform basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. 4. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of hand tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 4. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical 5. perform basic wood finishing techniques. 6. perform a variety of industrial wood finishing techniques. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1070 finishing ii - practical wood2065 finishing 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical 6. use basic hand tools. 2. safely use basic hand tools, and portable power tools. 7. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 7. describe the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical wood2037 machining 3 - practical wood2055 machining 4 - practical matr1030 materials 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 10. have an appreciation of the history of furniture styles. 10. appreciate the history of furniture styles. drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading wood3020 computer applications in wood products ii dsgn2130 computerized product development ii drwg2115 computerized product development i libs1510 history of furniture styles drwg2115 computerized product development i 54300 (diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 11. practice teamwork, accomplishing objectives. 11. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. wood1080 machining ii - practical hrm3010 effective supervision practicum ii hrm1130 effective supervision hrm3000 effective supervision practicum i 12. communicate effectively. 12. communicate effectively. comm1085 college reading & writing skills drwg2115 computerized product development i 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications 13. be aware of basic microcomputer applications. drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading comp1250 computer drafting 14. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 16. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. math1227 numerical woodworking applications oper2120 shop management 29. develop a quality assurance program for a wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. qual3030 quality control 15. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 17. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. dsgn1020 product engineering 16. apply simple business practice procedures. 18. apply simple business practice procedures. entr1011 entrepreneurship oper2120 shop management 17. evaluate, estimate repair costs and restore antique furniture. 25. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory 18. design and construct a variety of kitchen cabinets. 20. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry and architectural millwork. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets wood2100 architectural techniques mach2045 computer machining theory/practical wood1080 machining ii - practical plan1010 woodworking facilities planning i 19. design and construct a variety of architectural millwork products. 23. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures using production processes. 20. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry and architectural millwork. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets wood2100 architectural techniques mach2045 computer machining theory/practical 79 54300 (diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 23. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures using production processes. 20. depending on the optional practical modules chosen: wood1080 machining ii - practical plan1010 woodworking facilities planning i 21. design, construct and use complex jigs and patterns; 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical 22. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines; 33. understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. mach2045 computer machining theory/practical mach1020 cnc (woodworking) 23. create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program; or 22. understand the programming and operation of computercontrolled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. 24. design and construct chairs of a variety of styles. 25. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures and using production techniques. 23. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures using production processes. 26. do a materials take-off from architects drawings. 25. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 27. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. 24. understand the operation of a lumber drying kiln. 28. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 25. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory 64300 (advanced diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 1.a. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 1. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. 1. understand how the structure of wood and its mechanical and physical properties relate to the quality and performance of wood products. matr1030 materials 3. safely set-up and operate a wide range of production machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. wood1010 woodworking techniques i wood1025 machining i - practical 2.b. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of saws and cutters. 4. perform the skills of basic sharpening and maintenance of hand tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 2.c. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, sanding and assembly operations. 5. design, construct and use jigs and patterns for machining, and assembly operations. wood1080 machining ii - practical 2.d. finish a variety of woodworking projects using state-of-the-art finishing procedures and production techniques. 23. finish a variety of woodworking projects using sophisticated finishing procedures using production processes. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory wood1070 finishing ii - practical wood2070 finishing iii theory 2.e. use basic hand tools. 2. safely use basic hand tools, and portable power tools. wood1025 machining i - practical 3.a. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying production techniques. wood1025 machining i - practical wood1080 machining ii - practical 3.b. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 8. construct and finish a variety of furniture and cabinetry projects applying the appropriate production techniques. 9. prepare and use drawings and specifications for furniture, cabinets and architectural millwork. 3.c. develop complete working drawings using autocad. 34. develop complete working drawings using 3d cad software. 4.a. understand basic principles of work measurements, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 16. understand basic principles of work measurement, methods analysis, quality control, production control and supervision. 1.b. know the variety, grades and uses of materials commonly used in the trade, including lumber, veneer, particleboard, fibreboard, plastic laminates, adhesives, abrasives and preservatives. 2.a. set up and operate a wide range of machinery and equipment used in wood products manufacturing. matr1030 materials drwg1095 drafting and blueprint reading comp1250 computer drafting dsgn1020 product engineering drwg2115 computerized product development i math1227 numerical woodworking applications comp1250 computer drafting dsgn1020 product engineering drwg2115 computerized product development i qual3030 quality control oper1150 planning and control systems ii oper1140 planning and control systems i mgmt1230 time and motion study ii: work measurement 81 64300 (advanced diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 4.b. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. 17. understand the product development process and the role of the product engineer. dsgn1020 product engineering 4.c. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. 25. prepare cost estimates for furniture, cabinetry and architectural millwork projects. wood1045 finishing theory/practical wood1170 finishing 2 - theory drwg2115 computerized product development i 4.d. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. 27. carry out time studies and develop standard data applying the principles of work measurement. mgmt1220 time and motion study i: work design mgmt1230 time and motion study ii: work measurement 4.e. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. 28. apply the principles of methods analysis, work station efficiency, and productive work flow for typical manufacturing processes. oper1150 planning and control systems ii 4.f. understand and assist in layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. 31. understand and assist in plant layout and materials handling analysis, equipment selection, and plant support system planning. plan1020 woodworking facilities planning ii plan1010 woodworking facilities planning i 4.g. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. 32. perform operations planning and scheduling as well as inventory and materials requirement analysis. oper1140 planning and control systems i oper1150 planning and control systems ii 5.a. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry. 20. appreciate the design and construction fundamentals of kitchen cabinetry and architectural millwork. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets wood2100 architectural techniques 5.b. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. wood2015 architectural millwork/kitchen cabinets wood2100 architectural techniques 6.a. understand the programming and operation of computer-controlled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. 6.b.understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. 21. appreciate how architectural millwork products differ from furniture in design, construction and installation. 22. understand the programming and operation of computercontrolled machines, and create, dimension and plot part drawings using autocad computer program. 33. understand the concepts of computer-integrated manufacturing and apply the principles of computer control in the woodworking manufacturing environment. 6.c. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. 35. transfer the data generated by software programs through to cnc machinery for part manufacturing. mach2045 computer machining theory/practical manu3060 automated manufacturing mach2045 computer machining theory/practical mach1020 cnc (woodworking) mach2045 computer machining theory/practical mach1020 cnc (woodworking) manu3060 automated manufacturing 64300 (advanced diploma) conestoga woodworking technology program outcomes courses 7.a. develop a quality assurance program for wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. 29. develop a quality assurance program for a wood manufacturing operation applying the principles of statistical process control. qual3030 quality control 7.b. apply testing techniques including simple computer analysis on a variety of raw materials and assembled products. 36. understand the fundamentals of product testing and analysis and perform strength tests on a variety of furniture joints and components. qual3030 quality control 8. appreciate the history of furniture styles. 9. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. 10. appreciate the history of furniture styles. 11. practice teamwork in accomplishing objectives. libs1510 history of furniture styles 10. apply simple business procedures. 18. apply simple business practice procedures. entr1011 entrepreneurship oper2120 shop management wood1025 machining i - practical hrm3000 effective supervision practicum i hrm3010 effective supervision practicum ii 11. restore antique furniture based on the evaluation and estimation of repair costs. not covered 12. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. 30. apply the fundamentals of effective supervision and personnel management. hrm3000 effective supervision practicum i hrm3010 effective supervision practicum ii 13. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. 37. understand the responsibility and methods of maintaining a safe working environment. mgmt1230 time and motion study ii: work measurement mgmt1220 time and motion study i: work design 14. communicate effectively in speech and writing as well as graphically. 38. communicate effectively in speech and writing as well as graphically. comm1085 college reading & writing skills comm1085 college reading & writing skills 83

conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220, www.conestogac.on.ca final status report oncat project 2015-15 pathways from conestogas health office administration diploma to conestogas bachelor of applied health information science march 15, 2016 executive summary: conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to establish an educational pathway between the health office administration diploma (hoa) to the bachelor of applied health information science (honours) (bahis). this project has further supported pathway development relevant to this broader scope of programs and institutions by leveraging processes and best practices learned to support pathway development from office administration medical (oam) programs into conestogas bachelor of applied health information science.

ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire eric lav ig ne, a m an da b rijm ohan, jinl i y ang, m ary cath arine lennon cihe report 2016.02 a report to the ontario council for articulation and transfer appendix d institutional profiles (universities) public policy and the attraction of international postsecondary students a report by: pathways to education and work group ontario institute for studies in education (oise) university of toronto 252 bloor st. west, 6th floor toronto, ontario m5s 1v6 canada www.oise.utoronto.ca/cihe please cite this publication as: brijmohan, a., yang, j., lavigne, e. & lennon, m.c. (2016) ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire, appendix d institutional profiles (universities). toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. institutional profiles table of contents algoma university .......................................................................................................................4 brock university ........................................................................................................................14 carleton university ...................................................................................................................25 lakehead university ..................................................................................................................34 laurentian university ................................................................................................................52 mcmaster university .................................................................................................................63 nipissing university ...................................................................................................................72 ocad university ........................................................................................................................81 queens university .....................................................................................................................85 ryerson university ....................................................................................................................88 saint paul university ...............................................................................................................106 trent university ......................................................................................................................112 university of guelph ...............................................................................................................120 university of guelph-humber..................................................................................................128 university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) ...............................................................139 university of ottawa ...............................................................................................................173 university of toronto ..............................................................................................................181 university of waterloo ............................................................................................................186 university of windsor..............................................................................................................191 western university .................................................................................................................203 wilfrid laurier university ........................................................................................................210 york university ........................................................................................................................219 page 3 of 226 algoma university algoma university was first established in 2008, as an independent, degree granting institution. algoma university focuses its mission to be a teaching-oriented, undergraduate university focusing catering to the needs of northern ontario, while maintaining strong roots in aboriginal culture and community teachings. the main campus of algoma university is located in sault ste. marie, ontario, canada, offering undergraduate university degrees in more than 30 academic programs catering to 1609 students. the bachelor programs range from 3 to 4 year degree programs, and are in the areas of accounting, anishinaabemowin (ojibwe language) biology, business administration, community development, community economic and social development, computer science, economics, english and film, finance and economics, fine arts, french, geography and geology, history and philosophy, law and justice, mathematics, music, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology. algoma university has two offsite campuses in brampton, with their program offerings in business administration, and the other in timmins, which offers programs more catered to social work and community development (retrieved from: https://algomau.ca/about/, https://algomau.ca/about/fast_facts/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/algoma_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships with public colleges. sault college is the only partner college within commutable range (less than or equal to 80km). approximately 38% of algoma universitys transfer students come from sault college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 120 550 pathways with specific 430 sending programs algoma university has two generic receiving pathways with all 24partnership colleges respectively, which are from any ontario college advanced diploma and any ontario college diploma. partnership colleges supply to 5 different specific program areas of algoma university: business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, science engineering & tech., health, food, medical & recreation, and forest, conservation, technician. algoma university currently has the majority of their receiving partnership agreements supplying program areas of science engineering & tech., and health, food, medical & recreation. page 4 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. past research suggested that reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time (frennette, 2003) institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 5 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university table 1: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institutions algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) pathway data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) algoma university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 783 8 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 northern 315 4 5 19 24 3 6 0.25 northern 431 5 5 18 23 0 0 0 metro 692 7 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 northern 310 3 5 6 11 0 0 0 southern 747 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 northern 703 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 durham college central 671 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 fanshawe college southern 685 6 5 18 23 0 0 0 fleming college eastern 693 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 george brown college metro 696 7 5 21 26 5 10 0.38 georgian college central 589 6 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 humber college metro 684 7 5 18 23 3 6 0.26 la cit collgiale eastern 797 9 5 6 11 0 0 0 lambton college western 576 5 5 18 23 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 848 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 739 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 niagara college southern 800 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 collge boral conestoga college confederation college page 6 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university geographical data sending institutions region distance (km) pathway data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) algoma university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range students per pathway ratio double northern college northern 590 7 5 19 24 3 6 0.25 sault college* northern 5.8 0 5 31 36 16 32 0.89 seneca college metro 680 7 5 22 27 4 8 0.30 sheridan college central 703 7 5 18 23 5 10 0.43 st. clair college western 578 6 5 18 23 0 0 0 st. lawrence college grand total eastern 928 9 5 18 23 0 0 0 120 430 550 42 84 0.15 38% 38% *institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km page 7 of 226 pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that algoma university has formal agreements to accept students from. algoma university enables both specific pathways and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at algoma university. table 2: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with algoma university generic sending programs any three-year program 48 any ontario college advanced diploma 48 algonquin college 2 cambrian college 2 canadore college 2 centennial college 2 collge boral 2 conestoga college 2 confederation college 2 durham college 2 fanshawe college 2 fleming college 2 george brown college 2 georgian college 2 humber college 2 la cit collgiale 2 lambton college 2 loyalist college 2 mohawk college 2 niagara college 2 northern college 2 sault college 2 seneca college 2 sheridan college 2 st. clair college 2 st. lawrence college 2 any two-year program 72 any ontario college diploma 72 algonquin college 3 cambrian college 3 8 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with algoma university 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 specific programs business/finance/administration 48 any ontario college advanced diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 page 9 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration advanced diploma collge boral la cit collgiale business/commerce or related diploma collge boral la cit collgiale education, community and social services community worker george brown college peace and conflict studies sault college social service worker cambrian college george brown college northern college sault college partnership agreements with algoma university 1 1 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 15 2 2 1 1 8 1 1 1 3 page 10 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs seneca college social service worker - immigrants and refugees seneca college social service worker - native specialization sault college health, food and medical, recreation adventure recreation and parks technician sault college any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college partnership agreements with algoma university 2 2 2 2 2 184 2 2 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 page 11 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college fitness and health promotion sault college science and engineering technology any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with algoma university 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 2 183 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 page 12 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college forest conservation technician sault college grand total partnership agreements with algoma university 4 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 550 page 13 of 226 institutional profile: brock university brock university brock university is a public research university located in st. catharines, in southern ontario. brock offers a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees. at the graduate level, brock offers 37 programs, including 6 phd programs. brock university is a primarily undergraduate university, which means it is less involved in graduate education, especially at the phd level and attracts a lower level of research income (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/brock_university). brock university has 7 academic faculties, which consist of applied health sciences, the goodman school of business, education, humanities, mathematics and sciences, social sciences, and the faculty of graduate studies. brock university is home to 594 faculty members, and caters to a student body of 14,727 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca for 2014). partnership description: number structure 24 partnerships with and only with all public colleges geographical proximity 3 college partners are within commutable range (less than 80km): mohawk college, niagara college, and sheridan college. approximately 58% of brock universitys transfer students come from commutable partners. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with generic 48 230 sending program pathways with specific 182 sending programs brock university has two generic pathways with all 24 partnership colleges respectively, which are from any two-year program and any three-year program. partnership colleges supply 6 specific program areas of brock university: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical, recreation, preparation and career planning, and science and engineering technology. brock university currently has the majority of their receiving partnership agreements supplying program areas of health, food, and page 14 of 226 institutional profile: brock university medical, recreation. pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 15 of 226 institutional profile: brock university table 3: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 14,727; percentage of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) pathways total transfer students student per pathway ratio double algonquin college eastern 560 5 2 8 10 11 22 2.2 cambrian college northern 504 5 2 5 7 5 10 1.4 canadore college northern 454 4 2 6 8 6 12 1.5 metro toronto area 145 1 2 8 10 13 26 2.6 collge boral northern 497 5 2 6 8 0 0 0.0 conestoga college southern 119 1 2 4 6 31 62 10.3 confederation college northern 1489 15 2 7 9 2 0 n/a central 191 2 2 7 9 10 100 11.1 southern 191 2 2 15 17 59 118 6.9 eastern 234 2 2 8 10 13 26 2.6 metro toronto area 120 1 2 5 7 30 60 8.6 centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range central 206 2 2 10 12 31 62 5.2 humber college metro toronto area 121 1 2 8 10 63 126 12.6 la cit collgiale eastern 577 5 2 3 5 1 2 0.4 lambton college western 288 3 2 7 9 10 100 11.1 loyalist college eastern 304 3 2 4 6 9 81 13.5 mohawk college* southern 70 1 2 21 23 147 294 12.8 19% niagara college* southern 17 0 2 16 18 191 382 21.2 25% page 16 of 226 institutional profile: brock university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) pathways total transfer students student per pathway ratio double northern college northern 800 8 2 5 7 2 4 0.6 sault college northern 792 8 2 5 7 1 2 0.3 140 1 2 5 7 29 58 8.3 85 1 2 8 10 79 158 15.8 363 3 2 7 9 9 18 2.0 381 4 2 4 6 8 16 2.7 48 182 230 760 1520 6.6 seneca college sheridan college* st. clair college st. lawrence college grand total metro toronto area metro toronto area western eastern % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range 10% 55% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. *numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with brock university (as of 27/11/2015). page 17 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that brock university has formal agreements to accept students from. brock university enables both specific pathways and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential (whether it be generic or specific). following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at brock university. numbers reflect the feedback incorporated from consultation with brock university as of 27/11/15. table 4: pathways by sending program sending institution programs any three-year program any three-year program algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any two-year program partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) generic sending programs 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 24 page 18 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture advanced filmmaking fanshawe college art fundamentals sheridan college broadcast journalism - television news fanshawe college broadcasting - television and communications media mohawk college journalism mohawk college public relations mohawk college theatre arts 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 page 19 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs fanshawe college visual effects and editing for contemporary media fanshawe college business/finance/administration human resource management/labour perspectives george brown college education, community and social services behavioural science technology st. lawrence college child and youth worker durham college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college emergency management sheridan college paralegal partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 74 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 20 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs seneca college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college college boreal durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cite collegiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 21 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker - native specialization sault college health, food and medical, recreation cardiovascular technology mohawk college dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college fitness and health promotion niagara college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale massage therapy algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college northern college massothrapie partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 88 1 1 20 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 6 3 3 18 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 22 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs collge boral pharmacy technician centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. clair college recreation and leisure services algonquin college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college seneca college recreation therapy confederation college mohawk college niagara college sport management niagara college preparation and career planning general arts and science degree transfer diploma niagara college science and engineering technology chemical engineering technology mohawk college partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 2 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 page 23 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs computer programmer analyst niagara college computer science technology diploma sheridan college computer systems technology-software development mohawk college winery and viticulture technician niagara college grand total partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 230 page 24 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university carleton university carleton university is a publicly funded university, offering more than 65 academic programs across a wide range of disciplines. currently, carleton university has 6 faculties: faculty of arts and social sciences, faculty of engineering and design, faculty of graduate and postdoctoral affairs, faculty of public affairs, faculty of science, and the sprott school of business. founded in 1942, carleton university is located just south of ottawas city centre, bordering the rideau river and rideau canal (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carleton_university#programs). carleton university caters to 19,979 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca for 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships with and only with all public colleges two college partners are within commutable range (less than 80 km): algonquin college, and la cit collgiale. approximately 79% of all transfer students come from colleges within the commutable range. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with generic 0 229 sending programs pathways with specific 229 sending programs carleton does not accept students from generic programs. carleton university accepts students from partner colleges in the following specific program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, social sciences and humanities, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical, recreation, preparation and career planning, and science and engineering technology. carleton university has the most receiving partnership agreements in the field of education, community, and social services. page 25 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 26 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university table 5: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 19,979 ; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college* cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) pathways data (oncat) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) carlton university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 10 0 0 35 35 96 192 5.49 northern 483 5 0 8 8 3 6 0.75 northern 363 4 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 metro toronto area 425 4 0 8 8 1 2 0.25 eastern 485 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 southern 528 5 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern 1458 16 0 6 6 0 0 0 central 337 4 0 9 9 0 0 0 southern 626 6 0 11 11 1 2 0.18 eastern 337 3 0 11 11 1 2 0.18 metro toronto area 450 5 0 6 6 0 0 0 central 410 5 0 8 8 2 4 0.50 metro toronto area 463 4 0 11 11 3 6 0.55 eastern 14 0 0 6 6 2 4 0.67 lambton college western 723 7 0 6 6 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 269 3 0 26 26 1 2 0.08 mohawk college southern 519 5 0 6 6 2 4 0.67 niagara college southern 582 5 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale* 77% 2% page 27 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university geographical data sending institution northern college sault college region distance (km) pathways data (oncat) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) carlton university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double northern 709 8 0 7 7 0 0 0 northern 792 9 0 5 5 0 0 0 metro toronto area 436 4 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 sheridan college central 486 5 0 7 7 0 0 0 st. clair college western 799 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 eastern 197 2 0 10 10 7 14 1.40 0 229 229 124 248 1.08 seneca college st. lawrence college grand total 79% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 28 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that carleton university has formal agreements to accept students from. carlton university enables only specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at carleton university. table 6: pathways by sending program sending institution programs arts, fine arts and culture applied museum studies algonquin college broadcasting radio algonquin college loyalist college seneca college broadcasting tv algonquin college fashion arts humber college journalism algonquin college sheridan college library and information technician algonquin college music industry arts algonquin college arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities bachelor of human services police studies georgian college business/finance/administration advertising and marketing comms management algonquin college business algonquin college canadore college confederation college durham college humber college partnership agreements carleton university 10 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 32 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 1 page 29 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college business - accounting fanshawe college loyalist college business - marketing fanshawe college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fleming college george brown college humber college loyalist college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - international business algonquin college seneca college business operations centennial college professional accounting algonquin college education, community and social services addiction counsellor northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 149 1 1 18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 30 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college fleming college humber college loyalist college niagara college st. lawrence college community worker george brown college corporate security and risk management algonquin college correctional worker canadore college loyalist college customs and border services loyalist college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 31 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs drug and alcohol counsellor fleming college early childhood education algonquin college canadore college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college loyalist college early childhood education diploma humber college investigative and protective studies loyalist college law clerk algonquin college fanshawe college mental health and addiction worker canadore college paralegal algonquin college fleming college humber college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 44 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 32 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation conestoga college fanshawe college readaptation et justice penale la cit collgiale social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college social service worker-gerontology seneca college health, food and medical, recreation fitness and health promotion algonquin college recreation and leisure services algonquin college strength and sport conditioning canadore college veterinary technician algonquin college preparation and career planning partnership agreements carleton university 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 40 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 33 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs general arts and science algonquin college science and engineering technology architectural technology loyalist college biotechnology technician loyalist college biotechnology technologist algonquin college canadore college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college chemical engineering technician loyalist college chemical engineering technologist durham college loyalist college computer programmer algonquin college computer systems technology seneca college environmental technician loyalist college geomatics technician algonquin college fleming college photonics engineering technologist algonquin college science and technology baccalaurat en biotechnologie la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 28 1 1 2 2 10 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 229 lakehead university lakehead university is a public research university with campuses in thunder bay and orillia, ontario, canada. lakehead university is a comprehensive institution, offering a range of degree and diploma program within its 10 faculties: our university is a comprehensive page 34 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university institution, which offers a broad range of degree and diploma programs within ten faculties: business administration, education, engineering, natural resources management, graduate studies, health and behavioural sciences, bora laskin faculty of law, science and environmental studies, social sciences and humanities. lakehead university is also home to the western campus of the northern ontario school of medicine (retrieved from https://www.lakeheadu.ca/academics/faculties; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lakehead_university). the school has more than 45,000 alumni. lakehead university serves an undergraduate population of 6,132 (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships only with public colleges. confederation college is the only one within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). approximately 22% of transfer students to lakehead university come from confederation college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 574 pathways with specific 574 sending programs currently, no approved generic receiving pathways to lakehead university. partnership colleges currently supply partnership agreements for 6 program areas: arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical, recreation; preparation and career planning; science and engineering technology. the largest sending program area is science and engineering tech. with 26% of the partnership agreements. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. page 35 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 36 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university table 7: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6,132; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college* durham college fanshawe college fleming college region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) lakehead university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 1449 16 0 30 30 8 16 0.53 northern 1013 11 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern 1098 12 0 17 17 3 6 0.35 metro toronto area 1389 15 0 24 24 0 0 0 northern 1007 11 0 14 14 0 0 0 southern 1438 15 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern 4 0 0 36 36 30 60 1.67 central 1369 15 0 24 24 4 8 0.33 southern 1380 14 0 28 28 8 16 0.57 eastern 1478 15 0 39 39 4 8 0.21 metro toronto area 1394 15 0 17 17 2 4 0.24 central 1284 14 0 33 33 15 30 0.91 metro toronto area 1369 14 0 22 22 13 26 1.18 la cit collgiale eastern 1466 16 0 15 15 0 0 0 lambton college western 1271 13 0 21 21 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 1548 16 0 29 29 2 4 0.14 mohawk college southern 1437 15 0 20 20 12 24 1.20 niagara college southern 1500 16 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern college northern 783 9 0 19 19 1 2 0.11 george brown college georgian college humber college 22% page 37 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university geographical data sending institution sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college region northern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) lakehead university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 697 8 0 29 29 3 6 0.21 1378 14 0 33 33 8 16 0.48 1400 15 0 15 15 7 14 0.93 western 459 4 0 22 22 0 0 0 eastern 1625 17 0 21 21 3 6 0.29 0 574 574 135 270 0.47 metro toronto area metro toronto area grand total 22% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 38 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university pathways by sending institutions the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that lakehead university has formal agreements to accept students from. lakehead university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at lakehead university. table 8: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with lakehead university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 63 any ontario college advanced diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 any ontario college diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 page 39 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration st. clair college graphic design algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college accounting - business administration durham college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111 1 1 1 1 page 40 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs administrations des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - comptabilit collge boral la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - marketing la cit collgiale business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 54 3 3 3 1 1 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 1 3 16 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 41 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs humber college lambton college niagara college northern college sault college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources algonquin college canadore college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources management loyalist college northern college business administration - international st. clair college business administration - international business algonquin college canadore college niagara college business administration - marketing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 42 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college human resources - business administration durham college marketing - business administration durham college education, community and social services child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 135 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 43 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs loyalist college northern college st. clair college law and security administration cambrian college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection security and investigation conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 49 2 2 2 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 44 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs protection, security & investigation conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college lambton college niagara college sault college st. clair college protection, security and investigation confederation college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with lakehead university 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 50 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 45 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 46 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs st. lawrence college recreation and leisure services confederation college recreation leisure services seneca college preparation and career planning general arts and science algonquin college collge boral confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college northern college st. lawrence college general arts and science - college exploration cambrian college niagara college general arts and science - diploma option conestoga college general arts and science - liberal studies sault college general arts and science - university profile sheridan college general arts and science- college exploration cambrian college general arts and science- diploma option conestoga college liberal arts centennial college seneca college st. clair college science and engineering technology biotechnology centennial college mohawk college biotechnology - advanced durham college seneca college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 62 38 3 3 3 3 3 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 2 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 2 2 9 3 3 3 153 2 1 1 2 1 1 page 47 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs biotechnology advanced centennial college fleming college biotechnology advanced algonquin college biotechnology technician canadore college conestoga college loyalist college biotechnology technologist algonquin college canadore college loyalist college st. lawrence college chemical engineering technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college chemical production and power engineering technology lambton college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college computer engineering technologist sault college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 48 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs computer engineering technology conestoga college fleming college humber college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer engineering technology computing science algonquin college computer systems technology - networking centennial college ecosystem management technician fleming college ecosystem management technology fleming college electrical engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college georgian college niagara college northern college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - control systems humber college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electronics engineering technology centennial college seneca college environment technician sault college environment technologist sault college environmental technician algonquin college confederation college fleming college partnership agreements with lakehead university 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 14 2 3 2 page 49 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs georgian college loyalist college sault college seneca college environmental technologist centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college seneca college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college seneca college environmental technology (co-op) georgian college fish and wildlife conservation technician sault college fish and wildlife technician fleming college fish and wildlife technology fleming college forest conservation technician sault college forest ecosystem management technician confederation college forestry and wildlife management technician/technologist collge boral forestry technician algonquin college fleming college mechanical engineering technology algonquin college centennial college durham college humber college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 2 1 2 10 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 31 4 4 6 6 4 3 4 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 1 1 5 2 3 9 1 1 1 1 page 50 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - design george brown college techniques en environnement forestier la cit collgiale technologie de l'environnement la cit collgiale technologie du gnie informatique collge boral la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 574 page 51 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university laurentian university laurentian university is a publicly funded, bilingual university located in sudbury. considered a mid-sized institution, laurentian university caters to 6,132 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). laurentian university offers programs from the follow faculties: faculty of arts, faculty of education, faculty of health, faculty of management, faculty of medicine, faculty of science, engineering & architecture, and the goodman school of mines. recently, in collaboration with lakehead university, laurentian currently features the east campus of the northern ontario school of medicine, offering various graduate level degrees. laurentian university is the largest bilingual provider of distance education in canada (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/laurentian_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 partnerships with all public colleges; 1 partnership with oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute. cambrian college and collge boral are the only sending colleges within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km). 32% of laurentians transfer student population comes from cambrian college and 12% come from collge boral. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 66 324 pathways with specific 258 sending programs laurentian university has two generic receiving pathways for students from any 3 yr ontario college advanced diploma (eng & french) or any 2 yr diploma. arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical recreation; science and engineering tech. laurentian university has a specific partnership agreement with la cit collgiale allowing students from administration des affaires-services financiers into their certificate of qualification. page 52 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 53 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university table 9: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6304; proportion of registered transfer students: 8% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) laurentian university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double algonquin college eastern 478 5 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 cambrian college* northern 10 0 3 26 29 42 84 2.90 canadore college northern 127 2 3 9 12 5 10 0.83 metro toronto area 392 4 3 9 12 0 0 0 collge boral* northern 7 0 0 17 17 16 32 1.88 conestoga college southern 441 4 3 9 12 0 0 0 confederation college northern 1005 11 3 9 12 0 0 0 central 372 4 3 8 11 0 0 0 southern 540 5 3 12 15 1 2 0.13 centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college eastern 481 5 3 10 13 0 0 0 metro toronto area 397 4 3 8 11 4 8 0.73 central 287 3 3 15 18 33 66 3.67 humber college metro toronto area 372 4 3 10 13 2 4 0.31 la cit collgiale eastern 495 5 0 16 16 4 8 0.50 lambton college western 637 6 3 9 12 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 551 5 3 11 14 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 440 4 3 10 13 1 2 0.15 niagara college southern 503 5 3 9 12 0 0 0 northern college northern 306 4 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 994 11 0 1 1 0 0 0 32% 12% page 54 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university geographical data sending institution sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college region northern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) laurentian university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 307 3 3 7 10 3 6 0.60 381 4 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 403 4 3 7 10 2 4 0.40 western 716 7 3 7 10 0 0 0 eastern 628 6 3 12 15 12 24 1.60 66 258 324 131 262 0.81 metro toronto area metro toronto area grand total 44% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 55 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that laurentian university has formal agreements to accept students from. laurentian university enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at laurentian university. table 10: pathways by sending program sending institutions programs laurentian university certificate of qualification degree generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college diplme d'tudes collgiales - niveau avanc collge boral la cit collgiale any two-year program any ontario college diploma 47 44 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 2 22 22 page 56 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college arts, fine arts and culture advertising cambrian college journalism - print cambrian college business/finance/administration administration des affaires - services financiers la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - comptabilit collge boral any ontario business/finance/administration college advanced diploma cambrian college centennial college conestoga college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college humber college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 58 1 1 23 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 page 57 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs la cit collgiale lambton college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. lawrence college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college diplme de 3 ans en administration des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale public relations cambrian college education, community and social services activation coordinator - gerontology george brown college adjoint juridique collge boral administration de la loi er de la scurit collge boral laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 2 2 2 2 1 31 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 1 1 1 1 154 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 58 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs administration de la loi et de la scurit collge boral la cit collgiale community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college niagara college sheridan college st. lawrence college developmental services worker cambrian college georgian college indigenous wellness & addictions prevention canadore college law & security administration cambrian college law and security administration cambrian college native early childhood education cambrian college oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 2 1 1 12 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 41 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 59 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 page 60 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college diagnostic medical sonography st. clair college diagnostic medical sonography - ultrasound cambrian college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale magnetic resonance imaging cambrian college fanshawe college medical radiation technology cambrian college outdoor adventure algonquin college physical fitness management cambrian college promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 3 3 3 4 2 2 5 2 3 5 2 3 24 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 61 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs collge boral promotion de l'activit physique et de la sant collge boral technologie en radiation mdicale collge boral science and engineering technology automation engineering technology cambrian college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college technologie du gnie chimique collge boral grand total laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 1 1 1 1 1 17 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 324 page 62 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university mcmaster university mcmaster university is a publicly funded university located in hamilton, ontario. mcmaster has 6 faculties: the degroote school of business, engineering, health, sciences, humanities, and social sciences. mcmaster serves an undergraduate population of 21,802. (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mcmaster_university; numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca in 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 partnerships with all public colleges; 1 aboriginal institute. 4 partner colleges are within commutable range (meaning equal to or less than 80 km): conestoga college, george brown college, humber college, six nations polytechnique. 21% of mcmasters transfer population comes from commutable partners. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 131 pathways with specific 131 sending programs mcmaster currently has no receiving partnerships from students of generic sending programs. mcmaster only accepts transfer students from arts, fine-arts, humanities, and social science, and science, engineering, and technology. 95% of mcmasters transfer partnership agreements receive students from science, engineering and technology. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. page 63 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 64 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university table 11: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 21,802; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical proximity data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral conestoga college* confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college* georgian college region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) mcmaster university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 509 5 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern 453 4 0 4 4 0 0 0 metro toronto area 94 1 0 9 9 2 4 0.44 northern 446 4 0 2 2 0 0 0 western 53 1 0 13 13 8 16 1.23 northern 1438 15 0 3 3 0 0 0 central 140 1 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 southern 126 1 0 13 13 6 12 0.92 metro toronto area 70 1 0 8 8 4 8 1.00 central 155 1 0 8 8 3 6 0.75 metro toronto area 70 1 0 8 8 8 16 2.00 la cit collgiale eastern 526 5 0 4 4 0 0 0 loyalist college humber college* eastern 254 2 0 3 3 0 0 0 mohawk college* southern 7 0 0 10 10 46 92 9.20 niagara college southern 92 1 0 5 5 5 10 2.00 northern college northern 750 8 0 2 2 0 0 0 sault college northern 741 7 0 3 3 0 0 0 metro toronto area 89 1 0 8 8 6 12 1.50 seneca college 8% 4% 8% 47% page 65 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university geographical proximity data sending institution sheridan college* six nations polytechnic* institute* st. clair college st. lawrence college region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) mcmaster university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double metro toronto area 37 0 0 10 10 6 12 1.20 6% western 37 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 western 300 3 0 4 4 0 0 0 eastern 331 3 0 2 2 0 0 0 131 131 97 194 1.48 grand total 21% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 66 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university pathways by sending institutions the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that mcmaster university has formal agreements to accept students from. mcmaster university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at mcmaster university. table 12: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with mcmaster university specific sending programs arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities bachelor of arts six nations polytechnic institute business/finance/administration business administration advanced diploma mohawk college preparation and career planning general arts and sciences - liberal studies fanshawe college science and engineering technology architectural technology algonquin college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college architecture-construction engineering technology conestoga college chemical engineering technology-automation stream mohawk college chemical engineering technologist sending institutional programs 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 4 125 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 page 67 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs collge boral loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college computer engineering technology mohawk college construction engineering technology george brown college construction engineering technology management fanshawe college construction engineering technologyconstruction management niagara college electrical engineering technologist collge boral electrical engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 page 68 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs fanshawe college niagara college northern college electrical engineering technology - automated systems georgian college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electrical engineering technology (accelerated) fanshawe college electrical engineering technology-control systems humber college electro-mechanical engineering george brown college electromechanical engineering technology sheridan college electro-mechanical engineering technology durham college humber college sheridan college electromechanical engineering technology automation and robotics george brown college electro-mechanical engineering technology automation and robotics centennial college electromechanical engineering technology building automation george brown college electronics engineering technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college humber college niagara college sheridan college electronics engineering technology telecommunications system partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 5 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 69 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs conestoga college electronics engineering technologycommunications seneca college electronics engineering technology-control systems seneca college energy systems engineering technology centennial college conestoga college st. lawrence college energy systems engineering technology - clean and renewable energy mohawk college energy systems technology cambrian college environmental - civil engineering technology conestoga college manufacturing engineering and technology welding and robotics conestoga college manufacturing engineering technology fanshawe college mechanical engineering technology algonquin college durham college fanshawe college george brown college humber college la cit collgiale mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology automated manufacturing conestoga college mechanical engineering technology automotive manufacturing georgian college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 16 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 70 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - design centennial college george brown college humber college mechanical engineering technology - design and analysis conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - design and drafting sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - industrial centennial college mechanical engineering technology - industrial design seneca college mechanical engineering technology - robotics and automation conestoga college mechanical engineering technology-building science seneca college mechanical engineering technology-design centennial college mechanical engineering technology-industrial centennial college mechanical engineeringtechnology algonquin college power engineering technology georgian college science laboratory technology fanshawe college technologie de l'architecture la cit collgiale technologie du gnie civil construction la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with mcmaster university 2 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 131 page 71 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university nipissing university nipissing university is a public liberal arts university located in north bay. nipissing university currently serves approximately 3,269 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). nipissing university comprises 3 faculties: the schulich school or education, the faculty of arts and science, and the faculty of applied and professional studies. nipissing university is known for its emphasis in education technology, and teacher preparation. nipissing offers the iteach program, the first to integrate teacher-training with mobile technology across all instructional arenas. as well, nipissing university is one of the largest providers of additional qualification courses for teachers (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nipissing_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 articulated agreements only with college partners. canadore college is the only partner college within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). 27% of the transfer students to nipissing come from canadore college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 24 180 pathways with specific 156 sending programs nipissing allows one generic pathway for students from any 3 yr diploma program from all the 24 college sending partners. nipissing receives students transferring from the following program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/admin, education, community and social services, health, food, and medical recreation, and science, engineering tech. 47% of the transfer agreements are receiving students from education, community and social services. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. page 72 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 73 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university table 13: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 3269; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) nipissing university (pathways) transfer students double students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 354 4 1 10 11 17 34 3.09 cambrian college northern 123 1 1 6 7 0 0 0 canadore college* northern 0 0 1 8 9 32 64 7.11 centennial college metro toronto area 356 3 1 9 10 5 10 1.00 collge boral northern 125 2 1 3 4 1 2 0.50 conestoga college southern 405 4 1 4 5 0 0 0 confederation college northern 1099 12 1 5 6 0 0 0 durham college central 305 3 1 5 6 1 2 0.33 fanshawe college southern 504 5 1 8 9 13 26 2.89 fleming college eastern 374 4 1 10 11 0 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 361 4 1 4 5 0 0 0 georgian college central 251 2 1 10 11 3 6 0.55 humber college metro toronto area 336 3 1 8 9 2 4 0.44 la cit collgiale eastern 371 4 1 1 2 0 0 0 lambton college western 601 6 1 10 11 6 12 1.09 loyalist college eastern 400 5 1 6 7 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 404 4 1 7 8 0 0 0 niagara college southern 467 4 1 6 7 1 2 0.29 % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 27% page 74 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) nipissing university (pathways) transfer students double students per pathway ratio northern college northern 349 4 1 5 6 0 0 0 sault college northern 432 5 1 5 6 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 345 3 1 5 6 0 0 0 sheridan college metro toronto area 367 4 1 6 7 22 44 6.29 st. clair college western 677 6 1 9 10 15 30 3.00 st. lawrence college eastern 459 5 1 6 7 2 4 0.57 24 156 180 120 240 1.33 grand total % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 27% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80 km page 75 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that nipissing university has formal agreements to accept students from. nipissing university enables generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at nipissing university. table 14: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with nipissing university generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 page 76 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs fine arts georgian college visual and creative arts fleming college business/finance/administration business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration advanced diploma algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college lambton college st. clair college honours bachelor of business administration algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college lambton college st. clair college education, community and social services partnership agreements with nipissing university 4 4 3 3 39 29 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 86 page 77 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral educational assistant fleming college partnership agreements with nipissing university 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 page 78 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs mohawk college st. clair college indigenous wellness and addictions prevention canadore college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with nipissing university 1 1 1 1 21 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 79 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation practical nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college science and engineering technology computer engineering technology humber college electromechanical engineering technology diploma humber college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college grand total partnership agreements with nipissing university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 180 page 80 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university ocad university ocad university is a publicly funded university, located in toronto, ontario, canada. ocad university was formerly known as the ontario college of art and design, and is considered canadas largest and oldest educational institute specializing in offering students art and design programs. ocad university currently caters to approximately 3,319 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). ocad university currently has faculties of art, design, liberal arts, and sciences in alternative programs. the school combines a studiobased education with liberal studies, which is recognised with a bachelor of fine arts (bfa), a bachelor of design (bdes), an interdisciplinary master's in art media and design (ma, mfa or m des), a master of fine arts in criticism and curatorial practice (mfa), a master of design in strategic foresight and innovation (mdes), an executive master of design in advertising (emdes), a master of design in inclusive design (mdes), and a graduate program in digital futures (graduate diploma and ma, mdes, mfa) (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ocad_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 14 partnerships only with colleges 6 colleges that are within commutable distance (meaning equal of less than 80 km): durham college, george brown college, humber college, mohawk college, seneca college, and sheridan college. ocad receives students from the commutable colleges, but only has established approved partnerships with 2 of these colleges: george brown college, and humber college. 83% of ocad universitys transfer students are coming from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 14 pathways with specific 14 sending programs ocad university currently has no generic partnerships from sending partners. ocad university accepts transfer students from programs of 3 discipline areas: arts, fine arts and culture, science and engineering tech; and skills, trades and technologies. 71% of the partnership agreements allow transfer from arts, fine arts, and culture. page 81 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 82 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university table 15: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 3,319; proportion of registered transfer students: 6% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region durham college* fanshawe college fleming college georgian college george brown college* humber college* mohawk college* seneca college* sheridan college* pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) ocad university (pathways) transfer students double central 69 1 0 0 0 1 southern 190 2 0 4 4 2 eastern 115 1 0 3 3 0 central metro toronto area metro toronto area 113 1 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 5 5 7 34 1 0 2 2 3 southern 71 1 0 0 0 metro toronto area 21 0 0 0 0 central 39 1 0 0 0 0 14 14 % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio 2 0 4% 4 1 0 0 4 n/a 14 2.8 29% 6 3 13% 1 2 n/a 4% 4 8 n/a 17% 4 8 n/a 17% 24 48 3.4 83% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 83 of 226 institutional profile: queens university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that ocad university has formal agreements to accept students from. ocad university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at ocad university. table 16: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with ocad university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 10 fashion techniques and design 1 george brown college 1 fine art 4 fanshawe college 4 interior decorating 1 humber college 1 jewellery arts 1 george brown college 1 visual and creative arts (vcad) 3 fleming college 3 science and engineering technology 1 architectural technology 1 humber college 1 skills, trades and technologies 3 game development: game animation 1 george brown college 1 game development: game modelling 1 george brown college 1 interaction design and development 1 george brown college 1 grand total 14 page 84 of 226 institutional profile: queens university queens university queens university is a public research-intensive university located in kingston, ontario, canada. queens offers programs in the following undergraduate, graduate and professional faculties and schools: faculty of arts and science, faculty of education, faculty of engineering and applied science, faculty of health sciences, faculty of law, smith school of business, school of graduate studies, and the school of policy studies (retrieved from: http://www.queensu.ca/academics/programs). queens university caters to 17,265 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca in 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 0 n/a queens university does not have any approved transferpartnership agreements (as reported to oncat in july of 2015). however, queens university is the recipient of transfer students from the following colleges: durham college, humber college, loyalist college, niagara college, seneca college, sheridan college, st. clair college, and st. lawrence college. loyalist college is the only sender of transfer students within commutable range. pathway description: (as taken from ontransfer.ca, july 2015). number pathways with generic 0 0 sending programs generic specific pathways with specific sending programs n/a n/a 0 page 85 of 226 institutional profile: queens university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 86 of 226 institutional profile: queens university table 17: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 17,265; proportion of registered transfer students: 0.43% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region algonquin college pathways data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) queens university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students students per pathway ratio double % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 188 2 0 0 0 0 0 n/a 213 2 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 277 3 0 0 0 2 4 n/a 82 1 0 0 0 1 2 n/a southern metro toronto area 395 4 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 250 2 0 0 0 5 10 n/a sheridan college central 299 3 0 0 0 2 4 n/a st. clair college western 613 6 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 3 0 0 0 0 4 8 n/a 22% 0 0 0 17 34 n/a 28% durham college humber college loyalist college* niagara college seneca college st. lawrence college* grand total eastern central metro toronto area eastern eastern 6% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range of queens university, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 87 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university ryerson university ryerson university is a public research university located in downtown toronto. the university has a focus on applied, career-oriented education. ryerson university caters to 23,281 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). ryerson university is home to canada's largest undergraduate business school, the ted rogers school of management, and canada's third largest undergraduate engineering school, the george vari faculty of engineering and architectural science, as well as the faculty of arts, faculty of communication & design, faculty of community services, and the faculty of science. in addition to offering full-time and part-time undergraduate and graduate programs leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, the university also offers part-time degrees, distance education and certificates through the g. raymond chang school of continuing education (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ryerson_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 54 30 colleges with four aboriginal and two private colleges; 23 universities 14 institutions are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). 94% of ryerson universitys transfer students are coming from commutable partners. pathway description: number internal 97 2496 agreements with college 374 pathways with generic 1952 sending programs pathways with specific 544 sending programs generic ryerson university has generic pathways with all partnership universities, sent from any bachelors degree, in business, health, and science. ryerson university does not have generic pathways with partnership colleges. specific the specific pathways concentrate on arts and humanities, business, education, health and medicine, health and recreation and science and technology. the universal specific sending programs are business administration, any two-year diploma in disability studies page 88 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university related fields and disciplines, early childhood education, at least two years undergraduate study in a health-related field and any ontario college advanced diploma in applied health science. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 89 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university table 18: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 23,281; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algoma university algonquin college brock university cambrian college canadore college carleton university centennial college* collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college* fanshawe college first nations technical institute fleming college george brown college* georgian college humber college* region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double northern 697 7 91 8 99 5 10 0.10 eastern 441 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 southern 121 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 northern 414 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 northern 364 4 0 13 13 0 0 0 eastern 451 4 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 25 0 0 17 17 71 142 8.35 eastern 406 4 0 14 14 0 0 0 southern 95 1 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 northern 1399 15 0 17 17 0 0 0 central 68 1 0 17 17 9 18 1.06 southern 191 2 0 17 17 5 10 0.59 eastern 210 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 114 1 0 16 16 1 2 0.13 metro toronto area 3 0 0 19 19 94 188 9.89 central 115 1 0 15 15 2 4 0.27 metro toronto area 34 1 0 16 16 36 72 4.50 22% 3% 29% 11% page 90 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double northern 547 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 457 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 lakehead university northern 1395 15 89 8 97 0 0 0 lambton college western 288 3 0 14 14 0 0 0 laurentian university le collge des grand lacs* loyalist college mcmaster university mohawk college* niagara college nipissing university northern college ocad university* ontario agricultural college oshki-pimacheo-win education & training institute queen's university royal military college of canada northern 398 4 90 8 98 0 0 0 metro toronto area 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 185 2 0 15 15 0 0 0 southern 71 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 71 1 0 16 16 5 10 0.63 southern 134 1 0 15 15 5 10 0.67 northern 362 3 90 8 98 0 0 0 northern 710 7 0 14 14 0 0 0 metro toronto area 1 0 73 1 74 0 0 0 southern 87 1 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 1388 15 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 264 3 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 261 3 6 0 6 0 0 0 2% page 91 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution ryerson university* saint paul university sault college seneca college* sheridan college* six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute* trent university university of guelph university of guelphhumber* university of ontario institute of technology* university of ottawa university of toronto* university of waterloo university of windsor western university region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double metro toronto area 0 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 450 4 89 7 96 0 0 0 northern 701 7 0 12 12 0 0 0 metro toronto area 20 0 0 17 17 53 106 6.24 16% central 39 1 0 16 16 42 84 5.25 13% southern 102 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 western 365 4 0 13 13 0 0 0 3 0 15 15 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 262 metro toronto area 1 eastern 144 2 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 87 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 34 1 88 8 96 0 0 0 central 68 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 451 4 90 8 98 0 0 0 metro toronto area 2 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 116 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 372 4 89 8 97 0 0 0 western 198 2 89 8 97 0 0 0 page 92 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution wilfrid laurier university york university* grand total region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double southern 115 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 40 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 1952 544 2496 329 658 0.26 94% *institutions highlighted blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80 km page 93 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that ryerson university has formal agreements to accept students from. ryerson university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at ryerson university. table 19: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with ryerson university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture fashion arts humber college fashion merchandising fanshawe college arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities any baccalaureate degree in the humanities or social sciences algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university ryerson university trent university university of guelph university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university 2 1 1 1 1 109 20 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 94 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university business any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph partnership agreements with ryerson university 89 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 698 677 32 31 31 31 31 31 31 24 31 1 31 31 31 31 page 95 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university any bachelor's degree. algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university business/finance/administration administration des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college partnership agreements with ryerson university 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 49 4 2 2 42 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 96 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college fashion business seneca college fashion management george brown college international business administration seneca college education, community and social services any two-year diploma in disability studies related fields and disciplines algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college first nations technical institute fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs partnership agreements with ryerson university 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 214 29 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 97 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute sault college seneca college sheridan college six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college st. lawrence college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community development work centennial college community worker george brown college community worker - outreach and development sheridan college developmental services worker algonquin college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 41 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 page 98 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college loyalist college northern college st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral la cit collgiale educational assistant - special needs support niagara college educational support / educational assistant conestoga college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 46 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 7 1 page 99 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs confederation college fleming college mohawk college northern college sheridan college st. clair college intervenor for deaf-blind persons george brown college interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap la cit collgiale mental health and addiction worker canadore college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques d'ducation spcialise collge boral la cit collgiale health and medicine partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 6 3 3 2 1 1 609 page 100 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university at least two years undergraduate study in a health-related field algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo partnership agreements with ryerson university 462 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 147 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 page 101 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university health, food and medical, recreation academic pathway for nurses george brown college any ontario college advanced diploma in applied health science algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college ontario agricultural college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with ryerson university 7 7 7 7 103 1 1 53 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 102 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college practical nursing / soins infirmiers auxiliaires algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 103 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college rpn bridging to university nursing centennial college science and engineering technology business administration - information systems confederation college durham college computer programmer analyst durham college gis and urban planning fanshawe college health information management fleming college george brown college st. lawrence college urban and regional planning technician geographic information systems (gis) mohawk college science and technology any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 8 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 704 704 33 32 32 32 33 32 33 24 32 4 32 32 32 32 32 32 33 32 32 32 page 104 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs western university wilfrid laurier university york university grand total partnership agreements with ryerson university 32 32 32 2496 page 105 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university saint paul university located in the heart of the nations capital, saint paul university (est. 1848) is the founding college of the university of ottawa, with which it has been federated since 1965. a bilingual institution, it offers undergraduate and graduate study programs. saint paul university currently houses four faculties: human sciences, philosophy, theology and canon law. within these faculties are housed programs in 19 disciplines, ranging from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. such disciplines include: anglican studies, biblical studies, canon law, canonical practice, conflict studies, counseling and spirituality, eastern christian studies, ecclesiastical administration, ethics, group facilitation, ministry, pastoral theology, philosophical theology, philosophy, public ethics, religious education, social communications, spirituality, and theology. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/saint_paul_university) saint pauls caters to 203 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 4 college only 2 college sending partners are within commutable range (less than 80 km): algonquin college, and la cit collgiale pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 64 pathways with specific 64 sending programs n/a saint paul university receives transfer students from a variety of disciplines: arts, fine arts, culture; business, finance, administration; education, community, and social services; health, food and medical recreation. 81% of the transfer agreements receive students from programs in education, community, arts, and social services. page 106 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. as the transfer student numbers were taken from graduate satisfaction survey (2013/2014) to provide a sense of which institutions students were transferring from, transfer students to saint paul university were not captured within the scope of our analysis. however, the 2014 transfer student numbers taken from cudo.cou.on.ca are listed below. page 107 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university table 20: pathways by sending institutions 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 203; proportion of registered transfer students: 24% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) saint paul university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students algonquin college* eastern 11 0 0 23 23 collge boral northern 491 5 0 9 9 eastern 11 0 0 17 17 eastern 203 2 0 15 15 0 64 64 la cit collgiale* st. lawrence college grand total double students per pathway ratio % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. **numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with saint paul university as of 27/11/15. page 108 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions to saint paul university. saint paul university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at saint paul university. numbers reflect feedback received from the consultation process with saint paul university as of 27/11/15. table 21: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with saint paul sending institution programs university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture journalism algonquin college journalisme la cit collgiale professional writing algonquin college radiodiffusion la cit collgiale relations publiques la cit collgiale business/finance/administration advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college public relations algonquin college publicit et communications marketing la cit collgiale education, community and social services adjoint juridique collge boral la cit collgiale early childhood education st. lawrence college child and youth worker 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 51 6 3 3 1 1 6 page 109 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university sending institution programs algonquin college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college st. lawrence college developmental services worker algonquin college law clerk st. lawrence college paralegal algonquin college paramedic algonquin college st. lawrence college police foundations algonquin college st. lawrence college practical nursing algonquin college social service worker algonquin college st. lawrence college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social - grontologie la cit collgiale techniques d'ducation spcialise la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale veterinary technician algonquin college health, food and medical, recreation massage therapy algonquin college practical nursing algonquin college respiratory therapy partnership agreements with saint paul university 3 3 4 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 5 2 3 1 1 4 2 2 1 1 6 3 3 1 1 2 2 6 3 3 1 1 5 2 2 1 1 1 page 110 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university sending institution programs algonquin college techniques des services en loisir la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with saint paul university 1 1 1 64 page 111 of 226 institutional profile: trent university trent university trent university is a publicly funded university, with campuses in durham, peterborough, and oshawa, ontario. trent university has 34 programs from across the faculties of arts, business, education, and science and technology comprising 19 individual disciplines, 8 interdisciplinary degrees, and 7 graduate programs. the university has continuing education opportunities offering personal and professional development courses and certificates including business and organizational communications, conflict resolution, leadership development, and teaching english as a second language (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/trent_university in august 2015; http://www.trentu.ca/academics/). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 22 only college sending partners. durham college, and fleming college are within commutable range (less than 80km). 20% of the transfer student population to trent university comes from fleming college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 5 137 pathways with specific 132 sending programs trent university allows transfer students from 2 generic sending programs. the first is from a general arts and science-universitytransfer program (2 from fleming college, 2 from durham college) and a 1 from liberal arts (1 from seneca college). trent university has specific receiving pathways into the following areas .arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical recreation; science and engineering tech. 66% of the receiving pathways are from program areas in science and engineering tech. page 112 of 226 institutional profile: trent university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. for the purposes of this geographical analysis, the peterborough campus was selected as the main location, as it serves the highest number of students. other branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 113 of 226 institutional profile: trent university table 22: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6,461; proportion of registered transfer students: 2% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college* fanshawe college distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) trent university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 264 3 0 1 1 5 10 10 northern 410 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 northern 311 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 metro toronto area 120 1 0 3 3 4 8 2.7 southern 222 2 0 5 5 1 2 0.4 northern 1396 15 0 2 2 12 24 12 central 78 1 2 20 22 0 0 0 southern 321 3 0 7 7 0 0 0 fleming college* eastern 60 1 2 29 31 42 84 2.7 george brown college metro toronto area 145 2 0 7 7 23 46 6.6 georgian college central 157 2 0 6 6 2 4 0.7 humber college metro toronto area 158 2 0 4 4 1 2 0.5 lambton college western 418 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 110 1 0 11 11 3 6 0.5 mohawk college southern 214 2 0 1 1 2 4 4 niagara college southern 276 3 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern college northern 658 7 0 1 1 0 0 0 20% page 114 of 226 institutional profile: trent university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) trent university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double sault college northern 698 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 131 1 1 10 11 4 8 0.73 sheridan college central 180 2 0 7 7 2 4 0.57 st. clair college western 494 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 st. lawrence college eastern 187 2 0 4 4 2 4 1 5 132 137 103 206 1.50 grand total 20% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 115 of 226 institutional profile: trent university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to trent university. trent university enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at trent university. table 23: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with trent university generic sending programs preparation and career planning general arts and science - university transfer fleming college general arts and science trent transfer durham college general arts and science university transfer fleming college liberal arts seneca college specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture journalism - broadcast and electronic media durham college journalism - web and print durham college business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college business administration fleming college loyalist college business administration - accounting durham college fleming college business administration - human resource management fleming college business administration - marketing fleming college 5 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 116 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs business administration - materials management fleming college loyalist college business administration-human resources management loyalist college human resources - business administration durham college international trade fleming college marketing - business administration durham college operations management - business administration durham college education, community and social services aboriginal community advocacy program confederation college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation practical nursing fleming college partnership agreements with trent university 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 117 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs george brown college science and engineering technology bio-food technologist loyalist college biotechnology - advanced fleming college biotechnology technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology loyalist college computer engineering technology fleming college humber college computer programmer sheridan college computer programmer analyst conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college loyalist college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer system technology durham college fanshawe college george brown college seneca college sheridan college computer systems technician niagara college computer systems technician - networking georgian college computer systems technology conestoga college durham college fanshawe college partnership agreements with trent university 1 90 1 1 5 5 1 1 1 1 5 2 3 3 3 36 3 6 3 6 3 4 2 3 3 3 6 6 10 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 10 1 3 1 page 118 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs fleming college george brown college sault college seneca college sheridan college ecosystem management technology fleming college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology durham college fleming college fish and wildlife technology fleming college pharmaceutical and food science technology durham college software engineering technology centennial college grand total partnership agreements with trent university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 3 3 137 page 119 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph university of guelph the university of guelph is a publicly funded research university in guelph, ontario, canada. the university of guelph consists of seven colleges whose undergraduate and graduate programs span the natural and physical sciences, social sciences and humanities: college of arts, college of biological science, college of business and economics, college of physical and engineering science, college of social and applied human sciences, ontario agricultural college, ontario veterinary college (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_guelph#profile_and_programs in august, 2015). the university of guelph is home to 18, 294 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 24 colleges only the following 5 sending college partners are within commutable range ( less than 80km commuting distance). centennial college, conestoga college, humber college, mohawk college, sheridan college. 74% of transfer students to the university of guelph come from commutable college sending partners. pathways with 1 137 generic sending programs pathways with 136 specific sending programs guelph allows 1 generic pathway, accepting students from a program from conestoga college in general arts and science. guelph allows specific pathways from the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture; culinary/hospitality/tourism; education, community and social services, and science and engineering technology. 75% of the sending partnership agreements are in the program areas of science, and engineering technology. page 120 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 121 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph table 24: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 18,294; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* region eastern northern northern metro toronto area pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) university of guelph (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 513 5 0 7 7 4 8 1.1 449 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 399 4 0 10 10 1 2 0.2 97 1 0 15 15 4 8 0.5 442 4 1 2 0 8 0 1 10 11 14 28 2.55 1434 15 0 2 2 0 0 0 136 2 0 8 8 1 2 0.25 125 1 0 6 6 7 14 2.33 college boreal conestoga college* confederation college nothern durham college fanshawe college central fleming college george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 186 2 0 9 9 2 4 0.44 88 1 0 4 4 3 6 1.50 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 150 2 0 6 6 4 8 1.33 72 1 0 3 3 39 78 26.00 la cit collgiale eastern 529 5 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 lambton college western 222 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 257 3 0 10 10 0 0 0 southern northern southern 4% 13% 2% 38% page 122 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph geographical data sending institution mohawk college* region southern niagara college northern college southern sault college northern metro toronto area seneca college sheridan college* st. clair college st. lawrence college northern central western eastern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) university of guelph (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 47 1 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 123 1 0 6 6 1 2 0.33 745 8 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 736 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 98 1 0 13 13 6 12 0.92 64 1 0 3 3 11 22 7.33 299 3 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 334 3 0 8 8 0 0 0 137 137 104 208 1.52 grand total 3% 11% 68% *blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 123 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of guelph. guelph enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at the university of guelph. table 25: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with university of sending institution programs guelph generic sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 1 general arts & science 1 conestoga college 1 specific sending programs culinary/hospitality/tourism 29 food and beverage management 1 george brown college 1 gestion htelire et de restaurant 1 la cit collgiale 1 hospitality administration 1 canadore college 1 hospitality administration - hotel and resort 2 fleming college 1 georgian college 1 hospitality management - food and beverage 1 fanshawe college 1 hospitality management - hotel 1 fanshawe college 1 hospitality management - hotel and resort 3 centennial college 1 georgian college 1 sault college 1 hospitality management - hotel and restaurant 6 algonquin college 1 conestoga college 1 niagara college 1 seneca college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and 1 page 124 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs resort confederation college hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and tourism durham college hospitality management - restaurant and catering centennial college hotel and restaurant management fleming college humber college hotel and tourism management lambton college hotel management george brown college tour mg - bus (2-yr) plus hos & tour - mgt sys (1-yr) niagara college tourism and travel algonquin college tourism management - business development niagara college tourism management - cultural & heritage tourism centennial college tourism management - travel industry services humber college tourism mgt - ti (2-yr) plus tourism & hosp ad (1-yr) humber college education, community and social services customs border service - law and security administration fleming college early childhood education conestoga college law and security administration cambrian college protection, security and investigation mohawk college science and engineering technology biotechnology mohawk college biotechnology - advanced fleming college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with university of guelph 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 103 4 4 8 4 4 page 125 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs biotechnology advanced algonquin college durham college seneca college biotechnology technician canadore college conestoga college loyalist college biotechnology technician - industrial microbiology centennial college biotechnology technologist canadore college loyalist college biotechnology technologist - advanced canadore college biotechnology technologist - industrial microbiology centennial college biotechnology technologist - research seneca college chemical engineering technology seneca college chemical laboratory technology - pharmaceutical seneca college computer programmer analyst durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college computer programmer/analyst conestoga college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer systems technology - systems analyst sheridan college environmental technician algonquin college centennial college confederation college fleming college partnership agreements with university of guelph 12 4 4 4 12 4 4 4 4 4 7 3 4 1 1 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 10 1 1 1 1 page 126 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs georgian college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college environmental technician - field and laboratory niagara college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college environmental technician - sampling and monitoring seneca college environmental technician - water and wastewater operations northern college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college seneca college landscape design fanshawe college natural environment technician - conservation and management sault college natural environment technologist - conservation and management sault college software engineering technology centennial college conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with university of guelph 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 137 page 127 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber university of guelph-humber the university of guelph-humber (also known as ugh) is collaboration between the university of guelph and humber college institute of technology & advanced learning and was established in 2002. it is located on humber's north campus in toronto, ontario, canada. the university offers seven four-year undergraduate academic programs, each of which grant a university honours degree from the university of guelph and a college diploma from humber college. the university offers an early childhood degree completion program (basc) and a justice studies degree completion program (baa). these degree completion programs allow professionals in the respective fields with a college diploma to earn their degree while working (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_guelph-humber). partnership description: number 24 structure colleges only. geographical 6 college sending partners are within commutable range (<80 km); proximity centennial college, conestoga college, georgian college, mohawk college, seneca college, and sheridan college. 30% of the transfer students-share to the university of guelph-humber, are coming from commutable partners. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with 14 266 generic sending programs pathways with 252 specific sending programs 1 generic pathway established with 14 college partners from the preparation and career planning stream. guelph-humber accepts transfer students from a general arts and science program. guelph-humber accepts transfer students from the following program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health food and medical, recreation. 69% of the partnership agreements allow transfer students from education, community and social services. page 128 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 129 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber table 26: pathways by sending institution geographic information sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) distance (km) between institutions region travel duration (hr) between institutions double distance (km) between institutions region eastern 455 4 1 12 13 1 2 0.15 northern 385 4 1 14 15 0 0 0 northern metro toronto area 335 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.00 40 1 0 13 13 0 0 0.00 collge boral conestoga college confederation college northern 378 4 0 10 10 0 0 0.00 southern 79 1 1 8 9 1 2 0.22 northern 1370 14 1 8 9 0 0 0.00 durham college fanshawe college central 72 1 0 12 12 0 0 0.00 southern 178 2 1 10 11 0 0 0.00 fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 129 1 0 13 13 0 0 0.00 31 0 1 8 9 0 0 0.00 georgian college 87 1 1 12 13 1 2 0.15 humber college central metro toronto area 0 0 0 15 15 6 12 0.80 la cit collgiale eastern 472 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.00 lambton college western 274 4 1 9 10 0 0 0.00 loyalist college eastern 200 2 1 13 14 0 0 0.00 mohawk college southern 72 1 1 13 14 0 0 0.00 niagara college southern 131 1 1 10 11 0 0 0.00 10% 10% page 130 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber geographic information sending institution northern college region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) distance (km) between institutions region travel duration (hr) between institutions double distance (km) between institutions region northern 682 7 0 8 8 0 0 0.00 673 7 1 7 8 0 0 0.00 seneca college northern metro toronto area 34 1 0 7 7 1 2 0.29 sheridan college central 37 1 1 11 12 0 0 0.00 st. clair college st. lawrence college western 351 3 0 10 10 0 0 0.00 eastern 277 3 1 11 12 0 0 0.00 14 252 266 10 20 0.08 sault college grand total 10% 30% * institutions within commutable range, equal or less than 80 km. page 131 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of guelph-humber. guelph-humber enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at he university of guelph-humber. table 27: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture business administration algonquin college collge boral conestoga college durham college fanshawe college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college journalism centennial college mohawk college journalism - online, print and broadcast loyalist college journalism - print and broadcast durham college humber college media communications humber college public relations cambrian college durham college humber college business/finance/administration accounting - business administration 21 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 28 1 page 132 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs durham college administration des affaires la cit collgiale business administration cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 185 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 133 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services worker loyalist college customs border service - law and security administration fleming college developmental services worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 25 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 134 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral la cit collgiale law and security administration cambrian college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 45 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 42 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 135 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation mohawk college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college social service worker - gerontology sheridan college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 page 136 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa partnership agreements with university of sending institution programs guelph-humber collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques des services policier la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation fitness and health promotion algonquin college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college fitness and lifestyle management george brown college physical fitness management cambrian college promotion de l'activit physique et de la sant collge boral generic sending programs preparation and career planning general arts and science algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 2 1 18 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 137 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. lawrence college grand total partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 266 page 138 of 226 institutional profile: uoit university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) is a public research university located in oshawa, ontario, canada. the university shares its campus with durham college. the university was founded in 2002 and accepted its first students in 2003, making it one of canada's newest universities. uoit caters to 8,727 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). uoit currently has 7 faculties: faculty of business and information technology, faculty of social sciences and humanities, faculty of education, faculty of energy systems and nuclear science, faculty of engineering and applied science, and a faculty of health sciences (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_ontario_institute_of_technology in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 colleges only. one partnership with the michener institute. 6 of the college sending partners are within commutable range (equal or less than 80km). 35% of all transfer students to uoit come from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 192 1257 pathways with specific 1065 sending programs within the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, health, food and medical, recreation, science, and engineering technology, uoit accepts transfer student from any ontario college diploma (2yr), and any ontario advanced diploma (3 yr). uoit also accepts a general arts and science program from durham college, and fleming college. uoit has specific partnerships across a variety of program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, health, food and medical, recreation, science, and engineering technology, business, finance, administration, skills, trades, and technologies, and education, community and social services. 35% of the partnership agreements with uoit take transfer students from education, community and social services. page 139 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 140 of 226 institutional profile: uoit table 28: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 8,727; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to mcmaster university number of specific agreement eastern 391 4 8 63 71 northern 385 4 8 42 50 northern metro toronto area 303 3 8 21 29 43 1 8 68 76 collge boral conestoga college confederation college northern 378 4 8 25 33 southern 142 2 8 49 57 northern 1370 15 8 30 38 durham college fanshawe college central 6 0 8 71 79 241 2 8 55 63 fleming college* george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 65 1 8 47 55 southern 67 1 8 30 38 estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 58 0.76 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0.05 93 186 2.35 3 6 0.10 9 18 0.33 2 4 0.11 1 2 0.04 3 6 0.10 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 134 1 8 48 56 73 1 8 55 63 la cit collgiale eastern 408 4 8 33 41 2 4 0.10 lambton college western 338 3 8 35 43 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 136 1 8 40 48 1 2 0.04 0 0 mohawk college southern 141 1 8 52 60 0 niagara college northern college southern 204 2 8 45 53 0 0 0 northern 650 7 8 24 32 0 0 0 18% 6% 1% 2% page 141 of 226 institutional profile: uoit geographical information sending institution sault college seneca college* sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute* grand total region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to mcmaster university number of specific agreement northern metro toronto area metro toronto area 672 7 8 31 39 50 1 8 60 68 104 1 8 50 58 western 415 4 8 50 58 eastern metro toronto area estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample 214 2 8 38 46 68 1 0 3 3 192 1065 1257 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 0 0 0 14 28 0.41 2 4 0.07 1 2 0.03 0 0 0 0 0 0 161 322 0.26 9% 35% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 142 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to uoit. uoit enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uoit. number reflect oncat data pulled as of 07/11/15. table 29: pathways by sending programs sending institution programs partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 24 1 1 page 143 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college arts, fine arts and culture advertising mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college centennial college durham college mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 67 3 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 144 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 145 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college broadcasting - radio, television and film niagara college broadcasting and film centennial college journalism centennial college mohawk college journalism - online, print and broadcast loyalist college journalism - print and broadcast durham college humber college techniques de travail social la cit collgiale business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college seneca college accounting - business durham college accounting - business administration durham college accounting and finance seneca college administration des affaires - compatabilite la cit collgiale administration des affaires comptabilit collge boral administration des affaires - marketing la cit collgiale advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college centennial college durham college mohawk college st. clair college st. lawrence college business - accounting algonquin college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 132 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 16 1 page 146 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs cambrian college canadore college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business - finance centennial college fanshawe college sheridan college business - financial services mohawk college business - human resources confederation college fanshawe college sheridan college st. lawrence college business - insurance fanshawe college seneca college business - marketing algonquin college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college humber college mohawk college northern college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 2 1 2 2 4 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 147 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs st. lawrence college business - operations centennial college durham college business - payroll and bookkeeping fanshawe college business - purchasing conestoga college fanshawe college business accounting - financial and credit management centennial college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college niagara college northern college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting and financial services sault college business administration - business operations management centennial college business administration - finance algonquin college sheridan college st. clair college business administration financial planning seneca college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 17 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 page 148 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs business administration - human resources algonquin college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources management fleming college loyalist college northern college business administration - leadership and management fanshawe college business administration - marketing algonquin college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - materials and operations management algonquin college business administration - operations management durham college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 2 page 149 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs niagara college business administration - purchasing and supply management seneca college business administration - supply chain and operations management conestoga college financial services - client services seneca college human resources - business durham college human resources - business administration durham college insurance mohawk college insurance - property and casualty conestoga college marketing - business durham college marketing - business administration durham college public relations cambrian college durham college humber college education, community and social services behavioural sciences seneca college child & youth worker northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 440 2 2 3 3 77 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 page 150 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college court and tribunal administration seneca college customs border service loyalist college customs border services loyalist college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 42 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 2 2 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 151 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs northern college st. clair college developmental services worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college st. clair college interventions aupres des personnes ayant un handicap la cit collgiale law & security administration cambrian college law and security administration cambrian college lambton college niagara college sault college st. clair college law and security administration - customs border services fleming college law and security administration private security mohawk college law and security administration - security and risk management fleming college law clerk algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 152 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college niagara college northern college seneca college st. lawrence college law clerk advanced durham college parajuriste la cit collgiale paralegal algonquin college durham college fleming college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college paralegal education humber college paramedic algonquin college cambrian college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college niagara college northern college st. clair college st. lawrence college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 16 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 16 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 84 4 4 4 4 page 153 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection security and investigation conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college protection, security and investigation cambrian college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 14 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 39 1 3 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 page 154 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs sault college st. clair college sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit collgiale social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college soins paramdicaux collge boral la cit collgiale techniques dducation spcialise (child and youth worker) collge boral techniques de readaptation et de justice penale la cit collgiale techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge boral techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques d'education specialisee collge boral la cit collgiale partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 3 3 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 6 2 4 page 155 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 8 4 4 188 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 156 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college assistant de l'ergothrapeute et assistant du physiothrapeute collge boral la cit collgiale biomedical engineering technology centennial college durham college biotechnology - advanced durham college fleming college cardiovascular technology mohawk college st. clair college dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college fitness & lifesytle management george brown college fitness and health promotion algonquin college centennial college conestoga college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 page 157 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college humber college loyalist college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college health informatics technology centennial college health information management fleming college george brown college st. lawrence college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale massage therapy algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college massothrapie collge boral mohawk college northern college medical laboratory science st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute medical laboratory technology cambrian college medical radiation technology algonquin college cambrian college confederation college fanshawe college occupational therapist assistant and partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 12 page 158 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs physiotherapist assistant canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fleming college georgian college humber college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college opticianry georgian college seneca college pharmacy technician centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. clair college practical nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 46 3 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 page 159 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college promotion de l'activite physique et de la sante collge boral radiological technology the michener institute respiratory therapy algonquin college canadore college conestoga college fanshawe college st. clair college the michener institute soins infirmiers auxiliaires collge boral la cit collgiale techniques pharmaceutiques collge boral la cit collgiale thrapeute respiratoire la cit collgiale preparation and career planning general arts and science durham college general arts and science - university transfer fleming college science and engineering technology 3d animation, art and design humber college alternative energy engineering technology lambton college animation algonquin college cambrian college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 8 4 4 4 4 372 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 page 160 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs loyalist college seneca college animation - digital arts durham college animation - digital production durham college animation 2d/3d collge boral animation 3d la cit collgiale animation 3d avance la cit collgiale any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 page 161 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college biomedical engineering technology - equipment and devices st. clair college biotechnology canadore college biotechnology - advanced algonquin college centennial college durham college fleming college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college biotechnology advanced algonquin college durham college biotechnology technologist canadore college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college biotechnology technologist - industrial partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 page 162 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs microbiology centennial college chemical engineering technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - environmental mohawk college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college chemical production and power engineering technology lambton college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college civil engineering technology - environmental conestoga college compter systems technician durham college computer and network support technician humber college computer and networking support technician humber college computer engineering technician fleming college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 page 163 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs george brown college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college mohawk college niagara college northern college sheridan college computer engineering technician - embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology conestoga college fleming college humber college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer engineering technology - computer science algonquin college computer engineering technology - computing science algonquin college computer engineering technology - embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology - networking st. clair college computer networking and technical support seneca college st. lawrence college computer programmer algonquin college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 18 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 21 2 2 2 1 2 2 page 164 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college computer programmer analyst cambrian college canadore college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college computer programmer/ analyst conestoga college computer programmer/analyst conestoga college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer security and investigations fleming college computer systems technician algonquin college canadore college centennial college collge boral durham college fanshawe college niagara college computer systems technician - network systems mohawk college computer systems technician - networking centennial college georgian college st. clair college computer systems technician - software support mohawk college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 2 2 2 2 2 28 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 10 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 2 1 1 page 165 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs computer systems technology algonquin college cambrian college centennial college durham college fanshawe college george brown college la cit collgiale mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer systems technology - network engineering and security analyst mohawk college computer systems technology - networking algonquin college centennial college st. clair college computer systems technology networking algonquin college centennial college computer systems technology - security algonquin college computer systems technology - software development mohawk college computer systems technology software development & network engineering sheridan college computer systems technology - software development & networking engineering sheridan college computer systems technology - systems analyst sheridan college contemporary web design durham college digital animation centennial college digital media arts seneca college electrical engineering technology algonquin college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 18 1 2 1 3 3 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 6 2 2 2 2 1 1 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 7 1 page 166 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college niagara college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - control systems humber college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electro-mechanical engineering technology durham college sheridan college electro-mechanical engineering technology automation and robotics centennial college humber college electro-mechanical engineering technology building automation george brown college electronics engineering technician - broadband cable seneca college electronics engineering technician communications seneca college electronics engineering technician - computers seneca college electronics engineering technician - control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology centennial college durham college humber college niagara college sheridan college electronics engineering technology - partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 167 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs communications seneca college electronics engineering technology communications seneca college electronics engineering technology - control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology - industrial automation st. clair college electronics engineering technology telecommunications conestoga college energy systems design technology st. clair college energy systems engineering technology centennial college conestoga college st. lawrence college energy systems engineering technology - clean and renewable energy mohawk college energy systems technology cambrian college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college sault college seneca college fire protection engineering technology seneca college fire science technology partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 page 168 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college game art and design centennial college game development algonquin college durham college george brown college niagara college game development technician st. lawrence college game programming george brown college humber college health informatics technology centennial college heating, refrigeration and air conditioning technology humber college heating, refrigeration, and air conditioning technology george brown college information technology support services conestoga college sheridan college instrumentation and control engineering technology lambton college instrumentation engineering technology industrial cambrian college interactive multimedia developer algonquin college internet applications and web development algonquin college durham college fanshawe college st. clair college manufacturing engineering technology fanshawe college manufacturing engineering technology - welding and robotics conestoga college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 page 169 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs mechanical engineering technology algonquin college durham college humber college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - automated manufacturing conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - automotive manufacturing georgian college mechanical engineering technology - automotive product design st. clair college mechanical engineering technology - automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - building sciences seneca college mechanical engineering technology - design centennial college george brown college mechanical engineering technology - design and analysis conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - design and drafting sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - industrial centennial college mechanical engineering technology - industrial design seneca college mechanical engineering technology - robotics and automation conestoga college mobile device integration - cloud infrastructure humber college multimedia 3d animation partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 170 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs humber college multimedia design and development humber college multimedia production confederation college power engineering technology cambrian college georgian college power engineering technology - chemical lambton college power engineering technology - mechanical st. clair college software engineering technician centennial college conestoga college software engineering technology centennial college conestoga college software engineering technology - interactive gaming centennial college techniques du gnie informatique collge boral technologie de l'environment la cit collgiale technologie du genie informatique collge boral la cit collgiale web animation and design georgian college web design and interactive media humber college wireless/mobility telecommunications engineering technician algonquin college wireless/mobility telecommunications engineering technology algonquin college skills, trades and technologies welding engineering technology northern college welding engineering technology - inspection partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 5 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 page 171 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1257 page 172 of 226 institutional profile: uoit university of ottawa the university of ottawa (uottawa or u of o) is a bilingual public research university in ottawa. the university offers a wide variety of academic programs, administered by ten faculties. it is a member of the u15, a group of research-intensive universities in canada. this research university is a member of the association of universities and colleges of canada. it functions on a semester system, operating fall/winter and spring/summer sessions. undergraduate programs comprise the majority of the school's enrolment, serving 28,537 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). excluding saint paul, the university conferred 5,101 bachelor's degrees, 194 doctoral degrees, 1,439 master's degrees and 2,135 first professional degrees in 2012 (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_ottawa in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 colleges only. 2 college partners are within commutable distance (meaning equal or less than 80 km); algonquin college, and la cit collgiale. 83% of the total transfer students to uottawa are from commutable partners. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 48 106 pathways with specific 58 sending programs uottawa has two generic receiving pathways for all sending college partners for students who have competed any ontario college advanced diploma (3 yr) or any ontario college diploma (2 yr). uottawa also accepts students with generic diploma programs in business, finance and administration. uottawa accepts students from the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, business, finance, administration, health, food, and medical recreation. 48% of the sending transfer agreements are from programs in business, finance, and administration. page 173 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 174 of 226 institutional profile: uoit table 30: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 28,537; proportion of registered transfer students: 2% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution algonquin college* cambrian college canadore college centennial college region eastern northern northern metro toronto area distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to uottawa estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 14 0 2 4 6 74 148 24.7 484 5 2 5 7 4 8 1.1 364 4 2 2 4 0 0 0 427 4 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 486 5 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 529 5 2 2 4 3 6 1.5 1459 16 2 2 4 0 0 0 338 4 2 2 4 2 4 1 628 6 2 2 4 0 0 0 collge boral conestoga college confederation college eastern durham college fanshawe college central fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 339 3 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 451 4 2 2 4 3 6 1.5 georgian college central 411 4 2 2 4 4 8 2 humber college la cit collgiale* central 464 4 2 2 4 2 4 1 6 0 2 5 7 86 172 24.6 lambton college western 724 7 2 2 4 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 270 3 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 mohawk college southern 520 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 niagara college northern college southern 583 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 710 8 2 2 4 0 0 0 southern northern southern eastern northern 39% 45% page 175 of 226 institutional profile: uoit geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to uottawa estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 793 9 2 2 4 0 0 0 seneca college northern metro toronto area 438 4 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 sheridan college central 487 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 st. clair college st. lawrence college western 801 8 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 201 2 2 4 6 8 16 2.7 48 58 106 192 384 3.6 sault college eastern grand total 83% *blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 176 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of ottawa. uottawa enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uottawa. table 31: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with university of ottawa generic sending programs any three-year program 24 any three-year college advanced diploma in a nonbusiness related field 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 any two-year program 24 any two-year college diploma in a non-business related field 24 sending institution programs page 177 of 226 institutional profile: uoit partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 7 journalism 1 algonquin college 1 journalisme 1 la cit collgiale 1 music and digital media 1 st. lawrence college 1 music and digital media program 1 st. lawrence college 1 music- performance diploma 3 cambrian college 3 business/finance/administration 50 any three-year college advanced diploma in a business related field 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 sending institution programs algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college page 178 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year college diploma in a business-related field algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 179 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college public relations algonquin college relations publiques la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation techniques des services en loisirs la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 106 page 180 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto university of toronto the university of toronto (u of t, utoronto, or toronto) is a public research university in toronto. as a collegiate university, it comprises twelve colleges that differ in character and history, each retaining substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs. u of t has two satellite campuses located in scarborough and mississauga. undergraduate the university of toronto offers about 700 undergraduate programs in humanities & social sciences, life sciences, physical & mathematical sciences, commerce & management, computer science, engineering, kinesiology & physical education, music and architecture. the university offers second entry professional programs in education, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, law and medicine. graduate the university of toronto offers 222 masters and doctoral level graduate programs in a wide variety of fields. this includes 59 professional graduate programs and 45 combined programs that include professional masters components. u of t also offers 44 collaborative programs. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_toronto#academics in august 2015). partnership description: number 5 structure colleges only geographical proximity 4 college partners are within commutable range (less than 80km commuting distance). u of t receives transfer students from 3 other colleges which do not have established transfer pathways set up. the three colleges are within commutable range. 95% of the estimated transfer student population to u of t are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 9 pathways with specific 9 sending programs u of ts sending partnerships are all with generic pathways, allowing students from the 5 college senders entry with programs in general arts and science. these college programs are all with the intent of the student transferring to university. 2 liberal arts programs (seneca-woodsworth joint transfer) page 181 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 182 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto table 32: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 34,562 ; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution agonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* durham college* fanshawe college region eastern northern northern metro toronto area central southern distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of toronto number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample 441 4 0 0 0 1 2 397 4 0 0 0 1 2 347 4 0 0 0 1 2 26 0 0 0 0 15 30 12% 68 1 0 0 0 6 12 5% 191 2 0 0 0 1 2 fleming college george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 115 1 0 0 0 3 6 4 0 0 2 2 25 50 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 99 1 0 0 0 2 4 35 0 0 2 2 19 38 loyalist college mohawk college* eastern 185 2 0 0 0 1 2 72 1 0 1 1 1 niagara college southern metro toronto area 134 1 0 1 1 21 0 0 2 40 1 0 364 4 262 3 seneca college* sheridan college* st clair college st lawrence college grand total southern central southern eastern estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 20% 19 15% 2 2 1% 1 2 2 2 27 54 27 21% 1 1 22 44 44 17% 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 9 9 128 256 36.6 95% page 183 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto *institutions within commutable range ( less than 80km) *numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with u of t (27/11/2015) page 184 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to u of t. u of t enables mostly generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at u of t. the following numbers reflect feedback incorporated from u of t consultation as of 27/11/15. table 33: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of toronto specific sending programs preparation and career planning general arts & science - degree transfer niagara college general arts & science - university profile sheridan college general arts & science - university transfer mohawk college general arts & science - college and university transfer humber college general arts and science humber college george brown college liberal arts seneca college seneca-woodsworth joint transfer program (from liberal arts) seneca college grand total 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 9 page 185 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo university of waterloo the university of waterloo (commonly referred to as waterloo, uw or uwaterloo) is a public research university with a main campus located in waterloo, ontario, canada. it was established to fill the need to train engineers and technicians for canada's growing postwar economy. it grew substantially over the next decade, adding a faculty of arts in 1960, and the college of optometry of ontario, which moved from toronto in 1967. currently, the university offers academic programs administered by six faculties and 10 faculty based schools: faculties faculty of applied health sciences faculty of arts faculty of engineering faculty of environment faculty of mathematics faculty of science faculty based schools school of public health and health systems school of accounting and finance balsillie school of international affairs university of waterloo school of architecture school of environment, enterprise and development school of planning david r. cheriton school of computer science school of optometry and vision science school of pharmacy (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_waterloo). uwaterloo is best known for their co-operative education programs. the university is coeducational, and has 29,004 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 10 colleges only 2 colleges listed are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). mohawk college is the only college partner that is in commutable range. though uwaterloo has no articulation agreement with conestoga college, 38% of the total transfer student population come from conestoga college. 42% of the transfer student population come from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic 1 12 sending programs pathways with specific 11 sending programs generic uwaterloo has 1 generic pathway from niagara college, allowing students to transfer from a general arts and science program. page 186 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo specific u waterloo has 11 specific pathways within the program areas of arts, fine arts, culture; business/finance/administration; health, food, medical, and recreation. the majority of the transfer agreements allow students to transfer from programs in the area of health, food, medical, and recreation. pathways by sending institution: the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 187 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo table 34: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 29,004; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution region algonquin college canadore college centennial college conestoga college* confederation college fanshawe college eastern northern metro toronto area northern northern southern distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of waterloo number of specific agreements estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 540 5 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 426 4 0 1 1 1 2 2 125 1 0 1 1 1 2 2 25 0 0 0 0 20 40 n/a 1461 15 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 108 1 0 3 3 4 8 2.67 fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 214 2 0 1 1 115 1 0 0 0 1 2 n/a georgian college 178 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 humber college central metro toronto area 99 1 0 1 1 3 6 6 lambton college western 205 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 loyalist college mohawk college* eastern 284 3 0 1 1 74 1 0 1 1 2 4 4 niagara college southern metro toronto area 151 2 1 0 1 6 12 12 125 1 0 0 0 5 10 n/a 91 1 0 0 0 4 8 n/a 361 4 0 0 0 1 2 n/a seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college southern central eastern 38% 0 0 4% page 188 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo grand total 1 11 12 52 104 8 42% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range ( less than 80km) page 189 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of waterloo. uwaterloo enables mostly specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uwaterloo. table 35: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of waterloo specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 2 fine arts - advanced 1 georgian college 1 interactive media design and production 1 fanshawe college 1 business/finance/administration 1 business-marketing 1 fanshawe college 1 health, food and medical, recreation 8 recreation and leisure services 7 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 humber college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 sports and recreation management 1 lambton college 1 generic sending programs preparation and career planning 1 general arts and science 1 niagara college 1 grand total 12 page 190 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor university of windsor the university of windsor (u of w or uwindsor) is a public research university in windsor, ontario, canada. uwinsor has an undergraduate population of 11,425 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). the university of windsor has nine faculties, including the faculty of arts, humanities and social sciences, the faculty of education, the faculty of engineering, odette school of business, the faculty of graduate studies, the faculty of human kinetics, the faculty of law, the faculty of nursing, and the faculty of science. through its various faculties and independent schools, windsor's primary research interests focus on automotive, environmental, and social justice research, yet it has increasingly began focusing on health, natural science, and entrepreneurship research. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_windsor) partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 all colleges st. clair college is within commutable range; 57% of all transfer students to uwindsor come from st. clair college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 6 306 pathways with specific 300 sending programs uwindsor allows a generic pathway in for students with a diploma in general arts and science from lambton college and fleming college. uwindsor has 5 specific pathways within the program areas of arts, fine arts, culture; business/finance/administration; education, community, and social services; and health, food, medical, recreation. 46% of transfer agreements are accepting students in program areas of education, community, and social services. page 191 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 192 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor table 36: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 11,425; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of windsor number of specific agreement transfer students in sample estimated number of transfer students estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 800 7 0 13 13 1 2 0.2 cambrian college northern 736 7 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 canadore college northern 686 6 0 8 8 0 0 0.0 centennial college metro toronto area 384 4 0 13 13 2 4 0.3 collge boral northern 729 7 0 8 8 0 0 0.0 conestoga college southern 300 3 0 10 10 3 6 0.6 confederation college northern 1267 13 0 10 10 0 0 0.0 durham college central 423 4 0 13 13 4 8 0.6 fanshawe college southern 200 2 0 15 15 7 14 0.9 fleming college eastern 473 5 3 13 16 2 4 0.3 george brown college metro toronto area 372 4 0 9 9 3 6 0.7 georgian college central 437 4 0 13 13 0 0 0.0 humber college metro toronto area 359 3 0 13 13 3 6 0.5 la cit collgiale la collge des grands lacs eastern 816 8 0 9 9 0 0 0.0 metro toronto area 373 4 0 4 4 0 0 0.0 lambton college western 116 1 3 17 20 3 6 0.3 loyalist college eastern 544 5 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 mohawk college southern 307 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.0 niagara college southern 385 4 0 12 12 1 2 0.2 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range page 193 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of windsor transfer students in sample estimated number of transfer students estimated number of students per pathway ratio northern college northern 1032 10 0 10 10 0 0 0.0 sault college northern 570 5 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 seneca college metro toronto area 385 4 0 12 12 2 4 0.3 sheridan college central 337 3 0 12 12 5 10 0.8 st. clair college* western 9 0 0 30 30 48 96 3.2 st. lawrence college eastern 621 6 0 11 11 0 0 0.0 6 300 306 84 168 0.5 grand total *institutions within commutable range ( equal or less than 80km) *numbers as of 09/11/15. estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 57% 57% page 194 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of windsor. university of windsor enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at the university of windsor. the following numbers reflect feedback incorporated as of 25/11/15. table 37: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of windsor generic sending programs preparation and career planning 8 general arts and science college exploration 1 lambton college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 general arts and science - psychology stream lambton college 2 2 general arts and science - university transfer fleming college 3 3 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture bachelor of craft and design (degree program) sheridan college general arts and science algonquin college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college northern college 20 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 195 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs sault college seneca college journalism st. clair college business/finance/administration business algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 2 2 49 24 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 25 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 196 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child and youth care algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college development services worker diploma (2 yr) partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 142 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 13 page 197 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college developmental services worker st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college (online) ducation en services l'enfance la cit collgiale partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 25 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 page 198 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs protection, security, and investigation cambrian college police foundations lambton college st. clair college protection, security and investigation algonquin college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social services worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 3 3 6 3 3 45 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 199 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs northern college sault college a seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation dental hygiene st. clair college massage therapy lambton college medical laboratory technician st. clair college medical laboratory technology lambton college recreation and leisure services fanshawe college sports and recreation management lambton college preparation and career planning general arts and science - university transfer fleming college science and engineering technology any ontario college computer technology advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 10 3 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 80 26 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 200 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college computer-related advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college chemical laboratory technology st. clair college civil engineering technology st. clair college computer systems technology - networking partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 50 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 page 201 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design st. clair college grand total partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 312 page 202 of 226 institutional profile: western university western university western university is a public research university located in london, ontario, canada. western university currently offers undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, and professional degrees through the following faculties: faculty of arts and humanities, richard ivey school of business, faculty of education, faculty of engineering, faculty of health sciences, faculty of information, and media studies, faculty of law, schulich school of medicine and dentistry, don wright faculty of music, faculty of science, and the faculty of social science. western's co-educational student body of over 24,000 represents 107 countries around the world and western scholars have established research and education collaborations and partnerships on every continent. there are more than 306,000 alumni who are active internationally, living and working around the globe (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_western_ontario) . in 2014, western university served 22,506 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 18 partners are all public colleges. fanshawe college and lambton college are the only partners within commutable range (>80km). 76% of the transfer students to western university come from fanshawe college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 2 56 pathways with specific 54 sending programs western university allows two generic pathways into their degree programs from students from fanshawe college. western university allows 54 specific pathways into their degree programs. the majority of pathways allow access for students coming from programs in science and engineering technology. page 203 of 226 institutional profile: western university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 204 of 226 institutional profile: western university table 38: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 22,506; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to western university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 625 6 0 1 1 2 4 4 canadore college northern 511 5 0 1 1 1 2 2 centennial college metro toronto area 209 2 0 2 2 1 2 1 confederation college northern 1362 14 0 1 1 0 0 0 consestoga college southern 125 1 0 0 0 3 6 n/a durham college central 248 3 0 1 1 3 6 6 fanshawe college* southern 8 0 2 27 29 105 210 7.2 fleming college eastern 298 3 0 2 2 0 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 197 2 0 2 2 4 8 4 georgian college central 262 3 0 2 2 3 6 3 humber college metro toronto area 184 2 0 0 0 3 6 n/a lambton college* western 95 1 0 3 3 3 6 2 loyalist college eastern 369 4 0 2 2 1 2 1 mohawk college southern 132 1 0 1 1 1 2 2 niagara college southern 210 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 northern college northern 857 9 0 1 1 0 0 0 sault college northern 665 6 0 2 2 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 210 2 0 3 3 4 8 2.7 sheridan college central 162 2 0 1 1 3 6 6 st clair college western 187 2 0 0 0 1 2 n/a estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 76% 2% page 205 of 226 institutional profile: western university st. lawrence college eastern 446 4 grand total 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 54 56 139 278 4.96 78% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range, meaning less than 80km. page 206 of 226 institutional profile: western university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that western university has formal agreements to accept students from. western university enables both specific and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at western university. table 39: pathways by sending program sending institution programs arts, fine arts and culture general arts and science - university preparatory studies major fanshawe college theatre arts fanshawe college business/finance/administration business - accounting fanshawe college business administration - accounting lambton college business-finance fanshawe college education, community and social services child and youth worker fanshawe college lambton college early childhood education fanshawe college general arts and science, first nations studies major fanshawe college police foundations fanshawe college social service worker fanshawe college lambton college social service worker - fast track fanshawe college health, food and medical, recreation culinary management nutrition partnership agreements with western university 3 2 2 1 1 6 4 4 1 1 1 1 8 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 4 2 page 207 of 226 institutional profile: western university sending institution programs george brown college food and nutrition management fanshawe college science and engineering technology chemical laboratory technology - science laboratory fanshawe college computer programmer analyst fanshawe college environment technician algonquin college environmental technician centennial college confederation college fleming college georgian college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college environmental technician - field and laboratory niagara college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college environmental technician - sampling and monitoring seneca college environmental technician - water and wastewater operations northern college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college seneca college natural environmental technician - conservation and management partnership agreements with western university 2 2 2 35 2 2 3 3 1 1 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 page 208 of 226 institutional profile: western university sending institution programs sault college natural environmental technologist - conservation and management sault college science laboratory technology fanshawe college grand total partnership agreements with western university 1 1 1 2 2 56 page 209 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university wilfrid laurier university wilfrid laurier university (commonly referred to as laurier or wlu), is a canadian public research university located in the heart of waterloo, ontario, canada. laurier is home to around 14,898 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). laurier university offers degree programs through its 6 faculties: faculty of arts, faculty of science, faculty of education, faculty of music, faculty of social work, and the laurier school of business and economics (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wilfrid_laurier_university in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 23 colleges only 2 college partners are within commutable range (meaning equal or less than 80km): conestoga college and mohawk college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 43 132 pathways with specific 89 sending programs laurier university allows two generic pathways from all partner colleges. students are allowed to transfer from any ontario college advanced diploma, (3 yr) or any ontario college diploma (2yr) laurier university allows specific pathways from business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical recreation. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. page 210 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 211 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university table 40: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 14,898; proportion of registered transfer students: 0.40% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to wilfred laurier university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 539 5 2 4 6 0 0 0 cambrian college northern 475 5 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 canadore college northern 425 4 2 3 5 0 0 0 centennial college metro toronto area 124 1 2 4 6 0 0 0 collge boral northern 468 5 0 3 3 0 0 0 conestoga college* southern 24 0 2 4 6 36 72 6 confederation college northern 1460 15 2 4 6 0 0 0 durham college central 162 2 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 fanshawe college southern 114 1 2 4 6 2 4 0.33 fleming college eastern 213 2 2 4 6 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 114 1 1 2 3 2 4 georgian college central 177 2 2 4 6 0 0 humber college metro toronto area 98 1 2 4 6 5 10 0.83 lambton college western 210 2 2 4 6 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 283 3 2 4 6 0 0 0 mohawk college* southern 73 1 2 5 7 25 50 3.57 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 41% 0.67 29% page 212 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to wilfred laurier university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio niagara college southern 150 2 2 4 6 9 18 1.5 northern college northern 772 8 2 4 6 0 0 0 sault college northern 763 8 2 4 6 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 124 1 2 4 6 2 4 0.33 sheridan college metro toronto area 90 1 2 4 6 3 6 0.5 st. clair college western 287 5 2 4 6 0 0 0 st. lawrence college eastern 360 3 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 43 89 132 87 174 1.32 grand total estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 70% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning less than 80km. page 213 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that laurier university has formal agreements to accept students from. laurier university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at laurier university. table 41: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college 22 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 21 1 1 page 214 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university sending institution programs canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs business/finance/administration any ontario business/finance/administration college advanced diploma collge boral any ontario college business advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college 44 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 215 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college business diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child & youth worker northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 43 1 1 20 1 1 1 1 1 page 216 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college techniques dducation spcialise collge boral health, food and medical, recreation partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 page 217 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs pre-health mohawk college pre-health certificate conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 132 page 218 of 226 institutional profile: york university york university york university, located in the gta, falls between the more research intensive and mainly undergraduate clusters. it is canada's third-largest university. it has eleven faculties, namely the faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, faculty of science, lassonde school of engineering, schulich school of business, osgoode hall law school, glendon college, faculty of education, faculty of health, faculty of environmental studies, faculty of graduate studies, the school of the arts, media, performance and design (formerly the faculty of fine arts), and 28 research centres (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/york_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 29 partners 4 aboriginal institutes, 24 public colleges, and the michener institute. 10 partners are within commutable range. ( meaning equal or less than 80 km distance). pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 1929 1960 pathways with specific 31 sending programs york university has two generic pathways with each partnership college, from any ontario college advanced diploma and any ontario college diploma. except for lambton college, each partnership college has 67 generic pathways (33 from any ontario college advanced diploma and 34 from any ontario college diploma) generic agreements with york university. york university has relatively small number of specific transfer agreements with its partnership colleges, which concentrates on arts, engineering, business and education. most of the specific sending programs are from seneca college. page 219 of 226 institutional profile: york university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 220 of 226 institutional profile: york university table 42: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 39,039; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to york university number of specific agreement estimated number of students per pathway ratio estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range algonquin college eastern 442 4 67 0 67 2 4 0.06 cambrian college northern 379 4 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 canadore college northern 329 3 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 metro toronto area 34 0 67 1 68 50 100 1.47 collge boral northern 372 4 67 0 67 6 12 0.18 conestoga college* southern 89 1 55 0 55 3 6 0.11 confederation college northern 1364 14 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 durham college* central 59 1 67 0 67 9 18 0.27 fanshawe college southern 188 2 67 1 68 2 4 0.06 first nations technical institute eastern 220 2 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 fleming college eastern 116 1 67 2 69 1 2 0.03 metro toronto area 41 1 67 0 67 28 56 0.84 7% central 81 1 67 1 68 24 48 0.71 6% metro toronto area 20 0 67 2 69 81 162 2.35 19% northern 512 5 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 la cit collgiale eastern 459 4 67 7 74 1 2 0.03 lambton college western 285 3 65 0 65 0 0 0.00 loyalist college eastern 187 2 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 centennial college* george brown college* georgian college* humber college* kenjgewin teg educational institute 12% 1% 2% page 221 of 226 institutional profile: york university geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to york university number of specific agreement estimated number of students per pathway ratio estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range mohawk college* southern 88 1 67 0 67 8 16 0.24 niagara college southern 151 2 67 0 67 4 8 0.12 northern college northern 676 7 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1354 14 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 sault college northern 667 7 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 seneca college* metro toronto area 21 0 67 14 81 151 302 3.73 36% sheridan college* metro toronto area 46 1 67 3 70 44 88 1.26 11% six nations polytechnic institute southern 119 1 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 st. clair college western 359 3 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 eastern 264 3 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 metro toronto area 20 0 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 0% 1929 31 1960 417 834 0.43 95% st. lawrence college the michener institute* grand total 2% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80km. page 222 of 226 pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that york university has formal agreements to accept students from. york university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at york university. table 43: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with york university generic sending programs any three-year program 955 any ontario college advanced diploma 955 algonquin college 33 cambrian college 33 canadore college 33 centennial college 33 collge boral 33 conestoga college 33 confederation college 33 durham college 33 fanshawe college 33 first nations technical institute 33 fleming college 33 george brown college 33 georgian college 33 humber college 33 kenjgewin teg educational institute 33 la cit collgiale 33 lambton college 31 loyalist college 33 mohawk college 33 niagara college 33 northern college 33 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 33 sault college 33 seneca college 33 sheridan college 33 six nations polytechnic institute 33 223 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs partnership agreements with york university st. clair college 33 st. lawrence college 33 the michener institute 33 any two-year program 986 any ontario college diploma 986 algonquin college 34 cambrian college 34 canadore college 34 centennial college 34 collge boral 34 conestoga college 34 confederation college 34 durham college 34 fanshawe college 34 first nations technical institute 34 fleming college 34 george brown college 34 georgian college 34 humber college 34 kenjgewin teg educational institute 34 la cit collgiale 34 lambton college 34 loyalist college 34 mohawk college 34 niagara college 34 northern college 34 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 34 sault college 34 seneca college 34 sheridan college 34 six nations polytechnic institute 34 st. clair college 34 st. lawrence college 34 the michener institute 34 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 9 fine art 1 fanshawe college 1 fine arts 1 georgian college 1 page 224 of 226 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs journalisme la cit collgiale media arts sheridan college publicit la cit collgiale relations publiques la cit collgiale theatre performance humber college visual and creative arts fleming college business/finance/administration accounting seneca college accounting and finance seneca college business - accounting centennial college humber college sheridan college education, community and social services education en services a 'enfance la cit collgiale social service worker seneca college social service worker - gerontology seneca college social service worker - immigrant and refugees seneca college techniques de travail social la cit collgiale techniques de travail social - gerontologie la cit collgiale preparation and career planning liberal arts seneca college science and engineering technology biotechnology advanced seneca college biotechnology technologist (research) partnership agreements with york university 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 page 225 of 226 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs seneca college chemical engineering technology seneca college chemical laboratory technology - pharmaceutical seneca college civil engineering technology seneca college ecosystem management technology fleming college environmental technology seneca college grand total partnership agreements with york university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1960 page 226 of 226

executive summary the purpose of this report is to better understand data collection methods, practices of certain demographics, and pathways of university-to-college transfer students. in the last decade, significant increases have been reported in college entrants with (some) previous post-secondary experience. university-to-college transfer students reflect approximately 20% of all student transfers in ontario. this development, among others, is expected to change demographic compositions of students entering ontario colleges. understanding these shifts can inform future decisions about articulation and transfer pathways, services within ontario colleges, and beyond. it is also expected that understanding the gaps between desired and current data collection methods could improve the quality of the information colleges receive, store, collect, and analyze concerning transfer students. the data collection process illustrated that information about transfer students entering different ontario colleges is challenging. this is a result of differences in the structures of student information systems and the quality of some indicators received through ocas. therefore, data from the kpi student satisfaction survey was collected to verify administrative data. overall, the results of the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey seemed to be a robust and accessible source of information on transfer students. university-to-college transfer students account for a significant percentage of the incoming student population in ontario colleges. according to the research, 13,226 students with university experience started a program at one of the participating colleges over the course of three academic years. after analyzing the kpi data, 1 in 4 students (23.3%) enrolled at the colleges, indicated they had (some) university experience as their highest level of completed education. these transfer students tend to be older, are typically female, and often transfer from universities in proximity to the college; where they were enrolled for longer periods of time. often transfer students finished their degrees while they were starting a college program (60% in kpi data; and 56% in administrative data), after excluding graduate certificate students, almost half of the transfer students finished their degrees. this also results in a significant number of credits being transferred to the college; 28% into algonquin college and 39% to seneca college. excluding graduate certificates, this percentage increases significantly with 7 and 10 percentage points respectively. transfer students most often move into diploma or graduate certificate credentials and are most interested in the business program cluster.

project snapshot fnti transfer strategies type: indigenous institutes transfer operations and capacity project number: i2267 project lead: first nations technical institute project summary this project supports fnti to enhance its transfer functions in several key areas through a dedicated pathways coordinator. this includes developing and enhancing current transfer operations for partnered programs; providing applicants/students with transfer counselling and assistance with transfer processes and understanding pathway opportunities, ensuring transferability and pathways are considered with the development of standalone programs; and developing admissions, governance and policies related to transfer. project rationale fnti has been steadily growing our partnered program offerings and we have seen a significant increase in enrolment in recent years. fnti has also recently achieved institutional accreditation and has since been very focused on the development of our standalone bachelors and micro credential programs. with these changes, we witnessed a substantial rise in in the number of learners expressing interest in transfer credit and pathway opportunities and we recognized the importance of building transferability and keeping student mobility in mind as we develop our standalone programs. in order to best support fnti learners now and in the future, we realized that we needed a dedicated resource, and with this grant money we have been able to hire a pathways coordinator. the pathways coordinator role aligns well with fntis commitment to a being student centered and has proved to greatly increase our capacity to provide a high level of service to support student achievement and mobility. main collaborators this grant funding allowed us to work on our own internal processes to support transfer and pathways operations. part of this work included reviewing our current transfer processes with our main college partner, canadore college. results hiring a pathways coordinator to support transfer and pathway mobility. challenges just waiting for accreditation for our bisw program to further transfer credit and pathways work. student outcomes this project has allowed us to improve our transfer credit application and pathways processes to better support fnti applicants, students and gradates; greatly improving turnaround times and success rates. the majority of our students are mature students with families, jobs and community responsibilities. approved transfer credits, admissions with advanced standing and applying for fast track programs have allowed students to decrease their number of courses , making busy schedules more manageable, reducing the time required to graduate - and to gain meaningful employment . early decisions have provided students with more time to meet funding deadlines and to make arrangements for work and childcare. institutional outcomes yes! this project allowed our pathways coordinator (pc) to collaborate with our college partner to improve the partnered transfer application process , and to implement an electronic approval process for our admissions teams to review /approve fast track applications. these new processes have greatly improved efficiency, positive outcomes for applicants and records security.

project snapshot approaches to stackability of micro-credentials: options for ontario type: research project number: r2246 project lead: higher education strategy associates project summary hesa developed a set of options for the possible stackability of micro-credentials in ontario. the project consulted with a range of personnel in colleges and universities, including those responsible for plar mapped out the micro-credentials offered in ontario suggested possibilities for stacking micro-credentials in ontario based on experiences in other countries project rationale ontario's current system of awarding credit for prior study presents significant barriers to stacking micro- credentials into degrees and diplomas. methods semi-structured interviews, systematic analysis of open-source material such as the ontario micro- credentials portal, literature reviews. describe any limitations some key stakeholders (e.g. mcu) chose not to comment on elements of policy and we agreed not to make contact with the larger groups of pcc owners and managers originally planned. research findings there are models for stacking micro-credentials which could benefit ontario, we suggest possible improvements on the status quo. these include making meta-data more standardised, reducing the transaction costs involved in assigning fair credit to micro-credentials. future research we have presented options for improving stackability, but coordinating change would require consultations with institutions to establish which options would be acceptable. student outcomes reforming the system would help students to avoid duplicating learning, saving time and money. institutional outcomes the full report sets out the barriers to stacking in ontario and sets out a number of recommendations for improving the current system for recognising prior learning. sector or system implications the full report provides many insights into the barriers to stacking micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas within the current system and suggests several possible reforms. these include: mandating that providers publicly state what they think is the potential transfer value of the micro- credential in order to receive certain kinds of public support, for example funding or listing on a provincial portal having providers submit new micro-credentials to a third party for assignment of a transfer value creating a provincial bank of assessments which could be challenged by holders of specific micro- credentials to demonstrate their learning and, while we think this is unlikely in ontario, potentially creating a new specialised institution with stacking micro-credentials at the core of its mission.

transfer advisor group introductory guide a general resource for new members december 2021 table of contents 03 04 welcome the transfer advisor role 05 skills and competencies 06 the transfer credit process 10 communicating with students 12 articulation agreements and transfer pathways 14 16 institutional departments related to transfer the transfer advising network in ontario 15 the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 17 heads of transfer advising (hota) 18 ontransfer.ca 20 other resources this guide was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 3 welcome welcome to the transfer advising community in ontario! with over 60,000 students transferring within the province every year, we are working collaboratively across post-secondary institutions to build a seamless transfer system that supports student success. transfer professionals give students greater freedom and agency in their educational journey by supporting them to make informed decisions, get recognition for previous post-secondary education, transition to a new program, school, or even location, and complete their programs on time. put simply, transfer professionals can have a decisive impact on students lives by helping them chart new educational paths. this document is intended to introduce you to the post-secondary transfer system and provide some basic information on transfer advising in the province. by transfer advising, we refer to activities that support student mobility between post-secondary institutions and recognition for students previous post-secondary education. because transfer advising is still an emerging profession in higher education, there are considerable differences in how institutions delegate and manage responsibilities related to the transfer process. currently, there is no standard office, department, or position that manages transfer across institutions. for this reason, job titles that encompass transfer-related responsibilities may include: manager, pathways and special projects, pathway development coordinator, pathways advisor, pathways officer, senior admissions officer, student mobility advisor, transfer credit coordinator, transfer pathways coordinator, etc. in addition, a wide range of administrative staff and faculty play a role in transfer, including those in admissions departments, registrar, transfer departments (if applicable), academic departments, and the provosts office. at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), we are working to support transfer advising as a profession through several initiatives, including hosting communities of practice, creating knowledge mobilization resources, and developing a course specific to transfer advising stay tuned! this resource is developed especially for the transfer advisor group (tag), a community of transfer professionals across ontario who meet regularly, share promising practices and innovations in the transfer space, and support each other to address transfer issues that may impact students and explore possible solutions. tag has: an online communication hub (microsoft sharepoint site) where you can connect easily with other members, share resources, and get up to date information; events where you can network, build individual capacity, and share promising practices happening at our institutions; and, other virtual/online knowledge sharing activities to hone your skills and learn from others. we encourage you to join tags online communication hub by getting in touch with us. this resource was developed by carolyn poplak, manager of sector engagement, and meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist, in collaboration with the heads of transfer advising committee. please use and share this resource widely and send us your feedback for future iterations: cpoplak@oncat.ca and mborato@oncat.ca. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members the transfer advisor role two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry i could not travel both and be one traveler, long i stood and looked down one as far as i could to where it bent in the undergrowth robert frost, the road not taken as the famous lines above express, deciding which road to take on lifes journey is far from simple. one cannot see what the paths look like beyond a certain view, and it is difficult to discern the differences among these roads without choosing one. nearly every adult has experienced the moment frost describes, perhaps many times throughout lifes twists and turns. transfer students are no exception. they may have started down a certain path and changed their minds about the one theyve chosen, or they may have taken some detours before arriving. transfer students are just like regular students in the sense that they have aspirations, desires, and big decisions to make. but unlike regular students, they come with knowledge and experience from their previous school, and as such have different needs. what does a transfer student need to know, which is a lot different than a high school student? they dont have a year to figure all that out; theyre leap frogging. they need to know more about the academic calendar and what happens if they get the credit they applied for. their academic advising appointment may happen before they know which transfer credits have been awarded. they need more support. andrew wilson, director of transfer and technology, oncat transfer advisors are equipped to support students with these specific needs and help them make the most of their previous education. transfer advisors also help students who feel a need to change direction and choose another institution that is better suited to their life path. transfer advisors require a range of skills and competencies that allow them to support students and make the transfer credit process and transition to a new environment as smoothly as possible. oncat defines a transfer student as any student who is moving from one post-secondary institution to another, regardless of whether they receive recognition for their previous learning. individual institutions may define transfer students somewhat differently. 4 transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 5 skills and competencies according to a survey of professionals working in transfer (oncat, 2018), respondents from 16 colleges and 15 universities in ontario identified their top 5 duties and responsibilities in their roles as: 1. manual transfer processing (59%) 2. training/education to colleagues (56%) 3. one-to-one student advising (53%) 4. admissions (47%) 5. automatic transfer processing (41%) key competencies included: 1. problem solving/analysis (91%) 2. policy knowledge (82%) 3. counselling/advising (71%) 4. presentation/facilitation (68%) 5. technical knowledge (68%) 6. leadership (65%) transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 6 the transfer credit process while transfer roles vary by institution, all staff and faculty who play even a minor role in transfer would benefit from looking at the transfer credit process holistically. we encourage all staff to review this process at their institution with a critical eye and consider ways to remove unnecessary barriers for all involved. for example, are there ways for offices to work collaboratively and share information like transcripts? the ability to question current practices is important. often things are done a certain way simply because they have always been done that way. questioning established policies or practices and sparking conversation is how change happens. ryan snowdon, strategic enrolment management lead, queen's university bear in mind that at some institutions not all transfer students will have to undergo an application process to receive transfer credit. for example, students following a formal pathway agreement between two institutions (e.g., seneca college and york university) may be admitted and awarded transfer credit automatically by the admissions office. this process can also vary slightly if an institution provides pre-assessments that is, transfer credit assessments before a student is admitted. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 7 process overview transfer office receives transfer credit request. transfer office submits documentation to relevant departments and faculties to review. transfer office completes credit transfer process. transfer office reviews request and approves eligible credits with mapped course equivalents. transfer office obtains course documentation for eligible credits without course equivalents. academic departments assess course-bycourse equivalencies. academic department sends decision with rationale to transfer office. transfer office notifies student with appeals information. this generalized process map is based on findings from oncats mapit project, conducted in partnership with higher education strategy associates (hesa). transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 8 step 1. admitting transfer students the first step of the transfer credit process occurs when admissions or registrar staff determine if a student is eligible for admission as a transfer student. its important to note that there are different admissions criteria for transfer students and that these criteria vary depending on the receiving institution. as staff review student eligibility for admission, they may also determine if students can be awarded automatic transfer credit via a formal pathway agreement or established course equivalencies. if they are, staff will then document the accepted transfer credits and send an offer of admission to the student that contains this information. if there are no formal pathways or established equivalencies that apply to the student in question, staff will send an offer of admission with instructions for the student to apply to have their transfer credits assessed. however, not all institutions have the capacity to award transfer credit at the admissions stage. in these cases, admissions or registrar staff will ask all transfer students who have been admitted to apply for transfer credit assessment. step 2. transfer credit assessment application when the admissions or registrars office directs a student to apply for transfer credit, transfer personnel receive the application and review it to ensure the student meets basic eligibility criteria and that the application is complete. did you know? oncat has a short guide dedicated to assessing transfer credit and course equivalency at oncat.ca/resources. if the application has courses that have not been assessed by the receiving institution before, it must include documentation from these courses such as course outlines/syllabi, transcripts, prior learning assessment (plar) records if applicable, and so on. if documents are not provided in english or french, students or staff must have them officially translated. after reviewing the application for completeness, transfer staff communicate with students to request missing information, if applicable, and confirm that the application is complete and under review. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 9 step 3. processing application once the application is complete, transfer staff determine which courses have mapped equivalents at their institution and award the student transfer credit, so long as the application meets the eligibility criteria (e.g., minimum gpa). transfer staff also determine which courses on the students application need to be assessed by a subject matter expert usually a faculty member in charge of undergraduate programming/curricula. once a relevant expert is identified, transfer staff send them the application with all proper documentation (e.g., course outlines, transcripts, translated documents, if applicable). step 4. course equivalency evaluation during this time, subject matter experts evaluate equivalencies based on course outlines. their assessments usually focus on similarities in learning outcomes, content covered, as well as assessment strategies, to determine breadth and depth. ideally, subject matter experts use a checklist of criteria to assess equivalency and provide a clear rationale with their decision to the transfer staff member. in cases where courses are not equivalent, findings from the mapit project suggest that students benefit from receiving an explanation. step 5. communicating the decision and academic advising after receiving decisions on course equivalencies from subject matter experts, transfer staff record the equivalency decisions in their database, award transfer credits where applicable, and communicate the results to the student with a rationale for any credits that were rejected. during this time, staff also provide academic advising or direct students to an academic advisor to help them determine which courses they need to take to fulfill the requirements of their program. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 10 communicating with students one of the biggest challenges that transfer students experience across institutions in ontario is lack of timely and helpful communication (mapit final report, july 2020). from browsing schools websites, to inputting information into a web portal, to communicating directly with institutional staff, students generally struggle to obtain the information they need, at the time that they need it, to make informed decisions about their future. while students can use ontransfer.ca to find information about their transfer options, institutional staff are still largely responsible for making these options a reality. by taking time to meet with students, communicate credit assessment decisions to them, and advocate to faculty and other institutional staff, transfer advisors play an influential role. we talk in a bunch of academic lingo, and it needs to be written for the general public. a lot of the work is translating the credit numbers into their language. understanding gpa, the system, and the nuances to every institution can be overwhelming for anyone but especially a student. david adam baker, business intelligence analyst and pathways coordinator, fleming college here are a few recommended communication practices for transfer advising: external-facing communications: working with communications staff, ensure that the institutional website speaks to prospective transfer students and reflects up-to-date information about the transfer process, including eligibility requirements, a step-by-step outline of the transfer process, contact information for further questions, and anything else prospective and current transfer students need to know. for example, if an institution has an automated application process, include a link to the application web portal for current transfer students to check the status of their application. the webpage is also a good place to include information about required documentation. if external-facing communications also include social media and/or email marketing, ensure that this information is consistent across platforms and ultimately drives students towards a single place to make it easier for the department to manage. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members transfer credit application and decision: ideally online, the transfer credit application system should be user-friendly and easy to follow from a student perspective. remember that most students are not familiar with institutional language, such as articulation, block transfer, sending institution, receiving institution, and advanced standing, and may not recognize common institutional roles and responsibilities. if using these terms are unavoidable, explain their meaning in a quick phrase. at the very least, the system should communicate with the student about their application after it has been received to assess if it is complete or missing required documentation. after the application is complete, provide students with an estimated timeline. once a decision has been reached, provide this decision to the student, along with a rationale for any transfer credit that has not been awarded. in-person or virtual advising: in addition to digital external and internal communications, students find that some form of personalized communication by phone, in-person, or videoconferencingis very useful. one-way communication, no matter how comprehensive, cannot anticipate every possible question or concern that a student has. providing drop-in or open office hours for short consultation appointments can meet this need and save staff time in the long run by informing students of their options before the application process commences. 11 transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 12 articulation agreements and transfer pathways when assessing student applications for transfer credit, transfer advisors will encounter students who are following defined pathways and articulation agreements between institutions. it is therefore important for transfer professionals to familiarize themselves with these transfer terms and policies. an articulation agreement is an official agreement between two or more post-secondary institutions that defines the terms and conditions enabling students to transfer between specific programs, including admissions requirements. bilateral agreements refer to those between two institutions and multi-lateral agreements to those among more than two institutions. articulation agreements may also determine which courses or programs taken at the sending institution will apply to graduation requirements at the receiving institution. your institution may have an articulation agreement policy that outlines the overarching requirements in developing an agreement of this kind. the policy supports the development and implementation of articulation agreements and ensures that applicants, students, and graduates have access to accurate information on the learning opportunities provided in these agreements. it further supports the ongoing maintenance and quality assurance of such agreements to ensure the information is current and the elements of the agreement still apply. for more information, see this sample articulation agreement policy at george brown college. a transfer pathway is a defined route from one program or institution to another program or institution that specifies eligibility requirements and how transfer credits will be accepted and applied at the receiving institution. whereas articulation agreements require at least two institutions to form an official agreement, pathways can be developed by a single receiving institution and do not require a formal signed agreement. pathways and articulation agreements allow transfer assessors to assign block transfer credit rather than individual transfer credits assigned to specific courses. block transfer refers to a collection of course credits that are equivalent to a specified level at the receiving institution, sometimes called advanced standing. block transfer does not require course equivalency assessment, which significantly reduces the completion time of a transfer assessment application. for more information, please visit the glossary located on ontransfer.ca website. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 13 institutional departments related to transfer to be effective, transfer advisors must liaise with several different people and departments both inside and outside their institutions. below is a list of academic and non-academic roles that are common points of contact with transfer professionals. this section is based on elements from the how to articulate (hta) handbook produced by the british columbia council on admissions & transfer (bccat). oncat acknowledges and thanks bccat for the publication of the hta and permission to use some of its content in the publication of this resource. students: depending on the institution, students may be required to submit all relevant documentation to support transfer credit assessment (outlines/syllabi); may initiate transfer credit requests once admitted and/or accepted into a program; once admitted, may appeal transfer credit decisions; work with academic/program advisors and/or pathway offices to plan further. recruitment/liaise staff: these administrative staff promote transfer pathways and admissions options to students with previous post-secondary experience; awareness of general and specific transfer admission requirements and can convey to various audiences; some specialized hybrid roles exist that combine the recruitment and assessment functions so that on-the-spot" assessment and admission can occur; depending on institution, may support general application and transfer credit inquiries through various media (in-person, phone, email, etc.); may liaise between students and institutions about established/formal articulated/transfer pathways. admissions staff: admissions staff receive applications, documentation (transcripts, course outlines/syllabi, etc.) and transfer requests. depending on the institution, admissions assessment and transfer credit may be separate roles. in general, these staff oversee electronic or manual review of student transcripts and documents for transfer credit; ensure that appropriate transfer credit is awarded and properly recorded; may determine how much credit should be given and at what level; identify and initiate course assessment requests and send to appropriate department/program; may maintain course equivalency tables; may support general application, and transfer credit inquiries through various media (in-person, phone, email, etc.). transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 14 registrars office: staff in the registrars office update student records and transfer credit decisions and their impacts on program requirements. depending on the institution, they may oversee staff who deal with transfer credit requests and processes; be accountable for institutional decisions on the academic record (transcripts); and receive appeals from students on transfer credit decisions. academic/program advisors: a mix of both faculty and staff, academic or program advisors advise students on transfer credit decisions and their impact on program requirements. if attached to a specific program or department, they may provide advice related to the remaining course and program requirements; discuss student goals and educational planning required for a particular profession; and liaise between departments and students, advocating on behalf of the student. department/program chair or head: these faculty typically act as the articulation representative for the department on pathway development. they also contact other institutions regarding possible articulation opportunities or take the lead in arranging block transfer agreements. individual faculty may evaluate course assessment requests related to their own discipline, subject, or program; may award transfer credit (depending on the institution); typically, will determine whether equivalency credit should be granted; and may determine how much credit should be given and at what level (depending on the institution). academic pathway/provost offices: may liaise with external institutions to develop and maintain articulation agreements and/or the development of transfer pathways; work with academic programs to develop and maintain pathways; depending on the institution, may provide front-line services to support student transfer to and from the institution; may be in direct contact with oncat to support student mobility information and provide institution-level data to support transfer in ontario. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 15 the transfer advising network in ontario the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) founded in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to develop a system of mobility for students by building academic pathways and course equivalencies through its network of ontarios 45 colleges and universities, as well as indigenous institutes. with more than 60,000 students transferring every year in ontario alone, oncat helps to remove barriers for students, making their post-secondary education more seamless and affordable. oncat provides support to students looking to transfer through its website ontransfer.ca. oncat aims to increase opportunities and the ease of mobility for students in ontarios post-secondary education system. research & action projects as part of our broader efforts to enhance transfer pathwaysand reduce barriers faced by transfer studentsoncat staff routinely perform policy analysis and research. often, this work includes scans of policies or other innovations in jurisdictions with differentially structured transfer systems. this work informs various activities, ranging from the funding of pilot projects to the advice that we provide to system stakeholders and other strategic initiatives. in addition to research-specific activities, we work directly with our many stakeholders to support not only research that improves transfer system planning, but also pathway development projects and institutional processes that meet the needs of students. highlights of our funding strategies is included below: support culture change promote collaboration among institutions generate evidence and capture impact foster innovation mapit seamless transfer student action fund pathway development seamless transfer research data linkages transfer pathways datapilot seamless transfer have a great idea? for more information on funding opportunities for action projects please visit this page. this number does not account for students outside of ontario or canada. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 16 oncat values the insights and experience of transfer students navigating the complex educational landscape. in addition to ontransfer.ca, we fund two unique opportunities for transfer students. they include: 1. transfer student action fund: this is an ongoing funding opportunity for transfer students. we welcome ideas and projects that can help other student transfer students in real time and can also serve as models for other engagement schools to learn from. we fund projects that focus on community building (e.g., orientations, stress busters, social activities, etc.), tools and resources (e.g., peer-to-peer mentoring, developing school-specific how-to/what you need to know guides) and awareness raising (e.g., transfer awareness campaigns, advocacy activities). these opportunities are ongoing, and information can be found here. 2. community animators in transfer (cats): oncat is always on the lookout for transfer student storytellers. the goal of cats is to create, capture, and share the stories and testimonials of students who have transferred so that others know they are not alone. calls for cats generally goes out in the spring/summer of each year. rsvp events & webinars facilitated groups & panels in addition to larger sector events (such as our pathways conference), oncat supports system change by bringing key stakeholders together to network, share information, and learn about key content areas within the transfer space. we host a variety of learning collaboratives, contentspecific workshops, and general information series. for a list of our events, please visit this page. at oncat we recognize the diversity of stakeholders in ontario's postsecondary system. to ensure credit transfer and student mobility is developed in a way that serves and represents all these various parties, we bring together stakeholders in facilitated groups and communities of practice. some groups are ongoing, and some are ad hoc initiatives to support the development of resources and other activities in the transfer space. oncat generates a substantial amount of knowledge both through our own research activities and the action projects that we fund. we are committed to communicating lessons and information to our direct stakeholders as well as the broader transfer community. examples of these activities may include tool kits and guides, training/education, the development of policy documents and other related resources. knowledge mobilization transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 17 heads of transfer advising (hota) the heads of transfer advising (hota) group oversees the work of tag. originally developed as a mentorship group to advise tag members, hota advises oncat on how to better serve a mature transfer system by building the capacity and efficacy of transfer advising both across the system and at individual intuitions. members contribute their experience and expertise to the development of the certificate in transfer advising (cat) as well as guiding and overseeing tag (regional and central) related content, activities, and deliverables. members also serve as key communication vehicles within their institutions to disseminate the pivotal work on transfer research and policy that oncat leads. heather o'leary - co-chair manager, admissions pathway university of waterloo heather.oleary@uwaterloo.ca david adam baker committee member business intelligence analyst & pathway coordinator fleming college david.baker@flemingcollege.ca ryan snowdon committee member strategic enrolment management lead queen's university snowdon@queensu.ca scott walker committee member associate registrar admissions & pathways conestoga college swalker1@conestogac.on.ca victoria baker - co-chair manager, academic pathways seneca college victoria.baker@senecacollege.ca sharon estok committee member senior manager, pathways and partnership centennial college sestok@centennialcollege.ca judy tavares committee member manager, student transfer services humber college judy.tavares@humber.ca sheila lafrance committee member post-secondary coordinator iohahi:io akwesasne education and training institute sheila.lafrance@ambe.ca transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 18 ontransfer.ca is an online service provided by oncat to connect current and future learners in ontario to transfer opportunities at publicly funded colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the information displayed is collected by oncat through collaboration with each post-secondary institution. it provides information on: institutional transfer profiles including policies, procedures, and contact information overview of transfer in ontario course transfers detailing individual course-to-course equivalency decisions from one institution to another program transfers detailing program-based transfer decisions (block, articulation, system pathways) from another institution ontransfer.ca institutional information is collected through multiple processes using sharepoint online technology and through access to an administrative portal on ontransfer.ca. each year the ontransfer.ca team collects institutional transfer profiles, course information from the academic calendar, online course offerings each term on behalf of ecampusontario, and, new this year, a course syllabi/description index to support retrieval of required documentation for course assessment. the online service is constantly being improved to support learners and institutions in ontario. ongoing collaboration and data initiatives with ontario institutions allow for informative search results and assistance in student mobility. due to the number of mobile students each year, oncat began developing a virtual transfer fair for learners and institutions in 2020. to support inquiries, knowledge sharing, along with a dedicated platform, ontransferfair.ca is the culmination of this development and is intended to be offered annually as a shared event for post-secondary student mobility. if you support transfer students through academic pathway development, recruitment, admissions and transfer credit assessment, or technological supports, the ontransfer.ca team wants to connect with you! we strongly encourage all institution transfer colleagues to become an active member in our sharepoint online community. connect with sienna stock, ontransfer.ca service manager (sstock@oncat.ca) for more information. transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 19 other resources organizations resource link n ot e s arucc www.arucc.ca/en/ association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada p c c at w w w. p cc a t . c a pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer nists w w w. n i s t s . o rg national institute for the study of transfer students aacrao www.aacrao.org american association of collegiate registrars and admissions officers nacada www.nacada.ksu.edu/ national academic advising association cacuss www.cacuss.ca/index.html canadian association of college and university student services oapp see oapp facebook page ontario academic advising blogs and newsletters o n c at ' s n e w s l e t t e r to p te n i n higher education hesa one thought blog ken steele www.oncat.ca oncat's official newsletter www.academica.ca academica's blog on top stories, trends, and opinions affecting post-secondary education in canada www.higheredstrategy.com www.eduvation.ca/subscribe higher education strategy associates. subscribe to hesa one thought blog to stay in the know about pse mostly daily subscription that provides more college/university insights transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 20 technical information resource quality assurance framework o n tr a n s f e r. c a sharepoint site link www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/progra ms/oqf/ if you would like to request access to this sharepoint site, please email sstock@oncat.ca n ot e s describes various credentials, typical duration, admission requirements, qualification awarded, etc. collaborative and how-to site for ontransfer.ca administrators (pathways, c2c, ecampus, virtual fair, etc.) including oncat links and additional resources. career advising 500 jobs profile www.ontario.ca/page/ labour-market lists a variety of jobs with the ability to filter on annual income, estimated growth rate for 2017-2021, and an estimate on the total openings from 2017-2021 document retrieval tr a n s c r i p t s f o r private career colleges no longer in operation send email to tcaf-tcu@ontario.ca subject line: must say diploma/transcript request body: must include identifying details name at time of graduation year of graduation program studied credential received (if applicable) birthdate transfer pathways: transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members an overview transfer pathways should provide access to high quality academic programming through curricular alignment to meet the needs and interests of transfer students and prepare them for future education and labour market success. what are in-demand transfer pathways? transfer pathways between institutions should reflect student priorities and behaviours, as well as the current and emerging needs of ontarios communities and workforce. the in-demand pathways approach goes above and beyond a high demand/quantity-based approach by recognizing the multi-faced nature of student mobilities in ontario post-secondary education. in-demand pathways will include evidence of at least one of the following: 1. student demand these pathways include student interest, participation, and prevalence of informal pathways. student demand may also address population needs present with under-represented learners, like the increasing prevalence of mature learners re-entering post-secondary education. 2. institutional demand these pathways focus on an institutions strategic needs and specific interests, such as targeted program and/or content areas. 3. regional / labour market demand these pathways may fluctuate based on a variety of factors, such as labour market needs and trends or changes to professional requirements requested by accreditation bodies. 4. provincial / system demand these pathways may originate from provincial policy directives and may prioritize specific initiatives that may align with institution and regional demand. whether responding to student, institutional, regional, or provincial demand, an in-demand pathway is designed to create real benefits for students that reduce curricular duplication, increase access to educational opportunities, and/or support future student success. 1621 transfer advisor group introductory guide: a general resource for new members 22 https://oncat.ca/en/resources established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes.

instantan pathway development in the arts and sciences type: pathways development project number: 2019-18 or p1918 project lead: laurentian university collaborators: le collge la cit rsum du projet le projet favorise le passage des tudiants des programmes collgiaux vers les programmes universitaires, dans les domaines des sciences et des arts. les passerelles cibles sont les suivantes : 1) du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, vers les programmes biochimie, biologie et chimie pharmaceutique de la laurentienne 2) des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit, vers le tout nouveau programme droit et politique de la laurentienne. justification du projet 1) les programmes biochimie et chimie pharmaceutique la laurentienne ont attir une quinzaine dtudiants au fil des 4 annes dtudes (en 2015, 2016 et 2017). pour ces annes, on en compte 5, 6 et 8, respectivement, en premire anne et on observe un taux de rtention moyen la deuxime anne de 73%. comme nous offrons loption dun baccalaurat de 3 ans ou de 4 ans, environ 11 % des tudiants dcident de poursuivre pour une 4e anne. avec cette passerelle, nous souhaitions maintenir un nombre dtudiants plus lev, pour assurer une dynamique plus intressante. aussi, comme la cit compte annuellement une vingtaine dtudiants gradus en techniques pharmaceutiques, nous estimions que 40% dentre eux dsireraient profiter de cette opportunit. 2) une restructuration du programme de science politique la laurentienne a permis de crer un nouveau programme pour rejoindre davantage les intrts des tudiants: un b.a droit et politique. le programme initial attirant peu dtudiants (de 2014 2016, moins que 5 tudiants y taient inscrits en premire et deuxime anne, bien que le taux de rtention moyen tait de 90 %), il fut dcid que le domaine de la science politique serait combin avec celui du droit, permettant ainsi un apprentissage multidisciplinaire aux tudiants. lors de nos changes le collge la cit, a mentionn tre la recherche de connaissances multidisciplinaires pour leurs tudiants en journalisme et relations publiques. pour ces deux disciplines, loffre que proposait notre nouveau programme droit et politique tait des plus pertinentes aux besoins voqus. en moyenne, la cit dcerne une dizaine de diplmes en journalisme et une trentaine en relations publiques annuellement. selon les chiffres, nous estimions 25 le nombre dtudiants qui seraient intresss poursuivre leurs tudes par lentremise de cette passerelle, selon les informations rcoltes auprs des tudiants de la cit. principaux collaborateurs le collge la cit a eu la responsabilit de fournir la documentation ncessaire l'analyse des programmes cibls pour les passerelles, de participer aux rencontres et de faciliter la communication avec leurs coordonnateurs de programmes dans le cadre des questions de prcisions lies l'analyse des corrlations entre les cours collgiaux et universitaires. luniversit laurentienne quant elle, titre de principal coordonnateur du projet, sest charge d'excuter le plan de travail, de mener les travaux d'analyse, de coordonner les changes de communications et d'informations avec le collge la cit, d'assurer la bonne gestion financire et d'effectuer les rapports de suivis auprs du caton. rsultats obtenus les rsultats de ce projet visait ultimement llaboration de cinq (5) passerelles collgeuniversit, soit trois (3) dans le domaine des sciences et deux (2) dans le domaine des arts. au cours de la dernire anne, nous avons ralis la premire analyse des programmes cibls et identifi les cours de spcialisation qui pourraient tre reconnus chez les diplms collgiaux. nos recommandations sont prsentement en attente dtre values par les diffrentes instances institutionnelles. laboration des parcours mesures cls deux facteurs cls nous ont pouss explorer la pertinence de ces passerelles. dans le cas des deux passerelles en provenance des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit vers le programme droit et politique de la laurentienne, il sagissait surtout de voir de quelle faon, titre de partenaires postsecondaires, nous pouvions nous associer pour offrir aux tudiants de ces programmes collgiaux francophones une valeur ajoute qui leur apporterait une comptitivit sur le march du travail, particulirement froce dans le domaine des communications. dun autre ct, dans le cas des trois passerelles partir du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, il sagissait de promouvoir les possibilits de formation complmentaire qui permettraient daugmenter les dbouchs professionnels pour les diplms de ce programme, tout ayant loccasion dalimenter la fois un nouveau programme en place la laurentienne forte affinit avec ce programme collgial, soit le b.sc chimie pharmaceutique. parcours crs les cinq (5) passerelles espres sont en cours dapprobation par les instances institutionnelles laurentienne : 1) du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, vers les programmes biochimie, biologie et chimie pharmaceutique de la laurentienne 2) des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit, vers le tout nouveau programme droit et politique de la laurentienne. dfis lensemble des dmarches relatives la ralisation de ce projet sest fait sans embuche particulire. rsultats pour les tudiants ces passerelles permettront aux diplms collgiaux dsirant sinscrire dans les programmes universitaires cibls dpargner temps et argent. elles leur offriront galement une plus grande reconnaissance titre de professionnel en considrant davantage la valeur des acquis acadmiques spcialiss quils ont rcolts au cours de leur formation collgiale, dmontrant ainsi une considration accrue et par le fait mme, une plus grande valorisation de la formation collgiale. titres dtudes voir pice jointe : caton1920_bilan cours reconnus_arts et sciences. noter quil sagit des crdits qui seront potentiellement reconnus. les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. conomies de temps pour les tudiants noter que ces informations ne sont quvalues sur le temps potentiel sauv par ltudiant, tant donn que les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. passerelle du programme de journalisme vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 2 semestres. passerelle du programme de relations publiques vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 2 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biologie : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biochimie : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. chimie pharmaceutique : environ 2.5 semestres. conomies financires pour les tudiants ces informations ne sont quvalues sur les frais de scolarits potentiels sauvs par ltudiant, tant donn que les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. les conomies associes aux frais affrents et sa dlocalisation pour suivre les cours sont en sus. passerelle du programme de journalisme vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 7 500$ passerelle du programme de relations publiques vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 7 500$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biologie : environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biochimie : environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. chimie pharmaceutique : environ 9 375$ souplesse pour les tudiants dabord, la reconnaissance de crdit potentielle dans le cadre de ces passerelles semble assez avantageuse. il faudra suivre si les diffrentes instances dcisionnelles accepteront les reconnaissances recommandes la suite de lanalyse effectue dans le cadre de ce projet. de plus, plusieurs cours associs au programme du b.a. en droit et politique de la laurentienne sont accessibles en ligne. ce qui ajoute encore davantage de flexibilit au diplm collgial ou encore ltudiant potentiel dj sur le march du travail de pouvoir poursuivre ses tudes universitaires sans se voir imposer une dlocalisation obligatoire. harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants initialement, le collge la cit nous a contact pour llaboration de cette passerelle dans le but doffrir une valeur ajoute en fait demployabilit puisque plusieurs dentre eux, issus de leur campus de toronto, aspirent des emplois queens park et manifestaient un intrt bonifier leur ducation dune dimension politique. nous pouvons donc affirmer quen effet, cette passerelle contribue lemployabilit des tudiants. rsultats pour les tablissements non, aucun. la dmarche entreprise dans le cadre de ce projet a suivi les procdures de la nouvelle mthodologie dveloppe et suivie depuis les deux dernires annes. conseils pratiques notre avis, la mthodologie se reposant sur lanalyse des corrlations entre les rsultats dapprentissages des programmes collgiaux et universitaires reste le meilleur argument prsenter aux instances institutionnelles en charge de lapprobation des passerelles proposes, deleted: deleted: tips/advice puisquelle dmontre de faon factuelle les recoupements et les acquis des diplms collgiaux. nous la recommandons fortement. outils et ressources les principaux outils dvelopps dans le cadre de ce projet ont t les matrices danalyse. elles sont tlverses dans la section des livrables du projet.

2019 2020 rapport annuel table des matires message des coprsidences du conseil comit de direction sur les parcours du nord de lontario message de la directrice excutive comit directeur des tablissements francophones et bilingues amliorations du systme de transfert 12 / projets de transfert de crdits, 20192020 projets dlaboration de parcours projets favorisant la fluidit des transferts projets de recherche 22 / mapit : projet de schmatisation des processus institutionnels 24 / volet de financement des boursiers chargs de cours 25 / projet pilote de donnes sur les parcours de transfert mobilisation du secteur 27 / mobilisation de la population tudiante fonds daction pour la mobilit des tudiants comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants 28 / mobilisation des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits groupe des conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits (gcrc) chefs des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits 29 / relations et partenariats mobilisation des tablissements autochtones 33 / porte nationale et internationale ontransfer.ca 35 / amliorations du site web ontransfer.ca 36 / analyse et croissance 37 / projet damlioration des donnes au sujet du caton 39 / au service de la mobilit tudiante durant la pandmie de covid-19 40 / changements la coprsidence du conseil 40 / premire srie de stages dt 41 / plan stratgique venir, 20202023 priorits stratgiques qui nous sommes 43 / conseil dadministration 44 / quipe du caton 45 / partenaires 46 / finances message des coprsidences du conseil ce fut toute une anne pour le catonet pour le systme de transfert de lontario. au dbut de lexercice financier, le conseil dadministration a men un exercice de planification stratgique ambitieux, avec lappui de lquipe du caton. nous nous sommes familiariss avec les priorits mergentes du nouveau gouvernement provincial afin de bien aligner nos priorits sur les siennes. nous avons finalis notre nouveau plan stratgique et dfini les principales activits qui orienteront notre travail au cours des trois prochaines annes. nous avons hte de donner un aperu du plan stratgique dans ce rapport annuel ainsi que dans nos rseaux sectoriels. nous sommes trs heureux de nos nouvelles orientations, mais reconnaissons aussi qu'en cette fin dexercice 2019-2020, nous travaillons dans un environnement boulevers, et que nous serons aux 5 prises avec les rpercussions court et long terme de la pandmie sur notre systme denseignement postsecondaire pendant de nombreuses annes. alors mme que nous nous adaptons de nouvelles mthodes de travail, certaines choses ne changent pas. les collges, les universits et les tablissements autochtones continuent la fois doffrir un enseignement postsecondaire de grande qualit et de permettre aux tudiantes et tudiants dacqurir les comptences ncessaires pour prosprer dans un monde en volution rapide. les tudiantes et tudiants tiennent planifier et prendre en main leur parcours dapprentissage postsecondaire. il est encore trop tt pour dterminer limpact de la pandmie sur les taux de transfert et les tendances, mais le trafic rcent sur le site ontransfer.ca porte croire que les tudiantes et tudiants explorent leurs optionset le caton sera l pour les soutenir. il est galement opportun que les principales priorits du caton pour les trois prochaines annes visent largir les parcours en demande, amliorer les processus de transfert des tablissements et renforcer la capacit de notre organisme appuyer la population tudiante et les tablissements denseignement postsecondaire de lontario. pour atteindre nos objectifs, nous devons collaborer avec nos tablissements partenaires et engager la participation des hauts dirigeants et des personnes qui travaillent directement auprs de la population tudiante potentielle ou venant dun autre tablissement, ou qui la soutiennent. nous comptons galement sur le soutien continu du gouvernement et lui sommes reconnaissants dappuyer notre plan stratgique et de stre engag nous encourager de faon continue. au nom du conseil dadministration, nous tenons remercier nos nombreux tablissements postsecondaires partenaires ainsi que le ministre des collges et universits de lontario pour leur engagement continu envers le systme de transfert de lontario. mme en cette priode difficile, et malgr les difficults financires et autres enjeux pressants auxquels ils sont confronts, nos partenaires continuent de mener et dappuyer des projets, deffectuer des recherches et de partager des donnes, et de participer nos comits et nos projets pilotes. enfin, nous remercions yvette munro, directrice excutive du caton, ainsi que lquipe du caton, pour leur grance du systme et leur dvouement. merci davoir contribu au succs de lexercice 2019-2020. cest avec enthousiasme que nous entamons lanne venir. ron common deb maclatchy prsident, collge sault prsidente et vice-chancelire, universit wilfrid-laurier 6 message de la directrice excutive lorsque je rdige mon message annuel, je relis souvent notre rapport prcdent pour avoir un point de rfrence. cette anne, je remarque quel point notre contexte actuel est profondment transform. aujourdhui, en pleine pandmie mondiale, le rythme familier de la vie sur campus qui annonce souvent un changement de saison et de session universitaire est imperceptible, et nous avons transform notre faon de travailler, de communiquer et de nous entraideret daider nos tudiantes et tudiants. je suis rassure de constater que le secteur de lenseignement postsecondaire de lontario na pas hsit relever ces nouveaux dfis et je suis encourage de voir un si grand nombre de nos partenaires sectoriels renforcer leur engagement envers le transfert, tant au sein de leurs tablissements qu lchelle de notre systme de transfert. le 13 mars dernier, nous avons annonc notre initiative dinscription conjointe du nord au cours pratiques en administration des affaires , de concert 7 avec nos partenaires collgiaux et universitaires du nord. lhonorable ross romano, ministre des collges et universits, sest joint nous. pour beaucoup dentre nous, cette journe luniversit algoma serait la dernire rencontre en personne pendant un bon moment, et la dernire occasion de sasseoir cte cte et de partager un microphone : petits gestes qui semblent maintenant trs audacieux. mais lorsque je rflchis cette journe, je me rends compte que nous avions dj commenc prendre des mesures un peu audacieuses (et parfois mme trs audacieuses) tout au long de lanne. je veux vous faire part de certaines dentre elles pendant que je me penche sur les douze derniers mois. en 2019-2020, le caton a dcid de ne pas tenir sa confrence annuelle sur le parcours des tudiants, une tradition apprcie qui rassemble les leaders et les professionnels uvrant dans le domaine des transferts de crdits. bien quaudacieuse, cette dcision na pas t prise la lgre, mais plutt pour prendre en compte les dfis financiers de la province. comme nous tenions cependant maintenir les occasions de rseautage et dapprentissage offertes par la confrence, nous nous sommes adapts et avons cr des webinaires et prsent des exposs trs informatifs nos collgues en transfert et lors de nos runions sectorielles. le conseil dadministration du caton a dirig un exercice de planification pour nous aider tablir de nouvelles priorits stratgiques cibles, lesquelles ont dbouch sur un plan stratgique intgr qui orientera les activits du caton au cours des prochaines annes. ce plan nonce galement des objectifs clairs pour le systme de transfert de lontario, en plus de mieux rpondre aux besoins des tudiantes et tudiants effectuant un transfert. il sagit dune srie dobjectifs pour lesquels nous sommes responsables et devrons rendre des comptes. je suis galement fire de reconnatre les immenses progrs que nous avons raliss, grce un personnel dvou et talentueux, en vue damliorer la rigueur de nos projets de recherche et de nos projets lis au transfert. nous travaillons actuellement sur la mobilit tudiante au canada avec des universitaires qui sont la fine pointe de la recherche et qui partagent notre passion pour la schmatisation des rsultats et des parcours des tudiantes et tudiants effectuant un transfert. de mme, nous avons continu de financer des projets portant sur les parcours de transfert ainsi que des projets favorisant la fluidit des transferts. nous apprcions grandement les ides novatrices proposes par nos responsables de projet et remercions nos collgues de lontario qui sigent nos comits dexamen des demandes de propositions. au cours de la dernire anne, nous avons mis lessai de nouvelles faons de collaborer et avons lanc plusieurs projets pilotes sur invitation. ces projets rassemblent de petites quipes, composes de collges, duniversits et dtablissements autochtones, qui travaillent avec acharnement pour sattaquer des sujets plus complexes, dont les rouages des processus de transfert ou la collecte de donnes sur les transferts auprs des tablissements. une fois achevs, ces projets nous permettront de beaucoup mieux comprendre comment se droule le transfert dans diffrents types dtablissements et dans les rgions, et dadapter nos soutiens et activits en vue de rpondre aux besoins propres notre systme ontarien. nous sommes galement trs heureux damliorer le site ontransfer.ca. destin la population tudiante et accessible au public, cet outil est au cur de nos services et il reprsente un bon indicateur dun solide 8 systme provincial de transfert. au cours de la dernire anne, nous avons publi linformation que nos tablissements partenaires ont continu de fournir sur les quivalences de cours et les parcours de transfert. en date de la premire semaine davril 2020, nous sommes trs fiers dafficher 268 110 quivalences de cours et 1 997 parcours de transfert. cette information est essentielle, car ces ressources sont directement consultes par les tudiantes et tudiants ainsi que les personnes qui les appuient, et elles leur fournissent linformation ncessaire pour faire des choix clairs concernant leurs prochaines tapes. en mme temps, nous sommes prts pour la version 2.0 du site; nous envisageons de nouvelles faons de faire pour rduire la charge de travail et amliorer lefficacit pour nos tablissements partenaires, et assurer, la population tudiante, un accs des renseignements jour lorsquelle en a le plus besoin. jespre que ces exemples montrent clairement que les modes de rflexion et de travail du caton ont chang depuis un certain temps. bien sr, nos ralisations et nos initiatives nauraient pas t possibles sans lengagement continu de nos collgues dans lensemble du secteur de lenseignement postsecondaire en ontario. nous entretenons galement des liens troits avec dautres 9 organismes du secteur, savoir les rseaux provinciaux des registraires, les organismes dassurance de la qualit, collges ontario et le conseil des universits de lontario. nous avons toujours apprci le fait de pouvoir tout simplement dcrocher le tlphone pour lancer une ide ou soulever un problme, et dans le contexte actuel, nous lapprcions encore davantage. je tiens galement remercier le gouvernement de lontario et, plus particulirement, le ministre des collges et universits, pour leur engagement continu envers les transferts et leur soutien financier. titre dancienne membre de la fonction publique de lontario, jose peine imaginer les pressions constantes exerces sur le gouvernement pendant cette pandmie (et au cours des annes venir); mais le gouvernement maintient son appui et continue de sassurer que les enjeux lis aux transferts demeurent une priorit. je veux reconnatre notre conseil dadministration, y compris nos coprsidences, ron common, prsident du collge sault, et deborah maclatchy, prsidente et vice-chancelire de luniversit wilfrid-laurier. notre conseil dadministration est principalement compos de cadres suprieurs des collges et universits de lontario, ainsi que dtudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert. tous ces membres ont beaucoup faire et doivent eux aussi composer avec des dfis particuliers sans prcdent. je tiens les remercier pour leur engagement inbranlable, leur leadership et leurs conseils. nous avons hte de partager notre plan stratgique cibl et ambitieux, et de travailler avec nos partenaires sectoriels pour faire du systme de transfert ontarien lun des meilleurs au monde. et alors que jcris ce message, pendant que nous continuons de travailler la maison, jai hte au jour o nous pourrons nous runir, nous asseoir cte cte et clbrer de nouveau nos ralisations. dici l, prenez bien soin de vous. bien vous, yvette munro directrice excutive 2019 bilan de 2020 lexercice amliorations du systme de transfert pendant lexercice 20192020, nous avons renforc le systme de transfert de lontario laide dun financement cibl accord par le caton et de subventions adaptes aux besoins des tablissements et des chercheuses et chercheurs. les pages qui suivent dcrivent les volets de financement du caton, ainsi que nos projets et bnficiaires de financement. projets de transfert de crdits, 20192020 mapit : projet de schmatisation des processus institutionnels volet de financement des boursiers chargs de cours projet pilote de donnes sur les parcours de transfert projets de transfert de crdits, 20192020 chaque anne, le caton finance des projets visant rduire les obstacles pour les tudiantes et tudiants qui changent dtablissement postsecondaire et leur permettre daccder des possibilits tout au long de leur cheminement postsecondaire. nous offrons du financement par lentremise des volets de financement suivants : 1. volet laboration de parcours . le caton appuie des projets dlaboration de parcours qui offrent la population tudiante des possibilits de transfert pertinentes et significatives au moyen dune collaboration accrue entre les tablissements postsecondaires de lontario. ce volet cre des parcours de transfert officiels dans les cas o ceux-ci nexistent peut-tre pas, mais pour lesquels les tudiantes et tudiants ont clairement manifest un intrt et un besoin. ce volet augmente le nombre de parcours de transfert pour les tudiantes et tudiants sous-reprsents. les projets dlaboration de parcours actuels crent des possibilits de transfert en cyberscurit, en soins paramdicaux, en massothrapie/kinsiologie, ainsi que des parcours menant un diplme de premier cycle pour la population tudiante francophone, des parcours appuyant la matrise des langues anishinaabemowin et ogwehoweh, et des parcours pour les apprenantes et apprenants autochtones dans des communauts loignes qui souhaitent poursuivre des tudes de premier cycle. 2. volet fluidit des transferts . ce volet de financement appuie des projets qui conoivent et mettent lessai des approches de transfert hautement intgres en ontario et qui ont le potentiel dtre dploys grande chelle. ces projets sont essentiellement axs sur les changements aux politiques ou procdures et les interventions qui ont un impact sur le systme de transfert de crdits dans son ensemble. ces projets permettent dexplorer les rouages des processus de transfert de crdits et dinnover, puis de reprer des modles ralistes qui peuvent tre dploys lchelle de la province. les projets favorisant la fluidit des transferts actuels appuient llaboration de programmes entirement transfrables dans trois tablissements autochtones; ils amliorent les processus institutionnels et les guides dvaluation du corps professoral, ils examinent la transfrabilit actuelle des programmes prparatoires dans les tablissements du nord, et ils largissent les soutiens offerts la population tudiante ainsi que la collaboration entre tablissements en ce qui a trait aux parcours destins aux apprenantes et apprenants autochtones. 13 3. volet recherche . le caton appuie des projets de recherche qui permettent de mieux connatre et comprendre ltat actuel de la mobilit tudiante et du transfert de crdits en ontario. ce volet gnre des connaissances pouvant directement contribuer aux politiques, aux pratiques institutionnelles et aux parcours lis la mobilit tudiante et au transfert. de nombreux projets crent des applications pratiques pour instaurer une culture de la mobilit plus robuste au sein des tablissements postsecondaires et contribuer une meilleure comprhension des enjeux systmiques qui ont une incidence sur la mobilit. les demandes de propositions lances cette anne portaient sur les domaines prioritaires suivants : rsultats sur le march du travail des tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert; demande de lindustrie pour des parcours; transfert et apprentissage en ligne; transfert et formation en apprentissage; transfert et perfectionnement professionnel propre lindustrie. en plus des appels de financement ouverts, le caton a command des projets de donnes qui contribuent llaboration dune solide base de donnes probantes sur la mobilit de la population tudiante et qui orientent la planification et les amliorations du systme dans son ensemble. en 2019, le caton a galement lanc un portail dides de recherche pour permettre aux chercheuses et chercheurs de proposer des projets de recherche sur le transfert qui abordent des domaines de transfert non couverts par le corpus de recherche actuel. les demandes dposes dans le portail dides de recherche ont men des projets de transfert et des projets abordant certains aspects des domaines prioritaires viss par les demandes de propositions. les projets de recherche actuels examinent les lments suivants : les flux rgionaux dtudiantes et tudiants qui effectuent un transfert et les rsultats sur le march du travail fournis par la plateforme de liens longitudinaux entre l'ducation et le march du travail (plemt) de statistique canada; la faisabilit du partage de donnes entre les conseils scolaires et les tablissements postsecondaires de la rgion du grand toronto; les possibilits de transfert pour la population tudiante en dtention provisoire ou incarcre; les politiques de transfert de crdits lies aux programmes dapprentissage en ligne; et la faon de combler dautres lacunes dans les connaissances. demandes de propositions projets de donnes commands portail dides de recherche 14 en vedette : projets de recherche au niveau du systme oncat travaille avec scott davies (universit de toronto), titulaire dune chaire de recherche du canada sur les donnes, lquit et les politiques en ducation, afin de mener un projet pilote de partage de donnes auquel participeront les conseils scolaires, les collges et les universits de la rgion du grand toronto. cet ensemble de donnes permettra danalyser la mobilit tudiante dans cette rgion. le caton collabore actuellement avec les partenaires du projet pour laborer une charte de projet, et dvelopper linfrastructure technique et les protocoles de scurit ncessaires pour permettre le partage scuris des donnes. ce projet servira de preuve de concept et permettra de crer linfrastructure et instaurer la confiance dont ont besoin les organismes du secteur pour participer un partage de donnes plus grande chelle. analyse de la mobilit tudiante dans les tablissements du nord de lontario david zarifa universit nipissing 15 analyse des rsultats des transferts : ensemble de donnes tdsb-udet scott davies universit de toronto en sappuyant sur le systme d'information sur l'ducation postsecondaire (siep) de statistique canada, la recherche de david zarifa (universit nipissing) fournira de nouvelles perspectives sur les tendances de transfert de la population tudiante dans des tablissements du nord, ainsi que dans dautres rgions de lontario. le projet examinera lampleur globale des types de transfert postsecondaire (pour les tablissements et les rgions) dans les collges et universits de lontario, ainsi que les antcdents sociodmographiques des divers types de parcours postsecondaires, incluant les parcours de transfert qui obligent les tudiantes et tudiants dmnager dans une autre rgion de lontario (p. ex., dans le nord ou le sud). afin de mieux comprendre la complexit et la nature intersectionnelle de laccs lenseignement postsecondaire, ainsi que les rsultats de la population tudiante effectuant un transfert, il est essentiel de schmatiser les parcours de moins en moins linaires entre lcole secondaire, les programmes postsecondaires et le march du travail. dans le cadre de ce projet, les couplages de donnes gnreront de nouvelles connaissances sur les parcours, les transitions et les rsultats de la population tudiante effectuant un transfert en ontario, particulirement en ce qui a trait au fardeau des prts tudiants. ce plan novateur procdera au couplage de donnes de nombreuses cohortes dlves du conseil scolaire du district de toronto (tdsb) et des ensembles de donnes de la plateforme de liens longitudinaux entre lducation et le march du travail (plemt) de statistique canada, y compris les donnes du systme dinformation sur lducation postsecondaire (siep) et du programme canadien de prts aux tudiants (pcpe). ces couplages permettent dvaluer leffet du rendement au secondaire sur les transitions et les rsultats des tudiants et tudiantes effectuant un transfert. les conclusions de ce projet aideront les tablissements crer de nouvelles pratiques, politiques et mesures de soutien pour la population tudiante atypique, en particulier celle qui a de la difficult subventionner le cot de ses tudes. analyse du fardeau des prts dtudes de la population tudiante ayant effectu un transfert en ontario david walters universit de guelph 16 projets dlaboration de parcours, 20192020 demandes : 14 | projets approuvs : 10 | montant attribu : 735 239 $ collge cambrian partenaires : universit laurentienne, universit lakehead universit dottawa partenaires : collge algonquin, universit carleton, la cit institut universitaire de technologie de lontario partenaire : collge georgian collge confederation partenaires : universit algoma, universit lakehead, universit laurentienne, collge sault, universit trent oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute partenaires : collge canadore, collge sault, universit saint-paul 17 tablir des parcours de transfert dans les domaines de la massothrapie et de la kinsiologie dans le nord de lontario | 57 646 $ laborer des parcours dans le domaine de la cyberscurit | 49 851 $ largir des parcours dans le domaine des soins paramdicaux | 79 635 $ renforcer la capacit linguistique grce aux parcours en anishinaabemowin | 99 605 $ largir les parcours vers les tudes postsecondaires dans le domaine du bien-tre communautaire pour la nation nishnawbe-aski et dautres apprenantes et apprenants | 71 197 $ six nations polytechnic partenaires : sans objet six nations polytechnic partenaires : collge mohawk, ibm canada universit laurentienne partenaires : collge boral, la cit universit laurentienne partenaires : collge boral, la cit universit laurentienne partenaire : la cit laborer des parcours pour la revitalisation des langues autochtones en langues ogwehoweh | 99 690 $ largir les parcours vers les tudes postsecondaires pour les tudiantes et tudiants de la snp steam academy | 94 740 $ laborer des parcours permettant de passer des programmes de techniques des services policiers, de techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale au baccalaurat s art en criminologie; en sociologie; en quit, diversit et droits de la personne; en psychologie | 92 400 $ laborer des parcours permettant de passer des programmes dassistant de lergothrapeute et assistant du physiothrapeute au baccalaurat en ducation physique et sant et au baccalaurat s science en kinsiologie | 63 525 $ laborer des parcours permettant de passer du programme de tourisme au baccalaurat en ducation physique et sant leadership : activits physiques de plein air | 26 950 $ 18 projets favorisant la fluidit des transferts, 20192020 demandes : 5 | projets approuvs : 4 | montant attribu : 317 253 $ first nations technical institute partenaires : kenjgewinteg educational institute, seven generations education institute universit lakehead partenaires : collge confederation, premire nation eabametoong, matawa post-secondary education, northern nishnawbe education council, oshki-pimache-o-win, seven generations education institute universit ryerson partenaires : sans objet universit lakehead partenaires : collge confederation darts appliqus et de technologie, seven generations education institute 19 laborer des programmes dentre transfrables entre les tablissements autochtones | 130 900 $ explorer la transfrabilit des programmes prparatoires dans les tablissements postsecondaires du nord-ouest de lontario | 11 550 $ moderniser la politique, les lignes directrices et les procdures relatives aux transferts de crdits de luniversit ryerson | 82 163 $ officialiser les soutiens offerts aux apprenantes et apprenants autochtones effectuant un transfert (phase 2) | 92 640 $ projets de recherche, 20192020 demande de propositions en recherche | demandes : 9 | projets approuvs : 4 | montant attribu : 229 390 $ universit dottawa | ross finnie examen des rsultats scolaires et des rsultats sur le march du travail des tudiantes et tudiants de lontario (phase ii) | 71 857 $ universit de toronto | elizabeth dhuey recyclage de lenseignement suprieur : examen des gains sur le march du travail par rapport lobtention de multiples titres de comptences | 115 953 $ universit lakehead partenaires : collge confederation darts appliqus et de technologie, oshki-pimache-o-win education and training institute, seven generations education institute collge canadore partenaires : sans objet examen de la faisabilit du partage de donnes sur les tudiantes et tudiants autochtones effectuant un transfert entre des tablissements du nord-ouest de lontario | 25 080 $ examen de la transfrabilit des programmes de formation sur la scurit culturelle autochtone en ontario | 16 500 $ 20 projets de recherche et de donnes commands | demandes : 4 | projets approuvs : 4 | montant attribu : 429 655 $ universit de toronto | scott davies projet pilote sur lensemble des donnes provenant de plusieurs tablissements relativement aux tudiantes et tudiants effectuant un transfert | 133 000 $ scott davies (universit de toronto) analyse des rsultats de transfert : ensemble de donnes tdsb-udet | 10 500 $ universit nipissing | david zarifa analyse de la mobilit tudiante dans les tablissements du nord de lontario | 109 107 $ universit de guelph | david walters analyse du fardeau des prts dtudes de la population tudiante ayant effectu un transfert en ontario | 144 048 $ (guelph) | 33 000 $ (david walters) 21 portail dides de recherche | demandes : 6 | projets approuvs : 5 | montant attribu : 231 881 $ universit york | paul anisef partenaire : universit mcmaster processus de transfert des tudiantes et tudiants et rsultats sur le march du travail : analyse des parcours de vie de la promotion de 1973 | 45 100 $ universit ryerson | ojelanki ngwenyama analyse des politiques institutionnelles nord-amricaines relatives aux transferts de crdits des programmes dapprentissage en ligne | 109 790 $ collge seneca darts appliqus et de technologie | ursula mccloy tendances de la mobilit en ontario : lexprience de transfert des tudiantes et tudiants dans les collges ontariens (entres et sorties) | 29 892 $ universit de toronto | xavier st. denis transferts non conventionnels et parcours de transfert dans les tudes postsecondaires : portrait statistique et valuation des rsultats sur le march du travail | 32 099 $ ardavan eizadirad (universit wilfrid-laurier) exprience du transfert de crdits de la population en dtention provisoire en ontario | 15 000 $ 22 projet de schmatisation des processus de transfert institutionnels 23 mapit : projet de schmatisation des processus de transfert institutionnel le caton cherche amliorer les processus de transfert afin quils soient plus transparents pour la population tudiante et mieux adapts ses besoins. le caton vise aussi faciliter la navigation dans le processus de transfert et amliorer lefficacit et le flux de travail de lvaluation des transferts de crdits pour les tablissements. cette fin, le caton a choisi 10 tablissements postsecondaires qui vont participer au projet mapit afin dexaminer les tapes connues et en coulisses du flux de travail des tablissements lorsquils reoivent une demande de transfert, directement ou par lentremise de locas /ouac. dans le cadre de sances damlioration des processus, le caton a accord 10 000 $ chacun des tablissements suivants : collge cambrian, universit de waterloo, collge conestoga, universit laurentienne, universit brock, collge algonquin, universit de hearst, collge george brown, universit queens et first nations technical institute. ce financement sert dresser en dtail le flux de travail de lensemble du processus de transfert : demande, valuation, inscription et consultation. en adoptant une approche par consortium et en ayant recours aux services de la socit de conseils hesa (higher education strategy associates), le caton va effectuer une analyse de lcart, approfondir sa comprhension du processus de transfert du point de vue de la population tudiante et des tablissements, formuler des recommandations et aider les tablissements amliorer les processus venir. les tablissements reoivent galement un soutien financier supplmentaire du ministre des collges et universits (mcu) par lentremise de la subvention aux tablissements pour les transferts de crdits (setc). ce projet montrera, aux tablissements, au secteur et au mcu, les faons damliorer les processus pour appuyer la reconnaissance des crdits de sorte ce quelle soit fluide et plus quitable. 24 volet de financement des boursiers chargs de cours le programme des boursiers chargs de cours du caton appuie les membres du corps professoral qui se sont faits les champions de la population tudiante et des parcours au niveau postsecondaire, afin que ces boursiers puissent faire ce qui suit : accrotre les connaissances au sein de ltablissement concernant les donnes lies au transfert et lexprience, dans leur facult, dpartement ou tablissement, des tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert; amliorer les processus scolaires lis lvaluation des transferts de crdits et au travail avec la population tudiante ayant effectu un transfert; et/ou partager des modles mergents dinitiatives russies en matire de mobilit tudiante. au cours du dernier exercice, nous avons approuv un projet de boursiers chargs de cours parmi les deux demandes reues. universit de hearst procdures intgres pour amliorer les conditions de russite des tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert | 10 000 $ projet pilote de donnes sur les parcours de transfert au dbut de lanne 2020, le caton a lanc un appel aux collges, universits et tablissements autochtones de lontario subventionns par ltat pour quils participent un projet pilote visant valuer des profils dtudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert, y compris leur utilisation des parcours de transfert, ainsi que leurs caractristiques et leurs rsultats. les tablissements participants recevront un financement pour contribuer, linterne, au nettoyage, au couplage et lanalyse des donnes axes sur les tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert. le financement ira jusqu 50 000 $ pour chaque participant, selon la porte des travaux et le niveau de rapports dont il aura t convenu. les tablissements choisis participeront aussi des runions afin de partager leurs approches, apprentissages et recommandations. 25 mobilisation du secteur au cours du dernier exercice, le caton a mobilis une vaste gamme de partenaires sectoriels, y compris des tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert, des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits, des membres du corps professoral, des administratrices et administrateurs ainsi que des cadres des tablissements, afin de dvelopper et partager de lexpertise en matire de transfert. les activits de mobilisation du secteur se rpartissent dans les grandes catgories suivantes : mobilisation de la population tudiante mobilisation des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits relations et partenariats porte nationale et internationale mobilisation de la population tudiante le caton mobilise la population tudiante de faon continue en ayant recours de nouveaux moyens, pour sassurer que les expriences des tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert influencent directement les amliorations apportes au systme de transfert. cette anne, le caton a rencontr le personnel des organismes suivants pour le mettre jour sur les priorits stratgiques concernant les transferts : ontario undergraduate student alliance, college student alliance et fdration canadienne des tudiantes et tudiants. nous avons galement mobilis la population tudiante dans le cadre de deux initiatives importantes : 1. fonds daction pour la mobilit des tudiants. le caton offre maintenant du financement pour appuyer des projets labors par et pour des tudiantes et tudiants effectuant ou ayant effectu un transfert. ces projets peuvent comprendre ce qui suit : activits de renforcement de la collectivit, pour aider les tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert se sentir plus proches de leur communaut et mieux soutenus dans leur cheminement postsecondaire. outils et ressources, pour appuyer les tudiantes et tudiants effectuant ou ayant effectu un transfert, pendant et aprs le processus de transfert. activits de sensibilisation, pour attirer lattention sur les expriences des tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert. 27 les propositions sont acceptes de faon continue. 2. comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants. les membres de ce comit sont des tudiantes et tudiants actuels ou ayant rcemment obtenu leur diplme, qui ont effectu au moins un transfert au cours de leur cheminement postsecondaire en ontario. titre de reprsentants de la collectivit desservie par le caton, les membres du comit fournissent une rtroaction utile sur les activits du caton, notamment le site ontransfer.ca, les initiatives de recherche, les comits, la gouvernance et les projets. les membres du comit ont galement sig notre comit dexamen de la plus rcente srie de demandes de propositions. mobilisation des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits groupe des conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits (gcrc) chefs des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits les conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits dans les tablissements dorigine et les tablissements de destination sont souvent le premier point dinformation officiel des tudiantes et tudiants qui envisagent deffectuer un transfert. au cours du dernier exercice, le caton a suivi lvolution naturelle du programme de mentorat du gcrc et cr le groupe des chefs des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits, dont les membres aident le caton renforcer la capacit et lefficacit des conseils en matire de transfert dans lensemble du systme et dans les tablissements. les membres possdent une vaste exprience de la haute direction en matire de transfert au sein de leur tablissement et sont les principaux porte-parole pour faire connatre les travaux cls du caton sur la recherche et les politiques en matire de transfert. pour mobiliser directement les conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits, le caton collabore avec le groupe des conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits (gcrc). le rle de ce groupe consiste tablir et soutenir la communaut de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits en ontario, afin daborder les problmes de transfert auxquels les tudiants peuvent tre confronts. cette fin, le groupe partage les pratiques prometteuses et les russites des tablissements; renforce la capacit des conseillres et conseillers et des personnes qui travaillent directement auprs de la population tudiante; et utilise des donnes pour amliorer lefficacit des pratiques. plus prcisment, les membres ont une expertise dans les domaines suivants : embauche et formation du personnel, laboration et mise en uvre de politiques relatives larticulation et llaboration de parcours, exigences dontransfer.ca, et connaissance pratique cl des pratiques actuelles de prestation de conseils sur les transferts. lanc en 2018 sur facebook workplace, le gcrc gre galement un carrefour de communications en ligne o les conseillres et conseillers peuvent communiquer facilement avec dautres membres, partager des ressources et mettre jour de linformation. 28 relations et partenariats pour orienter llaboration de son plan stratgique, le caton a rencontr un grand nombre de reprsentantes et reprsentants dtablissements postsecondaires. ces rencontres avec les vice-prsidences aux tudes, les prsidences, les registraires et dautres dcideurs fournissent des renseignements cls sur la faon dont certains tablissements grent linscription des tudiantes et tudiants, participent aux projets et aux comits du caton et utilisent ontransfer.ca. le caton appuie galement de nombreux vnements axs sur de nouveaux parcours. nous avons rgulirement communiqu des mises jour nos rseaux et associations, comme le comit des registraires et agents dadmission et de liaison de lontario (cralo) et lassociation des registraires des universits de lontario (oura). le caton a galement reu une invitation spciale pour prsenter un expos lors dvnements spciaux et de confrences organiss par collges ontario (confrence des tudiants vice-prsidents, journe de perfectionnement professionnel des recruteurs), et par lassociation des conseillres et conseillers dorientation scolaire de lontario ainsi que linternational association of admissions organizations. le caton a particip lexamen de lapprentissage numrique men par le conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur (coqes) et certaines des recommandations ont t intgres au rapport publi par le coqes au dbut de 2020. le caton a galement sig au comit de planification du symposium sur les rsultats dapprentissage, un vnement organis par le conseil des universits de lontario. comit de direction sur les parcours du nord de lontario (cdno) le comit de direction sur les parcours du nord de lontario appuie la poursuite dune stratgie intgre visant crer des parcours pour la population tudiante et amliorer la collaboration entre les tablissements du nord de lontario. les six collges et quatre universits du nord sont reprsents au sein du comit. en mars 2020, luniversit algoma, le caton a clbr la signature du protocole dentente relatif linitiative dinscription conjointe du nord au cours pratiques en administration des affaires , entre les parties suivantes : universit algoma, universit laurentienne, universit lakehead, universit nipissing, collge cambrian, collge canadore, collge boral, collge confederation, collge northern et collge sault. essentiellement, ce nouveau protocole dentente permettra aux tudiantes et tudiants dobtenir un diplme universitaire dans certaines disciplines tout en obtenant un certificat dtudes collgiales dun an en pratique en administration des affaires. linitiative dinscription conjointe au cours pratiques en administration des affaires est un excellent exemple dun plan fait pour lontario en vue daider un plus grand nombre dtudiantes et tudiants poursuivre des tudes de premire qualit qui leur permettent de dcrocher un diplme et entamer une carrire enrichissante dans un domaine en demande. je tiens fliciter le caton et tous les collges et universits du nord. voil un excellent exemple de ce que nous pouvons accomplir lorsque nous travaillons ensemble. lhonorable ross romano, ministre des collges et universits 30 comit directeur des tablissements francophones et bilingues les membres de ce comit collaborent en vue de promouvoir lchange de pratiques exemplaires entre les tablissements francophones et bilingues, de cibler et rduire les obstacles la mobilit de la population tudiante francophone, et de recommander de nouveaux modles darticulation et de parcours entre les tablissements et dautres partenaires francophones ou bilingues. les membres du comit sont les suivants : collge boral, collge universitaire dominicain, collge universitaire glendon, collge la cit, universit de hearst, universit laurentienne, universit dottawa, universit saint-paul et universit de sudbury. le comit sest rcemment runi pour encourager les partenaires participer aux projets de donnes et aux initiatives de schmatisation des processus. 31 mobilisation des tablissements autochtones pour veiller ce que les tablissements autochtones jouent un rle central dans la transformation du systme de transfert en ontario, le caton a convoqu, en fvrier 2020, des collgues des tablissements suivants une sance de planification des systmes de transfert : six nations polytechnic, first nations technical institute, seven generations education institute, kenjgewin teg, oshki-wenjack, iohahi:io akwesasne education and training institute, indigenous advanced education and skills council, ainsi que le ministre des collges et universits et la fondation mastercard. la sance de planification a donn lieu des observations sur la faon dont le caton peut continuer de renforcer les parcours de transfert avec les tablissements autochtones, par exemple, en runissant les tablissements autochtones, les collges et les universits titre de partenaires gaux dans la conception des processus de transfert qui profitent la population tudiante et en appuyant des processus de transfert lintention des tudiantes et tudiants des tablissements autochtones afin dassurer la reconnaissance de leurs crdits et titres de comptences lors du processus de transfert. le caton poursuivra ses efforts pour renforcer ses partenariats avec les tablissements autochtones et ce, de faon continue. nous nous engageons crer du financement, de la recherche et de linformation destine la population tudiante et mobiliser le secteur, de manire soutenir la participation continue des tablissements autochtones la transformation du systme de transfert. 32 porte nationale et internationale le caton continue dappuyer le consortium pancanadien sur les admissions et les transferts de plusieurs faons : il est le secrtaire et trsorier du consortium, il joue un rle de leadership dans lorganisation de lassemble gnrale annuelle, il est membre du comit du congrs du consortium et enfin, il revoit les rglements administratifs et la structure dadhsion du consortium. le caton sest joint catcan, un nouveau rseau compos des organismes provinciaux ou indpendants qui soccupent du systme de transfert dans leur province. la colombiebritannique, lalberta, la saskatchewan, le manitoba, lontario, le nouveau-brunswick et la nouvelle-cosse font partie du rseau. le caton a assist au 30 anniversaire et lassemble annuelle du british columbia council on admissions and transfer. linitiative de groningen, laquelle participe lassociation des registraires des universits et collges du canada (arucc), tablit un cadre pour amliorer la mobilit internationale, afin de promouvoir lducation et le dveloppement conomique lchelle mondiale grce 33 lchange lectronique scuris de renseignements sur les tudiantes et tudiants du postsecondaire. le caton, en tant que signataire du projet et bailleur de fonds de la recherche de larucc, maintient son appui cette initiative. le caton a agi titre dexaminateur de propositions pour la confrence annuelle du national institute for study of transfer students. lors de la confrence, le caton a galement prsent un expos sur la faon dappuyer la mobilit tudiante en mobilisant les partenaires du systme et les membres du corps professoral (intitul supporting student mobility by engaging system partners & faculty ). en fvrier 2020, le caton a eu la chance indite daccueillir une quipe de neuf personnes de luniversit polytechnique de hong kong, dans le cadre de son projet visant crer un systme de soutien en ligne ax sur la population tudiante hong kong. les membres de lquipe de hong kong ont eu loccasion de discuter avec des membres du personnel et des tudiantes et tudiants ayant effectu un transfert, qui reprsentaient les tablissements suivants : collge george brown, collge humber, universit ryerson, collge seneca et universit york. ontransfer.ca ontransfer.ca offre une plateforme conviviale permettant aux tudiantes et tudiants dexaminer leurs options de transfert et dobtenir du soutien pendant leur cheminement postsecondaire. grce aux donnes de lensemble des tablissements autochtones et des 45 collges et universits publics de lontario, ontransfer.ca est continuellement mis jour afin doffrir des renseignements pertinents et jour. voici les amliorations que nous avons effectues au cours de la dernire anne. amliorations du site web ontransfer.ca analyse et croissance projet damlioration des donnes amliorations du site web ontransfer.ca en 2019, nous avons adopt un design pur et une approche axe sur lutilisateur pour le site ontransfer.ca. nous avons puis dans des audits antrieurs et des consultations menes auprs des intervenants pour apporter plusieurs amliorations pratiques la mise en page et la conception du site ontransfer.ca. ces changements, qui reprsentent une tape dun projet plus vaste de conception, ont permis damliorer lexprience de navigation de la population tudiante qui lutilise, de simplifier les chemins daccs dans le site, de raccourcir des textes en utilisant un langage plus convivial pour les tudiantes et tudiants, et damliorer lexprience dutilisation sur les appareils mobiles. ces changements ont t annoncs dans les mdias sociaux et des bulletins, et par lentremise dune vido sur le site qui explique comment utiliser les nouvelles fonctions. 35 analyse et croissance au total, 195 026 utilisateurs ont utilis le site ontransfer.ca, et le site a reu 276 785 sessions (visites) du 1 avril 2019 au 31 mars 2020, soit une hausse de 3,6 % et de 0,68 % respectivement par rapport lanne prcdente. ces donnes comprennent une baisse majeure du trafic la fin de fvrier et en mars alors que les fermetures et les efforts dloignement physique sont entrs en vigueur partout en ontario. entre avril et dcembre 2019, le trafic du site ontransfer.ca a augment de prs de 8 %. en comparant les donnes davril 2020 celles davril 2019, on constate une hausse de 22,8 % des quivalences de cours (en tenant compte de tous les tablissements) et une hausse de 3,2 % du nombre de parcours. 36 projet damlioration des donnes quipe du projet damlioration des donnes ontransfer.ca : au cours de lexercice 20192020, le caton a mis sur pied une quipe charge dexaminer les donnes du site ontransfer.ca, de combler les lacunes et de collaborer plus troitement avec tous les tablissements pour assurer lexhaustivit des renseignements affichs sur le site web. lquipe mne aussi une campagne cible visant relancer les tablissements qui nont pas rgulirement soumis de renseignements ou qui nont pas affich de renseignements sur les quivalences de cours. directeur de transfert et technologie : notre nouveau directeur de transfert et technologie, andrew wilson, assurera la direction principale de la refonte, du lancement du site modifi et de lamlioration continue du site ontransfer.ca. il veillera galement renforcer les capacits et amliorer lefficacit des processus dans lensemble des tablissements postsecondaires de lontario en ce qui a trait aux transferts et la mobilit tudiante. en plus de participer au projet damlioration des donnes, il dirigera llaboration de la stratgie et du plan ontransfer.ca 2.0 et lancera une nouvelle version amliore du site en 2023. 37 andrew wilson melinda cheng lena balata directeur de transfert et technologie analyste des donnes de recherche responsable du projet damlioration des donnes : ontransfer.ca au sujet du caton le caton est compos dune quipe diversifie de membres du personnel et dintervenants externes possdant un large ventail de comptences, dexpriences et de talents. les prochaines pages dcrivent comment le caton a pris de lexpansion et sest adapt linterne pendant lexercice financier 20192020, qui a t productif. au service de la mobilit tudiante durant la pandmie de covid-19 changements la coprsidence du conseil premire srie de stages dt plan stratgique, 20202023 au service de la mobilit tudiante durant la pandmie de covid-19 depuis la mi-mars 2020, les bureaux du caton sont ferms temporairement en raison de la pandmie de covid-19 et des directives mises par les organismes de sant publique et le gouvernement provincial. pendant la pandmie, le personnel du caton a adopt un modle de tltravail afin doffrir tous ses services habituels en vue de concevoir dexcellents parcours postsecondaires et de rduire les obstacles pour la population tudiante en ontario. le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario reconnat les efforts considrables dploys par les collges, les universits et les tablissements autochtones de lontario pour rpondre aux besoins de la population tudiante actuelle et nouvelle pendant cette priode particulirement difficile. nous sommes encourags par la souplesse et la compassion dont font preuve nos partenaires du secteur et nous sommes inspirs par les efforts collectifs engags pour favoriser la russite des tudiantes et tudiants ainsi que lachvement des cours et lobtention des grades. le caton a collabor avec des partenaires du secteur llaboration dune demande lchelle du secteur pour recueillir les politiques scolaires des tablissements et leurs changements, la suite de la covid-19, qui pourraient avoir une incidence sur les admissions lies aux transferts et lvaluation des transferts. le partage de ces renseignements aidera les tablissements denseignement qui travaillent directement avec la population tudiante effectuant ou ayant effectu un transfert, ou envisageant de le faire, et fournira des prcisions aux tablissements denseignement quant aux parcours de transfert existants. comme on peut sy attendre, la pandmie a des rpercussions sur les subventions en cours et les nouveaux projets. en ce qui concerne tous nos projets en cours et nos nouveaux projets, nous faisons preuve de souplesse et de comprhension, et nous modifions au besoin les chanciers des rapports et des activits. 39 changements la coprsidence du conseil en 20192020, le caton a t ravi daccueillir ron common, prsident du collge sault, en tant que lun des deux coprsidents de notre conseil dadministration. nous avons aussi fait nos adieux et offert nos chaleureux remerciements cheryl jensen, coprsidente sortante du conseil dadministration et ancienne prsidentedirectrice gnrale du collge algonquin, qui a fait preuve dun leadership extraordinaire au cours des annes quelle a consacres notre organisme. coprsident entrant ron common prsident, collge sault coprsidente sortante cheryl jensen ancienne prsidente-directrice gnrale du collge algonquin premire srie de stages dt lt 2019, pour la premire fois de son histoire, le caton a eu le plaisir de recruter trois tudiants stagiaires afin de leur permettre de satisfaire aux exigences de leurs programmes denseignement coopratif. nous avons t enchants de travailler avec aidan hayes, stagiaire en analyse des politiques de luniversit ryerson; grigorii kniazev, stagiaire en analyse de la recherche du collge humber; et danielle wong, stagiaire spcialise en marketing numrique et en contenu du collge george brown. 40 plan stratgique, 20202023 en 20192020, le caton a labor un nouveau plan stratgique en consultation avec le secteur, nos principaux partenaires de lindustrie, le conseil dadministration du caton et le ministre des collges et universits. ce plan stratgique orientera les activits du caton en vue de combler les carts et de profiter des possibilits releves, pour faire avancer le systme de transfert de crdits. alors que nous entamons la mise en uvre de notre plan stratgique pour la prochaine priode de trois ans, savoir de 20202021 2022 2023, nous renforons nos capacits linterne et lchelle du secteur de lenseignement postsecondaire afin de nous tourner vers de nouvelles priorits et des priorits renouveles. comme toujours, nous continuons de poursuivre et remplir un mandat prcis qui cre des possibilits pour la population tudiante de lontario effectuant ou ayant effectu un transfert et qui rpond aux besoins de cette population. 41 priorits stratgiques, 20202023 priorit 1 : parcours cibls et en demande pour la population tudiante grce notre comprhension des comportements et tendances en matire de transfert, ainsi que des intrts et besoins mergents de la population tudiante, nous appuyons llaboration de parcours de transfert efficaces entre les tablissements et entre les systmes. ces parcours fournissent des options clairement nonces qui appuient laccs des tudiantes et tudiants aux tudes postsecondaires, le transfert vertical pour lobtention de titres de comptences, les possibilits de recyclage et lacquisition de nouvelles comptences. priorit 2 : processus de transfert de crdits transparents, uniformes et fluides le caton sefforce de sassurer que lontario possde un systme denseignement postsecondaire qui est favorable aux transferts et qui est chef de file dans ce domaine. les tudiantes et tudiants devraient pouvoir naviguer assez facilement dans le processus de transfert et obtenir la reconnaissance des crdits maximale en fonction des crdits postsecondaires quivalents dj obtenus. nous travaillons en vue dallger le fardeau administratif des transferts pour les tablissements, de fournir des renseignements cohrents et damliorer lexprience des tudiantes et tudiants chaque tape de leur cheminement de transfert. priorit 3 : capacits oprationnelles et gouvernance robustes et rflchies titre dorganisme provincial intermdiaire responsable dtablir un solide systme de transfert en ontario, le caton est bien plac pour en faire plus que ce que le gouvernement pourrait accomplir seul de son ct; pour laborer et partager son expertise en matire de transfert; et pour encourager les partenaires du secteur de lducation collaborer. le caton doit faire preuve de rflexion, tablir ses responsabilits et faciliter lamlioration pour faire assurer lalignement de ses capacits oprationnelles. 42 conseil dadministration coprsidences du conseil dadministration deb maclatchy, prsidente et vice-chancelire, universit wilfrid-laurier ron common, prsident, collge sault administration caitlin smith, collge george brown, reprsentante des tudiantes et tudiants collgiaux christine bradaric-baus, vice-rectrice lenseignement, collge canadian memorial chiropractic, reprsentante externe elaine popp, vice-rectrice lenseignement, collge durham kathryn kettle, reprsentante des tudiantes et tudiants universitaires lyne michaud, vice-prsidente lenseignement, collge boral pierre riopel, reprsentant externe serge demers, vice-recteur aux tudes par intrim et provost, universit laurentienne susan mccahan, vice-provost, innovation dans les tudes de premier cycle, universit de toronto poste vacant, reprsentante ou reprsentant des diplmes et diplms des collges et universits membres doffice du conseil david fulford, vice-prsident, recherche, collges ontario david porter, ancien pdg, ecampusontario eva busza, vice-prsidente, politiques et collaboration sectorielle, conseil des universits de lontario heather lane, directrice excutive, centre de demande dadmission aux universits de lontario karen creditor, chef de la direction, service dadmission des collges de lontario yvette munro, directrice excutive, caton 43 caton quipe yvette munro shauna love andrew wilson directrice excutive directrice des oprations directeur de transfert et technologie inna yeranosyan gestionnaire des finances melinda cheng spencer gordon lena balata analyste des donnes de recherche spcialiste des communications chef du projet damlioration des donnes : ontransfer.ca sarah fuchs natalie isber carolyn poplak analyste principale des politiques charge de projet roger pizarro milian coordonnatrice administrative des subventions et projets 43 peter ssekiziyivu desera chercheur principal chef de projet : collaborations et programmes communautaires ana skinner amy oziel rod missaghian jane waldner chef de projet : programme de subventions coordonnatrice des oprations chercheur coordonnatrice de bureau et de runion 44 partenaires le caton collabore avec les 45 collges et universits publics de lontario : 45 partenaires nous travaillons galement en troite collaboration avec les partenaires suivants : les tablissements autochtones la population tudiante le gouvernement de lontario et le ministre des collges et universits des organismes sectoriels comme le conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur (coqes) et ecampusontario des organismes reprsentatifs comme le conseil des universits de lontario (cuo), collges ontario (co), la fdration canadienne des tudiantes et tudiants de lontario (fcee-ontario), lontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa), et la college student alliance (csa) le caton est associ lchelle nationale par lentremise du consortium pancanadien sur les admissions et les transferts (cpcat) et les conseils provinciaux suivants : 46 finances nos tats financiers audits, qui comprennent ltat de la situation financire au 31 mars 2019, et les tats des rsultats, de lvolution de lactif net et des flux de trsorerie pour lexercice clos, ainsi que les notes affrentes aux tats financiers, y compris un rsum des principales mthodes comptables, se trouvent ladresse suivante : https://oncat.ca/fr/propos-de-nous 47 2019 2020 rapport annuel www.oncat.ca 180, rue dundas ouest, bur. 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) est financ par le gouvernement de lontario. this information is also available in english.

project snapshot developing pathways in the area of cybersecurity type: pathway development project number: 2020-22 or p2022 project lead: university of ottawa collaborators: algonquin college, carleton university, collge la cit project summary the four partner institutions are already working together as part of the education city initiative, a project that aims to examine the possibility of collaboratively developing an innovative model that provides educational experiences focusing on developing human skills, foundation knowledge and applied competencies related to the chosen field of work in the ottawa area. building on this collaboration as well as their existing expertise and programs in the field of cybersecurity, the four institutions seek to establish reciprocal transfer pathways (collegeuniversity and university-college) in order to enhance student mobility in the ottawa area in this emerging and increasingly important field of study. outcomes the desire to create a bilingual micro-program between the four institutions on cybersecurity, based on the strengths of each institution and their complementarity. key steps reviewing the curricula has shown that credits cannot be recognized between the colleges and the universities. however, each institution has strengths in the field of cybersecurity, which are complementary. the working group hopes to explore the possibility of creating a bilingual microprogram between the four institutions. challenges there have been two key challenges. first, the engineering program accreditation standards make the recognition of credits difficult. then, in the universities, students who take cybersecurity courses are in third or fourth year and those courses have prerequisites for which credit equivalency cannot be achieved with the colleges. tips/advice when reviewing curricula, do not think only about the recognition of credits, but also try to see how other types of pathways could be developed.

project snapshot pathway development in college health science and university liberal science type: pathways development project number: 2019-37 or p1937 project lead: laurentian university collaborators: le collge la cit, le collge boral et l'universit laurentienne project summary the project offers health sciences graduates the opportunity to obtain an accelerated university degree via our liberal science b.sc. pathway. it will also permit students in the liberal science program to take advantage of the credit recognition in the identified health sciences programs if they wish to enroll at the college. project rationale the relevance of developing these types of pathways became evident in light of the specific requirement for applicants in these fields working in hospital settings to have a bachelor degree in order to access administrative positions. given that the liberal science b.sc. offered at laurentian is structured in a flexible manner and is comprised of a wide array of courses accessible remotely, it seemed to be the ideal program to align with for the intended objective. main collaborators la cit, collge boral and laurentian university la cit and collge boral were responsible for providing the documentation necessary to review the programs identified for the pathways, attending meetings and facilitating communication with the program coordinators as part of the work to review the correlations between each institutions courses. as the main project coordinator, laurentian university is responsible for carrying out the work plan, conducting the reviews, coordinating the exchange of communications and information with la cit and collge boral, providing good financial management and providing follow-up reports to oncat. outcomes in fact, through this project, we hope not only to develop pathways from the college to the university, but also from the university to the college. unfortunately, we have reached the conclusion that aside from the required complementary courses of the college programs, the specialized courses would not be recognized in light of the courses that comprise the laurentian liberal science b.sc. program. however, the feasibility of pathways from the college programs to the university program remains very plausible. everything will depend on the next steps in the approval of our recommendations. pathway(s) development key steps the key step in the success of this project is certainly our choice to amend the review approach so that it is more in line with the specific structure of the liberal science b.sc. program, by grouping together the college credits based on course themes. pathways created the final pathways in the approval stage are the following: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) la cits respiratory therapy (3 years) la cits paramedic (2 years) and / la cits advanced paramedic (1 year) la cits and collge borals occupational and physiotherapy assistant (2 years) la cits electroneurodiagnostics (2 years) toward laurentian universitys liberal science b.sc. program. hence, seven (6) [sic] pathways in all are pending approval by the laurentian institutional bodies. incomplete pathways indeed, one (1) of the seven (7) desired pathways cannot be developed for the time being. during the year, collge boral decided to revise its paramedic program. given that the preliminary review of the correlations between the learning outcomes was done based on the old program structure, it was agreed that this pathway would not be submitted for the approval process this year, but that instead it would be considered once the revision of collge borals program is complete and the recognition recommendations are adjusted based on the revisions made to the program. note, however, that the approval process for the la cit paramedic program will move forward. challenges naturally, the matter of deadlines is always a considerable issue. collecting course outlines, developing matrices, and reviewing the correlations between the learning outcomes all appear to be steps that are attainable on an academic schedule. the approval processes by the institutional bodies should be considered the subsequent year, in order to be realistic. student outcomes the benefits of the pathways identified in this project extend beyond the usual benefits. in fact, college-university and university-college pathways generally seek to save the students who benefit from them time and money. in this case, not only will the students enjoy these benefits, but in the end, by obtaining a bachelor degree, they can also access administrative positions that they would not have been able to apply to without a bachelor degree. student credential laurentians various decision-making bodies need to approve them first before they are officially recognized. student time savings note that this information is based only the potential time saved by the student given that laurentians various decision-making bodies must grant their approval first before they are officially recognized. occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (collge boral) pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 3 semesters. occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (la cit) pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 3 semesters. electroneurodiagnostics program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 3 semesters. respiratory therapy program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 4 semesters. occupational therapist and physiotherapist assistant program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 3.5 semesters. student financial savings this information is based only the potential tuition fees saved by the student given that laurentians various decision-making bodies must grant their approval first before they are officially recognized. there are additional savings associated with ancillary expenses and relocation expenses to take the courses. occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (collge boral) pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $11,250 occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (la cit) pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $11,250 electroneurodiagnostics program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $11,250 respiratory therapy program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $15,000 occupational therapist and physiotherapist assistant program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $13,125 student flexibility first, the potential credit recognition as part of these pathways appears to be quite beneficial. we will have to monitor if the various decision-making bodies will accept the recommended recognitions based on the review conducted as part of this project. moreover, several courses associated with laurentians liberal science b.sc. are accessible online, which gives the college graduate or the student potentially already on the job market the added benefit of flexibility to be able to pursue their university education without being forced to relocate. student work alignment the initial motivation for this project was essentially based on the competitive advantage it would give students on the job market in the hospital industry aspiring to be in administrative positions that require a bachelor degree. hence, we can say that this pathway indeed does contribute to students employability. institutional outcomes none at this stage. certainly, we have changed the way of conducting the reviews to respond to the specific structure of laurentians liberal science b.sc. however, the changes with regard to institutional practices will be more in terms of the criteria that will confirm the approval of the pathways recommended by the various institutional bodies. sector or system implications the situation experienced with collge boral and the paramedic pathway (2 years) that we hoped to develop could probably have been anticipated at the time the projects were submitted. our experience shows that at least two years are required to develop a pathway, from the review of the program correlations to the finalization of the approval process. in that context, the scheduled dates of the revisions to the college program should be taken into consideration to ensure that the revision does not conflict with the objectives of the pathway projects. tips and advice the case of laurentian universitys liberal science b.sc. program is quite unique. however, in the event that another program works the same way based on course themes rather than on prescribed courses, we strongly recommend not limiting ourselves to the correlations of the learning outcomes. grouping college courses together by themes is the methodology to adopt. tools and resources the key tools developed as part of this project were the review matrices. they have been uploaded to the project deliverables section.

appel de propositions parcours daccs au postsecondaire pour les tudiants touchs par la pandmie prsentez une demande pour cette occasion de financement visant soutenir laccs lenseignement postsecondaire et favoriser la reprise scolaire aprs la pandmie. aperu le caton souhaite collaborer avec les tablissements denseignement postsecondaire afin de favoriser laccs au postsecondaire pour les tudiants qui pourraient avoir besoin dune aide supplmentaire dans leur transition en raison des perturbations ducatives subies pendant la pandmie. cela comprend les parcours daccs au postsecondaire pour les tudiants qui rencontrent des obstacles historiques et continus lenseignement postsecondaire. ces parcours daccs et de reprise la suite de la pandmie aideront les tudiants rattraper leur apprentissage et russir leur transition vers le postsecondaire. dans le cadre de ce financement, le caton sintresse aux projets qui intgrent : des parcours daccs lenseignement postsecondaire pour les tudiants qui ont t touchs par la pandmie, en particulier les communauts dtudiants qui rencontrent des obstacles continus laccs lenseignement postsecondaire qui ont t exacerbs par la pandmie. stratgies de soutien la reprise scolaire des tudiants touchs par la pandmie qui permettent ltudiant dobtenir des crdits postsecondaires. des programmes danne de transition, des passerelles et des parcours de transfert avec dautres tablissements, afin daider les tudiants touchs par la pandmie commencer leurs tudes et faire la transition vers les programmes de leur choix. les propositions qui permettent aux tudiants de transfrer vers plusieurs programmes dans plus dun tablissement postsecondaire seront privilgies. admissibilit les tablissements postsecondaires de lontario bnficiant dun financement public (collges, universits et tablissements autochtones) peuvent prsenter une demande. les demandes peuvent provenir dtablissements individuels ou dinitiatives de collaboration. funding available prsentez votre demande au projet de transparence des transferts du caton avant le 23 janvier 2023 pour la premire cohorte de financement. les subventions slvent gnralement entre 10 000 $ et 100 000 $. des subventions plus importantes peuvent tre envisages en fonction de la porte du projet. prsenter une demande pour consulter les lignes directrices sur le budget des projets, cliquez ici. oncat is funded by the government of ontario

project snapshot developing pathways for indigenous language revitalizationin ogwehoweh languages type: pathway development project number: 2020-26 or p2026 project lead: six nations polytechnic collaborators: mcmaster university, trent university, university of waterloo, western university, wilfrid laurier university, york university project summary in 2015 the truth and reconciliation commission of canada published its final report, which contained 94 calls to action recommendations for spurring movement toward healing the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in canada. the sixteenth call to action was for post-secondary institutions to create university and college degree and diploma programs in aboriginal languages. although several ontario universities offer language courses as part of baccalaureate studies, six nations polytechnic (snp) is the first postsecondary institute to establish an indigenous language university degree: the bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages (baol). the baol seeks to further the development of ogwehoweh cultural understanding within an ogwehoweh language context. taught in-person at six nations polytechnics campus in ohsweken, this fully accredited three-year undergraduate degree focuses on mohawk or cayuga language and is organized into four streams: language, grammar, lifelong learning, and community engagement. as other institutions within the province are building their indigenous studies and indigenous studiesadjacent programs to better integrate indigenous languages, there is limited capacity to offer advanced-level hodinohs:ni languages courses further demonstrating the need to create language speakers. research shows that when indigenous language programming is introduced, those courses are regularly highly subscribed, indicating a prevalent student demand. this project proposes to develop pathways between snps bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages and other indigenous studies postsecondary programs for language promotion, student mobility, and building relationships according to the dish with one spoon. the benefits to students go much deeper than simply increased educational mobility for indigenous learners, particularly. at the institutional level, this project will help universities across ontario more meaningfully address the sixteenth call to action of the canadian trc. there are no formal pathways in place or necessary for students interested in transferring from an indigenous studies program at an ontario university into the bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages at six nations polytechnic. at the moment snp does have a generalized letter of permission policy for visiting students interested in taking languages courses. six nations polytechnic is interested in moving beyond the simple availability and generic nature of the policy to (a) raise awareness of the available language and in-language programming, and how it both complements outside degree programs and supports the academic, professional, and cultural needs of indigenous learners in those programs; and (b) forge clearer, specific pathway agreements with individual universities involved in the delivery of indigenous studies curriculum, and especially those whose programs include indigenous languages and/or a focus on hodinohs:ni' peoples. project rationale in 2017, indigenous institutes (iis) were recognized as the third pillar of education in ontario under provincial legislation. this legislation also gave iis the ability to offer accredited certificates, diplomas, and degrees. however, there is still a lack of under within within the secondary education sector about this ability. snp has offered their bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages (baol) since 2016 and has come across challenges in student mobility due tot he lack of understanding that our students hold an accredited degree reviewed by peqab and the ministry. our goal was to communicate our position to as many as possible within the ontario pse landscape and offer our language programming on a letter of permission with the goal of more students learning and speaking indigenous languages thus contributing to their revitalization. main collaborators the main collaborators have included the indigenous studies departments where possible and language departments. the main contacts of each have been the university unit and registrar's office at snp, adrianne lickers (mcmaster university), bonita lawrence & susan dion (york university), skahendowaneh swamp & david newhouse (trent university), daniel bratton (university of waterloo), christy bressette (western university), and heidi northwood (laurier brantford). outcomes 1. enhanced understanding of the indigenous institutes sector among ontario universities. 2. initiated new relationships and expanded collaborative works between snp and partner universities, which can provide a foundation for additional pilot projects in support of student mobility into and out of the indigenous institutes sector. 3. opened letter of permission pathways to and from snp key steps the first step was formulating an invitation to meet as well as marketable materials. following an acceptance to engage in this project, the unit manager - university and registrar of snp met with chairs of indigenous studies departments and their faculty to discuss the project and ways in which they can promote language revitalization in their own institute. naturally we discussed the indigenous institutes act, 2017 the role of the third pillar and the letter of permission pathway to and from our institute to theirs. pathways created we have created more accessible letter of permission pathways for snp students and students of other institutes. for example, york university, lead by susan dion, is implementing a new strategy to their letter of permission process to make it more user-friendly. incomplete pathways we hope to explore partnerships with nearby universities (e.g., mcmaster university and laurier brantford) that offer language programming as part of their program of study which will allow students to take language courses beyond just the beginner language classes. challenges the challenge of this project has been the need and demand for sectoral awareness about indigenous institutes (ii) from those in a position of power and authority, such as the ministry of colleges and universities to senior leadership at colleges and universities. this is work to be taken up by these governing bodies due to the already existing drain on human resources within the indigenous institutes in addition to the cultural biases that exist within the sector around education credentials from an ii that can only be effectively changed by mandates. this work requires challenging a systemic problem within the postsecondary education sector. in general, there is a lack of understanding about the indigenous institutes act of 2017 and what that means for post-secondary; that iis are the third pillar and therefore require recognition for the iis and their learners. student benefits students at snp as well as at other universities will benefit from established and clearly identified transfer agreements and pathways between the enumerated university-based indigenous studies programs (above) and snps baol programming. other important benefits include: improved access to immersive indigenous language and in-language/language-adjacent programming for indigenous studies students at identified universities. clearer relationships and pathways between snp, as an ii-sector institute, and mainstream universities, which will aid not only non-ii students through their access to baol programming at snp, but also snp students who may benefit from clearer relationships between the ii and university sector moving forward. increased student-body diversity through heightened visiting student presence will benefit both the classroom environment/learning experience and the informal and formal connections students forge with their peers. increased parity between indigenous and mainstream institutions in terms of credit transfer pathways, from which indigenous learners (as well as their non-indigenous peers) will benefit from added educational mobility and a lowering of barriers to indigenous student success. student credential this project has made the letter of permission process much easier and more tangible for institutes we've had discussions with. student time savings there is no expected time savings from this project as no transfer articulation agreement has been made due to the unique nature of our baol and other indigenous studies programs in their current states. we hope this will be made possible in the future. student financial savings at york university, under the supervision of susan dion, they have created a more user0friendly letter of permission for students wishing to take an indigenous languages outside of what is offered regularly at the institute. in addition to these more accessible pathway, they have proposed that the institute will fund this course for students. student flexibility the major result of the project was creating more user-friendly practices in institutions. this was quite challenging as many institutes risk tuition revenue from the lop courses. student work alignment this project provides students the opportunity to learn within an indigenous community immersed in indigenous pedagogy which is beneficial to all learners. from this experience, students gain a better sense of self and their own learning styles enabling them to be even more successful in their future studies. institutional outcomes initiated new relationships and expanded collaborative works between snp and partner universities, which can provide a foundation for additional pilot projects in support of student mobility into and out of the indigenous institutes sector. enhanced understanding of the indigenous institutes sector among ontario universities. sector or system implications the major finding of this project has been the need and demand for sectoral awareness about indigenous institutes (ii) from those in a position of power and authority, such as the ministry of colleges and universities to senior leadership at colleges and universities. this is work to be taken up by these governing bodies due to the already existing drain on human resources within the indigenous institutes in addition to the cultural biases that exist within the sector around education credentials from an ii that can only be effectively changed by mandates. this work requires challenging a systemic problem within the postsecondary education sector. in general, there is a lack of understanding about the indigenous institutes act of 2017 and what that means for post-secondary; that iis are the third pillar and therefore require recognition for the iis and their learners. surprisingly, there is also a lack of understanding about letters of permission and credit transfer in general at other universities. tips/advice assign a dedicated lead to these projects that can be 100% present throughout the duration of the project as they are labour intensive in terms of meetings. i say this because we had the project switch hands a couple times and it was difficult to pick up where things left off. tools and resources after reviewing the current curriculum in snp's baol program, we developed a roster of courses that would be available to students on an lop. these courses were selected for suitability to the partner institutes program of study within the indigenous studies program where possible.

oncat project 2017-32 identifying historic variables of success for engineering transfer students final report march 15th, 2019 1 participants participating institution lakehead university project team chetan mendhe, graduate student, department of computer science chris gibb, graduate student, department of computer science dr. david barnett, interim provost and vice-president (academic) elizabeth stafford, associate vice-provost (institutional planning and analysis) emily brooks, project coordinator, institutional planning and analysis fahad wali, graduate student, department of computer science heather moynihan, academic manager, faculty of engineering dr. heather murchison, vice-provost (institutional planning and analysis) laura parker, administrative assistant, faculty of engineering sarah browne, senior researcher, institutional planning and analysis sarah prouty, research analyst & project manager, institutional planning and analysis dr. tony gillies, acting dean, faculty of engineering dr. vijay mago, associate professor, department of computer science special thanks to the ontario commission on articulation and transfer (oncat) for funding this project. 2 executive summary lakehead university occupies a unique position with respect to transfer programs for engineering students within the province of ontario. for more than 50 years, lakehead has been offering both engineering diploma and degree credentials, the latter designed purposefully to integrate diploma graduates in block transfer programming. a diploma in engineering technology was first offered at the lakehead college of arts, science and technology in 1957. in the late 1960s, a unique degree credential was introduced that built directly on this foundation. remaining true to its roots of vocation-based technical engineering, the post-diploma engineering transfer program is one of the longest standing block transfer pathways in ontario in any discipline. student enrolment in the transfer program has averaged over 500 students a year for the last five years. the number of students and the age of the program has resulted in a rich legacy of data that can guide the development of best practices as we move into an era of greater student mobility informed by student and societal expectations. new analytical techniques that are designed to deal with big data sets and are capable of merging qualitative and quantitative information such as structural equation modelling and machine learning algorithms, including self organizing mapping, provide powerful tools to help us identify key indicators of trends relating to transfer, variables in transfer student success and overarching themes in relation to post-secondary student mobility. while the overarching goal of this project was to identify variables of success for block transfer students in lakehead universitys engineering program, in gathering and analyzing over ten years of historic data that included multiple variables at various stages of the students participation in the engineering transfer program at lakehead, the project team also identified opportunities and lessons learned to inform ongoing data collection and analysis related to transfer students at lakehead university and more broadly throughout the ontario system. 3 table of contents participants.................................................................................................................................... 2 participating institution ................................................................................................................ 2 project team ............................................................................................................................... 2 executive summary ...................................................................................................................... 3 table of contents.......................................................................................................................... 4 introduction ................................................................................................................................... 6 literature review .......................................................................................................................... 7 defining success ........................................................................................................................ 7 foundational theories ............................................................................................................ 7 new directions ........................................................................................................................ 8 measuring success..................................................................................................................... 9 entering variables................................................................................................................. 10 enrolled variables ................................................................................................................. 11 exiting variables ................................................................................................................... 13 conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 13 environmental scan ................................................................................................................... 13 variables identified in environmental scan .............................................................................. 14 research methodology .............................................................................................................. 17 example of path analysis ..................................................................................................... 17 example of confirmatory factor analysis ............................................................................ 18 hypotheses ............................................................................................................................... 18 structural equation model developed based on above hypotheses.................................... 19 results ......................................................................................................................................... 19 hypothesis 1 ............................................................................................................................. 19 descriptive statistics ............................................................................................................. 20 confirmatory factor analysis ............................................................................................... 20 hypothesis 2 ............................................................................................................................. 21 descriptive statistics ............................................................................................................. 22 path analysis ........................................................................................................................ 22 hypothesis 3 ............................................................................................................................. 24 descriptive statistics ............................................................................................................. 24 path analysis ........................................................................................................................ 24 hypothesis 4 ............................................................................................................................. 26 descriptive statistics ............................................................................................................. 26 path analysis ........................................................................................................................ 26 hypothesis 5 ............................................................................................................................. 28 descriptive statistics ............................................................................................................. 28 4 path analysis ........................................................................................................................ 29 hypothesis 6 ............................................................................................................................. 30 descriptive statistics ............................................................................................................. 30 path analysis ........................................................................................................................ 30 predictive model using machine learning algorithms............................................................ 32 future directions ........................................................................................................................ 33 bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 34 5 introduction in 2012, lakehead was tied with ryerson as having the largest proportion of ontario transfer students compared to their share of the ontario system full time students 1. transfer students are often divided into multiple groups, such as block transfer, advanced standing, and other transfer groupings. students who are considered block transfer students receive advance standing for a grouped set of courses at the receiving institution based on their established equivalence at the sending institution. this allows them to enter a new institution at an advanced level 2. while lakehead university has multiple programs which classify as block transfer pathways, the longest standing program with the highest enrolment is lakeheads post-diploma engineering transfer program which has seen nearly 300 new students enroll in recent cohorts3. block transfer students enrolled in the engineering transfer program at lakehead experience higher retention and graduation rates than transfer students in other programs4. lakehead has also found that transfer students enrolled in the engineering transfer program experience higher retention and graduation rates than direct entry students, and achieved higher average grade point averages (gpas) than direct entry students 5. while the success of lakehead universitys engineering transfer program is clear, the factors that determine student success in the program have not been empirically proven. this project sought to identify variables of success for transfer students in lakeheads engineering transfer program, with the goal of helping to inform factors that may contribute to the success of transfer students in other programs at lakehead university, while also informing variables for success for transfer students more broadly. while the overarching goal of this project was to identify variables of student success for block transfer students in lakehead universitys engineering programs, it was accomplished through a series of steps as outlined below: retrieving, organizing and defining all historical and current data sets related to engineering block transfer students at lakehead university that are available and can be made functional, resulting in a longitudinal dataset. defining variables contributing to student success and student risk through a review of literature, the project data set and past oncat funded projects. analyzing the amalgamated data set with a focus on identifying trends in variables related to transfer student success and overarching themes in the evolution of student mobility in ontario. disseminating results and findings within lakehead university and project stakeholders (oncat) to inform future studies on predictors of student success, particularly in relation to stem-based block transfer pathways. contributing best practices to the current and evolving body of knowledge on student mobility, especially in those areas supported by oncat funded initiatives. 1 lakehead university, office of institutional analysis. student success after transfer from college to lakehead university. 2012. 2 ontransfer. "ontransfer.ca: glossary". https://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php?page=glossary retrieved july 17th, 2017. 3 lakehead university, faculty of engineering. engineering newsletter. https://www.lakeheadu.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/91/jan%202017%20newsletter.pdf retrieved july 19th, 2017. 4 lakehead university, office of institutional analysis. student success after transfer from college to lakehead university. 2012. 5 lakehead university, office of institutional analysis. student success after transfer from college to lakehead university. 2012. 6 literature review the first step in this process was to conduct a literature review to identify success and related variables to inform data collection and related analysis. defining success foundational theories numerous theorists over the years have developed their works attempting to address the definition of student success. some of the most influential theories are those by astin 6 and tinto7. milem & berger describe the distinction between these two pivotal theorists as essentially the difference between psychological and behavioural variables. they cite astins theory as being behavioural, defining involvement as the amount of energy, physical and psychological, that a student commits to their academic experience. this leads to persistence of students being related to the level and quality of interactions they have with peers, staff, and faculty. they summarize tintos theory as expanding on involvement to include how involvement is related to learning. it is not enough to simply be involved, a students involvement must enhance their learning. according to tinto, a student who is learning is more likely to persist. this adds a perceptual or psychological level to the concept of involvement. tinto described a student as becoming integrated after they complete the navigation of a set of stages: separation, transition, and incorporation. separation requires the student to dissociate to some degree from the norms of their past communities. transition occurs after separation and entails the shift between the separation from old norms and adoption of new norms. incorporation happens when the student adopts the new norms and behaviours of their academic community. this has resulted in a number of factors that influence a students decision to leave the institution, such as academic difficulty, adjustment problems, lack of clear academic and career goals, uncertainty, lack of commitment to a goal or institution, poor integration with the college community, incongruence, and isolation. conversely, retention is influenced by interaction with faculty and staff and institutional and goal commitment. retention can be understood in terms of a student's integration into the social and academic environment of an institution. the more connected a student is to the social and academic fabric of a campus, the more likely he or she is to persist in college. the importance of integration and involvement in academics and life outside the classroom is shared by multiple theories of student involvement and success. however, while these theories have been largely influential, they are not without criticism. milem and berger conducted a study that attempted to integrate the perceptual and behavioural measures often used in previous studies and found that involvement was the best predictor of later involvement and that those students who were not engaged early on tended to remain not engaged over time. their results led them to the conclusion that academic integration did not predict institutional commitment, which had little variation and tended to remain steady over time, or the students intent to re-enroll. only social integration predicted 6 astin, alexander w. "student involvement: a developmental theory for higher education." journal of college student personnel 25, no. 4 (1984): 297-308. 7 tinto, v. (1993) leaving college: rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition research (2nd ed.) chicago: university of chicago. 7 both institutional commitment and intent re-enroll. following their combined theoretical model, academic integration should have also predicted these outcomes8. other researchers have made some important criticisms of astin and tintos theoretical models that may elucidate these findings. hurtado and carter 9 criticize tintos theoretical assumptions, particularly as they are applied to students from diverse backgrounds. they note that social integration will be different for students from diverse backgrounds and challenge tintos requirement of a separation from previous ties. they cite previous research which makes this presupposition contradictory; peer groups can form in response to shared recognition of a problem to be solved. this implies that peer groups can form in contrast with conformity to the dominant culture of the institution. therefore, a student can become integrated with their peers without completely setting aside their values for those of the institutions. they note that researchers attempting to measure integration have no clear means to do this and instead measure participation through variables such as effort or time spent in specific activities, perceptual measures, reported behavioural measures, interpersonal relationships, satisfaction with academic and social environments, and objective performance measures. these measures have been shown to correlate with persistence and other desirable outcomes in numerous studies, but are not necessarily evidence of integration as it is purported in tintos theoretical construction. they condense this as tintos theoretical construct of integration lacking a distinction between participation and membership, which can be related but do not have to be. they conclude with the important distinction between attitudinal and behavioural belonging; students can feel they belong in an environment without obvious participation in the environment, or conversely, they can have evidence of participation in an environment without fostering a sense of belonging. this is an important distinction researchers must account for when studying students integration or belonging, and is reminiscent of milem and bergers point that some of the prevalent theories of student success do not adequately account for both perceptual and behavioural components. new directions some more recent theorists have stepped away from testing these foundational theories and attempted to describe different aspects of the transfer experience in order to identify pivotal points that determine transfer students decision to continue or leave their studies. a concept that can reflect both the previous leading theoretical constructs and the more recent shift to focusing on the transfer experience is that of transfer shock. originally, this referred to the decrease in a students gpa immediately following transferring from a college to a university. more recently it has come to refer to not only a shift in gpa but also the cultural adaptation transfer students must acclimate to10. flaga11 described five sequential phases of the transfer experience; learning resources, connecting, familiarity, negotiation, and integration. students progress from learning the available resources and connecting with them, to being familiar with them. finally, they are able to use the resources to help them negotiate problems. 8 milem, jeffrey, f. & berger, joseph b. a modified model of college student persistence: exploring the relationship between astins theory of involvement and tintos theory of student departure. journal of college student development, 11(1997). pp. 387-400. 9 hurtado, sylvia, and deborah faye carter. "effects of college transition and perceptions of the campus racial climate on latino college students' sense of belonging." sociology of education (1997): 324-345 10 gerhardt, kris, and michael ackerman. "postsecondary student mobility from college to university: student expectations and experience." college quarterly 17, no. 1 (2014): n1. 11 flaga, catherine t. "the process of transition for community college transfer students." community college journal of research and practice 30, no. 1 (2006): 3-19. 8 eventually, they may experience integration where they feel as though they are a part of their post-secondary institution. other theories have similarly tried to account for the gap between perceptual and behavioural components, often with the concept of student engagement. kuh 12 defines student engagement as the time and effort students devote to activities that are empirically linked to desired outcomes of college and what institutions do to encourage students to participate in these activities. theories of engagement helped to formulate the national survey of student engagement (nsse) measures. outcomes in research have included cognitive development, psychosocial development, self-esteem, and locus of control, moral and ethical development and persistence, student-faculty contact, active learning, prompt feedback, time on task, high expectations, respect for diverse learning styles, and cooperation among students. engagement also can be related to how the institution allocates its resources and arranges its curricula, other learning opportunities, and support services to encourage students to participate in activities positively associated with persistence, satisfactions, learning, and graduation. nsse benchmarks include academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experiences, and supportive campus environment. another important concept in engagement research is high-impact activities, such as first-year seminars, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, common intellectual experiences, service learning, diversity experiences, student-faculty research, study abroad, internships and other field placements, and senior capstone experiences. learning community students interacted more with faculty and diverse peers, studied more, and engaged more frequently in higher order mental activities such as synthesizing material and analyzing problems; they report higher levels of academic challenge and contact with faculty when instructors create assignments that require students integrate across the multiple courses associated with the learning community. engagement has been a more recent foundational theory that has shaped student success research. henderson 13 argues for engagement as success by suggesting that engagement outside the classroom can lead to engagement in the classroom, especially if tied to aha moments that connect co-curricular to classroom learning. facilitating these moments and ensuring achievements are officially recognized encourages engagement. attrition has often been cited as being for a variety of academic, financial, or personal reasons and this can be considered placeholders for a students perception they are not getting enough value for the time, money, and effort they are investing. thus, institutions can build value to encourage student to stay by implementing assessable learning outcomes into the co-curriculum. while many of these theoretical approached have explanatory value, ultimately translating a theoretical approach into measurable outcomes can be challenging. measuring success when measuring success, studies often assess behavioural or attitudinal variables. behavioural variables are used more frequently as they are often available within the student information system. attitudinal variables usually require survey methods, which are costly, time consuming, and often hard to generalize. using available data for attitudinal variable proxies requires assumptions to be made. for example, students engaged with support services could been seen as less academically prepared, or more academically committed. further, to measure student characteristics, specific time frames of interest must be identified. some 12 kuh, george d. "what student affairs professionals need to know about student engagement." journal of college student development 50, no. 6 (2009): 683-706. 13 henderson, stanley e. "sem and the student journey: the role of strategic enrollment management in student engagement." strategic enrollment management quarterly 4, no. 4 (2017): 144-155. 9 demographic characteristics, and certainly a number of academic characteristics, can change through the duration of time the student is engaged with the institution. therefore, it can be helpful to categorize variables of interest according to time periods of interest. entering variables some studies suggest students motivations must be considered in order to define success. for some students, graduating is not the goal. henderson 14 found motivational and demographic differences between four applicant groupings; college applicants who aspired to university after college, college applicants who did not aspire to university after college, university applicants with previous college credential, and university applicants with no previous post-secondary experience. they found distinct differences between these groups. college to university transfer students have a relatively larger proportion of traditionally underrepresented groups compared to those entering university from high school, were less likely to have a high school academic average of 85%+ and were less likely to have taken university prep courses in high school. non-aspirants and transfers were more likely to cite proximity of institution as a deciding factor. shook, norman, & guyatt 15 found related demographic differences. they found a major cultural difference for transfer students was the proportion of students who are able to work as many hours and still do well academically shifts from college to university. this is doubly impacted by the increased financial burden of university level studies. a higher proportion of transfer students receive osap and a lower proportion (42%) had a parent who had attended university. 82% said they entered their college program with the intention of transferring to university. kuh 16 notes that precollege characteristics such as act and sat scores are strong predictors of first-year grades and persistence; however, once college experiences are taken into account, such as living on campus, enrollment status, working off campus, and so forth, the effects of precollege characteristics and experiences diminish considerably. the college experiences that matter most to the desired outcomes are those that engage students at high levels of educationally purposeful activities. the students at greatest risk of leaving college sometimes after the second year are almost identical in terms of demographic characteristics to those who leave before that point. singell and waddell17 found this to be the case as well; high school grades lost a lot of their predictive power once college grades were available, and students who were identified to be at risk early on typically continued to be at risk throughout their time at the institution. this may be due partially to immovable demographic characteristics, such as those found by finnie and qui 18 to be related to success; age, gender, and family background. while these variables may change as a 14 mccloy, ursula. "from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students." (2017). 15 shook, cheryl, curtis norman, and jennifer guyatt. assessing determinants of academic success for college to university transfer in the diploma to degree program, woodsworth college, faculty of arts and science, university of toronto. (2016). 16 kuh, george d. "what student affairs professionals need to know about student engagement." journal of college student development 50, no. 6 (2009): 683-706. 17 singell, larry d., and glen r. waddell. modeling retention at a large public university: can at-risk students be identified early enough to treat? research in higher education 51 no. 6 (2010): 54672. doi:10.1007/s11162-010-9170-7. 18 finnie, r., and h.t. qiu. 2008. is the glass (or classroom) half-empty or nearly full? new evidence on persistence in post-secondary education in canada. in who goes? who stays? what matters? access and persisting in post-secondary education in canada. eds. r. finnie, r.e. mueller, a. sweetman, and a. usher. montreal and kingston: mcgill-queens university press 10 student progresses through their program of study, multiple studies have evidenced that entering variables are related to student success, especially in their first year. further entering variables that are important predictors of success have to do with the students experience entering the institution. this can include the actual application process, course enrolment, and other logistics of becoming a student. a particularly important component of this for transfer students is how their transfer credits are handled. monaghan & attewell19 carefully matched groups of transfer students to direct 4-year institution entrants and found an overall difference in ba attainment rate of 17 percentage points. the risk was highest for those transfer students who had less of their credits recognized by the receiving institution: nearly 14% of transfers essentially started anew. those who had all of their credits transferred were 2.5x more likely to graduate than those who had less than half of their credits transferred while those who had between 50% and 89% of their credits transferred had 74% higher odds. this echoes results in the best practices in bridging 20 study in which student interviews revealed that nonspecified transfer credits impeded their academic mobility, as well results from douglas & attewell21 who demonstrated avoiding remedial coursework improved retention likelihood. here, an aspect of entering the institution, such as transfer credits awarded, clearly influence the students experience as they are enrolled in the institution. enrolled variables once a student is enrolled, a number of new factors begin to influence their decision to remain in their program of study. some of these variables include their academic characteristics, but what resources they use to help them academically and the social supports they have are also important. transfers students were found to be more likely to use financial aid and personal counseling while those with no previous post-secondary experience (pse) were more like to use recreation facilities and orientation programs22. the best practices in bridging study23, conducted at lakehead university in 2016, echoed that transfer students are more likely to turn to faculty, friends, and alumni as primary sources of information and support. transfer students are more likely to participate in classroom discussions and more likely to discuss their assignments or grades with instructors, discuss ideas and career plans with faculty members; those with no previous pse were more likely to participate in on-campus community service or volunteer activities, student clubs or special interest groups, attend campus cultural events24. monaghan & attewell25 interviewed transfer students at different points in their journey through transfer and found that academic challenge and connection is fundamental to transfer student engagement. transfer students are more likely to have other obligations that keep them away from campus, and are more likely to see social gatherings as an unnecessary distraction. 19 monaghan, d. b., & attewell, p. the community college route to the bachelor's degree. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 37 no. 1, (2015): 70-91. 20 lakehead university, "transitioning to university: best practices for college transfer bridging courses final report". (2016). 21 douglas, daniel, and paul attewell. "the bridge and the troll underneath: summer bridge programs and degree completion." american journal of education 121, no. 1 (2014): 87-109. 22 mccloy, ursula. "from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students." (2017). 23 lakehead university, "transitioning to university: best practices for college transfer bridging courses final report". (2016). 24 mccloy, ursula. "from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students." (2017). 25 monaghan, d. b., & attewell, p. the community college route to the bachelor's degree. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 37, no. 1 (2015), 70-91 11 students who felt academically engaged felt socially engaged. activities typically conceptualized as engagement by those who study transfer students, such as attending office hours or asking an instructor additional questions about material were not seen as engagement by transfer students but as normal parts of course taking. they reported feeling high levels of engagement when faculty created opportunities for more meaningful interactions. part-time enrolment was found to be negatively related to engagement. that transfer students define engagement differently makes nsse results suggesting they are less engaged both accurate and irrelevant. singell & waddell 26 found results that support this as well, as transfer students who take heavier course loads in their first term are actually more likely to return the following term. ultimately, transfer students are motivated and engaged by different factors than other types of students. allen, robbins, and casillas 27 studied the effects of academic performance, motivation, and social connectedness on third-year retention, transfer, and drop-out behaviour and found these variables differ for retention and transfer outcomes. academic performance was found to have large effects on likelihood of retention and transfer. academic self-discipline, pre-college academic performance, and pre-college educational development were found to have indirect effects on retention and transfer. finally, college commitment and social connectedness were found to have direct effects on retention. they cite past research displaying that remedial instruction has short and long-term benefits on persistence, that supplemental instruction improves fall-to-fall persistence, and that persistence rates are consistently higher for participants in freshman year experience seminars. finally, they note that academic advising programs appear to influence the likelihood of staying. their results are supported by a metaanalysis and helped to inform the development of the act engage scale. some important things to consider when measuring academic performance have been outlined by other researchers. stewart and martinello 28 note that using gpa change is an inconsistent measure because different institutions have different standards. they suggest instead course withdrawal before completion and academic outcome for those who failed the first term or year of courses. they also used number of credits attempted compared to those completed, gpa over enrolment terms, total number of course withdrawals, and degree attainment by a certain year (3-4 years after enrolment). further, singell and waddell 29 note that gpa should be compared to averages for the specific course where possible, or even the general subject area. delen 30 found fall gpa to be the strongest predictor, followed by earned/registered credit ratio, fall student loan receipt, spring student loan receipt, admission type, and sat scores. the rest of their tested variables were similar in their level of influence until high school gpa, concentration specified, sex, and years after high school, which had very little predictive power. suggestions for inclusion that were not possible in their study include data on students social interactions, students expectations entering to the institution, and students parents financial and educational background. singell, larry d., and glen r. waddell. modeling retention at a large public university: can at-risk students be identified early enough to treat? research in higher education 51, no. 6 (2010): 54672. doi:10.1007/s11162-010-9170-7. 27 allen, jeff, steven b. robbins, alex casillas, and in-sue oh. "third-year college retention and transfer: effects of academic performance, motivation, and social connectedness." research in higher education 49, no. 7 (2008): 647-664. 28 stewart, j., and felice martinello. "transfer students in ontario: how are they faring?" (2012). 29 singell, larry d., and glen r. waddell. modeling retention at a large public university: can at-risk students be identified early enough to treat? research in higher education 51 no. 6 (2010): 54672. doi:10.1007/s11162-010-9170-7. 30 delen, dursun. "predicting student attrition with data mining methods." journal of college student retention: research, theory & practice 13, no. 1 (2011): 17-35 26 12 exiting variables different approaches can be taken to measuring exiting variables of success. for example, graduation rates and time to completion for four-year degrees are typically measured in six- or seven-year increments. this allows for a timeframe of approximately 200% of the time it is expected to take to complete a program 31. in a previous study32, transfer students were compared with upper-year students, as students entering second or third year after beginning university as direct entry students are likely more comparable to transfer students than those entering first year. exiting variables are often program specific, and this extends to transfer programs which have varying entry points, requirements, and expected lengths. conclusion lakehead universitys engineering post-diploma program has a record of producing successful transfer students. the best practices in bridging33 study found through qualitative analysis that students experience summer bridging as inducing transfer shock and that helps them to determine whether they were well suited for the culture of the program. bridging provided time for students to become accustomed to available academic supports, get to know their cohort, and participate in an orientation experience specific to students like them. these students success supports the calls of researchers such as martinello and stewart 34 who assert that transfer students miss out on the support and resource introduction of the first two years at university established through introductory level projects and courses. they assert that supports designed to initiate these upper year students to this culture bridge the gap they face and help to ensure their success. a fortunate challenge of this study will be that the majority of transfer students are ultimately successful. this may mean comparing groups will require not just comparing those who are successful to those who are not, but creating a continuum of success in which to make comparisons. environmental scan following the literature review, a number of variables of interest were identified that the project team wanted to explore further. this list of variables was checked against potential sources of data including lakehead universitys student information system, ouac application data, internal application files, and other relevant campus organizations and administrative offices including student clubs, the student success centre, student awards and financial aid, and the alumni association. through this process, the project team refined the list of variables, based on availability, robustness, and objectivity of the data. the refined list of variables formed the basis of consultation with the faculty of engineering. during the consultation, the faculty identified substantial program requirement changes in 2004, recommending the data set for this initiative focus on 2004 to present. the output of this consultation informed the following table, which outlines variables considered for inclusion in the analyses, the findings regarding their availability for the cohorts of 31 ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities. (2012). graduation rate kpi calculation and reporting for the 2011-12 reporting year. 32 lakehead university, office of institutional analysis. student success after transfer from college to lakehead university. (2012). 33 lakehead university "transitioning to university: best practices for college transfer bridging courses final report". (2016). 34 martinello, felice, and jo stewart. "transfers from college to one ontario university: a four-year outcome study." the canadian journal of higher education 45, no. 1 (2015): 18-36. 13 interest entering between 2004 and 2016, and the decision to either include or exclude the variable in the data set. variables identified in environmental scan entering variables demographic variable of interest decision age include gender include first language include geographic origin include first generation status include indigenous status include marital status include past employment/activities exclude dependents exclude socio-economic status include academic motivation exclude definitions and findings the demographic variables of age, gender, first language, geographic origin, first generation status, indigenous status, and marital status are regularly collected, self-reported variables for which a historical data set was readily available. past employment and activities were considered for inclusion, as ouac application data contains some information on these variables. however, upon reviewing a sample of this data, the variation was determined to be too great to inform meaningful conclusions. the variables of academic motivation and dependents were considered of interest but were not regularly collected. a proxy for socioeconomic status was developed based on the students postal code at time of admission in combination with income data available through statistics canada. entering variables education past variable of interest decision sending institution include sending program include college marks include admission average include time since graduation include institution preference include high school characteristics exclude definitions and findings institutional preference was determined through ouac application data which indicates an applicants first choice and how many institutions the student forwards their application to. the sending institution variables including institution name, sending program, sending marks, and previous credential completion date were combined from a combination of paper transcripts and electronic transcripts received through the standardization of postsecondary education electronic data exchange (speede) server system. working with lakeheads erp professionals, the researchers were able to develop a method for pulling large amounts of speede transcript data from the student information system. the admission average, which is the average mark used as basis for admission, was captured in a mixture of both paper and electronic internal admission files. entering variables education present 14 variable of interest decision required transition courses include entry period include expected time to completion include financial aid status exclude definitions and findings transition courses are determined on a personalized basis depending on the students academic background. these required courses are recorded on paper admission files. lakehead offers two entry periods for this particular transfer program; the summer term and the fall term. due to practical considerations, these entry experiences are different and thus were identified as variables of interest. expected time to completion was calculated dependent on these entry periods, as those who enter in the fall are less likely to finish within the three-year time frame. expected time to completion was determined as 5 years for spring entry students and 6 years for fall entry students. financial aid status was explored as a variable of interest, however the criteria for osap and other award disbursement was found to have changed multiple times during the study period - thus, it was decided this was not an appropriate variable for this historical study. enrolled variables grades variable of interest decision marks in transition courses include marks for major courses include marks for service courses include marks at the basic skills level exclude definitions and findings consultation with the faculty of engineering identified that program requirements dictate different marks for different types of courses. for example, some of the transition required courses only require a passing grade of 50%, while many major courses require a passing grade of 70%. understanding program requirements such as this, which are variable for each program, are an important consideration when using marks data as a measure of success. thus, methods were adjusted to consider marks for transition courses, service or non-major courses, and major courses separately. while marks at the basic skill level, such as exams or projects, were considered of interest, it was determined there was not enough historical consistency to include this data in this study. enrolled variables enrolment characteristics variable of interest decision full or part time status include course repeats include residence status include financial aid/awards exclude support service usage exclude club participation exclude employment exclude satisfaction exclude definitions and findings course enrolment data, including full and part time status, whether a course was taken as a special exam, and whether a course was repeated, was pulled from the student information system and coded with flags. similarly, residence status for each term of enrolment was added to the database. as explained above, financial aid data was determined not to have a level of desired consistency for application to the historical cohorts included in this study. support service usage and club participation were explored as a possible measures of student engagement, however differing levels of data collection in these services and clubs lead to the determination that a fair representation of engagement using these measures 15 could not be considered, especially historically. employment and satisfaction measures are often used from survey data regularly collected, such as nsse and ougs, however, it was determined that sometimes the program specifics could not be determined. in some cases, these outcomes could be determined for engineering students in general, but not engineering transfer students in particular. further, this survey data is often a sample of eligible students, and is collected on rotating cycles, which does not readily correspond to the year by year cohort study in question. enrolled variables program characteristics variable of interest decision program type include co-op participation include academic probation include academic goals exclude academic mobility exclude engagement exclude definitions and findings program type refers to which stream of engineering the student enrolled in, whereas co-op participation was reduced down to whether or not the student ever enrolled in a co-op stream. co-op participation details were explored, but over the historical study period co-op detail data was too variable for inclusion. academic probation was defined based on the student's grades falling below a certain level based on program requirements. academic goals and mobility were considered as variables of interest based on literature, however, this data would require consistent survey collection which does not currently exist. similar to as explain above, engagement measures were not descript enough in terms of program or prevalent enough in terms of historical coverage. exiting variables graduating variable of interest decision time to completion include graduating gpa include graduate level studies exclude nserc awards exclude alumni engagement exclude employment outcomes exclude definitions and findings time to completion was calculated based on allowing students approximately two years over the expected program time to complete the program, based on the standard for reporting graduation rates. this was different for spring and fall entry students as outlined previously. whether or not the student continued on to pursue graduate studies was considered as a success measure, however data was not available for students who chose to continue at another institution, and lakehead had experienced changes in graduate admissions/regulations during the sample period, resulting in the project team excluding graduate level studies and nserc awards from the data set. for similar reasons, specifically changes in methodology during the sample period, employment outcomes and measures of alumni engagement were determined to not be robust enough to apply to the historical cohorts. exiting variables withdrawing variable of interest time spent in program exiting gpa program change alumni engagement decision include include include exclude 16 employment outcomes exclude definitions and findings many variables for exiting students are similar to those for graduating students. in this case, the variables of gpa, the amount of time spent in the program, and whether or not the student changed programs were considered. a student who changed programs either within the faculty of engineering, or who chose to stay at lakehead but to move to a different field of study, and remained enrolled at lakehead for a number of terms should be considered differently than a student who took their summer transition courses, did not achieve required marks, and then left the institution. research methodology data was collected for the variables outlined above by the office of institutional planning and analysis for the period 2004 2016 using a number of sources as referenced above. this data was fully anonymized by the office of institutional planning and analysis prior to analysis, using encrypted identifiers to link data sets. the research team then applied a variety of structural equation modeling (sem) techniques to explore a number of hypotheses related to student success measures on a sample of the dataset. success outcomes were determined to be the latent variables of academic performance and program completion. latent variables are variables that are not directly observed but are implied from other observed variables. the latent variable of academic performance was estimated based on the combination of many directly observable variables, such as the various marks measures described above. the impact of manifest or exogenous variables, such as age and gender, on dependent or latent variables, such as success, is computed using path analysis or confirmatory factor analysis, which are sem techniques which seek to describe the level of relationship between these variables. path analysis deals with models in which all the variables are observed variables, whereas confirmatory factor analysis deals with unobserved variables combined into a higher level, latent variable. example of path analysis in this example path analysis diagram, the directly measured and observed variables of motivation, workplace norms, and supervisor support are used to calculate a measure of work performance. 17 example of confirmatory factor analysis in this example of confirmatory factor analysis, the observed variables of ranking, grades, and employment designation, are used to estimate a measure of overall success, which then can be used in further analyses. hypotheses a number of hypotheses were developed and investigated using structural equation modeling techniques outlined above. six hypotheses, as outlined below, were reported on for the purpose of this final report. these hypotheses sought to describe the demographic and sending institution characteristics which may influence students' academic performance and their program completion. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. do marital status, age, and gender influence academic performance; do marital status, age, and gender influence on-time completion; do immigration status and first language influence grades; does the students sending institution influence on-time completion; does the students college grades predict their university academic performance; does the number of required transition courses effect academic performance. 18 structural equation model developed based on above hypotheses this model figure outlines how the variables collected and included in the database were ultimately used in structural equation modeling. variables relating to each parent's educational levels were combined into a latent variable described as parent's education level. directly measured variables such as age, grades, citizenship, primary language, immigration status, marital status, and aboriginal declaration were combined into a latent variable called students' personal information. the latent variable of academic success was calculated from the measured variables of term grades, cumulative grade point average, and commencement status and date. other enrolment characteristics, including the cohort year, registration status, program details, and amount of time enrolled were combined into the latent variable of students' school information. following structural equation modeling techniques, a predictive model using machine learning algorithms was developed based on the entire dataset. a prediction model was built using machine learning algorithms and is hosted on the amazon web services (aws) machine learning platform. this platform hosts the prediction model, which operates in real-time based on end-user input. the amazon machine learning algorithm learns the weights for the model. the weights represent the likelihood that the patterns that the model is learning reflect true associations in the data. this is arrived at through a multiclass classification algorithm which uses multinomial logistic regression and an optimization technique. the web application is using flask as backend logic layer using python programming language for web applications . results hypothesis 1 hypothesis 1 used a sample of students to determine through confirmatory factor analysis whether age, gender, and marital status were related to academic performance. 19 descriptive statistics characteristics age age bracket 1 (18-20) age bracket 2 (21-25) age bracket 3 (26-50) gender male female marital status married single number of students percentage term grade (mean) 95 793 239 8.42% 70.36% 21.20% 66.59 68.22 68.68 1060 67 94.05% 5.94% 68.23 67.52 69 1058 6.12% 93.87% 71.15 67.98 confirmatory factor analysis 20 the major indicators to accept the model are its standard rmsea (srmr), rmsea, and cfi values which are estimated to be >= 0 and >= 0.90 for a good model fit. another important index is the p value. the overall model is significantly acceptable (p-value = 0.000). the results identified marital status was not a predictor of academic performance. male gender was a predictor of academic performance, however, the sample sizes for male and female gender were largely unequal and suggest caution in interpreting comparisons. for age brackets, the youngest age bracket and highest age bracket were shown to be predictors of higher academic performance. 21 hypothesis 2 in addition to variables used in hypothesis 1, the following variables were added to hypothesis 2, which used path analysis to determine whether the demographic variables of marital status, gender, and age affected on-time degree completion. descriptive statistics characteristics degree completion completed, on-time completed, over-time did not complete first language english french other registration status full-time part-time citizenship canada india china pakistan lebanon other number of students percentage term grade (mean) 882 11 234 78.26% 0.97% 20.76% 69.73 58.68 53.50 899 28 200 70.76% 2.18% 17.71% 68.19 71.72 67.45 1007 120 89.35% 10.64% 68.42 64.99 1030 18 11 7 6 55 91.39% 1.59% 0.97% 0.62% 0.53% 4.88% 68.21 66.83 75.24 67.20 68.97 67.04 path analysis 22 male students emerged as a negative factor in predicting students on-time degree completion variable ( = 0.048, p = 0.000) compared to female students ( = 0.070, p = 0.000). students marital status shows no impact on students on-time completion ( = 0.005, p = 0.092). in conclusion, marital status of the student doesnt show any effect on students on-time degree completion. the greater estimate value of the youngest age bracket of students ( = 0.049, p = 0.000) shows that these students complete their degree on-time as compared to the middle age bracket ( = 0.0080, p = 0.000) and oldest group of students ( = 0.001, p = 0.000). 23 hypothesis 3 in addition to the variables outlined in previous hypotheses, the variable of immigration status was adding to hypothesis 3, which used path analysis to determine whether citizenship, immigration status, and first language influenced student grades. descriptive statistics characteristics immigration status canadian citizen permanent resident student visa number of students 1030 77 20 percentage 91.39% 6.83% 1.77% term grade (mean) 68.21 69.05 67.45 path analysis 24 students who have permanent resident ( = 0.472, p = 0.141) as their immigration status tend to perform better compared to students with canadian ( = 1.040, p = 0.000) and student visa ( = 0.418, p = 0.151). students who have french as their native language ( = 0.079, p = 0.411) outperform the students with english ( = 0.079, p = 0.411) and other ( = 0.742, p = 0.000) as their native language. the results from analyses on citizenship may be skewed because of the sample sizes. as seen above, 91% of the students report canadian citizenship, and only 9% are from different countries. the results indicated that students from india ( = 0.301, p = 0.332), pakistan ( = 0.109, p = 0.838) and other countries ( = 0.032, p = 0.051) had positive and significant effect on students grades. 25 hypothesis 4 hypothesis 4 combined the demographic variables described in previous hypotheses with the sending institution to determine whether the sending institution influences the students on-time completion. descriptive statistics characteristics sending institution institution a institution b institution c institution d institution e institution f institution g institution h institution i institution j institution k institution l institution m institution n other institutions number of students 109 85 82 74 63 64 62 57 53 46 36 31 30 30 308 percentage 9.67% 7.54% 7.27% 6.56% 5.59% 5.67% 5.50% 5.05% 4.70% 4.08% 3.19% 2.75% 2.66% 2.66% 27.32% term grade (mean) 63.77 68.12 69.30 67.21 67.85 68.19 68.48 72.28 71.17 69.83 66.01 66.19 66.19 68.82 68.93 sending institutions were included if the institution in the sample population had sent 30 or more students during the study period. institution names were anonymized prior to analyses. path analysis 26 the students from sending institute n are significantly completing their degree on-time compared to the students from other institutions ( = 0.217, p = 0.000). most other institutions are also positively related to on-time completion, with the exception of institutions f ( = - 0.007, p = 0.137, not significant) and h ( = - 0.015, p = 0.004). students who have english as their native language tend to complete the university degree on-time ( = 0.017, p = 0.000) compared to students whose native language is other ( = 0.003, p = 0.187). students who have french as their first language shows a negative effect on on-time completion ( = - 0.043, p = 0.000), which implies that they either take more time to complete or are not able to complete the degree. 27 hypothesis 5 hypothesis 5 combined the demographic variables described in previous hypotheses with the sending institution to determine whether the sending institution influences the students academic performance. recognizing that the approach to grading students differs by sending institution, for example numerical vs. letter-based scales, sending and receiving grades were scaled for each institution on a 4-point scale, with 4 representing the highest grades at that institution. descriptive statistics institution a b c d e f g h i j k l m n number of students 126 90 104 102 73 64 77 59 55 49 40 39 31 45 percentage 10.007% 7.148% 8.260% 8.101% 5.708% 5.083% 6.116% 4.686% 4.368% 3.891% 3.177% 3.097% 2.462% 3.574% previous grade (m) 3.273 3.273 3.099 3.217 3.062 3.074 3.356 3.459 2.744 3.469 2.909 3.357 3.447 3.283 current grade (m) 2.148 2.148 2.484 2.521 2.500 2.531 2.537 2.836 2.803 2.587 2.337 2.485 2.342 2.427 28 path analysis a student's previous grades were shown to have a positive influence on their current grades from all institutions (p = 0.000). the estimates are highest for institutions l and j, suggesting positive effect of previous grades on current grades is highest in students from these institutions. the estimates are lowest for institutions f and k, suggesting positive effect of previous grades on current grades is lowest in students from these institutions. 29 hypothesis 6 hypothesis 6 combined the demographic variables and the sending institution described in previous hypotheses with the number of required transition courses to determine whether the number of transition courses influences the students academic performance. descriptive statistics characteristics spring entry 5 courses 6 courses 7 courses 8 courses 9 courses 10+ courses fall entry 5 courses 7 courses 8 courses 9 courses 10+ courses number of students percentage term grade (mean) 331 225 264 219 76 17 29.06% 19.75% 23.17% 19.22% 6.67% 1.49% 66.98 69.48 70.18 68.64 65.57 69.10 3 15 13 23 29 3.51% 17.85% 15.17% 27.38% 34.52% 70.00 66.65 67.68 66.78 70.18 path analysis spring entry analyses were done for students who enter in the spring and fall terms separately, as those who enter in the spring are typically assigned an overall lower number of transfer required courses, and the types of courses are typically different. in the above table for spring entry students, the project team found that having five or nine assigned transition required courses positively influenced academic performance, while having any other number of transition required courses negatively influenced academic performance. in the table below, depicting fall entry students, only having ten or more transition required courses negatively influenced academic performance. all other transition required course groupings saw a positive effect in academic performance. 30 fall entry 31 predictive model using machine learning algorithms based on the findings of the sem, the project team developed a predictive model using machine learning algorithms. the predictive model was developed based on the complete dataset, for entering cohorts from 2004 through to 2016. the model allows a user to input options based on the variables in the database and then offers a prediction for completion based on the user entered variables. the above figure demonstrates the predictive model using machine learning algorithms. this model is currently being tested by the faculty of engineering, with the expectation that it will continue to be tested and refined over the coming months, and will inform longer term studies on the accuracy of predictions of success in the program based on actual student outcomes. 32 future directions our study presents a number of exciting opportunities for future research on variables related to transfer student success at lakehead university. first, through the environmental scan, a number of avenues for collection of variables of interest were presented. variables available through survey measures might lend themselves to development of proxy measures, as we used postal codes as a proxy for socio-economic status in this study. using the currently available survey data relating to graduate outcomes and satisfaction measures and applying inferential techniques to fill in gaps might make sense with a larger data set. second, this study led the project team to conclude that it is crucial to develop an understanding of the transfer program you are working with. transfer programs, even those that are long established such as the one studied here, have their own program requirements that often do not fit a prescribed mold. we found that the courses assigned to transfer students, specifically in their first year of study at lakehead, were largely personalized to the student based on a number of variables including sending institution, first diploma/degree program/field of study, and a series of other variables that continue to be refined within the faculty of engineering at lakehead university. understanding a transfer program's intricacies and historical evolution is therefore crucial for properly interpreting data about its students. third, throughout the data collection process, unique challenges were identified with transfer student data, including completeness of records, evolving approaches to data collection and, in some cases, opportunities to collect a more comprehensive data set to inform future longitudinal analyses. developing a method to quickly extract data from the speede transcripts, something that was developed specifically for this study, presents very exciting future potential applications. pursing a longer term solution to extracting data from speede transcripts mitigates the time consuming need to combine data from different sources, which may include paper and electronic transcripts and can help to bridge data consistency and completeness gaps, but also can present practical challenges. further, developing a level of consistency in the sending institutions transcripts would also assist in comparability of marks across institutions, and would be especially helpful in analyzing transcripts from sending institutions that may have changed their marking system part way through a students study period. the current practice, in which institutions use different marking scales makes comparing students from different institutions a time consuming task that requires care and attention to understanding just how each individual institution presents data on their students, and how the receiving method, whether electronic or paper, compares to other sources. implementing consistency in this area would support the ability to develop a more personalized experience tailored to the students needs through the use of predictive models. finally, this study looked at a very specific transfer program at lakehead university with a very specific student population. while the number of sending institutions is fairly large, and there are a number of receiving engineering streams available, findings show our sample is largely comprised of canadian males between the ages of 21 and 25 whose first language is english. therefore, while this study produced many interesting findings that are currently being shared with the faculty of engineering at lakehead university, broader application of the findings of this study to other populations of transfer students would be inappropriate. however, the methods applied throughout this analysis do present an opportunity in expanding this study to other transfer student populations. 33 bibliography allen, jeff, steven b. robbins, alex casillas, and in-sue oh. "third-year college retention and transfer: effects of academic performance, motivation, and social connectedness." research in higher education 49, no. 7 (2008): 647-664. astin, alexander w. "student involvement: a developmental theory for higher education." journal of college student personnel 25, no. 4 (1984): 297-308. confederation college. "measures of student success and student experience following university/college transfers in northwestern ontario: final report." (2012). delen, dursun. "predicting student attrition with data mining methods." journal of college student retention: research, theory & practice 13, no. 1 (2011): 17-35. douglas, daniel, and paul attewell. "the bridge and the troll underneath: summer bridge programs and degree completion." american journal of education 121, no. 1 (2014): 87-109. flaga, catherine t. "the process of transition for community college transfer students." community college journal of research and practice 30, no. 1 (2006): 3-19. finnie, r., and h.t. qiu. 2008. is the glass (or classroom) half-empty or nearly full? new evidence on persistence in post-secondary education in canada. in who goes? who stays? what matters? access and persisting in post-secondary education in canada. eds. r. finnie, r.e. mueller, a. sweetman, and a. usher. montreal and kingston: mcgill-queens university press. gerhardt, kris, and michael ackerman. "postsecondary student mobility from college to university: student expectations and experience." college quarterly 17, no. 1 (2014): n1. henderson, stanley e. "sem and the student journey: the role of strategic enrollment management in student engagement." strategic enrollment management quarterly 4, no. 4 (2017): 144-155. hurtado, sylvia, and deborah faye carter. "effects of college transition and perceptions of the campus racial climate on latino college students' sense of belonging." sociology of education (1997): 324-345. kuh, george d. "what student affairs professionals need to know about student engagement." journal of college student development 50, no. 6 (2009): 683-706. lakehead university, "transitioning to university: best practices for college transfer bridging courses final report". (2016). lakehead university, office of institutional analysis. student success after transfer from college to lakehead university. (2012). lakehead university, faculty of engineering. "engineering newsletter". https://www.lakeheadu.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/91/jan%202017%20newsletter.pdf (2017). 34 martinello, felice, and jo stewart. "transfers from college to one ontario university: a four-year outcome study." the canadian journal of higher education 45, no. 1 (2015): 18-36. mccloy, ursula. "from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students." (2017). milem, jeffrey, f. & berger, joseph b. a modified model of college student persistence: exploring the relationship between astins theory of involvement and tintos theory of student departure. (1997). journal of college student development, 11. pp. 387-400. monaghan, david b., and paul attewell. "the community college route to the bachelors degree." educational evaluation and policy analysis 37, no. 1 (2015): 70-91. ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities. graduation rate kpi calculation and reporting for the 2011-12 reporting year. (2012). ontransfer. "ontransfer.ca: glossary". https://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php?page=glossary shook, cheryl, curtis norman, and jennifer guyatt. 2016. assessing determinants of academic success for college to university transfer in the diploma to degree program, woodsworth college, faculty of arts and science, university of toronto. singell, larry d., and glen r. waddell. modeling retention at a large public university: can at-risk students be identified early enough to treat? research in higher education 51, no. 6 (2010): 54672. doi:10.1007/s11162-010-9170-7. stewart, jo, and felice martinello. 2012. transfer students in ontario: how are they faring? tinto, v. (1993) leaving college: rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition research (2nd ed.) chicago: university of chicago. 35

ontario council on articulation and transfer 180 dundas street w est, suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 tel: (416) 640-6951 fax: (416) 640-6959 www.oncat.ca request for quote it service provider closing date: march 16th 5:00pm (eastern standard time) closing location: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) suite 1902, 180 dundas street west toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by: ontario council on articulation and transfer contact: shauna love communications@oncat.ca operations director 416.640.6951 ext. 302 main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student-facing website: www.ontransfer.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario 1 contents oncat overview........................................................................................................................................... 3 invitation ....................................................................................................................................................... 3 project overview........................................................................................................................................... 3 rfq responsibilities and deliverables .......................................................................................................... 4 cous transitional responsibilities............................................................................................................... 5 it service provider quote requirements ...................................................................................................... 5 communication ............................................................................................................................................. 6 submission process ....................................................................................................................................... 6 evaluation process ........................................................................................................................................ 7 evaluation criteria weighting ....................................................................................................................... 8 timelines & awards....................................................................................................................................... 8 appendix: oncats current it infrastructure & administrative software overview .................................. 9 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 2 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: supporting projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontario's regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; hosting events that brings together credit transfer experts from across the province; and, connecting students to transfer opportunities through ontransfer.ca and stakeholders through our corporate website oncat.ca invitation as oncat continues to work with students and stakeholders, its it environment has evolved to support dozens of projects, organizational communication and administrative needs, relationship management, grant making, human resources and more. oncat invites qualified individuals/ organizations to submit a quote to provide general it services including help desk support, establishing an independent network for file storage, disaster recovery, antivirus, vpn and additional support as outlined in the rfq responsibilities and deliverables section. oncats goal is to ensure the most efficient and secure technology, and support is in place as we transition from our current it provider and expand our reach to stakeholders and improve internal and external operational efficiency. project overview oncat was established in 2011 as a provincial not-for-profit organization and is primarily funded by the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu). as oncat has matured and grown as an organization we require an it infrastructure to ensure operational effectiveness and successful future administrative system integration. oncat is currently completing an evaluation of our it infrastructure and have an immediate need to establish our own network and it capacity. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 3 for general information about oncat, please visit www.oncat.ca. for more information on the student portal, visit www.ontransfer.ca. oncat is currently using mostly up to date software, with good practices for security of the environment across all areas including the network, workstations and servers; however we need to transition from our current it services provider. a recent upgrade of the microsoft office suite has been completed and best practices are deployed for backups, including regular recovery testing. oncats it environment was supported by the council of ontario universities (cou) who are also located at 180 dundas west in toronto. cou will support the transition of it services to the selected it vendor. in 2018, cou hired a third-party consultant to conduct a network vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. moving forward cou will no longer be able to provide it services due to staffing changes. rfq responsibilities and deliverables oncat requires it services for a 6 (six) month period with the possibility to extend to an annual contract.. the main responsibilities of the selected it provider will include: immediate needs: work with the current it service provider (cou) over a 30 day transition period to implement the transfer of it responsibilities and services through the transition: manage admin/user accounts and restrict access to regular accounts per industry standards. troubleshoot any issues with hardware or software. troubleshoot phone system and any anti-virus issues and train staff on best practices. troubleshoot first level network issues and escalate with isp (internet service provider) as needed. setup and troubleshoot any printer issues. setup, maintain and troubleshoot wifi access points issues. coordinate and oversee the installation of cabling. oversee the purchasing and installation of hardware. help install/uninstall software. ensure new access accounts are created for all onboarding staff. train new and existing staff on the new technologies as needed. manage and prepare computers for new staff, including installing necessary standard software like office suite, endpoint protection and directory services. help procure any accessories, software or hardware needed in the future. repair hardware if possible or engage in securing new hardware. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 4 procure and oversee the installation of new internet services (rogers, bell, telus). procure and oversee secure server hosting and vpn services. upcoming needs: provide ongoing recommendations on the procurement of computers from qualified vendors. office 365 for onedrive (files) and to migrate from intermedia emails. support oncat through a full migration to ms office 365. assist oncat with establishing an onsite server for highly confidential files and data. develop additional it protocols as needed. cous transitional responsibilities prior to transitioning to the new it service provider, cou will provide the following support: uninstall antivirus software from desktops and laptops. unjoin all computers from cous network. remove 2 wireless access points from firewall and make standalone. uninstall vpn client. disconnect 2 network cables (internet and network access) from oncat to firewall. remove windows update centralized configuration. migrate shared files to onedrive or other service provider of choice. it service provider quote requirements quotes must at a minimum contain the following: 1. a detailed budget covering immediate and upcoming needs described above. these two quotes should be separate. 2. key contacts. include applicants biographies outlining relevant experiences. include a listing of the staff to be assigned to this project and their respective qualifications, past experience on engagements of this scope including resumes, and their role in those past engagements. 3. qualifications of the respondent to provide the requested services including capability, capacity, similarly complex projects and related experience and client references. confirmation of availability of individuals in proposal. 4. a statement of understanding on any confidential issues for this project and disclosure concerning any perceived or potential conflicts of interest. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 5 5. a description of the outcome monitoring including a list of tools to track progress, to ensure a success it transition. 6. technical definitions if required. communication all communication such as 1) requests for additional information, 2) clarification, directed in writing by email to: communications@oncat.ca all such rfp related inquiries must be received no later than march 16th at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time. oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information of a reasonable nature that may be requested by interested vendors. submission process 1. please review all sections of this rfq carefully and follow all instructions. incomplete submissions will be not be considered. 2. all costs associated with developing or submitting a quote (including an interview) in response to this rfq and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal shall be borne by the it service provider. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. 3. all pricing submitted will be considered fixed unless otherwise indicated herein. 4. all proposals should identify the it service provider proposed team of professionals, including those employed by subcontractors, if any, along with respective areas of expertise and relevant credentials. agencies should also provide a delineation of the portion of the scope of work for which each of these professionals will be responsible. service providers are required to submit one (1) electronic copies of their rfq submission to: communications@oncat.ca please ensure the subject line reads as follows: it service provider: [company name]. oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of march 16th at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfq document become the property of oncat. oncat can decide to not proceed with these activities. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 6 evaluation process the evaluation process will include several stages. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. stage 1 - mandatory requirements proposals will be reviewed for mandatory requirements and general compliance with the submission requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements will be disqualified. stage 2 - rank the evaluation the evaluation committee will evaluate and rank the written proposals, to identify the top-ranked it services provider to be invited to the presentation stage. stage 3 - selection the evaluation committee will complete the evaluation template, rank the proposals and presentations then select the preferred it services provider may be called in for an interview. stage 4 negotiation prior to award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with it service provider. references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. stage 5 - notice of award the successful it service provider will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful it service provider submission will be notified after a final agreement has been executed. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 7 evaluation criteria weighting overall experience of it service provider & demonstrated results our evaluation will include an assessment of your experience as it relates to the requirements within this rfq, evidence of past performance, quality and relevance of past work, references, and related areas 50% budget approach/cost effectiveness effective and efficient delivery of quality services is demonstrated in relation to the budget allocation. the allocation is reasonable and appropriate. 30% qualifications of personnel our evaluation will include an assessment of the qualifications and experience of your managerial team, staff, subcontractors, and related personnel. 20% timelines & awards the work is expected to begin as soon as the award is made. project timelines rfq release date march 9th, 2020 proposal deadline march 16th evaluation march 17th selection and negotiation march 18th notice of award march 19th oncat is funded by the government of ontario 8 appendix: oncats current it infrastructure & administrative software overview oncats staff under 20 employees (full-time, part-time, short-term contract / internships) email provider provided by intermedia. has a 10gb limit per mailbox. email could contain sensitive and private information, and a canadian equivalent service may be preferable. operating system oncat has all monitored systems running a combination of windows 8 and 10. this ensures easy supports and good knowledge sharing. productivity suite oncat is standardized on microsoft office 2016 (18 workstations) with a few office 2010 and 2013. having most users on the same version of office helps troubleshooting and knowledge sharing. windows updates council of ontario universities (cou) monitors desktops and laptops and ensures operating system security and microsoft office patches and are installed in a timely fashion. cou implements best practices for pushing updates to workstations on a timely basis file server cou provides space on a network drive that is accessible to all oncat employees. limited access folders are also available for sensitive financial and hr-related information. off-site access to network files is available via vpn. files on the network drive are backed up 4 times per hour and backup files are also stored off site. a disaster recovery plan is in place using remote servers. once a year, the remote backup site is tested. anti-virus sophos is deployed on all oncat workstations and laptops and is centrally managed by cous server. helpdesk helpdesk software (solarwinds web help desk) is used by cou to track calls and incidents oncat is funded by the government of ontario 9 networking a 1 gbps internet connection is available for cou and oncat. cou has implemented bandwidth usage and monitoring, as well as prioritization for video-conferencing. additionally, cou manages oncats wifi that runs throughout the office using two wireless access points. firewall a firewall (dell sonicwall) with intrusion protection (ips), anti-malware, anti-virus, and more is deployed to secure the oncat and cou networks, deployed on different subnets. sage sage 300cloud is the accounting software used to process the ap, ar, eft, bank & gl. the software is hosted by a third-party (equation technologies). oncat uses the ap module for processing invoices and eft module for remitting payments to the bank. the ar is not used frequently due to the nature of oncats business. the bank module is used to enter bank transactions (which are few) and bank reconciliation while the gl module is used for updating the sub ledgers and monthly entries. oncat purchased three sage licenses but every year oncat pays for the eft update module to sage group and also pays annual hosting fees to equation technologies. payworks payworks is the third-party software we use to process payroll. we have an account rep who is attached to our file and helps us when we encounter issues. oncat only uses pay works for payroll, t4 and roe processing plus statutory deduction remittance. oncat is interested in expanding payworks in 2020 to include absence management. survey monkey teams and mail chimp oncat conducts dozens of surveys annually and uses mail chimp to distribute a quarterly e-newsletter. grants management software - survey monkey apply to foundant oncat has used survey monkey apply and in 2019 is transitioning to a new grant portal, offered through foundant (https://grantmakers.foundant.com). foundant appears to be easier to navigate and will hold organizational contacts and project lead contacts, all documents related to a project (proposal, signed contracts, reports). foundant will replace some of our shared drive filing processes and hard files, as everything will be accessible in the portal. foundant does not currently integrate with sage which was not a requirement of the system. additional administrative software crm is desirable (customer/client/partner relationship management system) to provide efficiencies in maintaining mailing lists, creating campaigns, managing user consent and preferences. individual emails and lists are being managed by different individuals today in various systems (grants, mailchimp, excel). it is difficult to ensure accuracy and time consuming. it would be desirable for all staff to access the crm. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 10 no hr software is currently being utilized with under 20 full-time and contract staff. staff absences and time are currently tracked manually through excel spreadsheets. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 11

executive summary executive summary in this study, we explore the experiences of ontario students who have engaged in reverse transfer, i.e. moving from university-to-college (utc), focusing on their reasons for doing so and their transfer experiences, with particular attention to obstacles they may have encountered in order to address systemic barriers through targeted policy recommendations. data was collected through qualitative interviews with 20 participants who began their post-secondary journey in a university program, but left that program before completing it, and subsequently pursued a college program. our research questions were as follows: what factors led to the decision to reverse transfer? what were participants experiences and perceptions of the reverse transfer process, particularly in regard to any barriers encountered? if barriers were identified (by the participant or in the analysis phase), how might they have been reduced? major findings transfer motivations o it was necessary to separate motivations for leaving university and motivations for entering college in order to fully understand pse journeys. o motivations for leaving university were clustered into three themes: academic struggles, mental/physical health/sen struggles, and future prospects. these were highly interconnected and characterized by difficulties, ranging from mild to severe, coping with university. o despite struggles, participants often spent prolonged periods of time attempting to progress through university before deciding to leave. o motivations for entering college were more practical and straightforward, related to: subject interest, college learning environment, location, and future prospects. o utc transfers are unique in the transfer landscape as they appear to happen only in response to plans going awry; they are never planned. o the pull factors of college only become relevant after the push factors of the participants university experience force them to reevaluate their plans. transfer experiences o on the whole, participants found the process of transferring credits quite simple. o fifteen participants knew before applying to college that transferring credits would be a possibility, four were informed shortly after starting college, and one was not informed until well into his college program. o key sources for information on transfer credits were: online sources (primarily college websites) and college staff (student services, program staff, career services, academic advisors). o steps in the transfer credit process were highly similar among the participants, involving three main steps: 1) filling out a form; 2) arranging a university transcript to be sent to college; and 3) providing course descriptions/syllabi to prove equivalency. o six participants had all transfer credits requests approved, seven had some of their requests approved, four had no requests approved, and three did not apply for any transfer credits. o the most common reason for having a request rejected was that the college course was too specialized, and the university course was not enough of an equivalent. o main transfer facilitators were college websites and college staff. o main transfer obstacles were highly specialized college courses and finding outlines/syllabi from university courses. o participants advice to other potential utc transfer students fell into two main categories: practical advice about the transfer process and more general advice about post-secondary pathways. in particular, they encouraged transferring students to do research, explore options, and not to let biases in favour of university over college hold them back. transfer reflections o overwhelmingly, the participants reflected very positively on their decision to leave university and pursue college. o several participants expressed a wish to have transferred earlier or to have gone to college straight out of high school instead of going to university. o there were some negative or ambivalent reflections about having left university before completing their degrees. these were largely related to a sense of personal failure and/or the negative reactions of others, particularly parents. o personal and external (usually parental) negative reflections were tied to cultural and societal expectations about high achievement and perceptions of university education as superior to college education, hence the language of reverse transfer. o external negative reflections were often tempered over time to varying degrees by relief over participants improved health or state of mind or just doing something and having a direction again. policy recommendations o make transfer credits part of the college (and university) application process, or at least advise any applying student that if they have post-secondary credits, they may be transferrable. o colleges to target utc transfer students with information sessions or packets advising of transfer credit process and make them aware of all support services available, academic and personal, in order to address the struggles that derailed their university studies. o continue to develop universal course database to facilitate transfer credits. o abandon reverse transfer language in favour of something neutral. o make persistence, academic performance, and completion data available to better track pse pathways and the success of utc transfer students through their new programs o more information about post-secondary pathways aimed at high school students, building awareness from the beginning that transfer is an option and may well be a feature of their post-secondary journey.

indigenous studies programs partnership to ladder to wilfrid laurier university and mcmaster universitys indigenous studies bachelor degree programs oncat file 2018-09 participants and contributors co-chair christina perris wilfrid laurier university co-chair david simon lambton college key contributor linda basso mohawk college key contributor vanessa watts mcmaster university figure 1. project team meeting (february 1, 2019) laurier elaine francombe brenda murphy lianne leddy gary warrick mohawk leah hogan richard wiggers elisabeth sykes mcmaster meghan bregar lambton nadine stein jane manning subject matter experts ela smith rick hill mino giizhgad joanne jackson christy bressette 1 contents executive summary ...................................................................................................................................... 3 project purpose and goals ........................................................................................................................... 3 pathway development................................................................................................................................. 4 methodology ................................................................................................................................................ 4 program comparison and analysis.............................................................................................................. 8 implementation process and timelines ..................................................................................................... 16 summary of pathways created ................................................................................................................. 19 promising practices and lessons learned ................................................................................................. 21 financial report.......................................................................................................................................... 21 appendix a course descriptions ............................................................................................................. 22 appendix b mou drafts .......................................................................................................................... 24 appendix c meeting rooms .................................................................................................................... 28 2 executive summary mohawk college and lambton college have worked in collaboration with wilfrid laurier university (wlu) and mcmaster university to develop an indigenous studies stream of their general arts and science/liberal studies diploma programs. the motivation for establishing the indigenous studies stream was to establish 2+2 degree completion pathways to indigenous-focused degree programs. reduction of mobility barriers and seamless transitions will allow students to complete a college diploma and university degree in four years. the learning outcomes and content for the indigenous studies stream was developed in partnership with the program coordinators from mcmaster and wlu to ensure this cohort of college graduates will enter the respective programs with the educational foundation needed to be successful. the content is aligned with the values and principles that are taught in mcmaster and lauriers indigenous studies ba programs. the outcome of this project is the creation of distinct pathways from two college programs into specific degrees at the two universities. in addition to the goal of creating additional opportunities for this cohort of learners, it is the hope that in the future this collaboration will be replicable and scalable by other institutions outside of the current project. at the current time, we have completed new program and curriculum development and a framework for this type of collaborative process. project purpose and goals the overall goal of this project was to establish a beneficial pathway for indigenous and nonindigenous students that would like to pursue college and university education in the discipline of indigenous studies. the pathway is intended to be innovative, collaborative and provide a concrete opportunity for this underserved cohort. the institutions involved in the project were compelled to incorporate indigenous-focused curriculum to increase retention and encourage program completion for indigenous learners. establishing these pathways will create more opportunities for students to pursue university level education and support institutional priorities of diversifying the student populations at wlu and mcmaster. a priority of the project was to engage and consult with the chippewas of kettle and stoney point, walpole island first nation and aamjiwnaang first nation in the sarnia-lambton area, the six nations of 3 the grand river territory and the mississauga of the new credit first nation in hamilton and surrounding area, urban indigenous populations in the hamilton and brantford areas, as well as other south-western ontario first nations communities throughout the duration of the project to ensure that community specific content was at the core of the new indigenous studies curriculum. due to a set of criteria at grand river post secondary education office (grpseo), there is a requirement for students with grand river territory lineage to complete both sets of education (diploma and degree) within a four-year period in order to receive the maximum amount of funding that is available to them. because of this reason, mcmaster and wlu are committed to exploring full credit recognition for the two years of college study that graduates would have completed. in understanding that this pathway would have to function as a 2+2 agreement, it became increasingly important to prioritize the development of a core curriculum which would be applied to each existing diploma. the colleges are committed to increasing and improving indigenous content in their courses, certificate programs and diplomas. after the intensive course development process is complete, they will continue to deliver the indigenous programs and offer the courses as elective credits to students outside of the respective programs. the overall goal of this project is to develop a scalable indigenous studies curriculum that is aligned with the learning outcomes and themes that are present in wlu and mcmasters indigenous studies programs. the framework and collaborative focus of this project is something that all parties involved believe can be applied to other institutions that would like to pursue similar pathway projects. pathway development methodology this pathway project involves several programs, institutions and team members and in order to ensure a successful outcome it was evident that a substantial gap analysis of the college and university programs in question would have to be conducted. wlu and mcmaster agreed to explore full credit recognition for the two years of college study to achieve the 2+2 requirement. with different programs offered at 4 each university, and a core curriculum being developed for the colleges, it was crucial that we conducted an in-depth gap analysis between the programs being offered at each institution, respectively. mcmaster and mohawk had preliminarily determined that four additional courses with sufficient indigenous content would be required to achieve the credit transfer threshold between their institutions. while both the lambton and mohawk programs will map to the same mtcu program standards, a gap analysis of the lambton program study was conducted to ensure alignment with the mcmaster learning outcomes. similarly, a gap analysis of both the lambton and mohawk programs was completed at laurier to determine additional course and indigenous content requirements. this process informed the infusion of indigenous content for existing courses and new course development. for maximum efficiency, the team was divided into subcommittees, which would each focus on specific elements of the project based on their expertise and institution. the subcommittees were as follows: university program assessment, college program development and subject matter experts/truth and reconciliation commission of canada (trc). each subcommittee met regularly via conference call or in person to make progress on their individual elements of the project independently from the greater team meetings. overall success of the project was crucial on each subcommittee working together to meet established project milestones. the meeting schedule and key milestones are as follows: activity project committee selection & meeting schedule participants full project team date february 28, 2018 project team meeting 1 full project team march 2018 outcome defined the project as a team subcommittees were established project plan was organized set project milestone timelines established expectations with external evaluator (rod skinkle, academica group) addressed approval processes for each institution expectations around timelines with community consultation and working with indigenous subject matter experts 5 university subcommittee program coordinators from mcmaster & laurier may 2018 college subcommittee/ subject matter experts jane manning, leah hogan; college partners may 2018 team meeting 2 full project team june 2018 indigenous education council presentations course description/development jane manning and leah hogan present to their respective iecs august 2018 ela smith and rick hill (smes) august september 2018 ba indigenous studies program comparison/gap analysis discussion of key themes to be included in core curriculum discussion around community consultation processes assessment of program progression requirements for each university program; ensuring transfer students would be set up for success discussion of key themes to be included in the core curriculum division of course development to be shared between lambton and mohawk with respective smes establish timeline for project progression updates from each subcommittee positive realization that universities, colleges and community consultation committees had established similar themes for core curriculum and course content discussion on moving forward with course development (approaches, who to engage, next steps, etc.) confirmed target timelines for project progression mohawk and lambton consulted with their iecs in august both mohawk and lambtons iec were very supportive of this pathway and said it was long overdue see appendix a course descriptions for details about the courses created 6 team meeting 3 full project team october 2018 program proposal through curriculum committees/deans advisory laurier november 2018 submission of honours ba indigenous studies through senate academic planning laurier december 2018 team meeting 4 full project team february 2019 proposal through senate laurier march 2019 discussion of the course titles and descriptions for the indigenous studies courses to be offered at the colleges mcmaster presents their memorandum of understanding/articulation agreement document for review laurier presents their major/minor modification document for the faculty of liberal arts curriculum committee meeting iec updates from jane and leah establish plan for next steps in course development and the project in general (marketing, branding, etc.) approval for the 2+2 pathway is blocked at the curriculum committee/deans advisory committee due to requirements in the double-major problem solving and alternate plans are explored laurier establishes the need to create an honours bachelor of arts in indigenous studies this means that indigenous studies will no longer be required to be taken in combination with another major of study laurier revises the major/minor modification document to reflect changes in program requirements for incoming transfer students this meeting was the final group meeting. discussion about the final report took place, final deadlines, and invoicing. the group also discussed creating the draft mous for this pathway and the signing dates. n/a 7 phase 1 of project is completed all institutions involved march 2019 due to the delay/change in the curriculum for lauriers receiving institutions, the overall project will be completed in march 2019, pending senate approval mcmaster has signed memorandum of understanding documents with mohawk and lambton course outlines for indigenous studies courses to be offered at the colleges are complete program comparison and analysis given the scope and calibre of creating a multi-institutional/program pathway involving course development and four institutions, an in-depth program comparison from the receiving programs at mcmaster and wlu was crucial to establishing an effective educational pathway. the university program assessment committee conducted an in-depth analysis of the foundational themes that are present throughout each of their respective programs. vanessa watts (mcmaster) and lianne leddy (wlu) are program coordinators for the indigenous studies programs at each university and had a strong understanding of the courses that each of their programs offered. the university program coordinators met in may 2018 in order to identify the needs and potential gaps with a 2+2 pathway. through looking at the required courses for each program, as well as the elective options, they were able to agree upon the essential areas of focus. it was apparent that the core of the required courses in each indigenous studies program covered the same topics to a similar level of standard, which was a crucial piece to being able to develop a core curriculum for the indigenous studies specialization at the colleges. the program coordinators agreed that current gaps at the college level included courses on media stereotypes, the justice system, indigenous law, indigenous treaties, language-focused programming, experiential or land-based education and indigenous families/child welfare. the program coordinators agreed that lambton and mohawk would need to develop and offer courses in these areas in order to fulfill university program content requirements in the first two years. the coordinators agreed that there would still need to be mandatory courses in level ii at the university level that would need to be taken by incoming students from the 2+2 pathway once they arrive, but that the university curriculum 8 requirements for the indigenous studies programs would not prevent incoming students from entering as level iii students so long as they fulfilled these course requirements prior to level iv. mcmaster and mohawk had an existing agreement for previously established courses that are equivalent to two of the introductory indigenous studies courses at mcmaster. through an examination of the learning outcomes and course content, wlu was also able to recognize these credits as equivalent to the required first year indigenous studies course (id120 - introduction to indigenous studies). in recognizing the need for collaboration, it was agreed upon that the core content of these courses would be shared with lambton. after the university program assessment committee identified the topics for the core curriculum, there was a need to assess the possible progression requirements for this cohort to complete their degrees at the respective institutions. the reason this task was critical was to ensure there was a clear understanding of the courses that would need to be developed at the colleges so a definitive 2+2 agreement could be made. as the result of grpseo funding criteria for students of grand river territory lineage, the pathways had to be developed to accommodate a total of 4 years of education. this provided a strict framework to be within (meaning no bridging summer courses or additional program completion requirements). at the time this work was being completed, the pathway into wlu was still going to be for the honours combination program of indigenous studies and social and environmental justice. throughout the progression of the project, wlu changed the indigenous studies program to be a stand-alone major, instead of needing to be completed in combination with another degree. this development had minor implications on the project. while the university program assessment committee was meeting, the college program development/subject matter expert committees were simultaneously meeting to identify the themes they believed were fundamentally important to be included in the indigenous studies specialization curriculum. please see below for the important highlights from this pivotal meeting: the college subcommittee met at lambton college on may 25, 2018. the team had an amazing brainstorming session (see figure 2 below) about what types of indigenous-focused courses lambton and mohawk college would like to create for this particular pathway project. 9 one key question that was raised by the group was how can we create courses that fit with our partners and what keep with our community values? this question was constantly circled back to when developing and brainstorming the indigenous focused courses between lambton college and mohawk college. figure 2. indigenous focused course ideas brainstorming session (may 25, 2018) the following course ideas that came up during this meeting are listed below: 1) introductory course 2) indigenous and western perspectives 3) connecting indigenous peoples (i.e. medicine wheel) 4) health and wellness 5) language and culture (level ii) 6) media representation 7) legal and historical issues 8) indigenous identity and society the group discussed the importance of these topics, and agreed that they all should be covered in the actual courses that will be developed. the group, at this point, was committed to 10 navigating our different regions and interests in the areas listed above, and what that might look like in the courses developed at both lambton and mohawk. the group discussed the potential schedule for when the courses would be delivered. please see below for what the group came up with at this time: year one year two 1. introductory course (required) 5. language and culture course 2. indigenous and western perspectives 6. media representations course course 3. connecting indigenous peoples 7. legal/historical issues course 8. indigenous identity and society course(medicine wheel concept from mohawk college) 4. health and wellness course it was also important to the group to bring these ideas to the truth and reconciliation commission (trc) council for their input before moving forward with creating the indigenous focused courses. at this time, the next step for mohawk and lambton college was to meet with their respected indigenous education council (iec) to gain their approval and support to continue developing this pathway. community consultation: mohawk college and lambton college met with their indigenous education council (iec) to receive support and approval for this pathway proposal. both iec committees were supportive of this pathway, and both were thrilled that a pathway, with an indigenous focus, was finally being developed for our local communities. mohawk college indigenous education council (iec): the indigenous education council (iec) is a circle of leaders, allies and advocates who influence decision-making at mohawk college by ensuring the voices of indigenous communities and learners are recognized. 11 the iec of mohawk college is a partnership between mohawk college and indigenous communities. members of the indigenous education council commit to providing leadership, establishing and maintaining linkages which promote the sharing of community knowledge, values and cultural and linguistic priorities so as to inform the strategic priorities of mohawk college. the college honours the reciprocity of partnership by ensuring the indigenous organizations and communities that support the iec receive value for their participation and guidance. after the approval from both iecs, the subject matter experts (smes) started working on the indigenous-focused courses. throughout this process, members of the project team placed importance on remember one of our goals how do we support indigenous students who are still learning their culture at the same time as non-indigenous students who will be able to access these courses as well. it was important, throughout the development process, to remember that the curriculum must reflect what our local indigenous communities felt was important to incorporate in the co-developed courses. we wanted to provide our indigenous learners with some level of advancement to take back to their communities once they finish this pathway, and the team believes that the courses developed (with the insightful knowledge of our smes) will do just that. please see below for one course outline has been created for this pathway project: xxx-0003 first nations, metis, and inuit perspective school of health sciences, community services & creative design course number: co-requisites: pre-requisites: prepared by: ela smith, ece,msw,rsw approved by: approval date: approved for academic year: normative hours: 45 hours 12 course description students in this course will examine first nations, metis, and inuit (fnmi) societies pre and post contact. they will also critically analyze the impacts of colonization on fnmi peoples, and explore cultural, political, social, and economic perspectives relevant to this population. in addition, students will critique generational impacts and examine the relevance of legislation such as the, truth and reconciliation commission and the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. course learning objectives and outcomes 1. examine first nations, metis, and inuit societies pre and post contact. 1.1 examine the relevance of language for first nations, metis, and inuit peoples. 1.2 compare and contrast first nations, metis, and inuit cultures pre and post contact. 1.3 define a trauma informed learning environment. 2. analyze the social, political, cultural, and economic impacts of colonization. 2.1 identify the impacts of colonization. 2.2 discuss overrepresentation of indigenous peoples regarding social determinants of health. 2.3 define social, political, cultural, and economic realities in context to fnmi societies. 2.4 explore a wholistic self-evaluation that factors in a trauma lens. 3. discuss the relevant legislation such as truth and reconciliation commission and the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. 3.1 reflect course learning to define personal responsibilities. 3.2 outline advocacy movements and relevant impacts for fnmi peoples. 3.3 predict the impact and future social actions resulting from truth and reconciliation commission calls to action. learning resources required: battiste, m. (2011). reclaiming indigenous voice and vision. vancouver: ubc press 13 open educational resources (oers): adelson, n. (2005). the embodiment of inequity: health disparities in aboriginal canada (commentary). retrieved from http://journal.cpha.ca/index.php/cjph/article/view/1490/1679 honouring the truth, reconciling for the future summary of the final report of the truth and reconciliation commission of canada (pp. 1-536, publication). (2015). truth and reconciliation commission of canada. retrieved from, http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/file/2015/findings/exec_summary_2015_05_31_web_o .pdf reading, c., & wien, f., (2013). health inequalities and social determinants of aboriginal peoples health (pp. 1-36, publication). prince george, b.c.: national collaborating centre for aboriginal peoples health. retrieved from, https://www.ccnsa-nccah.ca/docs/determinants/rpt-healthinequalitiesreading-wien-en.pdf richmond, c., & ross, n., (2009). the determinants of first nation and inuit health: a critical population health approach (pp. 403-411, publication). aboriginal policy research consortium international. retrieved from, https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1200&context=aprci student evaluation assignments: 1. weekly muse, small group facilitation (clo 1, 2, & 3) 2. photovoice (clo 1, 2, & 3) 3. partner interview and critical reflection (clo 1, 2, & 3) 4. wholistic reflection, video/audio presentation, and critical reflection paper (clo 1,2, &3) total 30% 20% 2x10%=20% 30% 100% grade scheme the round off mathematical principle will be used. percentages are converted to letter grades and grade points as follows: 14 mark (%) 94-100 87-93 80-86 77-79 73-76 grade a+ a ab+ b grade point 4.0 3.7 3.5 3.2 3.0 mark (%) 67-69 63-66 60-62 50-59 0-49 grade c+ c cd f grade point 2.3 2.0 1.7 1.0 0.0 prior learning assessment and recognition students who wish to apply for prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) need to demonstrate competency at a post-secondary level in all of the course learning requirements outlined above. evidence of learning achievement for plar candidates includes: portfolio project/assignment college related information academic integrity lambton college is committed to high ethical standards in all academic activities within the college, including research, reporting and learning assessment (e.g. tests, lab reports, essays). the cornerstone of academic integrity and professional reputation is principled conduct. all scholastic and academic activity must be free of all forms of academic dishonesty, including copying, plagiarism and cheating. lambton college will not tolerate any academic dishonesty, a position reflected in lambton college policy. students should be familiar with the students rights and responsibilities policy, located on the mylambton website. the policy states details concerning academic dishonesty and the penalties for dishonesty and unethical conduct. questions regarding this policy, or requests for additional clarification, should be directed to the lambton college centre for academic integrity students with disabilities if you are a student with a disability please identify your needs to the professor and/or the accessibility centre so that support services can be arranged for you. you can do this by making an appointment at the accessibility centre or by arranging a personal interview with the professor to discuss your needs. 15 student rights and responsibility policy acceptable behaviour in class is established by the instructor and is expected of all students. any form of misbehaviour, harassment or violence will not be tolerated. action will be taken as outlined in lambton college policy. date of withdrawal without academic penalty please consult the academic regulations and registrar's published dates. waiver of responsibility every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of this information as of the date of publication. the content may be modified, without notice, as deemed appropriate by the college. students should note policies may differ depending on the location of course offering. please refer to campus location specific policies: lambton college - sarnia campus: https://www.mylambton.ca/policies/ lambton college - non-sarnia study locations: https://www.mylambton.ca/lambton_in_gta/student_policies/ note: it is the students responsibility to retain course outlines for possible future use to support applications for transfer of credit to other educational institutions. _______________________________________________________________________________________ implementation process and timelines the implementation process and timelines vary between each institution. because of the differences in the approval processes, the projects final completion was delayed by approximately 4 weeks. while wlus final pathway approvals will be delayed until march 2019, it will not delay the roll-out for the project as a whole. students wishing to enroll in the general arts & science with indigenous studies specialization will be able to do so by fall 2020. this means that during the fall 2019 recruitment cycle each institution will be able to actively promote the pathways through their internal recruitment processes. 16 the approval process at each institution is listed below: wilfrid laurier university at the current time, the honours indigenous studies program is offered as an honours combination degree only. draft curriculum documents to create a full honours indigenous studies program have been prepared and are attached to this report. these documents will be reviewed by a series of committees, including the faculty of liberal arts curriculum committee, the faculty of liberal arts divisional council, the senate academic planning committee, and the senate, and it is anticipated that this program will be approved by the end of next academic year. effective dates of approvals are still being determined, but planning for 2022/23 honours availability is in process. an articulation agreement between institutions will be signed as well once senate has approved the new version of the program (see appendix b). mcmaster university note: changes to the aboriginal gas program are not subject to approval from the undergraduate curriculum council but are articulated in the memorandum of articulation. therefore, approvals will take place once the mous are signed by all partnering institutions. approval level date indigenous studies program academic subcommittee signing of articulation agreements spring 2018 social sciences undergraduate academic planning and policy committee social sciences faculty council march 2019 march 2019 notes articulation agreements between each institution are signed. may 2019 17 mohawk college approvals for articulation agreements and memorandums of understating (mous) are facilitated by the pathways office using a routing process. an approval form is signed by the associate dean and dean of the academic department prior to the agreement documents being reviewed by the office of general council. successfully reviewed documents are then signed by the vice president academic who has the authority to bind the institution to the agreement. this process takes approximately two weeks to complete. lambton college lambton college uses a community-based approach when soliciting subject matter experts (smes) from the local indigenous communities to work on developing the new indigenous focused courses that will be offered for this pathway. this process began with consultation between our manager, indigenous education and the indigenous education council (iec) where specific course descriptions were presented in order to identify appropriate subject matter experts (smes) who could develop each of these courses. after each indigenous sme was contracted to produce this work, they began collaboratively working along side the curriculum coach who guided their development process. the curriculum coach at lambton college was also in consultation with the mohawk college indigenous curriculum specialist to align the course objectives and incorporate a trauma-informed learning style for each course. nearing 18 the end of this months-long process, the quality assurance specialist was employed to review all materials and ensure the highest standards of pedagogy as it relates to course outline development. this high level of collaboration has resulted in the cohesive delivery of all indigenous course outlines and supporting materials. summary of pathways created the outcome of this pathways project is the creation of a combined total of three pathway agreements. a core curriculum of indigenous studies was developed in collaboration with wilfrid laurier university, mcmaster university, lambton college, mohawk college and subject matter experts, through consultation with the indigenous education councils of each region. the indigenous studies specialization was developed to reflect the foundational themes of the honours bachelor of arts indigenous studies programs at mcmaster and wlu. the pathway will allow graduates of the general arts and sciences with the indigenous studies specialization (mohawk) and liberal studies with the indigenous studies specialization (lambton) to be eligible for entry into the aforementioned university programs, receiving full recognition of the education they completed in their diploma. these 2+2 agreements will allow eligible students to complete their degree in two academic years of full-time study. please see below for more details about the pathway: pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: lambton college or mohawk college to: wilfrid laurier university pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): degree completion pathway mcmaster university and mohawk college march 2019 19 pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: september 2019 chooselaurier@wlu.ca or cchipps@wlu.ca eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): eligible graduates of the 2-year liberal studies with indigenous studies specialization program at lambton college or the general arts and science with indigenous studies specialization program at mohawk college are eligible for this pathway. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: mohawk college: general arts and science with indigenous studies specialization, 2-year diploma lambton college: liberal studies with indigenous studies specialization, 2-year diploma minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: 75% overall average minimum gpa or % required in specific courses minimum 60% in the 4u english equivalent course (any first year communications course) total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving 10.0 of 20.0 credits to be granted institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): 10.0 of 20.0 transfer credits will be granted to incoming students. total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): students must complete 10.0 credits of 20.0 credits (20 of 40 courses) at laurier according to the required courses as outlined in the undergraduate academic calendar. 20 anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs it will take 2 academic years (4 semester) to complete the honours bachelor of arts in indigenous studies program if enrolled in a full-time course load (5 courses per semester). mohawk college: general arts and science 2-year diploma with indigenous studies specialization lambton college: liberal studies 2-year diploma with indigenous studies specialization promising practices and lessons learned this project was a success! while not without challenges at certain points in the process, the success of it was largely due to the collaborative spirit between all institutions and people involved. identifying receiving programs (indigenous studies at mcmaster and wlu) that had closely aligned principles and themes allowed for an efficient, collaborative and agreeable experience in establishing a core curriculum. as with most major initiatives, the project was not without some challenges, the primary one being issues related to staffing. while not entirely understood why, there were approximately six personnel changes throughout the course of the project. with the movement of team members comes a strain with the transfer of knowledge and processes to date. while this was certainly not a detrimental aspect of the project, it did cause some relatively minor discrepancies. financial report the financial for the following project will be handed in as a separate document. 21 appendix a course descriptions (sme rick hill) indigenous connections to the land (indigenous connections to the land) semester 2 critically evaluate the impact of law, colonization, and treaties for both indigenous and canadian citizens. examine a variety of treaties that have influenced society and their resulting conflict of interests as demonstrated within current law. (sme heather maujaury) indigenous peoples evolving media & artistic images (indigenous peoples media & art) semester 2 examine a wide variety of media and artistic sources that have influenced canadian and indigenous societies. analyze the power dynamics influencing canadian society past, present, and future, and critique the respective generational impact on indigenous peoples. (sme rick hill) indigenous wholistic practices (indigenous wholistic practices) semester 1 examine a wholistic view of land based health and wellness as practiced by indigenous peoples past, present, and future. analyze the impact of colonization and associated ethical impacts. define wholistic health and wellness for community, individuals, and society. (this course replaces ab/western perspectives) first nations, metis, and inuit perspectives (first nations, metis, & inuit perspectives) semester 1 examine first nations, metis, and inuit (fnmi) societies' pre and post contact. critically analyze impacts of colonization on first nations, metis, and inuit peoples. explore cultural, political, social, and economic perspectives relevant to fnmi peoples. critique generational impacts and examine the relevance of the truth and reconciliation commission and the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. (this course to replace medicine wheel) the impacts of the truth and reconciliation commission (impacts of the trc) semester 2 examine historical context and content contributing to development and implementation of residential schools in canada. wholistically explore the impact of law, colonization and the resulting cultural genocide in canada. analyze the findings of the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the truth and reconciliation commission and resulting 94 calls to action. (sme mino giizhgad) first nations languages resilience and reclamation (first nations languages) (not sure of order) explore first nations languages traditional to turtle island reflecting on origins, teachings, and storytelling. wholistically examine the colonial impacts and the resilience, resurgence and reclamation of first nation languages. 22 (sme joanne jackson) indigenous families structures & child welfare (indigenous f&c welfare) semester 3 explore indigenous parenting methodologies prior to colonization. examine the historical roots of canadian social work and the resulting impacts of a colonized child welfare system on indigenous families. assess from a trauma informed lens strategies to decolonize current child welfare practices. (sme christy bressette) global citizenship - first nations, metis, & inuit perspectives (global citizen fnmi perspective) semester 4 examine the definition of global citizenship utilizing an fnmi worldview. explore the colonial impacts of globalization on fnmi peoples. compare and contrast relevant legislation detailing human rights of canadian citizens and indigenous peoples. implement an experiential learning opportunity within community demonstrating global citizenship engagement. *sme=subject matter expert 23 appendix b mou draft (laurier) schedule a program agreement between: wilfrid laurier university and college name here this program agreements sets out the details of the academic programs to which the articulation agreement] between the parties applies. 1. purpose of program agreement this program agreement sets out the details for the academic programs and credit transfer arrangements that are part of the articulation agreement between the parties and is a schedule to and forms part of the articulation agreement effective september date between the parties. 2. academic programs and transfer credits the following university degree and college diploma programs are the eligible academic programs for the college diploma to university degree transfer credit pathway for students. 2.1 university honours ba, indigenous studies (the degree program) 24 2.2 college diploma, name here (the diploma programs) 2.3 following successful completion of the college diploma program, eligible students will receive five (10) academic credits (equivalent to twenty 0 .5 credit courses) in transfer credits to be applied toward the laurier degree. list of credits here 3. intake year september 2022 4. eligibility and admission 4.1 students admitted to the degree program will be required to meet the following minimum entry requirements: 4.1.1 students require a minimum gpa of 75% to be admitted to the degree program. 4.1.3 students will apply using ouac.on.ca (ontario universities application centre) undergrad (105) application process for students not currently attending an ontario high school. 4.1.4 students apply to a degree program following successful completion of one of the named diploma programs. 5. tuition and fees 5.1 students will be responsible to cover all applicable tuition and student fees applicable to the university and/or college. 6. term and review 25 6.1 this program agreement shall be effective for the term of the articulation agreement and will be renewed automatically for successive one-year terms unless the parties revise or terminate this program agreement or the articulation agreement. 6.2 the parties will review this program agreement during the first term after completion of three (3) years and will continue to review this program agreement and the application of academic programs at least once every two (2) years. 6.3 this program agreement may be amended as the parties may agree, in writing, to review, delete or add academic programs that will be included within the articulation agreement. the terms of any new or modified courses or academic programs will be set out in an amended program agreement. 6.4 the program agreement may be terminated on the same terms and conditions as set out in the articulation agreement or with not less than twelve (12) months advance written notice. signing page follows 26 in witness whereof the parties hereto have duly executed this agreement under seal as of the day and year first above written. wilfrid laurier university _________________________________________ date: _______________________ name: robert gordon title: provost & vice-president, academic college _________________________________________ date: _______________________ name: ___________________________________ title: _____________________________________ 27 appendix d mou draft (mohawk) lambton college and mohawk college memorandum of understanding for academic cooperation recognition of general education electives for transfer liberal studies / general arts and science diploma purpose the purpose of the memorandum of understanding is to provide students with mobility between the liberal studies diploma program at lambton college and the general arts and science (university transfer) diploma program at mohawk college by fully recognizing specified general education elective courses related to indigenous education. description lambton college and mohawk college, along with mcmaster university and wilfrid laurier university, participated in an oncat funded pathways project entitled indigenous studies programs partnership to ladder to wilfrid laurier university and mcmaster universitys indigenous studies bachelor degree programs (contract/file: 2018-09). the four institutions worked together to create 2+2 degree completion pathways from indigenous-focused college credentials to indigenous-focused university degree programs. reduction of mobility barriers and seamless transition will allow students to complete a college diploma and university degree in four years. 28 eight indigenous-focused general education elective courses (schedule a) were enhanced or developed by the colleges that will be eligible for transfer between the institutions in support of student mobility. terms and conditions 1. the transferable courses involve the liberal studies diploma program at lambton college and the general arts and science (university transfer) diploma program at mohawk college. the courses specified in schedule a have been deemed eligible for exemption by both institutions, providing that minimum grade requirements are met. lambton college mohawk college a minimum grade of c (60%) or passing grade of the mohawk course, whichever is greater. credit transfer policy 2. it is the responsibility of the student to apply for the exemption. students who successfully complete the courses specified in schedule a at either institution may apply for a course exemption at the other institution in accordance with the course exemption process at the receiving institution. lambton college how to apply for transfer credits mohawk college course exemptions this agreement will come into effect on march 1, 2019 for a period of six years, and may be renewed upon mutual agreement. the agreement may be terminated by either partner provided a minimum of two academic years of written notice is provided to the other party. in the event the agreement is terminated, the parties agree that the termination shall not operate so as to affect those students participating in either diploma program, and they have the opportunity to complete it fully. 29 this agreement will be reviewed by the parties after each academic year, no later that august 15th. contacts: lambton contact info richard wiggers associate dean, school of liberal studies mohawk college 905-575-1212 ext. 4537 richard.wiggers@mohawkcollege.ca signatures: name position lambton college paul armstrong vice president, academic mohawk college name position lambton college neil mcmahon dean mohawk college date date 30 indigenous studies programs partnership lambton college and mohawk college schedule of general education electives eligible for transfer schedule a semester 1 indigenous wholistic practices mwhk xxxx lbtn xxxx examine a wholistic view of land based health and wellness as practiced by indigenous peoples past, present, and future. analyze the impact of colonization and associated ethical impacts. define wholistic health and wellness for community, individuals, and society. first nations, metis, and inuit mwhk xxxx lbtn xxxx perspectives examine first nations, metis, and inuit (fnmi) societies' pre and post contact. critically analyze impacts of colonization on first nations, metis, and inuit peoples. explore cultural, political, social, and economic perspectives relevant to fnmi peoples. critique generational impacts and examine the relevance of the truth and reconciliation commission and the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. semester 2 indigenous connections to the mwhk xxxx lbtn xxxx land critically evaluate the impact of law, colonization, and treaties for both indigenous and canadian citizens. examine a variety of treaties that have influenced society and their resulting conflict of interests as demonstrated within current law. indigenous peoples evolving mwhk xxxx lbtn xxxx media & artistic images examine a wide variety of media and artistic sources that have influenced canadian and indigenous societies. analyze the power dynamics influencing canadian society past, present, and future, and critique the respective generational impact on indigenous peoples. the impacts of the truth and mwhk xxxx lbtn xxxx reconciliation commission examine historical context and content contributing to development and implementation of residential schools in canada. wholistically explore the impact of law, colonization and the resulting cultural genocide in canada. analyze the findings of the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the truth and reconciliation commission and resulting 94 calls to action. semester 3 indigenous families structures mwhk xxxx lbtn xxxx & child welfare explore indigenous parenting methodologies prior to colonization. examine the historical roots of canadian social work and the resulting impacts of a colonized child welfare system on indigenous families. assess from a trauma informed lens strategies to decolonize current child welfare practices. 31 semester 4 global citizenship - first mwhk xxxx lbtn xxxx nations, metis, & inuit perspectives examine the definition of global citizenship utilizing an fnmi worldview. explore the colonial impacts of globalization on fnmi peoples. compare and contrast relevant legislation detailing human rights of canadian citizens and indigenous peoples. implement an experiential learning opportunity within community demonstrating global citizenship engagement. tbd first nations languages mwhk xxxx lbtn xxxx resilience and reclamation explore first nations languages traditional to turtle island reflecting on origins, teachings, and storytelling. wholistically examine the colonial impacts and the resilience, resurgence and reclamation of first nation languages. 32 appendix d meeting rooms the first project team meeting took place at lauriers brantford campus. the project team met in the circle room in the research and academic centre east. this room was an amazing meeting space the project team could feel an instant connection and collaboration and innovation between members was obvious. the room is described as a multimedia classroom and community room. this room is used for the following purposes: indigenous studies classes and meetings (i.e. seminars and group work) indigenous faculty meetings for teaching, research, and community engagement aboriginal initiatives on campus and local indigenous community use it was important to the project team that we met in a welcoming and comfortable environment right from the start of the project, and we continued to find meeting places like this one. we wanted to share with our fellow oncat peers that our meeting locations were an integral part to the success of this project. please see the following images below of the circle room: figure 2. the circle room (march 27, 2018) figure 3. the circle room (march 27, 2018) 33

research brief lessons learned from the tdsb-ut linkage and a call for collaborators dr. scott davies, university of toronto dr. roger pizarro milian, oncat september 2020 lessons learned from the tdsb-ut linkage 2 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 last week, we shared a series of findings stemming from an analysis of the tdsb-ut linkage. using this powerful dataset, we were able to explore multiple elements of transfer within the tdsb-ut corridor. most importantly, we were able to do so while using large sample sizes and statistical techniques that account for the mixed academic and demographic characteristics of various types of transfer students. to our knowledge, this is the first use of this sort of k12 school board/university administrative linkage for the study of transfer in ontario. our goal is to build a dataset that allows us to track student mobility within the gta comprehensively. if you are reading this, and are in an educational institution within the gta, consider this an open invitation for you to participate in this data-sharing pilot! our primary learning from this exercise is that transfer students are far from a homogenous group with respect to their early academic performance, demographic profiles, and eventual outcomes. as it pertains to outcomes at ut specifically, we see that there are great disparities in graduation rates across different transfer student types, with those transferring from an ontario community college being particularly disadvantaged. given such insights, we think it is prudent for university administrators across the system to analyze incoming transfer flows carefully, evaluate performance at the granular level, and identify those groups requiring the most assistance. such analyses should allow under-resourced institutions to better allocate funding and resources to ensure the success of those in greatest need. of course, there are important limitations to this work: 1) first, we examine only those students who travel the tdsb-ut corridor. while this provides us with access to rich data from tdsb administrative records, it also limits generalizability. it is plausible that students coming into ut from other school boards perform differently and even in ways that contradict our findings. we cant rule that out. at the same time, we also dont have theoretical or empirical reasons to expect strong and systematic deviation from our observed findings. given the relative parity in the funding and quality of education across publicly funded school boards in ontario, we dont expect school board-level effects, net of student demographics. lessons learned from the tdsb-ut linkage 3 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 2) second, it may be that trends differ at other receiving institutions. it is possible that in institutions with transfer student offices and greater availability of supports, the direct-entry/transfer gaps in performance shrink in size. again, this is plausible, but we imagine that it would take considerable efforts to override the patterns in disparities that we have observed, especially for transfers originating from community colleges. it is important to keep in mind that colleges and universities are operating at the very tail-end of the student life course. it is wishful thinking to assume that they can undo a lifetime of inequity in the span of a few years. 3) third, considering our findings, we believe that many colleges may feel, and even have some evidence to support, that their out-going transfers outperform direct-entry counterparts at receiving universities. this is certainly plausible, and there may be some variation in the outcomes of transfers from different colleges, net of students demographic characteristics. again, we are not convinced that, in a system like ontario, where there is relative parity in the quality and funding of our public colleges, these differences would be significant. we are open to being convinced otherwise, though. however, we think it is important for stakeholders to be conscious of the quality of the evidence they may currently possess about the performance of their out-going transfers. is it more than anecdotal? if so, is it based on multivariate models? if so, does it encompass a reasonable set of academic and demographic controls? oncat is more than happy to work with our sector partners to help them improve their evidence base on transfer student performance. at oncat, we are very much aware that the financial and human resources to perform this sort of work is not available to every institution within our sector. we also understand that data-sharing, beyond a few exemplary cases (e.g., seneca-york), remains quite limited, and often does not link to administrative data in the k12 system. to help bridge this gap, we will be coordinating and funding a data-sharing pilot within the greater toronto area over the next two years to extend the tdsb-ut linkage and include additional partners. since last summer, weve been working to establish a project charter with the toronto district school board, city of toronto, and the university of toronto, with a view towards developing a model that can be scaled to other school boards, colleges, and universities. lessons learned from the tdsb-ut linkage 4 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 weve also been working closely with it at the university of toronto to set up data transmission protocols and build a digital fortress at the data, equity & policy (depe) lab to house project data. our goal is to build a dataset that allows us to track student mobility within the gta comprehensively. if you are reading this, and are in an educational institution within the gta, consider this an open invitation for you to participate in this data-sharing pilot! if you are not a decision-maker but would benefit from having access to this data: get on the phone, call up your senior leadership, and ask them why they arent participating in this project. we look forward to hearing from you. lessons learned from the tdsb-ut linkage 5 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. dr. roger pizarro milian dr. roger pizarro milian is the senior researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/projects/tdsb-ut-linkage-and -transfer-project established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2020

august 2022 research spotlight transfer success at trent university: findings from oncat's datapilot program report prepared by: rod missaghian, senior researcher, oncat henrique hon, quantitative researcher, oncat spotlight prepared by: meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist, oncat project funded by transfer success at trent university: findings from oncat's datapilot program 1 keywords postsecondary; transfer students; grade point average; graduation rates; transfer credits overview oncat launched the datapilot initiative in 2020 to help postsecondary institutions gather transfer student enrolment data to assist them in learning more about this unique segment of their student population. in phase one, oncat staff helps institutions collect and categorize these data, as well as provide high-level analyses. in phase two, institutions collect and submit the same data points on direct-entry students, and oncat provides deeper analyses that compare indicators and outcomes between transfer and direct-entry students. institutions also have the option of working with oncat to publish a public facing report of the findings. this spotlight focuses on oncats first collaborative report with a postsecondary institution, trent university. as an institution whose proportional representation of transfer students ranks near the top of all publicly funded universities in ontario, trent has a vested interest in ensuring their transfer students succeed. this collaborative report will highlight several positive outcomes for transfer students at trent. in addition to the high proportion of transfer students they enrol each year, trent has developed a very effective transfer process with several key ingredients: strong leadership, information management systems that allow administrators to identify credit equivalencies easily, and strong supports and recruitment practices for transfer students. why it matters collecting data on transfer students is a necessary first step in understanding transfer, particularly if postsecondary institutions have significant numbers of transfer students, are interested in recruiting them into under-enrolled programs, or would like to prioritize under-represented learners who often take untraditional, roundabout pathways into higher education. these analyses help institutions obtain evidence-informed information about transfer students at their institution and pinpoint which are more likely to struggle and what can be done to improve their outcomes. transfer success at trent university: findings from oncat's datapilot program 2 key findings transfer students from ontario colleges have the lowest first-year grade point average (gpa), followed by direct-entry students oncat researchers explored the relationship between students first-year gpas and the types of transfer pathways they take into trent university. after controlling for key demographic and program level indicators, they found that transfer students from ontario colleges have the lowest first-year gpas, while out of province university transfers had the highest. these findings are not entirely surprising given that direct-entry students and college-touniversity transfer students are potentially experiencing a university environment for the first time. in contrast, one might expect that university-to-university transfer students have had the benefit of experiencing their first year of university at a different institution. figure 1 represents the average gpa among students in each transfer category (see full report for details about methodology). *these pathway categories include students who may or may not have followed an articulated pathway or block transfer arrangement. transfer success at trent university: findings from oncat's datapilot program transfer students graduate at higher rates than direct-entry students since trent university is the first participant in phase 2 of the datapilot, we lack comparable data from other institutions to make broader claims about the differences between direct-entry and transfer students with regards to graduation outcomes. however, a study looking at graduation rates among multiple types of transfer students and direct-entry students at the university of toronto found that transfer students from colleges in ontario had lower graduation rates than direct-entry students. at trent university, however, oncat researchers found a different pattern. transfer students from ontario colleges had the highest comparative graduation rates, followed very closely by students from other ontario universities, then students from out of province (both college and university), and finally direct-entry students. the difference between college transfer and direct-entry students is statistically significant, while the differences found amongst the other transfer student pathways are not. *these pathway categories include students who may or may not have followed an articulated pathway or block transfer arrangement. 3 transfer success at trent university: findings from oncat's datapilot program 4 the more transfer credits a student receives, the more likely they are to graduate as with the findings from the previously mentioned research at the university of toronto, oncat found a positive association between mean transfer credits awarded and graduation rates. when focusing on the average amount of transfer credits awarded, trents mean credits for college transfer (4.6) is considerably higher than the mean reported in the university of toronto report (2.6) (see davies, 2022). this finding might help explain the high graduation outcomes for trents college transfer students (see figure 3). transfer success at trent university: findings from oncat's datapilot program 5 takeaways perhaps the greatest takeaway of this inaugural datapilot report is that college transfer students are successful when compared with other pathways into trent university. although they may struggle academically in their first year, their graduation rates are higher than direct-entry students. this story is very positive because it suggests that even though college to university transfer students face challenges, they can be supported to succeed. it also upends a common myth, particularly in universities, that transfer students cannot overcome this initial academic hurdle. considering that 16% of all college transfer students travel articulated pathways at trent more than any other transfer studentunderstanding the importance of this relationship can help policy makers support and promote the extension of articulated transfer agreements in the province. currently, one of the major challenges to achieving further articulation is the differing amount of transfer credit that institutions award and the lack of a centralized reporting mechanism where oncat can track, with representative data, the total number of articulation agreements in the province. as oncat collects this information in increments with the datapilot, it hopes to understand the nuances of credit transfer and how to best support a variety of students that move between postsecondary institutions in ontario. further reading to read the full report, visit our website. transfer success at trent university: findings from oncat's datapilot program 6 rod missaghian senior researcher oncat henrique hon quantitative researcher oncat oncat.ca/en/projects/oncat-datapilot-report-trent-university established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the author acknowledges the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

financial statements ontario council on articulation and transfer march 31, 2020 ontario council on articulation and transfer contents page independent auditor's report 1-2 statement of financial position 3 statements of operations and changes in net assets 4 statement of cash flows 5 notes to the financial statements 6 - 12 independent auditor's report grant thornton llp 11th floor 200 king street west, box 11 toronto, on m5h 3t4 t +1 416 366 0100 f +1 416 360 4949 www.grantthornton.ca to the members of ontario council on articulation and transfer opinion we have audited the financial statements of ontario council on articulation and transfer (the organization), which comprise the statement of financial position as at march 31, 2020, and the statements of operations and changes in net assets and cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. in our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the organization as at march 31, 2020, and its its results of operations and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations. basis for opinion we conducted our audit in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards. our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. we are independent of the organization in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in canada, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. we believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. responsibilities of management and those charged with governance for the financial statements management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations, and for such internal control as management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. in preparing the financial statements, management is responsible for assessing the organization's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless management either intends to liquidate the organization or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so. those charged with governance are responsible for overseeing the organization's financial reporting process. audit | tax | advisory grant thornton llp. a canadian member of grant thornton international ltd 1 auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. as part of an audit in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards, we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit. we also: identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control. obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the organization's internal control. evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by management. conclude on the appropriateness of management's use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the organization's ability to continue as a going concern. if we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor's report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor's report. however, future events or conditions may cause the organization to cease to continue as a going concern. evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation. we communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit. toronto, canada september 28, 2020 chartered professional accountants licensed public accountants audit | tax | advisory grant thornton llp. a canadian member of grant thornton international ltd 2 ontario council on articulation and transfer statement of financial position march 31 assets current cash accounts receivable (note 3) prepaid expenses property and equipment (note 4) intangible assets (note 5) liabilities current accounts payable and accrued liabilities deferred revenue (note 7) 2020 2019 $ 4,193,506 65,219 99,302 $ 4,016,567 54,578 66,380 4,358,027 4,137,525 119,322 5,401 142,281 8,867 $ 4,482,750 $ 4,288,673 $ 1,621,938 2,860,812 $ 1,948,951 2,339,722 $ 4,482,750 $ 4,288,673 commitments (note 8) on behalf of the board member see accompanying notes to the financial statements. member 3 ontario council on articulation and transfer statements of operations and changes in net assets year ended march 31 revenues government grants investment income other income 2020 2019 $ 4,790,910 21,795 35,063 $ 5,343,677 16,119 35,063 4,847,768 5,394,859 2,735,354 1,528,629 208,343 190,681 64,929 47,605 33,011 20,091 19,125 3,504,046 1,350,855 206,840 175,963 60,342 26,275 35,242 13,137 22,159 4,847,768 5,394,859 expenditures project expenses salaries and benefits accomodations professional fees computing and financial services travel and meetings amortization office and general communications excess of revenues over expenses $ - $ - surplus, beginning of year $ - $ - excess of revenues over expenses surplus, end of year $ see accompanying notes to the financial statements. - $ - 4 ontario council on articulation and transfer statement of cash flows year ended march 31 2020 2019 increase (decrease) in cash operating excess of revenues over expenses items not affecting cash amortization of property and equipment amortization of intangible assets change in non-cash working capital items accounts receivable prepaid expenses accounts payable and accrued liabilities deferred revenue $ - increase in cash cash beginning of year end of year - 29,545 3,466 29,825 5,417 33,011 35,242 (10,641) (32,922) (327,013) 521,090 40,519 47,003 430,018 623,727 183,525 investing purchase of property and equipment $ (6,586) 1,176,509 (3,193) 176,939 1,173,316 4,016,567 2,843,251 $ 4,193,506 $ 4,016,567 see accompanying notes to the financial statements. 5 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2020 1. nature of organization ontario council on articulation and transfer (the organization) was incorporated on august 23, 2011 by letters patent under the laws of canada. the organization is responsible for directing and managing the day-to-day activities and operations associated with the council including academic collaboration fund projects, the ontransfer web site, including the ontario transfer guide and course equivalency database, and various research activities. 2. significant accounting policies these financial statements have been prepared in accordance with canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations (asnpo) using the deferral fund method of reporting externally restricted contributions. use of estimates the preparation of the organizations financial statements in conformity with asnpo requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the balance sheet date and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making estimates, actual results could differ from those estimates. financial instruments the organizations financial instruments are comprised of cash, accounts receivable and accounts payable. financial assets and liabilities are initially recognized at their fair value. the organization subsequently measures all financial assets and financial liabilities at amortized cost. property and equipment property and equipment are recorded at cost and are being amortized over their estimated useful lives. the annual amortization rates are as follows: furniture leasehold improvements computer equipment 5 years 10 years 3 years intangible assets intangible assets are recorded at cost and amortized over their useful lives. software license costs are amortized over the length of the transfer payment agreement. website and software costs are amortized on a straight-line basis over 5 years. 6 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2020 2. significant accounting policies (continued) impairment of long-lived assets the organization tests long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that its carrying amount may not be recoverable. an impairment loss is recognized when the carrying amount of the asset exceeds the sum of the undiscounted cash flows resulting from its use and eventual disposition. the impairment loss is measured as the amount by which the carrying amount of the long-lived asset exceeds its fair value. accrual of expenses expenses have been recorded using the accrual basis of accounting, and all expenses have been recorded in the period to which the expense relates. 7 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2020 2. significant accounting policies (continued) revenue recognition grants are initially recorded as deferred revenue and are recognized as revenue in the year in which the related expenses are incurred. investment and other income is recognized when received or receivable and the amount can be reasonably estimated and collection reasonably assured. 3. accounts receivable 2020 hst receivable 4. $ 65,219 2019 $ 54,578 property and equipment cost furniture leasehold improvements computer equipment accumulated amortization 2020 2019 net book value net book value $ 94,438 197,878 43,092 $ 76,939 102,614 36,533 $ 17,499 95,264 6,559 $ 28,937 105,215 8,129 $ 335,408 $ 216,086 $ 119,322 $ 142,281 the organization completed leasehold improvements in fiscal 2018. netted against the cost of the leasehold improvements is a leasehold reimbursement from the landlord of $188,360. 5. intangible assets website and software software license cost 2020 2019 net book value net book value cost accumulated amortization $ 1,484,317 399,000 $ 1,478,916 399,000 $ 5,401 - $ 8,867 - $ 1,883,317 $ 1,877,916 $ 5,401 $ 8,867 8 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2020 6. bank indebtedness the organization has a line of credit in the amount of $500,000 bearing interest at prime plus 1.5%, due on demand and secured with a general security agreement. as at march 31, 2020, the balance was $nil (2019 - $nil). 7. deferred revenue 2020 2019 deferred revenue, beginning of period add: funds received less: revenue recognized $ 2,339,722 $ 1,715,995 5,312,000 5,967,404 (4,790,910) (5,343,677) deferred revenue, end of period $ 2,860,812 8. $ 2,339,722 commitments (a) premises lease agreement the organization is committed under the terms of the operating lease for premises up to fiscal 2028. the annual minimum lease payments over the next five years are as follows: 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 subsequent years $ 111,745 111,745 114,849 117,066 117,066 292,909 $ 865,380 (b) credit transfer project the organization entered into agreements with a number of ontario colleges and universities to prepare components of the various initiatives undertaken by the organization. under the terms of the agreements, the colleges and universities have been engaged to complete portions of the pathway development, innovative curriculum development, and research projects up to fiscal 2022. the annual minimum commitment payments over the next two years are as follows: 2021 2022 $ 878,486 95,506 9 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2020 9. financial instruments transactions in financial instruments may result in the organization assuming or transferring to another party one of more the financial risks described below. the required disclosures provide information that assists users of the financial statements in assessing the extent of risk related to financial instruments. credit risk the organizations credit risk is primarily with respect to their accounts receivable. given the nature of receivables, the organization does not consider credit risk to be significant. liquidity risk the organizations liquidity risk represents the risk that the organization could encounter difficulty in meeting obligations associated with financial liabilities. the organization is exposed to liquidity risk mainly in respect of its accounts payable. the organization manages liquidity risk by maintaining cash balances in excess of outstanding obligations. market risk market risk is the risk that the fair value or expected future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in market prices. market risk comprises three types of risk: currency risk, interest rate risk and other price risk. the organization is not exposed to significant currency risk, interest rate risk or other price risk due to the nature of their financial instruments. 10 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2020 10. ministry spending reconciliation the reconciliation of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (formerly ministry of advanced education and skills development) funding and expenditures is as follows. 2020 funding received during the year funds received from the ministry (note 7) total expenditures expenses per statement of operations items capitalized for accounting purposes property and equipment less: amortization 2019 $ 5,312,000 $ 5,967,404 $ 4,847,768 $ 5,394,859 6,586 (33,011) 3,193 (35,242) $ 4,821,343 $ 5,362,810 surplus other income investment income $ 490,657 35,063 21,795 $ 604,594 35,063 16,119 total surplus $ 547,515 $ 655,776 11. economic dependence the organization is economically dependent on the ministry of colleges and universities (previously ministry of training, colleges and universities) for grant revenue. 11 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2020 12. subsequent events since january 2020, the spread of covid-19 has severely impacted many local economies around the globe. in many countries, including canada, businesses are being forced to cease or limit operations for long or indefinite periods of time. measures taken to contain the spread of the virus, including travel bans, quarantines, social distancing, and closures of non-essential services have triggered significant disruptions to businesses worldwide, resulting in an economic slowdown. global stock markets have also experienced great volatility and a significant weakening. governments and central banks have responded with monetary and fiscal interventions to stabilize economic conditions. the organization has determined that these events are non-adjusting subsequent events due to the organization's ability to complete the initiatives of the current year's funding agreement. accordingly, the financial position and results of operations as of and for the year ended march 31, 2020 have not been adjusted. the duration and impact of the covid-19 pandemic, as well as the effectiveness of government and central bank responses, remains unclear at this time. it is not possible to reliably estimate the duration and severity of these consequences, as well as their impact on the financial position and results of the organization for future periods. however, as of the date of the audit report, it is management's assessment that there has not been a signficant impact on operations. 12

bringing the bear program to life: development and implementation of the bear program pilot for fall 2017 oncat project number 2017-25 main author: adele yamada, professor, general arts & science, algonquin college contributing author (financial report): sherryl fraser, chair, school of design, algonquin college andre obonsawin, manager, indigenous initiatives, algonquin college submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer may 2018 we are thankful for the funding provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer that made this project possible. the findings and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ontario council on articulation and transfer. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 2 list of participants and partner institutions since the fall of 2015, many people from algonquin college and local indigenous communities have been involved in the development and implementation of the pathways to indigenous empowerment (formerly the building empowerment, attaining results (bear)) program. along with the four initial members of the committee including sherryl fraser (chair, general arts and science), dwight powless (indigenous strategic partnerships consultant), andre obonsawin (manager), and adele yamada (professor/coordinator), the following participants shared in developing the program and delivering the courses in the pie program. our gratitude is extended to them for their kind help and support: participants position institution/community della meness education department manager pikwakanagan education office norma sunday executive director ahkwesahsne mohawk board of education anita tenasco director kitagan zibi education sector robert jerome director urban aboriginal alternative high school margaret cusson dean, academic development algonquin college mark keedwell curriculum consultant algonquin college micheline kraska curriculum administrator algonquin college louise lahache faculty / coordinator algonquin college kylie waghorn faculty / coach algonquin college calvin climie faculty algonquin college nathaniel parant faculty algonquin college shahrzad tahbaz faculty algonquin college velvet johnson faculty algonquin college geraldine king faculty algonquin college michel lacroix faculty algonquin college jason gullo faculty algonquin college in addition to the people mentioned here, it is important to recognize that many other people in the communities of pikwakanagan, ahkwesahsne, and kitigan zibi as well as members of the cree school board shared comments, ideas, and suggestions for the new program. faculty and staff at algonquin college were also generous in their suggestions regarding spaces and materials, field trip options, and other program suggestions. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 3 table of contents executive summary............................................................................................................................................... 4 a pathway for indigenizing education .................................................................................................................. 8 the pie program project context ..................................................................................................................... 8 borrowing from the medicine wheel ............................................................................................................... 9 the goals of the pie program ......................................................................................................................... 12 pathway development........................................................................................................................................ 13 program name change from bear to pie ...................................................................................................... 13 personal development for indigenous success - algonquin college certificate ............................................ 14 program development methodology ............................................................................................................. 14 meetings and milestones ............................................................................................................................... 15 program champions ................................................................................................................................... 15 indigenous stakeholders ............................................................................................................................ 16 college connections ................................................................................................................................... 17 program comparison and analysis ............................................................................................................. 19 development process ................................................................................................................................. 20 project timelines ........................................................................................................................................ 20 program implementation ............................................................................................................................... 21 class schedules and coaching sessions...................................................................................................... 21 hiring faculty .............................................................................................................................................. 23 orientation planning .................................................................................................................................. 24 summary of pathway(s) created ........................................................................................................................ 26 lessons learned .................................................................................................................................................. 26 building a circle of trust ................................................................................................................................. 27 issues with finances, housing, mental health, and the learning environment ............................................ 27 promising practices and next steps .................................................................................................................... 30 financial report .................................................................................................................................................. 37 references .......................................................................................................................................................... 38 appendix a: truth and reconciliation calls to action (62 and 63) .................................................................... 39 appendix b: program development and implementation processes ................................................................ 39 appendix c: pie program documentation ......................................................................................................... 45 appendix d: pdis program documentation....................................................................................................... 46 appendix e: pie program course outlines ......................................................................................................... 47 appendix f: pdis and pie program marketing information............................................................................... 48 appendix g: pie program student contributions .............................................................................................. 48 oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 4 executive summary as the winter semester of the 2017-2018 academic year winds down, it is time to take stock of one of the most tumultuous college years ever experienced by faculty, staff and students. the five-week labour dispute that began on october 16 just six weeks into the fall semester resulted in more than 25,000 students province-wide withdrawing from their programs at the end of november (rushowy, 2017). however, students enrolled in the new personal development for indigenous success (pdis) program, the first semester of the pathways to indigenous empowerment (pie) program ontario college certificate program (formerly known as the bear program), all returned to class once the labour dispute ended. one student admitted that during the strike she felt on the verge of quitting but when she thought about how leaving would let her classmates down, she reconsidered. her commitment to stay in the program and make it through the year together with everyone else speaks to the determination of our learners and our faculty to work together, to find ways to overcome challenges, and to achieve a 100 % graduation rate in our first year of the pie program. to follow through on the research findings outlined in the oncat 2015-36 report building empowerment, attaining rewards: the bear research report, the pie program was launched in fall 2017 with a cohort of five students. success in the context of college programs can be gauged differently. for college administrators and managers, offering a one-year ontario college certificate program for five students represents a leap of faith (a deeply appreciated one) that acknowledges and accepts a significant loss in the first year of operation. for college faculty, the opportunity to work with five students represents a once-in-a-career chance to provide highly individualized, richly supported educational experiences where working one-to-one with students is the norm rather than the exception. for the pie program graduates, the chance to strengthen their academic skills, become familiar with the expectations and demands of college life, and embrace their indigenous cultures in a close-knit, supportive environment has enabled them to feel confident and empowered in taking their next postsecondary steps towards exciting careers. all pie program graduates have made plans to continue their post-secondary studies at algonquin college. four have applied to programs for the fall 2018 and one is applying to the pre-health studies academic upgrading program beginning in august 2018. the colleges investment in the first year of the pie program stands to yield approximately 25 semesters worth of tuition as these indigenous learners pursue their career goals. not only have these learners been empowered to follow new pathways, faculty members were given opportunities to share and build on indigenous knowledge. for indigenous faculty members, the freedom to teach from a different pedagogical framework is oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 5 rewarding and empowering; having traditional teachings and indigenous knowledge validated in a mainstream institution represents a monumental shift in post-secondary education. most importantly, by choosing to offer the pie program in fall 2017, algonquin college followed through on the promise made to indigenous communities to make available an innovative preparatory program that embraces indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing. in launching the pie program, algonquin college is acknowledging that the challenges indigenous learners encounter in post-secondary institutions can buckle them at the knees before they even open their first textbook. in supporting the pie program, the college demonstrates that it is prepared to do education differently so that faculty and staff can provide the information, guidance, support, creativity and encouragement needed to overcome the obstacles that threaten to derail the most resolutely well-intentioned student. over the course of the year, in addition to delivering course curricula, meeting the pie program mandate of creating a positive, supportive, holistic education experience necessitated the following: assisting students with obtaining government identification including birth certificates and sin cards and education records so that bursary applications could be made; assisting students with sponsorship letters and appeals to band offices and communities to obtain funding; assisting students in researching and applying for bursaries and financial support through algonquin college, emergency bursary funding, indspire, the congress of aboriginal peoples, and the national indian brotherhood through the assembly of first nations; assisting students in navigating social and welfare support available in ontario and quebec; assisting students in accessing food and supplies (in emergency situations) from the college and neighbourhood food banks; assisting students with finding suitable accommodations (on a temporary basis and longer term) within the constraint of limited monthly funds; assisting students with managing part-time work situations; assisting students with technology issues including obtaining replacements for lost and broken devices; assisting students with accessing counselling for personal issues related to depression, anxiety, addiction, legal issues and relationship situations. most college programs are supported by student success specialists and academic advisors where the onus is on students to ask for information and advice when they encounter challenges. what sets the pie program apart from typical programs is that the opportunity for students to access support is built oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 6 right into the program. two courses personal discovery in the first semester and personal development in the second semester are structured as one-on-one meetings between the professor (coach) and the students to discuss topics and complete assignments that deepen self-understanding and strengthen transferable skills including prioritizing tasks, time management, active listening, interpersonal communication and self-advocacy. from the start of the year it was clear that this professors role was intrinsic to establishing effective, meaningful connections between the students and the college. in addition, the one-to-one sessions provided students with the chance to share information privately and to access specific materials and support as needed. as forecasted in the oncat 2015-36 research report, the inclusion of a weekly class/coaching session is a significant factor in the success of the pie program students this year. along with confirming that this innovative approach to course delivery is effective, other achievements emerged through the creation and launch of the pie program this year, including: the development of three new courses transforming turtle island, environmental guardianship and a new general education elective, the interconnection of science which centre on indigenous knowledge and place-based pedagogy; opportunities for learning activities and events in conjunction with the gas aboriginal studies professors and students; opportunities for field trips including visiting victoria island, attending a budgeting session at a local credit union, taking part in a healthy living session at the local loblaws, taking tours of the fitness zone and the innovation centre on campus, visiting the bank of canada museum, visiting the canadian museum of history and the national art museum, participating in have a heart day on parliament hill, attending a lecture at carleton university, and participating in the walrus talks indigenizing the city event; opportunities for faculty engagement, collaboration and partnerships through class shadowing activities and information interviews with professionals as part of courses where goodwill and connections between different programs enhance networking opportunities for indigenous learners; and opportunities to celebrate new partnerships with indigenous communities who have enjoyed a successful return on their investments in education. in preparation for the second year of the pie program, discussions with faculty, staff, stakeholders, and students have resulted in the following recommendations: oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 7 visit communities to share information about the pie program at the start of the academic year so that high school students see the program as an option to gain self-confidence and strengthen skills before applying to diploma or degree programs in january; encourage adults (who may not have graduated from high school and who may have been out of school for several years) to apply to the program to start on a new life/career path; communicate with indigenous communities about the actual costs associated with attending college, i.e. accommodations and living expenses to ensure sufficient funding; communicate with students a few weeks prior to the start of the year to check on their preparations for college (i.e. accommodations, funding, access to a laptop or device, etc.) arrange to meet with students prior to the start of the year to assist in preparations; complete bursary applications in the foundations of communication course; find a different location to use as a designated classroom as the mamidosewin centre computer lab does not have the sufficient space or equipment; prepare students for the intense nature of topics that are covered in some courses; and prepare a semester (year) planner that highlights dates for field trips and off-campus events. in addition to these recommendations, faculty discussions have highlighted the opportunity to build on the lessons learned in launching the pie program and to develop additional programs that respond to the truth and reconciliation commission (trc) of canada calls to action regarding education. collaborations with indigenous community members, educators, students, and college faculty, staff and management could result in new diploma and degree programs that explore and develop ways of integrating indigenous knowledge and pedagogy into the classroom and into wider canadian society in accordance with the trc calls to action there is much work still to do. as the pie program coordinator and as the professor for the foundations of communication, communication skills and career development courses, the experience of working with the pie program students this year was profoundly enlightening. despite intergenerational trauma, financial hardship, and physical and mental health issues, these determined learners worked diligently to meet course learning objectives to enrich their bundles; all are ready to take the next step on their journey. this report outlines our journey in bringing the (bear) pie program to life, and the hope is that sufficient information has been included to support the development and implementation of a similar program in other institutions. please feel free to contact adele yamada (yamadaa@algonquincollege.com) for further details about the pie program. we are happy to tell our story and to share our knowledge. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 8 a pathway for indigenizing education canadas colonial past has indelibly marked the lives of the indigenous peoples who have inhabited turtle island since time immemorial. it is only within the past few decades that political, economic and educational institutions have started to recognize and respond to the destruction and damage suffered by indigenous peoples in canada as their languages, cultures and traditional ways of life were systematically eradicated by settlers. the trc calls to action published in 2015 offer a framework for the changes needed to bring about reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples of canada. tantamount in the trc calls to action is the focus on education and the role it plays in creating new opportunities for indigenous learners to deconstruct western epistemological practices and to reclaim and celebrate traditional indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing. specifically, the trc calls to action related to education for reconciliation call upon the government to provide the necessary funding to post-secondary institutions to educate teachers on how to integrate indigenous knowledge into the classroom (truth and reconciliation commission of canada, 2015, p. 7) with the two-fold purpose of making learning spaces beyond indigenous communities comfortable and accessible to indigenous students, and making indigenous history, cultures, languages, and ways of seeing the world accessible to non-indigenous learners. the pathways to indigenous empowerment (pie) program accomplishes the first goal by including courses rooted in indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing that seek to validate alternative knowledge systems and empower indigenous learners. additionally, in response to call to action number 63, the pie program includes indigenous-focused curriculum for five new courses that embody the objectives of sharing information and best practices on teaching curriculum related to residential schools and aboriginal history and building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect (ibid.). up until four years ago, the only indigenous knowledge-based program at algonquin college was the general arts and science aboriginal studies ontario college certificate. two years ago, the college introduced the indigenous cook pre-apprenticeship program within the school of hospitality. the pie program is the third program offered at algonquin college that recognizes, respects and reflects a deep commitment to indigenizing the institution and its program offerings. the pie program project context the reader is invited to visit the oncat website and access the executive summary and the final research report to review the details of the bear research report, oncat 2015-36. the result of oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 9 collaborative efforts over the past three years is the pathways to indigenous empowerment (pie) program, a one-year ontario college certificate program designed to support indigenous learners at algonquin college. this innovative program emerged from the findings of the bear research project which indicated that indigenous learners experience challenges that impact their ability to complete post-secondary programs successfully. some of these challenges relate to under-preparedness, particularly in relation to math and english skills, as well as an unfamiliarity with college practices and expectations. other challenges emerge from the sudden immersion into institutional processes and values that reflect a predominantly western worldview. despite the colleges name and location on unceded algonquin territory, there has been very little visual representation of indigenous cultures or languages at algonquin college up until recently and even less inclusion of pedagogical concepts and processes that represent indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing. for indigenous students who travel from remote communities to attend the college, the adjustment to college life can include culture shock, loneliness, home sickness and exposure to prejudice and racism. depending on the financial support, college readiness training and other help learners receive in leaving their communities, some students are set up with apartments and the means to gather supplies for daily living and for school relatively easily; however, other students receive limited band/community support financially (and otherwise) and struggle to find accommodations and set up a routine (i.e. commuting, daycare, etc.) that is conducive to participating in classes regularly, keeping up with lessons, and completing assignments on time. the findings from the bear research project identified that indigenous learners experienced a graduation rate of less than 50% from typical post-secondary certificate and diploma programs at algonquin college from 2008 to 2013 (algonquin college, 2015). the research findings contend that the challenges faced by indigenous learners have had a measurable negative impact on attendance, participation and final grades. it became clear to the bear project committee members that the solution was to design a new program that took a variety of factors into account to create positive learning conditions for our indigenous students. borrowing from the medicine wheel from spring 2015 to fall 2016, in conducting research for the bear program the precursor to the pie program the team from algonquin college met with faculty, staff, and indigenous stakeholders including members of the pikwakanagan community, members of the ahkwesahsne board of education, oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 10 and representatives from the kitigan zibi board of education. numerous meetings and discussions led to the design of a new program for indigenous learners with these key deliverables: 1) prepare students for post-secondary success by supporting academic skills development; 2) support students soft skills development by improving time management, self-advocacy, and interpersonal communication skills; 3) engage students in content that is practical for employment and further education; 4) provide opportunities for students to attain credits that are transferable to other programs; 5) reflect indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing in respectful and inclusive ways; and 6) facilitate opportunities to shadow courses in other programs to explore careers options. discussions with indigenous educators, faculty, staff and other stakeholders helped us to design a program based on four key elements of human experience that interact holistically: cognitive, mental, physical and spiritual well-being. working with the four directions of the medicine wheel, we conceived a program to support the development of the whole student by including courses that facilitate knowledge and skills development in these four key areas: 1) cognitive well-being focus on academic skills developing strong skills and abilities in english, math, computers, online research, and other content supports cognitive skills and abilities leading to self-confidence and empowerment. 2) mental well-being focus on transferable skills developing skills related to time management, organization, prioritization, stress management, self-advocacy and interpersonal communication helps students to establish positive study habits and school routines that encourage confidence, life balance and overall mental health. 3) physical well-being focus on career exploration encouraging curiosity and courage to try new learning activities through field trips, class visits, etc. enables to students to interact with others in different environments and to see themselves in a variety of learning spaces completing a variety of tasks to expand their perspective of their own interests and abilities. 4) spiritual well-being focus on transcultural skills inviting indigenous professors to create course content based on indigenous worldviews, knowledge and ways of knowing creates learning spaces that are culturally relevant, familiar and that validate indigeneity in an educational institution setting. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 11 along with creating a program that addresses these areas of human experience, knowledge and skillbuilding, it was essential that the new program also include a means by which students create meaningful relationships with other learners and with faculty members within the first week of the program. creating a sense of community and of belonging at the start of the year is a crucial step. according to tinto (1987; 2012), students are more likely to stop attending classes and/or withdraw because of a failure to feel connected to the institution either through creating a new relationship with a classmate or with a staff or faculty member. to reinforce the need for students to establish meaningful connections with others at the college, research by raisman (2016) found that one of the major reasons that students opt not to stay in college programs relates to weak or poor academic customer service which accounts for 76% of the direct reason why students leave a college (para. 23). feeling disconnected, misdirected, unacknowledged or unheard at the very start of the college experience is a significant reason for students to reassess their decision to attend a post-secondary program; for indigenous learners, difficulty in making new connections with people at college can be exacerbated by culture shock and by experiencing direct and systemic racism (son, bishop & humphries, 2000). in some cases, indigenous learners are also first generation students (i.e. the first in their family to attend post-secondary studies) and can experience enormous pressure to be successful at college. there is even more of an impetus for these learners to establish relationships with other students, staff and/or faculty in the first few weeks of their program. without being properly prepared for college, without a sense of community, and without feeling connected to the college at the start of their program, learners can very quickly fall behind in their courses and lose the will to continue. research shows that rarely do indigenous students formally withdraw from the program or from courses before the deadlines; instead they are more likely to stop attending college and end up with all fs on their transcript rather than ws that indicate withdrawal from courses (algonquin college, 2015). along with empowering learners, one objective of the pie program is to facilitate efficient and effective use of band funding. with a graduation rate of approximately 30% up until 2013, the number of students who dreamt of succeeding at post-secondary but were unable to overcome challenges and failed out exceeded the number of successful graduates (ibid.). in conjunction with the academic failure and personal failure experienced by these students, the communities who provided financial support were forced to manage the opportunity cost associated with lost post-secondary funding. every dollar spent funding students who were unable to be successful in graduating from their program at a postsecondary institution represents a lack of return on a considerable investment in education. since 2013, oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 12 the graduation rate for indigenous learners in programs at algonquin college has improved but sits at around 50% below the overall college graduation rate of 66% (algonquin college, 2017). as the bear research report points out, the inability for students to be successful in their first year of college is not due to a lack of enthusiasm or desire; rather, under-preparedness as a result of inequities in the ways that provincial education systems intersect with indigenous education systems is one of the key reasons for student failure. when indigenous students arrive at college and realize the size of the gaps in their education, feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem can quickly overtake the excitement of living in a new location. for some students, the enthusiasm in taking on a new educational challenge turns quickly to stress, anxiety and fear. troubled by the fact that indigenous student success was a continuous issue for algonquin college, the committee struck in 2015 pledged to establish a new pathway for our indigenous learners, one that would incorporate the bear research and empower indigenous learners. the group applied for additional funding from oncat in january 2017 and was offered a grant (oncat 2017-25) to assist in making this new program a reality. the goals of the pie program as we worked together to create a new pathway for our indigenous learners, it became evident that the new program needed to satisfy a set of complex criteria. firstly, to be eligible for community (band) funding and funding through osap, the program must meet the criteria for an ontario college certificate with between 600-700 hours of instruction, a level one english course and a general education elective. secondly, the one-year certificate program must provide a bridge between preparatory courses and level one college courses to provide learners with opportunities to develop a solid foundation in subjects key to college success: english, math, and essential study skills. the team collaborated with community partners and college faculty to develop first semester courses that help students identify knowledge gaps and provide learning opportunities to overcome them. thirdly, the program had to enable our indigenous learners feel connected, comfortable and cared about. using the developmentor program as a model (algonquin college, 2015), the pie program includes courses called personal discovery (semester 1) and personal development (semester 2) in which content, instructions and guidance are delivered in a one-to-one learning situation. fourthly, along with this innovative and personalized approach, five courses based on indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing are included, with two (health and wellness and career exploration) delivered in the fall semester and three (transforming turtle island, environmental guardianship and the interconnection of science) delivered in the winter semester. these courses include indigenous oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 13 content and are designed to be delivered in ways that reinforce indigenous pedagogy as envisioned by the professors who are themselves indigenous and bring their own knowledge and worldview to the learning environment. recognizing traditional indigenous knowledge systems as valid additions to the students academic and personal development is one of the overarching goals of the program. it is through seeing their own cultures history, knowledge, beliefs, traditions, language, and ideologies celebrated and valued within the institution that their foundation for empowerment as indigenous learners and as indigenous people is formed. just as meaningfully, building indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing into the pie program curriculum meets the trc calls to action for education in recognizing the validity of this knowledge and pedagogy within a provincially accredited certification. pathway development moving from the conceptualization stage to actual implementation involved a series of meetings, discussions and processes in a relatively short time. the main points along the journey to bring the bear (pie) program to life are outlined in this section. it should be noted that in most cases, creating a new ontario college certificate program at algonquin college can take about six months with ministry approval requiring additional time. considerable effort was made by faculty and staff to deliver on the promise made by the gas department chair to indigenous stakeholders to have the new program up and running for fall 2017. program name change from bear to pie when the project began in 2015 to create a program for indigenous learners to provide support and development in four key areas academic skills, transferable skills, intercultural skills, and career development the acronym bear summed up the goals of the program: building empowerment, attaining results. up until february 2017 this was the working name for the new program; however, in a meeting with several college administrators and managers mid-march 2017, the point was raised that to an indigenous person belonging to a clan other than the bear clan (e.g. muskrat clan, turtle clan, etc.), the acronym bear may have a negative connotation in the sense that it could unintentionally exclude certain indigenous peoples. taking this suggestion into account, the program was renamed the pathways to indigenous empowerment (pie) program. this name suits the goals of the program as it reinforces the idea that there are a multitude of ways for post-secondary education to support individual empowerment. the program provides opportunities to develop skills and knowledge in various capacities that relate to academic skills, transferable skills, oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 14 intercultural skills, and career exploration as a first step along a path of education and training towards creating a healthy lifestyle and establishing a meaningful career. personal development for indigenous success - algonquin college certificate from the end of january 2017 until the end of may 2017, efforts were focused on developing the pie program as a one-year ontario college certificate program. this work included writing the program and course descriptions, finalizing the course learning requirements, and creating a new general education course to fit with the program. as outlined in the later sections of this report and in appendices b and c, the documentation process involves several different steps. despite our best efforts to have the new pie program documentation reviewed in the june 2017 board of governors meeting for final approval, it was not possible. this resulted in a delay which meant that the pie program (as it had been designed) would not be eligible to roll out in fall 2017; however, there were two pressing reasons to find a way to have the pie program up and running for fall 2017: 1) the chair of the general arts and science department had made this promise to the indigenous community stakeholders at meetings in 2015 and 2016; and 2) oncat had generously agreed to provide a grant for the project in the 2017-2018 academic year. a solution was found by creating an algonquin college certificate called personal development for indigenous success (pdis) as an interim program (see appendix d). faculty and staff redoubled their efforts to create new documentation for an algonquin college certificate program containing the six first semester courses of the one-year pie program. the documentation was completed in june 2017, and the pdis program was approved by the algonquin college deans and directors council in time for the fall 2017 start with the understanding that students registered in the new pdis program would have their credits count towards the pathways to indigenous ontario college certificate program once it was approved by the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd). confirmation was received on december 19, 2017 that ministry approval for the one-year pathways to indigenous empowerment ontario college certificate had been granted. the students who had enrolled in the pdis program in fall 2017 met the admissions criteria for the ontario college certificate and were accepted and continued the academic year. they ultimately completed the second set of six courses, graduating in spring 2018 with 12 courses and the college certificate and the ontario college certificate. program development methodology as a pathway designed especially for indigenous learners at algonquin college, developing the pie program did not require the involvement of other college institutions. however, at several points along oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 15 the program development path, members of indigenous communities and other stakeholders were invited to participate in the program design and to help build curricula. starting in fall 2015, several steps were completed in developing and implementing the pdis/pie program which ran for the first time in the 2016-2017 academic year including the following (further details are provided in later sections): 1. initial scoping 2. oncat bear research project approval and completion 3. program documentation stage 1 initial program planning 4. aboriginal education committee meetings with indigenous community stakeholders 5. program documentation stage 2 program modifications for year 1 pdis and pie 6. program documentation stage 3 algonquin college approval for pdis 7. implementation stage 1 marketing/recruitment for pdis; teaching position for pdis posted 8. implementation stage 2 selection of faculty and course assigning, class scheduling, rooms 9. implementation stage 3 week 1 orientation programming for week 1 10. roll-out begin pdis program/start classes from week 2 for semester 1 courses 11. program documentation stage 4 algonquin college bog approval for pie 12. pdis program recovery after 5-week strike 13. pie program approval by the ministry of advanced education and skills development 14. implementation stage 4 semester 2 courses over 14 weeks 15. program assessment oncat final report; graduation statistics please see appendix c for the full description of the pie program documentation. meetings and milestones because the pie program was delivered in two stages, that is, students enrolled first in the pdis program in september 2017 and then were enrolled in the pie program in january 2018, the pathway for this new indigenous-focused preparatory program is atypical. however, if the reader intends to develop and implement a similar program at a post-secondary institution, the next section may be a useful guide. program champions the initial pie program development committee consisted of a non-indigenous department chair, a nonindigenous gas faculty member, and two indigenous program officers involved in the indigenous strategic partnerships program in operation at algonquin college in 2015 who met weekly in the spring and early fall of 2015. the team came together over a common concern regarding indigenous students successful completion of one- and two-year college programs. specifically, the program officers, dwight oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 16 powless and andre obonsawin, had gathered data that identified the statistics underlying the lack of successful program completion experienced by indigenous learners. this information coincided with anecdotal evidence shared by adele yamada, a communications professor who taught students in the aboriginal studies program for several years. the professor noted that about half of the students in each communications course section struggled with reading and writing in english at the start of the year; students who were unsuccessful in the first few assignments over the first three or four weeks of class often failed to attend classes regularly after this time despite efforts to contact the students to offer additional learning support. of this sub-group, the majority ended up failing the communications course. if the reader is planning to implement a program like the pie program at a post-secondary institution, it is suggested that a group with at least three or four champions be formed. as the program development moved from conceptualization through to implementation, the bulk of the documentation work was completed by the faculty member with some assistance from a curriculum specialist at algonquin college. although there is merit in designating a single project manager, it is problematic when the institutional (i.e. hierarchical) organization structure defaults the leadership role to the person higher in the organization chart and not necessarily the person who is in fact responsible for completing the work on time and according to the requirements. having the responsibility for the program shared between several champions (particularly at the faculty/staff level) will mitigate the responsibility and accountability for the programs success falling on the shoulders of a single employee; however, it is suggested that whoever is designated as the project manager be mindful of sharing information about all of the tasks, deadlines, and deliverables with the appropriate project participants in a timely manner. indigenous stakeholders throughout the development of the pie program, members of the education committees in local indigenous communities were invited to share their concerns, ideas, suggestions and desires for the program. it was noted in the bear research project that community members from pikwakanagan suggested that the availability of transferable credits was key and that the first semester math course should include practical budgeting applications. both ideas were incorporated into the pie program where three transferable credits for communications i, computer foundations, and the interconnection of science (the new general education elective) are part of the program as is a unit on college student budgeting in the math for everyday living course that includes a field trip to a credit union in downtown ottawa. from the programs inception through until the documentation was finalized, indigenous oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 17 community members participated in face-to-face meetings, conference calls and email exchanges on a regular basis. the pie programs authenticity, viability and practicality rests on responding to the needs of the students; involving indigenous stakeholders at various stages of the project insured that their community members played an advisory role. the reader is urged to cultivate and maintain respectful, productive relationships with local indigenous community partners when considering creating and implementing a program like the pie program. community board of education members are in the unique position of being knowledgeable of the abilities, hopes and goals of local high school graduates as well as being aware of the desires and challenges facing other potential post-secondary students; often, the post-secondary education officers are in the difficult position of determining how funding is distributed and must decide who within the community is given the opportunity to pursue post-secondary programs. these staff members are familiar with high school grading systems and the career paths desired by community members who are seeking education funding. the insight shared by indigenous education officers can prove invaluable in the design and implementation of a successful bridging or preparatory program for indigenous learners. in addition, building positive relationships with indigenous community partners serves to expand the pool of potential instructors and professors. depending on the location of the post-secondary institution, there may be challenges in finding indigenous knowledge-keepers able to step into faculty roles. being able to network with local indigenous communities is a strategy for finding new champions willing to teach and promote a college preparatory program similar to the pie program. college connections the program development phase may be managed effectively by subject matter experts, curriculum developers and managers; however, preparing the program for deployment as a college offering will likely involve several areas of the institution. launching the pdis program in fall 2017 and then transferring over to the pie program in january 2018 required significant support from these areas: gas program officers requested budget codes for both programs from finance department requested classrooms through timetabling added new course descriptions to genesis (algonquin colleges student information system) tracked expense claims and receipts organized book orders as needed set up meetings and faculty interviews, etc. as needed oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life academic operations and planning provided support in creating the cost/benefit analysis required for pdis and pie program documentation suggested that additional funding sources (e.g. from the algonquin college foundation) be sought to offset program start-up costs library services provided support in completing program documentation in relation to library services procured materials (i.e. video streaming) for required resources registrars office staff approved fall registration for pdis program approved the pdis application form and process (* no availability through ocas initially) sent acceptance letters to the students contacted indigenous boards of education in communities regarding sponsorship processes created student profiles in genesis; updated profiles as needed transferred all students credits from the first semester to the pie program in january 2018 ensured that all students met the requirements to graduate academic development assisted in developing the workaround for fall 2017 launch via the pdis program transferred program documentation to appropriate format(s) connected pdis courses with blackboard, acsis, etc. updated genesis to reflect new courses, codes and pre-requisites for pdis assisted in finalizing pie documentation for approval by bog ensured that all pie documentation was submitted to the ministry created work plans for full deployment of the pie program, i.e. blackboard, acsis, etc. once ministry approval was received ensured that courses were correctly documented in comms (course outlines) ensured that program course information was completed within the sis as required 18 oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 19 ensured that all pie information was transmitted to the appropriate administrators so that marketing, ocas, acsis, blackboard, etc. were all provided with the required data to add pie program information as needed. many thanks are extended to the staff working in these areas; their enthusiasm and willingness to support these new programs for indigenous learners was heartwarming and deeply appreciated. program comparison and analysis as part of the initial research that underpins the pdis/pie program development, a scan of preparatory programs designed to support indigenous learners was conducted. within the ottawa area, programs similar to the pie program include indigenous enriched support program at carleton university with pathways to help students qualify to enter programs in arts and social science, business, computer science, engineering and science. the university of ottawa has a three-year, part-time aboriginal teacher education program offered in partnership with indigenous communities which consists of courses and work in schools including 80 days of practice teaching. this university also offers aboriginal studies as a major or minor area of study; however, the university of ottawa does not appear to offer a preparatory pathway for indigenous learners. to the report writers knowledge, algonquin college has not yet approached carleton university or ottawa university about possible pathways between the pie program and university entrance. at this time, the focus for the pie program is to prepare indigenous students for further college programs so it is uncertain whether any of the college course credits would be transferrable to university courses. the usual path for indigenous students at algonquin college who enroll in preparatory programs who wish to pursue a university degree is to complete the gas - aboriginal studies program and continue to general arts and science year ii before applying to university programs; however, students who succeed in the pie program and then continue into gas aboriginal studies may find that the skills and knowledge attained from these two one-year ontario college certificate programs are sufficient preparation to be successful at university. possible pathways between algonquin college and other post-secondary institutions in the ottawa region have not been identified at the time of writing, but potential articulations and pathways will be identified later. in completing the documentation for the pie program, provincial standards for one-year ontario college certificates were followed which can be obtained from this link. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 20 the primary objective in developing the pie program is to prepare and empower learners to feel better able to select employment options or to pursue further post-secondary studies. modifications to the pie program over the next few academic cycles may reveal areas of the program which could be linked either directly with programs at algonquin college (i.e. exempt courses) or with university-level courses by allotting credit hours to courses within the pie program. development process the program development process at algonquin college is administered by the academic development department. depending on the type of program (i.e. college certificate, ontario college certificate, college diploma, etc.), different documentation requirements must be met; however, the overall approval process is standard and includes three main stages: 1. idea generation through to presenting to deans and directors; 2. program development from the intermediate approval level through curriculum development to the final level of approval; and 3. college approval and cvs validation and maesd funding approval. please go to appendix b for full descriptions of each stage and access to the roadmap and links. project timelines although the pdis/pie program was developed and approved within nine months, a significant amount of program planning began with the bear research project. this made progressing from the documentation stage in february 2017 to final approval in december 2017 an unusually rapid process. as outlined above, the creation of the pdis program as an interim step was necessary to ensure that the project to deliver an innovative preparatory program for indigenous learners was up and running by fall 2017. as a college certificate program, the approval process was less lengthy; the final approval was provided by deans and directors council (rather than maesd) so the timeline from program approval to implementation took minimal time. having an additional certificate means that there is an exit strategy for students who successfully complete the first semester of the pie program but cannot stay in school to complete the next six courses; these students can be awarded with a college certificate. however, given the stress involved in working within tight timelines, it is recommended that a postsecondary institution allot at least one year to implement a new program or pathway. tight timelines also meant that there was little time to advertise and market the pdis/pie program prior to launching in september 2017. given the challenges last fall, however, having only five students in the oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 21 first year of the program was a benefit as it was easier to accommodate students return to classes after the work stoppage. the main steps in the program planning process are outlined below: process step date initial scoping april 17, 2015 bear research september 2015-october 2016 pre-prc feb. 9, 2017 follow-up from pre-prc march 17, 2017 prc intermediate april 20, 2017 prc final may 4, 2017 ddc may 30, 2017 bog sub committee sept. 14, 2017 bog oct. 16, 2017 transmitted to maesd oct. 18, 2017 ministry approval dec. 19, 2017 implementation on genesis january 2017 program implementation please see appendix b for a description of the stages involved in implementing the pdis/pie program from a systems perspective. in addition to the work required to enter program information on genesis and to transmit information to ocas and osap (once the one-year ontario college certificate was approved), program implementation required scheduling classes, hiring faculty, and developing plans for a week-long orientation. class schedules and coaching sessions to support the development of skills in communications and math in the first semester, these classes were held several times a week. this year the strike reduced the number of classes held over the semester, but the original system was kept intact where foundations of communication took place four times a week in two-hour sessions. as a module-based course, students work at their own pace to complete study portions and assignments. this allows students to leave class (one at a time) to meet with the professor in the personal discovery and personal development class times. the class schedule oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 22 for semester 1 shows the overlapping course times: class timetable time 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 monday tuesday foundations of communication foundations of communication career exploration wednesday thursday friday health and wellness foundations of communication foundations of communication math for everyday living computer foundations math for everyday living coaching sessions personal discovery class times time 9-10 10-11 11-12 monday open access student a tuesday wednesday student b student c thursday student d student e friday open access open access as shown, coaching times were assigned to each student with three open times available as needed. when the number of students increases, an additional coach may be required to ensure that students receive the support they need in a timely manner. however, there is some flexibility built into the schedule. for example, if enrollment reaches 12 students, it may be possible for one coach (i.e. personal discovery/personal development professor) to meet with each student once a week, where eight students can meet with the coach during communications class time and four others can meet with the coach in non-class times during the week. if more than 12 students enroll in the program, then adding a second coach will be considered to ensure that the students are able to meet with a coach once a week and the professor in the coaching/teaching role is not overbooked. it may take a few iterations of the program to determine the best system, and some students may require less support than others where 30-minute sessions suffice every week. based on feedback from students and to accommodate faculty, the class schedule changed in the second semester to provide students with two days with no classes and three days with two classes each. this arrangement was beneficial for students as it gave them time during the week to work on assignments and to set up appointments and meetings as needed outside of school; however, sometimes students found it difficult to establish a regular routine. attending the college only three times a week meant that the students were often struggling to cram study time and assignment work oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 23 into three days rather than spreading their schoolwork over four or five days. one student with children found the later classes problematic because her childrens elementary school did not have after school care spots available in the winter when the second semester began. the class schedule for the second semester was set up as follows: class timetable time 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 monday no classes tuesday wednesday career development thursday no classes career development communication skills friday the interconnection of science environmental guardianship transforming turtle island juggling the needs of the students with the logistics of faculty teaching schedules is sometimes problematic, and as noted above, having two days off a week proved challenging for the students. on the other hand, having two days with no classes meant that it was relatively easy to schedule offcampus events and field trips without impacting the teaching schedule. hiring faculty key to the success of the pie program is the inclusion of indigenous knowledge taught by indigenous professors. the process of hiring professors with specific areas of knowledge and expertise is managed by human resource experts; nonetheless, ensuring that job postings contained language that expressed fairly and accurately the requirement for indigenous knowledge and experience led to the inclusion of specific wording related to candidates knowledge of indigenous history, culture, language, traditions, teachings, etc. to meet the hiring criteria set by the institution, candidates may be required to demonstrate mainstream qualifications; however, depending on the course being taught, western qualifications may be insufficient or irrelevant. the reader is urged to consider alternative means of gauging expertise and knowledge as criteria for teaching. this following example shows the wording used (underlined) in a job posting for the position to teach career exploration part-time. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 24 required qualifications a minimum of a one-year post-secondary credential in the field of aboriginal and/or indigenous studies, career planning, essential skills or related field or equivalent relevant work experience; minimum two (2) years of teaching experience, or equivalent, preferably in a postsecondary setting; demonstrated knowledge of indigenous cultural practices and traditions; demonstrated knowledge of the employment challenges facing indigenous communities; demonstrated knowledge of student success strategies in a postsecondary setting; demonstrated knowledge and experience in the use of educational technologies; highly effective communication, presentation, and organizational skills; demonstrated skill in algonquin colleges preferred teaching competencies as set out in the professor of the 21st century document: http://www.algonquincollege.com/profres/; evidence of commitment to the success of all learners. because of tight deadlines, creating the pie program documentation (including course curricula) was developed by the full-time communications professor based on an understanding of the ways in which indigenous knowledge informs land-based education and the ways in which colonization has impacted indigenous peoples in canada. however, the reader is urged to collaborate with indigenous faculty members prior to the finalization of program documentation (if possible) to ensure that appropriate course learning requirements (clrs) are included. for the most part, the clrs that were created fit with the pedagogy and knowledge contributed by indigenous professors but including an indigenous perspective in the documentation development stage is advantageous and more appropriately responds to the trc calls to action related to changing the education paradigm. orientation planning the importance of first impressions cannot be underestimated, particularly for students who feel vulnerable and overwhelmed with starting college. part of what sets the pie program apart from others is that there is a one-week orientation at the start of the year. the purpose of the four-day orientation is to provide students with an opportunity to adjust to the new college routine. working with the personal discovery/development professor and the coordinator of the gas aboriginal studies program, the following plan was developed where students in both programs were invited to take part in sessions on campus as well as visiting key locations around ottawa. emails were distributed to the pdis/pie students and the gas aboriginal studies students the week prior to ac day one (the general one-day oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 25 orientation session) outlining the orientation plans for the first week. orientation sessions and events included the following: tuesday, sept. 5: ac day one events, meeting the faculty, support with obtaining ac cards, timetables, it set up and support wednesday, sept. 6: macskimming outdoor centre a day on the land (planned in conjunction with the aboriginal studies class); teaching with a local elder; catered lunch thursday, sept. 7: welcome feast at the mamidosewin centre; distribution of textbooks, support with ac cards, it support; discussion of timetables friday, sept. 8: community connections bus tour including stops at victoria island, wabano health centre, minwaashin lodge and kagita mikam the feedback from students regarding orientation was favourable. students appreciated the opportunity to take the week to prepare for life as a student, i.e. getting to know their way around the college, getting set for classes, chances to meet and chat with other students in other programs, and to tour several local organizations that provide support for indigenous people. in addition, students were extremely thankful for the one-on-one support provided by the coach in assisting with obtaining student cards, managing it issues, and support for other personal issues. taking the time to establish connections and to give students time and space to become acquainted with the campus, online systems (i.e. acsis and blackboard), and to feel prepared to start the year in a calm, organized way made the four-day orientation successful. some educators may disagree with cancelling classes in the first week, but our experience showed that the benefits to starting the year with plenty of opportunities for students to interact with one another and with faculty and staff made a significant difference in creating a sense of community right from the beginning of the year. one other point about holding a week-long orientation is that it is not uncommon for some indigenous students to miss the first few days of college. when communities conduct a final assessment in august, occasionally there are funds available to send additional students to post-secondary programs. in some cases, students encounter travel issues that delay their arrival in ottawa or once they arrive in ottawa or gatineau, they must spend time organizing housing or settling their children in a new school before they are able to attend college. having a four-day orientation provides a buffer so that students who must start late do not miss classes. however, these students often require additional support in getting set up online and in organizing themselves for their school experience. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 26 summary of pathway(s) created the project to launch the pathways to indigenous empowerment (pie) program has brought about several pathways towards academic achievement and empowerment for indigenous learners at algonquin college: 1) the development and implementation of a new one-year ontario college certificate; 2) the development and implementation of a new algonquin college certificate (personal development for indigenous success) which can be granted to learners who are able to complete the first semester of the pie program but are unable to continue with the second semester of the pie program; 3) new relationships between pie program faculty and other faculty at the college to enable class shadowing activities and career development information interviews; and 4) recognition of the requirement to continue to develop courses, programs and pedagogies that support all learners by embracing content, processes and systems that reflect alternative ways of conceiving the world. as noted earlier in the report, alternative pathways that connect with programs at other post-secondary institutions are worthy of exploration and will be identified at a later date. lessons learned the journey of the pie program from a concept being discussed around a table to an actual credentialed pathway for indigenous learners has afforded eye-opening lessons. rarely in education is lack of ability the reason for student failure; with enough support and encouragement students who have a will to learn can learn and can be successful. the reasons that students end up being unsuccessful are not as much internally-driven as they are externally-caused. issues relating to inadequate funding for food and shelter lead to fear, anxiety and stress which in turn lead to mental and physical health issues. when students are anxious, tired, and hungry they are unable to stay focused or organize their academic world in relaxed, calm ways. in applying the medicine wheel concept to the lived experiences of our students, it becomes clear that academic success is dependent on all other areas of their lives being healthy and in balance; however, because so much of what happens in their lives is beyond their control, our students often find themselves plunged into reactive situations where they need to overcome a barrage of constantly changing factors in their world. many oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 27 of our students endured a series of crises all year long; as educators, the search for solutions to issues that impacted their academic opportunities became part of the lessons we learned this year. building a circle of trust first and foremost is the realization that intergenerational trauma is a factor in the lives of all our indigenous students. discussions with students in the pie program revealed that each one has a family member impacted in some way by systemic racism brought about by colonialism and residential schools; either a parent, grandparent, or aunt or uncle is or was a residential school survivor. all students could identify racist, demeaning situations in their elementary, middle and high school experiences that deeply affected their confidence and self-worth as learners. one student who has been under the care of the childrens aid society (cas) since adolescence lost her mother to an overdose four months before deciding to start college. two of the five students had not completed high school; another two of the group achieved their ontario secondary school graduation diploma (ossgd) after attending the urban aboriginal high school in ottawa. only one student achieved her ossgd within the standard four-year high school program. each student began the pie program with her own story and her own reasons for wanting a fresh start. students identified as belonging to the nations of ahkwesahsne (1 student), kitigan zibi (2 students), pikwakanagan (1 student) and fort albany (1 student); their journeys led them all to the pie program this year where we were able to create a supportive and caring learning environment. the provision of weekly one-on-one coaching opportunities available within the personal discovery and personal development courses for students to discuss whatever they feel compelled to share is a key component in being able to create a circle of trust and caring for each student. over the course of the year, attendance at the coaching sessions has been steady, and in instances where students are unable to attend, the coach/professor has been flexible in rescheduling so that the student does not miss the opportunity to meet at least once a week. each student faced unique challenges but over the year, a few main issues emerged as having the most impact on the students well-being. issues with finances, housing, mental health, and the learning environment having adequate finances is an issue for all college students. because the pdis/pie program was not initially eligible for osap funding, students were unable to apply for financial support from the government. as status-holders, students were eligible to receive band funding which includes money for tuition, books, and other supplies as well as a monthly living allowance that varies by band. two oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 28 students from the same community struggled with chronic underfunding; one kept her part-time job to avoid going into debt, and the other accessed local food banks regularly to be able to provide food for her children. one student was unable to attain band funding but was able to receive tuition funding through a special cas program and received ontario works assistance, approximately $270 per month for living expenses in the first semester. many times, this student was tempted to quit college to try and find a job instead of struggling every month, but her determination to stay helped us explore different funding options, and in january, the student was granted funding from the congress of aboriginal peoples to cover her tuition and living expenses for the second semester. to support students in their search for additional funding support, faculty and staff reached out to a variety of funding agencies and explored several funding options including the following: 1. algonquin college - online bursary application through acsis (*not all students were eligible as indigenous learners) - emergency funding for indigenous students (*students without an ontario address are ineligible) - plant some roots bursary (emergency funding; application process was unclear) 2. indspire - application process is available at http://indspire.ca/for-students/bursaries-scholarships/ - not all students were eligible; issues with emails from indspire going to college junkmail folder made one student miss an important notice and she became ineligible 3. congress of aboriginal peoples (cap) - one students second semester tuition and living expenses were funded through cap - application process information is available at this link. - only students who are not band funded are eligible to apply for a bursary for education in order to apply for bursaries, students must have a social insurance number, and in order to obtain a sin card, a birth certificate is necessary. to enable one of our students to apply for bursaries, the first step was to assist her in obtaining her birth certificate. ordinarily this is not a task that falls under the purview of college faculty or support staff; however, the unique and flexible nature of the coach/professor position made it possible to turn the task into an empowering learning activity for the student. the student felt insecure and embarrassed about not having access to her own birth certificate; by assisting her in obtaining a new one, the student overcame her sense of helplessness and was able to take the next step in applying for a sin card so that she could apply for bursaries. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 29 in addition to worrying about finances, three students also struggled to find suitable accommodations. one student transitioned from living in an apartment with a roommate to couch-surfing with a friend after incidents with her roommate created an untenable living situation. another student began apartment hunting in august but was unable to find a suitable place to live all year. she and her children stayed with her sister for the first semester where their bedroom was the laundry room, but the living arrangement was not workable. the student decided to have her son live with his uncle in the community to provide her son with more stability. when the student was asked to leave her sisters place, she struggled to find a place for her and her daughter to live. faculty members were able to reach out to contacts in the community and a temporary living arrangement was found after the student and her daughter were provided with a nights stay in a hotel so that they could feel safe and be able to rest. this student stored personal items in her car all year as she had no long-term living arrangement. one other student was homeless all year. she spent the first semester couch surfing between her sisters apartment and a friends apartment. due to her financial situation and having aged out of cas care, she was unable to afford first and last months rent and repeated attempts to be registered in the citys housing support network at the start of the school year were unsuccessful. in the second semester, this student was able to live with one of the other pie program students temporarily; however, her cas worker was persistent and on may 1, after surviving the entire year without a place to call her own, this student finally received ottawa housing support and moved into her own small apartment. it is a testament to their resilience and determination to succeed at school that these students found ways to continue attending school without having a home to go to at night. mental and emotional health issues also affected the students learning environment. two students struggled with finding the motivation to come to school at the start of the year. both had a history of depression, isolating themselves and staying at home in bed when they felt overwhelmed with new people and new tasks. two other students are in recovery from substance abuse problems and have struggled throughout the year to manage the effects of dealing with unhealthy choices and behaviours. one student began the school year in recovery from being in an abusive relationship and had been dealing with police, lawyers, and court dates regularly from the start of the year until mid-way through the year; another student began a relationship in the fall and faced abusive situations that led her to end the relationship in january. some students already had support systems in place with medical professionals, counsellors and community resources. in the case where students required support for mental and emotional health issues, referrals to counsellors and mental health professionals were oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 30 made. as a last note, one student shared that she had problems managing anger and had difficulty dealing with her emotions at school. the student felt that the learning environment was challenging due to the location of the classroom. the learning environment impacts students ability to learn effectively and enjoyably. because financial and space constraints made it impossible to designate a classroom for the pie program this year, the workaround was to use the computer lab space in the mamidosewin centre as a designated classroom for several of the pie program courses this year. in the first semester, the lab space was used 8 hours per week for the foundations of communication course and 4 hours per week for the math course. a concerted effort was made to create a suitable learning space for the students where a folding table belonging to the mamidosewin centre was set up along with stacking chairs, and a professor supplied mini hand-made white boards for students to use as no white board was made available despite several requests throughout the year. issues with the lab thermostat dropping to 18c recurred daily and necessitated regular calls to physical resources. in addition, students admitted to feeling awkward and uncomfortable being in such a public space. even though signs were placed on the lab door to let other students know that classes were in progress, students regularly stepped into the computer lab space to use the computers and the printer continuously interrupting lessons. in addition, students who use the mamidosewin centre regularly (particularly second and third year students) commented that having the class run in the lab limited the activities taking place in the centre; that is, the students using the mamidosewin centre for activities and to socialize were aware of making too much noise and disturbing the class. although it is convenient having the coaching space close to the lab, it is recommended that a different space be utilized next year. promising practices and next steps writing this final report is an opportunity to review the year and to assess the pie program outcomes. rushing to launch the program in two parts before official ministry approval was granted for the ontario college certificate was not an ideal situation from an implementation perspective; however, the unusually small cohort afforded the chance to create a close-knit learning community and provided flexibility and adaptability for faculty to collaborate in delivering enhanced learning opportunities. the pie program faculty team is eager, caring, and supportive; their dedication and commitment to sharing ideas and knowledge and building skills and self-confidence is the foundation of the programs success. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 31 the reader is encouraged to review the pie program course outlines included in appendix e. promising practices 1. faculty communication beginning a new program means encountering unknowns and complications; working through issues and problems is part of the implementation process. when faced with the challenge of developing course outlines for comms in a short timeframe, the pie faculty worked collaboratively to embed essential knowledge and skills components that supported and complemented all courses. by communicating effectively, the faculty ensure that the knowledge and skills taught within the program intersect and are reinforced. one example is the plan to use the textbook from the interconnection of science course in the health and wellness and foundations of communication courses next year. by utilizing chapters from the same text to highlight different information, students benefit from seeing how one resource incorporates many concepts; having one book that captures the essence of the pie program helps students to see the connections between the courses within the program. effective communication also ensures that faculty members feel comfortable in sharing their ideas and concerns about programming, students performance, assessments, etc. the return to work after the strike was difficult for professors and knowing that our team was committed to working together to help our students be successful was an effective way to mitigate the post-strike stress and worry. 2. field trips and campus visits sometimes the best learning happens outside of the classroom. having a creative, engaged faculty team and a small cohort of students meant that field trip planning was relatively easy. during the year, students experienced the following campus visits and field trips: algonquin garden: as part of communications classes, students visited the horticulture building and spent time in the garden writing in their journals. loblaws: as part of the health and wellness course students met with a nutritionist to discuss healthy food choices and meal preparation techniques algonquin college fitness zone: in the first semester, the health and wellness professor arranged a visit to the gym on campus for students to experience a variety of fitness assessments. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 32 credit union: as part of the math for everyday living course, students visited a credit union and learned about the difference between national banks and credit unions and budgeting. bank of canada museum: students studied about currency and the history of money as part of the math course. museum of science and technology: to solidify knowledge of western science studied in the science of interconnection course, students visited various displays and interactive sessions at this museum national art gallery: to study indigenous art and artifacts, students visited the gallery as part of the environmental guardianship course. museum of history: on the same day, students also visited this museum with the environmental guardianship professor to explore indigenous history. parliament hill: as part of the transforming turtle island course students attended the have a heart rally held every year to raise awareness about the disparity in funding indigenous and nonindigenous education. carleton university: students attended a lecture by dr. don innes regarding the history forced starvation of the indigenous peoples in manitoba and saskatchewan. the walrus talks - the indigenous city: together with students from the gas aboriginal studies course, students attended this event as part of the career development course. mayfair theatre - indian horse: pie faculty and students attended the screening of this powerful movie as part of the transforming turtle island course. algonquin college innovation centre: as part of the interconnection of science course, students attended a tour of the innovation centre on campus to learn about cutting-edge technologies. including fieldtrips in the curriculum provided students with opportunities to explore the local community and to enhance their understanding of the ideas and concept shared in class. 3. cultural events and guest speakers taking part in cultural events at the college and inviting guest speakers to classes was another way that students were able to engage in learning about and appreciating aspects of indigenous and other cultures. the blanket exercise: students from the pie program joined with students from the aboriginal studies program to take part in this interactive exercise designed to share information about colonization and its long-lasting effects on indigenous people across canada. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 33 moon ceremonies: every month, jackie tenute, an indigenous professor and counselor at algonquin college, holds ceremonies especially for women to learn about sacred teachings related to womanhood. pie students shared in the singing, drumming, and story-telling several times during the year. drum making: jason verboomen, a professor in general arts and science, collaborated with andre obonsawin, manager of the mamidosewin centre, along with staff and faculty from the three algonquin college campuses to build three grandfather drums with the guidance of local elders and master drum makers. students in the pie program took part in several of the lectures and events as part of this intercultural learning experience. guest speakers: geraldine king (professor for transforming turtle island) invited colleagues from carleton university to speak about their education journeys in achieving their doctorate degrees. michel lacroix (professor for environmental guardianship) invited an architect who works with douglas cardinal to speak about land, water, and architecture. the students appreciated the chance to hear about pathways to meaningful work from indigenous women like themselves. 4. real curriculum many of the topics discussed this year have heartbreakingly real connections with the pie students. lateral violence, intergenerational trauma, youth suicide, addictions these are issues that all too real for some students. rather than content being accessible and realistic, one of the challenges in teaching is to create assessments that have applications beyond the classroom. over the course of the year, the students completed assignments that had real-world impact. personal statements: as mentioned earlier in the report, all the students endured financial hardship this year. after identifying several bursaries that required students to write a personal statement regarding their education history and future goals, this writing activity was included as part of the foundations of communication curriculum. in this way, the lessons relating to writing for a particular audience and the importance of grammar, style, spelling, punctuation, etc. was reinforced in a realworld application. class shadowing and information interviews: in the first semester as part of the career exploration course students researched career options and potential programs of study. they identified courses within those programs that they were interested in shadowing (attending as an observer) and contacted professors and coordinators to ask permission which encouraged them to use a oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 34 professional approach in contacting faculty. in the second semester students were encouraged to contact professionals in their field of interest to arrange information interviews. pie program video: as part of the health and wellness course in the first semester, the students decided to create a video showcasing indigenous and traditional medicines that promote health but missing five weeks of classes made completing the video impossible. however, the students persevered and as part of the career development course, the students collaborated with a local artist and activist, justin holness, to create a video about their experiences this year. please see appendix g for the link to view the video. 5. tools and technology along with lessons in standard computer applications, the pie program courses encouraged students to explore other practical applications to add to their bundles of skills and knowledge. online surveys: several courses made use of online surveys including foundations of communication, communication skills, career exploration and career development. not only did students complete the surveys, they were encouraged to consider how the surveys were designed and for what purpose. these activities encouraged critical thinking and bias recognition. wordpress: as an assessment in the career development course students were tasked with writing a blog; as part of the activity, they learned how to use the tools embedded within the application to correctly organize and post their blogs. pictochart: in the transforming turtle island course, students were tasked with researching topics related to the effects of colonization on indigenous peoples. rather than present the information in an essay or slideshow, students used a graphic design application to create posters that shared their research findings in artistically striking ways. these posters were printed and are now hanging in the mamidosewin centre where other students are able to view the charts. business cards: as part of the career development course, students were tasked with designing and printing business cards that presented a professional, appealing image. this list is not exhaustive but highlights just a few of the promising teaching practices used this year. next steps a tremendous amount of learning took place in the pie programs inaugural year. building on our success will include the following: oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 35 1. creating an information package to share with faculty and staff about the pie program and the class shadowing component. when approached this year to assist students, the faculty were eager to help; however, providing information about the shadowing activities will offer a heads up to professors and coordinators prior to the start of the next year. 2. creating an information package for incoming pie program students in preparation for starting the program. based on our experiences at the start of semester last year, reaching out to students at the end of july or beginning of august to inquire about their college preparation may mitigate some of the issues we faced this year. checking to see if students have financial support, accommodations, technological devices, and other supports as needed (e.g. school or daycare information for children) will let us know if additional support is needed prior to arriving. contacting students well before the start of the year will also provide the lead-time necessary to apply for osap funding. 3. modifying the personal discovery and personal development courses and coaching options. from our experience this year, some students required intensive coaching support whereas others were more self-directed and completed course work independently. using a triage approach has been suggested so that the coaching support may be available in a more efficient and effective way. 4. developing a semester plan with important dates. faculty will be encouraged to share information about field trip plans, guest speakers, major assignments, etc. so that a pie program semester plan can be distributed to all students to assist them in planning around college commitments. 5. creating and sharing the orientation plans with students prior to the start of the semester. as we did last year, the week-long orientation for students in the gas aboriginal studies program and the pie program will include on-campus and off-campus events and activities. an information package will be distributed to all students in august to inform them of the orientation events. 6. meeting with indigenous community members to discuss creating a circle of care. discussions with students revealed that there may be opportunities to examine community funding models to see if alternative funding could be arranged to more effectively accommodate varied student needs. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 36 7. meeting with prospective students in the community prior to january. sharing information about the pie program with educators, students, and parents in the community prior to program selection and college applications in february will reassure them that the pie program is an excellent option if students feel unready to apply to other certificate, degree or diploma programs. 8. collaborating with library services and learning and teaching services to develop indigenous resources. in researching resources for the pie program courses, it became evident that resources related to indigenous pedagogy, colonization, de-colonization, reconciliation, and other vital topics related to responding to the trc calls to action have been published by indigenous scholars, educators, activists, and policy-makers and should be accessible through algonquin college library services as part of the colleges indigenization strategy, and should be made available to faculty through the learning and teaching services unit. 9. developing diploma and degree programs that recognize, respect and reflect indigenous knowledge and pedagogy. in responding to the trc calls to action, post-secondary institutions have an opportunity to explore new pathways and develop credentialed programs that will help to facilitate the sharing of traditional knowledge and cultural practices as part of the reconciliation process. validating and celebrating indigenous worldviews and perspectives has the capacity to enhance the college experience for all our learners. 10. tracking the educational progress of pie program graduates. all five of the pie program graduates are planning on attending algonquin college next year. two have confirmed their acceptance to diploma programs in social work and hotel and restaurant management, two have confirmed their acceptance into certificate programs in pre-business and environmental studies, and one has applied to the pre-health sciences program with the goal of a career in respiratory therapy. keeping in touch with these students as they continue their education will be informative for both the college and the students home communities. in a few years time, the data may show that investing in the pie program to better prepare students for further post-secondary learning is an economical option that affords a high return on investment. can educators place a price on human potential? the investment made in the pie program this year is extensive, but the ripple effect of empowering indigenous learners to pursue their hopes and dreams is oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life priceless. as we prepare to welcome the second cohort of pie program students, we hope that algonquin college is encouraged with the programs results and eager to support us next year. financial report financial report provided in separate document. 37 oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 38 references algonquin college (2015). building empowerment, attaining rewards the bear program research project. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2015-36-final-reportalgonquin-college-bear-building-empowerment-attaining-rewards.pdf algonquin college (2017). annual report. retrieved from http://www.algonquincollege.com/reports/files/2013/03/ac-annual_report-2016-17.pdf raisman, n. (2016). why students left college 2016. retrieved from http://academicmaps.blogspot.ca/2016/09/why-students-left-college-2016-neal.html rushowy,k. (december 2017). ten per cent of college students drop out after teachers strike. retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/12/12/more-than-25000-ontario-collegestudents-get-tuition-refund-after-strike.html sonn, c., bishop, b. and humphries, r. (2000). encounters with the dominant culture: voices of indigenous students in mainstream higher education. australian psychologist. volume 35, pp. 128-135. tinto, v. (1987). leaving college: rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. chicago: the university of chicago press. tinto, v. (2012). completing college: rethinking institutional action. chicago: the university of chicago press. truth and reconciliation commission of canada (2015). truth and reconciliation commission of canada: calls to action. winnipeg, manitoba. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 39 appendix a: truth and reconciliation calls to action (62 and 63) (excerpted from the 2015 truth and reconciliation commission of canada: calls to action.) education for reconciliation 62. we call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, in consultation and collaboration with survivors, aboriginal peoples, and educators, to: i. make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, treaties, and aboriginal peoples historical and contemporary contributions to canada a mandatory education requirement for kindergarten to grade twelve students. ii. provide the necessary funding to post-secondary institutions to educate teachers on how to integrate indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms. iii. provide the necessary funding to aboriginal schools to utilize indigenous knowledge and teaching methods in classrooms. iv. establish senior-level positions in government at the assistant deputy minister level or higher dedicated to aboriginal content in education. 63. we call upon the council of ministers of education, canada to maintain an annual commitment to aboriginal education issues, including: i. developing and implementing kindergarten to grade twelve curriculum and learning resources on aboriginal peoples in canadian history, and the history and legacy of residential schools. ii. sharing information and best practices on teaching curriculum related to residential schools and aboriginal history. iii. building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect. iv. identifying teacher-training needs relating to the above appendix b: program development and implementation processes oncat project 2017-25 program review committee (prc) bringing the bear program to life 40 oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 41 terms of reference mandate an advisory committee reporting to deans and directors council (ddc), the committee will be responsible for the following specific tasks: reviewing all new program proposals and major program revisions to confirm alignment with college and provincial policies, guidelines and strategic directions. most notably, english, general education, essential employability skills, data entry guidelines and overall compliance with the ministry of training, colleges and universities ministers binding policy directive, framework for programs of instruction. ensuring that proposed program delivery aligns with the characteristics of the algonquin experience. recommending new program curriculum for approval by the ddc. receiving concerns from the general education committee and the essential employability skills committee, and bringing forward to deans and directors council if appropriate. providing guidance and support to the faculties and schools related to programs of instruction. membership dean, academic development (committee chair or designate) chair, academic development academic manager curriculum administrator program quality assurance administrator registrar (or designate) one representative from each faculty/school (aiming for broad experience and representatives from all levels) curriculum consultant(s) sr. executive assistant to the senior vice president, academic (resource) administrative assistant to the office of academic development (recorder) other representatives may be called as required reporting structure the program review committee is an advisory committee to deans and directors council. the committee, through the chair, will make recommendations to deans and directors council. quorum quorum is defined as representation from each of the following areas: chair or designate academic manager or designate curriculum administrator program quality assurance administrator registrar (or designate) faculty/school representatives (minimum of 2) curriculum consultant (minimum of 1) quorum is required for final review of programs and to make formal recommendations to the deans and directors council. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 42 operation the prc will meet once monthly (with a second meeting tentatively scheduled held as necessary), or at the call of the chair for the purpose of proposal review. electronic meetings will be held, if required, between formal meetings in order to expedite program reviews. the program dean and/or chair/academic manager and subject matter expert will be invited to address questions following proposal review by the prc. program proposals must be submitted by the curriculum lead with the approval of the program chair/academic manager to the sr. executive assistant to the senior vice president, academic, one week prior to the scheduled prc meeting date. meeting minutes will be recorded and distributed to members of the committee via posting on the prc shared drive. a report will be provided to deans and directors council following each prc meeting. established sub-committees will report directly to the prc. the committee will be supported by the sr. executive assistant to the senior vice president, academic and administrative assistant from the office of academic development. oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 43 oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 44 oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life appendix c: pie program documentation initial scoping documentation initial scoping for bear program march 2015.docx pie program documentation 001 pie documentation.docx 45 oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 46 appendix d: pdis program documentation pdis program documentation pdis application form 2017.docx pdis application form (* prior to having access through ocas) 001 pdis.docx oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life 47 appendix e: pie program course outlines please click the icons to access the course outlines for each course: semester 1: foundations of communication math for everyday living personal discovery 2017-2018 foun. of comm..pdf 2017-2018 math for everyday living.pdf 2017-2018 personal discovery.pdf health and wellness computer foundations career exploration 2017-2018 health and wellness.pdf 2017-2018 computer foundations.pdf 2017-2018 career exploration.pdf semester 2: communication skills 2017-2018 communication skills.pdf the interconnection of science 2017-2018 the interconnection of science.pdf career development personal development 2017-2018 career development.pdf 2017-2018 personal development.pdf transforming turtle island environmental guardianship 2017-2018 transforming turtle island.pdf 2017-2018 environmental guardianship.pdf oncat project 2017-25 bringing the bear program to life appendix f: pdis and pie program marketing information pdis program brochure information algonquin college pdis program.pdf pie program brochure information pie_program_2018_ v2.pdf appendix g: pie program student contributions link to wordpress pie program blog: https://pieprogram.wordpress.com/page/1/ link to the pie program video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fngyvqvwpdpiuly2sbfh89uprfg2ypxx/view?ts=5b007717 48

instantan pathway development in the arts and sciences type: pathways development project number: 2019-18 or p1918 project lead: laurentian university collaborators: le collge la cit rsum du projet le projet favorise le passage des tudiants des programmes collgiaux vers les programmes universitaires, dans les domaines des sciences et des arts. les passerelles cibles sont les suivantes : 1) du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, vers les programmes biochimie, biologie et chimie pharmaceutique de la laurentienne 2) des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit, vers le tout nouveau programme droit et politique de la laurentienne. justification du projet 1) les programmes biochimie et chimie pharmaceutique la laurentienne ont attir une quinzaine dtudiants au fil des 4 annes dtudes (en 2015, 2016 et 2017). pour ces annes, on en compte 5, 6 et 8, respectivement, en premire anne et on observe un taux de rtention moyen la deuxime anne de 73%. comme nous offrons loption dun baccalaurat de 3 ans ou de 4 ans, environ 11 % des tudiants dcident de poursuivre pour une 4e anne. avec cette passerelle, nous souhaitions maintenir un nombre dtudiants plus lev, pour assurer une dynamique plus intressante. aussi, comme la cit compte annuellement une vingtaine dtudiants gradus en techniques pharmaceutiques, nous estimions que 40% dentre eux dsireraient profiter de cette opportunit. 2) une restructuration du programme de science politique la laurentienne a permis de crer un nouveau programme pour rejoindre davantage les intrts des tudiants: un b.a droit et politique. le programme initial attirant peu dtudiants (de 2014 2016, moins que 5 tudiants y taient inscrits en premire et deuxime anne, bien que le taux de rtention moyen tait de 90 %), il fut dcid que le domaine de la science politique serait combin avec celui du droit, permettant ainsi un apprentissage multidisciplinaire aux tudiants. lors de nos changes le collge la cit, a mentionn tre la recherche de connaissances multidisciplinaires pour leurs tudiants en journalisme et relations publiques. pour ces deux disciplines, loffre que proposait notre nouveau programme droit et politique tait des plus pertinentes aux besoins voqus. en moyenne, la cit dcerne une dizaine de diplmes en journalisme et une trentaine en relations publiques annuellement. selon les chiffres, nous estimions 25 le nombre dtudiants qui seraient intresss poursuivre leurs tudes par lentremise de cette passerelle, selon les informations rcoltes auprs des tudiants de la cit. principaux collaborateurs le collge la cit a eu la responsabilit de fournir la documentation ncessaire l'analyse des programmes cibls pour les passerelles, de participer aux rencontres et de faciliter la communication avec leurs coordonnateurs de programmes dans le cadre des questions de prcisions lies l'analyse des corrlations entre les cours collgiaux et universitaires. luniversit laurentienne quant elle, titre de principal coordonnateur du projet, sest charge d'excuter le plan de travail, de mener les travaux d'analyse, de coordonner les changes de communications et d'informations avec le collge la cit, d'assurer la bonne gestion financire et d'effectuer les rapports de suivis auprs du caton. rsultats obtenus les rsultats de ce projet visait ultimement llaboration de cinq (5) passerelles collgeuniversit, soit trois (3) dans le domaine des sciences et deux (2) dans le domaine des arts. au cours de la dernire anne, nous avons ralis la premire analyse des programmes cibls et identifi les cours de spcialisation qui pourraient tre reconnus chez les diplms collgiaux. nos recommandations sont prsentement en attente dtre values par les diffrentes instances institutionnelles. laboration des parcours mesures cls deux facteurs cls nous ont pouss explorer la pertinence de ces passerelles. dans le cas des deux passerelles en provenance des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit vers le programme droit et politique de la laurentienne, il sagissait surtout de voir de quelle faon, titre de partenaires postsecondaires, nous pouvions nous associer pour offrir aux tudiants de ces programmes collgiaux francophones une valeur ajoute qui leur apporterait une comptitivit sur le march du travail, particulirement froce dans le domaine des communications. dun autre ct, dans le cas des trois passerelles partir du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, il sagissait de promouvoir les possibilits de formation complmentaire qui permettraient daugmenter les dbouchs professionnels pour les diplms de ce programme, tout ayant loccasion dalimenter la fois un nouveau programme en place la laurentienne forte affinit avec ce programme collgial, soit le b.sc chimie pharmaceutique. parcours crs les cinq (5) passerelles espres sont en cours dapprobation par les instances institutionnelles laurentienne : 1) du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, vers les programmes biochimie, biologie et chimie pharmaceutique de la laurentienne 2) des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit, vers le tout nouveau programme droit et politique de la laurentienne. dfis lensemble des dmarches relatives la ralisation de ce projet sest fait sans embuche particulire. rsultats pour les tudiants ces passerelles permettront aux diplms collgiaux dsirant sinscrire dans les programmes universitaires cibls dpargner temps et argent. elles leur offriront galement une plus grande reconnaissance titre de professionnel en considrant davantage la valeur des acquis acadmiques spcialiss quils ont rcolts au cours de leur formation collgiale, dmontrant ainsi une considration accrue et par le fait mme, une plus grande valorisation de la formation collgiale. titres dtudes voir pice jointe : caton1920_bilan cours reconnus_arts et sciences. noter quil sagit des crdits qui seront potentiellement reconnus. les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. conomies de temps pour les tudiants noter que ces informations ne sont quvalues sur le temps potentiel sauv par ltudiant, tant donn que les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. passerelle du programme de journalisme vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 2 semestres. passerelle du programme de relations publiques vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 2 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biologie : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biochimie : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. chimie pharmaceutique : environ 2.5 semestres. conomies financires pour les tudiants ces informations ne sont quvalues sur les frais de scolarits potentiels sauvs par ltudiant, tant donn que les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. les conomies associes aux frais affrents et sa dlocalisation pour suivre les cours sont en sus. passerelle du programme de journalisme vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 7 500$ passerelle du programme de relations publiques vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 7 500$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biologie : environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biochimie : environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. chimie pharmaceutique : environ 9 375$ souplesse pour les tudiants dabord, la reconnaissance de crdit potentielle dans le cadre de ces passerelles semble assez avantageuse. il faudra suivre si les diffrentes instances dcisionnelles accepteront les reconnaissances recommandes la suite de lanalyse effectue dans le cadre de ce projet. de plus, plusieurs cours associs au programme du b.a. en droit et politique de la laurentienne sont accessibles en ligne. ce qui ajoute encore davantage de flexibilit au diplm collgial ou encore ltudiant potentiel dj sur le march du travail de pouvoir poursuivre ses tudes universitaires sans se voir imposer une dlocalisation obligatoire. harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants initialement, le collge la cit nous a contact pour llaboration de cette passerelle dans le but doffrir une valeur ajoute en fait demployabilit puisque plusieurs dentre eux, issus de leur campus de toronto, aspirent des emplois queens park et manifestaient un intrt bonifier leur ducation dune dimension politique. nous pouvons donc affirmer quen effet, cette passerelle contribue lemployabilit des tudiants. rsultats pour les tablissements deleted: non, aucun. la dmarche entreprise dans le cadre de ce projet a suivi les procdures de la nouvelle mthodologie dveloppe et suivie depuis les deux dernires annes. conseils pratiques notre avis, la mthodologie se reposant sur lanalyse des corrlations entre les rsultats dapprentissages des programmes collgiaux et universitaires reste le meilleur argument prsenter aux instances institutionnelles en charge de lapprobation des passerelles proposes, deleted: tips/advice puisquelle dmontre de faon factuelle les recoupements et les acquis des diplms collgiaux. nous la recommandons fortement. outils et ressources les principaux outils dvelopps dans le cadre de ce projet ont t les matrices danalyse. elles sont tlverses dans la section des livrables du projet. deleted: tools and resources

project snapshot pathway development from the early childhood education college program to the second language teaching university program type: pathways development project number: 2019-28 or p1928 project lead: university of ottawa collaborators: la cit collgiale project summary this project aimed to increase francophone student mobility and access to postsecondary programs in french through the development of an efficient pathway from the ducation en services lenfance program at la cit to the ba spcialis en didactiques des langues secondes (dls) offered by the university of ottawa. the dls program allows students to better understand the development and acquisition of languages in a plurilingual context. this training is very important for future early childhood educators and teachers at the elementary level, both in french-language as well as immersion schools in ontario. the pathway developed as part of this project will therefore be very beneficial to graduates of the ducation en services lenfance program who want to pursue a bachelor of education after the dls program. project rationale the goal of the project was to increase francophone student mobility and access to postsecondary programs in french by developing an efficient pathway between an early childhood education college program and a second language teaching university program. main collaborators senior academic administrators, project coordinators, subjects matter experts and curriculum specialists at la cit and the university of ottawa were involved in various discussions regarding the development of this pathway. outcomes the project aimed to increase francophone student mobility and access to postsecondary programs in french by developing an effective pathway in didactiques des langues secondes. the proposed pathway is achieving that goal. an articulation agreement between the university of ottawa and la cit formalizing this pathway is another outcome we are working towards in this project. a formal agreement is currently being developed and will be signed by the partners in the next few weeks. pathway(s) development key steps an extensive analysis and approval of advanced standing was undertaken by several internal university stakeholders (department, undergraduate studies office, admission office) to ensure an accurate list of course equivalencies. existing collaborations between the university of ottawa and la cit in various fields that also grant college graduates 60 credits of advanced standing served as good examples in developing this pathway. pathways created a pathway has been established from the ducation en services lenfance program at la cit to the ba spcialis avec majeure en didactiques des langues secondes (dls) offered by the university of ottawa. more specifically, sixty (60) advanced standing credits will be granted to graduates of the college program towards b.a. spcialis avec majeure en enseignement des langues secondes* (dls) et mineure en franais (fra), which consists of 120 credits. *please note that the name of the university of ottawa program has changed since the submission of the project proposal (i.e. from didactique des langues secondes to enseignement des langues secondes). challenges the last part of the project, development and implementation of the pathway, took longer than anticipated. some college courses underwent modifications during the project and thus the analysis took these changes into account. in addition, several internal university stakeholders are involved in validating the proposed equivalencies (department, undergraduate studies office, admission office) as well as subject matter experts at the college level and this process took longer than anticipated. student outcomes this project has expanded the list of available pathways for francophone college students looking to continue their postsecondary education in french. students can benefit from two years of full-time study in advanced standing as a result of this pathway. student credential students will obtain a college diploma in ducation en services lenfance from la cit and a b.a. spcialis avec majeure en enseignement des langues secondes (dls) et mineure en franais (fra) from the university of ottawa. student time savings students will obtain the college and the university credential in four years rather than six years. student financial savings the reduction in the time completion for the university credential will also result in financial savings for students. student flexibility this pathway has expanded the list of available pathways for francophone college students looking to continue their postsecondary education in french. in addition, a formalized agreement in this field will help reduce barriers for students looking to transfer from college to university. student work alignment this pathway is important because the dls training is very relevant for students looking to pursue a teaching career in french-language and immersion schools, where there is great demand for qualified teachers. the dls program allows students to better understand the development and acquisition of languages in a plurilingual context. this training is very important for future early childhood educators and teachers at the elementary level, both in french-language as well as immersion schools in ontario. the pathway developed as part of this project will therefore be very beneficial to graduates of the ducation en services lenfance program who want to pursue a bachelor of education after the dls program. institutional outcomes the project aligns very well with the university of ottawas recent renewed interest in exploring potential pathways and collaborations with both college and university partners. the university is also continuously improving its internal processes to facilitate pathway development and projects such as this one are helpful in this respect. tools and resources the final version of the proposed equivalencies will be shared with oncat once all approvals are finalized in the next month. an articulation agreement is currently being developed and will be posted on the ontransfer.ca site once the approval process is complete.

oncat careers research, data and funding director location: toronto, ontario, canada type: full-time category: management pay range: $110,000 to $120,000 depending on work experience in postsecondary research, funding, and data, plus health and dental benefits and pension about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. as a member organization, it works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. about the position the research, data and funding (rdf) director is a key member of oncats senior management team and reports to the executive director. the rdf director assumes responsibility for providing senior leadership to the research, data management and funding groups at oncat. the senior researcher and senior data analyst will report to the rdf director. responsibilities include providing leadership for oncats mandate and strategic priorities. the rdf director sets the research agenda for oncat, including both the research conducted by oncat staff and the external research projects funded by oncat. the director designs granting programs and works closely with grantees and oncats granting administrator to ensure the success of projects. they also support oncats senior policy analyst to provide information for government reporting. the rdf director will ensure project and research plans are clearly articulated and supportive of student mobility. they will prioritize work assignments and contribute to a positive team environment as a member of oncats management team. responsibilities strategic planning and management of research, data and funding provide expertise and leadership in the development and implementation of oncats strategic plan. work with the executive director and directors to develop oncats research planning process and achieve strategic plan objectives. supervises senior researcher to develop oncats research plan. manages oncats grants administrator to ensure grantees receive the administrative support they need. oversees and provides mentorship and direction to oncats data team consisting of a senior data analyst and data analyst. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 ensures the research, data and funding team delivers government reporting requirements in collaboration with the senior policy analyst. program management design, intake and review processes oversees and manages oncat funded projects, including the appropriate allocation of financial resources (a portfolio of 30+ projects and a budget of approximately $4 million). provides oversight and direction to all stages of the design, intake, review/assessment, and decision-making processes for oncat grantmaking activities. designs organizational funding strategy: works collaboratively across the organization and leads the development of oncats theory of philanthropy/approach to funding that provides a basis for the development of specific funding streams. this includes identifying overall objectives and outcomes that can be achieved through grantmaking. designs funding programs: designs targeted funding streams that operationalize oncats funding approach, working closely with colleagues across the organization. manages proposal intake processes: leads the intake process for funding streams. directs the review processes: ensures integrity, fairness, and transparency in all stages of oncats decision-making processes related to grantmaking. manages approvals, declines & budget allocations: makes final recommendations to the executive director on projects to be funded and oversees the communications of results and development of contracts with successful applicants. financial management, risk management and oversight in consultation with the executive director, manages budgeting and forecasting process ensuring activities effectively influence strategic plans. provides on-going monitoring of budget, communicating with executive director. oversees and tracks oncats granting budget and ensures funding is allocated in accordance with oncat policies and strategic priorities. manages risks associated with project funding. this includes: o declining proposals that pose significant risks (reputational, financial, harm) o managing early warning signs and deviations from project plans, escalating any significant issues to the executive director candidate requirements as the oncat director providing leadership on research, grants, and funding initiatives with educators throughout the ontario transfer system, the incumbent requires the following qualifications: 7 to 10 years of senior administrative leadership and supervisory experience in postsecondary education, preferably within an ontario college, institute, or university, and / or related postsecondary organization. preference for a phd in a related field. demonstrated strategic and operational planning skills. expertise in research methodology with a broad understanding of research project management. a graduate degree in an appropriate field (preferred). ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 an understanding of ontarios postsecondary system and familiarity with provincial policies and initiatives in the transfer environment. strong background in program design/development, evaluation, knowledge mobilization, research, building and administering funding processes, including program evaluation and experience designing and developing operational plans to achieve strategic priorities, using funding as a lever. excellent facilitation and conflict management skills. demonstrated strategic and operational planning skills. experience developing evaluation/monitoring approaches that inform organizational strategies. very good knowledge of grant management principles, change management theory, philanthropy, evaluation approaches, and knowledge mobilization approaches. experience managing high volumes of work with conflicting priorities and deadlines. demonstrates discretion when handling confidential/sensitive information. understanding of integrated thinking/leadership strategies. demonstrates empathy. fluency in french and english. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca. the deadline to apply friday, december 9th 2022 11:59pm. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening, or an interview will be contacted. oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require an accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

research brief a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project dr. scott davies, university of toronto dr. roger pizarro milian, oncat september 2020 a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 2 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 in our last brief, we discussed the significant data requirements for the study of transfer and student mobility research more broadly. in particular, we emphasized the utility of longitudinal datasets that capture early academic performance and socio-demographic information, along with details on later-stage student trajectories (e.g., transfer) and outcomes (e.g., access to stem, gpa, and graduation rates). these types of datasets constitute the holy grail in educational research. today, we provide an overview of an exciting data source: the toronto district school boarduniversity of toronto (tdsb-ut) administrative linkage, which checks off many (but not all) of the required boxes that we laid out before. the tdsb-ut linkage is part of a wave of innovative linkages that are being performed in the field of education across many jurisdictions. as we will discuss with more detail later, this data source has several advantages over the sources typically used to study transfer in our province. some notable qualities include: population-level coverage: the linkage captures the entire population of students32,302 in allthat traveled one of canadas most trafficked and demographically diverse k12 to pse corridors over almost two decades. such sample size allows us to segment our analysis in a number of useful ways, including according to transfer types and student demographics. to our knowledge, this constitutes the first direct linkage of its kind between a k12 school board and university administrative records in the province of ontario. extensive longitudinal window: the broad time frame (20002019) that this dataset covers allows us to follow the trajectories of non-traditional pse students, which are often missed by cross-sectional designs, including: those who drop out of high school, but complete later on as mature students; those who take gap years to work between high school and university; and those forced to take lengthy breaks during university due to unforeseen circumstances. comprehensive range of controls: the dataset contains an extensive set of variables reflecting academic characteristics, covering grade 9 to university a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 3 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 completion (e.g., grades, field of study, etc.), along with high school behavioural measures (e.g., absenteeism, suspension, etc.), and diverse demographics captured via the tdsbs student census. this allows us to estimate the predictors and outcomes of transfer accurately later in the life-course. mobility tracking: most importantly for oncat, the linkage captures (via a previous institution field) every tdsb student who, during this period, entered any college or university prior to enrolling at ut. to our knowledge, this constitutes the first direct linkage of its kind between a k12 school board and university administrative records in the province of ontario. previous linkages have successfully merged administrative records from universities to ontario university application center (ouac) and ministry of education records (see dooley, pain, & robb, 2012). however, our school board data provides more in-depth coverage of both demographics (e.g., sexual orientation, parental education) and other measures (e.g., absenteeism). our linkage constitutes another step towards closing the gap between ontario and other jurisdictions where these sorts of linkages are common. how its made before we dive into details about this data source and how we are using it for transfer research, lets first go over the behind-the-scenes work that made it possible. in the beginning, there were a series of research ethics board (reb) protocols, legal department reviews, and other institutional sign-offs at both tdsb and ut that made student-level data available to researchers for linkage. in addition, the procedures used to handle data through this project were reviewed by the ontario privacy commission to ensure that they were compliant with privacy laws and regulations. luckily, the tdsb is an experienced research organization and has developed proven matching and associated procedures through other projects that directly informed this one. we are fortunate that the tdsb has the expertise and willingness to engage in this sort of work, as their records offer an incredible degree of detail on student characteristics. 2017 1. for example, see: oreopolous & brown, (_____). a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 4 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 after that lengthy process was complete, administrative records from approximately 200,000 students who started grade 9 within the tdsb (20002010) were cross-referenced to 225,000 student records at ut (20022019) using both ontario education numbers (oen) as well as alphanumeric identifiers for earlier cohorts. this process produced the overall sample of 32,302 perfect matches: students that we have high confidence are the same in both administrative records. once the matching process was complete, all unique identifiers (e.g., names, oen, etc.) were removed from the dataset. this protects the privacy of the individuals and at the same time ensures that researchers have access to granular data. it is consistent with best practices used by other organizations, such as statistics canada, to de-identify our personal records for use by researchers. the resulting dataset allows, as we highlight below, analysts to ask an array of key policy-relevant questions in educational research. for an organization like oncat, it allows us to ask: at what rate do tdsb students transfer into ut? what type of pathways do they travel to ut? what high school metrics predict transfer? and, perhaps most importantly: do transfer and direct-entry student outcomes differ once we statistically account for differences in their high school academics and demographics? a more in-depth look at the metrics the tdsb-ut linkage has four main groups of variables that are pertinent to transfer research: high school records: this includes academic variables like average grades, eqao scores in math, english, and science, the results of the first osslt exam (pass/fail), and the types of courses taken (e.g., academic, applied, etc.). it also includes what could be considered as behavioural metrics, including their number of absences and whether they were ever suspended. lastly, it includes student status in the tdsb five years after grade 9 (e.g., completed, dropped out, etc.). demographics: this includes a long list of variables captured through 2. the oen was introduced in ontario in 2003 but was not fully implemented across ontario pse until later in the 2000s. as such, an alphanumeric was developed for students in earlier cohorts utilizing their gender, birthday, and first and last name (for full 2019 appendix 3). details, see: davies, brown & chakraborty, _____, a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 5 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 the tdsbs detailed student census, including gender, sexual orientation, selfidentified race, world region of birth, language spoken at home, parental level of education, and occupational category. many of these variables are not present in the administrative records of colleges or universities, limiting the sorts of transfer student analyses that previous researchers have conducted. previous institution: at ut, the administrative records contain a text field with the name of the students most recent institution prior to enrolling at the university. we manually coded this field into a series of dummy variables representing particular types of pse institutions, including ontario colleges and universities, other canadian colleges and universities, and international institutions. these metrics provide more detail than the traditional credit transfer flag, which only identifies those transfer students as originating from another ontario pse institution. ut outcomes: tapping into the ut administrative records, we can also observe if a student graduated during our long window, whether they gained access to a stem field of study, their cumulative grade point average (gpa), the number of credits they accumulated, and their time to completion. combined, this set of data fields present a wide range of opportunities to model statistically both the predictors and outcomes of transfer students compared to their direct-entry counterparts. it also allows us to analyze trends across transfer student types. we can do this type of analysis with greater precision than studies that rely on pse-level administrative records only, given that we can control for more early predictors of transfer. limitations the focus on a single school board to university corridor obviously makes these findings difficult to generalize or apply to other corridors across the province, particularly in rural and northern institutions. there is no large provincial picture to be drawn here, despite this being the most trafficked corridor in ontario. furthermore, this dataset only captures those tdsb students that eventually transfer into ut since we cannot track outgoing transfers. we cannot say anything about which students are most likely to leave ut for other pse institutions. as with nearly every dataset, there are also some notable patterns in missing data. most tdsb academic fields are nearly 100% complete (with the exception of absenteeism, a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 6 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 which has 30% missing data), and most ut student records are at least 95% complete. however, some demographic variables have sizeable rates of missing data. in particular, the tdsb student census has only 67% coverage because it was not widely distributed among early cohorts in the dataset (pre-2004). as a result, some measures, like parents occupation, had sizeable rates of missing data, leaving only 50% valid cases. what this effectively means is that researchers using it must be mindful of the potential bias introduced by dropping these cases from their analysis. next up next week, we will begin to publish the results of some exploratory transfer analyses we conducted with the tdsb-ut linkage. this includes both descriptive information, as well as the results of logistic regression models. our goal through these types of briefs is to present findings in a way that is digestible by stakeholders wholike usare not trained as statisticians. in light of such a goal, we do away with the convention of relying on readers to interpret vast regression tables with coefficients, standard errors, p-values, and other statistical details. instead, we present as much of what we can in plain language, visuals, and a few simple tables. as always, we welcome further feedback or questions about this work. 3. the full regression model output is available upon request from roger pizarro milian (rpizarromilian@oncat.ca). a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 7 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. dr. roger pizarro milian dr. roger pizarro milian is the senior researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/projects/tdsb-ut-linkage-and -transfer-project established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2020

prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges january 2022 authors rod missaghian, oncat prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges table of contents 03 04 05 05 06 06 introduction literature review methods findings - overall impressions plar and credit transfer: cohesion or separate entities? plar credit recognition and acceptance between institutions 07 student supports for plar 08 discussion 09 bibliography this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges introduction this report explores the on-line representation of prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) information for ontarios publicly funded colleges. plar, or recognition of prior learning (rpl), is a process that considers an applicants prior informal educational, life, and work experiences and weighs them against the learning outcomes of a formalized post-secondary credit (blanger & mount, 1998). students are given the opportunity, through a variety of potential assessments, to demonstrate equivalency between their experiential learning and the learning outcomes designated by the postsecondary course (or block of courses) for which they hope to gain formal recognition. plar is not new, having existed as an internationally recognized process for credit recognition both in the post-secondary sector and in private industry (harris & wihak, 2018). in addition, indigenous institutes have been very influential in the development of plar policy. early support for the canadian association for prior learning assessment (capla), canadas national voice on plar, by first nations technical institute (fnti) was instrumental in its early establishment. support for plar in ontario has been stronger amongst the publicly funded colleges, as only a handful of universities accept plar credits (harrison, 2018; conrad 2010). the goal of this report is to map out the representation of plar online through an exploration of publicly funded ontario college plar web pages (if available) or alternative supporting digital documents (i.e. transfer or plar guides, policy documents) that describe key features of the plar process, such as first steps in application, fees, supports, assessment procedures, and method of credit recognition. while analyzing the content of these web pages, the following research questions guided the analysis: 1) what types of information are available about plar on college web pages? 2) how is plar conceptualized alongside credit transfer? 1. non-formal learning refers to courses and training taken outside of post-secondary institutions that that do not result in formal credit, whereas informal learning refers to incidental experiential learning that happens outside of a structured course, through daily workplace experiences, selfstudy or community involvement. 2. workplace-based tasks, like computer skills, or book-keeping and accounts payable are examples of the informal learning that is often considered for recognition in plar assessments. 03 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges literature review as ontario post-secondary institutions work towards building a more equitable, seamless, and efficient credit transfer and articulation system, the issue of how to recognize prior learning, in all its forms, is sure to commingle with formalized credit transfer more broadly. plar (also referred to as rpl) has been conceptualized together with credit transfer, as both processes aim to help learners achieve credit for prior learning (harrison, 2018). while the nature of that learning differs formalized educational credits (credit transfer) versus informal learning characterized by life experiences often gained in spheres of employment (plar) the outcome of the two processes is the same: receiving post-secondary credit. however, in ontario the two processes are administered and resourced differently because they are funded and reported on separately. for example, in the 1990s the ontario government directed 3 million dollars to each ontario college to establish a plar facilitator position (harrison, 2018). unfortunately, plar funding is now part of the overall operational grants for institutions, so it is unclear how institutions are using government resources to support plar processes. while the ministry of colleges and universities provides the credit transfer institutional grant (ctig) which can be partly used towards advising services (young, pich & jones, 2017), they make it clear that funds cannot be used for plar assessments (ministry of colleges and universities, 2021). while some institutions may decide to use that funding to hire transfer advisors/officers whose job is to help students access and learn about available credit transfer opportunities, it is unclear whether these staff also handle plar duties. this matter is complicated by the fact that several institutions consider plar as a part of the credit transfer umbrella. there has been interest in and support behind the scenes for plar for decades, tracing all the way back to the 1940s in the u.s. , as colleges used to look at creating a link between training in the military and ways to account for that experience in college credit granting (belanger & mount, 1998). however, there has also been some resistance from degree granting universities, both in the u.s. and canada, as they strive to preserve the integrity of their programs (harrison 2018). despite this hesitance, colleges in ontario and other proponents of plar have framed its emergence as a necessary step in promoting the transfer of experiences of underrepresented populations, like adult learners and certain immigrant groups, towards filling labour market positions, where a shortage of skills remain (morrissey et al. 2008). however, despite the presence of qualified immigrants to canada with credentials like nursing from their country of origin, andersson & guo (2009) argue that less than 20% end up working in their former occupations as their credentials are not considered equivalent; instead of plar acting as a portal towards gaining credit equivalency and filling shortages in certain occupational sectors, they argue that it has functioned more as an institutional assessment tool, potentially acting as a disqualifying mechanism. conrad (2010) argues that because plar requires a large time investment from faculty that it has not been fully adopted or considered a priority. for these reasons, and for a lack of a plar presence in ontario universities, the current scan focuses on ontario colleges. 3. plar is most commonly used acronym in canada for describing this process, rpl which is used in south africa is also used, and in the u.s. pla is used (conrad, 2014). 04 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges methods to undertake the scan of plar web pages, i referenced recent work in ontario and bc, utilizing the same information categories used in those scans (harrison 2018; overton, 2019). i began the first scan of web pages using these categories, to assess their applicability with the ontario context. categories included: plar fee amounts, how plar is reflected on transcripts as well as available student resources for plar. using best practices for assessing the ease and usefulness of credit transfer information on college websites conducted by researchers in the us (schudde, bradley & absher, 2020), i undertook a second scan of the information recording patterns using nvivo qualitative software. one of the themes that emerged, for example, reflected the lack of a designated web page for plar (6/24 institutions); for those institutions i had to refer to their online plar policy or student guide pdfs as the sole document for plar information. if an institution did not have a webpage for their plar information, i used the institutional search bar to recover any records, which could often be found on these separate documents. however, i stopped my search for relevant plar information if after 5 different searches, or clicks, the information was unattainable. in those cases, i coded a particular plar category as information not available. findings: overall impressions plar has been referred to as a holistic process, likely referring to the multiple goals that rpl hopes to provide for the applicant (harrison, 2018). in addition to the primary purpose of the granting of credit for prior experiences, the assessment process itself, characterized by multiple modes of assessment, allows opportunities for adult learners to self-reflect, advocate on behalf of their prior experiences, and most importantly, validate their experiences as learners outside of formalized settings. this scan of ontario college plar web pages demonstrates that ontario colleges provide multiple ways for plar applicants to validate their learning, from the presence of learning portfolios to written or oral tests and interviews. in addition to these multiple assessment opportunities, the steps required for plar applicants are clearly outlined on the available web pages. there are exceptions, as 6 institutions did not provide steps, nor did they have designated plar web pages. while the cost for assessing a course via plar is not cheap, averaging around $130, the opportunity to use plar for a good portion of a students college program is available, as most institutions allow up to 50 to 75% of program credits to undergo the plar process. however, the information for block assessment seems to be scant, as most institutions provide only information about course-specific plar. the process does seem lengthy and complicated as it could take up to 6 to 8 weeks for a decision; this could be problematic when students are required to withdraw from the course and potentially not be granted a credit if unsuccessful. it is also an issue with regards to osap funding as any plar course could compromise the funding that students receive from the government. 4. schudde and colleagues assessed websites based on two metrics, ease of access and usefulness. the first looked at how many clicks were required to locate necessary information while the latter looked at the relevance of information and whether it was up to date. 05 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges plar and credit transfer: cohesion or separate entities? through conducting this scan of ontario college plar websites, we can see examples of how plar and credit transfer fit together and also how they are entirely separate processes. for example, canadore college provides a brief summary of plar on their transfer page, but one has to link to their plar student guide for more comprehensive information. while plar information is also found within the transfer guide, it is located as its own section entitled earn college credit through life experiences plar. in contrast, sheridan, which also does not have a dedicated plar web page, includes plar as one of their credit transfer options on their pathways page. of the institutions scanned, 6/24 colleges did not have their own designated plar webpages. either a separate google search was required to find evidence of plar information embedded in other pages or policy documents, transfer guides, or the institutional home search function had to be utilized to produce the appropriate links. other institutions, like humber, in contrast, had their own plar webpage with much of the relevant information contained therein; the url path shows the page embedded within the transfer options page which suggests that while the information and processes for plar are separate, it is still conceptualized as belonging to the credit transfer family. plar credit recognition and acceptance between institutions plar is closely connected to conventional credit transfer processes, thus making it important for institutions to explain how plar credit is recorded on transcripts, as well as their procedures for accepting the transfer of plar credits. however, none of the 24 ontario colleges provide information online about how and whether plar credits from other institutions are accepted. this is concerning, given that the two processes, while different, are conceptualized in similar ways, as access points to gaining credentials. thus, it would be critical for aligning credit transfer and plar to know under what conditions plar credits are transferable to other institutions. one encouraging trend discovered in this online scan is that 42% (10/24) of institutions reported assigning letter grades for plar credit in the same way they record credits for non-plar credits (see table 1.). additionally, a similar number (9/24) of institutions indicated that they assign letter grades and/or a cr sat s or p designation. 5.cr refers to credit; sat refers to satisfactory and p refers to pass. 06 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges a single institution indicated that plar credits are recorded as a cr earned, while 4/24 institutions did not provide information regarding how plar credits are assigned credit on transcripts. therefore, it seems that the 19/24 institutions who record plar grades in the same way as other courses, should technically be in a position to accept similarly graded plar credits from other colleges, given that the same grading conventions are used. however, they do not explicitly state whether this is the case, leaving questions as to whether plar credits can be transferred successfully between institutions in the same way as conventional credits. one potential obstacle worth investigating in future studies is the role of course outlines in credit equivalency decisions, and whether students transferring plar credits can submit the same course outlines for transfer credit as students that took the course. plar credits are assessed using other assessment criteria (i.e. portfolios, demonstrations) that may satisfy the learning outcomes of a course, but are not part of conventional course delivery. student supports for plar prior research has found that institutional stakeholders understand the effort and challenges that exist with the assessment and administration of plar credits, necessitating targeted investments in human resources to help support students through plar (harrison, 2018). thus, as part of this scan, i looked for the presence of plar support staff available to help students through the process (see table 2). as expected, given the recurring theme of plar as one of a few potential transfer mechanisms, several of the cited supports for plar are phrased as broader pathways support, specifically citing the availability of pathways advisors (7/24), whose job it is to help shepherd plar students through the process. this cross pollination between advising duties is evident in the example of fanshawe, who advise students to consult with their pathways advisor for plar information. fanshawe was one of 7/24 institutions that directed students to a pathways advisor for plar information, while a select few referred students to specialized plar advisors 3/24 or a plar office 4/24. it would be interesting to know whether and to what extent transfer and pathways advising duties cross pollinate with plar and precisely what is the role of a pathways advisor (7/24), particularly in those institutions that frame plar and credit transfer more closely together. 07 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges discussion this scan of ontario college plar webpages has revealed that while information is not standardized across the sector, there are certain categories of information that are consistent across the 24 colleges analyzed in this report. for example, all but 4 of the colleges in ontario provide information about credit award limits pertaining to plar credits. most institutions also reported the cost of plar per credit, as well as outlining the steps required to successfully complete a plar. however, there were a handful of institutions (6/24) who did not have a designated plar webpage, instead offering policy documents, a few of which were dated and not easily accessible. while there have been recent calls to better integrate plar with credit transfer (harrison, 2018), there seems to be a lack of clarity with regards to what this integration may look like. in fact, 6/24 institutions plar websites include information which frame plar as distinct from credit transfer. for example, on mohawk colleges plar webpage it clearly states: prior learning assessment & recognition (plar) focuses on the evaluation of prior learning rather than the formal educational courses used in the academic transfer of credits or course exemptions. here, a clear distinction is made between plar and credit transfer, whereas the distinction is less clear at other institutions. for example, at northern college, information about plar is introduced on their website under the heading transfer credit, challenge exams, and prior learning assessments giving the impression that plar is closely associated with transfer credit. similarly, on the sheridan page, plar is first located as part of one of the options for credit transfer with the explanation that: credit transfer allows sheridan students to apply previously acquired learning credits or workplace experience towards their current program of study. this type of framing arguably suggests that plar is a type of transfer a transfer of experience versus the transfer of acquired learning credits. while all of these various ways of conceptualizing plar are true in some respects, this variegated way of conceptualizing plar may make it more difficult for the sector to achieve clarity on how these two processes can and do complement one another. future oncat research hopes to complement this type of web scan with interviews with plar practitioners at the institutions to understand more about how these online representations are carried out in practice. are plar supports as readily available as they appear online? how seamless is the process for students? are there many students who opt for plar? how is student support for plar funded? these questions are better answered through qualitative work that can probe more deeply and expand the surface impressions which are available through content analysis. 08 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges bibliography andersson, p., & guo, s. (2009). governing through non/recognition: the missing rin the plar for immigrant professionals in canada and sweden. international journal of lifelong education, 28(4), 423-437. belanger, c. h., & mount, j. (1998). prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) in canadian universities. canadian journal of higher education, 28(2/3), 99-119. conrad, d. (2014). rpl in higher education: past, present and potential. in j. harris, c. wihak & j. van kleef (eds.), handbook of the recognition of prior learning: research into practice (pp. 315-335). leicester: the national institute of adult continuing education. harris, j., & wihak, c. (2018). the recognition of non-formal education in higher education: where are we now, and are we learning from experience?. international journal of e-learning & distance education, 33(1), 1-19. harrsion, m. (2018). best practices in prior learning assessment and recogntion in ontario colleges and universities. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat): toronto, on. ministry of colleges and universities. (2021). credit transfer institutional grant (ctig) guidelines and q&as for 2021-22. morrissey, m., myers, d., belanger, p., robitaille, m., davison, p., van kleef, j., & williams, r. (2008). achieving our potential: an action plan for prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) in canada. online submission. overton, m. (2019). prior learning assessment in bc: inventory of plar options, processes, and credit allowances in bc post-secondary institutions. british columbias prior learning action network: victoria, bc. schudde, l., bradley, d., & absher, c. (2020). navigating vertical transfer online: access to and usefulness of transfer information on community college websites. community college review, 48(1), 3-30. young, s., pich, p. g., & jones, g. a. (2017). two towers of transformation: the compatibility of policy goals of differentiation and student mobility. toronto: center for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. 09

indigenous institutes credential recognition final report: oncat project # i1929 six nations polytechnic inc. www.snpolytechnic.com 2160 fourth line ohsweken, ontario n0a 1m0 table of contents introduction........................................................................................................................................................... 3 purpose of the project ...............................................................................................................................................3 background & context ...............................................................................................................................................3 methodology & outputs............................................................................................................................................3 deliverables & benefits .............................................................................................................................................4 findings ................................................................................................................................................................. 5 ontario universities ...................................................................................................................................................5 barriers to student mobility at the university level .............................................................................................5 snps university partners ......................................................................................................................................7 ontario colleges ........................................................................................................................................................8 barriers to student mobility at the college level ..................................................................................................8 snps college partners ...........................................................................................................................................9 professional schools in ontario ...............................................................................................................................10 medical schools ...................................................................................................................................................10 law schools .........................................................................................................................................................11 business programs ...............................................................................................................................................12 teacher education programs ...............................................................................................................................13 recommendations ............................................................................................................................................... 15 recommendations to catalyse structural change ..................................................................................................15 sectoral initiatives: multilateral advocacy & awareness-raising .......................................................................15 inter-organizational initiatives: standardizing & verifying information .............................................................16 recommendations to catalyse functional change .................................................................................................16 inter-institutional initiatives: building & maintaining normative relationships.................................................16 intra-institutional initiatives: augmenting student mobility through programming ..........................................17 2 introduction purpose of the project responding to barriers to educational mobility experienced by indigenous graduates, six nations polytechnic proposed to assess the recognition of its bachelor of arts programming and identify possible parity-catalysing measures both internally and externally. the primary goals of the project were: o o o o understanding the transfer experiences of baol students by exploring and analysing the specific hurdles to mobility they face; documenting the lapses and lacunae in existing credit transfer pathways out of the baol program; enhanced understanding of the indigenous institutes sector among ontario universities and colleges, necessary to facilitate recognition of the credentials these postsecondary bodies are empowered to grant; and identification of possible internal supports and external tools that could reduce disparities in the current credit transfer system (including possible changes to baol curriculum) background & context in 2015, snp became the first indigenous-owned and controlled institution in canada to be granted authority, by ministerial consent from the province of ontario, to deliver a bachelor of arts degree in ogwehoweh languages (cayuga and mohawk). in 2018, one of the first graduates of six nations polytechnic was denied consideration in the application process for the medical school at a large ontario university. with their baol in hand, the applicant possessed a provincially recognized baccalaureate degree a credential that exceeded the baseline academic requirement. in 2019, another graduate was similarly denied entry into an education program. after five years of accredited undergraduate programming, six nations polytechnics status as a degree-granting body has not been either identified or built into entrance requirements or transfer pathways at other, mainstream postsecondary institutions in ontario. this presents formidable structural barriers to educational mobility. such barriers have developed due to the historically self-referential environment of the broader educational system; an under-appreciation of the institutional bridging accomplished by indigenous institutes for at least the past thirty years; and the related lack of appropriate awareness of the shifting regulatory landscape in the postsecondary sector. the indigenous institutes act (s.o. 2017, c. 34, sched. 20) recognized indigenous institutes (iis) as unique and complementary pillar of ontarios postsecondary education system and supported their independence and sustainability. the passing of this legislation quickly catalysed growth in, and significant aspirations for, curricular development across the sector. this project is thus of significant, wider import and potential utility, as indigenous institutes across ontario begin to offer, or further develop their programme offerings; and accordingly, as their roster of graduates grows. methodology & outputs as part of the i1929 oncat baol contract, a comprehensive review and analysis of key aspects of the admission, transfer, and credit recognition policies and procedures of ontarios universities, colleges, and professional programs was conducted. this was undertaken in order to identify and document possible barriers to educational mobility faced by six nations polytechnic (snp) baccalaureate students, to consider implications for indigenous institutes (iis) more broadly, and to identify possible avenues for reducing disparities in credit transfer and degree recognition. in order to assess barriers to mobility across the three pillars of the postsecondary education landscape in particular, student movement into and out of the indigenous institutes sector a review of key councils, services, and policies within provincially recognized university, college and professional school was completed. a review of straightforward omission of the third of the three pillars was undertaken, along with an environmental scan of the 3 structural and specific (language-driven) barriers to credential recognition. this comprehensive scan looked at admission requirements and credit transfer policies at all of ontarios colleges and universities and extended from the undergraduate to the graduate and professional program level, since student mobility relevant to oncat must still consider the longer-term educational goals of incoming students. the analysis similarly moved between scales, detailing findings by both institutional type (universities, colleges, and professional schools) and across the sector as a whole, in order to identify specific relationships and barriers (between iis and particular mainstream postsecondary institutions) while also leaving room for the identification of broad-based issues within and between the types of institutional actors. deliverables & benefits the project was intended to benefit three constituencies. students, and indigenous learners in particular, stand to benefit from clarified transfer processes between current (and planned) indigenous institute programming, and mainstream postsecondary programs. potential and actual mainstream partners stand to benefit from clarification around the credentials indigenous institutes are legislated to grant, and an enhanced appreciation of the approval and quality assurance processes these programmes have undergone. finally, ontarios postsecondary sector generally stands to benefit from increased parity between indigenous and mainstream institutions, in terms of student mobility. project deliverables were developed to align data, findings (analysis), and recommendations in order to identify the potential to catalyze actual, structural change. these deliverables are twofold (inward- and outward-facing): o o a clarified credit transfer policy and practice for the baol program, including data-driven recommendations for changes to curriculum that provide for maximum educational mobility between snp and ontarios mainstream postsecondary institutions. this set of deliverables will be sedimented into baol information materials, provided to current and prospective students; as well as delivered to the curriculum committee at six nations polytechnic, to inform program changes scheduled for the upcoming fiscal year. a portfolio of research findings and recommendations, shared with (a) the indigenous institutes consortium, for incorporation into outreach and advocacy materials and activities; (b) research & development units at six nations polytechnic; and (c) oncat, to inform potential changes to the ontario postsecondary educational landscape to better address/embrace the emerging indigenous institutes sector. this report constitutes the second deliverable, and accordingly, has been forwarded to the stakeholders identified above. moving forward, further interactive knowledge mobilization opportunities will be sought out, to inform and sensitize institutions in the non-indigenous postsecondary education sector about indigenous institutes, their status and mandates, and the value and recognition (and value of recognition) of their credentials. note that snp is developing an implementation plan for the widespread mobilization of the many recommendations arising from this final report (pp. 15-17 of this document). 4 findings the analysis begins by examining the inter-institutional and, even more specifically, the individual institutional level of the issue, where specific barriers and challenges occur that most directly impact the actual learner. accordingly, the following section utilizes data collected through institutional websites to identify trends and exceptions in ontarios postsecondary admission, transfer, pathway and application policies and processes. ontario universities since 1962 ontarios universities have organized themselves into the council of ontario universities (cou). membership in the cou includes all twenty publicly funded and recognized provincial universities, alongside one associate member (the royal military college of canada). the council distills and presents a collective voice of these institutions to broadly promote education, research and innovation. the council also runs the ontario universities application centre (ouac), which functions as an information hub and processing centre for all of the provinces universities, collecting and forwarding applications for undergraduate, professional, and some graduate programs. this council plays a large role, therefore, in the function and form of university-level postsecondary studies within ontario. the council of ontario universities has a committee dedicated to relations with other postsecondary institutes. barriers to student mobility at the university level barriers in university admissions & transfer language across all 20 recognized ontario universities identified on the cou website, institution-specific admission requirements and credit transfer policies were assessed for their use of restrictive language in recognizing prior postsecondary credentials. various programs were examined, brining the total number of examined entities to fortyone. in the table below (table 1), ontario universities are classified according to three categories of language: open, closed, and mixed. open describes language refencing accredited postsecondary or university-level studies. closed describes language limiting admission/transfer criteria to students holding credentials issued by an accredited university or recognized university. mixed refers to inconsistencies in deploying open and closed language in admission requirements and transfer credit policies. table 1: barriers in university admissions & transfer language institution (program level) algoma (u) 1 brock (u) brock (g) carleton (u) carleton (g) guelph (u) guelph (g) lakehead (u) lakehead (g) laurentian (u) laurentian (g) 1 admission & transfer language open closed closed open open closed open mixed open open open institution (program level) nipissing (u) nipissing (g) ocad (u) ocad (g) ontario tech (u) ottawa (u) ottawa (g) queens (u) queens (g) ryerson (u) ryerson (g) admission & transfer language open open open open open closed open mixed closed open open institution (program level) trent (u) trent (g) waterloo (u) waterloo (g) windsor (u) windsor (g) western (u) western (g) wilfred laurier (u) wilfred laurier (g) york (u) admission & transfer language closed open open closed open open open mixed open closed closed u denotes undergraduate programs; g denotes graduate programs. 5 institution (program level) mcmaster (u) mcmaster (g) admission & transfer language open open institution (program level) toronto (u) toronto (g) admission & transfer language mixed closed institution (program level) york (g) admission & transfer language open fifteen out of the forty-one university programs identified had language that was either closed or mixed. this means that roughly 37% of undergraduate and graduate programs at public universities deploy restrictive language within their admission and transfer policies, which serves to create or reinforce the idea that indigenous institutegranted degrees are not valid postsecondary credentials. having said this, even open language use within admission and transfer policies merits scrutiny, as it actually describes a discretionary process within which admissions committees and credit transfer bodies determine the equivalency/acceptability of previous coursework. this discretionary right of university committees is present throughout most admissions and transfer policies and is therefore normative in the sector. such discretion is meant to enable an important function: assuring that students possess the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed within a given program. the problem of discretion occurs, however, when indigenous institutes are incorrectly identified as less-rigorous education providers whose standards do not meet the recognition threshold automatically conferred upon mainstream postsecondary institutions as already demonstrated in the two cases that catalyzed this project. finally, ouac recognizes indigenous institutes as valid credential-granting bodies from which a student may hold a previous degree (within the academic background section of their online application form). however, while iis are enumerated within the application form, they are not recognized anywhere else on the portal or broader website and are only specified within the application as postsecondary/other (home school, bible college, etc.). the absence of and non-articulation of indigenous institutes as indigenous institutes levies not only structural (perceptual) but also individual (cognitive and emotional) obstacles to ii learners, even where they may still enjoy de facto mobility through the online application. barriers in enumerated lists of recognized postsecondary providers given the fact that all of the ontario undergraduate programs receive applications from the ontario university admissions centre, the barriers identified, above, constitute the major structural challenge. at the graduate level, however, the admissions process becomes less uniform, as some programs use ouac while others do not. the table below (table 2) reviews all ontario university graduate program application processes, whether ouac-based or standalone, to locate actual or potential structural barriers to the admission of ii graduates. the consideration was whether or not snp (as the only ii currently empowered to independently grant undergraduate degrees) is identified as an institutional option under the applicants academic background. table 2: barriers in enumerated lists of recognized postsecondary providers graduate institution pathway/portal brock carleton lakehead laurentian mcmaster nipissing ocad ontario tech ouac standalone standalone ouac standalone ouac standalone ouac snp as enumerated option? yes yes no yes no yes no yes additional considerations manual entry possible manual entry possible not recognized error message when snp entered manually 6 graduate institution pathway/portal queens ryerson trent guelph ottawa toronto waterloo windsor western wilfred laurier york standalone ouac ouac ouac ouac standalone ouac standalone standalone ouac standalone snp as enumerated option? no yes yes yes yes no yes no no yes no additional considerations manual entry possible manual entry possible manual entry possible manual entry possible manual entry possible technically, since applicants have the option of writing in the name of their prior school, there are no formal structural barriers at play at the graduate application level other than the inability to even manually enter snp as the granter of prior postsecondary credentials when applying to ocad university. nevertheless, the non-inclusion of six nations polytechnic in the enumerated list of recognized postsecondary providers levies the same individual barrier described in the prior section, while supporting de facto structural inequality by perpetuating and normalizing bias against indigenous institutes. almost half (42%) of the surveyed application forms did not provide snp as an enumerated option. perhaps most surprising is the non-enumeration of snp by formal institutional partners, including mcmaster university, with whom six nations polytechnic has had an articulation agreement since 1993 (see subsequent section of this report, below). finally, even where indigenous institutes are an enumerated option there still exists potential downstream structural bias, as applications move through the discretionary stages of the admissions process. snps university partners the university consortium first year program at six nations polytechnic (snp), entering its 27th year of delivery, 2 was established to enable local students to take the inaugural year of their postsecondary studies within the community at six nations of the grand river. students completing up are meant to be well-positioned for entry into a second year of university-level studies at any one of the given partner postsecondary institutions. partners to the university program (up) at snp are brock university, the university of guelph, mcmaster university, the university of waterloo, the university of western ontario, and wilfrid laurier university. the program facilitates obtaining up to five full credits on a full or part-time basis, transferrable to an undergraduate degree program offered by the above-listed universities. up has a high completion rate, both during studies at six nations polytechnic and after transfer to a partner institution. it is open to indigenous and non-indigenous students, with a curriculum core in the social sciences. beyond this consortium there is only one other articulation agreement, through which snp offers a master of professional education degree in partnership with the university of western ontario. mention of the consortium agreement is uneven across partners websites. mcmaster, for instance, has a short blurb on the admission of continuing students from snp within its academic calendar, under admission requirements: mcmaster university, along with four other universities, partnered with six nations polytechnic to offer university courses in the community of six nations. the courses offered are eligible for transfer credit at any of the universities within the consortium. for more information please contact the [sic] indigenous student services. 3 (note that this description is incorrect, as there are six consortium university partners, indicating a lack 2 3 the native university program, the precursor to the current up, was initiated in 1993. https://academiccalendars.romcmaster.ca/content.php?catoid=38&navoid=8066. 7 of engagement in the currency and consistency of messaging.) on the other hand, the university of guelph, through the office of the registrar, has an entire webpage dedicated to outlining its articulated agreement with snp for the upcoming admissions year. this webpage identifies the specific oncat pathways code, outlines the general guidelines of the agreement/program, and provides a course-by-course breakdown of how snps first year consortium courses transfer to the university of guelphs first year bachelor of arts degree program. 4 other consortium members websites further exemplify the inconsistency of presence and presentation. for example, brock does not provide any consortium information on its website, although its aboriginal student service page does identify snp as one of its partners, with whom it works closely with and provides support for. alternatively, the university of waterloo succinctly identifies the university consortium agreement on its undergraduate programs: college to university pathways page; and wilfred laurier identifies the consortium program under both its applying as an indigenous student and joint academic partnerships pages. interestingly, while the m.ped. agreement does occupy prominent space on westerns website, the consortium agreement is nowhere to be found. digging deeper, other barriers arise. mcmaster universitys informal online transfer credit search tool, while it provides snp as an enumerated option, yields no results when six nations polytechnic is actually selected. there is little-to-no presence of snp or the consortium agreement readily available on the institutional website (other than the above-quoted, incorrect description on the site for the faculty of science). while this might be an oversight by mcmasters administration, further clarity and presence of this agreement and availability of the transfer pathways it provides to snp graduates would only help to improve broader understandings of iis and their educational validity within the postsecondary sector while also providing snp-graduates with greater certainty and clarity in the pursuit of their further education. ontario colleges like universities, the provinces colleges have a membership organization: colleges ontario, which positions itself as the advocacy voice for all such institutes. similarly, parallel to ouac is the ontario colleges application service (ocas), acting as an information hub and centralized application service. in contrast to ouac, indigenous institutes are not an enumerated option on ocas standardized online college application form, although there is the option to manually enter an institution under the applicants academic background. noteworthy here is the fact that this manual entry forces applicants to identify whether the non-enumerated institution is a university or a college; there is no third option, which serves to completely eliminate the legislated provincial third pillar of indigenous institutes. while applicants can technically identify the ii they attended as either a university or a college by reference to the credential they earned (for example, a b.a. or a diploma), this does not reduce or equalize the effect of the false binary. barriers to student mobility at the college level barriers in college admissions & transfer language admission requirements and policies at the ontario college level tend not to be inherently restrictive as they generally require an ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) or equivalent or follow mcu standards in broadly requiring a college diploma or other college credential for more advanced study. where the restrictive language tends to surface is in transfer credit policies, in language suggestive of barriers to indigenous institute graduates. certain colleges, for example, identify that they will only consider/recognize credits from public colleges and universities. again, this erases iis as the third pillar of the provincial postsecondary landscape, as established by the indigenous institutes act. 4 https://admission.uoguelph.ca/articulation/sixnations. 8 across all 24 ontario colleges identified on the ocas website, institution-specific admission requirements and credit transfer policies were assessed for their use of restrictive language in recognizing prior postsecondary credentials. in the table below (table 3), ontario colleges are classified according to three categories of language: open, closed, and mixed. open describes language refencing college/university course(s)/degree(s). mixed refers to inconsistencies in deploying open and closed language in admission requirements and transfer credit policies. mixed-closed refers to vagaries in language resulting in an overall prohibitive stance toward indigenous institutes. table 3: barriers in college admissions & transfer language institution algonquin cambrian canadore centennial boral cit collgiale conestoga confederation durham fanshawe fleming george brown admission & transfer language open mixed-closed open open open open mixed open mixed-closed open open open institution georgian humber lambton loyalist mohawk niagara northern sault seneca sheridan st. clair st. lawrence admission & transfer language mixed open open open open open mixed-closed open open open open mixed six out of twenty-four ontario colleges fully a quarter use mixed or mixed-closed language within or between their admission requirements and credit transfer policies. in half of these cases, restrictive language tended toward closed and more clearly restrictive language. in cases where language was identified as open, however, there was not always a specific, institutional transfer policy. in many cases applicants on institution-specific sites are directed to refer to ontransfer.ca for further information, suggesting that such institutions follow ontransfer.ca guidelines for credit transfer consideration. this is a positive development since ontransfer.ca recognizes indigenous institutes as valid postsecondary providers for the purposes of mapping/selecting transfer pathways to colleges and universities. given the lack of institutional-specific approaches to transfers from these colleges, and the role of discretion within credit transfer decisions, there remains cause for concern. while open language is provided through ontransfer.ca, actual decision-making procedures may exhibit bias against the recognition of credentials granted through indigenous institutes. barriers in enumerated lists of recognized postsecondary providers all ontario college applications are completed through the centralized ontariocolleges.ca website, which is itself administrated by ocas. no indigenous institutes are recognized within the enumerated list of schools from which applicants can indicate an earned postsecondary credential. while applicants can manually input the name of the indigenous institute they attended, this option is easily missed by appearing only at the bottom of a pop-up window. this same sort of structural bias was also found within university applications, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and can be cogently linked to a perception of reduced legitimacy. snps college partners six nations polytechnic has a number of articulation agreements with ontario colleges, wherein local programming earns graduates a recognized credential granted by a partner institution. this includes a variety of certificates and diplomas in a wide range of fields. while these partnership programs are not directly relevant to transfer or pathway development between snp and other postsecondary institutions, as they fall under the partners purview, they do indirectly impact six nations polytechnic and its learners by inflecting status and capacity either supporting ii marginalization in the sector, or supporting their full recognition and the normalization of the third pillar of 9 postsecondary education in ontario. consideration of these pathways also informs planning at snp as we prepare to launch college-side signature programs an accreditation pathway made rhetorically available through the indigenous institutes acts creation of the indigenous advanced education and skills council, a dedicated accreditation body. six nations polytechnics major college partners are mohawk, canadore and niagara. a review of all three colleges websites was conducted in order to determine how well these partnership programs were presented to potential applicants. partnership information is not readily available on the websites of either niagara college or canadore college; further, the dedicated search engine on each site returns, on a query for six nations polytechnic, only a single, dated, self-published article on the creation of the partnership. for canadore this link is active and leads directly to the 2017 article. for niagara this link, while technically active, leads back to the homepage instead of to the article itself. by way of contrast, mohawk college clearly and cogently presented the partnership to prospective students, including elucidating program options and the application process; however, these were not easily accessible from the homepage, but instead appears four links deep (main page indigenous students programs & services indigenous programs). the snp partnership is not integrated into the options available to all students, which would help to normalize and equalize indigenous institutes programming within the sectoral landscape. further, the specific webpage identifying the snp partnership, programs, and registration information was only found through inputting six nations polytechnic into the websites dedicated search engine. professional schools in ontario medical schools medical school applications are centrally organized through the ontario medical school application service (omsas), available through ouac. noteworthy is the fact that omsas identifies specific admissions information for indigenous applicants, indicative of a recognition of the need to support indigenous students as students per se, and further, as representatives of indigenous communities (as indigenous applicants overwhelmingly indicate a goal of returning to service their communities of origin or affiliation). at the provincial level this recognition takes the form of a declaratory statement of collective intent; at the institutional level it takes the shape of so-called positive discrimination (or affirmative action) type policies geared toward increasing indigenous representation in the student body and roster of credentialled graduates. importantly, the college of physicians and surgeons of ontario (cpso), in registering doctors, does not place limitations of the institutional source of a domestic applicants undergraduate degree. the following takes stock of ontarios medical school admission requirements, language, and indigenous-applicant policies to determine what real and potential barriers exist for indigenous institutes students, graduands, and alumni. entry (credential) requirements & restrictive language in ontario medical school applications beyond the generally elite orientation of law and medical school entry (i.e., the need for very high grades in previous studies, high scores on standardized tests like the lsat and mcat, etc.), institution-specific admissions requirements and language do not appear particularly restrictive in other words, they do not seem to present further barriers for applicants. table 4: entry (credential) requirements & restrictive language in ontario medical school applications school degroote (mcmaster) northern ottawa queens toronto prior degree/credits required 15 full undergraduate credits 4-year undergraduate degree 3 years of full-time undergraduate studies 15 full undergraduate credits 15 full undergraduate credits restrictive language use? no no no no no 10 school schulich (western) prior degree/credits required 4-year degree or equivalent restrictive language use? no there are six provincial medical schools. within this set, northern and schulich (western) appear to have the most restrictive admissions criteria in that they require completion of a 4-year (honours) undergraduate degree; as this credential is not currently offered at any indigenous institute, it effectively shuts their students out of the applicant pool completely. in determining the implications of institution-level admissions policies, a key finding is that these do not use closed/restrictive language in describing postsecondary educational providers per se. there is no admission requirement, for instance, that earned credits or degrees come from a recognized university. each ontario medical school has a specific policy geared toward supporting indigenous student enrolment. as mcmaster universitys degroote school of medicine states, for instance, their facilitated indigenous admissions program (fiap) is intended to provide equitable access to indigenous applicants [in recognition that indigenous learners] face specific barriers or challenges when pursuing higher education. two-thirds of the provinces medical schools set aside a certain number of seats within their incoming cohort for self-identified indigenous applicants. note, however that as just shy of 5% of the canadian population is indigenous, and indigenous communities are seriously underserviced in terms of medical facilities and practitioners, these quotas not only fail to offset structural inequalities, with the exception of northern ontario medical school, they do not even match the demographics of the country. the use of additional documents (usually in the form of personal statements and community-based reference letters) is a uniform feature of the sector, meant to unlock affirmative/discretionary considerations in the admissions process. table 5: indigenous applicant specifications in medical school applications institution degroote (mcmaster) northern ottawa queens toronto schulich (western) specifications for indigenous applicants additional documents required; no quota additional documents required; quota of 4/64 seats (6.2%) additional documents required; quota of 7/169 seats (4.1%) additional documents required; quota of 4/100 seats (4.0%) additional documents required; no quota additional documents required; quota of 5/171 seats (2.9%) while there is no formal closed/restrictive application language in use at ontarios medical schools, the discretionary power of admissions committees within the professional school sector is exceptionally strong and highly opaque. the inspiration for this project was, after all, the refusal of the degroote school of medicine to recognize the validity of an indigenous institute-granted baccalaureate a counterintuitive and concerning outcome considering mcmasters long history of partnership with six nations polytechnic and current membership in the university consortium. law schools law school applications are centrally organized through the ontario law school application service (olsas) which, as with omsas, are available through ouac. other factors also parallel medical school: each law school is responsible for making its own admission decisions, and olsas identifies specific admissions information for indigenous applicants. and positive discrimination are in place in recognition of the need to ameliorate indigenous underrepresentation. the requirements for being called to the ontario bar, as identified by the law society of ontario, neither speak to nor place limitations upon the source of undergraduate degree requirements, mirroring the position of the college of physicians and surgeons of ontario (cpso). 11 entry (credential) requirements & restrictive language in ontario law school applications as with medical school, the competitiveness of law school admissions has produced an elite and restrictive character to the process, requiring high grades and scores across multiple requirements. the following considers the specific admission requirements and language use of the eight, olsas-identified law schools in the province, to determine if there are any real or potential challenges specific to students, graduands, and alumni of indigenous institutes. in the table below, language use within admission requirement policies is identified as either open, and so nonrestrictive in that broad and inclusive terms like postsecondary institution are used; or closed, and restrictive in that narrowly defined and exclusive terms like recognized university are used to describe degree requirements. table 6: entry (credential) requirements & restrictive language in ontario law school applications institution prior degree/credit required bora laskin (lakehead) osgoode hall (york) ottawa queens ryerson toronto western windsor 3 years of undergraduate study 3 years of undergraduate study unspecified some undergraduate study required 3 years of undergraduate study 3 years of undergraduate study (some exceptions) 3 full-time years of undergraduate study 3 full-time years of undergraduate study unspecified some undergraduate study required admissions language closed closed open open open closed open open while not a unanimous requirement, three years of undergraduate study is relatively standardized across law school applications. three out of the eight, or 38% of ontario law schools did show restrictive language use, suggesting their admission committees would be unwilling to recognize the validity of indigenous institutes credentials and programs of study. recognized universities is typically used to refer to ouc member institutions and their equivalents in other canadian provinces, as well as international universities. indigenous institutes are neither enumerated within this category nor afforded their own category. as with medical schools, ontario law schools also tend to have specific considerations for indigenous applicants; yet no ontario-based law schools have publicly set aside a specific number or percentage of cohort seats. generally, applications for self-identified indigenous candidates require documented proof of indigenous ancestry and personal statements of intent that speak to their community engagement and experiences. most law schools also clearly identify that conditional offers of acceptance may be provided, under which applicants are required to complete a summer intensive program, the wiyasiwewin mikiwahp native law centre summer program, offered annually by the university of saskatchewan. while these are positive and productive measures there is still a structural disservice to applicants whose intended, in-progress, or completed degree studies involve attending an indigenous institute. business programs unlike law and medical schools, business schools in ontario are not organized through any membership organization, nor are their applications centrally processed. instead, policies for applications, admissions, and credit transfer are the sole responsibility of individual school administrations. there are also no broad-based efforts to, or recognition of a need for, supports for indigenous applicants within admission processes. surveying the fourteen canadian marketing association-recognized ontario business schools offer mba programs, the table below (table 7) categorizes mba admissions language as being either open, using language inclusive of all postsecondary institutions, or closed, referencing only recognized universities and/or recognized colleges. 12 table 7: restrictive language use in ontario business school admissions policies institution goodman school (brock) eric sprott school (carleton) lakehead laurentian michael g. degroote school (mcmaster) smith school (queens) ted rogers school (ryerson) admissions language open open open closed open closed open institution gordon s. lang school (guelph) telfer school (ottawa) rotman school (toronto) richard ivey school (western) lazaridis school (wilfred laurier) shulich school (york) odette school (windsor) admissions language closed open closed open closed open open with six of the fourteen surveyed schools using restrictive admissions language, roughly thirty-six percent of mba programs feature admissions language that poses at least a potential barrier to indigenous institute graduates. these findings are strikingly similar to those on undergraduate admissions and transfer policies, suggesting that restrictive requisite credential/course language is an issue across many university and professional programs in ontario. teacher education programs the ontario college of teachers (oct) regulates the entire provincial primary and secondary teaching profession, setting standards and accrediting teacher education programs. admissions to teacher education programs are administered through the teacher education application service (teas) through the ontario universities application centre (ouac), in association with recognized faculties of education (that is, faculties recognized through oct). while teas and ouac are separate from the ontario college of teachers, octs broad reach in professional oversight means that their standards and policies have an important impact on admissions considerations of individual schools, as well as on the development and delivery of programs. under the ontario college of teachers (oct) registration guide: requirements for becoming a teacher of general education in ontario including multi-session programs, one of the academic requirements for certification, separate from the completion of a teacher education program, is the completion of a prior postsecondary degree from an accredited institution acceptable to the college. the ontario college of teachers has historically been unwilling to recognize indigenous institutes as legitimate, accredited institutions, and has interpreted the indigenous institutes act as not applying to the octs operations or to teacher education in the province this despite the need for, growth in, and aspirations of a significant number of indigenous students to earn teaching credentials in order to bring those specific skills and endorsements back to their home communities. this has directly affected six nations polytechnic graduates and snp programming. notably, unlike the law and medical school applications services, within teas there are no apparent special considerations afforded applicants who self-identify as indigenous. this apparently blanket non-recognition should not preclude an examination of the language used in establishing entry requirements for teacher education programs, in order to render the scale/scope of the current project as universal as possible. the following table (table 8) identifies admission requirement language as either open, acceptable credentials being identified as accredited postsecondary or university level studies; closed, referencing required credentials as from a recognized university or granted by universities of canada members; or mixed, where the language employed vacillates between open and closed descriptors. table 8: barriers in ontario teacher education programs admissions & transfer language faculty core phrase brock lakehead laurentian nipissing an acceptable university or other postsecondary institution recognized undergraduate degree an undergraduate degree recognized undergraduate degree admissions language open open open open 13 faculty core phrase ontario tech ottawa queens trent western laurier windsor york undergraduate degree from a recognized university universities canada members & institutions accredited by provincial ministries a 4-year honours undergraduate degree degree [] completed at an accredited degree-granting institution acceptable undergraduate degree program at an accredited university x number of credits in undergraduate university courses from a recognized university acceptable postsecondary degree 5 admissions language closed mixed open open closed open closed closed while seven out of twelve faculties were seen to use admissions language that tended to be more inclusive, even this open language merits further scrutiny. use of the terms acceptable and recognized, found in many if not most of these cases, confers considerable discretionary power upon admissions committees and may very well refer to what is deemed acceptable by the ontario college of teachers itself. when these instances are removed from the open results, only two faculties emerge as using truly inclusive admissions language (laurentian and queens). 5 as defined by the ontario college of teachers (ontario regulation 184/97). in this regulation, acceptable post-secondary degree means a degree, including a baccalaureate degree in an applied area of study, for which a person is required to complete at least 90 post-secondary credits or their equivalent and that is, (a) granted by a post-secondary educational institution authorized to grant the degree under an act of the assembly, including a person that is authorized to grant the degree under the post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000, (b) granted by a post-secondary educational institution in a canadian province or territory other than ontario and that is considered by the college to be equivalent to a degree described in clause (a). 14 recommendations substantive and wide-scope research into and analysis of student mobility between six nations polytechnic and provincial universities, colleges, and key professional programs motivates a number of recommendations. these seek to not only mobilize the knowledge gained through this project, but to meet the specific deliverables designed to concretely benefit stakeholders. recommendations to catalyse structural change sectoral initiatives: multilateral advocacy & awareness-raising a more expansive approach to student mobility would be helpful in speaking to the multifaceted, scaled, evolving, and deeply personal nature of planning ones educational journey. for example, this report engages with graduate and professional programming, as our students shorter-term plans are obviously informed by their longer-term ambitions, which directly impact the transfer and pathways choices that they (and we) make at the undergraduate/diploma level. across the postsecondary sector, there is a need to engage with the spirit as well as the substance of reconciliation by thinking about indigenous learners as not merely underserviced individuals or part of an underrepresented demographic. this reinforces a deficit-based analysis, however inadvertently. a more robust approach would involve seeing indigenous learners as embedded persons, and indigenous postsecondary education as a valid choice for them as members of their communities members whose educational choices typically involve reference to goals not just for themselves, but for those communities. this could meaningfully inform admissions and transfer pathways and produce stronger results in the longer term. specifically, this is a call for research into new discretionary measures beyond mere admissions quotas, and for mainstream institutions and organizations to do their homework on the provinces nine indigenous institutes (and by extension the indigenous institutes consortium, indigenous institutes act, and indigenous advanced education and skills council). such proactive engagement from all parties is necessary for the realization of a postsecondary education sector in which three equal pillars positively and respectfully interact. both the ontario college application service (ocas) and ontario universities application centre (ouac) could meaningfully support parity of educational outcomes and increased awareness of the status, validity, and even the very existence of the indigenous institutes by recognizing the iis on their websites and in the standardized application. this means including them as valid, enumerated choices on the list of major/recognized educational providers, rather than under a vague catch-all category of postsecondary/other (which reinforces their marginalization and perpetuates structural biases against the validity and rigour of their programming). 6 instead, all three pillars universities, colleges, and iis should be presented as equal, per the indigenous institutes act. this has the further potential to reduce structural barriers for indigenous institute students, graduands, and graduates, in their application or transfer to programs in the mainstream. for ii students to enjoy fair and legitimate consideration and avoid or shed an inaccurate bias against their educational choices, this informal, yet very real structural prejudice and systemic barrier needs to be removed. in other words: the indigenous institutes act, a binding piece of provincial legislation that confers clear responsibilities upon all sectoral actors, must be enacted across the whole of the postsecondary educational landscape. this recommendation extends equally to the olsas and omsas application portals; and further, to the application portals at individual graduate and professional schools. 6 a standalone category makes some sense in that it reduces confusion around ii programming, which typically spans both of the traditional silos of university and college credentials. 15 the council of ontario universities committee on relationships with other postsecondary institutions should include formal representation from, or some other concrete conduit to, the indigenous institutes. membership could have wide-reaching effects within the postsecondary sector, providing a stable avenue through which indigenous institutes could directly inform and build/strengthen relationships with universities, and co-create positive structural change. membership itself could construed as recognition of ii legitimacy, normalizing the presence and building appreciation for the uniqueness of indigenous institutes. at present, this committee is peopled solely through recognized university representatives, and to the best of our knowledge has not involved outreach to six nations polytechnic or any other indigenous institute, or member organization of indigenous institutes. relatedly, there should be targeted and sustained advocacy/outreach to the ontario college of teachers (oct), aiming for the recognition of indigenous institutes as legitimate accreditation bodies. there is a clear need, especially given widespread indigenous community interest in teacher education pathways, for indigenous institutes to be able to (a) offer standalone teaching credentials and (b) be affirmed as a recognized provider of prior credentials that led into formal teachers education. inter-organizational initiatives: standardizing & verifying information mainstream educational institutions need to raise awareness, among their internal constituencies, of the ways that degree-granting authority is conferred in the province of ontario. on university websites, there is currently widespread equivocation between irreconcilable expressions, indicating a dearth of underlying processual knowledge; for example, using degree from a recognized university and a recognized undergraduate degree interchangeably in detailing admissions criteria. relatedly, there is a pervasive misunderstanding the accreditation process for undergraduate programs offered by non-charter educational providers. instead of less stringent, the process is actually more rigorous, entailing a sustained examination, by a team of experts, of every standard and benchmark in the regulatory guidelines. at a minimum, university admissions staff should understand, and the language on admissions portals should convey, that legitimate undergraduate credentials may be conferred by educational institutions other than charter universities or university partners. annual consultations should be convened, bringing indigenous institute and oncat staff together to collaboratively review and update pathway and transfer information on the ontransfer.ca website, ensuring that it reflects the rapidly changing landscape of ii-university and ii-college partnerships/articulation agreements. alongside this initiative, it would prove highly beneficial to perform an annual reconciliation of information on ontransfer.ca and mainstream institutional websites, in order to identify and eliminate discrepancies. most of the time such discrepancies denote an omission, or multiple omissions, on the individual institutional website vis--vis the pathways and transfers available to indigenous institute (and other) graduates, where consistency would provide greater stability and clarity for educational planning. similarly, an annual review/reconciliation of data could include establishing the relevance of free-standing provincial pathway agreements, as recognized through ontransfer.ca, to indigenous institutes, their current and in-development programming, and established postsecondary partnerships. recommendations to catalyse functional change inter-institutional initiatives: building & maintaining normative relationships six nations polytechnic should convene meetings with parties to its current articulation agreements, specifically to increase the quantity and improve the quality of information of partnership information on their websites. the proactive identification of and provision of clear access to partner programs is beneficial to all parties, and specifically supports indigenous learners and the demonstrated success they experience in indigenous learning environments. on the college side of snp: while mohawk college provides considerable and actionable information for prospective students, this data could be more readily accessible from their homepage, as is the case with their in-house programming; alternatively, both canadore and niagara could provide basic, actionable, information pertaining to partnership programs, along with an easily discernible and navigable application portal for 16 prospective students. on the university side of snp: improved positioning of the consortium agreement on partner websites, ensuring that all relevant information (i.e., application process, prerequisites, specific curriculum, first-year and breadth requirements for seamless transfer into second-year studies, etc.) is clearly explained and easily located, promises myriad benefits, from the individual to the institutional, to the structural/sectoral. while oncat does map six nations polytechnic onto a number of potential/general pathways between college and university studies, it is not clear that individual universities would actually recognize or support specific instances of student mobility along these conduits. further research and analysis could consider the practical application of these pathway options; investigate their use to previous ii graduates; and explore potential means through which indigenous institutes could/should utilize them within their current or planned programming. intra-institutional initiatives: augmenting student mobility through programming the six nations polytechnic should establish a working group to develop a process for (a) collecting and compiling data on actual student transfer into and out of snp; (b) gathering and analysing data on mobility aspirations of incoming and current students (i.e., if and where they intend to transfer); and (c) channelling those findings, on an annual basis, into a curriculum committee review of internal course offerings. this would inform changes to curriculum that support increased student mobility. if possible, that review should tie into outreach to graduates known to have transferred for example, former students of the university consortium year 1 program to ascertain the actual curriculum challenges they faced in transitioning from one program to another. the relevant findings of this project should be extracted and included in dialogue preceding the renewal of all existing articulation agreements between six nations polytechnic and its university and college partners. the raw data, analysis, and recommendations included all contribute to the revisioning of partnerships along normative lines, so that this common (formerly necessity-based) relationship evolves as the sector itself changes. indigenous institutes in general, and snp in particular, have moved from private- to public-sector entities through a regulatory paradigm shift at present, partnership agreements are not keeping pace with these fundamental changes. as a dedicated accreditation pathway for indigenous institutes opens up, the very mandate of articulation agreements will need to shift. relationships between specific, mainstream institutions and snp have a great potential to not only pace with, but creatively explore the new potential of interaction between the three pillars of ontarios postsecondary landscape. 17

student-led transfer action project tr ansfer student interview findings prepared by: curtis tilbury, student project leader projec t summary oncat is committed to elevating transfer students experiences, priorities, and ideas to support transfer system transformation in ontario. as such, oncat offers funding to support projects developed by transfer students for transfer students. the scope of this particular project was to develop an easily digestible document that directly involves transfer student experiences. the transfer student author interviewed other transfer students and summarized the results into this finished, accessible product. this report was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 03 summary of common factors 04 student profile summary: curtis 05 student profile summary: valeriya 06 student profile summary: jane follow us 02 m ot i vat i o n s f o r t r a n s f e r all three respondents expressed a desire to attend university. all wanted to upgrade their skills and gain new experiences. all noted that college was more accessible and less expensive. o b s ta c l e s to t r a n s f e r summary of common fac tors the number-one obstacle to transfer is a lack of access to clear information. students do not know or understand the process until they start it. students lack guidance and advice from professionals in the field. results are not predictable. w h at h e l p e d pre-determined pathways, such as from seneca to york, or canadore to nipissing, proved to be most helpful for those navigating the process. pathway booklets offered by institutions were also beneficial; although not all information is provided through a booklet, at least it gives a starting point. dedicated staff were vital, even if certain staff members consulted were not even in the transfer departments at their institutions. r e c o m m e n d at i o n s f o r s e c to r p a r t n e r s provide more support for students and be more user-oriented. hire additional support staff, and invest in crafting simpler explanations. explain more carefully how transfer credits are calculated. invest in additional and more widespread engagement and awareness campaigns. a dv i c e f o r st u d e n ts attend open houses and ask questions to current students and staff. network with professionals already in the industry collect information such as timelines, costs. take your time; learning is not a race and should be done at a comfortable pace. 03 about curtis took a diploma in culinary management at fanshawe college and worked as a cook for three years before returning to school as a mature transfer student. he started his business education at canadore college and is finishing a bachelor of commerce at nipissing university. curtis transferred laterally, from college to college (fanshawe to canadore, with three general electives and a communications course) and then from college to university (canadore to nipissing, with 60 credits, or the equivalent to two years of study). curtis tilbury student profile summary c o n ta c t /curtistilbury if i went in and asked any kinds of questions, the people working at canadore college were willing to answer them even if they werent about attending their institution. m ot i vat i o n to t r a n s f e r to further his education. curtis wanted to take a business diploma and turn it into a degree, while taking advantage of both learning styles of college and universityand to prepare to be a cpa. location. nipissing class sizes seemed smaller than other business schools. word of mouth. curtis heard someone else had transferred a communication course from fanshawe to canadore with a positive outcome. o b s ta c l e s to t r a n s f e r at first, the process sounded like too much work. curtis questioned if he would get enough credits to justify the decision. moreover, there were transfer costs and new program costs to consider. w h at h e l p e d curtis worked in the credit transfer and pathways office at canadore college, so he was able to navigate his part of the transfer process. offices at each institution were helpful. in particular, curtis found canadore college staff very informative. since curtis had a history with osap and had already paid off a student loan, he found it easier to make financial choices related to the program cost of transfer. r e c o m m e n d at i o n s f o r s e c to r p a r t n e r s bring awareness of the pathways to students at the beginning of their postsecondary careers. students are discovering pathways available to their program during, not beforeand this prevents students from understanding the purpose of transferring and from customizing their education. establish better communications between institutions where established pathways would benefit both institutions. 04 about being an international student, and aiming to get a university degree eventually, valeriya wanted to get a feel for the canadian education system by entering college first. she transferred from seneca college to york university. m ot i vat i o n to t r a n s f e r valeriya ga zizova student profile summary c o n ta c t /valeriya-gazizova-89b540b0 many international students dont actually realize that transferring is an opportunity. in somes countries, credits arent as readily accepted by other schools. valeriya wanted to earn a few credits at college, understand how essay writing works and how the system is organized, then transfer to university. from her perspective, canada provided a unique chance for international students to take courses and then have them transferred to other programssomething not offered in other systems! o b s ta c l e s to t r a n s f e r when valeriya came to canada, her high school grades needed to be translated (from russian) and notarized, and then she needed to pass a qualification test in canada. once she began her transfer process, she had to: specify she was an international student; provide extra documentation (especially hard with an unclear process with a lack of guidance and advice; and pay higher fees (tuition prices completely remove the idea of following a transfer pathway for most international students). this was a to process all at oncewhich makes her believe that the biggest struggle for international students is time. visas only last for so long and processes are strict. w h at h e l p e d aside from conducting research herself, valeriya found seneca college and york university had helpful, pre-established pathways that streamlined the process. the resource that provided the most help was a transfer booklet offered by york. r e c o m m e n d at i o n s f o r s e c to r p a r t n e r s be more user-orientedand remember that users (and the primary group benefiting from transfer) are students. offer more support staff, simpler explanations, better walk-throughs, and improved breakdowns of how transfer is calculated. a dv i c e f o r st u d e n ts do a self-reflection and examine your motivations. ask yourself why you want to transfer. make sure you understand where you can maximize the work youve already completed. prepare to do a lot of research! collect information such as timelines and costs. these are the most important factors for an international student because is tuition is steep and timelines are tricky because youre working with visas and the government of canada. 05 about jane has attended several different postsecondary institutions, going back 20 years. step one was the international academy of design in 1999 (now known as york university). she started with a two-year interior design program, but found it difficult due to issues with teachers and students, the programs and software; she left the school after one year. later, she went into carpentry, starting at conestoga college. after earning a transfer credit there, she moved to the college of carpenters and allied trades (a union-employer construction skills school) and eventually started teachers college at brock university in 2017. jane davis student profile summary m ot i vat i o n to t r a n s f e r jane wanted recognition for her hard work and prior learning. she realized needed a degree in order to progress in her career. o b s ta c l e s to t r a n s f e r for jane, there was a lack of guidance on pathways available for prior learning. unique issues due to the type of work jane had completed, she was unable to get a loan for tuition and had to attend her school on credit, resulting in her institution withholding her accreditation until the credit was paid off. she needed a high-interest loan to pay off her tuition to get papers from the school in order to work. jane received a diploma instead of a degree due to not having a previous degree. w h at h e l p e d helpful faculty from another department made the transfer process easier. r e c o m m e n d at i o n s f o r s e c to r p a r t n e r s provide clearer guidance to students. if better supports were in place, jane would have never gone to a private school; she would have done more research and took her time choosing a proper pathway. a dv i c e f o r st u d e n ts attend open houses and post questions to other current students and staff. network with professionals already in the industry. take your time. larning is not a race and should be done at a comfortable pace. this is key to understanding anything new and foreign! 06

research brief exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation sociology as a case of first-year transferability dr. rod missaghian, oncat july 2021 exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 2 missaghian | july 2021 introduction students wishing to transfer credits from two-year colleges to four-year degree-granting universities (i.e., via vertical transfer) have long been an empirical focus of credit transfer research (lipscomb et al. 2019; monaghan & attewell, 2015). successful vertical transfer often requires close institutional partnerships between two- and four-year institutions (kisker, 2007; xu, ran & fink 2018). there is a growing volume of research focusing on various facets of these partnerships, such as the policies informing them (hodara et al., 2017; roksa & keith, 2008), students qualitative experiences with vertical transfer (castro & cortez, 2017; maliszewski & hayes, 2020), and the demographic variables that predict various vertical transfer outcomes (giani, 2019; shapiro et al., 2017). however, missing from this literature is a focus on faculty involvement. recent canadian research has examined university faculty experiences participating in articulation agreements and transfer more broadly (bowker. 2019) but does not address curriculum evaluation processes specifically. faculty ownership over the equivalency process is widespread and underscores faculty members role as stewards of their disciplines curriculum (compton et al. 2012, p.48), yet little research examines how faculty members evaluate course outlines, which are often the single object of credit transfer assessment. studying faculty perceptions about curriculum evaluation and transfer can be tremendously useful for policy development, as it has long been a black box (hyatt & smith, 2020). at a provincial level, by exploring faculty decision-making, we can learn more about potential pathways and barriers for college-to-university transfer. understanding disciplinary norms in faculty decision-making is an important but understudied facet of transfer research. by focusing on a single discipline, we can develop our understanding of the transferability of a high-demand course/elective, like sociology, offered in many college programs. more importantly, we hope this framework is replicable to other fields of study, allowing transfer stakeholders to assess comparability and alignment in course content with faculty perceptions. in this brief, we address these gaps in faculty/transfer studies by interviewing ontario university faculty in sociology to explore disciplinary evaluation processes and their potential relationships with transfer. we complement faculty interviews with content analysis of college and university introductory course outlines. this unique design aids in our understanding of faculty decision-making in curriculum assessment, the intersection between content creation in practice versus perception, and its implications for vertical transfer. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 3 missaghian | july 2021 framing the problem: a non-standardized transfer system unlike many u.s. states, wherein there are guaranteed pathways into university for many two-year college graduates, ontario relies on a more decentralized system. in the absence of guaranteed (standardized) pathways, students can either transfer a block of credits (seen in 3+1 agreements) or rely on course-to-course equivalencies. oncat wishes to understand the first-year transferability of high-traffic college courses like introduction to sociology, which are often included as electives or compulsory credits in general arts and science diploma/certificate programs. these programs serve as potential entry points to university and are often packaged and promoted as such. one reason for our interest in university-equivalent arts and sciences courses is that in other jurisdictions, such as british columbia, associate degrees have served as a base for improved transfer conditions. a potential reason for such an uptake is that general education courses may be more difficult to graft onto a base of career education (skolnik, 2010, p.14). the careeroriented structure of many college programs in ontario makes it harder to align with the content of the general courses taken in the first year of university. what makes this study unique is that it focuses on elements that are critical specifically to course-to-course equivalencies, thereby allowing for a broader perspective, and capturing the ad hoc nature of transfer decisions. current transfer research that interviews university faculty looks at their participation in articulation committees (bowker, 2019), whereas the majority, outside of undergraduate coordinators or departmental chairs, may not have ever encountered transfer. perceptions of college transfer by university faculty qualitative studies in transfer have studied various facets of faculty involvement. most recently, bowker (2019) interviewed university faculty who were identified as being involved in articulated pathways and found that they had perceptions of college transfer students as being unprepared. this idea of transfer shock is well established in transfer literature (see taylor and jain 2017; stewart & martinello, 2012). however, most studies have failed to link faculty perceptions about college transfer with their actual evaluation processes. qualitative research examining faculty perceptions have either been from the perspective of college faculty on student preparedness (odonnell, miller & fowler 2018) or from faculty and other institutional agents who have an administrative function related to transfer, like departmental advisors (tobolowsky & cox, 2012). none of this research, 1. according to 2020 data from the education commission of the united states, there are currently 35 u.s. states with mandated guaranteed transfer policies, allowing associate degree holders to transfer all of their credits into a publicly funded institution and enter at the junior-standing level (3rd year). exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 4 missaghian | july 2021 however, includes interviews with faculty from a specific discipline, with either direct experience administering transfer, teaching first-year courses (often the subject of equivalency debates), or making course equivalency decisions. focus of this analysis through this brief, we address the following questions: 1. how do college and university introductory sociology course outlines compare with one another? 2. what do sociology faculty think is important learning for first-year students? 3. how do faculty evaluation practices correspond with their perceptions of college transfer students? last year, oncat conducted a content analysis of a representative sample of introductory sociology course outlines offered at ontario colleges (see missaghian, 2021). the goal was to understand the structure and content of courses offered as part of general arts and science (gas) programs that serve as potential launching points for students transferring from college to university. this project was also completed in preparation of the interviews to help inform questions by developing our own knowledge of what university faculty members may encounter when evaluating college-level course outlines. in this paper, we also analyze a comparative sample of university introductory sociology course outlines. university course outlines were collected from institutions whose faculty members participated in interviews, and were freely shared upon request, or from institutions who made their outlines publicly available online. we employed a similar framework used in a previous oncat report, which drew from ranked sociological concepts identified in content analyses conducted in the united states. we used their ranking system to search for the presence of key sociological themes and conducted a manual reading as well. by doing this we developed a sense of how core sociology is represented in ontario university courses, which allowed for direct comparisons with their representation in college outlines. in total, 19 outlines were collected from 11 institutions. it is customary for some universities to have multiple sections of introductory classes; we wanted to include these where possible to remain cognizant of within-group differences. 2. the american research was based on analyses of course descriptions and other qualitative features found in community college course catalogues (see rowell and this 2013; kain et al. 2007) and survey data collected from university faculty (see persell et al. 2007; wagenaar 2004). they identified and produced ranked lists of the topreferenced sociological concepts/topics/themes in first-year sociology courses. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 5 missaghian | july 2021 our initial interview sample was stratified according to high and low credit transfer institutions, based on ministry data reporting on the number of transfer students enrolled as a percentage of total undergraduates. we identified our top and bottom five, and sent out recruitment emails to faculty in those institutions. the top transfer institutions are normally smaller, teaching-intensive universities and those at the bottom are normally research-intensive. we also employed purposive and quota sampling to target sociology faculty that have taught first-year classes, as well as those who have acted as undergraduate chair. administrators are often tasked with transfer requests and delegate equivalency decisions when course expertise is needed. professors who have taught introductory sociology were recruited to capture the issues pertinent to first-year transferability. we ended up with faculty representing the top seven credit transfer institutions, but recruiting from research-intensive universities was more difficult, as faculty members were less likely to respond to our invitation. in the end, we were able to interview four faculty from research-intensive universities. twelve faculty were interviewed in total. findings college versus university sociology i am in favor of figuring out how to package messaging about the academic streams in colleges and repackage them as groundwork laying, rather than the traditional relationship between colleges and universities, which is universities will tend to do the more theoretical or the more intellectual formation and the colleges will do the more applied formation. separate that out a little bit more and have an academic stream for university preparation. i don't know. it may be that the packaging needs some love, rather than reinventing everything. julie, sociology professor interviews with university sociology faculty revealed, overall, that there may still be pronounced differences in the way university faculty perceive ontario colleges and the nature and quality of the education provided therein. in the quotation above, the fundamental contrast between colleges and universities is establishedcolleges being places for applied career training and university serving a more holistic, theoretical training purpose. these divisions were cemented in the 1960s in ontarios educational policy and still linger today (skolnik, 2010). 3. this division closely mirrored other models in ontario, differentiating between institutions according to researchintensive versus smaller teaching-oriented institutions (jonker & hicks, 2016), as well as universities representative of the geographic expanse of ontario. universities located in the gta, metro toronto, northern, central, eastern and southwestern ontario were all represented among the course outlines and faculty interviewed. 4. each interview participants name has been assigned a randomized pseudonym. names of courses and institutions have been anonymized as a. for example, college a, university a, and course a. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 6 missaghian | july 2021 this dichotomy between applied and theoretical, however, was not represented in the content found in university and college introductory sociology course outlines. our comparisons show curriculum content and delivery, which, for the most part, share much in common, particularly in their representation of core sociological concepts (see missaghian, 2020). for example, our analysis of course descriptions showed that core sociological concepts/topics like culture were represented as much in college course descriptions, if not more, even with two fewer outlines in that sample. the main differences are the higher incidence of mentions of research and theory in the course descriptions in the university outlines (see table 1). the university course descriptions were generally longer and more detailed, which could explain the discrepancy; nevertheless, despite the importance of course descriptions as the face of an outline, they do not always represent content that can be found in other sections. when the entire course outlines were examined, using wagenaars (2004) top 11 sociological concepts for first year university courses (which focused more on sociological skills, like critical thinking and evaluating research), the original discrepancy between research and theory disappeared; college outlines cited and included these sociological skills more across the entirety of the outline (see table 2). however, the simple counts and occurrences of these concepts does not tell the whole story, as qualitative differences in course content still existed apart from these. table 1 5. this was the case for the 3/19 university courses which were full-year, but also for some of the half courses as well. the entire sample of college outlines were half-courses. future research should also examine available continuation courses (sociology part ii), where available to have more direct comparisons between college and university. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 7 missaghian | july 2021 table 2 the most notable of these differences was with regards to the quantity and type of readings within college versus university outlines. the university outlines often contained additional readings, besides a single textbook, either in recommended texts or mandatory peer review journal articles, which were meant to supplement reading from the primary text. several institutions, like u of t, western, queens, and york listed a central textbook, but also supplementary readings, which comprised an alternative text or shorter readings. for one of the u of t (three in total) and western (two in total) courses in our sample, the readings consisted of multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, in addition to the required textbook chapter. the inclusion of additional readings was something that faculty pointed to in their interviews as one of several differences between college and university courses; thus their concerns here corresponded with the course outlines. during one of the interviews, cynthia, a professor at a high ct institution, talked about her experience helping a college professor at a regional school articulate their introductory class for equivalency at her university. the college professor she worked with expressed concern about her students overall reading comprehension and writing ability. she described the interaction as follows: exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 8 missaghian | july 2021 so in our course, students were reading a chapter every week from a textbook, but also condensed or shortened academic articles. and she didnt think that college a students would have the ability to kind of parse those sorts of academic journals. the same with the writing skills, the writing skills she figured were much weaker. faculty also cited more rigorous writing requirements as being another key distinguishing feature between college and university sociology. for example, julie, who was quoted at the beginning of this section, also highlighted the lack of emphasis on writing at the college level: the struggle that i think we had in sociology, and i think is more ubiquitous with looking at transfer credits from colleges generally, is the expectations around learning outcomes and the intensity of the writing ... look, the writing conventions and the writing expectations and the mastery of methodological and theoretical commitments is very different coming out of the college system than the university system, at least in sociology. i would say that typically in an intro sociology course, you would expect to have several written components for which you would have to produce original analysis for which you would receive considerable feedback, both on an ability to apply a theoretical lens, an ability to present literature, to analyze original journal articles and also especially, how to write, reference, cite and present arguments in a more professional academic fashion. while it is beyond the scope of this paper to assess the rigour or intensity of writing assignments, especially without access to the assignments themselves, we did scan for their presence in course outlines. we can also compare what percentage of the evaluative breakdown of courses they comprise. our comparison of first-year sociology outlines demonstrated that the proportion of university intro soc courses that included a critical essay or essay assignment component as a significant part of their evaluation breakdown outweighed the presence of such evaluations in college. compared with university sociology (10/19), which had just over half of their courses include a critical essay, only 4/17 college sociology outlines included a critical essay, or essay assignment component that made up a significant percentage of the overall course evaluation scheme. thus, while faculty perceptions did not align with the presence of concepts covered in intro classes, they were aligned when it came to comments about differences in reading quantity and the presence of critical essay assignments. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 9 missaghian | july 2021 faculty experiences with transfer some of the divergences between faculty perceptions about college curriculum and how they are represented in course outlines are noteworthy because these outlines are the very tools by which faculty make equivalency decisions about transfer credits. faculty pointed out this discrepancy on several occasions, highlighting the underlying difficulty of developing equivalency formulas for similar but not equivalent courses. nancy, who teaches at a northern ontario institution, referred to the course outline as not a good document since faculty have to rely on keywords. she suggested looking at how this is being tied throughout. her comment highlights some of the limitations discussed in this brief about relying solely on keywords in the course description, without looking at an outline as a whole. in the previous section, we established that sociology faculty members perceived differences in the qualitative dimensions of college versus university education. they felt there was more of an emphasis in university on theory, methods, critical writing, and thinking, as opposed to the applied education focus on career training in colleges. despite these sentiments, those faculty who shared their experiences with making credit transfer equivalency decisions were satisfied with granting credit equivalency and using the course outline as their tool. james, an acting chair for his department, shared his willingness to grant transfer credit if it met certain basic criteria: ill say ive been doing those evaluations for six months. so, i probably have the least amount of experience of anyone youre going to interview. but what i have noticed is that when i get the request from transfer students who are trying to figure out, does the intro course they took or something qualify as soc, im just looking for: was that an introductory text in sociology? is it clearly identifiable? and then we give them the credit. i dont know what it would take for me to say, no, the intro soc or something you took wasnt good enough for our school so were not going to give you that credit. faculty members like james were not giving away transfer credit; they had criteria, like the quality of a textbook, for example. janet, another undergraduate chair, also highlights the textbook as a major criterion for granting equivalency: so, is it just a standard sociology textbook? and then its more of just a check that theyve got it, or if its not, what are the actual written texts that they use to support the learning? and i think sometimes i look at assessments, but also i dont think id ever denied credit. like i said before, i would never deny a transfer credit based on the type of assessment because i dont really want to make my decisions that way. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 10 missaghian | july 2021 janets comments are indicative of the autonomy that faculty seemed to enjoy with regard to making credit transfer decisions. while they shared various criteria they used to evaluate course outlines, they were not hampered by them, and could use their own judgement and expertise where needed. thomas, a faculty member and undergraduate chair cited the feel he had for doing evaluations based on the expertise he had accumulated over the years. in the passage below, he elaborates on his decision-making about whether to handle a request independently or defer to one of his colleagues: i make the decision. i would do that (defer) if i really have the feeling this needs to be clarified, but usually i feel my knowledge is comprehensive enough in terms of looking at the syllabi to know there can never be 100% match of course, right? because these courses are taught in slightly different ways. but i have so many years of experience, being on curriculum committees so i have a good sense of the standards. the different ways mentioned here could also be referring to how introductory courses are packaged. another issue faculty identified with granting equivalency were with half credits versus full-year credits. all the intro courses that we examined as part of our college outline analysis comprised half credits, or 42 hours of instruction over a 14-week period, which is standard for a course that runs for half the year. however, universities either offered their intro classes as a full-year credit (september to april), or split the class into two halves: one offered in the fall semester and the second half in the winter. a degree of variation in how courses are delivered is inevitable, particularly in a decentralized system like ontarios. however, this can pose problems for equivalency as we have seen in this section. as matthew, a former undergraduate chair at a high-ct institution, states: and quite often the people coming to us have done a half credit course or a one-term course. so that quite often was the main reason why the equivalency wasnt established. this discrepancy between course deliveries is also symptomatic of a system that relies less on articulated pathways and more on course-to-course equivalencies. more partnerships between college and universities, like the kind described by julie in the following passage, can help facilitate more alignment between college and university curricula: im trying to remember the year. it would have been 2013, maybe 2014. our department of sociology did work directly with colleagues at college a about how to create a pathway for the required first year. our course is called sociology a, the introduction to sociology. its got different codes at every university, but here, its a full-year course. and i know at other universities, they will have half-year courses as your foundational. ours is a full-year, full survey-of-the-field course. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 11 missaghian | july 2021 my colleague nina (pseudonym), who was teaching our intro course at the time, worked quite closely with colleagues at the local college a to look at both curriculum content, contact time, and assessment tools that would be important to have in place for our department to recognize that credit as equivalent or roughly equivalent to our intro course that opens up access to all our other courses. because if you dont take our first-year course, you dont have the prerequisite for anything else in the program, pretty much. conclusion this unique exploration finds that content between college and university introductory sociology courses exhibits many similarities, yet some university faculty perceive college curriculum and students to be less rigorous and prepared. however, even though faculty perceptions often did not match differences in curriculum, there were instances when their reservations were supported by the data. for example, faculty exhibited concerns about college transfer students exposure to critical essay writing assignments, and we observed that only 4/17 college outlines included a detailed essay writing component amongst their major evaluations. the broader goal of this research brief was to explore potential first-year college-touniversity equivalencies and the role of university faculty in making transfer decisions. one of our central findings is that some sociology faculty seem to hold perceptions about the college system as one whose goal is occupational training. the university system, on the other hand, serves a more intellectual purpose: to develop critical thinking about complex issues. admittedly, we expected to see some convergence in content between college and university sociology, as we sampled courses from general arts and science programs that have an explicit transfer purpose (missaghian, 2021). thus, the expectation is that these courses should mirror courses students take in first-year university sociology. we found support both for similarity and differences. future research could look at the convergence of course outlines from more vocationally oriented diploma programs without a transfer purpose. however, despite gas programs possessing the potential for higher affinity, there is certainly no widespread articulation of these courses across the sectorarticulation of credits still takes place, often on an ad hoc basis, through courseto-course equivalencies. our interviews also revealed that faculty have a great deal of autonomy in this decision-making and demonstrated consistent criteria for assessing course outlines, as well as being generally favourable to granting transfer credit. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 12 missaghian | july 2021 from a policy standpoint, there are several ways to interpret these findings and their prospective implications. one potential takeaway is to consider the possibility of general arts and science college programs playing a similar role to transfer associate degrees in the u.s. and in british columbia (arnold et al., 2018). policy makers should be aware of the potential of these programs to play the same vertical transfer function as associate degrees currently do in those jurisdictions; although currently, they represent a small proportion of annual college enrolment by program in ontario. having associate degrees that provide guaranteed transfer opportunities is not something that can develop without the close collaboration between colleges and universities and government support. consequently, research like ours can hopefully help nudge the sector to begin seriously considering the development of articulation committees on a broader scale. currently, ontario lacks any accountability framework that would prompt university and college faculty to collaborate to discuss disciplinary articulation; gas programs could be a good starting point, given the prospect of aligning their theoretical and methodo- logical aims. this is not to suggest that articulation between more applied programs like police foundations, for example, should not be undertaken; certainly, these programs do provide transfer opportunities. however, as was suggested by some of the faculty interviewed here, there is an incongruity between the applied career approach in those programs versus the more critical, theoretical, and methodologically rigorous training offered at the university level. given the small sample size of faculty, and the focus on a single discipline, our findings are not generalizable, either to sociology faculty in ontario or to other disciplines. however, they do signal a need for larger-scale quantitative research on university faculty perceptions about college curricula, as well as transfer. future researchers could administer surveys, addressing issues we have identified here, to a representative sample of faculty members across the province. this wider scan of the sector is ever more necessary given that the majority of faculty are not engaged with transfer at an administrative level. another limitation of this research is that course outlines, while an important tool in assessing the content of a course, are not always indicative of pedagogical practices, or the micro- interactions that take place inside the classroom. qualitative interviews can be complemented by observational research that examines lecturing practices and teacher student interactions. these could certainly vary among different institutions, particularly those with smaller class sizes. while several faculty members acknowledged that they had no issue granting credit equivalencies for high quality courses that were similar to their introductory class, they did not believe that an equivalency necessarily meant students would be successful. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 13 missaghian | july 2021 faculty members felt more comfortable with granting unspecified rather than specified credits, prompting students to take the introductory course in their discipline. faculty expressed a desire for students to take all the courses required of a major to help orient them to the rigours of the program and the style of sociology taught at their institution. across all the findings, as was captured by the quotation presented at the beginning of that section, there was an implicit and sometimes explicit desire to see college diploma programs more closely mirror the theoretical and critical stances of courses taught at the university level. the applied and occupation-oriented nature of some diploma programs, it was feared, would not prepare students for the critical thinking and intellectual rigour of theoretical and methodologically rigorous university classes. these findings signal the need for articulation committees, comprised of both college and university faculty, to be formed. analyzing high-affinity courses within high-affinity programs, as we have done here, can serve as a launching point for such committees to engage in meaningful consultation about the necessary criteria, goals, and merits of articulated pathways. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 14 missaghian | july 2021 references arnold, c. h., wheelahan, l., moodie, g., beaulieu, j., & taylor-cline, j. c. (2018). mapping the typology of transition systems in a liberal market economy: the case of canada. journal of education and work, 31(2), 125143. kaufman, p. (1997). michael jordan meets c. wright mills: illustrating the sociological imagination with objects from everyday life. teaching sociology, 25(4), 309314. boggs, a., & trick, d. (2009). making college-university cooperation work: ontario in a national and international context. toronto, on: higher education quality council of ontario. bragg, d. d. (2017). transfer matters: forward to the special issue on transfer. community college review, 45(4), 267272. bowker, l. (2021). exploring faculty perspectives on college-to-university transfer in a large canadian university. community college journal of research and practice, 45(4), 290306. castro, e. l., & cortez, e. (2017). exploring the lived experiences and intersectionalities of mexican community college transfer students: qualitative insights toward expanding a transfer receptive culture. community college journal of research and practice, 41(2), 7792. compton, p. k., tafel, j., law, j., & gustafson, r. (2012). facultydetermined course equivalency: the key to ohios transfer mobility system. new directions for community colleges, 2012(160), 4554. giani, m. s. (2019). the correlates of credit loss: how demographics, pre-transfer academics, and institutions relate to the loss of credits for vertical transfer students. research in higher education, 60(8), 11131141. hicks, m., & jonker, l. (2016). the differentiation of the ontario university system: where are we now and where should we go?. toronto, on: higher education quality council of ontario. hodara, m., martinez-wenzl, m., stevens, d., & mazzeo, c. (2017). exploring credit mobility and major-specific pathways: a policy analysis and student perspective on community college to university transfer. community college review, 45(4), 331349. hyatt, s. e., & smith, d. a. (2020). faculty perceptions of community college transfer students: the private university experience. community college journal of research and practice, 44(6), 395411. kain, e. l., hendley, a. o., contreras, l. r., & wyatt-baxter, k. k. (2007). sociology in two-year institutions. teaching sociology, 35(4), 350359. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 15 missaghian | july 2021 kaufman, p. (1997). michael jordan meets c. wright mills: illustrating the sociological imagination with objects from everyday life. teaching sociology, 25(4), 309314. kisker, c. b. (2007). creating and sustaining community collegeuniversity transfer partnerships. community college review, 34(4), 282-301. lipscomb, t., wallin, c., braun, d., clatterbuck, k., dana, f., keniston, l., ... & mason, c. (2019). improving transferability case studies: building a better bridge to the bachelors. inquiry, 22(1), n1. maliszewski lukszo, c., & hayes, s. (2020). facilitating transfer student success: exploring sources of transfer student capital. community college review, 48(1), 3154. missaghian, r. (2021). is there a transferable sociology core in ontario colleges? a content analysis of first-year course outlines. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. odonnell, j., miller, s., & fowler, d. (2018). faculty perspectives on diploma-degree pathways and student preparedness. humber college: ontario. persell, c. h., pfeiffer, k., & syed, a. (2007). what students should understand after taking an introduction to sociology. teaching sociology, 35(4), 300314. roksa, j., & keith, b. (2008). credits, time, and attainment: articulation policies and success after transfer. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 30(3), 236254. rowell, k. r., & this, c. (2013). exploring the sociology curriculum at community colleges in the united states. the american sociologist, 44(4), 329340. taylor, j. l., & jain, d. (2017). the multiple dimensions of transfer: examining the transfer function in american higher education. community college review, 45(4), 273293. tobolowsky, b. f., & cox, b. e. (2012). rationalizing neglect: an institutional response to transfer students. the journal of higher education, 83(3), 389410. xu, d., ran, f. x., fink, j., jenkins, d., & dundar, a. (2018). collaboratively clearing the path to a baccalaureate degree: identifying effective 2-to 4-year college transfer partnerships. community college review, 46(3), 231256. wagenaar, t. c. (2004). is there a core in sociology? results from a survey. teaching sociology, 32(1), 118. exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation 16 missaghian | july 2021 dr. rod missaghian rod missaghian is a researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/our-expertise/policy-briefs-and -reports established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021

june 2022 research spotlight new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto dr. scott davies, university of toronto project funded by new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 1 keywords postsecondary; transfer; university of toronto; high school academic performance; transfer credits; academic outcomes overview what are the characteristics and differences between transfer students and non-transfer students at the university of toronto (u of t)? to answer these questions, this research study compared a subset of transfer and direct-entry students at u of t who attended high school in the toronto district school board. the study, which follows up on a similar study completed in 2020, looks at the relationship between high school academic performance and transfer student outcomes. this new research expands on the previous report by including the credit transfer flag, indicating whether and how many transfer credits students received at u of t. why it matters in ontario, we lack administrative, longitudinal, and linked data that will help us understand what pathways students travel into post-secondary. while the findings from this report are specific to u of t, this information provides a model for how institutions can evaluate transfer student outcomes at their own institutions. more importantly, by linking the postsecondary data with students' high school records, we learn about early predictors of transfer success and can better identify students who may need more support when they are admitted. this research should also be of interest to registrars and other postsecondary administrators who make credit assessment policies at their institution. one of the significant findings is that the more transfer credit a student receives, the more likely they are to graduate. key findings transfer students have lower high school grades than direct-entry students compared to direct-entry students, transfer students were significantly more likely to speak english as their first language, to be female, born in canada, and to self-identify as white. academically, they had significantly lower high school grades and worse high school attendance than direct-entry students. transfer students from ontario community colleges generally had the least conventional academic records. new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 2 figure 2: probability of transferring by high school grades (95% cis) 0.08 probability of transfer 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 average grades in high school transfer students pursue stem fields at much lower rates than direct-entry students while 46% of direct-entry students entered stem fields, only 26% of transfer students did so. after disaggregating the transfer pathway variable, the researcher found that transfer students from ontario universities, other canadian universities, and especially ontario community colleges each entered stem fields at statistically significantly lower rates than direct-entry students. further research should investigate why transfer students are less likely to pursue stem fields of study. while the current research established a positive association between number of credits transferred and graduation rates, it did not include information on whether transferred credits were part of a more structured articulation pathway. these pathways have been shown to improve transfer outcomes, and it would be useful to know what their influence would be on stem uptake in transfer. university transfer students are performing better than college transfer students while transfer students from universities were less likely to enter stem fields at u of t than direct-entry students, they had similar cumulative grade point averages, total credits earned, and graduation rates. in fact, transfer students from ontario and other canadian universities graduated at slightly higher rates than direct-entry students. this finding suggests that transfer students from other universities are well prepared to succeed at u of t. new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 3 unfortunately, the same cannot be said of college transfer students at u of t. in addition to being less likely to enter stem fields of study, they earned fewer total credits and had statistically significant lower graduation rates. just over half of college transfer students graduated within the timelines of the study. the findings suggest that students lower graduation rates are the result of weaker academic records in high school and fewer transfer credits awarded. the more transfer credits a student receives, the more likely they are to graduate in addition to investigating academic performance, graduation rates, and fields of study, the researcher ran some logistical regression analyses to estimate whether having more transfer credits awarded would boost graduation rates for college transfer students and all other students. figure 5 shows sizeable gaps in predicted graduation rates between college transfer students and other students when both groups are awarded zero transfer credits; the predicted gap is about 30%. however, looking at 6 and 12 credits awarded, that gap shrinks to about 20% and 10%, respectively, meaning that the predicted graduation rate for college transfer students rises by about 25% if the awarded credits rise from 0 to 12. overall, these various analyses strongly suggest that being awarded higher numbers of transfer credits can improve university outcomes for transfer students and could help those from colleges narrow gaps between themselves and their peers. new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 4 takeaways this research and the similar study that preceded it suggest that college transfer students face deeper social and academic challenges than do direct-entry students. all transfer students incur financial and social costs when they move residences, experience strains from losing old peer networks, and encounter stress as they cope with u of ts competitive environment. but college transfer students experience these strains while also often lacking the same academic preparation for university enjoyed by their peers. many of their challenges stem from receiving insufficient credit for previous work. despite these setbacks, about half remain on-track after transferring. the other half fall off-track and fail to graduate. they enter u of t already with fewer academic resources than others and are granted fewer transfer credits than their university counterparts. to address these challenges, institutions should think about two policy improvements: 1. since awarding transfer credits is associated with better outcomes among all categories of transfer students, universities should strive to develop mechanisms that might award more such credits while retaining their academic integrity. currently, each institution has its own credit-awarding procedures, but more could be done to systematize their efforts in ways that might grant more credits to deserving students. 2. since high school track records are important predictors of university outcomes, and since transfer students tend to have worse track records on average than direct-entry students, universities may wish to also provide transfer students (and other students too) with extra academic supports, such as remedial programs, mentoring, etc. new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 5 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. oncat.ca/en/projects/pse-transfers-tdsb-uoft-data-linkage established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the author acknowledges the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

a toolkit to support the creation of pathways for indigenous learners centre for policy and research in indigenous learning page |2 table of contents acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................3 list of tables and figures ......................................................................................................................4 tables .......................................................................................................................................................4 figures......................................................................................................................................................4 introduction............................................................................................................................................5 history and background ...........................................................................................................................5 why pathways for indigenous learners?.................................................................................................6 key characteristics of our pathways ........................................................................................................6 purpose of the toolkit ...........................................................................................................................7 ayaakwamisiiswin: a model for creating pathways for indigenous learners........................8 overview of the model ............................................................................................................................8 page |3 phase one: relationship-building .........................................................................................9 phase two: building common ground ...............................................................................10 phase three: collaborative and informed action ................................................................13 phase four: accountability to our pathways for indigenous learners ................................19 conclusion..............................................................................................................................................21 other helpful resources .....................................................................................................................22 additional resources .............................................................................................................................24 references ...............................................................................................................................................25 appendix a: wrap around support model .......................................................................................26 appendix b: sample articulation agreement ..................................................................................28 appendix c: asset map for partnering institutions.......................................................................31 appendix d: speed-dating and action planning worksheet.........................................................35 appendix e: pathway template............................................................................................................37 appendix f: sample complete monitoring tool..............................................................................38 page |4 acknowledgements meegwetch, thank you, to the first circle members of the pathways for indigenous learners project from confederation college, first nations technical institute and trent university for your vision and work. specifically, thank you to the advisory committee members, adam hopkins, s. brenda small, don mccaskill, emily willson and joyce helmer for your leadership and direction. thank you to all first, second and third circle steering committee partners, for you participation and commitment to this work. thank you to lisa schmidt for providing feedback and reviewing project materials and reports. meegwetch, thank you, to bruce beardy, professor, anishinaabemowin language, confederation college for learning about our project and providing a name for our model in anishinaabe language that captures all of the elements of our work around pathways. thank you to all of the past, present and future partners and steering committee members who have been a part of this work. lastly, thank you to the ontario council on articulation and transfer for your continued support of this work. page |5 list of tables and figures tables table 1 sample layout for environmental scan .........................................................................................................11 table 3 - speed dating work sheet ................................................................................................................................14 table 4 - pathways development checklist....................................................................................................................14 table 5 - sample affinities table....................................................................................................................................15 table 6 - pathways implementation checklist ...............................................................................................................16 table 7 - summary examples of pathways implementation across three different postsecondary institutions ................17 table 8 - pathways monitoring tool ............................................................................................................................20 table 9 - existing pathways for indigenous learners ....................................................................................................22 figures figure 1 a visual of first, second and third circle partners ........................................................................................5 figure 2 the wrap-around support model ..................................................................................................................6 figure 3 an illustration of ayaakwamisiiwin, a model for creating pathways for indigenous learners.........................8 figure 4 the speed dating or speed networking process ............................................................................................13 figure 5 wrap-around support model expanded version ..........................................................................................24 page |6 introduction history and background in 2013, indigenous educators from confederation college, first nations technical institute (fnti), and trent university established a partnership with the purpose of increasing access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners across the province of ontario. in particular, the pathways for indigenous learners project was launched, and agreements were signed that established three postsecondary pathways across the partnering institutions in the fields of indigenous studies, social work, and environmental studies. these pathways were grounded in a commitment to indigenous learners, and included unique elements such as: relationship-building between partnering institutions to encourage prospective learners to access new and existing pathways; curriculum-mapping based on indigenous learning outcomes; a wrap-around support services model; and a transition program named biishkaa, coordinated by trent university (cpril, 2013-2016). in 2013, presidents from each partnering institution met in person at fnti to sign a memorandum of understanding demonstrating their support for this work. further, each partnering institution received beaded panels as seen in figure 1, to further signify the partnership. this project has grown to include second circle and third circle partners; the full circle of partners now includes 16 colleges and universities and an indigenous institute from across ontario. representatives of these organizations also constitute the project steering committee. shared values, practices and commitments, relationship- building, and collaborative and informed action ground the steering committees partnership model. . moreover, this project is grounded by indigenous methodology. ceremony has informed much of the project activities; members are committed to working with an open heart and an open mind in relationshipbuilding and to establishing mutual respect and an understanding of our responsibility to this work. figure 1 a visual of first, second and third circle partners throughout this work, we have defined pathways as the direct transfer of credits from one program to another. however, our characterizations of a pathway necessarily consider the learners entire postsecondary journeyentering into a program, transitioning between programs, and exiting a program, plus all of the wrap-around support services that would be available throughout the learners pathway experience. page |7 why pathways for indigenous learners? the idea for this project grew out a relationship between three unique postsecondary institutions confederation college, first nations technical institute, and trent universityand out of their commitment to creating opportunities and increasing access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners through the creation of pathways. historically, there have been relatively few pathways for indigenous learners, or at least, a lack of formal recognition of such pathways. indigenous learners would have to advocate for themselves in terms of the recognition and transfer of credits, while simultaneously navigating postsecondary systems that often present systemic barriers to access and success. our pathways work is grounded by the need to remove such barriers, while also striving to close the gap in completion of postsecondary education between indigenous and non-indigenous learners. additionally, pathways create an opportunity to increase efficiencies, and to maximize funding for postsecondary education for indigenous learners, whether they are relying upon personal finances, band funding, ontario student assistance program support, or scholarships and bursaries. key characteristics of our pathways indigenous learners will be encouraged and supported to pursue postsecondary education pathways that resonate with themselves, that meet their learning needs, and that support their self-determination. this is the position that grounds the work we do create pathways for indigenous learners. pathways for indigenous learners steering committee position statement through pathways, we seek to maximize opportunities for learners. for instance, many of our pathways are 2 + 2 agreements, and several offer joint admission. students can thereby gain both a diploma and a degree within four years. furthermore, a joint admissions agreement provides learners with a guarantee that they will be able to begin their education ina college while looking forward to entering a university program if they meet certain requirements which provides them with a destination to strive towards. it is critical that all of our pathways are accompanied by a wrap-around approach to support services. a wrap-around support model integrates a ranges of services that support the wholistic well-being of a learner (e.g. social, spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, financial and physical). see figure 2 for an figure 2 the wrap-around support model page |8 example of a wrap-around support model. our model for creating pathways also relies upon building and maintaining relationships between everyone involved in a pathway. this includes building relationships between key personnel of a single institution who support pathways implementation (e.g. faculty members, support services staff, pathways coordinators), as well as relationships with learners who pursue any existing pathways. the ultimate goal for a pathway is to create a learning journey whereby learners are welcomed into an institution and know who to reach out to if they require support. lastly, our model requires the regular monitoring of created pathways in order to ensure accountability for keeping them alive, sustainable, and successful. monitoring practices include ongoing relationshipbuilding and relationship maintenance, implementing mechanisms such as a monitoring tool, and scheduling annual meetings with key individuals involved in a pathway. purpose of the toolkit with this toolkit, we aim to engage and support others in creating pathways for indigenous learners. while not necessarily a step-by-step guide, the main purpose of the toolkit is to share knowledge, approaches, and processes that have worked for our group of educators, institutions, and organizations. in particular, we have consolidated existing and new templates and processes that can assist individuals and institutions in creating and supporting pathways for indigenous learners within their own institutions. furthermore, we have identified a need to develop a series of checklists to guide our work and ensure that we are following through on everything that is needed to create our pathways. this document provides a number of these checklists, and other useful tools and approaches to help guide others in their work. through this toolkit we also share information on existing pathways, and also have resources for prospective and interested students. page |9 ayaakwamisiiswin: a model for creating pathways for indigenous learners overview of the model ayaakwaamisiiwin is an anishinaabemowin word that means to be carefully prepared for what you encounter, to be ready and able to overcome whatever bumps or barriers you may experience so that you can move forward. this applies to indigenous learners following a pathway; it applies to the pathways in place; and it applies to an institution supporting a pathway. for the learner, it means that they have everything they need to navigate a pathway and succeed, and they are equipped to overcome any obstacles that they may face. for the institution, it means that they have everything in place to support a pathway and they are equipped to respond to the needs and experiences of indigenous learners. ayaakwamisiiwin reflects all of our elements and processes for creating and supporting pathways for indigenous learners. the key elements of our model for creating pathways are: relationship-building and partnership building common ground collaborative and informed action accountability figure 3 an illustration of ayaakwamisiiwin, a model for creating pathways for indigenous learners. p a g e | 10 it is important to note that this work is grounded and guided by indigenous methodologies, as ceremony has informed many of our project activities. for instance, each phase of our work began with a customary feast; partners would come together to share a meal, reflect on previous work, and to discuss the work ahead. additionally, each partner offered to the group a presentation of what they and their institution would bring to the work rather than what they hoped to take away through their participation. through these processes, members demonstrated their commitment to working with an open heart and an open mind in establishing learning journeys. further, relationship-building and establishing mutual respect and understanding of our responsibility and accountability to the work are integral characteristics of our projects model. lastly, important practices of the group included sharing meals at every meeting, alternating host institutions for each meeting, opening and closing the meetings with a prayer, and closing meetings with round table reflections. phase one: relationship-building relationship-building is foundational to the work that we do. this begins with building and maintaining relationships between partnering institutions and all who are involved in the implementation of a pathway (e.g. academic units, registrars, support services staff, marketing and recruitment, etc.). relationship-building and maintenance also help to support accountability to the work, which has been critical to the success of our pathways. as we learned from previous research (see cpril coming full circle, 2019 and shifting the landscape, 2018), pathways take time, resources and coordination. they involve many people within partnering institutions and often have multiple phases to reach implementation. it is essential that everyone who is involved in a pathway is accountable for their own contributions and responsibilities. p a g e | 11 there have been a number of shared practices and group values that guided and reinforced our relationship-building and ultimately the fnti sees it role in the sector as one that's work of creating pathways for indigenous grounded in formal and informal relationships. as learners. first, the steering committee was the institutes continue our work as learner centred by a shared commitment to supporting centred, community driven organizations, it is and creating equitable opportunities for those relationships with students, their indigenous learners across our postsecondary communities and sector partners that animate institutions. additionally, members of the our work. it is the students expectation that we steering committee dedicated themselves to use these relationships to ensure that their working with an open heart and mind and with experience is as seamless as possible. we owe them no less. transparency, in order to build and maintain a sense of mutual respect and understanding. adam hopkins, vice president, enrolment furthermore, each phase of this work was mangaement and student services launched in a customary way, in the form of a feast. during this meeting, all project partners were brought together to share a meal that was mainly comprised of local foods, in order to begin the process of relationship-building. additionally, members of the steering committee illustrated their commitments to the project through their attendance at and participation in regular, in-person meetings. in-person meetings have emerged as a critical best practice for this work, as they foster relationships and create a time and a space for collaborationin-person meetings provide a time and a space to get work done and to facilitate the development of critical alliances. relationship-building and maintenance also extends to indigenous learners within our institutions. for instance, through relationshipbuilding, staff and faculty within institutions can communicate and market pathways to prospective the successes of pathway development amongst transfer students, as well as invest the institutions as part of the pathways for time in understanding and indigenous learners project can be attributed significantly on relationship building. this trait has addressing the barriers they may be been a mainstay of our deliberations as it facing in pursuit of their path accounts for dialogue, discussion and through postsecondary education. commitment to the mandate of the committee. building relationships has been essential in the engagement and sustainability of the pathway agreements and paves the way for future pathway development and implementation. there are additional strategies to formalize relationship-building and commitment to the work, such as establishing letters of intent or memorandums of understanding david marasco, university registrar, between partnering institutions. algoma university these processes are not required but our research has identified them as wise practices for securing buy-in and support from senior leadership p a g e | 12 within an institution, in terms of their commitment to the development and implementation of pathways for indigenous learners (cpril, coming full circle, 2019; shifting the landscape, 2018). phase two: building common ground the objective of building common ground is to establish mutual understanding of each others institution and its table 1 sample layout for environmental scan role in this work. building common ground establishes a place of transparency from which to work and supports understanding of differing systems and processes across distinct institutions. building common ground occurred throughout our oncat-sponsored pathways projects, and was facilitated by activities such as asset-mapping, resource-sharing, group discussions, and workshops. thus our model relies upon a number of tools and practices that facilitate building common ground both internally and externally. to begin, external analysis (such as an environmental scan, see below for example) helps to identify and understand socio-political considerations for the broader postsecondary landscape that might impact the development and implementation of pathways. furthermore, external analysis also helps to identify gaps, and consequently, opportunities to create particular pathways, as well as potential institutions to consider for partnerships. institutions programs gpa required for admission notes links e.g. sending and receiving institutions e.g. programs involved e.g. gpa required to remain eligible for the pathway e.g. key details or unique features of the pathways (e.g. credentials earner, type pf agreement, joint admission, etc) e.g. website links p a g e | 13 next, internal analysis helps to develop a deep understanding of a postsecondary environment by identifying all the assets of an institutionthat is, elements that can help to, or pose challenges to, the implementation of a pathway. in particular, internal analysis helps to identify institutional strengths and weaknesses as related to implementing and supporting pathways for indigenous learners. these findings can be shared with prospective partnering institutions in order to find alignment and affinities for pathways and partnership development. this type of internal analysis can also be utilized by the institution to support decision-making and strategic planning. we relied upon the process of asset mapping for our internal analysis. in our model, asset maps are to be used as a starting point for developing pathways as they summarize not only the programs that are available within the institution but all of the assets that will support the success and implementation of a pathway. for instance, such information includes all wrap-around supports that are available to learners, processes for recruiting indigenous learners, data on student characteristics, and so on. moreover, the asset maps are considered to be living documents in that they can constantly grow as more assets are identified and/or developed over time. to be specific, institutional assets span a number of areas including the following: programs and courses (i.e., that have a focus on indigenous knowledge/pedagogy, culture, knowledge, etc, or where there are indigenous learners enrolled, or that are delivered within communities) services/support, resources learner demographics staff learner recruitment outreach and transition decision-making institutional setting indigenous student funding sources link to community institutional documents (i.e., does your institution have documents or polices that reflect your institutions commitments to indigenous education and learners, the truth and reconciliation commissions calls to action and the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples?) percentage of core funding dedicated to indigenous education (i.e., what percentage i found the process of completing the asset map to be very beneficial to our organization. it allowed for the open discussion amongst the various schools and departments in order to get an accurate overall picture of our indigenous footprint at the college. once completed it is a very powerful tool to utilize for both academic and student services in developing and implementing future goals and strategic directions. as well, the process allows for some relevant introspection such as are we where we want to be as an institution are there gaps wow perhaps we should showcase this more! i do feel that completing the asset map is critical piece to the onward development of new pathways for indigenous learners across institutions. -leslie macgregor, associate dean, learning resources division, confederation college p a g e | 14 of your institutions core funding is spent on indigenous support services or for indigenous staff and faculty?) other (is there any other useful information that could help to inform our process of creating or supporting pathways for indigenous learners?) please refer to appendix c for the full asset map. lastly, in addition to relying upon tools for internal and external analysis, we always created space and time for open group discussions on topics that may impact the work that we do to create pathways. such topics of conversation included institutional or systemic racism and other institutional challenges, the nature of appropriate supports for indigenous learners, competition among postsecondary institutions, and the current landscape of indigenous education and learning in ontario and canada, to name a few. p a g e | 15 phase three: collaborative and informed action overall, relationship-building and partnership, and building of a common ground help to facilitate the process of collaborative and informed action, or in other words, the creation of pathways and partnerships for indigenous learners. with a thorough understanding of ones own institution, each others institutions, and of the postsecondary landscape, prospective partners are well positioned to make informed decisions in terms of pathways development. with assets maps in hand, institutions are able to meet with one another with thorough evidence for determining where there are opportunities for partnerships in terms of alignment and affinities for pathways and support for indigenous learners. we relied upon several processes and tools (and templates), to support the identification and implementation of pathways and partnerships for indigenous learners. depending on the size of a group, and number of participating institutions, one may need a method to support maximizing the exploration of opportunities for partnership and pathways to development. our group, which represented 15 postsecondary institutions, relied upon the method of speed-dating, or speed-networking to explore opportunities for pathways creation and partnership across all of our institution (see below). figure 4 the speed dating or speed networking process action: speed dating in figure 4, the orange circles represent people sitting around a table (in green). people sitting around the outside of the table remained seated in the same spot, while the people sitting in the inside of the table rotate right (indicated by the gold arrows), ensuring that they meet with every potential partner sitting on the exterior. we recommend setting five-minute meeting limits, so in this case, there would be nine meeting sessions, for five minutes each, resulting in an approximately 45 minutes of speed dating. p a g e | 16 the worksheet below can be used by each institution of partner to help gather information on potential areas for partnership and collaboration, and next steps. table 2 speed dating work sheet name: e.g. confederation college institution potential areas for partnership next steps see appendix d for a full template of a worksheet to facilitate speed dating and action planning. action: pathways development once potential pathways are identified, there are a series of steps and processes to follow for pathways development and implementation that vary across postsecondary institutions. in this section, we have summarized some of what we have learned from our partnering institutions. we have also created a series of checklists to help guide others in their own work of creating pathways. for instance, once partners have identified and confirmed pathways that they wish to pursue, there a number of steps to follow in terms of the actual development of a pathway. see the table below, pathways development checklist, as well as appendix e (pathways template), for the steps, and for foundational information required for development of a pathway. table 3 pathways development checklist general steps institutions involved affinity programs identified type of pathway key individuals involved pathways coordinator or representative, programs coordinators and faculty, other decision makers (e.g. vice president academic, registrar, etc) pathways elements environmental scan of other existing pathways curriculum mapping confirmation of transfer credits and number of courses that must be completed at sending institutions confirmation of minimum gpa required for eligibility wrap around supports plan relationship building and communication plan established notes p a g e | 17 monitoring plan established development of articulation agreement internal processes for pathways implementation (e.g. see table **) pathways implementation and promotion (e.g. see table **) in addition to the pathways development checklist, we have adopted several processes and templates to supporting gathering information on the key details of a pathway including pathways requirements and eligibility, number of credits transferred, grade point average required, a wrap-around supports plan, and mechanisms for relationships building. these tools include the following: program affinities table: affinity tables help to outline the alignment between two programs, or more specifically, the transferability of credits from one program to another. affinity tables also provide a place for gathering information on the credits that are available to transfer, the length of the receiving institution, the year (standing) within a program that a student would be entering into at a receiving institution, and other similar agreements that exist, provincially. table 4 - sample affinities table sending program and institution receiving program and institution length of sending program agreement of credits transferred other provincial agreements pathways template: pathways templates can be another useful tool to outline key details and foundational information of a potential pathway. our template summarizes a range of key pathways details such as programs and institutions involved in a pathway, transferrable credit, required gpa, wrap-around supports plan, key contacts at partnering institutions, plan for supporting the sustainability of a pathway, etc... refer to appendix e for a sample of a completed pathways template. curriculum mapping tools: each institution, or possibly even each program, likely has its own processes for curriculum mapping, and/or processes for determining the number and types of credits that will be recognized from one program by another. for instance, for one of our original pathways between confederation colleges aboriginal community advocacy program and trent universitys indigenous studies program, we relied upon methods of mapping indigenous learning outcomes between the two programs to determine the alignment between courses and the number of credits that could be transferred. this process led to the development of 2+2 articulation agreement. articulation agreements: articulation agreements are official documents that summarize key information and pathways requirements between partnering institutions. through this work we have created a series of articulation agreements. most recently, we created a unique articulation agreement that incorporates many elements of our pathways model. in particular, within the p a g e | 18 agreement we have outlined commitments to and mechanisms for support. we have also embedded the wrap-around supports model within the document, making explicit our shared commitment to ensuring wholistic support for learners in pursuit of the pathways. finally, we integrated a commitment to continual monitoring of the pathway to ensure it remains a living opportunity for students. overall, this loving agreement, as it has been referred to, is a unique way to ensure institutional commitment to a pathway. action: pathways implementation once the details of a pathway have been confirmed, the next phase involves the review, and approval, or signing of a pathway, and then its implementation. accordingly, we have summarized a series of steps to consider for pathways implementation. while we recognize that processes for pathways implementation varies across postsecondary institutions, we have provided a general list of necessary steps for three types of institutions as a reference: college, indigenous institute, and university. these tools can be adapted and modified as necessary for specific institutions. table 5 pathways implementation checklist relationships and accountability sources of information: internal and external to the institution relationships established between internal and external pathways partners (i.e., academic units, registrars, recruitment personnel, student services, prospective indigenous learners capacity building within partnering institutions wrap around support streamlined transition plan created/ plan for the hand off pathway signed off and implemented resources are in place pathways marketed to students annual review complete a plan for follow up with alumni who completed the pathway is established example processes for pathways implementation: processes for pathways development, approval and implementation varies across postsecondary institutions in ontario. refer to the table below for examples of processes for pathways implementation across three different postsecondary institutions. in the onset of the pathways development, it is critical to clarify the processes in place for each partnering institution, as well as the timeline for approval and implementation as this could impact the time it takes to bring a pathway to life. table 6 summary examples of pathways implementation across three different postsecondary institutions college e.g. algonquin college a new pathway is identified. indigenous institute e.g. first nations technical institute (this process is referencing future pathway development for university e.g. algoma university identify a college program of high affinity that may be p a g e | 19 college indigenous institute university academic manager communicates the proposed pathway to academic development standalone fnti degrees, which have not been approved by iaesc. as such, there will be changes to this process) identify fnti program that may be suitable for transfer pathway, and which will receive 2+2 recognition or equivalent suitable for additional transfer credits and course recognition pathway review draft articulation agreement and gap analysis reviewed by dean, academic development. draft reviewed by senior vice-president academic. concept phase the registrar and program coordinator meet to identify similarities in learning outcomes and program objectives commitment by both institutions to collaborate and develop a pathway agreement, thereby, continuing the dialogue at the respective institutions pathway approval approval by chair of the receiving program; notification to the chair of the sending program senior leadership at both institutions either renew their commitment to the existing mou or create new mou. institute to institute pathways and partnerships will be birthed through ceremony, and institute to college/university will use this process where appropriate meeting with academic unit[s] to begin the formative consultation review of the potential pathway agreement and assess the potential impact formal meeting between academic units to identify potential pathway agreement, assess potential impact. academic units are responsible for the review of the college curriculum map including learning outcomes [vos], course objectives, competencies, creation of course equivalency tables, evaluating the admission requirements for maximum transfer, au courses that remediates any gap and other information that may be applicable. for example, number of graduates from said college diploma and success rates. academic units are also responsible for the academic quality conduct a needs analysis prepare gap analysis document, including gap analysis, bridging requirements (as applicable), and modified program of study, review gap analysis document with registrars office, populate pathway information to recruitment (create the opportunity). prepare draft articulation agreement approval by dean of the receiving program; notification to the chair of the sending program concept phase the office of the registrar meets with the department at the college [dean, program coordinator] to identify established similarities in the learning outcomes and program objectives approval by the dean, academic development and the senior vice president of academics pathway implementation communicate the approval of the pathway to the registrars office and confirm implementation timeline pathway stored in the pathway database and on onttransfer database if applicable academic units are responsible for aligning learning outcomes, course objectives, mapping equivalencies and evaluating admission requirements for maximum transfer. fnti will be responsible for assessing any cultural knowledge plar, which will be documented on transcripts for students entering or exiting fnti programs. p a g e | 20 college indigenous institute agreement is reviewed and approved by fnti leadership team. complete and finalize agreement, create tool kit that outlines specifics for students interested in pathway. identify pathway on ontransfer and renew any ceremonial protocol as required. university assurance aligned with articulation agreements including academic integrity through the tc evaluation and course equivalency process. finalize the articulation agreement with the college including transfer credits allowed, specific grade requirements, cumulative gpa for maximum transfer, etc. institutional processes include approval process from the academic unit, to the faculty, quality assurance committee [institutional quality assurance program], academic planning & priorities committee and finally senate a final but crucial consideration in the development of a pathway, and for bringing a pathway to life, is to establish relationships with all those involved in marketing and promoting pathways, and ensuring that supports are in place to meet the needs of the learners who wish to pursue the pathway. a great example of this is illustrated by the narrative below concerning the previously mentioned confederation college and trent university pathway. the indigenous studies pathway between confederation college and trent university is a great example of relationship-building. in the development of this pathway faculty and support services staff from trent university met with faculty, staff and prospective pathways students at confederation college in thunder bay, on, to provide information on the pathway, student life at trent university, and to understand some of the concerns that students might have, such as adjustment to student life at a university, moving logistics and costs, and finding a place to live. through this reciprocal process, they were able to address barriers that may have prevented students from following a pathway, and also provided students with a familiar face, a person to contact when they made the move to trent. this example also illustrates the importance of wrap-around supports, which our research also indicated as critical to supporting the sustainability of our pathways. p a g e | 21 phase four: accountability to our pathways for indigenous learners the final phase of our project model focuses on supporting accountability to our pathways. overall, there remains a gap across the postsecondary sector in terms of monitoring transfer and mobility, in particular on where students go after completing a pathway, and on their experiences while pursuing a pathway. in response to this gap, the pathways for indigenous learners steering committee sought to build a tool to facilitate monitoring the pathways that are implemented. establishing a plan, or process for monitoring pathways also helps to ensure that all of the required elements are considered in the development and implementation of pathways, such as the development and maintenance of critical relationships with students and between partnering institutions. monitoring pathways also help to ensure that pathways stay alive and utilized, relevant, successful and sustainable. a literature review and environmental scan as to methods for tracking student transfer and mobility, as well as key informant interviews, informed the development of the provided tool for monitoring pathways for indigenous learners (cpril, coming full circle, 2019). specifically, the monitoring tool was built in such a way as to address the gaps and barriers in relation to implementing and supporting pathways for indigenous learners. the metrics and checklists that were developed fall under the following four themes: relationships and accountability, student experience, academic/ mainstream metrics and wrap-around supports, as indicated in table 8. it must be noted that this tool is based upon a broad definition of success, in order to capture both western and indigenous notions of what it means to succeed in postsecondary education. when measuring success, it is important to include empirical measures such as pathways enrolment, retention and completion rates as well as measures that address the student experience, self-determination, and autonomy. table 7 pathways monitoring tool relationships and accountability sources of information: internal and external to the institution relationships established between internal and external pathways partners o academic units o registrars o recruitment o student services o prospective indigenous learners notes academic/ mainstream metrics sources of information: academic units/ faculty, the registrar # of applicants enrolment academic performance at sending institution academic performance at receiving institution persistence/ retention graduation notes p a g e | 22 capacity building wrap around support streamlined transition plan created/ plan for the hand off pathway signed off and implemented resources are in place pathways marketed to students annual review complete plan for follow up with alumni established student experience sources of information: students, faculty, student services the transition barriers experienced and addressed satisfaction and success next steps (e.g. employment or future studies) notes wrap around supports notes sources of information: student services plan and follow through for ongoing check ins wrap around support provided and received refer to appendix g for an example of a completed monitoring table for our aboriginal community advocacy (confederation college) to indigenous studies (trent university) pathway. conclusion our work in creating pathways for indigenous learners has resulted in a wide range of outcomes for supporting pathways development, indigenous learners, and indigenous education across the province of ontario. through this phase of our collaboration, we have gained a deeper understanding of the challenges to implementing pathways as well as the limitations that exist within our own model. as educators, in moving forward we must ensure that we are establishing mechanisms that guide, as well ensure, our accountabilities and commitments to building successful pathways for indigenous learners. important mechanisms include creating opportunities and spaces for relationships building among all those who are involved in a pathway, as well as implementing tools, such as our evaluative tool, to inform and monitor our work. with this toolkit, we hope to share our lessons learned and practical resources with other postsecondary institutions, indigenous organizations, educators, and learners so that the expansion of indigenous learner mobility can continue to grow. p a g e | 23 other helpful resources table 8 existing pathways for indigenous learners pathway environmental technician to environmental studies/ sciences aboriginal community advocacy to indigenous studies aboriginal community advocacy to community, economic and social development aboriginal community advocacy, indigenous learning partnering institutions confederation college, trent university pathways details 2 + 2 agreement confederation college. trent university 2 + 2 agreement confederation college, algoma university 2 + 2 (joint admission) confederation college, lakehead university aboriginal community advocacy, political science confederation college, lakehead university aboriginal community advocacy, sociology confederation college, lakehead university 2+2 existing pathways that have been updated to maximize student supports, and to minimize barriers (e.g. joint admissions, wrap around supports model) 2+2 existing pathways that have been updated to maximize student supports, and to minimize barriers (e.g. joint admissions, wrap around supports model) 2+2 existing pathways that have been updated to maximize student supports, and to minimize barriers (e.g. joint admissions, wrap around supports model) social service worker to indigenous social worker mental health and addiction worker, ba (3 years) indigenous studies, and ba (4 years) indigenous studies with specialization social service worker, ba (3 years) indigenous studies, and ba (4 years) indigenous studies with specialization community and justice services, ba (3 years) sault college, laurentian university canadore college, university of sudbury canadore college, university of sudbury canadore college, university of sudbury p a g e | 24 pathway indigenous studies, and ba (4 years) indigenous studies with specialization indigenous wellness and addictions prevention, ba (3 years) indigenous studies, and ba (4 years) indigenous studies with specialization police foundations, ba (3 years) indigenous studies, and ba (4 years) indigenous studies with specialization early childhood education, ba in folklore and ethnologie (3 years) partnering institutions canadore college, university of sudbury canadore college, university of sudbury canadore college, university of sudbury pathways details p a g e | 25 figure 5 wrap-around support model expanded version quadrant spiritual purpose love mental learning humility emotional reflection truth relational interaction respect social belonging honesty financial balance wisdom physical movement self direction courage example type of support service access to elders on campus or indigenous student navigators) academic bridging courses) counseling services promotional materials, meeting with students) summer orientation, student events) budgeting workshops, scholarships and bursaries) housing, daycare facilities) additional resources shifting the landscape: creating alignment in indigenous studies to support learners in ontarios postsecondary environment. coming full circle: evaluating the success and sustainability of our pathways for indigenous learners model expanding the circle: pathways for indigenous learners across ontario pathways for indigenous learners (2014-2016) principled position on pathways for indigenous learners (see expanding the circle) oncat links to pathways information: https://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php p a g e | 26 references centre for policy in aboriginal learning (2019). coming full circle. confederation college and oncat. centre for policy in aboriginal learning (2015). pathways for aboriginal learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities: final report. confederation college and oncat. centre for policy in aboriginal learning (2018). shifting the landscape: creating alignment in indigenous studies to support learners in ontarios postsecondary environment. confederation college and oncat. p a g e | 27 appendix a: wrap around support model a framework is the enactment of a respectful relationship with the rest of creation which shares this earth with us a framework is never a noun never simply a metaphor purpose learning reflection movement student interaction balance belonging social honesty it is more than any words which attempt to detonate it a framework is a journey/ing with p a g e | 28 spiritual purpose love - we are given strength to walk through all that comes our way as we seek to understand the creators purpose for our lives. accessing elders on and off campus aboriginal counselling on and off campus opportunities for cultural practices opportunities for spiritual practices mental learning humility academic bridging course intensive 1 or 2 week module adaptation of trents research and writing course adapting to systems in new post-secondary institution acknowledging and accepting indigenous cultural difference emotional reflection - truth e-portfolio (to be developed) completion of transition questionnaire/assessment (to be developed) weekly check ins with peer mentor/advisor managing time (transfer shock) follow up by support staff to faculty faculty engagement advocacy social belonging - honesty maintenance of cohort summer orientation biishka, kiikokanawge community connections friendship centres, family connections financial balance - wisdom income source funding logistics employment opportunities pre, mid, post moving costs budgeting bursary applications self - direction (self-care, self-advocacy) counselling relational interaction - respect promotion of articulation agreements navigators college recruiters develop promotional materials: brochures, postcards, etc. 1st year aca, ncfs, et class visits 2nd year aca, ncfs, et class visits access programs class visits alumni base call/email/mail promotional material high schools career fairs virtual tours website promotion and information meeting with students who are pursuing and meet criteria of articulation agreement introduction to receiving institution staff and faculty assist with application process checking in not out once at receiving institution weekly check ins with peer mentor/advisor physical movement self direction courage housing/accommodations daycare, childrens schools safe neighbourhoods health care doctors, dentists, optometrists diet and exercise p a g e | 29 appendix b: sample articulation agreement diploma-to-degree exceptional transfer agreement [community economic and social development] between algoma university (hereinafter au) sault ste. marie, on and confederation college (hereinafter cc) thunder bay, on 1.0 general provisions: i. ii. iii. iv. this articulation agreement sets forth guidelines for the partnership that will exist between au and cc. this agreement describes the standard transfer credit pathways for one-year ontario college certificate programs, two-year ontario college diploma programs and three-year ontario college advanced diploma programs; the goal of this agreement is to provide maximum opportunity for students to achieve the benefits of combining a college diploma and a university degree; the fundamental means embodied in this agreement is the recognition of prior learning and a credit transfer system in the province of ontario that optimizes pathways and minimizes unnecessary duplication of students learning and barriers to student mobility; the agreement shall be continuous from year to year; however, either party may terminate the agreement if notice in writing is given at least six months prior to the date on which the termination becomes effective. students enrolled at the time of notice of termination will be given the opportunity to complete their degree studies based on the terms of the agreement when they commenced their studies; p a g e | 30 v. au and cc will assign members to an advisory council to actively monitor the implementation of the pathway, using co-developed evaluation methodology and tools. 1.1 block transfer credit agreement specifications: i. cc diploma and certificate program graduates must meet au admission requirements defined as the successful completion of a two or three-year diploma program or a one-year certificate program with a minimum overall average of b (3.00 gpa) to be eligible for block transfer credit recognition. the following cc diploma program will be considered as part of the exceptional transfer credit framework: aboriginal community advocacy program [aca two-year] (appendix a summarizes credit recognition based on the transfer agreement between au and cc) ii. successful applicants from the aforementioned two-year diploma program with a minimum overall average of 3.00 gpa (b) or greater will receive recognition as follows: 57 transfer credits towards the three-year bachelor of arts in community development program [ba3.cdev]; 60 transfer credits towards the four-year honours bachelor of arts in community economic and social development program [ba4.cesd]; 45 transfer credits toward the three-year bachelor of arts in community economic and social development program [ba3.cesd] iii. cc diploma graduates from the aforementioned program with a 2.50 2.99 gpa (c+) will receive transfer recognition for a maximum of 15 credits towards the bachelor of arts in community development and community economic and social development degree programs; students with a 2.49 gpa or less (c-/c) grade will be eligible for admission, but will not receive transfer credit. iv. in the case of course code changes, au and cc agree to update the agreement accordingly. p a g e | 31 v. each cc graduate admitted to au via this agreement will receive an individualized diploma to degree completion chart outlining the number of transfer credits received and the courses required for completion of the designated degree program. p a g e | 32 1.2 institutional commitment vi. algoma university and confederation college agree to implement a wrap-around support model for this exceptional agreement. the agreement is designed to facilitate the seamless transfer of students, and in particular indigenous learners. the wrap-around support model involves active participation by both institutions at all stages of the student experience. au and cc agree to assign a working group with representation from both institutions for this pathway agreement to explicitly identify which wrap-around supports will be provided in accordance with the model below. the success of this agreement will be monitored by the working group by examining student success and support provision using the wrap-around framework. in addition, the parties agree to the following: au will: collaborate with cc to provide information to students in their first year of study at cc regarding the transfer pathway. encourage pathway preparation by providing information to advisors at cc on college courses that will maximize transfer credit for this pathway. assign an anishinaabe student success advisor to work with cc students while they are in the cc diploma program. ensure applicants from cc receive priority entry to the university through a joint admissions process. waive the requirements for a completed transfer application and the transfer application fee. collaborate with cc to connect students and faculty to university resources while in the cc diploma program (faculty, library, learning resources, housing, etc.). provide au pathway scholarships to eligible students. cc will: collaborate with au to provide information to students in their first year of study at cc regarding the transfer pathway. encourage pathway preparation by providing opportunity for advisors and faculty at cc to learn about college courses that will maximize transfer credit for this pathway. assign an advisor to serve as the primary liaison for cc students interested in the au pathway while they are in the cc diploma program. collaborate with au to connect students and faculty to university resources while in the cc diploma program (faculty, library, learning resources, housing, etc.) vii. both parties agree to work collaboratively to build a strong inter-institutional working relationship to facilitate seamless transfer using a wrap-around support model that puts the student at the centre. p a g e | 33 appendix c: asset map for partnering institutions the purpose of this document is to assist you in summarizing information pertaining to programs, courses, supports, opportunities, services, etc for indigenous learners within your institution. this information will be helpful throughout the process of this work, in creating learning pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions. when possible, include institutional data that could be useful to or inform the development or creation of learning pathways. **feel free to copy & paste any relevant information from your institutions website** asset description programs and courses (that have a focus on knowledge/pedagogy, culture, knowledge, etc, or where there are indigenous learners enrolled, or that are delivered within communities) programs courses services/support/ resources cultural support (i.e. feasts, sweatlodge, ceremonies, sharing circles) academic support (i.e. academic advising, tutoring, various workshops) individual support (i.e. on campus counselling, elders) financial support (i.e. bursaries, food vouchers, bus tickets, emergency funds, food bank) resource centres? peer mentoring e.g. connections to upper year mentors (please include any informal supports (i.e. rides, out of pocket expenses lunches, coffee)) if you have a gathering space/student lounge/support centre, who typically uses this space? (i.e. 1st year students, 2nd, nonindigenous) do you offer post-graduation services? (i.e. career exploration, job bank, etc.) are there linkages with specific community supports that learners can access? (i.e. off campus counselling, cultural support, etc.) special events and/or cultural programming? informal supports (i.e. rides, out of pocket expenses lunches, coffee)? learner demographics when possible include institutional data do you have a system for obtaining indigenous learner numbers? do you have the numbers for each group? who keeps the data? (i.e. registrars, it, student success centre) p a g e | 34 asset where do your learners come from? urban reside in same location as institution or relocated from another urban setting rural reside in location that is within the region of institution, i.e. drive in first nation community or small town remote fly in first nation or inuit communities language is there a language barrier? is english a second language for some of your learners? age is there a higher concentration in a particular age range? education what education level are they entering with? parental status do you have a large number of learners who are parents? prior learning experiences what work experience or educational experience or a combination of both are they bringing with them? staff please list the positions that work directly with indigenous learners or within the realm of support services. (i.e. managers, counsellors, advisors, navigators) are there indigenous studies administration, administrative positions held by indigenous peoples in your institution? are there indigenous counsellors, elders, and/or peer support workers available at your institution? learner recruitment how do indigenous learners typically find out about your institution? do you have a designated indigenous recruiter? if not, how are indigenous learners recruited? (i.e. through mainstream services) where are learners recruited and in what ways? if in schools, what grade levels are targeted? how do you recruit learners for new programs? is there a formal way of tracking this? who makes the initial contact? how is contact maintained? is there follow up or referral to another person or department made? description p a g e | 35 asset what information is given and by whom? outreach and transition at what point is first contact made with potential indigenous learners application, registration or other? who makes the initial contact? how is contact maintained? is there follow up or referral to another person or department made? what information is given and by whom? if they are directly from high school, does your department have relationships with guidance counsellors or others that work directly with indigenous learners? who helps learners with the transition to your institution? does your department assist with securing housing, daycare or other essential services for learners? does campus residence provide targeted accommodation for indigenous learners? are there specific transition services offered to indigenous learners transfer students? (i.e. separate orientation, eligibility for on campus housing) decision making who is responsible for making decisions for indigenous learners within your institution? are there any groups or councils (e.g. aboriginal education council) that assist in decision making for indigenous learners at your institution? if so, what groups? does your institution have indigenous representation in decision making processes e.g. sitting on the board of governors, sitting in on senior leadership meetings? institutional setting aside from curriculum, in what ways are indigenous knowledge(s) reflected within your institution? the cultures of learning institutions differ from each other; what potential adjustments would indigenous learners have to make as they enter another institution? (i.e. class size, what assignments are like (group presentations, essays, etc.) what does building of community look like at your institution? what pathways, for indigenous learners, between postsecondary institutions do you currently offer? description p a g e | 36 asset description does your institution have a designated position for pathways related work? (e.g. a pathways coordinator who is responsible for the creation, development and support of pathways) does your institution have education or personal development opportunities to inform staff and students on indigenous cultures, education, canadian history, etc? student indigenous funding sources what funders do you currently have relationships with? is there someone from student supports who liaises with the funders? link to community when and how does your institution engage with and involve indigenous communities? institutional documents does you institution have documents or polices that reflect your institutions commitments to indigenous education and learners, the truth and reconciliation commissions calls to action and the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples? % of core funding for indigenous education what % of your institutions core funding is spent on indigenous support services what % of core funding is spent on positions for indigenous faculty and staff other (is there any other useful information that could help to inform our process of creating or supporting pathways for indigenous learners?) p a g e | 37 appendix d: speed-dating and action planning worksheet group exercise: identifying opportunities for articulation agreements and credit transfer part a: individual institution brainstorming using your institutions asset map as a resource, identify: 3 assets (e.g. support services or particular program) that your institution does well that you think would benefit another institution. gaps- (e.g. a process, support service, or pathways) that you want to implement at your institution areas in your institution where you would like to partner with another institution (e.g. based on potential opportunities for alignment or pathways development) be mindful of the wrap-around supports model when completing this exercise! asset(s) to share (e.g. a program, course, certification, support service, bridging program, or process, etc) gap to improve (e.g. area where you could improve existing programs by laddering into another or by implementing a particular support service, etc) partnering opportunity (where do you see opportunity for collaboration/ partnership or possible? e.g. with an institution(s) that addresses your gaps or interests, or that complements your assets? is there an obvious area for alignment or pathway development ) learner supports (look to your asset map-how will learners be supported- link back to wrap-around supports model are there any gaps?) institutional capacity (thinks about and outline the institutions capacity to pursue this opportunity, where there may be gaps, p a g e | 38 and/or how another institution could compliment your gaps with their assets) part b: collaborative brainstorming and planning name of partnering institution(s): contact information for each person: description of potential alignment/ pathway development: developing a plan consider the following questions when developing a plan and completing the step by step action plan what actions need to be done in order to accomplish this? who are the people we must communicate with or get involved? what information/resources do you need to accomplish this? what actions/roles will be assigned to who? what deadlines will be assigned? step 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 action description resources person deadline p a g e | 39 p a g e | 40 appendix e: pathway template partnering institutions: algoma university and sault college pathway details title of pathway: pathway type: social service worker native specialization to bachelor of social work diploma to degree - exceptional degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date contact procedure for pathway implementation: au and sc eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the minimum b average (ssw-ns) fall 2018 dave marasco and carolyn hepburn pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: minimum gpa or % required in specific courses total number of transfer credits/full courses to be granted at receiving institution (please express as a yes b not specific grades; only grade in overall program. 54/120 transfer recognition numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of prog ram courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 22 courses 66/120 to be completed at au plan for streamlining wrap-around supports between partnering institutions -sc providing office space for au staff -classroom visits at sc -joint orientation activities -joint admissions -program oversight by academic units -student tracking -annual review of articulation agreement -data to support success of agreement plan for ensuring the sustainability of the pathway approx. 2 years (4 terms) au sc p a g e | 41 appendix f: sample complete monitoring tool

project snapshot the credit transfer experience of the remand population in ontario project lead: dr. ardavan eizadirad, edication consulting inc. project summary this research provides a scan of programs aimed at providing education and post-secondary level training and courses to individuals who are incarcerated/in remand. the research aims to understand to what extent educational programs are accessible and in what ways this learning is formally recognized by post-secondary institutions after release. the first phase of the project is a literature review. in phase two, i will interview individuals to capture their lived experiences accessing education while incarcerated and their pathways post-release. in addition to the research scan, i developed a research strategy to address the following research questions: what are the experiences of remanded individuals who receive educational training as they attempt to enter pse, post-release? more specifically: is their learning (and more specifically, credits) formally recognized by the colleges or universities they enter? what hurdles do they experience during this process? based on an understanding of students experiences, what could be done to streamline their transition into pse and maximize credit recognition? (by receiving institutions, amadeusz, students, government). the research outlines how access to post-secondary education for those incarcerated within ontario and on a larger scale in canada remains limited and an under-developed sector with minimal opportunities. organizations such as amadeusz and walls to bridges are leading the way in ontario by creating opportunities for access to post-secondary education for those incarcerated, but they are not able to keep up with the demand for education. access to education needs to be treated as a priority on a systemic level supported by various levels of government, with funding and resource allocation, to further support rehabilitation of those incarcerated as education is a key protective factor in reducing recidivism (davis et al., 2013). to make this a reality, a more holistic approach is needed requiring synergetic partnerships and collaborations with organizations, non-profits, community agencies, and post-secondary organizations to drastically revamp the current system and its policies and practices at all levels. research findings beyond correspondence programs, there are no post-secondary programs in ontario or in canada designed with the needs of those incarcerated in mind along with their limited access to technology and resources. this is a step in centering this issue and ensuring access to education and existence of multiple pathways where access to education as a human right is upheld and supported by educational institutions. this will contribute to the long-term goal of rehabilitation and reduction in recidivism. concerns and finding #1: there is a lack of information available to the public about education programs offered in correctional facilities, who it is used by, and its outcomes. information that is currently available via government websites are generic in nature. access to information is a systemic barrier that disadvantages families of those who have a member incarcerated as well as those who are released and are seeking relevant programs and services to better themselves and their living circumstances. concerns and finding #2: access to education needs to be more of a priority, supported with funding and resources, to promote rehabilitation and effective reintegration back into the community. this will lead to savings for the justice system as it costs correctional service canada an average of $111,202 annually to incarcerate one man (and twice as much to incarcerate one woman), with only $2950 of that money spent on education per prisoner (chan et al., 2017, para. 16). currently, the types of programs offered are limited, there is a lack of capacity within institutions to meet educational demands, programs offered lack quality due to restrictions imposed in how it can be delivered, and overall there is a lack of partnerships with postsecondary institutions to offer education in prison. the majority of the educational programs offered are high school diploma focused or do not take into consideration the unique needs and circumstances of those incarcerated, such as limited access to learning tools and platforms. concerns and finding #3: there is a need to modernize policies, practices, and processes involved at various levels within jails, prisons, and correctional facilities to create more opportunities for access to quality education. this involves creating a unique intake assessment for the remand population similar for those sentenced, improving the processes involved within intake assessment for those sentenced, more effective data collection and sharing across institutions, and more resources and space allocated for educational programs. this would contribute to an increase in educational opportunities available to meet demand, increase in attendance for programs with low enrollment, and overall raise the quality and consistency of how educational programs are offered. as we continue to navigate the challenges affiliated with the covid-19 pandemic, which includes many educational programs being impacted ranging from being put on hold to adapted or offered less consistently, we must take the opportunity to reflect and ask ourselves whether the current system at various level of government and points in the justice system is prioritizing access to education to promote and reinforce the long-term goal of rehabilitation for those incarcerated. this report outlines why the current system is inequitable and unjust, how systemic barriers impact different social groups leading to disparities in outcomes at various levels within the justice system, and why we need to introduce new legislation, policies, and practices to improve and modernize the system with respect to access to education for those incarcerated. new improvements and changes will contribute to reinforcement of rehabilitation which will lead to savings in monetary costs by reducing recidivism and ensuring more effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community post-release. the introduction and implementation of such new changes needs to be a collective effort involving all levels of the government and advocacy and allyship from organizations and community members to make it an urgent issue. future research this phase of the project has been a literature review. in phase two, individuals will be interviewed to capture their lived experiences accessing education while incarcerated and their pathways post-release. it recommends creating a national funding organization, similar to the laughing gull foundation in the united states, which has a unique branch focusing on higher education in prison, that annually reviews proposals for programs and partnerships to improve access to education for those incarcerated. a committee should be created with representatives from various stakeholders to assess the applications based on clear criteria outlined and communicated in advance to the public. this will allow for innovative ideas, programs, and partnerships to be presented, assessed, approved, and initiated to meet the demands of access to education within prisons, jails, and correctional facilities. overall, more funding and resources needs to be allocated for education, and the government needs to provide incentives for universities to create post-secondary educational programs for those incarcerated. we also recommend creating a national list that outlines various educational programs offered by universities and important factors such as criteria for getting in, costs, duration of the program, and how courses are delivered. the creation of a national and/or provincial government branch dedicated to higher education in prison will centre the goal of rehabilitation, reduce long-term costs affiliated with keeping people incarcerated, and lead to more effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community. such level of commitment from the government in making access to education a priority with incentives for post-secondary education to create and maintain partnerships will lead to innovative policies and practices that will modernize how education is offered given the limitations affiliated with delivering programming in jail settings. student outcomes beyond correspondence programs, there are no post-secondary programs in ontario or in canada designed with the needs of those incarcerated in mind along with their limited access to technology and resources. this is a step in centering this issue and ensuring access to education and existence of multiple pathways where access to education as a human right is upheld and supported by educational institutions. this will contribute to the long-term goal of rehabilitation and reduction in recidivism. tips access to information is limited. therefore, its important to work with key figures to obtain information and synthesize it. access to education while incarcerated and recognition of such credits earned by post-secondary institutions can be a key protective factor in creating opportunities for upward social mobility and crime deterrence post-release. education is a human right, even if incarcerated, and consequentially a foundational tool and investment in securing employment, as stable employment is one of the major pillars for the successful reintegration of releasees (john howard society of ontario, 2016, p. 20). these issues need to be centred to receive attention.

indigenous institutes and seamless transfer: integrating access and admissions as part of student mobility final learning report february 2021 first nations technical institute prepared by dr. joyce helmer, adam hopkins, sarah mignault: first nations technical institute beverley carter-roy, mark gibeault: kenjgewin teg (ktei) angela mainville, dr. brendan smyth: seven generations education institute (sgei) as educators, we value the transmission of worldview, values, beliefs, teachings, stories, knowledge, and traditions. as educators, we want to ensure the cultural survival of indigenous peoples. as educators we honour those who have walked ahead of us, we acknowledge those who walk with us, and we think of those yet to come. we cannot simply think of our survival: each new generation is responsible to ensure the survival of the seventh generation. the prophecy given to us, tells us that what we do today will affect the seventh generation and because of this we must bear in mind our responsibilities of them today and always. (tom porter, 2008. and grandma saidp. 24 -25) table of contents introduction changing the story review of admissions processes, policies and procedures admissions teams existing programming the enhanced employability stream and the family stream mshiigaade miikan program fnti common core cultural curriculum wholistic admissions new proposed admissions processes recruitment and translation (known in pse admissions as conversion) pathways and transfer ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) plar teaching and learning lodges as prior learning, recognition and renewal (plrr) (formally known as plar) the visioning lodge the relationship lodge the planning lodge fulfilling potential lodge micro-credentials the good red road program (a continuum model) good red road program components assessment and transcripts badges success transcripts implementation and delivery accreditation summary and going forward achievements and future activities history matters introduction first nations technical institute, kenjgewin teg education institute, and seven generations education institute agree that the prospective learner engagement and advocacy known as admissions must be responsive, flexible, and dependable. there is general agreement that the admissions teams contribute to engaging in outreach to communities and potential learners. there is a willingness to work towards a process that demonstrates no locked doors; and one that provides consistency across the sector and among the indigenous institutes across the province. as new accredited members in the post-secondary sector we are embarking on a path towards acknowledging history, determining where we are currently and forging completely new ways of responding to indigenous learners in our own settings and as transfer learners. the goal of this project was to examine the admissions processes in three of the provinces indigenous institutes to strengthen access and transfer to post secondary education for indigenous learners. to achieve this goal, policy and procedural changes are required. it is well known that systems change is essential to removing barriers and a conceptual shift needs to occur that is responsive and safe with policies, strategies and frameworks that are relevant, contextual, strengthens identity and ownership and promotes lifelong learning. to that end, the first nations technical institute, kenjgewin teg education institute, and seven generations education institute have worked to develop a learner-centered prospective learner engagement admissions process and program that will address and remove some of the application and admission barriers that are currently encountered, provide opportunities for upgrading, upskilling, continuous professional development, and dual credit options. the processes and program development concepts discussed in this project afforded consideration of respective community, geographical and first nation diversity. attention to this detail allowed for the creation of an admissions process that is innovative, fully transferable and adaptable for individual community and institutions uniqueness. the initial project activities required a comprehensive review of each institutes admissions processes, policies and procedures. once this baseline was established, we were able to identify challenges, gaps and barriers that were common across the sector and create an innovative framework for a full entry year program offering. changing the story the western educational system is based on many unspoken assumptions, including a preference for knowledge derived from western tools of data collection and record-keeping. knowledge that has been passed down over millennia through oral traditions is often dismissed as inferior. information that cannot be quantified, such as cultural autonomy or community wisdom, is typically overlooked in conversations about the purpose of education. many of the processes that have been created in the academy often do not align with indigenous learners or recognize the skills, experiences, and competencies that have prepared indigenous learners for postsecondary education. it is within our purview, as indigenous institutes, to critically interrogate the colonial and often unspoken assumptions underlying admissions processes, policies, and protocols and create a more aligned and inclusive environment process for indigenous learners. we are cognizant of how the verbiage used in the acceptance of learners into higher education can underscore the inherent divisiveness and deficit positioning of the admission processes. even the use of the term admission suggests a power differential that requires some additional conversations and engagement if we are going to shift the current landscape and its lexicon. the overall outcome is to strive for less oppressive language, more inclusive processes. personnel titles such as pathways officers, which is currently used in a number of post-secondary institutions, suggests an authority that is a challenge for some learners and may result in a reluctance to seek out guidance on advancement. we endeavor to attract/engage with prospective indigenous learners using a language that reflects a welcoming, open and accessible kinship so that everyone is a potential applicant to our institutes. the activities that are in place and the language we use to describe their learning journey and how one embarks on that journey is critical to relationship building and responsive admission processes. these initial steps identified in this project will provide a starting point to begin the necessary and applicable changes that need to be carried out among the project partners and as a template to scale up to all of the indigenous institutes and western admissions teams across the sector. it has been advantageous to share both content and process as each indigenous institute designs and implements their own new admissions policies and processes. while efficiency and standardization are the intention, there is room for variation reflective of each institutes unique interpretation and implementation. review of admissions processes, policies and procedures consistent across the three institutes was a 4-stage admissions process consisting of: stage 1: initial inquiry stage 2: pre-application stage 3: application processing stage 4: approval many of the activities identified in each stage of the admission process were similar with nuanced variations related to partnerships, personnel, program details and recruitment efforts. the review also identified strengths, challenges and barriers currently being addressed by the respective admissions teams and the possible measures that could be employed as solutions. the three main areas addressed include academic challenges, process and procedural gaps and learner social/emotional stresses. the following table outlines the specific details identified. process/procedure academic social/emotional challenge/gap/barrier missed tuition and living allowance deadlines chronic underfunding/ funding limitations one chance of being sponsored no public transportation fpat/cpic/medical not enough clarity around mature student admissions timing/release of programs (poor alignment with funders) gap in trauma informed learning and approaches recruitment materials created in concert with partnerchanges pace of ii schedules lack of childcare location of programs travel and accommodation challenges personnel gaps digital literacy (online applications) academic readiness/missing secondary school prerequisites (english/math) literacy and numeracy skill gaps caat test work/family commitments (time off) trauma and stress all three indigenous institutes partner with other secondary and post secondary institutes in ontario to offer ossd, college, and university level diplomas and degrees. the indigenous institutes therefore generally rely on their partners policies for admissions and all decision making for students accessing community-based pse programs. there are some exceptions. for example, the anishinaabemowin early childhood diploma program offered by kenjgewin teg is only offered at kenjgewin teg and the indigenous community health approaches program has only been offered at fnti as an accredited graduate certificate. both of these programs are administratively co-assigned with mainstream partner institutions. however they are not offered on the mainstream suite of programs. these programs have utilized a hybrid admissions process with the indigenous institutes having the primary responsibilities of recruitment, and enrollment. decision making regarding program offerings are made primarily by the indigenous institute and submitted to the sector partner for approval. fnti has formalized a process that reflects decision making for new programs in preparation for onboarding new program offerings. (appendix a) this process includes the institutions post-secondary education team, program coordinators, senior leadership team, board of directors, as well as inclusion of current labour landscape scans. all three indigenous institutes have an initial online application option with an open and rolling timeline for enrollment just prior to the start of college level programs. university level programs have set application deadlines and both college and university partners sometimes cap enrollment which affects access for certain programs. while the application documentation required from learners is fairly standard across the institutes, the process for submitting the various documents varies widely depending on the partner and their policies. occasionally, a supplementary application form is required. the continuum of application submissions processes ranges from personal drop off to the partner institution to absolutely no role at all for the indigenous institute in the whole admissions process. some pse partners require certain documents be collected by the indigenous institute and uploaded to their admissions office. all transfer credits are currently assessed and granted by the partner institution only with no input from the indigenous institute admissions team. this element is currently being addressed through the inclusion of the pathways coordinator position that has been added to some of the admissions offices across the indigenous institutes and the post-secondary sector. at this writing, fnti is the only indigenous institute employing a full time pathways coordinator. offers of admission are also extended by the partners with collaboration on completion of documentation by the indigenous institute. both college and university partners currently make the final acceptance decisions. all student mobility and transfer potentials are currently all directed to the partners with no direct tracking mechanisms in place at the indigenous institutes. some of the institutes are currently part of the oncat map project to begin to include this activity going forward. fnti is the only indigenous institute (of the three) currently offering a formal articulated pathway continuum from certificate to masters level credentials. for example, the social service diploma would ladder to a bachelor degree in social work and seamlessly to a masters degree in social work. this continuum involves collaborative efforts from three additional post secondary partnerships. fnti has similar continuum pathways with both the mental health and public administration programs. tuition fees are set by the partner institution with the exception of the aviation program and the public administration and governance program at fnti. at the seven generations education institute (sgei) all tuition fees are collected by the partner and sgei invoices the partner for tuition and grant. at kenjgewin teg, tuition fees are not collected on behalf of the partner except for some of the general interest and additional qualifications courses. the collection of student activity fees also varies with some institutes collecting fees for technology procurement to no fees collected at all from the indigenous institute learners. the availability of financial aid, guidance, and support processes also differs among the three institutes from shared responsibility across personnel to a full-time dedicated position. the college level first nations sponsored learners submit their sponsorship letters directly to the indigenous institute registrar who then submits this document to the partner institution for invoicing purposes. the university sponsored first nations learners have to forward their letters directly to the university partners registrar. all three institutes offer an orientation process which varies greatly. this is partly dependent on coordination with the partner to avoid duplication, align timelines, and ensure availability of respective partner information packages. admissions teams the constellation of admissions personnel also varies across the institutes. the variation suggests collaboration across positions and multiple tasks, duties and assignments. for example, some of the program coordinators are responsible for recruitment activities and supervision of activities on another campus or site. fnti, kenjgewin teg, segi commit to exploring the possibility of sharing staff resources as we continue to align and streamline our admissions processes. institute 1 includes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. registrar dean of student wellness and supports admissions liaison program coordinator, health and wellness programs program coordinator, teaching and learning programs trades manager institute 2 includes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. registrar program recruitment coordinator, associate director of post-secondary (also coordinates police foundations), student services coordinator (also coordinates community justice services program), associate director of health disciplines (also coordinates our programs in health disciplines for another campus), 6. nurse coordinator/instructor (2), 7. post-secondary program coordinators (3), 8. post-secondary administrative assistant institute 3 includes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. vice president of enrolment management & student services registrar dean of aviation pathways coordinator administrative assistant to registrar financial aid/records clerk there are definite and concrete relationships between the support services personnel and learners success. the program faculty, student success facilitators, and cultural advisors/elders could provide additional advice and guidance in the first two stages (inquiry and pre-application) of the admissions process that would greatly assist the existing teams. this could be in the form of recruitment initiatives or being part of an interview team or reviewing learner essays or letters of intent or reviewing letter of support. strategic internal communications processes together with consultation and collaboration with partner registrars are currently in progress. existing programming there are a variety of courses, workshops, and learning initiatives across the indigenous institutes that could be modified and utilized as content in the creation of the good red admissions program. further development on the curriculum content is required to ensure consistency across the three indigenous institutes and factor in the flexibility necessary for community and nation-specific protocols. kenjgewin teg offers the mshiigaade miikan program which aims to assist learners to meet their personal, professional, and/or academic goals. one of the unique features of this program is the inclusion of families. personalized learning plans are created by the learner and their family to achieve their goals through enrollment in the enhanced employability stream or family stream. the enhanced employability stream and the family stream the enhanced employability stream is for individuals interested in improving their employability skills and/or individuals interested in pursuing their high school diploma, ace, ged and / or post-secondary studies. for example, it could include pre-trades/pre-apprenticeships, education anishnaabemowin language learning program, hospitality and tourism or another post-secondary program. the family stream is a co-learning stream designed to strengthen families and participants. participation is voluntary, and learners are self-identified anishinabek family members of the individuals in the enhanced employability stream. this program is a self-directed learning opportunity that involves the exploration of anishinaabe culture, traditions and history. learners earn an hourly stipend while they are working on their personal, professional and/or academic goals. mshiigaade miikan program the mshiigaade miikan program is based on an indigenous wellness framework in areas known as anishinaabe aadiziwin learning opportunities (aolo) and is comprised of 6 bundles or learning modules that are 75 hours in length. the six bundles include: bundle 1: abundance through decolonization connecting to relationship, family, community, attitude. examples may include courses on decolonizing education, anishnaabemowin language classes, self-efficacy and indigenous development or seven grandfather teachings bundle 2: service and gratitude connecting to relationship, family, community, attitude. examples may include volunteering, conferences, or fire keeping. bundle 3: art of personal wellness & vibrancy connecting to belief, identity, values and physical wellness. examples of activities may include dance classes, health related workshops, or teaching by elders. bundle 4: creative expressions connecting to relationship, family, community, attitude. examples of cultural activities may include creating moccasins, ribbon shirts, drums, snowshoes or medicine pouches. bundle 5: spiritual connection & expression connecting to belief, identity and values. examples of traditions may include sweats, teachings by elders, or fasting. bundle 6: academic readiness connecting to intuition, understanding and rational thoughts/belief in a future career/enhanced employability. examples may include career exploration, certificates, or academic courses. another programming resource, offered by kenjgewin teg is the maawndoo kinoomaagasiwin program (literacy & basic skills) which is approved by the by the ministry of advanced education and skills development. the ontario native literacy coalition and the ontario literacy and basic skills (lbs) program helps adults in ontario to develop and apply communication, numeracy, interpersonal and digital skills to achieve their goals. the lbs program serves learners who have goals to successfully transition to employment, post-secondary, apprenticeship, secondary school, and increased independence. the program includes learners who may have a range of barriers to learning. the ontario adult literacy curriculum framework (oalcf) is the cornerstone of employment ontarios lbs program, helping adults to achieve their goals of further education, work, and independence. the oalcf is a competency-based framework that supports the development of adult literacy programming delivered through the literacy and basic skills (lbs) program. through the lbs program, individuals access five services that contribute to the successful completion of a learner plan. service providers may focus on preparing learners for different goal paths but each learner, regardless of the focus of the service providers programming, receives the same five services: information and referral assessment learner plan development training follow-up fnti common core cultural curriculum the first nations technical institute (fnti) has created 20 full courses that are currently slated for inclusion as a common core cultural curriculum in new post secondary programming. these courses also allow for the possibility of either modifying to suit the good red program profile or can be offered as a full transferable credit. the suite of common core courses is meant to provide a foundation of knowledges and skills to strengthen the learners scope within their respective disciplines. similar to the mshiigaade miikan program, the content was developed by subject experts, indigenous knowledge keepers and language speakers to encompass indigenous history, languages and relationships. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. introduction to indigenous studies 1: world view and cultural fluency indigenous well being and health indigenous oral traditions, creation teachings and original instructions introduction to indigenous studies 2: identity and social organization principles of indigenous sovereignty and nation building indigenous agricultural heritage indigenous governance teachings indigenous problem solving principles of indigenous leadership effective indigenous leadership skill sets recovering health sovereignty indigenous ecological knowledge continuity and change: profiles in indigenous history indigenous economies expressive indigenous culture building indigenous community capacity 17. indigenous founding values 18. indigenous sports traditions 19. restoring environmental sovereignty 20. cultural components to treaty making in their 2019/24 strategic plan, the seven generations education institute has identified access to education and learner support as one of their 4 pillars. the two existing program resources will be essential components to include in the development of the good red admissions program. the seven generations education institute (sgei) provides individuals in treaty #3 territory with selfpaced high school programming. students can complete course upgrading or their ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) using a blend of independent study and in-class instruction. another significant resource offered by sgei is the workforce literacy and essential skills (wles) program. the 40-day wles program develops learners communications, math, document use and employability skills for the demands of the workplace. the program uses a blended delivery model in which learners participate in group-based activities, independent work and online learning. another component of their existing programming includes a funded training program. the sgei training for employment team works with employment and social development canada to help individuals prepare for employment while receiving a training allowance. a critical element in this program is assistance with obtaining employment upon program completion. wholistic admissions understanding indigenous knowledges and worldviews often begins with some teachings related to vision or seeing something, time or relationship, reason, movement or creating change by doing something. cognitively, spiritually, emotionally, physically or socially. as a foundational understanding on how a wholistic admissions process can be created we considered the integration of interrelationships, interconnections, balance and respect in addition to the concepts identified in the previous paragraph. wholism suggests that we consider an entirety and the whole is greater than the sum of its partseven when some of the parts cannot be fully seen or measured until the fullness of the whole is seen. a wholistic admissions process will employ a multi-level approach that provides an enriched landscape of the essence of the learner, not as a number on a score sheet or a series of letters on a transcript. it will serve the institute as a guiding philosophy. one element of a wholistic admissions process is to establish an interrelationship with the whole. this means that there is a requirement to develop a relationship with the learner as a whole being and with all that surrounds them. this includes ones spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional aspects. the specific operational admissions activities and human resources would vary among the institutes to address their specific territorial requirements and to ensure transparency and comprehension across the pse sector. it is the intent of this new admissions process to reflect the whole person and not just the academic rank or standing. indigenous worldviews consider the whole of a human being in its definition of wholism. an individual is comprised of a body, mind and spirit. in order to provide a successful alignment between the learner and the institution it is critical to attend to each component. as indigenous institutes we are not just interested in quantitative data like ones gpa. we want to support learners who will contribute to the community in meaningful ways while maintaining high standards of academic rigour. this process strives to welcome and support learners who will succeed academically utilizing many different quantitative and qualitative metrics to sustain the decision. in general, our wholistic admissions process will take into account the learners academic records, along with their experiences, interests, passions, community service activities, and artistic and creative talents. examples of literacy can be provided through letters of intent or targeted discipline-specific application essays. for example, learners could be asked to respond to prompts such as why are you choosing community justice as your chosen career? or why is indigenous midwifery critical to the health and wellbeing of your community? the wholistic admissions program will offer multiple access and support avenues. the program will include options for opportunities for recruitment and conversion, transfer credits, dual credits for secondary learners, portfolio development for possible future prior learning and recognition (plar) options and micro credentials. fnti, kenjgewin teg and segi are committed to opening all doors for indigenous learners to ensure educational success. close networking among our admissions offices will support shared enrollment. learners will be encouraged and supported to enroll in a partner institute depending on learners needs and programs offered. adoption of changes to admissions and pathway engagement will require recruitment of staff, various training initiatives, and a communications strategy to introduce new collaborative admissions recruitment, processes and programming efforts internally and to audiences across the educational spectrum. it is essential to include other admissions offices, and regulating bodies and audiences not normally closely linked with the specific activities of the admissions processes. these could include funders and other agencies who work with potential learners, such as the ontario native education counsellors association (oneca), first nation education authorities, and provincial regulating bodies. new proposed admissions processes within the 4 stages (inquiry, pre-application, application, and approval) of the admissions process, specific activities, decisions, and personnel are required to serve individual learners needs. potential learners may be identified at recruitment initiatives, through high school guidance counsellors, community education counsellors, or direct application. the streamlining of the application processes will enable more efficient admissions operations while broadening the scope of support for prospective learners. the wholistic admissions process will include 5 streams. while individual learners may find one of the streams a better fit depending on its requirements, learners will be able to access multiple streams. essentially, all doors are open. the admissions processes would align with the specific needs of the learner and would assist in guiding the admissions process whether it is a standard application for admission or a self-directed process creating the best educational path forward for success. each stream will have a critical pathway with roles, tasks, and intended outcomes identified and assigned and will require dedicated personnel to oversee, develop, and implement. the following graphic identifies the 5 admission streams that would be available. all streams are interconnected in various ways and it is anticipated that learners could be identified as potential participants in the entry year good red admissions program for various reasons at various junctures in the program. recruitment and conversion pathways and transfer ossd plar microcredentials introduction and relationship building wayfinding through the possibilities linking and laddering with dual credits and academic preparation recognizing gifts building blocks recruitment and translation (known in pse admissions as conversion) the first encounter with a potential learner contributes a great deal to the success of the experience. many indigenous recruitment activities include ceremony through food and gifting as a way to build relationships. one component of the first stage of admissions also includes the follow-up activities to continue to support the prospective learners. this is referred to as conversion which in our context means helping the learner to imagine and decide on a pathway of higher learning. many different efforts take place to scaffold this process and it is carried out by a variety of individuals in both the admissions and student support offices. defining the collaboration on a broader scale to define and develop consistent methods of recruitment and change will be important to increase indigenous learners in the institutes. pathways and transfer the term pathway is defined as a route that a learner takes to achieve academic and career success. there are a variety of pathways within the indigenous institutes that are available to learners: these include: - within the institution itself to another program; transferring from the institute to another post-secondary institution; from diploma to degree or degree to diploma; gaining recognition for prior learning by a variety of means and assessment procedures; finishing a credential by transferring to another partnering institution; and from post-secondary to post-graduate programs pathways can also include academic upgrading, completing a graduate certificate, in-service professional development through participation if programs offered as micro-credentials. many learners apply to our institutes with clear qualifications and requisites to successful entry. critical to this stage of admissions is the inclusion of a pathways coordinator who would assist with validating the learners credentials and reviewing their transcripts to determine whether there are any possible transfer credits or possibilities for challenging a particular course(s) through the plar process. including this position (appendix 1) in the admissions teams is critical to, a) providing an advocate for the learner; b) enabling a broad review of learners records; c) proactively offering advanced standing; d) increasing enrollment by removing real barriers to advancement; e) improving financial strain on first nations and other funding agencies due to learners being in the system for shorter periods of time. ontario secondary school diploma (ossd): engaging secondary learners for recruitment to postsecondary the learner profile of many of the indigenous institutes are primarily comprised of adult learners. as institutes continue to create new diploma and degree level programs it is expected that the profile will shift to younger learners. currently, there are a variety of continuous efforts by the institutes to provide seamless laddering and linkages across the post secondary spectrum. programs such as the dual credit program, aviation summer camp, science camps, and culture camps are a few examples that have proved to raise awareness of higher education and provide the learners with an opportunity to explore the post secondary environment. mentoring, social gatherings, collaborating on projects and ongoing relationship building and innovative activities within this sector will provide a pool of indigenous learners with other options to explore. plar plar originated and was initially implemented at fnti in 1987. the canadian association for prior learning as assessment (capla) has traced plars origin to the leadership provided by the first nations technical institute (fnti) and capla was formalized in 1994 through support from the fnti. the genesis of plar and the historic continuation across the post-secondary sector provides a well-grounded understanding of the initial intentions or initial learner support and engagement. with this foundation as a baseline the institutes are well positioned to review, re-align our services and processes to meet the current learning landscape. collectively, the project team understands and endorses the notion that learning happens in many ways. during the course of this project the team discussed the broadening of this recognition to include more than a summary of work-related experiences to a more wholistic assessment of the learners skills, abilities, and knowledges. while this was a preliminary discussion there was consensus that a more indepth review, development and implementation plan needs to occur to fulfil our responsibility to the learner, the community and the institutions. at the secondary level in ontario, policy/program memoranda no. 132 (ontario ministry of education, 2003), outlines plar guidelines for mature students taking high school level courses. at the post-secondary level ontarios college admission portal, identifies that credit transfer and educational pathways are outlined in the following program and policy documents: 1. postsecondary education in ontario, 2. postsecondary credentials in ontario, 3. credit transfer in ontario and the ontario government's policy statement for credit transfer. retrieved from: https://www.ontario.ca/ ontariocolleges.ca states that there is "no set plar standard in ontario." and that individual institutions have been charged with establishing their own standards and protocols for plar. with this information the indigenous institutes are well positioned to create a culturally responsive process that attempts to align with our wholistic admissions philosophy and recognize indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing and seeing. it is our intention to create a process where the assessment and recognition include knowledge and skills gained through experiential, formal and non-formal learnings often obtained through participation in indigenous customary practices. this framework will also include categories of training, volunteer activities, military service, travel, work experiences and hobbiespotentially more categories will be explored in our ongoing efforts to create a more responsive admissions engagement process with our respective learners. one important recommendation is to ensure that as the indigenous institutes create new post secondary programming that a plar process be included and developed concurrently with each eligible course. this would ensure efficiency in the transfer credit process and would contribute to rigour in the ongoing quality assurance measures and program evaluations. the specific details of policy development, registration, application and assessment will require further dedication and funding. teaching and learning lodges as prior learning, recognition and renewal (plrr) (formally known as plar) our current admission enrollment experiences involve static metrics that are fairly regimented and formulaic and often do not include opportunities to learn about the whole person. this prescriptive process is time consuming, expensive, and often frustrating for the learners, faculty, and other admissions team members. applying for transfer credits or advanced standing involves lengthy portfolio development which sometimes spans a complete semester. the result often results in the learner just repeating the course. anecdotal evidence from learners suggests that taking the course is less stressful, less expensive and seems like a less complicated decision than taking on more work with a full course load. as indigenous institutes, creating wholistic prospective learner engagement processes, we are enthusiastic about creating a responsive, wholistic experience for all learners with all (dis)abilities. a new and more culturally responsive access and transfer engagement is necessary to truly align individuals with their choices. the process must include opportunities to explore goals, choices, responsibilities, ownership and voice. in the mainstream sector, this process is known as prior learning assessment and recognition (plar). as part of this project the three institutes drafted a preliminary framework for this element based on our philosophies of wholism, self-actualization and inclusion. the metaphor for the indigenous institutes plrr framework is based on teaching lodges. teaching lodges (sometimes known as houses) come in many forms across the indigenous territories. for example, the haudenosaunee peoples belong to longhouses and anishinaabe peoples create sweat lodges, healing lodges, and other ceremonial lodges to honour and show gratitude and respect for culture and beliefs. the overarching intention in teaching lodges is to ultimately support and strengthen the individual, family, community, and nation. each lodge responds to the needs of their own citizens. this framework respects all cultures and recognizes the cultural diversity inherent in our communities. this metaphor allows for open-minded approaches and teachings (both indigenous and mainstream) from different communities. generally, the lodge (house) represents all of creation and by extension the lodge/house represents all of life. the haudenosaunee use the term extending the rafters which refers to adding strength and personal responsibility to the lodge/house when new people come into the lodge. the new member brings their whole self to learn, grow and self-actualize. the addition of a rafter to expand the lodge concretely demonstrates the expansion of the members. underpinning all construction or change is much preparation, thinking, commitment, and respect. in the case of building lodges, a space and place need to be located, land has to be cleared, building materials need to be selected, builders need to be identified and so on. as with this example much re-alignment needs to take place in the prior learning component of our admissions processes. the indigenous institutes plrr framework illustrates a guided engagement process which includes a variety of approaches that ultimately reflect the learners distinct identity to scaffold their goals for selfactualization. these approaches reflect some universal core principles, values, philosophies/beliefs, and teachings. as a guided map of broad protocols interviews can be conducted by many different individuals as identified within the respective institutes. multiple individuals can be brought into the process to work with the potential learner to help determine the best pathway forward. the framework is meant to be flexible and context specific. the learning lodge framework demonstrates the possibility that wholistic approaches are wise practices and that first and foremost show respect and honour for all aboriginal peoples cultures, protocols and beliefs. an example, from the anishinaabe traditions, the seven grandfathers teachings (honesty, humility, truth, respect, bravery, love and wisdom) would ensure that indigenous values and inclusionary practices are at the centre. the plrr learner engagement process has a dual focus; teaching and learning. this means that our admissions teams and faculty members become the learners and the learners become the teachers. the relationship becomes one of reciprocity and not one of punitive, judgemental assessment based on a formula identified for a mean sample of the population. the admissions personnel and faculty provide (teaching) possibilities, options, choices and the learners are providing information concerning, goals, needs, wants, dreams. this reciprocity takes on a different rhythm for everyone. a rhythm that has shared decision making as one of the core tenantsa more equal rhythm of sharing and learning. it then becomes our responsibility as admission administrators and educational personnel to carry out individual relationship building activities to hear and collate what is being shared by the prospective learner. the learner has the responsibility to identify their needs and respond with truth, honesty and bravery. the following graphic illustrates a preliminary draft overview framework for an indigenous prior learning, recognition and renewal process (plrr) (formally known as plar). fulfilling potential lodge faculty learner visioning lodge planning lodge relationship/renewel lodge the visioning lodge all potential learners would enter this learning lodge and spend some time meeting with elder advisors, student success facilitators, pathways coordinators and so forth to begin to gather information about the learners credentials and goals. a wholistic inventory of potential attributes are gathered to provide a fulsome representation of the learner. the relationship and renewal lodge information could then be shared with the pathways personnel to seek out areas of transferability, transcript review and academic investigations are pursued. the planning lodge pathways are identified. learners work with the pathways personnel to create a learning journey plan to include course that are available for transfer and other options for program completion that is most efficient and effective for the learner. fulfilling potential lodge learners are supported through the admissions application process supported by the pathways personnel. micro-credentials the micro-credentialling stream affords many different and unique learning opportunities for prospective learners and current learners. a micro-credential, as stated by ecampus ontario, is a certification of assessed learning associated with a specific and relevant skill or competency. microcredentials enable rapid retraining and augment traditional education through pathways into regular postsecondary programming. (https://micro.ecampusontario.ca/) this stream would be most useful for post-graduate or additional qualification requirements or specific upskilling or training initiatives that may be required by various employers. this stream would allow for broader community engagement and collaboration to meet the focused needs of employees, employers and industry standards. with the increased mobility of younger learners, micro-credentials allow them to move into new areas of employment and prepare and build the skills that enables them to do that. another possible configuration of micro-credentialling is the larger opportunity to design certificates, diplomas and degrees to ladder in the learning within the programessentially to chunk it up into doable phases to allow adult learners to work on a different timing of scheduled learning and also to provide for stopping out that is prevalent with adult learners. micro-credentials afford many different options to custom build flexible programs to support successful completion which ultimately affects student retention and perhaps increase enrollment. this stream will dovetail with the plrr stream, as activities can be co-created to include portfolio development. on a larger scale, micro-credentialling can provide the indigenous institute with many opportunities to partner with businesses and organizations for development training and collaboration to support indigenous learners. for example, agency x wants to engage with fnti to enrol some of their employees in the food systems program. as part of the collaboration agency x agrees to provide a scholarship to financially support a prospective indigenous learner. in a reciprocal relationship agreement tuition costs are deferred and agency x trains their employees and participates in a tangible example of reconciliation. which they could advertise as part of their mission, vision and values. while this example is far from the scope of this project it is an example of the limitless possibilities that can be generated through the adoption of a micro-credential stream as part of our complement of admissions programming. the good red road program (a continuum model) the good red road program is a core admissions resource that allows applicants to work with their respective admissions personnel to create a pathway to successful access, enrollment, and mobility within and throughout the sector as well as avenues for continuous professional development opportunities. the good red road program begins with personal enlightenment, acknowledging strengths and selfdiscovery. it is based on natural laws and original teachings or individual place and space within the circle of creation. as indigenous institutes, we have demonstrated that early and ongoing engagement with prospective learners provides a deeper and stronger trust relationship between the school and the learner. assisting learners with their educational journey means more than assessing an academic credential; it requires time, effective communication and patience. the one-year admissions entry program (the good red road program) is designed to create and support trusting relationships and career counselling while assisting admissions and student support teams to get a deeper understanding of what the learner wants to do and what the learners potential is. the program combines a variety of opportunities for learners to engage with a variety of school personnel (faculty, elder advisors, other learners, leaders) to locate themselves within this environment firmly prior to choosing a discipline. the program is framed by three guiding questions which assists with the identification, guidance, planning, coordinating and implementation of a full range of educational explorations that are not only consistent with quality educational standards by including community resources. this framework also allows each institution to adapt, optimize, and realign their admissions services to achieve a comprehensive continuum of quality and service to the learners and their families. the good red road program based their course development on three questions: who am i? what is my relationship to education; and where and i going? this continuum aligns with the basic 4 stages of the admission process and also with the intended outcomes from the good ed admissions program. the following graphic outlines the relationships. admission stage 2 & 3: pre-application application admission stage 1: inquiry intended outcome: introduction and relationship building intended outcome: linkages, laddering and building blocks admission stage 2: pre-application intended outcome: wayfinding, recognizing gifts good red road program components draft good ed program proposed courses area of focus personal wellness possible content, concepts and currently completed archived curriculum fnti common core cultural curriculum (fnti 4c) 1. indigenous well being and health kenjgewin teg mshiigaade miikan program keti mm) 1. bundle 2: service and gratitude 2. bundle 3: the art of personal wellness and vibrancy self assessment inventory creation of a self-study plan creation of a support plan relationship building fnti common core cultural curriculum (fnti 4c) 1. 2. 3. 4. indigenous problem solving principles of indigenous leadership expressive indigenous culture building indigenous community capacity 5. cultural components to treaty making 6. recovering health sovereignty 7. indigenous ecological knowledge 8. indigenous sports traditions kenjgewin teg mshiigaade miikan program keti mm) bundle 4: creative expressions bundle 5: spiritual and connection expression indigenous worldview and history fnti common core cultural curriculum (fnti 4c) introduction to indigenous studies 1: world view and cultural fluency 1. introduction to indigenous studies 1: indigenous worldview and cultural fluency 2. introduction to indigenous studies 2: identity and social organization 3. principles of indigenous sovereignty and nation building 4. continuity and change: profiles in indigenous history 5. indigenous founding values 6. restoring environmental sovereignty 7. indigenous economies kenjgewin teg mshiigaade miikan program keti mm) 8. bundle 1: abundance through decolonization academic readiness, writing and research kenjgewin teg mshiigaade miikan program keti mm) 1. bundle 6: academic readiness seven generations education institute 1. literacy and essential skills program digital literacy literacy/numeracy proficiency inventories career exploration develop a personal individual career plan that provides numerous opportunities to attend in class sessions, hear from speakers and peers already in the professions, research and readings to experience a deep understanding of the parameters of each of the careers of interest virtual tours from oneca website transitions program (www.oneca.com) aptitude inventories portfolio development (creating your learning story presentation) learning how to create the larger portfolio (text and virtual) and learning how to create each of the components. writing resumes storing and organizing samples of work tracking academic achievement how to write a letter of intent identifying skills and abilities distillation of appropriate networks and relationships perspective learner engagement and integrating access and admissions the progression of choices that a learner has available has been amplified with a number of integrated options. learners, whether they are high school learners seeking dual credit options or an experienced welder seeking additional qualifications; they will be offered multiple options to plan their educational continuum. each stream will have articulated processes and work collaboratively with other streams to provide the learner with a full review and recommendations to support their goals. the wholistic review will examine the standard admission requests and routinely review the supplied information for possible options, i.e., plar or transfer credits. once a learner has made an inquiry, processes will be initiated by the admissions personnel who will serve as advocates and negotiators for the learners. assessment and transcripts badges one of the primary principles of indigenous education is to create and reinforce success. all learners and all activities are acknowledged and supported in their efforts. in order to achieve that assessment strategies must be reviewed. one of the main goals of an entry level program is to open doors, minds and hearts and consideration for how this is accomplished needs mindful consideration. it is expected that the assessment of the good red road program will be varied and diverse. the inclusion of badges was seen as a possible avenue to include as a way to motivate, acknowledge, recognize achievements and reward participants. given that badges can be linked to gaining skills or knowledge, and completing tasks, there is an opportunity to offer variety in how badges are awarded and used within the program. the use of badges may also provide an element of fun and enjoyment to the learning process. while normally used in a digital environment it is entirely possible to combine digital and manual distribution when learners have met the required criteria. in order to implement this system of badge acquisition, the institutes need to have a common learning management system with one school holding the master files. these are then shared with the other 2 institutes who can then administer to their learners. badges are linked to the learner and managed by the respective institute. this affords a common and consistent process across the institutes that will provide consistency and flexibility in any transfer credit application among the indigenous schools. a system of interpretation of the badging could serve a number of purposes. first and foremost, as an expression of gratitude and praise; as a means of tracking progress based on goals, and as a means of accumulating course hours/time spent which would translate into possible course credits. the badges could be tracked similar to traditional course grade sheets. for example, learners participating in a discussion forum/reflective practice activity for 15 hours or a certain number of relevant and substantive posts could receive 1 credit. individuals enrolled in the micro-credential stream could be awarded badges along with their certificate of completion with information tracked for future transfer or plar opportunities. badges could be used in the creation of a portfolio as part of their good red road program activities. those activities designed to be offered virtually, sell-paced, self-directed and for interest would include the use of badge acquisition. there could be community involvement from the artists to assist with the design that would need to be reflected across the various activities. success while success is subjective as is much of the tried-and-true assessment strategies utilized in higher education the good red road program must braid into the instructional design components a plethora of opportunities for faculty to engage with the learners in multiple ways. history tells us that formal testing and examinations are not the full picture of knowledge, skill or aptitude. engagement socially, emotionally, spiritually and cognitively will provide a more fulsome understanding for both the learner and the faculty to gain a better understanding of success and direction, aptitude, desire, need and wants. history is important and we have an opportunity to create different measurements to be confident that learners who complete the good red road program would be successful in their chosen post-secondary program. they would be prepared and ready with the knowledge of how to learn and navigate the environment of higher education. care and collaboration must be taken to design what is necessary to obtain multiple perspectives from which to view the whole learner. this in-depth approach to valuation will lead to greater insights into the learners readiness. transcripts essentially, a transcript tells the story of a learners academic endeavours; it is proof and a detailed record of academic activities. it is a permanent and official record that contains some common categories that make transferability more easily accessible to reviewers and provides evidence of possible pathways. there is no limit to the information that could be provided on a transcript and can be customized with seals and signatures to meet the needs of the respective institute while maintaining consistency with the standards. currently all but a few of the transcripts provided to indigenous institute learners are from our partners. this project identified the need to review and create a transcript that provides documentation of academic performance that includes essential standardized components along with institute specific major honours, such as awards and so forth. creating a process for linking badges into the assessment strategies and methods and how this program is identified (coded) and reflected on the official transcripts requires further work and resources. implementation and delivery a number of options are available that include a hybrid delivery that could be shared across institutes. virtual course options, face-to-face and summer institutes are also future delivery potentials. rotation of delivery could be carried out by rotating primary responsibility on a multi-year schedule. this would allow each school to share the administrative load and highlight the uniqueness of each institute. summer institutes would be less resource intensive. cohorts of learners could be comprised of participants from each indigenous institute with faculty and support personnel recommended from the host institution. there are opportunities for each indigenous institute to lead specific streams, for example seven generations education institute may want to lead the ossd stream as a great deal of their existing programming and collaborations include the secondary sector. other institutes may lead the plar or micro-credentialling streams depending on their scope of current or future practices. all three institutes offer a variety of programming and some of the courses, modules, content may be included in their offerings. participants in the program could be schedule and integrated into ongoing scheduled classes. this possibility may include credit transfer possibilities as well. the infographic below provides a process outline that begins with the learner and continues throughout the admissions process. accreditation there are a number of steps that are outstanding to be completed prior to submitting the program for accreditation. ideally the program would be accredited through iaesc as a stand-alone program with oversight from the admissions offices or perhaps coordinated by the pathways personnel. it has yet to be decided whether the submission would be a joint submission or a single institute submission with shared roles and responsibilities. summary and going forward this goal of this project was to work collaboratively among indigenous institutes to develop an indigenous learner centered entry year of programming that was fully transferable among the institutes that could serve as a possible substitute for current supplement transitional or upgrading programming. the rationale for creating this program was to address and create solutions for the challenges and barriers that are faced in the admissions application processes. linked to that rationale was the identification of an indigenous plar framework that would reflect and be responsive to indigenous ways of doing. much was accomplished and many questions, tasks and activities have been identified to carry on with the revision of indigenous admissions services. in august 2020, kenjgewin teg formally approved their trauma informed and trauma sensitive organizational philosophy. as the organization moves closer to meeting quality assurance standards and requirements of iaesc in 2021, this philosophy will become a strong foundation on how learner engagement, enrollment/admissions and retention will occur as kenjgewin teg continues to grow as one of ontarios indigenous institutes in the post-secondary sector. a key strength of kenjgewin tegs admissions process is the availability, variety and access points throughout the academic year to a variety of independent pathways to pse opportunities, where learners are supported and guided to choose the best learning journey that will support their post-secondary course or program success. kenjgewin teg wholly believes that all learners can be engaged in finding their personal learning journeys to participate in post-secondary learning, and creating common and shared admissions processes for indigenous learners in ontario using a larger system-oriented approach is expected to benefit many indigenous learners. sgei is focused on enhancing and enriching student experiences from recruitment to convocation through anishinaabemowin and anishinaabe gikendaasowin for all learners. learners are guided, supported and encouraged by a team of professionals working to help navigate a pathway to the foals set and imagined by the learner. out admission philosophy is inclusive and our practice is determined by each learners unique set of skills, experience, and achievements. fnti has strategically identified priorities in recruitment, admissions services and wrap around support mechanisms. learners have the opportunity to request transferability options directly from their initial application enquiry. advocacy is provided by the pathways coordinator and financial aid follow up is support by a staff member dedicated to that provision. as evidenced, fnti, keti and sgei are aligned in their commitment to the success of learners. this project has provided an opportunity to create a collaborative, innovative, and consistent foundational approach to indigenous perspective learner engagement. building on our individual strengths and creating collaborative resource sharing will provide a wholistic, comprehensive, effective, and efficient process for everyone in the sector. achievements and future activities our achievements include: conducting a comprehensive environmental scan of all admissions constellations, practices, processes and policies. co-creating a new common admissions framework to enable respective institutes to reflect sharable consistencies where applicable in the admissions offices. co-creating the first draft of the good red road program which outlines flexible pathways preparation for all learners interested in applying to indigenous institutes. future activities, priorities and questions outstanding include: 1. identifying and creating specific eligibility and screening requirements; 2. confirming and identifying human (faculty and wrap around support) and financial resources; 3. confirming delivery methods including rotation schedule, start date, virtual and face-to-face components; 4. determining a program name(s); 5. identify transfer credits (block), equivalencies and pathways accompanied by a clear transfer guide 6. identifying program credential, dual credits options; 7. creating a program advisory committee; 8. preparing the accreditation submission; 9. drafting a no wrong door philosophy statement; 10. developing a framework for the creation and assessment criteria for the badging systemhow they are to be designed, used/earned, displayed and shared; 11. engaging in ongoing communication to inform and raise awareness of new indigenous admissions processes, practices and policies, with the association of the registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) and ontario university registrars association (oura); 12. determining enrollment management strategies; cohort vs continuous intake, academic upgrading; 13. developing a comprehensive, wholistic indigenous plar approach; 14. creating a collaborative philosophical approach to creating indigenous education standards and admissions policy development to ensure consistency across the institutes; each institute develops their own respective policy based on the overarching philosophy; 15. defining and develop a micro-credentialling process; 16. identifying and match potential programs between the institutions for shared intake history matters it is time to re-examine, re-new and re-write admissions services as they currently exist. history has provided guidance for philosophies, standards and behaviours that will allow us to forge different ways and directions in learner engagement. one of the primary goals of this project was to examine current admissions processes in three indigenous institutes to remove barriers for learners. by acknowledging and redefining the relationship between the learner and the institution we are further strengthening our resolve to engage collaboratively in shared decision making between the needs and desires of the learners and the pathways that open up to them. creating a culturally responsive, learner focused admissions system will result in higher enrollment and support success for indigenous learners. appendix 1: pathways coordinator draft position description pathways coordinator position description position summary the pathways coordinator supports the establishment of opportunities for creating new pathways for indigenous institute graduates as well as seeking transfer clarity with existing partner institutions. the pathways coordinator establishes contact with external postsecondary educational partners and academic program areas to identify and discuss the potential development of new transfer agreements, match potential programs between the institutions as well as facilitating the collection and sharing of curriculum outcomes, in order to develop viable pathways and credit transfer opportunities. the pathway coordinator is also responsible for the accuracy of the transfer guide information both on the web and in the program guide. a key responsibility of the pathway coordinator is the learner advocacy, coordination of transfer, articulation and advanced standing processes between the student services and the academic teams. the pathways coordinator is responsible for reporting on relationship development, statistics, and trends in student activity in credit transfer provincially, nationally, and internationally. other duties include assisting with the transfer credit and prior learning recognition and renewal (plrr) protocols and processes; supporting faculty with guidance and facilitation and procedure as well as, educating and interpretation support for specific procedures. duties and responsibilities pathways, articulation, and partnerships establish positive relationships with postsecondary institutions within ontario, nationally and internationally in order to promote the development of new agreements for all academic programs promote the indigenous institute as a partner to universities and other postsecondary institutions willing to develop and enter into transfer agreements. provide regular communication with current and potential university partners to clarify details of a agreements and look for ways to enhance pathways for graduates. promote transfer services to students and the community through the use institutes websites, and the publication and distribution of the transfer guide. train and support faculty and student support facilitators and other admissions office personnel in the advisement of students in transfer information and the provision of information on pathways to further education. plan and organize pathway and credit transfer events such as fairs, information sessions, visits, and ensuring there are sufficient venues for students and staff to acquire pathway information. develop and ensure the accuracy of articulation, equivalency, transfer credit and pathway databases, tables and resources. assist in the development of end-of-term reporting to facilitate the identification of missing curriculum requirements. develop and implement a communication protocol and reporting tool to identify students that are missing requirement to achieve the credential for their program of study. information management and access track activity within the registrars office to provide the institute with data to make decisions regarding pathways and credit transfer and future partnership development. design, write, edit and distribute a complete guide of all current agreements and confirmed transfer opportunities the institutes have entered into with colleges, universities and other post secondary institutions. develop and ensure the accuracy a transfer intranet site and a complete resource of all institutional transfer agreements current, in-progress, and expired. maintenance and update of the oncat course to course equivalency database. maintenance of the institutional information contained on the oncat pathway portal site. administration and academic services develop ongoing relationships with academic areas and their faculty in order to serve as a resource for them when they are pursuing new transfer agreements. develop data capture mechanisms to track pathway services are accessible, relevant and responsive to the needs of their students. education and experience three-year diploma/degree with a minimum of 3 years working in an indigenous academic postsecondary setting with experience using the student information system. planning/coordinating guides and provides pathway services and agreements internally to the institutional community and externally to universities, secondary schools and the general public, which includes the development of a large comprehensive transfer guide, the update of web site content, conducting presentations and organizing events. works collaboratively with the registrar, academic deans, communications and marketing on how pathways will be marketed. the pathways coordinator can recommend what events/activities to arrange or participate in, what materials to produce based on knowledge of competitor activities. guiding/advising others advises students, coordinators and academic areas on pathways advises on resources available for students who may walk in or phone for more details on degree transfer services/agreements demonstrates the effective use of the transfer guide (print and electronic) to students, academic areas, other college staff, university and secondary school personnel and other influencers consults with academic areas (deans, coordinators, faculty) to develop and promote transfer agreements with institutions. consults with the registrar regarding questions/problems not covered by established practices; when follow-up fails to produce desired results; for interpretations of policies and procedures; and for interpretations of transfer guide, university application procedures, academic advisement and degree information. service delivery advises and refers with respect to transfer options; advises to develop educational plans; assists with applications; implements degree transfer workshops. informs and obtains transfer initiatives; verifies student information; ongoing dialogues re: transfer agreements and new initiatives; participates on committees. coordinates the development of new pathways; verifies transfer policies; confirms details of existing agreements; seeks clarification in unusual circumstances; advocates for students guiding students to the transfer information on the website interprets and communicates degree transfer agreements and procedures, requirements, use of resources (e.g., degree transfer

project snapshot remodeling transfer pathways in the business management and business administration fields between collge boral,collge la cit, and universit de hearst type: pathways project number: 2021-37 or p2137 project lead: universit de hearst collaborators: collge boral, collge la cit (la cit) project summary collge boral, collge la cit (la cit) and universit de hearst personnel shall continue to promote the continuum of post-secondary education for ontario francophone and bilingual students and to demonstrate collaboration on the remodelling of transfer pathways in the business management and business administration field. the partners agree that collaboration must continue for us to encourage excellence in learning, increased access to french-language post-secondary education and mobility among institutions. furthermore, we agree on the need to produce an umbrella agreement on maintaining agreements despite the cyclical changes to programs of study to reduce the need for repeated or individual agreements for each change or addition to business management and business administration programs. such an umbrella agreement could allow us to establish the number of recognized credits in the official protocol and develop the necessary internal administrative tools to better manage pathways based on the sending and receiving institutions' realities (changes, additions, revisions, etc.) with the continued goal of increasing access to universit de hearst programs and mobility among our institutions. in this project, representatives of the partner institutions want to remodel the existing transfer pathways and add new institutional programs to allow the graduates of business administration programs (including accounting, finance and hr specializations), business programs (accounting, finance, marketing and hr specializations), business administration techniques programs, office administration techniques programs and sales and representation programs to earn their bachelor's degrees in business management or administration at universit de hearst. this project has two objectives: 1. remodelling the existing pathways between universit de hearst business management and business administration programs (based on the changes made) and collges la cit and boral and adding new pathways for both colleges 2. creating an umbrella agreement to facilitate the transfer of graduates and the ongoing maintenance of agreements project rationale this project is necessary to meet the needs that members of the college student body have expressed about the business administration field and those that universit de hearst personnel have identified to facilitate the reception of graduates of highly similar programs. in 2018 in the context of an oncat-funded la cit survey, those graduates' needs and intentions were very clear. they wanted to continue their education in ontario in french. universit de hearst is the only french-language university with a business administration program, so it is clear how important it is to develop agreements that permit and facilitate mobility. results the main results of the project are: 1. the creation of an agreement on programs among representatives of the three partner institutions; 2. the creation of an administrative tool with which equivalencies can be granted for each of the college programs; 3. the expected increase of students continuing their educations in french in ontario. key steps the elements that worked well: as for universit de hearst, first of all, validating the project objectives of remodeling existing pathways, creating new pathways and developing an agreement that program changes would not later invalidate; as for the three institutions as a whole, keeping the focus on project objectives and the work calendar and then maintaining communication at all times among representatives of the three. pathways created twenty-six pathways were created as follows: 1. business administration (collge boral) to the bachelor's in business administration (bba) (universit de hearst) 2. business administration (collge boral) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 3. business administration (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 4. business administration (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 5. business administration techniques (collge boral) to the bba (universit de hearst) 6. business administration techniques (collge boral) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 7. business administration techniques (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 8. business administration techniques (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 9. office administration techniques (collge boral) to the bba (universit de hearst) 10.office administration techniques (collge boral) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 11. office administration techniques (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 12.office administration techniques (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 13.business administration - accounting (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 14.business administration - accounting (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 15.business administration - finance (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 16.business administration - finance (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 17.business administration - hr management (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 18.business administration - hr management (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 19.business - accounting (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 20.business - accounting (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 21.business - finance (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 22.business - finance (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 23.business - marketing (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 24.business - marketing (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) 25.business - hr (la cit) to the bba (universit de hearst) 26.business - hr (la cit) to the ba in management (universit de hearst) incompleted pathways no challenges project deadlines have been difficult to meet. student outcomes this project has numerous benefits for students: saving time and money, and improved credentials obtained/employability. student credential this project has numerous benefits for transfer students. as indicated in the previous answer, students benefit by saving time (length of studies) and money and obtaining university credentials/increasing their employability as a result. they also benefit from a simplified process for starting their courses at universit de hearst. student time savings the project means that students can save time. the estimated time for obtaining a degree varies depending on the college and university programs. student financial savings all the pathways facilitate financial savings, that is, of one or two years of university tuition. one year of university is estimated to cost between $10,000 and $24,000. therefore, the savings can be up to $48,000 (french only: http://www.uhearst.ca/financement-des-etudes.) student flexibility the pathways facilitate things for students. the admission process is simplified, and the credit recognition process is improved and accelerated. student work alignment all the pathways contribute to increasing employment opportunities for graduates. students increase their employability and their access to a labour market with high demand. institutional outcomes this project has resulted in changes to institutional practices for attributing credits and developing pathways. students have been placed at the centre of the process of developing pathways and meeting the need to create agreements that will not be periodically invalidated. the universit de hearst community seems to be headed for a more liberal vision of students and transfer students. tips plan to have the necessary time to carry out the project successfully and establish an exact framework and objectives right from the start. tools and resources once reached, the umbrella agreement may be shared with the two colleges. the agreement was signed with the la cit representative this past june 7 and will be signed with the collge boral representative on june 27 next year.

project snapshot pathway development in conflict resolution and social innovation type: innovative transfer project number: 2019-15 or i1915 project lead: collge boral collaborators: le collge boral et l'universit saint-paul deliverables for website (if applicable): protocole dententes darticulation entre collge boral darts appliqus et de technologie, et luniversit saint-paul project summary/rsum du projet this project will support collge boral to review and articulate its two-year peace and conflict studiesprogram with saint paul universitys social innovation program. the purpose of this project is to develop anew 2 + 2 pathway (two years of college and two years of university) in the honours ba in social innovation program after completing the two-year diploma in peace and conflict studies program. this approach will meet the demand within the french-speaking community and provide students with practical and theoretical training in conflict resolution and social innovation. project rationale/justification du projet to allow students to continue their studies in the social innovation field. collaborator contributions/contributions des collaborateurs the institutions participated in: - meetings at both institutions to introduce the objective, roles and responsibilities of the project - virtual or teleconference meetings throughout the year to facilitate information sharing - multiple emails to share information, review the learning outcomes and clarify issues, etc. - add the articulation to the website and make the 2+2 announcement internally collge boral: - provided the university with the course outlines, the learning outcomes, and the code of conduct in order to conduct the necessary review - reviewed the final agreement and amendments, as required - signed the agreement (signature by two (2) vice-chairs) saint paul university: - completed the comparative review of the course outline(s), the learning outcomes, the code of conduct (see enclosed) - drafted the final agreement and made amendments, as required - signed the agreement/ les deux insitutions ont particip : - des rencontres au sein des deux tablissements afin de prsenter l'objectif , les rles et les responsabilits du projet. - des rencontres virtuelles ou par audio-confrence tout au long de l'anne afin de facilit le partage de l'information. - de multiples courriel pour partager de l'information, faire l'analyse des rsultats d'apprentissage et clarifier des questions, etc. - ajouter l'articulation sur le site web et faire l'annonce du 2+2 l'interne. le collge boral: - a fourni l'universit les plan de cours, les rsultats d'apprentissage, les cahiers de normes afin d'entamer l'analyse ncessaire. - a revue de l'entente final et modifications au besoin. - a sign l'entente (signature par deux (2) vice-prsidents) l'universit saint-paul: - a complt l'analyse comparative des plan(s) de cours, les rsultats d'apprentissage, les cahiers de normes (voir pice jointe). - a rdig l'entente finale et fait des modifications au besoin. - a sign l'entente. key steps /mesures cls the steps for the project were as follows: 1) preparation - meet with the managers to present the project - initial meeting with the dean; schedule and deliverables - distribute each institutions course outlines - meet with the director of the educational facility (collge boral) to inform them of the new projects and upcoming needs. meetings are still extremely useful in these types of projects because not only do they facilitate the review and the steps to be taken, but they also bring forward opportunities for other projects. 2) review: - meet with the subject matter expert and present review tools that will help them achieve the project objectives - define the objectives, outcomes and deadlines with the professors and the experts - detailed review of the course outlines - identification and implementation of the necessary adjustments, if applicable - organize an exchange meeting with the subject matter expert from collge boral and saint paul university - assess the courses that can be credited and the credited general education courses - prepare a transfer pathway report - present the pathway to the dean, the vice-chair of education and admissions and to the institutional registrars and obtain their comments - if applicable, make changes based on the comments received and communicate the final versions to all parties 3) validation: - develop the articulation agreement and present it to the college and university decisionmaking bodies and obtain signatures - ensure that it is published on the institutions websites and other business communication tools - develop a communication strategy to introduce these new courses - plan the roll-out and the offer/ les tapes pour le projets taient les suivantes: 1) la prparation - rencontre avec les chefs pour prsenter le projet ; - rencontre initiale avec la doyenne; calendrier et livrables ; - distribuer les plans de cours de chaque tablissement ; - rencontrer la directrice du centre pdagogique (collge boral) pour l'informer des nouveaux projets et des besoins venir. les rencontres sont toujours extrmement utiles lors de ces genres de projets puisque non seulement elles facilitent l'analyse et les tapes faire, mais elles apportent aussi des possibilts d'autres projets. 2) l'analyse: - rencontrer lexpert en la matire et prsenter des outils d'analyse qui leur permettront de raliser les objectifs du projet ; - dfinir les objectifs, les rsultats et les chanciers avec les professeurs et les experts ; - analyse dtaille des plans de cours ; - identification et mise en place des ajustements ncessaires, le cas chant ; - organiser une rencontre d'change avec lexpert sujet du collge boral et luniversit stpaul ; - valuer les cours pouvant tre crdits et les cours de formation gnrale crdits ; - prparer un rapport de parcours de transfert ; - prsenter le parcours la doyenne, et la vice-prsidente lenseignement et aux admissions, ainsi qu'aux registraires institutionnels et obtenir leurs commentaires ; - le cas chant, apporter des modifications la suite des commentaires reus et communiquer toutes les parties les versions finales. 3) validation: - laborer lentente darticulation et le prsenter aux instances dcisionnelles du collge et de luniversit et obtenir des signatures ; - assurer la publication sur les sites web et autres outils de communication d'entreprise des institutions ; - dvelopper une stratgie de communication pour prsenter ces nouveaux cours ; - planifier la mise en oeuvre et l'offre. outcomes/rsultats obtenus the main outcome of this project is a 2+2 agreement between collge borals peace and conflict studies program and saint paul universitys social innovation program. another major outcome includes a meeting between the two institutions in november to discuss the highlights of this project, but also to undertake new projects between collge borals toronto campus and saint paul university./ le rsultat principal de ce projet est une entente 2+2 entre le programme du l'tudes de la paix et les conflits du collge boral et le programme d'innovation sociale de l'universit saint-paul. un autre rsultat important inclut une rencontre entre les deux institutions au mois de novembre pour discuter des points saillants de ce projet mais aussi pour entamer de nouveaux projets entre le campus de toronto du collge boral et l'universit saint-paul. challenges/dfis with the exception of a few delays with regard to the project pending the "collge borals peace and conflict studies: review and potential" report in the fall, the project went exceptionally well. we expect to complete the ontransfer updates signatures within a few weeks. / l'exception de quelques retards face au projet lors de l'attente du rapport "programme tudes sur la paix et les conflits du collge boral : analyse et potentiels" l'automne, le projet s'est droul exceptionnelement bien. nous anticipons avoir complt les mises jour ontransfer et les signatures d'ici quelques semaines. student outcomes/rsultats pour les tudiants this project promotes the understanding and development of practical tools in the field of collective action and social engagement for populations experiencing inequalities, which has been even more relevant since 2016, according to the census statistics that show that canada welcomed slightly more than 320,000 immigrants in 2015-2016, which is a record number. moreover, the francophone population of greater toronto has grown significantly. / ce projet favorise la comprhension et le dveloppement doutils pratiques dans le domaine de laction collective et de lengagement social pour les populations subissant des ingalits, ce qui est d'encore plus pertinents depuis 2016, selon les statistiques du recensement qui dmontrent que le canada a accueilli un peu plus de 320 000 immigrants durant lanne 2015-2016, ce qui est un nombre record. de plus, la population francophone du grand toronto a connu une croissance importante. student financial savings/conomies financires pour les tudiants the pathway is a 2 + 2 pathway (two years of college and two years of university) in the honours ba in social innovation program after completing the two-year diploma in peace and conflict studies program, therefore it saves the student 2 years of study and 2 years of tuition as well. student flexibility/souplesse pour les tudiants this pathway allows students to access a large number of university credits without the inconvenience and cost of an individual assessment. it also allows them to obtain a bachelor's degree in two years less than it normally would. student work alignment/harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants this pathway prepares students for jobs involving conflict resolution and social innovation, for which the need is increasing. this approach will meet the demand within the french-speaking community and provide students with practical and theoretical training in this field. tips/advice / conseils pratiques it is important to work with institutions that are open to the projects you are proposing and who have the expertise to make the project a reality. / c'est important de travailler avec des institutions qui sont ouvertes aux projets que vous proposez, et qui possde l'expertise pour rendre le projet une ralit.

project snapshot research exploring the student experience in transfer between york university and seneca college type: research project number: 2019-22 or r1922 project lead: york university collaborators: york university (office of institutional planning and analysis; institute for social research) and seneca college (centre for research in student mobility) and the york seneca partnership deliverables for website (if applicable): the student experience in transfer york/seneca project summary the student experience in transfer study is a research project using a combination of surveys and focus groups. the study population is transfer students who were enrolled at york university and seneca college in fall 2019. two surveys were administered electronically between october 2019 and november 2019: 1. of 652 york to seneca transfer students,162 went on to participate in the survey (25%). 2. of 1,260 seneca to york transfer students enrolled at the university, 354 (28%) participated in the survey. overall, 516 students responded - a participation rate of 27%. project rationale the primary objective of the project was to produce actionable results from which the institutions could build upon to make significant changes to improve the experiences and process for transfer students. therefore, the study sought to learn about service information gaps to help improve the support s for transfer students at york and seneca, especially through advising, admission and recruitment. although it focused on two institutions, the results should be generalizable to other postsecondary relationships within ontario. secondarily, another goal included the provision of information to support the work of stakeholders across the postsecondary system in ontario. what research methods were used? focus groups and surveys were the research methods used for this project. (see the report for additional details) describe any limitations the research focused on student experiences, however the perspectives of administrators and staff within the institutions, who had transfer responsibilities were not part of the study. a longitudinal approach, would have been able to decipher cohorteffects within the transfer population. additionally, a larger sample that also included nontransfer students, would have helped to make distinctions between the transfer and the nontransfer population within the institutions. main collaborator contributions york university (office of institutional planning and analysis; institute for social research) and seneca college (centre for research in student mobility) and the york seneca partnership. research findings transfer students were more focused on academic integration and engagement than on social integration and engagement. many of the on-campus services offered to transfer students are not well utilized or well-known. institutional and campus service disparities affected transfer students levels of satisfaction. the timing of transfer credits and the amount of credits received affected student satisfaction levels for college to university transfers. faculty/student interactions positively impacted student satisfaction levels and academic performance. future research the faculty and staff perspectives on transfer students at the institution and about transfer/ college university collaboration. sector or system implications oncat is working towards a more seamless and studentcentered transfer system. does this project provide any insights, cautions or recommendations for a more seamless system? please describe. see report recommendations. tips/advice have a very involved discussion, early on, how background literature and theories will shape the research study. but, be opened to expanding those ideas, as the research results/ findings are being uncovered. be detailed and specific with the larger research questions and how they frame/will frame the tools being used to administer the study. tools and resources the appendices contain a copy of the survey tool used for the project.

higher education strategy associates oncat mapit overall report 2 mapit 2.0 reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions mapit 2.0 reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions mapit 2.0 reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions mapit 2.0 reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions i acknowledgements this project was possible thanks to the collaboration and support of numerous organizations and individuals. firstly, we would like to think oncat for entrusting hesa with the responsibility of implementing mapit projects and for your close collaboration throughout the development and implementation of mapit. special thanks to carolyn poplak, ana skinner and inna yeranosyan for your consistent support and thoughtful assistance. we would like to thank the project leaders at the participating institutions for your engagement, including your help in coordinating consultations and your feedback regarding our findings. we would also like to thank all of our interviewees and discussion group participations, including administrative staff members, faculty members and students. we appreciate the hard work of all of those involved and hope that our findings may support your efforts to further enhance the transfer credit experiences of students in ontario. ii table of contents mapit 2.0 acknowledgements.................................................................................................. i introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 overview of transfer credit...................................................................................... 2 process........................................................................................................................................ 2 staff involved ........................................................................................................................... 3 assessing credit transfer processes ........................................................ 4 timeliness ................................................................................................................................... 4 the timing of transfer credit assessment .................................................................................. 5 the speed of assessment of course-by-course equivalencies .................................................. 7 student-centredness.............................................................................................................. 8 requirements to apply for transfer credits .............................................................. 8 communications with students ............................................................................................... 11 rigour ........................................................................................................................................... 13 supporting students to maximise the learning assessed ........................................................ 13 quality and consistency of equivalency assessment............................................................... 14 efficiency ..................................................................................................................................... 18 automation of tasks within the transfer credit process ........................................................... 18 organization of tasks in the transfer credit process ................................................................ 19 foundations of excellence in credit transfer ........................................................ 21 institution-level factors ................................................................................................................ 21 system-level factors .................................................................................................................... 23 appendix 1: transfer credit process maps .......................................................... 25 appendix 2: summary of student consultations .................................................. 29 timeliness ............................................................................................................................... 29 student centredness ................................................................................................................ 29 rigour of assessment .............................................................................................................. 30 1 introduction in 2019, the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) first commissioned hesa to undertake an exercise with ten ontario post-secondary institutions mapping out their transfer credit processes. the objective of the mapit 1.0 project was to help participating institutions identify strengths and areas for improvement in their transfer credit processes, while also providing oncat with ideas for supporting institutions. hesa completed the project in june 2020, providing an overall report and facilitating workshops with all participating institutions. mapit 2.0 repeated many elements of the mapit 1.0 exercise with another nine ontario post-secondary institutions: centennial college collge la cit lakehead university northern college sault college sheridan college trent university the university of guelph the university of windsor over the course of the project, hesa consulted 81 administrative staff members, 45 academic staff members and 66 students across these nine institutions. following initial interviews, many administrative staff participated in focus groups where they discussed preliminary findings, which had been summarized in process maps. academic staff interviews focused on the evaluation of course equivalencies. this report is the primary output of the project. it first provides an overview of transfer credit, the processes in operation at different institutions, and the staff involved. the report then identifies strong performance and challenges around four dimensions: timeliness, student centredness, rigour and efficiency. the report ends with a discussion of what we call foundations of excellence" in credit transfer, both at the institutional and system levels. in appendices, we provide general process maps for universities and colleges from the institutional and student perspectives, as well as a summary of general notes from student consultations. in addition to this report, hesa provided each participating institution with their own specific report, and delivered workshops in late june, 2021. the institutionspecific reports included detailed process maps and organizational charts. 2 overview of transfer credit this section provides a brief overview of transfer credit processes, and which institutional employees play a role in transfer credit. process there is considerable diversity in transfer credit processes. nevertheless, we can identify overall patterns or stages in processes that are common amongst institutions. these processes may have some overlap. for more detail on processes in general, see appendix 1. the first stage of the transfer credit process is the information-gathering stage, which generally begins before a student even applies for admission. at this stage students are looking to determine whether and where to apply for post-secondary studies, and the likely implications of doing so. there is public information available on institutional websites to indicate whether students might receive credits and to understand how the transfer credit process works. lists of previously recognized equivalencies are available on the websites of some institutions, or at ontransfer.ca. at a narrower set of institutions, students can contact admissions staff or faculty/program coordinators to receive pre-assessments which provide a sense of what courses a student might transfer over. finally, a few institutions deliver transfer student recruitment fairs where they provide on-the-spot preassessments of students transcripts against previously assessed equivalencies. the application stage is next. many institutions require that students specifically apply for transfer credits. all institutions even those where students do not formally apply for transfer credits require that students provide outlines for courses theyve previously taken, especially if they have not been previously assessed. student may also be required to provide their transcripts separately for transfer credit assessment. if documents are not provided in english or french, they may need to be officially translated. once credit transfer applications are received or when transcripts are automatically assessed if applicable - there is an initial processing stage. this stage often involves reviewing whether documentation is complete and requesting any missing materials, running transcripts against a database of previously assigned credits, and preparing materials for review by subject-matter experts for courses not previously assessed. in the next phase, subject-matter experts evaluate equivalencies based on course outlines. their assessments usually focus on similarities in content covered, as well as learning outcomes and assessment strategies, seeking to gauge both breadth and depth. subject-matter experts may return their decisions with explanations, or not. in the final post-assessment stage, administrative staff process assessments from subject-matter experts. administrators need to ensure that student files are updated with credit transfer decisions, that students are informed, and that course 3 equivalency databases are updated. students may be directed to seek out academic advising and may also, in some cases, appeal decisions through informal and/or formal processes. staff involved a number of different employees are involved in the transfer credit process across the nine participating institutions. there are clear patterns in how these staff are organized with common variations based on institution size and whether it is a university or a college.1 the primary locus of the transfer credit process is the registrars office. often, these offices include staff overseeing recruitment and staff overseeing admissions. recruitment staff can provide information to students on transfer credit pathways, give an indication of credits in transfer credit databases, or may simply direct students to where they can find more information. 2 admissions staff often are directly responsible for processing students transfer credit applications and/or other materials. in some cases, all admissions staff share responsibility for transfer credit, while in other cases there is a specifically assigned transfer credit coordinator but even in the latter case, other admissions staff may retain a role.3 relevant staff may have various ranks, including both coordinator or officer-type roles, and assistant roles some of whom may be part-time student hires at peak points in the admissions cycle. staff specifically focused on records may help to integrate transfer credit decisions into databases. academic units are the next most important locus of activity in transfer credit assessment. deans are often the most senior academics who play a role in credit transfer, but at most institutions they are only contacted if subject-matter experts are not responding in a timely fashion. at universities, department chairs are usually the most important academics when it comes to transfer credit assessment, either because they assign the credits themselves or assign the most relevant colleagues. 4 in colleges, program coordinators typically exercise the same functions. on occasion, there are administrative staff assisting in academic offices, who either redirect transfer credit assessment requests or respond themselves. academic advising staff have a role in transfer credit, sometimes assessing equivalencies as subject-matter experts but more often providing advice to students awarded transfer credits. academic advisors may fall under academic 1 although we do not include them directly among those involved in transfer credit processes, staff responsible for information and communications technologies (ict) play a critical role in transfer credit processes. the significance of these roles, and institutional capacity in these areas, will be highlighted throughout this report. 2 recruitment may also fall outside of the responsibilities of the registrars office in some institutions. 3 often, recruitment or admissions staff may also have specialised responsibilities for certain kinds of students, such as international students, undergraduate or graduate students, with implications for their involvement in transfer credit processes. 4 in business programs, this responsibility may fall to the chair under the overall degree, such as accounting or human resources management. 4 faculties, operate in centralized services, or function under both structures or in an entirely different structure such as within oxford-style colleges. finally, there are often specific staff responsible for overseeing the development of articulation agreements. these staff may fall under the registrars office, but they may also be under a separate reporting structure, for instance focused on partnerships or special projects. academic staff are involved at least in verifying equivalencies for articulation agreements but may be even more involved in initiating and negotiating the agreements. at the highest of level of an institution, academic vice presidents are typically responsible for the rigour of equivalency assessment and the academic success of transfer credit students, while other executive leaders may be responsible for recruitment and admissions goals with which transfer credit is associated. assessing credit transfer processes from mapit 1.0, there are four principal criteria for assessing the performance of credit transfer processes: timeliness, student-centredness, rigour and efficiency. with regards to each of these criteria, this section will discuss two key dimensions of performance. in addition, we outline circumstances of hypothetical students to provide a sense of the impacts of challenges in credit transfer processes and identify certain best practices. the latter are not exhaustive and should not be taken as models of perfection given that the key to true excellence is continuous review and improvement. timeliness timeliness is critical because students need to have information on their transfer credits to be able to make informed decisions regarding whether to enroll, and which courses to select. in some cases, delivering transfer credits late may be no better than failing to provide credits at all. we identify two key dynamics affecting timeliness: timing of transfer credit assessment and the speed of assessment of course-by-course equivalencies. 5 the timing of transfer credit assessment from a timeliness perspective, the earlier transfer credit assessment begins, the better. hesa generally classifies assessment of transfer credits as being either at-admissions or post-admissions. colleges generally operate under a postadmissions models, but as we found in mapit 1.0, so do some universities. the most sub-optimal models require not only that prospective students have accepted their offer of admissions, but that they be even more formally enrolled, perhaps even having paid fees. all of these delays increase the likelihood that students will not have credit transfer determinations until after the start of the semester, in which case students may have to sit in a course from which they will be exempt, or students may not receive their transfer credits before the add-drop date. these possibilities of delays are more acute where students need to apply for transfer credits and may not submit their applications until late. scenario #1 naomi nagata applies for admission to a business diploma at ontario college (oc) after previously having completed 13 credits in general arts at ontario university (ou). after receiving her letter of admissions and enrolling, naomi does not notice an email inviting her to apply for transfer credits. beginning her classes in september, after two weeks she realizes that two courses in which she has enrolled cover material she has already studied. she contacts the college and receives information on applying for transfer credits, but it takes her time to secure her course outlines from ou and complete her full application. ultimately, oc does provide her an assessment indicating that her previous courses are equivalent, but the add/drop deadline for courses has already passed. naomi is required to sit through 72 hours of classroom time and submit assignments addressing material she already knows and is reproached by one professor multiple times for surfing instagram in class. usually institutions with at-admissions models automatically run the transcripts that students provide when applying for admission against their transfer credit database. the institution can then communicate to students which credits they will receive automatically, and which syllabi or course outlines they need to provide for course-by-course evaluation. this communication often occurs when students receive their offer letter but may occur beforehand right after the institution receives the students application. this then begins the process of equivalency assessment, waiting only for students to provide necessary documents. there can still be delays in students providing their course outlines and such, but this is largely outside the institutions control. institutions may also offer some forms of preassessment even before students apply. the most common thing for institutions to do is to share their database of course equivalencies on their website, or through ontransfer.ca so that students can do a pre-assessment for themselves of what equivalencies they might expect 6 to receive. at trent university, recruitment staff can further do pre-assessment from the course equivalency database at specific transfer student recruitment events, though these events reach only a small number of students each year. there are several issues with students using online databases for themselves. databases are often not up-to-date and may be difficult for students to navigate and interpret. for example, one student consulted during the project assumed that all courses not included in the database would be rejected. if this is a widespread misunderstanding, it could significantly undercut the extent to which students apply for transfer credit. hesa considers that it should be possible to automate the interpretation of databases for prospective students, so that students can input their transcripts or the specific courses they have previously taken and receive a report on equivalencies, rejected equivalencies and courses that would require assessment. this would open to prospective students the same automated mechanism that institutions use to run transcripts against their transfer credit databases. one other mechanism used by some institutions, particularly small colleges that charge fees for transfer credit applications, is pre-assessment of course-by-course equivalencies by faculty or staff. these are very informal processes, whereby students provide information on requests and the faculty or staff member offers their perspective as to which equivalencies they could expect to receive. although this may provide timely information, it has complex implications for rigour and efficiency, which we will discuss later. 7 the speed of assessment of course-by-course equivalencies the turnaround time for assessment of course-by-course equivalencies is the second critical issue affecting timeliness. this is especially critical for postadmissions transfer credit models where the beginning of the process is delayed, but still important for at-admissions models given that students may submit their materials late or wish to have transfer credit assessments complete before making a final decision on enrolling. we can separate out the time course-by-course equivalency assessment takes due to administrative staff and academic staff. scenario #2 alex kamal has applied to complete a ba in social work at ontario university (ou), having previously completed six first-year arts courses at alberta university. alex is admitted to the (ou) program and receives a note that he needs to submit syllabi for the courses he has taken elsewhere, which takes alex a couple of weeks to pull together. it is late august and alex is required to select his courses, but after three weeks he still has not heard back about his transfer credits. alex enrolls in all of the required first-year courses, taking a precaution that he may not receive any transfer credits. when alex receives notice that he is exempt from taking four first-year courses, just before the start of class, he moves to switch his course selection. there are specific courses he is most interested in taking, but unfortunately the sections that do not clash with his part-time job are all completely full. he enrolls in courses that he is not particularly excited about, but that will at least help him to accumulate credits for his degree. in general, automation can help to reduce the time required for administrators to handle transfer credit applications. for instance, automatic transfer credit assessment helps to accelerate turnaround because there is no delay to wait for students to submit applications, and no need to process applications. of course, the turnaround between when the institution receives the students transcripts and sends out the request for syllabi/course outlines where needed may vary. additional automation can include effective portals to receive materials from students and convert them into packages for evaluation, easy transmission of these packages to faculty, and easy conversion of faculty evaluations into final decisions for students. there is little to distinguish these last issues from measures to raise efficiency, and so we will address these issues in more detail later in the report. 8 the most complex issue in turnaround time relates to consultation with subjectmatter experts. in many cases, subject-matter experts respond to requests to assess course equivalencies within 24 hours either from commitment to supporting students or out of worry that if they do not respond immediately, they will forget to do so at all. at most institutions, however, there is unevenness in the responsiveness of faculty based on the department or even the individual. it is difficult to hold faculty accountable for replying promptly to assessment requests. administrative staff can also delay transfer credit assessment if they send incomplete materials to faculty or send requests to the wrong faculty member based on a misunderstanding of courses. it seems to us that the industry standard turnaround time for course-by-course equivalency assessments is two weeks or less. we cannot assess how many of the institutions we have consulted meet this threshold with great confidence institutions should be able to audit this internally. best practices whenever possible, trent university automatically runs applicants transcripts against the universitys transfer credit database to identify possible equivalencies, which are assigned automatically. this is easiest with transcripts provided through the standard ouac application, but the university has recently purchased equipment to also allow automatic electronic processing of images and paper transcripts. once initial assessment is complete, students are invited to provide documentation necessary for assessment of courses not covered in the database, and this assessment may begin even before a student receives their offer of admissions. the turnaround time for course-by-course equivalency assessment is two weeks or less, with rare exceptions. student-centredness student centeredness is about making all reasonable efforts to ensure students are informed, respected, and treated fairly throughout the transfer credit process. it supports an emphasis on delivering a high-quality student experience, which in the case of credit transfer often means an experience that reasonably minimises students active involvement. requirements to apply for transfer credits the first element of student-centredness is the ease of applying for transfer credits. there is considerable variability amongst institutions in this regard. 9 to start, some institutions particularly universities do not require students to apply for transfer credits at all. where institutions simply assess students transcripts, assign credits from the transfer credit database, and then request students to provide materials for courses not previously assessed, the process is greatly simplified. where institutions require that students apply for transfer credits, there are a number of pitfalls. the applications themselves are often confusing or difficult to use. some institutions allow students to apply through online portals, but others rely on pdfs that students can find unwieldy. prior to the covid-19 pandemic, some might have required students to apply on paper. students at some institutions must submit a separate application for each course they wish to transfer over. it is common for colleges to require that students match the specific credit they would like to receive for each course theyve previously taken, whereas at other institutions (particularly universities) this matching is done entirely through the database where applicable, or by the person assessing the equivalency. 5 some institutions that do this matching do not provide easy access to their own course outlines, which amplifies the difficulty. this matching exercise has implications for rigour and efficiency that we will discuss later. finally, at least one institution required that students apply for transfer credits before each semester in which they would apply, necessitating far more attention from students and having implications for timeliness and efficiency. another common issue is for institutions to require that students submit documents unnecessarily. at least one institution we reviewed requires that students attach their transcripts to their credit transfer application even if they already submitted transcripts when applying for admissions because the information cannot be shared between those responsible for admissions and for credit transfer. it is more common for an institution to require that students submit syllabi/course outlines for all courses that require assessment, though this should be unnecessary for courses that have previously been assessed and remain valid in the credit transfer database. such unnecessary requirements are critically important given that students identify obtaining documents from previous institutions as one of the greatest difficulties of the transfer credit process. one possible policy that we have heard about, though not encountered, allows students to opt to receive only general credits for certain courses rather than specific credits. this means they do not have to provide syllabi/course outlines for these courses, which is particularly relevant for potential elective courses, though this has the disadvantage of not building out an institutions credit transfer database. 5 their greater capacity to discern which course or combination of courses could be equivalent across a program of study is amongst the greatest benefits of having faculty members complete equivalency assessment. 10 a final issue is that some institutions require that students pay a fee, which is always a source of frustration from the student perspective. not only do fees impose a cost, but they vary in how many steps they require students to take based on payment methods. the ways that institutions charge fees can matter. a number of universities simply add some kind of a documentation evaluation fee or transfer credit fee to the initial application fee for students with prior post-secondary education, in which case our impression is that students may not realise they are being charged for transfer credits.6 in these cases, transfer credit fees become subsumed in the larger issue of application fees, which are beyond the scope of this project to discuss.7 scenario #3 camina drummer has just enrolled in ontario college (oc). she previously completed four courses at other ontario college (ooc), and is intrigued when she receives a note inviting her to apply for transfer credits. however, as a mature student with two young kids, it is hard for camina to find time to put together an application, and money is tight. the application requires that she secure her course outlines from ooc, compare them against those of courses at oc, and indicate specific equivalencies. and on top of that, she will have to pay $25 for each equivalency request. after searching the website and sending a number of emails, camina pays $20 to secure her course outlines from ooc. she talks with an employee at oc and secures course outlines for her required courses there as well. as she sits down to compare the course outlines, however, she finds that they look similar, but the language is slightly different. how similar is similar enough? considering the cost per request, in the end camina applies for just one equivalency that she is pretty sure is right. she is relieved to receive the credit thats three hours per week in the fall when her mother wont have to watch the kids. she pushes from her mind whether other courses might also have transferred over. 6 we can speculate that it may be that notifying students that they have paid a fee to have their transfer credits assessed might encourage them to seek out documents required for course-by-course equivalency evaluation. 7 there is substantial literature on the effects of application fees on choices to apply and pursue postsecondary education. 11 communications with students the second crucial area in terms of student centredness relates to how an institution communicates with students about the credit transfer process. scenario #4 amos burton is nervous but also excited to think about going back to university. his first time around he got through first year but then decided to work for a time, not because he couldnt succeed academically, but because the program and the school ultimately did not felt like a fit. now he knows what he wants to study criminology. he wants to make use of the credits he obtained previously, and maybe save himself a whole year. he has been checking out the websites of ontario university (ou) and other ontario university (oou) to try to figure out if they might recognize his transfer credits. oou provides a pretty clear sense of the process, and actually has a list of equivalent courses on its website that includes half of the courses amos took before. ous website really doesnt seem to say much about credit transfer, basically it seems like they just get in touch once you are admitted. amos is starting to get excited about oou, but hes on the fence about applying to ou at all. credit transfer processes are complex and often not intuitive to understand this can be the case even for the most streamlined and student-centred process. institutions need to continuously review and improve how they are communicating to students the information that they will need about transfer credits. key issues include: how to apply or how the institution reviews applicants transcripts automatically for equivalencies; how to obtain materials needed for course-bycourse equivalency assessment; the timeline for credit transfer assessment and how this affects the start of term; the criteria upon which transfer credit assessments are made; options in the event that the students wishes to dispute a transfer credit determination; etc. in all of these areas, poor communication can not only undercut the extent to which students feel informed, respected and treated fairly, but can also undermine timeliness, rigour and efficiency. common concerns include students missing messages entirely or misunderstanding the institutions transfer credit jargon. some institutions offer more personalised support to students throughout the transfer credit process. this is often very positive, although in some cases this 12 engagement can reflect poor communications which require students to seek out more information. the effective use of the institutions student portal is key. we suggest portals provide an easy platform for not only explaining the process to students, receiving their materials where needed and providing the ultimate results, but also providing information to students on the state of transfer credit requests in progress. students often express frustration that they have little information in the time between when they submit materials for transfer credit assessment and receive final determinations of equivalency. many institutions engage informally with students following credit transfer determinations. this can include connecting them with the faculty who conducted the assessments, so that the faculty members can reconsider their assessment or provide a more detailed explanation. our impression is that such efforts are often successful in assuaging students concerns. scenario #5 chrisjen avasarala is anxious and frustrated. she was excited to study political science at ontario university (ou), but eager to at least get some credits for the business diploma program she previously completed at ontario college (oc). after being accepted, chrisjen eagerly followed the instructions to obtain and submit course outlines from oc, and she knows she paid a fee for credit transfer with her admissions application. she emailed the transfer credit person each week after applying. finally, after just over three weeks, she received 12 courses worth of credits, which was about as good as she feels she could have expected. some of the equivalencies are just recorded as unassigned credits though, and what does that mean? course selection is tomorrow, and chrisjen is not at all clear on how she should plan out her courses, given the credits she has apparently received. she sends one more email to the credit transfer person, hoping for guidance it is also important for institutions to help students understand the implications of transfer credit determinations. transfer credit does not merely reduce the number of courses students are required to take, it also affects the sequencing of their overall program and may affect their full- or part-time status, with notable implications for student financial aid. moreover, some equivalencies granted may not even count towards a students degree, though students may not realise and consequently be very confused. many institutions instruct students who receive transfer credits to seek out an academic advisor, although accessing advice can be difficult given academic advisors are often fully booked at the start of term, when students receive their transfer credit determinations. assigning transfer credits more quickly may help to address this issue by allowing transfer students to access advisors well before the start of the semester when they have greater availability. 13 finally, student-centred institutions can recognize the difficulty of accessing syllabi/course outlines and make theirs accessible for their students in case they wish to study elsewhere in the future. some colleges -- such as sheridan -- are leading the way in posting course outlines publicly on their website, while at least one university that we reviewed has made syllabi available to current and former students through a password-protected system. rigour it is important that the transfer credit process be rigorous, with regards to both the dual goals of: 1. ensuring that students learn the material and skills required for their academic program and embodied in the credential provided at the end of the program; and 2. ensuring students do not need to cover material that they already know from previous coursework (accounting for residency requirements). best practices lakehead university, trent university, the university of guelph, and the university of windsor do not require that students apply for transfer credits. instead, they automatically assess equivalencies against students transcripts provided at admissions. trent university also offers transfer credit assessment free of charge, automatically communicates to students the status of applications for transfer credits through the student information portal. these two goals imply a delicate balance. supporting students to maximise the learning assessed a number of barriers actively prevent students from having all of their previous coursework recognized. what we can classify as de jure barriers include: residency requirements as to the share of credits that must be obtained at the home institution to receive a credential. at colleges, these are often as low as 25%, but at universities the standard is often 50% or higher. preferences in admissions for students without transfer credits, which in competitive university programs can prevent any credits being recognized given the students will not be admitted. 8 transfer credit applications must be received and processed before a certain date. there are also de facto barriers that are often related to aspects of the transfer credit process that discourage students from seeking transfer credits. 8 such policies can also affect timeliness, in that transfer students are not admitted until the last minute when there are clearly no more non-transfer students to admit. 14 perhaps the most significant de facto barrier to transfer credits, though one that is very difficult to measure, is the extent to which an institution fails to communicate effectively what is required of students to obtain transfer credits. we simply do not know the number of students who do not receive transfer credits because they do not realise it is an option at institutions that require that students apply for all transfer credits. other students may miss out on credits because they fail to follow the necessary steps on-time or efficiently and become discouraged. the difficulty of applying for transfer credits is another barrier. this includes, most especially, the difficulties of obtaining documentation from previous institutions. we are confident that a share of prospective transfer students do not obtain transfer credits because of the difficulty of obtaining the necessary documentation, or obtaining documentation of sufficient quality. this further reinforces the importance of minimising how much students must require such documentation and advising them on how to secure it where necessary. other challenges with applying for transfer credits that we discussed under student-centredness could also have important effects. we found that fees are another barrier to transfer credits. this is because students may not realize that transfer credit is typically financially rewarding, or they may view fees as something of a lottery without knowing their likelihood of receiving transfer credits. at colleges, where tuition fees are often based on full- and parttime status, students may not appreciate the time they will save from not having to be in class and only see that they will be paying extra to receive less instruction. a further financial disincentive to transfer credits is that students may receive considerably less financial aid if transfer credits reduce their course-load to parttime status. this creates an incentive for students to retake content they already know, entirely contrary from the interest of government to avoid this. institutions could avoid this disincentive by offering other courses to students under these circumstances, which might for instance count towards a micro-credential, or simply provide complementary general skills courses -- assuming the student cannot take other courses of direct relevance to their academic program. institutions could also consider adopting a policy whereby students who fall to parttime status due to credit transfer may still receive full-time financial aid which would also be relevant to government programs, as we discuss later. one important approach to maximizing the recognition of student learning is through articulation agreements. institutions are aggressive in pursuing articulation agreements largely because the incentives are strong the agreements help both to attract students to colleges (typically) with the promise that they could continue into a university and help universities attract these same students. a further positive step is to design programs from the beginning with articulation in mind, which depends on foresight among faculty developing programs and strong relationships with articulation partners. quality and consistency of equivalency assessment where students seek transfer credits, institutions need to conduct equivalency assessment with high levels of quality and consistency. the presence and use of guidelines on how to assess equivalency, balancing flexibility and rigour, seem to 15 vary greatly between higher education institutions -- although these guidelines are generally better established at colleges. at institutions without such guidelines, or where subject-matter experts are unaware of guidelines, we observe considerable variation in the degree to which assessors believe courses need to cover the same content, as well as other dimensions of how faculty assess equivalency. with this greater variability comes greater risk of bias in equivalency assessment. scenario #6 klaes ashford is about to start a nursing degree program at ontario polytechnic (op). they previously worked as a community care assistant, with a diploma from ontario college. klaes followed the full process to request transfer credits for their previous diploma, including providing and matching their course outlines, and paying a fee. in the end, klaes just received a short message letting them know they would only receive credit for three courses. klaes is angry and confused. they have no idea why they have received so few credits, given that they believe their previous studies were closely related to nursing. not to mention their four years of experience in long-term care, and that they have friends who did the same thing as them at other institutions and received at least twice as many credits. why doesnt op explain the basis for their decision on granting credits? is there anything klaes can do to have this decision reviewed? if they write to the op administrator are they just going to think klaes is whining? another important question is whether faculty should conduct equivalency assessment, or whether administrative staff, or even graduate students could do it. some courses in some disciplines may be very standardized - at least within canada -- and therefore could be readily assessed by staff with lesser qualifications and familiarity with the academic program in question. for other courses, equivalency assessors need to have considerable knowledge about the curriculum of the relevant study program or the disciplinary offerings at the receiving institution. some interviewees suggested that without such knowledge, assessors may be less generous in granting equivalencies than faculty would be. it is also often easier to assess courses transferring between domestic universities (perhaps 16 even for colleges) than from domestic colleges or foreign institutions. policies on who can assess what type of course likely often need to be set at the departmental level. preassessments by subject-matter experts present another important issue for rigour, as they are almost intrinsically less rigorous than full assessment. one risk is that subject-matter experts hold to preassessment equivalencies upon full assessment for fear of flip-flopping, and then these equivalencies become integrated in the transfer credit database. the other possibility is that preassessments never reach full assessment and therefore are not integrated in the credit transfer database, creating risks of inconsistency. to reinforce the quality of equivalency assessment, some institutions allow students to appeal determinations under their formal academic appeal process. such formal appeals are nevertheless rare, but offering a recourse appears appropriate given the potential significance of credit transfer determinations for students academic programs. other elements crucial to quality and consistency of equivalency assessment relate less to course-by-course equivalency assessment. using course equivalency databases according to consistent rules such as the length of time that equivalencies remain valid ensures consistency in assessments for all students who took the courses covered. another policy at one institution is to require that all assessed equivalencies be indicated on the students transcript to provide a rigorous reflection of the students academic record even if this frustrates some students who might wish to conceal that they previously studied at another institution. the greatest challenge in rigorously assessing equivalency is the difficulty of interpreting syllabi/course outlines from other institutions. this is something over which receiving institutions have little control, aside from shifting students who have inadequate outlines into essentially a recognition of prior learning (rpl) process. what institutions can do is to ensure that their own syllabi/course outlines provide all information they could reasonably expect their students to need to transfer elsewhere. a number of institutions have implemented such standards in recent years though not necessarily with a focus on transfer. 17 finally, equivalency assessment, for course-by-course equivalency and even in the context of developing articulation agreements, always has risks of being flawed. it is possible that students who receive transfer credits may prove less successful. with this in mind, one university we reviewed was tracking the results of transfer and articulation students. this tracking helped to identify where students were doing well and communicate this to faculty to assuage skepticism about accepting transfer students or recognizing credits. the tracking was also used to review the performance of articulation agreements, and in one case led to the modification of an articulation agreement where students were not having success. best practices sheridan, centennial and sault colleges have each developed strong guidelines for faculty use in assessing equivalency, balancing demands for flexibility and rigour. moreover, faculty consistently report being aware of these guidelines. trent university has been gathering detailed data on the study success of transfer students. this tracking allows the university to make more evidence-based decisions surrounding transfer credit and articulation agreements. scenario #7 professor fred johnson is regularly called upon to review equivalencies for courses related to the ontario university microbiology program. it is not really a core part of his job, or something that he enjoys, but he appreciates that it is necessary. requests can arrive in his email inbox at any time, even friday at 4pm, with expectations that he will provide assessments as soon as possible. the workload can be heavy at times, especially at the start of the semester, when he is also finishing preparing his courses and receiving more outreach from students. requests at times are incomplete, or much more suitable to other departments such as environmental science, chemistry, or chemical engineering. he came up with his own approach to assessing equivalency, inspired in part by what the previous program chair did. he finds that this works alright, except that the course outlines he receives are so vague that he struggles to assess equivalency, especially when outlines come from foreign institutions, or even from canadian colleges. overall, he considers credit transfer assessment to be an annoyance that he will happily pass on to someone else when his rotation as program chair is finished. 18 efficiency as our last criterion, institutions seek to maximise the efficiency of resource- and time-use in the transfer credit process. they do this through automation of tasks, and in other ways in which tasks are organised. automation of tasks within the transfer credit process the foundation of efficiency in credit transfer is automation. automation is the use of technologies to reduce the need for labour. information and communications technologies (ict) are a critical type of technology, but technologies can also refer to ways of organising information administratively. credit transfer databases are the fundamental technology for automating credit transfer. they essentially allow the replication of already completed transfer credit assessments. often these equivalencies were initially established through courseby-course assessments, but they can also build up by integrating bulk course equivalencies from articulation agreements. some institutions do not have transfer credit databases, while others keep them in excel spreadsheets which can create a number of difficulties. ict comes into play in deploying the transfer credit database, as we have mentioned earlier. institutions are developing digital tools to scan students transcripts and run them against transfer credit databases, including by using new technology that can read transcripts from non-standard images or from paper scans. often, these technologies only work for transcripts from canadian institutions, but some institutions are even making advances with regards to international transcripts. perhaps surprisingly, it can be a challenge for institutions to identify students covered by articulation agreements. this information is not necessarily gathered by standard ouac applications for instance, and identification is especially difficult where students may have previously attended multiple institutions or programs. institutions might be able to further develop the ict surrounding their database to automatically match students transcripts to the block of courses under an articulation agreement. automation is also relevant with regards to communications in the transfer credit process. strong information-management systems can facilitate: communications with students, including requesting and receiving materials, indicating the status of an application, communicating determinations, and indicating to students how they can appeal or access academic advising; communications between staff and faculty, including transmitting applications for transfer credit assessment and receiving assessments from subject matter experts; and updating key systems based on transfer credit assessments, including the institutional transfer credit database used in processing and posted on the 19 public website, updating ontransfer.ca, updating students course records, etc. automating communications has notable value in terms of efficiency, provided the communications are well received. at multiple institutions, we have heard about how progress on this file can reduce the amount of time staff must spend communicating basic information with students or amongst themselves. larger institutions have generally gone the furthest in terms of automation, which is to be expected given that automation generally entails high up-front costs and low economies of scale. for smaller institutions, much automation may be less realistic, but there is often still at least some progress possible, for instance through better use of transfer credit databases. organization of tasks in the transfer credit process there is also scope for efficiency in the organisation of tasks in the transfer credit process. in particular, administrative staff can put a lot of work into helping faculty to be able to complete transfer credit assessment more efficiently. efforts include creating templates that faculty can use to complete assessment more effectively, or extensive preparation for faculty being asked to review transfer credits on bulk to establish an articulation agreement. there is also considerable scope for staff to support subject-matter experts, speaking to issues that we identified earlier. faculty indicate that staff could provide more basic information to them when requesting assessments, such as a translation of grades and credits or simply better ensuring they send courses for assessment to the correct subject-matter expert with all the necessary materials fully complete. we also heard from some faculty that they find requests for transfer credit assessment disruptive as they can come at any time during the week and may or may not be consolidated together. it may be possible to standardize when requests are sent out, say on a certain day of the week, and consolidate requests together on this basis, without unduly compromising the timeliness of assessment. the absence of guidelines on how to assess equivalencies may also have some negative impacts on efficiency. certain subject-matter experts may take considerably longer than others to complete assessments and may even suggest that credit transfer should be done via committees. subject-matter experts conducting preassessments may also be very inefficient, in requiring them to look over material multiple times. as we noted earlier, it may also be possible to save resources in the transfer credit process by having non-faculty members complete assessments in certain specialized cases. however, beyond the rigour concerns we identified earlier, it is possible that the lower wages of non-faculty will not fully compensate for greater time needed to complete assessments. further to these points, many of the challenges we noted earlier with regards to student-centredness have implications for efficiency. processing applications for transfer credit generally requires more effort per transfer student than assessing equivalencies automatically. separate applications for each equivalency may take more time to process. where students have to match course equivalencies for 20 themselves, they may apply multiple times until they get the right match, or advising resources may need to go towards helping students make their matches. receiving applications from students multiple times, at the beginning of each semester, is surely less efficient than processing a single application all at once. a final consideration with regards to efficiency centres relates to timeliness. where credit transfer processes have to focus narrowly at the start of term, this surely amplifies pressures on the receiving institution. this can have impacts on efficiency in terms of the ability of staff at the institution to fulfill their responsibilities of all sorts at a high level in the time available to them. spreading more of the burden of transfer credit over other points in the year could help raise institutional performance at critical moments in the calendar. scenario #8 juliette mao is the credit transfer officer at ontario college (oc). after students are admitted to oc, they receive instructions on how to apply for transfer credits, along with contact information for juliette. the weeks leading up to and just following the start of the semester are a rush. juliette receives students transfer credit applications by email. she must review that each is complete, run them against the transfer credit database, prepare application packages for courses not previously assessed, and then send these application packages out to the appropriate subject-matter experts (and remember herself to send reminders or reach out to deans where necessary). when subject-matter experts provide their responses, juliette reviews these, updates the students information in banner (which thankfully sends an automated notification to the student), and then updates the transfer credit database, as well as ontransfer.ca when she gets the chance. throughout all of these steps, juliette is also often corresponding with students who are confused as to what they need to provide, or eager to know the status of their application. juliette does her best, though mistakes happen given the volume of files she is required to track and process. she thinks the work she is doing is important, but she is also convinced that stronger communication with students and stronger information management systems could almost certainly reduce her workload markedly, while lessening students frustration. 21 best practices of any institution reviewed, trent university has gone the furthest in developing and deploying its transfer credit database using digital technologies. not only does the university run transcripts against the database largely automatically, with a new tool expanding this to unconventional document formats, but the database itself is updated automatically as is ontransfer.ca. trent university, along with sheridan college and the university of windsor, have also automated much of their communication with students and much of the internal management of files to enhance efficiency. for instance, status updates through the student information portal provide an indication of the state of files when in processing. foundations of excellence in credit transfer to conclude this report, we will discuss foundations of excellence in credit transfer. we will first address these foundations at the level of specific institutions, before discussing system-wide foundations. institution-level factors a number of institution-level factors underlie excellence in credit transfer. we would emphasise strong registrarial services, buy-in from academic staff, and strong institutional incentives for emphasising transfer credits. a key finding of mapit is that strong credit transfer processes reflect broader excellence in registrarial services. such excellence begins with high-quality leadership that fosters a vision for excellence, continuously reflects on obstacles to achieving this vision, and identifies and pushes forward innovations to tackle these obstacles. excellent leadership helps to strengthen the broader team of administrators in registrarial services, through strategic hiring but also by motivating strong performance, setting a tone for continuous improvement, and helping staff to build their competencies though excellent staff should be recognized as more than just a reflection of their leaders. lastly, excellent registrarial services recognize the importance of information management systems and apply themselves to continuously making these systems more fit-for-purpose. all of these strengths are relevant not just to credit transfer, but to the full set of activities in which registrarial services engage. we therefore expect that many of the institutions that perform best in transfer credit perform best in the full set of recruitment and admissions activities. having buy-in from academic staff in particular - for both the recognition of students learning and the rigorous verification of that learning - is critical. without such buy-in, administrative staff can only go so far in assuring timeliness, student- 22 centredness and rigour. buy-in for credit transfer amongst academic staff tends to vary widely between institutions, or even between departments within institutions. the institutions or departments that do best likely have a broader ethos around serving students, and more humility about classroom learning in their own programs and respect for other ways of learning. fortunately, these traits are the norm for the most part amongst institutions that have participated in mapit 1.0 and 2.0, though we would argue all institutions should seek to continually foster a service ethos and humility around learning among their faculty and staff.9 it helps to bolster both excellence in registrarial services and buy-in from academic staff when credit transfer is a key component of an institutions overall recruitment strategy. this creates incentives for excellence. receiving transfer students tends to be more important to polytechnics and universities that are well outside of the u15. the 3+2 or 2+2 articulated degree model is the basic driver of this openness, as suitability for this model often leads these institutions to receive far more transfer students. receiving more transfer students also creates potential economies of scale from automating registrarial processes. on the other hand, the most prestigious universities, be it on the administrative or the academic side, may see little need to accept transfer students given their competitiveness in recruiting from other pools. in fact, these institutions often place transfer explicitly at the back of the line for admissions. these institutions may also suffer from complacency that students will be fortunate to attend them regardless of the quality of their transfer credit processes. the other type of higher education institutions in ontario are community colleges as in colleges that provide few if any bachelors degree programs. these institutions often have less interest in inbound credit transfer because they have relatively few programs into which students can continue from elsewhere, and their programs tend to be less adaptable for students who are exempted from some courses.10 they are also often relatively small, and so can achieve limited economies of scale through automation. yet, these institutions may place relatively high emphasis on recognition of prior learning (rpl) focused on informal and nonformal learning, from their mandates to support adult learning and other nontraditional learners. it merits further analysis whether shifts in patterns of education, including growing numbers of university graduates pursuing college programs, warrant a shift in approach for community colleges. given all of these findings, it is clear that higher education institutions do not achieve excellence in credit transfer overnight. strong leadership, strong staff, strong information management systems, strong buy-in among faculty, and supportive strategic environments combine and build symbiotically with time. excellence comes from continuous hard work to strengthen staff and faculty culture, and review and improve processes on an ongoing basis. 9 we again should highlight as an excellent practice the way that trent university has tracked the performance of transfer students to be able to demonstrate to faculty that they are successful, while also enabling adjustments where students are less successful. 10 often, they place considerable emphasis on outbound transfer, as their students can benefit from 2+2 or 2+3 articulated degree models to continue their education at universities or polytechnics. 23 system-level factors the mapit process tends to emphasise the institution-level in thinking about how to improve credit transfer. however, credit transfer is a system challenge, and we do derive lessons from our research about the system as a whole. facilitating students access to useful course outlines is one system-level challenge, largely because this is an area where difficulties relate more to the institutions sending transfer students than to those receiving them. the core issues are how to make course outlines accessible, and how to ensure that they provide the information that subject-matter experts require. as we have noted, a number of institutions particularly colleges have worked to make course outlines available to their current and former students. even in these cases, however, students may have some difficulty finding where course outlines are available. oncat has been building a new tool to give students direction as to where they can find course outlines for their past institutions, which should provide a useful asset to which receiving institutions can direct students, or through which these institutions might obtain course outlines themselves. in the future, it may be possible to create a central database of course outlines, perhaps under oncat, from which institutions can draw automatically where they wish to assess course-by-course equivalency. this seems to be an easier sell for colleges than universities, where there can be debate as to whether course outlines belong to institutions or to individual faculty members. the other issue is that subject-matter experts often report that it is difficult to interpret course outlines to assess their equivalency. almost all subject-matter experts report this with regards to international credentials, which is understandable and not an easily remedied problem. however, we also heard this often from university faculty with regards to college course outlines. 11 some institutions universities and colleges have established requirements for course outlines within their institutions. a province-wide conversation about standards for course outlines, accounting for transfer credit assessment as well as other concerns, would be helpful. oncat has initiated an effort to strengthen course outlines, while another possibility might be requirements from the ontario universities council on quality assurance (oucqa) and the ontario college quality assurance services (ocqas). these efforts would not assist with course outlines from other provinces, but it is possible that if ontario led the way other provinces would pursue similar initiatives. this would leave only international course outlines as an area of difficulty still difficult to resolve. there is also considerable scope for facilitating the transmission of transcripts. in our understanding the ontario universities application centre (ouac) and the ontario college application service (ocas) have made considerable progress on this file. for students who apply through the primary channels, transcripts from prior post-secondary institutions in ontario can be attached automatically. for students who apply through other channels, it could be helpful if institutions could 11 when we raise this concern with college staff, they frequently argue that university course outlines also have shortcomings, such as an absence of clear learning outcomes. however, subject-matter experts at colleges do not raise these same concerns as often. 24 request transcripts through ouac and ocas all the same through a set-up that nevertheless protects students privacy. a key challenge in improving transfer credit processes is to expand automation, which depends in large part on the development and use of strong information management systems. these systems are overwhelmingly institutionally based, but there may nevertheless be opportunities for system-level initiatives or institutional collaborations. given that automation depends largely on economies of scale, this could be especially important for smaller institutions. one option is joint purchasing, of entire student information management systems perhaps for smaller institutions, or perhaps even if narrow technologies such as a tool to automate processing of images and paper transcripts. another option might eventually be to have the ontransfer database become the core database for all institutions in the province, rather than more narrowly focused on providing information to students. such a model might provide additional efficiencies, such as automated triangulation of equivalencies, whereby: if course a at institution a has been assessed as equivalent to course b at institution b; and, if course a at institution a has been assessed as equivalent to course c at institution c; then, institution b might automatically assign equivalency for course b to course c at institution c, and vice versa. system-level pressures may also be necessary for institutions to better support their students and former students to be able to transfer elsewhere. this is particularly true at universities, as colleges appear to be more committed to supporting students transferring out. in fact, some colleges we have consulted place greater emphasis on transferring their students out than on receiving transfer students. the provincial government could set higher expectations of students through tools such as strategic mandate agreements, or indirectly by influencing quality assurance conditions. another option would be to condition institutions participation in tools that facilitate the entry of transfer students on their adoption of certain policies or activities that facilitate outbound transfer. finally, we would recommend that the ontario student assistance program (osap) and the canada student loans program (cslp) revise their policies to allow students to maintain full-time status for funding purposes if they fall to part-time status due to transfer credits. such a policy might save money for these programs, as the students expenses would nevertheless be reduced as their fees fall from full- to part-time, and along with this the aid provided to the students. additional benefits of such a policy might include the benefitting students spending more time in paid employment, and greater incentives for would-be transfer students to indeed pursue further education. 25 appendix 1: transfer credit process maps 26 27 28 29 appendix 2: summary of student consultations the following are our notes from consultations with students. hesa consulted 66 students for the mapit 2.0 project, through 11 focus groups and 20 one-on-one interviews. timeliness most delays that students see happen due to external communication to do with retrieving old course outlines, requesting official transcripts, etc. this adds significant frustration if/when a student cannot reach a staff member they need to. timeliness is particularly important when a student has to stay registered in the course until the final decision. notifying students about the final decision quickly and clearly is critical. student feedback suggests that they do not often pursue tc as a primary factor in choosing their institution and program it is rather an add-on. at-admission assessment is preferred, yet it brings questions for students. what counts towards my degree? how do i use the credits? how can i plan my degree? students also suggest that it is common for at-admissions assessment to introduce errors that students subsequently appeal informally. student centredness for students, this is all about communication, automation, and access to information. while most steps in the information gathering stage tended to be voted green, students repeatedly commented on needing opportunities to speak to a real person. common complaints at sessions were: i am getting tossed between people, i keep being forwarded, youre just a number to them. in most cases, students are not aware of the average/anticipated processing time, so they suggest adding such estimations to the status bar updates (or email codes). there is significant confusion amongst students between plar, waivers and transfer credits. in most cases, mature and international students were not familiar with institutional terminology for transfer credits or are not aware of the process at all. 30 institutions with more automated processes, i.e., more user-friendly platforms, naturally, have more positive feedback. the majority of institutions require students to map the courses on their own. however, it is challenging to do so when students are not given full information from the institutional side, such as course outlines or descriptions; academic advising. where students need to identify specific course matches for transfer, they are especially confused by options for transferring two courses for one or vice versa. rigour of assessment many students voiced concerns about transparency in criteria for equivalency evaluation appeal processes are often not communicated well, in the views of students. in some cases, students reach out to a staff/faculty member outside of the tc assessment team, seeking to override initial decisions. students believe that granting too much credits is a matter of maintaining profits from tuition fees applying for one course using two courses, or splitting one course into two courses, are processes that confuse and concern students. the difference between university- and college-level courses is not defined: students believe that there is a paradigm where university courses get transferred by default. out-of-province students suggest that transfer credit assessment is more complex and, in some cases, unfair.

changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-touniversity pathways tianna thompson | july 2023 acknowledgements funded by the dais is canadas platform for bold policies and better leaders. we are a public policy and leadership institute at toronto metropolitan university, connecting people to the ideas and power we need to build a more inclusive, innovative, prosperous canada. for more information, visit dais.ca 20 dundas st. w, suite 921, toronto, on m5g 2c2 @daistmu /daistmu the dais at toronto metropolitan university funding for this report was provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer. the opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ontario council on articulation and transfer. the dais proudly engages a diverse group of funders to support and catalyze our work, consistent with our values, and subject to a thorough internal review. as a nonpartisan, public-interest institute, we only accept funds from organizations that support our mission and enable us to undertake work independently, with full editorial control. the names of all of our financial supporters are publicly and transparently displayed on all online and printed material for each project or initiative. how to cite this report thompson, t. (2023, july). changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways. https://dais.ca 2023, toronto metropolitan university 350 victoria st, toronto, on m5b 2k3 design and illustration zaynab choudhry copy-editing suzanne bowness and cathy mckim the dais team contributors sam andrey, managing director karim bardeesy, executive director graham dobbs, senior economist tiffany kwok, policy and research assistant this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 4.0 international license. you are free to share, copy and redistribute this material provided you: give appropriate credit; do not use the material for commercial purposes; do not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits; and if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license, indicate if changes were made, and not suggest the licensor endorses you or your use. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 2 author tianna thompson policy analyst tianna thompson (they/them) is a passionate analyst working at the intersection of antiracism and education. their own lived experience makes them a committed advocate for other students and families marginalized by systemic oppression. tianna has conducted and supported research for education stakeholders such as people for education and the ontario secondary school teachers federation (osstf). they also have experience facilitating youth programming and engaging a range of education leaders in anti-racism learning. tianna holds a bachelor of arts in sociology from mcmaster university and a master of education from the ontario institute for studies in education at the university of toronto. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 3 table of contents 5 executive summary 7 introduction 9 literature review 12 research method 14 survey results 21 interview findings 22 25 27 29 influences on college enrolment motivations for pursuing ctu pathways reflections on practices and impacts of academic streaming ctu transition experiences 31 conclusion 32 appendix 35 references changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 4 1 executive summary this project investigated the motivations of ontario students who chose to undertake a college-touniversity (ctu) post-secondary pathway, and attempted to better understand whether there are links between secondary school course selection and why and how students access ctu transfer pathways. prior research has shown that ontario university applicants with a previous college credential are more likely than their direct-entry counterparts to be black, have a disability, come from a single-income or low-income household, and be the first person in their family to attend post-secondary education. many of these same groups of students are disproportionately streamed into non-academic pathways in grades 9 and 10 in ontario. through a survey of 300 ctu transfer students and semistructured interviews with select transfer students, this report takes a deeper look at the experiences of these students and whether their post-secondary decisions were adapted in response to their prior experiences in the education system. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 5 key findings college-to-university students are more likely to come from groups underrepresented in university: ontario ctu students surveyed were significantly more likely to identify as black or latin american, and be from lower-income households. participants motivations to pursue a ctu pathway were diverse: labour market influences: the most common motivation cited for choosing the ctu pathway was that it was seen as a way to attain necessary skills to reach career goals, or to help participants upskill into other job sectors. personal desire: the desire to learn new insights, achieve personal goals, and rediscover career passions and fulfillment was a frequent motivation to pursue the ctu pathway. pathway accessibility: the ctu pathway was viewed as useful for students still navigating their personal and career goals and helpful to gain familiarity with navigating the post-secondary education system before entering university. limited pathway options: about one in five survey respondents indicated that college was the only post-secondary option available to them (e.g., were ineligible for or denied university admission). other influences on college enrolment cited were family/peer influences and a personal preference for college-style learning. importance of credit transfer: 72 percent of survey respondents indicated that they had been offered transfer credits through an articulation agreement when they transferred from college to university, with rates higher among students under the age of 35 perhaps suggesting an improvement in credit transfer over time. the presence of an articulation agreement significantly influenced decisions to pursue university studies. lack of guidance in the transfer process: while undergoing the ctu transition, feelings of fear, doubt, and stress were commonly mentioned by interview participants due to the perceived lack of guidance for next steps, and lacking knowledge regarding matters like credit transfer and financial aid. despite concerns regarding finances and additional time, most participants did not express regret in choosing their ctu pathway. high school experiences greatly shape post-secondary decision-making, though high school course selection was not identified as the primary driver of college-to-university pathways: there were no significant differences in the grade 9 course selection patterns between college-touniversity students surveyed and the overall population: about one in three students took applied or essential math and about one in four took applied or essential english. most interview participants did not make causal linkages between their ctu pathway, secondary school course selection and academic streaming between applied and academic courses. the embeddedness of institutional streaming policies for students with disabilities and newcomer students, and the expression of low academic confidence illustrate the ways in which some participants may have unknowingly been impacted by these linkages. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 6 2 introduction according to applicant survey data, ontario university applicants with a previous college credential are more likely than their direct-entry counterparts to be black, indigenous, have a disability, come from a single-income or low-income household, and be the first person in their family to attend post-secondary education.1 in alignment with literature on academic streaming (the institutional grouping of students based on percieved academic ability and/or prior achievement) in ontario secondary schools, these same groups of students are disproportionately tracked toward non-academic pathways in grades 9 and 10. while three-quarters of students in the grade 9 academic stream transition directly to college or university, students on the applied pathway face significant barriers accessing postsecondary education, with less than one-third directly transitioning to college and just three percent to university.2 purpose of study the purpose of this study was to investigate the motivations of college-to-university (ctu) transfer, and if academic streaming is perceived as an influence for why and how students access ctu transfer. while henderson and mccloys 2019 quantitative study3 captures a fascinating statistical snapshot of demographics and trends of ctu transfer in ontario, we saw an opportunity to contribute a deeper narrative of student transfer experience to these data. using a survey of ontarians who have done a ctu pathway and following-up with semi-structured interviews, this research aims to explore the experiences of these students and whether those who may be disproportionately marginalized within ontarios education systems are finding the need to adapt their academic pathways in response. in addition to exploring the connections between academic streaming and students ctu transfer pathways, we consider the implications of the provincial grade 9 de-streaming policy fully implemented in 2022 and how these changes may influence ctu transfer. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 7 research questions using a province-wide survey (n=300) and semi-structured qualitative interviews (n=15) with ctu students in ontario, the survey sought answers to the following research questions: 1. how, if at all, do ctu students connect their academic pathway to secondary streaming and course selection? 2. what implications might streaming, as well as provincial plans to de-stream, have on ctu transfer? students on the applied pathway face significant barriers accessing postsecondary education, with less than one-third directly transitioning to college and just three percent to university. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 8 3 literature review academic streaming academic streaming describes the process of dividing students into differentiated groups based on their perceived academic ability and/ or prior achievement.4 while streaming happens both formally and informally across grade levels in ontario, entrance into secondary school in grade 9 marked a more institutional effort to align students to courses of a particular academic difficulty: academic, applied and essential or locally developed. the practice remains contentious due to its many harmful and disadvantageous consequences for marginalized learners particularly black students, indigenous students, students with disabilities, students identified as english language learners, and students from low-income families.5 students belonging to these demographics are more likely to be streamed into non-academic courses where they often experience depressed achievement,6 delayed graduation, and increased rates of dropout.7 ontarios ministry of education describes the difference between applied and academic classes as the balance between essential concepts and additional material and theory and application; however, stigma associated with applied placement has been shown to negatively affect students selfperception and academic performance.8 the impacts of streaming become most salient in post-secondary pathway outcomes. grade 9 students enrolled in non-academic courses rarely shift to academic tracks.9 an overwhelming majority of students do not think about post-secondary education (pse) pathways when making their grade 9 course selections, but instead make more confident decisions about their post-secondary plans in grades 11 and 12.10 in senior grades, applied and academic courses are prerequisites to college and university preparatory courses, respectively. regardless of their postsecondary aspirations, the difficulty in switching streams by this time effectively closes off opportunities for applied-stream students to take the prerequisite courses necessary for university admission. over 50 percent of students who take grade 9 academic english and math transition directly to university and another one in five go to college. in comparison, for those who take applied english and math, less than one-third directly transition to college and just three percent to university.11 changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 9 college-to-university and direct entry pathways research has shown marked differences between the high school experiences of students applying for a ctu transfer and those who access direct entry (de) into university. university applicants with a previous college credential, who make up about four percent of total university applicants, are more likely than their de counterparts to be black, indigenous, have a disability, come from a single-income or lowincome household, and be the first person in their family to attend post-secondary education.12 these demographic characteristics mirror those of students disproportionately tracked toward non-academic pathways in secondary school. in addition to a higher likelihood of having been streamed into applied courses, ctu students have been shown to earn lower levels of academic achievement than de students particularly in grade 9 mathematics and english.13 ctu students also experience delayed decision making when it comes to university aspiration and pursuit (decock, 2006; drewes et al., 2012).14 in contrast, de applicants typically come from the academic pathway and are more than twice as likely to decide to pursue university before graduating high school (henderson and mccloy, 2019).15 this number fell to 28 percent for ctu applicants who came from non-academic pathways. despite this delayed decision-making relative to their de counterparts, henderson and mccloys (2019) research suggests ctu students tend to do quite well in university; they show higher rates of persistence than de students and students who transfer from another university.17 college-to-university transfer remains a critical pathway for degree attainment in ontario. evidence suggests that students consciously map this pathway for a number of reasons, including a desire to pursue different career opportunities than those provided by a college diploma.18 university graduates not only earn more, but show higher earnings growth five years after graduation relative to college diploma and certificate holders.19 ctu transfer has been suggested as a way to mitigate inequitable access to university participation.20 turcotte (2018) argues ontarios colleges have positioned themselves as the springboard to every possible career and education beyond high school, acting as a recovery ground for inaccessible pathways.21 even among ctu students, henderson and mccloys (2019) study16 points to a correlation between academic course enrollment in high school and timing of decision making to pursue university. sixty-nine percent of ctu applicants who took mostly university preparation courses decided during or before high school that they would attend university. this held true for 51 percent of applicants who took a mix of university and college prep courses. however, changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 10 ctu transfer has been suggested as a way to mitigate inequitable access to university participation. the findings of henderson and mccloy (2019) shed light on a proportion of students who embark on a pathway reclamation of sorts by using ctu transfer pathways to pursue avenues made inaccessible to them in secondary school.22 while the ctu pathway certainly can act as a springboard through which students can expand their postsecondary education access, this pathway begs the question: what role does academic streaming, as a mechanism of structural oppression and systemic disenfranchisement, play in ctu transfer? furthermore, how many of ontarios students are taking the long-way round, using ctu transfer as a means of university pathway recovery? changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 11 4 research method using an online survey and semi-structured interviews, this research captured the secondary and post-secondary academic pathways of current and former ctu transfer students. this examination was used to investigate if, and to what extent, secondary streaming experiences influence why and how students access ctu transfer. a survey of ontario residents (n=300) was conducted in english by abacus data between august 16 and 26, 2022. a random sample of panellists were invited to complete the survey from a blend of panels on the lucid exchange platform. to ensure a representative sample, respondents were recruited with quotas by gender and region, plus or minus five percent from their census representation (130-160 participants from the greater toronto area; 65-95 participants from central/northern ontario; 25-55 participants from eastern ontario; and 20-50 participants from southwestern ontario; and between 135-165 respondents who identify as men and 135-165 respondents who identify as women). the margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is approximately +/- 5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. further information regarding the survey sample is available in the appendix. respondents were asked a series of cascading questions to identify eligibility: 1. did you attend high school in ontario after 1995? 2. are you currently or have you attended a university? 3. before attending university, did you attend a college? changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 12 respondents who met eligibility requirements of being a recent ctu student that experienced ontarios academic/applied secondary course structure by answering yes to all three questions were asked an additional short series of questions to capture quantitative data on the role of streaming in their pathway (see questionnaire in the appendix). these included questions on course enrolment in high school and motivations for their post-secondary pathway. the researcher then conducted 15 individual recorded interviews using an interview guide with consenting individuals who completed the survey that represented a diversity of experiences and perspectives. interview data was gathered, transcribed, and analyzed using content analysis. respondents were also asked a series of demographic questions, and tests for significance differences (using a p-value of less than 0.05) across demographics were conducted, including gender, racial identity, income, generation, and disability (denoted with ). changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 13 5 survey results a representative survey of ontario college-touniversity students was conducted to better understand their high school and post-secondary pathways and motivations. attainment rate of 20 percent, while non-immigrant latin americans have a university attainment rate of 17 percent, compared to 24 percent of non-immigrant non-visible minorities.23 demographics the survey sample highlights how college-touniversity pathways are disproportionately used by equity-deserving communities. for example, while five percent of ontarians identify as black, 14 percent of college-to-university students in our sample identified as black. likewise, five percent identified as latin american, compared to less than two percent in the census (table 1). this reinforces the findings of henderson and mccloy that college-touniversity applicants are more likely to be black than direct-entry university applicants. non-immigrants in ontario who identify as black have a university the survey sample highlights how collegeto-university pathways are disproportionately used by equity-deserving communities. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 14 table 1 racial identity of college-to-university survey respondents % of college-touniversity students ontario 2021 census proportion white 53% 63% black 14% 5% east asian 9% 7% south asian 9% 11% 5% 2% latin american changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 15 table 2 generation of college-to-university survey respondents % of college-touniversity students ontario 2021 census proportion first generation (born outside of canada) 28% 34% second generation (born in canada, at least one parent outside of canada) 31% 23% third generation or more (born and parents born in canada) 40% 44% the proportion of first-generation immigrants who pursued ctu pathways is less than the overall ontario population, whereas the proportion who are second-generation immigrants is higher than the overall population (table 2). other literature has found that the post-secondary participation rate of first and second generation immigrants is higher than non-immigrants.24 the proportion who are in higher-income households is also significantly lower than the overall population: 24 percent of ontario households have an income above $150,000 compared to just nine percent of the ctu sample, while 44 percent have incomes between $50,000 and $100,000, compared to 31 percent overall. this also reinforces the findings of henderson and mccloy that college-to-university applicants are more likely to be lower-income than direct-entry university applicants, though this could also be a function of the lower average age of the survey sample. henderson and mccloy had found that ctu applicants were more than twice as likely to have a disability than direct-entry university applicants. the survey sample was inconsistent in this regard, with 16 percent of the sample identifying as having a disability compared to 20 percent of the working-age population in the latest count from statistics canada, though this could be in part a sample bias of an online survey. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 16 education pathways a majority (61 percent) of ctu students said they took all or mostly academic/university courses in high school (table 3). about one in four (26 percent) said they took a mix of academic and applied courses, while 10 percent said all or mostly applied/college courses in high school. table 3 high school course selection of college-touniversity survey respondents % of college-touniversity students all academic/university 36% mostly academic/university 25% a mix of academic/university and applied/college 26% mostly applied/college 7% all applied/college 3% dont know 3% changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 17 table 4 grade 9 course selection of college-to-university survey respondents math % of collegeto-university students english ontario overall (source: eqao) % of collegeto-university students ontario overall (source: eqao) academic 68% 68% 74% 77% applied/essential 32% 32% 26% 23% there were no significant differences in the grade 9 course selection patterns between ctu students and the overall population. about one in three students took applied or essential math in grade 9 from 2001 to 2011 the same proportion as the survey sample. likewise, about one in four took applied or essential english in grade 9, which tracked closely to the survey sample. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 18 table 5 motivations of college-to-university survey respondents to attend college to later attend university 41% 47% - 43% i always wanted to go to [college / university] 37% 39% financial accessibility 32% - it was the only post-secondary education option available to me (e.g., i was ineligible for, or denied, university admission) 18% - i was not ready or did not want to enter the workforce 16% 15% 3% 0% my desired career required [college/ university] training i needed additional training or education other respondents were asked about their motivations for originally pursuing college, and then their motivations for later attending university. about four in ten indicated their pathway choice was driven by the need for training that aligned with their desired career. a further 37 percent of respondents said they always wanted to go to college, and 39 percent said they had always wanted to go to university. one in three respondents said they were motivated to pursue college for financial accessibility. about 18 percent cited that they first pursued college because it was the only post-secondary option available to them. finally, about one in six said their pathway selections were motivated by feeling not ready or not wanting to enter the workforce. students who took all applied/college courses were more likely to say they always wanted to go to college (44 percent), less likely to say they always wanted to go to university (33 percent) and more likely to say the reason that they pursued university was they needed additional training or education (56 percent). changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 19 transfer experience just over 72 percent of respondents indicated that they had been offered transfer credits through an articulation agreement,25 when they transferred from college to university. the presence of an articulation agreement significantly influenced decisions to pursue university studies: 26 percent said it influenced their decision completely; 39 percent quite a bit; 27 percent slightly; and only seven percent not at all. rates of the use of articulation agreements were consistent between regions across the province and demographics, with the exception that younger students were more likely to say they had used an agreement. about 74 percent of those under the age of 35 said they had been offered transfer credits, compared to 67 percent of those aged 36 and above perhaps indicating an improvement in the ability of credit transfer over time. the presence of an articulation agreement significantly influenced decisions to pursue university studies. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 20 6 interview findings the aim of the interview phase of this study was to more deeply understand students experiences of the ctu pathway and how, if at all, they connect this pse pathway to secondary streaming and course selection. to respond to this research query, the analysis considers related questions such as: how aware are participants of the academic streaming processes present in their secondary school experiences? what factors influence the ctu pathway? what do ctu students identify as barriers to achieving their post-secondary goals? what motivates college students to pursue university studies after earning their college credential? what are students experiences of ctu transfer? changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 21 influences on college enrolment family influence participants most often identified social expectations and/or familial influence as driving factors to their initial college enrolment. familial influence was sometimes expressed through explicit encouragement to make the decision to pursue college, or being made aware of the option and expressing interest after witnessing a family member attend college. my mom [said i was] doing ece because [my] friends are doing ece and that wasnt the [reason] i was doing it in the first place. she wasnt willing to help me and my dad doesnt live with us. [but]...this is what you were supposed to do go to college after you graduate high school. thats what youre supposed to doi felt like if i didnt go to college with everybody, i would be a failure. preference for college learning i think my sister influenced me to go to college. shes 10 years older. she was doing a lot of schoolwork and [commuting]. [when she decided to] live on campus i was like, woah! one time i got to see her apartment on campus. it was kind of cool. i told my parents what courses i was taking and they just threw me into [the] academic [stream] without me realizinguntil later on, and i [thought] i might as well continue with it. other participants shared their experiences with social pressures to pursue post-secondary education, stating their peers natural decision to attend college after high school and their desire to fit the social norm, as an incentive to pursue college. participants also noted that their decision to initially attend college was based on their assessment of their learning style and overall accessibility. from feeling more comfortable attending college before university, enjoying smaller class sizes, affordability, to college being conducive to their learning styles, participants had their own assessment of what they desired in their education, and what factors were required to succeed. the following reflections exhibit each participants underlying reasons used to assess their comfort with their decision to attend college. college, because back then, [it] was more practical. i found [the] student ratio wasnt as high its very low. and you were, like, more involved. theres more, i guess, group projects. theres a lot more hands-on things versus other places that i went to. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 22 yeah, thats one of the reasons that i wanted to go to college first i wanted to save a little money for university. i felt like i was more into hands-on learning at a slower pace i wasnt really good in the classroom when it came to [some] things, but when it came to things that were hands-on [that] i could visually do, see, and i was excited about it was different for me. beyond sharing the difficulties around entering university straight from high school, some participants also determined college to be a stepping stone for university, feeling they would be better prepared for workloads, and personal and logistical planning, by entering college first. i chose college because i thought its going to be a little easier and smaller than a university. because i kind of thought you had to be really, really smart to get into university. and im not super, super smart. i have a learning disability so its kind of hard. others noted their personal learning styles and accommodations needed to succeed, with some highlighting their perceptions of the difficulties associated with entering university versus college, as a barrier. i chose college because i thought its going to be a little easier and smaller than a university. because i kind of thought you had to be really, really smart to get into university. and im not super, super smart. i have a learning disability so its kind of hard. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 23 limited pathway options a few participants cited other reasons leading to having limited pathway options after high school. insufficient high school grades to enter university, experiencing schooling without accommodations for learning disabilities, and personal life circumstances were cited as reasons for limited pathways. yeah, there was also a stigma where, if youre not an a-plus student, you dont belong in university. and i wasnt like the student. but i wasnt highly academic in the sense of certain things. so there was that stigma as well, university probably at that time wasnt the right path. one participant used college as an avenue to complete their high school education, by doing college part-time. for me when i chose to do college, i looked online, its that i had to go to college part-time when i was in adult education schools, i didnt really finish the traditional high school. most of my courses were before that. most of my courses were essential and one or i think one of my classes was applied because of english. it was just something right after high school. everyone either went to college or university and my grades werent the greatest. i was kind of a slacker in grade 12. so i only got into college. so i just went to college. but no, i went straight to it, it was very hard because i had a daughter young, so i didnt have much freedom. insufficient high school grades to enter university, experiencing schooling without accommodations for learning disabilities, and personal life circumstances were cited as reasons for limited pathways. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 24 motivations for pursuing ctu pathways motivations toward ctu pathways were due to a variety of factors, including the influence of the labour market and professional development, personal desires to pursue further education, and the relative accessibility of the college-to-university pathway. other participants looked to upskill or attain emerging skills to enter different job sectors. the following reflection shows support by an employer to upskill in order to switch into other roles as a reason to pursue ctu pathways. labour market influences and professional development many participants noted the labour markets influence and a desire for professional development as their major driving force to pursue ctu pathways. for some, the pathway to pursue their desired careers required specific skills and training that could only be achieved through supplemental university education. for theatre, i wanted to get out in the world of acting, and i graduated high school 2004 ish. at least a lot of the time there, everyone was like, if you want to go to university, its [very] theoretical. so youd go to university to become a professor or a teacher type of thing in the arts or english. if you want to go and do actual acting and get into the field, you go to college because its more practical. that was usually the deciding factor and then i had people ahead of me that i knew that went to college for theatre arts and they recommended doing the same thing. so thats kind of the way i went. i did have a summer job or contract then and it was like an admin assistant but they were also looking for someone to grow their it department. so it kind of helped. then they were also encouraging me in that job to go into [...] hr. personal desire a shared sentiment among multiple participants was the personal desire to pursue further education, in order to learn new insights, achieve personal goals, and rediscover career passions. while some were driven by their personal interests to learn and expand their knowledge in different fields, others chose to explore other academic fields as a way to find fulfillment in their work. the following reflections reflect the deep personal desires that drove participants to pursue the ctu pathway. so after my university, i worked for a telecommunications company for quite a while, [...] worked for pr firms as well and its just exhausting, so its very tiring. so [...] my changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 25 body was just not having it. so [i was] like, okay, im gonna take a year off. and then i was kind of feeling down too. so i was having a little depression. i didnt feel fulfillment in my work. one day, my moms like, oh, why dont you just go back to volunteering. so i started volunteering teaching english to seniors. and then thats when i think i found my calling for community work. so then i went back to university, and did my social service work and now im working around the community. thats my true calling, i think. i just like studying new insights. so i just wanted to increase my business knowledge. i just keep on learning and help those people i can on my road of recovery. one participant boldly shared their personal desire to pursue further education without social pressures, and without the intention to attain a higher salary. for my own personal gain, i mean, i didnt do it for higher salaries or anything. i mean, same with university, wasnt about the money, was mostly [to] do it for me like i dont do it for my parents or anything. its all what i want to do, if i want to do it that day, i go for it. and nobody can change my mind or tell me to go take this course. i do whats best for me. and whats the cause? like i get a calling and i just go for it. college-to-university pathway accessibility the relative accessibility of the ctu pathway was also a motivating factor to many participants. the university degree pathway was mentioned to seem more attainable after going to college, treating college as a stepping stone to understand both a participants personal desires and goals better, and to get familiar with the ctu pathway and system before entering university. participants also identified the benefits of credit transferability, with some stating the support they were given by going to college first, in terms of understanding the credit transfer process, and by being made eligible for the university degree pathway by first taking some college courses. the examples below share a common theme of participants who saw the benefits of credit transferability to achieve their career goals, treating this as their motivation to consider the ctu pathway. i wanted to get a career in [archaeology] and people who work in museums [...]. so, i wanted to get those extra credits so that i can actually go to an actual [university]. yeah, so the college credits really helped me to get to university. [...] because someone said theyre really similar, so [the college courses] will help me. a report by oncat (2013) shows that ctu students have higher cumulative gpas than de students and higher rates of persistence when articulation agreements grant a significant number of transfer credits (oncat, 2013)1. the ctu pathways accessibility was also shared as a motivation by some participants, as they were able to gain familiarity with post-secondary education options, as well as increase some certainty about their areas of interest. many participants voiced uncertainty about what fields to pursue after high school, and saw college as a natural next step, before committing to the university degree pathway. 1 oncat, summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 26 reflections on practices and impacts of academic streaming most participants did not make causal linkages between their ctu pathway, secondary school course selection, and academic streaming. many ctu students expressed uncertainty about whether or not streaming had impacted their pathway. it is interesting to consider how this may relate to participants memory recall, familiarity with academic course selection processes, and/or internalized beliefs that learners have about themselves. the following reflections from participants illuminate the ways in which academic streaming processes are embedded within, and normalized by, institutional streaming policies impacting students with disabilities and newcomer students. i was always in a special needs program up until grade 9 when i had to [move to] a regular [classroom] setting. thats when i really chose my coursesits the locally developed courses that i usually took. one of the more covert ways streaming impacts students is the role it plays in shaping learners core beliefs about their intellectual potential. while many participants proudly identified with a hands-on learning style, they simultaneously held the belief that it precluded them from being a suitable candidate for university. one participant shared that her grade 9 course selection was heavily influenced by her prior achievement in kindergarten through grade 8. as a result, her academic confidence plummeted and she was on a pathway that she described as collegebound. [by] grade 10 and grade 11 thats where i started slowly understandingif i want to go to university when i graduate, i need to take academic/university courses. [taking academic level courses] was one of my goals, but i wasnt really shooting the highest because ididnt feel like i was good enough for a university at first going into college i felt like it was more hands-on. like there was a slower pace for me to understand things. i had just come from jamaica [the school decided] i wasnt able to speak english properly [and] moved me to esl. so right from there, i was already separated i came here and i was supposed to be in grade seven, they put me in grade 6 right away. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 27 another participant discussed his fear about not being successful in a university setting. again, expressing low academic confidence in learning environments believed to be less hands-on and more theory heavy. what i did was morehands-on, so i guess college is more of that thing and to my knowledge, i guess university [is] more theoretical at times. [im trying to get] rid of the [fear of pursuing university]. theres a lot of doubt in me right now. i dont really feel like i can achieve [my] goal. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 28 ctu transition experiences challenges amidst transitioning from college to university, challenges such as uncertainty regarding the next step to take, the lack of guidance, and lacking knowledge regarding matters like credit transfer and financial aid were all common themes among participants. many also expressed feelings of stress, fear, and doubt while preparing for the transition. before the first year of university. i went to the guidance counsellor. and because the programs werent really related, they didnt really give me much credit. i think they gave me like, i forget how the credit system worked. but it basically wasnt even a year, it was just a few credits, so it didnt make any difference really. [im trying to]...[get] rid of the scare. theres a lot of doubt in me right now [and] i dont really feel like i can achieve the goal. one participant noted that the style and depth of guidance that they desired was not provided by college guidance/advising staff. they didnt really give us guidance on what university to go to though. and just more of like okay, heres a heads up if you do want to apply for some of these courses will apply for your transfer credits. others, despite being advised by staff, felt that the credit transfer process did not benefit them greatly due to the few number of credits they could transfer to university. without the support of guidance counsellors/ advisors and other adequate support, one participant noted feeling lost in the processes and being changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 29 unprepared on how to fill out applications, the credit transfer process, and applying for financial aid. nah, it would have been a little tough. yeah, because [college] gave me a little insight about the program. i feel like if you dont know what youre doing, if youre not readily prepared, and when i mean, i didnt even know how to apply for college. i had to have someone tell me okay, this is what you need to do. like i had no idea, there was no preparation for it. and now that i know how to do it, its a lot easier. even the transferring of credits over to university that was like, i felt that was difficult too and even trying to get financial aid. i was like, lost in all the application. overall, participants were able to see the benefits behind their choice for the ctu pathway, for both their careers, as well as their personal life circumstances. a number of participants also mentioned personal life circumstances that arose during the transition from college to university, leading to delays or the inability to continue with the decision to pursue further education. dreams of direct entry when participants were asked whether they would have preferred to pursue university as a directentry student, most of the participants expressed appreciation and valued their ctu pathway choice. although there were concerns regarding finances and additional time taken to complete their education, participants did not regret their decision to pursue college before university. several participants foresaw that they might have been dissatisfied with their decision, had they decided to apply for university first. [university] kinda sounded boring at first if i had gone to university [and made] these big decisions, i think i would have felt more stressed out and unhappy as well. others noted the preparation college provided, lessening the stress that might have been incurred. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 30 7 conclusion the objective of this project was to provide a deeper understanding of the profiles, motivations, and experiences of college-to-university transfer students. this work is critical to understanding the influence of systemic inequities that restrict student opportunity and agency in choosing and navigating their academic pathway, and to inform whether changes to secondary course structures may influence rates of post-secondary transfer or mobility. ctu students are more likely to come from groups underrepresented in university, such as those who identify as black, latin american and from lowerincome households. the findings show that while the motivations and influences of participants to pursue the ctu pathway are diverse and tied closely to career aspirations, the impact of an individuals experiences in the education system prior to postsecondary education have a major impact on their future education and career decisions. there also remain challenges embedded in the education system that are widely experienced throughout the transition process such as a lack of guidance when making post-secondary decisions, which need to be further addressed to better support students at all education stages. complex connections between secondary school course structures and post-secondary pathways have significant implications for education policy and practice, as well as labour market outcomes. about one in five of those who went to college and later to university indicated that college was the only postsecondary option available to them at the time they applied to college. ontario has since mandated a single-stream format for grade 9 courses beginning in september 2022, while streaming will remain in place in upper years moving forward. it remains to be seen whether this change may alter rates of secondary enrolment in university or college preparatory courses, or reduce the number of students who feel their post-secondary options are limited and instead take different pathways. this project addresses a gap in existing research about the impacts of academic stratification through streamed course selection in postsecondary pathway formation. provincial policy and programming must continue to understand and acknowledge the needs of all students, in order to provide equal opportunities to students in the education system, recognizing its significant longterm impacts on their futures. changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 31 appendix 1: survey questionnaire q1. are you currently or have you in the past attended a university in ontario? [yes/no] q2: [if yes to q1] before attending university, did you attend a college in ontario? [yes/no] q3: [if yes to q2] did you attend high school in ontario after 1995? [yes/no] q4: [if yes to q3] what level of grade 9 english did you take? [academic/applied/essential/not sure] q5: what level of grade 9 math did you take? [academic/applied/essential/not sure] q6: in general, what course levels did you take in high school? all academic/university mostly academic/university a mix of academic/university and applied/college mostly applied/college all applied/college not sure q7: what motivated you to pursue college? (select all that apply) i always wanted to go to college my desired career required college training financial accessibility it was the only post-secondary education option available to me (e.g., i was ineligible for, or denied, university admission) i was not ready or did not want to enter the workforce other reasons: please specify q8: what motivated you to later attend university? (select all that apply) i always wanted to go to university my desired career required university training i needed additional training or education i was not ready or did not want to enter the workforce other reasons: please specify q9: did your college program offer university transfer credits through an articulation agreement? (e.g., if you applied to university after successfully completing your college program, you would be granted advanced standing in an undergraduate program) [yes/no/dont know] 9b) [if yes to q9] to what degree did the presence of an articulation agreement influence your decision to pursue university study? not at all slightly quite a bit completely not sure q10: how old are you? [drop down] q11: do you self-identify as: (select all that apply and/ or specify, if applicable) arab, middle eastern or west asian (e.g., afghan, iranian) black east asian (e.g., chinese, koran, japanese, etc.) indigenous, that is first nations (status/non-status), metis or inuit latin american south asian (e.g., east indian, pakistani, sri lankan, etc.) southeast asian (e.g., filipino, thai, vietnamese, etc.) white not listed please specify [text box] prefer not to say q12: were you or your parents born outside of canada? (select all that apply) i was born outside of canada one or both of my parents were born outside of canada no prefer not to say q13:do you identify as having a disability? [yes/no/ prefer not to say] q14:what is your gender? [man/woman/non-binary or third gender] changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 32 appendix 2: survey sample # % total 300 100% man 153 51% woman 143 48% non-binary/third gender 4 <1% age 25 and under 90 30% age 26 to 30 54 18% age 31 to 35 58 19% age 36 to 40 40 13% age 41 and above 58 19% born outside of canada 83 28% born in canada, at least one parent outside of canada 93 31% born and parents born in canada 119 40% less than $35,000 household income 31 10% $35,000 to $50,000 42 14% $50,001 to $75,000 67 22% $75,001 to $100,000 65 22% $100,001 to $150,000 63 21% over $150,000 27 9% arab, middle eastern or west asian 13 4% black 41 14% east asian 28 9% indigenous 11 4% latin american 15 5% south asian 27 9% southeast asian 11 4% white 159 53% identify with a disability 48 16% northern ontario 8 3% southwestern ontario 44 15% greater toronto and hamilton area 100 33% toronto 110 37% eastern ontario 38 13% changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 33 appendix 3: interview questionnaire 1. could you first share with me about your post-secondary journey? where and what did you study? 2. can you tell me more about what motivated you to pursue college? 3. tell me more about your experience transitioning from college to university? 4. were there barriers in the way of you achieving your desired post-secondary goals? 5. what do you know about academic streaming? 6. do you think academic streaming impacted your post-secondary pathway? 7. would you have preferred to pursue university as a direct entry student? 8. how, if at all, did your parents, peers, or teachers influence your post-secondary pathway decisions? 9. is there anything else you would like to share with me about your education experiences? changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 34 references 1 henderson, claire and ursula mccloy. from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), 2019. https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/media-files/2016-10_oncat_-_ from_application_and_beyond_-_final_report_-_2019_revised.pdf. 2 brown, r.s. and g. tam. grade 9 cohort post-secondary pathways, 2011-16. fact sheet 3. toronto: toronto district school board, november 2017. 3 henderson and mccloy, from application and beyond. 4 segedin, lauren. listening to the student voice: understanding the school-related factors that limit student success. mcgill journal of education 47, no. 1 (2012): 93-107. https://mje.mcgill.ca/article/download/8777/6800/0. 5 follwell, tianna and sam andrey. how to end streaming in ontario schools. ontario 360. https://on360.ca/policy-papers/how-to-end-streaming-in-ontarioschools/ transfer students in ontario: the role of high school academic performance. toronto: oncat, june 11, 2021. https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/media-files/1_-_postsecondary_ borrowing_patterns_and_graduation_among_transfer_students_in_ ontario-compressed.pdf. decock, henry g. a case study analysis of ontario caat graduates who transfer to a university. phd diss., university of toronto, 2006. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/67416/1/decock_ henry_g_2006_phd_thesis.pdf. drewes, torben, karen maki, kris lew, michelle willson, and kent stringham. an analysis of caat transfer students academic performance at trent university. peterborough: trent university, 2012. https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2012-18-finalreport-analysis-caat-transfer-students-academic-performancetrent.pdf. 14 people for education. roadmaps and roadblocks: career and life planning, guidance, and streaming in ontarios schools. people for education, 2019. https://peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ roadmaps_roadblocks_web.pdf. 6 7 parekh, gillian. structured pathways: an exploration of programs of study, school-wide and in-school programs, as well as promotion and transference across secondary schools in the toronto district school board. toronto: toronto district school board, 2013. https://www.tdsb.on.ca/portals/research/docs/reports/ structuredpathways.pdf. 8 9 boaler, jo, dylan wiliam and margaret brown. students experiences of ability grouping: disaffection, polarisation and the construction of failure. british educational research journal 26, no. 5 (2000): 631-648. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1501995. oakes, jeannie. keeping track: how schools structure inequality. new haven: yale university press, 2005.; people for education. annual report: ontarios schools: the gap between policy and reality. people for education, 2015. https://peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/p4eannual-report-2015.pdf. ; social planning toronto. still streamed: how high impact decisions are shaping students futures. social planning toronto, 2017. https://assets.nationbuilder.com/socialplanningtoronto/pages/1728/ attachments/original/1541612433/streaming_report-septemberv1.1-web.pdf?1541612433. council of ministers of education. an examination of barriers to pursuing pse and potential solutions. canada: council of ministers of education, 2009. https://www.cmec.ca/publications/lists/publications/ attachments/196/ekos-final-16-03-09-an-exam-of-barriers-en. pdf. 10 11 ontario school information system for grade 9 students in 201011; graduation determined at five years as of 2014-15; direct postsecondary enrolment as of 2015-16 as reported by ontario college application service and ontario university application centre; brown and tam (2017). grade 9 cohort post-secondary pathways, 2011-16. fact sheet 3. 12 15 henderson and mccloy, from application and beyond. 16 ibid. 17 oncat. summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research. oncat, 2013. https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/inline-images/oncat-researchsummary-2013-english.pdf. gorman, glen, connie phelps, and robert carley. exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students. kitchener: conestoga college, 2012. https://oncat.ca/en/projects/exploring-successes-and-challengesdiploma-degree-transfers. 18 finnie, ross, michael dubois, masashi miyairi, steven tobin, tony bonen and behnoush amery. how much do they make? new evidence on the early career earnings of canadian post-secondary education graduates by credential and field of study. ottawa: education policy research initiative and labour market information council, 2019. 19 kerr, angelika, ursula mccloy, and shuping liu.. forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. higher education quality council of ontario, 2010. https://heqco.ca/pub/issue-paper-no-4-forging-pathwaysstudents-who-transfer-between-ontario-colleges-anduniversities/. 20 turcotte, devon. factors affecting post-secondary pathway choices. masters thesis, royal roads university, 2018. https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/6507/turcotte_ royalroads_1313o_10543.pdf?sequence=1. 21 22 henderson and mccloy, from application and beyond. 23 2021 census statistics canada. (2019). socioeconomic outcomes of immigrants attached to canada as children, 2019. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220203/ dq220203b-eng.htm?cmp=mstatcan. 24 an articulation agreement is a contract between two or more institutions of higher learning that allow students who have completed a specific program at one institution to be assigned specific advanced standing credits in a specific program at another institution. university of guelph. articulation agreements | undergraduate academic information centre (uaic). accessed july 7, 2023. https://www.uoguelph.ca/uaic/articulation-agreements. 25 henderson and mccloy, from application and beyond. walters, david, rob brown, gillian parekh, dylan reynolds, and trisha einmann. postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among 13 changing lanes: understanding the motivations of ontario students college-to-university pathways 35

rapport final contrat : 2018-16 titre du projet : laboration de parcours de transfert liste dtablissements participants universit de hearst collge boral la cit rapport prpar par sylvie roy, charge de projet pour luniversit de hearst, pour le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert - ontario table des matires sommaire 3 objectifs du projet 4 laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie comparaison et analyse entre les programmes processus de mise en uvre 4 4 5 6 sommaire des parcours de transfert crs nouveaux parcours entre le collge boral, la cit et ludeh tat des parcours 7 7 7 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises 9 conclusion 9 annexe a : parcours entre la cit, le collge boral et luniversit de hearst pour les tudiantes et les tudiants en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux 10 annexe b : parcours entre la cit, le collge boral et luniversit de hearst pour les tudiantes et les tudiants en psychologie 14 2 sommaire ce projet dlaboration dentente darticulation a permis llaboration des parcours de transfert de plusieurs programmes collgiaux du collge boral et la cit vers des programmes de luniversit de hearst. vingt parcours ont t dvelopps entre des programmes collgiaux et des programmes universitaires qui ont un niveau lev daffinit. des parcours ont t labors entre les programmes collgiaux de techniques dducation spcialise, dducation en services lenfance et dintervention auprs des personnes ayant un handicap et les programmes de b.a. (3 ans) et b.a. (4 ans) de psychologie de luniversit de hearst. dautres parcours ont t dvelopps entre les programmes collgiaux de techniques de travail social, de techniques de travail social grontologie, programme gnral darts et sciences voie universitaire et programme gnral darts et sciences vers les programmes uniques de b.a. (3 ans) et de b.a. (4 ans) en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst. 3 objectifs du projet de manire gnrale, le collge boral, le collge la cit et luniversit de hearst sengagent favoriser le continuum des tudes postsecondaires pour les tudiantes et les tudiants francophones et bilingues de lontario et faire preuve de collaboration en matire de dveloppement de nouveaux parcours de transfert. les partenaires conviennent que cette collaboration doit favoriser, entre autres, lexcellence en apprentissage, laccroissement de laccs aux programmes dtudes postsecondaires en franais et la mobilit entre les tablissements. dans le cadre du prsent projet, les partenaires souhaitaient tablir des parcours de transfert pour permettre aux finissantes et aux finissants des collges des programmes suivants : ducation en services lenfance, techniques dducation spcialise, programmes gnral darts et sciences, techniques de travail social, techniques de travail social grontologie et intervention auprs des personnes ayant un handicap de poursuivre leurs tudes luniversit de hearst afin dobtenir un baccalaurat selon le modle deux annes de collge et une anne luniversit (2+1) ou le modle deux annes au collge et deux annes luniversit (2+2). ce projet visait donc deux objectifs : tendre les parcours de transfert existants entre les collges et dautres universits, aux programmes de luniversit de hearst pour tre en mesure de desservir la rgion du nord-est de lontario; dvelopper de nouveaux parcours, notamment vers les programmes interdisciplinaires en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux, ceux-ci uniques luniversit de hearst. plus prcisment, les partenaires se proposaient dexplorer des ententes darrimage de types 1+2 , 2+1 et 2+2 entre plusieurs programmes collgiaux et universitaires. luniversit de hearst visait octroyer jusqu deux annes compltes en transfert de crdits, soit 60 des 90 crdits (entente de type 2+1 ) vers les baccalaurats s arts avec concentration et 60 des 120 crdits (entente de type 2+2 ) vers les baccalaurats spcialiss. lobjectif ultime des partenaires tait de permettre la clientle de poursuivre des formations pertinentes, enrichissantes et complmentaires au sein des tablissements participants et de lui reconnaitre le maximum de crdits tout en prservant la qualit et la valeur des titres de comptences, tant pour les tudiantes et les tudiants que pour les tablissements dducation. cette initiative de collaboration tenait compte galement du rapport produit par la commission de formation du nord-est1 qui prvoit un nombre important demplois qui seront disponibles dans la rgion du nord-est ontarien court et moyen termes dans les domaines identifis par le prsent projet. laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie 1 http://www.fnetb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/northern-ontario-potential-labour-forceretirements.pdf 4 afin de mener ce projet terme, des tapes ont t suivies. les deux premires tapes constituent le fondement de ce projet. les voici : 1. approbation dune initiative stratgique institutionnelle pour les parcours de transfert francophones et bilingues par le snat de luniversit de hearst qui contient un plan triennal (mars 2017); 2. prparation de la demande de financement au caton (novembre 2017); 3. recueil, envoi et change des cursus et des plans de cours des programmes ltude, ainsi que dautres informations pertinentes en lien avec ceux-ci; 4. visites des reprsentantes et des reprsentants de luniversit de hearst la cit et au collge boral pour rencontrer les quipes professorales et administratives; 5. analyse dtaille des programmes et des plans de cours par chacune des units denseignement concernes; 6. prparation des parcours de transfert incluant lidentification et le nombre de crdits reconnus par luniversit de hearst; 7. enclenchement du processus dapprobation pour obtenir les approbations requises des instances dcisionnelles : a. le snat de luniversit de hearst b. envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne pour validation du respect de la procdure, accompagn dune lettre du vice-rectorat de luniversit de hearst indiquant sa raction c. validation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne du dossier soumis et du respect des procdures d. confirmation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne que le dossier a t trait et peut poursuivre aux tapes subsquentes e. signature des ententes darticulation entre le collge boral et la cit et luniversit de hearst f. prsentation des ententes darticulation au snat de luniversit laurentienne pour information comparaison et analyse entre les programmes les normes de chacun des programmes collgiaux et des plans de cours des cours obligatoires respectifs ont t analyss et valus en les comparant au mapping et aux objectifs du programme universitaire. pour effectuer lanalyse, les membres des units denseignement ont utilis les balises suivantes : - bibliographie des cours (pertinence et jour); - objectifs du cours prsents devaient correspondre au dveloppement des savoir-faire avancs que sont lanalyse, la synthse et lvaluation critique; - types de travaux qui doivent correspondre latteinte des objectifs prciss; - notions et concepts prciss : nombre, pertinence et niveau de complexit. des crdits gnriques ont t attribus en quivalence pour les connaissances et les comptences dveloppes lorsquil tait impossible de les rattacher un cours ayant une cote de cours propre. aprs quont t identifies les quivalences des cours obligatoires et les quivalences de cours au choix du programme dtudes universitaire, un nouveau parcours a t cr pour les cohortes diplmes des programmes collgiaux en question. ces nouveaux parcours permettront ces cohortes de rduire la dure de leurs tudes universitaire et les couts engendrs par celles-ci tant 5 donn leur bagage de connaissances et des comptences dveloppes dans le cadre de leurs tudes collgiales. une volont institutionnelle dtablir des ententes de type 2 + 1 et 2 + 2 a guid le travail la coordination des projets. processus de mise en uvre ds que le processus dapprobation de toutes les ententes sera complt, les quipes suivantes seront informes des dtails relatifs tous les parcours contenus dans les ententes : - le bureau du registraire le bureau des liaisons et des communications les membres la direction les membres du corps professoral le bureau des admissions de luniversit laurentienne sensuivra alors le dveloppement des outils promotionnels, de linscription des ententes divers sites internet (ontransfer.ca, collge boral, la cit, universit de hearst, etc.) et des stratgies de communications et de liaisons dveloppes par les quipes respectives des trois tablissements. les ententes seront affiches aux divers sites susmentionns au plus tard le 1er avril 2019. 6 sommaire des parcours de transfert crs nouveaux parcours entre le collge boral, la cit et luniversit de hearst plusieurs des parcours de transfert des programmes collgiaux ltude ont t complts et adopts par les instances de luniversit de hearst. au total, on en dnombre quatorze. six parcours devront tre prsents dans les prochaines semaines au snat de luniversit de hearst. les dtails acadmiques de ces parcours se retrouvent aux annexes a et b. tat des parcours ci-dessous dans le tableau, il y a ltat des parcours de tous les programmes collgiaux ltude. programmes universitaires programmes du collge boral programmes de la cit tude des enjeux humains et sociaux (b.a. 3 ans) tude des enjeux humains et sociaux (b.a. 4 ans) tude des enjeux humains et sociaux (b.a. 3 ans) 1. programme gnral darts et science (1 an) 1. programme gnral darts et science voie universitaire (1 an) 1. programme gnral darts et science (1 an) 1. programme gnral darts et science voie universitaire (1 an) 1. techniques de travail social (2 ans) 1. techniques de travail social (2 ans) 2. techniques de travail social grontologie (1,5 an) tude des enjeux humains et sociaux (b.a. 4 ans) 1. techniques de travail social (2 ans) 1. techniques de travail social (2 ans) 2. techniques de travail social grontologie (1,5 an) psychologie (b.a. 3 ans) 1. ducation en services lenfance (2 ans) 1. ducation en services lenfance (2 ans) 2. intervention auprs des personnes ayant un handicap (2 ans) 3. techniques dducation spcialise (3 ans) 2. techniques dducation spcialise (3 ans) dernire tape complte (dtails mthodologiques disponibles dans la section mthodologie la page 5 du prsent document) envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) prparation des parcours de transfert incluant lidentification et le nombre de crdits reconnus par luniversit de hearst (tape 6) prparation des parcours de transfert incluant lidentification et le nombre de crdits reconnus par luniversit de hearst (tape 6) envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) 7 psychologie (b.a. 4 ans) 1. ducation en services lenfance (2 ans) 2. techniques dducation spcialise (3 ans) 1. ducation en services lenfance (2 ans) 2. intervention auprs des personnes ayant un handicap (2 ans) 3. techniques dducation spcialise (3 ans) envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne (tape 7.b.) tous les parcours de transfert des ententes auront atteint ltape de la signature des ententes au plus tard le 31 mars 2019. 8 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises dabord, pour mener terme ce projet et assurer sa russite, la communication intertablissement a permis au projet de bien senclencher et de progresser dans les premires tapes comme il avait t tabli dans le calendrier de travail. dans un deuxime temps, la communication au sein des quipes professorales des trois tablissements a srement t un gage de succs. les gestionnaires de projet ont bien amorc le projet en prsentant les objectifs et le calendrier de travail leur quipe respective et ont assur le travail continu en lien avec celui-ci. comme les programmes ltude avaient un niveau daffinit lev, il tait raliste datteindre les objectifs fixs quant aux quivalences. il tait important de rappeler occasionnellement la stratgie institutionnelle pour les parcours de transfert francophones et bilingues de luniversit de hearst. les ralits dmographiques, la vision du ministre, la place que devrait occuper lapprentissage exprientiel ont tous t des facteurs sous-jacents importants aux analyses. conclusion les trois tablissements sont satisfaits du projet et de ses rsultats malgr quelques dlais dans la procdure dapprobation des ententes par le snat de luniversit de hearst et la procdure de luniversit laurentienne. nous avons russi crer des parcours de transfert avantageux pour les finissantes et les finissants des programmes collgiaux et, par le fait mme, enrichir les possibilits de formation dans le nord-est de lontario et pour les francophones. 9 annexe a : parcours menant aux programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux (3 ans et 4 ans) parcours entre le programme gnral darts et sciences du collge boral et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux** notes pgas 1 an (certificat) engl 1541 (3) lang 9100 (3) + avec possibilit de 24 crdits supplmentaires qui seront dtermins par un membre du comit des admissions en consultation avec lunit denseignement dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux ----------total : 30 crdits* hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3016 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 3946 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) litt 2646 (3) math 2256 (3) mth 2101 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. gog 1026 (3) psyc 2606 (3) quatre cours parmi : - con 1007 (3) soci 3187 (3) soci 3076 (3) gog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) ----------- total : 60 crdits* programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux** notes 10 pgas voie universitaire 1 an (certificat) engl 1541 (3) lang 9100 (3) + avec possibilit de 24 crdits supplmentaires qui seront dtermins par un membre du comit des admissions en consultation avec lunit denseignement dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux ----------total : 30 crdits* con 1007 (3) gog 1026 (3) gog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3016 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) inte 4915 (6) litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) mth 2101 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) soci 3076 (3) soci 3187 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. + 3 cours au choix ----------total : 90 crdits* pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. * luniversit de hearst accordera le nombre de crdits indiqus. pour des raisons dhoraire des cours universitaires ou de question de pralable aux cours obligatoires, il sera peut-tre impossible de complter un b.a. en 1 an, 2 ans ou 3 ans. * le nombre de crdits complter est conditionnel lobtention du nombre de crdits maximal obtenir, cest--dire 30. **les cours complter pour la concentration ou la spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux peuvent changer lorsque des changements sont faits au programme. les exigences des programmes dtudes sont mises jour chaque anne dans lannuaire de luniversit de hearst disponible sur notre site internet ici http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. pour obtenir plus dinformations, prire de communiquer avec le secrtariat gnral au 705 372-1781 poste 224 ou par courriel sylvie_roy@uhearst.ca 11 parcours entre le programme gnral darts et sciences voie universitaire de la cit et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux** notes pgas voie universitaire 1 an (certificat) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) lang 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) + avec possibilit de 12 crdits supplmentaires qui seront dtermins par un membre du comit des admissions en consultation avec lunit denseignement dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux ----------total : 30 crdits* hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3016 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 3946 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) litt 2646 (3) math 2256 (3) mth 2101 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. gog 1026 (3) psyc 2606 (3) quatre cours parmi : - con 1007 (3) soci 3187 (3) soci 3076 (3) gog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) ----------- total : 60 crdits* programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux** notes pgas voie universitaire 1 an engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) lang 9100 (6) con 1007 (3) gog 1026 (3) gog 3217 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour 12 (certificat) math 9100 (6) + avec possibilit de 12 crdits supplmentaires qui seront dtermins par un membre du comit des admissions en consultation avec lunit denseignement dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux ----------total : 30 crdits* hist 2037 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3016 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) inte 4915 (6) litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) mth 2101 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) soci 3076 (3) soci 3187 (3) certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. + 3 cours au choix ----------total : 90 crdits* pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. * luniversit de hearst accordera le nombre de crdits indiqus. pour des raisons dhoraire des cours universitaires ou de question de pralable aux cours obligatoires, il sera peut-tre impossible de complter un b.a. en 1 an, 2 ans ou 3 ans. * le nombre de crdits complter est conditionnel lobtention du nombre de crdits maximal obtenir, cest--dire 30. **les cours complter pour la concentration ou la spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux peuvent changer lorsque des changements sont faits au programme. les exigences des programmes dtudes sont mises jour chaque anne dans lannuaire de luniversit de hearst disponible sur notre site internet ici http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. pour obtenir plus dinformations, prire de communiquer avec le secrtariat gnral au 705 372-1781 poste 224 ou par courriel sylvie_roy@uhearst.ca 13 annexe b : parcours menant aux programmes de psychologie (3 ans et 4 ans) parcours entre le programme dducation en service lenfance du collge boral et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie** ducation en service lenfance 2 ans (diplme) psyc 1107 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) admn 9200 (3) engl 1541 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (3) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (15) ----------total : 60 crdits* notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 3 cours au choix psyc ----------total : 30 crdits* programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie** ducation en service lenfance 2 ans (diplme) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2006 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) admn 9200 (3) engl 1541 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (15) ----------total : 60 crdits* psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* notes pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : 14 - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. * luniversit de hearst accordera le nombre de crdits indiqus. pour des raisons dhoraire des cours universitaires ou de question de pralable aux cours obligatoires, il sera peut-tre impossible de complter un b.a. en 1 an ou 2 ans. **les cours complter pour la concentration ou la spcialisation en psychologie peuvent changer lorsque des changements sont faits au programme. les exigences des programmes dtudes sont mises jour chaque anne dans lannuaire de luniversit de hearst disponible sur notre site internet ici http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. pour obtenir plus dinformations, prire de communiquer avec le secrtariat gnral au 705 372-1781 poste 224 ou par courriel sylvie_roy@uhearst.ca parcours entre le programme dducation en service lenfance de la cit et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie** ducation en service lenfance 2 ans (diplme) admn 9200 (6) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie** ducation en service lenfance 2 ans (diplme) psyc 1107 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) admn 9200 (6) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (12) notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 2 cours au choix psyc (6) ----------total : 30 crdits* notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) 15 ----------total : 60 crdits* psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. * luniversit de hearst accordera le nombre de crdits indiqus. pour des raisons dhoraire des cours universitaires ou de question de pralable aux cours obligatoires, il sera peut-tre impossible de complter un b.a. en 1 an ou 2 ans. **les cours complter pour la concentration ou la spcialisation en psychologie peuvent changer lorsque des changements sont faits au programme. les exigences des programmes dtudes sont mises jour chaque anne dans lannuaire de luniversit de hearst disponible sur notre site internet ici http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. pour obtenir plus dinformations, prire de communiquer avec le secrtariat gnral au 705 372-1781 poste 224 ou par courriel sylvie_roy@uhearst.ca parcours entre le programme dinterventions auprs des personnes handicapes de la cit et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie** interventions auprs des personnes handicapes 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3317 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 1 cours au choix psyc (3) + 1 cours au choix (3) ----------total : 30 crdits* programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie** notes 16 interventions auprs des personnes handicapes 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 3317 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) + 2 cours au choix (6) ----------total : 60 crdits* pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. * luniversit de hearst accordera le nombre de crdits indiqus. pour des raisons dhoraire des cours universitaires ou de question de pralable aux cours obligatoires, il sera peut-tre impossible de complter un b.a. en 1 an ou 2 ans. **les cours complter pour la concentration ou la spcialisation en psychologie peuvent changer lorsque des changements sont faits au programme. les exigences des programmes dtudes sont mises jour chaque anne dans lannuaire de luniversit de hearst disponible sur notre site internet ici http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. pour obtenir plus dinformations, prire de communiquer avec le secrtariat gnral au 705 372-1781 poste 224 ou par courriel sylvie_roy@uhearst.ca parcours entre le programme de techniques dducation spcialise du collge boral et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie** techniques dducation spcialise 3 ans (diplme) psyc 1107 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) 17 lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 3 cours au choix psyc (9) ----------total : 30 crdits* programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie** techniques dducation spcialise 3 ans (diplme) psyc 1107 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. * luniversit de hearst accordera le nombre de crdits indiqus. pour des raisons dhoraire des cours universitaires ou de question de pralable aux cours obligatoires, il sera peut-tre impossible de complter un b.a. en 1 an ou 2 ans. **les cours complter pour la concentration ou la spcialisation en psychologie peuvent changer lorsque des changements sont faits au programme. les exigences des programmes dtudes sont mises jour chaque anne dans lannuaire de luniversit de hearst disponible sur notre site internet ici http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. pour obtenir plus dinformations, prire de communiquer avec le secrtariat gnral au 705 372-1781 poste 224 ou par courriel sylvie_roy@uhearst.ca 18 parcours entre le programme de techniques dducation spcialise de la cit et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie** techniques dducation spcialise 3 ans (diplme) psyc 2517 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3317 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 2 cours au choix psyc (6) + 1 cours au choix (3) ----------total : 30 crdits* programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie** techniques dducation spcialise 3 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 3317 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* notes notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) + 3 cours au choix (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* 19 pour chacun des parcours ci-haut : - une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. * luniversit de hearst accordera le nombre de crdits indiqus. pour des raisons dhoraire des cours universitaires ou de question de pralable aux cours obligatoires, il sera peut-tre impossible de complter un b.a. en 1 an ou 2 ans. **les cours complter pour la concentration ou la spcialisation en psychologie peuvent changer lorsque des changements sont faits au programme. les exigences des programmes dtudes sont mises jour chaque anne dans lannuaire de luniversit de hearst disponible sur notre site internet ici http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. pour obtenir plus dinformations, prire de communiquer avec le secrtariat gnral au 705 372-1781 poste 224 ou par courriel sylvie_roy@uhearst.ca 20

project snapshot developing pathways for indigenous language revitalizationin ogwehoweh languages type: pathway development project number: 2020-26 or p2026 project lead: six nations polytechnic collaborators: type collaborators here deliverables for website (if applicable): mcmaster university, trent university, university of waterloo, western university, wilfrid laurier university, york university project summary in 2015 the truth and reconciliation commission of canada published its final report, which contained 94 calls to action recommendations for spurring movement toward healing the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in canada. the sixteenth call to action was for post-secondary institutions to create university and college degree and diploma programs in aboriginal languages. although several ontario universities offer language courses as part of baccalaureate studies, six nations polytechnic (snp) is the first postsecondary institute to establish an indigenous language university degree: the bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages (baol). the baol seeks to further the development of ogwehoweh cultural understanding within an ogwehoweh language context. taught in-person at six nations polytechnics campus in ohsweken, this fully accredited three-year undergraduate degree focuses on mohawk or cayuga language and is organized into four streams: language, grammar, lifelong learning, and community engagement. as other institutions within the province are building their indigenous studies and indigenous studiesadjacent programs to better integrate indigenous languages, there is limited capacity to offer advanced-level hodinohs:ni languages courses further demonstrating the need to create language speakers. research shows that when indigenous language programming is introduced, those courses are regularly highly subscribed, indicating a prevalent student demand. this project proposes to develop pathways between snps bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages and other indigenous studies postsecondary programs for language promotion, student mobility, and building relationships according to the dish with one spoon. the benefits to students go much deeper than simply increased educational mobility for indigenous learners, particularly. at the institutional level, this project will help universities across ontario more meaningfully address the sixteenth call to action of the canadian trc. there are no formal pathways in place or necessary for students interested in transferring from an indigenous studies program at an ontario university into the bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages at six nations polytechnic. at the moment snp does have a generalized letter of permission policy for visiting students interested in taking languages courses. six nations polytechnic is interested in moving beyond the simple availability and generic nature of the policy to (a) raise awareness of the available language and in-language programming, and how it both complements outside degree programs and supports the academic, professional, and cultural needs of indigenous learners in those programs; and (b) forge clearer, specific pathway agreements with individual universities involved in the delivery of indigenous studies curriculum, and especially those whose programs include indigenous languages and/or a focus on hodinohs:ni' peoples. project rationale in 2017, indigenous institutes (iis) were recognized as the third pillar of education in ontario under provincial legislation. this legislation also gave iis the ability to offer accredited certificates, diplomas, and degrees. however, there is still a lack of under within within the secondary education sector about this ability. snp has offered their bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages (baol) since 2016 and has come across challenges in student mobility due tot he lack of understanding that our students hold an accredited degree reviewed by peqab and the ministry. our goal was to communicate our position to as many as possible within the ontario pse landscape and offer our language programming on a letter of permission with the goal of more students learning and speaking indigenous languages thus contributing to their revitalization. main collaborators the main collaborators have included the indigenous studies departments where possible and language departments. the main contacts of each have been the university unit and registrar's office at snp, adrianne lickers (mcmaster university), bonita lawrence & susan dion (york university), skahendowaneh swamp & david newhouse (trent university), daniel bratton (university of waterloo), christy bressette (western university), and heidi northwood (laurier brantford). outcomes 1. enhanced understanding of the indigenous institutes sector among ontario universities. 2. initiated new relationships and expanded collaborative works between snp and partner universities, which can provide a foundation for additional pilot projects in support of student mobility into and out of the indigenous institutes sector. 3. opened letter of permission pathways to and from snp key steps the first step was formulating an invitation to meet as well as marketable materials. following an acceptance to engage in this project, the unit manager - university and registrar of snp met with chairs of indigenous studies departments and their faculty to discuss the project and ways in which they can promote language revitalization in their own institute. naturally we discussed the indigenous institutes act, 2017 the role of the third pillar and the letter of permission pathway to and from our institute to theirs. pathways created we have created more accessible letter of permission pathways for snp students and students of other institutes. for example, york university, lead by susan dion, is implementing a new strategy to their letter of permission process to make it more user-friendly. incomplete pathways we hope to explore partnerships with nearby universities (e.g., mcmaster university and laurier brantford) that offer language programming as part of their program of study which will allow students to take language courses beyond just the beginner language classes. challenges the challenge of this project has been the need and demand for sectoral awareness about indigenous institutes (ii) from those in a position of power and authority, such as the ministry of colleges and universities to senior leadership at colleges and universities. this is work to be taken up by these governing bodies due to the already existing drain on human resources within the indigenous institutes in addition to the cultural biases that exist within the sector around education credentials from an ii that can only be effectively changed by mandates. this work requires challenging a systemic problem within the postsecondary education sector. in general, there is a lack of understanding about the indigenous institutes act of 2017 and what that means for post-secondary; that iis are the third pillar and therefore require recognition for the iis and their learners. student benefits students at snp as well as at other universities will benefit from established and clearly identified transfer agreements and pathways between the enumerated university-based indigenous studies programs (above) and snps baol programming. other important benefits include: improved access to immersive indigenous language and in-language/language-adjacent programming for indigenous studies students at identified universities. clearer relationships and pathways between snp, as an ii-sector institute, and mainstream universities, which will aid not only non-ii students through their access to baol programming at snp, but also snp students who may benefit from clearer relationships between the ii and university sector moving forward. increased student-body diversity through heightened visiting student presence will benefit both the classroom environment/learning experience and the informal and formal connections students forge with their peers. increased parity between indigenous and mainstream institutions in terms of credit transfer pathways, from which indigenous learners (as well as their non-indigenous peers) will benefit from added educational mobility and a lowering of barriers to indigenous student success. student credential this project has made the letter of permission process much easier and more tangible for institutes we've had discussions with. student time savings there is no expected time savings from this project as no transfer articulation agreement has been made due to the unique nature of our baol and other indigenous studies programs in their current states. we hope this will be made possible in the future. student financial savings at york university, under the supervision of susan dion, they have created a more user0friendly letter of permission for students wishing to take an indigenous languages outside of what is offered regularly at the institute. in addition to these more accessible pathway, they have proposed that the institute will fund this course for students. student flexibility the major result of the project was creating more user-friendly practices in institutions. this was quite challenging as many institutes risk tuition revenue from the lop courses. student work alignment this project provides students the opportunity to learn within an indigenous community immersed in indigenous pedagogy which is beneficial to all learners. from this experience, students gain a better sense of self and their own learning styles enabling them to be even more successful in their future studies. institutional outcomes initiated new relationships and expanded collaborative works between snp and partner universities, which can provide a foundation for additional pilot projects in support of student mobility into and out of the indigenous institutes sector. enhanced understanding of the indigenous institutes sector among ontario universities. sector or system implications the major finding of this project has been the need and demand for sectoral awareness about indigenous institutes (ii) from those in a position of power and authority, such as the ministry of colleges and universities to senior leadership at colleges and universities. this is work to be taken up by these governing bodies due to the already existing drain on human resources within the indigenous institutes in addition to the cultural biases that exist within the sector around education credentials from an ii that can only be effectively changed by mandates. this work requires challenging a systemic problem within the postsecondary education sector. in general, there is a lack of understanding about the indigenous institutes act of 2017 and what that means for post-secondary; that iis are the third pillar and therefore require recognition for the iis and their learners. surprisingly, there is also a lack of understanding about letters of permission and credit transfer in general at other universities. tips/advice assign a dedicated lead to these projects that can be 100% present throughout the duration of the project as they are labour intensive in terms of meetings. i say this because we had the project switch hands a couple times and it was difficult to pick up where things left off. tools and resources after reviewing the current curriculum in snp's baol program, we developed a roster of courses that would be available to students on an lop. these courses were selected for suitability to the partner institutes program of study within the indigenous studies program where possible.

project snapshot creating mobility for students enrolled in new programs at fnti type: innovative transfer project number: 2019-08 or i1908 project lead: first nations technical institute collaborators: confederation college of applied arts and technology, trent university project summary fnti is developing some of the first university level degrees offered by indigenous institutes in ontario. these programs will have a common first two years, and the delivery method, content, as well as the structure of the degrees are unlike anything that currently exists in public education in the country. this project will enable fnti to identify and develop pathways for students with full or partial credentials entering and exiting programming at fnti from/to other ontario institutions. project rationale fnti is in the process of submitting several degrees for accreditation to the indigenous advanced education and skills council. foundational work to ensure maximum transferability and recognition is critical to this work, and was facilitated through this project funding. collaborator contributions partners were instrumental in providing curriculum materials such as course outlines and course calendars for their respective and existing programs. discussions were conducted in order to better understand the mechanics of post-secondary level planning, development, programming, research and development. preliminary discussions were conducted to explore possible transfer initiatives for the proposed bachelor level programming. during these discussions, opportunities for additional collaborative efforts such as shared curriculum resource's, personnel and expanded field practice possibilities. both trent and confederation have long been partners with fnti and have worked diligently to strengthen engagement and collaborative initiatives on many levels. the foundation of many initiatives involved ongoing formal and informal discussions to ensure that any new ideas can be explored or any ongoing transfer possibilities are documented for further development. all of our new stand alone programs are bachelor's level degrees, so more emphasis and engagement is ongoing with our university partners and colleagues. for example, algoma university, while not a formal partner was instrumental in guiding our efforts to obtain relevant course syllabi so we could have some examples of content, credit values and so forth. algoma was also very familiar with the process for block transfer which will be important to further develop for a core cultural curriculum that is an anomaly across the sector. key steps the main consideration was to create a common core cultural curriculum that was transferable in as many possible iterations as necessary to afford learners a lot of options. working with other institutions to raise awareness of this initiative was critical. initial efforts to engage other universities were successful but somewhat limited by covid 19. time to fully embark on something new when everyone was engaged in regrouping efforts was a challenge that would be mitigated in "normal" times. another key step was building capacity internally to address the pressing need for transfer across sectors. the decision to engage a dedicated pathways coordinator was critical as the project was unfolding. this common core cultural curriculum is only one currently being developed across the indigenous institutes and serve many functions in the process of access and transfer. another key step was the collaborative efforts across the institute, i.e.. faculty, program coordinators and administrators were all involved in various aspects of the development of either product, policy or process. this was very successful and enabled us to development some lasting and important changes. outcomes we have learned a great deal from this project. although the timelines and outcomes were not exactly what was initially anticipated, we were able to garner a great deal of knowledge with respect to our path forward in accrediting our degrees through iaesc, and ensuring wider recognition across the sector. outcome 1: greater collaboration across the sector we have developed some strong connections with new institutions and further enhanced existing partnerships, with our colleague institutions across the sector. this is critical for a number of reasons. one, it will ensure that once our degrees are ready to be delivered, clear entry and exit pathways will be more easily developed and defined. secondly, relationships on an individual level have also been developed, which will ensure timely dissemination of pathways requests and development. these relationships have already led to a subsequent oncat project, and a new e-campus project that was recently approved. much of the work in these subsequent projects builds upon this initial oncat project. outcome 2: defined resource guides/toolkits this process has provided an internal resource kit to further develop existing programming and planned future ik based programming. it has given us a greater understanding of the common core cultural curriculum, and how it can be disseminated across existing curriculum. additional degrees and diplomas are currently being planned utilizing this resource. it has also been shared with other ii's to assist in their own, separate programming development. outcome 3: recognition of indigenous knowledges and indigenous ways of knowing and understanding the world to build upon the last outcome, the actual content in the common core cultural curriculum is fairly unique to the sector in ontario. perhaps only trent university, laurentien university, six nations polytechnic and algoma university house programming that is grounded in ik, and in those cases, it is only one or two programs that encompass this. all of our new programs will be grounded in ik, and this further contributes to the validity of the work, and the importance of disseminating ik across the sector. this project has gained a great deal of momentum and we have numerous potential avenues for further development of the programming and potential pathways because of this project. challenges the ability to build and strengthen institutional relationships takes time and extensive travel. the covid- 19 pandemic shelter in place order came in mid-project limiting integral face-toface meetings however activities were carried out utilizing a virtual resource. relationship building was further somewhat limited as all work that was required had also migrated to a virtual environment and individuals were functioning in semi-crisis mode. we also realized that in order for fnti learners to transfer easily to another pse in ontario the other pses had to recognize our 4c curriculum as integrate to all of out undergraduate degrees and diploma. additional time and resource will be required to fully apprise ontarios pses of our innovative indigenous approaches. an ongoing theme that surfaced throughout the work was the ability to track the transfers and the pathways with the integration of the 4c elements. receiver institutions would be required to accept and assess these credits and the recommendation to transfer. rigorous and detailed tracking mechanisms would need to be created that aligned with existing processes. again, this would require time and resources to create. student outcomes our future stand alone degree offerings have been mapped to allow for extensive transfer credit, specifically the ssw-bisw pathway which allow for a 2+2 or 2+2.5 pathway offering for students. other similar pathways are being identified as we go through the program review process with iaesc. a review of available course content from trent, ryerson and laurentian universities provided a level of comparison and examples of like-minded indigenous program offerings. extensive discussions with a variety of institutional personnel from registrars, vice presidents and faculty members provided insight into their respective philosophies, values, beliefs and nuances of indigenous curricula content and delivery. this was useful to ensure that learners were indeed able to transfer and mobility was possible between and among programs and institutions with seamless success. ultimately, fnti sees itself as a hub for indigenous knowledge mobilization and dissemination. part of future pathways discussion will include fnti playing the part of a hub for lop students, who are seeking community based, ik courses, outside of their home institution. institutional outcomes collaborative community response a critical element in the project deliberations was the inclusion of comprehensive community involvement and feedback on every aspect of the project. multiple meetings and conversations were carried out to garner support and seek feedback at various points. a variety of individuals were provided with different components of the curriculum content to review, modify and edit as relevant. specific content experts were involved to provide a deeper dive into indigenous specific historical context design. the pathway forward will continue to be collaborative and relational between relevant community stakeholders. sector or system implications in order to ensure rigour and quality assurance the project sought to review existing curriculum materials from other post-secondary institutions. an online search as well as face-to-face enquiries were conducted of both college level and university level programs hoping to access course descriptions and intended learning outcomes for the affinity programs. college level content was widely available and easy to access via institutional websites. university level course content is not available at all unless someone internally to the institution is willing to share their course material. with respect to this project, the alignment of curriculum between exit and entry affinity programs will be critical. mapping all content from the learners existing institution with our program and vis versa will only assist in ensuring the learner is well prepared and success is built into the program. without transparency of curriculum content between institutions the learners may be in jeopardy and set up for failure in their transfer efforts. further work needs to be carried out to create specific alignments between fnti and other post-secondary institutions. tips/advice it has been well documented that in order for indigenous learners to succeed within the western education system it is vital that learners are able to develop a sense of belonging. one of the ways to develop a sense of belonging a student needs is to find commonalities with their own lives and living conditions. learners will begin to understand the similarities among the diverse indigenous nations through their own personal context. the inclusion of cultural practice within the education curriculum can develop this sense of belonging. providing the opportunity for a student to know oneself and ones heritage will ensure that learners develop a strong sense of identity, leading to greater self-confidence and higher persistence rates. including a plethora of consistent common cultural core curriculum options will serve to continuously enhance a students sense of belonging and the contents and contexts will provide deeper meanings and richer understandings of course content and relationships to lived personal and professional experience. on a micro level, the continuity of indigenous references made during lectures will serve to continuously enhance a students sense of belonging and it will provide a deeper meaning and understanding to the topics being discussed. one of the ways that fnti has chosen to address the academic cultural responsiveness if through a common core curriculum. historically a common core curriculum is often viewed as a one size fits all framework. our definition of common core encompasses common courses that would or could be applied to multiple programs as applicable but also includes what we teach (content) and how we teach it (andragogy and indigegogy). tools and resources concurrent with the 4c development and the undergraduate program development a comprehensive table of contents (appendix 1) of references and resources was suggested. each new program will be provided with a guidebook specific to each program area. the r & r guide is divided into sections with an introductory unit containing information that is common to all programs. each program will have a separate unit which will be a repository of current processes, practices, content, modules, assessments, assignments, and pedagogical suggestions. as well, all program storyboards, course outlines, lesson plans, schedules and a comprehensive bibliography will be maintained for each program in their respective units. this will be an invaluable resource to new personnel and will ensure current documents for yearly program reviews.

call for proposals pathways into postsecondary for students impacted by the pandemic apply for this funding opportunity to support access to postsecondary education and support academic recovery from the pandemic. overview oncat is interested in working with postsecondary institutions to support pathways into postsecondary education for students that may require additional transition supports due to educational disruptions experienced during the pandemic. this includes pathways into pse for students that experience historical and ongoing barriers to postsecondary education. these access and pandemic recovery pathways will help students catch up on learning and transition successfully into postsecondary education. through this funding, oncat is interested in projects that incorporate: pathways into postsecondary for students that have been impacted by the pandemic, especially communities of students that experience ongoing barriers to postsecondary access that has been exacerbated by the pandemic; strategies to support academic recovery of students impacted by the pandemic that result in the student earning postsecondary credits; transition year programs, bridges, and transfer pathways with other institutions, in order to support students impacted by the pandemic, to begin their studies and transition into their programs of choice; preference will be given to proposals that allow students to transfer to multiple programs at more than one postsecondary institution. eligibility publicly assisted postsecondary institutions in ontario (colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes), are eligible to apply. applications can be from individual institutions or collaborative initiatives. funding available apply to oncat's seamless transfer stream by january 23, 2023 for the first cohort of funding. grants generally range from $10,000- $100,000. larger grants may be considered based on the project scope. apply to view the budget guidelines, please click here. oncat is funded by the government of ontario

report annuel 2021 2022 table des matires 2. message des coprsidences du conseil 3. message de la directrice excutive 4. amliorations des parcours postsecondaires et du systme de transfert de l'ontario 9. recherche interne et projet de donnes 12. engagement du secteur & mobilisation des connaissances 16. informatique et gestion de projet 18. le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario & ontransfer.ca 22. planification stratgique 24. rapports financiers 29. rsum & description des projets financs en 2021-2022 1. message des coprsidences du conseil alors que nous entrions dans la deuxime anne dune pandmie mondiale, le monde de lenseignement postsecondaire a commenc le difficile travail dadaptation une nouvelle normalit. une poque o toutes les institutions taient confrontes de srieux dfis oprationnels et financiers, nous avons constat un engagement renouvel envers la collaboration. les tudiants, les tablissements et le caton se sont prpars une transition vers des espaces dapprentissage, denseignement et de travail hybrides. bien quil sagisse dun signe prometteur de normalit postpandmique, la transition na pas t sans dfis. nous encourageons la rsilience et ladaptabilit ncessaires sur tous les fronts pour en faire un succs. en repensant cette anne, il y a de quoi tre fier. en effet, alors que nous nous tournons vers lavenir du caton, il y a de quoi esprer. nous sommes ravis daccueillir dans l'quipe dre adrienne galway en tant que nouvelle directrice gnrale. dre galway apporte lorganisme plus de vingt ans dexprience postsecondaire et une passion pour le soutien la russite des tudiants; nous sommes convaincus que le caton continuera de prosprer sous sa direction. le caton a connu sa propre priode de transition au cours de la dernire anne. en novembre 2021, nous avons dit au revoir notre directrice gnrale, yvette munro. mme munro tait une prsence inestimable au caton et son influence dans lorganisme continue de se faire sentir. nous la remercions pour ses annes de service. nous tenons galement remercier andrew wilson et shauna love dtre intervenus en tant que directeurs gnraux par intrim alors que le caton sest lanc dans la recherche dun nouveau directeur gnral. leur travail a t essentiel pour aider le caton naviguer dans les eaux de ladaptation une nouvelle normalit. pendant tout ce temps, le caton a continu de travailler de manire constante au service du systme de transfert postsecondaire de lontario et de sadapter aux besoins changeants des tudiants et du personnel transfrs. nous avons vu des projets de recherche sur le couplage de donnes mener de nouvelles perspectives, des tablissements amliorer leurs processus de transfert internes, et davantage dtudiants desservis par ontransfer.ca. au nom du conseil dadministration, nous remercions le gouvernement de lontario pour le financement des travaux du caton, nos partenaires institutionnels pour leur collaboration continue et le ministre des collges et universits de lontario pour leur soutien continu aux parcours et au transfert. nous vous faisons part de nos meilleurs vux pour une autre anne couronne de succs. ron common, prsident, sault college deb maclatchy, prsident & vice-chancelire, wilfrid laurier university 2. message de la directrice excutive au cours des deux dernires annes et demie, le secteur de lducation postsecondaire a fait un travail exemplaire dadaptation, de changement et de pivotement afin de continuer offrir aux tudiants une ducation de qualit suprieure. il y a eu des moments o le pivotement constant nous a tous un peu tourdis, et nos collges, universits et instituts autochtones devraient tre fiers de ce quils ont accompli dans les situations les plus difficiles. le caton est trs reconnaissant envers le secteur postsecondaire pour son engagement et sa coopration continus, surtout face la myriade dautres priorits concurrentes. linstar de nos tablissements partenaires, au cours de la dernire anne, le caton est pass une nouvelle normalit , mais notre mission principale de soutenir la mobilit des tudiants en ontario par les transferts et les parcours est demeure la mme. le caton a ralis dimportants progrs sur plusieurs fronts, qui sont mis en vidence dans le prsent rapport. sur le plan personnel, jai galement vcu une transition importante lorsque jai rejoint le caton en tant que directeur gnral en mai 2022. jai t tellement impressionn par le travail du caton portant sur le soutien des transferts et des parcours en ontario, que ce soit en finanant des projets innovants pour aider les tablissements renforcer leur capacit de communication de donnes, crer des parcours, adopter de nouvelles technologies telles que mycreds (relevs de notes numriques) et mieux comprendre et soutenir les tudiants transfrs en leur fournissant des renseignements jour sur les transferts de crdits via ontransfer.ca. les priodes de transition peuvent tre un peu effrayantes, mais ce sont aussi des moments denthousiasme et de crativit. alors que le caton sengage dans llaboration dun nouveau plan stratgique pour soutenir la mobilit et les parcours des tudiants, tout est possible. comme tous les autres aspects de nos vies, la pandmie a chang lducation postsecondaire et a chang les attentes des tudiants quant leur cheminement postsecondaire et professionnel. nous avons tous appris que la cl du succs est la capacit trouver une voie suivre dans un milieu incertain, et le caton est bien plac pour continuer guider les tudiants dans leur cheminement. lquipe du caton est lun des groupes de professionnels les plus talentueux et engags avec qui jai eu le privilge de travailler et jai hte de voir ce que lavenir nous rserve. adrienne galway directrice excutive, oncat 3. amliorations des parcours postsecondaires et du systme de transfert de l'ontario les subventions en quelques chiffres le caton aide non seulement le systme postsecondaire de lontario dvelopper des parcours en demande axs sur les tudiants et mettre en place des pratiques de transfert cohrentes et transparentes, mais uvre galement lamlioration des systmes de transfert fonds sur des preuves. nos financements visent soutenir la recherche sur la mobilit tudiante, les amliorations au niveau du systme, le dveloppement de parcours et le renforcement des capacits de transfert au sein des tablissements postsecondaires de lontario. nous avons approuv 60 projets en 2021-2022 grce aux voies de financement et aux stratgies dengagement sectoriel du caton. cela comprend : 5 parcours de transfert 3 projets de transparence des transferts 10 projets de recherche 1 bourse de recherche postdoctorale 3 student action projects 7 datapilot (4 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 12 mapit (9 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 2 indigenous institutes transfer grants 11 mycreds onboarding grants 5. projets termins 8 parcours de transfert 10 9 5 projets de research recherche projets mapit 5 projets pilotes de donnes 10 3 projets research daction tudiant 2 projets de transparence des transferts plus de 30 projets ont t achevs en 2021-2022. pour plus de renseignements sur ces derniers ou les autres projets financs par le caton, consultez . pleins feux sur la stratgie : amlioration de la capacit de transfert des tablissements le caton collabore troitement avec ses partenaires pour valuer les rsultats et les expriences des tudiants transfrs, amliorer les processus et travailler la mise en place dun systme plus transparent en ontario. cette anne, il a largi ses stratgies de financement de la capacit de transfert des tablissements avec le lancement du financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones, ainsi que du financement pour lintgration institutionnelle de mescertif . 6. subvention de financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones le first nations technical institute et le seven generations education institute ont tous deux reu une subvention de capacit de transfert de niveau ii en 2021-2022. ce financement permet aux tablissements autochtones damliorer les parcours tudiants et les possibilits de transfert laide de soutien accru aux tudiants transfrs, de conseils en matire de transfert et dautres fonctions de transfert dtermines par ltablissement. mescertif en 2021, le caton a commenc appuyer lintgration des tablissements mescertif, projet national soutenu par lassociation des registraires des universits et collges du canada. il vise crer un portefeuille de crdits numriques de lapprenant et un rseau national dchange de donnes. ladoption de mescertif lchelle du secteur permettra aux tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario dchanger leurs relevs de notes de manire sre et par voie numrique. cela facilitera lchange des relevs de notes des tudiants et permettra aux tablissements de garantir la vracit des documents soumis lors de la candidature. la stratgie du caton a t largement adopte par le secteur lors de sa premire anne dapplication : 11 tablissements ont reu des fonds pour sintgrer mescertif ou pour lutiliser davantage aux fins dchange de relevs de notes. 7. mapit linitiative dapprentissage en collaboration de mapit aide les tablissements cartographier leurs processus de transfert actuels pour leur permettre dy apporter des amliorations. avec laide de higher education strategies associates pour faciliter le processus, chaque tablissement recueille de prcieux renseignements sur leurs processus de transfert. le caton a dj aid 28 tablissements entreprendre linitiative mapit, loccasion de laquelle chacun des participants a pu faire part des processus de transfert efficaces ainsi que des points amliorer. la cohorte n 4 est en cours et le recrutement pour la cohorte n 5 dbutera lautomne 2022. en 2021-2022, nous avons tendu linitiative mapit pour y inclure le financement des projets de phase 2, dans lide damliorer les processus de transfert. initiative dapprentissage en collaboration relative aux projets pilotes de donnes le projet pilote de donnes a t lanc en 2020, et cette anne, nous avons franchi une tape importante en aidant 25 % des tablissements postsecondaires de lontario augmenter leur capacit de rapport des donnes et valuer les rsultats des tudiants transfrs dans leur tablissement. tel est le cas de 26 % des universits et 25 % des collges. le caton continuera daccepter des nouveaux partenaires de faon continue. 8. recherche interne et projet de donnes enqute sur lintention de transfert en septembre 2021, caton a lanc sa premire enqute exclusive en partenariat avec linstitute for social research de luniversit york. alors que nous nous approchons de la fin de la premire anne, nous avons reu prs de 2 500 rponses lenqute. lensemble de donnes comprend des renseignements propos des prises de dcision des futurs tudiants transfrs et inclut le contexte dmographique et ducatif des participants. partir de cette enqute, caton a commenc mener des analyses sur les personnes et les raisons pour lesquelles certaines populations dtudiants sont transfres, sur les parcours les plus populaires ainsi que les types de programmes. lenqute a t prolonge de 12 mois pour augmenter la taille globale de lchantillon ainsi que pour continuer enrichir le panel des tudiants transfrs prospectifs et ventuels qui ont choisi de participer aux futurs entretiens et groupes de discussion. nous esprons lancer lenqute sur lexprience de transfert en 2023 pour suivre les tudiants de la premire vague qui ont fini par tre transfrs. ce projet a pour but de comprendre le parcours des tudiants transfrs, de lintention jusquau transfert. entretiens sur lintention de transfert nous avons men 53 entretiens semi-structurs avec des tudiants qui ont exprim leur intrt au moyen de notre enqute sur lintention de transfert. ces entretiens examinent plus en profondeur les raisons pour lesquelles les tudiants ont voulu tre transfrs et leur donnent loccasion de rflchir plus en dtail leurs expriences postsecondaires. nous avons transcrit et commenc analyser les rponses des tudiants, ce qui nous a aids laborer de nouvelles questions pour la deuxime session denqute et comparer les rsultats entre les deux mthodes de collecte. nous avons galement russi recruter une poigne dtudiants de notre panel pour participer aux groupes de discussion pour aider amliorer notre site web ontransfert pour les futurs utilisateurs. nous esprons publier nos premiers rapports partir des entretiens en janvier 2023. 10. rsultats des tudiants parmi les diffrents parcours de transfert caton a publi un ensemble de mmoires de recherche en fvrier 2022 partir de donnes contenues dans lenqute ucasmc. ces rapports portaient sur les parcours des candidats aux collges et universits de lontario et traitaient de sujets tels que les variations rgionales des aspirations un diplme et les effets du statut socio-conomique ainsi que des rsultats scolaires antrieurs sur les parcours de transfert. comme lucasmc contient des renseignements dmographiques propos des tudiants (catgories ethniques larges) que dautres ensembles de donnes ne contiennent pas, nous continuerons de travailler avec des donnes en 2023. nous esprons publier continuellement des renseignements au secteur en utilisant cette riche source de donnes sur les prfrences des tudiants candidats. les prochains rapports comprendront des donnes sur les tablissements de premier choix des tudiants et linfluence de la race/ethnicit sur les parcours de transfert et les aspirations en matire de diplme. 11. engagement du secteur & mobilisation des connaissances rsum de la recherche en collaboration avec les quipes de recherche et de communication, le caton a conu les sries de rsums de la recherche pour mettre en vidence les principaux rsultats de nos rapports de recherche et mettre laccent sur lapplication de ces donnes probantes aux politiques, la prise de dcision et la pratique professionnelle. les rsums de la recherche visent saisir les conclusions les plus importantes que le secteur doit connatre et susciter davantage de lecture et dintrt pour la recherche portant sur les transferts. les rsums, rdigs par meryl borato, spcialiste de la mobilisation des connaissances, apparaissent sur oncat.ca et sont promus dans le bulletin mensuel du caton. sries de dners-confrences de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits le caton a lanc un vnement dapprentissage mensuel pour le groupe de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance de crdits (gcrc), appel transfer advising lunch and learns (dners-confrences de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits). offerte une fois par mois, la srie dvnements dapprentissage vise renforcer les capacits dans lespace de conseil en transfert et cultiver des pratiques et une prise de dcision fondes sur des donnes probantes. destins la fois aux administrateurs chevronns et au nouveau personnel pour le transfert, ces vnements fournissent des renseignements sur lespace de transfert, les recherches rcentes sur le transfert, les pratiques prometteuses, et permettent aux participants de nouer des relations avec le personnel dautres tablissements. ce jour, nous avons organis des sances de conseil aux tudiants, de communication et de recrutement, et plusieurs sances sur le dveloppement de parcours. 13. centre communautaire en ligne pour le gcrc et le comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants le caton a cr des plateformes de communication interinstitutionnelles qui permettent nos groupes communautaires de partager des ressources, de poser des questions et de communiquer en dehors de nos vnements publics. le site est priv et rserv aux membres du gcrc et du comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants, ce qui facilite une communication plus fluide concernant le transfert, les sondages sur ce que font les autres, les possibilits de mentorat et le soutien gnral entre les membres. animateur communautaire sur le transfert lanne dernire, le caton a lanc une nouvelle initiative dirige par des tudiants appele animateur communautaire sur le transfert. les animateurs communautaires sur le transfert sont des tudiants qui ont t transfrs une fois au cours de leurs tudes postsecondaires. dans le cadre du programme, lanimateur reoit une allocation pour crer une manire crative de partager son exprience et doffrir des conseils ou des astuces aux tudiants actuellement transfrs. lanimateur communautaire en transfert reoit ensuite un encadrement et un mentorat sur son travail cratif par le personnel du caton. les soumissions comprenaient une bande dessine, des articles de blogue, un rcit crit, une courte vido et un essai photographique. jusqu prsent, nous avons organis deux cohortes qui ont termin le programme. vous pouvez consulter le travail cratif des animateurs communautaires en transfert sur oncat.ca! 14. engagement du secteur le caton, avec laide de carolyn poplak, gestionnaire de lengagement du secteur, et de sanja pavlovic, coordonnatrice des comits, continue de travailler avec divers comits tablis, notamment le comit de direction sur les parcours du nord de lontario, le comit directeur des tablissements francophones et bilingues, et le comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants. au printemps 2022, le caton a cr le comit directeur disciplinaire (cdd). le rle du cdd est de conseiller et dorienter le travail du caton, en collaboration avec le ministre des collges et universits (mcu), dans llaboration dun systme de transfert oprationnel. le cdd travaillera plus particulirement avec le caton et les comits disciplinaires (entreprises, services sociaux, etc.) afin de mener lexpansion de la transfrabilit des cours de premire anne. lobjectif est que les tudiants de premire anne puissent tre transfrs dans des programmes similaires avec une reconnaissance complte des crdits. 15. informatique et gestion de projet mises jour et amliorations informatiques l'quipe informatique du caton, y compris allison maldonado, analyste des systmes d'entreprise, et natalie isber, gestionnaire de projet, mise en uvre de cinq sites web sharepoint pour faciliter le partage dinformation et la collaboration entre les partenaires institutionnels de lontario et le caton. 1. carrefour de lducation postsecondaire de lontario 2. site web ontransfer 3. groupe des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits (gcrc) 4. comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants 5. site web du comit directeur de discipline nous avons galement lanc un systme interne de gestion des absences pour simplifier le processus de suivi des absences pour les membres de lquipe et la direction du caton et un logiciel de gestion de projet pour les membres de lquipe du caton afin daccrotre la transparence entre les quipes et damliorer la gestion et la surveillance des tches. 17. le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario & ontransfer.ca le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario fournit une plateforme facile dutilisation permettant aux tudiants dexaminer leurs possibilits de transfert et de recevoir du soutien lors de leur parcours universitaire. capable de prendre en charge les donnes de tous les collges, universits et instituts autochtones de lontario bnficiant dune aide publique, ontransfer.ca est en dveloppement constant afin de soutenir les tudiants et les institutions avec des informations pertinentes et jour. amliorations du site web ontransfer.ca en 2021, lquipe ontransfert continue damliorer le site web en proposant des supports adapts la conception et centrs sur lutilisateur. nous avons lanc avec succs lindex des programmes de cours pour la province, revu et mis jour le contenu du site web, et nous continuons trouver des moyens de simplifier et de rendre oprationnels nos processus de collecte pour les calendriers de cours, les offres en ligne et les quivalences de cours. fin 2021, lquipe a commenc un projet pour amliorer notre logiciel de gestion du contenu qui fournira une conception web moderne et des graphiques pour les utilisateurs en 2022 et au-del. dans les annes venir, nous continuerons nous concentrer sur lamlioration de la navigation, sur la promotion accrue des programmes daccs la demande et sur la facilit de recherche gnrale du site, ainsi que sur des communications plus cibles pour les tudiants transfrs, depuis lintention jusqu ladmission et linscription, en passant par la pr et la postcandidature. 19. analyse de donnes et croissance (1 avril , 2021 - 31 mars, 2022) la pandmie a continu davoir un effet sur la frquentation globale des sites web, mais pas de manire aussi radicale que lanne dernire. la frquentation globale a connu des augmentations modestes, passant de 1,24 % 4,88 %. au dbut de lanne 2022, lindsay mcrae (directrice des communications) a labor un plan de communication actualis afin daugmenter la frquentation du site web et damliorer la faon dont nous partageons les renseignements sur les transferts et les parcours sur le site web de luniversit. 174,180 utilisateurs uniques de ontransfer.ca 252,614 consultations de session la mise en uvre de nos attentes en matire de niveau de service (service level expectations) a permis de rationaliser les processus, ce qui a entran une augmentation de 29 % des fichiers de donnes institutionnelles entre le 1er avril 2021 et le 31 mars 2022. 243,642 1979 quivalences de cours parcours universitaires 25,000 possibilits de parcours uniques 20. salon du transfert dtudiants de lontario dans le cadre de notre stratgie de ramnagement et de services continus, lquipe ontransfer.ca a organis deux salons du transfert dtudiants de lontario russis lautomne 2021 et au printemps 2022, mens par sienna stock (directrice de service, ontransfer.ca). lvnement, organis virtuellement pour garantir la sant et la scurit des participants, a permis aux tudiants transfrs de se mettre en relation directement avec les institutions pour avoir une rponse leurs questions. la dernire dition du salon du transfert dtudiants de lontario a enregistr plus de 1 000 visites uniques aux stands virtuels, prs de 500 documents consults et 335 visionnages de webinaires. quipe ontransfer.ca malgr les dfis lis la pandmie, lquipe a continu de renforcer et damliorer nos supports ontransfer.ca et nos communications. des rsums mensuels cibls ont t labors en utilisant microsoft sharepoint pour transmettre des renseignements importants nos partenaires. lquipe a continu dajuster les attentes en matire de niveau de service et les engagements pour le secteur en dveloppant un systme de billetterie automatis qui utilise le flux de travail pour appuyer les communications internes et externes. 21. planification stratgique plan stratgique 2023-2026 le caton entame des consultations pour un nouveau plan stratgique pour 2023-2026. bien qu'il s'agisse d'un vritable dfi, la pandmie a donn au caton loccasion de se tourner vers de nouvelles formes de soutien et de prestation aux tudiants, ainsi que le temps dexaminer les dfis et les possibilits venir. avec la fin de notre plan stratgique actuel en 2023 et le recrutement de notre nouveau directeur gnral, le moment est venu pour le caton de tracer une nouvelle voie vers lavenir. grce notre collaboration avec le ministre des collges et universits, le caton a dj identifi quatre priorits long terme qui claireront et complteront notre nouveau plan stratgique : 1. tendre la transfrabilit de la premire anne : contribuer aux efforts visant rendre les cours dintroduction ou de base plus facilement transfrables dans tout le secteur. 2. accrotre les parcours intelligents pour les tudiants : travailler avec les tablissements postsecondaires pour largir les parcours des tudiants en demande. 3. aider les tudiants transfrs obtenir leur diplme temps : aider les tudiants transfrs obtenir leur diplme avec des cots excdentaires minimes en temps dtude ou en frais de scolarit. 4. intgration des instituts autochtones au systme de transfert de crdits de lontario : collaborer de manire plus troite avec le troisime pilier du systme dducation postsecondaire de lontario. ces priorits vont de pair avec le travail quotidien du caton en matire de recherche, dlaboration de politiques, de soutien aux tudiants, de collaboration institutionnelle, dengagement sectoriel et de technologie. grce ce processus de consultation, le caton explorera les domaines de croissance et dinvestigation de manire plus approfondie, en sappuyant sur nos atouts en tant quorganisme et en commenant des projets nouveaux et innovants. les consultations sur le plan stratgique auront lieu lautomne 2022 et lhiver 2023, et le conseil dadministration aura loccasion dexaminer et dapprouver le plan au printemps 2023. 23. rapports financiers raports financiers 2021-2022 nos tats financiers audits, qui comprennent ltat de la situation financire au 31 mars 2022, et les tats des rsultats, de lvolution de lactif net et des flux de trsorerie pour lexercice clos, ainsi que les notes affrentes aux tats financiers, y compris un rsum des principales mthodes comptables, se trouvent ladresse suivante: https://oncat.ca/fr/propos-de-nous 25. l'quipe de caton adrienne galway, executive director shauna love, operations director lindsay mcrae, communications manager sienna stock, ontransfer.ca service manager jane waldner, digital communications coordinator allison maldonado, business systems analyst andrew wilson, transfer and technology director ana skinner, research, data & funding director rod missaghian, senior researcher natalie isber, project manager tina liu, data analyst inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants & projects peter desera, finance manager alastair woods, senior policy analyst carolyn poplak, manager, sector engagement henrique hon, quantitative researcher nicolas boileau, researcher meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist sanja pavlovic, committees coordinator liwei liao, ontransfer data coordinator abdullah mushtaq, executive & governance 26. coordinator conseil d'administration ron common (coprsident) deborah maclatchy (coprsident) christine bradaric-baus lyne michaud serge demers elaine popp kathryn kettle prsident & pdg, sault college prsidente & vice-chancelire, wilfrid laurier university vice-rectrice aux tudes, canadian memorial chiropractic college vice-rectrice aux tudes, collge boral vice-recteur par intrim aux tudes et provost, universit laurentienne vice-rectrice aux tudes, durham college reprsentante d'tudiant membres d'office du conseil janet hope robert luke marny scully heather lane marc provencher adrienne galway vice-rectrice des politiques et de l'innovation, collges ontario pdg, ecampusontario vice-rectrice de la politique et de la stratgie, cou directrice excutif, ouac prsident et chef de la direction, ocas directrice excutif, oncat ancien membre du conseil : caitlin smith reprsentante d'tudiant 27. nos partenaires 28. rsum & description des projets financs en 2021-2022 voies de financement des parcours de transfert en 2021 #p2220: dveloppement de parcours de transfert en ingnierie et en technologies de lingnierie responsable du projet : universit queens kingston | partenaires : cambrian college, centennial college, conestoga college, mohawk college, collge seneca, sheridan college, collge st-lawrence, universit de toronto | montant accord : $282,700 ce projet appuiera le dveloppement de parcours multi-institutionnels entre le diplme avanc en technologies de lingnierie et les programmes dtudes en ingnierie en ontario. ces parcours permettront aux tudiants dtenteurs dun diplme avanc en technologies de lingnierie provenant dun programme ontarien participant dobtenir une quivalence dans un autre programme ontarien dtudes en ingnierie participant. #p2221: parcours en chimie et en sciences de la vie appliques responsable du projet : universit lakehead | partenaires : fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $12,296 ce projet vise laborer un ensemble de parcours de transfert entre le diplme avanc en sciences de laboratoire avec spcialisation en technologie de laboratoire chimique du fanshawe college et le programme de baccalaurat s sciences spcialis en chimie/baccalaurat s sciences spcialis en sciences de la vie appliques de luniversit lakehead. ce projet va aussi permettre dvaluer la viabilit du dveloppement de parcours supplmentaires dans les programmes de concentration mdicale et les crdits dingnierie connexes de luniversit lakehead. 30. #p2222: admissions directes et parcours de lanne suprieure au sein des collges darts appliqus et de technologie de lontario responsable du projet : universit queens | montant accord : $41,500 ce projet vise identifier les programmes en capacit dadmettre des diplms de collge (certificats/diplmes spcialiss) en premire anne/ lanne suprieure et dlaborer des parcours de transfert de crdits compltement cartographis la facult des arts et des sciences luniversit queens. ce projet permettra de rduire les obstacles rencontrs par les tudiants souhaitant intgrer luniversit queens, dans lide dlaborer des parcours dans des programmes dots dune capacit et dune demande au niveau de lanne suprieure. #p2223: refonte des parcours de baccalaurat spcialis en kinsiologie responsable du projet : universit lakehead | partners: cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, georgian college, sault college | montant accord : $47,971 grce ce projet, luniversit lakehead va actualiser et remanier les parcours de faon reflter les changements dans le curriculum et dans les normes de certification/dassurance de la qualit pour quils cadrent toujours avec le programme dtudes du baccalaurat spcialis en kinsiologie. de plus, ce projet donne loccasion de combiner les parcours similaires dans des parcours multilatraux, ce qui les rend ainsi plus efficaces, cohrents et transparents. #p2243: refonte des parcours de transfert en psychologie des collges boral et la cit vers luniversit de hearst responsable du projet : universit de hearst | partenaires : collge boral, collge la cit | montant accord : $46,030 ce projet va remanier les parcours existants entre les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst et les programmes des collges la cit et boral. cela permettra llaboration de nouveaux parcours et dune ententecadre visant faciliter le transfert de diplms et la tenue jour continue des protocoles dentente. 31. voie de financement des projets de transparence des transferts de 2021 #s2201: largissement de lchange numrique de relevs de notes en ontario par le biais de mescertif responsable du projet : association des registraires des universits et collges du canada | montant accord : $500,000 ce projet vise amliorer les processus de transfert des tudiants par le biais de lchange numrique des relevs de notes. cela permettra au projet mescertif de renforcer, dtendre et de mettre en uvre son portefeuille de crdits de lapprenant ainsi que son rseau national dchange des donnes au sein de tous les collges, universits et tablissements autochtones publics de lontario. ladoption de mescertif lchelle du secteur permettra aux tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario dchanger leurs relevs de notes de manire sre et par voie numrique. ce rseau dchange de donnes favorisera la transparence du transfert des tudiants en facilitant lchange de leurs relevs de notes et en permettant aux tablissements de garantir la vracit des documents soumis lors de la candidature. #s2251: ambassadeurs des tudiants transfrs luniversit trent responsable du projet : universit trent | montant accord : $11,000 ce projet va faciliter la mise en uvre dun rle pilote dambassadeur des tudiants transfrs. lambassadeur des tudiants transfrs de trent jouera un rle important dans le dveloppement et le maintien de relations entre les tudiants transfrs postulant luniversit trent et cette dernire ainsi que fournira de laide ses pairs lors du processus de transfert. 32. #s2255: largissement de lchange numrique de relevs de notes en ontario par le biais de mescertif, 2e anne responsable du projet : association des registraires des universits et collges du canada | montant accord : $500,000 ce projet correspond la deuxime phase dune stratgie pluriannuelle qui permettra dacclrer la numrisation et lintgration scurises des relevs de notes sur mescertif . il fournira une infrastructure dchange de documents lchelle du systme qui peut amliorer lexprience dchange de documents des tudiants transfrs. le projet sattaque aux lacunes relatives aux processus cls et aux dfis lis aux processus de transfert (p. ex., rception des relevs de notes temps, intgralit des documents ncessaires aux dcisions dvaluation du transfert des crdits/ dadmission). phase 2 de mapit en 2021 #s2248: laboration des politiques de transfert de crdits de luniversit de hearst responsable du projet : universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | montant accord : $86,020 ce projet appuie llaboration des politiques de transfert de crdits de luniversit de hearst laquelle devient une universit indpendante. il donnera aussi naissance un outil administratif des quivalences de crdits qui indique les quivalences accorder pour les 20 programmes collgiaux offerts aux 2 collges francophones de lontario : collge la cit et collge boral. 33. #s2249: mise en uvre des nouveaux processus dvaluation des quivalences trent responsable du projet : trent university | montant accord : $55,000 ce projet appuie les amliorations apportes aux valuations des quivalences internes luniversit trent en recueillant les cours dintroduction/de premire anne duniversits de tout le canada pour valuer leur quivalence ceux de luniversit trent. ce projet permettra trent dvaluer les cours en amont et de les intgrer dans la base de donnes de trent, diminuant ainsi la priode dvaluation de transfert des crdits pour les tudiants transfrs trent. #s2250: laboration des lignes directrices dvaluation du transfert des crdits de luniversit lakehead responsable du projet : universit lakehead | montant accord : $51,838 ce projet amliorera le processus de transfert des crdits travers llaboration de lignes directrices et la prise de dcisions relatives lvaluation de transfert des crdits en fonction des cours luniversit lakehead. ce projet comprend llaboration des supports de formation ncessaires pour conseiller efficacement les experts en la matire dans leurs valuations. 34. financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones #i2267: stratgies de transfert du fnti responsable du projet : first nations technical institute | montant accord : $79,637 ce projet aide le fnti amliorer ses fonctions de transfert dans plusieurs domaines cls par le biais dun coordonnateur de parcours ddi. il sagit notamment de dvelopper et damliorer les activits actuelles de transfert pour les programmes partenaires, de fournir aux candidats/tudiants des conseils en matire de transfert et une aide pour les processus de transfert, ainsi quune comprhension des possibilits de parcours. ce projet veille aussi ce que la transfrabilit et les parcours soient pris en compte lors de llaboration de programmes autonomes, ainsi qu dvelopper les processus dadmission, les mesures de gouvernance et les politiques lis au transfert. #i2268: dveloppement de la capacit de mobilit tudiante dans la rgion du trait numro 3 responsable du projet : seven generations education institute | montant accord : $64,240 ce projet aidera le seven generations education institute (sgei) intgrer un poste de coordonnateur de parcours au sein de lorganisme ainsi que parmi le corps tudiant pour quil puisse tablir des relations de confiance et mieux aider les tudiants lors du processus de transfert. le sgei se concentrera sur la cration des politiques et protocoles ncessaires la cration de nouveaux parcours. 35. projets de recherche de 2021 #r2203: a qualitative analysis of the post-transfer experiences of college and university students in ontario chercheuse principale : dr. janice aurini | montant accord : $135,265 ce projet vise faciliter la comprhension des expriences post-transfert des tudiants postsecondaires et de la manire dont elles peuvent varier selon le parcours et la rgion. ce projet intgre une composante longitudinale afin de saisir le transfert des tudiants comme un processus social multiples facettes. ce projet de recherche peut permettre dlaborer de manire informe des politiques et des pratiques damlioration de la rtention des tudiants transfrs dans lensemble de lducation postsecondaire (eps) de lontario, notamment en amliorant les conseils aux tudiants, les programmes de transition et les initiatives visant aider les tudiants sadapter leur nouvel environnement institutionnel. #r2204: prvision de la participation aux parcours de transfert et des profils de revenu associs un deuxime aperu du couplage du tdsb au siep en mettant laccent sur le handicap responsable du projet : york university | chercheuse principale : dr. gillian parekh | cochercheurs : dr. rob brown and dr. david walters | montant accord : $119,609 en 2019, le caton a financ la cration dun projet de couplage de donnes personnalis entre le tdsb et la plemt pour dterminer quel point les tudiants transfrs taient diffrents de leurs homologues entrs directement luniversit quant leur probabilit demprunter auprs du programme canadien daide financire aux tudiants (pcafe). un rapport prliminaire a tudi les tendances lchelle de la province en sappuyant simplement sur le couplage des donnes du siep et du pcafe. un rapport secondaire a explor les mmes tendances en mettant laccent sur le couplage des donnes du tdsb, du siep et du pcafe. ce projet sappuiera sur le couplage des donnes du tdsb, du siep et du fichier des familles t1 (fft1) pour tudier un ensemble supplmentaire de questions mettant laccent sur les indicateurs sociodmographiques, plus particulirement sur le handicap, associes la participation aux parcours de transfert (dsagrgs) et sil existe une prime ou une pnalit de revenu net associe aux parcours de transfert dsagrgs et 36. au statut dhandicap. #r2210: parcours desp non linaires et accumulation de crdits phase 2 : exploitation des couplages de donnes denqute et de donnes administratives pour documenter le rle des antcdents familiaux dans les parcours de transfert dtaills project lead: institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) | chercheur principal : dr. xavier st-denis | montant accord : $167,367 ce projet sappuie sur le premier projet financ par le caton, intitul parcours desp non linaire et accumulation de crdits : portrait statistique et valuation des rsultats sur le march du travail (2020-2021), qui tait bas sur les donnes de ltude longitudinale et internationale des adultes (elia). ce nouveau projet entend produire 3 rapports de recherche et mettre laccent sur le rle des antcdents familiaux dans les parcours de transfert dtaills. #r2211: projet de reproduction des donnes du tdsb et de luniversit de toronto chercheur principal : dr. scott davies | montant accord : $27,290 ce projet va faire avancer les analyses exploratoires lies au transfert laide dun ensemble de donnes tires des dossiers administratifs des tudiants du conseil scolaire du district de toronto (tdsb) et de luniversit de toronto, en exploitant le champ de l tablissement prcdent au sein des dossiers de luniversit de toronto pour identifier les tudiants du tdsb arrivs luniversit depuis un autre tablissement postsecondaire. 37. #r2219: boursier de recherche postdoctorale ayant fait lobjet dun transfert responsable du projet : nipissing university | supervisor: dr. david zarifa | montant accord : $90,675 le caton verse un financement de contrepartie un boursier de recherche postdoctorale de luniversit nipissing dans le cadre dun partenariat de recherche multi-institutionnel financ par le conseil de recherches en sciences humaines (crsh). ce projet tudie les obstacles potentiellement rencontrs par de nombreux jeunes dans la poursuite de leurs tudes postsecondaires et de leur emploi en mettant en relation les donnes du conseil scolaire du district de toronto (tdsb) et les donnes administratives, fiscales et les donnes denqute sur lenseignement postsecondaire. le boursier de recherche postdoctorale prendra part lorganisation et lanalyse des donnes administratives longitudinales couples, la prparation des manuscrits et aux activits de mobilisation des connaissances associes ce projet, y compris la mise en avant des connaissances pertinentes sur la mobilit tudiante et sur le transfert. #r2242: lducation manque des femmes noires : handicap, accs et transfert responsable du projet : toronto metropolitan university (anciennement universit ryerson) | chercheur principal : dr. idil abdillahi | montant accord : $121,845 ce projet de recherche qualitatif va permettre dtudier les expriences des femmes noires handicapes ayant recours au transfert entre les collges et les universits de lontario. ce projet fournira des connaissances cls sur les expriences des tudiants transfrs et contribuera mieux comprendre ce que vivent les femmes noires, les personnes non binaires et trans porteuses de handicap ayant recours au transfert entre les collges et les universits de lontario. 38. #r2254: comprhension du rle de lorientation dans les parcours de transfert du collge vers luniversit responsable du projet : toronto metropolitan university (anciennement universit ryerson) | chercheur principal : sam andrey | co-investigators: andre cote, tianna thompson | montant accord : $58,053 ce projet contribuera une meilleure comprhension des profils et des expriences des tudiants qui relient leur parcours de transfert du collge vers luniversit (ctu) aux effets de lorientation scolaire secondaire et du choix des cours. laide dune enqute et dentretiens semi-structurs avec danciens et dactuels tudiants transfrs du collge luniversit, ce projet va documenter leur parcours acadmique secondaire et postsecondaire. par le biais de cet examen, le projet va chercher savoir si, et jusquo, les expriences dorientation secondaire influencent la raison pour laquelle les tudiants ont recours aux transferts collge vers luniversit et la manire dont ils y ont recours. bourse de recherche postdoctorale #r2256: bourse de recherche postdoctorale du caton responsable du projet : universit de guelph | boursier postdoctoral : j. sparks | superviseur : dr. david walters | montant accord : $110,000 cette bourse de recherche postdoctorale va permettre dtudier le choc du transfert et limpact des services de soutien sur les tudiants transfrs en ontario. le postdoctorant sera appuy par luniversit de guelph, sous la supervision du dr david walters, et le projet de recherche sera men en collaboration avec les membres de lquipe de transitions des tudiants, daccs et de recherche sur les partenariats dans lenseignement tertiaire (student transitions, access & research on tertiary education partnerships). 39. microcrdits en ontario : tude de la superposabilit et de la transfrabilit #r2245: opportunits et obstacles au transfert et la superposition de microcrdits dans les collges et universits publics en ontario chercheur principal : dr. scott davies | montant accord : $74,072 ($69,600+$4,472 hst) ce projet fera avancer la comprhension du potentiel de la transfrabilit et de la superposabilit des microcrdits. ce projet va permettre de mieux comprendre la manire dont les intervenants conoivent les dfis et les russites actuels lors de llaboration et de la mise en uvre des microcrdits transfrables, et ce, par le biais dune analyse approfondie des offres de microcrdits dans le portail ecampus. #r2246: approches sur la superposabilit des microcrdits : options pour lontario responsable du projet : higher education strategy associates | montant accord : $69,900+tvh ce projet vise analyser les approches de superposabilit des microcrdits adoptes dans dautres pays et territoires en vue de prsenter des recommandations pour lontario. ce projet comprend : a) une revue des renseignements publics sur les microcrdits offerts par les collges, universits et tablissements autochtones (publics) dans tout lontario; b) une comparaison des modles internationaux de superposabilit des microcrdits, en sappuyant sur la documentation acadmique et politique; c) des entretiens avec des administrateurs et professeurs de divers collges et universits (publics) de tout lontario; d) des entretiens avec 10 12 propritaires, gestionnaires et instructeurs de collges ontariens. 40. #r2247: tude de la perception des nouveaux arrivants quant la crdibilit des microcrdits dans la facilitation des parcours demploi et dducation postsecondaire responsable du projet : fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | chercheur principal : dr. alexander pershai | cochercheurs : dr. michele manocchi, dr. rob downie | montant accord : $74,882 ce projet va documenter la perception des tudiants sur les microcrdits, en mettant laccent sur la perception des microcrdits dans la facilitation des parcours demploi et dducation postsecondaire. il sagit notamment de savoir si la transfrabilit et la superposabilit des microcrdits doivent tre prises en compte par les conseillers des apprenants et les tablissements postsecondaires offrant des microcrdits. ltude permettra de dtecter les lacunes existantes et de fournir des recommandations pour le dveloppement et lamlioration des microcrdits satisfaisant les besoins en matire demploi et dtudes postsecondaires des nouveaux arrivants en ontario. 41. intgration institutionnelle de mescertif #s2224 | toronto metropolitan university (anciennment universit ryerson) | montant accord : $25,000 #s2225 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute | montant accord : $37,700 #s2226 | university of ottawa | montant accord : $25,375 #s2227 | confederation college | montant accord : $38,500 #s2228 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $25,200 #s2229 | sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $25,958 #s2230 | brock university | montant accord : $25,000 #s2231 | trent university | montant accord : $17,900 #s2232 | universit de hearst | montant accord : $27,720 #s2234 | mohawk college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $25,000 #s2235 | york university | montant accord : $25,000 42. phase 1 des projets pilotes de donnes #d2208 | durham college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $27,500 #d2212 | lambton college | montant accord : $51,843 #d2244 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $33,264 #d2253 | nipissing university | montant accord : $55,000 phase 2 des projets pilotes de donnes #d2202 | trent university | montant accord : $16,200 #d2209 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $43,395 #d2236 | algoma university | montant accord : $55,000 43. mapit 3.0 : projet de cartographie des processus institutionnels #m2214 | lambton college | montant accord : $10,000 #m2215 | the university of ontario institute of technology | montant accord : $10,000 #m2216 | wilfrid laurier university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2217 | collge boral | montant accord : $10,000 #m2218 | the canadore college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $10,000 #m2213 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | montant accord : $36,000 + hst mapit 4.0 : projet de cartographie des processus institutionnels #m2238 | york university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2239 | university of ottawa | montant accord : $10,000 #m2240 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $10,000 #m2241 | algoma university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2237 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | montant accord : $65,000 + hst 44. comit directeur disciplinaire #c2257 | algoma university: david marasco | montant accord : $20,000 #c2259 | collge la cit: isabelle gurin | montant accord : $20,000 #c2260 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology: mary pierce | montant accord : $20,000 #c2261 | sir sandford fleming college of applied arts and technology: david adam baker | montant accord : $20,000 #c2262 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning: melinda kao | montant accord : $20,000 #c2263 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute: susan sinclair | montant accord : $20,000 #c2264 | lakehead university: michel beaulieu | montant accord : $20,000 #c2265 | laurentian university: brigitte desjardins | montant accord : $20,000 #c2266 | university of waterloo: heather o'leary | montant accord : $20,000 45. animateurs communautaires en transfert des cat pour 2021 #t2205 | ahmad butt | montant accord : $1,500 #t2206 | constant yen | montant accord : $1,500 #t2207 | jennifer sparks | montant accord : $1,500 46.

conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario 180, rue dundas ouest bureau 1902, toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 tl. : 416-640-6951 tlc. : 416-640-6959 www.oncat.ca demande de propositions fournisseur attitr enqutes auprs des intervenants du systme de transfert date de clture : le 17 aot 2020, 11 h (heure normale de lest) lieu denvoi des propositions : conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario bureau 1902, 180, rue dundas ouest toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 prpare par : conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario personne-ressource : shauna love communications@oncat.ca directrice des oprations 416-640-6951, poste 302 site web principal de lorganisme : www.oncat.ca site web pour les tudiants : www.ontransfer.ca le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 1 table des matires vue densemble du caton............................................................................................................................ 3 invitation ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 vue densemble du projet ............................................................................................................................. 3 tendue des travaux ...................................................................................................................................... 4 exigences respecter .................................................................................................................................... 4 communication.............................................................................................................................................. 5 processus de soumission ............................................................................................................................... 5 processus dvaluation .................................................................................................................................. 6 critres dvaluation et pondration ............................................................................................................ 7 chancier et attribution ............................................................................................................................... 8 le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 2 vue densemble du caton fond en 2011, le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) a pour mission damliorer le parcours des tudiants et de rduire les obstacles pour ceux qui cherchent effectuer un transfert dans lun des 45 tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario. aux cts de nos membres et intervenants, nous faisons cela : en appuyant des projets visant crer et largir les parcours de reconnaissance de crdits et amliorer notre comprhension de la mobilit des tudiants et de lexprience du transfert pour les tudiants; en faisant participer les rgions et collectivits de lontario des discussions en groupe diriges; en recueillant des donnes sur les transferts de crdits et en partageant des ressources; en organisant des vnements qui runissent des experts en transfert de crdits de partout dans la province; en mettant en relation les tudiants avec des possibilits de transfert par lentremise de ontransfer.ca et les intervenants par le biais de notre site web principal oncat.ca invitation le caton est la recherche dun fournisseur qualifi possdant un grand savoir-faire en matire denqute pour laider concevoir et mettre en uvre des enqutes grande chelle. vue densemble du projet en ontario, la recherche sur les enjeux contemporains de la mobilit tudiante et du transfert des crdits est entrave par le manque de sources de donnes sur divers sujets, notamment sur les expriences, les rsultats et les flux dtudiants en transfert, sur les perceptions et les dispositions du corps professoral en matire de transfert et darticulation et sur la connaissance des processus de transfert et des parcours articuls de la part du secteur dans son ensemble. un grand nombre des sources existantes de donnes administratives et denqutes nont sans doute pas la capacit de saisir tous les indicateurs ncessaires (p. ex., lindicateur de transfert de crdits) ou nont pas des tailles dchantillon assez grandes pour permettre des analyses rigoureuses et instructives de sujets essentiels la mise en place dun systme de transfert efficace et bien rod. le caton est la recherche dun fournisseur qualifi possdant un grand savoir-faire en matire denqute pour laider concevoir et mettre en uvre des enqutes grande chelle. ces enqutes seffectueront auprs des principaux intervenants, tels que les membres du corps le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 3 professoral (p. ex., instructeurs, professeurs), les tudiants en transfert ou pouvant ltre, et les parties intresses ou les partenaires du systme (p. ex., parents, enseignants ou administrateurs dcoles secondaires). le caton sattend rpter certaines enqutes suivant des cycles convenus afin dvaluer les progrs raliss dans la mise en place dun systme mature de transfert de crdits, et dclairer les pratiques institutionnelles et llaboration de politiques. tendue des travaux le candidat retenu concevra et ralisera des enqutes grande chelle selon les conditions de laccord. chaque enqute consistera, au minimum, : 1. concevoir le questionnaire en collaboration avec le caton; 2. valider les lments de lenqute et effectuer au besoin des projets pilotes; 3. raliser lenqute, lobjectif tant dobtenir 1 000 rponses par enqute au moyen de mthodes appropries de collecte de donnes (notamment des enqutes en ligne, par tlphone ou par la poste); 4. prparer des rapports descriptifs et effectuer des analyses plusieurs variables; 5. prsenter les rsultats; 6. produire des ensembles de donnes et des rapports. exigences respecter les propositions doivent contenir au minimum : 1. les coordonnes de lauteur de la proposition; 2. une description de lapproche propose et du plan de travail pour les travaux susmentionns, y compris un chancier des principales tches et des tapes importantes; 3. le barme gnral des honoraires pour des projets denqute grande chelle (y compris un exemple anonymis de budget pour des projets raliss rcemment); 4. les qualits de lauteur de la proposition en lien avec les services demands, notamment ses capacits, les moyens dont il dispose, la ralisation de projets le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 4 complexes similaires et une exprience pertinente, ainsi quune liste de clients que nous pourrons contacter pour obtenir des rfrences; 5. une liste des membres du personnel qui seront affects ce projet et leurs qualits respectives, leur exprience des missions de cette envergure, y compris leur curriculum vitae et leur rle dans ces missions antrieures; une attestation de la disponibilit des personnes cites dans la proposition; 6. des dfinitions des termes techniques, sil y a lieu. communication toute communication, quil sagisse de demandes dinformations supplmentaires ou dclaircissements, doit tre envoye par courriel communications@oncat.ca. ces demandes doivent tre reues au plus tard le 27 juillet 2020, 16 h, heure normale de lest. dans la mesure du raisonnable, le caton tentera daider les fournisseurs intresss et de leur procurer les informations supplmentaires dont ils ont besoin. processus de soumission 1. veuillez examiner attentivement toutes les parties de la prsente demande de propositions (dp) et suivre toutes les instructions. les propositions incompltes ne seront pas prises en considration. 2. nous accepterons dautres approches ou dautres mthodes qui permettraient dobtenir les rsultats souhaits ou voulus. toutefois, nous refuserons les propositions qui drogent aux conditions, aux exigences ou ltendue des travaux dfinis ici ou qui les modifient de faon importante. 3. le fournisseur prend sa charge la totalit des cots associs la prparation ou la soumission de sa proposition (y compris ceux dune ventuelle entrevue) que ce soit pour rpondre la prsente dp ou pour communiquer des informations supplmentaires que le caton juge ncessaires pour valuer la proposition. le caton nest pas responsable de ces cots. 4. le fournisseur doit bien identifier dans la proposition les professionnels de lquipe quil propose, y compris, le cas chant, ceux quemploient des sous-traitants, ainsi que leurs champs de spcialit et leurs titres de comptence pertinents. les organismes doivent bien dfinir la partie de ltendue des travaux dont chacun de ces professionnels sera responsable. les fournisseurs sont tenus denvoyer une (1) copie lectronique de leur proposition communications@oncat.ca. la ligne dobjet doit se lire comme suit : enqutes sur le systme de transfert du caton : [nom de lentreprise] . le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 5 le caton acceptera les propositions jusqu la date et lheure de clture prvues, soit jusquau 17 aot 2020 11 h, heure normale de lest. les propositions doivent tre irrvocables pour quelque raison que ce soit pour une priode dau moins soixante (60) jours civils qui suivent la date de clture. le caton conservera la proprit des propositions qui lui seront soumises en rponse la prsente dp. le caton peut dcider de ne pas entreprendre ces activits. processus dvaluation le processus dvaluation comporte plusieurs tapes. le caton se rserve le droit, sa seule discrtion, de reporter lattribution dun contrat ou dannuler lappel propositions en tout temps et sans fournir de motifs lappui. le caton tant financ par le ministre des collges et universits, les services que doit rendre le fournisseur attitr sont tributaires du financement continu du ministre. tape 1 exigences obligatoires les propositions seront examines en fonction des exigences obligatoires et de leur conformit gnrale aux exigences de soumission. celles qui ne remplissent pas les exigences obligatoires seront refuses. tape 2 classement des propositions le comit dvaluation valuera et classera les propositions crites afin dinviter les fournisseurs les mieux classs faire une prsentation. tape 3 slection le comit dvaluation remplira la grille dvaluation, classera les propositions et les prsentations, puis slectionnera le ou les fournisseurs de son choix, lesquels pourraient tre convoqus une entrevue. en cas dgalit, les candidats seront invits une entrevue afin de les dpartager. lentrevue seffectuera selon un ordre du jour tabli et sera note par lquipe dvaluation. tape 4 ngociation avant lattribution du contrat, le caton peut ngocier des changements concernant ltendue des services (y compris les tarifs et honoraires par souci de respecter le budget) avec le ou les le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 6 fournisseurs retenus au terme de ltape 3 afin de choisir loption la plus avantageuse. il se peut que les personnes cites titre de rfrence soient contactes. cette vrification seffectuera en toute confidentialit. tape 5 avis dattribution du contrat le fournisseur retenu sera avis par crit; tandis que les autres fournisseurs seront aviss aprs la signature de laccord final. critres dvaluation et pondration les candidats doivent clairement satisfaire tous les critres ci-aprs : exprience gnrale du fournisseur et rsultats dmontrs 40 % notre valuation portera sur lexprience du fournisseur par rapport aux exigences de la prsente dp, sur la preuve de ses rsultats antrieurs, sur la qualit et la pertinence de ses ralisations antrieures et sur les rfrences et dautres points connexes. cela signifie plus prcisment que le fournisseur : 1. a dj produit des ensembles de donnes reprsentatifs lchelle provinciale ou nationale par chantillonnage alatoire stratifi ou dautres mthodes semblables; 2. a produit des ensembles de donnes utiliss par le milieu de la recherche universitaire, et des publications correspondantes dans des revues nationales ou internationales comit de lecture; 3. a dj travaill avec des entits du secteur de lducation postsecondaire en ontario. approche 20 % lvaluation portera aussi sur la stratgie et lapproche gnrales dcrites ou nonces dans la proposition et sur la capacit de lentreprise daccomplir la mission dans les temps impartis (la capacit prouve respecter les chances sera prise en compte). cela signifie plus prcisment que le fournisseur : 1. est en mesure deffectuer rapidement des enqutes grande chelle (obtention de 1 000 rpondants) au moyen de diverses mthodes de collecte de donnes, dont des enqutes en ligne, par tlphone ou par la poste. le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 7 approche budgtaire et rapport cot-efficacit 20 % la prestation efficace et efficiente de services de qualit est dmontre par rapport lallocation budgtaire. cette allocation est raisonnable et approprie. qualits du fournisseur 20 % notre valuation portera aussi sur les qualits et lexprience du personnel et de lquipe de gestion du fournisseur et de ses sous-traitants et de leur personnel. cela signifie plus prcisment que le fournisseur : 1. possde en interne le savoir-faire lui permettant de concevoir des questionnaires, de procder la validation des lments et de mener des projets pilotes denqute. 2. possde linfrastructure numrique et physique ncessaire pour stocker en toute scurit des donnes personnelles de nature dlicate conformment aux rglements dapplication de la loi sur laccs linformation et la protection de la vie prive et aux pratiques exemplaires. 3. a des employs temps plein en mesure de produire des rapports descriptifs et des analyses plusieurs variables par des mthodes de pointe en recherche en sciences sociales. chancier et attribution chances du projet date de publication de la dp 22 juin 2020 production du questionnaire crit (par courriel communications@onca t.ca) 27 juillet 2020, 16 h, heure normale de lest date limite pour la soumission de propositions 17 aot 2020, 23 h, heure normale de lest le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 8 valuation du 18 au 28 aot 2020 slection et ngociation semaine du 7 septembre 2020 avis dattribution semaine du 14 septembre 2020 le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario 9

oncat careers operations coordinator location: toronto, ontario, canada type: contract 20-months category: operations reports to: operations director about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created by the government of ontario to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges and universities. as a member organization, oncat works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. oncat also maintains the ontransfer.ca website, a student portal designed to connect students to transfer opportunities within ontario. through ontransfer.ca, students are able to make informed decisions about credit transfer in ontario. about the position overview reporting to the operations director the operations coordinator supports the planning and implementation of key internal projects to enhance organizational policies, processes and team interactions, and manages incoming invoices and reimbursements, completing key due diligence checks to ensure approval is appropriately received and information is correctly documented. the incumbent plays a key role in external interactions with individuals interacting with the ontransfer.ca website, and internal partners inputting information into the ontransfer.ca database. qualifications community college diploma in business administration, management or accounting. 3 to 5 years of relevant operational experience gained through positions in universities, colleges, government, or relevant not-for-profit and private sector organizations. knowledge of: o financial concepts/ basic accounting o project management o higher education o first aid/ health and safety excellent ms office skills including word, outlook (including email etiquette) and excel. strong attention to detail. very good reading comprehension skills and verbal communication skills. demonstrated ability to work independently and work collaboratively in a team environment. strong teamwork and team building skills with an ability to build and maintain effective working relationships at all levels of the organization. ability to input data with a high level of accuracy. analytical skills to research and review policies. bilingualism french and english (spoken and written) is preferred. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@ontransfer.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply september 10th, 2020 11:59pm est. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening or an interview will be contacted. oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require an accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2

2020 2021 project snapshot mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat higher education strategy associates mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates keywords transfer students; transfer credit; processes; good practices; barriers; student-centredness; improvement audience past participants of mapit; registrars; transfer advisors/officers; pathways coordinators; faculty overview in 2019, the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) commissioned hesa to undertake an exercise with ten ontario post-secondary institutions mapping out their transfer credit processes. the objective of the mapit 1.0 project was to help the participating institutions identify strengths in their transfer credit processes and most especially areas for improvement while also providing oncat with ideas for supporting institutions. hesa completed the project in june 2020, not only providing an overall report but also facilitating workshops with all of the participating institutions. mapit includes: an external consultant who generates process maps and institution-specific reports funding to support institutional participation shared learning sessions across institutions to build capacity summary reports for each cohort that provide aggregated findings 2 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates oncat and hesa identified four basic goals for credit transfer processes: to ensure students do not need to complete new coursework covering material they already know from previous coursework; to reach decisions on credit transfer as early as possible to permit students to optimise their decisionmaking and educational pathways; to ensure students feel informed, respected, and treated fairly at all times; and, to maximize the efficiency of institutional spending and other activity with regards to credit-transfer. hesa repeated the exercise with a second round of participating institutions in mapit 2.0 and is currently engaged in mapit 3.0. this snapshot provides a brief overview of the generalized findings from mapit 2.0. findings presented are generalized and do not reflect any one institution. view the entire report here. why it matters mapit helps institutions identify and improve their transfer credit processes. past participants have shared that having a third party organization evaluate their institutional processes allowed them to make the case for implementing system improvements. 3 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates the mapping exercise was very useful. the facilitators were excellent. they listened, asked engaging questions, and came prepared to meetings with a robust template of our information which was already entered, allowing us the opportunity to provide feedback. the sessions themselves were well planned, facilitated, and were an appropriate duration. the shared learning session was valuable in that we learned we were of many struggling with the same issues, but some have creative solutions that we can adopt to our own processes." --participant of mapit 4 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates generalized process map of ontario colleges 5 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates key findings through the mapit exercise, hesa identified four principle criteria for assessing the performance of transfer credit processes: timeliness, student-centredness, rigour, and efficiency. timeliness timeliness in the transfer credit process is critical because students need to have information on their transfer credits to be able to make informed decisions regarding whether to enroll and which courses to select. in some cases, delivering transfer credits late may be no better than failing to provide credits at all. ideally, students should know which credits are likely to be transferred at the time of admission. when it comes to assessing course-by-course equivalencies, we recommend that subject matter experts strive to provide decisions within two weeks of receiving the application. student-centredness student centeredness is about making all reasonable efforts to ensure students are informed, respected, and treated fairly throughout the transfer credit process. it supports an emphasis on delivering a high-quality student experience, which in the case of credit transfer often means an experience that reasonably minimizes students active involvement. 6 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates barriers to student-centredness include requiring students to: apply for transfer credit on paper or pdf files instead of an online application form submit a separate application for each course they wish to transfer over and identify course equivalents on their own find course outlines gather duplicate information that could be shared between institutions (e.g., transcripts) pay fees to have credits assessed rigour it is important that the transfer credit process be rigorous, with regards to both the dual goals of: ensuring that students learn the material and skills required for their academic program and embodied in the credential provided at the end of the program; and ensuring students do not need to cover material that they already know from previous coursework (accounting for residency requirements). these two goals imply a delicate balance. 7 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates best practice lakehead university, trent university, the university of guelph and the university of windsor do not require that students apply for transfer credits. instead, they automatically assess equivalencies against students transcripts provided at admissions. further to this, trent university offers transfer credit assessment free of charge, and in terms of communications automatically indicates to students the status of applications for transfer credits through the student information portal. 8 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates use of guidelines the presence and use of guidelines on how to assess equivalency vary greatly between higher education institutions. at institutions without such guidelines, we observe considerable variation in the degree to which assessors believe courses need to cover the same content, as well as other dimensions of how faculty assess equivalency. with this greater variability comes greater risk of bias in equivalency assessment. credit assessment guidelines efficiency institutions seek to maximize the efficiency of resource- and time-use in the transfer credit process. they do this through automation of tasks and in other ways in which tasks are organized. credit transfer databases are the fundamental technology for automating credit transfer. they allow the replication of already completed transfer credit assessments. often these equivalencies were initially established through course-by-course assessments, but they can also build up by integrating bulk course equivalencies from articulation agreements. some institutions do not have transfer credit databases, while others keep them in excel spreadsheets which can create a number of difficulties. 9 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates best practice trent university has developed and deployed a transfer credit database using digital technologies. not only does the university run transcripts against the database largely automatically, but the database itself is updated automatically as is ontransfer.ca. trent university, along with sheridan college and the university of windsor, have also automated much of their communication with students and the internal management of files to enhance efficiency. for instance, status updates through the student information portal provide an indication of the state of files when in processing. 10 mapit: reviewing transfer credit processes at ontario post-secondary institutions oncat & higher education strategy associates summary timeliness is essential. a best practice to strive for is assessing credits at the time of offering admission so that students can make an informed decision before they enroll. with respect to course-by-course equivalency assessment, we recommend a turnaround time from subject matter experts of two weeks or less. transfer should be student-centred, which means (where possible) reducing the burden on students to provide duplicate information, making applications accessible and easy to use, minimizing fees, and ensuring that communication is clear and responsive to students' needs. it also may include explaining why transfer credit assessment is beneficial and worth their time. to ensure the process is rigourous, use guidelines to assess credits. oncat's guide on assessing credits can help institutions develop and tailor their own guidelines. finally, there is room to increase efficiency in the transfer credit process. this goal can be accomplished by improving information management systems. building a more sophisticated database of course equivalencies and pathway agreements would allow staff to find equivalencies more quickly. some institutions are even able to run these searches automatically from student transcripts, which frees staff time for more important and fulfilling tasks, like communicating with students. 11 to read the full report , please visit : https://oncat .ca/sites/default/f iles/mediaf iles/mapit_-_f inal .pdf established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021.

mcmastermohawk music project number: 2018-07 final report date of submission: 2018-21-12 report author: bob shields, ph.d. mcmastermohawk music partner institution names mcmaster university mohawk college project team members kurt muller, associate dean, media, mohawk college - co-lead dr. virginia aksan, associate dean, humanities, mcmaster university - co-lead bob shields, ph.d., instructor, music, mohawk college - gap analysis, course design, sme, research, reports dr. andrew mitchell, professor, music, mcmaster university - gap analysis, course design, sme, reports jamshed turel, professor, music, mohawk college - gap analysis, course design, sme, reports dawn danko, mohawk college - curriculum design specialist & facilitator elizabeth williams, mcmaster university humanities, academic advisor & facilitator shiona mackenzie, mohawk music, project manager contact info for principal author bob.shields@mohawkcollege.ca 2 mcmastermohawk music table of contents partner institution names............................................................................................................ 2 project team members .................................................................................................................... 2 contact info for principal author .................................................................................................... 2 table of contents............................................................................................................................ 3 executive summary .......................................................................................................................... 4 project purpose and goals .......................................................................................................... 6 project aim ........................................................................................................................................ 6 project prime goal ............................................................................................................................ 6 related goals ................................................................................................................................... 6 literature list ................................................................................................................................... 6 environmental scan ....................................................................................................................... 7 pathway development ................................................................................................................... 8 research methodology .................................................................................................................... 8 program comparison and analysis .................................................................................................. 9 implementation process.................................................................................................................. 11 summary of pathways created ....................................................................................................... 11 data and analysis .......................................................................................................................... 12 mohawk essential employability skills (ees) and mcmaster degree-level expectancies (dles) 12 program hours by outcome ........................................................................................................... 14 levels of sophistication or skill .................................................................................................... 15 gap analysis .................................................................................................................................... 16 overall trends ................................................................................. error! bookmark not defined. limitations ....................................................................................................................................... 17 promising practices and lessons learned............................................................................. 19 recommendations ......................................................................................................................... 20 conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 21 appendix ............................................................................................................................................ 24 3 mcmastermohawk music executive summary funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), this work aims to examine the viability of degree-level learning outcome mapping as a normative approach in post secondary articulation agreements. towards this aim, the project team achieved its primary goal of producing and formalizing an articulation and pathway agreement (appendix a) from mohawk's three-year advanced diploma in music to mcmasters honours bachelor of music degree program based on degree-level learning outcome mapping. this pathway is one of the first of its kind in southern ontario and took effect september 1, 2018. mohawk college and mcmaster university partners believe that this innovative postsecondary transfer process and our collaboration are informative referents for future use in terms of student mobility, opportunity, outcomes, and progress in ontario. we have included findings on the efficiency and flexibility that a degree-level outcome agreement process may provide in terms of enhancing pathways and reducing barriers for students looking to transfer from college to university. we have also included recommendations to oncat for improving the navigation of articulation agreement projects by post-secondary institutions. first, we recommend addressing literature, language, and content used in degree level outcomes based approach. the disparity between the literature, language, and content used in colleges and that used in universities resulted in a certain vagueness, which made the process confusing and laborious at points. until this is resolved, we recommend equal emphasis on a course-level outcome mapping approach, as the degree-level outcome alone cannot account for specific types of knowledge and skills acquired by students, nor do they accurately express the level of acquired skill, which must be clear if educators and students are to make informed decisions about transferability. otherwise, faculty and administrators must interpret or assume what students know or do not know in a degree-level outcomes process. finally, degree-level outcomes provide little information or clarity for students considering or experiencing articulation. nonetheless, there were benefits to be found in a degree-level outcome approach. this approach allowed us to locate gaps, gap types, and potential pathways that course-to-course level outcomes approach would have made more difficult. where degree-level outcomes were similar, we could then identify where we needed to drill down into more specific course-level outcomes to determine parity in level, skills, etc. additionally, significant pathways appeared that would not have existed without a degree-level outcome approach. finally, certain mohawk courses contributed to a given degree-level outcome, so they were considered to be part of that outcomes pathway. had a course-to-course process been used, no pathway would have resulted. this could be considered both a benefit and a drawback. this process also was valuable in revealing gaps between mohawk colleges essential employability skills (eess), which focus primarily on a students economic capacity, and mcmaster universitys diploma level outcomes (dles), which focus more broadly on economic, social, and environmental capacity of students. gaps in critical research were also 4 mcmastermohawk music found between institutions. as a result, we recommend provincial revisions to college eess that reflect a more balanced cultivation of economic, social, and environmental capacity in college students and that increase pathways. we also recommend increasing space for fostering, facilitating, and assessing critical research in colleges in order to decrease barriers to articulation. finally, we recommend that admissions departments in ontario teachers colleges be made aware of the implications of articulation agreements for applicants. currently, students must complete two years of university in order to apply. that is, mcmaster students normally apply in their 3rd year. however, transfer students from mohawk, also in 3rd year at mcmaster, are denied entry and must wait an extra year to apply for teachers college. this is a significant economic and mobility barrier for students. this work included related goals, such as increasing the visibility of this pathway opportunity. towards this end, mohawk has leveraged communication strategies via the college's pathways office and student recruitment in order to raise awareness of the credit transfer opportunity for its students. in addition, mohawk and mcmaster are working together in order to continually enhance program compatibility so students experience more choice and fewer barriers. recommendations include agreements between the partners to maintain transparency, align communication, and align program reviews so that future revisions to the articulation agreement can be coordinated, visible, clear, timely and accurate. this project has brought mohawk and mcmaster closer together through increased and improved collaboration and access, which will have a positive effect on students through an integrated approach to mobility. our mohawk and mcmaster team thanks oncat for their generous support of this project. finally, our project team deserves many thanks for all their hard work, dedication and commitment to serving student needs throughout this project. 5 mcmastermohawk music project purpose and goals approximately 50% of students who enrol in the mohawk music program hope to pursue further educational opportunities upon completion of their diploma. mohawk college and mcmaster university, both located in hamilton, have worked together in partnership for many years, addressing this student need by providing an informal agreement whereby mohawk students can receive advanced standing upon entry to mcmaster. this oncat project allowed us to provide a formal pathway agreement for our students. by doing so, we hoped to reduce barriers and accessibility, and to increase choices, visibility, flexibility, and clarity for students looking to transfer from college to university. mohawk and mcmaster agreed to remain open and transparent throughout this pathway process by releasing our findings. this final report, its recommendations, as well as best practices and lessons learned via the process, can be shared with other institutions interested in implementing similar credit transfer opportunities. we also look forward to sharing our findings in relevant events and conferences. project aim provide research on the viability of a degree-level learning outcomes based approach in the formation and production of post secondary articulation agreements as normative. project prime goal the primary goal of this project team was to produce a degree-level learning outcome based articulation agreement in order to facilitate educational mobility and transfer of students from mohawk college to mcmaster university. related goals research and other work that occurred in formation and production of a degree-level learning outcome based articulation agreement helped to meet additional goals: increase post secondary pathway visibility, choice, efficiency and flexibility for students provide a referent for future use by oncat and other post-secondary institutions provide insight as to the viability of degree-level learning outcome based articulation agreements as normative literature list ontario government post-secondary quality assurance handbook (peqab) for ontario colleges (2016) mohawk college essential employability skills (eess) vocational learning outcomes (vlos) course learning outcomes (clos) 6 mcmastermohawk music course-level definitions, program entrance level requirements mohawk music handbook document of proposed bba trades management degree program mapping and gap analysis mohawk-berkeley articulation agreement mcmaster university mcmaster admission guidelines document mcmaster university self-study of music 2012 mcmaster music iqap 2012 year 2-4 plo mapping document program learning outcomes 2012 university undergraduate degree level expectations mcmaster university self-study guide book environmental scan mohawk and mcmaster partners recognize the need for increasing post-secondary student mobility. creating a culture that values mobility not only involves increasing student pathways, but also ensures that such pathways lead to increased choice, process clarity, conciseness, and time and cost efficiency for students. strengths and weaknesses of programs illuminated through this research process have provided an opportunity for reflection for both institutional partners, which can be used in program/curriculum reviews. current and future program/curriculum reviews can now benefit from the evolving values related to mobility. for example, mcmaster university and mohawk college have agreed to work to increase opportunities and decrease threats that may influence current and future pathway project plans. a culture of mobility should exist not only within the individuals and schools of a given institution but as part of an overarching value system as expressed within mission and values statements. these make explicit the culture of institutions, including providing insight into the priority placed on student mobility. the vision and mission statements of the partners illuminate the contrasts in focus that affect mobility: a) research and history at mcmaster versus performance and technology at mohawk b) social, environmental, and economic capacity at mcmaster versus economic capacity at mohawk these contrasts could be perceived as either complementary or obstacles to mobility, depending on the needs of a given student. however, broadening the areas of focus at college to include social and environmental capacity could lead to increased student mobility and preparedness. likewise, broadening the area of focus in university to include more music performance focus could increase pathways and preparedness. ultimately, decision-makers need to be mindful in ensuring that the current enthusiasm for mobility does not impede the fostering and facilitating of depth in knowledge and skills acquisition. table 1: institutional vision and mission statements 7 mcmastermohawk music institution vision mission mcmaster school of the arts (sota) the faculty of humanities is dedicated to cultivating a teaching and research environment, which reflects the highest standards of our disciplines, and to undertaking ventures in new areas of interdisciplinary inquiry and pedagogy. in the arts, we continue to strive for a balance between the best traditions of humanities education and the new forms of knowledge emerging within and at the intersections of disciplines. by learning from past and pressing issues facing our global world today, we promote advances in knowledge that make innovative, positive differences in the diverse lives of our students. future ready. learning for life. humanities promote a research-intensive environment to promote humanistic inquiry and exchange by supporting innovative scholarly projects and by creating opportunities for interaction among scholars, students and lifelong learners. we aim to ensure that students acquire the analytical skills, historical depth, and appreciation of diverse cultures needed to assume leadership roles as responsible, ethical, and pathbreaking scholars, cultural workers, creative artists, policy makers and professional communicators. we prepare our students to be thoughtful and engaged citizens in a global world. we educate and prepare highly skilled graduates for success and contribution to community, canada and the world. mohawk college mohawk music our goal as a faculty at mohawk college is to help our students harness their talents and dedication in music to become successful for a life in the arts. the courses that you take, ensembles and lessons that you receive and your performance opportunities on and off campus train you for a variety of careers and future possibilities after your graduation. (excerpt from coordinators welcome in student handbook) pathway development research methodology the methodology we employed in our work was was applied over three phases to achieve specific deliverables, which included contributing to the projects aim, prime goal, and related goals. phase 1 occurred between january 1, 2018 and april 30, 2018. we began with the establishment of a project team, which included subject matter experts, a curriculum design specialist, facilitators, report writers, a project manager, and project co-leaders. this team began their work focused on the following objectives: o reviewing the existing informal agreement o course design analysis and review o curriculum mapping and gap analysis o learning outcomes assessment o determining student eligibility requirements o reviewing and researching barriers to entry/accessibility barriers phase 2 occurred may 1, 2018 - august 31, 2018 and focused on achieving the following objectives: 8 mcmastermohawk music compose and sign draft articulation agreement compose and finalize the articulation agreement between the two institutions. have mohawk engage the credit transfer office and student recruitment to develop a communications plan for mohawk music students provide an interim report to oncat phase 3 occurred september 1, 2018 - december 31, 2018 to help us achieve the following objectives: submit the formalized pathway to ontransfer.ca finalize communication of the credit transfer opportunity to prospective students mohawk will compose and submit the final project report to oncat as per funding agreement the formal pathway was submitted for publication on ontransfer.ca, 30 sept 2018. mohawk colleges pathways office and student recruitment have finalized student communications surrounding credit transfer opportunity. program comparison and analysis in order to meet these work objectives, the team next compiled a literature resource consisting of documents form both partners and the province. this resource (see literature list) was used for degree level outcomes-based comparative work (phase 1 objectives). this work was done within the agreed-on framework of degree level mapping. as this is one of the first projects of its kind, established literature for the degree-level outcomes-based process was almost non-existent. where it did exist, disparities between college and university documents were frequent. mohawks curriculum design specialist and mcmasters humanities academic advisor were integral to ensuring the data we collected was accurate and useful in meeting provincial and institutional standards, as well as relevant to our needs. meetings were held between team members to ensure that any claims made in reference to program outcomes and levels that appeared in the literature were being adhered to in practice. after the literature resource was gathered, specific comparative work began. this work involved critically reviewing all relevant literature from the partnering institutions and the province of ontario: a) mapping college vocational learning outcomes (vlos) and university program learning outcomes (plo) hours, b) mapping college essential employability skills (ees) with university degree level expectancies (dle), c) providing mapping levels of mohawk courses to mcmasters plos, d) mapping of vlo and plo hours*, and e) summary of mapping gaps (see data and analysis tables 2-4, p 16-18) 9 mcmastermohawk music * note that only required (core) course hours can be used for comparison. options and electives cannot be included for the sake of consistency. a critical review of the literature allowed us to see which claims were up to date and being met in practice. it also identified institutional differences in language and outcomes that needed to be understood in order to find both gaps and common ground for pathways. once this work was done, we located overarching concepts and knowledge that would translate into a degreelevel outcome based block transfer agreement at the recipient institution. our method supplied us with the information we needed in order to successfully meet our phase 1 objectives. this work was distributed among team members and, upon completion, was reviewed by the whole team before being employed as a summary of gaps, student eligibility requirements, agreement terms and conditions, barriers, pathways, etc. maintaining open communication was key to our success. subject specialists and curriculum design specialists worked separately and together throughout the literature review, maintaining a constant line of communication and holding meetings when needed. in order to determine student eligibility requirements, we reviewed and clarified learning outcomes, course levels, and course hours. we also determined a) the cumulative grade point average that would be needed in order for a student to apply through the agreement, b) a date from which students would be eligible to apply retroactively for through the agreement, c) whether an audition would be required if students met these requirements, and d) and whether there would be an alternative mode(s) of entry available for students who did not meet the articulation agreement requirements. the methods we employed were summarized in the form of tables (p 16-18), which were useful for communicating our findings in a clear and concise way. a considerable amount of background work went into forming these tables. completing this work took significantly longer than anticipated due to navigating differences in curricular language between colleges and universities (plos/vlos, eess/transferable skills, levels, course outcomes, learning elements, hours/credits). in order to address equivalencies, a common understanding needed to be found without our being able to make changes to each institutions language. further, no governmental or other standard templates or resources existed for our work. where they did, resources for colleges and universities differed. again, we needed to cobble together, revise, and or create new resources for any comparative work. although the two institutions used different language for defining course levels, we settled on linking levels from both institutions to agreed-upon plos in order to conclude where the levels aligned (see table 3). concerning barriers to entry and accessibility, we referred to results from our comparative work. these included research gaps on the side of mohawk college in a) critical research, and b) social and environmental capacity cultivation and assessment, which suggest a need for 10 mcmastermohawk music colleges to revise essential employability skills (eess). we also documented an accessibility barrier existing between mcmaster university and ontario teachers colleges for students who had first transferred from mohawk to mcmaster. phase 1 objectives culminated in formalizing credit guidelines used for assessing transfer credit from mohawk college using a learning outcomes-based approach. implementation process having determined student eligibility requirements in phase 1 we moved forward in phase 2 with the production of the formal articulation agreement. for this process our method involved holding team meetings for the purpose of formalizing the terms of the agreement. our curriculum specialist took the lead in producing the final articulation agreement document (see appendix). the agreement was signed on june 30, 2018 as scheduled. the rollout date for the agreement occurred september 1, 2018 for a 3-year term. students completing the mohawk applied music program of studies from september 2016 and onward may apply for this transfer agreement. in meeting another phase 2 deliverable, mohawk has leveraged communication strategies via the college's pathways office and student recruitment in order to raise awareness of the credit transfer opportunity for its students. this has involved increasing visibility, clarity, accessibly, timeliness, and accuracy of credit/program transfer information for student use in navigating course choices during their mohawk pos so that they positively affect future pathways. phase 1-2 work was summarized in an interim report provided to oncat 01 aug 2018. we chose the a team member from mohawk to author this report involved with, and knowledgeable of, each deliverable, as well as to how we were progressing with this work in terms of deadlines. in accordance with oncat funding terms, as we proceeded, we were mindful to document recommendations, lessons learned, and promising practices. summary of pathways created we determined the point of entry for the pathway by examining which mcmaster degree-level outcomes and levels would be met by mohawk students upon entry to their music program. pathway information can be summarized as follows: units of transfer credits: the pathway created via the mcmastermohawk music project includes 63 units of transfer credit (a block 2 year transfer) in the mcmaster music (hons) degree program to successful mohawk music candidates. agreement terms and conditions: graduates of mohawk colleges 3-year applied music ontario college advanced diploma program who have a cumulative grade point average of at least 75% are granted 63 units of transfer credit, if: 1. they enrol in honours music; and 11 mcmastermohawk music 2. they have achieved a grade of no less than 70% in each mohawk college music course , thereby enabling them to complete the remaining 60 units for the degree in, potentially, a further two years. 3. for qualified applicants who meet the admission criteria for this transfer agreement, an audition will not be required. 4. for students who do not meet the admission requirement in point 2 above, an alternative offer may be made at the discretion of mcmaster university access and barriers: towards increasing access and reducing barriers, for qualified applicants who meet the admission criteria for this transfer agreement, an audition will not be required. we also determined that for students who do not meet the admission requirement in point (2) above, an alternative offer may be made at the discretion of mcmaster university. data and analysis mohawk essential employability skills (ees) and mcmaster degree-level expectancies (dles) first, we compared eess and dles between programs. ontario universities map their programs to six dles, which are further divided into more specific competencies (amounting to 26 different expectancies), while colleges map their programs to eleven eess. the dles and eess mapped to each music program are listed below. dles mapped to mcmaster music: 1. depth and breadth of knowledge a. a developed knowledge and critical understanding of the key concepts, methodologies, current advances, theoretical approaches, and assumptions in a discipline overall, as well as in a specialized area of a discipline b. a developed understanding of many of the major fields in a discipline, including, where appropriate, from an interdisciplinary perspective, and how the fields may intersect with fields in related disciplines c. a developed ability to i. gather, review, evaluate, and interpret information ii. compare the merits of alternate hypotheses or creative options, relevant to one or more of the major fields in a discipline d. a developed, detailed knowledge of and experience in research in an area of the discipline e. developed critical thinking and analytical skills inside and outside the discipline f. the ability to apply learning from one or more areas outside the discipline 2. conceptual & methodological awareness/research and scholarship: an understanding of methods of enquiry or creative activity, or both, in their primary area of study that enables the student to 12 mcmastermohawk music 3. 4. 5. 6. a. evaluate the appropriateness of different approaches to solving problems using well-established ideas and techniques b. devise and sustain arguments or solve problems using these methods c. describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research or equivalent advanced scholarship communication skills: the ability to communicate information, arguments and analysis accurately and reliably, orally and in writing, to specialist and non-specialist audiences using structured and coherent arguments, and, where appropriate, informed by key concepts and techniques of the discipline application of knowledge a. the ability to review, present, and critically evaluate quantitative and qualitative information to i. develop lines of argument ii. make sound judgments in accordance with the major theories, concepts, and methods of the subject(s) of study iii. apply underlying concepts, principles, and techniques of analysis, both within and outside the discipline iv. where appropriate, use this knowledge in the creative process b. the ability to use a basic range of established techniques to i. initiate and undertake critical evaluation of arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and information ii. propose solutions iii. frame appropriate questions for the purpose of solving a problem iv. solve a problem or create a new work c. the ability to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources professional capacity/autonomy a. the qualities and transferable skills necessary for further study, employment, community involvement, and other activities requiring i. the exercise of initiative, personal responsibility, and accountability in both personal and group contexts ii. working reflectively with others iii. decision-making in complex contexts b. the ability to manage their own learning in changing circumstances, both within and outside the discipline, and to select an appropriate program of further study c. behaviour consistent with academic integrity and social responsibility awareness of limits of knowledge: an understanding of the limits to their own knowledge and ability, and an appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and limits to knowledge and how this might influence analysis and interpretations eess mapped to mohawk music: 1. communicate clearly, concisely and correctly in the written, spoken and visual form that fulfills the purpose and meets the needs of the audience 2. respond to written, spoken or visual messages in manner that ensures effective communication 13 mcmastermohawk music 3. 4. 5. 6. (ees 3 is not applicable) apply systematic approaches to solve problems use a variety of thinking skills to anticipate and solve problems locate, select, organize, and document information using appropriate technology and information systems 7. analyze, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources 8. show respect for the diverse opinions, values, beliefs and contributions of others 9. interact with others in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and achievement of goals 10. manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects 11. take responsibility for ones actions, decisions, and consequences the difference in number of, specificity of and approaches to dles and eess created immediate problems for articulation mapping, as it was difficult to make direct comparisons. as can be seen, dles tend to refer to the ways in which knowledge and knowledge sources are understood and applied within and outside of ones field, including knowledge of ones own limits and capacity. however, eess tend to refer to skills (literacy, numeracy, interpersonal problem-solving, technology, and personal management). in spite of these difficulties, an analysis was done to find all possible points of comparison. program hours by outcome secondly, we looked at the program learning outcomes (plos) in mcmaster music and each vocational learning outcomes (vlos) in mohawk music. again, the different emphases of the programs made direct comparisons difficult. mcmasters plos are weighted more heavily toward research, history and analysis whereas mohawks vlos are weighted more heavily toward application and performance. in order to make an accurate comparison, the number of hours devoted to a given plo or vlo needed to be established. this required a course-bycourse calculation (core courses only). table 3 shows the final comparison of total plo and associated vlo hours. a list of mohawk music vlos appears below the table. table 2: degree-level outcome hours by mcmaster plo and associated mohawk vlo mcmaster plo mcmaster plo hours (total - years 1 & 2) mohawk vlos (see list below) mohawk vlo hours (total - 3-year diploma) plo 1 demonstrate continual growth, improvement and confidence in pursuit of excellence in solo and ensemble performance. 25 vlo 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 48 plo 2 comprehend musical traditions, histories, cultures, contexts and styles. 37 vlo 1, 3 43 plo 3 critically research music and communicate their insights and discoveries in presentation and writing. 9 vlo 3, 6, 4, 9 3 14 mcmastermohawk music plo 4 analyze and understand musical forms, harmony, and the structures of notated music, and appreciate their relationship to perceptual processes. 46 vlo 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 50 plo 5 demonstrate competencies in ear training, keyboard harmony and sight singing 25 vlo 1, 3, 5 39 mohawk music vocational learning outcomes vlo 1 perform on his or her principal instrument at a professional level vlo 2 provides private instrumental and theoretical instruction to students vlo 3 connect the background and structure of music to personal performance and composition vlo 4 evaluates career and further educational opportunities that exist in music vlo 5 perform at a professional level demonstrating ability to integrate elements of music recognizing transcription (aural recognition) vlo 6 communicate convincingly in speech, writing and presentation vlo 7 compose and arrange music appropriate to area of specialization vlo 8 organizes and directs musical groups vlo 9 use technology to enhance professional communication and research skills levels of sophistication or skill third, we needed to analyze the level of skill or sophistication achieved in mohawks program years to determine the amount of appropriate transfer in the pathway. mohawks levels are foundational (broad introduction and/or context for further reading), specialized (in-depth and/or focused learning), and integrational (synthesis of numerous concepts and processes at a program exit level (e.g. in the form of a capstone course or project)). mcmaster refers to moderately or strongly basic, intermediate or advanced levels. with no common framework, equivalencies could not be assumed. it was necessary for mcmaster faculty to analyze mohawk course outcomes and learning elements to determine level equivalents. it was more efficient to look at the level of a course over a year (e.g. tonal harmony 1 & 2) rather than by semester. we can see these yearly representations in table 3. table 3: levels of sophistication/skill by mohawk course required mohawk courses accepted for articulation ear training & solfege 1 & 2 ear training & solfege 3 & 4 mohawk level, according to course outlines foundational keyboard skills 1 & 2 foundational, integrational foundational tonal harmony 1 & 2 foundational contemporary harmony 1& 2 foundational tonal or contemporary harmony 3 & 4 specialized ensemble 1 & 2 foundational ensemble 3, 4, 5, 6 specialized 15 mcmaster plo 1, 4 5 1, 4 5 1 5 2 4 2 4 2 4 1, 2, 4, 5 1 2, 4, 5 possible mcmaster level of course per plos & dles, based on mcmaster perception of course outline moderately basic strongly basic moderately basic strongly intermediate moderately basic strongly basic moderately basic strongly basic moderately basic strongly basic moderately basic strongly intermediate moderately basic strongly basic moderately basic mcmastermohawk music 1 strongly intermediate 1, 2, 4, 5 moderately basic 1 strongly basic principal instrument 3 & 4 specialized 2, 4, 5 moderately basic 1 strongly intermediate principal instrument & performance 1 & 2 specialized 2, 4, 5 moderately basic 1 strongly intermediate popular music and society foundational 4 moderately basic history of western music specialized 3, 4 moderately basic 2 strongly basic improvisation 1 & 2 foundational 2 moderately basic 1 strongly basic no moderately intermediate levels were identified because levels were determined on a yearly, not semester, basis. principal instrument 1 & 2 foundational gap analysis finally, after points of comparison between dles and eess, plos and vlos, hours and levels of sophistication were determined, an analysis of gaps and pathways could be undertaken. the gaps are summarized in table 4. table 4: summary of mapping gaps mcmaster plos & dles (degree learning expectations) mohawk diploma-level vlos & eess associated content, knowledge or skills missing in mohawk diploma content type of gap cks: content, knowledge or skills ls: level of sophistication/skill plo3: critically research music and communicate their insights and discoveries in presentation and writing. vlo 3 - connect the background and structure of music to personal performance and composition vlo 6 - communicate convincingly in speech, writing and presentation vlo 9 use technology to enhance professional communication and research skills* critical research (and communication) ls i) (f) the ability to apply learning from one or more areas outside the discipline cks iii) describe and comment on articular aspects of current research or equivalent advanced scholarship (a) i) develop lines of argument (a) iii) apply underlying concepts, principles, and techniques of analysis both within and outside discipline (b) iii) frame appropriate questions for the purpose of solving a problem (research questions) (c) the ability to make critical use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (a) qualities and transferable skills necessary for... community involvement; behaviour consistent with... social responsibility (c) behaviour consistent with academic integrity and social responsibility ls dle 1: depth and breadth of knowledge (f) dle 2: knowledge of methodologies (a) iii dle 3: application of knowledge (a)i; (a) iii; (b) iii; (c) dle 6: autonomy and professional capacity (a), (c) ees 7 analyze, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources ees 4 apply a systematic approach to solve problems ees 7 analyze, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources (no advanced research equivalent) ees 7 analyze, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources. ees 8 show respect for the diverse opinions, values, belief systems, and contributions of others 16 ls, cks cks mcmastermohawk music notable gaps on the mohawk side include level of sophistication in terms of critical research (e.g. articular aspects of current research, use of scholarly reviews), content or knowledge of historical/sociological context or environmental capacity (e.g. hours spent on music history, breadth outside the discipline, and hours devoted to community involvement or social responsibility within and outside the field). specifically, 1/3 of mohawk music courses explicitly reflect a focus on economic capacity (e.g. business/entrepreneurship, music technology and music production courses for commercial purposes). mcmasters degree learning expectancies do not share the same focus. for example, dle 6 a) and c) use language to describe community involvement; behaviour consistent with...social responsibility... behaviour consistent with academic integrity and social responsibility. this focus is also explicit in mcmasters vision and mission statements, plos and other public documents. on the mcmaster side, there was a gap in terms of musical performance (fewer hours on playing skills in principal instrument and ensemble contexts). specifically, 48 hours of performance skills time were attributed to mohawks program over three years, whereas mcmasters total time on this plo was 25 hours over four years. overall trends mcmaster has a focus on history and teaching, whereas mohawk tends to focus on performance, technology, production and entrepreneurship. mohawk college tends to focus on cultivating economic capacity of students, whereas mcmaster university focuses on cultivation of economic, social, and environmental capacity. these areas are assessed as part of college eess and university dles. o the team together decided that the different language (ees vs. dles) used to frame these skills affects program content and pathway generation. subject specialists determined that mohawks business/entrepreneurship courses reflected mostly an economic focus, which could only serve minimally in the mapping process toward basic research, but not toward pathways connected to social and environmental capacity. o our pathways coordinator expressed to us that other project teams in the province had shared this observation. an examination of a variety of university literature from across the province and types of programs (uoft, guelph, lakehead, york, trent, waterloo, etc.) revealed that they had a very similar focus on social and environmental capacity. limitations the framework of this project, that the articulation agreement deliverable be founded on degree-level outcomes, limited our ability to capture many nuances of program knowledge and skills that could have been used in both creating pathways and illuminating gaps. the 17 mcmastermohawk music vague language of degree-level outcomes allowed for gaps to appear larger or smaller than they may realistically have been. for example, an initial gap in critical research was later considered transferable when history, technology, production, and entrepreneurship courses that minimally fed a mohawk vlo were considered to meet an equivalent mcmaster plo. that would not have been likely to occur had course-to-course mapping been used, as the actual amount of critical research explicitly taught and assessed in the mohawk music program is significantly less than that in mcmasters music program. while this situation would seem to benefit mohawk students on paper, giving them more transferable credit, it may disadvantage them in terms of real preparedness for the research demands in 3rd year at university. as mentioned throughout this report, a lack of common frameworks and terms means that equivalencies in skills and knowledge, or in level of skill and sophistication, could not be accurately determined by using degree-level outcomes alone. 18 mcmastermohawk music promising practices and lessons learned this was a fascinating comparison to undertake, and much was learned, not only about the pathways between our programs, but about the articulation process. we offer the following promising practices and lessons learned in the hope that others can benefit from our experience and manage expectations. scheduling meetings was a challenge due to team member availability, as the schools each had different academic calendars and work schedule commitments, e.g. exams, promotion meetings, other deadlines, and vacations. understanding these schedules at the outset would have been beneficial for planning deadlines and meetings. set aside plenty of time for all comparison and review work, as well as literature review. collecting and organizing relevant documents (see literature list) to be used for gap analysis and other mapping took considerable effort and time. make sure the initial literature resource is developed and clearly understood by both parties. this includes analyzing differences in terms between college and university systems and between institutions and the province. specifically, degree level outcomes from each institution, as well as those in contained in the post secondary education quality assessment boards degree level standards for diploma, (peqab handbook, p. 17) need to be: o collected o compared and contrasted o translated into mutually agreed-on terms o understood (by both partners) this work will provide a key referent, underpinning all pathway decision-making that takes place. provide extra time for language, content, and literature revision and updating. resources that were not up to date or in need of other revision slowed the work process. a review of institutional program-level resources to ensure currency would be helpful prior to the actual articulation process. mapping outcome levels was time-consuming and confusing, given the differences in institutional language. again, ensuring that course-level outcomes and elements are current, clearly articulated and understood by stakeholders prior to mapping is key. having a single representative from each institution do background work with a curriculum specialist during the mapping and review process, prior to bringing the information to the team as a whole, proved to be extremely valuable and efficient. smaller side meetings between specific team members added to efficiency. over the course of the project, we learned that the full group was too large to effectively and 19 mcmastermohawk music efficiently execute some tasks. it was also difficult for everyone to have the same depth of knowledge about the content, terms, and so on involved in the process since grappling with them was so complex. therefore, small groups with the relevant knowledge completed given tasks. it was then essential to provide team members with the resulting documents and a general topic discussion list, which, with adequate lead time, they could review in order to be prepared for any follow-up discussion or decision-making. this made for more efficient large-group meetings. sharing the articulation agreement, interim report, and the final report between all team members for proofing has been extremely helpful. recommendations recommendations to oncat for improving navigation of future projects are as follows. 1. as it stands, course-level mapping should remain a part of articulation processes. the disparity of language and frameworks between colleges, universities, and the province present difficulties in comparative analysis of degree-level outcomes alone. without considerable reference to course-level outcomes, particularly to determine levels, degreelevel mapping would have been vague and inaccurate. 2. if the goal is that degree-level learning outcome mapping be the normative approach, shared language would increase clarity and efficiency. a new or merged framework for ees/dle-level, program-level, and course-level outcomes and for content/skills/knowledge and skill/sophistication levels is recommended. 3. related to recommendation 2, the team recommends a revision of communication skills on page 17 of the peqab handbook to include aural and paralinguistic modes of communication, important to music and other domains. this was a noticeable gap in the language of mohawk eess. 4. we recommend that oncat consider the disparity between colleges and universities in cultivation of economic, social, and environmental capacity of students. as it stands, colleges focus mainly on economic capacity, which impedes potential pathways between college eess and plos and dles. to remediate this gap, colleges could introduce more curriculum focused on cultivating and assessing social and environmental capacity. 5. we recommend that colleges increase opportunities for programs to teach and assess critical research skills in order to increase pathway opportunities. 6. any articulation teams ability to accurately compare levels between programs depends on both programs adherence to entrance standards and course-/year-/program-level standards. adhering to these standards ensures validity of and responsibility to all other aspects of the articulation formation process. if levels float, claims about a students 20 mcmastermohawk music preparedness for mobility become meaningless. this has real-life implications for transfer students, who need to feel secure about their ability and preparedness to be successful at university. the very best must be done to ensure that we do not set students up for failure via pathway agreements. 7. teachers colleges (tc) need to be informed that transfer students are unfairly disadvantaged when it comes to access. students entering 3rd year of the mcmaster program are currently unable to successfully apply to tc programs because of a perceived lack of university years, while their non-transfer 3rd year classmates get access. this needs to change if these agreements are to have access and mobility benefits for students beyond their college-to-university articulation. 8. while there is a desire to increase the culture of mobility via degree-level outcomes, we recommend mindfulness about sacrificing domain-specific and course-specific outcomes that reflect depth of knowledge, content, skills, and sophistication. the trend toward vague, generalized language in degree-level outcomes seems to permit greater possibilities for pathways between institutions and programs. however, it also limits what we understand about students actual competencies in the field and preparedness for articulation. further, it diminishes clarity about and homogenizes unique knowledge and skills cultivated in a given program or domain. this has implications not only for transfer within a domain and between institutions, but also for transfer between domains. conclusion this mcmastermohawk music oncat project has achieved its goal of producing a degree-level learning outcome based articulation agreement towards facilitating educational mobility and transfer of students from mohawk college to mcmaster university. this goal contributed to the project aim, which was to provide insight as to the viability of degree-level learning outcome mapping as a normative approach to post secondary articulation agreements. additionally, this report provides a referent for future use and navigation by oncat and other post-secondary institutions. in terms of viability, we have determined there are some positive aspects in using a degreelevel outcome approach. it allowed us to view the programs more holistically, in terms of whether they are providing balanced cultivation of economic, social, and environmental capacity. when used in concert with yearly levels of sophistication in college outcomes, they gave us a sense of overall breadth and depth of skills and knowledge. they also helped us to identify general gaps and promising areas for pathways. nonetheless, levels and content, for the purposes of articulation, cannot be mapped accurately without assistance from courselevel outcomes. although we share oncats desire and commitment to increasing mobility, until issues of language and frameworks between college and university systems are resolved, we recommend proceeding with caution with initiatives and policies that normalize degree-level 21 mcmastermohawk music learning outcome mapping. exceptionalities in program cultures must not be inadvertently undervalued or sacrificed a balance between addressing mobility barriers and maintaining institutional vision is important. most importantly, student preparedness, confidence and success should not be negatively affected by mobility objectives, strategy, and context. we all have a responsibility to ensure that articulation agreements prepare and place students appropriately to flourish. 22 mcmastermohawk music works cited postsecondary education quality assessment board. (2016). handbook for ontario colleges: applying for ministerial consent under the post-secondary education choice and excellence act, 2000. retrieved 12 09, 2018, from peqab.ca: http://www.peqab.ca/publications/handbooks%20guidelines/2016hndbkcaa t.pdf 23 mcmastermohawk music appendix articulation agreement between mohawk college, applied music advanced diploma and mcmaster university, bachelor of music (hons) purpose mohawk college and mcmaster university have developed this articulation agreement with the purpose of facilitating the educational mobility and transfer of students from the mohawk applied music advanced diploma program to the mcmaster bachelor of music (hons) program. mohawk college and mcmaster university enter into this agreement as cooperating, equal partners who shall maintain the integrity of their separate programs while working to ensure a smooth curriculum transition for interested students. agreement terms and conditions this agreement is in effect starting september 1, 2018 for a 3-year term. students completing the mohawk applied music program of studies from september 2016 and onward may apply for this transfer agreement. graduates of mohawk colleges 3-year applied music ontario college advanced diploma program who have a cumulative grade point average of at least 75% are granted 63 units of transfer credit, if: 1. they enrol in honours music; and 2. they have achieved a grade of no less than 70% in each mohawk college music course , thereby enabling them to complete the remaining 60 units for the degree in, potentially, a further two years. 3. for qualified applicants who meet the admission criteria for this transfer agreement, an audition will not be required. 4. for students who do not meet the admission requirement in point 2 above, an alternative offer may be made at the discretion of mcmaster university. curriculum review both parties agree to communicate annually concerning curriculum or program outcomes changes that affect the agreed-upon relationship between articulated programs, understanding that the responsibility for curriculum and program of studies is the sole 24 mcmastermohawk music responsibility of each respective institution, and to communicate future planning that might lead to further opportunities for program articulation between the two parties. articulation amendments both parties reserve the right to amend or revise by mutual consent and in writing this agreement. mcmaster university and mohawk college will review this agreement every 3 years and make adjustments and amendments as deemed appropriate to maintain the integrity of each institution as well as improve the transfer process and student articulation. if agreed upon, pending review, a renewal of the agreement may be signed. terms for renewal or cancellation in the event that mohawk college or mcmaster university does not fulfill the above responsibilities, either party may terminate the agreement with one academic year written notice to the other. the parties agree that the termination of this agreement shall not operate so as to affect those students participating in the program, until they have had the opportunity to complete it fully. communication mohawk college will designate an individual who will be responsible for the ongoing communication and monitoring of the articulation agreement at mohawk college. mcmaster university will designate an individual responsible for this articulation agreement at mcmaster university. marketing the two institutions agree to promote this articulation agreement through: a. exchange of promotional materials as required; b. joint publications; c. recruitment initiatives in canada and abroad as negotiated annually for the duration of this agreement. the use of logos, trademarks, crests, coats-of-arms, etc. of each institution by the other institution on promotional material will be done only with prior notice and reasonable opportunity for input and any editing. each institution reserves the right of refusal of any such use if agreement of use is not reached. 25 mcmastermohawk music signatories this agreement will commence the date of signing. the signatories hereby warrant that they have express and sufficient authority to execute this agreement on behalf of the institutions on whose behalf they have signed. 26 mcmastermohawk music schedule a requirements for completion of the mcmaster music (hons) degree for graduates of applied music ontario college advanced diploma at mohawk college successful transfer students will receive a transfer designation or t on their transcript for 63 units in the mcmaster music (hons) degree program. to successfully complete the mcmaster music (hons) degree, students must maintain a gpa of 60% and complete an additional 60 units including the following: 1. music 1mh3 - music history i: music and culture 2. one of either music 2mh3-music history ii: music in western culture to 1900, or music 2b03 - history of western music 1890-present. 3. one of music 4y03 - topics in music history: advanced musicology seminar; music 3kk3 - topics in music history: music from c. 1750-c. 1900 or music 3jj3 - topics in music history: music before c. 1750. 4. 51 additional credits in honours music program at mcmaster. 27

examining the profiles and pathways of military veterans in ontario oncat r1927 project final report 1 acknowledgements we would like to express our thanks to mark gallupe, professor/plar facilitator at loyalist college of applied arts and technology, elizabeth nicholas, employment and education coordinator the trenton military family resource centre, warren otto, academic advisor for the military support office at the university of manitoba, lieutenant-colonel robert (bobby) hall, personnel selection officer at cfbgarrison petawawa and jacinda keronga, veterans affairs case manager for their valuable support, guidance and resources throughout the duration of this project. we also wish to thank the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) for their financial support, which made this report possible. we would also like to thank the academic operations and planning department for their help in collecting the survey data, with a special thanks to samantha logan, institutional research and planning analyst, for her help and guidance with the survey, focus group preparation and results analysis. a special thanks to maggie cusson, dean of academic development and mao keo, project coordinator for providing leadership and direction on this project. responsibility for the analysis and the opinions expressed in the report remain solely with the authors. 2 table of contents background and literature review .............................................................................................................. 4 population characteristics ....................................................................................................................... 6 presence in post-secondary education .................................................................................................... 7 education training benefit..................................................................................................................... 10 barriers .................................................................................................................................................. 11 research questions ................................................................................................................................... 13 method ...................................................................................................................................................... 14 results........................................................................................................................................................ 15 discussion .................................................................................................................................................. 20 next steps .............................................................................................................................................. 24 limitations ............................................................................................................................................. 27 conclusion.............................................................................................................................................. 28 references ................................................................................................................................................. 30 3 background and literature review the government of canada has a long history of supporting veteran retraining that dates back to the end of world war i beginning with the federal department of soldiers civil re-establishment, founded in 1918 (civilian reintegration, n.d.). veterans benefits have been a building block of the canadian social welfare state and many of the social benefits we have in place today originated in the context of canadian veterans benefits, including: free hospital coverage, vocational retraining for those with disabilities, federal support to post-secondary educational institutions, business development loans, publicly funded legal aid, income support and home care (veterans affairs canada, 2004). until recently, however, monetary retraining benefits were not available to active military members who released voluntarily, completed their terms of service or reached mandatory retirement age (cathcart, 2019). only medically released service members might have qualified for financial support to use toward vocational rehabilitation. the face of the canadian veteran has drastically changed since 1918 and the priorities of these veterans has also changed. world war ii saw a conventional type of warfare with a strong sense of moral purpose. soldiers went away for many years at a time to take part in a fight that many agreed needed to be fought. recent missions are often divided into six-month rotations that target an enemy that is less-well defined and received only lukewarm support from the public. veterans today are not as worried about pensions as they are about jobs and education (galloway, 2010). these veterans are looking for jobs that would approximate the pay they made while in the military and many of them are looking to go back to school to upgrade their skills or shift career focus entirely. each year, approximately five thousand new, highly skilled veterans release from active service in the canadian armed forces and reports show that more than thirty percent reported difficulty transitioning to civilian life (van til et al., 2017). the life after service survey (lass) is a national longitudinal survey that collects information on the transition from military to civilian life, general health 4 and well-being, chronic conditions, labour force participation and other related information. the most recent results from the survey from 2016 report that veterans with recent releases (between 2012 and 2015) had a higher rate of difficult adjustment compared to earlier releases between 1998 and 2012. in 2017, the office of the veterans ombudsman released a publication entitled transitioning successfully: a qualitative study that had the goal of better understanding the factors which contribute to a successful transition, programs and services which facilitate a successful transition and the challenges in the transition process (veterans affairs canada, 2017). the report found a number of factors that contributed to a successful transition, including: being proactive and owning the transition, having a supportive spouse/partner and planning ahead for the transition. factors that made transition challenging included: finding a new sense of purpose outside of the military, stress towards maintaining financial security and stigma towards injuries, particularly mental health. for those that have been medically released from the canadian military, there are a number of transition support services available, with the most common being the veteran family program offered through veterans affairs canada and the vocational rehabilitation program offered through manulife. the veteran family program offers programs, services and resources to support the unique needs of medically releasing canadian armed forces members as well as medically released veterans and their families. this includes continued and unlimited access to local military family resource centres and some of the transition-support programs and services include: group sessions on transition topics, mental health first aid courses and financial planning workshops (veterans family program, n.d.). the vocational rehabilitation program (vrp) is a component of the canadian armed forces long-term disability (caf ltd) group insurance plan, administered and managed by manulife. the objective of the vrp is to provide training and education that focuses on enhancing the former members existing education, skills, training and experience to obtain gainful employment in the civilian workforce (vocational rehabilitation program, n.d.). this program focuses on the acquisition of a 5 license, certification, diploma or degree from a recognized educational institution in a field where the former member already has transferable skills while also keeping in mind their medical limitations. population characteristics the canadian armed forces is comprised of a wide variety of personnel that join for varying reasons and attracts recruits from a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds, training, education levels, and pre-service work experience and many people join the service for financial reasons (cathcart, 2019; diramio, et al., 2011). according to a march 2019 report released by veterans affairs canada, it is estimated that the total veteran population in canada to be just under 650,000 as of march 31, 2018 (veterans affairs canada statistics facts and figures, 2019). of these, almost 90% are male and just under half are under the age of 60. of the veteran population that receives benefits, 24% have disability benefits for a service-related psychiatric diagnosis and 71% are receiving disability benefits for ptsd. military personnel and veterans have elevated rates of medical and psychiatric conditions relative to the general population and up to 75% have service-connected disabilities, of which the most common is a psychological or emotional condition such as ptsd or depression (bryan et al., 2014). strickley (2009) describes how veterans may be dealing with the psychological aspects of war or a serious injury or disability as a result of combat, all of which can shape their views on life and higher education. the national center for post-traumatic stress disorder has found that a significant percentage of veterans have been exposed to some sort of a traumatic experience. specifically, 60 percent have been attacked or ambushed, 86 percent have received incoming fire, 80 percent have been shot at, 36 percent have discharged a weapon, 63 percent have seen dead bodies or remains, and 79 percent have known someone who was seriously injured or killed (strickley, 2009, p. 4). the changes from life in the military community to life as a civilian may include relocation, loss of social support systems, reintegration into civilian lifestyle, different or non-existent healthcare services and possibly a new job or career path (falkey, 2016). those who are ending their military 6 service are leaving more than just a job; they are leaving a way of looking at themselves in the world. it involves reconceptualising not only what they do, but who they are, and, often, what they believe (jones, 2013). the prevalence of self-reported difficult adjustment to civilian life ranges from 25% to 38% for all veterans in canada with those who were medically release reporting much higher rates of difficulty (rose, vandenkerkhof & schaub, 2018). medically released veterans are more likely to report being unsatisfied with current or anticipated levels of income and investments (marshall, matteo, & pedlar, 2005). in addition, those that medically released reported higher levels of psychological challenges associated to the stigma of not being strong enough to stay active in the military and perform their duties, or a sense of being abandoned by the organization they gave their life to, or that their sacrifices on behalf of the nation have been disregarded (knutson, 2015). presence in post-secondary education for many veterans, the completion of a post-secondary education is a significant developmental milestone offering self-determination and greater economic opportunities. employment among veterans is associated with better overall psychological and physical well-being and participation in community life (norman et al., 2015). ackerman, diramio and garza mitchell (2009) found that student veterans listed starting college as the most difficult transition out of the military. currently, there are no overarching frameworks to guide decision-makers about the type of support mechanisms that should be offered based on their specific veteran population (evans, pellegrino & hogan, 2015). research shows that student veterans are quite selective about the campus life and academic activities in which they invest their time and typically place great emphasis on academic areas that they find essential for academic progress versus college or university life and activities that are not essential for success (cole & kim, 2013). student service members and veterans are more likely than traditional post-secondary students to be male, older, married and have children (bryan et al., 2014). contrary to popular belief, however, a 7 large number of student veterans are not much older than their peers. the difference is not the age of the students, but rather the maturity level of the student veterans who have had more life experience than traditional students (persky & oliver, 2010). this population of students are more likely to represent the first generation in their families to attend a college or university (cole & kim, 2013). a common theme reported in student veteran studies is difficulty connecting socially with the campus and other students (ackerman et al., 2009, diramoio, ackerman, & garza-mitchell, 2008; jones, 2013). they struggle with the psychosocial effects of war and fitting in on campus and many veterans enrolled in postsecondary do not graduate or take longer to graduate than traditional-age students (cate, 2014; wood, 2012). veterans entering post-secondary will bring with them soft skills such as initiative, resilience, decision-making abilities and leadership, all of which are desirable traits when pursuing independent study (cathcart, 2019). basic combat training while in the military is utilized to develop resilience and a sense of common purpose and teamwork (church, 2009). military and veteran students are generally described as emotionally mature, mission-oriented, and experienced leaders who set examples in both college and workplace settings (lighthall, 2012). returning student veterans bring with them major life experiences, cross-cultural awareness and a strong motivation to serve others (money, n.d.). student veterans expressed that military principles grounded in accountability in discipline resonated with them and that discipline learned in the military was essential in establishing new routines (gregg, howell & shordike, 2016). campus culture is quite different than military life, so it is one of the biggest adjustments for the student veteran (rumann, rivera & hernandez, 2011). service members are accustomed to structure. they are given a mission, shown how to complete it and know what the expectations are for completion. when they arrive at college they expect the same structure. they are looking for an established procedure that tells them how to enroll, when to enroll, and where to turn in their 8 paperwork (wheeler, 2012). a number of qualitative and quantitative studies show that many student veterans are facing extensive challenges in working toward their academic goals (borsari et al., 2017; normal et al., 2015; tinuco, 2014). challenges that have emerged include issues associated with being non-traditional students, mental/physical health problems, being first-generation students and perceived institution-policy inefficiencies in the implementation of veteran benefits. veterans entering post-secondary studies after release are influenced by a diverse set of experiences compared to non-military college and university students (cathcart, 2019). todays student veterans bring many challenges to higher education, such as relocation, academic skills, lack of continuity in education, physical issues, psychological issues and social isolation (daly & fox garrity, 2103; hopkins, et al., 2010). student service members and veterans often share the risk factors related to other adult learners (wheeler, 2012), in addition to psychological feelings of isolation, disconnectedness, and discomfort in academic settings (persky & oliver, 2010). active military members who are also students behave differently than traditional students because of the unpredictability of the military system such as deployments, training requirements and reassignments (bryan et al., 2014). flexibility is an important consideration for military students and distance education, particularly online courses, can provide this flexibility for non-traditional adult learners (kolowich, 2010). online courses do not solve all problems, however, as active military students may run into issues with disrupted internet access, or even no internet access. in addition, there may be security features on military computers that prevent students from accessing information needed to study (machuca, torres, morris & whitley, 2014). active military students frequently have heavy demands on their work schedule, with those in combat zones under particular stress and being aware of these demands is important for instructors (smucny & stover, 2013). for service members in general, there is often stigma associated with reaching out for help given a military culture that is predominantly against showing weakness (danish & antonides, 2009). 9 many student veterans are undergoing a constant dynamic tension as they transition from a previous state (active military) to several simultaneous current states (post-secondary student, civilian and/or employee) all while creating and recreating their individual identities along the way (jones, 2013). the way in which veterans created meaning for their life in the military is often quite different then the way they create meaning as students on campus. this dichotomy is a key challenge for student veterans transitioning to higher education (jones, 2013). the total number of active military and veteran students attending post-secondary institutions in canada is not well known as this data is not consistently tracked or reported on. in 2018/2019, it was reported that 1,027 veterans accessed the education training benefit and it was forecasted that this number would increase to 2,400 in 2019/2020 (veterans affairs canada statistics facts and figures, 2019). this number does not reflect the number of active military students attending post-secondary and it does not include those who are pursuing post-secondary using other benefits offered through veterans affairs canada or students who are paying for their education on their own. it is not known how many active military or veteran students are currently attending algonquin college or loyalist college. education training benefit in the past, only service members who were medically released might have qualified for financial support to pursue post-secondary or other approved training program with the intention of vocational rehabilitation in mind. this changed, however, when the government of canada introduced the education and training benefit (etb) on april 1, 2018. the etb, administered by veterans affairs canada (vac), provides eligible veterans with funding to help them achieve their college, university or technical education goals. funding is also available for short, informal courses. the intent of the etb appears to be grounded in providing an opportunity for veterans that honours the implicit social covenant between the nation and the service member (cathcart, 2019). in other words, the etb is not 10 allocated on the basis of particular needs (i.e., vocational rehabilitation), which allows veterans to seek out new challenges. veterans who have been honourably released since april 1, 2006 and who have served for six or more years are eligible to receive the benefit. the funding support available as part of the etb presents post-secondary institutions with a unique opportunity to welcome qualifying veterans into a wide variety of programs and has several implications (cathcart, 2019): veterans can augment previously attained skills and knowledge, thereby expanding career-specific employability veterans who posses a non-transferable skill may be able to pursue new educational and career goals the cumulative effect of offering this benefit is that more veterans will be able to access a robust training and education subsidy package that has not been available in the previous seven decades. the etb is poised to have an overwhelmingly positive impact on releasing veterans and post-secondary institutions need to aware of the potential implications (cathcart, 2019). barriers the most common factors that put post-secondary students in high-risk categories are delayed entry, financial independence, full-time employment, part-time enrollment, dependents, single parenthood and lack of a high school diploma or ged (wheeler, 2012). veteran students report that two of the main reasons they do not attend post-secondary studies are difficulties they face with regard to the organizational bureaucracy and challenges faced when trying to fit into the academic environment (daly & fox garrity, 2013). navigating the governmental and institutional bureaucracies can be daunting. education and health care benefits applications are complicated, sometimes requiring dozens of pages of paperwork, with wait times of more than six months to schedule an appointment, and even 11 longer to receive benefits. when veterans experience these issues on a concurrent basis, they often feel lost, overwhelmed and dismayed if they are not provided with mechanisms of support that are informed by an understanding of the difficulties veterans face during transition (bonar & domenici, 2011; brown & gross, 2011). when it comes to obtaining credits for the work they completed while in the military, veteran students are often dissatisfied by inconsistent credit transfer rules among departments, frustrated by unexpected parts of the transfer process and confused by institutions decisions regarding credit transfers (benchmarking financial aid and credit policies for military students, 2019). veterans persistence in higher education often depends on their ability to make rapid progress and build on the knowledge they established in the military (diramio, ackerman, & mitchell, 2008). in the united states, the american council on education (ace) publishes the guide to the evaluation of educational experiences in the armed services, which provides recommendations to post-secondary institutions on evaluating academic transcripts that are provided by the military for active-duty service members and veterans (the military guide, 2020). the guides credit transfer recommendations are based on reviews of military coursework by a panel of university faculty members convened by ace. these faculty members review military coursework and occupational training descriptions pertaining to their own academic disciplines and evaluate them. reports, however, show that the ace evaluations have significant variability and lack clarity on specific credit transfer policies (steele, salcedo & coley, 2010). to date, no such equivalent of the reviews and evaluations conducted by ace exists in canada. the decision of whether military experience will be counted for academic credit is left to the discretion of each post-secondary institution and as a result, wide variability exists. in a recent benchmarking analysis, hanover research (2019) found few canadian institutions that are marketed explicitly as military friendly and those that did offered a wide range of services, supports and credit transfer options. in their analysis, hanover research documented four canadian institutions that were marketed 12 explicitly as military friendly and most used ad hoc partnerships or non-diploma programs to serve military-connected learners. only royal roads university, located in victoria, british columbia, advertises a comprehensive list of offerings toward military-connected students and the institutions history as the royal roads military college likely has something to do with this. the process of successfully transitioning to civilian student life can be hindered by the drastic shift from a role where authority is unchallenged and job descriptions are clear, to one where rules are loosely interpreted and followed, and college students are expected to act autonomously and be selfdirected (evans, pellegrino, & hoggan, 2015). veterans are a unique cultural group within the civilian population and these differences may be amplified in a post-secondary environment given the change in organization and social structure and an unfamiliar and uncertain hierarchy, and some may face culture shock (cathcart, 2019). adjusting to an academic culture, which emphasizes individual accomplishment, independent organization, and a fairly slow pace is directly opposite of the military culture, which can make transition even more difficult (rumann & hamrick, 2010; kurzynski, 2014). all branches of the military rely on strict adherence to a chain of command and operate with a high power distance. the location of veteran campus services may negatively affect the potential interactions between the student and employee if the student veteran perceives that the person is of a high ranking position (daly & fox garrity, 2013). research questions in april 2018, the government of canada released the education and training benefit and postsecondary institutions can expect to see a rise in the number of veteran students looking to access postsecondary education after they have released from the military. 1. what are the characteristics of the veteran student population in ontario? how many are accessing transfer pathways? 13 what are the needs of this population? what are the general characteristics of this population? 2. what are the motivations and expectations of this population of transfer students? what are the expectations of these transfer students? did the services provided meet their expectations? if not, why? what factors influence the expectations and motivations of transfer students? 3. what are the obstacles and challenges faced by this student population? what kinds of systems or agreements are already in place to promote and facilitate transfer between institutions? how can post-secondary institutions support this population best? what type of support systems need to be in place or created? method participants included 73 college students from algonquin college of applied arts and technology (algonquin college), located in ottawa, ontario (n = 49) and loyalist college of applied arts and technology (loyalist college), located in belleville, ontario (n = 24). most participants classified themselves as veterans (58.95), with reservist being the second most popular (30.1%). a small percentage of respondents were still active in the military (10.9%). a majority of participants (53.4%) were enrolled in a 2-year diploma. a smaller proportion (19.2%) were enrolled in 3-year advanced diplomas and 11% of respondents were enrolled in a bachelors degree. a significant portion of participants were enrolled in full-time studies (91.8%) and a majority (45.2%) did not work or have responsibility for any children (54.8%). potential participants from algonquin college were recruited by responding to an email that asked if they were a former or active military member. their response included contact information, 14 which was then used to send the survey. participants at loyalist college were recruited by sending out an email invitation to all registered students. those that fit the criteria were able to move forward with the survey. 35% of respondents from loyalist college were removed from further analyses as they did not meet the criteria. those that met the criteria were invited to participate in the survey, which was hosted on surveymonkey. at the end of the survey, participants were invited to go to a separate page to enter their contact information for a chance to be entered into a draw to win one of 25 $25 gift cards to either starbucks or amazon. at the time of survey distribution, participants were also asked to provide their contact information if they were interested in participating in a focus group to discuss their experiences in further detail. the focus groups were scheduled for the middle of march at algonquin college and the end of march for loyalist college. unfortunately, due to the covid-19 outbreak, all in-person events and gatherings were cancelled. interest in focus group participation was low, so it was decided that we would complete the report without the focus group portion of the study. results as can be seen in figure 1, a greater majority of respondents (47.6%) from loyalist college indicated the education training benefit (etb) had a major influence on their decision to enroll in postsecondary compared to algonquin college (28.6%). in total, 39.3% of respondents indicated that the etb had a major influence on their decision to pursue post-secondary. table 1 shows a breakdown of funding sources for student veterans. a little over a quarter of participants (26.4%) were actively using the etb to fund their education with the use of caf-ltd/manulife funding being the second most used way to fund education (20.8%). as can be seen in table 2, just over half of the respondents (51.4%) indicated that they used their own personal savings to fund their education, 30.8% used their earnings from work and 22.2% received funding from federal or provincial loans. 15 figure 1. influence of education training benefit major influence algonquin moderate influence 28.6% loyalist total 10.2% minor influence 12.2% 47.6% 11.4% not applicable 36.7% 14.3% 39.3% no influence 10.0% 12.2% 4.8% 9.5% 23.8% 28.6% 15.7% table 1. education benefits used algonquin loyalist total education benefit used # % # % # % education training benefit 12 24.5% 7 30.4% 19 26.4% caf-ltd/manulife funding 8 16.3% 7 30.4% 15 20.8% caf-ilp 3 6.1% 5 21.7% 8 11.1% other 8* 16.3% 2 8.7% 10 13.9% none of the above 23 46.9% 5 21.7% 28 38.9% 16 table 2. other financial services used algonquin loyalist total other financial services # % # % # % private scholarships or grants 2 4.1% 1 4.3% 3 4.2% federal or provincial student loans 13 26.5% 3 13.0% 16 22.2% private loans from a bank or other institution 2 4.1% 0 - 2 2.8% credit card 2 4.1% 3 13.0% 5 6.9% unemployment benefits 0 - 2 8.7% 2 2.8% earnings from work 16 32.7% 6 26.1% 22 30.6% personal savings 27 55.1% 10 43.5% 37 51.4% financial support from spouse or other family members 11 22.4% 2 8.7% 13 18.1% none 13 26.5% 8 34.8% 21 29.2% almost half of the respondents from loyalist college (42.9%) attempted to transfer credits to their current program and a small percentage of respondents from algonquin college (12.9%) attempted to transfer credits to their current program (see figure 2). out of the successful number of credits transferred, the majority fell between one to three credits with only one respondent from loyalist college reporting success in transferring seven or more credits. there was an even distribution of 6 students being satisfied with the number of credits transferred and 6 being unsatisfied with the number of credits transferred. 17 figure 2. percentage of attempted transfer credits 12.2% 21.4% 42.9% yes no 85.7% 75.7% unsure 52.4% algonquin loyalist total table 3 provides a breakdown of the challenges faced by student veterans. 26% of respondents found that balancing coursework with other responsibilities is a major challenge. financially supporting themselves and/or their family was indicated as a major challenge by 23% of respondents and 21% of respondents felt that finding peers or staff who understand their perspective as an active military member or veteran was a major challenge. 36% of respondents felt it was a minor challenge to meet their professors academic expectations and 54% felt that they experienced no challenges when enrolling in the courses needed for their program plan. only 27% of respondents agreed that receiving the benefits they had applied for posed no challenges. 18 table 3. challenges to success in higher education challenges to higher ed success major challenge moderate challenge minor challenge not a challenge not applicable understanding how to navigate the education training benefit 14% 16% 29% 17% 24% receiving benefits youve applied for 14% 17% 26% 27% 16% financially supporting yourself and/or your family 23% 13% 44% 17% 3% obtaining academic credit for your military service and training 17% 10% 13% 14% 46% enrolling in the courses you need for your program plan 10% 10% 16% 54% 10% balancing coursework and other responsibilities 26% 27% 30% 16% 1% meeting professors academic expectations 10% 20% 36% 34% - coping with a service-related injury or disability 19% 10% 20% 19% 32% finding peers or staff who understand your perspective as active caf member or veteran 21% 19% 24% 24% 11% table 4 breaks down the resources that respondents have accessed or not accessed on campus. out of the list of resources, 90% of respondents found that their professors were either quite or extremely helpful as a resource. almost half of respondents (47%) felt that an academic counsellor/advisor on campus was either quite or extremely helpful. 44% of respondents had no experience with this resource. a third of respondents (33%) found that connecting with other veterans 19 they knew on campus was at least quite helpful as a resource. 90% of respondents had no experience with a student veteran organization on campus and 81% of respondents have never accessed the career center on their campus and 74% of respondents have never accessed the tutoring or writing center on their campus. table 4. helpful resources resources extremely helpful quite helpful not helpful at all no experience academic counsellor/advisor on campus 11% 36% 9% 44% financial aid office on campus 6% 19% 10% 66% student accounts office on campus 7% 27% 1% 64% tutoring or writing centre on campus 11% 9% 6% 74% career centre on campus 3% 10% 6% 81% counselling/mental health centre on campus 7% 12% 7% 74% professors in your class 41% 49% 7% 3% student veteran organizations on campus 4% 1% 4% 90% other veterans that you know 13% 20% 9% 59% discussion unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances, portions of this project were not able to be completed. focus groups and survey responses from active military members who have not yet transitioned to post-secondary studies were two areas that we were hoping to complete as part of the project. the current pandemic situation of covid-19 has paused all in-person activities and has shifted 20 the priorities of active military members across the country. the focus of this research report given the change in circumstances has shifted to more of an exploratory analysis of what student veterans are currently experiencing at two post-secondary institutions in ontario. many of these student veterans come with credentials that have the potential to be used toward their current program, including previous military experience and completed credits from another post-secondary institution. more and more caf members are retiring or opting to release from the military with the intention of pursuing post-secondary education with the assistance of the etb. as these numbers continue to increase, it is clear that specific support systems need to be in place to ensure this population of students feel connected and engaged with the post-secondary institution. as noted by one respondent: ...the system seems unable to account for long-service veterans with academic qualifications that seek to make a career change or pursue trade qualifications. it seems as if the systems view is that all veterans are between 30 and 40 years old with no formal education past high school. thats not the case. yet there is no flexibility to account for those that do not fall into this profile. 90% of respondents indicated that they had not accessed a veteran support centre on campus, which could be due to the fact that such a centre does not even exist. obtaining credit for prior experience in the military typically falls into the area of prior learning assessment and recognition (plar), and while this does fall outside of the scope of this project, it is noteworthy to mention that very few respondents even attempted to transfer credits to their current institution. out of the 70 respondents, just under a quarter attempted any credit transfer. out of the respondents who did attempt to transfer credits, a quarter of them were unsuccessful. a deeper dive into the reasons why only a quarter of respondents attempted to transfer credits is needed, but research has pointed to a number of reasons for this, including administrative red tape, lack of awareness in what can be transferred and hearing about the challenges that other veterans have faced in successfully getting credits transferred (griffin & gilbert, 2015; vacchi, 2012). 21 challenges for student veterans are not just specific to obtaining transfer credits for prior learning but also include balancing coursework with other responsibilities, financially supporting themselves and their families and successfully applying for benefits. for some, going to school is a fulltime undertaking on top of full-time work, which results in a complicated game of competing priorities and a lack of balance. some students are still active members in the military and struggle to maintain balance between the two. as one respondent indicated, sometimes i find it hard to balance my school and caf responsibilities i do not have much time to myself between the two. for those that have families, there is an additional layer of responsibility that might be compounded with difficulties that the student veteran is experiencing in transitioning from a career in the military to a full-time student. as noted above, the drastic differences between the two are stark and one respondent indicated difficulty in transitioning from a military environment to a civilian oriented environment. another respondent found that there exists a very large gap between military [sic] routine to civilian routine. just the mentality, showing up for classes on time, respect in classes and campus... being in a classroom with fellow students that are much younger also poses a challenge to student veterans. one respondent indicated that after 12 years in the caf including 2 deployments, being surrounded by children felt weird. one respondent, however, did not see being with younger students as a negative and found that it was interesting to see how education is now delivered and its interesting and enriching to interact with much younger classmates. professors continue to play a key role in the success of their students, and student veterans are no exception. as described by one respondent, the college system had no idea what to do with me. thank goodness for (name removed), the program coordinator for my program who spearheaded my transition and has been an inspiration. only 7% of respondents didnt agree that their professor was a helpful resource for them on campus but that is still 7% too many. in the research conducted on support services for student veterans at post-secondary institutions in canada, no specific resource that could 22 help guide faculty in supporting these students was found. reaching out to staff and faculty that are also veterans would be a great starting point in an effort to make connections and seek their expertise in where to start with developing resources for faculty. there are existing services in place at post-secondary institutions that are doing what they can to support their student veteran population. in addition to their professors, almost half of respondents felt that a counsellor/advisor on campus was a helpful resource. professors and counsellors/advisors are often the first people on campus that students have extended contact with and having a positive relationship with these individuals is a significant indicator for retention, student engagement and student satisfaction (cummings, 2016). if connections with other veterans on campus are made, it can be a significant source of support and engagement. many student veterans have discussed at length the unique benefits that come with meeting and connecting with other student veterans (jenner, 2019). for many, there is an unspoken language and camaraderie that cannot be found elsewhere. not all existing support services are being utilized as a significant majority of respondents have never accessed support services such as the career, tutoring or writing centres on their campus. engagement with support services at most post-secondary institutions is a constantly evolving situation and specific student populations are known to engage even less with their campus environment and fellow students. in fact, there are many services in place at various institutions that directly target those specific populations, including first-generation students, international students, indigenous students, atrisk students, etc. thus far, less attention seems to have been gone toward support services targeted to the student veteran population but with the release of the etb, it is hopeful that this will change in the near future. 23 next steps the student veterans success relies not only on the individual, but also on the institution (hermann, raybeck & wilson, 2008). veteran-specific programs at post-secondary institutions may not be new, but comprehensive support services seem to finally be catching up with the demand as millions of veterans have returned to the post-secondary setting to utilize the benefits provided through the modernized g.i. bill in the united states and the more recent etb in canada (cathcart, 2019; kurzynski, 2014). to meet the needs of this unique population of non-traditional students, post-secondary institutions could benefit from understanding student veteran challenges, developing appropriate solutions and continuing to refine their services based upon assessment data. when campuses offer veteran-centric services such as priority registration and veteran-specific academic and financial counsellors, student veterans reported more positive experiences on campus (norman et al., 2015). campuses supportive of military culture through a visible presence of other veterans and veteranspecific co-curricular activities are also a positive step. in the united states, the military friendly company, owned by viqtory, has set a military friendly standard that measures an organizations commitment, effort and success in creating sustainable and meaningful benefit for the military community. military friendly schools ratings are assessed through the evaluation of both public data about the institution and proprietary data gathered through their free military friendly schools survey. final survey results and ratings are determined by combining an institutions survey scores with the assessment of the institutions ability to meet minimum thresholds for student retention, graduation, job placement, loan repayment and loan default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans (military friendly, n.d.). there is currently no equivalent standard in canada to the military friendly program, but there are a number of post-secondary institutions with services in place that are specific to the needs of active 24 military members and veterans. in a recent benchmarking analysis conducted by hanover research, there are very few canadian institutions that are marketed explicitly as military friendly (benchmarking analysis: military friendly campuses, 2019). instead of comprehensive offerings, several canadian institutions use ad hoc partnerships or non-diploma programs to serve militaryconnected learners, but this approach seems to be changing and the change is coinciding with the release of the etb. a brief review of benchmarks used in the military friendly program and services offered by some canadian post-secondary institutions can be found in table 5. table 5. benchmarks in military friendly program and services offered at canadian institutions common military friendly top ten benchmark algonquin college loyalist college university of manitoba ryerson university active duty or reserve military student returns without penalty after deployment yes yes yes yes offers weekend programs yes no program/course dependent no offers evening programs yes no yes yes not in 2-3 year diploma programs not in 2-3 year diploma programs tuition discounts specifically for military students no no no no additional scholarships specifically for military students and veterans yes no yes yes formal mentoring or advising program in which faculty or staff members who are current or former members of the military mentor students who are military service members or veterans no no no yes offers accelerated courses (i.e., 6-8 weeks course completion time) spring/summer only spring/summer only 25 dedicated social space for gathering (e.g. a student lounge or veteran center) reserved specifically for military service members and veterans no no no launching in 2020/2021 veteran-to-veteran peer mentoring program no no not within the university yes the university of manitoba has a well established military support office that offers a one-stop shop for credit assessment, degree program planning and advising, and administrative support that is specific to active military, veterans, civilian employees of the department of national defence and their dependents (military support, n.d.). those attending the university of manitoba benefit from a number of special considerations, including: degree credit for specific evaluated military courses and training, reduce residence requirement on select degree programs, withdrawal and tuition reimbursement when unforeseen military duty interferes with university study and degree program planning, military credit assessment and support requests for student-related administrative issues. similarly, ryerson university offers a veteran transition to education (vte) program, which provides academic and non-academic peer assistance to the veteran community and currently serving soldiers. the goal of the program is to provide access to all applicable support programs within ryerson university and puts veterans and active members in touch with a veteran transition advisor who provides support during all phases of study (veteran transition to education, n.d.). some of the services the vte program offers include: flexibility in education, funding assistance, academic upgrades, a certificate to degree laddering program and support with non-academic issues. algonquin college has established an innovative partnership with the canadian armed forces (caf) whereby active military members and veterans who have successfully completed particular types of caf occupational training may be eligible for credit recognition within certain programs (credit for 26 military training, n.d.). algonquin also offers a military families fund, which is a bursary created by the ottawa senators hockey club to support military or family members demonstrating financial need (military families fund, n.d.). in 2007, the caf and algonquin college entered into a multi-year agreement to deliver a specialized two-year geomatics training program in partnership with the canadian forces school of military mapping. in this partnership, the college would deliver the academic training, while the caf provided military-specific instruction unique to the geomatics occupation. algonquin provides classrooms and an access-controlled geomatics computer laboratory, with peripheral geomatics hardware and an information support network that could remotely access the department of national defence network (geomatics technician program, n.d.). limitations the study was not without its limitations and some were the direct result of the covid-19 outbreak. one purpose of the focus groups was to dig a little deeper into the possible reasons behind why only a small percentage of respondents attempted to transfer any credits to their current program. a second goal of the focus groups was to get a better sense of what support services student veterans would like to see in place on their college campuses and to get valuable insight into what existing services are doing well. given the timing of the pandemic response, survey responses from active military members stationed at cfb-garrison petawawa was not possible. this information would have provided valuable insight into the percentage of respondents who were intending to pursue postsecondary studies after they retire as a result of the release of the etb. survey responses from active military members would have also provided both algonquin college and loyalist college with information regarding what support services these potential future students would find helpful and useful once they arrived on campus. 27 the presumably low response rate at both algonquin college and loyalist college is a common issue when it comes to online surveys (manfreda, et al., 2008). we state that the response rate is presumably low because there is no way to track exactly how many students at either post-secondary institution identify with the caf in some way (e.g., veteran, reservist, active-duty). to date, there has not been a way to accurately report how many student veterans or active military members are attending either college. a low response rate can run the risk of encountering sampling bias, which means that the views reflected in the results do not accurately reflect the reality of this population. future studies should focus on obtaining responses from a wider range of post-secondary institutions to obtain a better representation of the province. conclusion this study has provided algonquin college and loyalist college with a starting point on the needs and experiences of their existing student veteran population. it calls to attention that transferring credits has not been accessed by many, which could speak to a lack of direction or administrative red tape that prevents student veterans from attempting to get prior experience and education recognized. professors and program counsellors/advisors are, not surprisingly, a helpful resource for these students but many feel they are not able to connect with other student veterans on campus. engagement with other support services on campus is low and this could speak to a need to more directly tailor some of these services to student veterans. reviewing what other institutions in canada and the united states are already doing to serve their student veteran population has shown that there is a wide variety of ways in which colleges and universities are providing support. compared to the united states, canada has not yet established their services as firmly into many of their post-secondary institutions and lack a unified response to the acceptance of transfer credits, the types of services available and accommodations that can be made. 28 some post-secondary institutions in canada, like the university of manitoba and royal roads university, can be looked at as examples of best practices for what they are doing to serve the veteran student population. the student veteran population is one that is only expected to grow significantly in coming years and post-secondary institutions would be well served to ensure they have the services in place to meet the unique needs of these students. some student veterans may fall into other special student populations, such as first-generation students, but many student veterans come with skills, life experience and needs that would be best served by individuals who know and ideally, can relate to them. one thing that is not yet clear is whether any one approach to integrating veterans services is better than another but one thing is for certain, it is imperative that we meet students where they are. collaboration across the province and country to share feedback and ideas is an important next step and we would be well served to accurately identify and track student veterans at our respective institutions to ensure they are made aware of and provided with services and supports they need to be successful in their studies. 29 references ackerman, r., diramio, d., & mitchell, r. l. g. 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project snapshot remodeling honours bachelor of kinesiology pathways type: pathway development project number: p2223 project lead: lakehead university collaborators: cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, georgian college, sault college project summary through this project, lakehead university will update and re-model pathways to reflect changes in curriculum and accreditation/quality assurance standards so that they continue to align with the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) degree program. furthermore, this project represents an opportunity to combine similar pathways into multilateral pathways, thus making them more efficient, consistent, and transparent. with financial support from the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), the lakehead university school of kinesiology has developed 12 bi-directional transfer pathways between the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) degree and related diploma programs at collge boral, cambrian college, canadore college, georgian college, and sault college. after receiving approval from lakehead university senate, 11 of the pathways into the hbk program were first offered in september 2020, with one additional pathway pending approval. the hbk program currently requires students to complete 22 full course equivalents (fce) to obtain the degree. however, following recommendations from the 2019 quality assurance undergraduate program review, and in an effort to better align with undergraduate program requirements at lakehead and other ontario universities, the school of kinesiology has decided to revise the hbk program to require 20 fce rather than 22 fce. this change has major implications for the existing transfer pathways, which were all developed based on the 22 fce program. a review and revision of course equivalencies, prerequisite considerations and program mapping for each bi-directional pathway is necessary to maintain current pathway offerings and availability for students. the revised curriculum also presents an opportunity to increase the efficiency, consistency, and transparency of pathways into the hbk program by exploring the viability of multilateral pathways. for example, there are currently four separate pathways from occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant (ota/pta) diploma programs at four ontario colleges (canadore, sault, boral, and georgian). because these pathways were developed at different times, each is considered a separate program. as part of the review and revision process, they could be combined into one multilateral pathway, reducing potential confusion between programs and simplifying the application process for students and faculty advisors. similarly, the school of kinesiology offers three pathways from fitness and health promotion (fhp) diploma programs (sault, boral, and georgian) and one pathway from a physical fitness management (flbu) diploma program (cambrian college). these pathways also represent an opportunity to develop one multilateral pathway, particularly since the 3-year flbu program was recently reorganized as a 2-year fhp program. furthermore, confederation college located in the same city as lakeheads thunder bay campus will launch its own fhp program in 20212022. establishing a partnership with this program and including it in a new multilateral agreement is a logical and viable way to create a transfer opportunity with an added geographical advantage. additionally, an important consideration in this pathway development process is that the pathways meet the same accreditation, quality assurance, and professional designation requirements as the 4-year hbk program. for example, the hbk program is accredited through the canadian council of university physical education and kinesiology administrators (ccupeka), and the program is reviewed through the institutional quality assurance process (iqap) under the guidance of the provincial quality assurance framework for all ontario universities. program content also equips graduating students with the prerequisites for achieving professional designations such as registered kinesiologist (rkin) and certified exercise physiologist (csepcep). the most recent program reviews took place in 2019-20, just prior to the final approval and implementation of the pathways; therefore, the pathways have yet to be formally evaluated regarding their ability to meet these requirements. there is a need to ensure that the pathways achieve outcomes consistent with the 4-year hbk program. the main purpose of this project is to revise the existing pathways to and from the school of kinesiology to reflect curriculum changes in the 4-year hbk degree; however, this project also presents a valuable opportunity to (a) increase the efficiency, consistency, and transparency of the existing pathways by exploring the possibility of multilateral agreements, (b) revise the current cambrian flbu lakehead hbk pathway to reflect curriculum changes in both the diploma and degree programs, and (c) incorporate the new confederation fhp program into a multilateral fhp pathway to enhance the relationship between our institutions and add a geographically-beneficial transfer option. this project will also seek accreditation of the pathways through ccupeka, ensure that they meet the most recent iqap standards, and confirm that they are providing the prerequisites for professional designations including rkin and csep-cep. by achieving these objectives, this project will position lakehead university as having the most accessible and high-quality accredited pathways in health and fitness education in ontario. project rationale this project was needed because of the decision to revise the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) program from 22 full course equivalents (fce) to 20 fce. because existing pathways were developed based on the 22 fce program, it was necessary to review prerequisites, course equivalencies, elective requirements, and other considerations for all pathways to ensure that they continue to accurately reflect and represent the content of both the college diploma programs and the hbk program. main collaborators the main collaborators were representatives from lakehead university, cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, georgian college, and sault college. results the top outcomes for this project were the following: existing pathways within the school of kinesiology were updated to reflect the current 20 fce hbk program multilateral agreements were established for both occupational therapist assistant / physiotherapist assistant (otapta) and massage therapy (mt) programs a new pathway was created between the hbk program and the 2-year fitness and health promotion program at cambrian college (formerly 3-year physical fitness management (flbu) program) a detailed overview of the status of pathways and their eligibility for meeting the same accreditation, quality assurance, and professional designation standards as the 4-year hbk program was produced key steps this project determined viability and developed pathways through the following process: confirmed all curriculum changes for the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) program and determined how those changes influenced pathway organization and delivery collected relevant data required for transfer credit assessment (i.e., course outlines, learner outcomes, credit hours, etc.) conducted initial data analysis/transfer credit assessment re-mapped all existing pathways according to hbk curriculum changes and any other relevant considerations confirmed revised curriculum maps with lakehead school of kinesiology undergraduate committee and college partners submitted documentation of revised pathways to lakehead university senate for approval overall, this process was effective in successfully revising the pathways through discussion and collaboration within and across partner institutions. pathways created the following pathways were created: collge boral fitness and health promotion diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree collge boral occupational therapy assistant / physiotherapy assistant diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree collge boral massage therapy diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree cambrian college fitness and health promotion diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree cambrian college massage therapy diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree canadore college occupational therapist and physiotherapist assistant diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree georgian college fitness and health promotion diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree georgian college occupational therapist and physiotherapist assistant diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree sault college fitness and health promotion diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree sault college occupational therapist assistant / physiotherapist assistant diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree incompleted pathways the following pathways were not revised during this project: canadore college recreation therapy diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree canadore college strength and sport conditioning diploma lakehead university honours bachelor of kinesiology degree due to limited demand as well as scheduling challenges, we determined that it would be most effective to focus on the remaining pathways at this time and potentially revisit the above pathways if and when they are considered more viable. we also did not create a new pathway with the confederation college fitness and health promotion (fhp) program; instead, we determined that further discussion and consultation would be required to identify the best approach to developing a pathway due to the unique format and delivery of the fhp program. challenges this project did not face any challenges with the exception of not being able to establish a pathway with confederation college; however, preliminary information was gathered and discussion continues regarding the best approach to future pathway development. student outcomes students will benefit from this project because they will continue to have opportunities to complement their existing education with additional qualifications within a related field of interest. furthermore, they will be able to do so while meeting the same overall program requirements (i.e., a total of 20 fce) as students enrolled in the 4-year hbk degree. additionally, students will benefit from the greater consistency and transparency across pathways from different colleges; they will also benefit from programming that achieves the same quality assurance and professional designation standards as the 4-year hbk program. student credential students will benefit from this project because they will continue to have opportunities to complement their existing education with additional qualifications within a related field of interest. furthermore, they will be able to do so while meeting the same overall program requirements (i.e., a total of 20 fce) as students enrolled in the 4-year hbk degree. additionally, students will benefit from the greater consistency and transparency across pathways from different colleges; they will also benefit from programming that achieves the same quality assurance and professional designation standards as the 4-year hbk program. student time savings the revised pathways provide substantial time savings when compared to completing the diploma (2-3 years) followed by the degree (4 years) with no pathway. following completion of the diploma program, the estimated time to completion for the pathways is as follows: fitness and health promotion (fhp) - 2 years occupational therapist assistant and physiotherapist assistant (otapta) - 3 years massage therapy (mt) - 3 years student financial savings this pathway represents potential financial savings of between $7,384 - $14,720 for students. this calculation is based on the annual tuition for the hbk program. pathways students are able to complete the hbk program in 2-3 years rather than 4 years. student flexibility the revised pathways make things easier for students in a number of ways. first, multilateral agreements will allow students who graduate from different colleges to follow the same program requirements to complete the hbk degree. this consistency increases the clarity and transparency of the pathway process. additionally, because the hbk program was revised from 22 to 20 fce, students are required to take fewer courses to graduate. finally, program maps were designed to provide students with greater flexibility to reflect their own goals, interests, and schedules in their academic experience. student work alignment the revised pathways meet the same institutional quality assurance standards (iqap) and professional designation standards (csep-cep, rkin) as the 4-year hbk program. institutional outcomes there are no changes to practices or policies; however, this project contributes to meeting lakehead university's strategic plan (2018-2023). the theme of social responsibility is met through strategies such as, improving student mobility through transfer agreements/programs, flexible degrees, stacked credentials, certificate programs, part-time undergraduate and graduate opportunities, and transitional programming (p. 15). this project also contributes to the faculty of health and behavioural sciences strategic plan (2021- 2025), which aims to increase accessibility of our programs (e.g., transfer/transition program, explore flexible entry requirements) (p. 14). sector or system implications this project highlighted the importance of effective collaboration and communication across institutions. we highly value our partnerships and the opportunities to work together with the goal of providing enhanced opportunities for our collective students. we also hope to further develop and refine our process as an effective and transferable model for effective pathway development. tips collaboration is key. establishing relationships with partners is a valuable endeavor and will contribute to the current and future success of pathways. tools and resources we used surveys to gather data for course equivalency assessment. we also developed program maps and articulation agreements for approval by lakehead university's senate. pathway information will also be incorporated into a transfer-specific link on the school of kinesiology website.

from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students executive summary purpose: disparities in access to higher education among demographic groups within ontario manifest largely at the university level but not at the college level, according to existing literature and data. based on these findings, it has been suggested that enhancing the college-to-university pathway may be a vehicle to reduce inequities in university access. to this end, this study examined the profiles and pathways of college-to-university students in order to enhance our understanding of who is accessing this transfer pathway, and their unique needs and experiences, with an aim to improving this pathway and thereby enhancing access and equity across the full spectrum of post-secondary institutions. method: the study had two phases. in phase one, academica groups university and college applicant study (ucas) database was used in order to compare college applicants who aspired to a degree to those who did not, and to compare university applicants who had a previous college credential to those who had no previous post-secondary experience. the results were based on a sample of over 125,000 ontario college and university applicants who participated in the ucas between 2010 and 2015. this included 70,813 survey respondents who had applied to ontario universities, and 57,839 survey respondents who had applied to ontario colleges. in the second phase, an online survey instrument was designed to track the pathways of applicants following their application to post-secondary education. in addition to demographic questions, the survey asked about students decision-making process, application outcomes, motivations, postsecondary goals, use of support resources, and the transfer experience. of the 3,007 respondents who completed the survey, 1,985 fit the pathways of interest and were eligible to be included in the analysis. key findings: by constructing a set of data-based profiles for students within each of the pathways, the study arrived on several key findings about these students. these findings showed that, relative to university students without previous pse, college-to university-transfer students were: more likely to be from groups traditionally underrepresented in university. as such, they were more likely to be a first-generation student, to report a disability, to be low-income, to identify as indigenous and to be from rural communities. more likely to have identified as white/caucasian, or black, and less likely to indicate they were chinese or south asian. more likely to be certain that their program was right for them and would lead to satisfying career. more likely to participate in classroom discussion and engage in studentfaculty interactions. college-to-university students were thus shown to be highly engaged in their learning and academically confident; however, the results also suggest that more work needs to be done to support both the admissions process and the university transition experience. college-to-university transfer students are relying less on traditional university channels for information, and are instead relying more on ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) www.oncat.ca | oncat is funded by the government of ontario interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances. similarly, university orientation programming is often geared toward direct-entry students, and transfer students are much less likely to participate. orientation was a key area where transfer students felt their university needed to improve, especially with respect to supporting students adjustment to the academic expectations of university. while college-to-university transfer students tended to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom was found to be a challenge. this is likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial support. developing flexible ways to enrich the non-academic experience of college-to-university transfer students should be a priority. conclusion: overall, this study builds on the findings of previous research suggesting that increasing the number of students using the college-to-university transfer pathway should enhance the diversity in the university student population, and at the same time increase numbers of academically engaged students. both of these factors would likely enrich the university environment overall. this research was supported by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) (ref# 201610-research). an earlier version was posted on the oncat website. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) www.oncat.ca | oncat is funded by the government of ontario

series a statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario: what the university/college applicant survey tells us brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges roger pizarro milian, oncat rod missaghian, oncat february 2022 the authors wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 foreword rod missaghian, oncat postsecondary transfer research in ontario despite making significant strides in recent decades continues to suffer from a lack of data sources that systematically capture patterns in student mobility. for this reason, oncat has been diligently working to find innovative data sources, potential new data-linkages, and other opportunities that allow us to extend our understanding of transfer and student mobility in ontario. in the spring of 2020, academica group graciously provided oncat with access to one of the richest and largest educational datasets in canadian postsecondary education (pse): the university/college applicant survey (ucas). this proprietary data source provides impressive coverage of hundreds of data fields capturing postsecondary applicants demographic characteristics, educational background and aspirations, usage of various information sources, decision-making, and other relevant topics. the ucas has been conducted annually by academica since the mid-2000s and has been fine-tuned over the years in consultation with pse stakeholders to capture emerging topics of interest. during this period, the ucas has been completed by hundreds of thousands of applicants to 100+ canadian colleges, polytechnics, and universities. to date, the ucas remains one of the most trusted data sources for institutional decision-makers across canada. oncat is now releasing a series of briefs and papers that outline the initial statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario based on this ucas dataset. the analysis presented in this series was developed by the oncat research team in partnership with researchers from across the sector and a cross-sector panel of external reviewers. this work builds on previous oncat-funded research (henderson & mccloy, 2017) that also used ucas data. this series contains an introductory paper followed by three briefs: situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academicas university/college applicant survey brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? it is our hope that this statistical research will advance transfer research and instigate useful discussions at multiple levels within policy and administrative circles. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 introduction given their traditional role as terminal or preparatory institutions (brint & karabel, 1989), few studies (e.g., bahr, 2009; 2012) have sought to examine transfer flows into community colleges. this gap is particularly problematic in jurisdictions like ontario, where reverse transfer from university to college occurs at comparable rates to more conventional forms of lateral or vertical transfer (zarifa, sano & hillier, 2020). through this brief, we address this gap by leveraging multiple waves (2014-2019) of the ucas to examine applicant pathways into college. we focus specifically on two historically popular proxies for socio-economic status (ses) in social science research: parents educational attainment and household income. while existing studies have produced evidence that students from lower ses backgrounds are overrepresented in the college sector (childs, finnie & martinello, 2017, p. 273; drolet, 2005; thiessen, 2009; zarifa, hango & pizarro milian, 2018), much less is known about the relationship between ses and the uptake of particular disaggregated pathways into college, including direct entry (de), college-to-college (c2c), and university-to-college (u2c) routes. this is intelligence that could be vital to developing tailored supports for transfer students should it be discovered that on average they come from lower ses backgrounds. pathways into ontario colleges transfer student flows into ontario colleges have attracted limited attention in comparison to the more voluminous literature focusing on college-to-university student flows (e.g., mccloy et al., 2017). one recent report by colleges ontario (2020) used data from the 2017-2018 student satisfaction survey to estimate that nearly half (47%) of college students enrolled that year had some previous pse experience. this figure is consistent with estimates (45%) produced through a project drawing on applicant and kpi survey data from four ontario colleges presented via a recently published oncat report (algonquin college, 2019). meanwhile, earlier research by durham college (2014), which drew on ocas applicant data for 22 colleges, estimated that 30% of first year students in ontario colleges had some previous pse experience. the abovementioned work exhibits several limitations. first, it has not contrasted the ses profiles of students traveling direct entry and transfer pathways into the college sector. disclaimer: the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the authors also wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas. the views and interpretations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the academica group, government of ontario, or any other affiliated entity. for early uses of these metrics, see blau & duncan (1967), and becker & tomes (1979). does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 disaggregating transfer pathways into the college sector and isolating those that originate from a college or university is an important exercise given the differential filtering and self-selection that occurs across these postsecondary pathways. on the institutional side, colleges and universities will apply contrasting admissions criteria to applicants. in ontario, the former tends to apply higher grade cut offs to prospective applicants. on the individual side, students will also select programs and schools that they perceive as being a better fit given self-evaluations of competency, occupational goals, and parental advice. in both cases, self-selection and filtering processes prompt differentiation in the characteristics of students that will apply to transfer into college from different areas of the system. this conclusion is supported by recent research documenting the characteristics of various transfer types (e.g., davies & pizarro milian, 2020; walters et al., 2021; zarifa et al., 2020). a second limitation of existing ontario research on transfer student flows into colleges is that it employs primarily descriptive, as opposed to multivariate, methods. through this brief, we draw on the large sample size and rich demographic data of the ucas to address this gap in the existing literature on pathways into ontario colleges. we ask: 1) are parental education or household income associated with the pathways students take into college? 2) is there a statistically significant relationship between these ses proxies and applicant pathways, net of other applicant characteristics? data + methods our analysis focuses on approximately 31,000 applicants to ontario colleges in the ucas dataset during the 2014-2019 period. the ucas only started collecting household income in 2014, so this restriction drives us to exclude respondents from earlier years. our analytical sample is made up of those individuals aged 40 or younger at the time of application, and who do not contain missing data across any of the predictor or outcome variables of interest. to produce a disaggregated applicant pathways category, we utilize a variable identifying the type of institution an individual was enrolled in during the last calendar year (relative to when they were surveyed), including (1) high school, (2) college/polytechnic, or (3) university. such variables allow us to compare direct entry students with a group of applicants seeking an immediate switch in educational tracks, and thus, those most likely (but not guaranteed) to be seeking transfer credit at the receiving institution. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 we exclude all applicants with completed degrees from our analysis, as this group could be contaminated with those seeking entry to post-graduate college certificates.the latter would typically not be receiving transfer credit or traveling articulated pathways. however, it is important to note that our findings were robust to their inclusion/exclusion in the analytic sample. we analyze our data using multinomial logistic regression modelling. first, we estimate models with only parental education or household income included (along with a control for the year of application). then, we run full/saturated models including all relevant control variables. to render our multivariate findings more interpretable, we estimate/graph predicted probabilities. findings our initial models show that children of parents with different levels of educational attainment differ only marginally with respect to their estimated probability of traveling the various available pathways into college (see figure 1). indeed, all groups have a roughly 77-79% chance of being direct entry, 17-20% chance of being college-tocollege, and 3-4% chance of being university-to-college applicants. larger differences are observed with respects to pathway uptake across household income categories. indeed, the predicted probability of being direct entry appears to increase from .72 to .81 as we move from the lowest to highest income category. when we shift our attention to the college-to-college pathway, we see that those in the lowest income group have a .23 probability of traveling this pathway. this probability gradually drops to .14 by the time we reach the highest income category. meanwhile, there is only a marginal increase (.01) in the probability of traveling the university-to-college pathway from the lowest to highest income categories. it would thus appear that the bivariate relationship between household income and pathways into college is marginally stronger than for parental education. it is worth noting that, even in these initial models lacking extensive controls, our estimates are very precise, with our confidence intervals being barely noticeable in most cases. including this group of roughly 2,000 respondents obviously reduces the percentage of individuals in our sample coming through direct entry pathways. however, the statistical relationship between our ses metrics and pathways was not affected. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 once we simultaneously introduce parental education and household income into our models, along with other available controls, we see a reversal of some of the patterns observed above. the probability of direct entry is found to drop from .88 among applicants with a hs-educated parent to .84 for those with parents that had completed pse. meanwhile, there is a .3 rise in the probability of college-to-college pathway uptake as we move from the lowest (.10) to highest (.13) parental education groupings. only a minor .01 difference exists in the probability of university-to-college application pathway across parental education groupings. adjusted estimates for the relationship between household income and pathway uptake are also reversed (see figure 4). we see that the difference in direct entry probability drops from .86 in the lowest to .82 in the highest income group. variation in the probability of college-to-college pathway uptake is compressed to .03 between the highest and lowest groups, with more affluent applicants being more likely to apply via this pathway. variation in the probability of university-to-college (.02) pathways is generally unchanged by the introduction of controls. controls include the geographical region of residence, age, gender, ethno-racial group, disability, marital status, dependents, average in grade 12, type of secondary school attended, whether they also applied to university, and the primary field of study applied to. a final set of robustness checks were conducted to test for independence of observations. we re-ran the saturated models for single application years to assess whether observed trends would remain consistent to the full model. we observed little change from full model when looking at specific years, although some years slightly modified results given their smaller sample sizes. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 discussion our analyses of ucas data focus on the statistical relationship between two common proxies of socio-economic status (ses) and applicant pathways. our initial models show that the probability of direct entry increased (and transfer generally decreased) with parental education and household income, with the latter demonstrating a more pronounced relationship with applicant pathways. however, once we introduced further controls into our models, these observed patterns were generally reversed, and the strength of the relationship between both ses metrics and applicant pathways was markedly weakened. indeed, all other things being equal knowing an applicants ses background is not a very useful piece of information when trying to predict what pathway they are taking into the college sector. these finding contrasts those of canadian studies which have found that ses is more strongly associated with overall pse participation, selection of college or university, and graduation (childs, finnie, & mueller, 2018; robson, maier, anisef & brown, 2019; walters et al., 2021). it is important to contextualize these findings. first, recall that we are only looking at the pathways taken by applicants, as opposed to their eventual outcomes. while there may be no ses-related disparities in application patterns, higher-ses applicants may get accepted at greater rates than their counterparts due to differences in their academic performance or preparation. this could be more common when it comes to competitive college programs, where there are far fewer seat than applicants. future research, drawing on linkages between enrolment and applicant data, would be useful towards identifying these disparities. in addition, work focusing on early academic performance once enrolled (e.g., first term gpa), as well as persistence rates, seems warranted. our data unfortunately do not speak to these dynamics. what are the practical implications of our findings? for policymakers wishing to improve our transfer system, if we had found ses-based disparities, options like additional assistance in the form of scholarships, grants or other forms of financial aid targeted at prospective transfers from low-ses groups would have been considered. however, we found no sizable problems of this sort at the application stage. even in the absence of large disparities, we may still wish to consider ses-conscious strategies to facilitate transfer, with a view towards avoiding potential downstream issues experienced by students from lower ses backgrounds. for example, we can continue to improve the visibility of information pertaining to articulation agreements and transfer credit opportunities. what colleges and programs within them will give students the largest amount of transfer credit? having access to this knowledge prior to application could be particularly useful to lower-ses students that may struggle to navigate bureaucratic processes to obtain this information. it could also eventually expedite their timely completion of credentials and labor market entry. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges bibliography pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 oncat .ca/statistical- analysis-transfer- and -student-mobilit y- ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

1 executive summary this report describes the development and implementation of the certificate in mohawk language and culture, being offered in partnership between queens university and tsi tynnheht onkwawn:na language and cultural centre in tyendinaga. the certificate aims to contribute toward revitalizing kanienkha language and provide an educational pathway for students into queens university. this face-to-face program, complemented by unique interactive mulit-media resources designed to support the development of mohawk language skills, will enable those in the community of tyendinaga and surrounding areas to learn an indigenous language, earn a certificate in mohawk language and culture and complete degree-credit courses that will contribute to a bachelor of arts degree program at queens university. 2 final report: certificate in mohawk language and culture report author beverly king, assistant dean, faculty of arts and science jill scott, vice-provost, teaching and learning queens university partner institutions and participants tsi tynnheht onkwawn:na language and cultural centre callie hill, executive director callieh@kenhteke.org tina brant, administration, mohawk language specialist, nathan brinklow queens university jill scott, vice-provost, teaching and learning vptl@queensu.ca jan hill, office of indigenous initiatives donato santeramo, head, david pugh, acting head and laurie young, administration, nathan brinklow, term adjunct, department of languages, literatures and cultures greg lessard, linguist and michael levison, computer scientist, professors emeriti, school of computing gordon smith, vice-dean, sue blake, curriculum, cormac evans, quqaps process, julian enright, multimedia, keren akiva, instructional design, bev king, administration, maria cardoso, finance, faculty of arts and science 3 contents executive summary ....................................................................................................2 final report: certificate in mohawk language and culture .......................................3 project purpose and goals..........................................................................................5 program structure ......................................................................................................6 pathway development ...............................................................................................7 enrolment ...................................................................................................................7 curriculum development ...........................................................................................8 implementation process and timelines .....................................................................9 lessons learned ......................................................................................................10 appendix a ...............................................................................................................12 appendix b ................................................................................................................. 14 oncat is funded by the government of ontario |4 project purpose and goals in light of the truth and reconciliation commission on indian residential schools (2008-2015), many postsecondary institutions have been developing curricular programming to promote, support and expand educational opportunities for first nations, mtis and inuit peoples. in december 2015, the commission released its final report, which contained a number of key recommendations that pertain to education for indigenous peoples. while many of the recommendations charge the federal government with creating legislation to address gaps in funding for aboriginal education, the trc report emphasizes that postsecondary institutions have an important role to play in addressing the issues it brings to light, for example: closing educational achievement gaps; improving education attainment levels and success rates; developing culturally appropriate curricula; teaching aboriginal languages as credit courses; and enabling community participation in the development of aboriginal programming. only one recommendation is specifically addressed to post-secondary institutions: 16. we call upon post-secondary institutions to create university and college degree and diploma programs in aboriginal languages. the preservation and revitalization of aboriginal languages is highlighted in the report as an urgent matter, and universities and colleges are called upon to play a role in achieving this goal. the full recommendations are available in the document entitled call to action: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/file/2015/findings/calls_to_action_engl ish2.pdf from this call to action grew a partnership between queens universitys department of languages, literatures and cultures (llcu) and tsi tynnheht onkwawn:na language and cultural centre (tto) in tyendinaga, ontario. the certificate in mohawk language and culture is the outcomea collaboration of oncat is funded by the government of ontario |5 the tto, office of indigenous initiatives, llcu, faculty of arts and science, four directions aboriginal student centre and other indigenous educators and knowledge keepers. the certificate in mohawk language and culture serves the following five purposes. 1) to respond to the truth and reconciliation commissions calls to action by creating a program of instruction in an indigenous language; 2) to work with indigenous educators to offer programming in the community of tyendinaga, thereby building educational partnerships and ensuring culturally appropriate instruction; 3) to integrate high-quality multimedia materials employing the most recent pedagogical practices for additional-language acquisition with authentic and culturally-rich content; 4) to contribute toward revitalizing kanenkha language (mohawk) in the community of tyendinaga and surrounding areas; and 5) to provide an educational pathway for indigenous learners into queens university. program structure total of 12.0 units taken over two years. students will complete courses equivalent to 6.0 units in beginning mohawk language and culture (mohk 101/3.0; mohk 102/3.0), 3.0 units in intermediate mohawk language and culture (mohk 201/3.0), and 3.0 units in oral mohawk language (mohk 202/3.0). after completing the 12.0-unit mohawk certificate with a minimum 1.6 gpa, graduates will be eligible for admission to queens university. they will be registered as non- degree, post-certificate students while they complete an additional 6.0 units of degree-credit courses of their choosing, progressing to a degree program after the completion of a minimum of 18.0 units (including 12.0 certificate units). all certificate courses will count for credit toward a subsequent degree program. oncat is funded by the government of ontario |6 pathway development the partnership between tsi tynnheht onkwawn:na language and cultural centre and queens university has been in development for several years and collaborative events have been held, for example in the area of raising awareness about the importance of language revitalization in developing strong cultural identities among indigenous nations. there was a strong commitment on both sides to the success of the certificate in mohawk language and culture. extensive collaboration over two-three years was required to develop this certificate program and create this educational pathway for indigenous students into queens university. a joint steering committee of queens university and tsi tynnheht onkwawn:na language and cultural centre, guided the design and development of the certificate and multimedia materials. this group of faculty, administrators and staff met 12-15 times over this period, alternating meeting locations between queens and tto, in addition to numerous sub-group meetings. also involved in the visioning of the collaboration and the realization of the certificate and pathway were the queens aboriginal council, meeting four times over 18 months between may 2017 and april 2018, the indigenous knowledge curriculum and research working group and the indigenous studies curriculum committee. now that the program has launched, an ongoing joint committee of tto and llcu is being established to guide program delivery and curriculum updates, maintain smooth operations between tto and queens, ensuring a high-quality student experience and facilitating the future transition of students from tto to queens. a memorandum of agreement to recognize this joint initiative is underway. enrolment the certificate is being offered for this first time in 2018-19, with an inaugural class of 20 students in the beginning mohawk language and culture course, mohk 101. subsequent courses in the certificate will be offered in sequence over four terms oncat is funded by the government of ontario |7 spanning two years, with the first cohort completing the certificate in april 2020. the second cohort of 20 students will begin the program in fall 2020. curriculum development we began with the learning outcomes and course outlines for the existing oncampus courses (mohk 101 and 102), and decided to use these as the first two courses for the mohawk certificate and the jumping off point for the development of mohk 201 and 202. it was very helpful not having to start from scratch and building off what we were already doing is probably the biggest feature of the entire certificate development. the learning outcomes and course outlines for the two new courses were developed based on the remaining features of the language and advancing the cultural curriculum to include more language and more in-depth topics of instruction (the great law, political functioning of the nation, the creation story in mohawk). these are not possible to address in the first-year courses because of the required language ability and cultural fluency. we chose the student text used in the language program at six nations (onkwawn:na kentyhkwa) as a guide (with some enhancements) to meet our needs in community. this same text also guided the development of the multimedia resources. we are using their progression through the language as a guide, but we are also using their experience. six nations offers 900 hours of full-time instruction in their first year and they expect students to reach an intermediate level of fluency. we are hoping to get students to the same level with approximately 450 hours of instruction over two years. these first two years of the program will demonstrate whether this expectation is realistic and will guide the further development of the program. in additional to the program text from onkwawn:na kentyhkwa, we also relied heavily on the additional resources found in appendix b. oncat is funded by the government of ontario |8 implementation process and timelines the following chart outlines the specific details of the development of the partnership, course redesign for online delivery, governance bodies and approval timelines and ongoing quality enhancement. project phase timeline phase i: program design and approval completed tt program planning curriculum mapping--review and adapt as appropriate; detailed program-level learning outcomes--review and adapt as appropriate. mar-june 2017 queen's quality assurance approval process-pre-approval; department and faculty curriculum committees; faculty board; senate committee on academic development, senate, quality council (report only); ministry of advanced education and skills development jul 2017june 2018 tto, mohawk language specialist, queens llcu, educational developer/instructional designer, four directions student centre (fdsc) tto, queens llcu, faculty of arts and science (fas) phase ii: course development--four courses timeline collaborators create learning outcomes at course level and outline course assessments develop detailed course outlines including unit learning outcomes, course timeline, identify course resources and materials design prototype of multimedia materials for course one develop remaining multimedia materials for courses 2, 3 and 4. review courses, instructor and student experience after first offering using established quality assurance process, make appropriate changes mar 2017aug 2017 tto mohawk language specialists, queens linguist, ed/id, instructor/llcu mar 2017aug 2018 sept 2017aug 2018 collaborators tto mohawk language specialist and queens instructor, linguist/ computer scientist ongoing jan 2019aug 2020 tto director, mohawk language specialists, queens instructor/llcu, linguist/computer scientists, id/ed oncat is funded by the government of ontario |9 phase iii: program and course delivery establish and implement application procedures and process; marketing and recruitment plans; enrolment procedures ongoing support--regular updates to make adjustments, address issues during course delivery course evaluation sept 2018 apr 2020 sept 2017sept 2018 tto, queens admissions services, fas during the term tto, queens instructor/llcu end of term tto, queens fas annual debrief to assess effectiveness of collaboration and make adjustments as needed may 2019, ongoing tto, queens instructor/llcu, indigenous knowledge group phase iv: program evaluation (during year 5 of program launch) administer program evaluation surveys, interviews, etc, collect and analyze data, prepare reports, recommend changes, implement changes. sept 2022apr 2023 fall 2022 tto, llcu, queens, indigenous knowledge group conduct major reviews of individual courses (learning outcomes, content, assessments) for relevancy and identify where modifications are needed. tto, content matter specialists, queens llcu, indigenous knowledge group review and assess effectiveness of tto/queens partnership review (and renew) memorandum of agreement (if appropriate) tto, qoii, llcu, vptl tto, office of indigenous initiatives, llcu lessons learned the two beginning mohawk language and culture courses are also offered on the queens campus. we have decided to create separate course codes to differentiate the on-campus delivery from the in community delivery before the next intake in 2020. changing the codes will give us greater flexibility in creating outcomes specific to each site of delivery as the needs and expectations of the two student groups have little in common. oncat is funded by the government of ontario| 10 through the process of creating multi-media resources to support the program, a linguist, greg lessard, a computer scientist, a mohawk language specialist and instructor, nathan brinklow, and a computer scientist, michael levison have presented their work (sweetgrass 2017, kenhteke research symposium 2018) and published a paper in the proceedings of the workshop on the computational modelling of polysynthetic languages (santa fe, 2018). oncat is funded by the government of ontario| 11 appendix a interactive resources as detailed below will be embedded in the weekly activities for the four mohawk courses. materials will appear on the course website prior to each week's teaching, beginning in september 2018 and concluding in april 2020. 1. remote audio recording that allows a teacher to go to a website, read a list of prompts (words, phrases), listen to the recordings, edit them, and revise. the resulting sound files can then be used on a language learning website (see below). 2. web-based exploration materials that allow students to systematically explore the sounds of a new language [obtained from (1)] by clicking and listening. 3. web-based materials where a learner listens to a generated model (see 1 above), imitates it, compares the two pronunciations, and see the two intonations as overlaid graphs. 4. web-based vocabulary learning materials where a student sees a list of words, mouses over to see their meaning, and clicks to hear them pronounced. these can be used both for preliminary learning and for revision. 5. generative exercises that allow learners to practice their skills in a variety of formats including: student sees some generated english text and clicks to select the corresponding mohawk from a set of choices student hears some generated mohawk sequence (see 1 above) and clicks to select the corresponding written form in mohawk from a set of choices student sees an image and clicks to select the corresponding mohawk written form from a set of choices oncat is funded by the government of ontario| 12 student sees an image and clicks on various buttons to hear possible mohawk equivalents; after listening, one of these is submitted; in this case, no written text is shown, just images and sounds student sees a short generated english sentence and types the corresponding mohawk sentence student sees a short comic-strip-like sequence of images and types the corresponding mohawk sentence various other combinations are possible. in all cases, students are given generated feedback ranging from the correct answer to detailed analysis showing systematically how the learner's form diverges from the expected form (for example, using the wrong person for a pronoun). since exercises are generated by rule, an instructor can select a subset of generated questions and show them as a marked quiz which is seen by all students in a course. there are several areas where this existing model can be extended, including: increasing the current mohawk vocabulary and syntax to deal with even more complex utterances beyond the current basic ones adding oral cultural texts with glossing facilities using (1) and (4) above expanding the set of interactions, in particular extending the use of the 'comic strip' model to allow learners to practice without going through english as their metalanguage exploring extension of these tools to other language. in conjunction with monique dufresne, professor in the department of french studies and members of her team, lessard, brinklow and levison, are working on extending the current mohawk model to cree. this work will take place over the next two years and is not funded by oncat. oncat is funded by the government of ontario| 13 appendix b in additional to the program text from onkwawn:na kentyhkwa, we also relied heavily on the additional resources found in appendix b. nancy bonvillain and beatrice francis. 1972. a mohawk and english dictionary. new york state education department, albany. nancy bonvillain. 1973. a grammar of akwesasne mohawk. number 8 in ethnology division, mercury series. national museum of man, ottawa. nora deering and helga harries-delisle. 2007. mohawk: a teaching grammar. kanienkeha:ka onkwawen:na raotitiohwka language and cultural center, kahnaw`ake, 2nd edition. jeremy green. 2017. pathways to creating onkwehonwehneha speakers at six nations of the grand river territory. technical report, six nations polytechnic. david kanatawakhon maracle. 2001. mohawk language thematic dictionary. kanyenkeha books, london, on. david kanatawakhon. 2013a. to ii tewaweyentehtan ne kanyenkeha. lets learn mohawk: an introductory grammar text for learning the mohawk language. centre for research and teaching of canadian native languages, university of western ontario, london, on. david kanatawakhon. 2013b. to ii tewaweyentehtan ne kanyenkeha. lets learn mohawk: a text of grammar supplements concerning nominals. centre for research and teaching of canadian native languages, university of western ontario, london, on. akwiratekha martin. iekawennahsonternnion kanien'kha morphology. kanien'kha onkwawn:na raotitihkhwa, kahnaw:ke mohawk territory, quebec. marianne williams, editor. 1976. kanienkeha okarashon:a (mohawk stories), volume 427, albany. new york state museum. oncat is funded by the government of ontario| 14

invitation prsenter des candidatures pour 20202021 conseiller du corps professoral en transfert (ccpt) du caton date limite de prsentation : le 14 septembre 2020 aperu le caton invitera les membres du corps professoral prsenter leur candidature pour lanne universitaire 20202021. cette initiative pilote appuiera la conception et la mise sur pied de comits darticulation. des comits darticulation sont forms autour dune discipline propre aux tudes postsecondaires afin dexaminer et daccrotre les quivalences de cours entre programmes semblables et dappuyer llaboration de parcours de transfert et darticulation. ces comits visent amliorer les possibilits de transfert pour les tudiants en maximisant la reconnaissance des crdits, sil y a lieu, et en rduisant la rptition des apprentissages antrieurs correspondants. le caton lancera le projet pilote en mettant laccent sur deux disciplines : les services communautaires et sociaux et les affaires. le caton est la recherche de membres du corps professoral (collge/universit/tablissements autochtones) dans ces disciplines. le projet pilote comptera un maximum de six membres du corps professoraldans lidal, deux membres du corps professoral reprsentant les deux disciplines de chaque type dtablissement. il sagit dune initiative pilote qui peut tre largie ou prolonge au besoin. les membres du ccpt assument les fonctions suivantes : 1. collaborer avec le caton pour dterminer les programmes pertinents propres chaque discipline en vue de leur intgration potentielle aux travaux du comit darticulation de la discipline. 2. faciliter la collaboration entre les tablissements denseignement postsecondaire et au sein de ceux-ci, par rapport au domaine dtudes vis, afin de produire et de communiquer des parcours darticulation pour les tudiants en ontario. 3. inviter et mobiliser les membres du corps professoral uvrant dans la discipline vise afin daccrotre la participation lappui de la cration de comits darticulation. 4. prsider les comits darticulation. 5. participer la mobilisation des connaissances et au perfectionnement professionnel en lien avec les transferts et llaboration de parcours, au besoin. 6. accrotre les connaissances organisationnelles au sujet des donnes sur les transferts et de lexprience des tudiants qui effectuent un transfert dans leur facult, leur dpartement ou leur tablissement. 7. amliorer les processus des tablissements en ce qui concerne lvaluation de la reconnaissance de crdits et la collaboration avec les tudiants qui effectuent un transfert. 8. transmettre des modles mergents dinitiatives russies en matire de mobilit tudiante. 01 au sujet du caton fond en 2011, le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) est un organisme financ par le gouvernement qui collabore avec les 45 universits et collges publics de lontario pour amliorer le cheminement scolaire et rduire les obstacles auxquels font face les tudiants qui souhaitent passer dun tablissement un autre. ontransfer.ca, le site web tudiant du caton, se veut une ressource pour toute personne qui cherche des renseignements sur la faon dobtenir un diplme et un grade, ou qui voudrait effectuer un transfert de cours et de programmes un autre tablissement denseignement postsecondaire de la province. la collaboration est au cur du travail du caton et nous permet de mettre profit et de renforcer nos comptences et nos ressources. les projets dlaboration de parcours de transfert, de recherche et de transfert novateur font partie intgrante de la cration dun systme de mobilit en ontario. dans le cadre dun processus annuel de demande de propositions (dp), nous finanons nos collges et universits subventionns par ltat et dautres partenaires de lenseignement postsecondaire afin de concevoir et de crer des parcours et des ententes, dtudier les expriences vcues par les tudiants et les tablissements dans le cadre du transfert et daccrotre la russite des transferts dtudiants. critres de prsentation des candidatures les membres du corps professoral doivent avoir au moins cinq annes dexprience de lenseignement et de llaboration de cours ou de programmes dtudes dans leur discipline respective, et avoir une bonne comprhension de la structure curriculaire et de la conception de programmes dans leur domaine. une exprience administrative ou curriculaire en articulation et en transfert est prfrable. il peut sagir dune exprience de llaboration ou de lexamen de politiques dtablissements, de la coordination de larticulation et de parcours de transfert, de lvaluation des admissions, de lvaluation curriculaire, de lassurance de la qualit des programmes ou de llaboration de programmes de qualit. le membre du corps professoral aura une exprience de la participation des comits ou de la direction de comits au sein de son tablissement ou dans lensemble du secteur postsecondaire. le membre du corps professoral doit reconnatre limportance dune approche axe sur les tudiants et comprendre que les tudiants peuvent effectuer un transfert pour de nombreuses raisons. le rle de ce conseiller du corps professoralet des comits darticulationconsiste soutenir les lves qui effectuent un transfert dans le systme denseignement postsecondaire de lontario. 02 budget et chancier ltablissement denseignement auquel est rattach chaque conseiller du corps professoral en transfert retenu recevra 10 000 $, qui seront pays en deux versements. ce financement constitue une indemnit en vue du cong denseignement dun membre du corps professoral plein temps (avantages sociaux non compris), et sert galement payer les cots accessoires lis aux vnements planifis. le conseiller sera un employ de son tablissement et non du caton. un contrat sera sign entre ltablissement et le caton. les travaux du ccpt commenceront en octobre 2020 et se poursuivront jusquen juin 2021. processus de prsentation des propositions submissions should include the following components. date limite de prsentation : le 14 septembre 2020 1) une proposition dune page rdige laide du formulaire de prsentation des propositions ci-dessous. 2) un curriculum vit (cv) prcisant notamment les rles administratifs, de service et denseignement. 3) une page de signature dment remplie par ltablissement, comprenant les signatures du membre du corps professoral, du chef de dpartement et du vice-recteur aux tudes de ltablissement. veuillez soumettre les documents susmentionns par courriel : cpoplak@oncat.ca. processus dvaluation des propositions votre proposition sera examine par le personnel du caton. nous pourrions solliciter la participation dautres examinateurs du secteur, au besoin. en rgle gnrale, les propositions seront values en fonction des lments suivants : la clart et la perspective densemble. la dmonstration de la concordance avec le rle dun ccpt tel que dcrit dans laperu et lexistence dune exprience connexe avre. 03 aprs lexamen initial, nous pourrions faire un suivi auprs des auteurs des propositions pour quils rpondent toute question souleve durant notre examen. une rponse rapide sera apprcie pour acclrer le processus dexamen. ds que les rponses auront t obtenues et quune dcision aura t prise, vous serez avis par courriel. nous esprons arriver aux dcisions dfinitives concernant la plupart des propositions au plus tard le 21 septembre 2020. auteurs des propositions retenues les auteurs des propositions retenues devront conclure avec le caton une entente officielle qui dcrira les modalits du financement en spcifiant les objectifs du projet, les chanciers et les produits livrables prvus. personnes-ressources pour soumettre une dclaration dintrt, veuillez envoyer un courriel carolyn poplak, gestionnaire, engagement du secteur, ladresse suivante : _________________, cpoplak@oncat.ca au plus tard le 7 septembre 2020. covid-19 les bureaux du conseil pour larticulation et le transfert de lontario sont ferms temporairement en raison de la pandmie de covid-19 et des consignes des organismes de sant publique. toutefois, le personnel du caton travaille distance et offre tous ses services habituels afin de concevoir dexcellents parcours scolaires et daplanir les obstacles pour les tudiants en ontario. nous accepterons les candidatures des membres du corps professoral de toute la province, et ce travail devrait tre effectu distance. les activits en personne pourront reprendre conformment aux lignes directrices de la sant publique. pour pouvez lire la dclaration complte du caton concernant la covid-19 ladresse suivante : https://oncat.ca/fr/mise-jour-du-caton-sur-la-covid-19. veuillez noter que les disciplines et les sujets viss peuvent changer la discrtion du caton. 04

call for proposals micro-credentials in ontario: exploring stackability and transferability background last year the provincial government in ontario launched their micro-credentials strategy, aimed at funding opportunities to develop new pathways for ontario learners to train and upgrade their skills for in-demand jobs. part of this initiative involved the development of the provincial portal, which houses up to 1200 different micro-credentials available across ontarios colleges and universities. this strategy includes the launch of the micro-credential challenge fund, which made $15 million available to institutions to expand offerings and develop partnerships with training providers and employers. as this is new and evolving terrain in ontario, much can be learned about what relationship these new micro-credential offerings will have with credit transfer. an important question to ask is: are micro-credentials being designed to consider their stackability and transferability across the post-secondary system? how will other postsecondary institutions recognize these shortened courses in the credit transfer process? about the rfp to help tackle this broad question, oncat is supporting research that will help understand ontarios micro-credential framework and potential overlap with issues prevalent in credit transfer and recognition. we are accepting proposals that will explore and survey existing processes, such as the microcredential portal, and partnerships between institutions and regional industry partners/employers. we wish to understand how these initiatives support micro-credential stacking, laddering and transferability and how they might intersect with quality assurance and plar (prior learning assessment and recognition). oncat is requesting applications from researchers wishing to explore and systematically map existing arrangements for the formal recognition of industry-based training or micro-credentials currently being offered by ontario publicly assisted post-secondary institutions. this review could consist of (but not limited to): 1. environmental scans or content analysis of current offerings in the micro-credential portal and their potential for stackability and transferability. 2. in-depth interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders across the sector, including transfer credit advisors and registrar staff across public colleges, universities and indigenous institutes, and representatives from groups offering industry-based training in ontario. 3. case studies of current partnerships between institutions and industry partners that have used government funds to develop new micro-credentials to get a sense of how this skills ecosystem operates, its aims, and how these experiences and training can be transferable in the future. funding funding can range from $10,000 for a comprehensive environmental scan on micro-credential offerings in ontario to $75 000 for an in-depth research project. research projects that include an environmental scan and in-depth interviews and/or focus groups, with key decision-makers involved in approving micro-credential courses and credentials, and/or to inform case studies could be eligible for $50 000-$75 000. for example, a study incorporating 20+ interviews and other methods may be eligible for up to $75,000. qualifications applicants must demonstrate policy research experience, with expertise in post-secondary education research, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches (eg. large scale content analysis). application to apply for funding, submit your proposal through oncats research projects stream. deadline *** the deadline to apply is february 23, 2022 *** contact if you would like to discuss your project before applying, please reach out to rod missaghian, senior researcher, at rmissaghian@oncat.ca

project snapshot pathway development in social work for oshkiwenjack learners type: pathways development project number: 2019-33 or p1933 project lead: lakehead university collaborators: oshki-pumache-o-win: the wenjack education institute, sault college, and canadore college project summary the purpose of this project is to explore options for developing one or more seamless pathways for oshki-wenjack students in the social service worker - native specialization (sault college partner) and indigenous wellness and addictions prevention (canadore college partner) diploma programs into lakehead universitys honours bachelor of social work program. this project serves as the next step towards addressing the need for postsecondary educated social workers in the 49 nishnawbe aski nation communities. project rationale there are many college diploma graduates working in northern, rural and remote communities doing social service work, including preliminary mental health counselling. most government and insurance requirements require a university degree or a graduate level clinician/therapist for mental health intervention. this results in individuals from the north travelling to major urban centres where the cost of a flight, accommodations, and meals are added to the therapeutic session. the demand for mental health intervention in the north is greater than the ability of government services to meet. the necessity of professionally trained workers throughout the north, especially in remote and rural communities, poses a challenge for those without professional credentials who are already doing many of the initial interventions. that is, diploma graduates do not get the recognition of their initial work and are excluded from employment requiring professional credentials. for the above reasons, oshki wenjack and lakehead university wanted to explore whether a pathway could be created for oshki diploma graduates of the native social service worker (nssw) program and the indigenous wellness and addiction prevention (iwap) program applying into the four-year honours bachelors of social work(hbsw) degree program. the project reviewed lakehead universitys advanced standing credit policies, learner outcomes of the two college programs and the hbsw, caswe professional accreditation standards, and provincial quality assurance university degree level expectations. outcomes 1. the cooperation and collaboration of project partners. everyone shared the goal of finding the best pathway for diploma graduates transferring to a four-year hbsw degree. cooperation in sharing knowledge, expertise in respective programs, and in willingness to make time for meetings and travel. during the process, we discovered that other partners who have academic, admissions, professional accreditation, and quality assurance responsibilities were also needed at the table. 2. the existing learner outcomes by themselves do not have sufficient information to compare diploma programs with degree programs. learner outcomes identify the outcome desired but not the process of getting to the outcomes. we had to look at course outlines in detail (e.g., assignments, readings, textbooks, grading rubrics, pace of learning, and instructor qualifications) and reviewed current transfer credit policies (see appendix a). without the details of course outlines, those comparing learner outcomes cannot interpret the intellectual level in which course content is being taught. at first glance, learner outcomes do look similar between college and university programs at the first- and second-year levels. however, after careful examination, there are many questions raised as to whether students are learning similar levels of knowledge. for example, the use of the word research was explored on a college learner outcome (nsw100, #7) by looking at the specific assignment. in that learner outcome, research meant identifying social services that dealt with addictions in the community. at the university level, research generally questions knowledge and its validity. 3. identifying next steps and what policies/standards/credits to consider before a decision can be made regarding a recognition of a two-year credit transfer pathway(s) development key steps we examined limited learner outcomes between two diploma programs and the four-year hbsw program. wording of college and university learner outcomes looked similar but differed in breadth and depth of content. we reviewed current advanced standing agreements between lakehead university and colleges offering native social service worker diploma and indigenous wellness and addiction prevention diploma. we reviewed other advanced standing agreements within the province of ontario. pathways created there were no pathways developed. challenges everyone on the committee had multiple responsibilities within their respective institutions. trying to arrange meetings was difficult, and the amount of time individuals could commit was challenging. the location of each institution (thunder bay, sault ste. marie, and north bay) made travel difficult and expensive. community consultations were also difficult due to the unpredictability of local events that affected the teams ability to enter the community on several occasions. there are multiple layers of academic policies that need to be considered (e.g., lakehead university, school of social work, canadian association for social work education professional accreditation standards, and provincial university degree level expectations). solely examining learner outcomes between college and university courses does not cover additional expectations and standards set out by other sectors (e.g. provincial and professional). for example, whether diploma graduates will have the time to fulfil all the undergraduate degree level expectations in years 3 and 4. there are national professional accreditation standards (external to the university) that affected the ability to fully consider two-year advanced standing for diploma graduates. caswe requires 40% (8 fces) liberal arts credits prior to applying into third year of the four-year hbsw. current advanced-standing policies grant diploma graduates/applicants 20% (4 fces). the school of social work does not have the authority to grant advanced standing credits on behalf of another faculty, in this case, the faculty of social sciences and humanities. student outcomes this project did not add to the current one-year advanced standing credits college diploma graduates already receive. institutional outcomes (pathway stream) no changes were required (within the institution) as a result of this project. sector or system implications the sector/system is not coordinated at the provincial level. each college and university, or program/discipline are negotiating advanced standing individually. this makes a patchwork of agreements throughout the province. this is confusing for students, their parents, secondary school advisors, colleges, and universities. tips/advice the project identified the school of social work as the department that could grant the pathway for graduating diploma students to enter directly into third year of the four- year hbsw. it was assumed that reviewing learner outcomes between the college programs and university degree would identify equivalence or similarity that justified credit transfer at the second-year level. however, the school only has one fce requirement at the second-year level, the other four fce courses rests with the faculty of social sciences and humanities. social sciences and humanities is the faculty that can grant four advanced standing credits at the second year, not the school of social work the advice would be to examine the multiple systems, academic and administrative policies affecting the intended pathway and individually address them. i would also recommend hiring someone full time for at least six months to implement a project of this kind. there are political and institutional relations to consider as well.

series a statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario: what the university/college applicant survey tells us situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape roger pizarro milian february 2022 the authors wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape pizarro milian | feb 2022 foreword rod missaghian, oncat postsecondary transfer research in ontario despite making significant strides in recent decades continues to suffer from a lack of data sources that systematically capture patterns in student mobility. for this reason, oncat has been diligently working to find innovative data sources, potential new data-linkages, and other opportunities that allow us to extend our understanding of transfer and student mobility in ontario. in the spring of 2020, academica group graciously provided oncat with access to one of the richest and largest educational datasets in canadian postsecondary education (pse): the university/college applicant survey (ucas). this proprietary data source provides impressive coverage of hundreds of data fields capturing postsecondary applicants demographic characteristics, educational background and aspirations, usage of various information sources, decision-making, and other relevant topics. the ucas has been conducted annually by academica since the mid-2000s and has been fine-tuned over the years in consultation with pse stakeholders to capture emerging topics of interest. during this period, the ucas has been completed by hundreds of thousands of applicants to 100+ canadian colleges, polytechnics, and universities. to date, the ucas remains one of the most trusted data sources for institutional decision-makers across canada. oncat is now releasing a series of briefs and papers that outline the initial statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario based on this ucas dataset. the analysis presented in this series was developed by the oncat research team in partnership with researchers from across the sector and a cross-sector panel of external reviewers. this work builds on previous oncat-funded research (henderson & mccloy, 2017) that also used ucas data. this series contains an introductory paper followed by three briefs: situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academicas university/college applicant survey brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? it is our hope that this statistical research will advance transfer research and instigate useful discussions at multiple levels within policy and administrative circles. situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape pizarro milian | feb 2022 introduction researchers routinely lament the barriers to empirically studying student mobility within ontario postsecondary education (pse) (e.g., maier & robson, 2020). in jurisdictions like british columbia, the student transitions project has long leveraged unique identifiers to merge records across k12 and pse and facilitate the longitudinal study of student pathways (e.g., heslop, 2016). however, in ontario, performing comparable analyses of student mobility typically requires privileged access to highly guarded data within provincial ministries. lacking access to such government records, we have seen ontario researchers routinely use creative workarounds to study student mobility. through this introductory brief, we aim to provide a (relatively) expedient overview of the data landscape in ontario, as it pertains specifically to student mobility research. we engage in this exercise to identify the relative merits and limitations of the ucas data used in briefs within this series, which to our knowledge is the most comprehensive postsecondary applicant survey in canada. we hope that this piece is both instructive for those wishing to understand existing data sources in this field, while also providing the necessary context to appreciate the potential uses of the ucas dataset. administrative data if you wish to study student mobility within ontario pse, the gold standard would be a longitudinal data source that follows students across time, detecting their switching of postsecondary institutions, and containing details on both student demographics and program information. presently, data with these qualities exist in two locations: 1. linked enrollment files (e.g. cser, user) gathered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities (mcu) from each public college and university in the province. these files are submitted to mcu multiple times a year, providing census-level coverage of students in the province. they also contain data fields essential to the study of student mobility in ontario, including the credit transfer flag (indicates whether transfer credit was indeed awarded to a student at a receiving institution) which are not present in other data sources, including statistics canada datasets discussed later on. it is important to note that access to ministry student records has and continues to be highly discretionary (gallagher-mackay, 2017). to our knowledge, these records have never been used by researchers external to the ministry to study student mobility. however, they can be linked across years using unique identifiers (e.g., oen) to provide the most complete and high-definition picture of student mobility possible. for a broader discussion of this topic published after the completion of this brief see robson (2021). a reporting guide for the college statistical enrollment report (cser) is available here. unfortunately, we know of no publicly available documents discussing the contents of the university and statistical enrollment reporting (user) files. situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape pizarro milian | feb 2022 1. 2. statistics canadas research data centers (rdcs) where researchers can obtain access to the relatively new education and labour market linkage platform (elmlp). this environment contains the postsecondary student information system (psis) files, which are annual snapshots of student enrollments gathered from every public college and university in the country since the mid-2000s.these student-level records can be linked across years, allowing for student tracking and measurement of basic pse outcomes (e.g., graduation). by linking psis and tax file information, both parental income and labor market outcomes can be included in statistical analyses. the main limitation of the elmlp is that the psis files lack many fields available within ministry enrollment files (e.g., credit transfer flag), as well as extensive demographic information. they also reflect a count date sometime within the fall term, and thus, miss a sizable number of students that first enroll during other semesters. in addition, there are well-documented gaps in the earlier psis files within the ontario the college sector. over the past two years, several oncat-funded studies have leveraged the elmlp to study student mobility, and several future studies are planned. discussions for oncat to gain access to ministry enrollment records are also ongoing. however, the bulk of the existing literature on student mobility in ontario draws from institutional-level administrative records. using institutional records that capture students previous institution (e.g., high school, college, university), researchers have been able to categorize students enrolled at their institutions into direct entry and various transfer types. for example, at trent university, one study (drewes, maki, lew, willson & stringham, 2012) used administrative records to examine gpa and graduation rate differences between direct entry, college-to-university and university-to-university transfers. they were also able to differentiate among those that transferred in via articulated pathways from those that did not. oncat continues to support the analysis of administrative records at particular institutions as a source of intelligence for both recruitment or retention, and has most recently supported this work through funding available via our datapilot stream. drawing on institutional administrative data has the advantage of providing greater depth in the coverage of data fields not contained in either the psis or ministry enrollment files. for example, there are a host of relevant metrics captured by institutions, such as grade point average (gpa), transfer credits awarded, and available linkages to internal student and graduate surveys, which are not available elsewhere. however, relying on administrative records from single institutions necessarily restricts analyses to incoming transfer flows, and prevents the analysis of those who transfer out to other institutions. see https://crdcn.org/datasets/elmlp-education-and-labour-market-longitudinal-linkage-platform see https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2sv.pl?function=getsurvey&sdds=5017 situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape pizarro milian | feb 2022 some have overcome this limitation by linking administrative data at two or more proximate institutions. seneca college and york university are leaders in this space (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017; smith, decock, lin, sidhu & mccloy, 2016), having conducted multiple studies of student flows and outcomes between their institutions. a primary disadvantage of such bilateral linkages is that estimates of the predictors of transfer and student outcomes are not generalizable across other institutional pairings, or the system at large. survey data beyond administrative records, transfer research in ontario has also drawn extensively from survey data. most notably, we have seen the use of the college graduate satisfaction survey (gss), which queries respondents about their educational and work status six months after graduation. a primary benefit of the gss is that it contains a detailed transfer supplement. the gss has been used extensively in reports published by senecas centre for research in student mobility (crsm), as well as in several heqco reports. however, it has important limitations. first, it excludes those that transfer prior to graduating or after the six-month period. second, and perhaps most importantly, it does not randomly sample the population, thus raising questions about response bias and representativeness. nevertheless, the gss serves as one of the best sources to study the post-graduation educational pathways of college graduates in the province. a second survey which has been used to study student mobility in ontario is statistics canadas national graduate survey. one older oncat-funded report used the 2013 ngs to examine student flows across program areas (lennon et al., 2016). meanwhile, more recent oncatfunded research (dhuey, seward & walters, 2021) has explored the relationship between obtaining multiple credentials (e.g., college diploma + university degree) and labour market outcomes, including income and underemployment. this inclusion of labor market information is a primary strength of the ngs, as it allows for the linking of pathways to graduate outcomes. as with the gss, one limitation of the ngs is that it only focuses on graduates, excluding noncompleters. however, its sampling techniques are rigorous, thus providing a greater degree of representativeness for its target population (graduates). there are several surveys which ontario researchers have yet to tap specifically for work on student mobility. first, there is the national survey of student engagement (nsse), a survey which is held in high esteem by university administrators. the nsse contains an extensive set of metrics on student life in and out of the classroom, measuring things like satisfaction with faculty and campus services. a current oncat-funded pilot at nipissing university is pooling data from multiple waves of the nsse to study differences in engagement among students traveling diverging pathways into that university. situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape pizarro milian | feb 2022 student satisfaction surveys like these could one day be linked with ministry enrollment or application records (ouac/ocas) to measure the likelihood of out-transfer for students differentially satisfied with their first-year experience. second, there is the ontario university graduate survey a rough equivalent to the gss in the university sector which captures whether these graduates pursue further education (and what type). unfortunately, neither of these surveys (consistently) use systematic sampling methods. nevertheless, they contain information that can compliment existing student research in ontario. cross-sectoral linkages over the last decade, we have also seen creative efforts to link student data across sectors. such projects have greatly extended our understanding of student mobility. for example, robson, brown, maier & ranjbar (2016) connected tdsb student records with corresponding post-secondary application data provided by ocas and ouac to explore the pse pathways traveled by tdsb students from 2010-14. using such data, robson and her team were able to estimate the number of students that traveled various pathways over that period. more recently, brown, davies, & chakraborty (2019) constructed a linkage between administrative records at the tdsb and the university of toronto. using the tdsb academic and demographic data fields, and the previous institution field in the university of toronto records in this dataset, davies & pizarro milian (2020) were able to predict the likelihood of tdsb students traveling indirect pathways into the university. this included not just transfers from other ontario institutions, but also, international colleges and universities. in 2019, oncat also funded a linkage of tdsb student records with files in statistic canadas elmlp. this allowed researchers to follow students as they made their way through ontario pse, and to estimate the relationship between pathways and student loan borrowing from the canada student loans program (cslp) (walters et al., 2021). the benefits of using tdsb records as a base for any linkage is that they contain detailed demographic and academic performance across their entire student population. the obvious disadvantage is that tdsb students are not representative of the ontario population. generally, these custom linkages are not rendered accessible to the research community at large. indeed, strict protocols typically restrict direct access only to a small project team, mainly driven by fears that even anonymized records may be misused to identify students or to portray institutions in a negative light. the ucas considering the existence of the abovementioned data sources, readers may be curious about what new and exciting lines of inquiry the ucas may enable, along with its relative strengths/weaknesses. below, we highlight several noteworthy characteristics of the ucas, particularly as it pertains to the study of student mobility. situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape pizarro milian | feb 2022 1. detailed pathway information. perhaps most pertinent to the study of student mobility, the ucas contains detailed information on the type of institutions to which an individual applied (e.g., college, university), their first/second-choice institutions, and the primary program area to which they applied. it also captures information on where the individual was enrolled during the past academic year (e.g., high school or another pse), as well as their educational attainment. using this combination of previous education and application/preference data, we can derive their intended pathways, and isolate populations of interest (e.g., college-to-university applicants with/without a completed credential). this is something which often is not feasible through institutional administrative records that only possess information about the previous institution an individual attended. 2. extensive demographic coverage: the ucas contains demographic information that exceeds what is typically contained in institutional administrative, mcu or psis records. indeed, it even rivals what is contained in linkages drawing on rich tdsb data (e.g., davies & pizarro milian, 2020). this includes not just common variables like age, gender, primary language, and citizenship status, but also, detailed ethno-racial groupings, disability types, country of birth, marital status, whether the applicant had dependents, parental education, household income, their forward sortation area and other fields. this information not only allows for the isolation of specific populations, but also offers a diverse set of controls when modeling pathways. 3. essential k-12 information: it would make little sense for the ucas to re-gather academic information already supplied by respondents to institutions through their applications (e.g., via high school transcripts). but it does capture some key pieces about their early academic history. this includes their (self-reported) average marks during grade 12 and the type of high school they attended, be it public, private, or religious. the former has been found as a key predictor of postsecondary pathways, yet it is entirely missing from the psis and most studies drawing on administrative records from single institutions. 4. information sources: where the ucas really separates itself from other data sources is in its in-depth coverage of the information sources used by applicants during their search process. this includes an array of web portals (e.g., ontariocolleges.ca, cicic.ca), social media (e.g., facebook, instagram) and more traditional sources, such as campus tours, university/college fairs, and viewbooks or brochures. perhaps most importantly, it asks questions about how influential these sources were to their decision. this information is absent from traditional administrative records and could be leveraged to inform the strategic recruitment of transfer students. 5. sample sizes: the ucas gathered data from approximately 460,000 individuals during the 2005 to 2019 period. more than 280,000 of those responses are from applicants in ontario. such sample sizes overshadow the size of most datasets used in studies of student mobility in ontario. this allows us to explore the characteristics and pathways of structurally small groups (e.g., mature students), and to focus on very homogenous sub-samples when performing statistical analyses. situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape pizarro milian | feb 2022 the above-mentioned characteristics illustrate the many exciting lines of inquiry that can be pursued through the ucas, despite some of the limitations that we identify below. first, given that it is a proprietary survey, the ucas is fielded only to applicants of colleges and universities that subscribe to the survey within a given year, with varying institutional participation across years. as such, though certainly more potentially representative than data from a single institution, research findings produced through the analysis of the ucas are not as generalizable as those produced using psis records given that the latter includes all postsecondary institutions in the province.6 second, the ucas is sent to all applicants at participating institutions, rather than a random sub-sample. as such, it is a voluntary census that may not be representative of the population of applicants to each institution. in addition, though survey weights are produced to render the obtained sample more representative of the pool of applicants at each institution, no system level weights are produced. this is to be expected given that the ucas is strategically designed to generate insights at the institutional rather than system level. third, and perhaps most obvious, the ucas allows us to examine applications, but cannot follow students across time as they make their way through postsecondary education. as such, there may be key differences between application and enrollment pathways that need to be further explored. given these limitations, and as with any other data source, care needs to be taken when interpreting the findings produced with the ucas. through the briefs we have produced in this series, attempts are repeatedly made to cross-reference findings with existing research, and where substantial deviations exist in findings, a critical eye is directed towards them. we find the ucas an incredibly useful source to both i) explore the relationship between applicant pathways and topics which have received limited attention in ontario due to data limitations, and ii) to attempt to replicate findings produced through the use of other data sources. it is our hope that the analyses presented through this report advance our collective understanding of student mobility, providing thoughtful direction for future researchers and actionable insights for both policymakers and institutional leaders. nevertheless, it is important to note that the ucas is particularly strong in its coverage of particular sectors of ontario pse during specific periods. in ontario, applicants of all 24 ontario colleges were surveyed from 2008-2017 when colleges ontario was the client. on the university side, it is also worth pointing out that a majority of ontario universities have participated in the survey at some point during the last ten years. situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape bibliography pizarro milian | feb 2022 situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape pizarro milian | feb 2022 oncat .ca/statistical- analysis-transfer- and -student-mobilit y- ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022 series a statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario: what the university/college applicant survey tells us brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academica's university/college applicant survey roger pizarro milian, oncat david zarifa, nipissing university rod missaghian, oncat february 2022 the authors wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 foreword rod missaghian, oncat postsecondary transfer research in ontario despite making significant strides in recent decades continues to suffer from a lack of data sources that systematically capture patterns in student mobility. for this reason, oncat has been diligently working to find innovative data sources, potential new data-linkages, and other opportunities that allow us to extend our understanding of transfer and student mobility in ontario. in the spring of 2020, academica group graciously provided oncat with access to one of the richest and largest educational datasets in canadian postsecondary education (pse): the university/college applicant survey (ucas). this proprietary data source provides impressive coverage of hundreds of data fields capturing postsecondary applicants demographic characteristics, educational background and aspirations, usage of various information sources, decision-making, and other relevant topics. the ucas has been conducted annually by academica since the mid-2000s and has been fine-tuned over the years in consultation with pse stakeholders to capture emerging topics of interest. during this period, the ucas has been completed by hundreds of thousands of applicants to 100+ canadian colleges, polytechnics, and universities. to date, the ucas remains one of the most trusted data sources for institutional decision-makers across canada. oncat is now releasing a series of briefs and papers that outline the initial statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario based on this ucas dataset. the analysis presented in this series was developed by the oncat research team in partnership with researchers from across the sector and a cross-sector panel of external reviewers. this work builds on previous oncat-funded research (henderson & mccloy, 2017) that also used ucas data. this series contains an introductory paper followed by three briefs: situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academicas university/college applicant survey brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? it is our hope that this statistical research will advance transfer research and instigate useful discussions at multiple levels within policy and administrative circles. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 introduction each year, thousands of individuals apply and are accepted into colleges across ontario, gaining access to world-class training opportunities primarily at the sub-baccalaureate level. the oecd (2012; 2014) has highlighted the instrumental role that colleges in canada play in promoting an inclusive skills development ecosystem. with the growth of articulation agreements between ontario colleges and universities, colleges now also represent a viable pathway to an abundance of university degree programs. in the united states, 2-year community college (cc) student aspirations for 4-year degree programs have been well documented (see chan & wang, 2020; wang & lee, 2019). in canada, however, theres less research on this subject a fact attributable to the absence of survey data on this topic. the lack of work on this subject in ontario is unfortunate, as research has found that student aspirations are an important predictor of transfer out behavior (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p. 10). studying degree aspirations among college applicants is particularly useful intelligence for policy development. at a provincial level, examining regional disparities in degree aspirations could inform the design of targeted strategies, such as regional articulation hubs, to promote seamless transfer. of course, an understanding of demand for degrees among college applicants can also inform the further development of applied degree programs within the college sector itself, a market which is in its early stages of development within the province. in this brief, we examine degree aspirations among a sample of 31,000 first-time ontario college applicants within academicas university/college applicant survey dataset (2013-2019). we focus on disparities that exist across the various geographical regions in ontario, while accounting for the unique characteristics of these sub-populations. a regional focus is warranted given that research finds that both pse attainment, skills development, and student mobility rates differ significantly across regions, with the provincial north being particularly disadvantaged (zarifa, seward, & pizarro milian, 2019; zarifa, hango & pizarro milian, 2018; zarifa, sano & hillier 2020a; 2020b). we explore this topic using a combination of descriptive statistics and logistic regression modelling. disclaimer: the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the authors also wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas. the first author of this brief contributed to this piece during his employment at oncat (2019-2021). the views and interpretations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the academica group, government of ontario, statistics canada, or any other affiliated entity. though ontario colleges are now able to grant degrees, reports suggest that college degree-granting programs account for only a small fraction (2%) of the provinces degree-level enrollments (hicks et al., 2013). more recent ministry of colleges and university (2020) data for the 2019-20 academic year show that only 6% of degree-level enrollments in ontario are in the college sector. moreover, statistics canada reports note that college degrees are generally concentrated in more specific, applied areas than university bachelors degree programs (frenette, 2019, p. 7). thus, we operate under the assumption that for most students, completing a degree at an ontario college is not an option due to limited availability. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 the relevance of regional disparities in aspirations american research finds that anywhere from 60-80% of community college students aspire to obtain a 4-year degree (bailey & morest, 2006; hoachlander, sikora, horn, & carroll, 2003; wang & lee, 2019). it has also found disparities in aspirations across various demographic categories (e.g., buchmann & dalton, 2002; howley, 2006; kao & tienda, 1998; pascarella, 1984; raabe & wlfer, 2019; sewell & shah, 1968; zimmermann, 2020). as well, a substantial body of research has found a link between aspirations and early life-course trajectories (irvin, byun, meece, reed & farmer, 2016, p. 178). for oncat, degree aspirations serve as a useful proxy for transfer intent during or after the completion of a college certificate or diploma. canadian studies have repeatedly shown that individuals in remote regions possess lower levels of educational attainment (zarifa et al., 2018; alasia, 2003, p. 1). an early study, focusing on ruralurban gaps in education from 1981-1996, concluded that a major divide existed in canada, with southern and western regions eclipsing northern and eastern regions when it comes to educational attainment. research has also found that northern and rural canadians have lower rates of access to university stem programs (hango, zarifa, pizarro milian & seward, 2021). these regional disparities are far from a canadian problem, with similar disparities also being documented across other countries (e.g., dickerson & mcintosh, 2013; gibbons & vignoles, 2012; spiess & wrohlich, 2010; white & lee, 2019). the argument has been made that education and skill development policies suitable for urban centres are often disconnected from the challenges faced by communities in peripheral geographical regions (pizarro milian, seward & zarifa, 2020). such facts necessitate that policymaking and analysis carefully consider regions as a primary dimension along which inequities in education and training exist. focus of this analysis through this brief, we address the following two questions: 1. do the degree aspirations of first-time college applicants differ regionally in ontario? 2. to what extent are regional disparities in aspirations attributable to student socio-demographic and other applicant characteristics? we focus specifically on ontario college applicants designated in the ucas dataset as being first-entry or delayed-entry from high school, excluding those with any reported postsecondary-level studies. we code those aspiring to a 4-year degree or graduate-level credentials (e.g., m.a, ph.d.) as aspirants (=1), and others (e.g., college diplomas/certificates) as non-aspirants (=0). we experimented with including those aspiring to a post-graduate certificate in either group and it did not bias observed regional effects. results presented here include them in the aspirant category. we purposely restrict our analysis to this relatively more homogenous group. doing so hopefully limits some of the unobserved variance that comes along with more mature applicants. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 we also exclude those respondents more than 30 years old at the time of application. we acknowledge the importance of these excluded groups, particularly mature and non-direct applicants, and leave it to future research to explore the nuances of their aspirations. these restrictions leave us with an analytic sample of approximately 31,000 individuals. we begin our analyses with descriptive statistics, and then move to logistic regression models. the latter is a common modelling strategy when trying to predict binary categorical dependent variables. in our case, whether a student aspires towards a 4-year degree (or more) versus those who do not (long, 2014). moreover, to further highlight our findings, we produce graphical displays of the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals of aspiring to a degree (or more) across each of our regions. findings basic descriptive statistics (see figure 1) demonstrate great variability in the degree aspirations of first-time college applicants across regions of ontario. we observe a gradual decline in aspirations by region, with over 15% separating the highest (metro and greater toronto area (gta) and lowest (northern ontario). however, given that demographics differ markedly across regions, it is important to account for variations in ethno-racial groupings, immigrant status and other metrics when comparing regions. to do so, we fit an initial logistic regression model (model 1) which incorporates only the regional variable and the year an individual applied, followed by a second model (model 2) that accounts for a wide range of socio-demographic and academic predictors of degree aspirations. this analytical strategy allows us to compare how the estimated relationship between region and degree aspirations changes once we account for applicant characteristics (which differ across regions). in model 1 (see figure 2), like the descriptive data, we see those individuals in the metro and gta have significantly higher aspirations (.39), with others lagging significantly behind (.2028). controlling for various demographic and academic factors in model 2 shrinks the gap between these two groups, as the predicted probabilities for the metro (.33) and greater toronto (.34) areas are reduced by roughly .05-.06 points. nevertheless, these gaps remain statistically significant in the underlying regression models. the size of our analytic sample also reflects our use of listwise deletion to handle those observations with missing data and dont know responses across several predictors in our models. in some cases, we do retain these categories when they represent a sizable share (>3-5%) of responses. the region categories were created using individuals forward sortation area at the time of application. the distribution of our respondents across regions is: 6.5% north, 18.5% eastern, 26.8% southwest, 23.4% central, 9.7% metro, and 15.2% gta (excluding metro). this includes age, sex, place of birth, ethno-racial grouping, disability status, first language, marital status, whether they had dependents, parental education, parental income, approximate high school average in grade 12, type of high school attended (e.g., public/private), and primary field of study applied to. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 discussion our analyses show that degree aspirations differ markedly among college applicants residing in different regions of ontario and that these differences persist even after we control for their academic and demographic traits. such findings prove remarkably robust, and raise several important questions, from both a research and policy standpoint. researchers may question: what triggers these regional disparities in applicant ambitions? let us assume that these disparities are not entirely a function of some unobservable demographic or attitudinal factors. one potential explanation may be that applicants are rationally adjusting their aspirations in accordance with available jobs in their region (zarifa et al., 2020b). this would explain why those in the highly urbanized metro and greater toronto areas desire degrees at a higher rate in line with local industries than those in more remote and rural regions in the province. economic theory tells us that individuals should stop consuming education once the returns to an additional unit of learning no longer exceeds its cost. this could be the dynamic we are observing here. of course, further research is needed to better understand the causal mechanisms at play. we imagine that this work will necessitate a more in-depth qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, approach. from a policy standpoint, there are several ways to interpret these findings. one potential takeaway is that, though regional disparities exist, even in the lowest aspiring regions we see that roughly 1 in 5 college applicants aspires to a degree. as such, the province should augment college-to-university pathways in an indiscriminate fashion, to pave the way for all aspirants. a second takeaway may be that regional variations in aspirations should guide the differential allocation of resources towards college-to-university pathway development. the argument could be made that, based on objective interest levels alone, far more attention should be given to this task within the greater toronto area, as opposed to the provincial north. a more detailed analysis of aspirations, cross-referenced with employer demand for degrees across program areas, could provide a useful blueprint for where priority investments could be made to create more efficient transfer pathways between college and university programming. this latter approach may prove most strategic for the province. funding university pathways in regions where there is limited demand, though it would not harm anyone, is arguably inefficient public policy. in robustness checks not presented, we refit our saturated models on sub-samples of applicants that had higher high marks (e.g., >80%), high parental income or education, and various other sub-groups. the reported regional differences remained statistically significant even in these far more homogenous groups. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey bibliography pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 oncat .ca/statistical- analysis-transfer- and -student-mobilit y- ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022 series a statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario: what the university/college applicant survey tells us brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges roger pizarro milian, oncat rod missaghian, oncat february 2022 the authors wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 foreword rod missaghian, oncat postsecondary transfer research in ontario despite making significant strides in recent decades continues to suffer from a lack of data sources that systematically capture patterns in student mobility. for this reason, oncat has been diligently working to find innovative data sources, potential new data-linkages, and other opportunities that allow us to extend our understanding of transfer and student mobility in ontario. in the spring of 2020, academica group graciously provided oncat with access to one of the richest and largest educational datasets in canadian postsecondary education (pse): the university/college applicant survey (ucas). this proprietary data source provides impressive coverage of hundreds of data fields capturing postsecondary applicants demographic characteristics, educational background and aspirations, usage of various information sources, decision-making, and other relevant topics. the ucas has been conducted annually by academica since the mid-2000s and has been fine-tuned over the years in consultation with pse stakeholders to capture emerging topics of interest. during this period, the ucas has been completed by hundreds of thousands of applicants to 100+ canadian colleges, polytechnics, and universities. to date, the ucas remains one of the most trusted data sources for institutional decision-makers across canada. oncat is now releasing a series of briefs and papers that outline the initial statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario based on this ucas dataset. the analysis presented in this series was developed by the oncat research team in partnership with researchers from across the sector and a cross-sector panel of external reviewers. this work builds on previous oncat-funded research (henderson & mccloy, 2017) that also used ucas data. this series contains an introductory paper followed by three briefs: situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academicas university/college applicant survey brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? it is our hope that this statistical research will advance transfer research and instigate useful discussions at multiple levels within policy and administrative circles. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 introduction given their traditional role as terminal or preparatory institutions (brint & karabel, 1989), few studies (e.g., bahr, 2009; 2012) have sought to examine transfer flows into community colleges. this gap is particularly problematic in jurisdictions like ontario, where reverse transfer from university to college occurs at comparable rates to more conventional forms of lateral or vertical transfer (zarifa, sano & hillier, 2020). through this brief, we address this gap by leveraging multiple waves (2014-2019) of the ucas to examine applicant pathways into college. we focus specifically on two historically popular proxies for socio-economic status (ses) in social science research: parents educational attainment and household income. while existing studies have produced evidence that students from lower ses backgrounds are overrepresented in the college sector (childs, finnie & martinello, 2017, p. 273; drolet, 2005; thiessen, 2009; zarifa, hango & pizarro milian, 2018), much less is known about the relationship between ses and the uptake of particular disaggregated pathways into college, including direct entry (de), college-to-college (c2c), and university-to-college (u2c) routes. this is intelligence that could be vital to developing tailored supports for transfer students should it be discovered that on average they come from lower ses backgrounds. pathways into ontario colleges transfer student flows into ontario colleges have attracted limited attention in comparison to the more voluminous literature focusing on college-to-university student flows (e.g., mccloy et al., 2017). one recent report by colleges ontario (2020) used data from the 2017-2018 student satisfaction survey to estimate that nearly half (47%) of college students enrolled that year had some previous pse experience. this figure is consistent with estimates (45%) produced through a project drawing on applicant and kpi survey data from four ontario colleges presented via a recently published oncat report (algonquin college, 2019). meanwhile, earlier research by durham college (2014), which drew on ocas applicant data for 22 colleges, estimated that 30% of first year students in ontario colleges had some previous pse experience. the abovementioned work exhibits several limitations. first, it has not contrasted the ses profiles of students traveling direct entry and transfer pathways into the college sector. disclaimer: the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the authors also wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas. the views and interpretations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the academica group, government of ontario, or any other affiliated entity. for early uses of these metrics, see blau & duncan (1967), and becker & tomes (1979). does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 disaggregating transfer pathways into the college sector and isolating those that originate from a college or university is an important exercise given the differential filtering and self-selection that occurs across these postsecondary pathways. on the institutional side, colleges and universities will apply contrasting admissions criteria to applicants. in ontario, the former tends to apply higher grade cut offs to prospective applicants. on the individual side, students will also select programs and schools that they perceive as being a better fit given self-evaluations of competency, occupational goals, and parental advice. in both cases, self-selection and filtering processes prompt differentiation in the characteristics of students that will apply to transfer into college from different areas of the system. this conclusion is supported by recent research documenting the characteristics of various transfer types (e.g., davies & pizarro milian, 2020; walters et al., 2021; zarifa et al., 2020). a second limitation of existing ontario research on transfer student flows into colleges is that it employs primarily descriptive, as opposed to multivariate, methods. through this brief, we draw on the large sample size and rich demographic data of the ucas to address this gap in the existing literature on pathways into ontario colleges. we ask: 1) are parental education or household income associated with the pathways students take into college? 2) is there a statistically significant relationship between these ses proxies and applicant pathways, net of other applicant characteristics? data + methods our analysis focuses on approximately 31,000 applicants to ontario colleges in the ucas dataset during the 2014-2019 period. the ucas only started collecting household income in 2014, so this restriction drives us to exclude respondents from earlier years. our analytical sample is made up of those individuals aged 40 or younger at the time of application, and who do not contain missing data across any of the predictor or outcome variables of interest. to produce a disaggregated applicant pathways category, we utilize a variable identifying the type of institution an individual was enrolled in during the last calendar year (relative to when they were surveyed), including (1) high school, (2) college/polytechnic, or (3) university. such variables allow us to compare direct entry students with a group of applicants seeking an immediate switch in educational tracks, and thus, those most likely (but not guaranteed) to be seeking transfer credit at the receiving institution. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 we exclude all applicants with completed degrees from our analysis, as this group could be contaminated with those seeking entry to post-graduate college certificates.the latter would typically not be receiving transfer credit or traveling articulated pathways. however, it is important to note that our findings were robust to their inclusion/exclusion in the analytic sample. we analyze our data using multinomial logistic regression modelling. first, we estimate models with only parental education or household income included (along with a control for the year of application). then, we run full/saturated models including all relevant control variables. to render our multivariate findings more interpretable, we estimate/graph predicted probabilities. findings our initial models show that children of parents with different levels of educational attainment differ only marginally with respect to their estimated probability of traveling the various available pathways into college (see figure 1). indeed, all groups have a roughly 77-79% chance of being direct entry, 17-20% chance of being college-tocollege, and 3-4% chance of being university-to-college applicants. larger differences are observed with respects to pathway uptake across household income categories. indeed, the predicted probability of being direct entry appears to increase from .72 to .81 as we move from the lowest to highest income category. when we shift our attention to the college-to-college pathway, we see that those in the lowest income group have a .23 probability of traveling this pathway. this probability gradually drops to .14 by the time we reach the highest income category. meanwhile, there is only a marginal increase (.01) in the probability of traveling the university-to-college pathway from the lowest to highest income categories. it would thus appear that the bivariate relationship between household income and pathways into college is marginally stronger than for parental education. it is worth noting that, even in these initial models lacking extensive controls, our estimates are very precise, with our confidence intervals being barely noticeable in most cases. including this group of roughly 2,000 respondents obviously reduces the percentage of individuals in our sample coming through direct entry pathways. however, the statistical relationship between our ses metrics and pathways was not affected. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 once we simultaneously introduce parental education and household income into our models, along with other available controls, we see a reversal of some of the patterns observed above. the probability of direct entry is found to drop from .88 among applicants with a hs-educated parent to .84 for those with parents that had completed pse. meanwhile, there is a .3 rise in the probability of college-to-college pathway uptake as we move from the lowest (.10) to highest (.13) parental education groupings. only a minor .01 difference exists in the probability of university-to-college application pathway across parental education groupings. adjusted estimates for the relationship between household income and pathway uptake are also reversed (see figure 4). we see that the difference in direct entry probability drops from .86 in the lowest to .82 in the highest income group. variation in the probability of college-to-college pathway uptake is compressed to .03 between the highest and lowest groups, with more affluent applicants being more likely to apply via this pathway. variation in the probability of university-to-college (.02) pathways is generally unchanged by the introduction of controls. controls include the geographical region of residence, age, gender, ethno-racial group, disability, marital status, dependents, average in grade 12, type of secondary school attended, whether they also applied to university, and the primary field of study applied to. a final set of robustness checks were conducted to test for independence of observations. we re-ran the saturated models for single application years to assess whether observed trends would remain consistent to the full model. we observed little change from full model when looking at specific years, although some years slightly modified results given their smaller sample sizes. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 discussion our analyses of ucas data focus on the statistical relationship between two common proxies of socio-economic status (ses) and applicant pathways. our initial models show that the probability of direct entry increased (and transfer generally decreased) with parental education and household income, with the latter demonstrating a more pronounced relationship with applicant pathways. however, once we introduced further controls into our models, these observed patterns were generally reversed, and the strength of the relationship between both ses metrics and applicant pathways was markedly weakened. indeed, all other things being equal knowing an applicants ses background is not a very useful piece of information when trying to predict what pathway they are taking into the college sector. these finding contrasts those of canadian studies which have found that ses is more strongly associated with overall pse participation, selection of college or university, and graduation (childs, finnie, & mueller, 2018; robson, maier, anisef & brown, 2019; walters et al., 2021). it is important to contextualize these findings. first, recall that we are only looking at the pathways taken by applicants, as opposed to their eventual outcomes. while there may be no ses-related disparities in application patterns, higher-ses applicants may get accepted at greater rates than their counterparts due to differences in their academic performance or preparation. this could be more common when it comes to competitive college programs, where there are far fewer seat than applicants. future research, drawing on linkages between enrolment and applicant data, would be useful towards identifying these disparities. in addition, work focusing on early academic performance once enrolled (e.g., first term gpa), as well as persistence rates, seems warranted. our data unfortunately do not speak to these dynamics. what are the practical implications of our findings? for policymakers wishing to improve our transfer system, if we had found ses-based disparities, options like additional assistance in the form of scholarships, grants or other forms of financial aid targeted at prospective transfers from low-ses groups would have been considered. however, we found no sizable problems of this sort at the application stage. even in the absence of large disparities, we may still wish to consider ses-conscious strategies to facilitate transfer, with a view towards avoiding potential downstream issues experienced by students from lower ses backgrounds. for example, we can continue to improve the visibility of information pertaining to articulation agreements and transfer credit opportunities. what colleges and programs within them will give students the largest amount of transfer credit? having access to this knowledge prior to application could be particularly useful to lower-ses students that may struggle to navigate bureaucratic processes to obtain this information. it could also eventually expedite their timely completion of credentials and labor market entry. does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges bibliography pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges pizarro milian, missaghian | feb 2022 oncat .ca/statistical- analysis-transfer- and -student-mobilit y- ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022 series a statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario: what the university/college applicant survey tells us brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? roger pizarro milian, oncat rod missaghian, oncat henrique hon, oncat february 2022 the authors wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 foreword rod missaghian, oncat postsecondary transfer research in ontario despite making significant strides in recent decades continues to suffer from a lack of data sources that systematically capture patterns in student mobility. for this reason, oncat has been diligently working to find innovative data sources, potential new data-linkages, and other opportunities that allow us to extend our understanding of transfer and student mobility in ontario. in the spring of 2020, academica group graciously provided oncat with access to one of the richest and largest educational datasets in canadian postsecondary education (pse): the university/college applicant survey (ucas). this proprietary data source provides impressive coverage of hundreds of data fields capturing postsecondary applicants demographic characteristics, educational background and aspirations, usage of various information sources, decision-making, and other relevant topics. the ucas has been conducted annually by academica since the mid-2000s and has been fine-tuned over the years in consultation with pse stakeholders to capture emerging topics of interest. during this period, the ucas has been completed by hundreds of thousands of applicants to 100+ canadian colleges, polytechnics, and universities. to date, the ucas remains one of the most trusted data sources for institutional decision-makers across canada. oncat is now releasing a series of briefs and papers that outline the initial statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario based on this ucas dataset. the analysis presented in this series was developed by the oncat research team in partnership with researchers from across the sector and a cross-sector panel of external reviewers. this work builds on previous oncat-funded research (henderson & mccloy, 2017) that also used ucas data. this series contains an introductory paper followed by three briefs: situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academicas university/college applicant survey brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? it is our hope that this statistical research will advance transfer research and instigate useful discussions at multiple levels within policy and administrative circles. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 introduction canadian research has consistently found that university graduates outperform college counterparts across a range of labor market metrics (e.g., dhuey, seward & walters, 2021; ferrer and riddell 2002; finnie, dubois & miyairi, 2020; boothby & drewes, 2006; st-denis, boujija & sartor 2021). it is thus perhaps not surprising that access to university is highly coveted in canada and internationally (davies & pizarro milian, 2016). this has led many canadian social scientists to empirically examine the factors associated with university access (e.g., finnie, wismer & mueller, 2015; frenette, 2007; 2017; robson, anisef, brown & george, 2018). however, research exploring the uptake of disaggregated transfer pathways into universities within ontario is limited, in large part due to the absence of longitudinal data sources capturing k-12 to postsecondary transitions (robson, 2021). in the absence of robust longitudinal data sources, ontario research analyzing pathways into universities has been dominated by studies drawing on (i) the college graduate satisfaction survey (gss) (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017; steffler, mccloy & decock, 2018), (ii) an assortment of custom linkages (e.g., davies & pizarro milian, 2020; robson et al., 2018; walters, brown, parekh, reynolds & einmann, 2021), and (iii) statistics canadas post-secondary student information system (psis) (e.g., finnie et al., 2020; zarifa, sano & hillier., 2020). all these sources have notable deficiencies. one area of ongoing debate in this literature centres on the influence of high school grades on postsecondary pathways. analyzing an administrative linkage between the toronto district school board and the university of toronto, davies & pizarro milian (2020) found that tdsb graduates with lower high school grades were more likely to enter the university by way of a community college, but university transfers had similar high school performance as direct entries. descriptive statistics presented by walters et al. (2021) for a tdsb-psis linkage also showed that students traveling direct entry pathways into ontario universities had higher marks (79%) in grade 12 than lateral transfer (76%) or college-to-university (65%) counterparts. on the other hand, work by steffler et al. (2018) with a custom linkage between seneca and york found that high school grades were negatively correlated with the desire among college entrants disclaimer: the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the authors also wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas. the first author contributed to this study while employed at oncat (2019-2021). the views and interpretations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario or the academica group. for an alternative set of findings, see frenette (2019). the gss captures only the transitions of graduates that go on to university within the six months following college graduation, missing those that transfer prior to graduation or later in the life course. the latter is a particularly notable limitation, given that credential accumulation plays out over long stretches of time (st. denis, boujija & sartor, 2021). on the other hand, available custom k-12 to pse linkages in ontario capture only toronto district school board (tdsb) students and are thus not provincially representative. meanwhile, the psis lacks extensive coverage of student demographics. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 to eventually transfer to a university (e.g., transfer intent), but that their seneca gpa was positively correlated with eventual transfer. the findings of these studies contrast those of earlier canadian research with the youth in transition survey (yits), which did not identify any high school grade or reading proficiency effects on the likelihood of program switching (childs, finnie, & martinello, 2017). unfortunately, this topic is not one that has been explored through recent oncat-funded work (e.g., zarifa et al., 2020) with statistics canadas post-secondary student information system (psis), given that such data currently lacks proxies of academic performance such as grades and standardized tests scores at either the k-12 or pse levels in ontario. as such, making progress on this front will require the continued use of creative workarounds. through this brief, we explore the relationship between high school grades (academic achievement) and the pathways travelled by applicants into ontario universities using academicas university/college applicant survey (ucas). this is a dataset that contains impressive coverage of not only high school grades, but also, a host of demographic characteristics that could serve as confounding variables. our analysis finds that the probability of traveling a college-to-university pathway decrease as h.s. grades rise. meanwhile, the opposite is true for direct entry and university-to-university transfer, with the odds of traveling those pathways increasing as h.s. grades increase. we consider the implications of these findings for both future research and policy in ontario. plan for analysis this brief empirically explores two main questions: 1) do applicants taking various routes (direct entry, college/university transfer) into university differ with respects to their high school grades? 2) does the relationship between high school grades and pathways into university survive controls for other applicant characteristics? two waves of analyses are performed. first, we provide a descriptive overview of h.s. grades among the roughly 46,000 ucas respondents who resided in ontario and applied to university during the 2013-2019 period. this first analytical sample includes only those applicants who would be aged 40 or younger by september 1st of the forthcoming academic year, and who did not contain missing data on either their age or postsecondary history (e.g., most recent institution enrolled in). we do not discuss american research at length, but it too has found that those engaging in upward transfer tend to have lower high school performance than direct entry counterparts (e.g., dietrich & lichtenberger, 2015; grubbs, 2020). applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 second, multinomial logistic regression was used to regress applicant pathways on h.s. grades among the sub-sample of 28,300 applicants with complete data across a broader of controls, including: age, gender, ethno-racial groupings, disability, marital status, dependents, parental education, household income, place of birth, region of residence, primary language, type of high school attended, primary program area applied to, and year applied. to produce a disaggregated applicant pathways category, we utilize a variable identifying the type of institution that the individual was enrolled in during the last calendar year, including (1) high school, (2) college or polytechnic, and (3) university. such variables allow us to focus on student mobility, and those applicants most likely (but not guaranteed) to be seeking transfer credit at the receiving institution. our focal predictor is self-reported grades in the final year of high school, a continuous measure that ranges from 50 to 100% in our analytic sample. findings descriptive statistics descriptive statistics reveal mean differences in the h.s. grades of applicants traveling different pathways into universities. those applying directly from high school tend to have the highest average (84.9%), followed by those applying from another university (83.5%), and then those applying from a college (78.7%). this general ordering of categories closely mirrors those observed by both davies & pizarro milian (2020) and walters et al. (2021) despite the vastly different sampling frames used. visualizing the grade distribution by group also reveals important differences. we see that the distributions for direct entry and university-to-university applicants are quite similar in shape, with the average simply differing by less than 2 percentage points. however, the grades of college-to-university transfers are not only lower, but the distribution is more spread out. it is important to emphasize that, despite the noted differences, there is considerable overlap in the grade distributions across applicant categories. hence, there are many applicants with comparable grades within each group. we experimented with various ways of coding grades, including both the natural log and quintiles of grades. all of these rendered the same general results, serving as additional evidence that observed relationships werent an artifact of any given coding of the predictor. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 another useful way to display the relationship between applicant pathways and h.s. grades is to plot the percentage of students applying through the various pathways across segments of the h.s. grade distribution (figure 2). again, we see that the percentage of direct entry students tends to increase with grades. meanwhile, the percentage of college transfers decreases with grades. the same pattern is also true for university transfers, but the drop is less pronounced. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 regression analyses to assess whether the above-mentioned differences would persist after controlling other applicant characteristics, such as age and gender, we ran regression models to estimate the net relationship between reported h.s. grades and applicant pathways into university. in figure 3, we plot the results of this modeling: the predicted probability that an applicant will travel each pathway into university across various points of the grade distribution. as with our descriptive analyses, we find that the predicted probability of applying via the c2u pathway decreases markedly as grades improve, while the likelihood of applying via direct entry or u2u pathways increases with grades. these predicted probabilities assume the applicant would be aged 19 at the start of the next academic year, and sample means across all other variables in our regression model. the age specification here is important, as our pathway variable does not meaningfully vary at the lower age ranges (since those students have not yet had the opportunity to transfer). a final set of robustness checks were conducted to test for independence of observations. we re-ran the saturated models for single application years to assess whether observed trends would remain consistent to model that included all years. we observed little change from full model when looking at specific years, although some years slightly modified results given their smaller sample sizes. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 discussion our analyses suggest that individuals applying to ontario universities through the various available pathways differ with respects to their h.s. grades. direct entry and university transfer applicants tend to report higher grades than transfers originating from college. one potential interpretation of the observed trends is that those traveling the college-to-university pathway are comparatively lower-achieving students in high school. they may have been unable to gain admission to their preferred university programs directly after high school, and thus, traveled roundabout pathways to their university program of choice. the reason why university transfers do not differ markedly from direct entry applicants with respects to hs academic performance may be that their lateral movement to another university is perhaps motivated by factors other than academics. perhaps it is the function of a poor social fit at their initial university, or to access a field of study not offered at their current institution. of course, further research is required to better understand the dynamics behind these observed trends. what are the practical implications of these findings? for starters, we need to acknowledge that college-to-university transfers may need more academic support once they arrive at university than their counterparts traveling other routes. as such, universities need to invest not only in the recruitment and admission of these students, but also, establishing protocols to ensure they receive the timely academic support and guidance that they need. in the absence of such efforts, college-to-university students may struggle academically. our interpretations of these findings are supported by recent oncat-funded research (davies & pizarro milian, 2020; walters et al., 2021) drawing on various custom linkages, which finds that college-to-university transfers have lower university graduation rates than their direct entry and university transfer counterparts. a key limitation of this analysis is that we cannot distinguish the extent to which grades in the final year of h.s. are from either university or college stream preparatory courses. as such, there are likely further qualitative differences between the grades of college-to-university and other applicants that we cannot control for. future research, drawing on administrative data from school boards, should be able to control for the academic stream that students were on during their final year of high school. lastly, while self-reported gpas have been found to closely approximate actual grades (kuncel, cred,thomas, klieger, seiler & woo, 2005), there is always the possibility that there is some reporting bias, particularly among lower achieving students. this further emphasizes the need for further work on this topic with administrative records. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? bibliography pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 oncat .ca/statistical- analysis-transfer- and -student-mobilit y- ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

project snapshot mobilizing knowledge to create responsible pathways for indigenous learners across ontario's post secondary sector type: innovative transfer project number: 2019-22 or i1922 project lead: confederation college collaborators: the main collaborators include partners from the centre for policy in research in indigenous learning (cpril, confederation college), first nations technical institute (fnti), and trent university. cpril has been the coordinating body for the project, leading the reporting, planning and coordination of the project. furthermore, cpril, fnti, and trent university have played an advisory role providing leadership and guidance to the wider steering committee. within the past three years, this work has brought together partners from 12 additional post secondary institutions. involvement and participation ranges across all partnering institutions: algoma university, algonquin college of applied arts and technology, confederation college of applied arts and technology, first nations technical institute, george brown college of applied arts and technology, lakehead university, laurentian university, queen's university, sault college of applied arts and technology, trent university, universit de sudbury. deliverables for website (if applicable): ayaakwaamisiiwin: creating pathways for indigenous learners across ontario colleges, universities and indigenous institutes a toolkit to support the creation of pathways for indigenous learners project summary in 2013, the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (cpril), confederation college, trent university and the first nations technical institute (fnti) undertook a project to create pathways and to support mobility for indigenous learners across their partnering institutions. this work has grown to be a strong collaboration of steering committee members who represent a total of fifteen postsecondary institutions from across ontario. indigenous ceremony and methodologies such as relationship building, reflection, building a shared understanding, and collaboration, ground the work of the group. overall, the pathways for indigenous learners steering committee seeks to build responsible pathways and partnerships that support indigenous learners throughout their postsecondary journeys, from one learning community to another. over 2019/20, the steering committee undertook this new project, mobilizing knowledge, which aimed to implement and share key findings that have been generated from five years of experience with creating pathways for indigenous learners. specifically, this project relied on key findings to develop new and existing pathways, produce resources such as a pathways tool kit, and disseminate knowledge to external groups. overall, the group was successful in enhancing and finalizing pathways, bringing the total number of pathways to fifteen, in creating a toolkit to facilitate institutions in undertaking their own work on creating and supporting pathways, and in meeting with external groups and individuals from across the province and country. project rationale while there has been some progress in closing the gap, there remains a differential between indigenous and non-indigenous postsecondary enrolment, persistence and completion, which suggests a need for the creation of expanded opportunities and for the breakdown of barriers that indigenous learners continue to face. furthermore, while oncat has supported the creation of a number of tools to facilitate pathways in ontario, our research to date indicates that there are continuing obstacles to marketing pathways and monitoring their use, particularly for indigenous learners. in fact, our extensive consultation with numerous stakeholders in the field of indigenous education lead to the document shifting the landscape: a framework for creating pathways in indigenous education which proposes that the best way to address many of the identified concerns of these stakeholders (structural challenges, lack of consistent data, problems with engaging and retaining students, institutional inertia, systemic racism) is a comprehensive transformation of the field of indigenous education. additionally, findings of the 2017/18 pathways for indigenous learners, coming full circle, project highlight a number of the barriers to implementing pathway plans that many members of the group continue to face. such barriers include: competing priorities and work plans; a need for more time and resources for implementing pathways; navigating systems of pathways implementation across different institutions; and the need for more capacity building on the importance of creating and supporting pathways for indigenous learners. through this phase of the work we aimed to address these challenges by implementing our findings with respect to creating sustainable pathways, by developing usable tools for such implementation and by sharing information with external groups and partners. collaborator contributions overall, the pathways for indigenous learners steering committee has situated itself as a strong group of partners from across ontarios postsecondary system. the group brings together indigenous and non-indigenous members who have diverse roles and responsibilities across colleges, universities and indigenous institutes (see additional material upload). since its inception in 2013, the pathways for indigenous learners projects (e.g. pathways for indigenous learners, expanding the circle, and coming full circle) have accomplished a significant amount of work. in particular, work of the projects steering committee has resulted in the establishment of a strong network of diverse partners, identification and implementation of a diversity of pathways (approximately 44 potential pathways identified of those three are fully implemented and thirteen are nearly implemented), unique articulation agreements that address the specific needs of indigenous learners, informative reports and resources (e.g. principled position on pathways for indigenous learners see additional materials upload), formal partnerships for supporting indigenous learners (e.g. through mous), and a shared knowledge and understanding of the barriers and supports to creating pathways for indigenous learners across ontarios postsecondary systems. the roles among the project team vary by steering committee partners, the distinctions between steering committee members is outlined below: first circle partners: in 2013-2016, through relationship building and partnership, the pathways for indigenous learners project emerged between trent university, first nations technical institute, and confederation college. first circle partners act as the advisory committee project, providing guidance and direction on the delivery of the project. they also participate as members of the steering committee in that they are involved with the creation of pathways and other initiatives as well. prior to launching this phase of the project, the first circle team members met in person to confirm the work plan and vision for the year second circle and third circle partners: from 2016-19 the first circle of partners grew their model by inviting additional postsecondary institutions to join the project. second and third circle partners make up the steering committee. overall, partners from first, second, and third circles form the steering committee for this project. the steering committee provides leadership and recommendations in the decisionmaking for the implementation of the project. the range of responsibilities of the steering committee includes review and implementation of the work plan; exploration of pathways and models, in addition to traditional ones, that will support indigenous learners to meet their needs and goals; engaging with and communicating to stakeholders in their home institution and supporting and advocating for the sustainability of this projects work. lastly, the vice president and the project manager for the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning will acted as the coordinating body for this work, and they are responsible for the communication, reporting and accountability to the funder, ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). key steps the following are key steps that were taken that worked well for this project: regular in person meetings establishing mechanisms for communication beyond in person meetings (e.g. teleconferences, and regular emails/ check ins) documenting our processes and creating resources to support other institutions in doing similar work outcomes the top three outcomes for this project are as follows: 1) continuation of implementation and marketing of our pathways for indigenous learners the pathways for indigenous learners steering committee has identified a lengthy list of potential pathways. overall, additional funds provided the steering committee with necessary resources and opportunities to continue working towards implementing pathways on their list, and to modify existing pathways to ensure that they are responsible pathways. -to date through the pathways for indigenous learners project, the steering committee has developed and implemented 12 pathways across our partnering institutions. further to that, additional, pre-existing pathways are being 'enhanced' to include key features of our pathways such as wraparound supports, relationship building, and the breakdown of other barriers that learners may experience. -the indigenous learners that pursue our pathways are also an indicator of success. as more pathways are put in place, we will be able to measure the success of our pathways based on the students pursuing pathways, and their experiences and satisfaction. most recently, we learned about one learner who recently completed their master's degree after completing one the pathways developed, which is a validating indicator of success. 2) a toolkit for for supporting and creating pathways for indigenous learners the committee wishes to disseminate this knowledge widely through the development of a templates that will be compiled in a toolkit that can be used to guide institutions in creating and supporting pathways for indigenous learners. the group has already developed a number of tools, such as an asset map template which assists institutions in gathering and summarizing information on their ability to support pathways for indigenous learners, as well as critical documents, such as the principled position on pathways for indigenous leaners, which outlines a potential principles that postsecondary institutions should follow in order to demonstrate their ability to implement such pathways. this toolkit will provide exemplars of new and previously developed tools and templates and overviews on how to use or implement them. 3) communication of our pathways for indigenous learners project with committees, networks, and organizations interested in or doing similar work. lastly, the pathways for indigenous learners steering committee sought to mobilize knowledge to external groups and organizations who are involved with transfer and mobility, indigenous education, and specifically pathways for indigenous learners. to date, findings from this work have resulted in an extensive list of wise practices and lessons learned. the group aimed to communicate these findings widely, and to create opportunities for potential learning on strategies to address some of the barriers they face in regards to implementing and supporting pathways. overall, the goal of the meeting with external partners will be to harmonize the work that is being done in the province on supporting the transfer and mobility of indigenous learners within the postsecondary sector. over the past year, the vp cpril, and project manager cpril delivered several across the province and country including the following: the ontario native education counselors association conference (oneca) (may 2019, sault ste marie, ontario) pathways for indigenous learners steering committee meeting with oncat partners (august 2019, toronto, ontario) college's and institutes canada indigenous education symposium (november 2019, saskatoon, saskatchewan) ministry of advanced education (january 2020, regina, saskatchewan) pathways for indigenous learners steering committee meeting with oncat partners (february 2020, toronto, ontario) throughout the past year we have received positive feedback from a number of different groups who were at attendance at our different sessions/ presentations. indicators of success include positive written feedback that was received at the oneca conference, requests for copies of our powerpoint presentations, follow up phone calls from participants at our sessions/ presentations, and requests for presentation by session participants (e.g. we had received a request to present to a team at the ministry of advanced education for the government of saskatchewan). challenges in this phase of the work we did not experience many challenges as we set out clear objectives. a continued challenge pertains to the competition of priorities and work plans by our project partners. many of our project partners work on this pathways project as a side project in addition to their core responsibilities/ roles, and as such it is hard to have consistent representation of partners at every meeting as a results of competing priorities. however, over the past 5 years we have established mechanisms to support communication and to offset this challenge. more broadly, other challenges that we have faced include navigating different systems of governance in relation to pathways, and the need for capacity building on transfer and mobility and indigenous education across post secondary institutions in ontario. overall, through the support from oncat, development of shareable and user friendly resources, and scheduling a time for in person working sessions, we have been working to address these challenges. student outcomes this project benefits student through the following: creation of efficient pathways that students can pursue, which hopefully maximize their education credentials, and minimize funds spent on education within a shorter time frame meeting students needs in terms of support services through our wrap-around supports models advocating for the increase presence of indigenous education and pathways across ontario increasing access to post secondary by identifying and breaking down barriers that may have previously existed institutional outcomes there are three key deliverables that resulted from this work: 1) innovative pathways and partnerships for indigenous learners that seek to provide wrap around supports to students, and breakdown barriers that students may have previously experienced 2) informative resources, specifically a pathways for indigenous learners tool kit 3) knowledge mobilization in the form of presentations, workshops and meetings more broadly, a necessary impact of this project is the amelioration of the legacy of colonialism as it relates to postsecondary education outcomes for indigenous communities. we are working against the background of the truth and reconciliation commission, which has called for a significant and lasting investment in meaningful forms of education for indigenous learners through its calls to action (2015). federal and provincial governments across canada have committed themselves to addressing these calls. every new pathway makes it possible for one more student to successfully achieve their academic goals. the establishment, maintenance, and sustainability of such pathways is therefore critical to such positive outcomes. sector or system implications one of the most consistently identified barriers to indigenous learner mobility is a lack of consistent information. this project, by supporting the establishment of formalized networks dedicated to pathways for indigenous learners, aimed to underpin an information-sharing network that can become the foundation for fully realized support systems. such systems can lead to increased numbers of students pursuing options that they might otherwise have not been aware of, or able to access. overall, this work benefits students by aiming to improve these systems by building pathways for students to pursue, capacity building on indigenous education among diverse institutions across ontario, identifying and breaking down barriers that students may have previously experienced, and the establishment of a network of educations, and staff within institutions who are committed to supporting students. tips/advice first, we recommend reviewing our previous report, coming full circle (as well as our other pathways for indigenous learners reports), and our framework document, shifting the landscape: a framework for creating pathways in indigenous studies. additionally, review our toolkit for creating pathways for indigenous learners, once that is published. this reports have compiled work and perspectives from partners who come from 15 post secondary institutions across ontario. overall, we encourage other institutions who are interested in doing this work to set time and resources to meeting in person to build an understanding of one another's institutions, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for partnership, abilities to partner, and to begin relationship building with one another. additionally, we strongly recommend that institutions engage with faculty to understand the affinity, or relationships between programs. lastly, we recommend that institutions connect and meet with learners who may be interested in pursuing certain pathways to understand what their needs, interests and priorities are. we also suggest establishing a wraparound student services plan to support student success. tools and resource through the toolkit, we have compiled all of the tools, templates, resources, and processes that have emerged from out work to date into one document that is intended to be shared across the post secondary sector. broadly, in this toolkit, we have provided an overview of the phases and processes for creating pathways for indigenous learners. for each phase, we provide details on the tools and resources that we created and relied upon. for instance, we have provided templates of the different tools (e.g. asset maps, information gathering, action planning worksheets, etc), our wrap around supports model, sample articulation agreements, a monitoring tool for assessing pathways, and checklists of steps for each stage of pathways creation. the toolkit is included as an attachment in the deliverable section. additionally, we have developed several presentations, varying in length, that have been delivered to diverse audiences such as post-secondary conference attendees, indigenous education counselors, and professionals from the post-secondary sector of provincial governments. furthermore, presentations have been shared with individuals from these groups who have requested a copy of our powerpoint. we have also created a powerpoint presentation with all members of our steering committee that provides an overview of the pathways for indigenous learners work, and outcomes to date from the past five years that partners can share within their respective institutions and networks. a powerpoint is included as an attachment in the deliverables section.

projet # 2017-21 improvement of existing transfer pathways and development of transfer pathways with the ba program une collaboration entre luniversit de sudbury, le collge boral et la cit p. 1 2. table of contents 3. list of participants and partner institutions ............................................................. 3 4. table of contents ............................................................................................................ 6 5. project goals...................................................................................................................... 7 6. development of transfer pathways ........................................................................................... 8 a. methodology ....................................................................................................................... 9 b. program comparison and analysis ................................................................................ 10 c. implementation process and timelines .......................................................................... 10 7. summary of transfer pathways created................................................................................. 12 8. promising practices and lessons learned ................................................................................ 14 promising practices ................................................................................................................ 14 lessons learned..................................................................................................................... 14 challenges ................................................................................................................................. 15 10. appendices................................................................................................................................... 15 models of transfer pathways .............................................................................................. 15 a) review of existing transfer pathways ................................................................................... 16 b) development of new agreements .................................................................................... 26 p. 2 3. liste des participants et des tablissements partenaires nom des membres de lquipe kristie roberts janelle radey michael hankard titres des membres de lquipe rle universit de sudbury coordonnatrice-mobilit coordinatrice de projet - analyses tudiante prliminaires des programmes, les normes, les cursus, les plans de cours kroberts@usudbury.ca et rsultats dapprentissages, 705 673 5661 poste 363 coordination de rencontres avec les dpartements, dveloppement des projets, coordination et communication avec les partenaires et rdaction de lentente administratrice de projets gestionnaire de projet -participation aux rencontres avec les dpartements, jx1_lemieux@usudbury.ca rencontres hebdomadaires avec la 705.673.5661 poste 305 coordonnatrice-mobilit tudiante, dveloppement du projet et de la stratgie de communication chef du dpartement, indigenous expert de contenu, approbations studies jack laughlin chef du dpartement, sciences religieuses expert de contenu, approbations lucien pelletier chef du dpartement, philosophie expert de contenu, approbations daniela moisa chef du dpartement, tudes journalistiques expert de contenu, approbations daniela moisa chef du dpartement, folklore et ethnologie expert de contenu, approbations sylvie renault secrtaire gnrale approbations, ngociations, contrats, consultations - acadmique marianne denis adjointe administrative coordination des rencontres et voyages lynne cyr services financiers traitement des paiements, factures et des remboursements sophie bouffard rectrice consultations p. 3 sarah noel agente de communications marketing et promotion des ententes roxanne langemann agente de liaison promotion et recrutement, sensibilisation des ententes collge boral experts de contenu experts de contenu albert lapalme professeur, techniques des services policiers sylvie martelli et lise ross-lalande valrie malmiste francine ross-noel professeurs, techniques de travail social professeur, adjoint juridique professeur, ducation en services l'enfance professeur, tudes sur la paix et les conflits professeur, directrice/directeur des services funraires (classes 1 et 2) gestionnaire gestionnaire cap norlanda joseph camille lemieux marie-claude mallet daniel leduc julie allen tina montgomery marc despatie liane romain nathalie danielou nancy blanger lynda blanger christian st-onge christian st-onge registraire doyenne - cole des mtiers et des technologies appliques chef - communications stratgiques direction, services de dveloppement pdagogique et de technologies ducatives la cit professeur et conseillre pdagogique professeur, techniques des services policiers professeur, techniques de travail social professeur, parajuriste professeur, adjoint juridique examine les programmes d'tudes, value les objectifs et les rsultats d'apprentissage des cours/programmes, examine lments de rendement, les valuations, analyse la mapping des programmes, etc. expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu charg de projets superviseur du charg de projets et consultations consultations consultations communications consultations expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu p. 4 pascale reed-lang jean-maurice lafond alexandre de courvil nicol jean-denis bujold-scott daniel tremblay joseph aghaby / isabelle gurin stphane ct frdric thibaultchabot lise frenette chantal thiboutot pascale montminy patrice supper annie chartrand marie robertson professeur, ducation en services l'enfance professeur, relations publiques professeur, production tlvisuelle professeur, radio professeur, journalisme mobilit tudiante expert de contenu registraire doyen, institut des technologies, des arts et de la communication (itac) directrice, projets spciaux consultations consultations, approbations et participation aux rencontres directrice principale, planification institutionnelle et imputabilit gestionnaire en communication la cit directeur, itac doyenne, institut des services d'urgence et juridiques (isuj) et cole d'administration, d'htellerie et de tourisme doyenne, institut des sciences de la sant et de la vie et de l'cole des sciences sociales et humaines dominique germain directrice, isuj paulette bouffard directrice cfcl, la cit expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu charg de projets consultations, participations aux rencontres, gestion et contrle de qualit consultations et participation aux rencontres responsable de la promotion et du marketing des nouvelles ententes value la faisabilit de chaque voie et assure une mise en uvre adquate avec le directeur. participer aux rencontres. value la faisabilit de chaque voie et assure une mise en uvre adquate avec le directeur. participer aux rencontres. value la faisabilit de chaque voie et assure une mise en uvre adquate avec le directeur. participer aux rencontres. assurer la connexion entre le gestionnaire de projet et les professeurs. valuer la faisabilit de chaque voie et assurer une bonne mise en uvre. assurer la connexion entre le gestionnaire de projet et les professeurs. valuer la faisabilit de chaque voie et assurer une bonne mise en uvre. p. 5 4. summary this project has two components. it consists of improving the existing pathways between the collge boral and the college la cit, in addition to implementing new transfer pathways to bachelor of arts programs at the university of sudbury, member of the fdration laurentienne. a review of the four existing articulation agreements was conducted in order to evaluate the possibility of increasing the number of credits awarded to students who may successfully benefit from these transfer pathways: early childhood education services (collge boral) to folklore and ethnology (u. of sudbury); funeral director, class 1, with embalming license, and funeral director, class 2, without embalming license (collge boral) to religious sciences (u. of sudbury); journalism (la cit) to journalistic studies (u. of sudbury). also, the project resulted in the development of seven new pathways: early childhood education services (la cit) to folklore and ethnology (u. of sudbury); radio (la cit) to journalistic studies (u. of sudbury); television production (la cit) to journalistic studies (u. of sudbury); public relations (la cit) to to journalistic studies (u. of sudbury); social service worker (collge boral and la cit) to indigenous studies (u. of sudbury); police services techniques (collge boral and la cit) to indigenous studies (u. of sudbury); studies of peace and conflicts (collge boral) to religious sciences (u. of sudbury). sadly, four pathways proposed in the submission could not be created or revised. at collge boral, two programs which were identified during the project were suspended, and therefore no articulation was created and remains pending: review of stage techniques and management (collge boral) to journalistic studies u. of sudbury); development of mineral prospecting and exploration techniques (collge boral) to indigenous studies (u. of sudbury). following an analysis of the programs, the two following articulations were not retained, due to a lack of affinity between the programs. development of legal assistant (la cit) to philosophy(u of sudbury); development of paralegal (la cit) to philosophy(u of sudbury). p. 6 5. project goals the university of sudbury recognizes the importance of developing partnerships with other postsecondary institutions to facilitate the mobility of students who want to follow more personalized pathways to access the work world. for several years, the university of sudbury has created and maintained francophone, anglophone and bilingual articulation agreements with many of ontarios colleges and universities. as part of this project, the university of sudbury, collge boral and the city wish to offer graduates of francophone colleges the ability to obtain a bachelors degree in french, or in french and english, without repeating their studies in a domain that is related to, or supplementary to, their major area of studies, and to do so within a reasonable period of time. the focus on collaboration between institutions helps each student to specialize in certain fields, but still provides access to a greater variety of programs for students, especially in french. since many employers now require a bachelors degree as a criterion of hiring, but are also seeking a workforce with applied skills and knowledge, articulation agreements and collaborations between universities and colleges help students take advantage of both adult education approaches to expand their applied knowledge. they also help develop students critical thinking skills and their theoretical knowledge in a particular field. the high degree of student mobility and the creation of new pathways must be more widely recognized. by creating more pathways, we hope to acknowledge and meet the needs of frenchspeaking students and of bilingual students, by ensuring that there is a variety of pathways based on quality. p. 7 6. development of transfer pathways # 1 2 college program early childhood education department (collge boral) director of funerals, class 1, with embalming license (collge boral) program at the university of sudburyand folklore ethnology religious studies process completed in approval no foll owup is expecte d x x funeral director, class 2, without embalming license (collge boral) 3 4 5 6 journalism (la cit) early childhood education department (la cit) radio (la cit) television production (la cit) 7 public relations (la cit) 8 social services technician (collge boral and la cit) 9 police department techniques cit) journali sm studies folklore and ethnology journali sm studies journali sm studies journali sm studies indigenous studies indigenous studies x x x x x x x 10 peace and conflict studies (collge boral) religious studies 11 legal assistant (la collge boral and la cit) philosophy x philosophy journali sm studies x x 12 paralegal (la cit) 13 stage management (collge boral) 14 mineral prospecting and exploration (collge boral) indigenous studies x x p. 8 a. methodology developing the institutional strategy for the university of sudbury to deal with student mobility has motivated its mobility projects and its development of articulation agreements. the university of sudbury has even succeeded in creating a new position and has hired a coordinator of student mobility. the following methodology was used: numerous exchanges with the collge boral and la cit, the collection and exchange of identified program objectives as well as course schedules, mapping, results and learning activities, in addition to other available information; kickoff meetings with program heads and professors: sensitization of departments to student mobility and to the project; sensitization of department heads and professors to curricula, course schedules, mapping and college syllabi. these meetings were also used to explain the approval process and the steps to be followed internally, once an agreement has been developed or revised; analysis of existing agreements (comparison of learning results for the different programs, identification of the differences between curricula, etc.); comparative analysis of programs (assessments of learning expectations and results, reading of course schedules and curricula) in order to suggest possible agreements; consultations with the key programs participants in order to evaluate the comparative analyses; development and finalizing of the pathways and preparation of the draft agreements according to the comparative analyses and the revisions proposed by the programs participants; final validation of the pathways developed by the departments in order to begin the approval process; the agreement will be subject to the university of sudburys approval process (senate), and, thereafter, to that of universit laurentienne (school of the arts board, admissions committee, promotions and requests, senate). according to the universitys approval process, our articulation agreements must be approved by the department, then by the university of sudbury senate, then by the school of the arts board, and finally, by the admissions committee, by promotions and requests to universit laurentienne. once these four stages are completed, the draft agreements are submitted to the colleges for approval. once signed, a copy of the agreement is provided to the admissions office of universit laurentienne, which coordinates publication on the website ontransfert.ca. the university is also working to develop a communications strategy which will be used to promote all of the student mobility agreements and projects. there is now a web page dedicated to the agreements on the university website, and the agreements are now shown on the web pages for each program, in order to provide even more visibility. a more detailed communications strategy will be prepared in the spring in order to promote the agreements to students in both colleges, to future students, coming from secondary school, or to adult learners and to the university community. p. 9 b. comparison and analysis of the program several tools and sources of information were used to compare and analyze the programs. for college programs, these sources included: course descriptions, curricula, mapping of the program (rafp and rare), the program standards, course schedules, and the framework for classification of ontario skills credentials (for approved programs). course schedules and learning objectives and results were the principal sources for university programs. the coordinator used these tools to make a preliminary analysis of the input that the key participants from the departments completed and validated, since they are the content experts. the coordinator provided the link between departments, which made it easier and quicker to complete the process. several administrative meetings also took place with the project administrators and the secretary general of the university. various meetings with the admissions office of universit laurentienne were also useful in implementing the pathways. a productive practice was the opportunity for members of administrative staff and department heads to meet at la cit. during this day, it was possible to meet with the team members at la cit, but also with the professors and teachers in charge of the journalism, radio, television production, paralegal, legal assistant, social services techniques and police department services programs. the day also included a tour of the facilities, which demonstrated the learning level of college students in these areas (ex.: the equipment used). c. implementation process and timelines approvals process at the different institutions 1 department approval 2 university of sudbury senate 3 board of the school of the arts at universit laurentienne 4 committee on admissions, promotions and requests of universit laurentienne since it is a member of the fdration laurentienne, the approval process takes place on two levels. internally, the department must approve the proposed articulation and request that it be presented to the senate of the university of sudbury. once it is approved by the senate, the agreement is sent to the board of the school of the arts of universit laurentienne. if it is approved, the agreement is then submitted p. 10 the committee on admissions, promotions and requests. once this committee approves it, the agreement can be sent for the partners signatures and implemented. the approval process may have an impact on the implementation date, since the three committees only meet once a month, during the months of september through may. if a committee requests that the agreement be re-worked for any reason, this will delay it for at least a month, and it will be scheduled for the next meeting, and therefore delay the whole process. here are the approval dates for the agreements that have been developed: # programmes 1 de : ducation en services lenfance (collge boral) : folklore et ethnologie 2 de : directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur et directrice (collge boral) de : directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur (collge boral) dpt. snat u de s conseil facult des arts comit dadmissions promotions et requtes novembre 2017 10 janvier 2018 9 fvrier 2018 21 fvrier 2018 novembre 2017 10 janvier 2018 9 fvrier 2018 21 fvrier 2018 janvier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 janvier 2018 14 mars 2018 13 avril 2018 7 mai 2018 janvier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 : sciences religieuses 3 de : journalisme (la cit) : tudes journalistiques 4 de : ducation en services lenfance (la cit) : folklore et ethnologie 5 de : radio la cit : tudes journalistiques p. 11 5 de : production tlvisuelle (la cit) janvier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 janvier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 fvrier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 fvrier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 mars 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 : tudes journalistiques 7 de : relations publiques (la cit) : tudes journalistiques 8 de : techniques de travail social (collge boral et la cit) : indigenous studies 9 de : techniques des services policiers (collge boral et la cit) : indigenous studies 10 de : tudes sur la paix et conflits (collge boral) : sciences religieuses 7. summary of transfer pathways created the table below summarizes the created transfer pathways. specific details are shown in the transfer pathways model annexed. it should be noted that the details of the pathways are subject to changes, after the current approval process. # 1 programs de : ducation en services lenfance au collge boral : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie (concentration) luniversit de sudbury 2 de : directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur et directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur du collge boral salient points success in revising the existing agreement increased the number of credits offered from 36 to 42 success in revising the existing agreement increased the number of credits offered from 24 to 42 p. 12 : baccalaurat s arts (concentration ou spcialisation) en sciences religieuses luniversit de sudbury 3 de : ducation en services lenfance de la cit the student will earn up to 42 credits* the student will earn up to 54 credits the student will earn up to 54 credits the student will earn up to 60 credits and will be able to complete the bachelors degree in two years if approved, this will be one of the only agreements at this level within the fdration the student willlaurentienne earn up to 60 credits and will be able to complete the bachelors degree in two years. if approved, this will be one of the only agreements at this level within the student fdration willlaurentienne earn up to 42 credits : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie (concentration) luniversit de sudbury 4 de : radio la cit : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) tudes journalistiques luniversit de sudbury 5 de : production tlvisuelle la cit : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) tudes journalistiques luniversit de sudbury 6 de : journalisme la cit : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) tudes journalistiques luniversit de sudbury 7 de : relations publiques la cit : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) tudes journalistiques luniversit de sudbury 8 de : techniques de travail social au collge boral : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) en indigenous studies luniversit de sudbury 9 de : techniques des services policiers au collge boral the student will earn up to 42 credits p. 13 : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) en indigenous studies luniversit de sudbury 10 de : tudes sur la paix et conflits du collge boral the student will earn up to 42 credits : diplme envers un baccalareat s arts (3 concentration ou spcialisation) en sciences religieuses luniversit de sudbury following an analysis by subject experts, it was concluded that there were not enough links and a lack of affinity between the programs for legal assistant and paralegal with the philosophy program. the professors did not see enough congruence between the learning results and did not support the creation of these paths. it is also important to note that we were not able to review the agreement with the program for techniques of stage management, since this program is presently suspended at the collge boral. for the same reason, we did not create a pathway agreement for students in the minerals prospection and exploration techniques to the indigenous studies program, since this program has also been suspended. 8. promising practices and lessons learned promising practices the process is facilitated when the preliminary analysis is done before communicating with the department. this prevents significant delays and is appreciated by the department. in general, the preliminary analysis is used to determine if there are links between the programs and which courses may, possibly, be transferable. next, the department may dig deeper and assess the proposed work. sensitizing the professors is essential to the success of the project. those who are very knowledgeable about student mobility and its advantages were more flexible and motivated in pathway development. those who were not, were always reluctant to consider this type of project. lessons learned. comparative analyses are meticulous and time-consuming tasks. proper time management is important. p. 14 all stages of the approval process must be planned in the schedule. it is also first necessary to plan around meeting dates, because, often, meetings only take place once a month. challenges the consideration of the new requirements for the bachelor of arts was implemented in autumn 2017. this change requires each b.a. candidate to complete 18 credits, including: 6 credits focused on linguistic sensitization; 6 course credits with less than 50% aboriginal content and 6 course credits focused on a scientific culture. having stated this, it was necessary to keep the elective credits so that the students could meet these requirements, which had an impact on the number of credits awarded. sensitizing professors is always a significant challenge. some faculty members are reluctant to engage in this type of partnership, fearing, for example, loss of their first-year staff and concerns related to the learning and knowledge levels of the students coming from the college. this is ongoing work in the pursuit of our student mobility objectives. 10. appendices models of transfer pathways it should be noted that the details of the pathways are subject to change, following the current approval process. p. 15 a) rvisions des parcours de transfert existants dtails sur le parcours de transfert titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : de : ducation en services lenfance (collge boral) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie s/o approbation du dpartement de folklore et ethnologie : novembre 2017 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : le 10 janvier 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : le 9 fvrier 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : le 21 fvrier 2018 date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication suite la rception de lentente signe (mars/avril 2018). sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : p. 16 procdure de contact pour la mise en signature de lentente est en cours. une fois signe, une copie de uvre du parcours de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit transfert : laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : diplm du programme dducation en services lenfance du collge boral diplme en ducation en services lenfance au collge boral m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 p. 17 nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat : + 6 crdits lang 1005f + 3 crdits folk 1116 + 3 crdits folk 1117 + 30 crdits folk dans les cinq blocs (6 crdits par bloc) + 6 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone tel que dans les cours folk/etam 2276(3 crdits) et folk/etam 2287(3 crdits) 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si 1.5 annes ou 48 crdits ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de collge boral leurs programmes p. 18 titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur (collge boral) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en sciences religieuses baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en sciences religieuses (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en sciences religieuses diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en sciences religieuses s/o date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du approbation du dpartement de sciences religieuses : novembre 2017 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : le 10 janvier 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : le 9 fvrier 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : le 21 fvrier 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (mars/avril 2018) signature de lentente est en cours. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. p. 19 parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : diplm du programme de directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur ou diplm du programme de directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur diplme de directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur ou directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur au collge boral m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 maximum de 42 crdits sur 120 p. 20 nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + 6 crdits : lang 1005f + 12 crdits srel dans deux des quatre blocs (6 crdits par bloc) + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 2000 ou 3000 + 18 crdits au choix ; ltudiant doit assurer de rencontrer lexigence de 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + 6 crdits - sensibilisation linguistique : lang 1005f + 12 crdits srel dans deux des quatre blocs (6 crdits par bloc) + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 2000 ou 3000 + 18 crdits au choix, ltudiant doit assurer de rencontrer lexigence de 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et + 6 crdits au choix (avec au moins 6 crdits de la srie 3000) + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 4000 + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires (annes suprieures) total de 78 crdits sur 120 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de leurs programmes bac de 3 ans : 1.5 annes ou 48 crdits bac de 4 ans : 2.5 annes ou 78 crdits collge boral p. 21 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : journalisme (la cit) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et luniversit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions p. 22 du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de journalisme diplme en journalisme de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 60 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 30 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 15 crdits s/o maximum de 60 crdits sur 90 maximum de 60 crdits sur 120 p. 23 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + lang 1005f (6 crdits) + etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) + etjo 4195 f (6 crdits) + 15 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 30 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + lang 1005 f (6 crdits) + etjo 3226 f (3 crdits) + etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) + etjo 4195 f (6 crdits) + 18 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 6 crdits de la srie etjo 2000 3 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 9 crdits de la srie etjo 4000 + 24 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : p. 24 ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 60 crdits sur 120 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de leurs programmes bac de 3 ans : 1 ans ou 30 crdits bac de 4 ans : 2 ans ou 60 crdits la cit p. 25 b) dveloppement de nouvelles ententes dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : ducation en services lenfance (la cit) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie s/o date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : le 14 mars 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 13 avril 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 7 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et luniversit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme dducation en services lenfance de la cit p. 26 le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion diplme dducation en services lenfance de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat : + 6 crdits lang 1005f + 3 crdits folk 1116 + 3 crdits folk 1117 + 30 crdits folk dans les cinq blocs (6 crdits par bloc) + 6 crdits au choix p. 27 numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : *en plus des exigences de la concentration, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone tel que dans les cours folk/etam 2276(3 crdits) et folk/etam 2287(3 crdits) 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si 1.5 annes ou 48 crdits ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de la cit leurs programmes p. 28 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : radio (la cit) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, p. 29 du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de radio diplme en radio de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 54 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 54 crdits sur 90 maximum de 54 crdits sur 120 p. 30 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : lang 1005 (6 crdits) etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) 9 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 3 crdits de la srie 2000 6 crdits de la srie 3000 etjo 4195 (6 crdits) 12 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 3 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 54 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : lang 1005 (6 crdits) etjo 3226f (3 crdits) etjo3257 f (3 crdits) 30 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 12 crdits de la srie 2000 9 crdits de la srie 3000 9 crdits de la srie 4000 etjo 4195 (6 crdits) 18 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : p. 31 ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 66 crdits sur 120 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de leurs programmes bac de 3 ans : 1 ans ou 36 crdits bac de 4 ans : 2 ans ou 66 crdits la cit p. 32 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du production tlvisuelle (la cit) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions p. 33 parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de production tlvisuelle diplme du programme de production tlvisuelle la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 54 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 54 crdits sur 90 maximum de 54 crdits sur 120 p. 34 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + lang 1005 f (6 crdits) + 12 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 6 crdits de la srie etjo 2000 6 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 + etjo 4195 (6 crdits) + 12 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 3 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 36 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + lang 1005 f (6 crdits) + etjo 2257 (3 crdits) + etjo 3226 f (3 crdits) + 27 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 12 crdits de la srie etjo 2000 6 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 9 crdits de la srie etjo 4000 + etjo 4195 (6 crdits) + 21 crdits au choix p. 35 *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 66 crdits sur 120 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention 2 ans ou 36 crdits sur 90 du titre si ltudiant est 2 ans ou 66 crdits sur 120 inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements la cit admissibles et de leurs programmes p. 36 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : relations publiques (la cit) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 date de mise en uvre du parcours de suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : p. 37 procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de relations publiques diplme du programme de relations publiques de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 60 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 30 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 15 crdits s/o maximum de 60 crdits de 90 maximum de 60 crdits sur 120 p. 38 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + lang 1005 (6 crdits) + etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) + etjo 4195 (6 crdits) + 3 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 + 12 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 3 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 30 crdits de 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + lang 1005 (6 crdits) + etjo 2257 f (3 crdits) + etjo3226 f (3 crdits) + etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) + etjo 4195 (6 crdits) + 21 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 6 crdits de la srie etjo 2000 6 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 9 crdits de la srie etjo 4000 + 18 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la spcialisation de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 60 crdits de 120 crdits p. 39 nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : dure prvue avant bac de 3 ans : 1 ans ou 30 crdits lobtention du titre si ltudiant bac de 4 ans : 2 ans ou 60 crdits est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et la cit de leurs programmes p. 40 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : techniques de travail social (collge boral) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en indigenous studies baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en indigenous studies (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en indigenous studies diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en indigenous studies s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 date de mise en uvre du parcours de suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : p. 41 procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de techniques de travail social diplme de techniques de travail social de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 maximum de 42 crdits sur 120 p. 42 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + 3 crdits indg 1116e + 3 crdits indg 1117e + 6 crdits de la srie de langues a ou b + 6 crdits indg 2285e + 6 crdits indg 3105e + 6 crdits indg 3215e + 6 crdits indg au niveau 3000 ou 4000 +6 crdits au choix + 6 crdits au choix + 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + 3 crdits indg 1116e + 3 crdits indg 1117e + 6 crdits de la srie de langues a ou b + 6 crdits indg 2285e + 6 crdits indg 3105e + 6 crdits indg 3215e + 12 indg crdits au niveau 4000 + 18 crdits indg des annes suprieurs (niveaux 2000, 3000 ou 4000) + 18 crdits aux choix + 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 78 crdits sur 120 crdits p. 43 dure prvue avant lobtention 1.5 ans ou 48 crdits du titre si ltudiant est 2.5 ans ou 78 crdits inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et collge boral de leurs programmes p. 44 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : techniques des services policiers (collge boral) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en indigenous studies baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en indigenous studies (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en indigenous studies diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) indigenous studies s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 date de mise en uvre du parcours de suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : p. 45 procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de techniques des services policiers diplme du programme de techniques des services policiers m.p.c. 3.2 = 54 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 maximum de 42 crdits sur 120 p. 46 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + 3 crdits indg 1116e + 3 crdits indg 1117e + 6 crdits de la srie de langues a ou b + 6 crdits indg 2285e + 6 crdits indg 3105e + 6 crdits indg 3215e + 6 crdits indg crdits au niveau 3000 ou 4000 + 6 crdits aux choix total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + 3 crdits indg 1116e + 3 crdits indg 1117e + 6 crdits de la srie de langue a or b + 6 crdits indg 2285e + 6 crdits indg 3105e + 6 crdits indg 3215e + 12 crdits indg au niveau 4000 + 18 crdits des annes suprieures (niveau 2000, 3000 ou 4000) + 18 crdits au choix + 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 78 crdits sur 120 crdits p. 47 dure prvue avant lobtention bac de 3 ans : 1.5 ans ou 48 crdits du titre si ltudiant est bac de 4 ans : 2.5 ans ou 78 crdits inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et collge boral de leurs programmes p. 48 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : tudes sur la paix et conflits (collge boral) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en sciences religieuses baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en sciences religieuses (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en sciences religieuses diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) sciences religieuses s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, p. 49 du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplmes dtudes sur la paix et les conflits diplm du programme dtudes sur la paix et les conflits m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 maximum de 42 crdits sur 120 p. 50 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + 6 crdits lang 1005f + 6 crdits en srel 1005 + 6 crdits srel soit dans le bloc 1 tudes bibliques ou dans le bloc 2 religions occidentales (cest noter que ltudiant aura rencontr les exigences du bloc 3 religions du monde et du bloc 4 religion et culture dans le cadre de cette entente. + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 2000 ou 3000 + 18 crdits au choix (dont 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique) total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + 6 crdits lang1005f + 6 crdits srel 1005 + 6 crdits srel soit dans le bloc 1 tudes bibliques ou dans le bloc 2 religions occidentales (cest noter que ltudiant aura rencontr les exigences du bloc 3 religions du monde et du bloc 4 religion et culture dans le cadre de cette entente. + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 2000 ou 3000 + 12 crdits srel de la srie 4000 + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires (annes suprieures) + 24 crdits au choix (dont 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique) total : 78 crdits de 120 crdits p. 51 dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de leurs programmes bac de 3 ans : 1.5 ans ou 48 crdits bac de 4 ans : 2.5 ans ou 78 crdits collge boral p. 52

ontario council on articulation and transfer 180 dundas street west, suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 www.oncat.ca request for quote sharepoint phase 2 closing date: december 13th 2021 5:00pm (eastern standard time) closing location: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) suite 1902, 180 dundas street west toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by: ontario council on articulation and transfer contact: derek chan project manager dchan@oncat.ca main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student-facing website: www.ontransfer.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario 1 contents oncat overview........................................................................................................................................... 3 invitation ....................................................................................................................................................... 3 project overview........................................................................................................................................... 3 rfq responsibilities and deliverables .......................................................................................................... 4 sharepoint phase 2 quote requirements ..................................................................................................... 5 communication ............................................................................................................................................. 5 submission process ....................................................................................................................................... 6 evaluation process ........................................................................................................................................ 6 evaluation criteria weighting ....................................................................................................................... 7 timelines & awards....................................................................................................................................... 8 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 2 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. as a provincial not-forprofit organization, primarily funded by the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu), oncat works alongside our members and stakeholders, by: supporting projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience. engaging ontario's regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; hosting events that brings together credit transfer experts from across the province; and, connecting students to transfer opportunities through ontransfer.ca and stakeholders through our corporate website oncat.ca for general information about oncat, please visit www.oncat.ca. for more information on the student portal, visit www.ontransfer.ca. invitation as oncat continues to work with students and stakeholders, its it environment has evolved to support dozens of projects, organizational communication and administrative needs, relationship management, grant making, human resources and more. oncat invites qualified individuals/ organizations to submit a quote to provide general sharepoint and microsoft 365 services including implementation support, training of oncats sharepoint administrators in establishing best practices and additional support as outlined in the rfq responsibilities and deliverables section. oncats goal is to ensure the most efficient and secure technology, and support is in place as we continue developing sharepoint and microsoft 365 to expand our engagement to stakeholders and improve internal and external operational efficiency. our intent is to fulfill our immediate needs and to have further projects which will be defined through follow-on agreements or scopes of work in the future. project overview as oncat has matured and grown as an organization we require a sharepoint community to ensure operational effectiveness and successful future engagement with stakeholders. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 3 oncat worked with a sharepoint provider on phase 1 implementation to develop four sharepoint online sites. web part. the scope of phase 1 included designing and configuring a template for internal/external sharepoint sites, adding users to the sharepoint sites, configuring customized groups and permissions for internal and external users, training oncat staff to be administrators, design of libraries and their metadata, powershell scripting, and supporting web part implementation. this sharepoint implementation replaced a facebook workplace solution that supported internal and external collaboration. oncat sharepoint online implementation includes one hub and three spoke sites. they are accessed by internal oncat users and external partner users (azure active directory guests). users have been assigned library access and permission levels based on customized sharepoint security groups. oncat is not currently supported by a sharepoint developer. oncat is supported by a third-party it service provider, asurtec technology solutions, who manages and supports oncats microsoft 365 tenant, file server, firewall, networking, and help desk needs. we use microsoft 365 business standard licenses. oncat has less than 25 employees and collaborates with 50+ postsecondary education sector partners across ontario. rfq responsibilities and deliverables oncat requires sharepoint services for a 3 (three) month period with the possibility to extend to an annual contract. oncat reserves the right to terminate this agreement after giving 30 days notice if needed. the main responsibilities of the selected sharepoint developer will include: immediate needs: (aim to be completed within the initial 3 (three) month work period) configure one yammer instance in oncats microsoft 365 environment. setup and configure yammer web part for one sharepoint spoke site. populate internal (members) and external (guest) users for the sharepoint web part for yammer. provide training for the oncat administrators in implementing yammer: what decisions we may have to make to configure yammer to our needs. how to populate users onto this web part. how to set up yammer with a group of users. the best practices to adding yammer to future sharepoint sites as needed. future needs: ongoing troubleshooting and maintenance support. provide ongoing recommendations on the implementation of additional sharepoint spoke sites and web parts to complement our current sharepoint hub and spokes. provide ongoing recommendations for streamlined and efficient processes to support account management for our sector collaborators. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 4 assist oncat with setting up internal oncat intranet sharepoint site. support oncat throughout their phase 2 sharepoint implementation of adding additional spoke sites, libraries, user database management and other sharepoint features for 50+ sector partners. develop additional sharepoint it data and cybersecurity protocols as needed. sharepoint phase 2 quote requirements quotes must at a minimum contain the following: 1. a detailed project plan for the immediate needs described above, including training, user stories implementation, qa, and proposed implementation timeline. 2. a detailed budget covering immediate needs described above. 3. key contacts. include applicants biographies outlining relevant experiences. include a listing of the staff to be assigned to this project and their respective qualifications, past experience on engagements of this scope including resumes, and their role in those past engagements. 4. qualifications of the respondent to provide the requested services including capability, capacity, similarly complex projects and related experience and client references. confirmation of availability of individuals in proposal. 5. a statement of understanding on any confidential issues for this project and disclosure concerning any perceived or potential conflicts of interest. 6. a description of the outcome monitoring including a list of tools to track progress, to ensure a success it transition. 7. technical definitions if required. communication all communication such as 1) requests for additional information, 2) clarification, 3) request for a french version, please direct in writing by email to: dchan@oncat.ca all such rfq related inquiries must be received no later than december 13th at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time. oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information of a reasonable nature that may be requested by interested vendors. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 5 submission process 1. please review all sections of this rfq carefully and follow all instructions. incomplete submissions will be not be considered. 2. all costs associated with developing or submitting a quote (including an interview) in response to this rfq and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal shall be borne by the it service provider. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. 3. all pricing submitted will be considered fixed unless otherwise indicated herein. 4. all proposals should identify the it service provider proposed team of professionals, including those employed by subcontractors, if any, along with respective areas of expertise and relevant credentials. agencies should also provide a delineation of the portion of the scope of work for which each of these professionals will be responsible. service providers are required to submit one (1) electronic copies of their rfq submission to: dchan@oncat.ca please ensure the subject line reads as follows: sharepoint phase 2: [company name]. oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of december 13th at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfq document become the property of oncat. oncat can decide to not proceed with these activities. evaluation process the evaluation process will include several stages. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. one evaluation criteria is that considerations will be given to organizations who have experience working with nonprofit government organizations. stage 1 - mandatory requirements proposals will be reviewed for mandatory requirements and general compliance with the submission requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements will be disqualified. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 6 stage 2 - rank the evaluation the evaluation committee will evaluate and rank the written proposals, to identify the top-ranked it services provider to be invited to the presentation stage. stage 3 - selection the evaluation committee will complete the evaluation template, rank the proposals and presentations then select the preferred it services provider may be called in for an interview. stage 4 negotiation prior to award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with it service provider. references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. stage 5 - notice of award the successful it service provider will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful it service provider submission will be notified after a final agreement has been executed. evaluation criteria weighting overall experience of it service provider & demonstrated results our evaluation will include an assessment of your experience as it relates to the requirements within this rfq, evidence of past performance, quality and relevance of past work, references, and related areas. consideration will be given to organizations with experience working with non-profit government organizations. 50% budget approach/cost effectiveness effective and efficient delivery of quality services is demonstrated in relation to the budget allocation. the allocation is reasonable and appropriate. 30% qualifications of personnel our evaluation will include an assessment of the qualifications and experience of your managerial team, staff, subcontractors, and related personnel. 20% oncat is funded by the government of ontario 7 timelines & awards the work is expected to begin as soon as the award is made. project timelines rfq release date november 24th, 2021 proposal deadline december 13th evaluation and selection notice of award week of december 13th early week of december 20th oncat is funded by the government of ontario 8

request for proposals ontransfer.ca by oncat virtual transfer fair review of company proposals for virtual fair platforms and services closing date march 12, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. (eastern standard time) closing location ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas street west, suite 1902 toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) contact: sienna stock, ontransfer.ca service manager inquiry@oncat.ca | (416) 254.2858 main (corporate) website www.oncat.ca student-facing website www.ontransfer.ca table of contents oncat overview 2 ontransfer.ca overview 2 invitation 2 project overview 3 project requirements 3 proposal requirements 4 communication 5 submission process 5 evaluation process 6 evaluation criteria weighting 7 timelines and awards 7 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. working with our network of ontarios 45 colleges and universities, indigenous institutes, students, government, guidance counsellors, as well as other stakeholders provincially and nationally, oncat is building a culture and understanding of transfer so that students can pursue a more seamless and affordable postsecondary education. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: developing and maintaining the student-facing website ontransfer.ca, used to connect current and prospective students to transfer opportunities; supporting and funding academic projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontarios regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; and hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. ontransfer.ca is an online service offered by oncat that provides searching functionality for students and stakeholders to explore program pathways and course equivalencies across postsecondary institutions. ongoing collaboration and data initiatives with ontario institutions allows for informative search results and assistance in student mobility. in addition to online search features, ontransfer.ca connects institutional partners to each other and to prospective transfer students through published institutional resources, marketing and advertising campaigns, committees and student engagement programs, and fairs and conferences held at various times of the year. invitation ontransfer.ca invites qualified individuals and organizations to submit a proposal to provide the technology and support to host a virtual fair. ontransfer.ca aims to ensure the most accessible and capable structure and service is available for all participants (i.e., students, staff, parents, institutions, and affiliated organizations). page 2 ontransfer.ca overview project overview as ontransfer.ca continues to expand and enhance our service models and delivery, and in response to the circumstances of the current pandemic, an all-encompassing platform is required to facilitate an online event for our stakeholders and audiences. ontransfer.ca will hold an online/virtual fair for students and postsecondary institution staff to promote and answer questions about the transfer process in ontario in early may 2021. project requirements the following tables outline the features and functionalities ontransfer.ca requires in a virtual fair platform. a proposal must indicate the respondents capacity to meet these requirements. respondents may provide additional information as needed. no where other is indicated above in the fourth column, please provide additional details. other page 3 yes hosting capacity host a live event day host a minimum of 50 vendors (ontario postsecondary institutions) host a minimum of 100 vendor administrative staff (recruiters, advisors, registrars, etc.) host a minimum of 1,000 attendees (students, parents, etc.) provide a unique url for virtual event space and content maintain privacy and security for attendees and vendors who take part in the event host event data on canadian servers bilingual capability bilingual (french and english) front-end platform provide a french url path and an english url path ability for vendors to post and organize french and english material reporting measure the success of the event holistically using accurate analytics and tracking measure the success of the event for each administrator and vendor using accurate analytics and tracking web platform features vendors can post and access materials attendees can access vendors posted materials administrators/vendors can maintain and update their individual/customizable postsecondary institution materials, which includes creating, editing, and deleting content as needed administrators/vendors have scheduled speaking times to present information about their institution administrators/vendors can field attendee questions in a real-time chat function administrators/vendors can field attendee questions on a scheduled basis via a messaging platform event management planning live event yes / no / other yes / no / other post-event (up to 30 days after live event) yes / no / other n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a yes / no / other yes / no / other yes / no / other yes / no / other yes / no / other n/a n/a yes / no / other yes / no / other n/a n/a yes / no / other n/a n/a training provide live training to client (oncat) provide live training to vendors support yes / no / other provide live technical support to client provide live technical support to vendors where other is indicated above in the fourth column, please provide additional details. proposal requirements please include the following information in your proposal. contact information name of organization submitting proposal address of organization main contact name page 4 dedicated project manger main contacts email address description of the organization this should include a description of the organizations business principles and approach to developing and running digital events and event spaces. work plan the work plan should describe activities that are specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic. include a timeline of major tasks and milestones. project requirements should be addressed and discussed in the work plan. costs and fees this can include different funding/cost plans, including additional fees for add-ons. please note applicable sales tax. qualifications of the respondent please provide details on the organizations capability and capacity to achieve the project. include similarly complex projects and related experiences. confirm the availability of individuals in the proposal. monitoring and evaluation plan a description of the outcome monitoring and evaluation plan, including a list of tools to track process, output, and outcome measures for each component of the review. technical definitions please include if required. communication all communication, such as requests for additional information or clarification, should be directed in writing by email to: inquiry@oncat.ca. all such rfp-related questions must be received no later than march 4, 2021 by 4:00 p.m. est. oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information to reasonable requests from interested parties. submission process please review all sections of this rfp carefully and follow all instructions. incomplete submissions will not be considered. page 5 confidentiality and conflict of interest a statement of understanding on any confidential issues for this project and disclosure concerning any perceived or potential conflicts of interest. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to accomplish the desired or intended results of this procurement are welcome. however, proposals that depart from or materially alter the terms, requirements, or scope of work defined by this rfp will be rejected. all costs associated with developing or submitting a proposal (including an interview) in response to this rfp and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal, shall be borne by the vendor. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. all pricing submitted will be considered fixed unless otherwise indicated herein. submission details vendors are required to submit one (1) electronic copy of their proposal to inquiry@oncat.ca as a word .doc or pdf file attachment. please ensure the subject line of the email reads as follows: oncat proposal for virtual fair provider: [company name]. oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of march 12, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. est. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfp document become the property of oncat. oncat can decide to not proceed with these activities. the evaluation process includes five stages. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. stage 1. mandatory requirements. proposals will be reviewed for mandatory requirements and general compliance with the submission proposal requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements will be disqualified. stage 2. ranking of proposals. the evaluation committee will evaluate and rank the written proposals to identify provider(s) to be invited to the presentation stage. stage 3. selection. the evaluation committee will complete the evaluation template, rank the proposals and presentations, then select the preferred provider. provider(s) may be called for an interview. the preferred provider will be asked for references. references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. if references of a provider are not satisfactory, oncat page 6 evaluation process reserves the right to contact references of the next highest-ranked provider. stage 4. negotiation. prior to award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with the provider identified in stage 3. stage 5. notice of award. the successful provider will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful provider(s) will be notified after a final agreement has been reached. evaluation criteria weighting overall experience of provider and demonstrated results. 50% oncat will assess organization experience as it relates to the requirements within this rfp, evidence of capacity to build and maintain virtual platforms, proven quality and support for stakeholders, and continuity of service. approach to the process. 30% oncat seeks a clear strategic process outlined in the proposal and a proven, demonstrated capacity to perform the event. 20% successful applicants will provide evidence of effective and efficient delivery of quality services in relation to the budget allocation. the budget should be reasonable and appropriate. timelines and awards work is expected to begin as soon as the award is made. description rfp release date deadline for questions via inquiry@oncat.ca subject line: oncat inquiry from virtual fair provider: [company name] questions and answers posting date: answers will be posted as a pdf at: https://oncat.ca/en/open-rfps deadline february 22, 2021 march 4, 2021 at 4 p.m. est march 5, 2021 page 7 budget approach/cost effectiveness. evaluation period (may include follow up inquiries) selection and negotiation period notice of award march 12, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. est week of march 15, 2021 week of march 22, 2021 week of march 22, 2021 page 8 proposal deadline

funding information session 2019-2020 your hosts today ana skinner manager, funding programs roger pizarro milian senior researcher sarah fuchs senior policy analyst housekeeping please mute your phone line there may be a short delay between our screen and yours please bear with us the presentation will be 30 mins or so with time for questions you can ask questions directly to the presenter or to all participants - through the chat option or; by unmuting your line information session overview provide oncat updates give you the inside scoop on this years funding streams share some tips for developing your proposal answer your questions about oncat oncat serves as the central coordinating organization of the ontario transfer system and works to advance the provinces vision for credit transfer, making it easier for students to navigate the postsecondary education system (pse), reach their preferred educational destination faster, and enter or re-enter the labour market sooner. oncat oversees the ontario transfer system by providing high quality information to students and the public, and serving as a valued knowledge broker on matters related to transfer and student mobility. about oncat funding who we fund publicly-assisted universities, colleges and indigenous institutes in ontario not-for-profit organizations working in the field of pse in ontario funding priorities we support the development of targeted, in-demand pathways and adoption of student-centred transfer processes and practices in ontario. through: research to inform transfer system planning pathway development projects in in-demand areas development of student-centred practices system-level interventions action projects developed by transfer students and faculty members funding streams stream intake & deadline notes pathway development december 9th deadline *2+ institutions *clear demand research rfps january 13 deadline research ideas portal ongoing, apply by midfeb *projects outside rfp areas of focus seamless transfer ongoing, apply by midfeb *system-level interventions *practice/policy change faculty fellowship ongoing, apply by midfeb *faculty-led projects *$10 000 transfer student action fund ongoing, apply by midfeb *student-led projects *$500-$10 000+ pathway development areas of focus: student demand: pathways that respond to student needs and interests, including pathways that support under-represented learners. labour market demand: pathways that respond to current or emerging labour market opportunities. regional demand: pathways that address regional economic development, social/community development and address skills gaps. research rfp areas of focus labour market outcomes of transfer students industry demand for pathways transfer+online learning transfer+apprenticeship transfer+industry-based professional development research ideas portal submit a preliminary proposal through our research ideas portal, for projects that address transfer/mobility but are outside rfp areas of focus seamless transfer areas of focus maximizing transfer credits first year transferability institution-wide policy development transfer+ accreditation indigenous institutes pathway integration other seamless transfer ideas faculty fellowship faculty-led projects that: increase institutional knowledge about transferrelated data and transfer student experience in their faculty/department/institution; improve academic processes related to evaluating transfer credits and working with transfer students; share emerging models of successful student mobility initiatives. transfer student action fund projects by and for transfer students that include: community-building activities that help transfer students feel more connected and supported in their postsecondary education journey. tools and resources that support transfer students during and after the transfer process. awareness raising activities that bring attention to transfer student experiences. other ideas developed by transfer students to improve the transfer process. general tips reach out to discuss your project keep an eye on our year-end (ie. for ongoing intake, apply by mid-february) stay current by signing up for the oncat newsletter in your proposal clear alignment with oncat provide evidence of need context, context, context demonstrated partner roles and resource allocations outcomes that are student-centred realistic workplan and timelines how to apply proposals are accepted through oncats online application portal: https://www.grantinterface.com/process/apply?urlkey=oncat next steps help us spread the word: share these funding opportunities across your networks get your application started create an account and review the application forms reach out with any questions and/or to discuss your ideas apply, apply, apply! questions?

rapport final 2018-20 dveloppement dun parcours de transfert innovant 1. intention et objectifs du projet le projet visait analyser la faisabilit dun projet darrimage innovant et, par la suite, laborer et mettre en uvre des parcours de transfert pour les tudiants diplms du programme de b.a. relations humaines et spiritualit de luniversit st-paul ainsi que du b.a en thique du collge universitaire dominicain xx vers le postdiplme en grontologie interdisciplinaire du collge boral. le collge boral, le collge universitaire dominicain et luniversit st-paul ont dbuts le projet avec lobjectif d offrir aux diplms du baccalaurat relations humaines et spiritualit et du baccalaurat en philosophie avec mineur en thique (spcialise) b.ph (th.)- 4 ans, la possibilit de poursuivre des tudes collgiales spcialises intgres en franais dans un domaine en forte demande pour ainsi permettre ltudiant en question dobtenir une formation thorique et pratique qui le prpare pour le march du travail et qui lui donne la possibilit dajouter une spcialisation pointue son baccalaurat. les partenaires souhaitaient dvelopper un modle de parcours innovants qui permettraient ltudiant de combiner des tudes thoriques et pratiques de transfert qui pourraient inclure une intgration du postdiplme lintrieur du baccalaurat en question en plus de bnficier dun transfert de crdits, lui permettran ainsi de sauver du temps et de largent tout en demeurant sur place. lobjectif des partenaires taient de reconnatre le maximum de crdits tout en prservant la qualit et la valeur des titres de comptences tant pour les institutions que pour les tudiants. 2. laboration de parcours de transfert 2.1 mthodologie le processus de travail a t labor en collaboration avec le partenaire et comprenait initialement quatre phases. voici les tapes de travail ainsi que les rsultats des phases : phase i fvrier avril 2018 rencontre initiale, allocation des heures de travail pour le printemps et lautomne 2018 et recueil dinformation sur le b.a. relations humaines et spiritualit et xx : rencontre initiale avec le personnel de luniversit saint-paul et le collge universitaire dominicain et la gestionnaire de projet du collge boral : rsultats : transmission des informations relatives au programme relation humaines et spiritualit de luniversit saint-paul transmission de quelques plans de cours et informations relatives au baccalaurat en philosophie avec mineur en thique (spcialise) b.ph (th.)- 4 ans du collge universitaire dominicain laboration dun calendrier de rencontres avec lquipe du collge universitaire dominicain et luniversit st-paul rencontre initiale avec la doyenne de lcole des affaires et services communautaires, la responsable du centre dinnovation et de leadership pdagogique, le bureau des admissions et du registrariat et les gestionnaires des bureaux des admissions et du registrariat des collges pour : rsultats : prsentation du projet identification des besoins en termes dexperts de sujet et de conseillres pdagogiques dveloppement de loutil danalyse, le processus de travail, le produit livrable et lchancier rencontre initiale avec les experts de sujets et les conseillres pdagogiques des collges pour les informer du projet : rsultats : allocation des heures sur les formulaires de charge de travail des professeursexperts de sujet et des conseillres pdagogiques pour le printemps / automne 2018 allocation des heures sur les formulaires de charge de travail des professeursexperts de sujet et des conseillres pdagogiques pour lautomne 2018 recueil et transmission des objectifs du programme du b.a. relations humaines et spiritualit, des plans de cours et autres informations relatives aux rsultats et activits dapprentissage partage et adaptation de loutil danalyse, dtermination du processus de travail pour les collges phase ii mai dcembre 2018 rencontre de dmarrage avec les experts de sujets et les conseillres pdagogiques, analyse, allocation des heures pour lhiver 2019 rencontre de dmarrage avec les professeurs experts de sujet et les conseillres pdagogiques des collges : rsultats : transmission de la documentation relative au b.a. relations humaines et spiritualit prsentation de loutil danalyse, du processus de travail et du produit livrable attendu laboration dun calendrier de rencontres avec les experts de sujets et les conseillres pdagogiques analyse des plans de cours et des objectifs du programme du b.a relations humaines et spiritualit par les experts de sujet et les conseillres pdagogiques change sur les analyses effectues entre les experts de sujets, les conseillres pdagogiques du collge boral et de luniversit st-paul phase iii janvier fvrier 2019 prparation des bauches de parcours, prsentation, ajustement, laboration des versions finales, signatures, publication et promotion prparation dune bauche de parcours de transfert incluant un cheminement acadmique pour les diplms du programme en relations humaines et spiritualit de luniversit st-paul vers le postdiplme en grontologie interdisciplinaire soumission et rtroaction des bauches aux experts de sujets des institutions prsentation des bauches aux doyens, directeurs, vice-prsidents acadmiques et bureaux des admissions et du registrariat des institutions et obtenir leur rtroaction phase iv- fvrier avril 2019 dveloppement, validation et offre des cours dappoint rsultats : dernire validation des parcours auprs de la vice-prsidente lenseignement du collge boral et des registraires des deux institutions planifier la mise en uvre et loffre planifier le plan de marketing 2.2 comparaison et analyse du programme lanalyse des programmes sest effectue laide dune grille dveloppe par une conseillre pdagogique du collge boral. suite une analyse trs approfondie des plans de cours, objectifs du programme b.a en relations humaines et spiritualit ainsi que les rsultats dapprentissages du postdiplme en grontologie interdisciplinaire, lquipe dexperts a pu conclure un grand nombre de liens avec le programme en relations humaines et spiritualit. sommaire des transferts de crdits octroys postdiplme en grontologie interdisciplinaire vers le baccalaurat en relations humaines et spiritualit de luniversit st-paul 15 crdits sur 36 crdits du programme seront octroys *lobtention dune moyenne pondre cumulative ( mpc ou gpa) minimal ou suprieur 3.0 selon le barme de notation du collge boral. ltudiant inscrit au baccalaurat en relations humaines et spiritualit devra complter au minimum 60 crdits de son baccalaurat en relations humaines et spiritualit de luniversit st- paul , faire preuve dune moyenne pondre cumulative minimal ou suprieur 3.0 selon le barme de notation du collge boral , et recevoir de la part du registraire de son institution, une lettre de permission lui permettant de poursuivre son postdiplme avec le collge boral avant de pouvoir dbuter son postdiplme en grontologie interdisciplinaire au collge boral. tant donn de la flexibilit du postdiplme et de sa formule innovatrice, ltudiant pourra poursuivre lentit de son postdiplme enligne. de plus, luniversit st-paul permettra ltudiant ayant une moyenne minimale ou suprieure 3.5 inscrit au baccalaurat relations humaines et spiritualit dtre inscrit 4 cours au baccalaurat et jusqu 2 cours au postdiplme. pour se prvaloir de ce privilge, ltudiant devra maintenir cette moyenne tout au long de ces tudes et recevoir la permission officielle de linstitution par le biais dune lettre de permission. 3. meilleures pratiques et enseignement ltablissement dun processus de travail et de communication entre les gestionnaires des projets dans les tablissements est essentiel la bonne conduite des projets. ils jouent un rle de pierre angulaire entre les tablissements, les doyens, les directions de programmes, les experts de sujets et les conseillers pdagogiques. les rencontres avec les parties prenantes du projet a permis de mieux comprendre les programmes dans leur ensemble et de cerner les opportunits darrimages entre les deux programmes concerns. cependant, la ralit vis--vis la libert acadmique peut parfois enfreindre avec la bonne volont des institutions qui souhaitent avant tout de crer des articulations gagnantes. tel fut le cas pour lun de nos partenaires dans le cadre de ce prsent projet. il est important de toujours communiquer efficacement et ouvertement avec ces partenaires. par ailleurs, les directions et les doyens des programmes des tablissements doivent tre mobiliss le plus tt possible pour effectuer le travail. la prsentation du projet, du processus de travail et de lchancier leur permet non seulement de mieux comprendre le projet, mais galement dmettre leurs commentaires, proccupations et recommandations ds le dpart. ce qui fut le cas ds le dbut du prsent projet. nous avons men plusieurs rencontres avec les membres des quipes concernes pour dvelopper un parcours tudiant logique et efficace. nous pouvons ainsi conclure en disant que luniversit st-paul et le collge boral sommes fiers de la cration de ce nouveau parcours qui fait preuve daccessibilit, de crativit et qui donne ltudiant une valeur rajoute sa formation franaise. finalement, le dveloppement dun outil danalyse a grandement facilit lorganisation du travail danalyse et luniformit dans la prsentation des rsultats. cet outil permet aux experts de sujet de mieux cadrer leurs analyses. 4. annexes 4.1 grille danalyse modle 4.2 exemple de fiches techniques dveloppes pour chaque programme

# 2017-19 | adaptation du mode de livraison de cours en tudes autochtones et culture franco-ontarienne universit de sudbury le 15 mars 2018 table des matires sommaire excutif .......................................................................................................................... 2 liste des participants et des tablissements partenaires ........................................................ 3 objectifs du projet ....................................................................................................................... 4 mthodologie et dates de mise en uvre..................................................................................... 5 processus de mise en uvre ................................................................................................. 5 nombre de crdits reconnus ................................................................................................ 8 leons retenues ............................................................................................................................ 8 annexes ........................................................................................................................................... 9 a - plan de cours ................................................................................................................. 10 b - affiche promotionnelle................................................................................................. 21 c- dpliant promotionne ..................................................................................................... 22 d entente ........................................................................................................................... 24 1 adaptation du mode de livraison de cours en tudes autochtones et culture francoontarienne # 2017-19 prestation de programmes novateurs sommaire excutif l'universit de sudbury, l'universit saint-paul et luniversit york campus glendon, ensemble sengagent encourager l'excellence en apprentissage, assurer des possibilits de formation et accrotre l'accs aux programmes d'tudes postsecondaires en franais, y compris la mobilit entre les tablissements. dans le cadre de ce projet, luniversit de sudbury a adapt le mode de livraison de deux cours, lun en tudes autochtones et lautre en culture franco-ontarienne, afin de partager ses expertises avec des tudiants des universits saint-paul et york campus glendon, qui nont pas accs une programmation dans ces domaines. les cours ont t adapts pour livraison en format bloc , cest--dire, condenss sur une priode de trois semaines au printemps 2018 afin doffrir aux tudiants une occasion dapprendre selon une formule plus intensive et selon un horaire plus flexible. une entente a t conclue entre luniversit de sudbury, luniversit saint-paul et luniversit york campus glendon, afin que les tudiants provenant des institutions partenaires puissent suivre les cours et que ceux-ci soient reconnus dans leurs programmes respectifs. la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord et le conte populaire seront offerts au campus de luniversit de sudbury du 30 avril au 17 mai 2018. lintgration communautaire et lapprentissage exprientiel seront intgrs au sein de la programmation. les tudiants provenant de luniversit saintpaul et luniversit york campus glendon auront loccasion de demeurer en rsidence lors du sjour sudbury. 2 liste des participants et des tablissements partenaires voir ici-bas la liste des membres des quipes participantes au projet : nom des membres de lquipe titres des membres de lquipe rle universit de sudbury janelle lemieux administratrice de projets jx1_lemieux@usudbury.ca 705.673.5661 poste 305 daniela moisa chef, dpartement culture et communications chef, dpartement indigenous studies charg de cours, indigenous studies michael hankard yves labrche crina bud sylvie renault charge de cours, folklore et ethnologie secrtaire gnrale roxanne langemann sarah nol agente de liaison marianne denis adjointe administrative lynne cyr services financiers sophie bouffard rectrice et vice-chancelire professeur christian bellehumeur professeur philip relations humaines et spiritualit agente de communications gestionnaire de projet coordination de rencontres avec les dpartements, dveloppement du projet et de la stratgie de communication, coordination et communication avec les partenaires, rdaction de lentente, logistique (horaire, rsidence), etc. experte de contenu, consultations, approbations expert de contenu, consultations, approbations concepteur du cours etam 2286 la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord concepteur du cours folk 2126 le conte populaire approbations, ngociations, contrats, consultations - acadmique recrutement dtudiants, promotion du projet promotion et marketing du projet (design du matriel promotionnel, site web, etc.) coordination des rencontres et voyages traitement des paiements et des remboursements consultations universit saint-paul communications sociales onguny professeur anna analyse des plans de cours et rsultats d'apprentissage analyse des plans de cours et rsultats d'apprentissage tudes de conflits analyse des plans de cours et rsultats d'apprentissage professeur rajesh shukla pauline blanger thique publique vivianne khayat registraire analyse des plans de cours et rsultats d'apprentissage pranalyse des plans de cours, prparation des documents pour les profs et coordination du projet rle venir : approbation et gestion de la lettre de permission et gestion des rsultats finals au dossier de ltudiant. sheftel charge de projet 3 fidle lavigne jean-marc barrette directrice de recrutement et des communications vice-recteur l'enseignement et la recherche promotion et marketing du projet approbation du projet et personne ressource universit york campus glendon professeur colin coates professeur colin coates dominique scheffeldunand yassin handouleh agnes lemesre-valy alison stewart julie parna solange belluz tudes canadiennes histoire directrice, tudes franaises campus glendon agente de projet directrice, relations institutionnelles directrice des programmes acadmiques directrice excutive analyse des plans de cours et rsultats d'apprentissage analyse des plans de cours et rsultats d'apprentissage analyse des plans de cours et rsultats d'apprentissage conseiller acadmique giir giir universit york vice provost giir objectifs du projet lors de rencontres avec les institutions postsecondaires francophones et bilingues de lontario, un besoin a t identifi par les universits du sud et de lest quant aux lacunes de leurs populations tudiantes face la culture franco-ontarienne (sud) et la culture autochtone (sud et est). dans le sud, les tudiants francophones sont majoritairement des tudiants dimmersion ou des nouveaux arrivants. elles et ils ont rarement t exposes certains aspects la culture franco-ontarienne, cause de la dispersion de cette communaut dans des milieux trs densment peupls par des communauts anglophones, tel le grand toronto. dans lest et le sud de la province, il y a une moins grande population autochtone, ainsi quun manque de programmation en tudes autochtones au niveau collgial et universitaire, ce qui fait en sorte que les tudiants au postsecondaire ont des connaissances limites au sujet du peuple et de la culture autochtone. les reprsentants des universits remarquent, cependant, que les tudiants expriment un dsir den apprendre davantage sur ces deux sujets. luniversit de sudbury, offrant une programmation en folklore et ethnologie et en tudes autochtones, est dans une position unique de pouvoir offrir des cours universitaires axs sur ces sujets. de plus, plusieurs discussions ont lieu en province par rapport des stratgies pour encourager plus de mobilit entre les universits, en plus dlargir loffre de cours en franais. les discussions ont rsult en proposition dadaptation de cours au format bloc lors du semestre de printemps/t, afin que les tudiants des institutions partenaires puissent participer et recevoir des crdits envers leurs programmes respectifs. 4 les institutions ont mis sur le dsir et limportance de lapprentissage exprientiel vcu en salle de classe et les expriences authentiques offertes par la rgion de sudbury dans les deux sujets. cette valeur ajoute servira ltudiant lors de ces tudes universitaires, et enrichira ses expriences lorsquil se trouve sur le march du travail et comme citoyen de sa communaut. le projet fait en sorte que la mobilit tudiante entre universits est largie, et les tudiants qui en ressortent ont maintenant loccasion de complter des cours universitaires offerts en franais dans deux nouveaux domaines auxquels ils navaient pas accs auparavant. mthodologie et dates de mise en uvre processus de mise en uvre livrables mthodologie date prvue date actuelle -identification des cours adapter rencontres avec les chefs des dpartements de folklore et ethnologie et indigenous studies. valuation des cours dans linventaire de la programmation; identification selon les critres du projet, le besoin des tudiants au niveau du contenu (rsultats dapprentissage), prrequis des cours, et arrimage avec les programmes proposs des institutions partenaires choix de deux cours : tam 2286 fl la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord folk 2126 fl le conte populaire approbation de loffre au sein des dpartements et de luniversit mars 2017 octobre 2017 avis de concours circuls au sein des dpartements et dans les rseaux internes de luniversit entrevues et processus dembauche entrepris suite aux demandes reues comparaison et analyse des cours et programmes adaptation du contenu des deux cours pour livraison en format bloc avril 2017 novembre 2017 travail dadaptation entrepris entre les mois doctobre dcembre 2017. voir les plans de cours lannexe a. lidentification des dates doffre du cours a t considre selon les critres suivants : septembredcembre 2017 novembredcembre 2017 - recherche, identification et embauche de concepteurs de cours qui ont une expertise dans les domaines de 1) tudes autochtones, et 2) culture francoontarienne - adaptation et ajustements aux cours, y inclut 5 - - - description de cours plans de cours, adaptions au contenu pour satisfaire au nouveau mode de livraison intgration de festivals locaux, identification de dates doffre des cours - rvision linguistique des adaptations - ajout du cours aux calendriers, site web, etc. - dveloppement de matriel promotionnel pour les cours et communication avec les dpartements dorientation des diffrentes universits pour les rendre au courant que ces cours seront offerts luniversit de sudbury - dveloppement dententes avec luniversit de glendon, et saintpaul pour assurer la reconnaissance calendriers acadmiques des trois institutions partenaires disponibilit des chargs de cours, locaux, chambres de rsidence, etc. valuation des tendances actuelles des tudiants universitaires (horaires de cours, travail, etc.) dates cibles : du 30 avril au 17 mai 2018 (lundi au jeudi), soit 9h 12h (folk) et 13h 16h (etam) ajout des cours lhoraire pour la session du printemps 2018 tablissement dun plan de communication et stratgies de recrutement cration du matriel promotionnel pour le recrutement dtudiants : affiche dpliant promotionnel page web sur le site de luniversit : https://usudbury.ca/fr/programmes/coursen-blocs-printemps-2018 voir le matriel promotionnel lannexe b et c. septembredcembre 2017 novembre 2017 janvier 2018 rencontres avec le bureau dadmissions de luniversit laurentienne (identification et dveloppement du processus dinscription aux cours) dveloppement dune entente qui labore les grandes lignes du projet et assure la reconnaissance des cours : dveloppement dune premire bauche septembre 2017 fvrier 2018 novembre fvrier 2018 6 de ces cours dans leur institution. soumise saint-paul et glendon pour commentaires, questions rvision de lentente - identification du processus que ltudiant devra suivre pour sinscrire au cours (et simplification du processus) - visites aux campus pour faire connaitre les cours dvelopps - recrutement pour les nouveaux cours - offre de cours luniversit de sudbury le matriel promotionnel a t envoy dans les institutions partenaires la fin fvrier/dbut mars 2018. diverses activits de promotion suivre avant la fin du semestre dhiver des sessions dinformations sont coordonner pour la fin mars/dbut avril 2018 par lagente de liaison de luniversit de sudbury. les sessions dinformation auront lieu luniversit saint-paul ottawa et au campus glendon toronto. ces sessions dinformations serviront aux tudiants potentiels, qui seront invits venir apprendre au sujet du projet, comment sinscrire, poser des questions, etc. remise du rapport final au caton, incluant les tats financiers finalisation de lentente : obtenir les signatures requises des trois institutions intgration des festivals locaux dans la programmation : sera repris la fin hiver/dbut printemps 2018, en attente de confirmations des calendriers dvnements locaux communication avec le bureau dadmissions de luniversit laurentienne pour ajouter le parcours ontransfer.ca offre des cours du 30 avril au 17 mai 2018. remise des notes finales gnrer les relevs de notes pour les tudiants participants aux cours mars-mai 2018 fvrieravril 2018 15 mars 2018 15 mars 2018 mars 2018 avril 2018 mars-avril 2018 t 2018 mai 2018 7 nombre de crdits reconnus tout tudiant inscrit un des programmes suivants luniversit saint-paul et luniversit york campus glendon, et qui complte avec succs un ou les deux cours offerts se verra reconnatre les crdits suivants : cours de luniversit de sudbury etam 2286 fl la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord folk2126 fl programmes de luniversit saint-paul cours quivalent b.a. en tudes de conflits b.a. en relations humaines et spiritualit b.a. en thique publique b.a. en communications sociales quivalent : ecs2526 peuples autochtones et conflits* quivalent : ipa2524 thmes particuliers en relations humaines et spiritualit i * quivalent : phi2711 thmes choisis en philosophie politique i* quivalent : isc2737 questions spciales 1 en communications sociales* cours au choix cours au choix cours au choix cours au choix le conte populaire *dans le cas o ltudiant dtient dj le cours quivalent, les crdits seront compts comme cours au choix. cours de luniversit de sudbury programmes de luniversit york - campus glendon cours en quivalence b.a. international en tudes canadiennes etam 2286 la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord folk2126 le conte populaire b.a en tudes franaises quivalent : cdns 3100 : travaux individuels en tudes canadiennes quivalent : fran 3605 : contes, lgendes et nouvelles de langue franaise au canada* * confirmer. leons retenues les principales leons apprises lors du dveloppement de la mise en uvre du projet incluent : limportance de mobiliser le corps professoral dans divers aspects du projet. comme experts de contenu et spcialistes dans la matire, ils ont pu faire lidentification des cours qui salignent avec les objectifs du projet et pourront servir de ressources aux chargs de cours qui en feront loffre en format bloc . 8 tre lafft des processus administratifs institutionnels qui diffrent des ntres limportance dtablir et maintenir de bonnes relations entre les partenaires qui peuvent mener une exploration plus approfondie des programmes et dboucher autres pistes pour de futurs partenariats les principaux dfis rencontrs: un changement de la coordination du projet linterne a caus des dlais au dbut du processus malgr que nous avons trouv une faon de simplifier le processus dinscription, il y eu certains dfis rduire les frais (p.ex. : le frais dadmission), afin dassurer un bon taux de participation. annexes a. b. c. d. plans de cours affiche promotionnelle dpliant promotionnel entente 9 a - plan de cours etam 2286 fl la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord plan de cours session horaire local professeur : printemps 2018 : lundi au jeudi, 13h00 16h00 : dterminer : yves labrche 1 description ce cours porte sur les religions des peuples autochtones damrique. nous lavons subdivis en quatre parties principales. la premire partie sintitule visions du monde, croyances et pratiques religieuses et regroupe les notions et perspectives devant tre mobilises dans ltude des religions. la seconde partie porte sur les mythologies et les traditions religieuses des autochtones en mettant laccent sur quatre traditions ou rgions culturelles : les peuples de langue algonquienne (p. ex. anishnabe, innus), les inuit, les peuples de langue iroquoienne (p.ex. hurons et mohawks) et les autochtones (amrindiens et mtis) des prairies. nous ferons rfrence ces mmes aires culturelles afin dillustrer les parties 3 et 4 du cours, et lorsque pertinent, dautres traditions religieuses seront voques (p.ex. spiritualit des hopis). la troisime partie du cours met laccent sur les effets de la christianisation ou de la conversion au christianisme. il sera question des transformations qui soprent dans lorganisation religieuse des peuples autochtones par adoption de traits propres aux religions du livre. en effet, les contacts entre autochtones et non-autochtones ont parfois donn lieu des mouvements tels que le prophtisme et le no-chamanisme. la quatrime partie du cours traite de la spiritualit, des croyances et des pratiques contemporaines qui apportent un nouveau souffle la vie sociale, culturelle et politique des peuples autochtones lre des revendications territoriales, de la prise en charge de lducation et de lautonomie gouvernementale. 2 objectifs dapprentissage dans ce cours, le professeur proposera aux tudiant(e)s de ; dcouvrir et comprendre la diversit des visions du monde, des systmes de croyances et des pratiques rituelles des autochtones de lamrique du nord; saisir les principales caractristiques religieuses des peuples autochtones qui se distinguent des traditions religieuses prdominantes (p. ex. judo-chrtiennes et musulmanes); comprendre et interprter la signification de pratiques et de traditions des peuples autochtones en regard de leur mode de vie ancestral; apprendre reconnaitre la vigueur et la persistance des croyances traditionnelles et comment les autochtones se rapproprient prsentement des symboles et des crmonies correspondant leurs visions du monde respectives. 10 3 rsutats dapprentissage la fin du cours, les tudiant(e)s auront acquis des savoirs permettant : de comprendre et dcrire les concepts cls, les termes pertinents et les questions relatives au monde spirituel des nations autochtones; didentifier les fondements dune vision du monde autochtone et comment le concept de l'me affecte les habitudes, les comportements et les relations des peuples autochtones avec la terre et les tres vivants; de comprendre et dexpliquer comment les symboles comme le cercle et les crmonies sarticulent aux visions du monde autochtones; de dcrire les rles du chaman dans diverses cultures autochtones; de dcrire, comparer et contraster divers mythes relatifs aux origines de lhumanit d'un certain nombre de nations autochtones didentifier et saisir les enseignements qui peuvent tre tirs des prophties formules dans certains groupes autochtones au sujet du contact entre les peuples autochtones et les nouveaux arrivants en amrique du nord; de dpeindre et comprendre les transformations et syncrtisme ou mtissage religieux qui soprent au sein des religions autochtones depuis lpoque des premires conversions au christianisme de saisir et illustrer le renouveau actuel sur le plan de la spiritualit, des croyances et des pratiques contemporaines qui apportent un nouveau souffle la vie sociale, culturelle et politique des peuples autochtones. 4 pdagogie les procds suivants seront utiliss en classe pour atteindre les objectifs prcits : prsentations du professeur illustres de documents de type power point; discussions sur les thmes tudis et exercices pratiques. les tudiant(e)s participeront en utilisant les notions acquises tout en examinant des sources varies et en les questionnant selon des protocoles fournis par le professeur. des documents ainsi quun guide mthodologique seront mis leur disposition pour la ralisation dun travail de recherche principal qui sera bas sur la lecture dau moins huit (5) articles tirs de revues spcialises ou chapitres de livres choisis parmi les titres suggrs par le professeur. si les circonstances le permettent, une prsentation par un confrencier invit ou encore une sortie ducative sajoutera aux activits proposes afin de varier et denrichir davantage les apprentissages. enfin, lassiduit et la participation active durant les cours sont essentielles afin de crer une dynamique enrichissante et elles seront rcompenses (cf. section 5 sur les diverses valuations ci-dessous). 5 - valuations les valuations comprendront trois tests, un travail de recherche et ainsi quune valuation de la participation. les tests comprendront des questions dveloppement auxquelles il faudra rpondre en crivant quelques paragraphes tout en se rfrant de courts extraits de documents qui seront distribus au dbut de lpreuve. chacun de ces tests comptera pour 20 % de la note globale. 11 le travail de recherche comptera pour 30 % de la note globale. il s'agira de raliser une synthse sur une des thmatiques abordes en salle de classe (voir p. 5). ce travail devra sappuyer sur la lecture dau moins cinq (5) articles ou chapitres de livres parmi les titres apparaissant dans les diverses sections bibliographiques rattaches ce plan de cours (p. 6 et suivantes). les tudiant(e)s devront complter un formulaire de mi-parcours qui comprendra un plan de travail et une bibliographie prliminaire. les tudiant(e)s seront invits discuter de leur dmarche et des rsultats attendus avec lensemble de la classe. lassiduit et la participation active seront rcompenses et compteront pour 10% de la note globale. les tudiants seront invits complter et signer un formulaire dautovaluation cette fin. cette valuation sera base sur la prsence, la ponctualit, la prise de notes, les interventions orales et le respect des autres consignes et directives visant favoriser lattention et la participation en salle de classe. 6- exigences des valuations et autres directives il est noter que 10 % des points seront allous pour la matrise et la clart de l'expression crite et la qualit du franais (orthographe, syntaxe, etc.) dans les tests et le travail crit. veuillez vrifier les dates importantes qui se trouvent la page 6 de ce plan de cours. pour toute question concernant le choix du sujet, la mthodologie, la rdaction et les sources bibliographiques, n'hsitez pas contacter le professeur ou mme prendre rendez-vous, sil y a lieu. le travail crit sera valu selon une grille dvaluation dtaille qui vous sera remise lavance en mme temps que des directives supplmentaires pour vous guider dans la ralisation de ces travaux. normes de prsentation : les travaux doivent tre rdigs selon les normes de prsentation suivantes : plan en trois parties (introduction, dveloppement et conclusion); traitement de texte selon une mise en page utilisant les caractres de taille 11 ou 12 (type arial, times ou courrier), linterligne 1,5 et des marges de 2,5cm. il est recommand de prsenter les faits selon toutes les sources consultes avant de proposer une interprtation, exprimer une opinion ou conclure. retard dans la remise des travaux : tout travail remis en retard rsultera dans la perte de 5% du total chaque jour suivant la date dchance pour ce travail. toute personne se voyant dans l'impossibilit de prsenter son travail dans les dlais prescrits devra en informer le professeur le plus tt possible et fournir un certificat mdical ou une attestation approprie pour justifier le retard. tout travail non remis ou ne satisfaisant pas aux critres de base devra tre repris selon les exigences du professeur. intgrit acadmique : tout plagiat, copiage et fraude est une infraction passible dun chec et de sanctions disciplinaires. pour viter ces sanctions il est recommand de suivre la rgle suivante : les citations courtes avec guillemets sont permises dans la mesure o les sources sont correctement cites. il est fortement dconseill de recopier intgralement de longues sections de 12 texte ou de notes de cours; il est prfrable de reformuler les ides dans vos propres termes en utilisant un vocabulaire prcis et en citant vos sources. vos travaux crits doivent tre prpars individuellement et reprsenter le rsultat dun effort personnel mettant en jeu la capacit de crer du neuf partir de documents existants. le plagiat ou le copiage de textes ou de sections entires de documents sans indication des sources nest pas accept. de plus, il est entendu que vous ne devez pas reprsenter un travail soumis dans le cadre dun autre cours et pour lequel vous avez dj t valu. enfin, il est interdit de reprendre un travail prpar par une autre personne. directives au sujet des appareils lectroniques aucun appareil cellulaire nest permis en salle de classe. les tlphones doivent tre teints et sauf avis contraire, la prise de photos est interdite. les ordinateurs portables et les tablettes ne doivent servir qu la prise de notes. 7- grille de notation pourcentage note alpha dfinition 90% - 100% a+ loges bien mrits 85% - 89% a exceptionnel 80% - 84% a- excellent 75% - 79% b+ trs bien 70% - 74% b bien 65% - 69% c+ satisfaisant 60% - 64% c suffisant 55% - 59% d+ passable 50% - 54% d marginal 40% - 49% e chec 0% - 39% f chec 13 8 calendrier, aperu thmatique et dates importantes veuillez noter que certaines thmatiques pourraient tre regroupes, si ncessaire. date thme introduction, prsentations mutuelles et plan de cours 1e semaine 1e et 2e semaines 2e et 3e semaines 3e semaine partie 1 : visions du monde, croyances et pratiques religieuses 1.1 anthropologie du domaine religieux 1.2 spiritualit et perspectives autochtones en matire de religion 1.3 animisme, chamanisme; importance des songes et des animaux 1.4 croyances et pratiques : rituels, prires et crmonies 1.5 mythes, cultes et religions partie 2 : mythologie et traditions religieuses chez les autochtones 1.1 les innu ou montagnais-naskapi 1.2 les inuit 1.3 les hurons et les iroquoiens 1.4 les amrindiens des plaines 1.5 liens entre les mythes et les cultes religieux partie 3 : christianisme et mtissage religieux 3.1 impact et rception du catholicisme chez les innu 3.2 appropriation du christianisme chez les inuit 3.3 prophtisme et conversion chez les hurons et les iroquoiens 3.4 prophtisme et pomes religieux de louis riel 3.5 synthse comparative sur les mouvements religieux et la conversion partie 4 : spiritualit, croyances et pratiques contemporaines 4.1 crmonies et pratiques contemporaines 4.2 chant, danse et importance des songes 4.3 la danse du soleil renat de ses cendres 4.4 spiritualit, thrapie et gurison 4.5 mouvements sociaux, cologie et rconciliation rcapitulation, synthse et conclusion 14 1e semaine dates importantes distribution de directives supplmentaires et dune fiche pour la ralisation du travail de recherche, synthse et rflexion partir de plusieurs sources test de lecture, synthse et rdaction les tudiants soumettent la fiche de recherche complte test de lecture, synthse et rdaction autovaluation de la participation et test de lecture, synthse et rdaction 1e semaine - vendredi 2e semaine mi-parcours 2e semaine - vendredi 3e semaine - vendredi aprs la dernire rencontre en salle de classe et avant les tudiants soumettent leur travail crit le 7 juin 2018 9- livres ou recueils de la section collection gnrale barkwell, l. l.m. dorion, a. hourie (eds.) 2006: metis legacy ii: michif culture, heritage, and folkways. saskatoon & winnipeg: gabriel dumont institute and pemmican publications. cf. chapitre 2 :metis mythology and hero figures et chapitre 17 metis spirituality. bonte, pierre et michel izard (dir.), 2000 : dictionnaire de lethnologie et de lanthropologie. paris, presses universitaires de france (1991). cf. indiens damrique du nord, inuit (eskimo), nord-est, plaines, subarctique, cf. galement la section reprsentations du monde, religion de lindex qui comprend 27 termes qui renvoient autant darticles (cf. p. 755). clment, d. 2014: lhte maladroit : la matire du mythe. qubec, les presses de luniversit laval. dickason, o.p., 1993: le mythe du sauvage, sillery, ditions du septentrion. hamayon, r., (dir.), 2003: chamanismes. paris, quadrige/puf. laugrand, f., 2000: "les religions amrindiennes et inuites", p. 171-214, in mathieu boisvert (dir.), un monde de religions, vol. 3, montral, presses de l'universit du qubec. laugrand, f. b.et j. g. oosten (dir.) 2007 : la nature des esprits dans les cosmologies autochtones / nature of spirits in aboriginal cosmologies. qubec, presses de luniversit laval, coll. mondes autochtones. laugrand, f. et j. g. oosten, 2011. la femme de la mer : sedna dans le chamanisme et l'art inuit de l'arctique de l'est. montral, muse national des beaux-arts du qubec. 15 lefebvre, m., 1974: tshakapesh: rcits montagnais-naskapi. qubec, ministre des affaires culturelles. peelman, a., 2004: l'esprit est amerindien : quand la religion amerindienne rencontre le christianisme. montral, qc, canada : mdiaspaul. perrin, m., 2005: le chamanisme, coll. que sais-je? 2968, paris, puf. poirier, j. (dir.) 1991. histoire des murs. vol. ii modes et modles. encyclopdie de la pliade, paris, gallimard. cf. chapitres lhomme et la mort , lhomme et la morale , histoire critique des pratiques superstitieuses et histoire de la pense symbolique . rivire, c. 2008. socio-anthropologie des religions. 2e dition, paris, armand colin diteur. routhier, g. et f. laugrand (dir.) 2002 : l'espace missionnaire : lieu d'innovation et de rencontre interculturelle". karthala, paris et presses de l'universit laval, qubec. savard, r., 1974: carcajou et le sens du monde, rcits montagnais-naskapi. qubec, diteur officiel du qubec, 3e dition. sioui, g. e. 1999 : pour une histoire amrindienne de l'amrique : essai sur les fondements dune morale sociale. sainte-foy, quebec : presses de l'universite laval /l'harmattan. sturtevant, william c. (ed.) 1978- : handbook of north american indians. 17 vol. washington, smithsonian institution press. viau, r., 2000 : enfants du neant et mangeurs dmes: guerre, culture et societe en iroquoisie ancienne, montral, boral. 10- priodiques et revues numriques anthropologie et socits canadian journal of native studies tudes/inuit/studies lethnographie globe, revue internationale detudes quebecoises lhomme journal de la socit des amricanistes recherches amrindiennes au qubec studies in religion/sciences religieuses veuillez noter que la plupart de ces priodiques sont disponibles en version lectronique dans la section revues numriques ou encore dans la base de donnes rudit de la bibliothque; la 16 plateforme rudit se trouve galement sur internet en libre accs (cf. www.erudit.org), mais sa collection nest pas aussi complte que celle que vous trouverez dans la base de donnes. numros thmatiques anthropologie et socits, 1998: 22,2, mdiations chamaniques 1994: 18,2, rver la culture 1992: 16,3, autochtones et pouvoirs. 1991: 15,1, la rencontre des deux mondes. recherches amrindiennes au qubec, volume 38, numro 2-3, 2008 traditions et transformations rituelles , sous la direction de frdric laugrand et denys delge. *** 17 folk 2126 fl le conte populaire plan de cours session horaire local professeur : printemps 2018 : lundi au jeudi, 9h00 12h00 : dterminer : crina bud 1 description dans ce cours, l'tudiante ou l'tudiant dcouvre les diffrents genres de contes et leur caractre international : conte d'animaux, conte merveilleux, nouvelle, la randonne. elle ou il tudie aussi l'histoire et les particularits du conte franais, ainsi que de la transmission et le style oral. on y aborde galement les principaux thmes du rpertoire canadien-franais avec insistance sur des versions recueillies en ontario franais. de plus, on y traite des fonctions sociales et pdagogiques du conte. 2 thmes abords la classification thmatique du conte populaire contes danimaux contes merveilleux contes religieux contes dans le monde contemporain la gnration harry potter : rappropriation des comptes et thmatiques classiques dans les films contemporains (harry potter, seigneur des anneaux, cinderella, la belle et la bte, mal-fique, etc.) contes de logre ou du diable dup contes factieux et anecdotes contes formulaires le conte dans une perspective sociologique - inscription dans le contexte social les codes culturels et le langage du conte. les enjeux de la smiotique culturelle lapproche anthropologique les dimensions ethnographiques la pratique du conte : raconter, performer, socialiser la fabrication de lhumain par le truchement du conte. valeur pdagogique, de socialisation et thrapeutique. le conte francophone raconter la migration : exprience migratoire et perspectives autochtones canadiennes raconter lontario francophone les spectacles vivants, dhier aujourd'hui. les mtamorphoses contemporaines du conte traditionnel 18 3 objectifs et rsultats dapprentissage la fin du cours, ltudiant.e doit tre capable: se familiariser avec le conte, traditionnel et moderne, ses formes, structures et fonctions et sa taxonomie; de dcrire les principales approches thoriques et perspectives interprtatives du conte; didentifier les caractristiques des contes francophones canadiens et valoriser le patrimoine culturel de diverses communauts; dinterprter les adaptations du conte populaire aux ralits du monde contemporain. didentifier les changements majeurs dans le contenu, le message et la fonction du compte induits par les nouvelles technologies (le perfectionnement des moyens de production des effets spciaux, de latmosphre magique, etc.). de faire des analyses des contes traditionnels et contemporains, en utilisant les outils thoriques et mthodologiques appris en classe. de sinterroger sur la valeur pdagogique du conte, mais aussi sur les strotypes que ce genre littraire peut contenir et transmettre (juste penser malfique o le clivage traditionnel mal/bien est invers : la reine impitoyable nest pas si mchante que a ; tout est relatif et dpend du regard quon pose sur les faits). 4 valuations participation 10 % fiches de lecture 20 % prsentation en salle de classe ................................ 20 % travail de recherche. 20 % examen final 30 % total 100 points 5- bibliographie: belmont, nicole (1999) potique du conte. essai sur le conte de tradition orale, paris: gallimard calame claude, kilani mondler (sous la direction de) (1999) la fabrication de l'humain dans les cultures et en anthropologie : [colloque, 15-16 dcembre 1997, universit de lausanne] courts, joseph (1986) le conte populaire: potique et mythologie, paris: puf. jean, georges (1990) le pouvoir des contes, paris: casterman tournai. landry, tristan (2005) la mmoire du conte folklorique de l'oral l'crit, qubec: les presses de l'universit laval. lebarbier, micheline (2000) les dires du conte. l'exemple de quelques contes factieux roumains ", dans bertrand masquelier et jean-louis siran (dil), pour une anthropologie de l'interlocution. rhtoriques du quotidien, paris: l'harmattan. 19 mathieu, pierre (1992) dest en ouest : lgendes et contes canadiens, saint-boniface (manitoba), ditions des plaines. salmon, christian (2007) storytelling, la machine fabriquer des histoires et formater les esprits, paris: la dcouverte. scott, marc (2015) lgendes autochtones, plantagenet (ontario), les ditions du chardon bleu. simonsen, michle (1984) le conte populaire, presses universitaires de france. julie st-pierre (2011) le conte en contexte: ethnographie de la pratique du conte en famille dans le qubec contemporain, thse doctorale,universit du qubec montral velay-vallantin, catherine (1992) l'histoire des contes, paris: fayard. valire, michel (2005) le conte populaire. approche socio-anthropologique, paris, armand colin. *** 20 b - affiche promotionnelle 21 c- dpliant promotionnel 22 23 d entente protocole dentente entre universit de sudbury (membre de la fdration laurentienne) et universit saint-paul (fdre luniversit dottawa) et universit york - campus glendon (campus fdr luniversit york) l'universit de sudbury, l'universit saint-paul et luniversit york campus glendon sengagent encourager l'excellence en apprentissage, assurer des possibilits de formation et accrotre l'accs aux programmes d'tudes postsecondaires en franais, y compris la mobilit entre les tablissements. en reconnaissance de ce protocole, les parties conviennent que les tudiants en provenance de luniversit saint-paul et de luniversit york campus glendon, ont la possibilit de suivre deux cours offerts par luniversit de sudbury en format bloc et dobtenir une reconnaissance de crdits de leurs institutions respectives. 1) cours offerts les cours suivants feront partie du projet : etam 2286 fl : la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord (3 cr.) une introduction aux fondements philosophiques et religieux : perception du monde (les ojibws, le chaman, et le fripon divin), la signification du cercle, le rapport entre lhumanit et la nature et le concept 24 de lme. on examine aussi comment la transmission orale et la connaissance du sacr jouent un rle essentiel dans la vie des autochtones et dans leur volont de maintenir leurs modes de vie. folk 2126 fl 01 - le conte populaire (3 cr.) tudes des diffrents genres et leur caractre international : conte d'animaux, conte merveilleux, nouvelle, fabliau, randonne. histoire et particularits du conte franais. la transmission et le style oral. illustration des principaux thmes du rpertoire canadien-franais avec insistance sur des versions recueillies en ontario franais. 2) nombre de crdits reconnus tout tudiant inscrit un des programmes suivants luniversit saint-paul et luniversit york campus glendon, et qui complte avec succs un ou les deux cours offerts se verra reconnatre les crdits suivants : cours de luniversit de sudbury programmes de luniversit saint-paul cours en quivalence b.a. en tudes de b.a. en relations b.a. en thique b.a. en conflits humaines et publique communications spiritualit sociales etam 2286 fl la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord quivalent : ecs2526 peuples autochtones et conflits* quivalent : ipa2524 thmes particuliers en relations humaines et spiritualit i * quivalent : phi2711 thmes choisis en philosophie politique i* quivalent : isc2737 questions spciales 1 en communications sociales* folk2126 fl cours au choix cours au choix cours au choix cours au choix le conte populaire *dans le cas o ltudiant dtient dj le cours quivalent, les crdits seront compts comme cours au choix. cours de luniversit de sudbury programmes de luniversit york - campus glendon cours en quivalence b.a. international en tudes canadiennes etam 2286 la religion des autochtones de lamrique du nord folk2126 le conte populaire b.a en tudes franaises quivalent : cdns 3100 : travaux individuels en tudes canadiennes quivalent : fran 3605 : contes, lgendes et nouvelles de langue franaise au canada* * confirmer. 25 3) processus dinscription pour sinscrire, tout tudiant en provenance de luniversit saint-paul et de luniversit york campus glendon doit obtenir une lettre de permission de son institution. cette lettre de permission devra par la suite tre achemine luniversit de sudbury qui assurera les prochaines tapes pour linscription au cours. 4) administration et gestion de l'entente (assurance de la qualit) l'administration de cette entente relve des reprsentants de l'universit de sudbury, de luniversit saint-paul et de luniversit york campus glendon. les administrateurs sont responsables de rgler les questions et les conflits qui peuvent survenir conformment l'article 8 de cette entente. 5) aspects financiers i. les parties conviennent que les droits de scolarit appartiennent l'tablissement qui offre les cours. ii. les parties conviennent que toute publicit ou activit de marketing est la responsabilit de l'tablissement qui entreprend la publicit ou le marketing. 6) dure de l'entente la dure de cette entente sera de trois (3) ans et sera en vigueur compter de la date de signature. au dbut de la troisime anne, les administrateurs concerns des universits complteront une rvision de cette entente. 7) rsiliation de l'entente l'une des parties peut mettre fin cette entente en fournissant l'autre partie un avis crit de rsiliation de cent-vingt (120) jours. l'entente est alors rsilie de plein droit et est rpute rsilie la date indique dans l'avis. cette entente n'a pas pour effet de faire de l'une ou de l'autre partie l'agente de l'autre partie, sa reprsentante lgale, sa partenaire dentreprise, son associe, employe ou prpose. elle ne cre aucune relation fiduciaire ou mandataire entre les parties. chacune des parties reconnat qu'elle n'a aucune autorit pour assumer ou crer quelque obligation que ce soit, expresse ou implicite, au nom de l'autre partie, sauf et strictement pour ce qui est expressment prvu par cette entente. chacune des parties reconnat galement qu'elle n'a aucune autorit pour lier l'autre partie de quelque manire que ce soit, ni pour engager la responsabilit de l'autre partie. 26 8) rglement des diffrends tout dsaccord entre les parties au sujet de l'interprtation, de l'application ou de l'administration de cette entente ou tout dfaut des parties de s'entendre lorsqu'une entente est ncessaire, dsigns globalement ici de diffrends , doit tre tranch conformment aux dispositions du prsent article. cependant, la dcision d'une partie de rsilier l'entente selon l'article 7 ne constitue pas un diffrend aux fins de l'article 8. les parties feront tous les efforts raisonnables pour rgler le diffrend rapidement et l'amiable par voie de mdiations ou autrement. si le diffrend ne peut tre rgl dans un dlai raisonnable, ce diffrend doit tre soumis l'arbitrage d'un seul arbitre conformment aux dispositions suivantes: i. la partie qui dsire l'arbitrage fait parvenir aux autres parties un avis d'arbitrage; ii. les parties doivent conjointement dsigner un arbitre acceptable pour les parties dans les dix (10) jours ouvrables suivant l'envoi de l'avis d'arbitrage; iii. si les parties ne s'entendent pas sur le choix d'un arbitre dans ce dlai de dix (10) jours ouvrables, un arbitre doit tre dsign par un juge de la cour suprieure de justice de l'ontario de la ville du grand sudbury; iv. les sances d'arbitrage se tiennent la ville du grand sudbury; v. l'arbitre a le pouvoir de dterminer sa propre procdure et peut rendre sa dcision par crit ou selon toute autre forme qu'elle ou il choisit; vi. chaque partie paie la moiti des frais d'arbitrage; vii. la dcision de l'arbitre est finale et sans appel et lie les parties. 9) droit applicable la prsente entente doit tre interprte conformment au droit applicable dans la province de l'ontario. 27 10) intgralit de l'entente les parties conviennent que la prsente entente contient l'nonc intgral et unique de l'entente intervenue entre elles relativement l'offre de cours. elle remplace et met fin toute reprsentation, ngociation ou proposition antrieure relativement l'objet de la prsente. en considration de quoi, les parties au prsent contrat ont sign ce contrat aux dates et lieux indiqus. sophie bouffard rectrice et vice-chancelire universit de sudbury date chantal beauvais rectrice universit saint-paul date donald ipperciel principal campus glendon - universit york date 28

rapport final contrat : 2017-20 environment transfer pathway development titre du projet : dveloppement de parcours de transfert en environnement prpar par : luniversit laurentienne bureau des affaires francophones 935, chemin du lac ramsey 3e tage, difice parker (p315) sudbury (on) p3e 2c6 tl : 705-675-1151, poste 3421 date : 15 mars 2018 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement liste des intervenants impliqus pour le compte de luniversit laurentienne : andre noiseux, charge de projets; nomie thberge, conseillre principale sylvie landry, directrice du bureau des affaires francophones, partenariats et collaborations; line tremblay, vice-rectrice associe sortante aux tudes et affaires francophones; david lesbarrres, vice-recteur intrimaire associ aux tudes et affaires francophones; osman abour-rabia, doyen de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture; hlne joly, doyenne associe de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture eric gauthier, professeur en biochimie; jeffrey gagnon, professeur en biologie; anne watelet, professeur en tudes de lenvironnement; franois caron, professeur en sciences librales; diane roy, registraire; melissa ouimette, chef du bureau des admissions; joanne musico, directrice des communications. pour le compte du collge boral : marie-claude malette, charge de projets; jocelyne bdard, gestionnaire de projets; daniel leduc, conseiller principal et chef du centre de ressources professionnel; lyne michaud, vice-prsident enseignement; tina montgomery, doyenne de lcole des mtiers et des technologies appliques; marc hbert, coordonnateur des programmes techniques en environnement forestier et faunique, technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune, et technologie en environnement forestier; marc nellis, professeur en techniques en environnement forestier et faunique et technologie en environnement forestier; karl aubry, professeur en technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune andr ferron, technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune julie allen, registraire; ginette brunet, chef du bureau des admissions; jean cotnoir, chef des communications stratgiques. pour le compte du collge la cit : joseph aghaby, charg de projets; lise frenette, directrice de projets spciaux; norman junior poisson rioux, expert de contenu et conseiller pdagogique; reynold richemond, professeur; simon-pierre desjarlais, professeur; frdric thibeault-chabot, doyen de linstitut des technologies, des arts et de la communication; patrice supper, directeur de linstitut des technologies, des arts et de la communication; paulette bouffard, directrice; stphane ct, registraire; pascale montminy, gestionnaire en communication chantal thiboutot, directrice principale de la planification institutionnelle et de limputabilit. 2 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement table of contents 1) summary 4 2) project purpose and goals ..5 3) development of the transfer pathways ......6 4) summary of the transfer pathways ....12 5) promising practices and lessons learned......13 appendices a, b, and c: analysis matrices...... appendix d: transfer pathway model - environment .. appendix e: financial report.... 3 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement 1) summary as part of this project, laurentian university, collge boral and la cit college have collaborated on the development of transfer pathways from the following college programs toward the four-year programs in biochemistry, biology, environmental studies and liberal sciences at laurentian university: for collge boral: techniques en environnement forestier et faunique (forestry and wildlife technician) (2 years), technologie en environnement forestier (forestry technology) (3 years), and technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune (fish and wildlife technology) (3 years). for la cit: pratiques en environnement forestier (forestry practices)(1 year), techniques en environnement forestier (forestry techniques) (2 years), and technologie en environnement forestier-faune (forestry-wildlife technology) (3 years). this project would enrich the recently completed agreement between the laurentian school of environment and collge boral's general arts and science program, and maximize the benefits of the province-wide initiatives by attempting to establish a similar agreement with la cit college. the initiative will result in the formalization, on a cumulative basis, of 15 new transfer pathways for francophone students in the fields of environment and science. linitiative aura permis lofficialisation, au cumul, de 15 nouveaux parcours de transfert pour les tudiants francophones dans les domaines de lenvironnement et des sciences. 4 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-20 transfer pathway in environment 2) project purpose and goals in addition to meeting general oncat goals, the project had the following goals for participating institutions: maximize the achievements of students graduating from technical programs in forestry and wildlife technician (2 years) and forestry technology (3 years), and fish and wildlife technology (3 years) and collge boral wildlife area (3 years), as well as forestry practices (1 year), forestry techniques (2 years), and forestry-wildlife technology (3 years) at college la cite; support recruitment in these francophone university programs, which are sometimes smaller in number and yet generate some interest among college students of affinity programs; encourage, or even start, dialogue between laurentian university, collge boral and la cit, in order to work towards a certain coherence between the programs, which would stimulate the francophone student mobility in the field of environment and would benefit the entire education system. 5 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-20 transfer pathway in environment 3) development and transfer pathways methodology as was done in the architectural transfer pathway that we have been working with this year with the same partner institutions, we wanted to support the agreement of equivalencies on the analysis of learning outcomes cross-referenced in the departure program and arrival program. this approach enabled us to develop a real comparative portrait of the results of this new recommended methodology, for similar programs in la cit and collge boral. the finding was very interesting, noting, among other things, that although, in principle, the same program given in two different establishments should achieve identical learning outcomes, in fact, slight variations are necessary and therefore do not guarantee the same equivalences to the students. however, we believe that although the analysis of possible equivalences by crossreferencing learning outcomes may seem tedious and redundant, without guaranteeing gateway transferability, it remains the most objective and documented method for discarding the reflexive and decisional bases of the stakeholders involved. in terms of the sequence of steps and deliverables accomplished, it essentially proved the same as that planned and proposed in the submission of our proposal, i.e.: 6 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-20 transfer pathway in environment schedule of activities april, 2017 steps and deliverables meetings with the dean of the faculty of science, engineering and architecture to discuss the project and its steps - allocate hours on the workload forms of the professors/subject-matter experts and educational consultants for spring 2017 - meetings with the directors or deans of the programs of study, the people in charge of the staff support centres and the managers of the admissions offices of laurentian university, boral and la cit to present the project - kick-off meeting with program professors to discuss the goals of the program targeted by the laurentian, collge boral and la city's project june 2017 - collection of lesson plans and other information related to the outcomes and learning activities of the university program targeted by the project september 2017 - development an analytical framework based on learning outcomes - feedback on the analysis structure proposed by the senior advisor - approval of the analysis structure by the vice-provost, francophone studies and affairs at laurentian - construction of the matrices - analysis and comparison of various programs learning outcomes - identification of credits that can be recognized - consultation with the laurentian head of admissions to share the analyzes, complete the results of the credits granted by the standards resulting from the general administrative practices for the elective courses and the academic results of the candidates, and to identify the documentation to prepare for next steps of administrative approvals at laurentian - consultation with key program stakeholders to validate comparative may, 2017 october 2017 to february 2018 7 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-20 transfer pathway in environment analyzes of the learning outcomes (program department of each institution, deans of colleges and dean of laurentian faculty of science, engineering and architecture) march - april 2018 - final validation of the pathways developed with stakeholders before starting the approval process - development and finalizing of the traditional transfer agreements based on the comparative analyses validated by program stakeholders may june 2018 - completion of the approval process at the university (2 last steps) p ara (academic regulations and awards) p laurentian university senate summer 2018 - add pathways to agreement protocols - communication with the university's admissions office to add the pathways to ontransfer.ca comparison and analysis of programs as the analysis of programs based on their learning outcomes to identify credit courses in each subject gateway was a new practice for us, we had to design, develop, and produce tools that would most rigorously document analysis data in order to validate the relevance of this approach. thus, matrices allowing us to map all the learning outcomes of each of the programs covered by the project and their overlaps were developed. these list the learning outcomes of laurentian's biochemistry, biology, and environmental studies 8 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-20 transfer pathway in environment programs compared to the learning outcomes of the boral and la cit programs and are used as follows: - for each corresponding learning outcome between the university program and one of the college programs, a "1" was entered in the grid; - the corresponding learning outcomes are then added by laurentian secured program; - - if a laurentian course has at least one corresponding learning outcome for all of its learning outcomes, it may be suggested to the program director that the course has a college equivalent and credit is recognized in the agreement; even if, when comparing courses by course, there is not a college course that is exactly the equivalent of a laurentian course, mapping shows that in the entire college diploma, students covered the learning outcomes of some courses; - at the end of the exercise, the college program directors are consulted to validate the learning outcomes that were cross-referenced. they then have the opportunity to specify whether certain results have been omitted for lack of clarity or understanding of course syllabuses, or even to propose a certain revision of their program so as to add a particularly decisive learning result. the excel documents containing all the analysis matrices used in this project are presented in appendix a (environmental studies), appendix b (biology), and appendix c (biochemistry). 9 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-20 transfer pathway in environment implementation process and timelines approval processes have a significant impact on the timelines of such a project and its implementation. indeed, some committees such as the senate, for example, face very busy agendas, in addition to a very limited meeting schedule. we must face the facts, the june meeting remains the most favorable for the processing of files like this one and therefore interferes with the original hope of completing all the work for mid-march. to this awareness was added an imponderable this year, the university and college strikes that took place in turn. in fact, since the teachers' strike in ontario colleges in the fall of 2017 lasted nearly five weeks, many development projects involving teaching have been put on hold at both collge boral and la cit. due to the reorganization of the school calendar, teachers were unable to complete this type of mandate within the prescribed time frame. the fall session at la cit ended january 26, 2018 and the winter session began january 29, 2018. this new timetable forced educational institutions to cancel the traditional reading week, with the result that the administrative work normally done by teachers during this week could not be ensured this year. that said, monumental work was done to get as close as possible to the outcome of the project. to date, the mapping of programs and the results of the first analysis it suggests have been submitted for validation to the authorities of each institution. 10 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-20 transfer pathway in environment the next few weeks will allow us to complete the following steps: - meeting of institutional program directors to draw on the results of the first analysis and the recommendations for maximizing pathways; - approval with ara and information to the cpf; - approval from the senate; - add pathways to agreement protocols; - communication with the university's admissions office to add the pathways to ontransfer.ca; - preparation of an announcement of new pathways for back to school. 11 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement 4) summary of the transfer pathways created a brief overview of the transfer pathways proposed at the end of this project is presented under the "summary" tab of each of the excel documents presented in appendices a, b, and c. note that if no transfer pathway was created with the biochemistry program, no learning outcomes were found between college programs and laurentian's university program. on the other hand, if the liberal sciences program is not supported in a table in the same way as biology and environmental studies, it is because the courses that make up this program also make up the courses of the two previous programs. thus, the equivalencies granted will be directly related to the students choice of course when they build their program. the specific details associated with the transfer pathways with the biology, environmental studies and liberal sciences programs were documented as requested in the pathway models provided in appendix d. warning: it should be noted that the number of credits granted anticipated in the analysis provided with this report may be modified when the agreements are presented to ara and the senate. for this reason, laurentian university is committed to providing oncat with an additional report once all approval steps have been completed. 12 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement 5) promising practices and lessons learned among the promising practices include the importance of communicating with all the departments involved in various institutions. these include the department of the program in question, the faculty, the registrars office and the admissions office, as well as the administrators and the academic guidance centre, which advises students on their schedule, etc. this communication ensures not only that there are no misunderstandings, but also that the agreement complies with all of the universitys rules. furthermore, when everyone is informed about the agreement, it has a better chance of being approved during the various approval steps, as the committee members are often representatives of the aforementioned departments. we also note that outreach work is needed in laurentian. even if a project like this one had the goal of encouraging recruitment for programs with smaller staff, teachers remain fearful that by granting equivalences we risk eliminating first-year courses if students no longer need to follow them. however, recent studies have shown that college students do not represent students who have enrolled at the university, but rather a new clientele since they often lack the prerequisites necessary for admission to the university. the gateways developed are, as it were, their only gateway to accessing our programs. the faculty is gradually becoming aware of this, but it is still far from widespread. 13 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-20 transfer pathway in environment although there has been much less affinity between programs initially hoped, stakeholders are still very satisfied with the progress of this project. on the side of the colleges as on the side of the laurentian, one-year college programs are still very controversial within approval instances when it comes time to talk about gateways. however, we recommend that they continue to be included in analytical approaches when they are part of the affinity programs, since identification of the learning content they touch could possibly serve as part of a reallocation of courses within a college program to further reach a university program. finally, the new analysis approach based on the results greatly facilitated the discussions and made it possible sound objectivity in the equivalency agreement process. so we can continue this path in the development of transfer routes possible, using the same tools as those conceptualized for the present project. 14

postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario: the role of high school academic performance evidenced based on tdsb-psis-cslp data linkages june 11, 2021 authors david walters, university of guelph rob brown, york university gillian parekh, york university dylan reynolds, university of guelph trisha einmann, university of guelph postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario table of contents 03 05 07 09 executive summary introduction academic achievement data and methods subsample variables pathways to graduation 11 descriptive results: direct-entry and transfer students socio-demographics high school achievement postsecondary outcomes and field of study student loan holders 13 descriptive results: all educational pathways sex age field of study income decile grade nine english and math grade 12 average graduation loan balance at end of study length of study student loan holders 17 regression results borrowing from canada student loan program amount of debt at end of study period (direct entry vs. transfer) graduation 26 discussion and concluding remarks future directions limitations 30 references 33 figures this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario executive summary until very recently, most research on postsecondary education (pse) pathways and outcomes of transfer students in canada has relied on labour market and postsecondary graduate surveys, yet these surveys are subject to several limitations. population-based survey data related to school-to-work transitions are typically limited to college and university graduates (e.g., statistics canadas national graduates survey), while labour market surveys do not contain sufficient data to allow researchers to answer questions related to student mobility. furthermore, large-scale surveys have been plagued by low response rates in recent years, making them prone to response bias. this is particularly problematic for sensitive questions, such as those related to earnings, parental income, and student debt. these data limitations have prevented researchers from investigating graduation, student debt, and labour market outcomes of postsecondary students who pursue atypical pathways (i.e., those who transfer from university to university, university to college, college to college, and college to university). by drawing on administrative records of postsecondary students, this research overcomes many of the limitations of previous research that examines the outcomes of transfer students in ontario. the present study follows from previous research that focuses on non-traditional pse pathways (walters et al., 2020) to investigate the ways in which high school performance and pse mobility affects student debt and graduation rates in ontario. this research involves a system-wide analysis of student borrowing patterns among high school graduates of the toronto district school board (tdsb), who later entered and transferred through community colleges and universities in ontario. the tdsb is the largest public education system in canada, serving close to one quarter of a million kindergarten to grade 12 (k-12) students, and accounting for roughly 12% of ontarios k-12 population (brown, parekh, and marmureanu, 2016). we linked data from the tdsb with statistics canadas educational labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) to address the following research questions 1) how do transfer students and direct-entry (i.e., non-transfer) students compare in terms of: a. high school academic achievement? b. postsecondary completion? c. student debt? 2) is student borrowing related to academic performance in high school, and does this relationship vary by postsecondary pathway? 3) do socio-demographic characteristicsnamely gender, income, and immigration statuspredict the likelihood of transfer, pse completion, and amount of student debt? 03 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario this research contributes to the existing body of literature on transfer students by examining the high school to pse transitions of lateral (university to university and college to college), vertical (college to university), and reverse (university to college) transfer students. results of this work revealed that about two thirds of tdsb students belonging to the 2009 tdsb cohort took on a loan to fund their postsecondary education. transfer students were more likely to borrow to fund their postsecondary education than students who remained at the same institution for the duration of their studies; however, they were less likely to graduate from their programs. when distinguishing among the various transfer pathways, analyses further revealed considerable heterogeneity in the likelihood of borrowing, loan amounts, and the probability of graduating among vertical, lateral, and reverse transfers. gaps in borrowing and graduation could be attributed, in part, to differences in socio-demographic characteristics, field of study, duration of study, and high school performance; yet gaps in student borrowing and the odds of completing pse programs among transfer groups remained. these findings offer strong evidence that lateral, vertical, and reverse transfer students have very different postsecondary experiences, and that research into pse outcomes among transfer students should distinguish among these different postsecondary trajectories whenever possible. in terms of policy implications, this work suggests that transferring institutions is, in and of itself, an obstacle to graduation from pse. it also highlights the increased financial burden that students often experience because they transferred institutions in pursuit of their postsecondary goals. while many young people graduate with debt, and the obligation to repay student loans can be an enormous source of emotional and financial strain, this strain may be disproportionately felt by transfer students who are more likely to borrow and less likely to obtain a postsecondary credential compared to those who choose to remain at the same institution for their pse studies. lack of pse credentials often means poorer access to stable, well-paying jobs and less protection from unemployment and underemployment. as a result, transfers may be at greater risk of defaulting on their student loans and experiencing delayed life transitions, such as entry into the housing market and starting a family. young canadians would be well-served by policies aimed at improving student assistance programs and enhancing supports for borrowers as they repay their student debt. 04 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario introduction high school graduates are increasingly departing from traditional postsecondary education (pse) pathways. during their undergraduate studies, postsecondary students are transferring from college to university and vice versa, and they are doing so in larger numbers than in the past. this movement often stems from work and life obligations that require young people to adjust to changing circumstances by transferring institutions. this is particularly true for students from lower socio-economic situations, who are more likely to encounter financial or other barriers that require (or inspire) a change in education or career goals. pse in ontario is continuously evolving, in part to provide opportunities and support for students who alter their education plans in the midst of their pse programs, particularly when decisions to do so are the result of challenging and changing life circumstances. freedom to transfer across institutions midstream and without penalty helps accommodate changing interests, career goals, financial circumstances, and family responsibilities (see speers, stockdale, and martin, 2012). on the other hand, transferring programs creates barriers, particularly among students who lack the resources to successfully navigate the transfer process (see allen, smith, and muehleck, 2014; kerr, mccloy, and liu, 2011; gawley and mcgowan, 2006; percival et al., 2016; tobolowsky and cox, 2012; townsend and wilson, 2006). for example, when comparing transfer students with their direct-entry counterparts (i.e., those who started and completed their postsecondary studies at the same institution), transfers are more likely to struggle with academic performance, social adjustment, degree completion, and completion time (see kerr, mccloy, and liu, 2011; tobolowsky and cox, 2012; percival et al., 2016). inadequate funding during the transfer process may also be an obstacle to program completion. the canada student loans program (cslp) is a student support mechanism offered by the federal government to facilitate equitable access to and completion of postsecondary educationparticularly for members of marginalized groups. student loans alleviate immediate financial strain for lower- and middle-income families and provide opportunities for students to complete their schooling without the strain of working long hours in part-time jobs to make ends meet. reducing the immediate financial burden of pse improves the chances that students will complete their programs and do so in a timely fashion. likewise, government student loans may be particularly valuable for lower income transfer students who must grapple with the bureaucratic responsibilities associated with the transfer process. still, government loan holders generally experience more financial strain than non-loan holders. this is likely to be a source of worry among those who transfer programs, as recent research reveals that ontario students who transfer institutions are both less likely to graduate 05 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario and more likely incur debt during their studies (see walters et al., 2020). transfer students also tend to hold higher loan balances relative to direct-entry students, which may be due to the longer completion time associated with transferring (walters et al., 2020). for these reasons, student mobility and student debt are salient policy concerns, particularly among those who are in critical need of financial support during their postsecondary studies. 06 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario academic achievement high school grades are important indicators of how well students are able to navigate the public education system. in fact, past research has shown that high school academic performance is a key predictor of postsecondary attendance, university enrolment, and postsecondary graduation (parekh, brown, and james, 2020; robson et al., 2019b). research using data from the toronto district school board (tdsb), for example, revealed that average grades in grade 9 english and mathematics are significant predictors of entrance into postsecondary education programs (brown and tam, 2017; brown, parekh, and gallagher-mackay, 2019), and academic performance in high school is closely related to pse completion among students who attended university (parekh, brown, and james 2020; brown, davies, and chakraborty, 2019). when studying academic performance, it is important to acknowledge that a number of attitudinal and structural factors affect the achievement of specific groups (parekh, brown, and zheng, 2018; parekh and brown, 2019). for instance, research has shown that academic achievement is affected by sex identity, family income, and students and parents place of birth (brown and sinay, 2008). furthermore, an investigation into the relationships between transfer status and graduation revealed significant differences across a variety of socio-demographic and structural variables. students who arrived at york university after transferring from another postsecondary institution, for example, were considerably less likely to graduate than those who entered york directly from high school, and this gap varied depending on students sex, sexual orientation, racial identity, region of birth, and family structure. secondary program of study (i.e., academic and applied), absenteeism, and grade 9 achievement were also associated with likelihood of graduation (parekh, brown, and james, 2020). relationships between student achievement, borrowing patterns, and pse outcomes across multiple institutionsparticularly among transfer studentsare not well understood in canada. few, if any, canadian studies are based on system-wide, population-based data that include transfer status and student achievement. the limited body of research on the high school performance of transfer students is largely based on data from individual institutions, or articulation agreements across a small number institutions (see acai and newton, 2015; brown, davies, and chakraborty, 2019; decock, 2004; gerhardt and masakure, 2016; parekh, brown, and james, 2020; smith et al., 2016; stewart and martinello, 2012). studies based on data from a single or a small number of institutions typically focus on outcomes of incoming transfer students; however, they are unable to capture outgoing transfer students (i.e., students who transfer to institutions outside of an articulation agreement). hence, the picture of transfer students experiences and their pse outcomes is limited. 07 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario using data from a large cohort of toronto students who entered pse in 2009, this study links data from the tdsb with data from statistics canadas educational labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) to provide the first investigation into the relationships between high school achievement, borrowing patterns, and graduation rates among transfer students in ontario. the tdsb is the largest public education system in canada, serving close to one quarter of a million kindergarten to grade 12 (k-12) students, and accounting for roughly 12% of ontarios k-12 population (brown, parekh, and marmureanu, 2016). this study follows from previous research that focuses on non-traditional pse pathways (walters et al., 2020) to address the following research questions: 1) how do transfer students and direct-entry (i.e., non-transfer) students compare in terms of: a. high school academic achievement? b. postsecondary completion? c. student debt? 2) is student borrowing related to academic performance in high school, and does this relationship vary by postsecondary pathway? 3) do socio-demographic characteristicsnamely gender, income, and immigration statuspredict the likelihood of transfer, pse completion, and amount of student debt? 08 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario data and methods this research combines data from three administrative datasets: the tdsbs grade 9 cohort dataset, statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis), and the canada student loans program (cslp). data from the tdsb include 13 years of student records for 231,563 students who entered grade 9 between september 2000 and september 2012. data for each cohort are collected for up to five years. both psis and cslp are in statistics canadas elmlp. psis is an administrative dataset with annual, nation-wide information about college and university enrolments and graduates, including program information, fields of study, and credentials. data for psis were collected beginning in the 20052006 academic year, with full reporting for ontario beginning in the 20092010 year. the cslp dataset provides information about individual borrowing from the canada student loans program between 20032004 and 20162017. the psis-cslp data linkage allows for a comparative analysis of student debt between those who transfer and those who do not. with the addition of tdsb data, secondary school performance can also be examined to determine whether academic achievement in high school is associated with likelihood of transfer and borrowing patterns at the postsecondary level. there is an overlap of psis and cslp data for ontario from 20092010 to 20162017, and approximately 12% of those records were students who appeared in the tdsb dataset. subsample the combined dataset contains information from the tdsb cohort who started postsecondary education in september 2009, excluding those who began or completed postsecondary education outside of ontario. data from the psis and cslp are merged using the linkage variable register_group_id, which is shared across datasets in the elmlp. relevant variables from the tdsb dataset were transferred into the psis-cslp dataset for all but 0.6% of the tdsb cohort. only students who were between the ages of 17 and 19 when they started their pse in september 2009 were included in the analyses. mature students and those who began their pse programs at atypical times during the school year represent unique groups. for instance, preliminary analyses indicate that these groups of students are more likely to attend college than university. additionally, a small proportion of students who had multiple records of enrolment in the fall of 2009 were excluded from the analyses. the final sample included 9,850 students aged 17 to 19 who attended a tdsb secondary school and who began an ontario postsecondary program in 2009. these same selection criteria were used in a previous report by walters et al., 2020, which will allow for a direct comparison of results across these two studies. 09 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario variables together, data from the tdsb, psis, and cslp include a variety of student-level variables that measure secondary school academic performance, postsecondary attainment, and student debt. secondary school academic achievement was measured using three variables: grade nine mathematics and english marks, both of which were included as categorical variables (<70%; 70-79%; >80%), and the average of the six highest final marks obtained in grade 12. these measures of high school performance were selected because they are known to be strong predictors of pse enrolment and graduation (see brown, davies, and chakraborty, 2019; parekh, brown, and robson, 2018; robson et al., 2014; brown, presley, and parekh, 2013). to measure postsecondary attainment, five variables were included in the analysis. these were field of study, length of study (derived from program start and end dates), graduation (i.e., graduates vs non-graduates), and pse pathway (derived from type of institution at entry and exit). a dichotomous transfer variable was also derived from the psis data to identify students who did and did not transfer between institutions during their postsecondary studies. similar to our earlier report, this variable does not include those who changed fields within the same institution, and it does not differentiate students who transfer once from those who transfer multiple times. student debt was measured using variables that identify cslp loan holders and outstanding loan amounts at the last student record. using the consumer price index, the amount owing is adjusted based on the dollar equivalence in 2017. several socio-demographic variables were also included in the analyses. these include age, sex, country of birth, and a proxy for family income that was derived using census data, where each student record was assigned the average economic family income associated with their postal code. the parental income of students who borrowed from the cslp was also included in analyses involving only student borrowers. this variable was derived from the parental income variable reported in cslp. pathways to graduation close to nine out of ten students in the sample (88.5%) were enrolled in a university program in september 2009 (compared to 11.5% in college programs). preliminary analyses were carried out to determine the typical number of years to graduation. consistent with past research (see frenette, 2019), most university students in the 2009 cohort graduated within five years (77.5%). the graduation time for college students was more variable, with three-quarters graduating within two to four years. regardless of whether they were enrolled in college or university, the majority of students completed their pse at the institution at which they first enrolled in the fall of 2009. 10 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario descriptive results: direct-entry and transfer students table 1 presents the descriptive statistics for non-transfer (i.e., direct-entry) and transfer students who started their postsecondary program of study in the province of ontario in 2009. the results in table 1 are discussed below. socio-demographics the data in table 1 reveal that direct-entry students are more likely to be female (55%) than are transfer students (51%). transfer students are more likely to be older than nontransfer students: 36% of transfer students were 19 years of age at the start of their programs, compared to 31% of direct-entry students. sixty nine percent of non-transfer students and 64% of transfer students included in our analyses were born in canada. the average income decile for both transfer and non-transfer students was 6. high school achievement the descriptive statistics for grade 9 english illustrate that direct-entry students attained higher grades than transfer students. about four in ten non-transfer students achieved a grade of 80% or above (41%), and about a third received a grade of 7079% (31%). on the other hand, about a quarter of transfer students achieved a grade of 80% or more (27%), and a third received a grade of 7079% (33%). similarly, direct-entry students typically achieved higher grades in grade 9 math: 41% attained a grade of 80% or above (41%), compared to 26% of transfers. direct-entry students achieved a somewhat higher overall grade 12 average than transfer students (78% versus 72%, respectively). postsecondary outcomes and field of study as displayed in table 1, direct-entry students were nearly 40% more likely to have completed their program by the end of the study period compared to transfer students. furthermore, direct-entry students tended to complete their programs more quickly: approximately 53% of direct-entry students finished within four years compared to 23% of transfer students. in both groups, about two-thirds had a loan balance at the end of their studies. 11 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario there was little difference between transfer and non-transfer students in terms of field of study. about 40% of students pursued stem, health, or other fields of study, and another 40% studied fine arts, humanities, or social sciences. the remaining 1620% entered a business program. student loan holders table 2 summarizes the descriptive results for family income and family size among canada student loan holders in ontario. the average parental income (in 2017 dollars) among directentry students was $51,400, which was nearly $4,000 per year higher than among transfer students. the average family size of both groups was 3.6 and 3.5, respectively. 1. due to the vetting requirements at statistics canada, the field of study variable is limited to three categories for the descriptive statistics. for the regression models, we distinguish among a broader number of fields. 12 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario descriptive results: all educational pathways the second series of descriptive statistics disaggregate the direct-entry and transfer groupings. the purpose of these analyses is to demonstrate the heterogeneity of the transfer groups in terms of their socio-demographic composition, academic performance, and postsecondary outcomes. a key element of these analyses is to distinguish among various transfer groupings, of which there are three types: lateral transfers, who move from one community college to another, or one university to another; vertical transfers, who begin their pse at a community college and transfer to a bachelors program; and reverse transfers, who transfer from university to a community college. this research made use the longitudinal structure of the dataset to examine pse outcomes and borrowing patterns of students who followed six postsecondary trajectories: 1) direct entry to university, 2) transfer from university to university (lateral transfer), 3) transfer from university to college (reverse transfer), 4) direct entry to college, 5) transfer from college to college (lateral transfer), and 6) transfer from college to university (vertical transfer). descriptive statistics for the variables used in this research are presented in tables 3 and 4 for each of the direct-entry and transfer pathways. the results are discussed below. sex postsecondary students entering university from the tdsb in 2009 were more likely to be female. those who entered college, on the other hand, were more likely to be male. among transfer students, females made up a slightly larger proportion of university to university (52%) and university to college transfers (52%), while males made up a larger percentage of those who transferred from college to college (62%) and college to university (62%). for ease of comparison, these results are also presented in figure 1. age the data in table 3 indicate that those who began pse in a university and stayed in a university (i.e., the direct-entry university and the university to university pathways), as well as those 13 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario who transferred from university to college, tended to be younger (i.e., 17 and 18 years of age) than those who began pse at college. country of birth approximately 40% of students who attended university at some point in their postsecondary studieseither as direct-entry or transfer studentswere born outside of canada. those who entered college after high school and remained in college until they completed their programs were somewhat less likely than those who attended university to have been born outside of canada. field of study regarding field of study, the stem, heath and related fields, and other fields contained the greatest proportion of students in the university to university (48%), college to college (54%), and direct-entry college (43%) pathways, followed by those in the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences (37% in the university to university pathway, 31% in the college to college pathway, and one third in the direct-entry college pathway). the university to college pathway showed the opposite pattern, with half of those students started their programs in the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences, and 35% enrolled in the stem, heath and related fields, and other fields. in the direct-entry university pathway, 40% of students were enrolled in both the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences, and stem, heath and related fields, and other fields groupings. the business field of study contained the fewest students across all pathways (ranging from 1525% of students), except for the college to university pathway which contained 40% of those students. income decile tdsb graduates involved in any pse pathway that included university tended to reside in higher income neighbourhoods relative to those who attended only college. the average neighbourhood income decile of university attendees was 6; the average decile for directentry community college students and students who transferred between colleges was 5.5 and 5, respectively. grade 9 english and math the descriptive statistics in table 3 indicate that student performance in grade 9 english varied by postsecondary pathway. roughly three quarters of students who remained in university for the duration of their studies, and about 60% of those who transferred from university to college or vice versa, achieved a grade of 70% or higher in grade 9 english. 14 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario approximately 40% of students who attended college and remained in college achieved a b (70-79%) or higher in grade 9 english. while overall performance in grade 9 math tended to be poorer than grade 9 english, the pattern was similar. students who entered university and remained in university tended to achieve the highest grades, followed by those who transferred between college and university. students who attended college for the duration of the pse studies tended to have lowest marks in grade 9 math. this pattern is displayed in figures 2 and 3. grade 12 average the final variable tapping into high school achievement was the overall average in grade 12. as illustrated in table 3, those in the direct-entry university, university to university, and university to college pathways achieved grade 12 averages in the 70s (79%, 76%, and 71%, respectively), whereas those in the direct-entry college, college to college, and college to university pathways achieved averages in the 60s (67%, 64%, and 65%, respectively). these results are expected, given that the required average for admission to a university programs is typically higher than for college programs; however, it is noteworthy that the average of students who entered university and transferred to college was noticeably lower than for those who entered university and stay at university. the opposite does not appear to be the case at the college levelthat is, those who entered college and transferred to university did not have a higher grade 12 average than those who remained at college. grade 12 average as expected, results revealed that direct-entry university students completed their programs at a much higher rate than all other pathways, with 86% of those students graduating from their program by the end of the study period. university students who transferred to another university or to college during their pse studies were considerably less likely to graduate by the end of the study period than those who remained at their institution, at 61% and 50%, respectively. among direct-entry college students, two-thirds of students graduated by the end of the study period. again, this was substantially higher than students who transferred during their pse studies. just 40% of college-to-university transfers, and 38% of college-to-college transfers, had graduated. these comparisons are depicted in the figure 4. 2. the averages are calculated based on the six top-scoring grade 12 courses. 15 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario loan balance at end of study at least half of students in the 2009 cohort had a loan balance at the end of their studies, and there was considerable variability by pse pathway. those who began their studies at college were least likely to have taken a student loan: just over half of direct-entry college students, 60% of college to university, and 62% of college to college transfer students held a loan balance at the end of the reporting cycle. in contrast, between two thirds and three quarters of students who began their pse programs at university took on a student loan. those who followed the university to university transfer pathway were most likely to have had a loan, likely because the cost of university tuition tends to be higher than college, and those who transfer during their studies tend to spend more time is pse. length of study postsecondary program length typically ranges from one to three years for college programs and 3 to 4 years for university programs. it is therefore expected that most direct-entry students would take four years or fewer to complete their program of study. data from table 3 support this expectation, as nearly half of direct-entry university students, and almost 85% of direct-entry college students completed their program of study within four years. as many as one-third of students in the direct-entry university pathway spent a fifth year in their programs, and another 18% were enrolled for six or more years. as described in the previous section, transfer students were enrolled in their programs for much longer than students who did not transfer during their pse studies. in fact, more than half of the students (5260%) in each transfer pathway were enrolled for at least six years, and more than a third remained in their program for seven years or more. figure 5 displays the differences in length of study across the six pse pathways. student loan holders table 4 displays the descriptive statistics for canada student loan holders in ontario by all educational pathways. the highest average parental incomes were associated with the directentry university ($52,500) and university to university transfer pathway ($51,700) groups. direct-entry college students ($39,700) and college to college transfers ($40,900) reported the lowest average family incomes. those who transferred between from university to college, and college to university, had comparable incomes ($45,200 and $45,700, respectively). with respect to family size, student loan borrowers who start their pse pathways in university typically have family sizes averaging between three-and-a-half and four family members, whereas student loan borrows who start their pse pathways in college typically had three to three-and-a-half family members. 16 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario regression results borrowing from canada student loan program a series of logistic regression models were estimated where the dependent variable, which captures whether students borrowed from the cslp, was regressed on student mobility and transfer pathway, both with and without controls. control variables included sex, age, country of birth, family income, field of study, length of study, grade 9 english, grade 9 math, and grade 12 average. the regression models were estimated in three stages, described below. dummy coding was used for categorical variables and the reference categories are identified in the corresponding tables. table 5 presents the results of the regression analyses that assessed whether ontario college and university students borrowed from cslp to subsidize the cost of schooling. the purpose of these models was to assess the impact of student mobility, in general, on student borrowing. the key explanatory variable, labelled mobility, compared transfer students with their direct-entry counterparts. model 1 examined the effect of student mobility on borrowing without controls. model 2 includes pse program and socio-demographic variables, and model 3 adds controls for secondary school performance. model 1 revealed that students who transfer programs were significantly more likely to borrow from the cslp than non-transfer students (p 0.001). however, when controls for pse and socio-demographics were included in model 2, transfer students were no more or less likely to borrow from the cslp than non-transfer students, suggesting that differences in the likelihood of borrowing between the two groups can be explained by other factors, described below. when controlling for other variables in the model, regression results revealed that females were significantly more likely to borrow from the cslp than males (p 0.001) and students born in canada were less likely to borrow than students born outside of canada (p 0.001). as expected, the likelihood of borrowing decreased as neighbourhood income increased (p 0.001). there was no significant difference in borrowing by age at entry to pse. in terms of length of study, students who were in their program for five or more years were, as one might expect, more likely to take out a canada student loan than those who were in their 3. when not otherwise stated, the estimates for non-zero order models are to be interpreted as controlling for the other variables in the model. 17 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario program for four years or less (p 0.001). students in the business, stem, and health and related fields were also more likely to borrow from cslp compared to those in the fine arts (p 0.001). those in the humanities, social sciences, and other fields were no more or less likely to borrow than those in the fine arts. model 3 controls for variables related to secondary school performance. again, findings revealed that transfer students were not significantly different from non-transfer students in terms of their likelihood of borrowing. measures of high school performance, however, had a significant impact on whether students borrowed from cslp. students who achieved a 70-79% (p 0.05) or 80% or more (p 0.001) in grade 9 english were less likely to borrow than those who achieved less than 70%. conversely, in grade 9 math, students earning 80% or more were more likely to borrow from the cslp than those achieving less than 70% (p 0.05), and a higher grade 12 average was associated with a small but significant increase in the likelihood of borrowing (p 0.05). the introduction of the high school performance variables in model 3 did not affect the significance and magnitude of the relationships between the control variables introduced in model 2. the estimates (logits) in table 5 for the mobility variable were converted into predicted probabilities of borrowing from the cslp to provide more meaningful estimates of effect size and statistical significance (via 95% confidence intervals). these estimates are provided in table 6, (below) where model 1 displays the predicted probability of borrowing for transfer and non-transfer students without controls; model 2 includes the predicted probabilities when controlling for program and socio-demographic variables; and model 3 includes the estimates when controls for secondary school performance were added. the predicted probabilities derived from models 2 and 3 were calculated by holding other variables at their means (for quantitative variables) or proportions (for categorical variables). these estimates suggest that the probability of borrowing from the cslp is about the same for direct-entry students and transfer students (0.64 and 0.65, respectively) when holding all other variables constant (model 3). table 7 presents the results of the logistic regression analyses predicting student borrowing across the two direct-entry and four transfer groups. the purpose of this analysis was to demonstrate whether there were differences in borrowing patterns across vertical, lateral, and reverse transfer groupings in relation to their direct-entry counterparts, and assess the extent to which these differences can be attributed to variability in the socio-demographic composition of students, high school academic performance, field of study, and length of study. as with the previous analysis, model 1 displays the bivariate association between transfer pathways and borrowing, model 2 controls for socio-demographic and pse variables, and model 3 includes measures of secondary school academic performance. the estimates in model 1 revealed that the effect of the transfer group variable was statistically significant (p 0.001). specifically, students who transferred from university to university were significantly more likely to take a canada student loan compared to the reference category, direct-entry university students (p 0.001). direct-entry college students, on the other hand, were less likely to borrow from the cslp compared to direct-entry 18 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario university students (p 0.001). the estimates for the remaining transfer pathways (university to college, college to college, and college to university) were not statistically different from the reference group. after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, as well as field and length of study, the effect of transfer group remained statistically significant. the estimates in model 2 revealed that direct-entry college students (p 0.001), as well as students who transferred from college to university (p 0.01), were less likely to borrow from the cslp than direct-entry university students. the difference between direct-entry university students and students who transferred from one university to another was no longer significant. similar to the results presented in table 5, above, estimates from model 2 indicate that female students were significantly more likely to borrow from the cslp than males (p 0.001), and those born in canada were less likely to borrow than those born outside of canada (p 0.001). students residing in higher income neighbourhoods were much less likely to take on student loans (p 0.001) when controlling for other variables in the model. students who entered their program at age 19 were no more or less likely to borrow than those who entered their program at age 17 or 18. turning to length and field of study, estimates in model 2 are also consistent with those presented in table 5: students who were in their programs for five years or more were significantly more likely to borrow from the cslp than those who completed their studies in four years or less (p 0.001), and students in business (p 0.05), stem (p 0.01), and health and related fields (p 0.05) were significantly more likely to borrow than those in the fine arts. there were no significant differences in borrowing among those who were in the humanities, social sciences, and other fields compared to those in the arts. when controlling for secondary school performance in model 3, direct-entry college students (p 0.001), students who transferred from college to college (p 0.05), and from college to university (p 0.01), were found to be significantly less likely to borrow from the cslp than direct-entry university students. students who transferred from university to university or university to college were no more or less likely to borrow than direct-entry university students. in terms of secondary school performance, results were, for the most part, comparable to those reported in table 5. students who earned 7079% (p 0.01) or 80% or more (p 0.001) in grade 9 english were significantly less likely to borrow federal student loans than those who received less than 70% in this course. conversely, students who earned 80% or more in grade 9 math were significantly more likely to borrow than those achieving less than 70% (p 0.05), and there was no difference in the likelihood of borrowing among students achieving a 7079% and those who earned less than 70%. unlike the previous analysis, the average of students top six grade 12 grades was not a significant predictor of borrowing when controlling other variables in the model. 19 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario to improve interpretability of the estimates for the transfer variable, the predicted probabilities of borrowing from the cslp across the transfer groupings are provided in table 8. the estimates indicate that, across all three models, the predicted probability of taking a government student loan was highest among university to university transfer students, suggesting that transferring from one university to another increases the financial burden of pse compared to students who remain at the same university for the duration of their studies and those who attend college programs. students who transferred from university to college also had a comparatively high predicted probability of borrowing, ranging from 0.67 to 0.63 across the models, though the estimates are comparable to those for direct-entry university students. overall, students who started their pse program in college were the least likely to borrow. the predicted probabilities of borrowing for direct-entry college students, and college to college transfers, were among the lowest, likely because of the lower cost of tuition at ontario colleges and shorter duration of programs compared to universities. interestingly, the predicted probability of borrowing changed little for direct-entry students when control variables were added in models 2 and 3; however, the control variables tended to decrease the likelihood of borrowing among transfer students, suggesting that there are factors associated with student borrowing that disproportionately affect transfer students. the estimates in table 8 highlight the importance of distinguishing among pse pathways when comparing student borrowing among transfer and non-transfer students. there is considerable variation in borrowing patterns among the four transfer groups, which was not observed in the previous analysis that aggregates transfer students into a single category. amount of debt at end of study period (direct entry versus transfer) table 9 presents the results of the ordinary least squares (ols) regressions predicting the amount of debt accrued by those who borrowed from the cslp. the purpose of these models is to compare the borrowing patterns of direct-entry and transfer students. model 1 displays the estimates when student loan amount is regressed onto the mobility variable, without controls. model 2 presents the results comparing transfer and non-transfer students while controlling for pse and socio-demographic variables. finally, model 3 includes the variables that capture secondary school achievement. estimates in model 1 suggest that direct-entry students who borrowed from the federal student loan program accrued significantly more debt than transfer students (p 0.001). this finding persisted when controlling for pse and socio-demographic variables in model 2 (p 0.001), and the effects of many of the control variables in this model were also statistically significant. females, on average, had more debt than males (p 0.01) and those 4. the distribution of the student debt variable for first credential holders was approximately normal, and our preliminary analyses did not identify any statistically significant influential observations across each of the six categories of the transfer variable. 20 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario who entered their program at a younger age tended to accrue more debt than those who entered at age 19 (p 0.01). students born in canada typically borrowed less than those born outside of canada (p 0.001). the effect of family income was also statistically significant, whereby higher incomes were associated with less student debt (p 0.001). with respect to the pse measures, significant differences in loan amount were observed by field and length of study. as expected, students who were enrolled in pse longer took on more debt than those who completed their programs in four years or less. students in business (p 0.05), stem (p 0.001), and health and related fields (p 0.05) accrued higher debt than those in the fine arts, the reference category. the remaining fields of study were not significantly different from the fine arts. results of model 3 indicate that transfer students borrowed less from the cslp than nontransfer students after controls for secondary school academic performance were added (p 0.001). grade 9 english marks did not significantly predict the amount borrowed, but achieving a 7079% (p 0.01) or 80% or more (p 0.001) in grade 9 math was associated with increases in the amount borrowed from the cslp compared to the reference category. students with higher averages in grade 12 also tended to borrow more from cslp (p 0.001). the statistically significant effects of sex and age disappeared when high school achievement was added to the model, suggesting that the higher levels of borrowing observed among younger students and females in model 2 can be attributed to differences in high school academic performance. based on the regression estimates in table 9, the predicted levels of student debt were derived for direct-entry and transfer students and are displayed in table 10 to provide meaningful comparisons across models. the estimates for model 1 in table 10 reveal the predicted amount of student debt for transfer and non-transfer students, without controls. model 2 displays these estimates while holding the pse and socio-demographic controls constant at typical values, and model 3 controls for these variables as well as secondary school performance. the estimates are also accompanied by their respective 95% confidence intervals. the data in both table 9 and table 10 show that these estimates are relatively stable across the models. table 11 presents the results of the ols regression analyses predicting the amount of canada student loan debt at the end of the study period across all direct-entry and transfer (vertical, lateral, and reverse) pathways. the estimates in model 1, without controls, reveal that those who attended college during their pse studies accrued less debt than direct-entry university students: direct-entry college students averaged nearly $10,000 less in student loans than direct-entry university students (p 0.001), as did college to college transfers (p 0.001). 5. family income was measured using the family income equivalence scale, which is equal to total family income divided by the square root of the family size. the family income and family size variables were only available in the cslp dataset; hence they do not apply to non-borrowers. 21 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario those who transferred from university to college (p 0.001) had about $6,000 less student debt, and college to university (p 0.05) transfers averaged roughly $3,500 less debt. university to university transfer students did not accrue significantly more or less debt than direct-entry university students. these findings highlight the variability in borrowing among transfer groups in relation to nontransfer university students and, in conjunction with the findings reported in the previous section, suggest that students who stay in college, or move between college and university, are less likely to borrow to fund their education and when they do borrow, they tend to take on less debt than those who attend university. these results are also particularly enlightening because when we did not distinguish among direct-entry and transfer groups (table 10 above), we found that direct-entry students who borrowed from the federal student loan program accrued significantly less debt than transfer students. after controlling for demographic and program information in model 2, results revealed that students who transferred from one university to another accrued significantly more debt than direct-entry university students (p 0.05). in contrast, students who transferred from university to college (p 0.001), college to college (p 0.001), and college to university (p 0.05) borrowed less than direct-entry university students, as did those who attended college and did not transfer (p 0.001). estimates in model 2 further revealed that, as with the previous analyses, females accrued greater amounts of debt than males (p 0.05), those born in canada had less debt than those born outside of the country (p 0.001), and a higher family income was associated with lower student debt (p 0.001). age was not a significant predictor of student loan amount. turning to the pse indicators, estimates from model 2 show that students who were in their programs for five or six years borrowed significantly more than students who were in their programs for four years or fewer (p 0.001), although the estimate for those who were in their programs for seven years or more was not statistically significant. students of the social sciences tended to amass less debt than those in the fine arts (p 0.05), and there was no significant difference between the remaining fields of study and the reference category, when controlling for other variables in the model. model 3 displays the regression estimates predicting the cslp borrowing amount when controlling for secondary school performance. again, students who transferred from university to university accrued significantly higher debt than direct-entry university students (p 0.05), while direct-entry college students (p 0.001) and those who transferred from university to college (p 0.001) or college to college (p 0.001) borrowed less. in this model, the amount of debt that college to university transfers took on was not significantly different than the amount for direct-entry university students. with respect to the secondary school performance variables, marks in grade 9 english were not significant predictors of student debt when controlling for other variables in the model. in contrast, students who achieved 70-79% (p 0.05) or 80% and above (p 0.001) in grade 22 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 9 math borrowed greater amounts than those students who achieved less than 70%. a higher average across the top six grade 12 courses was also associated with higher amounts of debt at the time of pse graduation (p 0.05). the estimates for the other control variables in this model did not change markedly from model 2. table 12 displays the predicted values of student debt derived from the regression estimates in table 11 for each of the direct-entry and transfer pathways, along with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals. as anticipated, the estimates revealed a great deal of heterogeneity across the groupings, where higher levels of student debt were associated with pathways that involve university. interestingly, with some small discrepancies, the estimates are stable across models. hence, the effect of pse pathways on student debt was not largely affected by the characteristics of students in the respective pathways. graduation table 13 presents the results of the logistic regression analysis predicting graduation for transfer students and their direct-entry counterparts. model 1 includes the student mobility variable, without controls. model 2 includes the socio-demographic and pse control variables, and model 3 adds measures for secondary school academic achievement. in this analysis, a fourth model was added that includes a variable that captures whether students borrowed from the cslp. results from model 1 show that transfer students were significantly less likely to graduate than their peers who did not transfer (p 0.001). the estimates in model 2 revealed that even when controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, field of study, and length of study, transfer students were less likely to complete their programs than non-transfer students (p 0.001). as one might expect, females were more likely to complete their programs than males (p 0.001), students who started their program at a younger age were more likely to graduate than those who began their programs at age 19 (p 0.001), and a higher family income was associated with a higher likelihood of graduating by the end of the study period (p 0.001). students born in canada were no more or less likely to graduate within the study period than those born outside of canada. turning to field and length of study, regression results indicate that students who were in their program for five or six years were more likely to have completed their programs than those who were enrolled for up to four years (p 0.001). on the other hand, students who were enrolled in their program for seven years or more were less likely to have completed their programs relative to the reference group (p 0.001). students of the social sciences (p 0.01), business (p 0.001), stem (p 0.001), health and related fields (p 0.01), and other fields (p 0.05) were all significantly more likely to graduate than students of the fine arts. model 3 adds controls for high school academic performance. when these variables were included, transfer students remained significantly less likely to graduate during the study 23 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario period than non-transfer students (p 0.001). this model suggests that grade 9 english marks were not a significant predictor of graduation when controlling for other variables in the model; however, those who attained 80% or more in grade 9 math were significantly more likely to complete their programs than those who achieved less than 70% (p 0.001). higher averages across the top six grade 12 marks were associated with an increased likelihood of graduation from a pse program (p 0.001). lastly, model 4 controls for student borrowing from the cslp. as with the previous models, transfer students were less likely to complete their programs than their direct-entry counterparts (p 0.001). in addition, borrowing from the cslp was associated with an increased likelihood of program completion (p 0.05). the effects of the socio-demographic, pse, and academic performance control variables changed little from model 3 to model 4 and are presented in table 13. table 14 presents the predicted probabilities of graduation for transfer and non-transfer students for each of the four models presented above. these probabilities were calculated by holding all of the other independent variables constant at their means or proportions. these results show that direct-entry students were 55% more likely to graduate than transfers students; however, the magnitude of the graduation gap narrowed when differences between the two groups in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics, average length of study, field of study, and high school achievement were taken into account. specifically, controls for sex, age, country of birth, income, field of study, and length of study reduced the graduation gap by half from 56% to 28%. when academic achievement was added to model 3, the difference between the transfer and non-transfer students in their predicted probability of graduation was further reduced to 19%. while borrowing from the cslp had a modest impact on the likelihood of graduating from pse, it does not appear to account for differences in the probability of graduation between direct-entry and transfer students. the final regression models, presented in table 15, provide the estimates for the regression of the program completion variable on the transfer grouping variable that distinguishes among reverse, lateral, and reverse transfer students, in comparison with their direct-entry counterparts. the results in model 1 indicated that direct-entry university students were more likely to complete their programs during the study period than students who followed all other pathways (p 0.001). after adding socio-demographic and pse control variables in model 2, differences in the likelihood of graduation by the end of the study period among direct-entry university students and all other transfer groups persisted (p 0.001), though the magnitude of the gaps decreased. consistent with the results reported in the previous analysis, females were more likely to complete their programs than males (p 0.001), students who began their program at age 17 or 18 were more likely to graduate than those who started at age 19 (p 0.001), and students born in canada were more likely to graduate than those born outside of canada (p 0.05). pse students in higher family income neighbourhoods were also more likely to complete their programs by the end of the study period (p 0.01). turning to the pse variables, students who were enrolled in their programs for five or six years were more likely to have completed their programs than those who were registered in their 24 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario program for four or fewer years (p 0.001), while those enrolled for seven or more years were significantly less likely to complete their programs by the end of the study period (p 0.001). additionally, students registered in the stem fields, and fields classified as other, were more likely to complete their programs during the study period than those in the fine arts (p 0.01). model 3 once again revealed statistically significant effects of transfer pathway on graduation when controlling for secondary school performance. as with the previous models, students who entered and remained at college, and those who transferred institutions, were less likely to complete their programs than direct-entry university students (p 0.001). grade 9 english marks were not associated with graduation, while those who achieved 80% or more in grade 9 math had a significantly higher likelihood of graduating from their programs relative to those who scored less than 70% (p 0.001). a higher grade 12 average was also associated with an increased likelihood of pse completion (p 0.001). estimates for the remaining control variables can be found in table 15. lastly, model 4 produced similar effects of transfer pathways on graduation when also controlling for borrowing from the cslp. students who entered college directly and those who transferred institutions were all significantly less likely to graduate than direct-entry university students (p 0.001). whether students borrowed from the cslp was not a significant predictor of graduation when controlling for other variables in the model. the estimates for the control variables in model 4 did not change markedly when adding the cslp variable to the model. predicted probabilities were calculated from the estimates (logits) from the models in table 15. the predicted probabilities in model 1 were obtained from the zero-order estimates in model 1; the probabilities in model 2 were adjusted after controlling for the socio-demographic and pse variables, and were adjusted again in model 3 after controlling for the variables that tap into secondary school performance. finally, the predicted probabilities in model 4 account for the inclusion of the cslp variable in the model. the probabilities and corresponding confidence intervals in models 2 through 4 were calculated while holding all control variables constant at their means or proportions. the results are presented in table 16. most notably, differences in the predicted probability of graduation by transfer pathway narrowed considerably after taking into account sex, age, country of birth, income, field of study, and length of study. the gaps further converged when high school academic achievement was held constant. these findings suggest that much of the graduation gap observed across pse pathways can be attributed to differences in the socio-demographic composition of students across transfer groups, their field and length of study, and their academic performance in high school. the implications of these findings are discussed in the next section. 25 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario discussion and concluding remarks this study is a follow-up to our previous report examining the student loan outcomes of transfer students drawing on data linkages between psis and cslp. prior to this research, little, if any, population-based research has examined the extent to which postsecondary graduation and student borrowing among transfer students can be attributed to individual characteristics related to high school academic performance. to address this gap in the literature, we linked data from the tdsb, statistics canadas psis, and the cslp to investigate the relationships between high school achievement, pse outcomes, and student borrowing patterns. to our knowledge, this is the first population-based study to use administrative data linkages to track student debt and graduation outcomes of transfer students. this research provides important findings relevant to policy makers, institutional officials, researchers, and future students in ontario and across canada. the primary focus of this research was to examine the pse pathways and borrowing behaviour of students who entered their college or university programs in ontario immediately after or within one to two years of completing high school. our goal was to examine the extent to which differences in student borrowing and program completion between direct-entry and transfer students is associated with academic preparation at the high school level, and offer a more detailed analysis of these differencesparticularly among those who follow less conventional pse pathwaysthan has been presented in the literature to date. results of this analysis revealed that students from the tdsb borrow from the cslp in astonishing numbers: roughly two thirds of students in the 2009 cohort took on a loan to fund their postsecondary education. by drawing on system-wide administrative records, we have provided evidence suggesting transfer students are more likely to borrow to fund their postsecondary education, but are less likely to graduate from their programs than students who remain at same institution for the duration of their studies. this finding persisted even after adjusting for differences in socio-demographic characteristics, field of study, length of enrollment, and measures of high school performance. we investigated this finding in more detail by estimating a second series of models to distinguish among vertical, lateral, and reverse transfer students. these analyses revealed a great deal heterogeneity in the likelihood of borrowing, loan amounts, and the probability of graduating among transfer groups. this finding provides strong evidence that lateral, vertical, and reverse transfers have very different postsecondary experiences, and that research into pse outcomes among transfer students should distinguish among these different postsecondary trajectories, whenever possible. the results presented here also indicate that gaps in student borrowing and the odds of completing pse programs across transfer groups can be attributed, in part, to differences 26 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario in socio-demographic characteristics, field of study, duration of study and, to some degree, high school performance. these findings also highlighted the increased financial burden that students often experience as a result of transferring institutions; however, borrowing does not appear to help close the graduation gap between transfer and non-transfer students. taken together, these findings provide a clearer picture of the postsecondary outcomes and financial burden facing students who transfer between pse institutions in ontario. limitations as indicated in our preliminary report, this analysis may underestimate college graduation, as the initial psis cohorts had an underreporting of ontario college graduation information. to the degree that we were able, we addressed this limitation by comparing graduation rates across colleges and removing students who attended colleges for which the graduation data were obviously incomplete. furthermore, the graduation data are truncated at eight years. a recent analysis of tdsb postsecondary graduation revealed that it can take up to a decade to get a complete assessment of postsecondary graduation patterns (see parekh, brown and james, 2020). we anticipate that we will be in a better situation to accurately assess graduation levels of transfer students when additional cohorts of student records are made available in the psis. secondly, government student loan programs in canada are typically coordinated through the cslp, whereby participating provinces and territories (excluding quebec) work collaboratively with the federal government to provide government sponsored student loans. as mentioned in our preliminary report, 60% of the total student loan amount is provided by the cslp, while the remaining 40% is provided by the respective provinces and territories. in ontario, this is the ontario student assistance program (osap). unfortunately, information on provincial support is not yet available in the elmlp. we are aware that there are currently initiatives to facilitate data sharing agreements related to student loan disbursements across provincial and federal agencies. should these initiatives succeed, researchers and organizations will be able to use the data to better understand student debt across the province. despite this, we are confident that these analyses provide robust estimates of the comparative debt levels of transfer and non-transfer students in ontario. lastly, as discussed above, students who transfer institutions are less likely to complete their programs within the study period than their direct-entry counterparts. failure to graduate tends to hinder ones labour market potential; as a result, transfers may be at a greater risk of defaulting on their student loans. unfortunately, we are not able to adequately examine the default rates of transfer students for this cohort until additional reporting cycles of psis and cslp become available. 27 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario future directions to ensure consistent comparisons with our previous report to oncat, we used the psis program start date to define the cohort for this analysis. we recommend, however, that future research on transfer students involving tdsb-psis linkages use tdsb cohort start dates rather than postsecondary start dates. this would allow for more precise estimates of postsecondary entry (i.e., on-time versus delayed entry) and the inclusion of students who choose to postpone their entry into pse programs. researchers could use these data to assess the effects of high school performance on postsecondary outcomes for a growing number of non-traditional pse populations, such as delayed starters and mature students. our preliminary research (not shown) suggests that transfer students, particularly those who start their programs at community colleges, are over-represented among these non-traditional pse populations. moreover, previous research has found that delayed postsecondary access is strongly connected to university graduation (brown, davies, and chakraborty, 2019; parekh, brown, and james, 2020). using secondary school as a starting point and including multiple cohorts would therefore provide more robust sample sizes for transfer pathways that tend to be followed by smaller, non-traditional pse populations. this report also removed students who were not in the official psis snapshot, which generally captures only those who entered postsecondary entry in the fall. as a result, this research excludes a vulnerable segment of the postsecondary population: students who enter postsecondary after september, or through indirect entry points that may not be captured by the psis snapshot (e.g., students who enroll in just one or two courses). future research on transfer students may benefit from making this distinction, as our preliminary analyses (not shown) revealed that students who did not start their programs in september were more inclined to transfer institutions during their pse studies. by including measures of high school performance in our analyses, we were able to include variables that have been omitted from much of the previous research on pse transitions in canada. still, there are other, more creative methods for estimating the effects of high school performance on pse outcomes while reducing the bias attributable to confounding variables. for example, propensity score matching and related techniques account for the probability of assignment to a particular group, conditional on observed covariates (see rosenbaum and rubin, 1983; rosenbaum, 2002). a key challenge when using such methods is identifying variables for a propensity score model that are unrelated to the exposure (treatment versus control groups) but related to the outcome. unfortunately, the performance variables in the tdsb data that were selected for these models were more closely related to our exposure variable (transfer) than our outcome variable (student loans), which has the potential to decrease the precision of the estimated exposure effect without decreasing bias (see brookhart et al., 2006). that said, we anticipate that the rich array of variables in updated tdsb-psis-cslp-t1ff linkages will provide fruitful opportunities for other avenues of research involving the outcomes of transfer students. 28 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario there are additional research questions we plan to investigate that were beyond the scope of this report or could not be investigated due to small sample sizes. in the future, we plan to examine the outcomes of transfer students with special education needs or disabilities, as well as students who transferred out of the province. research involving multiple tdsb cohorts will provide opportunities to investigate these questions in the future. finally, by comparing transfer students with their direct-entry counterparts, we have highlighted some of the challenges experienced by students who transfer programs. however, transfer students who graduate may be better positioned for the labour market than directentry students who withdraw from their programs prior to receiving a credential. comparing the outcomes of transfer students with those who choose to withdraw rather than transfer may bring to light the benefits of moving to a different institution. such comparisons would also be well-suited to the counterfactual analyses involving quasi experimental methods for observational data discussed above. 29 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario references acai, anita, and genevieve newton. 2015. a comparison of factors related to university students learning: college-transfer and direct-entry from high school students. canadian journal of higher education 45(2):168. allen, janine, cathleen smith, and jeanette muehleck. 2014. pre- and post-transfer academic advising: what students say are the similarities and differences. journal of college student development 55(4): 353-367. brookhart, m. a., sebastian schneeweiss, kenneth roghman, robert glynn, jerry avorn, and til sturmer. 2006. variable selection for propensity score models. american journal of epidemiology 163(12): 11491156. 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(report no. 1/1707). toronto: toronto district school board. brown, r., & tam, g. 2016. research brief 5: an eight-year study of post-secondary pathways: the student census of 2006. toronto: toronto district school board. brown, r. s., and g. tam. 2017. grade 9 cohort post-secondary pathways, 2011-2016. fact sheet 3. toronto: toronto district school board. brown, r., parekh, g. and gallagher-mackay, k. 2019. connecting the dots: grade 9 achievement, grade 12 u courses, and post secondary access. vancouver, b.c.: canadian society for the study of education (csse). brown, r. s., davies, s., and chakraborty, n. 2019. the university of toronto-toronto district school board cohort analysis report 1: introductory. toronto: university of toronto/toronto district school board. retrieved from https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depelab/working-papers/ decock, h. 2004. calculating the college-to-university transfer rate in ontario. college quarterly 7(1): 1-21. gawley, timothy and rosemary mcgowan. 2006. learning the ropes: a case study of the academic and social experiences of college transfer students within a developing university-college articulation framework. college quarterly 9(3):1-18. 30 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario gerhardt, kris, and oliver masakure. 2016. postsecondary student mobility from college to university: academic performance of students. canadian journal of higher education 46(2):78. kerr, angelika, ursula mccloy, shuping liu, and higher education quality council of ontario. 2011. forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto, ont.: higher education quality council of ontario. lee, jacy, liny chan, and rachel chuang. 2009. profile of bc college transfer students admitted to simon fraser university 2003/04 to 2007/08. british columbia council on admissions and transfer. martell, jim, and alan wilson. 2009. profile of bc college transfer students admitted to the university of victoria 2003/04 to 2007/08. british columbia council on admissions and transfer. okanagan planning and institutional research. 2017. new to ubc okanagan undergraduate student survey 2017: transfer students. oreopoulos, philip, robert brown, and adam lavecchia. 2014. pathways to education: an integrated approach to helping at-risk high school students. w20430. cambridge, ma: national bureau of economic research. parekh, gillian, and robert s. brown. 2019. changing lanes: the relationship between special education placement and students academic futures. educational policy 33(1):11135. doi: 10.1177/0895904818812772. parekh, g., and brown, r.s. 2020. naming and claiming: the tension between institutional and self-identification of disability. canadian journal of disability studies 9(5): 347-379. parekh, g., brown, r. s., james, c. e. 2020. who comes to york? access, participation, and graduation trends. technical report. york university. toronto: ontario. parekh, g., brown, r., and robson, g. 2018. the social construction of giftedness: the intersectional relationship between whiteness, economic privilege, and the identification of gifted. canadian journal of disability studies 7(2): 1-32. parekh, g., brown, r.s., and zheng, s. 2018. learning skills, system equity and implicit bias within ontario, canada. educational policy 35(3): 395-421. percival, jenniger, maurice digiuseppe, bill goodman, ann lesage, fabiola longo, arlene de la rocha, ron hinch, john samis, otto sanchez, anna augusto rodrigues, and phil raby. 2016. exploring factors facilitating and hindering college-university pathway program completion. international journal of educational management 30(1):2042. robson, k., anisef, p., brown, r. and parekh, g. 2014. the intersectionality of postsecondary pathways: the case of high school students with special education needs. canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie 51(3): 193-215. robson, k., r. maier, p. anisef, and r. s. brown. 2019b. high school success and access to postsecondary education. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 31 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario robson, karen, paul anisef, robert s. brown, and rhonda george. 2018. underrepresented students and the transition to postsecondary education: comparing two toronto cohorts. canadian journal of higher education 48(1):3959. doi: 10.7202/1050841ar. robson, karen, paul anisef, robert s. brown, and jenny nagaoka. 2019a. a comparison of factors determining the transition to postsecondary education in toronto and chicago. research in comparative and international education 14(3):33856. doi: 10.1177/1745499919865140. robson, karen, ashley pullman, paul anisef, robert s. brown, and reana maier. 2021. a multi-level approach to examining food security, race, academic performance, and post-secondary confirmation in a toronto high school cohort, 2011-2014. race ethnicity and education 24(1):5675. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2019.1631777. rosenbaum, paul r. 2002. observational studies (springer series in statistics), 2nd edition. new york: springer. rosenbaum, paul r., and donald rubin 1983. the central role of propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. biometrika 70(1): 41-55. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/70.1.41 smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., and mccloy, u. 2016. transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/transfer-pathways-in-pse-eng.pdf speers, luke, arielle stockdale, and chris martin. 2012. student mobility. ontario: ontario undergraduate student alliance. stewart, jo, and felice martinello. 2012. are transfer students different? an examination of first-year grades and course withdrawals. canadian journal of higher education 42(1):25. tobolowsky, barbara and bradley cox. 2012. rationalizing neglect: an institutional response to transfer students. the journal of higher education 83(3):389410. townsend, barbara and kristin wilson. 2006. a hand hold for a little bit: factors facilitating the success of community college transfer students to a large research university. journal of college student development 47(4):439-456. walters, david, rob brown, gillian parekh, trisha einmann, and danielle bader. 2020. student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students. 32 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario figures 6. minor discrepancies in totals are attributable to rounding as part of statistics canadas disclosure requirements for data vetted through their research data centres. 7. statistics canada uses the term sex. due to the availability of data, we are only able to provide estimates for males and females. 33 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 34 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 35 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 36 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 37 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 38 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 39 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 40 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 41 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 42 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 43 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 44 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 45 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 46 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario 47

1. student with transfer credits for this project, students with the following characteristics are to be reported: 1) the student has received, at minimum, a threshold credit (one course) at your institution. 2) the student is enrolled in a program that leads to a credential in: college one year certificate or post diploma certificate diploma or advanced diploma degree university undergraduate level certificate or diploma preliminary year pre-bachelor or bachelor degree indigenous institute certificate, diploma and degree note1: the one course threshold refers to credit awarded for a typical course irrespective of duration (e.g. one term versus one year). about the mcu's credit transfer (ct) flag the collection of the ct flag as part of the mcu's user/cser data submission began in the fall term of 2015-16. in addition to the core characteristics outlined in the above with additional limitations, the ct flag for a student is raised only when the sending institution is one of the publicly funded post-secondary education institutions in ontario. once it is raised, it should remain until the student graduate from their program. the purpose of the mcu's ct flag is to track intra-provincial transfer. the six types of transfer credits credit type source for credit awarded cr1 ontario transfer students with the mcu ct flag previous institution type 45 ontario funded colleges and universities and the 9 indigenous institutes cr2* cr3 cr4 cr5 cr6 in addition to the institutions in the above group, could also include other ontario institutions ontario students with transfer credits but without the not in the above group. mcu ct flag other canadian institutions in other provinces (colleges, students with transfer credit from canadian universities, high schools and institutions outside of ontario other institutions) other non-canadian institutions students with transfer credit from institutions outside (colleges, universities, high of canada schools and other institutions) students switching program or credential within the same institution your institution stop out students who return to (reactivate at) the same institution after hiatus** your institution *for cr2, a typical scenario include ontario pse students whose transfer creidts are from ontario high school ib, ap and dual credit courses. ** as a default, the term 'hiatus' refers to the stop out period for a full academic year. the length of the stop out period could also be defined by the institutions. 2. agreement record layout use this template to report all the block transfer agreements, credit transfer policy and system transfer policy at your institution. block transfer agreement block transfer agreements (bta) are specific agreements signed between one or more institutions rather than a general policy pathway (pol). #01 transfer agreement id id assigned by institution (e.g.bta001) id assigned by institution (e.g.bta002) #02 #03 #04 #05 oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date #5387 #3114 2+2 business - accounting diploma to bachelor of business 2019-01-24 administration 2+2 business administration to bachelor of business 2016-01-26 2020-08-01 administration #06 #07 #08 sending sending sending program institution credential title sault college college boreal, la cite diploma diploma business administration #09 #10 receiving receiving program credential title #11 oncat funding flag #12 oncat project id deg bachelor of business administration n/a n/a diploma bachelor of business administration yes 2014-03 . general transfer policy - institution specific (simplified linkage to oncat id) ct policy id oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date pol001 use generic id (pol001) 2011-05-01 pol002 use generic id (pol002) 2011-05-01 general transfer policy (college diploma, advanced diploma to honours bachelor of arts) general transfer policy (advanced diploma to honours bachelor of science) sending sending sending program institution credential title any colleges any colleges diploma, advanced diploma advanced diploma, certificate receiving receiving program credential title any college program in the eligible credentials deg any college program in the eligible credentials deg oncat funding flag oncat project id honours bachelor of arts n/a n/a honours bachelor of science n/a n/a system transfer policy - all colleges (simplified linkage to oncat id) ct system policy id pol001s oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date use generic id (hob) 2014-11-24 pol002s use generic id (hocs) pol003s use generic id (pretech) 2018-09-01 2015-10-08 sending sending sending program institution credential title receiving receiving program credential title any colleges diploma, advanced diploma any college diploma, advanced diploma program (business/business administration, accounting, human diploma, resources, advanced marketing) diploma ontario college head of any community services agreement colleges diploma, advanced diploma any college diploma program in (police foundations, ece, ssw, child study) diploma ontario college pre-tech agreement any pre-tech certificate programs ontario college head of business agreement (accounting, business/business administration, human resources, marketing) any colleges diploma, advanced diploma oncat funding flag corresponding college diploma, advanced diploma program (business/business administration, accounting, human resources, marketing) yes corresponding college diploma program in (police foundations, ece, ssw, child study) yes any engineering technology program (diploma, advanced diploma) yes oncat project id 2014-03 2015-nn 2016-22 3. student record layout granularity: one record per reporting year per student, inculde new and returning students with credits awarded for previous academic work note: for data fields related to student's current status (such as #18 to #28), please use those from the winter term record if both the fall term and winter term records exist for the student. #01 #02 #03 #04 #05 reporting year anonymized transfer credit type previous id pathway id institution name #05b previous institution type #06 multiple previous institution count 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 std0001 std0002 std0003 std0004 std0005 bta001 pol001c zzz zzz zzz cr1 cr1 cr3 cr4 cr5 inst 1 inst 2 inst 3 inst 4 inst 5 can-u can-c oth-hs 1 1 1 1 2 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 std0001 std0002 std0003 std0004 std0005 bta001 pol001c zzz zzz zzz cr1 cr1 cr3 cr4 cr5 inst 1 inst 2 inst 3 inst 4 inst 5 can-u can-c oth-hs 1 1 1 1 2 2017/18 2017/18 2017/18 std0002 std0003 std0005 pol001c zzz zzz cr1 cr3 cr5 inst 2 inst 3 inst 5 can-c oth-hs 1 1 2 #07 previous credential a-dip a-dip a-dip #08 previous program title #09 previous program code #10 level of completion of previous credential #11 cumulative transfer credits awarded completed completed completed partial partial 5.00 5.00 3.50 10.00 completed completed completed partial partial 5.00 5.00 3.50 10.00 completed completed partial 5.00 4.00 erm records exist for the student. #12 #13 admitted admitted grade point credential average #14 admitted program title c deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr dip c deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr dip a-dip deg-4yr dip #15 admitted program code #16 admitted year #17 admitted session #18 registration status #19 #20 current current grade point credential average #21 current program title bachelor of arts - unspecific ba.unsp 2013/2014 fall 10 - full-time c deg-3yr bachelor of arts in economics bachelor of arts - unspecific ba.unsp 2013/2014 fall 10 - full-time c deg-3yr bachelor of arts in economics #22 current program code ba.econ #23 #24 current gender credits earned at your institution 5.00 2-female ba.econ 5.00 2-female #25 birth year #26 #27 #28 immigration status fsa of mother permanent tongue address #29 #30 #35 first indigenous graduation generation indicator date pse #36 credit transfer flag 1990 1988 1990 1992 1980 0 - canadian 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian m5g 001 y n 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 2-no 1-yes 1990 1988 1990 1992 1980 0 - canadian 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian m5g 001 y n 1988 1990 1980 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 2017.06 2017.06 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 2-no 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 1-yes 4. data element definition data element - agreement record prima block transfer ry key field id agreement pk #04 description note the id assigned to an agreement that defines the terms and conditions that enables students to enter the receiving institution at an advanced level based on recognized equivalence to a defined set of completed block transfer courses or program academic work at the sending institution's agreement id. see #2 oncat agreement agreement id institution. id. oncat agreement id - for signed agreements posted on ontransfer.ca use generic id - for admission type transfer policy or for the block transfer agreement previously entered system trasfer policy such as head of business oncat into ontransfer.ca, please indicate the oncat id 'not available' - for agreements not posted on agreement id assigned for this agreement ontransfer.ca agreement the start date for the terms and conditions defined in start date the block transfer agreement to be in effect. e.g. 2011.05.01 agreement end the end date for the terms and conditions defined in date the block transfer agreement. e.g. 2020.08.01 #05 agreement title the title of the block transfer agreement #01 #02 #03 sending institution list all applicable sending institutions. for unspecific sending institutions, specify: 'any colleges' - for all colleges offering the sending programs 'any universities' - for all universities offering the the postsecondary education institution in a transfer sending programs agreement where the previous course / program work 'any indigenous institutes' - for all indigenous institutes was completed offering the sending programs #07 sending credential credential is an official document recognizing completion of a program or course of study at the postsecondary level. for the purpose of this project, applicable credentials include certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, graduate certificates, and bachelor's degrees (could be 3 year or 4 year). certificates of apprenticeship, post graduate certificates, masters and doctoral degrees are not applicable. #08 sending program title #09 receiving credential #06 list all the applicable credential(s) list all the applicable program(s). for unspecific program, specify: 'any college program' - if applicable to any college program 'any university program' - if applicable to any university program the name of the postsecondary education program at 'any indigenous institute program' - if applicable to any the sending college or university indigenous institute program see #05 sending credential. this field refers to the applicable credential for the postsecondary programs at the receiving institution. list all the applicable credential(s) #10 #11 #12 list all the applicable program(s). for unspecific program, specify: 'any college program' - if applicable to any college program 'any university program' - if applicable to any university program receiving the name of the postsecondary education program at 'any indigenous institute program' - if applicable to any program title the receiving college or university indigenous institute program yes - funded by oncat oncat funding an indicator for whether the development of the block no - not funded by oncat flag transfer agreement is funded by oncat. na - funding status not tracked see #10. if the development of this block transfer oncat project id - for agreement funded by oncat oncat project agreement is funded by oncat, include the project id na - for agreements not funded by ocat or the funding id that provides the funding. status is not tracked data element - student record pk pk transfer field id student profile description this field is aligned with the user, cser and psis reporting cycles which generally run from the spring/summer semester through to the end of the #01 reporting year following winter semester. the anonymized identifier for the transfer student in this postsecondary institution. use the same number #02 for the same student from year to year. valid value or example e.g. 2015/16 a 9 digit alpha-numberic #03 #04 #05 transfer pathway id credit type previous institution the pathway id for the transfer agreement or transfer policy that describes the pathway the student had traversed from the sending institution to the current institution. the pathway can be a formal block transfer agreement with another institutions or a general credit transfer policy or a college wide system policy. refer to excel sheet '2. agreement record layout' for more detail. credits awarded to the student for academic work completed prior to the current program. the previous institution attended where course / program work has been transferred into current institution. if there are multiple prior institutions at time of admission, use the most recent institution attended. * for direct entry students, please report the high school the student attended that formed the basis of admission. for students with credits awarded based on the transfer agreements or transfer policy, use the corresponding id for the transfer agreement or transfer policy. otherwise , use 'zzz'. cr1 - ontario transfer students with ct flag cr2 - ontario pse students with transfer credits but without ct flag cr3 - transfer students from canadian psi outside of ontario cr4 - transfer students from international psi cr5 - students switching program/credential at same institution cr6 - stop out students who return to same institution after hiatus e.g. sault college #06 for institutions in ontario 'on-c' - ontario college 'on-u' - ontario university 'on-i' - ontario indigenous institute 'on-hs' - ontario high school for institutions in canada outside of ontario 'can-non-c' - canadian college outside of ontario 'can-non-u' - canadian university outside of ontario 'can-non-i' - canadian indigenous institute outside of ontario 'can-non-hs' - canadian high school outside of ontario for institutions outside of canada 'oth-pse' - other post-secondary education institution indictor for the type of the previous institution 'oth-hs' - other high school previous attended as defined in the data element #05 previous other institution type institution. 'oth-o' - other institution not in the above list most students would have a value of 1. use 2, 3, 4 etc. to indicate the number of previous institutions multiple attended. previous in the case of student pursued multiple credentials institution indicator for students attended multiple institutions (and/or multiple programs) at the same sending count previously. institution, count it as 1. #07 eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (a-dip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg-4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) the credential most recently pursued prior to transfer for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma into the current institution and program. (dip), degree (deg) #05b previous credential #08 #09 #10 #11 #12 previous program previous program code level of completion of previous credential the most recent program pursued prior to transfer into current institution and program. use the program title on the transcript. the program code for the most recent program pursued prior to transfer into current institution and for college and university programs, use the program. see data element #08 'previous program'. institution's program code, also provide the statistics canada cip code if available. the status of completion of the previous credential pursued prior to transfer into current institution and program. see data element #07 'previous credential'. cumulative the total number of credits awarded for academic transfer credits courses/program work completed prior to transfer into awarded current institution and program. a number representing the average value of the accumulated final grades earned for courses/program completed prior to being admitted into the current institution. the admitted gpa is often a criteria used to admitted grade determine eligibility for entrance into the institution point average and program. #13 admitted credential #14 admitted program partial - did not complete the previous credential completed - completed the previous credential please use the unit of measurement at your institution. please provide a cross walk table for translating credits from other institutions. please use the gpa scale at your institution. please provide a cross walk table for translating gpa from other institutions. eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (a-dip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg-4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) the credential for the program being admitted to after for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma transfer to the current institution. (dip), degree (deg) for a degree program, use the combination of qualification sought and institution program title (e.g. bachelor of arts in economics) the program being admitted to after transfer to the for other non degree program, use the institution current institution. program title. #15 admitted program code #16 admitted year #17 admitted semester #18 registration status (simplified) #19 current grade point average the program code for the program being admitted to after transfer to the current institution. the year in which the student was admitted to at the current institution. see #01 for reporting year. for all programs, use the institution's program code assigned, and provide the statistics canada cip code if available. for a degree program, also provide the qualification code e.g. ba.econ. e.g. 2013/14 fall - fall term the semester in which the student was admitted to the winter - winter term current institution. spring/summer - spring or summer term the type of activity (part-time vs full-time) in which the student is enrolled in for the current academic term. 10 - full-time the list of available value is simplified based on those 20 - part-time defined for uesr and cser. a number representing the average value of the please use the gpa scale at your institution. please accumulated final grades earned for courses provide a supplementary document for the gpa scale completed for the current program. at your institution. #20 current credential the credential for the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. #21 current program the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (a-dip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg-4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma (dip), degree (deg) for a degree program, use the combination of qualification sought and institution program title (e.g. bachelor of arts in economics) for other non degree program, use the institution program title. #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 current program code current credits earned at your institution the program code for the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. the total number of credits earned for academic course work completed for the current program. for all programs, use the institution's program code assigned, and provide the statistics canada cip code if available. for a degree program, also provide the qualification code e.g. ba.econ. please use the unit of measurement at your institution. 1 - male 2 - female gender student's declared gender 3 - another gender identity birth year student's birth year e.g. 1990 0 - canadian citizen 1 - permanent resident (landed immigrant) 2 - study permit the student's status in canada, in particular their 3 - diplomatic immigration status for the reported term. 4 - convention refugee (protected person) immigration the list of available value is based on those defined for 5 - visitor status ocas and/or ouac. 6 - no status the first three characters (forward sortation area) in fsa of the canadian postal code of the permanent address permanent reported by the student on their application for address admission. e.g. m5g consult the psis code book for the different values. mother tongue some example codes include: '001' - english '002' - french '060' - chinese the language first spoken by the student and still '123' - other languages, n.i.e. understood based on the statistics canada psis code. '999' - unknown first generation a student whose parents had not themselves attended 'y' - yes pse postsecondary education. 'n' - no #30 #35 #36 indigenous indicator a student who has self-identified as indigenous (status or non-status first nation, mtis and/or inuit) the date (year and month) the student received the graduation degree, diploma or certificate for completing the date program. students would report "yes" if they were granted, at any point during their pursuit of a program of study at the current institution, at least one credit (i.e. a minimum of one course) toward the completion of their first entry-level non-professional program of credit transfer study for work completed at another ontario publiclyflag assisted pse institutions. 'y' - yes 'n' - no e.g. 2018.06 1 - yes 2 - no

coming full circle: evaluating the success and sustainability of our pathways for indigenous learners model executive summary in 2013, indigenous educators from confederation college, first nations technical institute (fnti), and trent university established a partnership to increase access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners across the province of ontario. the pathways for indigenous learners project was launched. this project has since undergone second and third iterations, embracing second and third circle partners; the full circle of partners now includes 16 colleges and universities and an indigenous institute, from across ontario. the model has been given the name ayaakwaamisiin as a reflection and expression of our commitment to shared values, practices and commitments, relationship building, building common ground, and collaborative and informed action. while our work has succeeded in identifying a diverse list of pathways, only six pathways agreements have been created to date. thus it was incumbent upon us to explore those challenges to getting pathways in place and sustaining them. with three iterations of project partners and a desire to understand project successes and areas for improvement, the cfc project undertook research to critically examine the success and sustainability of our model for creating pathways for indigenous learners. through this evaluation we have had an opportunity to tell the story of our work and the people involved. while, we highlight our accomplishments, we are honest about the areas that we need to improve. findings from this project highlight successes, wise practices, challenges and area of improvement for our model and for implementing pathways across our partnering institutions. additionally, our research highlights key measures to include when monitoring the success and sustainability of pathways. these measure were integrated into an evaluative tool that will be used to guide and monitor our pathways for indigenous learners. through this latest phase of our collaboration, we have gained a deeper understanding of the challenges to implementing pathways as well as the limitations that exist within our own model. our most critical learning is that as this group gets larger and as more pathways are created this work cannot lose sight of the original processes and values instilled by the first circle partners. we have to ensure that pathways meetings are grounded by our commitments to indigenous learners and the shared processes and values instilled among the first circle of partners. in the next phase of this work we will seek to address and integrate our key findings. we also propose to promote knowledge mobilization through the creation of a resource guide for implementing pathways for indigenous learners, and by working with external indigenous communities, groups and organizations to exchange knowledge about this work and about increasing access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners across ontario. 1

2020 2021 project snapshot multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph elizabeth dhuey, bradley seward, david walters multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters keywords transfer students; high school performance; non-traditional pse pathways; student mobility; student borrowing; student debt; postsecondary graduation overview students are taking increasingly complex pathways through postsecondary education and acquiring unconventional combinations of credentials (st-denis et al., 2021). this has, in part, been driven by increasingly competitive labour markets, in which graduates require more robust resumes than before to obtain even entry-level jobs. despite these trends, little research exists on the returns associated with holding various (and unconventional) combinations of credentials. this study investigates the relationship between different combinations of credentials and graduates early labour market outcomesincluding earnings, underemployment, and loan obligationsthrough an analysis of ontario respondents in the 2013 and 2018 national graduate surveys. 2 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters why it matters this research suggests that vertical educational pathways experience a labour market gain. by contrast, individuals who pursue a postsecondary credential at a lower level than their first credential are unlikely to increase their earnings and are more likely to be underemployed. these findings suggest that there is no evidence for labour market gains resulting from university-to-college pathways. any claims to the financial benefits of taking a reverse educational pathway should therefore be treated with caution. if programs were put in place to better prepare graduates for postsecondary education, and to avoid the time and monetary costs of switching majors, transferring schools, or pursuing additional degrees, there is the potential for significant individual savings. this report presents a case for alternative opportunities for upskilling and retooling that do not carry the same time and financial costs of a second pass through traditional postsecondary programs. advancements in the short-credential market are continuing to grow, offering novel opportunities to develop skills and competencies via micro-credentials, stackable credits, and badges. as the labour market continues to diversify and specialize in response to rapid advancements in innovation and technology, these types of non-traditional skilling pathways could alleviate some of the individual costs associated with lengthy and costly additional postsecondary pursuits. 3 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters the report also suggests that there may be better ways to support individuals educational interests without the greater risk of more time in school, forgone income in the labour market, or taking on large loans. this may be in the form of improved career counselling directed at high school students or recent secondary school graduates. one pertinent area for investment would be to focus on students without prior family history in postsecondary education or postsecondary completion. if programs were put in place to better prepare graduates for postsecondary education, and to avoid the time and monetary costs of switching majors, transferring schools, or pursuing additional degrees, there is the potential for significant individual savings. key findings demographic profile female students, racial minorities, and immigrants are more likely to be multi-credentialed graduates (mcgs). persons with disabilities appear underrepresented in this population, suggesting that disability status whether via accommodation requirements or financial obligations may be a barrier to obtaining subsequent credentials. individuals with multiple credentials are also more likely to be married and have children. 3 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters underemployment mcgsexcept for those holding two bachelors degreeshave a higher estimated likelihood of experiencing objective underemployment. however, mcgs are generally not more likely than single credential holders to feel overqualified in the jobs they acquire three years after graduating. loan burden mcgsapart from those with multiple university bachelors degreesare no more likely than their single-credentialed counterparts to possess a student loan balance at the end of their studies or to have larger loans. earnings completion of a college credential after a university bachelors degree does not result in increased earnings, but completing a second bachelors degree does provide an earnings increase. nevertheless, there is limited payoff to obtaining a second college credential but a sizable benefit to completing a university credential after college. the figure on the next page presents the average annual earnings of national graduate survey respondents by credential status for the full sample (in blue) and the sample of full-time workers used in the earnings analysis (in orange). 4 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters figure 1: average earnings across credential type, by sample college only college to college college to university university only university to college university to university postgrad postgrad to postgrad postgrad to university/college $30,000 $40,000 full sample $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 full-time workers $80,000 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters figure 2: average outcomes of interest by credit type a. feels overqualified b. underemployed college only college only college to college college to college college to university college to university university only university only university to college university to college university to university university to university postgrad postgrad postgrad to university/college postgrad to university/college postgrad to postgrad postgrad to postgrad overall overall 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 proportion % 50 75 100 proportion % c. loans at graduation d. annual earnings college only college only college to college college to college college to university college to university university only university only university to college university to college university to university university to university postgrad postgrad postgrad to university/college postgrad to university/college postgrad to postgrad postgrad to postgrad overall overall 0 25 50 proportion % 75 100 40000 50000 60000 70000 mean income $ 80000 further reading to read the full report, please visit the report homepage. st-denis, xavier, yacine boujija, and stephen sartor. (2021). non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation. toronto: ontario council for articulation and transfer. click to read the article. 8 to read the full report , please visit : https://oncat .ca/en/projects/multi-credentialed-graduatescanada-employment-earnings-and-student-loan-holding established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. this snapshot was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021.

request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution date issued: january 25, 2023 date updated: february 27, 2023 prepared by: ontario council on articulation and transfer 180 dundas street west, suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 tel: (416) 640-6951 fax: (416) 640-6959 contact: it@oncat.ca main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student facing website: www.ontransfer.ca oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 1 table of contents 1. 2. 3. background............................................................................................................................ 5 1.1. about oncat................................................................................................................ 5 1.2. about ontransfer.ca ..................................................................................................... 5 1.3. about the c2c search ................................................................................................... 6 important details .................................................................................................................... 7 2.1. instructions .................................................................................................................... 7 2.2. timetable....................................................................................................................... 7 2.3. contact .......................................................................................................................... 7 requirements ........................................................................................................................ 8 3.1. goal............................................................................................................................... 8 3.2. product .......................................................................................................................... 8 3.2.1. currently in use ..................................................................................................... 8 3.2.2. fully owned ........................................................................................................... 8 3.2.3. local installation or saas ...................................................................................... 8 3.3. user stories ................................................................................................................... 8 3.4. data............................................................................................................................... 8 3.4.1. supports current data ........................................................................................... 8 3.4.2. languages ............................................................................................................. 9 3.4.3. syllabi .................................................................................................................... 9 3.4.4. pesc codes.......................................................................................................... 9 3.4.5. campus ................................................................................................................. 9 3.4.6. course versions .................................................................................................... 9 3.4.7. external equivalencies ......................................................................................... 10 3.4.8. glossary .............................................................................................................. 10 3.4.9. read-only database access ............................................................................... 10 3.4.10. custom fields ...................................................................................................... 10 3.4.11. exporting ............................................................................................................. 10 3.4.12. flexibility .............................................................................................................. 10 3.5. backend ...................................................................................................................... 11 3.5.1. user interface ...................................................................................................... 11 3.5.2. users and roles .................................................................................................. 11 3.5.3. data maintenance ................................................................................................ 12 3.5.4. evaluation workflow ............................................................................................ 12 oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 2 3.5.5. communication .................................................................................................... 14 3.5.6. searching ............................................................................................................ 14 3.5.7. reporting and dashboard .................................................................................... 14 3.6. frontend ...................................................................................................................... 15 3.6.1. 3.7. performance ................................................................................................................ 15 3.8. security ....................................................................................................................... 15 3.9. professional services .................................................................................................. 16 3.9.1. discovery, planning, and analysis ....................................................................... 16 3.9.2. customization ...................................................................................................... 16 3.9.3. data migration ..................................................................................................... 16 3.9.4. development environments ................................................................................. 17 3.9.5. installation or setup ............................................................................................. 17 3.9.6. knowledge transfer ............................................................................................. 17 3.9.7. maintenance and support .................................................................................... 17 3.10. 4. 5. api only .............................................................................................................. 15 future requirements ................................................................................................... 18 bidding process ................................................................................................................... 19 4.1. step 1: rfp review .................................................................................................... 19 4.2. step 2: expression of interest ...................................................................................... 19 4.3. step 3: non-disclosure agreement.............................................................................. 19 4.4. step 4: questions ........................................................................................................ 19 4.5. step 5: proposal .......................................................................................................... 20 4.6. step 6: product presentation ....................................................................................... 22 4.7. step 7: scoring ............................................................................................................ 22 4.7.1. proposal .............................................................................................................. 22 4.7.2. presentation......................................................................................................... 23 4.7.3. selection .............................................................................................................. 23 terms and conditions................................................................................................. 24 5.1. bidder representations and warranties ...................................................................... 24 5.2. general instructions and requirements ....................................................................... 24 5.2.1. bidders to follow instructions .............................................................................. 24 5.2.2. conditional bids may be disqualified ................................................................... 24 5.2.3. bids in english ..................................................................................................... 25 5.2.4. oncats information in rfp only an estimate ................................................... 25 5.2.5. bidders shall bear their own costs .................................................................... 25 oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 3 5.2.6. no guarantee of volume of work or exclusivity of contract ................................ 25 5.2.7. rfp terms .......................................................................................................... 25 5.2.8. accessibility obligations....................................................................................... 25 5.3. communication after issuance of rfp ........................................................................ 26 5.3.1. all new information to bidders by way of addenda ............................................. 26 5.3.2. post-deadline addenda and extension of rfp closing date and time ............... 26 5.3.3. verify information or clarification and incorporate response into bid .................. 26 5.4. bid process requirements .......................................................................................... 27 5.4.1. bids must be submitted on time ........................................................................... 27 5.4.2. bid irrevocable after rfp closing date and time ................................................ 27 5.4.3. bidders to review rfp ........................................................................................ 27 5.4.4. no incorporation by reference by bidder ............................................................ 28 5.4.5. amending or withdrawing bids prior to rfp closing date and time ................... 28 5.4.6. bid to be retained by oncat ............................................................................. 28 5.5. execution of agreement, notification and debriefing ................................................... 28 5.5.1. selection of bidder ............................................................................................... 28 5.5.2. failure to enter into agreement ........................................................................... 28 5.5.3. notification to other bidders of outcome of procurement process ...................... 29 5.5.4. debriefing ............................................................................................................ 29 5.5.5. bid dispute .......................................................................................................... 29 5.5.6. prohibited bidder communications ...................................................................... 29 5.5.7. bidder not to make a public statement or communicate with media ................... 30 5.5.8. confidential information of oncat ...................................................................... 30 5.5.9. freedom of information and protection of privacy act ......................................... 30 5.6. reserved rights and governing law .......................................................................... 31 5.6.1. reserved rights of oncat ................................................................................. 31 5.6.2. governing law of rfp process ........................................................................... 33 5.7. supplementary terms and conditions ......................................................................... 33 5.7.1. 5.8. publication of data and consent.................................................................................. 33 5.8.1. 6. occupational health and safety requirements .................................................... 33 publication of data and consent .......................................................................... 33 appendix a form of offer .................................................................................................... 34 oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 4 1. background 1.1. about oncat established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat aims to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer. working with our network of ontarios 45 colleges and universities, indigenous institutes, students, government, guidance counsellors, as well as other stakeholders provincially and nationally, oncat is building a culture and understanding of transfer so that students can pursue a more seamless and affordable postsecondary education. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: developing and maintaining the student-facing website ontransfer.ca, used to connect current and prospective students to transfer opportunities; supporting and funding academic projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontarios regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; and hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. 1.2. about ontransfer.ca ontransfer.ca is an online service offered by oncat that provides searching functionality for students and stakeholders to explore program pathways and course equivalencies across postsecondary institutions ("institutions"). ongoing collaboration and data initiatives with ontario institutions allow for informative search results and assistance in student mobility. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 5 ontransfer.ca includes two types of searches for students interested in transferring between any of ontarios public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. program pathways (https://search.ontransfer.ca); and course transfers (c2c search) (https://ontransfer.ca/i/ontransfer+search_course_transfers) both searches have a backend for managing data and a front end for student searches. in addition to online search features, ontransfer.ca connects institutional partners to each other and to prospective transfer students through published institutional resources, marketing and advertising campaigns, committees and student engagement programs, and fairs and conferences held at various times of the year. the scope of this rfp is limited to the c2c search backend. 1.3. about the c2c search the c2c search is a customized off-the-shelf product. it has been in use since 2014. it has a customized back end (skin, accessibility, language, and unique data types for oncat). it also provides customized apis used to build the frontend search with a custom user interface and experience (ui/ux) that conforms with oncats and ontario government branding, accessibility, and language requirements. due to lack of improvements over the last 8 years, the course-to-course search tool no longer meets our requirements. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 6 2. important details this request for proposal (rfp) invites you (vendor or bidder) to submit a proposal (proposal or bid) to replace or improve the c2c search using your transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution (product) configured, customized, and supported according to the requirements set out herein (project or deliverables). 2.1. instructions read the rfp carefully and follow all the instructions in section 4. 2.2. timetable issue date january 25, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. deadline for expression of interest march 31, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. deadline for questions april 11, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. deadline for issuing addenda april 19, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. rfp closing date and time (deadline for proposal submission) april 28, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. presentation and demonstrations to be determined. bids are irrevocable for 120 days after the rfp closing date and time. 2.3. contact all contact with oncat regarding this rfp should be by email only with the oncat contact: it@oncat.ca all emails to the oncat contact will be deemed received once the recipient has replied confirming receipt. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 7 3. requirements 3.1. goal the overarching goal of the project is to refresh the c2c search using an existing product to improve functionality and useability for institutional partners and oncat, and to have a flexible system that can be enhanced over time. 3.2. product 3.2.1. currently in use product must be an existing course equivalency database product that is currently being used to manage course equivalencies. 3.2.2. fully owned the product must be fully owned by the vendor. the product can have third-party, open source, or commercial component dependencies, but they must be disclosed in the vendor's proposal. 3.2.3. local installation or saas the product can be delivered as a software license for local installation or a softwareas-a-service agreement (saas) available on the cloud. 3.3. user stories the vendor must request from oncat, as instructed in section 4.2, the c2c search user story rubric which forms an integral part of this rfp and which provides user stories that help to illustrate many of the requirements herein. 3.4. data 3.4.1. supports current data the product must be able to store, interpret, and process all the data currently in the c2c search such as courses, course details, course equivalencies, institutions, and users. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 8 some examples of current course equivalencies include: one course to one course; one course to many courses; many courses to one course; course equivalencies specific to the program the student is entering at the receiving institution; non-equivalent courses; expired (archived) course equivalencies; and conditional equivalencies. 3.4.2. languages at minimum, the product must be able to store, process (e.g., search), and interpret data using international character sets (i.e., unicode). 3.4.3. syllabi the product must store course syllabi. multiple syllabi need to be attached for each course, evaluation, or calendar. meta data needs to be attached to each syllabus so that course syllabi can be searched. 3.4.4. pesc codes the product must store pesc codes. 3.4.5. campus the product should support equivalencies based on the institution campus at which the course is offered. 3.4.6. course versions the product should track course versions to minimize data entry when course names and numbers change and provide a record of same. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 9 3.4.7. external equivalencies the product must support equivalencies with institutions outside of ontario and/or canada. 3.4.8. glossary the product should have a glossary of terms that oncat can manage. the terms should be flagged with a tool tip in the backend and should be available to the frontend via the frontend api (see 3.6.1 below). 3.4.9. read-only database access the product must allow oncat to directly query (read-only) all the data in the product database (e.g., via sql scripts) or provide some other way for oncat to query the data in real-time or near real-time. 3.4.10. custom fields the product should be flexible enough to accommodate various types of custom fields (in addition to the fields which the vendors product normally provides) that will allow institutions to store their own unique course equivalency data (e.g., language, version, date, comments, lab/no lab flag, legacy course and/or institution codes, syllabi meta data, etc.). 3.4.11. exporting the product must provide flexible end user functionality to export equivalencies and related data, such as courses, programs, institutions, and users so that oncat or institutions can easily use the data outside of the product. 3.4.12. flexibility equivalency data. the product must support complex course equivalencies and/or must be flexible enough to elegantly accommodate unique course equivalencies of institutions and have scalable properties that increase the chances of it being able to accommodate unforeseen data and features in the future. user profile data. the product must store user profile data for oncat and institution users in a way that is compatible with oncat's requirements and is mutable and future proof. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 10 3.5. backend the product must have a backend that allows oncat and institutions to manage all data including institutions, equivalencies, equivalency evaluations and syllabi. 3.5.1. user interface skin. the product must have some ability to customize the skin, color, or branding of the backend user interface. language. the product's user interface must be english. a french user interface is not required. accessibility. the product must comply with the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda), specifically its information and communication standards which currently requires compliance with world wide web consortium web content accessibility guidelines (wcag) 2.0, at level aa. for more information, please see the following: aoda: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/05a11 information and communication standards: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/110191#bk35 wcag: https://www.w3.org/wai/wcag21/quickref/ 3.5.2. users and roles the product must support users organized into groups with roles that provide tiered access to the product's functions and data. oncat users should have access to all data, configurations, and settings, and be able to manage all users, while institution users should have no access to system configuration and settings, be able to access only their own data, and be able to manage only their own users and settings. contact details, such as names and email addresses, must be stored for every user. more specifically, the product needs to support the following users and groups. oncat users oncat super user. view, edit, delete all data and all configuration and settings oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 11 oncat administrator. no access to system configuration or settings, but has access to all data and own settings, except for certain privacy related data institution users institution administrator. access to all institution data, users, and settings program coordinator. restrictions to data and users and own settings subject matter expert. same as program coordinator except no access to users and some restrictions to data 3.5.3. data maintenance add, edit, delete. the product must allow institutions to maintain data, including adding, editing, deleting, or expiring key data such as institutions, programs, courses, equivalencies, course syllabi/outlines, credentials, programs, campus codes, terms, and contacts. minimize re-entry of data. the product should keep a history of changes to a course and connect previous decision to the new course name and connect previous version to the new number so that equivalency information need not be re-entered. validation logic. the product's data maintenance forms should have validation logic where appropriate to avoid entry of incorrect data such as checking for duplicates and required field. bulk load. the product must have comprehensive bulk load, direct connection, or synchronization capabilities so that institutions that have a student information system (sis) can easily move equivalencies and related data, such as courses, programs, institutions, from their system into the product database. bulk loaded data should be identifiable as such to be distinguished from data managed via the user interface and locked if needed on a per institution/campus basis so that the bulk loaded data remains authoritative. additionally, institution information (e.g., pesc list) can be easily bulk uploaded. 3.5.4. evaluation workflow the product must have workflow functionality that allows oncat and institutions to collaboratively create equivalencies using an evaluation process that includes: oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 12 creating evaluation requests (each with a unique evaluation request id) that are sent to institutions for evaluation; controlling the number of evaluation requests that institutions receive and from whom they receive them; adding comments, questions, and answers to each evaluation; timestamping evaluations with due dates or effective dates; reviewing requests and acting on them without logging in; creating new institutions in a standardized way; converting equivalency evaluations into equivalencies and have the ability for them to appear or not appear on the front-end (via the api); and correcting mistakes made during the evaluation process by overwriting completed evaluations. the evaluation workflow must also have notification features such as: email notifications with links to evaluations to initiate and action evaluation requests; combining multiple evaluation request notifications into one periodic request (daily or weekly); notification of outstanding evaluation tasks and ability to resend evaluation events that are outstanding; and notification based on expiry dates or review dates sent to relevant parties. the workflow must allow evaluations that are in progress to be saved. users should be able to access certain quick workflow tasks (such as evaluations) without logging in. comparisons. the product should facilitate comparisons of equivalency decisions. bulk uploads. the product should allow institutions to upload one or more evaluation records from their systems. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 13 3.5.5. communication oncat and institutions should be able to create messages that can be easily sent to individuals or groups of users and appear in their dashboards based on their role. 3.5.6. searching the product's backend should have powerful and flexible search options that combine database fields for searching equivalencies and evaluations, then ideally allow users to save the search options in their account profile for future use. 3.5.7. reporting and dashboard reporting the product must have useful reporting capabilities for oncat and for institutions. existing equivalencies. reports on equivalencies in the system. potential or implied equivalencies. report of any potential or implied equivalencies that exist in the database. for example: (a) if western has accepted a brock course as equivalent to a western course, it would be useful for brock to know that it could consider establishing the reciprocal equivalency (reciprocity); or (b) if westerns course a is equivalent to senecas course b, and senecas course b is equivalent to yorks course c, then it would be useful for western and york to know of the potential or implied equivalency between westerns course a and yorks course c (triangulation). denied equivalences. reports on equivalency evaluations that have been denied. all equivalencies for each course. reports to show all course equivalency decisions for a course. credential and program connections. reports that identify if a course is offered for a particular credential type or required for a particular program. user activity. reports on user activity (when or how often users have logged in and what they have done). dashboard the product should have a dashboard that provides summary information based on the users role at-a-glance. for example: evaluation requests listed/counted/sorted/grouped by status, dates, institution; oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 14 summary of outstanding program requests; number of equivalencies by institution; questions and answers; communication from oncat; and links to reports to which users have access. 3.6. frontend 3.6.1. api only product must allow for secure consumption (reading) of all data and functionality using apis so that a frontend interface, customized according to oncat's and ontario's requirements for branding, accessibility, and language can be developed for ontransfer.ca by external third-party developers. 3.7. performance the product must: have excellent actual and perceived performance with low latency, reduced load times, optimized rendering of assets, and a smooth user interface; be compatible across all modern browsers; and its apis should operate without bottlenecks or other hinderances. if the product is cloud-based, it must operate in a secure hosting environment with high reliability and availability. the servers used for the infrastructure must physically residing in canada and no data may be transferred outside of canada. 3.8. security the product (including all its apis) must use an encryption protocol such as tls 1.2 or higher to ensure all data is transmitted securely. sensitive data must be encrypted when stored (e.g., encryption at rest). oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 15 the product's backend must be password protected and have a password retrieval function. if the product provides two-factor authentication (2fa), it should be optional for the user. additionally, the product should support single sign-on (sso) such as oauth 2.0. oncat should have super administrator access to be able to see all data, reporting, and configuration settings in the system. the product must have protection against the latest security threats, reasonably assumed to be within the scope of such a product, especially protection of students' personal data. updates to the product should close any new threats. all aspects of the project and product must adhere to canadian and ontario privacy laws (e.g., personal information protection and electronic documents act (pipeda)) and resulting data transmission and residency requirements. 3.9. professional services 3.9.1. discovery, planning, and analysis the requirements herein are only for the purposes of estimating the scope and cost of the project. the vendor will be required to perform additional discovery, planning, and analysis to understand oncats requirements with sufficient detail to propose exactly how the product will be customized and data will be migrated to satisfy oncat's requirements before development or customization begins. the results of the discovery and analysis should be presented to oncat in a written technical/specifications document. 3.9.2. customization the vendor will be responsible for all application or database programming, scripting, configuration, or other forms of development required to customize the product. 3.9.3. data migration the vendor will be responsible for successfully moving, cleansing, and/or converting the c2c search data for use in the product. the vendor should follow a methodical data migration project lifecycle with planning, analysis and design, implementation, and closeout. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 16 oncat will provide subject matter experts for the source c2c search system and database. the vendor will be responsible for validating the migration results. the c2c search database currently contains approximately 260,000 active equivalencies, 1,830,000 inactive ones, and 10,000 declined evaluations. 3.9.4. development environments the vendor will be responsible for setting up and maintaining throughout the project the necessary environments for development including development and staging servers. 3.9.5. installation or setup the vendor will be required to install the product if it requires local installation. if the product is a cloud product the vendor will be responsible for all set up or configuration of the product. 3.9.6. knowledge transfer documentation the product must have documentation for administrators on how to set up and maintain the product and for users on how to use it. the front-end apis, and any changes to them, must be well documented. training the vendor must provide oncat with live training via video conference which can be recorded by oncat for future use. training for post-secondary institutions will not be required. 3.9.7. maintenance and support maintenance upgrades. the product should benefit from future upgrades without resulting in any impact on the data and without causing any significant down time, be compatible with customizations of the product that the vendor performed, and not adversely affect the availability, functionality, or performance of the product and its apis. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 17 performing upgrades. the vendor must install, or assist oncats local vendor to install, any upgrades to the product, unless the product is a cloud product in which case the vendor will be responsible for performing all upgrades. technical support the vendor must provide timely assistance to help oncat with any difficulties or problems encountered when using the product. backups all the product's data must be backed up automatically and regularly and must be easy to restore. 3.10. future requirements roadmap. the vendor should have a roadmap for how the product will evolve and improve in the future. customization. the product must be able to accommodate reasonable future customization requests as new requirements arise to address changes in the course articulation landscape, oncat's business needs, and the expectations of students. the vendor must have processes in place to accommodate this. such customization is not within the scope of this project. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 18 4. bidding process 4.1. step 1: rfp review vendors should review this rfp to determine if its product can meet the rfp requirements and if it is interested in submitting a bid. 4.2. step 2: expression of interest a vendor wishing to express interest in submitting a bid must send an email to the oncat contact provided in section 2.3 before the deadline for expression of interest in section 2.2. the email must include: subject: oncat c2c search expression of interest [company name] body: product description and vendor qualifications (500 words max.) 4.3. step 3: non-disclosure agreement after receiving an expression of interest from the vendor, oncat will share a nondisclosure agreement (nda) with the vendor. the vendor must return the signed nda by email to the oncat contact provided in section 2.3. oncat will then: share the c2c search user story rubric, which the vendor will need to complete and return as specified below; and answer questions the vendor may have, provided the deadline for questions in section 2.2 has not passed. 4.4. step 4: questions before working on its proposal, the vendor should review the rfp and, after signing the nda, the c2c search user story rubric carefully. the vendor can email questions to the oncat contact provided in section 2.3 before the deadline for questions in section 2.2. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 19 any additional questions that come up while working on the proposal can be sent to oncat, but must arrive before the deadline for questions. before the deadline for issuing addenda shown in section 2.2, oncat will share all questions and answers with all interested vendors that have singed the nda 4.5. step 5: proposal before the rfp closing date and time in section 2.2, the vendor must submit a written proposal according to the proposal contents and format instructions below to the oncat contact shown in section 2.3. proposal contents and format the email must use the following subject: oncat c2c search proposal [company name] the proposal must include the following and must be structured as described below. 1. qualifications (a) experience & capabilities describe the vendor's capabilities and experience relevant to the project. (b) team describe the team that will be providing the professional services. include past experiences and roles relevant to the project. indicate if any are freelancers, consultants, or subcontractors. provide a resume or brief biography of each team member. (b) references provide three references relevant to the project. 2. requirements describe, in narrative form, how the vendor will meet each requirement listed in section 3 requirements. structure the response so that each requirement listed in the rfp is addressed separately in its own paragraph. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 20 where appropriate, provide details on technology, approach, challenges, limitations, risks, advantages, alternatives, etc. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to meet the requirements will be considered, but proposals that depart significantly from them will be rejected. 3. user stories refer to the c2c search user story rubric which is a microsoft excel spreadsheet file obtained from oncat as described above in sections 4.2 and 4.3. please complete the last four columns in the spreadsheet to indicate if the product can accommodate the user stories described, and if so, does it do it "out-of-the-box" or "with customization". if the response needs to be qualified, use the "notes" column. 4. case studies provide two (2) case studies in narrative form that demonstrate that the vendor's product is currently being used for a transfer credit system, ideally for a not-forprofit or government funded organization. 5. timing outline a work plan that includes major tasks and milestones along with timing for each. 6. pricing break down the pricing as follows: product price (purchase, license, or subscription) customization price data migration price knowledge transfer price maintenance and support price the vendor is welcome to provide additional breakdowns and costs based on different options or scenarios. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 21 as part of the pricing, the vendor must fully disclose and provide the terms of any licenses, including any licenses for third party open source or commercial components that it does not fully own, and that the product is subject to. 7. form of offer the vendor must complete the form of offer in appendix a form of offer and submit it as part of the proposal. 4.6. step 6: product presentation the top scoring vendors, at oncat's absolute and sole discretion, will be invited to meet with oncat to do a live demonstration of their product. presentation content and format with reference to oncat's specific requirements in section 3 and the c2c search user story rubric the vendor must demonstrate which requirements its product currently meets and which can be met with additional configuration or customization by the vendor. the meeting can be either in person or by video conference. it must not exceed 2 hours: approximately 45 minutes for product demonstration, with the balance for introduction, background, discussion, and closing. 4.7. step 7: scoring the vendor's proposal and its product presentation will together be the vendor's bid ("bid") which will be scored as described below. 4.7.1. proposal the proposal will be given a score out of 85. qualifications 15 meeting requirements 35 timing 10 pricing 25 oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 22 proposal score 85 4.7.2. presentation the presentation will be given a score out of 15. presentation score 15 4.7.3. selection the proposal score and presentation score will be combined to select a vendor. proposal score 85 presentation score 15 total 100 if none of the vendors sufficiently meets oncat's requirements, oncat has the right to select none of them and consider other options for the c2c search. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 23 5. terms and conditions 5.1. bidder representations and warranties by submitting a bid for consideration, the bidder in each case, agrees, confirms or warrants as follows: (i) to be bound to its bid; (ii) that to its best knowledge and belief, no actual or potential conflict of interest exists with respect to the submission of the bid or performance of the contemplated contract other than those disclosed in the form of offer. where oncat discovers a bidders failure to disclose all actual or potential conflicts of interest, oncat may disqualify the bidder or terminate any contract awarded to that bidder pursuant to this procurement process; (iii) that it has accepted the provisions of this rfp and has prepared its bid with reference to all of the provisions of the rfp and has factored all of those provisions, including the insurance requirements, into its pricing assumptions and calculations and into the proposed costs indicated in its pricing; and (iv) that its bid was arrived at separately and independently, without conspiracy, collusion or fraud. see the competition bureau of canada for further information. 5.2. general instructions and requirements 5.2.1. bidders to follow instructions bidders should structure their bids in accordance with the instructions in this rfp. where information is requested in this rfp, any response made in a bid should reference the applicable section numbers of this rfp where that request was made. 5.2.2. conditional bids may be disqualified a bidder who submits conditions, options, variations or contingent statements to the terms set out in the rfp including the form of offer, either as part of its bid or after receiving notice of selection, may be disqualified. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 24 5.2.3. bids in english all bids are to be in english only. any bids received by oncat that are not entirely in the english language may be disqualified. 5.2.4. oncats information in rfp only an estimate oncat and its advisors make no representation, warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained in this rfp or issued by way of addenda. any quantities shown or data contained in this rfp or provided by way of addenda are estimates only and are for the sole purpose of indicating to bidders the general size of the work. 5.2.5. bidders shall bear their own costs the bidder shall bear all costs associated with or incurred in the preparation and presentation of its bid including, but not limited to, if applicable, costs incurred for interviews or demonstrations. 5.2.6. no guarantee of volume of work or exclusivity of contract oncat makes no guarantee of the value or volume of work to be assigned to the successful bidder. the agreement executed with the preferred bidder will not be an exclusive contract for the provision of the described deliverables. oncat may contract with others for the same or similar deliverables to those described in this rfp or may obtain the same or similar deliverables internally. 5.2.7. rfp terms all rights and obligations that apply to this procurement process are found only in the rfp. for greater clarity, no other documents are to be read into this rfp or used to interpret or understand its terms or establish any rights or obligations related to this procurement. 5.2.8. accessibility obligations the province of ontario is committed to the highest possible standard for accessibility. vendor(s) are responsible for complying with the requirements under the ontario human rights code, the ontarians with disabilities act, 2001 and accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act, 2005 (aoda) and its regulations. in circumstances where vendors are providing a service to the public on behalf of oncat, they may need to follow oncat direction to ensure oncat compliance with the aoda and its oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 25 regulations (such as the integrated accessibility standards regulation). the vendor is responsible for applying integrated accessibility standards regulation and effective dates and timelines as they pertain to the government of ontario, as directed by oncat. 5.3. communication after issuance of rfp 5.3.1. all new information to bidders by way of addenda this rfp may only be amended by oncat by an addendum in accordance with this section. if oncat, for any reason, determines that it is necessary to provide additional information relating to this rfp, such information will be communicated to all bidders through addenda to the rfp. each addendum shall form an integral part of this rfp. each addendum may contain important information including significant changes to this rfp. the onus remains on the bidder to make any necessary amendments and to resubmit its bid based on the addenda. oncat may also be issuing addenda included in the rfp as an attachment, which will contain responses to bidders questions. 5.3.2. post-deadline addenda and extension of rfp closing date and time oncat may, at its discretion, issue addenda after the deadline for issuing addenda and may also then extend the rfp closing date. 5.3.3. verify information or clarification and incorporate response into bid oncat reserves the right, but is not obliged, to verify or seek clarification and supplementary information relating to the verification or clarification from bidders after the rfp closing date and time including those related to an ambiguity in a bid or in any statement made subsequently during the evaluation process. the response received by oncat from a bidder shall, if accepted by oncat, form an integral part of that bidder's bid. however, bidders are cautioned that any verifications or clarifications sought will not be an opportunity either to correct errors or change their bids in any substantive manner. verifications or clarifications under this subsection may be made by whatever means oncat deems appropriate and may include contacting, (a) any person identified in the bid; and (b) persons or entities other than those identified by any bidder. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 26 in submitting a bid, a bidder is deemed to consent to oncat's verification or clarification rights. in the event that oncat receives information at any stage of the evaluation process which results in earlier information provided by the bidder being deemed by oncat to be inaccurate, incomplete or misleading, oncat reserves the right to revisit the bidders compliance with the mandatory requirements and/or adjust the scoring of rated requirements. 5.4. bid process requirements 5.4.1. bids must be submitted on time bids must be submitted by the rfp closing date and time. bids submitted after this point in time may be deemed late, disqualified, and returned to the bidder, all in the discretion of oncat. 5.4.2. bid irrevocable after rfp closing date and time bids shall remain irrevocable in the form submitted by the bidder for a period of 120 days from the moment that the rfp closing date and time has lapsed. 5.4.3. bidders to review rfp bidders shall promptly examine all the documents comprising this rfp and: (a) shall report any errors, omissions, or ambiguities; and (b) may direct questions or seek additional information in writing by e-mail on or before the deadline for questions to the oncat contact set out in this rfp. all questions submitted by bidders by email to the oncat contact shall be deemed to be received once the e-mail has entered the oncat contacts email inbox. no such communications are to be directed to anyone other than the oncat contact. oncat is under no obligation to provide additional information but may do so at its sole discretion. it is the responsibility of the bidder to seek clarification from the oncat contact on any matter it considers to be unclear. oncat shall not be responsible for any misunderstanding on the part of the bidder concerning this rfp or its process. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 27 5.4.4. no incorporation by reference by bidder except for links to examples where the product's ability to meet the requirements is being demonstrated, the entire content of the bid should be submitted in a fixed form and the content of web sites or other external documents referred to in the bid will not be considered to form part of the bid. 5.4.5. amending or withdrawing bids prior to rfp closing date and time at any time prior to the rfp closing date and time, a bidder may amend or withdraw a submitted bid by sending a notice of amendment or withdrawal to the oncat contact. the right of bidders to amend or withdraw includes amendments or withdrawals wholly initiated by bidders and amendments or withdrawals in response to subsequent information made through an addendum to the rfp. 5.4.6. bid to be retained by oncat oncat will not return any bid or accompanying documentation submitted by a bidder including amended or withdrawn bids. 5.5. execution of agreement, notification and debriefing 5.5.1. selection of bidder oncat anticipates that it will select a bidder within the irrevocable period. notice of selection by oncat will be in writing. oncat and the preferred bidder shall execute an agreement and satisfy any other applicable conditions of this rfp within 30 days of notification of selection. this provision is solely to the benefit of oncat and may be waived by oncat at its sole discretion. 5.5.2. failure to enter into agreement in addition to all of oncats other remedies, if a preferred bidder fails to execute an agreement or satisfy any other applicable conditions within the period of time set out in this rfp following the notice of selection, oncat may, in its sole discretion and without incurring any liability, rescind the selection of that bidder and proceed with the selection of another bidder, or consider other options. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 28 5.5.3. notification to other bidders of outcome of procurement process once the preferred bidder and oncat execute the agreement, the other bidders will be notified by oncat in writing of the outcome of the procurement process, including the name of the preferred bidder, and the award of the contract to the preferred bidder. 5.5.4. debriefing unsuccessful bidders may request a debriefing after receipt of a notification of award. all requests must be made to the oncat contact within sixty (60) days of notification of award. the intent of the debriefing information session is to aid the bidder in presenting a better bid in subsequent procurement opportunities. any debriefing provided is not for the purpose of providing an opportunity to challenge the procurement process. 5.5.5. bid dispute bidders are advised that a formal bid dispute process is available, the details for which are available from the oncat contact. 5.5.6. prohibited bidder communications bidders shall address all questions and requests for clarification with respect to their bids, or the rfp documents or the rfp process only to the oncat contact set out in this rfp. bidders shall not contact or make any attempt to contact, (a) any ontario government employee or representative, other than oncat contact; or, (b) any other bidder with respect to a bid, the rfp documents, or the rfp process, at any time during the rfp process. without limiting the generality of the above, bidders, shall not contact or attempt to contact: (a) any member of oncat evaluation team for the rfp; (b) any expert or advisor assisting oncat evaluation team; (c) any staff of the premier of ontarios office or the ontario cabinet office; oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 29 (d) any member of the ontario provincial parliament or his or her staff or advisors; or (e) any member of the ontario provincial cabinet or their staff or advisors, on matters related to their bids, the rfp documents, or the rfp process at any time during the rfp process. 5.5.7. bidder not to make a public statement or communicate with media a bidder may not at any time directly or indirectly make a public statement or communicate with the media in relation to this rfp or any contract awarded pursuant to this rfp without first obtaining the written permission of oncat. where a bidder makes a communication contrary to this section oncat may disclose such information necessary to correct any inaccuracy of information. 5.5.8. confidential information of oncat all information provided by or obtained from oncat in any form in connection with this rfp either before or after the issuance of this rfp: (a) is the sole property of oncat and must be treated as confidential; (b) is not to be used for any purpose other than replying to this rfp and the performance of any subsequent contract; (c) must not be disclosed without prior written authorization from oncat; and (d) shall be returned by the bidders to oncat immediately upon the request of oncat. 5.5.9. freedom of information and protection of privacy act the freedom of information and protection of privacy act, r.s.o. 1990, c.f.31, as amended, applies to information provided to oncat by a bidder. a bidder should identify any information in its bid or any accompanying documentation supplied in confidence for which confidentiality is to be maintained by oncat. the confidentiality of such information will be maintained by oncat, except as otherwise required by law or by order of a court or tribunal. bidders are advised that their bids will, as necessary, be disclosed on a confidential basis, to oncats advisers retained for the purpose of evaluating or participating in the evaluation of their bids. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 30 by submitting any personal information requested in this rfp, bidders are agreeing to the use of such information as part of the evaluation process, for any audit of this procurement process and for contract management purposes. where the personal information relates to an individual assigned by the preferred bidder to provide the deliverables, such information may be used by oncat to compare the qualifications of such individual with any proposed substitute or replacement. if a bidder has any questions about the collection and use of personal information pursuant to this rfp, questions are to be submitted to the oncat contact in accordance with the bidders to review rfp section. 5.6. reserved rights and governing law 5.6.1. reserved rights of oncat oncat reserves the right to: (a) make public the names of any or all bidders; the name of the preferred bidder(s); and, the total price for the contract awarded; (b) request written clarification or the submission of supplementary written information in relation to the clarification request from any bidder and incorporate a bidders response to that request for clarification into the bidders bid; (c) assess a bidders bid on the basis of: i. a financial analysis determining the actual cost of the bid when considering factors including transition costs arising from the replacement of existing services, practices, methodologies and infrastructure (howsoever originally established); ii. information provided by references; iii. the bidders past performance on previous contracts awarded by the government of ontario; iv. the information provided by a bidder pursuant to oncat exercising its clarification rights under this rfp process; or v. other relevant information that arises during this rfp process; (d) waive non-compliance where, in oncat's sole discretion, such non-compliance is minor and not of a material nature, or to accept or reject in whole or in part any or all bids, with or without giving notice. such minor non-compliance will be oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 31 deemed substantial compliance and capable of acceptance. oncat will be the sole judge of whether a bid is accepted or rejected; (e) verify with any bidder or with a third party any information set out in a bid; (f) check references other than those provided by any bidder; (g) disqualify any bidder whose bid contains misrepresentations or any other inaccurate or misleading information; (h) disqualify any bid or rescind any contract award where the bidder either: fails to disclose; or is determined to have an actual or perceived unfair advantage or conflict of interest determined to be material by oncat; (i) disqualify any bidder or the bid of any bidder who has engaged in conduct prohibited by this rfp; (j) make changes, including substantial changes, to this rfp provided that those changes are issued by way of addenda in the manner set out in this rfp; (k) select any bidder other than the bidder whose bid reflects the lowest cost to oncat or the highest score; (l) cancel this rfp process at any stage; (m) cancel this rfp process at any stage and procure (whether through issuing a new rfp or not) the same or similar deliverables; (n) accept any bid in whole or in part; or (o) reject any or all bids; and these reserved rights are in addition to any other express rights or any other rights which may be implied in the circumstances and oncat shall not be liable for any expenses, costs, losses or any direct or indirect damages incurred or suffered by any bidder or any third party resulting from oncat exercising any of its express or implied rights under this rfp. by submitting its bid, the bidder authorizes the collection by oncat of the information set out under (e) and (f) in the manner contemplated in those subparagraphs. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 32 5.6.2. governing law of rfp process this rfp process shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the province of ontario and the federal laws of canada applicable therein. 5.7. supplementary terms and conditions 5.7.1. occupational health and safety requirements vendor(s) are required to comply with the occupational health and safety act (ohsa) and regulations and applicable ops and site-specific health and safety requirements. vendor(s) are responsible for meeting all of the employer obligations under the ohsa and shall ensure that all work is carried out safely. the vendor shall ensure that all subcontractors (hired by the vendor) work in accordance with the ohsa and its regulations. 5.8. publication of data and consent 5.8.1. publication of data and consent it is ontarios intention, in accordance with the open data directive and as part of its commitment to open data, to publish and allow the public to use: (i) procurement contract data, including the name of the preferred bidder and total contract value; and, (ii) data created or collected as an output of a contract, except where ontario chooses not to publish the data in accordance with the open data directive, such as for privacy, confidentiality, security, legal or commercially sensitive reasons. each bidder, by submitting a bid, expressly consents to the above and agrees that, if it becomes the preferred bidder, it will not object to the above being incorporated into its contract. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 33 6. appendix a form of offer bidder instructions: 1. this form of offer must be signed and all pages of the original included with the bid. 2. other than inserting the information requested and signing the form of offer, a bidder may not make any changes to or qualify the form of offer in its bid. a bid that includes conditions, options, variations or contingent statements that are contrary to or inconsistent with the terms set out in the rfp may be disqualified. bids containing any change may, subject to the express and implied rights of oncat, be disqualified. if a bid is not disqualified despite such changes or qualifications, the provisions of the form of offer as set out in this rfp, will prevail over any such changes or qualifications in or to the form of offer provided in the bid. bidder instructions for tax compliance: 3. bidders are advised that if they are selected for contract award, their ontario tax obligations, if any, must be in good standing at the time of entering into an agreement. oncat will rescind the notice of selection of a bidder for contract award whose ontario tax obligations are not in good standing within the timeframe for satisfying the preconditions of execution set out in the rfp. bidders are required to follow the following process in order to determine their tax compliance status. the ministry of finance (mof) has automated the tax compliance verification (tcv) process by creating an online portal (http://www.etax.fin.gov.on.ca/) where you can confirm your tax compliance status online and at any time. getting a tcv number before you can verify your tax compliance status, your business will need to have a one-key id (https://www.iaa.gov.on.ca/iaalogin/iaalogin.jsp). visit one-key account registration (https://www.appenrol.onekey.gov.on.ca/usermgmtwebapp/registration.iaa) to set up an account. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 34 1. to get your tcv number: register for e-services (https://www.etax.fin.gov.on.ca/eservices/eserviceshome/registeronekey?lang =enn) 2. select e-services from my services 3. select or add a business on the e-services page 4. select tcv (you will be redirected to bidder portal (http://www.etax.fin.gov.on.ca/) 5. in the bidder portal (https://www.etax.fin.gov.on.ca), select request tcv number on the tcv page 6. attach the filing and balance confirmation (fbc) letter (if required) and select next 7. select view summary to review compliance summary 8. download tcv certificate (optional) 9. provide your email to receive alerts about your account status where to go for help? please refer to the frequently asked questions (https://www.doingbusiness.mgs.gov.on.ca/mbs/psb/psb.nsf/english/faq-tctcprogram) for more information. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 35 this form of offer must be signed, and all pages of the original included with the bid. to: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 1. bidders information full legal name of bidder bidder to insert response any other relevant name under which the bidder carries business bidder to insert response any other registered business name under which the bidder carries on business: bidder to insert response the jurisdiction under which the bidder is formed: bidder to insert response bidder mailing address: bidder to insert response bidder telephone: bidder to insert response bidder representative name: bidder to insert response bidder representative title: bidder to insert response bidder representative e-mail address: bidder to insert response bidder representative mailing address: bidder to insert response bidder representative telephone: bidder to insert response indicate whether the bidder is an individual, a sole proprietorship, a corporation or a partnership: bidder to insert response oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 36 2. offer the bidder has carefully examined the rfp documents and has a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the deliverables required under the rfp. by submitting the bid, the bidder agrees and consents to the terms, conditions and provisions of the rfp, including the form of agreement, and offers to provide the deliverables in accordance with the rates set out in the pricing form. 3. mandatory forms the preferred bidder will enclose as part of the bid, the mandatory forms referenced. 4. addenda the bidder has read and accepted all addenda issued by oncat to date. we understand that the onus remains on us to have made any necessary amendments to our bid based on the addenda. 5. bid irrevocable the bidder agrees that its bid shall be irrevocable for the period of days set out in section 1.3 following the rfp closing date. 6. conflict of interest prior to completing this portion of the form of offer, bidders should refer to the definition of conflict of interest below. conflict of interest includes, but is not limited to, any situation or circumstance where: (a) in relation to the rfp process, the bidder has an unfair advantage or engages in conduct, directly or indirectly, that may give it an unfair advantage, including but not limited to (i) having or having access to information in the preparation of its bid that is confidential to the crown and not available to other bidders; (ii) communicating with any person with a view to influencing preferred treatment in the rfp process including the giving of a benefit of any kind, by or on behalf of the bidder to anyone employed by, or otherwise connected with, oncat; or (iii) engaging in conduct that compromises or could be seen to compromise the integrity of the open and competitive rfp process and render that process noncompetitive and unfair; or (b) in relation to the performance of its contractual obligations in a crown contract, the vendors other commitments, relationships or financial interests (i) could or could be seen to exercise an improper influence over the objective, unbiased oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 37 and impartial exercise of its independent judgement; or (ii) could or could be seen to compromise, impair or be incompatible with the effective performance of its contractual obligations. if the boxes in this section are left blank, the bidder will be deemed to declare that it has no foreseeable conflict of interest (in either definition part (a) or part (b)) in performing the contractual obligations contemplated in the rfp. otherwise, if either or both of the following statements apply, check the appropriate box. part (a) of definition: the bidder declares that there is an actual or potential unfair advantage relating to the preparation and submission of its bid. part (b) of definition: the bidder foresees an actual or potential conflict of interest in performing the contractual obligations contemplated in the rfp. if the bidder declares an actual or potential conflict of interest by marking either of the boxes, the bidder must describe it in the following space provided. (bidder to describe conflict of interest, if applicable) ____________________________________________________________________ in addition to the preceding declarations, the bidder must indicate if any individuals, as employees, advisors, or in any other capacity (a) participated in the preparation of our bid; and (b) were employees of the ontario public service ("ops") and have ceased that employment prior to the rfp closing date, by selecting "yes" or "no". if "yes" is indicated, bidders must complete the following section which relates to potential conflict of interest: the following individuals, as employees, advisors, or in any other capacity (a) participated in the preparation of our bid; and (b) were employees of the ontario public service ("ops") and have ceased that employment prior to the rfp closing date. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 38 name of individual: job classification (of last position within ops): ministry (where last employed with ops): last date of employment with ops: name of last supervisor with ops: brief description of individuals job functions (at last position with ops): brief description of nature of individuals participation in preparation of bid (repeat for each identified individual) the bidder agrees, upon request, to provide oncat with additional information from each individual identified in the preceding form prescribed by the ministry. the ministry will assess this information and may, at its sole and absolute discretion, conclude that an unfair advantage or conflict of interest arises and may, in addition to any other remedies available at law or in equity, disqualify the bid submitted by the bidder. 7. disclosure of information the bidder hereby agrees that any information provided in this bid, even if it is identified as being supplied in confidence, may be disclosed where required by law or if required by order of a court or tribunal. the bidder hereby consents to the disclosure, on a confidential basis, of this bid by oncat to oncats advisors retained for the purpose of evaluating or participating in the evaluation of this bid. 8. proof of insurance the bidder has verified it can, and if selected, it shall obtain insurance coverage in accordance with the form of agreement (appendix b of the rfp). 9. occupational health and safety declaration the bidder agrees, to the extent applicable, that it and any proposed subcontractors each have a written occupational health and safety policy and will maintain a program to oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 39 implement that policy as required by clause 25(2)(j) of the occupational health and safety act, r.s.o. 1990, c.0.1 (ohsa) as amended. (a) with respect to the services being offered in this bid, the bidder and its proposed subcontractors acknowledge the responsibility to, and shall: (i) fulfill all of the employer obligations under ohsa and ensure that all work is carried out in accordance with ohsa and its regulations; (ii) appoint and ensure an adequate number of supervisors are provided for the work and that they all satisfy the definition of competent as prescribed in ohsa; (iii) identify any hazards associated with the work, assess the risks and develop appropriate control measures to protect worker safety; (iv) provide information and instruction to all employees to ensure they are informed of the hazards inherent to the work and understand the procedures for minimizing the risk of injury or illness; (v) ensure that workers and supervisors have completed mandatory health and safety awareness training in accordance with o. reg. 297/13; (vi) notify oncat of the occurrence of all work-related health and safety incidents and ministry of labour investigations or orders; and (vii) ensure appropriate emergency management procedures and response in the event of an accident or fire, including an emergency evacuation plan that accommodates for persons with disabilities (in accordance with section 27 of the integrated accessibility standard regulation, accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act, 2005) and shall cause its proposed subcontractors to acknowledge such responsibility and comply with the above requirements (b) the bidder agrees, to the extent applicable, that any and all equipment used in connection with the deliverables under the contract is at all times properly and safely maintained by duly qualified personnel and is at all times in good working order. (c) the bidder agrees, to the extent possible, to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of worker health and safety, as required by the ohsa and shall cause its proposed subcontractors to do the same. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 40 10. tax compliance bidders are advised that if they are selected for contract award, their ontario tax obligations, if any, must be in good standing at the time of entering into an agreement. the ontario government expects all bidders to meet their ontario tax obligations on a timely basis. i\we hereby undertake that (i) the bidder, if selected for contract award, will be in full compliance with all applicable ontario tax statutes, whether administered by the ontario ministry of finance (mof) or by the canada revenue agency (cra), at the time of entering into an agreement and that, in particular, all returns required to be filed will have been filed and all taxes due and payable under those statutes will have been paid or satisfactory arrangements for their payment will have been made or maintained and (ii) the bidder will take all necessary steps prior to entering into an agreement in order to be in full compliance with all those statutes at the time of entering into the agreement. select yes if you agree select no if you do not agree (may result in your disqualification) tax compliance verification number a bidders tcv number is required by oncat to confirm with the mof that the bidders ontario tax obligations, if any, are in good standing. if the bidder does not provide its tcv number with the form of offer, it will have to provide the tcv number prior to signing an agreement, so oncat can confirm with the mof the bidders tax compliance status at the time of signing the agreement. by providing the tcv number you are consenting to oncat releasing the tcv number to the ministry of finance for tax compliance verification. please enter your tcv number: _________________________ the business number is a business identifier for the canadian revenue agency (cra). it is a nine (9) digit number. it can be found as the first nine digits of your harmonized sales tax (hst) number. please enter the bidder's business number: _________________________ oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 41 11. execution of agreement the bidder understands and agrees that in the event that its bid is selected by oncat, in whole or in part, the bidder agrees to finalize and execute an agreement in accordance with the terms of this rfp. dated at this day of 2023 signature of authorized signing offer signature of witness click here to enter name. print name click here to enter name. name of witness click here to enter title. print title i, the individual indicated above, acknowledge and confirm that (a) i have authority to bind the bidder, (b) i am submitting this bid on behalf of the bidder; (c) the bidder has read, understood, agrees and consents to be bound by the terms, conditions and provisions of the rfp, including the form of agreement, and (d) the bidder offers to provide the deliverables for the rates set out in the commercial response in its bid. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 42

oncat careers data analyst location: toronto, ontario, canada type: contract (or secondment) 2 years with the possibility of extension location: downtown toronto location at university and dundas, near st. patrick station (180 dundas west, suite 1902). remote to start and with flexible work opportunities. salary range: $60,000 to $70,000 please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is february 18th 11:59pm est. about the data analytics position oncat is looking for someone passionate about data analytics, drawing key insights, and building dashboards and metrics by using various post-secondary education data sources. the data analyst contributes to oncats strategic priorities and works cross-functionally under the supervision of oncats senior data analyst. the incumbent will analyse and summarize data managed by oncat and other relevant data sources. they will lead metric reporting initiatives and work collaboratively with researchers and oncat staff to implement reports and dashboards. the data analyst will present preliminary metrics and dashboard prototypes to stakeholder groups and assist with other research and data related functions as needed. about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's publicly funded colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. as a member organization, we work with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. as a non-profit organization created and funded by the government of ontario, oncat works with postsecondary education institutions to build a seamless system for transfer credit in ontario and support student mobility. oncat staff are currently working remotely and plan to return to work with a hybrid model (up to 3 days per week in the office) as we monitor toronto public health regulations. key responsibilities jurisdictional scans and best practices research scan relevant studies related to post-secondary education transfer student demand and outcome measures. document and share best practices in metrics design. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 data preparation and analysis support the development of data extraction and translation programs for variety of data sources. explore and analyse the extracted data. identify and document data issues. recommend solutions to address data gaps. produce exception reports and facilitate data cleaning processes. metric and dashboard implementation support the design of metrics, interim measures, and develop reports for oncats strategic priorities. collaborate with the research team in the implementation of metrics/interim measures and related reports. support dashboard design discussion and implementation using power bi. prepare presentation and communicate to internal and external stakeholders. education and experience a minimum of three (3) to five (5) years of relevant data analytics and reporting experience using tools such as sas, spss, stata, or r. some experience working with post-secondary institutional data/statistics canada postsecondary student information system (psis) would be an asset. experience working with large scale data sets with both structured and un-structured data. in-depth experience with database platforms and data manipulation tools: o relational databases (mysql, ms sql server) and sql tools, microsoft excel, vba & pivot table, dashboard tools such as tableau or power bi o proficiency in microsoft office suite (word, excel, access, power point, etc.) o experience with diagram software e.g., visio/lucid chart ability to synthesize data into meaningful reports and identify trends. strong written and verbal communication skills, with presentation experience to non-technical audience. able to work independently, with minimal oversight, while meeting project deadlines. familiarity with conducting literature scans for higher education transfer related topics. undergraduate degree in data management, statistics or a related field, masters degree may be considered an asset. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is february 18th 11:59pm est. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening, or an interview will be contacted. additional testing may be required. oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. oncat welcomes qualified applications from persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples from north america, including first nations, mtis and inuit peoples, visible minorities (racialized) persons, and those who identify as women and/or 2slgbtq+. oncat supports an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace. oncat requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against covid-19, subject to medical and human rights exemptions, in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

project snapshot developing pathways from police foundations and rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice into bachelor of arts programs in criminology; sociology; equity, diversity and human rights; psychology type: pathway development project number: 2020-27 or p2027 project lead: universit laurentienne collaborators: collge boral, la cit collgiale project summary the project proposes twelve (12) pathways from the police foundations (8) (offered by la cit and collge boral) and rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice (4) (offered by la cit), college programs to the laurentian criminology, sociology, equity, diversity and human rights and psychology programs. project rationale two key factors pushed us to explore the relevance of these pathways.first, the high popularity of these programs at the two partner colleges, boral and la cit, as well as the high market demand for professionals in these fields. second, the high tendency observed among these graduates to pursue university studies to enhance their more specialized skills profile in terms of awareness of social diversity, equity and respect for others, as well as developing their critical thinking and their communication skills even further. in fact, they state that they have noted that applicants who enhanced their college education with a university degree were more valued due to the scope of the ideas acquired on sensitive social issues and the maturity of their profile. outcomes the desired pathways were intended for graduates of the following programs: la cit and collge borals police foundations program to laurentians criminology, sociology, equity, diversity and human rights, and psychology programs; from la cit and collge borals rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice to laurentians criminology, sociology, equity, diversity and human rights and psychology program. hence, a total of twelve (12) pathways were initially desired. key steps - the course outlines comprising all of the college and university programs involved in this project were gathered = winning practice - review matrices to compare the learning outcomes of the university courses with the learning outcomes of the college courses were developed = winning practice - a preliminary review was performed by a general instructional content specialist to identify the most obvious correlations and submit a report to the university academic units for their approval of the findings = winning practice pathways created the twelve (12) desired pathways are ready for approval by the laurentian institutional bodies. however, they will need to wait for the ongoing ccaa process to be completed before they are filed. we expect that work to resume in may 2021. that being said, strong compatibilities have been identified with the following pathways: police foundations and criminology police foundations and sociology police foundations and psychology rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice and criminology rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice and equity, diversity and human rights on the other hand, very little compatibility seems possible for the following pathways: police foundations and equity, diversity and human rights rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice and sociology rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice and psychology incomplete pathways this information can only be provided after the restructuring underway at laurentian university is complete because some of the programs involved in this projects pathways may be cut in the institutions new structure. challenges on february 1, 2021, laurentian university initiated, with no notice, restructuring procedures under the companies creditors arrangement act (ccaa). this process caused general destabilization at the institution, which had to put a stop to all approval processes related to pathways under development. the work can only resume in fall 2021, based on the programs that will have been spared from the cuts. student outcomes these pathways will help college graduates who want to enroll in targeted university programs save time and money. they will also offer them greater recognition as professionals through greater consideration of the value of the specialized academic skills gained throughout their college education, thereby demonstrating increased consideration and therefore the greater value of their college education. student credential these pathways could provide college students from the police foundations and rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice programs faster access to obtaining the following degrees: - b.a. criminology - b.a. equity, diversity and human rights - b.a. sociology - b.a psychology student time savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes. student financial savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes, which will indicate the number of credits granted and allow us to perform this calculation. student flexibility definitely better access to the programs and an improved credit recognition process. student work alignment in the case of these pathways, we give the student a more encompassing education, which will allow them not only to gain more knowledge in their field, but especially to enhance their professional profile on issues of civic importance in their future career. institutional outcomes no, none. the process undertaken as part of this project followed the procedures of the new methodology developed and followed for the last three years. tips/advice we still believe that the methodology based on the review of correlations between the learning outcomes of the college and university programs continues to be the best argument to present to the institutional bodies responsible for the approval of the proposed pathways because it shows, in a factual manner, the overlaps and skills of the college graduates. we strongly recommend it to other post-secondary institutions. tools and resources the key tool developed as part of this project is the review matrix.

request for proposals ontransfer.ca by oncat virtual pathways fair review of company proposals for virtual fair platforms and services closing date march 12, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. (eastern standard time) closing location ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas street west, suite 1902 toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) contact: sienna stock, ontransfer.ca service manager inquiry@oncat.ca | (416) 254.2858 main (corporate) website www.oncat.ca student-facing website www.ontransfer.ca table of contents oncat overview 2 ontransfer.ca overview 2 invitation 2 project overview 3 project requirements 3 proposal requirements 4 communication 5 submission process 5 evaluation process 6 evaluation criteria weighting 7 timelines and awards 7 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. working with our network of ontarios 45 colleges and universities, indigenous institutes, students, government, guidance counsellors, as well as other stakeholders provincially and nationally, oncat is building a culture and understanding of transfer so that students can pursue a more seamless and affordable postsecondary education. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: developing and maintaining the student-facing website ontransfer.ca, used to connect current and prospective students to transfer opportunities; supporting and funding academic projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontarios regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; and hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. ontransfer.ca is an online service offered by oncat that provides searching functionality for students and stakeholders to explore program pathways and course equivalencies across postsecondary institutions. ongoing collaboration and data initiatives with ontario institutions allows for informative search results and assistance in student mobility. in addition to online search features, ontransfer.ca connects institutional partners to each other and to prospective transfer students through published institutional resources, marketing and advertising campaigns, committees and student engagement programs, and fairs and conferences held at various times of the year. invitation ontransfer.ca invites qualified individuals and organizations to submit a proposal to provide the technology and support to host a virtual fair. ontransfer.ca aims to ensure the most accessible and capable structure and service is available for all participants (i.e., students, staff, parents, institutions, and affiliated organizations). page 2 ontransfer.ca overview project overview as ontransfer.ca continues to expand and enhance our service models and delivery, and in response to the circumstances of the current pandemic, an all-encompassing platform is required to facilitate an online event for our stakeholders and audiences. ontransfer.ca will hold an online/virtual fair for students and postsecondary institution staff to promote and answer questions about the transfer process in ontario in early may 2021. project requirements the following tables outline the features and functionalities ontransfer.ca requires in a virtual fair platform. a proposal must indicate the respondents capacity to meet these requirements. respondents may provide additional information as needed. no where other is indicated above in the fourth column, please provide additional details. other page 3 yes hosting capacity host a live event day host a minimum of 50 vendors (ontario postsecondary institutions) host a minimum of 100 vendor administrative staff (recruiters, advisors, registrars, etc.) host a minimum of 1,000 attendees (students, parents, etc.) provide a unique url for virtual event space and content maintain privacy and security for attendees and vendors who take part in the event host event data on canadian servers bilingual capability bilingual (french and english) front-end platform provide a french url path and an english url path ability for vendors to post and organize french and english material reporting measure the success of the event holistically using accurate analytics and tracking measure the success of the event for each administrator and vendor using accurate analytics and tracking web platform features vendors can post and access materials attendees can access vendors posted materials administrators/vendors can maintain and update their individual/customizable postsecondary institution materials, which includes creating, editing, and deleting content as needed administrators/vendors have scheduled speaking times to present information about their institution administrators/vendors can field attendee questions in a real-time chat function administrators/vendors can field attendee questions on a scheduled basis via a messaging platform event management planning live event yes / no / other yes / no / other post-event (up to 30 days after live event) yes / no / other n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a yes / no / other yes / no / other yes / no / other yes / no / other yes / no / other n/a n/a yes / no / other yes / no / other n/a n/a yes / no / other n/a n/a training provide live training to client (oncat) provide live training to vendors support yes / no / other provide live technical support to client provide live technical support to vendors where other is indicated above in the fourth column, please provide additional details. proposal requirements please include the following information in your proposal. contact information name of organization submitting proposal address of organization main contact name page 4 dedicated project manger main contacts email address description of the organization this should include a description of the organizations business principles and approach to developing and running digital events and event spaces. work plan the work plan should describe activities that are specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic. include a timeline of major tasks and milestones. project requirements should be addressed and discussed in the work plan. costs and fees this can include different funding/cost plans, including additional fees for add-ons. please note applicable sales tax. qualifications of the respondent please provide details on the organizations capability and capacity to achieve the project. include similarly complex projects and related experiences. confirm the availability of individuals in the proposal. monitoring and evaluation plan a description of the outcome monitoring and evaluation plan, including a list of tools to track process, output, and outcome measures for each component of the review. technical definitions please include if required. communication all communication, such as requests for additional information or clarification, should be directed in writing by email to: inquiry@oncat.ca. all such rfp-related questions must be received no later than march 8, 2021 by 4:00 p.m. est. oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information to reasonable requests from interested parties. submission process please review all sections of this rfp carefully and follow all instructions. incomplete submissions will not be considered. page 5 confidentiality and conflict of interest a statement of understanding on any confidential issues for this project and disclosure concerning any perceived or potential conflicts of interest. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to accomplish the desired or intended results of this procurement are welcome. however, proposals that depart from or materially alter the terms, requirements, or scope of work defined by this rfp will be rejected. all costs associated with developing or submitting a proposal (including an interview) in response to this rfp and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal, shall be borne by the vendor. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. all pricing submitted will be considered fixed unless otherwise indicated herein. submission details vendors are required to submit one (1) electronic copy of their proposal to inquiry@oncat.ca as a word .doc or pdf file attachment. please ensure the subject line of the email reads as follows: oncat proposal for virtual fair provider: [company name]. oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of march 12, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. est. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfp document become the property of oncat. oncat can decide to not proceed with these activities. the evaluation process includes five stages. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. stage 1. mandatory requirements. proposals will be reviewed for mandatory requirements and general compliance with the submission proposal requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements will be disqualified. stage 2. ranking of proposals. the evaluation committee will evaluate and rank the written proposals to identify provider(s) to be invited to the presentation stage. stage 3. selection. the evaluation committee will complete the evaluation template, rank the proposals and presentations, then select the preferred provider. provider(s) may be called for an interview. the preferred provider will be asked for references. references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. if references of a provider are not satisfactory, oncat page 6 evaluation process reserves the right to contact references of the next highest-ranked provider. stage 4. negotiation. prior to award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with the provider identified in stage 3. stage 5. notice of award. the successful provider will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful provider(s) will be notified after a final agreement has been reached. evaluation criteria weighting overall experience of provider and demonstrated results. 50% oncat will assess organization experience as it relates to the requirements within this rfp, evidence of capacity to build and maintain virtual platforms, proven quality and support for stakeholders, and continuity of service. approach to the process. 30% oncat seeks a clear strategic process outlined in the proposal and a proven, demonstrated capacity to perform the event. 20% successful applicants will provide evidence of effective and efficient delivery of quality services in relation to the budget allocation. the budget should be reasonable and appropriate. timelines and awards work is expected to begin as soon as the award is made. description rfp release date deadline for questions via inquiry@oncat.ca subject line: oncat inquiry from virtual fair provider: [company name] questions and answers posting date: answers will be posted as a pdf at: https://oncat.ca/en/open-rfps deadline february 22, 2021 march 4, 2021 at 4 p.m. est march 5, 2021 page 7 budget approach/cost effectiveness. evaluation period (may include follow up inquiries) selection and negotiation period notice of award march 12, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. est week of march 15, 2021 week of march 22, 2021 week of march 22, 2021 page 8 proposal deadline

value driven mobility: expanding mobility cultures final report report date: april 2018 project number: 2017-34 [back to contents] acknowledgements we thank oncat for the funding for this research and gratefully acknowledge their ongoing support and interest. thank you to the group of institutions who contributed to this study for your tenacity as we negotiated a unique school year. your enthusiastic and considered participation throughout the adjustments and transitions during the college work stoppage ensured the success of this study. we literally could not have completed it without you! allyson fosters organizational skills, sharp focus, and calm demeanor contributed immeasurably to the project. her tireless and expedient work on the results booklets produced individualized documents we were proud to share. thank you, dr. penner, for your support, guidance and mentorship. authors: dr. audrey j. penner, principal investigator vice president, academic and student success, northern college tracie howieson, investigator faculty and pathways lead, northern college allyson foster, research assistant bachelor of science in nursing, laurentian and northern college collaborative nursing program partnering institutions algoma university canadore college cambrian college collge boral confederation college la cit collgiale lakehead university lambton college northern college university of sudbury 2|page contents acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................2 partnering institutions...................................................................................................................................2 contents ........................................................................................................................................................3 value driven mobility: expanding mobility cultures..................................................................................5 environmental scan .....................................................................................................................................7 literature review ........................................................................................................................................9 methodology .............................................................................................................................................14 phase one ..................................................................................................................................................14 phase two ..................................................................................................................................................16 phase three ...............................................................................................................................................19 findings ......................................................................................................................................................20 conclusions ................................................................................................................................................23 recommendations .....................................................................................................................................24 references...................................................................................................................................................25 appendix 1 ...................................................................................................................................................27 appendix 2 ...................................................................................................................................................31 3|page table 1: participating institutions articulation agreement website information ............................................8 table 2: summary of participating institutions best practices intervention...................................................17 table 3. movement on the culture of mobility before and after best practice interventions ........................20 table 4. average delta in survey scores before and after intervention. ..........................................................21 figure 1. culture of mobility spectrum ..............................................................................................................5 figure 2. mapped values and practices illustrating values as drivers .............................................................15 figure 3. spectrum mapping parameters .........................................................................................................19 4|page value driven mobility: expanding mobility cultures introduction the intent of this project was to continue work with the rich data collected during the recent study, creating a culture of mobility conducted in collaboration with the ontario council on articulation and transfer [oncat] (penner, howieson, & ditullio, 2017). results of the 2017 study allowed a culture of mobility to be described on a spectrum (figure 1). values associated with a culture of mobility were identified, along with best practices/processes leading to a hypothesis that: values and best practices are two variables (mueller, 2015) acting as drivers, to move culture along a mobility spectrum. unanticipated findings included gaps on the spectrum, as well as underutilized pathways existing at all institutions. addressing gaps in the spectrum through application of best practices, and identifying pathway utilization are important components of expanding institutions organizational culture as it pertains to student mobility. figure 1. culture of mobility spectrum the 10 institutions that participated in 2017 agreed to continue their participation in what was presented as phase two, or a continuation of the culture of mobility study. these institutions consisted of three universities: algoma, lakehead, and university of sudbury, as well as seven colleges: canadore, college boreal, confederation, cambrian, lambton and northern. as a result of the ontario colleges work stoppage, two institutions were unable to complete the intervention phase of this project. subsequently, data to measure movement along the culture of mobility spectrum was collected for eight of the remaining participating institutions. the current project incorporated two goals: the first was to use the 2017 data in order to create culture of mobility spectrum maps illustrating each institutions cultural placement based on the values and behaviours that were communicated during data collection. the second goal was to have each institution select a best practice intervention to apply through the fall 2017 semester and collect quantitative survey data measuring values and behaviours to estimate whether the intervention had the effect of movement on the mobility spectrum. participating institutions were provided with two tangible items at the completion of this project: a 2017 results booklet specific, to their institution, and an individual intervention effects summary with mapped data from the 2018 results. 5|page describing a culture of mobility, providing feedback about institutions cultures as measured by survey data, and sharing best practices mapped through qualitative interviews with key informants across the parameters of the participants, provided impetus for cultural expansion. the opportunity and means to inject new practices that had been shown to represent values as drivers in a culture that supports student mobility was related to positive change for the majority of this projects participants. our results demonstrated most of the participating institutions moved forward on the culture of mobility spectrum when comparing pre- and post-intervention survey data. it is acknowledged that this projects design does not allow a scientific cause and effect conclusion between specific intervention and movement on the spectrum. the project did facilitate collaboration which is the philosophy and essence behind the practice of student mobility. among benefits that were not specifically measured by quantitative data and yet still observed, this project stimulated creative responses when participants tailored best practices to their institutions specific needs. it was these responses that expanded the ability to send messages regarding student mobility throughout institutions, communicate more directly and effectively with a broader audience, and implement more pathways procedures, thus increasing awareness about student mobility. 6|page environmental scan in 2011, oncat was developed in order to reduce barriers affecting students as well as enhance transfer pathways for students within and amongst ontarios postsecondary institutions (oncat, 2016). by 2015, oncat had been responsible for creating a provincial database used to monitor as well as track the activities of the 21,500 transfer students within the province of ontario (oncat, 2016). an environmental scan was performed in order to assist the researchers in understanding why students are transferring between postsecondary institutions as well as how their requests are being accommodated by both the transferring and receiving institutions. the question as to whether participating institutions had created a means to track pathway utilization was also explored during the environmental scan. key informants at each institution were asked if they had the ability to track and report the level at which their pathways agreements with partner institutions were utilized. the results of this aspect of the environmental scan indicated that the post-secondary system in ontario has not yet addressed the creation of a mechanism for tracking underutilized pathways. only one of the participating institutions had collected and organized pathways utilization data. there are a variety of reasons as to why a student may choose to engage in credit transfer activities, including pursuing a different field of interest, increasing career opportunities, and employer request for academic upgrading (oncat, 2013). although credit transfer pathways have improved, some students find the process confusing with regards to variations in grading systems, the absence of a data base that could store postsecondary students academic records, and terminology that is used inconsistently (oncat, 2013). the topic of credit transfer in ontario continues to be of interest for postsecondary institutions. as a result, new studies are being published annually. research has shown that postsecondary institutions are striving to improve student mobility options. the ministry of advanced education and skills development reports that over 55,000 students are taking advantage of articulation agreements within ontario institutions every year. in addition, there are over 1,400 credit transfer pathways in ontario (ocas, n.d.). these pathways are believed to lead to over 800,000 individual transfer opportunities (nation talk, 2017). one study in particular determined that by an ontario credit transfer students fourth year of university, they were more likely to graduate when compared to a student who had not selected a credit transfer route (martinello & stewart, 2015). in recent years, research has focused on the cost of credit transfer amongst ontario institutions as well as students subsequent academic performance. to put this into perspective, oncat is funding an increasing number of studies every year. between 2016 and 2017, oncat granted funding to 40 new projects, focusing on innovative curriculum delivery and pathways development among postsecondary institutions in ontario (oncat, n.d.). a study was published in 2016 which examined the cost of credit transfer in small colleges. the researchers discovered that ontario colleges consider credit transfer to be a high priority and are therefore making investments in order to ensure that their processes are adequate to cater to the increasing volume of students who are taking advantage of these programs (penner & howieson, 2016). penner and howieson (2016) also determined that sudents are benefiting from these programs; however, the institutions were found to exhibit a lack of understanding in terms of return on investment. this is significant as the sustainability of credit transfer is directly correlated with the issue of smaller institutions vulnerability in terms of cost. due to these institutions possessing smaller budgets, external support is necessary in order to buffer the financial impact that credit transfer incurs (penner & howieson, 2016). 7|page the following table summarizes information found on the participating institutions websites with regards to articulation agreements. their official websites were examined to determine whether there was information available for students on transfer pathways between provincial, national, and international institutions. table 1: participating institutions articulation agreement website information algoma university cambrian college canadore college collge boral confederation college la cit collgiale lakehead university lambton college northern college university of sudbury 8|page information on credit transfer (ontario) yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes information on credit transfer (canada) no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no information on credit transfer (outside of canada) no yes yes limited yes limited no yes yes no literature review a literature review was conducted in order to address the topics of student mobility, value systems, and institutional culture. in addition, a focus was placed on the relationship between value systems within an institution and the development of institutional culture (mueller, 2014). this includes literature outlining organizational culture, change management, and quality assurance. since the early 2000s, there has been an increase in articulation agreements amongst canadian postsecondary institutions. research has shown that in ontario, universities and community colleges have remained rather separate, with most upholding the mindset that universities are career-oriented establishments, while colleges are strictly for technical training (gawley & mcgowan, 2006; hurlihey, 2012). it has also been well documented that a cultural prejudice surrounds postsecondary institutions. often times, it is believed that students with higher grade point averages will attend universities, even if a college education will provide them with increased job opportunities (anderssen, 2012; hurlihey, 2012). this mindset is gradually changing in ontario as articulation agreements between institutions are continually being created. student mobility demands are continually increasing; therefore, it is of the utmost importance that institutions become articulated as well as responsive in terms of managing student mobility (voorhees & harvey, 2005). additionally, institutions should strive to integrate student mobility into their institutional culture. should this culture already exist, understanding the value systems that support it need to be considered. this may be accomplished by examining the institutions goals, value systems, and established normsall of which are indicative of institutional culture (katzenbach, oelschlegel, & thomas, 2016). research has already been performed on the effect that value systems have on institutional quality; however, there has been little focus on the relationship between value systems and a culture of mobility (penner, 2007). branson (2008) stated that the quality of ones work is influenced by their organizations ideology, which is ultimately experienced by its culture. this author also argued that the bedrock of organizational change is values alignment with regards to its culture. in addition, in order to be successful, the leaders within an organization may choose to adopt practices that allow employees to be creative and innovative. he furthered this statement by likening an organizations culture to a force by which members are drawn together (branson, 2008). he also discussed how values-aligned organizations often endeavor to align their employees values with their organizations in an effort to understand their influence. branson (2008) continued by arguing that if values are not aligned, there is a low likelihood that the organization can operate efficiently. by understanding its culture, an institution is more apt to build sustainable credit transfer programs, as its impact on student mobility will be more apparent (harrison, 2005). previous research, such as the recent study entitled measuring the cost of credit transfer in small colleges, have outlined numerous best practices, including the consideration of a values system within an institution as a gauge of credit transfer initiatives (penner & howieson, 2016). the results of this research project will help build upon the body of knowledge regarding student mobility in ontario. katzenbach et al. (2016) have researched the core concepts of culture. their research stipulates that a specific culture cannot be given an exact description, as each institution has unique reactions, routine habits, and emotional responses. katzenbach et al. (2016) described ten key principles required to motivate cultural change, which are deemed to be more successful than formally mandated change and as a result, are practical for organizational development. in order to be sustainable, it is imperative that the principles themselves are linked to a values system. 9|page according to katzenbach et al. (2016), the ten principles are: 1. work with and within your current cultural situations. 2. change behaviours and mind-sets will follow. 3. focus on a critical few behaviours. 4. deploy your authentic informal leaders. 5. dont let your formal leaders off the hook. 6. link behaviours to business objectives. 7. demonstrate impact quickly. 8. use cross-organizational methods to go viral. 9. align programmatic efforts with behaviours. 10. actively manage your cultural situation over time. mueller (2014) identified two separate value clusters within a culture. the first of which includes where behaviour and human activity are directly correlated with the organizations values. conversely, the second cluster includes the variables that can be considered aspirational. as a result, the researcher argued that an institutions mission and vision statements should therefore offer a clear indication of the organizations values (mueller, 2014). similarly, calder (2011) sought to understand how accurately values, vision, and mission statements serve as a definition of an organization. these statements have the opportunity to affect how the organization operates; therefore, it is the institutions responsibility to clearly articulate these statements. it was found that often times, institutions write their mission statement in a way that reflects their intentions rather than focusing on the possible outcomes for their students. furthermore, calder (2011) determined that the majority of institutions publish mission statements which focus on what they do, rather than phrasing them in an outcome-oriented fashion. it is interesting to note that the author determined that although vision statements should focus on an institutions three-to-five-year plan, they are often unclear and unnecessarily lengthy documents (calder, 2011). lucas and kline (2008) performed a case study analysis examining the relationships between organizational learning, group dynamics, and organizational culture. the researchers determined that often times, a lack of psychological safety negatively impacts team learning. they defined psychological safety as a climate in which group members believe that they can speak openly about mistakes without fear of negative repercussions. furthermore, the researchers concluded that trust among group members was necessary if organizational change is to be initiated (lucas & kline, 2008). trust comes from leader behaviour, as it was determined that if leaders demonstrated positive role modelling, fostered a common goal, and communicated a vision, group members expressed less cynicism regarding the proposed change (lucas & kline, 2008; weiner, 2009). in addition, these leaders can affect the maintenance of the organizational culture, as it was found that members of a higher status were considered to be more influential than those of a lower status; therefore, group learning is possible via a strong social influence from other group members (lucas & kline, 2008). before implementing organizational change, one must consider the types of conditions that would increase favourability amongst its members. according to weiner (2009), the first of which is change valence, a state that refers to whether the members of an organization value the proposed change. this includes whether they feel it is necessary, beneficial, and/or important. the author proposes that there are a variety of reasons that the individual may value the change, including the benefits with which it is associated for employees, 10 | p a g e themselves, or the organization in general. in addition, the change may be valued if it is congruent with the individuals core values, or if their manager/peers support the change. the second condition weiner refers to is change efficacy which is defined as a members cognitive appraisal of three determinants of implementation capability: task demands, resource availability, and situational factors (weiner, 2009). this may include considering whether the organization has the appropriate material, financial, and human resources requried to implement the change, as well as sufficient time to do so. the third condition that the author discusses is contextual factors, that is, how organizational culture develops change. methods may include embracing innovation, adopting flexible organizational policies, and examining positive past experiences (weiner, 2009). kurt lewins (1947) work is often considered to be a cornerstone in change theory. burnes (2004a) reexamined the works of lewin, arguing that his findings are still valid in modern society. in lewins field theory, he proposed that group behaviour had the power to modify individual behaviour. as a result, he considered individual behaviour to be a function of the field, otherwise known as the group environment. therefore, behaviour changes were said to result from forces within the field. lewin believed that if one understood these forces, they would be able to identify the forces that require modification in order to bring about change (burnes, 2004a). burnes continued by citing how lewin stressed the importance of group dynamics, claiming that it is unproductive to attempt to change an individuals behaviour, as an individual is compelled to conform to social norms. therefore, if one seeks to bring about change, change should address group level processes (burnes, 2004a). lewin (1947) also developed the 3-step model, consisting of three stages. the first of which is referred to as unfreezing. in this stage, lewin argued that the equilibrium needs to be destabilized (unfrozen) before old behaviour can be discarded (unlearnt) and new behaviour successfully adopted (lewin, 1947). burnes (2004a) summarized this statement by explaining how one must feel safe from humiliation before they can renounce old behaviour and subsequently adopt new practices. the second stage in the 3-step model is moving. lewin argued that an individual should utilize trial and error, involving research and action, in an effort to modify behaviour. the final step is referred to as refreezing. in this step, lewin argued that the group requires stabilization in order to avoid regression (burnes, 2004a). references to lewins work were sourced by many researchers. most frequently, they referred to his statement that initiating change using a top-down approach is futile as it is of the utmost importance that organizational members are not only aware of change, but are also offered the opportunity to help develop and support the change (choi & ruona, 2011; levasseur, 2001; weiner, 2009). choi and ruona (2011) shared similar findings; however, these researchers commented that many efforts to implement organizational change cannot be sustained. in addition, they made note of a previous study, conducted by burnes (2004b), which determined that at least two thirds of change initiatives fail. there are a variety of possible explanations for this extensive failure rate; however, the researchers focused on kurt lewins theory of unfreezing. this theory refers to the process of modifying the beliefs of an organizations members in an effort to convince them that changes are necessary (choi & ruona, 2011). a similar theory was authored by palos and stancovici (2010). the researchers stressed that in order for change to be sustained, change must occur through the organizations members. furthermore, they noted that in some situations, change fails due to the fact that leaders underestimate the importance of individual members. as a result, it is important to consider the members attitudes towards a proposed change to gauge their behavioural support (branson, 2008; choi & ruona, 2011; palos & stancovici, 2010; weiner, 2009). choi and ruona (2011) also proposed that individuals are not necessarily resistant to change; however, it is the imposition that change brings, as well as the way in which is it imposed, that results in criticism. in order to be successful, the organizations members must perceive the initiative as necessary. this may be supported if the individual recognizes a personal benefit if the change is initiated, if there is support from management, if they view the change as appropriate, and if they believe in change-specific theory (choi & ruona, 2011). 11 | p a g e furthermore, participation in change is required to build partnerships, commitment, and trust among organizational members. in addition, if an organization is to implement a change, they must be able to obtain and reflect on feedback (choi & ruona, 2011). palos and stancovici (2010) sought to understand if there is a difference with regards to organizational culture and learning capabilities between private and public organizations. these researchers also examined organizational culture in terms of type, strength, and congruence. from this information, they determined that there are four different types of culture: clan culture, hierarchy culture, adhocracy culture, and marketing culture. clan culture refers to teamwork within and amongst organizational levels (palos & stancovici, 2010). this type of culture is hallmarked by tradition as well as loyalty. conversely, hierarchy culture refers to the way in which an organization functions based on routines, norms, long-term objectives, and predictability. the researchers also go on to discuss adhocracy culture which fosters entrepreneurial spirit (palos & stancovici, 2010). this type of culture also allows for employees to be innovative while being managed from a risk-oriented leadership perspective. furthermore, palos and stancovici (2016) define marketing culture as externally controlled, as well as a culture that values productivity and competition. this type of culture also emphasizes the importance of winning by utilizing competitive actions. the researchers determined that in terms of organizational learning capabilities, private organizations demonstrated statistically significant findings in terms of their ability to take risks, promote dialogue, and pursue creative solutions (palos & stancovici, 2010). they also found that private organizations were more likely to encourage collaboration among team members, obtain the information they require, raise awareness among coworkers, and be involved in continuous learning (palos & stancovici, 2010). many researchers have proposed theories regarding the implementation of organizational change. kritsonis (2005) examined a variety of change theories, including lippitt, watson, and westleys (1958) dynamics of planned change. this theory considers seven steps to bring about successful organizational change. kritsonis (2005) further explained that if lippitt et al.s (1958) steps are initiated across an institution, the proposed change will be regarded as normal, allowing for better uptake by its members. according to lippitt et al. (1958), the steps are: 1. diagnose the problem. 2. assess the motivation and capacity for change. 3. assess the resources and motivation of the change agent. this includes the change agents commitment to change, power, and stamina. 4. choose progressive change objects. in this step, action plans are developed and strategies are established. 5. the role of the change agents should be selected and clearly understood by all parties so that expectations are clear. examples of roles are: cheerleader, facilitator, and expert. 6. maintain the change. communication, feedback, and group coordination are essential elements in this step of the change process. 7. gradually terminate from the helping relationship. the change agent should gradually withdraw from their role over time. this will occur when the change becomes part of the organizational culture. previous research on this topic, published in creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions, determined that an institutions culture of mobility can be thought of as phases upon a spectrum. this spectrum begins with the forming phase in which culture is said to be dispersed. the next phase in which the institution moves characterizes culture as increasingly automated as well as centralized, and is known as the established phase (penner, howieson, & ditullio, 2017). the mature phase follows, and demonstrates 12 | p a g e activities that are more future-oriented, as well as embodies actions that are more proactive in nature. finally, the ideal phase represents an institution that demonstrates perfect alignments amongst behaviours/practices, values, and missions (penner et al., 2017). each phase of cultural development is also characterized by specific indicators and best practices. for example, in the forming culture, the lexicon is being learned and communication tools are being developed (penner et al., 2017). when moving into the established culture, activities may become more centralized as dedicated resources are established. conversely, in the subsequent mature culture, an institutions actions may reflect a more proactive direction. finally, an ideal culture represents perfect harmony amongst all of the elements of cultural indicators (penner et al., 2017). penner at al.s (2017) study also determined that values, specifically student success, mobility, access, and faculty engagement, are associated with an institutions culture of mobility. in addition, the researchers determined that in each of the 10 participating institutions mission and vision statements, these four values were addressed (penner et al., 2017). this study concluded that based on their findings, institutions could be plotted on the culture of mobility spectrum. upon review of their results, the participating institutions would then have the ability to make informed choices as to their goals of movement across the spectrum (penner et al., 2017). by considering previous research on value systems, institutional culture, and organizational change, one is more adept in determining the most appropriate method to invoke change within their specific institution. in doing so, the institution has the opportunity to consider how best to prepare their staff for new policies and procedures to increase student mobility, based upon their best practices. 13 | p a g e methodology the goals of this project were: to extrapolate and apply a specific, agreed upon best practice where the institutions cultures of mobility are at a different point on the spectrum, and measure the effect of this application. to create a matrix values mapped to the cultural spectrum, to guide future cultural development. to identify the culture of mobility gaps that exist at various places on the culture of mobility spectrum within the ten participating institutions. to inventory underutilized pathways and identify approaches to improve utilization. to achieve these goals, ten (10) small institutions participated to determine the culture of mobility within their institution. the research questions to fulfill the goals of this project are: how does an institution move their culture of mobility along the full spectrum? 1. where are the gaps in mobility, based upon the existing cultures in these ten institutions? 2. what existing best practices could fill the gaps, and how do we adapt and apply them within our institutions? 3. how can underused pathways be better utilized? phase one data from the previous study, creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions (penner et al., 2017) was further analyzed in order to provide each institution with a full report of their individual results gathered from the quantitative survey that had been distributed. data was also summarized and mapped on cultural spectrums for each institution. separate mapped spectrums were presented for qualitative data and quantitative data using the variables of values for student mobility and practices that support student mobility. figure 2 depicts the mapped spectrums for values and practices for one of the institutions. eighty percent of participants had values mapped further on the culture of mobility spectrum than practices, illustrating the gap that had been identified in the study performed by penner et al. (2017). this further illustrates the concept that values act as drivers to move institutions along the culture of mobility a key informant inquiry was conducted allowing for discussion regarding the information in the results booklets. when the inquiry meetings were complete, a best practices list of choices was presented as a stimulus to guide the participants in choosing an intervention to incorporate into their current student mobility practices. the best practices list was compiled through further analysis of the 2017 data. this process involved identifying the institutions that were mapped at the mature phase of the culture of mobility spectrum and performed qualitative analysis to discover common themes of behavioural practices pertaining to how these institutions went about the tasks involved in student mobility (see appendix a). 14 | p a g e qualitative patterns were organized into the following categories: a. behaviours demonstrating values: i. employee engagement ii. explore hypothetical sharing of waitlists iii. demonstrating impact of investment b. practices indicating culture: i. internal communication about student mobility ii. new procedural behaviours iii. new terms or language iv. providing information to help students with decisions about student mobility figure 2. mapped values and practices illustrating values as drivers mapped values mapped practices a follow-up inquiry was conducted with the participants to inquire about and record each institutions choice of best practice intervention. many participants used the information from their 2017 results booklet, along with their mapped spectrums to analyze the areas in which their institution could benefit from growth. with this approach, they were able to choose the intervention and tailor it to suit their individual needs. it was at this point in the study that the researchers discovered that 90% of the participating institutions did not have a tracking method in place to collect information regarding underutilized pathways. during the key informant inquiry interview, participants indicated that gathering this information would be extremely cumbersome and would interfere with their ability to apply their chosen interventions. the institution that did track pathway usage generously shared their internal data. it was determined that the development of a method to track pathway usage between institutions was beyond the scope of this study. 15 | p a g e phase two a survey tool was designed as a pretest and posttest to measure institutional movement on the culture of mobility spectrum. the survey was a short version of the quantitative questionnaire that was utilized for penner et al.s (2017) study, creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions. items from the previous survey that related to spectrum mapping were retained. these items related directly to the best practices intervention list that was created for this study with the intention of measuring the variables of values and best practices. the survey began with demographic questions such as the name of the institution, level of authority, years of experience, and length of experience with student mobility. two survey sections were created: values, as well as practices and challenges. with the exception of two items, the questionnaire presented a series of statements with a likert scale: strongly agree (5), agree (4), neutral (3), disagree (2) and strongly disagree (1). the statements were framed to inquire how the individual perceived the statement and how the individual perceived the institution in relation to the statement. the two exceptional items were in the practices section, and had modified scales of yes (3), somewhat (2), or no (1). these questions dealt with corporate lexicon. in the first question, the individual was asked to rate their understanding of mobility terms, and in the second, they were asked to rate how their institutions used the same terms (see appendix b for the full survey). the questionnaire was automated through survey monkey and pretesting was administered before best practices interventions began. survey participants were selected by each institution with the criteria for selection being faculty and staff who are directly involved with student mobility. as with the 2016 study, this was a targeted census, not a random sampling design. a minimum of 10 respondents was requested from each institution. there were 99 respondents to our pretest questionnaire. response rates ranged from seven at two of the institutions, to 20 at one, and 23 at another. the researchers ensured the pretest questionnaires were completed before they implemented their best practices intervention. each institution was very creative in designing interventions that made sense for their institution. some focused on one area with improvement in mind, while others chose a variety of activities that addressed a number of the best practices themes. table 2 summarizes the interventions created at each institution. timelines for the intervention application phase varied and was affected by the ontario colleges work stoppage from october to november. despite the interruption, eight of the participating institutions were able to complete their objectives for this project. each institution had different completion dates, the earliest of which being the end of january 2018. the final institution completed mid-april. 16 | p a g e table 2: summary of participating institutions best practices intervention institution identification number best practice chosen employee engagement new procedural behaviours 1 providing information to help with student decisions new procedural behaviours 2 employee engagement new procedural behaviours 3 employee engagement 4 providing information to help with student decisions new procedural behaviours 5 new procedural behaviours 6 employee engagement providing information to help with student decisions 7 8 providing information to help with student decisions new procedural behaviours 17 | p a g e application new position created and filled in summer 2017 with the specific job of creating pathways and partnerships discussions have led to procedures in place. material development pending. new designated position is first point of contact. much more sharing happened with high schools. discussion about how to continue to improve overall communication. updated internal and external website to reflect new pathway agreements with universities. discussed how to trace a path for a flexible student mobility with other colleges and universities. offered pathways information and communication workshops for the professors, staff members, and students. pathways officer was relocated to the admissions office with a designated physical space. a manual system to track student mobility inquiries and their connection with students application, admission, and enrollment was created. developed pathways training modules specifically for faculty with the goals of providing better understanding about what pathways are, how to find pathways information, and how to best help students. created a gamification presented interactive map within a specific program to show prospective students what internal and external program pathways exist in conjunction with this program as well as what job outcomes that will result from the pathways. created specialized materials for promotion and recruitment activities as a way to enhance our recruitment presentations. improving layout and information about transfer credits and pathways on the institution website. worked with and improved understanding and utilization of ontransfer.ca. information was posted to staff news site. information/educational pamphlets handed out to staff and faculty. the institutions outreach and support officer built stronger relationships with partner institutions by adding more in-class presentations to their students. these visits were in addition to the institutions standard recruitment plan which typically focuses on more general information sessions. conducted information sessions for partner institutions faculty regarding pathway options and processes, including joint admissions, where relevant. designed a supplementary handout specifically for partner institutions faculty. pathways promotional messaging campaign launched on institutions portal. updated informational flyer. created in-house informational presentations. posttest measurement was requested at an individual rate after each intervention. the pretest and posttest questionnaires were administered with a repeated measure design. since the posttest was the same questionnaire, it was accompanied with the following script: thank you for participating in our expanding cultures of mobility research project. the important next step in this study is to assess how attitudes may or may not have changed based upon the activities your institution undertook. if you could take the time to complete the survey again, we thank you very much for all of your participation and help in this valuable research project. survey response rates decreased 27% for the posttest measure. the most notable decline was from 20 respondents before the intervention to eight after. 18 | p a g e phase three using the relatively small data set, questionnaire responses were averaged per item for each institution. researchers used mapping methods established in penner et al.s (2017) study, creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions which involved setting score-based parameters for each level of the spectrum (figure 3). data was mapped, and four culture of mobility spectrums were created for each institution. values and practices were mapped separately for each of the pretest and posttest questionnaire responses which allowed for observation of movement on the spectrum. completion of intervention results summary, which includes mapped spectrums for each institution, is pending as this report is being written. figure 3. spectrum mapping parameters quantitative data mapping spectrum (scale: 1 to 5) quantitative data mapping lexicon (scale 1 to 3) 19 | p a g e findings using pretest and posttest survey data to map participating institutions on a spectrum that describes the culture of mobility, this study addressed the research questions inquiring about the gaps in existing cultures of mobility for each institution and whether best practices interventions could fill cultural gaps. considering a modest participant pool (eight small institutions) and data set (n=99 for pretest and n=72 for posttest), the results are encouraging. seventy-five percent of the participating institutions showed forward movement on the spectrum of cultural mobility for the practices indicating culture variable. in addition, 25% showed forward movement for the behaviours indicating values variable. table 3 is a summary of institutions cultural shifts on the spectrum before and after the intervention. table 3. movement on the culture of mobility before and after best practice interventions institution best practice categories results identification implemented values number 1 new procedural behaviours employee engagement providing information to help student decisions waitlist* moved backward from mature phase to established phase employee engagement* and sem* moved backwards from transitioning to mature into established phase 2 new procedural behaviours employee engagement no movement on the spectrum 3 new procedural behaviours return on investment* moved backward from mature phase into transitioning to mature waitlist* moved backward from transitioning to mature into established phase 4 new procedural behaviours employee engagement providing information to help student decisions new procedural behaviours no movement on the spectrum 5 20 | p a g e no movement on the spectrum practices information to help students* moved forward from transitioning to established into established phase. new behaviours* moved backwards from established phase into transitioning to established student mobility terms used* moved forward from forming phase into established phase. student mobility terms understood* moved forward from established phase to mature phase new behaviours* moved backwards from mature phase into transitioning to mature information to help students* moved backwards from mature phase into transitioning to mature information to help students* moved forward form established phase into mature phase internal communication* moved forward from established phase into transitioning to mature phase institution identification number 6 best practice categories implemented results new procedural behaviours employee engagement values practices general shift forward from established into transitioning to mature general shift forward. internal communication* moved a full phase forward from transitioning to established to transitioning to mature internal communication* moved forward from transitioning to mature into mature phase no movement on the spectrum 7 providing information to help student decisions general shift forward from established to mature phase 8 providing information to help student decisions no movement on the spectrum new procedural behaviours *questionnaire item it is also worth noting that 50% of the participating institutions maintained their position on the values spectrum and there was some backward movement on the spectrum for two of the participating institutions. in addition to observing movement of cultural shifts on the spectrum, a numerical analysis of change in scores (delta) for before and after best practices intervention was conducted. table 4 reports average delta values for institutions. these values represent the average change in scores for pretest versus posttest across all of the questionnaire items. table 4. average delta in survey scores before and after intervention. delta for pretest and posttest surveys 0.7 0.563* 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.247 0.224 0.2 0.096* 0.086* 0.1 0 1 -0.1 -0.2 2 3 4 5 -0.114* -0.3 6 7 8 -0.062 -0.181 institution *institutions that applied employee engagement as part of their best practices intervention 21 | p a g e further investigation regarding a connection between the type of best practices intervention applied and forward movement on the culture of mobility spectrum revealed that of the seven participants who applied new procedural behaviours for at least one of their best practices intervention, 71% experienced forward cultural shifts. conversely, of the four participants who applied providing information to help student decisions as one of their interventions, 75% experienced forward movement on the cultural spectrum. one hundred percent of participants who used employee engagement as part of their intervention demonstrated forward cultural movement. a comparison with those participants who did not use employee engagement as part of their intervention resulted in the observation that only 50% of those institutions moved forward on the culture of mobility spectrum. statistical analysis utilizing t-test was used to determine whether the average delta scores were significantly different between the groups that used employee engagement and the group that did not. this test did not show significant differences in mean deltas for the two groups. 22 | p a g e conclusions ontarios postsecondary system continues to adapt to the increase in student mobility demands. this study examined cultural adjustment to the changes required to support student mobility at small institutions. using the concept of a spectrum to describe the culture of mobility, and a comprehensive data base collected in 2016 (penner, et al., 2017), the present project provided descriptive summaries of individual organizational culture as it relates to student mobility at each of the participating institutions. the spectrum for culture of mobility has four distinct stages: forming, where the culture tends to be dispersed; established, where the culture is centralized and more automated; mature, where the activities become proactive and future focused, and ideal, where there is perfect alignment between mission, values, and behaviours/practices (penner et al., 2017). mapping individual cultures allowed for the observation that most institutions were transitioning from the established phase into the mature phase at the time the data was collected. the present study queried whether institutions could purposely move their culture of mobility forward on the spectrum. originally, the research objectives included the application of a best practices intervention and a compilation of an inventory of underutilized pathways. as the research process progressed, it became evident that all but one of the participants did not have a method to report on underutilized pathways. after the application of best practices interventions, modest cultural shifts were observed; however, not all of the shifts were forward in trajectory. despite varied results for the intervention, the overall observation was that one year after mapping the previous data, participating institutions were now transitioning to the mature phase on the culture of mobility. it is acknowledged that there are numerous explanations for the institutions movements on the culture of mobility spectrum, both as individual entities, and as a systemic whole. the current projects study design lends more to exploratory results; however, examination of average delta scores for cultural change led to some speculative conclusions regarding the connection between values and cultural mobility. the present study hypothesized that values and practices act as variables that drive institutional movement on the culture of mobility spectrum. branson (2008) highlighted the concept of a values aligned organization and argued that if employees values were not aligned with the organizations, efficiency would be sacrificed. weiner (2009) also wrote about change being successful when members of the organization feel it is necessary, beneficial and/or important, and kurt lewins work (as cited in burnes, 2004a) supports the notion that leaders must not underestimate the importance of individual members attitudes and support for change. the current studys results lent support to these theories as it was discovered that the institutions that included employee engagement in their interventions were observed to move forward on the spectrum more consistently than those who did not include this best practice. it is speculated that the value of employee engagement is a primary driver for cultural change. including this particular variable in combination with all best practices interventions needs to be further explored as ontarios postsecondary institutions look toward reaching the ideal phase in the culture of mobility spectrum. 23 | p a g e recommendations exploring change in culture is necessary in supporting student mobility for ontarios postsecondary education system. the present studys results revealed in the last year, all of the participating institutions experienced overall forward movement on the culture of mobility spectrum, although in specific areas, there was some backward movement. it was also discovered the participant group of institutions does not have a consistent method to track underutilized pathways. responses to best practice interventions were moderate and varied for the participating group; however, employee engagement emerged as an integral variable to facilitate forward cultural change. further research is needed to support theories that organizational change does not stabilize without member understanding and alignment (branson, 2008; weiner, 2009). recommendations from these findings are as follows: recommendation one: a method to track underutilized pathways be created and an inventory compiled with an assessment of why the pathways are underutilized. recommendation two: the survey tool used to measure cultural placement on the mobility spectrum be validated for further use with other institutions. recommendation three: further research be designed to specifically examine employee engagement as a factor in culture of mobility change. 24 | p a g e references anderssen, e. (2012, october 19). what canada needs: a national strategy for student. retrieved june 24, 2017, from the globe and mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-tolead/what-canada-needs-a-national-strategy-for-students/article4626039/ branson, c. m. (2008). achieving organisational change through values alignement. journal of educational administration, 46(3), 376-395. doi:10.1108/09578230810869293 burnes, b. (2004a). kurt lewin and the planned approach to change: a re-appraisal. journal of management studies, 41(6), 977-1002. burnes, b. (2004b). managing change: a strategic approach to organisational dynamics. london: prentice hall. calder, w. b. (2011). institutional vvm statements on websites. the community college enterprise, 17(2), 19-27. choi, m., & ruona, w. e. (2011). individual readiness for organizational change and its implication for human resource and organization development. human resource development review, 10(1), 4673. doi:10.1177/1534484310384957 harrison, m. (2005). diagnosing organizations: methods, models, and processes. thousand oaks: sage publications. katzenbach, j., oelschlegel, c., & thomas, j. (2016, february 15). 10 principles of organizational culture. retrieved from strategy and business: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/10-principles-oforganizational-culture?gko=71d2f kritsonis, a. (2005). comparison of change theories. international journal of scholarly academic intellectual diversity, 8(1), 1-7. levasseur, r. e. (2001). people skills: change management tools-lewin's change model. interfaces, 31(4), 71-73. lewin, k. (1947). frontiers in group dynamics. human relations, 1(1), 5-41. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/001872674700100103 lippitt, r., watson, j., & westley, b. (1958). the dynamics of planned change. new york: harcourt, brace, and world. lucas, c., & kline, t. (2008). understanding the influence of organizational culture and group dynamics on organizational change and learning. the learning organization, 15(3), 277-287. doi:10.1108/09696470810868882 martinello, f., & stewart, j. (2015). transfers from college to one ontario university: a four-year outcome study. canadian journal of higher education, 45(1), 18-36. mueller, r. a. (2013). a general model of organizational values in educational administration. educational management administration & leadership, 42(5), 640-656. doi:10.1177/1741143213510504 nation talk. (2017, june 6). oncat supports student mobility initiatives among ontario colleges & universities. retrieved july 9, 2017, from nation talk: http://nationtalk.ca/story/oncat-supportsstudent-mobility-initiatives-among-ontario-colleges-universities ocas. (n.d.). credit transfer between colleges and universities in ontario. retrieved july 8, 2017, from ontariocolleges.ca: http://www.ontariocolleges.ca/apply/transfer-credits ontario council on articulation and transfer. (2013). summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research: september 2013. toronto: author. ontario council on articulation and transfer. (2016). annual report 2015-2016. toronto: oncat. ontario council on articulation and transfer. (n.d.). research. retrieved june 8, 2017, from oncat: http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=research palos, r., & stancovici, v. v. (2016). learning in organization. the learning organization, 23(1), 2-22. doi:10.1108/tlo-01-2015-0001 penner, a. j. (2007). performance indicators, funding and quality. calgary: university of calgary. 25 | p a g e penner, a. j., & howieson, t. (2016). measuring the cost of credit transfer at small colleges. toronto: oncat. penner, a. j., howieson, t., & ditullio, a. (2017). creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions. toronto: oncat. weiner, b. j. (2009). a theory of organizational readiness for change. implementation science, 4(67), 1-9. doi:10.1186/1748-5908-4-67 26 | p a g e appendix 1 27 | p a g e appendix 1 intervention opportunities a. i. demonstrating employee engagement designated staff assigned to student mobility tasks and projects improvement on transparency and efficiency of student mobility services facilitate collaboration of faculty with other programs and/or other colleges. promote faculty contribution to student mobility ideas/initiatives explore ways to have pathways staff become permanent positions support pathways staff in creation and promotion of student mobility involve pathways staff in recruitment and admissions ii. hypothetical sharing of waitlists investigate and pilot (working with ocas/ouac) the sharing waitlists or collaborative applications for oversubscribed programs that are common among institutions. iii. demonstrating the impact of investment explore the potential for student mobility to stabilize enrollment and retention set up student mobility as a recruitment tool and measure the effect on enrollment become proactive in student mobility by exploring ways to track students prior learning with their applications and offer students mobility as they apply to programs. b. i. indicating internal communication about student mobility activities increase intranet presence support designated staff to create internal outreach/information activities for students, faculty and staff create communication pathways that encourage both top-down and bottom-up interchange of ideas and information ii. new procedural behaviours design new user friendly transfer credit evaluation procedure for faculty develop promotional material facilitate faster turnaround from faculty evaluations create an internal transfer credit data base to establish precedent for transfer decisions create, update or improve pathways presence on institutional website including applications forms, contact information and how to tutorials liaise with and improve understanding and utilization of ontransfer.ca create a dedicated physical area for pathways staff bring the pathways discussion to program/course development and review level gather data regarding transfer credit students pathways iii. new terms or language create a glossary of terms that is common to all institutions who share the language of your institution and promote this glossary internally and throughout the post-secondary system where appropriate based on language iv. providing information to help students with decisions about sm designate a specific staff member as first point of contact work with ontransfer.ca to create a more comprehensive guide create a pathways flier/view book to distribute and include in acceptance packages increase pathways presentations: to students and graduates; open houses; high schools (students and staff) increase collaboration with registrars office/locate pathways physical presence within enrollment services/admissions office appendix 2 31 | p a g e appendix 2 culture of mobility general questions 1. your institution: algoma university cambrian college canadore college college boreal confederation college la cite collegiale lakehead university lambton college northern college university of sudbury 2. how long have you been working at your institution? (in years) 1 3. what is your role at your institution? faculty coordinator chair dean associate dean admissions director recruitment vice president administrative assistant registrar student advisor academic counsellor other (please specify) 4. how long have you been working on student mobility? less than 2 years 2 - 4 years more than 4 years 2 culture of mobility part 1: values 1. mission vision strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree my work with credit transfer supports my organization's objectives. my institution encourages student mobility into our institution. my institution encourages student mobility to other institutions. my institution is focused upon student mobility. student mobility comes to mind when i read my institutions mission/vision statement. 3 2. employee engagement strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree i collaborate with my colleagues when dealing with student mobility processes last school year, my colleagues and i had more discussions about student mobility with each other than in previous years. 3. sem and level of authority strongly agree my supervisor encourages credit transfer activity. my supervisor supports my activity related to credit transfer. student mobility directives originate from the executive level at my institution. the activities for student mobility are directly connected to our institution's strategic enrollment management plan. 4. hypothetical sharing of waitlists strongly agree one way to address student mobility that my institution may explore is the possibility of sharing wait list information with other institutions. sharing waitlist information between institutions could get complicated. 4 5. return on investment strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree creating and using student mobility practices is a good investment for my institution. there is/will be a return on investment for my institution's efforts on student mobility. i am aware that my institution has accessed special funding for student mobility. i am aware of the results my efforts have on credit transfer activity for students. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives as a whole. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives for my institution. i am aware of the results of student mobility initiatives for specific schools of study. 5 culture of mobility part 2: practices 1. communication about student mobility strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree i have taken part in/received communication about student mobility at my institution. i am aware of the student mobility opportunities for students in my department. departments that need to understand credit transfer within my institution, do understand. there is a high level of awareness of credit transfer activities within my institution. 6 2. new behaviours strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree i regularly interact with staff whose job is specifically related to student mobility. it is easy for me to explain to students their mobility options. my supervisor encourages handling of credit transfers as a priority for me. my institution encourages handling of credit transfers as a priority for me. handling credit transfer is a priority for me. i understand the importance of credit transfer to my institution. i understand the importance of credit transfer to students. i understand the importance of credit transfer in my role. 3. i understand the following terms yes somewhat no advanced standing transfer credit course to course transfer degree completion pathways course equivalency ontranfer.ca oncat 7 4. my institution uses the following terms on a regular basis yes somewhat no advanced standing transfer credit course to course transfer degree completion pathways course equivalency ontranfer.ca oncat 5. how information is provided to help student decision making strongly agree agree unsure disagree strongly disagree information about credit transfer is easy to find for students. information about credit transfer is easy to find for staff. processes for credit transfer are easy to find. processes for credit transfer are easy to use. our website provides information/assistance to students about mobility. i can explain student mobility options and decision steps to the students in our department. our graduating students know about future student mobility options when they leave our institutions. 8

project snapshot apprentices in ontario: who pursues apprenticeships and what are their pathways into and out of various pse institutions and the labour market? type: research project number: 2021-38 or r2138 project lead: university of western ontario principal investigator: dr. michael haan collaborators: elena hillman, university of western ontario; taylor noriko paul, university of western ontario; wolfgang lehmann, university of western ontario project summary the purpose of this analysis is to determine who pursues apprenticeships, what lateral and vertical transfer pathways students take into and out of various post-secondary education (pse) institutions in ontario, and the sequencing of these transfers. moreover, our proposed study is interested in examining the destinations of individuals exiting apprenticeship programs. a key contribution of our proposed research will be to examine how these patterns differ for men, women, immigrants, indigenous peoples, and visible minorities. apprenticeships are generally a low cost means of obtaining pse, because wages are paid throughout a students training (sharpe & gibson, 2005), which leads to the development of skills useful in many lucrative industrial sectors. as such, apprenticeship programs can act as a means for youth, who would otherwise not attend post-secondary education, to transition from school to work and into adulthood (wright, lehmann & taylor, 2020). yet, apprenticeship programs and training remain a hidden pathway for many individuals in canada (sharpe & gibson, 2005). in fact, much of the focus for post-secondary education (pse) remains on getting students enrolled in college and university and, as such, research had argued that there is an academic bias in pse pathways (sharpe & gibson, 2005). while most students who register in apprenticeship programs are canadian-born males under the age of 25 (sharpe & gibson, 2005), jin, langevin, lebel & haan (2020) found that average age at the time of registration was 28 years old. thus, many apprentices may be taking divergent pathways through education and, as such, may experience higher levels of mobility. nevertheless, apprenticeships can facilitate economic integration of some of the most marginalized groups in canada and improve regional economic conditions, especially if students who experience mobility between various pse institutions are able to successfully transfer their credits. as such, our proposed project seeks to address the following research questions: what are the pathways that students take into apprenticeships (direct entry from high school, from employment, or from other pse institutions) and how does entry differ across minority groups and women? what are the destinations (transfers between pse institutions or employment) of individuals exiting apprenticeships and what is the sequence of these pathways? how do exits differ across minority groups and women and are there discernible differences in completion rates and destinations across different groups? what are the labour market outcomes of individuals who were in apprenticeship training and how do outcomes differ by entry and exit pathways for different groups? developing and maintaining a skilled workforce in ontario is essential to maintain a robust economy equipped with opportunities for a variety of workers. apprenticeship training programs and certifications are a means to providing skills and knowledge to future tradespeople so that they may enter the labour market in lucrative employment positions. in fact, research has shown that tradespeople are a driving force for a healthy economy in canada, as they are found in almost every industry (statistics canada, 2020). an important and under researched aspect of developing a skilled workforce in canada is the pathways taken by students into and out of pse and apprenticeships, more specifically, and how student mobility factors into completion rates. our proposed study will contribute to the growing body of literature on apprenticeship training and student mobility in ontario. moreover, a thorough examination of completion rates by identity and minority populations, such as indigenous peoples, women, visible minorities, and immigrants, will allow us to assess important differences when compared with canadian-born males. in fact, indigenous apprentices seem to take divergent pathways into and out of apprenticeship programs (statistics canada, 2017) and, as such, our research will reveal the sequencing of lateral and vertical transfers into and out of apprenticeship programs. thus, an important contribution of our proposed study will be to investigate visible minority, immigrant, indigenous, and female apprentices registration in training programs, their certification completion rates, the degree of student mobility and vertical and lateral transfers taken by these groups into apprenticeship programs in ontario. finally, by assessing gender differences across population sub-groups, we will make suggestions for future policy programs aimed at improving the ability for students to successfully transfer their credits from one pse institution to another. project rationale very few studies have been able to study the work-school, school-school, or other transitions that individuals make as they plot their educational journeys. this study separately identifies the factors that predict an entry into apprenticeship, whereas our second study looks at the factors that predict completion. methods this report uses the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) developed by statistics canada, which allows us to construct various samples through the linkages provided. the samples include data constructed from the postsecondary student information system, the registered apprentice information system (rais) linked with the 2016 canadian census, and the rais linked with the t1 family tax file (t1ff). our report is divided into two main parts. the first looks at entry into apprenticeships, whereas the second looks at completers. the methods used include a sequencing analysis, a logistic regression to examine the predictors of completing a program of study among apprentices, and an ols regression analysis to examine apprentices labour market outcomes. describe any limitations there were no methodology limitations, only data limitations. research findings our findings demonstrate that most apprentices do not transfer from another type of pse program and that a substantial number are non-visible minority, native-born men who are between the ages of 15 to 24. we also find that not only are major trades groups gender segregated, but a higher number of visible minority apprentices study female dominated trades. in our analyses of the pathways in and out of apprenticeships we find that, while most enter into apprenticeships through employment, many end up re-entering the labour market without completing their apprenticeship training. alternatively, the second most common pathway occurs in the jump from employment, to completion, to employment again. further, through our ordinary least squares regression results, we find that those who switch their program of study earn less than those who do not switch, suggesting that they either transferred to a lower-paying program, or that they may have encountered barriers during the transition. the results also illustrate a significant gender pay gap that is not explained by the covariates in the model. this suggests that factors other than gender segregation in the skilled trades and age impact the pay differential between men and women. future research as the dataset continues to develop, we expect that the ability to answer new questions will emerge. for example, do apprenticeships yield the same rate of return for every student? or, does this differ by sociodemographic characteristics like age, sex, visible minority status, indigenous status, etc. unfortunately, the elmlp does not currently permit the linkage of the files we would need to answer these questions. we expect that theses linkages may soon be possible. student outcomes we find we find that those who switch their program of study earn less than those who do not switch. for students, this suggests that individuals should try to stay in their initial program of study whenever possible. institutional outcomes we find that many individuals re-enter the labour market without completing their training. sector or system implications our results show a lot of movement in and out of the labour market and apprenticeship training. looking only at transfers between educational institutions misses a good deal of movement. for a system to be seamless, movements in and out of the labour market should be part of the student-centred transfer system. tips have access to the data before writing the proposal. the documentation was inadequate, and we were unaware that the files in elmlp could not all be linked together.

rfp - oncat transfer system surveys oncats responses to questions posted august 4th, 2020 1. will oncat be providing contact information (email addresses, phone numbers and/or mailing addresses) for the key stakeholders (faculty, prospective/actual transfer students, system partners or stakeholders) targeted in this research effort? please indicate which, if any, oncat will be able to provide to the successful proponent. there are projects for which we will be able to provide contact information for a population of interest. for others, we will depend on the vendor to develop a sampling frame. at this point, we are not able to indicate which projects we will be able to provide information for, as this will need to be negotiated with third party organizations. 2. describe oncats expectations for the phone and mail-in survey portions. we expect that the successful proponent will have the capacity to carry out these types of surveying in a cost-efficient manner if a project necessitates it. 3. does oncat have specific expectations around how the presentation of results should be formatted? we are flexible on how results are presented, given the ongoing disturbances caused by covid-19. we are open to both remote and in-person presentations, depending on the circumstances at the point of project completion. 4. could oncat provide more details about the expected audience(s) for the presentation of results? the primary audience will be oncat staff and our sector partners from ontario colleges, indigenous institutes, and universities. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) 180, dundas st. west/rue dundas ouest, suite/bureau 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 t/tl. : 416 640-6951 | f/tlc. : 416 640-6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario |1 5. could you please elaborate on what you mean by certification of availability of individuals in particular, what documentation would you like to see showing that our staff will be made available for this project? we require a letter/statement from the person in your organization with the authority to assign staff to this project. 6. aside from awareness of transfer and articulation, what are you hoping to learn from secondary school educators/administrators and parents? our main interest is in articulation and transfer. however, we are also interested in gathering basic demographic information from all of the groups that we survey in order to perform multivariate analysis. there is also the potential that we will introduce further questions to the surveys should partnership opportunities arise with other entities that are also interested in surveying these stakeholder groups. 7. does oncat have a fixed budget allotted for this undertaking to help optimize proposed methodology and recommended sample sizes for each stakeholder group? we do not have a fixed budget for this project, or each survey. one of our evaluation criteria will be budget approach / cost effectiveness and that will be based on the return on investment for any particular methodological decision. we understand that every project is unique and is priced as such. this is why we request an anonymized budget, so that we can develop a better sense of how specific projects have been budgeted/executed by bidders. if you wish to provide additional details, such as an hourly rate, or other supporting documents that help us to understand how various factors influence pricing, please do. 8. budgets and timelines will vary depending on the project specifications. does oncat have a standard project in mind that could be priced as an example for comparability purposes? things that would be helpful to know are the population, methodology, geographic scope, target n-value and length of questionnaire. at this point, oncat does not have a standard project in mind that could be priced as an example. we are hoping that the applicant will provide an example along with whatever other details can help us to understand their general cost structure. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) 180, dundas st. west/rue dundas ouest, suite/bureau 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 t/tl. : 416 640-6951 | f/tlc. : 416 640-6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario |2 9. what number of project examples is oncat looking for? we are flexible on the number of examples provided. 10. what number of references is oncat is looking for? we are flexible on the number of references provided. the focus should be on providing references who are available to speak at length about their work with the survey vendor. 11. is there a general timeline for completion of this survey work? no. oncat will work with the successful applicant to establish timelines for the execution of all work. 12. is there a date or cycle for survey results from at least the initial wave of surveys of students/faculty/stakeholders? not at this point. 13. you note in the rfp that some surveys will be repeated based on agreed-upon cycles. could you expand on this? is repeating the surveys or tracking them over time part of this rfp and something we should price out? if so, how often, when and which populations? we would be interested in repeating the same survey with different sets of individuals (e.g. students/graduates), as opposed to tracking them over time. we have yet to determine at what intervals we would be repeating potential surveys. you are not expected to price out the repetition of surveys. 14. has a benchmark already been established to measure the acceptable response rate? no specific benchmark has been established yet. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) 180, dundas st. west/rue dundas ouest, suite/bureau 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 t/tl. : 416 640-6951 | f/tlc. : 416 640-6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario |3 15. will there be any ethics or privacy processes needed before survey fieldwork can begin? if so, what body is responsible for this ethics process? this will depend on the project. some may need research ethics review. when required, oncat will work with the successful applicant to work through such processes. however, the successful applicant will be expected to take the lead on such work. 16. we noticed that experience producing datasets for the academic research community for publication in national/international peer reviewed journals is a requirement. is oncat soliciting bids from academic centres only or are you also from marketing research commercial firms? we are encouraging bids from any entity with the demonstrated capacity to execute survey research in accordance with establish research conventions. our holistic evaluation will take into account both cost efficiency and a track record of producing quality datasets (see evaluation criteria from rfp). 17. how many surveys does oncat hope to field each year? we do not have a pre-determined set of surveys that we are hoping to field each year. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) 180, dundas st. west/rue dundas ouest, suite/bureau 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 t/tl. : 416 640-6951 | f/tlc. : 416 640-6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario |4

project snapshot indigenous institute credential recognition type: innovative transfer project number: 2019-29 or i1929 project lead: six nations polytechnic collaborators: the project engaged with 20 universities and 24 colleges, giving it a comprehensive breadth/scope. collaborators were "passive" participants, as their outwardfacing data was the focus of the project; a follow-up project is intended to operationalize these findings and mobilize the knowledge arising from this research by engaging directly with all institutional partners, both literal (those with whom snp has existing articulation agreements) and "passive" (all post-secondary institutions in the province, any of whom may stand as the initiating/outbound or receiving/inbound end of student transfer pathways). project summary responding to barriers to educational mobility experienced by indigenous graduates, six nations polytechnic proposed to assess the recognition of its bachelor of arts programming and identify possible parity-catalysing measures both internally and externally. the primary goals of the project were: understanding the transfer experiences of baol students by exploring and analysing the specific hurdles to mobility they face; documenting the lapses and lacunae in existing credit transfer pathways out of the baol program; enhanced understanding of the indigenous institutes sector among ontario universities and colleges, necessary to facilitate recognition of the credentials these postsecondary bodies are empowered to grant; and identification of possible internal supports and external tools that could reduce disparities in the current credit transfer system (including possible changes to baol curriculum) project rationale after five years of accredited undergraduate programming, six nations polytechnics status as a degreegranting body has not been either identified or built into entrance requirements or transfer pathways at other, mainstream postsecondary institutions in ontario. this presents formidable structural barriers to educational mobility. such barriers have developed due to the historically self-referential environment of the broader educational system; an underappreciation of the institutional bridging accomplished by indigenous institutes for at least the past thirty years; and the related lack of appropriate awareness of the shifting regulatory landscape in the postsecondary sector. the indigenous institutes act (s.o. 2017, c. 34, sched. 20) recognized indigenous institutes (iis) as unique and complementary pillar of ontarios postsecondary education system and supported their independence and sustainability. the passing of this legislation quickly catalysed growth in, and significant aspirations for, curricular development across the sector. this project is thus of significant, wider import and potential utility, as indigenous institutes across ontario begin to offer, or further develop their programme offerings; and accordingly, as their roster of graduates grows. key steps the project deviated somewhat from the intended methodology and goals as it was initially developed based on the assumption that barriers to student mobility were specific (i.e., institutional) and so could be diagnosed and rendered "actionable" through an internal process. it also included planned outreach to specific universities and colleges to "map" those internal processes and so initiate institutional change. however, the project quickly uncovered not specific/institutional but largely systemic, making outreach to specific colleges and universities both premature and inappropriate. instead, snp plans to propose and initiate a subsequent oncat project, or seek out alternative funding, to implement the high-level and sectorwide shifts called for in the recommendations. outcomes this project sought to: understand the transfer experiences of baol students by exploring and analyse the specific hurdles to mobility they face, documenting the lapses and lacunae in existing credit transfer pathways out of the baol program; enhance understanding of the indigenous institutes sector among ontario universities and colleges, necessary to facilitate recognition of the credentials these postsecondary bodies are empowered to grant; and identify possible internal supports and external tools that could reduce disparities in the current credit transfer system (including possible changes to baol curriculum). the scope of the project shifted during the term of the contract, as the specific recommendation anticipated became higher-order concerns, triggering recommendations for systemic, normative shifts in the postsecondary educational sector. note that snp is developing an implementation plan for the widespread mobilization of the many recommendations arising from this final report (pp. 15-17 of the report document). challenges this project needs to continue, as it evolved as properly biphasic. at this point we have the data, analysis, and recommendations necessary to reach out to sectoral actors and initiate focused conversation on next steps. student outcomes the project places the student transfer experience (and the indigenous student experience in particular) centrally in its analysis of wide-ranging findings, and from there recommends significant, multi-level changes to a number of systems impacting student transfer into and out of indigenous institutes. further, it makes recommendations intended to reduce not only structural barriers and biases but the cognitive/emotional effect these have on students. student flexibility the longer-term effects of the project promises to improve credential recognition for students of indigenous institutes. institutional outcomes the project final report recommends an organizational structural change to snp's academic governance. sector or system implications this project was particularly oriented toward system factors/considerations, and yielded important insights, cautions, and observations for a more seamless system. recommendations include inter- and intrainstitutional shifts, along with inter-organizational and sectoral changes. please see the attached report for details. tips/advice the project final report has been distributed to indigenous institutes (iis) through their representative body, the indigenous institutes consortium, in the knowledge that it significantly informs their own work at multiple levels (sectoral, inter-organizational, and intra-institutional). tools and resource a slideshow of the project (purpose, methodology, findings, and recommendations) is currently under development. articulation agreements with college and university partners will be updated using the specific findings of this project, including both high-level and institution-specific recommendations.

transfer pathways and seamless transfer funding information session, 20202021 december 3, 2020 your hosts today ana skinner manager, funding programs roger pizarro milian, senior researcher inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants and projects housekeeping please mute your line. there may be a short delay between our screen and yours please bear with us. the presentation will be 30 minutes or so with time for questions. you can ask questions directly to the presenter or to all participants through the chat option or by unmuting your line. information session overview highlight oncat pathway development, seamless transfer and student action project funding opportunities. provide an inside scoop on this years funding strategies. share some tips for developing your proposal. answer your questions. about oncat oncat aims to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer. working with our network of ontarios 45 colleges and universities, indigenous institutes, students, government, guidance counsellors, as well as other stakeholders provincially and nationally, oncat is building a culture and understanding of transfer so that students can pursue a more seamless and affordable postsecondary education. about oncat funding who we fund publicly assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in ontario. not-for-profit organizations working in the field of pse in ontario. funding priorities oncat supports the development of targeted, in-demand pathways and the adoption of student-centred transfer processes and practices in ontario through: developing pathways in in-demand areas. initiating system-level strategies and institutional change. bringing transfer student priorities and projects to life. conducting research and improving transfer system data. funding streams in focus stream intake and deadline notes transfer pathways ongoing intake viability grants: up to $10,000 pathway development, scaling, or remodeling grants: $10,000$40,000 seamless transfer ongoing intake grants range from $10,000$100,000 applications can be from individual institutions or collaborative initiatives transfer student action fund ongoing intake student-led projects shorter-term projects: $500$5,000 longer-term projects: $1,000$10,000 mapit: institutional process mapping new cohorts training on process mapping an external consultant will support the development of a transfer process map funding to support participation in-demand pathways in-demand pathways address: student demand. these pathways respond to student needs and interests; they include pathways that specifically support the needs of under-represented learners. institutional demand. these pathways address an institutions strategic needs and specific interests, such as targeted program and/or content areas. regional/labour market demand. these pathways respond to regional and labour market needs and trends, as well as to changes to professional requirements requested by accreditation bodies. provincial/system demand. these pathways may originate from provincial policy directives and may prioritize initiatives that align with institutional and regional demand (for example, pandemic recovery pathways address health, employment, and regional needs resulting from covid-19 and support resilience to future pandemics). transfer pathways funding a. pathway viability grants: seed funding to identify the viability and relevance of a proposed pathway. explore the viability of new pathways explore the viability of scaling an existing pathway explore the viability of remodeling an existing pathway at the end of a viability grant, you should have: clear assessment of need for particular pathway(s). confirmed partnerships with other postsecondary institutions. preliminary engagement of institutional stakeholders. assessment of accreditation requirements that could impact pathway viability. a prioritization exercise detailing which pathways make sense to pursue. transfer pathways funding b. pathway development grants: funding to support the development and creation of pathways with clear evidence of need and clearly explained demonstration of viability. c. pathway scaling grants: provide funding either to scale or remodel existing pathways. d. pathway remodeling grants: provide funding for pathways that require redevelopment based on changes in student demand, institution, curriculum/learning outcomes, or regional needs. at the end of your grant, you should have: approved pathways or pathways undergoing internal approvals. a plan for transfer student supports that will increase their successes posttransfer. seamless transfer funding areas of focus maximizing transfer credits: transform how credit transfer decisions are appealed, reversing the burden from students to institutions. institution-wide policy development: develop standardized policies that make transfer processes student-centred (e.g., by awarding block transfer credit/exemptions to graduates of programs). covid-19 transfer impact strategies: implement strategies that reduce disruptions caused by covid-19 on current and future transfer students. other seamless transfer ideas: in addition to these areas of focus, applicants can propose strategies that will make the transfer system more seamless through the seamless transfer ideas portal. transfer student action fund projects by and for transfer students that include: community-building: activities that help transfer students feel more connected and supported in their postsecondary education journey. tools and resources that support transfer students during and after the transfer process. awareness-raising activities that bring attention to transfer student experiences. other: ideas developed by transfer students to improve the transfer process. other funding opportunities research requests for proposals(deadline: january 18, 2021). grants $10,000$100,000. research ideas portal (ongoing intake). grants $10,000$100,000. research scans: (ongoing intake). grants $12,000$15,000. data linkages(deadline: february 1, 2021). grants up to $30,000. k-12-pse data linkages exploratory funding (ongoing intake). grants $10,000$30,000. postdoctoral research fellowship (deadline: january 13, 2021). $45,000 per year for terms up to two years. transfer pathways datapilot (deadline: january 25, 2021). grants $5,000$50,000. to address the challenges that communities and the province are facing, additional priorities may emerge; working with the mcu, oncat may release additional funding streams/rfps, which will be posted on www.oncat.ca. general tips reach out to discuss your project stay current by signing up for the oncat newsletter and follow us on in your proposal, please provide: clear alignment with oncat priorities evidence of need context, context, context! demonstrated partner roles and resource allocations outcomes that are student-centered realistic workplan and timelines how to apply proposals are accepted through oncats online application portal: https://www.grantinterface.com/process/apply?urlkey=oncat note: for funding streams with ongoing intake, please submit your proposals by february 2021 to ensure they are reviewed this fiscal year, and oncat will try to review proposals within four to six weeks on a rolling basis. next steps help us spread the word: share these funding opportunities across your networks next information session: research funding opportunities: december 8, 2020, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. get your application started create an account and review the application forms reach out with any questions and/or to discuss your ideas apply, apply, apply! questions?

oncat transfer data working group overview oncat is committed to working with postsecondary institutions to inform data reporting processes, including collecting and measuring key transfer student data. oncat is developing a working group, where oncat can share its approaches and methodologies for establishing baselines in key areas including: time-to-completion, excess credits, in-demand pathways and first-year transferability. the working group will help inform these methodologies and their use in transfer data reporting. purpose the transfer data working group will serve as an important advisory body to oncat, related to the development of data reporting approaches and transfer system metrics. this includes: examining proposed metrics relating to measuring time-to-completion for transfer students, in-demand pathways, first-year transferability, and how they may intersect with existing institutional metrics (e.g., for sma). examining oncats proposed metrics calculation methodology and provides recommendations to oncat to ensure alignment with existing methodology for deriving similar metrics. reviewing oncats preliminary calculations, provides feedback on data issues (e.g., sector-wide issues) affecting the quality of the metrics. recommend alternatives for data quality improvements. providing input to oncats research plan relating to transfer student success. membership the transfer data working group will comprise a mix of representatives from publicly assisted postsecondary institutions working in institutional enrollment, research and planning related departments. ideal candidates will have direct responsibility working with enrollment data (or more specifically transfer student related data), analysis and institutional reporting (collection, analysis, interpretation) at their institution . meetings the transfer data working group will begin meeting in november 2022 around some of the key priority metrics. this includes approaches to calculating time-to-completion, in-demand pathways and first year transferability. we anticipate the data working group will meet 4-6 times per year, to be determined with the committee. the initial term will be one year, with possibility of extension. how to join 1. there is a brief expression of interest form, you can access here 2. please submit your expression of interest by november 7, 2022. if you have any questions, please reach out to: melinda cheng, research data analyst, mcheng@oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario

summary may 15, 2020 caton projet # p1924 projet title: pathway development from laurentienne university b.a. in environmental studies to boral college and college la cit forestry or agricultural programs responsible institution: collge la cit projet duration: april 15, 2020 proposed update: lise frenette collge la cit lfrene@lacitec.on.ca 613 742-2483 .2023 www.oncat.ca | www.ontransfer.ca 180 dundas street w | suite 1902 toronto on, m5g 1z8 summary the main objective of this project was to study and analyze boral and la cits forestry and agricultural programs in order to develop agreements for laurentian university students/graduates wishing to pursue a college specialization related to their completed b.a. in environmental studies. forestry following a detailed analysis of the colleges and university programs (learning objectives, program and transversal skills), certain similarities were identified between the forestry college program and the b.a. in environmental studies. the common elements were found in some of the more theoretical courses in the colleges programs. despite certain similarities with the forestry programs, the current analysis is not conclusive. the college programs contain a much higher number of practical learning activities in the field, incompany activities and projects with local partners than the university program does. agricultural the agricultural programs at la cit and boral have only some common elements with the b.a. of environmental studies from laurentian university. following a detailed analysis, it was concluded that the majority of the learning outcomes related to specific skills, such as legislation related to the food industry, agricultural sciences, agricultural machinery, animal production, fruits and vegetables production and other notions directly related to the agricultural field, were not present in the universitys curriculum. general the detailed analysis of the programs course outlines, put forth the significant difference in the number of hours of practical/laboratory courses and experiential learning activities between the two colleges and laurentian university. because the practical dimension (specific skills, learning outcomes and work place components) constitutes more than 50% of the college programs, the alignment with the universitys more theoretical learning outcomes proved difficult. this analysis also brought to light the great challenge that the course offering in a college environment creates for the implementation of a reverse agreement with a university. several scenarios have been assessed, but issues remain unresolved such as the scheduling of specialized courses and internships which are offered according to a fixed timeline during the two years of a college program. in short, even with some common elements between the forestry programs and the b.a. in environmental studies, the course offering by the two colleges is currently proving to be too great a challenge. 1 additionnel note having adopted a new educational model focused on a competency-based approach, la cit is currently renewing all of its programs. once this exercise is completed, the college will be able to offer to students enrolled in a university program, wishing to develop their practical skills related to their career choice, specialized la carte courses and programs through smaller learning units. 2

project snapshot exploring transferability of indigenous cultural safety training programs within ontario project lead: canadore college project summary there is an urgent need for indigenous cultural safety (ics) across health care settings that address systemic stereotyping and discrimination and that encourage opportunities to access and utilize strength based approaches to care with indigenous populations (allan & smylie, 2015). responding to this need are the calls to action identified through the truth and reconciliation (trc). the trc calls for increased skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism for health practitioners such as medical and nursing students and increased recruitment and retention of aboriginal professionals on the healthcare field. post-secondary education (pse) is responding, with increased ics initiatives, with substantial growth in the areas of staff and faculty training and the inclusion of ics related content across curriculum. our project set out to identify and understand ics programs happening across pse, community and health organizations, and industry to explore potential pathway and transferability opportunities for learners. there is considerable ics growth emerging from pse schools of continuing studies or professional development centres, with four microcredentials launched within the last year. further, there is steady growth in community or health-based ics training programs. the work happening in the area of cultural safety training targets indigenous student and staff wellness and experience, faculty and staff skill development, retention of indigenous learners by fostering culturally safety educational experiences and curricula, and the continued commitment of pse to address the trc calls to action. literature highlights the inclusion of content relevant to ics, such as indigenous worldviews of health, healing, and wellness; history of colonization and assimilation polices and reflective practice in health science programs like nursing and medicine (baba, 2013 & royal college 2020). understanding aspects of cultural safety currently included across curriculum and programs will help us further understand transferability of such knowledge. gaps highlighted include institutional awareness of ics initiatives, the disconnection between ics initiatives driven by student success services and those undertaken by academic programs, as well as limited knowledge on what constitutes cultural safety. emerging themes included: 1. micro-credentials and professional certificates through schools of continuing education and professional development 2. the inclusion of ics cultural safety learning outcomes across curriculum, particularly within the health sciences, such as pgme and nursing. 3. the impact of regulatory bodies in driving change 4. the impact and relationship of ics growth to the trc 5. the focus of ics is on two main areas including retention of indigenous learners in health programs in canada and cultural competence curricula for indigenous and nonindigenous service providers who work with indigenous peoples project rationale there is an urgent need for ics across health care settings that address systemic stereotyping, discrimination, and that encourage opportunities to access and utilize strengthbased approaches to care with indigenous populations (allan & smylie, 2015). ics includes cultural sensitivity, awareness, and competence, but also reflects history, racism, oppression, and marginalization as well as systemic long-term change (baskin 2016). the well-established need for culturally safe healthcare aligns with recent truth and reconciliation recommendations to incorporate indigenous knowledge in health practices and offer skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism for health practitioners (churchill, parent-bergeron, smylie, ward, fridkin, smylie, and firestone, 2017). literature on cultural safety suggests a focus on two main areas including retention of indigenous learners in health programs in canada and cultural competence curricula for indigenous and non-indigenous service providers who work with indigenous peoples. the result is a focus on cultural safety education that either encourages indigenous people to pursue health careers to ensure culturally safe care or encourages cultural safety education and awareness for existing human service providers to increase capacity but little if any literature connects education and industry or explores long-term systemic change. there remains a broad consensus that cultural safety training programs will have little long-term impact on health care provider behaviours, patient outcomes, organizational transformation, and health inequities if they are developed and implemented without organization-wide and system-level support (baba, 2013; browne et al., 2015; durey, 2010; guerra & kurtz, 2016). the demand for ics training continues to rise as major employers such as the government of ontario, child welfare agencies, justice and health sectors, and private organizations mandate ics training for employees. within the past five years, the ontario indigenous cultural safety program has offered training to over 8,000 healthcare workers. in the past year alone, canadore college has trained over 300 pre-and post-licensure professionals. clearly, ics is gaining momentum as worthwhile training in healthcare and beyond. our project responds to the need for training across multiple public health professions and the climate of reconciliation in pse but also uniquely responds to the growing use of interprofessional education and simulation within health education. controlled learning simulations have been directly demonstrated as positively impacting patient safety. including the use of simulated participants offer learners opportunities to collaboratively address common barriers identified by indigenous populations when accessing health care, including but not limited to: lack of equal access to cancer screening and prevention programs, limited knowledge of indigenous cultural healing and wellness practices among practitioners, and communication challenges in hospital settings (ahmed & episkenew, 2015; shahid, finn & thompson, 2009). exploring pathways between industry-based ics professional development and pse will provide an important snapshot of the current state of ics arrangements that support the recognition/transferability of industry-based ics training or professional development by pse institutions. our research will serve as a baseline for future comparisons and articulate the value of ics competencies in pse, for health organizations and professional bodies and others carrying out this valuable work. methods we used a combination of web searches and informational interviews with staff at those institutions that currently offer ics (along with any program documents these individuals can provide). we also included a survey to overcome the challenge of limited responses during covid. we also collected information for the environmental scan from web pages, fact sheets, reports, publications, and other gray literature resources that are freely available to the public. information sources include: ontario pse websites government agency websites public health organizations professional association websites aboriginal health advocacy/ organization websites. limitations the project occurred during covid-19. because staff were transitioning to working from home, as well as transitioning into the summer layoff period for many support staff, there was poor uptake. further, there appeared to be an extraordinary turnover of staff, as many first point of contacts were in indigenous support services. limited to those who responded, which was not always necessarily the most knowledgeable in cultural safety the continuum of cultural safety definitions across institutions contacts were not familiar with the ics related learning outcomes within courses responses were not received from every invitation. this resulted in data gaps, despite sending an interview request and numerous other attempts to connect. web-based searches were often limiting, producing information that primarily focused on student experience of cultural safety (e.g., training for faculty or staff). research findings there is an abundance of work happening in the realm of cultural safety across ontario pse. we noted considerable ics growth in schools of continuing studies or professional development centres with four micro-credentials offered. the work happening in the area of cultural safety training is targeting indigenous student and staff wellness and experience, faculty and staff skill development, retention of indigenous of pse to address the trc calls to action. literature highlights substantial growth in the inclusion of content relevant to cultural safety (indigenous worldviews of health, healing and wellness; history of colonization and assimilation polices, reflective practice, to name a few) in the areas of health sciences, such as nursing and medicine (baba, 2013 & royal college, 2020). exploring learning outcome pertaining to ics across curricula will help us further understand transferability of such credits. however, institutional awareness of ics initiatives and a disconnection between student success services and initiatives happening across academic programs remain significant barriers to identifying and tracking this information. overall, five key themes emerged from the environmental scan, including: 1. growth in micro-credentials and professional certificates through schools of continuing education and professional development 2. the inclusion of ics learning outcomes across curriculum, particularly within the health sciences, such as pgme and nursing. 3. the relationship of ics to regulatory bodies 4. the trc as a driving force in ics work 5. the focus of ics is on two main areas including retention of indigenous learners in health programs in canada and cultural competence curricula for indigenous and nonindigenous service providers who work with indigenous peoples. of the ics programs reviewed, zero had prerequisites, 4 had micro-credentials, 3 had certificates of completion, and one had an indigenous health specialization. the length of programs varied from 3 to 14 hours with the larger cultural safety programs such as sanyas for example being 8-10 hours of online self-directed learning. course instructors delivered the micro-credentials, while the majority of community health driven programs were delivered through online self-directed modules. the pilot micro-credential programs secured additional funding to explore the development and implementation of micro-credentials. wise practice literature on cultural safety curriculum suggest that programs: 1. need to be evaluated 2. need detailed program descriptions in order to be consistently and reliably implemented and evaluated 3. would benefit from curriculum that focuses on power, privilege, and equity; is grounded in decolonizing, anti-racist pedagogy; and is based on principles from transformative education theory 4. must be led by trained facilitators 5. must be offered in effective learning spaces that both challenge resistance from nonindigenous peoples, and support non indigenous peoples to learn from their discomfort 6. need to prioritize support for indigenous learners 7. cannot work in isolation literature indicates that cultural safety training programs must be grounded in decolonizing, reflexive, anti-racist pedagogy to enable critical self-reflection and orient the curriculum towards the root causes of indigenous health inequities (churchill; parent-bergeron; smylie; ward, fridkin, smylie, and firestone, 2017). example content/modules of current programs reviewed included: 1. indigenous people of canada and terminology 2. major historical events from indigenous perspectives 3. impacts of the indian act, indian residential schools and the sixties (60s) scoop 4. self-awareness of inter-generational trauma 5. colonization, past and present 6. indigenous worldviews and wellness practices 7. respect and reconciliation in health care 8. indigenous teachings and advocacy in health care system transformation 9. existing trends and socioeconomic conditions impacting indigenous communities 10. indigenous determinants of health 11. creating self awareness that will support in establishing relationships with indigenous 1. communities 12. resources that will support further self-directed learning 13. exploring the health impacts of racism 14. cultural safety in the classroom: addressing anti-indigenous racism in education settings 15. addressing anti-indigenous racism in health care: strategies for implementing systemlevel change 16. indigenous health equity: examining racism as an indigenous social determinant of health 17. critical race theory and its implication for indigenous cultural safety 18. deconstructing racism strategies for organizational change 19. racism, reconciliation, and indigenous cultural safety 20. setting the context for indigenous cultural safety: facing racism in health future research continued work is needed to support institutional and system level ics initiatives and vision. ics initiatives need to connect to academic programs, student and staff services, and strategic directions and mandates within and between institutions as well as to industry. a strong ics landscape will uncover and promote uncharted student pathways and transfer opportunities related to ics. this project highlights the importance of cultural safety being incorporated within all aspects of pse. ics needs to be clearly defined and connected to driving forces such as the trc and regulatory bodies and acknowledged within institutional strategic plans and policies. we need culturally safe, informed employees and learners. we need to ensure stakeholders across the pse sector have a unified ics vision that supports institutions undertaking this important work. further exploration into the link between ics and the increased recruitment, retention and success of indigenous learners and faculty is also recommended to understand further benefits of ics. a more in-depth understanding of ics within pse is needed, including case studies that connect ics pse initiatives to industry and that profile lived experiences of indigenous learners, staff and faculty and indigenous communities. further, creating a common ics pathway /specialization for indigenous learners offers a unique pathway opportunity for indigenous learners and responds to the trc. student outcomes last, ics learning outcomes overlap greatly with the content of many indigenous health and social welfare programs, such as indigenous worldviews of healing and wellness; indigenous histories; the present day contexts of colonization; indigenous medicines, helpers and healers; indigenous determinants of health to name a few etc. as one example, many of the learning outcomes found within canadore colleges indigenous wellness and addiction prevention program map to biigiiweyans cultural safety training program learning outcomes. there is untapped potential for indigenous learners, if we can harness ics relevant course content to indigenous undergraduate programs, having learners come out with ics credentials or specialization. mapping ics content across indigenous health, wellness and social service programs offers opportunities to support indigenous learners in coming out with additional ics credentials/specialization that are increasingly being expected at the industry level. further, there is also potential to harness ics for indigenous student retention and pathways in health science programs, starting from indigenous preparatory programs, to undergraduate programs, to professional programs in pgme, to graduate programs and employment. programs such as the university of torontos collaborative specialization in indigenous health is an example of this approach at the graduate level. graduate students receive the notation completed collaborative specialization in indigenous health on their transcript and parchment and graduating students will have received knowledge of indigenous health issues, ways of knowing, and understand cultural safety as well as connect with indigenous knowledge holders and experts. institutional outcomes continued work is needed to support institutional and system level ics initiatives and vision. ics initiatives need to connect to academic programs, student and staff services and strategic directions and mandates within and between institutions, as well as to industry. a strong ics landscape will uncover and promote uncharted student pathways and transfer opportunities related to ics. this project highlights the importance of cultural safety being incorporated within all aspects of pse. ics needs to be clearly defined and connected to driving forces such as the trc and regulatory bodies and acknowledged within institutional strategic plans and policies. we need culturally safe, informed employees and learners. we need to ensure stakeholders across the pse sector have a unified ics vision that supports institutions undertaking this important work. further exploration into the link between ics and the increased recruitment, retention and success of indigenous learners and faculty is also recommended to understand further benefits of ics. a more in-depth understanding of ics within pse is needed, including case studies that connect ics pse initiatives to industry and that profile lived experiences of indigenous learners, staff and faculty and indigenous communities. further, creating a common ics pathway/specialization for indigenous learners offers a unique pathway opportunity for indigenous learners and responds to the trc. sector/system implications cultural safety is closely related to other concepts commonly referred to in the delivery of culturally appropriate healthcare and is positioned at one end of a continuum that begins with cultural awareness, moves through cultural sensitivity and cultural competency, and ends with cultural safety as a step-wise progression (churchill et al., 2017, p. 3). individually, cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, and cultural competence are important; however, none account for systemic obstacles that promote inequity (browne et al., 2009). whereas cultural competence emphasizes a set of congruent behaviours, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or amongst professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in a cross-cultural situation (cross, bazron, dennis, & isaacs, 1989, p. 28), cultural safety moves beyond a focus solely on the role of the practitioner to examine the structural power imbalances inherent to helping relationships between patients and health practitioners, and indeed the health care system as a whole. accordingly, cultural safety shifts power and authority to the indigenous patient receiving care, who is given the ultimate say in whether care provided was culturally safe or not (yeung, 2016, p. 4). to this end, cultural safety includes factors such as history, racism, oppression and marginalization, and the experiences and needs of indigenous populations (baskin 2016). continued work is needed to support institutional and system level ics initiatives and vision. ics initiatives need to connect to academic programs, student and staff services and strategic directions and mandates within and between institutions, as well as to industry. a strong ics landscape will uncover and promote uncharted student pathways and transfer opportunities related to ics.

2020/21 invitation for applications: oncat transfer faculty advisor (tfa) submission deadline: september 14, 2020 overview oncat will be inviting applications from faculty for the upcoming 20202021 academic year. this pilot initiative will support the design and development of articulation committees. articulation committees are formed around a particular subject of postsecondary study to review and increase course-to-course equivalencies within similar programs and support the development of transfer/articulation pathways. these committees aim to improve transfer opportunities for students by maximizing transfer credit recognition, where appropriate, and reducing duplication of commensurate previous learning. oncat will be launching the pilot with a focus on two disciplines: i) community/social services and ii) business. oncat is seeking faculty from colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in these fields. the pilot will have a maximum of six faculty, with ideally two faculty members representing both disciplines from each institution type. this is a pilot initiative and may be expanded and/or extended as required. the role of the transfer faculty advisor (tfa) is to: 1. work with oncat to identify relevant programs within each discipline for potential inclusion in disciplinary articulation committees. 2. facilitate collaboration between and within postsecondary institutions in their field of study to produce and communicate articulation pathways for students in ontario. 3. invite and engage faculty within their fields to increase participation to support the development of articulation committees. 4. serve as chairs of the articulation committees. 5. participate in knowledge mobilization and professional development as related to transfer and pathway development as required. 6. increase institutional knowledge about transfer-related data and transfer student experience in their faculty/department/institution. 7. improve academic processes related to evaluating transfer credits and working with transfer students. 8. share emerging models of successful student mobility initiatives. 01 about oncat established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) is a government-funded organization that works with all of ontarios 45 public colleges and universities to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer. oncats student website, ontransfer.ca, is a resource for anyone who is looking for information on how to obtain both a diploma and a degree or is hoping to transfer their courses and programs among the postsecondary institutions in the province. collaboration is at the core of oncats work, enabling us to leverage and build expertise and resources. projects in pathway development, research, and innovative transfer are an integral part of creating a system of mobility in ontario. through an annual rfp process, we provide funding to our publicly funded colleges, universities, and other postsecondary partners to develop and create pathways and agreements, examine student and institutional experiences of transfer, and improve transfer student success. submission criteria faculty should have at least five years of teaching and course/curriculum development experience in their respective discipline, with a good grasp of the curricular structure and design of programs in their area. administrative or curricular experience in articulation and transfer is preferred. this may include a background in the development or review of institutional policies, articulation and transfer pathway coordination, admission assessment, curricular assessment, and/or program quality assurance or development. the faculty member will have experience in participating and/or leading committees within their institutions and/or across the postsecondary sector. faculty must recognize the importance of a student-centred approach and understand that students transfer for many reasons. the role of these faculty advisorsand articulation committeesis to support transfer students in ontarios postsecondary education system. funding available and timelines the institution for each successful transfer faculty advisor candidate will receive $10,000, to be paid in two installments. this funding is intended as a contribution towards a course release for a full-time faculty member (exclusive of benefits) as well as incidental costs related to the planned events. the advisor will be employed by their institution and will not be an employee of oncat. a contract will be signed between the institution and oncat. the work of the tfa will begin in october 2020 and run until june 2021. 02 proposal submission process submissions should include the following components. submission deadline: september 14, 2020 1. a one-page proposal using the proposal submission form (see website for details). 2. a curriculum vitae (cv), including administrative/service and teaching roles. 3. a completed institutional sign-off page, including signatures from the faculty member, their department head, and the institutions vice-president academic. please submit the above documents by email to: cpoplak@oncat.ca. proposal evaluation process your proposal will be reviewed by oncat staff. additional reviewers from the sector may be engaged as required. in general, proposals will be evaluated according to their: clarity and comprehensiveness. demonstrated alignment and experience with the tfa role as outlined in the overview. after the initial review, we may follow up with proponents to address any questions that have arisen during our review. your prompt response is appreciated to expedite the review process. once any questions are addressed and a decision has been made, you will be notified via email. we aim to arrive at final decisions on most proposals by september 21, 2020. successful proponents successful proponents will be expected to enter into a formal agreement with oncat, which will outline the terms and conditions of funding, specifying the project goals, timelines, and expected deliverables. contact to submit an expression of interest, please email carolyn poplak, manager of sector engagement, at _________________ cpoplak@oncat.ca by september 7th, 2020. 03 covid-19 the ontario council on articulation and transfer office is closed temporarily in response to covid-19 and directives from public health agencies. however, oncat staff are working remotely and fulfilling all normal services to create strong academic pathways and reduce barriers for students in ontario. we will be accepting applications from faculty across the province and there is an expectation this work will be done remotely. in-person events may resume according to guidelines from public health. for oncats full statement on covid-19, please visit https://oncat.ca/en/oncat-covid-19-update. please note: the discipline focus and content areas may change at the discretion of oncat. 04

1 from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students claire henderson, academica group ursula mccloy, seneca college september 2019 this research was supported by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) (ref# 2016-10-research). an earlier version was posted on the oncat website. 2 contact information ursula mccloy, phd ursula.mccloy@senecacollege.ca the centre for research in student mobility, seneca college senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch 8 the seneca way markham, on l3r 5y1 416-491-5050 x77936 claire henderson claire@academicagroup.com academica group www.academicagroup.ca 131 wharncliffe road south, london, ontario n6j 2k4 519.433.8302 ext. 224 3 from application and beyond 4 table of contents executive summary ........................................................................................................................ 5 introduction ................................................................................................................................... 10 purpose of study ....................................................................................................................... 10 research questions ................................................................................................................... 10 literature review...........................................................................................................................11 research method .......................................................................................................................... 12 results ........................................................................................................................................... 15 phase one applicant profiles ................................................................................................ 15 sociodemographic characteristics ........................................................................................ 15 academic characteristics...................................................................................................... 16 decision-making process ..................................................................................................... 18 phase two follow-up survey results ................................................................................... 23 college applicants who aspired to a degree .......................................................................... 23 timing of decision to attend university, university transfers/aspirants vs direct entrants .... 26 transfer experience of college-to-university transfer students......................................... 27 postsecondary attendance of family members, college transfers vs. those with no previous pse........................................................................................................................................ 30 university transition experience of college transfers vs. those with no previous pse .... 31 conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 37 references ..................................................................................................................................... 39 from application and beyond 5 executive summary it has been well established that different segments of the population are more or less likely to aspire to and attend college or university. in particular, students with disabilities, low income students, first generation students, students from rural communities, indigenous students, and male students are less likely to attend university. these disparities in access are primarily a university issue, in that these groups are not generally underrepresented in colleges relative to the population. based on these findings, it has been suggested that enhancing the college-touniversity pathway may be a vehicle to reduce inequities in university access (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). the purpose of this study was to examine the profiles and pathways of college-to-university students in order to enhance our understanding of who is accessing this transfer pathway, and their unique needs and experiences. to do this, the study had two phases. in phase one, academica groups university and college applicant study (ucas) database was utilized in order to compare college applicants who aspired to a degree to those who do not, and to compare university applicants who had a previous college credential to those who had no previous pse experience. the results are based on a sample of over 125,000 ontario college and university applicants who participated in the ucas between 2010 and 2015. this included 70,813 survey respondents who had applied to ontario universities, and 57,839 survey respondents who had applied to ontario colleges. in the second phase, an online survey instrument was designed to track the pathways of applicants following their application to postsecondary education. in addition to demographic questions, the survey asked about students decision making process, application outcomes, motivations, postsecondary goals, use of support resources, and the transfer experience. of the 3,007 respondents who completed the survey, 1,985 fit the pathways of interest and were eligible to be included in the analysis. for analysis in both phase one and phase two, survey respondents were organized into four pathway college applicants/students who aspired to attend university vs those who did not from application and beyond 6 university applicants or students who had previous college (transfers) vs those without previous postsecondary education. four research questions guided this study: 1. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? 2. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? 3. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? 4. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? key findings related to each research question are summarized below, along with conclusions and next steps. phase 1: university college applicant survey how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? rural students, those with dependents, first generation students, students with a disability, indigenous students, caucasian/white students, students born in canada, and those who primarily spoke english at home made up a significantly larger proportion of the do not aspire to a degree group, compared to the aspire to a degree group. conversely, south asian, chinese, and black students, females, single students, and those under age 25 made up a larger proportion of the aspire to a degree group. interestingly, there was no difference between the two groups in the two socioeconomic indicators examined (i.e. use of government loans, and household income). academically, college applicants who aspired to a degree tended to have slightly higher high school gpas than those who did not aspire to a degree, and a slightly greater percentage had taken university preparatory courses in high school. there were also some notable differences in the decision-making profiles of the two groups. while the most commonly reported reason for applying to pse among both college applicants with degree aspirations and those without was to prepare to enter their chosen career, the largest from application and beyond 7 gaps between those who did and did not aspire to university were for pursuing further graduate or professional study and to complete the courses necessary to transfer. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? the profiles of university applicants with a previous college credential and those with no previous pse experience also differed significantly, with many of the traditionally underrepresented groups in university making up a larger proportion of the population with a previous college credential. in particular, there was a larger percentage of first generation students, students with a disability, lower income students, indigenous students, and rural students in the previous college credential group compared to the university applicant group with no previous pse. college transfer students were also more likely to have identified as white/ caucasian, or black, and less likely to indicate they were chinese or south asian. academically, university applicants who had completed a college credential were much less likely to have taken university preparatory courses in high school than those with no previous pse experience, and their average high school gpa was significantly lower. more applicants with a previous college credential reported that hybrid/blended learning was their preferred course delivery format, though overall on-campus courses were preferred by the largest proportion of both groups. motivations for applying to pse and information sources used differed between these two groups as well, though the most striking finding was that university applicants with a previous college credential showed much greater certainty that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career and that their academic program was right for them. when compared to those with no previous pse, applicants with a college credential were more likely to state that they were applying to pse to advance in their current career, and less likely to state that it was to become actively involved in student life and campus activities, that they had been encouraged or expected to go, or to meet new people. traditional university channels for information provision, such as viewbooks, brochures, open houses, and university fairs are not being heavily accessed by college-to-university transfer students. rather these students seem to rely more on from application and beyond 8 interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances, such as emails and phone calls with university staff, talking with a professor, and informal visits to campus. phase 2: follow-up survey what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? of the college applicants with degree aspirations who responded to the follow-up survey, about half still aspired to complete a degree, 13.4% had successfully transferred, and 39.4% no longer had aspirations for a degree. while just over one-third of those who no longer aspired reported that their interests had simply changed, an equal proportion stated that they no longer planned to attain a degree because they could not afford university. among college students who still aspired to complete a degree, approximately one-third did not know whether there was a formal transfer agreement in place between their college program and the university program they would apply to, and two-fifths did not know how much credit they expected to receive for their college education. lack of guidance on application procedures, a lack of clarity between various credit granting processes, and finding/confirming requirements for transfer credits were the most frequently anticipated challenges. however, 42% said they did not expect to experience any challenges in transferring to university. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? university students with a previous college credential were less satisfied than non-transfer students with all aspects of their universitys application and transition process that were examined. areas where the largest proportions of college-to-university transfer students felt their university needed improvement was in relation to academic orientation, providing information about the admissions process and requirements, providing information about required courses, and campus orientation. in comparison to non-transfer students, college-to-university transfer students were more likely to participate in classroom discussion and engage in studentfaculty interactions such as from application and beyond 9 discussing assignments/grades, ideas, and career plans, but were less likely to engage in oncampus volunteer activities, student clubs, and cultural events. in terms of on-campus resources, financial aid and personal counseling were accessed by a greater proportion of college-to-university transfer students than non-transfer students, but fewer accessed orientation programs and recreation and athletic facilities. conclusions the results of this study confirm previous research showing that the college-to-university transfer student population has a relatively large proportion of traditionally under-represented groups compared to those who are entering university from high school, supporting the idea that the college-to-university pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). these students were shown to be highly engaged in their learning and academically confident, however, the results also suggest that more work needs to be done to support both the admissions process and the university transition experience. collegeto-university transfer students are relying less on traditional university channels for information provision, and are instead relying more on interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances. similarly, university orientation programming is often geared primarily to the direct-entry student and transfer students are much less likely to participate. orientation, particularly to the academic expectations of university, was a key area where transfer students felt their university needed to improve. while college-to-university transfer students tend to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom is a challenge. this is likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial support. developing flexible ways to enrich the non-academic experience of college-to-university transfer students should be a priority. overall, this study, as well as previous research suggests that increasing the number of students utilizing the college-to-university transfer pathway should enhance the diversity in the student population in university, and at the same time increase numbers of academically engaged students. both of these factors would likely enrich the university environment overall. from application and beyond 10 introduction it has been well established that different segments of the population are more or less likely to aspire to and attend postsecondary education (pse). in particular, students with disabilities, low income students, first generation students, students from rural communities, indigenous students, and male students are less likely to attend university (finnie et al, 2011). the underrepresentation of such groups is primarily a university issue, however, they are not generally underrepresented in colleges relative to the general population. therefore, it has been suggested that enhancing the college-to-university pathway may be a vehicle to reduce inequities in university access (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). purpose of study the purpose of this study was to profile and examine the pathways of college-to-university students in order to enhance our understanding of the needs and experiences of students who access this transfer pathway. to do this, the motivations, experiences and outcomes of the following groups of ontario students were examined: college applicants/students who aspired to attend university vs those who do not university applicants or students who have previous college (transfers) vs those without previous postsecondary education. research questions two study phases were conducted to answer the following research questions: phase 1: college and university applicants 1. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? 2. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? phase 2: follow- up survey of college and university applicants: from application and beyond 11 1. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? 2. what were the transition experiences of students who successfully transferred to university? 3. how do college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse compare in terms of their transition to university, service use, and overall student engagement? literature review over the past two decades, college-to-university transfer has become an important pathway for degree attainment for many ontario students. as a result, research exploring issues and trends related to the experiences and outcomes of ontarios transfer students has increased significantly (smith et al., 2016; oncat, 2013). ten years ago, decock (2006) found that there was an increasing number of college students who wished to attend university after graduation, rather than enter the workforce. the results of this study suggested that more and more students were entering college with the intent of transferring to university, leading to the conclusion that students are consciously enrolling in colleges for the purpose of transferring to university even though colleges and their programs were not established for this function. research examining the different pathways between colleges and universities has consistently shown that college-to-university transfer students tend to belong to underrepresented groups such as those with disabilities, aboriginal students, and first generation students (kerr et al., 2010; sidhu et al., 2016). the question of why students aspire to transfer to degree programs has also been considered. according to a recent study (gorman et al., 2012), many college students feel that their diploma provides them with limited career opportunities and view obtaining a degree as a way to enhance their career options. indeed, research indicates that some of the most common reasons ontario students transfer from college to university is because they want to prepare for future career opportunities, attain a credential, upgrade their training and skill set, and/or increase their earning potential (mccloy, decock, & steffler, 2017; oncat, 2013; smith et al., 2016). lack of work for college graduates, or changing their field of study were among the least cited reasons for transferring (mccloy, et al, 2017). from application and beyond 12 in addition to being a more diverse population, transfer students have been shown to be more academically engaged and academically confident (pendleton & lambert-maberly, 2006) and more academically resourceful (kennett & maki, 2014) than direct entry students. however, qualitative research has shown that college transfers express concern about their preparedness academically (gawley & mcgowan, 2006; carleton university, 2013). college to university transfer students have been shown to be less interested in general orientation programs (which often target younger students) and to be more interested in program specific/academic orientation programs (carleton university, 2013). this study also showed that college transfers experience difficulties integrating socially which, in addition to being older, may be associated with transfer students upper year entry into programs in which peer groups may already be established. continued investigation into the characteristics and experiences of the college-to-university transfer pathway is needed, as those who aspire to transfer to obtain a degree do not necessarily reach their intended goals (smith et al., 2016). understanding why some achieve their goals while others do not may enable the creation of better supports that facilitate the college to university pathway, and help to reduce access inequalities (kerr et al., 2010). improvement to the transfer system alone, however, does not guarantee that the transfer process will take place. students perceptions of real and/or anticipated opportunities and challenges may be influenced by factors such as institutional structure, academic standards, accessibility, financial assistance, and the availability of student services. research method the first phase of this project utilized 2010-2015 data from academica groups university/college applicant study (ucas) 1 database in order to compare college applicants who aspired to a university credential to those who did not, as well as to compare university for more than a decade, academica groups ucas study has been providing universities and colleges across canada. each year, approximately 15,000 to 20,000 applicants to ontario colleges and universities participate in the online survey, undertaken in partnership with the ontario colleges application service (ocas) and participating ontario postsecondary institutions. 1 from application and beyond 13 applicants with previous college credentials to those without previous postsecondary experience. descriptions of each group and the corresponding sample size are provided in table 1 and table 2. table 1 description of college applicant ucas sample college applicants aspire to a degree do not aspire to a degree remainder of sample (excluded from analysis) n size 22,600 35,239 14,579 description responses to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain?, were degree or postgrad credential; did not have a degree already responses to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain? were 1, 2, or 3 year cert/ diploma; did not have a degree already response to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain? was dont know or indicated they already had a degree (separate question) table 2 description of university applicant ucas sample university applicants previous college credential no previous pse remainder of sample (excluded from analysis) n size 2,759 68,054 7,249 description applicants to an ontario university whose highest level of education was a completed college or trades credential applicants to an ontario university whose highest level of education was a high school diploma university applicants with incomplete pse, or university degrees in the second phase, an online survey was conducted to track the pathways of applicants following their application to postsecondary education. the survey followed up with the college applicants who had aspired to a degree, and university applicants who indicated they had attended previous college or university, and university applicants who indicated they had no previous pse groups. of the group who initially indicated they had incomplete college or university, they were disqualified from the follow up survey if they indicated they had attended university rather than college. in addition to demographic questions, the survey asked about from application and beyond 14 students decision making processes, application outcomes, motivations, postsecondary goals, access to support resources, and the transfer experience. the survey invitation was sent to 51,132 college and university applicants who had completed the ucas between 2010 and 2015, met the study criteria, indicated they were interested in participating in further research, and had provided a valid email address. 3,007 individuals responded to the survey. of these, 914 were disqualified, 2 with the remaining 2,093 respondents completing the survey. the survey was in field from november 1 to december 9, 2016. respondents were organized into four pathways based on their survey responses: no longer aspire: respondents indicated that they had not enrolled in university and no longer planned to do so (n=185). still aspire: respondents indicated that they had not yet entered university but that they still planned to do so in the future (n=221). transferred: respondents indicated that they had entered university after attending college (n=122). this population includes those who were originally college applicants who aspired to university and indicated they were attending in the follow-up survey (n=63), as well as university applicants who indicated they previously attended college (n=59). no previous pse: respondents indicated that they had entered university and did not have any previous pse experience (n=1,449) a further 102 respondents indicated they had previously attended university or had attended both college and university and were not included in the present report. respondents invited to the survey from the university applicant pool were disqualified if they indicated that they ended up attending a university outside of ontario or did not attend university. respondents invited to the survey from the college applicant pool were disqualified if they indicated that they did not end up attending college or if they indicated they previously attended university. 2 from application and beyond 15 results phase one applicant profiles in this section, we present the phase one research results, which involved an analysis of 2010 to 2015 ucas data comparing college applicants who aspired to a degree to those who did not, as well as comparing university applicants with a previous college credential to non-transfer students. sociodemographic characteristics table 3 presents the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents. compared to nonaspirants, significantly more college applicants who aspired to complete a university degree were female, under age 25, black, chinese, south asian, and single or never married. there was a significantly smaller proportion who were caucasian/white, born in canada, spoke english at home, lived in a rural community, had a disability, were first generation, and had dependents under age 15. for the university applicants, compared to those with no previous pse, a significantly greater proportion of college transfer students were female, caucasian/white, indigenous, black, and born in canada. in addition, significantly more transfer students were from a rural area, identified as having a disability, were first generation students, supported dependents, had an income less than $60,000, and were using government loans to pay for their education. compared to college transfer students, a greater proportion of university applicants with no previous pse were less than age 25, chinese, south asian, and single. from application and beyond 16 table 3 sociodemographic characteristics college applicants aspire to a do not aspire to a degree degree 59.1% 52.8% % female university applicants previous college no previous credential pse 57.3% 54.1% % <25 years old 86.1% 81.8% 72.8% 99.7% % caucasian/white 56.2% 65.0% 60.7% 49.2% % indigenous 5.5% 6.5% 4.9% 2.0% % black 11.1% 8.6% 9.6% 6.6% % chinese 5.3% 3.9% 5.7% 16.3% % south asian 7.8% 4.3% 8.1% 15.3% % born in canada 78.9% 86.4% 71.5% 67.6% % english spoken at home 79.0% 86.3% 82.0% 71.8% - - 5.8% 6.1% % rural 23.2% 32.2% 20.3% 15.8% % with a disability 10.5% 13.8% 9.3% 4.5% % first generation 19.9% 25.0% 22.0% 10.6% % single, never married 83.8% 80.6% 82.9% 91.9% % with dependents <15 7.2% 9.5% 8.4% 0.7% % income <$60,000 35.9% 37.1% 40.9% 23.2% % using govt loans 24.6% 24.7% 24.0% 17.0% % international 3 academic characteristics with respect to academic background, a significantly higher proportion of college applicants who aspired to a university degree indicated that they took mostly university preparatory courses while in high school (27.1%) than did non-aspirants (23.8%). those who aspired to a degree were also significantly more likely to have obtained a high school gpa higher than 85% (figure 1). significantly more university applicants who had no previous pse indicated taking university preparatory courses (89.7%) while in high school compared to college transfer students (36.7%). for ontario colleges, international students do not apply through ocas and therefore were not included in the survey results for college applicants. 3 from application and beyond 17 those with no previous pse were also more likely to have a high school grade average greater than 85% (figure 1). additionally, applicants without previous pse were much more likely to apply to selective universities (entering average> 85%) than applicants with a previous college credential (59.8% vs 34.4%). figure 1 high school grades by pathway with regards to preferred type of program delivery, differences between college applicants who aspired to a university degree and those who did not were not particularly noteworthy. however, there were some important differences between college transfer students and those with no previous pse. while in-class/on-campus courses were heavily favoured by both groups, college transfer students showed a greater preference for hybrid/blended and online/distance courses than those with no previous pse (table 4). from application and beyond 18 table 4 preferred course delivery format college applicants do not aspire to a aspire to a degree degree online/distance 2.3% 2.7% in-class/oncampus 75.3% hybrid/blended no preference university applicants previous no previous college pse credential 4.7% 1.8% 77.4% 65.9% 77.6% 18.4% 15.8% 26.4% 15.3% 4.0% 4.0% 3.0% 5.2% decision-making process career preparation was the most important reason for applying to pse for college applicants regardless of whether they aspired to a university degree (table 5.). not surprisingly, a significantly larger proportion of applicants with aspirations for a degree reported that completing courses necessary to transfer to a university was a reason for applying compared to those who did not aspire to a degree. there was also a much larger proportion of degree aspirants reporting that pursuing further graduate or professional study, giving back to society, and becoming actively involved in student life were reasons for applying. among university applicants, the most commonly selected reasons for pursing pse were similar between college transfer students and those with no previous pse; however, the no previous pse group tended to have a larger proportion of respondents selecting each reason (table 5). when compared to those with no previous pse, applicants with a college credential were significantly more likely to state that one of their reasons for applying to pse was to advance in their current career, to complete courses necessary to transfer to a different college or university, or because they could not find a job. applicants with no previous pse were much more likely to state that they were pursing pse to become actively involved in student life and campus activities, because their friends or teachers expected/encouraged them to go, and to meet new people. interestingly, university applicants who already have a college credential were more likely to indicate they from application and beyond 19 were applying to advance their career than those without pse (37.4% vs 19.8%), but less likely to indicate they were applying to prepare to enter their chosen career (68.7% vs 82.6%), indicative of the career laddering aspect of college to university transfer. table 5 reasons for applying to pse college applicants do not aspire to a aspire to a degree degree university applicants no previous college previous credential pse to prepare to enter my chosen career 81.5% 80.6% 68.7% 82.6% to explore options for my future 66.5% 62.7% 64.0% 76.3% for personal and intellectual growth 68.7% 60.6% 72.3% 79.3% to increase my knowledge and understanding of an academic field 68.6% 59.9% 72.1% 80.0% to increase my earning potential 61.4% 57.5% 64.9% 66.9% to pursue future graduate or professional study 59.6% 39.2% 62.8% 69.8% to meet new people 48.8% 45.2% 39.9% 65.0% 42.0% 39.9% 40.4% 43.1% 36.8% 33.3% 28.2% 52.3% to improve my leadership skills 37.5% 31.7% 36.9% 48.1% to enable me to "give back" to society 34.6% 26.0% 35.9% 39.4% to become actively involved in student life and campus activities 29.6% 23.4% 24.6% 50.0% to advance in my current career 22.9% 20.9% 37.4% 19.8% to improve my social status 24.2% 20.7% 25.4% 27.5% to complete the courses necessary to transfer to a (different) university 23.9% 7.2% 10.2% 4.9% i could not find a job 4.6% 6.7% 7.5% 1.5% to complete the courses necessary to transfer to a (different) college 6.7% 4.0% 4.5% 2.1% i could not think of anything else to do after high school 4.1% 4.0% 2.4% 7.2% none of the above 0.3% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% to enhance my self-confidence and selfesteem my parents/friends/teachers expected or encouraged me to go in terms of information sources used when researching their pse options, more college applicants who aspired to a university degree reported using almost every information source from application and beyond 20 than those who did not aspire to a degree (table 6). the largest differences were in relation to the use of macleans rankings, university/college fairs, talking to a professor, and high school presentations/visits. among university applicants, those who were transferring from college were more likely to report talking to a professor or accessing an institutional calendar as sources of information. however, they were less likely to report accessing almost every other information source, with the exception of institutional websites. table 6 information sources college applicants aspire to a do not aspire degree to a degree university applicants previous college no previous credential pse institution website 87.3% 82.6% 89.9% 90.9% viewbook 68.3% 59.9% 58.5% 87.1% education-related web-portals 78.9% 74.7% 63.7% 83.3% brochures 54.5% 45.7% 53.4% 76.6% current students/graduates 55.6% 47.3% 61.2% 72.7% emails after application 60.3% 55.8% 63.4% 69.9% hs presentations/visits 42.8% 34.8% 24.5% 67.0% friends 50.6% 45.2% 56.3% 66.0% parents/family members 42.6% 37.1% 41.5% 64.8% guidance counsellor 45.3% 40.7% 20.5% 53.4% teacher 35.7% 29.7% 18.2% 53.1% mail received after application 43.7% 40.1% 45.7% 52.1% university/college fair 28.8% 21.6% 21.7% 51.2% maclean's ranking 12.8% 5.9% 25.7% 48.9% open house 36.4% 36.3% 22.4% 44.4% formal tour 27.8% 25.0% 20.2% 44.2% calendar 35.7% 30.5% 47.7% 42.9% informal/unofficial visit 28.8% 24.5% 34.0% 38.5% facebook 29.6% 27.8% 24.0% 35.1% phone calls after application 33.5% 28.4% 32.3% 33.2% talking to a professor 27.8% 22.5% 39.1% 29.1% from application and beyond 21 when asked about their certainty that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career, the difference between college applicants who aspired to a university credential and those who did not was statistically significant but small and there was no difference in the level of certainty that their academic program was right for them (figure 2). among university applicants, however, a much higher percentage of college transfer students indicated that they were very certain that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career, and that their academic program was right for them, when compared to those with no previous pse (figure 2). figure 2 program certainty 60% 50% 48.3% 51.6% 51.1% 44.2% 43.6% 44.8% 38.3% 40% 30.6% 30% 20% 10% % do not aspire to a degree aspire to a degree college applicants previous college credential no previous pse university applicants % very certain academic program is the path to a satisfying career % very certain academic program is right for them for all respondents, the single most important factor in their decision process when considering pse options was program reputation (table 7). overall academic reputation was slightly more important to college applicants who aspired to a degree than those who did not, while proximity of the institution to home was slightly more important to applicants who did not aspire to a degree. differences between university applicants with no previous pse and college transfer students were more pronounced. when compared to university applicants with no previous pse, a from application and beyond 22 significantly greater percentage of transfer students indicated institutional proximity to their home as the single most important factor. in contrast, university students with no previous pse were significantly more likely to have made their decision based on factors such as academic reputation and campus experience. table 7 factors contributing to pse options college applicants aspire to a degree university applicants do not aspire to a previous college no previous degree credential pse strong reputation in my specific program of interest 36.3% 32.9% 36.1% 37.6% strong overall academic reputation 11.3% 7.9% 15.8% 21.1% institutions were close to home 17.1% 21.5% 17.8% 7.0% strong reputation for graduates having good careers 17.7% 19.3% 12.4% 15.6% financial reasons 5.3% 6.1% 5.1% 3.5% strong reputation for campus experience 2.8% 2.6% 1.7% 6.7% strong reputation for teaching 3.2% 2.7% 2.1% 2.5% where my friends are going 1.0% 1.3% 1.0% 0.6% none of the above 5.4% 5.7% 8.1% 5.2% from application and beyond 23 phase two follow-up survey results results of the follow-up survey conducted with college applicants who aspired to a degree, university applicants with previous college, and university applicants with no previous pse are presented in this section. college applicants who aspired to a degree of the 469 college applicants surveyed who had originally aspired to complete a university degree, 13.4% indicated that they had transferred to a university, 47.1% indicated that they still aspired to a complete a university degree, and 39.4% no longer had aspirations for a degree. differences in gender, age, and first generation student status were examined, but only gender was found to be significantly related to aspiration outcomes; 63.4% of women still aspired to a degree or had transferred to university compared to 52.9% of men. of those who no longer intended to pursue a university degree, the top two most commonly reported reasons were a change in their interests and an inability to afford university (figure 3). other reasons reported by at least one-quarter of respondents were that they had a job, preferred college, and felt they did not need a university education. interestingly, reasons related to the transfer process itself, such as its complexity, pre-requisites, provision of transfer credit, or receiving an offer, were far down the list. from application and beyond 24 figure 3 reasons for no longer wanting to attend university interests have changed 36.8% cannot afford university 36.2% have a job 29.7% prefer college 28.6% do not need university education 28.1% does not suit my learning style 16.8% family obligations 10.3% too many pre-requisites 9.7% health reasons inflexible course delivery 7.0% 4.3% transfer process too complicated 3.2% was not accepted 2.7% did not receive enough transfer credit 2.7% my parents wanted me to go 2.7% universities are too far from home other 1.6% 2.2% among those who still planned to pursue a university degree, most said that the university program they intended to take was related to their previous program (86.0%) and half were aware of a formal transfer agreement between their current/past college program and the university program they would apply to (50.7%). one third of respondents, however, did not know if there was a formal transfer agreement (33.9%). while respondents varied in how much credit they estimated they would receive, two-fifths reported that they did not know (figure 4). from application and beyond 25 figure 4 estimated transfer credit expect to receive 1 semester 8.1% 2 semesters 15.4% 3 semesters 5.9% 4 semesters or more 21.3% none 6.8% don't know 42.5% over half of those who still aspired to a university degree said that they anticipated experiencing challenges when transferring to a university program from college (57.9%). the most commonly anticipated challenges associated with transferring were a lack of guidance on application procedures, a lack of clarity between various credit granting processes, and finding/confirming requirements for transfer credits (figure 5). figure 5 anticipated challenges when transferring to university lack of guidance on application procedures 29.0% lack of clarity between credit granting processes 27.1% finding/confirming requirements for transfer credit 25.3% i won't receive the amount of credits i was expecting 21.3% application process will be too complicated 21.3% submitting applications 21.3% inconsistent/inadequate information from sources 17.2% access to transcripts 15.8% the amount of time for a response will be too long 15.4% lack of clear documentation requirements 15.4% assistance with grade calculation(s) adjusting to academic rigour of university other no challenges anticipated 11.8% 1.8% 4.1% 42.1% from application and beyond 26 timing of decision to attend university, university transfers/aspirants vs direct entrants stark differences are seen by pathway in terms of when the decision to attend university was made (figure 6). the vast majority of non-transfer students (69%) always assumed they would go to university, with a further 9% deciding before high school. in contrast, only 29% of students who transferred from college, or were planning to transfer to university always knew, with almost half deciding either during or after college. figure 6 evolution of university plans by pathway 80% 70% 69% 60% 50% 40% 30% 27% 25% 20% 10% 0% 4% always knew / assumed i would attend 9% grade 8 or before 15% 8% 9% 7% grade 9-11 grade 12 college transfers/ aspirants in college 23% after attending college direct entry university *college transfers/ aspirants include both those who still aspired to university and those who had transferred, n=343; direct entry university include those with no prior pse, n=1449 since ontario high schools have a destination based curriculum, with university, college and workplace streams it is informative to compare the timing with the decision to apply to university with the type of preparatory courses taken in high school for those who transferred to university or were planning to transfer (figure 7). when the decision to attend university is analyzed by course selection, it is evident that transfer students who decided before high school also chose university preparatory courses. students deciding later are far less likely to have taken the required courses to enter university directly and would need to take the college transfer route in order to be eligible for university. from application and beyond 27 figure 7 timing of decision to attend university by courses taken in high school, university transfers and students who aspire to transfer 120% 100% 80% 72% 60% 15% 20% 40% 20% 0% 31% 50% 54% 16% 31% 12% college or workplace combination of university / college preparation before hs/ always assumed in hs mostly university preparation during or after college transfer experience of college-to-university transfer students current or former university students who indicated they had previously attended college were asked a series of questions about their transfer experience. these results are presented here. transfer credits college-to-university transfer students most commonly found out they were receiving credit when they received their offer of admission, or at/before registration, and most said that the timing was acceptable to them (table 8). the actual amount of credit received varied, although the most common scenario was for students to have received credit for two semesters of their university program, followed by no credit (table 8). among those who applied for credit, almost half received the same amount of credit as they expected (48.4%), while one in three students indicated that they received less than expected (33.0%), and 11.0% received more than expected. just under half of college-to-university transfer students stated that there was a formal transfer agreement between their past college program and the university program they enrolled in (45.9%). from application and beyond 28 table 8 approval process, amount of credit, & timing how much credit did you receive? when did you find out you were receiving credit? was this timing acceptable to you? relative to what you expected, the amount of credit you received was: % 23.0% 15.6% 23.8% 6.6% 18.9% 12.3% 32.0% 25.4% 17.2% 1.6% 2.5% 6.6% 14.8% 87.1% 12.9% 33.0% 48.4% 11.0% 7.7% none 1 semester 2 semesters 3 semesters 4 semesters or more don't know with offer of admission at or before registration after registration have not heard yet have not applied for credit yet am not applying for credit don't know yes no less than expected same as expected more than expected don't know when asked to reflect back on how well they understood the transfer process before they applied to university, transfer students were four times more likely to indicate that they did not understand the process at all before applying (22.1%) than to say that they completely understood (5.7%) (figure 8). figure 8 understanding of transfer process before applying to university not at all 22.1% slightly 15.6% moderately 43.4% very completely 13.1% 5.7% from application and beyond 29 resources the three most commonly used resources for information on transferring to university were a university website or publication, university staff, and other students (figure 9). figure 9 sources of information used regarding transferring to university university website / publications university staff other students college faculty/program coordinators parents / family college staff college website / publications ontario college university transfer guide ontransfer.ca other 63.9% 36.9% 32.8% 27.0% 25.4% 23.8% 23.0% 7.4% 4.9% 1.6% use of, and satisfaction with, transfer advising services only 37.7% of college-to-university transfer students said that their college offered advising with respect to helping students transfer to university. of these, about half used the services at their college (54.3%), and most found the services to be very or extremely helpful (72.0%). with regard to the university that they transferred into, more than half stated the university offered student advising to help them with the transfer process (55.7%). of these, 70.6% said they used this service and 66.7% rated the overall helpfulness of these services as either extremely or very helpful. satisfaction with transition process only three-fifths of those who transferred said they were satisfied overall with the transition from college to their university program (60.7%), with 12.8% saying that they were dissatisfied. challenges transfer students were asked the same set of questions regarding challenges in the transfer process as those who planned on transferring as described previously. the most commonly from application and beyond 30 experienced challenge that students faced when transferring to university was a lack of guidance on application procedures (25.4%), followed by not receiving the amount of credit they were expecting (23.0%) (table 9). overall, 37.7% of transfer students reported no challenges when transferring to university, slightly lower than the proportion of pre-transfer students who anticipated challenges (42.1%) (figure 5). one of the largest differences in anticipated and actual barriers was that the application process would be too complicated, cited by 21.3% of students pre-transfer, versus only 4.1% post-transfer. caution needs to be exercised when comparing the population aspiring to transfer and the population who did transfer, since the challenges cited by the aspirants may reduce their likelihood of transferring. table 9 challenges experienced by college to university transfers challenges experienced did not experience any challenges lack of guidance on application procedures i didn't receive the amount of credits i was expecting inconsistent or inadequate information from various sources finding/confirming requirements for transfer credit lack of clarity between various credit granting processes submitting applications lack of clear documentation requirements the amount of time it took to get a response was too long access to transcripts; multiple transcript requests for course credits applied in different areas of same institution assistance with grade calculation(s) the application process will be too complicated other *multiple response question, respondents selected all that applied % 37.7% 25.4% 23.0% 18.9% 18.0% 16.4% 14.8% 13.9% 11.5% 11.5% 9.0% 4.1% 1.6% postsecondary attendance of family members, college transfers vs. those with no previous pse in phase two, the follow up survey, college students and graduates who transferred to university were asked more detailed questions about their parents and siblings previous education (figure 10). college transfer students are far less likely to have a parent with a university degree, but more likely to have a parent with a college credential compared to those without previous pse. likewise, for those with siblings, transfer students are much less likely to have sibling who have gone to university, than students who entered directly. from application and beyond 31 figure 10 postsecondary attendance of family members, college transfers vs direct entry university students. 80% 73% 70% 57% 60% 49% 50% 48% 38% 40% 25% 30% 20% 10% 0% at least one parent has a degree at least one parent has a college/ trade credential college transfer students sibling has attended university no previous pse university transition experience of college transfers vs. those with no previous pse the phase 1 results showed that university applicants with a previous college credential are a very different population than university applicants with no previous pse. this section follows up with transfer students after their entrance to university to compare the transition experience with those who had no previous postsecondary experience. satisfaction when asked to rate their university with respect to various factors related to orientation, and information provision around applications and course requirements, university students with no previous pse experience rate their university much more favourably than college transfer students (figure 11-figure 13). in terms of campus orientation, 80% of non-transfer students rated special programs to orient you to campus and campus activities as outstanding or satisfactory compared to 64% transfer students (figure 11). an additional 17% of college transfers reported dont know versus only 4% of those without previous pse. for satisfaction with academic orientation, only 71% compared with 57% found the programs satisfactory or outstanding. additionally, 12% of college transfers versus 6% without pse responded dont know when asked about special from application and beyond 32 programs to orient you to academics and academic expectations. these findings likely indicate that most orientation and transition processes are centered on more traditional students than students coming from other pathways. figure 11 satisfaction with orientation programs, college transfers and non-transfers, university students, 2010-2016 120% 100% 80% 4% 17% 35% 24% 60% 40% 6% 15% 23% 42% 40% 45% 19% 16% college transfer students no previous pse 20% 0% 12% 48% 31% college transfer students 23% no previous pse special programs to orient you to campus and special programs to orient you to academics and campus activities academic expectations needs improvement satisfactory outstanding don't know overall both transfer and non-transfer students were satisfied with the timeliness of their application processing and notification of acceptance (figure 12). however, transfer students were much less likely to rate their satisfaction as outstanding for each measure. from application and beyond 33 figure 12 satisfaction with application process, college transfers and non-transfers 120% 100% 80% 25% 38% 30% 46% 60% 40% 61% 50% 20% 0% 57% 44% 12% 8% 12% 8% college transfer students no previous pse college transfer students no previous pse timeliness of application processing needs improvement satisfactory timeliness of notification of your acceptance outstanding don't know about one-quarter of transfer students felt their university needed improvement in the area of providing information about the admission process and admission requirements (24%), compared to only 9% of university students with no previous pse (figure 13). transfer students were also much less likely to consider information provided on course requirements for their majors to be outstanding. from application and beyond 34 figure 13 satisfaction with information provision for requirements of chosen major, college transfers versus non-transfers 120% 100% 25% 27% 80% 40% 23% 36% 36% 60% 48% 40% 0% 24% 9% college transfer students no previous pse 46% 50% 49% 20% 52% 53% 21% college transfer students 13% no previous pse 23% 17% college transfer students no previous pse providing information about the providing information about the providing information about the admission process and admission general education requirements required courses for your chosen major for your chosen major requirements for your chosen major needs improvement satisfactory outstanding don't know academic preparation looking back to when they began university, the majority of respondents from both groups tended to say that they felt they were moderately or completely prepared for university (table 10). the only significant difference was that a larger proportion of college transfer students said they were moderately prepared compared to those with no previous pse. table 10 how academically prepared do you feel you were for university? completely very moderately slightly not at all college transfer students 11.5% 23.8% 50.0% 10.7% 4.1% no previous pse 12.4% 29.0% 38.6% 13.5% 6.4% from application and beyond 35 engagement transfer students were more likely to be academically engaged than students without previous pse (figure 14). transfer students were much more likely to participate in classroom discussion (59.8%) than non-transfer students (40.2%). they were also more likely to discuss their assignment and/or grades with instructors (31.1% vs. 21.9% non-transfer students), discuss ideas with a faculty member (38.5% vs. 26.5% non-transfer students), or discuss their career plans and ambitions with faculty (21.3% vs. 16.4% non-transfer students). both groups of students reported similar rates of completing homework and assignments on time. figure 14. academic engagement of college transfer students and non-transfer students 120% 100% 80% 41% 31% 22% 27% 39% 21% 60% 43% 60% 55% 40% 50% 20% 38% 0% 2% college transfer students 16% 59% 9% 10% no previous pse college transfer students participated in classroom discussions 53% 53% 48% 23% no previous pse 20% 25% no previous pse college transfer students 13% college transfer students 41% no previous pse discussed ideas with a discussed your career plans discussed your grades or and ambitions with a assignments with your faculty member (e.g., term faculty member paper, class project, etc.) instructor never sometimes frequently in contrast, university students with no previous pse were more likely to participate in oncampus community service or volunteer activities (25.4% vs. 13.1% transfer students), engage in student clubs or special interest groups (32.6% vs. 12.3% transfer students), and/or attend campus cultural events (16.7% vs. 10.7% transfer students) (figure 15). these results align with the earlier results in this report (table 5) for university applicants, which showed that applicants with no previous pse were much more likely to state that one of the reasons they applied to from application and beyond 36 university was to become actively involved in student life and campus activities, and/ or to meet new people. figure 15 social engagement of college transfer students and non-transfer students 120% 100% 11% 12% 17% 33% 80% 48% 60% 38% 53% 42% 0% 50% 30% 26% 37% 41% 42% 40% 20% 13% 50% 25% 33% college transfer no previous pse college transfer no previous pse college transfer no previous pse students students students attended campus cultural events (e.g., theatre, concerts, art exhibits) participated in student clubs or special interest groups never sometimes participated in on-campus community service or volunteer activities frequently resources in terms of types of services used, university students with no previous pse were fairly similar to transfer students in terms of academic advising, library resources, tutoring and peer mentoring (figure 16). notable differences include being significantly more likely than college transfer students to use recreation/athletic facilities and orientation programs/activities. these results fit with the results presented earlier, which also showed that transfer students were less likely to know about orientation programs, and were also less satisfied with them (figure 10). transfer students were also more likely to use financial aid services (68% vs 54%) which is likely associated with their greater use of government loans as well as their lower annual income (table 3) and slightly more likely to use personal counselling, which may be associated, in part, with the high numbers reporting a disability 4. 4 the survey did not include disability services in the list of resources. from application and beyond 37 figure 16 university resources used 73.8% 71.6% library resource centre 61.5% 61.8% academic advising financial aid services 68.0% 53.8% 41.8% recreation and athletic facilities 65.1% 33.6% orientation programs/activities 56.7% 36.1% 44.5% career/employment services 34.4% 25.8% personal counselling 18.9% 15.9% tutoring services 14.8% 16.2% peer mentoring services prior learning and assessment 8.2% 4.6% none of the above 7.4% 2.1% college transfer no previous pse conclusion a growing body of literature has documented the motivations, experiences and challenges of ontario postsecondary students who have transferred from college to university (e.g., decock, 2006; oncat, 2013; sidhu et al., 2016; smith et al., 2016). the present investigation contributes to this literature by examining the profiles and experiences of college-to-university transfer students and college students who aspire to complete a university degree in order to expand upon the current knowledge base. the results of this study confirm previous research showing that the college-to-university transfer student population has a relatively large proportion of traditionally under-represented groups compared to those who are entering university directly from high school. this supports the idea that the college-to-university pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). these students were shown to be highly engaged in their learning and academically confident, a finding also supported in previous from application and beyond 38 research (pendleton and lambert-maberly, 2006). this is positive news for retention, as greater student-faculty interaction has been shown to be positively correlated with student persistence (dwyer, 2015). however, the results also suggest that more work needs to be done to support both the admissions process and the university transition experience. traditional university channels for information provision, such as viewbooks, brochures, open houses, and university fairs are not being heavily accessed by college-to-university transfer students. rather these students seem to rely more on interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances, such as emails and phone calls with university staff, talking with a professor, and informal visits to campus. similarly, university orientation programming is often geared primarily to the directentry student and transfer students are much less likely to participate. orientation, particularly to the academic expectations of university, was a key area where transfer students felt their university needed to improve. while college-to-university transfer students tend to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom is a challenge. this is likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial support. even at the applicant stage, university applicants with a college credential were far less likely to cite meeting new people, or becoming involved in student life and campus activities as reasons for going to university, than applicants without previous pse. developing flexible ways to enrich the non-academic experience of college-to-university transfer students should be a priority. overall, this study, as well as previous research, suggests that increasing the number of students utilizing the college-to-university transfer pathway should enhance the diversity in the student population in university, and at the same time increase numbers of academically engaged students. both of these factors would likely enrich the university environment overall. from application and beyond 39 references arnold, c. h., & woodhead, s. (2015). transferability expectations and realities: analysis of incoming centennial college learner expectations, realities and self-adjusted perceptions. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. carleton university (2013). supporting the success of transfer students. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. colleges ontario (2009). student mobility between ontario's colleges and universities. retrieved from http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student-mobility/student_mobility_09.pdf decock, h. (2006). a case study analysis of ontario caat graduates who transfer to university. unpublished doctoral dissertation, ontario institute for studies of education at the university of toronto. decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s., & hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario colleges who further their education: an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. dwyer, tomas. (2015). persistence in higher education through studentfaculty interactions in the classroom of a commuter institution. pp. 1-10 in innovations in education and teaching international. finnie, r., childs, s., & wismer, a. (2011). under-represented groups in postsecondary education in ontario: evidence from the youth in transition survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. gorman, g., phelps, c., & carley, r. (2012). exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students. conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. kennett, d.j. & maki, k. (2014). academic resourcefulness and transfer student success: direct entry, college transfer, and university transfer student comparisons. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. ontario council on articulation and transfer (2013). summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. pendelton, s. & lambert-maberly, a. (2006). undergraduate student survey on student satisfaction & engagement: transfer student experience vs direct entry student experience. vancouver: british columbia council on articulation and transfer. sattler, peggy, academica group inc. (2010). from postsecondary application to the labour market: the pathways of under-represented groups. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. sidhu, r., lin, s., munro, y., smith, r., parna, j., de oca sarasua, e., (2016) are excess credits for college to transfer students a concern? a case study within the ontario context. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. toronto: colleges ontario & higher education strategy associates. retrieved from http://www.collegesontario.org/research/externalreports/credit%20transfer%20summary%20report.pdf

mechanical engineering technology diploma-to-degree pathway agreement (contract #2017-27) final report may 2, 2018 prepared by quality learning, teaching & innovation canadore college 2017 canadore college of applied arts and technology this submission was prepared by: mlanie dupuis, project leader quality learning, teaching and innovation canadore college of applied arts and technology 100 college drive north bay, on p1b 8k9 telephone: (705) 474-7600, ext. 5820 fax: (705) 474-2384 email: melanie.dupuis@canadorecollege.ca list of participants and partner institutions canadore college deidre bannerman, academic director, quality learning, teaching and innovation mark lamontagne, dean of trades, technology, justice programs and part time studies mlanie dupuis, project leader, quality learning, teaching and innovation stephen parrick, professor/co-ordinator confederation college rick clace, dean, school of aviation, technology and trades john kantola, chair of trades and apprenticeship richard kukkee, program coordinator joe viera, acting dean, school of aviation, technology and trades lakehead university dr. david barnett, acting provost & vice-president (academic) dr. basel i. ismail, chair, mechanical engineering dr. antony gillies, acting dean nccp dr. marguerite donohue, nccp project administrator northern college aaron klooster, associate dean, trades and technology shane storing, professor sault college corey meunier, chair, technology and skills trades howard gray, professor/program coordinator table of contents executive summary ...................................................................................................................................... 5 project description .................................................................................................................................................... 5 project goals ............................................................................................................................................................. 5 final results.............................................................................................................................................................. 6 future participation of cambrian college................................................................................................................. 6 collaboration model ................................................................................................................................................. 6 project purpose and goals ............................................................................................................................. 7 description ................................................................................................................................................................ 7 project goals ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 background and motivating factors ......................................................................................................................... 7 pathway development ................................................................................................................................... 8 methodology ............................................................................................................................................................. 8 table 1: deliverables ......................................................................................................................................... 10 table 2: nccp mechanical engineering technology common year 3 curriculum ......................................... 11 implementation process and timelines ................................................................................................................... 13 summary of pathway created ................................................................................................................................. 13 promising practices and lessons learned .................................................................................................. 13 appendices .................................................................................................................................................. 15 appendix 1 - mechanical engineering technician - college program analysis .................................................... 15 canadore college ............................................................................................................................................... 15 northern college ................................................................................................................................................ 15 confederation college ........................................................................................................................................ 16 sault college....................................................................................................................................................... 16 appendix 2 - nccp - mechanical engineering technology (common year 3) - college program draft analysis................................................................................................................................................................... 17 finalized gap-analysis results for nccp - mechanical engineering technology graduates from all four participating colleges (canadore, northern, confederation, sault) ........................................................................ 19 appendix 3 - curricula of canadore college, northern college, confederation college and sault college used in the assessment of determining the required make-up courses: ........................................................................... 20 canadore colleges mechanical engineering technician curriculum.............................................................. 20 confederation colleges mechanical engineering technician curriculum ...................................................... 21 northern colleges mechanical engineering technician curriculum ............................................................... 22 sault colleges mechanical engineering technician curriculum ..................................................................... 23 executive summary project description canadore college partnered with lakehead university to formalize an ongoing academic relationship for the purpose of facilitating student movement and regularly examining programmatic collaborative opportunities. the partners were to develop a clear pathway agreement for the mechanical engineering technology, ontario college advanced diploma, to the post-diploma bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree, which would increase diploma-to-degree student movement and help meet employment demand. this project would also engage all northern colleges collaborative programming (nccp) colleges offering mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma programs. project goals the facilitation of learner mobility and laddering of credentials, while balancing community-based learning opportunities to get students on a path to a career, is a growing need in rural and remote areas. these challenges are common and are of paramount importance to address for students in northern ontario. simply stated, the goals of this project are to: 1) align the northern colleges (cambrian (in development), canadore, confederation, northern, and sault) mechanical engineering technology programs to ensure a clear path to lakehead universitys bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree program. a. the participating institutions feel the need to emphasize the focus of the goal is the path to the degree is being aligned (which may require some reach-back into years 1 and 2 of the colleges curriculum). emphasis on this is important, as it is recognized that the mandate of the nccp project is to align college programming, outside that scope is to build the path for the colleges to the university, which is the focus of this goal. 2) reduce student course overload by aligning the mechanical engineering technology curriculum to eliminate the 3 to 5 courses that students are required to pick up as missing requirements. 3) lessen the burden on students by aligning curriculum to potentially reduce the number of bridging (ideally, from 4 to 2 for summer transition) math courses graduates of mechanical engineering technology programs have to take. 4) begin discussions for other potential engineering pathways to lakehead university. the main goal of the project is to develop a pathway between the mechanical engineering technology, ontario college advanced diploma and lakeheads post-diploma bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree and provide the learner with laddering and mobility options to further their career both locally and within the province of ontario (as captured in items 1 to 3 above). the intention of this diploma-to-degree pathway partnership is to develop a seamless pathway that will provide mechanical engineering technology students in the north, the opportunity to acquire their degree while minimizing their costs and minimizing the time before commencing their professional career. the primary focus of the project is to provide northern ontario colleges mechanical engineering advanced technology diploma graduates access to the lakehead university post-diploma bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree program, with maximum transferability and the opportunity to complete some components, without leaving the north. in place of occasional, ad hoc, individual transfer agreements, a formalized academic partnership structure will be established. emphasis will be to facilitate student movement through various methods within the parameters of government or programmatic regulations as suited to this particular discipline. furthermore, canadores engagement with the nccp canadore college of applied arts and technology page 5 project will open opportunities for colleges in the north who deliver mechanical engineering technology diploma programs to participate in the pathway partnership. final results the nccp-lakehead committee along with faculty/program coordinators collaboratively created a clear pathway for students. the partners aligned the northern colleges (cambrian (in development), canadore, confederation, northern and sault) mechanical engineering technology (third year curriculum) program to ensure a clear path to lakehead universitys bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree program. qualified graduates of the mechanical engineering technology, ontario college advanced diploma from canadore college, northern college, confederation college and sault college are eligible to apply for admission to the post-diploma bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree program at lakehead university. students are admitted into the post-diploma program which includes the summer transition courses (currently, engi3021, engi3022, engi3014, and engi3017) and specific make-up courses. advancement is not dependent on passing all four transition courses. students from the participating northern colleges admitted into the post-diploma bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree program at lakehead university are required to successfully complete the following two additional (make-up) courses in addition to the program requirements towards completion of the degree program: comp-1411 - computer programming i emec-1533 mechanics of materials ii it should be noted that these required make-up courses were determined using the gap-analysis (appendix 2) based on the academic curricula for the four nccp participating colleges (appendix 3) and the nccp mechanical engineering technology common third year curriculum (table 2): the minimum grade average requirements for admission to the post-diploma bachelor of engineering (mechanical) program at lakehead university is available on the official website of lakehead university: https://www.lakeheadu.ca/academics/faculties/engineering/college-transfer-program/admissions future participation of cambrian college although cambrian college does not currently offer the mechanical engineering technician program, they have collaborated and participated throughout this entire project. if they do decide to offer the program in the future, they will use the same mechanical engineering technology (3rd year curriculum) as canadore college, confederation college, northern college and sault college. they may also choose to contact lakehead university directly to initiate the development of a pathway agreement for the mechanical engineering technology to the post-diploma bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree and have indicated that they plan to do so. collaboration model all partners involved with this project agree that this collaborative model should be used for other potential programs. conversations regarding future engineering pathways to lakehead university similar to this one have already taken place. canadore college of applied arts and technology page 6 project purpose and goals description canadore college proposes to partner with lakehead university to formalize an ongoing academic relationship for the purpose of facilitating student movement and regularly examining program collaborative opportunities. the partners will develop a clear pathway agreement for the mechanical engineering technology, ontario college advanced diploma, to the post-diploma bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree, which will increase diploma-to-degree student movement and help meet employment demand. this project will also engage all northern collaborative college project (nccp) colleges offering mechanical engineering technology diploma programs. project goals the facilitation of learner mobility and laddering of credentials, while balancing community-based learning opportunities to get students on a path to a career, is a growing need in rural and remote areas. these challenges are common and are of paramount importance to address for students in northern ontario. simply stated, the goals of this project are to: 1. align the northern colleges (cambrian (in development), canadore, confederation, northern, and sault) mechanical engineering technology programs to ensure a clear path to lakehead universitys bachelor of engineering (mechanical) degree program. a. the participating institutions feel the need to emphasize the focus of the goal is the path to the degree is being aligned (which may require some reach-back into years 1 and 2 of the colleges curriculum). emphasis on this is important, as it is recognized that the mandate of the nccp project is to align college programming, outside that scope is to build the path for the colleges to the university, which is the focus of this goal. 2. reduce student course overload by aligning the mechanical engineering technology curriculum to eliminate the 3 to 5 courses that students are required to pick up as missing requirements. 3. lessen the burden on students by aligning curriculum to potentially reduce the number of bridging (ideally, from 4 to 2 for summer transition) math courses graduates of mechanical engineering technology programs have to take. 4. begin discussions for other potential engineering pathways to lakehead university. background and motivating factors early evidence of well-developed pathways into baccalaureate degrees offered at the colleges show their increasing appeal to college diploma graduates. increased access to degree opportunities also requires attention given the geographic challenges. evidence shows that college graduates are more likely to transfer to a local university (see http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/transferexperienceofontariocollegegraduates.pdf); providing transfer opportunities for students to remain at home is critical. the evidence suggests, therefore, that increased transfer success is supported by three conditions: programs of high affinity (and thereby increased transfer credit); geographic proximity; and learning options. the intent of an nccp-lakehead academic partnership model would be to actively address these areas canadore college of applied arts and technology page 7 including the mechanical engineering technology pathway as well as explore new degree pathways for other programs. to facilitate diploma-to-degree movement, the partnership would engage in an exhaustive curriculum content evaluation of existing offerings. pathway development methodology throughout the entire project, faculty, staff and all stakeholders were engaged throughout the pathway development process to ensure the utmost quality and integrity of the mechanial engineering degree pathway. the nccp-lakehead academic partnership model established a permanent steering committee comprised of the senior level academics from each of the institutions to oversee and guide the development of collaborative academic programming and delivery. the established steering committee was responsible for: identifying new areas for compatible diploma and degree development to increase transfer opportunities; initiating specific curriculum committees to ensure high affinity; initiating investigation of new and innovative academic delivery structure; o development of new online courses o investment in and experimentation with synchronous learning classrooms o delivery of courses of one college taught by faculty of the other identify infrastructure areas for development and assign respective committees for review and recommendations; ensure appropriate communication mechanisms are fully utilized; o timely posting of evaluations and transfer agreements on ontransfer o posting to the canadore, confederation, northern, sault and lakehead websites o degree and credit transfer office staff providing guidance to canadore, confederation, northern and sault transfer students utilizing communication technology regularly review progress and establish yearly objectives; program comparison and analysis to facilitate diploma-to-degree movement, the partnership engaged in an exhaustive curriculum evaluation of existing offerings. in the initial phase of the evaluation process, lakehead university individually reviewed the mechanical engineering technician program curricula for each of the nccp participating colleges (canadore, northern, confederation and sault). the main objective was to identify courses deficiencies and hence provide insights into the development and design of the nccp mechanical engineering technology common third year program curriculum (i.e. a curiculum that would be common to all four participating colleges). this included rigorous course by course outline analysis for each existing mechanical engineering technician programs curriculum (2017-2018) of the nccp participating college and mapping out the contents of the courses with the year one and year two level courses in the bachelor of mechanical engineerings program curriculum at lakehead university. the results of this courses difficiency (gap) analysis showed that (see appendix 1), candore colleges curriculum is deficient by 9 courses, northern by 8 courses, confederation and sault each by 10 courses. the results and insights were then communicated and discussed with the representatives of the nccp four participating colleges. based canadore college of applied arts and technology page 8 on this, they then provided a draft of the nccp mechanical engineering technology common third year program curriculum. this included nccp third year model courses titles, description of contents, and credit hours. the draft was then reviewed by lakehead university for feedback in order to optimize the nccp third year curriculum by minimizing the number of additional (make-up) courses that graduates from the nccp participating colleges, if enrolled, would have to take at year 3 of the post-diploma bachelor of mechanical engineering program at lakehead university. modifications to some model courses, in terms of titles and contents, were suggested by lakehead university and most of the suggested revision were incorprated into the mechanial engineering advanced diploma year three curriculum. i. the finalized nccp mechanical engineering technology common third year program curriculum is shown in table 2 of this report. canadore college of applied arts and technology page 9 table 1: deliverables id. title tasks planned completion date mid-project planned completion date actual completion date 1 project committee selection canadore college and lakehead university will create a project committee and enlist the required contacts at both institutions. the committee will work collaboratively to define project tasks and assign these accordingly. the institutions will also engage the nccp colleges. april 30, 2017 april 30, 2017 april 15, 2017 2 scheduled meeting plan the project committee will determine a scheduled timeline of meetings in order to complete the project tasks. the committee will discuss the number of meetings that need to take place and the types of meetings (i.e. teleconference, in-person, etc.). may, 31, 2017 may 31, 2017 april 21, 2017 3 mechanical engineering pathway development consultation with subject matter experts and pathway development partners. analysis of program learning outcomes and curriculum review and alignment if and where applicable. october 31, 2017 december 5, 2017 february 5, 2018 4 face-to-face meeting november 17, 2017 november 17, 2017 november 17, 2017 5 proposed pathway nccp group to meet at canadore college for a project overview/current status, oncat goals review, budget, mechanical engineering technician program gap analysis and the plan moving forward. proposed changes will be submitted to the institutions various program quality and evaluation departments. november 31, 2017 december 23, 2017 february 23, 2018 6 pathway validation pathway adoption and posting a mid-project progress report will be submitted. december 31, 2017 february 28, 2018 january 20, 2018 february 28, 2018 march 20, 2018 new pathway opportunities new pathway opportunities identified and delegation of tasks, to explore the new pathways, are established. march 10, 2018 march 10, 2018 april 20, 2018 7 8 draft pathways will be reviewed and changes implemented. agreement will be signed by both institutions. canadore college of applied arts and technology april 30, 2018 page 10 table 2: nccp mechanical engineering technology common year 3 curriculum starting fall 2018 semester 5 - fall 2018 (15 wks) course title hrs total course description sem hrs in this course, students learn concepts required to design competitive manufacturing systems. topics include continuous improvement, cellular layouts, line balancing, equipment pay-back, cycle times, multi-product production and cost estimation. in this course students learn concepts required to design and operate competitive manufacturing/industrial systems. topics include product-production design interaction, facilities location and layout, material handling, work measurement, financial compensation, human factors, operations planning and control, quality control, linear programming, inventory control, and project management. in this course, students learn about kinematics of particles: rectilinear motion, planar curvilinear motion using various coordinate frames (such as rectangular, normal-tangential and radialtransverse), and analysis using newtons second law. students also study the kinematics of rigid bodies: translation, rotation, general planar motion, forces and accelerations, mass moment of inertia, and static forces in machines. engineering operations and management (mec901) 4 60 dynamics (mec902) 3 45 advanced calculus (mec903) 4 60 in this advanced course in calculus, students learn several methods of integration, maclaurin, taylor and fourier series, various types of first and second order differential equations, an introduction to laplace transforms, and applications to the mechanical, electrical/electronic technologies. advanced fluid mechanics (mec904) 3 45 in this course, students learn about fundamentals and advanced topics of fluid mechanics. topics include the nature of fluids and the study of fluid mechanics, viscosity of fluids, pressure measurement, forces due to static fluids, buoyancy, flow of fluids, general energy equation, reynolds number and energy losses due to friction, minor losses, series pipeline systems, pump selection and application, flow measurement, forces due to fluids in motion, and drag and lift. mechanical lab i (mec905) 2 30 the mechanical lab 1 course supplements and supports the advanced fluid mechanics and dynamics courses with practical learning. lab topics in advanced fluid mechanics include application of the energy principle, experimental determination of minor losses and losses in series/parallel pipeline systems, and pump selection through given parameters. lab topics in dynamics include rigid links, cams, and gears. research project i (mec906) 3 45 in the two research project courses, students complete an independent technical project. these courses mirror working conditions that are frequently encountered in industry; that is, they are a selfdirected, comprehensive study of a specific topic in the student's field, one not covered in other courses. in research project i, students prepare a detailed project schedule, meet weekly with faculty and industry advisors, prepare weekly progress reports, and deliver a formal technical project proposal. in the selected research project, students incorporate the following technology design aspects of a selected product: incorporate design synthesis process, apply some design methods, use some tools for designing the selected product, apply some graphical communication, related prototyping and proof of concept, introduce some related economic analysis and costing, ensure team organization, management and professionalism and ethics in the design process. students begin work on the project in this course in preparation for project completion in research project ii. totals 19 285 canadore college of applied arts and technology page 11 semester 6 winter 2019 (15 wks) metrology and quality control (mec907) advanced strength of materials (mec908) advanced dynamics of machines (mec909) 3 45 this course is dedicated to quality systems and learning the theory behind basic metrology. students gain a theoretical understanding of calibration techniques and learn calibration standards, statistical process control, and methods of measurement using different measuring devices. 3 45 3 45 this course builds on concepts students have learned in earlier courses. in this course, beams will be analyzed using first principles in terms of shear, bending and deflection with applications to statically determinant and indeterminate problems. columns will also be analyzed for crushing (short columns) buckling (long slender columns). eulers equation will be used to analyze columns with various end conditions. in this course, students build upon knowledge and concepts from the previous dynamics course. the relationships between work and force, work and energy, energy and power will be learned. conservation of forces, conservation of energy (potential, kinetic, electrical), and efficiency will be discussed. linear and angular momentum and impulse principles will be analyzed with respect to systems of particles and impact examples. conservation of momentum and conservation of energy will be used to analyze problems. three-dimensional kinematics of rigid bodies will be analyzed with respect to velocities and accelerations. students will also create mechanism displacement diagrams (for straight and curved links) of machine members using the relative velocity method, instantaneous centers, velocity polygon, relative acceleration polygon, coriolis acceleration, machine dynamics which includes inertia force method and analysis of translation, rotation, and plane motion, balancing rotating and reciprocating masses, and whirling of shafts. machine design (mec910) 3 45 applied thermodynamics and heat transfer (mec911) 2 30 mechanical lab ii (mec912) 3 45 the mechanical lab ii course supplements and supports the advanced strength of materials, advanced dynamics, machine design, and applied thermodynamics and heat transfer courses with practical learning. lab topics in advanced strength of materials include stresses in beams, deflection in beams, and columns. lab topics in the advanced dynamics include forces in machines and balancing rotating/reciprocating masses. lab topics in machine design include connections, material strength, and power transmission. lab topics in applied thermodynamics and heat transfer include heat transfer and psychrometry. research project ii (mec913) 4 60 in the two research project courses, students complete an independent technical project. these courses mirror working conditions that are frequently encountered in industry; that is, they are a selfdirected, comprehensive study of a specific topic in the student's field, one not covered in other courses. research project ii is a continuation of research project i, where students continue to work on their project, meet with faculty and industry advisors, and prepare written progress reports. students also learn the theory necessary for the preparation, writing, and oral defense of a formal technical report. students do a presentation of the formal technical report on their completed project. totals 21 315 total hours/credits 40 600 in this course, students learn how to design, select and integrate common machine elements found in mechanical devices and systems including shafts, bearings, springs, gears, cams, belts, and chains. students will also analyze the performance of fasteners and welded joints in various loading conditions and be introduced to failure mechanisms. in this course, students build upon fundamentals from previous study in the application of thermodynamics and heat transfer. concepts will include: phase-change processes, property diagrams (p-t, p-v and t-v diagrams), thermodynamic tables, work, heat and energy transfer, heat transfer mechanisms (conduction, convection, radiation), thermal resistance analogy, application of the 1stlaw of thermodynamics to (a) a process, (b) a cycle of a closed system, energy analysis of closed systems, applications of the 1st-law for steady-state-steady-flow processes and devices, and heat exchangers. canadore college of applied arts and technology page 12 implementation process and timelines a copy of the signed pathway agreement will be provided to each of the participating colleges pathway officer by may 15, 2018. the pathway officer will ensure that the pathway agreement is posted on their colleges website. as for the ontransfer website, since the receiving institution is lakehead university, they will be responsible to provide the pathway mou to oncat by may 31st, 2018. summary of pathway created although cambrian college does not currently offer the mechanical engineering technician program, they have collaborated and participated throughout this entire project. if they do decide to offer the program in the future, they will use the same mechanical engineering technology (3rd year curriculum) as canadore college, confederation college, northern college and sault college. they may also choose to contact lakehead university directly to initiate the development of a pathway agreement for the mechanical engineering technology to the post-diploma bachelor of mechanical engineering degree and have indicated they plan to do so. qualified graduates of the mechanical engineering technology, ontario college advanced diploma from canadore college, northern college, confederation college and sault college are eligible to apply for admission to the post-diploma bachelor of mechanical engineering degree program at lakehead university. students are admitted into the post-diploma program which includes the summer transition courses (currently, engi3021, engi3022, engi3014, and engi3017) and possible make-up courses. advancement is not dependent on passing all four transition courses. advancement is not dependent on passing all four transition courses. in addition to meeting the program requirements, mechanical engineering technology graduates from the participating northern colleges admitted into the postdiploma bachelor of mechanical engineering degree program at lakehead university are required to successfully complete the following make-up courses in addition to the program requirements towards completion of the degree program: emec-1533 mechanics of materials ii comp-1411 - computer programming i it should be noted that these required make-up courses were determined using the gap-analysis based on the academic curricula for the nccp four participating colleges and the nccp common third year curriculum as listed in the appendix 1 and appendix 2. for more detailed information, please refer to the pathway template submitted in a separate document. promising practices and lessons learned great effort was made to eliminate some of the summer transition courses. however, it was decided by the nccp deans that it is better to have the students who are pursuing the degree take the four summer transition courses rather than designing the common mechanical engineering technology program in a way that is too demanding for those students not pursuing the degree pathway. the college partners found it challenging to balance between aligning courses to the bachelor of mechanical engineering degree program to minimize the number of additional make-up courses, while ensuring that the mechanical engineering technology pvlos were met. much of the learning in the transition courses if beyond the pvlos. canadore college of applied arts and technology page 13 aligning the third year curriculum amongst the nccp colleges made the gap analysis more efficient and simplistic since lakehead university only had to analyze one mechanical engineering technology curriculum instead of four different curricula. having the nccp-lakehead academic partnership enabled us to collaborate and reduce the additional number of make-up courses from 6-8 to only 2. a challenge encountered during this project was the 5-week provincial college faculty labour disruption that resulted in a delay in meeting our milestones. as a result, the nccp colleges deans of trades and technology met, discussed timelines, determined a revised plan, and requested an extension of approximately two months in order to meet the milestones. despite the challenges that came as a result of the college faculty strike, the engagement and cooperation from the coordinators for this project was exemplary. without their dedication to this project, deadlines would not have been met. also, ongoing communication with all partners and oncat was key to successfully completing all milestones on time. canadore college of applied arts and technology page 14 appendices appendix 1 - mechanical engineering technician - college program analysis canadore college mechanical engineering technician program - canadore college (ref: https://www.canadorecollege.ca/programs/mechanical-engineering-technician) mech tech courses-canadrore college (2017-2018) 2 years, 4 semesters courses defficiency for canadore gap-analysis results: cmm140 (technical writing i) cmm300 (researching and reporting ii) comp-1411 emec 2336 met210 (manufacturing process) emec 1112 ecm100 (estimating/project mangement) emec 2111 cad100 (computer aided design i) emec 1533 cad150 (computer aided design ii) emec 2333 cad210 (advanced cad - 3d design) techology project/hvac engi 2939 emec 2518 mch120 (applied statics), phy160 (introduction to statics) (used to befundamental physics for engineering) emec 2434 met240 (mechanics & dynamics of machines) used to be met110 (mechanics & dynamics)-phased out, april 25,2018 met215 (applied strength of materials) ecm260 (fluid mechnaics) met250 (electrical and electronic fundamentals) gap/difficiency cousrse = 9 northern college mechanical engineering technician - northern college (ref: http://www.northernc.on.ca/mechanical-engineering-technician/) 2 years, 4 semesters mech tech courses-northern college (2017-2018) courses defficiency for northern existing courses at northern mechanical technician program college (compared to lu-mech) cm1903 (communications i), cm2903 (communications ii) computer programming i in3263(embeded programming and netwroks) comp-1411 ar2014 (statics) emec 2111 me3253 (dynamics) emec 2336 gn1033 (health and safety) emec 1112 me3044(manufacturing processes i) emec 1533 mm1002 (millwright machining i) emec 2333 mm3003(industrial indoctrination) emec 2518 in1224(cad i), emec 2434 me2014 (mechanical design/cad ii), me4044 (mechanical design/cad iii) gap/difficiency cousrse = 8 we3044 (strength of materials i) was we3034 (strength of materials) me3013 (fluid mechanics) me4013 (hvac) me3003 (electrical/electronic fundamentals) canadore college of applied arts and technology page 15 confederation college mechanical engineering technician - confederation college (ref: http://www.confederationcollege.ca/program/mechanical-engineering-technician/courses) 2 years, 4 semesters mechtech courses-confederation college (2017-2018) courses defficiency for confederation college (compared to lu-mech) cs007 (pursuasive writing) cs219 (communications for technology) emec 2336 comp-1411 mx301 (statics), mx475 (advanced structural design) emec 1533 mx460 (introduction to electricity) emec 1112 mx121 (mechanical practices) emec1111 mx131 (metrology/machine shop i) emec 2111 mx141 (welding practices i) emec 2333 mx231 (machine shop ii) emec 2518 mx241 (welding practices ii) emec 2434 mx455 (materilas and processes)- phased out in 2017-2018 techology project/hvac mx431 (intro to cnc) engi 2939 mx341 (strength of materials), mx475 (advanced structural design) mx491 (operation management) - phased out, april 25-2018 mx111 (engineering graphics) gap/difficiency cousrse =10 mx271 (industrial design i) mx371 (industrial design ii) mx261 (power transmission) mx495 (mechanical project management)? removed from the updated program mx361 power transmission ii (used to be mechanical design before april 2018) mx381 (fluid power), mx481 (fluid mechanics), mx471 (power transmission iii) mx410 (intro to thermodynamics) sault college mechanical engineering technician - manufacturing - sault college https://www.saultcollege.ca/programs/programs.asp?progcode=4039&cat=overview&groupcode=eng 2 years, 4 semesters mech tech courses-sault college (2017-2018) courses defficiency for sault college (compared to lu-mech) existing courses at candaroe mechanical technician program emec 1112 cmm115 communication i emec 2336 mch121 machine shop theory and measurement emec 2518 mch134 materials and fasteners comp-1411 mch144 machine shop practical i emec 1111 mch145 machine shop practical ii emec 2111 met207 metallurgy emec 1533 wld121 welding i emec 2333 mch244 manufacturing processes emec 2434 mch110 applied mechanics techology project/hvac env102 industrial and health safety engi 2939 mch253 bearing & seals mch254 prenvetive predective maintenance gap/difficiency cousrse =10 mch257 machine technology drf105 drafting and bluprint reading cad225 autocad drawings and schematics cad401 advanced cad mch103 strength of materials mch125 fluid mechanics i mch256 introduction to thermodynamics elr111 electrical and electronic controls elr213 electrical and electronic controls ii canadore college of applied arts and technology page 16 appendix 2 - nccp - mechanical engineering technology (common year 3) - college program draft - analysis course title total sem hrs hrs course description (nccp revisions) modified course title (proposed) engineering operations management 4 60 in this course students learn concepts required to design competitive manufacturing systems. topics include continuous improvement, cellular layouts, line balancing, equipment pay-back, cycle times, multi-product production and cost estimation. mechanics of machines 3 45 in this course students study mechanism dynamics displacement diagrams of machine agreed members by relative velocity method, instantaneous centers, velocity polygon, relative acceleration polygon, coriolis acceleration, and straight and curved links. revised nccp description: in this course students learn about kinematics of particles: rectilinear motion, planar curvilinear motion using various coordinate frames (such as rectangular, normal-tangential and radial-transverse), and analysis using newtons second law. students also study the kinematics of rigid bodies: translation, rotation, general planar motion, forces and accelerations, mass moment of inertia, and static forces in machines. advanced calculus 4 60 advanced fluid mechanics 3 45 in this advanced course in calculus students learn several methods of integration, maclaurin, taylor and fourier series, various types of first and second order differential equations, an introduction to laplace transforms, and applications to the mechanical, electrical/electronics technologies. in this course students learn about energy as it relates to fluid, dimensional analysis, the use of boundary layers, flow in conduits including turbulent and laminar flow, and pressure/velocity and flow measurements. students also learn about system design based on pump selection, pump curves and pump installation. mechanical lab i 2 30 the mechanical lab 1 course supplements and supports the advanced fluid mechanics and mechanics of machines courses with practical learning. lab topics in advanced fluid mechanics include application of the energy principle, experimental determination of minor losses and losses in series/parallel pipeline systems, and pump selection through given paramenters. lab topics in mechanics of machines include rigid links, cams, and gears. research project i 3 45 in the two research project courses, students complete an independent technical project. these courses mirror working conditions that are frequently encountered in industry; that is, they are a self-directed, comprehensive study of a specific topic in the student's field, one not covered in other courses. in research project i, students prepare a detailed project schedule, meet weekly with faculty and industry advisors, prepare weekly progress reports, and deliver a formal project proposal. students begin work on the project in this course in preparation for project completion in research project ii. totals 19 285 canadore college of applied arts and technology engineering operations & and management agreed modified course description (nccp revisions) in this course students learn concepts required to design and operate competitive manufacturing/industrial systems. topics include product-production design interaction, facilities location and layout, material handling, work measurement, financial compensation, human factors, operations planning and control, quality control, linear programming, inventory control, and project management. agreed equivalent exempted college course at lab lakehead u. required engi 2336: industrial engineering no none in this course students learn about kinematics of engi 1111 & no particles, rectilinear motion analysisusing partly engi 3451 differentiation and integration, planar curvilinear motion analysis using coordinate frames such as rectangular, normal-tangential and radial-transverse, kinetics of particles, newtons second law, rectilinear motion using newtons second law of motion, planar curvilinear motion using newtons second law of motion, kinematics of rigid bodies, translation, rotation, general planar motion, kinetics of rigid bodies forces and accelerations, mass moment of inertia, translation, fixed-axis rotation, general planar motion, static forces in machines. see revision in cell i8. canadore & northern colleges none in this course students learn about fundamentals engi 1635: fluid and advanced topics of fluid mechanics. topics mechanics include the nature of fluids and the study of fluid mechanics, viscosity of fluids, pressure measurement, forces due to static fluids, buoyancy, flow of fluids, general energy equation, reynolds number and energy losses due to friction, minor losses, series pipeline systems, pump selection and application, flow measurement, forces due to fluids in motion, and drag and lift. agreed yes (mec905: mechanical lab i, already in the nccp model) all 4 colleges (canadore, northern, sault, confederation) none research project i (no change): check to see if title was changed. not changed. revised nccp description: in the two research engi 2939 project courses, students complete an independent technical project. these courses mirror working conditions that are frequently encountered in industry; that is, they are a self-directed, comprehensive study of a specific topic in the student's field, one not covered in other courses. in research project i, students prepare a detailed project schedule, meet weekly with faculty and industry advisors, prepare weekly progress reports, and deliver a formal technical project proposal. students begin work on the project in this course in preparation for project completion in research project ii. in research project i, students learn how to write an academic/technical report using english language proficiency. no none page 17 metrology and quality control 3 45 this course is dedicated to quality metrology, systems and learning the theory behind measurements & and basic metrology. students gain a quality control theoretical understanding of calibration techniques and learn calibration standards, statistical process control, and methods of measurement. revised nccp description: this course is dedicated to quality systems and learning the theory behind basic metrologyand measurements. students gain a theoretical understanding of calibration techniques and learn calibration standards, statistical process control, and methods of measurement using different measuring devices. partly engi 2434: engineering measurements and instrumentation s advanced strength of materials 3 45 this course builds on concepts students learned in earlier courses. in this course, students learn the concepts of shear force, bending moment and deflection in beams. buckling and crushing behavior in columns will be studied. beams and columns will be classified, analyzed and designed. revised nccp description: this course builds on concepts students have learned in earlier courses. in this course, beams will be analyzed using first principles in terms of shear, bending and deflection with applications to statically determinant and indeterminate problems. columns will also be analyzed for crushing (short columns) buckling (long slender columns). eulers equation will be used to analyze columns with various end conditions. this course builds on concepts students learned in engi 1233 and earlier courses. in this course, students learn the engi 1533 concepts of shear force, bending moment and deflection in beams, stresses in thin-walled pressure vessels, combined loadings, stress transformation equations for plane-stress, principal stresses and maximum in-plane shear stress, mohrs circle for plane-stress, absolute maximum shear stress, strain transformation equations for planestrain, principal strains and maximum in-plane shear strain, mohr's circle for plane strain, absolute maximum shear strain. o strain rosette analysis. principal strains associated with plane stress. o differential equation of the elastic curve. deflections by integration of the moment equation. o deflections by superposition. application to statically determinate and statically indeterminate problems. o buckling of long slender columns. eulers equation for pin ended columns and columns with other end conditions. o eccentrically loaded columns: the secant formula. see nccp revision in cell i16. yes (can be none covered in mec905, nccp course model) yes (can be none covered in mec913 mechanical lab ii, nccp course model) advanced mechanics of3machines 45 in this course students learn about static advanced dynamics ofin machines this course agreed students learn kinetics of particles, engi 2111 and no forces in machines. students also learn work of a force, kinetic energy, principle of work and partly engi 3451 about machine dynamics which includes energy, power and efficiency; potential energy, inertia force method and analysis of conservative forces and conservation of energy; translation, rotation, and plane motion, principle of impulse and momentum, impulsive balancing rotating and reciprocating motion; impact, system of particles, effective forces, masses, and whirling of shafts. liner and angular momentum, motion of mass revised nccp description: in this centre, angular momentum about its mass centre, course students build upon knowledge conservation of momentum; work-energy principle and concepts from the previous dynamics and conservation of energy, principle of impulse and course. the relationships between work momentum; plane dynamics of rigid bodies, workand force, work and energy, energy and energy principle, momentum principles for a system power will be learned. conservation of of particles, work and kinetics energy, conservation forces, conservation of energy (potential, of energy; principle of impulse and momentum, kinetic, electrical), and efficiency will be conservation of angular motion; impulsive motion discussed. linear and angular momentum and eccentric impact; three-dimensional kinematics and impulse principles will be analyzed of rigid bodies, motion about a fixed point and with respect to systems of particles and general motion, velocities and accelerations. impact examples. conservation of students also learn mechanism displacement momentum and conservation of energy diagrams of machine members by relative velocity will be used to analyze problems. threedimensional kinematics of rigid bodies will method, instantaneous centers, velocity polygon, be analyzed with respect to velocities and relative acceleration polygon, coriolis acceleration, accelerations. students will also create and straight and curved links; machine dynamics mechanism displacement diagrams (for which includes inertia force method and analysis of straight and curved links) of machine translation, rotation, and plane motion, balancing members using the relative velocity rotating and reciprocating masses, and whirling of method, instantaneous centers, velocity shafts. see revision in cell i17. polygon, relative acceleration polygon, coriolis acceleration, machine dynamics which includes inertia force method and analysis of translation, rotation, and plane motion, balancing rotating and reciprocating masses, and whirling of shafts. machine design 45 in this course students learn how to design, select and integrate common machine elements found in mechanical devices and systems including shafts, bearings, springs, gears, cams, belts, and chains. students will also analyze the performance of fasteners and welded joints in various loading conditions and be introduced to failure mechanisms. 30 students in this course learn how to analyze steam plant and internal combustion engines by applying vapor and gas cycle theory including ideal gas mixtures, psychrometry charts, and steam tables. students also learn how to apply advanced heat transfer techniques to design parallel and counterflow heat exchangers. revised nccp description: in this course students build upon fundamentals from previous study in the application of themodynamics and heat transfer. concepts will include: phase-change processes, property diagrams (p-t, p-v and t-v diagrams), thermodynamic tables, work, heat and energy transfer, heat transfer mechanisms (conduction, convection, radiation), thermal resistance analogy, application of the 1st-law of thermodynamics to (a) a process, (b) a cycle of a closed system, energy analysis of closed systems, applications of the 1stlaw for steady-state-steady-flow processes and devices, and heat exchangers. 3 applied thermodynamics 2 canadore college of applied arts and technology no modifications (good as is) applied thermodynamics & and heat transfer agreed engi 2333: machine design students in this course learn about fundamentals engi 2518 and applications of thermodynamics and heat transfer. topics include: definitions; units and conversions; concepts of thermodynamics; forms of energy; examples; properties of a pure substance; phase-change processes; property diagrams (p-t, p-v and t-v diagrams); thermodynamic tables; gases; work and heat & energy transfer; heat transfer mechanisms (conduction, convection, radiation); 1d; thermal resistance analogy; application of the 1stlaw of thermodynamics to (a) a process, (b) a cycle of a closed system; energy analysis of closed systems; applications of the 1st-law for sssf processes and devices; heat exchangers. see revision in cell i19. none no yes, can be included in mec913 mechanical lab ii (nccp) none none page 18 mechanical lab ii 3 45 the mechanical lab ii course supplements and supports the advanced strength of materials, advanced mechanics of machines, machine design, and applied thermodynamics courses with practical learning. lab topics in advanced strength of materials include stresses in beams, deflection in beams, and columns. lab topics in the advanced mechanics of machines include forces in machines and balancing rotating/reciprocating masses. lab topics in machine design include connections, material strength, and power transmission. lab topics in applied thermodynamics include heat transfer and psychrometry. research project ii 4 60 in the two research project courses, students complete an independent technical project. these courses mirror working conditions that are frequently encountered in industry; that is, they are a self-directed, comprehensive study of a specific topic in the student's field, one not covered in other courses. research project ii is a continuation of research project i, where students continue to work on their project, meet with faculty and industry advisors, and prepare written progress reports. students also learn the theory necessary for the preparation, writing, and oral defence of a formal technical report. students present the formal technical report on their completed project. totals 21 315 total hours/credits40 600 none revised nccp description: in the two research project courses, students complete an independent technical project. these courses mirror working conditions that are frequently encountered in industry; that is, they are a self-directed, comprehensive study of a specific topic in the student's field, one not covered in other courses. in research project ii, students prepare a detailed project schedule, meet weekly with faculty and industry advisors, prepare weekly progress reports, and deliver a formal project proposal. students begin work on the project in this course in preparation for project completion in research project ii. in research project i, students learn how to write an academic/technical report using english language proficiency. research project ii is a continuation of research project i, where students continue to work on their project, meet with faculty and industry advisors, and prepare written progress reports. students also learn the theory necessary for the preparation, writing, and oral defence of a formal technical report. students do a presentation of the formal technical report on their completed project. note: students learn how to write technical reports in other courses in the program. none finalized gap-analysis results for nccp - mechanical engineering technology graduates from all four participating colleges (canadore, northern, confederation, sault) required makeup courses at lakehead university (in addition to summer transition courses) engi 1411: computer programming i emec 1533: mechanics of materials ii canadore college of applied arts and technology page 19 appendix 3 - curricula of canadore college, northern college, confederation college and sault college used in the assessment of determining the required make-up courses: canadore colleges mechanical engineering technician curriculum 2017-2018 hrs sem hrs sem 1 fall 2017 (14 wks) ecm100 estimating/project management 3 42 ecm105 basic surveying and measurement (new) 3 42 cad100 computer aided design i 3 42 cmm140 technical writing i 3 42 mth160 technical math i 3 42 phy160 introduction to statics 4 56 psy123* applied psychology 3 totals 22 42 308 sem 2 winter 2018 (14 wks) cad150 computer aided design ii 3 42 ecm120 codes, standards and compliance 4 56 ecm115# infrastructure engineering 6 84 mth161 technical math ii 3 42 mch120 applied statics 5 70 gened* general education elective - online 3 42 totals 24 336 sem 3 fall 2018 (14 wks) cad210# advanced cad (mechanical) 4 56 mth235 technical statistics 3 42 met240 mechanics and dynamics of machines 4 56 met210 manufacturing processes 3 42 met215 applied strength of materials - mechanical 4 56 mth130** fundamentals of calculus 3 42 (optional for technicians mandatory for technologist hum200* group dynamics 3 totals 24 42 336 sem 4 winter 2019 (14 wks) met220 energy systems 6 84 ecm260 fluid mechanics 4 56 ecm200 law/ethics/professional practice 3 42 met250 electrical and electronic fundamentals 4 56 cmm300 research and reporting 3 42 totals 20 280 * geneds ** optional for technicians mandatory for technologist # experiential learning ** canadore college of applied arts and technology page 20 confederation colleges mechanical engineering technician curriculum 2017-2018 fall 2017 (15 wks) semster 1 description hours/wk cs007 persuasive writing 3 total sem hours 45 mc165 microsoft office 2 30 sc110 pre-technology physics 3 45 ma115 applied math for technology i 4 60 mx111 engineering graphics 3 45 mx121 mechanical practices 3 45 mx131 machine shop i 4 60 mx141 welding practices i 4 60 totals 26 390 winter 2018 (15 wks) semster 2 description hours/wk sc210 pre-technology science ii 3 total sem hours 45 ma215 applied math for technology ii 4 60 mx231 machine shop ii 4 60 mx241 welding practices ii 4 60 mx261 power transmission i 3 45 mx271 industrial design i 3 45 mx460 introduction to electricity 3 45 ge general elective 3 45 totals 27 405 fall 2018 (15 wks) semster 3 description hours ma231 mathematics ii 3 total sem hours 45 mx301 statics 3 45 mx361 power transmission ii 3 45 mx371 industrial design ii 3 45 mx381 fluid power 3 45 mx341 strength of materials 3 45 ge general elective 3 45 cs219 communication for technology 3 45 totals 24 360 winter 2019 (15 wks) semster 4 description hours ma331 mathematics iii 3 total sem hours 45 mx410 introduction to thermodynamics 3 45 mx471 power transmission iii 3 45 mx475 advanced structural design 3 45 mx481 fluid mechanics 3 45 mx431 introduction to cnc 3 45 ge general elective 4 60 totals 22 330 canadore college of applied arts and technology page 21 northern colleges mechanical engineering technician curriculum 2017-2018 canadore college of applied arts and technology page 22 sault colleges mechanical engineering technician curriculum 2017-2018 sault college mechanical technician program courses (2017-18) course code semester 1 contact / contact / week semester mechanical technician (4039) drf105 env102 mch121 mch144 mch134 mth145 wld121 cmm115 drafting and blueprint reading industrial health & safety machine shop theory & measurement machine shop practical materials and fasteners mathematics(technicians) welding i communications 2 2 3 4 2 4 2 2 30 30 45 60 30 60 30 30 2 2 3 4 2 4 2 2 21 mch145 mch253 mch141 mch142 met207 rig101 elr111 gen100 mch244 machine shop practical ii bearing & seals power transmissions pumps, valves & piping metallurgy rigging and hoisting electrical/electronic controls global citizenship manufacturing processes 4 2 3 3 2 2 1 2 3 60 30 45 45 30 30 15 30 45 4 2 3 3 2 2 1 2 3 22 43 645 semester 2 program hours yr. 1 /wk /yr semester 3 elr213 mch259 mth146 mch110 tny130 mch258 cad225 elect/electronic controls ii machine shop iii mathematics(technicians) applied mechanics technology & society pneumatics & hydraulics autocad/drawings & schematics 1 3 4 4 2 4 2 20 15 45 60 60 30 60 30 300 1 3 4 4 2 4 2 20 semester 4 cad401 mch103 mch254 mch256 gen110 mch257 mch125* mth551* advanced cad strength of materials preventative mtce. intro to thermodynamics general education - elective machine technology mechanics of fluids (elective) calculus 2 3 2 3 2 3 4 4 23 43 30 45 30 45 30 45 60 60 345 645 2 3 2 3 2 3 4 4 23 43 688 program hours yr. 2 total program hours /wk /pgm *optional elective included in 2 year program for students wanting to continue to 3rd year *required for students continuing to 3rd year (student must take before entering 3rd year) canadore college of applied arts and technology 86 1333 page 23

executive summary amid the truth and reconciliation commission of canadas (2015) calls to action is improving education attainment levels and success rates for indigenous peoples (p. 2). indigenous enrolment and completion rates in postsecondary education (pse) have improved (mckeown, vedan, jacknife, & tolmie, 2018; restoule et al., 2013). yet, indigenous peoples in canada still remain underrepresented in pse (restoule et al., 2013; stol, houwer & todd, 2016; mckeown et al., 2018) with indigenous learners, comprising about 1% of the overall college and university student population in ontario with 16,000 indigenous learners enrolled (bathish et al., 2017, p. 4). a program pathway is a route from one program to another within or between postsecondary institutions that contains benefits such as transfer credits or guaranteed acceptance. research has shown that implementing pathways is a promising practice to support pse access and attainment, especially among underrepresented populations. thus, pathways may support broader decolonization strategies that support reconciliation among indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in canada (ray, 2017; ottmann, 2017). building on phase 1 of the research which examined indigenous program pathways from an institutional perspective, this research sought to expand current understandings of indigenous program pathways in ontario by privileging student voice and examining pathways from student perspectives. this was achieved primarily through the dissemination of an online student survey at ontario colleges and universities (n= 330 participants). three indigenous student focus groups, and online engagement sessions and a one-day indigenous pathway forum also took place to ensure the postsecondary communities participation in survey design and analysis. this report presents the results of this research. it details who is accessing pathways to and/or from indigenous programs, the experiences of pathway students within these programs, and the overall experiences of indigenous transfer students in ontario, whether or not they are enrolled in an indigenous program. overall the research found that generally students seem content with their pathway experience and that there were more advantages than disadvantages to being a pathway learner. results also showed that those who were more likely to already attend pse were the students utilizing pathways the most, bringing into question the role of pathways in creating access to pse. a study of student transfer experience

project snapshot passerelle du programme collgial tourismevers le b.e.p.s. leadership : activit physique de plein air type: pathway development project number: 2020-29 or p2029 project lead: universit laurentienne collaborators: la cit collgiale project summary the project proposes one (1) pathway from the tourism college program (offered by la cit) to the laurentian b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program. project rationale its the underlying social issue still present in february 2020, the passion for ecotoursim and outdoor activities, that pushed us to explore a pathway between the only tourism program offered in french in the province and laurentians unique b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program. given that ecotourism includes an educational component in terms of the assessment of ecosystems, and that everything points to sustained growth among millennials and post-covid, we are still convinced that it is a very beneficial educational combination for students. unfortunately, the temporary suspension of the university program will not permit us to be able to officially complete this pathway this year. however, we are keeping our invaluable recommendations and intend to file them once the b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program is reactivated as part of the laurentian program offering. outcomes the desired pathway was intended for graduates of la cits tourism program toward laurentians b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program. key steps - the course outlines comprising all of the college and university programs involved in this project were gathered = winning practice - review matrices to compare the learning outcomes of the university courses with the learning outcomes of the college courses were developed = winning practice - a preliminary review was done by a general instructional content specialist to identify the most obvious correlations and submit a report to the university academic units for their approval of the findings = winning practice pathways created - the course outlines comprising all of the college and university programs involved in this project were gathered = winning practice - review matrices to compare the learning outcomes of the university courses with the learning outcomes of the college courses were developed = winning practice - a preliminary review was done by a general instructional content specialist to identify the most obvious correlations and submit a report to the university academic units for their approval of the findings = winning practice incomplete pathways this information can only be provided after the restructuring underway at laurentian university is complete because some of the programs involved in this projects pathways may be cut in the institutions new structure. challenges on february 1, 2021, laurentian university initiated, with no notice, restructuring procedures under the companies creditors arrangement act (ccaa). this process caused general destabilization at the institution, which had to put a stop to all approval processes related to pathways being developed. the work can only resume in fall 2021, based on the programs that will have been spared from the cuts. student outcomes this pathway will help college graduates who want to enroll in the b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program save time and money. it will also offer them greater recognition as professionals through greater consideration of the value of the specialized academic skills gained throughout their college education, thereby demonstrating increased consideration and therefore the greater value of the college education. it will also help them expand their field of skills in the tourism industry, offer them greater versatility and open more opportunities on the job market. student credential this pathway could give college students faster access to obtaining the following degree: - b.p.h.e.: outdoor adventure leadership. student time savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes. student financial savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes, which will indicate the number of credits granted and allow us to perform this calculation. student flexibility definitely better access to the programs and an improved credit recognition process. student work alignment yes, because they will help college graduates enhance their initial studies with related studies, opening the door for them to more opportunities on the job market. institutional outcomes no, none. the process undertaken as part of this project followed the procedures of the new methodology developed and followed for the last three years. tips/advice we still believe that the methodology based on reviewing correlations between the learning outcomes of the college and university programs continues to be the best argument to present to the institutional bodies responsible for the approval of the proposed pathways because it shows, in a factual manner, the overlaps and skills of the college graduates. we strongly recommend it to other post-secondary institutions. tools and resources the key tool developed as part of this project is the review matrix.

project snapshot exploring the transferability of preparatory programs in northwestern ontario post-secondary institutions type: seamless transfer project number: s2018 project lead: lakehead university collaborators: anishinabek employment and training services, confederation college, lakehead public schools adult and continuing education, oshki pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute, and seven generations education institute were all equal collaborators on this project. project summary the purpose of this project was to develop a regional snapshot of preparatory credentials delivered by post-secondary institutions in the thunder bay region using both quantitative data (enrolment statistics, key performance indicators) and qualitative data (narratives from instructors and administrators). preparatory credentials refer to programs offered by postsecondary institutions (universities, colleges and indigenous education institutes) that act as a gateway to diploma and degree programs. some examples include the indigenous transition year program and the native nurses entry program at lakehead university and the pre-health, pre-technology and college access programs at confederation college. the deliverables/key learnings that resulted from this project include: 1) an inventory of all preparatory credentials delivered by universities, colleges, indigenous education institutes and other stakeholders in the thunder bay region and their connection to industry and credential flow through. 2) a summary of the enrolment numbers and the success rates of students taking access credentials in the region. 3) a summary of themes in conversational interviews with faculty and administrative staff that help to inform the enrolment numbers and success rates. this project provided an opportunity to engage in relationship building, leading to increased collaboration between the partnering institutions and was an important step towards serving indigenous students and industry collectively. project rationale student mobility stakeholders in northwestern ontario have observed that access and preparatory credentials are an essential educational stepping stone for many first-generation indigenous post-secondary students in the region. additionally, we observed that access and preparatory credentials are some of the most popular credentials in ontario however there is no collective regional strategy for managing/optimizing transitions between post-secondary institutions and career-associated credential ladders. the current access credential environment is complicated and a collaborative approach to system navigation will save students and education advisors time and money main collaborators anishinabek employment and training services, confederation college, lakehead public schools adult and continuing education, oshki pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute, and seven generations education institute were all equal collaborators on this project. outcomes this project led to a final report that documents all the access/preparatory credentials offered by each project partner with some enrolment statistics and rates of transition. additionally, it led to a successful oncat grant application to develop inter-institutional wrap-around supports and indigenous-centred transfer pathway development that includes several of the partners from this project. this project also sets a precedent for sharing internal mobility data between regional partner institutions and will hopefully lead to a larger-scale student mobility data project in future grant cycles. key steps the following list contains the key steps taken in this project: (1) opened the project and invited members from the ogimaawin indigenous education council. (2) produced an internal enrolment statistics report in collaboration with institutional planning and analysis at lakehead university. (3) shared this internal report with partners to show the format and level of data granularity required. (4) scheduled consistent check-ins and individual interviews with the project leads at each institution. focus groups were recommended by all project leads. (5) scheduled and completed online focus groups with staff where the project lead determined it was beneficial and possible logistically (6) generated a draft final report with all metrics and a summary of interview/focus group themes. (7) conducted a catered but virtual group session to review and edit the report. (8) completed the project and envisioned next steps. challenges staff turnover and the transition from in-person to virtual learning and meetings were the biggest challenges to completing this project student outcomes students benefit when staff have an inter-institutional awareness of credential laddering opportunities, particularly during career and education advising. the project leads at all participating institutions now have access to a shared map of preparatory credentials in the region that they can share with their education counsellors and academic advisors. through this map, it is likely that students can select preparatory credentials that best match their educational goals so they do not have to take duplicate/overlapping credentials. projects that build inter-institutional relationships between colleges, universities, indigenous institutes and other pse stakeholders directly benefit future transfer students. in oncat funded reports produced by the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (now known as the negahneewin research centre) on indigenous pathways, emphasis on a relationshiporiented approach to project management is recommended. having relationships that involve personal connection instead of simply detached job oriented interactions creates an environment where partners reach out on behalf of groups of students to facilitate seamless transfer and create new pathways. student time savings our project team identified that some learners require up to three successive access credentials to be admissible into a degree/diploma level credential. inter-institutional awareness of the access program structure, resulting from this project, may lead to student advisors recommending more efficient pathways through the system. in some instances, students require the skills and learning of multiple access credentials to be successful. student financial savings the increased awareness of regional access credentials and their intended destination credentials is likely to save time and finances associated with the completion of multiple access credentials where one access credential may be unnecessary. student flexibility inter-institutional communication and increased awareness of the regional access credential opportunities will improve the experience and efficiency of post-secondary system navigation for indigenous learners, first nations education counsellors, and third-party sponsors. student work alignment this project may contribute to a more efficient pathway to the completion of a bachelor of science in nursing for indigenous and non-indigenous learners who require the completion of an access credential to apply to the bsc nursing program. institutional outcomes the process of sharing internal data sources and having group discussions about the student experience and the nature of access/preparatory credentials led to a more inter-institutional and collaborative approach to pse delivery in the region. an additional institutional practice that is likely to change relates to the data sovereignty of files in student information systems where indigenous institutes offer a credential through a partner institution. clear communication between partnering institutions occurred leading to a process for access to student information. tips/advice for institutions who are interested in sharing enrolment data and collaboratively sharing program information to create seamless transfer experiences for their students we advise: (1) leading by example when it comes to sharing data - in situations where partners are asked to share data that reveals the state and success rates of their programs and students, having the lead institution share their data first as a template and exemplar is beneficial. (2) sharing internal data sets reveals a much more accurate picture of how students actually move through sequential post-secondary credentials between institutions than external sma reporting tends to reveal. tools and resource the final report attached has revisions and has been reviewed and edited by all project partners over the course of march, 2021

preamble the purpose of this report is to demonstrate that a larger scale collaborative research project between multiple institutions in northwestern ontario is feasible. the follow tables contain responses from all institutional partners to the questions co-created by the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) and the project lead. this oncat project was was completed with many of the same partners and timelines as the oncat funded project (s2018: an inventory of preparatory credentials in northwestern ontario) which included seven generations indigenous institute, confederation college, oshki-wenjack education institute and lakehead university. the process of sharing aggregated data while discussing the viability of a larger data sharing and analysis initiative was synergistic in nature and our collective representatives were enthusiastic about future initiatives that involve collaboration and data sharing related to student mobility. methodology the project was opened with a group meeting over zoom where all partners were invited to participate. the office of institutional planning and analysis at lakehead university generated initial responses to all of the data feasibility questions that were reviewed and edited through three successive iterations in collaboration with the internal team at lakehead. these initial responses were then shared with all institutional partners to provide additional context considerations and validation of their institutional processes. the project coordinator facilitated formal and informal key informant interviews with senior administration, admissions, and institutional planning and research staff members at every partner institution. all responses from every institution were made available to the project partners in advance of this final report for review and refinement. institutional responses to data access feasibility sharing unique student identifiers is the institutional research board (irb) at each college/institute/university required to sign off on the project prior to the sharing of student records containing unique identifiers (e.g. names, oen)? if no irb exists at an institution, what is the equivalent process to ensure ethical guidelines are followed lakehead lakehead university does not currently share unique identifiers between university institutions, per guidance from the director, risk management and access to information at lakehead university. specifically, the university's main "collection notice" does not cover use of personal information for research purposes by a third party. currently, data requests are aggregated to remove unique identifiers. lakehead university does have a research ethics board, but this type of request would likely not require reb approval. typically, when student mobility projects require data the research ethics board officer reviews the request and if the data is being used for evaluation purposes an evaluation waiver is issued. confederation confederation college does not share unique identifiers between institutions college as guided by their institutional research and planning policy and signatories. oshkipimanche-owin confederation college has a reb. aggregated data requests with no unique identifiers can, in certain instances, be shared without a reb review. oshki adheres to privacy legislation and guidelines. at this time, sharing data with unique identifiers requires the express consent of each individual student and oshki does not share data outside of reporting to ministry funders. oshki uses ministrys (mlts) "collection notice" form. student level & enrollment data is provided to the ministry (arms software database). also, mcu enrollment data is submitted to them but does not include any student-level information. 7 generations seven generations education institute (sgei) is in the process of establishing policy and procedure to support the work of a sgei reb that is responsive to community needs and accountable to anishinaabe protocols and understandings of research. in the absence of a reb, sgei uses consent to information sharing forms collected during student registration, which stipulates that only non identifying information will be shared outside of the organization, with the exception of information sharing for the admissions process. currently, the decision of what constitutes non identifying information is agreed upon by our program directors. signing authority what individuals have the signing authority (e.g., vp academic?) to make such data available within each college/institute/university? lakehead a request would need approval from the following individuals: university dr. millo shaw (director, risk management and access to information) dr. heather murchison (vice-provost, institutional planning and analysis) dr. david barnett (provost and vice-president, academic) andrea tarsitano (registrar and vice-provost students) confederation college oshkipimanche-owin 7 generations a request would need approval from the following individuals: neil cooke (vice president academic) don duclos (registrar) a request would need approval from the following individuals: vice president (kim falcigno) academic director (susan sinclair) the following individuals are able to approve sharing of data concerning post-secondary enrollment, attrition, achievement and pathways: brent tookenay (ceo) angela mainville (director of post-secondary education) data sharing processes do data-sharing exercises such as these require formal review/approval from the freedom of information and protection of privacy (fippa) office, privacy office or officer at each college/institute/university? what security requirements will they impose on the digital and physical infrastructure eventually used to store shared data? lakehead data-sharing exercises would require review and approval from the risk university management and access to information office at lakehead university. confederation college oshkipimanche-owin 7 generations the security requirements must comply with section 10(1) of ontario regulation 460 (https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/900460) and must complete and submit to you the "security and confidentiality agreement of personal information for research purposes" (http://www.forms.ssb.gov.on.ca/mbs/ssb/forms/ssbforms.nsf/formdetail? openform&act=rdr& tab=profile&srch=&env=wwe&tit=security+and+confidentiality+ agreement+of+personal+information+for+research+ purposes&no=0025208e). these exercises would need to be reviewed and approved by the registrar and director of operational effectiveness. there is no formal review/approval process or privacy officer for these types of requests at oshki. all privacy roles are currently managed by the directors. no formal review/approval process exists. these decisions are made by program directors in consultation with corresponding registrar personnel, as we have a post-secondary registrar office and a separate secondary registrar office. legal counsel is legal counsel at each institution required to review any project documents? lakehead official records, institutional contracts (mous), non-disclosure agreements university that require sign-offs or legal obligations that bind the university require legal review. confederation college oshkipimanche-owin 7 generations legal review is not required for transitory records such as the final reports, aggregated data, reb approved research requests. legal counsel is required at the discretion of the registrar and the senior administration team. contracts are reviewed on a case by case basis. we do not employ legal counsel for data related requests, at this time. legal counsel is not required to review project documents pertaining to making data available outside the organization. limitations in data sharing are there any limitations on the sharing of data that would be imposed by any of the abovementioned actors? lakehead limitations to data sharing are determined, generally, by the office of university institutional planning and analysis. privacy and this includes: legal considerations, student privacy, the intended use of the data, the data granularity (i.e. aggregated vs. non-aggregated), political, environmental and social considerations confederation college oshkipimanche-owin 7 generations limitations to data sharing are determined first by the registrars office followed by the office of institutional research and planning who would assess the level of detail in data in relation to the intended receiver of the data. yes, we intend to regulate data sharing as we develop institutional processes related to these types of requests. currently, limitations are at the discretion of program directors who hold obligations to student, staff and contractor privacy on behalf of sgei at the grace of the sgei board of directors. formal processes and procedures supported by policy will be established according to community needs and accountability to anishinaabe protocols and understandings of possible implications for data sharing in order to ensure the use of the data benefits sgei students. request approvals in what order do each of the abovementioned permissions need to be acquired? lakehead approval of this type of data request needs to be provided by the university registrar, the director, risk management and access to information, and the provost and vice-president academic prior to it being accepted and initiated by the vice-provost (institutional planning and analysis) confederation approval of this type of data request needs to be provided by the registrar college and the vice president (academic) oshkiapproval of this type of data request needs to be provided by the pimanche-oacademic director, prior to being accepted and initiated by the vice win president. 7 generations approval of this type of data request needs to be provided by the director of post-secondary, prior to being accepted by the registrar, but can be initiated by any program director or the ceo. previous projects and templates is there a precedent for this sort of work at any of the institutions? and, if so, are copies of the documents listed below available to be used as templates lakehead lakehead university has precedent for this type of work through other university formalized partnerships. aggregated data requests with no identifying information have been shared for other pathway development projects for internal administration purposes only. if a project requires contacting students or is considered as research involving human subjects then a reb review is required. the researcher submits a reb application (attached) and this is reviewed by the board. when administrative staff or academic staff engage in program evaluation and want to use variables that are more likely to lead to identification of the students/sample the reb may issue an evaluation waiver whereby the party requesting a data summary can bypass reb review. typically the data requested is stripped of identifying information and must have a sample size of 5 of more. we have attached a research ethics board agreement template and an evaluation waiver template to the final report package in the oncat portal. confederation confederation college and lakehead university have engaged in datacollege sharing agreements in the past through oncat funded projects. typically, these agreements contain data aggregated internally before being shared. oshkiwe have a general confidentiality agreement for all staff/instructors. in pimanche-osome cases instructors have access to student information systems at win both oshki and partner institutions. 7 generations previous projects include economic viability reports and operational/facilities costs analysis, all contracted to outside consultants. these agreements/contracts are not available to be used as templates and are not exclusively related to student data. common identifiers do the desired data sources across institutions contain a common set of unique identifiers (e.g., oen) or foreign key fields that can be used to join records? i. if so, what are these, and what is their availability across years? lakehead all students have an oen which is collected by lakehead university. university however, datasets within the institution leverage the lakehead university specific student id, given the potentially small number of transfers occurring in certain pathways. confederation all confederation college students have an oen however we have no college reporting and have not, historically, done local research based on the oen numbers. oshkidata fields available to oshki include the oen number, name, date of pimanche-obirth, and partner college/university student number. win 7 generations sgei collects and stores oens and partner institute student id numbers, but doesnt share this information. an sgei specific student number is also generated for electronic identification of students in the sis and lms, which is not shared outside the organization. external data sources for data sources external to the participating institutions (e.g., ouac, ocas), indicate how viable it is for the project team to gain access to the data in the timeline feasible for the project. lakehead institutional planning and analysis requires additional information on the university specific fields being requested in this project to predict a specific timeline. depending on the nature of the request and internal capacity, the office of institutional planning and analysis attempts to respond to these types of requests within 4 weeks. confederation ocas data extraction is possible based on need and can be college complemented by our internal student information system data. to predict a timeline, we would need specific data requirements. oshkin/a. we do not have the capacity to pull data from the ouac/ocas pimanche-osystems. our students apply through these portals to the partner win institutions, not oshki directly. 7 generations access to the data is dependent on the specific data requested/required for the project. assuming it is data stored at sgei, the anticipated timeline is 2 weeks. for data we would need to request from partner institutes, the timeline cant be anticipated until the specific data requirements are approved by the partner institutions, which isnt guaranteed. common data fields are data field definitions for key variables consistent across institutions, including: i. indigenous; program/field of study; full-time / part-time status, gpa, year of study, qualification / credential being sought. ii. for transfer student: previous program, previous institution, transfer credit awarded lakehead the following variables are available: university indigenous students based on self-identification at lakehead university self-identified through ouac/ocas enrolled in an indigenous transition year program (formerly native access program) full-time and part-time is assessed based on fte calculation at each institution at lakehead 0.375 fte and lower are considered part-time gpa marking schemes/grade scales vary by institutions previous program / previous institution / transfer credit awarded with various definitions based on data collected in the students transcript some equivalency tables may exist used by the registrars office qualification / credential being sought / year of study varies by institution some standardization through the pfis-user manual developed by ministry of colleges and universities use of previous institution codes (ouac/ocas code, statcan code, institution-specific codes) transfer credit awarded varies by institution and subjective course equivalence evaluations confederation college oshkipimanche-owin 7 generations most of the data fields listed above (lakehead university response) are available in our internal data system. partner institutions share student transcripts with oshki which may or may not contain some of the data fields listed above. some of it may be revealed on student transcripts which are shared with oshki. registrars at the partner institutions only have access to most this data. oshki would have to request it from them. indigenous students self-identified through registration process into sgei sis full-time and part-time is assessed based on fte calculation at each institution full-time/part-time is assessed according to partner institutes calculation and determination process gpa marking schemes/grade scales according to processes of partner institute previous program / previous institution / transfer credit awarded with various definitions based on data collected in the students transcript qualification / credential being sought / year of study varies by institution use of previous institution codes (ouac/ocas code, statcan code, institution-specific codes) transfer credit awarded varies by institution and subjective course equivalence evaluations digital infrastructure do project researchers currently have access to digital infrastructure meeting the specifications of fippa/fippa offices? lakehead the office of institutional planning and analysis at lakehead university university meets fippa data collection and storage practices. confederation the office of institutional research and planning and all other offices college associated with student data requests meet fippa data collection and storage practices. oshkioshki does not have access to any related digital infrastructure at this pimanche-otime. win 7 generations sgei students data collection and storage practices meet fippa specifications. conclusion during the final group meeting with all project partners in this project, key stakeholders agreed to build on our inter-institutional relationships over the 2021/2022 academic year and submitting a larger scale research proposal to oncat for the 2022 request for proposals cycle as a result of this work. at the time of this report, we have applied to extend our oncat funded work to support indigenous learners transitioning between our respective institutions. as we build on our current relationships and interweave our inter-institutional networks of professionals and academics our intention is to build a collaborative quantitative research agenda that supports strategic pathway development through sharing variables in our institutional data sets.

research brief is there a transferable sociology core in ontario colleges? a content analysis of first-year course outlines dr. rod missaghian, oncat january 2021 a content analysis of first-year course outlines 2 missaghian | january 2021 introduction credit transfer is a complex organizational process requiring input from administrative staff, faculty members, and students alike (see bccat, 2018, p. 45; aacrao, 2017, p. 12). inefficiencies during this process place transfer students at risk of credit loss, as their new institutions may not recognize previously completed coursework. this can lead to the repetition of courses with equivalent content and learning outcomes, needlessly elongating time-to-completion and increasing the cost of education. analyzing how colleges and universities interface with each other and determine course equivalencies can produce intelligence that could inform the improvement of transfer systems. however, research and evaluations of this interfaceincluding work recently funded by oncat (hesa, 2020)typically focus on how the bureaucratic machinery processes transfer credit assessments. this includes technical elements, ranging from the identification of transfer students, to the support role played by transfer advisors and other registrarial staff during the transfer process. however, faculty members involvement in transfer-related processes remains somewhat of a black box across many jurisdictions. this black box exists despite faculty members considerable influence on transfer credit assessment and the development of articulated pathways across differentially structured postsecondary systems. in more centralized systems, such as b.c.s, faculty come together in disciplinary committees to establish equivalencies between the courses offered at their institutions. in many american states, faculty also help to set the parameters for the establishment of common cores, or sets of courses that become fully transferable across public systems (logue, 2017; missaghian, 2020). in more decentralized systems, such as ontarios, faculty are also key players in the construction of bi-lateral agreements that identify transferable courses and receive frequent requests to evaluate new equivalencies. as such, regardless of how a transfer system operates, it is fair to conclude that curriculum assessmentthe process through which faculty members evaluate and contrast course outlinesplays a key role. indeed, in some jurisdictions observers have claimed that faculty, as stewards of their disciplines curriculum, effectively own the system by which equivalency is established (compton et al., 2013, p. 48). given this centrality, the absence of knowledge about how faculty perform transfer credit assessments is problematic. this is particularly true given claims that a high degree of variation exists in the evaluative criteria used by faculty during transfer credit decisions, often due to individual perceptions and personalities (heppner et al., 2019, p. 48296). such claims compel us to learn more about how faculty make decisions on transfer credit and how that evaluative process plays out. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 3 missaghian | january 2021 to develop a better understanding of facultys role in transfer, this summer the research team at oncat decided to explore the curriculum assessment process. experience-driven design principles prevalent in disciplines like digital media, hci (human computer interaction), and marketing suggest that researchers should personally experience processes from the users standpoint. this can help them develop empathy with user challenges and needs, enabling them to conduct superior research and develop superior products (xue & desmet, 2019). we adopt a similar conceptual framework and methodological approach for this exploratory project to understand a critical component of the transfer and articulation process: the evaluation and comparison of course outlines. our overarching goal here is to develop insights that could inform upcoming oncat-funded interview- and survey-based research projects focused on faculty members role in transfer. there is a dearth of research on the process of curriculum assessment and no readily available data sources to explore the intricacies of this activity. for this exploratory exercise, we chose first-year introduction to sociology college courses offered in ontario and taught as part of general arts and science diploma/certificate programs. we felt most qualified to perform this exercise in sociology given that multiple individuals in the oncat research team have taught sociology at the post-secondary level, hold advanced degrees (ma, phd), and have published peer-reviewed articles both drawing from and contributing to this discipline. in addition, oncat has long been interested in pathways between college and university. these specified programs often, but not always, explicitly cite preparation for transfer to other college and university program as a key function. this exploratory empirical examination of course outlines revealed a high degree of consistency in the general makeup of introduction to sociology courses at ontario colleges, while also identifying dimensions along which these documents remain unstandardized. the latter is identified as a potential barrier to the establishment of equivalencies between courses. however, the observed consistencies can serve as a foundation upon which to promote a more transferable set of introductory courses in sociology and other fields. this paper concludes by outlining areas for future inquiry as it pertains to curriculum assessment and faculty in the field of credit transfer. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 4 missaghian | january 2021 some background faculty are a vital stakeholder in postsecondary education systems. through their unions and senates, they influence, at a high level, how colleges and universities function. their power is considerable enough to be viewed at times as a challenge to effective shared governance (austin & jones, 2015, p. 140). collectively, as subject matter experts, faculty members also play a hands-on role in both the design and delivery of courses. when performing teaching duties, they exercise a degree of professional discretion in how they evaluate students work and how they present course material. encroachment on such professional jurisdiction is routinely met with a high degree of resistance. given such powers, it is unsurprising that faculty also play a key role during transfer credit assessment, largely determining whether two courses are equivalent. in the u.s., academics advocate that faculty, as the content area experts, should have primary responsibility for crafting the actual statewide articulation agreements (ignash & townsend, 2001, p. 2). bccat (2018, p.7), british columbias agency in charge of overseeing provincial transfer processes, notes that there is a need to respect faculty expertise during transfer credit assessment: faculty members are asked to participate in the articulation process because of their specialized knowledge of a subject, discipline, or field. when processing articulation requests, institutions should make evaluators aware of appropriate transfer credit options. however, institutions should not overrule evaluators decisions on transferability, or on amounts of transfer credit, when these decisions are based on the evaluators expert knowledge of the specific subject, discipline, or field. (emphasis added) faculty influence on the awarding of transfer credit is exercised in various settings, whether during the negotiation of articulation agreements, within formal articulation committees, or during case-by-case credit assessments. as would be expected, facultys transfer credit assessments do not occur in a vacuum, being influenced by both formal policies and informal criteria. formally, we know that institutions have traditionally had policies that compel assessors to consider the accreditation of the sending institution (u.s. government accountability office, 2005), the timing of course completion, the grade achieved (bccat, 2015), and qualifications of the faculty member (bccat, 2006). recent international policy developments, like the lisbon recognition 1. bccats (2006) statement of instructor qualifications for transferable courses states that instructors who teach academic, degree-level transfer courses will usually possess, at a minimum, a master's degree or equivalent in the discipline or in a closely related area (p. 1). a content analysis of first-year course outlines 5 missaghian | january 2021 convention (lrc), also commit signatories (including canada) to provide access to an assessment of qualifications earned in other countries. under the lrc, a policy of reverse onus places pressure on colleges and universitiesand facultyfor demonstrating that credentials earned abroad do not meet the standards for transfer credit. despite suggestions that transfer credit decisions should be guided by principles of parity in esteem (dennison, 2000), reciprocity (bccat, 2018), and executed in a consistent fashion (cmec, 2020), with faculty members treating others courses as they would their own, many anecdotes suggest that transfer credit decisions are often arbitrary. for example, some suggest applied coursework is given short shrift during transfer credit assessments, counting as electives at best, or not at all, at worst (book, 2015, p. 201-202; also see mcquarrie, 2012). similar views have been expressed about online courses (bccat, 2018). some also suggest that transfer between college and university is hampered by a longstanding university culture that has traditionally viewed college education and college students themselves as being of lower quality (gerhardt & masakure, 2016, p. 81). the multi-faceted environment in which faculty perform curriculum assessment, and its centrality to transfer credit decisions, makes it an important research area. the overlapping forces shaping facultys curriculum assessment, combined with the general autonomy granted to faculty members, introduces considerable uncertainty into transfer credit decisions (hesa, 2020). this can cause problems for students seeking to complete their credentials in a timely fashion and has broader impacts on human capital development (pizarro milian & munro, 2020). despite this, there is a dearth of research on the process of curriculum assessment and no readily available data sources to explore the intricacies of this activity. as such, as a first step to better understand this critical process, and to develop insights to inform future oncat-funded survey- and interview-based research, we decided to analyze a set of publicly available introduction to sociology course outlines from ontario colleges. data and methods the sampling strategy for this project was purposive, focusing on introductory sociology college courses that were mandatory as part of one- or two-year general arts and science diplomas or certificate programs, or available as general education electives that satisfied program requirements. these programs have an explicit transfer component, and many of them have transfer agreements with one or more ontario universities. such parameters 2. for example, several programs, like those at mohawk, humber, sault, seneca, sheridan, and fleming, which have two-year gas (general arts and science) diploma programs, have university transfer in their online program titles. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 6 missaghian | january 2021 ensure that we are analyzing a set of comparable sociology courses with relatively high affinity, being situated within similar programs. programs were explored thoroughly prior to coding outlines, using information gathered exclusively through their online homepages. recent course outlines were downloaded where available, and we also searched through public course outline databases. this process netted 13 out of a potential 24 course outlines. through contacts with institutional transfer advisors, we also obtained an additional four outlines, for a total of 17. the general framework used to examine the content of introductory sociology course outlines is informed by i) the analytical approach used by american researchers who performed content analyses on community college sociology course descriptions (rowell & this, 2013) and catalogues (kain et al., 2007); ii) transfer credit eligibility requirements, posted by institutions online; and iii) documents outlining best practices in transfer credit assessment (bccat, 2018; aacro, 2017). we performed a manual reading of each outline, using these components to create our initial list of codes. we then performed targeted word searches for sociological themes, comparing our counts (see table 1) and their location in the document (i.e., course description, learning outcomes) to similar research (persell et al., 2007; rowell & this, 2013; wagenaar, 2004). it should be noted that none of the abovementioned american research complete course outlines as we have done here. results course descriptions course descriptions are consequential devices, and worthwhile to analyze, given that they serve as summaries of the objectives and main topics covered through a course. particularly for faculty members facing time constraints, and who are unable to perform an in-depth review of the actual reading materials assigned, they serve as an expedient proxy for the information covered. as such, the first part of this analysis focuses exclusively on their content. 3. northern colleges general arts and science program did not have an introduction to sociology course, and la cits program had a criminology but not a sociology elective. this meant that we obtained 17 of a potential 22 course outlines available. 4. there are important differences between canadian and american pse (davies & hammack, 2005), as well as sociology practices (mclaughlin, 2005), that problematize our use of american research. however, without comparable canadian research on this topic, we are left with few options. 5. ontario universities with online information about transfer eligibility include criteria for evaluating course outlines. an acceptable course outline should include several components, such as a course description, a list of potential topics, and a course textbook. we used three of these components to help inform coding in this analysis. 7 a content analysis of first-year course outlines missaghian | january 2021 for comparability purposes, figure 1 displays counts for the occurrence of rowell and thiss (2013) top ten sociological concepts across the course descriptions within our sample. figure 1 allows us to observe that culture is the most popularly cited theme across outlines, reflecting the centrality of culture and norms on sociological explanations of behaviour. socializationbroadly defined as the process through which culture and norms are instilled in individuals within a societyalso ranks very highly. in turn, deviance, the process through which individual behaviour differs from mainstream norms, rounds out the top three in our analytic sample. figure 1. top 10 sociological themes in course descriptions 13 12.5 10 9 7.5 7 5 ch an ge 4 5 g ro up s 2.5 4 th eo rie s 5 re se ar ch 6 5 2 cu ltu re so ci al iz at io n d ev ia nc e in st itu tio n ca tio n so ci al st ra ti so ci al fa m ily 0 note: the counts in this figure record only a single occurrence in the course description for each theme. figure 2 expands our focus, displaying the total number of distinct themes present in the course description of each college course outline. here, we see considerable variation in the degree of specificity or detail present in each course description. in some cases, we see a comprehensive representation of the topics covered. meanwhile, in others, there is only limited detail. we fathom that the latter could present an obstacle to curriculum assessment, making it difficult for instructors to evaluate if two courses are equivalent. 8 a content analysis of first-year course outlines missaghian | january 2021 figure 2. themes cited by college 9 8 6 6 4 4 3 2 1 1 g eo rg ia n lo ya lis t sa ul t 2 1 3 3 3 3 6 6 4 3 2 d ur ha m sh er id an ca m br ia n al go nq co ui nf n ed er at io n m oh aw k n ia ga ra se ne ca fl em in g st .c la ir ca na do re fa ns ha w e h um g eo be rg r e br ow n 0 table 1 (next page) displays the ranking of concepts in our ontario course descriptions compared with rowell and thiss (2013) results. the concepts are listed according to their ranking in our analysis. we see that the first (culture) and second (socialization) ranked concepts on our list were almost identically ranked in rowell and thiss (2013) work, whereas the third-ranked concept (deviance) for this study sat at the very bottom of their top ten. the important takeaway is that each of r&ts core concepts were also represented in at least one course description in the ontario sample. this signals a considerable degree of uniformity in what sociology college faculty consider the core subjects that should be covered in introductory courses. 9 a content analysis of first-year course outlines missaghian | january 2021 table 1. comparison of sociological themes in course descriptions sociological concepts number of institutions with at least one mention comparison to rowell and this (2013) culture 13 #1 socialization 9 #3 deviance 7 #10 social institutions 6 #5 stratification 5 #6 social change 5 #4 groups 5 #2 theories 4 #9 research and methods 4 #7 family 2 #8 other sections of the course outline several outlines did not reference core concepts in their descriptions. it is important to remember that, though highly consequential devices, there are limits to what can be included in course descriptions, with some institutions even providing guidelines on word limits. as such, we looked to other sections of course outlines, such as learning outcomes and proposed weekly topics/modules, for information on course content. learning outcomes, for example, have penetrated course outlines across ontario colleges and universities in recent years, serving as signals of the competencies that students are expected to develop (lennon et al., 2014; taylor, 2016). outlines also often contain detailed information on readings and the thematic structure of a course, which can communicate useful information about material not covered by course descriptions. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 10 missaghian | january 2021 expanding our scope to the entire course outline allows us to develop a far more robust understanding of the landscape of sociology courses at ontario colleges. to orient our discussion, we draw on wagenaars (2004) work, which surveyed a representative sample of sociologists about what key concepts and skills they felt essential to include in an introductory course. table 2 (next page) displays a comparison of wagenaars top 11 concepts to our analysis of the top 11 concepts across our course outlines. while several of the most widely cited concepts are included in his top 11, there are a handful, like foundations/theory and gender and sexuality, which appear only within our sample. this points to potential distinctions between what material is taught in these courses and what are considered key competencies. culture (referenced by 15 of 17 institutions) remained among the most popularly cited topics but was eclipsed by references to research and methodology (see table 2). the latter consisted of broader references to the sociological research process, as well more specific references to qualitative or quantitative research methods. some schools, such as canadore, included specific details about what social research entails, including understanding hypothesis, independent and dependent variables, validity, reliability, representation, correlation and causation. mohawk college was the only institution that did not explicitly mention research and methodology at all in their course outline. of course, the absence of these topics from outlines does not mean that these topics were not covered in the course. 6. it is beyond the scope of this study to discuss differences between u.s. and canadian sociology, but canadian sociologists have noted national differences between how the discipline has evolved over time (see davies 2009; mclaughlin 2004). 11 a content analysis of first-year course outlines missaghian | january 2021 table 2. overall presence of sociological themes across course outline ontario colleges top 11 sociological themes number of institutions with at least one mention ranking in wagenaar (2004) research and methods 16 #9 culture 15 #5 socialization 15 #7 foundations / theory 15 not present gender and sexuality 14 not present crime and deviance 13 not present groups 13 not present stratification 12 #2 race and ethnicity 12 not present applied sociology 11 #6 sociology as a discipline 10 #10 the main takeaways from this broader analysis of the course content are twofold. first, depending on what section of a course outline is being relied on, one may derive a different sense of what material courses cover. for example, we see that in table 1, only four institutions made mention of research within their course descriptions. however, this was a far more pervasive category when other sections, such as learning objectives and weekly modules, were also included in the analysis. though commonly used devices, course descriptions tell a very incomplete (if not misleading) picture about what topics a course actually covers. second, there appears to be an extremely high level of consistency in the type of material covered across introduction to sociology courses in the college sector. however, there seem to be variations in the way certain sociological concepts, such as culture or socialization, are defined, as either general, topical, thematic, or core. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 12 missaghian | january 2021 a note on textbooks course descriptions, learning outcomes, and weekly schedules are useful for course evaluators to understand what course content is contained within an outline. however, in addition to content, there are other less obvious facets that faculty members and other evaluators are bound to engage with in equivalency decisions. two of these important considerations are the textbook used and the evaluation scheme. in the absence of more detailed information and time, both can potentially be used as proxies to evaluate rough equivalencies in the content, rigour, or workload of a course. while a manual examination of the textbooks used by these courses is beyond the scope of this exercise, it is worthwhile to cite some important patterns. only two college outlinescambrian and georgiandid not include specific information about a course textbook. the other 15 institutions cited a total of 12 different textbooks, with only three titles/authors being used by more than one institution. all textbooks were written by canadian sociologists and had canadian editions. as such, while the core concepts between ontario college introduction to sociology classes appear similar, the textbooks assigned varied greatly. this is unsurprising in a system like ontarios, where institutions enjoy great autonomy in how they structure and govern their programs (eastman et al., 2018; jones, 1997). whichever route [students] travel, the resulting transfer credit will depend on faculty decisions based on a comparison of course outlines. though highly consequential, our understanding of this key process remains limited. one takeaway from such diversity is that if curriculum assessment is done in a manner that places considerable weight on the textbooks used in an introductory course, evaluators may be less prone to deem courses in this area equivalent. a knee-jerk reaction to seeing two different textbooks, especially if their titles differ markedly, might be to assume that inconsistencies exist in their coverage of topics, leading to assumed substantive differences. as such, institutional policies should take care to emphasize that using the same texts is not a pre-condition for equivalency. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 13 missaghian | january 2021 discussion on the surface, there appears to be a high degree of general uniformity amongst college introductory sociology courses, notwithstanding the different textbooks assigned. using an analysis of the occurrence of targeted words and phrases, we discovered the presence of core sociological concepts, many of which were identified previously in american research. we found that the majority of colleges are including key sociological concepts like culture and socialization, but that pertinent information is scattered across different sections of the outline, such as course descriptions, learning outcomes, and weekly schedules/modules. while not every outline contained every topic, we do see convergence between several key concepts/categories, with 14, 15 and 16 of a total of 17 institutions mentioning them at least once in their respective outlines (see table 2). this convergence hints at the potential for articulation agreements to streamline equivalencies for general arts and science programs. however, it should be noted that introductory courses generally have more curricular consistency, as these courses prepare students for more specialized upper-level courses. future research should repeat this analysis utilizing outlines for upperyear classes (e.g., mandatory theory and methods courses) in both colleges and universities which are often more specialized, and thus, for which universities may be less likely to grant equivalencies. in addition, comparisons between introductory courses at colleges and universities should also be explored. one simple way to facilitate this research (and curriculum assessment for transfer credit purposes) would be to create a public repository of outlines for courses offered at every ontario postsecondary institution. within disciplines, the sharing of course outlines could promote greater awareness about emerging practices, be it the coverage of novel sociological topics, use of various research tools (e.g., data-scraping), shifting forms of delivery (e.g., online, blended), or assessment practices. currently, researchers wishing to analyze curriculum have to gather these from each institution, requesting them from instructors and administrators who may consider such documents to be their intellectual property. students seeking transfer credit for their previous coursework may also be forced to track down course outlines, wherever they may remain available. in a field like sociology, discussions about what the field is and should focus on have raged on for decades (see burawoy, 2005; calhoun 1992; carrol 2013; davies, 2009; mclaughlin 2005). thus, finding such a high degree of convergence on core concepts across course outlines is encouraging, if not a bit surprising. it represents the possibility for many disciplines, especially those with arguably greater internal consensus, to develop wide- a content analysis of first-year course outlines 14 missaghian | january 2021 reaching articulation agreements that can facilitate student mobility. ideally, across high affinity areas, such as introduction to sociology, arrangements could be a multilateral, allowing credits from courses like the ones we studied to be recognized at a system-level. multi-lateral agreements would expand the range of possibilities for transfer students looking to move within the system. conclusion college students in ontario who wish to pursue further studies, be it in another college or university program, will need to transfer credits at some point. for some, the path is already clearly laid out in an articulation agreement. for others, the transfer journey may require an assessment of their courses. whichever route they travel, the resulting transfer credit will depend on faculty decisions based on a comparison of course outlines. though highly consequential, our understanding of this key process remains limited. the exercise in this research brief provides us with preliminary insights into what faculty members within a familiar discipline face when they make these decisions. while analyzing course outlines can help us understand the structure and content of curriculum documents, there are limitations with this approach. content analysis can only show us what instructors choose to include in a class, but how teaching unfolds in the classroom and the perceptions driving curricular decision-making cannot be gleaned by such an approach. we are already leveraging these insights to inform more in-depth explorations of faculty members involvement in the transfer process. in a forthcoming interview-based study, we are exploring how sociology faculty members evaluate curriculum, and how their thinking relates to potential transfer equivalency decisions. for example, we are exploring how much attention faculty members place on the textbook used in a course, as well as how their perceptions about instructor credentials, and institutional reputations factor into this process. these are all factors that the content analysis used in this brief is unable to explain. we hope to work closely with the sector to continue to uncover the black box of faculty decision-making in articulation and credit transfer. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 15 missaghian | january 2021 references aacrao, (2017). a guide to best practices: awarding transfer and prior learning. washington dc. austin, i., & jones, g. a. 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(2012). facultydetermined course equivalency: the key to ohio's transfer mobility system. new directions for community colleges, 2012(160), 4554. davies, s. (2009). drifting apart? the institutional dynamics awaiting public sociology in canada. canadian journal of sociology, 34(3), 623654. davies, s., & hammack, f. m. (2005). the channeling of student competition in higher education: comparing canada and the us. the journal of higher education, 76(1), 89106. dennison, j. d. (2000). student access and mobility within the british columbia post-secondary system. vancouver: b.c. council on admissions and transfer. eastman, j. a., jones, g. a., bgin-caouette, o., li, s. x., noumi, c., & trottier, c. (2018). provincial oversight and university autonomy in canada: findings of a comparative study of canadian university governance. canadian journal of higher education/revue canadienne denseignement suprieur, 48(3), 6581. gerhardt, k., & masakure, o. (2016). postsecondary student mobility from college to university: academic performance of students. canadian journal of higher education, 46(2), 7891. heppner, a., pawar, a., kivi, d., & mago, v. (2019). automating articulation: applying natural language processing to post-secondary credit transfer. ieee access, 7, 4829548306. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 16 missaghian | january 2021 higher education quality associates (hesa), 2020. oncat post-secondary institutional transfer process mapping project. toronto: on. ignash, j. m., & townsend, b. k. (2001). statewide transfer and articulation policies: current practices and emerging issues. community colleges: policy in the future context, 173, 192. jones, g. a. (1997). higher education in ontario. in glen jones (editor). higher education in canada: different systems, different perspectives, pp.137159. kain, e. l., hendley, a. o., contreras, l. r., & wyatt-baxter, k. k. (2007). sociology in two-year institutions. teaching sociology, 35(4), 350359. lennon, m. c., brijmohan, a., lavigne, e., yang, j., moodie, g., & wheelahan, l. (2016). ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise, university of toronto. lennon, m. c., frank, b., humphreys, j., lenton, r., madsen, k., omri, a., & turner, r. (2014). tuning: identifying and measuring sector-based learning outcomes in postsecondary education. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. logue, a. w. (2017). pathways to reform: credits and conflict at the city university of new york. princeton university press. mclaughlin, n. (2005). canada's impossible science: historical and institutional origins of the coming crisis in anglo-canadian sociology. canadian journal of sociology/cahiers canadiens de sociologie, 140. mcquarrie, f. (2012). trades to academic transfer. special report. british columbia council on admissions and transfer. milian r.p., & munro, y. 2020. credit transfer, articulation & the future of work: towards a federal strategy. canadian journal of higher education. missaghian, r. (2020). policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states. oncat: toronto, on. persell, c. h., pfeiffer, k., & syed, a. (2007). what students should understand after taking an introduction to sociology. teaching sociology, 35(4), 300314. roksa, j., arum, r., & cook, a. (eds.) (2016). defining and assessing learning in higher education. pp. 137 in improving quality in american higher education: learning outcomes and assessments for the 21st century. san francisco: wiley & sons. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 17 missaghian | january 2021 rowell, k. r., & this, c. (2013). exploring the sociology curriculum at community colleges in the united states. the american sociologist, 44(4), 329340. stainsby, m., & erskine, r. (2018). how to articulate: requesting and assessing credit in the b.c. transfer system (3rd edition). british columbia council on admissions and transfer. taylor, j. l. (2016). reverse credit transfer policies and programs: policy rationales, implementation, and implications. community college journal of research and practice, 40(12), 10741090. wagenaar, t. c. (2004). is there a core in sociology? results from a survey. teaching sociology, 32(1), 118. xue, h., & desmet, p. m. (2019). researcher introspection for experience-driven design research. design studies, 63, 3764. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 18 missaghian | august 2020 dr. rod missaghian rod missaghian is a researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/our-expertise/policy-briefs-and -reports established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021

instantan passerelles du programme collgial assistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute, vers les programmes universitaires kinsiologie, ducation physique et sant, et promotion de la sant type: pathway development project number: 2020-28 or p2028 project lead: universit laurentienne collaborators: collge boral, la cit collgiale rsum du projet le projet propose six (6) parcours partir du programme collgial assistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute (offert par la cit et le collge boral), vers les programmes laurentienne 1) promotion de la sant (boral et la cit) 2) ducation physique et sant (boral et la cit) 3) kinsiologie (boral et la cit) justification du projet lexploration de ces passerelles a essentiellement t motive par la forte recommandation des intervenants des collges de ce programmes, qui nous ont confi avoir observ au cours des dernires annes que prs de 40% de leurs diplms poursuivaient ensuite des tudes luniversit. apparemment, cette tendance sexpliquerait de par lcart considrable entre le salaire moyen associ une formation collgiale (soit une chelle allant de 30 000$ 48 000$ annuellement, celui relatif une formation universitaire dans le milieu (allant plutt de 70 000$ 80 000$ annuellement). de plus, il a t relev galement dun baccalaurat est exig pour accder de nombreux postes administratifs en milieu hospitalier, un milieu fortement convoit par les tudiants de ce programme. rsultats les passerelles espres taient lintention des tudiants gradus des programmes suivants : du programme assistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute de la cit et du collge boral, vers les programmes kinsiologie, ducation physique et sant et promotion de la sant de la laurentienne. donc six (6) passerelles au total taient initialement espres. mesures cls - les plans de cours composant lensemble des programmes collgiaux et universitaires impliqus dans ce projet ont t rcolts = pratique gagnante - des matrices danalyse permettant de comparer les rsultats dapprentissage des cours universitaires avec les rsultats dapprentissage des cours collgiaux ont t labores = pratique gagnante - une analyse prliminaire a t effectue par une spcialiste de contenu pdagogique gnral, afin didentifier les corrlations les plus videntes et de soumettre un rapport aux units acadmiques universitaires pour leur approbation des constats = pratique gagnante parcours crs la cration de passerelles entre le programme d'assistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute (2 ans) du collge boral et du collge la cit, vers les programmes - b.sc kinsiologie - b.e.p.s ducation physique et sant - b.e.p.s promotion de la sant parcours non termins cette information ne pourra tre fournie qu' la suite de la restructuration en cours de l'universit laurentienne puisque certains programmes impliqus dans les passerelles de ce projet pourraient s'avrer coups dans la nouvelle structure de l'tablissement. dfis le 1er fvrier 2021 luniversit laurentienne a entam, sans aucun pravis, des procdures de restructuration en vertu de la loi sur les arrangements avec les cranciers des compagnies (lacc). ce processus a provoqu une dstabilisation gnralise de ltablissement, qui a d mettre un arrt toutes les dmarches dapprobation relatives au passerelles en cours de dveloppement. les travaux ne pourront reprendre quau cours de lautomne 2021, la lumire des programmes qui auront t pargns des coupures. rsultats pour les tudiants ces passerelles permettront aux diplms collgiaux dsirant sinscrire dans les programmes universitaires cibls dpargner temps et argent. elles leur offriront galement une plus grande reconnaissance titre de professionnel en considrant davantage la valeur des acquis acadmiques spcialiss quils ont rcolts au cours de leur formation collgiale, dmontrant ainsi une considration accrue et par le fait mme, une plus grande valorisation de la formation collgiale. titres dtudes ces passerelles pourraient donner plus rapidement accs aux tudiants collgiaux l'obtention des diplmes suivants : - b.sc kinsiologie - b.e.p.s ducation physique et sant - b.e.p.s promotion de la sant conomies de temps pour les tudiants cette information reste tre dtermine la suite des processus d'approbation venir. conomies financires pour les tudiants cette information reste tre dtermine la suite des processus d'approbation venir, qui nous indiquera le nombre de crdits accords et qui pourra nous permettre de raliser ce calcul. souplesse pour les tudiants dfinitivement un meilleur accs aux programmes, et un processus amliors de reconnaissance de crdits. harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants oui puisqu'elles permettront aux diplms collgiaux d'enrichir leur formation initiale d'une formation connexe, leur ouvrant davantage de possibilits pour le march du travail. conseils pratiques nous continuons de croire que la mthodologie se reposant sur lanalyse des corrlations entre les rsultats dapprentissages des programmes collgiaux et universitaires reste le meilleur argument prsenter aux instances institutionnelles en charge de lapprobation des passerelles proposes, puisquelle dmontre de faon factuelle les recoupements et les acquis des diplms collgiaux. nous la recommandons fortement aux autres tablissements postsecondaires. outils et ressources les principaux outils dvelopps dans le cadre de ce projet ont t les matrices danalyse.

research brief data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario: past, present, and future dr. scott davies, university of toronto dr. roger pizarro milian, oncat september 2020 data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario 2 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 an efficient postsecondary education (pse) system allows students to switch tracks without experiencing arbitrary credit loss. students should be able to move across programs in different institutions, but within the same field of study (e.g., math), without running into bureaucratic red tape that forces them to repeat prior learning unnecessarily. this saves both students and the province money and ensures that students enter the labour market without delay. in pse systems like ontarios, where our college and university sectors were not originally designed to facilitate cross-sector student mobility, our primary tool in the battle against credit loss is a decentralized framework of articulation agreements. over the years, colleges and universities have developed a web of primarily bilateral agreements to specify how much transfer credit students will receive when they switch institutions. in ontario, academics and policy researchers outside of the provincial government (including oncat) do not have access to an slds-type data source. this has fundamentally shaped the existing research on transfer students in ontario. sadly, we know little about the early predictors of transfer behavior, nor how transfer students perform in pse net of said early predictors. over the next two to three years, oncat is taking concrete steps to ameliorate this situation. rigorously evaluating how students fare in this decentralized system is a difficult task for researchers. studies show that many transfer students take meandering educational pathways: switching institutions, stopping out, and re-starting in unexpected ways or places. these attributes mean that transfer students defy most standard data-collection designs in social science research. for instance, standard cross-sectional surveys will fail to capture the full complexity of their educational histories, unless carefully designed to do so. longitudinal surveys track students over time and can capture mobility patterns, but they are costly and suffer from attrition even when carried out by well-resourced organizations. yits for example, the youth in transition survey (____)a joint initiative between statistics canada and human resources and skills development canada (hrsdc)is the gold standard in canadian educational research datasets. it tracked multiple cohorts of students from their teenage years into young adulthood, collecting detailed information on both data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario 3 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 their education and labour market outcomes. however, the yits sample dropped precipitously from roughly 38,000 in 2000 (cycle 1) to roughly 11,000 by 2010 (cycle 6). such sample sizes are not sufficient for detailed statistical analysis within provinces or regions and thus have limited use for policymakers. this is especially true when it comes to transfer research. since transfer students compose only a small portion (69 percent) of ontarios pse students, we need large samples. these samples need to be further broken down, not only by the four main transfer types, but also by demographics within each type, such as gender, cohort, race, economic class, and immigration status. otherwise, estimates produced by statistical models will lack power and reliability. in addition to broad population coverage and lengthy longitudinal frames, transfer research ideally requires a wealth of metrics reflecting students academic, behavioural, and demographic traits captured early in their life-course. as both researchers and experienced educators will tell you, the seeds of success in education are planted many years before a student steps foot on a college or university campus. if we ignore upstream factors influencing attainment and mobility, we could bias our understanding of what produces challenges in the later stages of the student life-course. the need to account for early life-course metrics presents an additional layer of complexity when choosing or constructing data sources for transfer research. faced with these extreme data demands, student mobility researchers have started to turn to administrative data linkages. by administrative, we refer to records produced through normal operations at schools (both k12 and pse), which are often compiled and stored by coordinating bodies, like school boards or government agencies (e.g., departments, ministries, etc.). linking such sources allows for tracking transfer students throughout their journey, provides population-level coverage, and affords access to detailed academic and other records. such data sources provide the ideal platform for studying student mobility. south of the border, there are numerous examples of these data-linkage efforts. supported by the statewide longitudinal data system (_____), slds many american states have constructed impressive data warehouses (e.g., florida, texas, etc.) that allow for the tracking of individuals across the life-courseall the way from kindergarten to the labour market. in british columbia, the student transitions project (____) stp is also a national leader, allowing for the tracking of students from k12 and through pse. 1. by this, we are referring to college-to-college, college-to-university, university-to-university, and university-to-college. 2019 flouri & buchahan, _____; 2004 hango, _____. 2011 2. for examples, see: brown, gallagher-mackay, & parekh, _____; data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario 4 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 in ontario, academics and policy researchers outside of the provincial government (including oncat) do not have access to an slds-type data source. this has fundamentally shaped the existing research on transfer students in ontario. sadly, we know little about the early predictors of transfer behaviour, nor how transfer students perform in pse net of said early predictors. over the next two to three years, oncat is taking concrete steps to ameliorate this situation. one exciting initiative will pilot large-scale data sharing across k12 and pse organizations in the greater toronto area. our primary goal is to demonstrate to sector stakeholders the utility of administrative linkages for institutional planning, government policy development, and academic research. in the process, we also hope to make significant inroads in the study of transfer research in ontario. as part of this effort, over the coming weeks, we will be publishing some exploratory empirical analyses of transfer using one of the first cross-sector (k12/pse) administrative linkages of its kind in ontario: between the toronto district school board (tdsb) and the university of toronto. the attendees of our most recent transfer advisors group (tag) and francophone committee meetings have already seen the preliminary findings of this project. we hope that profiling this research more broadly will help to raise awareness about the utility of administrative linkages, and, hopefully, inspire interest on the part of other organizations in participating in a broader gta pilot. stay tuned! data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario 5 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. dr. roger pizarro milian dr. roger pizarro milian is the senior researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/projects/the-tdsb-ut-linkage-and -transfer-project established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2020

august 2022 report oncat datapilot report: trent university rod missaghian, oncat henrique hon, oncat project funded by table of contents 03 04 05 06 08 12 14 16 17 introduction oncat's datapilot program data + methods findings - descriptive statistics regression analyses discussion bibliography appendix 1 - data limitations appendix 2 - supplemental data this guide was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 oncat datapilot report: trent university 3 introduction canadian education researchers face notable challenges when trying to access student level data both nationally and provincially. some of these challenges have been recently discussed and include a lack of both longitudinal and linked data on students, as well as data on various demographic background variables, most notably race (see gallagher-mackay, 2017; pizarro milian, 2022; robson, 2021). while the ontario government tracks students using the ontario education number, there is currently no linkage infrastructure in place that can provide ready data access to postsecondary institutions to understand the various pathways that students take into postsecondary. while the ministry of colleges and universities has centralized student-level records that are submitted to them by the postsecondary institutions in the province, this data has not been made available to the public. this is challenging to institutions like oncat, that were created to help develop a mature and seamless transfer system; this challenge is compounded by a lack of linked data sources that can provide representative data on the pathways that students take into and out of postsecondary, along with an understanding of the early predictors of such behaviour contained in k-12 datasets. however, postsecondary institutions also make student administrative records available to statistics canada, who collect and store this information in the post-secondary information system (psis) dataset, which can be accessed by researchers and analyzed at a research data centre (rdc). while the psis provides census level administrative data on postsecondary enrolment, mobility, and graduation, along with extensive demographic information, it has notable limitations which have been outlined in previous oncat reports. as an institution focused on improving the credit transfer and articulation system, oncat also has a vested interest in understanding access issues with transfer, since more and more new populations of students are accessing postsecondary (e.g. older students, firstgeneration, married); student pathways into postsecondary are also evolving with more students taking transfer pathways, taking breaks in between credentials, and working while pursuing their degrees (davies & mehta, 2018; zarifa, sano & hillier, 2020). other underrepresented groups like those with disabilities are also more likely to be enrolled in ontario colleges versus universities (mccloy & henderson, 2017; walters et al. 2021), thus making it important to understand the various opportunities for them to ladder into university programs. disclaimer: the views and interpretations expressed in this publication are those of the authors (approved by trent university) and do not reflect those of the government of ontario, or any other affiliated entity. however, recent oncat funded studies looking at transfer flows into u of t have found that transfer students were more likely than direct-entry to be female, white, canadian born, come from a higher socioeconomic background, and more likely to identify as a sexual minority (see davies & pizarro milian 2020). oncat datapilot report: trent university 4 oncat's datapilot program in response to some of these data challenges in ontario, oncat launched the datapilot initiative in 2020 to help postsecondary institutions gather and consolidate discrete data on transfer students and import them into a single data file. institutions are supported financially by oncat to gather important student level records; for example, institutions collect data on admitted grade point averages (gpa) and total transfer credits awarded that are useful for answering questions like: how important are the number of transfer credits awarded in helping transfer students graduate? answering questions like these has been a challenge without multiple years of student transfer records. there are students that take longer than 4 years to complete a degree, so additional years of student data are required to capture them. in addition, without comparable data on direct-entry students, we are unable to measure transfer student success against the most popular postsecondary pathways. having data from which to compare transfer students with their direct-entry counterparts is a key component in understanding how to measure the impact of various student background indicators which have been shown to be important to issues of postsecondary access and outcomes (e.g., age, socio-economic status, race, disability). currently, we only have a handful of institutions participating in the datapilot, but it is our hope that we will have total participation that will allow us to develop comprehensive data on transfer and student mobility in the province of ontario. in phase 1 of the datapilot, institutions provide oncat with their transfer student records over at least a five-year reporting period. institutions have different reporting capacities, but we encourage them to provide us with several data fields, like previous institution, admitted program and gpa, total credits awarded, along with demographic variables like age and gender. institutions provide oncat with a descriptive report on data collected in phase 1, which includes data dashboards and enrolment trends, segmented by various data fields like admitted gpa and previous institution. oncat provides in-kind regression analyses where possible, exploring key relationships like those between admitted gpa and graduation rates. if participants move on to phase 2, they provide oncat with comparable data for direct-entry students. we then merge this data to study comparable mobility patterns and outcomes. part of participating in phase 2 is working collaboratively with oncat on a public-facing report. trent university has graciously volunteered to be the first institution to make public some of the findings that have emerged from our collaboration. we thank them for their generosity in allowing us to report on these findings. we hope this will pave the way for more comprehensive reports which can detail system level features of transfer, as more colleges, universities and indigenous institutes participate in the datapilot. oncat datapilot report: trent university 5 trent is a wonderful first test-case for phase 2, as they have historically been an institution that has admitted a higher proportion of transfer students compared to other universities. in addition to the high proportion of transfer students they enroll each year, trent has developed a very strong credit transfer process. through their involvement in our mapit project, we have learned that trent has several key ingredients that contribute to their effective transfer system: strong leadership, information management systems that allow administrators to identify credit equivalencies easily, strong supports and recruitment practices for transfer students, amongst others. when we found that transfer students at trent outperform direct entry students on several measures, we were not entirely surprised, as trent has demonstrated an institutional commitment to credit transfer. data + methods through oncats partnership with trent, we were able to use two decades of anonymized student level records to compare the academic performance and graduation rates of transfer students from ontario colleges, universities, transfer students from another province or internationally, and direct-entry students. the data include students who received at least one transfer credit, whether they did that through an articulation agreement, policy pathway, or transferred their credits one course at a time. while we did not have access to cumulative gpa records, we focused on first-year academic performance. as such, we excluded any student record in the dataset whose reporting year did not match the year they were admitted to focus on first-year experiences. to estimate the effects of these various pathways on current student gpa, we used a linear regression model. linear regression is an effective statistical technique for measuring the effect of one independent variable on a dependent variable, while holding constant several other variables or controls (kremelberg, 2010). in linear regression models, the dependent variable--in this case, gpa--is a continuous variable which is recorded as a percentage grade. oncat receives yearly updates from the ministry on the number of students at pse institutions with a credit transfer flag. this flag identifies each enrolled student that has received at least 0.5 transfer credits at the receiving institution. as part of our mapit project, we work with a variety of postsecondary education stakeholders involved in the transfer process, from students, to transfer advisors and registrarial staff, to evaluate the efficiency and rigor of the process. as a participating institution, we have found that trent does a lot of the key things to ensure an effective system that works for students. oncat datapilot report: trent university 6 first, we used a bivariate regression model to examine the relationship between type of pathway to university (c to u, u to u, direct entry) and current gpa. we then added two sets of controls. the first set is comprised of demographic characteristics which have been included in provincial transfer research to test for the presence of confounding variables (see zarifa, sano & hillier, 2020; pizarro milian, missaghian & hon, 2022) and include the following: age, gender, immigration status, first-generation postsecondary education status and mother tongue. the second set include the following program level controls: average admitted gpa, field of study, degree type (i.e., 3 year or 4 year), semester admitted, and admitted credential. to estimate the effect of various transfer pathways on students likelihood of graduating, we used a series of logistic regression models in which the outcome variable was a binary indicator of whether a given student graduated (0=did not graduate 1=graduated). we again began by using a bivariate model to examine the relationship between pathway and graduation, then included the same controls that we used for the linear regression model. findings - descriptive statistics descriptive statistics reveal that the top sending institutions to trent in the college sector are regional colleges (fleming & durham). this is not entirely surprising as international and provincial research has shown that parents and students in ontario, particularly firstgeneration pse entrants, prefer to stay closer to home for postsecondary (aurini, missaghian & pizarro-milian, 2020; missaghian, 2021; parker et al., 2016). however, given trents location in central ontario it is also not surprising to find that sending institutions consist of a variety of places spread out across the gta (e.g. centennial, u of t), southwestern ontario (e.g. guelph) and southeastern ontario (e.g. loyalist, ottawa & carleton). oncat datapilot report: trent university 7 as table 2 reveals, there are mean differences in the current (first-year) grade point average of students traveling different pathways into trent. students with the lowest first-year gpas at trent are direct-entry students. recent provincial research has shown that high school graduates from the toronto district school board have higher average grades in high school than transfer students (see davies & pizarro milian, 2020; walters et al., 2021), but that prior achievement does not positively influence cumulative performance. when considering cumulative gpa performance for transfer students into the university of toronto, davies and pizarro milian (2020), found that university transfers (intra, inter and international) outperform direct-entry students, while college transfers had the lowest cgpas. the results of our bivariate analyses looking at first year gpa shows similar trends, except that ontario college transfer students at trent slightly outperform direct-entry. one might expect that direct-entry students strong high school performance would carry on into first-year studies at trent and u of t. however, there are many variables that influence performance in the first year of postsecondary studies. for example, whether a student works, has a family, or can access student supports, are important data points that were not available to us in this analysis. oncat datapilot report: trent university regression analyses as mentioned above, to assess whether the above-mentioned differences in average firstyear gpa would persist after controlling for other student-level characteristics, we ran linear regression models to estimate the net relationship between first-year gpa and applicant pathways into university. figure 1 represents the average gpa amongst students in each pathway predicted by the bivariate/zero-order model (in blue) and the full model which includes all the control variables listed earlier (in red). the graph also includes 95% confidence intervals of those predicted gpas. please refer to appendix for additional descriptive data and regression outputs. the out of province category here also included canadian college transfers (n=108). we filtered out these students to test the effects on predicted gpa and noticed a slight increase in gpa for that category. 8 oncat datapilot report: trent university 9 as with our descriptive analyses, the bivariate/zero-order model predicts that mean first-year gpa is lowest for direct-entry and transfer students from ontario colleges, with direct-entry having slightly lower average first-year grades. however, after controlling for key demographic and program level indicators, we see that transfer students from college slightly overtake direct-entry for lowest first-year gpa. our 95% confidence intervals are quite narrow, suggesting that our estimates are precise and less likely to be an outcome of chance. these findings are not entirely surprising given that direct-entry and college to university transfers are potentially experiencing a university environment for the first time. in contrast, one might expect that u-to -u transfer students have had the benefit of experiencing their first-year of university at a different institution. as summarized in figure 2, our bivariate analyses showed that on average, out of province university (canadian and international) transfers had the highest rate of graduation (63.9%). the same was found in an updated version of the tdsb-u of t linkage study; inter-provincial transfer students had the highest graduation rates as well (davies, 2022). however, once we controlled for the set of student and program characteristics in our full model, we found that intra-provincial college to university transfer students had the highest graduation rates, followed very closely by intra-provincial university to university transfer students, followed by inter-province transfer, and finally direct-entry students. the small differences between transfer pathway graduation rates were not statistically significant, whereas the relationship between college transfers and direct-entry was. again, this category is mainly comprised of university transfers from other provinces and international students. there is a small group of inter-provincial college transfers in this category, whose exclusion only increases the mean predicted gpa. oncat datapilot report: trent university these results are novel and contrast recent findings from oncat-funded research that has linked data between the tdsb, university administrative records and the psis (postsecondary information system) (see davies and pizarro milian, 2020; walters et al., 2021). those studies found that college to university transfers had the lowest graduation rates after controlling for all student and program level indicators. one explanation for why college to university transfers perform so well at trent, could stem from the quality of transfer experience that students encounter at different pse institutions in ontario. the university of toronto, in contrast does not have a high proportion of transfer students in comparison to overall enrollments. in fact, according to the credit transfer flag, an imperfect but useful measure of total transfer students at an institution, the university of toronto has much lower proportional representation for transfer students when compared to other smaller universities with different strategic mandates. therefore, articulated pathways into the university of toronto may also be proportionally less than an institution like trent, which depends more heavily on their transfer student population for enrolments. while we dont have comparable data for the university of toronto, we know that 16% of college to university transfer students at trent travelled an articulated pathway, in comparison to less than a percent for both types of university-to-university transfers. as part of the cser and user data that pse institutions report to the ministry, students that receive at least 0.5 of credit from a previous institution at their current institution are flagged and recorded as a transfer student. this is a limited measure as it does not account for mobile students that do not receive credit. 10 oncat datapilot report: trent university 11 while we are missing information about articulated pathways from the university of toronto study, we can compare the average number of transfer credits awarded for tdsb-u of t transfer students and those at trent. when focusing on average amount of transfer credits awarded, we see that trents mean credits for college transfers (4.6) is considerably higher than the mean reported in the tdsb and u of t linkage report (2.57) (see davies, 2022). for both trent and u of t, a positive association was found between mean transfer credits awarded and graduation rates; this might help explain the high graduation outcomes for trents college transfers (see figure 3). while university transfers at trent had even higher mean transfer credits awarded (5.14), the proportional differences between means for college and university transfers in the u of t study were so much larger (51% versus 11.8%) that it provides a potential explanation for the better graduation outcomes of these students at trent. the davies (2022) report was able to access high school gpa in grade 12 for various cohorts of students, and found that all things considered, college transfer students had lower academic achievement, and thus entered pse less prepared. however, graduation rates rose significantly for college transfers if they had typical academic and demographic profiles as those of all students in the tdsb-u of t pathway. for transfer students at trent, the higher percentage of articulated pathways (16%) could contribute to the higher graduation rates for college to university transfer; prior research has shown a relationship between prior degree completion, travelling articulated pathways, or completion of a block of core credits at the college level and improved graduation rates (schudde, bicak & meghan, 2022; shapiro et al., 2017; spencer, 2019). oncat datapilot report: trent university 12 discussion comparative academic performance between transfer students and direct-entry students has important institutional and policy implications. at the institutional level, universities have a vested interest in ensuring that a small but sizeable minority of students (transfer students) can be successful. trent university, according to a prior oncat report, found that 16% of their incoming students were transfer students from ontario colleges (kennett & maki, 2014). these students take circuitous routes to postsecondary, and recent research has found that their high school academic achievement is lower in comparison to their direct-entry counterparts (davies, 2022; pizarro milian, missaghian & hon, 2022). at the level of provincial policy, understanding the specific times when transfer students might struggle (in high school, for example) and how they fare across time can help policy makers provide appropriately timed supports to institutions; these supports might include targeted advising services for first year transfers or the development of more articulated pathways, as these pathways have shown to improve graduation rates of transfer students (spencer, 2019). however, as the comparison between trents transfer data and u of t demonstrates, different institutions may have different transfer priorities related to the proportion of transfer students they admit. trent recently participated in oncats mapit project, a transfer mapping exercise that sought to systematically understand the institutional resources and processes for credit transfer students. in that report, a few institutions, including trent, were singled out for providing comprehensive student transfer services. key ingredients to their success in transitioning transfer students include automatic transfer assessments for all applicants at the application stage, excellent advising services (as reported by students), and excellent information technology infrastructure that allows them to store syllabi in a centralized system. thus, policy makers would be wise to understand the strategic intent behind cultivating systems that welcome transfer students. if it is the case that certain institutions depend on transfer enrolments more than others, then more resources can be allocated towards improving those institutions transfer systems. however, the argument can also be made that all institutions that welcome transfer students should provide these necessary supports. it would be helpful for future research to explore the institutional strategic mandate agreements for ontario institutions to understand if transfer is included in any way as an institutional priority. interestingly enough, a scan of trents 2017-2020 strategic mandate agreement (sma) sees a designated section on transfer students and the institution framing itself as a transfer leader. future research could also look at the role that class sizes play in helping transfer students succeed at smaller institutions like trent. the current figure is 15% based off trent enrolment data from 2000 to 2019. oncat datapilot report: trent university 13 in addition to smaller class sizes, things like the types of student services available and the role that the college system at some institutions plays in helping integrate students into campus life would contribute to a better understanding of how transfer students can succeed. while this type of data may not be available at institutions, qualitative research that explores the role these supports play in student integration would be helpful in understanding how they influence the student transfer experience. as the government of ontario shifts towards performance-based funding formulas, the importance of understanding student pse outcomes become more important than ever. this makes it imperative to track transfer student progress, as identifying achievement gaps can lead to policy interventions that provide supports, such as targeted advising services. while we do not have high school grades for the various cohorts of transfer students examined with trent universitys data, we do know that trent transfer students from colleges have comparatively lower first year gpas than university transfers and direct entry students, after controlling for a set of socio-demographic student level indicators. however, a cumulative grade point average (cgpa) measure would help future studies understand more about how college transfers may or may not improve past their first year of admittance, given that their graduation rates were the highest. we suspect that they should demonstrate noticeable improvement after their first year. what makes the trent findings very interesting is that when exploring the graduation rates of transfer students, we see that while college transfers may comparatively struggle in their first year, after transferring, they graduate at the highest rates. this is the inverse of recent findings looking at the graduation rates of university of toronto transfers (see davies, 2022). using data that indicates the total number of credits awarded for transfer, we found a strong positive bivariate relationship between this measure and graduation rates at trent. college transfers receive on average 4.6 credits at trent which is considerably higher in proportion, to the number of credits received by college transfer students at the university of toronto. when we also consider that 16% of all college transfer students travel articulated pathways at trent, more than any other transfer student, understanding the importance of this relationship can help policy makers support and promote the extension of articulated transfer agreements in the province. currently, one of the major challenges to achieving further articulation is the differing amount of transfer credit that institutions award, and the lack of a centralized reporting mechanism where we can track, with representative data, the total number of articulation agreements in the province. as we collect this information in increments with the datapilot, it is our hope that we can begin to understand the nuances of credit transfer, and how to best to support a variety of students that move between institutions in our province. the collegiate system at various ontario universities offers student the unique opportunity to engage in the social and extra-curricular life of the university outside of the classroom. while this might be more obvious for students in residence, non-residence students are given a choice or assigned an affiliate college when they apply to an institution. in addition, many registrarial services are administered through the colleges. oncat datapilot report: trent university 14 bibliography aurini, j., missaghian, r., & milian, r. p. (2020). educational status hierarchies, after-school activities, and parenting logics: lessons from canada. sociology of education, 93(2), 173-189. davies, s. & pizarro milian, r. (2020). a statistical portrait of students in the tdsb-ut linkage. ontario council on articulation and transfer: toronto, on. https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/media-files/2020-04a-statistical-portrait-of-transfer-students-in-the-tdsb-ut-linkage_0.pdf davies, s., & mehta, j. (2018) (eds.). the deepening interpenetration of education into modern life. in education in a new society: renewing the sociology of education, pp. 83-114. gallagher-mackay, k. (2017). data infrastructure for studying equity of access to postsecondary education in ontario. higher education quality council of ontario: toronto, on. kennett, d. j., & maki, k. (2014). academic resourcefulness and transfer student success: direct entry, college transfer, and university transfer student comparisons. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. kremelberg, d. (2010). practical statistics: a quick and easy guide to ibm spss statistics, stata, and other statistical software. sage publications. mccloy, u., & henderson, c. (2017). from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students. ontario council on articulation and transfer: toronto, on. missaghian, r. (2020). the post-secondary decision-making process for at-risk students in ontario. uwspace. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/16512 parker, p. d., jerrim, j., anders, j., & astell-burt, t. (2016). does living closer to a university increase educational attainment? a longitudinal study of aspirations, university entry, and elite university enrolment of australian youth. journal of youth and adolescence, 45(6), 1156-1175. pizarro milian, r., missaghian, r. & hon, h. (2022). applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter. ontario council on articulation and transfer: toronto, on. https://www.oncat.ca/sites/default/files/media-files/brief_3_-_ucas.pdf pizarro milian, r. (2022). situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape. ontario council on articulation and transfer: toronto, on. https://www.oncat.ca/sites/default/files/mediafiles/situating_the_ucas_dataset.pdf robson, k. (2021). an essay on the challenges of doing education research in canada. journal of applied social science, 15(2), 183-196. oncat datapilot report: trent university 15 bibliography schudde, l., bicak, i., & meghan, s. (2022). getting to the core of credit transfer: how do pre-transfer core credits predict baccalaureate attainment for community college transfer students?. educational policy, 08959048211049415. shapiro, d., dundar, a., huie, f., wakhungu, p. k., yuan, x., nathan, a., & hwang, y. (2017). tracking transfer: measures of effectiveness in helping community college students to complete bachelor's degrees.(signature report no. 13). national student clearinghouse. spencer, g. (2019). promoting the attainment-to-transfer pathway: effects of transfer associate degree policies across states. the review of higher education, 43(2), 553-580. stewart, j., & martinello, f. (2012). are transfer students different? an examination of first-year grades and course withdrawals. canadian journal of higher education, 42(1), 25-42. zarifa, d., sano, y., & hillier, c. (2020). transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities. ontario council on articulation and transfer: toronto, on. walters, d., brown, r., parekh, g., reynolds, d., & einmann, t. (2021). postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario: the role of high school academic performance. ontario council on articulation and transfer: toronto, on. oncat datapilot report: trent university 16 appendix 1 - data limitations one of the limitations of the current analysis is that we lacked a cumulative gpa measure. davies and pizarro milian (2020) only looked at cumulative gpa, not grades in the first-year of studies at u of t. other transfer research looking at the comparative grades of first-year transfer students to brock university in ontario has shown that students entering through direct-entry pathways have lower academic performance in comparison to transfer students (stewart & martinello, 2012). it would be useful for future studies to assess the mean differences between first-year and cumulative gpa to understand more about how students adjust academically after their first year. nevertheless, the trent data allows us to understand that college transfer students, who may have lower high school gpas, have higher admitted gpas than direct-entry students. this could stem from internal policies at trent which select high-performing college transfer students for admittance into various trent programs. it would also be useful to know the high school grades of transfer students into trent, as we did with the tdsb-u of t linkage study (davies & pizarro milian, 2020), as we could then hypothesize a potential relationship between high school academic achievement and firstyear academic achievement. nevertheless, college transfers into trent have a slightly higher admitted gpa than direct entry students, and both types of students experience a first year of transfer shock[1] . however, it is difficult to measure the relative differences between grades achieved at the high school level, and those at the college level as we are comparing two different systems; therefore cgpa is such an important measure, as it allows us to compare college transfer academic achievement directly with other pathways. it is also important to note that the academic requirements for admission for universities like brock and trent are lower than for universities like u of t, so direct-entry students to these universities may begin with weaker academic achievement scores in high school that carry over to first year. across the above-mentioned provincial studies, university-to-university transfers outperform all groups; it will be important to reflect more deeply on why this finding keeps reappearing in the ontario context. transfer shock refers to a decrease in grades from admitted gpa compared with first-year gpa. we observed a 9% dip in grades for cu students and an 11% decrease for de. oncat datapilot report: trent university appendix 2 - supplemental data 17 oncat datapilot report: trent university 18 oncat datapilot report: trent university 19 oncat datapilot report: trent university 20 oncat datapilot report: trent university 21 oncat datapilot report: trent university 22 oncat datapilot report: trent university 23 oncat datapilot report: trent university 24 oncat datapilot report: trent university 25 oncat datapilot report: trent university 26 https://oncat.ca/en/resources established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes.

1 from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students claire henderson, academica group ursula mccloy, seneca college september 2019 this research was supported by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) (ref# 2016-10-research). an earlier version was posted on the oncat website. 2 contact information ursula mccloy, phd ursula.mccloy@senecacollege.ca the centre for research in student mobility, seneca college senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch 8 the seneca way markham, on l3r 5y1 416-491-5050 x77936 claire henderson claire@academicagroup.com academica group www.academicagroup.ca 131 wharncliffe road south, london, ontario n6j 2k4 519.433.8302 ext. 224 3 from application and beyond 4 table of contents executive summary ........................................................................................................................ 5 introduction ................................................................................................................................... 10 purpose of study ....................................................................................................................... 10 research questions ................................................................................................................... 10 literature review.......................................................................................................................... 11 research method .......................................................................................................................... 12 results ........................................................................................................................................... 15 phase one applicant profiles................................................................................................. 15 sociodemographic characteristics ........................................................................................ 15 academic characteristics...................................................................................................... 16 decision-making process ..................................................................................................... 18 phase two follow-up survey results ................................................................................... 23 college applicants who aspired to a degree .......................................................................... 23 timing of decision to attend university, university transfers/aspirants vs direct entrants .... 26 transfer experience of college-to-university transfer students......................................... 27 postsecondary attendance of family members, college transfers vs. those with no previous pse........................................................................................................................................ 30 university transition experience of college transfers vs. those with no previous pse .... 31 conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 37 references ..................................................................................................................................... 39 from application and beyond 5 executive summary it has been well established that different segments of the population are more or less likely to aspire to and attend college or university. in particular, students with disabilities, low income students, first generation students, students from rural communities, indigenous students, and male students are less likely to attend university. these disparities in access are primarily a university issue, in that these groups are not generally underrepresented in colleges relative to the population. based on these findings, it has been suggested that enhancing the college-touniversity pathway may be a vehicle to reduce inequities in university access (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). the purpose of this study was to examine the profiles and pathways of college-to-university students in order to enhance our understanding of who is accessing this transfer pathway, and their unique needs and experiences. to do this, the study had two phases. in phase one, academica groups university and college applicant study (ucas) database was utilized in order to compare college applicants who aspired to a degree to those who do not, and to compare university applicants who had a previous college credential to those who had no previous pse experience. the results are based on a sample of over 125,000 ontario college and university applicants who participated in the ucas between 2010 and 2015. this included 70,813 survey respondents who had applied to ontario universities, and 57,839 survey respondents who had applied to ontario colleges. in the second phase, an online survey instrument was designed to track the pathways of applicants following their application to postsecondary education. in addition to demographic questions, the survey asked about students decision making process, application outcomes, motivations, postsecondary goals, use of support resources, and the transfer experience. of the 3,007 respondents who completed the survey, 1,985 fit the pathways of interest and were eligible to be included in the analysis. for analysis in both phase one and phase two, survey respondents were organized into four pathway college applicants/students who aspired to attend university vs those who did not from application and beyond 6 university applicants or students who had previous college (transfers) vs those without previous postsecondary education. four research questions guided this study: 1. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? 2. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? 3. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? 4. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? key findings related to each research question are summarized below, along with conclusions and next steps. phase 1: university college applicant survey how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? rural students, those with dependents, first generation students, students with a disability, indigenous students, caucasian/white students, students born in canada, and those who primarily spoke english at home made up a significantly larger proportion of the do not aspire to a degree group, compared to the aspire to a degree group. conversely, south asian, chinese, and black students, females, single students, and those under age 25 made up a larger proportion of the aspire to a degree group. interestingly, there was no difference between the two groups in the two socioeconomic indicators examined (i.e. use of government loans, and household income). academically, college applicants who aspired to a degree tended to have slightly higher high school gpas than those who did not aspire to a degree, and a slightly greater percentage had taken university preparatory courses in high school. there were also some notable differences in the decision-making profiles of the two groups. while the most commonly reported reason for applying to pse among both college applicants with degree aspirations and those without was to prepare to enter their chosen career, the largest from application and beyond 7 gaps between those who did and did not aspire to university were for pursuing further graduate or professional study and to complete the courses necessary to transfer. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? the profiles of university applicants with a previous college credential and those with no previous pse experience also differed significantly, with many of the traditionally underrepresented groups in university making up a larger proportion of the population with a previous college credential. in particular, there was a larger percentage of first generation students, students with a disability, lower income students, indigenous students, and rural students in the previous college credential group compared to the university applicant group with no previous pse. college transfer students were also more likely to have identified as white/ caucasian, or black, and less likely to indicate they were chinese or south asian. academically, university applicants who had completed a college credential were much less likely to have taken university preparatory courses in high school than those with no previous pse experience, and their average high school gpa was significantly lower. more applicants with a previous college credential reported that hybrid/blended learning was their preferred course delivery format, though overall on-campus courses were preferred by the largest proportion of both groups. motivations for applying to pse and information sources used differed between these two groups as well, though the most striking finding was that university applicants with a previous college credential showed much greater certainty that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career and that their academic program was right for them. when compared to those with no previous pse, applicants with a college credential were more likely to state that they were applying to pse to advance in their current career, and less likely to state that it was to become actively involved in student life and campus activities, that they had been encouraged or expected to go, or to meet new people. traditional university channels for information provision, such as viewbooks, brochures, open houses, and university fairs are not being heavily accessed by college-to-university transfer students. rather these students seem to rely more on from application and beyond 8 interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances, such as emails and phone calls with university staff, talking with a professor, and informal visits to campus. phase 2: follow-up survey what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? of the college applicants with degree aspirations who responded to the follow-up survey, about half still aspired to complete a degree, 13.4% had successfully transferred, and 39.4% no longer had aspirations for a degree. while just over one-third of those who no longer aspired reported that their interests had simply changed, an equal proportion stated that they no longer planned to attain a degree because they could not afford university. among college students who still aspired to complete a degree, approximately one-third did not know whether there was a formal transfer agreement in place between their college program and the university program they would apply to, and two-fifths did not know how much credit they expected to receive for their college education. lack of guidance on application procedures, a lack of clarity between various credit granting processes, and finding/confirming requirements for transfer credits were the most frequently anticipated challenges. however, 42% said they did not expect to experience any challenges in transferring to university. how do the transition experiences compare between college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse? university students with a previous college credential were less satisfied than non-transfer students with all aspects of their universitys application and transition process that were examined. areas where the largest proportions of college-to-university transfer students felt their university needed improvement was in relation to academic orientation, providing information about the admissions process and requirements, providing information about required courses, and campus orientation. in comparison to non-transfer students, college-to-university transfer students were more likely to participate in classroom discussion and engage in studentfaculty interactions such as from application and beyond 9 discussing assignments/grades, ideas, and career plans, but were less likely to engage in oncampus volunteer activities, student clubs, and cultural events. in terms of on-campus resources, financial aid and personal counseling were accessed by a greater proportion of college-to-university transfer students than non-transfer students, but fewer accessed orientation programs and recreation and athletic facilities. conclusions the results of this study confirm previous research showing that the college-to-university transfer student population has a relatively large proportion of traditionally under-represented groups compared to those who are entering university from high school, supporting the idea that the college-to-university pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). these students were shown to be highly engaged in their learning and academically confident, however, the results also suggest that more work needs to be done to support both the admissions process and the university transition experience. collegeto-university transfer students are relying less on traditional university channels for information provision, and are instead relying more on interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances. similarly, university orientation programming is often geared primarily to the direct-entry student and transfer students are much less likely to participate. orientation, particularly to the academic expectations of university, was a key area where transfer students felt their university needed to improve. while college-to-university transfer students tend to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom is a challenge. this is likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial support. developing flexible ways to enrich the non-academic experience of college-to-university transfer students should be a priority. overall, this study, as well as previous research suggests that increasing the number of students utilizing the college-to-university transfer pathway should enhance the diversity in the student population in university, and at the same time increase numbers of academically engaged students. both of these factors would likely enrich the university environment overall. from application and beyond 10 introduction it has been well established that different segments of the population are more or less likely to aspire to and attend postsecondary education (pse). in particular, students with disabilities, low income students, first generation students, students from rural communities, indigenous students, and male students are less likely to attend university (finnie et al, 2011). the underrepresentation of such groups is primarily a university issue, however, they are not generally underrepresented in colleges relative to the general population. therefore, it has been suggested that enhancing the college-to-university pathway may be a vehicle to reduce inequities in university access (kerr, mccloy, liu, 2010). purpose of study the purpose of this study was to profile and examine the pathways of college-to-university students in order to enhance our understanding of the needs and experiences of students who access this transfer pathway. to do this, the motivations, experiences and outcomes of the following groups of ontario students were examined: college applicants/students who aspired to attend university vs those who do not university applicants or students who have previous college (transfers) vs those without previous postsecondary education. research questions two study phases were conducted to answer the following research questions: phase 1: college and university applicants 1. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario college applicants who aspire to university compare to those who do not? 2. how do the sociodemographic, academic, and decision-making profiles of ontario university applicants who had previously completed a college credential compare to those with no previous pse? phase 2: follow- up survey of college and university applicants: from application and beyond 11 1. what are the outcomes and experiences of college applicants with degree aspirations? 2. what were the transition experiences of students who successfully transferred to university? 3. how do college-to-university transfer students and those with no previous pse compare in terms of their transition to university, service use, and overall student engagement? literature review over the past two decades, college-to-university transfer has become an important pathway for degree attainment for many ontario students. as a result, research exploring issues and trends related to the experiences and outcomes of ontarios transfer students has increased significantly (smith et al., 2016; oncat, 2013). ten years ago, decock (2006) found that there was an increasing number of college students who wished to attend university after graduation, rather than enter the workforce. the results of this study suggested that more and more students were entering college with the intent of transferring to university, leading to the conclusion that students are consciously enrolling in colleges for the purpose of transferring to university even though colleges and their programs were not established for this function. research examining the different pathways between colleges and universities has consistently shown that college-to-university transfer students tend to belong to underrepresented groups such as those with disabilities, aboriginal students, and first generation students (kerr et al., 2010; sidhu et al., 2016). the question of why students aspire to transfer to degree programs has also been considered. according to a recent study (gorman et al., 2012), many college students feel that their diploma provides them with limited career opportunities and view obtaining a degree as a way to enhance their career options. indeed, research indicates that some of the most common reasons ontario students transfer from college to university is because they want to prepare for future career opportunities, attain a credential, upgrade their training and skill set, and/or increase their earning potential (mccloy, decock, & steffler, 2017; oncat, 2013; smith et al., 2016). lack of work for college graduates, or changing their field of study were among the least cited reasons for transferring (mccloy, et al, 2017). from application and beyond 12 in addition to being a more diverse population, transfer students have been shown to be more academically engaged and academically confident (pendleton & lambert-maberly, 2006) and more academically resourceful (kennett & maki, 2014) than direct entry students. however, qualitative research has shown that college transfers express concern about their preparedness academically (gawley & mcgowan, 2006; carleton university, 2013). college to university transfer students have been shown to be less interested in general orientation programs (which often target younger students) and to be more interested in program specific/academic orientation programs (carleton university, 2013). this study also showed that college transfers experience difficulties integrating socially which, in addition to being older, may be associated with transfer students upper year entry into programs in which peer groups may already be established. continued investigation into the characteristics and experiences of the college-to-university transfer pathway is needed, as those who aspire to transfer to obtain a degree do not necessarily reach their intended goals (smith et al., 2016). understanding why some achieve their goals while others do not may enable the creation of better supports that facilitate the college to university pathway, and help to reduce access inequalities (kerr et al., 2010). improvement to the transfer system alone, however, does not guarantee that the transfer process will take place. students perceptions of real and/or anticipated opportunities and challenges may be influenced by factors such as institutional structure, academic standards, accessibility, financial assistance, and the availability of student services. research method the first phase of this project utilized 2010-2015 data from academica groups university/college applicant study (ucas)1 database in order to compare college applicants who aspired to a university credential to those who did not, as well as to compare university applicants with previous college 1 for more than a decade, academica groups ucas study has been providing universities and colleges across canada. each year, approximately 15,000 to 20,000 applicants to ontario colleges and universities participate in the online survey, undertaken in partnership with the ontario colleges application service (ocas) and participating ontario postsecondary institutions. from application and beyond 13 credentials to those without previous postsecondary experience. descriptions of each group and the corresponding sample size are provided in table 1 and . table 1 description of college applicant ucas sample college applicants aspire to a degree do not aspire to a degree remainder of sample (excluded from analysis) n size 22,600 35,239 14,579 description responses to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain?, were degree or postgrad credential; did not have a degree already responses to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain? were 1, 2, or 3 year cert/ diploma; did not have a degree already response to the question what is the highest level of education you plan to attain? was dont know or indicated they already had a degree (separate question) table 2 description of university applicant ucas sample university applicants previous college credential no previous pse remainder of sample (excluded from analysis) n size 2,759 68,054 7,249 description applicants to an ontario university whose highest level of education was a completed college or trades credential applicants to an ontario university whose highest level of education was a high school diploma university applicants with incomplete pse, or university degrees in the second phase, an online survey was conducted to track the pathways of applicants following their application to postsecondary education. the survey followed up with the college applicants who had aspired to a degree, and university applicants who indicated they had attended previous college or university, and university applicants who indicated they had no previous pse groups. of the group who initially indicated they had incomplete college or university, they were disqualified from the follow up survey if they indicated they had attended university rather than college. in addition to demographic questions, the survey asked about from application and beyond 14 students decision making processes, application outcomes, motivations, postsecondary goals, access to support resources, and the transfer experience. the survey invitation was sent to 51,132 college and university applicants who had completed the ucas between 2010 and 2015, met the study criteria, indicated they were interested in participating in further research, and had provided a valid email address. 3,007 individuals responded to the survey. of these, 914 were disqualified,2 with the remaining 2,093 respondents completing the survey. the survey was in field from november 1 to december 9, 2016. respondents were organized into four pathways based on their survey responses: no longer aspire: respondents indicated that they had not enrolled in university and no longer planned to do so (n=185). still aspire: respondents indicated that they had not yet entered university but that they still planned to do so in the future (n=221). transferred: respondents indicated that they had entered university after attending college (n=122). this population includes those who were originally college applicants who aspired to university and indicated they were attending in the follow-up survey (n=63), as well as university applicants who indicated they previously attended college (n=59). no previous pse: respondents indicated that they had entered university and did not have any previous pse experience (n=1,449) a further 102 respondents indicated they had previously attended university or had attended both college and university and were not included in the present report. 2 respondents invited to the survey from the university applicant pool were disqualified if they indicated that they ended up attending a university outside of ontario or did not attend university. respondents invited to the survey from the college applicant pool were disqualified if they indicated that they did not end up attending college or if they indicated they previously attended university. from application and beyond 15 results phase one applicant profiles in this section, we present the phase one research results, which involved an analysis of 2010 to 2015 ucas data comparing college applicants who aspired to a degree to those who did not, as well as comparing university applicants with a previous college credential to non-transfer students. sociodemographic characteristics error! reference source not found. presents the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents. compared to non-aspirants, significantly more college applicants who aspired to complete a university degree were female, under age 25, black, chinese, south asian, and single or never married. there was a significantly smaller proportion who were caucasian/white, born in canada, spoke english at home, lived in a rural community, had a disability, were first generation, and had dependents under age 15. for the university applicants, compared to those with no previous pse, a significantly greater proportion of college transfer students were female, caucasian/white, indigenous, black, and born in canada. in addition, significantly more transfer students were from a rural area, identified as having a disability, were first generation students, supported dependents, had an income less than $60,000, and were using government loans to pay for their education. compared to college transfer students, a greater proportion of university applicants with no previous pse were less than age 25, chinese, south asian, and single. from application and beyond 16 table 3 sociodemographic characteristics college applicants aspire to a do not aspire to a degree degree 59.1% 52.8% % female university applicants previous college no previous credential pse 57.3% 54.1% % <25 years old 86.1% 81.8% 72.8% 99.7% % caucasian/white 56.2% 65.0% 60.7% 49.2% % indigenous 5.5% 6.5% 4.9% 2.0% % black 11.1% 8.6% 9.6% 6.6% % chinese 5.3% 3.9% 5.7% 16.3% % south asian 7.8% 4.3% 8.1% 15.3% % born in canada 78.9% 86.4% 71.5% 67.6% % english spoken at home 79.0% 86.3% 82.0% 71.8% - - 5.8% 6.1% % rural 23.2% 32.2% 20.3% 15.8% % with a disability 10.5% 13.8% 9.3% 4.5% % first generation 19.9% 25.0% 22.0% 10.6% % single, never married 83.8% 80.6% 82.9% 91.9% % with dependents <15 7.2% 9.5% 8.4% 0.7% % income <$60,000 35.9% 37.1% 40.9% 23.2% % using govt loans 24.6% 24.7% 24.0% 17.0% 3 % international academic characteristics with respect to academic background, a significantly higher proportion of college applicants who aspired to a university degree indicated that they took mostly university preparatory courses while in high school (27.1%) than did non-aspirants (23.8%). those who aspired to a degree were also significantly more likely to have obtained a high school gpa higher than 85% (error! reference source not found.). significantly more university applicants who had no previous pse indicated taking university preparatory courses (89.7%) while in high school compared to college transfer students (36.7%). 3 for ontario colleges, international students do not apply through ocas and therefore were not included in the survey results for college applicants. from application and beyond 17 those with no previous pse were also more likely to have a high school grade average greater than 85% (error! reference source not found.). additionally, applicants without previous pse were much more likely to apply to selective universities (entering average> 85%) than applicants with a previous college credential (59.8% vs 34.4%). figure 1 high school grades by pathway with regards to preferred type of program delivery, differences between college applicants who aspired to a university degree and those who did not were not particularly noteworthy. however, there were some important differences between college transfer students and those with no previous pse. while inclass/on-campus courses were heavily favoured by both groups, college transfer students showed a greater preference for hybrid/blended and online/distance courses than those with no previous pse ( ). from application and beyond 18 table 4 preferred course delivery format college applicants do not aspire to a aspire to a degree degree university applicants previous no previous college pse credential online/distance 2.3% 2.7% 4.7% 1.8% in-class/oncampus 75.3% 77.4% 65.9% 77.6% hybrid/blended 18.4% 15.8% 26.4% 15.3% no preference 4.0% 4.0% 3.0% 5.2% decision-making process career preparation was the most important reason for applying to pse for college applicants regardless of whether they aspired to a university degree (error! reference source not found.). not surprisingly, a significantly larger proportion of applicants with aspirations for a degree reported that completing courses necessary to transfer to a university was a reason for applying compared to those who did not aspire to a degree. there was also a much larger proportion of degree aspirants reporting that pursuing further graduate or professional study, giving back to society, and becoming actively involved in student life were reasons for applying. among university applicants, the most commonly selected reasons for pursing pse were similar between college transfer students and those with no previous pse; however, the no previous pse group tended to have a larger proportion of respondents selecting each reason (table 5). when compared to those with no previous pse, applicants with a college credential were significantly from application and beyond 19 more likely to state that one of their reasons for applying to pse was to advance in their current career, to complete courses necessary to transfer to a different college or university, or because they could not find a job. applicants with no previous pse were much more likely to state that they were pursing pse to become actively involved in student life and campus activities, because their friends or teachers expected/encouraged them to go, and to meet new people. interestingly, university applicants who already have a college credential were more likely to indicate they were applying to advance their career than those without pse (37.4% vs 19.8%), but less likely to indicate they were applying to prepare to enter their chosen career (68.7% vs 82.6%), indicative of the career laddering aspect of college to university transfer. table 5 reasons for applying to pse college applicants do not aspire to a aspire to a degree degree university applicants no previous college previous credential pse to prepare to enter my chosen career 81.5% 80.6% 68.7% 82.6% to explore options for my future 66.5% 62.7% 64.0% 76.3% for personal and intellectual growth 68.7% 60.6% 72.3% 79.3% to increase my knowledge and understanding of an academic field 68.6% 59.9% 72.1% 80.0% to increase my earning potential 61.4% 57.5% 64.9% 66.9% to pursue future graduate or professional study 59.6% 39.2% 62.8% 69.8% to meet new people 48.8% 45.2% 39.9% 65.0% 42.0% 39.9% 40.4% 43.1% 36.8% 33.3% 28.2% 52.3% to improve my leadership skills 37.5% 31.7% 36.9% 48.1% to enable me to "give back" to society 34.6% 26.0% 35.9% 39.4% to become actively involved in student life and campus activities 29.6% 23.4% 24.6% 50.0% to advance in my current career 22.9% 20.9% 37.4% 19.8% to improve my social status 24.2% 20.7% 25.4% 27.5% to complete the courses necessary to transfer to a (different) university 23.9% 7.2% 10.2% 4.9% i could not find a job 4.6% 6.7% 7.5% 1.5% to enhance my self-confidence and selfesteem my parents/friends/teachers expected or encouraged me to go from application and beyond 20 to complete the courses necessary to transfer to a (different) college 6.7% 4.0% 4.5% 2.1% i could not think of anything else to do after high school 4.1% 4.0% 2.4% 7.2% none of the above 0.3% 0.4% 0.2% 0.2% in terms of information sources used when researching their pse options, more college applicants who aspired to a university degree reported using almost every information source than those who did not aspire to a degree (table 6). the largest differences were in relation to the use of macleans rankings, university/college fairs, talking to a professor, and high school presentations/visits. among university applicants, those who were transferring from college were more likely to report talking to a professor or accessing an institutional calendar as sources of information. however, they were less likely to report accessing almost every other information source, with the exception of institutional websites. table 6 information sources college applicants aspire to a do not aspire degree to a degree university applicants previous college no previous credential pse institution website 87.3% 82.6% 89.9% 90.9% viewbook 68.3% 59.9% 58.5% 87.1% education-related web-portals 78.9% 74.7% 63.7% 83.3% brochures 54.5% 45.7% 53.4% 76.6% current students/graduates 55.6% 47.3% 61.2% 72.7% emails after application 60.3% 55.8% 63.4% 69.9% hs presentations/visits 42.8% 34.8% 24.5% 67.0% friends 50.6% 45.2% 56.3% 66.0% parents/family members 42.6% 37.1% 41.5% 64.8% guidance counsellor 45.3% 40.7% 20.5% 53.4% teacher 35.7% 29.7% 18.2% 53.1% mail received after application 43.7% 40.1% 45.7% 52.1% university/college fair 28.8% 21.6% 21.7% 51.2% maclean's ranking 12.8% 5.9% 25.7% 48.9% from application and beyond 21 open house 36.4% 36.3% 22.4% 44.4% formal tour 27.8% 25.0% 20.2% 44.2% calendar 35.7% 30.5% 47.7% 42.9% informal/unofficial visit 28.8% 24.5% 34.0% 38.5% facebook 29.6% 27.8% 24.0% 35.1% phone calls after application 33.5% 28.4% 32.3% 33.2% talking to a professor 27.8% 22.5% 39.1% 29.1% when asked about their certainty that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career, the difference between college applicants who aspired to a university credential and those who did not was statistically significant but small and there was no difference in the level of certainty that their academic program was right for them (figure 2). among university applicants, however, a much higher percentage of college transfer students indicated that they were very certain that their academic program would lead to a satisfying career, and that their academic program was right for them, when compared to those with no previous pse (figure 2). figure 2 program certainty 60% 50% 51.6% 51.1% 48.3% 44.2% 43.6% 44.8% 38.3% 40% 30.6% 30% 20% 10% % do not aspire to a degree aspire to a degree college applicants previous college credential no previous pse university applicants % very certain academic program is the path to a satisfying career % very certain academic program is right for them from application and beyond 22 for all respondents, the single most important factor in their decision process when considering pse options was program reputation (table 7). overall academic reputation was slightly more important to college applicants who aspired to a degree than those who did not, while proximity of the institution to home was slightly more important to applicants who did not aspire to a degree. differences between university applicants with no previous pse and college transfer students were more pronounced. when compared to university applicants with no previous pse, a significantly greater percentage of transfer students indicated institutional proximity to their home as the single most important factor. in contrast, university students with no previous pse were significantly more likely to have made their decision based on factors such as academic reputation and campus experience. table 7 factors contributing to pse options college applicants aspire to a degree university applicants do not aspire to a previous college no previous degree credential pse strong reputation in my specific program of interest 36.3% 32.9% 36.1% 37.6% strong overall academic reputation 11.3% 7.9% 15.8% 21.1% institutions were close to home 17.1% 21.5% 17.8% 7.0% strong reputation for graduates having good careers 17.7% 19.3% 12.4% 15.6% financial reasons 5.3% 6.1% 5.1% 3.5% strong reputation for campus experience 2.8% 2.6% 1.7% 6.7% strong reputation for teaching 3.2% 2.7% 2.1% 2.5% where my friends are going 1.0% 1.3% 1.0% 0.6% none of the above 5.4% 5.7% 8.1% 5.2% from application and beyond 23 phase two follow-up survey results results of the follow-up survey conducted with college applicants who aspired to a degree, university applicants with previous college, and university applicants with no previous pse are presented in this section. college applicants who aspired to a degree of the 469 college applicants surveyed who had originally aspired to complete a university degree, 13.4% indicated that they had transferred to a university, 47.1% indicated that they still aspired to a complete a university degree, and 39.4% no longer had aspirations for a degree. differences in gender, age, and first generation student status were examined, but only gender was found to be significantly related to aspiration outcomes; 63.4% of women still aspired to a degree or had transferred to university compared to 52.9% of men. of those who no longer intended to pursue a university degree, the top two most commonly reported reasons were a change in their interests and an inability to afford university (figure 3). other reasons reported by at least one-quarter of respondents were that they had a job, preferred college, and felt they did not need a university education. interestingly, reasons related to the transfer process itself, such as its complexity, pre-requisites, provision of transfer credit, or receiving an offer, were far down the list. from application and beyond 24 figure 3 reasons for no longer wanting to attend university interests have changed 36.8% cannot afford university 36.2% have a job 29.7% prefer college 28.6% do not need university education 28.1% does not suit my learning style 16.8% family obligations 10.3% too many pre-requisites 9.7% health reasons inflexible course delivery 7.0% 4.3% transfer process too complicated 3.2% was not accepted 2.7% did not receive enough transfer credit 2.7% my parents wanted me to go 2.7% universities are too far from home other 1.6% 2.2% among those who still planned to pursue a university degree, most said that the university program they intended to take was related to their previous program (86.0%) and half were aware of a formal transfer agreement between their current/past college program and the university program they would apply to (50.7%). one third of respondents, however, did not know if there was a formal transfer agreement (33.9%). while respondents varied in how much credit they estimated they would receive, two-fifths reported that they did not know (figure 4). from application and beyond 25 figure 4 estimated transfer credit expect to receive 1 semester 8.1% 2 semesters 15.4% 3 semesters 5.9% 4 semesters or more 21.3% none 6.8% don't know 42.5% over half of those who still aspired to a university degree said that they anticipated experiencing challenges when transferring to a university program from college (57.9%). the most commonly anticipated challenges associated with transferring were a lack of guidance on application procedures, a lack of clarity between various credit granting processes, and finding/confirming requirements for transfer credits (figure 5). figure 5 anticipated challenges when transferring to university lack of guidance on application procedures 29.0% lack of clarity between credit granting processes 27.1% finding/confirming requirements for transfer credit 25.3% i won't receive the amount of credits i was expecting 21.3% application process will be too complicated 21.3% submitting applications 21.3% inconsistent/inadequate information from sources 17.2% access to transcripts 15.8% the amount of time for a response will be too long 15.4% lack of clear documentation requirements 15.4% assistance with grade calculation(s) adjusting to academic rigour of university other no challenges anticipated 11.8% 1.8% 4.1% 42.1% from application and beyond 26 timing of decision to attend university, university transfers/aspirants vs direct entrants stark differences are seen by pathway in terms of when the decision to attend university was made (figure 6). the vast majority of non-transfer students (69%) always assumed they would go to university, with a further 9% deciding before high school. in contrast, only 29% of students who transferred from college, or were planning to transfer to university always knew, with almost half deciding either during or after college. figure 6 evolution of university plans by pathway 80% 70% 69% 60% 50% 40% 30% 27% 25% 20% 10% 4% 9% 15% 8% 9% 7% grade 9-11 grade 12 23% 0% always knew / assumed i would attend grade 8 or before college transfers/ aspirants in college after attending college direct entry university *college transfers/ aspirants include both those who still aspired to university and those who had transferred, n=343; direct entry university include those with no prior pse, n=1449 since ontario high schools have a destination based curriculum, with university, college and workplace streams it is informative to compare the timing with the decision to apply to university with the type of preparatory courses taken in high school for those who transferred to university or were planning to transfer (figure 7). when the decision to attend university is analyzed by course selection, it is evident that transfer students who decided before high school also chose university preparatory courses. students deciding later are far less likely to have taken the required courses to enter university directly and would need to take the college transfer route in order to be eligible for university. from application and beyond 27 figure 7 timing of decision to attend university by courses taken in high school, university transfers and students who aspire to transfer 120% 100% 31% 80% 50% 72% 60% 15% 20% 40% 54% 20% 16% 31% 12% 0% college or workplace combination of university / college preparation before hs/ always assumed in hs mostly university preparation during or after college transfer experience of college-to-university transfer students current or former university students who indicated they had previously attended college were asked a series of questions about their transfer experience. these results are presented here. transfer credits college-to-university transfer students most commonly found out they were receiving credit when they received their offer of admission, or at/before registration, and most said that the timing was acceptable to them (table 8). the actual amount of credit received varied, although the most common scenario was for students to have received credit for two semesters of their university program, followed by no credit (table 8). among those who applied for credit, almost half received the same amount of credit as they expected (48.4%), while one in three students indicated that they received less than expected (33.0%), and 11.0% received more than expected. just under half of college-to-university transfer students stated that there was a formal transfer agreement between their past college program and the university program they enrolled in (45.9%). from application and beyond 28 table 8 approval process, amount of credit, & timing how much credit did you receive? when did you find out you were receiving credit? was this timing acceptable to you? relative to what you expected, the amount of credit you received was: % 23.0% 15.6% 23.8% 6.6% 18.9% 12.3% 32.0% 25.4% 17.2% 1.6% 2.5% 6.6% 14.8% 87.1% 12.9% 33.0% 48.4% 11.0% 7.7% none 1 semester 2 semesters 3 semesters 4 semesters or more don't know with offer of admission at or before registration after registration have not heard yet have not applied for credit yet am not applying for credit don't know yes no less than expected same as expected more than expected don't know when asked to reflect back on how well they understood the transfer process before they applied to university, transfer students were four times more likely to indicate that they did not understand the process at all before applying (22.1%) than to say that they completely understood (5.7%) (figure 8). figure 8 understanding of transfer process before applying to university not at all 22.1% slightly 15.6% moderately 43.4% very completely 13.1% 5.7% from application and beyond 29 resources the three most commonly used resources for information on transferring to university were a university website or publication, university staff, and other students (figure 9). figure 9 sources of information used regarding transferring to university university website / publications university staff other students college faculty/program coordinators parents / family college staff college website / publications ontario college university transfer guide ontransfer.ca other 63.9% 36.9% 32.8% 27.0% 25.4% 23.8% 23.0% 7.4% 4.9% 1.6% use of, and satisfaction with, transfer advising services only 37.7% of college-to-university transfer students said that their college offered advising with respect to helping students transfer to university. of these, about half used the services at their college (54.3%), and most found the services to be very or extremely helpful (72.0%). with regard to the university that they transferred into, more than half stated the university offered student advising to help them with the transfer process (55.7%). of these, 70.6% said they used this service and 66.7% rated the overall helpfulness of these services as either extremely or very helpful. satisfaction with transition process only three-fifths of those who transferred said they were satisfied overall with the transition from college to their university program (60.7%), with 12.8% saying that they were dissatisfied. challenges transfer students were asked the same set of questions regarding challenges in the transfer process as those who planned on transferring as described previously. the most commonly from application and beyond 30 experienced challenge that students faced when transferring to university was a lack of guidance on application procedures (25.4%), followed by not receiving the amount of credit they were expecting (23.0%) (table 9). overall, 37.7% of transfer students reported no challenges when transferring to university, slightly lower than the proportion of pre-transfer students who anticipated challenges (42.1%) (figure 5). one of the largest differences in anticipated and actual barriers was that the application process would be too complicated, cited by 21.3% of students pre-transfer, versus only 4.1% post-transfer. caution needs to be exercised when comparing the population aspiring to transfer and the population who did transfer, since the challenges cited by the aspirants may reduce their likelihood of transferring. table 9 challenges experienced by college to university transfers challenges experienced did not experience any challenges lack of guidance on application procedures i didn't receive the amount of credits i was expecting inconsistent or inadequate information from various sources finding/confirming requirements for transfer credit lack of clarity between various credit granting processes submitting applications lack of clear documentation requirements the amount of time it took to get a response was too long access to transcripts; multiple transcript requests for course credits applied in different areas of same institution assistance with grade calculation(s) the application process will be too complicated other % 37.7% 25.4% 23.0% 18.9% 18.0% 16.4% 14.8% 13.9% 11.5% 11.5% 9.0% 4.1% 1.6% *multiple response question, respondents selected all that applied postsecondary attendance of family members, college transfers vs. those with no previous pse in phase two, the follow up survey, college students and graduates who transferred to university were asked more detailed questions about their parents and siblings previous education (figure 10). college transfer students are far less likely to have a parent with a university degree, but more likely to have a parent with a college credential compared to those without previous pse. likewise, for those with siblings, transfer students are much less likely to have sibling who have gone to university, than students who entered directly. from application and beyond 31 figure 10 postsecondary attendance of family members, college transfers vs direct entry university students. 80% 73% 70% 57% 60% 49% 50% 48% 38% 40% 25% 30% 20% 10% 0% at least one parent has a degree at least one parent has a college/ trade credential college transfer students sibling has attended university no previous pse university transition experience of college transfers vs. those with no previous pse the phase 1 results showed that university applicants with a previous college credential are a very different population than university applicants with no previous pse. this section follows up with transfer students after their entrance to university to compare the transition experience with those who had no previous postsecondary experience. satisfaction when asked to rate their university with respect to various factors related to orientation, and information provision around applications and course requirements, university students with no previous pse experience rate their university much more favourably than college transfer students (figure 11-figure 13). in terms of campus orientation, 80% of non-transfer students rated special programs to orient you to campus and campus activities as outstanding or satisfactory compared to 64% transfer students (figure 11). an additional 17% of college transfers reported dont know versus only 4% of those without previous pse. for satisfaction with academic orientation, only 71% compared with 57% found the programs satisfactory or outstanding. additionally, 12% of college transfers versus 6% without pse responded dont know when asked about special from application and beyond 32 programs to orient you to academics and academic expectations. these findings likely indicate that most orientation and transition processes are centered on more traditional students than students coming from other pathways. figure 11 satisfaction with orientation programs, college transfers and non-transfers, university students, 2010-2016 120% 100% 4% 17% 80% 35% 12% 6% 15% 23% 24% 60% 42% 40% 40% 45% 19% 16% college transfer students no previous pse 20% 48% 31% 23% 0% college transfer students no previous pse special programs to orient you to campus and special programs to orient you to academics and campus activities academic expectations needs improvement satisfactory outstanding don't know overall both transfer and non-transfer students were satisfied with the timeliness of their application processing and notification of acceptance (figure 12). however, transfer students were much less likely to rate their satisfaction as outstanding for each measure. from application and beyond 33 figure 12 satisfaction with application process, college transfers and non-transfers 120% 100% 80% 25% 38% 30% 46% 60% 40% 61% 50% 57% 44% 20% 0% 12% 8% 12% 8% college transfer students no previous pse college transfer students no previous pse timeliness of application processing needs improvement satisfactory timeliness of notification of your acceptance outstanding don't know about one-quarter of transfer students felt their university needed improvement in the area of providing information about the admission process and admission requirements (24%), compared to only 9% of university students with no previous pse (figure 13). transfer students were also much less likely to consider information provided on course requirements for their majors to be outstanding. from application and beyond 34 figure 13 satisfaction with information provision for requirements of chosen major, college transfers versus non-transfers 120% 100% 25% 27% 80% 40% 23% 36% 36% 60% 48% 52% 53% 40% 46% 50% 49% 20% 24% 21% 9% 0% college transfer students no previous pse college transfer students 13% no previous pse 23% 17% college transfer students no previous pse providing information about the providing information about the providing information about the admission process and admission general education requirements required courses for your chosen requirements for your chosen for your chosen major major major needs improvement satisfactory outstanding don't know academic preparation looking back to when they began university, the majority of respondents from both groups tended to say that they felt they were moderately or completely prepared for university (table 10). the only significant difference was that a larger proportion of college transfer students said they were moderately prepared compared to those with no previous pse. table 10 how academically prepared do you feel you were for university? completely very moderately slightly not at all college transfer students 11.5% 23.8% 50.0% 10.7% 4.1% no previous pse 12.4% 29.0% 38.6% 13.5% 6.4% from application and beyond 35 engagement transfer students were more likely to be academically engaged than students without previous pse (figure 14). transfer students were much more likely to participate in classroom discussion (59.8%) than non-transfer students (40.2%). they were also more likely to discuss their assignment and/or grades with instructors (31.1% vs. 21.9% non-transfer students), discuss ideas with a faculty member (38.5% vs. 26.5% non-transfer students), or discuss their career plans and ambitions with faculty (21.3% vs. 16.4% non-transfer students). both groups of students reported similar rates of completing homework and assignments on time. figure 14. academic engagement of college transfer students and non-transfer students 120% 100% 80% 41% 31% 22% 27% 39% 21% 16% 60% 43% 60% 55% 40% 50% 20% 59% 48% 38% 41% 23% 0% 53% 53% 2% college transfer students 9% 10% no previous pse college transfer students participated in classroom discussions no previous pse 13% 20% 25% college transfer students no previous pse college transfer students no previous pse discussed your grades or discussed ideas with a discussed your career plans assignments with your faculty member (e.g., term and ambitions with a instructor paper, class project, etc.) faculty member never sometimes frequently in contrast, university students with no previous pse were more likely to participate in oncampus community service or volunteer activities (25.4% vs. 13.1% transfer students), engage in student clubs or special interest groups (32.6% vs. 12.3% transfer students), and/or attend campus cultural events (16.7% vs. 10.7% transfer students) (figure 15). these results align with the earlier results in this report (table 5) for university applicants, which showed that applicants with no previous pse were much more likely to state that one of the reasons they applied to from application and beyond 36 university was to become actively involved in student life and campus activities, and/ or to meet new people. figure 15 social engagement of college transfer students and non-transfer students 120% 100% 11% 12% 17% 13% 33% 80% 38% 48% 60% 26% 37% 53% 41% 42% 40% 42% 20% 50% 30% 50% 25% 33% 0% college transfer no previous pse college transfer no previous pse college transfer no previous pse students students students attended campus cultural events (e.g., theatre, concerts, art exhibits) participated in student clubs or special interest groups never sometimes participated in on-campus community service or volunteer activities frequently resources in terms of types of services used, university students with no previous pse were fairly similar to transfer students in terms of academic advising, library resources, tutoring and peer mentoring (figure 16). notable differences include being significantly more likely than college transfer students to use recreation/athletic facilities and orientation programs/activities. these results fit with the results presented earlier, which also showed that transfer students were less likely to know about orientation programs, and were also less satisfied with them (figure 11). transfer students were also more likely to use financial aid services (68% vs 54%) which is likely associated with their greater use of government loans as well as their lower annual income (table 3) and slightly more likely to use personal counselling, which may be associated, in part, with the high numbers reporting a disability4. 4 the survey did not include disability services in the list of resources. from application and beyond 37 figure 16 university resources used 73.8% 71.6% library resource centre 61.5% 61.8% academic advising financial aid services 68.0% 53.8% 41.8% recreation and athletic facilities 65.1% 33.6% orientation programs/activities 56.7% 36.1% 44.5% career/employment services 34.4% 25.8% personal counselling 18.9% 15.9% tutoring services 14.8% 16.2% peer mentoring services prior learning and assessment 8.2% 4.6% none of the above 7.4% 2.1% college transfer no previous pse conclusion a growing body of literature has documented the motivations, experiences and challenges of ontario postsecondary students who have transferred from college to university (e.g., decock, 2006; oncat, 2013; sidhu et al., 2016; smith et al., 2016). the present investigation contributes to this literature by examining the profiles and experiences of college-to-university transfer students and college students who aspire to complete a university degree in order to expand upon the current knowledge base. the results of this study confirm previous research showing that the college-to-university transfer student population has a relatively large proportion of traditionally under-represented groups compared to those who are entering university directly from high school. this supports the idea that the college-to-university pathway may serve as a vehicle for under-represented students to access university (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). these students were shown to be highly engaged in their learning and academically confident, a finding also supported in previous from application and beyond 38 research (pendleton and lambert-maberly, 2006). this is positive news for retention, as greater student-faculty interaction has been shown to be positively correlated with student persistence (dwyer, 2015). however, the results also suggest that more work needs to be done to support both the admissions process and the university transition experience. traditional university channels for information provision, such as viewbooks, brochures, open houses, and university fairs are not being heavily accessed by college-to-university transfer students. rather these students seem to rely more on interpersonal contact for their individual circumstances, such as emails and phone calls with university staff, talking with a professor, and informal visits to campus. similarly, university orientation programming is often geared primarily to the directentry student and transfer students are much less likely to participate. orientation, particularly to the academic expectations of university, was a key area where transfer students felt their university needed to improve. while college-to-university transfer students tend to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom is a challenge. this is likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial support. even at the applicant stage, university applicants with a college credential were far less likely to cite meeting new people, or becoming involved in student life and campus activities as reasons for going to university, than applicants without previous pse. developing flexible ways to enrich the non-academic experience of college-to-university transfer students should be a priority. overall, this study, as well as previous research, suggests that increasing the number of students utilizing the college-to-university transfer pathway should enhance the diversity in the student population in university, and at the same time increase numbers of academically engaged students. both of these factors would likely enrich the university environment overall. from application and beyond 39 references arnold, c. h., & woodhead, s. (2015). transferability expectations and realities: analysis of incoming centennial college learner expectations, realities and self-adjusted perceptions. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. carleton university (2013). supporting the success of transfer students. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. colleges ontario (2009). student mobility between ontario's colleges and universities. retrieved from http://www.collegesontario.org/research/student-mobility/student_mobility_09.pdf decock, h. (2006). a case study analysis of ontario caat graduates who transfer to university. unpublished doctoral dissertation, ontario institute for studies of education at the university of toronto. decock, h., mccloy, u., liu, s., & hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario colleges who further their education: an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. dwyer, tomas. (2015). persistence in higher education through studentfaculty interactions in the classroom of a commuter institution. pp. 1-10 in innovations in education and teaching international. finnie, r., childs, s., & wismer, a. (2011). under-represented groups in postsecondary education in ontario: evidence from the youth in transition survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. gorman, g., phelps, c., & carley, r. (2012). exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students. conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. kennett, d.j. & maki, k. (2014). academic resourcefulness and transfer student success: direct entry, college transfer, and university transfer student comparisons. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. ontario council on articulation and transfer (2013). summary of oncat-funded pathways and transfer research. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. pendelton, s. & lambert-maberly, a. (2006). undergraduate student survey on student satisfaction & engagement: transfer student experience vs direct entry student experience. vancouver: british columbia council on articulation and transfer. sattler, peggy, academica group inc. (2010). from postsecondary application to the labour market: the pathways of under-represented groups. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. sidhu, r., lin, s., munro, y., smith, r., parna, j., de oca sarasua, e., (2016) are excess credits for college to transfer students a concern? a case study within the ontario context. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. toronto: colleges ontario & higher education strategy associates. retrieved from http://www.collegesontario.org/research/externalreports/credit%20transfer%20summary%20report.pdf

ontario council on articulation and transfer 180 dundas street west, suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 tel: (416) 640-6951 fax: (416) 640-6959 www.oncat.ca request for proposal vendor of record transfer system stakeholder surveys closing date: august 17, 2020 by 11:00pm (eastern standard time) closing location: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) suite 1902, 180 dundas street west toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by: ontario council on articulation and transfer contact: shauna love communications@oncat.ca operations director 416.640.6951 ext. 302 main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student-facing website: www.ontransfer.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario 1 contents oncat overview ........................................................................................................................................... 3 invitation ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 project overview ........................................................................................................................................... 3 scope of work ................................................................................................................................................ 4 proposal requirements ................................................................................................................................. 4 communication.............................................................................................................................................. 5 submission process ........................................................................................................................................ 5 evaluation process ......................................................................................................................................... 6 evaluation criteria & weighting .................................................................................................................... 7 timelines & awards ....................................................................................................................................... 8 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 2 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: supporting projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontario's regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; hosting events that brings together credit transfer experts from across the province; and, connecting students to transfer opportunities through ontransfer.ca and stakeholders through our corporate website oncat.ca invitation oncat is seeking a qualified vendor with strong survey expertise to assist oncat in the design and implementation of large scale surveys. project overview research on contemporary issues in student mobility and credit transfer in ontario is hampered by the limited availability of data sources on various topics, including transfer student flows, experiences and outcomes; faculty perceptions and dispositions toward transfer and articulation; as well as broader sector awareness of articulated pathways and transfer processes. many existing surveys and administrative data sources may not have the capacity to capture fully required indicators (e.g., credit transfer flag) or lack adequate sample sizes to perform informative and robust analyses of topics essential to the development of an efficient and seamless transfer system. oncat is seeking a qualified vendor with strong survey expertise to assist oncat in the design and implementation of large scale surveys. these surveys will involve key stakeholders such as faculty (e.g. instructors, professors); prospective and actual transfer students; and system partners or stakeholders (e.g. secondary school administrators/educators, parents). oncat anticipates that some surveys will be repeated based upon agreed upon cycles in order to evaluate progress towards the development of a mature credit transfer system, and inform both institutional practice and policymaking. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 3 scope of work the successful candidate will design and implement large-scale surveys in the term outlined in the agreement. the scope of work for each survey will include, at a minimum, the following: 1. questionnaire design in collaboration with oncat 2. survey validation: conduct survey item validation and survey pilots as needed. 3. survey implementation: target of 1000s of responses per survey using appropriate data gathering methods (including web, telephone and mail surveys) 4. analysis: develop descriptive reports, as well as multivariate analyses 5. presentation of results 6. submission of datasets and reports proposal requirements proposals must at a minimum contain the following: 1. contact information for the respondent 2. description of a proposed approach and sample work plan for the above mentioned work. include a timeline of major tasks and milestones. 3. general fee structure for large scale survey projects (include an anonymized sample budget from recently completed projects). 4. qualifications of the respondent to provide the requested services including capability, capacity, similarly complex projects and related experience, and list of clients we can contact for references. 5. a listing of the staff to be assigned to this project and their respective qualifications, past experience on engagements of this scope, including resumes, and their role in those past engagements. certification of availability of individuals in proposal. 6. technical definitions if required. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 4 communication all communication such as 1) requests for additional information, 2) clarification, should be directed in writing by email to: communications@oncat.ca. all such rfp related inquiries must be received no later than july 27, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. eastern standard time. oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information of a reasonable nature that may be requested by interested vendors. submission process 1. please review all sections of this rfp carefully and follow all instructions. incomplete submissions will be not be considered. 2. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to accomplish the desired or intended results of this procurement are solicited. however, proposals that depart from or materially alter the terms, requirements, or scope of work defined by this rfp will be rejected. 3. all costs associated with developing or submitting a proposal (including a potential interview) in response to this rfp and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal shall be borne by the vendor. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. 4. all proposals should identify the vendor proposed team of professionals, including those employed by subcontractors, if any, along with respective areas of expertise and relevant credentials. agencies should also provide a delineation of the portion of the scope of work for which each of these professionals will be responsible. vendors are required to submit one (1) electronic copy of their proposal to: communications@oncat.ca please ensure the subject line reads as follows: oncat transfer system surveys: [company name]. oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of august 17, 2020 at 11:00 p.m. eastern standard time. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfp document become the property of oncat. oncat can decide to not proceed with these activities. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 5 evaluation process the evaluation process will include several stages. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. oncat is funded by the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu), and as such, services provided by a vendor of record is contingent upon oncats continued funding from mcu. stage 1 - mandatory requirements proposals will be reviewed for mandatory requirements and general compliance with the submission proposal requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements will be disqualified. stage 2 - rank the evaluation the evaluation committee will evaluate and rank the written proposals, to identify the topranked vendors(s) to be invited to the presentation stage. stage 3 - selection the evaluation committee will complete the evaluation template, rank the proposals and presentations then select the preferred vendor(s). vendor(s) may be called in for an interview. in the event of a tie during the evaluation, the tied proponents will be invited to an interview in an effort to break the tie. the interview will have a set agenda and scored by the evaluation team. stage 4 negotiation prior to award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with vendor(s) identified in stage 3 for the best value option. references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. stage 5 - notice of award the successful vendor will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful vendor(s) will be notified after a final agreement has been executed. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 6 evaluation criteria & weighting applicants should clearly meet all of the criteria listed below: overall experience of vendor & demonstrated results 40% our evaluation will include an assessment of your experience as it relates to the requirements within this rfp, evidence of past performance, quality and relevance of past work, references, and related areas. this includes that the vendor has: 1. a track record of producing provincially or nationally representative datasets utilizing stratified random sampling and other similar techniques. 2. produced datasets utilized by the academic research community, with corresponding publications in national/international peer reviewed journals. 3. a history working with other entities in ontario post-secondary education. approach 20% overall approach and strategy described/outlined in the proposal and firm capacity to perform the engagement within the specified timeframe (prior experience in meeting timelines will be factored in here). this includes that the vendor has: 1. the ability to expediently carry out large-scale surveys (1000s of respondents) utilizing an array of data gathering methods including web, telephone and mail surveys. budget approach/cost effectiveness 20% effective and efficient delivery of quality services is demonstrated in relation to the budget allocation. the allocation is reasonable and appropriate. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 7 qualifications of vendor 20% our evaluation will include an assessment of the qualifications and experience of your managerial team, staff, subcontractors, and related personnel. this includes that the vendor: 1. possess the in-house expertise to support questionnaire design, carry out item validation and perform survey pilots. 2. has the digital and physical infrastructure to securely store sensitive individual-level data in accordance with fippa regulations and other best it practices. 3. has full-time staff capable of producing both descriptive reports, as well as multivariate analyses utilizing state-of-the-art techniques in social science research. timelines & awards project timelines rfp release date june 22, 2020 written questions due by email communications@oncat.ca july 27, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. eastern standard time proposal deadline august 17, 2020 at 11:00 p.m. eastern standard time evaluation august 18, 2020 - august 28, 2020 selection and negotiation week of september 7, 2020 notice of award week of september 14, 2020 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 8

research on current system level transfer agreements awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability ontario colleges heads of business oncat project # 2017-36 final report may 2018 prepared by: cookson consulting group inc. table of contents executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 2 project team ................................................................................................................................................. 4 project management ................................................................................................................................ 4 heads of business transfer agreement steering committee - project leads .......................................... 4 heads of business - 2017/18 transfer agreement steering committee .................................................. 4 background ................................................................................................................................................... 5 literature review ...................................................................................................................................... 5 current project: purpose and goals ............................................................................................................. 5 research methodology ................................................................................................................................. 6 research goals and data results .................................................................................................................. 7 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. ............................. 7 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. ............................................ 9 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. ...................... 10 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success. ......... 10 conclusions & implications ......................................................................................................................... 11 communications ..................................................................................................................................... 12 the heads of business ............................................................................................................................ 12 oncat ..................................................................................................................................................... 13 cralo/ocas ........................................................................................................................................... 13 next steps ................................................................................................................................................... 13 appendix a: ocas and oncat transfer data analysis ..............................................................................a-1 appendix b: internal college stakeholder and student survey results .................................................... b-1 appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis .................................................................................... c-1 appendix d: college transfer student data summary ............................................................................. d-1 appendix e: website search analysis ........................................................................................................ e-1 appendix f: program coordinator and transfer staff - individual interviews & focus group results ................................................................................................................................... f-1 ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 1 executive summary previous project in november of 2014, the heads of business (hob) for the ontario colleges, with the financial support of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), undertook a pilot project to implement system-wide pathways for four agreements in the disciplines of business, accounting, human resources and marketing. programs business/business administration business accounting/ business admin. - accounting business- human resources/business admin. human resources business- marketing/business admin. marketing maesd # 50200 50100 50223 52900 maesd# 60200 60100 60223 62900 current project in march of 2017 with funding again through oncat, the heads of business launched a research project to evaluate the status of the hob transfer agreements three years after implementation. this project had four primary goals: 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? to answer these four questions, the research methodology included seven unique components including system wide and college specific data analyses, student and stakeholder surveys, reviews of existing curriculum pathway guides, website analyses and college stakeholder interviews and focus groups. conclusions and implications in response to the four research questions listed above: 1. the awareness of the four hob transfer agreements is high among the longer tenured college staff, but awareness is lower with newer, less experienced staff. specialists, such as the credit transfer office staff, are generally more aware of the agreements than academic areas, while the awareness level of the agreements among students is reported by staff to be very low. 2. the number of respondents to the survey of business students that had transferred between institutions was not sufficient to provide a perspective on the student experience. our research identified a significant variance in the process and experience between colleges for transfer ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 2 students. students are surprised that they can obtain transfer credits and, in some cases, misinterpret transfer requirements. 3. it is not possible to determine the exact number of students transferring under the hob agreements because this information is not tracked at the provincial (ocas/oncat) or college level. however, the data supplied by ocas indicates that on average since the time the agreements were implemented, 90 students have transferred each year. conflicting data supplied directly from six colleges showed approximately 63 students per year have transferred over the past four years. 4. the curriculum pathway guides (cpgs) are not widely used to facilitate the transfer of students or to keep the transfer agreements current. when they are used, college staff found the cpgs to be a key part of administering a hob student transfer and maintaining the course requirements specified in the hob transfer agreements. additionally, it is evident that since the implementation of the heads of business agreements, a palpable, cultural shift has occurred within the colleges as it relates to the reciprocity of credits within programs included in the four agreements. despite the culture shift the number of students benefiting from the ability to transfer is significantly less than .01% of all provincial business student registrations. notwithstanding the overarching difficulty in acquiring the necessary data to make informed decisions, this research did bring to light several opportunities for the heads of business and the colleges to benefit from one anothers expertise in communication and processes. several conclusions and implications have been identified for the heads of business and the hob transfer agreement steering committee to explore in the coming months as it pertains to the ongoing success of the current agreements. ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 3 project team project management jeannine cookson scott walker cookson consulting group inc. cookson consulting group inc. heads of business transfer agreement steering committee - project leads karen murkar mary pierce amanda stone chair, school of accounting and financial services, seneca college chair, lawrence kinlin school of business, fanshawe college chair, business & management studies, centennial college heads of business - 2017/18 transfer agreement steering committee alvina richard cassiani gemmill dean, school of business dean, school of business, hospitality & media arts humber college confederation college gary hallam conestoga college marianne marando karen murkar mary pierce executive dean, school of business & hospitality executive dean, school of business, it & management chair, school of accounting & financial services chair, lawrence kinlin school of business diane sncal college boreal keith seymour doyenne, coles des affaires et services communautaires chair, marketing & management studies amanda stone chair, business & management studies centennial college helene vukovich cochair associate dean, centre for business george brown college cochair durham college seneca college fanshawe college algonquin college ex officio janice lamoureux cralo registrar fanshawe college sharon kinasz cralo registrar seneca college drew justin van payrs williams hom hob chair director of marketing chair school of business and management fleming college niagara college ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 4 background literature review in november 2014, with financial support from the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), the ontario colleges heads of business (hob), undertook a pilot project to implement systemwide pathways for four recently signed agreements in the disciplines of business, accounting, human resources and marketing. programs business/business administration business accounting/ business admin. - accounting business- human resources/business admin. human resources business- marketing/business admin. marketing maesd # 50200 50100 50223 52900 maesd# 60200 60100 60223 62900 the primary outcomes of the project were to engage all participating stakeholders to: launch system-level implementation of the four college-to-college business transfer agreements. assist oncat in furthering the three diploma-to-degree business transfer agreements where possible. act as a pilot for ontarios post-secondary education system to develop protocols and processes for implementation of other transfer agreements (current and future). the 2016 conclusion of the implementation project saw the overall processing of business, accounting, human resources, and marketing diploma transfer students within ontario colleges become more open and transparent. in addition, there was a significant cultural change as related to accepting credit from other colleges. the project also identified several barriers to the sustainability of these agreements including: the need for data management through a transfer credit system the need for a centralized resource site improvement to the ontransfer.ca pathways site for improved marketability of transfer options. alignment of transcript data to support easy transition from college to college the need for ongoing review of the curriculum to maintain alignment to the core courses identified under each of the business, accounting, human resources and marketing agreements curriculum pathways tracking of students and metrics was identified to measure the success of these and other agreements of this nature 1 the identification of several required revisions to the posted ontransfer.ca pathways agreements, to eliminate potential confusion current project: purpose and goals the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary 1 oncat pilot implementation: ontario system level transfer agreements for ontario colleges heads of business; oncat project: 2014-03 (http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=projects) ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 5 institutions2. as part of this mandate oncat funded the 2017/18 ontario colleges hob research project with the purpose of evaluating the system-wide transfer agreements that were signed by ontarios 24 colleges in 2014 for the business, accounting, human resources and marketing diploma and advanced diploma programs. the research goals include: 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? research methodology to answer the above research questions, a plan consisting of seven components was developed. 1. review and analysis of available ontario college application service (ocas) data and available ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) data 2. online survey of college staff and administrators involved with credit transfer 3. review and update of the hob curriculum pathway guides (cpg) 4. review and analysis of available data from top colleges in terms of volume of transfer activity (as derived from the data in 1.) 5. review and analysis of ontario college web sites as pertaining to college-to-college transfer opportunities 6. online survey of students that transferred within a business program 7. focus groups/interviews with program coordinators and credit transfer staff/offices (where such staff/offices exist) the sixth research component around the student experience in transferring is not included in the results as the low rate of response to the online survey made it impossible to draw meaningful, valid conclusions. this report brings together the results from six of the seven individual research components as they relate to the four research goals. the sixth research component around the student experience in 2 oncat website (http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=about) ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 6 transferring is not included in the results as the low rate of response to the online survey made it impossible to draw meaningful, valid conclusions. a comment noting this change has been included in appendix b, internal college stakeholder and student survey results. the remaining research components are included as appendices to the final report. appendices appendix a description ocas and oncat transfer data analysis spring 2018 appendix b internal college stakeholder and student survey results appendix c curriculum pathway guides analysis appendix d college transfer student data summary appendix e website search analysis appendix f program coordinator and transfer staff - individual interviews and focus groups results data limitations ocas data not specific to transfer information is inferred from several ocas sources. no data available through oncat internal college stakeholders, a mixed group of respondents from twenty colleges. no student data available reflects 2017/18 update from all programs associated and all colleges. data reflects responses from six of seven colleges identified as having high transfer activity inconsistent with ocas data. search includes top eight colleges from ocas data, plus random selection of additional 5 colleges. results represent outcomes from two focus groups and individual interviews, capturing details from 20 of 24 colleges. research goals and data results 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? the awareness of the four hob transfer agreements is high among the longer tenured college staff, but awareness is lower with newer, less experienced staff. specialists, such as the credit transfer office staff, are generally more aware of the agreements than academic areas, while the awareness level of the agreements among students is reported by staff to be very low. high impact results based on the information gathered through the focus groups and interviews, program coordinators are very aware of the processes employed at their colleges for making decisions around granting individual course credits. awareness of the institutional processes for transfers under the hob agreements is low however, with a perception that often assumptions are made to grant credit and/or decisions are deferred to the admissions or credit transfer offices where they exist. ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 7 three quarters of those interviewed believe a student transferring from another college into their program through the hob agreements would receive credit for a full year or two of study as required under the agreements while the remainder of the participants were unsure of how much credit would be granted. of those interviewed individually or that participated in a focus group, 3.2% had learned of the agreements as part of their training process with 22.6% of those interviewed only becoming aware of the agreements through the current research project. all credit transfer office staff contacted during the research were very familiar with the agreements and the processes and where credit transfer offices exist, staff frequently have taken over the responsibility for routine credit transfers previously done by coordinators. a small number of colleges are actively promoting the agreements on their websites and the colleges with the most robust transfer information on their sites are seeing a proportionately higher number of transfers coordinators and credit transfer advisors shared that students are generally unaware of the four transfer agreements. colleges with the greatest number of agreement transfer applicants are those where information is available on college sites and where students have approached the coordinators/advisors directly and/or the college has identified the student at the point of application and then reached out to discuss the students options. several colleges have taken a proactive approach by flagging applicants with previous postsecondary education, subsequently reaching out to each applicant to discuss their credit transfer options. moderate impact results focus group and survey results indicate that seasoned coordinators/faculty/chairs are aware of the agreements and that awareness appears to decrease as existing staff vacate their positions and new individuals move into these roles. among survey respondents, only 6.4% were unfamiliar with the agreements compared to 18% in 2016, however the depth of knowledge of the agreements among the coordinators is declining. through the focus groups and interview responses it can be concluded that there is limited awareness of the hob resource page on the oncat website which houses the curriculum pathway guides (cpgs) and the original four agreements. likewise, there is limited awareness of the ontransfer.ca site among program coordinators while credit transfer officers appear to utilize the site regularly. only one college reported actively using the ontransfer.ca site for course to course credit recognition decisions. survey respondents reported that the four original agreements are the most valuable document searched for on the hob resources page on the oncat website. responses from the focus groups and individual interviews indicated that at many colleges the processing of heads of business transfer applications has been assigned to the admissions office. ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 8 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? the number of respondents to the survey was not sufficient to provide a perspective on the student experience. our research identified a significant variance in the process and experience between colleges for transfer students. students are surprised that they can obtain transfer credits and, in some cases, misinterpret transfer requirements. high impact results anecdotal information obtained through focus groups and interviews with transfer advisors and coordinators indicated that students are surprised that under the hob agreements they should be able to complete their diploma studies on time after transferring without losing credit and that there is some misinterpretation of web site information leading to unreal expectations about transfer credit. specific mentions of the hob agreements were found on only two of thirteen colleges websites searched and the website analysis revealed that ten of the thirteen college websites have links to the ontransafer.ca website although only one has a link directly from a program landing page. according to the ocas data analyzed there is an equal number of students transferring into business programs from other disciplines in comparison to transfer from/to the same business program. moderate impact results analysis of the websites of the eight colleges that ranked top in transfer activity through ocas data showed that all eight contain a link to pathway opportunities. available ocas data indicated the number of transfer students across the system experienced a slight bump up in 2014 and that the number has been declining thereafter. there is an opportunity to broaden the agreements to recognize core courses from other programming areas and to perhaps be more liberal with learning outcomes achievement. the very limited data available from the colleges indicates that typically students achieve a higher gpa at their receiving college then the final gpa at the sending college prior to transfer. it could be implied then that students are successful following transfer. from the interviews with college staff we found that transfer processes vary significantly across the system, making it challenging for students transferring from one college to another as they must navigate two different process and sets of requirements. ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 9 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? it is not possible to determine the exact number of students transferring under the hob agreements because this information is not tracked at the provincial (ocas/oncat) or college level. however, the data supplied by ocas indicates that on average since the time the agreements were implemented, 90 students have transferred each year. conflicting data supplied directly from six colleges showed approximately 63 students per year have transferred over the past four years. high impact results since the transfer agreements came into effect in 2014 on average ninety students per year have transferred between ontario college business programs. (ocas analysis). currently very limited data is available through ocas and with the exception of a small number of colleges even less data is available from the colleges directly. the difference between the ocas transfer data and the colleges transfer data highlights a significant challenge in collecting and analyzing ontario student transfer activity; the current systems do not specifically track student transfer activity. there is little incentive for colleges to independently invest in the required system changes and without specific tracking of transfers, transfer activity can only be implied from other related data. most colleges do not track data from incoming students sending college data so it is difficult to accurately determine the success rate of transferring students. any method of flagging transfer students at the point of admission would be helpful in collecting and being able to measure this information. moderate impact results the only means to currently measure the progress of these transfer students at most colleges is informally through information on file with program coordinators/student advisors. 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success. how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? the curriculum pathway guides are not widely used to facilitate the transfer of students or to keep the transfer agreements current. when they are used, college staff found the cpgs to be a key part of administering a hob student transfer and maintaining the course requirements specified in the hob transfer agreements. high impact results the transfer advisors and coordinators find the process of searching college websites to find information to determine eligibility for transfer credit a very tedious and frustrating task despite the fact that numerous tools have been made available to facilitate this. all colleges indicated a strong desire to make transfer into their programs work for students. ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 10 a review of college websites identified that colleges are very good at promoting pathways (internal and external) to university degrees however most lack details around college to college diploma pathway opportunities. several colleges shared that there is a protocol in place to reach out to all students that apply with previous post-secondary education. credit transfer options are shared with the student prior to acceptance. moderate impact results information garnered via focus groups and interview responses indicated that only one college has continued to use the cpgs originally developed in 2014 to support implementation of the agreements. most college staff including program coordinators were not familiar with the cpgs however, once introduced to the guides during focus groups and interviews, they were pleased to learn of and have access to the cpgs as useful tool to deal with transfers. only two of the thirteen college websites searched included any mention of the four hob pathways agreements. annual curriculum changes at individual colleges can and do impact alignment with the core courses as outlined in the cpgs. focus groups and interviews with more than twenty program coordinators revealed that there is no mechanism in place at their college to ensure continued compliance with the four agreements and oversight around curriculum changes is required to ensure that any changes to courses and course sequencing are reviewed for their impact to articulation/transfer agreements alignment with the core courses since the 2014 implementation of the four agreements has changed with alignment in some programs improving and in others declining. seven colleges are currently in alignment with the business agreement, up from four in 2014 and only three colleges are not in alignment with the human resources core curriculum, an improvement over five in 2014. seven colleges are still not aligned with the marketing core curriculum with two colleges coming into alignment while two moved out of alignment. accounting programs at ten colleges are not aligned to the core curriculum and this is up from seven in 2016. credit transfer databases are valued and viewed as very helpful in expediting the transfer process however several colleges continue to be without a database. many colleges require transfer students to receive ongoing academic assistance to ensure they are registered in the appropriate courses from year to year to ensure coverage of all vocational learning outcomes. ongoing relationships with an academic advisor may be a factor in the student success rate. overall conclusions & implications since the implementation of the four heads of business agreements in 2014 a palpable cultural shift has occurred within the ontario college system as it relates to the recognition of transfer credit. there has been a movement away from course by course assessment to a more holistic, outcomes based approach that facilitates full recognition of credits completed during one or two years of study. as one tasc member noted there has been a change from what can i do to block credit transfer? to what can i do to facilitate full recognition of credits earned? despite the cultural shift ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 11 in support of student mobility, the number of students benefiting from the ability to transfer is significantly less than .01% of all provincial business student registrations. despite different transfer and credit recognition processes/protocols in place across the system and identification of some operational challenges, once students are recognized as having transferred under one of the four transfer agreements (business, accounting, human resources or marketing) they are being granted appropriate credit (equivalent of one or two years of study) by the receiving colleges and are generally able to complete their diplomas without loss of credit. there are several examples where the transfer and credit recognition process is very smooth, in particular where colleges have a centralized credit transfer database and when credit transfer offices work closely with the academic areas to ensure ease of transition and ongoing support to students. several colleges identified that the framework of the agreements are being utilized to inform all credit granting decisions regardless of the students eligibility for the hob transfer agreement. there continues to be multiple opportunities across the college system to learn from one another and address operational challenges facing the processing of students, in particular those transferring under one of the four hob agreements. communication and awareness there is currently an issue within some pathways/credit transfer offices that fail to recognize/address the college to college opportunities for transfer because of a focus on degree transfer. students and staff would benefit from a clear communication of the four pathway agreements on all college websites. students and college staff would benefit from increased awareness of the processes for transferring out of sending colleges and into the receiving colleges. given the evolution of credit and transfer responsibility being assigned to credit transfer offices and away from decisions by program coordinators, more effort should be made to ensure information is communicated to these offices by providing regular hob updates to oncat and credit transfer advisors. suggested heads of business follow-up the hob should agree upon whether it will continue to be necessary for colleges to ensure their curricula continues to comply with the core curriculum developed for each agreement. hob should highlight current challenges regarding communication, compliance and data collection to the coordinating committee vice presidents academic (ccvpa) and oncat oversight committee. to ensure continuity of the agreements and commitment by program areas across all colleges at least for the next three years (the remaining life of the agreements), tasc should have core curriculum updates as standing agenda items at all hob meetings. during the focus groups and interviews program coordinators expressed a strong desire to connect with their counterparts provincially to engage in discussions on academic issues pertaining to their programs including transfer student issues. bringing together program ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 12 coordinators for professional development and annual core curriculum meetings could be explored by the heads of business. continued implementation of the agreements necessitates that individual colleges continue to formulate processes for ensuring ongoing compliance with the agreements, perhaps with the support of academic quality units at their institutions i.e. when curriculum is changed, is full credit recognition under the agreements ensured/maintained? suggested oncat follow-up as a central and neutral governing body, oncat should take a more active role in working with key stakeholders to develop systems to assist in the tracking of potential/actual transfer of students, for example ocas and individual colleges. there will be a need for hob to update the current information housed on the oncat website once oncats planned website updates are in place. suggested cralo/ocas follow-up the students ability to choose their academic level on ocas is not consistent from college to college and is often confusing to applicants. a potential recommendation is the development of an ocas field indicating previous post-secondary education that would trigger a manual review of the students transcript through each individual colleges credit transfer office (cto). credit transfer offices could then take a more proactive role, conducting preliminary assessment at the point of application with a follow up outreach to the student for possible transfer options. next steps communication of these conclusions to ccvpa, committee of registrars admissions and liaison officers (cralo), and heads of marketing would assist in facilitating the changes required to support the mobility of business students within the ontario colleges. adjustments may be required to maintain curriculum alignment within the scope of the current hob agreements and to ensure the smooth transfer of students. the transfer agreement sub committee (tasc), in conjunction with the hob, must determine the longterm viability of continuing the current agreements which are set to expire in 2021 including the adoption of a more basic principles-based agreement versus the prescriptive agreements that expire in 2021. ontario colleges heads of business oncat project 2017-36 page 13 research on current system-level business transfer agreements awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability ontario colleges heads of business oncat project # 2017-36 ocas and oncat transfer data analysis spring 2018 final report: appendix a may 2018 prepared by: cookson consulting group inc. introduction the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary institutions3. as part of this mandate oncat funded the ontario colleges heads of business (hob) research project to evaluate the hob system-wide transfer agreements that were signed by ontarios 24 colleges in 2014, including the business, accounting, human resources and marketing diploma and advanced diploma programs. the research had several goals: 5. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 6. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 7. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 8. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success. research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? to answer these questions, a research plan consisting of seven components was developed; research methodology 8. review and analysis of ontario college application service (ocas) data and a review and analysis of ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) data, where available. 9. online survey of college staff and administrators. 10. review and update of hob curriculum pathway guides (cpg) 11. review and analysis of transfer student data from the colleges with the most transfer (as derived from the data in 1.) 12. review and analysis of ontario college web sites as pertinent to college-to-college transfer opportunities 13. online survey of students that have transferred within business program 3 oncat website (http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=about) appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 page a-2 14. focus groups/interviews with program coordinators and transfer credit staff where they exist. this report is a review and analysis of ontario college application services (ocas) and a review of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) data where available. timing and methodology the ontario college application service (ocas), through the ontariocolleges.ca website, manages applications to all 24 ontario colleges full-time programs and can provide insight into the movement of students within the college system. high school students (direct applicants) and applicants that have been out of high school for more than a year (non-direct applicants) select their college and program using the ontariocolleges.ca online application. ocas tracks and collects data on the volume and types of applications processed. when a student transfers from one college to another, they are required to apply to the receiving college through the ontariocolleges.ca application process. using the applicants transcript request and application data, ocas can track the number of students transferring between specific programs, and the colleges, they are transferring into and out of, on a system wide level. all available ocas business student transfer data is included for the (2013 2016) application cycles to provide as much perspective as possible for the hob agreements that were implemented in 2014. data was extracted from the ocas systems during the fall of 2017. programs for this analysis, only students that transferred from one of the business programs related to the hob study into one of those programs at another school are included. students that transferred into a different program are included if the program they transferred into is one of the eight programs under the study. the transfers were broken into two groups; the sending institutions and the receiving institutions. programs included in research study business (50200) business-accounting (50100) business- human resources (50223) business marketing (52900) business administration (60200) business administration accounting (60100) business administration human resources (60223) business administration marketing (62900) colleges all 24 ontario colleges utilize the ocas application and are included in the data analysis. colleges that do not offer one or more of the eight programs could potentially have had lower transfer activity for this reason. all of the colleges reported some level of transfer activity during the 2013 2016 review period, although not all colleges reported activity each year. appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 page a-3 colleges included in research study algonquin cambrian canadore centennial collge boreal conestoga confederation durham fanshawe fleming george brown georgian humber la cit collgiale lambton loyalist mohawk niagara northern sault seneca sheridan st. clair st. lawrence overall transfer activity total transfers between business programs (appendix a1 and appendix a2), the hob agreement activity increased from 2013 (113 transfers) to 2014 (119 transfers), but then declined in 2015 (85 transfers) and 2016 (46 transfers). the transfer agreements came into effect in november 2014. total transfers within the hob agreement (ocas data) 140 120 students 100 80 60 40 20 0 2013 2014 2015 2016 business and accounting represent the largest activity of transfers from other business programs with 32% and 30% of total activity during this time, while marketing represents 26.7% of transfers and human resources represents 11.3%. the relative ranking of activity does not change when we consider transfers into these business programs from other programs appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 page a-4 program transfer activity human resources 11% business 32% marketing 27% accounting 30% receiving transfer credit by college based on the transfer data from ocas, the 24 colleges were ranked (appendix a3) for their overall transfer activity and the activity specific to the business programs included in the study. the top eight colleges are listed below and are the colleges that are included in the student survey portion of this research project. business rank ranking among the colleges based on the number of students that transferred into a business program from a business program for that given year. this activity directly relates to the hob agreements. total business rank ranking among the colleges based on the total number of students that transferred into one business program from another business program between 2013 and 2016. total other rank ranking among the colleges based on the total number of students that transferred into any program other than business from a business program between 2013 and 2016. appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 page a-5 below is a chart with the year over year ranking of the top 8 colleges receiving transfer students, with george brown landing consistently at the top of the list and humber a close second. receiving transfer credit ranking ranking of business transfers by year 2013 2014 2015 2016 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 2 3 3 3 7 8 7 6 4 9 6 6 7 13 7 6 11 5 5 4 13 college george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan overall ranking (4 years) business other 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 3 5 6 6 6 7 10 8 5 exiting transfer credit by college the ontario colleges were also ranked based on the number of students that transferred from a business program into a business program at another school (appendix a4). the same colleges with higher transfer also see an equally high number of students exiting their programs and seeking transfer to other ontario colleges. business rank ranking among the colleges based on the number of students that transferred from a business program into a business program for that given year. this activity directly relates to the hob agreements. total business rank ranking among the colleges based on the total number of students that transferred from one business program into another business program between 2013 and 2016. total other rank ranking among the colleges based on the total number of students that transferred from a program other than business into a business program between 2013 and 2016. exiting college for transfer college george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan ranking of business transfers by year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 4 2 3 5 2 5 3 3 13 4 6 7 3 6 12 3 7 9 7 5 13 12 5 9 7 appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 overall ranking bus other 1 2 2 1 3 6 4 4 5 5 6 7 7 8 8 3 page a-6 ontario council on articulation and transfer as it relates to the hob transfer agreements, the ontario council on articulation and transfer hosts two separate web sites that are key factors in assisting students wishing to transfer and assisting the college community as they attempt to process students looking to transfer on the hob agreements. the oncat website houses a project page with a listing of all oncat funded projects. oncat project #2014-03 pilot implementation: ontario system-level transfer agreements for ontario colleges heads of business (hob) summarizes the original implementation of these agreements. included, is a link to the hob resources page which houses the original agreements, pertinent background information and the curriculum pathway guides. the other site is the ontransfer.ca site. a search engine populated by the ontario colleges and universities sharing previously agreed upon articulation and transfer agreements for both individual courses and programs. through discussions with oncat, it was shared that very little data is available from these websites. the original goal was to: 1. assess specific program searches and determine if searches are translating into actual transfers/registration into new programs. 2. determine the utilization of the hob resource link, to assess utilization of the tools made available at the implementation of the agreements. this lack of usable analytics has been acknowledged by oncat and is a critical issue to surmount in the planned website revisions for 2018. despite the data limitations, in 2017 at the student pathways in higher education conference oncat shared the 2016 data based on page views of the ontransfer.ca site. they were able to determine that 40% of the programs searched on the ontransfer.ca site included seven of the college business programs as the largest block of programs searched with six technology and general arts and science programs in close second. transfer students: their perceptions of and experience with ontransfer.ca may 1, 2017: student pathways in higher education conference appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 page a-7 a more in-depth review of the information available through oncat specific to the business programs found that the business - accounting diploma and advanced diploma along with business administration were the 3 most highly searched programs of the 7 identified in their analysis. the seven most searched business-related college programs ontransfer.ca searches most searched business program unique page % of business views searches business - accounting 2,768 21.4% business administration 2,536 19.6% business administration - accounting 2,349 18.1% business 1,678 13.0% business administration - marketing 1,318 10.2% business - marketing 1,242 9.6% business administration - human resources 1,061 8.2% total searches 12,952 100.0% these findings are consistent with the ocas data and with the data shared by the colleges polled. observations between 2013 and 2016 365 students transferred from a business program at an ontario college to a business program at another ontario college. the ocas data provided a measure of relative activity between the individual colleges. the program with the largest amount of activity was business followed by accounting, marketing and human resources. overall transfers within the programs covered under the heads of business agreements have been declining after a small bump in 2014. results from this data were used to determine the top eight schools in terms of transfer activity and then these schools were chosen for further analysis in the other elements in this broader study. these colleges were asked to include their students in the student survey portion of the research and to provide details from their college student information systems. there are differences between the ocas data and each colleges reported transfers. the ocas data provides a high-level view of activity and clearly defines the magnitude of activity within the ontario college system. the decline in identified business program transfers may be attributed to the delay in students enrolling in a course and their actual transfer or it could be due to the lack of awareness by the students that this option is available to them. further research can determine if the activity will change over time. appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 page a-8 appendix a1 business program transfer activity business program transferred into accounting year first enrolled 2013 started in business started in other 2013 total 2014 started in business started in other 2014 total 2015 started in business started in other 2015 total 2016 started in business started in other 2016 total total started in business % of total business started in other % of total other grand total 50100 60100 19 51 70 18 51 69 16 27 43 7 7 14 60 15 49 64 15 35 50 10 23 33 9 10 19 49 136 117 25 74 99 19 72 91 14 58 72 14 10 24 72 214 131 36.2% 286 27.5% appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 13 34 47 18 46 64 9 40 49 4 11 15 44 32.0% 26.6% 166 human resources marketing 50200 60200 50223 60223 52900 62900 30.0% 196 % of total business 175 35.1% 2 14 16 6 19 25 5 6 11 0 6 6 13 7 35 42 9 29 38 7 15 22 5 7 12 28 11.3% 45 86 13.8% 58 114 13.1% 20 51 71 22 51 73 13 35 48 5 7 12 60 12 24 36 12 31 43 11 17 28 2 7 9 37 26.7% 144 100.0% 79 23.4% 204 952 100.0% 116 24.3% grand total 113 332 445 119 334 453 85 221 306 46 65 111 363 1,315 100.0% page a-9 appendix a2 business program transfer activity business program transferred from accounting year first enrolled trans. to business 2013 trans. to other 2013 total trans. to business 2014 trans. to other 2014 total trans. to business 2015 trans. to other 2015 total trans. to business 2016 trans. to other 2016 total total trans. to business grand total % of total business trans. to other 35.5% % of total other 30.2% 98 162 % of total business 50100 60100 50200 18 22 26 43 40 64 61 62 90 19 26 22 31 48 50 50 74 72 14 11 15 17 25 48 31 36 63 13 6 10 7 11 6 20 64 31.9% 17 65 60200 20 44 64 12 29 41 12 24 36 8 10 50223 1 4 5 2 1 3 1 7 8 2 2 18 52 4 6 16 73 34.4% 124 168 107 37.4% 189 241 159 36.4% appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 human resources marketing 60223 52900 62900 2 13 11 26 34 16 28 47 27 10 19 9 17 38 18 27 57 27 9 14 9 11 28 17 20 42 26 2 4 1 5 11 4 7 23 8.0% 14 9.3% 5 30 22.0% 59 9.9% 20 15 50 111 161 22.4% 102 363 100.0% 55 22.6% 82 grand total 113 271 384 119 232 351 85 177 262 46 56 736 100.0% 85 1,099 100.0% page a-10 appendix a3 2013 first enrolment year and college george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan centennial durham fleming st. clair cambrian st. lawrence conestoga canadore confederation loyalist collge boral la cit collgiale niagara lambton sault 2014 transferred to business business rank transferred to business 15 17 15 10 11 8 5 2 6 4 1 6 2 1 3 1 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 2 1 2 5 4 6 9 12 7 10 16 7 12 16 11 16 16 12 12 21 16 21 21 18 15 12 12 8 3 6 11 4 3 2 4 3 4 3 4 2 0 0 2 1 1 1 appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 2015 2016 grand total business transferred business transferred business transferred business rank to business rank to business rank to business rank 1 2 3 3 6 12 7 5 8 12 16 8 12 8 12 8 16 22 22 16 19 19 19 14 12 7 8 6 8 7 3 5 2 3 0 2 2 1 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 5 3 7 3 5 9 8 12 9 18 12 12 15 15 9 15 18 18 18 18 18 page a-11 8 4 6 1 5 2 1 2 0 4 4 0 2 2 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 1 4 2 13 3 7 13 7 16 4 4 16 7 7 16 16 16 7 7 13 16 16 16 55 48 40 31 30 21 19 18 15 13 10 10 9 9 7 6 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11 13 13 15 16 16 18 19 20 21 22 22 appendix a4 year first enrolled george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan centennial durham fleming st. clair cambrian st. lawrence conestoga canadore confederation loyalist collge boral la cit collgiale niagara lambton sault northern 2013 trans bus from bus rank 15 17 15 10 11 8 5 2 6 4 1 6 2 1 3 1 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 2014 2 1 2 5 4 6 9 12 7 10 16 7 12 16 11 16 16 12 12 21 16 21 21 21 2016 trans trans from trans bus from bus bus rank bus bus rank from bus rank 18 1 14 1 8 15 2 12 2 4 12 3 7 5 6 12 3 8 3 1 8 6 6 7 5 3 12 8 3 2 6 7 7 5 1 11 5 3 9 2 4 8 5 8 0 3 12 2 12 4 2 16 3 9 4 4 8 0 18 0 3 12 2 12 2 4 8 2 12 2 3 12 1 15 0 4 8 1 15 0 2 16 3 9 0 0 22 1 15 2 0 22 0 18 2 2 16 0 18 1 1 19 0 18 0 1 19 0 18 0 1 19 0 18 0 0 22 0 18 0 appendix a: ocas & oncat transfer data analysis oncat project 2017-36 2015 page a-12 total 1 4 2 13 3 7 13 7 16 4 4 16 7 7 16 16 16 7 7 13 16 16 16 16 trans from bus business rank 55 48 40 31 30 21 19 18 15 13 10 10 9 9 7 6 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11 13 13 15 16 16 18 19 20 21 22 22 24 research on current system-level business transfer agreements awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability ontario colleges heads of business oncat project # 2017-36 internal college stakeholder and student survey results final report: appendix b may 2018 prepared by: cookson consulting group inc. introduction the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary institutions4. as part of this mandate oncat funded the ontario colleges heads of business (hob) research project to evaluate the hob system-wide transfer agreements that were signed by ontarios 24 colleges in 2014, including the business, accounting, human resources and marketing diploma and advanced diploma programs. the research had several goals; 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? to answer these questions, a research plan consisting of seven components was developed; research methodology 1. review and analysis of ontario college application service (ocas) data, and a review and analysis of ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) data, where available. 2. online survey of college staff and internal stakeholders. 3. review and update of hob curriculum pathway guides (cpg) 4. review and analysis of transfer student data from the colleges with the most transfer (as derived from the data in 1.) 5. review and analysis of ontario college web sites as it pertains to college-to-college transfer opportunities 4 oncat website (http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=about) appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 2 6. online survey of students that have transferred within business program 7. focus groups/interviews with program coordinators and transfer credit staff/offices where they exist. this report is the result of the first research component, a review an analysis of the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements survey methodology an online survey was created to gather information on the hob transfer agreements from the perspective of students and college administration. this survey was designed to present questions specifically for one of the two groups, depending on responses to the questions. survey flow chart survey introduction administrator admin or student? administrator questions student student questions internal college stakeholder responses the sample of college representatives was taken from those that work at one of the 24 ontario colleges with students transferring within business programs. using the online survey monkey tool, the survey was delivered using a web link included in an email. survey recipients included: program coordinators credit transfer administrators registrars office staff the initial email invitation was sent on october 2, 2017 to 185 email addresses. the email addresses were received from the colleges directly or obtained from their websites. the survey has not been closed and remains open for college administrators and students to complete. 185 emails sent on october 2, 2017 appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 3 reminder sent october 13, 2017 received 68 total responses 51 complete 17 partially complete where applicable, the survey questions are consistent with questions posed in the feb. 2016 survey. student responses the sample of college students was generated from the top seven colleges with transferring students as identified in an earlier phase of this research. each of the seven colleges was asked to send an email invitation to the students they identified has having transferred as part of the hob transfer agreements. the survey, using the online survey monkey tool, was delivered using a web link included in an email, sent directly from the school. the email invitation was sent by each college only to their own students with the hope that the direct communication from the college, as opposed to the researchers, would generate additional responses from the students. colleges began sending the survey invitation in early 2018, once the research project had been approved by the colleges research ethics board (reb). because the individual colleges sent the invitations, it is not known exactly how many were sent during this period. in total, only three students responded to the survey request; too few to provide any meaningful data. observations this survey, conducted as part of the oncat hob 2017/18 research project is partially a followup to the survey conducted in 2016 by the hob, of college administration, staff and coordinators regarding the awareness and usage of hob transfer agreements. two questions were identical (overall familiarity and use of resources) between the surveys, for comparison purposes. although there are slight differences between the years, they are not statistically significant. the survey had a 37% response rate, with some surveys only partially completed. having some familiarity of the hob transfer agreements was 82% overall, and moderate familiarity and above was 64%, with no significant change from previous year. use of provided resources such as the original agreements, the resource websites and the curriculum pathway guides was low, although a bit higher than the previous year. the most useful tool identified by respondents is the original transfer agreements. 63% have a process in place for managing the transfer process for these students. 63% feel they have the required information to process the transfers and the balance need to seek further information. the number of students processed by appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 4 respondents under the agreements varies from 3-10. respondents suggested that students are generally not aware of the agreements and 56% suggested that their school is promoting the agreements and 44% are not. the student portion of this survey was not successful in generating a sufficient response for analysis. only three students responded to the survey. appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 5 survey results q1: how familiar are you with the heads of business (hob) business transfer agreements? the majority of the respondents were familiar with the transfer agreement; 87% have some level of familiarity and 64% indicated that they were at least moderately familiar with the agreements. only 13% were not familiar with the agreements at all see appendix b1 for a comparison to 2016 survey results appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 6 q2: are you a student or do you work for one of the 24 ontario colleges? for this portion of the survey, only administrators are included appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 7 q3: approximately how many inquires did you receive for hob transfer students looking to transfer into your college in the past year? answered: 51 skipped: 16 just over half of the respondents reported receiving less than three requests to transfer under the agreement 18% reported receiving ten or more requests appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 8 q4: does your college have a specific process in place to work with hob transfer students? answered: 51 skipped: 16 63% of respondents indicated that their college has a process in place for managing hob transfers representative other responses i believe so but this happens in our reg office. students are assessed on a course by course basis with the intent to provide as many transfer credits as possible see appendix b2 for complete responses appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 9 q5: do you have enough information to answer hob transfer inquiries from students? answered: 51 skipped: 16 slightly less than two thirds of the respondents (63%), have enough information to answer inquiries over one third (37%) of respondents indicated that they require additional information to answer student inquiries appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 10 q6: are the students that you work with aware of the hob transfer agreements/program? answered: 50 skipped: 17 76% of respondents indicated that students are not aware of the hob agreements appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 11 q7: does your school promote the heads of business transfer agreements? if yes, select all that apply from the list below: answered: 48 skipped: 19 more than half (56%) of the respondents promote the agreements in some way 44% of the schools that responded do not promote the hob transfer agreements appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 12 q8: under the projects tab on the oncat web site: www.oncat.ca or (click here to see the site) a number of resources have been made available. these resources are to assist the college community in advising students, wishing to transfer through the heads of business transfer agreements. of the resources made available, which have you utilized in the past year: answered: 51 skipped: 16 the most used reference resource is the original transfer agreement, followed by the curriculum pathway guide (cpg) and the 2015 conference guide just over half of the respondents have not used the oncat website see appendix b3 for a comparison to 2016 survey results appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 13 q9: of the information made available on the oncat resource site identified in #8 above, which have been the most valuable? select all that apply: answered: 21 skipped: 46 the most used resources are the original transfer agreements, followed by the cpg and original agreements appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 14 q10: which college are you representing? please select from drop down list. answered: 50 skipped: 17 appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 15 q11: which of the options below best describes the area you work in? answered: 50 skipped: 17 majority of respondents were from the academic schools, where the agreements originated. however, most are completely unaware of the agreements. complete answers to other in appendix b4 appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 16 appendix b1: question 1 comparison to 2016 results q1: how familiar are you with the heads of business (hob) business transfer agreements? 2016 results the current survey, indicates 64% were at least moderately familiar with the agreements. compared to 82% moderately or more familiarity in 2016 with 6.4 % unfamiliar, compared to 13% almost two years later. however, given the small sample size in the categories, these are not statistically significant. 2016 hob survey results to q1 question #2 2016 vs. 2017 results 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% not at all familiar slightly familiar moderately familiar 2016 very familiar 2017 appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 extremely familiar page b- 17 appendix b2: detailed responses to question 4 q4: does your college have a specific process in place to work with hob transfer students? i believe so but this happens in our reg office. i don't know unknown yes, but not always simple to identify not sure students are assessed on a course by course basis with the intent to provide as many transfer credits as possible i believe so. i am not aware of a specific process for hob transfer students not sure, regular transfers, yes it is handled on a case by case basis appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 18 appendix b3: question 8 comparison to 2016 results q8: under the projects tab on the oncat web site: www.oncat.ca or (click here to see the site) a number of resources have been made available. these resources are to assist the college community in advising students, wishing to transfer through the heads of business transfer agreements. of the resources made available, which have you utilized in the past year: answers to question 8, compared the same question asked in the 2016 survey in comparison to the 2016 survey. the most used resource is still the original transfer agreement, followed by the curriculum pathway guide (cpg) with the core course comparison document a close third. in 2016 only 38.6% of the respondents had not visited the oncat hob project site, compared to the current 58.8%. question #8 - 2016 vs. 2017 results 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% have not visited original transfer curriculum 2015 "coming the resource site agreement for pathway guide together on either business, (cpg) for either common human business, human ground" resources, resources, conference accounting or accounting or information marketing marketing 2016 core course comparison spreadsheet 2017 appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 news, updates and events page b- 19 appendix b4: detailed responses to question 11 q11: which of the options below best describes the area you work in? coordinator pathways office - transfer credits, pathways, & plar instructor and program coordinator faculty appendix b: internal stakeholder & student survey results oncat project 2017-36 page b- 20 research on current system-level business transfer agreements awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability ontario colleges heads of business oncat project # 2017-36 curriculum pathway guides analysis final report: appendix c may 2018 prepared by: cookson consulting group inc. introduction the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary institutions5. as part of this mandate oncat funded the ontario colleges heads of business (hob) research project to evaluate the hob system-wide transfer agreements that were signed by ontarios 24 colleges in 2014, including the business, accounting, human resources and marketing diploma and advanced diploma programs. the research had several goals: 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success. research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? to answer these questions, a research plan consisting of seven components was developed; research methodology 1. review and analysis of ontario college application service (ocas) data and a review and analysis of ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) data, where available. 2. online survey of college staff and administrators. 3. review and update of hob curriculum pathway guides (cpg) 4. review and analysis of transfer student data from the colleges with the most transfer (as derived from the data in 1.) 5 oncat website (http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=about) appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-2 5. review and analysis of ontario college web sites as pertinent to college-to-college transfer opportunities 6. online survey of students that have transferred within business program 7. focus groups/interviews with program coordinators and transfer credit staff where they exist. this report is an analysis and review of the heads of business (hob) curriculum pathway guides (cpg) for all 24 colleges background the heads of business transfer agreements for accounting, business, human resources, and marketing identified specific courses colleges need to include in their curriculum during the first year of a program and those to be included by the end of the second year of a programs curriculum. these courses were deemed as core courses. colleges were to comply with offering their individual versions of the core courses. each college had flexibility to recognize other credits to make up either one year, or two years of transfer credit. the premise was that the agreement was for students who were academically complete in each year. the agreements have a 7-year renewal cycle, and a designated ongoing steering committee for oversight including representation from all college regions, registrars (cralo) and ontario college heads of marketing representation. in 2014 during the implementation of the heads of business hob transfer agreements, curriculum pathways guides (cpgs) were established for each of the four disciplines. (see appendix c1 for a detailed overview of courses). utilizing the approved annual college program calendars, the guides compared the core courses and other ancillary courses from one college to another. these guides served several purposes: 1. to confirm college alignment with the agreed upon core course sequencing 2. to provide a tool for colleges to quickly determine which courses to recognize automatically or to include in their credit transfer database, where available 3. to provide a mechanism for quick review/comparison of course offerings from one college to another the cpgs were updated in 2016 at the end of the implementation project and then again with the commencement of this project, for the 2017/2018 academic year. the following is an analysis of each of these guides as of fall 2017. results business twenty-three, of the twenty-four ontario colleges deliver business, maesd #50200 and/or business administration, maesd #60200. in 2016, business programs at seven of the twentythree colleges did not meet the agreed upon core course sequencing. in 2017 that number had decreased to four. appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-3 - - sheridan college as with many of their business programs, employs a significant number of elective options for their students. should a student wish to transfer, an advisor would be in a position to ensure the appropriate core courses were taken. st. clair chose to abstain from the agreement for business, in 2014, and has continued through 2018. algonquin and la cite have agreed to the core course alignment but have not adjusted their core courses for business to reflect that decision. business maesd #50200, #60200 core course alignment issues 2016 2017 algonquin algonquin centennial fleming la cite la cite lambton sheridan sheridan st. clair st. clair 7 4 human resources business - human resources, maesd #50223 and business administration human resources, maesd #60223 is currently offered at fourteen of the ontario colleges, down from fifteen in 2016. many of the colleges delivering these programs work very closely with the human resources professional association of ontario, hrpao, to ensure their curricula meets the associations requirements for their graduates. in 2016, five of the fifteen colleges did not have their core courses aligned with the agreed upon sequencing. that number decreased in 2017 to three colleges. human resources maesd#50223, #60223 core course alignment issues 2016 2017 algonquin algonquin centennial durham durham lambton* *program discontinued sheridan sheridan 5 3 appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-4 marketing the marketing diploma, maesd# 52900 and/or advanced diploma maesd# 62900 is delivered at eighteen of the ontario colleges. in both 2016 and 2017 there were seven colleges that did not meet the core course sequencing required by the agreements. several colleges implemented program course calendar changes, which impacted their alignment to the provincial agreement, while others made no changes at all. centennials adjustments improved their core course alignment, however conestoga and mohawk made changes which impacted their alignment negatively. thereby adding them to the list in 2017. the chart below illustrates the colleges with core course alignment issues in 2016 and 2017. marketing maesd #52900, #62900 core course alignment issues 2016 2017 algonquin algonquin centennial conestoga durham durham humber humber la cite la cite mohawk lambton* *program discontinued st. lawrence st. lawrence 7 7 as it pertains to the marketing discipline, there appears to be one course in common with the above colleges listed for 2017/18. organizational behaviour, a required course by the end of year 2, is not offered within these marketing programs. accounting as with the human resources programs, most accounting programs delivered in the province align with the chartered professional accountants (cpa) requirements, particularly cpas advanced certificate in accounting and finance (acaf). this affiliation and accreditation ensures graduates can work towards the various designations required by the association and some employers. all 24 ontario colleges deliver business accounting maesd #50100 and /or business administration accounting maesd #60100 programs. as with the marketing programs, course calendar changes at several colleges brought about interesting results. in 2016, six of the twenty-four colleges were identified as not meeting the core course alignment for the agreement. that number increased to 10 in 2017. conestoga, mohawk, sheridan and st lawrence college all made changes to their curriculum which negatively impacted their appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-5 alignment to the provincial agreement. the chart below indicates the colleges not aligned with the provincial agreement for 2016 and 2017. accounting maesd #50100, #60100 core course alignment issues 2016 2017 algonquin algonquin boreal boreal conestoga durham durham humber humber la cite la cite mohawk seneca seneca sheridan st. lawrence 6 10 there is some consistency to the courses in conflict, for example organizational behaviour, which is a required core course by the end of the second year, is delivered in the third year or not at all in most of the programs listed. it should be noted that historically accounting curriculum had aligned with the requirements of cga ontario to ensure maximum credit recognition for cgas designation requirements and that during the implementation phase of the agreements between 2013 and 2015 cga ontario was in the process of unification with the new chartered professional accountants (cpa) professional body. this historic change in the profession required all the colleges to map out and re-apply for course recognition in order to align with the newly developed cpa advanced accounting and finance certificate (acaf). some colleges were reluctant to make changes during the implementation phase of these agreements until explicit details and direction were provided by the cpa. observations the data appears to indicate there is still a lack of knowledge or misinterpretation around these agreements within the ontario colleges. leadership changes within the business schools and changes to faculty in the program coordinator role have a significant impact. should the core courses associated with these agreements continue to remain a priority for the implementation, ongoing oversite around curriculum changes is needed to improve effectiveness and student transfer. currently, some colleges have internal quality assurance policies which require any curriculum changes be reviewed for their impact to appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-6 articulation/transfer agreements. however, there is no mechanism in place to warehouse the details of these agreements to ensure compliance. appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-7 appendix c1 curriculum pathway guide analysis curriculum pathway guide comparisons business college 2016 status year 1 course intro to marketing issue offered in year 2 year 2 course organizational behaviour sales & selling issue not in program not in program intro to accounting offered in year 2 business law offered in year 3 into to marketing elective option algonquin centennial fleming la cite 2017 status year 1 course intro to marketing issue offered in year 2 year 2 course organizational behaviour customer relations issue offered in year 3 not in program program aligned with agreement program aligned with agreement organizational behaviour not in program lambton operations mgmt. offered in year 3 sheridan numerous courses (5) not in program. all elective option for students st. clair marketing customer relations not in program operations mgmt. not in program 7 organizational behaviour not in program program algined with agreement mgmt. accounting not in program elective marketing customer relations not in program elective organizational behaviour not in program elective marketing customer relations not in program operations mgmt. not in program 4 human resources college 2016 status year 1 course human resources mgmt issue offered in year 2 algonquin centennial year 2 course training & development occupational health & safetyt compensation gen ed issue offered in year 3 offered in year 3 offered in year 3 offered in year 3 training and development compensation occupational h&s offered in year 3 offered in year 3 offered in year 3 2017 status year 1 course human resources mgmt issue offered in year 2 year 2 course training & development occupational health & safetyt compensation gen ed issue offered in year 3 offered in year 3 offered in year 3 offered in year 3 progam aligned with agreement durham business writing offered in year 2 compensation offered in year 3 business writing offered in year 2 compensation offered in year 3 sheridan business writing offered in year 2 training & development compensation offered in year 3 offered in year 3 business writing offered in year 2 training & development compensation offered in year 3 offered in year 3 5 4 appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-8 marketing college algonquin centennial 2016 status year 1 course issue intro to marketing business math accounting year 2 course issue offered in year 2 not in program organizational behaviour sales & selling gen ed not in program offfered in year 3 offfered in year 3 not in program organizational behaviour marketing research not in program offered in year 3 conestoga program aligned with agreement 2017 status year 1 course issue into to marketing offered in year 2 year 2 course issue organizational behaviour sales & selling gen ed not in program offered in year 3 offered in year 3 program aligned with agreement organziational behaviour not in program durham organziational behaviour not in program organziational behaviour not in program humber organizational behaviour not in program. elective option organizational behaviour not in program. elective option la cite organziational behaviour not in program organziational behaviour not in program organizational behaviour not in program mohawk accounting program aligned with agreement computer applications lambton organziational behaviour not in program st. lawrence 7 organziational behaviour not in program accounting college algonquin boreal offered in year 2 offered in year 3 program no longer offered. organziational behaviour not in program 7 * courses delivered in opposite term of the agreement. still in alignment with agreement as written. presents complications for transfering students as it is a first year core course 2016 status 2017 status year 1 year 2 year 1 year 2 course issue course issue course issue course issue microeconomics not found in 2 yr prgrm accounting fundamentals offered in year 3 microeconomics not found in 2 yr prgrm accounting fundamentals offered in year 3 organizational behaviour not in program organizational behaviour not in program organizational behaviour not in program organizational behaviour not in program organizational behaviour offered in year 3 microeconomics* offered in year 2 conestoga microeconomics* offered in year 2 program aligned with agreement durham microeconomics* offered in year 2 organizational behaviour not in program microeconomics* offered in year 2 organizational behaviour not in program humber microeconomics offered in year 2 elective organizational behaviour elective option microeconomics not in program organizational behaviour not in program microeconomics* offered in year 2 organizational behaviour not in program microeconomics* offered in year 2 organizational behaviour not in program accounting information syst not in program accounting information syst not in program organizational behaviour elective option only macroeconomics 3 yr program/offered in year 3 la cite mohawk program aligned with agreement seneca macroeconomics 3 yr program/offered in year 3 accounting 2016 status year 1 college course 2017 status year 1 year 2 issue sheridan course program aligned with agreement st. lawrence program aligned with agreement 6 issue year 2 course issue microeconomics not in program 10 appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-9 course organizational behaviour issue elective option only appendix c: curriculum pathway guides analysis oncat project 2017-36 page c-10 research on current system-level business transfer agreements- awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability ontario colleges heads of business oncat project # 2017-36 college transfer student data summary final report: appendix d may 2018 prepared by: cookson consulting group inc. introduction the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary institutions16. as part of this mandate oncat, in conjunction with the ontario colleges heads of business (hob) engaged in this research project oncat project 2017 #36 to evaluate the hob system-wide transfer agreements that were signed by ontarios 24 colleges in 2014, including the business, accounting, human resources and marketing diploma and advance diploma programs. the research had several goals; 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? to answer these questions, a research plan consisting of seven components was developed; research methodology 1. review and analysis of ontario college application service (ocas) data, and a review and analysis of ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) data, where available. 2. online survey of college staff and administrators. 3. review and update of hob curriculum pathway guides (cpg) 4. review and analysis of transfer student data from the colleges with the most transfer (as derived from the data in 1.) 6 oncat website (http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=about) appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 page d-2 5. review and analysis of ontario college web sites as it pertains to college-to-college transfer opportunities 6. online survey of students that have transferred within business program 7. focus groups/interviews with program coordinators and transfer credit staff/offices where they exist. this report is the result of the fourth research component, a review and analysis of the ontario colleges with the largest numbers of student transfers, based on the analysis of the ocas transfer data. methodology the purpose of this component is to contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer and to generate new quantitative data that can help measure that experience. the overarching research question addressed with this report is: how many students benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? in addition, to help generate new quantitative data and to potentially measure the student experience; a) was there a change in transfer activity following the implementation of the hob transfer agreements? b) are students successful following a transfer to a new college? c) did the student successfully complete their program after transition to a new school? a review and analysis of the ocas data collected in the fall of 2017 identified eight colleges as experiencing significantly greater transfer activity than their counterparts in the system. the colleges identified in this analysis were george brown, humber, fanshawe, seneca, algonquin, mohawk, georgian and sheridan college. college george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan receiving transfer credit ranking ranking of business transfers by year 2013 2014 2015 2016 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 2 3 3 3 7 8 7 6 4 9 6 6 7 13 7 6 11 5 5 4 13 appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 overall ranking (4 years) business other 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 3 5 6 6 6 7 10 8 5 page d-3 research and ethics in october 2017 an application for research ethics board (reb) review was forwarded to seven of the colleges. due to a lengthy labour disruption of the ontario college academic bargaining unit approval from these colleges was significantly delayed with some approvals arriving as late as march 2018. a late addition to this group was georgian college with reb application submission in late january 2018. due to delays in submission and receipt of reb permission, georgian was not included in this research. process upon receipt of a colleges reb approval, an email (appendix d1) was forwarded to the hob member at the college, requesting assistance with the following: 1. completion of a spreadsheet (appendix d2) seeking additional quantitative data around the transfer students within their business programs 2. sending an email with a survey link to all students that transferred into a business program at the college the hob members then reached out to their respective offices, institutional research, credit transfer or admissions to set about the gathering of the requested data. each college was provided the total number of students entering their business programs from another ontario college in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. (see appendix d2). no names or student numbers were made available. the colleges were asked to review academic records to provide the following information for each student: college data requested the specific program registered in? the number of credits received upon admission to their program was this a heads of business transfer agreement? sending college transcript data what was the student's gpa at the sending college? how many credits did the student earn at their sending institution? was the student in academic good standing at their sending institution? credit transfer data base of the credits received, how many were in your internal college credit transfer database at the time of admission?" how many of the credits received are now in your internal college credit transfer database? academic status did the student successfully complete their program? (yes/in progress/no) what is the student's current or graduating gpa? appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 page d-4 the results a response was received from six of the seven colleges, with each expressing significant difficulty in acquiring the information requested. two of the colleges were unable to provide any student data for 2013 and 2014. only one college was able to provide data for all requested years college george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk sheridan data request status data for all years received, limited sending college data available no data available for 2013 & 2014, limited sending college data available data for all years received, no data available for 2013 & 2014, limited sending college data available data for all years received, no academic transcript data available data for all years received, limited sending college data available no response the transfer student data reported by the colleges differs from the student transfer data provided by ocas and the difference highlights a significant challenge in collecting and analyzing ontario student transfers (appendix d4). there is no incentive for the college system (colleges and ocas) to implement the necessary changes to the ontario college online application or for the colleges to implement the necessary changes to their individual student information systems. without specific tracking of transfers, transfer data will be implied from other, related data. course credit transfer the reporting colleges identified the number of students receiving credit transfer in their diploma and advanced diplomas beginning with a total of forty-eight in 2013, dropping to thirty-three in 2014 and with a significant rise in 2015 to ninety-three with seventy-four in 2016. regarding the reporting of credit transfers received by individual students, some colleges identified the total credit hours received while others identified the number of courses for which a credit transfer was granted. for comparative purposes, when a college reported total credit hours an average of 3 credits per course was assumed. in 2013 prior to the implementation of the hob agreements, a student transferring into one of the two-year diploma programs, would receive on average 5.2 courses through credit transfer and in the three-year advanced diploma almost 6.2 courses. by 2016 the average number of courses received by a student in one of the diploma programs had dropped to 4.4 courses with the advanced diploma up to 7.7. (appendix d3) appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 page d-5 avereage # of courses receiving credit transfer academic # of business business year students accounting maesd# 50100 2013 2014 2015 2016 24 19 52 37 maesd# 50200 7.2 6.8 2.8 4.2 business human resources maesd# 50223 7.0 3.3 12.0 4.5 3.5 6.0 5.5 6.3 avereage # of courses receiving credit transfer academic year 2013 2014 2015 2016 # of students 24 17 41 41 business admin accounting business admin. maesd# 60100 maesd# 60200 5.8 4.3 5.0 7.5 diploma programs business diploma marketing average # of courses maesd# credit transfer 52900 received 3.2 5.2 4.7 5.2 4.1 6.1 2.6 4.4 advanced diploma programs business admin. human resources maesd# 60223 14.0 5.0 4.2 5.3 business admin. marketing 5.0 5.0 5.0 10.5 maesd# 62900 0.0 4.1 11.5 7.4 adv. diploma average # of courses credit transfer received. 6.2 4.6 6.4 7.7 student academic achievement the colleges were unable to identify whether any of the students were hob transfer students. regarding the student grade point average (gpa), there is a significant amount of inconsistency when it comes to the colleges abilities to provide sending college transcript data for these students. in 2013 only one college was able to share sending college transcript data which had by 2014 increased to three of the top seven colleges. regarding current/graduating transcript data; in 2013 only three colleges could provide this information which increased to five in 2016. the colleges were also unable to identify if the students had completed their prescribed year at the sending college nor if they were in good standing at the time of application. in addition, some colleges did not have access to the sending colleges gpa and could only report percentages or letter grades. assumptions below were made to facilitate comparisons. grade point average assumptions percentage letter grade gpa 40 49 % f 0 - 1 50 - 59 % d 1.0 - 1. 9 60 - 69 % c 2.0 - 2.9 70 - 79 % b 3.0 - 3.9 80 - 90 % a 4.0 - 4.9 90 to 100 % a+ 5.0 - 5.9 appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 page d-6 a comparison of students average gpa from their sending college to current/graduating gpa for all four years indicates an increase of between .4 and .6 grade points in each year. excluding 2013, the highest gpa each year also increased from that of the sending college to current/graduating gpa. 2013 2014 2015 2016 student's gpa at the sending college. # of average median high colleges reporting 1 2.6 3.2 4.4 2 2.4 2.2 4.1 3 2.6 2.9 3.2 3 3.0 3.2 3.7 student's current or graduating gpa. # of average median colleges reporting 3 3.0 2.9 3 3.2 3.2 5 3.2 3.1 5 3.4 3.5 high 3.8 4.4 3.8 3.9 academic completion rate at the time of reporting, of the students who entered with credit transfers in 2013, 63% either completed or were in progress of completing their studies. that percentage decreased in 2014 with no more than 34% completing or working towards completion of their program. the number increased in 2015 to 96% with 72 % of the students in 2016 having either completed or in progress towards completion. did the student successfully complete their program? (yes/in progress/no) # of colleges reporting yes in progress no 2013 3 59% 4% 2014 3 29% 5% 2015 5 80% 16% 2016 5 28% 54% appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 37% 66% 4% 18% page d-7 observations colleges do not track the information required to provide significant measurable data. the addition of sis fields related to student transfer or more robust use of the ontario education number data would provide additional insight into the volume and direction of student transfer between the hob transfer agreement programs. since 2013 numbers of colleges able to report on sending college data is increasing. the number of students transferring is quite small, with the six colleges collectively reporting an average of 63 students per year over the past four years. on average students achieve a higher gpa at their receiving college then achieved at their sending college. it could be implied that students are successful following transfer. despite the implementation of the hob agreements there was no significant change from 2013 to 2016 in the number of courses for which a student receives credit. colleges have traditionally and continue to provide as much credit as possible for students transferring into their programs from another college appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 page d-8 appendix d1: email to hob membership dear (hob member) on behalf of the heads of business (hob) transfer agreement steering committee, i am reaching out with a request for assistance gathering data to support the hob oncat funded project research on current system-level business transfer agreements awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability. further context and details of the request follow below. background out of a previous hob project, province-wide transfer agreements for business, accounting, marketing and human resources diploma and advanced diploma programs were implemented in november 2014. these were the first system-wide agreements in the province and they continue to pave the way for other agreements of this nature. assessing the impact of the business agreements on the system and on individual college processes, will be critical in improving student mobility province wide. the goal of the current project is to: provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. contribute to an understanding of the student experience of transfer. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success. hob research project committee karen murkar, chair, school of accounting and financial services, seneca college mary pierce, chair, lawrence kinlin school of business, fanshawe college amanda stone, chair, business, business & management studies centennial college this research is being conducted by cookson consulting group, under the leadership of jeannine cookson and scott walker ccd. a recent collection of data through ocas, revealed seneca college as having significant transfer activity within the business programs. our request in conjunction with the office of the registrar and/or other internal resources; 3. complete the attached spreadsheet. we are seeking your assistance in gathering additional quantitative data around the transfer students within your business programs 4. send the attached letter with survey link to all students that transferred into a business program at your college from another college. appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 page d-9 attachments 1. reb approval letter for seneca college 2. hob seneca transfer data excel file, to be completed 3. email to be sent to students with link to our online survey. we are requesting a completion date of friday march 2, 2018 if possible. if you have any questions pertaining to the attached information, please feel free to reach out sincerely jeannine cookson appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 page d-10 appendix d2: college data submissions transfer student -transfer status college: sheridan college complete the spread sheet for each student who has transferred into your colleges business program(s) from another business program. transfer student admission year # 2013 1 2 3 4 5 2013 total 2014 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 3 1 2 2014 total 2015 2015 total 2016 2016 total 2 # of credits received upon admission into specific program 2 year diploma 3 yr. advanced diploma business - business business - business - business business business business student accounting human marketing admin admin. admin. admin. number of students listed resources accounting human marketing grand total below is based on ocas resources data. maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# 50100 50200 50223 52900 60100 60200 60223 62900 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 0 0 0 0 total 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 0 total 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 0 0 total 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 sheridancollege 0 sheridancollege 0 0 total 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 agreement was this an identified, hob transfer agreement transfer? (y/n) sending college transcript information what was the student's gpa at the sending college? how many credits did the student earn at their sending institution? was the student in academic good standing at their sending institution? (y/n) page d-11 credit transfer data base of the credits received, how many were in your internal college credit transfer data base at the time of admission? how many of the credits received are now in your internal college credit transfer data base? academic status did the student successfully complete their program? (yes/in progress/no) what is the student's current or graduating gpa? appendix d3: college transfer student data college transfer student data college: admission year 2013 ommitted no response # colleges 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan average total 2013 total 2014 ommitted no response 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2014 total 2015 ommitted no response 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2015 total 2016 ommitted no response 2016 total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 summary # of students received into specific program 2 year diploma 3 yr. advanced diploma business - business business - business - diploma business business business accounting human marketing admin admin. admin. resources accounting human resources maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# 50100 50200 50223 52900 60100 60200 60223 2 0 0 0 2 3 2 2 na na na na 0 na na na 2 2 2 1 7 0 0 0 na na na na 0 na na na 3 5 0 5 13 15 0 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 na na na na na na na na na na na na na na business admin. marketing advanced diploma ocas grand total reported numbers maesd# 62900 0 na 0 na 0 0 na na 7 0 0 0 16 1 na na 9 0 7 0 29 3 difference % of ocas in reported reporting numbers data 15 17 15 10 11 8 6 17 8 10 -18 5 0 9 7 2 6 24 18 3 3 0 24 48 76 28 george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan average total 2 na 3 na 1 3 na na 0 na 0 na 1 0 na na 1 na 0 na 0 0 na na 1 na 4 na 2 1 na na 4 0 7 0 4 4 3 na 0 na 8 0 na na 2 na 0 na 0 0 na na 1 na 0 na 0 0 na na 3 na 0 na 0 0 na na 9 0 0 0 8 0 na na 13 0 7 0 12 4 18 15 11 12 8 3 5 15 4 12 -4 -1 9 1 1 8 19 11 2 1 3 17 36 67 31 george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan average total 0 23 1 0 0 0 na na 0 0 0 0 0 3 na na 0 0 2 0 0 0 na na 2 17 1 0 2 1 na na 2 40 4 0 2 4 0 11 0 1 9 0 na na 1 16 0 0 0 0 na na 1 0 0 0 0 0 na na 0 0 0 2 0 0 na na 2 27 0 3 9 0 na na 4 67 4 3 11 4 14 12 3 8 6 8 10 -55 -1 5 -5 4 24 3 2 23 52 21 17 1 2 41 93 51 -42 george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk georgian sheridan average total 1 7 1 0 1 2 na na 0 1 2 0 4 0 na na 0 1 2 0 0 0 na na 0 14 1 0 0 0 na na 1 23 6 0 5 2 3 6 0 1 7 0 na na 0 14 0 0 1 3 na na 0 1 0 1 0 0 na na 2 1 0 1 0 0 na na 5 22 0 3 8 3 na na 6 45 6 3 13 5 na 0 15 4 0 1 5 2 9 -41 -6 -2 -8 -3 12 7 3 15 37 17 18 2 4 41 78 27 -51 appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 60% 0% 47% 0% 264% 38% 72% 0% 64% 0% 150% 133% 0 29% 558% 133% 38% 183% 50% 0 40% 1125% #div/0! 300% 260% 250% # of courses receiving credit transfer upon admission into specific program 2 year diploma 3 yr. advanced diploma business - business business - business - diploma business business business business accounting human marketing total # of admin admin. admin. admin. resources credits accounting human marketing and resources maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# average maesd# maesd# maesd# maesd# 50100 50200 50223 52900 60100 60200 60223 62900 18.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 18.7 12.7 14.0 13.3 0.0 na na na na 0 na na na na 11 27 7 1 46 0 0 0 0 na na na na 0 na na na na 17.0 21.7 0.0 18.0 56.7 91.0 0.0 1.7 0.0 18 0 0 0 18 0 28 0 0 na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na 7.2 7.0 3.5 3.2 5.2 5.8 14.0 5.0 0.0 64.7 48.7 7.0 19.0 139.3 103.7 42.0 15.0 0.0 12.0 na 17 na 9.3 23 na na 6.8 61.3 0.0 na 0 na 3.3 0 na na 3.3 3.3 6.0 na 0 na 0.0 0 na na 6.0 6.0 4.3 na 21 na 11.3 1 na na 4.7 37.7 0 56 11 0 0 0 na na 2.8 67 0 0 0 0 0 36 na na 12.0 36 0 0 11 0 0 0 na na 5.5 11 20 49 8 0 6 11 na na 4.1 94 20 105 30 0 6 47 5 20 6 0 1.7 18 na na 4.22 50.7 0 0 16 0 15.7 0 na na 4.52 31.7 0 0 19 0 0.0 0 na na 6.33 19.0 0 35 4 0 0.0 0 na na 2.60 39.0 5 55 45 0 17.3 18 page d-12 22.3 0 38 0 24 24 5.2 108.3 6.1 208 4.4 140.3 12 na 0 na 35 0 na na 4.3 47.0 10 na 0 na 0 0 na na 5.0 10.0 5 na 0 na 0 0 na na 5.0 5.0 12.3 na 0 na 0 0 na na 4.1 12.3 0 52 0 11 41.3 0 na na 5.0 104.3 21 50 0 0 0.0 0 na na 4.2 71.0 5 0 0 0 0.0 0 na na 5.0 5.0 0 0 0 23 0.0 0 na na 11.5 23.0 15.3 26.0 0.0 23.0 63.3 0.0 na na 7.5 127.7 0.0 59.0 0.0 0.0 2.7 33.0 na na 5.3 94.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 21.0 0.0 0.0 na na 10.5 21.0 17.7 0.0 0.0 12.0 0.0 0.0 na na 7.4 29.7 adv. diploma total # of credits and average 40 0 92 0 206.0 64 0 6.2 402 39.3 0 76 0 83 48 0 4.6 246.3 26 312 60 34 53.3 94 0 6.4 579.3 33.0 195.0 90.0 56.0 100.7 69.0 0.0 7.7 543.7 appendix d4: college -transfer student transcript data transfer student transcript data college: summary transfer student admission year 2013 2014 2015 2016 agreement how many were identifed hob transfer # college 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk sheridan average n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk sheridan average n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk sheridan average n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 george brown humber fanshawe seneca algonquin mohawk sheridan average sending college transcript information % of earned credits granted at receiving college student's gpa at the sending college. average n/a n/a 2.6 n/a n/a n/a median n/a n/a high n/a n/a 3.2 n/a n/a n/a yes n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 4.4 n/a n/a n/a 62% n/a n/a n/a credit transfer data base of the credits received, was the student in academic how many were in your good standing at their sending internal college institution? credit transfer database at (y/n) the time of admission? no n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a academic status how many of the credits received are now in your internal college credit transfer database? did the student successfully complete their program? (yes/in progress/no) yes 0 n/a none n/a n/a no database 0 in progress 11% n/a 100% 0% n/a n/a 67% 0% no 11% n/a all n/a n/a no database n/a n/a n/a what is the student's current or graduating gpa? average 78% n/a median 3.1 n/a 0% n/a n/a high 2.9 n/a 3.2 n/a n/a 3.9 n/a 3.5 n/a n/a 4.0 n/a n/a 33% 2.7 2.3 3.6 37% 3.0 2.9 3.8 0 2.6 3.2 1.9 n/a 1.3 n/a 2.9 n/a n/a n/a 4.4 3.7 n/a 3.2 n/a n/a n/a 62% 67% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 4.5 n/a n/a n/a 59% 63% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 36 n/a all n/a n/a no database 38 n/a all n/a n/a no database 4% 15% n/a 15% n/a 71% n/a n/a 69% n/a 0% n/a n/a 3.1 n/a 29% n/a n/a 3.3 n/a 3.3 n/a n/a 3.9 n/a 3.2 n/a n/a 4.0 n/a n/a 0% 0% 100% 3.15 3.2 5.4 29% 5% 66% 3.2 3.2 4.4 100% 60% 100% 67% 0% 19% 0% 33% 0% 21% 0% 0% 3.2 3.4 3.1 3.3 3.1 3.1 2.9 3.3 3.8 4.2 3.8 3.5 0 2.4 2.2 1.9 n/a 1.9 n/a 2.9 3.1 n/a n/a 4.1 2.3 n/a 3.2 3.6 n/a n/a 65% n/a n/a 83% n/a 3.4 3.9 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 75% n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 9 n/a all uknown n/a no database 9 n/a all block exemption n/a no database n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 75% 25% 0% 3 2.9 3.8 80% 16% 4% 3.2 3.1 3.8 33% 31% 43% 33% 67% 31% 57% 33% 0% 38% 0% 33% 3 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.1 3.5 3.5 3.7 4 3.7 3.5 0 2.6 0 n/a 2.5 n/a 0 0 n/a 2.9 2.7 n/a 3.5 3.0 n/a 0 n/a 0 93% 73% n/a n/a 3.7 appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 3.8 3.3 n/a n/a 3.2 79% 3.9 n/a 3.8 3.1 n/a n/a 3.0 3.2 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 22 all unknown n/a no database 17 all block exemption n/a no database n/a 83% page d-13 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 0% 80% 20% 3.6 3.8 4.5 28% 54% 18% 3.4 3.5 3.9 appendix d: college transfer student data summary oncat project 2017-36 page d-14 research on current system-level business transfer agreements awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability ontario colleges heads of business oncat project # 2017-36 website search analysis final report: appendix e may 2018 prepared by: appendix e: website search analysis oncat project 2017-36 cookson consultingpagegroup inc. e-1 introduction the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary institutions7. as part of this mandate oncat funded the ontario colleges heads of business (hob) research project to evaluate the hob system-wide transfer agreements that were signed by ontarios 24 colleges in 2014, including the business, accounting, human resources and marketing diploma and advanced diploma programs. the research had several goals: 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success. research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? to answer these questions, a research plan consisting of seven components was developed; research methodology 1. review and analysis of ontario college application service (ocas) data and a review and analysis of ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) data, where available. 2. online survey of college staff and administrators. 3. review and update of hob curriculum pathway guides (cpg) 4. review and analysis of transfer student data from the colleges with the most transfer (as derived from the data in 1.) 7 oncat website (http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=about) appendix e: website search analysis oncat project 2017-36 page e-2 5. review and analysis of ontario college web sites as pertinent to college-to-college transfer opportunities 6. online survey of students that have transferred within business program 7. focus groups/interviews with program coordinators and transfer credit staff where they exist. this report is a review and analysis of 13 ontario college web sites. website search analysis given the assumption that college websites are the primary source of information for students seeking admission to an institution, it could be assumed that a student wishing to transfer from one ontario college to another will look to the website for details pertaining to college-tocollege transfer and by default, the hob agreements. this website analysis portion of this research will help to answer several of the defined research questions: 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 4. analyze promising practises in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? the ontario college application services (ocas), revealed eight colleges as seeing significant transfer activity within their business programs between 2013 and 2016. the colleges identified were; humber, george brown, fanshawe, seneca, algonquin, mohawk, georgian and sheridan college. a review of these college websites, plus an additional, randomly chosen 5 colleges, was undertaken appendix e1. the purpose of this search is to: a. determine what information is being made available to students on these college websites. b. assess the ease at which information could be found, pertaining to the hob systemwide transfer agreements. c. determine at which point/if the college website is linked to the ontransfer.ca site appendix e: website search analysis page e-3 oncat project 2017-36 college website searches top 8 rank college 5 algonquin college 3 fanshawe college 1 george brown college 7 georgian college 2 humber college 6 mohawk college 4 seneca college 8 sheridan college other 9 centennial college 15 conestoga college 10 durham college 11 st. clair college 13 st. lawrence college alphabetical listing of college sites searched, with overall ranking in transfer activity from 2013 to 2016. as per ocas report; nov. 20, 2017 parameters of the search all web site searches began at the same point, i.e., the program landing page for the business administration accounting program. a) the initial search from the program landing page was for mention of/ or/ link to, transfer/pathways information for entering or exiting students, b) did the college have a program specific page dedicated to pathways and/or college wide pathways page? c) the ease at which the information could be attained was assessed d) is there mention of degree articulation opportunities as well as college-to-college transfers e) is information available for those transferring in and for those transferring out? f) is there a link to ontransfer.ca and where is it located? g) some comments were provided depending on unique details of the search summary of the search every college searched, with only one exception, mentioned/shared a link to information on pathway opportunities. four of the thirteen colleges searched use the college banner found from the program landing page. three colleges have transfer/pathway opportunities visible at first glance on their program landing page. the remainder required scrolling down the program appendix e: website search analysis oncat project 2017-36 page e-4 landing page in-order to find the link(s). george brown used both the college banner and with some scrolling the program landing page. pathway/transfer information first mention college banner as seen from program landing page program landing page program landing page/ scroll to find # of colleges 4 3 6 no mention of pathway/transfer opportunities total 1 14 seven of the eight colleges with high transfer activity, employed a dedicated college wide pathways/transfer page. humber college was the only college that had a dedicated program specific, pathways/transfer page. the same information is made available to the student but without the complexity of navigating through information pertaining to other programs. george brown, the college ranked number one in transfer activity, was the college who provided the greatest amount of information to students with the greatest amount of ease. in addition, george brown was one of only two colleges searched, who provided information pertaining to the hob transfer agreements. twelve of the 13 colleges were very good at providing information pertaining to articulation/degree opportunities but there is still a gap in the college-to-college transfer information. college web site pathway details available degree/articulation agreements promoted college-to-college transfer, process to transfer credits in college-to-college transfer, process to transfer college credits out reference to ontransfer.ca located on college website at some point accessible to external search inaccessible to external search reference to hob provincial agreement # of colleges 12 7 5 10 12 1 2 only five of the colleges, george brown, humber, fanshawe, mohawk and georgian shared details pertaining to college-to-college transfers with processes for transferring credits in and transferring credits out of their institutions. sheridan also provided information for both transferring credits in and for utilization of credits out but was focused entirely on pathways to their degree programs, excluding any mention of college-to-college diploma transfer opportunities. appendix e: website search analysis oncat project 2017-36 page e-5 ten of the colleges provided, with some searching, a link to ontransfer.ca, with only st. lawrence college sharing the link directly from the program landing page. of the colleges searched, only two specifically addressed the hob transfer agreement on their sites. george brown and a college not listed with high transfer activity, durham college. observations george brown, humber and fanshawe college employed websites that were very easy to navigate. in addition, these three colleges also ranked consistently within the top three colleges experiencing significant transfer activity. only two colleges mention the heads of business agreement. appendix e: website search analysis oncat project 2017-36 page e-6 appendix e1 college website search listed in order, college search by volume of business - accounting transfer diploma program activity pathways/ transfer link on college banner seen from program landing page program landing page pathways/ pathways/ reference to transfer link transfer link ontransfer on program on program found on landing page landing program page landing page. reference to hob provincial agreement reference to college pathways/transfer possibilities program specific pathways/transfer page college dedicated pathways/ transfer page program degree college reference to college degree college college reference reference to dedicated articulation pathways ontransfer dedicated articulation pathways pathways to hob ontransfer pathways/ agreements agreements pathways/ agreements provincial found. transfer page identified. identified. transfer identified. transfer transfer agreement comments program page program page page in out scroll to find top 8 2 humber college 1 george brown college 8 sheridan college 3 fanshawe college * no mention of hob transfer agreement * college transfer guide is available to all students. ** duplication of ontransfer data. very easy and clear to navigate. * ** * degree link only. no mention of college to college. very clear and easy to navigate * links directly to ontransfer 5 algonquin college 4 seneca college 6 7 other mohawk college * * conestoga college durham college centennial college ** 3 6 1 * 0 page e-7 * * appendix e: website search analysis oncat project 2017-36 4 ** georgian college st. clair college st. lawrence college * ** * must be a registered student to determine if eligible for transfer credit. downloadable pdf is available for students, in order to process credit. difficult to navigate. * does not link to information. additional searching required to find pathways/credit transfer information. ** focus is entirely on degree transfers * drop down box for future students, leads to pathways link. ** links provided, but difficult to navigate * college pathways loosely referenced. focus is predominantly on degree articulation agreements **ontransfer is linked on downloadable pdf document. * * only univeristy of windsor articulation agreement referenced. indicates additional information on this agreement is found on ontransfer. no mention of potentially other agreements. somewhat misleading appendix e: website search analysis oncat project 2017-36 page e-8 research on current system-level business transfer agreements - awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability ontario colleges heads of business oncat project # 2017-36 program coordinator and transfer staff - individual interviews and focus groups results final report: appendix f may 2018 prepared by: cookson consulting group inc. introduction the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary institutions8. as part of this mandate oncat funded the ontario colleges heads of business (hob) research project to evaluate the hob system-wide transfer agreements that were signed by ontarios 24 colleges in 2014, including the business, accounting, human resources and marketing diploma and advanced diploma programs. the research had several goals: 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success. research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? to answer these questions, a research plan consisting of seven components was developed; research methodology 1. review and analysis of ontario college application service (ocas) data and a review and analysis of ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) data, where available. 2. online survey of college staff and administrators. 3. review and update of hob curriculum pathway guides (cpg) 4. review and analysis of transfer student data from the colleges with the most transfer (as derived from the data in 1.) 5. review and analysis of ontario college web sites as pertinent to college-to-college transfer opportunities 6. online survey of students that have transferred within business program 7. focus groups/interviews with program coordinators and transfer credit staff where they exist. 8 oncat website (http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=about) appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-10 this report is an analysis of individual and group interviews with program coordinators and credit transfer staff. background the purpose of the individual interviews and focus groups with program coordinators and credit transfer staff was to glean information relevant to the research questions outlined below: 1. what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 4. how effective has the practice of curriculum pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? the original project plan included conducting four distinct focus groups, bringing together program coordinators from each of accounting, hr, business administration and marketing from all colleges however the fall 2017 faculty labour disruption impacted the timing of these focus groups. with less time available, a scaled back modified approach was undertaken to gain as much feedback as possible. as a result, the following activities were employed: focus groups with program coordinators involved with the two and three - year accounting and business diplomas the top eight colleges, as identified through the ocas data as having significant transfer activity. individual telephone interviews with program coordinators from other colleges including those involved with the hr and marketing diplomas telephone interviews with credit transfer and admissions offices at several colleges. process in february of 2018 an email invitation was sent to program coordinators from all four disciplines to either attend a focus group or be interviewed. in addition, a subsequent request was sent to all oncat listed credit transfer offices within the colleges. appendix f1 is a list of the colleges involved and the method of participation. the participants in these discussions came from all four disciplines associated with the agreement, including from the office of the registrar; admissions managers, transfer/pathways advisors. the greatest number of participants were program coordinators from business and accounting. detailed results of the interviews are shown in appendix f2 and f3 appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-11 discipline/department business programs marketing programs human resources programs accounting programs admissions/transfer /pathways interview 3 5 6 6 8 focus group 7 5 total 10 5 5 11 8 information was garnered from 39 unique stakeholders with representation from 19 of the 24 ontario colleges. the focus of all interviews covered four areas: 1) processes used for granting credit for an individual course. 2) process used for granting credit under the 2014 hob pathways agreement a. is the process different, then for course to course credit assessments? b. what obstacles, if any, continue to impact the processing of one or two years of previous academic credit from another institution? 3) curriculum pathway guides and their perceived value 4) processes and protocols in place to change courses within program curriculum and what mechanism(s) to ensure ongoing alignment with curriculum as outlined in the hob pathways agreements. the results program coordinators had on average been faculty within the college system for approximately eleven years and in the coordinating role for approximately seven years. the range of coordinating experience was quite vast from as little as two weeks experience in the role, to veterans with eighteen plus years of experience. the majority of coordinators interviewed had moderate knowledge of the agreements, with several directly involved with crafting the agreements in 2012-13. only 3.2% had learned of the agreements as part of their training process with 22.6% of those interviewed only learning of the agreements through the current research project. a growing trend identified was the addition of a pathways/credit transfer office within the colleges administration. these offices, often located in the office of the registrar, have been growing in number since 2013, however, their structure and function is different within each college. as a result of the telephone phone interviews completed, almost 60% of the admissions/transfer officers have been aware of the hob agreements since the implementation in 2014 with 40.9% learning as part of their employment training process. appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-12 how did you first become aware of the hob agreements? coordinators during the current oncat research project 22.6% since implementation of the agreements. 61.3% during the original meetings to craft the agreements 12.9% part of the hiring process, through predecessor total transfer/advisors 57.1% 3.2% 42.9% 100% 100% the process used for granting credit at the colleges for an individual course. across the system, program coordinators have varying degrees of involvement with processes around credit transfer application and credit recognition. their involvement is largely dependent upon the whether their college is utilizing a centralized course credit transfer database (cctd) of the colleges interviewed 79% indicated they had a cctd and of those, seven coordinators felt their database was fully operational and robust. one college indicated that a centralized database exists but that the school of business had pulled out of utilizing it, thereby ensuring the academic leads were responsible for all credit recognition. another seven colleges acknowledged that a database was in place but that it was still very much in the building phase. one college had developed its database to ensure students had full access to the credit information and database. four colleges identified there was no database in place. all colleges reported that course to course credit transfer is governed through college policy and that specific criteria must be met by individuals applying for credit recognition: 1. 2. 3. 4. individual applying for transfer credit must be a registered student. official transcript/or edi transfer from the sending institution is required. minimum grade of 60% is required. minimum 70% course content alignment is the threshold and course outlines must be provided to support all credit requests an academic review is not required for courses previously assessed, recognized and already included in a cctd. only courses not yet assessed/recognized in the cctd require assessment by a coordinator or other academic lead. several coordinators expressed frustration around the disparity between the hob agreement requiring a minimum of a pass or 50% for credit transfer acceptance compared to the common practice/policy that requires a minimum 60% grade. as such, several coordinators shared that they have simply chosen to accept 50% as a minimum acceptable grade in making credit transfer decisions for all credit requests in efforts to be consistent within their programs, regardless of hob agreement eligibility or not. in discussing the process/protocol used for credit recognition/granting credits under the hob agreement two questions were posed: appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-13 a. is the process for students apply under the hob agreement different then with a course to course credit assessment request? b. what obstacles, if any, continue to impact the processing of one or two years of previous academic credit? for many coordinators, the processing of students eligible to transfer under the hob agreement is a theoretical exercise given several factors: a limited number of students are choosing to transfer or are aware of the agreement. a significant number of students attempting to transfer did not meet the foundational requirement of being academically complete in all required courses at their sending college the emergence of credit transfer offices ctos has taken much of the responsibility for assessing credit transfer requests away from program coordinators. the centralized cctd has allowed for the automation of routine course credit requests. many coordinators expressed that they have a lack of detailed knowledge and assume that responsibility for granting credit transfer lies within the admissions office, therefore excluding the credit transfer office and the coordinator in the initial processing. across the system, hob transfer students are required to apply to their chosen institution through the ontario college application system (ocas). per the receiving colleges prescribed application levels, students indicate the level of the program they are applying to and submits all necessary transcripts high school, college, or university- prior to the application being forwarded to the colleges admissions office. the issue with admissions. to fully appreciate the complexity of this discussion its necessary to understand the challenges facing admissions staff in the context of the hob agreements. eligibility for transfer under the hob agreements requires meeting very specific criteria. the student must have successfully completed the first or second year of their program at their sending institution. the primary means of making this determination is through the students transcript, however, transcripts do not identify completion status at the end of year one or year two of a program. as transfer applicants are new students for the receiving college, it is left to admissions staff/processes to determine whether the student has fully completed one or two years of a program. the admissions offices in the ontario colleges are responsible for ensuring applicants meet minimum admissions criteria. the process is automated and not set up to capture not to make decisions for nonroutine applicants such as students applying for transfer via the hob pathways agreements. in addition, admissions staff are not responsible for nor do they have the ability to apply credit to a student transcript, which is also a key component of a smooth transition from one college to another. the admissions sub-committee of the college registrars and associate liaison officers (cralo) have established a working group to review these challenges and provide recommendations to assist in supporting the management of the hob and other like agreements. appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-14 processing hob transfer students. when asked to recall if they had assisted students transferring through the hob agreements, 42% of those interviewed indicated they had not with the remaining 58% indicating they had but only one or two students. five recalled processing between three and five students per year. notwithstanding the complexities around admissions, there is also no common method of processing or recognizing a hob applicant from college to college. an application through ocas to an advanced level or indication of previous post-secondary education can often force a manual review of the application. this research has attempted to sort methods of processing into 4 separate categories. example 1 no course credit transfer database ocas admissions student submits application required entry level chosen all necessary transcripts provided application sent to chosen college recieves application application assessed for minimum admission criteria. records and registration program coordinator/dean student required to apply for hob credit assesment. application forwarded to coordinator/ dean for processing asssess equivalency of courses review of course outlines or cpgs assigns credit, generally course by course timetable created to meet outstanding learning requirements several colleges require submission of course outlines. many colleges require a course to course assessment for credit recognition in order to provide the student with the necessary recognition of credit under the hob agreements. several colleges continue to require students to provide course outlines for all courses completed at the sending institution, including those deemed as core to these agreements. a variation of the above is also employed at some colleges with the coordinators utilizing the curriculum pathway guides (cpg) for validation of equivalency. appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-15 example 2 with course credit transfer database (cctd) ocas admissions records or cto student submits application required entry level chosen all necessary transcripts provided application sent to chosen college recieves application application assessed for minimum admission criteria. student required to apply for hob credit assesment. cctd review and credit assigned for all applicable courses outstanding courses not recognized in cctd are sent to academic lead for assessment program coordinator/dean asssess equivalency of courses assigns credit, generally course by course and establishes "rule" if applicable timetable created to meet outstanding learning requirements example 2 is applied generally when there are no advanced level options available for the student to select in order to apply to an upper term at the point of application through ocas. the student is required to initiate an application for credit assessment upon registration at their chosen college. example 3 credit transfer office and cctd ocas admissions student submits application required entry level chosen all necessary transcripts provided application sent to chosen college receives application all advanced level applications flagged forwarded to credit transfer office credit transfer office program coordinator/dean preliminary assessment of previous credit student contacted for academic intent and eligibility for hob transfer agreement comparison of past credit to internal cctd courses not found sent to coordinator asssess equivalency of courses not already recognized in cctd assigns credit and establishes "rule" if applicable timetable created to meet outstanding learning requirements in example 3 the student applies to an advanced level at the point of application through ocas. that level is recognized upon receipt in admissions at the chosen college. the application is then assessed for eligibility under the hob agreement through the credit transfer office, the student is then contacted to confirm their intent and the processing of credit moves forward as required. appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-16 example 4 block credit recognition ocas student submits application required entry level chosen all necessary transcripts provided application sent to chosen college admissions receives application advanced level application flagged application assessed for admission criteria records and registration student applies for hob transfer agreement recognition block credit applied to all courses within the first year or two years of the program. student receives registerd level tiimetable the process employed in example 4 is perhaps the simplest from a processing standpoint. the student is automatically provided credit for the first year or two of the program they are entering. due to variations in curriculum from college to college in the delivery of the vocational learning outcomes, the student may miss some necessary learning without having a thorough academic review. sharing of the curriculum pathway guides and the perceived value in 2014 during the implementation of the heads of business hob transfer agreements, curriculum pathways guides (cpgs) were developed for each of the four agreements (accounting, hr, marketing and business). utilizing the approved annual college program calendars, the guides outlined the core courses and other additional courses in each of years one and two from one college to another. these guides served several purposes: 4. to confirm college alignment with the agreed upon core course sequencing 5. to provide a tool for colleges to quickly determine which courses to recognize automatically or to include in their credit transfer database, where available 6. to provide a mechanism for quick review/comparison of course offerings from one college to another in discussion with the program coordinators and transfer advisors, the 2017/2018 update to the curriculum pathway guides was shared. almost half of those interviewed had knowledge of the pathway guides. of those interviewed only one college was actively using the guides to assist in processing transfer credit requests. three of the four colleges that indicated using the cpgs did so using the original 2014/15 version in the development of the northern colleges collaborative programs (nccp) for accounting, business, human resources and marketing. appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-17 curriculum pathway guide discussion yes % no % are you aware of the cpg's? 9 47% 12 63% have you used the cpg's? 4 21% 15 79% 18 86% 3 16% does this tool impact your process for the better? all those interviewed perceived the cpgs as a valuable tool to assist in comparing aligned courses from college to college. many, in particular credit transfer advisors, expressed disappointment that they had not previously being aware the cpgs existed. concern was expressed around retaining accuracy/currency of the cpgs. of the coordinators interviewed, all viewed the process of continuous alignment as being necessary with updates completed most effectively by bringing coordinators together to complete annual updates. ontansfer.ca the utilization of ontransfer.ca was explored during each discussion. of those interviewed, 100% of the transfer advisors/admissions utilize the ontransfer.ca regularly with the most value identified as the course credit transfer site. use was limited by coordinators with only one college participant having actively engaged in utilizing the site for both external and surprisingly internal course credit recognition. recognizing the need for improved utilization of the information and tools available over the coming months oncat will be updating both the web site and the ontransfer.ca site. with the pending changes there is the potential for increased utilization. the process used to enact program course changes and what mechanism(s) is/are in place, to ensure ongoing alignment to signed agreements. coordinators were asked to share the internal college process to add or delete a course within their programs. all coordinators shared the ongoing reliance on program advisory committees (pac) for their three to five-year program review cycle with many committees meeting annually and some as often as twice per year. thirteen of the colleges indicated that programs underwent an annual curriculum review with six indicating they did not or were unsure. many college programs have entered into articulation agreements and exchange agreements as well as transfer agreements. each agreement requires specific content be delivered to ensure continuation of the agreements. an inherent risk is that without a tool/mechanism to recognize the requirements of each of the agreements and ensure continued alignment, curriculum changes will cause misalignment with what is required in agreements such as the hob pathways agreements. only one quarter of the colleges interviewed were required, to confirm that changes would not impact any signed agreements prior to making curriculum changes including adding, removing and resequencing courses. in all cases appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-18 knowledge of the specifics of each signed agreement rests with the chair/dean/coordinator with the most knowledge. observations three quarters of those interviewed believed a student transferring from another college into their program through the hob agreements could receive credit for a full year or two as required under the agreements while the remainder of the participants were not sure. program coordinators played a key role during the development of the hob pathways agreements and their implementation between 2014 and 2016. through these discussions, it became apparent that many of the coordinators now have very little awareness of the process utilized at their college for accepting transfer students and applying the necessary credit, often deferring responsibility to the credit transfer office or admissions office. since 2014 some changes have occurred within many colleges to assist in recognizing credit on a student transcript for these types of transfers. some have introduced a grade of ct or credit transfer for those courses not equated. others are utilizing term recognition of advanced standing to allow students access to the upper levels of their programs. some coordinators continue to struggle with a method of processing credit for those courses deemed as non-core or ancillary there still exists a lack of knowledge around these agreements. an example was shared by a sending college, where a student was denied the ability to transfer to another college. the student attempted to transfer for employment purposes to another city with the hope of completing their accounting diploma. unfortunately, the student was denied the full year/two years of credit and was forced to remain at the sending college before moving to the city of choice. in addition, several colleges shared that in all cases (including hob transfer) they are required to assess each course individually. colleges are recognizing the importance of providing students with ample advice and counselling. colleges with subsequent degree pathways for hob transfer students have recognized the need to ensure students are aware of degree admission requirements upon entry, as they differ from that of the transfer agreements. there is a strong desire among program coordinators to connect provincially on academic issues pertaining to their programs. whether this becomes connected to the process of curriculum pathway guide updates or as professional development, it is a recommendation that could be explored by the heads of business. appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-19 appendix f1 - interviews/focus groups by discipline/department colleges admissions business / registrar coordinator algonquin human resources coordinator accounting coordinator marketing coordinator transfer credit office boreal cambrian canadore centennial conestoga confederation durham fanshawe fleming georgian george brown humber lambton la cite loyalist mohawk niagara northern sault seneca sheridan st. clair st. lawrence total 2 10 6 11 5 appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 6 page f-20 appendix f2 hob transfer agreement processing colleges course transfer credit database do you believe students can receive full year of credit algonquin yes, not business yes/no yes no boreal cambrian no yes yes no canadore yes yes yes no centennial conestoga confederation yes, in progress yes, in progress yes, in progress yes yes unsure yes yes yes possibly yes no 1 4 to 5 per year durham yes yes yes yes avg 3 per year fanshawe yes yes yes yes 4-5 per year fleming georgian george brown humber lambton la cite loyalist mohawk niagara northern sault yes, in progress yes, in progress yes yes yes, student focused yes unsure yes yes yes yes yes course based reg. yes yes yes yes yes yes no 1 no, yes in progress no unsure yes yes no no 0 seneca yes, in progress yes yes no sheridan yes yes course based reg. yes 20 st. clair no yes yes yes 5 to 6 st. lawrence no yes yes yes 2 7 7 1 4 yes 15 yes yes, in progress 3 unsure yes student focused 2 no no student requires a unique modified time-table to progress 17 yes 2 course based reg have you processed any students on the hob agreement # of students recalled is there a fee required to process comments/ concerns/ experiences transfer credit. yes 1 no yes no 1 no no no 11 yes/possibly 8 no 75% yes 25% no/unsure 100% yes 58% yes/possibly 42% no appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 hob agreement is processed through admissions as block transfer. not seen a a destination school ?? students very appreciative of the fact that faculty are doing all they can to make it work. na no fee required for hob transfer, but all others are required to pay. very easy/fair process for the student. processed by coordinator. paramaters of the aggeeement is used for all transfer credit requests due to size of the college very nimble in our processes. uses the ontransfer site regularly. student pathways advisor directly in the school. tc office works with coordinator to ensure tt will work. now that process is automated, getting better and easier. na na hob agreement is processed through admissions as block transfer. coordinator could receive a transfer request each week. majority are enquiries only. able to utilize electives to ensure easy transition. primary issue is awareness of grade expection in order to transtiion to degree. responsibility rests with coordinator. only one with adequate knowledge to process. not seen as desitnation school for students currently requires a lot of website searching in order to process students effectively. have worked with one student many stories of students with failures requesting transfer. coordinators familiar with process for individual course credit not hob agreement hob agreement transfers processed in admissions/tc office numerous inquiries with limited follow through students tend to stay within geographic area only one college identified they used the ontransfer site regularly only one college identifed using the cpg's when working with students all very appreciative of emerging automation need to be advising students of grade requirement for degree eligibillity summary 79% yes 21% no depending on the program, due to 1 1/2 common semesters in all business programs transfer may or may not be problematic. not viewed as a desirable destination college due to remote location. not sure of awareness in registrars office. page f-21 appendix f3 curriculum pathway guide discussions colleges algonquin boreal cambrian canadore centennial conestoga confederation durham fanshawe fleming georgian george brown humber lambton la cite loyalist mohawk niagara northern sault seneca sheridan st. clair st. lawrence are you aware of the cpg's. have you used the cpg's does this tool impact your process for the better? is there a mechanism to acknowledge external agreements when adding/removing courses is there at minimum an annual curriculum review comments/ concerns/ experiences no yes no yes yes yes no no unsure yes 1 1/2 years common for al bus prgms. transfer into hr program next to impossible. nccp network of coordinators, must all agree prior to any change no no yes no yes/no yes yes no no no no yes no no yes no yes no no no no no yes no yes yes/no yes yes yes/no yes yes yes yes no no no unsure unsure yes yes no yes unsure no yes unsure yes yes no yes yes no yes unsure yes nccp network of coordinators, must all agree prior to any change hrpa rules academic decisions for hr. coordiantor/chair reliance nccp network of coordinators. must all agree prior to any change formal review every 3 years no warehousing of agreement in order to align. reliant on chair/coordinator for hob agreement pac meets 2 x per year no warehousing of agreement in order to align. unsure, discussion with transfer credit office only coordinator/chair reliance yes yes/no no no yes yes no no yes yes hrpa alignment considered, no yes yes no no no no no yes yes yes yes yes yes no no yes yes yes no pac meets 2x per year, diplomas lead into degrees, rare to have change due to pquab coordinator/chair reliance 5 year cycle for program review 9 yes 12 no 4 yes unsure 15 no 18 yes 3 no 5 yes 3 unsure 11 no 13 yes 3 unsure 3 no 26% yes 16% unsure 58% no 68% yes 16% unsure 16% no very valuable and helpful tool only a small number have visited the oncat web site still challenged to determine how to handle non core courses in granting credit some colleges have transfer credit as recognition as opposed to equivalencies summary 47% yes 63% no 21% yes 79% no 86% yes 16% no/unsure appendix f: program coordinator & transfer staff interviews and focus groups results oncat project 2017-36 page f-22

project snapshot formalizing transfer student supports for indigenous learners (phase 2) type: seamless transfer project number: s2039 project lead: lakehead university collaborators: confederation college of applied arts and technology, seven generations education institute. project summary the purpose of this project was to build on the work completed in the "formalizing our commitment to indigenous learners" project. as the first phase of the previous project came to a close, confederation college, canadore college, and lakehead university had generated the first draft of a memorandum of understanding (mou) that contains actionable, collaborative items to enhance seamless transfer for indigenous students. these actionable items have been informed by focus groups at all three partner institutions that consisted of students, faculty, support staff, and upper administration. as a result, the actionable items are primarily centred around the following four focal points: 1) building policies, procedures, and mechanisms for inter-institutional wrap-around supports identified by the project teams and focus groups; 2) building inter-institutional relationships between relevant departments and staff that focus on: (a) applying a more relational and indigenous worldview centred approach to support service delivery and (b) providing a circle of care/support to indigenous students to identify and transition students seamlessly between institutions as per their career and educational goals; (3) exploring funding solutions to support seamless transfer with band funding officers and institutional financial support services; and (4) updating and working with academic units, preferably using an inter-institutional collaborative approach, to update pathways between high-affinity credentials that have higher percentages of self identified indigenous students. additionally, identifying where barriers and gaps exist that prevent desirable credentials from having higher percentages of indigenous students enrolling. project rationale we understand that colleges ontario (2019), the truth and reconciliation commission of canada (2015), and our indigenous researchers (ray, 2017) all call for work to be done to make post-secondary more accessible to indigenous learners. within the oncat funded "shifting the landscape" report produced by the center for policy and research in indigenous learning at confederation college, there are four roots of action necessary to improve the academic culture and educational environment for indigenous learners. this project is informed primarily by the fourth root, enriching leadership, which calls for our leadership at all levels to commit to shifting institutional culture to a more relational and indigenous oriented approach "not just at the indigenous centre, [but] throughout the institution" (p. 23). during the first phase of this project, our upper administrative leadership has made a formal commitment through the development of an mou. the process of building the mou from the ground up and gaining full support from all levels of administration at multiple institutions was a significant success. the willingness to collaborate clearly indicates that there is a need to be met by this work and that the second phase of this project, to facilitate action and leadership at all levels, will result in tangible change through the deliverables outlined in this proposal. main collaborators confederation college of applied arts and technology seven generations education institute canadore college participated in the mou signing ceremony but did not contribute to any other parts of this phase in the project. outcomes the most impactful result of this project was the memorandum of understanding signing and celebration ceremony. a clear message about the importance of supporting post-secondary transitions and success for indigenous learners was made. the impact of this ceremony spanned both internal departments at lakehead and both provincial and regional partners. many individuals have since reached out to build on relationships and/or join in the work associated with this project. an internal working group was established and resources specific to indigenous transfer students were developed and delivered to incoming students. web-based videos and resources were implemented to serve incoming transfer students as well as indigenous education counsellors and third-party sponsors. each participating institution has identified credentials with higher percentages of self-identified indigenous students and high-affinity credentials they may transfer into at each institution. a priority list of pathway development opportunities has been reviewed and approved internally by the senior administration at lakehead university. key steps key steps in this phase of the project included: (1) collecting and summarizing feedback on the mou document and potential action points from every individual internally and externally. (2) participating in virtual meetings and focus groups to guide the development of a joint admissions agreement (lead by the office of the provost and the registrar) and wrap-around supports procedures (office of indigenous initiatives). (3) planning an mou signing/celebration ceremony across all stakeholders including the design and creation of the ceremonial wall hangings. (4) creating opportunities to connect with incoming transfer students and connect them with supports before they transfer as inter-institutional policies are still under development. challenges the primary challenge across all projects was related to the covid-19 pandemic. the project leads at each institution were in key roles (registrar, director of pse) and, despite their amazing efforts, it was a challenge to stay in consistent communication regarding grant deliverables. student outcomes the primary benefits for students include work towards a joint admissions agreement that will allow indigenous transfer students to potentially waive certain fees and overcome barriers to third-party sponsors funding multiple credentials via transfer pathways. as we implement interinstitutional wrap-around supports, our teams can initiate financial and child care-focused applications for transferring students, particularly those who have moved to thunder bay temporarily for their education, to complete their credentials. finally, increased inter-institutional communication and shared policy development will contribute to a seamless transfer experience. at every inter-institutional meeting, project partners and staff learn about new pathways, initiatives and opportunities that are subsequently shared with students and appropriate academic units. student work alignment the process of developing policies and planning to support students using an inter-institutional lens tends to look more at credentials as a pathway to a career. often credentials are laddered to provide different and successive levels of access to jobs in different fields. as we build credentials with multiple sector stakeholders, our institutions can collectively become more nimble at co-creating credential pathways that meet and respond to industry and community demand. institutional outcomes a clear outcome of this process was an internal commitment to increase communication and collaboration between mainstream and indigenous-focused services. the mou signing ceremony resulted in immediate action and engagement and was noticed by local pse stakeholders who have subsequently committed to joining this project for its third phase. the third phase will require that these relationships produce clear practices and policies that action the general points outlined in the mou. engaging first nations and indigenous organizations in this process is a necessary shift in institutional culture. indigenous transfer students communicate their lived experience and submit regular reports to education counsellors employed by the indigenous communities and organizations they represent. developing these relationships is a key component of creating the most likely environment for seamless transitions and two-way dialogue between regional pse institutions and first nations. sector or system implications we encourage all ontario post-secondary stakeholders to engage with first nations and indigenous organizations as key stakeholders in the transfer sector. tips/advice embracing a relational approach to service delivery that is informed by indigenous ways of knowing is very challenging in a system designed to operate as part of a colonial cultural system. policy, procedure, roles, and hierarchy are embedded in the ontario pse sector and to truly embrace indigenous culture the emphasis must place a priority on reciprocity and relationships. the beginning of that relationship starts with listening which leads to shared action. we would encourage institutions that are looking to develop a seamless transfer experience for indigenous learners to build relationships and listen to their indigenous students and the organizations and communities that represent them. tools and resource a copy of the memorandum of understanding as well as a general report documenting the outcomes of focus groups and feedback sessions with indigenous stakeholders is included. some select indigenous transfer student information sessions are available on the indigenous initiatives youtube channel.

advanced placement: a look at the ontario landscape final report lead institution: mohawk college march 15, 2018 table of contents acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 2 executive summary .................................................................................................................................. 2 introduction and project objectives.................................................................................................. 3 literature review ..................................................................................................................................... 4 environmental scan................................................................................................................................ 5 british columbia institute of technology.................................................................................................. 5 thompson rivers university ..................................................................................................................... 6 ontario colleges ........................................................................................................................................ 7 national advanced placement and prior learning ................................................................................... 8 algonquin college ..................................................................................................................................... 8 pathway development: methodology ................................................................................................ 8 pathway development: results ............................................................................................................ 9 review of hhs curriculum ........................................................................................................................ 9 focus program area .................................................................................................................................. 9 curriculum mapping ............................................................................................................................... 10 pathways and eligibility .......................................................................................................................... 10 next steps and implementation ............................................................................................................. 11 discussion and lessons learned ......................................................................................................... 11 resources cited ....................................................................................................................................... 13 1 acknowledgements mohawk would like to acknowledge oncat for this research opportunity and to hamilton health sciences for its partnership and dedication to the project. executive summary in partnership, mohawk college and hamilton health sciences together worked to map an advanced placement opportunity for hhs employees, whereby training in the workplace could be granted credit into a mohawk college program. educational programming within the department of continuing education was leveraged for its online and part-time learning opportunities, providing prospective learners with flexible deliveries for individuals looking to progress their careers. the main focus of the project was to gain a better understanding of advanced placement practices and, using the knowledge gained, identify and map a potential pathway in partnership with a hamilton employer. the mapped pathway was chosen specifically to address an identified skills gap within the industry, providing value to both the employer and prospective student. since the concept of advanced placement is still in its infancy within canada and in particular, within ontario, mohawk relied heavily on the experience and best practices of british columbia institute of technology (bcit), who continue to stand as leaders in the industry. of the institutions offering advanced placement opportunities, it was found that business was the most common of the recipient program areas. this was often due to the fact that curriculum delivered within the business portfolio best aligned with employer training curriculum and informal work experience. the environmental scan also revealed that, of prospective student audiences, advanced placement programming has largely been established with the canadian armed forces. this could be due to established processes by bcit with the additional existence of national advanced placement and prior learning (n-appl), a national body founded by bcit that provides post-secondary institutions with the opportunity to provide advanced placement to past and current members of the canadian military. together, hhs and mohawk college were able to identify pathways from the cqi employer training to the leadership development series. curriculum mapping between the institutions employed a block transfer approach by using program learning outcomes and instructional hours as the primary measure of complementarity. an 80% alignment between program curriculum was required to be considered eligible for transfer credit, as per the colleges policy on credit transfer. curriculum content was reviewed when the research team was presented with gaps or uncertainties in alignment. the oncat project reinforced the importance of educational partnerships with industry. together, the two institutions were able to address a gap identified in the workplace while providing valuable educational opportunities for hhs employees. beyond the pathway identified, the partnership opened dialogue for future collaborations. mohawk and hhs are committed to the implementation of the cqilds credit transfer opportunity while continuing to explore ways in which to benefit the hamilton workforce. without the project funding, this initiative would likely not have carried forward. mohawk would like to take the opportunity to recognize and acknowledge the support and contribution from oncat. 2 introduction and project objectives the educational system divides learning into two categories: formal, or within the classroom, and informal, stemming from work or other life experience. with the recent mandate of increasing credit transfer opportunities in ontario, colleges and universities have partnered to create pathways between institutions, using course hours and learning outcomes within the classroom to give academic credit for knowledge gained. in contrast, acknowledging informal learning was first established as prior learning assessment and recognition (plar), whereby academic credit is granted for knowledge gained through relevant employment, volunteering or extracurricular activities. this opportunity reduces workload and associated costs, and often allows students to fast-track through their programs. plar has continued to increase in activity across canada since the early 2000's; a report issued by the centre for the study of education and work stated that over 60% of the canadian workforce would be interested in continuing their education if their informal learning was recognized (livingstone et al, 2005). historically, however, the plar process has operated on a course by course basis, limiting the amount of credit the student is given. the novel approach of advanced placement is an innovative way to grant students academic credit for non-academic achievement through work or life experience. as opposed to doing so through course by course evaluation, mohawk college partnered directly with hamilton health sciences, a primary stakeholder in hamiltons workforce, to create a pathway that provides individuals with block credit, granting them entry into the program beyond the initial entry point. mohawk recognizes that individuals seeking this advanced placement opportunity will be coming directly from the workforce. the project was therefore carried out in the department of continuing education, leveraging its online and part-time learning deliveries to accommodate working adults that wish to pursue an additional credential. offering a flexible, reduced course load relieves the potential stresses of regimented full-time studies, opening up opportunities where they may not have existed previously. academically, the program area showing optimal success has been in business studies. mohawk plans to leverage the success of bcit and the recent partnership between ontario colleges and mcdonalds restaurants to determine a delivery method that fits within continuing education. by doing so, mohawk hopes to introduce novel pedagogical approaches in online learning that can be further adopted throughout the province. the scope of this research project was to determine the viability of advanced placement programming in continuing education along with gaining a better understanding of the impacts of its implementation. the methodology employed was chosen to gather data based on project outcomes including: a comprehensive understanding of the implications of advanced placement within the ontario post-secondary education system; enhanced student opportunities for career progression through online learning; the creation of novel partnerships between the academic and industry sectors; a raise in the profile of advanced placement in ontario. 3 literature review the need for increased prior learning recognition in canada is not a new argument. in 2001, the conference board of canada released a study on the state of prior learning and recognition across the country, paying a particular focus on the impacts that a knowledge-based economy has had on the canadian workforce (bloom and grant, 2001). even at that time, they identified that the gap in learning recognition could benefit the canadian economy by as much as $5.9 billion, a number that increased by triple since (grant, 2015). at the same time, the results of hamilton's 2017 employer one survey revealed that last year alone, 80% of employers experienced challenges with recruitment. a 'lack of qualifications (education level/credentials)' was listed as a top three contributor toward this issue (workforce planning hamilton, 2017). this same study asked if employers foresaw an increase in skills requirements over the next five years. overwhelmingly, over 75% said yes. moreover, in ontario another 2013 report from the conference board of canada stated that the skills gap has cost the provincial economy up to $24.3 billion in gdp, linking this figure directly to insufficient education (munro and stuckey, 2013). interestingly, statistics canada revealed that as of 2014, almost one in four university graduates had returned to finish a credential of lower level. additional schooling has proven to make a difference, as those who had additional post-secondary credentials were found to be more successful in finding employment (statistics canada, 2015). interestingly, job postings in the city of hamilton demonstrated that employers were placing a primary focus on candidates with skill level b, indicating that majority of employers were looking for candidates with college or vocational education or apprenticeship training (cicman and travis, 2016). the answer to this riddle may be found in the fact that canada has established itself as a knowledgebased economy, placing an emphasis on information and learning as a measure of economic performance. the literature review emphasized that we are in an era where prospective workers are primarily valued by the credentials they have earned as opposed to the skills they have refined (grant, 2015), placing individuals with informal learning experiences or credentials obtained outside of canada at a disadvantage when seeking employment (grant, 2015). in alignment with this statement, economist derek burleton calls to government, employers, employees as well as educators to recognize and help combat the need for enhanced training opportunities for individuals in the workforce (burleton, 2013). with a stark prevalence of learners pursuing additional credentials, educational pathways and opportunities for credit transfer continue to become more relevant. while ontario has increased the level of emphasis on credit transfer between institutions, it is thought that more can be done surrounding the recognition of learning obtained outside the formal classroom. on a local level, workforce planning hamilton identified a lack of credentials listed as one of the top contributors to the prevalent skills gap within the city (workforce planning hamilton, 2017). this challenge has been highlighted with the recent formation of the mayor's blue ribbon task force, of which mohawk is a key participant. additionally, a major focus in the 2016 strategic plan is increasing fluidity between students, the college, and the workforce by expanding access and opening educational options for both traditional and non-traditional audiences. the college's faculty of continuing education plans to target this issue by forming direct partnerships with key players in hamilton's labour market to identify the gaps, needs, and subsequent programming required to assist with meeting emerging priorities and skills demands. noting that the majority of employers within the city anticipate an 4 increase in skills requirements within the next five years, advanced placement programming will constitute a proactive approach in helping to meet the evolving needs of the workforce. while prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) has been in place for a number of years, the british columbia institute of technology leveraged existing processes to offer block credit for informal learning (reviewed further in the environmental scan). ontario, while offering plar opportunities, still stands in its infancy on the topic of advanced placement. environmental scan to date, few opportunities in ontario exist for individuals to be granted block transfer for work and informal learning experiences. to our knowledge, the pathway mapped between mohawk and hamilton health sciences is one of the first within the province created between an academic institution and regional employer. in order to gain further insight, we looked to the established success stories: british columbia institute of technology, thompson rivers university, ontario colleges agreement, national advanced placement and prior learning, and algonquin college. institutional websites, press releases and affiliated presentations were reviewed to gain further insight into the advanced placement opportunities offered within canada. british columbia institute of technology british columbia institute of technology (bcit) have established themselves as the leader in advanced placement, having launched their first cohort in 2010. the concept was first introduced to canadian veterans, providing those who had served in the military with the opportunity to receive recognition for the learning they received in training. bcit found that the best fit for advanced placement was found in their business programs, where the first year of studies comprises fundamental courses before the students begin to specialize in their final semesters. prior to putting the piloting the program, however, bcit conducted skills and abilities testing inclusive of career workplace essential skills. results revealed that veterans were already performing at a second year level or above. success with the pilot led to bcit expanding their advanced placement to other audiences. the model was applied to firefighters, mature students, and mcdonalds employees. the environmental scan revealed that the institute was further to exploring pathways with vancouver film school, small business bc and united way. methodology: bcit uses a learning outcomes approach to provide transfer credits to prospective students. prior learning is evaluated as a combination of experience in the forms of formal education, informal education, workplace training, and management level. prospective students are required to send in a portfolio that includes a detailed resume, job description, certificates achieved, and any post-secondary transcripts obtained along with employer verifications. while self-assessments have been discussed, they have not yet been implemented as the school must continue to verify student experience and credentials. 5 prospective students are evaluated on an individual basis depending on work experience in comparison to the outcomes of the diploma, and where they would be best placed in the program. after assessment, the student is then granted advanced placement or assigned to bridging courses. bcit has found that the most common bridging subjects include: finance; economics; marketing; statistics; management; and mathematics. to date, bcit has maintained an individual assessment process. as each prospective student is coming in with a different level of experience and knowledge, advanced placement has not been automated. business and engineering have been the subject areas with highest popularity, and the highest success. thompson rivers university thompson rivers university has established educational agreements with a number of professional associations and employers across canada. these opportunities allow students to gain credit for any courses, programs or training that may have occurred outside the traditional college or university setting, including those from regulatory bodies. while the educational pathway depends on the prospective students area, thompson rivers offers credit transfer into a wide range of programs from certificate to bachelors programs. partner associations ranged from the afoa (formerly aboriginal financial officers association of canada) to the justice institute of british columbia. while pathways at thompson rivers were predominantly situated in the health care sector, programing of all areas, inclusive of performing arts to finance, were represented. of the most innovative partnerships discovered in the environmental scan was with the mothers matter centre. the centre delivers the hippy program (home instruction for parents of preschool youngsters), where home visitors work with parents through structured curriculum that the parents then work through with their children. the program has been delivered for over 17 years and is based out of vancouver, where it has provided programming for over 10,000 low income, newcomer, aboriginal and other canadian mothers. completion of the hippy program and all of its components render mothers eligible for further educational training at thompson rivers. curriculum will be considered for transfer into the certificate in general studies, certificate in management students or a diploma in management studies. learning outside of the hippy program have the potential to be considered for additional transfer credit. a breakdown of the pathway is summarized in the table below. 6 table 1: summary of eligible pathways from hippy to thompson rivers university training completed home visitor training home visitor training home visitor training desired program certificate in general studies certificate in management studies diploma in management studies eligible transfer credits up to 15 up to 9 up to 15 credits remaining 15 (30 credits total) 21 (30 credits total) 45 (60 credits total) in addition to professional associations, thompson rivers also offered credit transfer for professional training programs with industry leaders such as mcdonalds, explored in more detail from an ontario perspective in the following section. ontario colleges in 2013, mcdonalds and fanshawe college spearheaded an educational initiative that would be the first of its kind in ontario. recognizing the potential to enhance staff benefits, mcdonalds approached the post-secondary institution for a potential partnership. three years later, ontario colleges and mcdonalds restaurants of canada had entered an agreement by which employees could use training certification toward a business diploma at any college in ontario. mcdonalds provides its employees with its management development program (mdp), a rigorous and formal training for individuals to progress their career within the restaurant. mdp is offered in four individualized levels to cater toward different levels of management. these include mdp 1: the shift management program, offered to swing and shift manager trainees; mdp 2: the systems management program, offered to 2nd assistant managers; mdp 3: the restaurant management program, offered to 1st assistant managers; and mdp 4: the business management program, offered to restaurant managers. upon mapping the curriculum, ontario colleges deemed that the completion of mdp 2 harbours an equivalent learning experience to the first year of the business diploma or 3-year business administration advanced diploma. however, in both instances, prospective students are required to complete bridging courses in the following subjects: math (or successful completion of the math assessment); business communication (or successful completion of the communications assessment); and general education elective (equivalent to three credits). with the completion of the bridging courses as well as the mdp 2 training curriculum, ontario colleges have agreed to grant first years business credit into the business diploma or business administration advanced diploma. the predicted cost savings for students was estimated at an average of $4,500. while application processes seem to differ slightly across the colleges, all have agreed to offer advanced standing with the submission of the mcdonalds canada training verification form signed by a mcdonalds manager and any additional postsecondary transcripts. it should be noted that training must have been completed within three years of the application. 7 national advanced placement and prior learning the national advanced placement and prior learning (n-appl), based on the appl programming delivered by bcit, is an overarching body whereby post-secondary institutions can partner to provide former or current members of the canadian armed forces with advanced placement opportunities. to date, 15 institutions have chosen to partner with n-appl, however fanshawe college appears to be the only from ontario. partner institutions span across canada, and include okanagan college, northern alberta institute of technology, cegep marie-victorin, and marine institute of memorial university. curriculum mapping and admissions processes are leveraged from those developed at bcit. algonquin college algonquin college has formed their own unique partnership with the canadian military, appearing to be outside of n-appl. aside from mcdonalds, the canadian armed forces appeared to be the largest audience chosen for advanced placement partnerships. similar to bcit and n-appl, current and former members of the caf are eligible to use their training and learning experience as credit toward a select number of algonquins programs. individuals who have obtained basic military qualification (bmq) training and have served for a minimum of two years with the canadian armed forces are eligible to receive nine of 13 course equivalencies toward the general arts and sciences defense and security certificate. successful credit transfer would leave prospective students with only four additional courses to complete the credential. upon completion of the certificate program, graduates can then continue on to year two in pursuit of the general arts and science diploma program. graduates of the defense and security certificate who have also completed primary leadership qualification (plq) training are eligible to receive three additional courses for transfer credit. all courses are to be completed online. interested individuals are to complete an academic credit recognition application form found on the algonquin college website. pathway development: methodology 1. community partnership: the project began by engaging in dialogue with potential community partners. hamilton health sciences, one of the primary employers in the hamilton region, was approached. an initial meeting was held with members from both organizations to discuss the potential opportunity and respective expectations, whereby the two institutions verbally agreed to work together to achieve the project objectives. 2. memorandum of understanding: an mou was drafted and reviewed by both parties to outline project parameters and partner expectations. the agreement was signed by both sides and further stood as a reference throughout the course of the project. 3. project working group: mohawk college and hamilton health sciences developed a working group to carry out the deliverables of the advanced placement pathways project. this working group consisted of a project manager, program manager, and a curriculum specialist from both mohawk and hamilton health sciences. 8 4. focus program area: the group conducted a preliminary review of the cqi training curriculum with consideration of the program learning outcomes. programs at mohawk college were then reviewed for maximum curriculum alignment. 5. curriculum mapping: weekly meetings were established between members of the project working group to review curriculum content from the hhs cqi training modules. course outlines, curriculum content and assessments were reviewed and measured against mohawks leadership development series certificate program (appendix a). specific criteria used to determine credit transfer included learning hours, course learning outcomes, and in cases that were less clear, curriculum content. 6. pathways, eligibility and entry points: hhs and mohawk together identified different clusters of cqi training based on audience and likelihood of completion. mohawk then used this information to map different entry points and credit transfer opportunities based on results from the curriculum mapping. 7. next steps and implementation: upon completion of the project, mohawk college and hhs had outlined a number of pathways for credit transfer. the partner institutions are in continued discussion about implementation. mohawk is in the process of seeking formal approval for the pathway. pathway development: results review of hhs curriculum hamilton health sciences provides rigorous continuous quality improvement (cqi) training opportunities for its employees. the organization has implemented a mandatory four-day cqi leadership training for all employees while offering 14 additional modules in specialized areas with a large focus on leadership. a list of modules can be found in appendix b. focus program area hhs and mohawk discussed potential pathways for current hhs employees based on formalized training opportunities at hhs and continuing education program opportunities at mohawk college. given the specialized focus on leadership training at hhs, the institutions chose business as the focus program area with the highest potential for alignment. upon further review of the cqi learning outcomes, mohawk college and hhs noticed a strong degree of complementarity with the leadership development series (lds) program within continuing education. a course list with descriptions can be found in appendix a. beyond the high degree of credit transfer potential, a number of other benefits were noted with the cqi to lds pathway: lds is offered part time and exclusively online, offering flexible learning opportunities for employees working full time at hhs; 9 individuals who enrol in the cqi modules are generally in pursuit of leadership opportunity yet were trained in a health science discipline. the potential uptake of this pathway is therefore thought to be significant among hhs employees; explored in more detail under pathways and eligibility, the different suites of cqi training allow for multiple entry points into the lds program, providing credit transfer opportunities to a number of audiences at hhs; and with a focus on both hard and soft skills, the combination of cqi and lds curriculum appears to fill a leadership skills gap for employees that are looking to progress into management roles. curriculum mapping together, mohawk and hhs conducted a detailed review of the training curriculum to determine alignment and transfer credit opportunity to the leadership development series. course learning hours, learning outcomes, curriculum content, and assessments were the main elements used in the consideration of potential pathways. results of the analysis and a detailed curriculum map can be found in appendix c. important to note is that courses within the lds certificate each consist of 30 instructional hours, and as such are valued at two credits per course. the mohawk credit value system deems that two-credit courses must contain between 22 and 35 total course hours, which was taken into consideration when mapping course equivalencies. pathways and eligibility hhs and mohawk together reviewed the different training modules while discussing employee audiences. pathways to entry were identified based on employee profile, value to employee, and credit transfer eligibility. three audiences were subsequently identified: 1. the informal leader: these individuals are emerging leaders at hhs. they could be shift supervisors, clerks, or employees that are looking to further their career, and come from a technical educational background. uptake within this group of employees is thought to have significant potential. 2. the formal leader: individuals in this audience belong to upper administration and have maintained a leadership role at hhs. it was noted that these individuals could be less likely to pursue a formal credential from mohawk. 3. the project leader: individuals in this audience are undertaking or have undertaken small or large-scale projects at hhs that required project management training. those falling under this category may also belong to the informal or formal leader; therefore, all combinations of training were considered when developing the potential pathways. cqi course modules were then separated out based on audience, creating three individual streams of cqi programming. within each stream, hhs identified the foundational modules for each pathway, consisting of two to four cqi training programs. these streams provided the foundation for pathway entry points and eligibility, which can be found in the table below and found in more detail in appendix d. pathways based on the results from the curriculum mapping. 10 cqi training stream informal leader formal leader project leader maximum credits granted 6 6 4 credits remaining 14 14 16 potential cost savings $1,038.30 $1,038.30 $692.20 cost savings were based on fees of $346.10 per course at the time the report was composed. prospective students from the informal and formal leadership streams could combine their training experience with that of the project manager to receive additional transfer credit. when mapping entrance points, pathways were considered with and without the completion of cqi wave training. the rationale for this approach was due to the fact that completion of the cqi wave training module will be mandatory for all employees, however timing is determined at the discretion of hamilton health sciences. mapping the transfer pathways with the cqi module was therefore thought to place employees who have not yet been scheduled for the training at a disadvantage. however, the mapping found that this module significantly contributed to the level of transfer credits. individuals who have not yet completed cqi wave training would be ineligible to receive credit for creative and critical thinking. the maximum number of credits granted for individuals having completed the project leadership stream along with an informal or formal leadership stream was eight, with a potential cost savings of $1,384.40 at the time the report was published. next steps and implementation upon culmination of the project, both hamilton heath sciences and mohawk college were committed to continuing discussion surrounding implementation of the credit transfer opportunities. at the time of the final report submission, mohawk was seeking discussion with program quality, the registrar and the dean of continuing education for formal approval of the pathway. discussion and lessons learned one of the first unique advanced placement partnerships in ontario, this project sought to explore nontraditional pathways to credit transfer within continuing education. throughout the course of the advanced placement project, creation of the hhs-mohawk pathway led stronger to industry partnerships while opening opportunity for further collaboration. throughout the course of the project, a number of best practices and lessons were learned. for instance, discussions with bcit highlighted an alternative approach of use of individualized assessments to determine the level of advanced standing granted. mohawk and hamilton health sciences alternatively took a block transfer approach: a certain number of cqi modules would allow for a certain number of transfer credits. this was an option based on the fact that transfer credit was determined only by the number of cqi training modules completed; work experience and informal training methods could be considered in the future. in both cases, bcit and mohawk, it was noted that outlining and communicating admissions and pathway criteria is essential for the success of the student. one step further, bcit also noted the value 11 of keeping open communication with students as they moved throughout the program to determine any common challenges or difficulties among them. in both instances, bcit and the ontario colleges agreement with mcdonalds addressed identified learning gaps with the requirement of bridging courses. in the case of mcdonalds, students are required to take math, business communications (or alternatively, successfully pass an assessment in these two areas) and the completion of one elective course. bridging courses were highlighted as an effective way to prepare prospective students for success within their educational pathway. hhs and mohawk discussed additional ways in which students could more easily transition back into a formal education. many employees have been out of post secondary education for a number of years, finding the assignments, workload and formal assessments a challenge, in particular within an online setting. moving forward, if this is thought to be a hindrance to prospective students, hhs and mohawk will strategize ways to ease the transition. the use of an outcomes-based approach proved successful for the mohawk-hhs advanced placement pathway. mohawk advises, however, that for institutions considering adopting advanced placement practices to allow ample time for curriculum mapping. to ensure program quality is upheld, a detailed analysis of industry programming must be conducted and abide by institutional policy, in particular for courses and modules whose learning outcomes do not directly align with those at the post-secondary institution. in addition, there were some additional attributes to the cqi training that mohawk could unfortunately not consider in their assessment. although learning delivered throughout hhs training was reinforced beyond the official classroom, anything without formal documentation or assessment could not be considered toward training hours. this could be an additional consideration for the future. this project helped highlight the importance of strong relationships between post-secondary institutions and industry employers. noting the prominent skills gap in ontario, projects such as this aim to address the issue directly. the mohawk-hhs advanced placement pathway has the potential to assist emerging leaders with the refinement of both hard and soft skills essential for effective leadership while earning a formalized credential. with leadership existing as one of the fastest growing industries in the workforce, there is reason to believe that more individuals will be seeking formal training in this area to progress their career. beyond the pathway identified, the partnership opened dialogue for future collaborations. mohawk and hhs have expressed their commitment to the implementation of the cqi-lds credit transfer opportunity while continuing to explore ways in which to benefit the hamilton workforce. using the identified pathway as a foundational model, mohawk has ambitions of leveraging this knowledge to explore additional advanced placement opportunities. in particular, the college has interest in potential pathways specifically into business diplomas and graduate certificates. 12 resources cited bloom, m., and grant, m. (2001). brain gain: the economic benefits of recognizing learning and learning credentials in canada. retrieved from http://www.conferenceboard.ca/elibrary/abstract.aspx?did=56 burleton, d. et al (2013). jobs in canada: where, what and for whom? retrieved from http://en.copian.ca/library/research/td/jobs_in_canada/jobs_in_canada.pdf cicman, v. and travis, j. (2016). 2016 labour market plan update: the full report. retrieved from http://workforceplanninghamilton.ca/publications/365 grant, m. (2015). brain gain 2015: the state of canadas learning recognition system. retrieved from http://www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=7607 munro, d. and stuckey, j. (2013). the need to make skills work: the cost of ontarios skills gap. retrieved from http://www.collegesontario.org/need_to_make_skills_work_report_june_2013.pdf livingstone, d.w. et al (2005). canadian adults interest in prior learning assessment and recognition (plar): a 2004 national survey. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.558.8936&rep=rep1&type=pdf statistics canada (2015). further postsecondary education and labour market outcomes, march 2014. retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/150911/dq150911b-eng.htm workforce planning hamilton (2017). 2017 employerone survey. retrieved from http://workforceplanninghamilton.ca/publications/368 13 appendix a course list: leadership development series course number course title course hours comm10216 creative and critical thinking (lds) 30.00 comm10217 communications (lds) 30.00 finc10023 finance (lds) 30.00 hres10019 human relations (lds) 30.00 laws10090 employment law (lds) 30.00 mgmt10098 leading responsibly (lds) 30.00 mgmt10099 project management (lds) 30.00 mgmt10100 performance management (lds) 30.00 mgmt10101 leading teams (lds) 30.00 mgmt10102 managing change (lds) 30.00 appendix b: course list: hhs continuous quality improvement (cqi) training course name cqi wave education introduction to a3 problem solving the coaching habit cqi management system the great work kick-start lean training green belt lean training yellow belt crucial conversations charge person development program emotional and social intelligence in the healthcare environment project management essentials for the unofficial project manager the 5 question leader: work less hard, have more impact mindful leadership for formal leaders leading organizational change leads learning series instructional hours 25 hours 2.25 hours 3.75 hours 1 hours 3.75 hours 25 hours 16 hours 14 hours 19.5 hours 10.75 hours 14 hours 1.5 hours 15 hours 14 hours 12.5 hours lds ) man agin g ch ang e (ld s) tot al (lds ) ams ( ent lead ing t e ent perf orm ance man agem man agem (lds ) ) (lds proj e ct spon sibly ds) lead ing r e aw ( l s) emp loym ent l latio ns (l d hum an r e crea tive and criti cal t hink com ing ( mun lds icat ) ions (lds ) fina nce (lds ) cqi wave education 25 introduction to a3 problem solving 2.25 the coaching habit cqi ms overview the great work kick start lean green belt lean yellow belt crucial conversations charge person development 9.75 emotional and social intelligence in hc environment project management 5 question leader mindful leadership for formal leaders leading org change leads learning series total 37 0 3.75 1 3.75 12.5 12.5 14 9.75 10.75 14 1.5 7.5 7.5 0 18.25 12.5 35 0 0 26.5 31.25 25 2.25 3.75 1 3.75 25 16 16 14 19.5 10.75 15.5 0 15 14 14 12.5 30 audience informal leaders formal leaders project leaders cqi courses charge person development coaching habit crucial conversations great work lean (yellow) *cqi wave training *leading organizational change coaching habit crucial conversations mindful leadership great work lean (green belt) leading organizational change *leads learning series *charge person development *cqi wave training project management lean yellow or lean green leading organizational change *cqi wave training *charge person development lds course equivalents credits granted 2 or 3 credits remaining 7 performance management creative and critical thinking managing change 0 to 3 7 1 to 2 2 leading teams performance mangement creative and critival thinking project management creative and critical thinking

project snapshot exploring transferability of indigenous cultural safety training programs within ontario project lead: canadore college collaborators: mcmaster university project summary there is an urgent need for indigenous cultural safety (ics) across health care settings that address systemic stereotyping and discrimination and that encourage opportunities to access and utilize strength based approaches to care with indigenous populations (allan & smylie, 2015). responding to this need are the calls to action identified through the truth and reconciliation (trc). the trc calls for increased skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism for health practitioners such as medical and nursing students and increased recruitment and retention of aboriginal professionals on the healthcare field. post-secondary education (pse) is responding, with increased ics initiatives, with substantial growth in the areas of staff and faculty training and the inclusion of ics related content across curriculum. our project set out to identify and understand ics programs happening across pse, community and health organizations, and industry to explore potential pathway and transferability opportunities for learners. there is considerable ics growth emerging from pse schools of continuing studies or professional development centres, with four microcredentials launched within the last year. further, there is steady growth in community or health-based ics training programs. the work happening in the area of cultural safety training targets indigenous student and staff wellness and experience, faculty and staff skill development, retention of indigenous learners by fostering culturally safety educational experiences and curricula, and the continued commitment of pse to address the trc calls to action. literature highlights the inclusion of content relevant to ics, such as indigenous worldviews of health, healing, and wellness; history of colonization and assimilation polices and reflective practice in health science programs like nursing and medicine (baba, 2013 & royal college 2020). understanding aspects of cultural safety currently included across curriculum and programs will help us further understand transferability of such knowledge. gaps highlighted include institutional awareness of ics initiatives, the disconnection between ics initiatives driven by student success services and those undertaken by academic programs, as well as limited knowledge on what constitutes cultural safety. emerging themes included: 1. micro-credentials and professional certificates through schools of continuing education and professional development 2. the inclusion of ics cultural safety learning outcomes across curriculum, particularly within the health sciences, such as pgme and nursing. 3. the impact of regulatory bodies in driving change 4. the impact and relationship of ics growth to the trc 5. the focus of ics is on two main areas including retention of indigenous learners in health programs in canada and cultural competence curricula for indigenous and nonindigenous service providers who work with indigenous peoples project rationale there is an urgent need for ics across health care settings that address systemic stereotyping, discrimination, and that encourage opportunities to access and utilize strengthbased approaches to care with indigenous populations (allan & smylie, 2015). ics includes cultural sensitivity, awareness, and competence, but also reflects history, racism, oppression, and marginalization as well as systemic long-term change (baskin 2016). the well-established need for culturally safe healthcare aligns with recent truth and reconciliation recommendations to incorporate indigenous knowledge in health practices and offer skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism for health practitioners (churchill, parent-bergeron, smylie, ward, fridkin, smylie, and firestone, 2017). literature on cultural safety suggests a focus on two main areas including retention of indigenous learners in health programs in canada and cultural competence curricula for indigenous and non-indigenous service providers who work with indigenous peoples. the result is a focus on cultural safety education that either encourages indigenous people to pursue health careers to ensure culturally safe care or encourages cultural safety education and awareness for existing human service providers to increase capacity but little if any literature connects education and industry or explores long-term systemic change. there remains a broad consensus that cultural safety training programs will have little long-term impact on health care provider behaviours, patient outcomes, organizational transformation, and health inequities if they are developed and implemented without organization-wide and system-level support (baba, 2013; browne et al., 2015; durey, 2010; guerra & kurtz, 2016). the demand for ics training continues to rise as major employers such as the government of ontario, child welfare agencies, justice and health sectors, and private organizations mandate ics training for employees. within the past five years, the ontario indigenous cultural safety program has offered training to over 8,000 healthcare workers. in the past year alone, canadore college has trained over 300 pre-and post-licensure professionals. clearly, ics is gaining momentum as worthwhile training in healthcare and beyond. our project responds to the need for training across multiple public health professions and the climate of reconciliation in pse but also uniquely responds to the growing use of interprofessional education and simulation within health education. controlled learning simulations have been directly demonstrated as positively impacting patient safety. including the use of simulated participants offer learners opportunities to collaboratively address common barriers identified by indigenous populations when accessing health care, including but not limited to: lack of equal access to cancer screening and prevention programs, limited knowledge of indigenous cultural healing and wellness practices among practitioners, and communication challenges in hospital settings (ahmed & episkenew, 2015; shahid, finn & thompson, 2009). exploring pathways between industry-based ics professional development and pse will provide an important snapshot of the current state of ics arrangements that support the recognition/transferability of industry-based ics training or professional development by pse institutions. our research will serve as a baseline for future comparisons and articulate the value of ics competencies in pse, for health organizations and professional bodies and others carrying out this valuable work. methods we used a combination of web searches and informational interviews with staff at those institutions that currently offer ics (along with any program documents these individuals can provide). we also included a survey to overcome the challenge of limited responses during covid. we also collected information for the environmental scan from web pages, fact sheets, reports, publications, and other gray literature resources that are freely available to the public. information sources include: ontario pse websites government agency websites public health organizations professional association websites aboriginal health advocacy/ organization websites. limitations the project occurred during covid-19. because staff were transitioning to working from home, as well as transitioning into the summer layoff period for many support staff, there was poor uptake. further, there appeared to be an extraordinary turnover of staff, as many first point of contacts were in indigenous support services. limited to those who responded, which was not always necessarily the most knowledgeable in cultural safety the continuum of cultural safety definitions across institutions contacts were not familiar with the ics related learning outcomes within courses responses were not received from every invitation. this resulted in data gaps, despite sending an interview request and numerous other attempts to connect. web-based searches were often limiting, producing information that primarily focused on student experience of cultural safety (e.g., training for faculty or staff). research findings there is an abundance of work happening in the realm of cultural safety across ontario pse. we noted considerable ics growth in schools of continuing studies or professional development centres with four micro-credentials offered. the work happening in the area of cultural safety training is targeting indigenous student and staff wellness and experience, faculty and staff skill development, retention of indigenous of pse to address the trc calls to action. literature highlights substantial growth in the inclusion of content relevant to cultural safety (indigenous worldviews of health, healing and wellness; history of colonization and assimilation polices, reflective practice, to name a few) in the areas of health sciences, such as nursing and medicine (baba, 2013 & royal college, 2020). exploring learning outcome pertaining to ics across curricula will help us further understand transferability of such credits. however, institutional awareness of ics initiatives and a disconnection between student success services and initiatives happening across academic programs remain significant barriers to identifying and tracking this information. overall, five key themes emerged from the environmental scan, including: 1. growth in micro-credentials and professional certificates through schools of continuing education and professional development 2. the inclusion of ics learning outcomes across curriculum, particularly within the health sciences, such as pgme and nursing. 3. the relationship of ics to regulatory bodies 4. the trc as a driving force in ics work 5. the focus of ics is on two main areas including retention of indigenous learners in health programs in canada and cultural competence curricula for indigenous and nonindigenous service providers who work with indigenous peoples. of the ics programs reviewed, zero had prerequisites, 4 had micro-credentials, 3 had certificates of completion, and one had an indigenous health specialization. the length of programs varied from 3 to 14 hours with the larger cultural safety programs such as sanyas for example being 8-10 hours of online self-directed learning. course instructors delivered the micro-credentials, while the majority of community health driven programs were delivered through online self-directed modules. the pilot micro-credential programs secured additional funding to explore the development and implementation of micro-credentials. wise practice literature on cultural safety curriculum suggest that programs: 1. need to be evaluated 2. need detailed program descriptions in order to be consistently and reliably implemented and evaluated 3. would benefit from curriculum that focuses on power, privilege, and equity; is grounded in decolonizing, anti-racist pedagogy; and is based on principles from transformative education theory 4. must be led by trained facilitators 5. must be offered in effective learning spaces that both challenge resistance from nonindigenous peoples, and support non indigenous peoples to learn from their discomfort 6. need to prioritize support for indigenous learners 7. cannot work in isolation literature indicates that cultural safety training programs must be grounded in decolonizing, reflexive, anti-racist pedagogy to enable critical self-reflection and orient the curriculum towards the root causes of indigenous health inequities (churchill; parent-bergeron; smylie; ward, fridkin, smylie, and firestone, 2017). example content/modules of current programs reviewed included: 1. indigenous people of canada and terminology 2. major historical events from indigenous perspectives 3. impacts of the indian act, indian residential schools and the sixties (60s) scoop 4. self-awareness of inter-generational trauma 5. colonization, past and present 6. indigenous worldviews and wellness practices 7. respect and reconciliation in health care 8. indigenous teachings and advocacy in health care system transformation 9. existing trends and socioeconomic conditions impacting indigenous communities 10. indigenous determinants of health 11. creating self awareness that will support in establishing relationships with indigenous 1. communities 12. resources that will support further self-directed learning 13. exploring the health impacts of racism 14. cultural safety in the classroom: addressing anti-indigenous racism in education settings 15. addressing anti-indigenous racism in health care: strategies for implementing systemlevel change 16. indigenous health equity: examining racism as an indigenous social determinant of health 17. critical race theory and its implication for indigenous cultural safety 18. deconstructing racism strategies for organizational change 19. racism, reconciliation, and indigenous cultural safety 20. setting the context for indigenous cultural safety: facing racism in health future research continued work is needed to support institutional and system level ics initiatives and vision. ics initiatives need to connect to academic programs, student and staff services, and strategic directions and mandates within and between institutions as well as to industry. a strong ics landscape will uncover and promote uncharted student pathways and transfer opportunities related to ics. this project highlights the importance of cultural safety being incorporated within all aspects of pse. ics needs to be clearly defined and connected to driving forces such as the trc and regulatory bodies and acknowledged within institutional strategic plans and policies. we need culturally safe, informed employees and learners. we need to ensure stakeholders across the pse sector have a unified ics vision that supports institutions undertaking this important work. further exploration into the link between ics and the increased recruitment, retention and success of indigenous learners and faculty is also recommended to understand further benefits of ics. a more in-depth understanding of ics within pse is needed, including case studies that connect ics pse initiatives to industry and that profile lived experiences of indigenous learners, staff and faculty and indigenous communities. further, creating a common ics pathway /specialization for indigenous learners offers a unique pathway opportunity for indigenous learners and responds to the trc. student outcomes last, ics learning outcomes overlap greatly with the content of many indigenous health and social welfare programs, such as indigenous worldviews of healing and wellness; indigenous histories; the present day contexts of colonization; indigenous medicines, helpers and healers; indigenous determinants of health to name a few etc. as one example, many of the learning outcomes found within canadore colleges indigenous wellness and addiction prevention program map to biigiiweyans cultural safety training program learning outcomes. there is untapped potential for indigenous learners, if we can harness ics relevant course content to indigenous undergraduate programs, having learners come out with ics credentials or specialization. mapping ics content across indigenous health, wellness and social service programs offers opportunities to support indigenous learners in coming out with additional ics credentials/specialization that are increasingly being expected at the industry level. further, there is also potential to harness ics for indigenous student retention and pathways in health science programs, starting from indigenous preparatory programs, to undergraduate programs, to professional programs in pgme, to graduate programs and employment. programs such as the university of torontos collaborative specialization in indigenous health is an example of this approach at the graduate level. graduate students receive the notation completed collaborative specialization in indigenous health on their transcript and parchment and graduating students will have received knowledge of indigenous health issues, ways of knowing, and understand cultural safety as well as connect with indigenous knowledge holders and experts. . institutional outcomes continued work is needed to support institutional and system level ics initiatives and vision. ics initiatives need to connect to academic programs, student and staff services and strategic directions and mandates within and between institutions, as well as to industry. a strong ics landscape will uncover and promote uncharted student pathways and transfer opportunities related to ics. this project highlights the importance of cultural safety being incorporated within all aspects of pse. ics needs to be clearly defined and connected to driving forces such as the trc and regulatory bodies and acknowledged within institutional strategic plans and policies. we need culturally safe, informed employees and learners. we need to ensure stakeholders across the pse sector have a unified ics vision that supports institutions undertaking this important work. further exploration into the link between ics and the increased recruitment, retention and success of indigenous learners and faculty is also recommended to understand further benefits of ics. a more in-depth understanding of ics within pse is needed, including case studies that connect ics pse initiatives to industry and that profile lived experiences of indigenous learners, staff and faculty and indigenous communities. further, creating a common ics pathway/specialization for indigenous learners offers a unique pathway opportunity for indigenous learners and responds to the trc. sector/system implications cultural safety is closely related to other concepts commonly referred to in the delivery of culturally appropriate healthcare and is positioned at one end of a continuum that begins with cultural awareness, moves through cultural sensitivity and cultural competency, and ends with cultural safety as a step-wise progression (churchill et al., 2017, p. 3). individually, cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, and cultural competence are important; however, none account for systemic obstacles that promote inequity (browne et al., 2009). whereas cultural competence emphasizes a set of congruent behaviours, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or amongst professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in a cross-cultural situation (cross, bazron, dennis, & isaacs, 1989, p. 28), cultural safety moves beyond a focus solely on the role of the practitioner to examine the structural power imbalances inherent to helping relationships between patients and health practitioners, and indeed the health care system as a whole. accordingly, cultural safety shifts power and authority to the indigenous patient receiving care, who is given the ultimate say in whether care provided was culturally safe or not (yeung, 2016, p. 4). to this end, cultural safety includes factors such as history, racism, oppression and marginalization, and the experiences and needs of indigenous populations (baskin 2016). continued work is needed to support institutional and system level ics initiatives and vision. ics initiatives need to connect to academic programs, student and staff services and strategic directions and mandates within and between institutions, as well as to industry. a strong ics landscape will uncover and promote uncharted student pathways and transfer opportunities related to ics.

project snapshot innovative pathway development in applied science degrees type: innovative transfer project number: 2019-21 or i1921 project lead: la cit collgiale collaborators: la cit collgiale (la cit, college d'arts appliqus et de technologie) et l'universit laurentienne deliverables for website (if applicable): project summary - eng project summary/rsum du projet collge la cit, in co-operation with laurentian university, will explore the possibility of establishing aninnovative agreement to enable students to earn a double undergraduate degree in four years. if successfulthis project will enable students to obtain two bachelors degrees, a bat in biotechnology (collge la cit) and a bsc in biochemistry (laurentian university), in half the time. project rationale/justification du projet see attached summary / voir le rsum en pice jointe collaborator contributions/contributions des collaborateurs laurentian university participated in the review project as planned, based on expectations. as such, the course outlines, curricula and program details were shared between the institutions in accordance with the established work plan. all of the exchanges, whether by telephone or email, were quick and efficient. the collaboration between the two institutions was very good. for more details: see attached summary / voir le rsum en pice jointe l'universit laurentienne a particip comme prvu au projet d'analyse selon ce qui tait attend u. ainsi, les plans de cours, le cursus ainsi que les dtails du programme ont t partags entre les tablissements selon le plan de travail tabli. tous les changes, soit tlphonique ou par courriel, ont t rapides et efficaces. la collaboration entre les deux tablissements tait trs bonne. key steps see attached summary / voir le rsum en pice jointe outcomes see attached summary / voir le rsum en pice jointe challenges see attached summary / voir le rsum en pice jointe institutional outcomes see attached summary / voir le rsum en pice jointe tips/advice see attached summary / voir le rsum en pice jointe tools and resource see attached summary / voir le rsum en pice jointe

transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities the magnitude of postsecondary transfer types and the characteristics of those who transfer may 27, 2020 authors david zarifa, phd | professor and canada research chair davidz@nipissingu.ca yujiro sano, phd | postdoctoral research fellow cathlene hillier, phd | postdoctoral research fellow department of sociology nipissing university transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities table of contents 04 overview of the study key findings 05 introduction transfer types and prevalence: which pathways are postsecondary students 06 taking in ontario? the characteristics of those who transfer in ontario: the socio-demographic 07 antecedents of the various types of postsecondary pathways bivariate analysis between characteristics and transfer types multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types 13 conclusion and policy implications 16 appendix: data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources subsample and restrictions dependent variable transfer type independent variables student characteristics analytical approach 20 references 23 figures and tables this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities overview of the study student transfer has become much more prevalent in recent years, as higher education enrollment patterns become increasingly complex. for some, obtaining a degree or diploma in todays postsecondary system is the product of multiple starts and stops, and includes attendance at multiple postsecondary institutions. more and more students are balancing multiple life obligations with their schooling (e.g., work, family), leading to an increasing number of pathways in their pursuit of degrees, diplomas, and certificates. this study uses administrative data from statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis) (2009 to 2016) linked to t1 family file tax data to examine the types of transfer across ontarios colleges and universities. the psis data constitutes a census of all students enrolled in ontario colleges and universities, enabling analysis of the magnitude of the following pathways: college to university, university to college, college to college, university to university, non-transfer university, non-transfer college, and swirlers. it also examines the characteristics of those who transfer within ontarios postsecondary system. aside from studies examining transfer pathways in a single institution, few existing academic or policy reports have investigated the types of students who transfer among ontario colleges and universities, nor have we fully understood the characteristics of students who are most likely to transfer during their postsecondary journeys. key findings the most prominent postsecondary pathway is non-transfer university students (76.17%), followed by non-transfer college students (15.86%), university to college transfers (2.15%), college to university transfers (2.03%), university to university transfers (1.73%), college to college transfers (1.52%), and swirlers (0.55%). older students are more likely to take most of the transfer pathways, including university to university, college to college, college to university, and swirling, compared to younger students, while younger students were more likely to transfer from a university to a college and take the non-transfer university pathway. compared to male students, female students are less likely to take many of the transfer routes (university to college, college to university, college to college, and swirling). however, female students were more likely than male students to either stay within the same university or transfer across universities. 03 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities lower parental income generally predicts higher odds of transferring from university to university, university to college, college to university, college to college, swirling, and not transferring from college, as well as lower odds of staying within the same university. arts and humanities students show the highest probabilities of transferring from university to university, university to college, and swirling, whereas health majors show the highest probability of transferring from one college to another and for transferring from college to university.compared to those from southern ontario institutions, students from northern ontario institutions have higher odds of transferring from university to university, are about half as likely to transfer from college to university, more likely to swirl, and less likely to transfer from college to college. 04 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities introduction attending college or university has become increasingly important for securing more favourable workforce outcomes in todays knowledge-driven economy. many stakeholders are looking for ways to enhance the participation of traditionally underrepresented groups. policymakers and government officials are doing so with the hope of satisfying the ongoing and future skills demands of the workforce (miner, 2010, 2012). at the same time, education officials and institution administrators are seeking cost-efficient ways to reduce attrition and dropout and boost retention, completion, and timely completion rates (snowdon & brady, 2018; tricks, 2013). student transfer has become much more prevalent in recent years, as enrollment patterns become increasingly complex. as new populations enter the higher education system (e.g., older, first-generation, married), and as they are often balancing multiple obligations with their schooling (e.g., work, family), more and more students are taking multiple twists and turns to secure their degrees, diplomas, and certificates (davies & mehta, 2018; deilamen, 2015). this trend underscores the need for data-driven research that maps out these less traditional pathways through higher education. aside from studies examining transfer pathways in a single institution, few existing academic or policy reports have investigated the types of students who transfer among ontario colleges and universities, nor have we fully understood the characteristics of students who are most likely to transfer during their postsecondary journeys. this research fills this apparent gap in our understanding by analyzing administrative data from statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis). the article will first examine the overall magnitude of transfers and transfer types relative to direct entry students in ontarios postsecondary system. next, the analysis will reveal which student characteristics are related to the various types of transfer pathways. finally, the analysis will turn to multinomial logistic regressions to examine the relative impact of students characteristics on postsecondary transfer types. 05 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities transfer types and prevalence: which pathways are postsecondary students taking in ontario? prior research in canada and the united states has identified several possible types of student pathways. since transfer students comprise a relatively small proportion of postsecondary students, the type of transfer explored in existing research has been unequivocally related to sample size (e.g., see finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2017). several studies have examined students who begin in a college diploma program and then proceed to graduate from a university degree program (acai & newton, 2015; budd & stowers, 2015; crisp, 2017; decock, 2004; dougherty & keinzl, 2006; gerdhardt & ackerman, 2014; hurlihey, 2012; lang & lopes, 2014; morrin, 2011; roksa & calcagno, 2008; smith et al., 2016; trick, 2013; wang, 2012). other studies have looked at transfer from university degree programs to college diploma programs (goldrick-rab and pfeffer, 2009; ishanti & flood, 2018; jenkins & fink, 2016; johnson & muse, 2012; kalogrides & grodsky, 2011; smith et al., 2016). a third, albeit smaller, body of literature has examined lateral transfers, or pathways within the same postsecondary section, where students transfer from one college to another college or from one university to another university (andrews, li, & lovenheim, 2014; goldrick-rab & pfeffer, 2009). finally, some researchers and education officials have alluded to further complexity among student pathways and now classify some students as swirlers or shoppers, a situation where students experience multiple starts and stops across or within sectors (mccormick, 2003). in this section, we examine the prevalence of five types of transfer in ontarios postsecondary system and construct a measure to capture the following seven categories: 1) college to university transfers (cu); 2) university to college transfers (uc); 3) college to college transfers (cc); 4) university to university transfers (uu); 5) non-transfer college students (ntc); 6) non-transfer university students (ntu); and 7) swirlers (i.e., those students who changed their institutions more than once within two years). as shown in figure 1, not surprisingly, the largest proportions of postsecondary students did not transfer within two years of beginning their postsecondary studies: ntu (76.17%) and ntc (15.86%). still, nearly 8% of students did transfer, and among those students, the greatest proportions transferred across postsecondary sectorseither from university to college (2.15%) or college to university (2.03%). interestingly, lateral transfers were less common (uu, 1.73%; cc, 1.52%). swirlers was the least common pathway among ontario students (0.55%). additional characteristics of the psis-t1ff data set are shown in table 1. 06 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities the characteristics of those who transfer in ontario: the socio-demographic antecedents of the various types of postsecondary pathways existing research suggests that the characteristics of students who transfer from college to university, university to college, college to college, and university to university vary considerably. in canada, only a handful of studies empirically map out the characteristics of those who transfer, and many such studies focus on single institutions and articulation agreements (acai & newton, 2015; decock, 2004; smith et al., 2016; stewart & martinello, 2012) rather than draw upon a census of all college and university students in ontario as we do here. for instance, acai and newton (2015) studied guelph-humber college to university transfer and direct-entry students. their results found few differences attributable to learning approaches, use of available learning resources, and academic performance, but did point to male students, older students, and aspiring teachers as being more likely to take the transfer pathway into the university of guelph. smith and colleagues (2016) examined the characteristics of transfer students from seneca college to york university and from york to seneca. both college to university and university to college transfer students were markedly similar in terms of a number of characteristics. for instance, transfer students were more likely to be female, canadian citizens, under 25, french- or english-speaking, have at least one parent with a postsecondary education, and majoring in social sciences, business, and the humanities. finally, stewart and martinello (2012) drew upon administrative data at brock university and found college to university transfers were more prevalent among the social sciences, and university to university transfers more common in general studies, mathematics, and the sciences. unfortunately, their data lacked sociodemographic characteristics to look beyond program information. one recent exception examines the 2009 entry cohort of psis students and focuses on the student and program characteristics of those who transfer across universities in ontario (finnie, dubois & miyairi, 2020). ultimately, field of study was shown to be the most prominent feature related to student transfer, with the humanities standing out as the field most associated with mobility, whereas architecture, engineering, and related technologies as fields with lower rates of student mobility. a larger body of research exists in the united states and points to additional characteristics that might also impact student transfer types and postsecondary pathways (budd & stowers, 2015; dougherty & keinzl, 2006; goldirck-rab & pfeffer, 2009; ishitani & flood, 2018; kalogrides & grodsky, 2011; wang, 2012). a number of studies examine students who transfer out of a community college and into a four-year university program. largely, students who were enrolled full-time, younger than 18 at the start of their program, enrolled in an academic 07 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities program (vs. an occupational major), not working, without children, and coming from higher socio-economic backgrounds were all significantly more likely to transfer (dougherty & keinzl, 2006; roksa & calcagno, 2008; wang, 2012). existing evidence for race as a key sociodemographic determinant of transfer patterns has been mixed, with some studies finding no differences (e.g., dougherty & keinzl, 2006), and others finding african-american and hispanic transfer rates to be comparatively lower (e.g., budd & stowers, 2015; crisp, 2017; wang, 2012). other work has looked at university to college transfer and found socio-economic background also plays a role in this form of transfer, with lower socioeconomic students more likely to transfer (goldrick-rab & pfeffer, 2009; jenkins & fink, 2016; kalogrides & grodsky, 2011). educational expectations, educational aspirations of peers in high school, and college academic performance were also shown to at times moderate the effects of parental socio-economic background (goldrick-rab & pfeffer, 2009). similarly, ishitani & flood (2018) found those with higher gpas and higher admissions test scores were less likely to transfer. females typically have been shown to have lower rates of this form of transfer (ishitani & flood, 2018; johnson & muse, 2012), while asian and hispanic students show mixed effects (ishitani & flood, 2018). bivariate analysis between characteristics and transfer types table 2 shows the results from our bivariate analyses with key characteristics identified in the existing research above. overall, our bivariate results suggest that transfer types are significantly related (p<.001) to several demographic, program, family, and location characteristics. in this section, we discuss how various groups across these characteristics are represented across the categories of our transfer type variable. in terms of age, figure 2 reveals that younger, traditionally-aged students (those ages 21 or under) show comparatively lower percentages across transfer categories, with the exception of university-college transfers. specifically, smaller proportions of younger students (21 or younger), compared to older students (22 or older), are categorized as uu (1.72% vs. 1.82%), cu (1.79% vs. 3.67%), cc (1.43% vs. 2.2%), and swirlers (0.53% vs. 0.68%), although this pattern is reversed for uc (2.20% vs. 1.80%). for non-transfer students, the results are mixed, with older students showing higher percentages of non-transfer college (31.22% vs. 13.67%) and younger students more likely to take the non-transfer university pathway (78.66% vs. 58.6%). our results in figure 3 also point to different patterns in transfer types by sex. specifically, the results suggest that larger proportions of female students are either entering the university sector without transferring (ntu, 78.18% vs. 73.82%) or are transferring into and across the university sector more so than male students (cu, 2.20% vs. 1.82%; uu, 1.87% vs. 1.57%), whereas males show comparatively higher percentages of non-transfer college (ntc, 18.48% vs. 13.6%), lateral transfer across colleges (cc, 1.57% vs. 1.49%), and transfer into colleges 08 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities (uc, 2.19% vs. 2.11%). for swirlers, male and female students show similar percentages (0.54% vs. 0.55% respectively). prior research suggests that family socio-economic status may be an important predictor of postsecondary pathways. indeed, the psis data supports this notion (see figure 4). students from the higher parental income categories showed increasingly higher percentages in terms of the ntu pathway (increasing from 71.25% to 85.63%). the percentages taking the cu, ntc, uc, and swirler routes decreased for higher income families, while the percentages taking the ntu pathway increased with parental income. in terms of lateral transfers across universities, the results appear to be mixed with a somewhat positive relationship with parental income. for program characteristics, figure 5 shows larger proportions of students who started their postsecondary educational career as full-time in the cu (2.06% vs. 1.41%) and ntu (76.47% vs. 69.79%) pathways compared to their part-time counterparts. conversely, smaller proportions of full-time students made lateral moves across universities or colleges (uu, 1.61% vs. 4.23%; cc 1.52% vs. 1.57%), transfers from university to college (2.00% vs. 5.33%), and multiple transfers (swirlers, 0.52% vs. 1.15%). interestingly, full-time students also showed lower percentages of non-transfer college pathways (15.83% vs. 16.52%). for field of study, several findings of interest also emerge (see figure 6). first, students whose field of study is health-related had the highest percentages taking college to university (3.75%), college to college (2.58%), and non-transfer college (20.11%) pathways but the lowest proportions transferring across universities uu (0.96%), from university to college (1.21%), and non-transfer university (70.84%). students in the arts and humanities were most likely to transfer from university to university and from a university to a college. students whose field of study is in the natural sciences showed the lowest percentage across swirlers (0.43%). two family-related variables (i.e., family composition and family size) are also important in understanding transfer types. in figure 7, we find that smaller portions of students with loneparent family are categorized as uu (1.70% vs. 1.74%) and ntu (70.32% vs. 76.96%) than their counterparts from two-parent families, although this pattern is reversed for uc (2.39% vs. 2.11%), cu (2.59% vs. 1.95%), cc (2.04 vs. 1.45%), ntc (20.28% vs. 15.26%), and swirlers (0.67% vs. 0.53%). moreover, in figure 8, students from larger families (4 or more) are more likely to take the uu (1.76% vs. 1.67%), uc (2.19% vs. 2.04%), and ntu (77.85% vs. 72.24%) pathways than those with smaller family size (three or fewer). finally, in terms of regional differences, prior research suggests that students in the northern areas of canada may have different educational trajectories than their southern counterparts (see hango et al., 2019; zarifa, hango, & pizarro milian, 2018a). figure 9 compares the proportions of students from northern and southern ontario institutions across our transfer type categories. overall, larger portions of students from northern institutions are transferring laterally across universities (2.31% vs. 1.71%), and are more likely to take the non-transfer university pathway (78.40% vs. 76.06%). they also show higher percentages of swirlers 09 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities swirlers (0.74% vs. 0.54%) than their southern counterparts. conversely, smaller proportions of northern students are transferring across universities and colleges in either direction (uc, 2.10% vs. 2.15%); cu, 1.84% vs. 2.04%), transferring from college to college (1.42% vs. 1.53%), and not transferring from a college program (13.19% vs. 15.98%). multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types our bivariate analyses discussed above are useful in estimating the gross impact of student characteristics on transfer type variables. however, to further estimate the net impact of each of the characteristics simultaneously, we turn to our multivariate analysis, consisting of multinomial logistic regressions as well as predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals. the results for the multinomial logistic regressions are shown in table 3 and the predicted probabilities derived from those models are shown in table 4 and graphed in figures 10 to 17. largely consistent with bivariate analysis, our multivariate analysis shows that demographic, program, family, and regional characteristics are significantly associated with transfer types. in terms of age, older students show higher odds of taking many of the transfer pathways (e.g., uu, or=1.14, p<0.001, cu, or=2.61, p<0.001, cc, or=1.94, p<0.001, and swirlers, or=1.46, p<0.001) as well as the non-transfer college route (or=2.92, p<0.001) compared to taking the non-transfer university route. however, older students showed lower odds of transferring from university to college (uc, or=0.84, p<0.001). when comparing the predicted probabilities in figure 10, we can see that younger students have a higher probability of transferring from university to college whereas older students have a higher probability of transferring from college to university. as well, younger students show comparatively higher probabilities of either not transferring from university or doing so to another university, whereas older students show higher probabilities of staying at the same college or transferring from college to college. for sex, female students are less likely than male students to take many of the transfer routes (uc, or=0.87, p<0.01; cu, or=0.93, p<0.001, cc, or=0.78, p<0.001; ntc, or=0.67, p<0.001), and swirlers, or=0.85, p<0.001) than take the non-transfer university pathway. one exception is that they were more likely to transfer across universities than male students (uu (or=1.11, p<0.001). figure 11 sheds additional light on these differences by plotting the predicted probabilities. overall, female students show higher probabilities of staying within the university sector for their postsecondary education as well as higher probabilities of transferring into the university sector from a college program compared to males. for parental income, our findings mirror those of our bivariate results above, as higher parental income generally predicts lower odds of taking the uu, uc, cu, cc, ntc, and swirler pathways in comparison to the non-transfer university route. however, students from middle (or=1.08, p<0.01) and lower parental income (or=1.11, p<0.001) categories are more likely to transfer from university to college compared to those from the lowest income category. interestingly, the predicted probabilities in figure 12 show evidence that perhaps the positive and negative 10 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities relationships between parental income and the university and college non-transfer pathways appear to be non-linear, where probabilities of taking the non-transfer university path increase exponentially with family income, and the probabilities of taking the non-transfer college route decline exponentially with family income. program characteristics are also significantly associated with transfer types (p<.001). compared to full-time students, part-time students are more likely to transfer across universities (or=2.62), from university to college (or=2.99), and be categorized as a swirler (or=1.92) than take the non-transfer university pathway. additionally, part-time students are less likely to transfer from college to university (or=0.40), across colleges (or=0.73), and stay at the same college (or=0.64, p<0.001). moreover, in figure 13, we can see that the relative differences in probabilities across groups are largest for the uu and uc transfer categories. in other words, part-time university students show higher probabilities of switching to another university or to a college compared to full-time students. at the same time, part-time students are nearly twice as likely to become swirlers than full-time students (or=1.01 vs. 0.52). our focus on north and south comparisons is also the first of its kind and offers new evidence for conversations about the creation and exploration of new credit transfer pathways, initiatives, and support networks among ontarios northern institutions. for field of study, compared to those who major in arts/humanities, students who major in health are less likely take the uu (or=0.43, p<0.001), uc (or=0.43, p<0.001), and swirling pathways (or=0.81, p<0.001) but are more likely to take the cu (or=2.43, p<0.001), cc (or=1.83, p<0.001), and ntc (or=1.52, p<0.001) routes over the non-transfer university route. moreover, students who major in natural sciences are less likely to transfer from university to university (or=0.65, p<0.001), university to college (or=0.56, p<0.001), college to university (or=0.38, p<0.001), across colleges (or=0.65, p<0.001), stay at the same college (or=0.97, p<0.01), and swirl (or=0.59, p<0.001) than take the non-transfer university route in comparison to students who major in arts/humanities. a similar pattern emerged for students who major in social sciences. specifically, compared to arts/humanities students, they are all less likely to be representing in uu (or=0.71, p<0.001), uc (or=0.73, p<0.001), cc (or=0.72, p<0.001), ntc (or=0.88, p<0.001), and swirling (or=0.71, p<0.001) pathways than the ntu pathway but more likely to take the cu pathway (or=1.14, p<0.001). figure 14 provides an illustration of how the relative probabilities vary across fields and transfer types. in terms of non-transfer students, health majors show the lowest probability of taking the non-transfer university route while social science students show the lowest probability of taking the nontransfer college pathway. arts and humanities students show the highest probability of transferring from university to university and university to college. they also show the highest probability of swirling. health students show the highest probability of transferring 11 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities college to another and transferring from college to university. natural science and social science students show similarly high probabilities of taking the non-transfer university route, whereas health majors show the highest probability of staying at the same college. for family characteristics, we find that, compared to their two-parent family counterparts, students from a lone-parent family are more likely to take all other routes (uu, or=1.07, p<0.05, uc, or=1.23, p<0.001, cu, or=1.14, p<0.001, cc, or=1.25, p<0.001, ntc, or=1.13, p=0.001, and swirlers, or=1.27, p<0.001) than take the non-transfer university route. further, figure 15 shows that the relative difference across family composition is most apparent for the non-transfer route, where students from two-parent families show significantly higher probabilities. moreover, compared to those from small families, students from larger families are more likely to transfer across universities (or=1.09, p<0.001) or from university to college (or=1.14, p<0.001) than ntu but less likely to transfer from college to university (or=0.94, p<0.01), across colleges (or=0.94, p<0.05), or stay at the same college (or=0.90, p<0.001). in addition, figure 16 shows that students from smaller families show comparatively higher probabilities of taking the non-transfer university pathway compared to students from larger families. finally, in terms of institution location, several interesting findings emerge from our analyses. our results suggest that students at northern ontario institutions have higher odds of transferring across universities compared to those attending southern ontario institutions (or=1.21, p<0.001). at the same time, students at northern institutions are significantly less likely to transfer from a college to university (cu, or=0.48, p<0.001), transfer across colleges (or=0.56, p<0.001), and stay at the same college (or=0.55, p<0.001) than they are to take the non-transfer university pathway. figure 17 shows that students from northern institutions have significantly higher probabilities of taking the non-transfer university pathway and significantly lower probabilities of taking the non-transfer college pathway compared to those at southern institutions. interestingly, students at northern institutions are about half as likely to transfer from college to university as their counterparts at southern institutions. students at southern institutions are about 1.5 times more likely than those at northern institutions to transfer from college to college. in terms of swirlers, students at northern institutions show comparatively higher probabilities of taking this complex pathway. 12 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities conclusions and policy implications the results of this study shed light on the current level of transfer within the ontario college and university sectors. drawing on postsecondary enrolment census data from statistics canadas psis linked to family tax data, we assess both the overall magnitude of transfer within the province and identify several student characteristics that significantly impact the likelihood of transferring. overall, in terms of the magnitude and type of pathway, the most prominent postsecondary pathways are those that do not involve transfer, as about 76% of students stayed at the same university and about 16% of students stayed at the same college within two years of commencing their postsecondary studies. interestingly, among those who did transfer, movement from one sector to another was more common than movement within sectors. specifically, university to college transfer was most prevalent (2.15%), followed by college to university transfer (2.03%), university to university transfer (1.73%), and college to college transfer (1.52%). swirlers (0.55%) comprised the least common pathway. our results also point to several key characteristics that influence students chances of taking a particular pathway. first, age has a significant impact on transfer activities. older, nontraditional age students (22 and above) are more likely to take most of the transfer pathways, including university to university, college to college, college to university, and swirling, compared to younger students. at the same time, younger students are more likely to transfer from a university to a college and take the non-transfer university pathway. this finding resonates with existing studies that find non-traditional age students encounter more difficulties completing their programs, take more complex pathways to acquire their credentials, and often take longer to do so (deil-amen 2015; zarifa et al. 2018b). in step with prior work in the united states (ishitani & flood, 2018; johnson & muse, 2012), the sex of the student also has an effect on postsecondary pathways, even once taking into consideration all other characteristics in our models. compared to male students, female students are less likely than their male counterparts to take many of the transfer routes (university to college, college to university, college to college, and swirling). in addition, our findings revealed that female students are more likely than males to either stay within th e same university or transfer across universities. 13 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities family tax data linked to students postsecondary information allowed us to examine the extent to which parental socio-economic status (ses) might impact student pathways. indeed, parental ses does matter. lower parental income generally predicts higher odds of transferring from university to university, university to college, college to university, college to college, swirling, and not transferring from college, as well as lower odds of staying within the same university. unfortunately, our measure of parental ses is limited in two ways. first, the psis data lacks measures of parental occupation, parental education, and parental aspirations for their childrens education to more fully grasp how parental ses or cultural capital might impact student pathways (goldrick-rab and pfeffer, 2009; kalogrides & grodsky, 2011). second, the psis data also lack measures to capture student performance or abilities, which have been shown to predict lower transfer rates in other contexts and moderate the effects of parental socio-economic background (goldrick-rab and pfeffer, 2009; ishitani & flood, 2018). in terms of field of study, we also uncover several key differences. mobility was highest among arts and humanities majors as well as health majors. for instance, arts and humanities students show the highest probabilities of transferring from university to university, university to college, and swirling, whereas health majors show the highest probability of transferring from one college to another and for transferring from college to university. finally, our study is the first to consider how regions within ontario might also impact student pathways. while previous studies have shown students from the northern areas of canada experience difficulties accessing postsecondary education and majoring in the lucrative stem fields (hango et al. 2019; zarifa et al. 2018a), no existing research has examined the impact that location of study might have on transfer pathways. compared to those from southern ontario institutions, students from northern ontario institutions have higher odds of transferring from university to university, are about half as likely to transfer from college to university, more likely to swirl, and less likely to transfer from college to college. while this research does point to significant differences across the two locales, it remains unclear which students within each location may be more likely to transfer. as such, future work will investigate the characteristics of students within each of these regions as well as explore the nature and extent of north-south transfer. taken together, our results have three key implications for policymakers and education administrators. first, our study provides a snapshot of system-level transfer in ontario and compares the relative magnitude of transfer both within and across university and college sectors. this information is particularly important for governments and policymakers seeking to assess overall transfer-type levels and evaluate and establish appropriate supports. second, by identifying some of the key characteristics of those who access the various transfer pathways, we have set the stage for policymakers and administrators who are seeking data- 14 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities driven evidence to establish new articulated pathways. information on the types of students who take each pathway is particularly important for building the appropriate supports to ensure both program and student success. for instance, we find that students with different ages, sexes, parental incomes, registration statuses, and fields of study are taking significantly different postsecondary pathways. these findings provide an empirical foundation for policy development that can be geared towards certain students who may be taking certain transfer pathways. finally, our focus on north and south comparisons is also the first of its kind and offers new evidence for conversations about the creation and exploration of new credit transfer pathways, initiatives, and support networks among ontarios northern institutions. 15 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities appendix: data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources this study uses the postsecondary student information system (psis) (for further details, see statistics canada, 2018). psis is administrative data collected on all public and not-for-profit postsecondary institutions funded by a provincial ministry of education. the data is particularly beneficial in that it provides a census of enrolments and graduates in all canadian colleges and universities, collected annually since the 2005/2006 academic year, and yields approximately a 95% response rate. at the time of this writing, the 2016/2017 academic year is the most recent academic year available for analysis. another strength of the psis is that it includes variables about the educational institutions, student demographics, and information about the program in which the student is enrolled. they are optimal for use in this study to investigate the characteristics of students who pursue various pse pathways in ontario. additionally, we use the psis-t1ff linkage (tax years 2004 to 2015) to draw upon additional sociodemographic variables of relevance to answering the second research question (e.g., parental income, family composition, family size). finally, the psis administrative data overcomes a number of limitations to using other nationally representative survey data to examine pse pathways in northern ontario. first, small sample sizes prevent use of statistics canadas youth in transition survey (yits) to parse out the ontario case. wave attrition further complicates analyses with yits, and data on more recent cohorts are no longer collected. most importantly, neither the yits nor another nationally representative survey, the national graduates survey (ngs), contains institutional identifiers to create northern and southern groupings. subsample and restrictions this study restricts our sample in important ways. for example, we limit our sample to undergraduate students from ontario postsecondary institutions. specifically, this study excludes students who are enrolled in professional, graduate, and postgraduate programs (see finnie et al., 2017). in addition, there are two different ways of selecting students in the psis, namely the enrollment cohorts and the graduate cohorts. in this study, we rely on the enrollment cohorts in our analysis and track students school and type of postsecondary education mobility over two years. 16 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities admittedly, it would be ideal to track students transfer types from their initial enrollment in postsecondary education until their graduation. to do so, we would need to draw our sample from the graduate cohorts that allow us to select those students who had attended a college or university program prior to graduating from a college or university program as well as those who did not attend a prior program but graduated with a college diploma or university degree. however, there are three limitations to this approach. first, our preliminary analyses revealed that the number of students included in the graduate cohorts is considerably smaller than those in the enrollment cohorts. moreover, the psis has imputed aggregate information on many ontario colleges. unfortunately, respondents from these institutions are not available for longitudinal linkage due to a lack of record identification. finally, coupled with these two limitations, considering our interest in students from postsecondary institutions in northern ontario, our sample sizes would be too small to perform the analyses presented here. to overcome these limitations, this study uses the enrolment cohorts to understand students transfer types. specifically, we select those students who were enrolled in a college or university program during the time of data collection and subsequently followed their institution and sector pathways for two years. ultimately, we capture the probability that students change their institution and/or institution type within their first two years of college or university. this approach has several advantages. first, tracking students for two years after their initial enrolment is suitable for documenting their transfer types because transfers often happen during a relatively early stage of ones postsecondary educational career (see johnson & muse, 2012). second, this approach allows us to keep a large-enough sample size to track students transfer, especially among those students who had started their postsecondary education from twoyear colleges. we adopt this approach and track six different cohorts of students (200911, 201012, 201113, 201214, 201315, and 201416) to understand their transfer types. for example, for 2009, we first compare differences between 2009 and 2010 institution ids and institution types. we then compare 2010 to 2011 institution ids and institution types. third, we combine observed differences across both comparisons and then combine into the pathway variable below. finally, we pool all cohorts of students together, which yields an analytical sample of 432,280 students. 1. an alternative approach was first explored by extracting and linking across the graduation cohorts in psis. those who graduated in a particular year (e.g., 2016) were linked to their psis records in the previous four years (2012 to 2016). this approach provided a glimpse into graduates last four years of postsecondary participation but revealed far less student mobility. as such, we opted to proceed with our current approach since a significant level of transfer occurs within their first few years of postsecondary education. 2. additional analyses (not shown here) tracked students over four years of time and pool four cohorts of students (2009 to 2013; 2010 to 2014; 2011 to 2015; 2012 to 2016), but sample sizes diminished too much over time (due to graduation from college, attrition, drop out, or stop out). unfortunately, once students leave or graduate from their institution, they are not captured in subsequent waves of psis. 17 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities dependent variable transfer type the transfer-type variable that we create in this study includes the following seven pathways: (1) college to university transfers, (2) university to college transfers, (3) college to college transfers, (4) university to university transfers, (5) non-transfer college students, (6) non-transfer university students, and (7) swirlers (i.e., those students who changed their institutions more than once within two years). independent variables student characteristics to address the second research question, directed by previous research, we include demographic, program, family, and regional characteristics in our analysis. first, demographic characteristics include age (0=younger, 21 or under); (1=older, 22 or older), sex (0=male students; 1=female students), and the quintiles of gross parental income (0=lowest; 1=lower; 2=middle; 3=higher; 4=highest). second, we include two program characteristics: major field of study (0=arts/humanities; 1=health; 2=natural sciences; 3=social sciences; 4=other), and registration status (0=full-time; 1=part-time). third, we add family characteristics such as the number of people in the family (0=smaller, 3 or fewer; 1=larger, 4 or more) and family type (0=two-parent; 1=lone-parent). finally, we include an additional variable to capture the location of the postsecondary institution (0=southern ontario; 1=northern ontario). as part of the limitations of the psis, we are not able to include students from imputed institutions. considering that each year contains a different set of imputed institutions, we account for academic year of initial enrolment (0=2009; 1=2010; 2=2011/2012; 3=2013; 4=2014). in addition, there are several other demographic variables, such as international student status and immigration status; however, we do not include these variables due to their small sample sizes. moreover, due to data quality issues, and under the advisement of statistics canada, we were also unable to make use of the following variables available in the psis files: total transfer credits; aboriginal or visible minority status; mother tongue; program duration; program duration units; co-op program indicator; credits needed to graduate; program credit units; cumulative credits for program; second specialization; and end date in program. the psis data also lack measures of gpa or student grades to account for academic performance as well as measures of parental aspirations or parent education to account for cultural capital effects. at the same time, we are unable to account for high school education and behavioural metrics (see davies and pizarro milian, 2020). 3. our field of study measure combines both 2-digit and 4-digit cip (classification of instructional program) codes (additional details available upon request). 4. the number of swirlers was too small for 2011 to permit statistics canadas disclosure of our bivariate results, so we combined 2011 and 2012 categories together to examine the year of enrolment and transfer types. 18 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities analytical approach to address the first research question, we use univariate analysis to obtain the overall magnitude of postsecondary transfer types (across institutions and regions) among colleges and universities in ontario. next, to discover the characteristics of those who transfer via the various types of postsecondary pathways, we first use cross-tabulations and chi-square tests of the independent variables by our dependent variable of transfer pathway types (i.e., college to university, university to college, college to college, university to university, non-transfer college graduate, non-transfer university graduate, and swirlers). considering our dependent variable has seven categories, we utilize pooled multinomial logistic regression models (long, 1997; long and freese, 2014) to map out the effects of the various independent variables on transfer pathways. multinomial logistic regression models serve to provide two important facets of information on the data: (1) to identify which predictors are significantly related to the dependent variable; and (2) to indicate how strong each predictor is relative to others (denham, 2010). thus, these models will enable us to map out the key characteristics of those who transfer, taking into consideration the effects of all other characteristics simultaneously. to add further insights into the results, we also graph the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals around those estimates. 19 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities references 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(2018a). proximity, prosperity, and participation: examining access to postsecondary education among youth in canadas provincial north. rural sociology, 83(2), 270314. zarifa, d., kim, j., seward, b. and walters, d., (2018b). whats taking you so long? examining the effects of social class on completing a bachelors degree in four years. sociology of education, 91(4), 290322. 22 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figures and tables figure 1. pathways among ontario postsecondary students, psis-tiff, 2009 to 2016 23 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities table 1. sample characteristics, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 24 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities table 2. bivariate analysis of the dependent and independent variables, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 25 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figure 2. the relationship between age and transfer pathways, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 figure 3. the relationship between sex and transfer pathways, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 26 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figure 4. the relationship between parental income and transfer pathways, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 figure 5. the relationship between registration status and transfer pathways, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 27 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figure 6. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, psis-t1ff 2009 to 2016 figure 7. the relationship between family composition and transfer pathways, psis-t1ff 2009 to 2016 28 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figure 8. the relationship between family size and transfer pathways, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 figure 9. the relationship between region of institution and transfer pathways, psis-t1ff 2009 to 2016 29 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities table 3. multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types, psis-t1ff, 2009-2016 30 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities table 4. predicted probabilities of transfer types, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 31 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figure 10. the predicted probabilities across age and transfer type, psis-t1ff 2009 to 2016 figure 11. the predicted probabilities across sex and transfer type, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 32 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figure 12. the predicted probabilities across parent income and transfer type, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 figure 13. the predicted probabilities across registration status and transfer type, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 33 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figure 14. the predicted probabilities across field of study and transfer type, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 figure 15. the predicted probabilities across family composition and transfer type, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 34 transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities figure 16. the predicted probabilities across family size and transfer type, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 figure 17. the predicted probabilities across region of institution and transfer type, psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2016 35 oncat .ca/en/projects/transfer-pathways- among- ontario colleges- and -universities established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes.

student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students evidenced based on psis-cslp data linkages november 19, 2020 authors david walters, university of guelph rob brown, york university gillian parekh, york university trisha einmann, university of guelph danielle bader, university of guelph student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students table of contents 03 executive summary highlights 05 introduction 06 student loans 08 data and methods merged dataset student selection 10 mobility pathways: graduates 11 descriptive results gender age country of birth field of study length of study graduation loan balance at end of study 15 student loan holders parental income student debt 17 regression results logistic regression ordinary least squares regression 22 23 24 25 28 38 discussion limitations future directions references figures appendix this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students executive summary a flexible postsecondary education system provides college and university students with opportunities to transfer between programs and institutions when their aspirations and circumstances change. there exists a large body of research that describes the socio-demographic characteristics and academic trajectories of transfer students in ontario as well as other canadian jurisdictions, and more recent research has examined the labour market performance of transfer students following graduation (see, for example, finnie, dubois, and miyairi 2017). much less is known, however, about borrowing costs among transfer students. this study aims to fill gaps in the literature related to trends in student borrowing among transfer and non-transfer students in ontarios postsecondary system. this research utilizes and links two datasets from statistics canadas educational labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp): postsecondary student information system (psis) and canada student loans program (cslp). the data linkages provide a unique opportunity to carry out a comprehensive system wide analyses of student debt among transfer students in ontario. these datasets are used in this study to address the following research questions: 1. what are the characteristics of direct-entry and transfer students who entered postsecondary in ontario in 2009? 2. what are the characteristics of student loan holders across transfer groupings? 3. which educational pathways lead to the largest student debt burden upon graduation? 4. are there significant differences in student debt across educational pathways? 5. which variables are important predictors of post-secondary pathways and student debt? highlights transfer students were less likely to complete their programs than their direct-entry counterparts, and they were more likely to borrow government student loans.transfer students were enrolled in their programs longer than non-transfer students, which resulted in a heftier financial burdenparticularly among those whose transfer involved university. federal student loan holders enrolled for the longest period of time were those who entered university and transferred to college, as well as those entered into college and transferred to university. the highest amount of student debt was incurred by students who transferred between universities and direct-entry university students; direct-entry college students incurred the least amount of debt. 03 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students demographic (i.e., gender, age, country of birth, parental income), program-related factors (field of study, length of study), and transfer pathways were important predictors of reliance on government funding to subsidize the cost of postsecondary education. female students, on average, incurred more debt by the end of their studies than male students. students who entered pse later (i.e., 19-year-olds) tended to borrow more money than younger students (i.e., 17- to 18-year-olds). students born outside of canada were less likely to borrow a federal student loan than canadian-born students; however, among borrowers, those who were born outside of canada incurred more debt, on average, than students born in canada. students who studied in the humanities and social sciences had, on average, the lowest amount of debt at the end of their programs, while those who studied the fine arts had the highest amount of debt. 04 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students introduction postsecondary education (pse) in ontario is a hierarchical, dynamic, and complex system structured to provide students with a multitude of postsecondary pathways. many students follow a straightforward route through a single postsecondary institution; however, many do not. increasingly, students are following academic trajectories that are fluid, involving multiple programs and institutions. postsecondary programs and policies must therefore evolve to support students who pursue less conventional pathways by accommodating their changing, and potentially challenging, circumstances. for these reasons, student mobility is an increasingly important policy issue in ontario. students interests and personal circumstances often change while they are enrolled in postsecondary programs. students may be motivated to transfer to a new institution or program due to family obligations, financial limitations, or the discovery of more suitable or lucrative fields of study (speers, stockdale and martin 2012). lower income students in particular may have multiple obligations outside of their pse that require transfers across institutions. students motivated to transfer often do so midstream, which has the potential to create additional challenges, particularly for students with insufficient resources to successfully navigate the transfer process. managing bureaucratic processes, negotiating an adequate transfer of credits, adjusting to new social norms and academic environments, and obtaining sufficient funding are among the challenges students face when transferring institutions (allen, smith and muehleck 2014; kerr, mccloy, and liu 2011; gawley and mcgowan 2006; townsend and wilson 2006). transfer students also experience challenges with social integration, grade decline, and completion times (kerr, mccloy, and liu 2011; tobolowsky and cox 2012; percival et al. 2016). these factors may lead to prolonged borrowing and increased student debt among both graduates and early leavers. federal and provincial governments, along with postsecondary institutions, play a key role in supporting student mobility across institutions and promoting successful pse transitions. government student loan programs play a complementary role in helping low- and middleincome students make these transitions; however, the extent to which loans facilitate successful transitions through pse in ontario is not known. this study will contribute to research on this understudied issue through a system-wide analysis of student borrowing patterns among transfer students in ontarios colleges and universities. this research is intended to inform a follow-up study that will utilize the data linkages in the present study, as well as linkages with administrative data at the secondary level, to investigate the roles that high school performance and pathways to postsecondary play in pse outcomes, particularly as they pertain to pse transfers and student borrowing patterns. 05 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students demographic (i.e., gender, age, country of birth, parental income), program-related factors (field of study, length of study), and transfer pathways were important predictors of reliance on government funding to subsidize the cost of postsecondary education. female students, on average, incurred more debt by the end of their studies than male students. students who entered pse later (i.e., 19-year-olds) tended to borrow more money than younger students (i.e., 17- to 18-year-olds). students born outside of canada were less likely to borrow a federal student loan than canadian-born students; however, among borrowers, those who were born outside of canada incurred more debt, on average, than students born in canada. students who studied in the humanities and social sciences had, on average, the lowest amount of debt at the end of their programs, while those who studied the fine arts had the highest amount of debt. 06 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students student loans canada, similar to other industrialized nations, relies heavily on pse to improve productivity and increase human capital in the evolving knowledge-based economy. evidence continues to show that pse is critical for increasing worker productivity and labour market outcomes (see drewes 2010; frank and walters 2012; ostrovsky and frenette 2014; frenette 2019), and it is especially important for helping young people who are economically disadvantaged achieve their labour market potential (frenette 2019). to improve access to pse and stimulate upward mobility among individuals from low- and middle-income families, the government of canada offers funding through the canadian student loans program (cslp) (employment and social development canada 2019). the cslp is administered by the department of employment and social development and delivered in partnership with participating provinces to help students pay for their postsecondary programs through loans and nonrepayable grants. a key objective of the cslp is to improve access to pse for students who cannot otherwise afford tuition fees and other costs associated with attending college or university. the amount of government funding provided by the cslp depends on a variety of factors including, for example, course load, education expenses, disability status, marital status, number of dependents, type and location of the postsecondary school, and parental income for dependent students (kapsalis 2006). a wealth of research has investigated the borrowing patterns of students who follow traditional (direct-entry) postsecondary pathways (ben-ishai 2006; kapsalis 2006; finnie, childs and wismer 2010; luong 2010; frenette 2011; wright, walters and zarifa, 2013; ferguson and wang 2014); however, little is known about the debt levels of those who follow less conventional pse trajectories, particularly those who transfer institutions. student transfers represent a small yet significant portion of the pse population in ontario and their numbers are growing. transfer students are more likely to require additional supports than their direct-entry counterparts to help them navigate an increasingly complex and hierarchical postsecondary system. additionally, transfer students typically experience higher dropout rates and longer completion times than their direct-entry counterparts (finnie et al. 2020; zarifa et al. 2020). thus, the student debt levels and outcomes of transfer students in ontario represent a pressing and growing policy concern for this potentially at-risk group. this study provides a timely contribution to the existing research on student mobility by examining student debt and repayment outcomes among transfer students across ontarios community college and university programs and comparing their graduation outcomes to their direct-entry counterparts. 1. quebec, nunavut, and the northwest territories do not participate in the cslp and are instead provided with alternative forms of federal funding to operate their own student aid programs. 2. dependent students are defined as those who are single, not a sole-support parent, have been out of high school for fewer than four years prior to the start of their study period, have not been employed for 12 consecutive months on two or more occasions, whose parents are both living, and are not a permanent ward of a child and family services agency. 07 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students data and methods data for this research are drawn from two linked administrative datasets in statistics canadas education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp): postsecondary student information system (psis) and the canada student loans program (cslp). psis is a national administrative dataset that contains yearly data on all public university and college enrolments and graduates by program, credential type, and field of study. data collection for the psis began during the 200506 school year, though full-scale reporting for ontario did not start until 200910. the cslp dataset provides recipient-level information on canada student loan disbursements and repayments. cslp data in the research data centre (rdc) are documented by loan year, which starts in august and ends in july. the cslp dataset includes data from 200304 to 201617. a key advantage of using the cslp dataset to assess student borrowing is that it contains administrative records for parental income and student debt, which eliminates errors associated with self-reported surveys. together, psis and cslp data are especially useful for comparing the characteristics and outcomes of students who transfer across institutions relative to those who do not, and determining whether transfer students are disproportionately burdened by student debt. data from both the psis and cslp were available from 200910 through 201617. this period overlaps with the selection criteria used by frenette (2019), who utilized student records in the psis between the 200910 and 201415 reporting cycles to track a single cohort of students entering post-secondary programs. a longer period is used in our analysis because transfer students in ontario typically take longer than direct-entry students to complete their programs (kerr et al. 2011; percival et al. 2016). merged dataset to prepare the data for analyses, the psis and cslp datasets were sorted and merged using the register_group_id variable, a unique record identifier that is shared across these and other datasets in the elmlp. this study is restricted to student records for ontario community college programs and university bachelors degree programs. students who started or completed their post-secondary education outside of ontario are excluded from this analysis. 3. enrollment and graduation records were not available for all colleges in ontario until the 2014 academic year. for reporting cycles before 2014 15 the elmlp includes records for 13/22 colleges; the information for colleges without complete records were imputed by statistics canada (see frenette, 2019:9). while the complete data for the 2014-15 community college records were not available at statistics canadas rdcs at the time of this research, there would have been an insufficient number of data cycles to track the 2014-15 cohort through their programs to completion. 08 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students the combined dataset contains information on all college and university students who began their academic programs in 200910 (year = 2009). included in the dataset for each student are institution name, type of institution (university or college), field of study, gender, country of birth, last recorded year of enrolment, graduation status (graduated or not), and program end date (complete for graduates and incomplete for most non-graduates). program end date was used to assess the date of first successful post-secondary credential. the cslp also captures the total federal portion of student loans owed at the end of the study period. this variable is used to distinguish between borrowers and non-borrowers, and to assess the amount of debt among borrowers. the total amount owing for each student in the dataset at the end of their program is adjusted to 2017 dollars using the consumer price index. student selection the records selected for this analysis include students between the ages of 17 and 19 (born between 1991 and 1993) who started their first year of post-secondary education in september 2009. our selection strategy is similar to that used by brown (2010) and was employed to permit direct comparisons across programs for a single cohort of similarly aged students. mature students (i.e., those born before 1991) and students who did not start their programs in the fall were excluded from the analyses, as they are characteristically different from traditionally aged registrants and those who start at the beginning of the academic year. for instance, preliminary analyses using the present data indicated that mature students and students who did not start their postsecondary programs in september were much more likely enroll in college rather than university programs. the implications of our data selection process are discussed further in the future directions section of this manuscript. finally, a small fraction of students with multiple enrollment records during the fall snapshot date of the 2009 reporting cycle were also excluded. this remaining sample included 91,950 students who were between 17 and 19 years of age when they started their ontario postsecondary programs in september 2009. 4. students of the lowest ses would be more likely to have some, if not all, of their government funding subsidized through student grants, which is not captured in this study. while the analysis of grant recipients is fruitful investigation, student debt provides a more pressing policy concern because loans must be repaid, and are directly related to financial stress, hardship, and future credit (canadian council on learning 2010). 09 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students mobility pathways: graduates preliminary analyses revealed that the vast majority of direct-entry students had graduated by the end of their fifth year (2014), which is consistent with recent research (see frenette 2019). just over three-quarters of students captured in psis who entered their programs in 2009 were enrolled in university and 23% were enrolled in community college. in general, university students completed their programs in their fourth or fifth years, corresponding with the 201213 and 201314 academic cycles. the graduation spread for college students was wider: most records showed that graduation occurred in years two through four, though a small but notable proportion completed their programs within the first and fifth years (2015). most graduates (88%) obtained their first credential from the postsecondary institution they first attended in september 2009, while 12% graduated from a program at a different institution. it is these transfer students who are the focus of the present study. to contextualize the findings, the outcomes of transfer students are compared to their directentry counterparts using the following graduation pathways: 1. university: direct-entry (students who started and graduated from the same university). 2. university to college (students who started in university and graduated from college). 3. university to university (students who started in one university and graduated from another university). 4. college: direct-entry (students who started and graduated from the same college). 5. college to college (students who started in one college and graduated from another college). 6. college to university (students who started in college and graduated from a university). the derived transfer variable does not consider students who transfer across fields of study within the same institution, nor does it distinguish between students who make one versus multiple transfers. however, our preliminary estimates reveal that those who transfer across multiple institutions (swirlers) represent only a very small fraction (approximately 0.5%) of the postsecondary student population. 10 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students descriptive results table 1 (p. 28) displays the descriptive results for non-transfer (i.e., direct-entry) and transfer students who started their program of study in the province of ontario in 2009 by graduation status and canada student loan information at the end of their study period. findings revealed that four out of five (82%; n=65,260) direct-entry students had completed their programs by the end of the study period, whereas just over half (57%, n=6,460) who transferred to a different institution had completed their programs during the same period. with respect to student loans, a greater proportion (57%; n=6,490) of students who transferred post-secondary institutions had a loan balance at the end of their study period compared to students who did not transfer (47%; n=37,960). data in table 1 are visualized in figures 1 and 2 (pp. 28 and 29). these findings demonstrate that, relative to their direct-entry counterparts, transfer students were less likely to have completed their programs within eight years, and they were more likely to make use of government student loans. table 2 (p. 30) displays the descriptive characteristics of ontario postsecondary students who enrolled in september 2009 by transfer grouping. gender overall, postsecondary students entering university in 2009 were more often female, regardless of route of entry. specifically, 57% of female students entered directly into university compared to 43% of male students. female transfer students also made up a larger proportion of university to university (57%) transfers, and university to college (52%) transfer groups than males. analyses of gender differences in college post-secondary pathways revealed that males and females were equally represented among direct-entry students and college-to-university transfer students. those who transferred across colleges were somewhat more likely to be male (54% male vs. 46% female). overall, these findings indicate that university students were more likely to be female, while the gender composition of college students included roughly equal numbers of females and males. 5. minor discrepancies in totals are attributable to rounding requirements as part of statistics canadas disclosure requirements. 6. statistics canada uses the term sex. due to issues relating to reporting and cell size, we could only report estimates for males and females. 11 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students age table 2 highlights differences in the age composition of students by institution type. data indicate that those who began pse in a university and stayed in a universitywhether by direct-entry or transfertended to be younger (i.e., 17 and 18 years of age) than those who entered college. college students, on the other hand, were slightly older, and this was true for direct-entry and college-to-college transfers. country of birth the overwhelming majority of students in ontarios pse institutions were born in canada: more than 90% of direct-entry and transfer students at universities and colleges were canadian-born (see table 2). compared to their counterparts in the college system, students born outside of the country made up a larger proportion of those in the university direct-entry pathway, as well as the pathways that involved transfer to or from university. field of study descriptive analyses of psis and cslp data revealed differences in program of study by postsecondary pathway (see table 2). among direct-entry university students, the greatest proportion entered stem fields (27%), followed by the humanities (20%) and social sciences (19%). similar results were observed among those who transferred between universities: stem fields accounted for 26% of university-to-university transfers, the humanities made up 21%, and 19% were in the social sciences. among direct-entry college students, one in five entered business and stem programs. the same was true for those who transferred between colleges. differences in field of study were notable among university-to-college and college-touniversity students. those who transferred from a university to a college program were more often studying in the humanities (27%) and social sciences (23%). this finding suggests that university entrants to the social sciences and humanities may transfer to college in search of career training or practical experience to prepare them for the labour force. those who transferred from a college to a university program were more commonly studying in healthrelated fields (24%), suggesting that students interested in health-related fields may use college as a stepping-stone to university. 12 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students length of study as expected, direct-entry students to college and university were most likely to be enrolled in their programs for four years (or less for college students) to five years (see table 2). in college, close to nine out of ten direct-entry students were enrolled in their programs for four years or fewernot a surprise given that college diploma programs are typically one to three years in length. among university non-transfers, 58% were enrolled for four years and another 29% were enrolled for five years, for a total of 87%. again, this is to be expected, as university undergraduate programs are typically four-year programs, though it is clear that a substantial proportion of students require an additional year to complete their degrees. in contrast to direct-entry students, transfers typically spent more time in pse. among university-to-university, university-to-college, and college-to-university transfer students, roughly one half were enrolled for upwards of five years. with 54% of students enrolled for at least six years, students who followed a college-to-university pathway spent the most amount of time in pse, suggesting that the university system may less readily apply college credits to university programs. students who transferred from college to college were less likely than other transfer students to spend six or more years in pse; though, at more than one third of enrollments, the number was substantial. graduation descriptive statistics summarized in table 2 indicate that, among direct-entry university students, 86% (n=52,770) completed their programs. the majority of university-to-university and university-to-college transfers also graduated, though the numbers were considerably lower (69% and 56%, respectively). a similar pattern was evident among direct-entry and college transfer students, whereby direct-entry students were more likely to graduate (67%) than transfer studentsjust 40% of college-to-college students graduated from their programs, while 54% of college-to-university transfers completed theirs. taken together, these findings demonstrate that, generally, students who began their pse at a university were more likely to graduate than those who began at college, and both university and college transfer students were less likely to complete their programs than their direct-entry counterparts. loan balance at end of study lastly, table 2 demonstrates that direct-entry students were least likely to have a loan balance at the end of their study period: 50% of students in the university pathway, and 39% of students in the college pathway, had incurred a canada student loan. this gap may be explained by the lower tuition costs and shorter duration of college programs relative 13 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students to university programs in ontario which, generally, makes college less costly than university, thereby reducing the need for student borrowing to fund postsecondary education. in contrast to their direct-entry counterparts, more than half of transfer students had received a canada student loan. about 55% of university-to-college, college-to-university, and collegeto-college transfersand nearly two-third of university-to-university transfershad a loan balance at the end of their studies. these data are visualized in figure 4 (p. 31), which highlights the finding that transferring between post-secondary institutions increases the likelihood that students will borrow funds to help subsidize the extra cost of schooling. 14 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students student loan holders data in table 3 (p. 31) display the graduation rates of canada student loan holders who started their program of study in the province of ontario in 2009 for both direct-entry and transfer students. table 3 reveals that, among canada student loan holders, the vast majority (83%; n=29,150) of non-transfer students completed their programs, whereas 17% (n=6,060) did not. among canada student loan holders among all transfer students, as many as 43% (n=2,370) did not complete their programs. table 4 (p. 32) displays the sample characteristics for all canada student loan holders in ontario who started their programs in 2009 by transfer grouping. the table includes demographic characteristics, program-related information, as well as parental income and student debt. the demographic and program-related characteristics of the student loan subsample are largely similar to the characteristics of all students who entered pse shown in table 2, with a few notable exceptions. first, psis and cslp data on student loan holders suggest that females were disproportionately more likely than males to rely on student loans to fund their postsecondary education. the gap was greatest among students who entered college and stayed in college: 50% of direct-entry college students and 46% of college-tocollege transfers were female. among canada student loan holders, however, 56% of directentry college students and 52% of college-to-college transfers were female. smaller but persistent gaps were evident among the remaining transfer pathways, whereby females were more likely than males to have received a canada student loan. the second notable difference between the overall sample who entered pse in ontario in 2009 and the subsample of student loan holders is length of study. among students who began their postsecondary programs at a university, student loan holders were somewhat less likely than the overall sample to have completed their programs in four years. among directentry university students, for example, 58% of the overall sample completed their studies within four years compared to 54% of loan holders. this gap was not evident for college entrants. this finding suggests that a longer study period is associated with an increased reliance on student loans to fund the cost of education among students who attended university but not college, likely because at ontario universities, the cost of tuition tends to be higher, and the duration of programs tends to be longer. in addition to student demographic characteristics and program-related information, differences in parental income and outstanding student loans were analyzed. results are summarized in table 4. 15 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students parental income among student loan holders who entered university, the mean annual parental income ranged from $62,600 to $67,400. among those who entered college, parental income was lower, ranging from $55,900 to $57,700. within the university entrants group, the average parental income was lowest among students who transferred from university to college, suggesting that family income may be a factor that determines whether students will continue with university studies or pursue a less costly option (see figure 5, p. 33). student debt finally, table 4 highlights differences in outstanding canada student loans among loan holders across the six educational pathways. it is important to note that student loans in the province of ontario are funded by both the federal and provincial governments. the amounts reported here only represent the federal portion of student loans, which accounts for approximately 60% of the total amount of student debt upon study completion (employment and social development canada 2019). the provincial government contributes the remaining 40% (employment and social development canada 2019). findings demonstrate that students who spent time in university incurred substantially more debt than students who attended college, and students who transferred tend to take on more debt than students who did not (with the exception of university-to-college transfers, see figure 6, p. 35). among canada student loan holders who attended only university, the mean amount of debt was about $16,000 (in 2017 dollars) as of their last record in psis. in comparison, students who entered college and remained in college incurred an average of $6,800 to $8,400, or 50% to 60% of the total amount of debt held by university students. among college-to-university and university-to-college transfers, total debt was, as expected, higher than students in college only pathways and lower than those in university only pathways. those who began their postsecondary education at college and transferred to a university tended to incur more debt than students who started at university and transferred to college. 16 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students regression results logistic regression multiple logistic regression models were used to regress student borrowing on transfer groupings while accounting for observable variables from the psis and cslp datasets that are known predictors of post-secondary pathways and student debt. these variables include gender, age at the start of program, country of birth, field of study, length of study, graduation, and parental income. table 5 (p. 34) presents the results of the logistic regression analyses. all independent variables were treated as categorical (reference categories are denoted in the table). the purpose of model 1 is to compare the six educational pathways without controls. model 2 assesses the effect of the transfer variable, while holding constant the other variables noted above. results from the first model revealed that students who transferred between universities, colleges, and those who transferred between college and university, were significantly more likely than direct-entry university students (i.e., the reference group) to borrow from the cslp to subsidize the cost of their post-secondary education (p <.01). non-transfer (i.e., direct-entry) college students, on the other hand, were less likely than non-transfer university students to borrow a canada student loan (p<.001). when adding control variables to isolate the effect of transfer group on student borrowing, results revealed that differences in the likelihood of borrowing from the cslp by transfer grouping diminished or disappeared in many instances. though the effect of transfer group variable was statistically significant (p<.001), findings suggest that college-to-college, university-to-college, and college-to-university transfer students were no more or less likely to borrow federal student loans than direct-entry university students. however, differences in the likelihood of incurring debt remained for direct-entry college and university-touniversity transfers, whereby direct-entry college students were less likely to borrow (p<.001), and university-to-university transfers were more likely to borrow, than their direct-entry university counterparts. in terms of the control variables, findings revealed that female students were more likely than male students to borrow funds from the cslp when controlling for the other variables 7. additional logistic regression models were performed only for canada student loan holders who graduated from their program (see appendix table a1) and those who had not graduated by the end of the study period (see appendix table a2). there were very few differences when comparing the estimates in table 6 with those in tables a1 and a2 in the appendix. the analysis focusing on non-graduates revealed some subtle differences in relation to program of study and the variable that captures transfer and non-transfer groupings. 17 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students in the model (p<.001). students who were older at entry to pse (i.e., those aged 19) were more likely to require a loan than those aged 17 and 18 years (p<.001), and canadian-born students were more likely than those born outside of canada to borrow a federal student loan (p<.001). the effect of field of study was also statistically significant (p<.001). the estimates and corresponding levels of statistical significance are provided in table 5. length of study was also statistically significant (p<.001): students enrolled in postsecondary education for four, five, and six to seven years were more likely than those enrolled for four years to require a loan from the canadian government to support their studies in university and college (p <.001). these findings indicate that demographic factors (i.e., gender, age, country of birth) and program-related factors (i.e., field of study, length of study) are all important predictors for determining which students rely on government funding to help subsidize the cost of post-secondary education. to facilitate meaningful interpretation of the transfer group variable, regression estimates were converted to predicted probabilities. results are presented in table 6 (p. 35) and plotted in figure 7 (p. 36). model 1 in table 6 displays the predicted probability of receiving a government loan to help subsidize the cost of post-secondary education for transfer and non-transfer students without controls in the model, and model 2 presents the predicted probabilities when holding the socio-demographic and program-related variables constant. the estimates in table 6 are accompanied by 95% confidence intervals. the 95% confidence intervals in model 2 are obtained by holding the other variables constant at their proportions. estimates in table 6 revealed that the predicted probability of borrowing funds to subsidize the cost of postsecondary education was .50 for direct-entry university students. the same was true for college-to-college, college-to-university, and university to college transfer students. in contrast, the probability of borrowing a federal student loan was higher among students who transferred between universities (.58). among direct-entry college students, on the other hand, the probability of borrowing from the canada student loan program was .41. these findings suggest that transferring between universities imposes a heavier financial burden on students, which is likely attributable to the increased amount of time it takes to complete their program of study. the effects displayed in figure 7 provide a visualization of the estimates in table 6. the confidence intervals in the displays are particularly valuable for identifying statistically significant differences across transfer pathways. moreover, comparing the predicted probabilities with and without controls also highlights that, when holding other variables in the model constant, differences in the predicted probability of borrowing narrows among transfer pathways, meaning that some of the differences across the educational pathways identified in model 1 are attributable to the control variables added in model 2. 8. when not otherwise stated, all estimates derived from regression models with control variables are to be interpreted as controlling for the other variables in the model. 18 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students ordinary least squares regression a second regression analysis was used to predict the amount of student debt held by transfer students at the end of their programs; hence, it excludes students who did not borrow from the cslp during their programs. for this analysis, we employed a standard linear regression model where the dependent variable was the total amount of the canada student loan owing at the end of the last reporting cycle for the first post-secondary program (adjusted to 2017 dollars). for this model, the parental income variable in the cslp dataset, which was only assessed for students identified as dependents, was included. the parental income variable is grouped into quintiles. the first quintile includes dependent students in the lowest 20% of parental incomes and the fifth quintile includes students with parental incomes in the top 80 to 100%. dependent students are defined as those individuals who are single, not a sole-support parent, have been out of high school for fewer than four years prior to the start of their study period, have not been employed for 12 consecutive months on two or more occasions, and are not a permanent ward of a child and family services agency. the vast majority of 17- to 19-year-old students with federal loans are classified as dependents. table 7 displays the results of ordinary least squares (ols) regression analysis predicting the amount of student debt among canada student loan holders. model 1 revealed differences in the amount of student debt incurred by students by transfer pathway. as expected, students in direct-entry community college programs borrowed less money compared to their directentry university counterparts (p<.001), as did students who transferred between colleges (p<.001), from university to college (p<.05), and from college to university (p<.01). taken together, ols regression results demonstrate that the highest amount of student debt was incurred among direct-entry university students and those who transferred between universities, while direct-entry college students incurred the least amount of debt. model 2 builds on model 1 by including control variables to isolate the total amount of money borrowed from the cslp to subsidize the cost of post-secondary education, after controlling for relevant predictors in the model. as shown in table 7, model 2 revealed that the sociodemographic variables had statistically significant effects on the total amount students borrowed from the cslp throughout the study period. interestingly, female students incurred more debt by the end of their studies compared to male students (p<.001), and students aged 19 years borrowed more money to subsidize their education costs relative to students who were 17 and 18 years old at the time they entered post-secondary (p<.001). with respect to country of birth, students born outside of canada incurred more student debt compared to students born in canada (p<.001). the effect of parental income was statically significant (p<.001), meaning that it was an important predictor of how much money students borrowed from the cslp. in relation to the reference category, students in the second, third and fourth quintiles for parental income incurred more debt relative to those in the first quintile (p<.001). students in the top quintile borrowed less money compared to those in the lowest quintile (p<.001). these findings are not unexpected, as students in the lowest quintile are most likely 19 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students to have some of their schooling costs subsidized through non-refundable grants requiring them to borrow less. likewise, students in the highest quintile may be most likely to have some of their schooling costs subsidized through their parents. model 2 demonstrates that program-related factors were significant predictors for the total amount of debt incurred by students. the effect of field of study was statically significant (p<.001), indicating that students who studied in the humanities, social sciences, stem, business, and health-related fields, as well as those classified as other, borrowed less money compared to those studying fine arts programs (p<.001). students studying in the humanities and social sciences had the lowest amount of student debt by the end of their programs, whereas students studying in the fine arts had the highest total debt. not surprisingly, length of study was also statically significant (p<.001). relative to those who were enrolled in their programs for four years, students who were enrolled for five, six and seven or more years incurred more debt (p<.001). students enrolled for five years had the highest total amount of debt, whereas students enrolled for four years had the least amount of debt. findings further revealed that the effect of transfer group was statically significant (p<.001). the regression model indicates that direct-entry to university and university-to-university transfers incurred the most debt, while direct-entry college students and college-to-college transfers borrowed about $8,000 to $9,000 less from the cslp relative to those in the direct-entry university category (p<.001) when holding other variables in the model constant. college-to-university transfers also borrowed less money than their direct-entry counterparts by an average of roughly $5,400 (p<.001). those who transfer from university to college, on the other hand, borrowed an average of $2,500 less than non-transfer university students (p<.001). additional standard linear regression models were employed to examine how the total amount of student debt changed based on graduation. in comparison to model 2 in table 6, the only difference in the finding for students who graduated was in relation to transfer groupings. specifically, the difference in the total amount of debt between students who entered college and transferred to university, and those who entered university and did not transfer, was no longer statistically significant when controlling for graduation. additionally, students who transferred between universities borrowed more money from the cslp by the end of their studies compared to those in direct-entry university (p<.001). the regression estimates for the total loan amount at the end of the students studies were converted into predicted values of the dependent variables (amount owing at the end of study record) for the key variable that distinguishes among transfer and non-transfer students. predicted probabilities are presented in table 8 (p 37). model 1 displays the predicted loan amount by transfer grouping for all loan holders without controls. the loan estimates in this model are similar to the estimates provided in table 4, however they are accompanied by their corresponding 95% confidence intervals for statistical inferences across the categories. the estimates in model 2 are derived from the regression estimates from table 7, which control for observable characteristics in the psis and cslp 20 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students datasets. these estimates indicate that students who enter pse through university and stayed at the same institution incurred an average of $16,034 of debt, whereas those who transferred between universities and those who entered university and transferred to college borrowed on average $16,091.38 and $10,673, respectively. in other words, when controlling for the other variables in the model, there was essentially no difference between the total amount borrowed for direct-entry university and those who transferred between universities; however, those who entered university and transferred to college owed about $5,400.00 less. in comparison, students in direct-entry college programs borrowed an average of $6,902.20, while those who transferred to another college owed $7,865.26, and those who transferred to university owed $13,533.09. the difference between direct-entry college students and college-to-college transfers in terms of the total amount of debt incurred was just under $1,000. in contrast, those who entered college and transferred to university owed $6,630.89 less than their direct-entry college counterparts. the predicted probabilities from model 1 and model 2 are displayed in figure 8 (p. 37). comparing these two figures revealed that the differences in the amount of student loans borrowed across transfer and non-transfer students do not change after controlling for the other variables in the model. 21 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students discussion taken together, results of this research highlighted the heftier student loan burden among students who attend pse in ontario. among the 2009 cohort, students who attended universityeither for a portion or the entirety of their postsecondary studieswere more likely to receive a canada student loan and hold higher loan balances than those who attended college. this finding is consistent with data from the government of canadas statistical review (employment and social development canada 2019). moreover, postsecondary students who transferred across institutions during their studies were more likely to borrow than students who stayed at the same institution. this finding is likely explained by the duration of their studies, whereby transfer students tend to be enrolled in pse for a longer period than non-transfer students. in terms of borrowing amounts among transfer students, the results revealed that collegeto-college transfers, on average, carried a lower debt burden at the end of their studies relative to students who transferred from college to university and vice versa. these findings are consistent with our expectations, as university tuition is typically higher than college tuition, and university programs are generally longer (three to four years) than college programs (which are normally one to two years in length). while university-only pathways are typically more expensive and require a higher level of borrowing, students who pursue these pathways are most likely to graduate from their programs, which may better position them for repaying their student debt following completion of their studies. differences in the likelihood of borrowing and average debt at pse completion among transfer pathways persisted after taking into account important predictors of postsecondary pathways and debt, including gender, age, immigrant status and, among loan borrowers, parental income. students in university pathways were most likely to complete their schooling, and students who transferred between colleges, and between college and university, were less likely to graduate, more likely to borrow government student loans, and at greater risk of not graduating than those who remained at the same institution for the duration of their studies (as illustrated in tables 1 and 2). as such, transfer students are an important group for study, particularly as it relates to the consequences associated with their disproportionate student loan burdensuch as the risk of defaulting on student loan repayments. by accounting for multiple transfer pathways, this research has demonstrated that transfer students face challenges that their direct-entry counterparts do not, which has implications for their future labour market performance as well the long-term financial strain associated with a heavier debt load. for this reason, transfer students require greater attention in pse research. 22 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students limitations most student borrowing in canada is coordinated through one system, whereby participating provinces and territories work collaboratively with the federal government to provide funding to students. in this system, as mentioned previously, the federal government funds approximately 60% of assessed financial need for full-time students, and the remaining 40% is funded by their respective provinces and territories. students residing in ontario, then, receive 40% of their funding through the ontario student assistance program (osap). as such, the amount of money borrowed from provincial student loans programs is not available in the elmlp. while our analysis of cslp data only reflects federal student financial aid, these results provide good evidence regarding the relative levels of student debt among direct-entry and transfer students. still, future research that considers both federal and provincial student loans will provide a better understanding of the overall student debt burden experienced by transfer students. second, while this research provides a good picture of debt burden and the effects of student mobility on borrowing for those who do and do not complete their programs, a longer time frame is necessary to track the default levels for this cohort of pse graduates. transfer students are less likely to complete their programs than their direct-entry counterparts, putting them at a higher risk of failing to repay their student loans and experiencing greater financial stress. future research will therefore benefit from using additional reporting cycles of the psis and cslp to shed light on the default levels of ontario transfer students. 23 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students future directions the focus of this research was on the post-secondary pathways and student loan outcomes of 1719-year-old transfer students who entered their postsecondary programs for the first time in september 2009. however, our preliminary analyses revealed that students who do not enter pse directly out of high school are much more likely to attend college, whereas a majority 17-19-year-olds attend university. likewise, students who enter pse later have very different postsecondary trajectories and outcomes (kerr 2011; chen 2017; kallison 2017; kim and baker 2015). in fact, a recent u.s. study has identified several challenges that many adult learners transitioning into post-secondary face as they navigate their way through their programs (shapiro et al. 2019). such challenges include barriers related to student support services, childcare, credit transfer, class scheduling, and financial aid (shapiro et al. 2019:18). our preliminary analyses also revealed that both college and university late starters (i.e., students who entered their program after september) were less likely to attain a postsecondary credential within five years than students who started their programs in september. the extent to which program entry date is related to pathways and loan outcomes is beyond the scope of this research. however, we suspect that this and other factors will influence the pathways and outcomes of new and emerging populations of postsecondary students, many of whom will transfer through programs. we are currently working on a follow-up study to assess the outcomes of transfer students who pursue non-traditional routes into pse. finally, the extent to which lower graduation rates and loan outcomes of transfer students are attributable to unobserved individual or institutional characteristics, particularly relating to preparation and ability, could not be assessed using data in psis and cslp. the follow-up study mentioned above will also draw on data linkages between the elmlp and toronto district school board to enable an investigation of the extent to which unobserved characteristics in this study can explain transfer pathways and borrowing patterns. the results of this research will help improve our understanding of the challenges experienced by transfer students as they navigate through postsecondary education in ontario. 24 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students references allen, janine, cathleen smith, and jeanette muehleck. 2014. pre- and post-transfer academic advising: what students say are the similarities and differences. journal of college student development 55(4): 353-367. aucc. 2011. trends in higher education. ottawa, ontario: association of universities and colleges of canada. ben-ishai, stephanie. 2006. government student loans, government debts and bankruptcy: a comparative study. the canadian business law journal 44(2):211-244. brown r. (2010). the grade 9 cohort of fall 2004. toronto: toronto district school board. canadian council on learning. 2010. tallying the costs of post-secondary education: the challenge of managing student debt and loan repayment in canada. ottawa, ontario: number 3 in monograph series challenges in canadian post-secondary education. corak, miles, garth lipps, and john zhao. 2003. family income and participation in post-secondary education. ottawa: statistics canada catalogue no. 11f0019mie no. 210. chen, joseph c. 2017. nontraditional adult learners: the neglected diversity in postsecondary education. sage open 7(1):215824401769716. doi: 10.1177/2158244017697161. drewes, torben. 2010. postsecondary education and the labour market in ontario. toronto, ontario: higher education quality council of ontario. employment and social development canada. 2019. canada student loans program statistical review 2016 to 2017. government of canada. retrieved may 9, 2020. (https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/canada-student-loans-grants/ reports/cslp-statistical-2016-2017.html). ferguson, sarah and shunji wang. 2014. graduating in canada: profile, labour market outcomes and student debt of the class of 2009-2010. ottawa, ontario: statistics canada catalogue no. 81-595-m no. 2014101. finnie, ross, stephen childs and andrew wismer. 2010. student borrowing and debt (version 11-18-10). a mesa project l-slis research brief. toronto, on: canadian education project. finnie, ross, michael dubois, and masashi miyairi. 2017. how student pathways affect labour market outcomes: evidence from tax-linked administrative data. university of ottawas education policy research initiative. frank, kristyn and david walters. 2012. exploring the alignment between post-secondary education programs and earnings: an examination of 2005 ontario graduates. the canadian journal of higher education 42(3):93115. 25 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students frempong, george, xin ma and joseph mensah. 2012. access to postsecondary education: can schools compensate for socioeconomic disadvantage? higher education 63(1):1932. frenette, marc. 2011. is debt relief as good as liquidity? the impact of prospective student debt on post-secondary attendance among low-income youth. vancouver, british columbia: canadian labour market and skills researcher network. frenette, marc. 2017. postsecondary enrolment by parental income: recent national and provincial trends. ottawa, ontario: statistics canada catalogue no. 11-626-x no. 070. frenette, marc. 2019. do youth from lower- and higher-income families benefit equally from postsecondary education? ottawa, ontario: statistics canada catalogue no. 11f0019m no. 424. gawley, timothy and rosemary mcgowan. 2006. learning the ropes: a case study of the academic and social experiences of college transfer students within a developing university-college articulation framework. college quarterly 9(3):1-18. kallison, james m. 2017. the effects of an intensive postsecondary transition program on college readiness for adult learners. adult education quarterly 67(4):30221. doi: 10.1177/0741713617725394. kapsalis, costa. 2006. who gets student loans? perspectives on labour and income 18(2):12-18. kerr, angelika, ursula mccloy, and shuping liu. 2010. forging pathways: informing policy through analysis of current research students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto, ontario: higher education quality council of ontario. kerr, angelika. 2011. adult learners in ontario postsecondary institutions. toronto, ont.: higher education quality council of ontario. kim, kyung-nyun, and rose m. baker. 2015. the assumed benefits and hidden costs of adult learners college enrollment. research in higher education 56(5):51033. doi: 10.1007/s11162-014-9351-x. luong, may. 2010. the financial impact of student loans. perspectives on labour and income 22(1):29-42. ostrovsky, yuri and marc frenette. 2014. the cumulative earnings of postsecondary graduates over 20 years: results by field of study. ottawa, ontario: statistics canada catalogue no. 11-626-x no. 040. percival, jenniger, maurice digiuseppe, bill goodman, ann lesage, fabiola longo, arlene de la rocha, ron hinch, john samis, otto sanchez, anna augusto rodrigues, and phil raby. 2016. exploring factors facilitating and hindering college-university pathway program completion. international journal of educational management 30(1):2042. shapiro, d., m. ryu, f. huie, and q. liu. 2019. some college, no degree: a 2019 snapshot for the nation and 50 states. 17. herndon, va: national student clearinghouse research center. 26 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students speers, luke, arielle stockdale, and chris martin. 2012. student mobility. ontario: ontario undergraduate student alliance. tobolowsky, barbara and bradley cox. 2012. rationalizing neglect: an institutional response to transfer students. the journal of higher education 83(3):389410. townsend, barbara and kristin wilson. 2006. a hand hold for a little bit: factors facilitating the success of community college transfer students to a large research university. journal of college student development 47(4):439-456. wright, laura, david walters, and david zarifa. 2013. government student loan default: differences between graduates of the liberal arts and applied fields in canadian colleges and universities. canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie 50(1):89115. 27 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students figures 28 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 29 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 30 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 31 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 32 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 33 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 34 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 35 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 9. zero order models were rounded as per statistics canada disclosure requirements. 36 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 37 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students appendix 38 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 39 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 40 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students 41 student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students oncat .ca/en/projects/student-loan- outcomes- of- ontario transfer-students established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. 41

f ontario council on articulation and transfer 180 dundas street west, suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 tel: (416) 640-6951 fax: (416) 640-6959 www.oncat.ca request for proposal strategic planning consultant / facilitator closing date: july 29 11:00pm (eastern standard time) closing location: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) suite 1902, 180 dundas street west toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by: ontario council on articulation and transfer contact: alastair woods awoods@oncat.ca senior policy analyst (647) 378-8942 main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student-facing website: www.ontransfer.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario 1 contents oncat overview ........................................................................................................................................... 3 invitation ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 project overview ........................................................................................................................................... 4 project objectives .......................................................................................................................................... 4 qualifications and experience ....................................................................................................................... 4 proposal requirements ................................................................................................................................. 4 communication.............................................................................................................................................. 5 submission process ........................................................................................................................................ 5 evaluation process ......................................................................................................................................... 6 evaluation criteria weighting ........................................................................................................................ 7 timelines & awards ....................................................................................................................................... 7 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 2 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat aims to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer. working with our network of ontarios colleges and universities, indigenous institutes, students, government, guidance counsellors, as well as other stakeholders provincially and nationally, oncat is building a culture and understanding of transfer so that students can pursue a more seamless and affordable postsecondary education. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: developing and maintaining the student-facing website ontransfer.ca, used to connect current and prospective students to transfer opportunities; supporting and funding academic projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontarios regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; and hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. invitation oncats current three-year strategic plan coming to an end in march 2023. oncat invites qualified individuals/organizations to submit a proposal to lead the design process of oncats next strategic plan, to be in effect from 2023-2026. oncat plans on a consultative process that engages oncat board of directors, staff, and relevant stakeholders in the development of oncats strategic plan. oncat anticipates broad stakeholder engagement, and multiple avenues for participation and feedback to ensure the final strategic plan is informed by a diversity of insights and expertise within oncats sphere of influence. this includes the need to integrate government priorities specified in oncats transfer payment agreement (tpa ) with the ministry of colleges and universities into the strategic plan. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 3 project overview oncat was established in 2011 as a not-for-profit organization and is primarily funded by the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mcu). as oncat has matured and grown as an organization we require a strategic review of our strategic plan. for general information about oncat, please visit www.oncat.ca. for more information on the student portal, visit www.ontransfer.ca. project objectives the main objectives of the project include: facilitating mission, vision and values review and update to reflect the current environment, internal and external organizational priorities and goals, by september 2022 facilitating stakeholder consultations with oncat staff; sector partners, external stakeholders, in fall 2022 conducting environmental scans and/or swot analysis developing a draft strategic plan, for review and response by november 2022 developing a final strategic plan by january 2023 identify strategies and actions to support implementation of the plan develop a communications plan, that involves government relations and sector engagement qualifications and experience experience in strategic planning and facilitation in higher education, or with non-profit organizations. experience collaborating and consulting with board members, stakeholders and staff experience with government relations and communications considered an asset ability to facilitate consultations in english and french considered an asset proposal requirements proposals must at a minimum contain the following: 1. contact information for the respondent. 2. description of the proposed approach. this should include a description of the organizations business principles and approach to developing an architectural vision, principles and roadmap. 3. detailed work plan. the work plan should describe activities that are specific, measurable, achievable and realistic. include a timeline of major tasks and milestones. oncat anticipates the project will commence in august 2022, with a draft strategic plan developed by november 2022, a process of feedback and review on this draft and a final strategic plan for approval in january 2023. 4. a detailed budget. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 4 5. qualifications of the respondent. to provide the requested services including capability, capacity, similarly complex projects and related experience and client references. confirmation of availability of individuals in proposal. 6. applicants resume(s) or biographies outlining relevant experiences. include a listing of the staff to be assigned to this project and their respective qualifications, past experience on engagements of this scope including resumes, and their role in those past engagements. 7. two successful case studies of strategic plans developed for organizations (ideally in postsecondary education, not-for-profit, or provincially- / federally-funded organizations). 8. a statement of understanding on any confidential issues for this project and disclosure concerning any perceived or potential conflicts of interest. 9. a description of the outcome monitoring and evaluation plan including a list of tools to track process, output and outcome measures for each component of the review. 10. technical definitions if required. 11. 2 successful professional references. communication all communication such as 1) requests for additional information, 2) clarification, directed in writing by email to: awoods@oncat.ca all such rfp-related inquiries must be received no later than july 20 at 4:00 p.m. eastern standard time. oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information of a reasonable nature that may be requested by interested consultants/consultancies. submission process 1. please review all sections of this rfp carefully and follow all instructions. incomplete submissions will be not be considered. 2. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to accomplish the desired or intended results of this procurement are solicited. however, proposals that depart from or materially alter the terms, requirements, or scope of work defined by this rfp may be rejected. 3. all costs associated with developing or submitting a proposal (including an interview) in response to this rfp and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal shall be borne by the consultant/consultancy. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. 4. all pricing submitted will be considered fixed unless otherwise indicated herein. 5. all proposals should identify the consultant/consultancy proposed team of professionals, including those employed by subcontractors, if any, along with respective areas of expertise and relevant credentials. agencies should also provide a delineation of the portion of the scope of work for which each of these professionals will be responsible. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 5 consultants/consultancies are required to submit one (1) electronic copy of their proposal to: awoods@oncat.ca please ensure the subject line reads as follows: oncat strategic planning consultant / facilitator oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of july 29th at 11:00 p.m. eastern standard time. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfp document become the property of oncat. oncat can decide to not proceed with these activities. evaluation process the evaluation process will include several stages. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. stage 1 - mandatory requirements proposals will be reviewed for mandatory requirements and general compliance with the submission proposal requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements will be disqualified. stage 2 - rank the evaluation the evaluation committee will evaluate and rank the written proposals, to identify the topranked consultant/consultancy(s) to be invited to the presentation stage should a presentation be required. stage 3 - selection the evaluation committee will complete the evaluation template, rank the proposals and presentations then select the preferred consultant/ consultancy(s). consultant/ consultancy(s) may be called in for an interview. stage 4 negotiation prior to award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with consultant/ consultancy(s) identified in stage 3 for the best value option. references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. stage 5 - notice of award the successful consultant/consultancy will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful oncat is funded by the government of ontario 6 consultant/consultancy(s) will be notified after a final agreement has been executed. evaluation criteria weighting overall experience of consultant/consultancy & demonstrated results our evaluation will include an assessment of your experience as it relates to the requirements within this rfp, evidence of past performance, quality and relevance of past work, references, and related areas 50% approach to the review overall approach and strategy described/outlined in the proposal and firm capacity to perform the engagement within the specified timeframe (prior experience in meeting timelines will be factored in here) 20% budget approach/cost effectiveness effective and efficient delivery of quality services is demonstrated in relation to the budget allocation. the allocation is reasonable and appropriate. 20% qualifications of personnel our evaluation will include an assessment of the qualifications and experience of your managerial team, staff, subcontractors, and related personnel. 10% timelines & awards the work is expected to begin as soon as the award is made. project timelines rfp release date july 13, 2022 written questions due (email awoods@oncat.ca) july 20, 2022 proposal deadline july 29, 2022 evaluation august 2-5, 2022 selection and negotiation notice of award week of august 8 2022 week of august 15th, 2022 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 7

rapport final contrat : 2018-17 laurentian transfer pathways in the fields of mining and mechanics titre du projet : dveloppement de parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique prpar par : luniversit laurentienne bureau des affaires francophones 935, chemin du lac ramsey 3e tage, difice parker (p315) sudbury (on) p3e 2c6 tl : 705-675-1151, poste 3421 date : 1er mars 2019 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique liste des intervenants impliqus pour le compte de luniversit laurentienne : rosalie thibeault, charge de projets; nomie thberge, conseillre principale david lesbarrres, vice-recteur intrimaire associ sortant aux tudes et affaires francophones; yves pelletier, vice-recteur associ aux tudes et affaires francophones; osman abour-rabia, doyen de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture; hlne joly, doyenne associe de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture mounir naili, professeur en gnie minier; marc arsenault, professeur en gnie mcanique; diane roy, registraire; melissa ouimette, chef du bureau des admissions; cindy demontigny, directrice des communications. pour le compte du collge boral : marie-claude malette, gestionnaire de projets, mobilit tudiante; lyne michaud, vice-prsidente enseignement; daniel leduc, appui la vice-prsidence enseignement, doyen de lcole des mtiers et des technologies et de lcole des ressources naturelles jeff lafortune, expert de contenu en techniques de prospection et d'exploration minire et de technologie et techniques du gnie de construction - civil et minier andr dion, expert de contenu technologie du gnie lectrique lectronique et de technologie et techniques du gnie lectrique; liane romain, gestionnaire centre dappui pdagogique; julie allen, registraire; ginette brunet, chef du bureau des admissions; jean cotnoir, chef des communications stratgiques. 2 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique table des matires 1) sommaire 4 2) intention et objectifs du projet..5 3) laboration des parcours de transfert....6 4) sommaire des parcours de transferts....11 5) pratiques prometteuses et leons apprises.....12 annexes a, b, c, d : matrices danalyse.... annexe e : modles des parcours de transfert - gnie ...... annexe f : rapport financier.... 3 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique 1) sommaire luniversit laurentienne et le collge boral se sont rapprochs et ont combin leurs efforts pour arriver une fois de plus dvelopper des parcours de transfert novateurs qui seront avantageux pour les tudiants collgiaux souhaitant poursuivre des tudes dans les domaines du gnie minier et mcanique luniversit laurentienne. pour ce faire, nous avons tudi la possibilit dlaborer des passerelles partir des six programmes suivants du collge boral : techniques en prospection et dexploration minire (2 ans) techniques du gnie de construction- civil et minier (2 ans) technologie du gnie de construction civil et minier (3 ans) techniques du gnie lectrique (2 ans) technologie du gnie lectrique (3 ans) technologie du gnie lectronique (3 ans) linitiative aura permis lofficialisation, au cumul, de 12 nouveaux parcours de transfert pour les tudiants francophones dans les domaines du gnie minier et mcanique. 4 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique 2) intention et objectifs du projet en plus de rejoindre les objectifs gnraux du caton le projet avait, pour luniversit laurentienne et le collge boral, les vises suivantes : maximiser les acquis des tudiants diplms des programmes techniques en prospection et dexploration minire (2 ans), techniques et technologie du gnie de construction- civil et minier (2 et 3 ans), techniques et technologie du gnie lectrique (2 et 3 ans), et technologie du gnie lectronique (3 ans) du collge boral; appuyer le recrutement dans les programmes universitaires francophones de gnie minier et mcanique qui sont, parfois, plus petits effectifs et qui pourtant gnrent un intrt dfinitif chez les tudiants collgiaux de programmes affinitaires; poursuivre le dialogue entre luniversit laurentienne et le collge boral, afin de travailler une cohrence entre nos programmes, qui faciliterait et donc stimulerait la mobilit des tudiants francophones dans les domaines du gnie mcanique et minier et profiterait lensemble du systme dducation. 5 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique 3) laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie puisque la nouvelle mthodologie que nous avons dveloppe et mise lpreuve dans le cadre du dveloppement de nos passerelles en architecture et en environnement lan dernier sest avre fructueuse et trs apprcie de nos responsables de programmes, nous avons construit notre dmarche encore une fois sur lanalyse des corrlations au niveau des rsultats dapprentissage de chacun des cursus des programmes de dpart et darrive. nous tions confiants que ce processus nous mnerait vers un juste portrait des possibilits qui soffriraient en fait de parcours. une nouvelle dimension cette anne touchait limplication dun valuateur externe dans la dmarche globale. ceci nous a en fait permis de nous assurer que les rsultats dapprentissage tirs des curricula de chacun des cours taient prcisment dfinis et correctement isols pour garantir un recoupement des rsultats efficace et ainsi permettre une analyse substantielle. pour ce qui est de la squence des tapes et des livrables accomplie, elle sest essentiellement avre la mme que celle prvue et propose dans le cadre du dpt de notre proposition, cest--dire : calendrier des activits avril 2018 tapes et livrables - rencontres avec le doyen de la facult des sciences, du gnie et de larchitecture pour discuter du projet et de ses tapes - allocation des heures sur les formulaires de charge de travail des professeurs-experts de boral et des conseillres pdagogiques pour le printemps 2018 6 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique mai 2018 - rencontres avec les directeurs et doyens des programmes, les responsables des centres dappui au personnel et les gestionnaires des bureaux des admissions la laurentienne et boral pour prsenter le projet - rencontre de dmarrage du ct de chacun des tablissements avec les professeurs des programmes pour changer sur les objectifs des programmes cibls par le projet de la laurentienne et du collge boral. juin 2018 - recueil des plans de cours et autres informations relatives aux rsultats et activits dapprentissage du programme universitaire cibls par le projet septembre 2018 - laboration des six matrices danalyse bases sur les rsultats dapprentissage de chacun des cursus - rtroaction sur la structure danalyse propose par la conseillre principale - approbation de la structure danalyse par le vice-recteur aux tudes et affaires francophones de la laurentienne - valuation des matrices danalyse par lvaluateur externe et ajustement en consquence. - analyse et comparaison des rsultats dapprentissage des diffrents programmes - identification des crdits pouvant tre reconnus - consultation auprs de la chef des admissions de la laurentienne afin de partager les analyses, de complter les rsultats des crdits accords par les normes issues des pratiques administratives gnrales pour les cours aux choix et rsultats acadmiques des candidats, et didentifier la documentation prparer en vue des prochaines tapes dapprobations administratives la laurentienne - consultation des intervenants cls des programmes afin de valider les analyses comparatives effectues des rsultats dapprentissage (directions de programmes de chaque institution, doyens des coles de mtiers des collges et doyen de la facult des sciences, gnie et darchitecture de la laurentienne) - validation finale des parcours dvelopps auprs des intervenants avant dentamer le processus dapprobation octobre 2018 fvrier 2019 mars - avril 2019 7 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique - dveloppement et finalisation des parcours dententes traditionnelles selon les analyses comparatives qui ont t valides par les intervenants des programmes mai juin 2019 - finalisation du processus dapprobation luniversit (2 dernires tapes) p ara (academic regulations and awards) p snat de luniversit laurentienne t 2019 - ajout des parcours aux protocoles dententes - communication avec le bureau dadmission pour ajouter les parcours ontransfer.ca comparaison et analyse des programmes une fois perfectionnes et bien valides par lvaluateur externe, les matrices danalyse nous ont permis de faire la cartographie de lensemble des rsultats dapprentissage de chacun des programmes viss par le projet et leurs recoupements ont t tudis. celles-ci se construisent des rsultats dapprentissage des programmes de gnie de la laurentienne qui se trouvent croiss des rsultats dapprentissage des programmes de boral, et sont utilises de la faon suivante : - pour chaque rsultat dapprentissage correspondant entre le programme universitaire et lun des programmes collgiaux, un 1 a t inscrit dans la grille; - les rsultats dapprentissages correspondants sont ensuite additionns par cours du programme laurentienne arrim; 8 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique - si un cours de la laurentienne compte au moins un rsultat dapprentissage correspondant pour tous ses rsultats dapprentissage, on peut proposer au directeur du programme que ce cours ait un quivalent collgial et que le crdit soit reconnu dans lentente; - mme si lorsque lon fait une comparaison de cours par cours il ny a pas un cours du collge qui est exactement lquivalent dun cours de la laurentienne, la cartographie permet de dmontrer que dans lensemble du diplme collgial, les tudiants ont couvert les rsultats dapprentissage de certains cours; - la fin de lexercice, les directeurs des programmes collgiaux sont consults pour valider les rsultats dapprentissages recoups. ils ont alors loccasion de prciser si certains rsultats ont t omis par faute de clart ou de comprhension des syllabus de cours, ou encore mme de proposer une certaine rvision de leur programme de sorte y ajouter un rsultat dapprentissage particulirement dterminant. les documents excel regroupant lensemble des matrices danalyse utilises dans le cadre de ce projet vous sont prsents en annexe a (techniques en prospection et dexploration minire - 2 ans), annexe b (techniques et technologie du gnie de construction- civil et minier - 2 et 3 ans), annexe c (techniques et technologie du gnie lectrique - 2 et 3 ans), et annexe d (technologie du gnie lectronique - 3 ans). 9 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique processus de mise en uvre et chanciers les processus dapprobation ont une incidence importante sur les chanciers dun tel projet et sa mise en uvre. en effet, certains comits comme le snat par exemple, sont confronts des agendas trs chargs, en plus dun calendrier de rencontres trs limit. ainsi, il faut se rendre lvidence, la rencontre de juin reste la plus propice au traitement de dossiers comme celui-ci et vient par consquent interfrer avec le souhait initial de terminer lensemble des travaux pour la fin avril. au cours des deux prochaines semaines, la cartographie des programmes et les rsultats de la premire analyse quelle propose seront dposs pour validation auprs des instances de chaque tablissement. suite cela, nous entamerons : - la rencontre entre les directeurs de programmes des tablissements afin de faire appel aux rsultats dgags la suite de la premire analyse et proposition de recommandations pour maximiser les parcours; - lapprobation auprs de ara et information au cpf; - lapprobation auprs du snat; - lajout des parcours aux protocoles dententes; - les communications avec le bureau dadmission pour ajouter les parcours ontransfer.ca; - la prparation dune annonce des nouvelles passerelles pour la rentre scolaire. 10 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique 4) sommaire des parcours de transfert crs un bref aperu des parcours de transfert proposs lissue de ce projet vous est prsent sous longlet bilan de chacun des documents excel prsents en annexes a, b, c et d. les dtails spcifiques associs aux parcours de transferts avec les programmes de gnie mcanique et de gnie minier ont t documents tel que demand dans les modles de parcours fournis en annexe e. attention : il est noter que le nombre de crdits accords anticip dans lanalyse qui est fourni avec ce rapport pourrait tre modifi lorsque les ententes seront prsentes ara et au snat. pour cette raison, luniversit laurentienne sengage fournir un complment de rapport caton lorsque toutes les tapes dapprobation seront compltes. 11 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2018-17 parcours de transfert dans les domaines minier et mcanique 5) pratiques prometteuses et leons apprises les pratiques gagnantes pour notre tablissement dans le cadre de llaboration de parcours de transfert se confirment dune initiative lautre. parmi celles-ci restent : limportance de communiquer avec tous les dpartements impliqus des diffrents tablissements. ceux-ci incluent le dpartement du programme en question, la facult, le bureau du registraire et le bureau des admissions, ainsi que les administrateurs et le centre dorientation scolaire qui avisent les tudiants concernant leur horaire, etc.; lapproche danalyse base sur les rsultats dapprentissage et les outils relatifs que nous avons dvelopps, qui apportent une objectivit saine au processus daccord des quivalences; la pertinence dun travail de sensibilisation constant au sein de la laurentienne, afin que le roulement important des intervenants en place ne ninfluence pas la culture que nous tentons dinstaurer ou les objectifs de dveloppement de parcours initialement identifis. 12

final status report oncat project 2017-23 ontario college graphic design advanced diplomas to conestogas bachelor of design (honours) program march 13, 2019 conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning college administration - 299 doon valley drive, kitchener, on n2g 4m4 canada 519.748.5220 www.conestogac.on.ca 1|page table of contents: 1. list of participants and partner institutions 3 2. executive summary 4 3. project overview 6 4. pathway development information 6 5. summary of pathway(s) created 8 6. promising practices and lessons learned 8 7. financial report 8 8. appendices 9 appendix a: method, findings, conclusions, and recommendations 9 appendix b: gap analyses 10 appendix c: bridging documentation 13 appendix d: pathway summary sheet 15 2|page 1. list of participants and partner institutions the following individual participants and partner institutions participated in this project: michelle gnutzman / heather ryall, chair, media and design, conestoga college ryanne spies, program coordinator and faculty, media and design, conestoga college barbara kelly, vice president, academic administration and human resources, conestoga college laura eaglesham / jacinda reitsma, chief financial officer, conestoga college sacha burrows, manager, degree programs, conestoga college mihaela simion / morgan bartlett, curriculum consultant, conestoga college jeffrey schmidt / darren power, administrative support clerk, conestoga college kim carr, academic agreements and pathways officer, conestoga college alain paradis and david bromley, coordinators, graphic design, algonquin college carol bridle faculty, and shirley mondoux faculty, canadore college lisa rebnord faculty, and chris jackman chair, sharon estok, centennial college wes beckett, program coordinator and faculty, kurt muller, associate dean, media, mohawk college jeffrey post, faculty, niagara college frank salituri, faculty, sault college lauretta wood, faculty, and mark jones, chair, seneca college mike lovell, faculty, and lorna mccormack chair, st. clair college erin boyce, faculty, and robin hicks, dean, faculty of applied, science, st. lawrence college 3|page 2. executive summary conestoga will establish academic pathways from graphic design advanced diploma programs across the ontario college system into the bachelor of design (honours) degree program (bdes). the bdes program is a relatively new and unique degree program, currently in its sixth year of delivery. it has already established a good reputation and a significant amount of interest across the college sector, as can be evidenced by the number of colleges wishing to participate in this oncat project. conestoga will partner with nine other colleges to complete this project, including: algonquin college canadore college centennial college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college st. lawrence college st. clair college (hereafter referred to as the partner colleges). conestoga will work with each partner college to conduct a detailed learning outcome gap analysis comparing each advanced diploma program (including conestogas graphic design advanced diploma) to conestogas bdes program. this analysis will illustrate if the program content and outcomes of the studies for which transfer credit is proposed have been met. where unmet, the colleges will identify any requirements for bridging studies that will facilitate advanced standing entry into the proposed program. the ultimate goal of the project will be to create pathways for a total of sixteen programs into conestogas bachelor of design. conestoga will utilize the best practices learned from mapping its own graphic design advanced diploma, as well as those of the partner colleges, to complete a similar gap analysis and design a pathway for the remaining seven graphic design advanced diplomas within the province, as curriculum information is available. the establishment of academic pathways between the graphic design advanced diplomas and the bdes program will provide opportunities for a number of students each year to move into degree level study. the number of available seats will fluctuate from year to year, dependent on student retention numbers entering year three. for example, this fall 2018, the program could accept up to 12 bridging students into year three before reaching capacity. in the 2017/18 year, 58% of registrants in the bdes program did not apply directly from high school, indicating substantial interest from those already in a post-secondary environment. further evidence of student demand is shown by the fact that students from other colleges have been seeking bridging opportunities since the second year of delivery of the new degree program. to prepare these students for success in the degree, the project will focus on creating an efficient bridge that is manageable for students for all sixteen pathways. during development of the bridge, conestoga will include considerations of space planning and economic viability to ensure it can consistently meet the needs of all incoming advanced standing students. if it evolves that there is a significant and sustainable number of students interested in bridging into the degree program, conestoga will invest in the creation of a bridging course(s), where appropriate. additionally, conestoga will seek formally articulated agreements to support the continuous quality of the sixteen pathways. the articulations will include schedules for review that ensure the pathways and bridges remain current. 4|page articulation agreements with the seven partner colleges will be a deliverable incorporated into this oncat project. conestoga college ital (conestoga) has worked to create educational pathways between nine ontario college graphic design advanced diplomas. these colleges include: algonquin college, canadore college, centennial college, mohawk college, niagara college, sault college, seneca college, st. clair college and st. lawrence college into conestogas bachelor of design (honours) program. in total, seven pathways were successfully established, as follows: graphic design advanced diploma, algonquin college graphic design advanced diploma, centennial college graphic design advanced diploma, niagara college graphic design advanced diploma, st. lawrence college graphic design advanced diploma, st. clair college graphic design advanced diploma, sault college graphic design advanced diploma, seneca college of the remaining two college programs, one pulled out of the agreement due to a major program review, and the other was found to be too incompatible with the bdes program to pursue. these pathways are as follows: graphic design advanced diploma, canadore college graphic design advanced diploma, mohawk college 5|page 3. project overview this project will create system-wide mobility opportunities for graphic design advanced diploma graduates to enter the bachelor of design (honours) degree. conestoga will use the best practices learned from working with the participating institutions to finalize pathways for the seven remaining graphic design advanced diplomas in ontario. this unique pathway provides opportunities with the seven participating institutions to articulate efficient, customized pathways to ensure student success. 4. pathway development information a. methodology this project was examined from a few different perspectives before finalizing. initially, we started our comparison through course-to-course mapping between participating diplomas and the bdes program. this involved collecting complete packages of course outlines for each diploma program design. the graphic design program representatives provided relevant program design matrices, learning outcomes, and all course outlines for the graphic design programs to the bdes team. additionally, program maps demonstrating how the program learning outcomes are met through the individual program curriculum were supplied by algonquin, centennial, niagara, sault, seneca, and st. lawrence colleges. due to the length of time between the start of the project (2017) and when the mapping was undertaken, our team found it necessary to re-collect some updated diploma program documents in 2018. once the gap analysis for each diploma program was complete, we sent results to each of the participating institutions to review, verify, and propose corrections through proof of evaluation if necessary. all institutions responded, with one opting to pull out of the pathway because they were in the middle of a major program review. the remaining participants agreed with the conclusions of our analysis. despite this progress, through this process we discovered that having several pathways for various schools and applicants was not the best way to move forward. after questioning if a single pathway could be successfully developed, we began examining standards across diploma programs, with an explicit focus on program learning outcomes (plos). by mapping the plos for both the degree and diplomas, we were able to establish a single, clear pathway, comprising a bridge course, an entry portfolio review for all applicants, as well as two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. b. program comparison and analysis the gap analysis was established first through a course-to-course mapping exercise and finally by mapping the plos and program standards to establish a bridge and necessary application requirements. the results can be seen in appendix b, each participating institution has documentation on the gap analysis from a course level, as well as a program level. the natural entry point for the pathway is level five (third-year), as there is a shift in learning from pure design to business and design. as well, this is the beginning of co-op preparation, prior to the spring coop entry in level seven. 6|page ultimately, the bridging was determined by analyzing the plos. through this we identified the gaps in learning and concluded that pathway candidates would need to participate in a portfolio review, and complete a unique bridging course in their fall semester (level 5), which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps please see appendix c for details. c. implementation process and timelines conestogas bdes and curriculum teams have partnered to complete all analysis and conclusions that support the objectives of project 2017-23: oncat project 2017-23 ontario college graphic design advanced diplomas to conestogas bachelor of design (honours) program, including: a curriculum and gap analysis of the pathways, a corresponding explanation of bridge curriculum and scheduling for the bdes pathway, required pathway documentation (appendix c), and a detailed financial statement (attached separately). conestoga will post complete graphic design advanced diploma to bachelor of design (honours) degree pathway details at ontransfer.ca by march 15, 2019. at that time, the conestoga credit transfer and registrar office will be appropriately informed of the new pathway details. conestoga will engage other ontario colleges with graphic diploma programs following the submission of this final report to oncat to confirm details and customize pathway eligibility, where necessary. action timeline academic chair approval and submission of final report development of bridge course outline review of oncat proposal submission to ontransfer.ca pathway available to students (pending oncat approval) due march 2019 due june 2019 march 2019 onward march 2019 fall 2020 7|page 5. summary of pathway(s) created specific details are located in appendix d: pathway summary sheet. 6. promising practices and lessons learned conestoga found the strategy taken in creating the pathway from graphic design advanced diplomas to bdes to be quite effective. the mapping tool (as provided in appendix b) not only provided clarity through the mapping process, as well can be easily understood by reviewers not involved in the mapping exercise. further, as the map provides information on both the program outcomes compared and the course used to remediate gaps, the documentation can be reviewed for currency and updated with ease. conestoga has also used a pathway summary sheet (appendix d) as an internal document to capture key details of the pathway developed. this sheet is adapted from the required fields to post a pathway at ontransfer.ca. conestoga believes it to be a best practice to build on the expertise of oncat for the communication of this pathway to prospective students, other postsecondary institutions, and internally. the clean table format is also effective for conestogas central administration to post and store pathways within the ontransfer.ca and internal repositories, and serves as a strong snapshot for regulatory bodies, where required. during the analysis, conestogas bdes team determined that they could streamline the pathways process, as well as manage the pathway in the future by: 1. creating one standard bridge derived from mapping the plo standards, backed-up with more detailed course learning outcomes (clo) mapping for each of the participants. 2. including the portfolio review requirement as part of the pathway admission process for students who meet the academic admission requirements. this will be the same portfolio review process that we have in place for candidates entering level one. 3. upon acceptance into the program, requiring students to complete a bridge course; however, based on clo mapping and portfolio review, some students may be able to use prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) for exemption from the bridge. these steps achieved a few things: a simplified bridge applied to all schools, while ensuring that students are entering at the right level and are successful in their completion of the degree. 7. financial report project budget details have been submitted separately for the oncat project 2017-23 ontario college graphic design advanced diplomas to conestogas bachelor of design (honours) program. a detailed financial statement was provided separately to oncat. 8|page 8. appendices appendix a: method, findings, conclusions, and recommendations method: initially, our analysis began at the course level. the clos from partner institutions graphic design advanced diploma programs were compared against the clos found within the first four levels of conestogas bachelor of design. a gap analysis was completed for each graphic design advanced diploma to identify specific outcomes that achieved outcomes defined within bdes. for each bdes program outcome, gaps and their remediation were then assessed and documented. however, when the course level gap analyses were completed, the team determined that there were too many pathway variations based upon course-to-course analysis. therefore, we followed the same process at the program level comparing plos from each graphic design program to those found in bdes. for each bdes program outcome, gaps and their remediation were assessed and documented. please see the individual gap analyses (a.1 - a.7) in appendix b. findings: many of the competencies developed in the graphic design advanced diploma programs address the competencies of the bdes program. conclusions: based on an examination of their knowledge and capabilities, a pathway for graphic design advanced diploma graduates is feasible. recommendations: 1. to support successful entry into, and completion of the program, each student will be required to participate in the standard portfolio review exercise. 2. pathway candidates need to complete a unique bridging course (entitled: third-year degree bridge course) in their fall semester which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. 9|page appendix b: gap analyses b.1: gap analysis: pathway 1: algonquin graphic design advanced diploma to conestoga bachelor of design (honours) degree. algonquin oncat bridge map.pdf participating graphic design advanced diploma programs were assessed on a course to course basis; however, the gaps identified for this pathway are determined by the standard program learning outcomes of graphic design programs to the program learning outcomes of the bachelor of design (honours). the bridge component is reflective of this analysis and will comprise of a portfolio review application, and a unique bridging course (entitled: third-year degree bridge course) taken in fall semester, which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. this bridge map contains a program level pathway map, degree learning outcomes gap analysis, and course level pathway map. b.2: gap analysis: pathway 2: centennial graphic design advanced diploma to conestoga bachelor of design (honours) degree. centennial oncat bridge map.pdf participating graphic design advanced diploma programs were assessed on a course to course basis; however, the gaps identified for this pathway are determined by the standard program learning outcomes of graphic design programs to the program learning outcomes of the bachelor of design (honours). the bridge component is reflective of this analysis and will comprise of a portfolio review application, and a unique bridging course (entitled: third-year degree bridge course) taken in fall semester, which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. this bridge map contains a program level pathway map, degree learning outcomes gap analysis, and course level pathway map. b.3: gap analysis: pathway 3: niagara graphic design advanced diploma to conestoga bachelor of design (honours) degree. 10 | p a g e niagara oncat bridge map.pdf participating graphic design advanced diploma programs were assessed on a course to course basis; however, the gaps identified for this pathway are determined by the standard program learning outcomes of graphic design programs to the program learning outcomes of the bachelor of design (honours). the bridge component is reflective of this analysis and will comprise of a portfolio review application, and a unique bridging course (entitled: third-year degree bridge course) taken in fall semester, which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. this bridge map contains a program level pathway map, degree learning outcomes gap analysis, and course level pathway map. b.4: gap analysis: pathway 4: st. lawrence graphic design advanced diploma to conestoga bachelor of design (honours) degree. st. lawrence oncat bridge map.pdf participating graphic design advanced diploma programs were assessed on a course to course basis; however, the gaps identified for this pathway are determined by the standard program learning outcomes of graphic design programs to the program learning outcomes of the bachelor of design (honours). the bridge component is reflective of this analysis and will comprise of a portfolio review application, and a unique bridging course (entitled: third-year degree bridge course) taken in fall semester, which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. this bridge map contains a program level pathway map, degree learning outcomes gap analysis, and course level pathway map. b.5: gap analysis: pathway 5: st. clair graphic design advanced diploma to conestoga bachelor of design (honours) degree. st.clair oncat bridge map.pdf participating graphic design advanced diploma programs were assessed on a course to course basis; however, the gaps identified for this pathway are determined by the standard program learning outcomes of graphic design programs to the program learning outcomes of the bachelor of design (honours). the bridge component is reflective of this analysis and will comprise of a portfolio review 11 | p a g e application, and a unique bridging course (entitled: third-year degree bridge course) taken in fall semester, which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. this bridge map contains a program level pathway map, degree learning outcomes gap analysis, and course level pathway map. a.6: gap analysis: pathway 6: sault graphic design advanced diploma to conestoga bachelor of design (honours) degree. sault oncat bridge map.pdf participating graphic design advanced diploma programs were assessed on a course to course basis; however, the gaps identified for this pathway are determined by the standard program learning outcomes of graphic design programs to the program learning outcomes of the bachelor of design (honours). the bridge component is reflective of this analysis and will comprise of a portfolio review application, and a unique bridging course (entitled: third-year degree bridge course) taken in fall semester, which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. this bridge map contains a program level pathway map, degree learning outcomes gap analysis, and course level pathway map. a.7: gap analysis: pathway 7: seneca graphic design advanced diploma to conestoga bachelor of design (honours) degree. seneca oncat bridge map.pdf participating graphic design advanced diploma programs were assessed on a course to course basis; however, the gaps identified for this pathway are determined by the standard program learning outcomes of graphic design programs to the program learning outcomes of the bachelor of design (honours). the bridge component is reflective of this analysis and will comprise of a portfolio review application, and a unique bridging course (entitled: third-year degree bridge course) taken in fall semester, which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. this bridge map contains a program level pathway map, degree learning outcomes gap analysis, and course level pathway map. 12 | p a g e appendix c: bridging documentation there will be one bridging course available, as listed below. course title third-year degree bridge course code grdn731100 course description conestoga college recognizes prior learning skills, knowledge, and competencies that have been acquired through the completion of an advanced diploma in graphic design from other eligible ontario colleges. this course is designed to bridge a graphic design advanced diploma graduate from eligible colleges into the third-year of the bachelor of design (honours) degree program. within the course students will build on previous knowledge of design strategies for both traditional and emerging technologies; analyze, synthesize, and use research; employ an iterative design process; and explore cultural impacts on design in different cultures. by taking this course along with other required courses, pathway students will be eligible for a bachelor of design (honours) degree upon successful completion. course outcomes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. analyze and interpret written and visual research to make informed decisions. utilize the iterative design process to create and evaluate professional solutions. synthesize research and design methodologies to develop effective design solutions. examine how the context of appropriate design solutions is impacted by cultural diversity. utilize industry standard software to develop professional design solutions and persuasive written, oral, and visual presentations. 6. interpret written design briefs and verbal instructions to create and iterate design projects, which meet industry standards. unit outcomes research: 1. 2. 3. 4. analyze and synthesize research to develop comprehensive solutions. interpret information to validate decisions. contextualize research to defend written proposals. use proper apa format to cite sources. iterative design: 1. write a creative brief based on criteria within the project brief. 13 | p a g e 2. develop design solutions in response to creative briefs. 3. assess the validity of research for use in design strategies. 4. integrate research and show evidence of critical thinking throughout the creative process. design strategies: 1. investigate traditional media and emerging technologies and their application within design. 2. select design applications to meet the needs of the target audience. 3. implement software effectively in project work. cultural diversity: 1. identify graphic design differences between eastern and western cultures. 2. explore how culture influences design in various markets. 3. interpret research to justify design solutions that meet the needs of specific cultures. professionalism: 1. 2. 3. 4. prepare professionally presentations using various formats. demonstrate professional conduct through verbal, written, and collaborative interactions. participate in individual and group critiques to receive and provide constructive feedback. demonstrate project management skills through meeting expectations of workback schedules. evaluation schedule written assignment x2 @ 15% = 30% projects x2 @ 30% = 60% professionalism - 10% 14 | p a g e appendix d: pathway summary sheet pathway documentation for graphic design advanced diploma(s) to bachelor of design (honours) degree conestoga pathway details title of pathway: from: graphic design advanced diploma, algonquin college graphic design advanced diploma, centennial college graphic design advanced diploma, niagara college graphic design advanced diploma, st. lawrence college graphic design advanced diploma, st. clair college graphic design advanced diploma, sault college graphic design advanced diploma, seneca college to: bachelor of design (honours) conestoga college pathway type: list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: advanced diploma to degree graphic design advanced diploma, algonquin college graphic design advanced diploma, canadore college graphic design advanced diploma, centennial college graphic design advanced diploma, mohawk college graphic design advanced diploma, niagara college graphic design advanced diploma, st. lawrence college graphic design advanced diploma, st. clair college graphic design advanced diploma, sault college graphic design advanced diploma, seneca college pathway implementation september 2020 date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the march 15, 2019 ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for https://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/bachelor-of-designpathway implementation: honours https://www.conestogac.on.ca/admissions/contact.jsp 15 | p a g e eligibility for the pathway graduates of graphic design advanced diploma programs from eligible (student eligibility for the institutions with a minimum average of 70% may apply for advanced pathway): standing into the bachelor of design (honours) degree program. once they proceed from the standard portfolio review process and are given an offer of admission by conestoga, applicants must complete a unique bridging course entitled third-year degree bridge in their fall semester (level 5) which will also be augmented by two current courses offered in different levels (5 and 6) to address the gaps. applicant must have graduated from the program yes at the sending institution: minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for 70% this pathway: minimum gpa or % required 70% in english in specific courses total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving 83 of 198 institution transfer credits granted 83 transfer credits will be granted for the first two years (or levels 1-4) of (please describe pathway the bachelor of design program. clearly and succinctly): total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at the receiving 115 of 198 + third-year degree bridge course institution in order to graduate: anticipated time to complete the credential if six semesters (completed within two academic years) enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs graphic design advanced diploma, algonquin college graphic design advanced diploma, centennial college graphic design advanced diploma, niagara college graphic design advanced diploma, st. lawrence college graphic design advanced diploma, st. clair college graphic design advanced diploma, sault college graphic design advanced diploma, seneca college 16 | p a g e 17 | p a g e

4c reference and resource guide (4c r&r) the 4c r&r would be divided into separate files. one file would contain all of the necessary information required for accessibility and mobility and would be used as a roadmap for admissions and pathways coordinators. the other files would be separate program specific files archiving all program activity and resources. these files would be used by everyone teaching and supporting the learners. table of contents admissions articulation agreements program pathways bachelor of indigenous social work admission requirements transfer options faculty roster cultural advisors student success facilitators bachelor of law and justice admission requirements transfer options faculty roster cultural advisors student success facilitators bachelor of science: food sustainability admission requirements transfer options faculty roster cultural advisors student success facilitators bachelor of health science: midwifery admission requirements transfer options faculty roster cultural advisors student success facilitators social work program resources course outlines/modules assignments assessments weekly schedules lesson plans storyboards (for online delivery) bibliography articles videos websites guest speakers field trips law & justice program resources course outlines/modules assignments assessments weekly schedules lesson plans storyboards (for online delivery) bibliography articles videos websites guest speakers field trips food sustainability program resources course outlines/modules assignments assessments weekly schedules lesson plans storyboards (for online delivery) bibliography articles videos websites guest speakers field trips midwifery program resources course outlines/modules assignments assessments weekly schedules lesson plans storyboards (for online delivery) bibliography articles videos websites guest speakers field trips

project snapshot exploring indigenous transfer students data sharing feasibility between northwestern ontario institutions project lead: lakehead university project collaborators: confederation college of applied arts and technology, oshkipimache-o-win education & training institute, seven generations education institute project summary recent provincial investments and legislation with respect to degree-granting and increased independence for indigenous education institutes have led to a renegotiation of relationships between postsecondary institutions, particularly in northwestern ontario. as performance-based funding is implemented across ontario (spooner, 2019), it is necessary for institutions throughout northern ontario to provide data that ensures the province continues to fund equitable, accessible, and effective education for current and future indigenous post-secondary students. as prior research indicates (e.g. ray, landry, miron & toombs, 2019), the creation of indigenous pathways alone is not sufficient in creating accessibility and equity in postsecondary education. rather, targeted pathways informed by evidence in their development and evaluation must be created. this project seeks to support equity through the creation of a system that will provide the necessary body of evidence needed to create and evaluate targeted pathways. the purpose of this research project is to build a data collection process that elicits a comprehensive data set representative of the state of student mobility and credential-related employment outcomes for indigenous people attending post-secondary institutions in northwestern ontario. this data feasibility project was intended to answer the following question from an inter-institutional perspective: what does a systematic approach to collect outcome-based data on indigenous mobility and employment in northwestern ontario look like? a. what sources of data currently exist? b. what are the data gaps? c. what are the opportunities and barriers to creating a systematic approach to data collection? references: ray, l., landry, j., miron, j. & toombs, e. (2019). indigenous program pathways inventory project, phase two. north bay: canadore college. spooner, m. (october 2019). performance-based funding in higher education. canadian association of university teachers education review. retrieved on december 14, 2019 from https://www.caut.ca/sites/default/files/caut-education-review-performancebased_ funding_in_higher_education.pdf project rationale this project was one step towards developing a regional student mobility strategy in northwestern ontario with an emphasis on indigenous learners. project stakeholders who engaged in inter-institutional data sharing exercises through the oncat funded faculty fellow grant stream in 2017 and 2018 found value in sharing internal data sets. the possibility of sharing student mobility variables across the region allows for pathway and transition support development and maintenance, based more on student demand and less on faculty and administrator perceptions. research findings if every institution agrees to share their internal data and we maintain positive and trustworthy relationships with key staff members, it is feasible to develop a shared student mobility data set in the future. in situations where organizations offer credentials through partnering institutions (example: an indigenous institute delivers a college diploma in partnership with an ontario college) there is a potential to share data where gaps may exist within each individual institution's internal data sets. future research now that we have determined the feasibility of sharing internal student information, the next step is to engage in a quantitative exploration of student mobility data from all participating institutions serving indigenous learners in the region. we are particularly interested in predicting student mobility for new and upcoming post-secondary education (pse) credentials aligned with the indigenous pillar of pse in ontario. additionally, we are interested in exploring patterns of student mobility where students move back and forth between multiple institutions in the region. if we collectively move forward with a data-sharing research project, it is likely that at the end of that project we will have a comprehensive data set of student id information. if a willingness exists at that time to prepare a research proposal and ethics application to initiate a retrospective student experience survey to inform the quantitative data, this would benefit all stakeholders in the region. student outcomes this project benefits transfer students by enhancing the relationship between partnering institutions in the region that provide different types of post-secondary education credentials. it is the first step in creating a data set that guides pathway development using student behaviour instead of perceptions of student behaviour. the resulting transfer pathways will save students time and money in their pse career. institutional outcomes as universities, colleges, and indigenous institutes move towards a more seamless transfer system we recommend increasing the transparency and visibility of student mobility application, enrolment and performance metrics to support targeted transfer pathway development and wrap-around support allocations. sector/system implications governmental and institutional ways of knowing and understanding could be more aligned with indigenous and community ways of knowing and understanding. relationship and emergent, processoriented approaches are worth long-term exploration and integration with more traditional, hierarchical ways of knowing typical to the ministerial and institutional practices in the field of student mobility. tips we suggest that the research be formally rooted in an indigenous methodology and worldview from the outset of the project. in particular, applying a reciprocal and relational approach to meetings and collaborative work tasks was beneficial for everyone involved in this data feasibility project.

nsse survey alignment & analysis project number : r2145 nipissing university prepared in march 2022 by: heather daoust stephen tedesco overview of project project goals & description the national survey of student engagement (nsse) is a survey that has been administered to undergraduate students in their first and graduating years across over 1,600 north american universities. the survey has been conducted in intervals over the past 20 years, gaining popularity as a tool to measure student engagement using a series of meaningful academic and social indicators. through this project, nipissing university will attempt to align where possible fields within the nsse across the 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020 iterations of the survey. the intent will be to pool observations across years to produce a large enough sample across years to analyze differences amongst students that started their post-secondary education at nipissing with those that started their post-secondary education elsewhere. scope of work 1. a field-by-field comparison of codebooks for the six identified waves of the nsse survey. and, in particular, an evaluation of pre-/post-2012 versions of the survey. 2. harmonization of inconsistent fields, where possible. 3. descriptive analysis of students with/without previous post-secondary education, as identified through the questions: i. ii. did you begin college at this institution or elsewhere? [begincol] since graduating from high school, which of the following types of schools have you attended other than the one you are now attending? [attend_recoded] this analysis will include comparisons: a. b. c. demographics, including: age, disability, gender identity, parental education, citizenship status, ethno-racial groups, sexual orientation, etc. academics, including: coarse load, courses taken entirely online, grades, field of study (major), educational aspirations, etc. engagement, including all of the engagement metrics unique to the nsse. 4. basic significance testing of differences between the two abovementioned groups (e.g., t-tests or other suitable test). 5. evaluation of the feasibility of linkages between nsse and other available administrative data sources within nipissing, in particular, student information system and graduate kpi survey data. about nipissing university nipissing university is located in the traditional lands of nipissing first nation, an anishnaabek community along the shores of lake nipissing, with several first nations located within a 100 km radius. one fifth of all indigenous people and first nations communities in canada are in ontario. while this is only about 2.4% of the provinces population, north bay is geographically well situated amongst many of the large urban indigenous communities in the province (e.g., toronto, ottawa, sudbury, kenora, midland, and sault ste. marie). consequently, 7% of nipissings student body is comprised of individuals who identify as having indigenous cultural and/or ancestral background. nipissing university is a vibrant, young, ready-to-grow 21st century university with century old roots in the communities it serves. it was created by a provincial act to specifically address the needs of northern ontario and continues to have a special focus on serving the north in the north. nipissings student body is increasingly diverse, and nipissing remains committed to being an accessible institution, serving first generation students, as well as students from economically challenging backgrounds, students with disabilities, and students with diagnosed learning challenges. nipissings strategic focus on student success and experience has translated into consistent top rankings in the areas of student support, student experience, faculty, and residences. it is on this foundation of student success that nipissing continues to develop into a university that is fully integrated into the economy of its region and whose social impacts support the aspirations of northern ontario. about our learners access and equity have been a longstanding priority of nipissing university with a focus on students who, without interventions and support, might not otherwise participate in postsecondary education. for example, nipissing has experienced continued growth in the number of full-time first generation students enrolled at the institution from 809 in 2016/17 to 838 students in 2021/22. further, nipissing university continues to see increases in the number of enrolled students with disabilities (reaching an all-time high of 703 students in 2018/19), and the number of full-time indigenous students enrolled at the university has grown by nearly 25% over the past five years to a high of 382 in the 2021/22 academic year. we believe that this growth is a result of the continued efforts of the university to be student-centered. we are dedicated to the individual and holistic development and success of our students. the majority nipissings students are ontario residents (95.3%). the balance of our students are a mix of international fee paying students (0.8%) and students that come to us from other provinces in canada (1.9%) or with an unknown permanent address (2.0%). over the next five years, we plan to invest significantly in international recruitment, which will not only have a positive economic impact on north bay, but will also enrich and diversify our community. other factors that differentiate our learners from other institutions in the province are our students participation in osap. osap participation rates in the province have fluctuated between 56% and 63% over the last three years and the participation rates for nipissing students has been between 68% and 76% during this same period (opensims). overall, osap participation for nipissing students is 13% higher than the sector average which also places additional burden on our students as many do not have the luxury of being able to only focus on their academics while pursuing their degree. as far as prior learning experience is concerned, nipissing is among the top five institutions in the province with respect to the number of undergraduate learners with previous post-secondary experience (ppse). confirmation statistics from ouac also illustrate that proportion of student acceptances that are assessed for advanced standing at nipissing university is nearly five times greater than the sector (i.e. 28% for nipissing vs. sector average of about 6%). put in another way, over half of our annual undergraduate acceptances come from students who did not participate in high-school studies the year prior to accepting their offer from nipissing. despite there being recent growth in the province with respect to direct from high-school (101s) applicants, nipissing has seen a decline of about 13% in 101 acceptances between 2017/18 and 2021/22. nipissing continues to create pathways and articulation agreements that effectively recognize students prior learning, creating pathways that are tailored to support academic success and graduation. to date, nipissing has about 15 block transfer agreements/articulated pathways through which a transfer student enter the university. the most popular of these pathways is our online rpn-bscn bridging program which constitutes a significant portion of our institutional fte. about nipissings participation in nsse nipissing university participates triennially in the nsse survey (2006, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020) has maintained a steady response rate between 38% and 50% for first year students and between 41% and 50% for upper year student. to date, we have collected responses from over 4000 students and have used this information to assess and improve upon nipissings undergraduate student experience. nsse survey alignment and analysis (the project) as outlined in the project goals section above, nipissing university was tasked with aligning where possible fields within the nsse across the 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020 iterations of the survey. summary of survey alignment process overall, this process went relatively smoothly. as part of the deliverables of the project we are attaching two alignment files that map the fields in the nsse 2020 survey to its previous iterations (i.e., 2017, 2014, 2011, 2008 and 2006). the file named: nsse version alignment (pg 1 shown below) provides a field by field harmonization of the six iterations of nsse. in the event that field names had changed in different iterations of the nsse, suggested alignment is included in each cell of the table (example identified in yellow below). in the event that the wording of questions had changed, our suggested alignment is included in the table with the wording change (example identified in blue below). in the event that there was no continuous alignment (i.e., questions in 2020 nsse did not appear in a previous iteration), then the cells will have the value of n/a (example identified in pink below). the file named: nsse field map (portion of spreadsheet shown below) provides an abbreviated field by field alignment of the six iterations of nsse. general colour coding is provided, however one would need to reference the nsse version alignment file in order to see the details related to the harmonization. issues/limitations of nsse alignment task by and large we feel that we have been able to successfully map nsse 2020 to its previous iterations. the approach we took was to align nsse 2020 back through to nsse 2006. as it was alluded to in the project overview, the nsse had a significant overhaul between the 2014 and 2011 iterations. that being said, aligning nsse 2006 through 2011 was a relatively simple task, as was the alignment of nsse 2020 through nsse 2014. the bulk of the work was harmonizing nsse 2014 with nsse 2011. issues with harmonization typically came in the following forms: 1. question did not exist from one version to the other 2. responses needed to be derived/recoded due to coding inconsistencies 3. other alignment issues (e.g., essence of the question was the same but wording had changed) while we feel that we have done a comprehensive review of nsse question alignment, we recognize that, in situations where the question wording has changed, some people may debate our alignment suggestions. please understand that this is a fair criticism as this part of the process is inherently subjective in nature. it should be noted (and is outlined in detail in the nsse version alignment file), that there are some circumstances that even deriving/recoding values will not achieve perfect alignment through all iterations of nsse. here are some examples: 1. questions regarding number of papers and length (q7); page count categories changed and overlapped previous categories. 2. questions regarding challenge to do best work (q10); one significant likert scale value change restricts direct comparison of results (e.g., nsse 2014: 1 = not at all; nsse 2011: 1 = very little). 3. questions regarding quality interactions (q13); descriptors on likert scale changed entirely. descriptive analysis of nsse results for students with/without ppse due to the relatively small size of nipissing university, it was decided that once the nsse surveys were harmonized then we could pool observations across years to analyze differences amongst students that started their post-secondary education at nipissing with those that started their post-secondary education elsewhere. the detailed analysis of students with/without ppse with respect to demographics, academics and engagement is provided in appendix a: analysis of nsse results. below is a brief summary of our findings. sample total responses (all years): 3836 total students with ppse: 841; total students without ppse: 2995 significant findings it should be noted that the project specifications asked us to consider our analysis using [begincol] did you begin college at this institution or elsewhere? and/or the question since graduating from high school, which of the following types of schools have you attended other than the one you are now attending? it was decided that due to the nomenclature and distinct difference between universities and colleges in ontario, and that the nsse provided different wording of this question over the years, that [begincol] would likely be an underestimate of students with ppse. therefore, for this project students with ppse are determined based on student response to the question: since graduating from high school, which of the following types of schools have you attended other than the one you are now attending. that said, if the respondent selected any of: vocational or technical school [attend_voc_ca] community or junior college [attend_com_ca] 4-year college or university other than this one [attend_col_ca] the respondent was coded as having previous post-secondary education. this field is identified as [attend_recoded] in our records. statistical tests and summary of findings group differences were analysed for significance at the = 0.05 level using an independent t-test for equality of means. levenes test for equality of variance was completed for each t-test and our results outline whether or not equal variances were assumed. summary of findings academics engagement significance ( = 0.05) no significance major category aspiration level of education class level enrolment status online courses grades living arrangement varsity athletes 41 measures of engagement were found to have significant group differences among those with and without ppse. with respect to demographics and academics, the categories in which we observed significant group differences didnt come as much surprise to us. with respect to the engagement indicators, there were some interesting observations. generally speaking, students without ppse tended to display more institutional satisfaction than those who had prior ppse (see q15, q19, q20). the same phenomenon was observed when evaluating institutional emphasis (see q14). conversely, students with ppse tended to identify more prevalence of high-impact practices in their programming (q2, q4, q6, q8) than students without ppse. as mentioned above, the entire analysis nipissings nsse data is outlined in appendix a: analysis of nsse results. further linkages between nsse and administrative data the project specifications asked us to investigate the feasibility of linkages between nsse and other available administrative data sources within nipissing, in particular, our student information system and graduate kpi survey data. since we only began in this office in 2017 (and after nsse 2017 was administered), we spent a considerable amount of searching through our digital records to find crosswalk files for each nsse. we are happy to say that we have a full set of crosswalks for our nsse data which means that we can directly link nsse results to our administrative data (i.e., our sis). now that we have put in the work to source these crosswalks we look forward to the opportunity to work with oncat to investigate deeper linkages to improve the body of knowledge with respect to student transfer experiences at nipissing.

project snapshot sciences pathway development in communications type: pathways development project number: 2019-27 or p1927 project lead: university of ottawa collaborators: la cit collgiale, collge boral deliverables for website (if applicable): n/a project summary this project aimed to increase francophone student mobility and access to postsecondary programs in french by developing effective pathways in the communications field. the project aimed to expand collaboration in this area of high interest, as the university of ottawa has already been offering two programs in collaboration with la cit for the past ten years, namely in journalism and public relations. during the project, the analysis and development of several pathways were undertaken from three college programs offered by la cit and one program offered by collge boral towards the university of ottawas honours ba in communication program. project rationale the goal of the project was to increase francophone student mobility and access to postsecondary programs in french by developing one or more effective pathways in the communications field. main collaborators as described in the project proposal, senior academic administrators, project coordinators, subjects matter experts and curriculum specialists at la cit, collge boral and the university of ottawa were involved in various discussions regarding the development of these pathways. outcomes the project aimed to increase francophone student mobility and access to postsecondary programs in french by developing one or more effective pathways in the communications field. the proposed pathways are achieving that goal. articulations agreements between the university of ottawa and the two college partners formalizing these pathways are another outcome we are working towards in this project. formal agreements are currently being developed. pathway(s) development key steps an extensive analysis and approval of advanced standing was undertaken by several internal university stakeholders (department, undergraduate studies office, admission office) to ensure an accurate list of course equivalencies. existing collaborations between the department of communication and la cit also served as good examples of previous pathways established in this field. pathways created pathways have been established between the college programs in radio (la cit), publicit et communication marketing (la cit) and techniques des services policiers (la cit and collge boral). the following advanced standing has been established as part of this project: 1. thirty (30) advanced standing credits will be granted towards the honours ba in communication offered by the university of ottawa to graduates of the radio diploma (la cit) as well as to graduates of the techniques des services policiers diploma (la cit and collge boral) 2. forty-five (45) advanced standing credits will be granted towards the honours ba in communication offered by the university of ottawa to graduates of the publicit et communication marketing diploma (la cit). incomplete pathways yes. no pathway was developed for the journalisme program from la cit because an existing, successful collaborative 2+2 program in journalism is already in place with the university of ottawa and the honours bachelor in digital journalism program. challenges the last part of the project, development and implementation of the pathway, took longer than anticipated. some college program courses underwent modifications during the project and thus updates had to be made to the analysis. in addition, several internal university stakeholders are involved in validating the proposed equivalencies (department, undergraduate studies office, admission office) as well as subject matter experts at the college level and this process took longer than anticipated. student outcomes this project has expanded the list of available pathways for francophone college students looking to continue their postsecondary education in french. students can benefit from up to one a half year of full-time study in advanced standing as a result of these pathways. student credential students will obtain their respective college diplomas as well as an honours ba in communication, once they complete the remaining requirements as part of the university program. student time savings time to completion for the honours ba in communication has been reduced to 3 years (instead of 4) for the 30 credit advanced standing and 2.5 years (instead of 4) for the 45 credit advanced standing. student financial savings the reduction in the time of completion for the university credential will also result in financial savings for students. student flexibility this project has expanded the list of available pathways for francophone college students looking to continue their postsecondary education in french. in addition, formalized agreements will help reduce barriers for students looking to transfer from college to university. student work alignment the field of communication is in high demand in today's labour market and a combination of both college and university credentials will help students access work in this field. institutional outcomes the project aligns very well with the university of ottawas recent renewed interest in exploring potential pathways and collaborations with both college and university partners. the university is also continuously improving its internal processes to facilitate pathway development and projects such as this one are helpful in this respect. tools and resources the final version of the proposed equivalencies will be shared with oncat once all approvals are finalized in the next three months. an articulation agreement will be developed and shared with oncat at that time as well.

instantan remodelage des parcours de transfert dans les domaines de la gestion des affaires et de l'administration des affaires entre le collge boral, le collge la cit et l'universit de hearst type: pathways project number: 2021-37 or p2137 project lead: universit de hearst collaborators: collge boral, collge la cit (la cit) rsum du projet le collge boral, le collge la cit (la cit) et luniversit de hearst sengagent continuer de favoriser le continuum des tudes postsecondaires pour les tudiantes et tudiants francophones et bilingues de lontario ainsi que de faire preuve de collaboration en matire de remodelage de parcours de transfert dans le domaine de ladministration. les partenaires conviennent que cette collaboration doit continuer de favoriser, entre autres, lexcellence en apprentissage, laccroissement de laccs aux programmes dtudes postsecondaires en franais et la mobilit entre les tablissements. sajoutent cela, llaboration dune entente parapluie visant le maintien des ententes malgr les changements cycliques des programmes d'tudes afin de rduire le besoin dententes de parcours ponctuelles ou individuelles pour chaque changement ou ajout aux programmes en administration. une telle entente pourrait nous permettre d'tablir le nombre de crdits reconnus l'intrieur du protocole officiel et d'laborer les outils administratifs internes ncessaires pour mieux grer les parcours en fonction des ralits (changements, ajouts, rvisions, etc.) des tablissements de dpart et d'arrive, et ce, toujours dans le but d'accroitre l'accs au programmes de l'universit de hearst et la mobilit entre nos tablissements de faon continue. dans le cadre du prsent projet, les partenaires souhaitent remodeler les parcours de transfert existants et y ajouter les nouveaux programmes des tablissements pour permettre aux finissantes et finissants des collges des programmes en administration des affaires (incluant les spcialisations en comptabilit, finances et ressources humaines), en commerce (spcialisation en comptabilit, finance, marketing et ressources humaines), en technique en administration des affaires, en techniques en administration de bureau, en vente et reprsentation dobtenir leur baccalaurat en gestion ou en administration des affaires au sein de luniversit de hearst. ce projet vise donc deux objectifs : 1. le remodelage des parcours existants entre les programmes de gestion et dadministration des affaires de luniversit de hearst (en fonction des changements apports) et les collges la cit et boral ainsi que lajout des nouveaux parcours des deux collges. 2. llaboration dune entente parapluie pour faciliter les transferts des diplmes et diplms ainsi que le maintien des ententes de manire continue. justification du projet ce projet tait ncessaire pour rpondre aux besoins exprims par la clientle collgiale du domaine de l'administration des affaires et pour rpondre aux besoins identifis par l'universit de hearst qui vise faciliter l'accueil d'tudiantes et d'tudiants diplms des programmes ayant une forte apparent. en 2018, dans le cadre d'un sondage financ par le caton et organis par la cit, les besoins et les intentions des diplms ont t trs claires. les personnes diplmes dsirent poursuivre leurs tudes, en ontario et en franais. l'universit de hearst est le seul tablissement universitaire de langue franaise qui offre un programme du domaine de l'administration des affaires. c'est donc clair et important de dvelopper des ententes qui permettent et facilitent la mobilit. rsultats les principaux rsultats de ce projet sont : la cration d'une entente pour les programmes entre les 3 tablissements partenaires. la cration d'un outil administratif dans lequel les quivalences accorder pour chacun des programmes collgiaux. l'augmentation attendue d'tudiantes et d'tudiants qui poursuivent leurs tudes en franais, en ontario. mesures cls les lments qui ont bien fonctionn : - du ct de l'universit de hearst, d'abord valider les objectifs du projet qui visaient remodeler les parcours existants, crer de nouveaux parcours et laborer une entente qui ne serait pas invalide par des changements de programmes. - du ct des trois tablissements, maintenir le cap sur les objectifs du projet et le calendrier de travail. ensuite, maintenir la communication en tout temps entre les 3 tablissements. parcours crs 26 parcours ont t crs. les voici : 1. administration des affaires (collge boral) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 2. administration des affaires (collge boral) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 3. administration des affaires (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 4. administration des affaires (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 5. techniques en administration des affaires (collge boral) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 6. techniques en administration des affaires (collge boral) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 7. techniques en administration des affaires (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 8. techniques en administration des affaires (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 9. techniques en administration de bureau (collge boral) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 10.techniques en administration de bureau (collge boral) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 11. techniques en administration de bureau (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 12.techniques en administration de bureau (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 13.administration des affaires - comptabilit (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 14.administration des affaires - comptabilit (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 15.administration des affaires - finances (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 16.administration des affaires - finances (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 17.administration des affaires - gestion des ressources humaines (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 18.administration des affaires - gestion des ressources humaines (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 19.commerce - comptabilit (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 20.commerce - comptabilit (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 21.commerce - finance (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 22.commerce - finance (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 23.commerce - marketing (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 24.commerce - marketing (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) 25.commerce - ressources humaines (la cit) vers le baccalaurat en administration des affaires (universit de hearst) 26.commerce - ressources humaines (la cit) vers le baccalaurat s arts en gestion (universit de hearst) parcours non termins non dfis les chanciers de fin de projet ont t difficiles respecter. rsultats pour les tudiants les avantages que procure ce projet aux tudiantes et aux tudiants sont nombreux : conomie de temps et d'argent, augmentation d'un titre de comptence obtenu, augmentation de l'employabilit. titres dtudes le projet procure de nombreux avantages aux tudiants qui transfrent. comme indiqu la question prcdente, les tudiants profitent d'une conomie de temps (dure des tudes) et d'argent, ils obtiennent un titre de comptence de niveau universitaire et augmente donc leur employabilit. ils profitent galement d'un processus simplifi pour dbuter des tudes l'universit. conomies de temps pour les tudiants le projet permet aux tudiants de gagner du temps. le dlai estimatif d'obtention d'un diplme varie selon le programme collgial et le programme universitaire. conomies financires pour les tudiants tous les parcours permettent de raliser des conomies financires, entre 1 anne et 2 annes d'tudes universitaires. une anne universitaire est estime entre 10 000 $ et 24 000 $. l'conomie peut donc atteindre jusqu' 48 000 $. rfrence : http://www.uhearst.ca/financement-des-etudes. souplesse pour les tudiants les parcours facilitent les choses pour les tudiants. le processus d'admission est simplifi et le processus de reconnaissance des crdits est amliors et acclrs. harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants tous ces parcours contribuent augmenter les possibilits d'emploi des diplms. les tudiantes et les tudiants augmentent leur employabilit et augmentent l'accs un march du travail en forte demande. rsultats pour les tablissements ce projet a entran des changements dans les pratiques institutionnelles d'attribution des crdits et d'laboration des parcours. les tudiantes et les tudiants ont t placs au coeur de la dmarche d'laboration des parcours et de la ncessit d'laborer des ententes qui ne s'invalideront pas priodiquement. la communaut universitaire de l'universit de hearst semble cheminer vers une vision plus librale des tudiantes et des tudiants en transfert. conseils pratiques prvoir le temps ncessaire pour mener bien le projet. tablir un cadre et des objectifs prcis ds le dbut du projet. outils et ressources l'entente parapluie pourra tre partage une fois conclue avec les deux collges. l'entente a t signe avec la cit le 7 juin dernier et sera signe avec le collge boral le 27 juin prochain.

project snapshot developing northern ontario transfer pathways for massage therapy and kinesiology type: pathway development project number: 2020-20 or p2020 project lead: cambrian college collaborators: laurentian university, lakehead university project summary we are proposing bi-directional pathways for graduates of the honours bachelor of science in kinesiology at laurentian university and lakehead university to receive advanced standing in the massage therapy advanced diploma program at cambrian college. the pathway would be reciprocal for graduates of the massage therapy program at cambrian college who are interested in pursuing a degree in kinesiology at either laurentian or lakehead. this project will build on the successes of oncat project 2018-11 between cambrian college and lakehead university. the project also will consider the nosc business fundamentals articulation as a potential model for new pathways. this new project proposal includes all institutions in northern ontario who offer the programs under consideration for new pathways, resulting in a pan-northern approach. project rationale currently no formal pathways exist between these programs. in addition, it is less common for pathways (advanced standing) to be in place for degree graduates pursuing a college advanced diploma. students from the north often need to study in southern ontario to pursue other credentials. this results in significantly higher costs and additional personal complications for those students who are mature learners with families who must also be accommodated. these new pathways will provide northern students with more options, closer to home. the new pathway from degree to diploma is unique in ontario and may be of interest to kinesiology and massage therapy graduates from southern ontario as well. "previous oncat projects (2014-09; 2015-01; 2015-22; 2017-24) identified the hbk as a gateway degree for current and future health professionals. often there is considerable overlap between the content and learning outcomes of health and fitness-related diploma programs and first and second year level hbk courses, however students are currently required to complete multiple similar courses specific to each credential. pathways into diploma programs are equally valuable. hbk graduates have a strong background for other health professions that often require a college diploma. traditionally, college acceptance has been based on high school performance, with the hbk credential unrecognized or minimally recognized." (oncat 2018-11) the market analysis report completed by cambrian college's planning and institutional research department shows strong market demand for the massage therapy program. cambrian is the only english college in northern ontario to offer the massage therapy advanced diploma and enrollment has been trending upward, demonstrating student demand for the program. both the national and provincial job forecasts are above average for massage therapists and the discipline is expected to face a labour shortage at a national level over the next decade. main collaborators the chair of health sciences and program coordinator from the massage therapy program at cambrian, along with the manager of pathways and the pathways officer. laurentian university was represented by the lead faculty for the kinesiology, sports and physical education and health promotion programs along with the manager of admissions. lakehead university was represented by the director of the kinesiology program, the project resource consultant and the project coordinator. results 1. strong collaborative working relationships were established between the faculties of the universities and the college. the opportunity for the teams to work together, share information on their respective programs and ultimately come to agreement on the pathways will result in further discussions and more creative approaches to transfer between the institutions. 2. one university to college pathway has been finalized and is moving through the university's approval process. the second university to college pathway has been drafted and the team is waiting for confirmation from their vpa that it will be appropriate to move to approval. 3. one university to college pathway has been drafted. this will allow kinesiology graduates to develop practical skill to become a registered massage therapist. pathways created massage therapy advanced diploma at cambrian college to honours bachelor of kinesiology degree at lakehead university - currently being approved by senate honours bachelor of kinesiology degree at lakehead university to massage therapy advanced diploma at cambrian college - approved and ready to admit students in fall 2021. incomplete pathways massage therapy advanced diploma at cambrian college to bachelor of science in kinesiology at laurentian university - a draft agreement has been developed but unfortunately completion has been impacted by the current restructuring situation at laurentian. it is expected that the agreement will move through the approval processes after the april 30th report of recommendations. bachelor of science in kinesiology at laurentian university to massage therapy advanced diploma at cambrian college has been drafted but not complete due to the current situation at laurentian university. student outcomes the intention is for the college to university pathways to be finalized as a 3 + 2 years and 3 + 3 years. this will save both time and money for students who pursue both credentials. the university to college pathway will not likely save time due to the lockstep nature of course delivery as well as the profession specific courses that are required. having said that, the students who pursue this pathway will have a lighter course load, potentially resulting in time available to work as well as study. this project benefits transfer students by providing several different opportunities in northern ontario to start and finish two credentials. the relationships built between the academic teams of relatively small institutions sets the stage for cross program promotion of the pathways and creates opportunities for students to be directed to the specific individuals in partner institutions who can answer their questions, support their applications and at times allay their concerns. there are many other benefits which are outlined below related to time, finances and connection to the labour market. student time savings the diploma to degree pathways will save the students 1 - 2 academic years of study time. the laurentian pathway is drafted as a 3 + 2 years and the lakehead pathway is drafted as a 3 + 3 years. the degree to diploma pathways don't necessarily save on time other than within each semester when the course load will be lighter. student financial savings the pathways from cambrian to both universities will result in financial savings although they have not been specifically quantified at this time. as an example, the cambrian to lakehead pathway will result in a savings of 1 year of tuition - $7,297.14 plus the cost of living expenses for one year for those individuals who would need to move to thunder bay to study. the average estimate for living expenses for 1 academic year is approximately $15,000. student flexibility these pathways will improve access to students in the north to both degree and diploma programs. the impact of covid means that there is more flexibility in delivery modalities which can make it easier for individuals in remote locations to start and continue with their studies. the established pathways will make the admission process much more seamless for these students and will help them to decide early on in their academic journey if they wish to pursue both credentials. student work alignment the massage therapy program is an accredited program and graduates must be successful to become registered with the professional body. the pathway from university to college will allow individuals to become registered massage therapists with a stronger background in anatomy and physiology. the students who go on to pursue the kinesiology degree following their registration as a massage therapist will position themselves for positions more broadly within the health care system. they will have opportunities in education as well as in management roles. in particular the field of massage therapy is indicated as a high demand area in the national labour market in years to come. institutional outcomes there have been no immediate changes to institutional practices as a result of the project. a longer term change may be co-registration options for students in both programs at laurentian and cambrian. lakehead may be able to offer a bridge option to support student tranfer while students are still in their diploma program. sector or system implications team discussions definitely highlighted the fact that universities and colleges are beginning to be much more open to creative approaches to transfer. in particular, partners from laurentian identified a number of courses that are delivered by cambrian that could potentially be taken by the university students regardless of whether they had made a decision to pursue the pathway. these pathways will start to pilot and support innovative approaches to registration and participation in college and university courses. tips/advice building the working relationships between team early on is a key to success. once those relationships are in place there is trust and respect related to the information shared and the academic quality of all programs. it allows for better, deeper discussions regarding the pathway and other innovative approaches that might be possible. from a practical perspective, getting course information early in the project helps to facilitate the mapping process and could help to mitigate issues that arise that are outside the control of the teams. tools and resources the lakehead team developed a survey to assist with mapping cambrian's core massage courses to the kinesiology core courses. in addition, the cambrian to lakehead program mapping is a simple and easy to understand document. these tools which were initiated by our partners at lakehead really helped to facilitate the bi-directional nature of the pathway.

approaches to stackability of micro-credentials options for ontario prepared for ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 20th march 2023 higher education strategy associates (hesa) is a toronto-based firm providing strategic insight and guidance to governments, postsecondary institutions, and agencies through excellence and expertise in policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and strategic consulting services. through these activities, hesa strives to improve the quality, efficacy, and fairness of higher education systems in canada and worldwide. authors: alex usher, iain wilson, tiffany maclennan and aidana izhanova work completed on behalf of: oncat acknowledgements: this report relied on insightful interviews with numerous administrators at ontarios colleges and universities. we thank nicolas boileau and henrique hon for comments on an earlier daft. any errors or omissions are the authors alone. contact: higher education strategy associates suite 207, 20 maud street, toronto on, m5v 2m5, canada +1 (416) 848-0215 info@higheredstrategy.com www.higheredstrategy.com higher education strategy associates, 2023 table of contents executive summary ....................................................................................................... iii introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 section i. developments in micro-credentials .............................................................. 5 section ii. getting to portability and stackability ....................................................... 19 section iii. the situation in ontario ............................................................................. 27 section iv. possible paths to stackability ................................................................... 39 conclusion .................................................................................................................... 45 higheredstrategy.com page i micro-credentials is a new label for an old thing, particularly when you look at the non-credit side of the house university registrar think about the overhead that [stacking micro-credentials] would cost. ive got ten different micro-credentials from ten different institutions and i want to show you thats congruent to [one of your courses]. 80% of the material has to be congruent and that has to be assessed by an academic. that would be a nightmare. university registrar higheredstrategy.com page ii executive summary micro-credentials are proliferating in ontario. ontarios current education system creates barriers to stacking these micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas especially when those micro-credentials have been obtained from different institutions. this limits their value in a labour market in which employers and providers of graduate-level education primarily understand diplomas and degrees. the underlying problem is a lack of verifiable, standardised information about the learning each micro-credential reflects. in order to combine micro-credentials into larger credentials such as diplomas and degrees, the colleges and universities which endorse these macro-credentials need to have clear information about the learning they represent. our examination of those ontario micro-credentials which are posted on the ecampus ontario portal shows that there is a lack of clear comparable data about the learning. data about key characteristics including the prerequisite preparation, hours, content and learning outcomes of micro-credentials is inconsistent and often completely absent. there is typically not even a suggestion of how many credit-hours of learning the microcredential represents or other indicators of how it might compare to a formal course taken for degree or diploma credit. so long as providers of micro-credentials not offering widely-accepted data on what learning their micro-credentials represent, a learner seeking advanced standing in a degree or diploma bears the burden of showing that they have already mastered part of the material taught in that macro-credential. the costs of doing this are considerable because there is very little economy of scale. there are so many possible micro-credentials that a learner could potentially present for recognition by a college or university, and the amount of credit towards a degree or diploma for each is so small, that the costs of assessing the prior learning a microcredential represents could well exceed the cost of simply repeating the material. the information costs are so high because of how ontarios processes for recognising prior learning have evolved. to obtain transfer credit, a learner usually follows an established transfer pathway in which the value of a credential is already known to the receiving college or university has to seek an individual assessment of their prior learning through institutions prior learning assessment and recognition processes (plar) transfer pathways mainly make sense where a learner is seeking credit for a formal course and there is already a precedent for granting credit for something reasonably similar. plar relies on subject matter experts to individually review the content of courses the learner has previously taken. it is often slow and necessarily expensive to provide and difficult to predict in advance. higheredstrategy.com page iii stacking micro-credentials would be much simpler if the provider of the micro-credential were to assign data about its value relative to a diploma- or degree-level course and either back this claim with its own reputation or seek external validation. we have identified possible models for validating the learning represented by microcredentials in a way that is easily comprehensible to other institutions, drawing largely on policies which have had some success in other countries. options for ontario include mandating that providers publicly state what they think is the potential transfer value of the micro-credential in order to receive public support, for example funding or listing on a provincial portal o this will open their claims to public scrutiny o details such as the learning outcomes could be collected in a specified format so that they would be easier to process than under the current freestyle approach having providers submit new micro-credentials to a third party for assignment of a transfer value o creating a provincial bank of assessments which could be challenged by holders of specific micro-credentials to demonstrate their learning o in the other countries studied, for example new zealand, a government agency takes on the role of assessing micro-credentials, but in principle any trusted third party could do so. for example, several private companies already provide assessments of the learning represented by unfamiliar foreign diplomas and degrees to ontario colleges and universities the national association of career colleges historically offered such assessments for sale to career colleges, and there may be a business case for some institutions which do not have widespread brand recognition and value efficiency over autonomy to purchase access to assessments rather than setting their own creating a new specialised institution o countries including south korea, faced with reluctance of universities to adapt their processes to recognise learning obtained elsewhere, have created new institutions specifically to recognise prior learning which no other university would stack into any of its degrees o this would obviously be a radical option, which would only make sense for learners willing to accept a no-name degree or diploma, and seems the least likely option for ontario. however, it underlines that government has many potential options. higheredstrategy.com page iv introduction micro-credentials may not necessarily be new, but in principle building governance structures around them which facilitate stackability and portability could open up new ways to provide education. micro-credentials are appearing all around ontario. many could appeal to degree- and diploma-seekers. in theory micro-credentials could differentiate graduates in a specialised and fast-moving labour market. alternatively, learners may acquire a number of microcredentials over time, perhaps as a hobby or in the course of workplace training, and then decide to pursue higher-level credentials. colleges and universities are set up to deliver a core curriculum to all graduates within a discipline, with a relatively restricted set of electives available. most students are not entirely free to choose their own paths. micro-credentials by their nature offer more flexibility. stacking micro-credentials, especially micro-credentials obtained at other institutions, could allow learners to choose from a veritable smorgasbord of learning as part of their degrees and diplomas, allowing them to specialise in ways that meet niches within the workforce. hypothetically, an english student could gain certification in social media skills as part of their degree and prepare for a career with an it giant or learn to be a blacksmith who can communicate metalwork techniques in prose. stacking would avoid any time penalty for doing so. in practice, the current system in ontario is not compatible with this vision. this paper explores possibilities for organising the system so that micro-credentials could be stacked into larger qualifications recognized by the province of ontario, such as diplomas and degrees. evidence the hesa team has spoken with a number of strategically-placed personnel in ontarios colleges, universities, indigenous institutes and private career colleges. these interviews were semi-structured in-depth conversations guided by interviewers with extensive experience. interviewees were offered confidentiality to ensure they were comfortable expressing their views frankly. interviewees included leaders of units within colleges and universities which offer micro-credentials, registrars and representatives of registrars offices, university and college staff with experience of administering prospective students applications for recognition of prior learning (plar) and faculty who have developed micro-credentials. evidence from these interviews informs all four sections of the report. identifying models for making micro-credentials stackable the hesa team have identified several potential models for making micro-credentials stackable based on experiences in other countries. these include new zealand, higheredstrategy.com page 1 singapore, the united states, australia and european models which are discussed in section one. based on this data, in section two we have distilled key features to explain why the situation in ontario is currently different. mapping of ontario micro-credentials the hesa team reviewed all micro-credentials posted on the ecampus ontario portal in summer 2022. section three discusses the findings, which illustrate the issues of comparing meta-data around micro-credentials in ontario. suggesting possibilities for ontario in section four, we suggest possible models for making micro-credentials stackable in ontario. exploring the barriers to stackability and portability as this paper will explore in some detail, stacking micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas raises system-wide issues, particularly if the aim is for colleges and universities to award credit towards their degrees and diplomas for micro-credentials awarded by other institutions. while stacking within an institution raises some internal issues of academic governance, portability is a problem for all of ontario higher education with huge strategic implications. in ontario there are barriers to both stacking of micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas and porting between institutions. these barriers mean that degree- and diplomaseekers risk repeating the same learning until they demonstrate it in a format that the system recognises. there are barriers to transfer between colleges and universities in ontario, but courses taken at colleges and universities in canada at least usually take on fairly similar forms. with a further barrier to the stackability of micro-credentials is the wide range of forms they can take, making it challenging to assess a credit value. this is important because, in canada, a credit value is usually needed in order for a credential to contribute to degree or diploma completion. diplomas and especially degrees typically consist of courses which, as well as being time-consuming (with their level on the ontario qualifications framework reflecting their length) are both sequential and hierarchical. instructors teaching higher-level courses may set exercises which assume certain specific knowledge obtained previously. consequently, advanced post-secondary programs often have complex pre-requisite requirements. if this expectation is to be maintained, then stacking implies a judgment about the level and in some case the content mastered by the holder of that credential. further, the perceived quality of degrees and diplomas is at the heart of each institutions and the systems reputation. these advanced credentials function as currency in the labour market partly because a trusted institution is certifying that someone has been higheredstrategy.com page 2 tested for and found to have a passable level of specific skills and/or knowledge. whenever an employer encounters a holder of an electrical engineering diploma who cannot manage simple arithmetic or a history graduate lacking basic syntax that has reputational costs which trouble both administrators and faculty. procedures for awarding degree credit in particular are often controlled by senates, on which faculty are heavily represented. faculty are often insulated from the institutions finances but keenly interested in quality control. consequently, even universities which have their own sophisticated continuing education divisions have shied away from linking their own continuing education credentials to degree credits. as one interviewee put it: there was a strategic decision made, you might say, to say that these really bear no direct relationship to degree credit programs. that would have been a much more difficult hill to climb in the university and we thought that would be an issue to come back to because we thought that understanding of what microcredentials are was so confused within the institution. university continuing education developer this hesitation appears to be common, only increases when institutions consider the possibility of stacking micro-credentials obtained at other (public) colleges and universities into their programs, and increases even further when the possibility of stacking microcredentials obtained from private-sector providers arises. right now my feeling is that its a bit of a wild west [] i suspect that some of my colleagues would say this is the worst invention ever because its drawing away our attention from our core, whereas others who are perhaps more innovative are seeing it as an opportunity to initiate students to the university to then get them into a three- or four-year degree university registrar. ontario needs to consider options it is possible to imagine options available to ontario which range from the conservative(improving meta-data) to the radical (establishing new institutions), as we describe in section four. by exploring options for stacking micro-credentials we are addressing a scenario which seems removed from the current state of play but which may potentially become important in the future. our interviewees indicated that there is not currently much explicit demand from learners to be granted diploma or degree credit for micro-credentials that they have completed. interviewees in a position to know, including registrars, indicated that their institutions received few to no queries about the possibility of obtaining credit for anything other than traditional courses taken at colleges and universities and, at institutions which have flexible prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) processes in place, a few very specific kinds of life or work experience. this rarity is part of the problem with developing a system for stacking at institution level, since it makes little short-term economic sense for institutions to allocate expensive staff time to developing procedures which will rarely be used. the fact that there are likely to be higheredstrategy.com page 3 few requests to grant credit for most individual courses, leading to few economies of scale and a high cost per credit granted, is a problem for credit transfer more generally. the economic problem is especially significant for micro-credentials because of the huge diversity of providers and the large numbers of micro-credentials which would have to be stacked to make a significant dent in the learning required for a degree or diploma. the lack of clamour to grant credit for micro-credentials does not mean that there is not latent demand among learners. uptake of micro-credentials has exploded in recent years. given the costs of replicating previously-covered material, to both learners and ontario, it seems unlikely that there would not be significant benefits to learners in reducing replication. furthermore, given the lack of a clear framework it is hard to imagine that many learners would know where to go or even consider that stacking micro-credentials into their degree or diploma might be possible. by analogy, when determining the demand for a bridge across a treacherous river public bodies do not simply point to the absence of swimmers and conclude that a bridge is unnecessary. they firstly establish a set of models for the forms that a bridge could take and then conduct research to establish whether the expense of building one is warranted. we have explored possible models. higheredstrategy.com page 4 section i. developments in micro-credentials this review will review the work in micro-credentialing being done by educational institutions in four countries/regions: australia, new zealand, singapore and the united states, as well as by certain corporate entities (google and ibm) that have embarked on their own process of credentialling. some examples from europe will be included but there the emphasis will mainly be on what is happening at the continental level to create a harmonized european micro-credential framework. as has been observed many times in many places, the term micro-credential does not have a universal meaning. not only does the term change meaning from one region of the globe to another, there are also several places which have types of training/learning programs which look substantially similar to micro-credentials without ever using the term. a brief definition which applies in all the countries considered here comes from a recent oecd report. micro-credential innovations in higher education: who, what and why? this document acknowledges the wide range of qualities possessed by micro-credentials in different parts of the world, and suggests that at a minimum, they have three key qualities relative to traditional credentials. first, they are smaller in volume (that is study duration or load); second, they are more targeted in terms of skills or study topics and third, they are more flexible in their mode of delivery. in fact, as we shall see, only the first two of these are actually true because a number of micro-credential schemes are in fact quite inflexible in their mode of delivery. one of the reasons for the thicket of confusion around micro-credentials is that at the beginning, the term was tabula rasa and different policy actors ascribed different meanings and attributes to them. perhaps the biggest gap in understanding - in north america at least - was between those who believed that micro-credentials were intrinsically something which were based on evaluation of competencies (that is, part of a movement towards competency-based education which flourished in the united states in the mid-10s), and those who thought they were intrinsically something closer to a certificate or other incremental credentials which were very much like shorter or disaggregated versions of existing post-secondary credentials. globally, however, the debates about the nature of micro-credentials broadly revolve around the role of seven separate properties. stackability of credentials. in many jurisdictions, a large part of the point of microcredentials is to make them stackable towards larger credentials. this is nowhere more true than in the united states where micro-credentials or, more broadly, incremental credentials1 are seen not just as a way to promote rapid upskilling, but also as a tool to improve degree completion rates and to provide new ways into post-secondary education. those jurisdictions which focus on stackability tend to also have a significant focus on prior learning recognition, precisely because of the belief that micro-credentials are most valuable as building blocks towards larger macro-credentials, mainly because these are what the labour market understands and therefore values. 1 credentials which can be combined into the longer and more familiar degrees and diplomas. higheredstrategy.com page 5 portability of credentials. just because micro-credentials are stackable does not mean they are portable from one institution to another. at some institutions northeastern university and its micro-credentials in computer science are a good example here - microcredentials are designed as a series of stackable baby steps towards an ultimate macrocredential (in northeasterns case, a masters degree in computer science, but they have no wider currency as degree building blocks beyond that particular institution). for portability to occur, two things need to be true: first, an institution offering macrocredentials has to be willing to accept micro-credentials as equivalent to credits towards a macro-credential and second, the learning contained inside a micro-credential needs to be sufficiently legible that institutions can award such credit with confidence. the keys to both portability and stackability in micro-credentials are as we shall see later in this paper credit equivalency and a qualifications framework. without these, there is no simple way for an institution to be able to evaluate whether any piece of learning be it a credit or a micro-credential - is of sufficient depth to be included in a macrocredential and if so, what fraction of the work required for the macro-credential can be assigned to it. prior learning assessment techniques could of course be used to assess these things, but this is cumbersome and largely negates the value of providing training in a formal setting. plar requires that a highly skilled individual with expert knowledge of the field of study, often an academic, review the students prior preparation. personnel with the skills to do this are busy and expensive. competency-based evaluation. the overlap between micro-credentials and competency-based education ranges from weak to strong depending on the part of the world one is in. at the weak end are micro-credentials which hold no credit value but which attach themselves to transcripts as badges - that is to say, the individual is deemed to have displayed important skills (e.g. teamwork) or completed certain tasks (e.g. attended an information session). these are considered weak because, generally speaking, there is no hard, replicable standard of evaluation involved. the strongest form of competency-based evaluation is where credentials are awarded only when the student meets some kind of rigorous and externally validated test. these kinds of credentials have a great deal in common with prior learning assessment and recognition. for obvious reasons, this type of assessment is seen as key to microcredentials having a strong employer/workforce orientation (see below) and, provided there is an understood way that skills map on to credit-hour based systems, they can work towards stackability and portability in the same way as any plar-to-credit system does. australias vet model comes closest to this, mainly because it has a national skills agency (australian skills quality agency) which has adopted a system of units of competency for skills, towards which micro-credentials can be developed. europe, which has the european skills/competences, qualifications, occupations (esco) model is in a position to do something similar but it has yet to make it into the proposals for the continent-wide framework, possibly because the european framework only looks at credentials which are at the bachelors level or above. in between these two extremes, there is some murky ground. many time-based courses describe themselves - not entirely without justification - as competency-based because learners are called upon to demonstrate at least competencies directly in a final examination. this is most common in it/technical programs, where final assessments have some kind of practical component which has a strictly correct/incorrect answer. higheredstrategy.com page 6 however, tech programs are an outlier in this respect: in most fields, it is more correct to say that micro-credential curricula (similar to other courses and programs) are designed to develop certain competencies but students are not strictly speaking assessed on a competency-only basis. enterprise alignment. in many countries, micro-credentials are meant to have some kind of alignment with individual enterprises - that is, the curriculum is tailored in such a way as to lead to employment opportunities with an individual employer who desires specialized training. micro-credentials which are designed this way tend to resemble short-term bespoke training programs which have existed for decades, albeit more at the college level than among universities. this is particularly common in the united states and canada, though one sees these types of arrangements in australia and new zealand as well. sectoral workforce alignment. singapore is an outlier here, in the sense that its version of micro-credentials are not meant to align with any individual business needs but rather with nationally-established occupationally-specific skills profiles. this has some obvious benefits to the learner in the sense that taking a specific micro-credential provides them with a measure of achievement which is understood to be requisite to all jobs in the country in a given occupation at a given level of seniority, as opposed to with just one employer. the challenge is that sectors have to agree on skills profiles for different levels of different occupations before institutions can develop courses that cater to those profiles. this is obviously easier to achieve in countries with effective long-term methods of co-ordination between government, industry and educational institutions than in those which lack them. australia can go some distance in this direction because of the existence of skills services organizations and industry reference committees which work on designing training packages across the country, but it is not yet clear which of these will be involved in developing micro-credentials in the long-term. digital course delivery. at educational institutions in north america, australia and new zealand, micro-credential course delivery can take place in a variety of modes - in-person, as well as a variety of blended offerings, or online. the choice is generally left up to the individual institution and is based on whatever the institution believes meets the correct mixture of pedagogical and financial requirements. in europe, however, the notion of micro-credentials has more or less been driven by big public online open universities and so the very term micro-credentials has been entwined with the notion of online learning since the very beginning and is indeed embedded to some extent in the continent-wide micro-credential framework (see the analysis on europe, below). this is also the case for private micro-credentialing initiatives such as google professional certificates (based on courses delivered via coursera) or ibm digital badges. in both cases online education allows both companies to deliver at enormous scale while maintaining control of content and delivery; and, being in the it field, competency-based examinations are in effect the norm. digital credentialing. innovations like credential wallets are becoming more and more mainstream across post-secondary education, and so the notion of digital credentialing is one which transcends micro-credentials. and, in truth, the form of the credential is not necessarily linked to the form of pedagogy or delivery. but, under some conceptions of micro-credentials, the fact that the credential itself is digital, and is part of an individual wallet/portfolio (often held in blockchain), is considered to be an essential part of the higheredstrategy.com page 7 identity of micro-credentials. this is notably true in europe and with american privatesector micro-credentials (again, largely a function of the fact that micro-credentials are conceived of as being born digital), but also in australia, where the government spent millions of dollars creating a micro-credential marketplace complete with digital registries very early on in the process of national policy-making on the subject (see the australia case below) below, in figure 1, we show a stylized version of the foregoing discussion, showing how different micro-credential regimes aim to incorporate varying sub-sets of the seven qualities. in canada, where emerging provincial policies have tended to encourage rapid skill upgrading and direct alignment between credential content and specific employer skill shortages, the focus has been very tight on the employer alignment aspect of the microcredentials (there are of course exceptions quebec has a system which allows the stacking of certificates into a bachelors degree). but other countries have chosen different configurations. the us has had a focus on employer alignment, but also on stackability. new zealand has had a similar employment focus, but has also chosen - to a certain extent to prioritize stackability and portability. singapore eschews employer alignment in favour of workforce alignment, but also has a focus on portability. and so forth. the figure illustrates that micro-credentials in other countries combine qualities that are not typical in canada. higheredstrategy.com page 8 figure 1: seven qualities of (learning labelled as) micro-credentials to be clear, there is nothing suggesting that any of these other jurisdictions or microcredential providers have the right mix of qualities in their systems. every jurisdiction will design its micro-credential policies to suit local conditions. however, certain attributes of micro-credential are essentially unobtainable in the absence of certain framework policies. for instance, switching from an employer alignment system to a workforce alignment system requires having some mechanism for firms to collaborate in order to articulate skill needs. a system of portability requires that individual credentials carry both credit values and an indication of the skill level of the instruction, the latter of which in turn requires an higheredstrategy.com page 9 accepted qualifications framework like those seen in europe or new zealand2. in the absence of such a system, portability in effect can only work via ad hoc prior learning recognition systems. national-level developments we have reviewed policy on micro-credentials in several jurisdictions which have higher education systems broadly comparable to ontarios, in that there is a shared understanding of progress towards degrees and diplomas as the acquisition of credithours, and which have potential lessons for ontario. these include new zealand, the united states, singapore, australia and europe. these illustrate ways in which the qualifications frameworks can function. a distinctive element of the micro-credentials space is that many popular certifications are offered by unregulated private providers best-known for providing other services, such as ibm and google, which illustrate the potential appeal of micro-credentials which are necessarily not designed to be stackable because their creators do not have the legal right to offer higher-level credentials. new zealand new zealand was the first country in the world to create a national framework for microcredentials. key to the countrys ability to lead the world in this area were two things: the prior existence of a national qualifications framework (the new zealand qualifications framework, henceforth nzqf) 3, and a quality assurance agency (new zealand quality assurance, henceforth nzqa) able to regulate new programs in an effective and efficient manner. the framework provides a set of pre-defined levels into which new microcredentials can be fitted by the provider, rather than the receiving institution having to go through the cumbersome process of assessing each micro-credential according to its own standard. the nzqf4 classifies all tertiary education programs in the country as being at one of ten levels, from short certificates to a doctorates, and standardizes the minimum number of credits required to achieve each qualification. this level of transparency is not necessarily required at the university level, where the bachelors-masters-doctorate progression is easily understood, but it is very important at the sub-bachelors level where there can be considerable confusion about the content of (for instance) certificates, which can cover a wide variety of expertise. the levels are ordered in ascending order of the skills outcomes expected at each level: so, for instance a 40-credit level one certificate (in a country where 120 credits is considered full-time for one year) would be expected to provide the learner with basic or foundational knowledge, while a 40-credit level 5 certificate would be 2 in canada, most provinces have degree frameworks but only ontario has a qualifications framework which covers other types of post-secondary credentials though notably not short micro-credentials and which could in theory permit the kind of portability systems seen in new zealand. 3 https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/publications/insights/aotearoa-new-zealands-rationale-for-micro-credentials/ 4 for an overview of the framework, see: https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/assets/studying-in-nz/new-zealand-qualificationframework/requirements-nzqf.pdf higheredstrategy.com page 10 expected to provide broad operational/technical knowledge as well as theoretical knowledge within a specific field of study. having a qualifications framework makes it possible to assign every micro-credential both a level and a credit value. this makes the certificates transparent, facilitates prior learning recognition and makes possible not just the stacking of micro-credentials towards larger credentials within a single institution but portability across multiple institutions as well. the common rules for micro-credentials, regardless of the sector in which they are delivered (and hence the mechanism through which they are regulated), are as follows: a micro-credential certifies achievement of a coherent set of skills and knowledge and is specific by a statement of purpose, learning outcomes, and strong evidence of need by industry, employers, iwi and/or the community. they are smaller than a qualification and focus on skill development opportunities not currently catered for in the regulate tertiary education system. at a minimum, micro-credentials will be subject to the same requirements as training schemes or assessment standards and will also be required to: o be 5-40 credits in size o have strong evidence of need from employers, industry and/or community o not duplicate current quality-assured learning approved by nzqa and o be reviewed annually to ensure they continue to meet their purpose. the process for regulating micro-credentials looks somewhat different depending on the issuer. universities in new zealand are assumed to be largely self-regulating and therefore have the ability to offer new micro-credentials more or less as they please, provided they demonstrably maintain strong internal quality control mechanisms. this selfregulatory status means that at higher levels of the nzqf there are neither centralized rules governing the process of micro-credential creation nor a centralized repository of information regarding the micro-credentials offered. practices vary with respect to whether such credentials are stackable, and the maximum level at which micro-credentials can be offered, with some seeming to cap it at level 8 (equivalent to an honours bachelors degree in ontario) on the framework. (it is worth noting here that, while new zealand has gone to some lengths to be make stackability and portability possible, it has also made it a policy to discourage what might be called the disaggregation of existing programs into micro-credentials. thus, if it seems as though existing programs are being segmented for the purpose of awarding shorter credentials more quickly, the application will tend to be rejected.) though most institutional policies at least make a nod towards including prior learning recognition in determining eligibility for micro-credentials (i.e., entrance criteria), the impression left by various institutional policies is that portability and stackability of microcredentials is less of a priority at the university level than below it. in part, it would seem, this is a reaction to the nzqa policy that micro-credentials not duplicate existing qualityassured programming, which seems to limit the possibility of breaking up existing credentials into smaller pieces. this is in contrast to some emerging practices in the united states where the breaking-up of existing credentials is sometimes seen as a major potential selling point of a micro-credential. higheredstrategy.com page 11 outside of universities, providers wishing to offer micro-credentials must submit a curriculum and a self-assessment for examination by the nzqa, as outlined in the document guidelines for applying for approval of a training scheme or a micro-credential5. applicants are required to present evidence of employer/community need for the microcredential, evidence that the micro-credential meets an unmet need, as well as information with respect to basic features of the credential, including structure, content, delivery method, resources/staff, assessment and moderation methods as well as plans for ongoing evaluation/monitoring. key among the requirements is that the institutions proposing the micro-credential assign both a credit value and a qualification level to the course (5 credits at level 1, 10 credits at level 3, etc.). having these assigned at the outset, and approved by a government agency, provides transparency at the outset and means that an institution receiving many micro-credentials can opt to rely on this information rather than going through the time-consuming process of assigning a value and level to each of them. the nzqa will not accept an application which does not indicate a value and level where that would be appropriate. applications are assessed by nzqas quality assurance division, which is also responsible for assessing training schemes. there are approximately 30 trained assessors in the unit, of which 6 or 7 tend to work on micro-credential files. when an application arrives, it is given to an analyst for examination, with the expectation that the entire process will take no more than ten business days. (new zealand has a separate evaluative approaches for institutions using mori language or that are based on mori culture known as te hono o te kahurangi; the two are meant to produce similar outcomes despite differing approaches.) in the first two and a half years since the micro-credential policy was passed, roughly 130 such credentials have been approved by nzqa. this is somewhat fewer than was expected at the time of policy implementation; however, officials note6 that it took several months for institutions to grow to understand the nature of and requirements for the new credentials, moreover covid-19 has probably acted as something of a damper on demand7. overall, the policy is cautiously deemed to be a success8. it is generally assumed that these kinds of credentials will be funded either through tuition, by employers, or by institutions funding them themselves through existing resources9. however, a process does exist by which institutions can apply for funding with calls for funding from the tertiary education commission (tec) held monthly and decided upon within two weeks, which is very quick by international standards. the tec is a dedicated agency responsible for distribution funds to tertiary institutions, this process is entirely disconnected from the process of credential approval by nzqa. this type of funding is conditional: fees for micro-credentials are capped at nz$60 (roughly c$50), except in cases of high operating costs and/or strong industry need. as of summer 2020, roughly one-third of all nzqa-approved micro-credentials had received tec funding. 5 https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/providers-partners/approval-accreditation-and-registration/micro-credentials/guidelines-trainingscheme-micro-credential/ 6 interview with nzqa official, 2020/21 7 the new zealand border closures meant international mobility was restricted but there were relatively fewer restrictions on work and everyday life than in much of canada. 8 interview with nzqa official, 2020/21 9 interview with nzqa official, 2020/21 higheredstrategy.com page 12 the united states of america it may seem odd that although the term micro-credential originated in the united states, and the country is home to most of the private-sector initiatives and companies who operate in the micro-credential space, there is perhaps the least common understanding of what micro-credentials are or might be. there are three key aspects to the situation in the united states. first, the notion of micro-credentials as badges that is, denoting skills acquired in the course of taking regular time-based classes, but without measuring those skills through some kind of impartial or third-party examination is still relatively common and drives a number of companies such as badgecert which work with a variety of actors in the education space (not just post-secondary education). second, a significant portion of the micro-credential market lies outside the public sector with private trainers. among the most important of these are google and ibm, which are profiled below under private-sector micro-credentials. third, not only is there no single national framework for these credentials, in practice there are two separate policy paths being taken by the various states. the first favors a stacking approach backed by statewide policies to encourage degree completion (mainly at the bachelor or associate level). in policy circles which focus on this type of approach, the term micro-credential is to some extent being replaced by incremental credentialling (see especially the work of credential as you go). this effort is trying to avoid making a strong distinction between new micro-credentials and the hundreds of thousands of existing short certifications/credentials which have existed for decades. the real problems these initiatives are trying to solve are around quality control and prior learning recognition so as to make it easier to put them together to give learners a quicker path to macrocredentials such as degrees. unsurprisingly, many of these efforts are taking place at the sub-bachelors level; equally unsurprisingly, to the extent these credentials are delivered by traditional institutions, they tend to be for credit. as of late fall 2021, 12 states plus the district of columbia had policies which were focused on completion and stacking. (a luxury micro-credential market also exists for very specific courses in fields like computer science at elite universities like northeastern or mit that can stack towards professional masters degrees from those institutions, but this is a fairly niche market). the other approach is closer to the employer alignment model wherein state governments use financial incentives to encourage widespread institutional-employer collaborations to meet local labor market/skills shortages. as of fall 2021, 16 states provided incentives for micro-credentials for rapid upskilling via local partnerships (of these, only four texas, utah, kentucky and virginia are simultaneously pursuing a state-level completion/stacking approach). usually, these are non-credit micro-credentials since the goal is not building towards a degree but gaining a direct line to employment. however, there are exceptions. the state university of new york, for instance, allows its campuses to engage in similar direct-to-employment agreements with local employers, only using bundles of repurposed, already-existing courses and curricula. for instance, at one campus in up-state new york, completion of a bundle of four tourism courses plus a short internship at a local holiday resort leads directly to employment at that resort. higheredstrategy.com page 13 singapore skillsfuture is the branch of the singapore government tasked with ensuring the training the singaporean labour force. it brings stakeholders together from higher education institutions (referred to locally as training institutions even though this encompasses globally-prestigious institutions such as the national university of singapore), employers, business consultants, labour unions, and government agencies, as well as students and employees at various stages in their careers. focused on the lifelong learner concept, skillsfuture seeks to assist these stakeholders in facilitating the transfer of skills to workers through professional and academic training supplied by the institutions and companies themselves. skillsfuture runs a number of different programs, including financial aid for mid-career training. but perhaps the most important things skillsfuture produces are its skills frameworks, which are developed by working groups in various industries which at least in composition and spirit somewhat resemble canadas former sector councils. there are currently 33 industries covered by these frameworks. each framework looks at a number of typical occupational career ladders common to that industry, and comes up with a list of desirable skills at each level of that occupation. this helps corporations do their own planning for training, but critically it also marks out precisely for workers which skills they need to be upgrading as they progress through their career. this enumeration of skills then permits various training providers to design courses designed to meet those particular skills. although these courses are not called micro-credentials per se, they clearly fulfill similar functions. they are short (course durations can vary from a couple of hours to a couple of months; most last only a few days), they are directly aligned with workforce requirements and can be used to climb the career ladder or to port over to a new occupation. and they stack in the more limited sense that there are sequential levels. taking a level 2 course in for example airport logistics follows on from the level 1 course and then in turn leads to levels 3, 4, etc. because colleges and polytechnics already provided programs that are professional and career orientated, the adaptation required to teach these kinds of micro-credential courses was relatively minimal. of perhaps more interest was the fact that research universities such as national university of singapore (nus) and nanyang technology university (ntu) also became involved in offering courses for individuals at more senior levels, and in fields with higher levels of technical orientation. in this particular instance, the governments role in convening the various partners is crucial in creating a market. because the industry councils make strong links between skills and work promotions, learners know that specific courses will have value in the labour market and so are comfortable seeking out the credential (skillsfuture also makes it easy by linking specific skills to specific courses offered by approved providers on its website). because institutions know that students see value in the credentials, they are comfortable designing courses in the knowledge that there will be significant demand for the program. as a result, dozens of training institutions compete to provide programs, ranging from private small for-profit schools to major public research institutions such as those who are usually part of the top 200 list of most prestigious universities in the world. although training centres are free to apply to any segment they see fit to deliver a higheredstrategy.com page 14 skillsfuture course, over time institutions have generally developed a niche. for example, nus is dominant in the data science field. skillsfuture courses are highly concentrated around digital skills, including computer science, social media, data analytics, business information, data science, and data analytics. courses are often delivered on campus, which is something of a contrast with institutions in north america that often push for micro-credentials to be offered online. skillsfuture courses can be credit or non-credit. if they are for credit, they are stackable, and there are a couple of pathways to obtain more credits to build or complement a more traditional degree. australia australia has been one of the later entrants into the field of micro-credentials policy. this is not because the potential of these programs has been misunderstood (they were being discussed at a policy level as early as 2017). instead, it is because there has been a great deal more debate about how to make micro-credentials fit not just with the countrys national qualifications framework but also with its system of units of competency which underpin much of the national skills framework. it has also taken time to try to create a framework which satisfies the two core constituencies for micro-credentials those who see them as pathways to degrees and those who see them as pathways to jobs. australias national micro-credentials framework released in november 2021 is therefore a somewhat more complicated affair than its cousin in new zealand. formally, the definition of a micro-credential is a certification of assessed learning or competency, with a minimum volume of learning of one hour and less than an australian qualifications framework (aqf) award qualification, that is additional, alternate, complementary to or a component part of an aqf award qualification. this can therefore include (i) vocational education and training skillsets or units of competency, (ii) modularised, assessed components of existing higher education curriculum or subjects, (iii) industry learning that is assessed (such as vendor certifications, professional learning) and (iv) other forms of assessed learning or competencies (e.g. vocational education/ higher education /industry courses not currently accredited by a regulatory authority, and those by other providers). however, it specifically excludes things like badges which are given without formal assessments and anything which is already recognized as a macro credential through the australian qualifications framework. though this definition may make it seem as though the primary goal of the australian micro-credential system is the provision of academic credits, there is still a very heavy steer towards preparing australians for employment. the unifying principles of the framework prioritize responsive(ness) to industry need. in addition, the development of the framework took place alongside the roll-out of the job-ready graduates higher education reform package which was implemented in 2020-21 and which had a significant employer/workforce edge to it. arguably, the central pillar of the framework is its acceptance of the fact that microcredentials may equally respond either to a stackability/portability agenda or to an employer/workforce one. the framework focuses on ensuring that micro-credentials all possess certain meta-data needed to make them legible to other organizations, be they higheredstrategy.com page 15 educational institutions or employers. in this sense, it closely resembles the european framework which came out in 2022. the micro-credentials marketplace, which as of may 2022 is still in its design phase, has undergone one change since its inception. originally, the intention was to list all microcredentials, including those provided by australias relatively large private sector training organizations. however, in march 2022, it was announced that the marketplace would only list those micro-credentials offered by public post-secondary institutions. europe understanding the progress of micro-credentials across europe requires grasping three separate sets of developments. the first are changes going on at the national level, the second is the large push for europe-wide micro-credentials, and the third are the actions of the european commission. with respect to national-level developments, the progress of micro-credentials is highly uneven across the continent. they are perhaps closest to coming into the mainstream in places such as ireland and scotland, where local qualifications authorities have taken the lead in developing a framework and, in the case of ireland, the government has put several million dollars into a consortium project to bring micro-credentials into the mainstream. the netherlands and the flemish community of belgium (who share a higher education accreditation agency) have been allowing institutions to introduce and credit new programs on their own for two years now. finland, sweden and norway all have programs which have been described as micro-credentials even though few canadians would describe themselves as such (they closely resemble nothing so much as canadian universities granting special student status to an individual in order to take a few courses without being admitted to a degree program). but it is the development of micro-credential policy at the continental level which is perhaps most striking. the eu contains a significant number of large open education institutions that wish to deliver moocs and thus have an interest in driving high common standards in order to make the credentials better understood and valued by learners and employers. these organizations banded together in the european mooc consortium, which is made up of futurelearn (uk), fun (france), miradax (spain and iberoamerica), eduopen (italy), and openuped/ the european association of distance teaching universities (eadtu). in the spring of 2019, this group released a document known as the european mooc consortium common micro-credential framework (cmf). this framework was much narrower than most other frameworks, in the sense that it was very directive about the quanta of learning to be covered by a micro-credential (4-6 credits under the european credit transfer system in which 60 credits = 1 year of studies) and quite limited in the levels of the european qualification framework for which micro-credentials would be granted (levels 6 through 8, equivalent to bachelors level or above). though this initiative emerged mainly outside a governmental framework, it was developed very much in accordance with bologna process principles; that is, basing recognition on existing qualifications and quality assurance frameworks. finally, in december 2021, the council of the european commission itself issued a recommendation on a european approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and higheredstrategy.com page 16 employability. since the european commission does not itself run or oversee any educational institutions, the focus of this document was to create common approaches (not standards) to the issue of micro-credentials specifically with respect to their definition, design, issue and description. the councils description of a micro-credential, similar to others we have seen, refers to a small volume of learning, but suggests that the credential itself consists of the record of the learning outcomes acquired during the learning event (that is, in effect, it is not the diploma but the transcript which matters). apart from this, the document outlines a set of common data elements (i.e., meta-data) to describe micro-credentials for purposes of mutual recognition. these data elements substantially mirror those adopted by the government of australia in its nqf and are described in more detail in the next section. the recommendations also include some non-binding advice to countries about how to promote a healthy eco-system for the development of micro-credentials. private-sector micro-credentials private-sector organizations offering training and certification is hardly new. macdonalds, famously, has its own university (and, more broadly, a global management training system) which issues credentials of various kinds; in canada, the five chartered banks and their in-house training regime are probably the largest private-sector trainers, all of which are attached to certifications of various types. arguably, these are microcredentials of a type, but because they are issued in-house, they tend to not to be portable or visible to the market, and their value to the holder lies in the way that they can use them to gain promotion and seniority within the corporation. however, some types of corporate-issued credentials - most notably in the technology industry - have long been seen as having validity in the job market outside the companies that issue them. microsoft and ibm, for instance, have long had various kinds of competency-based credentials which have been used in the it industry for years. here, we shine a spotlight solely on two specific sets of corporate micro-credentials: those from ibm and from google. ibm, through its training division, offers over a thousand badges to recognize and document skill in specific areas, and over 150 certifications to demonstrate ability in analytics, business operations, cloud computing, and other areas. the badges are generally free of cost: those wishing to obtain such a credential simply log on and take a test, making them essentially fully competency-based. the certifications are longer, and consists of a number of short courses. these can be taken directly from ibm either on its own platform or through coursera or from one of a number of certified ibm trainers world-wide. the credentials gained are purely digital credentials, but they do not ladder into any other credentials. google offers a number of career certificates using coursera as a platform: it support, data analytics, project management, user experience design, and android development. these certificate courses generally take three to six months to complete. users set their own pace, so the time it takes to finish varies. most are offered for $39 a month each, so a six-month course is $234 (though it could take more or less time depending on effort); for the associate android developer certification there is no cost, but the certification exam higheredstrategy.com page 17 costs $149 per attempt. all courses are taught by google employees. as with ibm, the credentials which come out of these programs are digital in nature and do not ladder into any other credentials. the fact that private micro-credentials are flourishing mostly in the information technology field is not an accident. the tech industry is quite unlike most other kinds of industries in the sense that most testing is implicitly competency-based, and can be done online without necessarily having any kind of human assessment. this is because when it comes to programming the only real criteria of success is that a coding sequence - whether to create something or to de-bug something, or what have you - acts the way it is intended to act. answers either work or they do not, and can be checked by machine code and hence have infinitely scalable forms of assessment. it is notable that the earliest moocs - the ones which caused such a stir in 2011-12 - were all in precisely the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning where these scaling effects are most apparent something which is not really true in any other field). these examples illustrate that there is a market for many micro-credentials which are seen to have value independent of any potential stackability and are designed to be standalone. that said, they could in principle be incorporated into degrees and diplomas by receiving institutions. if a shared framework exists, that decision could be made once for each micro-credential. the models followed by other countries discussed illustrate that it is possible to develop coherent frameworks into which micro-credentials can be fitted by providers. an agreed terminology for talking about the exchange value of micro-credentials is important. higheredstrategy.com page 18 section ii. getting to portability and stackability while the previous section looked at portability and stackability as two of seven major properties associated with micro-credentials, this section will focus on the processes of enabling micro-credentials to be both stackable and portable; namely, making them legible to others by assigning credits and levels, and then attaching these and other forms of meta-data to the credential. this discussion considers the easiest possible case in the current system, in which students are not required to demonstrate mastery of any specific skills or knowledge as part of the core required subject matter of a degree or diploma. even if subject-matter content were not a factor, as if the macro-credential were made up entirely of electives, there would still be barriers to stackability and portability in the status quo. micro-credentials can have value without stackability or portability, but it limits their potential it is important to be clear from the outset that nothing in this paper denigrates the value of micro-credentials which are not stackable or portable. micro-credentials can have value independent of degrees and diplomas and are often awarded by the non-credit arms of the same institutions which award these official macro-credentials. we understand that there are several ways in which micro-credentials can add value to students experiences of college and university without stacking, and our interviewees pointed to several. these included enabling students to obtain certificates which act as badges alongside their degrees and diplomas, which signal skills to potential employers. one interviewee (a developer of continuing education for a major university) described this as the potential value of sidecar credentials in which full-time students may be doing their degree but they may be interested in competency certifications that microcredentials provide, related to their degree area. but they cannot use those credentials to reduce the time needed to complete their degrees. there is also nothing in the status quo to stop colleges and universities from developing micro-credentials which parallel the individual courses they already offer, in effect quantizing the skills and knowledge obtained from a post-secondary program into discrete blocks which can each carry independent certification (at a lower level). this does not add any new knowledge but may appeal to students as a means of signaling to potential employers or customers, for example if they are seeking an internship or setting up a small business prior to graduation, or simply to make the process of completing a fouryear degree in the face of unpredictable personal circumstances seem psychologically less daunting. it also means students who do not complete macro-credentials gain some credentials from their time as students. while these benefits can be pursued now, they also fall far short of the potential benefits of stacking and porting seen in other countries. higheredstrategy.com page 19 defining stackability stacking is not something new that is specific to micro-credentials. in a very real sense, stacking is something that already occurs hundreds of thousands of times a year in ontario, within degrees, diplomas and certificates. the reason it is easy is that the building blocks being stacked are called credits, each of which has implicitly been assigned a level. to understand how this works, it is worth taking a brief detour into how both credits and levels actually function. credits the idea that degrees (and, later, sub-degree credentials) are awarded based on the amount of time spent in study goes back to the earliest universities in italy and france. however, the notion of breaking up degrees into credits is an early 20th century notion. as amy laitinen shows in her work cracking the credit hour, the logic of credit hours was never meant to define units of student learning: in fact, it was developed by the carnegie foundation as a way to measure units of faculty teaching (which was of importance to carnegie as it was related to its work creating the earliest pension schemes for professors). gradually, however, in a process that would take many decades, the idea that a degree took (for example) three years became a rule that meant it took fifteen fullyear classes which in turn eventually became a rule that said it required 90 credits. the switch from years to classes to credits was in some sense imperceptible in the sense that it did not necessarily change the amount of time students were spending in classes, but it did provide institutions and therefore students with a little more flexibility in the sense that the number of credit hours assigned to some types of courses could be higher than others (e.g. 4 credits for a laboratory class vs. 3 credits for a lecture class). the way that accumulated credits counted down time on a degree also made it somewhat easier for students to transfer from one institution to another since a students progression towards a degree became more transparent, and hence made it easier to establish a students place in the progression towards a degree in a new institution. however, in north america, the credit revolution never quite got to the point where the system was universal. while all degree-granting institutions in canada use credit hours, they do not use a common system to measure what a credit hour is. this is not simply a question of institutions being unable/unwilling to count the accumulation of classes in a similar manner (e.g. a half-year lecture course at carleton is 0.5 credits, while at york it is three credits), there is no consistency either within or across universities in defining what counts as credit. within institutions, there is often very little effort expended in order to determine whether the content (i.e., student or professorial workload) of courses with similar credit values are consistent; instead, credits are often simply linked to some kind of standard around contact/teaching hours. however, across institutions, there is little consistency in contact hours: even in a single province like ontario, at some institutions, three hours per week is the norm while at others it is two. this significantly complicates things like credit recognition/transfer since what is being counted as credit varies from one place to another. countries of the european union, when faced with a similar problem after the introduction of the erasmus mobility program in the 1990s, chose a very different path than north higheredstrategy.com page 20 america. uptake of erasmus was limited in the early years because students often found that work completed at foreign institutions could not be counted towards graduation at their home institution because the home institution faced with differing practices in the context and delivery of education, had no way to know how to assign value to the work done abroad. this prompted all countries within the eu to require their universities to assign each class a credit value (some countries had previously done this, albeit on differing bases, but in other countries, credits were unknown at the time). but, more importantly, they required countries to do it on a basis which was in theory at least consistent on a continent-wide basis. this system is known as the european credit transfer system. under the ects, a year of study is equivalent to 60 credits, and in theory at least one ects is equal to 28 hours of study on the students part, including both time in class and outside class. most courses have a load of either 5 or 10 credits (i.e., 140 or 280 study hours). actual teaching time or contact hours is not part of the calculation except insofar as it counts towards the 140 or 280 hours of total work, which makes the ects quite different from north american credit systems. in theory, this makes credits not just legible but standard across the continent, although in practice there may be some considerable divergence even inside a single institution as to how close the estimates of 28 hours per credit are to reality. still, the adoption of a single standard was an enormous boon to erasmus as it made credit transfer much more frequent and predictable, which boosted take-up of the program enormously. in short, in order to have micro-credentials contribute to stackability, they need to have properties similar to credits, which are currently the building blocks of close to 100% of all credentials at the diploma level and above. there is certainly a complication here in that there is no standard definition of credit in ontario and the term can mean very different things at different institutions: however, institutions across the province manage this diversity when it comes to granting transfer credit, and there does not appear to be any reason why micro-credentials could not be treated in a similar fashion. levels over the past few decades, most higher education systems have developed what are known as qualifications frameworks or credential frameworks. these are meant to systematize and clarify the meaning of a variety of credentials. the number of levels in these frameworks varies a bit: the pan-european framework has eight levels (some individual countries within the union have more) while in australia and new zealand it is ten. what they have in common is that all are hierarchical ordinal lists of credentials with the ordination built on the nature of the learning outcomes. at the lowest levels, education is about preparing individuals for the simplest type of work, to be completed under supervision. as the levels increase, the expected learning outcomes are to allow individuals either to take on more rigorous or supervisory work, or to perform work with increasing grades of autonomy. at the highest level the doctoral degree individuals are also expected to be able to generate new understandings. in north america, these frameworks are often just focused just degree-level descriptions: that is, they are degree frameworks which focus just on the bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees, meaning that anything below the bachelors level is not really defined higheredstrategy.com page 21 (and to a certain degree not regulated very much either). one of the very few jurisdictions which does include levels below the bachelors degree is ontario which has a thirteenlevel system the ontario framework, shown below, is somewhat different from other systems in that three of the levels are typically not considered levels in other systems (levels 3 and 4 are usually excluded because they lead to certifications which are not part of the post-secondary education system, and levels 6-8 are usually just divided into two categories). table 1: the ontario qualifications framework outcome emphasis typical duration 1 certificate i a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow graduates to meet narrowly defined job requirements. 40 instructional hours 2 certificate ii a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow graduates to work in a limited range of activities within a prescribed range of functions. 240-500 instructional hours 3 certificate of apprenticeship the skills and knowledge in a specific trade or occupation. training is workplace-based. up to five years 4 certificate of qualification successful completion of the qualification/certification examination for a trade or occupation. n/a 5 certificate iii a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow graduates to perform in a defined range of varied activities within a prescribed range of functions involving known routines and procedures. 600-700 instructional hours 6 diploma i a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow the graduates to work within a broad range of technical and/or administrative requirements, coordination and evaluation. 1000+ instructional hours 7 diploma ii a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow the graduates to work within a broad range of technical and/or administrative requirements, coordination and evaluation, and engage students in learning in disciplines outside their main field of study. 1200-1400 instructional hours 8 advanced diploma knowledge, skills and attitudes to enable graduates to work within a broad range of technical and/or management functions in a broad range of occupational areas. 1800-2100 instructional hours 9 post-diploma certificate programs either deepen knowledge and skills already gained through a diploma or advanced diploma program or provide graduates of baccalaureate programs with specific knowledge and skills related to an applied occupational area. 600-700 instructional hours 10 baccalaureate/ bachelors degree programs provide some broad knowledge and conceptual sophistication, including specialized knowledge in at least one discipline or field. 6 semesters higheredstrategy.com page 22 11 baccalaureate/ bachelors degree (honours) programs provide more conceptual sophistication, specialized knowledge and intellectual autonomy. students learn appropriate applications of conceptual frameworks. normally require students to prepare, under supervision, a terminal research paper, thesis, project, exhibition, etc. 8 semesters 12 masters degree programs require the student to develop and demonstrate advanced research skills under supervision. some programs require students to demonstrate the necessary research, analytical, interpretative, methodological and expository skills in course exercises. 3-5 semesters 13 doctoral degree demonstrated high degree of intellectual autonomy, ability to conceptualize, design and implement projects for the generation of significant new knowledge and/or understanding, and their ability to create and interpret knowledge that extends the forefront of a discipline, usually through original research or creative activity. 3-5 years levels are an important complement to credits because while credits define time/effort, levels explain the degree of sophistication of the material covered and the expected learning outcome/ level of mastery. knowing one without knowing the other is not especially helpful in understanding the actual nature of the course. in practice, most ontario universities have used a few of these levels to determine advanced standing in transfer courses for decades. when transferring from one undergraduate university program to another, it is understood than most credits will be level 10, with possibly a few credits at level 11 (generally represented by courses that begin with the number 4: 400-level, 4000-level, etc.). when transferring from a college program to a university one, nearly all credits will be at level 8 or occasionally 9. this is not a language that most institutions speak to each other when exchanging information via transcripts, but it is in fact how the process works. where it becomes more complicated is with respect to shorter programs aimed at older learners, for instance through continuing education programs. note that the lowest recognized level is expected to have 40 instructional hours. because these kinds of courses have not hitherto been thought of as building blocks to larger credentials, institutions have not been in the habit of assigning them levels. this would need to change in order for stackability and portability to become a reality. how levels and credits combine in order for stacking to occur, micro-credentials need to possess meta-data indicating two specific qualities: the level of education at which the credential is delivered, and a credit value. note that the issuing body for the credential need not actually award any macrocredentials at that level of education, nor does it need to award credits itself. however, in higheredstrategy.com page 23 order for micro-credentials to stack, the knowledge they embody needs to carry values which are clearly understood by other institutions who may be willing to use these as building blocks towards macro-credentials. it is useful here to think about how a regular undergraduate degree or a diploma is constructed. each degree or diploma is made up of credits, most of which are either at the same level as the credential or one level above or below (for instance, most of the credit in a level 11 bachelors degree (honours) is actually work done at level 10; 4+1 pathways programs are usually some mixture of levels 8/9/10 etc. there are in addition restrictions around the number of credits required in a particular area or concentration (i.e., a major), and within that smaller group of credits, there are also usually a few very specific individual courses which must be taken no matter what (i.e., pre-requisites), which complicate things somewhat, but the point here is that for any individual piece of learning to count towards a larger credential (e.g. a diploma or a degree), the outcome of that learning must map on to some kind of learning outcome (that is be at a certain level, and it needs to be translated into some kind of credit value. technically, not all of these previous outcomes need have come through formal learning with credits attached; prior learning recognition (plr) can be used to translate informal or non-formal knowledge into the language of levels and credits and in so doing make this learning legible for the purpose of stacking and portability. and, technically, microcredentials could become stackable by this method. however, as is well-known, plr is a time-consuming process which is challenging to make work at scale. a much simpler way to make micro-credentials stackable and portable is for providers to simply to assign levels and credits to micro-credentials at the point of offer, as new zealand does, and then include this information as part of the meta-data associated with each credential. it is to the issue of the meta-data that we now turn. europe, australia and the focus on meta-data of particular interest in micro-credential-related policy developments over the past 18 months are developments of new frameworks in australia and europe and in particular the convergence of the two frameworks in their stress of the importance of meta-data (that is, data about data). in the context of micro-credentials, what it means is the codification of what data is made available with respect to each micro-credential. by standardizing the data made available about each micro-credential, the legibility of each micro-credential is improved. as we have already seen, this is important for the purposes of stackability and portability but it turns out that it is can also be very valuable for the purpose of making micro-credentials. in both europe and australia, the micro-credential frameworks are agnostic as to the actual purpose of micro-credentials (i.e., credential completion/stackability/portability vs. labour market alignment). indeed, in both cases, the frameworks are designed to enable both pathways. remarkably, both jurisdictions arrived at the same conclusion, which is to say that take-up of any type of micro-credentials is reliant on their transparency. as a result, both frameworks focus very heavily on the meta-data associated with each credential. as shown below in table 2, both jurisdictions have made it mandatory for the issuers of micro-credentials to attach certain forms of meta-data with each credential. in the eu the required/optional data standards tend to be described as open standards; in higheredstrategy.com page 24 australia, the critical/recommended elements are designed to be mandatory, with failure to provide data in all categories being made a requirement for courses to be placed in the national marketplace for micro-credentials (something which in conception at least is not too far from ecampusontarios micro-credential portal). the status quo in ontario, however, allow meta-data to be very patchy. higheredstrategy.com page 25 figure 2: micro credential meta-data requirements under the eu and australian frameworks european union australia required/critical information elements title of micro-credential title of micro-credential name of provider name of provider country of issue content/description date of issue date of delivery learning outcome description learning outcome description workload (in ects) learner effort (workload hours) level credit/recognition (includes level of qualification) type of assessment assessment quality assurance quality assurance form of participation in learning activity (i.e., delivery mode) delivery mode certification prerequisite language optional/recommended elements integration/stackability stackability prerequisites expiration of credential (if any) identity verification depth of learning grade achieved jurisdiction of issue industry support recommended prior knowledge/experience industry/occupation industry alignment higheredstrategy.com page 26 section iii. the situation in ontario plar is a huge burden because individual [evaluation of a transcript] takes time university registrar despite the challenges of attributing an exchange rate between their own courses and education obtained elsewhere, ontario institutions do have established mechanisms for awarding transfer credit. these include pre-negotiated block transfers of credits between institutions, in which institutions gather enough data about each others course offerings to rank them as equivalent, and plar, the labour-intensive process in which subject matter experts read documentation of an individuals past achievements and attempt to assign credit. one assigns credit to specific courses at specific institutions, so future students taking those courses will know they can receive transfer credit, and at least in theory the other involves an examination of an individuals whole past career. both involve the receiving institution making its own judgements about the level of content of prior learning by reviewing syllabi and other records and therefore are expensive. ideally, a model for stacking micro-credentials should satisfy certain criteria. the process needs to be: quick o from a learners point of view waiting to receive credit has significant opportunity costs cheap o as always in higher education, resources are limited and staff time is expensive transparent and consistent o if learners are uncertain about whether their credentials can be stacked then they are potentially less likely to pursue them and very probably less likely to go through the process of investigating whether stacking is even a possibility (especially if enquiring is slow and expensive). there are also potential equity issues because students who face barriers to education have less access to money, time and information about how the process works flexible o the model would recognize learning from a wide variety of sources, not only the most common pathways followed by large numbers of learners. block transfers fulfil the first three of these, but by their nature they can only apply to a restricted set of courses. the process involves gathering considerable information which is only economically feasible if enough students are moving between that specific pair (dyad) of courses. they cannot be used to react to new and unfamiliar credentials, and the wide variety of micro-credentials available makes this a major problem for microcredentials. plar, on the other hand, is as flexible as the subject matter experts choose to make it but because it relies on expensive experts making individual judgments it is much weaker on the other criteria. plar gives control over the process to faculty, some of whom can be higheredstrategy.com page 27 conservative in their willingness to award credit. the identity of the subject matter expert evaluating may make the process hard to predict, so students seeking a micro-credential as a step towards a degree or diploma cannot know in advance how much credit they will receive. costs are often borne by the student making plar an expensive proposition if they cannot be sure the savings in tuition will outweigh the up-front cost. while institutions can assess individual courses for transfer by examining syllabi, it was clear from interviews that this would not be a viable basis for a model of micro-credential stacking that would meet the criteria. think about the overhead that would cost [if an applicant were to say] ive got 10 different micro-credentials from 10 different institutions and i want to show you thats congruent to biology 1000. [swears] 80% of that material has to be congruent and that has to be assessed by an academic. that would be a nightmare, we would never get into that business. university registrar the underlying problem is that under the current model micro-credentials need to be independently evaluated for course credit in order to be stacked into degrees or diplomas and processing the information needed to do that is expensive. it is too expensive for an individual institution to learn enough about each credential when each micro-credential probably has very limited credit value (because it is so short compared to the larger credential) and they may see few students presenting the micro-credential. in principle, centralisation of assessment could help. but the examples of stackability and portability in other countries (section 1) have shown how important consistency of data presentation is in central coordination. exploring meta-data in order to examine the state of stackability for this project, we therefore examined the data of over 1700 micro-credentials listed on the ecampusontarios micro-credential portal as of the summer of 2022. using the portal as a guide, we used the institutional links affiliated with each microcredential to record the following fields of information: course title host institution, credential start/end dates, presence of multiple credential sections, contact hours, credits assigned, delivery method required prerequisites, field of study, industry partners, professional recognition, price, stacking, higheredstrategy.com page 28 credential type, osap eligibility, course description, learning outcomes, skills/core competencies developed the affiliated link to the institutional website. most of this information required no interpretation, but in some fields notably, learning outcomes and skill/core competencies some interpretation by hesa researchers were required. for example, if a micro-credential posted a list of topics to be covered without providing any information on what the learner would take away with respect to these topics, it was marked as no learning outcomes provided. one very significant challenge early on in the project was the use of the ecampusontario micro-credential portal itself. apart from being difficult to navigate and challenging to filter, the data provided by the portal is sub-par. the most prominent issue of all is the lack of a time filter. something on the order of 30% of the micro-credentials listed in the portal are either not currently being delivered or have no start or end date associated with them (i.e., it is unclear if they are currently being offered). in addition, the portal seems to be a farfrom-complete database, in that there are a number of micro-credentials listed on institutional sites which are not listed on the portal. to take but one simple example: the portal lists ocadu as offering 7 micro-credentials. a quick check of the ocadu website shows in fact that there are 13 current micro-credentials, of which only 6 are listed on the ecampusontario portal. it was not possible to cross-check all listings on institutional websites, because these sites often make it extremely difficult to locate micro-credentials amongst other course offerings; however, our estimate is that there are at least 300 courses offered by public institutions which are not listed on the portal, suggesting that the toral number of courses as of late 2022 - is probably in excess of 2100. it should be noted that these numbers are by their very nature approximate because the constantly changing nature of micro-credentials on offer makes absolute certainty about numbers difficult. between the start (june 2022) and end (november 2022) of this project, the number of credentials listed on the portal rose from 1742 to 1796, though as noted above this includes several hundred courses with no data on run dates and so may not be currently offered. for this reason, this report uses rough percentages to report data rather than absolute numbers. key data on ontario micro-credentials as of summer 2022, roughly two-thirds of the roughly 1750 current micro-credentials offered by public institutions in ontario are delivered by universities with the remainder delivered by community colleges and indigenous institutes. this roughly corresponds to the distribution of full-time students between the two sectors, which suggests that what micro-credential learners are seeking from providers is not that different from what the overall post-secondary market seeks. while nearly all institutions now offer micro-credentials, some institutions are much more active in the market than others. our scan of micro-credentials on the portal suggests that higheredstrategy.com page 29 just four institutions (york university, the university of windsor, conestoga college and the university of waterloo) are responsible for the delivery of about half of all microcredentials in the province: adding the university of toronto, lambton college and queens university brings it up to about two-thirds. figure 2 shows the distribution of micro-credentials by field. in terms of field of study, micro-credentials are clearly available across the spectrum, but they cluster very differently from those in regular post-secondary education. the most common field in which micro-credentials are offered is business and management, which is perhaps unsurprising as this is also true of continuing education programs. what is perhaps a surprise is the extent to which micro-credentials are being used in the education: to a considerable degree, what used to be simple professional development courses are now being given out as micro-credentials. figure 2: distribution of micro-credentials by subject 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% figure 3 shows the distribution of micro-credentials by price. most micro-credentials are very reasonably priced, with a few of them offered free of charge and three-quarters of all micro-credentials costing under $750. since a year of studies at the undergraduate level in ontario average about $7500 with ancillary fees included. this suggests that many institutions are pricing micro-credentials as if they were an individual undergraduate course, or treating the undergraduate course price as a reference or ceiling. for the most part, the micro-credentials offered at $1,000 or above are comprised of multiple courses or modules. higheredstrategy.com page 30 figure 3: distribution of ontario micro-credentials by price 40% 33% 35% 28% 30% 25% 20% 14% 15% 14% 10% 5% 5% 4% 1% 0% $0 $1-250 $251-500 $501-750 $751-1000 $1,000-5,000 $5000+ evaluating the meta-data in ontario micro-credentials as noted in the section ii, one of the emerging areas of consensus globally with respect to micro-credentials, and the one which has the greatest potential to improve stackability and portability of is the quality of meta-data associated with micro-credentials. unfortunately, the state of this meta-data is not good. quite apart from the fact that the meta-data for individual courses can show different things depending on whether it is on the institutional website or that of ecampusontario, in too many cases there is simply no data available for things which in other countries are considered key required fields. content descriptions: roughly 98% of active micro-credentials have content descriptions. however, the quality and descriptiveness vary. roughly a quarter of all micro-credentials possess no description. of the remainder, roughly two-thirds (50% in total) have what might be called limited information, while one-third (25% in total) have high-quality descriptive information. an example of a limited course content description is the university of windsors microcredential in additional basic training in green studies has the following description this course focuses on the skills and theory underpinning the study of green industries. this course addresses student development, program planning and delivery issues in the school environment. while this technically qualifies as description, in truth it does little to enlighten the potential learner about the learning activities involved in the class. at the other extreme, there is the osgoode hall (york) description for its certificate in esg, climate risk, and the law from osgoode hall at york university described below in box 1: higheredstrategy.com page 31 box 1 course description: certificate in esg, climate risk and the law environmental, social and governance (esg) risk, once optional, is now a critical business priority. global financial markets, scientific data, government policy and public opinion are converging to drive rapid legal, business and cultural changes in the area of esg-related risk management. at the same time, esg and climate-related risks are leading to greater legal and regulatory claims, shareholder activism, investor classactions, and public naming and shaming in cases where an organization is not adequately prioritizing esg and climate issues. in order to effectively navigate and advise on legal and operational esg and climaterelated risks and issues in the context of governance matters, commercial transactions and investments, and to avoid legal liability and reputational risk, you must have a solid grasp of the complex and evolving laws and expectations in this area. designed by governance, climate-risk and policy experts for board directors and legal and business professionals whose work involves governance, commercial transactions or investments, this unique new osgoode pd certificate is the only program of its kind for canadian organizations, boards and legal advisors to upskill in this important area. over five engaging days featuring discussion and case studies, you will learn how to evaluate, navigate and disclose common esg and climate-related risks and opportunities, establish and develop an esg framework within the corporate culture and decisionmaking process, and set suitable esg-related legal risk management and operational goals. completing this program will enhance your knowledge and refine your repertoire of risk management strategies and techniques for navigating esg and climate-related issues, potential liability exposure and opportunities and provide you with valuable resources. online primers foundations in esg, climate risk and the law. included with the certificate, these online primers are available on demand, and they cover core concepts to set the stage for the program modules (primer content will not be covered in class). it is strongly recommended that you view all five (5) primers before attending the program. to obtain your certificate, all five (5) primers must be viewed: esg, law and policy primer (75 mins, 2021), climate science, risk and carbon neutrality/ net zero primer (90 mins, 2021), governance framework for esg primer (50 mins, 2021), indigenous rights, consent and the duty to consult in canada primer (100 mins, 2021), indigenous-led projects and partnerships primer (80 mins, 2021), and registration includes 120-day unlimited, online access to the recorded program. the difference here between the york and windsor examples is enormous, and most descriptions lie somewhere between these two extremes. however, for the most part institutions choose descriptions which lean towards the briefer end of the spectrum. higheredstrategy.com page 32 learning outcomes: for the purpose of this analysis, this section is divided into learning outcomes and core competencies. the former describe the topics over which learners should have some degree of mastery at the end of the course while the latter are the skills to be developed develop during the course. if a course included a list of topics (e.g. business planning) but did not describe what a learner may take away from the course (e.g. at the end of the course, learners will be able to develop a business plan that encompasses financial strategy, marketing and communications, and project management) it was not counted as a learning outcome. the university of toronto is one of few institutions that consistently and clearly includes both the learning outcomes and course competencies in its meta-data. for example, the outcomes and competencies for its managing people: essentials micro-credential reads like the one in box 2. box 2 learning outcomes managing people: the essentials what you'll learn: by the end of this micro course, you'll be able to: describe the role of a manager. use a human-performance model to diagnose performance problems. identify performance gaps. troubleshoot problems to determine why they occur and how to fix them. competencies/skills developed in this micro course include: performance management performance planning performance monitoring problem solving in total, fewer than 25% of micro-credentials had both clearly outlined learning outcomes and core competencies listed. intriguingly, a very high proportion of these came from a single institution (the university of toronto). roughly have 50% had learning outcomes listed but not core competencies. the final 25% did not list any learning outcomes or core competencies. contact hours: every course in the ecampusontario micro-credential portal has a number of contact hours assigned to it, ranging from 2 to 480 hours. this is because listing contact hours is a requirement to be listed on the site: in many cases parallel information is not available on the host institutions website. this is at the very least a good sign that ecampusontario can affect micro-credential meta-data through its listing policies. higheredstrategy.com page 33 credit: very few micro-credentials (roughly 4% of the total) in the province of ontario are listed as bearing academic credit and they are situated almost exclusively in five institutions: conestoga college, cambrian college, mohawk college, st. clair college and lakehead university. the rest are assumed to be non-credit courses, though it is possible that there are a few where credit is given but not mentioned in the meta-data. in a select few cases, there are courses that have non-academic, professional credit hours associated with them. these are courses that have an industry partner affiliation and completing the micro-credential counts towards experience hour for a professional designation. for example, completing managing complex projects at the university of waterloo earns a learner 14 credit hours towards a project management professional designation from the project management institute. only two institutions, york university and the university of waterloo, seem to offer/promote these credit hours as a main feature of their completing their micro-credential. it does not appear that these courses have any credit-value within the institution. level of course: because so few courses bear credit towards a credential, there is really little need to associate learning with a specific level, and thus there are few courses that do so. the only relative distinction comes from the course being offered by a university or a college. there are some courses that contain an institutional course code within the title (e.g. university of torontos 3197b - presentations with visual impact or georgian colleges tata0032: coaching). however, these codes have limited meaning beyond an individual institution and given little to no information to the learner or the employer about the level of learning. assessment method: understanding how learning is assessed is a key piece of meta-data transparency: just as learning outcomes tells one what was learned, a description of assessment methods tells one how the issuing body knows whether or not such learning was actually achieved. the most complete examples will tell one two things. first, it will describe how students are evaluated, and second, it will describe the meaning of the grading scale used to denote the degree to which the learner has met the objectives of each evaluation. so, for example, the assessment criteria for western universitys micro-credential teaching online is shown below in box 3. higheredstrategy.com page 34 box 3 assignment criteria: teaching online evaluation: assignment #1 10% assignment #2 10% assignment #3 15% assignment #4 15% assignment #5 50% total 100% notes on assignments (papers and reports): must follow general apa style in format, references, and citations must be academic in style and content must include title page and references, where required must include data that is based on clearly identified research and sources, where required grading: a+ 90-100: one could scarcely expect better from a student at this level a 80-89: superior work which is clearly above average b 70-79: good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory c 60-69: competent work, meeting requirements d 50-59: fair work, minimally acceptable f below 50: fail the kind of description shown in box 3 is an example of what be called fulsome assessment criteria. under 20% of all micro-credentials listed on the ecampusontario portal meet this description. a more common situation (roughly 40% of cases) is when the micro-credential description provides a list of types of assessment but lacks either weights or a grading scale or both. for example, ontario college of art and design universitys becoming a content creator: advanced social media marketing for creative entrepreneurs micro-credential falls into the second category with their assessment description: as part of the modules in each micro-credential, you will complete assignments and exercises outlined in each micro-credential. these build towards the required evidence for each micro-credential that is submitted at the end of the microcredential modules. finally, there are many micro-credentials where no assessment data is to be found. these also constitute roughly 40% of all micro-credentials. delivery mode: roughly 70% of all ontario micro-credentials are delivered fully online. however, it is not always clear from the meta-data whether the course is synchronous or asynchronous. among those that do offer this information, and where the class is synchronous, the most typical delivery model is a single weekly session lasting for one to three hours. however, it higheredstrategy.com page 35 is seldom the case that these class times sum to the contact hour count given on the ecampusontario portal. our interpretation therefore is that most institutions are not equating contact hours with the traditional learner-instructor-interaction but rather providing an estimate of the time learners will need to spend with the materials and participating in assessment activities (that is, something more akin to the european model of describing credits in terms of estimated hours of work) the next most common delivery method (~14%) is in-person only. for the most part, these courses are vocational micro-credentials: that is, college-based non-credit courses in welding, truck driving, plumbing, and food services. for example, confederation colleges az truck driver melt (mandatory entry level training) or lambton colleges performing plasma arc cutting both fall within this category. there are fewer examples of universities offering fully in-person micro-credentials, but these do exist: example, trent university offers a micro-credential certificate for english, leadership, and community where students spend four weeks completing the credential on trents campus. finally, there are also a few university-level micro-credentials that are delivered in dual mode: with some sections delivered online and others delivered in person. these are mainly in information technology and computer sciences. the least common (>0.5%) are courses that are hybrid in nature, with both an online and in-person component. these tend to be concentrated in science/life-science based microcredentials in rurally-located schools. it is likely the catchment area for these courses is anticipated to be within the community so learners can participate in both the online and in-person sections. just over 16% of micro-credentials did not list a delivery method. quality assurance: none of the micro-credential we examined listed any form of quality assurance processes. presumably this reflects the overall lesser role of external quality assurance in canadian post-secondary education than in the other systems described in section 2. stackability: there are no examples in ontario of being able to obtain a diploma or degree exclusively though stacking micro-credentials, as is sometimes the case in the united states (e.g. northeastern). there are however some examples of micro-credentials stacking towards a certificate: for example, at conestoga college, completion of five individual microcredential courses stacks into the certificate of academic integrity in post-secondary teaching. industry partners: fewer than 6% of micro-credentials are listed as having industry partners attached to their delivery. this may perhaps understate the degree of industry involvement in microcredentials: companies may have been involved in delivery and not listed, or they may higheredstrategy.com page 36 have been involved in the conceptualization and design of the programs without having been credited as such in the meta-data. where such participation is noted, it tends to occur in the fields of information technology and computer sciences, business, and within vocational fields. industry recognition: industry recognition that is, providing courses which are recognized by industry certification bodies is a much more common type of industry affiliation that a straight delivery partnership. roughly one in six credentials contains some meta-data to this effect. this is particularly true in fields like business, where for example the university of waterloos advanced project monitoring and control micro-credential is recognized by the project management institute to count towards a project management professional designation, even if it is not directly partnered with the project management institute itself. it seems likely that this is actually a significant undercount, as most of the education micro-credentials appear to be designed (or perhaps converted) to meet ongoing professional development and thus are likely recognized by the ontario college of teachers, though few courses actually make note of this. final observations on ontario micro-credentials beyond the simply descriptive nature of the data presented here, there are a couple of observations to be made about the data on micro-credentials in ontario. the first is that while micro-credentials are still an emerging field, they are finding footholds in in nearly all public institutions across the province and indeed across a wide variety of fields of study. while there are a few clear institutional pioneers (york, windsor, conestoga) and a few field-of-study clusters (business and education), there is every reason to believe that this will be a wide-ranging phenomenon for years to come. second, there seems to be a significant reluctance to offer micro-credentials for credit, particularly in universities. there may be a number of reasons for this, but the most obvious barrier is structural: micro-credentials are often treated as a subset of continuing education, which not only tends to focus on clients who already have some kind of diploma or degree but also are structurally unable to give credit towards degrees which are approved by university senates. there are several implications of these observations. the first is that institutions are not really designing credentials with individuals who might have an interest in stackability in mind. in fact, for the most part, what appears to be the case is that these are being designed and driven for largely the same kinds of markets that institutions have been serving for decades through continuing education units. it is not possible to say that micro-credentials in ontario are simply old continuing education products in new clothing, but this might be the case for a significant percentage of them. a second implication follows from the first: although stackability/portability is possible through better use of credits/levels and other meta-data, little attention has been given to meta-data or assigning credit values. higheredstrategy.com page 37 finally, it is worth noting that in general, the state of meta-data on ontario credentials is a long way from global best-practice. the meta-data taken for granted elsewhere is frequently missing or unreliable. ecampusontario could impose standards as a condition of listing on its micro-credential portal. however, the issue of comparability runs through whole ontario system, with most individual instructors able to organize their syllabi as they choose and no requirements to record meta-data or describe learning outcomes in any prescribed format. the costs to institutions of co-ordinating all their instructors to present meta-data consistently would be considerable and it is not clear that the benefits of being listed on the portal are a powerful enough incentive to make them bear those costs. individual institutions would probably need quite a significant incentive to ensure consistency in meta-data. higheredstrategy.com page 38 section iv. possible paths to stackability ontarios current model is not the only possibility for stacking micro-credentials into macro-credentials. the barriers to portability between institutions and stackability into hierarchical credentials identified by experts in the ontario system have been partially addressed in the other countries studied. there are also more radical options which have occasionally been tried. mandating comparable meta-data currently, each unfamiliar credential presented to a college or university for transfer or plar must be examined at the level of the syllabus and syllabi are not mandated to follow a single consistent format. instructors can often freestyle their learning outcomes and the concepts taught, which makes comparing the syllabi into highly-skilled work requiring subject matter expertise. as shown above, even the meta-data provided to ecampusontario is frustratingly inconsistent. encouraging credential developers to create meta-data which is more easily understood by other institutions in the process of creating micro-credentials would reduce the information processing costs. essentially, this would involve creating a list of options for content, level and credit value. providers could choose from this fixed list of options and attest to them. standardising meta-data about the level, credit value and content of a course would convert what is currently an artisan process requiring highly-skilled subject matter experts into a general skill which could potentially even be partially automated. institutions offering micro-credentials could be incentivized to publish meta-data about them in a more standardized format in various ways. meta-data could be required for listing on public catalogues e.g. ecampusontarios portal eligibility for public funding acceptance for stacking by public colleges (which mcu can direct using binding policy directives) and universities the simplest way to provide meta-data may be to parallel diploma and degree courses as closely as possible, so that level and value would be expressed in hours of study and the pre-requisites needed. it would equally be possible to develop a competency-based model in which the skills developed through a particular credential are defined in a predetermined grid (with developers able to apply to add new skills to the grid where necessary) similar to current practice in singapore. the limitation of this model is that, without central oversight of what level, content and credit values are being claimed for a micro-credential, it essentially relies on an honour system. providing misleading information might become self-penalising if it harmed the reputation of the institution or the individual staff involved. however, academic credit has a very real economic value in the labour market and, if a micro-credential could be used to avoid the tuition and time costs of completing a diploma or degree course, its value to learners would increase. higheredstrategy.com page 39 assigning guidance on credit value at source one obvious solution is some kind of centralization in which the issuer of each microcredential seeks to have a credit value and level within a qualifications framework (e.g. one credit-hour towards the second year of an undergraduate degree) assigned by a trusted third party. this would reduce the overall information cost to the system, since the labour-intensive process of evaluation would take place only once rather than needing to be replicated for each possible combination (dyad) of sending and receiving institutions. institutions asked to stack micro-credentials into their diplomas or degrees would not need to make individual judgments about the credibility of each individual provider. in new zealand this role is filled by the new zealand qualifications authority (nzqa). in new zealand this is largely a paper exercise in which the provider has to convince nzqa of its capacity to manage the training and that they can realistically expect to achieve their learning outcomes. however, the need to submit to a central authority opens the possibility of an application being challenged. it is also possible to imagine a central body taking on a more active role than in new zealand, for example by policing the correspondence between learning outcomes and level or credit value (perhaps by comparison with the content of conventional for-credit courses) or by tracing the progress of learners who have stacked a micro-credential to verify whether they are adequately prepared and eventually graduated with a degree or diploma. in an ontario context a similar function could potentially be performed by the province or a provincial agency. this would mean the cost of the work appearing on governments administration budget or fees needing to be levied on micro-credential providers, but the total cost to the sector would be much lower than having micro-credentials evaluated by receiving colleges and universities. in the current system, the cost of evaluating credentials is repeatedly duplicated and either absorbed by colleges and universities or charged to students through plar fees. if the province does not take on the role, universities and colleges could contract with a private agency which will handle the considerable information costs for them in exchange for payment. many institutions already allow private companies to have input into their admissions decision-making (also a fairly crucial dimension of a university or colleges reputation) when they have to decide what foreign credentials to recognize. private providers such as world education services (wes) employ staff with specialist knowledge of college and university entrance credentials around the world, relieving admissions staff of the need to remain up-to-date on such a huge volume of information, for a fee. effectively, wes is trusted to establish an exchange rate between grades on an exotic credential and the more familiar ontario secondary school diploma which enables a student to be admitted. receiving institutions can challenge wess judgment or reject the exchange rate, but in practice this is rare and many thousands of foreign credentials are accepted each year on wess recommendation. higheredstrategy.com page 40 decoupling examination and teaching an alternative approach would be to make micro-credentials into pre-qualifying mechanisms allowing learners to access tests comparable to those taken by regular degree and diploma students. stacking micro-credentials obtained elsewhere into diplomas and degrees will inevitably decouple teaching from examination. if there are concerns about how far microcredentials offered by diverse providers will prepare learners for degrees and diplomas, models based on separate examination could also facilitate stacking. in essence, microcredentials could pre-qualify learners to challenge exams taken by regular students, without the need to complete coursework10. this could allow an entrepreneurial college or university to position itself as a specialist in serving students who have many unconventional credentials to stack into a degree or diploma. this is far from unprecedented, and in fact many of the older english universities are collegiate institutions where the university once had no role in teaching and instead provided examinations to students who were taught in colleges. for much of the 19th century england had only two universities, both of which were open only to anglicans, and growing demand for higher education in its cities. the university of london was established to provide common exams to, initially, two colleges in the city which did the actual teaching. the university was initially controlled by the government, which opened its examinations to other colleges approved by the government. eventually university of london exams were opened to anyone who could show preparation. a number of institutions developed as effectively tutoring services for students who would ultimately take university of london exams. it is still possible to take university of london exams by correspondence from abroad without attending any classes in london, and the university allows independent colleges around the world to become recognised teaching centres where students can prepare for university of london exams in a classroom environment. awarding credentials (and credentials in which quality control is crucial) to candidates who can show alternative forms of preparation by examination alone is also not unheard-of in modern canada. apprentices who have enough work experience are able to challenge qualifying exams, avoiding completion of all the normal classroom training, provided they meet certain requirements. their on-the-job training is a necessary pre-qualification for being able to take the exam, preventing spurious applications by potentially-dangerous unprepared candidates, but anyone who passes is allowed to become a journeyperson as if they had the complete program of training. other forms of preparation, including microcredentials, could potentially fill this role. a decentralized challenge model could allow the universities and colleges which award degrees and diplomas to retain quality control of examinable material, although not the wider student experience. they could still impose some residency requirements and use micro-credentials as evidence that the candidate had appropriate preparation. alternatively, one body could offer exams for all of ontario and set pre-qualification standards independently of colleges and universities. in south korea the government 10 while colleges and universities tend to require that students register for courses as cohorts and are then tested, this is not necessary. western governors university, for example, largely decouples progress though its degrees from the academic calendar by allowing progress once a student can demonstrate competence (https://www.wgu.edu/studentexperience/learning/scheduling.html). higheredstrategy.com page 41 provides a bank of exams which students can challenge without attending university and receive a (no-name) self-study bachelors degree from the government if they are successful. although most challengers have some formal preparation, the government does not teach or require any teaching and is agnostic about the form of preparation. similarly, the higher education law of the people's republic of china commits the government to offer examinations for self-taught students and there are many agencies which do not have their own degree-awarding powers preparing learners for these exams. having a centralised bank of exams would clearly be more efficient than a decentralized system, but in a higher education system in which prestige is seen as important the degrees awarded can be seen as inferior to those of selective universities. further, institutions which prepare students for exams set by others will sacrifice some degree of autonomy in the content of their courses, leading to greater difficulty in developing an independent reputation for developing programs. that said, some institutions might welcome such a system. not all ontario institutions necessarily value autonomy and strengthening their brand more than being able to access ontario-wide exams. importantly, once an institution offers a standardized exam students who have completed one have a very clear claim for advance standing at other institutions which also use that exam. hence the value of passing a standard exam increases as more and more institutions use it. private career colleges (pccs) are potential users of such exams. because they operate as private businesses, the costs of assessing how prepared aspiring students are and assigning them an appropriate level (not to mention simply writing their own exams for every course) cuts into their budgets, so standardization could save them money as well as facilitating transfers between pccs, which are currently not supported by oncat and tend not to have smooth transfer processes. many pccs are not brand-name institutions and being able to boast a high pass rate on exams set by a trusted third party could legitimize them in the eyes of potential applicants. from their point of view, having someone else write and administer exams to their students could be a valuable endorsement of the quality of their teaching. in fact, ontario pccs at one point shared exams across the sector, with their national body distributing the same exam across the country on the same day and arranging centralized grading. with most prior learning models each school goes through an assessment of what the persons coming with when i started teaching many of the private career colleges used curriculum for courses, not programs but courses, which were given to us by [the national body of career colleges] but that program died in the 1990s. talk about that portability for the student. re-establishing such a system but allowing holders of micro-credentials to sit the same tests as pcc students could be a viable option for this sector. even for public institutions, developing assessments themselves is time-consuming and therefore expensive. smaller institutions may favour the convenience of using someone elses assessments over autonomy. for example, some indigenous institutes choose to mainly offer programs developed by larger institutions, developing their academic identity from links to the community rather than distinctive programming. higheredstrategy.com page 42 a new institution if the ontario government is committed to allowing micro-credentials to be stacked into higher-level credentials, the most radical option would be to create a new institution with a mandate to award diplomas and degrees based on a wide range of prior education. a new institution could be designed to avoid some of the barriers created by the current system. for example, almost all ontario degrees and diplomas are awarded in specific subjects, so our discussion has assumed that we need information about the content of courses and micro-credentials, but when discussing the impact of the education they provide universities in particular often emphasise generic transferable skills their graduates develop. it is possible to develop degrees in which students demonstrate learning to a high level but not necessarily in any specific subject, taking the liberal arts tradition of choosing individual courses based on interest rather than a prescribed sequence to its logical conclusion. some of the scottish universities, by contrast, award general degrees for which a graduate only needs a certain number of courses at various levels, with no specific subject requirements11. this philosophy would simplify stacking of micro-credentials, since institutions would only need to assign a credit-value equivalence and a level and could largely ignore the subject-specific details of the content. it might seem that the government could simply order institutions to stack microcredentials into their degrees and diplomas, but in practice this would probably not be very effective. in theory public universities and colleges are subject to government control, but the levers that the government can use to control their activities are somewhat limited. universities are legally independent entities governed according to their own legislation (which gives considerable powers to senates dominated by often-conservative academics). while public colleges can be guided by minsters binding policies (which, among other things, mandate that colleges have plar processes), colleges now obtain a relatively small proportion of their funding from the government. with most income coming from students, the value of control over their own credentials is quite considerable and the relative value of the funding they receive from government is much lower than it once was: on the college side i suppose the minister can just, at a stroke of a pen [compel stacking]. i think the challenge is i think [my college] is about 22% government funded at this point [] the pushback would be what right do you, government have to regulate our business, essentially. creating a new body to award diplomas and degrees, without an independent reputation to protect and faculty with influence over the process, would bypass these concerns. governments have created new institutions in the past to facilitate degree completion by students who hold unconventional mixes of past education. an example is the korean credit bank. briefly, the korean credit bank was a response to large numbers of south korean students being unable to complete degrees due to the difficulties of transferring credits between universities. the bank is not a university as such but publishes standards for credentials which can stack into degrees. if a credential meets the criteria, the bank can award credit towards one of its own degrees. the limitation, again, is that these are 11 https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/students/academic/academic-advising/rules/degrees/ higheredstrategy.com page 43 effectively no-name degrees in a graduate labour market dominated by brand-name credentials. this radical option is probably unlikely in ontario. there would be obvious economic and political barriers to creating a new institution to award credit for courses which existing institutions will not recognise at that level. however, it is a possible way for a government to ensure micro-credentials are stackable if institutions come to be seen as an insurmountable barrier. higheredstrategy.com page 44 conclusion the architecture of higher education in ontario creates barriers to stackability and portability of micro-credentials. there are a range of options which could be pursued to destroy these barriers, ranging from the radical to the relatively gentle. comparing ontario with other jurisdictions shows that considerable gains can be achieved through relatively modest changes in how data about micro-credentials is presented. many of the problems of credit transfer and recognition of prior learning are informational and economic it takes a lot of time and subject-matter expertise, and therefore costs too much, to evaluate the potential credit value of different micro-credentials within a highly fragmented system. if there is a will to help students to stack micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas, a relatively gentle first move in that direction could be to develop a mechanism to co-ordinate how meta-data about micro-credentials is gathered and presented or to designate one agency to provide a centralised (probably advisory) assessment of a fair exchange rate between various micro-credentials and college or university credit. such ideas have been tested in other countries. given the difficulties of co-ordinating dozens of independent institutions, making metadata consistent to the level of the european union, singapore or new zealand would be an achievement in ontario. however, if stacking of micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas becomes common in the future then some degree of co-ordination seems like it will be needed if the process is not to become infeasibly cumbersome for individual learners. higheredstrategy.com page 45 20 maud street, suite 207 toronto on, m5v 2m5, canada +1 (416) 848-0215 info@higheredstrategy.com higheredstrategy.com

approaches to stackability of micro-credentials options for ontario prepared for ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 20th march 2023 higher education strategy associates (hesa) is a toronto-based firm providing strategic insight and guidance to governments, postsecondary institutions, and agencies through excellence and expertise in policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and strategic consulting services. through these activities, hesa strives to improve the quality, efficacy, and fairness of higher education systems in canada and worldwide. authors: alex usher, iain wilson, tiffany maclennan and aidana izhanova acknowledgements: this report relied on insightful interviews with numerous administrators at ontarios colleges and universities. we thank nicolas boileau and henrique hon for comments on an earlier draft. funding for this report was provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer. the opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ontario council on articulation and transfer. any errors or omissions are the authors alone. contact: higher education strategy associates suite 207, 20 maud street, toronto on, m5v 2m5, canada +1 (416) 848-0215 info@higheredstrategy.com www.higheredstrategy.com higher education strategy associates, 2023 table of contents executive summary ....................................................................................................... iii introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 section i. developments in micro-credentials .............................................................. 5 section ii. getting to portability and stackability ....................................................... 19 section iii. the situation in ontario ............................................................................. 27 section iv. possible paths to stackability ................................................................... 39 conclusion .................................................................................................................... 45 higheredstrategy.com page i micro-credentials is a new label for an old thing, particularly when you look at the non-credit side of the house university registrar think about the overhead that [stacking micro-credentials] would cost. ive got ten different micro-credentials from ten different institutions and i want to show you thats congruent to [one of your courses]. 80% of the material has to be congruent and that has to be assessed by an academic. that would be a nightmare. university registrar higheredstrategy.com page ii executive summary micro-credentials are proliferating in ontario. ontarios current education system creates barriers to stacking these micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas especially when those micro-credentials have been obtained from different institutions. this limits their value in a labour market in which employers and providers of graduate-level education primarily understand diplomas and degrees. the underlying problem is a lack of verifiable, standardised information about the learning each micro-credential reflects. in order to combine micro-credentials into larger credentials such as diplomas and degrees, the colleges and universities which endorse these macro-credentials need to have clear information about the learning they represent. our examination of those ontario micro-credentials which are posted on the ecampus ontario portal shows that there is a lack of clear comparable data about the learning. data about key characteristics including the prerequisite preparation, hours, content and learning outcomes of micro-credentials is inconsistent and often completely absent. there is typically not even a suggestion of how many credit-hours of learning the microcredential represents or other indicators of how it might compare to a formal course taken for degree or diploma credit. so long as providers of micro-credentials not offering widely-accepted data on what learning their micro-credentials represent, a learner seeking advanced standing in a degree or diploma bears the burden of showing that they have already mastered part of the material taught in that macro-credential. the costs of doing this are considerable because there is very little economy of scale. there are so many possible micro-credentials that a learner could potentially present for recognition by a college or university, and the amount of credit towards a degree or diploma for each is so small, that the costs of assessing the prior learning a microcredential represents could well exceed the cost of simply repeating the material. the information costs are so high because of how ontarios processes for recognising prior learning have evolved. to obtain transfer credit, a learner usually follows an established transfer pathway in which the value of a credential is already known to the receiving college or university has to seek an individual assessment of their prior learning through institutions prior learning assessment and recognition processes (plar) transfer pathways mainly make sense where a learner is seeking credit for a formal course and there is already a precedent for granting credit for something reasonably similar. plar relies on subject matter experts to individually review the content of courses the learner has previously taken. it is often slow and necessarily expensive to provide and difficult to predict in advance. higheredstrategy.com page iii stacking micro-credentials would be much simpler if the provider of the micro-credential were to assign data about its value relative to a diploma- or degree-level course and either back this claim with its own reputation or seek external validation. we have identified possible models for validating the learning represented by microcredentials in a way that is easily comprehensible to other institutions, drawing largely on policies which have had some success in other countries. options for ontario include mandating that providers publicly state what they think is the potential transfer value of the micro-credential in order to receive public support, for example funding or listing on a provincial portal o this will open their claims to public scrutiny o details such as the learning outcomes could be collected in a specified format so that they would be easier to process than under the current freestyle approach having providers submit new micro-credentials to a third party for assignment of a transfer value o creating a provincial bank of assessments which could be challenged by holders of specific micro-credentials to demonstrate their learning o in the other countries studied, for example new zealand, a government agency takes on the role of assessing micro-credentials, but in principle any trusted third party could do so. for example, several private companies already provide assessments of the learning represented by unfamiliar foreign diplomas and degrees to ontario colleges and universities the national association of career colleges historically offered such assessments for sale to career colleges, and there may be a business case for some institutions which do not have widespread brand recognition and value efficiency over autonomy to purchase access to assessments rather than setting their own creating a new specialised institution o countries including south korea, faced with reluctance of universities to adapt their processes to recognise learning obtained elsewhere, have created new institutions specifically to recognise prior learning which no other university would stack into any of its degrees o this would obviously be a radical option, which would only make sense for learners willing to accept a no-name degree or diploma, and seems the least likely option for ontario. however, it underlines that government has many potential options. higheredstrategy.com page iv introduction micro-credentials may not necessarily be new, but in principle building governance structures around them which facilitate stackability and portability could open up new ways to provide education. micro-credentials are appearing all around ontario. many could appeal to degree- and diploma-seekers. in theory micro-credentials could differentiate graduates in a specialised and fast-moving labour market. alternatively, learners may acquire a number of microcredentials over time, perhaps as a hobby or in the course of workplace training, and then decide to pursue higher-level credentials. colleges and universities are set up to deliver a core curriculum to all graduates within a discipline, with a relatively restricted set of electives available. most students are not entirely free to choose their own paths. micro-credentials by their nature offer more flexibility. stacking micro-credentials, especially micro-credentials obtained at other institutions, could allow learners to choose from a veritable smorgasbord of learning as part of their degrees and diplomas, allowing them to specialise in ways that meet niches within the workforce. hypothetically, an english student could gain certification in social media skills as part of their degree and prepare for a career with an it giant or learn to be a blacksmith who can communicate metalwork techniques in prose. stacking would avoid any time penalty for doing so. in practice, the current system in ontario is not compatible with this vision. this paper explores possibilities for organising the system so that micro-credentials could be stacked into larger qualifications recognized by the province of ontario, such as diplomas and degrees. evidence the hesa team has spoken with a number of strategically-placed personnel in ontarios colleges, universities, indigenous institutes and private career colleges. these interviews were semi-structured in-depth conversations guided by interviewers with extensive experience. interviewees were offered confidentiality to ensure they were comfortable expressing their views frankly. interviewees included leaders of units within colleges and universities which offer micro-credentials, registrars and representatives of registrars offices, university and college staff with experience of administering prospective students applications for recognition of prior learning (plar) and faculty who have developed micro-credentials. evidence from these interviews informs all four sections of the report. identifying models for making micro-credentials stackable the hesa team have identified several potential models for making micro-credentials stackable based on experiences in other countries. these include new zealand, higheredstrategy.com page 1 singapore, the united states, australia and european models which are discussed in section one. based on this data, in section two we have distilled key features to explain why the situation in ontario is currently different. mapping of ontario micro-credentials the hesa team reviewed all micro-credentials posted on the ecampus ontario portal in summer 2022. section three discusses the findings, which illustrate the issues of comparing meta-data around micro-credentials in ontario. suggesting possibilities for ontario in section four, we suggest possible models for making micro-credentials stackable in ontario. exploring the barriers to stackability and portability as this paper will explore in some detail, stacking micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas raises system-wide issues, particularly if the aim is for colleges and universities to award credit towards their degrees and diplomas for micro-credentials awarded by other institutions. while stacking within an institution raises some internal issues of academic governance, portability is a problem for all of ontario higher education with huge strategic implications. in ontario there are barriers to both stacking of micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas and porting between institutions. these barriers mean that degree- and diplomaseekers risk repeating the same learning until they demonstrate it in a format that the system recognises. there are barriers to transfer between colleges and universities in ontario, but courses taken at colleges and universities in canada at least usually take on fairly similar forms. a further barrier to the stackability of micro-credentials is the wide range of forms they can take, making it challenging to assess a credit value. this is important because, in canada, a credit value is usually needed in order for a credential to contribute to degree or diploma completion. diplomas and especially degrees typically consist of courses which, as well as being time-consuming (with their level on the ontario qualifications framework reflecting their length) are both sequential and hierarchical. instructors teaching higherlevel courses may set exercises which assume certain specific knowledge obtained previously. consequently, advanced post-secondary programs often have complex prerequisite requirements. if this expectation is to be maintained, then stacking implies a judgment about the level and in some case the content mastered by the holder of that credential. further, the perceived quality of degrees and diplomas is at the heart of each institutions and the systems reputation. these advanced credentials function as currency in the labour market partly because a trusted institution is certifying that someone has been higheredstrategy.com page 2 tested for and found to have a passable level of specific skills and/or knowledge. whenever an employer encounters a holder of an electrical engineering diploma who cannot manage simple arithmetic or a history graduate lacking basic syntax that has reputational costs which trouble both administrators and faculty. procedures for awarding degree credit in particular are often controlled by senates, on which faculty are heavily represented. faculty are often insulated from the institutions finances but keenly interested in quality control. consequently, even universities which have their own sophisticated continuing education divisions have shied away from linking their own continuing education credentials to degree credits. as one interviewee put it: there was a strategic decision made, you might say, to say that these really bear no direct relationship to degree credit programs. that would have been a much more difficult hill to climb in the university and we thought that would be an issue to come back to because we thought that understanding of what microcredentials are was so confused within the institution. university continuing education developer this hesitation appears to be common, only increases when institutions consider the possibility of stacking micro-credentials obtained at other (public) colleges and universities into their programs, and increases even further when the possibility of stacking microcredentials obtained from private-sector providers arises. right now my feeling is that its a bit of a wild west [] i suspect that some of my colleagues would say this is the worst invention ever because its drawing away our attention from our core, whereas others who are perhaps more innovative are seeing it as an opportunity to initiate students to the university to then get them into a three- or four-year degree university registrar. ontario needs to consider options it is possible to imagine options available to ontario which range from the conservative (improving meta-data) to the radical (establishing new institutions), as we describe in section four. by exploring options for stacking micro-credentials we are addressing a scenario which seems removed from the current state of play but which may potentially become important in the future. our interviewees indicated that there is not currently much explicit demand from learners to be granted diploma or degree credit for micro-credentials that they have completed. interviewees in a position to know, including registrars, indicated that their institutions received few to no queries about the possibility of obtaining credit for anything other than traditional courses taken at colleges and universities and, at institutions which have flexible prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) processes in place, a few very specific kinds of life or work experience. this rarity is part of the problem with developing a system for stacking at institution level, since it makes little short-term economic sense for institutions to allocate expensive staff time to developing procedures which will rarely be used. the fact that there are likely to be higheredstrategy.com page 3 few requests to grant credit for most individual courses, leading to few economies of scale and a high cost per credit granted, is a problem for credit transfer more generally. the economic problem is especially significant for micro-credentials because of the huge diversity of providers and the large numbers of micro-credentials which would have to be stacked to make a significant dent in the learning required for a degree or diploma. the lack of clamour to grant credit for micro-credentials does not mean that there is not latent demand among learners. uptake of micro-credentials has exploded in recent years. given the costs of replicating previously-covered material, to both learners and ontario, it seems unlikely that there would not be significant benefits to learners in reducing replication. furthermore, given the lack of a clear framework it is hard to imagine that many learners would know where to go or even consider that stacking micro-credentials into their degree or diploma might be possible. by analogy, when determining the demand for a bridge across a treacherous river public bodies do not simply point to the absence of swimmers and conclude that a bridge is unnecessary. they firstly establish a set of models for the forms that a bridge could take and then conduct research to establish whether the expense of building one is warranted. we have explored possible models. higheredstrategy.com page 4 section i. developments in micro-credentials this review will review the work in micro-credentialing being done by educational institutions in four countries/regions: australia, new zealand, singapore and the united states, as well as by certain corporate entities (google and ibm) that have embarked on their own process of credentialling. some examples from europe will be included but there the emphasis will mainly be on what is happening at the continental level to create a harmonized european micro-credential framework. as has been observed many times in many places, the term micro-credential does not have a universal meaning. not only does the term change meaning from one region of the globe to another, there are also several places which have types of training/learning programs which look substantially similar to micro-credentials without ever using the term. a brief definition which applies in all the countries considered here comes from a recent oecd report. micro-credential innovations in higher education: who, what and why? this document acknowledges the wide range of qualities possessed by micro-credentials in different parts of the world, and suggests that at a minimum, they have three key qualities relative to traditional credentials. first, they are smaller in volume (that is study duration or load); second, they are more targeted in terms of skills or study topics and third, they are more flexible in their mode of delivery. in fact, as we shall see, only the first two of these are actually true because a number of micro-credential schemes are in fact quite inflexible in their mode of delivery. one of the reasons for the thicket of confusion around micro-credentials is that at the beginning, the term was tabula rasa and different policy actors ascribed different meanings and attributes to them. perhaps the biggest gap in understanding in north america at least was between those who believed that micro-credentials were intrinsically something which were based on evaluation of competencies (that is, part of a movement towards competency-based education which flourished in the united states in the mid-10s), and those who thought they were intrinsically something closer to a certificate or other incremental credentials which were very much like shorter or disaggregated versions of existing post-secondary credentials. globally, however, the debates about the nature of micro-credentials broadly revolve around the role of seven separate properties. stackability of credentials. in many jurisdictions, a large part of the point of microcredentials is to make them stackable towards larger credentials. this is nowhere more true than in the united states where micro-credentials or, more broadly, incremental credentials1 are seen not just as a way to promote rapid upskilling, but also as a tool to improve degree completion rates and to provide new ways into post-secondary education. those jurisdictions which focus on stackability tend to also have a significant focus on prior learning recognition, precisely because of the belief that micro-credentials are most valuable as building blocks towards larger macro-credentials, mainly because these are what the labour market understands and therefore values. 1 credentials which can be combined into the longer and more familiar degrees and diplomas. higheredstrategy.com page 5 portability of credentials. just because micro-credentials are stackable does not mean they are portable from one institution to another. at some institutions northeastern university and its micro-credentials in computer science are a good example here - microcredentials are designed as a series of stackable baby steps towards an ultimate macrocredential (in northeasterns case, a masters degree in computer science, but they have no wider currency as degree building blocks beyond that particular institution). for portability to occur, two things need to be true: first, an institution offering macrocredentials has to be willing to accept micro-credentials as equivalent to credits towards a macro-credential and second, the learning contained inside a micro-credential needs to be sufficiently legible that institutions can award such credit with confidence. the keys to both portability and stackability in micro-credentials are as we shall see later in this paper credit equivalency and a qualifications framework. without these, there is no simple way for an institution to be able to evaluate whether any piece of learning be it a credit or a micro-credential - is of sufficient depth to be included in a macrocredential and if so, what fraction of the work required for the macro-credential can be assigned to it. prior learning assessment techniques could of course be used to assess these things, but this is cumbersome and largely negates the value of providing training in a formal setting. plar requires that a highly skilled individual with expert knowledge of the field of study, often an academic, review the students prior preparation. personnel with the skills to do this are busy and expensive. competency-based evaluation. the overlap between micro-credentials and competency-based education ranges from weak to strong depending on the part of the world one is in. at the weak end are micro-credentials which hold no credit value but which attach themselves to transcripts as badges - that is to say, the individual is deemed to have displayed important skills (e.g. teamwork) or completed certain tasks (e.g. attended an information session). these are considered weak because, generally speaking, there is no hard, replicable standard of evaluation involved. the strongest form of competency-based evaluation is where credentials are awarded only when the student meets some kind of rigorous and externally validated test. these kinds of credentials have a great deal in common with prior learning assessment and recognition. for obvious reasons, this type of assessment is seen as key to microcredentials having a strong employer/workforce orientation (see below) and, provided there is an understood way that skills map on to credit-hour based systems, they can work towards stackability and portability in the same way as any plar-to-credit system does. australias vet model comes closest to this, mainly because it has a national skills agency (australian skills quality agency) which has adopted a system of units of competency for skills, towards which micro-credentials can be developed. europe, which has the european skills/competences, qualifications, occupations (esco) model is in a position to do something similar but it has yet to make it into the proposals for the continent-wide framework, possibly because the european framework only looks at credentials which are at the bachelors level or above. in between these two extremes, there is some murky ground. many time-based courses describe themselves not entirely without justification as competency-based because learners are called upon to demonstrate at least competencies directly in a final examination. this is most common in it/technical programs, where final assessments have some kind of practical component which has a strictly correct/incorrect answer. higheredstrategy.com page 6 however, tech programs are an outlier in this respect: in most fields, it is more correct to say that micro-credential curricula (similar to other courses and programs) are designed to develop certain competencies but students are not strictly speaking assessed on a competency-only basis. enterprise alignment. in many countries, micro-credentials are meant to have some kind of alignment with individual enterprises - that is, the curriculum is tailored in such a way as to lead to employment opportunities with an individual employer who desires specialized training. micro-credentials which are designed this way tend to resemble short-term bespoke training programs which have existed for decades, albeit more at the college level than among universities. this is particularly common in the united states and canada, though one sees these types of arrangements in australia and new zealand as well. sectoral workforce alignment. singapore is an outlier here, in the sense that its version of micro-credentials is not meant to align with any individual business needs but rather with nationally-established occupationally-specific skills profiles. this has some obvious benefits to the learner in the sense that taking a specific micro-credential provides them with a measure of achievement which is understood to be requisite to all jobs in the country in a given occupation at a given level of seniority, as opposed to with just one employer. the challenge is that sectors have to agree on skills profiles for different levels of different occupations before institutions can develop courses that cater to those profiles. this is obviously easier to achieve in countries with effective long-term methods of co-ordination between government, industry and educational institutions than in those which lack them. australia can go some distance in this direction because of the existence of skills services organizations and industry reference committees which work on designing training packages across the country, but it is not yet clear which of these will be involved in developing micro-credentials in the long-term. digital course delivery. at educational institutions in north america, australia and new zealand, micro-credential course delivery can take place in a variety of modes - in-person, as well as a variety of blended offerings, or online. the choice is generally left up to the individual institution and is based on whatever the institution believes meets the correct mixture of pedagogical and financial requirements. in europe, however, the notion of micro-credentials has more or less been driven by big public online open universities and so the very term micro-credentials has been entwined with the notion of online learning since the very beginning and is indeed embedded to some extent in the continent-wide micro-credential framework (see the analysis on europe, below). this is also the case for private micro-credentialing initiatives such as google professional certificates (based on courses delivered via coursera) or ibm digital badges. in both cases online education allows both companies to deliver at enormous scale while maintaining control of content and delivery; and, being in the it field, competency-based examinations are in effect the norm. digital credentialing. innovations like credential wallets are becoming more and more mainstream across post-secondary education, and so the notion of digital credentialing is one which transcends micro-credentials. and, in truth, the form of the credential is not necessarily linked to the form of pedagogy or delivery. but, under some conceptions of micro-credentials, the fact that the credential itself is digital, and is part of an individual wallet/portfolio (often held in blockchain), is considered to be an essential part of the higheredstrategy.com page 7 identity of micro-credentials. this is notably true in europe and with american privatesector micro-credentials (again, largely a function of the fact that micro-credentials are conceived of as being born digital), but also in australia, where the government spent millions of dollars creating a micro-credential marketplace complete with digital registries very early on in the process of national policy-making on the subject (see the australia case below) below, in figure 1, we show a stylized version of the foregoing discussion, showing how different micro-credential regimes aim to incorporate varying sub-sets of the seven qualities. in canada, where emerging provincial policies have tended to encourage rapid skill upgrading and direct alignment between credential content and specific employer skill shortages, the focus has been very tight on the employer alignment aspect of the microcredentials (there are of course exceptions quebec has a system which allows the stacking of certificates into a bachelors degree). but other countries have chosen different configurations. the us has had a focus on employer alignment, but also on stackability. new zealand has had a similar employment focus, but has also chosen - to a certain extent to prioritize stackability and portability. singapore eschews employer alignment in favour of workforce alignment, but also has a focus on portability. and so forth. the figure illustrates that micro-credentials in other countries combine qualities that are not typical in canada. higheredstrategy.com page 8 figure 1: seven qualities of (learning labelled as) micro-credentials to be clear, there is nothing suggesting that any of these other jurisdictions or microcredential providers have the right mix of qualities in their systems. every jurisdiction will design its micro-credential policies to suit local conditions. however, certain attributes of micro-credential are essentially unobtainable in the absence of certain framework policies. for instance, switching from an employer alignment system to a workforce alignment system requires having some mechanism for firms to collaborate in order to articulate skill needs. a system of portability requires that individual credentials carry both credit values and an indication of the skill level of the instruction, the latter of which in turn requires an higheredstrategy.com page 9 accepted qualifications framework like those seen in europe or new zealand2. in the absence of such a system, portability in effect can only work via ad hoc prior learning recognition systems. national-level developments we have reviewed policy on micro-credentials in several jurisdictions which have higher education systems broadly comparable to ontarios, in that there is a shared understanding of progress towards degrees and diplomas as the acquisition of credithours, and which have potential lessons for ontario. these include new zealand, the united states, singapore, australia and europe. these illustrate ways in which the qualifications frameworks can function. a distinctive element of the micro-credentials space is that many popular certifications are offered by unregulated private providers best-known for providing other services, such as ibm and google, which illustrate the potential appeal of micro-credentials which are necessarily not designed to be stackable because their creators do not have the legal right to offer higher-level credentials. new zealand new zealand was the first country in the world to create a national framework for microcredentials. key to the countrys ability to lead the world in this area were two things: the prior existence of a national qualifications framework (the new zealand qualifications framework, henceforth nzqf) 3, and a quality assurance agency (new zealand quality assurance, henceforth nzqa) able to regulate new programs in an effective and efficient manner. the framework provides a set of pre-defined levels into which new microcredentials can be fitted by the provider, rather than the receiving institution having to go through the cumbersome process of assessing each micro-credential according to its own standard. the nzqf4 classifies all tertiary education programs in the country as being at one of ten levels, from short certificates to a doctorates, and standardizes the minimum number of credits required to achieve each qualification. this level of transparency is not necessarily required at the university level, where the bachelors-masters-doctorate progression is easily understood, but it is very important at the sub-bachelors level where there can be considerable confusion about the content of (for instance) certificates, which can cover a wide variety of expertise. the levels are ordered in ascending order of the skills outcomes expected at each level: so, for instance a 40-credit level one certificate (in a country where 120 credits is considered full-time for one year) would be expected to provide the learner with basic or foundational knowledge, while a 40-credit level 5 certificate would be 2 in canada, most provinces have degree frameworks but only ontario has a qualifications framework which covers other types of post-secondary credentials though notably not short micro-credentials and which could in theory permit the kind of portability systems seen in new zealand. 3 https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/publications/insights/aotearoa-new-zealands-rationale-for-micro-credentials/ 4 for an overview of the framework, see: https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/assets/studying-in-nz/new-zealand-qualificationframework/requirements-nzqf.pdf higheredstrategy.com page 10 expected to provide broad operational/technical knowledge as well as theoretical knowledge within a specific field of study. having a qualifications framework makes it possible to assign every micro-credential both a level and a credit value. this makes the certificates transparent, facilitates prior learning recognition and makes possible not just the stacking of micro-credentials towards larger credentials within a single institution but portability across multiple institutions as well. the common rules for micro-credentials, regardless of the sector in which they are delivered (and hence the mechanism through which they are regulated), are as follows: a micro-credential certifies achievement of a coherent set of skills and knowledge and is specific by a statement of purpose, learning outcomes, and strong evidence of need by industry, employers, iwi and/or the community. they are smaller than a qualification and focus on skill development opportunities not currently catered for in the regulate tertiary education system. at a minimum, micro-credentials will be subject to the same requirements as training schemes or assessment standards and will also be required to: o be 5-40 credits in size o have strong evidence of need from employers, industry and/or community o not duplicate current quality-assured learning approved by nzqa and o be reviewed annually to ensure they continue to meet their purpose. the process for regulating micro-credentials looks somewhat different depending on the issuer. universities in new zealand are assumed to be largely self-regulating and therefore have the ability to offer new micro-credentials more or less as they please, provided they demonstrably maintain strong internal quality control mechanisms. this selfregulatory status means that at higher levels of the nzqf there are neither centralized rules governing the process of micro-credential creation nor a centralized repository of information regarding the micro-credentials offered. practices vary with respect to whether such credentials are stackable, and the maximum level at which micro-credentials can be offered, with some seeming to cap it at level 8 (equivalent to an honours bachelors degree in ontario) on the framework. (it is worth noting here that, while new zealand has gone to some lengths to be make stackability and portability possible, it has also made it a policy to discourage what might be called the disaggregation of existing programs into micro-credentials. thus, if it seems as though existing programs are being segmented for the purpose of awarding shorter credentials more quickly, the application will tend to be rejected.) though most institutional policies at least make a nod towards including prior learning recognition in determining eligibility for micro-credentials (i.e., entrance criteria), the impression left by various institutional policies is that portability and stackability of microcredentials is less of a priority at the university level than below it. in part, it would seem, this is a reaction to the nzqa policy that micro-credentials not duplicate existing qualityassured programming, which seems to limit the possibility of breaking up existing credentials into smaller pieces. this is in contrast to some emerging practices in the united states where the breaking-up of existing credentials is sometimes seen as a major potential selling point of a micro-credential. higheredstrategy.com page 11 outside of universities, providers wishing to offer micro-credentials must submit a curriculum and a self-assessment for examination by the nzqa, as outlined in the document guidelines for applying for approval of a training scheme or a micro-credential5. applicants are required to present evidence of employer/community need for the microcredential, evidence that the micro-credential meets an unmet need, as well as information with respect to basic features of the credential, including structure, content, delivery method, resources/staff, assessment and moderation methods as well as plans for ongoing evaluation/monitoring. key among the requirements is that the institutions proposing the micro-credential assign both a credit value and a qualification level to the course (5 credits at level 1, 10 credits at level 3, etc.). having these assigned at the outset, and approved by a government agency, provides transparency at the outset and means that an institution receiving many micro-credentials can opt to rely on this information rather than going through the time-consuming process of assigning a value and level to each of them. the nzqa will not accept an application which does not indicate a value and level where that would be appropriate. applications are assessed by nzqas quality assurance division, which is also responsible for assessing training schemes. there are approximately 30 trained assessors in the unit, of which 6 or 7 tend to work on micro-credential files. when an application arrives, it is given to an analyst for examination, with the expectation that the entire process will take no more than ten business days. (new zealand has a separate evaluative approaches for institutions using mori language or that are based on mori culture known as te hono o te kahurangi; the two are meant to produce similar outcomes despite differing approaches.) in the first two and a half years since the micro-credential policy was passed, roughly 130 such credentials have been approved by nzqa. this is somewhat fewer than was expected at the time of policy implementation; however, officials note6 that it took several months for institutions to grow to understand the nature of and requirements for the new credentials, moreover covid-19 has probably acted as something of a damper on demand7. overall, the policy is cautiously deemed to be a success8. it is generally assumed that these kinds of credentials will be funded either through tuition, by employers, or by institutions funding them themselves through existing resources9. however, a process does exist by which institutions can apply for funding with calls for funding from the tertiary education commission (tec) held monthly and decided upon within two weeks, which is very quick by international standards. the tec is a dedicated agency responsible for distribution funds to tertiary institutions, this process is entirely disconnected from the process of credential approval by nzqa. this type of funding is conditional: fees for micro-credentials are capped at nz$60 (roughly c$50), except in cases of high operating costs and/or strong industry need. as of summer 2020, roughly one-third of all nzqa-approved micro-credentials had received tec funding. 5 https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/providers-partners/approval-accreditation-and-registration/micro-credentials/guidelines-trainingscheme-micro-credential/ 6 interview with nzqa official, 2020/21 7 the new zealand border closures meant international mobility was restricted but there were relatively fewer restrictions on work and everyday life than in much of canada. 8 interview with nzqa official, 2020/21 9 interview with nzqa official, 2020/21 higheredstrategy.com page 12 the united states of america it may seem odd that although the term micro-credential originated in the united states, and the country is home to most of the private-sector initiatives and companies who operate in the micro-credential space, there is perhaps the least common understanding of what micro-credentials are or might be. there are three key aspects to the situation in the united states. first, the notion of micro-credentials as badges that is, denoting skills acquired in the course of taking regular time-based classes, but without measuring those skills through some kind of impartial or third-party examination is still relatively common and drives a number of companies such as badgecert which work with a variety of actors in the education space (not just post-secondary education). second, a significant portion of the micro-credential market lies outside the public sector with private trainers. among the most important of these are google and ibm, which are profiled below under private-sector micro-credentials. third, not only is there no single national framework for these credentials, in practice there are two separate policy paths being taken by the various states. the first favors a stacking approach backed by statewide policies to encourage degree completion (mainly at the bachelor or associate level). in policy circles which focus on this type of approach, the term micro-credential is to some extent being replaced by incremental credentialling (see especially the work of credential as you go). this effort is trying to avoid making a strong distinction between new micro-credentials and the hundreds of thousands of existing short certifications/credentials which have existed for decades. the real problems these initiatives are trying to solve are around quality control and prior learning recognition so as to make it easier to put them together to give learners a quicker path to macrocredentials such as degrees. unsurprisingly, many of these efforts are taking place at the sub-bachelors level; equally unsurprisingly, to the extent these credentials are delivered by traditional institutions, they tend to be for credit. as of late fall 2021, 12 states plus the district of columbia had policies which were focused on completion and stacking. (a luxury micro-credential market also exists for very specific courses in fields like computer science at elite universities like northeastern or mit that can stack towards professional masters degrees from those institutions, but this is a fairly niche market). the other approach is closer to the employer alignment model wherein state governments use financial incentives to encourage widespread institutional-employer collaborations to meet local labor market/skills shortages. as of fall 2021, 16 states provided incentives for micro-credentials for rapid upskilling via local partnerships (of these, only four texas, utah, kentucky and virginia are simultaneously pursuing a state-level completion/stacking approach). usually, these are non-credit micro-credentials since the goal is not building towards a degree but gaining a direct line to employment. however, there are exceptions. the state university of new york, for instance, allows its campuses to engage in similar direct-to-employment agreements with local employers, only using bundles of repurposed, already-existing courses and curricula. for instance, at one campus in up-state new york, completion of a bundle of four tourism courses plus a short internship at a local holiday resort leads directly to employment at that resort. higheredstrategy.com page 13 singapore skillsfuture is the branch of the singapore government tasked with ensuring the training the singaporean labour force. it brings stakeholders together from higher education institutions (referred to locally as training institutions even though this encompasses globally-prestigious institutions such as the national university of singapore), employers, business consultants, labour unions, and government agencies, as well as students and employees at various stages in their careers. focused on the lifelong learner concept, skillsfuture seeks to assist these stakeholders in facilitating the transfer of skills to workers through professional and academic training supplied by the institutions and companies themselves. skillsfuture runs a number of different programs, including financial aid for mid-career training. but perhaps the most important things skillsfuture produces are its skills frameworks, which are developed by working groups in various industries which at least in composition and spirit somewhat resemble canadas former sector councils. there are currently 33 industries covered by these frameworks. each framework looks at a number of typical occupational career ladders common to that industry, and comes up with a list of desirable skills at each level of that occupation. this helps corporations do their own planning for training, but critically it also marks out precisely for workers which skills they need to be upgrading as they progress through their career. this enumeration of skills then permits various training providers to design courses designed to meet those particular skills. although these courses are not called micro-credentials per se, they clearly fulfill similar functions. they are short (course durations can vary from a couple of hours to a couple of months; most last only a few days), they are directly aligned with workforce requirements and can be used to climb the career ladder or to port over to a new occupation. and they stack in the more limited sense that there are sequential levels. taking a level 2 course in for example airport logistics follows on from the level 1 course and then in turn leads to levels 3, 4, etc. because colleges and polytechnics already provided programs that are professional and career orientated, the adaptation required to teach these kinds of micro-credential courses was relatively minimal. of perhaps more interest was the fact that research universities such as national university of singapore (nus) and nanyang technology university (ntu) also became involved in offering courses for individuals at more senior levels, and in fields with higher levels of technical orientation. in this particular instance, the governments role in convening the various partners is crucial in creating a market. because the industry councils make strong links between skills and work promotions, learners know that specific courses will have value in the labour market and so are comfortable seeking out the credential (skillsfuture also makes it easy by linking specific skills to specific courses offered by approved providers on its website). because institutions know that students see value in the credentials, they are comfortable designing courses in the knowledge that there will be significant demand for the program. as a result, dozens of training institutions compete to provide programs, ranging from private small for-profit schools to major public research institutions such as those who are usually part of the top 200 list of most prestigious universities in the world. although training centres are free to apply to any segment they see fit to deliver a higheredstrategy.com page 14 skillsfuture course, over time institutions have generally developed a niche. for example, nus is dominant in the data science field. skillsfuture courses are highly concentrated around digital skills, including computer science, social media, data analytics, business information, data science, and data analytics. courses are often delivered on campus, which is something of a contrast with institutions in north america that often push for micro-credentials to be offered online. skillsfuture courses can be credit or non-credit. if they are for credit, they are stackable, and there are a couple of pathways to obtain more credits to build or complement a more traditional degree. australia australia has been one of the later entrants into the field of micro-credentials policy. this is not because the potential of these programs has been misunderstood (they were being discussed at a policy level as early as 2017). instead, it is because there has been a great deal more debate about how to make micro-credentials fit not just with the countrys national qualifications framework but also with its system of units of competency which underpin much of the national skills framework. it has also taken time to try to create a framework which satisfies the two core constituencies for micro-credentials those who see them as pathways to degrees and those who see them as pathways to jobs. australias national micro-credentials framework released in november 2021 is therefore a somewhat more complicated affair than its cousin in new zealand. formally, the definition of a micro-credential is a certification of assessed learning or competency, with a minimum volume of learning of one hour and less than an australian qualifications framework (aqf) award qualification, that is additional, alternate, complementary to or a component part of an aqf award qualification. this can therefore include (i) vocational education and training skillsets or units of competency, (ii) modularised, assessed components of existing higher education curriculum or subjects, (iii) industry learning that is assessed (such as vendor certifications, professional learning) and (iv) other forms of assessed learning or competencies (e.g. vocational education/ higher education /industry courses not currently accredited by a regulatory authority, and those by other providers). however, it specifically excludes things like badges which are given without formal assessments and anything which is already recognized as a macro credential through the australian qualifications framework. though this definition may make it seem as though the primary goal of the australian micro-credential system is the provision of academic credits, there is still a very heavy steer towards preparing australians for employment. the unifying principles of the framework prioritize responsive(ness) to industry need. in addition, the development of the framework took place alongside the roll-out of the job-ready graduates higher education reform package which was implemented in 2020-21 and which had a significant employer/workforce edge to it. arguably, the central pillar of the framework is its acceptance of the fact that microcredentials may equally respond either to a stackability/portability agenda or to an employer/workforce one. the framework focuses on ensuring that micro-credentials all possess certain meta-data needed to make them legible to other organizations, be they higheredstrategy.com page 15 educational institutions or employers. in this sense, it closely resembles the european framework which came out in 2022. the micro-credentials marketplace, which as of may 2022 is still in its design phase, has undergone one change since its inception. originally, the intention was to list all microcredentials, including those provided by australias relatively large private sector training organizations. however, in march 2022, it was announced that the marketplace would only list those micro-credentials offered by public post-secondary institutions. europe understanding the progress of micro-credentials across europe requires grasping three separate sets of developments. the first are changes going on at the national level, the second is the large push for europe-wide micro-credentials, and the third are the actions of the european commission. with respect to national-level developments, the progress of micro-credentials is highly uneven across the continent. they are perhaps closest to coming into the mainstream in places such as ireland and scotland, where local qualifications authorities have taken the lead in developing a framework and, in the case of ireland, the government has put several million dollars into a consortium project to bring micro-credentials into the mainstream. the netherlands and the flemish community of belgium (who share a higher education accreditation agency) have been allowing institutions to introduce and credit new programs on their own for two years now. finland, sweden and norway all have programs which have been described as micro-credentials even though few canadians would describe themselves as such (they closely resemble nothing so much as canadian universities granting special student status to an individual in order to take a few courses without being admitted to a degree program). but it is the development of micro-credential policy at the continental level which is perhaps most striking. the eu contains a significant number of large open education institutions that wish to deliver moocs and thus have an interest in driving high common standards in order to make the credentials better understood and valued by learners and employers. these organizations banded together in the european mooc consortium, which is made up of futurelearn (uk), fun (france), miradax (spain and iberoamerica), eduopen (italy), and openuped/ the european association of distance teaching universities (eadtu). in the spring of 2019, this group released a document known as the european mooc consortium common micro-credential framework (cmf). this framework was much narrower than most other frameworks, in the sense that it was very directive about the quanta of learning to be covered by a micro-credential (4-6 credits under the european credit transfer system in which 60 credits = 1 year of studies) and quite limited in the levels of the european qualification framework for which micro-credentials would be granted (levels 6 through 8, equivalent to bachelors level or above). though this initiative emerged mainly outside a governmental framework, it was developed very much in accordance with bologna process principles; that is, basing recognition on existing qualifications and quality assurance frameworks. finally, in december 2021, the council of the european commission itself issued a recommendation on a european approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and higheredstrategy.com page 16 employability. since the european commission does not itself run or oversee any educational institutions, the focus of this document was to create common approaches (not standards) to the issue of micro-credentials specifically with respect to their definition, design, issue and description. the councils description of a micro-credential, similar to others we have seen, refers to a small volume of learning, but suggests that the credential itself consists of the record of the learning outcomes acquired during the learning event (that is, in effect, it is not the diploma but the transcript which matters). apart from this, the document outlines a set of common data elements (i.e., meta-data) to describe micro-credentials for purposes of mutual recognition. these data elements substantially mirror those adopted by the government of australia in its nqf and are described in more detail in the next section. the recommendations also include some non-binding advice to countries about how to promote a healthy eco-system for the development of micro-credentials. private-sector micro-credentials private-sector organizations offering training and certification is hardly new. macdonalds, famously, has its own university (and, more broadly, a global management training system) which issues credentials of various kinds; in canada, the five chartered banks and their in-house training regime are probably the largest private-sector trainers, all of which are attached to certifications of various types. arguably, these are microcredentials of a type, but because they are issued in-house, they tend to not to be portable or visible to the market, and their value to the holder lies in the way that they can use them to gain promotion and seniority within the corporation. however, some types of corporate-issued credentials most notably in the technology industry have long been seen as having validity in the job market outside the companies that issue them. microsoft and ibm, for instance, have long had various kinds of competency-based credentials which have been used in the it industry for years. here, we shine a spotlight solely on two specific sets of corporate micro-credentials: those from ibm and from google. ibm, through its training division, offers over a thousand badges to recognize and document skill in specific areas, and over 150 certifications to demonstrate ability in analytics, business operations, cloud computing, and other areas. the badges are generally free of cost: those wishing to obtain such a credential simply log on and take a test, making them essentially fully competency-based. the certifications are longer, and consists of a number of short courses. these can be taken directly from ibm either on its own platform or through coursera or from one of a number of certified ibm trainers world-wide. the credentials gained are purely digital credentials, but they do not ladder into any other credentials. google offers a number of career certificates using coursera as a platform: it support, data analytics, project management, user experience design, and android development. these certificate courses generally take three to six months to complete. users set their own pace, so the time it takes to finish varies. most are offered for $39 a month each, so a six-month course is $234 (though it could take more or less time depending on effort); for the associate android developer certification there is no cost, but the certification exam higheredstrategy.com page 17 costs $149 per attempt. all courses are taught by google employees. as with ibm, the credentials which come out of these programs are digital in nature and do not ladder into any other credentials. the fact that private micro-credentials are flourishing mostly in the information technology field is not an accident. the tech industry is quite unlike most other kinds of industries in the sense that most testing is implicitly competency-based, and can be done online without necessarily having any kind of human assessment. this is because when it comes to programming the only real criteria of success is that a coding sequence whether to create something or to de-bug something, or what have you acts the way it is intended to act. answers either work or they do not, and can be checked by machine code and hence have infinitely scalable forms of assessment. it is notable that the earliest moocs the ones which caused such a stir in 2011-12 - were all in precisely the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning where these scaling effects are most apparent something which is not really true in any other field). these examples illustrate that there is a market for many micro-credentials which are seen to have value independent of any potential stackability and are designed to be standalone. that said, they could in principle be incorporated into degrees and diplomas by receiving institutions. if a shared framework exists, that decision could be made once for each micro-credential. the models followed by other countries discussed illustrate that it is possible to develop coherent frameworks into which micro-credentials can be fitted by providers. an agreed terminology for talking about the exchange value of micro-credentials is important. higheredstrategy.com page 18 section ii. getting to portability and stackability while the previous section looked at portability and stackability as two of seven major properties associated with micro-credentials, this section will focus on the processes of enabling micro-credentials to be both stackable and portable; namely, making them legible to others by assigning credits and levels, and then attaching these and other forms of meta-data to the credential. this discussion considers the easiest possible case in the current system, in which students are not required to demonstrate mastery of any specific skills or knowledge as part of the core required subject matter of a degree or diploma. even if subject-matter content were not a factor, as if the macro-credential were made up entirely of electives, there would still be barriers to stackability and portability in the status quo. micro-credentials can have value without stackability or portability, but it limits their potential it is important to be clear from the outset that nothing in this paper denigrates the value of micro-credentials which are not stackable or portable. micro-credentials can have value independent of degrees and diplomas and are often awarded by the non-credit arms of the same institutions which award these official macro-credentials. we understand that there are several ways in which micro-credentials can add value to students experiences of college and university without stacking, and our interviewees pointed to several. these included enabling students to obtain certificates which act as badges alongside their degrees and diplomas, which signal skills to potential employers. one interviewee (a developer of continuing education for a major university) described this as the potential value of sidecar credentials in which full-time students may be doing their degree but they may be interested in competency certifications that microcredentials provide, related to their degree area. but they cannot use those credentials to reduce the time needed to complete their degrees. there is also nothing in the status quo to stop colleges and universities from developing micro-credentials which parallel the individual courses they already offer, in effect quantizing the skills and knowledge obtained from a post-secondary program into discrete blocks which can each carry independent certification (at a lower level). this does not add any new knowledge but may appeal to students as a means of signaling to potential employers or customers, for example if they are seeking an internship or setting up a small business prior to graduation, or simply to make the process of completing a fouryear degree in the face of unpredictable personal circumstances seem psychologically less daunting. it also means students who do not complete macro-credentials gain some credentials from their time as students. while these benefits can be pursued now, they also fall far short of the potential benefits of stacking and porting seen in other countries. higheredstrategy.com page 19 defining stackability stacking is not something new that is specific to micro-credentials. in a very real sense, stacking is something that already occurs hundreds of thousands of times a year in ontario, within degrees, diplomas and certificates. the reason it is easy is that the building blocks being stacked are called credits, each of which has implicitly been assigned a level. to understand how this works, it is worth taking a brief detour into how both credits and levels actually function. credits the idea that degrees (and, later, sub-degree credentials) are awarded based on the amount of time spent in study goes back to the earliest universities in italy and france. however, the notion of breaking up degrees into credits is an early 20th century notion. as amy laitinen shows in her work cracking the credit hour, the logic of credit hours was never meant to define units of student learning: in fact, it was developed by the carnegie foundation as a way to measure units of faculty teaching (which was of importance to carnegie as it was related to its work creating the earliest pension schemes for professors). gradually, however, in a process that would take many decades, the idea that a degree took (for example) three years became a rule that meant it took fifteen fullyear classes which in turn eventually became a rule that said it required 90 credits. the switch from years to classes to credits was in some sense imperceptible in the sense that it did not necessarily change the amount of time students were spending in classes, but it did provide institutions and therefore students with a little more flexibility in the sense that the number of credit hours assigned to some types of courses could be higher than others (e.g. 4 credits for a laboratory class vs. 3 credits for a lecture class). the way that accumulated credits counted down time on a degree also made it somewhat easier for students to transfer from one institution to another since a students progression towards a degree became more transparent, and hence made it easier to establish a students place in the progression towards a degree in a new institution. however, in north america, the credit revolution never quite got to the point where the system was universal. while all degree-granting institutions in canada use credit hours, they do not use a common system to measure what a credit hour is. this is not simply a question of institutions being unable/unwilling to count the accumulation of classes in a similar manner (e.g. a half-year lecture course at carleton is 0.5 credits, while at york it is three credits), there is no consistency either within or across universities in defining what counts as credit. within institutions, there is often very little effort expended in order to determine whether the content (i.e., student or professorial workload) of courses with similar credit values are consistent; instead, credits are often simply linked to some kind of standard around contact/teaching hours. however, across institutions, there is little consistency in contact hours: even in a single province like ontario, at some institutions, three hours per week is the norm while at others it is two. this significantly complicates things like credit recognition/transfer since what is being counted as credit varies from one place to another. countries of the european union, when faced with a similar problem after the introduction of the erasmus mobility program in the 1990s, chose a very different path than north higheredstrategy.com page 20 america. uptake of erasmus was limited in the early years because students often found that work completed at foreign institutions could not be counted towards graduation at their home institution because the home institution faced with differing practices in the context and delivery of education, had no way to know how to assign value to the work done abroad. this prompted all countries within the eu to require their universities to assign each class a credit value (some countries had previously done this, albeit on differing bases, but in other countries, credits were unknown at the time). but, more importantly, they required countries to do it on a basis which was in theory at least consistent on a continent-wide basis. this system is known as the european credit transfer system. under the ects, a year of study is equivalent to 60 credits, and in theory at least one ects is equal to 28 hours of study on the students part, including both time in class and outside class. most courses have a load of either 5 or 10 credits (i.e., 140 or 280 study hours). actual teaching time or contact hours is not part of the calculation except insofar as it counts towards the 140 or 280 hours of total work, which makes the ects quite different from north american credit systems. in theory, this makes credits not just legible but standard across the continent, although in practice there may be some considerable divergence even inside a single institution as to how close the estimates of 28 hours per credit are to reality. still, the adoption of a single standard was an enormous boon to erasmus as it made credit transfer much more frequent and predictable, which boosted take-up of the program enormously. in short, in order to have micro-credentials contribute to stackability, they need to have properties similar to credits, which are currently the building blocks of close to 100% of all credentials at the diploma level and above. there is certainly a complication here in that there is no standard definition of credit in ontario and the term can mean very different things at different institutions: however, institutions across the province manage this diversity when it comes to granting transfer credit, and there does not appear to be any reason why micro-credentials could not be treated in a similar fashion. levels over the past few decades, most higher education systems have developed what are known as qualifications frameworks or credential frameworks. these are meant to systematize and clarify the meaning of a variety of credentials. the number of levels in these frameworks varies a bit: the pan-european framework has eight levels (some individual countries within the union have more) while in australia and new zealand it is ten. what they have in common is that all are hierarchical ordinal lists of credentials with the ordination built on the nature of the learning outcomes. at the lowest levels, education is about preparing individuals for the simplest type of work, to be completed under supervision. as the levels increase, the expected learning outcomes are to allow individuals either to take on more rigorous or supervisory work, or to perform work with increasing grades of autonomy. at the highest level the doctoral degree individuals are also expected to be able to generate new understandings. in north america, these frameworks are often just focused just degree-level descriptions: that is, they are degree frameworks which focus just on the bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees, meaning that anything below the bachelors level is not really defined higheredstrategy.com page 21 (and to a certain degree not regulated very much either). one of the very few jurisdictions which does include levels below the bachelors degree is ontario which has a thirteenlevel system the ontario framework, shown below, is somewhat different from other systems in that three of the levels are typically not considered levels in other systems (levels 3 and 4 are usually excluded because they lead to certifications which are not part of the post-secondary education system, and levels 6-8 are usually just divided into two categories). table 1: the ontario qualifications framework outcome emphasis typical duration 1 certificate i a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow graduates to meet narrowly defined job requirements. 40 instructional hours 2 certificate ii a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow graduates to work in a limited range of activities within a prescribed range of functions. 240-500 instructional hours 3 certificate of apprenticeship the skills and knowledge in a specific trade or occupation. training is workplace-based. up to five years 4 certificate of qualification successful completion of the qualification/certification examination for a trade or occupation. n/a 5 certificate iii a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow graduates to perform in a defined range of varied activities within a prescribed range of functions involving known routines and procedures. 600-700 instructional hours 6 diploma i a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow the graduates to work within a broad range of technical and/or administrative requirements, coordination and evaluation. 1000+ instructional hours 7 diploma ii a level of skills, knowledge and attitudes to allow the graduates to work within a broad range of technical and/or administrative requirements, coordination and evaluation, and engage students in learning in disciplines outside their main field of study. 1200-1400 instructional hours 8 advanced diploma knowledge, skills and attitudes to enable graduates to work within a broad range of technical and/or management functions in a broad range of occupational areas. 1800-2100 instructional hours 9 post-diploma certificate programs either deepen knowledge and skills already gained through a diploma or advanced diploma program or provide graduates of baccalaureate programs with specific knowledge and skills related to an applied occupational area. 600-700 instructional hours 10 baccalaureate/ bachelors degree programs provide some broad knowledge and conceptual sophistication, including specialized knowledge in at least one discipline or field. 6 semesters higheredstrategy.com page 22 11 baccalaureate/ bachelors degree (honours) programs provide more conceptual sophistication, specialized knowledge and intellectual autonomy. students learn appropriate applications of conceptual frameworks. normally require students to prepare, under supervision, a terminal research paper, thesis, project, exhibition, etc. 8 semesters 12 masters degree programs require the student to develop and demonstrate advanced research skills under supervision. some programs require students to demonstrate the necessary research, analytical, interpretative, methodological and expository skills in course exercises. 3-5 semesters 13 doctoral degree demonstrated high degree of intellectual autonomy, ability to conceptualize, design and implement projects for the generation of significant new knowledge and/or understanding, and their ability to create and interpret knowledge that extends the forefront of a discipline, usually through original research or creative activity. 3-5 years levels are an important complement to credits because while credits define time/effort, levels explain the degree of sophistication of the material covered and the expected learning outcome/ level of mastery. knowing one without knowing the other is not especially helpful in understanding the actual nature of the course. in practice, most ontario universities have used a few of these levels to determine advanced standing in transfer courses for decades. when transferring from one undergraduate university program to another, it is understood than most credits will be level 10, with possibly a few credits at level 11 (generally represented by courses that begin with the number 4: 400-level, 4000-level, etc.). when transferring from a college program to a university one, nearly all credits will be at level 8 or occasionally 9. this is not a language that most institutions speak to each other when exchanging information via transcripts, but it is in fact how the process works. where it becomes more complicated is with respect to shorter programs aimed at older learners, for instance through continuing education programs. note that the lowest recognized level is expected to have 40 instructional hours. because these kinds of courses have not hitherto been thought of as building blocks to larger credentials, institutions have not been in the habit of assigning them levels. this would need to change in order for stackability and portability to become a reality. how levels and credits combine in order for stacking to occur, micro-credentials need to possess meta-data indicating two specific qualities: the level of education at which the credential is delivered, and a credit value. note that the issuing body for the credential need not actually award any macrocredentials at that level of education, nor does it need to award credits itself. however, in higheredstrategy.com page 23 order for micro-credentials to stack, the knowledge they embody needs to carry values which are clearly understood by other institutions who may be willing to use these as building blocks towards macro-credentials. it is useful here to think about how a regular undergraduate degree or a diploma is constructed. each degree or diploma is made up of credits, most of which are either at the same level as the credential or one level above or below (for instance, most of the credit in a level 11 bachelors degree (honours) is actually work done at level 10; 4+1 pathways programs are usually some mixture of levels 8/9/10 etc. there are in addition restrictions around the number of credits required in a particular area or concentration (i.e., a major), and within that smaller group of credits, there are also usually a few very specific individual courses which must be taken no matter what (i.e., pre-requisites), which complicate things somewhat, but the point here is that for any individual piece of learning to count towards a larger credential (e.g. a diploma or a degree), the outcome of that learning must map on to some kind of learning outcome (that is be at a certain level, and it needs to be translated into some kind of credit value. technically, not all of these previous outcomes need have come through formal learning with credits attached; prior learning recognition (plr) can be used to translate informal or non-formal knowledge into the language of levels and credits and in so doing make this learning legible for the purpose of stacking and portability. and, technically, microcredentials could become stackable by this method. however, as is well-known, plr is a time-consuming process which is challenging to make work at scale. a much simpler way to make micro-credentials stackable and portable is for providers to simply to assign levels and credits to micro-credentials at the point of offer, as new zealand does, and then include this information as part of the meta-data associated with each credential. it is to the issue of the meta-data that we now turn. europe, australia and the focus on meta-data of particular interest in micro-credential-related policy developments over the past 18 months are developments of new frameworks in australia and europe and in particular the convergence of the two frameworks in their stress of the importance of meta-data (that is, data about data). in the context of micro-credentials, what it means is the codification of what data is made available with respect to each micro-credential. by standardizing the data made available about each micro-credential, the legibility of each micro-credential is improved. as we have already seen, this is important for the purposes of stackability and portability but it turns out that it is can also be very valuable for the purpose of making micro-credentials. in both europe and australia, the micro-credential frameworks are agnostic as to the actual purpose of micro-credentials (i.e., credential completion/stackability/portability vs. labour market alignment). indeed, in both cases, the frameworks are designed to enable both pathways. remarkably, both jurisdictions arrived at the same conclusion, which is to say that take-up of any type of micro-credentials is reliant on their transparency. as a result, both frameworks focus very heavily on the meta-data associated with each credential. as shown below in table 2, both jurisdictions have made it mandatory for the issuers of micro-credentials to attach certain forms of meta-data with each credential. in the eu the required/optional data standards tend to be described as open standards; in higheredstrategy.com page 24 australia, the critical/recommended elements are designed to be mandatory, with failure to provide data in all categories being made a requirement for courses to be placed in the national marketplace for micro-credentials (something which in conception at least is not too far from ecampusontarios micro-credential portal). the status quo in ontario, however, allow meta-data to be very patchy. higheredstrategy.com page 25 figure 2: micro credential meta-data requirements under the eu and australian frameworks european union australia required/critical information elements title of micro-credential title of micro-credential name of provider name of provider country of issue content/description date of issue date of delivery learning outcome description learning outcome description workload (in ects) learner effort (workload hours) level credit/recognition (includes level of qualification) type of assessment assessment quality assurance quality assurance form of participation in learning activity (i.e., delivery mode) delivery mode certification prerequisite language optional/recommended elements integration/stackability stackability prerequisites expiration of credential (if any) identity verification depth of learning grade achieved jurisdiction of issue industry support recommended prior knowledge/experience industry/occupation industry alignment higheredstrategy.com page 26 section iii. the situation in ontario plar is a huge burden because individual [evaluation of a transcript] takes time university registrar despite the challenges of attributing an exchange rate between their own courses and education obtained elsewhere, ontario institutions do have established mechanisms for awarding transfer credit. these include pre-negotiated block transfers of credits between institutions, in which institutions gather enough data about each others course offerings to rank them as equivalent, and plar, the labour-intensive process in which subject matter experts read documentation of an individuals past achievements and attempt to assign credit. one assigns credit to specific courses at specific institutions, so future students taking those courses will know they can receive transfer credit, and at least in theory the other involves an examination of an individuals whole past career. both involve the receiving institution making its own judgements about the level of content of prior learning by reviewing syllabi and other records and therefore are expensive. ideally, a model for stacking micro-credentials should satisfy certain criteria. the process needs to be: quick o from a learners point of view waiting to receive credit has significant opportunity costs cheap o as always in higher education, resources are limited and staff time is expensive transparent and consistent o if learners are uncertain about whether their credentials can be stacked then they are potentially less likely to pursue them and very probably less likely to go through the process of investigating whether stacking is even a possibility (especially if enquiring is slow and expensive). there are also potential equity issues because students who face barriers to education have less access to money, time and information about how the process works flexible o the model would recognize learning from a wide variety of sources, not only the most common pathways followed by large numbers of learners. block transfers fulfil the first three of these, but by their nature they can only apply to a restricted set of courses. the process involves gathering considerable information which is only economically feasible if enough students are moving between that specific pair (dyad) of courses. they cannot be used to react to new and unfamiliar credentials, and the wide variety of micro-credentials available makes this a major problem for microcredentials. plar, on the other hand, is as flexible as the subject matter experts choose to make it but because it relies on expensive experts making individual judgments it is much weaker on the other criteria. plar gives control over the process to faculty, some of whom can be higheredstrategy.com page 27 conservative in their willingness to award credit. the identity of the subject matter expert evaluating may make the process hard to predict, so students seeking a micro-credential as a step towards a degree or diploma cannot know in advance how much credit they will receive. costs are often borne by the student making plar an expensive proposition if they cannot be sure the savings in tuition will outweigh the up-front cost. while institutions can assess individual courses for transfer by examining syllabi, it was clear from interviews that this would not be a viable basis for a model of micro-credential stacking that would meet the criteria. think about the overhead that would cost [if an applicant were to say] ive got 10 different micro-credentials from 10 different institutions and i want to show you thats congruent to biology 1000. [swears] 80% of that material has to be congruent and that has to be assessed by an academic. that would be a nightmare, we would never get into that business. university registrar the underlying problem is that under the current model micro-credentials need to be independently evaluated for course credit in order to be stacked into degrees or diplomas and processing the information needed to do that is expensive. it is too expensive for an individual institution to learn enough about each credential when each micro-credential probably has very limited credit value (because it is so short compared to the larger credential) and they may see few students presenting the micro-credential. in principle, centralisation of assessment could help. but the examples of stackability and portability in other countries (section 1) have shown how important consistency of data presentation is in central coordination. exploring meta-data in order to examine the state of stackability for this project, we therefore examined the data of over 1700 micro-credentials listed on the ecampusontarios micro-credential portal as of the summer of 2022. using the portal as a guide, we used the institutional links affiliated with each microcredential to record the following fields of information: course title host institution, credential start/end dates, presence of multiple credential sections, contact hours, credits assigned, delivery method required prerequisites, field of study, industry partners, professional recognition, price, stacking, higheredstrategy.com page 28 credential type, osap eligibility, course description, learning outcomes, skills/core competencies developed the affiliated link to the institutional website. most of this information required no interpretation, but in some fields notably, learning outcomes and skill/core competencies some interpretation by hesa researchers were required. for example, if a micro-credential posted a list of topics to be covered without providing any information on what the learner would take away with respect to these topics, it was marked as no learning outcomes provided. one very significant challenge early on in the project was the use of the ecampusontario micro-credential portal itself. apart from being difficult to navigate and challenging to filter, the data provided by the portal is sub-par. the most prominent issue of all is the lack of a time filter. something on the order of 30% of the micro-credentials listed in the portal are either not currently being delivered or have no start or end date associated with them (i.e., it is unclear if they are currently being offered). in addition, the portal seems to be a farfrom-complete database, in that there are a number of micro-credentials listed on institutional sites which are not listed on the portal. to take but one simple example: the portal lists ocadu as offering 7 micro-credentials. a quick check of the ocadu website shows in fact that there are 13 current micro-credentials, of which only 6 are listed on the ecampusontario portal. it was not possible to cross-check all listings on institutional websites, because these sites often make it extremely difficult to locate micro-credentials amongst other course offerings; however, our estimate is that there are at least 300 courses offered by public institutions which are not listed on the portal, suggesting that the toral number of courses as of late 2022 is probably in excess of 2100. it should be noted that these numbers are by their very nature approximate because the constantly changing nature of micro-credentials on offer makes absolute certainty about numbers difficult. between the start (june 2022) and end (november 2022) of this project, the number of credentials listed on the portal rose from 1742 to 1796, though as noted above this includes several hundred courses with no data on run dates and so may not be currently offered. for this reason, this report uses rough percentages to report data rather than absolute numbers. key data on ontario micro-credentials as of summer 2022, roughly two-thirds of the roughly 1750 current micro-credentials offered by public institutions in ontario are delivered by universities with the remainder delivered by community colleges and indigenous institutes. this roughly corresponds to the distribution of full-time students between the two sectors, which suggests that what micro-credential learners are seeking from providers is not that different from what the overall post-secondary market seeks. while nearly all institutions now offer micro-credentials, some institutions are much more active in the market than others. our scan of micro-credentials on the portal suggests that higheredstrategy.com page 29 just four institutions (york university, the university of windsor, conestoga college and the university of waterloo) are responsible for the delivery of about half of all microcredentials in the province: adding the university of toronto, lambton college and queens university brings it up to about two-thirds. figure 2 shows the distribution of micro-credentials by field. in terms of field of study, micro-credentials are clearly available across the spectrum, but they cluster very differently from those in regular post-secondary education. the most common field in which micro-credentials are offered is business and management, which is perhaps unsurprising as this is also true of continuing education programs. what is perhaps a surprise is the extent to which micro-credentials are being used in the education: to a considerable degree, what used to be simple professional development courses are now being given out as micro-credentials. figure 2: distribution of micro-credentials by subject 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% figure 3 shows the distribution of micro-credentials by price. most micro-credentials are very reasonably priced, with a few of them offered free of charge and three-quarters of all micro-credentials costing under $750. since a year of studies at the undergraduate level in ontario average about $7500 with ancillary fees included. this suggests that many institutions are pricing micro-credentials as if they were an individual undergraduate course, or treating the undergraduate course price as a reference or ceiling. for the most part, the micro-credentials offered at $1,000 or above are comprised of multiple courses or modules. higheredstrategy.com page 30 figure 3: distribution of ontario micro-credentials by price 40% 33% 35% 28% 30% 25% 20% 14% 15% 14% 10% 5% 5% 4% 1% 0% $0 $1-250 $251-500 $501-750 $751-1000 $1,000-5,000 $5000+ evaluating the meta-data in ontario micro-credentials as noted in the section ii, one of the emerging areas of consensus globally with respect to micro-credentials, and the one which has the greatest potential to improve stackability and portability of is the quality of meta-data associated with micro-credentials. unfortunately, the state of this meta-data is not good. quite apart from the fact that the meta-data for individual courses can show different things depending on whether it is on the institutional website or that of ecampusontario, in too many cases there is simply no data available for things which in other countries are considered key required fields. content descriptions: roughly 98% of active micro-credentials have content descriptions. however, the quality and descriptiveness vary. roughly a quarter of all micro-credentials possess no description. of the remainder, roughly two-thirds (50% in total) have what might be called limited information, while one-third (25% in total) have high-quality descriptive information. an example of a limited course content description is the university of windsors microcredential in additional basic training in green studies has the following description this course focuses on the skills and theory underpinning the study of green industries. this course addresses student development, program planning and delivery issues in the school environment. while this technically qualifies as description, in truth it does little to enlighten the potential learner about the learning activities involved in the class. at the other extreme, there is the osgoode hall (york) description for its certificate in esg, climate risk, and the law from osgoode hall at york university described below in box 1: higheredstrategy.com page 31 box 1 course description: certificate in esg, climate risk and the law environmental, social and governance (esg) risk, once optional, is now a critical business priority. global financial markets, scientific data, government policy and public opinion are converging to drive rapid legal, business and cultural changes in the area of esg-related risk management. at the same time, esg and climate-related risks are leading to greater legal and regulatory claims, shareholder activism, investor classactions, and public naming and shaming in cases where an organization is not adequately prioritizing esg and climate issues. in order to effectively navigate and advise on legal and operational esg and climaterelated risks and issues in the context of governance matters, commercial transactions and investments, and to avoid legal liability and reputational risk, you must have a solid grasp of the complex and evolving laws and expectations in this area. designed by governance, climate-risk and policy experts for board directors and legal and business professionals whose work involves governance, commercial transactions or investments, this unique new osgoode pd certificate is the only program of its kind for canadian organizations, boards and legal advisors to upskill in this important area. over five engaging days featuring discussion and case studies, you will learn how to evaluate, navigate and disclose common esg and climate-related risks and opportunities, establish and develop an esg framework within the corporate culture and decisionmaking process, and set suitable esg-related legal risk management and operational goals. completing this program will enhance your knowledge and refine your repertoire of risk management strategies and techniques for navigating esg and climate-related issues, potential liability exposure and opportunities and provide you with valuable resources. online primers foundations in esg, climate risk and the law. included with the certificate, these online primers are available on demand, and they cover core concepts to set the stage for the program modules (primer content will not be covered in class). it is strongly recommended that you view all five (5) primers before attending the program. to obtain your certificate, all five (5) primers must be viewed: esg, law and policy primer (75 mins, 2021), climate science, risk and carbon neutrality/ net zero primer (90 mins, 2021), governance framework for esg primer (50 mins, 2021), indigenous rights, consent and the duty to consult in canada primer (100 mins, 2021), indigenous-led projects and partnerships primer (80 mins, 2021), and registration includes 120-day unlimited, online access to the recorded program. the difference here between the york and windsor examples is enormous, and most descriptions lie somewhere between these two extremes. however, for the most part institutions choose descriptions which lean towards the briefer end of the spectrum. higheredstrategy.com page 32 learning outcomes: for the purpose of this analysis, this section is divided into learning outcomes and core competencies. the former describe the topics over which learners should have some degree of mastery at the end of the course while the latter are the skills to be developed develop during the course. if a course included a list of topics (e.g. business planning) but did not describe what a learner may take away from the course (e.g. at the end of the course, learners will be able to develop a business plan that encompasses financial strategy, marketing and communications, and project management) it was not counted as a learning outcome. the university of toronto is one of few institutions that consistently and clearly includes both the learning outcomes and course competencies in its meta-data. for example, the outcomes and competencies for its managing people: essentials micro-credential reads like the one in box 2. box 2 learning outcomes managing people: the essentials what you'll learn: by the end of this micro course, you'll be able to: describe the role of a manager. use a human-performance model to diagnose performance problems. identify performance gaps. troubleshoot problems to determine why they occur and how to fix them. competencies/skills developed in this micro course include: performance management performance planning performance monitoring problem solving in total, fewer than 25% of micro-credentials had both clearly outlined learning outcomes and core competencies listed. intriguingly, a very high proportion of these came from a single institution (the university of toronto). roughly have 50% had learning outcomes listed but not core competencies. the final 25% did not list any learning outcomes or core competencies. contact hours: every course in the ecampusontario micro-credential portal has a number of contact hours assigned to it, ranging from 2 to 480 hours. this is because listing contact hours is a requirement to be listed on the site: in many cases parallel information is not available on the host institutions website. this is at the very least a good sign that ecampusontario can affect micro-credential meta-data through its listing policies. higheredstrategy.com page 33 credit: very few micro-credentials (roughly 4% of the total) in the province of ontario are listed as bearing academic credit and they are situated almost exclusively in five institutions: conestoga college, cambrian college, mohawk college, st. clair college and lakehead university. the rest are assumed to be non-credit courses, though it is possible that there are a few where credit is given but not mentioned in the meta-data. in a select few cases, there are courses that have non-academic, professional credit hours associated with them. these are courses that have an industry partner affiliation and completing the micro-credential counts towards experience hour for a professional designation. for example, completing managing complex projects at the university of waterloo earns a learner 14 credit hours towards a project management professional designation from the project management institute. only two institutions, york university and the university of waterloo, seem to offer/promote these credit hours as a main feature of their completing their micro-credential. it does not appear that these courses have any credit-value within the institution. level of course: because so few courses bear credit towards a credential, there is really little need to associate learning with a specific level, and thus there are few courses that do so. the only relative distinction comes from the course being offered by a university or a college. there are some courses that contain an institutional course code within the title (e.g. university of torontos 3197b - presentations with visual impact or georgian colleges tata0032: coaching). however, these codes have limited meaning beyond an individual institution and given little to no information to the learner or the employer about the level of learning. assessment method: understanding how learning is assessed is a key piece of meta-data transparency: just as learning outcomes tells one what was learned, a description of assessment methods tells one how the issuing body knows whether or not such learning was actually achieved. the most complete examples will tell one two things. first, it will describe how students are evaluated, and second, it will describe the meaning of the grading scale used to denote the degree to which the learner has met the objectives of each evaluation. so, for example, the assessment criteria for western universitys micro-credential teaching online is shown below in box 3. higheredstrategy.com page 34 box 3 assignment criteria: teaching online evaluation: assignment #1 10% assignment #2 10% assignment #3 15% assignment #4 15% assignment #5 50% total 100% notes on assignments (papers and reports): must follow general apa style in format, references, and citations must be academic in style and content must include title page and references, where required must include data that is based on clearly identified research and sources, where required grading: a+ 90-100: one could scarcely expect better from a student at this level a 80-89: superior work which is clearly above average b 70-79: good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory c 60-69: competent work, meeting requirements d 50-59: fair work, minimally acceptable f below 50: fail the kind of description shown in box 3 is an example of what be called fulsome assessment criteria. under 20% of all micro-credentials listed on the ecampusontario portal meet this description. a more common situation (roughly 40% of cases) is when the micro-credential description provides a list of types of assessment but lacks either weights or a grading scale or both. for example, ontario college of art and design universitys becoming a content creator: advanced social media marketing for creative entrepreneurs micro-credential falls into the second category with their assessment description: as part of the modules in each micro-credential, you will complete assignments and exercises outlined in each micro-credential. these build towards the required evidence for each micro-credential that is submitted at the end of the microcredential modules. finally, there are many micro-credentials where no assessment data is to be found. these also constitute roughly 40% of all micro-credentials. delivery mode: roughly 70% of all ontario micro-credentials are delivered fully online. however, it is not always clear from the meta-data whether the course is synchronous or asynchronous. among those that do offer this information, and where the class is synchronous, the most typical delivery model is a single weekly session lasting for one to three hours. however, it higheredstrategy.com page 35 is seldom the case that these class times sum to the contact hour count given on the ecampusontario portal. our interpretation therefore is that most institutions are not equating contact hours with the traditional learner-instructor-interaction but rather providing an estimate of the time learners will need to spend with the materials and participating in assessment activities (that is, something more akin to the european model of describing credits in terms of estimated hours of work) the next most common delivery method (~14%) is in-person only. for the most part, these courses are vocational micro-credentials: that is, college-based non-credit courses in welding, truck driving, plumbing, and food services. for example, confederation colleges az truck driver melt (mandatory entry level training) or lambton colleges performing plasma arc cutting both fall within this category. there are fewer examples of universities offering fully in-person micro-credentials, but these do exist: example, trent university offers a micro-credential certificate for english, leadership, and community where students spend four weeks completing the credential on trents campus. finally, there are also a few university-level micro-credentials that are delivered in dual mode: with some sections delivered online and others delivered in person. these are mainly in information technology and computer sciences. the least common (>0.5%) are courses that are hybrid in nature, with both an online and in-person component. these tend to be concentrated in science/life-science based microcredentials in rurally-located schools. it is likely the catchment area for these courses is anticipated to be within the community so learners can participate in both the online and in-person sections. just over 16% of micro-credentials did not list a delivery method. quality assurance: none of the micro-credential we examined listed any form of quality assurance processes. presumably this reflects the overall lesser role of external quality assurance in canadian post-secondary education than in the other systems described in section 2. stackability: there are no examples in ontario of being able to obtain a diploma or degree exclusively though stacking micro-credentials, as is sometimes the case in the united states (e.g. northeastern). there are however some examples of micro-credentials stacking towards a certificate: for example, at conestoga college, completion of five individual microcredential courses stacks into the certificate of academic integrity in post-secondary teaching. industry partners: fewer than 6% of micro-credentials are listed as having industry partners attached to their delivery. this may perhaps understate the degree of industry involvement in microcredentials: companies may have been involved in delivery and not listed, or they may higheredstrategy.com page 36 have been involved in the conceptualization and design of the programs without having been credited as such in the meta-data. where such participation is noted, it tends to occur in the fields of information technology and computer sciences, business, and within vocational fields. industry recognition: industry recognition that is, providing courses which are recognized by industry certification bodies is a much more common type of industry affiliation that a straight delivery partnership. roughly one in six credentials contains some meta-data to this effect. this is particularly true in fields like business, where for example the university of waterloos advanced project monitoring and control micro-credential is recognized by the project management institute to count towards a project management professional designation, even if it is not directly partnered with the project management institute itself. it seems likely that this is actually a significant undercount, as most of the education micro-credentials appear to be designed (or perhaps converted) to meet ongoing professional development and thus are likely recognized by the ontario college of teachers, though few courses actually make note of this. final observations on ontario micro-credentials beyond the simply descriptive nature of the data presented here, there are a couple of observations to be made about the data on micro-credentials in ontario. the first is that while micro-credentials are still an emerging field, they are finding footholds in in nearly all public institutions across the province and indeed across a wide variety of fields of study. while there are a few clear institutional pioneers (york, windsor, conestoga) and a few field-of-study clusters (business and education), there is every reason to believe that this will be a wide-ranging phenomenon for years to come. second, there seems to be a significant reluctance to offer micro-credentials for credit, particularly in universities. there may be a number of reasons for this, but the most obvious barrier is structural: micro-credentials are often treated as a subset of continuing education, which not only tends to focus on clients who already have some kind of diploma or degree but also are structurally unable to give credit towards degrees which are approved by university senates. there are several implications of these observations. the first is that institutions are not really designing credentials with individuals who might have an interest in stackability in mind. in fact, for the most part, what appears to be the case is that these are being designed and driven for largely the same kinds of markets that institutions have been serving for decades through continuing education units. it is not possible to say that micro-credentials in ontario are simply old continuing education products in new clothing, but this might be the case for a significant percentage of them. a second implication follows from the first: although stackability/portability is possible through better use of credits/levels and other meta-data, little attention has been given to meta-data or assigning credit values. higheredstrategy.com page 37 finally, it is worth noting that in general, the state of meta-data on ontario credentials is a long way from global best-practice. the meta-data taken for granted elsewhere is frequently missing or unreliable. ecampusontario could impose standards as a condition of listing on its micro-credential portal. however, the issue of comparability runs through whole ontario system, with most individual instructors able to organize their syllabi as they choose and no requirements to record meta-data or describe learning outcomes in any prescribed format. the costs to institutions of co-ordinating all their instructors to present meta-data consistently would be considerable and it is not clear that the benefits of being listed on the portal are a powerful enough incentive to make them bear those costs. individual institutions would probably need quite a significant incentive to ensure consistency in meta-data. higheredstrategy.com page 38 section iv. possible paths to stackability ontarios current model is not the only possibility for stacking micro-credentials into macro-credentials. the barriers to portability between institutions and stackability into hierarchical credentials identified by experts in the ontario system have been partially addressed in the other countries studied. there are also more radical options which have occasionally been tried. mandating comparable meta-data currently, each unfamiliar credential presented to a college or university for transfer or plar must be examined at the level of the syllabus and syllabi are not mandated to follow a single consistent format. instructors can often freestyle their learning outcomes and the concepts taught, which makes comparing the syllabi into highly-skilled work requiring subject matter expertise. as shown above, even the meta-data provided to ecampusontario is frustratingly inconsistent. encouraging credential developers to create meta-data which is more easily understood by other institutions in the process of creating micro-credentials would reduce the information processing costs. essentially, this would involve creating a list of options for content, level and credit value. providers could choose from this fixed list of options and attest to them. standardising meta-data about the level, credit value and content of a course would convert what is currently an artisan process requiring highly-skilled subject matter experts into a general skill which could potentially even be partially automated. institutions offering micro-credentials could be incentivized to publish meta-data about them in a more standardized format in various ways. meta-data could be required for listing on public catalogues e.g. ecampusontarios portal eligibility for public funding acceptance for stacking by public colleges (which mcu can direct using binding policy directives) and universities the simplest way to provide meta-data may be to parallel diploma and degree courses as closely as possible, so that level and value would be expressed in hours of study and the pre-requisites needed. it would equally be possible to develop a competency-based model in which the skills developed through a particular credential are defined in a predetermined grid (with developers able to apply to add new skills to the grid where necessary) similar to current practice in singapore. the limitation of this model is that, without central oversight of what level, content and credit values are being claimed for a micro-credential, it essentially relies on an honour system. providing misleading information might become self-penalising if it harmed the reputation of the institution or the individual staff involved. however, academic credit has a very real economic value in the labour market and, if a micro-credential could be used to avoid the tuition and time costs of completing a diploma or degree course, its value to learners would increase. higheredstrategy.com page 39 assigning guidance on credit value at source one obvious solution is some kind of centralization in which the issuer of each microcredential seeks to have a credit value and level within a qualifications framework (e.g. one credit-hour towards the second year of an undergraduate degree) assigned by a trusted third party. this would reduce the overall information cost to the system, since the labour-intensive process of evaluation would take place only once rather than needing to be replicated for each possible combination (dyad) of sending and receiving institutions. institutions asked to stack micro-credentials into their diplomas or degrees would not need to make individual judgments about the credibility of each individual provider. in new zealand this role is filled by the new zealand qualifications authority (nzqa). in new zealand this is largely a paper exercise in which the provider has to convince nzqa of its capacity to manage the training and that they can realistically expect to achieve their learning outcomes. however, the need to submit to a central authority opens the possibility of an application being challenged. it is also possible to imagine a central body taking on a more active role than in new zealand, for example by policing the correspondence between learning outcomes and level or credit value (perhaps by comparison with the content of conventional for-credit courses) or by tracing the progress of learners who have stacked a micro-credential to verify whether they are adequately prepared and eventually graduated with a degree or diploma. in an ontario context a similar function could potentially be performed by the province or a provincial agency. this would mean the cost of the work appearing on governments administration budget or fees needing to be levied on micro-credential providers, but the total cost to the sector would be much lower than having micro-credentials evaluated by receiving colleges and universities. in the current system, the cost of evaluating credentials is repeatedly duplicated and either absorbed by colleges and universities or charged to students through plar fees. if the province does not take on the role, universities and colleges could contract with a private agency which will handle the considerable information costs for them in exchange for payment. many institutions already allow private companies to have input into their admissions decision-making (also a fairly crucial dimension of a university or colleges reputation) when they have to decide what foreign credentials to recognize. private providers such as world education services (wes) employ staff with specialist knowledge of college and university entrance credentials around the world, relieving admissions staff of the need to remain up-to-date on such a huge volume of information, for a fee. effectively, wes is trusted to establish an exchange rate between grades on an exotic credential and the more familiar ontario secondary school diploma which enables a student to be admitted. receiving institutions can challenge wess judgment or reject the exchange rate, but in practice this is rare and many thousands of foreign credentials are accepted each year on wess recommendation. higheredstrategy.com page 40 decoupling examination and teaching an alternative approach would be to make micro-credentials into pre-qualifying mechanisms allowing learners to access tests comparable to those taken by regular degree and diploma students. stacking micro-credentials obtained elsewhere into diplomas and degrees will inevitably decouple teaching from examination. if there are concerns about how far microcredentials offered by diverse providers will prepare learners for degrees and diplomas, models based on separate examination could also facilitate stacking. in essence, microcredentials could pre-qualify learners to challenge exams taken by regular students, without the need to complete coursework10. this could allow an entrepreneurial college or university to position itself as a specialist in serving students who have many unconventional credentials to stack into a degree or diploma. this is far from unprecedented, and in fact many of the older english universities are collegiate institutions where the university once had no role in teaching and instead provided examinations to students who were taught in colleges. for much of the 19th century england had only two universities, both of which were open only to anglicans, and growing demand for higher education in its cities. the university of london was established to provide common exams to, initially, two colleges in the city which did the actual teaching. the university was initially controlled by the government, which opened its examinations to other colleges approved by the government. eventually university of london exams were opened to anyone who could show preparation. a number of institutions developed as effectively tutoring services for students who would ultimately take university of london exams. it is still possible to take university of london exams by correspondence from abroad without attending any classes in london, and the university allows independent colleges around the world to become recognised teaching centres where students can prepare for university of london exams in a classroom environment. awarding credentials (and credentials in which quality control is crucial) to candidates who can show alternative forms of preparation by examination alone is also not unheard-of in modern canada. apprentices who have enough work experience are able to challenge qualifying exams, avoiding completion of all the normal classroom training, provided they meet certain requirements. their on-the-job training is a necessary pre-qualification for being able to take the exam, preventing spurious applications by potentially-dangerous unprepared candidates, but anyone who passes is allowed to become a journeyperson as if they had the complete program of training. other forms of preparation, including microcredentials, could potentially fill this role. a decentralized challenge model could allow the universities and colleges which award degrees and diplomas to retain quality control of examinable material, although not the wider student experience. they could still impose some residency requirements and use micro-credentials as evidence that the candidate had appropriate preparation. alternatively, one body could offer exams for all of ontario and set pre-qualification standards independently of colleges and universities. in south korea the government 10 while colleges and universities tend to require that students register for courses as cohorts and are then tested, this is not necessary. western governors university, for example, largely decouples progress though its degrees from the academic calendar by allowing progress once a student can demonstrate competence (https://www.wgu.edu/studentexperience/learning/scheduling.html). higheredstrategy.com page 41 provides a bank of exams which students can challenge without attending university and receive a (no-name) self-study bachelors degree from the government if they are successful. although most challengers have some formal preparation, the government does not teach or require any teaching and is agnostic about the form of preparation. similarly, the higher education law of the people's republic of china commits the government to offer examinations for self-taught students and there are many agencies which do not have their own degree-awarding powers preparing learners for these exams. having a centralised bank of exams would clearly be more efficient than a decentralized system, but in a higher education system in which prestige is seen as important the degrees awarded can be seen as inferior to those of selective universities. further, institutions which prepare students for exams set by others will sacrifice some degree of autonomy in the content of their courses, leading to greater difficulty in developing an independent reputation for developing programs. that said, some institutions might welcome such a system. not all ontario institutions necessarily value autonomy and strengthening their brand more than being able to access ontario-wide exams. importantly, once an institution offers a standardized exam students who have completed one have a very clear claim for advance standing at other institutions which also use that exam. hence the value of passing a standard exam increases as more and more institutions use it. private career colleges (pccs) are potential users of such exams. because they operate as private businesses, the costs of assessing how prepared aspiring students are and assigning them an appropriate level (not to mention simply writing their own exams for every course) cuts into their budgets, so standardization could save them money as well as facilitating transfers between pccs. many pccs are not brand-name institutions and being able to boast a high pass rate on exams set by a trusted third party could legitimize them in the eyes of potential applicants. from their point of view, having someone else write and administer exams to their students could be a valuable endorsement of the quality of their teaching. in fact, ontario pccs at one point shared exams across the sector, with their national body distributing the same exam across the country on the same day and arranging centralized grading. with most prior learning models each school goes through an assessment of what the persons coming with when i started teaching many of the private career colleges used curriculum for courses, not programs but courses, which were given to us by [the national body of career colleges] but that program died in the 1990s. talk about that portability for the student. re-establishing such a system but allowing holders of micro-credentials to sit the same tests as pcc students could be a viable option for this sector. even for public institutions, developing assessments themselves is time-consuming and therefore expensive. smaller institutions may favour the convenience of using someone elses assessments over autonomy. for example, some indigenous institutes choose to mainly offer programs developed by larger institutions, developing their academic identity from links to the community rather than distinctive programming. higheredstrategy.com page 42 a new institution if the ontario government is committed to allowing micro-credentials to be stacked into higher-level credentials, the most radical option would be to create a new institution with a mandate to award diplomas and degrees based on a wide range of prior education. a new institution could be designed to avoid some of the barriers created by the current system. for example, almost all ontario degrees and diplomas are awarded in specific subjects, so our discussion has assumed that we need information about the content of courses and micro-credentials, but when discussing the impact of the education they provide universities in particular often emphasise generic transferable skills their graduates develop. it is possible to develop degrees in which students demonstrate learning to a high level but not necessarily in any specific subject, taking the liberal arts tradition of choosing individual courses based on interest rather than a prescribed sequence to its logical conclusion. some of the scottish universities, by contrast, award general degrees for which a graduate only needs a certain number of courses at various levels, with no specific subject requirements11. this philosophy would simplify stacking of micro-credentials, since institutions would only need to assign a credit-value equivalence and a level and could largely ignore the subject-specific details of the content. it might seem that the government could simply order institutions to stack microcredentials into their degrees and diplomas, but in practice this would probably not be very effective. in theory public universities and colleges are subject to government control, but the levers that the government can use to control their activities are somewhat limited. universities are legally independent entities governed according to their own legislation (which gives considerable powers to senates dominated by often-conservative academics). while public colleges can be guided by minsters binding policies (which, among other things, mandate that colleges have plar processes), colleges now obtain a relatively small proportion of their funding from the government. with most income coming from students, the value of control over their own credentials is quite considerable and the relative value of the funding they receive from government is much lower than it once was: on the college side i suppose the minister can just, at a stroke of a pen [compel stacking]. i think the challenge is i think [my college] is about 22% government funded at this point [] the pushback would be what right do you, government have to regulate our business, essentially. creating a new body to award diplomas and degrees, without an independent reputation to protect and faculty with influence over the process, would bypass these concerns. governments have created new institutions in the past to facilitate degree completion by students who hold unconventional mixes of past education. an example is the korean credit bank. briefly, the korean credit bank was a response to large numbers of south korean students being unable to complete degrees due to the difficulties of transferring credits between universities. the bank is not a university as such but publishes standards for credentials which can stack into degrees. if a credential meets the criteria, the bank can award credit towards one of its own degrees. the limitation, again, is that these are 11 https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/students/academic/academic-advising/rules/degrees/ higheredstrategy.com page 43 effectively no-name degrees in a graduate labour market dominated by brand-name credentials. this radical option is probably unlikely in ontario. there would be obvious economic and political barriers to creating a new institution to award credit for courses which existing institutions will not recognise at that level. however, it is a possible way for a government to ensure micro-credentials are stackable if institutions come to be seen as an insurmountable barrier. higheredstrategy.com page 44 conclusion the architecture of higher education in ontario creates barriers to stackability and portability of micro-credentials. there are a range of options which could be pursued to destroy these barriers, ranging from the radical to the relatively gentle. comparing ontario with other jurisdictions shows that considerable gains can be achieved through relatively modest changes in how data about micro-credentials is presented. many of the problems of credit transfer and recognition of prior learning are informational and economic it takes a lot of time and subject-matter expertise, and therefore costs too much, to evaluate the potential credit value of different micro-credentials within a highly fragmented system. if there is a will to help students to stack micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas, a relatively gentle first move in that direction could be to develop a mechanism to co-ordinate how meta-data about micro-credentials is gathered and presented or to designate one agency to provide a centralised (probably advisory) assessment of a fair exchange rate between various micro-credentials and college or university credit. such ideas have been tested in other countries. given the difficulties of co-ordinating dozens of independent institutions, making metadata consistent to the level of the european union, singapore or new zealand would be an achievement in ontario. however, if stacking of micro-credentials into degrees and diplomas becomes common in the future then some degree of co-ordination seems like it will be needed if the process is not to become infeasibly cumbersome for individual learners. higheredstrategy.com page 45 20 maud street, suite 207 toronto on, m5v 2m5, canada +1 (416) 848-0215 info@higheredstrategy.com higheredstrategy.com

understanding profiles and pathways of university-to-college transfer students abstract the purpose of this report is to better understand data collection methods, practices of certain demographics, and pathways of university-to-college transfer students. in the last decade, significant increases have been reported in college entrants with (some) previous post-secondary experience. university-to-college transfer students reflect approximately 20% of all student transfers in ontario. this development, among others, is expected to change demographic compositions of students entering ontario colleges. understanding these shifts can inform future decisions about articulation and transfer pathways, services within ontario colleges, and beyond. it is also expected that understanding the gaps between desired and current data collection methods could improve the quality of the information colleges receive, store, collect, and analyze concerning transfer students. the data collection process illustrated that information about transfer students entering different ontario colleges is challenging. this is a result of differences in the structures of student information systems and the quality of some indicators received through ocas. therefore, data from the kpi student satisfaction survey was collected to verify administrative data. overall, the results of the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey seemed to be a robust and accessible source of information on transfer students. university-to-college transfer students account for a significant percentage of the incoming student population in ontario colleges. according to the research, 13,226 students with university experience started a program at one of the participating colleges over the course of three academic years. after analyzing the kpi data, 1 in 4 students (23.3%) enrolled at the colleges, indicated they had (some) university experience as their highest level of completed education. these transfer students tend to be older, are typically female, and often transfer from universities in proximity to the college; where they were enrolled for longer periods of time. often transfer students finished their degrees while they were starting a college program (60% in kpi data; and 56% in administrative data), after excluding graduate certificate students, almost half of the transfer students finished their degrees. this also results in a significant number of credits being transferred to the college; 28% into algonquin college and 39% to seneca college. excluding graduate certificates, this percentage increases significantly with 7 and 10 percentage points respectively. transfer students most often move into diploma or graduate certificate credentials and are most interested in the business program cluster. main author: elian willemijn brogers project lead: maggie cusson, dean, academic development project lead: melissa staddon, educational technologies project coordinator, academic development acknowledgement we would like to express our thanks to charline smith, manager strategic initiatives, and kelsey janveau, pathways officer, from cambrian college; lynne gaudet, associate registrar-registration and records, from fanshawe college; victoria baker, manager degree and credit transfer, and a special thanks to ursula mccloy, director crsm from seneca college; for their excellent work in providing us with data, and for conversations regarding the institutional information systems and other contextual factors which were so important to understand the data used in this analysis. during the entire project from writing the proposal to finalizing the final report we enjoyed and learned from the conversations and collaboration which made this project a success. we also wish to thank ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) for their financial support, which made this report possible. we would also like to thank the registrars office and the academic operations and planning department for their great work in providing us with administrative data and information from the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey. last but not least, thanks to renay dixon, transfer pathways coordinator at algonquin college for providing useful insights and comments during the preparation of this report. responsibility for the analysis and the opinions expressed in the report remain solely with the authors. table of contents introduction....................................................................................................................................... 1 literature review.............................................................................................................................. 2 research questions........................................................................................................................... 5 data sources.. ...................................................................................................................................... 6 admi ni st r ative data...................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 6 k p i st ude n t satisfaction and en g ag e m e n t s u rv e y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 7 results.................................................................................................................................................. 10 data co l l ection concerning tra n s fe r st u d e n ts w h at s t h e re a li t y? .. . . . . . . . . ........ 1 0 different ocas records..........................................................................................................................................................................11 capturing ocas information in student information systems ..............................................................................................11 data extraction for research purposes.............................................................................................................................................12 gender............................................................................................................................................................................................................13 age...................................................................................................................................................................................................................13 language.......................................................................................................................................................................................................14 first generation pse.................................................................................................................................................................................14 disability.........................................................................................................................................................................................................15 uni ve r s i t y-to- colleg e transfer st u d e n ts : w h e re d o t h e y com e from ?. . . . . . . . . . ........ 1 5 source university .......................................................................................................................................................................................15 total years of university enrollment...................................................................................................................................................16 number of gap years between last attended university and college ...................................................................................16 university program cluster.....................................................................................................................................................................17 uni ve r s i t y-to- colleg e transfer st u d e n ts : w h at d o t h e y t ra n s fe r i n to?. . . . . . ........ 1 7 college program cluster..........................................................................................................................................................................17 college credential......................................................................................................................................................................................18 travelling to and from the college.......................................................................................................................................................19 working for pay..........................................................................................................................................................................................20 providing care for dependents..............................................................................................................................................................20 t h e pat h way of u niversity-to- colle g e t ra n s fe r st u d e n ts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ 2 1 degree completed......................................................................................................................................................................................21 credits transferred into the college.....................................................................................................................................................22 main goal enrolling in college program.............................................................................................................................................22 pat h ways and profiles of trans fe r st u d e n ts a n d h i g h s ch ool e n t ra n ts . . . ......... 2 3 gender............................................................................................................................................................................................................23 disability.........................................................................................................................................................................................................24 college program cluster..........................................................................................................................................................................24 college credential......................................................................................................................................................................................25 main goal enrolling in college program.............................................................................................................................................25 conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................................. 26 re co mme n dations for ocas.. ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 27 f ut ur e data collection concer n i n g t ra n s fe r st u d e n ts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... 2 8 literature ........................................................................................................................................... 29 appendix a: tables.............................................................................................................................. 32 appendix b: data description per college .................................................................................. 42 1 introduction introduction in the last decade, efforts have increased to improve student mobility within the postsecondary education system (pse) in canada. the ability to transfer between institutions allows students to choose the pathway that suites their needs and interests, which supports them as they strive to meet specific career goals and increase labour market possibilities. student mobility is perceived as a mechanism for social advancement in addition to improving equity and the efficiency of the educational system. to facilitate higher education transfers, the government of ontario uses a model to improve student pathways and mobility, strengthen collaboration between colleges and universities and develop transparent credit transfer data collection and management systems to support student success (trick, 2013). university-to-college transfer students reflect approximately 20% of all student transfers in ontario, including student transfers between institutions at the college level and the university level (40% of students are transitioning from a college to a university, 20% from one college to another, and 20% from one university to another) (oncat, 2015). a case study involving transfer students between seneca college and york university showed that of all the students moving between the two institutions, over one-third of them transferred from university to college (smith et al., 2016). this substantial transfer student population presents a significant opportunity for university-college partnerships; particularly for students interested in applied technology, career training, and trades. however, little is known about this population of students, as existing research focuses primarily on college-to-university transfer students. existing studies including university-tocollege transfers have been carried out on an institution-to-institution basis. contributing to this lack of knowledge about the transfer student population are the current data collection methods used at the colleges and through application services. future students applying through ontario college application service (ocas), self-report previously attended or completed postsecondary education. during the application process, transfer students have the option to request their prior institutions transcript(s) providing colleges with a wealth of information. it is expected, that only a subsection of these students requests their transcript(s) as there are fees involved and it is only required for specific services (e.g., for the college to evaluate applicants advanced standing request or to evaluate the minimum credentials required to gain admittance to the college). as such, it is difficult for the colleges to identify and track all transfer students or create appropriate support systems and resources to assist them in their transition. throughout the pse sector, there is certainly a desire to know more about pathways as a means of understanding how the pse systems functions, how the different institutions relate, and how to go about developing services and policies sensitive to the influence of prior learning experiences. literature review 2 therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the current data collection methods at various ontario colleges and to formulate strategies for tracking incoming university-to-college transfer students in order to gain insights into the overall rates, characteristics and pathways of this unique student population. the data can be used to better facilitate their transfers, remove barriers to mobility, and develop better support systems and structures to increase and improve student mobility. smooth transitions increase student satisfaction, create learning opportunities and help avoid knowledge duplication. this study provides insights regarding the demographics of university-to-college transfer students, specifically their trajectories and patterns. it will contribute to stronger and universally applicable data collection systems, which can be leveraged to remove barriers and improve support systems for future transfer students. the research has significant policy implications for colleges regarding the development of targeted transfer pathways, articulation agreements with partner universities, credit transfer opportunities, along with the development and enhancement of policies that facilitate university-to-college student transfers. this report is organized in the following manner. it begins with a review of the literature on mobility across post-secondary education institutions, with a focus on university-to-college transfers. as research on student mobility within the higher education sector in canada is scarce, some international research will be reviewed. following this, there is a description of administrative data, the data collection methods used by the participating colleges, and an explanation regarding construction of the datasets. next, we review the descriptive statistics, which includes mobility numbers, student and program characteristics, and pathways of university-to-college transfer students. the following section describes the gaps in data availability and proposes recommendations for future data collection as well as transfer activities (i.e. pathways, credit transfers, and agreements) to increase and support university-to-college transfers. literature review historically, the content of college courses and university programs in ontario is not designed to ensure a smooth transition between both sectors. ontario colleges and universities have traditionally maintained relatively separate roles with limited collaboration. community colleges have focused on technical training while universities provided career-oriented preparation for professions and knowledge-based occupations (gawley & mcgowan, 2006; skolnik, 2010). nowadays, there is an increased desire and need in society for greater transferability of educational skills (hurlihey, 2012). in light of the ever-changing economic, social, and labour market challenges and demands; a flexible and seamless continuum of pse is becoming more critical. therefore, the ministry of training, colleges, and universities started to actively promote collegeuniversity cooperation, transfers of students from sector to sector and financed the development and distribution of a college-to-university credit transfer guide. although the guide is funded to work both ways and the number of articulation agreements between colleges and universities has been increasing significantly, its focus appears to be one-sided: , facilitating students who transfer from colleges to universities. available data suggests that a significant number of students in ontario are moving between postsecondary institutions, and the numbers are increasing. the data emphasizes the importance of understanding the profiles and motives of these students to better facilitate pathways within postsecondary education. multiple initiatives are undertaken to evaluate and strengthen pathways within and amongst the institutions; to reduce the need for students to repeat coursework and to better support students in institutional transfers via on-campus academic advising, counselling, and orientation programs (mtcu, n.d.). literature review 3 there is a lack of standard procedure among institutions concerning how to manage and document transfer students (i.e. how to determine if an incoming student is a transfer student, and how institutions determine whether credits are, in fact, transferable). in this report, transfer students are defined as, someone who has completed a course, some courses or an entire program at one institution and wants to continue their postsecondary education at another (oncat, 2018). using this definition, students who need a completed credential before entering a college credential (i.e. graduate certificate) are included in this study. an analysis of the available national and provincial data sources, suggests a significant and rising pattern of universityto-college transfers. statistics canadas national graduate survey captures activities before college enrolment, including completed university degrees from a canadian or non-canadian institution. the results indicated that 13% of ontarios college graduates from the class of 2000 also had a bachelors degree from university. nationally, this number is slightly lower; 10% of college graduates previously completed university (acaato, 2005). the college student satisfaction survey administered by the ontario ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd), also illustrates that the proportion of university graduates attending college is on the rise. from 2001-2006, only 7.5% of the college students previously graduated from university (cucc, 2011). half a decade later, 41% of the students enrolled at an ontario college had some previous postsecondary education, 12% of whom previously completed a university credential and 11% of whom completed a college credential. the remaining students had previous pse experience without a completed credential (colleges ontario, 2012). a decade later, the results of the 2016-17 student satisfaction survey showed significant increases; 46% of college entrants had some previous pse experience, 16.5% are university graduates (colleges ontario, 2017). offering college credentials to university graduates has become a market segment of interest for college across ontario. to illustrate, in the 2015-16 academic year, algonquin college offered 64 graduate certificate programs, compared to 39 in 2012-13. the ministry mandated ontario university graduate survey (ougs) is annually conducted with support from ontario universities through a third-party survey company. each undergraduate cohort is surveyed two years after graduating from university. as part of the survey, graduates are asked whether they were attending college six months and two years after graduation. the ougs survey found that 11.5% of university graduates attended a college six months after graduation, with 9.4% of them attending two years after graduation (ouac, 2009). of the university faculties, students in the social sciences, humanities, and business areas tend to enrol in college programs in greater numbers. data collected by ocas during the application process suggests that 6.7% of college applicants and 5.6% of college registrants provided documentation (university transcripts) related to previous university education. this number remained rather stable for the 2000 through 2004 college applicants and registrants (acaato, 2005). more recent data indicates a higher number almost double - as 13% of applicants and 11% of first-year registrants uploaded transcripts of previous university experience (colleges ontario, 2009). an oncat funded project conducted by durham college (2016), suggested that 27.8% of all postsecondary students who were newly enrolled in september 2014 at any of the 22 participating ontario colleges, had prior postsecondary experience. it also indicated that students often made multiple attempts at pursuing postsecondary education. almost half of the students with prior postsecondary experience declared two attempts at pursuing a postsecondary education; while 17.1% made 3 or more attempts at publicly funded ontario institutions. the declaration of prior pse is based on applicants voluntary self-disclosure on the ocas application. this is significantly higher than the number of students requesting transcripts; only half (57.5%) of the applicants requested them from prior institution(s). over a longer period, the percentage of students that upload a transcript and report prior pse is unknown. a significant percentage of students is expected to upload a transcript during a later stage of their studies, primarily for credit transfer purposes. literature review the ocas numbers and the ontario university graduate survey numbers are lower than both the findings of the student satisfaction survey and the national graduate survey. one partial explanation is that ocas only includes individuals who voluntarily provided copies of a transcript as part of their application. applicants who have not needed or wanted to disclose this information are, thus, missing from the data. in the case of the ougs data, it contains specific information about graduates who possess an ontario degree. the ougs asks university graduates whether they attended college six months or two years after graduation; unlike the other two surveys, in which the university degree could have been attained at any time prior to college, opening the door to a potentially larger pool of students. little is known about the academic pathways university students or graduates take when transferring into a college credential. using the 2013 national graduates survey data, lennon et al. (2016), reported that significant flows or university graduates exist from the broad field of social and behavioural sciences and languages. of those graduates, one third subsequently obtained a college credential in a similar field of study while half of them completed a college credential in business, management, or public administration. there is equally little information concerning the motives and principle reasons for university students and graduates to transfer from university to college. a study of a single ontario college reported that a vast majority of their transfer students were looking for more opportunities for career advancement. other common reasons included to broaden education, to look for a different approach to teaching and learning, a lack of available jobs in a previous field of study, and financial reasons (confederation college, 2013). though, considering the small sample size, the generalizability of this study is questionable. the case study of transfer students between seneca college and york university suggested that the transfer function serves those who wish to supplement their university credential with college experience to increase their labour market possibilities. for transfer students who may have performed poorly at university and/or did not attain credentials (approximately a quarter of the york-seneca transfer students did not earn a credential and were not on their way to earning one), university-to-college mobility offers students a second chance at attaining some form of credential (smith et al., 2016). wilson (2009), suggests that reverse transfers often unemployed university graduates, largely in liberal arts, who start a community college program to lead them to employment is a significant phenomenon. in general, much of the existing research on student demographics, perceived barriers in institutional transfers, as well as student integration and success focuses on the experiences of transfer students from the united states, transferring from college to university. research on canadian and specifically ontario - transfer students is limited, particularly research that relates to university-to-college transfer students. this is further complicated by differences in educational institutions and systems across provinces. 4 5 research questions research questions the purpose of this report is twofold. to begin, it is necessary to improve our understanding of data collection methods used on incoming transfer students at various colleges. the outcomes can be used to determine gaps in the collection systems and develop strategies for tracking incoming transfer students in a more uniform way. second, the project will conduct an analysis on the collected data to better understand the rates and characteristics of university-tocollege transfer students. this will improve our understanding of university-to-college student mobility and the profile of the students entering the college system. in doing so, we aim to address the following set of questions: 11. 22. what data on transfer students do colleges currently collect and how? are the data collection methods comparable at the different colleges? are there gaps between the collection of desired data and the current data? where gaps in data collection exist, is collection feasible? what is the profile of university-to-college transfer students? how many applicants transfer from a university to the participating colleges? what are the demographic characteristics of these students (i.e. gender, age, sociodemographic background)? did they have completed degrees or partially completed degrees? what program are they coming from? what program and level of credential are they transferring into? do they transfer into a related program or into a different discipline? how many credits are transferred into the college? 6 data sources data sources this study explores the completeness, quality and reliability of different data sources. it uses student application history provided by ocas as well as administrative data from the participating institutions. different external data sources were explored. this resulted in the collection of data from the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey to inform the development of transfer student profiles. the research includes every student that started their college program at one of the four participating colleges during a recent three-year period (from 2014-2017 or 2015-2018). it includes students that requested a transcript from one of the ontario universities either during their application process in ocas and/or submitted a transcript during a credit transfer request. students who may or may not have uploaded their transcript but self-declared prior ontario university experience during their applications process, are included in the algonquin college student population. administrative data information about each individual college applicant is made available through ocas. the centralized application service for public ontario colleges, processes over 200,000 applications per year. the data is processed daily at ocas and is made available to the colleges shortly after. during the application process, information about applicants characteristics, background, and prior experience is collected. applicants who attended, have graduated from a pse institution, or are attending a pse institution at the point of application, are required to self-document their prior postsecondary experience. these applicants can also submit documentation by requesting transcripts during their application process. on top of the electronic transcripts received from ocas during the application process; transcripts uploaded during the credit transfer process have been included when available. only students with experience from an ontario university are included. the total number of students with prior university experience per college, is presented in table 1. table 1: number of students with university experience, including and excluding graduate certificates, per college, using administrative data, for the 3 most recent academic years available (2014-17 or 2015-18) data algonquin 2014-17 total excluding grad certs total cambrian 2015-18 total excluding grad certs total fanshawe 2014-17 total excluding grad certs total seneca 2015-18 total excluding grad certs total year 1 1,604 1,174 56 56 1,134 742 1,524 1,051 year 2 1,644 1,216 250 196 1,146 729 1,472 989 year 3 1,628 1,104 161 115 1,110 652 1,497 1,026 total 4,876 3,494 467 367 3,390 2,123 4,493 3,066 notes: algonquin college population includes self-declared prior pse experience cambrian and fanshawe population includes transcripts uploaded through ocas seneca college population includes transcripts uploaded through ocas and at a later stage of their program due to the admissions requirement for the graduate certificate credential, students applying to this credential will upload their transcripts. seneca college could support this by providing data about the total amount of entrants per academic year. of all the entrants during those 3 academic years (27,554 in total), 16.3% submitted a university transcript either during the application process or at a later stage, when applying for transfer credit. excluding the graduate certificates, only 12.0% submitted a university transcript (3,066 out of 25,557). the demographics of the student populations at seneca college are available in appendix a, table 9. 7 data sources kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey beginning in 1998, the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey, a paper-based, ministry mandated performance measurement for ontario colleges has been gathered annually. it is one of the sources of the key performance indicators (kpis). the colleges have been mandated to collect and report performance data in the following five areas: graduate satisfaction, student satisfaction, employer satisfaction, employment rate, and graduation rate. the survey captures approximately 65 percent of students enrolled in the ontario college system. the precise response rates per participating college, are shown in table 2. table 2: response rate kpi student satisfaction survey per participating college, 2014-2017 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 ontario 59.9% 60.8% 58.8% 4 colleges 55.9% 54.1% 56.1% algonquin 66.5% 50.9% 56.7% cambrian 65.1% 66.4% 68.9% fanshawe 61.8% 68.4% 65.0% seneca 45.5% 46.7% 48.6% 8 data sources the survey is to be administered to all students enrolled in pse programs of instruction approved by the ministry for funding through the general-purpose operating grant. students who are registered in their first semester or have been given advanced standing, and students who are registered in an online program are excluded from filling out the survey. survey answers can be parsed both by type of previous education (i.e., college or university experience) and whether a credential was completed (i.e., if student had some university experience or a university degree). for this study, the result from the question education completed before entering this program (question 75.) was used as the main selection criteria. when students filled out some university or university degree as their highest completed prior education in the academic years 2015-2017, they were included in the study population. to capture the non-international transfer student population, students who were enrolled at the college on an international study permit were excluded. though, this still captures noninternational students with university experience from abroad, and students with international experience residing in canada on a different visa or residence permit. it also includes university-to-college non-international transfer students from outside the province. interestingly, the kpi survey allows us to compare the students with university experience to students possessing a high school diploma, and students with (some) prior college experience. students with both college and university experience would end up in the university category. the number of students captured in those groups are presented in table 3. table 3: number and percentages of kpi survey respondents per highest completed education, 2014-2017 4 colleges 4 colleges algonquin algonquin cambrian cambrian fanshawe fanshawe seneca seneca high school diploma 21,767 54.6% 7,571 52.7% 2,093 57.4% 6,327 56.7% 5,776 54.1% some previous college/ college diploma 8,823 22.1% 3,331 23.2% 967 26.5% 2,804 25.1% 1,721 16.1% some university/ university degree 9,272 23.3% 3,476 24.2% 589 16.1% 2,024 18.1% 3,183 29.8% total 39,862 100% 14,378 100% 3,649 100% 11,155 100% 10,680 100% note: students who filled out: other, none of the above or college upgrading as their highest completed prior education are excluded from this study results 10 results results data collection concerning transfer students whats the reality? currently, there are no national data collection systems to which institutions have access that can automatically report on the completed postsecondary pathways of students. therefore - to better understand the differences between colleges student information systems - the data collection on transfer students took place independently at the four participating institutions. an overview of data collection structures at the different colleges, has been depicted in figure 1. the different administrative data sources available to describe transfer students, data collection methods, and gaps in desired data collection at the different colleges as well as college-wide will be explained using this figure. more detailed data collection methods per college can be found in appendix b. figure 1: an overview of information collection and storage of transfer students 11 results d ifferen t o c as r e co r ds ocas centrally processes applications for non-international college applicants. information is collected in different sections of the students profile. personal information contains gender, date of birth, and first language. the details concerning each applicant are subsequently transferred to the colleges selected by the applicant. every college in ontario receives their applicants data from ocas, using a structure laid out in the coltrane specifications document (ocas, 2016). the transmission layout and guidelines of the applicants data are reviewed every year to standardize the data in a format that can be electronically processed by the colleges. each record, sent by ocas, contains a transaction prefix. different prefixes of a students application can be sent at different moments in time. the records that are pertinent to this research include: 1. ac transaction including the students personal information, (gender, date of birth, country of birth, city, province, status in canada, first language, citizenship code, aboriginal status, first generation, and high school information). 2. ec transaction includes educational data. it contains self-reported information on the institute and program a student attended in the past. it also contains self-reported information concerning the start date, end date, level achieved and credential code. 3. sc transaction includes information about the students supporting documents. this can be a college transcript or university transcript from an ontario institution. information linked to the transcript is the educational institute code, name, and country. program specific information contains program name, level achieved and credential code. c aptur i n g o c as i n f o r mat i o n i n st u de nt info rmat io n syst e ms although every college receives the data in the same format, not all the information is saved in the institutions student information system in the same way. the colleges make use of differently structured student information systems to collect and store student information. this can cause ocas data not to be captured in colleges student information systems. the systems are not always structured in a way that allows them to capture all the ocas information systematically. it may be that colleges are (or were initially) not interested in capturing the indicator(s), so the system was not designed to store it as such. ocas information initially stored in the student information system, can also be replaced by college collected information (e.g., parents education and indigenous status) to be able to use different definitions or change student status or student information during their program enrollment. the colleges student information systems of various structures can also create challenges in data extraction and data linking. the ocas information is stored in different parts of the system. linking the different sources of information can be challenging. for example, prior post-secondary experience captured in the ec transmission can be collected but cannot be automatically linked to the sc transmission. therefore, we cannot automatically tell if students who self-declared prior pse experience also uploaded a transcript to ocas during their application. information that is collected through the colleges following the application procedure is not automatically linked to the information collected by ocas. if students upload their transcripts after the ocas application when being registered at the college, these transcripts might be stored in different college information systems. consequently, the student information systems at some colleges now have the capacity to automatically link the information from these transcripts to the information collected during the application process. results 12 data e x t rac t i o n f o r r e s e ar c h p u r p os e s while abstracting data for the purposes of this research project, we came across multiple data reliability issues. the first issues tie into the completeness and reliability of self-declared prior pse information. it is not guaranteed that applicants self-declare their prior education or do so correctly. most of the questions in this section are open-ended, so applicants are not aided by drop down menus when it comes to names of institutional or dates. this resulted in many incorrect and misspelled values. for example, end dates occurred before the start dates of the students university program, end dates were far in the future, or start dates were in the distant past. the four participating colleges had little to no experience collecting the self-declared prior post-secondary information. data abstraction and cleaning was considered a time-consuming exercise and the reliability is questionable. the information has never been used for student services or other purposes at the participating colleges. therefore, only algonquin college decided to invest the time and resources to collect, clean and analyze the self-declared student information at their college. the reliability of some indicators is expected to be poor for research purposes. for example, almost 1 out of 3 applicants filled out unknown and other for the question credential received or will receive by first day of college. cross tabulating these outcomes against college credential suggests that students often fill out unknown, in spite of the fact that those students are expected to be graduates considering the eligibility criteria of the programs they are enrolled in. for example, a number of students moving into graduate certificates filled out unknown or other as their highest received credential in most cases they need a degree or diploma in order to be eligible for their program. another example is the identification of aboriginal learners, especially when it is cross tabulated against country of birth or first language. this is probably caused by the wording of the ocas form and the positioning of the question (i.e., aboriginal ancestry was listed under status in canada). therefore, some of the information was available in the student information systems but was not collected or analyzed for this project. there were concerns surrounding reliability (e.g., aboriginal person indicator) or the amount of time required to collect the data (e.g., amount of credits transferred). although transcripts are considered the most reliable source of prior pse experience; having one on file does not mean that information can be automatically extracted from it. if all transcripts were structured in the same way, information could be extracted automatically and consistently. presently, the indicators captured by transcripts are not automatically accessible and extraction is often carried out manually. while transcripts contain a wealth of information, it cannot always be used for research purposes. for example, transcripts contain a graduation date and title, minor and major, as well as other valuable information about a transfer students prior experience. this information cannot be collected automatically, and, as a result, is not available for research purposes. the profile of university-to-college transfer students: demographics multiple demographic characteristics were collected to better understand the university-to-college transfer population. the findings collected through kpi (acronym used to indicate the data collected through the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey) and the administrative data will be shown below. the institution specific data can be found in appendix a, striking differences between colleges will be highlighted in the results section. results 13 g end e r university-to-college transfer students are more likely to be female, which is true of all participating colleges. the kpi and administrative data both show the same results. figure 2: gender of transfer students comparing kpi and administrative data ag e a majority of university-to-college transfer students are 21 years of age or older; with a significant amount in their mid to late twenties (1 out of 3). the students included in the kpi population are significantly older than the students captured in the administrative data. multiple factors could contribute to these differences, including; the fact that students filling out their age in the kpi student satisfaction survey do so in their second semester and are thus older than they were at the beginning of their program. the exclusion of students transferring from universities outside of ontario in the administrative data might also play a role, as these students are included in the kpi dataset. canadian students with foreign education, in addition to international students who reside in canada on a permit other than one for international study are also included in the kpi dataset. therefore, the kpi data represents a broader and probably older - university-to-college transfer population compared to the administrative data. the administrative data is predominantly based on those who supplied transcripts (either during the application and/or credit transfer procedure). older students, who attended university in the distant past, may not upload their transcript as their experience would no longer be relevant for college services and transcripts could be difficult to assess. there are some notable differences between the participating colleges that are particularly evident in the kpi data. students at cambrian and fanshawe college seem to be younger while students at seneca college seem to be older. these differences can be reviewed in appendix a, table 1-4. figure 3: age of transfer students comparing kpi and administrative data 14 results l ang uag e the main language of this transfer student population is english. there is a substantial difference between the kpi and administrative data when it comes to transfer students with another first language. this might reflect the group of international students or immigrants residing in canada on a permit other than that which is for international study, who are included in the kpi dataset. although, we expect other factors are influential in explaining the difference of 12 percentage point where main language is concerned. tables 5 and 6 in the appendix show higher percentages of transfer students with another first language for both algonquin and cambrian college. fanshawe college shows lower percentages in both datasets. though, the discrepancies between datasets are equally large at the three colleges. figure 4: first language of transfer students comparing kpi and administrative data note: these results exclude seneca college f ir st g e n erat i on p s e approximately 1 in 4 students filling out the kpi survey self-declared that neither of their parents/guardians ever attended a university or college. administrative data from cambrian and algonquin college showed similar results. although, a lower percentage of students identified as a first generation pse student. the amount of missing values or the way in which the question was framed may explain the disparity. figure 5: first generation status of transfer students comparing kpi and administrative data notes: these results exclude fanshawe and seneca college. first generation results for seneca college can be found in appendix a, table 5. first generation for seneca is based on senecas entering student survey; neither of their parents/guardians completed a degree. results 15 d isabi l i t y a majority of transfer students with university experience self-reported no physical, intellectual, or learning disabilities; neither were there any indications of mental illness. as seen in tables 1-4 in the appendix, the percentage of students self-declaring disabilities was lowest at seneca college, with 10 percent. at the other colleges, 16 percent of the students reported disabilities. figure 6: self-declared disability of transfer students, using kpi data university-to-college transfer students: where do they come from? sour c e un i v e rsi t y this information is only available in the administrative dataset. most transfer students come from a local university, one that is in the same city as the destination college. the remaining students come from another ontario university outside of the city where the college is located. for example, of all the universities attended by algonquin college students, 72% gained their university education in the same city, that is, at carleton university (38%), and the university of ottawa (35%). cambrian and fanshawe college share their city with one university, laurentian and western university respectively. the number of students moving from every ontario university per receiving college can be found in the appendix, in table 7. this section was not restricted to one institute per person. most students (96%) attended one ontario university prior to their college program. the remaining 4% of students attended two universities, while a handful of students attended more than two universities. figure 7: percentage of transfer students moving from a university in proximity to the destination college, using administrative data results 16 total ye a rs of u n i v e r s i t y e nr o l l me n t the majority of transfer students (2 out of 3) were enrolled in university for more than two academic years. at cambrian college, students appeared to be enrolled at the university for shorter periods of time. this supports the idea that fewer transfer students are moving into graduate certificates and requiring higher credentials (and thus more years of university enrollment) to be eligible for college programs. figure 8: amount of academic years in between students university enrollment and college program, using administrative data num ber o f g a p y e ar s b e t we e n l ast at t e nde d u nive rs it y and co lle g e the vast majority of students (84%) began their college program within four years after completing their last university courses. there are some noticeable differences between the three colleges with respect to immediate transfers (students who started their college program shortly after finishing their last university courses). a small number of students indicated more than gap years between university and college. this finding could support the earlier suggestion that students with university experience in the distant past may not upload their transcripts as regularly as students with recent transcripts. figure 9: years of enrollment per attended university, using administrative data results 17 univer si t y p ro g r a m c lu st e r the source for figure 10 is ec transmission data, with a self-declared major during the application process. this information was only collected for algonquin college students. we aimed to manually - clean and categorize the data according to the university student information system (usis) classification. as there is no list of programs per university program cluster available, the categorization was done as a best guess. most transfer students at algonquin college came from a social sciences program. the humanities are also popular programs to transfer from. figure 10: university program cluster per last attended university program, before transferring into algonquin college university-to-college transfer students: what do they transfer into? coll ege p ro g ra m c lu st e r to examine the program clusters in greater detail, we used seven program area groupings (rather than the usual four), as derived from mtcus occupation cluster classification system which has been previously described (mccloy & liu, 2010). business is the most popular program cluster for transfer students. more than one third of transfer students are moving into a business credential. hospitality and prep/upgrading programs are less likely to be chosen by transfer students. the two student populations show slightly different results. prep/upgrading together with creative and applied arts appear underrepresented in the administrative dataset. this could reflect students being enrolled at universities for shorter periods of time and/or not being successful in their previous studies, and therefore not uploading transcripts to college transfer services. figure 11: percentage of transfer students per selected college program cluster, using kpi and administrative data results 18 program selection varies between students at different institutions. for instance, business programs are especially common choices at both seneca and fanshawe college. this is not the case for students transferring into cambrian college; where health and prep/upgrading programs are the most popular selections. creative and applied arts is selected less often at cambrian; compared to other colleges. figure 12: percentage of transfer students per selected college program cluster per college, using administrative data coll ege c red en t i al transfer students typically choose a diploma credential, followed by graduate certificates. certificates and degrees are less popular, especially for students captured in the administrative dataset. the biggest difference between kpi and administrative data becomes apparent in the graduate certificate credential. to be eligible for graduate certificates, students need to meet certain education requirements, which require a submission of transcript(s) during the application process. this is expected to result in an overrepresentation of graduate certificates in the administrative data. in the last decade, colleges invested in the development of graduate certificates, which led to approximately 1 in 3 transfer students enrolling in shorter, career-oriented programs. figure 13: percentage of transfer students moving into each program cluster, using kpi and administrative data results 19 in figure 14, we see differences at each of the participating colleges. for instance, transfer students at algonquin college are apt to move into a two-year diploma program (46% vs. 39% on average). at cambrian college, transfer students move into advanced diplomas (28% vs. 16% on average) and at fanshawe, graduate certificates are particularly common (37% vs. 32% on average). seneca students are less likely to be enrolled in certificates (4% vs. 9% on average) and more inclined to begin a degree program (8% vs. 4% on average). figure 14: percentage of transfer students moving into each program cluster, using kpi and administrative data per participating college travel l i n g to a n d f r o m t h e co l l e ge the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey also consists of questions that include opinion-based information. some outcomes of these questions are presented below to assist in understanding the demands placed on transfer students time while enrolled in a college program. most transfer students spend 1-5 hours travelling to and from the college in a typical 7-day week. students enrolled at algonquin and seneca college, tend to travel slightly more hours per week than students enrolled at cambrian and fanshawe college, though, the differences are minimal. figure 15: number of hours spent travelling to and from the college in a typical 7-day week, using kpi data results 20 worki n g f or pay most transfer students work a few hours per week while enrolled in college. 1 in 6 transfer students work more than 20 hours per week. the differences between colleges are minimal. figure 16: number of hours transfer students spend working for pay in a typical 7-day week, using kpi data pr ovid i n g c a re f o r de p e n de n ts the majority of transfer students do not provide care for dependents. yet, for 1 out of 3 transfer students enrolled in college this is a reality, to varying degrees. approximately 10% of transfer students spend more than 25 hours providing care for dependents in a typical 7-day week. there are no striking differences between the colleges. figure 17: number of hours spent providing care for dependents, using kpi data results 21 the pathway of university-to-college transfer students d eg r ee com p l e t e d most transfer students completed their degrees. this percentage is slightly higher in the kpi student population. the higher completion rates in the kpi dataset are somewhat surprising. earlier, we saw that a significantly lower percentage of students are enrolled in graduate certificates while completing the survey. students transferring into seneca college most often completed their degrees (68% vs. 60% on average). students transferring into cambrian college showed significantly lower completion rates (44%). seneca college attracts students who are typically interested in graduate certificate credentials. cambrian represents a lower percentage of transfer students on this path. higher completion rates in cambrians administrative data suggests an underrepresentation of transcripts or incomplete university credentials in their administrative data. figure 18: percentage of transfer students entering the college with completed degrees, using kpi and administrative data note: the data for seneca college only includes the population who submitted transcripts through ocas (etran) and not those who submitted transcripts to apply for transfer credits excluding the transfer students enrolled in graduate certificates, a significantly smaller percentage of them completed their degrees. the differences between kpi and administrative data remain similar and do not decrease in magnitude. interestingly, almost half of the transfer student population finished their degree, although they were moving into college programs that did not require completed credentials for admission. therefore, often, the issue of switching to another institution is not a result of poor university performance. it is expected that colleges attract a wider variety of university transfer students, including successful university graduates; with an interest in applied technology, career training, and trades. as previously stated, seneca college, attracts the highest percentage of students with completed degrees. figure 19: percentage of transfer students entering the college with completed degrees, using kpi and administrative data, graduate certificate students excluded results 22 note: the data for seneca college only includes the population who submitted transcripts through ocas (etran) and not those who submitted transcripts to apply for transfer credits c red its t ra n sf er r e d i n to t h e co l l e ge using the administrative data at seneca and algonquin college, a significant number of students transferred credits into the college. this is certainly the case at seneca college. approximately 40% of all transfer studentshad credits granted. when excluding graduate certificates, even half of the transfer students had credits granted. the absolute difference, after excluding graduate certificates is higher for seneca college, as more students move into this credential. the lower percentage at algonquin college could be (partially) explained by the data collection methods used (self-declared vs. transcripts). students who have (some) university experience but did not upload a transcript are excluded from senecas transfer population. as a result, more students with university experience who are not eligible for credit transfers in the algonquin college population are included (i.e., their courses are not considered current enough for credit transfers, the university experience is limited and of poor performance). figure 20: percentage of students who transferred credits into the college, using administrative data m ain g oa l en roll i n g i n co l l e ge p r o g ram the vast majority of transfer students who enter a college program do so to prepare for employment/career. there are few differences of note between the colleges. figure 21: main goal for students enrolling into the college, using kpi data results 23 pathways and profiles of transfer students and high school entrants the kpi data allow for comparisons of university-to-college transfer students, with college-to-college transfer students, as well as entry students with a high school diploma. the results are presented collectively for all of the colleges. when there are striking differences between the participating colleges, they will be displayed in this section. the tables can be reviewed in appendix a, tables 1-4. g end e r students with (some) university experience are often female (61%); while students entering college with only a high school diploma are equally male or female. figure 22: comparing gender for university-to-college transfer students with college-to-college transfer students and students transferring from high school, using kpi data ag e students that only possess a high school diploma are significantly younger (2 out of 3 students are younger than 20 years of age). only 1 in 20 university transfer students falls into this age category. students with (some) university experience are often mature; 1 in 3 were older than 25 years when filling out the kpi survey. figure 23: comparing age for university-to-college transfer students with college-to-college transfer students and students transferring from high school, using kpi data results 24 d isabi l i t y students with (some) university experience reported having disabilities less often (a 9 and 10 percentage point difference when compared to college-to-college and high school entrants). figure 24: comparing disability for university-to-college transfer students with college-to-college transfer students and students transferring from high school, using kpi data coll ege p ro g ra m c lu st e r university transfer students often choose a business-related program (almost double when compared to college-to-college and high school students). while community service, engineering/technology, and prep/upgrading are more popular with high school students. figure 25: comparing college program cluster for university-to-college transfer students with college-to-college transfer students and students transferring from high school, using kpi data results 25 coll ege c red en t i al the only major difference in credentials between students from high school and transfer students is that of the graduate certificate. due to the admission criteria, only transfer students can move into this credential. therefore, lower percentages of students move into the other credentials. when excluding the graduate certificate credential, variances between the different student populations fade and the sole remaining significant difference is visible in the certificate credential. figure 26: comparing college credential for university-to-college transfer students with college-to-college transfer students and students transferring from high school, using kpi data figure 27: comparing college credential for university-to-college transfer students with college-to-college transfer students and students transferring from high school, using kpi data, excluding graduate certificates m ain g oa l en roll i n g i n co l l e ge p r o g ram university-to-college transfer students most often move into graduate certificate programs that are career oriented. the preparation for employment/career seems to be most significant factor for students with (some) university experience when enrolling in a college program. students with high school experience often start a college credential to prepare for further post-secondary education. figure 28: comparing main goals when enrolling in college program for university-to-college transfer students with college-to-college transfer students and students transferring from high school, using kpi data conclusions and recommendations conclusions and recommendations the purpose of this report is to better understand data collection methods, practices associated with demographic characteristics, and pathways of university-to-college transfer students. in the last decade, significant increases have been reported in college entrants with (some) previous postsecondary experience. this development, amongst others, is expected to change the demographic compositions of students entering ontario colleges. more students with prior college or university experience are expected to cause shifts in gender, age, chosen college program clusters, and credentials. understanding these shifts can inform future decisions about articulation agreements and transfer pathways between (ontario) universities and colleges. it is also expected that understanding the gaps between desired and current data collection methods could improve the quality of information colleges receive, store, collect and analyze; to better understand transfer students and their chosen pathways. exploring data collection strategies illustrates the challenging nature of gathering information about transfer students entering ontario colleges. this is primarily due to differences in the structure of student information systems and the quality of some indicators received through ocas. therefore, results from the kpi student satisfaction survey has been explored to verify some of the collected administrative data. university-to-college transfer students compose a significant percentage of the incoming student population for ontario colleges. over the course of three academic years, 13,226 students with university experience began a program at one of the four participating colleges. after analyzing the kpi data, approximately 1 in 4 students (23.3%) enrolled at the participating colleges, had (some) university experience as their highest completed level of education. these transfer students tend to be older, female, often coming from universities in proximity to the college, and were enrolled at the universities for longer periods of time. transfer students frequently finished their degrees while starting a college program (60% in kpi data and 56% in administrative data), after excluding graduate certificate students, almost half of the transfer students completed their degrees. this, in turn, leads to a significant number of students transferring credits into the college; 28% of transfer students moving into algonquin college and 39% of students starting a program at seneca college, respectively. when excluding graduate certificates, this percentage increases significantly, by 7 and 10 percentage points. transfer students often move into diploma or graduate certificate credentials and are usually interested in business related programs. 26 27 conclusions and recommendations overall, the results of the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey seem to be a robust and accessible source of information regarding transfer students. as the surveys are conducted at each ontario college, under prescribed guidelines, and the data is analyzed through an independent research body (cci research inc., 2014); the kpi is a reliable source of information. making it possible to compare outcomes across colleges where transfer students are concerned. in this report, a variety of measures were compared with administrative data. the survey data provided additional insights on student perspectives; indicators that cannot be captured with administrative data. recommendations for ocas two main strategies were used to collect information on college students with prior ontario university experience. the first strategy depended on transcripts uploaded during the application process and/or at a later stage in the students college program for credit transfer purposes. the other strategy relied on self-declared prior university experience collected by ocas. cleaning and analyzing the self-declared prior ontario university experience data has been time consuming and involved a significant amount of manual labour. this information contains valuable indicators not available through other information sources (i.e., major, credential received or will receive at the first day of college, level achieved and years of enrollment). the self-declared ocas information is expected to include a wider range of transfer students; including college entrants who have (some) prior pse experience but did not upload their transcript either during the application process or at a later point. it is potentially the most comprehensive source of information concerning transfer students available for ontario colleges. although, there are some challenges involved in using and analyzing the data. to begin, applicants write answers in open fields, when it comes to the name of the university and their program (major). this results in many spelling mistakes, errors, and impractical inputs. moving toward a drop-down list of institutions, clusters of university programs, and credentials would be helpful. a number of mistakes have been made while filling out the start and end date. using a pop-up calendar may prevent students from writing incorrect dates. conclusions and recommendations the highest received credential is causing some interpretation problems. students filling out university and college experience come across the same drop-down menu when filling out their credential received or will receive at the first day of college. available options included: certificate, diploma, degree, advanced diploma, graduate certificate, or other. this list of credentials does not distinguish between bachelors, masters, or doctoral degrees. nor does it distinguish between different types of certificates (ontario college certificates, college-approved certificates, or (post-graduate) certificates at the university level). applicants possess multiple types of prior pse experience, and the way in which the question is interpreted will determine the type of prior experience a credential is linked to. the applicants interpretation affects the option they choose when they do not expect to finish their credential by the start of a college program. applicants might select the option other or unknown, indicating they did not finish any of the listed credentials. alternatively, they may decide to respond with the credential in which they are currently enrolled, or one that they completed prior to the credential they are enrolled in at the time of application. finally, all prior pse experience will be sent to the colleges in separate files, resulting in multiple self-declared prior pse submissions per applicant. for example, an applicant who attended one university and one prior college appears twice in the system, and the files are not automatically linked to the same student or applicant. combining multiple types of experience in extracted files is undoubtedly challenging. future data collection concerning transfer students to ensure maximized value when it comes to the information collected concerning transfer students, individual student data should be linked to program outcomes and pathway development practices. this would allow for evaluation of student enrollment and program participation based on prior experience (courses completed, grades, and proposed postsecondary outcome measures). it also informs the development and evaluation of academic pathways, articulation agreements, and credit transfer services. common transfer pathways can be explored, and services put in place to facilitate smooth student transfers; without knowledge duplication that would negatively impact the applicant, the educational institutions, or the labour market that requires their skills. a collective initiative between ocas and the ontario colleges should help assuage the difficulties associated with collecting, storing, and extracting data about transfer students. future research should also include quality assurance of indicators for transfer students. qualitative information regarding the patterns, motivations, and experiences of transfer students should be collected in an effort to remove barriers and improve support systems. this can be 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(eds) community college models. springer, dordrecht. appendices 32 appendicies appendix a: tables table 1: demographics and program characteristics of transfer students with (some) university experience, (some) college experience or only a high school diploma into algonquin college, using kpi data college exp. only high school exp. only high school exp. 1876 56% 3569 47% 1398 42% 3836 51% 2% 166 2% college exp. university exp. university exp. female 2078 60% male 1327 38% other/none 71 2% 57 gender age at cohort start <20 159 5% 391 12% 5048 67% 20-21 563 16% 997 30% 1219 16% 22-23 787 23% 588 18% 461 6% 24-25 577 17% 386 12% 228 3% >25 1277 37% 887 27% 422 6% none 113 3% 82 2% 193 3% yes 546 16% 803 24% 1755 23% disability no 2696 78% 2260 68% 5127 68% prefer not to say 215 6% 251 8% 631 8% missing 19 1% 17 1% 58 1% business 810 23% 574 17% 1271 17% community service 537 15% 448 13% 1356 18% creative and applied arts 572 16% 603 18% 1082 14% engineering/ technology 566 16% 576 17% 1523 20% health 556 16% 549 16% 552 7% hospitality 220 6% 272 8% 522 7% prep/upgrading 215 6% 309 9% 1265 17% certificate 388 11% 690 21% 1861 25% diploma 1809 52% 1846 55% 4216 56% advanced diploma 487 14% 454 14% 1235 16% graduate certificate 683 20% 265 8% 30 0% degree 109 3% 76 2% 229 3% college program cluster college credential main goal in enrolling college program 33 appendicies university exp. university exp. college exp. college exp. only high school exp. only high school exp. to prepare for employment/ career 2836 82% 2478 74% 4786 63% to prepare for further college or university study 342 10% 510 15% 1895 25% to pursue an interest or for personal development 201 6% 217 7% 547 7% other 35 1% 52 2% 152 2% missing 62 2% 74 2% 191 3% table 2: demographics and program characteristics of transfer students with (some) university experience, (some) college experience or only a high school diploma into cambrian college, using kpi data university exp. (%) college exp. (%) only high school exp. (%) female 352 60% 566 59% 916 44% male 233 40% 383 40% 1142 55% other/none 4 1% 18 2% 35 2% <20 44 7% 135 14% 1447 69% 20-21 129 22% 323 33% 353 17% gender age at cohort start 22-23 152 26% 170 18% 104 5% 24-25 100 17% 100 10% 53 3% >25 154 26% 221 23% 105 5% none 10 2% 18 2% 31 1% yes 95 16% 197 20% 388 19% no 455 77% 691 71% 1528 73% prefer not to say 37 6% 77 8% 167 8% missing 2 0% 2 0% 10 0% business 93 16% 60 6% 129 6% community service 45 8% 132 14% 367 18% creative and applied arts 26 4% 44 5% 153 7% engineering/ technology 176 30% 302 31% 855 41% disability college program cluster health 190 32% 332 34% 285 14% hospitality 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% prep/upgrading 59 10% 97 10% 304 15% 34 appendicies university exp. (%) college exp. (%) only high school exp. (%) 157 27% 312 32% 880 42% college credential certificate diploma 131 22% 329 34% 744 36% advanced diploma 172 29% 218 23% 426 20% graduate certificate 93 16% 18 2% 1 0% degree 36 6% 90 9% 42 2% to prepare for employment/ career 460 78% 710 73% 1373 66% to prepare for further college or university study 98 17% 168 17% 537 26% to pursue an interest or for personal development 19 3% 53 5% 101 5% other 6 1% 16 2% 39 2% missing 6 1% 20 2% 43 2% main goal in enrolling college program table 3: demographics and program characteristics of transfer students with (some) university experience, (some) college experience or only a high school diploma into fanshawe college, using kpi data university exp. (%) college exp. (%) only high school exp. (%) gender female 1229 61% 1511 54% 3028 48% male 755 37% 1259 45% 3184 50% other/none 40 1% 34 1% 115 2% age at cohort start <20 145 7% 362 13% 4225 67% 20-21 339 17% 893 32% 1187 19% 22-23 552 27% 538 19% 334 5% 24-25 366 18% 315 11% 166 3% >25 572 28% 652 23% 304 5% none 50 2% 44 2% 111 2% yes 316 16% 661 24% 1305 21% disability no 1574 78% 1903 68% 4423 70% prefer not to say 128 6% 231 8% 581 9% missing 6 0% 9 0% 18 0% college program cluster 35 appendicies university exp. (%) college exp. (%) only high school exp. (%) business 534 26% 518 18% 1117 18% community service 268 13% 402 14% 1021 16% creative and applied arts 353 17% 512 18% 1041 16% engineering/ technology 306 15% 525 19% 1507 24% health 384 19% 583 21% 496 8% hospitality 46 2% 111 4% 236 4% prep/upgrading 133 7% 153 5% 909 14% 279 14% 506 18% 1698 27% college credential certificate diploma 737 36% 1340 48% 3202 51% advanced diploma 372 18% 489 17% 1066 17% graduate certificate 553 27% 379 14% 9 0% degree 83 4% 90 3% 352 6% to prepare for employment/ career 1625 80% 2105 75% 4128 65% to prepare for further college or university study 254 13% 435 16% 1614 26% to pursue an interest or for personal development 102 5% 166 6% 364 6% other 23 1% 38 1% 98 2% missing 20 1% 60 2% 123 2% main goal in enrolling college program table 4: demographics and program characteristics of transfer students with (some) university experience, (some) college experience or only a high school diploma into seneca college, using kpi data university experience college experience only high school experience gender female 2000 63% 1096 64% 3113 54% male 1133 36% 595 35% 2574 45% other/none 50 1% 30 2% 89 2% <20 114 4% 172 10% 3583 62% age at cohort start 20-21 364 11% 469 27% 1103 19% 22-23 819 26% 348 20% 422 7% 24-25 591 19% 203 12% 196 3% >25 1218 38% 488 28% 297 5% 36 appendicies university experience none 77 college experience 2% 41 only high school experience 2% 175 3% disability yes 334 10% 309 18% 894 15% no 2612 82% 1252 73% 4266 74% prefer not to say 227 7% 157 9% 594 10% missing 10 0% 3 0% 22 0% business 1382 43% 368 21% 1272 22% community service 379 12% 362 21% 1278 22% creative and applied arts 336 11% 298 17% 868 15% engineering/ technology 498 16% 174 10% 849 15% health 266 8% 227 13% 568 10% hospitality 108 3% 117 7% 383 7% prep/upgrading 214 7% 175 10% 558 10% certificate 361 11% 326 19% 870 15% college program cluster college credential diploma 1123 35% 837 49% 2849 49% advanced diploma 414 13% 265 15% 1334 23% graduate certificate 1069 34% 153 9% 17 0% degree 216 7% 140 8% 706 12% to prepare for employment/ career 2546 80% 1213 70% 3547 61% to prepare for further college or university study 375 12% 351 20% 1678 29% to pursue an interest or for personal development 174 5% 89 5% 337 6% other 38 1% 31 2% 126 2% missing 50 2% 37 2% 88 2% main goal in enrolling college program table 5: demographic characteristics of ontario university transfer students into the four participating colleges, using administrative data algonquin cambrian fanshawe seneca gender female 3026 62% 297 64% 2115 62% 2766 62% male 1850 38% 169 36% 1269 37% 1715 38% 37 appendicies algonquin unknown/ other cambrian fanshawe seneca 0 0% 1 0% 6 0% 12 0% 410 8% 47 10% 273 8% 244 5% age <20 20-21 921 19% 80 17% 631 19% 695 15% 22-23 1315 27% 127 27% 1006 30% 1471 33% 24-25 811 17% 80 17% 623 18% 942 21% >25 1419 29% 133 28% 857 25% 1141 25% english 4586 94% 423 91% 3027 89% na french 101 2% 17 4% 5 0% na other 189 4% 27 6% 48 1% na none 0 0% 0 0% 310 9% na 3632 74% 344 74% na yes 898 18% 83 18% na 1030 23% missing 346 7% 40 9% na 2952 66% full-time 4739 97% 428 92% na na part-time 135 3% 39 8% na na missing 2 0% 0 0% na na language first generation pse no 511 11% study load indigenous status yes 108 2% 55 12% na na no 1958 40% 412 88% na na unknown 2810 58% 0 0% na na citizenship status canadian na 450 96% 3341 99% 4297 96% other na 8 2% 47 1% 196 4% unknown na 9 2% 2 0% 0 0% low income na na na 946 21% mid income na na na 1369 30% high income na na na 1968 44% missing na na na 210 5% income tercile of ontario da note: first generation for seneca is based on senecas entering student survey, at least one parent reported with a degree 38 appendicies table 6: kpi indicators language, completed degrees, first generation pse and study load per college algonquin cambrian fanshawe seneca language english 4862 80% 2702 78% 495 84% 1665 82% french 259 4% 190 5% 48 8% 21 1% other 877 14% 519 15% 40 7% 318 16% none 91 1% 65 2% 6 1% 20 1% first generation pse no 6797 73% 2646 76% 445 76% 1493 74% yes 2448 26% 816 23% 144 24% 525 26% missing 27 0% 14 0% 0 0% 6 0% 9174 99% 3436 99% 577 98% 2004 99% study load full-time part-time 74 1% 33 1% 10 2% 16 1% missing 24 0% 7 0% 2 0% 4 0% table 7: number of individuals per ontario university transferring into the four colleges (not restricted to one school per person) all colleges algonquin cambrian fanshawe seneca algoma university 40 0% 13 0% 4 1% 20 1% 3 0% brock university 426 3% 97 2% 13 3% 199 6% 117 3% carleton university 2255 16% 1993 38% 20 4% 99 3% 143 3% lakehead university 164 1% 65 1% 16 3% 54 2% 29 1% laurentian university 375 3% 64 1% 231 49% 50 1% 30 1% mcmaster university 421 3% 65 1% 8 2% 168 5% 180 4% nipissing university 163 1% 72 1% 25 5% 42 1% 24 1% ocad university 52 0% 0 0% 1 0% 7 0% 44 1% queens university 332 2% 164 3% 10 2% 55 2% 103 2% ryerson university 685 5% 57 1% 5 1% 87 2% 536 11% trent university 262 2% 162 3% 5 1% 49 1% 46 1% university of guelph 747 5% 153 3% 28 6% 255 7% 311 7% university of ontario institute of technology 206 1% 29 1% 2 0% 30 1% 145 3% university of ottawa 2046 15% 1825 35% 23 5% 70 2% 128 3% university of toronto 1157 8% 108 2% 20 4% 101 3% 928 20% 39 appendicies all colleges algonquin cambrian fanshawe seneca university of waterloo 466 3% 80 2% 13 3% 145 4% 228 5% western university 1906 14% 88 2% 16 3% 1589 45% 213 5% university of windsor 315 2% 39 1% 2 0% 206 6% 68 1% wilfrid laurier university 541 4% 91 2% 11 2% 239 7% 200 4% york university 1393 10% 105 2% 14 3% 71 2% 1203 26% total 13952 100% 5270 100% 467 100% 3536 100% 4679 100% table 8: kpi indicators measuring demands on students time while at the college in a typical 7-day week, per college algonquin cambrian fanshawe seneca travelling to and from the college none 555 6% 170 5% 71 12% 142 7% 1-5 hours 4631 50% 1744 50% 336 57% 1125 56% 6-10 hours 2384 26% 897 26% 135 23% 511 25% 11-15 hours 1024 11% 416 12% 30 5% 147 7% 16-20 hours 320 3% 111 3% 10 2% 44 2% 21-25 hours 147 2% 48 1% 3 1% 13 1% more than 25 hours 109 1% 37 1% 1 0% 22 1% missing 102 1% 53 2% 3 1% 20 1% none 265 3% 54 2% 15 3% 48 2% 1-5 hours 1560 17% 597 17% 128 22% 286 14% 6-10 hours 2580 28% 998 29% 166 28% 571 28% 11-15 hours 1797 19% 658 19% 98 17% 413 20% 16-20 hours 1340 14% 483 14% 80 14% 303 15% 21-25 hours 720 8% 260 7% 40 7% 171 8% more than 25 hours 880 9% 352 10% 60 10% 206 10% missing 130 1% 74 2% 2 0% 26 1% none 5670 61% 2082 60% 341 58% 1209 60% 1-5 hours 2546 27% 1008 29% 182 31% 561 28% 6-10 hours 435 5% 154 4% 32 5% 109 5% 11-15 hours 205 2% 69 2% 12 2% 46 2% 16-20 hours 120 1% 37 1% 11 2% 35 2% coursework outside of class participating in college activities other than attending class 40 appendicies algonquin cambrian fanshawe seneca 21-25 hours 75 1% 21 1% 6 1% 20 1% more than 25 hours 74 1% 24 1% 1 0% 19 1% missing 147 2% 81 2% 4 1% 25 1% none 6358 69% 2364 68% 425 72% 1325 65% participating in volunteer activities 1-5 hours 2002 22% 739 21% 120 20% 502 25% 6-10 hours 443 5% 178 5% 32 5% 83 4% 11-15 hours 158 2% 52 1% 5 1% 39 2% 16-20 hours 83 1% 33 1% 2 0% 24 1% 21-25 hours 26 0% 8 0% 4 1% 6 0% more than 25 hours 64 1% 23 1% 0 0% 20 1% missing 138 1% 79 2% 1 0% 25 1% working for pay none 4041 44% 1380 40% 261 44% 915 45% 1-5 hours 603 7% 220 6% 34 6% 150 7% 6-10 hours 836 9% 330 9% 46 8% 185 9% 11-15 hours 982 11% 388 11% 77 13% 201 10% 16-20 hours 1132 12% 440 13% 84 14% 220 11% 21-25 hours 782 8% 328 9% 43 7% 168 8% more than 25 hours 776 8% 324 9% 40 7% 165 8% missing 120 1% 66 2% 4 1% 20 1% none 5849 63% 2209 64% 412 70% 1338 66% 1-5 hours 1117 12% 400 12% 60 10% 239 12% 6-10 hours 513 6% 187 5% 28 5% 109 5% providing care for dependents 11-15 hours 356 4% 130 4% 19 3% 62 3% 16-20 hours 235 3% 76 2% 10 2% 41 2% 21-25 hours 185 2% 65 2% 9 2% 39 2% more than 25 hours 911 10% 348 10% 49 8% 178 9% missing 106 1% 61 2% 2 0% 18 1% 41 appendicies table 9: demographics all enrolled seneca students, demographics of sample who have a record of previously attending/ transferred from an ontario university (submitted university transcript), and grad certs excluded, at seneca college, 2015 all non-international entrants (n=27,554) sample who submitted ontario university transcript (n=4,493) sample who submitted ontario university transcript, grad certs excluded (n=3,066) gender female 14,958 54.3% 2766 61.6% 1813 59.1% male 12,506 45.4% 1715 38.2% 1241 40.5% unknown 90 0.3% 12 0.3% 12 0.4% age at cohort start <20 11,776 42.7% 244 5.4% 244 8.0% 20-21 4,606 16.7% 695 15.5% 628 20.5% 22-23 3,648 13.2% 1471 32.7% 852 27.8% 24-25 2,260 8.2% 942 21.0% 586 19.1% >25 5,264 19.1% 1141 25.4% 756 24.7% did not report a degree (include dont know) 10820 39.3% 1030 22.9% 1029 33.6% degree 6374 23.1% 511 11.4% 510 16.6% missing 10360 37.6% 2952 65.7% 1527 49.8% low income 7885 28.6% 946 21.1% 632 20.6% mid income 8676 31.5% 1369 30.5% 984 32.1% high income 9418 34.2% 1968 43.8% 1304 42.5% missing 1575 5.7% 210 4.7% 146 4.8% canadian 23953 86.9% 4297 95.6% 2924 95.4% domestic- other 3601 13.1% 196 4.4% 142 4.6% yes 16520 60.0% 2961 65.9% 1995 65.1% no 10616 38.5% 1512 33.7% 1053 34.3% missing 418 1.5% 20 0.5% 18 0.6% parents education income tercile of ontario da citizenship born in canada 42 appendicies appendix b: data description per college table 1: data description algonquin college data description year academic years 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 source students with self-reported prior experience at an ontario university (ocas ec data from the coltrane transmission) population every student who self-declared prior university experience at one of the ontario universities. students who show up multiple times in the dataset because of multiple university experiences are clustered and shown as 1 application. students who show up multiple times in the dataset because they started multiple programs at algonquin college in the same academic year, are treated as multiple entries. e.g. student x started program 1 in 2016f and program 2 in 2017w, this student will be treated as two separate applications. duplicates due to change of address, change of program specialization (e.g., business (core) into business specialization) or change of student load will be deleted. standard data the student destination college program and cluster, student load and start term/cohort was added through genesis. even as the student demographics: gender, date of birth (calculated as the age on sept 1, jan 1, or may 1, dependent on semester started), mother tongue, first generation and indigenous status (the latter two are cross referenced with genesis for student records to adjust for post-registration changes). start and end date: students who started their university program after they started their algonquin college program are removed from the dataset (the self-declared experience is most probably declared while applying for an algonquin program later in time). if the students end date of the university program is documented after the start of their college program, the self-declared end date is replaced for the first day of enrollment in the college program. assuming that a student cannot be enrolled in a college and university program at the same time. name university: self-declared by the student but corrected on spelling mistakes. degree completed: when a credential code (credential received by the applicant) was available, the code has been used. when the student filled out 00=unknown or 96=other; assumptions have been made to estimate the completed degree based on the following indicators: years of enrollment, college credential, major description and/or checked using the transcripts on file. additional data transfer credit file: the student numbers from the ocas application with prior university experience were used to search in the laserfiche files for students who got external credits granted from 2014 till the most recent files available. it was checked if the credits were exempted for the same ac program and the amount of courses exempted. university cluster: we used the self-declared major from ocas and manually clustered the programs: we used the field-of-study codes of the university student information system (usis). table 2: data description cambrian college data description year academic years 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 source university data information as available from xml transcripts extract. only electronic transcripts received from ocas during the application process. student has one record for each term at the university attended and one additional for the credential date granted. the credential granted and university program was pulled directly from the university transcript received from ocas. credential would only be populated if the credential was earned in the term of the record. so, if a student attended 6 terms and earned the credential in the 6th term, the 5 other terms would be blank. which of the fields get populated is dependent on the sending institution. population cambrian student data pulled from ocas data and banner academic records. standard data student id was excluded and substituted for grouping. the destination college program code and program title was added. even as the destination credential and credential description for the college program. the student cohort is based on the version of the destination program entered into. age is calculated based upon age as of the cohort term indicated and as of the first of the month. gender, citizenship, language, country of birth, indigenous, and first-generation data based on ocas submissions. indigenous data further cross referenced with internal banner student records to adjust for post-registration changes. additional data the amount of credits transferred is not available 43 appendicies table 3: data description fanshawe college data description year academic years 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 source the data comes from the ocas download, edi transcripts and data that has been entered into our sis based on paper transcripts population fanshawe college created a report a few years ago to assist with identifying transfer students. this report is available to the office of the registrar. we are able to enter report parameters such as term (e.g. 17f for 17fall) and current applicant/student status. for example, we use this report to invite students to a transfer orientation, so we would select the term they are entering and the statuses of either confirmed, registered not paid, registered paid. for this project we ran the report for each of the terms in the identified sample period and we selected students who had been in the registered paid status. the report readily provides the following information that has been recorded on the student information system. standard data surname, first name, address, program, program level, date of birth, previous institution(s), years range of attendance for previous institution additional data for the project we needed to collect additional information that is not provided on the above report. using the first report above we created a saved list of the student ids and with assistance from our systems team we were able to collect the additional information such as date of birth, gender, citizenship and native language. all of this information was pulled from the student record on our sis. most of this data was populated on student records via the ocas download of applicant data. 44 appendicies table 4: data description seneca college data description year academic years 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 source student with either: ocas transcripts = all electronic postsecondary transcripts from an ontario college or university, contains ontario postsecondary institution name as well as whether a credential obtained and the date. or transfer credit file = all courses submitted to seneca for transfer credit requests (includes institutions outside ontario but excluded for this study). contains name of previous institution along with its status of declined or granted. population non-international entrants (enrolled on day 10) who reported previously attending an ontario university (via submitting a transcript) vs those who did not. only students who are enrolled in full-time programs (approved by mtcu) were included in the study (ontario college credentials). previous university and transfer credit: files were merged by student id and counts of attendance at previous ontario universities and applied and granted transfer credit were conducted. standard data age: calculated as the age on sept 1, jan 1, or may 1, dependent on semester started parents education (coded as whether either parent has a university degree): all entering seneca students who are required to do mandatory placement testing must complete a background survey (degree and grad certs mostly excluded from english and math placement and therefore do not do this survey) which includes the following questions: 14. the highest level of education completed by my father/guardian is: 1. completed elementary education 2. some high school 3. completed high school 4. some trade/vocational training 5. completed college or cegep 6. some university 7. completed bachelors degree 8. completed professional degree (e.g. lawyer, m.d.) 9. completed advanced degree (e.g. m.a., phd) 10. dont know 15. the highest level of education completed by my mother/guardian is: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. completed elementary education some high school completed high school some trade/vocational training completed college or cegep some university completed bachelors degree completed professional degree (e.g. lawyer, m.d.) completed advanced degree (e.g. m.a., phd) dont know transfer credit file: all courses submitted to seneca for transfer credit requests (includes institutions outside ontario but excluded for this study). contains name of previous institution along with its status of declined or granted. additional data income: for a proxy of each students household income, the students permanent postal code was matched to household income data from the 2006 census. using the six-digit permanent postal code in the colleges student information system, each student from ontario was assigned to a 2006 dissemination area (da) using a 2011 statistics canada postal code conversion file (pccf). if a students permanent postal code was missing or invalid, the ontario high school postal code was used. a students neighbourhood income group was derived by splitting the das into income terciles of low, medium and high, based on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households. in addition to neighbourhood income, whether a student ever received a loan from the ontario student assistance program (osap) at any. citizenship: country of passport (reported to seneca) born in canada: as reported on ocas 45 appendicies table 5: data description kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey data description year academic years 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 source students who filled out the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey at one of the four participating colleges (algonquin, cambrian, fanshawe or seneca college) population all students who are enrolled in semester/term/level 2 (question 2) and who are not enrolled at the college on an international study permit (question 78.). grouped according to question 75. education completed before entering this program includes one of the two following options: university degree or some university. in order to create the comparisons: students are included who filled out as their highest completed education college diploma or some previous college are categorized as college experience and students who filled out high school diploma is classified as only high school experience. standard data (1.) program: break out by credential and program area (cluster occ title) (66.) traveling to and from the college (67.) coursework outside of class (68.) participating in college activities other than attending classes or labs (69.) participating in volunteer activities (70.) working for pay (71.) providing care for dependents (e.g., children, spouse/partner, relatives, etc.) (72.) gender (73.) age (74.) first language (75.) completed or partially completed university degree additional data (76.) main goal in enrolling in this program (prepare for employment, prepare for further study, pursue an interest or for personal development, other) (77.) full-time/part-time student enrollment (79.) first generation pse (80.) physical, intellectual, mental health or learning disability (81.) self-identified aboriginal person appendicies 46

project snapshot an analysis of student mobility within ontarios northern and southern institutions: phase 2 type: research project number: 2021-33 or r2133 project lead: nipissing university principal investigator: dr. david zarifa project summary a growing area of student mobility research points to the importance of examining regional differences in educational trajectories within canada. youth from the northernmost parts of provinces often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to attending postsecondary education (pse), accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing many lucrative fields of study at the university level, such as the stem fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). moreover, there is evidence to suggest that students who resided in canadas provincial north are more likely to enter a college program before heading to university. however, prior to 2020, no existing academic or policy reports investigated the types of students who transfer in ontario colleges and universities, nor did they take a closer look at patterns among northern and southern institutions. year 1 of this research project utilized statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis) to analyze four basic questions pertaining to transfer prevalence and predictors of transfer through an explicitly regional lens, differentiating it from other work recently funded by oncat (e.g., finnie et al., 2020; forthcoming): 1. transfer prevalence: what is the overall magnitude of postsecondary transfer types (across institutions and regions) among colleges and universities in northern ontario? (analysis: descriptives) 2. characteristics of those who transfer: what are the socio-demographic antecedents of the various types of postsecondary pathways? that is, what are the characteristics of youth who transfer from college to university, college to university, college to college, and university to university? (analysis: cross-tabulations; pooled multinomial logistic regressions) 3. northern and southern differences: do the characteristics of youth who transfer vary regionally in ontario (northern and southern institutions)? (analysis: crosstabulations; northern and southern multinomial logistic regressions) 4. regional flows: what are the socio-demographic characteristics of those who relocate across regions when transferring? that is, what are the characteristics of youth who transfer locally (i.e., across institutions within northern ontario)? and, what are the characteristics of youth who transfer from northern to southern institutions and vice versa? (analysis: crosstabulations; multinomial logistic regressions) this work produced new insights into the transfer patterns of students in northern institutions, as well as other regions in ontario. psis administrative data allowed us to overcome a number of limitations to using other nationally-representative survey data to examine pse pathways in northern ontario. first, small sample sizes prevent use of statistics canadas youth in transition survey (yits) to parse out the ontario case. wave attrition further complicates analyses with yits, and data on more recent cohorts are no longer collected. most importantly, neither the yits nor another nationally-representative survey, the ngs (national graduates survey), contain institutional identifiers to create northern and southern groupings.year 2 aims to build on this existing work in two important ways: 1) expediently replicating existing analyses utilizing psis files that have been updated since the execution of our analysis. statistics canada has updated these files to now reportnon-imputed ontario college sector data beginning in 2013-14. specifically, we propose to update descriptive tables 1 (ontario transfer rates and transfer rates by ontario regions)from research briefs 1 & 2 produced in year 1. 2) novel analysis of disparities in direct entry/transfer students academic outcomes using a series of metrics, including graduation rates, access to stem fields, and timely completion. these metrics have been identified in collaboration with oncats research team, and reflect priorities set out in the organizations northern research plan. research questions: this research will explore the following three sets of research questions: 1. graduation rates: to what extent are transfer students graduating at different rates than their non- transfer counterparts? do transfer students in northern and southern ontario graduate at different rates? 2. access to stem fields: to what extent are transfer students graduating from degrees and diplomas in the stem fields? are transfer students in northern and southern ontario graduating from stem fields at the same rates? 3. timely completion: what are the characteristics of transfer students who complete their programs on time? are their regional differences (northern and southern ontario) in students likelihood of completing their programs on-time? project rationale a growing area of student mobility research points to the importance of examining regional differences in educational trajectories within canada. youth from the northernmost parts of provinces often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to attending postsecondary education (pse), accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing many lucrative fields of study at the university level, such as the stem fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). moreover, there is evidence to suggest that students who resided in canadas provincial north are more likely to enter a college program before heading to university. however, prior to 2020, no existing academic or policy reports investigated the types of students who transfer in ontario colleges and universities, nor did they take a closer look at patterns among northern and southern institutions. this study extends our work from 2020-21 and similarly draws upon several administrative data sources included in statistics canadas elmlp (education and labour market longitudinal platform). specifically, we use the 2009 to 2017 years of the postsecondary student information system (psis) (for further details, see statistics canada, 2018) as well as family tax data from the t1 family files. these data provide the optimal source for examining regional differences in the following three key educational outcomes for transfer students in ontarios college and university sectors: 1) access to the stem fields, 2) university graduation and timely completion, and 3) college graduation and timely completion. methods quantitative research methods were used in this report. our analyses included descriptive statistics as well as multivariate regression models (binary and multinomial logistic regression) and predicted probabilities. main collaborators nipissing university was responsible for 100% of the project. the reports were completed in collaboration by dr. david zarifa (professor and canada research chair), dr. yujiro sano (postdoctoral research fellow), and avery beall (project facilitator and research assistant). research findings part 1: access to stem fields overall, 28.26% of students in ontario colleges and universities major in stem fields. while 28.67% of students in southern ontario major in stem fields, only 20.21% of students in northern ontario institutions do the same. in southern ontario, students in non-transfer college (ntc), university to university (uu), university to college (uc), college to university (cu), college to college (cc), and swirler pathways are all significantly less likely to major in stem fields in comparison to nontransfer university students. for southern ontario, ntu shows the highest probability (0.3163), followed by uu (0.2883), uc (0.2510), swirlers (0.2375), ntc (0.2074), cc (0.1336), and cu (0.714). for northern ontario students, only those taking ntc, uu, cu, and cc pathways show significantly lower odds of majoring in stem fields compared to ntu students. in northern ontario, however, the ordering is slightly different than what we observe in southern ontario. in the north, the uc pathway (0.2510) shows the highest probability of entering stem, followed by swirlers (0.2236), ntu (0.2163), uu (0.1773), ntc (0.1602), cc (0.1332) and cu (0.1190). part 2: university graduation and timely completion about 32.9% of students in ontario colleges and universities do not graduate from university within six years, while 36.8% and 30.3% do so within four and six years. the proportion of students who graduate from university within four years is similar between northern (35.2%) and southern students (36.9%); however, the prevalence of graduating from university within six years is much lower among northern students (24.4%) than southern students (30.6%). for southern ontario, in comparison to non-transfer students, transfer students show higher probabilities of taking six years to complete their degrees (0.3882 vs. 0.3023) as well as not complete their degrees (0.4360 vs. 0.3199), and are over half as likely to complete their degrees in four years (0.3778 vs. 0.1758). at northern ontario institutions, the predicted probabilities of not completing university are substantially higher than those from southern ontario institutions for both transfer and nontransfer students, as transfer students in northern ontario are 52.37% likely to not complete their degrees, while their counterparts in southern ontario were 43.60% likely to not complete their degrees. interestingly, the probabilities for completing degrees on time (in four years), were slightly higher among northern ontario non-transfer students (0.3778 vs. 0.3805) and lower among transfer students (0.1758 vs. 0.1145). in terms of six-year completion, transfer students (0.3619) had significantly higher probabilities of completing in this time frame than nontransfer students (0.2282). part 3: college graduation and timely completion overall, 61.9% of students in ontario colleges graduate within three years of starting their programs. for ontario as a whole, transfer students show a significantly lower probability of completing their college programs within three years (0.4109 vs. 0.6395). comparing regions, our results indicate that 70.5% of students in northern ontario graduate from college within three years compared to only 61.1% in southern ontario. in both southern and northern ontario institutions, transfer students are less likely to graduate from college within three years than non-transfer students. in southern ontario institutions, transfer students show considerably lower probabilities (0.4045) of completing their programs compared to non-transfer students (0.6309). for northern ontario, both transfer (0.4735) and non-transfer students (0.7265) have higher probabilities of completing their college programs compared to those at southern colleges (0.4045 and 0.6309 respectively). future research future research that explores and compares the labour market outcomes of northern and southern ontario transfer students is highly warranted. student outcomes this project uncovers some of the difficulties facing transfer students as they seek access to stem fields and do their best to complete their postsecondary programs in a timely fashion. by highlighting these difficulties for policy makers, it is our hope that this research will have a real impact on the development of articulated pathways and student supports that would help students achieve these goals. institutional outcomes our comparisons across northern and southern ontario colleges and universities have several key implications for policymakers, education administrators, and other relevant stakeholders in ontarios higher education sector who may be concerned with the educational performance of transfer students. in terms of stem access, our findings above underscore the need for monitoring the rate of stem field entry among transfer students. it is clear that direct-entry students are entering into these more lucrative streams at higher rates than their non-transfer counterparts, and there is a need to enhance access to the stems for transfer students, especially those transfer students who transfer college to college and college to university. moreover, this unequal access to the stems was even more apparent among our northern ontario institutions, suggesting enhanced supports to open up access for students in these pathways may be needed. certainly, part of these regional differences may be explained by relatively fewer stem field opportunities currently available among northern institutions, as they typically house a smaller array of programs and fields of study (hango et al., 2019). at the same time, it would be important to ensure that the postsecondary pathways for students leading into those new programs are fully articulated. while our findings here speak to the necessity of increasing access to the stems for transfer students, other research has shown that concerted efforts may be required to further support transfer students who do enter the stems, and in particular, those with certain socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., women, lower ses, visible minorities) (starobin, 2016; myers et al., 2015; reyes, 2011). researchers have pointed to a whole host of factors that might enhance success in stem completion for transfer students (e.g., academic support services, mentoring, internships, increased interactions with faculty, faculty support; peer support; extracurricular activities), with many emphasizing on the necessity of offering these additional supports for particular at risk groups (e.g., women, lower ses) (dinh & zhang, 2020; elliot & lakin 2020a, 2020b; lopez & jones, 2017; starobin, 2016; jackson & laanan, 2015; myers et al., 2015; reyes, 2011). our graduation and timely completion results revealed that both university and college transfer students in ontario are taking longer to complete their programs than their non-transfer peers. while testament to a broader trend of lengthier times to pse completion (see zarifa et al., 2018), these delays in completion increase costs for students and institutions (korn, 2015; carlozo, 2012; knight, 2004; pitter et al., 1996), put pressure on the availability of sufficient resources per student (jenkins & rodriguez, 2013; hakkinen & uusitalo, 2003), and ultimately lead to greater student debt and fewer years in the labour market to contribute to repayment, savings, and pensions (volkwein & lorang, 1996). moreover, when we considered university graduates, retention of transfer students remains a concern. not only were transfer students overrepresented among those who take longer to complete their degrees (six years), but what is perhaps more troubling is the fact that transfer students were overrepresented among those who do not complete their degrees. for northern ontario institutions, these trends were particularly evident, suggesting that while new policies to enhance the timely completion of transfer university graduates in ontario are highly warranted, they are especially needed in northern ontario. for transfer students who graduate from college, timely completion also remains an issue of concern. our findings certainly suggest that ontario colleges may be in need of implementing additional measures to ensure more timely completion of diploma programs by transfer students. yet, contrary to what we observed for university completion, the story on the timely completion of college programs is more positive in northern ontario than it is in southern ontario. that is, the timely completion of students (both transfer and non-transfer) was more prevalent at northern ontario institutions. further investigation into the potential mechanisms behind these regional differences would certainly be beneficial for informing policies to ensure timely completion of programs. certainly, for bachelors degree completion, researchers consistently report more timely completion among those who begin their studies at university instead of college, being a woman, non-visible minority, and coming from a family within a higher income bracket (zhu, 2021; saw, 2019; chen et al., 2019; xu et al., 2018; shapiro et al., 2017; nutting, 2011; wang, 2009). as such, future research that seeks to identify the socio-demographic, academic, and institutional characteristics of transfer students who take longer to complete their college and university programs is warranted.

1 postsecondary transfers into the university of toronto: findings from a new tdsb-uoft data linkage final report scott davies, university of toronto april 26, 2022 executive summary student who move from the toronto district school board (tdsb) into the university of toronto (uoft) provide ideal cases for examining characteristics and outcomes of a range of transfer students. in 2020 i compared transfer students and direct-entry students using a dataset with 29,000 former tdsb students who attended uoft. however, that data set lacked transfer flags and measures of transfer credits awarded. this report describes a new study that examines a second dataset on 18,000 students in the tdsb-uoft pathway. it contains similar measures, but also contains transfer credit flags and measures numbers of credits awarded. this new dataset is used to address six research questions: 1) what is the overall proportion of transfer students among undergraduates in the tdsb-uoft pathway? 2) from which institutions do they transfer into uoft? 3) do transfer and direct entry students differ in their demographics and high school academic profiles? 4) how many transfer students are awarded some credits at uoft for previous course work, and how many credits did they receive? 5) do transfer and direct entry students differ in their academic outcomes at uoft, and 6) do transfer credits awarded influence those outcomes? this report describes the following major findings: 1) overall, 1.6% of undergraduates in the tdsb-uoft pathway were transfers from another postsecondary institution; among them, 44% transferred from another ontario university, 28% were from ontario community colleges, and the remainder were from other canadian universities, international universities, and private career colleges. 2) most transfers came from toronto-based universities and colleges; the remainder were mainly from other institutions in southern and eastern ontario 3) compared to direct entry students, transfer students were significantly more likely to speak english as their first language, to be female, born in canada and to self-identify as white. academically, they had significantly lower high school grades and worse high school attendance than direct entry students. transfers from ontario community colleges generally had the least conventional academic records. 4) almost all transfers from universities were awarded transfer credits, receiving 4.7 credits on average; most transfers from community colleges also received credits, receiving 2.6 credits on average; none of the small number of transfers from private career colleges received credits. 5) while transfers from universities were less likely to enter stem fields at uoft than were direct entry students, they had similar cumulative grade point averages, total credits earned, and graduation rates. transfers from community colleges were also less likely to enter stem fields of study, but also earned fewer total credits and had significantly lower graduation rates. 2 just over half of community college transfers graduated within the timelines of the study. their lower graduation rates were driven largely by their weaker academic records in high school and fewer transfer credits awarded. 6) having greater numbers of transfer credits awarded boosted outcomes among all students. statistical models predicted that if community college transfers had greater numbers of credits awarded they could narrow graduation gaps between themselves and other students. key differences in findings between this study and the previous tdsb-uoft study are traced to a key methodological issue: namely, that data sources can detect greater proportions of transfers and academic gaps between direct entry and transfer students if they track larger numbers of students who were geographically mobile during high school. the reason is that those students in turn are more prone to become postsecondary transfers and to have checkered high school academic records. using these findings, two policies aimed at improving university outcomes for transfer students, and one direction for future research are discussed. first, universities should be encouraged to further develop mechanisms for granting transfer credits while maintaining their academic integrity at the same time. second, since gaps in outcomes between community college transfers and other students can be partly attributed to the formers lesser academic preparation, universities should consider bolstering their academic supports for transfer students, such as remedial opportunities, mentoring and related programs. finally, this report calls for future research that involve data merges among multiple institutions. 3 introduction: purpose of this second report as noted in my previous report, transfer students are difficult to study since by definition they are geographically mobile and take meandering paths through high schools and into postsecondary institutions. many students take lengthy periods of time with multiple stops and re-starts. to face these challenges, many researchers have turned to administrative data to track students over several years while at the same time providing population-level coverage. my first study linked high quality data to cover an entire population of students from canadas most trafficked educational pathway - that between the toronto district school board (tdsb) and the university of toronto (uoft). it tracked cohorts of students for 8-18 years, thereby capturing many that dropped out and later re-entered high school, took gap years between high school and postsecondary, and entered, exited and re-entered higher education. it used a record of students previous institution to detect transfer students. it improved upon the use of credit transfer flags on student transcripts to detect transfer, since that method neglects other varieties of transfer students, such as those who did not receive transfer credits, those from universities outside of ontario and those from various colleges. this new study improves further on those methods, while examining a different slice of students in the uoft-tdsb pathway. it uses students previous institution to detect a variety of transfer students, while also containing the transfer flag and a measure of the number of transfer credits awarded by the university of toronto. however, the new study design captures a different segment of the student population and thus finds some different trends in processes of transfer. the following sections describe this studys research questions, data and major findings. research questions: this report addresses several related questions: 1) what is the overall proportion of transfer students among undergraduates in the tdsb-uoft pathway? 2) from which institutions do they transfer into uoft? 3) do transfer and direct entry students differ in their demographics and high school academic profiles? 4) how many transfer students are awarded some credits at uoft for previous course work, and how many credits did they receive? 5) do transfer and direct entry students differ in their academic outcomes at uoft, and 6) do transfer credits awarded influence those outcomes? data and methods: data sources: as in the previous report, the dataset used in this current study come from an extended partnership between the tdsb, canadas largest public school board, and uoft, canadas largest university (see brown, davies and chakraborty, 2019, and brown, 2022 for details). it integrates several data sources: student records at both institutions, census data, and a survey of student demographics and attitudes. it utilizes a longitudinal cohort design, capturing all students in 6 consecutive grade 12 cohorts, and smaller numbers in 4 other cohorts. 4 data matching and merging: as in the previous dataset, students who were captured in the matching process shared the same starting point enrolling in grade 12 in a tdsb school and a common destination undergraduate enrolment at uoft. the initial matching process captured 56,484 students. all of those students were once in grade 12 in tdsb, mainly between 2006 and 2011, and also had student records at uoft, mainly between 2007 and 2012. among those matches, 33,669 (59.6%) were applicants only and never enrolled in uoft. another 2,707 (4.8%) attended uoft only in noncredit certificate or transitional programs. another 1,925 students (3.4%) enrolled in uoft only as graduate students. finally, 18,183 (32.2% of all matches) enrolled as undergraduates at u of t. this report focuses only on the latter group. the first sizable cohort initially entered uoft in the fall of 2007 - only 0.4% entered uoft prior to the fall of 2007. most of those entrants in were in grade 12 in the fall of 2006. after the fall of 2013, only 2.7% of the population had not yet entered uoft. analytic sample: this study examines 18,183 former tdsb grade 12 students who entered uoft as degreeseeking undergraduates. almost 95% of that group initially entered uoft between 2006 and 2011. only 0.5% of all students entered uoft in september 2006 or earlier. the first sizeable cohort began grade 12 in the fall of 2006, most of whom entered uoft in the fall of 2007. the last sizeable cohort was in grade 12 in the fall of 2011, most of whom initially entered uoft in the fall of 2012. about 6% of those students entered uoft between january 2013 and september 2020. while most tdsb and uoft student records are nearly 100% complete with 2 exceptions (discussed in the next paragraph), tdsb demographic variables have sizeable rates of missing data since they were derived from a different data source - the tdsb student census. that survey had a good response rate overall, but those rates were lower for some questions, particularly those that asked students about their parents occupation and education. those items had about 70% valid cases. fortunately, there is little reason to believe that such non-response could confound analysis of transfer students. the dataset had two key sources of missing data that could have potentially influenced the identification of transfer students. first, 338 students (1.9%) had missing data on the main variable used to identify transfer students students previous institution prior to applying to uoft. thus, about 2% of the population have unknown transfer status, and are therefore not included in any analyses. second, the cohort identifier variable had a substantial amount of missing data (3,751 cases, representing 20.6% of all undergraduates). the latter could be important for analyzing transfer students since transfer can be a protracted process that requires some years, and since later cohorts were tracked for shorter periods of time than were earlier cohorts. cohorts can affect analyses of transfers students in 2 ways. first, some would-be transfer students may not have yet emerged among new cohorts if they require further time to complete their transfer process, and so some transfer students may remain undetected in later cohorts. second, since later cohorts have had less time to complete their studies, they are likelier to have 5 not graduated within the timelines of the data collection. having missing data on the cohort identifier could therefore add uncertainty to any analyses in which cohort provides a key source of variation. fortunately, it is doubtful that either source of missingness have had large impacts on the analyses. as discussed in my first report, it is very doubtful that many, if any, students with missing data for their latest institution were transfer students. a series of analyses suggest very strongly that those students took unconventional paths from high school into uoft, often moving through adult education centers and entering transitional year programs, rather than transferring from other postsecondary institutions. and, in contrast to the first reports tdsb grade 9 cohort design, students with missing data on their previous institution in the tdsb grade 12 cohorts had almost identical entrance dates into uoft compared to those with recorded previous institutions, thus suggesting no particular tendency for those with missing data to be in earlier or later cohorts. see appendix 1 for further discussion of these missing data. figure 1 shows that while mean levels of transfer status are lower in later cohorts, their confidence intervals overlaps, and thus there are not statistically significant trends across cohorts in transfer status. among the 6 main sizeable cohorts, transfer rates were 1.6, 1.8, 1.2, 1.7, 1.1, and 0.9. thus, unlike the previous grade 9 linkage, student cohort played a small role in the current grade 12 linkage. its 3 earliest cohorts (students in grade 12 during the falls of 2003, 2004 and 2005) and its latest cohort (in grade 12 in 2012) had very small numbers and thus had limited impacts on pooled results. thus, the newer cohorts did have lower transfer rates, but it is difficult to ascertain whether those differences reflect age effects in which students in earlier cohorts simply have more time to engage in transfer or cohort effects - in which newer cohorts of students transfer at lower rates. in any event, the studys timeframe followed the newest cohort for over 9 years after it entered grade 12, and so it is likely that very few more of its students would have transferred afterwards, and only small number would have graduated. i measures: the analyses in this report drew on 5 groups of variables: a) high school academic records: key variables include average high school grades, days absent, whether a student had ever been suspended in high school, whether they ever dropped out of high school, and whether they were listed as being gifted or having special needs. b) student demographics: all measured in high school, key variables include gender, selfidentified race, country of birth, language spoken at home, sexual orientation, parental education and parental occupation c) students previous institution: this variable was recorded by uoft; i coded these institutions as a secondary school or as a postsecondary institution, and in turn coded the latter into the following categories: ontario university, ontario community college, other canadian university, international university, private career college. due to very small numbers in the latter category, no formal analyses were conducted for former students of private career colleges. d) uoft enrolment records: the following variables were used in analyses: the year students initially entered uoft, whether they were awarded transfer credits, and how many credits they were awarded. 6 e) uoft student outcomes: four student outcomes were examined: graduation status by fall of 2020, whether they entered a stem field of study, their cumulative grade point average (cgpa), and their credits earned at uoft. the latter was combined with transfer credits awarded to create a measure of total credits earned. data quality: setting, coverage, design, varieties of transfer this studys focus on a single board-university pathway makes its findings difficult to generalize to other kinds of pathways, particularly rural ones. further, it tracks only transfers into uoft, and currently cannot track transfers out of uoft. otherwise, these data have several strengths for examining transfer students. first, the tdsb-uoft pathway provides a strategic setting. on the one hand, it is embedded in a region with rich and dense postsecondary options. tdsb graduates who remain in the city can easily commute to 10 postsecondary campuses by car or public transit, and could transfer across those institutions without moving residence. uofts 3 campuses can be easily accessed by car or public transit to students residing in the central city as well as to the east or west. the universitys menu of hundreds of undergraduate programs may serve as a lure to would-be transfer students. conversely, uoft is more selective than most canadian universities, and thereby may discourage in-transfers (and perhaps also encourage out-transfers). second, since these data are populationlevel, they offer sufficient numbers to sort students into multiple sub-groups, including types of transfer students. third, its longitudinal cohort design captures an array of students who might be otherwise lost in studies with shorter timelines, such as those who not proceed directly through high school, do not directly enter higher education, and do not proceed directly through university. fourth, by identifying students previous institution before entering uoft, these data capture transfers beyond those from ontario universities, who are often lost if one relies only on transfer flags. fifth, its focus on a single board-university pathway provides restricts ranges on a range of unmeasured variables that could confound studies that pool students from multiple boards and universities. for instance, ontario school boards differ in their proximity to higher education institutions, and universities vary in their stature, selectivity and menus of programs and majors. both boards and universities vary in their local economic opportunities and job markets. each of these variables could influence students decisions to transfer, and influence their success at university. data that pooled students from a variety of boards and university would be therefore noisy for the purpose of comparing attributes of transfer and direct entry students, and in particular could confound regional differences in opportunities to engage in commutingdistance transfer. while data that pool students across numerous board-university pathways can offer greater breadth and potential generalizability, our setting removes a series of potential confounders that might influence students propensity to transfer. findings: the major findings reported below are organized into six sections. research question 1: what is the overall proportion of transfer students? 7 table 1 shows that 279 undergraduates in the tdsb-uoft pathway transferred from another institution, representing 1.6% of all students. this rate is less that that detected in the previous tdsb-uoft grade 9 cohort, which uncovered a rate of 4.5%. this lower rate is most likely a product of the different cohort designs used in the previous and current studies, and is discussed further at the end of this report. in brief, the current study included only students who were in the tdsb in grade 12, and thereby eliminated those students who left tdsb between the beginning of grade 9 and grade 12, which were included in the previous study. many of those excluded students likely moved out of toronto during high school, initially enrolled in another institution, and later moved back to uoft to be captured by that studys cohort design (the latter being the basis of inclusion into these data sets; see appendix 3 for a further discussion of research methods and designs that estimate varying numbers of transfer students). table 1 also shows that among those 279 transfer students, 122 (44%) came from another ontario university. the next largest source of transfers were ontario community colleges (28%). another 16% came from canadian universities in other provinces. a further 10% came from international universities. the remaining 3% transferred from private career colleges. in total, about 70% of transfers were from universities and about 30% from community or private career colleges. research question 2: from which postsecondary institutions do students transfer into uoft? from which postsecondary institutions do former tdsb students transfer into uoft? most of those institutions are in the city of toronto and its surrounding southern ontario region. table 2 shows that among the 122 transfers from ontario universities, the largest numbers were from two nearby institutions: york university (20 students) and ryerson university (20). the next largest numbers were from institutions in southwestern ontario: guelph (15) and western (12). sizeable numbers also transferred from universities in eastern ontario: queens (10), and ottawa (6). overall, about 1/3 of all transfers from ontario universities came from toronto-based institutions. among the 44 students (16% of all) transferring from universities in other provinces, the largest numbers were from dalhousie (12) and kings college university (8). the 10% of transfers from international universities were mostly from the united states, while some came from institutions in europe, the middle east and asia. those students took complex paths into uoft, moving from the tdsb to another country only to return to toronto. finally, among the 78 transfers from ontario community colleges (28% of all transfers), almost all came from torontobased institutions, with the largest numbers from george brown (19), seneca (18), humber (18) and centennial (15). overall, the majority of former tdsb students who transferred into uoft came from ontario institutions, with most entering from nearby universities and colleges. only a quarter were from institutions beyond provincial borders. 8 research question 3: do transfer and direct entry students differ by demographic and academic profiles? table 3 compares transfer and direct entry students demographics and high school academic records. columns 2 and 3 show that transfers in aggregate were significantly likelier than direct entry students to be female, canadian born, speak english at home, self-identify as white, have professional parents, self-identify as a sexual minority and come from non-two parent families. academically, transfers had less stellar high school track records than their direct entry peers, having lower average grades, higher rates of suspension, worse attendance records, and larger proportions who dropped out of high school at some point. as one illustration of these academic patterns, figure 2 shows that the probability of becoming a transfer student steadily falls among those with higher secondary school grades. multivariate logistic regression models that predict transfer status (not shown, available upon request) showed that lower high school grades and having been suspended in high school had statistically significant associations with becoming a transfer student; in addition, females, students from higher income neighborhoods, as well as those who self-identified as white and as sexual minorities were likelier to transfer into uoft. the variable with the largest impact in these multivariate models were high school grades. however, there were some important differences between categories of transfer students. most notably, transfers from ontario community colleges tended to have humbler academic records from high school, having the highest rates of suspension and special needs and lowest grades among all student groups. in sum, transfer students had less conventional academic profiles compared to direct entry students, and community college transfers had the most challenged academic records. research question 4: how many transfer students were awarded some credits at uoft for previous course work, and how many credits did they receive? a key attribute of this new tdsb-uoft dataset is its inclusion of flags denoting whether or not uoft awarded each student a transfer credit, and if so, the number of credits awarded. before proceeding further, two things about those credits should be noted. first, transfer credits are awarded not only to students from another postsecondary institution, but also to high school graduates, particularly those from international baccalaureate and advanced placement programs. second, not all transfers from postsecondary institutions are awarded credits; those decisions are usually made by host institutions on a case by case basis. among the 18,183 undergraduates in the tdsb-uoft pathway, 13% of those whose previous institution was a secondary school were awarded credits, with mean 0.5 credits per student. conversely, 84% of students whose previous institution was a college or university were awarded credits, with mean of 4.1 credits per student. table 2 shows that the vast majority of transfers from canadian universities received credits, and that they were awarded the most credits. about 92% of transfers from ontario universities received credits for a mean of 4.7 per student; the corresponding figures for transfers from other canadian universities were 95% and 5.8%. transfers from international universities and ontario community colleges had lower figures (78% and 3.9, and 76% and 2.6%, respectively). it should be noted that none of the 8 transfers from private career colleges were awarded any transfer credits. almost all students from ontario 9 or other canadian universities were awarded transfer credits. but there was more variation among students from transferring from ontario community colleges: most of those institutions had 67% to 87% of their former students receiving credits, and they received fewer credits on average than did transfers from universities. research question 5: do transfer and direct entry students have different academic outcomes? to answer this question, i examined five academic outcomes at the university of toronto: cumulative grade point average, credits accumulated at uoft, total credits accumulated, whether students entered a stem field of study, and whether or not they graduated by the spring of 2021. the ensuing analysis places particular emphasis on graduation, since it is considered to be a core indicator of student success among policy makers. table 4 displays bivariate statistics for these outcomes by transfer status. it shows that for two of the five outcomes, transfer students in aggregate fared similarly or better than did direct entry students. transfers had higher (though not statistically significant) final cumulative grade point averages (cgpas; compare columns 2 and 3 across the top row). transfers from canadian universities in other provinces had the highest cgpas, followed by those from ontario universities (the latter cgpa was statistically significantly higher than that for direct entry students). among sub-groups of transfer students, only those from ontario community colleges had lower cgpas than direct entry students (though that difference was not statistically significant). the next row shows that all subgroups of transfer students earned statistically significantly fewer credits at uoft. however, credit accumulation at an institution is an ambiguous measure of student success because it conflates 2 processes. on the one hand, some transfer students may acquire fewer credits at uoft simply because they were already granted credits for courses taken at their previous institution. on the other hand, some transfers may acquire fewer credits at uoft due to academic struggles. to check for this, another outcome was created: total credits combines credits earned at uoft with those awarded through transfer. the row for that outcome shows that only transfers from ontario community college earned fewer total credits than did direct entry students. transfer students academic fortunes thus varied. transfers from universities generally had slightly better grades than direct entry students and earned comparable numbers of total credits. the higher-than-average gpas of university transfers may be products of taking upperlevel courses (e.g., 3rd or 4th year) at uoft in later years. those courses tend to grant higher grades than do lower level courses, as do non-stem courses, which transfers have a greater tendency to take (described further below). but transfers from ontario community colleges appear to earn significantly fewer credits, and somewhat lower grades than do direct entry students. table 4 also displays statistics for two other outcomes at uoft: declaring a stem field as ones final field of study, and graduation status by sept 2021. beginning with fields of study, the table shows that whereas 46% of direct entry students entered stem fields, only 26% of transfers did so. disaggregating those results (see columns 4-7) shows that transfers from ontario 10 universities, other canadian universities and especially ontario community colleges each entered stem fields at statistically significantly lower rates than did direct entry students. table 4 shows that at the bivariate level, transfer students in aggregate had lower average graduation rates within the studys time window. whereas 78% of direct entry students graduated, only 70% of transfers in aggregate graduated a gap of 8%. but disaggregating those results across subgroups reveals an important distinction. transfers from ontario universities and other canadian universities graduated at slightly higher rates than direct entry students. among university transfers, only those from international universities had lower graduation rates than direct entry students (7.7% lower, not statistically significant). however, the graduation rate for transfers from ontario community colleges was 15% lower, a statistically significant difference. indeed, only slightly more than half of community college transfers graduated within the timelines of the study. to further unpack these differences, i ran multivariate models that predicted graduation with covariates for demographics and high school academics. table 5 and figures 3 and 4 summarize predicted probabilities of graduating derived from logistic regression models that contain academic and demographic variables as well as measures of transfer credits awarded. the first column displays the raw rates for each subgroup unadjusted by any covariates. the second column displays predicted rates adjusted by average values across all students for all demographic and academic variables, while the next column adjusts those predictions using covariate means that are specific to each group. there is an important conceptual difference between those sets of predictions: the first set is based on imagining what a subgroups graduation rate would be if they had demographic and academic profiles typical of all students, while, the second set is based on the typical profile of their own subgroup. the next 2 columns repeat that process while adding numbers of transfer credits awarded. table 5 shows that graduation rates would be predicted to rise among all groups if each had academic and demographic profiles that were typical of all students in the tdsb-uoft pathway. importantly, the predicted graduation rate would rise markedly among transfers from ontario community colleges, from 53% to 76%. in other words, if transfers from those colleges had the same demographic and academic characteristics as all other students, their graduation rate would increase by 23%. since academic variables are stronger predictors of graduation than are demographic variables, this prediction suggests that the problems facing transfers from ontario community colleges in uoft are largely due to their less than average academic preparation. but on the other hand, the prediction suggests that even with comparable demographics and academics, community college transfers would have graduation rates 6% less than direct entry students, and 8% less than their counterparts from universities. thus, these models suggest that transfers from colleges face additional hurdles when attempting to graduate from uoft. to further illustrate the importance of prior academic preparation for graduating from university, figures 3 and 4 compare probabilities of graduating across different levels of students high school average grades. they show that students graduation rates rise steadily with higher school grades, though transfers from community colleges still suffer lower graduation rates than other students with similar grades. 11 these analyses have several implications for understanding graduation gaps between transfers and direct entry students. first, those gaps were largely limited to community college transfers. transfer from universities had uoft outcomes that were comparable to direct entry students except from their lesser propensity to enter stem fields of study at uoft. but college transfers also earned significantly fewer total credits and had markedly worse graduation rates. second, those gaps were partly functions of community college students pre-existing demographic characteristics and high school academic track records. those students predicted graduation rates rose significantly when they were based on having average characteristics of all students. third, regardless of the estimation approach used, community college transfers had worse uoft outcomes than other students. in other words, those gaps cannot be traced solely to their demographics and high school academics profiles. finally, receiving transfer credits boosted uoft outcomes among all students, direct entry and transfer students alike. models show that predicted graduation gaps between community college transfers and all other students would be smaller at higher levels of awarded transfer credits. research question 6: do transfer credits influence outcomes? in a series of ordinary least squares, poisson regression and logistic regression models not shown, the awarding of transfer credits tended to significantly improve most university outcomes among all students, whether direct entry or transfers. controlling for high school grade averages and whether having dropped out of high schools, students with higher numbers of transfer credits had higher graduation rates, higher cgpas, and total credits (transfer credits did not boost rates of entry into stem fields). the final analyses in this report examine impacts of transfer credits on graduation from two different angles. first, the final column of table 5 adds a measure of transfer credits awarded based on the mean for all students, most of whom are direct entry students. since that mean number of transfer credits awarded is actually substantially less than the average among postsecondary transfer students, the predicted graduation rate actually declines for all subgroups of transfer students, while remaining the same for direct entry students. this finding illustrates that being awarded larger numbers of transfer credits boosts graduation rates for transfers from postsecondary institutions, since those students predicted rates decline if they are granted far fewer credits. second, models were run that predicted graduation rates for community college transfers and all other students at different levels of transfer credits awarded. figure 6 shows sizeable gaps in predicted graduation rates between community college transfers and other students when both groups are awarded zero transfer credits; the predicted gap is about 30%. however, at 6 and 12 credits awarded, those gaps shrink to about 20% and 10%, respectively. indeed, the predicted graduation rate for community college transfers rises by about 25% if they awarded credits rise from 0 to 12, all other covariates held at their mean. overall, these various analyses strongly suggest that being awarded higher numbers of transfer credits can improve university outcomes for transfer students, and could help those from community colleges narrow gaps between themselves and their peers. 12 summary and discussion this study reports 6 major findings: 1) about 1.6% of undergrads in the tdsb-uoft pathway were transfer students from other postsecondary institutions. almost 44% of those transfers were from ontario universities, 28% were from ontario community colleges, and the remaining 28% were from other canadian universities, international universities and private career colleges 2) transfers were largely local; about 1/3 of university transfers were from institutions in toronto and most of the remainder were in southern ontario; almost all community college transfers were from toronto-based institutions 3) in aggregate, transfer students differed significantly from direct entry students on an array of demographic measures, and had somewhat worse high school academic records, the latter most pronounced among transfers from ontario community colleges 4) almost all transfer students from ontario universities and other canadian universities were awarded transfer credits at uoft; most transfers from ontario community colleges also received credits, though fewer than average compared to their university counterparts 5) outcomes at uoft among transfers from universities were similar to direct entry students except that the former had significantly lower rates of entering stem fields; transfers from ontario community colleges also had significantly worse outcomes in total credits earned and graduation rates; only slightly more than half of college transfers graduated. multivariate analyses suggest that community college transfers markedly lower graduation rates at uoft were partly due to their humbler high school academic records. 6) the awarding of transfer credits improved university outcomes among all students; prediction models suggested that higher numbers of transfer credits would narrow graduation gaps between community college transfers and other students. discussion: comparing findings across data sets a new source of information provided in the current study were flags for whether or not students received transfer credits at uoft, along with a measure of the number of credits awarded. the flag showed that 84% of postsecondary transfers were awarded such credits, while 13% of direct entry students received them. many of the latter received credits for international baccalaureate courses and advanced placement courses. both groups of students postsecondary transfers and direct entry enjoyed boosts when awarded transfer credits. controlling for high school grades, both direct entry and transfer students who were awarded transfer credits had higher cgpas and graduation rates. importantly, multivariate models suggested greater numbers of credits awarded could narrow graduation gaps between transfers from ontario community colleges and all other students. thus, the new study confirmed the previous studys speculation that transfer student outcomes were likely hindered if they were not awarded sufficient credits for their course work completed at their previous institutions. this current study also shared several broad findings with the previous tdsb-uoft study. both found that most postsecondary transfers into uoft came from local institutions. both detected broadly similar proportions of transfers from ontario universities and community 13 colleges, and from institutions in other provinces and countries. they found similar demographic and academic differences between transfer and direct entry students, and that transfer students were less likely than others to enter stem fields at uoft. further, both studies showed that preexisting high school academic records accounted for much of the graduation gap between transfer students and direct entry students. however, the current study uncovered several patterns that differed from those in the previous study. the new grade 12 tdsb-uoft data linkage detected markedly lower rates of postsecondary transfers. further, transfers from universities did not have outcomes at uoft that were significantly worse than those of direct entry students, with the exception of the formers lower propensities to enter stem fields of study. otherwise, among postsecondary transfers, only those from ontario community colleges had significantly worse outcomes at uoft. but those students did face challenges, particularly in terms of graduation. only about half of community college transfers managed to graduate from uoft within the time window of the study, which tracked the oldest cohort 14 years after beginning grade 12, and the youngest cohort 9 years. the likeliest explanation for these different findings lies in their cohort designs. the previous data set included students in tdsb schools in grade 9, and retained any who eventually entered uoft within the time frame of the study. the current data set included students in tdsb schools in grade 12, and similarly retained any student who eventually entered uoft. but those different cohort designs generate somewhat different compositions of students. the grade 9 cohorts were somewhat larger than the grade 12 cohorts, partly because the latter excluded any students who dropped out of school before grade 12. but the grade 9 cohort also tracked students for 3 additional years, and by doing so, retained students who left tdsb between the beginning of grades 9 and 12 yet eventually attended uoft. the grade 12 data cohort also retained students who left tdsb, but only those who left between the outset of grade 12 and entry into uoft, which comprised a considerably smaller number of students. these different cohort designs generated important impacts on two patterns of results: those involving proportions of transfer students, and those involving various gaps between transfer and direct entry students. the grade 9 cohort design had more students who were geographically mobile, capturing considerably large numbers who left tdsb during high school yet later returned to toronto to attend uoft. those mobile students had 2 further characteristics: on average, they had less conventional academic profiles than did direct entry students, including lower average marks and test scores in grade 9. second, on average they were likelier to become postsecondary transfer students. the latter is likely a consequence of their geographical movements: many moved out of toronto during high school to attend another board but eventually moved back to the city to attend uoft. in the interim, many attended a different postsecondary institution before electing to transfer to uoft. the combination of those attributes having somewhat weaker academic profiles, coupled with geographic mobility created a larger population of transfer students, one with many students with unconventional high school 14 academic profiles. as a result, the previous study had larger proportions of transfer students, and larger proportions of those students with academic challenges. combining findings from the two studies, we can revise some conclusions regarding transfer students. rather than concluding that transfers face academic hurdles across the board, as did the previous study, it now appears that such challenges tend to be a) largely limited to transfers from ontario community colleges, and b) those with histories of additional geographic mobility. further, we can now conclude that c) being awarded transfer credits boosts student outcomes at university, and in particular can help those from community colleges narrow graduation gaps between themselves and other students. both datasets suggested that community college transfers face deeper social and academic challenges than do direct entry students. all transfers incur financial and social costs when they move residences, experience strains from losing old peer networks, and encounter stress as they cope with uofts competitive environment. many transfer students travel along meandering routes before entering uoft, some leaving tdsb for another school board or a private school, and all changing institution after secondary school, often taking longer times to complete their studies in both high school and university. but community college transfers experience these strains while also often lacking the same academic preparation for university enjoyed by their peers. many of their challenges stem from receiving insufficient credit for previous work. but many also stem from their complex life transitions. indeed, transfer status itself may be a symptom of underlying instabilities in some students lives. these ideas should not be exaggerated; the majority of community college transfers had good high school academic records and more than half managed to complete their degrees. this implies that two broad types of college transfer students exist. about half are able to remain 'on-track' after transferring, particularly when they can leverage credits granted from their previous institutions. but the other half become 'off-track' and fail to graduate. they enter uoft already with fewer academic resources than others, and are granted fewer transfer credits than their university counterparts. they swim upstream within the tdsb-uoft pathway and are at risk of being left behind. conclusion: implications for policy and future research the above findings and discussions have implications for policy on transfer students in at least 2 areas, and also have key implications for future research on those students. a first policy implication involves awarding credits. since awarding transfer credits is associated with better outcomes among all categories of transfer students, universities should strive to develop mechanisms that might award more such credits while retaining their academic integrity. currently, each institution has its own credit-awarding procedures, but more could be done to systematize their efforts in ways that might grant more credits to deserving students. a second implication speaks to academic supports for transfer students. since high school track 15 records are important predictors of university outcomes, and since transfer students tend to have worse track records on average than direct entry students, universities may wish to also provide transfer students (and other students too) with extra academic supports, such as remedial programs, mentoring, etc. in terms of implications for future research, this study further highlights the need for multiinstitution data sharing agreements. the tdsb-uoft cohorts can track only transfers into uoft. however, two-way flows of transfers could be potentially tracked in future data-sharing projects involving multiple institutions. currently most institutional data remain unlinked and siloed between institutions. but as the capacity to link administrative data grows, and as new studies illustrate the benefits of linked data, a new phase of research could track two-way flows of transfers if multiple institutions share their data with one another. the agreements and approvals by legal teams and ethics review boards at tdsb, uoft and ontarios privacy commission developed by this project could serve as templates for future partnerships. in lieu of a centralized provincial data base, a multi-institution cooperative project is likely the best bet for advancing research on student transfer in ontario. 16 table 1: categories of transfer students and credits awarded (valid n=17,838) from n valid % of analytic sample % of all pse transfers % awarded transfer credits mean credits awarded ontario universities 122 0.68 43.73 91.8 4.68 other canadian universities 44 0.25 15.77 95.5 5.84 international universities 27 0.15 9.68 77.8 3.93 ontario community colleges 78 0.44 27.96 75.6 2.57 private career colleges 8 0.04 2.87 0 0 279 1.56 83.87 4.07 total pse institutions 100 17 table 2: institutions of postsecondary transfers into uoft institutional category % awarded transfer credits mean # of transfer credits awarded number of transfers into uoft ontario universities 91.8 4.68 122 york 85.0 4.80 20 ryerson 90.0 4.07 20 waterloo 100 3.25 4 western 92.0 6.74 12 mcmaster 100 5.00 4 guelph 100 4.03 15 queens 100 5.35 10 uoit 100 6.0 2 ottawa 83.0 4.42 6 laurier 100 5.40 5 carleton 100 6.00 4 trent 75.0 3.88 4 brock 100 4.50 4 ocadu 100 3.83 3 windsor 100 5.50 2 algoma 100 8.00 1 18 laurentian 100 4.00 1 sacred heart college 0.00 0.00 1 lakehead 100 4.00 1 nipissing 0.00 0.00 1 toronto baptist seminary 100 3.00 1 unrecorded ontario university 100 1.00 1 mcgill 100 7.67 3 dalhousie 100 6.50 12 concordia 100 7.88 4 ubc 100 5.17 3 kings university college 100 6.38 8 simon fraser 75.0 2.75 4 victoria 100 5.25 2 new brunswick 100 3.75 2 kwantlen polytechnical university, mt. allison, okanagan u college, bishops, luther college, st. francis xavier 100 other canadian universities ontario community colleges 1 each (total = 6) 19 centennial 87.0 1.97 15 george brown 74.0 2.61 19 seneca 67.0 2.22 18 humber 72.0 3.18 18 sheridan 75 2.75 4 durham 100 4.00 2 fanshawe 100 2.00 1 mohawk 100 3.00 1 20 21 table 3: demographics and high school academics of undergraduate transfers into uoft (n=17,838) direct entry (n=17,559) all transfers (n=279) ontario university (n=122) ontario c. college (n=78) other can university (n=44) international university (n=27) female .560 .627* .639 .564 .682 .556 english language .274 .561*** .521*** .533*** .872*** .458* age in g9 14.01 13.99 14.01 14.0 14.0 14.0 white .240 .549*** .500*** .519*** .828*** .429 pro parent .344 .435* .344 .341 .793* .800* parent with univ .590 .605 .658 .442* .871*** .571 2 parent family .827 .766* .848 .745 .621* .788* sexual majority .940 .862*** .773** .902 .958 1.00 born in canada .475 .645*** .639*** .654** .909*** .296 cohort 2005.3 2004.8*** 2004.9 2004.3*** 2004.9 2004.6 ever suspended .065 .125*** .101 .167*** .114 .074 average grades 79.6 74.0*** 76.6** 69.3*** 75.9** 78.0 absenteeism 2.50 4.61*** 4.72*** 3.86** 5.97*** 4.88 special need .028 .047 .041 .0902** .000 .000 ever drop out hs .012 .043*** .025 .038* .000 .087*** 22 neighb. income 5.72 6.70*** 6.81*** 6.08 8.38*** 5.48 gifted .037 .032 .025 .051 .023 .037 special needs .034 .048** .041 .086*** .040 .000 note: * denotes 2 tailed t-test p<.05, ** p<.01, ***p<.001; mann-whitney tests were also run and replicated the results above. note: 2nd column t-tests compare to all other students, including other categories of transfers note: sample sizes for some demographic variables are smaller due to survey non-response note: due to their small numbers, no statistics included for 8 transfer students from private career colleges 23 24 table 4: uoft outcomes by types of transfer students nontransfers (n=17,559) all transfers (n=279) ontario university (n=122) ontario community college (n=78) canadian university (n=44) international university (n=27) final gpa 2.63 2.69 2.79* 2.48 2.87 2.69 total credits at uoft 18.1 14.1*** 14.4*** 13.3*** 13.4*** 15.3* total credits including awarded transfers 18.5 18.1 19.1 15.9** 19.2 19.2 graduation rate .778 .703** .787 .526*** .795 .704 stem .463 .264*** .262*** .171*** .182*** .630 note: all comparisons are between transfer categories and all other students note: * denotes 2 tailed t-test p<.05, ** p<.01, ***p<.001 note: due to their small numbers, no statistics are included for 8 transfer students from private career colleges. 25 26 27 table 5: predicted probabilities of graduation from uoft raw rate predicted with sample means of demographics & hs academics predicted with group-specific means of demographics & hs academics add transfer credits awarded, sample means add transfer credits awarded, group means direct entry .78 .82 .82 .82 .82 all transfers .70 .82 .74 .78 .75 ontario universities .79 .84 .85 .82 .85 other can. universities .80 .84 .84 .76 .82 ont. comm colleges .53 .76 .53 .75 .53 international universities .70 .87 .84 .81 .84 notes: all statistics are based on all cohorts. predicted probabilities are derived from logistic regression models. probabilities in first column are not based on any controls for any covariates. those in the second and third columns are based on student demographics (gender, age, white/non-white, parents who are professionals, parents who went to university, two-parent families, student sexual identity, nativity and neighborhood income) and high school academics (average grades, whether ever suspended, gifted and special needs statuses, whether ever dropped out of high school). predictions in the fourth column add controls for transfer credits awarded. note: all comparisons are between transfer categories and all other students: * denotes 2 tailed ttest p<.05, ** p<.01, ***p<.001 note: due to small numbers, no statistics are included for 8 transfer students from private career colleges 28 references: brown, robert, scott davies and neil chakraborty. 2019. the university of toronto-toronto district school board cohort analysis report 1: introductory findings. http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depelab/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2019/05/u-of-t-tdsbreport-1-final-may-8.pdf. council of educators of toronto. 2016. university and college data tracking practices for first generation and transfer students in the greater toronto area. london on: academica group. davies, scott. 2020. the tdsb-uoft pilot project on transfer students. report to ontario council for articulation and transfer. toronto. finnie, ross, michael dubois and masashi miyairi. 2020. schooling and labour market outcomes of ontario transfer students: evidence from pse-tax linked data. ottawa: education policy research institute. hango, darcy, david zarifa, roger pizarro milian and brad seward. 2019. roots and stems: examining field of study choices among northern and rural youth in canada. studies in higher education https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1643308. heslop, joanne. 2019. stp research results: student transitions and enrolment trends. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/post-secondary-education/dataresearch/stp/stp_research_results.pdf. lang, daniel. 2018. deciding to transfer: a study of college to university choice updated for internal transfer. college quarterly 21(3). ontario ministry of colleges and universities. 2018. credit transfer flag analysis 2015 to 2017. unpublished research report, toronto. trick, david and associates. 2013. college to university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a nation and international context. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 29 appendix 1: missing data analyses on previous institution and cohort variables the main variable used in this study to identify transfer student was "latest_institution," recorded by the university of toronto. this string variable lists either the high school or postsecondary institution that students attended prior to entering the university of toronto. i coded each institution for whether it was a high school or postsecondary institution, deeming the latter to be transfer students. however, about 2% of the analytic sample had missing information on that variable. since ouac normally codes automatically the school of direct applicants from tdsb, those with missing data on that variable are likely not immediate entry students. to investigate further, i conducted a missing data analysis by creating a dummy indicator of whether students had missing information on that variable, and used that indicator in a series of cross-tabulations and logistic regressions to detect whether patterns of missingness were related to students high school academic profiles, demographics, and university outcomes. demographically, students with missing data were equally proportioned by gender, but were likelier to self-identify as white and to be born in canada. the starkest differences between missing cases and all other students were their high school academic records: students with missing data for their prior institution had far lower average grades, higher suspension rates, and greater likelihoods of having dropped out of high school. logistic regression models confirmed these bivariate patterns, illustrating starkly differing academic profiles of missing data students versus all others. investigating further, i also compared missing data and transfer students on the same variables above. the profiles of missing data students were significantly different from those of transfers. these empirical patterns make it highly unlikely that missing data students were actually unidentified transfer students. instead, most appear to be non-traditional or mature students who had difficult high school careers, eventually entered uoft through meandering paths, and then continued to encounter academic difficulties. those students likely left tdsb fulltime studies without graduating, and eventually completed their diploma requirements in another format such as e-learning, night school, adult education, etc., before applying to uoft. those alternate formats might not have been recorded by uoft. many might have entered uoft through alternative programs like its transitional year program (typ). thus, missing data on previous institution appears to be an indicator of academic marginality, rather than being correlated with postsecondary transfer. thus, we can treat our findings on transfer students with confidence. a second variable with missing data that could potentially impact analyses was the cohort variable. as mentioned above, that variable had 20% missing values. fortunately, their patterns of missingness were largely unassociated with other major variables such as graduation rates. those rates for the major 6 cohorts were, in chronological order, 77%, 78%, 80%, 79%, 78%, and 78%, suggesting no clear negative nor linear relationship between cohort and graduation, despite the plausibility that earlier cohorts should have higher graduation rates given their greater time to complete degrees. students with missing values for cohort did have lower graduation rates than the average, 74% compared to 78%. their cgpas were also slightly lower, 2.51 versus 2.66, as were their credits earned, 17.2 versus 18.0. conversely, stem enrolments were actually higher among missing data students: 50% versus 44% for all other students. the main source of those 30 missing data was that they also had missing data on another key tdsb measures, students average high school grades. appendix #2: the impacts of extra credits and high school stream by request, some extra analyses were conducted to explore two additional issues. first, i examined whether or not transfer students were likelier than direct entry students to gain extra credits beyond the 20 typically needed for a bachelors degree. i also probed whether attaining such extra credits had any impact on graduation rates from uoft. second, i explored whether transfer students were likelier than direct entry students to be placed in the applied stream in high school stream, and if so, whether that might account for community college transfers lower graduation rates. as detailed below, findings from these extra analyses have two implications. first, having to attain extra credits led to only negligible reductions in uoft graduation rates; virtually all students who attained at least 20 total credits graduated from uoft, including transfer students. thus, any policy aimed at boosting graduation rates should prioritize helping students reach 20 total credits more than focusing on reducing needs for extra credits. second, while transfers from ontario community colleges were likelier than all other students to have been in applied streams during high school, the strongest predictor of their lesser tendency to graduate from uoft was their lower high school grades. being slightly more likely to be in applied high school streams was part of a larger pattern in which transfers from ontario community colleges had somewhat humbler academic track records compared to their peers, which in turn explained their lower graduation rates from uoft. but high school grades was a stronger predictor of university graduation status than was high school stream. these two sets of findings are detailed further below. 1) did attaining extra credits differ by transfer status? did doing so influence academic outcomes at uoft? the term extra credits refers to those credits earned beyond the standard 20 credit benchmark typically needed for a bachelors degree. to answer these questions, i conducted an additional line of analysis using the datasets separate measures for a) the number of credits earned by completing uoft courses, and b) the number of transfer credits earned for courses taken elsewhere. using them, i created a new total credits variable by adding credits earned at uoft to the number of transfer credits awarded. i then proceeded to conduct several analyses. i first examined proportions of undergraduates that were granted transfer credits versus those who attained standard uoft credits, and then examined total credits earned. those analyses were followed by an analysis of students with more than 20 total credits, which in turn was followed an examination of links between those variables and a pivotal uoft outcome graduation. a) proportions of transfer credits and standard uoft credits. as discussed in the main report, transfer students on average earned fewer regular credits at uoft compared to direct entry students, approximately 14 to 18. being granted transfer credits helps transfer students avoid having to repeat courses, which largely accounts for their fewer 31 uoft credits. almost 15% of undergraduates in the tdsb-uoft pathway were granted some transfer credits. among transfer students, 84% received some transfer credits. however, only 9% of all undergraduates that were granted transfer credits were transfers from other postsecondary institutions. the vast majority of students granted transfer credits were direct entry students who received credits for taking courses in programs like advanced placement (ap) and international baccalaureate (ib). b) total credits earned: combining transfer credits and those earned from uoft courses, the median student earned 20 total credits, among both direct entry and transfer students. transfers had slightly lower mean total credits than direct entry students because a few more transfer students earned 15 or fewer credits. that mean difference in total credits earned between all transfer and direct entry students was not statistically significant, however. but transfers from ontario community colleges did earn 2.5 fewer total credits than other students, a difference that was statistically significant (p<.001). indeed, 42% of transfers from ontario community colleges earned fewer than 20 total credits; 27% earned exactly 20 credits, and the remaining 31% earned more than 20 credits. c) earning extra credits at uoft: about 45% of all students in the tdsb-uoft pathway earned more than 20 total credits. most of those students earned only slightly more than 20 credits; only 25% earned 21.5 credits or more. among the 2,682 students who did receive transfer credits, 2,215 (83%) eventually earned 20 or more total credits. among those same 2,682 students, 467 (17%) did not attain 20 credits in total. in general, students who attained 20+ total credits received larger numbers of transfer credits. but transfer students were not more likely to earn extra total credits compared to their direct entry peers. d) extra credits and uoft outcomes: earning extra credits did not seem to harm graduation rates. almost all students who earned 20 or more total credits eventually graduated from uoft. approximately 99% of students who earned exactly 20 total credits graduated from uoft; the corresponding figure for those who earned more than 20 was 98.3%. among transfer students, the graduation rates for students who earned exactly 20 credits versus those with more than 20 credits were 97.4% and 95.3%, respectively. thus, a case could be made that having to earn extra credits slightly lowered transfer students chances of graduation, though it did so by only a negligible amount (note that among direct entry students those rates were 99.5% and 98.4%, respectively). graduation rates among ontario community college transfers for those who earned exactly 20 credits, and those who earned more, were 95.2% and 87.5%, respectively. again, a case could be made that earning extra credits lowered chances of graduation among college transfers, but it did so by a negligible amount, less than 5%. overall, the data suggest overwhelmingly that any strategy for boosting university graduation rates should focus on ways to help students earn 20 32 credits in total. less than 0.3% of students who failed to earn 20 total credits graduated from uoft; none of the 75 transfer students who earned less than 20 total credits managed to graduate. 2) the impact of high school stream: the tdsb-uoft data set identifies which stream students were in during grade 9, though it does not identify their stream in later grades. transfer students were significantly less likely to be in the academic stream in grade 9 than were direct entry students: 88% versus 93% (p<.001). however, that difference was mainly generated by transfers from ontario community colleges and international universities. about 95% of transfers from canadian universities were in academic streams in early high school, compared to only 80% of transfers from ontario community colleges (p<.000) and only 63% from international universities (p<.000). these differences reinforce a key pattern: transfers from community colleges had humbler academic records from high school compared to direct entry students and transfers from universities; that in turn explains their worse outcomes at uoft. logistic regression models show that the lesser tendency of college transfers to graduate from uoft was partly mediated by their high school stream, but also that their lower graduation rates were otherwise largely explained by high school grades. thus, transfers from community colleges were not only less likely to be in the academic stream in grade 9, they also had lower average high school grades. their stream placements came with other academic problems such as a greater likelihood to have dropped out of high school. nevertheless, these patterns should be viewed within a larger context: most transfers from community colleges had solid academic records in high school. but because a disproportionately large number of college transfers experienced some academic difficulties during high school, many of them continued to face challenges after transferring to uoft. endnotes: i rates of additional graduations tend to fall after six years from entering university. data from british columbia show long run cumulative transition rates for the 2002-2003 grade 12 cohort (one year older than our oldest cohort). that cohort had an immediate entry rate of 51%, a five-year cumulative entry rate of 72%, a ten-year cumulative rate of 78%, and a 15-year rate of 79.5% (heslop, 2019). thus, over fifteen years many more students from that cohort did eventually transition into higher education, but the rate of new transitions slowed dramatically after five years. we would expect a similar pattern for delayed entry into uoft and delayed graduation from uoft: extending the time window might capture more cumulative-entry and cumulativegraduation students, but with declining returns over time. some of those additional students captured in cumulative rates would be transfers.

2020 2021 rapport annuel table des matires 03 message des coprsidences du conseil 05 message de la directrice excutive 08 amliorations du systme de transfert volets du financement faits saillants des projets favorisant la fluidit des transferts projets rcemment achevs avec de nouveaux couplages administratifs faits saillants des nouveaux projets de recherche au niveau du systme donnes internes et projets de recherche du caton 16 ontransfer.ca amliorations du site web ontransfer.ca analyse et croissance services du site ontransfer.ca 21 mobilisation du secteur et du savoir chefs des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits comit consultatif des facults en matire de transfert projets sur la mobilit des tudiants conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits et covid-19 27 plan stratgique du caton, 20202023 29 quipe du caton, conseil dadministration, partenaires et finances 36 annexe : rsum et descriptions des projets financs pour 2020-2021 message des coprsidences du conseil cette anne a t sans pareil pour le caton, les tablissements postsecondaires, les tudiants et notre monde. notre exercice financier a commenc en plein cur du premier confinement de lontario; nos cours sont devenus virtuels, les campus ont ferm et notre secteur sest prpar faire face une incertitude invitable. il tait difficile de prvoir ce que lanne nous rservait et danticiper la vitesse avec laquelle nous devions nous adapter et ragir. un an plus tard, nous pouvons regarder en arrire et nous entendre sur le fait que nous, tout comme nos lves, avons fait preuve de rsilience et trouv des moyens de travailler diffremment. tabli un plan stratgique ciblant des priorits cls axes sur le soutien au dveloppement de parcours adapts la demande, la facilitation de processus de transfert quitables et transparents, et le renforcement de la capacit organisationnelle du caton. ces priorits nont pas chang en raison de la pandmie; en fait, nous avons constat quelles avaient une plus grande rsonance cause delle. nous avons t fortement soutenus par le gouvernement de lontario pour prendre les mesures qui simposaient, tant par un financement continu que par lengagement du ministre des collges et universits travailler avec nous pour cibler dautres domaines de collaboration entre le ministre des collges et universits et le caton. malgr toutes ces inconnues, beaucoup dincertitudes demeuraient. lanne prcdente, le catond avait 03 comme collges, universits et tablissements autochtones, nous avons comme intrt commun de fournir une ducation postsecondaire de premier ordre aux tudiants et daider ceux qui sont admis directement ou qui sont transfrs acqurir les comptences dont ils ont besoin pour russir, quels que soient les obstacles quils rencontrent en cours de route. lquipe du caton a travaill fort au cours de lanne dernire, et ces efforts ont donn lieu de nombreux nouveaux projets russis pour soutenir les tudiants et les organismes daide. nous avons constat que la frquentation du site ontransfer.ca a augment de faon significative, que les projets de recherche sur le couplage de donnes ont donn lieu de nouvelles ides et que les tablissements ont amlior leurs processus de transfert internes. au moment o tous les tablissements sont confronts de graves problmes oprationnels et financiers, au lieu de rester en silos, nous avons constat un engagement renouvel envers la collaboration. au nom du conseil dadministration, nous tenons remercier nos nombreux partenaires des tablissements postsecondaires et le ministre des collges et universits de lontario pour leur soutien envers les transferts. nous souhaitons galement exprimer notre reconnaissance lquipe du caton pour ses ralisations au cours de lanne dernire nous savons que cela na pas t facile. nous esprons tous que lanne venir se droulera plus rondement. ron common deb maclatchy prsident, collge sault prsidente et vice-chancelire, universit wilfrid-laurier 04 message de la directrice excutive il est difficile de croire quen dpit dune autre anne qui sest coule, nos vies professionnelles quotidiennes sont restes, pour une grande part, relativement inchanges par rapport au printemps dernier. nous avons limpression que la pandmie mondiale nous a soutir temporairement, bien sr, mais plus longtemps que nous ne lavions imagin les nombreuses joies que procurent la vie sur le campus et les changements de saison de lanne universitaire. une anne entire est passe sans lexcitation des tudiants qui emmnagent dans leur rsidence ou les acclamations des diplms qui franchissent la plateforme de convocation. ceux dentre nous qui travaillent dans le secteur de lenseignement postsecondaire regrettent de ne pas pouvoir prendre un caf de temps en temps avec leurs collgues ou de se retrouver lors des runions annuelles du secteur. toutes nos runions virtuelles ont cependant donn lieu des moments prcieux. jai fait la connaissance de quelques chiots arrivs en pleine pandmie (je salue river, zahra et kirby!), jai dcouvert les experts boulangers parmi nous et jai vu des arrire-plans de runions virtuelles tout fait indits. et il est certain que depuis le mois dernier, la lumire semble briller au bout de ce long tunnel alors que nous commenons planifier lanne post-vaccinale venir. cette dernire anne a galement t marque par de nombreux changements dans le systme de transfert de lontario. je suis heureuse de souligner certaines de ces ralisations, et beaucoup dautres sont prsentes dans ce rapport, mais je dois commencer par mentionner la coopration indfectible de nos partenaires du secteur. vous auriez pu nous dire, de manire tout fait crdible, que vous aviez trop de problmes urgents traiter cette anne, ou pas de bande passante pour participer un projet du caton ou assister une nime runion virtuelle, mais vous ne lavez pas fait et nous avons t agrablement surpris par votre volont de vous joindre nos projets pilotes de donnes, de participer des projets collaboratifs de schmatisation des processus et de nous aider mettre jour et rafrachir le site ontransfer.ca. les relations que nous avons tablies avec des chercheurs quantitatifs notables et comptents au cours de la dernire anne ont gnr de nouvelles recherches et donnes qui nous donnent une image plus claire des tudiants en transfert de lontario. nous avons galement renforc nos liens avec les tablissements autochtones et, grce leur participation de nombreuses initiatives du caton et leur volont de partager avec nous, nous savons quil y a beaucoup de travail que nous pouvons faire, ensemble, 05 pour surmonter les obstacles uniques auxquels sont confronts les tudiants autochtones en transfert. cela ne fait aucun doute : la pandmie nous a lanc de nouveaux dfis et nous avons d faire preuve de crativit. alors que de nombreux tablissements envisageaient de mettre en place des politiques provisoires relatives aux notes et des solutions de rechange aux examens et aux reports, certains de nos collgues en contact avec les tudiants en transfert se sont interrogs sur les implications involontaires pour ces tudiants en particulier. nous avons alors encourag les tablissements prendre en compte ces implications, court et long terme, et nous avons publi une enqute sur les politiques etpratiques lies la covid-19, dont les rsultats ont t largement diffuss. les foires de transfert ont galement t mises en pause, ce qui a rduit les possibilits pour les futurs tudiants de dcouvrir les parcours de transfert et de rencontrer les responsables des admissions. en rponse, la toute premire foire de transfert des tudiants de lontario, entirement virtuelle, a t lance en mai, offrant entirement virtuelle, a t lance en mai, offrant une plateforme en ligne permettant aux tudiants de visionner des prsentations et de visiterles kiosques de transfert dune quarantaine de collges, duniversits et dtablissements autochtones. nous avons galement fait de trs bons progrs dans nos discussions avec le ministre des collges et universits de lontario sur ce qui deviendra le plan stratgique relatif au systme de transfert de crdits. nous avons eu loccasion de consulter et de partager les nouvelles priorits potentielles avec les tablissements, les organisations sectorielles et les comits, et nous attendons avec intrt de finaliser les dtails avec le ministre au cours de lt. nous sommes reconnaissants envers le gouvernement de lontario pour son soutien financier continu au caton et aux tablissements publics par lintermdiaire de la subvention institutionnelle pour le transfert des crdits, qui nous permet de travailler ensemble et de continuer btir un systme de transfert solide dans notre province. tous les paliers de gouvernement et tous les portefeuilles gouvernementaux ont t profondment touchs par la pandmie et le ministre des collges et universits nest aucunement diffrent des autres. ce titre, nous sommes trs reconnaissants que les transferts soient demeurs une priorit et que le ministre continue tendre la main notre organisme et le faire participer aussi souvent quil le fait. un dernier mot de remerciement au conseil dadministration et au personnel du caton. notre conseil dadministration est principalement compos de hauts dirigeants acadmiques des collges et des universits de lontario ainsi que dtudiants en transfert, et lorientation quils ont fournie et le temps quils ont consacr, surtout au cours de la dernire anne, ont t essentiels notre succs. jai le privilge et lhonneur de travailler avec une quipe exceptionnelle, laquelle se sont ajouts de nouveaux visages (de manire virtuelle!). leur expertise et leurs antcdents sont varis, mais nous partageons tous 06 un intrt commun : faire la diffrence pour les tudiants en transfert et le faire en collaboration avec nos tablissements partenaires. de toute vidence, nous vivons une priode indite. nous avons tous hte de laisser la plupart des vnements de cette anne derrire nous, mais ces quinze derniers mois nous ont appris travailler diffremment, valoriser les liens et dnoncer les ingalits et les injustices. nous avons beaucoup rattraper, mais encore plus faire. je suis convaincue que nous trouverons un moyen dy parvenir ensemble et je me rjouis lide de vous voir de nouveau, en personne. dici l, prenez bien soin de vous. ajustements du financement en lien avec la covid-19 en rponse aux incertitudes auxquelles sont confronts nos partenaires institutionnels, nous avons mis en place des processus permanents de rception des demandes de financement pour certaines sources de financement. le passage un processus de rception des demandes ouvert offre une plus grande souplesse dans llaboration des propositions. nous avons galement travaill en collaboration avec nos chefs de projet pour ajuster les calendriers et les activits du projet afin dattnuer les perturbations. yvette munro directrice excutive 08 amliorations du systme de transfert amliorations du systme de transfert le caton offre des subventions pour des projets et facilite les collaborations dapprentissage afin dapporter des changements concernant les tudiants, les tablissements et le systme. nos stratgies doctroi de subventions sont conues pour : 1) crer un ensemble de connaissances sur la mobilit des tudiants en ontario afin dclairer la planification et les amliorations lchelle du secteur. 2) soutenir llaboration et la mise en uvre de parcours adapts la demande. 3) amliorer les processus de transfert centrs sur ltudiant dans les tablissements postsecondaires et dans lensemble du secteur. en restant lcoute des proccupations et des ides de nos parties prenantes, nous nous assurons que notre travail sappuie continuellement sur les gens sur le terrain et les recherches actuelles et mergentes sur les transferts. les directives de financement et les priorits des demandes de propositions de cette anne sont conues pour sappuyer sur la dynamique de 2019-2020 et le plan stratgique du caton. volets du financement parcours de transfert le financement projets sur les parcours de transfert soutient lexploration de la viabilit des parcours et le dveloppement, la mise lchelle et le remodelage de ceux-ci. ce volet aide les tablissements se concentrer sur les tapes prliminaires de la collaboration intertablissement, et savoir cibler lintrt des tudiants, les besoins rgionaux, les priorits institutionnelles, les opportunits du march du travail et les diverses expriences des apprenants sous-reprsents. fluidit des transferts les projets portant sur la fluidit des transferts soutiennent lexprimentation et les innovations dans les processus de transfert de crdits et aident dterminer des modles qui peuvent tre mis lchelle sur le plan provincial. cela comprend des projets qui soutiennent la transformation au sein dun tablissement et les projets qui ont une incidence sur le systme de transfert de crdits dans tout lontario. recherche et couplage de donnes les projets de recherche et de couplage de donnes gnrent des connaissances pouvant contribuer directement aux politiques, aux parcours et aux pratiques des tablissements, qui leur tour contribuent mieux comprendre les enjeux du systme pouvant avoir une incidence sur la mobilit des tudiantes et tudiants et le transfert. 10 apprentissage collaboratif, mapit mapit appuie la documentation de ltat actuel des processus de transfert dans les collges, les universits et les tablissements autochtones bnficiant dune aide publique en ontario, afin quils puissent cibler les amliorations apporter aux processus pour mieux rpondre aux besoins des tudiants en transfert. les tablissements travaillent avec la socit de conseils hesa (higher education strategy associates) pour consigner les processus tape par tape des tudiants et du personnel de ltablissement lors du transfert dtudiants dun tablissement postsecondaire un autre ce qui permet de cibler les points faibles du processus. la premire cohorte a termin le projet mapit en juin 2020, et neuf tablissements ont rejoint la deuxime cohorte mapit lhiver 2021. projet pilote de donnes sur lapprentissage collaboratif le projet pilote de donnes amliore la capacit des tablissements postsecondaires faire rapport des tudiants en transfert afin dvaluer leur participation aux parcours et leurs rsultats. les tablissements reoivent du financement en appui au nettoyage, au couplage et lanalyse linterne des donnes axs tout spcialement sur les tudiantes et tudiants qui effectuent un transfert. le caton fournit galement un appui non financier pour lanalyse des donnes. il y a eu deux admissions en 2020-2021, six tablissements ayant termin la premire phase du projet pilote de donnes et quatre tablissements ayant rejoint la deuxime cohorte. #1 #2 faits saillants des projets favorisant la fluidit des transferts grce aux projets favorisant la fluidit des transferts, le caton observe des collaborations institutionnelles axes sur la russite des tudiants autochtones en transfert. au cours de 2020-2021, le caton a continu soutenir les parcours et les stratgies de transfert des tudiants autochtones, la fois entre les tablissements, collges et universits autochtones et au sein de ceux-ci. dvelopper des programmes transfrables pour lanne dadmission entre les tablissements autochtones les tablissements first nations technical institute, seven generations education institute et kenjegewin teg educational institute ont collabor llaboration dune programmation spcifique aux tablissements autochtones et centre sur lapprenant autochtone pour lanne dadmission. ce programme dadmission dun an (le programme good red road) est conu pour crer et soutenir des relations de confiance et lorientation de carrire tout en aidant les quipes dadmission et de soutien aux tudiants mieux comprendre les espoirs et le potentiel de leurs apprenants. les tudiants qui entrent dans le programme good red road pourront effectuer un transfert et bnficieront dune quivalence lors de ladmission plusieurs programmes permettant dobtenir un diplme et un grade dans les trois tablissements. mise en uvre de mesures de soutien la transition interinstitutionnelle pour les apprenants autochtones (phase 3) le caton appuie la collaboration interinstitutionnelle afin dencourager et de faciliter les possibilits dducation pour les tudiants autochtones en transfert. la premire phase de ce projet a men la signature officielle, en fvrier 2021, dun protocole dentente quinquennal entre luniversit lakehead, le confederation college et le canadore college, qui dcrit comment les tablissements dvelopperont et tabliront des accords de transfert et soutiendront lamlioration des soutiens globaux pour les tudiants autochtones transfrs. en 2020-2021, le caton a continu soutenir le dveloppement de ces travaux. guids par les visions du monde autochtones, luniversit lakehead, le confederation college, le seven generations education institute, les anishinabek employment and training services et oshki pimache-o-win: the wenjack institute appliqueront une approche collaborative et rciproque la mobilit et aux parcours des tudiants autochtones (voir notre annexe pour en savoir plus). 12 projets rcemment achevs avec de nouveaux couplages administratifs au cours de 2020-2021, plusieurs tudes finances par le caton se sont appuyes sur des sources de donnes innovantes, suscitant des avances significatives dans la recherche en matire de transfert au sein de la province. les liens entre les donnes sur les inscriptions leps et lenseignement de la maternelle la 12e anne, les emprunts et les fichiers fiscaux ont permis deffectuer des analyses des prcurseurs et des consquences des transferts qui ntaient pas possibles auparavant. les informations tires de ces projets font progresser les discussions acadmiques et politiques sur les transferts et permettent de concevoir de nouveaux projets de recherche pour le caton et de nouvelles sources de donnes. le dr scott davies (chaire de recherche du canada sur les donnes, lquit et les politiques en ducation, universit de toronto) a analys les tudiants transfrs laide dun couplage administratif indit entre le conseil scolaire de district de toronto et les dossiers de luniversit de toronto contenant des informations sur plus de 32 000 tudiants. lanalyse de phase ii du dr ross finnie (universit dottawa) sur les rsultats des tudiants transfrs sur le march du travail sest appuye sur le systme dinformation sur les tudiants postsecondaires (siep) et les fichiers des familles t1 de la plateforme longitudinale entre lducation et le march du travail (plemt) de statistique canada contenant des informations sur plus de 65 000 diplms de lontario. le dr david zarifa (chaire de recherche du canada sur les transitions dans les parcours de vie des communauts nordiques et rurales, universit nipissing) et son quipe ont analys les tendances rgionales de la mobilit des tudiants dans lenseignement postsecondaire en ontario laide dun chantillon de plus de 420 000 tudiants du siep et des fichiers des familles t1. les docteurs david walters (universit de guelph), rob brown et gillian parekh (universit york) ont analys les emprunts de prts tudiants, en se concentrant sur un chantillon de plus de 90 000 tudiants dans les fichiers du siep et du programme canadien de prts aux tudiants (pcpe) dans la plemt. 13 faits saillants des nouveaux projets de recherche au niveau du systme apprentis en ontario : qui soriente vers la formation dapprenti et quels sont les parcours dentre et de sortie des diffrents tablissements denseignement suprieur et du march du travail? en sappuyant sur les fichiers du siep et du systme dinformation sur les apprentis inscrits (siai) de la plemt de statistique canada, le dr michael haan, anciennement titulaire de la chaire de recherche du canada sur la migration et les relations ethniques, et le dr wolfgang lehman (tous deux de luniversit western) examineront les parcours dentre et de sortie des apprentis inscrits en ontario. le projet se concentrera sur lenchanement des parcours et sur les disparits existantes dans les parcours et les rsultats des apprentis inscrits issus des minorits visibles, immigrants, autochtones et de sexe fminin. rsultats des tudiants dans les parcours de transfert : une analyse rgionale de phase ii lquipe du dr david zarifa de luniversit nipissing sappuiera sur ses recherches existantes sur les prdicteurs de transfert travers les rgions par le biais dune tude de phase ii qui vise explorer les intersections entre les parcours de transfert, la rgion gographique et les mesures de la russite des tudiants, y compris les taux dobtention de diplme et le temps dachvement, ainsi que laccs aux domaines stim. lquipe reproduira galement une srie de tableaux contenant des statistiques sommaires de la srie initiale de rapports en utilisant les fichiers mis jour du siep renfermant 14 des donnes supplmentaires sur les tudiants du secteur collgial de lontario. donnes internes et projets de recherche du caton enqute sur les intentions de transfert cet automne, en collaboration avec linstitute for social research (isr) de luniversit york, le caton a mis au point une nouvelle enqute qui permettra dexplorer les antcdents dmographiques et ducatifs des futurs tudiants transfrs. en chantillonnant de faon alatoire les personnes qui consultent la base de donnes ontransfer.ca, lenqute sur les intentions de transfert produira des donnes sur les caractristiques des personnes intresses par un transfert, ainsi que sur les programmes et les tablissements vers lesquels elles souhaitent tre transfres. cette enqute sera lance en aot 2021, et sera active pour une priode de 12 mois, fournissant au caton des informations en temps rel sur lintrt lgard des transferts travers la province. une fonction dadhsion permettra galement au caton deffectuer un suivi auprs des rpondants lenqute afin dvaluer leur exprience en matire de transfert, les obstacles potentiels rencontrs, ainsi que dautres rsultats connexes. rsultats des tudiants dans les parcours de transfert : une analyse rgionale de phase ii lt 2020, le caton a obtenu un accs scuris lenqute ucasmc, qui contient des informations sur des centaines de milliers de candidats aux collges et universits de lontario depuis le milieu des annes 2000. en utilisant cette source de donnes exclusive, et en sappuyant sur les recherches existantes, lquipe de recherche du caton a travaill sur une srie de dossiers de recherche qui explorent les corrlations des parcours de transfert. les premires conclusions de ces analyses seront publies lt 2021. le caton collabore plusieurs mmoires avec des chercheurs universitaires et des chercheurs en politiques de diverses organisations de notre secteur, notamment luniversit nipissing, luniversit de toronto et le conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur (coqes). 15 ontransfer.ca ontransfer.ca propose une plateforme conviviale permettant aux tudiants dexplorer leurs options de transfert et de recevoir un soutien dans leur parcours universitaire. capable de prendre en charge les donnes des tablissements autochtones de lontario et des 45 collges et universits publics de la province, ontransfer.ca est continuellement mis jour avec des informations pertinentes et actualises. voici comment nous avons apport des amliorations en 2020-2021. 17 amliorations du site web en 2020, nous avons continu routiller le site ontransfer.ca pour quil soit bien conu et centr sur lutilisateur. en nous fondant sur google analytics, des audits prcdents et des consultations avec les parties prenantes, nous avons amlior lexprience de navigation, simplifi la navigation, revu les mthodes de collecte de donnes et ajout une nouvelle fonctionnalit de recherche de parcours. plusieurs de ces amliorations seront mises en uvre au dbut du nouvel exercice financier et appuieront le dveloppement continu dontransfer.ca en 2021. chercher les chemins ... 18 analyse et croissance si lon compare le 1er avril 2020 et le 31 mars 2021, on constate une augmentation de 8,46 % des quivalences de cours (en tenant compte de tous les tablissements) et une augmentation de 3,36 % du nombre de parcours. au total, 172 052 utilisateurs uniques et 240 850 visites de session ont t enregistrs. ces chiffres reprsentent une diminution de 11,7 % et 12,9 % par rapport lexercice prcdent en raison de la covid-19 et de la suspension des vnements en personne. spencer gordon spcialiste des communications depuis novembre 2020, de nouvelles campagnes sur les mdias sociaux ont t lances par spencer gordon (spcialiste en communication) afin daugmenter la frquentation du site web et de soutenir les tudiants grce des messages cibls sur les informations relatives aux transferts. si lon compare le 1er janvier et le 31 mars 2020 et 2021, le trafic des nouveaux utilisateurs de ontransfer.ca a en fait augment de 8,58 %. les plateformes sont maintenant tablies, et les chiffres continuent daugmenter! 19 services du site ontransfer.ca une partie de lengagement dontransfer.ca amliorer les services pour les tudiants en transfert consiste articuler notre engagement envers les tablissements. pour ce faire, nous avons labor un document sur les attentes en matire de niveau de service afin de rpertorier les problmes, les incidents et les questions au fur et mesure quils se produisent de manire pouvoir les examiner et les analyser pour amliorer nos soutiens chaque anne. andrew wilson directeur de transfert et technologie nous avons connu un certain nombre de changements de personnel au cours de cette anne de rapport : sienna stock (gestionnaire de services) nous a rejoints sienna stock gestionnaire de services d'ontransfer.ca en juillet 2020 et sarra saiyed (chef du projet) nous a rejoints en avril 2021. nos deux nouvelles ressources nous permettront de poursuivre le redveloppement dontransfer.ca et damliorer la capacit et lefficacit des processus lis au transfert et la mobilit des tudiants dans les tablissements postsecondaires de lontario. sarra saiyed au printemps 2021, elles ont galement jou un rle fondamental en fournissant chef du projet damlioration des donnes : ontransfer.ca un soutien administratif la premire salon du transfert dtudiants de lontario qui sest droule de manire entirement virtuelle. 20 mobilisation du secteur et du savoir mobilisation du secteur et du savoir le caton reconnat la diversit des intervenants dans le systme postsecondaire de lontario. afin de nous assurer que le transfert de crdits et la mobilit des tudiants soient dvelopps pour servir et reprsenter toutes les parties, nous runissons les parties prenantes dans des communauts de pratique organises. au dbut du mois davril 2021, le caton a embauch un spcialiste de la mobilisation des connaissances afin dtendre et damplifier notre travail de recherche et de politique et de dvelopper notre plan de mobilisation des connaissances, align sur le plan stratgique triennal du caton et bas sur les contributions de nos partenaires sectoriels et de nos chercheurs. ces activits comprendront llaboration daperus de recherche, de faits saillants sur des politiques de transfert innovantes, de guides et de ressources, dateliers et de sances de formation qui renforcent les capacits du personnel charg des transferts, ainsi que dvnements qui rehaussent le profil des transferts de manire plus gnrale. carolyn poplak chef de projet : collaborations et programmes communautaires meryl borato spcialiste de la mobilisation des connaissances 22 chefs des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits les chefs des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits se composent de reprsentants des tablissements autochtones, des collges et des universits de lontario. ces membres des personnes ayant une exprience significative de direction dans le domaine des transferts conseillent et soutiennent le caton sur la manire de mieux desservir un systme de transfert mature en renforant la capacit et lefficacit des conseils en matire de transfert, tant dans lensemble du systme que dans les tablissements individuels. volution du groupe de conseillers en transfert, les chefs des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits se runissent chaque mois depuis lt 2020. heather o'leary universit de waterloo sharon estok collge centennial victoria baker collge seneca david adam baker collge fleming judy tavares collge humber scott walker collge conestoga sheila lafrance iohahi:io akwesasne education & training institute 23 comit consultatif des facults en matire de transfert le caton a runi un groupe de six professeurs de diffrentes disciplines. form en janvier 2021, le comit consultatif des facults donne des conseils sur la manire dont nous pouvons soutenir les processus dexamen des quivalences entre les cours des diverses facults. lobjectif plus long terme est damliorer les possibilits de transfert pour les tudiants en maximisant la reconnaissance des crdits en vue dun transfert, le cas chant, et en rduisant la duplication des apprentissages antrieurs correspondants. ce comit a contribu llaboration du guide dvaluation pour le transfert de crdits, qui aidera les professeurs prendre des dcisions en matire dvaluation dans toute la province et servira de ressource dancrage pour les comits de transfert bass sur les disciplines. carol bureau collge sheridan julie cross collge fanshawe stevie jonathan six nations polytechnic louis durand universit laurentienne marco campagna collge algonquin shawn j. richards collge humber 24 projets sur la mobilit des tudiants lt 2020, le caton a pilot le dveloppement de trois projets lis au transfert dirigs par des tudiants. les sujets abords comprenaient la comprhension du parcours de transfert du point de vue de ltudiant, le transfert et les mtiers, et le transfert en ontario dans une perspective internationale. ces trois initiatives seront communiques au secteur dans les mois venir, alors que le caton poursuit son soutien aux initiatives menes par les tudiants! 25 conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits et covid-19 le caton a distribu une enqute aux tablissements afin de recueillir tout changement dans les politiques et processus de transfert en rponse la covid-19. une enqute prliminaire a t distribue au printemps 2020 et une mise jour a eu lieu au dbut de lautomne. deux webinaires ont t organiss la suite de lenqute afin de runir virtuellement les conseillers en transfert pour quils y partagent leurs rponses et puissent discuter de certaines des faons cratives par lesquelles les tablissements ont soutenu les tudiants en cette priode difficile. 26 plan stratgique du caton, 2020 2023 priorits stratgiques priorit 1 : parcours cibls et en demande pour la population tudiante grce notre comprhension des comportements et tendances en matire de transfert, ainsi que des intrts et besoins mergents de la population tudiante, nous appuyons llaboration de parcours de transfert efficaces entre les tablissements et entre les systmes. ces parcours fournissent des options clairement nonces qui appuient laccs des tudiantes et tudiants aux tudes postsecondaires, le transfert vertical pour lobtention de titres de comptences, les possibilits de recyclage et lacquisition de nouvelles comptences. priorit 2 : processus de transfert de crdits transparents, uniformes et fluides le caton sefforce de sassurer que lontario possde un systme denseignement postsecondaire qui est favorable aux transferts et qui est chef de file dans ce domaine. les tudiantes et tudiants devraient pouvoir naviguer assez facilement dans le processus de transfert et obtenir la reconnaissance des crdits maximale en fonction des crdits postsecondaires quivalents dj obtenus. nous travaillons en vue dallger le fardeau administratif des transferts pour les tablissements, de fournir des renseignements cohrents et damliorer lexprience des tudiantes et tudiants chaque tape de leur cheminement de transfert. priorit 3 : capacits oprationnelles et gouvernance robustes et rflchies titre dorganisme provincial intermdiaire responsable dtablir un solide systme de transfert en ontario, le caton est bien plac pour en faire plus que ce que le gouvernement pourrait accomplir seul de son ct; pour laborer et partager son expertise en matire de transfert; et pour encourager les partenaires du secteur de lducation collaborer. le caton doit faire preuve de rflexion, tablir ses responsabilits et faciliter lamlioration pour faire assurer lalignement de ses capacits oprationnelles. 28 quipe, conseil dadministration, partenaires et finances yvette munro shauna love andrew wilson directrice excutive directrice des oprations directrice des oprations roger pizarro milian peter ssekiziyivu desera gestionnaire des finances sarah fuchs carolyn poplak spencer gordon chercheur principal analyste principale des politiques chef de projet : collaborations et programmes communautaires spcialiste des communications ana skinner melinda cheng rod missaghian henrique hon chef de projet : programme de subventions analyste des donnes de recherche chercheur chercheur quantitatif derek chan sienna stock allison maldonado sarra saiyed charg de projet gestionnaire de services d'ontransfer.ca analyste des systmes d'affaires chef du projet damlioration des donnes : ontransfer.ca inna yeranosyan meryl borato jane waldner anjana rao spcialiste de la mobilisation des connaissances coordonnatrice de bureau et de runion coordonnatrice des oprations coordonnatrice administrative des subventions et projets 30 conseil dadministration coprsidences du conseil dadministration deb maclatchy, prsidente et vice-chancelire, universit wilfrid-laurier ron common, prsident, collge sault administration caitlin smith, collge george brown, reprsentante des tudiantes et tudiants collgiaux christine bradaric-baus, vice-rectrice lenseignement et dirigeante principale de lapprentissage, collge canadian memorial chiropractic elaine popp, vice-rectrice lenseignement, collge durham kathryn kettle, reprsentante des tudiantes et tudiants universitaires lyne michaud, vice-prsidente lenseignement, collge boral pierre riopel, reprsentant externe serge demers, vra, affaires tudiantes, secrtaire gnral et du snat, universit laurentienne membres doffice du conseil david corcoran, chercheur principal, conseiller en politiques et statisticien, collges ontario robert luke, chef de la direction, ecampusontario eva busza, vice-prsidente, politiques et collaboration sectorielle, conseil des universits de lontario heather lane, directrice excutive, centre de demande dadmission aux universits de lontario karen creditor, chef de la direction, service dadmission des collges de lontario yvette munro, directrice excutive, caton 31 partenaires 32 partenaires nous travaillons galement en troite collaboration avec : les tablissements autochtones la population tudiante le gouvernement de lontario et le ministre des collges et universits des organismes sectoriels comme le conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur (coqes) et ecampusontario des organismes reprsentatifs comme le conseil des universits de lontario (cuo), collges ontario (co), la fdration canadienne des tudiantes et tudiants de lontario (fcee-ontario), lontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa), et la college student alliance (csa). le caton est associ lchelle nationale par lentremise du consortium pancanadien sur les admissions et les transferts (cpcat) et les conseils provinciaux suivants : 33 finances nos tats financiers audits, qui comprennent ltat de la situation financire au 31 mars 2020, et les tats des rsultats, de lvolution de lactif net et des flux de trsorerie pour lexercice clos, ainsi que les notes affrentes aux tats financiers, y compris un rsum des principales mthodes comptables, se trouvent ladresse suivante : https://oncat.ca/fr/propos-de-nous 08 34 2020 2021 rapport annuel www.oncat.ca 180, rue dundas ouest, bur. 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) est financ par le gouvernement de lontario. this information is also available in english. annexe : rsum et descriptions des projets financs pour 2020-2021 volet de financement des parcours de transfert 2020-2021 remodeler les parcours de transfert dans les domaines de la gestion des affaires et de ladministration des affaires entre le collge boral, le collge la cit et luniversit de hearst. chef du projet : universit de hearst | partenaires : collge boral, collge la cit | montant attribu : 44 335 $ le collge boral, le collge la cit et luniversit de hearst sengagent poursuivre leurs efforts pour promouvoir le continuum de lducation postsecondaire pour les tudiants francophones et bilingues en ontario. ce projet soutiendra la collaboration continue relativement aux parcours de transfert en gestion des affaires et en administration des affaires. dans le cadre de ce projet, les partenaires remodleront les parcours de transfert existants et y ajouteront de nouveaux programmes institutionnels afin que les diplms des programmes collgiaux puissent obtenir leur baccalaurat en gestion des affaires ou en administration des affaires luniversit de hearst. les partenaires mettront galement sur pied un accord-cadre pour faciliter les parcours de transfert, dterminer le nombre de crdits reconnus et dvelopper les outils administratifs internes ncessaires pour grer plus efficacement les parcours en fonction des ralits des tablissements dorigine et de destination. volet de financement des projets favorisant la fluidit des transferts 2020-2021 mise en uvre de mesures de soutien la transition interinstitutionnelle pour les apprenants autochtones (phase 3) chef du projet : universit lakehead | partenaires : confederation college, seven generations education institute, anishinabek employment and training services et oshki pimache-o-win : the wenjack institute | montant attribu : 105 666 $ en soutenant la collaboration interinstitutionnelle et en largissant un protocole daccord pour inclure dautres partenaires institutionnels, ce projet contribue maximiser les aides au transfert pour les tudiants autochtones. guids par les visions du monde autochtones, les partenaires de projets, nouveaux et actuels, appliqueront une approche collaborative et rciproque de la mobilit postsecondaire autochtone. les collaborateurs ont lintention de crer et de mettre jour des parcours de transfert de crdits, dexplorer des combinaisons cratives de titres de comptences et de crdits de transfert (microcrdits et certificats menant un diplme) qui sont directement lies lducation des premires nations et aux rsultats en matire demploi, de dvelopper des politiques dadmission conjointes avec les partenaires actuels et de nouveaux partenaires, dtendre les soutiens globaux pour les apprenants autochtones et de piloter un poste de responsable du transfert autochtone, poste qui serait partag entre les tablissements participants. de faon gnrale, les partenaires du projet dans les collges rgionaux, les tablissements autochtones et luniversit lakehead travaillent ensemble pour cibler, localiser et commencer perturber les structures et la pdagogie coloniales qui existent au chapitre de la mobilit des tudiants postsecondaires et de la transition entre diffrents types dtablissements. 37 comprendre lexprience et les rsultats des tudiants en transfert grce lanalyse de linformatique dcisionnelle chef du projet : universit lakehead | montant attribu : 77 448 $ ce projet sappuie sur des ensembles de donnes existants sur les tudiants en transfert, dvelopps avec le soutien du caton afin damliorer la comprhension des expriences et des rsultats des tudiants en transfert par le dveloppement de visualisations amliores de linformatique dcisionnelle en ce qui a trait aux tudiants en transfert. grce ce projet, luniversit lakehead construira galement des modles de donnes qui amlioreront la comprhension des rsultats de ses tudiants en transfert et permettront ventuellement de reprer des alertes et des indicateurs prcoces pour soutenir la russite des tudiants en transfert et les nouvelles possibilits de parcours de transfert. ces ensembles de donnes appuieront galement la prise de dcision au niveau des facults et les dcisions relatives aux soutiens acadmiques et non acadmiques pour les tudiants en transfert dans le but damliorer leurs rsultats. lautochtonisation de lvaluation et reconnaissance des acquis (ra) : explorer comment les tablissements postsecondaires peuvent reconnatre les connaissances des communauts autochtones dans les processus dattribution de crdits et de diplmes chef du projet : universit lakehead | partenaires : conseil tribal nokiiwinl, kiikenomaga kikenjigewen employment & training services (kkets) | chercheuse principale : dre lana ray | montant attribu : 114 095 $ ce projet de recherche-action participative communautaire explore la faon dont les tablissements postsecondaires peuvent reconnatre le savoir communautaire autochtone dans les processus dattribution de crdits et de diplmes, ainsi que ltat de prparation des tablissements cet gard. le projet sera men en collaboration avec le conseil tribal nokiiwin et les kiikenomaga kikenjigewen employment & training services (kkets), et permettra daccrotre les connaissances sur les recoupements entre lra et le systme de transfert de crdits grce llaboration dun document de politique sur lra autochtone, dun cahier de travail sur la faisabilit pour les tablissements postsecondaires et dun plan de mise en uvre de lra autochtone luniversit lakehead. 38 projets de recherche 2020-2021 apprentis en ontario : qui soriente vers la formation dapprenti et quels sont les parcours dentre et de sortie des diffrents tablissements denseignement suprieur et du march du travail? chef du projet : universit western | chercheur principal : dr michael haan | montant attribu : 84 678 $ un aspect important et peu tudi du dveloppement dune main-duvre qualifie au canada est le parcours des tudiants qui entrent et sortent de lenseignement postsecondaire et de la formation dapprenti et, plus prcisment, la faon dont la mobilit des tudiants influe sur les taux de russite. sappuyant sur la plateforme longitudinale entre lducation et le march du travail de statistique canada, ce projet de recherche analysera les donnes sur les tudiants qui suivent une formation dapprenti, les parcours de transfert latral et vertical que les tudiants empruntent pour entrer et sortir de divers tablissements denseignement postsecondaire en ontario, ainsi que la squence de ces transferts. cette tude sintressera galement la destination des personnes qui sortent des programmes de formation dapprenti, notamment les transferts verticaux vers dautres programmes de formation dapprenti, les transferts divergents vers des programmes collgiaux et/ou universitaires et lentre directe sur le march du travail. une contribution importante de cette tude sera dexaminer linscription des minorits visibles, des immigrants, des autochtones et des apprentis de sexe fminin aux programmes de formation, leur taux dobtention du certificat, ainsi que le degr de mobilit des tudiants et les transferts verticaux et latraux effectus par ces groupes dans les programmes de formation dapprenti en ontario. implications de la covid-19 sur la mobilit des tudiants au seneca college chef du projet : collge durham | chercheuse principale : dre ursula mccloy | montant attribu : 37 672 $ lorsque la pandmie mondiale de covid-19 a frapp en mars 2020, les tablissements postsecondaires sont rapidement passs dun enseignement en personne un enseignement presque entirement en ligne. ladaptation lapprentissage en ligne, lincertitude quant notre avenir conomique actuel et plus long terme, et la lutte contre lisolement social peuvent avoir des effets importants sur lassiduit, le transfert et les rsultats scolaires des tudiants. ce projet explore les effets de la pandmie sur les tudiants du seneca college. cette tude comparera les tudiants du seneca college qui ont intgr le collge lautomne 2020 ou lhiver 2021 avec les tudiants admis lors des cinq annes prcdentes (2015-2016 2019-2020). les effets globaux de la pandmie seront compars, avec un accent particulier sur les tudiants transfrs et les tudiants entre directe. les comparaisons dmographiques comprennent : le revenu du quartier, lge, le sexe, le statut au canada (international, citoyen ou autre), le pays de naissance, la distance gographique par rapport au collge, le parcours daccs au collge, les tablissements de provenance ( lintrieur de la rgion, lextrieur de la rgion ou dans la province) et le choix du programme, y compris le domaine du programme et le titre de comptence. 39 comprendre lexprience de transfert en ce qui a trait aux mtiers spcialiss chef du projet : collge durham | chercheur principal : dterminer | montant attribu : 101 428$ la pnurie de travailleurs spcialiss en ontario a conduit un regain dintrt pour laccs lenseignement des mtiers spcialiss par le biais de la formation postsecondaire et dapprenti. ce projet explore les parcours ducatifs des tudiants qui sinscrivent des programmes lis la construction au collge durham, leur profil dmographique et leurs rsultats scolaires. pour ce faire, le projet oppose ce groupe aux personnes qui entrent dans des programmes connexes hors construction au sein de ltablissement. superposition et animation du sens : exploration des expriences des tudiants noirs transfrs dun collge luniversit mcmaster par le biais dentrevues et de rcits numriques. chef du projet : universit mcmaster | chercheuse principale : dre selina mudavanhu | montant attribu : 110 168$ ce projet explore les expriences des tudiants noirs transfrs dun collge luniversit mcmaster, en se concentrant spcifiquement sur leurs expriences de transfert et dinstallation luniversit. le projet ciblera les moyens de rendre le processus de transfert plus fluide pour les tudiants noirs ainsi que les moyens pour les universits de dvelopper des environnements favorables et inclusifs. 40 changes : le flux dtudiants entrant et sortant des programmes dapprenti chef du projet : universit mcmaster | chercheuses principales : dre nicole malette, dre karen robson | montant attribu : 63 850$ les formations dapprentis constituent des parcours dducation alternatifs pour une part importante de la population canadienne. cependant, on sait peu de choses sur les raisons qui poussent les tudiants sorienter vers des programmes de formation dapprenti ou sur les parcours ducatifs des anciens tudiants de cette formation. de mme, on sait trs peu de choses au canada sur les tudiants ayant fait des tudes universitaires ou collgiales qui sinscrivent des programmes de formation dapprenti, avant ou aprs avoir obtenu leur diplme. grce des entrevues avec danciens apprentis de lontario qui ont quitt leur tablissement pour frquenter le collge ou luniversit (sans lien avec leur programme de formation dapprenti) ainsi quavec danciens tudiants du collge ou de luniversit qui ont quitt leur tablissement postsecondaire pour suivre une formation dapprenti, ce projet permettra de mieux comprendre les parcours ducatifs et de transfert des anciens apprentis/tudiants du premier cycle, ce qui clairera la conception et la mise en uvre de stratgies de soutien aux tudiants transfrs et de politiques dducation permanente. accs aux tudes postsecondaires et exprience de transfert de crdits des tudiants incarcrs en ontario chef du projet : amadeusz | partenaires de projet : humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | chercheuse principale : tina-nadia chambers | co-chercheur : dr ardavan eizadirad | montant attribu : 44 000 $ ce projet explore les expriences de transfert des lves qui sont ou ont t en dtention prventive en ontario. grce des entretiens avec des tudiants en dtention prventive, incarcrs ou rcemment librs, des ducateurs travaillant dans des tablissements de dtention prventive et des tablissements denseignement postsecondaire, cette recherche permettra de cibler les parcours formels et informels des tudiants pendant leur incarcration et les possibilits ou les obstacles au transfert entre les tablissements denseignement postsecondaire aprs que les tudiants aient suivi des cours postsecondaires pendant leur incarcration. ce projet contribuera llaboration de programmes et de stratgies visant mettre en place des processus de cheminement et de transfert de crdits favorables la population carcrale de lontario. 41 une analyse de la mobilit des tudiants dans les tablissements du nord et du sud de lontario : phase 2 chef du projet : universit nipissing | chercheur principal : dr david zarifa | montant attribu : 114 932 $ un domaine croissant de la recherche sur la mobilit des tudiants souligne limportance dexaminer les diffrences rgionales dans les trajectoires ducatives au canada. les tudiants des rgions les plus au nord des provinces sont souvent confronts dimportants obstacles sociodmographiques et de proximit qui les empchent de suivre des tudes postsecondaires, daccder divers types dtudes postsecondaires et daccder de nombreux domaines dtudes lucratifs au niveau universitaire, comme les domaines stim (sciences, technologie, ingnierie et mathmatiques). ce projet explore les diffrences rgionales dans les trajectoires ducatives en ontario. sappuyant sur la premire phase de recherche utilisant le systme dinformation sur les tudiants postsecondaires de statistique canada, cette deuxime phase explorera les lments suivants : les taux dobtention de diplme, laccs aux domaines stim et lachvement en temps opportun pour les tudiants en transfert dans le nord et le sud de lontario. 42 couplage de donnes 2020-2021 projet danalyse de lenqute nationale sur la participation des tudiants de luniversit nipissing chef du projet : universit nipissing | montant attribu : 30 000 $ ce projet soutient lanalyse des rsultats de lenqute nationale sur la participation des tudiants luniversit nipissing sur plusieurs annes afin danalyser les diffrences entre les tudiants qui ont t admis directement et ceux qui ont eu une exprience postsecondaire antrieure. ce projet permettra daugmenter les donnes institutionnelles lies aux expriences et aux rsultats des tudiants en transfert. couplage personnalis de donnes sur les transferts : amliorer la capacit de production de rapports internes chef du projet : canadore college | montant attribu : 24 150 $ ce projet soutient le dveloppement dun couplage personnalis de donnes partir de diverses sources de donnes administratives au sein du canadore college. il amliorera la capacit de production de rapports internes et augmentera les donnes relatives aux rsultats des tudiants en transfert au canadore college 43

ontario council on articulation and transfer supports postsecondary students to overcome pandemic learning challenges june 9, 2023 barrie adrienne galway, executive director of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), was joined by jill dunlop, minister of colleges and universities, and kevin weaver, president and ceo of georgian college, to announce the launch of a funding initiative aimed at supporting student access to postsecondary education and academic recovery from the pandemic. oncat has awarded over $560,000 to eight postsecondary institutions in ontario to develop programs and supports for students impacted by the pandemic. these projects include summer courses to help students recover pandemic-related academic gaps, coaching and mentorship programs to help students transition to and adjust to postsecondary studies, and specialized supports for indigenous learners, mature students, and prospective students from historically unrepresented groups. all are designed to support the successful experience of students whose academic journeys have been disrupted over the last few years. a 2022 report from the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) recommends enhanced opportunities for skills development, academic preparation, and transitional supports to prepare students for success in their educational journey, particularly for those whose studies were interrupted or affected by the pandemic. postsecondary institutions are still navigating the impacts of the pandemic on the sector, and it is crucial for them to be able to adapt to their students ever-changing needs, said jill dunlop, minister of colleges and universities. through this funding provided by oncat, these eight institutions have created strategies to support students affected by the pandemic so they can reach their full academic potential. "the pandemic continues to impact students as they move along their academic pathways and we need to ensure that they are set up for success on their journey, said dr. adrienne galway, executive director at oncat. these funding initiatives give students a strong foundation to build upon, especially those experiencing ongoing barriers to postsecondary access exacerbated by the pandemic. page | 1 in total, oncat is awarding funding for 11 projects led by eight postsecondary institutions: cambrian college, college la cit, george brown college, georgian college, humber college, lakehead university, niagara college, and york university. these projects are funded by the government of ontario. students will benefit from these special projects through the 2023-24 school year. established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. for more information, visit www.oncat.ca. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. page | 2

expansion of pathways between algonquin college and carleton university final report contract 2018-21 list of participants and partner institutions algonquin college maggie cusson david thibodeau dean, academic development chair, mechanical and transportation technology melissa staddon project lead, academic development bruno rocha alanna macdonald professor, mechanical and transportation technology professor and curriculum consultant renay dixon transfer pathways coordinator mary grammatikakis chair, financial, accounting and legal studies kim walker professor & coordinator, legal studies carleton university dwight deugo sarah todd assistant vice-president, academic professor, school of social work andrea thompson diana majury learning outcomes assessment specialist jerome talim assistant professor, faculty of engineering hugh shewell interim dean, school of social work undergraduate supervisor, department of law and legal studies sarah cleary departmental administrator, department of law and legal studies oncat 2018-21 final report 2|page contacts algonquin college maggie cusson dean, academic development 1385 woodroffe avenue ottawa, on k2g 1v8 carleton university dwight deugo assistant vice-president (academic) office of vice-provost and associate vice-president (academic) 1125 colonel by drive, 421e tory building ottawa, ontario k1s 5b6 oncat 2018-21 final report 3|page table of contents 1.0 executive summary .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.0 project purpose and goals ................................................................................................................ 6 3.0 development of transfer pathways.................................................................................................. 6 3.1 methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 6 3.2 comparison and analysis of programs ............................................................................................... 7 4.0 summary of pathways created ......................................................................................................... 7 4.1 status of pathways .............................................................................................................................. 8 5.0 promising practices and lessons learned ........................................................................................ 9 6.0 conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 9 oncat 2018-21 final report 4|page 1.0 executive summary this project sought to establish reciprocal pathways to help students enhance their skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) and other areas including law. students already transition between both institutions and this project used existing data to develop new pathways and renew existing ones. the project aimed to benefit the graduates of algonquin colleges law clerk diploma program to pathway into carleton universitys bachelor of arts in law, both at the general and honours level. the pathway also worked in the other direction, whereby students who graduated from the bachelor of arts in law at carleton could move into algonquins law clerk diploma program. in addition, the existing pathway between algonquins social service worker diploma and carletons bachelor of social work was renewed to continue to allow students to pathway with minimal barriers. the project also aimed to benefit the graduates of algonquins mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma program to pathway into carletons bachelor of engineering and vice versa. the work for the pathway from carletons bachelor of engineering into algonquins mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma is near completion (see details below in section 4.0) and the institutions have agreed to continue work toward developing a pathway from algonquins mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma program into carletons bachelor of engineering. oncat 2018-21 final report 5|page 2.0 project purpose and goals the objective of this project was to develop transfer pathways and renew existing pathways between algonquin college and carleton university with the aim of increasing pathway opportunities for students in multiple disciplines: law, stem and social work. the development of these pathways was the result of the fact that students were already forging these pathways themselves. in addition, pathway development in the stem area has been a priority for both institutions to provide students with opportunities to transfer within these programs and retain as many transfer credits as possible. when the project was first submitted to oncat, two new pathways and one pathway renewal were proposed: algonquin college program law clerk ontario college diploma mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma social service worker ontario college diploma carleton university program bachelor of arts, law (honours and general) bachelor of engineering bachelor of social work type new new renewal the two new pathways were bilateral pathways, meaning that they went in both directions. students from carleton university could pathway into algonquins programs and students from algonquin college could pathway into carletons programs. we knew in advance of this project that we would likely experience some difficulty in establishing a formal pathway from algonquins mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma program to carletons bachelor of engineering. given the demand for this pathway to be developed, our end goal with this particular pathway was to formally establish it with the understanding that it might not get to that point by the time the final report came due. in the event that we encountered delays, our secondary goal was to review these roadblocks and begin the discussion as to how we can overcome them. 3.0 development of transfer pathways 3.1 methodology the steps followed to develop these transfer pathways were as follows: 1. consultations with departments, directors and deans, in person and/or in writing, to identify the pathway and articulation agreement avenues to be developed; 2. identification of articulation models to be developed for each agreement and pathway (in this case, two bilateral and one traditional agreement see summary of pathways); 3. gathering and exchange of course outlines, course descriptions, curricula, etc., necessary for analysis; 4. comparison and analysis of program-level learning outcomes determined the gaps in learning that would exist for a student taking a pathway into each program. credits to be given and the oncat 2018-21 final report 6|page courses required to remediate the gap in learning were determined based on the course learning outcomes; 5. initiation of the approval process to obtain consensus from departments at both institutions in the following order: a. department b. faculty c. dean, academic development (algonquin college) and corresponding faculty dean (carleton university) d. senior vice-president, academic (algonquin college) and provost and vice-president (academic)( carleton university) e. president, algonquin college and president, carleton university 3.2 comparison and analysis of programs when comparing and analyzing the programs, the program-level learning outcomes were compared in a table to identify gaps in learning that included skills, knowledge and depth of learning. the program of study was reviewed in light of the program-level learning outcomes of the prior credential. credit for a course was granted when the program-level learning outcomes from the prior credential confirmed that the student has demonstrated the learning identified in the course learning requirements associated with that course. if additional details were required, the course learning requirements for courses in the prior program of study were reviewed in order to clarify the specific skills and the depth of learning achieved in a previous course. credits outside of the program-learning outcomes (such as general education, breadth or communications credits) were given based on program requirements for the same course in the prior credential. with a list of credits granted, a modified program of study was designed with the remaining courses. once the modified program of study was detailed, it was cross-referenced with the gap analysis to make certain that the remaining courses fill the gap in learning the student would have upon entering the program. the goal is to ensure that the students met all learning outcomes in the new program while being awarded the maximum number of credits to recognize their prior knowledge in a relevant field of study, reducing the cost and time for the student to receive an additional credential. 4.0 summary of pathways created as part of this project, one bilateral pathway (1) has been identified and is being developed between algonquin and carleton. in addition, one unilateral pathway (2) from algonquin to carleton was renewed: 1 2 algonquin college program law clerk ontario college diploma social service worker ontario college diploma carleton university program bachelor of arts, law (honours and general) bachelor of social work oncat 2018-21 final report 7|page 4.1 status of pathways the approval process for new articulation agreements and pathways consists of the following steps: step pathway identified details chair or academic manager communicates the proposed pathway to academic development and the transfer pathways coordinator conduct needs analysis conduct gap analysis draft reviewed and approved by dean, academic development (algonquin) pathway review draft reviewed and approved by senior vice-president, academic (algonquin) draft reviewed and approved by the and approved by assistant vicepresident (academic) (carleton) draft reviewed and approved and approved by the partner institution approval by chair of the receiving program; notification to the chair of the sending program. approval by dean of the receiving program; notification to the chair of the sending program. pathway approval approval by the dean, academic development (algonquin) approval by the senior vice-president, academic (algonquin) approved pathway forwarded to partner institution for signature pathway implementation approved pathway returned to receiving institution and signed by president (algonquin) communicate the approval of the pathway to the registrars office and confirm implementation timeline. pathway stored in the pathway database and the ontransfer database. each of the pathways mentioned when the project was submitted to oncat are at the following stages as of the date of this report being submitted: pathway law clerk diploma to bachelor of arts, law (general) status pathway identified expected implementation date: fall 2019 oncat 2018-21 final report 8|page law clerk diploma to bachelor of arts, law (honours) bachelor of arts, law (general) to law clerk diploma bachelor of arts, law (honours) to law clerk diploma social service worker diploma to bachelor of social work mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma to bachelor of engineering bachelor of engineering to mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma pathway identified expected implementation date: fall 2019 pathway review expected implementation date: fall 2019 pathway review expected implementation date: fall 2019 pathway approval pathway identified pathway review 5.0 promising practices and lessons learned both algonquin college and carleton university recognize the importance of developing a formal pathway from the advanced diploma in mechanical engineering technology to a bachelor of engineering. progress has been made and both institutions are in agreement that this pathway can have significant positive impacts for students, allowing them to obtain both technical and theoretical skills in the field of engineering. involving the accreditation body earlier on in the project is a lesson learned as this would help ensure that activities related to developing the pathway are in alignment with the requirements for accreditation. this was not part of the initial project scope but will be considered for projects moving forward that have accreditation requirements associated with the completion of the credential. developing and formalizing the letter of intent between algonquin and carleton was a key step to ensuring that work continues to progress, and discussions continue to happen toward formalizing a pathway. those involved in the project met to discuss the content of the letter of intent, specifically with regards to the guiding principles. the guiding principles are the specific tasks and deliverables that both institutions have agreed to pursue in the interest of working toward developing the pathway. 6.0 conclusion in general, both algonquin college and carleton university are satisfied with how this project is progressing. although we would have preferred to make more progress on the pathway for students to transfer into a bachelor of engineering, we recognize that work outside the scope of this project must be completed before such a pathway can be formally established. the letter of intent will provide the basis for both institutions to move forward on the work that is required to establish a formal pathway for students wishing to pursue an accredited engineering credential. it is our hope that through continued collaboration and communication, we will continue to make progress with this pathway. oncat 2018-21 final report 9|page

2020 2021 project snapshot postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario: the role of high school academic performance university of guelph, york university david walters, rob brown, gillian parekh, dylan reynolds, & trisha einmann postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario university of guelph, york university | walters et al. keywords transfer students; high school performance; non-traditional pse pathways; student mobility; student borrowing; student debt; postsecondary graduation overview this study examines the impact of transfer and high school performance on ontario postsecondary students graduation rates and student loan borrowing patterns. in fact, its the first population-based study in canada to use administrative data linkages to track student debt and the graduation outcomes of transfer students. the research combines data from the toronto district school boards grade 9 cohort dataset, statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis), and the canada student loans program (cslp). the authors use logistic regression models to assess the impact of student pathways on borrowing patterns and graduation rates. the regression models are estimated in three stages: model 1 examines the effect of student mobility on borrowing without controls. model 2 includes pse program and sociodemographic variables, and model 3 adds controls for secondary school performance. control variables included sex, age, country of birth, family income, field of study, length of study, grade 9 english, grade 9 math, and grade 12 average. 2 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario university of guelph, york university | walters et al. why it matters this work suggests that transferring institutions in ontario is an obstacle to graduating from a postsecondary institution. in addition, transfer students experience an increased financial burden. while many young people graduate with debt, this financial strain may be disproportionately felt by transfer students who are more likely to borrow and less likely to obtain a postsecondary credential compared to those who choose to remain at the same institution. lack of postsecondary education credentials often means poorer access to stable, well-paying jobs and less protection from unemployment and underemployment. as a result, transfer students may be at greater risk of defaulting on their student loans, as well as experiencing delayed life transitions, such as entry into the housing market and starting a family. key findings the authors find that transfer students are more likely to borrow to fund their postsecondary education than students who remain at the same institution for the duration of their studies; however, they are less likely to graduate from their programs. 3 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario university of guelph, york university | walters et al. borrowing the authors found that the probability of taking a government student loan was highest among universityto-university transfer students, suggesting that transferring from one university to another increases the financial burden of post-secondary education compared to students who remain at the same university for the duration of their studies and those who attend college programs. students who transferred from university to college also had a comparatively high predicted probability of borrowing, ranging from 0.67 to 0.63 across the models, though the estimates are comparable to those for direct-entry university students. overall, students who started their post-secondary program in college were the least likely to borrow. this is the first population-based study in canada to use administrative data linkages to track student debt and the graduation outcomes of transfer students. 4 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario university of guelph, york university | walters et al. table 1. predicted probabilities of students borrowing from the canada student loan program, ranked highest to lowest in model 3 transfer group model 1 model 3 university to university 73% 70% direct-entry university 66% 66% university to college 67% 63% college to college 63% 58% direct-entry college 51% 52% college to university 61% 46% 5 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario university of guelph, york university | walters et al. the authors also estimated the amount of student debt for each postsecondary pathway. interestingly, students who transferred from university to university accrued significantly higher debt than direct-entry university students, while direct-entry college students and those who transferred from university to college or college to college borrowed less. in this model, the amount of debt that college-to-university transfers took on was not significantly different than the amount for direct-entry university students. table 2: predicted amount of canada student loan debt at end of study period by transfer group, ranked highest to lowest transfer group model 1 model 3 university to university $16,600 $17,343 direct-entry university $15,800 $16,017 university to college $9,800 $10,408 college to university $12,200 $8,113 direct-entry college $6,100 $7,045 college to college $6,300 $4,735 6 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario university of guelph, york university | walters et al. graduating transfer students were less likely to complete their programs than non-transfer students, even when controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, field of study, and length of study. when controlling for high school academic performance, the graduation gap between transfer and non-transfer students shrinks. this finding suggests that high school performance has a major role to play in transfer student outcomes and whether students will be successful. yet a gap remains, suggesting that transfer is an added barrier for these students. table 3: predicted probabilities of student graduation by transfer group, ranked lowest to highest transfer group model 1 model 3 college to university 32% 60% college to college 38% 65% university to college 52% 69% university to university 63% 72% direct-entry college 64% 77% direct-entry university 87% 83% 7 postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students in ontario university of guelph, york university | walters et al. further reading pizarro milian, r., zarifa, d., & seward, b. (2021). paying back student loans: demographic, human capital and other correlates of default and repayment difficulty. higher education quarterly, 75(1), 7797. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12248 8 to read the full report , please visit : https://oncat .ca/en/projects/student-loanoutcomes- ontario -transfer-students established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. this snapshot was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021.

indigenous language revitalization initiative six nations polytechnic six nations campus six nations polytechnic 2160 fourth line ohsweken, ontario n0a 1m0 phone: 519-445-0023 fax: 519-445-4416 www.snpolytechnic.com project summary in 2015 the truth and reconciliation commission of canada published its final report, which contained 94 calls to action recommendations for spurring movement toward healing the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in canada. the sixteenth call to action was for postsecondary institutions to create university and college degree and diploma programs in aboriginal languages. although several ontario universities offer language courses as part of baccalaureate studies, six nations polytechnic (snp) is the first postsecondary institute to establish an indigenous language university degree: the bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages (baol). the baol seeks to further the development of ogwehoweh cultural understanding within an ogwehoweh language context. taught inperson at six nations polytechnics campus in ohsweken, this fully accredited three-year undergraduate degree focuses on mohawk or cayuga language and is organized into four streams: language, grammar, lifelong learning, and community engagement. as other institutions within the province are building their indigenous studies and indigenous studies-adjacent programs to better integrate indigenous languages, there is limited capacity to offer advanced-level hodinohs:ni languages courses further demonstrating the need to create language speakers. research shows that when indigenous language programming is introduced, those courses are regularly highly subscribed, indicating a prevalent student demand. this project proposes to develop pathways between snps bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages and other indigenous studies postsecondary programs for language promotion, student mobility, and building relationships according to the dish with one spoon. the benefits to students go much deeper than simply increased educational mobility for indigenous learners, particularly. at the institutional level, this project will help universities across ontario more meaningfully address the sixteenth call to action of the canadian trc. current practices there are no formal pathways in place for students interested in transferring from an indigenous studies program at an ontario university into the bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages at six nations polytechnic. at the moment snp does have a generalized letter of permission policy for visiting students interested in taking languages courses. six nations polytechnic is interested in moving beyond the simple availability and generic nature of the policy to (a) raise awareness of the available language and in-language programming, and how it both complements outside degree programs and supports the academic, professional, and cultural needs of indigenous learners in those programs; and (b) forge clearer, specific pathway agreements with individual universities involved in the delivery of indigenous studies curriculum, and especially those whose programs include indigenous languages and/or a focus on hodinohs:ni' peoples. key outcomes established, specific transfer pathways, focused on access to indigenous language learning, between snp and participating universities. initiated new relationships and expanded collaborative works between snp and partner universities, which can provide a foundation for additional pilot projects in support of student mobility into and out of the indigenous institutes sector. enhanced understanding of the indigenous institutes sector among ontario universities. formal credit transfer pathways will be updated and posted on the snp website, and included in its information materials for prospective students. student benefits students at snp as well as at other universities will benefit from established and clearly identified transfer agreements and pathways between the enumerated university-based indigenous studies programs (above) and snps baol programming. other important benefits include: improved access to immersive indigenous language and in-language/language-adjacent programming for indigenous studies students at identified universities. clearer relationships and pathways between snp, as an ii-sector institute, and mainstream universities, which will aid not only non-ii students through their access to baol programming at snp, but also snp students who may benefit from clearer relationships between the ii and university sector moving forward. increased student-body diversity through heightened visiting student presence will benefit both the classroom environment/learning experience and the informal and formal connections students forge with their peers increased parity between indigenous and mainstream institutions in terms of credit transfer pathways, from which indigenous learners (as well as their non-indigenous peers) will benefit from added educational mobility and a lowering of barriers to indigenous student success. student credentials students will obtain undergraduate credit toward their degree through specific letter of permission arrangements that accept baol coursework in lieu of one or more electives at their home university. letter of permission options olg 1cc3: community i this course focuses on community-based language revitalization efforts. students will gain an overview of current language programs, initiatives, and revitalization strategies in various hodinohs:ni communities. olc/olm 1gr6: grammar i this course gives students a basic understanding of the structure of hodinohs:ni language. speaking activities will be utilized to reinforce concepts and promote retention and production. work will be conducted in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). olc/olm 1lg6: language i an introduction to the spoken use of language. emphasis is placed on conversational exchange, and presentations are a required element. this course requires a high level of commitment and patience, including independent study outside the classroom. work will be conducted in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). olc/olm 1ll3: lifelong learning i this course introduces students to the concept of language as a lifelong learning process, to foster personal growth as well as growth in others. students will review literature on the history of hodinohs:ni languages and indigenous language revitalization and create a personal learning plan including a personal philosophy of learning. olg 2cc3: community ii this course focuses on the importance of community in language revitalization efforts. students will conduct research, case studies, and survey activities to ascertain the existing state of community language revitalization, statistics about the speaking population, and the success of various efforts. prerequisite: olg 1cc3 community i. olc/olm 2gr6: grammar ii this course reviews and expands students understanding of the structure of hodinohs:ni languages. speaking activities will be utilized to reinforce concepts and promote retention and production. greater emphasis is placed on precision of grammar in speaking. work will be conducted in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisite: olc/olm 1gr6 grammar i. olc/olm 2lg6: language ii building on language i, this course focuses on the spoken use of the language. emphasis is placed on conversational exchange and presentations are a required element. this course requires a high level of commitment and patience including independent study outside the classroom. work will be conducted in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisite: olc/olm 1lg6 language i. olc/olm 2ll3: lifelong learning ii in this course, students continue to develop their personal learning plans and philosophies. students will review literature and case studies on second language acquisition. work will be conducted in english as well as in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisite: olc/olm 1ll3 lifelong learning i. olc/olm 3gr6: grammar iii this course is an intensive review and further expansion of the grammatical structure of iroquoian language, roots, prefixes, suffixes, and word order. speaking activities will be utilized to reinforce concepts and promote retention and production. emphasis is placed on using grammatical pieces to create new meaning. work will be conducted in in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisite: olc/olm 2gr6 grammar ii. olc/olm 3lg6: language iii a continuing intermediate immersion experience in hodinohs:ni focusing on the spoken use of the language. emphasis is placed on extended conversational exchanges and the emergence of creative and complex language use. presentations are a required element. this course requires a high level of commitment and patience. work will be conducted in in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisites: olc/olm 2lg6 language ii. olg 1hh3: hodinohs:ni history i: cosmology an in-depth examination of the hodinohs:ni conceptualization and understanding of the universe, from creation to the present day. discussion revolves around the creation story, thanksgiving address, and other topics, as decided by the instructor. materials are pulled from oral history, literature, and historical documents. work will be conducted in english as well as in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). olc/olm 2tr3: beginner translation: theory & practice this course introduces students to the theory of translation. students will focus on expressing simple ideas in cayuga/mohawk, and translating to/from english, and examine the best ways to do so in each language. work will be conducted in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisites: olc/olm 1gr6 grammar i; olc/olm 1lg6 language i. olc/olm 2sf3: composition: short & long form this course introduces students to the composition of texts entirely in the language of their program (mohawk/cayuga), in either short- or long-form. formats include written or spoken storybooks, short stories, poems, plays, anecdotes, essays, and other types as determined by the instructor. course is conducted in the chosen program language (mohawk/cayuga). prerequisites: olc/olm 2lg6 language ii; olc/olm 2gr6 grammar ii. olg 2ea3: ethnoastronomy this course examines hodinohs:ni understandings of the universe, taking a two-row approach. topics of discussion include stars, constellations, and other astronomical bodies; cartography and navigation; and other topics as decided by the instructor. work will be conducted in english and in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). olg 2hl3: historical hodinohs:ni languages this course examines the history of iroquoian languages, with the aim of broadening students knowledge of hodinohs:ni languages today. work will be conducted in english and in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisites: olc/olm 1gr6 grammar i; olc/olm 1lg6 language i. olg 2hh3: hodinohs:ni history ii: contact to 1800 this course considers the changes in hodinohs:ni society resulting from contact, through to the major cultural and religious upheavals up to 1800. content is pulled from historical documentation and oral history. work will be conducted in english and in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisite: olg 1hh3 hodinohs:ni history i: cosmology. olg 3tr3: advanced translation: application & advanced translation theory this course builds on beginner translation and will focus on the application of beginner translation theory to practical texts found within the environment. advanced translation theory and techniques will be discussed. prerequisites: olc/olm 2tr3 beginner translation - theory and practice; olc/olm 2gr6/olm 2gr6 grammar ii; olc/olm 2lg6/olm 2lg6 language ii. olc/olm 3gv3: governance this course examines the emergence of hodinohs:ni governance with an emphasis on language: titles, terms, roles and responsibilities, and structure of the confederacy. work will be conducted in english and in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk). prerequisites: olc/olm 1gr6 grammar i; olc/olm 1lg6 language i. olg 3hh3: hodinohs:ni history iii: 1800 to today this course examines hodinohs:ni society after 1800. content is drawn from historical documentation and oral history. work will be conducted in english and in the chosen program language (cayuga/mohawk) prerequisite: olg 2hh3 hodinohs:ni history ii: contact to 1800. project contact: stevie jonathan unit manager university six nations polytechnic 519-445-0023 ext 6223 stevie.jonathan@snpolytechnic.com

contents executive summary ........................................................................................................................ ii introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 the class of 73 and post-secondary education in ontario....................................................... 1 literature review............................................................................................................................ 4 coverage of student transfer: mid- 1970s to 2020 .................................................................... 5 sub-categories of student transfer ............................................................................................. 7 college-university student transfer ...................................................................................... 8 university-college transfer ................................................................................................. 11 college-college and university-university student transfer ............................................... 13 labour force outcomes of student transfer............................................................................ 13 study rationale and research questions ..................................................................................... 18 data and methodology .................................................................................................................. 22 dependent variables ................................................................................................................. 23 independent variables .............................................................................................................. 26 analytic strategy ...................................................................................................................... 27 descriptive statistics ................................................................................................................. 27 bivariate analysis ..................................................................................................................... 31 multivariate models ...................................................................................................................... 39 multinomial logistic regression .............................................................................................. 39 results ....................................................................................................................................... 40 growth curve models............................................................................................................... 43 occupational status (blishen)................................................................................................... 44 income....................................................................................................................................... 50 job satisfaction ......................................................................................................................... 54 summary of multivariate analyses .............................................................................................. 56 discussion and conclusions ......................................................................................................... 57 references ..................................................................................................................................... 61 executive summary in this report, we explore cohort data spanning over 46 years to examine the historical patterns of transfer among ontario post-secondary students. more specifically, we employ the class of '73 longitudinal database spanning a time frame from 1973 to 2019 --to explore the antecedents, covariates, and long-term outcomes experienced by students who moved through the ontario post-secondary system in the late 1970s and early 1980s. it is important to recognize that the experience of student transfer is not new, and as our data analysis reveals members of this cohort participated in some kind of transfer, whether it was from college to university or university to college, or between universities or colleges. the study fills an important gap in the transfer literature around the historical practices of post-secondary transfer by using data from the longest running cohort study to date in canada. data collected in 1973 (high school), 1975 (when many young people had chosen to enter a post-secondary institution), 1979 (when members of the class of 73 were about 24 and most likely to have completed post-secondary), 1988 (when members of the class of 73 were about 33 and participating in the labour market)and 1995 (22 years after high school, around 40 years old and in mid-career) were employed to create a descriptive analysis of the detailed post-secondary pathways of cohort members. insofar as that the class of 73 cohort study employs a a longitudinal design, we were also able to establish a sequence of events with respect to their choice of post-secondary institution(s) and employment outcomes (i.e. occupational prestige, income, and job satisfaction). we had two research questions: 1. did the characteristics of students that chose to transfer differ substantively with those that did not transfer over the course of the class of 73 study? and ii 2. did the short and longer-term labour force consequences of students that engaged in transfer differ substantively from those that did not transfer over the course of the class of 73 study? the data analysis presented in this report consists of three components: 1. descriptive statistics intended to introduce the reader to the key characteristics of the sample; 2. bivariate analyses of between wave transfer and total transfer that provides a description of the prevalence of different kinds of transfer among respondents participating in waves 1 through 6. this analysis provides a basic impression of how specific background characteristics (e.g., sex, ses, region) relate to the experience of student transfer and 3. multivariate analysis in two parts. in part one, multinomial logit models predicting transfer-type were estimated, using socio-demographic variables as independent predictors. these models allowed us to analyze the extent to which background characteristics affected the probability of an individual transferring between types of post-secondary education (e.g., are women more likely to transfer than men). the second part of the multivariate analysis employed growth curve models to describe the extent to which labor market outcomes such as income and occupational status change over time and to explain how the pattern of change differs in relation to the independent variables employed in the models. the analyses revealed some notable findings, including: iii in total, transfers made up only 24% of the total of educational pathways across waves 2 to 6, indicating that transfer students comprised a minority of all respondents in our sample. within this small minority, it is also clear that university to caat transfers are the most common type of transfer overall. women modestly outnumbered men in all of the transfer categories especially in caat to university. we suggested that the women in our cohort study commonly appear to have taken a different path into university than men--namely by transferring from caat to university. however, by later phases of the cohort study sex differences became trivial. among those with lower grades, transfers were predominantly other or caat to university (though with notably smaller overall numbers). among those in the 60% to 69% group, transfers are more evenly distributed between caat to university and university to caat. finally, among those with the highest grades, transfers were predominantly from university to caat. among the results of the multinomial logistic regressions that are noteworthy: for transfer from college-to-university, it was found that females were more likely to report this type of transfer, that high ses individuals were less likely to report this type of transfer, and that those with higher grades were less likely to report this type of transfer. for transfer from university-to-college, we find no sex or ses effects, but a negative odds ratio associated with high grades (relative to average grades). the growth curve analysis revealed the following noteworthy findings: in terms of occupational prestige over time, we observed higher rates of return for universityto college-transfer transfer compared to college-to-university transfer. in fact, cohort iv members who experienced a university-to-college transfer had later-life occupational prestige scores similar to those with university-only pathways. in terms of income over time, the college-to-university pathway showed the greatest returns in later-life, again with trajectories similar to those who had university-only pathways. while there were significant income differences by sex, this did not change the relative impact of the type of pathway on predicted income. we found no differences in later-life job satisfaction by pathway type. we conclude our study by considering how our findings both reinforce and challenge existing knowledge on transfer pathways. we found that transfer students tended to be female and from lower ses backgrounds and had lower grades, which is consistent with the existing transfer literature. however, we also emphasize that while the discourse in transfer literature tends to favour the college-to-university pathway as the most desirable, our findings do not demonstrate any later-life income or occupational status outcomes that are consistent with such a belief. in contrast, cohort members who engaged in university to college transfers experienced trajectories very similar to those who only attended university. we can only speculate on why that may be and we contextualize our findings in the sociopolitical context of the time, that was characterized by considerable restructuring to education in ontario. v introduction in this report, we examine student transfer at the post-secondary level and how it relates to laterlife employment outcomes. our analyses are based on an ontario cohort of late baby boomers who were part of a high school graduating class of 1973 which gives us the opportunity to examine student transfer from a life-course perspective. efforts have been made to contact the original cohort members a total of seven times, with the most recent data collected in 2019, making this 46- year study the longest cohort study ever undertaken in canada. from the perspective of student transfer, we are in a unique position to examine the long-term associations of student transfer in ontario using this data set. the class of 73 and post-secondary education in ontario members of the class of 73 were typically born in 1955 and, unlike their parents who grew up during the deepest economic depression and most intense war canadians had ever confronted, they grew up in homes that valued stability and opportunity and with parents that were committed to the notion that their childrens lives should be better than their own (anisef et. al, 2000). it should also be noted that the post-secondary educational system in ontario expanded significantly in the 1960s and early 1970s. this was driven by a number of factors, including population growth, economic demand, human capital theory and the promise of social justice through equality of opportunity. thus, full-time university enrolments rose from 32,100 in 1960 to 159,700 in 1975 a growth of nearly 500%. during the same period, non-university postsecondary enrolment increased from 16,600 to 59,600 a growth of around 350% (anisef et. al, 2000). 1 the ontario colleges of applied arts and technology (caats) were founded some fifty-four years ago for the purposes of increasing access to post-secondary education, addressing the needs of students not served by the university system, and meeting local economic and community development needs. (lennon et. al., 2015; deacock et.al., 2011). according to the hon. w. davis, then minister responsible for colleges and universities, community college: goes far towards making a reality of the promise...to provide through education and training not only an equality of opportunity to all sectors of our population, but the fullest possible development of each individual to the limit of his ability...this expansion of our school system is imperative to meet the need of individual citizens as well as the society as a whole (cited in anisef, 1985:76). the development of the community college system in ontario was not without its critics and implicit biases against the roles of such institutions. for example, mr. macdonald, a member of the ndp, argued that: if community colleges are going to be sharply oriented to technology, with a core of liberal arts, and with ill-defined and limited opportunities for transfer to university for the brighter students, they will cement the fate of the disadvantaged child. even if he does overcome earlier handicaps sufficiently to reach high school and complete years in the non-university stream, there is little prospect that he can go beyond the community college (hansard, june 9, 1966:4483). in 1966 when centennial college was the first college to open its doors there were 450 full-time and 160 part -time students in 16 programs. by 1973 (when our study participants were in grade 12), twenty-two community colleges were operating, as were fifteen universities (anisef et. al., 2000). in choosing to attend either a university or community college, frenette (2003) points out that geographical proximity has proven an important factor in the decision-making process, particularly for low-income high school students and their parents. frenettes research demonstrated that when no university is nearby students from lower income families are far less likely to attend than students from upper income families (frenette, 2003:20). research by 2 drolet (cited in kerr et. al., 2010) also indicates that the participation rate of students from the lowest income categories is 50% higher in colleges than in universities, again showing the important role played by the colleges in providing equitable access to pse. a review of the educational pathways chosen by members of the class of 73 after they left high school led to a number of important insights regarding the impact of social forces and agency. it also underscores the importance of education over the long term, from the subjective standpoint of the participants (anisef et. al., 2000). the findings reported from phases conducted in 1973 and 1979 clearly documented the importance of social background forces such as class, sex, and region in shaping the educational preferences and decisions taken in their high school years (anisef, 1975; anisef, 1980; anisef, turrittin, & lin, z., 1999; anisef, & axelrod, 2001). participants were strongly influenced by class structures, sex role considerations, and the opportunities available in their region of residence, when deciding on high school programs and future educational goals. in general, there appeared to be a strong reciprocal association between social background and educational pathways taken, in that social privilege increased the likelihood of gaining higher educational credentials and subsequent employment and occupational success. once personal educational expectations have been developed, these expectations serve to mediate the influence of social background on subsequent educational choices, particularly as members of the class of 73 began their careers and assumed new responsibilities and challenges (e.g., marital and parental status). the impact of structural factors in sustaining educational advantage should not be minimized. however, the analysis conducted in earlier phases of this 3 longitudinal study illustrates the importance of factoring in the role played by personal agency in the critical high school and post-secondary years (anisef et. al., 2000). though working- class origins did influence future success, some working-class participants were able to overcome their lack of cultural capital, complete grade 13, and move on to a university or community college education and, in some instances, both types of pse. similarly, a significant number of women were able to surmount gender obstacles. many of these women were from rural areas and a high proportion chose to leave their community to improve their educational and career opportunities (anisef, turrittin & paasche, 1980; anisef et. al., 2000). literature review researchers rely on literature reviews to establish the state of knowledge in a particular area and generate hypotheses that subsequently can be tested through the use of empirical data. our main objective in this report is to trace the student transfer experiences of a cohort that graduated from high school in the mid 1970s, relate these experiences to their demographic, socio-cultural and attitudinal characteristics and then examine the short and long- term labour market outcomes of this cohort. in analyzing the student transfer experiences of the class of 73, we will examine college-to-university, university-to-college, college-to-college and university-to -university student transfer. these different sub-categories of student transfer will be compared and contrasted with those students in the class of 73 that chose not to transfer over the course of the longitudinal study. in conducting the literature review we were interested in: 4 (1) whether the research studies that we identified with respect to sub-categories of student transfer provides us with adequate coverage of the period ranging from the mid 1970s to the present day; (2) discovering what is known about these distinct sub-categories of student transfer in ontario and; (3) understanding if existent studies provide us with information regarding short- and long-term labour market outcomes so that we can assess important differences between those that chose to transfer and those that chose not to transfer. coverage of student transfer: mid- 1970s to 2020 as noted above, ontario experienced a phenomenal expansion of universities and the creation of community colleges of applied arts and technology in the 1960s. prompting this expansion were two factors: the rapid increase in the baby boom population of students leaving high school and an upgrading of the educational requirements for numerous occupations in commerce, industry, and the public service (anisef et. al, 1985). this expansion, beginning in the 1960s and extending into the 1970s, was also fueled by optimism or hope that this type of expansion would provide opportunities for individuals and groups that had previously been unable to attend these institutions (anisef and okihiro, 1982). in these early decades, the pathways by high school graduates in ontario to universities and colleges were far more direct with students being more likely to transition directly to a university or college of their choice. however, in recent decades there has been a shift in student demographics and a rapid growth in non-traditional students or students that do not directly enter 5 post-secondary education (pse) upon graduation from high school. gorman et. al. (2013) describe the differences between these two pathways: the spectrum of non-traditional pathways to pse is varied and complex. the traditional pathway has long been one where students enter a post-secondary institution immediately after high school, graduate and obtain employment commensurate with their education (though even this traditional pathway is being challenged in todays challenging labour market; e.g., carrick, 2012). alternatively, students following non-traditional pathways may experience disruptions, social and economic barriers, and/or challenges to employment. preparatory programs are an opportunity to bridge this gap by providing a pathway through to post-secondary education and, in some instances, into employment. liu (2013) provides a more detailed understanding of the differences in entry between students that chose university and community colleges in ontario and between direct entry students and those that follow more non-traditional pathways in pursuing a post-secondary education in ontario. in ontario, approximately 50 to 60 per cent of bachelors graduates were found to have entered university directly from high school. in contrast, the percentage of college graduates that chose to directly enter college from high school was considerably lower and has actually dropped over time (from 40 to 45 % for earlier cohorts of 1982, 1986 and 1990 to under 30 % since cohort 1995). liu (2013) concludes that delayers are no longer a marginal group in ontarios pse system and this should in fact be of great interest to policymakers. against this backdrop, the authors of the report conducted a detailed review of literature with respect to student transfer in the province of ontario with particular focus on research studies that would reveal information regarding the demographic, social, cultural and attitudinal characteristics of students that elected to transfer between colleges and universities or across universities and colleges. while we did find discussion relevant to the emergence of community colleges in the mid 1960s and their relationship to universities within ontario (e.g., skolnik, 6 2010), no evidence-based studies on student transfer could be located for the period extending from the mid 1970s through the mid 1990s. deacock et. al. (2011) indicate: indeed, even though some historical evidence of student movement from colleges to university since the inception date of the college system exists, there is a very limited amount of data on the full picture of transfer in the province of ontario. hard data on the movement of students in all directions-college-to-college, college-to-university, university-to-college, and university-to-university is minimal. the lack of information relates to the number of students, their characteristics, and their overall transfer experience. there is no systematic method to collect the data. (p.9) with the emergence of the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) in 2011, the research landscape has begun to alter. oncat has buttressed its mandate to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students that seek to transfer among ontarios 45 postsecondary institutions by creating a knowledge base to facilitate transfer of credits. sub-categories of student transfer various researchers have reported that while there is an ample supply of student mobility literature, most of the research reports on and analyzes the college-university credit transfer pathway. a more limited amount of research in the area of student transfer, focuses attention on the university-college transfer (reverse transfer) and even less analyzes the universityuniversity transfer (robson et. al. (2016); arnold & woodhead (2015); cameron, 2015; popovic, 2012). scanning the past research studies by oncat, we found 68 completed studies on transfer from college-to-university; college to college was second with 18 studies and university-tocollege was third with 11 completed studies. popovic (2012) maintains that although there are many sorts of transfer possible in ontarios pse system, the most common forms consist of college-to-college, college-to-university, university-to-university, and from apprenticeship to college. deacock et. al. (2013) assert that hard data on the movement of students in all of these transfer directions is actually minimal. 7 lavigne et. al. (2015), however, argue that the biggest number of educational pathways in ontario and canada generally occur within the college and university sectors rather than between sectors. thus, by far the biggest pathway in ontario has been university-to-university, comprising 53.1% of all graduates with a prior canadian qualification. before examining the characteristics of sub-categories of transfer students it is first informative to describe the characteristics of students that enter directly from high school (or dehs) to pse. robson et. al. (2016:4) reviewed various research studies and provided a description of dehs students in ontario. these students tended to be below the age of 19, non-indigenous, and declared no disabilities. in contrast, transferring students displayed more diverse demographics. they were more likely to be female, older on the average, and showed more variability in age than dehs students. also, transferring students were found to be more likely than dehs students to be of indigenous ancestry, the first in their families to pursue a higher education, and were more likely to have a disability. moreover, given that they tended to be older than dehs students, transfer students were more likely to be married, have children and work either full or part-time. college-university student transfer camman (2015) indicates that over the past decade or so, the percentage of college graduates who transferred to universities increased from 5 to 7.7 % -- a difference largely attributed to increased credit pathways. the college-university consortium council (cucc) created a transfer student profile in 2007 that outlined four key attributes of college graduates that transferred to a university. those that transferred were found to be in the youngest age group, 8 female, to have graduated from a basic or advanced diploma program and, finally, to have graduated from applied arts or business programs. data that was collected from the mtcu graduate student satisfaction survey conducted in 2008-2009 also provides a profile of ontario transfer students. college graduates who transferred to a university were more likely to be female and under the age of 22. they were found to have graduated with a basic diploma or an advance diploma from a large college in the metropolitan toronto or central region of ontario. in addition, survey data collected by academica group, inc. indicated that higher proportions of university applicants from various under-represented groups -including indigenous students, students with disabilities, first generation students and low-moderate income students tended to be college transfer students compared to other university applicants (kerr et. al., 2010). stewart and martinello (2012) remind us that it is not uncommon for students who have successfully completed two or three years at an ontario community college to be granted less than a full year of academic credit at a university. in terms of academic performance, kerr et. al. (2010) reviewed multiple studies that showed that transfer students performed equally well in grade point average and course grades as university students that did not transfer. however, these authors also found that, in ontario, college transfer students were also more likely to drop out. robson et. al. (2016) suggest that overall findings indicate that transfer students performed at least as well academically as dehs students and, in some instances, actually outperformed them. 9 an investigation conducted by smith et. al. (2016) documented the transfer between york university and seneca college over a period of 12 years (2000-2012) through the use of academic and administrative data. of the 9,330 students who transferred from seneca to york, 64% were seneca graduates; by 2012, 47% had graduated, 20% were still enrolled and 33% had chosen to withdraw from york. when transfer students to york from seneca were examined, it was found that 59% were female, 74% were canadian citizens, 32% were older than 25, 39% claimed not to have either french or english as their mother tongue, and 27% did not have at least one parent that has attained some post-secondary education. steffler et. al. (2018) employed administrative and survey data from 2007 to 2014 to track 36,054 seneca college entrants from high school until six months after college graduation. they discovered that transfer to university was 3% higher for college graduates who had a parent with a degree than graduates without a degree; this relationship held when the researchers controlled for socio-demographic factors and grades. while rates of transfer did not differ by income, when income was combined with parental education (where at least one parent had a degree), graduates who had a low income but had at least one parent with a degree were 4% more likely to transfer to university. finally, those graduates with the highest grades and who aspired to attend university proved to be the most likely students to transfer. henderson and mccloy (2019) conducted a study to examine the profiles and pathways of college-to-university students in order to identify who chose a transfer pathway as well as their unique needs and experiences. academica groups university and college applicant study (ucas) database was employed to compare college applicants who aspired to a degree 10 to those who did not, and to compare university applicants who had a previous college credential to those with no previous pse experience. the results are based on a sample of over 125,000 ontario college and university applicants who participated in the ucas between 2010 and 2015. this included 70,813 survey respondents who had applied to ontario universities and 57,839 survey respondents who had applied to ontario colleges. the researchers found that profiles of university applicants with a previous college credential and those with no previous pse experience differed significantly, with many of the traditionally under-represented groups in university composing a larger proportion of the population with a previous college credential. in particular, there was a larger percentage of first-generation students, students with a disability, lower income students, indigenous students, and rural students in the group with previous college credentials compared to the university applicant group with no previous pse. college transfer students were also shown to be more likely to have identified as white/ caucasian, or black, and less likely to have self-reported as being chinese or south asian. academically, university applicants who had completed a college credential were much less likely to have taken university preparatory courses in high school than those with no previous pse experience, and their average high school gpa was significantly lower. university-college transfer lavigne et. al. (2015) argue that the biggest educational pathways in ontario are within the college and university sectors rather than between sectors. they found that college graduates with prior qualifications from a canadian university were 13% of all pse graduates with a prior canadian pse qualification in ontario, in contrast to the 9% of college graduates who had a prior canadian university qualification in all of canada. kerr et. al. (2010) reported that university-college pathways (utc or reverse pathways) are increasing although generally less 11 quickly than college-university pathways. these researchers reported that utc students tended to be over 25 years of age, spoke a first language other than french or english, and were enrolled in narrow and applied courses. arnold and woodhead (2015) also indicated that while there is an ample supply of student mobility literature that analyzes college-university credit transfer, there is only a limited amount of research that focuses on college-college and university-college transfer. kerr et. al., (2010) documented that the profile of university-to-college transfer students was somewhat different than that of college-to-university transfer students, the former group were more likely to be female, older than 25 years of age, and speaking a first language other than french or english. in many instances, students in this group have sought programs in colleges that would prepare them for employment/career, have been in the workforce for some time before returning to pse and may have been in the process (voluntarily or involuntarily) of pursuing a second career. in the study of transfer between york university and seneca college, smith et. al. (2016) identified the following characteristics of york to seneca transfer students: 61% were female, 91% were canadian citizens, 27% were older than 25, relatively few had english or french as their mother tongue and 21% did not have at least one parent that had attained some pse. upon entering seneca, the authors found that almost two-thirds of the university transfer students reported plans to enter the workforce following their graduation from seneca. robson et. al. (2016) examined tdsb data for a cohort of students (n=16,364) that were in grade 9 in 2006 and were followed for eight years, until fall 2014. in terms of those students 12 who appeared to have reverse transferred from university-to-college, an exploratory analysis revealed that these students were more likely to be from lower socioeconomic groups and be racialized (particularly black, south asian, or southeast asian). a qualitative follow-up by maier and robson (2020) found that utc were characterized by struggles with university coursework, poor physical and mental health, unmet special education needs, and worries about future career prospects. college-college and university-university student transfer arnold and woodhead (2015) indicate that while there is a plentiful supply of student mobility research, most of this research centers on and analyzes college-university credit transfer. only a limited amount of research discusses college-college transfer. in a review of literature on student mobility and transfer pathways, further support for the plentiful amount of research on collegeto-university transfer and the lack of comparable research on other transfer pathways (eg. college-to-college, university-to-university) is provided (camman (2015:5-6)). a detailed review of literature by the authors of this report failed to identify studies that report on the characteristics of students that transfer within post-secondary institutions and whether these students differ from students that transfer across post-secondary institutions. labour force outcomes of student transfer kerr et. al. (2010) report on the negligible amount of research with respect to the post-graduation labour market outcomes of college and university graduates that have pursued non-traditional pathways: most of the research that has been conducted has explored the labour market outcomes of graduates with multiple credentials or with previous post-secondary experience... in terms of labour market status five years after graduation, graduates with prior pse were similarly or less likely to be out of the labour force or unemployed compared to those without prior pse. one exception to this outcome was observed for university graduates at the bachelors level 13 with a previous trade or college degree, who were more likely than bachelors without prior pse to be unemployed (p24). a study using the 1995 ngs examined the earnings outcomes (two years after graduation) of graduates who had obtained a prior post-secondary credential relative to graduates who had not. in most cases, further pse was associated with higher earnings, although there was some variation by field of study. the most noteworthy exception to this finding was that university graduates who had pursued further college education earned less than graduates with one university undergraduate degree (p25). after reviewing the limited number of studies in the area, kerr et. al (2010) caution that although it is generally thought that acquiring additional pse will lead to improved labour market outcomes, the research done to date indicates that economic rewards associated with the acquisition of additional pse vary by credential or type of pse experience obtained, field of study, the timing of credential attainment as well as individual student characteristics (p25). lavigne et. al. (2015) also note that there has been very little published at the post-secondary level on the connections between qualifications within fields of education and the links between educational pathways and occupational pathways. they point out that this is partially due to the difficulty of obtaining accurate data in ontario and canada. however, they suggest that this issue will be resolved in most provinces, including ontario, through the use of universal student numbers. thus, ontario recently expanded the use of the ontario education number (oen) to encompass post-secondary education. however, it will take some years before the data linked to the use of oen are able to provide insights into students trajectories as they complete multiple pse qualifications. given that there is limited research regarding the labor market outcomes of students that transfer across pse institutions in canada, we turn to research conducted in the united states on this 14 topic area for additional insights. andrews, li and lovenheim (2014) indicate that little is known in the united states with respect to how enrollment in multiple institutions of varying quality relates to later- life outcomes. given this situation, they analyzed a panel data set in texas in order to provide a detailed examination of the paths that students have taken toward a bachelors degree and to estimate how enrollment in multiple institutions related to both degree completion and subsequent earnings. their data consisted of 1.1 million post-secondary students in texas that was subsequently combined with state administrative data, allowing researchers to trace out in a detailed manner the heterogeneous ways that students move through the post-secondary system (andrews, li & lovenheim, 2014). when earnings were examined, the general nding was that direct attendee graduates earned more than transfers into their institutions. however, this difference proved to be small for the non-agship (or less selective) sector (andrews, li & lovenheim, 2014:94:107). in a study conducted by xu et. al. (2018), the researchers employed matching strategies to examine whether community college vertical-transfer students (i.e., community college-touniversity) in virginia, who resembled university only-students with respect to their accumulated college-level credits and performance at their point of entry into the 4-year sector, performed equally well in terms of both academic and labor-market outcomes. the analytic sample employed in this study consisted of 42,803 students, approximately 10% of whom (n = 4,678) were vertical transfer students. it should also be noted that although the majority of community college students aspired to a bachelors degree, actually less than a quarter transferred to a fouryear institution, indicating that the transfer process acts as a strong screening mechanism, so that only the most academically capable and motivated community college students managed to 15 transfer to a four-year institution. while the analysis revealed comparable baccalaureate attainment by community college vertical-transfer and university-only four-year students, vertical-transfer students had lower earnings eight years after college entry. subsequent analyses by xu et. al. (2018) examined possible mechanisms for this labour market penalty and suggested that the penalty could be partly attributed to a delayed entry into the labor market as a result of credit loss at the point of transfer. xu, solanki & harlow (2018) reviewed studies that have examined the impact of beginning ones post-secondary study experience at a two-year college on academic outcomes and generally concluded that there was a negative association between two-year college entry and the probability of obtaining a baccalaureate- even among students with a clear intent to earn a baccalaureate degree. they further point out that there are even fewer studies that identify the labour market outcomes for those students that initiate their post-secondary studies in two-year colleges. the researchers drew upon the education longitudinal study of 2002 (a nationally representative study of students in 10th grade in 2002 and 12th grade in 2004) to investigate the impact on labour market outcomes of initiating post-secondary studies at two-year colleges. given the profound compositional variation in the undergraduate body, the researchers sought to identify the heterogeneous effects on different groups of students that began their studies in twoyear colleges. using a propensity score matching strategy, xu, solanki & harlow (2018) found that a two-year college pathway substantially reduced students likelihood of earning a baccalaureate. in terms of labor market outcomes, estimates were generally negative. however, these estimated negative effects were substantially smaller after the researchers introduced controls for baseline differences between the two-year college and four-year institution entrants. 16 further, the negative effects were no longer significant in the post-match sample (consisting only of baccalaureate aspirants who were at least somewhat likely to consider the two-year college pathway to a baccalaureate). the only exception was full-time employment for female studentsfemale students who initiated at a two-year college program were less likely to be employed full-time (versus employed part-time or unemployed), compared to their four-year institution counterparts. witteveen & attewell (2019) employed a large nationally representative dataset of college graduates to examine the correlates of vertical transfer on post-college labor market outcomes, noting first, that few studies have concentrated on the consequences that a vertical transfer has on post-college labor market outcomes, and second, that findings in earlier studies have been inconsistent. for example, one study reported an earnings penalty among graduates in virginia, whereas a study of graduates in texas reported a null finding. with this in mind, the researchers employed nationally-representative data from the national survey of college graduates of 2015 (consisting of 91,000 cases), a survey that was conducted by the national science foundation on a sample of bachelors degree graduates (or higher) drawn from the american community survey (acs). in this study, the researchers only included those who completed a ba among transfer and university-only four-year students. furthermore, the researchers explored one important interaction based on research conducted by hilmer (1997), who demonstrated that earning returns to college major vary across graduates who took different routes toward their degrees. using nationally-representative us data, witteveen & attewell (2019) reported a significant earnings disadvantage (a roughly 14% decrement annually) for college graduates who started their post-secondary studies in a two-year institution. however, they also found no effect 17 of vertical transfer on graduates employment chances. in addition, further analysis revealed that the earnings disadvantage experienced by college graduates who started their studies at a twoyear college could not be negated or avoided by choosing a particular (high-paying) major, including many stem majors. the exception was physics and science-related majors (e.g., health), with no transfer effect being identified. study rationale and research questions as illustrated in the above literature review, there is a gap in the literature on the later-life outcomes of different types of post-secondary transfers. this is largely due to lack of data in ontario (and canada more generally) that allows for longitudinal analyses of educational outcomes. we are in a unique position to examine how different types of transfer are associated with different later-life work-related outcomes. the class of 73 longitudinal study provides a rich data source containing an enormous number of demographic, social, cultural and attitudinal variables collected over 47 years. to better understand the contribution this study will make in understanding student transfer and its impact on labour market outcomes, it is important that we distinguish between cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs. generally, social scientists employ two types of design in developing empirical studies, cross-sectional and longitudinal, with the vast majority of research studies on student transfer employing cross-sectional designs. the defining feature of a crosssectional study is that it can compare different population groups at a single point in time and allows researchers to compare many different variables at the same time. we could, for example, look at age, sex, race, income and educational level in relation to the ease with which students 18 transfer from college-to-university and/or locate employment after completing their studies. however, cross-sectional studies may not provide definite information about cause-and-effect relationships. while such studies offer a snapshot of a single moment in time; they do not consider what happens before or after the snapshot is taken. longitudinal studies, in contrast, offer researchers an opportunity to analyze student transfer processes in detail and identify short and long- term labor market outcomes. in a longitudinal study, researchers conduct several observations of the same subjects over a period of time, sometimes lasting many years. as a result, researchers are able to detect developments or changes in the characteristics of the target population at both the group and the individual level. the key here is that longitudinal studies such as the class of 73 extend beyond a single moment in time. as a result, they can establish sequences of events. approximately a decade ago, the ontario government established the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat), an agency whose mandate is to support credit transfer and mobility of ontario students. since then, oncat has supported research, partnerships and projects to further the systematic capacity for student choice and opportunity (lennon et. al., 2016). while oncat has supported a substantial number of research projects that improve our understanding of student mobility and student transfer, much more needs to be learned concerning the factors that facilitate the transfer of students among post-secondary institutions, particularly college-to-college and university-to-college transfer (arnold & woodhead (2015). popovic (2012) indicates that ontarios post-secondary education system was designed to be a binary system, one in which colleges and universities were developed as two separate sectors. this system is very different from other jurisdictions pse systems- that is, systems that are 19 typically developed around a traditional sending and receiving dichotomy where students take all or part of their first two years of study at a college (sending institution) and then move on to a research university (receiving institution) to complete their degrees. though the ontario postsecondary system was originally developed as a binary system, william davis, the education minister at the time that ontarios colleges were established, claimed that no able and qualified student should be prevented from going on from a college of applied arts and technology to a university (cited in kerr et. al., 2010:4; deacock et. al., 2011:8)). be that as it may, it is not unusual for ontario students who have completed two or three years at a community college to be granted less than a full years academic credits when seeking to transfer to a university (stewart & martinello, 2012). many of the research studies on student transfer relate to factors impacting on the process of student transfer rather than predictive personal characteristics and later-life outcomes. moreover, it is crucial that we evaluate the labour market outcomes (positive and negative) of transfer students, particularly if we are to develop policies and strategies that will enhance the academic pathways of vulnerable and marginalized students. how do transfer students compare to students that remain in one post-secondary institution throughout their pse career, both in the short run and long term with respect to employment outcomes? we will employ this data set to answer two research questions: (1) did the characteristics of students that chose to transfer differ substantively with those that did not transfer over the course of the class of 73 study; and 20 (2) did the short and longer-term labour force consequences of students that engaged in transfer differ substantively from those that did not transfer over the course of the class of 73 study? given that postsecondary education (pse) enrolment and student transfer among study participants occurred in the mid to late 1970s, these study findings will provide a benchmark for comparison with more recent studies and future studies that employ a longitudinal design. the conceptual model displayed in illustration 1 provides a visualization of the relationships that we are exploring between post-secondary pathways and later-life outcomes. illustration 1. conceptual model 21 data and methodology the data collection began as a short-term study of high school students and their attitudes and behaviours with respect to educational plans in order to provide projection data for postsecondary enrolments to the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu). with the assistance of the survey research centre at york university, a sample survey of ontario grade 12 students was carried out in the spring of 1973. a total of 97 high schools from across ontario agreed to participate, representing four types of communities: metropolitan toronto, other large and medium sized urban centers, smaller cities and the urban fringe around toronto, and small towns and rural areas. a total of 2,555 usable questionnaire responses were obtained in what was subsequently designated as phase i of the project. over the next four decades, a total of five follow- ups were conducted with the same cohort, funded by mcu (phases 1-5) and a standard sshrc grant (phase 6). these follow-ups were conducted in the fall of 1973 (phase 2, n=2156), fall of 1974 (phase 3, n=2163), fall of 1979 (phase 4, n=1522), summer of 1988 (phase 5, n=1129), winter of 1994 (phase 6, n=788)), and fall of 2019 (phase 7, n=280), effectively converting the project into a longitudinal study of education, work, and life pathways for a generation that has seen massive change in canadas economy and society. our analysis relies on all seven waves of the class of 73 dataset. the class of 73 project began in the spring of 1973 with an initial sample of 2,555 grade 12 students that were enrolled in 97 secondary schools across ontario. this wave covered such topics as school performance, background, educational aspirations and plans for the future. based on this wave of the longitudinal study, we identified key demographic characteristics of those included in this 22 analysis of student transfer. a second wave was conducted in the fall of 1973, consisting of 2,156 respondents, which followed up on students plans stated in the previous survey and identified how their plans had changed in the short term. the third wave was conducted a year later in 1974. this wave yielded a sample of 2,163 respondents, and identified mostly direct entry students who attended post-secondary institutions directly out of high school. it also compared their earlier career aspirations with their actual employment. five years after conducting the original survey, a fourth wave of data was collected from a sample of 1,522 respondents. by this time many respondents had completed post-secondary education, and/or had transferred to other post-secondary institutions since the previous wave. this fourth wave explored the educational pathways and labour market outcomes of respondents and assessed how these varied based on background characteristics, including sex, region and socioeconomic status. the fifth wave of data was collected from a sample of 1,129 respondents and consisted of a simple update of information about education and occupation as well as marital status and children. in early 1995, the sixth wave of data was collected from 788 respondents. it greatly expanded upon the previous surveys to cover such topics as school to work transitions, marriage, children, education, career attainment, and work satisfaction. the seventh and final wave of data was collected in 2019, consisting of a sample of 280 respondents. this wave expands on previous waves, covering such topics as grandchildren, health, plans for retirement and retirement planning/experiences. dependent variables our analysis of student transfer primarily relies on data from waves 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (the analysis of income includes wave 7). a particularly strong feature of this longitudinal data set is its attention to detail with respect to information collected on students post-secondary enrollments. 23 the data contain information about the type of institution in which respondents enrolled as well as their educational attainment up to that point. the first step in preparing the data for an analysis of student transfer is to identify what kind of education each respondent had achieved both in terms of credential attainment and attendance. in every wave from 2 through 6, each respondent is classified as college or equivalent, university, college and university, or no post-secondary based on their attainment to date and current attendance. between wave transfers: our first transfer variable(s) identify those respondents who experienced a change in the above classification between each pair of waves; 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to 5, and 5 to 6. this produces a second classification for each pair of waves that includes the categories: caat only, university only, transfer caat to univ, transfer univ to caat, transfer other, and no post-sec. most categories are self- explanatory. however, transfer other refers to individuals who transferred in a direction that we cannot identify or clearly classify. an example would be respondents that are classified as having no postsecondary in one wave and then being classified as attending college and university in a subsequent wave. total transfer: this variable is a summary of each individuals experience with transfer across all waves from 2 through 6. each category in this variable classifies each respondent into one of the four between wave transfer types if they experienced that form of transfer at least once in any of the pairs of waves.1 1 there were two respondents who experienced both types of transfer in different pairs of waves. these were classified as transfer others in the total transfer variable. 24 blishen (occupational status): blishen scores are a socioeconomic index for occupations created by bernard blishen based primarily on education and income.2 blishen values have been added to the class of 73 data in waves 3 4, 5, and 6 by linking the values to detailed occupation identifiers found in each of these waves. one thing to note is that the blishen scale has not been updated since 1981 so it is possible that the status of certain occupations has changed since then. this may result in some of the blishen index values being slightly inaccurate, particularly, the values in wave 6 (1994). however, these inaccuracies are relatively minor and should not impact the validity of our analysis. income: income is included as an ordinal variable in the class of 73 data for waves 4, 6, and 7. in each wave it is coded with slightly different categories. this required some minor recodes so that the dollar values associated with each category matched across all three waves. these recodes result in a 14-category ordinal variable where the bottom category includes those with no income, the next two categories include a span of $5,000 each from $0 to $10,000, and the remaining categories correspond to a $20,000 range of values from $10,000 to $300,000 and up. job satisfaction: job satisfaction is measured in waves 3, 4, 6, and 7 (1974, 1978, 1995, and 2019 respectively). it is measured using a 5 category likert scale using the categories very dissatisfied, somewhat satisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, somewhat satisfied, and very satisfied. 2 see blishen, carroll, and moore (1987) the 1981 socioeconomic index for occupations in canada for more details. 25 independent variables our analysis employs three socio-demographic variables as primary independent variables. these are drawn from wave 1 of the class of 73 data. sex: this is a simple binary variable consisting of male and female and was not altered for this analysis. socio-economic status: socio-economic status, for our analysis, specifically refers to the status of the respondents family in 1973 (wave 1) and consists of a four- item scale variable which summarizes the respondents socio-economic status based on their mothers and fathers education, and occupational status (blishen score) as well as parents combined income. the scale categorizes respondents into high, medium high, medium low, and low ses. for this analysis the two medium categories were collapsed resulting in a three-item scale of high, medium, and low ses. region: region is a four-category variable that describes what kind of rural or urban setting a respondent lived in when the survey was first conducted in 1973. the categories include big city (referring specifically to the gta), small city (i.e., hamilton, ottawa), town, and smaller area (mostly rural settings). grades in grade 12: grades is a five-category ordinal variable based on the question of what final grades respondents expected to obtain (in wave 1). the bottom and top two categories were collapsed to produce a three-category version of the variable consisting of mostly under 60%, mostly 60 to 69%, and mostly 70% or higher. 26 analytic strategy our analysis consists of three components. the first is an exploration of descriptive statistics intended to introduce the reader to the key characteristics of our sample. the second is a bivariate analysis of between wave transfer and total transfer, which will provide a description of the prevalence of different kinds of transfer among respondents participating in waves 1 through 6. this analysis will provide us with a basic impression of how certain background characteristics (e.g., sex, ses) relate to the experience of student transfer. finally, we conduct a multivariate analysis in two parts. in part one, we use multinomial logit models of between wave and total transfer with our socio-demographic variables as independent predictors. these models allow us to analyze the extent to which certain background characteristics affect the probability of an individual transferring between types of post-secondary education (i.e., are women more likely to transfer than men). these models are also useful in that they allow us to control for the effect of other variables included in the model. this, for example, allows us to rule out the possibility that a difference in the probability of transferring between those with high grades versus those with low grades is actually due to a difference in ses that itself, is correlated with grades. the assessment of the actual effect of grades in these models is estimated by holding the effect of ses constant. the second part of our multivariate analysis employs growth curve models to describe how certain labour market outcomes like income and occupational status change over time in our sample, and to explain how the pattern of change differs in relation to our independent variables. descriptive statistics transfer: table 1 reveals that, all together, transfers made up only 24% of the total of educational pathways across waves 2 to 6, indicating that transfer students comprised a minority 27 of all respondents in our sample. within this small minority, it is also clear that university to caat transfers are the most common type of transfer overall. table 1: frequency and percent of total transfers # % caat only 223 29% university only 367 47% transfer caat to univ 55 7% transfer univ to caat 86 11% transfer other 45 6% total 776 100% the results from table 1 are also displayed as in illustration 2 to assist the reader with understanding the breakdown of transfer-types in our data. illustration 2 breakdown of transfer types in the data 28 looking at table 2, we can see that all together transfers make up at most 28% of all those with post-secondary education and this occurred in wave 4 to 5 which would have been between 1978 and 1987-88. this is the longest period of time between two waves (excluding wave 6 to 7) which partially explains why these transfer numbers are the highest. in addition, this is also the time period when members of the class of 73 most actively pursued their pse and were, as a consequence, most likely to transfer. conversely, it is clear from the lack of transfers in the first pair of waves, that a mere half year to a year after the initial survey was conducted in 1973 was too short a time for most members to have transferred. while we should keep in mind the effects of sample attrition when looking at between wave transfers, these numbers suggest that transfer occured predominantly later in the life course. in contrast, those that persisted in university or caat appeared to do so earlier (though it is possible that those that transferred were more likely to drop out of the study). table 2: frequency and percent by post-secondary education type caat only university only transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other* total wave 2 to 3 # % 503 44% 640 56% 6 1% 0 0% 0 0% 1149 100% wave 3 to 4 wave 4 to 5 # % # % 501 39% 66 24% 662 51% 132 48% 31 2% 20 7% 62 5% 28 10% 38 3% 29 11% 1294 100% 275 100% wave 5 to 6 # % 101 42% 96 40% 3 1% 2 1% 39 16% 241 100% *note: transfer other refers to transfers for which we do not know the direction of transfer independent variables: our sample consists of 691 males and 720 females out of a total of 1411 (the number of people who are non-missing for each education variable in each wave from 1 through 6). this equates to 49% and 51% respectively and indicates that our sample has remained balanced by sex over the six waves of data used in this analysis. looking at table 3 29 we can see the distribution of our sample in terms of socio-economic status. our sample is predominantly middle class with 46% in the medium category, while the remaining portion is fairly evenly distributed between high and low, with high being a slightly larger percentage. overall, it appears that our sample is somewhat balanced in its distribution by ses, and the size of the medium group may reflect the fact that two categories were collapsed to form it. table 3: socioeconomic status-frequency and percent # % low 326 23% medium 652 46% high 433 31% total 1411 100% the distribution of grades however, clearly favours the higher end of the scale. over 50% of the sample reported grades in grade 12 of 70% or higher, while 40% reported 60% to 69% and only 9% appeared in the under 60% group. this suggests that our surviving sample consists predominantly of those with high academic ability, though it could also reflect a self-reporting bias. table 4: grades-frequency and percent mostly under 60% mostly 60 to 69% mostly 70% or higher total # 127 561 723 1411 % 9% 40% 51% 100% finally, in terms of where members of our sample reported living while attending secondary schools in 1973, this appears to be remarkably evenly distributed across the four regional categories. each region type represents close to one quarter of the sample, with those having resided in rural areas being slightly higher than the other regional categories. this indicates that 30 our sample consists of a relatively even distribution of respondents in terms of the type of community they lived in while attending secondary schools in ontario. table 5: region big city (toronto) small city town smaller area/rural total # 320 322 358 411 1411 % 23% 23% 25% 29% 100% bivariate analysis sex: overall, differences in post-secondary education by sex are limited. women appeared to transfer in larger numbers across all waves of the study during their postsecondary careers. figure 1 shows that, with respect to the first three pairs of waves, there are limited sex differences in between wave transfers. however, women modestly outnumbered men in all of the transfer categories especially in caat to university. this suggests that the women in our cohort study commonly appeared to take a different path into university than men--namely by transferring from caat to university. by the final pair of waves, the number of transfers dropped significantly and sex differences became trivial. however, men continued to outnumber women, suggesting that men in this cohort continued to acquire education later in life in larger numbers than women. 31 figure 1-between wave transfers by sex male female 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other wave 2 to 3 wave 3 to 4 wave 4 to 5 wave 5 to 6 transfer caat transfer univ to univ to caat transfer other an examination of total transfers in table 6 reveals that when all of the waves are combined, it serves to conceal some of the sex differences we noted when examining the different pairs of waves. while women did still outnumber men in total transfers, these data suggest that many of the sex differences observed are dependent on time. table 6: total transfers among men and women male female # % # % caat only 79 23% 128 32% university only 191 55% 170 43% transfer caat to univ 21 6% 34 9% transfer univ to caat 43 12% 37 9% transfer other 16 5% 26 7% total 350 100% 395 100% total 207 361 55 80 42 745 socio-economic status: beginning with between wave transfers, those of high ses were less likely to attend a caat or to transfer across different types of pse institutions; this pattern persisted through all waves. 32 figure 2: between wave transfers: low ses 16 14 12 10 wave 2 to 3 8 wave 3 to 4 6 wave 4 to 5 4 wave 5 to 6 2 0 transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other transfers rarely occurred among all ses groups in the first set of waves. however, by wave 3 to 4 there appeared to be spikes in university to caat transfers in each ses group. this pattern became inverted by wave 4 to 5 for those in the low ses group (figure 2), indicating that low ses individuals were transferring less from university to caat and also not transferring out of university later in their life course. it seems likely that low ses individuals acquired their pse shortly after high school and did not choose to pursue further education later in their life course. figure 3: between wave transfers: medium ses 25 20 wave 2 to 3 15 wave 3 to 4 10 wave 4 to 5 wave 5 to 6 5 0 transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other 33 among the medium ses group (figure 3), the distribution of respondents remains even across transfer types until wave 5 to 6 when almost all of those who transferred are classified as other transfers. figure 4: between wave transfers: high ses 25 20 wave 2 to 3 15 wave 3 to 4 10 wave 4 to 5 wave 5 to 6 5 0 transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other meanwhile the high ses (figure 4) group shared the spike in university to caat transfers in wave 3 to 4 that we noted for the low ses group; this pattern persisted into wave 4 to 5. finally, in wave 5 to 6 the high ses group consisted mostly of other transfers. overall, it is clear that there is a decline in transfers over time that appears mostly unrelated to ses (the only exception being that transfers in the low ses group appear to decline earlier). additionally, an unexpected slightly higher percentage of transfers appears to occur in the two higher ses groups. this may reflect a general tendency among those from higher ses backgrounds towards more educational attainment in general in both transfer and non-transfer pathways. 34 in the case of total transfers (table 7), the collapsing of the different waves reinforces the conclusion that transfer is somewhat more common within the higher ses groups. also, of those respondents that transferred in the low ses group, a large portion transferred out of university. also, it is clear that there are very few differences overall between medium and high ses groups in terms of the distribution of transfer students. table 7: total transfers by socioeconomic status (in grade 12) low ses medium ses # % # % caat only 55 38% 114 34% university only 59 41% 133 40% transfer caat to univ 11 8% 32 10% transfer univ to caat 15 10% 33 10% transfer other 5 3% 20 6% total 145 100% 332 100% high ses # % 38 14% 169 63% 12 4% 32 12% 17 6% 268 100% total 207 361 55 80 42 745 grades: beginning with the under 60% group, transfers were very uncommon across all pairs of waves in this group, totalling less than 20 individuals across all four groups. looking at the 60% to 69% group (figure 5) it is clear that most of the transfers occurred between the 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 waves but differences in the type of transfer are minimal at this time, with each category being within a few percentage points. by wave 5 to 6 transfers were more limited, and appear in the total transfer category almost exclusively. 35 figure 5-1 between wave transfers by grades in high school grades mostly under 60% 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other grades mostly 60 to 69% 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 wave 2 to 3 wave 3 to 4 wave 4 to 5 wave 5 to 6 transfer caat to transfer univ to transfer other univ caat within the 70% or higher group (figure 6), transfers were less common as a percentage of that group. it is noteworthy that there were very few caat to university transfers in this group in any of the waves. most of the transfers are other transfers or university to caat (except for wave 5 to 6 which is almost exclusively other). these differences likely reflect a difference in the kind of institution to which higher performing students applied to right out of high school. 36 figure 5-2: between wave transfers by grades in high school grades mostly 70% or higher 40 35 30 25 wave 2 to 3 20 wave 3 to 4 15 wave 4 to 5 10 wave 5 to 6 5 0 transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other looking at the total transfers displayed in table 8, we can see that there does appear a pattern between grades and transfer. among those with lower grades, transfers were predominantly other or caat to university (though with notably smaller overall numbers). among those in the 60% to 69% group, transfers are more evenly distributed between caat to university and university to caat. this indicates that those with average grades in high school experienced more varied post-secondary educational outcomes. finally, among those with the highest grades, transfers were predominantly from university to caat. this reinforces our conclusion that those with academic ability appear more likely to transfer out of university compared to other transfer types, which we note is contrary to extant literature on this topic. this suggests that those with academic ability are put on an academic track and are encouraged or expected to enter university. however, among those with high grades that enrol in university, some subsequently decide to transfer to college. 37 table 8: total transfers by grades (in grade 12) mostly under 60% mostly 60 to 69% # % # % caat only 22 55% 99 36% university only 5 13% 92 34% transfer caat to univ 5 13% 33 12% transfer univ to caat 2 5% 30 11% transfer other 6 15% 18 7% total 40 100% 272 100% mostly 70% or higher # % 86 20% 264 61% 17 4% 48 11% 18 4% 433 100% total 207 361 55 80 42 745 region3: based on the data in table 9 we can see that there are only minimal differences in the distribution of transfer types across most regions in ontario. in toronto, small cities, and towns, the most common transfer was university to caat. meanwhile caat to university and university to caat were evenly distributed within rural areas of the province. this may reflect an underlying association between region and socio-economic status, or perhaps a slight difference in cultural attitudes, priorities, or expectations. table 9: total transfers by region (in grade 12) big city (toronto) small city # % # % caat only 35 22% 43 24% university only 87 55% 89 49% transfer caat to univ 10 6% 16 9% transfer univ to caat 17 11% 23 13% transfer other 9 6% 9 5% total 158 100% 180 100% town # 52 106 7 20 14 199 smaller area/rural % # % 26% 77 37% 53% 79 38% 4% 22 11% 10% 20 10% 7% 10 5% 100% 208 100% 3 between wave transfers are not included due to a lack of differences in the distribution of transfers across region types. 38 total 207 361 55 80 42 745 multivariate models we now move on to multivariate analyses of the association between transfers and later-life employment outcomes. while the bivariate analyses above can give us insight into relationships between two variables, in multivariate analyses we can examine such relationships while accounting for the effects of other variables in the model. in other words, we can avoid overstating the association between transfers and our later-life outcomes of interest because we also account for other characteristics in the models. we use both multinomial logistic regression and growth curve models to explore our hypotheses. multinomial logistic regression one of our research questions concerned the characteristics of individuals who transferred. the use of a multivariate model allows us to analyse this question and measure how background characteristics shape educational experiences while controlling for the influence of other characteristics that also shape those experiences. in this analysis, our outcome (or dependent) variable (type of transfer) is a non-ordered categorical variable. in order to regress this outcome on a set of independent variables we need to use a multinomial logit model which will estimate a set of coefficients which correspond to each outcome. however, these coefficients can only be estimated relative to a base category in the dependent variable, in this case, university only. the coefficients estimated in the model measure the change in the probability of one outcome relative to the base group4, giving us a ratio consisting of the probability of outcome-2 relative to the base category of 1. this is commonly called a relative risk ratio. these estimated coefficients 4 pr(=2) the coefficients are displayed in exponent form, so a relative risk ratio takes the following form: (2) = pr(=1) 39 also allow us to estimate a simple probability5 for each outcome and it is these probabilities that we have used in graphs to describe the results of our multinomial models. results the results of the multinomial logistic regression predicting transfer type is reported in table 10 and visualized in illustration 3. for transfer from college-to-university, we found that females were more likely to report this type of transfer, that high ses individuals were less likely to report this type of transfer, and that those with higher grades were less likely to report this type of transfer. admittedly confusing, multinomial logits with categorical variables are always interpreted relative to the omitted category on the dependent variable (university-only attendance) and the reference categories of their independent variables. in terms of transfer from university-to-college, we find no sex or ses effects, but a negative odds ratio associated with high grades (relative to average grades). thus, in both types of transfer, we see that having high grades in high school were less likely to be associated with a postsecondary transfer. we see this also with the less clear transfer other group, where being female and having lower grades is again associated with this category, relative to being in a university-only pathway, although we must be cautious with interpretation as we do not know the direction of transfer. 5 the coefficients in the multinomial model are also used in the following equation to estimate the probability of each 1 outcome: pr(y=1) = (2) (3) 1+ + 40 table 10: type of transfer multinomial model logistic regression (base category: university only) exp(b) se caat only female 2.516*** (0.504) ses: low 0.823 (0.201) ses: high 0.227*** (0.064) grades: mostly 50-59% 4.668** (2.488) grades: mostly 70-79% 0.312*** (0.067) grades: mostly =>80% 0.148*** (0.049) constant 1.231 (0.323) female 2.756** (0.890) ses: low 1.062 (0.429) ses: high 0.350* (0.162) grades: mostly 50-59% 3.235 (2.194) grades: mostly 70-79% 0.190*** (0.067) grades: mostly =>80% 0.029*** (0.030) constant 0.306** (0.130) female 1.085 (0.275) ses: low 0.928 (0.327) sashing 0.784 (0.277) grades: mostly 50-59% 1.231 (1.064) grades: mostly 70-79% 0.715 (0.197) grades: mostly =>80% 0.241** (0.108) constant 0.364** (0.132) female 2.506** (0.881) ses: low 1.600 (0.851) sashing 1.106 (0.599) grades: mostly 50-59% 7.125** (4.755) grades: mostly 70-79% 0.350** (0.137) grades: mostly =>80% 0.254* (0.136) constant 0.098*** (0.054) transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other n note: base categories ses=medium, grades=mostly 60-69% *p<0.05, **p<0.001, ***p<0.001 738 41 illustration 3. predictors of type of transfer 42 growth curve models a second goal of our analysis is to explore how transfer affected labour market outcomes later in life. the class of 73 dataset provided repeat measures of income and occupational status across multiple waves and these labour market outcome measures can be considered to be nested inside individuals. this presents an opportunity to employ a type of hierarchical model to study the pattern and predictors of growth or change over time in these two variables. a basic growth curve model consists of two levels, one that describes the pattern of change over time (i.e., linear or curvilinear). the second level of the model contains the characteristics of individuals that relate to growth in some way (i.e., men may experience faster growth in income than women). this kind of model has the advantage over other approaches in that it has the flexibility to deal with data that are unequally spaced in time or missing at different points in time across individuals (raudenbush & bryk, 2002; snijders & bosker, 1999). the basic structure of a growth curve model is similar to other hierarchical models. the outcome, denoted as yti, represents the observed value of the dependent variable for individual i at time t. level one of the model consists of two sets of parameters6. one describes the overall average value of the dependent variable at time=0 and is equivalent to an intercept. the other is a representation of the rate and pattern of change in the dependent variable over time and this is equivalent to a slope. 6 one of the simplest forms that growth curve model can take is analogous to a simple random intercept model, structured as follows (raudenbush & bryk, 2002, pp. 162-163): yti = 0i + 1iati + eti, where ati represents time, 0i is the intercept (or in this case the value of yti at time=0), and 1 represents the slope, or in this model, the rate of change in yti over time, and in this case it is a simple linear effect. 43 both of these parameters can vary between individuals as a function of individual characteristics; thus, we can try to explain variability in the growth curve by including a variable in the 2nd level7 of the model. the coefficients at this level of the model describe differences in the intercept or slope as a function of the corresponding individual characteristic. so, the coefficient for sex represents the average difference in the dependent variable between men and women, effectively indicating that they have a different intercept/starting value of yti. the coefficient for the interaction of sex and time however represents a difference in the rate of change in the dependent variable, that is, it represents a difference of slopes. using this model, we can describe how income and occupational status changes over time in our sample by specifying ati as a simple linear function (as it appears in this example) or it could be modelled as curvilinear (quadratic, cubic etc.). secondly, we can describe how growth patterns differ based on individual characteristics like sex and ses (the xqi in our example). thus, the growth curve model presents a convenient and adaptable method for the analysis of longitudinal data like that of the class of 73. occupational status (blishen) the first growth curve models we estimated were for occupational status and are displayed in table 11. 7 the second level of the model appears as follows: 0i = 00 + 0qxqi + r0i, the 00 in this equation represents the grand intercept, that is, the overall average value of y ti at time=0. the 0qxqi term represent the difference in the value of yti at time=0 as a function of xqi, so if xqi were sex 0q would describe the difference of average income or occupational status between men and women at time=0. finally, the r 0i is an individual level error term and its variance describes any variation in the intercept (or y ti at time=0) that remains unexplained. these principles extend directly to the coefficient representing the rate of change or slope (1). 44 table 11. blishen score growth curve model initial status (1) (2) (3) 47.511*** 42.205*** 40.359*** 36.300*** 37.204*** 35.993*** (0.301) (0.338) (0.392) caat only university only transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other female low ses high ses mostly under 60% mostly 70% or higher time caat only # time university only # time transfer caat to univ # time transfer univ to caat # time transfer other # time female # time (4) (5) (6) (0.601) (0.612) (0.642) 3.229*** 1.883* 1.744 (0.709) (0.892) (0.891) 7.589*** 4.058*** 4.086*** (0.702) (0.910) (0.908) 2.046 -1.505 -1.650 (1.366) (1.791) (1.789) 4.628*** -1.366 -1.044 (1.121) (1.553) (1.551) 1.365 -0.152 -0.290 (1.424) (1.887) (1.883) 3.136*** 3.143*** 5.524*** (0.500) (0.497) (0.631) -2.014*** -2.010*** -2.049*** (0.581) (0.577) (0.573) 0.971 0.989 1.019 (0.637) (0.632) (0.627) -0.255 -0.233 -0.156 (0.814) (0.809) (0.804) 1.677** 1.711** 1.700** (0.544) (0.540) (0.537) 0.574*** 1.341*** 1.246*** 1.176*** 1.336*** (0.029) (0.091) (0.092) (0.092) (0.095) 0.221** 0.242** (0.077) (0.076) 0.454*** 0.445*** (0.071) (0.070) 0.496*** 0.522*** (0.148) (0.147) 0.725*** 0.672*** (0.122) (0.121) 0.238 0.261 (0.161) (0.159) -0.331*** (0.054) 45 time2 -0.039*** -0.036*** -0.043*** -0.043*** (0.004) (0.004) (0.004) (0.004) 0.427*** 0.442*** 0.386*** 0.368*** 0.350*** (0.030) (0.029) (0.029) (0.028) (0.029) 10.322*** 8.971*** 8.792*** 8.917*** 8.831*** 8.817*** (0.166) (0.164) (0.161) (0.161) (0.157) (0.156) 7.622*** 6.226*** 6.150*** 4.827*** 4.870*** 4.869*** (0.290) (0.312) (0.308) (0.319) (0.313) (0.310) 3008 3008 3008 3008 3008 3008 sd(time) sd (within person) sd (inital status) observations standard errors in parentheses * p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 while this table contains a lot of information, for the purposes of our research question, there are a few main findings that are particularly noteworthy. the main effects of type of educational trajectory all generally decrease over time. in terms of transferring from university to caat, we see an initial large effect, but this effect decreases over time. when we model this with time, we can see that the transfer from university to caat remains significant and positive over time, but that the effect diminishes. illustrations are particularly useful for interpreting and simplifying the complex output produced in growth curve analysis. figure 6 illustrates how the transfer from university to caat had an association with later-life blishen scores that was comparable to a university-only trajectory. in contrast, the pathway of caat to university also showed a positive growth over time, but demonstrated a gap in later life of around 5 blishen points compared to reverse transfer and university-only students. caat only rose quicker in earlier waves, but flattened by 1988. 46 figure 6. because the main model illustrated in table 11 also reported a statistically significant interaction of sex with time, we also provide contrasting blishen graphs by sex to illustrate how transfer was associated with later-life occupational prestige for men and women. figure 7 illustrates that although women tended to start higher on the occupational prestige score at time 1, over time males caught up and had steeper rates of increase in their occupational prestige over time. in terms of transfer, there appeared to be somewhat higher rates of return for college-to-university transfer for males compared to females, although university-to-college returns appeared to be quite similar. 47 figure 7. growth of blishen scores over time by sex we further simplify the results of the growth curve model predicting blishen scores in illustration 4, which highlights our key findings. in terms of the substantive meaning of blishen scores, it is necessary to step back and consider the meaning of the blishen scale. originally crafted by bernard blishen using the 1951 census of occupations, he created rankings of occupations based on their income and average years of schooling (goyder and frank, 2008). updated in 1981, blishen , carroll and moore (1987) argued for an adjustment of the scores to account for gender, noting the problem of female invisibility in stratification research. some examples of occupations that had scores of around 60 in 1981 include official and administrators unique to government, financial management occupations, and system analysts in computer programming. the differences between occupations at 60 and, say, 58 (as illustrated in the above graph) are negligible. for instance, mathematicians, statisticians and 48 actuaries had a score of 61.91 while teacher of exceptional students received a 58.09. thus, there is very little difference in the end points of the trajectories of university and the college-touniversity transfer students in reference to their later-life occupational status. however, students with no post-secondary with scores in the low 40s would have jobs such as secretaries, banking clerks, or equipment operators. when the lines are quite close together, however (i.e. within 5 points of each other), there is arguably not much qualitative difference in terms of the status of the job. it is only gaps of around 10 or more where one would start to see considerable occupational differences with regard to status (which, is ostensibly, a composite measure of income and years of education). illustration 4 blishen scores by sex 49 income results for the income growth curve model are shown in table 12. in terms of the effect of time on transfer type, we again observe that university-to-college transfer was statistically significant in the model. table 12. income growth curve model (1) initial status (2) (4) (5) (6) 3.169*** 2.241*** 2.179*** 2.576*** 2.719*** 2.642*** (0.046) (0.077) (0.078) (0.079) 0.341*** 0.337*** 0.326*** (0.086) (0.095) (0.094) -0.059 -0.418*** -0.415*** (0.081) (0.088) (0.087) -0.197 -0.306 -0.333 (0.158) (0.177) (0.175) -0.136 -0.459*** -0.437** (0.124) (0.138) (0.137) -0.281 -0.241 -0.269 (0.183) (0.208) (0.205) -0.698*** -0.707*** -0.556*** (0.061) (0.059) (0.067) -0.108 -0.113 -0.113 (0.073) (0.071) (0.070) -0.113 -0.107 -0.109 (0.077) (0.074) (0.074) -0.032 -0.035 -0.035 (0.105) (0.102) (0.101) 0.032 0.032 0.031 (0.066) (0.064) (0.063) 0.085*** 0.112*** 0.112*** 0.080*** 0.097*** (0.004) (0.006) (0.007) (0.008) 0.000 0.002 (0.010) (0.010) (0.036) (3) (0.038) caat only university only transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other female low ses high ses mostly under 60% mostly 70% or higher time caat only # time (0.006) 50 university only # time transfer caat to univ # ti transfer univ to caat # ti transfer other # time 0.080*** 0.079*** (0.008) (0.008) 0.024 0.030 (0.018) (0.018) 0.071*** 0.067*** (0.014) (0.014) -0.009 -0.003 (0.022) (0.022) female # time -0.032*** (0.007) time2 -0.001*** -0.001*** -0.001*** -0.001*** (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) 0.068*** 0.067*** 0.064*** 0.059*** 0.059*** (0.003) (0.003) (0.003) (0.003) (0.003) 1.720*** 0.940 0.925* 0.895*** 0.877*** 0.868*** (0.033) (0.033) (0.025) (0.023) (0.023) 0.000*** 0.188* 0.227** 0.000 0.000 0.000 (0.000) (0.131) (0.107) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) 1398 1398 1398 1398 1398 sd (time) sd (within person) sd (inital status) observations 1398 standard errors in parentheses *p<0.05, **p>0.01, ***p<0.001 (0.033) figure 8 illustrates the predicted incomes of the various postsecondary pathways over time. the steepest curve is observed in university only pathways, but is very closely followed by respondents who reported university-to-college transfers. the college-to-university transfer pathway shows the greatest returns in later life, where earnings were slightly above those with only college, but considerably lower than university only or university-to-college transfer. 51 figure 8. growth curve of income over time figure 9. income growth curves by sex 52 because the interaction between sex and time was significant in table 12, we also provide separate graphs for income for men and women in figure 9. what is immediately obvious are the completely different income trajectories by sex, a finding that is not terribly surprising given the time span of these data and known income disparities between men and women. however, the main relationships between transfer type and predicted earnings are generally the same for men and women, even though women earned consistently less in each category. in both cases, the university-to-college transfer pathway was associated with similar earnings projections to that of university-only pathways. illustration 5 provides a simplified data visualization of the income growth curves by sex. illustration 5. income growth curves by sex 53 job satisfaction the final job-related outcome that we examined was job satisfaction. the results for the growth curve estimations are displayed in table 13. table 13. job satisfaction linear probability growth curve model (1=satisfied) (1) initial status (2) (3) (0.012) (0.014) caat only university only transfer caat to univ transfer univ to caat transfer other female low ses high ses mostly under 60% mostly 70% or higher caat only # time university only # time transfer caat to univ # time (5) (6) 0.785*** 0.782*** 0.846*** 0.826*** 0.826*** 0.827*** (0.010) time (4) (0.023) (0.024) (0.025) 0.013 0.018 0.018 (0.026) (0.034) (0.034) 0.003 -0.003 -0.003 (0.027) (0.036) (0.036) -0.031 -0.058 -0.058 (0.054) (0.072) (0.072) 0.011 0.041 0.041 (0.044) (0.062) (0.062) -0.006 -0.025 -0.024 (0.070) (0.089) (0.089) -0.004 -0.004 -0.007 (0.020) (0.020) (0.025) 0.032 0.032 0.032 (0.022) (0.022) (0.022) 0.036 0.036 0.035 (0.026) (0.026) (0.026) 0.006 0.005 0.005 (0.032) (0.032) (0.032) 0.006 0.006 0.006 (0.021) (0.021) (0.021) 0.000 -0.016*** -0.016*** -0.016*** -0.016*** (0.001) (0.002) (0.002) (0.002) (0.002) -0.000 -0.000 (0.002) (0.002) 0.000 0.000 (0.002) (0.002) 0.002 0.002 (0.004) (0.004) 54 transfer univ to caat # time transfer other # time -0.002 -0.002 (0.003) (0.003) 0.002 0.002 (0.006) (0.006) female # time 0.000 (0.001) time2 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000*** (0.000) sd(time) observations (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.000) 0.402*** 0.402*** 0.393*** 0.393*** 0.393*** 0.393*** (0.008) sd (inital status) (0.000) 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000*** (0.000) sd (within person) (0.000) (0.008) (0.008) (0.008) (0.008) (0.008) 0.083*** 0.083*** 0.095*** 0.093*** 0.092*** 0.092*** (0.026) (0.026) (0.023) (0.023) (0.023) (0.023) 1982 1982 1982 1982 1982 1982 standard errors in parentheses * p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 the general lack of statistical significance in this table, particularly among our transfer variables, indicates that we did not find an association between transfer and later-life job satisfaction. figure 10 illustrates the various educational pathways examined in these analyses by predicted job satisfaction. although the lines may appear to be different from each other, they are not statistically different. 55 figure 10 summary of multivariate analyses in the multinomial analyses, when we focused on those that attended postsecondary, we found some evidence that transfers in general were negatively associated with having higher grades in high school. in terms of college-to-university transfer and other transfers, relative to university-only pathways, these transfer students were more likely to be female and in the case of college-to-university transfer, less likely to be high income. in the growth curve analyses, we examined how educational trajectory type with a focus on transfers was associated with later-life job-related outcomes: e.g., occupational status, income, and job satisfaction. we found that university-to-college transfers had similar predicted 56 occupational status and income to those that had university-only trajectories. in both cases we also found that college-to-university pathways were not particularly advantageous, yielding average results that were akin to college only pathways on both of these outcomes. we also demonstrated that these trajectories were different in terms of steepness or slope of the trajectory by sex, although the overall patterns of findings did not change. we did not find any association between transfer type and predicted job satisfaction. discussion and conclusions we have taken advantage of 46 years of cohort data in ontario to examine the later-life outcomes associated with transfer pathways in post-secondary education. this research is certainly a necessary building block in the scant literature on transfer pathways in canada. as we have illustrated, transfer is not a new practice; rather it is a practice that cohort members in the class of 73 engaged in during the 1970s and 80s. however, up until this point, as highlighted in the literature review, we know only of some of the associated factors of transfer, but nothing of the long-term implications. indeed, our results have somewhat reinforced existing findings that transfer students tend to be female, with lower grades and from lower ses backgrounds. although the existing literature tends to emphasize the increased desirability of a college-touniversity transfer pathway, we did not find that this pathway was associated with occupational status or income advantages. in fact, we found that the reverse transfer pathway of moving to college from university yielded predicted occupational status and income that was similar to university-only pathways (that had the highest predicted values on both of these measures). the 57 college-to-university pathway was more similar to college-only and transfer other pathways in terms of occupational status and income. unfortunately, it is not clear why this positive association with reverse transfer and later-life outcomes would be occurring, and we must add the proviso that our sub- samples were somewhat small only 55 college-to-university transfers and only 80 university-to-college transfers. this may well be an artefact of that generation and a finding that would not hold in todays economy. indeed, as described at the beginning of the report, the 70s and 80s were characterized by a great deal of expansion in the post-secondary sector that itself would be accompanied by a lot of uncertainty about the desirability of different pathways. the advent of the college system at that time was certainly fraught with negative biases about ability, as indicated by the disparaging comments from elected officials. the historical framing of the transfer from university-to-college at that time would likely have been seen as an attempt to avoid the hardship of finding a good job with a liberal education. as noted by anisef and axelrod (1993), the period of the late 1970s and early 1980s was characterized not only by rapid post-secondary expansion, but by economic recessions. the sobering 70s left many wondering if the previously guaranteed job proceeding a liberal arts degree was something of the past as new economic uncertainties were faced by graduates. as documented by anisef et al (1986), it was also during this time that universities came under attack as professors accused students of being functionally illiterate and simultaneously refused to accept that universities themselves were no longer elite educational institutions, but now part of a much broader and accessible system of higher education. a study of secondary and post-secondary systems in ontario (secondary/post-secondary interface study) released in 1977 (as cited in anisef, 1986), 58 however, revealed that students were in fact not functionally illiterate and the claims of massive grade inflation were in fact, largely unfounded. despite this, there was widespread sentiment among the members of the public, students, and teachers, that there was a need to improve academic standards to respond to the societal shifts that had been observed in the previous two decades. we do not know why the students in our study chose to transfer we can only frame the possible reasons around the current political and economic climate of the day. as such, if the prospects for liberal education were indeed questionable or bleak for these students, it makes a great deal of sense that transferring from university-to-college and obtaining job-specific training would result in the sorts of advantages to income and occupational status that we observed here. it is also interesting to consider the discourse of the time as noted in anisef et al (1986) one that is peppered with references to grade inflation and the accusations of professors indicating students are not prepared enough, as well as the overarching assumption that liberal education isnt useful. we can indeed see these exact same claims being made recently by professors (see for example, cote and allahar, 2011) and by current ontario education policy (since 2018) that has shifted focus away from access of underrepresented groups to key performance indicators for universities and colleges. while the current practices continue to favour collegeto-university transfer as the natural and desirable pathway (as evidenced by many bridging programs) and the often internalized shame and feelings of failure of students who leave university to go to college (maier and robson, 2020), it should be noted that this latter pathway has demonstrated later-life employment outcomes in our cohort that are on-par with universityonly pathways. 59 in addition to the limitations of our small subsamples, we are also constrained in our ability to generalize by not being able to examine the transfer trajectories by field of study. it may be the case that students transferring out of university were from specific programs that were less likely to be associated with promising employment outlooks at the time. without more specific data, however, we can only speculate. our study has provided a historical baseline for the practice of post-secondary transfer in ontario in the late 70s and early 80s, demonstrating that it is not a new practice and that there are some notable associations with transfer-type and later-life employment outcomes. given that our current social discourses around the utility of generalized liberal education tend to be repeating themselves some 50 years later, policy makers must recognize that transfer in all its forms can have promising later-life associations. while the implied desirable pathway that is emphasized through bridging programs and the default understanding that transfer implies from college-touniversity, we have observed the benefits of the opposite pathway that has outcomes which are comparable to a university-only trajectory. longitudinal data on more recent graduate cohorts would be able to establish if such patterns have remained consistent or have changed. however, such resources are largely absent in the canadian data landscape. 60 references andrews, r. li, j. & lovenheim, m.f. 2014). heterogeneous paths through college: detailed patterns and relationships with graduation and earnings, economics of education review 42: 93 108. anisef, p. 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oncat-funded pathway development projects: a handbook for project leads and participants oncat is funded by the government of ontario | caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario pathway development projects: overview of the process congratulations, and welcome to the team of dedicated individuals who have created and are currently creating innovative pathways for students in the public postsecondary education system in ontario. each year since its inception, oncat has been pleased to support pathway development projects undertaken by our partners that improve student mobility in the province. as will be discussed in more detail below, the purpose of the pathway development projects is two-fold: 1) to create innovative educational opportunities for students and 2) to act as a resource for future projects by sharing methodologies, best practices, and lessons learned. the oncat projects team is here to support you throughout your project work. this short handbook is intended to give new (and returning) project leads and participants a brief overview of the main stages in the pathway development project process. the steps are in place to help us fulfil our project management responsibilities, but more importantly the process is there to provide some helpful structure to you as your group works its way through the project. while this handbook describes the main components of a typical project, oncat understands that each project is unique, and we are happy to be flexible wherever appropriate to help you do what works best for the partners in your group and to help you attain the best results in your project work. ipre-project stage at this point you will already have completed most of the steps in the pre-project stage (see the summary of project steps section below). you will have submitted a proposal to our request for proposals (rfp) that has been reviewed by the oncat rfp panel and been accepted. you will have received a notice of award informing you that your project proposal has been approved along with a draft agreement (contract). the notice of award itself should not be construed as permission from oncat to begin the work detailed in the draft agreement. once all details (and revisions, if applicable) of the agreement are accepted by both you and oncat, a final agreement is signed by both parties. only after the final agreement has been signed and returned to you should work on the project begin. iiproject stage once the final agreement has been signed by you and oncat, work on your project can begin. the agreement will provide details about the timelines and deliverables expected for the project. normally, there are at least two reports associated with pathway development projects: one or more interim reports (depending on the length of the project) and a final report. however, the details of each particular project will vary, so please refer to the specifics outlined in your final agreement for more information or contact your project officer with any questions or concerns. as a project unfolds, there are sometimes deviations from the original project plan or timeline that occur. oncat understands that such developments are sometimes unavoidable and can even be favourable to the outcome of the project. in such cases it is helpful ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 to communicate with your project officer, so that oncat can be kept in the loop about the projects current status and help you achieve your goals. interim report the interim report is expected to be a short document, regardless of project size and scope. oncat will provide you with an interim report template and, in fact, the report should not be any longer than the template. the primary purpose of the interim report is to communicate the status of the project and whether it is on track; if the project has fallen behind the intended schedule, the interim report should indicate the extent of the discrepancy and what is being done to remedy the situation. the key sections of the interim report (as outlined in the template) include project details (project name, number, contact information, etc.); a progress overview; a key milestones table; a brief account of project progress and deviations from the plan; a risk register; a financial status update; and a deadlines section that indicates when the final report is due according to the agreement. the interim report is not intended to provide a record of all the work the team has done and will do; rather, the emphasis is on the status of and deviations from the project plan, thus making for a shorter and more focused report. if there is a need to record more detail, that can be done via an appendix or attached document. an oncat project officer will send you a reminder approximately 1 month before the interim report is due. this notice will also contain a reminder of the invoice due from your institution at this time. an invoice is required to correspond to the interim payment. once the interim report and invoice have been received and the report has been approved by oncat, the interim payment will be issued. as you are progressing through the project, if it becomes apparent that you may not need to expend the full amount of funding as outlined in the original budget, please let your project officer know as soon as possible, so that oncat can factor this information into our overall financial planning. any unused funds must be returned to oncat. final report the final report is expected to be a lengthy and detailed document. oncat will provide you with final report guidelines to help you prepare your final report. there are two primary goals to the pathway development projects. first, the goal is to create a pathway or pathways that will (if at all possible) be implemented and made available, thus providing students with increased opportunities and ease of mobility in the postsecondary education sector in ontario. however, the second (and equally important) goal of the projects is to act as a resource for others who are developing pathways in future. your final report will be posted on the oncat website to be shared with your partners in the sector. to this end, it is important that the report communicates clearly and in detail the methodology employed in your project. this will allow others to fully understand the steps you followed and provide a guide to those who may wish to undertake similar projects. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3 not every project is successful in achieving all the goals that were laid down at the outset. such instances should not be considered failures; rather, a clear articulation of what both worked and did not work in your project can be highly valuable to future project leads. as such, you should be sure to highlight tips and best practices as well as lessons learned through your project work. the final report must also contain an executive summary and detailed financial statement, as outlined in the final report guidelines. an oncat project officer will send you a reminder approximately 1 month before the final report is due. this notice will also contain a reminder of the invoice due from your institution at this time. an invoice is required to correspond to the final payment. once the final report and invoice have been received and approved by oncat, the final payment will be issued. iiiimplementation and project wind-up as mentioned above, one of the primary goals of the pathway development projects is to create a pathway or pathways that will hopefully be implemented and made available to students. the end of the project should not be the theoretical (on paper only) creation of a pathway. if at all possible, the project lead and participants should attempt to have the pathway(s) approved by the governing bodies at the institutions involved in the project. once approved, information regarding the pathway(s) should be made easily available to students. please note: this must include posting the pathway on the ontransfer.ca website. in keeping with the principle that the pathway development projects are meant to act as a resource for future pathway creation projects, the final report and executive summary will be posted on the oncat website (www.oncat.ca). the version of the final report for the website may be a slightly modified version, if the submitted final report contains information that is deemed sensitive. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |4 summary of project steps ipre-project stage 1. submission and evaluation of proposal i) rfp submitted ii) rfp evaluated by panel iii) approval process completed 2. notice of award issued 3. the agreement (contract) i) draft agreement sent and reviewed by institution(s) ii) any amendments agreed upon by institution(s) and oncat iii) final agreement signed by institution(s) and submitted to oncat iv) final agreement signed by oncat and returned to institution(s) 4. initial payment made iiproject stage 1. project work begins 2. interim report i) template provided by oncat ii) reminder of interim report & invoice due sent iii) interim report and invoice submitted iv) approval of interim report by oncat v) interim payment issued 3. final report i) final report guidelines provided by oncat ii) reminder of final report & invoice due sent iii) final report and invoice submitted iv) approval of final report by oncat v) final payment issued iiiimplementation and project wind-up 1. pathway approved by institutional governing body (if possible) 2. pathway made available to students (includes posting on ontransfer.ca website) 3. final report and executive summary posted on oncat website (www.oncat.ca) ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |5

transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities northern and southern differences in students who transfer july 20, 2020 authors yujiro sano, phd | postdoctoral research fellow cathlene hillier, phd | postdoctoral research fellow david zarifa, phd | professor and canada research chair davidz@nipissingu.ca department of sociology nipissing university northern and southern differences in students who transfer table of contents 03 overview of the study key findings 05 introduction transfer types and prevalence: do the pathways differ across northern 07 and southern institutions? northern and southern differences: do the characteristics of youth who 08 transfer vary by northern and southern institutions in ontario? characteristics of students who transfer in southern ontario institutions characteristics of students who transfer in northern ontario institutions bivariate analysis between characteristics and transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions 15 conclusion and policy implications 18 appendix: data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources subsample and restrictions dependent variable transfer type independent variables student characteristics analytical approach 22 references 25 figures and tables this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 northern and southern differences in students who transfer overview of the study youth from the northernmost parts of the provinces and territories often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to attending postsecondary education, accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing many lucrative fields of study at the university level such as the stem fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) (pizarro milian, seward, & zarifa, 2020; hango et al., 2019; zarifa, hango, & pizarro milian, 2018). recent research reveals significant differences in the characteristics of ontario students who transfer across and within university and college sectors and also points to the differences in the magnitude of various pathways across northern and southern institutions (zarifa, sano, & hillier, 2020). however, to our knowledge, no existing academic or policy reports have shed light on the types of students who transfer in different regions of ontario, both north and south. this research aims to fill this apparent knowledge gap using administrative data from statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis) (2009 to 2016) linked to t1 family file tax data. no existing academic or policy reports have zeroed in with regional analyses to shed light on the types of students who transfer within northern and southern institutions. as such, there is a need to understand more about the characteristics of students who transfer from different regions of ontario, both north and south. key findings among southern ontario institutions, the most prominent postsecondary pathway is non-transfer university (76.06%), followed by non-transfer college (15.98%), university to college transfers (2.15%), college to university transfers (2.04%), university to university transfers (1.71%), college to college transfers (1.53%), and swirlers (0.54%). in northern ontario, the results are largely consistent. however, the overall level of transfer is slightly higher (8.41% vs. 7.96%), largely attributable to more university to university transfer and swirlers in northern institutions. specifically, the most common route is non-transfer university (78.40%), followed by non-transfer college (13.19%), university to university transfers (2.31%), university to college transfers (2.10%), college to university transfers (1.84%), college to college transfers (1.42%), and swirlers (0.74%). 03 northern and southern differences in students who transfer in southern ontario schools, females show higher probabilities of taking four (university to university, college to university, college to college, and swirler) of the five transfer routes compared to males. the only transfer type where males show a higher probability is university to college transfer. in northern ontario, however, it is males who have higher probabilities of taking all five of the transfer pathways. older students (age 22 and above) in both regions show higher probabilities of taking university to university and non-transfer university pathways and lower probabilities of taking college to college and non-transfer college pathways. however, in northern institutions, older students show higher chances of university to college transfer, lower chances of college to university transfer, and a higher probability of swirling. in southern institutions, the opposite is true, as younger students show higher chances of university to college transfer, lower chances of college to university transfer, and a higher probability of swirling. in both southern and northern ontario, students from lower parental income backgrounds were significantly more likely to take many of the various postsecondary pathways, such as college to university, college to college, non-transfer college, and swirler, than take the non-transfer university route compared to those from higher parental income backgrounds. in both regions, arts/humanities students stand out as having higher chances of taking university to university, university to college, and swirler transfer routes, while social science students also show higher chances of university to college and college to university transfer. health students show the highest probabilities of college to university and college to college transfer. in southern ontario, the natural sciences and social sciences stand out as having the highest probabilities of taking the non-transfer university pathway. in northern ontario, the arts/humanities show greater separation from the other fields in terms of their chances of university to university and university to college transfer, and the social sciences also show significantly higher chances of university to university transfer. 04 northern and southern differences in students who transfer introduction a new and growing body of research points to the importance of examining regional differences in educational trajectories within canada (hillier et al., 2020; zarifa et al., 2020; hango et al., 2019; zarifa et al., 2018). youth from the northernmost parts of provinces and the territories, in particular, often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to attending postsecondary education, accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing many lucrative fields of study at the university level such as the stem fields (pizarro milian et al., 2020; hango et al., 2019; zarifa et al., 2018). moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that students who reside in canadas provincial north are more likely to enter a college program before heading to university (zarifa et al., 2018). at the same time, greater proportions of students are also balancing multiple life obligations (e.g., work, family, etc.) in tandem with pursuing higher education, leading to more complex postsecondary pathways (deil-amen, 2015; kirst & stevens, 2015; davies & mehta, 2018). these changes have prompted increases in student transfer across many colleges and universities (decock, 2004), with some students showing higher chances of taking a transfer route during their postsecondary education (finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2020; zarifa et al., 2020). recent research reveals significant differences in the characteristics of ontario students who transfer across and within university and college sectors and also points to the differences in the magnitude of various pathways across northern and southern institutions (zarifa et al., 2020). however, to our knowledge, no existing academic or policy reports have zeroed in with regional analyses to shed light on the types of students who transfer within northern and southern institutions. as such, there is a need to understand more about the characteristics of students who transfer from different regions of ontario, both north and south. this research aims to fill this apparent knowledge gap using administrative data from statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis) (2009 to 2016) linked to t1 family file tax data. in step with our previous study (see zarifa, sano, and hillier, 2020 for a lengthier discussion on transfer types), we explore five types of transfer in the postsecondary system with seven possible categories: 1) college to university transfers (cu); 2) university to college transfers (uc); 3) college to college transfers (cc); 4) university to university transfers (uu); 5) nontransfer college students (ntc); 6) non-transfer university students (ntu); and 7) swirlers (i.e., those students who changed their institutions more than once within two years). first, we begin by comparing the relative percentages of students who take these various routes across northern and southern institutions. second, we employ bivariate analyses to trace and compare the characteristics of students who transfer in southern ontario 05 northern and southern differences in students who transfer and northern ontario institutions. third, we draw upon multinomial logistic regressions and predicted probabilities to assess and compare the relative impact of students characteristics on transfer types in the two regions. finally, we conclude by highlighting some of the key areas of differences across the two locales and discuss the policy implications of these findings. 06 northern and southern differences in students who transfer transfer types and prevalence: do the pathways differ across northern and southern institutions? in this section, we examine the prevalence of the seven postsecondary pathways described above in both northern ontario and southern ontario institutions. as shown in figure 1 (p. 25) (and table 1, p. 26), the largest proportions of postsecondary students in southern institutions did not transfer within two years after their initial enrolment: ntu (76.06%) and ntc (15.98%). the same was true for northern institutions, where the majority of students in northern institutions did not transfer within two years: ntu (78.40%) and ntc (13.19%). it is important to note, however, that nearly 2.5% more students in northern institutions took the non-transfer university route, and nearly 3% more students in southern institutions took the non-transfer college route. among southern institutions, larger proportions of students transferred across postsecondary sectors, either from university to college (2.15%) or college to university (2.04%). importantly, lateral transfers were less common, including students transferring from university to university (1.71%) and college to college (1.53%). swirling was the least common pathway among students in southern institutions (0.54%). however, among northern institutions, the relative degree of transfer was slightly higher (8.41% vs. 7.96%), largely attributable to more university to university transfers and swirlers in northern institutions. specifically, university to university transfers (2.31%) showed the highest proportion of students, followed by university to college transfers (2.10%), college to university transfers (1.84%), college to college transfers (1.42%), and swirlers (0.74%). additional characteristics of the psis-t1ff subsamples for southern and northern students respectively can be found in table 1 (p. 26). in short, northern ontario institutions show greater relative proportions of older students (19.3% vs. 12.11%), female students (58.46% vs. 53.56%), more students from moderate income families, about 10% more health majors (21.77% vs. 11.61%), as well as smaller relative proportions of arts/humanities (11.36% vs. 19.52%) and social science majors (28.6% vs. 38.84%). these regional differences in student demographics are particularly important for policy makers and administrators when designing, revising, and evaluating articulation and transfer programs and student transition supports. 07 northern and southern differences in students who transfer northern and southern differences: do the characteristics of youth who transfer vary by northern and southern institutions in ontario? characteristics of students who transfer in southern ontario institutions most of what we know about the characteristics of students who transfer in ontario is from studies in postsecondary institutions in southwestern ontario. while there are some studies that utilize provincial data sets (mccloy et al., 2017b; decock et al., 2016; usher & jarvey, 2012; finnie & qiu, 2009), there are no distinctions made between northern and southern institutions to determine the unique characteristics of students who transfer in each region. studies in various institutions in southern ontario find that student demographics predict transfer rates from college to university. for student demographics, findings in the research are not clear. some research finds older students (25+ years) are more likely to transfer to university (acai & newton, 2015; blanchard et al., 2013; gawley & mcgowan, 2006) and other studies find students under the age of 25 more likely to transfer (mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016). also, findings relating to sex are mixed, with some studies finding male students more likely to transfer (acai & newton, 2015; gawley & mcgowan, 2006) and others finding rates of transfer higher among female students (mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016). family background factors are influential predictors in college to university transfer. research finds having at least one parent with postsecondary education is significantly related to transferring (mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016; steffler, mccloy, & decock, 2018). steffler and colleagues (2018) find income has no significant effect on transfer rates. however, low-income students with university educated parents are more likely to plan on transferring from college to university than low-income students without university educated parents (steffler et al., 2018). students academics also relate to transfer. program of study and/or students career aspirations are key determinants of transfer. acai and newton (2015) find students aspiring to the teaching profession are more likely to transfer to university. and, according to decocks (2004) examination of the graduate student survey, general arts and science university programs receive more transfers from college than other programs (see also stewart & martinello, 2012). other research finds social science programs in college receive more university transfers (stewart & martinello, 2012). students with high gpas in college have higher transfer rates to universities than those with low gpas (kennett & mackie, 2014; lang & lopes, 2014; mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016; steffler et al., 2018; stewart & martinello, 2012). nevertheless, smith and colleagues (2016) find that university students who transfer to college are also 08 northern and southern differences in students who transfer strong academically (see also stewart & martinello, 2012). many college students complete their two-year diploma before transferring to university (lang & lopes, 2014; smith et al., 2016), except for foreign language students, who stay in college until they meet the language requirements to gain acceptance in a university program (lang & lopes, 2014). finally, students aspirations to attend university after college are associated with eventually transferring (mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016; steffler et al., 2018). articulation agreements between institutions also influence students decisions to transfer. that is, the amount of credits universities acknowledge from college programs had a significant positive relationship with choices to transfer (gawley & mcgowen, 2006). additionally, other models of articulation are associated with transfer choice. the concurrent college model which has articulation agreements with local universities built into the programis found to generate more college to university transfer students than the traditional model (lang & lopes, 2014; shook, norman, & guyatt, 2016). moreover, those who intend to transfer to university when they enter college are more likely to choose the concurrent program (lang, 2009). characteristics of students who transfer in northern ontario institutions for northern ontario, far less research exists. using graduate satisfaction survey data and administrative data from confederation college and lakehead university, confederation college (2012) conducted research on student transfers in these two institutions located in thunder bay, ontario. the descriptive findings from this study indicate that most students transferring into confederation college are between the ages of 20 and 24 and female. only 12% identified as aboriginal and 6% identified as first-generation. over half (57%) of students transferring to confederation college already had a degree, diploma, or certificate from another postsecondary institution, and 70% of these were transfers from lakehead university. their descriptive results from student transfers into lakehead university only included student transfers from confederation college. in these findings, there was a higher percentage of transfers among female students and those ages 20 to 24. twenty-two percent identified as aboriginal and 24% identified as first-generation. apart from the study discussed above, there remains a dearth of research on the characteristics of students who transfer in postsecondary institutions in northern ontario. therefore, this study intends to fill the gaps in our knowledge about the characteristics of transfer students in northern ontario institutions. 1. unfortunately, our data did not allow us to account for articulation agreements, transfer credits, intentions to transfer, or future schooling aspirations. these remain important areas for further exploration, especially in northern ontario institutions. 09 northern and southern differences in students who transfer bivariate analysis between characteristics and transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions tables 2 (p. 27) and 3 (p. 28) show the results from our bivariate analyses in southern ontario and northern ontario respectively. overall, the bivariate analyses reveal that transfer types are significantly associated with several demographic, program, and family characteristics (p<0.01) in both regions. however, despite similar levels of significance across these characteristics, in this section, we graph the results to provide further insight into how various groups across these characteristics might be represented differently across the categories of our transfer type variables in southern and northern ontario. sex figure 2 (p. 29) points to the importance of sex in understanding transfer types in southern ontario, while figure 3 (p. 29) depicts the relationship for northern ontario. in southern ontario, we find that larger proportions of female students are either entering the university sector without transferring (ntu, 78.08% vs. 73.74%) or transferring into and across the university sector than males (cu, 2.23% vs. 1.82%; uu, 1.84% vs. 1.55%), whereas males have comparatively higher percentages of non-transfer college (ntc, 18.59% vs. 13.72%) and lateral transfer across colleges (cc, 1.57% vs. 1.50%) and transfer into colleges (uc, 2.19% vs. 2.11%). for swirlers, males and females share similar percentages (0.55% vs. 0.53%). for northern ontario (see figure 3), a similar picture emerges, with a few notable differences. as in southern ontario, we find that larger proportions of female students are either entering the university sector without transferring (ntu, 80.14% vs. 75.95%) or transferring across the university sector than males (uu, 2.52% vs. 2.03%), whereas males have comparatively higher percentages of non-transfer college (ntc, 15.70% vs. 11.41%) and lateral transfer across colleges (cc, 1.65% vs. 1.26%). transfer across sectors appears to be the reverse of southern ontario, as females in the north show higher rates of transfer from university into colleges (uc, 2.16% vs. 2.03%) and lower rates of transfer from college to university (cu, 1.80% vs. 1.9%) compared to males. for swirlers, males and females again share similar percentages (0.76% vs. 0.72%). age in terms of age effects in southern ontario, figure 4 (p. 30) reveals that younger, traditionally aged students (those ages 21 or younger) share comparatively lower percentages across most transfer categories, with the exception of university-college transfers, as well as non-transfer university students. specifically, smaller proportions of younger students, compared to older ones, are categorized as uu (1.69% vs. 1.80%), cu (1.79% vs. 3.82%), cc (1.42% vs. 2.29%), ntc (13.68% vs. 32.71%), and swirlers (0.52% vs. 0.69%). conversely, younger students show 10 northern and southern differences in students who transfer higher relative proportions making uc transfers (2.19% vs. 1.84%) and taking the ntu pathway (78.71% vs. 56.85%). among northern ontario schools (figure 5, p. 30), many of our findings are reversed, as younger students had comparatively higher percentages across all transfer and non-transfer pathways, with the exception of the non-transfer university route. that is, larger relative proportions of younger students, compared to older ones, take the uu (2.35% vs. 2.17%), uc (2.35% vs. 1.09%), cu (1.89% vs. 1.63%), cc (1.50% vs. 1.09%), ntc (13.62% vs. 11.41%), and swirler pathways (0.78% vs. 0.54%). parental income family socioeconomic status also emerges as an important predictor of postsecondary pathways in southern ontario (see figure 6, p. 31). specifically, students from the highest parental income category showed the highest percentages in terms of staying within the university sector (uu, 1.78%; ntu, 85.64%), but the lowest percentages in both the ntc (8.09%) pathway as well as nearly all of the transfer routes (uc, 1.82%; cc, 1.32%; cu, 0.88%; and swirlers, 0.48%). in northern ontario, we also find that family socioeconomic status is an important predictor of postsecondary pathways (see figure 7, p. 31). the pattern is largely consistent between northern and southern students, as students from higher income families are by and large transferring less than those from lower income families. in fact, among northern students, the largest proportions for uc (2.36%), cu (2.36%), and swirlers (1.18%) were shared by students whose parental income category was the lowest. conversely, students with high income parents had the largest percentages for uu (2.54%), ntu (85.40%) but the smallest percentages for cc (0.95%) and ntc (6.98%). field of study an interesting story also emerges for field of study (figure 8, p. 32). southern students whose field of study is health-related had the highest percentages transferring college to university (3.84%), college to college (2.58%), and non-transfer college (20.20%). at the same time, students who major in arts/humanities had the largest percentages for university to university (2.38%), university to college (3.09%), and swirler (0.67%) pathways. the social sciences showed the second highest proportions for uu (1.69%), uc (2.28%), and cu (2.03%) transfers. among northern students (figure 9, p. 32), the story looks quite similar. students majoring in health-related subjects had the largest percentages for college to university (2.64%), college to college (2.64%), and non-transfer college routes (19.23%). in addition, students whose field of study is arts/humanities had the highest percentages taking university to university (4.59%) 11 northern and southern differences in students who transfer and university to college (3.67%) pathways. once again, social science students show the second highest percentages for uu (3.13%), uc (2.94%), and cu (2.21%), and the largest relative percentage for both the non-transfer university pathway (82.9%) and swirlers (0.99%). while arts/humanities and the social sciences stand out in both locales, the relative percentages of these students are significantly higher among northern ontario studentsin some cases, the relative percentages are double those of their southern ontario counterparts. multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions to estimate the net impact of each of the characteristics among students, we also perform separate multivariate analyses for southern and northern ontario. these methods consist of multinomial logistic regressions as well as predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals to provide graphical displays of the relative differences across groups. while percentages were shown earlier in the bivariate analyses, predicted probabilities range from 0 to 1 and show the probability that a particular type of student (e.g., female) would take one of the various pathways, also taking into account the impact of all other variables in the model. the odds ratios from multinomial logistic regressions for southern ontario institutions are shown in table 4 (p. 33), and the predicted probabilities derived from those models are shown in table 5 (p. 34). the odds ratios from multinomial logistic regressions for northern ontario are shown in table 6 (p. 35), and the predicted probabilities derived from those models are shown in table 7 (p. 36). the predicted probabilities for both regions are graphed in figures 10 to 17 (pp. 3740). for ease of interpretation, and to make similarities and differences more apparent, we compare each of the effects of the background characteristics in northern and southern institutions in turn. sex in southern ontario, female students show lower odds of taking many of the transfer pathways (e.g., uc, or=0.85, p<0.01; cu, or=0.93, p<0.01; cc, or=0.79, p<0.01; swirlers, or=0.84, p<0.01) as well as the non-transfer college route (or=0.67, p<0.01) compared to taking the non-transfer university route. however, they are more likely to transfer from university to university than take the non-transfer university route (or=1.11, p<0.01) compared to males. interestingly, when looking at the predicted probabilities in figure 10, we can see that females show higher probabilities of taking four (uu, cu, cc, and swirler) of the five transfer routes compared to males. the only transfer type that males have a higher probability of taking is the university to college route. in northern ontario, however, there are some notable differences. female students show lower odds of taking only two transfer pathways (cu, or=0.74, p<0.01; cc, or=0.63, p<0.01) and the non-transfer college route (or=0.63, p<0.01) compared to taking the non-transfer university route. in fact, figure 11 (p. 37) shows that in northern ontario institutions, it is male 12 northern and southern differences in students who transfer students who have higher probabilities of taking all five of the transfer pathways (uu, uc, cu, cc, and swirler). females show higher probabilities of not transferring in university, and males show higher probabilities of not transferring in collegea finding that was reversed among southern ontario institutions. age for age, we find that older students (compared to younger students) are more likely to take many of the transfer pathways (e.g., uu, or=1.50, p<0.01; uc, or=1.17, p<0.01; cu, or=2.46, p<0.01; cc, or=1.96, p<0.01; swirlers, or=1.79, p<0.01) and more likely to stay in the same college (or=2.93, p<0.01) than take the non-transfer university route. moreover, figure 12 shows older students have higher probabilities of taking uu and cu, but younger students have higher probabilities of transferring uc, cc, and swirling. among northern institutions, we find some differences. older students are less likely than younger students to take many of the transfer pathways (e.g., uc, or=0.48, p<0.01; cu, or=0.70, p<0.05; cc, or=0.51, p<0.01; swirlers, or=0.55, p<0.05) as well as stay in the same college (or=0.63, p<0.01) than take the non-transfer university route. in figure 13 (p. 38), we can see that older students show higher probabilities of uu (same as southern ontario), higher probabilities of uc (opposite of southern ontario), lower probabilities of uc transfer (opposite), lower probabilities of cc (same), higher probabilities of ntu (same), lower probabilities of ntc (same), and a higher probability of swirling (opposite). parent income in southern ontario, students from lower parental income backgrounds were significantly more likely to take many of the various postsecondary pathways, such as cu, cc, ntc, and swirlers, than take the non-transfer university route compared to those from higher parental income backgrounds. for the uc transfers, however, the pattern is not necessarily consistent. specifically, students whose parental income categories are lower (or=1.12, p<0.01) and middle (or=1.09, p<0.05) are more likely to take the university to college pathway than take the non-transfer university route; those whose parental income category is highest are less likely to do so (or=0.75, p<0.01). figure 14 (p. 39) sheds light on the predicted probabilities for each group across parental income quintiles. overall, cu and cc and swirler transfer routes show negative relationships with parental income (lower income, higher probability of transfer), the ntu shows an increasing exponential relationship, and ntc shows a decreasing exponential relationship with higher parental income students. in northern ontario, we find that the relationship between parental income and transfer types is largely consistent between northern and southern students. first, for northern students, the results reveal that higher income generally predicts lower odds of taking pathways such as uc, cu, cc, ntc, and swirlers over the ntu route. these findings can be observed in figure 15 (p. 39). as in southern ontario, relationships between parental income 13 northern and southern differences in students who transfer and the chance of taking particular pathways, for cu, cc and swirlers, are negative. that is, higher parental income decreases ones likelihood of taking one of these routes. interestingly, while the relationships for ntu and ntc were non-linear (exponential), for northern ontario, the relationships are linear and the changes in probabilities are greater at lower parental income quintiles. put differently, as parental income increases, the likelihood of not transferring university increases in an incremental fashion, whereas the likelihood of not transferring college decreases in an incremental fashion. field of study in step with previous research using the elmlp and psis (see zarifa et al., 2020; finnie et al., 2020), our findings also reveal that field of study plays an important role in determining postsecondary pathways. compared to those who major in arts/humanities, students who major in health-related subjects are less likely to take the uu (or=0.43, p<0.01), uc (or=0.44, p<0.01), and swirler (or=0.82, p<0.01) pathways but are more likely to take the cu (or=2.43, p<0.01), cc (or=1.76, p<0.01), and ntc (or=1.49, p<0.01) routes over the ntu route. moreover, compared to those who major in arts/humanities, natural science students are less likely to take the uu (or=0.63, p<0.1), uc (or=0.54, p<0.01), cu (or=0.36, p<0.01), cc (or=0.64, p<0.01), ntc (or=0.98, p<0.1), and swirler (or=0.56, p<0.01) routes over the ntu route. in addition, social science students are less likely to take the uu (or=0.70, p<0.01), uc (or=0.71, p<0.01), cc (or=0.72, p<0.01), ntc (or=0.89, p<0.01), and swirler (or=0.70, p<0.01) routes over the ntu route but are more likely to take cu route (or=1.14, p<0.01). in figure 16 (p. 40), the predicted probabilities across all field categories are shown. overall, arts/humanities students stand out as having higher chances of uu, uc, and swirler routes, while social science students also show higher chances of uc and cu transfer. health students show the highest probability of cu and cc transfer. in terms of ntu, the natural sciences and social sciences stand out as having the highest probabilities. in northern ontario, the results are similar. for example, compared to those majoring in arts/humanities, students majoring in health-related subjects are less likely to take the uu (or=0.27, p<0.01), uc (0.22, p<0.01), and swirler (or=0.42, p<0.05) pathways but are more likely to take the cu (or=2.90, p<0.01), cc (or=3.28, p<0.01), and ntc (or=2.08, p<0.01) routes over the ntu route. in addition, natural science students are less likely to take the uu (or=0.44, p<0.01) and uc (or=0.47, p<0.01) routes but are more likely to take the ntc route (or=1.43, p<0.01) than the ntu route. in addition, social science students are less likely to take the uu (or=0.69, p<0.01), uc (or=0.70, p<0.01), and ntc (or=0.63, p<0.01) routes than the ntu route but more likely to take the cu route (or=1.94, p<0.01). when looking at the predicted probabilities in figure 17 (p. 40), however, we can see some interesting differences across the two regions. while the ordering stays similar, some of the gaps across probabilities are larger among northern ontario students. the arts/humanities students stand out further relative to the other fields in terms of their chances of uu and uc transfer. unlike in southern ontario, social science students also show significantly higher chances of uu transfer but at the same time show the highest probability of ntu. 14 northern and southern differences in students who transfer conclusions and policy implications this study is the first to provide a regional examination at the current levels of transfer at northern and southern ontario colleges and universities. we employ statistics canadas psis data linked to family tax data to contribute in two key ways: 1) provide a comparison of the magnitude of multiple transfer and non-transfer pathways in each region; and 2) identify the characteristics of students in each region who are more prone to transfer. our analyses explore seven postsecondary pathways in this research, five of which are transfer pathways. among southern students, the most prominent postsecondary pathway is nontransfer university (76.06%) followed by non-transfer college (15.98%). in northern ontario, the most common route is also non-transfer university (78.40%) followed by non-transfer college (13.19%). in the north, however, the percentages of non-transfer university (78.4%) are slightly higher and the percentages of non-transfer college (13.19%) are slightly lower than in the south. in terms of transfer, the remaining 7.96% of students are spread across the transfer pathways (uc, 2.15%; cu, 2.04%; uu, 1.71%; cc, 1.53%; swirlers, 0.54%). the overall level of transfer is slightly higher in northern institutions (8.41%) and is largely attributable to more uu transfer (2.31%) and swirlers (0.74%) in northern institutions. uc transfers (2.10%) occur at about the same rate, while cu (1.84%) and cc transfers (1.42%) are relatively less common in the north. overall, all characteristics in our bivariate analyses and models were highly statistically significant in both northern and southern institutions. in step with prior work (see zarifa et al., 2020), student age, sex, parental income, field of study, family composition, and family size all show strong and significant effects on student mobility across and within universities and colleges. however, our separate north and south analyses reveal some important differences in the nature and direction of the effects. in terms of sex, several important differences emerge. in southern ontario schools, female students show higher probabilities of taking four (uu, cu, cc, and swirler) of the five transfer routes compared to male students. the only transfer type where male students show a higher probability is university to college transfer. in northern ontario, however, it is male students who have higher probabilities of taking all five of the transfer pathways (uu, uc, cu, cc, and swirler). another finding that differs in the north is that female students show higher probabilities of not transferring in university, and male students show higher probabilities of not transferring in college. 15 northern and southern differences in students who transfer for age, we find that older students (age 22 or older) in both southern and northern ontario alike show higher probabilities of taking uu and ntu pathways and lower probabilities of taking cc and ntc pathways. however, some key differences appear across regions. in northern institutions, older students show higher chances of uc transfer (similar to confederation college, 2012), lower chances of cu transfer, and a higher probability of swirling. in southern institutions, the opposite is true, as younger students show higher chances of uc transfer, lower chances of cu transfer, and a higher probability of swirling. in step with a long history of research in the sociology of education, parental socio-economic status matters. in both southern and northern ontario, students from lower parental income backgrounds were significantly more likely to take many of the various postsecondary pathways, such as cu, cc, ntc, and swirling, than take the non-transfer university route compared to those from higher parental income backgrounds. our findings show cu and cc and swirler transfer routes have negative relationships with parental income (lower income, higher probability of transfer). in southern ontario, however, the relationships between parental income and ntu and parental income and ntc are positive and negative non-linear, exponential relationships respectively. these findings mirror analyses of the province of ontario as a whole (see zarifa et al., 2020). however, in northern ontario, the relationships are linear and the changes in probabilities are greater at lower parental income quintiles. put differently, the differences between lower parental income students are smaller in southern ontario, but the differences at higher parental income quintiles in southern ontario are greater. in northern ontario, the differences appear to increase equally across parental income quintiles. unfortunately, we were unable to further consider how the effects of parental education (see mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016) might also explain student pathways nor could we explore the impact of various combinations of parental income and education (see steffler et al. 2018). these remain important avenues for future research, in particular for northern institutions. finally, for field of study in southern schools, students from arts/humanities are taking many transfer routes (uu, uc and swirler routes) more so than students from other fields. at the same time, similar to other studies, we find social science students have higher chances of taking uc and cu pathways (stewart & martinello, 2012). health students show the highest probability of cu and cc transfer. in terms of those who do not transfer and take the university route, natural science and social science students take this pathway the most. among northern institutions, our findings show a similar story across fields. interestingly, arts/humanities students stand out further in the north relative to the other fields in terms of their chances of uu and uc transfer. also, unlike in southern institutions, the social sciences in the north show stronger roots in the university sector, as they stand out with the highest rates of lateral transfer across universities and non-transfer university. it is certainly possible that these differences may be attributable to differences in the availability of certain fields or even differences in the formal articulation agreements operating at institutions within the two regions. while southern ontario contains a myriad of undergraduate programs within their institutions, many of these programs are less prevalent in northern ontario (e.g., engineering). 16 northern and southern differences in students who transfer our comparisons across southern and northern ontario institutions have two key implications for policymakers and education administrators. first, our summaries of the two subsamples for analysis revealed some notable differences across demographics in the two locales. specifically, northern ontario institutions show greater relative proportions of older students (19.3% vs. 12.11%), female students (58.46% vs. 53.56%), more students from moderate income families, about 10% more health majors (21.77 vs. 11.61), as well as smaller relative proportions of arts/humanities (11.36% vs. 19.52%) and social science majors (28.6% vs. 38.84%). as mentioned earlier, it is important for policymakers to consider these regional differences in the academic and demographic compositions of the postsecondary landscapes in order to ensure efficient and effective program design, revision, and evaluation of existing transfer programs, articulation agreements, and student transition supports. second, our results shed light on the characteristics of students who are taking transfer pathways in colleges and universities in both northern and southern ontario separately. this is particularly beneficial for education administrators, student services, and governments who are seeking knowledge on the types of students who are currently transferring, as well as the type of transfer they are engaging in. while age, sex, parental income, and field of study remain key predictors in both regions, our results revealed that the nature of their relationships is often different, with some of the effects even reversing across regions. identifying who takes various pathways in each region separately sets the stage for locationspecific targeted supports to stave off unsuccessful transitions leading to postsecondary stop out or drop out. 17 northern and southern differences in students who transfer appendix: data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources this study uses the postsecondary student information system (psis) (for further details, see statistics canada, 2018). psis is administrative data collected on all public and not-for-profit postsecondary institutions funded by a provincial ministry of education. the data is particularly beneficial in that it provides a census of enrolments and graduates in all canadian colleges and universities, collected annually since the 2005/2006 academic year, and yields approximately a 95% response rate. at the time of this writing, the 2016/2017 academic year is the most recent academic year available for analysis. another strength of the psis is that it includes variables about the educational institutions, student demographics, and information about the program in which the student is enrolled. they are optimal for use in this study to investigate the characteristics of students who pursue various pse pathways in northern and southern ontario. additionally, we use the psis-t1ff linkage (tax years 2004 to 2015) to draw upon additional sociodemographic variables of relevance (e.g., parental income, family composition, family size, etc.). finally, the psis administrative data overcomes a number of limitations of using other nationally representative survey data to examine pse pathways in northern ontario. first, small sample sizes prevent the use of statistics canadas youth in transition survey (yits) to parse out the ontario case. wave attrition further complicates analyses with yits, and data on more recent cohorts are no longer collected. most importantly, neither the yits nor another nationally representative survey, the national graduates survey (ngs), contains institutional identifiers to create northern and southern groupings. subsample and restrictions we restrict our sample in this study in several important ways. for example, we limit our sample to undergraduate students from ontario postsecondary institutions. specifically, this study excludes students who are enrolled in professional, graduate, and postgraduate programs (see finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2017). in addition, there are two different ways of selecting students in the psis, namely the enrolment cohorts and the graduate cohorts. we rely on the enrolment cohorts in our analysis and track students school and type of postsecondary education mobility over two years. 18 northern and southern differences in students who transfer admittedly, it would be ideal to track students transfer types from their initial enrolment in postsecondary education until their graduation. to do so, we would need to draw our sample from the graduate cohorts that allow us to select those students who had attended a college or university program prior to graduating from a college or university program as well as those who did not attend a prior program but graduated with a college diploma or university degree. however, there are three limitations to this approach. first, our preliminary analyses revealed that the number of students included in the graduate cohorts is considerably smaller than those in the enrolment cohorts. moreover, the psis has imputed information on several ontario colleges (see statistics canada, 2019: 34). unfortunately, respondents from these institutions are not available for longitudinal linkage due to a lack of record identification. finally, coupled with these two limitations, considering our interest in students from postsecondary institutions in northern ontario, our sample sizes would be too small to perform the analyses presented here. to overcome these limitations, this study uses the enrolment cohorts to understand students transfer types. specifically, we select those students who were enrolled in a college or university program during the time of data collection and subsequently followed their institution and sector pathways for two years. ultimately, we capture the probability that students change their institution and/or institution type within their first two years of college or university. this approach has several advantages. first, tracking students for two years after their initial enrolment is suitable for documenting their transfer types because transfers often happen during a relatively early stage of ones postsecondary educational career (see hillman, lum, & hossler, 2008; johnson & muse, 2012). second, this approach allows us to keep a large-enough sample size to track students transfer, especially among those students who had started their postsecondary education from twoyear colleges. we adopt this approach and track six different cohorts of students (200911, 201012, 201113, 201214, 201315, and 201416) to understand their transfer types. for example, for 2009, we first compare differences between 2009 and 2010 institution ids and institution types. we then compare 2010 to 2011 institution ids and institution types. third, we combine observed differences across both comparisons and then combine into the pathway variable below. finally, we pool these students together, yielding analytical samples of 404,270 students in southern institutions and 19,020 students in northern institutions. 2. an alternative approach was first explored by extracting and linking across the graduation cohorts in psis. those who graduated in a particular year (e.g., 2016) were linked to their psis records in the previous four years (2012 to 2016). this approach provided a glimpse into graduates last four years of postsecondary participation but revealed far less student mobility. as such, we opted to proceed with our current approach since a significant level of transfer occurs within their first few years of postsecondary education. 3. additional analyses (not shown here) tracked students over four years of time and pool four cohorts of students (2009 to 2013; 2010 to 2014; 2011 to 2015; 2012 to 2016), but sample sizes diminished too much over time (due to graduation from college, attrition, drop out, or stop out). unfortunately, once students leave or graduate from their institution, they are not captured in subsequent waves of psis. 19 northern and southern differences in students who transfer dependent variable the transfer-type variable that we create in this study includes the following seven pathways: (1) college to university transfers, (2) university to college transfers, (3) college to college transfers, (4) university to university transfers, (5) non-transfer college students, (6) nontransfer university students, and (7) swirlers (i.e., those students who changed their institutions more than once within two years). independent variables in step with prior research, we include demographic, program, and family characteristics in our analysis. first, demographic characteristics include age (0=younger, 21 or younger); (1=older, 22 or older), sex (0=males; 1=females), and the quintiles of gross parental income (0=lowest; 1=lower; 2=middle; 3=higher; 4=highest). second, we include one program characteristic major field of study (0=arts/humanities; 1=health; 2=natural sciences; 3=social sciences; 4=other). third, we add family characteristics such as the number of people in the family (0=smaller, 3 or fewer; 1=larger, 4 or more) and family type (0=two-parent; 1=lone-parent). as part of the limitation of the psis, we are not able to include students from imputed institutions. considering that each year contains a different set of imputed institutions, we account for academic year of initial enrolment (0=2009; 1=2010; 2=2011-12; 3=2013; 4=2014). in addition, there are several other demographic variables, such as registration status, international student status, and immigration status; however, we do not include these variables due to their small sample sizes. moreover, due to data quality issues, and under the advisement of statistics canada, we were also unable to make use of the following variables available in the psis files: total transfer credits; aboriginal or visible minority status; mother tongue; program duration; program duration units; co-op program indicator; credits needed to graduate; program credit units; cumulative credits for program; second specialization; and end-date in program. the psis data also lack measures of gpa or student grades to account for academic performance as well as measures of parental aspirations or parent education to account for cultural capital effects. at the same time, we are unable to account for high school education and behavioural metrics (see davies and pizarro milian, 2020). 4. our field of study measure combines both 2-digit and 4-digit cip (classification of instructional program) codes (additional details available upon request). 5. the number of swirlers was too small for 2011 to permit statistics canadas disclosure of our bivariate results, so we combined 2011 and 2012 categories to examine the year of enrolment and transfer types. 20 northern and southern differences in students who transfer analytical approach to investigate the differences in the magnitude of pathways across regions, we use crosstabulations and chi-square tests of the independent variables by our dependent variable of transfer pathway types (i.e., college to university, university to college, college to college, university to university, non-transfer college graduate, non-transfer university graduate, and swirlers) for each type of institution location: northern and southern. second, for each of the institution locations (northern and southern), we utilize pooled multinomial logistic regression models (long, 1997; long and freese, 2014) to map out the effects of the various independent variables (program characteristics, sociodemographic characteristics) on the seven types of transfer pathways. these models will enable us to map out the key characteristics of those who transfer from northern and southern institutions. to aid in the interpretation of our findings, we also produce and graph the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals from these models. 21 northern and southern differences in students who transfer references acai, a., & newton, g. 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(2020). transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities: the magnitude of postsecondary transfer types and the characteristics of those who transfer. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. 24 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figures and tables figure 1. pathways among ontario postsecondary students: northern and southern ontario 25 northern and southern differences in students who transfer table 1. sample characteristics by region of institution. psis-t1ff 2009-2016. 26 northern and southern differences in students who transfer ***p<0.01 obtained from x2 test table 2. bivariate analysis of the dependent and independent variables, southern ontario. psis-t1ff 2009-2016. 27 northern and southern differences in students who transfer ***p<0.01 obtained from x2 test table 3. bivariate analysis of the dependent and independent variables, northern ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2016. 28 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 2. the relationship between sex and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 3. the relationship between sex and transfer pathways, northern ontario 29 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 4. the relationship between age and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 5. the relationship between age and transfer pathways, northern ontario 30 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 6. the relationship between parental income and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 7. the relationship between parental income and transfer pathways, northern ontario 31 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 8. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 9. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, northern ontario 32 northern and southern differences in students who transfer *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01; ntu is the reference category for the dependent variable. table 4. multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types, southern ontario. psis-t1ff 20092016 33 northern and southern differences in students who transfer table 5. predicted probabilities of transfer types, southern ontario. psis-t1ff 20092016 34 northern and southern differences in students who transfer *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01; ntu is the reference category for the dependent variable. table 6. multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types, northern ontario. psis-t1ff 20092016 35 northern and southern differences in students who transfer table 7. predicted probabilities of transfer types, northern ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2016 36 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 10. the predicted probabilities across sex and transfer type, southern ontario figure 11. the predicted probabilities across sex and transfer type, northern ontario 37 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 12. the predicted probabilities across age and transfer type, southern ontario figure 13. the predicted probabilities across age and transfer type, northern ontario 38 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 14. the predicted probabilities across parent income and transfer type, southern ontario figure 15. the predicted probabilities across parent income and transfer type, northern ontario 39 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 16. the predicted probabilities across field of study and transfer type, southern ontario figure 17. the predicted probabilities across field of study and transfer type, northern ontario 40

financial statements ontario council on articulation and transfer march 31, 2022 ontario council on articulation and transfer contents page independent auditor's report 1-2 statement of financial position 3 statements of operations and changes in net assets 4 statement of cash flows 5 notes to the financial statements 6 - 10 independent auditor's report grant thornton llp 11th floor 200 king street west, box 11 toronto, on m5h 3t4 t +1 416 366 0100 f +1 416 360 4949 www.grantthornton.ca to the members of ontario council on articulation and transfer opinion we have audited the financial statements of ontario council on articulation and transfer (the organization), which comprise the statement of financial position as at march 31, 2022, and the statements of operations and changes in net assets and cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. in our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the organization as at march 31, 2022, and its the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with canadian accounting standards for not-forprofit organizations. basis for opinion we conducted our audit in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards. our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. we are independent of the organization in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in canada, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. we believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. responsibilities of management and those charged with governance for the financial statements management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations, and for such internal control as management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. in preparing the financial statements, management is responsible for assessing the organization's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless management either intends to liquidate the organization or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so. those charged with governance are responsible for overseeing the organization's financial reporting process. audit | tax | advisory grant thornton llp. a canadian member of grant thornton international ltd 1 auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. as part of an audit in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards, we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit. we also: identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control. obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the organization's internal control. evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by management. conclude on the appropriateness of management's use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the organization's ability to continue as a going concern. if we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor's report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor's report. however, future events or conditions may cause the organization to cease to continue as a going concern. evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation. we communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit. toronto, canada august 11, 2022 chartered professional accountants licensed public accountants audit | tax | advisory grant thornton llp. a canadian member of grant thornton international ltd 2 ontario council on articulation and transfer statement of financial position march 31 assets current cash accounts receivable (note 3) prepaid expenses property and equipment (note 4) intangible assets (note 5) liabilities current accounts payable and accrued liabilities deferred revenue (note 7) 2022 2021 $ 2,960,111 217,038 78,354 $ 2,819,932 127,488 86,799 3,255,503 3,034,219 168,377 - 155,350 2,583 $ 3,423,880 $ 3,192,152 $ 1,990,278 1,433,602 $ 1,386,090 1,806,062 $ 3,423,880 $ 3,192,152 commitments (note 8) on behalf of the board member see accompanying notes to the financial statements. member 3 ontario council on articulation and transfer statements of operations and changes in net assets year ended march 31 revenues government grants investment income 2022 2021 $ 6,224,902 100 $ 4,619,592 2,746 6,225,002 4,622,338 3,606,176 1,955,510 228,875 218,651 109,361 42,783 23,387 18,737 14,092 7,430 2,398,607 1,744,392 214,926 108,572 86,479 32,871 8,674 25,445 2,372 6,225,002 4,622,338 expenditures project expenses salaries and benefits accommodations professional fees computing and financial services amortization office and general communications foreign exchange loss travel and meetings excess of revenues over expenses $ - $ - surplus, beginning of year $ - $ - excess of revenues over expenses surplus, end of year $ see accompanying notes to the financial statements. - $ - 4 ontario council on articulation and transfer statement of cash flows year ended march 31 2022 2021 increase (decrease) in cash operating excess of revenues over expenses items not affecting cash amortization of property and equipment amortization of intangible assets change in non-cash working capital items accounts receivable prepaid expenses accounts payable and accrued liabilities deferred revenue $ - 30,053 2,818 42,783 32,871 (89,550) 8,445 604,187 (372,460) (62,269) 12,503 (235,848) (1,054,750) 193,405 (1,307,493) (53,226) increase (decrease) in cash 140,179 end of year - 40,200 2,583 investing purchase of property and equipment cash beginning of year $ (66,081) (1,373,574) 2,819,932 4,193,506 $ 2,960,111 $ 2,819,932 see accompanying notes to the financial statements. 5 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2022 1. nature of organization ontario council on articulation and transfer (the organization) was incorporated on august 23, 2011 by letters patent under the laws of canada. the organization is responsible for directing and managing the day-to-day activities and operations associated with the council including academic collaboration fund projects, the ontransfer web site, including the ontario transfer guide and course equivalency database, and various research activities. 2. significant accounting policies the organization follows accounting principles generally accepted in canada in preparing its financial statements. the significant accounting policies used are as follows: use of estimates the preparation of the organizations financial statements in conformity with asnpo requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the balance sheet date and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making estimates, actual results could differ from those estimates. financial instruments the organizations financial instruments are comprised of cash, accounts receivable and accounts payable. financial assets and liabilities are initially recognized at their fair value. the organization subsequently measures all financial assets and financial liabilities at amortized cost. property and equipment property and equipment are recorded at cost and are being amortized over their estimated useful lives. the annual amortization rates are as follows: furniture leasehold improvements computer equipment 5 years 10 years 3 years intangible assets intangible assets are recorded at cost and amortized over their useful lives. software license costs are amortized over the length of the transfer payment agreement. website and software costs are amortized on a straight-line basis over 5 years. impairment of long-lived assets the organization tests long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that its carrying amount may not be recoverable. an impairment loss is recognized when the carrying amount of the asset exceeds the sum of the undiscounted cash flows resulting from its use and eventual disposition. the impairment loss is measured as the amount by which the carrying amount of the long-lived asset exceeds its fair value. 6 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2022 2. significant accounting policies (continued) accrual of expenses expenses have been recorded using the accrual basis of accounting, and all expenses have been recorded in the period to which the expense relates. revenue recognition grants are initially recorded as deferred revenue and are recognized as revenue in the year in which the related expenses are incurred. investment and other income is recognized when received or receivable and the amount can be reasonably estimated and collection reasonably assured. 3. accounts receivable 2022 hst receivable 4. $ 217,038 2021 $ 127,488 property and equipment cost furniture leasehold improvements computer equipment accumulated amortization 2022 2021 net book value net book value $ 104,779 248,252 101,685 $ 95,642 131,269 59,428 $ 9,137 116,983 42,257 $ 18,281 102,183 34,886 $ 454,716 $ 286,339 $ 168,377 $ 155,350 the organization completed leasehold improvements in fiscal 2018. netted against the cost of the leasehold improvements is a leasehold reimbursement from the landlord of $188,360. 7 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2022 5. intangible assets website and software software license cost 6. 2022 2021 net book value net book value cost accumulated amortization $ 1,484,317 399,000 $ 1,484,317 399,000 $ - $ 2,583 - $ 1,883,317 $ 1,883,317 $ - $ 2,583 bank indebtedness the organization has a line of credit in the amount of $500,000 bearing interest at prime plus 1.5%, due on demand and secured with a general security agreement. as at march 31, 2022, the balance was $nil (2021 - $nil). 7. deferred revenue 2022 2021 deferred revenue, beginning of period add: funds received less: revenue recognized $ 1,806,062 $ 2,860,812 5,852,442 3,564,842 (6,224,902) (4,619,592) deferred revenue, end of period $ 1,433,602 8. $ 1,806,062 commitments (a) premises lease agreement the organization is committed under the terms of the operating lease for premises up to fiscal 2028. the annual minimum lease payments over the next five years are as follows: 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 subsequent years $ 114,849 117,066 117,066 117,066 117,066 48,777 $ 631,890 8 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2022 8. commitments (continued) (b) transfer pathway projects the organization entered into agreements with a number of ontario colleges and universities to prepare components of the various initiatives undertaken by the organization. under the terms of the agreements, the colleges and universities have been engaged to complete portions of the pathway development, innovative curriculum development, and research projects up to fiscal 2024. the annual minimum commitment payments over the next three years are as follows: 2023 2024 9. $ 1,331,976 235,773 financial instruments transactions in financial instruments may result in the organization assuming or transferring to another party one of more the financial risks described below. the required disclosures provide information that assists users of the financial statements in assessing the extent of risk related to financial instruments. credit risk the organizations credit risk is primarily with respect to their accounts receivable. given the nature of receivables, the organization does not consider credit risk to be significant. liquidity risk the organizations liquidity risk represents the risk that the organization could encounter difficulty in meeting obligations associated with financial liabilities. the organization is exposed to liquidity risk mainly in respect of its accounts payable. the organization manages liquidity risk by maintaining cash balances in excess of outstanding obligations. market risk market risk is the risk that the fair value or expected future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in market prices. market risk comprises three types of risk: currency risk, interest rate risk and other price risk. the organization is not exposed to significant currency risk, interest rate risk or other price risk due to the nature of their financial instruments. 9 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2022 10. ministry spending reconciliation the reconciliation of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (formerly ministry of advanced education and skills development) funding and expenditures is as follows. 2022 funding received during the year funds received from the ministry (note 7) total expenditures expenses per statement of operations items capitalized for accounting purposes property and equipment less: amortization 2021 $ 5,852,442 $ 3,564,842 $ 6,225,002 $ 4,622,338 53,226 (42,783) $ 6,235,445 66,080 (32,871) $ 4,655,547 (deficit) surplus other income investment income $ (383,004) $ (1,090,705) 100 2,746 total (deficit) surplus $ (382,904) $ (1,087,959) 11. economic dependence the organization is economically dependent on the ministry of colleges and universities for grant revenue. 10

project snapshot developing pathways from occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant to bachelor of physical and health education and bachelor of science in kinesiology type: pathway development project number: 2020-28 or p2028 project lead: universit laurentienne collaborators: collge boral, la cit collgiale project summary the project proposes six (6) pathways from the college occupational therapist and physiotherapist assistant program (offered by la cit and collge boral), to the laurentian programs 1) health promotion (boral and la cit) 2) sport and physical education (boral and la cit) 3) kinesiology (boral and la cit) project rationale exploring these pathways was motivated essentially by the strong recommendation of college stakeholders from these programs, who told use that in recent years they have noted that nearly 40% of their graduates then pursued university studies. apparently, this trend is explained by the considerable gap between the average salary associated with a college education (ranging from $30,000 to $48,000 per year, to the salary associated with a university education in the industry (ranging instead from $70,000 to $80,000 per year). moreover, it was also shown that a bachelor degree is required to access many administrative positions in a hospital setting; a setting highly coveted by students in this program. outcomes the desired pathways were intended for graduates from the following programs: la cit and collge borals occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program, to laurentians kinesiology, health and physical education, and health promotion programs. hence, six (6) pathways in all were initially desired. key steps - the course outlines comprising all of the college and university programs involved in this project were gathered = winning practice - review matrices to compare the learning outcomes of the university courses with the learning outcomes of the college courses were developed = winning practice - a preliminary review was done by a general instructional content specialist to identify the most obvious correlations and submit a report to the university academic units for their approval of the findings = winning practice pathways created the development of pathways between collge boral and la cits occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (2 years) to the following programs: - b.sc. kinesiology - b.p.h.e. sport and physical education - b.p.h.e. health promotion incomplete pathways this information can only be provided after the restructuring underway at laurentian university is complete because some of the programs involved in this projects pathways may be cut in the institutions new structure. challenges on february 1, 2021, laurentian university initiated, with no notice, restructuring procedures under the companies creditors arrangement act (ccaa). this process caused general destabilization at the institution, which had to put a stop to all approval processes related to pathways being developed. the work can only resume in fall 2021, based on the programs that will have been spared from the cuts. student outcomes these pathways will help college graduates who want to enroll in targeted university programs save time and money. they will also offer them greater recognition as professionals through greater consideration of the value of the specialized academic skills gained throughout their college education, thereby demonstrating increased consideration and therefore the greater value of the college education. student credential these pathways could give college students faster access to obtaining the following degrees: - b.sc kinesiology - b.p.h.e. sport and physical education - b.p.h.e. health promotion student time savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes. student financial savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes, which will indicate the number of credits granted and allow us to perform this calculation. student flexibility definitely better access to the programs and an improved credit recognition process. student work alignment yes, because they will help college graduates enhance their initial studies with related studies, opening the door for them to more opportunities on the job market. institutional outcomes no, none. the process undertaken as part of this project followed the procedures of the new methodology developed and followed for the last three years. tips/advice we still believe that the methodology based on reviewing correlations between the learning outcomes of the college and university programs continues to be the best argument to present to the institutional bodies responsible for the approval of the proposed pathways because it shows, in a factual manner, the overlaps and skills of the college graduates. we strongly recommend it to other post-secondary institutions. tools and resources the key tool developed as part of this project is the review matrix.

oncat careers ontransfer.ca service coordinator location: toronto, ontario, canada type: 2-year contract compensation: $55,000 to $60,000 annually commensurate with experience about us established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's publicly funded colleges, universities and indigenous institutes. as a member organization, oncat works with institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. oncat currently has a hybrid/flexible work model with up to 3 days per week in the office environment. about the position the ontransfer.ca service coordinator will actively support stakeholders and logistics for front-line services and events including ongoing support for oncats online pathway and transfer resource (ontransfer.ca). working under the supervision of the ontransfer.ca services manager, the service coordinator will support content development and communications, engage, and support stakeholder questions and identify service enhancements to maintain service level expectations for ontransfer.ca. the incumbent will provide in-person and virtual logistics and operational support/coordination for events, web services, and other oncats customer relationship management initiatives that impact stakeholders. in addition to front-line service coordination, the ontransfer.ca service coordinator will support data collection initiatives that maintain and enhance backend data management. key responsibilities communications, logistics and service support provides administrative and logistics coordination for in-person and virtual events attended by ontransfer team e.g. ontario student transfer fair, ontario universities fair, college fair, career and education expos, etc.; collaborates with various oncat team members to collect, develop, and order materials for events including accurately tracking existing inventory. supports development of content, contacts, communications, and outreach initiatives that support stakeholders and partners via established platforms e.g. sharepoint, listservs, crm, cms, email, etc. supports development of training and support materials (e.g. manuals, videos, etc.) to educate stakeholders on functionality of web resources e.g. ontransfer.ca, data entry systems, sharepoint, event platforms, etc. supports and applies ontransfer.ca service level expectations to requests/incidents involving stakeholders. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 interfaces with all aspects of ontransfer.ca including public-facing and back-end tools e.g. provides operational support for sharepoint web portal including, but not limited to, communications, registration access, changes in security groups, service support tracking, inquiries, and priority escalations supports, coordinates and tracks external inquiries to support better interactions and improved access to information for stakeholders (e.g. supports data submission protocols and audits, monitors institutional personal, logs stakeholder inquiries, etc.). cultivates and maintains good relationships with ontransfer.ca administrators, external it vendors and developers coordinates, schedules, and supports meetings for ontransfer team including, but not limited to, distribution of agendas, taking of minutes, follow-up and additional communications or required actions/deliverables. maintains familiarity with stakeholder and other jurisdictions transfer student supports, policies and processes in postsecondary institutions provides timely and accurate answers to general and complex inquiries from students via various mediums (phone, online or in-person). analyzes service interactions to enhance ontransfer.ca functionality and supports for all stakeholders as needed, attends in-person and virtual events to promote ontransfer.ca and student service. when necessary, escalates serious service issues and/or complaints to ontransfer service manager. administration, data and reporting support in collaboration with ontransfer data coordinator, ontransfer service coordinator supports service, task and project tracking within oncats project management tools (e.g. monday.com or equivalent tools) to ensure timely and accurate planning for ontransfer team. supports and collaborates with other oncat team members as necessary. supports and collaborates with the ontransfer.ca data coordinator to support data initiatives including, but not limited to, data administration and auditing, data analysis and reporting. supports the development of strategic and operational plans to improve stakeholder engagement supports and collaborates on various data-related service initiatives, including providing data and reporting for internal and external committees, that involves data from ontransfer.ca and its various support systems collaborates and supports service processes in absence of ontransfer.ca service manager e.g. attending booth fairs, answer stakeholder inquiries qualifications three to five years postsecondary education (pse) in an ontario institution. 2 or more years of work experience in a student service or equivalent environment, at a postsecondary institution or related industry excellent ms office skills including word, outlook (including email etiquette), and excel; introductory knowledge of ms access would be an asset. strong attention to detail and interpersonal skills. very good reading comprehension skills and verbal communication skills. demonstrated ability to work independently and work collaboratively in a team environment. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 an ability to build and maintain effective working relationships at all levels of the organization. experience working in an environment with changing priorities and a high volume of time-sensitive stakeholder needs; call or student service centre experience is an asset. demonstrates tact and diplomacy when working with internal and external stakeholders with diverse backgrounds. french language proficiency would be considered an asset. working environment staff work in a small office environment and travel may be required. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. in your cover letter, please outline: 1. why you are applying for this position 2. how your qualifications relate directly to the requirements of the position the deadline to apply is friday, september 9th 11:59pm est. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening or an interview will be contacted. additional testing may be required. oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require an accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

instantan passerelle du programme collgial tourisme vers le b.e.p.s. leadership : activit physique de plein air type: pathway development project number: 2020-29 or p2029 project lead: universit laurentienne collaborators: la cit collgiale rsum du projet le projet propose un (1) parcours partir du programme collgial tourisme (offert par la cit), vers le programme laurentienne b.e.p.s. leadership : activit physique de plein air. justification du projet cest tout le courant social que reprsentait encore en fvrier 2020, lengouement pour lcotoursime et les activits de plein air qui nous avait pouss explorer une passerelle entre le seul programme de tourisme offert en franais en province et le programme unique que reprsentait le b.e.p.s leadership : activit physique de plein air de la laurentienne. comme lcotourisme implique une dimension dducation au niveau de lapprciation des cosystmes et que tout indique quil vivra une croissance soutenue auprs des millnaires et post-covid, nous sommes toujours convaincus quil sagit dune combinaison de formation trs avantageuses pour les tudiants. malheureusement, la suspension temporaire du programme universitaire ne nous permettra pas de pouvoir complter ce parcours officiellement cette anne. cependant nous en gardons prcieusement les recommandations et avons lintention de les dposer ds que le b.e.p.s leadership : activit physique de plein air sera ractiv loffre de programme laurentienne. rsultats la passerelle espre tait lintention des tudiants gradus du programme de toursime de la cit, vers le programme de b.e.p.s leadership : activit physique de plein air de la laurentienne. mesures cls - les plans de cours composant lensemble des programmes collgiaux et universitaires impliqus dans ce projet ont t rcolts = pratique gagnante - des matrices danalyse permettant de comparer les rsultats dapprentissage des cours universitaires avec les rsultats dapprentissage des cours collgiaux ont t labores = pratique gagnante - une analyse prliminaire a t effectue par une spcialiste de contenu pdagogique gnral, afin didentifier les corrlations les plus videntes et de soumettre un rapport aux units acadmiques universitaires pour leur approbation des constats = pratique gagnante parcours crs le parcours est prt pour approbation par les instances institutionnelles laurentienne. elle devra toutefois attendre que le processus en cours de la lacc soit complt avant dtre dpose et/ou que le b.e.p.s leadership : activit physique de plein air de la laurentienne soit ractivit au sein de loffre de programmes. ceci tant dit, de fortes affinits se sont rvles au niveau de cette passerelle potentielle. parcours non termins cette information ne pourra tre fournie qu' la suite de la restructuration en cours de l'universit laurentienne puisque certains programmes impliqus dans les passerelles de ce projet pourraient s'avrer coups dans la nouvelle structure de l'tablissement. dfis le 1er fvrier 2021 luniversit laurentienne a entam, sans aucun pravis, des procdures de restructuration en vertu de la loi sur les arrangements avec les cranciers des compagnies (lacc). ce processus a provoqu une dstabilisation gnralise de ltablissement, qui a d mettre un arrt toutes les dmarches dapprobation relatives au passerelles en cours de dveloppement. les travaux ne pourront reprendre quau cours de lautomne 2021, la lumire des programmes qui auront t pargns des coupures. rsultats pour les tudiants cette passerelle permettra aux diplms collgiaux dsirant sinscrire au b.e.p.s leadership : activit physique de plein air dpargner temps et argent. elle leur offrira galement une plus grande reconnaissance titre de professionnel en considrant davantage la valeur des acquis acadmiques spcialiss quils ont rcolts au cours de leur formation collgiale, dmontrant ainsi une considration accrue et par le fait mme, une plus grande valorisation de la formation collgiale. elle leur permettra aussi dlargir leur champ de comptence dans le domaine touristique, de leur offrir une plus grande polyvalence, et douvrir leurs possibilits sur le march du travail. titres dtudes cette passerelle pourrait donner plus rapidement accs aux tudiants collgiaux l'obtention du diploma suivant : - b.e.p.s leadership : activit physique de plein air conomies de temps pour les tudiants cette information reste tre dtermine la suite des processus d'approbation venir. conomies financires pour les tudiants cette information reste tre dtermine la suite des processus d'approbation venir, qui nous indiquera le nombre de crdits accords et qui pourra nous permettre de raliser ce calcul. souplesse pour les tudiants dfinitivement un meilleur accs aux programmes, et un processus amliors de reconnaissance de crdits. harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants oui puisqu'elles permettront aux diplms collgiaux d'enrichir leur formation initiale d'une formation connexe, leur ouvrant davantage de possibilits pour le march du travail. rsultats pour les tablissements non, aucun. la dmarche entreprise dans le cadre de ce projet a suivi les procdures de la nouvelle mthodologie dveloppe et suivie depuis les trois dernires annes. conseils pratiques nous continuons de croire que la mthodologie se reposant sur lanalyse des corrlations entre les rsultats dapprentissages des programmes collgiaux et universitaires reste le meilleur argument prsenter aux instances institutionnelles en charge de lapprobation des passerelles proposes, puisquelle dmontre de faon factuelle les recoupements et les acquis des diplms collgiaux. nous la recommandons fortement aux autres tablissements postsecondaires. outils et ressources le principal outil dvelopp dans le cadre de ce projet est la matrice danalyse.

rapport final contrat : 2017-18 architecture transfer pathway development titre du projet : dveloppement de parcours de transfert en architecture prpar par : luniversit laurentienne bureau des affaires francophones 935, chemin du lac ramsey 3e tage, difice parker (p315) sudbury (on) p3e 2c6 tl : 705-675-1151, poste 3421 date : 15 mars 2018 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture liste des intervenants impliqus pour le compte de luniversit laurentienne : andre noiseux, charge de projets; nomie thberge, conseillre principale sylvie landry, directrice du bureau des affaires francophones, partenariats et collaborations; line tremblay, vice-rectrice associe sortante aux tudes et affaires francophones; david lesbarrres, vice-recteur intrimaire associ aux tudes et affaires francophones; osman abour-rabia, doyen de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture; hlne joly, doyenne associe de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture terrance galvin, directeur sortant de lcole darchitecture mcewen; roch blair, professeur izabel amaral, professeur diane roy, registraire; melissa ouimette, chef du bureau des admissions; joanne musico, directrice des communications. pour le compte du collge boral : marie-claude malette, charge de projets; jocelyne bdard, gestionnaire de projets; daniel leduc, conseiller principal et chef du centre de ressources professionnel; lyne michaud, vice-prsident enseignement; tina montgomery, doyenne de lcole des mtiers et des technologies appliques; denis r. ouimette, coordonnateur des programmes techniques de larchitecture larchitecure; julie allen, registraire; ginette brunet, chef du bureau des admissions; jean cotnoir, chef des communications stratgiques. et technologie de pour le compte du collge la cit : joseph aghaby, charg de projets; lise frenette, directrice de projets spciaux; norman junior poisson rioux, expert de contenu et conseiller pdagogique; nicole dubois, coordonnatrice du programme techniques en architecture; franois barbarie, professeur; jorge magalhaes, professeur; frdric thibeault-chabot, doyen de linstitut des technologies, des arts et de la communication; patrice supper, directeur de linstitut des technologies, des arts et de la communication; paulette bouffard, directrice; stphane ct, registraire; pascale montminy, gestionnaire en communication chantal thiboutot, directrice principale de la planification institutionnelle et de limputabilit. 2 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture table of contents 1) summary 4 2) project purpose and goals....5 3) development of the transfer pathways....6 4) summary of the transfer pathways....12 5) promising practices and lessons learned.....13 appendix a: analysis matrices.... appendix b: transfer pathway model - architecture .. appendix c: financial report... 3 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture 1) summary initially, this project aimed at developing traditional pathway agreements between laurentian university's darchitecture new architectural architecture (techniques) program (2 years) and the and technologie larchitecture (architectural technology) (3 years) programs at techniques de collge boral, then facilitate the development of a similar but adapted agreement, with the three-year program in techniques darchitecture (architectural techniques) at la cit college. promoting dialogue between universities and colleges, and encouraging the retention of francophone students in ontario's post-secondary education system, this initiative was in line with oncat goals. as a result, the number of students taking and completing the entire continuum of education in the province could also increase in a field as specialized as architecture. two completely innovative agreements will now link the mcewen school of architecture at laurentian university to collge boral and la cit college, creating not only three new transfer pathways in french for students in this area, but also promoting access for francophones to this unique school in the province. 4 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-18 transfer pathway in architecture 2) project purpose and goals in addition to meeting oncat goals, the project had the following goals for participating institutions: maximize the achievements of students graduating from collge boral's techniques darchitecture (2 years) and technologie de larchitecture (3 years) programs, as well as from the technologie de larchitecture (3 years) program at la cit college; promote access for francophones to the only bilingual architecture school in the province; encourage, or even start, dialogue between laurentian university, collge boral and la cit, in order to work towards a certain coherence between the programs, which would stimulate the francophone student mobility in the field of architecture and would benefit the entire education system. 5 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-18 transfer pathway in architecture 3) development of the transfer pathways methodology the original idea was to tie techniques darchitecture (2 years) and technologie de larchitecture (3 years) programs from collge boral to the bachelor of architectural studies program at laurentian university to, only then, facilitate development of an agreement adapted to the three-year program intechniques darchitecture at la cit college. however, in light of the discussions in recent years, which have recommended further support of the equivalency agreement on the analysis of learning outcomes cross-referenced in the departure program and the arrival program, we have chosen to invest the necessary efforts to ensure that this analysis is done in parallel for all programs involved, in order to develop a real comparative portrait of the results of this new methodology on similar programs in two different institutions. thus, all the originally planned analysis procedures only between laurentian and collge boral were split at the beginning of the work in order to ultimately conclude whether we could possibly rely on the rigour of such a methodology to apply courses transfer development between laurentian and a college partner for a particular program to another college partner offering the same program. for the rest, the steps were the same as those planned and proposed in the filing of our proposal, meaning: 6 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-18 transfer pathway in architecture schedule of activities april, 2017 may, 2017 steps and deliverables meetings with the dean of the school of architecture to discuss the project and its steps - allocate hours on the workload forms of the professors/subject-matter experts and educational consultants for spring 2017 - meetings with the directors or deans of the programs of study, the people in charge of the staff support centres and the managers of the admissions offices of laurentian university, boral and la cit to present the project - kick-off meeting with program professors to discuss the goals of the laurentian, collge boral and la cit's architectural programs june 2017 collection of lesson plans and other information related to the results and learning activities of the university program targeted by the project (architectural studies), and the three college programs (techniques darchitecture at la cit - 3 years, techniques darchitecture at boral - 2 years, and technologie de larchitecture at boral - 3 years) september 2017 - development of an analytical framework based on learning outcomes - feedback on the analysis structure proposed by the senior advisor - approval of the analysis structure by the vice-provost, francophone studies and affairs at laurentian - construction of the matrices - analysis and comparison of the various programs learning outcomes - identification of credits that can be recognized - consultation with the head of admissions of laurentian to share the analyzes, complete the results of the credits granted by the standards resulting from the general administrative practices for the elective courses and academic results of the candidates, and october 2017 to february 2018 7 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-18 transfer pathway in architecture identify the documentation to prepare for next steps of the administrative approvals at laurentian - consultation with key program stakeholders to validate comparative analyzes of the learning outcomes (program department of each institution, deans of colleges and dean of laurentian faculty of science, engineering and architecture) - final validation of the pathways developed with stakeholders before starting the approval process - development and finalizing of the traditional transfer agreements based on the comparative analyses validated by program stakeholders may june 2018 - completion of the approval process at the university (2 last steps) p ara (academic regulations and awards) p laurentian university senate summer 2018 - add pathways to agreement protocols - communication with the university's admissions office to add the pathways to ontransfer.ca march - april 2018 comparison and analysis of programs as the analysis of programs based on their learning outcomes to identify credit courses in each subject gateway was a new practice for us, we had to design, develop, and produce tools that would most rigorously document analysis data in order to validate the relevance of this approach. thus, matrices allowing us to map all the learning outcomes of each of the programs covered by the project and their overlaps were developed. these list the 8 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-18 transfer pathway in architecture learning outcomes of the laurentian architecture program against the learning outcomes of the boral and la cit programs and are used as follows: - for each corresponding learning outcome between the university program and one of the college programs, a "1" was entered in the grid; - the corresponding learning results are then added per ul architecture course; - - if a laurentian course has at least one corresponding learning outcome for all of its learning outcomes, it may be suggested to the program director that the course has a college equivalent and credit is recognized in the agreement; even if, when comparing courses by course, there is not a college course that is exactly the equivalent of a laurentian course, mapping shows that in the entire college diploma, students covered the learning outcomes of some courses; - at the end of the exercise, the college program directors are consulted to validate the learning outcomes that were crossreferenced. they then have the opportunity to specify whether certain results have been omitted for lack of clarity or understanding of course syllabuses, or even to propose a certain revision of their program so as to add a particularly decisive learning result. the excel document containing all the analysis matrices used in this project is presented in appendix a. 9 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-18 transfer pathway in architecture implementation process and timelines approval processes have a significant impact on the timelines of such a project and its implementation. indeed, some committees such as the senate, for example, face very busy agendas, in addition to a very limited meeting schedule. we must face the facts, the june meeting remains the most favou-rable for the processing of files like this one and therefore interferes with the original hope of completing all the work for mid-march. to this awareness was added an imponderable this year, the university and college strikes that took place in turn. in fact, since the teachers' strike in ontario colleges in the fall of 2017 lasted nearly five weeks, many development projects involving teaching have been put on hold at both collge boral and la cit. due to the reorganization of the school calendar, teachers were unable to complete this type of mandate within the prescribed time frame. the fall session at la cit ended january 26, 2018 and the winter session began january 29, 2018. this new timetable forced educational institutions to cancel the traditional reading week, with the result that the administrative work normally done by teachers during this week could not be ensured this year. that said, monumental work was done to get as close as possible to the outcome of the project. to date, the mapping of programs and the results of the first analysis it suggests have been submitted for validation to the authorities of each institution. 10 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contract: 2017-18 transfer pathway in architecture the next few weeks will allow us to complete the following steps: - meeting of institutional program directors to draw on the results of the first analysis and the recommendations for maximizing pathways; - approval with ara and information to the cpf; - approval from the senate; - add pathways to agreement protocols; - communication with the university's admissions office to add the pathways to ontransfer.ca; - preparation of an announcement of new pathways for back to school. 11 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture 4) summary of the transfer pathways created the following table provides a brief overview of the transfer pathways proposed at the conclusion of this project. anne 1 - laurentienne arch1006 - design thinking (3 cr) arch1505 - design studio 1: place (6 cr) arch1007 - sacred places (3 cr) arch1515 - studio 2 : place ii (6 cr) arch0100 - coop a1 (1 cr - 14 semaines) anne 2 - laurentienne arch 2306 - design for climat change (3 cr) arch 2316 - structures 1: wood (3 cr) arch 2505 - design studio 3: landscape (6 cr) arch 2036 - canadian art & architecture (3 cr) arch 2326 architecture & ecology (3 cr) arch 2515 - design studio 4: landscape ii (6 cr) coop 1b (14 semaines) anne 3 - laurentienne arch 3006 - indigenous precedents (3 cr) arch 3306 - the well-tempered environment (3 cr) arch 3505 - design studio 5: northern building studio (6 cr) arch 3906 - independent study (3 cr) arch 0300 spring - co-operative 2 (2 cr - 14 semaines) arch 3017 - writings in architecture (3 cr) arch 3316 - structures 2: connections (3 cr) arch 3515 - design studio 6: northern building studio ii (6 cr) coop 2 (14 semaines) anne 4 - laurentienne arch 4006 - building case studies (3 cr) arch 4306 - digital fabrication (3 cr) arch 4505 - studio 7: integrated design (6 cr) arch 4526 - architectural communications (3 cr) arch 4016 - cultural sustainability (3 cr) arch 4316 - structures 3: building systems (3 cr) arch 4515 - studio 8: integrated design 2 (6 cr) boral artg (3 ans) x x x x x boral artq (2 ans) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x la cit (3 ans) x x x x x x x x x the specific details associated with these transfer pathways are documented in the pathway models provided in appendix b. warning: it should be noted that the number of credits granted anticipated in the analysis provided with this report may be modified when the agreements are presented to ara and the senate. for this reason, laurentian university is committed to providing oncat with an additional report once all approval steps have been completed. 12 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture 5) promising practices and lessons learned among the promising practices include the importance of communicating with all the departments involved in various institutions. these include the department of the program in question, the faculty, the registrars office and the admissions office, as well as the administrators and the academic guidance centre, which advises students on their schedule, etc. this communication ensures not only that there are no misunderstandings, but also that the agreement complies with all of the universitys rules. furthermore, when everyone is informed about the agreement, it has a better chance of being approved during the various approval steps, as the committee members are generally members of the aforementioned departments. although there seems to be slightly less affinity between the programs than the 2 + 2 initially hoped for, the stakeholders are still very satisfied with the progress of this project. the new analysis approach based on learning outcomes has facilitated discussions and provided sound objectivity to the equivalency agreement process. we, therefore, intend to pursue this path in the development of potential transfer pathways, using the same tools as those conceptualized for this project. 13

advanced diploma to degree engineering bridge agreement project #: 2017-08 report authors: chris peirone dr. bruce minaker dr. jacqueline stagner dr. colin novak darryl danelon dr. lindita prendi barbara sedlacek date submitted: march 31, 2018 1. list of participants and partner institutions individual participants university of windsor chris peirone dr. bruce minaker: 519-253-3000 ext. 2621 dr. jacqueline stagner dr. colin novak st. clair college darryl danelon dr. lindita prendi barbara sedlacek partner institutions university of windsor 401 sunset avenue windsor, ontario n9b 3p4 st. clair college 2000 talbot road west windsor, ontario n9a 6s4 1 table of contents 1. list of participants and partner institutions ......................................................................................... 1 individual participants............................................................................................................................... 1 university of windsor ........................................................................................................................... 1 st. clair college ..................................................................................................................................... 1 partner institutions ................................................................................................................................... 1 2. executive summary ............................................................................................................................... 3 3. project purpose and goals .................................................................................................................... 4 4. pathway development .......................................................................................................................... 5 a. methodology..................................................................................................................................... 5 pre-accreditation unit analysis ............................................................................................................ 6 evaluation of transferable courses present in past transfer agreement ............................................ 6 curriculum matching ............................................................................................................................ 6 development of college units .............................................................................................................. 6 development of the multiplication (j-factor) ...................................................................................... 6 development of the bridging courses .................................................................................................. 6 accreditation requirements ................................................................................................................. 7 b. program comparison and analysis .................................................................................................... 8 pre-accreditation unit analysis ............................................................................................................ 8 evaluation of transferable courses present in past transfer agreement ............................................ 8 curriculum matching ............................................................................................................................ 8 development of college units .............................................................................................................. 9 development of the multiplication (j-factor) .................................................................................... 20 development of the bridging courses ................................................................................................ 31 accreditation requirements ............................................................................................................... 36 c. implementation process and timelines .......................................................................................... 38 5. summary of pathway created ............................................................................................................ 38 6. appendix ............................................................................................................................................. 39 2 2. executive summary a pathway has been developed with the university of windsor, in partnership with st. clair college, in which a bridging agreement for engineering technology advanced diploma graduates from any ontario college are able to continue their studies into a related university of windsor degree program through a single transition semester, versus transition through course-by-course credit transfer. the university of windsor and st. clair college of applied arts and technology both agree that the development of a better pathway for engineering programs is critical for our community which has been built on innovation in manufacturing and technology. the main focus of this final project is between st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology automotive product design program and the university of windsors bachelor of applied science (b.a.sc.) mechanical engineering program, however, the methodology is currently being implemented towards civil and electrical engineering programs, as well. a previous transfer agreement, which has been quite popular, existed between st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology automotive product design program and the university of windsors b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program which was based on a course-by-course credit transfer agreement. while considering the previous transfer students high success rate during their studies at the university of windsor, developing a stronger pathway will not only be more appealing for the engineering technology graduates, it will also be plausible. this course-by-course credit transfer agreement was unique to all transfer students and was based on their performance during their studies at st. clair college. while the latter is still necessary to ensure that the students transferring into the university of windsor are equipped with necessary skillset to successfully complete their b.a.sc., a pathway that is equal to each transfer student has been developed. the course-by-course credit transfer system has created scheduling barriers for the transfer students as well as the institutions program coordinators. furthermore, the course-by-course credit transfer agreement required the students to study at the university of windsor for the duration of three years before obtaining their b.a.sc. the new pathway not only eliminates the unique scheduling for each transfer student, it also decreases their study duration from three to two years. a summer transition semester, as well as a few minor modifications to existing semesters was made to ensure that the gaps between the two neighbouring institutions programs are eliminated. the two gaps that need to be addressed when mapping courses for an accredited engineering program in canada are: program learning outcomes as well as accreditation units (au) required by the canadian engineering accreditation board (ceab). the program learning outcomes are necessary to address to ensure that the students entering the university of windsor are equipped with the necessary skills required to successfully complete their b.a.sc. the accreditation units are necessary to address to ensure that, upon completion of their b.a.sc., the transfer students are designated with a degree that is accredited by the ceab; which is necessary for them to obtain their professional engineering status in canada. a methodology has been designed to ensure that the two gaps stated above are thoroughly addressed. in the initial stages of the analysis, a comparison between the program learning outcomes for st. clair colleges engineering technologies and the university of windsors b.a.sc. programs has been made. 3 due to the very different learning outcomes between the two institutions, further analysis was necessary to address the learning outcomes: direct-course-comparison. for direct-course-comparison, a thorough analysis of course matching between the university of windsors mechanical engineering courses, which have some relevant topics to courses offered in st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology program, has been completed. this analysis is essential for addressing any topics that are neglected in similar courses; these neglected topics are then projected to bridge program, if necessary. not all learning outcomes need to be addressed for each student, thus, when selecting the learning outcomes and topics for bridge semester, it is important to consider the topics necessary for the students to successfully complete their b.a.sc. the canadian engineering accreditation board requires that all students graduating from an accredited engineering program are exposed to a certain amount of accreditation unit (au) hours in the following subsections: mathematics, natural sciences, complementary studies, engineering science and engineering design. unlike the learning outcomes, the au hours must be met by all students. to convert the hours from their studies at st. clair college, a college unit (cu) has been developed for the same subsections required for the au hours. to convert the cu hours to au hours, a multiplication factor, referred to as the j factor, has been developed. the j factors range from 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 and are unique to every st clair college course. the selection of the j factors for each course was obtained via relative difficulty and thorough reviews of the course outlines. once the j factor was obtained for each college course, it was multiplied by that courses cu hours to obtain the au hours. after the au hours were obtained, they were summed up according to their subsections. after the summation, the following subsections needed to be addressed: mathematics, natural science and complementary studies; with large gaps existing in natural science and complementary studies. when developing the bridge semester, both the necessary au hours as well as learning outcomes were considered. the summer bridge semester consists of six designed-specific courses as well as five existing courses. of the six designed-specific courses, two of them are taken over the span of a twelve week semester and the remaining four are taken over the span of six weeks. furthermore, the previous transfer agreement consisted of two third-year, first-semester courses which also exist in the new transfer agreement. the two twelve-week semester courses are taken in the summer semester along with one existing engineering course and two existing math courses which are normally offered during summer semesters. the four six-week courses are grouped in pairs and selected to replace the time slots associated with the two third-year courses existing in the transfer agreement; which are taken in the fall semester. the two remaining existing courses, which exist in the physics and chemistry departments, are required to be completed in the winter semester, when they are normally offered, between the two conventional third- year semesters. the presence of the five existing courses, as well as the six designspecific courses, ensures that the required au hours, as well as the necessary learning outcomes, are met. the first trial of this bridge agreement will begin in the summer of 2019. 3. project purpose and goals the university of windsor and st. clair college of applied arts and technology both agree that developing a better pathway for engineering programs is critical for our community which has been built 4 on innovation in manufacturing and technology. both institutions are committed to completing this initiative and an investment from oncat would assist in accelerating its development and implementation. the goal for this initiative is to develop a better transition pathway with a unique program for students who have completed an engineering technology advanced diploma program at any ontario college to continue their studies in a related bachelor of applied science (b.a.sc.) engineering program at the university of windsor. through this partnership with st. clair college, pathways for mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering will be explored, with the initial analysis focusing on mechanical. there is an existing transfer agreement between st. clair college and the university of windsor, and it has proven to be quite popular, with approximately twelve students exploring transfer each year, on average. however, the current agreement is based on a course-bycourse credit transfer arrangement that is often troublesome for incoming transfer students. the course-by-course credit often poses scheduling challenges, resulting in semesters with only partial course loads, or extra semesters required to reach completion, which in turn leads to extended timelines and additional costs. additionally, this approach poses difficulties in maintenance to the existing agreement when courses in either curriculum are modified or updated at either institution. the objective is to replace the existing transfer method with a more holistic approach, by developing an extensive one semester bridging semester that prepares the students to directly enter the third year of the university degree program. it is anticipated that this streamlining will further encourage more college students to extend their studies by providing a less resistive pathway to the degree. the intent is to first develop the pathway for the mechanical engineering degree program, by completing the necessary program analytics through comparison with st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology program. once confirmed, the results of the mapping, analytics, and curriculum development will be utilized to complete the same process for the civil and electrical engineering degrees, and the related st. clair college advanced diploma programs. as all colleges follow structured vocational learning outcomes for their engineering technology advanced diplomas, it is anticipated that the bridging curriculum developed should be applicable to other college students with similar credentials. 4. pathway development a. methodology the canadian engineering accreditation board (ceab) requires that all engineering graduates graduating from an accredited engineering program in canada be exposed to a certain amount of accreditation unit (au) hours under the following subsections: mathematics, natural sciences, complementary studies, engineering sciences and engineering design. it is therefore essential for the development of any new engineering degree transfer agreement to abide by these regulations with no exceptions to attain accreditation; a necessary attainment for engineering graduates to obtain a professional engineering status in canada. aside from the required au, it is also important to close the necessary gaps not covered during the studies at the neighbouring institution to ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are met for the students to successfully complete the remaining courses required to obtain a degree in engineering. 5 pre-accreditation unit analysis since it is intended that the transfer students, post completion of the bridge semester, enter the third year, it is essential to evaluate the accreditation units for the first two years of the engineering degree program. the final additions of these au hours, in accordance with their subsections, are used as a minimum guideline to follow when closing the gaps between the diploma and degree programs. evaluation of transferable courses present in past transfer agreement it is important to evaluate the previous transferable courses from the course-by-course credit transfer system to identify which courses are not transferable which will also help identify some of the gaps that need to be closed. it is also possible to keep the previous transferable courses in place with no further analysis, since their justification is already present. curriculum matching there are various similarities in the courses offered between the two neighbouring institutions; which is what makes the development of the new articulation agreement plausible. of the courses with similarities, curriculum matching can be accomplished. in this step, courses from the degree program and their major topics are tabulated and grouped into certain categories (i.e. thermofluids, engineering mechanics etc.). the degree courses major topics are then matched with the diploma courses on a topic-by-topic manner. this helps identifying gaps in the course topics for courses that do have similarities. for example, both institutions may have courses that consist of engineering mechanics topics, yet, some of the topics covered in the degree programs engineering mechanics courses may not be covered in the advanced diploma program. the missing topics may then be chosen to be topics covered in the bridge semester. development of college units college units (cu) are developed in accordance to the same subsections as the au: mathematics, natural sciences, complementary studies, engineering science and engineering design. during this step, the au subsections covered at the diploma program are identified. also, a paragraph justifying the cu for each course has been completed whether it was via direct course comparison or better judgment after evaluating the course outlines. the cu is calculated in the same manner that the au is calculated. development of the multiplication (j-factor) to convert cu to au, a multiplication factor referred to as the j-factor was developed. the j-factor can range from 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 and is unique to each diploma course. the j-factor for each course was selected either based off relative difficulty where direct course comparison applies or via the review of each courses course outline. once all courses cus are converted to aus, they are summed up according to their subsections and compared with the first two years of the degree program. this step provides a general understanding of what au gaps which need to be closed during the bridge semester prior to the finalized accreditation requirements. development of the bridging courses by now all of the gaps that need to be closed for accreditation units and learning outcomes are identified and the development of the bridging semester can be completed. while designing the bridge semester, compliance with the accreditation requirements must be considered. 6 accreditation requirements the following sections and their definitions were obtained from the 2016 accreditation criteria procedures provided by the canadian engineering accreditation board: 3.4.2: minimum curriculum components: an engineering program must include the following minima for each of its components. mathematics: minimum 195 au natural sciences: minimum 195 au mathematics and natural sciences combined: minimum 420 au engineering science: minimum 225 au engineering design: minimum 225 au engineering science and engineering design combined: minimum 900 au complementary studies: minimum 225 au laboratory experience and safety procedures instruction 3.4.3: a minimum of 420 au of a combination of mathematics and natural sciences. within this combination, each of mathematics and natural sciences must not be less than 195 au. 3.4.4: a minimum of 900 au of a combination of engineering science and engineering design: within this combination, each of engineering science and engineering design must not be less than 225 au. 3.4.5: a minimum of 225 au of complementary studies: complementary studies include humanities, social sciences, arts, management, engineering economics and communications that complement the technical content of the curriculum. 3.4.6: the program must have a minimum of 1,950 accreditation units that are at a university level. 3.5.5: professional status of faculty members: faculty delivering curriculum content that is engineering science and/or engineering design are expected to be licensed to practise engineering in canada, preferably in the jurisdiction in which the institution is located. in those jurisdictions where the teaching of engineering is the practice of engineering, they are expected to be licensed in that jurisdiction. to evaluate this criterion, the accreditation board will rely on the interpretive statement on licensure expectations and requirements, which is attached as an appendix to this document. appendix 3: 6. a minimum of 600 accreditation units (au) of a combination of engineering science and engineering design curriculum content in an engineering program shall be delivered by faculty members holding, or progressing toward, professional engineering licensure as specified in points 1 and 4 above. these are referred to as specific au. all of the requirements above need to be satisfied and shown for accreditation purposes. 7 b. program comparison and analysis pre-accreditation unit analysis pre-accreditation unit analysis for the first two years of the bachelors of applied science in mechanical engineering at the university of windsor is shown in table 1 of the appendices. this will be used as a minimum guideline to follow when developing the degree completion program in regards to accreditation units prior to the accreditation requirements. evaluation of transferable courses present in past transfer agreement the following is a list of courses that are transferrable in the course-by-course credit transfer system. these transfer courses may be projected to the new degree completion program if necessary without any further justification or analysis. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. (62-126) - linear algebra (62-140) - differential calculus (85-111) - engineering mechanics i (85-133) - engineering & design (62-141) - integral calculus (64-141) - introductory physics ii (85-120) - engineering thermo-fluids (85-219) - introduction to engineering materials (85-230) - advanced engineering & design (85-212) - thermodynamics i (3rd year) (85-233) - fluid mechanics i (3rd year) (94-330) - automotive engineering fundamentals (3rd year-auto) non-technical elective as shown in the list above, four courses, including the non-technical elective, are third year level courses. since the main objective is to allow the transfer students to enter into the third year of the degree program after completing the bridging semester, these courses will either be eliminated from the transfer agreement for either au or learning outcome reasons, or their timeslots can be replaced by design-specific courses through careful scheduling. curriculum matching direct course comparisons between st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology automotive product design program and the university of windsors mechanical engineering program are shown in tables 2 through 9 of the appendices. subsections include: drafting, cad and gd&t, rigid body statics and dynamics, thermofluids, deformable mechanics, natural sciences, material sciences, electrical circuits and mathematics. this will help identifying topics needed for the bridging semester. cells highlighted in red are major topics not covered by the advanced diploma program and text in red are topics not covered. 8 development of college units after reviewing the course outlines from both, st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology automotive product design (apd) program and the university of windsors mechanical engineering program, some st. clair college apd courses can be directly related to the university of windsors mechanical engineering courses. for those apd courses that cannot be directly related to the university of windsors mechanical engineering courses, a thorough review of the course outlines in accordance with the ceabs accreditation units definitions is used to classify the courses, respectfully. furthermore, compliance with the ceabs regulations in regards to the following sections will be addressed in the latter portion of the report: 3.4.2, 3.4.3, 3.4.4, 3.4.5, 3.4.6, 3.5.5 and appendix 3 of the 2016 accreditation criteria and procedures. a college unit (cu) is developed under the subsections that agree to ceabs accreditation units (au): mathematics, natural sciences, complementary studies, engineering science and engineering design. for conservative purposes, any non-integer cu calculations post multiplication factors are rounded down to the lowest integer. the following is a course-by-course justification for the selection of cus: met 137 (mechanical drafting) direct comparison with 06-85-133 (engineering and design) which grants 25% to complementary studies, 25% to engineering science and 50% to engineering design. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/ tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 7.5 complementary studies 7.5 engineering science 15 engineering design met 139 (pc cad) direct comparison with 06-85-133 (engineering and design) which awards 25% to complementary studies, 25% to engineering science and 50% to engineering design. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 7.5 complementary studies 7.5 engineering science 15 engineering design met 181 (inspection methods cmm) inspection methods provides students with hands on experience using measurement tools such as micrometers, dial gages, vernier calipers and cmm. with emphasis on nondestructive precision measurement, students whove completed met 181 finish the course with knowledge and hands-on experience with quality control. students are able to compare finished products with engineering drawings to ensure the working piece is within tolerance 9 and acceptable to move forward on assembly, fabrication or releasing to a customer without any negative feedback. these tools are essential in the engineering sciences and design processes. as a result, 75% of the course-load is granted towards engineering science and the remaining 25% towards engineering design. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 16.9 engineering science 5.6 engineering design met 202 (pc cad ii gd & t) comparison with both, 06-8-133 (engineering and design) and 06-85-119 (technical communications). the 25% of engineering design awarded to 06-85-119 is a result of both, gd & t as well as a design project. since met 202 focuses solely on cad and gd & t, cus are in accordance with the aus of 06-85-113. with 45 hours of classroom activity and 0 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 11.25 complementary studies 11.25 engineering science 22.5 engineering design met 227 (applied engineering i) direct comparison is made with 85-111 (engineering mechanics i), due to their similar course structure as well as the topics in the course curriculums. 85-111 is awarded 25% towards natural science and 75% to engineering science. with 45 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 13 natural science 39 engineering science met 243 (analysis of electrical circuits) this is an introductory course in dc/ac circuits. topics include voltage, current, resistance, energy and power. series/parallel circuits using resistors, capacitors and inductors are analyzed, built, and tested. basic measuring instruments including multimeters will be used for testing and troubleshooting electric circuits (as per course description). the course is both, classroom and lab based, which provides the students with both, theoretical and practical hands-on experience. all assignments, tests and labs are with the focus of design analysis. theory in both, natural science and engineering science is necessary for understanding these concepts and to complete both labs and assignments. 25% is granted towards both, natural sciences and engineering design with the remaining 50% towards engineering sciences. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 10 7.5 natural science 15 engineering science 7.5 engineering design met 248 (manufacturing processes & workshop) manufacturing processes & workshop provides students with hands-on experience operating precision tool cutting machines such as drills, mills, lathes and other machines. theres an emphasis on shop-safety that students will carry on throughout their careers. understanding how parts are placed on machines for manufacturing is an essential tool for any engineer whos responsible for overseeing, releasing or even designing blueprints that are to be released for manufacturing. the tools gained by met 248 will help graduates with project management to aid machinists in manufacturing parts in a more efficient way by reducing setups, using proper tools and even designing fixtures for manufacturing. 25% of the course-load is granted to complementary studies due to the emphasis of workshop safety, 50% for engineering science due to the knowledge gained towards manufacturing a working piece and the remaining 25% towards engineering design for the knowledge gained that can be related to designing manufacturing blueprints and the understanding of designing efficient manufacturing fixtures for various types of working pieces. with 30 hours of classroom activity and 45 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 13 complementary studies 26 engineering science 13 engineering design met 317 (metallurgy) the course relates to both, engineering materials fundamentals (06-85-219) as well as materials and their properties (06-89-330). met 317 provides a good, hands on laboratory in which heat treatment, hardness tests as well as other material structure related topics; not unlike the laboratory provided in 89-330. both courses, (06-85-219) and (06-85-330) award 30% of course-load towards natural sciences and the remaining 70% towards engineering science. same will be granted to met 317. with 30 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 11 natural science 26 engineering science met 327 (applied engineering ii) this course closely relates to dynamics (06-210) which is awarded 25% of the course-load towards natural science, 50% awarded to engineering science and the remaining 25% towards engineering design. a major difference between dynamics and applied engineering 11 ii is that dynamics has a large design project worth a significant portion of the class marks. as a result, 10% of the cus awarded from engineering design will be directed towards natural science and the remaining 15% will be awarded to engineering science. cus for applied engineering ii will be 35% natural science and 65% towards engineering science. with 45 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 18 natural science 34 engineering science met 328 (catia i) catia i resembles both, engineering and design (06-85-113) and advanced engineering and design (06-85-230). both, (06-85-113) and (06-85-230) award 25% towards complementary studies, 25% towards engineering science and 50% towards engineering design. catia i will be granted the same, respectfully. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 7.5 complementary studies 7.5 engineering science 15 engineering design met 332 (driveline & transmission design) driveline and transmission design exposes students to the research, design and testing of various driveline components. students will not only know what components are present in automotive drivelines and transmissions but will understand how these components work together to transmit power to a vehicles wheels. the course also discusses trends in vehicle safety and stability. there is a final project worth 20% of the final grade which encourages students to use engineering sciences taught in met 332 as well as other courses which is then presented orally to a large audience. due to the orally presented final project as well as the discussion of vehicle safety and stability, 25% of the course-load is in the focus of complementary studies, 25% is granted towards engineering design and the remaining 50% directed towards engineering sciences. with 30 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 9.4 complementary studies 18.8 engineering science 9.4 engineering design met 430 (computer aided design catia ii) met 430 (catia ii) is a more in-depth cad course with similar content as that of 06-85-230 (advanced engineering & design). both courses introduce students to wireframe and 12 surfacing design as well as assembly design to add to their skill sets provided in the prerequisite courses: met 328 for st. clair college and 06-85-113 for the university of windsor. it can be concluded that students entering the mechanical engineering program at the university of windsor from st. clair colleges apd program are subjected to more rigorous cad courses than the students who directly enter the mechanical engineering program out of secondary high school. both courses subject the students to a final project in which all skill sets learned in previous cad courses are necessary to use to obtain an adequate mark. 06-85-230 is a 1 hour lecture 3 hour lab course per week. met 430 is a course that all hours are credited towards lab hours. 06-85-230 grants 25% towards complementary studies, 25% engineering science and 50% engineering design. the same will be granted for met 430. with 0 hours of classroom activity and 60 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 7.5 complementary studies 7.5 engineering science 15 engineering design met 438 (fluid mechanics) engineering thermofluids (06-85-120) and fluid mechanics i (06-85-233) can be used for direct relation due to the similarities in the course subjects as well as structure. engineering thermofluids: 40% natural sciences, 60% engineering sciences. fluid mechanics i: 25% natural sciences and 75% engineering sciences. met 438 more closely relates to met 438 where the apd students are introduced to the basics in their fluid power course. 25% natural science and 75% engineering science will be awarded to met 438. with 45 hours of classroom activity and 0 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 11 natural science 33.8 engineering science met 439 (strength of materials) relates to mechanics of deformable bodies (06-85-218). 25% natural science, 75% engineering sciences. with 45 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 13 natural science 39 engineering science met 443 (suspension & steering design) this automotive based course introduces students to the processes involved in designing features from the steering wheel and vehicle frame to the contact path. static and dynamic loading, mass-spring-damper models in the form of differential equations is also introduced 13 as well as many other important topics related to suspension and steering design. on top of learning how the suspension and steering systems work, students attending this course are also responsible for a working cad model of a vehicles frame, suspension and steering in which a dmu model is encouraged that resembles a working suspension and steering system for a car that properly complies with appropriate codes. do to the focus of design in this course as well as an introduction to the sciences involved in designing these suspensions and steering systems, 25% of the course is directed towards engineering design and the remaining 75% towards engineering sciences. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 22.5 engineering science 7.5 engineering design met 448 (manufacturing processes ii) this program focuses on the applications, economics, forming and recycling of polymers. a group project worth 20% that must be presented at the end of the term as well as the focusing on recycling, economics and forming of polymers exposes students to a sense of project management. as a result of the project management as well as the oral presentation at the end of the semester, 30% of this course will be awarded to complementary studies. the remaining 70% is towards engineering sciences. with 30 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 9 complementary studies 21 engineering science met 471 (fluid power) this course exposes the students to the principles of fluid power, the functions of hydraulic and pneumatic circuit components and the design of fluid circuits for the transmission of fluid power and operation of automated systems. 67% of the course is lab work in which students are required to design fluid circuits on engineering software. 25% of the course is lab assignments; the remaining 75% is tests and the final exam. the tests and exams are heavily focused on design questions. 50% of this course is directed towards engineering science and the remaining 50% is towards engineering design. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 15 engineering science 15 engineering design met 510 (jig & fixture design) this design based course requires the students to design a fixture using catia. it exposes the students to the economic benefactors in designing fixtures for manufacturing purposes 14 as well as considering ergonomic factors in regards to the repetitive setups during the manufacturing processes for large scale production. a final exam worth 25% that focuses on jig/fixture design, pre-design analysis, tolerances, safety considerations, material/tool selections as well as economics. 15% of the course marks are for professional evaluation as a three 20% group projects that are presented via written reports and oral presentations. due to the presence of professionalism, economics and ergonomics and the marks that are directed to those topics, 25% of the course will be granted towards complementary studies. 25% is granted to engineering science because the students are required to use engineering science skillsets in an applied manner to make decisions such as material selections while considering material properties. the remaining 50% of the course will be granted towards engineering design, respectfully. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 45 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 9 complementary studies 9 engineering science 18.8 engineering design met 521 (thermodynamics) this course can be directly compared to thermodynamics (06-85-212) which awards 25% to natural sciences and the remaining 75% towards engineering sciences. with 60 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 15 natural science 45 engineering science met 529 (brake design) this course requires students to understand engineering science topics learned in previous courses and apply via theoretical brake design. on top of industrial standards in regards to brake designing, the course also introduces the management of vehicle energy during braking, tire roadway interface, braking and stopping distances and driver reaction timing. the course has a 20% project on braking system-sizing and 10% lab activities; the remaining 70% is awarded for tests and the final examination. as a result, 30% of the course is directed towards engineering design and the remaining 70% towards engineering science. with 30 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 26 engineering science 11 engineering design 15 met 541 (heat transfer) similar to all other thermofluid courses, 25% is towards natural sciences and the remaining 75% is towards engineering sciences. with 30 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 7.5 engineering science 22.5 engineering science met 542 (mechanics of mechanisms) some similar topics of 92-210 (dynamics). no direct relation to one course. two tests and one final exam worth a total of 65% of the final mark are directed towards analysis and design questions. 20% of the final mark is for lab assignments in a team environment that require the students to solve design/analysis questions. a project worth 15% of the final grade which is also in a team environment related to a design/analysis problem. as a result of the course curriculum, met 542 will be split evenly between engineering science and engineering design. with 30 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 22.5 engineering science 22.5 engineering design met 543 (mould design) this course requires students to design a simple two-plate plastic injection mould that meets industry standards. the marking in this course is based on progress of the mould design throughout the term. using skills from previous catia courses, students are able jump directly into the design of the plastic injection mould with short lectures on the purpose, layout and industrial standards of a two-plate plastic injection mould. met 543 is a heavily based design course with a fraction towards engineering sciences. as a result, 25% is granted towards engineering sciences and the remaining 75% towards engineering design. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 7.5 engineering science 22.5 engineering design met 548 (engine design i) introduces the students in the process of designing engines as well as the components present and how they work to help transmit power to the crankshaft. advanced topics include power transfer from combustion chamber to crankshaft, engine forces and 16 balancing, engine loads affecting component sizing and loads for design of journal bearings as well as many other relevant topics. with the entire course directed to classroom activities, 100% of the course is granted towards engineering science. with 45 hours of classroom activity and 0 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 45 engineering science met 623 (mechanics of machines & materials) most topics covered in met 623 are similar to stress analysis i (06-92-311) with a couple (clutches & brakes) similar to machine design ii (06-92-421) as well as an introduction to static and dynamic balancing similar to machine dynamics (06-92-323). this course does not subject the students to open ended design problems but does require them to solve theoretical failure analysis problems using proper engineering procedures. as a result, only 25% of the course is granted towards engineering design and the remaining 75% towards engineering sciences. with 30 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 28 engineering science 9 engineering design met 629 (machine design) met 629 is similar to both, design for failure prevention (06-92-411) and machine design (06-92-421), as far as topics covered. met 629 requires the students to solve many design problems during tests and assignments using industrial standards. also, an open ended team oriented design project worth 25% of their final grade is completed by the students. due to the heavily weighted grade directed to design problems and the project as well as skills needed to execute these problems, 25% is granted towards engineering science and the remaining 75% towards engineering design. with 20 hours of classroom activity and 25 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 8 engineering science 24 engineering design met 637 (driveline & transmission design ii) similar to driveline & transmission design i (met 332) with more emphasis on design and less on vehicle safety, 75% granted towards engineering science and the remaining 25% towards engineering design. with 30 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 28 engineering science 9 engineering design 17 met 648 (engine design ii) a more hands on take to engine design than engine design i (met 548). students are responsible to not only learn more theory but are responsible for a research project. the research project involves the students grouping in teams of two where they disassemble an engine and set them up on a flow bench to analyse the import heads. initially the heads have a rough cast iron finish. after the initial test, theyre responsible for making a mould of the import heads to closely analyse the surface finish. students are then responsible for grinding the import heads to a smooth finish, setting them back up on the flow bench and thoroughly analysing the gains achieved from their smooth finish to the original cast iron finish. unlike engine design i, engine design ii has more emphasis on design and as a result, 25% of the course is granted towards engineering design and the remaining 75% towards engineering sciences. with 15 hours of classroom activity and 30 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 22.5 engineering science 7.5 engineering design met 658 (finite element analysis) similar to computer aided engineering (06-92-459). students are introduced to ansys workbench as well as ansys design modeller and static design modeller. not unlike 06-92459, 100% of met 658 is granted towards engineering science. with five hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 12.5 engineering science chm 161a (chemistry i) chemistry i is a classroom based chemistry course which introduces the students to the theory of chemistry topics related to engineering applications. 100% of the course granted towards natural science. with 45 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 45 natural science phy 168 (physics) introductory physics course which introduces the study of kinematics, forces (2d) and heat transfer to prepare the students with the tools needed to solve problems in later courses. 100% granted towards natural sciences. with 30 hours of classroom activity and 15 hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 37.5 natural science 18 mth 128 (technical mathematics i) an introductory math course which prepares students for calculus courses. 100% granted towards mathematics. with 75 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 75 mathematics mth 158 (geometry) a geometry course which prepares students in solving problems in regards to cad, mechanics of mechanisms, and applied engineering i. 100% granted towards mathematics. with 30 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 30 mathematics mth 203 (differential calculus) introduces students to differential calculus. 100% towards mathematics. with 45 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 45 mathematics mth 404 (integral calculus) introduces students to integral calculus. 100% towards mathematics. with 45 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 45 mathematics mth 505 (linear algebra) advanced university level linear algebra course offered to selected students who are interested in transferring into the university. 100% granted towards mathematics. with 60 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 60 mathematics mth 605 (calculus b) advanced calculus course offered to college students interested in transferring into university. 100% granted towards mathematics with 60 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 19 60 mathematics mth 700 (advanced calculus) advanced calculus course offered to college students interested in transferring into university. 100% granted towards mathematics. with 45 hours of classroom activity and zero hours of laboratory/tutorial activity, the cu count is as follows: 45 mathematics development of the multiplication (j-factor) to ensure the st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology-automotive product design (apd) alumni entering the university of windsors mechanical engineering are exposed to sufficient accreditation units such that, not only is their enrolment justified, theyre equipped with the necessary tools required to successfully complete the remaining four semesters as well as the bridging semester and obtain their b.a.sc. in mechanical engineering. a college unit (cu) has been obtained for each st. clair college apd course in accordance with the accreditation units (au) required by the canadian engineering accreditation board under the following subsections: mathematics, natural sciences, complementary studies, engineering science and engineering design. a multiplication factor (j-factor), not unlike the k-factor for non-conventional courses, is used to convert cus to aus. a unique j-factor is obtained for each college course to attain an adequate conversion factor. for many apd courses, direct course comparison with university of windsors mechanical engineering courses is a sufficient method in selecting the j-factors while considering topics covered as well as relative difficulty. for apd courses that cannot be compared with the university of windsors mechanical engineering courses, a more thorough justification of the j-factors is necessary. depending on the course, four possible jfactors can be selected: 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1. furthermore, all courses designated with a j factor of one are compliant with section 3.4.6 (courses taught at a university level). finally, all non-integer aus will be rounded down to the closest integer for conservative purposes. after all of the au found for the advanced diploma courses, further analysis will be implemented under accreditation requirements. compliance with section 3.5.5 will be stated when applicable; all engineering science and engineering design cells which do not comply with section 3.5.5 are shaded for bookkeeping purposes. met 137 (mechanical drafting) met 137 can be directly compared to 06-85-133 (engineering and design). the relative difficulty as well as topics covered justifies a j-factor of 1. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 7.5 7 e.s 7.5 7 e.d 15 15 20 met 139 (pc-cad) met 139 can also be compared to 06-85-133 (engineering and design) with a j-factor of 1, as well. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 7.5 7 e.s 7.5 7 e.d 15 15 met 181 (inspections methods cmm) there is no direct comparison with met 181. students completing this course are exposed to various types of dimensional measurement equipment. the tools gained by completing this course can prove to be essential to the students when practicing engineering. after evaluating the level of difficulty of met 181, a j-factor of 0.5 will be enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 16.9 8 e.d 5.6 2 met 202 (pc cad ii gd & t) met 202 can be directly compared to both, 06-85-133 (engineering and design) and 06-85-119 (technical communications) due to the similar topics as well as difficulty. gd & t is taught in both, 85-133 and 85-119. not unlike 85-133 and 85-119, students are also exposed to auto cad. met 202 is a more advanced cad course than 85-133. as a result, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 11.25 11 e.s 11.25 11 e.d 22.5 22 met 227 (applied engineering i) direct comparison is made with 85-111 (engineering mechanics i), due to their similar course structure as well as the topics in the course curriculums. due to the level of difficulty, a j-factor 21 of 0.75 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016.the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 13 9 c.s 0 0 e.s 39 29 e.d 0 0 met 243 (analysis of electrical circuits) analysis of electrical circuits is in close relation to 85-234 (electrical and computing fundamentals). students in this class are exposed to a more hands on experience during lab and not unlike 85-234 which uses pspice for circuit simulations; met 243 uses automation studio / multism. students are also exposed to the use of physical electrical equipment. though the topics covered are not as challenging, the hands-on experience is valuable to the students. as a result, a j-factor of 0.75 is enforced. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 7.5 5 c.s 0 0 e.s 15 11 e.d 7.5 5 met 248 (manufacturing processes & workshop) manufacturing processes & workshop provides students with hands-on experience operating precision tool cutting machines such as drills, mills, lathes and other machines; skills which are not present in the university of windsors mechanical engineerings first two years. this course provides the students with an insight as to how mechanical parts are manufactured and will help them in selecting appropriate datums, and working views necessary for releasing manufacturing prints in a sufficient manner. these skills are also useful for project management in the manufacturing industry. due to the level of difficulty, a j-factor of 0.5 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 13 6 e.s 26 13 e.d 13 6 met 317 (metallurgy) metallurgy has similar course topics to that of 06-85-219 (engineering materials fundamentals). valuable hands on laboratories expose students to material properties under certain conditions. 22 due to the level of difficulty compared to that of 85-219 as well as the amount of material covered, a j-factor of 0.75 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 11 8 c.s 0 0 e.s 26 19 e.d 0 0 met 327 (applied engineering ii) met 327 relates to topics covered in 06-210 (dynamics). due to the relative difficulty and only a brief introduction to general plane motion in met327, a j-factor of 0.5 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016 .the conversion from cus to aus are as followed. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 18 9 c.s 0 0 e.s 34 17 e.d 0 0 met 328 (catia i) catia i has similar course content to 06-85-113 (engineering and design) and 06-85-230 (advanced engineering design). when comparing the relative difficulty of the course, a j-factor of 1 is enforced, respectfully. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 7.5 7 e.s 7.5 7 e.d 15 15 met 332 (driveline & transmission design) unlike any course in the first two years of the mechanical engineering program at the university of windsor, met 332 introduces driveline components as well as their ability to transmit power from the engine to the wheels. since there is no relative comparison between any of the mechanical engineering courses, a conservative j-factor of 0.5 is enforced. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 9.4 4 e.s 18.8 9 e.d 9.4 4 23 met 430 (computer aided design catia ii) met 430 is a more in-depth cad course than 06-85-230 (advanced engineering design). as a result, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 7.5 7 e.s 7.5 7 e.d 15 15 met 438 (fluid mechanics) met 438 can be directly compared to the third year 06-85-233 fluid mechanics i. due to the lack in fluid momentum content and considering the level of difficulty, a j-factor of 0.75 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 11 8 c.s 0 0 e.s 33.8 25 e.d 0 0 met 439 (strength of materials) strength of materials has a direct relation to 06-85-218 (deformable bodies). due to the lack of laboratory activities in met 439 compared to 06-85-218 while considering relative difficulty, a jfactor of 0.5 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016.the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 13 6 c.s 0 0 e.s 39 19 e.d 0 0 met 443 (suspension & steering design) no direct comparison between met 443 and a university of windsor course. considering workload as well as a relatively difficult design project, a j-factor of 0.75 is enforced. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 13 6 c.s 0 0 e.s 22.5 16 e.d 7.5 5 24 met 448 (manufacturing processes ii) manufacturing processes ii is a polymer based course with emphasis on applications, forming and recycling. forming of materials is a topic which is lacking in the first two years of the b.a.sc. and is highly beneficial to those who are exposed to it. as a result, while still considering the difficulty level, a j-factor of 0.75 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016.the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 9 6 e.s 21 15 e.d 0 0 met 471 (fluid power) fluid power is a course that introduces the concepts of fluid power as well as fluid equipment. it is a hands on course in which students are responsible for designing various types of fluid circuits for the transmission of fluid power and automated systems. do to the level of difficulty as well as the benefits of this course; a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 15 15 e.d 15 15 met 510 (jig & fixture design) jig & fixture design is a topic that is neglected in the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program. students are given a physical mechanical part in which they are required to design a fixture to manufacture this part for mass production while considering minimal setups and the economics in producing this part. this open ended project is a useful exercise for students and in relation to all cad courses in the first two years of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering; a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 9.4 9 e.s 9.4 9 e.d 18.8 18 25 met 521 (thermodynamics) this course is a thermodynamic course that covers topics in thermodynamics in a more in-depth manner than that of engineering thermofluids (06-85-120). as a result, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 15 15 c.s 0 0 e.s 45 45 e.d 0 0 met 529 (brake design) brake design cannot be compared to any course in the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program. after considering the relative difficulty to the b.a.sc. programs first two years, a j-factor of 0.75 is enforced. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 26.3 19 e.d 11.3 8 met 541 (heat transfer) met 541 exposes students to the topics of heat transfer equivalent, in both topics and difficulty, to the heat transfer section in engineering thermofluids (06-85-120). as a result, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 7.5 7 c.s 0 0 e.s 22.5 22 e.d 0 0 met 542 (mechanics of mechanisms) the topics covered in met 542 are more advanced than the mechanics courses offered in the first two years of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program. as a result, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: 26 cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 22.5 22 e.d 22.5 22 met 543 (mould design) mould design is an advanced cad course which requires students to design a simple two-plate plastic injection mould that meets industrial standards. relative to the cad courses offered in the first two years of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering, met 543 is the most advanced. as a result, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 7.5 7 e.d 22.5 22 met 548 (engine design) engine design i is a course that introduces the students to the components of engines and their uses. theres no direct relation to that of any course offered in the first two years of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program. considering the difficulty as well as the benefits to a student taking this course who will have a thorough understanding of how engines work, a j-factor of 0.75 is selected. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 45 33 e.d 0 0 met 623 (mechanics of machines and materials) topics covered in met 623 are similar to the third year b.a.sc. courses 06-92-311 (stress analysis i) and 06-92-323 (machine dynamics) and the fourth year b.a.sc. course 06-92-421 (machine design ii). as a result, the j-factor selected is 1. this course does not comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016. cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 28 28 e.d 9 9 27 met 629 (machine design) topics covered in machine design are similar to the fourth year b.a.sc. courses 06-92-411 (design for failure prevention) and 06-92-421 (machine design ii) with more emphasis on design projects. a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 8 8 e.d 24 24 met 637 (driveline & transmission design ii) with more advanced topics than that of met 332 (driveline and transmissions design i), met 637 is enforced with a j-factor of 0.75. met 637 does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 28 21 e.d 9.4 7 met 648 (engine design ii) with similar difficulty to that of met 548 (engine design i) but with a more hands on approach, the j-factor is 0.75. met 648 does comply with section 3.5.5 and the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 22.5 16 e.d 7.5 5 met 658 (finite element analysis) similar to the latter portion of the b.a.sc. course 06-92-459 (computer aided design) using ansys instead of catia, which is more appropriate for industrial applications, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. this course does comply with section 3.5.5 of the accreditation criteria procedure 2016 cus aus math 0 0 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 12.5 12 e.d 0 0 28 met 161a (chemistry i) due to the relative difficulty, topics covered and the lack of laboratory compared to the b.a.sc. course 03-59-110 (topics in general chemistry), a j-factor of 0.5 is enforced, respectfully. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 45 22 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 phy 168 (physics) due to the relative difficulty, topics covered and the lack of laboratory activities compared to the b.a.sc. course, 03-64-141 (introductory physics) a j-factor of 0.5 is selected. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 0 0 n.s 37.5 18 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 mth 128 (technical mathematics i) a preliminary mathematics course which prepares students for calculus, a j-factor of 0.25 is selected. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 75 18 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 mth 158 (geometry) a preliminary mathematics course which introduces topics in geometry necessary to successfully the latter courses in the apd program, a j-factor of 0.25 is selected. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 30 7 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 29 mth 203 (differential calculus) an intermediate math course introducing students to topics in differential calculus, a j-factor of 0.5 is selected. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 45 22 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 mth 404 (integral calculus) an intermediate math course introducing students to topics in integral calculus, a j-factor of 0.5 is selected. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 45 22 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 mth 505 (linear algebra) a university level course covering topics of linear algebra, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 60 60 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 mth 605 (calculus b) a university level course covering topics in advanced calculus, a j-factor of 1 is enforced. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: cus aus math 60 60 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 mth 700 (advanced calculus) a university level course covering topics in advanced calculus, a j-factor of 1 is enforced, respectfully. the conversion from cus to aus are as followed: 30 cus aus math 45 45 n.s 0 0 c.s 0 0 e.s 0 0 e.d 0 0 the following is a comparison of the converted aus from the mechanical engineering technology program at st. clair college and the first two years of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program. when developing the bridge semester for the transfer students, both, the necessary accreditation units, at minimum, match the first two years of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering programs accreditation units, as well as topics necessary for students to successfully complete the remaining four semesters are considered. au category st. clair college (met program) university of windsor (mechanical program) math 234 263 n.s 107 235 c.s 64 144 e.s 477 371 e.d 234 75 as can be concluded from the above comparison, the au gaps that need to be accommodated are in math, natural science and complementary science; with the extremes in natural science and complementary studies. furthermore, section 3.5.5 still needs to be considered for the 600 specific au as well as the minimum 225 au for engineering science and 225 engineering design. development of the bridging courses current transfer agreements exist with the st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology automotive product design (apd) program and the university of windsors bachelors in applied science mechanical engineering with the automotive option (b.a.sc.) program. table 10 in the appendix shows the current transferable b.a.sc. mechanical engineering courses and their corresponding semesters. table 11 in the appendix shows the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering courses for the first four semesters and their corresponding semesters that are not present in the current transfer agreement. in addition to the current transfer agreement, a summer bridge semester is to take place in the summer of 2019 which allows the students transferring into the university of windsors b.a.sc. mechanical engineering degree program from st. clair colleges apd program to start in the fifth semester of the b.a.sc. program. as can be seen in table 2, several third and fourth semester courses need to be accommodated. for many of these courses, students entering the bridging semester have already been exposed to a great deal of the topics covered in the non-transferable courses. to avoid redundancy, as well as making the bridge semester plausible over the span of a twelve week study period, certain topics will be selected from the non-transferable courses and projected to the summer bridging semester. table 1 contains three transferable courses that are present in the fifth semester of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program: thermodynamics, fluid mechanics i and the non-technical elective. the two vacant time slots for thermodynamics and fluid mechanics i will be replaced with designed-specific courses for the transfer students. since these courses will remain present in the transfer agreement, it is important to count their au along with the two year evaluation. the previous non-technical elective transfer agreement will be discussed in the latter portion of this report. 31 section 3.4 of the accreditation criteria and procedures last revised in 2016 provided by the canadian engineering accreditation board (ceab) states that, with no exceptions, each student graduating from an accredited engineering program must be exposed to a certain number of accreditation units (aus) under the following subsections: mathematics, natural sciences, complementary studies, engineering sciences and engineering design. the following is collected from section 3.4.2 (minimum curriculum components) of the accreditation criteria and procedures which states the minimum required accreditation units for each subsection that all students must be exposed to: mathematics: 195 au natural sciences: 195 au mathematics and natural sciences combined: 420 au engineering science: 225 au engineering design: 225 au engineering science and engineering design combined: 900 au complementary studies: 225au laboratory experience and safety procedures instruction of the combined 900 au for engineering science and engineering design, a minimum of 600 au must be taught by a licensed professional engineer. of the 600 au, a minimum of 225 au must be present in both, the engineering science and engineering design categories. while considering the above, a careful evaluation of each apd course to grant an au count has been completed. the following is an au comparison of the apd program and the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program: au category st. clair college (met program) university of windsor (mechanical program) math 234 263 n.s 107 246 c.s 64 144 e.s 491 405 e.d 239 75 as can be concluded from the above, the apd program lacks in natural sciences and complementary studies. not only do the above au need to be accommodated during the summer bridge semester, the students entering the 5th semester of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program need to be equipped with the necessary skills to successfully complete the remaining two years of the program. the following are proposed course titles, course outlines and their au counts for the bridging semester: engineering software fundamentals & applications (85-261): a combination of engineering software fundamentals (85-232) & numerical analysis for engineering (85-220), this course is a four hour per week course in which two hours is appointed towards lecture hours and the remaining towards laboratory hours. with 85-232 having 100% towards engineering science and 85-220 having a 50/50 split towards mathematics and engineering science, engineering software fundamentals & applications will have 25% towards mathematics and 75% towards 32 engineering science. furthermore, this course will be taken over the full 12 week span of the summer transitional semester. the following is the au for 85-261: math 9 n.s 0 c.s 0 e.s 27 e.d 0 statistics & electrical circuits (85-262): this is a statistics course that provides the students with the appropriate skills necessary for interpreting numerical and experimental engineering data. similar to the second year university course, treatment of experimental data (85-222), which grants 25% towards both math and engineering design and the remaining 50% towards engineering science; statistics will follow the same trend. this course will span over a six week period with four hours of lecture per week and one hour of tutorial. the remaining six weeks of the semester will cover topics from electrical & computing fundamentals which introduce the students to a more advanced electrical circuits class which requires them to use the fundamentals of linear algebra and calculus while performing the analysis of these circuits. similar to the topics discussed in electrical and computing fundamentals (85-234) with the exemption of the computing section, electrical circuits will grant 35% towards natural science and 65% towards engineering science, not unlike 85-234. with four hours of lecture and one hour of tutorials for the duration of six weeks, the au is shown in table 12. the following is the au for 85-262: math 6.75 n.s 9.45 c.s 0 e.s 30.4 e.d 6.75 communication & professional engineering (85-160): this course is involves topics between two first year engineering courses: technical communication (85118) & engineering & the profession (85-119). the course begins off by introducing the students to professional writing and finishes off with topics relevant to the engineering profession. this course is a complementary based course. this course will consist of four hours of lecture per week with 100% granted towards complementary studies. the following id the au for 85-160: math 0 n.s 0 c.s 48 e.s 0 e.d 0 introduction to globalized manufacturing & environmental science (85-260): this course introduces the students to the world of manufacturing and covers similar topics to that of engineering management and globalization (91-201). this course is an industrialized type of course and similar to 91-201, 100% of the course will be directed to complementary studies. this class is a six week class with four hours of lecture, one hour of lab per week. the remaining six weeks will cover topics 33 similar to the topics to that of engineering & the environment (85-250) which will introduce the mechanical engineering students to environmental topics such as sustainability, population dynamics, climate change and energy consumption. not unlike 85-250, the latter six weeks of this course grants 40% to natural science, 25% to complementary studies and 35% to engineering science. the portion of the course will contain four hours of lecture per week and 2 hours of laboratory. the following is the au for 85-260: math 0 n.s 12 c.s 31.5 e.s 10.5 e.d 0 topics in general chemistry (59-110): during their winter break between semesters 3a and 3b, the transfer students will be required to take the course topics in general chemistry (03-53-110). with three hours of lecture and three hours of laboratory per week over the span of 12 weeks and 100% granted towards natural science. the following is the au for 59-110: math 0 n.s 54 c.s 0 e.s 0 e.d 0 introductory physics ii (64-141) in addition to taking topics in general chemistry during their winter semester between semesters 3a and 3b, the students will also take introductory physics ii (64-141). the topics covered in this course are very different to the physics course they take at st. clair college. the following is the au for 64-141: math 0 n.s 51 c.s 0 e.s 0 e.d 0 dynamics (92-210) during their transitioning summer semester, students will take the dynamics 92-210 course. this is a more advanced dynamics course than the students are exposed to at st. clair college and is an essential course for all b.a.sc. mechanical engineering students to partake in. the following is the au for 92-210: math 0 n.s 12 c.s 0 e.s 24 e.d 12 34 vector calculus (62-215) since vector calculus is already offered in during the summer semester, it is chosen to be a part of the summer transitioning semester. the following is the au for 62-215: math 42 n.s 0 c.s 0 e.s 0 e.d 0 differential equations (62-216) differential calculus is also offered in the summer and the transfer students will be required to take this course during their transitioning summer semester as well. the following is the au for 62-216: math 42 n.s 0 c.s 0 e.s 0 e.d 0 previous non-technical elective agreement: during their studies at st. clair college, mechanical engineering technology students are required to complete 3 nontechnical electives. if they maintain a b average in those three courses, previous transfer agreements allowed them a credit towards the mandatory nontechnical elective at the university of windsor. since they will not be granted this credit with new transfer agreement, the complementary aus will be accounted for, separately. using a conservative approach by counting three lecture hours per week over the span of 12 weeks, the following au is shown: math 0 n.s 0 c.s 36 e.s 0 e.d 0 after summing up the total au in accordance with their subsections, the following comparison between the au is made: au category st. clair college to u of w agreement university of windsor (mechanical program) math 334 263 n.s 245.5 246 c.s 180 144 e.s 582.9 405 e.d 257.75 75 after completing the remaining four semesters in the b.a.sc. program at the university of windsor, the transfer students will be above the minimum required au in all subsections upon graduation. in addition to this evaluation the 600 specific au and the minimum 225 au for engineering science and the minimum 225 au for engineering design will be addressed in accreditation requirements. 35 the following contains all the semesters which deviate from the normal semesters taken by the average b.a.sc. mechanical engineering student. all other semesters will remain the same. all courses designated with * are designed specific courses. all courses in italics are two dissimilar courses which split the semester from first to last 6 weeks. summer transitioning semester: 62-215 vector calculus 62-216 differential equations 92-210 dynamics 85-261 engineering software fundamentals & applications* 85-160 communication & professional engineering* fall semester 3a: 85-313 engineering economics 92-311 stress analysis i 92-323 machine dynamics nontechnical elective 85-260 introduction to globalized manufacturing & environmental science * 85-262 statistics & electrical circuits* winter semester between semesters 3a and 3b: 59-110 topics in general chemistry 64-141 introductory physics even though the transfer students will be required to take the two courses during the winter semester, this process will still prove to be highly beneficial to the students since they will receive their b.a.sc. in mechanical engineering over the span of two years as opposed to the usual three year duration post transferring. the course outlines for the designed-specific courses is shown in tables 12 through 15 in the appendix. accreditation requirements the mechanical engineering program at the university of windsor consists of five option programs: automotive option, materials option, environmental option, aerospace option and general option. of these options, the general option grants the least au which are not specified in the subsection categories; the au can only be counted towards an overall au count. as a result, using a minimum path approach, the general option will be used in the analysis for the accreditation requirements. if the general option au are satisfactory, all other options will suffice. for the accreditation requirements, the following sections from the ceabs requirements will be recalled and addressed: 3.4.2, 3.4.3, 3.4.4, 3.4.5, 3.4.6 and 3.5.5. in addition to those sections stated, line 6 of appendix 3 will also be addressed. 36 the following tables in the appendix are used to justify accreditation requirements: table 16 (au for st. clair colleges apd program), table 17 (au for bridging agreement), table 18 (au for the remaining compulsory courses) and table 19 (au for advanced diploma courses in compliance with section 3.4.6). the total au for the general option is 246 using the minimum path approach. 3.4.2: minimum curriculum components: an engineering program must include the following minima for each of its components. mathematics: minimum 195 au natural sciences: minimum 195 au mathematics and natural sciences combined: minimum 420 au engineering science: minimum 225 au engineering design: minimum 225 au engineering science and engineering design combined: minimum 900 au complementary studies: minimum 225 au laboratory experience and safety procedures instruction after summing up the au in accordance with section 3.4.2 while using tables 16, 17 and 18, the au count is as followed: math 347.6 ns 245.5 math+ns 593 es 993 ed 432.6 ed+ed 1425.9 cs 287.1 all minimum curriculum components are satisfied from the table above. 3.4.3: a minimum of 420 au of a combination of mathematics and natural sciences. within this combination, each of mathematics and natural sciences must not be less than 195 au. as can be concluded from the above analysis, section 3.4.3 is also satisfied. 3.4.4: a minimum of 900 au of a combination of engineering science and engineering design: within this combination, each of engineering science and engineering design must not be less than 225 au. the above analysis shows that section 3.4.4 is satisfied. 3.4.5: a minimum of 225 au of complementary studies: complementary studies include humanities, social sciences, arts, management, engineering economics and communications that complement the technical content of the curriculum. section 3.4.5 is also satisfied from the above analysis. 3.4.6: the program must have a minimum of 1,950 accreditation units that are at a university level. totaling the au from tables 17 through 19 in the appendix as well as the addition of the 246 au present in the general option yields a total au of 2070, thus, section 3.4.6 is satisfied. 37 3.5.5: professional status of faculty members: faculty delivering curriculum content that is engineering science and/or engineering design are expected to be licensed to practise engineering in canada, preferably in the jurisdiction in which the institution is located. in those jurisdictions where the teaching of engineering is the practice of engineering, they are expected to be licensed in that jurisdiction. to evaluate this criterion, the accreditation board will rely on the interpretive statement on licensure expectations and requirements, which is attached as an appendix to this document. appendix 3: 6. a minimum of 600 accreditation units (au) of a combination of engineering science and engineering design curriculum content in an engineering program shall be delivered by faculty members holding, or progressing toward, professional engineering licensure as specified in points 1 and 4 above. these are referred to as specific au. summing the specific au from tables 16 through 18 yields: es 698.3 ed 293.6 es+ed 991.9 as can be concluded, all accreditation requirements have been assessed and are satisfied. c. implementation process and timelines prior to implementing the degree completion program of interest, the following approval processes must adhere: review and approval from the canadian engineering accreditation board to attain accreditation, pre-approval from the internal program development committee and final approval from the program development committee. the degree completion program has been accepted from the engineering departmental committee. due to the pending approvals which still need to be made, the mechanical engineering articulation agreement is expected to take off for the first time in the spring of 2019. 5. summary of pathway created upon completion of the advanced diploma in mechanical engineering technology automotive product design, students who attain the required gpas in the necessary courses as well as an overall gpa of 3.0 out of 4.0 have the availability to enroll in a degree completion program in which a number of additional courses are required to complete on top of the remaining two years of the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program. the students will be able to complete their degree in mechanical engineering over the span of two years. 38 6. appendix table 1: pre-accreditation unit analysis curriculum content learning activity learning activity description 263 235 144 371 75 math ns cs es ed 59-110 topics general chemistry 62-126 linear algebra 62-140 differential calculus 62-141 integral calculus 62-215 vector calculus 42 62-216 differential equations 42 64-141 introduction to physics ii 51 85-111 engineering mechanics i 12 85-118 engineering and the profession 36 85-119 technical communications 27 85-120 engineering thermofluids 85-133 engineering and design 85-212 thermodynamics 11 34 85-218 mech. of deformable bodies 14 41 85-219 14 34 85-220 engineering materials fundamentals numerical analysis for eng'g 24 24 85-222 treatment experimental data 11 21 0 85-230 adv. engineering and design 8 15 85-232 engineering software fund. 91-321 manufacturing process design 12 24 85-234 electrical & computing fund. 17 31 85-250 eng'g & the environment 19 91-210 eng. management and globalization dynamics 92-210 54 42 60 42 36 19 9 29 14 8 14 27 36 12 12 17 48 12 24 12 39 table 2: direct course comparison for drafting, cad & gd&t course code 85-133 85-119 85-230 university of windsor courses course name engineering & design major topics engineering design process sketching multiviews and visualization applications involving inclined planes/surfaces applications involving oblique planes/surfaces auxiliary view projection theory multiviews and auxiliary views axometric projection section views dimensioning practices and symbols engineering design teams design phase 1: needs assessment design phase 2: problem formulation design phase 3: abstraction and synthesis design phase 4: analysis design phase 5: implementation engineering reports and presentations laboratory experience freehand sketching auxiliary views isometric sketching section views dimensioning teamwork design process / project management technincal communications major topics intro to design and engineering, comm. & interp. working in teams gd&t, cad standards, intro to 2d & 3d representation graphical representaion (symbols) working with excel spreadsheets, charts, graphs,etc. advanced engineering & design major topics sketcher workbench part design workbench assembly design drafting workbench tolerance design laboratory experience sketcher/part design applications part design applications working drawings assembly design design project st clair college courses course code(s) met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 629 met 629 met 629 met 629 met 629 met 629 met 629 course code(s) met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 137 met 629 met 629 course code(s) met 139 met 510 met 202 met 137 met 529 course code(s) met 328 met 328 met 430 met 328 met 202 course code(s) met 328 met 328 met 328 met 430 met 543 course name(s) mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting machine design machine design machine design machine design machine design machine design machine design course name(s) mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting mechanical drafting machine design machine design course name(s) pc cad jig & fixture design pc cad ii - gd&t mechanical drafting brake design course name(s) catia i catia i cad (catia design ii) catia i pc cad ii - gd&t course name(s) catia i catia i catia i cad (catia design ii) mould design 40 table 3: direct course comparison for rigid body statics & dynamics university of windsor courses course code course name 85-118 engineering mechanics i st clair college courses major topics introduction to engineering mechanics forces on particles equilibrium of a particle moments equilibrium of rigid bodies trusses, frames and machines friction centre of gravity and centroid 92-210 dynamics tutorials forces on particles - 2d and 3d equilibrium of forces - 2d & 3d - scalar & vector analysis moment of forces and torque equilibrium of rigid bodies & equivalent loading analysis and equilibrium of trusses, frames and machine friction centre of gravity, centre of mass & centroids major topics kinematics of particle (1d,2d & 3d motion) 2d rigid body second moments of area & mass of engineering structures force and acceleration methods (engineering analysis of particles and rigid bodies) work and energy methods applied to engineering analysis of structures (p & rb) impulse and momentum methods applied to the engineering analysis of structures (p & rb) application of the above topics in a team setting to design, analyze and demonstrate a trebuchet course code(s) met 227 met 438 met 438 met 227 met 227 met 227 met 227 met 227 course code(s) met 438 met 227 met 227 met 438 met 227 met 227 met 227 course code(s) met 542 met 327 met 327 met 327 met 327 course name(s) applied engineering i fluid mechanics fluid mechanics applied engineering i applied engineering i applied engineering i applied engineering i applied engineering i course name(s) fluid mechanics applied engineering i applied engineering i fluid mechanics applied engineering i applied engineering i applied engineering i course name(s) mechanics of mechanisms applied engineering ii applied engineering ii applied engineering ii applied engineering ii table 4: direct course comparison for thermofluids university of windsor courses course code course name 85-120 engineering thermo-fluids major topics units, temperature, joule's law thermal expansion, calorimetry, phase change equations of state, kinetic theory of gases first law of thermodynamics, ideal gas processes specific heat, intro to entropy entropy, power generation & the environment laboratory experience ideal gas lab tutorial problems based on lecture topics bernoulli's experiment specific heat st clair college courses course code(s) met 541 met 623 met 521 met 521 met 521 met 521 course code(s) met 521 met 438 met 438 met 541 course name(s) heat transfer mechanics of materials & machines thermodynamics thermodynamics thermodynamics thermodynamics course name(s) thermodynamics fluid mechanics fluid mechanics heat transfer table 5: direct course comparison for deformable mechanics university of windsor courses course code course name 85-218 mechanics of deformable bodies st clair college courses major topics stress, average shear stress, allowable stress design, deformation, strain, hooke's law, poisson ratio failure of materials due to creep and fatigue, elastic deformation of axially loaded members principle of superposition, statically indeterminate axially loaded members thermal stress, torsional deformation of a circular shaft, torsion formula power transmission, angle of twist, statically indeterminate torque-loaded members, shear and moment diagram, graphical method for constructing shear and moment diagrams bending deformation of straight members, eccentric axial loading, shear in straight members, the shear formula shear flow in built-up members laboratory experience tension test torsion test flexural stresses in beams stress distribution under eccentric load course code(s) met 439/met 658 met 629 met 623 met 439 met 439 met 629 met 629 met 439 met 439 course name(s) som/fea machine design mm&m strength of materials strength of materials machine design machine design strength of materials strength of materials course code(s) course name(s) met 439 strength of materials 41 table 6: direct course comparison for natural science university of windsor courses course code 64-141 course name introductory physics ii st clair college courses major topics course code(s) course name(s) phy 168 physics mechanics wave and acoustics electromagnetism optics laboratory experience simple harmonic motion of a spring resonance in an open organ pipe resistors in series and parallel and the rc circuit the prism spectrometer the focal length of lenses diffraction and interference of light 59-110 topics in general chemistry course code(s) course name(s) major topics atoms, molecules, structure, mass, bonding, periodic table molecules, moles, chemical equations, formulae, equations, solutions, the mole concept, quantitative relationships stoichiometry gases, pressure, the gas law, partial pressure, stoichiometry, ideality periodic table and atomic structure, nature of light, spectra, quantum mechanical model, electron configurations, periodic trends chemical bonding and structure, ionic and covalent bonds, electronegativity and polarity, electron inventory, orbital concept, shapes of molecules molecules and materials, condensed phases, polymers energy and chemistry, transformation and conservation, heat capacity, enthalpy, heats of reaction, stoichiometry entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, spontaneity, entropy, second and third laws, free energy and reactions chemical kinetics, rates and rate laws, temperature effects, reaction mechanisms, catalysis resistance to change, solubility equilibria, acid-base equilibria, free-energy relationships chemical equilibrium, equilibrium constants and concentrations, electrochemical cells, cell potentials, equilibria, batteries, stoichiometry, nuclear chemistry electrochemistry, oxidation-reduction reactions, laboratory experience lab and safety orientation precision, accuracy, and density measurements determination of a chemical formula the synthesis of alum titration of sodium carbonate experimental determination of the gas law constant the enthalpy of decomposition of h2o2 electrochemistry and the nernst equation spectrophotometric phosphate analysis met 243 electrical circuits course code(s) chm 161a chm 161a chm 161a chm 161a chm 161a chm 161a chm 161a chm 161a course name(s) chemistry i chemistry i chemistry i chemistry i chemistry i chemistry i chemistry i chemistry i chm 161a met 521 met 521 chemistry i thermodynamics thermodynamics course code(s) course name(s) table 7: direct course comparison for material science university of windsor courses course code course name 85-219 introduction to engineering materials major topics introduction; mechanical properties (tensile testing, hardness) mechanical properties (continued); thermal expansion, crystal & amorphous structures; atomic arrangement in metals atomic motion by stress, fcc vs. hcp structures in metals , types of imperfections (defects) in atomic arrangements importance of crystal defects , strengthening methods (hall-petch, solid solutioning), work hardening & annealing toughness and impact energy, diffusion solidification, casting phase diagrams phase diagram of steel steels, corrosion and fatigue ceramics polymers polymers, composites laboratory experience rolling, hardness testing impact testing microstructural analyses, diffusion microstructure observation of different types of steels st clair college courses course code(s) met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 met 448 met 448 course code(s) met 317 met 317 met 317 met 317 course name(s) metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy manufacturing processes ii manufacturing processes ii course name(s) metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy metallurgy 42 table 8: direct course comparison for electrical circuits university of windsor courses course code course name 85-234 electrical & computing fundamentals major topics basic concepts basic laws methods of analysis circuit theorems operational amplifiers capacitors and inductors major topics matlab and pspice tutorials (computer simulation) tutorial classes computing labs (computer simulation) st clair college courses course code(s) met 243 met 243 met 243 met 243 course name(s) analysis of electrical circuits analysis of electrical circuits analysis of electrical circuits analysis of electrical circuits met 243 course code(s) met 243 met 243 met 243 analysis of electrical circuits course name(s) analysis of electrical circuits analysis of electrical circuits analysis of electrical circuits table 9: direct course comparison for mathematics course code 62-140 62-126 62-141 62-215 62-216 university of windsor courses course name differential calculus major topics limits and continuity derivatives intermediate value theorem mean value theorem related rates curve sketching optimization problems rieman sum linear algebra major topics systems of linear equations & their applications matrices determinants vector spaces and subspaces basis and dimensions of vectorspaces orthoganality, projection linear transformations eigenvalues and eigenspaces integral calculus major topics anti-derivatives (indefinite integral) funamental theorem of calculus definite integrals applications: area between curves, volume arc length , surface area, work, centroid series and sequence vector calculus major topics quadratic surfaces vector and multivariable differential calculus multiple integration line and surface integrals differential equations major topics differential equations initial value problems system of differential equations laplace transforms applications in science and engineering st clair college courses course code(s) course name(s) mth 203 differential calculus mth 203 mth 203 mth 203 mth 605 course code(s) mth 505 mth 505 mth 505 mth 505 mth 505 mth 505 mth 505 mth 505 course code(s) mth 605 mth 404 mth 404 mth 404 mth 404 mth 605 course code(s) differential calculus differential calculus differential calculus calculus b course name(s) linear algebra linear algebra linear algebra linear algebra linear algebra linear algebra linear algebra linear algebra course name(s) calculus b integral calculus integral calculus integral calculus integral calculus calculus b course name(s) course code(s) course name(s) mth 700 advanced calculus mth 700 mth 700 advanced calculus advanced calculus 43 table 10: current transferable courses course 62-126 linear algebra 62-140 differential calculus 85-111 engineering mechanics i 85-133 engineering & design 62-141 integral calculus 64-141 introductory physics ii 85-120 engineering thermo-fluids 85-219 introduction to engineering materials 85-230 advanced engineering & design 85-212 thermodynamics 85-233 fluid mechanics i nontechnical elective 94-330 automotive engineering fundamentals semester 1st 1st 1st 1st 2nd 2nd 2nd 4th 4th 5th 5th 5th 6th table 11: current non-transferable courses course 85-118 engineering & the profession 85-119 technical communications 59-110 topics in general chemistry 62-215 vector calculus 85-232 engineering software fundamentals 85-234 electrical & computing fundamentals 85-250 engineering & the environment 91-201 eng. management & globalization 92-210 dynamics 62-216 differential equations 85-222 treatment of experimental data 85-218 mechanics of deformable bodies 85-220 numerical analysis for engineering semester 1st 2nd 2nd 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd 4th 4th 4th 4th 44 table 12: course outline for 85-261 table 13: course outline for 85-160 45 table 14: course outline for 85-260 table 15: course outline for 85-262 46 table 16: au for st. clair college's apd program course code met 137 met 139 met 181 met 202 met 227 met 243 met 248 met 317 met 327 met 328 met 332 met 430 met 438 met 439 met 443 met 448 met 471 met 510 met 521 met 529 met 541 met 542 met 543 met 548 met 623 met 629 met 637 met 648 met 658 chm 161a phy 168 mth 128 mth 158 mth 203 mth 404 mth 505 mth 605 mth 700 234 math 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 7 22 22 60 60 45 au for st. clair college apd program total number of au specific au 107 64 477 234 182 95 277 ns cs es ed es ed total 0 7 7 15 0 0 0 0 7 7 15 0 0 0 0 0 8 2 0 0 0 0 11 11 22 0 0 0 9 0 29 0 0 0 0 5 0 11 5 11 5 16 0 6 13 6 0 0 0 8 0 19 0 0 0 0 9 0 17 0 0 0 0 0 7 7 15 0 0 0 0 4 9 4 9 4 13 0 7 7 15 0 0 0 8 0 25 0 0 0 0 6 0 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 5 16 5 21 0 6 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 15 15 15 30 0 9 9 18 0 0 0 15 0 45 0 0 0 0 0 0 19 8 19 8 27 7 0 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 22 22 22 22 44 0 0 7 22 0 0 0 0 0 33 0 33 0 33 0 0 28 9 0 0 0 0 0 8 24 8 24 32 0 0 21 7 21 7 28 0 0 16 5 16 5 21 0 0 12 0 12 0 12 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 47 table 17: au for bridging agreement course code 85-261 85-262 85-160 85-260 59-110 94-141 92-210 62-215 62-216 elective 100 math 9 6.75 0 0 0 0 0 42 42 0 au for bridging agreement total number of au 138 116 92 19 91.9 ns cs es ed es 0 0 27 0 27 9.45 0 30.4 6.75 30.4 0 48 0 0 0 12 31.5 10.5 0 10.5 54 0 0 0 0 51 0 0 0 0 12 0 24 12 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 0 0 0 specific au 18.75 110.65 ed total 0 27 6.75 37.15 0 0 0 10.5 0 0 0 0 12 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 table 18: au for the remaining compulsory courses course code 06-85-313 06-85-421 06-92-311 06-92-317 06-92-320 06-92-321 06-92-323 06-92-324 06-92-328 06-92-400 06-92-411 06-92-418 06-92-421 06-92-459 13.8 math 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 13.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 au for remaining compulsary courses total number of au specific au 0.0 107.6 424.4 179.9 424.4 179.9 604.2 ns cs es ed es ed total 0.0 46.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 36.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 36.9 12.3 36.9 12.3 49.2 0.0 0.0 49.2 0.0 49.2 0.0 49.2 0.0 0.0 49.2 0.0 49.2 0.0 49.2 0.0 0.0 32.3 10.8 32.3 10.8 43.1 0.0 0.0 49.2 0.0 49.2 0 49.2 0.0 0.0 32.3 0.0 32.3 0.0 32.3 0.0 0.0 49.2 0.0 49.2 0.0 49.2 0.0 24.6 0.0 73.8 0.0 73.8 73.8 0.0 0.0 27.7 27.7 27.7 27.7 55.4 0.0 0.0 27.7 27.7 27.7 27.7 55.4 0.0 0.0 27.7 27.7 27.7 27.7 55.4 0.0 0.0 43.1 0.0 43.1 0.0 43.1 48 table 19: advanced diploma au in compliance with section 3.4.6 165 course code math met 137 0 met 139 0 met 181 0 met 202 0 met 227 0 met 243 0 met 248 0 met 317 0 met 327 0 met 328 0 met 332 0 met 430 0 met 438 0 met 439 0 met 443 0 met 448 0 met 471 0 met 510 0 met 521 0 met 529 0 met 541 0 met 542 0 met 543 0 met 548 0 met 623 0 met 629 0 met 637 0 met 648 0 met 658 0 chm 161a 0 phy 168 0 mth 128 0 mth 158 0 mth 203 0 mth 404 0 mth 505 60 mth 605 60 mth 700 45 apd compiant with 3.4.6 total number of au 22 48 207 ns cs es 0 7 7 0 7 7 0 0 0 0 11 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 7 0 0 0 0 7 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 0 9 9 15 0 45 0 0 0 7 0 22 0 0 22 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 28 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 192 ed 15 15 0 22 0 0 0 0 0 15 0 15 0 0 0 0 15 18 0 0 0 22 22 0 9 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 49

multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings and student loan holding august 20, 2021 authors elizabeth dhuey university of toronto bradley seward university of toronto david walters university of guelph multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings and student loan holding august 20, 2021 elizabeth dhuey university of toronto bradley seward university of toronto david walters university of guelph financial support for this research was provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the authors would like to acknowledge jill furzer and anthony jehn for their assistance with this report. this research was conducted at the toronto and western research data centre branches, a part of the canadian research data centre network (crdcn). this service is provided through the support of the university of toronto and western university, the province of ontario, the canadian foundation for innovation, the canadian institutes of health research, the social science and humanity research council, and statistics canada. all views expressed in this work are our own. 0 executive summary postsecondary graduates are taking increasingly diverse educational pathways. yet there is little recent evidence on the labour market outcomes for these various pathsespecially for graduates with multiple credentials. this report addresses some of these research gaps to understand outcomes (such as earnings, underemployment, and loan obligations) for multicredentialed graduates in the province of ontario using representative survey data. this study relies on 2013 and 2018 responses to the national graduate survey. this data provides comprehensive coverage of graduate demographics, fields of study, and postgraduate outcomes across a diverse set of educational pathways. we use this survey to accomplish the following objectives: 1. to identify the profiles and demographic trends of multiple credential holders; 2. to estimate differences in annual earnings between graduates with multiple credentials and graduates who acquire a single postsecondary credential; 3. to estimate differences in likelihood and magnitude of loans borrowed among multiple credential holders from those who acquire a single postsecondary credential; and 4. to understand the education-to-work match of graduates with multiple non-analogous credentials, including the predicted probability of underemployment and overqualification. highlights from the reports demographic analysis, females, minorities, and immigrants are well represented across all pathways to postsecondary education and are especially likely to be university or postgraduate degree holders with second credentials. persons with a disability appear underrepresented in the population of multi-credentialed graduates (mcgs), suggesting that disability statuswhether via accommodation requirements or financial obligationsmay be a barrier to obtaining subsequent credentials. mcgs are also more likely to be married and have children, which likely derives from correlations between time-to-completion and age but may indicate how the presence of an income-earning partner may help lessen the financial burdens associated with obtaining a second credential. other key findings from this study include: most mcgs who pursue a second credential at a lower tier than their first postsecondary degree program tend to enroll in health, education, or business programs instead of other programs. those same mcgsgraduates that complete additional credentials at lower tiers than their first postsecondary degree programshow a higher likelihood of underemployment but are not more likely to feel overqualified. 1 completing an additional, lower-level credential does not result in increased earnings. however, obtaining an additional credential at an equivalent degree level or higher does increase earnings. most mcgs do not have significantly worse loan burdens at graduation than singlecredentialed graduates. they are also not any more likely than single-credentialed graduates to hold any loan amount, or to hold a loan exceeding $10,000. mcgs appear largely satisfied with employment after receiving secondary credentials, which suggests their pursuit of additional credentials were undertaken for reasons of interest or life satisfaction. 2 table of contents executive summary ...................................................................................................................................... 1 highlights.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 list of tables .......................................................................................................................................................... 4 list of figures......................................................................................................................................................... 4 introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 5 background .................................................................................................................................................... 6 data .................................................................................................................................................................... 7 outcome variables ........................................................................................................................................................................ 8 explanatory variables.............................................................................................................................................................................8 methods .................................................................................................................................................... 9 descriptive results ............................................................................................................................................10 demographics ............................................................................................................................................................................... 10 field specialty .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 outcomes of interest................................................................................................................................................................ 14 regression results............................................................................................................................................17 underemployment and overqualification ........................................................................................................................ 17 income outcomes......................................................................................................................................................................... 23 student loan holding ............................................................................................................................................................... 26 discussion ...................................................................................................................................................... 31 limitations ............................................................................................................................................. 32 future directions ....................................................................................................................................... 32 references .................................................................................................................................................... 34 appendix .................................................................................................................................................. 37 3 list of tables table 1 mean value of key demographic variables table 2 underemployment by educational credentials (logistic regression) table 3 subjective overqualification among credential holders (logistic regression) table 4: annual earnings among credential holders (ols regression) table 5: likelihood of student loans among credential holders (logistic regression approach) table 6: graduated with large student loan (logistic regression approach) appendix table 1: underemployment by educational credential (ols) appendix table 2: high underemployment by educational credential (logistic regression) list of figures figure 1 age and time-to-completion across credential types figure 2 field of study across credential type figure 3 average outcomes of interest by credential type figure 4 average earnings across credential type, by sample figure 5 key covariates in predicting underemployment figure 6 predicted probability of underemployment or overqualification figure 7 change in annual earnings by credential type figure 8 predicted likelihood of loan holding at graduation appendix figure 1 predicted high underemployment 4 introduction the educational landscape has evolved considerably in recent years, with increasingly diverse learning pathways available to students. these pathways include many postsecondary graduates returning to higher education at both the college and university levels after they have completed their original postsecondary program (barnes and robinson 1999). however, even though many graduates are returning to institutions of higher education, they are not always doing so to receive higher-level credentialling in their initial field of study. rather, research suggests that students postsecondary experiences are dynamic and responsive to labour market demands (leigh, 2009; reusch, 2000; townsend & dever, 1999). while these returns to higher education may include linear continuations of a given educational pathway, many also obtain new lateral or lower-level credentialling that are not a continuation of their previous postsecondary schooling (allen 1996; walters 2003)a group that we refer to in this report as multicredentialed graduates (mcgs). for instance, data from the 2013 national graduate survey (ngs) and the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) show that 13% of ontario students pursue a college degree after a university qualification (wheelahan et al., 2015).1 nevertheless, there are significant knowledge gaps about who becomes mcgs and about the labour market outcomes that are associated with these pathways. policymakers also lack access to research that investigates the potential downsides of multi-credentialling, including the time and monetary costs of added credentials and the potential for more considerable debt burdens. the primary objective of this report is therefore to assess the outcomes of postsecondary mcgs along three dimensions that typify labour market outcomes in the wider body of literature: earnings, student loan encumbrance, and employment fit. this study will contribute to mcg research to understand both the underemployment patterns faced by mcgs, as well as providing an analysis of the self-assessed feelings of respondents who have become overqualified by the multi-credential education pathways they have completed. it also elucidates the impact of multi-credentials on annual earnings and assesses loan holding in terms of both loan-holding likelihood, and the magnitude of those loan burdens at graduation. this study employs a nationally representative survey on canadian postsecondary graduates, and focuses on ontario graduates. we differentiate mcg types according to the following compositions of credentials: college to college; college to university; university to college; university to university; postgraduate to either college or university; and postgraduate to postgraduate. these graduates are compared alongside their counterparts that have only a single college, university, or postgraduate credential.2 this report will aid government and policymakers in understanding the particular needs of mcgs to inform future postsecondary policy. 1 in canada, pursuing a second postsecondary education credential that is not designed to be a continuation of prior postsecondary attainment is often referred to as recycling (see walters, 2003, also allen, 1996). this report uses the broader term multi-credentialed graduate (mcg). 2 although postgraduates technically possess multiple credentials (i.e, they must have completed an undergraduate degree before proceeding to a masters and/or phd), this report does not treat them as mcgs as their credentialling tends to be linear and cumulative. 5 background despite the changing landscape of canadian postsecondary educational pathways, there is limited research available to define and understand the mechanisms and outcomes of these academic decisions. prior literature often uses multiplesometimes inconsistentdefinitions of mcgs. for instance, previous research has referred to multi-credential holding as reversetransferring, reverse-flow (clark, 1960, cited by moodie, 2004), reverse articulation (golding, 1995, cited by moodie, 2004), and completer reverse transfer (reusch, 2000). another common term is postbaccalaureate reverse transfers (prtss), which describes students who attend college after obtaining a university degree(townsend & dever, 1999, p. 16). finally, the term recycling has been used to refer to students seeking to upgrade their skills in non-university institutions such as community colleges, technical institutes, and trade schools (adamuti-trache, 2011). some researchers take a stricter definition of recycling to include only those students who specifically seek a second credential that is a non-continuation of their first credential (walters, 2003). thus, university graduates who obtain a college diploma via a postgraduate program would not be considered recyclers. several studies do provide some insights into the reasons why students may pursue additional, non-continuous credentials. research on university-to-college mcgs suggests that students often seek college credentials following an undergraduate degree to learn new skills, change job fields, or improve occupational status (resusch, 2000; townsend & lambert, 1999). in fact, all mcgs, not just university-to-college transfers, tend to deviate from their first field of study, with just over 20% of canadian postsecondary graduates who pursued a second credential doing so as a continuation of their first credential (wheelahan et al., 2015). the students that do choose more linear education pathways tend to be under the age of 35 (wall, 2021). for students who pursue college diplomas after completing an undergraduate degree, previous work shows that the undergraduate degree in question is most likely in the social sciences (reusch, 2000). the motivation for social science majors to complete a college diploma after their undergrad may be because their undergraduate degree program was chosen based on personal interest and development rather than on future employability. another reason social science majors may be more likely to pursue a college diploma after completing their undergrad is because their original degree has not provided as direct a pathway into the labour market upon graduation as other fields of study. both scenarios may result in higher underemployment or educational mismatch for graduates with social science degrees (walters 2004; dezelan et al. 2014). in response, students may be motivated to pursue more specialized forms of schooling with a higher likelihood of employment (dezelan et al., 2014). conversely, the current body of research points to mcgs enrolling in more technical fields of study, with the most common second credentials completed in information technology (friedel & friesleben, 2017; reusch, 2000), health, and business studies (taylor, 2016; wheelahan et al., 2016). regulated fields, like health in particular, may have stronger labour-market ties and better employment opportunities, which may explain recent findings by statistics canada showing that older mcgs and women tend to migrate towards health-related second credentials (wheelahan et al., 2015; wall, 2021). 6 a small body of literature shows that, for certain fields, university-to-college pathways may be worth the investment. for those university graduates with a social science degree who later obtained a college diploma, doing so in the fields of commerce, engineering, health, or math earned them more than students with a social science undergraduate degree alone (walters, 2003). additionally, research has shown that, in general, university graduates who obtained a second undergraduate degree also saw improved earnings across all study fields (walters, 2003). despite the existing body of work on university-to-college mcgs, there are no recent studies on labour market outcomes for those who complete the variety of separate pathways to inconsonant postsecondary credentials. furthermore, there is limited research to understand the potential costs of obtaining multi-credentials. these costs may include administrative burdens, pecuniary and social costs of moving, and the time and financial costs associated with additional time in school (walters 2003; boothby and drewes 2006; kerr, mccloy, and liu 2011; tobolowsky and cox 2012; percival et al. 2016; finnie et al. 2020; zarifa et al. 2020). although walters (2003) suggests that a second college credential may be an attractive pathway for mcgs because of the lower cost and quicker time to completion typically needed for a college diploma, there remains a dearth of research on whether obtaining multiple unrelated diplomas provide tangible benefits to their employment outcomes. the practice of multi-credential holding, therefore, presents intriguing unanswered questions for social scientists and policymakers. data this analysis draws data from the 2013 and 2018 cross-sectional national graduate survey (ngs), accessed via the statistics canadas research data centre network (crdcn). the ngs documents school-to-work transitions and labour market outcomes of canadian postsecondary graduates, and it represents the most extensive survey available in canada to assess these transitions. the ngs was conducted by computer-assisted telephone interviewing (cati) and is representative of all postsecondary graduates at publicly funded institutions within canada. the 2018 ngs introduced an option for graduates to self-complete the survey online, while still providing the option for over-the-phone assistance. the survey includes multiple questions related to demographic characteristics, educational attainment, and labour market outcomes since the respondents graduation. in the 2013 ngs sample, there is a total of 28,715 respondents. these respondents graduated from postsecondary schooling in the 2009-2010 academic year and were surveyed three years following graduation. the 2018 ngs includes 35,759 respondents from the 2014-2015 academic year, again surveyed three years following graduation. the response rate is approximately 50% and 63% of the targeted sample, respectively, across survey years. both waves of the ngs are pooled to maximize the sample size and incorporate the most up-todate information available. the analysis sample is restricted to graduates from ontario who reported valid answers for all variables of interest. all graduates with degrees in professional fields, including medicine, dentistry, and optometry, are excluded from the analysis due to the specificity of skills and training received in these programs and the substantial earnings differential from other fields. the analysis is further restricted to full-time workers, resulting in a sample size of 8,000 respondents. 7 outcome variables to understand the early labour market outcomes and conditions of recent postsecondary graduates, we use ngs measures of earnings, underemployment, and student loan debt. earnings are measured as the natural logarithm of self-reported annual job income for full-time working survey respondents.3 all earnings values are adjusted to 2018 dollars to reflect the annual earnings reported by the more recent cohort. the response variable for the second series of regression models is a binary measure of underemployment. respondents were asked to compare their education credentials upon graduation to the qualifications needed for the job they held in the week before being interviewed. respondents who indicated they have higher credentials than required were treated as being underemployed. we also use a measure of whether an individual reported feeling overqualified or not for their current position. the 2018 measure of this variable also allows respondents to indicate if they felt appropriately qualified or underqualified. this variable was coded dichotomously to correspond to the 2013 measure. any respondents reporting that they felt overqualified were given a value of zero, and those who felt appropriately or underqualified were given a value of one. the final response variable is a binary measure of whether respondents had any government student loans at the time of the survey. a secondary measure was created to indicate whether a student held a large loan at the time of graduation, derived from a variable reporting the outstanding dollar amount of a loan at the time of graduation. this outcome variable is a binary response of whether or not the respondent held a student loan at graduation exceeding $10,000. explanatory variables the focal explanatory variable in this study identifies the educational pathways and instances of multiple credentials, or multi-credentialism, for our sample of recent graduates. the multicredentialism variable includes a total of nine educational attainment categories: 1) college only; 2) college to college; 3) college to university; 4) university only; 5) university to college; 6) university to university; 7) postgraduate only; 8) postgraduate to university or college, and 9) postgraduate to postgraduate. university only is treated at the baseline variable against which all other educational attainment categories are compared. we also include several predictors of employment, including: the field of study for the graduates most recent program; time to degree; participation in a co-op program; disability status; parental education; gender; age; marital status; presence of children; language; immigrant status; and minority status. field of study consists of six categories: 1) social sciences (treated as the reference category); 2) stem: math, computer science, engineering, and the life sciences; 3) arts and humanities; 4) business; 5) health; and education; and 6) other fields of study.4 the time-to-degree variable 3 the income measure approximates what a respondent earns on an annual basis if the job were to last the full year and accounts for irregularities in working patterns. we take the natural log of income to normalize the typically skewed distribution of the variable. this approach is consistent with past research drawing upon ngs data (see zarifa, walters, and seward 2015; zarifa 2012; walters 2004; finnie 2001). 4 fields of study were collapsed into conceptually similar categories to satisfy statistics canadas data disclosure requirements. more detailed categories were possible for the student loans analyses in this report. for these analyses we used the following eight categories: 1) social sciences (treated as the reference category); 2) math, computer 8 assesses duration in postsecondary education based on a respondents enrolment and graduating year, treated as continuous. participation in a co-op program has two categories: coop participation or not, with no co-op participation treated as a reference. similarly, the presence of a disability is compared to a baseline of no disability. the parental education variable identifies whether respondents have at least one university educated parent, measured across two categories: neither parent has an undergraduate degree, and at least one parent has an undergraduate degree. to measure gender, the ngs contains two categories: male (the reference category) and female. age is assessed as a continuous variable. marital status covers two categories: married (reference) or not. a variable for the presence of children also has two categories: no children present (reference) and children present. the language variable consists of two categories: not bilingual and bilingual in canadas official languages. finally, both minority status and immigrant status assess whether or not respondents identify as such. these measures are included as control variables in each model because they have been identified as significant predictors of labour market outcomes in prior research examining the school-to-work transitions of postsecondary graduates in canada (finnie 2000; jehn, walters, and howells 2019; walters and zarifa 2008). a further description of these variables is provided in table 1. methods the analysis consists of descriptive summary statistics analysis and regression analysis. descriptive statistics encompass the means and standard deviation of each outcome and explanatory variable overall and by multi-credential status. all analyses are weighted using bootstrap weights to adjust for the complex sampling design of the ngs. descriptive statistics are estimated using listwise deletion to provide weighted study sample characteristics for all the variables included in our analyses. regression models are employed to assess the returns to multi-credentials across different credential compositions while controlling for other known predictors. ols regressions are used to evaluate the effect of credentials on income, where the focal dependent variable is quantitatively coded. logistic regressions are used where appropriate to analyze categorically coded binary response variables (i.e., this can be used to predict the probabilities of underemployment and loan-holding likelihood). we build three distinct income models estimated via ordinary least squares (ols) regression modelling. model 1 includes our main explanatory variable of interest: credentials classifications, as well as baseline variables to control for respondents age and a year of survey indicator. model 2 includes gender, marital status, presence of children, language, immigrant and minority status, disability status, and parental education to assess the influence these differences in demographic science, and engineering; 3) arts and humanities; 4) business; 5) health; 6) education; 7) life sciences (biology, chemistry, and physics); and 8) other fields of study. 9 characteristics have on annual earnings estimates. lastly, model 3 includes our additional educational attainment measures: namely, field of study, time to degree, and co-op program participation. the results from model 3 are then used to determine predicted average earnings. these predicted average earnings estimates are presented graphically. all other models are assessed via logistic regression. the structure of the models follows the same pattern, with model 3 again being used to determine predicted probabilities of underemployment. we also estimate the same set of logistic regression models to predict the likelihood of having government student loans and the size of these loans for our focal explanatory variables. using the fully adjusted model, we again determine the predicted probabilities of having government loans and the likelihood of having large student loans. descriptive results demographics table 1 presents the mean values of the main demographic variables under study. firstly, females make up the majority of graduates overall (59.6%) as well as across all credential types. the highest representation of females is found in three categories of mcgs: university to college (69.0%); university to university (i.e., two undergraduate degrees) (69.3%), and postgraduate to university or college (71.0%). graduates with only college degrees have near parity of males (48.1%) to females (51.9%), and males are slightly less represented in college-to-college mcgs (42.3%). men also make up slightly less of the population of respondents with one (44.0%) or more (42.5%) postgraduate degrees. overall, 32.4% of graduates identify as a minority, 20.2% are immigrants, and 16.5% are bilingual in canadas official languages. graduates identifying as minorities are also more likely to have either one postgraduate degree (45.2%) or a college-only credential (36.0%). the most common mcg type for minority graduates, however, is the university-to-college pathway (48.3%). similarly, immigrant populations are highly likely to obtain one (37%) or more (32.1%) postgraduate degree(s), as well as to complete a university-to-college mcg pathway (35.1%). notably, persons with disabilities (15.3% of graduates overall) are more represented as single credential holders, including at the college (26.4%), university (24.9%), and postgraduate levels (21.7%). persons with a disability appear less likely to move from college to college (9.7%) or college to university (7.1%), which potentially reflects barriers for students with disabilities to obtain multiple credentials.5 5 persons with disabilities are also more represented among mcgs if they were able to acquire university education and go on to earn a second university degree (23%), or college diploma (17.7%). however, they are even less represented at the postgraduate level when going on to pursue a second university or college-level credential (6.16%) or postgraduate education (7.23%). unfortunately, it is unknown whether these differences are due to better accessibility and accommodation programming at the university level, or if there are ability-based selection effects among these graduates that determine their chosen pathways. 10 table 1 mean value of key demographic variables credential type overall college only college to college college to university university only university to college university to university postgraduate postgraduate to univ/college postgraduate to postgraduate n female (%) 59.57 (0.95) 51.86 (2.46) 57.74 (2.66) 60.22 (2.25) 59.91 (1.92) 68.99 (4.49) 69.33 (4.20) 55.97 (1.83) 70.99 (3.63) 57.53 (1.97) 8,000 minority immigrant (%) (%) 32.38 (0.91) 36.02 (2.43) 22.84 (2.40) 27.75 (2.03) 39.47 (1.98) 48.31 (5.00) 29.68 (4.14) 45.16 (1.91) 27.61 (3.59) 33.55 (1.95) 8,000 20.22 (0.74) 19.81 (1.97) 12.56 (1.68) 17.21 (1.65) 20.00 (1.67) 35.06 (4.72) 21.01 (3.70) 36.99 (1.94) 18.69 (3.03) 32.10 (1.94) 8,000 bilingual (%) disability (%) married (%) 16.46 (0.67) 12.17 (1.49) 9.59 (1.44) 16.44 (1.65) 20.29 (1.51) 9.89 (2.63) 22.45 (3.72) 20.20 (1.35) 21.99 (3.68) 23.25 (1.49) 8,000 15.25 (0.62) 26.36 (2.12) 9.70 (1.29) 7.07 (1.04) 24.85 (1.67) 17.70 (3.45) 23.00 (3.80) 21.69 (1.43) 6.16 (1.90) 7.23 (0.79) 8,000 35.35 (0.91) 23.15 (2.04) 36.55 (2.55) 33.32 (2.16) 21.52 (1.60) 41.32 (4.84) 42.61 (4.45) 49.08 (1.86) 53.14 (4.46) 65.53 (1.93) 8,000 has children (%) 15.14 (0.71) 12.61 (1.52) 23.87 (2.50) 8.55 (1.18) 3.93 (0.69) 17.79 (3.53) 10.61 (2.61) 20.43 (1.32) 26.69 (3.87) 35.18 (1.86) 8,000 parent with pse (%) 44.65 (0.96) 30.57 (2.25) 22.81 (2.29) 49.83 (2.33) 54.94 (1.95) 58.99 (4.81) 48.31 (4.52) 63.84 (1.90) 43.98 (4.25) 58.17 (1.98) 8,000 co-op experience (%) 19.62 (0.82) 25.95 (2.18) 31.89 (2.60) 14.77 (1.65) 15.44 (1.34) 21.42 (4.18) 5.45 (2.01) 10.98 (1.18) 23.09 (3.96) 12.41 (1.75) 8,000 table presents proportions and standard errors for given covariates across all graduates and by graduate types. proportions are calculated on the sample used to estimate the effects of mcg type on underemployment, feeling overqualified, and loan holding, with a total sample size of 8,000. the sample used for measuring annual earnings relies on full-time workers and is therefore smaller (n= 7,000). proportions of key covariates are largely similar in this sample, which are presented in appendix table 1. sample sizes are rounded to the nearest 1000 due to statistics canada research data centre vetting rules. 11 finally, we note that married graduates (35.4%) are more represented in the university-to-college mcg pathway (41.3%), the university-to-university mcg pathway (42.6%), as well as across all categories of postgraduate studies, though most notably for double postgraduate degrees (65.5%). graduates with children (15.1% overall) are also more represented across all postgraduate degree credential typesparticularly postgraduate to postgraduate mcgs (35.2%). these demographics likely reflect the underlying correlation between age and degree-holding, as well as with marriage and childbearing. indeed, the average age of completion across different types of postgraduate degree holders ranges from age 29 for those with only one postgraduate degree to 32 for those with two or more postgraduate degrees. figure 1 provides a visual representation of age and the time it takes to complete the last credential acquired. interestingly, earning a prior credential does appear to make subsequent completion of university study more efficient, with university-only graduates taking the longest to complete, while those who earn a second undergraduate complete that second degree in less time. we suspect that some of this efficiency might be administrative: graduates with prior postsecondary experience may be more likely to have already completed university-level program requirements (i.e., elective courses) and prerequisites. overall, these summaries suggest that women, minorities, and immigrants are highly represented in postsecondary education and are especially likely to be university or postgraduate degree holders with second credentials. married individuals are also more represented as mcgs, likely reflecting an underlying association with time-to-completion and age. this representation of married individuals may also suggest the potential for increased financial flexibility to seek a second credential if another income-earning partner is present. in fact, our modelling indicates that across all degree levels, mcgs are more likely to be married. given the underrepresentation of persons with a disability in various mcg types, disability statuswhether via accommodation requirements or financial obligationsmay be a barrier to obtaining second credentials. 12 figure 1 age and time-to-completion across credential types note: panel a presents age at the time of graduation across graduate types. the ngs provides age at the time of survey, which occurs 3 years post-graduation. approximate age at graduation is calculated as the ngs age less 3 years. panel b presents time-to-completion for last degree obtained across graduate types. 13 field specialty figure 2 presents a breakdown of the various fields of study by credential type. overall, business (22.1%), as well as stem (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields (22.2%) were the most common areas of study. a similar field distribution is found in college-only degree holders and postgraduate degree holders with one or more degrees. university degree holders are most likely to study social sciences (28.7%) or stem (24.53%). college-to-university mcgs were also more likely to obtain their university degree in the social sciences (24.1%) or the arts and humanities (22.2%). mcgs that transferred downwards to obtain a college credential after a higher degree were highly likely to pursue their last credentials in health/education or business. this group includes college-to-college mcgs (20.7%), university-to-college mcgs (24.2%), and postgraduate-to-university or -college mcgs (44.6%). university-to-university mcgs were even more likely to pursue a second credential in health/education, at 53.1%. business and stem were other common second credentials when mcgs sought additional credentialling at lower levels than previously attained. these results suggest that mcgs that completed their subsequent credentialling at a lower level than their first degree did so to obtain specific career training, particularly in health, education, or business. conversely, graduates who sought a first or second undergraduate degree, with or without a college degree first, were most likely to pursue social sciences or arts and humanities, which may be driven by specific interests. figure 2 field of study across credential type note: figure 2 presents breakdown of fields of study, overall, and by credential type as reported from the ngs 2013 and 2018. outcomes of interest figure 3 presents the mean values of the primary outcomes for this study. panel a reports the proportion of graduates who express that they feel overqualified for their current job. overall, 30.3% of graduates feel overqualified for their current position. college-to-university (37.5%), college-to-college (31.8%), and university-to-college (31.2%) mcgs appear to feel the most overqualified. university-to-university mcgs are the least likely to report feeling overqualified 14 (24.2%), followed by postgraduate-to-university or college (27.3%) and postgraduate-topostgraduate mcgs (28.8%). panel b reports the proportion of graduates who are underemployed for their given position. overall, around half of all graduates (51.7%) are underemployed to some degree. the most underemployed of these respondents are postgraduate degree holders (65.3%), postgraduateto-postgraduate mcgs (59.8%), and college-to-college mcgs (60.5%). the least underemployed mcgs are university-to-college (35.3%), university-to-university (37.3%), and postgraduate-touniversity/college (42.0%). these results suggest that mcgs are, for the most part, less likely to be underemployed. in other words, greater mcg employability may be less a result of the type of extra credentialling the graduates accumulate and more the result of the fields they are enrolling in. as noted in further detail below, mcgs of all types are more likely to pursue additional credentialling in health or educationfields that are highly regulated and in high demand on the labour market. figure 3 average outcomes of interest by credential type note: figure presents mean values by graduate pathways for whether a graduate feels overqualified (panel a); is underemployed for their current job (panel b); held any loans at graduation (panel c); and average annual earnings (panel d). all panels outside of panel d use the full sample (n = 8,000). panel d uses a sub-sample of full-time workers (n = 7,000). comparisons between this sample and the full sample for income are presented in figure 4. all annual earnings are rounded to the nearest $1,000. 15 panel c assesses the proportion of individuals holding loans at the time of graduation, with 40.7% of graduates overall holding loans. the most likely graduates to have loans at graduation are university-to-university mcgs (56.2%) and those who have completed a single undergraduate degree (48.7%). this higher degree of loan holding for university graduates likely reflects both the higher cost of university and longer time-to-completion (figure 1b). double-postgraduate mcgs are the least likely to hold loans at graduation (26.2%), potentially because many postgraduate programs have some form of funding for students. finally, panel d provides the average annual earnings of graduates by credential type. in a sample of full-time workers, the highest average earners are those holding one ($72,000) or more postgraduate degrees ($74,000). however, postgraduates who subsequently obtain a university or college degree do experience lower earnings, with average annual earnings for full-time workers being $57,000. expectedly, this penalty worsens when we include in our sample those postgraduates that are not working full-time (see figure 4). figure 4 average earnings across credential type, by sample note: figure 4 provides average annual earnings of survey respondents by credential status for the full sample (red) and the sample of full-time workers used in the earnings analysis (blue). 16 regression results with regards to tables 2-6 (below), regression modelling was used to first assess the effect of being an mcg on outcomes related to underemployment and feeling over-overqualified.6 for any binary outcome variable (e.g., respondent is underemployed or not), a logistic regression was used. in the first column of each table, the outcome is regressed on a students multi-credential or transfer status only. in model 2, control variables, including income, survey year, respondent age, gender, parents education, and marital status are included to account for additional factors that may impact both the likelihood of multi-credentialism and the outcome of interest regardless of credential status. the final model further incorporates field of study in the last held credential. university-only graduates (i.e., respondents whose only credentialling is an undergraduate degree) are used as the reference credential category across all regression models and given a coefficient value of one. all other credential categories can then be compared to a baseline value of one. values greater than one suggest a higher likelihood for a specific outcome of interest. values less than one suggest a lower likelihood of a given outcome of interest. underemployment and overqualification results estimating the effect of multi-credential holding on underemployment using logistic regression are presented in table 2. similar results for subjective overqualification are found in table 3.7 looking first at the baseline model results for underemployment in table 2, compared to university-only graduates, college-only graduates (p < 0.05) college-to-college mcgs (p < 0.01) appear more likely to be underemployed. college-to-university mcgs appear to have similar likelihood of underemployment to that of university-only students and university-to-university mcgs (p > 0.10). at the postgraduate tier of education, the likelihood of underemployment increases substantially for respondents with either one (p < 0.001) or more (p < 0.001) postgraduate degrees. postgraduates that subsequently completed a lower-level degree (i.e., postgraduate-to-university/college mcgs) do not differ from bachelor only graduates in their likelihood of underemployment (p > 0.10), which contrasts with university-to-college mcgs, who appear to experience a substantial increase in the likelihood of underemployment in comparison to the reference group (p < 0.001).8 to capture confounding factors, several covariate controls are included in the logistic regressions in model 2. underemployment appears to decrease at higher levels of income . as well, being female or having at least one parent with an undergraduate degree appear to decrease likelihood of underemployment. model 2 coefficients, estimating the impact of different credential pathways of underemployment, remain largely consistent with those estimated in model 1, though college-only graduates and college-to-college mcgs no longer indicate an increased likelihood of underemployment (p > 0.10). when controlling for these factors, postgraduate-to6 regression models are run on a sample of full-time workers only. comparable results estimated via ols can found in appendix tables 1 and 3. 8 for the postgraduate-to-postgraduate group, the data does not allow for differentiation between those that acquire a phd and return for a masters degree or those that return for an incongruous masters or phd program from those that follow a traditional masters degree to phd route. 7 17 university/college mcgs do appear to have higher rates of underemployment when compared to university-only graduates (p < 0.05). in the final column, model 3, field of study is incorporated, and indicates that the likelihood of underemployment is roughly the same across fields. that said, those with health or education credentials are much less likely to be underemployed (p < 0.001). when incorporating field, as well as time-to-completion and co-op participation, the estimated effects of credential types remain largely consistent with the covariate-controlled model. respondents with the highest rates of underemployment are university-to-college mcgs, postgraduates, and postgraduate-to-postgraduate mcgs (figure 5, panel a). table 2 underemployment by educational credentials (logistic regression) variables model 1 coef (s.e.) model 2 coef (s.e.) model 3 coef (s.e.) transfer (ref: university only) college only 1.289* (0.164) 0.915 (0.121) 0.868 (0.136) college to college 1.434** (0.193) 1.387 (0.238) 1.323 (0.256) college to university 0.950 (0.120) 1.237 (0.204) 1.177 (0.195) university to college 4.243*** (1.028) 3.952*** (0.963) 3.709*** (0.984) university to university 0.715 (0.148) 0.695 (0.146) 0.714 (0.161) postgraduate to uni/college 1.302 (0.252) 1.805* (0.429) 1.832* (0.496) postgraduate 2.673*** (0.291) 3.476*** (0.420) 3.205*** (0.474) postgraduate to 2.171*** (0.246) 3.603*** (0.630) 3.281*** (0.617) postgraduate log income 0.376*** (0.036) 0.413*** (0.040) year 2018 (ref: 2013) 1.593*** (0.213) 1.535** (0.206) respondent age 1.022** (0.008) 1.023** (0.009) female (ref: male) 0.680*** (0.058) 0.708*** (0.064) has disability (ref: none) 1.091 (0.115) 1.100 (0.117) parental ed (ref: none) 0.780** (0.068) 0.764** (0.068) field (ref: social sciences) stem 0.837 (0.107) arts/humanities 1.109 (0.167) business 0.788 (0.111) health/education 0.575*** (0.077) other 1.186 (0.232) co-op participation (ref: none) 0.708** (0.082) observations 8,000 8,000 8,000 note: table 2 presents results from three logistic regression estimations of credential holding on risk of underemployments. all coefficients are odds ratios and standard errors in parentheses: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. for parsimony, coefficients for married, has children, bilingual, immigrant and minority are not reported. other field specialty and time-to-completion are also not reported. covariate coefficients for underemployment are presented in figure 6. 18 figure 5: predicted probability of underemployment or overqualification note: figures plot the predicted likelihood of being underemployed (panel a) and if a graduate does not feel overqualified (panel b). all predicted margins are measured at covariate means. each figure is sorted based on predicted margins from model 3. 19 results from model 3 suggest that age increases the likelihood of underemployment (p < 0.05), while being female (p < 0.001) and having at least one parent with an undergraduate education (p < 0.01) decreases the likelihood of underemployment (see figure 6). similar results in terms of important covariates and mcgs underemployment are found when measuring coefficients via ols (appendix table 2). if underemployment is instead measured based on a graduates first credential, respondents with one (p < 0.001) or more (p < 0.01) graduate degrees sustain a higher rate of underemployment when compared to university-only respondents. using just their first credential, mcgs who obtained a lower second degree do not appear to have an underemployment penalty. university-to-college mcgs are less likely to be underemployed (p < 0.01), while postgraduate-to-postgraduate mcgs underemployment does not differ from that of respondents with a single undergraduate degree (i.e., university only). figure 6 key covariates in predicting underemployment note: figure 6 presents estimated impact of key covariates on likelihood of underemployment, measured via ols (appendix table 1). demographic and school related covariates (blue) and field of study (red) are both presented. 20 table 3 presents the effect of credential type on whether graduates feel overqualified for their level of employment. it should be noted that underemployment may not necessarily be a problem if graduates do not feel overqualified; particularly in situations when underemployment is a choice, where mcgs earned a second credential to begin a new type of career.9 compared to university-only graduates, most other respondents do not feel overqualified. the two exceptions to this from model 3 are college-to-university mcgs (p < 0.05) and postgraduate degree holders (p < 0.01). for college-to-university mcgs, feelings of overqualification and underemployment may be due to the considerable time investment in education, coupled with the looser labour market connection to university degrees (when compared to college-level degrees, which are designed to have more immediate application in the labour market). postgraduates may also feel overqualified versus university-only respondents for the same reason: the looser connection of postgraduate degrees to the labour market. especially for phd holders, obtaining an academic position is exceedingly difficult and may result in feelings of overqualification. given limited data availability on this group of graduates, however, further granularity on this sentiment is not feasible within this analysis or within the scope of this report. nevertheless, as shown in figure 6 (panel b), the predicted probabilities of not feeling overqualified, as assessed at the means of all covariates, have a high degree of overlap regardless of degree type. 21 table 3: subjective overqualification among credential holders (logistic regression) outcome: graduate does not feel overqualified transfer (ref: university only) college only college to college college to university university to college university to university postgrad to uni/college postgraduate only postgraduate to postgraduate log income year 2018 (ref: 2013) respondent age female (ref: male) has disability (ref: none) parental ed (ref: none) field (ref: social sciences) stem arts/humanities business health/education other time-to-completion co-op participation (ref: no co-op) observations model 1 coef (s.e.) model 2 coef (s.e.) model 3 coef (s.e.) 0.93 0.749 0.582*** 0.769 1.094 0.933 0.928 (0.133) (0.112) (0.077) (0.175) (0.250) (0.194) (0.112) 1.352 1.300 0.712 0.893 1.047 1.077 0.651** (0.211) (0.247) (0.129) (0.223) (0.249) (0.260) (0.089) 1.264 1.193 0.686* 0.821 0.86 0.887 0.597** (0.221) (0.250) (0.124) (0.221) (0.219) (0.230) (0.095) 0.866 (0.109) 0.751 (0.150) 0.695 (0.144) 3.572*** 1.254 0.99 1.371*** 0.732** 1.098 (0.339) (0.184) (0.008) (0.128) (0.087) (0.109) 3.531*** 1.238 0.99 1.329** 0.721** 1.097 (0.346) (0.181) (0.008) (0.130) (0.086) (0.107) - - 1.190 1.173 1.085 1.642*** 0.808 0.976 (0.163) (0.191) (0.158) (0.240) (0.171) (0.031) - - 1.045 (0.131) 8,000 8,000 8,000 note: table 3 presents results from three logistic regression estimations of credential holding on risk of feeling overqualified. all coefficients are exponentiated and standard errors in parentheses: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. for parsimony, coefficients for married, dependent children, bilingual, immigrant, and minority are not reported. no excluded coefficients are measured with precision. we note that the presence of a disability appears to increase subjective feelings of overqualification (p < 0.01). males, in addition to being more at risk of underemployment (p < 0.001), also report greater subjective feelings of overqualification when compared to females (p < 0.01). health and education are again the only fields where individuals are significantly less likely to report feeling overqualified (p < 0.001). again, at least part of this result may derive from the close connection between these types of certifications and the types of jobs they lead to. 22 overall, these results indicate that while some mcgs (notably those that receive a second credential at a lower level than their first) do experience increased underemployment, these same mcgs largely feel that their education matches the jobs they go on to acquire. on the other hand, college-to-university mcgs were not more likely to be underemployed than university-only graduates, but they were more likely to feel overqualified. it may be the case that mcgs that move to a lower credential level do so for alternative reasons from career attainments. they may be more likely to seek out new career paths out of personal interest or for reasons related to life satisfactionwhich cannot be measured through traditional metrics of labour market outcomes. the difficulty of measuring these less tangible career motivations should be kept in mind when reading the next section on loan and income analyses, where the monetary outcomes for mcgs that return to lower credential tiers is not as positive. income outcomes results estimating the effect of differing credential types on annual earnings are presented in table 4. university-only remains the reference group to which all other credentials are compared. for traditional graduates with single credentials, earnings follow a relatively linear relationship, with college-diploma holders earning 22% (p < 0.001) less than university graduates, and postgraduates earning 30% more (p < 0.001). as well, college-to-college mcgs do not have higher earnings than respondents with single college diplomas. in figure 7 there is an almost identical overlap in the estimated additional earnings for college-only graduates and college-to-college mcgs. university-to-university mcgs do experience improved earnings, by around 10% (p < 0.01), depending on the exact model employed. when accounting for field of study (model 3), a second university program is associated with 9.9% higher earnings over respondents with a single undergraduate degree (p < 0.01). it is more difficult to discern the earnings outcome for university-to-college mcgs: when controlling for all covariates outside of field of study (model 2), mcgs appear to earn roughly 12% (p < 0.01) less than university-only graduates. nevertheless, when controlling for field of study (model 3), this apparent earnings reduction falls to 6.0% but is not precisely estimated. in either case, the earnings return for university-to-college multicredentialling do not appear to be greater than a university credential on its own. 23 table 4 annual earnings among credential holders (ols regression) variables transfer (ref: university only) college only college to college college to university university to college university to univ postgraduate to uni/college postgraduate only postgraduate to postgraduate year 2018 (ref: 2013) respondent age female (ref: male) married (ref: not married) bilingual (ref: not bilingual) has disability (ref: none) parental ed (ref: none) field (ref: social sciences) stem arts/humanities business health/education other time-to-completion co-op participation (ref: no co-op) observations r2 model 1 coef (s.e.) model 2 coef (s.e.) model 3 coef (s.e.) -0.218*** -0.243*** -0.022 -0.073 0.103** 0.05 0.300*** (0.023) -0.219*** (0.026) -0.232*** (0.023) -0.007 (0.039) -0.122** (0.035) 0.064 (0.043) 0.023 (0.023) 0.220*** (0.024) -0.179*** (0.027) (0.030) -0.182*** (0.034) (0.029) 0.022 (0.028) (0.039) -0.06 (0.040) (0.035) 0.099** (0.038) (0.047) 0.059 (0.050) (0.022) 0.248*** (0.026) 0.293*** (0.033) 0.202*** (0.037) 0.239*** (0.034) - 0.066** 0.011*** -0.116*** 0.046** 0.023 -0.066*** 0.068*** (0.024) (0.001) (0.015) (0.018) (0.017) (0.018) (0.016) 0.082*** 0.011*** -0.098*** 0.041* 0.038* -0.063*** 0.070*** (0.023) (0.001) (0.016) (0.017) (0.017) (0.018) (0.016) - - 0.148*** -0.039 0.115*** 0.155*** 0.006 0.024*** (0.021) (0.026) (0.023) (0.024) (0.030) (0.006) - - 0.062** (0.019) 7,000 0.17 7,000 0.24 7,000 0.28 table 4 presents results from three ordinary least squares regression estimations of credential holding on annual earnings. for parsimony, coefficients for dependent children, immigrant and minority are not reported. all coefficients for earnings are presented in figure 5. no excluded coefficients are measured with precision. standard errors in parentheses: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. overall, postgraduate degrees bolster earnings more than an undergraduate degree on its own does (p < 0.001)and that earnings advantage over undergraduates is maintained even when more than one postgraduate degree is completed (p < 0.001). the earnings effect for either of 24 these categories is high, at around 24%.10 however, earnings for postgraduate-to-postgraduate mcgs do not differ from respondents with a single postgraduate degree (figure 7). however, postgraduate-to-college/university mcgs appear have substantially lower earnings than their single degree-holding postgraduate counterparts (figure 7). there also appears to be no earnings differential between postgraduate-to-college/university mcgs and respondents with only an undergraduate degree (p > 0.10). figure 7 change in annual earnings by credential type note: figure 7 compares predicted earnings for each credential type, measured at the mean value for each covariate. three models are presented for each credential type: a zero-order model (dark grey circle), a demographic covariate-controlled model (light grey diamond), and a model controlling for demographic characteristics and field specialty (blue square). taken together, this data shows that obtaining a secondary credential at an equivalent or lower tier than ones original credential does not appear to improve earningsand may sometimes lead to lower earnings. while there is some evidence of incremental earnings with a second undergraduate degree, this effect is small and appears to be field-dependent (figure 7). conversely, obtaining an undergraduate degree after completing a college diploma does appear to confer increases to earnings. whether this improvement to earnings for some mcg types outweighs the additional costs of obtaining secondary credentials is explored in the next section regarding student borrowing. 10 note that for postgraduate-to-postgraduate transfers, the ngs does not differentiate between those that receive a masters followed by a ph.d.; two masters; a masters after a ph.d.; or two ph.d.s; and the analysis in this report is unable to determine if a specific pathway drives the large returns for this mcg path. 25 student loan holding table 5 presents results estimating the likelihood of retained student debt at the time of graduation. the outcome of interest is a binary measure of whether the graduate had government-sponsored student loans at the time of graduation for their last credential. any individual who received student loans but repaid them prior to graduation are not included in this variable. thus, this variable captures the presence of loans that may impact employment choices upon graduation and early career stresses related to loan repayment. from model 1, most mcgs types appear less likely to hold student loans at the time of graduation when compared to university-only graduates. only university-to-university mcgs appear more likely to hold debt. however, this higher likelihood of loans is only precisely estimated for university-touniversity mcgs after controlling for demographic covariates and field specialty (p < 0.01).11 mcgs who first obtained credentials at the college and postgraduate level (i.e., college-to-college mcgs or postgraduate-to-university/college mcgs) have a lower likelihood of student loan burdens at the time of graduation in model 1 (see also figure 8, panel a for predicted likelihood of loan holding). however, once controlling for demographic and field differences between graduates, these mcgs do not appear to have significantly worse loan burdens than singlecredentialed graduates (p > 0.10).12 parental education in particular appears to mitigate the likelihood of a loan balance at graduation (p < 0.001). if parental education is correlated with family income, this suggests that those that seek a second credential may be less likely to take loans because they or their families have the means to afford a second degree without support. nevertheless, both females (p < 0.05) and graduates with a disability (p < 0.001) have a higher likelihood of retaining loans at graduation. 11 one possible explanation should acknowledge the lower cost and time-to-completion associated with college tuition, as well as the grant and scholarship opportunities available within postgraduate study. therefore, universityonly graduates, as well as university-to-university mcgs, may be more likely to have a loan simply because of the differences in cost structure and funding availability between credential types. 12 postgraduates are as likely to carry loans as undergraduates with no other credentialling, which makes sense given that many postgraduate programs offer funding support to students. for college-to-college mcgs as well, given the extra years of schooling required to obtain a second college credential, it makes sense that their loan holding is comparable to that of undergraduates with no other credentialling. 26 table 5 student loans among credential holders (logistic regression approach) variables transfer (ref: university only) college only college to college college to university university to college university to university postgraduate to uni/college postgraduate only postgraduate to postgraduate respondent age year 2018 (ref: 2013) female (ref: male) married (ref: not married) has children (ref: no children) bilingual (ref: not bilingual) immigrant (ref: non-immigrant) minority (ref: non-minority) has disability (ref: no disability) parental ed (ref: no parental ed) field (ref: social sciences) math/computer sci/engineering arts/humanities business health education sciences other time-to-completion co-op participation (ref: no coop) observations model 1 coef (s.e.) model 2 coef (s.e.) model 3 coef (s.e.) 0.925 0.542*** 0.735* 0.718 1.353 0.545** 0.590*** (0.116) (0.076) (0.090) (0.151) (0.268) (0.112) (0.064) 0.857 0.669* 0.984 0.886 1.603* 0.830 0.762* (0.112) (0.115) (0.165) (0.200) (0.324) (0.201) (0.094) 0.938 0.764 1.013 1.005 1.834** 0.989 0.889 (0.14 (0.14 (0.17 (0.25 (0.39 (0.26 (0.12 0.374*** (0.045) 0.658* (0.116) 0.759 (0.14 - 0.959*** 1.156 1.184* 0.950 1.049 0.928 1.131 1.239 1.520*** (0.008) (0.159) (0.100) (0.101) (0.164) (0.097) (0.149) (0.138) (0.157) 0.957*** 1.187 1.164 0.941 1.058 0.928 1.166 1.264* 1.509*** (0.009) (0.166) (0.107) (0.100) (0.167) (0.097) (0.154) (0.140) (0.157) - 0.647*** (0.061) 0.642*** (0.061) - - 0.941 (0.133) - - 1.019 0.727* 1.127 0.867 0.981 0.989 1.050 (0.154) (0.100) (0.166) (0.161) (0.164) (0.225) (0.032) - - 1.166 (0.131) 8,000 8,000 8,000 table 5 presents results from three logistic regression estimations of credential holding on likelihood of student loans at graduation. the outcome variable measures debt at the time of graduation. individuals that received government-sponsored student loans and repaid these loans prior to graduation are not included in this variable. standard errors in parentheses: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. 27 in a secondary analysis, table 6 presents results on whether a student held a large loan at the time of graduation. the outcome variable of interest indicates whether the respondent held a student loan at graduation exceeding $10,000. results from model 1 indicate that, compared to respondents with a single undergraduate degree, respondents with college credentialing are less likely to hold large loans at graduation. this result holds for those with only one college diploma (p < 0.001), those with more than one college diploma (p < 0.001), and even those that obtain a college diploma following university (p < 0.01). upon controlling for demographics and field of study, the difference in loan burdens at graduation is less apparent for college-degree holders (figure 8, panel b). for university-tocollege mcgs, their likelihood of a large loan burden is not statistically different from university graduates with no other credentialling (p > 0.10). at the same time, regardless of the model specification, respondents with one or two college-level credentials have a lower large-loan likelihood than respondents with a single university degree. nevertheless, much of these results may be derived from the lower costs of education for college versus university. for higher degrees, once accounting for field of study and demographics, mcgs with two undergraduate degrees are more likely to hold a balance greater than $10,000 at graduation when compared to respondents with only one undergraduate degree (p < 0.05). postgraduate mcgs do not appear more or less likely than undergraduate degree holders to have large loans at graduation (p > 0.10). large loans at the postgraduate level are likely field specific. we also note that minority status, disability status, and parental education are all strong predictors of loan holding, with higher likelihood of holding a large loan for minority graduates or graduates with a disability, as well as those without a parent with a university education 28 table 6 graduated with large student loan (logistic regression approach) variables transfer (ref: university only) college only college to college college to university university to college university to university postgraduate to uni/college postgraduate only postgraduate to postgraduate respondent age year 2018 (ref: 2013) female (ref: male) minority (ref: non-minority) has disability (ref: no disability) parental ed (ref: no parental ed) field (ref: social sciences) math/computer sci/engineering arts/humanities business health education sciences co-op participation (ref: none) observations model 1 coef (s.e.) 0.501*** 0.474*** 0.688** 0.503** 1.326 0.570* 0.665*** 0.404*** - model 2 coef (s.e.) model 3 coef (s.e.) (0.068) 0.462*** (0.065) 0.536*** (0.074) 0.591** (0.108) 0.720 (0.086) 0.929 (0.162) 0.961 (0.113) 0.551* (0.131) 0.665 (0.262) 1.466 (0.294) 1.715* (0.125) 0.811 (0.209) 1.001 (0.073) 0.761* (0.095) 0.904 (0.051) 0.616** (0.115) 0.716 0.977* (0.009) 0.975** 1.249 (0.182) 1.277 1.136 (0.100) 1.130 1.329* (0.155) 1.359** - 1.275* (0.137) 1.266* 0.659*** (0.067) 0.651*** - - 8,000 8,000 0.982 (0.088) (0.146) (0.171) (0.176) (0.381) (0.287) (0.136) (0.144) (0.010) (0.191) (0.109) (0.158) (0.137) (0.067) (0.145) 0.965 (0.149) 0.736* (0.107) 1.121 (0.174) 0.882 (0.171) 1.138 (0.190) 1.058 (0.126) 8,000 table 6 presents results from three logistic regression estimations of credential holding on likelihood of student loans at graduation. the outcome variable measures debt greater than $10,000 at the time of graduation. individuals that received government-sponsored student loans and repaid those loans prior to graduation are not counted as loan holders in this variable. for parsimony, coefficients for married, dependent children, bilingual, and immigrant are not reported. the category for other field specialty is also not reported. standard errors in parentheses: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. 29 figure 8 predicted likelihood of loan holding at graduation note: figure 8 plots the likelihood of holding any loan at the time of graduation (panel a) and holding a loan of $10,000 or greater (panel b). margin plots are calculated at the mean value of all covariates and are sorted based on model 3 results. 30 discussion these findings overall point towards several new understandings about mcgs. in terms of feeling overqualified or underemployed, most mcgs do not appear worse off than respondents with a single undergraduate degree. it is also encouraging from a cost standpoint that common mcg types, like college-to-college, do not have a higher likelihood of holding debt at the time of graduation when compared to college-only graduates or university-only graduates, who would have been in school for a similar length of time. it is only university-to-university mcgs who appear to have a higher likelihood of both loans overall and large loans when compared to college or university-only graduates. there is also some evidence to suggest bumps in earnings when comparing college-to-university mcgs to respondents with a single college diploma, as well as when comparing university-touniversity mcgs to university-only graduates. it is difficult, however, to discern if these modest income gains outweigh the larger loan burdens associated with being one of these mcg types. furthermore, unmeasured opportunity costs of time away from the labour market and earning both income and experience may impact labour market returns in the longer term. in this analysis, we additionally cannot investigate pension contributions, or major life transitions (e.g., purchasing a home) that may be delayed by the additional investment in postsecondary education of mcgs. these factors together provide limited economic justification for pursuing college-to-college credentials from a cost-benefit standpoint. nevertheless, there may be non-pecuniary (or non cost-related) reasons for students to pursue additional credentials. for instance, mcgs may be pursuing an educational passion after obtaining postsecondary experience. if this is the case, then the unmeasured/non-pecuniary returns to finding employment in a desired career may justify the investment, even at the cost of financial returns. these reasons for transfer may be more likely in recycling -type mcgs (i.e., those who complete lower-tier additional credentialling), who do see income penalties. for instance, postgraduates returning to university or college see lower earnings than single or double postgraduates, as do university-to-college mcgs compared to university-only graduates. from a policy standpoint, there may be better ways to support educational interests without the greater risk of more time in school, forgone income in the labour market, or taking on large loans. this may be in the form of improved career counselling directed at high school students or recent secondary school graduates. one pertinent area for investment would be to focus on students without prior family history in postsecondary education or postsecondary completion. if programs were put in place to better prepare graduates for postsecondary education and avoid the time and monetary costs of switching majors, transferring schools, or pursuing additional degrees, there is the potential for significant individual savings. for those that have already earned credentials, the analyses in this report present a case for alternative opportunities for upskilling and retooling that do not carry the same time and financial costs of a second pass through traditional postsecondary programs. advancements in the short-credential market are continuing to grow, offering novel opportunities to develop 31 skills and competencies via micro-credentials, stackable credits, and badges. as the labour market continues to diversify and specialize in response to rapid advancements in innovation and technology, these types of non-traditional skilling pathways could alleviate some of the individual costs associated with lengthy and costly additional postsecondary pursuits. furthermore, given the impact of the covid-19 on career transitions, and with more people moving into health fields, this report can help to understand that these moves may result in some income loss, but also a closer attachment to the labour force. again, the non-pecuniary benefits of pursing a more personably favourable career cannot be measured in the present analysis. limitations there are several limitations to report in this study. many of these limitations revolve around the data set employed. first, use of survey data to understand underemployment, earnings, and loan holding may be prone to some measure of self-reporting error. second, the 2018 ngs dropped variables reporting if a graduate was employed for the full year and full time. it is thus difficult to discern if a survey respondent reporting to be full-time employed ever experienced unemployment over the course of the year. thus, to estimate income, the sample was limited to only those who are full-time employed to ensure a comparable sample. third, for postgraduateto-postgraduate mcgs, the ngs does not differentiate between those that receive a masters followed by a phd; two masters; a masters after a phd; or two phds; and the analysis is unable to determine if one of these pathways drives the large returns for this mcg group. future directions the research presented in this report is an important step to understanding multicredentialism, yet there is still much to be known about this demographic of postsecondary graduates. while the analyses presented here cover the pecuniary returns to mcgs pathways, more information is sorely needed. one crucial area of research is to better understand the indirect costs to multi-credentialing. whether or not the choice to multi-credential delays pension contributions or the purchase of a home, for example, can have costly ramifications down-road in an economic climate characterized by inflation. there is also more work needed to understand the subtleties in the characteristics of multicredentialism and how these details play out over the long term. the many variations and combinations of level of education and field of study are likely to present different outcomes later on in graduates careers, when work experience and acquired skills can be leveraged into more senior and more desirable positions. if mcgs add an additional layer to what is known about labour market outcomes across fields of study, for example, then graduates would greatly benefit from this information. 32 finally, given the rise of unconventional credential markets (micro-credentials, badges, etc.), it would be worthwhile to audit whether the investments made in multiple postsecondary credentials can be truncated in meaningful and measurable ways to secure positive labour market outcomes. if postsecondary education is as much a signal of ability as it is a means of acquiring skills, for example, then there may be diminishing returns to a second incongruous degree or diploma. if this is the case, then micro-credentialing, with its streamlined systems and lower cost, may better serve graduates looking for additional skilling. as we enter a period of unprecedented postsecondary innovation, the practice of multi-credentialism will likely continue to present intriguing and unanswered questions for social scientists and policymakers. 33 references adamuti-trache, m. 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(2005). the channeling of student competition in higher education: comparing canada and the us. the journal of higher education, 76(1), 89106. davies, s., & zarifa, d. (2012). the stratification of universities: structural inequality in canada and the united states. research in social stratification and mobility, 30(2), 143-158. deelan, t., hafner, d. f., & melink, m. (2014). first-job educational and skill match: an empirical investigation of political science graduates in slovenia. international journal of manpower. finnie, r. (2000). holding their own: employment and earnings of postsecondary graduates. education quarterly review, 7(1), 21. finnie, r., miyairi, m., & dubois, m. (2020). how much do they make? new evidence on the early career earnings of canadian post-secondary education graduates by credential and field of study. friedel, j. n., & friesleben, k. l. 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(2008). earnings and employment outcomes for male and female postsecondary graduates of coop and non-coop programmes. journal of vocational education and training, 60(4), 377-399. wheelahan, l., moodie, g., lavigne, e., yang, j., brijmohan, a., & childs, r. (2015). pathways to education and work in ontario and canada. toronto: department of leadership, higher and adult education. wheelahan, l., moodie, g., lennon, m. c., brijmohan, a., & lavigne, e. (2016). student mobility in ontario: a framework and decision-making tool for building better pathways. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. wall, k. (2021). completion of a college certificate or diploma after a bachelor's degree. insights on canadian society. statistics canada. 35 zarifa, d., sano, y., & hillier, c. (2020). transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities. 36 appendix appendix table 1 underemployment by educational credential (ols) variables model 1 coef (s.e.) transfer (ref: university only) college only 0.062* college to college 0.088** college to university -0.012 university to college 0.342*** university to university -0.076 postgrad to uni/college 0.064 postgraduate only 0.241*** postgraduate to postgraduate 0.191*** log of income respondent age year 2018 (ref: 2013) female (ref: male) - model 2 coef (s.e.) -0.031 -0.018 -0.033 0.079* -0.03 0.051 -0.049 0.307*** -0.045 -0.075 -0.048 0.135* -0.026 0.287*** -0.027 0.293*** -0.218*** 0.005** 0.106*** 0.086*** 0.014 -0.019 -0.038 0.021 -0.039 0.021 -0.055** -0.03 -0.04 -0.037 -0.048 -0.043 -0.054 -0.027 -0.039 -0.019 -0.002 -0.031 model 3 coef (s.e.) -0.031 0.067 0.04 0.286*** -0.072 0.136* 0.264*** 0.268*** -0.195*** 0.005** 0.097** 0.076*** 0.015 -0.01 -0.048* 0.018 -0.038 0.022 -0.059** -0.035 -0.044 -0.037 -0.053 -0.046 -0.06 -0.032 -0.042 -0.02 -0.002 -0.03 -0.019 -0.02 married (ref: not married) -0.022 -0.023 has children (ref: no children) -0.033 -0.033 bilingual (ref: not bilingual) -0.023 -0.023 immigrant (ref: non-immigrant) -0.027 -0.027 minority (ref: non-minority) -0.023 -0.024 has disability (ref: no disability) -0.024 -0.024 parental ed (ref: none) -0.019 -0.02 field (ref: social sciences] math/computer sci/engineering -0.039 -0.029 arts/humanities 0.022 -0.034 business -0.053 -0.031 health/education -0.122*** -0.029 other 0.041 -0.044 time-to-completion -0.012 -0.008 co-op participation (ref: no coop) -0.076** -0.025 observations 8000 8000 8000 r-squared 0.034 0.093 0.108 note: linear coefficients; standard errors in parentheses: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001 37 appendix table 2 high underemployment by educational credential (logistic regression) variables model 1 coef (s.e.) transfer (ref: university only) college only 0.99 (0.125) college to college 1.662*** (0.225) college to university 1.137 (0.138) university to college 0.593* (0.132) university to university 0.646* (0.129) postgrad to uni/college 0.787 (0.156) postgraduate only 2.038*** (0.219) postgraduate to postgraduate 1.614*** (0.180) log of income year 2018 (ref: 2013) respondent age female (ref: male) married (ref: not married) has children (ref: no children) bilingual (ref: not bilingual) immigrant (ref: non-immigrant) minority (ref: non-minority) has disability (ref: no disability) parental ed (ref: none) field (ref: social sciences] math/computer sci/engineering arts/humanities business health/education other time-to-completion co-op participation (ref: no coop) observations 8000 model 2 coef (s.e.) 0.640*** 0.812 0.77 0.489** 0.644* 0.598* 3.093*** 1.802*** 0.275*** 0.713* 1.016 0.591*** 0.918 0.94 0.888 1.071 0.812 1.209 0.797** (0.086) (0.140) (0.130) (0.112) (0.135) (0.146) (0.378) (0.318) (0.028) (0.097) (0.009) (0.050) (0.091) (0.137) (0.091) (0.136) (0.089) (0.130) (0.070) model 3 coef (s.e.) 0.610** 0.789 0.735 0.453** 0.695 0.629 2.892*** 1.667** 0.297*** 0.691** 1.017 0.631*** 0.92 0.971 0.853 1.047 0.812 1.225 0.778** (0.096) (0.153) (0.125) (0.118) (0.155) (0.173) (0.430) (0.317) (0.031) (0.095) (0.009) (0.057) (0.095) (0.145) (0.089) (0.139) (0.092) (0.134) (0.071) - 0.985 -0.127 - 1.272 0.915 0.616*** 1.341 0.961 -0.197 -0.126 -0.084 -0.292 -0.032 - 0.731** -0.082 8000 8000 note: all coefficients are odds ratios and standard errors in parentheses: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. 38 appendix figure 1 predicted high underemployment high underemployment f- - - -e- - - l f-----i university to college f---- ---1 f------l f - - --------- 1 f- - - ...:a ------------- i university to university f---e. ----- 1 f ------- l f -------- l postgrad to university/college i:---+- -i college only f---l f ---------------- i college to university f- i-:- -------i --l f ------------ 1 f--1 -i ff------- l university only college to college f-f-- - --1 --lf------------------ i r-e-1 postgrad to postgrad f- ......... _ -l r- -t postgrad - 1 f- .2 .4 .6 f- -i -l .8 predicted margin model 1 model 2 model 3 39 oncat .ca/en/projects/multi- credentialed - graduates- canadaemployment- earnings- and -student-loan-holding established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. this report was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021

showcasing excellence, inspiring audiences video proposal & quote for oncat mike leon mleon@brandheroes.com 01.11.17 the challenge and the opportunity there is a phenomenal opportunity to use video to help showcase oncat as an organization, including its achievements, its passion and its opportunities. these videos would act as tools that help ignite conversation and collaboration. so, who is brand heroes? our story brand heroes was created in 2006 by mike leon as part of an mba project. with only $2300 in the bank, mike along with an incredibly talented team has built brand heroes into a nationally serving digital video and social media agency that produces over 200 videos per year and proudly serves every college and university in the gta along with several educational and health institutions across the province and country. we fully believe in giving back to the institutions who hire us and have done so both as donors as well as employers of their co-op students and graduates. whether were creating one video or 50, were guided by the same fundamental principle: we believe in the power of brands. we believe in the power of brands... our fundamental belief is the brand is the lifeblood of any organization. a strong brand will mean an engaged and loyal workforce, a robust student and donor base and a good healthy institution. at centre of this belief is the idea that in order to have a strong brand, its essential to develop a clearly articulated story that will be expertly applied across any and all marketing touch-points and collateral pieces. creating and articulating your brands story is what we do. heres why were excellent storytellers we believe video can be a powerful conversation starter and a dynamic catalyst for online conversions. we have a brilliant multidisciplinary team that includes experts in analytics, digital marketing and social media as well as brand strategists and gifted video storytellers that understand the role brand plays in every frame we shoot. we also believe in making sure you get to use and benefit from every frame of video we shoot for you without having to pay any extra for it. thats why you own everything you shoot with us. and well safely and securely store it for you, for free. what makes us different... we provide you with all the benefits of an agency of record without any of the bulky retainers and extra costs. these include: complementary archiving and storage of all media created during our projects complimentary pick-up, transfer and archive of existing photos and video that you shot with another company that could be used for our projects complimentary high res stills pulled from raw video we shoot for you. these stills can be used for viewbooks, brochures and other print material complementary guidance and strategy on how to maximize your budget by leveraging existing communication assets like video and photos for additional marketing communication tactics our manifesto 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. we dont believe in a divide between accounts and creative. we believe all team-members need to be creative and strategic. we are customer obsessed we believe our greatest privilege and responsibility is being trusted with our clients brands we are geeky in all the right ways creativity is not demonstrated in spurts, its who we are. we cant shut it off. we are allergic to retainers. call us anytime and as often as you'd like. we won't bill you for each call. we are not only great at the stuff we do, we really understand what you do and the industry youre in. we believe good food and good creative goes hand in hand. we are your neighbourhood brand heroes. we provide national services at a local rate. this is not a day job. we dont want to be doing anything else. a little shameless self promotion... a deeper dive so what are we going to create? 1, 2 - 2.5 minute video that can be played at the conference. please note there are a few ways this video can be created. these include (i) a combination of animation and live action. example includes: think you know college, for college ontario - https://youtu.be/vtw8fuy_m9m (ii) 100% 2d animation, featuring previously shot photos and animated infographics. example includes georgian college strategic plan video https://youtu.be/2xsgx4suvs4 (iii) combination of animation and user generated content. example includes ryerson university - - https://youtu.be/1g8v6qtajmq a 90 second highlight reel that is shot at the conference and showcases the spirit of it. our process (the 1000 ft view) discovery and creative development: fact finding and idea generation (aka the ultimate brainstorming session live between our team and yours). the result is three creative concepts for your review, including a written content outline for the video and three graphic treatments so you could get a sneak preview of how it will look. you pick the one you want to proceed with. and no worries if none hit it out of the park right away. well keep going until we get something you love! pre-production and production: from there we will undertake video pre-production, including scheduling, scripting and location management the video package you choose, will ultimately dictate the number of shoot days. either the shoot includes, 3 hd video cameras, 1 director of photography, full lighting, audio, and an on-site director / producer and production / script assistant post production video editing and 3 rounds of revisions: rough, fine and final. each video will also have its own royalty free music track. post project care once the project officially wraps we will provide complementary tips on how to best leverage your video on social media. these tips include a comprehensive tip sheet a complimentary one hour lunch and learn we will also be available for any questions around the video presence we have created. we want to ensure this project is extremely successful and that we deliver above and beyond whats expected. a full post-mortem so we can review the project, receive feedback and ensure were exceeding expectations. (weve also built in lots of checkpoints to get feedback at key stages of the project) cost 1, 2 - 2.5 minute video that can be played at the conference. please note there are a few ways this video can be created. these include (i) a combination of animation and live action. example includes: think you know college, for college ontario - https://youtu.be/vtw8fuy_m9m - 13.5 k + hst, includes 2 full days of shooting, up to 8 animated infographics (ii) 100% 2d animation, featuring previously shot photos and animated infographics. example includes georgian college strategic plan video https://youtu.be/2xsgx4suvs4 - 7.25 k + hst. (iii) combination of animation and user generated content. example includes ryerson university - https://youtu.be/1g8v6qtajmq - 5750 + hst a 90 second highlight reel that is shot at the conference and showcases the spirit of it. - 6k + hst. includes 1 day of shooting plus simple animated text graphics. example includes: https://youtu.be/vdw_1b6kpl4. please note an extra day of shooting is 3k + hst some of our work ontario college of trades 30 second digital spots developed a series of 30 second digital spots for the ontario college of trades https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=p lgcpdm6ld-d-1a2ebw5uu81sm49_hpe xk st. lawrence college 30 second digital and broadcast spots developed a series of 30 and 15 second advertising spots for use on broadcast as well as in cineplex odeon and other digital screens https://youtu.be/nc_eo5k2kcw colleges ontario: think you know college developed a campaign video to evangelize the college experience: http://youtu.be/vtw8fuy_m9m ryerson university: slc developed a launch video to celebrate the creation of a unique learning space at ryerson university https://youtu.be/5pfr-iem96m thank you!

project snapshot understanding the transfer pathways and patterns of canadian armed forces veterans in ontario type: research project number: 2019-27 or r1927 project lead: algonquin college of applied arts and technology collaborators: loyalist college contributed to the research project by offering project support, assistance in data collection, research analysis and feedback on interim and final reports. the university of manitoba, military personnel generation, veterans affairs canada, and military family resource centre(s) provided student profile information and data for the report background and literature review. deliverables for website (if applicable): examining the profiles and pathways of military veterans in ontario project rationale/justification du projet in april 2018, the canadian government released the education and training benefit aimed at helping veterans achieve their education and career goals after they have transitioned out of active service. this benefit means that veterans could be eligible for up to $80,000 in funding to further their education journey or start a new educational journey. post-secondary institutions can expect to see a significant increase in their veteran student population as a result of this funding, but to date, little is known about this population. there is very little information about the characteristics of these learners, what pathways they are currently seeking and what barriers they might be facing when accessing transfer pathways. this project intended to involve a comparative analysis to see how institutions in ontario can better support this population who are seeking transfer pathways, either directly from their military training or between postsecondary institutions. what research methods were used? survey participants from algonquin college were recruited by responding to an email that asked if they were a former or active military member. their response included contact information, which was then used to send the survey. participants at loyalist college were recruited by sending out an email invitation to all registered students. those that fit the criteria were able to move forward with the survey which was hosted on surveymonkey. at the time of survey distribution, participants were asked to provide their contact information if they were interested in participating in a focus group to discuss their experiences in further detail. the focus groups were scheduled for the middle of march at algonquin college and the end of march for loyalist college but were suspended due to covid-19. describe any lilmitations the limitations to the study were as a direct result of the covid-19 outbreak. specifics have been detailed in the "limitation" subsection of the discussion portion of the final report document. a summary is provided below: the study was not without its limitations and some were the direct result of the covid-19 outbreak. one purpose of the focus groups was to dig deeper into the possible reasons behind why only a small percentage of respondents attempted to transfer any credits to their current program. a second goal was to get a better sense of what support services student veterans would like to see in place on their college campuses and to gain insight into what existing services are doing well. given the timing of the pandemic response, survey responses from active military members stationed at cfb-garrison petawawa was not possible. this information would have provided valuable insight into the percentage of respondents who were intending to pursue postsecondary studies after they retire as a result of the release of the etb. additionally, the presumably low response rate at both algonquin college and loyalist college is a common issue with online surveys. the response rate was presumably low because there was no way to track exactly how many students at either post-secondary institution identify with the caf in some way (e.g., veteran, reservist, active-duty). to date, there has not been an accurate way to report how many student veterans or active military members are attending either college. this low response rate can run the risk of encountering sampling bias, which means that the views reflected in the results do not accurately reflect the reality of this population. main collaborator contributions the main findings from this research project (including tables and figures) are detailed in the "results" section of the final report document. a detailed summary is provided below: the figures showed a greater majority of respondents from loyalist college indicated the education training benefit (etb) had a major influence on their decision to enrol in postsecondary compared to algonquin college. in total, 39.3% of respondents indicated that the etb had a major influence on their decision to pursue post-secondary. the research also showed a little over a quarter of participants were actively using the etb to fund their education with the use of caf-ltd/manulife funding being the second most used way to fund education. just over half of the respondents indicated that they used their own personal savings to fund their education. other sources were earnings from work and funding from federal or provincial loans. almost half of the respondents from loyalist college attempted to transfer credits to their current program and a small percentage of respondents from algonquin college attempted to transfer credits to their current program. out of the successful number of credits transferred, the majority fell between one to three credits with only one respondent from loyalist college reporting success in transferring seven or more credits. there was an even distribution of 6 students being satisfied with the number of credits transferred and 6 being unsatisfied with the number of credits transferred. over a quarter of respondents found that balancing coursework with other responsibilities is a major challenge. these challenges included financially supporting themselves and/or their family, finding peers or staff who understand their perspective as an active military member or veteran, and meeting their professors academic expectations. over half the respondents experienced no challenges when enrolling in the courses needed for their program plan. future research given the situation that happened with the covid-19 pandemic, there were a number of steps in this project that were not able to be completed. as an immediate next phase of this project, survey responses could be collected from active military members and focus groups for student veterans could be hosted. this would provide further details as to what this student veteran population needs when it comes to support and services at a post-secondary institution. the current research study found that only about 25% of respondents even attempted to transfer any credits so getting a more detailed picture as to why this is happening would be a valuable next step. student outcomes this project identifies existing services that are in place at post-secondary institutions to support their student veteran population. the project also identifies gaps in these support services. this information is valuable in informing how institutions offer their services to veteran transfer student populations. sector or system implications echoed from the "focus areas (research stream)" section of the final report submission, the lack of continuity in administrative processes as they relate to transfer needs to be addressed. post-secondary institutions across the province are doing completely different things when it comes to how and what they accept as transfer credit. as an example, if a university-level english course can count as a communications elective at one college, it should go without saying that it counts for the same thing at another college. encouraging post-secondary institutions to work together, at least when it comes to general elective courses (not necessarily program-specific as those do vary by institution) would go a long way to decreasing the administrative burden that is placed on students who might not have all of the information needed to make an informed decision. the lack of continuity in administrative processes as they relate to transfer needs to be addressed. post-secondary institutions across the province are doing completely different things when it comes to how and what they accept as transfer credit. as an example, if a university-level english course can count as a communications elective at one college, it should go without saying that it counts for the same thing at another college. encouraging post-secondary institutions to work together, at least when it comes to general elective courses (not necessarily program-specific as those do vary by institution) would go a long way to decreasing the administrative burden that is placed on students who might not have all of the information needed to make an informed decision.

data collection template for the data pilot project - phase 1 and 2 (last updated: may 24, 2022) overview in january 2020, oncat launched a call for publicly-assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in ontario to participate in a pilot to assess transfer student profiles, which includes uptake of transfer pathways and their characteristics and outcomes. for participating institutions, this template provides further detail on the data reporting requirements. please note that this template is adapted specifically for the institutions participating in the phase 2 of the project. the key data components needed for the project are: a) institution's transfer agreements and transfer policies ; b) enrollment records for students with credits recognized for previous academic work; and c) linkage between a) and b) that links the students to the transfer pathways they traverse; and d) enrollment records for non-transfer students. before admitted by your institution, their highest level of education achieved was typically at the high school level and they did not receive any transfer credits during their study at your institution. these excel sheets provide further details and instructions: "1. types of transfer credits" this sheet provides definitions for the different student groups relevant for this project. refer to this sheet for the different types of credits recognized for their previous academic work. "2. pathway - bta & ctp" this sheet defines the record layout and data elements for the transfer agreements (bta) and the credit transfer policies (ctp) at your institution. use this sheet to provide a list of btas and ctps at your institution. "3. transfer student profile" this sheet defines the record layout and data elements for transfer student enrolment records. use this sheet to provide the list of students with credits recognized for previous academic work, including detail attributes and the linkage to your bta and ctp. "4. data definition" this sheet provides further descriptions for each of the data elements in the two data sheets "2. pathway - bta & ctp" and "3. transfer student profile". "5. non-transfer student profile" this sheet defines the record layout and data elements for non-transfer student enrolment records. use this sheet to provide the list of non-transfer students and the requested detail attributes. note oncat recognizes that some data fields will not have values populated due to limitations specific to each of the participating institution. 1. student with transfer credits for this project, students with the following characteristics are to be reported: 1) the student has received, at minimum, a threshold credit (one course) at your institution. 2) the student is enrolled in a program that leads to a credential in: college one year certificate or post diploma certificate diploma or advanced diploma degree university undergraduate level certificate or diploma preliminary year pre-bachelor or bachelor degree indigenous institute certificate, diploma and degree note1: the one course threshold refers to credit awarded for a typical course irrespective of duration (e.g. one term versus one year). about the mcu's credit transfer (ct) flag the collection of the ct flag as part of the mcu's user/cser data submission began in the fall term of 2015-16. in addition to the core characteristics outlined in the above with additional limitations, the ct flag for a student is raised only when the sending institution is one of the publicly funded post-secondary education institutions in ontario. once it is raised, it should remain until the student graduate from their program. the purpose of the mcu's ct flag is to track intra-provincial transfer. the six types of transfer credits credit type source for credit awarded cr1 ontario transfer students with the mcu ct flag cr2* cr3 cr4 cr5 cr6 previous institution type 45 ontario funded colleges and universities and the 9 indigenous institutes in addition to the institutions in the above group, could also include other ontario institutions ontario students with transfer credits but without the not in the above group. mcu ct flag other canadian institutions in other provinces (colleges, students with transfer credit from canadian universities, high schools and institutions outside of ontario other institutions) other non-canadian institutions students with transfer credit from institutions outside (colleges, universities, high of canada schools and other institutions) students switching program or credential within the same institution your institution stop out students who return to (reactivate at) the same institution after hiatus** your institution *for cr2, a typical scenario include ontario pse students whose transfer creidts are from ontario high school ib, ap and dual credit courses. ** as a default, the term 'hiatus' refers to the stop out period for a full academic year. the length of the stop out period could also be defined by the institutions. 2. agreement record layout use this template to report all the block transfer agreements, credit transfer policy and system transfer policy at your institution. block transfer agreement block transfer agreements (bta) are specific agreements signed between one or more institutions rather than a general policy pathway (pol). #01 transfer agreement id #02 #03 #04 #05 oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date id assigned by institution (e.g.bta001) #5387 2019-01-24 id assigned by institution (e.g.bta002) #3114 2+2 business administration to bachelor of business 2016-01-26 2020-08-01 administration #06 #07 #08 sending sending sending program institution credential title 2+2 business - accounting diploma to bachelor of business administration sault collegediploma college boreal, diploma la cite #09 #10 receiving receiving program credential title #11 oncat funding flag #12 oncat project id business - accounting deg bachelor of business administration n/a n/a business administration bachelor of business administration yes 2014-03 diploma . general transfer policy - institution specific (simplified linkage to oncat id) ct policy id oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date pol001 use generic id (pol001) 2011-05-01 pol002 use generic id (pol002) 2011-05-01 sending sending sending program institution credential title receiving receiving program credential title general transfer policy (college any college program diploma, advanced diploma to in the eligible honours bachelor of arts) any collegesdiploma, advanced credentials diploma deg general transfer policy any college program (advanced diploma to honours in the eligible bachelor of science) any collegesadvanced diploma, credentials certificate deg oncat funding flag oncat project id honours bachelor of arts n/a n/a honours bachelor of science n/a n/a system transfer policy - all colleges (simplified linkage to oncat id) ct system policy id oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date pol001s use generic id (hob) 2014-11-24 pol002s use generic id (hocs) 2015-10-08 pol003s use generic id (pretech) 2018-09-01 sending sending sending program institution credential title receiving receiving program credential title oncat funding flag ontario college head of any college diploma, corresponding business agreement advanced diploma college diploma, (accounting, business/business any collegesdiploma, advanced program diploma diploma, advanced advanced diploma diploma yes any college diploma corresponding ontario college head of program in (police college diploma community services agreement any collegesdiploma, advanced foundations, diploma ece, diploma program in (police yes any engineering ontario college pre-tech any pre-tech technology program agreement any collegescertificate programs diploma, advanced (diploma, diploma advanced yes oncat project id 2014-03 2015-nn 2016-22 3. transfer student record layout granularity: one record per reporting year & reporting semester per student, inculde new, continuing and returning students with credits awarded for previous academic work #01 #01b reporting year reporting semester #02 #03 #04 #05 anonymized transfer credit type previous id pathway id institution name 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 fall winter winter fall winter winter fall winter std0001 std0001 std0002 std0003 std0003 std0004 std0005 std0005 bta001 bta001 pol001c zzz zzz zzz zzz zzz cr1 cr1 cr1 cr3 cr3 cr4 cr5 cr5 inst 1 inst 1 inst 2 inst 3 inst 3 inst 4 inst 5 inst 5 can-u can-u can-c oth-hs oth-hs 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 fall fall fall fall fall std0001 std0002 std0003 std0004 std0005 bta001 pol001c zzz zzz zzz cr1 cr1 cr3 cr4 cr5 inst 1 inst 2 inst 3 inst 4 inst 5 can-u can-c oth-hs 1 1 1 1 2 std0002 std0003 std0005 pol001c zzz zzz cr1 cr3 cr5 inst 2 inst 3 inst 5 can-c oth-hs 1 1 2 2017/18 2017/18 2017/18 #05b previous institution type #06 multiple previous institution count #07 previous credential a-dip a-dip a-dip #08 previous program title #09 previous program code #10 level of completion of previous credential #11 cumulativ e transfer credits awarded #12 #13 admitted admitted grade point credential average #14 admitted program title #15 admitted program code #16 admitted year completed completed completed completed completed partial partial partial 5.00 c 5.00 c 5.00 3.50 3.50 10.00 deg-3yr deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr deg-4yr dip dip bachelor of arts - unspecific bachelor of arts - unspecific ba.unsp ba.unsp 2013/2014 2013/2014 completed completed completed partial partial 5.00 c 5.00 3.50 10.00 deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr dip bachelor of arts - unspecific ba.unsp 2013/2014 completed completed partial 5.00 4.00 a-dip deg-4yr dip #17 admitted session #18 registration status #19 #20 current current grade point credential average #21 #22 current program title current program code fall fall 10 - full-time 10 - full-time c c bachelor of arts in economics ba.econ bachelor of arts in economics ba.econ fall 10 - full-time c deg-3yr deg-3yr #23 current credits earned at your institution 5.00 10.00 #23b total program credits 15.00 2-female 15.00 2-female deg-4yr deg-4yr 20.00 20.00 adip-3 yr adip-3 yr 18.00 18.00 deg-3yr bachelor of arts in economics ba.econ 15.00 #24 gender 15.00 2-female #25 birth year #26 immigration status #27 #28 fsa of mother permanent tongue address 1990 1990 1988 1990 1990 1992 1980 1980 0 - canadian m5g 0 - canadian m5g 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 1990 1988 1990 1992 1980 0 - canadian m5g 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 1988 1990 1980 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian #29 first generation pse #30 #35 #36 indigen graduat credit ous ion date transfer indicato flag r 001 001 y y n n 1-yes 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 2-no 2-no 1-yes 1-yes 001 y n 2017.06 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 2017.06 2-no 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 1-yes 4. data element definition data element - agreement record prima field block transfer pk #01 block transfer agreement id description note the id assigned to an agreement that defines the terms and conditions that enables students to enter the receiving institution at an advanced level based on recognized equivalence to a defined set of completed courses or program academic work at the sending institution. institution's agreement id. see #2 oncat agreement id. #04 oncat agreement id - for signed agreements posted on ontransfer.ca for the block transfer agreement previously entered into use generic id - for admission type transfer policy or system oncat ontransfer.ca, please indicate the oncat id assigned for this trasfer policy such as head of business agreement id agreement 'not available' - for agreements not posted on ontransfer.ca agreement the start date for the terms and conditions defined in the start date block transfer agreement to be in effect. e.g. 2011.05.01 agreement end the end date for the terms and conditions defined in the block date transfer agreement. e.g. 2020.08.01 #05 agreement title the title of the block transfer agreement #02 #03 #06 sending institution the postsecondary education institution in a transfer agreement where the previous course / program work was completed list all applicable sending institutions. for unspecific sending institutions, specify: 'any colleges' - for all colleges offering the sending programs 'any universities' - for all universities offering the sending programs 'any indigenous institutes' - for all indigenous institutes offering the sending programs #07 #08 #09 #10 #11 #12 sending credential credential is an official document recognizing completion of a program or course of study at the postsecondary level. for the purpose of this project, applicable credentials include certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, graduate certificates, and bachelor's degrees (could be 3 year or 4 year). certificates of apprenticeship, post graduate certificates, masters and doctoral degrees are not applicable. list all the applicable credential(s) sending program title receiving credential list all the applicable program(s). for unspecific program, specify: 'any college program' - if applicable to any college program 'any university program' - if applicable to any university program the name of the postsecondary education program at the 'any indigenous institute program' - if applicable to any sending universitythis field refers to the applicable indigenous institute program see #05 college sendingorcredential. credential for the postsecondary programs at the receiving institution. list all the applicable credential(s) list all the applicable program(s). for unspecific program, specify: 'any college program' - if applicable to any college program 'any university program' - if applicable to any university program receiving the name of the postsecondary education program at the 'any indigenous institute program' - if applicable to any program title receiving college or university indigenous institute program yes - funded by oncat oncat funding an indicator for whether the development of the block no - not funded by oncat flag transfer agreement is funded by oncat. na - funding status not tracked see #10. if the development of this block transfer agreement oncat project id - for agreement funded by oncat oncat project is funded by oncat, include the project id that provides the na - for agreements not funded by ocat or the funding status id funding. is not tracked data element - student record field transfer pk pk pk description valid value or example this field is aligned with the user, cser and psis reporting cycles which generally run from the spring/summer semester #01 reporting year through to the end of the following winter semester. e.g. 2015/16 fall - fall term winter - winter term reporting this field is aligned with the user and cser reporting which spring - spring term #01b semester include spring, summer, fall and winter semester. summer - summer term #02 #03 #04 the anonymized identifier for the transfer student in this postsecondary institution. use the same number for the same anonymized id student from year to year. a 9 digit alpha-numberic the pathway id for the transfer agreement or transfer policy that describes the pathway the student had traversed from the sending institution to the current institution. the pathway can be a formal block transfer agreement with another institutions or a general credit transfer policy or a college wide system policy. refer to excel sheet '2. agreement record for students with credits awarded based on the transfer layout' for more detail. agreements or transfer policy, use the corresponding id for transfer the transfer agreement or transfer policy. pathway id otherwise , use 'zzz'. students with ct flag cr1 - ontario transfer cr2 - ontario pse students with transfer credits but without ct flag cr3 - transfer students from canadian psi outside of ontario cr4 - transfer students from international psi cr5 - students switching program/credential at same institution credits awarded to the student for academic work completed cr6 - stop out students who return to same institution after credit type prior to the current program. hiatus the previous institution attended where course / program work has been transferred into current institution. if there are multiple prior institutions at time of admission, use the most recent institution attended. previous institution * for direct entry students, please report the high school the #05 student attended that formed the basis of admission. e.g. sault college for institutions in ontario 'on-c' - ontario college 'on-u' - ontario university 'on-i' - ontario indigenous institute 'on-hs' - ontario high school for institutions in canada outside of ontario 'can-non-c' - canadian college outside of ontario 'can-non-u' - canadian university outside of ontario 'can-non-i' - canadian indigenous institute outside of ontario 'can-non-hs' - canadian high school outside of ontario for institutions outside of canada 'oth-pse' - other post-secondary education institution 'oth-hs' - other high school previous indictor for the type of the previous institution attended as other #05b institution type defined in the data element #05 previous institution. 'oth-o' - other institution not in the above list #06 multiple previous institution count indicator for students attended multiple institutions previously. most students would have a value of 1. use 2, 3, 4 etc. to indicate the number of previous institutions attended. in the case of student pursued multiple credentials (and/or multiple programs) at the same sending institution, count it as 1. #07 previous credential eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (a-dip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) the credential most recently pursued prior to transfer into the for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma (dip), current institution and program. degree (deg) #08 previous program the most recent program pursued prior to transfer into current institution and program. previous program code completion of previous credential cumulative the program code for the most recent program pursued prior to transfer into current institution and program. see data for college and university programs, use the institution's element #08 'previous program'. program code, also provide the statistics canada cip code if available. the status of completion of the previous credential pursued prior to transfer into current institution and program. see partial - did not complete the previous credential datatotal element #07 of 'previous credential'. completed - completed the previousat credential the number credits awarded for academic please use the unit of measurement your institution. please #09 #10 #12 transfer credits courses/program work completed prior to transfer into awarded current institution and program. a number representing the average value of the accumulated final grades earned for courses/program completed prior to being admitted into the current institution. the admitted gpa admitted grade is often a criteria used to determine eligibility for entrance point average into the institution and program. #13 admitted credential #11 the credential for the program being admitted to after transfer to the current institution. use the program title on the transcript. provide a cross walk table for translating credits from other institutions. please use the gpa scale at your institution. please provide a cross walk table for translating gpa from other institutions. eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (a-dip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma (dip), degree (deg) #14 admitted program the program being admitted to after transfer to the current institution. for a degree program, use the combination of qualification sought and institution program title (e.g. bachelor of arts in economics) for other non degree program, use the institution program title. for all programs, use the institution's program code assigned, and provide the statistics canada cip code if available. for a degree program, also provide the qualification code e.g. ba.econ. #15 admitted program code #16 admitted year #17 admitted semester #18 registration status (simplified) #19 current grade point average student is enrolled in for the current academic term. the list of available value is simplified based on those defined for uesr and cser. a number representing the average value of the accumulated final grades earned for courses completed for the current program. #20 current credential the credential for the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. please use the gpa scale at your institution. please provide a supplementary document for the gpa scale at your institution. eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (a-dip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma (dip), degree (deg) the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. for a degree program, use the combination of qualification sought and institution program title (e.g. bachelor of arts in economics) for other non degree program, use the institution program title. #21 current program the program code for the program being admitted to after transfer to the current institution. the year in which the student was admitted to at the current institution. see #01 for reporting year. e.g. 2013/14 fall - fall term the semester in which the student was admitted to the winter - winter term current spring/summer - spring or summer term the typeinstitution. of activity (part-time vs full-time) in which the 10 - full-time 20 - part-time #23 current program code current credits earned at your institution #24 gender the total number of credits earned for academic course work completed for the current program. please use the unit of measurement at your institution. 1 - male 2 - female student's declared gender 3 - another gender identity #25 birth year student's birth year #22 #26 #27 #28 #29 immigration status fsa of permanent address the program code for the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. for all programs, use the institution's program code assigned, and provide the statistics canada cip code if available. for a degree program, also provide the qualification code e.g. ba.econ. e.g. 1990 0 - canadian citizen 1 - permanent resident (landed immigrant) 2 - study permit the student's status in canada, in particular their immigration 3 - diplomatic status for the reported term. 4 - convention refugee (protected person) the list of available value is based on those defined for ocas 5 - visitor and/or ouac. 6 - no status the first three characters (forward sortation area) in the canadian postal code of the permanent address reported by the student on their application for admission. e.g. m5g mother tongue consult the psis code book for the different values. some example codes include: '001' - english '002' - french '060' - chinese the language first spoken by the student and still understood '123' - other languages, n.i.e. based on the statistics canada psis code. '999' - unknown first generation a student whose parents had not themselves attended 'y' - yes pse postsecondary education. 'n' - no #30 indigenous indicator #35 graduation date #36 a student who has self-identified as indigenous (status or non- 'y' - yes status first nation, mtis and/or inuit) 'n' - no the date (year and month) the student received the degree, e.g. 2018.06 diploma or certificate for completing the program. students would report "yes" if they were granted, at any point during their pursuit of a program of study at the current institution, at least one credit (i.e. a minimum of one course) toward the completion of their first entry-level noncredit transfer professional program of study for work completed at another 1 - yes flag ontario publicly-assisted pse institutions. 2 - no 5. non-transfer student record layout granularity: one record per reporting year & reporting semester per student, inculde new, continuing and returning non-transfer #01 #01b reporting year reporting semester #02 #05 anonymized previous id institution name #05b previous institution type #12 #13 admitted admitted grade point credential average 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 fall winter winter fall winter fall fall winter fall fall fall fall fall std0001 std0001 std0002 std0003 std0003 std0004 std0005 std0005 std0001 std0002 std0003 std0004 std0005 hs 1 hs 1 hs 2 hs 3 hs 3 hs 4 hs 5 hs 5 hs 1 hs 2 hs 3 hs 4 hs 5 can-non-hs c can-non-hs c on-hs oth-hs oth-hs 2017/18 2017/18 2017/18 fall fall fall std0002 std0003 std0005 hs 2 hs 3 hs 5 can-non-hs c on-hs oth-hs on-hs oth-hs deg-3yr deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr deg-4yr dip dip deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr dip a-dip deg-4yr dip #14 admitted program title bachelor of arts - unspecific bachelor of arts - unspecific bachelor of arts - unspecific eturning non-transfer students #15 admitted program code #16 admitted year #17 admitted session #18 #19 #20 registration current current status grade point credential average #21 current program title #22 current program code ba.unsp ba.unsp 2013/2014 2013/2014 fall fall 10 - full-time c 10 - full-time c deg-3yr deg-3yr bachelor of arts in economics ba.econ bachelor of arts in economics ba.econ ba.unsp 2013/2014 fall 10 - full-time c deg-3yr bachelor of arts in economics ba.econ #23 current credits earned at your institution 5.00 10.00 #24 gender #25 birth year #26 immigration status 2-female 2-female 1990 1990 1988 1990 1990 1992 1980 1980 1990 1988 1990 1992 1980 0 - canadian m5g 0 - canadian m5g 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian m5g 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 1988 1990 1980 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 5.00 2-female #27 fsa of permanent address #28 mother tongue #29 #30 #35 first indigenous graduation generation indicator date pse 001 001 y y n n 001 y n 2017.06 2017.06

post-graduation earnings outcomes of ontario transfer students evidence from pse-tax linked data march 15, 2021 ross finnie, education policy research initiative, university of ottawa michael dubois, education policy research initiative, university of ottawa masashi miyairi, education policy research initiative, university of ottawa acknowledgments the funding for this research was provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer. 2 executive summary objective and research questions this study examines how the post-graduation earnings of ontario pse students (bachelors degree and college-level diploma students) who change institutions, educational credential, and field of study compare to those of non-transfer students. methodology this study constructs an analysis sample from the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp), a data platform at statistics canada which allows us to link the postsecondary student information system (psis), administrative data on canadian postsecondary education (pse) students, to personal income tax information stored in the t1 family file (t1ff). the enrollment and graduation data of the fall 2010 entry cohort of college-level diploma and bachelors degree students are used to track changes in institution attended, educational credential, and field of study. for those identified as graduates, their income tax information in the t1ff is extracted to observe their employment earnings after graduation. the mean post-graduation earnings are calculated by their transfer type status (whether they change institution, educational credential, or field of study) and compared with that of nontransfer students who stay in the same program from entry to completion. the differences in earnings by transfer type are also adjusted by statistical modelling techniques to account for differences in other characteristics between the groups being compared. findings transfer students account for a small proportion of bachelors degree graduates (less than five percent). in contrast, transfer students who move from diploma to bachelors degree programs account for approximately one-fifth of college-level diploma graduates, with transfer students from different other diploma programs accounting for an additional five percent. for bachelors degree graduates, average earnings are $36,200 one year after graduation, grow to $44,400 the following year, and reach $48,900 three years following graduation. college-level diploma graduates earn $28,100 on average one year following graduation and their mean earnings grow steadily, reaching $39,600 five years following graduation. for bachelors degree graduates, a statistically significant earnings premium of $1,700 to $5,000 is found for those who are transfer students who remain in a bachelors degree program in the same field of study. on the other hand, earnings tend to be lower for transfer students who move from a college-level diploma to bachelors degree programs than for non-transfer students, though the differences are not statistically significant for all years following graduation. 3 for college-level diploma graduates, transfer students who move from bachelors degree to diploma programs in the same field of study have a statistically significant earnings premium over non-transfer students, which grows from $2,900 to $8,400 over the five-year period following graduation. in contrast, earnings are lower for transfer students who remain in diploma programs but in different fields of study, as well as students who change their field of study but not their institution or educational credential. policy implications while this study examines the differences in post-graduation earnings between non-transfer and transfer students, the earnings patterns identified here do not represent the causal effect of transfers as these gaps could be the result of pre-existing differences in students ability or other factors that are unobservable but correlated with changes in pse institution, educational credential, or field of study. an interesting avenue for future research may be to examine why students decide to transfer from one institution to another or change credential level or field of study in a more systematic manner so that it can be analysed in conjunction with other related aspects of pse pathway: initial pse entry decision, withdrawal or stop-out. transfers are, and will likely remain, an integral part of the ontario pse system. through research and advocacy, we need to continue to ensure that new and interesting opportunities for students can be navigated easily and that changes in their educational journeys as seamless as possible. 4 table of contents acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... 2 executive summary ...................................................................................................................... 3 objective and research questions.............................................................................................. 3 methodology ............................................................................................................................... 3 findings....................................................................................................................................... 3 policy implications ..................................................................................................................... 4 1. introduction........................................................................................................................... 7 2. data and analytical approach ............................................................................................ 8 2.1. the education and labour market longitudinal platform .............................................. 8 2.2. transfer types.................................................................................................................. 9 2.3. the earnings measure.................................................................................................... 10 2.4. sample selection and identifying transfer status ......................................................... 10 2.5. construction of the post-graduation earnings sample.................................................. 11 3. sample characteristics ....................................................................................................... 12 4. analysis of post-graduation earnings ............................................................................. 16 4.1. descriptive analysis ...................................................................................................... 16 all graduates by educational credential ........................................................................... 16 bachelors degree graduates.............................................................................................. 17 college-level diploma graduates ........................................................................................ 18 4.2. modelling analysis ........................................................................................................ 20 the model............................................................................................................................. 20 the findings for bachelors degree graduates ................................................................ 21 the findings for college-level diploma graduates........................................................... 25 5. conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 28 6. references ............................................................................................................................ 30 7. appendix .............................................................................................................................. 31 5 list of figures figure 1. mean post-graduation earnings by educational credential (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) ............................................................................................................................ 16 figure 2. mean post-graduation earnings by transfer type bachelors degree graduates .... 18 figure 3. mean post-graduation earnings by transfer type college-level diploma graduates ........................................................................................................................................ 19 figure 4. regression-adjusted mean earnings by transfer type bachelors degree graduates ........................................................................................................................................ 22 figure 5. differences in mean earnings by transfer type bachelors degree graduates ....... 24 figure 6. regression-adjusted mean earnings by transfer type diploma graduates ............. 25 figure 7. differences in mean earnings by transfer type college-level diploma graduates (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) ...................................................................................... 26 list of tables table 1. transfer type variable ................................................................................................... 10 table 2. sample characteristics at entry by educational credential at entry ............................. 12 table 3. transfer status of entrants by educational credential at entry ..................................... 13 table 4. characteristics of the graduates by educational credential at graduation.................... 14 table 5. transfer type status of graduates by education credential at graduation................... 15 list of appendix tables table a1. mean post-graduation earnings by transfer type bachelors degree graduates .. 31 table a2. mean post-graduation earnings by transfer type college-level diploma graduates ...................................................................................................................................... 32 table a3. post-graduation earnings regression results bachelors degree graduates ......... 33 table a4. post-graduation earnings regression results college-level diploma graduates ... 35 6 1. introduction ontarios post-secondary education (pse) system has been striving to facilitate seamless mobility among pse institutions (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). while there exist several studies examining differences in demographic profiles and academic outcomes between transfer and direct-entry students (stewart & martinello, 2012; drewes, maki, lew, wilson, & stringham, 2012; acai & newton, 2015), how transfer students perform in terms of labour market outcomes has been little understood due to a paucity of suitable data. studying this would require detailed information about student pse enrollment histories as well as post-graduation labour market information with sufficient data points. statistics canadas new education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) fills this data gap, linking enrollment and graduation data of pse students recorded in the postsecondary student information system (psis) to personal income tax data in the t1 family file (t1ff). using this platform, finnie, dubois, and miyairi (2020) find that among 2009 ontario university entrants ages 17 to 19, those who transfer university but remain in the same field of study throughout their academic career have similar post-graduation earnings to those who remain at the same institution and field of study in the first year after graduation. on the other hand, transfer students who also change field of study have mean earnings $3,100 lower than those who remain at the same institution and field of study, with this difference being statistically significant. however, since moving from one university to another is not a common transfer pattern in ontario, including students transferring from college to university and from university to college and comparing their post-graduation earnings to non-transfer students would provide a more detailed picture of the outcomes of transfer students. this would be especially interesting given ontarios traditionally binary pse system consisting of distinct college and university sectors unlike other provinces. this study extends the analysis of labour market outcome of ontario graduates by including more complex pse mobility patterns than university-to-university transfers. specifically, this study examines the post-graduation labour market earnings of students who transfer between pse institutions (regardless of institution type, i.e., college or university), educational credentials (i.e., bachelors degree or college-level diploma), or fields of study, and compare them to those of non-transfer students (i.e., those whose institution, credential, and field of study remain the same until graduation). although a system-wide analysis would be better, psis has serious data coverage gaps in the enrollment and graduation data for ontario colleges until the 2014/15 reporting cycle, which prevents us from capturing all transfers to and from missing colleges.1 this limitation will diminish as additional years of psis data with more complete coverage accumulate. 1 approximately half of all ontario colleges are missing from psis prior to the 2014/15 reporting cycle. 7 this report is organized as follows. section 2 describes the elmlp and the construction of the analysis data. section 3 presents the sample characteristics of the analysis dataset. section 4 presents the descriptive and regression analyses. section 0 concludes the report. 2. data and analytical approach 2.1. the education and labour market longitudinal platform this study constructs an analysis sample using the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp), a longitudinal data environment that allows researchers to link administrative data held by statistics canada on pse students to personal income tax information. specifically, the postsecondary student information system (psis) and the t1 family files (t1ff), are used in this analysis. psis consists of administrative records of pse students, collected annually, from all publiclyfunded colleges and universities in canada. psis is thus closer to a census of all canadian pse students, as opposed to a sample, although there are some gaps in the elmlps coverage, some of which are discussed below. information in psis includes students program (type of credential, classification of instructional program [cip] code, program name), institution (type, location), and personal characteristics (e.g., age, gender, immigration status, and current and permanent address) (statistics canada, n.d., psis codebook). in principle, psis includes one record per program in which a student is enrolled in each reporting cycle. therefore, consider these three examples: 1. a student in two programs in a year would have two records, 2. a student in the same program over two years would also have two records, and 3. a student in one program in a year and in another the next would also have two records. psis data on the elmlp are available for all canadian provinces and territories from the 2009/10 reporting cycle (generally from the spring/summer semester through the end of the following winter semester) onward. however, enrollment and graduation records of almost half of ontario colleges are missing from the elmlp until the 2014/15 reporting cycle. the number of colleges with missing information varies from year to year, but we include all available college-level diploma program enrollment and graduation records in psis rather than restricting the sample to institutions that reported enrollment and graduation records for all reporting cycles. t1ff data on the elmlp are taken from personal income tax returns transferred to statistics canada by the canada revenue agency and contain income from various sources, including employment income, income from government programs (such as social assistance, employment insurance, and the child tax benefit), and various tax credits and deductions (pse tax credits, cpp and rpp contributions, union dues). also included are personal characteristics such as age, gender, and postal code (statistics canada, 2018). finally, industry of employment 8 is also available, represented by the three-digit north american industry classification system (naics3) code. all t1ff information is at the person (student) level except for the additional availability of some selected family-level variables, including parental income, family type, family size, and number of children. t1ff information is available for all individuals with psis records on the elmlp from 2004 onward, including the years before, during, and following pse, depending on when the student was enrolled. 2.2. transfer types we measure student mobility in three dimensions. the first dimension is change in institution (i.e., transfer to a different institution). a move between parent and affiliated institutions, or between different campuses of the same university is not considered a transfer for this study. the second dimension represents change in education credential (i.e., changes from college-level diploma to bachelors degree program and vice versa). the third dimension is change in field of study, represented by the primary groupings of classification of instructional program (cip) code, which consists of 13 aggregated categories of field of study (see statistics canada (2012) for more details of the primary groupings). with these three dimensions, students are grouped into eight categories: - students staying in the same institution, educational credential, and field of study, students staying in the same institution and educational credential, but changing the field of study, students staying in the same institution and field of study, but changing educational credential, students staying in the same institution but changing educational credential and field of study students transferring to a different institution but staying in the same educational credential and field of study, students transferring to a different institution, staying in the same educational credential and changing field of study, students transferring to a different institution, staying in the same field of study, and changing educational credential, students transferring to a different institution and changing educational credential and field of study. the categories listed above are encoded in a variable named transfer type as in table 1. the transfer type 0 represents students who stay in the same institution, education credential, and field of study from entry to graduation, while transfer types 4 to 7 represent transfer students, with each type representing a particular status in change in educational credential or field of study. 9 table 1. transfer type variable transfer type 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 change in institution no no no no yes yes yes yes change in education credential no no yes yes no no yes yes change in field of study no yes no yes no yes no yes 2.3. the earnings measure this study focuses on total before-tax employment earnings, which are calculated by combining all paid employment income (wages, salaries, and commissions) reported on t4 slips, positive net income earned from self-employment (business, professional, commissions, farming, and fishing), indian exempt employment income, and other taxable employment income that is not reported on a t4 slip, such as tips and gratuities.2 earnings are adjusted to constant 2016 dollars using the national level consumer price index (cpi). one important caveat of the self-employment income category is that it includes only unincorporated earnings. in some cases, graduates may form corporations and earnings may be transmitted through dividends, allocated to family members, or retained within the corporation, all of which are not available on the elmlp. earnings paid out in salary from the corporation to individuals themselves would, however, be included in the earnings measure as employment income. 2.4. sample selection and identifying transfer status we focus on a cohort of students who entered college-level diploma or bachelors degree programs in ontario in the fall of 2010 who are between 17 and 19 years of age at entry, inclusively.3 2 for employment income to be considered indian exempt, the location of the employment duties is a major factor, as most on-reserve work is classified as tax exempt. however, cra also recognizes that employees of bands, tribal councils, or organizations that operate on behalf of bands or tribal councils may perform most of their activities off reserve. if the employer is a resident on a reserve and the employed is in a non-commercial activity for the social, cultural, educational, or economic development of indigenous peoples who for the most part live on reserves, the income of their employees is also tax exempt. for more information on the guidelines covering indian exempt employment income under section 87 of the indian act, visit https://www.canada.ca/en/revenueagency/services/aboriginal-peoples/indian-act-exemption-employment-income-guidelines.html. 3 technically, college-level diploma and bachelors degree programs correspond to career, technical and professional diploma programs and undergraduate degree programs under statistics canadas classification of programs and credential, respectively. this means that students in university programs in law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, optometry, and veterinary medicine are excluded from the analysis sample. 10 to identify a sample of 2010 entrants, we take a similar approach as statistics canada (2019), and select individuals who were enrolled in the relevant pse programs in fall 2010 but were not in the 2009 academic year.4 under this criterion, approximately 60 percent of 17 to 19-year-old students enrolled in fall 2010 are selected as fall 2010 entrants. an entrant student with multiple starting programs in the same institution, credential, and field of study is included in the analysis sample as a single student record. on the other hand, entrants who have multiple starting programs with different institutions, credentials, or fields of study in 2010 are excluded from the analysis sample due to the absence of clear selection criteria and the proportion of the sample these instances represent. this sample restriction affects less than one percent of the sample. once 2010 entrants are selected, we search for their first graduation events in the period covered by the 2010/11 to 2016/17 reporting cycles of psis. if a student has multiple graduation records during this period, the first graduation event is determined by the program end date information in psis.5 then we check whether the institution, credential, or filed of study have changed from entry to graduation and assign the transfer category code accordingly. typically, a bachelors degree program takes at least three years of study while diploma programs takes at least two years. if enrollment histories indicate that students graduate in less time, they are excluded from the sample. this restriction affects less than 1.5 percent of the sample. 2.5. construction of the post-graduation earnings sample for students who were reported as having graduated from their programs, their t1ff data are merged with their pse information to obtain their earnings after graduation. the tracking of post-graduation outcomes starts in the first full year following graduation. therefore, for those graduating in 2013, the first year corresponds to 2014. as the most recent t1ff information available is 2017, and the earliest year of graduation is 2012 and 2013 for college-level diploma and bachelors degree graduates, which means that there are five and four years of postgraduation earnings records, respectively. however, there is only a small number of earnings observations four years following graduation for bachelors degree graduates as they are only available for students graduating in 2013, and this group accounts for a small proportion of bachelors degree graduates, as shown in the following section. as a result, we track postgraduation earnings only up to three years following graduation for bachelors degree graduates. three additional sample restrictions are imposed. first, individuals who do not file taxes are excluded for that year. this restriction applies to approximately six to 10 percent of bachelors degree graduates over the four-period following graduation, and approximately six percent of the 4 statistics canada (2019) states that for this age range, not having an enrollment record in the same credential level in the previous reporting cycle is a good indication of pse entry to the program of this level. 5 if multiple graduation records are found for the first graduation event of a given individual, we employ a tiebreaking rule that selects the one with the lowest transfer type code. if this tie-breaking rule does not resolve multiple first graduation records, we exclude the corresponding students from the analysis sample. this restriction affects less than 0.5 percent of the sample. 11 college-level diploma graduates in any given year during the five-year period following graduation. second, individuals are also excluded from the analysis if they are identified (through the fulltime pse education tax credit information included in t1ff) as pursuing further full-time pse after graduation. this restriction is imposed because further schooling typically leads to less active engagement in the labour market while the individual is in school, and new skills or credentials acquired following a return to school could lead to an earnings premium upon labour market re-entry. this restriction applies to approximately 35 and 23 percent of bachelors degree and college-level diploma graduates one year following graduation, respectively. it applies to half the bachelor degree graduates three years following graduation, and 40 percent of collegelevel diploma graduates four years following graduation. third, in order to focus on graduates who are meaningfully engaged in the labour market, earnings records for graduates whose total before-tax earnings are lower than $1,000 are excluded from the sample. this restriction applies to approximately one to three percent of the sample in any given year following graduation. 3. sample characteristics table 2 presents the sample characteristics of the fall 2010 entrants by educational credential. for bachelors degree entrants, social and behavioural sciences and law is the most common field of study (19.7 percent), closely followed by the humanities (17.7 percent) and business, management and public administration (16.4 percent). female students account for a majority of entrants (56.3 percent). age 18 is by far the most common age at entry (75.1 percent).6 canadian citizens account for 89.9 percent of the sample, with permanent residents and international students accounting for 5.8 and 4.2 percent, respectively. table 2. sample characteristics at entry by educational credential at entry number of observations field of study at entry (%) education visual and performing arts, and communication technologies humanities social and behavioural sciences and law business, management and public administration physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences architecture, engineering and related technologies agriculture, natural sciences and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other sex (%) 6 bachelors degree 70,971 1.9 5.0 17.7 19.7 16.4 14.5 2.9 9.9 1.4 9.1 0.8 1.0 college-level diploma 22,164 0.5 9.4 1.9 14.0 26.0 0.8 3.1 18.8 1.1 9.4 14.8 0.1 entry age represents students age on december 31, 2010. 12 male female age at entry (%) 17 18 19 immigration status (%) canadian citizen permanent resident international student bachelors degree 43.7 56.3 college-level diploma 53.5 46.5 1.6 75.1 23.2 0.7 49.4 49.9 89.9 5.8 4.2 93.1 3.1 3.9 for college-level diploma entrants, the most common field of study at entry is business, management and public administration (26 percent), followed by architecture, engineering and related technologies (18.8 percent), and then personal, protective and transportation services (14.8 percent). in contrast to bachelors degree entrants, male students account for a majority of college-level diploma entrants (53.5 percent). ages 18 and 19 account for almost all the sample in terms of age at entry (both nearly 50 percent). canadian citizens account for over 93 percent of the sample, while permanent residents and international students account for 3.1 and 3.9 percent, respectively. table 3 presents how fall 2010 entrants are grouped into different transfer type categories by educational credential at entry. firstly, note that 21.4 and 46.8 percent of bachelors degree and college-level diploma students have missing transfer type values, as no graduation record is found for these students. this could be explained by withdrawal from pse programs, transfer to a different province, territory, or country, or switching to a pse program other than bachelors degree or college-level diploma programs. the particularly high proportion for college-level diploma entrants with missing transfer type values is likely due to the incomplete psis reporting by half of ontario colleges up to the 2014/2015 reporting cycles. table 3. transfer status of entrants by educational credential at entry transfer type 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 change in change in change in bachelors institution educational field of degree credential study (%) no no no 53.1 no no yes 18.4 no yes no 0.04 no yes yes 0.04 yes no no 1.5 yes no yes 1.6 yes yes no 1.4 yes yes yes 2.5 unknown unknown unknown 21.4 college-level diploma (%) 44.3 3.9 0.3 0.1 1.4 2.1 0.6 0.8 46.8 roughly half of entrants stay in the same institution, educational credential, and field of study for both bachelors degree and college-level diploma programs (53.1 and 44.3 percent, respectively). 13 3.1 percent of bachelors degree entrants transfer to a different institution for a different bachelors degree program (of which roughly half stay in the same field of study). 1.4 percent of bachelors degree entrants switch to college-level diploma programs in the same field of study, while 2.5 percent of them move to a college-level program in a different field of study. of college-level diploma entrants, 1.4 percent transfer to a different institution for a college-level diploma program in the same field of study, while 2.1 percent transfer to a different institution for a college-level diploma program in a different field of study. just 1.4 percent of college-level diploma entrants transfer to a different institution to start a bachelors degree program (transfer types 6 and 7). table 4table 4 presents the sample characteristics of bachelors degree and college-level diploma graduates. for bachelors degree graduates, the three most common fields of study are social and behavioural sciences and law (27.4 percent), business, management and public administration (16.8 percent), and physical and life sciences and technologies (12.7 percent). the proportion of humanities graduates is much lower than that at entry (10.0 percent as opposed 17.7 percent). female students account for close to 60 percent of the graduates. the distribution of immigration status is virtually unchanged from entry. the most common age at graduation and year of graduation are 22 and 2014, respectively. table 4. characteristics of the graduates by educational credential at graduation number of observations field of study at graduation (%) education visual and performing arts, and communication technologies humanities social and behavioural sciences and law business, management and public administration physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences architecture, engineering and related technologies agriculture, natural sciences and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other sex (%) male female immigration status (%) canadian citizen permanent resident international student age at graduation (%) 19 20 21 22 23 bachelors degree 53,286 college-level diploma 14,280 1.2 5.4 10.0 27.4 16.8 12.7 3.0 9.8 1.6 11.0 0.6 0.6 0.7 9.4 1.3 15.7 25.7 0.7 2.3 16.3 1.1 11.9 14.6 0.5 40.9 59.1 47.0 53.0 89.9 5.8 4.3 93.2 2.9 3.9 0.1 6.4 46.8 34.0 0.5 22.2 34.0 21.3 10.9 14 24 25 26 year of graduation (%) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 bachelors degree 10.9 1.7 0.03 7.4 55.9 30.2 6.4 0.1 college-level diploma 6.7 3.6 0.8 43.0 24.3 16.6 7.9 6.0 2.3 for college-level diploma graduates, the three most common fields of study are business, management and public administration (25.7 percent), social and behavioural sciences and law (15.7 percent), and personal, protective and transportation services (14.6 percent). female students account for 53 percent of college-level diploma graduates, and canadian citizens comprise 93.2 percent of the sample. the most common age at graduation is 21 at 34 percent, and the most common year of graduation is 2012 at 43 percent. table 5 presents the distribution of transfer type by educational credential at graduation. 70.7 percent of bachelors degree graduates stay in the same institution, educational credential, and field of study, while approximately a quarter of bachelors degree graduates change field of study only. these two groups account for most of bachelors degree graduates in the sample. table 5. transfer type status of graduates by education credential at graduation transfer type 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 change in change in change in bachelors institution educational field of degree credential study (%) no no no 70.7 no no yes 24.5 no yes no 0.1 no yes yes 0.03 yes no no 2.0 yes no yes 2.1 yes yes no 0.2 yes yes yes 0.3 college-level diploma (%) 68.7 6.0 0.2 0.2 2.1 3.2 7.0 12.5 4.1 percent of bachelors degree graduates are transfer students who are originally enrolled in different bachelors degree programs (transfer types 4 and 5), of which roughly half stay in the same field of study. less than one percent of bachelors degree graduates are originally enrolled in college-level diploma programs (transfer types 2, 3, 6, and 7). nearly 70 percent of college-level diploma graduates make no change in institution, educational credential, or field of study from entry to completion. approximately one-fifth of college-level diploma graduates are originally enrolled in different institutions for a bachelors degree, of which nearly two-thirds change field of study as well 15 (transfer types 6 and 7). approximately 5 percent of college-level diploma graduates come from another college-level diploma program in different institutions (transfer types 4 and 5). for both bachelors degree and college-level diploma graduates, change in educational credential in the same institution is rare (transfer types 2 and 3). this is because these types of transition are only possible in colleges as only colleges offer both college-level diploma and bachelors degree programs in ontario. these small sample sizes do not provide reliable estimates for postgraduation earnings for these groups, and in some cases, do not meet the minimum sample-size requirements set by statistics canada to protect confidentiality of psis-t1ff data. as a result, we exclude these groups from the ensuing analysis of post-graduation earnings. 4. analysis of post-graduation earnings 4.1. descriptive analysis all graduates by educational credential figure 1 presents the mean earnings trajectories of bachelors degree and college-level diploma graduates with the 95 percent confidence interval represented by error bars. figure 1. mean post-graduation earnings by educational credential (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) de ree o e e- eve di oma con tant do ar in ac e or ear ince rad ation for bachelors degree graduates, the post-graduation earnings are $36,200, on average, one year following graduation, grow to $44,400 two years following graduation, and reach $48,900 three years following graduation. 16 college-level diploma graduates earn $28,100, on average, one year following graduation. their mean earnings then grow steadily, reaching $39,600 five years following graduation. bachelors degree graduates figure 2 presents the trajectory of mean earnings of bachelors degree graduates broken down by transfer type, with 95 percent confidence interval represented by error bars. due to small sample sizes of graduates with earnings records in some transfer type groups three years after graduation, we can only present two years of labour market outcomes following graduation. the first section (grey section) of the graph presents two panels with the earnings of student who remain in the same institution through to graduation (i.e., non-transfer students), while the second section (blue section) presents the earnings of transfer students across two groups, those who remain in the same credential level (remain in a degree program despite transferring institution) and those who change credential level (move from diploma to degree program after transferring institution). for each transfer group, we compare those who remain in the same field of study (left panels) and those who change field of study (right panels). the top-left panel of the figure presents the mean earnings of the baseline group: those who stay in the same institution, educational credential, and field of study. this group of graduates earn $37,500 one year following graduation, and $45,600 the following year. the earnings trajectory of the baseline group is slightly higher than the overall average earnings of bachelors degree graduate presented in figure 1. this earnings trajectory is reproduced in other panels, where the mean post-graduation earnings of other transfer groups are presented, to provide a baseline comparison. for instance, students who transfer to a different institution (blue section) but remain in a bachelors degree program in the same field of study earn $2,500 and $3,900 more than the baseline group in their first and second years following graduation, respectively, and these differences are statistically significant (middle-left panel). the mean earnings for other transfer groups are all lower relative to the baseline group, by approximately $2,200 to $3,400 one year following graduation and $3,700 to $10,300 two years following graduation. the majority of these differences are statistically significant. 17 non-transfer students figure 2. mean post-graduation earnings by transfer type bachelors degree graduates (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) emain in degree rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d emain in degree rogram transfer students same fie d of t d different fie d of t d o e from di oma to degree rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d ear earnin a e ine ince rad ation ame in tit tion ame credentia ame fie d of t d source: appendix table a1 provides the underlying data points for this figure college-level diploma graduates figure 3 presents the trajectories of mean post-graduation earnings of college-level diploma students, broken down by transfer type, with 95 percent confidence intervals represented by error bars. unlike the bachelors degree graduate sample, diploma graduates can be followed for up to four years in the labour market following graduation, but due to small sample sizes of graduates with earnings records, we are unable to present the fifth year following graduation. as shown in the top-left panel, on average, the mean earnings of the baseline group, again representing those who remain in the same institution, credential, and field of study to 18 graduation, are $27,400 one year after graduation and grow steadily to reach $38,900 four years after graduation. unlike their bachelors degree counterparts, the earnings of the baseline group is slightly below the overall average presented in figure 1.in other panels, both similarities to and noticeable differences from the baseline group emerge. non-transfer students who change field of study have a very similar earnings trajectory to the baseline group and the differences are not statistically significant at any point during the period covered (top-right panel). non-transfer students figure 3. mean post-graduation earnings by transfer type college-level diploma graduates (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) emain in di oma rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d emain in di oma rogram transfer students same fie d of t d different fie d of t d o e from degree to di oma rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d ear earnin a e ine ince rad ation ame in tit tion ame credentia ame fie d of t d source: appendix table a2 provides the underlying data points for this figure. compared to the baseline group, transfer students have higher or similar post-graduation earnings. however, the differences in earnings are only statistically significant over the entire analysis period for transfer students who were originally enrolled in bachelors degree programs 19 and moved to a diploma program in the same field of study (bottom-left panel). for this group, the differences in earnings range from approximately $4,400 to $7,000, which roughly represent 14 to 18 percent earnings premia compared to the baseline group of non-transfer students. 4.2. modelling analysis the model the observed differences in earnings presented in figures 1 and 2 are not solely attributable to differences in student mobility patterns, and are explained to some extent by differences in other characteristics such as field of study or gender. for example, after controlling for field of study at graduation and several student characteristics (gender, age at graduation, immigration status, and year of graduation), finnie, dubois, and miyairi (2020) find that the differences in postgraduation earnings between university transfer students and non-transfer students narrow by as much as 30 percent. therefore, we also use a regression approach to control for other observable factors that are related to earnings while estimating the relationship between post-graduation earnings and student mobility patterns. we model the relationship between earnings and various student characteristics as = () + . in this model, the dependent variable y, which represents graduates earnings, is related to a set of explanatory variables x that include the transfer type variable as well as field of study at graduation, gender, immigration status at entry, age at graduation, and the calendar year of graduation. the error term captures a portion of earnings left unexplained by the explanatory variables in the model. this model is estimated for each year following graduation to allow the relationships between earnings and explanatory variables to change over years. for diploma graduates, the model is estimated for the first five years following graduation and the first three years for bachelors degree graduates, where a reasonable number of earnings observations are available. for each explanatory variable in the regression model, estimation results provide differences in earnings between a baseline category and other categories, while those being compared having otherwise the same characteristics. the baseline categories for field of study, gender, immigration status are social and behavioural sciences and law, male, and canadian citizens, respectively. for age at graduation, 22 and 21 represent the baseline categories for bachelors degree and college-level diploma students, respectively, while the 2014 and 2012 cohorts represent the baseline groups for the year of graduation. the model is estimated by an ordinary least square method. it is important to note that the differences in earnings estimated in this way do not have causal interpretations. in other words, they are not solely attributable to differences in student mobility without further assumptions. the gap could result from pre-existing differences in students ability or other factors that are unobservable but correlated with pse transfer or change in educational credential or field of study. identifying the causal effects of student mobility on post-graduation earnings would 20 require further investigations using more complex analytical techniques or more detailed data on students in order to control for such factors, and is beyond the scope of this study. the findings for bachelors degree graduates appendix table a3 presents the regression coefficient estimates for the earnings regression model for bachelors degree graduates. using the estimated regression model, the mean earnings for each transfer type group are adjusted, with the distribution of other student characteristics set to be the average characteristics of bachelors degree graduates in the sample. the results are presented in figure 4 and they are set against mean post-graduation earnings presented in figure 2. the error bars represent the 95 confidence intervals. the earnings differences between the regression-adjusted mean earnings and the unadjusted mean earnings range between $400 to $4,000 in terms of earnings level, or by one to 11 percent in percentage terms. the shift in earnings trajectory is particularly noticeable for three transfer type groups: non-transfer students who change fields of study (top-right panel), and both types of transfer students who move from a diploma to a degree program within the same field of study (bottom-left panel) and in a different field of study (bottom-right panel). 21 non-transfer students figure 4. regression-adjusted mean earnings by transfer type bachelors degree graduates (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) emain in degree rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d emain in degree rogram transfer students same fie d of t d different fie d of t d o e from di oma to degree rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d ear e re ion ad ince rad ation ted earnin nad ted avera e earnin source: appendix table a3 provides the underlying data points for this figure.. to better understand how accounting for other student characteristics affect differences in earnings across types of transfers, figure 5 plots the estimated regression coefficients on transfer types, which represents differences in mean earnings between a given transfer type group of graduates and the baseline group (i.e., non-transfer students who remain in a degree program in the same field), while taking into account other students and program characteristics (i.e., field of study, gender, cohort, age, immigration status). in other words, the blue line represents the earnings difference between the graduates from the transfer group and the baseline group, without controlling for any student and program characteristics (i.e., unadjusted earnings differences) and the red line presents these same difference while also taking into account all 22 other factors available (regression-adjusted earnings differences). error bars in the figure represent the 95 percent confidence intervals.7 the differences in earnings between the baseline group and non-transfer students changing field of study (top-left panel) are substantially reduced once other characteristics are accounted for, as they range between -$900 one year following graduation and $700 two years later. however, only the difference one year following graduation is statistically significant. similarly, the corresponding differences for transfer students who remain in a degree program but are in different fields of study (middle-left panel) are reduced to levels that are not statistically significant. accounting for other characteristics does not change differences in earnings appreciably between the baseline group and transfer students who remain in degree programs in the same field of study (middle-left panel), with statistically significant differences in earnings ranging approximately from $1,700 to $5,000 over the three-year period following graduation. the difference in earnings one year following graduation between the baseline group and transfer students who were originally enrolled in diploma programs in the same field of study (bottom-left panel) is reduced to $1,500 once other student characteristics are controlled for, while the corresponding difference two years following graduation is virtually unchanged. while it is not statistically significant one and three years after graduation, the difference remains negative throughout the observed period. the difference in earnings between the baseline group and transfer students who move from diploma to degree programs in another field of study (bottom-right panel) stay negative during the three-year period following graduation, while evolving from $6,100 to $500 in magnitude, though only the difference one year after graduation is statistically significant. although we find that transfer students tend to earn less than non-transfer students, we find statistically significant positive earnings premia for transfer students who remain in bachelors degree programs in the same field of study while finnie, dubois and miyairi (2020) find a difference in earnings that is not statistically significant.8 several differences in sample selection process between the two studies could explain the differences in findings. first, finnie, dubois and miyairi include only students who are continuously enrolled in university from entry to completion, while this study does not have this sample selection rule. second, this study includes bachelors degree students in colleges, while the earlier study is restricted only to students in universities. third, this study follows fall 2010 entrants while the earlier study follows fall 2009 entrants. 7 in the top-left panel, difference in earnings are by definition zero for both regression and descriptive results, as the baseline group is compared to itself. 8 moreover, while they find that transfer students from bachelors degree program in different fields of study earn substantially less than the baseline group, we find a small earnings premium of $100 for this group, though this premium is not statistically significant. 23 non-transfer students figure 5. differences in mean earnings by transfer type bachelors degree graduates (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) emain in degree rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d - emain in degree rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d transfer students - o e from di oma to degree rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d - ear e re ion-ad ted earnin ince rad ation difference nad ted earnin differnence source: appendix table a3 provides the underlying data points for this figure. 24 the findings for college-level diploma graduates figure 6 presents the mean earnings for each transfer type adjusted by the regression model for college-level diploma graduates.9 much like above, the trajectories of the sample mean earnings are also reproduced for comparison. non-transfer students figure 6. regression-adjusted mean earnings by transfer type diploma graduates (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) emain in di oma rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d emain in di oma rogram transfer students same fie d of t d different fie d of t d o e from degree to di oma rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d ear e re ion ad ince rad ation ted earnin nad ted avera e earnin source: appendix table a4 provides the underlying data points for this figure. 9 appendix table a4 presents the regression coefficient estimates from the earnings regression model for college-level diploma graduates. 25 accounting for other student characteristics shifts post-graduation earnings trajectories more moderately for college-level diploma graduates than for bachelors degree graduates, with the differences being at most $2,500 in terms of earnings level, and at most approximately six percent in percentage terms. figure 7 presents the differences in mean earnings between the baseline group (i.e., non-transfer students who remain in a diploma program in the same field) and other transfer type groups obtained from the regression-adjusted model (i.e., controlling for various student and program characteristics), together with those obtained from the unadjusted average earnings. overall, accounting for other student characteristics shifts down earnings differences between the baseline group and other transfer type groups. this amounts to a widening of the differences in earnings to statistically significant levels (except for five years following graduation) for the following two groups: non-transfer students who change fields of study (top-right panel), and transfer students who remain in diploma program but in different fields of study (middle-left panel). for the former group, the difference ranges from $1,300 to $3,600 in the five-year period following graduation, while it ranges from $2,000 to $7,200 for the latter group. in contrast, the earnings premia over the baseline group associated with the following two student groups narrow to levels that are not statistically significant once other student characteristics are taken into account: transfer students who remain in diploma programs in the same field of study (middle-left panel), and transfer students who move from degree to diploma programs in different fields of study (bottom-right panel). differences in earnings between the baseline group and transfer students who move from degree to diploma programs in the same field of study (bottom-left panel) change very little once other student and program characteristics are accounted for. the differences grow over time from $2,900 to $8,400, staying statistically significant over the five-year period following graduation. this difference might suggest that this group of transfer students derive an earnings premium in the post-graduation labour market from their prior tenure in a bachelors degree program, or it might be related to differences in observable and unobservable characteristics that affect students choice between college-level or bachelors degree programs when they enter pse. this study can neither test for nor disentangle possible explanations as it cannot identify any causal effect. a deeper investigation into the source of this difference may require more complex statistical technique or more detailed data related to pse pathways such as decisions regarding initial entry to pse, withdrawal, and stop-out. 26 non-transfer students figure 7. differences in mean earnings by transfer type college-level diploma graduates (2016 constant dollars, $1,000) emain in di oma rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d - emain in di oma rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d transfer students - o e from degree to di oma rogram same fie d of t d different fie d of t d - ear e re ion-ad ted earnin ince rad ation difference nad ted earnin differnence source: appendix table a4 provides the underlying data points for this figure. 27 5. conclusion this report provides the findings from a system-wide analysis of transfer students among ontario pse institutions, which examines how pse transfers, changes in educational credential, or field of study are related to post-graduation employment earnings outcomes relative to non-transfer students. to this end, the study matches the enrollment and graduation records of a cohort of students, age 17 to 19, entering ontario pse institutions in fall 2010, and identify each students pse mobility pattern. then post-graduation employment earnings are obtained from personal income tax information contained in the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp). this study provides a more comprehensive view of ontario transfer students than finnie, dubois and miyairi (2020) by including students transferring between colleges, from college to university, from university to college as well as between universities in the analysis. however, the analysis leaves out a sizable proportion of students transitioning in and out of programs offered in ontario colleges due to a data coverage issue in psis until the 2014/2015 reporting cycle. this limitation is expected to be less severe for future ontario-wide analysis once more years of data become available in the elmlp. transfer students account for a small proportion of bachelors degree graduates (less than 5 percent). in contrast, transfer students account for a larger share of college-level graduates. in particular, transfer students from bachelors degree programs account for approximately onefifth of college-level diploma graduates, while transfer students from different college-level diploma programs account for approximately five percent. for bachelors degree graduates, the post-graduation earnings are $36,200, on average, one year following graduation, grow to $44,400 the following year, and reach $48,900 three years following graduation. college-level diploma graduates earn $28,100 one year following graduation, on average, which then grow steadily, reaching $39,600 five years following graduation. among bachelors degree graduates, a statistically significant earnings premium ranging from $1,700 to $5,000 is found for transfer students who remain in degree programs and in the same field of study. on the other hand, earnings tend to be lower for transfer students who move from diploma to degree programs than non-transfer students, though the differences are not statistically significant for all years following graduation. among college-level diploma graduates, transfer students from degree programs in the same field of study have a statistically significant earnings premium over non-transfer diploma graduates who remained in the same field of study, which grows from $2,900 to $8,400 over five-year period following graduation. in contrast, earnings are lower for transfer students who remain in diploma programs but change fields of study, as well as non-transfer students who change field of study. the earnings patterns identified here do not represent the causal effect of transfers as these gaps could be the result of pre-existing differences in students ability or other factors that are 28 unobservable but correlated with pse transfer or change in educational credential or field of study. as a next phase of research, it would be interesting to further explore why students decide to transfer from one institution or another or change credential level or field of study. one way to get closer to that answer would be to use more information on students such as academic performance, entry survey responses, students living situation, and more. another way would be to collect feedback from students about transfers through qualitative research activities, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc. transfers are, and will likely remain, an integral part of the ontario pse. through research and advocacy, we need to continue to ensure that new and interesting opportunities for students can be navigated easily and that changes in their educational journeys as seamless as possible. 29 6. references acai, a., & newton, g. (2015). a comparison of factors related to university students learning: college-transfer and direct-entry from high school students. canadian journal of higher education 45(2), 168-192. drewes, t., maki, k., lew, k., wilson m., & stringham k. (2012). analysis of caat transfer students academic performance at trent university. toronto: ontario council of articulation and transfer. finnie, r., dubois, m., and miyairi, m. (2020). schooling and labour market outcomes of ontario transfer students: evidence from pse-tax liked data. education policy research initiative. kerr, a., mccloy, u. and liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: student who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. statistics canada (2012) classification of instructional programs (cip) canada 2011. ottawa: government of canada. statistics canada (2018) linkage of the post-secondary student information system (psis) and the t1 family file: ad hoc custom reference product for selected t1ff variables for the years 2004 to 2015. ottawa: government of canada. statistics canada (2019) persistence and graduation indicators of postsecondary students, 2010/2011 to 2015/2016. ottawa: government of canada. stewart, j. and f. martinello (2012). are transfer students different? an examination of first-year grades and course withdrawals. canadian journal of higher education 42(1), 25-42. 30 7. appendix table a1. mean post-graduation earnings by transfer type bachelors degree graduates transfer type 0 change in change in change institution educational in field credential of study no no no years since graduation 1 2 37,500 (160) [19,970] 1 no no yes 32,000 (270) [6,270] 4 yes no no 40,000 (970) [560] 5 yes no yes 35,300 (850) [590] 6 yes yes no 34,100 (2,000) [80] 7 yes yes yes 34,300 (1,800) [100] notes: standard errors in parentheses. sample sizes in brackets. 45,600 (190) [16,990] 40,100 (350) [4,930] 49,500 (1,300) [410] 41,900 (1,200) [330] 35,300 (2,700) [50] 37,700 (2,300) [60] 31 table a2. mean post-graduation earnings by transfer type college-level diploma graduates transfer type 0 change in change in change institution educational in field credential of study no no no 1 27,400 (190) [6,600] 1 no no yes 27,700 (660) [580] 4 yes no no 30,800 (1,200) [220] 5 yes no yes 27,300 (780) [320] 6 yes yes no 31,800 (620) [670] 7 yes yes yes 30,000 (470) [1,070] notes: standard errors in parentheses. sample sizes in brackets. years since graduation 2 3 32,300 (220) [6,160] 31,600 (710) [490] 36,200 (1,500) [160] 30,900 (1,000) [240] 37,000 (740) [530] 34,200 (610) [730] 36,200 (250) [5,690] 34,400 (890) [340] 39,700 (1,900) [110] 35,400 (1,300) [150] 41,100 (1,000) [400] 37,000 (920) [410] 4 38,900 (300) [4,940] 37,100 (1,200) [180] 41,600 (2,500) [60] 34,000 (2,400) [60] 45,900 (2,700) [50] 41,200 (2,000) [110] 32 table a3. post-graduation earnings regression results bachelors degree graduates years since graduation explanatory variable 1 2 3 -0.26 0.72 (0.40) (0.62) transfer type (omitted: no transfer & no fos change) same institution, same educational credential, change in field of study -0.88 *** (0.31) change in institution, same educational credential, same field of study 1.74 ** (0.89) change in institution, same educational credential, change in field of study -1.54 * (0.83) change in institution, change in educational credential, same field of study change in institution, change in educational credential, change in field of study -6.07 *** 4.53 *** 4.96 (1.20) (1.79) -1.45 1.83 (1.20) (2.90) -10.89 *** *** -3.43 (1.72) (2.61) (4.05) 0.08 -3.52 (1.67) (2.06) (5.84) -0.46 0.02 -4.48 (0.89) (1.00) (2.30) * -0.50 field of study (omitted: social and behavioural sciences and law) education visual and performing arts, and communications technologies -4.31 *** (0.44) humanities -3.71 11.59 *** -0.77 *** * (0.47) mathematics, computer and information sciences 19.43 *** (1.02) architecture, engineering and related technologies 22.37 3.75 *** 12.85 *** 3.36 *** *** 5.78 (1.64) 14.42 (0.65) -0.29 -2.33 (0.61) (0.90) 22.86 *** 23.78 3.44 12.71 3.30 9.50 (1.99) *** 21.06 *** *** *** (2.53) *** 20.88 *** (1.07) *** 0.51 (1.55) *** 11.40 *** (0.70) ** (1.49) *** -5.78 (0.45) (0.55) (1.22) other *** (1.03) (0.49) personal, protective and transportation services 13.29 *** (0.85) (0.63) (0.52) health and related fields *** (1.36) (0.52) agriculture, natural resources and conservation -4.02 -8.40 (0.74) (0.51) (0.36) physical and life sciences and technologies *** (0.56) (0.39) business, management and public administration -6.24 * 3.85 (2.05) *** 6.19 (4.10) 33 * years since graduation explanatory variable 1 2 3 gender (omitted: male) female -0.75 *** (0.27) -2.10 *** (0.34) -3.05 *** (0.51) year of graduation (omitted: 2014) 2013 -6.73 *** (0.83) 2015 4.19 7.90 *** (1.08) *** (0.43) 2016 -5.68 4.83 -8.13 *** (1.27) *** (0.53) *** (0.84) age at graduation (omitted: 22) 20 -11.57 *** (4.32) 21 -1.71 * (0.92) 23 -1.37 *** (0.39) 24 -3.67 -6.56 4.02 (6.01) (5.31) 0.43 1.58 (1.31) (1.53) -2.32 *** (0.48) *** (0.67) 25 0.37 -5.38 -2.53 *** (0.58) *** (0.82) *** (1.23) immigration status (omitted: canadian citizen) permanent resident -3.82 *** (0.58) international student -2.51 *** (0.72) constant 29.62 (0.34) *** -3.63 *** -5.06 (0.73) (1.00) -1.09 -4.74 (0.94) (1.13) 38.00 (0.42) *** 45.68 (0.57) number of observations 27,550 22,780 12,970 notes: the dependent variable is employment earnings (in $1,000). standard errors in parentheses. * p < 0.1; ** p <0.05; *** p<0.01. 34 *** *** *** table a4. post-graduation earnings regression results college-level diploma graduates years since graduation explanatory variable transfer type (omitted: no transfer & no fos change) same institution, same educational credential, change in field of study change in institution, same educational credential, same field of study change in institution, same educational credential, change in field of study 1 -1.52 2 ** change in institution, change in educational credential, change in field of study *** -2.79 4 *** -3.61 5 *** -1.26 (0.72) (0.79) (0.95) (1.28) (2.22) 0.68 1.65 1.06 0.09 2.23 (1.15) (1.45) (1.87) (2.53) (4.97) -2.04 -7.15 (1.36) (2.41) -2.02 ** (0.84) change in institution, change in educational credential, same field of study -2.52 3 2.91 -3.03 *** (1.10) *** 4.03 *** 4.83 *** 7.42 *** -5.94 (6.86) *** 8.38 (0.75) (0.89) (1.18) (2.58) (1.82) 0.33 0.11 0.03 0.26 -3.16 (0.62) (0.77) (1.03) (1.90) (8.95) -1.94 -3.99 -1.93 -3.50 (1.31) (1.39) (1.87) (2.44) *** field of study (omitted: social and behavioural sciences and law) education visual and performing arts, and communications technologies -4.20 *** (0.52) humanities business, management and public administration physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences agriculture, natural resources and conservation health and related fields -3.24 * (1.75) *** -3.82 *** -4.17 *** -4.33 (0.62) (0.76) (0.90) (1.38) -2.74 0.73 -6.52 -5.63 (1.37) (2.23) (3.52) (4.70) (6.30) 0.52 0.46 1.24 0.65 1.41 (0.43) (0.49) (0.61) (0.74) (1.05) 1.77 0.63 -0.03 -3.22 1.33 (1.84) (2.58) (2.84) (3.69) (7.28) -4.19 3.25 *** *** (1.06) architecture, engineering and related technologies -4.62 *** 8.68 4.91 *** (1.33) *** 10.06 6.14 ** *** (1.62) *** 11.22 7.91 *** (2.09) *** 11.64 9.24 *** 11.53 (0.69) (0.85) (1.08) (1.66) 2.18 -0.01 1.95 1.45 -8.15 (1.36) (1.85) (2.59) (3.11) (3.65) (0.58) *** 6.48 (0.65) *** 6.57 (0.74) *** 5.64 (0.87) *** (3.58) (0.60) 6.05 *** *** 5.24 (1.10) 35 *** ** *** years since graduation explanatory variable personal, protective and transportation services other 1 2 3 0.71 0.62 1.57 (0.48) (0.59) (0.70) (0.86) (1.13) -1.53 2.36 17.17 (3.86) (8.73) (0.76) 5.69 ** (2.22) 6.60 ** (2.63) 4 ** 2.83 5 *** 4.61 *** *** gender (omitted: male) female -2.29 *** (0.35) -3.79 *** (0.41) -5.58 *** (0.50) -7.60 *** (0.62) -9.10 *** (0.92) year of graduation (omitted: 2012) 2013 2.48 *** (0.52) 2014 2015 2016 1.93 3.71 (0.61) ** 2.68 (0.93) (1.05) 1.95 5.29 (1.38) (1.54) 5.43 *** 3.19 *** (0.68) ** 2.67 4.45 *** (0.77) ** (1.21) *** *** (1.84) age at graduation (omitted: 21) 19 20 22 23 24 25 2.36 0.40 2.02 -1.33 0.79 (1.85) (2.12) (2.62) (3.17) (3.70) 0.05 0.38 0.35 1.16 (0.42) (0.49) (0.57) (0.64) 1.00 0.78 1.18 0.82 (0.61) (0.70) (0.79) (0.92) 0.57 0.92 (1.06) (1.15) (1.30) 0.84 -0.95 (1.52) (1.73) 2.11 ** * 0.89 (0.73) 1.16 (1.99) immigration status (omitted: canadian citizen) permanent resident -3.93 *** (0.88) international student -1.33 ** (0.68) constant 25.08 *** -3.87 *** -5.30 (1.07) (1.28) -0.05 -3.93 (0.76) (1.04) 30.10 *** 34.49 *** *** -2.44 -2.81 (1.56) (2.66) -5.96 *** (1.33) *** 38.25 -5.73 *** (1.78) *** 41.59 36 *** years since graduation explanatory variable 1 2 3 4 5 (0.50) (0.58) (0.69) (0.82) (1.13) number of observations 9,460 8,300 7,100 5,390 3,160 notes: the dependent variable is employment earnings (in $1,000). standard errors in parentheses. * p < 0.1; ** p <0.05; *** p<0.01. 37

research brief a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project dr. scott davies, university of toronto dr. roger pizarro milian, oncat september 2020 a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 2 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 in our last brief, we discussed the significant data requirements for the study of transfer and student mobility research more broadly. in particular, we emphasized the utility of longitudinal datasets that capture early academic performance and socio-demographic information, along with details on later-stage student trajectories (e.g., transfer) and outcomes (e.g., access to stem, gpa, and graduation rates). these types of datasets constitute the holy grail in educational research. today, we provide an overview of an exciting data source: the toronto district school boarduniversity of toronto (tdsb-ut) administrative linkage, which checks off many (but not all) of the required boxes that we laid out before. the tdsb-ut linkage is part of a wave of innovative linkages that are being performed in the field of education across many jurisdictions. as we will discuss with more detail later, this data source has several advantages over the sources typically used to study transfer in our province. some notable qualities include: population-level coverage: the linkage captures the entire population of students32,302 in allthat traveled one of canadas most trafficked and demographically diverse k12 to pse corridors over almost two decades. such sample size allows us to segment our analysis in a number of useful ways, including according to transfer types and student demographics. to our knowledge, this constitutes the first direct linkage of its kind between a k12 school board and university administrative records in the province of ontario. extensive longitudinal window: the broad time frame (20002019) that this dataset covers allows us to follow the trajectories of non-traditional pse students, which are often missed by cross-sectional designs, including: those who drop out of high school, but complete later on as mature students; those who take gap years to work between high school and university; and those forced to take lengthy breaks during university due to unforeseen circumstances. comprehensive range of controls: the dataset contains an extensive set of variables reflecting academic characteristics, covering grade 9 to university a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 3 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 completion (e.g., grades, field of study, etc.), along with high school behavioural measures (e.g., absenteeism, suspension, etc.), and diverse demographics captured via the tdsbs student census. this allows us to estimate the predictors and outcomes of transfer accurately later in the life-course. mobility tracking: most importantly for oncat, the linkage captures (via a previous institution field) every tdsb student who, during this period, entered any college or university prior to enrolling at ut. to our knowledge, this constitutes the first direct linkage of its kind between a k12 school board and university administrative records in the province of ontario. previous linkages have successfully merged administrative records from universities to ontario university application center (ouac) and ministry of education records (see dooley, pain, & robb, 2012). however, our school board data provides more in-depth coverage of both demographics (e.g., sexual orientation, parental education) and other measures (e.g., absenteeism). our linkage constitutes another step towards closing the gap between ontario and other jurisdictions where these sorts of linkages are common. how its made before we dive into details about this data source and how we are using it for transfer research, lets first go over the behind-the-scenes work that made it possible. in the beginning, there were a series of research ethics board (reb) protocols, legal department reviews, and other institutional sign-offs at both tdsb and ut that made student-level data available to researchers for linkage. in addition, the procedures used to handle data through this project were reviewed by the ontario privacy commission to ensure that they were compliant with privacy laws and regulations. luckily, the tdsb is an experienced research organization and has developed proven matching and associated procedures through other projects that directly informed this one. we are fortunate that the tdsb has the expertise and willingness to engage in this sort of work, as their records offer an incredible degree of detail on student characteristics. 2017 1. for example, see: oreopolous & brown, (_____). a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 4 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 after that lengthy process was complete, administrative records from approximately 200,000 students who started grade 9 within the tdsb (20002010) were cross-referenced to 225,000 student records at ut (20022019) using both ontario education numbers (oen) as well as alphanumeric identifiers for earlier cohorts. this process produced the overall sample of 32,302 perfect matches: students that we have high confidence are the same in both administrative records. once the matching process was complete, all unique identifiers (e.g., names, oen, etc.) were removed from the dataset. this protects the privacy of the individuals and at the same time ensures that researchers have access to granular data. it is consistent with best practices used by other organizations, such as statistics canada, to de-identify our personal records for use by researchers. the resulting dataset allows, as we highlight below, analysts to ask an array of key policy-relevant questions in educational research. for an organization like oncat, it allows us to ask: at what rate do tdsb students transfer into ut? what type of pathways do they travel to ut? what high school metrics predict transfer? and, perhaps most importantly: do transfer and direct-entry student outcomes differ once we statistically account for differences in their high school academics and demographics? a more in-depth look at the metrics the tdsb-ut linkage has four main groups of variables that are pertinent to transfer research: high school records: this includes academic variables like average grades, eqao scores in math, english, and science, the results of the first osslt exam (pass/fail), and the types of courses taken (e.g., academic, applied, etc.). it also includes what could be considered as behavioural metrics, including their number of absences and whether they were ever suspended. lastly, it includes student status in the tdsb five years after grade 9 (e.g., completed, dropped out, etc.). demographics: this includes a long list of variables captured through 2. the oen was introduced in ontario in 2003 but was not fully implemented across ontario pse until later in the 2000s. as such, an alphanumeric was developed for students in earlier cohorts utilizing their gender, birthday, and first and last name (for full 2019 appendix 3). details, see: davies, brown & chakraborty, _____, a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 5 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 the tdsbs detailed student census, including gender, sexual orientation, selfidentified race, world region of birth, language spoken at home, parental level of education, and occupational category. many of these variables are not present in the administrative records of colleges or universities, limiting the sorts of transfer student analyses that previous researchers have conducted. previous institution: at ut, the administrative records contain a text field with the name of the students most recent institution prior to enrolling at the university. we manually coded this field into a series of dummy variables representing particular types of pse institutions, including ontario colleges and universities, other canadian colleges and universities, and international institutions. these metrics provide more detail than the traditional credit transfer flag, which only identifies those transfer students as originating from another ontario pse institution. ut outcomes: tapping into the ut administrative records, we can also observe if a student graduated during our long window, whether they gained access to a stem field of study, their cumulative grade point average (gpa), the number of credits they accumulated, and their time to completion. combined, this set of data fields present a wide range of opportunities to model statistically both the predictors and outcomes of transfer students compared to their direct-entry counterparts. it also allows us to analyze trends across transfer student types. we can do this type of analysis with greater precision than studies that rely on pse-level administrative records only, given that we can control for more early predictors of transfer. limitations the focus on a single school board to university corridor obviously makes these findings difficult to generalize or apply to other corridors across the province, particularly in rural and northern institutions. there is no large provincial picture to be drawn here, despite this being the most trafficked corridor in ontario. furthermore, this dataset only captures those tdsb students that eventually transfer into ut since we cannot track outgoing transfers. we cannot say anything about which students are most likely to leave ut for other pse institutions. as with nearly every dataset, there are also some notable patterns in missing data. most tdsb academic fields are nearly 100% complete (with the exception of absenteeism, a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 6 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 which has 30% missing data), and most ut student records are at least 95% complete. however, some demographic variables have sizeable rates of missing data. in particular, the tdsb student census has only 67% coverage because it was not widely distributed among early cohorts in the dataset (pre-2004). as a result, some measures, like parents occupation, had sizeable rates of missing data, leaving only 50% valid cases. what this effectively means is that researchers using it must be mindful of the potential bias introduced by dropping these cases from their analysis. next up next week, we will begin to publish the results of some exploratory transfer analyses we conducted with the tdsb-ut linkage. this includes both descriptive information, as well as the results of logistic regression models. our goal through these types of briefs is to present findings in a way that is digestible by stakeholders wholike usare not trained as statisticians. in light of such a goal, we do away with the convention of relying on readers to interpret vast regression tables with coefficients, standard errors, p-values, and other statistical details. instead, we present as much of what we can in plain language, visuals, and a few simple tables. as always, we welcome further feedback or questions about this work. 3. the full regression model output is available upon request from roger pizarro milian (rpizarromilian@oncat.ca). a look at the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project 7 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. dr. roger pizarro milian dr. roger pizarro milian is the senior researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/projects/tdsb-ut-linkage-and -transfer-project established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2020

council of educators of toronto university and college data tracking practices for first-generation and transfer students in the greater toronto area project 2016-13 executive summary april 28th, 2017 prepared by: funded by: academica group ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) london, on council of educators of toronto - academica group executive summary this study provides an overview and analysis of institutional data collection, sharing, and analysis practices regarding inter-institutional transfer and student mobility at cet member institutions with a focus on implications for first generation students. four research questions guided this study: 1. what mechanisms or strategies are currently employed by gta colleges and university to track and analyze data on credit transfer students in general, and first generation students specifically? 2. what data tracking analysis gaps exist among gta colleges and universities that if addressed could assist them in their capacity to support access-seeking students transferring between institutions? 3. what capacities exist or can be developed among gta colleges and universities to track and analyze mobility trends and experiences of credit transfer students as they move between institutions? 4. what does existing research about transfer students tell us about their backgrounds, and how could transfer pathways or supports be designed to facilitate the movement of students, including first generation students, between institutions? what implications are there for academic programming, institutional planning and student services, and system and policy change? to address these research questions, a literature review, an environmental scan, staff discussion groups, and student focus groups were conducted. a total of nine roundtable discussions with staff from cet member institutions were held from november 2016 to january 2017. the staff members participating in the roundtables included those with responsibilities in areas related to: first generation student programs and advising; student success, access and outreach; financial aid; credit transfer policy and advising; and institutional data and research. a total of 45 staff members participated at nine institutions, including three universities and six colleges. six student focus groups were held, involving a total of 26 postsecondary students currently enrolled at a cet member institution who were either first generation students, transfer students, or both. the focus groups took place in february 2017 on campuses within the gta. key findings and recommendations are summarized by below. identifying first generation students while all institutions work with the ministry definition of a first generation student, multiple methods are used to identify and count first generation students. these methods, however, are not crossreferenced with one another nor is the information that is collected through each integrated into a single database. institutions therefore do not have access to a single, comprehensive, or definitive count of the number of first generation students on campus or means of identifying or contacting them. council of educators of toronto - academica group recommendation first generation students should be identified at their first point of entry into ontarios education system, which for most students would be upon registration for early childhood education or for primary or secondary school. the identification would be derived from the information parents provide about their own educational attainment as part of the registration process for their children. the designation of a student as a first generation student would then be part of the students record that would follow the student into pse by virtue of the ontario education number (oen). this approach would avoid the many problems associated with using a variety of methods to ask pse students to selfidentify. identifying and tracking transfer students institutions are able to identify students who have previously undertaken postsecondary education at another institution, but only if the student chooses to declare this previous experience on their application form. the onus therefore rests with the student: there is no system-wide data system to which institutions have access that can automatically report on a students complete postsecondary pathway. in addition, institutions do not have access to any information on the postsecondary experience of students who transfer out of the institution. this speaks to institutions limited access to data derived from the ontario education number (oen), which to date has not been implemented in a way that facilitates institutional planning or the design and delivery of student services. recommendation the restricted access to data derived from the oen represents a missed opportunity to enable institutions to better understand and serve their students, particularly students who transfer between institutions. for the oen to live up to its promise, the government of ontario should ensure that the data be made accessible to institutional researchers, policy makers, and programs administrators, and provide a firm deadline for doing so. first generation student programs and advising a number of institutions are evolving their approach to first generation students, by gradually folding programs for first generation students into broader programs aimed at any student who might benefit from additional support or guidance. this broadening of focus allows institutions to adopt a wide net approach to outreach in which it matters less and less whether they can accurately identify whether a student is a first generation student or not as long as all students are made aware of the supports that are available, the label attached to the student makes little difference. while some students feel pride in being identified as first generation students, and while first generation students may have distinct needs and experiences, students themselves are not looking for services linked to that designation; more than that, many students are likely to misunderstand the intention behind programs targeted to first generation students, seeing them as programs aiming to assist new arrivals to adjust to life in canada. recommendation given the low resonance and degree of confusion associated with the term first generation among students, it appears that the broadening of focus or wide net approach in outreach and support to students reported by some gta institutions is appropriate. the evolution of approach in outreach and service provision for first generation students should be encouraged, as it reflects the lessons learned council of educators of toronto - academica group through experience at each institution. the government of ontario should ensure that institutions have the greatest degree of flexibility possible in how to allocate the funding they receive to support first generation students, to ensure that this funding can be used to support approaches that the institutions believe are most likely to reach students most in need of support in transitioning into and through postsecondary education. advising services for transfer students a number of institutions, primarily the colleges, are evolving their approach to advising students transferring between institutions, notably by adopting an approach that is both more proactive and more integrated. this new approach is designed to support the development of a transfer culture in which the institution understands itself less as the singular destination for each student and more as a stop on a continuum of learning that begins before and ends after the students current program of study. many transfer student focus group participants reported that they had to navigate the transfer process without much assistance from the institution, and students making transfers that can be characterized as adjustments also felt that friends and families often view switching as a suboptimal outcome. the more proactive and integrated approach to advising students about transfer, reported by some gta institutions, is likely to be helpful as it should result in an improved transfer process for students and it may help to normalize or to reduce the social stigma associated with switching. recommendation emerging approaches to advising students on mobility in and out of their current institution that are both proactive and more integrated with other services at the institution should be considered promising practices within the sector. institutions that are not yet moving in this direction should seek opportunities to learn from the experiences of those that are. in particular, universities should seek to learn from the experiences of colleges, particularly in regard to taking on more responsibilities in the area of advising students on the opportunities for outbound transfer. the intersection of first generation and transfer students services for first generation students and transfers students are currently conceived of and delivered separately, and the implications for student advising and support of possible intersections between the two groups of students have yet to be explored. there is a recognition that first generation students might be more mobile (in terms of demand for inter-institutional transfer) and may be more likely to benefit from the opening up of new transfer opportunities (pathways). that said, institutions are likely to focus more on broadening their outreach to as many students as possible, rather than on narrowing their focus to particular subgroups. recommendation it is difficult to develop a better understanding of the needs, experiences and outcomes of first generation students as they pertain to mobility in the absence of comprehensive, system-wide data that allows institutions to develop a full picture of the educational pathways of students into and out of their current institution. further progress in understanding the intersection between first generation students and transfer students can be made once data systems are strengthened as per the first two recommendations advanced above. council of educators of toronto - academica group

oncat executive summary this oncat research project is based off the oncat funded project (2015-23) that allowed students who were suspended from the university to remediate at a community college over the summer, while earning credits toward a college certificate. the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) and durham college (dc) collaborated t o develop an alternative pathway from suspension. this alternative pathway is called the durham college general arts and science- student success pathway, or gas-s for short. the pathway allows successful students to be eligible to earn a general arts and science certificate concu rrently with the continuation of their university degree after suspension. the pathway specifically addre sses life skills related to academic success and communication to improve the students preparedness fo r returning to academia in the fall without losing valuable time towards obtaining their academic goals. for this reflective research paper, a literature review focusing on student engagement, retention and success was completed and set the framework for reviewing the gas-s program. qualitative and quantitative data was collected from several cycles of the gas-s program, and an analysis was completed with a focus on describing the experience of several groups of participants. within this analysis, the researchers focused on interpreting the data collected around a students decision-making process when it came to either continuing at the college or university and the students subsequent performance. this paper closes with a discussion about lessons learned and the implications from the findings on the development of additional future pathways and learning supports for students at uoit.

the student experience in transfer york / seneca paula green, phd sahar sheikh ursula mccloy, phd richard smith september 2020 york seneca partnership & the centre for research in student mobility, seneca college funding for this report was provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer. the opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ontario council on articulation and transfer. acknowledgements wed like to thank dr. alice pitt (former) vice provost academic, york university and dr. henry decock (former) associate vice president, academic partnerships, for their approval to seek funding for this project and their unwavering support of the york seneca partnership. the institute for social research (isr), york university david northrup, director liza mercer, project manager gregory hanson, technical consultant stella park, project manager the team at isr was instrumental in designing and administering the survey and focus groups for the student experience in transfer project. they also completed the transcripts and conducted some preliminary analysis of the data. we thank them for their contributions. the centre for research in student mobility (crsm), seneca college kate williams, (former) research analyst office of institutional planning and analysis (oipa), york university data extraction for the sample population and analysis of the findings were completed by staff from oipa and crsm. their expertise throughout the process was instrumental in developing the report. we would also like to than the staff from the yu-card (york) and onecard (seneca) offices who facilitated the fund transfer to the study participants. we are also grateful to the many staff throughout york university and seneca college who provided information about student services and transfer, reviewed the content of the report, and provided feedback. we would also like to thank the staff at oncat for their patience and support throughout the research process. please cite this publication as: green, p., sheikh, s., mccloy, u., & smith, r. (2020 august). the student experience in transfer-york/seneca. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 1|page executive summary in ontario and across canada, student mobility has been a vital part of the academic relationship between colleges and universities. within ontario, seneca college and york university has had a longstanding informal partnership for over 40 years and is considered a leader in pathways. more recently, the york seneca partnership (ysp) was created to support bidirectional student mobility between york university and seneca college. the current study, through a mixed methods approach, measured the student experience of those transferring within this partnership. the four primary research questions were: 1) how did seneca and york students gain information about transfer options, advising services, transition supports, financial aid and transfer credits? 2) how effective was this information in supporting their decision-making, application process and registration? 3) what improvements to registration processes and student services were most likely to have a positive impact on the transfer student experience? how did students experience transfer? 4) how did sociodemographic characteristics, academic performance and engagement influence satisfaction with the transfer experience, and the decision to transfer? how did these characteristics influence academic performance and adjustment post-transfer? methodology the student experience in transfer research project used a combination of surveys, focus groups and administrative data. the study population included students enrolled at york university or seneca college in fall 2019 who had previously attended either york (current seneca students) or seneca (current york students). of 652 york to seneca transfer students,162 participated in the survey (25%). for seneca to york transfer students, 354 (28% of 1260) participated in the survey. for participating students, details from their academic record, including grades and transfer credit, were extracted from each institutions administrative systems, and linked to their survey responses. survey respondents were also invited to participate in focus groups, resulting in 33 participants. the first part of the quantitative analysis included descriptive statistics (frequencies and crosstabulations) of the socio-demographic, program-related characteristics, information sources used and experiences of students as they went through the various stages of the transfer process. multivariate regression analysis was then used to investigate respondent satisfaction with the transfer process, the decision to transfer to york or seneca, their previous academic preparation, andif given the opportunitywhether they would transfer again to the receiving institution. for the qualitative analysis, textual analysis was used to generate themes and that data was triangulated with the narratives emerging from the surveys, particularly the open-ended responses. the patterns emerging from the data were presented using thick description of excerpts from the focus group dialogue. some content analysis was also used to evaluate and summarize the open-ended responses. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 2|page results transfer student profile: for seneca to york transfers, just over one-fifth (21%) of the seneca to york transfer group reported a disability, while among those who transferred from york to seneca it was 15.5%. over a third (34%) had a parent with a degree and 72% reported being a visible minority (chinese,19%, south asian, 18%, and black, 9%). over a third (35%) were aged 25 or older when they transferred. for york to seneca transfers, 16% reported a disability and 47% had a parent with a university degree. when they transferred, 58% were aged 25 or older. in terms of ethnicity, 73% reported being a visible minority with south asian (17%), chinese (14%) and black (11%) the top four groups. regression analysis included four outcomes; 1) satisfaction with the transfer process; 2) satisfaction with the decision to transfer to york/seneca; 3) if they could start over, would they choose to transfer to york/ seneca again; and 4) gpa at york/ seneca (post-transfer). seneca to york sociodemographic factors: students who had a parent with a university degree were both more likely to be satisfied with the transfer process, as well as the decision to transfer to york than those whose parents did not have a degree. females were more likely than males to indicate that if they could start over, they would transfer to york. students who reported having a disability were less likely to choose transfer to york, if they could start over. in terms of gpa outcome, the only significant sociodemographic factor was gender, with male transfers to york obtaining a higher gpa. transfer factors: students who indicated they received fewer credits than expected had lower satisfaction with the transfer process and the decision to transfer to york. as well, students who received fewer credits than expected indicated they would be less likely to transfer to york if they could start over. satisfaction with the transfer process was lower for students who received their transfer credit notification after program registration versus those notified earlier. the amount of transfer credit provided did not have a significant impact on gpa post-transfer, although gpa pre-transfer did. student experience: those who indicated that they transferred for academic-related reasons were more likely to be satisfied with the decision to transfer, compared to students who continued their education at the university due to transfer-related reasons. transfer students who interacted with faculty at the receiving institution were more likely to be satisfied with the transfer process and their decision to transfer to york. interacting with faculty and receiving academic advising resulted in higher gpa at york for transfer students. transfers into york who first found out about their transfer options using college sources like college websites, publications and staff had lower levels of satisfaction with the transfer process than those who relied on university sources. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 3|page york to seneca sociodemographic factors: age at the time of transfer influenced satisfaction with the transfer process for university to college transfers. students who were between the ages of 22 and 24 tended to be more satisfied with the process than younger students. among university to college transfers, females were more satisfied than males with the decision to transfer. transfer factors: transfers who received advanced standing (received at least five transfer credits or enrolled in graduate certificates or accelerated diplomas) at seneca were less satisfied with their decision to transfer than other transfer students. unlike the seneca to york transfer group, the impact of transfer credit expectations on satisfaction was not significant for york to seneca transfer students. student experience: students who interacted with faculty post-transfer had higher levels of satisfaction with the transfer process and the decision to transfer. they also obtained higher grades. students who relied mostly on seneca sources for information such as websites, publications and staff were more satisfied with transfer process than those who relied on york sources. throughout the focus groups and based on some of the qualitative responses received from the survey, several structural challenges emerged as creating difficulties for transfer students. these included adjusting to the new campus environment, differences in class sizes and to new student service practices that affected student access and supports. in particular, issues with the accessibility services offered at both institutions (e.g. low awareness, long waiting periods) and frustration with institutional financial aid processes and practices were commonly raised. students reported turning to informal networks such as other students for information. to address this, some suggestions for improvements by students included separate orientations for transfer students, more one-on-one advising and improving the quality and accessibility of the information about transfer on institutional websites. another option is to train peer mentors, who have been through the transfer process, to support incoming transfer students. overall, respondents observed that the inter-institutional relationship between york and seneca helped to facilitate the ease of transfer and the credit transfer process. transfer students are an important constituent in the postsecondary environment. they are a sizable proportion of the enrolment at university and college campuses across ontario, and institutions must have an effective infrastructure to support them. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 4|page table of contents acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 1 executive summary ................................................................................................................... 2 introduction ................................................................................................................................ 9 project overview .......................................................................................................................11 the research questions ..........................................................................................................12 literature review ......................................................................................................................12 methodology .............................................................................................................................23 survey findings: seneca to york transfers ..............................................................................27 survey findings: york to seneca transfers ..............................................................................62 focus group findings & qualitative responses .......................................................................94 discussion ..............................................................................................................................111 recommendations for institutions ...........................................................................................117 appendix 1. additional tables and figures .............................................................................119 appendix 2. student experience in transfer survey ...............................................................146 references .............................................................................................................................158 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 5|page list of tables table 1. seneca to york transfer students - ethnic group by status in canada ......................28 table 2. sending seneca faculty and receiving york faculty seneca to york......................29 table 3. reason(s) for transfer, % major reason - seneca to york transfers .........................30 table 4. most important reason for transfer - seneca to york transfers .................................30 table 5. source(s) of information about financial aid seneca to york ...................................37 table 6. transfer credits received by seneca graduates & articulation agreements ..............42 table 7. proportion of students accessing disability services by disability status seneca to york ..........................................................................................................................................45 table 8. satisfaction with decision to transfer by faculty seneca to york.............................51 table 9. logistic models for satisfaction with transfer experience - seneca to york ................58 table 10. ols regression for academic performance at york - seneca to york ......................60 table 11. proportion of the students belonging to an ethnic group by status in canada ...........62 table 12. sending york and receiving seneca faculty york to seneca ................................63 table 13. characteristics of receiving seneca program by graduation status from york and transfer credits received ........................................................................................................65 table 14. reason(s) for transfer, % major reason york to seneca .......................................66 table 15. most important reason for transfer york to seneca ..............................................67 table 16. source (s) of information on financial aid york to seneca .....................................73 table 17. logistic models of satisfaction with overall process .................................................90 table 18. logistic models of satisfaction with the decision to transfer .....................................91 table 19. ols regression for academic performance at seneca york to seneca ................92 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 6|page list of figures figure 1. reason(s) for not graduating from seneca before transferring ................................31 figure 2. timing of decision to transfer to york by graduation status from seneca ................32 figure 3. how did respondents first find out about the transfer options to york.....................33 figure 4. sources of information used when considering transfer- seneca to york .................34 figure 5. usefulness of sources of information used when considering transfer (% very or somewhat useful) ......................................................................................................................34 figure 6. sources of information used at the time of application- seneca to york transfers .....35 figure 7. usefulness of sources of information used when applying (% very or somewhat useful) .......................................................................................................................................36 figure 8. information provided on financial aid options - seneca to york................................36 figure 9. sources of information used after registration - seneca to york ...............................38 figure 10. usefulness of the sources of information used after registration (% very or somewhat useful) ......................................................................................................................38 figure 11. timing of transfer credit notification - seneca to york ............................................39 figure 12. expectation of transfer credits received - seneca to york ......................................40 figure 13. student expectations by actual credits received seneca to york ........................41 figure 14. expectation of transfer credits received & academic performance at seneca seneca to york .........................................................................................................................41 figure 15. service usage at york - seneca to york ..................................................................43 figure 16. service usage at york by terms at york- seneca to york.........................................44 figure 17. engagement in academic activities at york seneca to york .................................46 figure 18. engagement in academic activities at york by terms at york seneca to york ......47 figure 19. engagement in non-academic activities (hours in week)- seneca to york ..............48 figure 20. satisfaction with overall process seneca to york .................................................49 figure 21. satisfaction with overall transfer process by expectation of transfer credits .........49 figure 22. satisfaction with overall process by timing of credit notification ............................50 figure 23. satisfaction with transfer decisionseneca to york ...............................................50 figure 24. satisfaction with transfer decision by york faculty - seneca to york ......................51 figure 25. satisfaction with academic preparation at seneca - seneca to york .......................52 figure 26. satisfaction with academic preparation for study at york by york faculty ...............52 figure 27. satisfaction with academic preparation for study at york by grades at york ...........53 figure 28. transfer again to york- seneca to york ...................................................................54 figure 29. transfer again to york by gender- seneca to york..................................................54 figure 30. transfer again to york by york faculty - seneca to york .........................................55 figure 31. transfer again to york by actual transfer credits received - seneca to york.........55 figure 32. reason (s) for not graduating from york york to seneca .....................................67 figure 33. timing of decision to transfer to seneca by graduation status from york ..............68 figure 34. how the respondents first found about the transfer options to seneca...............69 figure 35. source (s) of information used when considering transfer york to seneca ...........70 figure 36. usefulness of sources of information used when considering transfer --- york to seneca (% very or somewhat useful) ........................................................................................71 figure 37. source (s) of information used at the time of application york to seneca...............72 figure 38. usefulness of sources of information used when applying (% very or somewhat useful) .......................................................................................................................................72 figure 39. information provided on financial aid options york to seneca .............................73 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 7|page figure 40. source (s) of information used after registration at seneca york to seneca ........74 figure 41. usefulness of sources of information used after registration, (% very or somewhat useful) .......................................................................................................................................75 figure 42. timing of credit notification by credential at seneca york to seneca ....................76 figure 43. expectation of transfer credits received york to seneca ....................................77 figure 44. student expectations by actual credits received york to seneca ........................78 figure 45. overall service usage at seneca york to seneca.................................................79 figure 46. overall service usage by credential enrolled at seneca york to seneca ..............80 figure 47. engagement in academic activities at seneca york to seneca.............................81 figure 48. engagement in academic activities by credential at seneca ...................................82 figure 49. engagement in non-academic activities (hours in week) at seneca .......................83 figure 50. satisfaction with overall process york to seneca .................................................84 figure 51. satisfaction with overall process by expectation of transfer credits received .......84 figure 52. satisfaction with transfer decision york to seneca ..............................................85 figure 53. satisfaction with transfer decision by faculty york to seneca ..............................85 figure 54. satisfaction with previous academic preparation york to seneca .........................86 figure 55. satisfaction with academic preparation at york by seneca faculty .........................86 figure 56. satisfaction with academic preparation by grades at seneca york to seneca .....87 figure 57. transfer again to seneca york to seneca.............................................................88 figure 58. transfer again to seneca by seneca faculty york to seneca ...............................88 figure 59. transfer again to seneca by actual transfer credits received................................89 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 8|page introduction in ontario and across canada, student mobility has been a vital part of the academic relationship between colleges and universities. despite the importance of mobility between the two sectors and a growing literature, it is still under-studied relative to jurisdictions like the united states. most of the previous research done by the york-seneca partnership has relied on administrative data to provide institutional and system-wide analyses into transfer student experiences and emphasized system-level perspectives on transfer patterns and trends. this study was unique in that it linked administrative records, surveys and focus groups for students who transferred between the two institutions. this project was designed to produce insights and practical examples that institutions could use to help improve the experiences, supports and services of and for transfer students within the postsecondary learning environment. the york seneca partnership the york seneca partnership (ysp) was created to support bidirectional student mobility between york university and seneca college. the ysp is governed by a signed mou and overseen by a steering committee, chaired by the vice-presidents academic of each institution. agreements to support student mobility between the partner institutions are formalized through articulations, mous, and other types of signed arrangements. in addition to academic collaboration, the partnership encompasses shared use of space, leasing agreements and joint research. credit transfer agreements & policies college to university since 1991, york university has had a block credit transfer policy in which students transferring from a recognized postsecondary institution in canada or from abroad receive predetermined university credits. students do not need to apply for the credits, they are assessed and allocated by the admissions office at york. (smith, decock, lin, sidhu & mccloy, 2016; york universitysecretariat policies). the number of credits received depends on factors such as minimum grade requirements, prerequisite courses taken and whether the credential from the sending institution was completed. they are allocated based on the sending programs academic content and affinity to programs at york university. depending on program content and length of study at the sending institution, a standard or enhanced block of credits1 are applied. for example, at york, a high affinity2 two-year college diploma would typically receive a standard block of thirty credits towards a 120-credit or 90-credit degree program. the award is dependent on successful completion of all courses within the sending diploma and the maintenance of the required admissions gpa for the receiving program. on the other hand, enhanced block credit transfer is generally guided by formalized articulation agreements between york and the sending institution. for example, students transferring from senecas two-year liberal arts transfer (lat) program, which has a formalized articulation agreement with york, receive an enhanced block of 48 transfer credits towards a degree. these students must maintain a required block transfer credit refers to a specific amount of credit granted based on a completed certificate, diploma or degree and is accepted for transfer credit into a degree program. block transfer credit may also be granted for completion of a minimum of two semesters in a certificate or diploma program https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/definitions 2 program curricula is aligned to degree courses and has substantive academic content. 1 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 9|page admissions gpa of 3.0 (70%) and must have completed specified courses within the diploma to receive the full block of 48 credits. students who dont complete the lat diploma prior to transfer or and did not successfully complete all the diploma courses, including the specified courses described in the lat articulation agreement, would not receive the full block. articulation agreements are developed when specified credits from within the block of credits are identified as transferrable into a degree. these enhanced block credit arrangements therefore consist of specified and non-specified credits. the allocation of specified credits for courses completed in a sending program listed is negotiated between academic staff from the sending program and the york degree program staff. the course assessments result in a oneto-one or many-to-one course credit determination.3 once the agreement is signed, students from the sending program will receive the enhanced block of credits that has been agreed to within the articulation document, regardless of the degree program that they register into at york university. for example, senecas ssw graduates would receive 45 block transfer credits when they enroll in degree programs at york university, providing that they complete the credential and have the required 3.0 gpa for admissions. similarly, graduates who transfer from senecas three-year accounting program should receive 57 credits, while those who transfer from the twoyear program receive 45 credits. these transfer students must be diploma graduates and have an overall gpa of 3.0 to be allocated the full block of transfer credits, as per the agreement. however, in the example above, while the agreement is specific to the bachelor of commerce program at the university, these students can enroll in any degree program at york university and receive the allocated transfer credits as outlined in the signed agreement 4. additionally, some of the written academic agreements between the two institutions such as those relating to science programs for example, also have grade requirements for specific courses identified within them. university to college york students entering seneca college may also receive transfer credits. if the student graduated from the university prior to transferring they could receive advanced standing into a college diploma. in this scenario, general education and english courses are waived/ given as transfer credit toward the completion of the college diploma credential5. there are also a few concurrent degree-diploma arrangements between the two institutions that admit york students only into specific program streams. recently, york and seneca have signed agreements that facilitate the movement of york degree graduates into seneca graduate certificates. in these cases, york graduates who take advantage of these options will receive transfer credits towards 3 in some cases, a few courses from seneca fulfill the academic requirement of a single york course. where the degree and the sending credential are not highly aligned, some of the transfer credits will be used towards elective requirements, but some may not end up being used towards the degree. they have the potential to become excess credits. sidhu et al. (2016) however, found, that on average transfer students at york only generated three more excess credits than non-transfer students. the equivalent of a regular one-term course. the median of the two groups only differed by one credit (p. 18). 5 senecas transfer credit policy - for students entering a diploma or advanced diploma program: graduates with a completed three- or four-year undergraduate degree from a recognized canadian postsecondary institution are eligible to receive transfer credits for com101 and all other required general education courses https://www.senecacollege.ca/about/policies/transfer-credit-policy.html. at the time of the survey, graduates who transfer can therefore enter into a regular diploma program and request these transfer credits; or enter, where available, an accelerated diploma program. 4 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 10 | p a g e some of the courses identified in specific graduate certificates. finally, although not as common, york university degree graduates may receive transfer credits if they enroll in high affinity college degree programs at seneca. seneca college also gives transfer credits to students who did not graduate from university. the number of credits granted depends on the grade received in the courses being transferred. a minimum gpa of c is required in courses for students transferring to college non-degree programs, or c+ for those transferring into college degree programs (mccloy, williams, childs & manoir, december 2019, p. 17). as of july 2020, the york seneca partnership had more than twenty-seven signed academic agreements supporting bidirectional student mobility. these agreements typically have a fiveyear term and are signed by the vice presidents academic (or their designates) at both institutions. the report will begin with an overview, followed by a literature review, methodology and findings section. the latter results were subdivided by transfer direction seneca to york and york to seneca. additionally, the rich textual details from the focus group discussions and qualitative survey responses were also separately presented as part of the findings. the report will conclude with a discussion section, some institutional and policy recommendations. project overview the student experience in transfer research project used a combination of surveys, focus groups and administrative data. the study population is transfer students who were enrolled at york university and seneca college in fall 2019. two surveys to students who had transferred in either direction was administered electronically between october 2019 and november 2019: 1. of 652 york to seneca transfer students,162 went on to participate in the survey (25%). 2. of 1,260 seneca to york transfer students enrolled at the university, 354 (28%) participated in the survey. overall, 516 students responded a participation rate of 27%. for participating students, details from their academic record, including grades and transfer credit were extracted from each institutions administrative systems and linked to their survey responses. at the end of the survey, these participants were asked if they were interested in participating in a focus group to expand upon their transfer experiences, and more than 50% indicated they were. from them, a group of 406 that reflected the demographic profile of the survey population with regard to age, gender, graduation status and academic programs was recruited. on february 2020, thirty-three of them participated in four focus groups conducted by staff from the institute for social research (isr) at york university. definition of the transfer students in the study a transfer student was defined as anyone who enrolled at york university after submitting a transcript from seneca college, or at seneca college after submitting a transcript from york university. at york, only students entering a degree program were included, and at seneca only students entering a credited ontario college credential was included. students were included as will be discussed in the methodology, survey and focus group participants were given monetary incentives. given budget and time constraints, a total of 40 focus group participants were indicated as ideal for this research project, at the onset. 6 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 11 | p a g e whether or not transfer credit was obtained, as well as whether they graduated before transferring. therefore, the sample included transfer students who partially completed a credential at one institution before transferring or enrolling in the other. a few students in the study were also concurrently enrolled in degree and diploma programs at both institutions, but those numbers were quite small. 7excluded from the sample were students who subsequently enrolled in continuing studies. the research questions the study sought to learn about service information gaps to help improve the supports for transfer students at york and seneca, especially through advising, admission and recruitment. although it focused on two institutions, the results should be generalizable to other postsecondary relationships within ontario. secondarily another goal included the provision of information to support the work of stakeholders across the postsecondary system in ontario through oncat (ontario council on articulation & transfer). the four primary research questions were: 1. how did seneca and york students gain information about transfer options, advising services, transition supports, financial aid and transfer credits? 2. how effective was this information in supporting their decision-making, application process and registration? 3. what improvements to registration processes and student services were most likely to have a positive impact on the transfer student experience? how did students experience transfer? 4. how did sociodemographic characteristics, academic performance and engagement influence satisfaction with the transfer experience, and the decision to transfer? how did these characteristics influence academic performance and adjustment post-transfer? these questions shaped the survey instruments and focus group discussion guide used for the study. literature review although there has been growth in canadian student transfer literature, the amount is still small compared with jurisdictions like the united states. this review primarily used works from the united states, british columbia, and ontario to provide an academic and theoretical underpinning for the current study. transfer students form a heterogenous group and are different from other students who enter the postsecondary system directly, leading some researchers to describe them as non-traditional. non-traditional versus traditional postsecondary students college to university transfers in canada, direct entry high school (dehs) students have often been defined in the literature as traditional students. this group has included students who matriculated directly to a postsecondary institution from high school (robson, brown, maier & ranjbar, 2016; acai & collaborative nursing students from seneca who moved to york within that program were not considered transfer students and were not included in this sample. students who moved into or out of collaborative nursing into other programs at york or seneca were included. 7 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 12 | p a g e newton, 2015) and were more likely younger, age 19 or below, female, single, had no children, were non-aboriginal and had no declared disability (acai & newton 2015). there is however a growing awareness in canada that the traditional pathway of moving seamlessly and uninterrupted from high school directly into a postsecondary institution and graduating within a specified timeframe is not always the norm. many students experience gap years or temporary interruptions during their pursuit of postsecondary education. accordingly, results from the 2013 national graduates survey conducted by statistics canada found that only 53% of university degree graduates in 2010 entered their program directly from high school (ferguson & wang, 2014, p. 6). the other 47% would therefore be considered non-traditional entrants. american student mobility literature has typically distinguished the traditional from nontraditional student. by the end of the 1980s american transfer research described the traditional student as moving from 2 year to 4-year institutions typically between the ages of 1822, with a non-minoritized background, whose parents were middle class and had previously attended college. the adequacy of their academic preparation, the appropriateness of their academic expectations, and the socialization they received from their parents, peers and others supported their integration into the postsecondary environment (strage, 2008 p. 225-226). nontraditional students have been described as older, living off campus, were often enrolled in parttime studies and often took a more circuitous route into the institution. this definition expanded in recent years to include commuter and minority students, women, persons with disabilities, those who were married or parents, who were also attending postsecondary institutions (monroe, 2006, p. 33; hyatt & smith, 2019, p.4; strage 2008). many college transfer students shared many of these same characteristics as other non-traditional students including coming from weaker academic backgrounds, and so often had less confidence in their ability to complete a postsecondary credential because of their circumstances (monroe, 2006, p. 35). therefore, the term non-traditional has been used in the american literature to describe a wide range of individual characteristics, including age, ethnicity, residence, disability status and gender (monroe, 2006, p. 35). given these characteristics, much of the literature and consequently many american researchers have categorized college transfers into university as non-traditional students (hyatt & smith, 2019, p.4; monroe, 2006, p. 35). in canada, non-traditional students have been defined according to the route used to access higher education. unlike dehs students, transfer students tended to be older, married, had children, and had lower incomes. as a result, this group had more external pressures and more demand on their time due to family and work obligations (henderson & mccloy, 2019; robson, brown, maier & ranjbar, 2016, p. 4-7). hyatt & smith (2019) conducted a study at a small, private, non-profit southeastern university in the united states where 40% of students enrolled at the institution were transfer students. the researchers found that faculty at the institution perceived college transfer students as complex. students were considered layered and messy because they were often older, had busy lives, juggled family, and work, and had financial challenges. they needed to balance taking classes at the university with many other priorities. faculty members therefore perceived these nontraditional students as having limited time available for academics and diverse overburdening challenges that traditional students did not have. they were thought to be difficult to teach and advise, and in many cases, faculty avoided interacting with them (hyatt & smith, 2019, p. 10). the researchers found that faculty were often unaware of the processes and steps needed to help these students to become successful and that these processes were not clearly articulated the student experience in transfer, september 2020 13 | p a g e on the websites that the students used (hyatt & smith, 2019, p.14). such deficiencies adversely affected students experiences and pathways to graduation (hyatt & smith, 2019, p.14). monroe (2006) suggested that universities were not incentivized to support transfer or nontraditional students as they are typically not in the majority and not preferred. yet designing programs to support and meet the needs of non-traditional learners is becoming an important part of the planning and responsibilities of institutions. monroe (2006) also observed that, these non-traditional learners [often] think in terms of being customers, and [so] hold higher education accountable to provide results for the exchange of their time, effort, and money. they are demanding customers with high expectations (p. 43). yet many institutions do not regularly assess the impact of policies and the effectiveness of the services provided to either traditional or non-traditional students. fundamental to this is the provision of timely and accurate information to these students when they were being advised or supported through the services offered at the institutions (monroe, 2006, p. 45). non-traditional versus traditional postsecondary students university to college transfer the literature on university to college transfer, sometimes referred to a reverse transfer has been relatively sparse. most of the literature described above referenced the experiences and profiles of students who transferred from the college to the university. yet a growing number of students have and continue to take non-linear or non-traditional pathways into ontarios postsecondary system, particularly the university to college pathway. a study conducted by ferguson & wang (2014) found that over 30% of students in higher education had previously completed a postsecondary credential (p. 7). ontario's 2018-19 student satisfaction kpi survey showed that 21% of students had a university degree, and an additional 7% had previously attended university. of those transferring into an ontario college that year, 59% came from a university. since 2011 the percentage of students who reported having a university degree increased by 11%. this may be due to the influx of international students with university education (mccloy 2021). on arrival at the university, transfer students in ontario were more likely to enter social science and commerce programs than science programs (mccloy, steffler & decock, december 2017, p. 20). university to college transfer students also tended to enroll in business, or social sciences and related programs rather than health, science, or technology programs (smith, decock, lin, sidhu & mccloy 2016; maier & robson, 2020, p. 84). forty-five percent of university to college transfer students enrolled in graduate certificates, while 42% enrolled in two-or three-year diploma programs (mccloy 20210). there are many similarities in the description of the non-traditional and transfer students in both the canadian and american literature. the combination of the alternative pathway route into postsecondary and their particular characteristics warrant a definition of transfer students as non-traditional, with specific needs and supports, which differed from traditional postsecondary students. postsecondary institutions therefore have a responsibility to aid in their academic success, through the academic advising experiences, services and supports offered to nontraditional students, who may not have the social and cultural capital to properly navigate the postsecondary academic environment. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 14 | p a g e sociodemographic characteristics of transfer students research on ontario college graduates indicate minimal differences in transfer rates across sociodemographic factors. for the years 2014-2016, the rate of transfer was only slightly higher (6.3%) for those without a disability compared to those with a disability (5.9%) (williams & mccloy, 2019). however, transfer students with a disability were somewhat less likely to be satisfied with the transition experience and their academic preparation than transfer students who did not report a disability. in the 2015 graduate satisfaction survey, indigenous college graduates had a slightly higher rate of transfer (7.3%) than non-indigenous graduates (6.8%), although the difference was not found to be significant in the regression models (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017). in a study of seneca students, transfer to university was 3 percentage points higher for college graduates who had a parent with a degree than those who did not, an effect that held when controlling for demographic factors and grades (steffler & mccloy, 2018). the study showed that rates of transfer did not differ by income, however. when the sociodemographic characteristics of college transfers were compared with university non- transfer students, there were marked differences in the populations. an ontario survey showed that college to university transfer students were more likely to come from groups underrepresented in university. they were more likely to report a disability, be from low-income households and neighbourhoods, identify as indigenous and come from a rural community (henderson & mccloy, 2019). in addition, they were more likely to identify as white/caucasian, or black, and less likely to indicate they were chinese or south asian. less is known about the sociodemographic characteristics of university students who transferred into college. previous university attendance, as expected, was associated with an older demographic. accordingly, 40% of students with previous university experience were over 25, versus 17% of non-university transfers (mccloy 2021). a study of students who transferred from ryerson or york university to business programs at seneca college (the two predominant institutional sources of transfer in ontario), found that the university transfers were more likely to come from higher income neighbourhoods, were more likely to have a parent with a degree, and were far more likely to be canadian citizens than others students at seneca (mccloy, williams, childs, & du manoir, 2019). the ontario kpi student satisfaction survey also found that entering students with previous university experience were less likely to report a disability than non-university transfers (12% versus 24%) (mccloy 20210). however, most of this difference was due to those who completed university, of whom only 8% reported a disability (versus 25% for those with an incomplete university education). in a study of grade 9 students in toronto, researchers found that students who transferred from university to college were more likely to come from lower socioeconomic groups and be black, south asian, or southeast asian than those who stayed in university (robson, et al, 2016). social and academic integration and engagement among university to college transfers defining social and academic integration tinto 1993 defined social integration as the degree to which a student feels comfortable in the college environment and belongs to one or more affinity groups (kuh, kinzie, buckley, bridges & hayek july 2006, p. 5). tinto believed that academic and social integration were complementary but independent processes by which students adjusted to postsecondary life. academic integration included compliance with specific norms: maintaining or achieving passing grades, for example. the former was measured by a students satisfaction with their academic the student experience in transfer, september 2020 15 | p a g e progress and choice of major. on the other hand, social integration was the extent to which a student found the institutions social environment congenial to their preferences. it was shaped by the students background, values, and aspirations. social integration was therefore measured by composite of peer-to-peer and faculty-student interactions. therefore, a students persistence through to academic success was a function of the relationship between individual actors (the student), the postsecondary environment and their home community (kuh, kinzie, buckley, bridges & hayek july 2006, p. 11). consequently, tinto (1975, 1993) found that faculty-student interaction was one of the predictors of attrition and postsecondary dropout (hyatt & smith, 2019, p.2). tinto concluded that increased levels of academic and social integration led to greater levels of institutional commitment and consequently the achievement of student success goals like graduation. he also theorized that families played a key role in passing on privileges to their children via a process of expectation development. consequently, social, and academic integration were outcomes that led to successful postsecondary achievement (kuh, kinzie, buckley, bridges & hayek july 2006, p. 11) cotton & wilson (2006) found that successful college transfer students placed greater importance on academic integration rather than social integration. these researchers found that transfer/non-traditional students were often hesitant to approach faculty. they felt that their ideas would not be welcome, so doing so would be of little benefit. however, hyatt & smith (2019) noted that when faculty did reach out to them, many of these students reciprocated (p.14). lanaan (1996) established the importance of psychological and social adjustment for college transfer students who enrolled in four-year institutions. townsend and wilson (2009) built on lanaans work with a qualitative study on the impact of social and academic integration on student college transfer success. participants were interviewed in 2004 when they transferred, then in 2008 when they graduated. while social integration such as participation in co-curricular activities was initially important, the study found that students felt doing well in class was more important than making friends. students found relationships with faculty difficult, so felt no overwhelming connection with them. the authors concluded that, because students lacked interest in campus social activities, academic integration was more important than social integration to student success (hyatt & smith, 2019, p.4). student engagement the terms integration and engagement have been used interchangeably in much of the higher education literature. kuh (2003) defined engagement as the the time and energy that students devote to educationally sound activities inside and outside of the classroom, and the policies and practices that institutions use to induce students to take part in these activities (p. 25). in short, engagement was part of the process that led to a students integration into their academic environment. student engagement was comprised of two key components that contributed to a students academic success. the first referred to the amount of time and effort that students put into their studies, including educationally purposeful activities. learning and success was therefore influenced by the degree to which the individual student invested in the learning process. the second component referred to the ways in which institutions provided learning opportunities and services that encouraged students to participate and benefit from their participation. this included how institutions deployed resources and organized curricula, and other opportunities. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 16 | p a g e engagement also included the support services that institutions provided to induce students to participate in activities that led to desired outcomes such as persistence, satisfaction, learning and graduation. therefore, institutional actions were thought to affect levels of student engagement and learning on campus (kuh, kinzie, buckley, bridges & hayek july 2006, p. 31; cci research 2009, p. 15). academic & social engagement academic engagement has been described as activities that included meaningful connections with faculty in the context of course or educational studies. these interactions included but were more not limited to email exchanges and attending office hours, faculty members monitoring a students progress and regularly assisting students with learning the material outside of the classroom. measures of academic engagement included academic challenge, student-faculty interaction, and collaborative learning. on the other hand, social engagement involved interacting with others broadly both inside and outside of the institution. social engagement was often evaluated or measured on the basis of how enriched the students educational experiences were, as well as the supportiveness of the campus environment (kuh, 2003, p. 29; lester, leonard & mathias, 2013). studies have shown that transfer students were often challenged when navigating the transition from the community college to university which kuh (2003) described this as transfer tremor. this phenomenon referred to the act of negotiating the challenges that came with navigating the cultural pathways of the new institutional environment (p.30). a canadian study conducted by gawley & mcgowan (2006), found that being older and more mature, transfer students were more motivated to reduce their social activities deliberately and placed greater emphasis on university degree completion. they were eager to get out of the institution to get on with their adult lives (p.10-11). another canadian study found that, by comparison, college to university transfer students were more likely than their non-transfer counterparts to engage in student-faculty interactions, and to discuss assignments, grades, and career plans. however, they were less likely to participate in volunteer activities, student clubs and cultural events (henderson & mccloy, september 2019, p.8-9). the authors stated that: while college-to-university transfer students tended to be highly academically engaged, engagement outside of the classroom was found to be a challenge. this [was] likely related in part to age differences, as college-to-university transfer students tend[ed] to have more outside responsibilities such as dependent children, as well as less financial supports (mccloy & henderson, september 2019, executive summary). there was therefore a higher level of interest in academic engagement than in social engagement, juxtaposed against the specific characteristics of transfer students. in both canada and the united states engagement has been measured by survey instruments such as the national survey of student engagement (nsse), community college survey of student engagement (ccsse) and the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey (ontario colleges). this annual survey has looked at what colleges and universities expected in terms of homework, reading, writing assignments and intellectual tasks; how frequently their students participated in various forms of active collaborative learning; and how often students interacted with professors (kuh 2003, p.26). in canada, nsse has been administered to first and final year undergraduates who are nearing the completion of their postsecondary credential. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 17 | p a g e in ontario, all college students beyond first semester complete the annual kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey8. student engagement questions have therefore been based on four areas: active participation, quality of effort, the inter-relationship between the student and the institution and an account of the students use of their time. active participation involved a students levels of participation in the classroom, whether they asked questions, presented information, and worked with other students on assignments. quality of effort was measured by whether they completed homework or assignments, attended, or skipped classes, reviewed, or revised assignments before turning them in, and whether they used information from different sources to complete assignments. on the other hand, the inter-relationship between the student and institution was measured by whether an institution encouraged and provided meaningful opportunities for interactions, an institutions provision of information regarding social opportunities, financial services, academic responsibilities, students non-academic responsibilities, and information on how time should be spent doing course or other academic work. finally, accounting for the students time in areas such as their involvement in volunteer activities, whether they were working for pay, caring for dependents, and the amount of time spent preparing for class were also other components of engagement surveys (cooke & charlebois, june 2009). college to university social and academic engagement transfer students conceptualized academic engagement in relation to challenge and learning, with higher levels of challenge being associated with increased engagement identification with the campus community. nsse results also showed that transfer students were also often concerned that social activities would detract from their academic work (lester, leonard & mathias, 2013, p. 215). engagement surveys have therefore found that certain groups of students were more engaged than others. students who lived on campus for example had better access than their commuting peers to institutional resources for learning, including faculty members and other students. full time students tended to have more responsibilities and off-campus work that prevented their participation in educational and extracurricular activities (kuh, 2003, p. 27). nsse results also found that minority students often experienced postsecondary education differently from their white peers (kuh, 2003, p. 27). other student characteristics such as first-generation status also played a role in expectations, student effort, persistence, and other measures of postsecondary success. for example, firstgeneration students who reported more participation in group discussions, presentations, performances, research projects, and group projects, and who frequently discussed courses with other students, had a higher probability of success in postsecondary (kuh, kinzie, buckley, bridges & hayek july 2006, p. 6-7). as well, studies of non-traditional students, commuters, and other underrepresented populations identified other external factors which affected student persistence. this included parental encouragement, support from friends and finances (kuh, kinzie, buckley, bridges & hayek july 2006, p. 6-7). overall transfer students and other non-traditional students were generally more interested in academic than social integration. as well, while social and academic engagement were important to academic success, students from these groups were often more interested in 8 previously, the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey was a mandatory survey, funded by the ontario government. however, in 2019-20, it became voluntary, with many colleges continuing it. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 18 | p a g e academic engagement. however, challenges were often faced even when they pursued academic engagement initiatives. nsse survey results showed that when compared to nontransfers, transfer students were generally less involved in educationally engaging activities in the postsecondary institution from which they were about to graduate (kuh, 2003, p. 27). university to college social and academic engagement the academic and social engagement of students who transferred from university to college has been little studied9. in a qualitative study of 20 ontario students who left university without completing, the authors detected a sense that university was an indifferent place, with large class sizes, lack of support, difficulties in reaching faculty, and administrative issues (maier & robson, 2020). at college, on the other hand, they found smaller class sizes, friendlier atmosphere, and more hands-on-learning. transfer students satisfaction, reasons for transfer & credit expectations studies dating back to 2000 on the admission, transfer experiences and satisfaction levels of former postsecondary students from british columbia found that 86% were either very satisfied or satisfied with their overall transfer experience10 (lawrance, 2001, p.42/44). results from the 2005 bc survey also found that 83% of respondents were very satisfied or satisfied with the admissions services and application processes received at the transferring institution (bc stats, february 2006, p. 43). lawrance (2001) found that students transferring to unrelated programs were less likely to realize their transfer expectations. he also found that success in realizing transfer expectation was closely related to satisfaction. these findings were echoed in mccloy, steffler & decock (2017), a quantitative study of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey (gss) from 2007 to 2015. the authors found that 86% of college graduates who transferred to a related program were very satisfied or satisfied, compared to 71% of those who had transferred into an unrelated program (p.46). in 2015, 17% of gss respondents indicated that they had received more credit than expected upon transferring, 56% stated that they received the amount they expected and 26% reported receiving less credit. those who received more credits than expected were 17% more likely to be satisfied than those who received fewer credits (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p.43). the same paper reported that 85% of transfer students indicated being satisfied with their academic preparation and 81% were satisfied with their college to university transition. (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p.7). additionally, satisfaction with the transfer experience was higher among male students than female and among older students (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017). overall, 26% of graduates said they got their transfer credit notification with their offer of admission, 36% said before registration, 25% after registration and 2% had not heard back by the time gss was administered. the remaining 11% had not applied yet or were not planning to apply (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p. 42). regression analysis showed that, transfer in 2020 seneca college received funding from oncat to study university to college transfers in ontario using data from the kpi student satisfaction and engagement survey. 10 several different institutions participate in the b.c. transfer systemthe bc transfer system includes public and recognized private and out-of-province institutions, facilitates student mobility, supports system quality and ensures the portability and applicability of credit by providing dependable, accurate resources to students and institutions there is a high degree of flexibility in the system because students can transfer among all different types of institutions, not just from colleges to research universities (trick 2013, p. 10 17; https://www.bccat.ca/system/policies). the greater integration of the bc postsecondary system could be a reason behind the higher levels of satisfaction and transfer credits received when compared to jurisdictions such as ontario. 9 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 19 | p a g e credit amounts that either met or exceeded expectations was a significant influencer on satisfaction with the transition, with those who received more transfer credit than they expected, [being] 17 percentage points more likely to be satisfied than those who received less than expected. those who received some transfer credit relative to no credit were 7 percentage points more likely to be satisfied. the timing of notification was not significant (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p. 53). when gss respondents were also asked about the reasons for transferring, the most popular responses were to advance their career and to obtain a university credential. transferring because they had no job or work available in their field and because the company required or paid for the credential were the least cited reasons for transfer among respondents (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p. 58). respondents who transferred for academic reasons were 10% more likely to be satisfied. those who pointed to extrinsic reasons such as being encouraged by others or to enhance career and labour market outcomes were less likely to be satisfied than those who did not (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p.59). college transfer students were often attracted to a university education because it conferred a higher social status, promised better career prospects and potential increases in earnings. although poor academic performance at the college often limited the opportunity for transfer, students have continued to combine or have expressed an interest in combining a college credential with a university education (decock & janzen, december 2016; mccloy, steffler & decock, december 2017; oncat, 2013, p. 3). in terms of college to university transfer, in one ontario college, over 71% of university students who entered graduate certificates were satisfied with the admissions process, and 68% reported no difficulties with the transition prior to enrolment. for those who did experience difficulties, 28% stated that information on student services offered and how to find their way around campus (27%) were the top challenges, pre-enrolment (durham college, 2013). since these students were often mature, they felt the college should develop unique convenient social networking opportunities geared towards graduate certificate students. a study of university students who enrolled at an ontario college between 2010 and 2012, found that found only 50% were satisfied with the transfer credit process. respondents pointed to issues such as obtaining and paying for university courses, and the refusal of transfer credit by the college (confederation college, 2013). however, students commented on the helpfulness of college professors in reviewing course outlines and recommending transfer credit. their main reasons for attending university were to gain skills to further employment opportunities. on the other hand, the findings regarding financial considerations were mixed. a majority of participants from the studys focus group indicated that financial considerations did play a role in their decision to transfer from university to the college. they cited the lower tuition costs and shorter program lengths as the two most crucial factors (confederation 2013, p.21). one of the goals of the confederation study was to understand reasons for university to college transfer. many of them were career related. when asked explicitly about their decision to attend college, many pointed to practical skills and experiences including resume writing, an interest in career change, the need for a clearer career path and the difficulties with finding employment after completing university. the differences in teaching styles between the university and college, as well as the expertise of college instructors who worked in the field, and the latters ability to help them prepare for careers were also cited (confederation 2013, p.21). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 20 | p a g e timing of decision to transfer understanding the evolution of plans to attend university was important for targeting students and for determining how, what and when information should be provided. ontarios graduate survey results from 2007 to 2015 indicated that for 43-48% of respondents the decision to transfer to university was made before starting their college program; 42% to 46% said it was during their program; 10% -12% after (program) completion or after graduation; and for less than 10% it was at the start of their college program (mccloy, steffler & decock, december 2017, p. 37-38). of those who made the decision to transfer after they had graduated, 29% cited a lack of jobs as a major reason [for continuing] their education, compared with 15% for those who decided earlier. however, the timing of the decision did not appear to be related with other cited reasons for transfer (mccloy, steffler & decock, december 2017, p. 38). in a comparison of university non-transfer and transfer students, 69% of the direct entry students always assumed they would attend university, compared with 27% of students who transferred to university (henderson & mccloy, 2019). lang & lopes (2014) also found that for students who were admissible to college and university, transfer was initially coincidental and then later became planned. these students made the decision to transfer along a continuum: before, during and after enrolment at their first postsecondary institution. consequently, an understanding the decision-making processes of transfer students would help institutions determine the changes needed to improve them. transfer students and educational interests a qualitative study of 20 students by maier & robson (2020) found that students who transferred before completing their degree found that they had multiple, and often interconnected reasons for transferring to college. they found that the students left university due to academic struggles, physical/mental health struggles, and future concerns, whereas they entered college motivated by subject interest, college learning environment, location, and future prospects. a study of york and ryerson students who transferred into senecas business programs supported this finding of academic struggles, with over 70% of those who did not graduate before transferring averaging only a d in university pre-transfer (mccloy et al, 2019). information sources and transfer students according to the 2005 bc transfer and admission survey, the most important sources used by students planning to transfer were institutional websites, counsellors, student advisors and other college officials. however, 2005 was the first year that the bc survey included institutional websites. prior to that inclusion, counsellors, advisors, and other college staff were found to be the most useful sources of information for transfer students (lawrance, 2001, p. 55/57). based on the results of the 2005 survey, the bc transfer guide, calendars, advising sheets and the websites of sending institutions were also some of the most frequently used sources of information by transfer students (bc stats, february 2006, p. 53). the receiving institutions websites were also the most popular source used for students expecting to transfer (bc stats, february 2006, p. 54-55). one of the conclusions emerging from the 2005 bc study was the notion that the development and promotion of transfer materials that were most likely to be used by students, should make the difference in their transfer success (bc stats, february 2006, p. 55). the ontario graduate satisfaction survey (gss) showed that by 2015, university sources especially websites - ranked highest overall, followed by college academic staff, then other the student experience in transfer, september 2020 21 | p a g e students, as the most used sources of information for university transfers. as well, about 44% of transfers reported using the ontransfer.ca website as a source for transfer information (mccloy, steffler & decock, december 2017, p. 35-37). hard copy publications were the least cited source of information used by respondents (mccloy, steffler & decock, december 2017, p.34). in a study conducted by henderson & mccloy (2019), which compared college to university transfer students to non-transfer students in ontario, the authors found less reliance on traditional university channels (university fairs, viewbooks, etc.) but more reliance on interpersonal contacts such as faculty and staff for targeted information less is known about information sources used by university students who transferred to college. in one provincial survey of both college and university students entering college, the website of the college they entered was the overwhelming top source. this result was similar to the results for college to university transfers (usher & jarvey, 2013). a study conducted by lang & lopes (2014) of students interested in university transfer at five ontario colleges, found that for information on the transfer process they mostly relied on university websites and college admission offices. similar results were found in decock & janzen (2016)11 and henderson & mccloy (september 2019). however, the research found that respondents often complained about the timing and the lack of information about number of credits being granted for previous education by the receiving institution (decock & janzen, december 2016, p.15). the biggest challenges were difficulties with specific transfer credits, the number of credits being granted by the receiving institution, inadequate advising, lack of coordination and irregularities in transcript information (decock & janzen, december 2016, p.17). arnold (2014) partly described the latter as a lack of transfer literacy 12 (p. 4). once arriving at the university, some non-canadian transfer students faced difficulties with the english language and with managing the expectations of their new learning environment. these factors made interacting with professors a challenge (decock & janzen & decock, december 2016, p.17). some of the other areas that proved to be a challenge for college to university transfer students were in fact that the orientation sessions typically targeted or supported direct entry students. transfer students expressed that universities needed to improve with respect to supporting students adjustment to the academic expectations of university (mccloy & henderson, september 2019, executive summary). aspirations for transfer many incoming college students aspired to a university education. mccloy, baker, williams & decock (2017) found that 44% of incoming students to seneca college planned to pursue further education after completing their college credential and 36% expressed an interest in pursuing a university degree. of the students who accessed transfer support through senecas 11 in this study research participants used both york and seneca websites. however, they commented that information was often insufficient or inaccessible. the york website was informative, but information was difficult to find, and that the seneca website needed more detailed information (decock & janzen, 2016). 12transfer literacy is the ability to comprehend credit transfer procedures, policies and outcomes. it refers to a set of knowledge and skills that allow individuals to advise and/or make informed decisions about admission and the mobilization of academic credits between colleges and universities to avoid the repetition of coursework, lack of financial assistance and misaligned institutional and program fit (arnold, 2014, p. 4). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 22 | p a g e degree and credit transfer office13, 65% had plans to go to university when they first entered the college. additionally, college entrants with university-educated parents were more likely to plan to attend university after college than students without university-educated parents (steffler, mccloy & decock, 2018). less is known about aspirations for students taking the university to college pathway. in maier & robson (2020), the authors noted that these transfers originally saw university as the only route to a successful future and struggled with the decision to leave. however, the decision to pursue college involved a careful cost-benefit analysis and a desire not to repeat the struggles they had at university. methodology the survey was completed by 516 respondents who transferred between york university and seneca college and were enrolled in programs in fall 2019, an overall 27% participation rate. the final analytical sample consisted of 354 seneca-to-york and 162 york-to-seneca respondents. an overall participation rate of 20% was initially established as the minimum requirement for the survey and multiple email reminders were sent to achieve it. survey respondents were asked for permission to access their administrative data at york and seneca. these data included the number of transfer credits received, their current academic program and program from sending institution, year of birth, gender, present gpa, year of entry and time spent in the current institution, and their status in canada. this administrative data was then merged with survey data by the institute for social research, who then de-identified it and shared the student level data with the office of institutional planning and analysis. after ethics approval, contact information of all currently enrolled transfer students from both sending institutions was extracted by the office of institutional planning and analysis (oipa) at york, and the centre for research in student mobility (crsm) at seneca. these data were then used by the yorks institute for social research (isr) as a population file for administering the surveys and focus groups. the survey instrument asked participants to indicate their interest in participating in a focus group and 50% were. the group was vetted to ensure that students selected for the focus groups were still enrolled at the college and the university. survey respondents received $5 and focus group participants got an additional $40. researchers needed to modify some of the language in the surveys to accommodate assumed differences in how the two survey populations defined their status: york to seneca and seneca to york. it was assumed that students who moved from college to university would define themselves as transfer students, whereas those who moved from the university to college, regardless of graduation status, would see themselves as continuing their studies. questions were adjusted accordingly but the terms/phrases transfer and continuing their education were used interchangeably in this report. focus group analysis there were four focus groups. of 40 focus group participants were identified, 33 transfer students attended and participated. there were 22 seneca to york and 11 york to seneca transfer students. 13senecas degree and credit transfer office was renamed the academic pathways office in may 2020. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 23 | p a g e there were four broad focus group questions: (1) what were the factors motivating students to transfer? (2) what were the experiences of students as they navigated through the application, registration, and enrolment process at the receiving institution? which information sources were used, and which were most or least helpful? (3) based on program, gender, or transfer direction, were there differences in how transfer was experienced? (4) what would the advice be for future students who 8 survey analysis as a first step in the descriptive analysis, the socio-demographic and program related characteristics of the sample were explored. the next step examined experiences at the various stages of the transfer process. these included: (1) transfer planning: analysis of the reasons for transfer, perceptions surrounding their decision-making and timing of their decision. (2) information acquisition: determining what sources respondents used in the planning, application, and registration processes and how helpful these sources were in assisting them in the overall transfer process. (3) transfer support and experience: determining how support resources were used and how satisfied respondents were with their transfer experience. where possible, cross-tabulations of these variables with socio-demographic and programrelated characteristics were done to provide further insights into the descriptive findings. tests were conducted to see if the observed variations were statistically significant. 14 multi-variate regression analysis was used to investigate respondent satisfaction levels and academic performance at the receiving institution. this allowed the researchers to control for other factors while analyzing the impact of the determinants. the outcomes of interest were respondent (1) (2) (3) (4) satisfaction with the overall transfer process; satisfaction with the decision to transfer; likelihood to transfer again, and; academic performance at the receiving institution. the first three were dichotomous variables, so logistic regression was used to examine the likelihood of each outcome. ordinary least squares (ols) regression was used to analyze student academic performance at the receiving institution, as measured by current gpa. within each set of regressions, the researchers included a set of explanatory variables to control for the independent effects of variables and presented changes in coefficients to explain the outcomes.15 the sample was restricted to respondents with complete data for all variables. a variety of goodness-of-fit indicators were assessed. 14 chi-square tests were performed using a 5% level of statistical significance. in the entire report, statistically significant or significant implies that the variation is significant at 5% level. 15 for each regression model, the selection of independent variables was done by estimating the unadjusted association with the dependent variable and those with a p-value 0.25 were selected for inclusion in the multivariable model. variables of interest were assessed independently by removing each variable from the multivariable model one at a time. if the independent variables of interest or the corresponding standard errors changed by greater than or equal to 10% upon removal of a variable, the variable was included in the model. the likelihood-ratio (lr) test was also used to assess whether inclusion of the variable significantly improved model fit. variables for student gender and age were included in all regression models regardless of their statistical significance. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 24 | p a g e construction of the outcome variables for transfer in both directions: model one (i) used satisfaction with the overall transfer process, including with application, registration and the course selection processes. model two (ii) used student satisfaction with the decision to transfer. in models i and ii, respondents chose options on a 5-point likert scale with responses ranging from very satisfied to neither satisfied nor unsatisfied to very unsatisfied. to construct the binary outcomes of interest, the first two responses were grouped as satisfied and the other three as not satisfied. model three (iii) used satisfaction with student choice to transfer to the receiving institution. students were asked if they would transfer to york or seneca if they could start over again. response options were on a four-point likert scale ranging from definitely yes to definitely no. to construct the outcome of interest, the first two responses were grouped as would transfer again and the last two were grouped as would not transfer again. model four (iv) analyzed student academic performance at the receiving institution. this variable was constructed from the merged administrative data that contained their current gpa information. at seneca, gpas included the fall of 2019, however, information for students who entered york in 2019 was not available, so those students were excluded from this model. construction of the explanatory variables for all the regression models, gender, age at the time of transfer16, and status in canada from administrative data were included as control variables. disability status was defined as having a disability or continuing health condition as self-reported on the survey. graduation status was as self-reported on the survey. student ethnicity was defined by either belonging to a non-visible minority ethnic group or a visible minority group.17 for parental education, students with parents having a university degree was derived from the survey question about the highest level of education completed by either of parent or guardian. eight categories were provided: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) did not finish high school; graduated from high school; completed some college or cegep18 courses; completed college or cegep; completed some university courses; received a bachelors degree; received a masters degree, and; received a doctoral degree. if students reported that either parent had completed a bachelors, masters, or doctoral degree, it was considered a university degree. first-generation status of a student was also derived 16 to align the age groups with the discussion on traditional/non-traditional students, three age groups were constructed in our analysis: less than 22 years, 22-24 years, and 25 years and over. 17 the statistics canada definition was used: https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3var.pl?function=dec&id=45152. in our sample, more than 25 percent of student identified their ethnic group as white or aboriginal. 18 in qubec, collge d'enseignement gnral et professionnel. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 25 | p a g e by labelling the first two categories as first-generation, and the other six as non-firstgeneration. 19 for the sending faculty and receiving faculty variables in the regression analysis, students were organized into four groups at each institution: faculties at york: liberal arts & professional studies (la&ps); faculty of health; faculty of science; other faculties. faculties at seneca: faculty of applied arts & health sciences; faculty of applied science & engineering technology; faculty of communication, art & design; seneca business. the interacting with faculty variable was formed from questions regarding student engagement in academic activities at the receiving institution. students who reported that they frequently or sometimes engaged in activities that involved a discussion of grades, assignments, ideas for class project, and career plans with faculty members were classified as interacting with faculty. the academic advising variable was formed from the survey question where the students reported using advising services. for seneca-to-york students, this meant accessing academic advising at york, and for york-to-seneca students, this meant using student advising at seneca. the timing of notification of credit variable was constructed from the question regarding when students found out they received credit from the receiving institution. survey respondents chose from the 7 options: (1) with the offer of admission; (2) at or before registration; (3) after registration; (4) have not applied for credit transfer yet; (5) have applied for credit transfer, but have not heard yet; (6) not applying for credit transfer; and (7) dont know. those who chose the first two options were considered as receiving credit notification before the start of the program, and those who chose after registration were deemed as having received notification after the start of their program. the expectation of credit received variable was constructed from questions that asked whether students received the transfer credits they anticipated. the options were: (1) yes, courses/credits that were transferred were more than expected; (2) yes, the courses/credits that were transferred were what i expected and (3) no, fewer courses/credits were transferred than expected. students selecting the first two options were labelled as receiving more/or the same credits as expected, whereas students selecting the third option were labelled as receiving fewer credits than expected. students were asked how they first found out about the educational/transfer options between york and seneca from a selection of 12 options: (1) seneca website/publications; (2) seneca faculty/program coordinators; (3) seneca staff; (4) fast track event at seneca; (5) york website/publications; (6) york staff; (7) college and university fair/on-campus information 19 this definition conforms with the one used by the ministry of colleges & universities in its strategic mandate agreements. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 26 | p a g e fair/open house; (8) social media; (9) other students/friends; (10) parents/family; (11) ontransfer.ca website; and (12) ocas/ouac websites. these categories were then classified into university sources, college sources, university/college sources20 and personal sources of information, which were then used in the regression model. the most important reason for transfer as described by students was grouped into four categories21 for the purpose of regression analysis: (1) career or labour market-related: where students chose either of the potential for higher income, no work available, company paid, 'more opportunities for career advancement, or practical skills for career progression. (2) academic or program-related: this included upgrading skills and pursuing a different field of study. (3) credential or designation acquisition-related: this included the responses to get diploma/certificate/degree and needed / required for a professional designation. (4) transfer process-related: this included the presence of transfer agreement and ease of the transfer credit process. survey findings: seneca to york transfers both descriptive analyses and multivariate regressions were used to evaluate the survey findings from the student experience in transfer study. the research results were organized by student transfer direction: first seneca to york then york to seneca. each of the survey findings sections was further divided into sub-sections to investigate different themes pertaining to student transfer experience. the section will start with socio-demographic characteristics of the sample, followed by the planning and decision-making for transfer, the information sources and expectations related to the transfer experience, and finally, the satisfaction levels associated with it. socio-demographic characteristics appendix 1, table 20 summarized the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample. of 354 seneca to york transfer students that responded to the survey: 213 (60.2%) were female and 141 (39.8%) were male. 124 (35.0%) at the time of transfer were aged 25 and over; 114 (32.2%) were between the ages of 22 and 24; and 116 (32.8%) were less than 22. 201 (56.8%) at the time of survey were aged 25 and over, 120 (33.9%) were between the ages of 22 and 24 (9.3%) were less than 22. 267 (75.4%) were identified as canadian, 45 (12.7%) as permanent residents and 42 (11.9%) as visa students. ethnic & cultural background participants were asked to identify the ethnic and cultural groups they belonged to on the survey and could select all the options that applied. based on the first response selected, the respondents ethnicity was cross tabulated by status in canada. 22 twenty-five percent of the respondents identified themselves as white and canadian and only 2.9% as white with 20 this category included the college and university fair, ontransfer.ca website, and ocas/ouac websites. these groupings were developed from categories used in a previous centre for research in student mobility report. https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/the-changing-patterns-of-college-to-universitytransfer.pdf 21 22 two students in the sample identified themselves as indigenous (e.g., first nations, mtis, inuit). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 27 | p a g e permanent residents or visa status. the remaining 72% were from various minority groups, with south asian, chinese, and black topping the list. (see table 1). table 1. seneca to york transfer students - ethnic group by status in canada ethnicity status in canada white canadian citizens 25.3% south asian total by ethnic groups23 permanent resident 2.0% 12.8% visa 0.9% 28.2% 3.1% 1.7% 17.6% 5.4% 19.1% chinese 9.7% 4.0% black arab 9.1% 2.6% 0.3% 9.4% 2.6% west asian 2.6% 0.9% 3.5% filipino 2.3% 0.3% 2.6% latin american 2.3% 0.9% 0.9% southeast asian 2.0% 0.6% 2.6% korean 1.4% 0.3% 1.4% 3.1% 0.6% 0.6% japanese 4.1% other groups 5.1% 1.1% 0.3% 6.5% total 75.2% 12.9% 11.8% 99.9% disability disclosure 20.7% of the sample self-disclosed that they have a disability. the top three disabilities identified by these respondents were: (1) mental disability (56.2%), (2) medical disability (24.7%), and (3) learning disability (21.9%). (see appendix 1, table 20, and table 21). parental education respondents self-reported that 34.3% had at least one parent with a bachelors degree or higher and 34.9% at least one parent who had attended pse without completing. the remaining 30.8% had parents with a high school education or less and so were first-generation as defined by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities.24 (see appendix 1, table 20). respondents college and university faculty affiliation the distribution of college to university transfers by sending seneca faculty and receiving york faculty is presented in table 2. the largest number of transfer respondents came from senecas faculty of applied arts & health sciences and faculty of business. fifty-eight percent of seneca to york transfers enrolled in the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies, followed by the 17.3% in health and 15% in science. pathways of high affinity were observed, with, for example, 41 of the 53 transfers into the faculty of science originating in senecas faculty of applied science and engineering technology, and 41 of 61 transfers into the faculty of health transfers originating from the faculty of applied arts and health science. the wide variety of programs offered by the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies resulted in transfer students coming from diverse faculties at seneca. (see table 2). 23 24 the total may not add to 100 due to rounding errors. https://www.ontario.ca/page/students-special-circumstances#section-2 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 28 | p a g e table 2. sending seneca faculty and receiving york faculty seneca to york receiving york faculty faculty of liberal arts & professional studies faculty of education faculty of environmental studies school of the arts, media, performance & design (ampd) faculty of health lassonde school of engineering faculty of science unknown total by seneca faculty faculty of applied arts & health sciences n 61 % 17.2% 1 0.3% faculty of applied science and engineering technology n % 13 3.7% 6 41 11.6% 5 1.4% 1 109 0.3% 30.8% n 84 % 23.7% 1.7% 3 0.9% 20 5.7% 41 11.6% 83 sending seneca faculty faculty of faculty of business communication, art & design 23.6% 4 3 91 1.1% 0.9% 25.7% n 46 % 13.0% unknown n 1 % 0.3% total by york faculty25 n 205 % 57.9% 1 0.3% 3 0.9% 9 2.6% 4 1.1% 4 1.1% 11 3.1% 61 17.3% 20 5.7% 1.1% 53 15.0% 19.2% 1 354 0.3% 100.2% 4 68 2 3 0.6% 0.9% the responses showed that 83.3% of the students who transferred from seneca to york had graduated and 16.7% had not. regardless of graduation status, most of the students who transferred to york came from two-year diploma programs (68.4%), and three-year diploma programs (23.5%) at seneca. (see appendix 1, table 24). a higher percentage of males than females transferred from senecas faculty of applied science and engineering technology (faset).26 although the male transfers from faset were distributed amongst yorks faculties of science, lassonde and la&ps, females primarily enrolled themselves in the faculty of science. on the other hand, a greater proportion of females relative to males transferred from senecas faculty of applied arts and health sciences. (see appendix 1, table 25). planning and decision-making for transfer respondents were asked to indicate their reasons for transferring from seneca to york. 27 more than 80% chose to obtain a degree, upgrade skills, or provide more career opportunities as their major reasons. (see table 3). the major reasons were summarized across various socio-demographic characteristics in appendix 1, table 28. more females than males specified upgrading of skills, the need for 25 the total may not add to 100 due to rounding errors. it includes seneca programs of aviation, biotechnology, chemical laboratory technician, civil engineering technology/ technician, computer engineering technology, electrical engineering technology/ technician and environmental technology/technician. 27 for each reason for transferring, three response options were provided: major reason, minor reason, or not a reason. 26 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 29 | p a g e professional designation and opportunities for career advancement. also, more females than males chose transfer-related reasons like ease of transfer process and opportunity for transfer credits. students who were either under 22 or 25 of age and over attached more value to acquisition of degree as a reason for transferring than those between 22 and 24. this was also true for students who had parents with no university degree. family and friends had a stronger and statistically significant influence on the decision to transfer for students from visible minorities compared to non-visible minorities. they also indicated that lack of work, the need for a professional designation and transfer-process related reasons were more important. (see appendix 1, table 28). table 3. reason(s) for transfer, % major reason - seneca to york transfers reasons for transferring to get a degree more opportunities for career advancement upgrade/improve skills higher income the opportunity for transfer credit between the previous college program and the current university degree the ease of the transfer process needed for a professional designation because of encouragement from family members or friends interest in pursuing a different field of study no job or work available in my field could not get into york, but could get into seneca company/ employer required and paid for it percentage (%) 88.3 83.5 79.6 69.7 67.6 note: respondents could select more than one reason. from the reasons that survey respondents indicated were very important to their decision to transfer from seneca to york, they were asked to select one that was the most important. the top three most important reasons for transferring were identified as: (1) to obtain a university degree (29.1%); (2) potential for a higher income (20.1%); and (3) the prospects of more opportunities for career advancement (19.2%). (see table 4). table 4. most important reason for transfer - seneca to york transfers most important reason to get a degree potential for higher income more opportunities for career advancement upgrade/improve skills interest in pursuing a different field of study needed for professional designation the opportunity for transfer credit between my previous and current program no work/ job available in my field could not get into york, but could get into seneca the student experience in transfer, september 2020 percentage (%) 29.1 20.1 19.2 8.1 6.5 4.6 4.6 2.8 1.9 30 | p a g e 64.6 60.4 45.9 45.6 44.7 18.9 16.5 most important reason percentage (%) encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) ease of the transfer credit process other reason 1.6 0.6 0.6 note: respondents could select only one reason. non-graduates and reasons for not graduating from sending institution seneca to york transfers who did not graduate prior to transferring to the university were asked to provide reasons for not finishing their studies at seneca. two stood out. the desire for a university degree was cited by 64.4% and that university was better suited to their learning interests by 40.7%. (see figure 1).28 figure 1. reason(s) for not graduating from seneca before transferring note: respondents could select more than one reason. decision-making timelines regarding transfer previous research on transfer students has revealed that decision-making regarding the transfer process usually occurred along a continuum. in this study, seneca to york transfer students were asked when they specifically decided to transfer to york. overall, students who had graduated from seneca were likely to have made the decision to transfer to york after they had graduated from seneca (31.6%) or as they were finishing their program at the college (27.6%). students who transferred to york before graduating were more likely to have decided to transfer to york before entering seneca (22%) than the transfers who first graduated, (12.6%). this variation in decision-making timelines by graduation status was statistically significant. (see figure 2). 28 one limitation of this survey question was that the responses were not designed to fully capture the differences between the graduates and non-graduates reasons for transferring from seneca . the student experience in transfer, september 2020 31 | p a g e figure 2. timing of decision to transfer to york by graduation status from seneca the transfer experience - information sources & expectations this section of the results will describe how respondents first heard about transfer, and the sources of information used along the various stages of the decision-making continuum: considering transfer, applying to transfer, and enrolling at the receiving institution. the number of transfer credits received, the timing of the transfer credit information, expectations about transfer credits and services accessed at york and their usefulness were also evaluated. hearing about transfer opportunities for the first time seneca to york respondents were asked how they first found about their educational options regarding transfer. in general, among the seneca to york transfers, the top two sources were seneca websites/publications (29.2%) and seneca faculty/program coordinators (17.3%). (see figure 3). grouping of these sources showed that 57.8% of the students first heard about transfer options at the college, while the remaining were informed through personal, university and other mixed sources. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 32 | p a g e figure 3. how did respondents first find out about the transfer options to york? note: respondents could only choose one source of information. considering transfer: sources of information accessed and their usefulness seneca to york respondents were asked to recall all the sources of information they accessed when considering transfer. the top three sources of information sources used included: yorks future students website (41.8%), seneca websites (38.4%), and senecas degree and credit transfer office publication (24.6%). apart from the use of the york future students website, transfer students predominantly relied on college rather than university sources for information (see figure 4). when asked about the usefulness of the sources of information, more than 90% of those who responded relied on york futures website, seneca website, the degree and credit transfer (academic pathways) publication, ocas/ ouac websites and seneca staff, and deemed them to be very or somewhat useful.29 (see figure 5). 29 for the usefulness of each source of information used, four response options were provided: very useful, somewhat useful, not very useful, or not at all useful. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 33 | p a g e figure 4. sources of information used when considering transfer- seneca to york note: respondents could choose more than one source of information. figure 5. usefulness of sources of information used when considering transfer (% very or somewhat useful) the student experience in transfer, september 2020 34 | p a g e applying to transfer: sources of information accessed and their usefulness seneca to york transfer respondents were asked about the sources of information they relied upon at the time of their application to york. the top three sources used were the york websites (71.5%), email communications from staff at york (33.9%), and the seneca websites (31.1%). (see figure 6). the degree of reliance on electronic sources resembled the findings from the literature of other extant studies from british columbia and ontario previously discussed. figure 6. sources of information used at the time of application- seneca to york transfers note: respondents could choose more than one source of information. respondents were also asked to comment on the usefulness of the sources identified when they were applying to york. of the12 named sources, 9 of them were deemed useful or very useful by more than 90% of respondents. (see figure 7). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 35 | p a g e figure 7. usefulness of sources of information used when applying (% very or somewhat useful) financial aid information provided at the time of application survey respondents who transferred from seneca to york were asked about the information they received regarding financial aid when they applied to york. about 28% of respondents stated they were provided with information, 36% said that no information was provided and 30% did not remember, although many of the latter group may not have required financial aid. that number could not be quantified, however. (see figure 8). figure 8. information provided on financial aid options - seneca to york students who reported receiving information about financial aid were asked about their sources of information. approximately one-half (51.5%) of these respondents stated it was the york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 36 | p a g e website, 33.3% said it was the financial aid office at york and 17.1% indicated the financial aid office at seneca. (see table 5). table 5. source(s) of information about financial aid seneca to york sources of information number percentage (%) york website financial aid office at york financial aid office at seneca york future students page other30 51 33 17 13 13 51.5 33.3 17.1 13.1 13.1 seneca website 12 12.1 note: respondents could choose more than one source. the denominator is respondents who received information about financial aid. enrolment: sources of information accessed after registration at york and their usefulness as expected, once the seneca to york transfer students were enrolled at the university there was greater emphasis on accessing sources at the receiving institution. however, a small number of students said they continued to use seneca sources even after registration at york. 31 yorks websites and publications, york advising appointments, york staff and email communications from staff at york were the topmost sources used by seneca to york transfer respondents. (see figures 9 and 10). 63.3% of transfer students used the york website and publications, and 94% of these users found these sources to be useful. 40.4% of transfers relied on information from advising appointments, and 92% found this source to be useful. 33.6% relied on information from york staff, with 95% of users found this source to be useful. 30.5% of transfers relied on emails from york, and 96% found this source of information to be useful. 15.5% of transfers relied on other students and friends and 98% found these sources to be useful. 30 other sources could possibly include the osap website as mentioned by some students during the focus group. it may be because they needed some information on transfer credit allocation, or they were more comfortable with the seneca websites due to familiarity. 31 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 37 | p a g e figure 9. sources of information used after registration - seneca to york note: on the survey, respondents had the option to choose more than one source of information. figure 10. usefulness of the sources of information used after registration (% very or somewhat useful) the student experience in transfer, september 2020 38 | p a g e timing of information about transfer credit half of seneca to york transfers indicated that they received information about their transfer credit allocation with the offer of admission to york, 22.5% said at or before registration and 18.5% said after registration. the remainder either did not know or had other reasons. 32 (see figure 11). figure 11. timing of transfer credit notification - seneca to york expectations about transfer credit several factors may have played a role in the formation of student expectations about transfer credits. these included the presence of articulation agreements between the two institutions, information gained from university or college sources like websites, publications, from staff during the planning and application process, and information from personal sources such as conversations held with other students and friends. students transfer credit expectations are shown in figure 12.33 over half, or 51.4% received the amount of credit they expected or more, while 43.2% of respondents indicated that they received fewer transfer credits than expected34. 32 the other reasons were either they had applied but had not yet heard back at the time of the survey, they had not applied for transfer credit yet, or they were not applying for transfer credit. 33 this question was only asked of transfers who had applied for credit and had heard back. transfers who did not apply, had not yet applied, or applied and had not heard back were not asked. 34 if you do not count those who did not respond, 54.3% received as much or more credit than they expected and 45.7% received less the student experience in transfer, september 2020 39 | p a g e figure 12. expectation of transfer credits received - seneca to york figure 13 compared the distribution of actual credits received with student transfer credit expectations, where the number of credits students received for their seneca program was derived from administrative data. (see appendix 1, table 38). there was a statistically significant difference in the credit expectation by the actual number of transfer credits received: the higher the amount of transfer credits students received, the less likely they were to report receiving fewer credits than expected.35 (see figure 13). 35 note that 25% of the 16 students who received no credits for their seneca program reported that they received more credits than expected. either they received credits for studies completed at another institution, or they misremembered what they received, or their transfer literacy was low. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 40 | p a g e figure 13. student expectations by actual credits received seneca to york the lower the sending gpa, the more often students reported receiving fewer credits than expected: 36.5% of a grade students, 48.1% of b grade, 60.7% of c (or less) received fewer credits than expected. (see figure 14). figure 14. expectation of transfer credits received & academic performance at seneca seneca to york table 6 presents a snapshot of the transfer credits allocated to seneca graduates who entered specified degree programs at york. students from the early childhood education program at the student experience in transfer, september 2020 41 | p a g e seneca had slightly higher seneca and york gpas, relative to students from other programs. also, students who took the articulated pathways from science programs (biotechnology and chemical lab technology) at seneca, on average had the highest amount of transfer credits. table 6. transfer credits received by seneca graduates & articulation agreements sending program at seneca receiving faculty at york liberal arts transfer social service worker early childhood education biotechnology any faculty 27 2.90 5.53 44.2 6 48 la&ps 35 3.08 5.86 36.9 3 45 la&ps 17 3.22 6.25 34.4 15 45 sciencebiology sciencechemistry 14 2.92 5.86 45.7 36 51 17 3.19 5.48 47.6 24 51 chemical lab technology n mean seneca gpa (/4.0) mean york gpa (/9.0) transfer credits received mean minimu m maximum eighty-seven percent of respondents in the seneca to york transfer sample started at the york university in 2017 or after. by this year all of the current articulation agreements facilitating transfer into the york degrees mentioned in table 6 were in effect.36 based on the current agreements, transferring lat graduates are to receive 48 credits; social service worker graduates 45 credits; early childhood education graduates 45 credits; biotechnology and chemical laboratory technology graduates 51 credits, respectively. with the exception of biotechnology which has an admissions gpa of 3.3, the remaining programs have a gpa requirement of 3.0 for entry into york degrees. the chart above shows the mean seneca average for students entering york, which in three programs is below the minimum, as well as the average number of credits. therefore, several students did not meet the normal minimum average but were granted admission to the program. normally these admission decisions are made by a faculty-led subcommittee which considers additional information, including extenuating circumstances, for example. students admitted by a subcommittee decision will often be granted a reduced number of transfer credits after careful consideration of their performance at seneca. as will be discussed subsequently, transfer credit issues were a major source of concern, vocalized by many students during the focus group discussions and open-ended responses related to satisfying and unsatisfying transfer experiences. as was previously illustrated, respondents who received fewer transfer credits than expected had lower levels of satisfaction and unfavourable transfer experiences. therefore, to improve students confidence and trust in the credit allocation process of the institution, greater transparency and communication will be warranted. 36 the articulation agreements facilitating mobility from senecas lat and ssw programs were signed in 2015; biotechnology into biology, march 2017; chemical laboratory technician and chemical engineering technology into chemistry august 2017; and early childhood education into york degrees, december 2017. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 42 | p a g e use of services the two most widely used services at york by seneca to york transfer students were yorks library and learning commons (78.8%), and academic advising (73.5%). (see figure 15). approximately 30% of students also reported using the services of yu start, the transition program for new students, and student papers and academic research kit (spark). many services were not used or little-known, although not all services were necessarily relevant to every student. in some cases, students might have been familiar with the service offered, but not the unit administering them.37 (see figure 15). figure 15. service usage at york - seneca to york 37 an example might be scld, which administers many services that students might individually be familiar with (e.g. red zone, student clubs, orientation), but may not know that scld coordinated them. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 43 | p a g e figure 16 showed that the more time students spent at york, the more they accessed some of the available services. 38 statistically significant variation 39 was observed in the utilization of the following services by terms at york: academic advising, career centre, atkinson centre of mature & part-time students (acmaps), writing support centre and yu start program. according to the snapshot in figure 16, 50% or more of students used academic advising, the library, spark, or the career centre services at least once the more terms they were enrolled at york. the remaining services were used by less than 50% of respondents, although usage for the writing support centre, disability services and yu start was in the mid to high 40% range. figure 16. service usage at york by terms at york- seneca to york note: acmaps: (atkinson centre for mature and part-time students), spark: (student papers and academic research kit), scld: student community leadership development. 38 a major exception to this is yu start, a new student transition program. prior to 2017 not all faculties had their new students participate. this may explain why students in our sample who had been at york for a longer time did not identify yu start as a service they had used 39 this figure provided a snapshot of service usage at york and was not intended to show trend of service usage. it included students from multiple cohorts entering york at different points of time. there could be other possible confounding factors affecting service usage like the availability of the service and occurrence of previous strikes. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 44 | p a g e appendix 1, table 30 compared the utilization of these services based on various sociodemographic characteristics.40 out of all the services, statistically significant gender-based variation was only seen for the writing support centre and student success strategies program. more females used writing centre support and more males use student success strategy programs. the age group of the respondents at the time of transfer affected students access to the york university mature student organization and atkinson centre for mature & part-time students. however, these two services were under-utilized, with only 10.9% of students who were 25 and over at the time of transfer reporting usage. there was also a statistically significant variation in the use of student accessibility services at york based on whether students reported having a disability or not. (see table 7) table 7. proportion of students accessing disability services by disability status seneca to york accessing student accessibility services yes no never heard of students reporting disability yes no 68.1 17.9 26.1 73.3 5.8 8.8 as would be expected, a higher percentage of permanent residents and visa students reported using the services of esl open learning centre, yu start, career centre and learning skills relative to canadian students. (see appendix 1, table 30). this information on differences in service utilization by socio-demographic characteristics could provide insight into student services at york. knowing how and how much, this diverse student population was being allocated resources and incentivized, would support their academic success at york. engagement in academic and non-academic activities this section explored patterns of academic and social engagement of the seneca to york transfer students. almost 100% said they completed assignments on time, 91% frequently. for each of the other academic activities, more than half of the respondents said they engaged frequently or sometimes. only for discussed career plans with faculty did nearly half of respondents say never. (see figure 17). these findings were aligned with the extant studies previously mentioned. 40 access to services of academic advising, student success strategies, spark and writing support were not significantly related to students current academic performance at york. therefore, the results were not shown. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 45 | p a g e figure 17. engagement in academic activities at york seneca to york the distribution of students who reported engagement in academic activities by number of terms at york was presented in figure 18. for each of the academic activities described, a greater proportion of students who were at york for longer period reported increased engagement. the largest and statistically significant increase in engagement by the length of time that students were at york was observed among those who discussed grades or assignments with instructor. more than ninety percent of the students who were at york for more than 8 terms sometimes or frequently discussed grades as opposed to 64.3% of students who at the time of survey were at york only for one to two terms. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 46 | p a g e figure 18. engagement in academic activities at york by terms at york seneca to york respondents were asked to comment on their work habits, as well as their on-campus and community engagement activities. (see figure 19). involvement in non-academic activities at educational institutions was considered important for creating a sense of community and to help enrich the learning experiences of students. the results of the survey revealed high levels of employment among the seneca to york transfer students, and limited involvement in extracurricular and other on-campus activities. approximately forty-six percent of respondents who transferred from seneca to york indicated that they worked more than ten hours during the week while in school. on the other hand, 65.8% did not participate in co-curricular activities and 79.9% stated that they did not participate in any on-campus community service or volunteer activities. (see figure 19).41 again, these results reflected some of the findings of previous studies. 41 analysis of yorks 2017 national survey of student engagement (nsse) results suggested that, by controlling for age, transfer students worked off campus an average of 9.9 hours vs 8.0 for non-transfer students. the result is statistically significant at p < .05. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 47 | p a g e figure 19. engagement in non-academic activities (hours in week)- seneca to york satisfaction levels as previously discussed in the literature review, satisfaction levels with transfer were associated with transfer student academic preparation, experiences at the sending and receiving institution and academic success. to gauge the levels of student satisfaction with their transfer experience from seneca to york, students were asked: overall, how satisfied were you with your decision to transfer from seneca to york? how satisfied were you with the overall process of transferring from one institution to the other (including application, registration, selecting courses, etc.)? if you could start over again, would you transfer to york? appendix 1, table 35 is a cross-tabulation of the proportion of students who transferred to university and were satisfied with the transfer process, their decision to transfer to york and whether they would make that decision again, against various sociodemographic, programmatic, and transfer-related characteristics. some variations in the satisfaction rates were apparent. overall transfer process & satisfaction levels almost 71% of seneca to york transfer respondents stated that they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the overall process of transfer from the college to the university. (see figure 20). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 48 | p a g e figure 20. satisfaction with overall process seneca to york transfer students who reported being satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the overall transfer process more often reported that they learned about their transfer credit allocation at or before registration and received the same or more credits than expected (see figures 21 & 22). these findings suggested that timing and the receipt of the transfer credit allocation were important factors in student satisfaction with the transfer process. figure 21. satisfaction with overall transfer process by expectation of transfer credits note: other includes students who did not answer this question, as they did not apply for credits or had not heard back by the time the survey was administered. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 49 | p a g e figure 22. satisfaction with overall process by timing of credit notification note: other includes students who either had not applied for credit transfer yet or had applied for credit transfer but had not heard yet or didnt know. decision-making and satisfaction a total of 81.3% of transfer respondents stated that they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the decision to transfer to york. (see figure 23). figure 23. satisfaction with transfer decisionseneca to york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 50 | p a g e table 8 (excerpted below) and figure 24 showed differences in satisfaction with the decision to transfer by york faculty. table 8. satisfaction with decision to transfer by faculty seneca to york york faculty liberal arts & professional studies faculty of health faculty of science lassonde school of engineering % of transfers 57.9% 17.3% 15.0% 5.7% % satisfied with decision to transfer 82.9% 86.6% 69.8% 80.0% figure 24. satisfaction with transfer decision by york faculty - seneca to york note for york faculties: faculties with less than 10 observations were not shown in this figure; health = faculty of health; la&ps = liberal arts & professional studies; lassonde = lassonde school of engineering; science = faculty of science. despite these disparities in satisfaction, logistic regression model ii in table 9 illustrated that when other factors were controlled for the faculty that students were enrolled in, it was not predictive of satisfaction with their transfer decision. academic preparation and satisfaction levels figure 25 showed how satisfied students were with previous academic preparation for current program of study at york. most, (80.9% of students) reported being very or somewhat satisfied with their academic preparation. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 51 | p a g e figure 25. satisfaction with academic preparation at seneca - seneca to york specifically, 89.4% of those who transferred into lassonde, 86.4% into the faculty of health, 80.1% into la&ps programs and 75.5% into the faculty of science stated that they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their previous academic preparation. the tendency for science students to be less satisfied with their college preparation was evident. (see figure 26). figure 26. satisfaction with academic preparation for study at york by york faculty note for york faculties: faculties with less than 10 observations are not shown in this figure; studies; health = faculty of health; la&ps = liberal arts & professional studies; lassonde = lassonde school of engineering; science = faculty of science. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 52 | p a g e the higher the york gpa of seneca to york transfer students, the more likely they were to express satisfaction with their pre-transfer academic preparation. for students with a gpa of a, 92.9% expressed satisfaction and for b, 90.3%. yet only 70.9% of those with c and 40.0% of those with d were satisfied with their academic preparation. (see figure 27). figure 27. satisfaction with academic preparation for study at york by grades at york if you could start over again, would you transfer to york? most seneca to york transfer respondents indicated that they would transfer again: 44.5% said definitely yes and 40.2% said probably yes. (see figure 28). however, more females (89.2%) than males (77.9%) stated that they would choose york if they could start over again. 42 (see figure 29). this disparity remained significant after controlling for other factors: females were 3.2 times more likely to indicate that they would choose to transfer again than males. (see table 9). 42 see appendix 1, table 35 for detailed descriptives . the student experience in transfer, september 2020 53 | p a g e figure 28. transfer again to york- seneca to york figure 29. transfer again to york by gender- seneca to york similar to other measures of satisfaction, 95% of those who transferred into the faculty of health; 84.4% into la&ps programs; 81.1% into the faculty of science; and 80% into lassonde stated that if they could start over again, they would definitely or probably choose york. (see figure 30). however, these were not found to be statistically significant in the regression model. (see model iii in table 9). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 54 | p a g e figure 30. transfer again to york by york faculty - seneca to york note for york faculties: faculties with less than 10 observations are not shown in this figure; health = faculty of health; la&ps = liberal arts & professional studies; lassonde = lassonde school of engineering; science = faculty of science. there was also no statistically significant relationship between the actual credits received by students and their choice to transfer again. regardless of the number of credits received, most respondents indicated that they would definitely or probably transfer again. (see figure 31). figure 31. transfer again to york by actual transfer credits received - seneca to york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 55 | p a g e regression models43 satisfaction with the overall process of transferring from seneca to york (including application, registration, selecting courses) the findings from the logistic regression model (model i in table 9) showed that after controlling for other factors, timing of credit transfer notification and transfer credit amount relative to expectations continued to be a significant influencer of satisfaction with the transfer process. seneca to york transfer respondents who received fewer credits were less likely to be satisfied than those who received the same amount of credit or more than expected. the odds of being satisfied with the transfer process were 0.57 times lower for students who received fewer credits than expected, than students who received more or the expected number of credits. similarly, students who received their transfer credit notification after program registration at the university, had 0.36 times lower odds of being satisfied with the transfer process relative to students who were notified before or at the start of the program. model i also showed that students who had a parent with a university degree had 2.11 times higher odds of being satisfied with the transfer process than those whose parents did not have a university education. as well, transfer students who interacted with faculty at the receiving institution were 4.32 more likely to be satisfied with the transfer process. furthermore, students who first found out about transfer options through college sources had 0.83 times lower odds of being satisfied with the transfer process than those who first used university sources. the receiving faculty at york variable was only marginally significant at 10% level. for students enrolled in la&ps programs, the odds of being satisfied with the process were 2.85 times higher compared to students enrolled in the faculty of science, the reference. the relative dissatisfaction of students in the faculty of science may be related to issues of inadequate college preparation expressed in focus groups by some students. 44 satisfaction with the decision to transfer from seneca to york significant factors predicting satisfaction with the transfer decision (model ii in table 9) included respondents: whose parents or guardians had a university degree they were 3.34 times more likely to be satisfied than those who did not. who received the fewer credits than expected, they had 0.43 times lower odds of being satisfied than students who received the same or more transfer credits. the timing of credit notification was not predictive of satisfaction with the transfer decision. the most important reason for transferring as described by respondents was grouped into four categories to test the association with the outcomes of interest.45those who indicated that they transferred for academic related reasons had higher odds of indicating their satisfaction with the decision to transfer, compared to students who continued their education at the university due to transfer-related reasons. 43 inclusion of timing of credit notification and credit expectation variables in our regression analysis would exclude students who did not apply for transfer credits. therefore, additional models were run by removing these variables. however, for seneca-to-york sample, there was no change in terms of significance of explanatory variables, so the results for these additional models were not reported. 44 several transfer students enrolled in chemistry at york noted that there was a disconnection between seneca chemistry (for which credits were received) and york chemistry courses. they struggled academically because they were not taught some important topics at seneca that were a pre-requisite for some of the york courses. 45 career or labour market-related; academic or program-related; credential or designation acquisition-related; and transfer process-related. see methodology. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 56 | p a g e if you could start over again, would you transfer to york? the question if you could start over again, would you transfer to york tried to uncover the propensity of students to transfer to york, given their experiences to date. according to logistic model iii in table 9, females had 3.15 times higher odds of choosing to transfer again than males and students who reported having a disability had 0.39 times lower odds than those not reporting a disability. as with previous measures of satisfaction, the fewer the number of credits received relative to expectations for their college program, the lower the odds that they would choose to transfer again. students who received fewer than the expected number of credits had 0.25 times lower odds of choosing to transfer to york again, if they were to start over, relative to students who received the expected number of credits or more. in terms of the most important reason for transferring, those who indicated that they transferred for academic reasons had 3.35 times higher odds of choosing to transfer again than those who selected transfer process-related reasons. relative to students who transferred from senecas faculty of communication, art, and design, only those who transferred from senecas faculty of applied science and engineering technology had 5.1 times higher odds of indicating that they would transfer to york again if given the opportunity. (see model iii, table 9). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 57 | p a g e table 9. logistic models for satisfaction with transfer experience - seneca to york seneca to york transfers categories independent variables gender (ref=male) status in canada (ref=visa student) age at time of transfer (ref = less than 22) parental education (ref=no university degree) disability status (ref= did not report disability) ethnicity (ref= did not belong) expectation of credits received for the study from seneca (ref=more or same as expected) timing of credit notification (ref= before or at the start of the program) faculty at seneca (ref= communication, art & design) credential at seneca (ref = other*) faculty at york (ref= faculty of science) model i: model ii: model iii: satisfaction with the overall process satisfaction with the transfer decision decision to transfer again female st. beta -0.08 std. err 0.17 odds ratio 0.84 canadian citizen -0.32 0.27 permanent resident 0.43 22-24 st. beta 0.19 std. err 0.20 odds ratio 1.46 st. beta 0.57 std. err 0.21 odds ratio 3.15 0.81 0.03 0.30 1.42 -0.18 0.31 0.47 0.40 1.70 0.29 0.44 1.85 -0.42 0.43 0.37 0.45 0.24 3.05 * 0.49 0.29 3.23 * -0.10 0.29 1.29 25 and over university degree 0.21 0.75 0.23 0.38 2.40 2.11 ** 0.20 1.21 0.27 0.47 2.41 3.34 *** 0.44 0.62 0.31 0.46 2.19 1.86 reported a disability -0.43 0.42 0.65 0.33 0.52 1.39 -0.95 0.48 0.39 belong to a non-visible minority group 0.41 0.38 1.51 -0.33 0.45 0.72 0.32 0.50 1.38 fewer credits than expected -0.28 0.13 0.57 ** -0.43 0.19 0.43 -0.70 0.21 0.25 after the start of the program -0.52 0.19 0.36 *** -0.01 0.25 0.99 0.01 0.24 1.01 applied arts & health sciences applied science & engineering technology business advanced diploma diploma liberal arts & professional studies -0.00 0.33 0.96 -0.13 0.38 0.59 -0.50 0.42 0.83 0.26 0.48 1.25 -0.09 0.51 0.62 1.32 0.59 5.10 -0.30 -0.15 0.28 0.61 0.36 0.38 0.31 0.36 0.71 0.98 1.49 2.85 -0.18 -0.02 -0.24 0.22 0.41 0.46 0.39 0.40 0.57 0.76 0.61 3.48 -0.50 -0.51 0.46 0.24 0.43 0.45 0.38 0.43 0.82 0.58 1.51 3.20 faculty of health -0.24 0.39 1.21 0.60 0.52 5.10 1.25 0.90 8.79 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 sig. * sig. ** 58 | p a g e sig. *** ** *** ** seneca to york transfers categories independent variables first information source of educational options between seneca and york (ref=university) most important reason for transfer (ref=transfer credits and agreement) faculty engagement (ref = not interacted with faculty) total n model i: model ii: model iii: satisfaction with the overall process satisfaction with the transfer decision decision to transfer again std. err 0.45 odds ratio 1.67 sig. other faculties st. beta 0.07 st. beta 0.22 std. err 0.54 odds ratio 3.48 college -0.55 0.27 0.83 ** -0.26 0.34 1.44 college/university personal 0.54 0.38 0.54 0.44 2.46 2.11 -0.21 1.09 0.62 0.63 1.51 5.50 academic-related 0.43 0.39 2.81 0.67 0.21 2.33 career-related -0.08 0.28 1.70 0.17 0.35 1.41 credential-related 0.26 0.29 2.38 0.37 0.21 2.92 interacted with faculty 1.46 0.48 4.32 0.85 0.54 2.34 262 *** sig. st. beta -0.55 std. err 0.55 odds ratio 1.45 0.04 0.34 2.16 * 0.41 0.27 0.62 0.51 3.10 2.71 *** 0.62 0.28 3.35 0.25 0.36 2.30 0.29 0.16 2.48 0.49 0.65 1.63 * 262 262 note. * p < .10; **p < .05; *** p < .01; ref = reference group; sig. = significance level. other credentials include 1yr certificates, bachelors degrees, and graduate certificates the student experience in transfer, september 2020 59 | p a g e sig. ** * academic performance at york the academic performance of students who transferred to york was generally good. based on available administrative gpa data,46 more than sixty percent of students who transferred from seneca to york had an a or b average at york: (1) 11.2% had a gpa of a, (2) 49.4% had a gpa of b, (3) 32.7% had a gpa of c, and(4) 6.7% had a gpa of d or e. the proportion of students with excellent or good academic performances at york by various socio-demographic, program-specific and transfer-related characteristics was summarized in appendix 1, table 35. the determinants of academic performance at york were analyzed via ordinary least squares regression technique, with the last reported gpa at york as the outcome variable (model iv in table 10). after controlling for other factors, statistically significant findings included: on average, female transfers had gpas 0.20 points lower than their male counterparts. a one-point increase in seneca gpa was associated with an average of 0.46 points increase in york gpa. students coming from senecas faculty of business had york gpas that were 0.67 points higher than students from faculty of communication, art & design. the differences in gpas for students coming from the two other faculties were not statistically significant. relative to seneca students enrolling in the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies, those who enrolled in the faculty of health had a gpa 0.48 points higher; and those who enrolled in other faculties47 had a gpa 0.73 higher. the gpa difference of students enrolling in the faculty of science and la&ps was not statistically significant. transfer students who received academic advising at york had a gpa 0.31 higher than those who did not. seneca transfers who interacted with faculty at york post-transfer had york gpa 0.85 points higher than those who did not. the effects of the number of terms at york and the number of credits received from seneca on york gpa, were not statistically significant (see table 10). table 10. ols regression for academic performance at york - seneca to york model iv: academic performance at york seneca to york transfers categories gender (ref= male) status in canada (ref=visa student) age at transfer (ref= less than 22) disability status (ref = did not report a disability) parental education (ref= no university degree) ethnicity (ref= did not belong) faculty at sending institution (ref= communication, art & design) independent variables female non-visa student 25 and over 22-24 reported a disability st. beta -0.20 -0.11 0.10 0.08 -0.07 std. err 0.09 0.27 0.21 0.22 0.21 university degree 0.02 0.18 belong to a non-visible minority group applied arts & health sciences applied science & engineering technology business 0.06 0.04 0.18 0.19 0.27 0.33 0.67 0.26 sig. ** *** 46 these percentages were based on the respondents for whom gpa data was available. 103 (out of 354) students entered york in 2019 and had missing information on york gpa. (see appendix 1, table 23). 47 school of arts, media, performance and design (ampd), lassonde school of engineering, faculty of education, and faculty of environmental studies. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 60 | p a g e model iv: academic performance at york seneca to york transfers faculty at receiving institution (ref=liberal arts & professional studies) faculty of health faculty of science all other faculties gpa at seneca accessed advising services academic performance at seneca academic advising (ref = did not access advising) reason for transfer academic/credential (ref= other reasons) time at york number of terms transfer credits credits from seneca faculty engagement interacted with faculty (ref = not interacted with faculty) total n 238 note. * p < .10; ** p < .05; ***p < .01; ref = reference group; sig. = significance level 0.48 -0.02 0.73 0.46 0.31 0.26 0.34 0.37 0.07 0.14 0.23 0.17 0.03 -0.01 0.85 0.06 0.01 0.34 * ** *** ** *** student experiences- satisfying and unsatisfying seneca to york respondents were asked to provide open-ended responses on the most satisfying and unsatisfying aspects of their transfer experience to york. using content analysis, this information was cross-tabulated and presented using broad descriptions. the most satisfying aspects of transfer indicated by most respondents related to the ease of transfer process and the amount of transfer credits they received. the next highest group of comments were related to student perceptions that the university had a better program layout, and better-quality courses and content within its degree programs. (see appendix 1, table 39). [the subsequent focus group and qualitative response findings section will provide additional elaboration]. reasons for dissatisfaction included fewer credits received and difficulties experienced through the transfer credit process and poor access to advising. (see appendix 1, table 40). individual student experience varied greatly. while some students were highly satisfied with the transfer process, others were highly dissatisfied. [the subsequent focus group and qualitative response findings section will provide additional elaboration]. student recommendations for improving transfer experiences some of the recommendations that emerged from the open-ended responses included greater transparency and accuracy of transfer credit information, better information to inform their transfer credit expectations, greater availability of information about the timing of credits being transferred and the processing timelines, more consistency in the allocation of transfer credits and coordination between institutions and departments about transfer credits. the second most commented on group of issues and resulting recommendations were related to academic experience. they included clearer information regarding degree progression and its relationship to the amount of transfer credits granted by the university. this for many respondents was not necessarily aligned to the length of time it was taking for them to complete the university credential. respondents wanted clearer timelines for the completion of degrees. other academic issues included more advising and better availability of advising appointments; better transition supports for respondents as they moved from college to university; and better orientation to the university system when they transitioned from one institution to the other. survey participants also wanted more opportunities for interactions between students and professors to understand academic expectations. they also raised questions about the need for transfer students to take general education courses and some electives. in some cases, a small the student experience in transfer, september 2020 61 | p a g e number of students expressed frustration at having to repeat course content in their chosen degree program, while some felt that they received inadequate foundational preparation for some science programs. respondents therefore recommended more opportunities to take electives at york prior to transfer and for more curricula coordination between york and seneca. (see group and qualitative response findings section will provide additional elaboration). greater academic supports to students; improvements to the quality and accessibility of the information regarding transfer on institutional websites; better communication to transfer students about the receiving institution; coordination of financial aid services to better support requests for information, and specific supports were needed especially for/ by concurrently enrolled students. participants also requested transfer-student specific orientation sessions, as some of the information in the sessions they attended were too generic and not applicable to their transfer needs. also mentioned were reinstituting the on-campus transportation services, which brought buses from regions outside of toronto to the york campus, more opportunities for interactions between students and faculty and improved technology. survey findings: york to seneca transfers this section will outline the samples demographics, followed by planning and decision-making, transfer experiences and satisfaction levels. additionally, recommendations for improving the transfer experience for this transfer group will be presented. finally, participant engagement in academic, employment, on-campus and extracurricular activities will be assessed to determine their levels of academic and social integration. socio-demographic characteristics appendix 1, table 20 summarized the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample. of 162 york to seneca transfer students that responded to the survey: 107 (66%) were female and 55 (34%) were male. 94 (58.0%) at the time of survey were aged 25 and over, 49 (30.3%) were between the ages of 22 and 24 (11.7%) were less than 22. 53 (32.7%) at the time of transfer were aged 25 and over; 57 (35.2%) were between the ages of 22 and 24; and 52 (32.1%) were less than 22. 88 (54.3%) identified as canadian citizens; 70(43.2%) as permanent residents and 4 (2.5%) as visa students. ethnic and cultural background participants were asked to identify the ethnic and cultural groups they belonged to on the survey and could select all the options that applied to them. based on the first response selected, the respondents ethnicity was tabulated by status in canada. more than one quarter of the respondents identified themselves as white, with 15.5% of the sample identifying as white canadians. 11.2% also identified as white permanent residents. the remaining 72.7% of the york to seneca transfer group were from different minority groups, with south asian and chinese topping the list. (see table 11). table 11. proportion of the students belonging to an ethnic group by status in canada ethnicity status in canada canadian citizen 48 49 total by ethnic groups48 permanent resident visa49 the total may not add to 100 because of rounding error. there were only 4 visa students in the sample. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 62 | p a g e white south asian chinese black 15.5% 9.9% 8.1% 3.7% 11.2% 6.8% 4.4% 6.8% filipino arab west asian korean southeast asian latin american 3.7% 2.5% 2.5% 1.9% 1.2% 0.6% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% other groups total 4.4% 54.0% 5.6% 43.5% 0.6% 27.3% 16.7% 13.7% 10.5% 1.2% 6.2% 5.0% 5.6% 1.9% 2.4% 0.6% 0.6% 1.2% 10.0% 99.9% 2.4% note: no respondents from the york to seneca transfer group identified as indigenous. disability disclosure about 15.5% of the sample self-disclosed that they had a disability. the top three disabilities identified by these respondents were: (1) mental disability (44%), (2) medical disability (32%), and (3) learning disability (24%). (see appendix 1, table 20, and table 21). parental education when asked about the highest educational level of either of their parents or guardians, 47.7% of the york to seneca sample had a parent or guardian with a university degree and about a quarter of the respondents were first-generation students where neither parent nor guardian attended pse. (see appendix 1, table 20). the proportion of students having parents with university degree was higher in the york to seneca sample than in the seneca to york sample (47.4% vs 34.3%, respectively). respondent college and university faculty affiliation the distribution of university to college transfers by sending york and receiving seneca faculty was presented in table 12. the largest number of student transfers came from yorks faculty of liberal arts and professional studies (44.4%) and the faculty of health (19.8%). more than one-third of overall transfers enrolled in the faculty of applied arts and health sciences at seneca, 30.9% in seneca business, and 27.8% in faculty of communication, art and design. gender-based distribution of these transfers in appendix 1, table 32 showed a higher proportion of females relative to males were transferring into senecas faculty of applied arts and health sciences. table 12. sending york and receiving seneca faculty york to seneca number of students by receiving seneca faculty number of students by sending york faculty school of the arts, media, performance & design faculty of education faculty of applied arts & health sciences n 2 % 1.2% 1 0.6% faculty of applied science & engineering technology n % the student experience in transfer, september 2020 faculty of communication , art & design n 7 % 4.3% seneca business n 4 % 2.5% total by york faculty n 13 % 8.0% 1 0.6% 63 | p a g e number of students by receiving seneca faculty number of students by sending york faculty faculty of environmental studies faculty of health faculty of liberal arts and professional studies faculty of science glendon lassonde school of engineering missing total by seneca faculty faculty of applied arts & health sciences faculty of applied science & engineering technology 3 1.9% 19 17 11.7% 10.5% 2 9 3 2 5.6% 1.9% 1.2% 56 34.6% faculty of communication , art & design seneca business total by york faculty 2 1.2% 1 0.6% 6 3.7% 1.2% 4 21 2.5% 13.0% 7 34 4.3% 21.0% 32 72 19.8% 44.4% 9 5.6% 5 1 5 3.1% 0.6% 3.1% 1 2 0.6% 1.2% 24 6 7 14.8% 3.7% 4.3% 11 6.8% 45 27.8% 1 50 0.6% 30.9% 1 162 0.6% 100% fifty-seven percent of respondents graduated from york prior to transferring to seneca and 43% did not. the receiving seneca credentials and transfer credits received 50 for studies completed at york were described in table 13. more than fifty percent of the students were enrolled in twoyear and accelerated diploma programs at seneca, while 12% were enrolled in graduate certificates. for this study, the variable named advanced standing was defined for students who either received credits for 5 or more york courses (approximately one semester at seneca); were enrolled in a graduate certificate (which requires a college or university credential for entry); or an accelerated diploma program (which requires a degree for entry). this variable was later used in regression analysis to investigate differences in satisfaction levels amongst students based on their academic performance. 50 transfer credits at the college are mostly awarded on a course by course basis. at york, one half course is typically one semester long and equal to three credits. therefore, one credit at seneca can be equated with three credits at york. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 64 | p a g e table 13. characteristics of receiving seneca program by graduation status from york and transfer credits received credential at seneca students receiving transfer credits did not graduate from york 1-4 credits 5-9 10+ credits credits no credit total by not graduated no credit graduated from york 1-4 credits 5-9 credits 10+ credits total by graduated total by seneca credential51 n 2 % 1.2% n % n % n % n 2 % 1.2% n 1 % 0.6% n % n 1 % 0.6% n % n 2 % 1.2% n 4 % 2.4% 11 6.8% 16 9.9% 3 1.9% 1 0.6% 31 19.2% 5 3.1% 17 10.5% 10 6.2% 2 1.2% 34 21.0% 65 40.2% 2-year diploma- york collab 2-year diploma (accelerated) 2 1.2% 2 1.2% 4 2.4% 0 0.0% 4 2.4% 1 0.6% 1 0.6% 21 13.0% 3-year diploma 7 4.3% 6 3.7% 14 8.6% 1 0.6% 6 3.7% graduate certificate bachelors degree bachelors degreecollaborative nursing total by transfer credits and graduation status 1 0.6% 1 0.6% 2 1.2% 17 10.5% 1 6 3.7% 3 1.9% 9 5.6% 2 1.2% 5 3.1% 7 4.3% 32 19.6% 33 20.4% 70 43.1% 1-year certificate 2-year diploma 51the 1 4 0.6% 2.5% 1 0.6% 45 27.8% 1 0.6% 22 13.6% 23 14.2% 6 3.7% 13 8.0% 27 16.6% 0.6% 18 11.1% 20 12.3% 1 0.6% 1 0.6% 10 6.2% 2 1.2% 2 1.2% 9 5.5% 27 16.6% 92 56.7% 162 99.8% 18 11.1% 2 1.2% total may not add to 100 due to rounding. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 65 | p a g e more than 50% (57.4%) of york to seneca transfers had as and bs at york prior to transfer. on arriving at seneca, 82.7% of respondents obtained gpas of as and bs at the college. (see appendix 1, table 33). a greater percentage of females had a- or b-level gpas at seneca than their male counterparts: 86% and 76.4% respectively. (see appendix 1, table 34). planning and decision-making for transfer respondents were asked to identify their reasons for transferring. 52 (see table 14). the most popular choice was to acquire a college credential to equip them with the practical skills specific to a career or interest, whereas the most popular for the college to university group was to get a degree. for both groups, however, the second and third major reasons identified were related to career and skills improvement. table 14. reason(s) for transfer, % major reason york to seneca reasons for transferring to gain practical skills specific to a career or interest more opportunities for career advancement upgrade/improve skills to obtain a certificate/ diploma/degree higher income interest in pursuing a different field of study no job or work available in my field the convenience or location of seneca college needed for a professional designation ease of the transfer credit process opportunity for transfer credit encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) company required/paid for it other note: respondents could select more than one reason. percentage (%) 83.3 81.2 75.4 64.5 60.1 60.1 58.0 53.6 51.4 42.8 31.9 31.2 15.9 6.5 appendix 1, table 29 summarized the reasons for transferring across various sociodemographic characteristics and investigated any significant variations within these groups. students could choose as many reasons as applied. statistically significant findings included: transferring to gain career-specific practical skills was more important for females than males: 88.9% of females chose this as a major reason versus 72.9% of males. students who were older at the time of transfer were more likely to choose no work or job available in my field as a major reason for transferring. the convenience or location of seneca college was chosen by more students who had parents or guardians with university a degree than those who did not. more students from visible minority than non-visible minority groups indicated that their major reason for transferring was that their employer required or paid for the credential. in the survey, respondents were asked to identify from their very important reasons, the most important reason for transfer. (see table 15). the following were identified as the top three most important reasons: (1) interest in pursuing a different field of study (21.6%); (2) gaining practical skills specific to a career interests (20.2%), and (3) lack of work/ job available in their field (14.9%). 52 for each reason for transferring, three response options were provided: major reason, minor reason, or not a reason. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 66 | p a g e table 15. most important reason for transfer york to seneca most important reason interest in pursuing a different field of study to gain practical skills specific to my career interests no work/ job available in my field potential for higher income to get a certificate/diploma or degree more opportunities for career advancement needed for professional designation encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) upgrade/ improve skills ease of the transfer credit process percentage (%) 21.6% 20.2% 14.9% 13.5% 12.2% 10.8% 2.7% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4% note: respondents could only select one reason. non-graduates and reasons for not graduating from sending institution students who did not graduate from the university prior to transferring to college cited many reasons for not finishing their program at york. the two biggest reasons were that they did not like their university program (60.0%) and that their marks were too low (41.4%). (see figure 32). figure 32. reason (s) for not graduating from york york to seneca note: respondents could select more than one reason. decision-making timelines regarding transfer overall 67.4% of york to seneca transfers decided to do so after graduate and 20.7% as they were finishing their university program. this compared with 72.9% of seneca to york transfers who made their decision prior to graduating. regardless of graduation status, less than 3% percent had planned to go to seneca before they first enrolled at york. (see figure 33). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 67 | p a g e figure 33. timing of decision to transfer to seneca by graduation status from york the transfer experience - information sources & expectations hearing about transfer opportunities for the first time when asked how they first found about transfer options, 54.1% said it was from seneca websites or publications (34.8%) or other students and friends (19.3%). the remaining 45.9% said they first found out through a variety of other sources (see figure 34). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 68 | p a g e figure 34. how the respondents first found about the transfer options to seneca note: respondents could select only one source of information. considering transfer: sources of information accessed and their usefulness eighty-four percent of respondents indicated that they relied on seneca websites and 38.3% on ocas/ouac websites. other students or friends, senecas degree and credit transfer office53 and publication were relied on by 18-19%. the remaining sources of information were relied up by 10% or fewer. (see figure 35). when asked about the usefulness of these sources of information when considering transfer, for thirteen out of the eighteen sources, more than ninety percent of the students felt they were very useful or somewhat useful (see figure 36). 53 renamed the academic pathways office in 2020 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 69 | p a g e figure 35. source (s) of information used when considering transfer york to seneca note: respondents could select more than one source of information. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 70 | p a g e figure 36. usefulness of sources of information used when considering transfer --- york to seneca (% very or somewhat useful) applying to transfer: sources of information accessed and their usefulness when york to seneca transfer respondents were asked which sources of information were used at the time of application, 85.2% indicated using the seneca websites and 45.1% said seneca emails. seneca faculty, seneca staff and york websites were used by 13-18% and the remaining sources were used by less than 10% of respondents. (see figures 37 and 38). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 71 | p a g e figure 37. source (s) of information used at the time of application york to seneca note: respondents could select more than one source of information. figure 38. usefulness of sources of information used when applying (% very or somewhat useful) the student experience in transfer, september 2020 72 | p a g e financial aid information provided at the time of application when york to seneca transfer students were asked about whether financial aid information was provided to them: 38.3% said yes, 29.6% said no and 28.4% did not remember, although many of the latter group may not have required financial aid. however, that number could not be quantified. (see figure 39). figure 39. information provided on financial aid options york to seneca table 16 revealed that when considering transfer and receiving financial aid information, respondents relied mostly on the seneca website (64.5%), the financial aid office at seneca (48.3%) and the seneca awards and seneca bursaries webpage (46.9%). table 16. source (s) of information on financial aid york to seneca sources of information seneca website financial aid office at seneca seneca awards, scholarships, bursaries webpage york website financial aid office at york other number percentage (%) 40 64.5 30 48.3 29 46.8 8 12.9 7 1 11.3 1.6 note: respondents could select more than one source of information. the denominator is respondents who received information about financial aid. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 73 | p a g e registration/ enrolment: sources of information accessed after registration at york and their usefulness approximately eighty-one percent of york to seneca transfers relied on the seneca websites and publications and 97.7% indicated that they found it useful. thirty percent received information via emails from seneca, while 29% and 26.5%, received information from seneca staff, and seneca faculty and program coordinators, respectively. more than 90% of the students found these information sources to be useful. (see figures 40 and 41). as expected, in all the phases of the transfer process from university to college, college sources were the predominant sources of information and they were found to be useful for the majority of respondents. figure 40. source (s) of information used after registration at seneca york to seneca note: respondents could select more than one source of information. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 74 | p a g e figure 41. usefulness of sources of information used after registration, (% very or somewhat useful) timing of information about transfer credit figure 42 illustrated that students who applied for transfer credits mostly received the information after registration at seneca.54 this variation in timing of information by the credential they enrolled at seneca was statistically significant. students who enrolled in graduate certificates or accelerated 2-year diplomas typically could not apply for transfer credits. 55 however, there are few exceptions to this rule, particularly where specific articulation agreements had been developed to support student mobility. therefore, approximately 50% of respondents who enrolled in graduate certificates or accelerated 2-year diplomas reported that they had not applied for transfer credits. (see figure 42). 54 the figure does not show students who enrolled in one-year certificate at seneca as n=4, and three of these did not apply for credit transfer. 55 graduate certificates are typically eight months to one year long and very subject-matter specific, so students usually do not qualify for transfer credits. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 75 | p a g e figure 42. timing of credit notification by credential at seneca york to seneca note: other includes students who either had not applied for credit transfer yet or had applied for credit transfer but had not heard back yet by the time the survey was administered. expectations about transfer credit york to seneca respondents who applied and received credits were asked about their expectations relative to the transfer credits they received at the college. about 31% of respondents indicated that they received fewer transfer credits than expected; 28% the same amount of credits as expected and 18% more than expected. the remaining 24% did not reply.56 (see figure 43). 56 this question was only asked of transfers who had applied for credit and had heard back. transfers who had not yet applied or were not applying, or applied and had not heard, were not asked. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 76 | p a g e figure 43. expectation of transfer credits received york to seneca note: this figure includes transfers who couldnt recall the timing of notification. it excludes students who enrolled in graduate certificates or accelerated 2-year diplomas at seneca. unlike the findings from the seneca to york transfer group, no statistically significant differences were observed in the credit expectations, when compared to the actual number of transfer credits received for studies completed at york.57 (see figure 44). 57 note that 21% of the 14 students who received no credits for their york program reported that they received more credits than expected. either they received credits for study from some other institution, or they misremembered what they received, or their transfer literacy was low. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 77 | p a g e figure 44. student expectations by actual credits received york to seneca note: there are only 3 students who received 10 or more credits. this figure excludes students enrolled in graduate certificates and accelerated 2-year diplomas, as they typically did not apply for or receive transfer credits. use of services service usage the services most used by york to seneca transfer students when they enrolled at the college were the seneca libraries (82.9%), degree and credit transfer office (53.7%), student advising (37.8%) and co-op work term/work integrated learning supports (29.3%). for most of the services a substantial percentage of students reported not using them, but few students indicated that they did not know about these services. (see figure 45).58 58 there is no work integrated department at seneca. however, work-integrated learning (wil) is an educational partnership between seneca, students, and the employers, under which skilled employees are provided with an opportunity to work with various industries or sectors, while obtaining college credits. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 78 | p a g e figure 45. overall service usage at seneca york to seneca the use of services differed according to which credential students were enrolled in. (see figure 46).59 it was observed that there was a significant gap in the usage of dcto services. students who enrolled in graduate certificate programs and accelerated diplomas were less likely to access dcto relative to students enrolled in other diploma /degree programs.60 one possible explanation may be that students who pursued graduate certificates required a completed post-secondary credential and did not qualify to receive transfer credits; or did not require transfer credits. statistically significant variations were also observed in the usage of the following services by credential at seneca: student advising, learning services/tutoring/tutors and co-op/work integrated learning. 59 as college programs differed by duration depending on the credential student enrolled in, the figure showed service usage by credential and not by the time spent at the college. regardless of the credential, the current term of the students at seneca will be a possible confounding factor. 60 2.5% of the york to seneca respondents (n=4) were enrolled in 1-year certificates. this was not shown. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 79 | p a g e figure 46. overall service usage by credential enrolled at seneca york to seneca the significant differences within various socio-demographic groups were analyzed in appendix 1, table 31. more males than females accessed work integrated services and the proportion of males accessing learning strategists were three times that of females. the age of students at the time of transfer affected access to tutoring services at seneca, with a higher proportion of students under the age of 22 utilizing these services compared to older students. as expected, students with disabilities used the counselling and accessibility services and assistive technologists at seneca. all the students who reported having a disability had knowledge of the accessibility services at seneca and more than half of these students used the service. a greater percentage of canadians accessed the services of the degree credit and transfer office (dcto) than permanent residents. engagement in academic and non-academic activities the york to seneca transfer group was asked to comment on their involvement in academic, employment, on-campus activities, and community engagement initiatives. nearly all the york to seneca transfers who responded indicated that they frequently completed class assignments on time. as well, 70.2% indicated that they frequently participated in classroom discussions, 48.7% had frequently discussed ideas about term papers, class projects and group assignments with their instructor, 44.9% frequently discussed grades or assignments with their instructor, and 30.4% frequently discussed career plans with faculty members or advisors. (see figure 47). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 80 | p a g e figure 47. engagement in academic activities at seneca york to seneca the distribution of students who reported engagement in academic activities by the credential enrolled at seneca61 was presented in figure 48. a similar proportion of students reported academic engagement across credentials at seneca with no statistically significant difference. the only significant difference in engagement by credential related to those who discussed career plans and ambitions with a faculty member or advisor at seneca. more than 60% of the students enrolled in graduate certificates and two-year diplomas sometimes or frequently discussed career plans, as opposed to less than forty percent of the students who enrolled in bachelors degrees or accelerated diplomas. 61 as college programs differ by duration depending on the credential student enrols in, the figure shows academic engagement by credential and not by the time spent at the college. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 81 | p a g e figure 48. engagement in academic activities by credential at seneca note: the figure does not show students who enrolled in one-year certificate at seneca as n=4. finally, 57.3% of respondents who transferred from york to seneca indicated that they worked at least one hour per week during their studies and 65% of those who worked did so for more than 10 hours (37% of 57.3%). with regards to weekly engagement in other social activities, 73.9% stated that they did not participate in co-curricular activities, and 86.6% indicated that they did not participate in community activities. this low engagement in social activities was similar to the results found for the seneca to york transfer student group. (see figure 49). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 82 | p a g e figure 49. engagement in non-academic activities (hours in week) at seneca satisfaction levels to gauge the levels of student satisfaction with their transfer experience from york to seneca, students were asked: overall, how satisfied are you with your decision to continue education at seneca? how satisfied were you with the overall process of transferring from one institution to the other (including application, registration, selecting courses, etc.)? if you could start over again, would you choose to attend seneca? appendix 1, table 36 compared the proportion of students who transferred to college and were satisfied with the transition process, transfer decision and the choice to transfer, against various sociodemographic factors, and program and transfer-specific characteristics. across most of these characteristics there was very little variation in satisfaction levels. most respondents were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied. regression models were also used to see if the satisfaction levels expressed by students varied after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, program features and other aspects of the transfer process. the models were constructed as described in the methodology section. satisfaction with the overall process of transferring from york to seneca (including application, registration, selecting courses) approximately 79% of york to seneca transfers stated that they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the overall process of transfer from the university to the college. (see figure 50). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 83 | p a g e figure 50. satisfaction with overall process york to seneca respondents who had applied for transfer credits and received more or same credits as expected were also more likely to report being satisfied with the transfer process. (see figure 51). this relationship was further investigated in the regression model. (see table 17). figure 51. satisfaction with overall process by expectation of transfer credits received note: other included students who did not answer this question, as they did not apply for credits or hadnt heard or received a response by the time the survey was administered. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 84 | p a g e satisfaction with decision to continue education at seneca nearly 88% of york to seneca transfer respondents stated that they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the decision to transfer. (see figure 52). figure 52. satisfaction with transfer decision york to seneca respondents who enrolled into the faculty of applied science and engineering technology (faset) at seneca expressed slightly less satisfaction with their transfer decision than those who transferred into other seneca faculties. however, in the regression model this observation was not found to be statistically significant when other factors were controlled for. (see figure 53). figure 53. satisfaction with transfer decision by faculty york to seneca academic preparation and satisfaction levels almost 92% of respondents stated they were very or somewhat satisfied with their academic preparation for their current program of study at seneca. (see figure 54). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 85 | p a g e figure 54. satisfaction with previous academic preparation york to seneca respondents who transferred into faset at seneca were slightly less satisfied with their previous academic preparation than those who transferred into other seneca faculties. only 80% of transfers into faset were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their previous academic preparation, compared with 94.5% of transfers into the faculty of applied arts and health sciences (faahs). (see figure 55). figure 55. satisfaction with academic preparation at york by seneca faculty of york to seneca transfers with a gpa of a while enrolled at seneca, 97.1% were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the level of academic preparation they received from york for their current program of study. for other grade levels, 91.7% of b grade students, 81.9% of c grade and all the students who had a d grade stated they were either very satisfied or the student experience in transfer, september 2020 86 | p a g e somewhat satisfied with the level of academic preparation they previously received. (see figure 56). figure 56. satisfaction with academic preparation by grades at seneca york to seneca if you could start over again, would you choose to attend seneca? overall, a high percentage (95%) of the respondents said they would definitely or probably choose seneca again, if they could start over. (see figure 57). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 87 | p a g e figure 57. transfer again to seneca york to seneca in every faculty 90% or more of the students who transferred indicated they would choose seneca if could start over again, with the faculty of applied arts & health sciences respondents the highest, at 98.2%. (see figure 58). figure 58. transfer again to seneca by seneca faculty york to seneca there was no significant variation in the choice to transfer again to seneca by the actual transfer credits received by students. (see figure 59). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 88 | p a g e figure 59. transfer again to seneca by actual transfer credits received note: there are only 3 students who received 10 or more credits. this figure excluded students enrolled in graduate certificates and accelerated 2-year diplomas, as they typically did not apply for or receive transfer credits. regression models for the york-to-seneca sample, regression models were performed to investigate the effect of the expectation of transfer credits and other characteristics on satisfaction levels (see tables 17 and 18).62 since a large proportion of the york-to-seneca transfers did not apply for transfer credits, additional models were run for the full sample by excluding the expectation of transfer credit variable. therefore, model ia and iia was restricted to students who had responded to the question on the expectation of transfer credits, whereas model ib and iib analyzed the full sample by excluding the transfer credit variable. satisfaction with the overall process of transferring from york to seneca (including application, registration, selecting courses, etc.) results of model ia provided evidence that respondents from the non-minoritized groups had twice the odds of being satisfied with the process than those from visible minority groups. transfer students who had interactions with faculty members were 2.8 times as likely to be satisfied with the transfer process as those who did not. however, students who reported a disability were only 0.4 times as likely to be satisfied with the transfer process to college than students without a disability. (see table 17). 62 for the regression model on choosing to attend seneca again, there was little variation in the outcome of interest (more than 95% likely to transfer again and only 5% of the sample not wanting to transfer again). coupled with small sample size, the logistic regression model for propensity to transfer again to seneca failed to converge due to complete separation of data points. this happens when the outcome variable separates an explanatory variable completely, and the maximum likelihood estimates do not exist. therefore, these regression results were not reported. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 89 | p a g e the results from the regression analysis showed that after controlling for other factors, the effect of the number of transfer credits received relative to expectation, on satisfaction levels for yorkto-seneca transfers was marginally significant at the 10 percent level, whereas it was highly significant in the seneca-to-york sample. for the full sample in model ib in table 17, age at the time of transfer influenced satisfaction with the transfer process. students in the 22-24 age group had 5.8 times higher odds of being satisfied relative to students under 22. moreover, the odds of being satisfied for students coming from faculty of health programs at york were 6.58 times higher compared to students from the faculty of science, the reference. york to seneca transfer students who first found out about the educational options between seneca and york through college sources had 7.91 times higher odds of being satisfied with the transfer process than those who used university sources. as in model ia, students who interacted with faculty at seneca were more likely to be satisfied with the transfer process. however, disability and ethnicity were no longer statistically significant predictors of satisfaction with transfer process. 63 satisfaction with decision to continue their education at seneca logistic regression models iia and iib were about satisfaction with the transfer decision and showed that females had 1.4 times higher odds of being satisfied relative to males. (see table 18). also, engagement with the faculty continued to be a predictor of satisfaction levels. regardless of whether students applied for transfer credits, students who interacted with faculty at seneca had 1.56 times higher odds of being satisfied with the decision to transfer than students who did not. the only statistically significant difference between model iia and iib was the effect of the advanced standing variable. in model iib, students with advanced standing in terms of the credential they enrolled at seneca only had 0.19 times the odds of being satisfied with their transfer decision than students without advanced standing. table 17. logistic models of satisfaction with overall process york to seneca transfers regression table categories gender (ref=male) status in canada (ref= non-canadian) age at the time of transfer (ref= less than 22) ethnicity (ref= did not belong) disability status (ref = did not report a disability) parental education (ref=no university degree) expectation of credits received for the study 63 model ia: satisfaction with the overall process st. std. odds sig. beta err ratio -0.06 0.32 0.90 -0.58 0.72 0.56 model ib: satisfaction with the overall process st. std. odds sig. beta err ratio -0.22 0.29 0.64 -0.94 0.56 0.39 * 22-24 25 and over 0.63` 0.07 0.52 0.52 3.76 2.14 1.08 -0.40 0.47 0.40 5.84 1.32 ** belong to a nonvisible minority group reported a disability 0.41 0.20 2.10 ** 1.25 0.66 3.49 * -0.31 0.15 0.40 ** -0.78 0.69 0.46 university degree 0.39 0.57 1.50 -0.03 0.53 0.97 fewer credits than expected -0.15 0.09 0.70 independent variables female canadian citizen * not statistically significant at the 5% level. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 90 | p a g e york to seneca transfers regression table from york (ref= more or same credits as expected) faculty at receiving institution (ref= seneca business) faculty at sending institution (ref= faculty of science) first information source of educational options between seneca and york (ref=university) advanced standing (ref= no) faculty engagement (ref = not interacted with faculty) total n model ia: satisfaction with the overall process model ib: satisfaction with the overall process applied arts & health sciences applied sciences & engineering technology communication, art & design la&ps faculty of health other faculties college personal college/university -0.57 0.52 0.30 -0.70 0.45 0.23 0.38 1.02 0.70 0.24 0.86 0.59 -0.59 0.58 0.30 -0.32 0.50 0.33 0.63 0.93 -0.99 0.44 0.36 0.54 0.57 0.67 0.63 0.24 0.52 0.75 3.34 4.47 0.66 2.20 3.40 1.80 0.28 1.15 -0.70 1.13 0.08 -0.27 0.45 0.57 0.66 0.46 0.40 0.53 2.76 6.58 1.05 7.91 2.78 1.95 yes -0.57 0.62 0.60 -0.70 0.66 0.50 interacted with faculty 1.02 0.43 2.80 2.20 0.81 9.02 * ** 99 ** ** *** 152 note. *p < .10; ** p < .05; ***p < .01; ref = reference group; sig. = significance level. table 18. logistic models of satisfaction with the decision to transfer york to seneca transfers regression table categories gender (ref=male) status (ref= noncanadian) age at the time of transfer (ref= less than 22) ethnicity (ref= did not belong) disability status (ref = did not report a disability) parental education (ref=no university degree) expectation of credits received for the study from york (ref= more or same credits as expected) faculty at receiving institution (ref= seneca business) model iia: satisfaction with the transfer decision model iib: satisfaction with the transfer decision independent variables female canadian citizen st. beta 0.16 -0.69 std. err 0.07 0.54 odds ratio 1.40 st. beta 0.57 -1.02 std. err 0.28 0.67 odds ratio 3.11 0.36 22-24 25 and over 0.15 0.47 0.98 0.53 2.36 3.45 0.70 0.15 0.50 0.46 4.74 2.71 belong to a nonvisible minority group reported a disability 0.38 0.21 1.85 0.93 0.79 2.52 0.12 0.15 1.15 0.44 0.39 2.25 university degree -1.47 0.89 0.20 -0.97 0.63 0.38 -0.61 0.45 0.30 0.14 0.69 0.80 -0.60 0.58 0.41 -1.57 1.02 0.10 0.31 0.91 1.03 sig. ** * sig. ** fewer credits than expected applied arts & health sciences applied sciences & engineering technology the student experience in transfer, september 2020 91 | p a g e york to seneca transfers regression table faculty at sending institution (ref= faculty of science) first information source of educational options between seneca and york (ref=university) advanced standing (ref= no) faculty engagement (ref = not interacted with faculty) total n model iia: satisfaction with the transfer decision model iib: satisfaction with the transfer decision communication, art & design la&ps faculty of health other faculties college personal college/university 1.04 0.87 1.90 0.02 0.64 0.77 0.71 -0.14 0.13 -0.28 0.88 -0.25 0.92 0.09 0.55 0.98 0.94 1.30 4.04 0.84 1.46 1.07 3.42 1.11 -0.32 -0.11 1.05 0.02 0.43 -0.53 0.58 0.66 0.75 0.50 0.53 0.62 1.34 1.65 5.27 0.93 1.40 0.54 yes -1.39 0.98 0.30 -1.67 0.82 0.19 ** interacted with faculty 0.45 0.21 1.56 1.89 0.87 6.64 ** ** 99 152 note. *p < .10; ** p < .05; ***p < .01; ref = reference group; sig. = significance level. academic performance at seneca the academic performance of transfer students at the receiving institution was generally good, with only 17.3% achieving a gpa of c or d. appendix 1, table 36 summarized the proportion of students with excellent or good academic performance at seneca by various sociodemographic, program-specific and transfer-related characteristics. ols regression was used to further investigate the determinants of academic performance at seneca, using the last reported gpa at seneca as the outcome variable. (see model iv in table 19). on average, students in the 22-24-year age group had a gpa of 0.34 points higher than students under 22 and students who were 25 and over had on average a gpa of 0.39 points higher than students under 22. the model suggested that after controlling for other factors there was variation in academic performance by faculty. students who transferred into programs in senecas faculty of business were likely to have lower gpas than students who transferred into the faculty of applied science & engineering technology. students who interacted with faculty were likely to have a gpa of 0.25 points higher than students who did not. table 19. ols regression for academic performance at seneca york to seneca york to seneca transfers categories gender (ref=male) status in canada (ref =non-canadian) age at transfer (ref = less than 22) parental education (ref = no university degree) disability status (ref = did not report a disability) ethnicity (ref= did not belong) independent variables female canadian citizen 22-24 25 and over university degree model iv: academic performance at seneca st. beta std. err sig. -0.03 0.11 -0.13 0.31 0.34 0.16 ** 0.39 0.14 *** 0.02 0.11 reported a disability -0.10 0.14 belong to a non-visible minority group 0.21 0.12 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 * 92 | p a g e york to seneca transfers faculty at receiving institution (ref= applied sciences & engineering technology) faculty at sending institution (ref = la&ps) advanced standing (ref = no) academic performance at york time at seneca academic advising (ref = did not access advising) faculty engagement (ref = did not interact with faculty) total n model iv: academic performance at seneca 0.07 0.25 applied arts & health sciences seneca business communication, art & design faculty of health faculty of science all other faculties yes gpa at york number of terms accessed advising services -0.39 -0.38 -0.02 0.15 0.16 -0.14 0.13 -0.01 -0.05 0.19 0.23 0.14 0.18 0.14 0.12 0.07 0.03 0.10 ** * interacted with faculty 0.25 0.13 ** * 150 note. * p < .10; ** p < .05; *** p < .01; ref = reference group; sig. = significance level student experiences- satisfying and unsatisfying york to seneca as mentioned in seneca to york findings section, the survey asked the students to provide information about the most satisfying and unsatisfying aspects of their transfer experiences to seneca. this information was also summarized and presented in a cross tabulation. a majority of respondents stated that the most satisfying aspect of the experience was the academic knowledge of faculty, the nature of the college programs and the smaller class sizes. this was followed by the practical, hands on skills development opportunities offered at the college. (see appendix 1 table 41). academic reasons and administrative issues accounted for more than half of the comments regarding respondents dissatisfaction with transfer into seneca college. (see appendix 1 table 42). student recommendations for improving transfer experiences respondents were asked to respond to the question, what was the one change that they would like to see implemented that would help to improve the experiences of students who transferred from york to seneca. several recommendations emerged and were similar to those raised by the seneca to york respondents. they included the need for improvements in the facilities to minimize the disparities between the seneca campuses; transportation services, such as better shuttle services between the seneca campuses; more opportunities for work placements and supports with finding employment. they also wanted more tools to help with adjusting to the new learning environment, as college was different from the university. better information including knowing where to find information on how to apply to college; and how to obtain course and exam scheduling information. survey participants also wanted improvements to the information on how to change timetables, select courses and programs. they also recommended better supports to transfer students to assist with workload and work-life balance. other recommendations included the need for improvements to the quality and accessibility of the information regarding transfer on institutional websites; library services; parking (lowering parking fees); gymnasium facilities across the various campuses (as there were disparities between the campuses). they also recommended more on-campus food options; better campus security; and transfer credit processing information. these responses echoed much of the comments that emerged regarding satisfaction and dissatisfaction. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 93 | p a g e focus group findings & qualitative responses seneca to york & york to seneca transfer students a total of four focus groups were conducted. there were eleven york to seneca transfer respondents who participated in two focus groups held at the seneca@york and newnham campuses. the remaining two focus groups of 21 seneca to york transfer respondents were held at yorks keele campus. sixty one percent of participants were over the age of 25 and 61% had graduated from a previous postsecondary program. there were four broad focus group questions: (1) what were the factors motivating students to transfer; (2) what were the experiences of students as they navigated through the application, registration and enrolment process at the receiving institution - what was most or least helpful and what information sources were used; (3) were there differences in how transfer was experienced, based on program, gender or transfer direction; and (4) what would the advice be for future students who may be considering transfer. the themes emerging from these focus groups were broadly grouped as structural challenges/ factors. these were transfer specific services and supports including disability and financial services and credit transfer issues. structural factors & challenges throughout the focus groups and based on some of the qualitative responses received from the survey, several structural challenges emerged as creating difficulties for transfer students. these included adjusting to the new campus environment, differences in class sizes and to new student service practices that affected student access and supports. many of these challenges were largely due to the type of encounters students had when interacting with staff, services and faculty within the postsecondary environment. cotton & wilson (2006) defined structural factors as patterns of social interactions and relations in higher education. these included but were not limited to spaces, places and programs that exist or were created to facilitate interactions between students and faculty. for this research project we broadened the term to include interactions between students, staff, and faculty, and to the services and supports they engaged with in the on-campus environment. class size & campus environment adjustments interviewees expressed the challenge of adjusting to larger class sizes and larger environment when moving from college to university. this made accessing assistance more challenging and created difficulties for establishing strong and valuable interactions with other students and faculty. so, if you ask what i find challenging in college its a very small class and its easier to find helpi do kind of miss the smaller class sizes from college to university .male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020).64 well, like in seneca, [the] classroom [is] small, people [meet/see] each other every day. so like teachers and students, we all get close. over here, it's not like that. so, you got to be kind of prepared and kind of like got to do your own thing. no ones going to help you out or grab your hand to run around with you. so, you got to make sure that you're on top of things on your own. for the focus groups participants, only their york program information was captured. therefore, the quotations are referenced accordingly. 64 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 94 | p a g e otherwise you're going to fall so behind, which is not as hard. like at seneca it was way easier, like, you know, people, you could talk to them like profs, students, everything. [over] here, [its]not like that (male non-graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of health, january 2020). in terms of the education, i'm definitely a lot, lot happier at seneca than i was at york. at york i dont know if its just, like, university compared to college style, or if its york versus seneca, but i felt that because the classroom sizes are generally smaller over here, you're able to get more one-on-one time with your professor, if you need it (female non-graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of environmental studies, january 2020). some of the other structural challenges identified included adjusting to new and different academic expectations, when compared to their college experiences. some cited significant differences between essay writing and research citation requirements, for example, between the college and university. its kind of tough , you know, like writing essays and stuff like that. i didn't really have to write that much essays in college but then coming to university, a lot of writing work and stuff like that so its kind of challenging (male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). i thought my previous program, [was] really critical [and] prepared] me for my current one the way how they provide information about even like apa citation. about citing the work. back at seneca, they give me like for like apa because even like previous assignments that they had like in my current classes, many people who just went from the high school, i think like maybe 7075 percent of that like class, they get like c on citation (male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of health, january 2020). students who transferred from the university to the college also expressed a lack of familiarity with the latters enrolment/registration process. in some of the qualitative survey responses they described it as confusing and not easy to use while others felt that the information was hidden, which led them to seek out the assistance of their peers. the frustration with registration/ course enrolment was also expressed by focus group respondents. so, i had no idea how college enrolment worked. its different from my enrolment at york, so i was confused about that, and my advisor did not help me. she didnt send out anything prior that gave me the instructions. so, it was a week before school, and i was trying to email her to find out how to enrol (female non-graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of environmental studies, january 2020). however, once transfer students began to understand these challenges, they mapped out solutions and coping mechanisms. as previously discussed in the quantitative survey findings, although many support services were not readily used or known about by transfer students, a small number accessed them. these included on campus workshops at the university on timemanagement and note-taking, for example. as one respondent described below: yeah, because the way how like people say in seneca, you have smaller classes like you can talk to professors. here, its based everything on time management and all of those, things that no ones going to teach you but like for the skill learning workshops, they have separate presentation. it's like hour, hour, and a half presentation. when they explain you like how you manage your time the student experience in transfer, september 2020 95 | p a g e properly, how you relate better like take your notes, how you do like everything, all those skills like no one is going to teach you like that at york. but this is like free opportunities that you can take it and make benefit (male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of health, january 2020). some other students sought assistance from teaching assistants (tas). these respondents also observed that students who came in directly from high school had more time to cultivate interactions and relationships with faculty than transfer students. however, while interactions with tas were helpful, relationships with professors were seen as more valued by transfer students, particularly if they aspired to post-graduate studies. not only just your tas, youve got so when you start taking seminar classes, when youre really in with just a professor if you want to go into a graduate program like i am, you really need to make a connection with your professors because theyre the ones who are going to give you the references. tas are great and they can help to guide you, but unfortunately, theyre not as strong about reference as your professor. so and since you were you were transferred so you have less time to connect with your professors. like a new york student has four years, they can really find that time to get the right professor to give a stellar review and a recommendation, but as transfer students we only have a limited amount of time which is two years, right? so, you really want to start making those connections as soon as you get in (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). the website is a matrix. so, its really difficult to navigate and a lot of the links are either dead or outdated. so, for you to find the stream that you want to go in, i had to like i made friends with like a few tas and they were more helpful than the advisors because i found the advisors just didnt know (male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of health, january 2020 some students expressed that preparing in advance made the transition from college to university easier. i mean, i think its a good advice to be prepared. i was told university is so much different from college, so just be prepared for the big change. so, once you are prepared mentally, you know this is going to be a different life, different life in university, you kind of you dont encounter anything thats not totally unexpected. so, youre like okay, i knew it was going to be different. it is different, so its kind of makes it, you know. i mean, aspects like school, really large classrooms, more people basically. if you want to see or talk to registration, theres a big line of people. to get to anywhere you have to wait. just more people and the amount of you know how in college its more hands-on labs and there its more theory-heavy, so we just have to switch from lab work to more theory, reading books (female non-graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of science, january 2020) when asked what change they would like to see to help improve the transfer experience into college, a one on one interview explaining how everything worked was recommended. similarly, for student transfers into the university, there were requests from respondents for more one and one assistance. as one respondent aptly put it it is my first year and i am having a hard time with the university school life (seneca to york transfer students, survey response, open-ended question, november 2019). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 96 | p a g e supports and services as previously illustrated in the survey responses, many of the specific support services offered to transfer students at york and seneca were not always used by those requiring it. there were however some levels of increase over time in some of the services offered. there were also high levels of frustration expressed by students who attempted to access on-campus services. disparities were also identified in the quality and availability of services, based on campus location and/or institutional type. additionally, comments highlighted that information provided on the websites was often inadequate. this caused respondents to turn to other students for advice on how to navigate access to institutional services. based on their own experiences, some students discouraged others from seeking particular on-campus supports. one of the things too that would be helpful is in coming here, i didnt know about any like offices or services that existed. and every once in a while, someone will say, oh yeah, and there are all these services, but nobody tells you about them or where they are, how you get to them. so, i'm only hearing about different services that are available to us through people who have randomly discovered them and now they're using them. kind of like the counselling services thats available. anything having to do with accessibility, the student conduct office, we had no idea that was a thing and thats a really important point to know about (female graduate, york to seneca transfer, glendon campus, january 2020) and the website is blank. when you go on the seneca website and type in something, it just shows a list of numbers, dont show you anything. the address is not there, its blank[the] counselling office services and usually nothing pops up, it just takes you to some other random page. you know newnham campus, they use their system, you dont know that it actually exists here at seneca@york. (male graduate, york to seneca transfer, liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). i feel like there is a lot more in terms of services and resources that students might not know of, . because even until now, i dont even know where the clinic at seneca [is] (female nongraduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of arts, media, performance & design). at newnham65 everythings really easy to find ..., they have signs everywhere, they have people [who]are ready to jump in. when i came to the seneca@york to gather more information, i had absolutely no idea where to go. there was no one around, there was no signs. i think i wandered for 30 minutes before i finally found someone (female graduate, york to seneca transfer, liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). i finally know that academic supports are available if struggling; i never knew there was ways to get extra academic help, so i struggled in courses. i found out when it was too late. i wish i could have done better at york and achieved my masters (york to seneca transfer, survey response, open-ended question). 65 seneca has eight campuses. newnham is senecas main campus located on finch avenue near the don valley/ hwy404. seneca@york is located at the york university campus site while the king campus is located in york region is 40 minutes north of toronto. these campuses are connected to each other via a shuttle service offered to students, faculty, and staff. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 97 | p a g e long waits and lines were a concern, particularly at the university campus. these also provided a bigger challenge for students with disabilities. (a more detailed discussion regarding disability services will be done subsequently). most of my decisions was through the phone calls but it was so hard to get in touch with the york admissions through the phone. their waiting time is insane like two hours (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, lassonde - faculty of engineering, january 2020). yeah, when it comes to the counselling office, they tend to do it to other people. like those ones that are [unintelligible] another person that have like anxiety and depression. they will tell that person to wait. you know, those other people that are like special needs in a wheelchair, they give them more accessibility over the other person that might need it. and then sometimes they get frustrated, theyre like, you know what, instead of waiting, you leave the officeyeah, ive seen it because ive left... i didnt bother go see them (male graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). satisfaction with supports & services some respondents felt that sufficient supports and services were already being provided to students. respondents who had connections to york or were facilitated by a seneca staff, seemed to have had fewer difficulties. the communication between the coordinator at seneca and the studentit was one person dealing with everyone transferring from the lat program. i found it very helpful to communicate with the office of admissions from york at the bennett centre66 even before i got admitted into york because they gave me up to date information and helped me prepare information and documents i would have otherwise not known i needed to be considered for the transfer. otherwise the process was smooth just lengthy (seneca to york transfer, survey response, open-ended question, november 2019). it was fine. i think students are accommodated enough already. there isn't much else to add to the process; the services are there for you to use, it is up to you to use them. (seneca to york respondents, qualitative survey response, november 2019) my admission was a bit smoother since they are drawing67 programs. i would say other programs should have something similar where i had like a third party. so, there was a person that processed my application, i talked through himlike, its not a third person technically. my coordinator passed me down to him and he processed everything. so, i didnt have to like contact yorks admissionwithin seneca and i had to call him, and i emailed him personally. and so, i didn't have to wait for that long but once i got inside york, that's when the waiting time was like an hour or same day (male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020) regardless of transfer direction, many respondents identified disparities in the service and support levels received, offered, or made available from one campus to the next and between the bennett centre is yorks student services hub. the registrars office, admissions, financial aid, counselling, and other support offices are located in this building on the keele campus. 67 there is a formalized articulation agreement between senecas independent illustration and yorks bachelor of fine arts programs. staff at the college often facilitate connections to the program staff at york on behalf of students. 66 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 98 | p a g e the two institutions. administrative services, campus amenities such as food, parking, transportation/ shuttle services and gymnasium facilities between york and seneca were often evinced. students generally lauded the food and gymnasium services at the york university keele campus and had issues with disparities between newnham campus other seneca campuses. the lack of food options was cited as a great source of dissatisfaction, especially among transfers from york to seneca. others however, pointed to some of the more modernized facilities available at some of the campuses. because i think like its like you have this usually most campuses its like in the city whereas king campus is like it was just a school and then like a bunch of land and then you get more into it. so, we were just kind of like stuck in that one little bubbleit sits on like 50 acres or 100 acres or something. its beautifulyeah. and so, its like so its like you come over here you can kind of take the subway or go somewhere out, like over there its nice but yeah, youre just like on campus they took care of everything and you could definitely get help from them because you knew everybody and you had the same teachers, i had two teachers the whole time i was there.its kind of like being in high school, its like a little bubblebut i wouldnt want to have to live on campustheres nothing there, you have to like drive out really far just to get like if you had a car, for people in res, yeah (female graduates, seneca to york transfer, liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). like, its way slower there, because its at king too, its like a small high school, is what it felt like and it had no options when it comes to food (female non-graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). functioning and upgraded computers and printers in the computer labs/classrooms at seneca@york building just like the computer classrooms/labs at newnham campus please and thank you! (york to seneca transfer, survey response, open-ended question, november 2019). for some things they say go to newnham [to submit], documents about transfer, [the transfer] credit office is in newnham, so you cant get it here, they have to send it to newnham from here (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of science, january 2020). newnham is amazing. they have 3d printers, they have all these things, they have skating rinks. they have all these things that are free for students to use. once we move to [seneca@york], we dont get to use them anymore. we are only able to use things that are at york but theres nothing at [seneca@york] (female graduate, york to seneca transfer, glendon campus, january 2020) more food options that supports dietary restrictions; [there is] less variety in terms of food optionsat seneca; more affordable and healthy food choices [are needed] on campus (york to seneca, survey response, open-ended question, november 2019). finding more options for students to get up to king campus since the busses fill up quickly; better shuttle bus times and more accessibility to busses that travel throughout gta; - someone to talk to about shuttles after hours during winter.[i] had to wait ~2hrs during a snowstorm at king last winter with no idea if bus was coming or not (york to seneca transfer, survey response, open-ended questions, november 2019). parking fees, people are already paying tuition, why are we paying $6.25 for a whole day of parking. cut it in half if not remove it; seneca [needs to] implement a more affordable parking system for its students and more affordable and healthy food choices on campus (york to seneca, survey response, open-ended question, november 2019). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 99 | p a g e and i honestly just like the environment of seneca better than york. i find york is - like, a lot of places are very dark and not appealing, and it doesnt really make you want to stay there and it doesnt make you want to work, whereas at seneca, everything like, i can tell they really try with the aesthetics, to make everything really clean york, even the main vari hall, its dark. so you can even get in trouble over there, because theres no light, and if a light goes out, its like, completely black (female, non-graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of environmental studies, january 2020). when asked on the survey about the changes they would like to see implemented to improve the experience for transferring students, some indicated the need for increased email communication about all available services, more online information about services and supports. the sample for this study consisted of a higher number of mature transfer students so most of the respondents wanted to ensure that their needs were distinguished from other traditional students at the receiving institution. also, separate orientations for transfer students were deemed helpful in easing the transfer shock and ensuring an overall positive transfer experience. my one change would be to provide better all-around online services - online chat availability (with transfer office and also with department offices) updated webpages, realistic expectations of being mature students, an immediate invitation to and reminders for mature student clubs (and program-specific clubs), more alluring academic supports (with more detailed descriptions) to [acclimatize] first year transfer students as the workload changes. (seneca to york respondentqualitative survey, november 2019). lets just compare our situation to high school. when you apply for high school, they come to your school, they educate you. i'm not saying they should take our hand and show us but when you don't know where to research, you don't know where to start, you spend instead of like five hours, you spent 15 hours navigating trying to figure out where do you even start? what do you even need? you don't know about any of those. so, you spend extra time researching. like i did not know about orientation, i should have researched but i didnt, so i missed my orientation day. so, what i would say is like just like she said, create a group where the transfer students can have like a different experience of like, hey, this is orientation. when you go to york, it will be like so or there's a mature section for students that are transferring. i didn't know there was an extra help inside york until like my second semester at york. so, you don't need any of these until you get into it, which is too late (male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). i didnt attend orientation because it was held in the afternoon like 5pm. i was working at that time, so i wasn't able to make it. but i did attend the mature students information session like in york. i went there, somebody like introducing the process of transferring credit and all kinds of things, but we don't have a good discussion after that mature student information session. so, we didnt get a chance to talk about our situation or present situation but the thing is...or the options that you can attend the orientation because honestly, i thought there was no orientation for it, or i thought i cant attend the orientation. so, i missed it (female graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of engineering, january 2020). because if its a general orientation, mostly not particularly for transfer students how things are, but just for or how to you have to do your homework and just regular tips, you know, how you from high school, out of high school, just yeah, you have to go to school, you have to be ready the student experience in transfer, september 2020 100 | p a g e for this, do your homework and stuff like that. just not you know, general advice they give, but not specifically about- (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). i think like i just remember like my orientation at seneca and stuff and i think they were very clear about like a lot of resources, a lot of like opportunities to like know the campus and like they just gave everything all out very clearly. so i think that kind of helped [unintelligible] and then because obviously it was smaller, it was easier to kind of go around and make your way and it was easier to get things done as opposed to like having to go around finding it here, like not having any responses from advising because no one like answers you and then youre constantly like back and forth. i think yeah, over there, they kind of made everything very laid out and open. so i think thats why when you just first go in there, even if like you feel like you dont know anything, they kind of just give you everything laid out at seneca (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). orientation/student advising could've been more organizedclub fair for mature student, since i felt quite uncomfortable to join a bunch of new students for new student orientation who are younger than memore information and more orientation sections would be usefulorientation to choose courses was at a later time than when the platform to choose courses was already open leaving fewer courses to enrol intomore engaging transfer students, orientation with more fun it was hard to make friends because the transfer students feel that they all know each other before handthey should provide more detail explanation in orientation for transfer student like now they just provide few information such as how to enroll the courseshave a separate orientation for transfer students as the transfer student were getting the same information about new student from high schoolthe amount of paper work that had to flow through from seneca to york, how much i was left on my own after orientation without the help that i really neededorientation days and teaching students how to get to their classrooms and how to use moodlei missed my first class because orientation happened after classes started. (seneca to york, qualitative survey responses). some of the other supports and services being requested by transfer respondents could be classified as academic and administrative. this included support with class or course scheduling and selection, including the timing and early identification of courses required for credential completion. students who transferred into the university degree programs often wanted more communication on preparing for university, particularly course selection and expectations. there were also complaints that some of the required courses for credential completion quickly filled up, leading to delays in program completion and ultimately graduation. (seneca to york transfers, qualitative survey responses, november 2019). among the students who transferred into the college, many were unfamiliar with college course scheduling or limitations on what could be selected. college and university processes differ. as well, the college requirement of seeking permission from specific staff-- such as program coordinators or academic chairs for course drops-- was an annoyance given the autonomy they had with doing this at the university. others called for better communication with new seneca students regarding course registration and transfer credits. overall, regardless of transfer direction, students sought more academic advising and services to help with academic questions. (york to seneca transfers, survey response, open-ended question, november 2019). as discussed in the literature review, transfer students were the student experience in transfer, september 2020 101 | p a g e generally more interested in academic services that would better support their integration at the receiving institution. disability status & supports / accessibility services a greater percentage of seneca to york transfer respondents disclosed that they had a disability compared to those who transferred from york to seneca: 20.7% and 15.5%, respectively. however, the respondents who disclosed having a disability often complained about the accessibility services offered at both institutions. the expressed frustration with long waiting periods, inadequate facilities, and a lack of awareness of these services. yeah. i just want it to be known that the accessibility at the school is horrible. like any accommodations or anything. i don't even know how to go about doing it and i don't trust that just going to the office and saying, so my doctor said i need this. i don't believe that they will be helpful. but also, so like i wrote in the test centre once before because i missed the test. and that is the worst test writing experience of my life and i've had a lot of bad ones but it's really bad in there. and they kind of like they seat you like you're in a restaurant. so, it could be an empty room and they'll put you here and then they'll put the other person here and it's like there are 30 empty chairs and we have to sit next to each other? why would you do that? yeah, it's because there are only so many single rooms. so, it's first come first serve. so, if your test is scheduled 12 and its part of your accommodation that you are supposed to get a single room, but there's someone who's scheduled at 12 or like 11:45. and so, they show up, theyre first, they ask for the room, they just get the room, even though you're supposed to get it (female, glendon, york to seneca graduate, focus group respondent, january 2020). and they know that some people get distracted. me, for example, i have adhd. so anytime they put me in the test centre, its on my psyche assessment that i need to be in the room by myself. but they put me in the room by other people. luckily, i force myself to not focus on the other person beside me (male, york to seneca graduate, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). theres also that 1% interest fee [penalty for late payments on tuition]. its not a lot, but if youre a struggling student thats a big thing. i think the biggest issue is that its just to really front people, the people at the counter, because they dont know the answer and they want you to wait in line and thats a really long time. so i personally have a permanent disability so im on a very different schedule and i have to go and ask like okay, my situation is different and i need to do this fast those with disabilities, you are on a very strict timeline for very good reasons and they would just say im not sure. so, i will sit there and then i would wait, and i go see a counsellor or an advisor and she said, youre in the wrong place, youve got to go somewhere else for this. so, i was sent all across the campus and i [wasted/waited] an entire afternoon (female, seneca to york graduate, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). at seneca and i have accommodation letter. [i only needed to notify them once and my tests were booked] ...that [went on] for two years, three years, [while i was in] the programbut here [at york it] is different. so, i didnt know that, and i missed a test and something like that. if they have something in orientation session, [about this], i dont know. i think here because i was thinking about [it being] the same in seneca. so, here is [is] different and yeah. [you have to apply] for each test i have to book differently for each test, if i want. and in one course i have for example twotests i have to apply for different test, and you know, i didnt [have to] do that the student experience in transfer, september 2020 102 | p a g e [at] the college (male, seneca to york graduate, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). financial aid accessing financial aid information and services often proved to be a challenge. since transfer pathways usually resulted in a greater amount of time in postsecondary, students could accrue more debt. although a significant number of transfer students indicated that they were balancing employment and academic responsibilities, many still required financial assistance to support credential completion. some of the research coming out of the united states and canada has observed that although paid employment while pursuing a postsecondary credential can help students achieve their academic goals, working more than 20 per week was counterproductive to academic completion. (handel, fall 2008, p.11). canadian researchers have also recorded similar findings that working had a negative effect on student persistence (motte and schwartz, 2009). many of the respondents from the current project expressed frustration with institutional financial aid processes and practices. when they experienced difficulties, respondents often turned to their personal networks, -mostly other students, to provide them with information on how to navigate these services. funny enough, i actually remember distinctly telling my friends when they first came to york dont go to the bennett centre, just ask your classmates because its so much more useful. like at newnham campus i had [no] problems whatsoever getting any financial help. i would literally just stand in like, theyll come up, i asked them all of the questions i needed and ill be just done, but over here at the bennett centre its just like a nightmare because the people at the front they all know the answer so they tell you to take a number and then youre sitting there for like an hour or two and then you go in theyre like they give you a really short answer and then you go out, you find out that thats not the right answer and youve got to do the process all over again (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). transfer respondents who relied on osap (ontario student assistance plan) also complained that tuition payment delays sometimes led to financial penalties, such as late fees or even ejection from their academic programs. concurrently enrolled students faced even greater hurdles navigating the information requirements to support their financial aid applications. some transfer students complained that some staff seemed to be unaware of joint or concurrent academic arrangements between york and seneca. they also a lack of communication between the two institutions that affected their financial aid application. there were complaints about service levels and quality and lack of support by some staff working in financial aid offices. some respondents also hoped that with the advances in technology, information requests between york and seneca could be better facilitated. even getting osap, i was running back and forth like literally running with the form, just one page. okay, well, can i get your signature? okay, you're not available. i'll wait half an hour. okay, waited half an hour then i have to go back to the bennett centre, get into line again, do the application all over again. okay, well, i missed something. i got to run back. like there was absolutely no communication between york and seneca. so i'm still upset like i'm still going through it like right after this session, i'm going back to go do the application again, because york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 103 | p a g e and seneca did not state that i'm in a joint program68 even though my online applications everything can be done online these days was done from my end but it was never like takingit just wasnt added onto my application apparently or my profile, my york profile (female graduate, york to seneca, liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). . no institution is talking to another, even the campuses don't talk to each other. so, the thing is, the school doesn't talk to osap, who doesn't talk to national student loan service centre because they're the ones who actually give the money. but you have to talk to osap if you're having problems, but there's no way to contact them anymore, since they changed the whole thing. so, you have to talk to your school, who can't do anything because you have to talk to osap, but they can't even talk to osap and then your money never comes in and youre just fighting for months. you get locked out of the program. so, if you dont pay for long enough, they lock you out. you cant sign into your seneca stuff anymore and youre not allowed to be in class anymore, but they do know that osap is coming but they dont. so, when you first get in, i think it used to be and now its $500 every time and its ridiculous. that's a lot of money, especially for someone who needs osap. but that is due before even your school confirms that youre a student. you just have to pay it (female graduate york to seneca, glendon, focus group, january 2020). yes, because for osap, when you're applying and stuff, you can't contact osap directly, you contact your school. so, if you have a problem with your application or something, you have to the financial aid office at your school. and people go to the financial aid office for all types of things, not just osap. so, its just a whole bunch of people just going to the same office. and at york, i think just because there are so many people, maybe they're understaffed there, i dont know, but that was just a really bad experience for me at york (female, york to seneca nongraduate, faculty of environmental studies, focus group, january 2020). not osap, the financial office. for them to do their work, its always so many issues. i wont get in the application done. and then theyre like, your account is outstanding. you need to pay a late fee. oh yeah, they actually dropped. when i was at york, i did have these issues. to be honest, i have a lot of issues with everyonethe advising office. even when it comes to osap, oh my god, thats another problem (male graduate york to seneca, liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). proof of academic progress like so basically part of the process and i think it stopped after my second year at york every year youd have to write out like basically a statement of im in this program. this is why im doing it. i have good grades. i guess its to prove who you are for osap purposes. but like multiple times the bennett centre like had no record of it, they lost it or they just didnt know so i literally handed in a paper copy because they request usually they want like an emailed version or something like that, but i didnt like i stopped trusting them because they kept on losing it, so when it came time, you know, in the last few months to start to apply for graduate schools, i would literally just you know, try to get the transcript from them and deliver it myself to the institution that i wanted rather than trusting something that i didnt 68 this respondent was at the time of the focus group concurrently registered in a york degree and seneca diploma through a formalized agreement in communication arts that has existed since the 1990s. york degree students have the opportunity to enroll concurrently in one of four diplomas at seneca: journalism, radio, television and creative advertising. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 104 | p a g e really trust. so, kind of had some issues there (male graduate, seneca to york, liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). yeah, because theyre the ones that also like kind of process like york has to process our school information to osap for us to get our money and so thats why i think i end up having to go there sometimes because theyll tell me sometimes ive gotten cases where im like, osap doesnt think im a student and im like im here. i dont know and so yeah. so thats where its just like stuff with that, because it does seem disorganized, but they just give you a very quick answer like well upload it now but then it will be a month and i still dont have my money and then you get the emails of like your student account statement is this and im like well (male graduate, seneca to york, liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). one time i waited two and a half hours, i brought an envelope with some document, a letter typed out for osap and i came to the front, just take a ticket, sit down and wait so i waited two and a half hours and then finally i see somebody and i say i just came to submit this document and shes like its outside in the box, you didnt have to wait, just throw it in the box. yes. this was i was so angry (non-graduate, seneca to york female, faculty of science focus group respondent, january 2020). other transfer students talked about how staff from outside of the financial aid office were supportive in facilitating financial aid application process. i might be different from the rest of you because i'm in a more-tight-knit program. but my program advisor was really helpful with me because it's an eight-month program and then it's eight courses a semester, which is really heavy. and then i'm with the second class now, the fall-winter intake, because i asked them to accommodate me. and then they said, oh, here's what you can do. you can split your classes this way, in that way. so that you can take, i could be full time and then part time, part time and then full time. yeah. and then he was alsohe wasnt in animation, but he was a seneca student and then he was very professional. he said, oh, i understand. i can help you out. you're not the only one going through this issue. and i had to do this because i have to keep my job as well as osap to support my going to school. yeah. so, its just a part time job. so now im full time and doing the part time job, so i just work a bit less. but when i was part time, i worked more. but that's just something i would say about my experience is good because before i did this, i talked to the program coordinator. and then he made sure i didn't feel like an idiot for saying, oh, this program is so intense (female graduate york to seneca, faculty of arts, media, performance & design, january 2020). i had filled all the forms that they requested you. the main thing is just following the deadlines that they provide you on the website. you just follow those deadlines and like basically, if you read through the website, its pretty simple to navigate like the osap website. they explain you like what form you should like fill in, what form you should send to you, that was like pretty simple steps (male graduate from seneca, faculty of health, focus group respondent, january 2020). credit transfer respondents observed that the inter-institutional relationship between york and seneca helped facilitate the ease of transfer and the credit transfer process. the transfer credits allocated by york were viewed as being more generous than other institutions. the support that seneca staff the student experience in transfer, september 2020 105 | p a g e provided to students transferring to york about the existence of articulation agreements and the number of transfer credits was cited as a reason for transferring between the two institutions. i went to go see my counsellor to talk about it in person. they were the ones who told me exactly how many credits and i had to go to the actual websites of the universities to find out how many transfer credits it will give me. so, for example when it went to u of t i saw that they were only giving like half credits and thats what swayed my decision to come to york instead (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). my experience was slightly different, because when i spoke to an advisor it was online because i was abroad, i couldnt come in and do it myself, but it was actually really helpful, even though it was through an email. i received like a detailed document of exactly what my transfer credits were and what courses i like that i dont have to do at york. and then she the advisor, gave me a list of what she suggests i do for the first year. she was like oh, three credits in this, like microeconomics, microeconomics and then six credits of humanity and then nine credits of social science. and then its like up to you what you want to do because most of those were electives for me, except for just the one, the microeconomics and then like my major, those were like i have to take them. it was pretty, like laid out for me. so that was different for me (female nongraduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). i studied liberal arts at seneca and transferred into york. the transition was a little smoother because of the partnership with york and seneca. however, like i agree with him, the whole transfer credits like just because i didn't take two of classes like literature, the ykls, i was behind like half of a semester. whereas my other classmates, they took those two classes and end up getting like almost 30 credits, whereas like i was behind a semester just from two classes. so, the transition is just a little unclear sometimes (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). im in the law & society program. same reason why i transferred, because the transfer credits were a lot better than other universities and the program at the college was matches very closely with the program at the university (female, seneca to york graduate, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). im in the professional writing program. and i came out of the liberal arts program at seneca which is an articulation agreement between york and a few other schools. yeah, so theres [unintelligible] transfer credits that come with it and its also tied like its related to each other (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). yeahat seneca, i was in an international business program. i graduated from seneca and i just wanted to get a degree and stay competitive in the job market. i chose york mostly because i found that they gave like the most transfer credits and im left with a year left to graduate (male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). for me, for transfer credits it was just like you log into york file and they just send an email that theres a transfer credit statement or something and then you just get a thing that you have these many credits and you have to go and take this course from seneca. like you have the total the student experience in transfer, september 2020 106 | p a g e credits on your file and then you apply for the transfer credits (female non-graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of science, january 2020). however, respondents who transferred from york to seneca were motivated by similar and different factors from their seneca to york counterparts. the existence of concurrent opportunities often referred to as joint programs, work integrated learning opportunities such as job placements; and the industry experience of the teaching faculty at seneca, were among the primary reasons cited. so, im currently in my last year at media communications at york. so, i am doing the joint program with journalism (female non-graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). i'm still i'm happy that i did it because i did find the first year really valuable and i learned a lot and the placements are amazing (female graduate, york to seneca transfer, glendon campus, focus group, january 2020). while at seneca, all of my professors work in the field, so them teaching me, teaches me firsthand experience of their experience working in the field, and theyve been very helpful for all of the students in my program to help get a job afterwards, or a co-op placement, or just helpful tips in general. so, its more related to the program, as opposed to at york (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). in my ece, because i was working in the like, going for a placement twice a week and seeing, and then i graduated, and i did work in the field, and it was exactly give or take, what id experienced before. so, i think if you're just someone that wants to work and know what you want, you could also come through herethey give you a placement at daycare and every semester its a different placement with different age groups. so, you experience it all and you decide (female non-graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). nevertheless, not all transfer transitions were smooth. some transfer students faced many challenges, including misinformation and workload issues. im currently in my last year at media communications at york. so i am doing the joint69 program with journalism what really drew me to go to seneca, i wont lie, i think it was a mistake, only because of my transfer process was like really bad and i did not like it. that's actually one of the reasons why i came in today because i have such stronglike i've never like felt so upset about something or school because i love going to school which is why i'm at york. i knew what i wanted to do in the beginning for university. i wanted to do go to seneca but because i love writing the essays and writing, i decided to go to york....but long story short, yeah, basically i want to transfer because when i went in to acknowledge about or sorry, get more education about what seneca has to offer, they were very promising and they would be helpful and like, oh, you know, well help you get through this and they made it look like it was such an easy transition, but it wasnt. i felt like i was thrown under the busi went third year to seneca and they had promised me that they would help schedule my courses according to york, and like they would help me graduate york first and they would like you know, have someone like monitoring me and like mentoring me step-by-step 69 a concurrently enrolled student. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 107 | p a g e (female non-graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). i'm struggling, [to manage] like nine classes, including york and seneca because they're also full time. im full time at york. so, i have like nine, 10 classes and the ones online. and they're like, we can't do anything. and i was like, you promised me this. and another thing that really triggered me was the process of transferring. so, i had to join, i had to go to the ontario college website. so, i joined, that was a hassle because no one was getting back to me and classes already started. so, i enrolled at seneca three weeks after classes started. so, i was already a month behind i would say. and it was really awkward because i went into with such confidence and like i look like an idiot walking into class because i didnt know what to do. (female non-graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). however, the lack of consistent, updated, timely information on the transfer process was also evident throughout the research. below is one example of the difficulties faced by students when they were not informed about their admission status in time. i didnt even know i got accepted. so apparently like they accepted me at seneca but the ontario college website, it was always blank like i would check like every hour, two hours. but apparently, seneca has already seen the application, so they accepted me from their end but apparently, it was never stated on the official website. (female non-graduate, york to seneca student, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). there were also a number of other issues raised including misinformation or inconsistent information, service issues, lack of transparency and disappointment with transfer credit allocations. students often expected a higher number of transfer credits than what was actually received from the institution. throughout the focus groups, many students demonstrated some understanding that more generous transfer credits allocations would be granted in related programs, programs that were successfully completed and when appropriate grades were achieved. however, students expressed that different staff, counsellors or advisors provided different responses to many of their questions regarding transfer credits. this was often in relation to requirements for graduation and / or admissions. going back to the transfer credits, so im hearing like from most people that doing two years they got 60 credits. i did one year, and i only got 21 credits and i feel like maybe i should have gotten 30 because i did like i took, i think 12 credits for a semester and 16 credits second semester, something like that, something around that. so, i feel like i should have gotten more credits and i also know one of my friends also transferred from seneca. he did a year and a half, like three semesters and he only got 18 credits, which doesnt make sense to me. so, i feel like there is some problems with the transcript credits (female non-graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). so, the application process was really easy. i just went onto the seneca website and i just they had a whole bunch of universities that i could transfer my credits to. the only thing that i found like a little bit hard was i didnt know how many transfer credits i actually was going to get until after i got accepted at york (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). the student experience in transfer, september 2020 108 | p a g e i went to three different separate counsellors [at york] and they all gave me conflicting information. so, i was really upset about that because im approaching graduation, so i went to them to ask hey, am i on the right track? do i have all credits? one of them told me i needed six credits, one of them told me i need 12 credits and another one told me i need nine credits [to graduate]. so, i was completely confused. i think i dont know maybe it was the academic advisors that i seen and i just got the bad draw, but i think theyre really unsure when it comes to transfer credits involved, because i dont think theyre used to it (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, focus group, january 2020). in my experience, i had some troubles understanding the required credits to graduate section, especially for the general education. by the time i had brought over my credits from york, it turned out that i had accidentally taken a class that the credit from york would have qualified for. i feel that at registration it should be made clear which credits from york will work for certain requirements and that they should be sent through the process immediately, so they do not have the same experience i did(york to seneca transfer, survey response, open-ended question, november 2019). the qualitative survey responses from students offered several solutions to improve the transfer credit services offered. some of their recommendations included an automated online system to facilitate the process between the two institutions, being able to transfer all credits from completed programs at the college towards the university degree. and getting more accurate assistance and support with the transfer credit process from both institutions. survey participants also expressed frustration over the need to find past course syllabi to obtain transfer credits. course repetition the theme of course repetition also persisted throughout the focus groups and qualitative survey responses. the students called for better coordination of course content in the two institutions as this affected transfer credit allocations and expectations, and student satisfaction levels. i went to the office five times about the same thing. i guess they wanted me to do most of those courses. [unintelligible] i could transfer over, but they keep giving me the run around over and over again and keep charging me [unintelligible] for all these courses i dont really need. and it happened in second semester, the same course i did from the first again, i have to do them again like i don't understand. its the same program but its like a different set and you explain to them that, oh, this relates to that. theyre like, no, no, no, its a different class. we cant transfer these over. so, they give you a hard time (male non-graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). looking more at transfer credits. it is unfair that we have to repeat very similar courses for the second time!! (seneca to york transfer, qualitative survey response, november 2019). having to repeat courses i've done well at seneca (such as microeconomics, macroeconomics, management accounting, etc. (seneca to york transfer, qualitative survey response, november 2019) york university only granted the students with 30 transfer credits, meaning college graduated students still have to complete 3 years in university. also, the students repeat learning the same the student experience in transfer, september 2020 109 | p a g e thing since most of the course materials teaching at york are similar to what has already been taught at seneca (seneca to york transfer, qualitative survey response, november 2019) there should be more transfer credits... because i feel like am repeating things i already learn in seneca (seneca to york transfer, qualitative survey response, november 2019). repeated course from the same courses that i have to retake again where the transfer credits did not count in my accounting program (seneca to york transfer, qualitative survey response, november 2019). the larger university campus size also made access to information more challenging for many transfer students. those who had strong peer networks and had staff at the receiving institution to intervene on their behalf had more positive experiences. institutional processes and practices that impeded the access and timing of accurate information contributed to many negative transfer experiences. despite the many challenges outlined above, transfer could be a positive experience for students. it allowed them to solidify their career interests and achieve academic goals. i'm very happy now [at seneca]. when i was at york, i kind of didnt know what i wanted to do with my life and then i left. it took time to figure it out, and about a year later, thats when i started at seneca. i had a very small interest in technology, and that was all it took. and my program also had co-op options, so that was a big reason i came here, and i did that two years ago already. and yeah, i'm about to finish and it gave me a taste of what the industry is like, and i got to work in a great company, met some great people, made some good friends (male non-graduate york to seneca transfer, faculty of health, january 2020) just going down the pathway, i know a lot of people look down on college compared to university. but a lot of students like, i feel like they dont know about the pathway options. i went to my program that i'm in now, in order to help me also get into a masters degree program, that i never would have got into without going to seneca. so, i finished my undergrad at york and then i was interested in pursuing a masters degree, but me being at seneca, had the pathway option to apply to certain schools that would give me advanced standing and a better chance of getting in, i guess. but if i applied without my seneca diploma, i probably wouldnt have had a chance of being accepted (female graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020)70. its very complicated because i was in yorkokay, this is going to be more than one sentence, but i was in york 2017 to 2018. so, when the strike happened, i couldnt like to finish the year. plus, my program wasnt the best fit for me. so, i was like, im going to find something thats closer to what i like, to do what im good at; art i guess. and i guess i took a year off and then i came to seneca to do the fundamentals program (female non-graduate, york to seneca transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). seneca has a number of agreements where students who complete graduate certificates can gain admission into masters degrees at us universities. these students still do need a degree for admission into the masters program. this student was at the time of the focus group enrolled in senecas public relations, corporate communications graduate certificate program, which has this existing pathway arrangement. 70 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 110 | p a g e so, i went to seneca college for behavioural sciences. after i graduated, i worked as a therapist for about a year and a half full time and then i kind of decided i wanted to advance my career, so it was just easier to just transfer my credits to york. (female graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). i studied behavioural science at seneca, so the natural next step for me in like a health-related field would be to complete my honours psychology degree. it was a relatively painless process and proximity-wise it was a lot closer than a lot of the other universities, so thats basically why. (male graduate, seneca to york transfer, faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, january 2020). discussion the student experience in transfer study (sets) examined the experiences of transfer students who transferred between york university and seneca college in either direction. the primary research questions for the sets were: 1) how did seneca and york students gain information about transfer options, advising services, transition supports, financial aid and transfer credits? 2) how effective was this information in supporting their decision-making, application process and registration? 3) what improvements to registration processes and student services were most likely to have a positive impact on the transfer student experience? how did students experience transfer? and 4) how did sociodemographic characteristics, academic performance and engagement influence satisfaction with the transfer experience, and the decision to transfer? how did these characteristics influence academic performance and adjustment post-transfer? reasons for transfer the most important reason for transfer among the seneca to york transfer group was to obtain a degree, while for the york to seneca group it was to gain practical skills towards a specific career or interest. (see tables 3 and 14). regardless of transfer direction, more opportunities for career advancement and the opportunity to improve or upgrade skills also ranked as one of the top reasons for transfer. for the regression analysis, responses to the most important reasons for transfer were grouped into four categories: academic, career, credential and transfer agreement reasons.71 the findings from regression analysis of seneca to york transfers showed that those who transferred for academic-related reasons were more likely to be satisfied with their decision to transfer and had a higher propensity to indicate that they would transfer again to york. these findings were similar to a study of ontario college graduates who transferred to university, which found those who transferred for academic related reasons displayed greater levels of satisfaction (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017). in the york to seneca direction, the most important reason variable did not meet the statistical test for inclusion in the regression model (see footnote 17). information sources transfer students were asked about sources of information at each step of the decision-making process, including where they first heard about transfer, their sources when they were considering, and when they were finally applying to transfer. regardless of transfer direction, the student experience in transfer, september 2020 111 | p a g e survey respondents were most likely to indicate that they first heard about transfer options from the seneca college website and publications. for seneca to york transfers seneca faculty/program coordinators is the strong second choice while for york to seneca other students and friends was the strong second choice. (see tables 3 and 34). in both directions, however, the first source of information was not a statistically significant predictor of satisfaction with the overall process, the transfer decision or the students propensity to transfer again (see tables 9, 17 and 18) when considering transfer, the most important source utilized by college to university transfers was the york future students website71 followed by seneca website and senecas dcto (academic pathways office). in the other direction, the seneca websites were the most frequently used source at the time of considering transfer. once the decision to transfer was made and students began to register, the receiving institutions website became the most used source. service usage the sets study investigated service use by transfer students, which also serves as a measure of institutional integration and engagement. across demographic variables and in both directions, roughly 80% of transfer students used the library. other high-use services were academic advising at york for seneca york transfers (73.9%) and the degree and credit transfer at seneca for seneca york transfers (53.7%). other services were used by varying percentages of transfer students: for seneca york transfers usage ranged from 5.9% for student community leadership development (scld) to 31.2% using the yu start student transition program; for york to seneca transfers service use ranged from 6.1% for first peoples@seneca to 37.8% for student advising. as many as 17% of transfers reported that they had never heard of some services, but in some cases that might have been because the service was not relevant to them (e.g. assistive technologies at seneca), or they might have been familiar with the services but not the name of the unit that administered them (e.g. scld administers or coordinates student transition programs and clubs). in other cases, service use appeared low even among the population it was designed to serve, like yorks mature student services which were used by 10.9% of seneca-york students over 25 years of age. a lack of knowledge of the existence of some services at the start of their academic program was a concern raised by some transfer students in the focus groups. participants indicated they had only heard about some services from other students and rather than from the institutional websites or other formal institutional sources. financial aid & disability services in the focus groups, issues with the accessibility services offered at both institutions (e.g. low awareness, long waiting periods) and frustration with institutional financial aid processes and practices arose. the survey found that 38.3% of york to seneca transfers indicated they received information regarding financial aid, versus 28% of those who transferred from seneca to york. a substantial proportion of the remainder in each case may not have required financial 7171 the transfer section of yorks future students website (https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/transfer) is yorks primary source of information for transfer students before admission. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 112 | p a g e aid so did not need the service. for both, the receiving institutions website was the primary source for information, followed by the financial aid office, although a small number continued to access resources at the sending institution. (see tables 5 & 16; figures 8 & 39). all the university to college transfer students who reported a disability knew of the service at seneca and more than half accessed it (see appendix 1, table 31). for seneca to york transfers, 68.1% who reported a disability accessed the student and accessibility service at york. (see table 7). timing of credit notification over 50% of seneca to york transfers indicated they received their transfer notification with the offer of admission with 20% each indicating before or after admission. none of those times was found to be a significant predictor of satisfaction with the overall process, transfer decision or the propensity to transfer again. measures of academic & social engagement, academic performance & levels of satisfaction the literature review suggested academic and social engagement were linked to student academic success in pse. in the current study, more than two-thirds of transfer students did not participate in co-curricular activities and more than three-quarters did not engage in community activities. (see appendix 1, figure 66).). however, regardless of transfer direction, most sets transfer respondents indicated that they completed class assignments on time, and more than three-quarters stated that they participated in classroom discussions and had discussions with faculty about their academic performances, all measures of high levels of academic integration (see appendix 1, figure 65). this is similar to the findings of gawley & mcgowan (2006), henderson & mccloy (september 2019), which also found that students placed greater levels of importance on academic integration/ engagement than social integration/ engagement. the ability to engage in non-academic activities may be impacted by the number of hours a student works for pay. almost 50% of seneca to york transfers and 37% of york to seneca transfers said they worked more than ten hours per week while enrolled in pse. (see figures 19 and 49). the findings suggest financial need among students, one of the recurring threads from the focus group discussions. an analysis of yorks 2017 national survey on student engagement (nsse) results revealed that, even after controlling for age, nsse respondents who were transfer students worked an average of almost two hours per week more than nontransfer students. university students who transferred to seneca report similar hours of work as other students, with 42% working more than 10 hours/ week compared to 41% of other students (mccloy, forthcoming, 2021). working more reduces the opportunity for social and academic engagement. student faculty interactions, satisfaction and academic performance student-faculty interaction positively affected transfer students experience and academic performance. for the seneca to york transfer group, students who engaged with faculty at york had 4.3 times higher odds of being satisfied with the overall transfer process than those who did not, although such engagement was not statistically significant for satisfaction with the transfer decision and preponderance to transfer again. holding other factors constant, seneca to york transfer students who interacted with faculty had a york gpa that was 0.85 higher than those who did not. (see tables 9 and 10) the student experience in transfer, september 2020 113 | p a g e among the york to seneca group, students who interacted with faculty had statistically significantly odds of being satisfied the overall transfer process and the transfer decision and had a high preponderance to say they would transfer again if they had the option. on average they also had a 0.25 higher gpa than those who did not interact with faculty. (see tables 17,18 and 19). transfer credits expected and received, student satisfaction levels & academic performance over half of seneca to york transfer students (54%) who had applied for transfer credit and had heard back reported as many or more credits than expected. (see figures 12 and 43). students with lower grades at seneca were more likely to indicate they received fewer transfer credits than expected. those who received fewer credits than expected often express frustration and this was apparent in the open-ended responses and during the focus groups regarding credit allocations. in the regression models, seneca to york transfer students who received as many or more credits than expected were more satisfied with their decision to transfer to york and with the overall transfer process than those who received fewer. as well, they were more likely to indicate they would choose to transfer to york again, if given the opportunity. for york to seneca transfer students, of those who applied for transfer credit and had heard back, 59% received as much or more than they expected. however, credit expectation was not a significant factor in the satisfaction regression models. (see tables 9, 17 & 18). socio-demographic profile and satisfaction levels the sociodemographic variables of parental education, gender, age, indigenous, minority, firstgeneration status, faculty/ program of study had varying levels of impact on sets respondents satisfaction levels. gender the ols regression model in table 10 showed that female transfers in the seneca to york group of sets had gpas 0.2 lower than males on average. however, regression analysis indicated that females were more likely to decide to transfer again if given the opportunity. there was no significant distinction in males and females with respect to satisfaction with the overall process or the transfer decision. regression analysis showed that in the york to seneca group the gpas of males and female students were not significantly different. females were significantly more satisfied about their decision to transfer but there was no difference in satisfaction with the transfer process by gender. age overall, more than fifty percent (57.2%) of study respondents were aged 25 and over while 32.8% were between 22 and 24 and 10.1% were less than 22 at the time of the study. (see appendix 1, table 20). relative to respondents under 22 years old, york to seneca respondents between the ages of 22 to 24 had higher levels of satisfaction with the transfer process but those 25 and older were not significantly more satisfied. (see table 17). each of the older york to seneca transfer the student experience in transfer, september 2020 114 | p a g e groups had higher gpas when they transferred to the college. (see table 19). however, age had no effect on satisfaction levels and academic performance of transfer students from seneca to york when other factors were controlled for. (see tables 9 and 10). disability overall, about 19.1% of sets respondents reported having a disability. for seneca to york group, students reporting a disability had lower odds than students without a disability of indicating that they would transfer again to the university if they could start all over again. in the york to seneca group satisfaction with the overall process was not significantly different from their non-disabled counterparts. disability status was not found to have a significant effect on academic performance in either direction. (see tables 10 and 18) parental education and first-generation status in sets, seneca to york transfer students who had a parent with a degree had significantly higher levels of satisfaction with the transfer process and the decision to transfer when compared with those whose parents or guardians did not have a postsecondary credential. (see table 9). however, parental education had no effect on the satisfaction levels of york to seneca students. parental education was not a significant factor in academic performance in either direction. status in canada, & ethnicity/ minorities more than two thirds (68.8%) of the overall sets sample were canadian residents: 22.3% were permanent residents and 8.9% were international/ visa students, at the time of the survey. (see appendix 1, table 20). finally, more than a quarter (28%) of the overall sets sample described themselves as caucasian, while the remaining were from minority groups, particularly, chinese, south asian and black. (see appendix 1, table 20). regression results showed that status in canada or ethnicity did not significantly influence satisfaction levels nor their academic performances at both institutions. a case for non-traditional transfer student designation based on the findings of the study and regardless of transfer direction, the term non-traditional student fits the population of transfer students described in the current study. these students exhibited many of the non-traditional student characteristics that were previously outlined in the literature review. their needs differed from direct entry high school students entering postsecondary. consequently, a different approach to supporting these non-traditional students within postsecondary institutions may be warranted. yet despite their many obligations, survey respondents were genuinely interested in succeeding at the receiving postsecondary institution, were more involved in academic than social activities. student-faculty interactions positively affected their transfer experience and academic performance. the implications transfer students bring a range of expectations to their new institution, largely shaped by their experiences and their prior institution these include class sizes, campus environment, course selection, scheduling, and registration procedures. as the tobolowsky & cox (2012) study said about institutional transfer response, when expectations are misaligned to the realities of the new campus environment, confusion and frustration ensue. in the student experience in transfer study we saw that transfer students turned to informal sources when they felt their needs were not adequately addressed. their lack of knowledge the student experience in transfer, september 2020 115 | p a g e about existing services and supports, for example, impeded their academic integration and engagement. many of the transfer students who participated in the focus groups did not know initially about many of the available services that were available to them. as illustrated in figure 16, students who had been enrolled longer at york (based on academic terms) were more likely to use several of the services offered. factors that affected the experiences of transfer students in the sets included accessibility issues, and unclear transfer credit and financial aid policies. when students could not get information through official channels they often turned to informal ones. the use of informal networks can lead to inaccuracy, reduced transfer literacy, cause students to delay action and contribute to distrust of the institution. one of the limitations of this study was that the opinions of other institutional stakeholders were not solicited. future studies should also examine how institutional beliefs about transfer students shape institutional supports for transfer students. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 116 | p a g e recommendations for institutions 1) improve the transfer credit system to increase student satisfaction and improve the transfer experiences. i) ii) iii) iv) v) endeavour to provide students as much transparency as possible to improve trust in the transfer process. increase inter-institutional access to course outlines and curricula to help prevent unnecessary course repetition and fill gaps in information. establish a neutral office between the two institutions to monitor and facilitate bilateral transfer between them, where warranted by transfer volume. create a clear advocacy path for students to help them with unmet support needs. endeavour to improve transfer credit processing to reduce inconsistencies in the allocation of transfer credits. coordinate the flow of information from agreements to the transfer credit processing system. 2) streamline the services offered to transfer students with disabilities and those in need of financial aid services. 3) develop and promote transfer-specific orientation sessions. 4) provide students with information about transfer in both directions early in their academic career. 5) increase awareness of the supports provided to transfer students. these students are usually older than the non-transfer population and have additional non-academic responsibilities. 6) include the perspective of transfer students in any student service evaluation 7) to reduce reliance on informal networks, provide peer mentoring for transfer students that is conducted by transfer students who have received specific training from their institution. 8) improve the opportunities for transfer students to have more meaningful engagement with faculty. 9) share data between sending and receiving institutions to help them understand how the experiences of transfer populations differ from that of the non-transfer populations. 10) recognize that college to university transfer students who do not have a parent who completed university may need additional support with the transfer process. 11) explore whether different diversity groups have different transfer experiences. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 117 | p a g e appendices the student experience in transfer, september 2020 118 | p a g e appendix 1. additional tables and figures appendix 1 table 20. socio-demographic characteristics of the sample socio-demographic characteristics total sample categories gender status in canada age at transfer age at survey parental education first generation non-first generation ethnicity reported a disability variables female male canadian citizen permanent resident visa student <22 22-24 >=25 <22 22-24 >=25 did not finish high school graduated from high school some college or cegep completed college or cegep attended university without earning degree completed bachelors degree completed masters degree completed doctoral degree white/caucasian chinese south asian black latin american west asian korean southeast asian filipino arab japanese first-nation other yes no seneca to york transfers n percentage 354 100 york to seneca transfers n percentage 162 100 n 516 percentage 100 213 141 267 45 42 116 114 124 33 120 201 44 60.2 39.8 75.4 12.7 11.9 32.8 32.2 35.0 9.3 33.9 56.8 12.9 107 55 88 70 4 52 57 53 19 49 94 13 66.0 34.0 54.3 43.2 2.5 32.1 35.2 32.7 11.7 30.3 58.0 8.5 320 196 355 115 46 168 171 177 52 169 295 57 62.0 38.0 68.8 22.3 8.9 32.5 33.1 34.3 10.1 32.8 57.2 11.5 61 17.9 26 17.0 87 17.6 27 7.9 11 7.2 38 7.7 78 22.9 21 13.7 99 20.0 14 4.1 9 5.9 23 4.7 83 24.3 63 41.2 146 29.6 22 6.5 6 3.9 28 5.7 12 3.5 4 2.6 16 3.2 99 67 62 33 14 12 11 9 9 9 2 2 23 73 279 28.1 19.0 17.6 9.4 4.0 3.4 3.1 2.6 2.6 2.6 0.6 0.6 6.5 20.7 79.3 44 22 27 17 1 9 1 4 10 8 0 0 16 25 136 27.3 13.7 16.8 10.6 0.6 5.6 1.9 2.5 6.2 5.0 0.0 0.0 9.9 15.5 84.5 143 89 89 50 15 21 12 13 19 17 2 2 39 98 415 28.0 17.4 17.4 9.8 2.9 4.1 2.3 2.5 3.7 3.3 0.4 0.4 7.6 19.1 80.9 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 total 119 | p a g e appendix 1 table 21. type of disabilities reported by students in the sample types of disabilities (for people who reported a disability) blind or visually impaired (not including problems correctable with lenses) deaf or hard of hearing dexterity or coordination disability intellectual disability, such as down's syndrome learning disability medical disability mobility disability, such as the need to use canes or a wheelchair psychiatric illness such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, etc. substance dependency, such as alcoholism other disability seneca to york york to seneca n percentage n percentage 2 4 2 0 16 18 3 41 1 11 2.7 5.5 2.7 0.0 21.9 24.7 4.1 56.2 1.4 15.1 0 1 0 0 6 8 0 11 0 6 0 4.0 0.0 0.0 24.0 32.0 0.0 44.0 0.0 24.0 appendix 1 table 22. year of entry into the receiving institution year of entry into the receiving institution 2015 or before 2016 2017 2018 2019 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 seneca to york n percentage 16 4.5 30 8.5 77 21.8 101 28.5 130 36.7 york to seneca n percentage 10 6.2 4 2.5 14 8.6 31 19.1 103 63.6 120 | p a g e appendix 1 table 23. sending seneca gpa and present york gpa seneca to york sending seneca gpa missing a b c d e f total by present york gpa missing a n percentage n percentage 30 65 8 8.5 18.4 2.3 20 8 5.7 2.3 103 29.2 28 present york gpa c b 8 n 1 36 80 6 percentage 0.3 10.2 22.6 1.7 1 0.3 124 35.1 d e n percentage n percentage n percentage 11 61 8 1 1 3.1 17.2 2.3 0.3 0.3 1 12 2 0.3 3.4 0.6 2 0.6 82 23.2 15 4.3 2 0.6 total by sending seneca gpa n percentage72 1 0.3 98 27.8 226 63.9 26 7.5 1 0.3 1 0.3 1 0.3 354 appendix 1 table 24. proportion of students by actual transfer credits received, graduation status from seneca and credential from seneca credential from seneca advanced diploma bachelors certificate diploma total by transfer credits 72 73 transfer credits received at york no credits did not graduate from seneca 31 to 46 to 1 to 15 16 to 30 45 60 0.3% 2.6% 0.6% 0.3% 0.9% 0.6% 2.1% 0.6% 0.3% total by credential73 graduated from seneca no credits 1 to 15 16 to 30 31 to 45 46 to 60 0.3% 0.9% 4.3% 6.5% 7.7% 23.5% 0.3% 3.7% 8.0% 0.6% 0.3% 0.4% 27.6% 13.1% 7.4% 3.4% 5.4% 68.4% 12.9% 32.5% 19.9% 15.5% 100.7% 0.6% 4.8% 0.3% 4.0% 0.9% 0.3% 1.1% 1.4% 8.0% 4.9% 1.8% 0.3% 2.8% the total percentage add up to more than 100 due to rounding off error. the total percentage add up to more than 100 due to rounding off error. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 121 | p a g e 100.4 appendix 1 table 25. proportion of male and female students by sending and receiving faculty seneca to york sending seneca faculty receiving york faculty faculty of applied arts & health sciences la&ps education health science la&ps environmental studies faculty of applied science and engineering technology faculty of business faculty of communication, art & design gender female male percentage percentage 24.3 7.1 0.5 12.9 10.0 1.0 2.1 1.0 7.9 1.0 2.9 health lassonde school of engineering science la&ps health science la&ps environmental studies 0.5 1.4 11.9 21.9 1.9 1.0 13.3 1.0 ampd health science 1.9 3.3 1.4 100 total the student experience in transfer, september 2020 122 | p a g e 1.4 12.1 11.4 27.1 0.7 12.9 0.7 2.9 0.7 100 appendix 1 table 26. proportion of students by timing of the decision to transfer- seneca to york proportion of students by timing of the decision to transfer- seneca to york timing of decision to transfer to york before i enrolled in my program at seneca during my program at seneca as i was finishing my program at seneca after i graduated from seneca other/not sure gender female age at time of transfer male less than 22 22-24 25 and over graduation status from seneca did not graduated graduate 13.6 14.9 17.2 17.5 8.1 22.0 12.6 26.3 34.8 36.2 30.7 22.6 61.0 23.5 26.8 22.7 34.5 23.7 17.7 13.6 27.6 28.2 23.4 9.5 23.7 44.4 5.2 4.3 2.6 4.4 7.3 31.6 3.4 4.8 appendix 1table 27. proportion of students by timing of decision to transfer to seneca york to seneca timing of decision to transfer to seneca before i enrolled in my program at york during my program at york as i was finishing my program at york after i graduated from york other/not sure gender female 0.9 male 3.6 age at time of transfer less than 22 22-24 1.9 1.8 25 and over 1.9 graduation status from york did not graduate graduated 1.4 2.2 32.7 16.8 41.8 12.7 71.2 7.7 33.3 21.1 3.8 17.0 72.9 8.6 7.6 20.7 43.0 6.5 32.7 9.1 7.7 40.4 3.5 69.8 7.6 17.2 67.4 2.2 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 123 | p a g e appendix 1 table 28. major reason(s) for transferring, % of students- seneca to york major reasons for transferring- seneca to york gender female male age at time of transfer less than 22 70.0 22 24 66.1 25 and over 72.8 firstgeneration status no yes potential for higher 69.6 69.8 69.6 69.3 income no work/job available 47.6 40.3 47.3 42.2 44.7 40.0 55.5 in my field to get a 90.7 84.5 90.9 83.5 90.4 86.4 94.1 certificate/diploma or degree interest in pursuing a 51.0 37.2 44.6 49.5 43.0 45.0 47.5 different field of study needed for 69.1 46.5 59.1 61.5 60.5 57.7 67.3 professional designation encouragement from 50.0 39.5 50.0 50.5 37.7 45.9 44.6 others (family members, friends, faculty) more opportunities for 88.7 75.2 80.0 85.3 85.1 82.7 87.1 career advancement upgrade/improve skills 84.3 72.1 75.5 82.6 80.7 78.2 82.2 could not get into 17.7 20.9 11.8 24.8 20.2 17.3 21.8 york, but could get into seneca opportunity for 75.0 55.8 70.0 63.3 69.3 64.6 74.3 transfer credit ease of the transfer 70.6 55.0 67.3 61.5 64.9 60.5 72.3 credit process company 18.1 14.0 13.6 15.6 20.2 10.0 29.7 required/paid for it note: the differences in the highlighted cells are statistically significant at 5% level. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 parents having university degree no yes reported a disability status in canada no yes canadian citizen permanent resident visa belonging to a non-visible minority group no yes 70.3 67.9 70.5 68.7 70.8 69.8 62.5 66.5 77.3 50.0 34.9 45.1 44.8 44.8 48.8 40.0 47.9 37.1 92.0 82.6 89.0 86.6 88.4 86.1 90.0 89.0 86.6 45.8 45.9 43.6 55.2 43.6 62.8 40.0 44.5 48.5 65.1 52.3 60.6 61.2 58.0 72.1 62.5 65.3 48.5 45.3 45.9 48.1 38.8 44.8 51.2 47.5 51.7 32.0 87.7 77.1 84.9 79.1 84.4 81.4 80.0 84.8 80.4 79.7 19.8 78.9 16.5 79.2 20.1 82.1 14.9 78.4 17.6 83.7 30.2 82.5 15.0 80.1 19.9 78.4 16.5 72.2 58.7 68.2 67.2 68.0 69.8 62.5 71.2 58.8 67.5 57.8 66.3 59.7 64.0 67.4 65.0 66.5 59.8 19.8 9.2 17.1 14.9 13.6 27.9 22.5 20.8 6.2 124 | p a g e appendix 1 figure 60. reasons for transfer by graduation status seneca to york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 125 | p a g e appendix 1 figure 60. reasons for transfer by gender seneca to york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 126 | p a g e appendix 1 table 29. major reason(s) for transferring- york to seneca major reasons for transferring- york to seneca gender age at time of transfer 2224 54.2 less than 22 45.8 63.3 25 and over no yes 67.4 68.2 57.0 68.8 58.9 56.3 45.8 60.9 68.2 55.0 64.4 64.6 72.9 58.7 61.4 60.0 60.4 68.8 54.4 54.4 45.8 56.3 30.0 33.3 88.9 no reported a disability visible minority group yes canadian citizen permanent resident 55.1 65.1 58.8 68.4 62.0 61.8 68.8 59.4 57.1 58.8 52.6 59.5 56.4 64.0 65.6 65.2 63.5 63.0 73.7 70.9 54.6 56.8 59.0 62.5 63.8 55.6 58.0 73.7 67.1 54.6 39.1 59.1 49.0 65.6 55.1 50.8 52.1 47.4 54.4 49.1 35.4 34.8 22.7 31.0 34.4 27.5 36.5 31.1 31.6 32.9 72.9 77.1 89.1 84.1 85.0 84.4 82.6 87.3 82.4 89.5 83.3 77.1 72.9 80.4 90.9 81.0 84.4 78.3 85.7 79.8 74.4 77.1 77.1 76.1 72.7 77.0 75.0 69.6 84.1 opportunity for 35.6 25.0 33.3 39.1 22.7 28.0 37.5 transfer credit ease of the transfer 42.2 43.8 41.7 45.7 40.9 39.0 53.1 credit process convenience/location 51.1 58.3 58.3 54.4 47.7 55.0 50.0 company 14.4 18.8 12.5 15.2 20.5 14.0 21.9 required/paid for it other 4.4 10.4 6.3 6.5 6.8 5.0 9.4 note: the differences in the highlighted cells are statistically significant at 5% level. 33.3 visa74 no yes 61.8 55.6 50.0 60.8 50.0 75.0 67.7 55.6 62.8 52.8 25.0 52.9 47.2 29.1 25.0 31.4 30.6 82.3 85.5 75.0 85.3 77.8 89.5 81.0 83.6 50.0 80.4 83.3 76.5 68.4 77.2 72.7 75.0 78.4 66.7 27.0 32.8 26.3 39.2 23.6 32.4 30.6 44.9 39.7 42.9 42.1 50.6 32.7 25.0 45.1 36.1 40.6 14.5 68.3 17.5 52.1 16.8 63.2 10.5 58.2 15.2 50.9 16.4 25.0 52.9 17.7 55.6 11.1 5.8 6.4 5.9 10.5 7.6 5.5 these percentages are just based on 4 visa students in the sample, so should be treated with caution. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 belonging to a non- status in canada no 74 male parents having university degree yes potential for higher income no work/job available in my field to get a certificate/diploma or degree interest in pursuing a different field of study needed for professional designation encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) to gain practical skills specific to my career interests more opportunities for career advancement upgrade/improve skills female firstgeneration status 127 | p a g e 8.8 appendix 1 figure 61. reasons for transfer by graduation status york to seneca the student experience in transfer, september 2020 128 | p a g e appendix 1 figure 62. reasons for transferring by gender york to seneca the student experience in transfer, september 2020 129 | p a g e appendix 1 table 30. service usage at york- seneca to york students reporting usage of services gender female age at time of transfer male less than 22 26.5 2224 25 and over 23.4 firstgeneration status no yes student accessibility 23.5 27.9 26.3 20.8 32.8 services academic advising 75.5 70.6 67.4 79.0 73.4 77.4 69.0 career centre 18.6 27.9 28.6 15.8 23.4 21.7 25.9 esl open learning 10.8 10.3 4.1 12.3 14.1 11.3 10.3 centre (olc) atkinson centre for 5.9 8.8 2.0 7.0 10.9 5.7 10.3 mature & part-time students (acmaps) york university mature 7.8 8.8 4.1 8.8 10.9 5.7 12.1 student organization spark (student papers 33.3 26.5 28.6 38.6 25.0 27.4 36.2 and academic research kit) learning commons/ 81.4 75.0 75.5 79.0 81.3 77.4 84.5 library yu start - transition 29.4 33.8 30.6 35.1 28.1 32.1 31.0 program for new students writing support centre 27.5 17.7 20.4 28.1 21.9 20.8 29.3 student community 3.9 8.8 4.1 8.8 4.7 4.7 8.6 leadership development (scld) learning skills services 20.6 23.5 20.4 21.1 23.4 21.7 24.1 (workshops, peer academic coaching, drop-in) student success 5.9 17.7 4.1 15.8 10.9 7.6 17.2 strategies programs/ services yu experience hub 7.8 16.2 8.2 14.0 10.9 9.4 15.5 other 3.9 11.8 4.1 8.8 7.8 6.6 8.6 note: the differences in the highlighted cells are statistically significant at 5% level. parents having university degree no yes reported a disability status no yes canadian resident visa 26.4 22.2 17.9 68.1 24.2 37.5 19.2 27.1 21.2 72.7 25.5 10.9 77.8 18.5 11.1 71.8 19.7 11.3 82.1 35.7 7.1 70.8 18.3 5.7 70.8 41.7 30.0 88.5 23.1 21.4 72.9 23.7 15.3 75.0 19.2 9.1 3.7 7.0 7.1 3.3 20.8 11.5 10.2 10.0 3.7 7.8 10.7 4.2 25.0 11.5 11.0 1.9 33.6 24.1 29.6 35.7 28.3 41.7 30.8 29.7 32.7 80.0 79.6 78.2 82.1 77.5 83.3 80.8 75.4 86.5 28.2 38.9 30.3 35.7 21.7 54.2 53.9 34.8 23.1 25.5 7.3 20.4 3.7 22.5 5.6 28.6 7.1 20.0 3.3 37.5 12.5 26.9 11.5 26.3 8.5 17.3 24.6 18.5 19.7 32.1 16.7 45.8 23.1 23.7 17.3 12.7 7.4 9.9 14.3 7.5 25.0 11.5 11.9 7.7 10.9 7.3 13.0 7.4 10.6 5.6 14.3 14.3 9.2 4.2 20.8 20.8 11.5 7.7 12.7 9.3 7.7 1.9 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 130 | p a g e belonging to a nonvisible minority group no yes appendix 1 table 31. service usage at seneca- york to seneca students reporting usage of services gender age at time of transfer firstgeneration status parents having university degree reported a disability status in canada 22-24 25 and over no yes no yes no yes canadian citizen permanent resident vis a75 46.2 50.0 51.7 64.7 59.0 50.0 53.4 55.6 67.4 34.3 100. 0 female male 56.6 48.3 less than 22 64.3 15.1 17.2 17.9 19.2 10.7 18.3 11.8 12.8 21.1 13.5 54.2 17.4 5.7 7.6 17.2 17.2 14.3 10.7 7.7 11.5 7.1 10.7 8.3 8.3 17.7 23.5 12.8 15.4 7.9 7.9 8.2 9.6 22.2 22.2 18.9 27.6 32.1 19.2 14.3 13.3 52.9 33.3 10.5 21.9 34.0 44.8 50.0 26.9 35.7 33.3 64.7 51.3 29.0 28.3 31.0 42.9 26.9 17.9 33.3 17.7 28.2 83.0 82.8 82.1 80.8 85.7 80.0 94.1 first peoples 1.9 13.8 7.1 7.7 3.6 5.0 11.8 @seneca services other 5.7 17.2 10.7 11.5 7.1 11.7 5.9 note: the differences in the highlighted cells are statistically significant at 5% level. degree and credit transfer office counselling and accessibility services/ counsellors learning strategists assistive technologists learning services/ tutoring/ tutors student advising/ advisors co-op/work-term/ work integrated department / supports seneca libraries 75 53.7 53.6 14.3 18.5 10.7 8.7 13.0 11.4 8.6 11.1 11.1 7.1 10.7 22.2 26.1 14.3 18.5 28.6 38.4 33.3 43.5 28.6 38.9 35.7 31.6 30.1 22.2 37.0 20.0 27.8 32.1 84.6 81.6 84.9 66.7 87.0 77.1 79.6 89.3 10.3 2.6 5.5 11.1 6.5 5.7 5.6 7.1 7.7 13.2 9.6 11.1 6.5 14.3 9.3 10.7 these percentages are just based on 4 visa students in the sample. the student experience in transfer, september 2020 belonging to a nonvisible minority group no yes 131 | p a g e 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 appendix 1 table 32. receiving seneca faculty by gender york to seneca receiving seneca faculty gender female n 45 5 24 33 faculty of applied arts & health sciences faculty of applied science & engineering technology faculty of communication, art & design seneca business percentage 42.1 4.7 22.4 30.8 male n 11 6 21 17 percentage 20.0 10.9 38.2 30.9 appendix 1 table 33. sending york gpa and present seneca gpa york to seneca present gpa at seneca sending york gpa as reported by student a b c d/f missing total by present gpa at seneca n percentag e n percentage n percentage n percentage n percentage n percentage a 7 4.3 20 12.4 6 4 2 1.2 1 0.6 36 22.2 b 10 6.2 47 29.0 29 18 10 6.2 2 1.2 98 60.5 c 1 0.6 5 3.1 11 7 5 3.1 22 13.6 d 1 0.6 2 1.2 3 2 6 3.7 total by sending york gpa as reported by students 19 11.7 74 45.7 49 30 162 100.0 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 17 10.5 3 1.9 132 | p a g e appendix 1 table 34. present seneca gpa by gender york to seneca present seneca gpa gender female male n percentage n percentage a 26 24.3 10 18.2 b 66 61.7 32 58.2 c 11 10.3 11 20.0 d 4 3.7 2 3.6 appendix 1 table 35. proportion of seneca to york transfer students who were satisfied with their transfer experience and had good academic performance. seneca to variables york transfers categories %satisfied with transfer process % % satisfied transfer with again transfer decision female male <22 22-24 >=25 <22 22-24 >=25 canadian resident visa yes no 70.5 71.7 68.8 63.5 75.4 72.6 50.0 68.3 75.1 69.9 80.0 64.3 71.6 70.1 81.3 83.5 78.0 78.3 80.7 84.7 65.6 81.7 83.6 81.2 86.7 76.2 85.3 79.0 84.7 89.2 77.9 83.5 82.5 87.9 84.9 84.9 84.5 83.8 86.7 88.1 85.5 83.9 % students with gpa of a/b at york 60.6 58.3 64.2 55.7 53.3 69.2 66.7 52.9 63.4 59.9 69.0 56.7 65.9 59.1 yes no 67.6 71.9 77.1 83.0 81.9 85.6 57.8 62.9 yes no 74.8 68.9 82.8 80.7 87.9 83.5 63.9 59.2 yes no applied arts & health sciences 66.7 71.7 71.3 80.6 81.7 84.3 75.3 87.1 88.0 57.6 61.2 52.1 overall sample gender age at transfer age at survey status in canada parents sociowith demographic characteristics university degree firstgeneration status ethnicity (belonging to a nonvisible minority group) reported a disability the student experience in transfer, september 2020 133 | p a g e sending seneca faculty sending seneca gpa programrelated characteristics graduated from seneca applied science and engineering technology business communication, art & design a b c d e/f yes no advanced diploma bachelors certificate diploma laps health receiving faculty science other a b present c york gpa d e no credits 1 to 15 transfer credits 16 to 30 received 31 to 45 46 to 60 less than expected credits received same as vs expected transferexpectation more than related expected characteristics before or at the start of the timing of program credit notification after the start of the program before the start of timing of seneca program decision to during the transfer seneca program credential from seneca the student experience in transfer, september 2020 66.3 74.7 83.1 62.3 70.3 73.5 81.3 85.3 82.4 83.8 71.0 54.2 69.4 70.4 72.0 100.0 100.0 69.7 74.6 82.7 80.5 84.0 100.0 50.0 81.3 81.3 86.7 83.1 88.5 100.0 100.0 84.6 84.8 82.4 54.7 33.3 0.0 0.0 61.6 54.3 62.2 75.6 76.8 58.1 72.7 85.0 72.1 73.2 70.0 62.3 68.6 67.86 75 70.73 60 100 100.0 69.9 72.5 65.8 65.5 64.1 81.8 80.0 83.3 82.9 86.7 69.8 80.0 78.57 83.87 81.71 60 100 94.1 78.1 80.9 86.8 76.4 74.5 75.0 90.0 87.5 84.4 95.0 81.1 74.3 92.86 80.65 80.49 66.67 100 100.0 83.6 88.6 81.6 78.2 76.5 87.5 73.3 59.0 61.9 52.3 53.0 76.9 57.1 59.6 64.4 47.4 64.3 65.8 76.0 86.8 94.2 60.7 78.3 88.3 88.3 48.6 74.9 81.6 87.1 62.2 56.3 79.7 75.4 57.1 66.0 80.0 90.0 46.9 69.0 81.4 82.9 58.3 134 | p a g e most important reason for transfer first source of information on transfer options time at york interacted with faculty members at york after graduating from seneca program academic career credential transfer agreement college/university college personal university 76.3 82.8 83.9 70.4 77.4 66.4 75.2 58.8 88.7 84.7 87.1 82.4 92.5 86.1 80.7 76.5 59.5 58.3 62.3 53.3 77.3 65.2 78 77.5 86.4 79.9 86.0 77.5 81.8 84.7 88.0 87.8 75.0 56.6 57.9 71.1 1-2 terms 3-4 terms 5-6 terms 7-8 terms more than 8 terms yes no 66.2 68.3 76.3 76.7 81.3 81.5 79.2 80.3 83.3 93.8 91.5 88.1 76.6 66.7 81.3 58.6 63.0 52.6 73.3 62.5 73.1 48.7 82.6 70.3 85.5 77.8 62.5 31.3 the student experience in transfer, september 2020 135 | p a g e appendix 1 table 36. proportion of york to seneca transfer students who were satisfied with their transfer experience and had good academic performance york to seneca transfers variables categories overall sample gender age at transfer age at survey status in canada parents sociowith demographic characteristics university degree firstgeneration status ethnicity (belonging to a nonvisible minority group) reported a disability graduated from york programrelated characteristics sending york faculty receiving seneca faculty female male less than 22 22-24 25 and over less than 22 22-24 25 and over canadian resident visa yes no yes no yes no yes no yes no ampd education fes health laps science glendon lassonde faculty of applied arts & health sciences the student experience in transfer, september 2020 %satisfied with transfer process 78.9 78.3 80.0 73.1 89.5 73.1 73.7 77.6 80.7 73.6 85.7 75.0 79.5 79.8 % % satisfied transfer with again transfer decision 87.7 95.0 89.7 95.3 83.6 94.5 88.5 96.2 87.7 91.1 86.8 98.1 89.5 94.7 87.8 95.8 87.2 94.7 86.4 94.3 90.0 97.1 75.0 75.0 84.9 93.2 91.3 96.2 % students with gpa of a/b at seneca 82.7 86.0 76.4 76.9 87.7 83.0 84.2 79.6 84.0 85.3 80.0 75.0 80.9 83.8 81.6 78.9 89.7 87.7 94.9 94.7 84.7 81.5 83.7 77.1 93.2 85.6 95.5 94.9 90.9 79.7 76.0 80.0 80.2 77.1 61.5 100.0 85.3 87.0 88.6 92.3 100.0 100.0 90.0 86.1 79.2 100.0 85.7 87.5 96.0 94.8 94.5 95.7 100.0 100.0 100.0 96.7 93.1 95.7 100.0 85.7 98.2 72.0 84.6 85.8 78.5 84.6 100.0 100.0 86.7 77.8 91.7 100.0 57.2 91.0 66.7 90.0 83.3 70.8 83.3 57.1 73.2 136 | p a g e york to seneca transfers variables categories overall sample credential at seneca advanced standing at seneca present seneca gpa transfer credits received credits received vs expectation transferrelated characteristics timing of credit notification timing of decision to transfer most important faculty of applied science & engineering technology faculty of communication, art & design seneca business 1 yr. certificate 2 yr. diploma 3 yr. diploma grad certificate bachelors degree yes no a b c d no credits 1 to 4 5 to 9 10 or more less than expected same as expected more than expected before or at the start of the program after the start of the program before during after academic career credential the student experience in transfer, september 2020 %satisfied with transfer process 78.9 81.8 % % satisfied transfer with again transfer decision 87.7 95.0 81.8 90.0 % students with gpa of a/b at seneca 82.7 100.0 75.6 88.9 93.3 75.6 87.8 50.0 84.6 74.1 75.0 68.4 88.0 75.0 89.1 85.2 85.0 89.5 94.0 100.0 94.6 92.6 100.0 94.7 76.0 75.0 84.8 77.8 85.0 79.0 77.3 80.0 82.1 91.6 93.9 95.8 80.6 84.2 75.0 82.5 72.7 66.7 78.9 80.0 77.3 66.7 70.5 91.7 88.8 81.8 66.7 85.7 93.3 81.8 66.7 77.3 97.1 95.9 95.5 66.7 94.7 96.7 90.9 100.0 90.9 75.3 91.7 81.8 100.0 79.5 72.5 90.0 97.5 85.0 95.2 100.0 100.0 100.0 77.8 81.5 100.0 74.1 79.3 89.7 96.6 91.4 100.0 81.9 75.0 71.0 82.2 77.3 100.0 89.1 84.4 84.4 90.0 86.4 100.0 95.1 93.8 100.0 94.4 95.5 100.0 80.7 89.1 87.5 84.4 68.2 137 | p a g e york to seneca transfers variables categories reason for transfer transfer agreement other college/university college personal university overall sample first source of information on transfer options time at seneca interacted with faculty 1 to 2 3 to 4 5 to 6 more than 6 yes no the student experience in transfer, september 2020 %satisfied with transfer process 78.9 100.0 % % satisfied transfer with again transfer decision 87.7 95.0 100.0 100.0 % students with gpa of a/b at seneca 82.7 50.0 100.0 70.0 88.9 75.0 69.2 100.0 80.0 90.6 87.5 84.6 100.0 95.0 95.2 96.9 84.6 100.0 65.0 84.4 86.0 84.6 83.9 67.5 76.5 81.8 81.2 50.0 90.4 82.5 82.4 90.9 89.3 66.7 96.8 92.5 94.1 90.9 98.0 54.5 84.0 87.5 76.5 63.7 84.0 66.7 138 | p a g e appendix 1 figure 63. engagement in academic activities overall sample the student experience in transfer, september 2020 139 | p a g e appendix 1 figure 64. engagement in non-academic activities (hours per week) overall sample the student experience in transfer, september 2020 140 | p a g e appendix 1 figure 65. york sending faculty into seneca york to seneca the student experience in transfer, september 2020 141 | p a g e appendix 1 table 37. seneca sending programs into york -- seneca to york sending seneca program cluster faculty of liberal arts and professional studies accounting accounting and finance 3.7 2.8 aviation biotechnology business chemical lab child and youth civil engineering communication arts computers court tribunal early childhood education 0.6 faculty of education receiving york faculty faculty of school of the faculty environmental arts, media, of studies performance health & design law liberal arts transfer police foundations social services other total by york faculty 0.3 0.3 4.0 2.8 . 0.3 0.6 0.3 0.9 2.3 1.1 0.3 2.6 0.9 4.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.9 0.3 2.0 7.4 0.9 0.9 2.8 5.7 1.1 5.1 0.3 0.3 0.6 0.3 0.9 2.8 2.3 0.3 2.0 10.8 0.9 10.2 1.7 3.1 0.3 0.3 2.6 0.9 1.1 8.5 17.3 13.3 0.6 5.7 2.0 15.0 appendix 1 table 38. transfer credits received for seneca program -- seneca to york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 0.9 5.7 11.3 6.8 0.6 2.0 2.8 0.3 1.7 7.7 58.1 total by seneca program 5.7 0.3 5.7 11.1 0.3 faculty of science 0.3 electrical engineering environmental tech general arts and science lassonde school of engineering 142 | p a g e 19.8 100 transfer credits received for seneca study no credits 1 to 15 16 to 30 31 to 45 46 to 60 number percentage (%) 17 73 131 77 55 4.8 20.7 37.1 21.8 15.6 appendix 1 figure 66. credits received (relative to expectations) by graduation status seneca to york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 143 | p a g e appendix 1 figure 67. credits received (relative to expectations) by graduation status york to seneca appendix 1 table 39. most satisfying things about transferring to york satisfying aspect ease of transfer process and opportunities for transfer credits academic reasons (program quality, content & structure) university experience opportunity to acquire credential convenience due to location career related nothing n 100 62 55 40 18 10 10 percent 33.9 21.0 18.6 13.6 6.1 3.4 3.4 appendix 1 table 40. most unsatisfying things about transferring to york unsatisfying aspect transfer credit expectations academic related (program quality, content & structure) problems with the transfer process administrative issues (course enrolment issues, large class sizes, strikes) poor access to academic advising commute to university and parking fees university environment the student experience in transfer, september 2020 n 68 49 49 35 percent 26.0 18.7 18.7 13.4 31 16 14 11.8 6.1 5.3 144 | p a g e appendix 1 table 41. most satisfying thing about transferring to seneca satisfying aspect academic related opportunities for practical experience career related college experience and environment convenience/location other opportunity for transfer credits nothing n 60 38 20 19 4 3 2 1 percent 40.8 25.9 13.6 12.9 2.7 2.0 1.4 0.7 appendix 1 table 42. most unsatisfying thing about transferring to seneca unsatisfying aspect academic related administrative issues commute to college other transfer credits process college environment the student experience in transfer, september 2020 n 43 30 19 12 11 7 percent 35.3 24.6 156 9.8 9.0 5.7 145 | p a g e appendix 2. student experience in transfer survey [york to seneca] what faculty/school were you enrolled in at york before you decided to continue your education at seneca? school of the arts, media, performance & design faculty of education faculty of environmental studies faculty of health faculty of liberal arts and professional studies faculty of science glendon lassonde school of engineering other (please specify) ___________________ [york to seneca] what degree program were you enrolled in? [if ampd] ba bfa bodes [if ed] ba beed [if hlth] ba bsc bhs [if laps] ba bcom bhrm bdem bsw bas bpa iba [if sci or if glendon] ba bsc iba [if laps] ba bsc beng ibsc iba [if other] open-ended the student experience in transfer, september 2020 146 | p a g e [york to seneca] what was your gpa at york before you decided to continue your education at seneca? 8.0 - 9.0 6.0 - <8.0 4.9 - <6.0 < 4.0 (a) (b) (c) (d/f) [seneca to york] overall, how satisfied are you with your decision to transfer from seneca to york? [york to seneca] overall, how satisfied are you with your decision to continue your education at seneca? very satisfied somewhat satisfied neither satisfied nor unsatisfied somewhat unsatisfied very unsatisfied [ask all] how satisfied were you with the overall process of transferring from one institution to the other (including application, registration, selecting courses, etc.)? very satisfied somewhat satisfied neither satisfied nor unsatisfied somewhat unsatisfied very unsatisfied [york to seneca] please tell us how important each of the following were in your decision to continue your education at seneca. [seneca to york] please tell us how important each of the following were in your decision to transfer from seneca to york. very important somewhat important not at all important potential for higher income no work/ job available in my field to get a certificate/diploma or degree interest in pursuing a different field of study needed for professional designation encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) to gain practical skills specific to my career interests [york to seneca only] more opportunities for career advancement upgrade/ improve skills could not get into york, but could get into seneca [seneca to york only] the opportunity for transfer credit between my previous and current program ease of the transfer credit process convenience/location [york to seneca only] company required/ paid for it other (please specify) ______________________ the student experience in transfer, september 2020 147 | p a g e [york to seneca - if more than one response selected as very important, list those and ask:] of the reasons that you indicated were very important in your decision to continue your education at seneca, which one was the most important? [seneca to york -if more than one response selected as very important, list those and ask:] of the reasons that you indicated were very important in your decision to transfer from seneca to york, which one was the most important? [york to seneca] did you graduate from york before continuing your studies at seneca? yes no [york to seneca non-graduates] which of the following reasons best explains why you chose not to continue your studies at york? (select all that apply) my marks were too low didnt like the program the academic work was too difficult it was too difficult connect with professors didnt know how to get help it was too difficult to get help commuting challenges (travel distance and transportation difficulties) cost family obligations (child/ elder care/ care for dependents etc.) other (please specify) ____________________ [seneca to york] did you graduate from seneca before transferring to york? yes no [seneca to york non-graduates] which of the following reasons best explains why you chose not to continue your studies at seneca? (select all that apply) my program was not very challenging i was doing very well academically i wanted a university degree university was better suited to my learning interests and/ or style i had previous post-secondary education family expectations i live closer to the university/ the commute was easier family obligations (child/ elder care/ care for dependents etc.) other (please specify) ____________________ [seneca to york] how did you first find out about the transfer options between york and seneca? the student experience in transfer, september 2020 148 | p a g e [york to seneca] how did you first find out about the educational options between york and seneca? seneca website/publications seneca faculty/program coordinators seneca staff fast track event at seneca york website/publications york staff college and university fair/on-campus information fair/open house social media other students/friends parents/family ontransfer.ca website ocas / ouac websites other (please specify) ______________________ [york to seneca] thinking back to when you were considering continuing your education at seneca, which of the following sources of information did you use? please select all that apply. [seneca to york] thinking back to when you were considering transferring to york, which of the following sources of information did you use? please select all that apply. seneca websites ontransfer.ca ocas/ouac websites senecas degree and credit transfer office publication other seneca publications seneca faculty/program coordinators seneca staff senecas degree and credit transfer office fast track event at seneca yorks future students website other york websites york publications york staff yorks transfer credit advising services college and university fair/on-campus information fair/open house social media other students/friends parents/family other (please specify) ______________________ [follow-up questions to each source of information selected] how useful was [source of information]? very useful somewhat useful not very useful not at all useful the student experience in transfer, september 2020 149 | p a g e [if not very useful or not at all useful] please tell us a bit more about why you did not find [source of information] a useful source of information. ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [york to seneca] when you were thinking about going to seneca, were you provided with information on financial aid options? yes no dont remember not applicable [if yes] which of the following sources did you get information about financial aid options from? please select all that apply. york website seneca website financial aid office at york financial aid office at seneca senecas awards, scholarships & bursaries webpage other (please specify) _____________________ [ seneca to york] when you were thinking about transferring to york, were you provided with information on financial aid options? yes no dont remember not applicable [if yes] which of the following sources did you get information about financial aid options from? please select all that apply. york website seneca website financial aid office at york financial aid office at seneca yorks future students webpage other (please specify) ______________ [york to seneca] when did you make the decision to apply to seneca? before i enrolled in my program at york during my program at york the student experience in transfer, september 2020 150 | p a g e as i was finishing my program at york after i graduated from york not sure other (please specify) ____________________ [seneca to york] when did you make the decision to apply to york? before i enrolled in my program at seneca during my program at seneca as i was finishing my program at seneca after i graduated from seneca not sure other (please specify) ____________________ [york to seneca] now, thinking back to when you applied to seneca, which of the following sources of information did you use (for example to track your application, number of credits transferred, financial information, etc.)? please select all that apply. [seneca to york] now, thinking back to when you applied to york, which of the following sources of information did you use (for example to track your application, number of credits transferred, financial information, etc.)? please select all that apply. seneca websites seneca publications seneca faculty/program coordinators seneca staff york websites york publications york staff emails from york emails from seneca social media online chat orientation sessions other (please specify) ______________________ [follow-up questions to each source of information selected] how useful was [source of information]? very useful somewhat useful not very useful not at all useful [if not very useful or not at all useful] please tell us a bit more about why you did not find [source of information] a useful source of information during the application process? the student experience in transfer, september 2020 151 | p a g e ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [seneca to york] when did you find out whether you were receiving credit for your seneca program? [york to seneca] when did you find out whether you were receiving credit for your york program? with the offer of admission at or before registration after registration have not applied for credit transfer yet [skip next question] have applied for credit transfer, but have not heard yet [skip next question] not applying for credit transfer [skip next question] dont know was the number of credits that were transferred the same as what you expected would transfer? yes, more courses/credits transferred than i expected yes, the courses/credits that i expected transferred no, fewer courses/credits transferred than i expected [york to seneca] once you had registered at seneca, which of the following did you use to get information on things such as selecting courses, understanding program requirements and academic rules and policies? please select all that apply. seneca website/publications seneca faculty/program coordinators seneca staff york website/publications york staff email communication with york email communication with seneca social media online chat other students/friends other orientation session advising appointments at york advising appointments at seneca other (please specify) ______________________ [ seneca to york] once you had registered at york, which of the following did you use to get information on things such as selecting courses, understanding program requirements and academic rules and policies? please select all that apply. seneca website/publications seneca faculty/program coordinators seneca staff york website/publications york staff the student experience in transfer, september 2020 152 | p a g e email communication with york email communication with seneca social media online chat other students/friends acmaps (atkinson centre for mature and part-time students) yu start orientation session other orientation session other (please specify) ______________________ [follow-up questions to each source of information selected] how useful was [source of information]? very useful somewhat useful not very useful not at all useful [york to seneca - if not very useful or not at all useful] please tell us a bit more about why you did not find [source of information] a useful source of information once you had registered at seneca? ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [seneca to york - if not very useful or not at all useful] please tell us a bit more about why you did not find [source of information] a useful source of information once you had registered at york? ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [york to seneca] how would you rate your academic performance at seneca? excellent (gpa=4.0) good (gpa=3.0 - <4.0) satisfactory (gpa=2.0 - <3.0) unsatisfactory (gpa<2.0) cannot say [seneca to york] how would you rate your academic performance at york? excellent (gpa=8.0 9.0) good (gpa=6.0 - <8.0) satisfactory (gpa=4.0 - <6.0) unsatisfactory (gpa<4.0) cannot say [ask all] overall, how satisfied are you with your academic preparation for your current program of study? very satisfied somewhat satisfied somewhat dissatisfied the student experience in transfer, september 2020 153 | p a g e very dissatisfied cannot say [seneca to york] what was the one most satisfying thing about transferring from seneca to york? ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [york to seneca] what was the one most satisfying thing about continuing your education at seneca? ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [york to seneca] what was the one most unsatisfying thing about continuing with your education at seneca having attended york? ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [seneca to york] what was the one most unsatisfying thing about transferring from seneca to york? ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [york to seneca] since you have been at seneca, have you used any of the following student services? yes no never heard of not applicable degree and credit transfer office counselling and accessibility services/ counsellors learning strategists assistive technologists learning services/ tutoring/ tutors student advising/ advisors co-op/work-term/ work integrated department / supports seneca libraries first peoples@seneca services other (please specify) ____________________ [seneca to york] since you have been at york, have you used any of the following student services? yes no never heard of not applicable student accessibility services academic advising career centre esl open learning centre (olc) atkinson centre for mature & part-time students (acmaps) the student experience in transfer, september 2020 154 | p a g e york university mature student organization spark (student papers and academic research kit) learning commons/ library yu start - new student transition program writing support centre student community leadership development (scld) learning skills services (workshops, peer academic coaching, drop-in) student success strategies programs/ services yu experience hub other (please specify) ____________________ [york to seneca] since you enrolled at seneca, how often have you engaged in the following activities? [ seneca to york] since you transferred to york, how often have you engaged in the following activities? frequently sometimes never cannot say completed a class assignment on time participated in classroom discussions discussed grades or assignments with an instructor discussed ideas about a term paper, class project or group assignment with an instructor discussed career plans and ambitions with a faculty member or advisor [ask all] about how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week doing the following? participating in co-curricular activities (clubs, organizations, student government, sports, etc.) ____ participating in an on-campus community service or volunteer activity ____ working for pay ____ [york to seneca] if you could start over again, would you choose to attend seneca? [seneca to york] if you could start over again, would you transfer to york? definitely yes probably yes probably no definitely no [york to seneca] what is the one change that you would like to see implemented that would improve the experience for students choosing to continue their education at seneca? ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ the student experience in transfer, september 2020 155 | p a g e [seneca to york] what is the one change that you would like to see implemented that would improve the experience for students transferring from seneca to york? ____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ [ask all] these last few questions ask about your background. what is the highest level of education completed by either of your parents (or those who raised you)? did not finish high school graduated from high school some college or cegep completed college or cegep attended university without earning degree completed bachelor's degree (e.g., ba, bsc, llb, beng, etc.) completed master's degree (e.g., m.a., msc. llm, meng, md, etc.) completed a doctoral degree not sure to what ethnic or cultural group do you belong? (please select all that apply) white south asian (e.g., east indian, pakistani, sri lankan, etc.) chinese black filipino latin american arab southeast asian (e.g., vietnamese, cambodian, laotian, thai, etc.) west asian (e.g., iranian, afghan, etc.) korean japanese indigenous (e.g., first nations, mtis, inuit) other (please specify) _____________________________ do you have any disability or continuing health condition? please include any learning, physical, or mental health disability. yes no [go to consent] [seneca to york] did you register with student accessibility services? yes no the student experience in transfer, september 2020 156 | p a g e [york to seneca] did you register with counselling and accessibility services? yes no please indicate the nature of your disability or continuing health condition. please select all that apply. blind or visually impaired (not including problems correctable with lenses) deaf or hard of hearing dexterity or coordination disability intellectual disability, such as down's syndrome learning disability medical disability mobility disability, such as the need to use canes or a wheelchair psychiatric illness such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, etc. substance dependency, such as alcoholism other disability (please specify) ________________________________ the student experience in transfer, september 2020 157 | p a g e references acai, a., & newton, g. (2015). a comparison of factors related to university students' learning: college transfers and direct-entry from high school students. canadian journal of higher education, 45(2), 168-192. retrieved 2020, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1073604.pdf arnold, c. (2014). transfer literacy: assessing informational symmetries and asymmetries. ontario council on articulation and transfer. toronto: ontario institute for studies in education (oise). retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/20575152/transfer_literacy_assessing_informational_sym metries_and_asymmetries?auto=download bc stats. (2006). 2005 admissions & transfer experiences of students continuing their studies in british columbia: findings from the bc college & institute student outcomes survey. vancouver: bc stats in collaboration with the british columbia council on articulation & transfer. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed504981.pdf boggs, a., & trick, d. (2009). making college university cooperation work: ontario in a national and international context. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. retrieved from http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/making%20collegeuniversity%20cooperation%20work.pdf british columbia. (n.d.). principles and guidelines for transfer: purpose. retrieved june 2020, from british columbia council on admissions & transfer: https://www.bccat.ca/system/policies cci research inc. (2009). measures of student engagement in postsecondary education: theoretical basis and applicability to ontarios colleges. orangeville: higher education quality council of ontario. retrieved from http://www.heqco.ca/enca/research/respub/pages/measures-of-student-engagement-in-postsecondaryeducation.aspx confederation college. 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(2017). seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes. seneca college. toronto: centre for research in student mobility. retrieved from https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/senecacolleges_degree_and_c redit_transfer_office_a_profile_of_users_and_an_examination_of_outcomes.pdf mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h. (2017). seneca college, the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of ontarios graduate satisfaction survey 2007-2015. toronto: centre for research in student mobility. retrieved april 2020, from https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/the-changing-patterns-ofcollege-to-university-transfer.pdf monroe, a. (2006). non-traditional transfer student. the community college enterprise, 12(2), 33-54. retrieved june 2020, from https://www.schoolcraft.edu/pdfs/cce/12.2.33-54.pdf motte, a., & schwartz, s. 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(2012). rationalizing neglect: an institutional response to transfer students. the journal of higher education, 83(3), 389-412. doi:10.1353/jhe.2012.0021 trick, d. (2013). college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context research notes. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. retrieved from http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/transfer%20arrangements%20trick%20 eng.pdf usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. toronto: higher education strategy associates. retrieved from https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/media-files/201203_final_report_en_student_experiences_in_credit_transfer_at_ontario_colleges.pdf the student experience in transfer, september 2020 161 | p a g e

visualizing the mapping of outcomes, content, and curriculum between programs to support transfer project 2017-39-lo nerissa mulligan, jake kaupp, vijay mago, sahib singh budhiraja, brian frank, roderick turner, mary pierce prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer july 2018 goal the goal of this project is to build a web-based tool called trail to visualize outcomes, curriculum, and content of one or more programs to support development of student pathways. background this project was developed from two previous projects funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the first project was conducted in 2015 (zakani et al., 2016), and involved the creation of a framework to compare engineering technology diploma programs and engineering degree programs in ontario. this was primarily accomplished by comparing selected courses and skills that were found to be part of most engineering programs, such as calculus and physics. in 2016, the second project (waller et al, 2017) focused on engineering discipline-specific program comparisons using parts of the zakani et al. (2016) framework to compare electrical engineering to electrical engineering technology and mechanical engineering to mechanical engineering technology. information visualizations of large data sets of information was a key technique used in the analysis in both the zakani et al. (2016) and waller et al. (2017) studies. the idea for the current research project came from the extensive use of visualizations in the two previous oncat-funded projects. one of the primary goals of the current project is to enable those working with transfers to produce similar visualizations to help support student transfer and mobility in ontario and possibly lead to bridging programs or pathways between programs and institutions. information visualizations can be a useful way to display data, particularly data that may otherwise only be available in text-form. they can also help identify trends, similarities, connections and gaps between courses or programs. focus groups to gather information for web app two focus groups were organized in june 2017 to discuss how a web-based tool could help support student transfer by comparing two or more programs. people working with transfers were invited to participate in one of two focus groups held in june 2017 in kingston and toronto. in total, 31 participants from six different sectors (engineering, business, nursing, kinesiology, psychology, applied information science) attended, either in-person (24) or remotely (7). the focus groups drew participants from across ontario from 19 different institutions (8 universities and 11 colleges). participating institutions were: brock university, carleton university, centennial college, conestoga college, durham college, fanshawe college, georgian college, humber college, lakehead university, laurentian university, niagara college, nipissing university, queens university, seneca college, st. clair college, st. lawrence college, university of ontario institute of technology, western university, york university. a broad spectrum of institutional stakeholders were in attendance at both focus groups, highlighting the intersectionality of transfer-related issues. a list of stakeholders who attended appears below: academic quality lead enrolment services and strategic academic manager (nursing program) partnerships admission assistant international recruitment officer assistant professor registrars office assistant registrar manager associate dean transfer credit advisor associate professor pathways and credit transfer coordinator business program contact program coordinator (bachelor of applied chair (admissions committee) health information science) credit transfer officer program head curriculum consultant program manager dean student advisor director (school of kinesiology) undergraduate academic advisor director (centre for academic excellence) focus group participants were sent a pre-focus group survey. complete tables of results for questions 1 and 2 (identified below) can be found in appendix a. the following is an annotated discussion of the results: 1. what information do you typically have when assessing student transfers coming into (or going out of) your program? of the 21 programs that responded, the most common information available when assessing student transfers are transcripts and course syllabi. just over half use course learning outcomes and about one-third utilize institutional information. 2. what information would you ideally like to have (but do not) when assessing student transfers coming into (or going out of) your program? of the 21 programs that responded, those that do not currently use course learning outcomes or institutional information to assess transfer would like to and the majority of respondents reported that they would also use program learning outcomes, if they were available. 3. what do you think are the most common barriers to transfers in your program? the most common barriers to transfer, grouped by theme are: time the entire transfer process can be time-consuming. the time it takes to process applications can be very long. it is challenging to organize the timely receipt of information. the turn-around time to have credits assessed must be considered. it is often difficult for students to start the process before they arrive. faculty must take time to evaluate equivalent courses. equivalency there is a misconception that college and university courses cannot be equivalent. there is often a culture of treating all universities as equal. what is the best method for determining course-to-course equivalencies? sometimes two courses may be co-requisites at a receiving institution, but if only one of the two has been taken at the original institution, it is difficult to grant any transfer credits. cost there is often a cost associated with trying to transfer a course from one institution to another, and payment is often required whether the courses is considered equivalent or not. changes to courses the ongoing emergence of new courses and programs, combined with continuous changes to existing courses and programs makes the tasks of maintaining and re-establishing pathways, transfers, and equivalencies quite challenging. it is difficult to keep transfer information up-to-date and accurate for every program. availability of information documents not always available in a standard and comparable format. information is often incomplete. for example course descriptions may be available, but not course outlines. sometimes a full course syllabus is unavailable. the quality of available documentation varies. students may not always have access to required documents. course alignment transfer decisions are usually made on an individual basis and there are often no clearly-defined parameters. it is difficult to assess transfers when there is a lack of familiarity with programs and courses at other institutions. in some cases, only certain content has been covered and it is not possible to grant partial credits. in the case of block transfers, often credit may have been given for a whole block of courses, however if the block doesnt align exactly, students may end up retaking certain courses they have already taken and miss-out on others. there is a specific difficulty that arises when assessing a transfer between credential levels (e.g. diploma to degree). course-to-course transfer may not be appropriate, and it is difficult to quantify and conceptualize the broad range of learning that has occurred in a program and then convert that into specific course transfer credits at the receiving program or institution. accreditation in accredited program, there is often an aversion to granting too many transfer credits because of worries about meeting accreditation requirements for all graduates. 4. please tell us a bit about any tools, assessments or methodologies that you have found successful when dealing with transfers that you can share with us. the most common tips for assessing transfer, grouped by theme are: course syllabi online the more detailed an institutions website is in detailing courses or providing current course descriptions/syllabi, the easier it is to gather information. information about when a course was last updated is useful. some institutions have a database of courses over time. pathways defined pathways and developed partnerships make a positive difference in student transfer. pathway curriculum guides are useful. ontario system-level transfer agreements for business programs at ontario colleges. bridging program defining specific courses transfer students are required to take before progressing to the next program are essential. an orientation workshop, specific to a bridging program provides information about the new program and eases the transition to online learning. some suggest a "backwards design" methodology to first determine where the student wants to go. followed by a course-to-course comparison to identify gaps and advise on appropriate bridging strategies. students dealing with students from a specific source institution becomes an unofficial pathway, since one becomes familiar with certain courses and programs through those students. some institutions incorporate short concept-assessing interviews into the transfer process. some institutions take into account student experience beyond academics (e.g. resume, work experience) often, the students themselves are a valuable resource when gathering information about program specifics. only official transcripts and course outlines are accepted. a student self-evaluation guide to complement other documents has helped in some programs. learning outcomes having well defined course and program learning outcomes is essential to successful transfer. the credit transfer evaluation guide encourages faculty to primarily utilize course learning outcomes when assessing credit transfer requests. percentage overlap some institutions have a rule of thumb on the percentage of overlap required in order to grant a direct equivalent in transfer. database certain institutions keep their own database of equivalent courses. some programs use oncats database, ontransfer. shared folders certain programs having a shared drive between the transfer credit office and faculty members assessing transfers. at each focus group, participants were asked three follow-up questions, and to discuss their answers in small groups. the questions and a summary of the focus group answers are below: question 1: what information do you use to evaluate transfer now? many of the answers to this questions echoed the result of the pre-focus group survey. however, participants stressed the importance of learning outcomes. program learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, and even weekly learning outcomes are regularly consulted by many of the focus group participants. many also stressed the importance of determining the relative alignment of learning outcomes to course assessments as well as the value of properly worded learning outcomes. there were also a few additional items that participants mentioned they often use to evaluate transfer now, such as: list of textbooks used in the course. a demonstration of the degree of difficulty of a course. student work samples. program calendars, particularly in cases when the course outline is not clear about course weight. program accreditation maps (e.g. mapping of course outcomes/content against program level or standards level outcomes) question 2: if you were to setup a multi-institutional transfer agreement between diploma programs and degrees in your discipline, what information would you use? it was challenging for many focus group participants to think about block transfers, bridging programs or pathways because the consensus was that every case of student transfer is unique in its own way. below is a list of some key ideas that came out of the discussions: begin with learning outcomes. many institutions, particularly the colleges, put a lot of effort into the wording of the learning outcomes and aligning learning outcomes with course assessments. consider the context of learning outcomes. for example: does create at the college level mean the same as create at the university level? not necessarily. what is the student creating? examine the past performance of other students. even without official pathways between programs, it is often possible to discern how students from certain institutions or programs will fare compared to students from certain others programs or institutions. if possible, keep track of conversations between instructors regarding course equivalencies. this is particularly useful when the conversations are between college and university instructors, as universities are sometimes reluctant to grant a specified credit. keep in mind any accreditation requirements of the program as well as the professional registration status of previous instructors. question 3: what analysis, comparison, and/or visualization would you find useful to accomplish question 2? the results of the third question were combined with the original idea for the web-app and contributions from those participating in the focus group into a list of technical requirements. technical requirements the web-app should be able to accomplish the following: provide the most up-to-date, real-time information on courses, programs, outcomes, etc. course-to-course comparison program-to-program comparison gap analysis show overlaps and gaps between two or more courses or programs. heat map show percentage of content overlap between two or more courses or programs. the ability to go beyond blooms taxonomy. future iterations of the tool may be able to compare courses using the ice framework, solo taxonomy, etc. record past equivalencies show other courses or programs that have been considered equivalent. keep track of existing pathways and institutional agreements be customizable allow users to change views and parameters at different points when using the tool be flexible allow users to look at the same information in different ways additional information gathered through focus group conversations can be found in appendix b. trail the web application trail is an interactive web app that is able to extract the verbs from course or program learning outcomes, categorize the verbs according to blooms and solo taxonomies and output a series of visualizations that will help the user compare multiple courses or programs. text extraction the web-app communicates with a text extraction application programming interface (api) developed by sahib singh budhiraja and vijay mago of lakehead university using python and java (budhiraja and mago, 2018). many course syllabi, which include course learning outcomes, are available in pdf format and the format varies widely. the lakehead text extraction system treats each pdf document like an image and does a pixel by pixel analysis of the document to determine where the learning outcomes appear and accurately extract them from the document the general process, as described by budhiraja and mago (2018) is as follows: the document is converted from a pdf document to an html file. this allows pertinent information to be extracted from the html tags. the code locates relevant headings using formatting information and a set of keywords associated with learning outcomes. the relevant headings are used to mark the beginning and end of the relevant text that will be extracted. the code then analyzes the specific layout of the document to determine the location and specific format (bulleted list, text in multiple columns) of the required text (learning outcomes). the text is then extracted using the beginning/end markers and the layout information. the text is extracted in one continuous string and is subsequently divided into sentences and paragraphs to match the original formatting, by inserting bullets, spaces and periods. categorizing learning outcomes the learning outcomes are categorized using two different taxonomies blooms revised taxonomy, and solo taxonomy. blooms revised taxonomy is a hierarchy of cognitive skills (anderson et al 2001). the figure below shows blooms revised taxonomy with learning outcomes example verbs at each cognitive level. the hierarchy starts at the left and narrows towards the right. structure of observed learning outcomes (solo) taxonomy is a systematic way of describing how a learners performance changes in complexity when mastering tasks (biggs and collis, 1982). the figure below shows the solo taxonomy with learning outcomes example verbs at each level. the web application trail includes: landing page (login) frequently asked questions (faqs) how to use background contact us comparison tool the comparison tool allows the user to find gaps and overlaps between learning outcomes of two or more courses or programs. the user begins by uploading either a pdf or csv document containing learning outcomes directly into the app. the file should contain the course name, course code, and learning outcomes. the user also has the option to manually input this information, by typing or cutting and pasting the information into the main text box (see figure 1). figure 1. main input window for trail. the visualize button generates a series of visualizations, which use blooms revised taxonomy and solo taxonomy in order to classify the given learning outcomes. the visualizations include tree maps (see figures 2 and 3), pie charts (see figure 6), and a heat map (see figure 8). the user can print the visualizations, or download them as a png, pdf, or svg image, which can then be saved or sent by email. figure 2. example of tree maps for two different programs, where the verbs for each outcome have been categorized according to bloom's revised taxonomy figure 3. example of a tree map showing learning outcome verbs categorized according to solo taxonomy figure 4. tree map legend showing revised bloom's taxonomy the tree map is made up of rectangles where the area of each rectangle represents the frequency with which the verb appears in the learning outcomes for that course or program. the colour of the rectangle represents the blooms taxonomy level (see figure 4) or the solo category. the tree map also has several useful features, such as the ability to zoom-in. the user can click on a verb box, and a text box will appear showing: the number of outcomes in the program (or course) where the verb appears, the learning outcome and which course it came from (see figure 5) figure 5. hover box shows the corresponding course/program and learning outcome for each verb on the tree map. figure 6. examples of pie charts, showing the percentage of learning outcomes in each category of both blooms and the solo taxonomies. the user can upload learning outcomes from another program to see how the learning outcomes compare to those of the first program by clicking the compare to another program/course button (see figure 5). figure 7. image showing how to add another course of program once the user has uploaded the file containing the new program learning outcomes, they can see the visualizations for both programs side by side. the heat map in particular helps to highlight the gaps and overlaps between the two programs. figure 8. example of a heat map, for two different programs, showing the learning outcomes categorized by both blooms and the solo taxonomies. conclusion using the web app trail, users have the ability to visually identify similarities and gaps between different courses or programs. for example, figure 2 shows a tree map for two different mechanical engineering programs. mechanical engineering a (the program on the left) has more learning outcomes in the apply category of the revised blooms taxonomy than mechanical engineering b (the program on the right). conversely, mechanical engineering b has more learning outcomes in the create category of blooms. if the user were attempting to create a bridging program for students transferring from mechanical engineering a to mechanical engineering b, the bridge would need more courses with learning outcomes in the create category. in order to stay within budget and time constraints, the project was pared down from the original wish list formed with feedback from the focus groups, however trail is a useful tool for comparing the learning outcomes of multiple programs or courses, which can help in the creation of bridging programs or pathways between programs and institutions in ontario. references anderson, l. w., krathwohl, d. r., and bloom, b. s. (2001). a taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: a revision of blooms taxonomy of educational objectives. allyn & bacon. biggs, j. b. and collis, k. f. (1982). evaluation the quality of learning: the solo taxonomy (structure of the observed learning outcome). academic press. budhiraja, s.s., and mago, v. (2018). api for extracting learning outcomes from course outlines. documentation version v 1.0. waller, d.r., zakani, s., mulligan, n., frank, b., kaupp, j., turner, r., hornsey, r. (2017) comparing and aligning outcomes of two engineering and technology disciplines in ontario. zakani, s., frank, b., turner, r., and kaupp, j. (2016). framework for transferability between engineering and technology programs. appendix a 1. what information do you typically have when assessing student transfers coming into (or going out of) your program? table 1. transfer information. information that is typically available when assessing student transfers program 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 transcript s course syllabi clo s institutional information course success rates other * plo s - course textbook list * - some syllabi include info on course and program level learning outcomes - credit transfer request form - sometimes additional information is required from student 2. what information would you ideally like to have (but do not) when assessing student transfers coming into (or going out of) your program? table 2. ideal transfer information. information that institutions would like to have (but do not) when assessing student transfers program 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 transcript s course syllabi clo s plo s institutional information course success rates other * - course content details * - sample exam paper, project assigned etc. - credit transfer request form - program quality (reliability of the grade results) appendix b additional information gathered through focus group conversations bringing together so many people who work with transfers at the focus groups had several benefits, primarily: 1) gathering information that is necessary for the creation of the web-app for the current research project; and 2) participants had the opportunity to share experiences, information and ideas. the following is a summary of additional information regarding student transfer that was gathered and can be used to support student mobility. assessments. in many college courses (particularly in engineering and business programs), students are marked on a final product, whereas in university courses, students are typically marked on how well they know the theory behind creating the final product. cultural mismatch. often, transfers are more successful from college business to university business programs as well as from technology to engineering programs when compared to transfers from college technology to university science programs. in the case of both the business and engineering programs, this may be due to more overlap in courses or because both sets of programs are a combination of theory and practice, whereas pure science degrees have a lot more theory built into them. so, when students with technology diplomas, having transcripts replete with practice elements, want to transfer into a university science program, those working with transfers at the university usually assume there must be essential theory elements missing from the technology curriculum in order to make room for so much practice. job readiness. students from technology programs are typically accepted to be well-prepared to enter the workforce. students coming from degree programs may not be. the degree has prepared them to be not job-ready but job capable, where the first job after leaving university is informally considered part of their training. value of mobility. more institutions need to be aware that students value the ability to move around easily between programs and institutions thereby increasing their choices and their chance at success. encouraging institutions to make learning outcomes publicly available. hopefully the successful incorporation of the web-app as a tool for aiding student transfer will encourage more institutions to make course information publicly available.

project snapshot developing capacity for student mobility in the treaty 3 region type: indigenous institutes transfer operations and capacity project number: i2268 project lead: seven generations education institute project summary this capacity building project explored the unique relationship that seven generations education institute has with partner institutions and how this unique context impacts students seeking education and skilled employment in the treaty 3 region of ontario. the newly formed pathways coordinator position and job description were developed to suit the educational environment at seven generations education institute and their role within the admissions and registration process was established. language, key terminology and processes in postsecondary quality assurance, student mobility and transfer were reviewed, and the registrar's team explored all the pathways available through partner institutions and also started to consider how students and staff at seven generations education institute can gain awareness to access and contribute to the development of pathways both internally and with partner institutions. finally, a variety of tools were discussed related to transfer credit and student mobility, with plar being identified as being most beneficial to the students served by seven generations education institute. project rationale it is important to develop the capacity for student mobility at sgei so that students, faculty and administrative staff are aware of the transfer credit system in ontario and have an understanding of how it functions and can benefit their students. since sgei is bound by the academic policies of partner institutions, it is important to understand those policies and how they function so that sgei can communicate opportunities to their students but also advocate for students who may require a transfer credit assessment. as sgei develops their own stand-alone credentials, it is also beneficial to understand how the quality assurance system works and also observe the benefits and challenges of all the different partner institution's transfer policies and systems. main collaborators canadore college and durham college were the primary sources of information in this project. key steps no pathways were developed over the course of this project. pathway viability was discussed and a system of exploring credentialing related to the workforce needs and regional post-secondary institutions was also discussed however with the transition to a new pathways coordinator half way through the project, orienting the new coordinator to the field of student mobility took precedence over exploring new relationships with partner institutions. results this project lead to a functional job description for the pathways coordinator that fits the context of sgei as well as an intensive orientation to the field of student mobility. the pathways coordinator established their role within the registrar's team and mapped out key responsibilities within that process. a list of all block transfer pathways that are available from all partner institutions was developed and the pathways coordinator began a key contact list of pathways staff from these institutions. the pathways coordinator also supported many potential transfer students and now has an understanding of the best processes/initiatives that might benefit the population served by sgei. challenges the biggest challenge in this capacity building project was transitioning to a new pathways coordinator halfway through the project. student outcomes one of the primary outcomes of this project was to increase the institutional awareness of transfer pathways. the discussions and work associated with developing the list of transfer pathways and learning about credential ladders and admissions will benefit students as the staff are now aware of the environment and options available to their graduates. the next step in the capacity building process will be to connect with faculty members and collaborate to develop a detailed and robust understanding of how each partner institution/program processes their transfer students and if sgei students are integrated into that process. institutional outcomes considering that a new pathway coordinator, registrar and admission staff were hired halfway through this project timeline and that they all developed their understanding of the student mobility system at the same time, the institutional culture at sgei is more aware of student mobility than ever before. this capacity building project helped to align the perspectives/roles of the registrar and pathway officer and will shaping the future of policy and procedure at seven generations to ensure it stays in line with the overall values and mission of the organization. sector or system implications one of the challenges associated with indigenous institutes offering credentials through partner institutions, specific to sgei, is that the main point of contact for each partner institution is often the faculty working at sgei instead of the administrative staff. for example, the paramedic diploma is offered by durham college so the paramedic faculty at sgei are required to follow the policy/procedure of both sgei and durham (almost like a dual staff) and are also the primary contact for admissions/registrar staff at durham college; however, since the credential is quality assured by the durham college, there is a power/influence differential. the registrar at sgei is therefore subject to the policy/procedures of multiple institutions and credentials indigenous institutes that offer their post-secondary programs through partner institutions often need to develop multiple systems to help their students apply, get transfer credit assessments and register for courses. having a singular/unified process, point of contact and policy/procedure for all partner institution processes would be beneficial for sgei and possible a point of discussion for all indigenous institutes in ontario. tools and resources a list of transfer pathways and a pathways coordinator job description were developed. at this time the administration at sgei would like to keep these documents internal and may be willing to share on request.

3/1/2018 enhancing credit transferability final report 2018 six nations polytechnic in collaboration with: brock university mcmaster university university of guelph university of waterloo western university wilfrid laurier university report authors: suzanne hunt and ashley maracle suzanne.hunt@snpolytechnic.com ashley.maracle@snpolytechnic.com table of contents acknowledgements and partner institutions .................................................................. 2 executive summary ....................................................................................................... 3 background .................................................................................................................... 6 introduction .................................................................................................................... 7 project methodology....................................................................................................... 7 project outcomes ......................................................................................................... 11 moving forward ........................................................................................................... 14 conclusion ................................................................................................................... 16 appendices ....................................................................................................................... appendix 1: six nations polytechnic university consortium year 1 program transfer credit chart ........................................................................................ 17 1 acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the vision and dedication of those who created the original articulation agreement that provides the foundation for this project, and those who have supported it since. a special thanks goes to the project participants: six nations polytechnic team: suzanne hunt, learning infrastructure specialist ashley maracle, project manager, academic development officer jennie anderson, academic development officer dawn bomberry, program manager/registrar rebecca jamieson, president/ceo lee-ann blackbird, student success officer chelsey johnson, communications officer ryan johnson, digital content specialist partner participants cara sparman, brock university alexis van baalen, mcmaster university janette hogan, university of guelph ishari waduwara-jayabahu, university of waterloo cindy cripps, university of western ontario christina perris, wilfrid laurier university additionally, we appreciate oncats support of this project and look forward to the support for indigenous institutes moving forward. we would also like to recognize the indigenous student service units at each of the partner institutions, who provide a home away from home for many indigenous students while on campus. a significant contribution was also made by students currently enrolled in the up program, who were generous with providing the thoughtful insight that illuminates our way forward. 2 executive summary six nations polytechnic (snp), an indigenous institute in six nations, has more than 25 years of experience in program delivery, focusing on innovative approaches to partnership and indigenous student success. snp's mission is the preservation, application and creation of knowledge specific to ogwehoweh languages, and culture while respectfully interacting and informing other knowledge systems. snp's two-road epistemology applies in teaching and research that serve the social, cultural and economic needs of the six nations community and society. indigenous institutes play a unique role in ontarios postsecondary education system by providing accessible education and training to indigenous students in culturally responsive learning environments. currently indigenous institutes partner with colleges and universities to offer degree, certificate, and diploma programs. six nations polytechnic initiated this project towards enhancing credit transferability, and worked collaboratively with our regional university consortium partners including brock university, mcmaster university, university of guelph, university of waterloo, university of western ontario and wilfrid laurier university. building on the foundation of an articulation agreement established in 1992, the project aimed to enhance and expand the existing pathways with our partners, and to ensure that transfer pathways are current, clear and accessible to staff and students. the project connected those working directly with student admissions and transfer credit, to define how pathways are best administered towards optimum student transfer experiences. discussions were prefaced with an introduction to the news release for the historic ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) announcement1 of legislation that would recognize indigenous institutes as [an] unique and complementary pillar of ontarios postsecondary education system and support the independence and sustainability of the institutes in ontarios system, and a copy of the indigenous institutes act,2 2017. informed by discussion with university partners, we also requested feedback from students currently enrolled in the snp university consortium year 1 program. this direct insight was valuable, and affirmed the need to ensure that students are fully understanding their transfer options and have access to pursue all pathways. project outcomes include: 1. improved communications and an annual review process creation of the six nations polytechnic university consortium year 1 program transfer credit chart provides an accurate reference for all partners, and a 1 sourced from: https://news.ontario.ca/maesd/en/2017/11/ontario-breaking-ground-in-indigenouspostsecondary-education.html 2 sourced from: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/17i34a 3 mechanism for curriculum updates. establishing partner contacts who are familiar with the details of the articulation agreement will facilitate the supportive relationships necessary to maintain accurate student transfers and support new developments. 2. improved transfer support for students student transfer information sheets unique to each partner university will provide an overview for students to facilitate program application decision making, and be a reference for both the resource and the relationship aspects of transferring. student feedback confirmed the need to help students understand and consider key factors that influence a transfer decision, beyond the determination of course transfer credit. the project affirmed the importance of positive relationships, and students were consistent in communicating the value of indigenous student support resources during their transition to the partner universities. this project provides transfer resource tools that will support the range of transfer interactions and relationships. 3. reciprocal partnerships and a shared commitment the project enhanced the reciprocal nature of our partnerships. it affirms that the snp university consortium year 1 program (up) is not merely a one-direction pathway to level 2 at the university partners. enrollment at snp and in up is not limited to indigenous students, and these relationships can also support a pathway from the university partners to snp, for students who will not receive an immediate offer of admission. this additional pathway is available for university partners to refer ineligible applicants to snp to complete their first year, facilitating partner admission at level pending their successful completion. the reciprocal nature of the partnership is further strengthened as consortium partners confirmed their support of our request for the snp consortium articulation agreement to be visible on their sites, in a manner similar to other transfer pathways. partners indicated some uncertainty with how this will be done, as indigenous institutes currently do not have a clear presence with oncat. 4. reducing barriers engagement with current students provided increased awareness of the postsecondary barriers they may still experience, even as transfer pathways are designed to facilitate seamless transitions. these discussions confirmed the need for continued engagement between institutions and the importance of a clear online presence in ontario for indigenous institutes moving forward. moving forward an essential outcome will be that indigenous institutes are well supported with the recognition that has been available to ontario colleges and universities. we appreciate 4 oncat support of this project, and are well positioned to expand the positive relationships and transfer opportunities with our college and university partners. six nations polytechnic respectfully requests that oncat recognition and support be expanded to include pathways with six nations polytechnic and other indigenous institutes, ensuring that all students have access to the full range of transfer opportunities. . 5 background six nations polytechnic (snp), an indigenous institute in six nations, seeks to achieve international distinction for excellence in indigenous education, indigenous language revitalization and continuance of indigenous knowledge. snp has more than 25 years of experience in program delivery and has established itself as a hub for indigenous education, focusing on innovative approaches to partnership and indigenous student success. snp's mission is the preservation, application and creation of knowledge specific to ogwehoweh languages, culture and knowledge while respectfully interacting and informing other knowledge systems. snp's two-road epistemology applies in teaching and research that serve the social, cultural and economic needs of the six nations community and society. indigenous institutes (iis) play a unique role in ontarios postsecondary education system by providing accessible postsecondary education and training to indigenous students in culturally responsive learning environments. the ii sector was created in the 1980s by political territorial organizations or by individual first nation communities such as six nations, in response to the absence of local and culturally appropriate alternatives. there are currently nine indigenous institutes throughout the province. they are indigenous governed and operated institutions, which receive their mandate from indigenous communities, and provide postsecondary education and training to indigenous students. indigenous institutes currently partner with colleges and universities to offer degree, certificate, and diploma programs. in 2015, six nations polytechnic received ministerial consent to grant a bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages. as an indigenous institute, snp has traditionally relied on articulation agreements to offer postsecondary programming. previously limited in credentialing our own programming, snp has relied on the partners to provide individual courses and course outlines for the up. a regional partnership was established in 1992 between six nations polytechnic and five universities. this was later expanded to include six universities, and formalized through an articulation agreement that includes brock university, mcmaster university, university of guelph, university of waterloo, university of western ontario and wilfrid laurier university. it was stated that: by means of this partnership, the cooperating institutions will encourage members of the aboriginal community to consider seriously the option of a university education, to begin and persist with that education, and to graduation with university degrees. consequently, these students will be better able to make full and meaningful contributions to their communities by maximizing the use of their knowledge and skills. (university consortium articulation agreement, 2005-2010). 6 towards this objective, the native university program (nup) was established to provide students with the opportunity to complete a level 1 university program at six nations polytechnic, and upon satisfactory results as agreed, to be admitted to level 2 of ba programs at the consortium partner institutions. the articulation agreement included an established base of approved courses that students would complete at six nations polytechnic, and has had little revision since implementation. a brief amendment in 2016 confirmed that the native university program shall henceforth be known as the snp university consortium year 1 program, and provided for minor course revisions. introduction although the articulation agreement has been in place for a long while, it has remained uncertain how students and institutional partners are experiencing the administration of these transfer agreements. while recognizing and appreciating higher level support on an institutional level, it had become apparent that the agreement has not kept pace with ongoing curriculum changes, and that awareness of the agreement and how it is to be utilized is variable. with this project, six nations polytechnic will enhance and expand its existing pathways in the university consortium program. snp will ensure that transfer pathways are clear and accessible to staff and students, to facilitate optimum student transfer experiences. further, the project will consider opportunities to expand institutional agreements with additional courses or pathways, and how pathways leading to or from the indigenous institutes may be expanded and made visible in a manner similar to mainstream transfer pathways. project methodology project consultants were secured by six nations polytechnic in october 2017. initial steps included discussion with the internal project team, and a review of relevant information pertaining broadly to institutional mandates, and more specifically to existing partnership agreements. it was determined that the project would best be addressed at the technician level, by those working directly with the administration of transfer credit. potential project contacts were compiled following a review of information available on partner sites and transfer advisors as listed at ontransfer.ca.3 the initial invitation for partner participation was sent by email in early january. understanding that each institution had previously confirmed their participation in the 3 sourced from: https://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php?page=find_a_transfer_policy_advisor 7 university consortium articulation agreement, the invitation was presented as an opportunity for review and update, with the stated outcome of the oncat project towards enhancing credit transferability. university partners were provided with the current version of the articulation agreement and the most recent addendum, as well as a previous version of an approved course list and a proposed meeting agenda. in advance of the meeting, partners were encouraged to provide course outlines where possible, and to consider how they understood the up program transfers to be working towards student success. also provided at the partner meetings, and significant to note, was the news release for the historic ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) announcement4 of legislation that would recognize indigenous institutes as [an] unique and complementary pillar of ontarios postsecondary education system and support the independence and sustainability of the institutes in ontarios system, and a copy of the indigenous institutes act,5 2017. these changes will create a framework for ongoing collaboration between ontario and indigenous institutes and will support a strong, independent indigenous institutes sector. bringing postsecondary partners together during the busy admissions cycle had been anticipated as a potential barrier. the initial meeting hosted at six nations polytechnic in january included limited partners in attendance. project consultants held several individual follow up meetings, at the convenience of the partners. further challenge was realized as institutions determined the project participants. while the articulation agreements are high level, the project consultants determined that it was beneficial for this project to focus on those more directly immersed in the mechanics of transfer credit. additional representatives from the indigenous student service centres were included as secondary representatives, as the project discussion expanded to include recruitment and admission cycle communiques, student transfer experiences, and retention. discussions were rich and engaged. although project tasks were completed as stated, it is interesting to consider the potential benefits of having all consortium partners meet together and continue learning from each other. a general awareness of the articulation agreement was confirmed by all partners, and a shared understanding that it seemed to be working well. discussions affirmed that snp and the partner universities did not yet have a fulsome understanding of how students were experiencing the transfer pathways, and there was consensus that data collection would be useful to inform future steps. the challenges of this gap in data have been echoed by the oncat transfer advisory group (tag) and beyond (see notes from the initial tag meeting october 30, 2017). this is of particular interest at snp as we work towards the implementation of a new student information system and data project. 4 sourced from: https://news.ontario.ca/maesd/en/2017/11/ontario-breaking-ground-in-indigenouspostsecondary-education.html 5 sourced from: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/17i34a 8 a transfer credit course chart template was provided to the partners, with a request that they each indicate current transfer credit. a more extensive list of up program courses approved to transfer had been part of the initial articulation agreement. however, with curriculum changes over the years and a streamlining of what was being offered at snp, it was determined that a concise list of actual course offerings would be most beneficial at this time and would facilitate project completion as necessary to transition current and upcoming students. the original course list is retained, and may be useful to inform future growth and additional pathways. when all discussions were complete, a summary was forwarded to university partners in early february. it had been intended that this would be the minutes from the initial meeting. however, given the need for discussion with several partners on an individual basis, it was determined that a summary document to incorporate all discussion items would be most effective. we were pleased to receive several comments affirming that the summary document provided an accurate overview and was an effective method to bring all participants together in a common understanding. the summary correspondence also included a more tailored project overview. following up from partner discussions, the project goals were refined as follows: to update and define the specific transfer credit that current snp students transferring from the up program will receive at the partner schools; improve understanding of what program pathways this creates, to better support their decision making; make the consortium program more visible to potential students; obtain feedback regarding transfer successes, challenges, and future opportunities for enhancement and expansion; and, additionally, confirm how courses from the bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages can transfer to partner programs. in addition to the request for completion of the transfer credit course chart, the action items below were also included in the summary notes for partner institution follow up: identify contact person for the oncat project, and for continued follow up to ensure accurate transfer credit; increase visibility of transfer pathway for up students to partner institutions on each partner site and/or promotional materials; provide recommended resources and potential contacts that may be valuable to snp students transferring; provide course recommendations to enhance or expand up course offerings; and, development of promotional material, unique to each of the consortium partners, to inform transfer decisions for snp students. snp requested each partner to forward 2-3 key points to tell students what is most exciting about their school, program, or campus. 9 discussions with partners identified the need for relationship development between the institutions, for the benefit of student experiences. several institutions committed to provide additional support throughout the year for snp up students by attending snp student events, where invited, in order to ease the student transfer experience and improve relationships with prospective students. additionally, snp introduced discussion of the bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages, as several up students preferred to complete these more immersive, rigorous language offerings. currently, indigenous institutions like snp must offer diplomas or degrees in partnerships with other, ontario recognized, colleges and universities, hence the historical dependence on articulation agreements. the one exception to this is six nations polytechnics bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages. snp was very pleased to advise the university consortium partners of the 2015 approval to offer a ba in ogwehoweh language, as announced below: on december 16, 2015, six nations polytechnic received the written ministerial consent to offer a three year bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages in ontario. the three year bachelor of arts in ogwehoweh languages (mohawk or cayuga) is the first ogwehoweh language degree in canada offered through an indigenous institute established under first nations authority. the degree is truly an historic step for indigenous education and is a long awaited milestone for the six nations community. 6 by successfully completing the rigorous postsecondary education quality assessment board process, snp demonstrated that indigenous institutions are more than capable of designing, creating, delivering and accrediting their own degrees, while maintaining cultural and intellectual integrity when it comes to indigenous knowledge. partners requested access to the old program review and accreditation consent,7 and the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab) link was provided in the summary. discussion focused on how individual courses to or from the ogwehoweh language degree (old) may be considered for transfer, and how the degree in its entirety may be considered as a first among indigenous institutes. for immediate consideration, the introductory language courses from the old were included in the transfer credit chart. as information was being received from the partners, additional follow up was forwarded mid-february with a request to submit outstanding items and let us know if anything required further explanation or consideration. it became increasingly evident that feedback directly from current up students would be important to inform the project towards enhancing credit transferability. project leads participated in several information sessions to facilitate the submission of student ouac 6 from language degree announcement invitation feb. 8/2016 7 sourced from: http://www.peqab.ca/currentconsent.html 10 105 applications to the partner institutes. this was informative and provided direction to guide further discussion. up students were invited to attend a lunch & learn discussion in mid-february, with the expressed intention of helping us learn from them. we were pleased that most students attended and were engaged in the opportunity to provide feedback about the up program at snp and their potential transfer to university partners. of particular note is that all students affirmed their intention to apply to a level 2 program immediately for admission the following september. we had planned a group discussion, with the hope that comments from their peers may spark further ideas. instead, the students explained their preference to provide written responses to the discussion points provided. the responses were submitted anonymously, and we agreed to provide a summary of their responses back to the group. the inclusion of student voices is incredibly valuable in guiding our desired outcomes and next steps. project outcomes improved communications and an annual review process consistent with the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) mission to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 public postsecondary institutions, the need to provide students with accurate, accessible transfer information is well established. the new six nations polytechnic university consortium year 1 program transfer credit chart (see appendix 1) will do exactly this, and creates a template to facilitate annual updates. the transfer contact list resulting from this project will also support the ongoing review of transfer credit. there is mutual agreement of the importance of providing students with current information, and the transfer credit chart provides the foundation to streamline annual updates. it appears that curriculum cycles are similar among partners, and snp will establish an optimum timeline to request a brief review by the partners on an annual basis. for those of us working with transfer credit, the benefit of the course chart is evident and will be a useful tool for both staff and students. a further challenge is how to ensure that students are fully informed when considering their transfer opportunities, and how to determine if their transfer experiences are effectively meeting their needs. the chart offers a concrete tool to support relationship building across institutions, as expressed by both staff and students. 11 improved transfer support for students transfer information will be further enhanced with a student transfer information sheet for each university consortium partner, to be shared with current and future up students. through discussions with students and partners, a template was identified to ensure this information too can be easily updated as required. snp is currently working on a template, to be shared with partners. the information sheets will help students understand how their transfer credit provides degree pathways unique to each partner. these will inform their level 2 application decisions, and provide an early reference to both the resource and the relationship aspects that we know are as important as the transfer credit details. the project has highlighted, and will continue to support, the importance of positive relationships between and among snp and our university partners, and with the students we are all working to support. the importance of these supportive relationships is reiterated in the up student feedback, affirmed in the partner discussions, and, as above, is echoed by the oncat transfer advisory group (tag). we know there is a need to go beyond the presentation of transfer information, and that an accurate transfer chart and transfer information sheet will provide only the first steps for students on their transfer pathways. up student feedback confirms the need to provide assistance with navigating the unique and variable language and procedures of the postsecondary landscape, and to help them better understand how transfer pathways can support their individual strengths and ambitions. this project highlights the need to support each students relationship with both snp and the partner university they transfer to, and to stay mindful of the importance of the additional relationships that may be important to the student, such as family and community. we have considered how snp may provide a supportive bridge to their transfer experience, during their first year here and beyond. the information sheets are designed to provide contact and resource information, and are intended to be used alongside outreach activities, such as program information sessions and partner visits. feedback affirmed that most, or possibly all, current up students are aware of the specific resources available at the partner universities for indigenous students, and that they anticipate these to be a valuable source of support following transfer. partner discussions revealed varying levels of support specifically designed for transfer students. some universities are not addressing transfer uniquely, while others are actively seeking out and supporting students admitted from other institutions. we were pleased to learn that some students are interested in maintaining a relationship with snp after they transfer to level 2, and anticipate that this will present new opportunities for understanding. snp will develop an alumni engagement process 12 that we hope will inform continued enhancement of transfer credit pathways. maintaining these student connections will inform the program development that will also be nurtured by the positive relationships we continue to enjoy with university partners. reciprocal partnerships and a shared commitment all partners indicated support of our request to include reference to the snp university consortium articulation agreement on their site, in a manner consistent with their current practices. several partners inquired if snp had a presence with oncat or ontransfer.ca. without the clear participation already enjoyed by ontario colleges and universities, there was uncertainty about how this may be best accomplished by the partners (also see moving forward). there was also discussion about the potential for university consortium partners to consider the snp university program as a positive referral option for level 1 applicants who do not meet current ba admission requirements or who have an offer rescinded. reiterating that the snp program is not limited to indigenous students, a referral to the up program would provide an encouraging, pro-active option for regional students receiving a negative admission response, and would facilitate admission to the partner university at level 2 the following year. this creates a productive pathway for students who may otherwise consider a victory lap at high school or be discouraged from pursuing higher education, while also supporting increased enrollment opportunities at both institutions. we plan to follow up with consortium partners to confirm if this strategy may be formally integrated within recruitment or admission procedures. this discussion outlined the importance of fully developing the reciprocal nature of the university consortium transfer pathway, to the benefit of our partnerships overall. reducing barriers our engagement with the up students provided a better understanding of the program application challenges with completing the ouac 105 application process. a challenge unique to indigenous, especially haudenosaunee, students is the requirement to indicate citizenship on the ouac application. historically and currently, haudenosaunee reinforce their claim as a sovereign nation identifying as haudenosaunee, not canadian or american. as a result, many students face an ethical barrier while completing their applications as they are required to claim canadian or american citizenship. while often overlooked, project leads have witnessed applicants in the past who stop at this step of the application process. additionally, several students were faced with significant fees after having attended other post-secondary institutions, and unfortunately this caused them to limit their application choices. five of the six partners confirmed their approval to waive the additional fee for supplementary documents for students applying from snp. however, with positive changes to that automated system, it was difficult to understand how this would be administered. this was easily resolved with assistance from ouac, but 13 provided some insight to the barriers that students may experience even when a system appears to be functioning well. this demonstrates the importance the working through these systems with students, rather than simply directing them to resources as required. snp continues to provide a reduced direct application fee to potential first year students. we recognize the need to ensure, when we can, that the ouac applications to level 2 do not impose a barrier to the transfer opportunities that have been created especially for these students. moving forward improved student data the importance of data to inform our understanding of transfer pathways is a consistent theme to be further explored. as snp pursues the implementation of a new student information system and works towards improved student data, the challenge remains of how we may work with partners and students to gain an awareness of pathway decisions and outcomes. we acknowledge that the number of students transferring from the up program to our university partners is relatively low, but are confident of increased enrollment and improved retention as pathway opportunities are clearly defined and mutually promoted. increased engagement and experiential opportunities this project affirms the importance of alumni engagement, and this too will be supported with the implementation of a new student information system. the potential for current students to participate in a mentorship program with new applicants is an exciting opportunity that snp will consider further. a mentorship program could address the interest that up students expressed in supporting their community, and also provide them with valuable experiential learning opportunities. we are inspired to learn about the experiential resources available at some of our partners, and will consider how snp may develop and evidence student learning beyond the academic program requirements. with students confirming their interest in maintaining contact with snp following their transfer to partners, we also consider the potential for shared student support. for example, partner institutions indicated interest in attending snp events throughout the completion of level 1 at snp. additionally, student success officers at snp could reach out to students early in their level 2 transfer year to assist in student transition to partner university resources. recognizing the importance of positive relationships, we consider how we might provide mutual support to transfer students, rather than consider them as being either here or there. 14 future development of complementary pathways the current project emphasized the transfer limitations of the current program, and opportunities for expansion were discussed with both partners and students. snp will consider how we can address community needs and student interest with the development of complementary pathways, such as business, science and technology. some possibilities include increased course offerings and additional streams of the up to allow students to meet admission requirements beyond the ba programs. snp has forged exciting pathways in science, technology, engineering arts and mathematics with the introduction of the steam academy,8 and will continue to explore innovative opportunities to enhance and expand learning initiatives. consortium partners were supportive of identifying pathways and transfer credit opportunities for students enrolled in snps ogwehoweh language degree (old). discussion included the opportunity to outline second degree or post degree opportunities for graduating old students. it is anticipated that transfer opportunities will require ongoing and intentional consideration as the new pillar of indigenous institutes continues to develop. we are inspired by the positive engagement, and look forward to considering new transfer opportunities as the old is expanded to an honours ba. partner confirmation that degree courses from the old are accepted for transfer is beyond the scope of the original articulation agreement, and will inform the strategic program development underway at snp. we consider, for example, how undergraduate courses may be introduced to support both the university consortium year 1 program and the ogwehoweh language degree, with a process now in place for the university partners to evaluate new transfer credit. oncat recognition of indigenous institutes in conclusion, six nations polytechnic respectfully requests that the indigenous institutes postsecondary pillar be well supported by oncat with the same visibility and recognition that has been available to ontario colleges and universities. the exclusion of indigenous institutes as a searchable transfer option imposes a barrier to students accessing what is intended to be an inclusive postsecondary transfer resource. as six nations polytechnic and other indigenous institutes in ontario work to expand student transfer pathways (see pathways for aboriginal learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities, oncat project 2016-40), it is imperative that this growth be well supported by the relationships and resources available to colleges and universities. an essential outcome will be for oncat to become the key resource for students interested in transferring among ontarios indigenous institutes, colleges and 8 sourced from: https://www.snpolytechnic.com/steam-academy 15 universities.9 this expansion will provide a clear opportunity for pathways with indigenous institutes to be highlighted on the oncat website, as well as the partner college and university sites. further, website changes would require that the information and search functions available at ontransfer are expanded for students to access indigenous institutes, colleges and universities.10 conclusion six nations polytechnic is well positioned to expand the positive relationships and transfer opportunities with our college and university partners. the reciprocal nature of these partnerships is best supported when transfer opportunities are presented in a manner that reflects the shared participation of all postsecondary institutes. reciprocal participation also ensures all students have access to understanding the full scope of transfer pathways. this is an exciting time of growth and opportunity for indigenous institutes, and we look forward to building upon our relationships with partner institutions for the benefit of our students. 9 sourced from: http://www.oncat.ca/index_en.php?page=credit_transfer_on sourced from: https://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php?page=find_a_college_or_university 10 16 six nations polytechnic university consortium year 1 program transfer credit approved at university partners six nations polytechnic march 2018 brock university mcmaster university university of guelph university of waterloo university of western ontario wilfrid laurier university cara sparman alexis van baalen janette hogan ishari waduwarajayabahu cindy cripps christina perris transfer credit contact dawn bomberry snp course code (with lead partner) cayuga 1z03 intro cayuga language and culture (mcmaster) cayuga 2z03 intermediate cayuga credit value 0.5/ 3 units approved transfer credit 0.5 brock credit cayuga 1z03 humn*9110 humanities lang 1xx 3 units unspecified * 0.5/ 3 units * cayuga 2z03 humn*9210 humanities * * engl 109 intro academic writing (waterloo) 0.5/ 3 units 0.5 unspecified wrds credit english 1xxxx engl*1030 english hs 1001 personal determinants of health (western) 0.5/3 units * hlthsci 1xxxx health sciences hs (health science) 1001 100 level hs (health studies) hs 1002 social determinants of health (western) 0.5/3 units * hlthsci 1xxxx health sciences frhd*1100 family relations and human development iss*9110 interdisciplinary social science engl 109 introduction to academic writing hlth 1xx cayuga 1z03 + cayuga 2z03 = frstnatn 2112 iroquoian language & culture (1.0) writing 2101f intro. to expository writing hs (health science) 1002 hs200 (social determinants of health) indigst 1a03 intro indigenous studies (mcmaster) indigst 1aa3 intro contemporary indigenous studies (mcmaster) 0.5/ 3 units 0.5 brock credit indigst 1a03 indigenous studies hlth 260 social determinants of health anth 1xx 3 units unspecified 0.5/ 3 units 0.5 brock credit indigst 1aa3 indigenous studies mohawk 1z03 intro mohawk 0.5/ units 0.5 brock credit mohawk 1z03 anth 272 issues in contemporary native communities in canada lang 1xx indigst 1a03 + indigst 1aa3 = frstnatn 1020e intro to first nation studies 3 units unspecified 100 level id (indigenous studies) id120 (introduction to indigenous studies) iss*9110 interdisciplinary social science iss*9110 interdisciplinary social science humn*9110 humanities en104 (english) * 17 language/culture (mcmaster) mohawk 2z03 intermediate mohawk olc 1lg6 language 1 cayuga (from snp old) 1.0/ 6 units 1.0 brock credit cayuga 1z03 + cayuga 2z03 = 6 units humn*9110 humn*9110 humanities lang 1xx 1.0 unit mohawk 1z03 + mohawk 2z03 = frstnatn 2112 iroquoian language & culture (1.0) lang 1030trn (1.0) olm 1lg6 language 1 mohawk (from snp old) ps101 intro psychology i (wilfrid laurier) ps 102 intro psychology ii (wilfrid laurier) 1.0/ 6 units 1.0 brock credit mohawk 1z03 + mohawk 2z03 = 6 units humn*9110 humn*9110 humanities lang 1xx 1.0 unit lang 1030trn (1.0) * 0.5/ 3 units 0.5 unspecified social sciences credit 0.5 unspecified social sciences credit psych 1xx3 psychology psyc*1000 psychology psych 1xx (0.5 units) 3 units unspecified psych 1x03 psychology psyc*9110 psychology ps101 and ps102 = psyc* 1000 and psyc* 9110. ps101 & ps102 = psychology 1000 intro to psychology soc 1a06 intro sociology (mcmaster) 1.0/ 6 units 1.0 unspecified social sciences credit sociol 1z03 + sociol 1xxxx = 6 units sociology soc*1100 + soc*9110 sociology psych 1xx (0.5 units) completion of ps101 & ps 102 = psych 101 + psych 1xx = 6 units soc 101 introduction to sociology + soc 1xx = 6 units ps101 introduction to psychology i ps102 introduction to psychology ii spcom 223 communications and public speaking (waterloo) 0.5/ 3 units comm 1p96 professional communication unspecified 1xxx humn*9210 humanities spcom 223 public speaking writing 2212f figures of speech: writing for oral presentation 0.5/ 3 units * mohawk 2z03 humn*9210 humanities * sociology 1020 intro to sociology * * sy101 introduction to sociology i: critical foundations + sy103 introduction to sociology ii: exploring social life = 6 units * * = course transfer equivalency to be confirmed. 18

research brief basic insights: transfer rates, sources, and temporal differences across the tdsb-ut linkage dr. scott davies, university of toronto dr. roger pizarro milian, oncat september 2020 basic insights 2 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 in our last brief, we gave you a birds eye view of the tdsb-ut dataset, including a description of how it was produced, the variables it contains, as well as some of its limitations. today, well start sharing some findings from our exploratory analysis. in particular, we review the number and sources of tdsb transfers into ut, as well as fluctuations in these numbers across time. we also provide brief commentary on some of the institutional and social processes that likely explain the trends we highlight. rates of incoming transfer looking across the data, we see that roughly 4.35% (1,223) of tdsb students in our sample who enrolled in an undergraduate program at the university of toronto do so via transfer. it is interesting to note that this figure is larger than estimates we have for transfer flows into ut via credit transfer flag reports that oncat has access to via the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu). such reports estimate that, in recent years, roughly only 2% of all ut undergraduates are transfer students. this discrepancy is likely due in part to the type of transfer indicator that we use, which is derived from a manual coding of a last institution field in the ut records. this indicator identifies all students with any previous pse experience recorded. meanwhile, the ct flag adopts a much narrower definition of transfer; in other words, it identifies only students originating from another public college or university in ontario who have received transfer credit at their current institution. to be clear, each of these metrics has their merits and drawbacks. using the last institution field, we obviously get broader coverage of incoming student flows, but we cannot ascertain if these individuals have been granted transfer credit at ut. as such, they are certainly mobile students, but not necessarily transfer credit recipients. meanwhile, the ct flag usefully identifies those who are transfer credit recipients but misses all of those originating from outside of the provinces public pse sector, including from ontario private career colleges or private universities (e.g., redeemer, tyndale, etc.). even with our artificially inflated estimate of ut transfer rates, it is worth noting that ut still comes in at a lower number than the ct counts of neighbouring gta universities, 1. for this and subsequent analyses, our sample is composed exclusively of students who entered ut as undergraduates. this excludes all those who entered ut via graduate (e.g., m.a., phd), professional (e.g., b.ed, j.d., dpharm) or certificate programs. our analyses also exclude students for which we were missing data across pertinent measures. no imputation was performed on any of the variables of interest. basic insights 3 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 including york (~9%), ocadu (~11%), and ryerson (~15%). we are unable to pinpoint the factors contributing to uts lower transfer numbers but have one hypothesis that seems plausible. perhaps the limited number of existing articulated pathways into ut serves as a barrier for prospective transfer students. combined with neighbouring universities (e.g., york) more proactive approach to transfer student recruitment and pathway development, this barrier could be influencing the observed disparities in transfer student flows across gta universities. of course, further research is required for us to validate such a hypothesis. sources of transfer students what sorts of transfer pathways do students in our sample travel into ut? we see that roughly 56% (689) originate from another ontario university, with leading sources being geographically proximate southern ontario peers like york (143), ryerson (105), waterloo (61), western (51), mcmaster (55), and guelph (55). the next largest source of transfers, coming in at 22% (275), are ontario community colleges, with leading senders being the gtas centennial (70), george brown (64), seneca (57), and humber (41). another 14% came from universities in other canadian provinces. a further 5% came from international universities, including primarily the united states, but also an array of institutions across countries in asia, europe, and the middle east. the remaining <1% (21) transferred from other colleges, including community colleges in other provinces and ontario private career colleges. this, of course, is not just a dynamic specific to transfer or ut. there are dozens of studies that note the importance of geographical distance during student decision-making. all other things being equal, students are less likely to select schools that are far from their homes, especially in jurisdictions like ontario where all our public institutions are of comparable quality. staying at home allows many students to share living costs with their families and to benefit from the support that comes from close social networks. future research would certainly do well to examine the rationale behind these boomerang trajectories, where tdsb students initially enroll in colleges and universities outside of the gta, only to transfer back into ut or other local options later. differences across time do rates of tdsb student transfers into ut fluctuate over time? figure 1 shows that later davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 4 basic insights cohorts had substantially lower rates of transfer. the four youngest cohortsthose that started grade 9 in the fall of 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010had transfer rates in the 2.53% range, while rates for the five oldest cohorts (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004) ranged from 57%. thus, the later cohorts transfer rates were roughly half than those among earlier cohorts. figure 1: probability of transfer by cohort probability of being a transfer student 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 year student was in grade 9 tdsb there are two potential ways to explain these observed differences. it may be that earlier cohorts have had more time for their educational trajectories to play out, and to eventually have the opportunity or need to engage in transfer. following such reasoning, we would expect later cohorts to exhibit similar transfer rates as time passes. on the other hand, there may be something about younger cohortsor the period in which they graduatedthat makes them less likely to transfer. we cant definitively answer this question based on our data. however, we arent aware of any significant changes among tdsb students or the sector that would support the second explanation. of course, further research is needed here, too. basic insights 5 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 summary looking across the tdsb-ut dataset allows us to derive a series of basic insights about transfer at ut. now, it is important to note thatassuming your administrative systems comprehensively track students previous institutionsmany of you working in transfer advising offices (or roles) should be able to access the type of information we have presented in the first two sections of this series. indeed, those sections draw only on ut records and do not require any sort of cross-sector linkages. were only going to start leveraging the full potential of the tdsb-ut linkage in the next brief. all this to say: you are able to generate lots of transfer intelligence with your in-house data. next time, we start getting into the good stuff: including profiles of transfer vs. directentry students! basic insights 6 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. dr. roger pizarro milian dr. roger pizarro milian is the senior researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/projects/tdsb-ut-linkage-and -transfer-project established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021

project snapshot developing pathways from tourism to bachelor of physical health and education-outdoor adventure leadership type: pathway development project number: 2020-29 or p2029 project lead: universit laurentienne collaborators: la cit collgiale project summary the project proposes one (1) pathway from the tourism college program (offered by la cit) to the laurentian b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program. project rationale its the underlying social issue still present in february 2020, the passion for ecotourism and outdoor activities, that pushed us to explore a pathway between the only tourism program offered in french in the province and laurentians unique b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program. given that ecotourism includes an educational component in terms of the assessment of ecosystems, and that everything points to sustained growth among millennials and post-covid, we are still convinced that it is a very beneficial educational combination for students. unfortunately, the temporary suspension of the university program will not permit us to be able to officially complete this pathway this year. however, we are keeping our invaluable recommendations and intend to file them once the b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program is reactivated as part of the laurentian program offering. outcomes the desired pathway was intended for graduates of la cits tourism program toward laurentians b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program. key steps - the course outlines comprising all of the college and university programs involved in this project were gathered = winning practice - review matrices to compare the learning outcomes of the university courses with the learning outcomes of the college courses were developed = winning practice - a preliminary review was done by a general instructional content specialist to identify the most obvious correlations and submit a report to the university academic units for their approval of the findings = winning practice pathways created - the course outlines comprising all of the college and university programs involved in this project were gathered = winning practice - review matrices to compare the learning outcomes of the university courses with the learning outcomes of the college courses were developed = winning practice - a preliminary review was done by a general instructional content specialist to identify the most obvious correlations and submit a report to the university academic units for their approval of the findings = winning practice incomplete pathways this information can only be provided after the restructuring underway at laurentian university is complete because some of the programs involved in this projects pathways may be cut in the institutions new structure. challenges on february 1, 2021, laurentian university initiated, with no notice, restructuring procedures under the companies creditors arrangement act (ccaa). this process caused general destabilization at the institution, which had to put a stop to all approval processes related to pathways being developed. the work can only resume in fall 2021, based on the programs that will have been spared from the cuts. student outcomes this pathway will help college graduates who want to enroll in the b.p.h.e. outdoor adventure leadership program save time and money. it will also offer them greater recognition as professionals through greater consideration of the value of the specialized academic skills gained throughout their college education, thereby demonstrating increased consideration and therefore the greater value of the college education. it will also help them expand their field of skills in the tourism industry, offer them greater versatility and open more opportunities on the job market. student credential this pathway could give college students faster access to obtaining the following degree: - b.p.h.e.: outdoor adventure leadership. student time savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes. student financial savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes, which will indicate the number of credits granted and allow us to perform this calculation. student flexibility definitely better access to the programs and an improved credit recognition process. student work alignment yes, because they will help college graduates enhance their initial studies with related studies, opening the door for them to more opportunities on the job market. institutional outcomes no, none. the process undertaken as part of this project followed the procedures of the new methodology developed and followed for the last three years. tips/advice we still believe that the methodology based on reviewing correlations between the learning outcomes of the college and university programs continues to be the best argument to present to the institutional bodies responsible for the approval of the proposed pathways because it shows, in a factual manner, the overlaps and skills of the college graduates. we strongly recommend it to other post-secondary institutions. tools and resources the key tool developed as part of this project is the review matrix.

1 acknowledgements we would like to document and acknowledge all those who played a key role in producing the pathways and/or envisioning future pathways that are outlined in this final report and look forward to continued communication and educational alignment with the partners. cambrian college kim sheppard - chair, health sciences martin dubuc - program coordinator, physical fitness management brenda cliff - program coordinator, medical radiation technology charline smith - pathways officer kelsey janveau - pathways officer collge boral kim morris - dean, school of health sciences marie-claude mallet - project manager, student mobility emilie lacroix - program coordinator, fitness & health promotion sean gallagher - program coordinator, occupational therapy & physiotherapy assistant marcel bradley - program coordinator, medical radiation technology julie levac-rancourt - program coordinator, massage therapy ren lapierre - program coordinator, paramedic northern college sarah campbell - dean, health sciences & emergency services cam mceachern - executive director of student services, institutional research and registrar shelly hosman - program coordinator, practical nursing tracie howieson - former credit transfer project lead sault college bob chapman - chair, health programs andrea sicoli - program coordinator, occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant lisa maidra - program coordinator, fitness and health promotion marcie logan - academic assistant, health programs 2 lakehead university kaylin kainulainen - project coordinator glen paterson - project resource specialist joey farrell - project lead cheryl king-vanvlack - external reviewer nancy luckai - deputy provost kinesiology faculty members & contract lecturers 3 table of contents acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... 2 executive summary .......................................................................................................................... 6 project purpose and goals ............................................................................................................... 9 pathway development .................................................................................................................... 10 timeline....................................................................................................................................... 10 method ........................................................................................................................................ 12 analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 15 advanced standing transfer pathways .......................................................................................... 18 college programs to lakehead university hbk ........................................................................... 19 cambrian physical fitness management (flbu) to hbk......................................................... 19 boral fitness & health promotion (fhp) to hbk .................................................................... 20 sault fitness & health promotion (fhp) to hbk ...................................................................... 21 boral massage therapy (mt) to hbk .................................................................................... 22 boral occupational therapy assistant / physiotherapy assistant (otapta) to hbk ............. 23 sault occupational therapist assistant / physiotherapist assistant (otapta) to hbk ............ 24 suggested lakehead university hbk to college programs ......................................................... 25 hbk to cambrian physical fitness management (flbu) ......................................................... 25 hbk to boral paramedic (pm) ................................................................................................ 25 hbk to boral massage therapy (mt) .................................................................................... 25 hbk to boral medical radiation technology (mrt) ............................................................... 25 hbk to cambrian medical radiation technology (mrt) .......................................................... 25 implementation process and timelines ....................................................................................... 26 bridge curriculum ........................................................................................................................ 27 best practices and lessons learned .............................................................................................. 28 appendix a ..................................................................................................................................... 30 example of course equivalency survey questions ..................................................................... 30 appendix b ..................................................................................................................................... 34 example of survey summary report ........................................................................................... 34 appendix c ..................................................................................................................................... 40 example of transfer credits outline ............................................................................................ 40 appendix d ..................................................................................................................................... 41 4 draft of bridging module general content outline ....................................................................... 41 appendix e ..................................................................................................................................... 43 schematic of proposed transfer pathways ................................................................................. 43 5 executive summary previous oncat project 2017-24 developed pathways between the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) degree program at lakehead university and health, wellness, and physical fitness-related college diploma programs at georgian and canadore colleges; those pathways are currently moving through the lakehead institutional senate approval process. the objective of the current project was to expand upon the foundation established in project 2017-24 by incorporating a pan-northern, bi-directional approach encompassing four additional colleges (cambrian, boral, northern, and sault) serving the educational needs of students in northern ontario. preliminary communication was with college administrators representing academic units encompassing health, wellness, and physical fitness-related programs (e.g., health sciences). the project team at lakehead university initially identified a list of potential diploma programs from these academic units at each college that might be included for transfer pathway development. in some cases, personnel from each college indicated additional programs to be included, and/or programs to be excluded for various reasons. course outlines from partner colleges were obtained either via college websites or by email from college personnel. an initial review, completed by the lakehead project team, identified courses with content that was potentially similar to content in the hbk curriculum. this information was used to first create spreadsheets, and then surveys, aligning similar courses. the surveys provided a means of collaboratively comparing courses based on descriptions, learner outcomes, and other content in a clear, simple, and accessible way. in the previous project 2017-24, a thorough review of all hbk course outlines was completed. this review included verifying and revising course outline content, as required, to include accurate, up-todate course descriptions; clear, specific, and measurable learner outcomes; and consistent, standardized formatting. the current project (2018-11), therefore, did not require hbk course outlines to be inspected and/or revised in as much depth; however, outlines were still reviewed to ensure that they included all of the information that would be required for course comparison between institutions. surveys and supporting materials were distributed to contacts at cambrian college, collge boral, northern college, and sault college, as well as to hbk faculty. results received from cambrian, boral, sault, and hbk representatives were then analyzed, summarized, and discussed at face-toface meetings with parties from each institution. an initial exploratory meeting was conducted with representatives from northern college; however, no comparative survey information was received. following a discussion with the dean of health sciences and emergency services at northern college, it was mutually decided that they would subsequently withdraw from further analysis at this time. information gleaned from the surveys and subsequent meetings was then used to create transfer pathways from six (6) of the college diploma programs to the hbk. potential transfer credits from the hbk to five (5) of the college diploma programs were also identified and shared with college partners for their use in developing potential degree-to-diploma pathways. the direction of each 6 pathway reflects not only program content similarities, but also a recognition of degree/diploma combinations that would be most appealing and beneficial for future students. the diploma-to-degree pathways developed are: cambrian college physical fitness management to hbk collge boral fitness & health promotion to hbk collge boral occupational therapy assistant & physiotherapy assistant to hbk collge boral massage therapy to hbk sault college fitness & health promotion to hbk sault college occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant to hbk the suggested potential degree-to-diploma pathways identified are: hbk to cambrian college physical fitness management hbk to cambrian college medical radiation technology hbk to collge boral medical radiation technology hbk to collge boral massage therapy hbk to collge boral paramedic as determined by the previous project 2017-24, and reinforced by the current project 2018-11, students transferring from college programs to the hbk would benefit from unique, targeted programming aimed specifically at enhancing the student transfer process; this programming includes a bridging module and a transfer course. while it is beyond the scope of these projects to develop the actual content for this programming, the inspiration for and development of the concept has been a direct outcome of the project process. this programming is currently being explored within the school of kinesiology at lakehead university, and is discussed briefly below. the topics of anatomy and human physiology have consistently been identified as subject areas requiring further academic attention within the transition from college to university. whereas health and fitness-related college programs usually require some anatomy and/or physiology courses, the depth and breadth of material is typically not equal to university courses on the same topics, leaving gaps in content that would potentially put the transfer student at a disadvantage. to address this, the school of kinesiology is currently developing an online bridging module that will ensure that transfer students are provided with the academic content required to successfully continue in the hbk program. incoming college transfer students whose programs have been identified as requiring advanced study of anatomy and human physiology will be required to complete this bridging module prior to commencement of the hbk program. additionally, development of a transfer course to cover other content identified through the detailed course comparison process, as well as material developed to enhance the transfer process, has been suggested. all transfer students would be required to take this course in first year with the intent being that it would assist in the creation of a cohort of transfer students, and provide the opportunity to address any concerns regarding social support, peer mentorship, university resources, and the overall transfer experience. course content would be aimed at supplying 7 additional tools and support necessary to enhance transfer student success at the university. the identification and development of credit transfer pathways was the main focus of the previous project 2017-24; however, one of the recommendations arising from that project was that future pathway development should additionally focus on the student experience, so as to not only create pathways, but also provide support for their future viability, maintenance, and success. as indicated by project 2017-24 and existing literature on the topic, student transfer encompasses not only an academic domain, but psychosocial considerations as well. this recommendation was incorporated into the current project 2018-11, with the overall student experience - rather than the academic component alone - being a guiding factor in the creation of the proposed pathways. 8 project purpose and goals the purpose of this project was to expand upon the transfer pathway foundation established in project 2017-24 to incorporate a pan-northern, bi-directional approach encompassing four additional colleges serving the educational needs of northern ontario students. the intent was to develop credit transfer pathways that provide maximum mobility and enhanced success for students pursuing health, wellness, and physical fitness-related credentials and vocations. in addition, further exploration and development of the bridging module concept, as recommended in project 2017-24, is included. pathways from relevant college diploma programs into the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) program were explored and developed to provide maximum opportunity for education and workforce development to serve the needs of northern ontario communities. in addition, suggestions were presented identifying potential pathways from the hbk into relevant college diploma programs. therefore, the overall goals of this project were to: 1. develop transfer pathways from health and fitness-related college diplomas to the hbk degree 2. identify potential transfer pathways from the hbk degree to health and fitness-related college diplomas 3. explore a bridging module concept from diploma programs to the hbk program 4. increase awareness of and access to northern-based post-secondary options 9 pathway development timeline june 2018 conducted a preliminary review of programs offered at partner colleges to be considered for transfer pathway development. programs were included based on a focus on health, wellness, and/or physical fitness logical connection and potential for overlap with the hbk program previous experience regarding programs of interest for student transfer in either direction suggestions from college partners july 2018 identified, collected, and organized all necessary data for assessing transfer credit between institutions, including learner outcomes, competencies, skill sets, and course content. translated collge boral outlines from french to english. august 2018 conducted gap analysis using all sources of available course-related data to negotiate, establish, and confirm courses eligible for transfer credit through institutional collaboration identify overarching themes in required skill sets and gaps between various health, wellness, and physical fitness-related credentials to be explored further through consultations with faculty members/content experts september 2018 developed an electronic survey for each identified college program; surveys were informed by gap analysis and created to gather information and feedback from content experts. distributed round 1 of surveys (cambrian, northern, and sault) to university faculty and college representatives. october 2018 distributed round 2 of surveys (boral) to university faculty and college representatives. collected, analyzed, and summarized round 1 of surveys in preparation for face-to-face meetings. 10 conducted face-to-face meetings with representatives at sault college to discuss laddering of learning and strategic sequencing of courses in light of transfer credit in relation to students reaching credential-level expectations structure and staging of courses/experiences/field experiences in transfer pathways cross-referencing course structure with relevant administrative policies and mandatory university and college course policies (e.g., indigenous content requirements) conducted face-to-face meetings with representatives at northern college to discuss pathways in general and potential for partnership moving forward. november 2018 collected, analyzed, and summarized round 2 of surveys in preparation for face-to-face meetings. december 2018 conducted face-to-face meetings with representatives at cambrian college and collge boral to discuss laddering of learning and strategic sequencing of courses in light of transfer credit in relation to students reaching credential-level expectations structure and staging of courses/experiences/field experiences in transfer pathways cross-referencing course structure with relevant administrative policies and mandatory university and college course policies (e.g., indigenous content requirements) january 2019 combined, organized, and analyzed information gained from surveys and meetings to determine course equivalents and related considerations create an outline of transfer credits for each college program to the hbk program create an outline of suggested potential transfer credits from the hbk program to each college program mapped specific pathways from each of the identified cambrian, boral, and sault college programs to the hbk program using course content and credit hour information (details of each pathway are included in the advanced standing transfer pathways section of this report). conducted phone meeting with the dean at northern college; 11 mutually decided not to continue pathway development at this time. developed outline of general bridging module content. february 2019 identified and confirmed most appropriate direction for each pathway (diploma-to-degree, degree-to-diploma, bi-directional) based on presumed attractiveness for students, informed by previous experience and feedback. confirmed details and finalized versions of diploma-to-degree transfer pathways, post-revision, with all institutional partners and stakeholders. shared potential hbk to college program transfer credit suggestions with college partners for use in developing pathways to their programs from the hbk. prepared final report. march 2019 process has been initiated for submission to senate for approval of articulation agreements and program requirements for each of the six college to hbk recommended programs preparing appropriate documents for lakehead senate submission workflow (curriculum navigator submission dean/faculty council quality assurance sac susc senate budget final senate). support for college accelerated pathway approval processes will be provided by project staff. method preliminary investigation into the interest in and potential for development of bi-directional transfer pathways from ontario college health, wellness, and physical fitness-related programs to the hbk and from the hbk to college programs was completed in 2016. initial meetings with representatives from georgian college to discuss developing potential bi-directional pathways generated great interest in proceeding and led to application for and receipt of oncat grant 2017-24. upon successful completion of project 2017-24, a pan-northern approach was suggested to encompass other northern ontario colleges offering health, wellness, and physical fitnessrelated programs to create additional potential transfer pathways. in addition, project 2017-24 identified the need to address gaps in academic preparation and educational support that could potentially impact the success of the transfer student. 12 cambrian college, collge boral, northern college, and sault college were contacted and asked to support the application for oncat funding of an additional study to explore transfer pathways with health, wellness, and physical fitness-related programs from those institutions. letters of support were provided for the project and the application was accepted and approved. hbk faculty and staff were informed that oncat funding had been received and they would be asked once again to engage in a process of review and comparison of specific hbk courses and related programs from the partner colleges. a preliminary review of program and course descriptions (available on college websites) by the lakehead project team identified college programs for potential inclusion in pathway development (e.g., health, wellness, and physical fitness-related programs that include some logical overlap with kinesiology). in some cases, college personnel identified additional programs to be included. programs initially identified were: collge boral fitness & health promotion massage therapy medical radiation technology occupational therapy assistant & physiotherapy assistant paramedic police foundations cambrian college medical laboratory technology medical radiation technology paramedic physical fitness management police foundations sault college fitness & health promotion general arts & science - university transfer occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant police foundations northern college massage therapy occupational therapist assistant/physiotherapist assistant paramedic police foundations practical nursing course outlines and other relevant materials were requested from each college and obtained either online via college websites or via email from college personnel; course outlines from collge boral were subsequently translated from french to english. although initially identified for consideration, massage therapy and occupational therapist assistant/physiotherapist assistant at northern college were both suspended programs at the time of the program comparison; massage therapy was being revised for curriculum and 13 accreditation requirements, and occupational therapist assistant/physiotherapist assistant did not have enough enrolment to be offered. therefore, these programs were excluded from any further analysis. excel spreadsheets were created for each of the remaining college programs and a general preliminary assessment of potential overlap between university and college courses was completed by the lakehead project team. a request for course outlines and supplementary content was not fulfilled by representatives from police foundations at sault college; this program was subsequently excluded from further analysis. additionally, it was determined upon further review of the police foundations programs at cambrian, northern, and boral that any potential overlap was very minimal and that these programs should also be excluded from formal pathway development. upon further review of general arts & science - university transfer at sault college, it was determined that any potential overlap was very minimal; that program was subsequently excluded from further analysis. a learner outcome/course outline review of all hbk courses was completed and spreadsheets were updated to reflect any new content. as with project 2017-24, it was decided that the most accurate and efficient means of comparing and contrasting course content would be to have content experts the instructional faculty and/or program coordinators at each institution review course outlines and other relevant materials through completion of a survey. a series of surveys was developed in order to compare and contrast each diploma program with the hbk program. the focus in creating these surveys was ease of use, promotion of discussion with partners, and ultimately the bi-directional evaluation of courses and course content. surveys were designed using qualtrics software, which provided technical support, flexibility of questionnaire design, controlled distribution, simple monitoring of respondent progress, and ready access to results (see appendix a). the survey link, along with relevant course outlines from each institution, was distributed via email to specific course faculty within the hbk program and to program representatives from cambrian, boral, northern, and sault. deadline dates for completion were established and communicated at the time of survey distribution. telephone and email support was provided to the colleges, and personal support was provided to hbk faculty if questions arose. despite multiple requests, there was no response from the paramedic and medical laboratory technology programs at cambrian college; these programs were thus excluded from further analysis. despite multiple requests and continued communication, no survey responses were received from northern college. face-to-face meetings were arranged with hopes that survey data would be collected at a later date. completion of the surveys was tracked through the qualtrics website and follow-up contact was made with survey respondents if/when survey questions were not totally completed or when the final survey was not submitted correctly. results of the surveys were tabulated, level of agreement in evaluation was identified, variability in responses was noted and discussed, and survey summaries were compiled. 14 face-to-face follow-up meetings were arranged with cambrian, boral, and sault representatives to present and discuss the results, to answer any questions or concerns, and to gain greater clarity in relation to areas where there was little agreement in the survey results regarding transferability of course content in either direction. these meetings also provided an opportunity to further discuss the identified programs and course content that would potentially form the base for bi-directional pathway development, as well as any differences in content and granting of direct transfer credit for specific courses. a meeting was also arranged with northern representatives to discuss potential for continuation of their involvement in the project. information and insight gained from the surveys and the face-to-face meetings was analyzed and used to create an outline of transfer credits for each of the identified cambrian, boral, and sault college programs to the hbk program; as well, suggested credit outlines related to transfer of students from the hbk program to those same college programs were created, reflecting the bi-directional focus of the project. following a telephone meeting between the lakehead project team and the dean of health sciences & emergency services at northern college, it was mutually decided that pathway development between lakehead and northern would not continue at this time; there is potential to revisit this partnership in the future. the transfer credit outlines, along with consideration of credit hours, were then used to map specific pathways from each of the cambrian, boral, and sault college programs to the hbk program. although specific diploma-to-degree pathways were mapped, and suggested degree-todiploma credits were outlined, for each of the nine (9) college diploma programs (five at boral, two at cambrian, and two at sault), it was determined during the analysis process that some pathways would be most feasible in one direction or the other, rather than both directions (see analysis section below for a more detailed description of this process). transfer credit information for all pathways, as well as the proposed direction of each pathway, was communicated with college representatives; final recommendations for the direction of each pathway was confirmed. the outline of suggested degree-to-diploma transfer credit information was provided to partner college representatives to assist them in the development of potential pathways from the hbk to their respective diploma programs. analysis as indicated in the method section, a preliminary review by the lakehead project team identified college programs for potential inclusion in pathway development; the resulting list of programs was further developed and refined with input from college representatives. an initial analysis of course descriptions, learner outcomes, and other relevant information was completed by the lakehead project team to identify similar content between college and hbk courses. the qualtrics survey tool provided a means for college and hbk representatives to compare specific course content and evaluate similarities/differences. preliminary information gathered by the surveys included identification of college or 15 university affiliation, and identification of respondent as dean, department head, program chair, or teaching faculty. respondents were then asked to compare courses that had been initially identified by the lakehead project team as potentially sharing content; to do so, they were asked to review course outline details, including course descriptions and learner outcomes, and then indicate which of the specific learner outcomes were shared between courses. respondents also indicated, on a sliding scale between 0% and 100%, the extent that they felt there was overlap between the courses. they were also provided with a fillable text box to provide any additional relevant information. survey responses were collected and a summary report was generated by the qualtrics program. responses from college and hbk representatives were compared to determine levels of agreement/disagreement regarding course content and potential overlap. these results were summarized in chart form (see appendix b) and presented in person to cambrian, boral, and sault representatives for further review and discussion. both survey responses and feedback from in-person meetings informed the creation of transfer credit outlines for each of the nine (9) college programs included (e.g., credits to be received by incoming college graduates when transferring to the hbk; suggested credits to be received by hbk graduates when transferring to each of the college programs). transfer credit outlines were used to formally map individual pathways from each of the nine (9) included college programs to the hbk (see advanced standing transfer pathways). although all nine (9) potential pathways (one for each included college program) were assessed for viability in both directions (to and from the hbk), it was determined that some pathways were most feasible in one direction or the other, rather than both. the hbk program typically covers the majority of the content of fitness & health promotion (fhp) programs, therefore students would not gain substantial additional education by pursuing a fhp diploma post-degree. thus, pathways with fhp diplomas (sault and boral) are being recommended in a diploma-to-degree direction only. the physical fitness management (flbu) diploma program at cambrian college, although similar to the fhp programs, additionally includes a strong business content in their 3-year program. hbk graduates interested in entrepreneurship would benefit from the additional business focus of the program. therefore, bi-directionality is recommended for this pathway. hbk graduates are often employed in occupational/physiotherapy clinics and perform duties similar to a graduate of an occupational therapist assistant/physiotherapist assistant (otapta) program; thus an hbk graduate seeking an additional diploma in this area is considered less likely. therefore, diploma-to-degree pathways only are recommended with otapta programs (sault and boral). students enrolled in medical radiation technology (mrt) and paramedic (pm) diploma programs are well-equipped to enter the workforce directly after graduation, due to their highly-specialized skill set obtained through the diploma programs. therefore, it is less likely that these graduates would seek further education in the form of an hbk degree. pathways with mrt programs (cambrian and boral) and 16 the pm program (boral) are therefore recommended to be degree-to-diploma only. the combination of an hbk and massage therapy (mt) designation provides added value for a professional. therefore, it is considered equally likely that students would be interested in moving both from a massage therapy (mt) program to the hbk, as well as from the hbk to a mt program. thus, the pathway with the mt program (boral) is recommended to be bi-directional. the most appropriate direction for each pathway was based on a) number of credits received in either direction, indicating congruence of programs; b) student demand, as evidenced by previous experience with students transferring to and from programs; and c) consultation with college representatives. this approach was also confirmed in consultation with the projects external reviewer. the results of this project include: the development of six (6) proposed diploma-to-degree transfer pathways into the hbk from three partner colleges. the identification of five (5) suggested degree-to-diploma transfer pathways from the hbk to programs at three partner colleges. the development of an outline of general content to be included in a bridging module. the bridging module would be completed in an online format prior to program commencement, and would facilitate transfer to the hbk from three (3) of the college programs, specifically those identified as requiring additional anatomy and physiology content. 17 advanced standing transfer pathways as a result of the course comparisons and subsequent feasibility evaluation of each diplomato-degree pathway, draft transfer programs to the hbk were developed for three collge boral programs, one cambrian college program, and two sault college programs. incoming students to the hbk will receive targeted programming aimed at enhancing and supporting the transfer experience. areas of focus will include writing skills, analysis, familiarization with university resources, and other items specific to transfer students. dependent on the specific transfer program, students may also be required to complete an online bridging module prior to the start of the hbk program. the bridging module content will focus on anatomy and human physiology to ensure students are best prepared to meet the demands and expectations of the hbk program. entry requirements include completion of the specified diploma with an overall minimum average of 75%. traditionally this average is consistent with lakehead universitys transfer pathways, and is expected to increase the likelihood of student success. details on the specific requirements recommended for each transfer program, and the resulting curriculum of each pathway, are included below. graduates of the identified college programs may find completion of the hbk degree beneficial in expanding further educational options and in having the opportunity to gain recognition as a registered kinesiologist, a regulated health professional in the province of ontario. because the focus of this project was bi-directional, courses were identified from each college program that hbk graduates could be eligible to receive credit for, upon approval from college administration. while it was not within the scope of the lakehead project team to develop these specific transfer pathways from the hbk to related college programs, the information was shared with college partners to assist them in the development of pathways from the hbk into their specific diploma programs. 18 college programs to lakehead university hbk cambrian physical fitness management (flbu) to hbk the links between cambrian flbu and the hbk resulted in the recommendation for a two year transfer pathway. eleven (11) full-course equivalents (fces) are required for completion, which includes 9 fces in kinesiology required courses, 1 fce in electives, and 1 fce in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are required to complete the bridging module prior to program commencement. figure 1 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. cambrian flbu is one of two programs (along with boral massage therapy) for which bidirectional pathways are suggested (e.g., both to and from the hbk). information on the reverse, degree-to-diploma pathway is included in the suggested lakehead university hbk to college programs section below. fall spring/ summer prior to year 1 year 1 6 fce year 2 5 fce winter 0517 - kinesiology program preparation 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - motor dev. 2015 - biomechanics i 3230 - research processes 2035 - motor learning 2079 - sociology 4310 - ergonomics 4710 communication/leadership english - one of 1015, 1016, 1115, 1117, 1118 .5 elective 1017 - transfer course 2 1113 - health 1711 - movement obs 2711 - qualitative 3030 - statistics 3134 - musculoskeletal injuries i 3710 - skill acquisition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 - outdoor exp (hiking) courses to bridge 2011 2012 2030 figure 1. cambrian flbu college transfer program requirements. 19 1210 - chemistry .5 elective boral fitness & health promotion (fhp) to hbk the links between boral fhp and the hbk resulted in the recommendation for a two year transfer pathway. eleven (11) fces are required for completion, which includes 8 fces in kinesiology required courses, 2 fce in electives, and 1 fce in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are required to complete the bridging module prior to program commencement. figure 2 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall spring/ summer prior to year 1 year 1 6 fce year 2 5 fce winter 0517 - kinesiology program preparation 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - motor dev. 2015 - biomechanics i 3230 - research processes 1116 - english 2079 - sociology 3070 - intro to adapted 4310 - ergonomics 4710 communication/leadership .5 elective 1017 - transfer course 2 2711 - qualitative 3030 - statistics 3134 - musculoskeletal injuries i 3710 - skill acquisition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 - outdoor exp (hiking) courses to bridge 2011 2012 2030 figure 2. boral fhp college transfer program requirements. 20 1210 - chemistry .5 elective .5 elective .5 elective sault fitness & health promotion (fhp) to hbk the links between sault fhp and the hbk resulted in the recommendation for a two-and-one-half year transfer pathway. fourteen (14) fces are required for completion, which includes 9.5 fces in kinesiology required courses, 2.5 fces in electives, and 2 fces in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are not required to complete the bridging module prior to program commencement. figure 3 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall year 1 6 fce year 2 6 fce winter 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - motor dev. 2015 - biomechanics i 3230 - research processes 1116 - english 2035 - motor learning 2079 - sociology 3070 - intro to adapted 4310 - ergonomics 4710 communication/leadership .5 elective 1017 - transfer course 2 1711 - movement obs 3030 - statistics 2059 - psychology 2711 - qualitative 3134 - musculoskeletal injuries i 3710 - skill acquisition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 - outdoor exp (hiking) year 3 2 fce .5 elective .5 elective .5 elective .5 elective note: kinesiology electives suggested, but not required courses to bridge none figure 3. sault fhp college transfer program requirements. 21 1210 - chemistry 2012 - biology 2030 - biology boral massage therapy (mt) to hbk the links between boral mt and the hbk resulted in the recommendation for a three year transfer pathway. fifteen (15) fces are required for completion, which includes 11.5 fces in kinesiology required courses, 2.5 fces in electives, and 1 fce in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are required to complete the bridging module prior to program commencement. figure 4 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. boral massage therapy is one of two programs (along with cambrian flbu) for which bidirectional pathways are suggested (e.g., both to and from the hbk). information on the reverse, degree-to-diploma pathway is included in the suggested lakehead university hbk to college programs section below. fall spring/ summer prior to year 1 year 1 5 fce year 2 5 fce year 3 5 fce winter 0517 - kinesiology program preparation 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - motor dev. 1710 - fitness/wellness 1116 - english 2015 - biomechanics i 2035 - motor learning 2079 - sociology 3010 - physiology i 3230 - research processes 3070 - intro to adapted 3711 - exercise prescription 4310 - ergonomics 4710 communication/leadership .5 elective 1017 - transfer course 2 1113 - health 1711 - movement obs 2059 - psychology 1210 - chemistry 2711 - qualitative 3030 - statistics 3610 - nutrition .5 elective .5 elective 3710 - skill acquisition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 - outdoor exp (hiking) courses to bridge 2011 2012 2030 figure 4. boral mt college transfer program requirements. 22 .5 elective .5 elective boral occupational therapy assistant / physiotherapy assistant (otapta) to hbk the links between boral otapta and the hbk resulted in the recommendation for a three year transfer pathway. sixteen (16) fces are required for completion, which includes 11.5 fces in kinesiology required courses, 2.5 fces in electives, and 2 fces in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are not required to complete the bridging module prior to program commencement. figure 5 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall year 1 5.5 fce year 2 5.5 fce year 3 5 fce 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - motor dev. 1710 - fitness/wellness 2015 - biomechanics i 2035 - motor learning 2079 - sociology 3070 - intro to adapted 3230 - research processes 3010 - physiology i 3711 - exercise prescription 4310 - ergonomics 4710 communication/leadership winter 1116 - english (or winter) 1017 - transfer course 2 1113 - health 1711 - movement obs 2711 - qualitative 1210 - chemistry .5 elective .5 elective (or one in winter) 2059 - psychology 3030 - statistics 3710 - skill acquisition 2012 - biology 2030 - biology .5 elective 3610 - nutrition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 - outdoor exp (hiking) courses to bridge none figure 4. boral otapta college transfer program requirements. 23 .5 elective .5 elective sault occupational therapist assistant / physiotherapist assistant (otapta) to hbk the links between sault otapta and the hbk resulted in the recommendation for a three year transfer pathway. sixteen (16) fces are required for completion, which includes 11 fces in kinesiology required courses, 3 fces in electives, and 2 fces in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are not required to complete the bridging module prior to program commencement. figure 6 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall year 1 5.5 fce year 2 5.5 fce year 3 5 fce 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1710 - fitness/wellness 2015 - biomechanics i 2035 - motor learning 2079 - sociology 3070 - intro to adapted 3230 - research processes 3010 - physiology i 3711 - exercise prescription 4310 - ergonomics 4710 communication/leadership winter 1116 - english .5 elective (or one in winter) 1017 - transfer course 2 1711 - movement obs 2711 - qualitative 1210 - chemistry .5 elective .5 elective .5 elective (or one in winter) 2059 - psychology 3030 - statistics 3710 - skill acquisition 2012 - biology 2030 - biology .5 elective 3134 - musculoskeletal injuries i 3610 - nutrition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 - outdoor exp (hiking) courses to bridge none figure 6. sault otapta college transfer program requirements. 24 .5 elective suggested lakehead university hbk to college programs hbk to cambrian physical fitness management (flbu) there is quite a bit of similar content between the lakehead hbk program and the flbu program at cambrian college, specifically in areas related to physical fitness. when considering the most appropriate direction for each transfer pathway (e.g., diploma-to-degree, degree-to-diploma, bidirectional), it was determined that the business-focused content of the flbu would likely be appealing to hbk graduates seeking to become business owners or entrepreneurs. thus, a bidirectional pathway is being recommended. according to the results of the collaborative program comparisons, lakehead graduates transferring to cambrian could potentially receive credit for 11 required courses. an example of the proposed transfer credits outline is included in appendix c. hbk to boral paramedic (pm) due to similar content related to human anatomy and physiology, as well as lifespan development, hbk graduates could potentially receive credit for 5 required pm courses, including one general education elective. hbk to boral massage therapy (mt) graduates of the lakehead hbk program have foundational and working knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, physical exercise, and interpersonal communication. furthermore, it would likely be equally attractive for an hbk grad to add a certification in an area like massage as it would be for mt graduates to further their education with a university degree. therefore, it is being recommended that pathways between the hbk and boral mt are bi-directional. hbk graduates could potentially receive credit for 8 required mt courses, including one general education elective. hbk to boral medical radiation technology (mrt) hbk graduates previous education related to anatomy, physiology, and interpersonal communication covers some of the required content of the mrt program. hbk graduates could potentially receive credit for 5 required mrt courses, including one general elective. hbk to cambrian medical radiation technology (mrt) because of similar content related to human anatomy and physiology, research, and health and wellness, hbk graduates could potentially receive credit for 5 required mrt courses. 25 implementation process and timelines due to the nature of the bi-cameral governing system at ontario universities, new program modifications related to articulation agreements and advanced standing transfer at lakehead university must pass through an intensive review process. an articulation agreement must be approved by the university and college partners; additionally, curriculum and program review must be approved by lakehead university senate. at the time of this report, the process for approvals has been initiated for the six (6) programs identified for transfer from the college diploma programs to the hbk program. resulting information from the course comparison process has been shared with each of the colleges, and they have been requested to review the information and consider initiation of the required approval process within their institutions for degree-to-diploma transfer. transfer pathway current approval level target implementation date cambrian flbu boral fhp sault fhp sault otapta boral otapta boral mt draft recommendation has been completed and shared with the college partner. first stage of lakehead approval, the school of kinesiology faculty, has been initiated. senate documentation has been prepared. fall 2020 to lakehead hbk lakehead hbk to cambrian flbu boral mt boral pm boral mrt cambrian mrt recommendations have been provided to college partners; further pathway development and approvals to continue at the college level. 26 bridge curriculum the current project further explored the concept of an online bridging module to address differences in depth and breadth of content between similar college and university courses. the most commonly identified areas requiring such bridging were anatomy and human physiology. by completing a bridging module prior to commencement of the hbk program, it is anticipated that transfer students will be appropriately equipped to be successful in courses where anatomy and human physiology are prerequisites. as a result of the course comparison process completed through the current project, a general outline of content and proposed mode of delivery was produced for the bridging module (see appendix d). the development of the detailed content and specific delivery were beyond the scope of this project. 27 best practices and lessons learned the current project benefited from knowledge gained through the previous project 2017-24, which highlighted the importance of collaboration and communication between institutions, a focus on bi-directional student mobility, and the importance of considering factors beyond academic study when seeking to enhance the student transfer experience. each of these previous lessons was at the forefront of the current project, and guided its completion. firstly, incorporating opportunities for institutional collaboration and communication was an important factor in completing the current project. the feedback from content experts from both the university and the colleges was paramount in determining course equivalencies and transfer credits, and thus strengthens the resulting pathways by having input from both sides. it is anticipated that this will also benefit the real-life application of the pathways as they move from conception to implementation. additionally, one of the initial goals of the project was to increase awareness of and access to northern-based post-secondary educational options. the collaborative process has served to increase this awareness between institutional representatives (e.g., members of the project team, program coordinators, and faculty members) such that knowledge of program options can be communicated with students; this is evidenced by the fact that there has been communication received from some of the partner colleges indicating increased interest in the hbk from current diploma students. secondly, similar to project 2017-24, the current project sought to develop the foundation for bidirectional transfer pathways that represented both a reciprocal relationship between university and college programs, as well as enhanced student mobility. however, rather than simply assuming that every pathway between the hbk and related college programs should be made bi-directional, the current project brought the realization that the actual feasibility and appeal of each pathway, in relation to student demand, needs also to be considered. thus, an additional level of analysis was employed in which each pathway was assessed for viability, with the result being that some of the pathways are proposed as diploma-to-degree, some as degree-todiploma, and some as bi-directional (see appendix e). it is anticipated that narrowing focus in this way will provide more clarity in promoting the pathways to potential students. thirdly, communication with college partners, as well as with current and potential future transfer students, has provided anecdotal evidence that the way in which students experience the transfer process extends beyond academic study. for example, although this project sought to develop pathways based on course comparisons and academic credits - and was successful in doing so - there are additional factors to consider. in order to create a successful and meaningful transfer experience for students, representatives from either side of the pathways can influence and guide the process through efforts such as promoting pathways to potential students, connecting current and potential transfer students to encourage peer support and mentorship, maintaining relationships between institutions, and offering specific 28 institutional resources and information. finally, the development of pathways is only the first step. to ensure the long-term viability and possible expansion of these pathways, it is necessary that they are consistently monitored, evaluated, and revised to reflect the current state of institutions, programs, and students. 29 appendix a example of course equivalency survey questions 30 31 32 33 appendix b example of survey summary report default report cambrian physical fitness management qid45 - college or university affiliation # answer % count 1 lakehead university 90.00% 9 2 cambrian college 10.00% 1 total 100% 10 34 qid46 - completing this survey as # answer % count 1 dean 0.00% 0 2 department head 10.00% 1 3 program chair 0.00% 0 4 teaching faculty 90.00% 9 total 100% 10 35 4a - hbk respondents - please indicate which of the following learner outcomes are covered by your course - e.g., the course you teach/represent at your institution (check all that apply). flm 1101 mental training for exercise 36 4b - please provide any relevant additional information, if applicable e.g., identification of learning outcomes that are only partly covered by your course, other considerations based on course outline content, etc. please provide any relevant additional information, if applicable - e.g., identification of learning outcomes that are only partly covered by your course, other considerations based on course outline content, etc. i cover the psychological skills and mental training in kine 4059. the two objectives that aren't marked above would overlap well with kine 4059. 4c - based on your review of the course outline and content, to what extent do you feel there is overlap between the above courses? # field minimum maximum mean std deviation variance count 1 1 66.00 66.00 66.00 0.00 0.00 1 37 4d - pfm respondents - please indicate which of the following learner outcomes/topics are covered by your course - e.g., the course you teach/represent at your institution (check all that apply). kine2059 psychology of physical activity 38 4e - please provide any relevant additional information, if applicable e.g., identification of learning outcomes that are only partly covered by your course, other considerations based on course outline content, etc. please provide any relevant additional information, if applicable - e.g., identification of learning outcomes that are only partly covered by your course, other considerations based on course outline content, etc. students will learn a variety of theories on 10 sport psychology topics, with each chapter outlining how these concepts can be applied in a practical setting. they also have a workshop to complete with a certified sports consultant, and produce written critical thinking essays as well. 4f - based on your review of the course outline and content, to what extent do you feel there is overlap between the above courses? # field minimum maximum mean std deviation variance count 1 1 100.00 100.00 100.00 0.00 0.00 1 39 appendix c example of transfer credits outline lakehead to cambrian transfer flbu courses semester 1 bio 1009 applied anatomy kinesiology i eng 1002 college communications flm 1004 fitness i flm 1101 mental training for exercise flm 1150 group exercise and wellness flm 1225 leisure leadership soc 1007 intro to indigenous studies semester 2 bio 1007 applied anatomy kinesiology ii eng 1200 effective presentation skills flm 1005 fitness ii flm 1250 circuit/resistance training i flm 1275 stress management flm 2400 nutrition semester 3 acc 1220 business records flm 2316 physiology of exercise flm 2350 resistance training ii flm 2421 career development flm 3505 program and event management one of psy 1003 concurrent disorders, mental health addictions psy 1125 positive psychology semester 4 flm 1002 fitness for youth flm 2440 fitness appraisal/training i flm 3410 leisure and recreation trends flm 3640 facilities management flm 1006 ex. for older adults mkt 1104 marketing essentials one of ger 1200 introduction to gerontology sci 1001 human sexuality semester 5 flm 1003 team sports leadership flm 2446 fitness appraisal/training ii flm 3400 sport injuries ex. therapy flm 3500 ex. for special populations mkt 3680 professional selling semester 6 flm 2700 coop work term i hbk potential transfer credits blue semester 1 x x flm 1004 fitness i x x flm 1225 leisure leadership soc 1007 intro to indigenous studies semester 2 x eng 1200 effective presentation skills flm 1005 fitness ii flm 1250 circuit/resistance training i flm 1275 stress management x semester 3 acc 1220 business records x flm 2350 resistance training ii flm 2421 career development flm 3505 program and event management x semester 4 flm 1002 fitness for youth x flm 3410 leisure and recreation trends flm 3640 facilities management flm 1006 ex. for older adults mkt 1104 marketing essentials one of ger 1200 introduction to gerontology sci 1001 human sexuality semester 5 flm 1003 team sports leadership flm 2446 fitness appraisal/training ii x x mkt 3680 professional selling semester 6 flm 2700 coop work term i 40 appendix d draft of bridging module general content outline kine0517 kinesiology program preparation bridging module general content outline unit 1 introductory and foundational material / skeletal system introduction to anatomy of the human body introduction to physiology of the human body overview of the skeletal system axial division of the skeletal system appendicular division of the skeletal system joints unit 2 connective tissue and integumentary system connective tissue composition connective tissue types integumentary system structure integumentary system function unit 3 - muscular system i muscle tissue muscle physiology muscles of facial expression muscles of the upper extremity unit 4 - muscular system ii muscles of the lower extremity muscles of the abdominal wall muscles that move the head and spine muscles of the pelvic floor muscles which move the chest wall unit 5 - nervous and endocrine systems nervous system - organization nervous system - gross anatomy neurophysiology endocrine system unit 6 - respiratory system structure and functions of the respiratory system respiratory physiology 41 unit 7 - circulatory system microscopic anatomy general functions heart arterial blood vessels venous blood vessels cardiovascular physiology fetal circulation lymphatic system unit 8 - sensory structures / digestive system sensory structures digestive system unit 9 - urinary system / reproductive system urinary system excretion & osmoregulation reproductive system 42 appendix e schematic of proposed transfer pathways 43

rapport final contrat : 2017-20 environment transfer pathway development titre du projet : dveloppement de parcours de transfert en environnement prpar par : luniversit laurentienne bureau des affaires francophones 935, chemin du lac ramsey 3e tage, difice parker (p315) sudbury (on) p3e 2c6 tl : 705-675-1151, poste 3421 date : 15 mars 2018 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement liste des intervenants impliqus pour le compte de luniversit laurentienne : andre noiseux, charge de projets; nomie thberge, conseillre principale sylvie landry, directrice du bureau des affaires francophones, partenariats et collaborations; line tremblay, vice-rectrice associe sortante aux tudes et affaires francophones; david lesbarrres, vice-recteur intrimaire associ aux tudes et affaires francophones; osman abour-rabia, doyen de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture; hlne joly, doyenne associe de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture eric gauthier, professeur en biochimie; jeffrey gagnon, professeur en biologie; anne watelet, professeur en tudes de lenvironnement; franois caron, professeur en sciences librales; diane roy, registraire; melissa ouimette, chef du bureau des admissions; joanne musico, directrice des communications. pour le compte du collge boral : marie-claude malette, charge de projets; jocelyne bdard, gestionnaire de projets; daniel leduc, conseiller principal et chef du centre de ressources professionnel; lyne michaud, vice-prsident enseignement; tina montgomery, doyenne de lcole des mtiers et des technologies appliques; marc hbert, coordonnateur des programmes techniques en environnement forestier et faunique, technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune, et technologie en environnement forestier; marc nellis, professeur en techniques en environnement forestier et faunique et technologie en environnement forestier; karl aubry, professeur en technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune andr ferron, technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune julie allen, registraire; ginette brunet, chef du bureau des admissions; jean cotnoir, chef des communications stratgiques. pour le compte du collge la cit : joseph aghaby, charg de projets; lise frenette, directrice de projets spciaux; norman junior poisson rioux, expert de contenu et conseiller pdagogique; reynold richemond, professeur; simon-pierre desjarlais, professeur; frdric thibeault-chabot, doyen de linstitut des technologies, des arts et de la communication; patrice supper, directeur de linstitut des technologies, des arts et de la communication; paulette bouffard, directrice; stphane ct, registraire; pascale montminy, gestionnaire en communication chantal thiboutot, directrice principale de la planification institutionnelle et de limputabilit. 2 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement table des matires 1) sommaire 4 2) intention et objectifs du projet..5 3) laboration des parcours de transfert....6 4) sommaire des parcours de transferts....12 5) pratiques prometteuses et leons apprises.....13 annexes a, b, et c : matrices danalyse.... annexe d : modle du parcours de transfert - environnement ..... annexe e : rapport financier.... 3 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement 1) sommaire dans le cadre de ce projet, luniversit laurentienne, le collge boral et le collge la cit ont collabor llaboration de parcours de transfert des programmes collgiaux suivants vers les programmes de quatre ans de biochimie, de biologie, de ltude de lenvironnement et des sciences librales de luniversit laurentienne : pour le collge boral : techniques en environnement forestier et faunique (2 ans), technologie en environnement forestier (3 ans), et technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune (3 ans). pour la cit : pratiques en environnement forestier (1 an), techniques en environnement forestier (2 ans), et technologie en environnement forestierfaune (3 ans). ce projet voulait enrichir la rcente entente complte entre lcole de lenvironnement de la laurentienne et le programme gnral darts et de sciences du collge boral, en plus de maximiser les retombes des dmarches ralises lchelle de la province, en tentant dtablir un accord similaire avec le collge la cit. linitiative aura permis lofficialisation, au cumul, de 15 nouveaux parcours de transfert pour les tudiants francophones dans les domaines de lenvironnement et des sciences. 4 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement 2) intention et objectifs du projet en plus de rejoindre les objectifs gnraux du caton le projet avait, pour les tablissements participants, les vises suivantes : maximiser les acquis des tudiants diplms des programmes techniques en environnement forestier et faunique (2 ans) et technologie en environnement forestier (3 ans), et technologie de gestion de la pche et de la faune (3 ans) du collge boral, ainsi que des programmes pratiques en environnement forestier (1 an), techniques en environnement forestier (2 ans), et technologie en environnement forestier-faune (3 ans) du collge la cit; appuyer le recrutement de ces programmes universitaires francophones qui sont, parfois, plus petits effectifs et qui pourtant gnrent un certain intrt chez les tudiants des collges de programmes affinitaires; encourager, voire mme provoquer le dialogue entre luniversit laurentienne, le collge boral et la cit, afin de travailler une certaine cohrence entre les programmes, qui stimulerait la mobilit des tudiants francophones dans le domaine de lenvironnement et profiterait lensemble du systme dducation. 5 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement 3) laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie comme il la t fait dans le cadre du parcours de transfert en architecture que nous avons travaill cette anne avec les mmes tablissements partenaires, nous avons tenu appuyer laccord des quivalences sur lanalyse des rsultats dapprentissage recoups dans le programme de dpart et le programme darrive. cette faon de procder nous a permis de dresser un rel portrait comparatif des rsultats de cette nouvelle mthodologie prconise, quant des programmes similaires au sein de la cit et du collge boral. le constat fut trs intressant, relevant entre autre que bien quen principe, un mme programme donn au sein de deux tablissements diffrents devrait atteindre des rsultats dapprentissages identiques, dans les faits, de lgres variantes simposent et ne garantissent donc pas les mmes quivalences aux tudiants. toutefois, nous sommes davis que bien que lanalyse des quivalences possibles par le recoupement des rsultats dapprentissage peut sembler laborieuse et redondante, sans pour autant garantir une transfrabilit des passerelles, elle reste la mthode la plus objective et documente pour jeter les bases rflexives et dcisionnelles des intervenants impliqus. pour ce qui est de la squence des tapes et des livrables accomplie, elle sest essentiellement avre la mme que celle prvue et propose dans le cadre du dpt de notre proposition, cest--dire : 6 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement calendrier des activits avril 2017 tapes et livrables - rencontres avec le doyen de la facult des sciences, du gnie et de larchitecture pour discuter du projet et de ses tapes - allocation des heures sur les formulaires de charge de travail des professeurs-experts de boral et des conseillres pdagogiques pour le printemps 2017 - rencontres avec les directeurs et doyens des programmes, les responsables des centres dappui au personnel et les gestionnaires des bureaux des admissions la laurentienne, boral, et la cit pour prsenter le projet - rencontre de dmarrage avec les professeurs des programmes pour changer sur les objectifs des programmes cibls par le projet de la laurentienne, du collge boral, et de la cit juin 2017 - recueil des plans de cours et autres informations relatives aux rsultats et activits dapprentissage du programme universitaire cibls par le projet septembre 2017 - laboration dune structure danalyse base sur les rsultats dapprentissage - rtroaction sur la structure danalyse propose par la conseillre principale - approbation de la structure danalyse par le vice-recteur aux tudes et affaires francophones de la laurentienne - construction des matrices - analyse et comparaison des rsultats dapprentissage des diffrents programmes - identification des crdits pouvant tre reconnus - consultation auprs de la chef des admissions de la laurentienne afin de partager les analyses, de complter les rsultats des crdits accords par les normes issues des pratiques administratives gnrales pour les cours au choix et rsultats acadmiques des candidats, et didentifier la documentation prparer en vue des prochaines tapes dapprobations administratives la laurentienne - consultation des intervenants cls des programmes afin de valider les mai 2017 octobre 2017 fvrier 2018 7 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement analyses comparatives effectues des rsultats dapprentissage (directions de programmes de chaque institution, doyens des coles de mtiers des collges et doyen de la facult des sciences, gnie et darchitecture de la laurentienne) mars - avril 2018 - validation finale des parcours dvelopps auprs des intervenants avant dentamer le processus dapprobation - dveloppement et finalisation des parcours dententes traditionnelles selon les analyses comparatives qui ont t valides par les intervenants des programmes mai juin 2018 - finalisation du processus dapprobation luniversit (2 dernires tapes) p ara (academic regulations and awards) p snat de luniversit laurentienne t 2018 - ajout des parcours aux protocoles dententes - communication avec le bureau dadmission pour ajouter les parcours ontransfer.ca comparaison et analyse des programmes comme lanalyse des programmes sur la base de leurs rsultats dapprentissage pour identifier les cours crdits au sein de chacune des passerelles vises reprsentait une pratique nouvelle pour nous, il nous a fallu concevoir, laborer et produire les outils qui documenteraient le plus rigoureusement possible les donnes danalyse afin de nous permettre de valider la pertinence de cette approche. ainsi, des matrices nous permettant de faire la cartographie de lensemble des rsultats dapprentissages de chacun des programmes viss par le projet et leurs recoupements ont t dveloppes. celles-ci numrent les rsultats dapprentissage des programmes de biochimie, de biologie, et dtudes de 8 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement lenvironnement de la laurentienne contre vrifi avec les rsultats dapprentissage des programmes de boral et de la cit et sont utilises de la faon suivante : - pour chaque rsultat dapprentissage correspondant entre le programme universitaire et lun des programmes collgiaux, un 1 a t inscrit dans la grille; - les rsultats dapprentissages correspondants sont ensuite additionns par cours du programme laurentienne arrim; - si un cours de la laurentienne compte au moins un rsultat dapprentissage correspondant pour tous ses rsultats dapprentissage, on peut proposer au directeur du programme que ce cours ait un quivalent collgial et que le crdit soit reconnu dans lentente; - mme si lorsque lon fait une comparaison de cours par cours il ny a pas un cours du collge qui est exactement lquivalent dun cours de la laurentienne, la cartographie permet de dmontrer que dans lensemble du diplme collgial, les tudiants ont couvert les rsultats dapprentissage de certains cours; - la fin de lexercice, les directeurs des programmes collgiaux sont consults pour valider les rsultats dapprentissages recoups. ils ont alors loccasion de prciser si certains rsultats ont t omis par faute de clart ou de comprhension des syllabus de cours, ou encore mme de proposer une certaine rvision de leur programme de sorte y ajouter un rsultat dapprentissage particulirement dterminant. les documents excel regroupant lensemble des matrices danalyse utilises dans le cadre de ce projet vous est prsent en annexe a (tudes de lenvironnement), annexe b (biologie), et annexe c (biochimie). 9 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement processus de mise en uvre et chanciers les processus dapprobation ont une incidence importante sur les chanciers dun tel projet et sa mise en uvre. en effet, certains comits comme le snat par exemple, sont confronts des agendas trs chargs, en plus dun calendrier de rencontres trs limit. ainsi, il faut se rendre lvidence, la rencontre de juin reste la plus propice au traitement de dossiers comme celui-ci et vient par consquent interfrer avec le souhait initial de terminer lensemble des travaux pour la mi-mars. cette prise de conscience sest ajout un impondrable cette anne, soit les grves universitaires et collgiales qui ont svi tour tour. en effet, la grve du personnel enseignant dans les collges de lontario lautomne 2017 ayant dur prs de 5 semaines, de nombreux projets de dveloppement touchant la pdagogie ont t mis en veilleuse tant au niveau du collge boral que de la cit. en raison du ramnagement du calendrier scolaire, les professeurs nont pu mener terme ce type de mandat dans les dlais prescrits. la session dautomne la cit sest termine le 26 janvier 2018 et la session dhiver a dbut le 29 janvier 2018. ce nouveau calendrier a forc les tablissements denseignement dannuler la traditionnelle semaine de lecture, ce qui a eu pour rpercussions que le travail de nature administratif qui normalement tait accompli par les enseignants durant cette semaine na pu tre assur cette anne. ceci tant dit, un travail monumental a tout de mme t fait pour nous rapprocher le plus possible de lissue du projet. ce jour, la cartographie des programmes et les rsultats de la premire analyse quelle propose ont t 10 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement dposs pour validation auprs des instances de chaque tablissement. les prochaines semaines nous permettront de raliser les tapes suivantes : - rencontre entre les directeurs de programmes des tablissements afin de faire appel aux rsultats dgags la suite de la premire analyse et proposition de recommandations pour maximiser les parcours; - approbation auprs de ara et information au cpf; - approbation auprs du snat; - ajout des parcours aux protocoles dententes; - communication avec le bureau dadmission pour ajouter les parcours ontransfer.ca; - prparation dune annonce des nouvelles passerelles pour la rentre scolaire. 11 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement 4) sommaire des parcours de transfert crs un bref aperu des parcours de transfert proposs lissue de ce projet vous est prsent sous longlet bilan de chacun des documents excel prsents en annexes a, b, et c. noter que si aucun parcours de transfert na t cr avec le programme de biochimie, cest quaucun rsultat dapprentissage na t recoup entre les programmes collgiaux et le programme universitaire de la laurentienne. dun autre ct, si le programme de sciences librales quant lui nest pas tay en tableau de la mme faon que biologie et tudes de lenvironnement, cest que les cours qui forment ce programme composent galement les cours des deux programmes prcdent. ainsi, les quivalences accordes seront directement lies au choix de cours de ltudiant lorsquil construira son programme. le dtails spcifiques associs aux parcours de transferts avec les programmes de biologie, tudes de lenvironnement et sciences librales ont t documents tel que demand dans les modles de parcours fournis en annexe d. attention : il est noter que le nombre de crdits accords anticip dans lanalyse qui est fourni avec ce rapport pourrait tre modifi lorsque les ententes seront prsentes ara et au snat. pour cette raison, luniversit laurentienne sengage fournir un complment de rapport caton lorsque toutes les tapes dapprobation seront compltes. 12 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement 5) pratiques prometteuses et leons apprises parmi les pratiques prometteuses, nous retenons limportance de communiquer avec tous les dpartements impliqus des diffrents tablissements. ceux-ci incluent le dpartement du programme en question, la facult, le bureau du registraire et le bureau des admissions, ainsi que les administrateurs et le centre dorientation scolaire qui avisent les tudiants concernant leur horaire, etc. cette communication assure non seulement quil ny ait pas de malentendus, mais aussi que lentente soit en accord avec toutes les rgles de luniversit. de plus, lorsque tous sont au courant de lentente, elle a une meilleure chance dtre approuve lors des diverses tapes dapprobation puisque les membres des comits sont souvent des reprsentants des dpartements nomms ci-haut. nous relevons galement quun travail de sensibilisation est encore ncessaire au sein de la laurentienne. en effet, mme si un projet comme celui-ci avait entre autres pour objectif de favoriser le recrutement pour des programmes plus petits effectifs, les professeurs restent craintifs quen accordant des quivalences nous risquons de faire disparatre des cours de premire anne, si les tudiants nont plus besoin de les suivre. or, de rcentes tudes ont dmontr que les tudiants provenant des collges ne reprsentent pas des tudiants qui se seraient inscrits luniversit, mais plutt une nouvelle clientle puisquils nont souvent pas les prrequis ncessaires pour leur admission au dpart. les passerelles dveloppes sont donc pour ainsi dire, leur seule porte dentre possible pour accder nos programmes. cette prise de conscience se fait peu peu au sein du corps professoral, mais est encore loin dtre gnralise. 13 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-20 parcours de transfert en environnement bien quil sest avr y avoir beaucoup moins daffinits entre les programmes quinitialement espr, les intervenants sont tout de mme trs satisfaits du droulement de ce projet. du ct des collges comme du ct de la laurentienne, les programmes collgiaux dun an restent encore trs controverss au sein des instances dapprobation lorsque vient le temps de parler de passerelles. cependant, nous recommandons de continuer de les inclure dans les dmarches danalyses lorsquils font partie des programmes affinitaires, puisque lidentification des contenus dapprentissage quils touchent pourraient ventuellement servir dans le cadre dune rattribution des cours au sein dun programme collgial pour rejoindre davantage un programme universitaire. finalement, la nouvelle approche danalyse base sur les rsultats dapprentissage a grandement facilit les discussions et a permis dapporter une objectivit saine au processus daccord des quivalences. nous comptons donc poursuivre cette voie dans le cadre du dveloppement de parcours de transfert ventuels, en nous appuyant des mmes outils que ceux conceptualiss pour le prsent projet. 14

june 2022 research spotlight new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto dr. scott davies, university of toronto project funded by new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 1 keywords postsecondary; transfer; university of toronto; high school academic performance; transfer credits; academic outcomes overview what are the characteristics and differences between transfer students and non-transfer students at the university of toronto (u of t)? to answer these questions, this research study compared a subset of transfer and direct-entry students at u of t who attended high school in the toronto district school board. the study, which follows up on a similar study completed in 2020, looks at the relationship between high school academic performance and transfer student outcomes. this new research expands on the previous report by including the credit transfer flag, indicating whether and how many transfer credits students received at u of t. why it matters in ontario, we lack administrative, longitudinal, and linked data that will help us understand what pathways students travel into post-secondary. while the findings from this report are specific to u of t, this information provides a model for how institutions can evaluate transfer student outcomes at their own institutions. more importantly, by linking the postsecondary data with students' high school records, we learn about early predictors of transfer success and can better identify students who may need more support when they are admitted. this research should also be of interest to registrars and other postsecondary administrators who make credit assessment policies at their institution. one of the significant findings is that the more transfer credit a student receives, the more likely they are to graduate. key findings transfer students have lower high school grades than direct-entry students compared to direct-entry students, transfer students were significantly more likely to speak english as their first language, to be female, born in canada, and to self-identify as white. academically, they had significantly lower high school grades and worse high school attendance than direct-entry students. transfer students from ontario community colleges generally had the least conventional academic records. new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 2 figure 2: probability of transferring by high school grades (95% cis) 0.08 probability of transfer 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 average grades in high school transfer students pursue stem fields at much lower rates than direct-entry students while 46% of direct-entry students entered stem fields, only 26% of transfer students did so. after disaggregating the transfer pathway variable, the researcher found that transfer students from ontario universities, other canadian universities, and especially ontario community colleges each entered stem fields at statistically significantly lower rates than direct-entry students. further research should investigate why transfer students are less likely to pursue stem fields of study. while the current research established a positive association between number of credits transferred and graduation rates, it did not include information on whether transferred credits were part of a more structured articulation pathway. these pathways have been shown to improve transfer outcomes, and it would be useful to know what their influence would be on stem uptake in transfer. university transfer students are performing better than college transfer students while transfer students from universities were less likely to enter stem fields at u of t than direct-entry students, they had similar cumulative grade point averages, total credits earned, and graduation rates. in fact, transfer students from ontario and other canadian universities graduated at slightly higher rates than direct-entry students. this finding suggests that transfer students from other universities are well prepared to succeed at u of t. new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 3 unfortunately, the same cannot be said of college transfer students at u of t. in addition to being less likely to enter stem fields of study, they earned fewer total credits and had statistically significant lower graduation rates. just over half of college transfer students graduated within the timelines of the study. the findings suggest that students lower graduation rates are the result of weaker academic records in high school and fewer transfer credits awarded. the more transfer credits a student receives, the more likely they are to graduate in addition to investigating academic performance, graduation rates, and fields of study, the researcher ran some logistical regression analyses to estimate whether having more transfer credits awarded would boost graduation rates for college transfer students and all other students. figure 5 shows sizeable gaps in predicted graduation rates between college transfer students and other students when both groups are awarded zero transfer credits; the predicted gap is about 30%. however, looking at 6 and 12 credits awarded, that gap shrinks to about 20% and 10%, respectively, meaning that the predicted graduation rate for college transfer students rises by about 25% if the awarded credits rise from 0 to 12. overall, these various analyses strongly suggest that being awarded higher numbers of transfer credits can improve university outcomes for transfer students and could help those from colleges narrow gaps between themselves and their peers. new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 4 takeaways this research and the similar study that preceded it suggest that college transfer students face deeper social and academic challenges than do direct-entry students. all transfer students incur financial and social costs when they move residences, experience strains from losing old peer networks, and encounter stress as they cope with u of ts competitive environment. but college transfer students experience these strains while also often lacking the same academic preparation for university enjoyed by their peers. many of their challenges stem from receiving insufficient credit for previous work. despite these setbacks, about half remain on-track after transferring. the other half fall off-track and fail to graduate. they enter u of t already with fewer academic resources than others and are granted fewer transfer credits than their university counterparts. to address these challenges, institutions should think about two policy improvements: 1. since awarding transfer credits is associated with better outcomes among all categories of transfer students, universities should strive to develop mechanisms that might award more such credits while retaining their academic integrity. currently, each institution has its own credit-awarding procedures, but more could be done to systematize their efforts in ways that might grant more credits to deserving students. 2. since high school track records are important predictors of university outcomes, and since transfer students tend to have worse track records on average than direct-entry students, universities may wish to also provide transfer students (and other students too) with extra academic supports, such as remedial programs, mentoring, etc. new findings on postsecondary transfer students at the university of toronto 5 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. oncat.ca/en/tbd link established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the author acknowledges the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

research brief transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto: gpa, access to stem, and graduation dr. scott davies, university of toronto dr. roger pizarro milian, oncat september 2020 transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto 2 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 last week, we looked at how tdsb students who transfer into ut compare to their directentry counterparts across a range of academic and demographic variables. we developed a sense of the various flavours of transfer, using the institutions that they originated from as guiding categories. today, well provide an in-depth look at their academic outcomes at ut, including their cumulative grade point averages (cgpa), access to stem fields, and eventual graduation rates. before we get started, a quick note on our methods: first, we present a descriptive overview of the various outcomes across transfer student categories, along with difference in means tests that indicate whether observed differences between groups are statistically significant. second, we perform an in-depth analysis of graduation rates, using several statistical modelling strategies to develop a more refined understanding of how transfer is related to such an outcome. at this point, youll hear us routinely mention the term predicted probabilities. this refers to the estimated likelihood that graduation will occur, assuming a set of circumstances. these predicted probabilities are produced using multivariate models that include not only a variable representing transfer (yes/no), but also a wide range of the academic and demographic variables we discussed in the last brief. what are multivariate models? multivariate statistical models allow analysts to focus on more than two variables at a time. hence, for example, you can analyze the relationship between a and b, while accounting for the effect of c, d, and e. this is different from bivariate analysis, which would focus only on the relationship between a and b, ignoring everything else. a broad look at differences in outcomes scanning raw cgpa, access to stem, and graduation rate differences between direct-entry and transfer students as a whole, as well as across transfer sub-categories, reveals several notable trends that coincide with much of the existing research on these topics. 3 transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 first, we see that transfers as a group tend to outperform direct-entry students with respect to cgpaand by a significant margin. however, when we break cgpa down by transfer category, we see that the story is far more nuanced. in our sample, transfers from ontario and canadian universities academically outperform direct-entry students by a wide margin. in contrast, transfers from ontario colleges generally under-perform relative to direct-entry students. this finding makes sense given the trends described in last weeks brief, which found that transfers from ontario colleges tend to have weaker academic performance in high school. interestingly, the broad direct-entry/transfer gpa gap survives a wide range of controls within our multivariate modelsmeaning it was not the singular product of observed demographic or high school performance differences between these groups. of course, it is still plausible that unobserved factors could account for these differences, but we are confident that our findings are robust. table 1. raw outcomes direct entry (n=26,916) all transfers (n=1,223) ontario university (n=689) ontario college (n=275) cgpa 2.62 2.73 2.85 stem 0.395 0.268 graduation rate 0.685 0.527 legend: significantly more significantly less other canadian university (n=174) internat'l university (n=64) 2.29 3.00 2.72 0.300 0.219 0.197 0.344 0.569 0.407 0.569 0.531 not significant 2012 1. this finding corresponds with previous research on transfer students gpa done by steward & martinello, _____. 2. this is an ordinary least squares regression model with cgpa serving as the dependent variable. predictors include transfer (0/1), if a student was ever suspended, average high school marks, absenteeism, whether they were considered gifted or special needs, english and math eqao scores, success on their first attempt at the ontario grade 10 literacy test, whether they ever switched high schools, if they ever dropped out of high school, their gender, neighbourhood income, age, self-identified race (white/other), parental occupation, parental education, family structure, sexual orientation, place of birth, and field of study at the university of toronto. we ran these models exclusively with those students in b.a. degree programs, and including those in undergraduate-level diplomas/certificate programs. the overall findings did not differ. transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto 4 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 with respect to access to stem fields, we see that direct-entry students lead the pack at nearly 40%, with only 27% of transfers entering stem. however, once we begin breaking these figures down by transfer sub-categories, we can observe considerable within-group variance. ontario (30%) and international university (34%) transfers achieve the highest levels of access to stem, followed by ontario colleges (22%) and canadian universities (20%). in our multivariate models, the direct-entry/transfer access to stem gap survived controls for hs academics, gender, age, and median neighbourhood family income. however, it disappeared entirely after a last block of demographic controls were introduced. this means that raw direct-entry/transfer stem gaps are likely a product of group differences and not the transfer process itself. looking at raw graduation rates, we see that direct-entry students outperform the aggregate transfer group by almost 16 percentage points. breaking the transfer group into sub-categories reveals that the direct-entry/transfer gap varies significantly and is generally in-line with gpa differences. transfers originating from ontario colleges tend to graduate at only a 41% rate. meanwhile, those from ontario (57%), canadian (57%) and international (53%) universities tend to graduate at much closer rates to direct entry students (69%). the raw differences in graduation rates presented above, though interesting, do not take into account the demographic and hs academic differences of these groups. as we learned last week, these vary greatly and can partly explain differences in this allimportant outcome. in the next section, we use multivariate models to drill down deeper and produce estimates that take everything that we know about each group into account. multivariate analysis of graduation surprisingly, using multivariate models to account for other factors beyond transfer types does not radically alter the narrative presented above nor the relative success of each group. table 2 has the raw graduation rates discussed earlier in column 1. in subsequent columns, the predicted probability of each transfer group graduating from ut is estimated using various modelling strategies. these help ensure that our findings 3. these are binary logistic regression models with graduation (0/1) serving as the dependent variable. predictors include transfer types, if a student was ever suspended in high school (hs), average hs marks, hs absenteeism, whether they were considered gifted or special needs in hs, english and math eqao scores, success on their first attempt at the ontario grade 10 literacy test, whether they ever switched hss, if they ever dropped out of hs, gender, median family neighbourhood income, age, selfidentified race (white/other), parental occupation, parental education, family structure, sexual orientation, and place ... 5 transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 are not a product of modelling assumptions and sampling restrictions. in particular, we predict each groups likelihood of graduating by: 1) assuming their academic/demographic characteristics were all at the sample mean (column 2); 2) considering the actual characteristics of each sub-group (column 3); and 3) repeating such strategies but using only the earlier tdsb cohorts (2000 2006), which had a longer timeframe to transfer (columns 5 and 6). this provides greater consistency in the measurement of graduation between transfer types requiring longer time to completions. table 2 raw rate model, sample means model, group means all cohorts raw rate model, sample means model, group means 20002006 direct entry baseline 0.685 0.683 0.683 0.752 0.79 0.793 all transfers aggregate 0.527 0.522 0.524 0.571 0.696 0.623 ontario universities 0.569 0.515 0.544 0.62 0.688 0.656 other canadian universities 0.569 0.597 0.665 0.598 0.727 0.695 ontario c. colleges 0.407 0.491 0.374 0.442 0.663 0.432 international universities 0.531 0.448 0.463 0.611 0.716 0.66 ... of birth. we re-ran these models with and without field of study, and they (surprisingly) made little difference on the relationship between disaggregated transfer categories and graduation. we present the predicted probabilities of the former model. transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto 6 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 as visible through columns 23which take into account the actual characteristics of each sub-groupthe predicted probabilities of graduating from ut differ only slightly for the direct-entry and aggregate transfer category, regardless of the modelling strategy that we use. each varies by less than a percentage point. however, important differences emerge for specific sub-categories. if we assume that college transfers have the same characteristics as the broader sample of students, their graduation rate goes up by 8%. meanwhile, their graduation rate drops by 3% once we assume their actual characteristics. similar fluctuations are observable across other sub-groups, including for students from other canadian and international universities. they hint at how intertwined demographic characteristics and academic background are to the outcomes of various types of transfer. raw graduation rates in column 4 are based exclusively on earlier cohorts (20002006). focusing on this sub-sample increases raw graduation rates across the board, as this group has had greater opportunity to graduate. however, raw graduation gap between directentry and transfer students swells to roughly 18%. ontario college transfers also remain bottom of the pack (44%). however, when we focus on predicted probabilities from models estimated using only earlier cohorts that assume broader sample means (column 5), the story shifts somewhat. the direct-entry/transfer gap is reduced to only roughly 9%. the likelihood of ontario college transfers graduating also pulls much closer to that of their peers (66%). we interpret this to mean that their lower graduation rates are in part attributable to their different academic/demographic profiles, as well as their longer time to completion. we speculate that the latter is potentially tied to limited transfer credit once they arrive at ut, but further research is required here. summary using the tdsb-ut linkage, we are able to explore a series of outcomes for tdsb students who took the transfer and direct-entry routes into ut. we are able to do so while controlling for an extensive set of academic and demographic variables that are measured during students high school years. this allows us to produce estimates of the effect of transfer that are less biased by the characteristics of these groups. 4. we use this term loosely, as our methods only allow for us to establish correlations rather than causal relationships. transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto 7 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 in line with our conclusions about the existence of various flavours of transfer students, we similarly observe that outcomes vary considerably across each transfer sub-category with college transfers being the worst performing group at ut. such findings obviously require further investigation. what is the experience of these students? what are the factors that account for their lower performance? we know that their high school academic performance is relatively poor, but there may be other elements at play that we cannot account for. nevertheless, assuming that these findings can be validated by further work, they have important implications for how we make sense of and support college-touniversity transfer in places like ut. next week, we attempt to wrap this all up and provide some concluding thoughts on this project. in addition, we will announce a follow-up data-sharing pilot that aims to extend this linkage across all gta pse institutions and k12 school boards. transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto 8 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. dr. roger pizarro milian dr. roger pizarro milian is the senior researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/projects/tdsb-ut-linkage-and -transfer-project established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2020

project # 2018-15 developing new transfer pathways between collge boral and collge la cit programs to the university of sudbury universit de sudbury university of sudbury a collaborative effort by the university of sudbury, collge boral and la cit collge boral education innovation research 1 university of sudbury february 28, 2019 table of contents list of participants and partner institutions ............................................................................................ 4 executive summary.................................................................................................................................... 5 project objectives ...................................................................................................................................... 6 transfer pathway development ................................................................................................................ 6 methodology ........................................................................................................................................... 7 program comparison and analysis ...................................................................................................... 8 implementation process and timelines ............................................................................................... 8 summary of transfer pathways created ............................................................................................... 10 promising practices and lessons learned ........................................................................................... 11 promising practices ............................................................................................................................. 11 lessons learned .................................................................................................................................. 11 challenges ............................................................................................................................................. 12 financial report ........................................................................................................................................ 12 appendices ............................................................................................................................................... 13 3 developing new transfer pathways between collge boral and collge la cit programs to the university of sudbury list of participants and partner institutions university of sudbury janelle radey/amlie rainville, project manager(s) sylvie renault, vice-president, programming and communications la cit isabelle gurin, project officer collge boral marie-claude mallet, project officer 4 executive summary the project consisted of analyzing, developing and implementing new transfer pathways between programs at collge boral and la cit to bachelor of arts programs at the university of sudbury. the project led to seven new pathways: with la cit child and youth worker to philosophy rehabilitation and criminal justice to indigenous studies graphic design to journalism studies photography to journalism studies with collge boral: social service worker to philosophy peace and conflict studies to philosophy peace and conflict studies to indigenous studies unfortunately, pathways could not be created for some of the proposed arrangements. after analyzing the programs, the following articulations could not move forward due to a lack of program affinity. with la cit: forestry to indigenous studies forest technology to indigenous studies mental health and addictions (program suspended in fall 2018) to indigenous studies tourism to folklore and ethnology social service worker to philosophy peace and conflict studies to philosophy with collge boral: forestry to indigenous studies child and youth worker to philosophy 5 project objectives the university of sudbury recognizes the importance of developing partnerships with other post-secondary institutions to facilitate the mobility of students seeking more personalized pathways into the work world. in recent years, the university of sudbury has created and maintained articulation agreements with several ontario colleges and universities. through this project, the university of sudbury, collge boral and la cit wanted to offer francophone college graduates the opportunity to obtain a bachelors degree in french or in a bilingual format without duplicating their learning in a field that complements their college studies and in a reasonable amount of time. since many employers now require a bachelors degree as a condition of employment, but also want a workforce with practical skills and knowledge, articulation agreements and collaboration between universities and colleges allow students to take advantage of both adult education approaches to expand their knowledge. they also allow students to develop their critical thinking skills and theoretical knowledge in a given field. more and more, the importance of student mobility and of creating new pathways is gaining recognition. by creating more pathway options, we hope to respond to and meet the needs of francophone students while ensuring the availability of a variety of high quality pathways. last year, the university completed the first phase of this project with collge boral and la cit, resulting in a review of four existing agreements and the development of seven new pathways. the activity was well received by the institutions and program professors. the objective of this second phase was to develop other pathways with these two institutions to provide collge boral and la cit students with more pathways to university of sudbury programs. transfer pathway development # college program university of sudbury program 1 child and youth worker (la cit) philosophy x 2 rehabilitation and criminal justice (la cit) indigenous studies x 3 graphic design (la cit) journalism studies x 4 photography (la cit) journalism studies x 6 process completed awaiting approval 5 social service worker (collge boral) philosophy x 6 peace and conflict studies (collge boral) philosophy x 7 peace and conflict studies (collge boral) indigenous studies x methodology the methodology used is as follows: various exchanges with collge boral and la cit, specifically to identify and exchange objectives for the specified programs as well as course outlines, mapping, learning outcomes and activities and other available information; start-up meetings with program heads and professors: departmental awareness-raising on student mobility and the project; awareness-raising among heads and professors concerning college curricula, course outlines, mapping and syllabi; these meetings were also used to explain the approval process and the internal steps to follow once an agreement is developed or revised; comparative program analysis (assessment of learning outcomes and expectations, review of course outlines and curricula) to suggest arrangement possibilities; consultations with key program stakeholders to validate the comparative analyses; pathway development and finalization, and preparation of memoranda of agreement based on the comparative analyses and changes proposed by program stakeholders; final validation by the departments of the pathways developed before moving on to the approval process; the agreement works its way through the approval process at the university of sudbury (senate) and then on to laurentian university (faculty of arts council, admissions, promotions and requests committee). depending on the universitys approval process, our articulation agreements must pass through the department, then the senate of the university of sudbury, then moving on to the laurentian university faculty of arts council followed by its admissions, promotions and requests committee. once these four steps have been completed, the mous are submitted to the colleges for approval. after the agreement is signed, a copy is sent to the laurentian university admissions office, which coordinates publication on the ontransfer.ca website. the university is also developing a communications strategy to promote all of the student mobility agreements and projects. a specific web page on the universitys website is dedicated to articulation agreements, and the agreements are posted on each programs web page for greater visibility. a more 7 detailed communications strategy will be developed in the spring to promote these agreements among future students. program comparison and analysis a number of tools and information sources were used to compare and analyse the programs. for college programs, these sources include course descriptions, curricula, program mapping (plo and ees), program standards, course outlines, and the ontario qualifications framework (for accredited programs). course outlines and learning objectives/outcomes were the primary source of information for university programs. the coordinator was able to use these tools to conduct a preliminary analysis of files which key departmental stakeholders, acting as content experts, were able to complete and verify. the coordinator ensured liaison with the departments, which made the process easier and faster. the student mobility coordinator also ensured inter-institution collaboration. several administrative meetings were also held with the project administrator and the universitys vicepresident, programming and communications. various meetings with the laurentian university admissions office also played an important role in determining pathway implementation. initial meetings were held with the universitys department heads to discuss the pathways identified in the proposal, as well as objectives, outcomes, and next steps. these meetings were followed by a more exhaustive evaluation of college programming and a preliminary analysis comparing the college programs to university programs. over the summer, the identified programs were subjected to detailed comparative analyses while reviewing course outlines, learning objectives/outcomes, curricula, mapping, etc. with content experts. based on the preliminary course analysis, some college programs clearly lacked affinity with the programs offered at the university of sudbury. the early drafts resulting from these analyses provided a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 42 transfer credits. the final result was seven new agreements: four between university of sudbury and la cit and three with collge boral. implementation process and timelines approval at the various institutional levels 1 2 3 8 4 departmental approval senate of the university of laurentian university sudbury faculty of arts council laurentian university admissions, promotions and requests committee as a member of the laurentian federation, approval is a two-tiered process. internally, the department must approve the proposed articulation and request its submission to the senate of the university of sudbury. once approved by the senate, the agreement is sent to laurentian universitys council of the faculty of arts. if approved, the agreement is then submitted to laurentians admissions, promotions and requests committee. with approval by this committee, the agreement can be sent for signature by the partners and implementation. the approval process can affect implementation timelines considering that the three committees meet only once a month between september and may. any request by a committee to rework the agreement for any reason delays the process by at least a month until it can be submitted at the next meeting. in turn, the entire process is delayed. approval dates for developed agreements are as follows: # programs uofs senate dept. faculty of arts council admissions promotions and requests committee 1 from: child and youth worker (la cit) january 23, 2019 march 20, 2019 april 12, 2019 february 4, 2019 february 13, 2019 march 15, 2019 march 18, 2019 to: journalism studies january 21, 2019 february 13, 2019 march 15, 2019 march 18, 2019 from: photography (la january 21, 2019 february 13, 2019 march 15, 2019 march 18, 2019 january 23, 2019 march 20, 2019 april 12, 2019 may 6, 2019 to: philosophy 2 from: rehabilitation and criminal justice (la cit) to: indigenous studies 3 4 from: graphic design (la cit) cit) to: journalism 5 may 6, 2019 studies from: social service worker (collge boral) to: philosophy 9 6 from: peace and conflict studies (collge boral) to: philosophy 7 from: peace and conflict studies (collge boral) to: indigenous studies january 23, 2019 march 20, 2019 april 12, 2019 may 6, 2019 february 4, 2019 february 13, 2019 march 15, 2019 march 18, 2019 summary of transfer pathways created the following table summarizes the transfer pathways created. specific details are provided in the transfer pathway model in the appendix. 1 2 1 child and youth worker (la cit) rehabilitation and criminal justice (la cit) 3 graphic design (la cit) 4 photography (la cit) 5 6 7 bachelor of arts (general) in philosophy (concentration) at the university of sudbury bachelor of arts (general) in indigenous studies (concentration) at the university of sudbury student receives up to 36 transfer credits bachelor of arts (general) in journalism studies concentration) at the university of sudbury student receives up to 42 transfer credits bachelor of arts (general) in journalism student receives up to 42 studies (concentration) at the university transfer credits of sudbury bachelor of arts (general) in philosophy (concentration) at the university of sudbury bachelor of arts (general) in philosophy peace and conflict studies (concentration) at the university of (collge boral) sudbury social service worker (collge boral) peace and conflict studies (collge boral) student receives up to 42 transfer credits student receives up to 42 transfer credits student receives up to 42 transfer credits bachelor of arts (general) in indigenous student receives up to 42 studies (concentration) at the university transfer credits of sudbury 10 the analysis by subject matter experts determined that the social service worker (la cit), peace and conflict studies (la cit) and child and youth worker (collge boral) programs presented insufficient linkages and affinities with the philosophy program. the professors did not see enough congruency among the learning outcomes and did not support creating these pathways. the forestry (la cit and collge boral), forestry technology (la cit) and mental health and addictions (la cit) programs also had insufficient linkage to the indigenous studies program. finally, pathways between tourism (la cit) and the folklore and ethnology program were not possible. promising practices and lessons learned promising practices the process is easier when a preliminary analysis is completed before contacting the department. this prevents significant delays and is appreciated by the department. in general, a preliminary analysis helps identify links between programs and which courses are potentially transferable. the department can then explore the matter more exhaustively and validate the proposed project. raising awareness among professors about student mobility is essential to the projects success. professors with a firm understanding of student mobility and its benefits were more flexible and motivated when it came to developing pathways. the others showed greater reticence toward this kind of project. fortunately, we saw that faculty were more open and accepting toward student mobility than in previous years. departments have had opportunities to become more familiar with this type of arrangement, and recognize the importance of student mobility within the university of sudbury. lessons learned comparative analyses are time-consuming and require meticulous work. effective time management is important. all stages of the approval process must be scheduled and planned around meeting dates given that meetings are often held only once a month. this causes delays in the final approval of articulation agreements. 11 challenges raising awareness among professors remains a challenge. some faculty are reluctant to engage in this type of partnership for fear of first-year enrolment losses and out of concern over the level of learning and knowledge among students arriving from college. the project encountered other delays caused by collective bargaining by university of sudbury faculty until the end of september. discussions about student mobility often had to be postponed. financial report see separate document 12 appendices transfer pathway models please note that pathway details are subject to change based on the approval process in progress. transfer pathway details transfer pathway title: use official names of programs or titles from: photography (la cit) to: bachelor of arts (honours), journalism studies type of transfer pathways: completion of degree, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, diploma to diploma degree to diploma, etc. list other post-secondary institutions involved in creating the transfer pathway: transfer pathway implementation date (senate approval): n/a - approval by department of journalism studies: january 21, 2019 - approval by the senate of the university of sudbury: february 13, 2019 - approval by the faculty of arts council (laurentian university): for - approval by the admissions, promotions and requests committee presentation on march 15, 2019 (laurentian university): for presentation on march 18, 2019 transfer pathway implementation date (published following receipt of the signed agreement (spring 2019). on the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for transfer pathway implementation: once signed, a copy of the agreement will be sent to the laurentian university admissions office and the implementation procedure will be completed. 13 transfer pathway eligibility (for students): graduate of the photography program at la cit the applicant must have a diploma from the program at the originating diploma from the photography program at la cit institution: gpa or minimal program % required to qualify for this transfer pathway: gpa or minimal % required in specific courses total number of credits or full courses granted transfer credits by the receiving institution (must be expressed as a numerical proportion, e.g., 90 of 120) gpa 3.2 = 42 credits gpa 2.8 = 24 credits gpa 2.4 = 12 credits n/a maximum 42 of 120 credits transfer credits granted (please describe the transfer photography 2 years gpa pathway clearly and succinctly): code 3.2 arts 9100 f (21) cin 1206 e (3) etjo 2187 f (3) etjo 3237 f (3) arts 9200 f (12) number of transfer credits granted 42 credits 14 2.8 arts 9100 f (18) cine 1206 e (3) etjo 2187 f (3) 24 credits 2.4 arts 9100 f (12) 12 credits total number of program courses to be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (must be expressed as a numerical proportion, e.g., 90 of 120): 4 year ba - student must meet the following requirements: lang 1005 (6 credits) etjo 2136 (3 credits) etjo 2257 f (3 credits) etjo 3257 f (3 credits) etjo 3226 f (3 credits) 27 credits from the etjo course list: 3 1000-level credits 9 2000-level credits 6 3000-level credits 9 4000-level credits etjo 4195 (6 credits) + 27 elective credits (including ba requirements: 6 course credits with at least 50% indigenous content and 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 78 of 120 credits anticipated program completion time by full-time students: 2 years list of eligible institutions and their programs la cit transfer pathway details transfer pathway title: use official names of programs or titles from: graphic design (la cit) to: bachelor of arts (honours) in journalism studies type of transfer pathway: completion of degree, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma 15 list other post-secondary institutions involved in creating the transfer n/a pathway: transfer pathway implementation date (senate approval): - transfer pathway implementation date approval by department of journalism studies: january 21, 2019 approval by the senate of the university of sudbury: february 13, 2019 approval by the faculty of arts council (laurentian university): for presentation on march 15, 2019 approval by the admissions, promotions and requests committee (laurentian university): for presentation on march 18, 2019 following receipt of the signed agreement (spring 2019). (published on the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for once signed, a copy of the agreement will be provided to the admissions transfer pathway office at laurentian university and the implementation process will be implementation: completed. transfer pathway eligibility (for students): graduate of the graphic design program (la cit) the applicant must have a diploma from the program at the originating diploma from the graphic design program (la cit) institution: gpa or minimal program % required to qualify for this transfer pathway: gpa or minimal % required in specific courses gpa 3.2 = 42 credits gpa 2.8 = 24 credits gpa 2.4 = 12 credits 5/0 16 total number of credits or full courses granted transfer credits by the receiving institution (must be maximum 42 of 120 credits expressed as a numerical proportion, e.g., 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe the graphic design 3 years 3.2 2.8 gpa transfer pathway clearly code and succinctly): arts 9100 f (24) etjo 2186 (3) etjo 3156 (3) arts 9200 f (12) 2.4 arts 9100 f (21) arts 9100 f (12) etjo 2186 (3) number of transfer credits 42 credits 24 credits 12 credits granted 4 year ba student must meet the following requirements: total number of program lang 1005 (6 credits) courses to be completed at etjo 2136 (3 credits) the receiving institution in etjo 2257 f (3 credits) order to graduate (must be etjo 3257 f (3 credits) expressed as a numerical etjo 3226 f (3 credits) proportion, e.g., 90 of 120): 27 credits from the etjo course list: 3 1000-level credits; 9 2000-level credits; 6 3000-level credits; 9 4000-level credits etjo 4195 (6 credits) + 27 elective credits (including ba requirements: 6 course credits with at least 50% indigenous content and 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 78 of 120 credits anticipated program completion time by full-time students 2 years 17 list of eligible institutions and their programs la cit transfer pathway details transfer pathway title: from: peace and conflict studies (collge boral) use official names of programs or titles to: bachelor of arts (general), indigenous studies (3 years) bachelor of arts (honours), indigenous studies (4 years) type of transfer pathway: completion of degree, certificate to diploma, diploma tp diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institutions involved in creating the transfer pathway: transfer pathway implementation date (senate approval): diploma to diploma n/a - approval by the department of indigenous studies: february 4, 2019 approval by the senate of the university of sudbury: february 13, 2019 approval by the faculty of arts council (laurentian university): for presentation on march 15, 2019 approval by the admissions, promotions and requests committee (laurentian university): for presentation on march 18, 2019 ontransfert.ca transfer pathway implementation following receipt of the signed agreement (spring 2019). date (published on the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for transfer pathway implementation: transfer pathway eligibility (for students): once signed, a copy of the agreement will be sent to the laurentian university admissions office and the implementation procedure will be completed. graduate of the peace and conflict studies program 18 the applicant must have a diploma from the peace and conflict studies program diploma program at the originating institution: gpa or minimal program gpa 3.2 = 42 credits % required to qualify for gpa 2.8 = 24 credits this transfer pathway: gpa 2.4 = 12 credits gpa or minimal % required in specific courses n/a total number of credits maximum 42 of 90 credits (3-year ba) or full courses granted maximum 42 of 120 credits (4-year ba) for transfer by the receiving institution (must be expressed as a numeric proportion, e.g. 90 out of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe the transfer pathway clearly and succinctly): peace and conflict studies 2 years gpa 3.2 code number of transfer credits granted 42 credits 19 2.8 arts 9100 arts 9100 (12) indg 9100 (6) (12) srel phil 9200 (6) 2205 (6) indg 9100 (6) phil 9200 (6) arts 9200 (12) 24 credits 2.4 arts 9100 (6) indg 9100 (6) 12 credits 4-year ba student must meet the following requirements: indg 1116 3) indg 1117 (3) indg 2285 6) indg 3105 6) indg 3215 (6) 6 credits from language series a or 18 upper year indg credits 12 credits at the 4000 level 24 elective credits (including bac requirements, with 6 credits that foster scientific literacy) therefore, 48 of 90 credits 3-year ba student must meet the following requirements: indg 1116 (3) indg 1117 (3) indg 2285 (6) indg 3105 (6) indg 3215 (6) 6 credits from language series a or 6 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level 18 elective credits (including ba requirements, with 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 78 of 120 credits anticipated program completion time by fulltime students 1 years (3-year ba) list of eligible institutions and their programs collge boral 2 years (4-year ba) transfer pathway details transfer pathway title: use the official names of programs or titles from: rehabilitation and criminal justice (la cit) to: bachelor of arts (general), indigenous studies (3 years) bachelor of arts (honours), indigenous studies (4 years) type of transfer pathway: completion of degree, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma 20 list other post-secondary institutions involved in creating the transfer pathway: n/a - transfer pathway implementation date (senate approval): - approval by the department of indigenous studies: february 4, 2019 approval by the senate of the university of sudbury: february 13, 2019 approval by the faculty of arts council (laurentian university): for presentation on march 15, 2019 approval by the admissions, promotions and requests committee (laurentian university): for presentation on march 18, 2019 transfer pathway implementation date (published on the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for transfer pathway implementation: following receipt of the signed agreement (spring 2019). once signed, a copy of the agreement will be sent to the laurentian university admissions office and the implementation procedure will be completed. transfer pathway eligibility (for students): graduate of rehabilitation and criminal justice program (la cit) the applicant must have a diploma from the program at the originating institution: gpa or minimal program % required to qualify for this transfer pathway: rehabilitation and criminal justice program diploma (la cit) gpa 3.2 = 36 credits gpa 2.8 = 24 credits gpa 2.4 = 12 credits gpa or minimal % required in specific courses n/a 21 total number of credits or full courses granted transfer credits by the receiving institution (must be expressed maximum 42 of 90 credits (3-year ba) as a numerical proportion, e.g., maximum 42 of 120 credits (4-year ba) 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe the transfer pathway clearly and succinctly): gpa code rehabilitation and criminal justice 2 years 3.2 2.4 2.8 arts 9100 (15) arts 9100 f arts 9100 f (6) cosc 1701 (3) (12) cosc soci 1015 (6) soci 1015 (6) 1701(3) soci indg 9100 (3) 1015 (6) indg 9100 (3) arts 9200 (9) number of transfer credits 36 credits 24 credits 12 credits 4granted year ba - student must meet the following requirements: total number of program indg 1116 (3) courses to be completed at the indg 1117 (3) receiving institution in order to indg 2285 (6) graduate (must be expressed indg 3105 (6) as a numerical proportion, e.g., indg 3215 (6) 90 of 120): 6 credits from language series a or b 18 upper year indg credits 12 credits at the 4000 level 24 elective credits (including ba requirements, with 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 54 of 90 credits 3-year ba - student must meet the following requirements: indg 1116 (3) indg 1117 (3) indg 2285 (6) indg 3105 (6) indg 3215 (6) 6 credits from language series a or b 6 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level 18 elective credits (including vba requirements, with 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 84 of 120 credits 22 anticipated program completion time by full-time students list of eligible institutions and their programs 2 years (3-year ba) 3 years (4-year ba) la cit transfer pathway details transfer pathway title: use official names of programs or titles from: peace and conflict studies (collge boral) to: bachelor of arts (general), philosophy (3 years) bachelor of arts (honours), philosophy (4 years) type of transfer pathway: completion of degree, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma list other post-secondary institutions involved in creating the transfer pathway: transfer pathway implementation date (senate approval): n/a - approval by department of philosophy: ... 2019 approval by the senate of the university of sudbury: to be submitted on march 20, 2019 approval by the faculty of arts council (laurentian university): for presentation on april 12, 2019 approval by admissions, promotion and requests committee (laurentian university): for presentation on may 6, 2019 transfer pathway implementation date following receipt of the signed agreement (spring 2019). (published on the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for once signed, a copy of the agreement will be sent to the laurentian transfer pathway university admissions office and the implementation procedure will be implementation: completed. 23 transfer pathway eligibility (for students): graduate of the peace and conflict studies program (collge boral) the applicant must have obtained a diploma for the program at the peace and conflict studies program diploma (collge boral) originating institution: gpa or minimal program % required to qualify for this transfer pathway: gpa 3.2 = 42 credits gpa 2.8 = 24 credits gpa 2.4 = 12 credits gpa or minimal % n/a required in specific courses total number of credits or full courses granted transfer credits by the receiving institution (must be expressed maximum 42 of 90 credits (3-year ba) maximum 42 of 120 credits (4-year ba) as a numerical proportion, e.g., 90 of 120) peace and conflict studies2 years transfer credits granted (please describe the gpa 3.2 arts 9100 (12) srel 2205 (6) indg 9100 (6) phil 9200 (6) arts 9200 (12) transfer pathway clearly and succinctly): code 2.8 arts 9100 (12) indg 9100 (6) phil 9200 (6) 2.4 arts 9100 (6) indg 9100 (6) 24 credits 12 credits number of transfer credits granted 24 42 credits total number of program 4-year ba - student must meet the following requirements: courses to be completed at the lang 1005 (6 credits) receiving institution in order to phil 1105 (6 credits) graduate (must be expressed phil 2305 (6 credits) as a numerical proportion, e.g., phil 2325 (6 credits) 90 of 120): phil 2505 (6 credits) phil 4055 (6 credits) 6 credits among: o 3406, 3407, 3436, 3476, 3487 18 additional phil credits + 18 elective credits (including ba requirements, with 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 48 of 90 credits 3-year ba - student must meet the following requirements: lang 1005 (6 credits) phil 1105 (6 credits) 12 credits among: o phil 2305 o phil 2325 o phil 2505 6 credits phil 3000 or 4000 6 credits phil (upper years) + 12 elective credits (including ba requirements, with 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 78 of 120 credits anticipated program completion time by 1 years (3-year ba) full-time students 2 years (4-year ba) list of eligible institutions and their programs college boreal transfer pathway details 25 transfer pathway title: use official names of programs or titles from: social service worker (collge boral) to: bachelor of arts (general), philosophy (3 years) bachelor of arts (honours), philosophy (4 years) type of transfer pathway: completion of degree, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. diploma to diploma list other post-secondary institutions involved in creating the transfer pathway: 5/0 transfer pathway implementation date (senate approval): - approval by department of philosophy: 2019 approval by the senate of the university of sudbury: for presentation on march 20, 2019 approval by the faculty of arts council (laurentian university): for presentation on april 12, 2019 approval by the admissions, promotion and requests committee (laurentian university): for presentation on may 6, 2019 transfer pathway implementation date following receipt of the signed agreement (spring 2019). (published on the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for once signed, a copy of the agreement will be sent to the laurentian transfer pathway university admissions office and the implementation procedure will be implementation: completed. transfer pathway eligibility (for students): graduate of the social service worker program (collge boral) the applicant must have obtained a program diploma at the originating social service worker program diploma (collge boral) institution: 26 gpa or minimal program % required to qualify for this transfer pathway: gpa 3.2 = 42 credits gpa 2.8 = 24 credits gpa 2.4 = 12 credits gpa or minimal % required in specific courses total number of credits or full courses granted transfer credits by the receiving institution (must be expressed as a numerical proportion, e.g., 90 of 120) n/a maximum 42 of 90 credits (3-year ba) maximum 42 of 120 credits (4-year ba) social service worker 2 years transfer credits granted (please describe the transfer gpa 3.2 arts 9100 (15) cosc 1701 (3) soci 1015 (6) phil 9200 (6) arts 9200 (12) pathway clearly and succinctly): code 2.8 arts 9100 (15) cosc 1701 (3) soci 1015 (6) 2.4 arts 9100 (6) soci 1015 (6) number of transfer credits 42 credits granted 27 24 credits 12 credits total number of program courses to be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (must be expressed as a numerical proportion, e.g., 90 of 120): 4-year ba - student must meet the following requirements: lang 1005 (6 credits) phil 1105 (6 credits) phil 2305 (6 credits) phil 2325 (6 credits) phil 2505 (6 credits) phil 4055 (6 credits) 6 credits among : o 3406, 3407, 3436, 3476, 3487 18 additional phil credits + 18 elective credits (including ba requirements: 6 course credits with at least 50% indigenous content and 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 48 of 90 credits 3-year ba - student must meet the following requirements: lang 1005 (6 credits) phil 1105 (6 credits) 12 credits among: o phil 2305 o phil 2325 o phil 2505 6 credits phil 3000 or 4000 6 credits phil (upper years) + 12 elective credits (including ba requirements: 6 course credits including at least 50% of indigenous content, with 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 78 of 120 credits anticipated program completion time by fulltime students 1 years (3-year ba) 2 years (4-year ba) list of eligible institutions and their programs collge boral 28 transfer pathway details transfer pathway title: use official names of programs or titles from: child and youth worker (la cit) to: bachelor of arts (general), philosophy (3 years) bachelor of arts (honours), philosophy (4 years) type of transfer pathway: completion of degree, certificate to diploma to diploma diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other post-secondary institutions involved in creating the transfer pathway: transfer pathway implementation date (senate approval): n/a - transfer pathway implementation date approval by department of philosophy: xxx, 2019 approval by the senate of the university of sudbury: to be submitted on march 20, 2019 approval by the faculty of arts council (laurentian university): for presentation on april 12, 2019 approval by the admissions, promotions and requests committee (laurentian university): for presentation on may 6, 2019 following receipt of the signed agreement (spring 2019). (published on the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for once signed, a copy of the agreement will be sent to the laurentian transfer pathway university admissions office and the implementation procedure will be implementation: completed. transfer pathway eligibility (for students): graduate of the child and youth worker program (la cit) 29 the applicant must have a diploma from the program at the diploma from the child and youth worker program (la cit) originating institution: gpa or minimal program % required to qualify for this transfer pathway: gpa or minimal % required in specific courses total number of credits or full courses granted transfer credits by the receiving institution (must be expressed as a numerical proportion, e.g., 90 of 120) gpa 3.2 = 42 credits gpa 2.8 = 24 credits gpa 2.4 = 12 credits n/a maximum 42 of 90 credits (3-year ba) maximum 42 of 120 credits (4-year ba) transfer credits granted (please describe the transfer pathway clearly and succinctly): gpa child and youth worker 3 years 3.2 2.8 code number of arts 9100 arts 9100 f (12) (18) soci 1015 soci 1015 (6) (6) phil 9200 psyc 1105 (6) (6) psyc 1105 (6) arts 9200 (6) 2.4 arts 9100 f (6) soci 1015 (6) transfer credits 42 credits granted 30 24 credits 12 credits total number of program courses to be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (must be expressed as a numerical proportion, e.g., 90 of 120): 4 year ba - student must meet the following requirements: lang 1005 (6 credits) phil 1105 (6 credits) phil 2305 (6 credits) phil 2325 (6 credits) phil 2505 (6 credits) phil 4055 (6 credits) 6 credits among: 3406, 3407, 3436, 3476, 3487 18 additional phil credits + 18 elective credits (including ba requirements: 6 course credits with at least 50% indigenous content, with 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 48 of 90 credits 3-year ba - student must meet the following requirements: lang 1005 (6 credits) phil 1105 (6 credits) 12 credits among: phil 2305 phil 2325 phil 2505 6 credits phil 3000 or 4000 6 credits phil (upper years) + 12 elective credits (including oca requirements: 6 course credits with at least 50% indigenous content and 6 credits that promote scientific literacy) therefore, 78 of 120 credits anticipated program completion time by full-time students 1 years (3-year ba) 2 years (4-year ba) list of eligible institutions and their programs la cit 31

oncat careers project manager location: toronto, ontario, canada type: contract 2 years with possibility of extension location: downtown toronto location at university and dundas, near st. patrick station (180 dundas west, suite 1902). remote to start and with flexible work opportunities. salary range: $60,000 to $70,000 please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is february 11th 11:59pm est. about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges, universities and indigenous institutes. as a member organization, it works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. about the position this position provides project management support to oncats internal and external operations. reporting to the operations director, the project manager plays an essential role in ensuring organizational goals are met and determines how success will be tracked and monitored. this generalist project management role will work cross functionally across oncat to support continuous organizational improvement and optimize information sharing, and corporate and financial recordkeeping. additionally, the role will support review and adherence to operational policies and support implementation of new system technology at oncat. the incumbent will have experience with new system implementation and onboarding and will have a solid understanding of project management and change management. responsibilities develops and implements strategies to support cost effective and timely execution of simultaneous projects across the organization through the project life cycle i.e., it, financial, procurement, operations, etc. establishes project work plans, monitors progress and quality of work related to project outcomes. ensures projects have clear deliverables, move forward and stay within the scope of work. possesses broad knowledge and skills in several areas relating to general project management such as strong communication and planning abilities including timeline management. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 provides project management support leading to organizational system and process developments and overall improvement using a project management tool. is a key contact and resource for the organizations corporate and financial records including procurement. supports ongoing improvements to records management and it, collaborating with subject matter experts as needed. supports the development of rfps to ensure the appropriate vendor is selected in collaboration with a procurement committee and supports issue resolution that may arise with vendor onboarding. supports change management, leading communication to internal team members on project roll-outs. develops and maintains oncats technology plan collaborating with the business systems analyst documents organizational plans, ensuring they are accessible to team members and maintained. collaborates with business systems analyst and operations team to identify improvements to overall efficiency of business operations. recommends process improvements, mapping processes and identifying inefficiencies. prepares and presents progress reports to ensure operational and project initiatives are delivered effectively and on budget. has thorough knowledge of project management principles, methodologies, tools and techniques. works with the finance staff to reconcile funded project payment data. develops an understanding of tpa requirements to help ensure ongoing compliance. supports the planning of consultations or events as needed to support oncats strategic plan. provides additional project management and administrative support to oncat as needed. qualifications 3 to 5 years of experience in administrative roles that include project coordination and management, ideally in broader public sector or with non-profit organizations. degree or advanced credential in business or related field. project management designation desirable. french language proficiency would be considered an asset. excellent attention to detail, prioritization, problem-solving, time management and organizational skills. strong analytical and communication (verbal and written) skills. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is february 11th 11:59pm est. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening or an interview will be contacted. additional testing may be required. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. oncat welcomes qualified applications from persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples from north america, including first nations, mtis and inuit peoples, visible minorities (racialized) persons, and those who identify as women and/or 2slgbtq+. oncat supports an equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace. oncat requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against covid-19, subject to medical and human rights exemptions, in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

annual report 2021 2022 table of contents 2 message from the board co-chairs 3 message from the executive director 4 ontario pse pathways & transfer system improvements 9 internal research & data projects 12 sector engagement & knowledge mobilization 16 it and project management 18 ontario's transfer & pathways guide & ontransfer.ca 22 strategic planning 24 finance reports 29 summary & project descriptions of 2021-2022 funded projects 1. message from the board co-chairs as we entered the second year of a global pandemic, the world of postsecondary education began the challenging work of adapting to a new normal. students, institutions and oncat alike braced themselves for a transition to hybrid learning, teaching and workspaces. though a promising sign of post-pandemic normal, the transition was not without challenges. and we commend the resilience and adaptability needed on all fronts to make it a success. oncat experienced its own period of transition this past year. in november 2021, we said goodbye to our executive director, yvette munro. yvette was an invaluable presence at oncat and her impact on the organization continues to be felt. we thank her for her years of service. we would also like to thank andrew wilson and shauna love for stepping in as interim executive directors as oncat embarked on a search for a new executive director. their work was integral in helping oncat navigate the waters of adapting to a new normal. through it all, oncat has continued to work steadily in service of ontarios postsecondary transfer system, adapting to the shifting needs of transfer students and staff. we have seen data linkage research projects lead to new insights, institutions improve their internal transfer processes, and more students served by ontransfer.ca. at a time when all institutions faced serious operational and financial challenges, we have seen a renewed commitment to collaboration. as we reflect back on this year, there is much to be proud of. and as we look to the future for oncat, there is much to be hopeful for. we are thrilled to welcome dr. adrienne galway aboard as our new executive director. adrienne brings over twenty years of postsecondary experience and a passion for supporting student success, and we are confident oncat will continue to flourish under her leadership. on behalf of the board, we thank the government of ontario for funding oncats work, our institutional partners for their continued collaboration, and the ontario ministry of colleges and universities for their continued support of pathways and transfer. best wishes for another successful year ahead. ron common, president, sault college deb maclatchy, president & vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university 2. message from the executive director over the past two and a half years, the postsecondary education sector has done an exemplary job of adapting, changing and pivoting in order to continue to provide students with high quality education. there were times that the constant pivoting made us all a little dizzy, and our colleges, universities and indigenous institutes should be proud of what they have accomplished under the most challenging of circumstances. oncat is very grateful to the postsecondary sector for its continued engagement and cooperation, especially in the face of the myriad of other competing priorities. like our partner institutions, over the past year oncat has transitioned to a new normal, but our core mission to support student mobility in ontario through transfer and pathways has remained the same. oncat has made significant progress on a number of fronts, which are highlighted in this report. on a personal level, i also experienced a significant transition when i joined oncat as executive director in may 2022. i have been so impressed by oncats work to support transfer and pathways in ontario, whether it is through funding innovative projects to help institutions build their data reporting capacity, develop pathways, adopt new technologies such as mycreds(digital transcripts), and better understand and support transfer students by providing students with up-to-date credit transfer information through ontransfer.ca. times of transition can be a little frightening, but they are also times of excitement and creativity. as oncat embarks upon the development of a new strategic plan to support student mobility and pathways, the sky is the limit. like every other aspect of our lives, the pandemic has changed postsecondary education and it has changed student expectations of their postsecondary and career journey. we have all learned that key to success is the ability to find a path forward through uncertain terrain, and oncat is well positioned to continue to guide students on their journey. the oncat team is one of the most talented and engaged group of professionals that i have had the privilege to work with and i am excited to see what the future holds. adrienne galway executive director, oncat 3. ontario pse pathways & transfer system improvements grants by the numbers oncat supports the postsecondary system in ontario to develop in-demand and student-centred pathways, implement consistent and transparent transfer practices and ensure evidence-driven transfer system improvements. led by ana skinner, research, data & funding director, and aided by inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants & projects, we provide funding to support student mobility research, system-level improvements, pathway development, and transfer capacity building within ontario postsecondary institutions. across oncats funding streams and sector engagement strategies, we approved over 60 projects in 2021-2022. the projects include: 5 transfer pathways 3 seamless transfer 10 research 1 postdoctoral research fellowship 3 student action projects 7 datapilot (4 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 12 mapit (9 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 2 indigenous institutes transfer grants 11 mycredsonboarding grants 5. completed projects 8 10 9 5 pathway research mapit 5 datapilot 3 student research action projects 2 seamless transfer more than 30 projects were completed in 2021/22. for more information on these and other projects funded by oncat, check out https://oncat.ca/en/projects-search for project snapshots. strategy spotlight: enhanced institution transfer capacity oncat works deeply with our partners to assess transfer student outcomes and experiences, address process improvements and work towards a more seamless system in ontario. this year, oncat expanded our institution transfer capacity funding strategies. this included the launch the indigenous institutes transfer operations and capacity fund and mycredsinstitutional onboarding fund. 6. indigenous institutes transfer operations and capacity grant first nations technical institute and seven generations education institute were awarded ii transfer capacity grants in 2021-2022. funding supports indigenous institutes to enhance student pathways and transfer opportunities through increased transfer student supports, transfer advising and other transfer functions determined by the institute. mycreds in 2021, oncat began supporting the onboarding of institutions to mycreds. mycredsis a national project supported by the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) to create a digital learner credential wallet and national data exchange network. sector-wide adoption of mycredswill provide digital and secure transcript exchange between ontarios publicly assisted postsecondary institutions, will make it easier for students to share their transcripts and for institutions to ensure the veracity of application documents. the first year of oncats strategy has seen strong uptake from the sector, with 11 institutions receiving funding to onboard and/or enhance their use of mycredsfor transcript exchange. 7. mapit the mapit learning collaborative supports institutions to map their current transfer processes in order to support process improvements. working with higher education strategy associates to facilitate the process, each institution gains valuable insights on their transfer processes. to date, oncat has supported 28 institutions through mapit, where oncat and participating institutions are able to share effective transfer processes and areas for improvement. cohort 4 is underway and recruitment for cohort 5 will begin in fall 2022. in 2021-2022, we expanded mapit to include funding for phase 2 projects focused on improving transfer processes. datapilot learning collaborative the datapilot launched in 2020, and this year we reached an important milestone of working with 25% of ontario postsecondary institutions to increase their data reporting capacity and assess transfer student outcomes at their institution. this includes 26% of universities and 25% of colleges. oncat will continue to accept new partners on an ongoing basis. 8. internal research & data projects transfer intent survey in september of 2021, oncat launched its first proprietary survey in partnership with york universitys institute for social research. as we approach the one-year mark, we have close to 2,500 completed survey responses. the dataset includes information about prospective transfer student decision-making and includes the demographic and educational background of participants. from this survey, oncat has begun developing analyses about who and why certain student populations transfer, the most popular pathways, as well as program types. the survey has been extended for another 12 months to bolster the overall sample size, as well as to continue to add to the panel of prospective and eventual transfer students that have opted in for future interviews and focus groups. we hope to launch the transfer experience survey in 2023, as a follow up with students from the first wave who eventually transferred. this project aims to understand the transfer student journey from the point of intent to transfer. transfer intent interviews we have completed 53 semi-structured interviews with students who expressed interest through our transfer intent survey. these interviews probe more deeply into the reasons why students want to transfer and allows students the space to reflect in more detail on their experiences in postsecondary. we have transcribed and begun analyzing student responses, which have helped us develop new questions for the survey reboot, as well as compare results between the two collection methods. we have also successfully recruited a handful of students from our panel to participate in focus groups to help improve our ontransfer website for future users. we hope to release our initial reports from the interviews in january of 2023. 10. student outcomes across transfer pathways oncat published a set of research briefs in february 2022, drawing from data contained in the ucas survey. these reports focused on applicant pathways into ontario colleges and universities and included topics such as regional variations in degree aspirations and the effects of socio-economic status and prior academic achievement on transfer pathways. since the ucas contains demographic information about students (i.e., broad ethnic categories) that other datasets do not include, we will continue to work with this data into 2023. we hope to continually release information to the sector using this rich data source on student applicant preferences. upcoming reports include data about students first-choice institutions and the influence of race/ethnicity on transfer pathways and degree aspirations. 11. sector engagement & knowledge mobilization research spotlights working with the research and communications teams, oncat designed the research spotlight series to highlight key findings from our research reports and emphasize the application of this evidence to policy, decision-making, and professional practice. research spotlights are intended to capture the most significant findings that the sector needs to know about and to spark further reading and interest in transfer research. spotlights, written by meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist, appear on oncat.ca and are promoted through oncats monthly newsletter. transfer advising lunch and learn series oncat launched a monthly learning event for the transfer advisor group, called transfer advising lunch and learns. offered once per month, the learning event series is meant to build capacity in the transfer advising space and cultivate evidence-based practices and decision-making. intended for both seasoned administrators and staff entirely new to transfer, these events provide information about the transfer space, recent research on transfer, promising practices, as well as allow participants to build relationships with staff at other institutions. to date, we have held sessions on student advising, communications and recruitment, and multiple sessions on pathway development. 13. online community hub for tag and hota oncat created inter-institutional communications platforms on microsoft sharepoint that allow our community groups to share resources, ask questions, and communicate outside of our publicly-held events. the site is private and restricted to transfer advisor group (tag) and heads of transfer advising (hota) community members, which is facilitating smoother communication regarding transfer, polls about what others are doing, mentorship opportunities, and general support among members. community animators on transfer last year, oncat launched a new student-led initiative called the community animators on transfer (cats). cats are students who transferred once during their time in postsecondary. as part of the program, they receive a stipend to develop a creative way to share their experience and to offer advice or tips to current transfer students. cats then receive coaching and mentorship on their creative work by oncat staff. submissions have included a comic strip, blog posts, written narrative, a short video, and a photographic essay. so far, we have had two cohorts complete the program. you can view the cats creative work on oncat.ca! 14. sector engagement oncat, with the help of carolyn poplak, manager of sector engagement, and sanja pavlovic, committees coordinator, continues to work with various established committees including the northern ontario pathways steering committee, the francophone and bilingual advisory committee and the heads of transfer advising committee. in spring 2022, oncat established the discipline steering committee (dsc). the role of the dsc is to advise and steer the work of oncat, in collaboration with the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu), in building a mature transfer system. more specifically, the dsc will work with oncat and the discipline committees (business, social services etc.) to lead the expansion of transferability of first year courses. the goal is for first year students to be able to transfer to like programs with full credit recognition. 15. it & project management it updates & improvements oncat's it team, including allison maldonado, business systems analyst, and natalie isber, project manager, implemented five sharepoint sites to facilitate information sharing and collaboration among ontario institutional partners and oncat. 1. ontario postsecondary education hub 2. ontransfer site 3. transfer advisor group (tag) site 4. heads of transfer advising (hota) site 5. discipline steering committee site they also launched an internal absence management system to simplify the absence tracking process for oncat team members and management and introduced a project management software for oncat team members to increase transparency across teams and improve task management and oversight. 17. ontario's transfer & pathways guide & ontransfer.ca ontario's transfer & pathways guide (ontransfer.ca) ontarios transfer & pathways guide provides a user-friendly platform for students to investigate their transfer options and receive support on their academic journey. able to support data from ontarios all the provinces publicly assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes, ontransfer.ca has ongoing development to support students and institutions with relevant, up-to-date information. ontransfer.ca website improvements in 2021, the ontransfer.ca team (led by andrew wilson, transfer and technology director), continued to enhance the website by providing design-savvy and usercentric supports. we successfully launched course outline/syllabi index for the province, reviewed and updated the websites content, and continue to find ways to simplify and operationalize our collection processes for course calendars, online offerings, and course equivalencies. in late 2021, the team began a project to improve our content management software (cms) that will provide modern web design and user graphics for 2022 and beyond. our focus in the coming years will continue to be on better navigation, increased promotion of in-demand pathway programs and overall site searchability, along with more targeted communications for transfer students from intent, pre- and post-application, admission, and registration. 19. analytics and growth the pandemic has continued to effect overall website traffic to oncat.ca, though not as dramatically as in the previous year, with overall traffic seeing modest increases of these numbers by 1.24% and 4.88%. beginning in early 2022, an updated communication plan was developed by lindsay mcrae (communications manager) and implemented with the support of jane waldner (digital communications coordinator) to increase website traffic and enhance how we share transfer and pathway information on the transfer & pathways guide. service level implimentation 1. 174,180 unique users of ontransfer.ca 252,614 unique session visits implementation of ontransfer.ca's service level expectations (sles) has streamlined processes that resulted in an 29% increase in institutional data files from april 1, 2021 to march 31, 2022. 243,642 course equivalencies 1979 25,000 academic pathways unique pathways 20. ontario student transfer fair as part of our continued redevelopment and service strategy, the ontransfer.ca team hosted two successful ostfs in fall 2021 and spring 2022, led by sienna stock (ontransfer.ca service manager). held virtually to ensure the health and safety of participants, the event allowed transfer students to connect directly with institutions to have their specific questions answered. the latest ostf saw over 1,000 unique visits to virtual booths, almost 500 documents accessed, and 335 webinar views. ontransfer.ca team despite challenges related to the pandemic, the team continued to strengthen and improve our ontransfer.ca supports and communications. targeted monthly digests were established using ms sharepoint to communicate important information for our partners. the team has continued to adjust sles and commitments to the sector through the development of an automated ticketing system that utilizes workflow to support internal and external communications. 21. strategic planning strategic plan for 2023-2026 oncat is embarking on consultations for a new strategic plan for 2023-2026, which will be aided by oncat's senior policy analyst, alastair woods. while certainly challenging, the pandemic gave oncat an opportunity to pivot to new forms of student support and delivery, as well as time to consider the challenges and opportunities ahead. with our current strategic plan coming to a close in 2023 and the recruitment of our new executive director (adrienne galway), now is the perfect time for oncat to chart a new course into the future. through our collaboration with the ministry of colleges and universities, oncat has already identified four longterm priorities that will inform and complement our new strategic plan: 1. expanding first-year transferability: assisting in efforts to make introductory/core courses more easily transferable across the sector. 2. increasing smart pathways for students: working with postsecondary institutions to scale up in-demand student pathways. 3. helping transfer students to graduate on time: supporting transfer students to graduate with minimal excess costs in study time or tuition fees. 4. integrating indigenous institutes into ontario's credit transfer system: closer collaboration with the third pillar of ontarios postsecondary education system. these priorities run alongside oncats day-to-day work in research, policy development, student support, institutional collaboration, sector engagement and technology. through this consultation process, oncat will explore areas for growth and further investigation, building upon our strengths as an organization and moving into new and innovative projects. the strategic plan consultations will take place in fall 2022 and winter 2023, with the board of directors given an opportunity to review and approve the plan in spring 2023. 1. 23. financial report financial report 2021-2022 our audited financial statement for 2021-2022 can be found at: https://oncat.ca/en/about-us the report is comprised of the statement of financial position as of march 31, 2022; the statements of operations and changes in net assets and cash flows for the year; and notes on the financial statements including a summary of significant accounting policies. 25. oncat team adrienne galway, executive director shauna love, operations director lindsay mcrae, communications manager sienna stock, ontransfer.ca service manager jane waldner, digital communications coordinator allison maldonado, business systems analyst andrew wilson, transfer and technology director ana skinner, research, data & funding director rod missaghian, senior researcher natalie isber, project manager tina liu, data analyst inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants & projects peter desera, finance manager alastair woods, senior policy analyst carolyn poplak, manager, sector engagement henrique hon, quantitative researcher nicolas boileau, researcher meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist sanja pavlovic, committees coordinator liwei liao, ontransfer data coordinator abdullah mushtaq, executive & governance 26. coordinator board of directors ron common (co-chair) deborah maclatchy (co-chair) christine bradaric-baus lyne michaud serge demers elaine popp kathryn kettle president & ceo, sault college president & vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university vice-president academic of canadian memorial chiropractic college vice-president academic, collge boral interim vice-president, academic and provost, laurentian university vice-president academic, durham college student representative ex officio members of the board: janet hope robert luke marny scully heather lane marc provencher adrienne galway vp of policy and innovation, colleges ontario ceo, ecampusontario vp of policy and strategy, cou executive director, ouac president & ceo, ocas executive director, oncat former board member: caitlin smith student representative 27. our partners 28. summary & project descriptions of 2021-2022 funded projects 2021 transfer pathways funding stream #p2220: engineering and engineering technology transfer pathway development project lead: queen's university at kingston | partners: cambrian college, centennial college, conestoga college, mohawk college, seneca college, sheridan college, st. lawrence college, university of toronto | amount awarded: $282,700 this project will support multi-institutional pathways between engineering technology advanced diploma and engineering degree programs in ontario. these pathways will allow students holding an ontario advanced diploma in engineering technology from a participating program to receive advanced standing in a participating ontario engineering degree program. #p2221: pathways in chemistry and applied life science project lead: lakehead university | partners: fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $12,296 the goal of this project is to develop a set of transfer pathways to and from fanshawe colleges chemical laboratory technology - science laboratory advanced diploma and lakehead universitys honours bachelor of science in chemistry/honours bachelor of science in applied life science. the project will also assess the viability of developing additional pathways into lakehead university's medical concentration programs and related engineering credentials. 30. #p2222: ontario caat direct admissions and upper year pathways project lead: queen's university | amount awarded: $41,500 the goal of this project is to identify programs that have capacity to bring college graduates (specified certificates/ diplomas) into first year/ upper year and develop pathways with fully mapped transfer credits in the faculty of arts and science at queens university. this project will reduce barriers for college students interested in attending queens university, focusing on developing pathways into programs with both capacity and demand at the upper year level. #p2223: remodeling honours bachelor of kinesiology pathways project lead: lakehead university | partners: cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, georgian college, sault college | amount awarded: $47,971 through this project, lakehead university will update and re-model pathways to reflect changes in curriculum and accreditation/quality assurance standards so that they continue to align with the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) degree program. furthermore, this project represents an opportunity to combine similar pathways into multilateral pathways, thus making them more efficient, consistent, and transparent. #p2243: remodelling of colleges boreal/la cite to universite de hearst psychology transfer pathways project lead: universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | amount awarded: $46,030 this project will remodel existing pathways between universit de hearst psychology programs and collges la cit and boral programs. it will support the development of new pathways and an umbrella agreement to facilitate the transfer of graduates and the ongoing maintenance of the memoranda of understanding. 31. 2021 seamless transfer #s2201: expansion of digital transcript exchange in ontario through mycreds project lead: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada | amount awarded: $500,000 the goal of this project is to help improve transfer student processes through digital transcript exchange. it will support mycredsoperations to build, expand and implement its learner credential wallet and national data exchange network for all of ontarios publicly funded colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. sectorwide adoption of mycredswill provide digital and secure transcript exchange between ontarios publiclyassisted postsecondary institutions. this data exchange network will facilitate more seamless student transfer by making it easier for students to share their transcripts and for institutions to ensure the veracity of application documents. #s2251: transfer student ambassadors at trent university project lead: trent university | amount awarded: $11,000 this project will support the implementation of a transfer student ambassador pilot. the trent transfer student ambassador will play an important role in developing and maintaining relationships between transfer students applying to trent and the university and provide peer supports through the transfer process. 32. #s2255: expansion of digital transcript exchange in ontario through mycreds, year 2 project lead: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada | amount awarded: $500,000 this project is the second phase of a multi-year strategy that will help accelerate the secure digitizing and onboarding of transcripts to mycreds. it will provide system-level document exchange infrastructure that can improve transfer student experiences of document exchange. the project addresses key process gaps and challenges in transfer processes (e.g., timely receipt of transcripts, completeness of documents for transfer credit assessment/admission decisions). mapit phase 2 funding stream #s2248: development of universit de hearst credit transfer policies project lead: universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | amount awarded: $86,020 this project supports the development of universit de hearst credit transfer policies as it becomes an independent university. it will also create a credit equivalencies administrative tool that stipulates equivalencies to be granted for the 20 collegiate programs at the two french-language colleges in ontario: college la cit and collge boral. 33. #s2249: implementing new equivalency assessment processes at trent project lead: trent university | amount awarded: $55,000 this project supports improvements to internal equivalency assessments at trent university by collecting first year/introductory courses from universities across canada to assess for their trent equivalencies. this project will allow trent to pre-emptively assess courses and input them into trents database, helping decrease the transfer credit assessment period for university transfer students coming to trent. #s2250: lakehead university development of transfer credit assessment (tca) guidelines project lead: lakehead university | amount awarded: $51,838 this project will enhance the transfer credit process through the development of transfer credit assessment (tca), guidelines and decision-making for course-by-course tca at lakehead university. this project includes the development of training materials required to effectively advise subject-matter experts in their assessments. 34. indigenous institutes transfer operations & capacity funding #i2267: fnti transfer strategies project lead: first nations technical institute | amount awarded: $79,637 this project supports fnti to enhance its transfer functions in several key areas through a dedicated pathways coordinator. this includes developing and enhancing current transfer operations for partnered programs; providing applicants/students with transfer counselling and assistance with transfer processes and understanding pathway opportunities, ensuring transferability and pathways are considered with the development of standalone programs; and developing admissions, governance and policies related to transfer. #i2268: developing capacity for student mobility in the treaty 3 region project lead: seven generations education institute | amount awarded: $64,240 this project will support seven generations education institute (sgei) to integrate a pathways coordinator position across the organization as well as among the student body so that it can build trusting relationships and better assist students in the transfer process. sgei will focus on creating necessary protocols and policies that will help to build opportunities to create new pathways. 35. 2021 research projects #r2203: a qualitative analysis of the post-transfer experiences of college and university students in ontario principal investigator: dr. janice aurini | amount awarded: $135,265 the goal of this project is to advance understandings of university and college students' post-transfer experiences and how they may vary by pathway and region. this project builds in a longitudinal component to capture student transfer as a multi-faceted social process. this research has the potential to inform the development of policies and practices that improve transfer student retention across the ontario pse, including enhancing student advising, bridging programs, and initiatives to help students adjust to their new institutional environments. #r2204: predicting transfer pathway uptake and associated income profiles a second look at the tdsb-psis linkage with a focus on disability project lead: york university | principal investigator: dr. gillian parekh | co-investigators: dr. rob brown and dr. david walters | amount awarded: $119,609 in 2019, oncat funded the creation of the custom tdsb-elmlp linkage to examine the extent to which transfer students differ from direct entry counterparts in their propensity to borrow from the canada student loans program (cslp). a preliminary report explored provincial-level trends drawing simply on the psis-cslp linkage. a secondary report explored the same trends with a focus on the tdsb-psis-cslp linkage. this project will draw on the tdsb-psis-t1ff linkage to explore an additional set of questions focused on socio-demographic predictors, with a particular focus on disability, across (disaggregated) transfer pathway uptake and whether there is a net earnings premium or "penalty" associated with disaggregated transfer pathways and disability status. 36. #r2210: non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation - phase 2: leveraging surveyadministrative data linkages to document the role of family background in detailed transfer pathways project lead: institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) | principal investigator: dr. xavier st-denis | amount awarded: $167,367 this project draws on the first oncat-funded project, non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation: statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes (2020-2021), which was based on data from the longitudinal and international study of adults (lisa). this new project intends to produce 3 research papers and focus on the role of family background in detailed transfer pathways. #r2211: tdsb-uoft replication project principal investigator: dr. scott davies | amount awarded: $27,290 this project will advance exploratory transfer related analyses with dataset between administrative student records at the toronto district school board (tdsb) and the university of toronto, leveraging the previous institution field within the university of toronto records to identify those tdsb students that arrived at the university from another postsecondary institution. 37. #r2219: transfer postdoctoral research fellow project lead: nipissing university | supervisor: dr. david zarifa | amount awarded: $90,675 oncat is providing matching funding for a postdoctoral research fellow at nipissing university, as part of a multi-institutional research partnership funded by sshrc. this project explores the potential barriers experienced by many youth as they pursue postsecondary education and employment by linking toronto district school board (tdsb) data with postsecondary administrative, survey, and tax data. the postdoctoral research fellow will help organize and analyze linked longitudinal administrative data, prepare manuscripts, and support knowledge mobilization activities associated with this project - including highlighting relevant transfer and student mobility insights. #r2242: the missed education" of black women: disability, access and transfer project lead: toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | principal investigator: dr. idil abdillahi | amount awarded: $121,845 this qualitative research project will explore the experiences of disabled black women transferring between ontario colleges and ontario universities. it will provide key insights on transfer student experiences and contribute to deeper understanding of the experiences of black women, non-binary, and trans people living with disabilities transferring between ontario colleges and universities. 38. #r2254: understanding the role of streaming in college-to-university pathways project lead: toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | principal investigator: sam andrey | co-investigators: andre cote, tianna thompson | amount awarded: $58,053 this project will contribute to deeper understanding of the profiles and experiences of students who connect their college to university (ctu) transfer pathway to the impacts of secondary academic streaming and course selection. using a survey and semi-structured interviews with current and former college-to-university transfer students, the project will document their secondary and post-secondary academic pathways. through this examination the project will investigate if, and to what extent, secondary streaming experiences influence why and how students access ctu transfer. postdoctoral research fellowship #r2256: oncat post doctoral research fellowship project lead: university of guelph | postdoc fellow: j. sparks | supervisor: dr. david walters | amount awarded: $110,000 this post doctoral research fellowship will investigate transfer shock and the impact of support services on transfer students in ontario. the postdoc will be supported by the university of guelph, under the supervision of dr. david walters, and the research project will be conducted in collaboration with members of the student transitions, access & research on tertiary education partnerships team. 39. micro-credentials in ontario: exploring stackability & transferability #r2245: possibilities and barriers to transfer and stacking of micro-credentials in ontario public colleges and universities principal investigator: dr. scott davies | amount awarded: $74,072 ($69,600+$4,472 hst) this project will advance understandings of the potential for transferability and stackability among microcredentials. through an in-depth scan of micro-credential offerings in the ecampus portal and key informant interviews, this project will deepen understandings on how stakeholders understand current challenges and successes when designing and implementing transferable micro-credentials. #r2246: approaches to stackability of micro-credentials: options for ontario project lead: higher education strategy associates | amount awarded: $69,900+hst this project includes a jurisdictional analysis that will explore approaches to micro-credential stackability in other countries and jurisdictions to present recommendations for ontario. the project includes a) a review of publicly available information on micro-credentials offered by (public) colleges, universities and indigenous institutes across ontario; b) a comparison of international models for stacking micro-credentials, drawing on academic and policy literature c) interviews with administrators and faculty from a diverse range of (public) colleges and universities across ontario; d) interviews with 10-12 ontario career college owners, managers and instructors. 40. #r2247: exploring newcomer perceptions of micro-credentials credibility in facilitating employment and postsecondary education pathways project lead: fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | principal investigator: dr. alexander pershai | co-investigators: dr. michele manocchi, dr. rob downie | amount awarded: $74,882 this project will document student perceptions of micro-credentials, with a focus on newcomer perceptions of micro-credentials in facilitating employment and postsecondary education pathways. this includes whether transferability and stackability among micro-credentials is a consideration for learners' advisors and postsecondary institutions offering micro-credentials. the study will identify existing gaps and provide recommendations for the development and enhancement of micro-credentials to address the employment and postsecondary needs of newcomers to ontario. 41. mycredsinstitutional onboarding #s2224 | toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2225 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute | amount awarded: $37,700 #s2226 | university of ottawa | amount awarded: $25,375 #s2227 | confederation college | amount awarded: $38,500 #s2228 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $25,200 #s2229 | sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $25,958 #s2230 | brock university | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2231 | trent university | amount awarded: $17,900 #s2232 | universit de hearst | amount awarded: $27,720 #s2234 | mohawk college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2235 | york university | amount awarded: $25,000 42. datapilot phase 1 #d2208 | durham college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $27,500 #d2212 | lambton college | amount awarded: $51,843 #d2244 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $33,264 #d2253 | nipissing university | amount awarded: $55,000 datapilot phase 2 #d2202 | trent university | amount awarded: $16,200 #d2209 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $43,395 #d2236 | algoma university | amount awarded: $55,000 43. mapit 3.0 institutional process mapping project #m2214 | lambton college | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2215 | the university of ontario institute of technology | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2216 | wilfrid laurier university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2217 | collge boral | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2218 | the canadore college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2213 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | amount awarded: $36,000 + hst mapit 4.0 institutional process mapping project #m2238 | york university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2239 | university of ottawa | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2240 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2241 | algoma university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2237 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | amount awarded: $65,000 + hst 44. discipline steering committee #c2257 | algoma university: david marasco | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2259 | collge la cit: isabelle gurin | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2260 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology: mary pierce | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2261 | sir sandford fleming college of applied arts and technology: david adam baker | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2262 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning: melinda kao | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2263 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute: susan sinclair | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2264 | lakehead university: michel beaulieu | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2265 | laurentian university: brigitte desjardins | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2266 | university of waterloo: heather o'leary | amount awarded: $20,000 45. 2021 community animators on transfer (cats) #t2205 | ahmad butt | amount awarded: $1,500 #t2206 | constant yen | amount awarded: $1,500 #t2207 | jennifer sparks | amount awarded: $1,500 46.

student pathways into ontario colleges bachelors degrees: patterns of mobility, student characteristics, academic and labour market outcomes ursula mccloy & gerardo infante, centre for research in student mobility, seneca college march 2023 in partnership with conestoga college george brown college humber college sheridan college this research was funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). list of contacts ursula mccloy, phd director, centre for research in student mobility seneca college ursula.mccloy@senecacollege.ca gerardo infante, phd research analyst, centre for research in student mobility seneca college gerardo.infante@senecacollege.ca https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports.html college partner project leads: connie phelps, director, institutional research and planning conestoga college cphelps@conestogac.on.ca suzanne dwyer, director, institutional research and planning george brown college sdwyer@georgebrown.ca jelena dukic, associate director, institutional research humber college jelena.dukic@humber.ca mokhtar khalladi noka, senior research analyst, institutional research sheridan college mokhtar.noka@sheridancollege.ca 1 acknowledgements previous research analysts at seneca colleges centre for research in student mobility, kate williams and anna abatayo, who worked on the project. senecas centre for institutional data and enterprise analytics (c-idea) and senecas registrars office for data provision and support for the updating of our linked seneca dataset. within the partner colleges, research analysts and statisticians fraser hay, silvana miller, and ling ge chen provided requested data and additional context, if needed, for the project. also thank you to the various reviewers of the final report. 2 executive summary ontario colleges have been offering bachelors degrees since 2002, and they have grown steadily: in 2020 there were 3,896 graduates across the 12 colleges that offer college degrees. 1 associated with this expansion, colleges have been developing a variety of pathways into their degree programs, including course credit, bridges, preparatory pathways, and block transfer. however, a significant knowledge gap exists in terms of profile of students who take these pathways, the amount of advanced standing that has been provided, and whether their academic and labour market outcomes are comparable to nontransfers. this study addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing the sociodemographic profile, educational background, pathway to degree entry, and academic outcomes of baccalaureate students at five of ontarios colleges, who comprise 85% of degree enrolment. research questions include: 1) to what extent do students enter college degrees from previous pse? how much advanced standing and/or transfer credit is applied? 2) what are the student characteristics by pathway? does the diploma-to-degree pathway increase the diversity of degree students? 3) academic outcomes: do college students who enter a degree program with advanced standing fare as well as students completing the full four years? 4) does graduate satisfaction, labour market outcomes, or further education, six months after graduation, differ by pathway? methodology the sample for the current study included all students who enrolled in a degree at one of seneca, conestoga, sheridan, george brown, or humber college between fall of 2015 and winter of 2018 (n=21,036). students were then followed until winter of 2020. within each institution, individual students were followed from high school, through other pse (if applicable), to college degree entry and either graduation or the point they left the degree. for a subset of graduates, their records were linked to the kpi graduate satisfaction survey. information on gender, age, status in canada (international, canadian-born, non-international), neighbourhood income (census), and region of origin in ontario were collected for sociodemographic information. high school records were analyzed to determine grade averages and course type most commonly taken (college or university preparatory). previous educational pathway was determined based on records submitted to the institution for external transfers, and enrolment records for those who previously attended their own institution. students were then assigned to the appropriate pathway of high school direct, high school non-direct, internal college transfer, external college, university, or both college and university. students who had previously attended their own college were a part of a stand-alone analysis with a variety of pre-degree information and data collected. the incidence and amount of block transfer credit (advanced standing) provided towards the degree was also collected across all transfer pathways. measured outcomes include enrolment status at years one, two, and three after entry (retained or graduated from initial degree program), graduation rate within four years, and overall gpa in the 1 in comparison, the three northern ontario universities have a combined 4400 bachelor degree graduates. 3 degree. in addition, the 2017-18 graduates were linked to the 2017-18 kpi graduate satisfaction survey, and employment and satisfaction outcomes were analyzed. both descriptive and regression techniques were used in the study. results student profile over half of the degree entrants (55%) had obtained some form of postsecondary education after high school, with over a third of students having previously attended their own college, 17% having attended a university, and over 11% having attended a different college before entering their college degree. many students had attended more than one institution type. overall, a fifth of all degree entrants had obtained advanced standing (block credit). within the transfer population, 35% had obtained block credit, with internal college transfers having obtained the most block credit on average, and university transfers having obtained the least. health and community service areas had the highest share of transfer students, at 64 and 67%, respectively. community service and hospitality areas each had the highest proportion of students who transferred internally (37 and 39%, respectively), with the health area having the highest proportion from university (31%). degrees in the community service area had the most entrants with block transfer, with creative and applied arts having the least. creative and applied arts and health areas more often drew students from preparatory access programs, rather than transfer or block pathways. since four of the five colleges were in the greater toronto area, gta colleges and universities were the primary sending institutions, with york, university of toronto, and toronto metropolitan university being the top three institutions, followed by gta colleges. students who transferred from university or entered the college degree directly from high school were more likely to be from higher income neighbourhoods, compared with non-direct entrants and college transfers. students who transferred from college, either their own or an external college, were the least likely to have taken university preparatory courses in high school and to have obtained the grades and courses required for admission to a college degree. instead, college transfers often relied on transfer pathways for degree access. females, older students, domestic students not born in canada, and low-income students were the most likely to have taken a block transfer pathway. of the 31% of students who transferred within their own colleges, almost half obtained block credit. a further 25% had taken a preparatory credential, which enabled admission directly into the degree. students primarily transferred within similar program areas, with 76% having previously graduated, and 77% had a pre-degree average of b or better. student outcomes overall, 75% of degree students continued into their second year of their degree program, 68% of entrants either graduated or continued to the third year of their degree of entry, and 65% obtained a b average or better. descriptive and regression analysis was performed on three separate populations: 1) the full population comprising transfers and non-transfers, 2) transfers only, and 3) internal transfers, i.e. those who previously attended their own college. some differences in outcomes were explained by sociodemographic factors, pathways, degree program area, academic background, and college of attendance. 4 pathway of entry: in the full population, transfer students outperformed non-transfers across all outcomes studied. within specific pathways, students who took a non-direct pathway from high school underperformed in all measured outcomes, whereas students from university outperformed in terms of grades. despite having weaker hs backgrounds, in general, previous college students (from both internal and external) performed similarly to those entering directly from high school in terms of retention and grades and were more likely to graduate within four years. degree entrants who took block pathways outperformed those who had not in terms of all measured outcomes, including retention rate, graduation rate, and grades. for example, 77% of block students obtained a b average or better, compared with 61% of those without block credit. in addition, 81% of block transfers were retained or had graduated in their degree program in their first year, compared to 74% without block transfer credit. in terms of graduation rates, 72% of block students graduated within four years, compared with 41% of those without block. within the transfer populations, those who transferred and obtained block credit also outperformed those who did not obtain block credit, an effect that was seen in both descriptive and regression models. sociodemographic background: gender, age, status in canada, and neighbourhood income had differing effects on outcomes, dependent on the population of analysis. in the full population males, younger students, students from low- or mid-income neighbourhoods, and domestic students not born in canada often had weaker outcomes in the models studied. however, within the transfer population, older students had lower retention and graduation rates but higher grades. additionally, in this population males and domestic students not born in canada had lower graduation rates and grades but were just as likely to be retained, whereas students from high-income neighbourhoods were more likely to be retained, but not to get better grades. within the internal transfer population (those transferring to a degree within their own college), these characteristics were either not significant or the results were reversed. for example, male students and students from lower-income neighbourhoods did not differ on most of the outcomes, whereas older students had weaker outcomes, and domestic students not born in canada had stronger outcomes for some of the outcome measures. academic background: high school grades and course selection were both important influences on academic outcomes in the full model and within most of the transfer models. within the transfer population, having graduated with a college or university credential previously was also a positive influence on all outcomes. however, in the internal transfer population, it was pre-degree grades, and not high school grades or course selection, that affected retention and graduation rates. however, grades in high school remained a significant influence on grades in college. this demonstrates that for transfer students, performance in postsecondary before transfer is likely of more importance than high school grades, and in particular, course stream in high school (college versus university preparatory), particularly for graduation rates and grades. program area: students from degrees in community service, creative and applied arts, and health areas generally outperformed other program areas across all populations and models studied. in terms of students who transferred internally, students who took preparatory programs as degree access programs (no block credit), had higher retention rates than other pre-degree programs, but a lower share of those with a b grade or higher. when compared to those who came directly from high school, those from preparatory programs had higher retention rates and a similar proportion with a b or better. 5 graduate outcomes: preliminary results from the 2017-18 graduate survey showed that students completing their degrees within three years had stronger labour market outcomes, in terms of earnings and job relatedness and satisfaction six months after graduation. key findings and recommendations key findings of the study indicate that pathways into college degrees are very diverse, with the block transfer pathway, in particular, serving as a pathway for diverse students. as well, in general, students transferring from other postsecondary education into a degree outperform non-transfers, and those with a block transfer (advanced standing) outperform others in terms of grades, graduation, and retention rates. recommendations include providing more support or bridging for students who enter non-directly from high school; encouraging academically strong diploma students to transfer into degree programs within their own colleges; enhancing and expanding other college-to-degree pathways and university-tocollege degree pathways. in addition, to increase degree access, ontario college certificate level preparatory programs could be created or enhanced. 6 table of contents executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 3 methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 3 results ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 key findings and recommendations ......................................................................................................... 6 introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 10 admission and transfer pathways into degrees ..................................................................................... 12 study rationale and research questions ................................................................................................. 13 methodology............................................................................................................................................... 13 demographics ......................................................................................................................................... 14 high school records ................................................................................................................................ 15 previous postsecondary .......................................................................................................................... 15 academic program outcomes ................................................................................................................. 17 graduate outcomes ................................................................................................................................ 19 analytic methods .................................................................................................................................... 19 results ......................................................................................................................................................... 20 profile by transfer student pathway ....................................................................................................... 21 high school background .......................................................................................................................... 25 profile by block credit ............................................................................................................................. 27 profile of internal transfers ..................................................................................................................... 29 descriptive outcomes by pathway .......................................................................................................... 32 graduate satisfaction survey results ...................................................................................................... 42 regression results ................................................................................................................................... 44 discussion ................................................................................................................................................... 51 pathways to college degrees .................................................................................................................. 51 academic outcomes ............................................................................................................................... 51 student characteristics by pathway ........................................................................................................ 52 pre-degree characteristics of internal transfers ..................................................................................... 53 graduate outcomes ................................................................................................................................ 53 key findings and recommendations ........................................................................................................... 54 references .................................................................................................................................................. 55 appendices .................................................................................................................................................. 57 7 table of figures figure 1. student pathway distribution ...................................................................................................... 21 figure 2. student pathway distribution by college ..................................................................................... 21 figure 3. pathway distribution by area of study ......................................................................................... 25 figure 4. high school course selection and eligibility for college degrees, by pathway ............................ 26 figure 5. amount of block credit semesters received by transfer pathway, degree entrants ................... 27 figure 6. amount of block credit semesters by degree program area of entry, all degree entrants ......... 28 figure 7. average amount of block credit terms by sociodemographic characteristics, including all degree entrants ....................................................................................................................................................... 29 figure 8. average amount of block credit terms by high school characteristics, including all degree entrants ....................................................................................................................................................... 29 figure 9. amount of block by pre-degree program for students who attended their own colleges ......... 31 figure 10. amount of block terms by pre-degree credential for students who attended their own colleges ....................................................................................................................................................... 31 figure 11. amount of block terms by pre-degree credential and graduation status for students who attended their own colleges ....................................................................................................................... 32 figure 12. retention outcomes by high school background ...................................................................... 36 figure 13. grades in degree by hs background (% a/b) ............................................................................. 36 figure 14. outcomes by pathway of degree entry ..................................................................................... 38 figure 15. outcomes by amount of block transfer ..................................................................................... 38 figure 16. outcomes by previous postsecondary graduation status ......................................................... 39 figure 17. degree outcomes by high school and block transfer pathways ................................................ 40 figure 18. retention outcomes by pre-degree grades, internal transfers ................................................. 42 figure 19. grades in degree by pre-degree grades and pre-degree graduation status ............................. 42 figure 20. status of graduates, six months after graduation, 2017-18 graduates ..................................... 43 figure 21. graduate satisfaction, 6 months after graduation, 2017-18 graduates .................................... 44 8 list of tables table 1. grading scheme by college ........................................................................................................... 17 table 2. determination of enrolment status .............................................................................................. 18 table 3. determination of graduate rates .................................................................................................. 18 table 4. top ten sending institutions, college degree entrants ................................................................. 22 table 5. top ten sending institutions by receiving college, college degree entrants ................................. 22 table 6: demographic profile by pathway .................................................................................................. 24 table 7. high school grades by pathway ..................................................................................................... 26 table 8. college degrees by percentage of block transfers, top programs ................................................ 28 table 9. distribution of degree program area by pre-degree program area.............................................. 30 table 10. amount of block credit provided by pre-degree characteristics ................................................ 32 table 11. detailed enrolment status in degree, by year of study............................................................... 33 table 12. outcomes by college, program and cohort characteristics ........................................................ 34 table 13. degree outcomes by student characteristics .............................................................................. 35 table 14. enrolment status in degree by pathway and year of study ........................................................ 37 table 15. graduation rate and number of terms to graduate by amount of block credit ......................... 39 table 16. degree outcomes by pathway and block credit .......................................................................... 40 table 17. outcomes by pre-degree credential and program area ............................................................. 41 table 18. graduate outcomes by student characteristics, six months after graduation, 2017-18 graduates .................................................................................................................................................................... 43 table 19. earnings for college graduates, six months after graduation, 2017-18 graduates ..................... 44 9 introduction ontario colleges have been offering bachelors degrees since 2002 and they have grown steadily: in 2020 there were 3,896 graduates with 12 colleges offering college degrees. 2 associated with this expansion, colleges have been developing a variety of pathways into their degree programs, including course credit, bridges, preparatory pathways, and block transfer. however, a significant knowledge gap exists in terms of profile of students who take these pathways, the amount of advanced standing that has been provided, and whether their academic and labour market outcomes are comparable to nontransfers. available evidence suggests that a large proportion of students enter college degrees from a variety of postsecondary backgrounds. results from the kpi student satisfaction survey data for degree students (non-nursing, 2011-2018), show that 6% report a previous degree, 15% report incomplete university, 19% report a previous college diploma, and 6% report incomplete college. notably, the proportion of degree students with a previous college diploma has risen from 16% in 2011-12 to 21% in 2018-19. 3 another major knowledge gap is the sociodemographic and academic characteristics of those students who transfer into college degree programs. it is widely known that students who attend college, rather than university, are more likely to report a disability, to be the first in their family to attend postsecondary, to be indigenous, and to be lower income (zhao, 2012; ford, shek-wai-hui, & nguyen, 2019; statistics canada, 2022). within the five major degree granting colleges in ontario who were a part of the current study, the kpi study satisfaction survey showed there were some differences in degree students versus certificate and diploma students: degree students were more likely to report having a parent who attended postsecondary (75% vs 65%), less likely to report being indigenous (1.7% vs 2.8%), but there was no difference in those reporting a disability (16%) (crsm custom analysis). 4 at seneca college for the years 2007 to 2014, 8% of high-income students whose parents also had a university degree entered a seneca degree program, compared to just 3% of those whose parents did not have a degree and were low income (steffler, mccloy, & decock, 2018). a report by skolnik, wheelahan, moodie, and others (2018) proposed that laddering of college diplomas into college degrees had the potential to reduce social inequality of degree-level education in ontario. ontario colleges kpi student satisfaction survey provides some evidence for this theory: students entering college degrees with a previous college credential were more likely to report a disability (20% vs 15%) and to be a first-generation student (29% vs 22%) 5 than students with a high school diploma only. currently, admission standards for ontario college degrees are similar to universities, requiring a minimum of six university or mixed preparatory course from high school, often with a minimum average of 65%. those who do not have this high school academic background need to take a college credential in comparison, the three northern ontario universities have a combined 4400 bachelor graduates. the five colleges in the current study had 3314 graduates. 3 skolnik (2018) reports that in 2014, peqab lifted some restrictions on the maximum amount of transfer credit/ block that could be provided for transfer from diploma programs. 4 data was from the 2013-14 to 2018-19 kpi student survey for parent education and disability, and from 2015-16 to 18-19 for indigenous status. grad certificates and nursing baccalaureates were removed from the analysis. 5 data was from the 2013-14 to 2018-19 kpi student survey for parent education and disability for the five colleges included in the current study. nursing baccalaureates were removed from the analysis. 2 10 and transfer into the degree with advanced standing or credit or take a college preparatory program or other accepted college programming for admission. it is well known that students from some underrepresented groups do not select or are directed away from the academic stream courses in high school (dooley, payne, & robb, 2016; robson, maier, anisef, & brown, 2019). analysis at seneca college showed that, for the years 2007-2014, 72% of entrants who had a parent with a degree took more than half of their senior high school course in university or mixed preparatory streams, versus only 53% for those whose parents did not have a degree (steffler, mccloy & decock, 2018). these previous findings show that the lower share of underrepresented students in degree programs can be traced to course selection in high school. the pathway from college to a degree, either as transfer or admission enables students who may not have had the aspirations or knowledge of requirements for a degree in high school to be able to enter it later in their academic careers. several reports have analyzed the academic outcomes of college to university transfer students in ontario, with varying results. a study of students transferring into trent university found transfers obtained similar grades but had higher graduation rates than direct entry students (missaghian & hon, 2022). they also found an association between greater amounts of transfer credit and higher graduation rates. at brock university, 46% of college to university transfer students graduated within four years versus 36% for direct entry students; however, the transfer students were more likely to graduate from 3-year than 4-year degrees. by six years, 66% of non-transfers graduated, versus 58% of transfers (martinello & stewart, 2015). grades were similar for each group. in contrast, at the university of toronto (u of t), 69% of direct entry versus 40% of college to university transfer students graduated over the 15-year time span of the study (davies & pizarro milian, 2020). differences between findings may be attributed to the extent that transfer pathways and articulation agreements are developed at each institution. both trent and brock have far more articulation pathways and thus more credit granted than u of t, which is likely causing the difference in findings, as well as u of t having higher entering admission averages. therefore, the students entering directly from hs at u of t may have been relatively stronger academically. much of this research looked at students who had moved from college to university, without including whether those students moved within pathways with advanced standing or transfer credit. in other research, specific to a well-established transfer pathway, senecas business graduates who transferred from a 3-year diploma into the third year of a toronto metropolitan university 4-year business degree had strong outcomes, with 43% graduated within two years and 73% graduated within three years (mccloy, williams, childs, & dumanoir, 2019). trent university was able to compare the full range of pathways into their degrees and separate those entering through articulation agreements from those who were not (drewes, maki, lew, et al, 2012). they found that students entering trent through an articulation agreement had the highest grade average (74%), followed by those transferring from another university (73%), with students directly from high school having a 67% average. a similar result was seen for retention rates. interestingly, when the program level of entry was controlled for (e.g. with one-year credit compared with the progress of second year direct entry students) persistence was similar. transfer into college degrees has rarely been studied in ontario. one report from conestoga college compared the academic outcomes of students who entered with advanced standing from a diploma versus other degree students, using the 2007-2011 entering degree cohorts (gorman, phelps, & carley, 2012). the study showed that students who entered the degree with advanced standing from a diploma earned higher grades (3.9 vs 2.6 gpa) and were less likely to drop out of the degree. although female 11 students were more likely to stay in their program in the non-transfer population, within the transfer population there was no difference. in terms of transferring from university to a college degree, there have been two seneca studies that included these groups. in one study, focusing on students who entered a business degree from two local universities (comprising 12% of the total degree population), they performed less well than their peers, with both lower retention and lower gpas. within this specific population, the university students had weak university backgrounds, with 85% having a university average of d or lower (mccloy et al, 2019). similarly, york university students who transferred into seneca degrees in any area also had a weak university average of 58%; however, at seneca, they obtained an 80% average. comparative grades of their non-transfer peers were not studied (smith, decock, lin, sidhu, & mccloy, 2016). the labour market outcomes of college diploma to college degree students have not been studied in ontario. however, earnings of college to university transfers relative to university and non-transfers has been recently investigated. utilizing statistics canadas postsecondary records linked to tax records, finnie, dubois, and miyairi (2021) showed that college students who transferred to a university baccalaureate degree earned as much as other university students who switched from another university, but they earned less than those who graduated from their initial universities. this study, however, removed those who completed within three years of entry, thereby removing transfers with the most advanced standing. 6 another study followed a 1973 ontario high school cohort, and found that university non-transfers and university to college transfers had similar occupational status and earnings, both of which were higher than college-to-university transfers (anisef, robson, & mcdonald, 2020). the current study is able to do some preliminary analysis of labour market outcomes by linking students to the ontario kpi graduate outcomes survey and by comparing those who graduated within three years to those who took longer than three years to graduate. admission and transfer pathways into degrees in ontario the postsecondary education quality assessment board (peqab), which recommends ministerial consent for new degrees and degree renewal at ontarios colleges, sets the minimum admission standards for degree entry and quality assures colleges transfer credit policies (peqab, 2021). admission criteria include: hs graduation with six university or university/college courses at the grade 12 level, a minimum average of 65%, and any additional requirements, or mature students (19+) with pse which is deemed the equivalent of ontario high school requirements may gain admission to the degree without having the high school requirements. as well, several colleges offer specialized preparatory credentials that enable admission to the degree. transfer credit policies include: 27% of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson graduated within two years of entry (20132017) (mccloy, williams, childs, dumanoir, 2019). 6 12 block transfers: these are pathway agreements between programs of high affinity that generally require a credential and a b average, and sometimes also bridging. students receive credit for a group of courses or credits and enter the degree at an advanced semester, as prescribed in the agreement. 7 transfer credits: students moving outside pathways may get transfer credit for individual courses upon approval by the college, often requiring a 65% grade for a credit to be transferred to a college degree program. study rationale and research questions college degrees have become a significant part of degree granting in ontario, and especially with the recent approval of colleges to offer stand-alone bachelor of science in nursing degrees, will continue to expand. 8 the research focus in ontario has been primarily on students transferring from college diplomas to degrees, and occasionally on university degrees to diplomas. however, it has been very limited on transfer from college non-degrees or university degrees to college baccalaureate degrees. the profile of students taking the college diploma to degree pathway, the extent, and the outcomes have rarely been studied. in addition, as part of the formal degree consent renewal process, ontario colleges are expected to track the academic outcomes of pathway students: colleges need to separately track diploma to degree students through the third and fourth year of the degree program. if their persistence, graduation rates and final marks fall significantly below those of students who went through all four years in the degree program, additional elements to bridge the degree of difficulty into third year will need to be introduced. (peqab manual for public organizations, 2021, p.62) therefore, this study addressed the following questions: 1) to what extent do students enter college degrees from previous pse? how much advanced standing and/or transfer credit is applied? 2) what are the student characteristics by pathway? does the diploma-to-degree pathway increase the diversity of degree students? 3) academic outcomes: do college students who enter a degree program with advanced standing fare as well as students completing the full four years? 4) six months after graduation, do graduate satisfaction, labour market outcomes, or further education differ by pathway? methodology the project was led by senecas centre for research in student mobility, in collaboration with the institutional research offices of george brown, conestoga, sheridan, and humber colleges. the population included all students who entered a college bachelors degree program between the fall of 2015 and winter 2019. students were then followed until winter 2020. students were excluded if they these agreements are posted on each colleges website (eg. https://www.senecacollege.ca/pathways/guide/seneca.html) as well as in ontarios transfer and pathway guide for a comparison of all ontario pathways (https://search.ontransfer.ca/). 8 https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/55741/ontario-offering-greater-choice-for-nursing-students 7 13 had enrolled in a degree program at their own college before fall of 2015 and if their student record had no course attempts throughout their degree enrolment. this may happen if, for example, a student enrolls in a degree but withdraws without academic penalty. collaborative degree programs also were excluded from the study. one exception was the bachelor of science nursing at humber college, which delivered all four years of the degree (with the university of new brunswick conferring the degree) and provided complete academic records. the other colleges in the study who offer collaborative nursing were excluded since delivery was either shared with a university partner or records were not requested. 9 the data collection relied exclusively on administrative databases. participating colleges were provided with a template of requested data, and, to protect student privacy, were asked to mask student ids. this enabled the researchers to link across provided datasets. the study was initially approved by the multicollege reb, with final approval by the individual colleges. additionally, bilateral data sharing agreements were signed between individual colleges and seneca. within each institution, the student data was linked across all sources (when available and applicable), which enabled the tracking of individual students from high school, through other pse (if applicable), to college degree entry and either graduation or the point they left the degree. for a subset of graduates, their records were linked to the kpi graduate satisfaction survey. assurances were made that the variable definitions were consistent across colleges, and the datasets were appended. both descriptive and regression techniques were used to estimate the outcomes by pathway, and to control for differences between the profiles by pathway. demographics gender, age, international status, country of birth, and permanent postal code (or any postal code on record) were collected. age was provided as month and year of birth and was converted to the age of the student when they first entered the degree program (september for fall starts, january for winter starts, and may for spring/ summer starts). age was truncated, rather than rounded; for example, a student who was 18.9 years old at the start of their degree was given the age of 18 years of age. status in canada was derived from international status and country of birth, using the three derived categories of international; non-international (domestic) and born in canada; and non-international (domestic) and not born in canada. neighbourhood income: as an estimate of each students household income, their postal code was matched to household income data from the 2016 census. using the six-digit postal code in the colleges student information system, each student from ontario was assigned to a 2016 dissemination area (da) using a 2016 statistics canada postal code conversion file (pccf). a students neighbourhood income group was derived by splitting the das into income terciles of low, medium, and high, based on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households. international students, students with invalid postal codes, and students with postal codes that did not map into an ontario dissemination area were excluded from the neighbourhood income analysis. 9 the bachelor of science in nursing is no longer a collaborative degree but is fully provided by the colleges. 14 region of ontario: students with valid ontario postal codes (including international students) were grouped regionally using the first digit of the postal code. 10 high school records for each student who attended an ontario high school, full high school records containing individual course codes, semester taken/ completed, and the grade were obtained. to be included in the high school analysis, a student had to have taken a minimum of six grade 11 or 12 courses in the ontario curriculum. 11 the following variables were then derived to describe a students hs academic background: hs average: two averages were calculated; one was the crude average of all grades 11 and 12 courses taken, the other was the average of the six best grade 12 u or mixed courses taken (if applicable). stem and non-stem average: stem included grade 11 and 12 courses in math, science, technology, or computer science (first letters of subject code m, s, ic, t); non-stem included all other courses. college eligibility: based purely on high school grades and courses taken, a variable defined as college degree eligible was created. 12 this was identified as anyone with at least six grade 12 u/m courses and an average grade in their top six grade 12 u/m courses of at least 65%. courses failed: the total number of failed grade 11 or 12 high school courses was calculated to better indicate whether the student struggled in high school. since repeated courses often are not included in a students admission average, this variable provides an additional dimension to a students academic background. mostly u course type: a variable was also generated to identify whether a student took mainly university or college preparation courses, defined as mostly u and mostly c, respectively. a student was classified as having taken mostly u high school courses if a minimum of half of the grade 11 or 12 courses taken were of a university (u) or university/college (m) type. previous postsecondary transfer pathway: students without a record of any previous postsecondary attendance were considered non-transfers. pse records consisted of a transcript submitted through ocas, a transfer credit request (declined or granted) through their college from any pse, or a record of previous enrolment at their own college. this group was further subdivided by age into hs direct entry (less than 20 years of age at start of degree) and hs non-direct entry (older than 20 years of age at start of degree). transfer students with a previous pse record were further subdivided into the following pathways: central=l, metropolitan toronto=m, southwestern=n, northern=p, eastern=k see ontario ministry of education (2011). the ontario curriculum grades 9 and 12. course descriptions and prerequisites, http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/secondary/descript/descri9e.pdf 12 note that in some cases a student may have gained eligibility through obtaining out of province high school grades as well as having the minimum of six ontario grade 11/12 courses, or through the pre-double cohort curriculum (ontario curriculum pre-2003). in the definition used here, they would be considered ineligible since the out of province records were not available. 10 11 15 previous student at own college (only): previously attended own college with no record of attendance at another institution (unless unknown or other). previous college: attended a college (may have been own college plus external college, or unknown or other). previous university: those who had a record from a university only (unless unknown or other). previous college and university: those who had a record from both a college and a university (unless unknown or other). previous other: includes training programs or courses not clearly linked to an institution (e.g., cga). previous unknown: name not provided or not able to be identified as an institution. pre-degree variables (internal transfers): colleges were requested to provide enrolment and grades data for all semesters and all programs a student had been enrolled in, before, during, and after the degree. 13 from this, pre-degree variables were created, including the number of credits passed, predegree gpa, pre-degree program credential, pre-degree program area, and whether the student graduated from their college before entering the degree. 14 the most recent program and credential enrolled in was used to determine pre-degree program area and credential. however, all passed course credits, regardless of pre-degree program, were counted as pre-degree credits. similarly, whether a student had ever previously graduated from their own college was used as the graduate flag, regardless of whether it was the most recent program. the pre-degree gpa was reported somewhat differently across the colleges, with some colleges reporting students cumulative gpa, which would be a composite of all courses taken previously at their college, whereas other colleges reported the program gpa of the last program enrolled in before entering the degree. transfer (course) credit: although all colleges provided data on number of transfer credits (separate from block credit/advanced standing), some colleges did not provide internal transfer credits. due to the inconsistencies and some data quality issues, transfer credit was not used in the analysis. however, it was used in determining the student pathway. for example, if a student submitted a course from a university to be considered for transfer credit, that information was used to label them as a previous university student. block credit/advanced standing granted: pathway agreements that allow students to transfer between specific programs and institutions lay out which students are eligible to receive a defined block of credit based on their previous education. these students are generally admitted to an upper-level semester. generally, the agreements are between highly related programs and require graduation with a specific gpa for admission. for the current study, there was some variation on how block credit was reported. block credit information was provided by each college in one or more of the following ways: the level of entry in the degree program at college (semester, year of study). number of block courses or block terms, or a degree program code differing from the non-pathway degree program code designating a block pathway was taken (but same degree conferred). some institutions, rather than providing individual terms before the student entered the degree, provided derived or summative data. 14 one of the five colleges did not provide the number of pre-degree credits. 13 16 the number of block terms provided was then determined, based on how the data was provided. for example, when semester of entry was used, if someone entered a degree at semester four, they had three block terms. if the number of block courses was provided, it was converted to semesters based on an estimate of five courses per semester (10 block credits equivalent to two block semesters). in the case of program code specific to a block program, the number of block terms was determined from the pathway detail on the college website (which was also checked against semester of entry in the degree). in all cases, the block values were spot-checked against pathway details provided on college websites. academic program outcomes degree program and area: the students degree program name and program area were determined as the first degree program entered between the fall of 2015 and winter 2019; progress after subsequent switching to other degree programs within the college was not tracked. program area: both pre-degree programs and degree programs were initially grouped according to seven program area groupings that were derived from mcus occupation cluster classification system, described in an earlier report by mccloy & liu (2010). this classification was revived, and some adjustments were made (appendix 1). programs that were determined to be preparatory programs (ontario college credential that is intended for further postsecondary) but were not labelled as such within the mcu preparatory cluster, were placed in the preparatory category. computer science/information technology and related programs were moved from the business program area to engineering/ technology. legal/law related programs were moved from business to community service. recreation therapy/health promotion was moved to health from community service. public relations was moved to creative and applied arts from the business area. health administration/information was moved to health from the business area. grades: four of the five colleges had gpas on a 4-point scale, with one college using a percentage scale (/100%) for all degrees except nursing. to harmonize the variety of grading schemes, gpas were converted to letter grades, based on the conversion provided on college websites (table 1). descriptive results are shown by letter grades; for regression models, the pre-degree grades use the individual letter grade categories, and the dependent outcome measure of degree gpa is reported as the binary outcome of % with a or b vs c or less. table 1. grading scheme by college a b c d /=6 grade 12 u/m courses 65%+) hs direct hs non-direct own college (only) >50% gr 11/12 hs courses u/m level prev college prev uni prev college & uni previous college previous univ. 65.8% total table 7. high school grades by pathway sample with ontario hs grades % with grades n 84.3% 56.2% own college (only) 66.8% 5,841 1,460 3,877 1,361 1,842 807 15247 hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) <60% 1.6% 8.4% 5.3% 7.2% 1.2% 3.0% 3.7% 60-69% 18.0% 25.0% 29.0% 31.1% 11.2% 17.1% 21.8% 70-79% 45.6% 46.6% 45.3% 44.5% 45.7% 47.1% 45.6% >=80% 34.8% 20.0% 20.4% 17.2% 42.0% 32.8% 28.9% mean 76.8% 72.9% 73.1% 72.1% 78.2% 76.2% 75.2% <60% 10.2% 16.5% 16.0% 18.4% 8.5% 10.8% 12.8% 60-69% 26.7% 31.0% 31.2% 33.3% 20.4% 28.1% 28.2% 70-79% 37.1% 33.5% 35.1% 33.0% 40.9% 35.3% 36.2% >=80% 26.0% 19.1% 17.7% 15.4% 30.2% 25.9% 22.8% <60% 1.2% 7.6% 4.8% 6.0% 1.0% 2.9% 3.2% 60-69% 12.0% 19.7% 23.7% 25.8% 7.1% 11.9% 16.4% 70-79% 42.3% 45.1% 44.1% 45.3% 37.0% 41.9% 42.6% >=80% 44.6% 27.6% 27.3% 23.0% 54.8% 43.3% 37.8% 0 84.6% 68.8% 79.2% 74.9% 87.7% 85.8% 81.2% 1-2 12.4% 17.4% 13.4% 16.3% 9.4% 10.3% 13.1% >=3 3.0% 13.8% 7.4% 8.7% 2.9% 4.0% 5.7% stem gpa non-stem gpa number of failed grade 11/12 courses hs direct hs nondirect total 78.4% previous college & univ 71.0% 72.4% the population with ontario high school grades included non-international students with an ontario permanent postal code, with a minimum of six grade 11/12 courses from the ontario curriculum. 26 profile by block credit overall, 35% of transfer students obtained block transfer, with most in the 3-4 block term range (figure 5). students transferring from their own college were the most likely to obtain block transfer credit with 45% doing so. block transfer was rare for the university group, with only 12% getting block terms. 17 of all transfers, the average number of block terms was 1.2 semesters, and of those who received block credit, the average was 3.3 block terms (data not shown). figure 5. amount of block credit semesters received by transfer pathway, degree entrants 100% 92% 88% 90% 81% 80% 70% 60% 64% 65% 63% 55% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 31% 10% 4% own college (only) 27% 7% 11% 11% 2% prev college 23% 21% 1%0% prev uni 0 8% 0%0% 5% prev college & uni 1-2 3-4 prev other 11% 8% 0% prev unknown 10% 3% total >4 overall, including transfers and non-transfers, almost 20% of degree entrants obtained at least one semester of block transfer (advanced standing). of these, over 60% had three to four terms of block credit (figure 6). degrees in the community service area had the most entrants with block transfer, with creative and applied arts having the least. pathways into creative and applied arts, as well as health, were more often admission pathways from preparatory programs, rather than transfer or block pathways. table 8 shows the share of students with block transfer by the top degree programs. early childhood-related programs have a high proportion of pathway students, accounting for three of the top five programs. nursing, other community service degrees, and business programs all rank highly in their share of block transfers. the listed programs comprise 34% of degree entrants, but 67% of block students. university block pathways were predominately the university degree to bscn at humber and the kinesiology university degree to athletic therapy at sheridan. 17 27 figure 6. amount of block credit semesters by degree program area of entry, all degree entrants 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% 1-2 3-4 >4 table 8. college degrees by percentage of block transfers, top programs mtcu title mtcu code no block credit 209 with block credit 314 total degree entrants 523 % with block credit 60% bachelor of early childhood leadership 81211 bachelor of applied arts (child development) bachelor of applied business (international accounting and finance) bachelor of interdisciplinary studies 80701 387 354 741 48% 80104 271 195 466 42% 84701 35 25 60 42% bachelor of early learning program development 81217 77 54 131 41% bachelor of applied business (integrated accounting and information technology management) bsc nursing 80103 242 168 410 41% 81400 730 494 1,224 40% bachelor of applied arts (criminal justice) 80705 490 330 820 40% bachelor of applied business (hospitality operations management) bachelor of community development 83200 118 57 175 33% 86500 37 17 54 31% bachelor of environmental public health 89805 98 45 143 31% bachelor of commerce (accounting) 80100 649 287 936 31% bachelor of applied business (fashion management) 81823 176 72 248 29% bachelor of technology (construction management) 88201 378 154 532 29% bachelor of applied business (human resources strategy and technology) 80223 472 185 657 28% figure 7 shows the average amount of block terms degree students were provided at admission, across all pathways of entry. females, older students, domestic students not born in canada, and low-income students were all more likely to have more block credit. 28 0.7 1.0 1.2 1.5 0.8 0.6 0.5 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.3 0.3 gender degree start age status in canada high income mid income low income domestic - not born in canada domestic - born in canada international 25+ 23-24 21-22 19-20 <19 0.0 m 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 f block terms figure 7. average amount of block credit terms by sociodemographic characteristics, including all degree entrants neighbourhood income group figure 8 shows the average amount of block credit by high school background. it clearly shows that students who entered college via a block pathway did not aspire to a degree in college, as they did not take the required university or mixed preparatory courses. in addition, their performance in high school was weaker than those who entered the degree without or with less block credit. figure 8. average amount of block credit terms by high school characteristics, including all degree entrants 2 1.8 1.8 block terms 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 1.0 1 0.8 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.4 0.2 0 no yes no yes >50% gr 11/12 hs eligible for college courses u/m level (>/=6 grade 12 u/m courses 65%+) 0 1-2 >=3 number of failed grade 11/12 courses <60% 60-69% 70-79% >=80% hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) profile of internal transfers overall, 31% of degree entrants had previously attended their own colleges; of these 18% attended an additional pse institution as well, before entering their college degree. focussing on the population with a previous record at their own colleges, it is clear students who entered a degree after transferring from a diploma or certificate generally stayed in the same program 29 area (table 9). for example, 93% of students whose pre-degree program was business went on to enter a business degree. those in the preparatory/upgrading area, which is comprised of specialized programs such as art and media fundamentals or pre-health, were often entering related degrees in creative and applied arts (50%), with significant shares entering business and health. there are also several one-year general arts and science programs in the preparatory/upgrading category, whose students entered a range of program areas. overall, 25% of students who transferred within their own college to a degree originated in a preparatory credential, particularly in creative and applied arts (46%) and health (52%) degree areas (data not shown). however, the prevalence of preparatory programs as feeders to college degrees varied across colleges, from a low of 4% to a high of 32%. table 9. distribution of degree program area by pre-degree program area degree program area pre-degree program area business business community service 92.5% 1.3% community service 2.4% 93.5% creative & applied arts health 4.7% 2.1% 9.6% 6.3% hospitality 15.8% engineering/ technology prep/upgrading creative & applied arts 2.3% health hospitality engineering/ technology total 0.6% 0.6% 2.7% 100% 1.7% 1.8% 0.1% 0.6% 100% 89.8% 0.8% 0.1% 2.5% 100% 1.7% 80.3% 0.0% 2.1% 100% 5.7% 7.6% 1.9% 67.7% 1.3% 100% 10.8% 1.1% 6.6% 7.6% 0.2% 73.6% 100% 13.2% 7.7% 50.2% 20.3% 2.4% 6.3% 100% other 34.1% 25.8% 7.2% 8.5% 0.3% 24.0% 100% total 28.3% 22.5% 26.9% 9.8% 2.4% 10.1% 100% figure 9 shows that almost half of pre-degree students who previously attended their own colleges obtained block transfer, with the highest shares in business, community service, and health, at 70-80%. since preparatory/upgrading programs are access and preparation programs, their role is to prepare students for degree entry, and therefore block credit is rarely applied. 30 figure 9. amount of block by pre-degree program for students who attended their own colleges 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 1-2 3-4 >4 note: program area shown is the last program a student was enrolled in before entering the degree; it is not necessarily the program for which they received block credit. in terms of pre-degree credential of enrolment, 2-year diplomas were the most common at 42%, followed by advanced (3-year) diplomas at 26% and 25% for ontario college certificates. figure 10 shows the amount of block credit provided by the last credential enrolled in before the degree. three-year advanced diploma students got the most, with the majority obtaining 3-4 block terms. when further broken out by pre-degree graduation status, almost 70% of graduates of two- year and over 80% of graduates of three-year diplomas obtained block credit (figure 11). figure 10. amount of block terms by pre-degree credential for students who attended their own colleges 80 70 60 % 50 40 30 20 10 0 ontario college certificate ontario college diploma ontario college advanced diploma 1-2 3-4 total >4 note: credential shown is the last credential a student entered before entering the degree, it is not necessarily the program for which they received block credit. 31 figure 11. amount of block terms by pre-degree credential and graduation status for students who attended their own colleges 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 ontario college certificate ontario college diploma ontario ontario college college advanced graduate diploma certificate total ontario college certificate no prev college graduation ontario college diploma ontario ontario college college advanced graduate diploma certificate total previous college graduate 1-2 3-4 >4 table 10 shows that students who entered degrees after attending their own colleges averaged approximately two years of attendance (20 credits), with over three-quarters having graduated with a strong gpa of 3.2. those with more pre-degree credits, previous graduation, and higher pre-degree gpas were each associated with obtaining more block credit. table 10. amount of block credit provided by pre-degree characteristics 0 1-2 3-4 >4 total mean 14 21 28 33 20 n 2,344 400 1,530 295 4,569 previously graduated from a program at same college % 65% 79% 91% 85% 76% n 3,333 668 2,215 295 6,511 pre-degree gpa 4pt scale 3.0 3.3 3.4 3.4 3.2 % a/b (letter grade) n 68.2% 84.1% 86.9% 82.6% 77% 3,123 590 2,082 276 6,071 pre-degree total credits* *one of the colleges did not provide the number of pre-degree credits. also, the table includes those who may have attended another institution. descriptive outcomes by pathway table 11 illustrates the complex pathways students took within their degrees, for each time-point studied. at year 1, the enrolment status of all four years of the study could be analysed, since all students had the potential to be enrolled at the one-year post-admission term. enrolment status at years 2, 3, and 4 progressively drop entrants whose entry terms did not fit the cohort window. a students enrolment status from 1st to 2nd year, 1st to 3rd year, 1st to 4th year, and 1st to 5th year, was determined from the following: retained in 1st degree: still enrolled in the degree program of entry. 32 retained switched to diploma or degree: switched into a different degree or non-degree but still were enrolled. no longer enrolled at the college at that time point. switched from the degree to another program and no longer enrolled in college (may or may not have graduated from switched program). graduated from the degree of entry in the previous semester. as shown previously, students entered college degrees from various pathways. table 11 shows that students were also transferring from their first degrees to other programs, with a somewhat higher share moving into a second degree than into a diploma. it is also evident that students were able to complete a four-year degree before the start of year 3 or year 4 due to advanced credit, as will be shown in more detail below. table 11. detailed enrolment status in degree, by year of study enrolment status at year 2 (yr1-2) 90 0.4% enrolment status at year 3 (yr1-3) 258 1.7% enrolment status at year 4 (yr1-4) 296 3.0% enrolment status at year 5 (yr1-5) 242 5.1% not retained switched, no longer enrolled* not retained - withdrew 4,409 20.9% 4,003 26.1% 3,030 30.4% 1,503 from 1st degree retained in 1st degree 15,712 74.7% 9,335 60.8% 4,770 47.9% 536 retained - switched to 312 1.5% 262 1.7% 151 1.5% 84 diploma retained - switched to diff. 404 1.9% 407 2.7% 283 2.8% 87 degree unknown switch 40 0.2% 38 0.2% 27 0.3% 2 graduated 1st degree 79 0.4% 58 0.4% 38 0.4% 20 program within 1 yr graduated, 2 yr mark 996 6.5% 651 6.5% 318 graduated, 3 yr mark 712 7.2% 316 graduated, 4 yr mark 1,636 started first program -5,689 >=2018 spring started first program -11,088 >=2017 spring started first program -16,302 >=2016 spring cohort n 21046 100% 15357 100% 9958 100% 4744 *these switchers may or may not have graduated from the program they switched into; this was not tracked. 31.7% 11.3% 1.8% 1.8% 0.0% 0.4% 6.7% 6.7% 34.5% 100% table 12 shows that students in the program areas of business, engineering/technology, and hospitality had lower retention and four-year graduation rates than other areas. in terms of grades in the degree, students in business and engineering programs had a lower share of students obtaining grades of b or higher. outcomes also differed by college, with three colleges performing similarly in terms of retention and grades, and two colleges lagging. program and student mix may explain some of these differences, which are outlined in the regression models later in the paper. there is little difference by year of entry, but students entering in the winter semester obtained lower retention rates and grades. 33 table 12. outcomes by college, program and cohort characteristics program area college academic year of entry admit term retained or graduated yr.2 59.1 retained or graduated yr.3 52.2 graduate in 4 yrs grade b or higher business retained or graduated yr.1 67.9 36.3 54.6 community service 77.6 71.4 67.0 58.7 68.8 creative & applied arts 81.4 74.4 70.9 54.8 71.9 health 77.0 73.6 68.6 55.1 70.2 hospitality 69.8 61.1 52.5 38.4 65.6 engineering/technology 72.4 63.1 55.0 29.2 59.7 a 79.2 73.2 66.7 41.3 70.6 b 80.4 69.4 65.9 46.9 76.8 c 70.9 65 61.6 49.4 61.5 d 70.4 60.9 51.2 36 57.3 e 79.8 72 65.2 48.7 67.5 2015-16 76.1 66.8 61.8 48.7 63.5 2016-17 73.6 67.2 62.2 43.3 63.9 2017-18 77.3 68.9 -- -- 65.8 2018-19 73.1 -- -- -- 64.8 fall 76.6 69.2 63 46.1 65.2 winter 65.2 58.3 55.1 56.8 56.9 spring/summer 77.6 70.1 64.6 43.4 80.6 total 75 67.6 62 46.2 64.6 note: 4-year graduation rate uses a different cohort base than the above enrolment status at 4 years after entry. table 13 shows the proportion of students who were retained or had graduated from their degree programs at each time point. those who switched and/or graduated from another program were counted as not being graduated or retained in this analysis. female students outperformed males by a fairly large margin for each outcome, with the greatest spread for the retention/grad rate at year 3 (10 percentage points), and the share with a b or higher (over 11 percentage points). differences by age groups were not as large, with students under 18 having somewhat higher retention/graduation rates, and students 25 years of age and older having the highest share obtaining a b grade or higher. students born in canada had the highest retention, followed by non-international students not born in canada, with international students having the lowest retention rates. 18 for grades, students born in canada had the highest share with a b average or better, with those not born in canada, either international or not, having a similar share. retention rates differed by neighbourhood income, with students from higher income neighbourhoods (non-international, originating from ontario) having higher rates than those from lower income neighbourhoods. for grades, the differences by income were narrower, with 62% of students from low-income neighbourhoods obtaining a b or better, compared to almost 66% of middleor high-income students. students from the southwest part of ontario had the highest retention rates; however, students from eastern or northern ontario had a higher share obtaining a b or better. note that international students make up a high proportion of business students and are less likely to be block and transfer students, all factors independently associated with low retention rates and grades. 18 34 table 13. degree outcomes by student characteristics gender degree start age status in canada neighbourhood income group ontario region retained or graduated yr.1 77.2 retained or graduated yr.2 71.4 retained or graduated yr.3 66.8 53.9 69.8 m 72.7 63.5 56.9 38 58.6 <19 76.9 69.1 62.8 44.9 63.9 19-20 74.5 67.4 61.2 44.3 60.6 21-22 75.0 67.8 62.6 49 62.8 23-24 76.2 67.4 61.4 50.7 67.8 25+ 72.3 65.7 61.5 46.4 72.0 total 75.0 67.7 62.0 46.2 64.6 international 67.7 61.0 53.6 40.7 59.8 domestic - born in canada domestic - not born in canada low income 77.4 69.6 64.3 48.8 67.0 73.3 66.4 60.3 42 61.2 74.3 67.4 62.8 46.9 62.8 mid income 76.5 68.8 63.3 47.4 66.5 high income 79.0 71.8 66.6 48.9 66.2 eastern 79.7 70.6 65.6 52.7 74.7 central 77.4 70.6 64.8 48.8 64.7 metro toronto 74.0 65.8 62.2 47.1 62.6 southwest 82.0 74.6 69.8 46.7 73.4 northern 78.0 70.5 63.5 50 79.0 f graduate in 4 yrs grade b or higher outcomes by high school background figure 12 shows retention rates by high school characteristics. in terms of the share of u/m courses and the eligibility for college degree entry, the retention rates do not differ. however, high school academic performance in terms of fewer failed courses and a higher overall gpa (including all course types) was associated with higher retention or graduation. for example, those who took more than half of their courses at a u or m level had a first-year retention rate of 76.3% versus 80% of those who did not. however, students with a hs average (all grade 11/12 courses) above 80% had a year one retention rate of 86% versus 77% for those with an average of 70-79%. the role of the block and transfer pathway in compensating for high school course selection is evident in these findings. however, performing well in high school, regardless of course selection, continues to be associated with further academic performance. 35 % figure 12. retention outcomes by high school background 100.0 90.0 80.0 70.0 60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 no yes no yes 0 >50% gr 11/12 hs eligible for courses u/m college (>/=6 level grade 12 u/m courses 65%+) retained or graduated yr.1 1-2 >=3 <60% 60-69% 70-79% >=80% number of failed grade hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) 11/12 courses retained or graduated yr.2 retained or graduated yr.3 a similar effect of high school background is visible in the percentage of students who obtained a b grade or better in their degrees, with hs grades and performance being of more importance than course selection (figure 13). however, unlike retention outcomes, students who were eligible for college degrees based on hs grades also obtained a b average or better in their degrees (67% eligible vs 59% ineligible). % figure 13. grades in degree by hs background (% a/b) 100.0 90.0 80.0 70.0 60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 85.9 65.2 64.2 59.4 66.6 68.7 62.7 47.6 no yes no yes 0 1-2 41.3 37.4 >=3 <60% >50% gr 11/12 hs eligible for college number of failed grade courses u/m (>/=6 grade 12 11/12 courses level u/m courses 65%+) 43.7 60-69% 70-79% >=80% hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) grade b or higher 36 outcomes by pathway (full population) table 14 breaks out the enrolment status by pathway to college. students who entered the degree from the indirect path from high school were most likely to withdraw from the college and were somewhat more likely to switch out of the degree but stay in the college. students who entered directly from high school were also somewhat more likely to switch programs than those coming from other transfer pathways, but they had similar not retained rates in the degree program as students from other transfer pathways. however, based primarily on the lack of advanced standing from block credit, the non-transfers, and transfers from university had a lower proportion of graduations at years two and three. table 14. enrolment status in degree by pathway and year of study enrolment status at yr 1 enrolment status at yr 2 enrolment status at yr 3 hs direct hs nondirect prev college prev uni 33.5% own college (only) 20.0% 16.5% prev college & uni 20.2% not retained 19.5% retained 76.5% 23.1% 61.8% 75.3% 74.2% retained switched program graduated 4.0% 4.7% 3.6% 0.0% 0.1% not retained 25.9% retained total 21.4% 81.2% 76.0% 74.7% 2.5% 2.3% 3.1% 3.6% 1.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.8% 0.4% 40.9% 26.6% 29.9% 22.4% 25.2% 27.7% 68.8% 53.0% 54.0% 60.5% 64.6% 56.8% 60.8% retained switched program graduated 5.3% 5.2% 4.6% 2.3% 3.6% 4.5% 4.6% 0.0% 0.9% 14.9% 7.3% 9.4% 13.5% 6.9% not retained 31.4% 48.1% 31.9% 34.6% 28.3% 31.3% 33.4% retained 63.0% 45.4% 33.0% 40.5% 53.8% 37.9% 47.9% retained switched program graduated 5.5% 4.4% 4.5% 2.6% 3.6% 5.7% 4.6% 0.2% 2.1% 30.6% 22.4% 14.3% 25.2% 14.1% note: outcomes of students from unknown or other previous education types are included in total, but not broken out. figure 14 shows the differences in academic outcomes by pathway of entry into the degree, with the retention outcome, simplified to show whether a student is either still enrolled in the degree program of entry or graduated, or not. it also shows the 4-year graduation rate and the share of students who obtained a b average or better. students who came non-direct from hs, defined as being at least 20 years of age and without a record of previous pse, stand out as having the weakest academic outcomes across all measures. across the retention outcomes, students with previous college (own and/ or external college) or university, performed similarly to those who entered directly from high school, with previous university students having higher retention rates. a different pattern is seen for the share who graduated within four years. those who previously attended their own colleges had the highest graduation rate, at 53%, likely associated with the significant share of students with block credit in this group. for grades, students with a previous university (or university and college) pathway outperformed students coming from all other pathways, with averages of b or better. 37 figure 14. outcomes by pathway of degree entry 90% 80% 81% 76% 76%74% 77% 70% 77% 74% 74% 69% 69%68% 70% 68% 63% 64%63% 63% 62% 60% 66% 63% 64% 54% 48% 50% 44% 53% 50%50% 46% 53% 40% 29% 30% 20% 10% 0% retained or graduated retained or graduated retained or graduated yr.1 yr.2 yr.3 hs direct hs non-direct own college (only) prev college grad in 4 yr prev uni grade b or higher prev college & uni figure 15 clearly shows that students entering their college degree with block credit, regardless of the amount, outperformed those without block credit, both in terms of retention/graduation and grades. however, the amount of block credit was associated with the share of students who graduated within four years, indicating that more advanced standing shortens the time to attain the degree, as expected. % figure 15. outcomes by amount of block transfer 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 74 81 82 71 66 74 76 78 76 77 77 66 59 77 76 74 76 87 61 41 retained or graduated yr.1 retained or graduated yr.2 0 retained or graduated yr.3 1-2 3-4 graduate in 4 yrs grade b or higher >4 table 15 demonstrates how the amount of block provided reduces the time to complete a degree. overall, students who graduated within the time frame of the study (fall 2015 to winter 2020) took 7.7 terms to graduate, with those without block taking nine terms, and those with block averaging 5.8 terms. over one-third of block transfers graduated within two years, and 65% within three years. by five 38 years, although the proportion of block transfers who graduated started to plateau, the graduation rate of those without block continued to increase. however, there was still a major gap of 51% versus 75% for block versus non-block students, reflecting the higher share of non-block students who withdrew throughout the degree (figure 15). table 15. graduation rate and number of terms to graduate by amount of block credit. no block graduate within 2 years 0.3% graduate within 3 years 1.7% graduate within 4 years 40.8% graduate within 5 years 51.4% average number of terms in degree taken to graduate 9.0 3,496 1-2 terms 22.4% 54.5% 65.6% 66.1% 6.6 513 3-4 terms 34.3% 67.5% 73.8% 78.7% 5.7 1,570 >4 terms 64.2% 74.5% 76.1% 74.5% 4.5 248 no block terms any block 0.3% 1.7% 40.8% 51.4% 9.0 3,496 33.8% 64.6% 71.6% 74.6% 5.8 2,331 total 6.7% 13.4% 46.2% 54.9% 7.7 5,827 note: the graduation rate uses calendar years, rather than terms. a student may take three semesters per year. students who had previously graduated from a postsecondary credential, either college or university, outperformed both transfers without credentials and non-transfers (figure 16). interestingly, those with previous pse who did not graduate performed similarly to those with no previous postsecondary experience. figure 16. outcomes by previous postsecondary graduation status 90% 80% 70% 73% 79% 74% 72% 64% 65% 55% 60% 73% 70% 59% 59% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% retained or graduated yr.1 retained or graduated yr.2 retained or graduated yr.3 transfer student- non-prev pse graduate transfer student- prev pse graduate grade b or higher non-transfer table 16 breaks out academic outcomes by both pathway and block. it demonstrates that many of the differences in outcomes are associated with whether block credit was provided or not. for retention and graduation rates, students directly from hs performed as well or better than the other pathways when block credit was not provided. there continued to be a gap between the hs non-direct pathway and the others. for grades, students who had previously attended university, whether block was provided or 39 not, continued to outperform students from other pathways. figure 17 shows simplified pathways, comparing high school direct and non-direct with transfer, with and without block credit. it shows that direct from hs students had similar outcomes to transfer students without block credit, and transfer students with block outperform all others. table 16. degree outcomes by pathway and block credit retained or graduated yr.1 nonblock block 76.5% retained or graduated yr.2 nonblock block 68.8% retained or graduated yr.3 nonblock block 63.2% graduate in 4 yrs grade b or higher nonblock 43.9% nonblock 63.0% hs nondirect own college (only) prev college 62.3% 54.3% 48.0% 29.6% prev university prev college & uni total hs direct block block 52.6% 71.0% 83.1% 61.5% 78.2% 53.8% 76.6% 38.6% 73.8% 55.5% 75.5% 74.8% 73.7% 67.0% 69.3% 60.0% 67.7% 42.4% 65.1% 62.0% 73.1% 80.0% 90.1% 72.3% 86.2% 64.7% 90.7% 46.2% 86.0% 71.6% 91.9% 75.1% 79.6% 67.0% 76.6% 55.8% 76.8% 37.2% 66.2% 72.0% 86.7% 73.6% 81.0% 65.5% 76.4% 58.8% 75.5% 40.8% 71.6% 61.4% 77.5% figure 17. degree outcomes by high school and block transfer pathways 90% 80% 70% 82% 77% 75% 62% 60% 77% 69% 77% 72% 66% 63% 54% 63% 53% 50% 44% 40% 42% 30% 30% 20% 10% 0% retained or graduated yr.1 retained or graduated yr.2 hs direct hs non-direct graduate in 4 yrs transfer without block grade b or higher transfer with block outcomes by pre-degree characteristics in addition to exploring the effect of the academic background in high school on academic performance in college degrees, this study was able to determine the association with pre-degree academic performance for those who transferred from their own colleges. table 17 shows the outcomes for internal transfers by program area and credential type. across all outcomes, it is apparent that students transferring from community service programs had the strongest outcomes in both retention, graduation rates, and grades. health programs are notable in that, although the retention and 40 graduation rates were below average, the grades were among the highest. this may be indicative of attrition for non-academic reasons. students coming from preparatory programs had the opposite result; they had higher retention but below average grades. this could be indicative of highly motivated students, who may not have had as extensive an academic background as other students but who nevertheless persisted. lower graduation rates at the 4-year mark for preparatory transfers was likely a function of not obtaining block credit. likewise, when looking at pre-degree credential type, retention was similar across credentials, while those who obtained 1-year certificates (often preparatory programs) were less likely to have completed their degree within four years. students from more advanced credentials, however, were more likely to obtain a b average or better. it is also interesting to compare the outcomes of students who did a preparatory program before their degree, and those who came from high school. compared to the hs direct entry group, described previously (figure 14), the preparatory program group had higher retention rates, 4-year grad rates, and similar proportions with a grade of b or better (table 14). table 17. outcomes by pre-degree credential and program area pre-degree program type pre-degree credential type total retained or graduated yr.1 77.4 retained or graduated yr.2 70.6 retained or graduated yr.3 65.7 community service creative & applied arts health 81.6 77.3 78.8 business graduate in 4 yrs grade b or higher 60.9 67.6 74.2 73.6 74.9 72.9 70.5 57.5 68.4 67.4 65 61.1 50 76.4 hospitality 73.4 64.7 59.4 45.5 72 prep/ upgrading 79.7 71.6 66.2 49.6 62.6 81 70 64 50.7 71.1 81.2 73.8 69.5 52.5 65.2 77.6 71.5 66.7 61 68.1 79.2 71.9 67.7 60.6 72.8 78.3 71.4 66.6 56.8 68.6 engineering/ technology ontario college certificate ontario college diploma ontario college advanced diploma as would be expected, grades in pre-degree programs were strongly associated with retention and grades in the degree (figure 18, figure 19). for example, 86% of students who obtained an a average in their pre-degree program were retained at one year, compared with 79% of those with a b average. in terms of grades in the degree, a similar effect was seen. for example, 89% of those with an a average went on to obtain a b or better in their degree, compared with 71% who obtained a b and 43% of those who obtained a c average pre-degree. graduating from the pre-degree program also had a major effect on degree outcomes, with 73% of those who graduated before entering their degree obtaining a b or better, versus only 54% for those who did not. 41 figure 18. retention outcomes by pre-degree grades, internal transfers 85.5 90 78.6 80 70 75.4 73 70.2 67.6 62.4 59.5 60 % 80.3 72.5 61.1 53.8 45.1 50 40 40 32.2 30 15.8 20 10 0 retained or graduated yr.1 retained or graduated yr.2 retained or graduated yr.3 a b c graduate in 4 yr d & below figure 19. grades in degree by pre-degree grades and pre-degree graduation status 100 % with a/b in degree 90 88.8 80 73 70.5 70 54.3 60 50 43.3 40 27.2 30 20 10 0 a b c pre-degree gpa (letter scale) d & below no yes previously graduated from a program at same college graduate satisfaction survey results the degree students in the study, those who entered a first degree after the summer of 2015 and graduated in the 2017-18, were linked into the full kpi graduate satisfaction survey and outcomes were compared. the response rates were strong, with two-thirds of graduates responding and with a similar level for both populations (table 18). those graduating within three years were more likely to be female, older than 25 years of age, and less likely to be international students. these results for graduates were similar to the transfer profile seen earlier. students graduating within three years were more likely to report a disability, a result that held across age, international status, and gender categories. there were, 42 however, minimal differences in registration for disability services between those who graduated within three years and others. table 18. graduate outcomes by student characteristics, six months after graduation, 2017-18 graduates graduation within 3 years response rates gender age status attendance at time of graduation % who consider themselves to have a physical, intellectual, mental health, or learning disability % registered with the office for students with disabilities (y/n) respondents total graduates response rate % female < 22 22 - 25 > 25 more than 3 yrs 1,539 2,285 67.4% 57.8% 0.4% 70.3% 29.4% within 3 yrs 425 614 69.2% 66.3% 0.0% 48.2% 51.8% total 1,964 2,899 67.7% 59.6% 0.3% 65.6% 34.1% % international % full time student 9.5% 86.4% 5.9% 84.9% 8.8% 86.1% % yes respondents (y/n) 10.5% 1275 13.9% 331 11.2% 1606 % yes respondents (y/n) 10.6% 1,290 11.4% 334 10.8% 1,624 * all variables are administrative apart from disability, which are from the survey. for the disability questions, only those who answered yes or no were included in the results. figure 20 shows the activity of surveyed graduates, six months after graduation. those graduating within three years were more likely to be back in school, whereas those who graduated after three years were more likely to be in a job not related to their studies or to be neither back in school nor working. figure 20. status of graduates, six months after graduation, 2017-18 graduates 60.0% 48.7% 49.9% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 11.6% 16.4% in school, not working 11.6% 10.3% job related job partially related more than 3 yrs 16.0% 13.5% job not related 12.0% 9.8% neither working nor studying within 3 yrs graduates who completed their programs within three years earned slightly more with respect to both the annual salary of full-time workers and the hourly salary of full and part-time workers (table 19). graduates who completed their degree within three years were more satisfied with the role of the 43 college in helping them achieve their goals (83% vs 78%) and with their preparation for work (78% vs 71%) (figure 21). table 19. earnings for college graduates, six months after graduation, 2017-18 graduates time to grad average annual salary (full time) salary per hour (full and part time) mean sd n more than 3 yrs $43,535.25 $14,754.87 796 within 3 yrs $44,828.17 $13,220.16 208 total $43,716.03 $14,570.46 1,006 more than 3 yrs $21.15 $7.29 944 within 3 yrs $22.34 $7.27 246 total $21.40 $7.30 1190 figure 21. graduate satisfaction, 6 months after graduation, 2017-18 graduates 90% 80% 70% 60% 22% 22% 23% 30% 50% 40% 30% 20% 56% 61% more than 3 yrs within 3 yrs 48% 48% more than 3 yrs within 3 yrs 10% 0% % satisfaction with achieving goals satisfied % satisfaction with prep.for work very satisfied regression results as described in the methodology section, three populations were analysed for each outcome of interest: full population, all transfers (internal and external), and internal transfers only (previously attended their own colleges). dependent variables included retention or graduation after one, two, and three years, graduation within four years, and grades of b and above. since these variables were designed as dichotomous variables, taking values 0 or 1, logistic modelling was employed for the econometric analysis. overall, four models were estimated, each for both the full and ontario populations. models one and two are based on the full population, the only difference being how the pathway variable is defined (transfers vs non-transfers or all detailed pathways). model three is based on the transfer population (internal and external 44 combined). model four is estimated on the internal transfer population. 19 the ontario population includes those with ontario high school records and those with a valid permanent ontario postal code; it excludes international students. regression tables are in appendix 3. full population pathway effects in the analysis with a simplified pathway variable, transfer students are more likely than non-transfer students to be retained in their degree program (model 1, not shown). 20 these students are also more likely to graduate within four years and get a b average or better. controlling for high school records and income largely confirms these results. in the model with a detailed pathway variable, the reference group was the direct pathway from high school (appendix 3.1 1, appendix 3.1 2). students who came indirectly from high school are less likely to be retained, graduate within four years, and get a b average or better, compared to high school directentry students. these effects also hold within the ontario-only population, when controlling for high school grades. internal transfer students are more likely to graduate within four years but are less likely to obtain a b average or better, compared to high school direct students. when controlling for high school grades, within the ontario-only population, the only significant outcome is that they are less likely to be retained at year three. there are minimal significant differences between students who transferred from other colleges and students who enrolled directly from high school, even when controlling for high school grades. the exception is retention at the three-year mark, which is lower than for direct entrants, both overall and within the ontario population. previous university students are more likely to have higher retention rates (after one and two years) and grades, compared to direct-entry students. when including high school grades for the ontario students, these results hold only for the grades outcome. compared to students with a direct pathway from high school, students who have both previous college and university experience are less likely to be retained after three years but more likely to obtain a b average or better. this effect only holds for retention at year three, within the ontario population. in summary, students from university outperform direct entry high school students on many of the outcomes studied. students transferring from another college or students who previously attended their own colleges are not significantly different, whereas non-direct hs students underperform relative to direct entry high school students. two models are not reported and can be shared upon request. one includes the simplified pathway variable of transfer vs non-transfer (model 1 described above). for the internal transfers, an additional model including the pre-degree credits (which were not available for one college) was also estimated. 20 the term retention will be used throughout to indicate those either still enrolled or graduated from degree program of entry. 19 45 socio-demographic variables males are less likely than females to be retained and are also less likely to graduate within four years and to achieve a b average or better. these results also hold when controlling for high school variables, except for the one-year retention, for which there is no significant gender effect. in general, the older age groups, particularly students 21 and older, have stronger retention rates and grades, relative to those less than 19 years of age. the effect of age on grades is especially strong in the full population and even stronger within the ontario population. compared to students born in canada, international and domestic students not born in canada are less likely to be retained after one year, but with no differences in the other years. this result disappears when controlling for high school and income effects in the domestic population not born in canada. when looking at graduation rates and grades, domestic students not born in canada are less likely to graduate within four years and get a b average or better (this result also applies to the ontario population). however, there is no significant difference between international students and students who were born in canada when looking at graduation rates and grades. this differs from the descriptive results, in which international students and students born in canada differed across all measures. this is due in part to international students being more likely to take business programs and less likely to be block and transfer students, all factors independently associated with low retention rates and grades. students from high income neighbourhoods are 1.2 times more likely to be retained for years one to three, compared to students from low-income neighbourhoods, with no significant effect on grades or graduation rates. degree program area and college of attendance students enrolled in community service, creative and applied arts, and health degrees outperformed students in business degrees (the reference) across all outcomes. across all the models, students in these areas are between 1.5 and two times more likely to be retained after one, two, and three years after entry. students from these three program areas are also 1.5 to 2.4 times more likely (dependent on the regression model) to graduate within four years and get a b average or better. these results also extend to the ontario population. enrolling in a degree program in the engineering/technology area increases the likelihood of being retained after one and two years as well as that of achieving a b average or better. however, this result does not hold after controlling for high school and income effects (ontario population). 21 for the four-year graduation rates, engineering/ technology students have reverse results, with lower rates than business in both the full and ontario populations. there is no significant effect of enrolling in a degree program in the hospitality area relative to the business area. college of attendance is also a significant factor, even after controlling for a wide variety of factors, both overall and within the ontario population, indicating that differences are not due to program mix, high school admission grades, transfer pathway, or sociodemographic factors. differences between institutions are fairly consistent for retention and grades, with one institution (college b) outperforming the reference college, and the other three underperforming on several of the outcomes. however, fouryear graduation rates do not always show the same pattern. college b continues to outperform others for retention and grades, whereas the reference college obtains similar four-year graduation rates to the other three colleges, which may be attributable to other unmeasured variables. 22 analysis by program area shows engineering/tech students have stronger hs backgrounds than business students, which likely explains the differences. 22 for example, some degrees may take 4.5 years rather than 4 years to complete. 21 46 high school variables as seen in the descriptive results, high school grades are highly associated with strong degree outcomes. students with higher high school grades, i.e., greater than 70%, are generally more likely to stay enrolled at the one-, two-, and three-year mark, compared to students with a gpa of less than 60%. these students are also significantly more likely to graduate within four years and to get a b average or better. a similar pattern is seen for the number of failed courses in high school, with those who did not fail any courses outperforming those who failed one to two for year-one retention rate, grades, and 4-year graduation rates. in contrast, students who took mainly university or mixed preparatory courses in high school, compared to those who took mostly college preparatory courses, are less likely to be enrolled after one and three years, and to graduate within four years of enrolment. there is no difference in the share getting a b average or better. this can be explained by a predominance of students who have taken the college transfer route, as seen in the descriptive data (figure 8). students who have taken the college transfer route often also obtain block transfers because they do not have the prerequisites from high school. this pathway was found to be a remarkably successful one. similarly, high school students who were eligible for college based on high school background alone (i.e., >65% gpa, 6+ u/m courses) are not significantly different on any of the outcomes analyzed, compared to students who are not eligible for college. transfer population pathway effect model 3 (appendix 3.1 3, appendix 3.1 4) restricts the analysis to transfer students only, and thus removes those without a previous postsecondary record. using internal transfers as the reference, results show that students who previously attended another college do not differ in their retention rates, but they are more likely to get better grades, when high school grades are not in the model. students transferring from university are more likely, across all outcomes, to outperform internal transfers. this result extends to the analysis based on the ontario population only. students with a combined previous college and university background are 1.2 times more likely to be retained after two years, in the full population only. they are also more likely to get a b average or better, in both the full and the ontario- only population. there is a strongly significant effect of being granted block terms on retention rates, graduation rates, and grades in the full population and within the ontario-only population. in general, these students (compared to those who did not receive any block credit) are about twice more likely to be retained after one and two years, with similar coefficients at each block credit level. students with block credit are significantly more likely to graduate within four years and to receive a b average or better in their degree, with higher amounts of block credit associated with higher coefficients. in addition, graduating before transferring, rather than transferring without completing a credential, results in students being about 1.6 times more likely to be retained in following years and about twice more likely to graduate within four years of degree entry and achieve a b average or better. socio-demographic variables in contrast with the full population, within the transfer population, the gender effect is inconsistent across models. whereas female students have stronger graduation rate and grades, they do not differ 47 from male students at any of the retention time points. as well, after controlling for high school variables and income, the significant effects disappear. relative to transfer students who entered their degree before age 21, older students are less likely to be retained or to graduate within four years. however, older students are more likely to obtain a b average or better, particularly when high school grades are included in the model. compared to those born in canada, domestic students not born in canada are not significantly different in their retention but are less likely to get a b average or better or graduate within four years. international students, compared to those born in canada, are more likely to be retained after two years but less likely to receive a b average or better. relative to low-income students, regressions show that students coming from high-income neighbourhoods are more likely to be retained after both one and two years. students from mid-income neighbourhoods, but not high-income neighbourhoods, are more likely to obtain a b average or better. however, neighbourhood income does not play a significant role in graduation rates within the transfer population. degree program area and college of attendance compared to business students, those enrolled in programs in the areas of community service, creative and applied arts, and health have a strongly significant higher likelihood of being retained, to graduate within four years, and to obtain a b average or better (this result extends to the ontario population as well). students enrolled in the engineering/technology area are more likely to be retained at year-2 and to achieve a b average or better, but only in the full population (year-1 retention is significant for both full and ontario only populations). however, there is no statistically significant difference for graduation rates. the hospitality area does not have a significantly different impact on any of our outcome variables. as in the full population, there remains some difference between colleges in the transfer population, but with less consistency. college b continues to outperform the reference college; however, two of the three colleges that previously had weaker outcomes generally differ in only some models, with only college c continuing to underperform relative to the reference. this indicates that within the transfer population, the outcomes across the college are somewhat more homogenous. high school variables within the transfer student population, high school grades continue to have a significant influence on outcomes. compared to students with grades less than 60%, students with a high school gpa greater than 60%, are more likely to be retained within two years of starting a degree program. students with an a average in high school are also 2.5 times more likely to graduate within four years. the association between high school grades and college grades is particularly strong, with students with a high school average of 70%-79% and >80%, 2.7 and 7.5 times more likely to get a b average or better, respectively. there is no significant effect of failing hs courses on either retention rates, graduation rate, or grades. students who took mainly university and mixed preparatory courses in high school are 1.2 times more likely to achieve a b or better, compared to those who did not. however, there is no evidence of differences related to retention rates and graduation rates. similarly, high school students who were 48 eligible for college based only on high school grades are not more or less likely to be retained, but they are 1.2 times more likely to get better grades, compared to non-eligible students. internal transfer population pathway effect students who previously graduated from their own colleges before transferring are more likely to be retained after one year. controlling for high school background and income shows that these students are more likely to be retained one and two years after first enrollment and to get a b average or better (appendix 3.1 5, appendix 3.1 6). in the full population, students who received up to four block terms are more likely to be retained after one and two years. those students who are granted more than four blocks are found to be about 2.8 times more likely to be retained after two years. students who were granted any number of block terms are also more likely to graduate within four years and do so with a b average or better. in the ontario population, results show that students with three to four block terms are 1.5 times more likely to be retained after one year. those who are granted more than three blocks are about twice more likely to be retained after two years. for this population, any number of blocks will have the effect of increasing the likelihood of graduating on time between three to six times. only those ontario students who are granted more than three blocks are more likely to graduate with a b average or better. pre-degree variables apart from health and non-aps programs, there is no particularly significant effect associated with the area of pre-degree studies, compared to the business reference group. in particular, in the full population, we find that students in the health area are less likely to be retained one and two years after degree enrollment but 1.8 times more likely to achieve a b average or better, compared to business students. for ontario students, a decreased likelihood of being retained after two years is found. students who enrolled in non-ontario credential pre-degree programs are also less likely to be retained after one year and to graduate within four years, an effect seen only in the full population. compared to students who earned a three-year diploma, those who earned a one-year certificate or a two-year diploma are less likely to get a b average or better in their degree. this result applies to both the full and ontario-only populations. for ontario students, it is also found that those who earned a one-year certificate are less likely to be retained after one year, while those with a two-year diploma are more likely to be retained after two years. there is strong evidence that students with a pre-degree gpa lower than an a are less likely to be retained, graduate on time, and get a b average or better. in other words, students who do well in their pre-degree programs are more likely to achieve good degree outcomes. socio-demographic variables in contrast to the models described previously, a significant effect of gender on retention or four-year graduation rates for the population who transferred from their own colleges was not found. however, in the full population males are less likely to achieve a b average or better, an effect that disappears in the ontario population which includes high school background. 49 students who enrolled at between 23 and 24 years old are less likely to be retained after two years and graduate after four years, compared to those who enrolled at 20 years old and younger. those who enrolled at 25 years old and older are also less likely to be retained and to graduate on time. domestic students who were not born in canada are more likely to be retained after two years. international students have a higher likelihood to be retained after two years and to graduate after four years, compared to students who were born in canada. while there is no significant neighbourhood income effect on retention and graduation rates, results show that students from mid-income neighbourhood are more likely to get a b average or better, compared to those residing in low-income ones. 23 high school variables there is no significant effect of having taken mainly university and college preparatory courses on retention, graduation rate, or grades. also, while high school grades seem not to matter for retention, results show that achieving a high school average of at least 70% increases the likelihood of achieving a b average or better in the degree. 24 similarly, those who would have been eligible for the college degree based on high school background did not differ significantly on retention rates, graduation rate, or grades. degree program area and college of attendance students enrolled in degree programs in the community service area are more likely to get a b average or better, compared to business students. ontario students in this area are also more likely to be retained after one year and are twice more likely to graduate on time. students in the creative and applied arts area are more likely to be retained and about twice more likely than business students to graduate on time and receive a high degree average. those enrolled in degrees in the health area are also more likely to be retained and to graduate on time. results do not show a significant effect on retention of attending programs in the hospitality and engineering/technology areas. however, students enrolled in engineering/technology programs are more likely than business students to obtain a b or better. different patterns by college of attendance occur when focussing on the internal transfer population. college b, which previously outperformed the reference college, only outperforms in the achievement of a b average or better and one-year retention, in the full population. the differences in the other three colleges are inconsistent across outcomes. overall, factors that were previously associated with success in the full student population or transfer population are no longer or inconsistently significant (gender, income, high school background), or have switched to becoming a positive effect on outcomes (students not canadian-born). the main drivers of success in the internal transfer population are obtaining block credit and high pre-degree grades. as well, strong high school grades, but not course selection, have a significant effect, specifically on grades in the degree. 23 24 the same trend for students from high-income neighbourhoods was found with a p<0.1. this result relates to two gpa brackets, 70%-79% and 80% and more. 50 discussion pathways to college degrees this study, using mainly administrative data, tracked over 21,000 ontario college degree entrants through the years 2015-16 and 2019-20. the five colleges included comprise 85% of college degree graduates in ontario in 2019-20. the results show that both the academic and sociodemographic backgrounds of college degree students were diverse. only one-third of students came directly from high school, with an additional 12% coming indirectly, and 55% of degree entrants had some form of postsecondary attendance before entering their college degree. over a third of students had previously attended their own colleges, 17% attended a university, and over 11% attended a different college before entering their college degree, with many students attending more than one institution. overall, a fifth of all degree entrants obtained advanced standing (block credit), with 35% of transfers obtaining block credit, internal college transfers getting the most credit, and university transfers getting the least. all colleges in the study had a similarly diverse student pathway profile. academic outcomes the key question of this study was whether students who enter college degrees at an advanced semester (block credit pathway), irrespective of pathway, fare as well as students who take all four years of the degree. the study found that the 20% of degree entrants who took block pathways actually outperformed those who had not, in terms of all measured outcomes, including retention rate, graduation rate and grades. for example, 77% of block students obtained a b average or better, compared with 61% of those without block credit. similarly, 72% of block students graduated within four years, compared with 41% of those without block. to determine whether the effect of block transfers was due to the block itself or the previous postsecondary experience, regression models were conducted within the transfer student population. regression results showed that within each of the full transfer population and the internal transfer (own college) population, transfers who obtained block credit also had stronger outcomes than those without block credit, when controlling for a variety of variables. overall, 75% of degree students continued into their second year of their degree program, 68% of entrants either graduated or continued to the third year of their degree of entry, and 65% obtained a b average or better. within four years of entry, 46% graduated from the degree they started. some differences in outcomes were found due to sociodemographic factors, pathways, degree program area, academic background, and college of attendance. in terms of the effect of student pathway, students without any previous postsecondary education and who were over 19 years of age (hs non-direct), lagged behind those from other pathways, both in the descriptive analysis and in the regression models. a much higher share of this group did not have the required hs grades and courses to enter the degree than those under 19 years of age who entered directly. further investigation into the sub-pathways of this population is necessary. despite having weaker hs backgrounds, in general previous college students (from both internal and external) performed similarly to those entering directly from high school in terms of retention and grades and were more likely to graduate within four years. university students performed somewhat better than direct entry, even with limited pathways to degrees. this leads to the question of whether pathways for university students should be enhanced upon program and curricular review, particularly for prevalent programs and universities of origin. 51 this study also investigated internal transfers, i.e., students who entered a non-degree initially and then transferred within the college to a degree, including those with and without advanced standing in the degree. this analysis was more comprehensive since it was possible to obtain students pre-degree history, particularly pre-degree grades. with the internal college transfers, it was found that sociodemographic characteristics and high school grades mattered little on academic outcomes. degree program area, pre-degree grades, and college of attendance had the main impacts on outcomes, while high school grades and previous graduation at their college were only significant with gpa as the outcome in the regression models. this effect was seen in a previous study with college-to-university transfers, in which student characteristics did not have an impact on post-transfer outcomes for seneca business students who transferred to university (mccloy, et al, 2019). success post-transfer appears to be more reliant on academic performance than other characteristics. similarly, a previous study from an ontario college found that male transfer students did not differ from their female counterparts in terms of retention, however they did differ in the non-transfer population (gorman, et al, 2012). this may indicate that the pre-degree academic pathway filled in any potential academic gaps, ensuring success after transfer. it is also interesting to note the relative success of students entering the degree from the college preparatory programs. these programs offer an alternate pathway to a degree for those who either dont have the specialized background (e.g., art fundamentals), or do not have the high school grades, or were previously unsure of their program of interest (general arts and science). however, they rarely provide advanced standing or transfer credit. descriptive data show that this group had higher retention and graduation rates, and similar grades compared to the rest of the population. in addition, when compared to other internal transfers, those from preparatory programs had similar retention, but with lower graduation rates and grades. in the regression models, the preparatory programs did not differ from other pre-degree program areas. it appears that these preparatory programs provide a viable access pathway to college degrees, and a closer look at which specific programs are the most successful is warranted. student characteristics by pathway students who transferred from university or entered their college degree directly from high school were more likely to have come from higher-income neighbourhoods, compared to those who came from their own or another college, or those taking the non-direct pathway from high school. as well, students not born in canada were less likely to have enrolled directly from high school than the other pathways. the results from high school records show that students who transferred from college, either their own or an external college, were the least likely to have taken university preparatory courses in high school and to have obtained the grades and courses required for admission to a college degree. clearly, college transfers relied on a transfer pathway for degree access. focusing on the profile of those who obtained advanced standing (block credit), the study found that females, older students, domestic students not born in canada, and low-income students are the most likely to enter their degree through a block credit pathway. although there was no administrative data on students with disability, the results from the 2017-18-matched kpi graduate satisfaction survey suggested that students graduating within three years (advanced standing) were more likely to report a disability than the rest of the sample who took longer than three years, indicating that students with disabilities are also more likely to take the block transfer pathway. while in high school, degree entrants 52 who took mostly college preparation rather than university preparation courses, failed more courses, and had a lower averages, averaged the most block credit when entering their college degree. it is apparent that these students likely did not have the aspirations for a degree during high school and were able during college to achieve the academic requirements to enter the degree at an advanced standing. it is well understood that in ontario and other jurisdictions, university students are more likely to be higher income and have parents with degrees, and less likely to have a disability or to be indigenous than college students (zhao, 2012; ford, et al, 2019; statistics canada, 2022). there is some evidence that this holds true within college credentials, with college degree students being more likely to report having a parent with pse, and slightly less likely to have a disability or to be indigenous, than non-degree college students 25 (wheelahan, 2017). in order to increase diversity of those attaining college degrees skolnik and others (2018) suggested that pathways from diploma to degree are needed, particularly the 2 + 2 model (2-year diploma/2 years in degree) (skolnik et al, 2018). the results of the current study seem to affirm this. the block pathways that colleges have developed are effective in increasing the diversity of degree students in ontario and provide an opportunity for students to bridge and enhance their academic skills, to not only enter a college degree but also to utilize their diploma to enter at an advanced level. the pathway option, therefore, offers a second chance for students who did not consider a degree, whether at a college or university, while in high school. the pathway route provides them with a fresh start to prove themselves academically while earning advanced credit towards their degree. pre-degree characteristics of internal transfers this report included a special focus on students who had previously attended their own colleges before entering the degree. this was possible due to the availability of historical pre-degree student records housed within each college. 26 these internal transfers encompassed 31% of all degree entrants, 18% of whom also attended additional institutions. overall, the data shows that students are moving within the same subject area, ranging from 68% moving within hospitality to 94% moving within community service. the role of preparatory programs as feeders to college degrees is also evident, with a quarter of all students who transferred internally originating in a preparatory program in either general arts and science or in specialized areas such as creative and applied arts or health. overall, students transferring internally had a strong academic history within the college, with 76% having a credential and 77% who obtained a b average or better pre-degree. this strong academic performance in college is evident in the number of students who qualified for block credit, with almost 50% qualifying overall. graduate outcomes as discussed in the introduction, labour market outcomes of transfer students are infrequently studied, and outcomes specific to transfers into college degrees have not been studied in ontario. the preliminary descriptive findings with one year of graduate data from the provincial kpi graduate satisfaction survey indicate that satisfaction, earnings, and job relatedness may be somewhat higher for note, however, that the ontario colleges who grant degrees are concentrated in the gta and therefore also have a smaller indigenous population overall. 26 with the exception of individual transfer course credit grades, colleges did not centrally house pre-degree gpas and pre-degree program from previous institutions. in previous research student education numbers were shared with the transfer institution, so that information was transferred. 25 53 those who took the transfer route. it may be that students who enter a diploma first and then decide to continue in a similar field have a higher attachment to and interest in that field. further study using more years of data from the survey is warranted. key findings and recommendations 1. pathways into college degrees are very diverse: only one-third are traditional, i.e. under 20 years old with no previous pse; 55% have previous pse with 69% having a postsecondary credential, and 20% obtained block credit. students with block credit are more likely to be from lower income households and to not be born in canada, indicating it also may be a pathway for diverse students. 2. students from a block transfer pathway strongly outperform others: provides the opportunity to obtain a degree for those without hs grades or courses, provided they are successful in their pre-degree program. some preliminary evidence that labour market outcomes and satisfaction, six months after graduation, is stronger for graduates with advanced standing. recommendations: continue to encourage academically strong diploma students to transfer into degree programs. continue to enhance and expand other college-to-degree pathways. review opportunities where more ontario college certificate level preparatory programs could be created or enhanced to provide access to degrees. these pathways proved to be fairly successful in the current study. university transfers perform quite well and comprise a large share of degree entrants. however, block transfers for university students are rare. consider expanding and designing university-to-college degree pathways, particularly for high affinity programs. investigate and consider providing more support or bridging for students who entered nondirectly from high school, since their outcomes lagged compared to other pathways. 54 references anisef, p., robson, k. & mcdonald, e. 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(2019). postsecondary participation and household income appendix. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. gorman, g., phelps, c. & carley, r. (2012). exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students. toronto: oncat. martinello, f., & stewart, j. (2015). transfers from college to one ontario university: a four-year outcome study. canadian journal of higher education, 45(1), 1836 mccloy, u., williams, k. childs, s.e. & manoir, k. (2019). transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities. toronto: oncat. mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). what are the influencers of graduate satisfaction and labour market outcomes of ontario college graduates? an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey results. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. missaghian, r., & hon, h. 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(2012). postsecondary education participation of under-represented groups in ontario: evidence from the slid data. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 56 appendices appendix 1. list of program titles by program area program area business community service creative and applied arts health hospitality engineering/technology mcu program title bachelor of applied business (e-business supply chain management) bachelor of applied business (financial services management) bachelor of applied business (financial services) bachelor of applied business (human resources strategy and technology bachelor of applied business (international commerce and global development) bachelor of applied business (integrated accounting and information technology management) bachelor of applied business (international accounting and finance) bachelor of applied business (international business management) bachelor of commerce (accounting) bachelor of commerce (business management) bachelor of commerce (finance) bachelor of commerce (marketing) bachelor of applied arts (paralegal studies) bachelor of applied arts (behavioural psychology) bachelor of applied arts (child development) bachelor of applied arts (criminal justice) bachelor of applied human services (community and criminal justice) bachelor of behavioural science bachelor of community development bachelor of community mental health bachelor of early childhood leadership bachelor of early learning program development bachelor of interpretation (asl-english) bachelor of applied arts (public relations) bachelor of applied arts (animation) bachelor of applied arts (creative advertising) bachelor of applied arts (illustration) bachelor of applied arts (interior design) bachelor of applied business (fashion management) bachelor of applied music (contemporary music) bachelor of applied arts (film and media production) bachelor of applied arts (game design) bachelor of applied arts (interaction design) bachelor of applied arts (music theatre performance) bachelor of applied arts (photography) bachelor of craft and design bachelor of creative writing and publishing bachelor of design bachelor of digital communications bachelor of film and television bachelor of interdisciplinary studies bachelor of journalism bachelor of applied health sciences (athletic therapy) bachelor of applied health sciences (health informatics management) bachelor of applied arts (therapeutic recreation) bachelor of applied health sciences (exercise sciences and health promotion) bachelor of commerce (healthcare management) bachelor of environmental public health bachelor of health sciences (workplace health and wellness) collaborative nursing bachelor of applied business (hospitality operations management) bachelor of applied business (tourism management) bachelor of commerce (culinary management) bachelor of applied business (electronic business) bachelor of applied technology (architecture - project and facility management) bachelor of applied technology (flight program) bachelor of applied technology (informatics and security) bachelor of applied technology (integrated advanced manufacturing technologies) bachelor of applied technology (integrated telecommunication and computer technologies) bachelor of applied technology (software development) bachelor of applied computer science (mobile computing) bachelor of applied information sciences (information systems security) bachelor of engineering - building systems engineering bachelor of industrial design bachelor of technology (construction management) honours bachelor of commerce (business technology management) 57 appendix 2. sending and receiving institutions for college degree entrants. feeder institution institution name york university university of toronto toronto metropolitan u. george brown college sheridan college humber college wilfrid laurier university seneca college university of waterloo university of guelph centennial college mcmaster university mohawk college brock university western university fanshawe college university of ottawa georgian college carleton university ontario tech university queens university niagara college conestoga college algonquin college athabasca university university of windsor ocad university durham college fleming college trent university st. clair college st. lawrence college laurentian university lakehead university cambrian college canadore college loyalist college nipissing university confederation college sault college lambton college the michener institute la cit collgiale algoma university northern college collge boral total cons 14 15 16 10 41 18 84 11 83 49 <10 10 29 26 17 39 16 22 14 <10 23 16 -<10 30 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 11 <10 <10 <10 <10 0 <10 <10 <10 0 <10 0 0 0 <10 0 666 grbr 55 45 79 -17 28 16 24 12 14 <10 22 <10 15 <10 <10 12 <10 10 10 <10 <10 <10 0 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 0 0 <10 <10 <10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 437 receiving college humb sene 201 109 155 88 147 99 178 109 236 34 -104 62 15 117 -48 24 91 14 78 99 72 14 50 13 51 14 44 26 38 13 28 10 41 20 38 <10 18 24 16 <10 21 11 26 12 21 11 <10 <10 19 <10 <10 <10 17 14 13 13 22 <10 <10 <10 <10 13 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 0 0 0 <10 <10 <10 0 <10 0 <10 0 0 0 <10 0 1,917 975 sher 135 194 115 84 -163 68 83 66 64 23 72 73 59 44 28 47 23 26 29 28 26 26 24 20 23 34 15 19 <10 10 <10 11 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 0 <10 <10 <10 <10 0 1,695 notes: own college excluded, students may have attended multiple institutions, with each one included. <10=1-9 obs total 514 497 456 381 328 313 245 235 233 232 215 190 168 165 139 123 113 109 96 90 82 77 68 63 59 58 54 52 49 45 39 34 29 27 23 19 17 13 10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 <10 5,690 58 appendix 3. regression models appendix 3.1 1 full population retention rates variables gender (ref=female) degree start age (ref=< 19 yrs) male 19-20 21-22 23-24 25+ status in canada (ref= born in canada) domestic - not born in canada international degree program area (ref=business) community service creative & applied arts health hospitality engineering/technology college (ref= a) b c d e admission year (ref=2015-16) 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 admission term (ref=fall) summer neighbourhood income group (ref=low income) ontario region (ref=eastern) mid income winter high income central metro toronto southwest northern yes year 1 retention/ grad full pop'n ontario pop'n 0.845*** 0.934 (0.0303) (0.0436) 0.957 1.080 (0.0519) (0.0711) 1.117 1.333*** (0.0793) (0.118) 1.181** 1.471*** (0.0936) (0.148) 0.976 1.309*** (0.0707) (0.130) 0.923** 1.001 (0.0364) (0.0480) 0.848*** (0.0427) 1.505*** 1.629*** (0.0821) (0.112) 1.804*** 1.766*** (0.0896) (0.114) 1.590*** 1.501*** (0.0973) (0.117) 0.923 0.987 (0.111) (0.186) 1.130** 1.011 (0.0595) (0.0671) 1.226** 1.433*** (0.112) (0.191) 0.590*** 0.783** (0.0372) (0.0837) 0.734*** 0.818 (0.0502) (0.0915) 0.904 0.805** (0.0597) (0.0856) 0.873*** 0.623*** (0.0410) (0.0379) 1.077 0.810*** (0.0515) (0.0506) 0.859*** 0.632*** (0.0402) (0.0387) 0.934 1.024 (0.0928) (0.136) 0.740*** 0.734*** (0.0347) (0.0494) 1.071 (0.0615) 1.200*** (0.0705) 1.157 (0.165) 1.081 (0.159) 1.333 (0.215) 0.964 (0.250) 0.809** year 2 retention/ grad full pop'n ontario pop'n 0.774*** 0.856*** (0.0298) (0.0421) 0.980 1.086 (0.0567) (0.0743) 1.102 1.367*** (0.0831) (0.125) 1.058 1.286** (0.0887) (0.134) 0.983 1.247** (0.0760) (0.129) 0.990 1.004 (0.0419) (0.0511) 0.978 (0.0556) 1.526*** 1.568*** (0.0894) (0.115) 1.768*** 1.668*** (0.0928) (0.112) 1.864*** 1.630*** (0.125) (0.136) 0.952 0.937 (0.123) (0.178) 1.176*** 1.008 (0.0669) (0.0707) 0.877 0.946 (0.0810) (0.124) 0.607*** 0.706*** (0.0412) (0.0769) 0.651*** 0.671*** (0.0479) (0.0771) 0.834*** 0.761** (0.0585) (0.0823) 1.011 0.847*** (0.0440) (0.0460) 0.953 0.805*** (0.0410) (0.0435) year 3 retention/ grad full pop'n ontario pop'n 0.748*** 0.829*** (0.0345) (0.0490) 1.068 1.189** (0.0737) (0.0973) 1.326*** 1.741*** (0.118) (0.189) 1.286** 1.693*** (0.129) (0.212) 1.272*** 1.524*** (0.118) (0.192) 0.977 1.024 (0.0498) (0.0632) 0.912 (0.0641) 1.516*** 1.563*** (0.108) (0.140) 2.043*** 1.836*** (0.127) (0.145) 1.798*** 1.577*** (0.145) (0.160) 0.863 0.674 (0.147) (0.168) 1.135 0.931 (0.0778) (0.0787) 1.136 1.421** (0.125) (0.223) 0.684*** 0.980 (0.0550) (0.126) 0.587*** 0.685*** (0.0515) (0.0936) 0.771*** 0.761** (0.0633) (0.0966) 0.892*** 0.735*** (0.0377) (0.0386) 0.387*** (0.0334) 0.767*** (0.0403) 0.293*** (0.0322) 0.914 (0.0595) 0.396*** (0.0437) 0.808*** (0.0599) 1.022 (0.0625) 1.166** (0.0724) 1.263 (0.188) 1.136 (0.174) 1.256 (0.209) 1.006 (0.274) 0.850 0.310*** (0.0427) 0.958 (0.0891) 1.016 (0.0752) 1.224*** (0.0921) 1.293 (0.223) 1.142 (0.204) 1.463** (0.283) 0.911 (0.297) 0.783** 59 >50% gr 11/12 hs courses u/m (ref=no) hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) (ref=<60%) year 1 retention/ grad (0.0693) year 2 retention/ grad (0.0761) year 3 retention/ grad (0.0870) 1.091 (0.131) 1.645*** (0.211) 2.742*** (0.376) 0.794*** (0.0525) 0.865 (0.0928) 0.939 (0.0501) 1.303** (0.175) 1.875*** (0.268) 2.949*** (0.444) 0.912 (0.0654) 0.890 (0.103) 0.898 (0.0513) 1.210 (0.208) 1.729*** (0.315) 2.821*** (0.539) 0.846 (0.0740) 0.843 (0.119) 0.997 (0.0698) 60-69% 70-79% >=80% # failed grade 11/12 courses (ref=0) 1-2 eligible for college (6u/m, >65%) (ref=no) pathway to degree (ref=hs direct entry) yes >=3 hs non-direct 0.559*** 0.622*** 0.593*** 0.637*** 0.506*** 0.557*** (0.0378) (0.0550) (0.0441) (0.0607) (0.0455) (0.0641) own college 0.981 0.892 0.996 0.879 0.889 0.767*** (0.0575) (0.0663) (0.0621) (0.0673) (0.0660) (0.0704) prev college 0.874 0.861 0.899 0.825 0.747*** 0.684*** (0.0663) (0.0840) (0.0731) (0.0848) (0.0738) (0.0867) prev univ 1.331*** 1.106 1.313*** 1.108 1.063 0.870 (0.0990) (0.0995) (0.102) (0.102) (0.0972) (0.0948) prev college & univ 0.939 0.834 1.000 0.854 0.791** 0.647*** (0.0865) (0.0978) (0.0967) (0.102) (0.0925) (0.0943) constant 3.956*** 2.674*** 2.620*** 1.454 2.004*** 1.023 (0.304) (0.643) (0.209) (0.369) (0.184) (0.314) observations 20,996 14,336 15,546 10,624 10,158 6,945 pseudo r-squared 0.0384 0.0541 0.0395 0.0514 0.0491 0.0675 *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05. transfer pathways= other and unknown not shown; status in canada= unknown country of birth not shown appendix 3.1 2 full population graduation rates and grades graduated in 4 years gender (ref=female) degree start age (ref=< 19 yrs) variables male 19-20 21-22 23-24 25+ status in canada (ref= born in canada) domestic - not born in canada international degree program area (ref=business) community service creative & applied arts health hospitality engineering/technology college (ref= a) b full pop'n 0.672*** (0.0319) 0.964 (0.0673) 1.278*** (0.117) 1.400*** (0.147) 1.107 (0.107) 0.845*** (0.0454) 0.962 (0.0737) 2.086*** (0.156) 2.074*** (0.132) 2.027*** (0.166) 0.730 (0.139) 0.820** (0.0641) 1.636*** (0.186) gpa b or better ontario pop'n 0.796*** (0.0477) 1.099 (0.0908) 1.595*** (0.178) 1.827*** (0.241) 1.246 (0.167) 0.845** (0.0554) 2.424*** (0.227) 1.858*** (0.149) 1.817*** (0.185) 0.647 (0.177) 0.649*** (0.0630) 2.580*** (0.412) full pop'n 0.664*** (0.0218) 0.885** (0.0430) 1.060 (0.0678) 1.300*** (0.0940) 1.682*** (0.114) 0.799*** (0.0290) 1.007 (0.0481) 1.596*** (0.0805) 2.148*** (0.0975) 1.747*** (0.0988) 1.035 (0.122) 1.250*** (0.0617) 1.468*** (0.125) ontario pop'n 0.858*** (0.0370) 1.057 (0.0639) 1.533*** (0.125) 2.092*** (0.198) 2.648*** (0.254) 0.861*** (0.0387) 1.978*** (0.128) 1.678*** (0.0993) 1.454*** (0.106) 1.073 (0.205) 0.953 (0.0613) 2.736*** (0.343) 60 graduated in 4 years c d e admission year (ref=2015-16) 2016-17 2017-18 gpa b or better 1.147 (0.0925) 0.956 (0.0892) 1.112 (0.0924) 0.780*** (0.0361) 1.671*** (0.213) 1.188 (0.169) 1.147 (0.144) 0.642*** (0.0362) 1.370** (0.199) 1.000 (0.0936) 1.414 (0.268) 1.028 (0.140) 0.976 (0.0761) 1.072 (0.0839) 1.078 (0.186) 0.901 (0.162) 1.054 (0.202) 0.914 (0.299) 0.663*** (0.0782) 2018-19 admission term (ref=fall) summer winter neighbourhood income group (ref=low income) mid income ontario region (ref=eastern) central high income metro toronto southwest northern >50% gr 11/12 hs courses u/m (ref=no) hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) (ref=<60%) yes 60-69% 70-79% >=80% number of failed grade 11/12 courses (ref=0) 1-2 eligible for college (6u/m, >65%) (ref=no) yes pathway to degree (ref=hs direct entry) hs non-direct >=3 1.580** (0.322) 2.685*** (0.574) 5.162*** (1.140) 0.791** (0.0742) 0.952 (0.150) 0.971 0.546*** (0.0316) 0.602*** (0.0378) 0.675*** (0.0405) 1.008 (0.0435) 1.087 (0.0468) 1.084 (0.0466) 2.027*** (0.212) 0.826*** (0.0374) 0.772*** (0.0752) 0.889 (0.0915) 0.695*** (0.0672) 0.880** (0.0489) 0.926 (0.0516) 0.913 (0.0510) 2.301*** (0.325) 0.798*** (0.0537) 1.115** (0.0610) 1.103 (0.0609) 0.901 (0.125) 0.839 (0.120) 1.083 (0.168) 1.409 (0.375) 1.031 (0.0794) 1.381*** (0.165) 3.046*** (0.386) 10.75*** (1.459) 0.741*** (0.0465) 0.787** (0.0818) 1.103 (0.0715) (0.0553) 0.490*** 0.463*** 0.660*** 0.577*** (0.0478) (0.0579) (0.0418) (0.0489) own college (only) 1.283*** 1.191 0.901** 1.076 (0.0969) (0.112) (0.0474) (0.0738) prev college 0.937 0.815 0.888 0.930 (0.0959) (0.107) (0.0617) (0.0839) prev univ 1.107 0.872 1.600*** 1.196** (0.103) (0.0964) (0.107) (0.0989) prev college & univ 0.921 0.845 1.460*** 1.112 (0.113) (0.129) (0.131) (0.126) constant 0.684*** 0.311*** 2.206*** 0.463*** (0.0639) (0.101) (0.154) (0.107) observations 9,207 6,454 20,833 14,211 pseudo r-squared 0.0651 0.108 0.0553 0.140 *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05; transfer pathways= other and unknown not shown; status in canada= unknown country of birth not shown 61 appendix 3.1 3 transfer population retention rates gender (ref=female) variables male degree start age (ref=20& u) 21-22 23-24 25+ status in canada (ref= born in canada) domestic - not born in canada international degree program area (ref=business) community service creative & applied arts health hospitality engineering/technology college (ref= a) b c d e admission year (ref=2015-16) 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 admission term (ref=fall) summer winter neighbourhood income group (ref=low income) mid income ontario region (ref=eastern) central high income metro toronto southwest northern >50% gr 11/12 hs courses u/m (ref=no) hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) (ref=<60%) yes 60-69% 70-79% year one retention full pop'n ontario pop'n 0.991 1.069 (0.0497) (0.0701) 1.058 1.081 (0.0678) (0.0837) 0.961 0.986 (0.0729) (0.0928) 0.741*** 0.851 (0.0489) (0.0790) 0.916 0.996 (0.0490) (0.0676) 1.125 (0.0919) 1.360*** 1.380*** (0.101) (0.132) 1.836*** 1.945*** (0.131) (0.179) 1.562*** 1.707*** (0.125) (0.180) 0.775 0.903 (0.128) (0.235) 1.286*** 1.223** (0.103) (0.123) 1.385** 1.594** (0.183) (0.313) 0.565*** 0.695** (0.0490) (0.106) 0.908 0.945 (0.0865) (0.154) 1.011 0.950 (0.0915) (0.144) 0.893 0.663*** (0.0579) (0.0566) 1.145** 0.922 (0.0752) (0.0806) 0.992 0.763*** (0.0656) (0.0672) 0.672*** 0.665*** (0.0772) (0.0987) 0.637*** 0.686*** (0.0396) (0.0594) 1.049 (0.0849) 1.201** (0.0991) 0.805 (0.198) 0.791 (0.200) 0.857 (0.231) 0.998 (0.428) 0.879 (0.0829) 1.010 (0.164) 1.412** (0.246) year two retention full pop'n ontario pop'n 0.918 0.999 (0.0487) (0.0683) 0.941 1.022 (0.0627) (0.0816) 0.798*** 0.816** (0.0630) (0.0791) 0.687*** 0.830 (0.0485) (0.0817) 1.062 1.095 (0.0604) (0.0781) 1.223** (0.107) 1.420*** 1.428*** (0.112) (0.144) 1.732*** 1.837*** (0.129) (0.175) 1.747*** 1.757*** (0.152) (0.196) 0.850 0.985 (0.145) (0.245) 1.245*** 1.134 (0.103) (0.116) 0.969 1.074 (0.122) (0.202) 0.616*** 0.710** (0.0564) (0.112) 0.818** 0.872 (0.0821) (0.146) 0.967 1.005 (0.0905) (0.156) 0.991 0.828** (0.0598) (0.0637) 0.867** 0.758*** (0.0510) (0.0574) 0.231*** (0.0233) 0.705*** (0.0484) 0.235*** (0.0301) 0.801** (0.0757) 1.057 (0.0894) 1.224** (0.104) 1.032 (0.249) 1.034 (0.256) 1.170 (0.311) 1.602 (0.721) 0.986 (0.0972) 1.459** (0.252) 1.836*** (0.339) 62 year one retention year two retention 1.888*** 2.446*** (0.353) (0.481) number of failed grade 11/12 courses 1-2 0.879 1.116 (ref=0) (0.0846) (0.117) >=3 1.088 1.032 (0.163) (0.162) eligible for college (6u/m, >65%) yes 0.986 0.904 (ref=no) (0.0737) (0.0713) pathway to degree (ref=own college) prev college 1.067 1.167 1.086 1.170 (0.0688) (0.0984) (0.0748) (0.105) prev univ 2.007*** 1.923*** 2.053*** 2.065*** (0.140) (0.172) (0.150) (0.193) prev college & univ 1.145 1.144 1.225** 1.201 (0.0943) (0.123) (0.105) (0.132) # block terms (ref=0) 1-2 2.019*** 1.832*** 1.995*** 1.794*** (0.185) (0.230) (0.190) (0.232) 3-4 2.100*** 2.174*** 2.126*** 2.205*** (0.149) (0.212) (0.159) (0.223) >4 1.331** 1.474 2.865*** 2.434*** (0.188) (0.307) (0.459) (0.548) previous pse grad yes 1.566*** 1.613*** 1.679*** 1.715*** (0.0868) (0.116) (0.0991) (0.129) constant 1.918*** 1.888 1.328*** 0.621 (0.202) (0.669) (0.144) (0.222) observations 11,493 7,510 8,667 5,632 pseudo r-squared 0.0500 0.0604 0.0585 0.0673 *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05; transfer pathways= other and unknown not shown; status in canada= unknown country of birth not shown >=80% appendix 3.1 4 transfer population graduation rates and grades gender (ref=female) degree start age (ref=20& u) variables male 21-22 23-24 25+ status in canada (ref= born in canada) domestic - not born in canada international degree program area (ref=business) community service creative & applied arts health hospitality college (ref= a) engineering/ technology b c d e graduated in 4 years full pop'n 0.804*** (0.0539) 0.972 (0.0808) 0.811** (0.0836) 0.593*** (0.0556) 0.844** (0.0633) 1.211 (0.139) 1.871*** (0.201) 2.628*** (0.248) 2.380*** (0.269) 0.729 (0.187) 1.000 (0.116) 1.228 (0.197) 1.118 (0.127) 1.244 (0.166) 1.126 (0.129) ontario pop'n 0.933 (0.0802) 1.117 (0.111) 0.907 (0.117) 0.632*** (0.0841) 0.880 (0.0829) 2.125*** (0.293) 2.555*** (0.308) 2.515*** (0.363) 0.610 (0.229) 0.832 (0.120) 1.754** (0.416) 1.499** (0.292) 1.443 (0.315) 1.143 (0.216) gpa b or better full pop'n 0.756*** (0.0350) 0.945 (0.0538) 1.010 (0.0701) 1.259*** (0.0794) 0.786*** (0.0393) 0.834** (0.0616) 1.491*** (0.103) 2.232*** (0.147) 1.898*** (0.144) 1.145 (0.191) 1.313*** (0.0985) 1.908*** (0.238) 0.546*** (0.0441) 0.764*** (0.0680) 0.866 (0.0719) ontario pop'n 0.952 (0.0577) 1.195** (0.0835) 1.421*** (0.125) 1.809*** (0.164) 0.799*** (0.0503) 1.700*** (0.153) 1.816*** (0.155) 1.606*** (0.159) 1.315 (0.361) 1.009 (0.0967) 3.136*** (0.583) 0.877 (0.124) 1.233 (0.187) 1.068 (0.150) 63 admission year (ref=2015-16) 2016-17 2017-18 graduated in 4 years 0.834*** 0.683*** (0.0561) (0.0569) 2018-19 admission term (ref=fall) summer neighbourhood income group (ref=low income) mid income ontario region (ref=eastern) central winter 0.671** (0.114) 0.777** (0.0991) high income metro toronto southwest northern >50% gr 11/12 hs courses u/m (ref=no) hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) (ref=<60%) yes 60-69% 70-79% >=80% number of failed grade 11/12 courses (ref=0) 1-2 eligible for college (6u/m, >65%) (ref=no) pathway to degree (ref=own college) yes # block terms (ref=0) >=3 prev college prev univ prev college & univ 1-2 3-4 >4 previous pse grad yes constant 0.946 (0.0884) 1.980*** (0.181) 0.991 (0.113) 3.863*** (0.473) 6.009*** (0.619) 11.71*** (2.835) 1.882*** (0.142) 0.293*** (0.0407) 4,915 0.125 0.668 (0.145) 0.886 (0.161) 0.956 (0.107) 1.098 (0.122) 0.927 (0.258) 0.881 (0.255) 0.989 (0.305) 1.148 (0.624) 0.801 (0.106) 1.110 (0.285) 1.545 (0.418) 2.489*** (0.706) 0.887 (0.124) 0.779 (0.167) 1.121 (0.115) 0.970 (0.117) 1.668*** (0.195) 0.973 (0.144) 3.831*** (0.665) 6.089*** (0.850) 9.276*** (3.126) 1.845*** (0.173) 0.205*** (0.0934) 3,217 0.143 gpa b or better 0.994 (0.0606) 1.092 (0.0678) 1.091 (0.0689) 1.178 (0.140) 0.748*** (0.0453) 1.159** (0.0700) 2.880*** (0.188) 1.919*** (0.160) 2.114*** (0.179) 2.152*** (0.140) 5.567*** (1.013) 1.886*** (0.0980) 0.848 (0.0835) 11,390 0.0886 0.912 (0.0720) 1.057 (0.0857) 1.009 (0.0837) 1.471** (0.228) 0.779*** (0.0659) 1.180** (0.0909) 1.130 (0.0870) 0.887 (0.194) 0.932 (0.210) 1.197 (0.290) 2.024 (0.853) 1.193** (0.101) 1.431** (0.216) 2.726*** (0.441) 7.464*** (1.315) 0.893 (0.0808) 0.909 (0.127) 1.159** (0.0813) 1.072 (0.0834) 2.023*** (0.171) 1.288** (0.137) 1.947*** (0.225) 2.131*** (0.186) 6.545*** (1.905) 1.908*** (0.129) 0.170*** (0.0552) 7,432 0.139 observations pseudo rsquared *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05; transfer pathways= other and unknown not shown; status in canada= unknown country of birth not shown 64 appendix 3.1 5 internal transfer population retention rates gender (ref=female) degree start age (ref=20& u) variables male 21-22 23-24 25+ status in canada (ref= born in canada) domestic - not born in canada international degree program area (ref=business) community service creative & applied arts health hospitality engineering/ technology college (ref= a) b c d e admission year (ref=2015-16) 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 admission term (ref=fall) summer winter neighbourhood income group (ref=low income) mid income ontario region (ref=eastern) central high income metro toronto southwest northern >50% gr 11/12 hs courses u/m (ref=no) hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) (ref=<60%) yes 60-69% 70-79% year one retention full pop'n 1.077 (0.0765) 1.058 (0.0988) 0.947 (0.106) 0.629*** (0.0614) 0.983 (0.0766) 1.076 (0.119) 1.344 (0.229) 1.687*** (0.231) 1.585*** (0.259) 0.814 (0.219) 1.288 (0.201) 1.630** (0.361) 0.402*** (0.0567) 1.057 (0.164) 0.723** (0.104) 0.978 (0.0913) 1.182 (0.111) 1.169 (0.113) 0.705** (0.0968) 0.640*** (0.0588) ontario pop'n 1.204 (0.114) 1.061 (0.122) 0.890 (0.125) 0.717** (0.1000) 1.042 (0.102) 1.668** (0.372) 1.771*** (0.338) 1.755*** (0.379) 1.484 (0.776) 1.336 (0.286) 1.821 (0.632) 0.532** (0.139) 1.194 (0.331) 0.763 (0.197) 0.707*** (0.0880) 0.922 (0.117) 0.911 (0.120) 0.685** (0.119) 0.696*** (0.0908) 1.019 (0.121) 1.207 (0.145) 0.638 (0.239) 0.697 (0.268) 0.761 (0.316) 1.214 (1.024) 0.943 (0.111) 0.843 (0.187) 1.223 (0.290) year two retention full pop'n 1.015 (0.0767) 0.961 (0.0932) 0.786** (0.0906) 0.547*** (0.0565) 1.184** (0.0971) 1.269** (0.151) 1.355 (0.248) 1.566*** (0.232) 1.715*** (0.304) 0.772 (0.239) 1.332 (0.227) 0.681 (0.137) 0.373*** (0.0569) 0.702** (0.117) 0.610*** (0.0930) 1.018 (0.0894) 0.663*** (0.0557) 0.221*** (0.0268) 0.715*** (0.0734) ontario pop'n 1.105 (0.110) 0.983 (0.116) 0.717** (0.103) 0.609*** (0.0887) 1.278** (0.132) 1.441 (0.346) 1.875*** (0.378) 1.913*** (0.439) 0.543 (0.311) 1.310 (0.296) 0.625 (0.198) 0.351*** (0.0957) 0.607 (0.173) 0.578** (0.154) 0.828 (0.0946) 0.532*** (0.0588) 0.216*** (0.0331) 0.789 (0.114) 1.022 (0.125) 1.273 (0.157) 0.656 (0.244) 0.733 (0.280) 0.673 (0.278) 1.560 (1.364) 0.951 (0.117) 1.064 (0.248) 1.187 (0.293) 65 >=80% number of failed grade 11/12 courses (ref=0) 1-2 eligible for college (6u/m, >65%) (ref=no) # block terms (ref= none) yes year one retention >=3 1.416 (0.374) 1.001 (0.148) 1.101 (0.231) 0.968 (0.101) 1-2 1.536*** 1.178 (0.201) (0.206) 3-4 1.892*** 1.537*** (0.196) (0.211) >4 0.961 0.802 (0.172) (0.200) previous grad own yes 1.242** 1.490*** college (0.117) (0.184) previously attended yes 0.886 0.815 additional pse (0.0868) (0.105) pre-degree program other (non aps) 0.587*** 0.452*** area (ref=business) (0.113) (0.130) community service 0.949 0.729 (0.182) (0.181) creative & applied arts 0.854 0.844 (0.141) (0.190) health 0.588** 0.578 (0.131) (0.169) hospitality 0.813 0.631 (0.231) (0.267) prep/ upgrading 1.178 1.514 (0.208) (0.405) engineering/ technology 0.974 0.902 (0.175) (0.209) pre-degree 1 yr certificate 0.928 0.637** credential type (0.150) (0.136) (ref= 3 yr diploma) 2 yr diploma 0.985 1.103 (0.110) (0.161) graduate certificate 0.596 0.864 (0.177) (0.506) pre-degree gpa b 0.587*** 0.642*** (ref=a) (0.0511) (0.0778) c 0.435*** 0.472*** (0.0466) (0.0689) d & below 0.309*** 0.349*** (0.0475) (0.0714) constant 6.054*** 7.998*** (1.370) (4.632) observations 6,064 3,914 pseudo r-squared 0.0759 0.0819 *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05; status in canada= unknown country of birth not shown year two retention 1.433 (0.391) 1.402** (0.224) 0.854 (0.185) 0.990 (0.106) 1.671*** (0.235) 2.340*** (0.262) 2.848*** (0.578) 1.146 (0.117) 0.858 (0.0856) 0.922 (0.194) 0.997 (0.203) 0.979 (0.175) 0.600** (0.146) 1.009 (0.323) 1.061 (0.202) 0.967 (0.184) 1.248 (0.215) 1.232 (0.144) 0.973 (0.301) 0.678*** (0.0588) 0.479*** (0.0531) 0.288*** (0.0477) 4.631*** (1.074) 4,560 0.0915 1.302 (0.244) 2.067*** (0.307) 2.187*** (0.604) 1.341** (0.180) 0.798 (0.103) 0.788 (0.247) 0.909 (0.241) 0.784 (0.187) 0.512** (0.161) 1.464 (0.752) 0.914 (0.259) 1.004 (0.244) 1.231 (0.282) 1.377** (0.207) 1.077 (0.621) 0.686*** (0.0798) 0.466*** (0.0684) 0.305*** (0.0664) 6.205*** (3.621) 2,932 0.107 gpa b or better full pop'n 0.857** (0.0590) 0.995 (0.0865) 0.876 (0.0932) 0.991 ontario pop'n 1.045 (0.0938) 1.130 (0.120) 1.037 (0.139) 1.273 appendix 3.1 6 internal transfers population graduation rates and grades gender (ref=female) degree start age (ref=20& u) variables male 21-22 23-24 25+ graduated in 4 years full pop'n 0.951 (0.0922) 0.951 (0.120) 0.685** (0.107) 0.416*** ontario pop'n 1.079 (0.136) 1.023 (0.154) 0.668** (0.131) 0.370*** 66 status in canada (ref= born in canada) domestic - not born in canada international degree program area (ref=business) community service 60-69% 0.906 (0.323) 0.893 (0.333) 1.433 (0.577) 0.808 (0.177) 0.578 (0.183) 1.142 (0.158) 1.143 (0.238) 1.707** (0.378) 3.343*** (0.843) 0.889 (0.123) 0.881 (0.177) 1.165 (0.116) b c d e 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 admission term (ref=fall) summer neighbourhood income group (ref=low income) mid income ontario region (ref=eastern) central winter 0.926 (0.188) 1.137 (0.224) high income metro toronto southwest northern >50% gr 11/12 hs courses u/m (ref=no) hs gpa mean (all gr 11/ 12 courses) (ref=<60%) (0.178) 0.932 (0.0877) 0.831 (0.138) engineering/ technology 2.143** (0.780) 2.197*** (0.634) 1.950** (0.634) 0.722 (0.569) 1.227 (0.425) 1.141 (0.499) 0.248*** (0.0825) 0.740 (0.275) 0.315*** (0.100) 0.849 (0.106) gpa b or better (0.0972) 0.905 (0.0693) 0.887 (0.0938) 1.523** (0.262) 2.242*** (0.309) 1.308 (0.209) 1.601 (0.442) 1.690*** (0.267) 2.293*** (0.500) 0.372*** (0.0493) 0.959 (0.141) 0.675*** (0.0909) 1.007 (0.0931) 1.102 (0.101) 1.226** (0.115) 1.128 (0.167) 0.773*** (0.0730) yes creative & applied arts hospitality admission year (ref=2015-16) (0.0758) 1.120 (0.155) 1.695** (0.378) 2.163*** (0.414) 1.344 (0.283) 2.164 (1.175) 1.723** (0.379) 2.112** (0.686) 0.365*** (0.0881) 0.869 (0.223) 0.528*** (0.124) 0.859 (0.101) 1.049 (0.124) 1.232 (0.150) 1.339 (0.250) 1.020 (0.135) 1.261** (0.145) 1.233 (0.140) 1.109 (0.355) 1.059 (0.354) 0.859 (0.310) 1.043 (0.687) 1.056 (0.116) health college (ref=a) graduated in 4 years (0.0594) 1.032 (0.114) 1.380** (0.216) 1.643 (0.450) 2.119*** (0.441) 1.640** (0.401) 0.551 (0.301) 1.131 (0.286) 0.977 (0.268) 0.335*** (0.0621) 1.125 (0.246) 0.441*** (0.0803) 0.991 (0.0981) 70-79% >=80% number of failed grade 11/12 courses (ref=0) 1-2 eligible for college (6u/m, >65%) (ref=no) yes >=3 1-2 3.055*** 0.803 (0.209) 1.324 (0.366) 0.875 (0.144) 1.061 (0.171) 1.067 (0.410) 0.923 (0.379) 0.721 (0.315) 2.938*** 1.557*** 1.374 67 graduated in 4 years (0.592) (0.785) 3-4 4.486*** 3.927*** (0.720) (0.867) >4 6.413*** 5.185*** (1.883) (2.119) previous grad own yes 1.195 1.297 college (0.161) (0.223) previously attended yes 1.071 0.963 additional pse (0.143) (0.164) pre-degree program other (non aps) 0.512** 0.459 area (ref=business) (0.154) (0.221) community service 1.339 1.319 (0.402) (0.509) creative & applied arts 1.148 1.138 (0.280) (0.373) health 0.871 1.037 (0.322) (0.499) hospitality 0.979 0.695 (0.487) (0.448) prep/ upgrading 1.200 1.470 (0.325) (0.559) engineering/ technology 0.750 0.741 (0.216) (0.279) pre-degree 1 yr certificate 1.056 0.842 credential type (0.244) (0.244) (ref= 3 yr diploma) 2 yr diploma 0.933 1.003 (0.149) (0.207) graduate certificate 0.884 1.188 (0.455) (1.191) pre-degree gpa b 0.602*** 0.729** (ref=a) (0.0663) (0.106) c 0.294*** 0.358*** (0.0433) (0.0692) d & below 0.135*** 0.169*** (0.0368) (0.0590) constant 1.582 2.214 (0.474) (1.596) observations 2,485 1,603 pseudo r-squared 0.157 0.168 *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05; status in canada= unknown country of birth not shown # block terms (ref= none) gpa b or better (0.198) 1.741*** (0.176) 4.006*** (0.900) 1.138 (0.105) 0.610*** (0.0618) 0.903 (0.179) 1.303 (0.249) 0.892 (0.150) 1.827** (0.432) 0.951 (0.281) 0.993 (0.177) 1.074 (0.193) 0.678** (0.109) 0.726*** (0.0800) 1.110 (0.374) 0.241*** (0.0225) 0.0764*** (0.00850) 0.0485*** (0.00814) 13.21*** (3.030) 5,997 0.198 (0.227) 1.571*** (0.204) 5.585*** (2.027) 1.382*** (0.165) 0.775** (0.0978) 0.667 (0.197) 1.326 (0.323) 0.935 (0.211) 1.407 (0.415) 0.702 (0.303) 1.450 (0.382) 0.966 (0.225) 0.454*** (0.0960) 0.731** (0.103) 0.809 (0.515) 0.273*** (0.0343) 0.103*** (0.0152) 0.0578*** (0.0127) 3.681** (1.960) 3,865 0.221 68

oncat final report 2019 lakehead universitys culturally and linguistically relevant teacher education programs executive summary lakehead universitys culturally and linguistically relevant teacher education programs pathways projects identified a pathway for students enrolled in seven generations education institute (sgei) early childhood education diploma program and algoma universitys bachelor of arts in anishinaabe studies and anishinaabemowin (ojibwe) programs to transfer seamlessly into lakehead universitys bachelor of education programs (focussed on aboriginal education and language teachable subjects). a careful and thorough assessment on curriculum was conducted allowing for an agreed upon pathway of transfer credits/course equivalents. the goal of the pathways project is to assist students obtain the education necessary to become qualified and registered teachers in ontarios school systems; ideally qualified to teach an algonquian language. planned implementation date of this project is september 2019. list of participants and partner institutions algoma university david marasco registrar lakehead university brandi shorthouse bryanna scott catharine oconner dr. paul cormier dr. leisa desmoulins denise baxter dr. john omeara dr. nany luckai administrative assistant, aboriginal education indigenous education programs coordinator associate registrar faculty, aboriginal education faculty, aboriginal education vice provost, indigenous initiatives dean, faculty of education deputy, vice provost academic seven generations education institute (sgei) marlis bruyere instructor william perrault associate director of apprenticeship essential skills and post-secondary education external evaluator dr. angela mashford pringle, assistant professor, university of toronto dalla lana school of public health project goals 1. the partners envision a pathway continuum that will support indigenous learners (ils) to obtain the credentials required to teach in ontario schools. specifically, bringing students from certificate/diploma completion at sgei, through unique undergraduate degrees at lakehead or algoma to bed completion (see methodology section). by clarifying links between programs and institutions, we hope to address concerns about low student uptake particularly at the university level. critical to the continuum is the belief that progress can occur in stages with increasing confidence as each level is achieved. success at the postsecondary education level will lead to support of elementary and secondary students and help to break the cycle of marginalization. 2. lakehead has offered culturally and linguistically relevant programming for indigenous learners since 1972. algoma maintains a commitment to support the educational aspirations of anishinaabe students through the shingwauk education trust convenant; segi, founding in 1985, is providing community based and student-centred learning opportunities. despite this history, all three recognize that more needs to be done to support indigenous learners. this project aligns demonstrated strengths in curriculum design and delivery to clarify options for potential students. while students may begin with the goal of attaining teacher certification, the various degree options can lead to many different careers. 3. according to the aboriginal peoples survey (2012), 60% of off-reserve first nations people, 35% metis and 84% inuit aged 6 and older reported that speaking and understanding an aboriginal language was important to them. the aboriginal languages most commonly spoken by first nations people are cree, ojibwe, and oji-cree; therefore, programs at lakehead, algoma and sgei are well positioned to support this growing demographic. this project meets the truth and reconciliations calls to action on aboriginal language revitalization and preservation (section 13) and by educating teachers on integrating indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms (section 62). while we cannot predict numbers at this time, we do know that the indigenous population is growing and the demand for trained teachers in indigenous communities continues to increase. 4. although lakehead, algoma and sgei have unique and specific histories supporting indigenous learners, we recognize the role that all members of the post-secondary education sector have to play in supporting indigenous and marginalized learners. we therefore commit to sharing what we learn with our colleagues as we address reconciliation concerns. 5. once the project has been completed and students begin to enter the various programs, we would review the pathways regularly and whenever programmatic changes are made by the ministry or the ontario college of teachers. once pathways are in place, we anticipate a seamless flow between recruiting, admitting and registering students including joint admission into program/institutions. as these credentials currently exist, and each institution has significant wrap around student support services in place, no new investment is required at this time. methodology 1. our approach was, as much as possible, consultative and collaborative. we recognize contributions from all three institutions are absolutely necessary to our success therefore we have built in several opportunities for face to face and/or video conferenced meetings and telephone conversations between the partners. gap analysis followed an established and successful pencil and paper process that carefully aligns course and program learning outcomes from one credential with those of others. this alignment proceeded with input from all partners. we used simple software such as google docs to engage and document the discussion. we kept in mind the lessons learned from previous oncat funded projects (e.g. oncat 2015-01 best practices and oncat 201640 aboriginal pathways). in addition to the more conventional gap analysis exercise, we worked with cathy oconnor from lakeheads enrollment services for matching learning outcomes to seek confirmation and/or additional information regarding possible course credit transfers/equivalencies. 2. we saw the role of the evaluator as a partner or consultant rather than a third party that provided a review after most of the work was done. the evaluator was included in the meetings held between partners. the evaluator explored the progress of the project activities against the established timelines and success indicators, and advised on the methodology, value of the pathways for students and the implementation plan. the evaluator help to indicate factors that affect the activities and output, thereby ensuring a high level of professionalism in the management of the project. 3. we did not require approval from a research ethics board to carry out this project. description of the pathway(s), including how much credit will be granted to students and how it will be applied seven generations education institute the seven generation education institute (sgei) students who have completed the 2 year early childhood education diploma would receive 5 full course equivalent credits based on the assessment of the courses, their descriptions and the equivalencies at lakehead university for the honours bachelor of education (hbed) primary/junior degree program. sgei students would be required to complete 20 fces in lakeheads hbed program. students would be able to complete this program in approximately 4 years. students are required to have a 70% average to enter into lakeheads education programs. appendix a shows the audit of the courses and their equivalency with lakehead courses. students would be given 2.5 full course equivalents for the bachelor of arts/bachelor of education indigenous learning major intermediate/senior degree program (see appendix b) if taking an algonquian language as a teachable subject, or 3.5 fces if not declaring an algonquian language as one of their teachable subjects. students would be required to take 22.5 fces if declaring an algonquian language a teachable subject or 21.5 fces if their second teachable subject is not an algonquian language. students would be able to complete this program in approximately 5 years. appendix b shows the audit of the courses and their equivalency with lakehead courses. *the sgei graduates would be required to take 2 years of credits at lakehead university to be eligible for qualification and registration with the ontario college of teachers. it must be noted that sgei graduates in the indigenous bed programs at lakehead will only be in thunder bay for 9 week blocks before they can return to their home communities for their practical requirements. sgei students are offered courses that are part of the curriculum from canadore college in north bay. these courses are standard ontario early childhood education courses that may have limited indigenous content. these students are able to take some indigenous specific courses during their diplomas, but as these are electives, it is difficult to determine if the courses would be transferrable. algoma university algoma university with shingwauk kinoomaage gamig offer a bachelor of arts degree in anishinaabemowin (single or combined major), bachelor of arts degree in anishinaabe studies (single or combined major), and bachelor of arts degree combined in anishinaabe studies and anishinaabemowin. students would apply directly to the professional 2 year program in lakeheads faculty of education, as they would be graduates from algoma with a bachelor of arts degree equivalent to 15 fces at lakehead university and would only require the teacher education portion of the bed degree. students would be required to complete 10 fces in lakeheads bachelor of education professional 2 year program. from degrees at algoma, students may have acquired enough hours/credit in a second teachable subject and/or enough credit to be eligible to qualify and register with the ontario college of teachers for anishinaabemowin as a second language. students from algoma university would also require a 70% average to enter into lakeheads education programs. as students from algoma university may take a number of different electives, it is not possible to assess exactly how much transfer credit they will receive and it would be done an individual basis. appendix c shows the possible credits and notes about their transfers to lakehead universitys programs. overall, lakeheads enrollment services notes that if students from algoma university or sgei have taken additional programs, they may also be granted additional credits. it is recommended that students attending lakeheads education programs participate in a transcript audit which is on a student by student basis ensuring that previous education is not overlooked. students should also be reminded to review the admission requirements for the various education programs at lakehead to become familiar with its courses and structure. see appendix e. supporting indigenous students at lakehead lakehead university has developed extensive resources for indigenous students and offer indigenous-specific academic, individual and cultural services. these services connect indigenous students to other indigenous students, staff and faculty as well as to elders, knowledge keepers and the thunder bay indigenous community. this provides students with a sense of belonging at lakehead. these services are part of the pathways from sgei and algoma as indigenous students who continue their education at lakehead university will have the opportunity to connect with much needed services for their success. a detailed curriculum/learning outcomes analysis to determine gaps, including and explanation of the development of any new curriculum that can act as a resource for the system algoma university students would be able to complete lakeheads bachelor of arts/bachelor of education program in 2 years. seven generations education institute students would be able to complete lakeheads honours bachelor of education (indigenous teacher education) program in 4 years. the students would still need 5 years to complete the bachelor of arts/bachelor of education program (indigenous learning major intermediate/senior) at lakehead university. appendices a, b and c show the credits that can be transferred to lakehead university. while it is apparent what can transfer from the seven generations education institute diploma program, it is not clear exactly what credits will transfer for algoma university students as they have a large number of elective credits that may also be transferred into the bachelor of education (indigenous learning major) degree program. based on the assessment of the sgei and algoma programs, no new curriculum will be required. details of expected implementation dates, including a list of completed and pending approvals, as applicable, and the date that the pathway will be posted on ontransfer.ca from lakeheads perspective, for students planning on utilizing the pathways, because we consulted our enrollment services, we can move forward immediately and grant the transfer credits. no further approval is necessary. we can begin in the fall of 2019 accepting students through this pathway project into the relevant streams of education programs. lakehead and algoma are hopeful in moving forward with a formalized partnership agreement for the pathway implementation. this agreement would be established in the upcoming months and was requested by algoma university. lakehead already has an established partnership with seven generations education institute for other programs and a memorandum of understanding with the faculty of education in working together. promising practices after having discussions with sgei and algoma university staff and faculty members, we have learned that the informal arrangements that are in place right now need to be more formalized with designated times to meet. formal agreements that outline expectations, who will be responsible for activities, when activities will occur, and a general meeting on helping ladder students from one institution to the other would offer long term planning. we have heard from lakehead and sgei students that having ontario college of teacher courses in the community like sgei offers, has been very beneficial as indigenous students arent required to leave their home communities for prolonged time periods. the students appreciate being able to complete courses that can be put toward their indigenous bed program at lakehead with limited time away from community. lessons learned the best promising practice was establishing and nurturing strong relationships between sgei or algoma university and lakehead university. continued regular meetings on a semi-annual basis would strengthen recruitment of students from sgei and algoma university. having a visual representation of the pathway(s) for students will help with recruitment, guiding students, and continuing to build the relationship between the institutions. develop recruitment resources that other institutions may use to help students make decisions about attending lakehead universitys honours bachelor of education program. to ensure that students have input into the pathways, there will need to be a series of questionnaires for different streams of students (e.g. sgei ece, algoma anishinaabemowin or anishinaabe studies, or algomas combined anishinaabemowin and anishinaabe studies). a detailed financial statement see attached appendix f

november 2022 research blog transfer: an inclusive access route into postsecondary education blog by rod missaghian & meryl borato, oncat research by stephen tedesco & heather daoust, nipissing university transfer: an inclusive access route into postsecondary education 1 transfer is often considered a niche area within postsecondary education that is highly technical and, at first glance, unrelated to much else. after all, isnt transfer just about students applying for credit for previous learning when switching institutions? but there is often a more complex story behind credit transfer that tells us a lot about who is transferring and how they are accessing and experiencing postsecondary education. existing research has shown that transfer students in ontario are generally older (sano, zarifa & hillier, 2020), have less conventional academic profiles than direct entry students (davies, 2022) and are more likely to have poorer graduation outcomes (walters et al. 2021). a recent study looking at transfer pathways into the university of toronto found that transfer students were overrepresented by older, white, and female students (davies, 2022). they also found transfer students struggled more academically and had lower graduation rates as parental income decreased. when we consider that lower numbers of students with disabilities (chatoor, 2021) and black students (james & parekh, 2021) have access to postsecondary education and experience poorer outcomes once there, it is worth exploring whether there is a connection between transfer, access, and equity. oncat recently funded a research project that uses the national student satisfaction survey (nsse) data to consider how transfer students experience postsecondary education. led by stephen tedesco and heather daoust at nipissing university, the study suggests that transfer is especially relevant to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. exploring the relationship between race, disability, and previous postsecondary experience the nsse survey captures data about student integration into activities and programs and assesses student satisfaction with things like student/faculty interaction, availability of student support services including academic and mental health supports, and student perceptions of comfort with their surroundings. the report found that the proportion of transfer students with disabilities is larger than that of students with no disability (29.1% vs 25.5%, see figure 1). from the perspective of postsecondary access and equity, nipissing could potentially be serving a larger share of transfer students with self-identified disabilities and from certain ethnic minority groups, such as black students. transfer: an inclusive access route into postsecondary education 2 figure 1. summary of demographic data 2006 to 2020 disability while the ethnic background of students that responded to the nsse at nipissing appears to be predominantly white, a wide range of ethnicities are represented at the university. it is worth mentioning that the proportion of transfer students for the white ethnic category is the lowest compared with all other ethnic categories, even though the reported counts for the non-white ethnic student categories are very low (see figure 2). for example, nearly half of all black students at nipissing that responded to the surveys are transfer students. for an institution committed to access and equity this finding is important, since black students have been found in other studies to be the most likely to take an indirect pathway to university and have the lowest graduation rates compared to other ethnic groups, including white students (james & parekh, 2021). thus, black transfer students are a particular student group of interest and can benefit from targeted supports that would help them integrate into their new institutional surroundings. figure 2. proportion of nsse respondents by self-reported ethnicity transfer: an inclusive access route into postsecondary education 3 exploring the relationship between student satisfaction and previous postsecondary experience the nipissing team conducted mainly descriptive statistics and t-tests to explore the group differences (transfer versus non-transfer) in student survey responses. future research using the nsse could look to expand beyond t-tests that explore the relationship between pathways and student satisfaction while controlling for other variables like disability. below (see figure 3) we see that there are some notable differences in how transfer students expressed satisfaction with their interactions with other students, which is an important aspect of students feeling comfortable and succeeding in their studies. more transfer students had scaled responses closer to 1 = (poor) when characterizing the quality of their interactions with other students. the differences between the two groups are statistically significant. future research could include disability as a control variable between the two groups to assess its influence on student interactions. figure 3. student responses around quality of interactions with other students at nipissing transfer: an inclusive access route into postsecondary education 4 conclusion while the nsse is a self-selected sample of first- and fourth-year students at nipissing, these answers reveal another notable trend. the share of transfer students who filled out the nsse at nipissing (21.9%) is much higher than the average estimate of the transfer population in ontario, which is about 8% (see zarifa, sano, & hillier, 2020). according to data that oncat receives from the ministry of colleges and universities, the proportion of transfer students at nipissing is 42.5%. the nsse percentages would likely be bolstered if students from all four years were surveyed. transfer students are a significant population at nipissing and other ontario universities, colleges, and indigenous institutes. when we consider these averages in connection with the nature of the nsse survey questions, which attempt to measure how students integrate, enjoy, and experience the various aspects of campus and academic life, it is easy to see how this kind of data can be analyzed to address issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as overall retention strategies for transfer students. as a less conventional route that offers flexibility, transfer can play a pivotal role in expanding access to postsecondary education for students. if you are interested in learning more about this project or conducting similar research at your institution, please dont hesitate to reach out to: meryl borato knowledge mobilization specialist, oncat mborato@oncat.ca transfer: an inclusive access route into postsecondary education 5 references chatoor, k. (2021). postsecondary credential attainment and labour market outcomes for ontario students with disabilities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. https://heqco.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/postsecondary-credential-attainment-andlabour-market-outcomes-for-ontario-students-with-disabilities_final.pdf davies, s. (2022). postsecondary transfers into the university of toronto: findings from a new tdsb-u of t data linkage. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. https://oncat.ca/en/projects/pse-transfers-tdsb-uoft-data-linkage durham college. (2016). credit where credit is due: understanding the credit transfer experience at ontario colleges. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. https://www.oncat.ca/en/projects/credit-where-credit-due-understanding-credit-transferexperience-ontario-colleges james, c. e., & parekh, g. (2021). fixed trajectories: race, schooling, and graduation from a southern ontario university. canadian journal of higher education/revue canadienne d'enseignement suprieur, 51(4), 67-84. hicks, m., & jonker, l. (2016). the differentiation of the ontario university system: where are we now and where should we go? toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. walters, d., brown, r., parekh, g., reynolds, d.. & einmann, t. (2021). postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students: the role of high school academic performance. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. https://oncat.ca/en/projects/student-loan-outcomes-ontario-transfer-students zarifa, d., sano, y., & hillier, c. (2020). transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. https://oncat.ca/en/projects/transfer-pathways-among-ontario-colleges-and-universities transfer: an inclusive access route into postsecondary education 6 established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the author acknowledges the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

comit directeur disciplinaire appel de candidatures vue densemble le caton forme actuellement un comit directeur disciplinaire (cdd) pour conseiller et diriger le travail du caton, en collaboration avec le ministre des collges et universits, en vue de mettre en place un systme de transfert mature. le cdd travaillera plus particulirement avec le caton et les comits disciplinaires rgionaux afin de mener lexpansion de la transfrabilit des cours 101 de premire anne. lobjectif est de permettre aux tudiants de premire anne de passer des programmes similaires avec une reconnaissance totale des crdits. le caton est la recherche de professionnels chevronns de lducation postsecondaire qui comprennent les opportunits et les dfis lis au soutien de la mobilit des tudiants dans la province. les membres du cdd possdent de solides comptences en matire de dveloppement de partenariats et de collaboration, ainsi quune connaissance approfondie du dveloppement de parcours et de lvaluation des crdits pour les tudiants en transfert. domaines d'expertise nous recherchons plus particulirement des membres qui ont une exprience/expertise dans certains domaines cls, notamment : conseiller les tudiants en transfert, qui quittent ltablissement et/ou ceux qui y arrivent. tablir des relations avec les dpartements acadmiques internes pour soutenir les transferts. promouvoir les parcours auprs des tudiants et des membres du corps professoral grce des documents de communication et de promotion. laborer et mettre jour des accords darticulation pour reflter les changements de programmes dtudes. dvelopper des services de soutien acadmique tels que les admissions, les inscriptions, le recrutement et la tenue des dossiers des tudiants et des cours. laborer des politiques et des initiatives concernant le transfert de crdits et le parcours des tudiants. connaissance du processus de transfert de crdits dans son tablissement, y compris lvaluation et le traitement des crdits. veiller la gestion de la subvention aux tablissements pour les transferts de crdits (setc) et des activits connexes dans votre tablissement. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) 180, dundas st. west/rue dundas ouest, suite/bureau 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 t/tl. : 416 640-6951 | f/tlc. : 416 640-6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario |1 responsabilits 1. participer aux runions mensuelles du cdd. 2. assister aux runions des comits disciplinaires rgionaux (environ une runion supplmentaire par mois). 3. laborer et rviser les documents appropris, tels que les mandats et les plans de travail du comit. 4. soutenir le dveloppement et la mise en uvre de mesures conformment aux attentes du ministre des collges et universits. 5. participer des comits externes selon les besoins. financement cette fonction ncessitera une implication denviron 6 heures par mois. un engagement sera ncessaire du mars 2022 au mars 2024. une allocation de 20 000 $ sera verse chaque tablissement participant pour les deux annes. le caton recherche minimalement un reprsentant des rgions suivantes : centre-est, centre-ouest, est, nord, ouest. les candidatures provenant des collges et des universits et des tablissements autochtones sont les bienvenues. demande les demandes sont acceptes par le biais de notre portail de demande en ligne : https://www.grantinterface.ca/process/apply?urlkey=oncat. pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez communiquer avec : carolyn poplak, chef de projet : collaborations et programmes communautaires : cpoplak@oncat.ca. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) 180, dundas st. west/rue dundas ouest, suite/bureau 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 t/tl. : 416 640-6951 | f/tlc. : 416 640-6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario | 2

oncat careers project manager location: toronto, ontario, canada type: contract 2 years with possibility of extension location: downtown toronto location at university and dundas, near st. patrick station (180 dundas west, suite 1902). remote to start and with flexible work opportunities. salary range: $60,000 to $70,000 please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is february 18th 11:59pm est. about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges, universities and indigenous institutes. as a member organization, it works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. about the position this position provides project management support to oncats internal and external operations. reporting to the operations director, the project manager plays an essential role in ensuring organizational goals are met and determines how success will be tracked and monitored. this generalist project management role will work cross functionally across oncat to support continuous organizational improvement and optimize information sharing, and corporate and financial recordkeeping. additionally, the role will support review and adherence to operational policies and support implementation of new system technology at oncat. the incumbent will have experience with new system implementation and onboarding and will have a solid understanding of project management and change management. responsibilities develops and implements strategies to support cost effective and timely execution of simultaneous projects across the organization through the project life cycle i.e., it, financial, procurement, operations, etc. establishes project work plans, monitors progress and quality of work related to project outcomes. ensures projects have clear deliverables, move forward and stay within the scope of work. possesses broad knowledge and skills in several areas relating to general project management such as strong communication and planning abilities including timeline management. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 provides project management support leading to organizational system and process developments and overall improvement using a project management tool. is a key contact and resource for the organizations corporate and financial records including procurement. supports ongoing improvements to records management and it, collaborating with subject matter experts as needed. supports the development of rfps to ensure the appropriate vendor is selected in collaboration with a procurement committee and supports issue resolution that may arise with vendor onboarding. supports change management, leading communication to internal team members on project roll-outs. develops and maintains oncats technology plan collaborating with the business systems analyst documents organizational plans, ensuring they are accessible to team members and maintained. collaborates with business systems analyst and operations team to identify improvements to overall efficiency of business operations. recommends process improvements, mapping processes and identifying inefficiencies. prepares and presents progress reports to ensure operational and project initiatives are delivered effectively and on budget. has thorough knowledge of project management principles, methodologies, tools and techniques. works with the finance staff to reconcile funded project payment data. develops an understanding of tpa requirements to help ensure ongoing compliance. supports the planning of consultations or events as needed to support oncats strategic plan. provides additional project management and administrative support to oncat as needed. qualifications 3 to 5 years of experience in administrative roles that include project coordination and management, ideally in broader public sector or with non-profit organizations. degree or advanced credential in business or related field. project management designation desirable. french language proficiency would be considered an asset. excellent attention to detail, prioritization, problem-solving, time management and organizational skills. strong analytical and communication (verbal and written) skills. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is february 18th 11:59pm est. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening or an interview will be contacted. additional testing may be required. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. oncat welcomes qualified applications from persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples from north america, including first nations, mtis and inuit peoples, visible minorities (racialized) persons, and those who identify as women and/or 2slgbtq+. oncat supports an equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace. oncat requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against covid-19, subject to medical and human rights exemptions, in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

acknowledgements we would like to document and acknowledge all those who played a key role in producing the pathways and/or envisioning future pathways that are outlined in this final report and look forward to continued communication and educational alignment with the partners. canadore college brenna beard - program coordinator, occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant brian bennison - program coordinator, school of sport & recreation micheline demers - pathways officer jeannette miron - registrar & manager of institutional research letitia nadalin-penno - acting dean, health, human care and wellness, biotechnology & environmental studies/ collaborative bscn program larry sheppard - professor, school of sport & recreation confederation college shane strickland - dean, school of health, negahneewin, & community services georgian college matt koller - program coordinator, fitness & health promotion celia mirco - program coordinator, occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant lakehead university kaylin kainulainen - project coordinator glen paterson - project resource specialist joey farrell - project lead nancy luckai - deputy provost kinesiology faculty members & contract lecturers 2 table of contents acknowledgements 2 executive summary 4 project purpose and goals 6 pathway development 7 timeline 7 method 9 analysis 11 block transfer pathways 12 college programs to lakehead university hbk georgian fitness & health promotion (fhp) to hbk 13 13 georgian occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant (otapta) to hbk 14 canadore strength & sport conditioning (ssc) to hbk 15 canadore recreation therapy (rt) to hbk 16 canadore occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant (otpta) to hbk 17 lakehead university hbk to college programs 18 hbk to georgian fitness & health promotion 18 hbk to georgian occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant 18 hbk to canadore strength & sport conditioning 18 hbk to canadore recreation therapy 18 hbk to canadore occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant 18 implementation process and timelines 18 bridge curriculum 20 best practices and lessons learned 20 appendix a 22 example of course equivalency survey questions appendix b 26 example of survey summary report appendix c 29 example of transfer credits outline 3 executive summary bi-directional pathways between the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) program at lakehead university and health, wellness and physical fitness related college diploma programs have previously been identified as beneficial for students in regard to enhancing academic training, providing practical experience, and increasing overall student mobility. the objective of this project was to explore the potential for creating these pathways in either direction, as well as to specifically develop pathways from identified college programs to the hbk. partner colleges that offer health, wellness and physical fitness related diploma programs were identified and approached for collaboration. these colleges included canadore college, confederation college, and georgian college. in preparation for course comparison between institutions, a thorough review of all hbk course outlines was completed. this review included verifying and revising course outline content, as required, to include: accurate, up-to-date course descriptions; clear, specific, and measurable learner outcomes; and consistent, standardized formatting. course outlines from partner colleges were obtained via college websites. an initial review was completed that identified courses with content that was potentially similar to material offered by the hbk. this information was used to first create spreadsheets and then surveys aligning similar courses. these surveys provided a means of comparing courses based on descriptions, learner outcomes, and other content in a clear, simple, and accessible way. surveys and supporting materials were distributed to contacts at canadore, confederation, and georgian, as well as to hbk faculty. results received from canadore, georgian, and hbk representatives were then analyzed, summarized, and discussed at face-to-face meetings with parties from each institution. no responses were received from confederation representatives. information gleaned from the surveys and subsequent meetings was then used to create transfer pathways from five college diploma programs to the hbk. potential transfer credits from the hbk to the five college diploma programs were also identified, and resulting information was shared with the partner colleges for their use in developing pathways from the hbk to their respective diploma programs. the diploma to degree pathways developed include: georgian college fitness & health promotion to hbk georgian college occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant to hbk canadore college occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant to hbk canadore college recreation therapy to hbk canadore college strength & sport conditioning to hbk 4 the potential degree to diploma pathways identified include: hbk to georgian college fitness & health promotion hbk to georgian college occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant hbk to canadore college occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant hbk to canadore college recreation therapy hbk to canadore college strength & sport conditioning throughout the duration of this project, it was recognized that students transferring from college programs to the hbk would benefit from bridging content presented in multiple forms. these include a bridging module and a transfer course. first, bridging content will be presented as a module on anatomy and human physiology, areas consistently identified as requiring further academic attention within the transition from college to university. the bridging module must be completed prior to program commencement, and will ensure that transfer students are provided with the academic content required to continue in the hbk program. only those students whose program was identified as requiring advanced study of anatomy and human physiology will be required to take the bridging module. additionally, a 1 fce college transfer course, to be taken during the students first year at lakehead, will cover other content identified through the course comparison as well as material developed to improve the transfer process. as all transfer students are required to take this course in first year, it will assist in the creation of a cohort of transfer students, providing the opportunity to address any concerns regarding social support, peer mentorship, university resources, and the overall transfer process. course content is aimed at providing additional tools and support necessary in order for the transfer students to be successful at university. while the identification and development of credit transfer pathways was the main focus of this project, the student experience became an additional and nearly equallyimportant aspect. future projects would likely benefit from employing this dual-focus to not only create potential pathways but also to provide support for their future viability and maintenance. 5 project purpose and goals the purpose of this project was to develop credit transfer pathways that provide maximum mobility for students pursuing health, fitness, and well-being related credentials and vocations. pathways from relevant college diploma programs into the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) program and pathways from the hbk into relevant college diploma programs were explored and developed to provide maximum opportunity for education and workforce development to serve the needs of our communities. therefore, the overall goals of this project were to: 1. develop credit transfer pathways from health, wellness and physical fitness related college diploma programs into the honours bachelor of kinesiology degree program at lakehead university. 2. develop credit transfer pathways including course equivalencies from the honours bachelor of kinesiology degree program to a variety of health, wellness and physical fitness related college diplomas (e.g., medical radiation technology, occupational therapist/physiotherapist assistant, paramedic) offered by partnering colleges. after further consideration and exploration, it was recognized that potential pathways from the hbk to college diploma programs could be identified within the scope of the project, but that the actual development and implementation of those pathways would require the lead of the college partners rather than the university representatives. therefore, the project goals were revised to develop credit transfer pathways from college diploma programs to the hbk, and identify potential credit transfer pathways from the hbk to related college diploma programs. 6 pathway development timeline july 2017 identification of specific college partner programs (at georgian, canadore, & confederation). preliminary review of college program descriptions and course outlines as obtained from the colleges websites. july 2017 excel spreadsheets created for each college program identified above. preliminary assessment of general potential overlap between university and college courses. august 2017 learner outcome/course outline review for hbk program. fall course outlines reviewed and improved for consistency, measurability, language. august 2017 meetings held with hbk instructors to review updated outlines for fall courses. approval obtained at faculty meeting. october 2017 learner outcome/course outline review for hbk program. winter course outlines reviewed and improved for consistency, measurability, language. november 2017 meetings held with instructors to review updated outlines for winter courses. approval obtained at faculty meeting. excel spreadsheets updated to reflect learner outcome/course outline review. december 2017 preliminary analysis of specific similarities and potential gaps between hbk and college courses based on updated course outlines. january 2017 development of online survey through the use of qualtrics software to be distributed to hbk and college instructors and/or administrators. survey designed to assist with identification of similarities and gaps, and to enhance discussion with partners. february 2018 distribution of surveys to hbk faculty and partner colleges. completed surveys received from hbk, georgian, and canadore. no surveys were received from confederation despite multiple attempts to contact. 7 march 2018 preliminary analysis of survey results in preparation for meetings with college partners at georgian and canadore. march 2018 meetings with college partners at georgian college for the following programs: april 2018 fitness & health promotion occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant meetings with college partners at canadore college for the following programs: strength & sport conditioning recreation therapy occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant april-may 2018 analysis of bi-directional pathways for programs at georgian and canadore colleges as a result of face-to-face meetings. may 2018 analysis of potential pathways for confederation college based solely on feedback from hbk instructors. this information was used for general insight only and was not used for any further pathway development. may 2018 information and insight gained from the surveys and meetings was analyzed and used to create an outline of transfer credits for each of the identified college programs to the hbk program, as well as from the hbk program to those same college programs. course content and credit hours were used to map specific pathways from each of the georgian and canadore college programs to the hbk program. transfer credits outlines from the hbk program to college programs were shared with college partners for use in developing pathways to their programs from the hbk. details of each pathway are included in the block transfer pathways section of this report. initiated may 2018 process has been initiated for submission to senate for approval of articulation agreements and program requirements for each of the five college to hbk recommended programs. 8 method preliminary investigation into the interest in and potential for development of bidirectional transfer pathways from ontario college health, wellness and physical fitness related programs to the hbk and from the hbk to college programs was completed in 2016. it was identified that before proceeding it would be greatly beneficial to update the learner outcomes of all hbk courses with the intent of standardizing format and addressing inconsistencies in content. initial meetings with representatives from georgian college to discuss developing potential bi-directional pathways generated great interest in proceeding and led to application for an oncat grant to support the study. confederation college and canadore college were also contacted and asked to support the application for oncat funding as the study would include health, wellness and physical fitness related courses for consideration from those institutions as well. letters of support were provided for the project and the application was accepted and approved with a few minor adjustments needed. hbk faculty and staff were informed that oncat funding had been received and they would be asked to engage in a process of review and comparison of specific hbk courses and related programs from three different colleges. identification of specific college programs and preliminary review of program descriptions and course outlines, obtained online, provided an initial foundation for course and program comparison. programs identified were: fitness & health promotion at georgian occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant at georgian massage therapy at georgian recreation therapy at canadore occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant at canadore strength & sport conditioning at canadore recreation therapy at confederation medical radiation technology at confederation paramedic at confederation excel spreadsheets were created for each college program and a general preliminary assessment of potential overlap between university and college courses was completed. a learner outcome/course outline review of all hbk courses was completed and spreadsheets were updated to reflect any new content. it was decided that the most accurate and efficient means of comparing and contrasting course content would be to have the content experts the instructional faculty at each institution review course outlines and other provided information through the completion of a survey. a survey tool was then created with the focus being ease of use, ability to compare and contrast course content, promotion of discussion with partners, and ultimately to bi-directionally evaluate courses and course content using three criteria topics covered, depth of coverage, and learner outcomes. 9 the survey tool was created using qualtrics software which provided development support, flexibility of questionnaire design, controlled distribution, ease of access for monitoring progress of completion, and ready access to results (see appendix a) the survey link, along with relevant course outlines from each institution, was distributed via e-mail to specific course faculty within the hbk program and to program representatives from canadore, confederation, and georgian. deadline dates for completion were established and communicated at the time of survey distribution. telephone and e-mail support was provided to the colleges and personal support was provided to hbk faculty if questions arose. the project team was contacted by the coordinator of massage therapy at georgian college and informed that the program was currently under review and revision, and therefore they were not able to participate at this time. despite numerous attempts to contact confederation college, the project team was unsuccessful in generating any survey responses from them. completion of the surveys was tracked through the qualtrics website and followup contact was made with survey respondents if/when survey questions were not totally completed or when the final survey was not submitted correctly. results of the surveys were tabulated, level of agreement in evaluation was identified, variability in responses was noted and discussed, and survey summaries were compiled. face-to-face follow-up meetings were arranged with georgian and canadore representatives to present and discuss the results, to answer any questions or concerns, and to gain greater clarity in relation to areas where there was little agreement in the survey results regarding transferability of course content in either direction. these meetings also provided an opportunity to further discuss the identified programs and course content that would potentially form the base for bidirectional pathway development, as well as development of course transfer bridging content and granting of direct transfer credit for specific courses. information and insight gained from the surveys and the face-to-face meetings was analyzed and used to create an outline of transfer credits for each of the identified georgian and canadore college programs to the hbk program, as well as from the hbk program to those same college programs, reflecting the bidirectional focus of the project. course content and credit hours were then used to map specific pathways from each of the georgian and canadore college programs to the hbk program. through this process it became evident that it would be beneficial for incoming college transfer students from some college programs to complete a required bridging course, depending on the content of their respective diploma programs. possible course content was further identified and discussed for inclusion in the development of a bridging course. this bridging course, for those required to take it, would be completed prior to commencement of the hbk program. following further discussion, a one (1) fce college transfer course was proposed for development. this course would address the student experience, including social supports and university resources, as well as academic content 10 identified as requiring advanced study. the college transfer course would be incorporated into the requirements of the hbk transfer program. the outline of transfer credit information was provided to partner college representatives to assist them in the development of potential pathways from the hbk to their respective diploma programs. analysis the qualtrics survey tool provided an opportunity for comparison of course content by representatives of the partner colleges and the hbk. preliminary information gathered included: location of survey completion; identification of respondent as dean, program chair, or teaching faculty; and identification of the program represented by the survey. respondents were asked to review course outline details, including course descriptions and learner outcomes, and indicate the degree to which they thought courses shared topics covered, depth of coverage, and learner outcomes. respondents also indicated whether they thought credit should be given for a college course upon entry to the hbk or for an hbk course upon entry to a college program. a 7-point likert scale was employed generating quantitative data regarding course content overlap and to what extent the courses may be considered equivalent. each question was followed with an open-ended opportunity to include additional comments in support of the evaluation provided, generating qualitative data. analysis included a direct comparison of individual responses to the course specific questions providing information about levels of agreement/ disagreement related to: course content, topics covered, depth of coverage of topic, learner outcomes, and course outline descriptions. combining the objective responses and qualitative feedback provided the basis to generate comparative summaries for each course assessed. these results were summarized in chart form (see appendix b) and presented in person to both georgian and canadore representatives for further review and discussion. feedback provided during these discussions helped to guide the final analysis and subsequent identification of equivalencies and gaps between the programs. the results of this project include: the development of five (5) proposed diploma to degree transfer pathways into the hbk with two partner colleges. the identification of five (5) suggested degree to diploma transfer pathways from the hbk to programs at two partner colleges. the identification of a bridging module which would be completed prior to program commencement and would facilitate transfer to the hbk from three (3) of the college programs, to be developed as part of a subsequent oncat project. 11 a college transfer 1 fce course that would be incorporated into the hbk program and would facilitate transfer to the hbk from all five of the diploma programs, to be developed as part of a subsequent oncat project. block transfer pathways as a result of the course comparisons, draft transfer programs to the hbk were developed for three canadore programs and two georgian programs. it is recommended that a first year transfer course (1 fce) be developed which would be required for all transfer students. this course would create a cohort of transfer students and would include writing skills, analysis, familiarization with university resources, and other items specifically developed to help the transfer students succeed. academic content for the course would address areas where advanced study was identified as needed to facilitate the transfer process. dependent on the specific transfer program, students may be required, prior to the start of the transfer program, to complete an online module bridging course content related to anatomy and human physiology, to ensure the student enters at an appropriate knowledge level (specifics indicated below). entry requirements include having completed the specified diploma with an overall minimum average of 75%. traditionally this average is consistent with lakehead universitys transfer pathways, and is expected to increase the likelihood of student success. details on the specific requirements recommended for each transfer program, and the resulting curriculum of each pathway, are included below. while it was not within the scope of this project to develop specific transfer pathways from the hbk to related college programs, analysis of potential transfer credits was bidirectional. courses were identified from each of the college programs that hbk graduates could be eligible to receive credit for, upon approval from college administration. this information was shared with the college partners to assist them as they develop pathways from the hbk into their specific diploma programs. possible transfer pathways with confederation college are not included as they would be based solely on feedback from hbk instructors and would not include input from confederation college personnel. 12 college programs to lakehead university hbk georgian fitness & health promotion (fhp) to hbk the links between georgian fhp and the hbk were the strongest, and resulted in the recommendation for a two-year transfer pathway. twelve (12) fces are required over the two years which includes 8.5 fces in kinesiology required courses, 1.5 fces in electives, and 2 fces in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are not required to complete the bridging course module prior to program commencement. figure 1 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall year 1 6 fce year 2 6 fce 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - m otor dev. 3230 - research processes winter 1116 english 1017 - transfer course 2 2011 - biology 1711 - m ovem ent obs 2711 - qualitative 3030 - statistics 2059 - psychology 3710 - skill acquisition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 2035 - m otor learning .5 elective 2079 - sociology 3070 - intro to adapted 4310 - ergonomics 4710 - com m unication/leadership 1210 chem istry 2012 - biology .5 elective .5 elective 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 outdoor exp (hiking) courses to bridge transfer course content 1113 2015 none figure 1. georgian fhp college transfer program requirements. 13 georgian occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant (otapta) to hbk the strength of the links between the georgian otapta diploma and the hbk were the broad relevance of the otapta courses to kinesiology, rather than specific alignment. the resulting recommendation is for a three-year transfer pathway. fifteen and a half (15.5) fces are required over the three years which includes 12 fces in kinesiology required courses, 1.5 fces in electives, and 2 fces in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are not required to complete the bridging course module prior to program commencement. figure 2 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall year 1 5.5 fce year 2 5 fce year 3 5 fce 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - m otor dev. 1710 - fitness/wellness 2015 - biom echanics i 2035 - m otor learning 2079 - sociology 3070 - intro to adapted 3230 - research processes winter 1116 english 1017 - transfer course 2 (or w inter) 1113 - health 1711 - m ovem ent obs 2711 - qualitative 1210 chem istry .5 elective 2012 - biology 2030 - biology 2059 - psychology 3030 - statistics 3710 - skill acquisition 3010 - physiology i .5 elective 3711 - exercise prescription 4310 ergonom ics 4710 - com m unication/leadership 3134 - m usculoskeletal injuries i .5 elective 3610 - nutrition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 outdoor exp (hiking) courses none to bridge figure 2. georgian otapta college transfer program requirements. 14 canadore strength & sport conditioning (ssc) to hbk the links between the canadore ssc diploma and the hbk were relatively strong relating to anatomy and human physiology, and in the broad relevance of the diploma courses to kinesiology. the resulting recommendation is for a two-and-a-half-year transfer pathway. fourteen (14) fces are required over the two and a half years which includes 11 fces in kinesiology required courses, 2 fces in electives, and 1 fce in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are required to complete the bridging course module prior to commencement of the program. figure 3 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall year 1 6 fce year 2 6 fce 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - m otor dev. 2015 - biom echanics i 3230 - research processes winter 1116 english 1017 - transfer course 2 1113 - health 1711 - m ovem ent obs 2711 - qualitative 3030 - statistics 2035 - m otor learning 2079 - sociology 3070 - intro to adapted 3711 - exercise prescription (per) 4310 - ergonomics 4710 - com m unication/leadership 2059 - psychology 3134 - m usculoskeletal injuries i 3610 - nutrition 3710 - skill acquisition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 outdoor exp (hiking) year 3 2 fce .5 elective .5 elective .5 elective .5 elective note: kinesiology electives suggested, but not required courses to bridge transfer course content 2011 1710 2012 2030 figure 3. canadore ssc college transfer program requirements. 15 1210 chem istry canadore recreation therapy (rt) to hbk the links between the canadore recreation therapy program and the hbk were relatively strong relating to anatomy and human physiology, but courses were not as closely related in the broad relevance of the college courses to kinesiology. the resulting recommendation is for a three-year transfer pathway. fifteen (15) fces are required over the three years which includes 12 fces in kinesiology required courses, 2 fces in electives, and 1 fce in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are required to complete the bridging course module prior to commencement of the program. figure 4 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall year 1 5 fce year 2 5 fce year 3 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1035 - m otor dev. 1710 - fitness/wellness winter 1116 english 1017 - transfer course 2 1113 - health 1711 - m ovem ent obs 2059 - psychology 2015 - biom echanics i 2035 - m otor learning 2079 - sociology 3010 - physiology i 3230 - research processes 2711 - qualitative .5 elective 3030 - statistics 3134 - m usculoskeletal injuries i 3610 - nutrition 3070 - intro to adapted .5 elective 3711 - exercise prescription 4310 - ergonomics 4710 - com m unication/leadership 3710 - skill acquisition 4113 - lifestyle counselling 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 5 fce 4193 outdoor exp (hiking) courses to bridge 1210 chem istry 2011 2012 2030 figure 4. canadore rt college transfer program requirements. 16 .5 elective .5 elective canadore occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant (otpta) to hbk the strength of the links between the canadore otpta diploma and the hbk were relatively strong relating to anatomy and human physiology, and in the broad relevance of the diploma courses to kinesiology. the resulting recommendation is for a three-year transfer pathway. fifteen (15) fces are required over the three years which includes 11.5 fces in kinesiology required courses, 2.5 fces in electives, and 1 fce in required courses outside of kinesiology. students are required to complete the bridging course module prior to commencement of the program. figure 5 outlines the resulting recommended draft curriculum. fall year 1 5 fce year 2 5 fce year 3 5 fce 1015 - transfer course 1 1010 - introduction 1710 - fitness/wellness 2015 - biom echanics i winter 1116 english 1017 - transfer course 2 1113 - health 1711 - m ovem ent obs 2711 - qualitative 2035 - m otor learning 2079 - sociology 3010 - physiology i 3070 - intro to adapted 3230 - research processes 2059- psychology 3030 - statistics 3610 - nutrition 3710 - skill acquisition 3711 - exercise prescription .5 elective 4310 - ergonomics .5 elective 4710 - com m unication/leadership 1210 chem istry .5 elective 3134 - m usculoskeletal injuries i .5 elective 4113 - lifestyle counselling .5 elective 4230 - research (yr-.5 fce) 4193 outdoor exp (hiking) courses to bridge transfer course content 2012 2030 1035 figure 5. canadore otpta college transfer program requirements. 17 lakehead university hbk to college programs hbk to georgian fitness & health promotion of all of the college programs, fhp at georgian college shared the most content with the hbk. students could potentially receive credit for 12 required courses, including 3 general education electives. an example of the transfer credits outline is included in appendix c. hbk to georgian occupational therapist assistant & physiotherapist assistant hbk graduates complete courses in anatomy, human physiology, and lifespan development that would likely satisfy the requirements of the otapta program at georgian. additionally, students could possibly receive credit for communications and general education electives, which could total 7 course credits altogether. hbk to canadore strength & sport conditioning canadore college offers a fast-track option for the ssc program that allows students with a minimum two-year postsecondary program to obtain the diploma in one year of study. hbk graduates would be eligible for this option, however could also potentially receive credit for 3 courses that are specifically related to anatomy and human physiology, exercise physiology, and exercise protocols. hbk to canadore recreation therapy canadore college offers a fast-track option for the rt program, which hbk graduates would be eligible for. additionally, hbk course work would likely satisfy the requirements for anatomy and human physiology content, so hbk graduates could potentially receive credit for one course. hbk to canadore occupational therapist & physiotherapist assistant there is some similar content between the hbk program and the otpta program at canadore college. for example, hbk graduates could potentially receive credit for courses related to anatomy and human physiology, lifespan development, therapeutic exercise, and communications. they could also possibly receive credit for general education electives, creating a total of 7 courses overall. implementation process and timelines due to the nature of the bi-cameral governing system at ontario universities, new program modifications related to articulation agreements and block transfer at lakehead university must pass through an intensive review process. an articulation agreement must be approved by the university and college partners, as well as curriculum and program review approved by senate. at the time of the report, the process for approvals has been initiated for the five programs identified for transfer from the college diploma programs to the hbk program. 18 resulting information from the course comparison process has been shared with each of the colleges, and they have been requested to review the information and initiate the required approval process within their institutions. transfer pathway current approval level target implementation date georgian fhp to lakehead hbk draft recommendation has been completed and shared with the college partner. first stage of lakehead approval, the school of kinesiology faculty, has been initiated. fall 2019 georgian otapta to lakehead hbk draft recommendation has been completed and shared with the college partner. first stage of lakehead approval, the school of kinesiology faculty, has been initiated. fall 2019 canadore ssc to lakehead hbk draft recommendation has been completed and shared with the college partner. first stage of lakehead approval, the school of kinesiology faculty, has been initiated. fall 2019 canadore rt to lakehead hbk draft recommendation has been completed and shared with the college partner. first stage of lakehead approval, the school of kinesiology faculty, has been initiated. fall 2019 canadore otpta to lakehead hbk draft recommendation has been completed and shared with the college partner. first stage of lakehead approval, the fall 2019 19 school of kinesiology faculty, has been initiated. lakehead hbk to college programs recommendations have been provided to college partners; pathway development and approvals to continue at the college level. bridge curriculum areas requiring bridge curriculum have been identified. the need for creation of a bridging, preferably online, module to be completed prior to commencement of the hbk program and specifically related to anatomy and human physiology was identified for three of the five transfer pathways. the need for a first year required course for transfer students was also identified, and has been included in the recommended draft curriculum of each transfer program. next steps include development of the course content for the bridging module and the 1 fce credit transfer course required to complete readiness for implementation of the transfer pathways. the development of these components was beyond the scope of this project. best practices and lessons learned the need for clear, open, and regular communication between institutions was emphasized through this project. this was highlighted on a number of occasions and became an important guiding principle of the project as a whole. although it was an intended focus from the beginning of the project, the significance and importance of bi-directional student mobility became even more apparent throughout. providing both college and university students with multiple routes for continued education and training is a valuable and worthwhile endeavour. for college diploma graduates, the ability to obtain an undergraduate degree provides the opportunity for further academic training as well as opens the door to advanced degrees. for hbk graduates, the practical application of concepts allows for a better understanding of fieldspecific knowledge and provides them with enhanced opportunities to meet current industry demands. while academic study forms the foundation of the pathway development process, the actual student experience extends much further. through collaboration with our partner colleges it became very clear that in order to provide a meaningful and successful transfer experience, there are a number of other important considerations, for example: increasing student awareness of transfer opportunities by not only making information 20 available online, but also speaking with students face-to-face; connecting current and potential future transfer students to initiate formal or informal student mentorship; creating a transfer cohort that addresses social support needs; and providing institutionlevel mentorship regarding institutional resources and supports, program-specific information, and the general transfer process. the development of pathways is only the first step. to ensure the long-term viability and possible expansion of these pathways, it is necessary that they are consistently monitored, evaluated, and revised to reflect the current state of institutions, programs, and students. 21 appendix a example of course equivalency survey questions 22 23 24 25 appendix b example of survey summary report oncat 2017 - georgian college - fitness & health promotion equivalency survey q1 - college or university affiliation # answer % count 1 georgian college 10.00% 1 2 lakehead university 90.00% 9 total 100% 10 q2 - completing this survey as # answer % count 1 dean 0.00% 0 2 department head 0.00% 0 3 program chair 10.00% 1 4 teaching faculty 90.00% 9 total 100% 10 q3 - identify the program represented by this survey. # answer % count 1 fitness & health promotion 100.00% 9 total 100% 9 26 q4 - please review the following course descriptions and identify the level to which you feel the courses are equivalent. fhp biol1017 applied anatomy hbk 2015 introduction to biomechanics # 1 2 3 field minimum maximum mean topics covered depth of coverage learner outcomes std variance count deviation 80.00 91.00 85.50 5.50 30.25 2 70.00 82.00 76.00 6.00 36.00 2 80.00 82.00 81.00 1.00 1.00 2 q5 - based on comparing the descriptions and learner outcomes of the above courses, do you think that credit should be given to fhp diploma graduates for 2015 introduction to biomechanics? # answer % count 1 strongly agree 0.00% 0 2 agree 100.00% 2 3 somewhat agree 0.00% 0 4 neither agree nor disagree 0.00% 0 5 somewhat disagree 0.00% 0 6 disagree 0.00% 0 7 strongly disagree 0.00% 0 total 100% 2 q6 - please provide any additional details to support your evaluation of course equivalency as identified above. please provide any additional details to support your evaluation of course equivalency as identified above. i am familiar with both courses. the course content aligns nicely with kin 2015 27 q7 - based on comparing the descriptions and learner outcomes of the above courses, do you think that credit should be given to hbk graduates for biol1017 applied anatomy? # answer % count 1 strongly agree 0.00% 0 2 agree 100.00% 2 3 somewhat agree 0.00% 0 4 neither agree nor disagree 0.00% 0 5 somewhat disagree 0.00% 0 6 disagree 0.00% 0 7 strongly disagree 0.00% 0 total 100% 2 q8 - please provide any additional details to support your evaluation of course equivalency as identified above. please provide any additional details to support your evaluation of course equivalency as identified above. biol 1017 aligns nicely with kin 2015 although i believe kin2015 goes more in depth in relation to muscle mechanics using concepts of physics and biology 28 appendix c example of transfer credits outline hbk potential transfer credits blue fitness & health promotion courses biol1017 applied anatomy x biol1018 exercise physiology x biol1027 anatomy x biol1028 physiology x entr2009 entrepreneurship and small business entr2009 entrepreneurship and small business fitn1007 fitness instructor leadership fitn1007 fitness instructor leadership fitn1008 introduction to fitness and health promotion x fitn1009 personal training fitn1009 personal training fitn1010 industry experience 1 fitn1010 industry experience 1 fitn1013 client counselling x fitn2008 fitness appraisal and testing 1 fitn2008 fitness appraisal and testing 1 fitn2009 exercise and the human condition fitn2009 exercise and the human condition fitn2010 advanced exercise techniques fitn2010 advanced exercise techniques fitn2011 fitness appraisal and testing 2 fitn2011 fitness appraisal and testing 2 fitn2012 industry experience 2 fitn2012 industry experience 2 fitn2013 exercise planning and prescription fitn2013 exercise planning and prescription nutr2000 current concepts in nutrition x recr2003 administration practices recr2003 administration practices recr2006 community development recr2006 community development communications x communications x general education x general education x general education x 29

translation and proofreading services applicant questions and answers 1. what company/individual is the incumbent currently providing the service? oncat would prefer to keep this information confidential during the rfp process. 2. how many invitations have you sent out and how many participants are you expecting for this solicitation? oncat sent out 21 invitations and we are expecting to receive at least seven responses. this rfp was posted publicly on the oncat website and shared via oncat social media channels. 3. re: invitation, p4, oncat's preferred lexicon: in addition to the lexicon, is it possible for oncat to provide the awarded proponent with the translation memory (tmx) database file(s) created by the previous translation service provider(s)? this service may be available to the new service provider; however, oncat does not currently have a preferred lexicon database. 4. re: request process, p7, request process: would oncat be willing to submit translation requests via a secure web portal, or must requests be received by email and processed manually? oncat would be willing to consider the use of a secure web portal instead of email for some translation requests pending investigation and conversation to ensure the web portal can meet oncat needs. any additional pre or post translation processing fees will need to be negotiated and agreed to in the final agreement. any additional required fees must be disclosed in proponent responses. 5. proposal requirements, p8, #2, lexicon management and updating process: how often and in what format(s) will the oncat lexicon be provided? oncat can provide the preferred lexicon in excel format. the selected vendor is expected to update and maintain the oncat lexicon based on translation feedback and updates from oncat. 6. re: proposal requirements, p8, #2, issue escalation process: please describe oncats translation review process, how often feedback is shared with the vendor, and its internal issue resolution process when a major/minor issue is found in translation. oncat will bring errors to the attention of the translator on an incident-by-incident basis and will communicate via email or telephone. occasionally, oncat works with third-party reviewers to investigate accuracy of translated documents; internal staff will update documents based on these reviews and alert the original reviewer of changes to ensure consistency moving forward. 7. re: proposal requirements, p8, #3, fee structure: may proponents include optional fee structures, discount rates, other service pricing, etc., as long as there is no material alteration to the specific fees to be evaluated? proponents will be evaluated on the price per word metrics provided in the rfp evaluation criteria. alternative, optional fee structures can be presented but will not be considered until the negotiation stage. 8. are there any special processing requirements of files submitted, or is all text contained in editable files to be translated? some files will require all words contained within to be translated, including titles; others will require special processing requirements, meaning only certain content is to be translated. that content will be designated through an agreed-upon identification system (i.e., highlighted text, track change comments, attached guidelines, etc.). yes, additional special pre- or post-translation processing that is required can be billed at an applicable rate. any additional pre or post translation processing fees will need to be negotiated and agreed to in the final agreement. any additional required fees must be disclosed in proponent responses. 10. re: technical evaluation, p9: will the oncat lexicon be provided prior to commencing the test? no, the technical evaluation will not require the lexicon. 11. re: project submission, p10, [proposals that alter the] scope of work defined by this rfp will be rejected: may proponents include optional, value-added services, with costs listed separately from the pricing table to be evaluated? yes, optional, value-added services with costs listed separately from the pricing table may be included. page 2 9. if there is any additional pre or post translation processing required, can the time required for special file handling be billed at the applicable rate?

project snapshot student transfer processes and labour market outcomes: a life course analysis of the class of '73 project lead: dr. paul anisef, york university collaborators: mcmaster university project summary in this report, we explore cohort data spanning over 46 years to examine the historical patterns of transfer among ontario post-secondary students. more specifically, we employ the class of '73 longitudinal database spanning a time frame from 1973 to 2019 --to explore the antecedents, covariates, and long-term outcomes experienced by students who moved through the ontario post-secondary system in the late 1970s and early 1980s. it is important to recognize that the experience of student transfer is not new, and as our data analysis reveals members of this cohort participated in some kind of transfer, whether it was from college to university or university to college, or between universities or colleges. the study fills an important gap in the transfer literature around the historical practices of post-secondary transfer by using data from the longest running cohort study to date in canada. data collected in 1973 (high school), 1975 (when many young people had chosen to enter a post-secondary institution), 1979 (when members of the class of 73 were about 24 and most likely to have completed post-secondary), 1988 (when members of the class of 73 were about 33 and participating in the labour market) and 1995 (22 years after high school, around 40 years old and in mid-career) were employed to create a descriptive analysis of the detailed postsecondary pathways of cohort members. insofar as that the class of 73 cohort study employs a a longitudinal design, we were also able to establish a sequence of events with respect to their choice of post-secondary institution(s) and employment outcomes (e.g., occupational prestige, income, and job satisfaction). we had two research questions: 1. did the characteristics of students that chose to transfer differ substantively with those that did not transfer over the course of the class of 73 study? and 2. did the short and longer-term labour force consequences of students that engaged in transfer differ substantively from those that did not transfer over the course of the class of 73 study? project rationale in this report, our primary objective is to explore cohort data spanning over 46 years to examine the historical patterns of transfer among ontario post-secondary students. more specifically, we employ the class of '73 longitudinal database spanning a time frame from 1973 to 2019 --to explore the antecedents, covariates, and long-term outcomes experienced by students who moved through the ontario post-secondary system in the late 1970s and early 1980s. it is important to recognize that the experience of student transfer is not new, and as our data analysis reveals members of this cohort participated in some kind of transfer, whether it was from college to university or university to college, or between universities or colleges. the rationale of this study is to fill an important gap in the transfer research literature around the historical practices of post-secondary transfer by using data from the longest running cohort study in canada. methods the research methods employed in our secondary analysis of longitudinal data from the class of '73 study consisted of three components. the first component consisted in an exploration of descriptive statistics intended to introduce the reader to the key characteristics of the sample employed. the second is a bivariate analysis of between wave transfer and total transfer, which provided a description of the prevalence of different kinds of transfer among respondents participating in waves 1 through 6. this analysis provided a basic impression of how certain background characteristics (e.g., sex, ses) relates to the experience of student transfer. finally, we conducted a multivariate analysis in two parts. in part one, we employed multinomial logit models of between wave and total transfer with our socio-demographic variables as independent predictors. these models afforded us an opportunity to analyze the extent to which certain background characteristics affect the probability of an individual transferring between types of post-secondary education (i.e., are women more likely to transfer than men). these models are also useful in that they allow us to control for the effect of other variables included in the model. this, for example, allowed us to rule out the possibility that a difference in the probability of transferring between those with high grades versus those with low grades was actually due to a difference in ses that itself, is correlated with grades. the assessment of the actual effect of grades in these models is estimated by holding the effect of ses constant. the second part of our multivariate analysis employed growth curve models to determine if transfer students have lower average incomes and experience slower rates of change in income over their life course than non-transfer students. main collaborators the main collaborators in this project are professor karen robson, department of sociology, mcmaster university and erika mcdonald, ph.d student, department of sociology, york university. research findings the analyses revealed some notable findings, including: in total, transfers made up only 24% of the total of educational pathways across waves 2 to 6, indicating that transfer students comprised a minority of all respondents in our sample. within this small minority, it is also clear that university to caat transfers are the most common type of transfer overall. women modestly outnumbered men in all of the transfer categories especially in caat to university. we suggested that the women in our cohort study commonly appear to have taken a different path into university than men--namely by transferring from caat to university. however, by later phases of the cohort study sex differences became trivial. among those with lower grades, transfers were predominantly other or caat to university (though with notably smaller overall numbers). among those in the 60% to 69% group, transfers are more evenly distributed between caat to university and university to caat. finally, among those with the highest grades, transfers were predominantly from university to caat. among the results of the multinomial logistic regressions that are noteworthy: for transfer from college-to-university, it was found that females were more likely to report this type of transfer, that high ses individuals were less likely to report this type of transfer, and that those with higher grades were less likely to report this type of transfer. for transfer from university-to-college, we find no sex or ses effects, but a negative odds ratio associated with high grades (relative to average grades). the growth curve analysis revealed the following noteworthy findings: in terms of occupational prestige over time, we observed higher rates of return for university-to college-transfer compared to college-to-university transfer. in fact, cohort members who experienced a university-to-college transfer had later-life occupational prestige scores similar to those with university-only pathways. in terms of income over time, the college-to-university pathway showed the greatest returns in laterlife, again with trajectories similar to those who had university-only pathways. while there were significant income differences by sex, this did not change the relative impact of the type of pathway on predicted income. we found no differences in later-life job satisfaction by pathway type. future research our study has provided a historical baseline for the practice of post-secondary transfer in ontario in the late 70s and early 80s, demonstrating that it is not a new practice and that there are some notable associations with transfer-type and later-life employment outcomes. given that our current social discourses around the utility of generalized liberal education tend to be repeating themselves some 50 years later, policy makers must recognize that transfer in all its forms can have promising later-life associations. while the implied desirable pathway that is emphasized through bridging programs and the default understanding that transfer implies from college-to-university, we have observed the benefits of the opposite pathway that has outcomes which are comparable to a university-only trajectory. longitudinal data on more recent graduate cohorts would be able to establish if such patterns have remained consistent or have changed. however, such resources are largely absent in the canadian data landscape. one way of understanding the decisions of our cohort members would be to contact them and undertake qualitative interviews with them about their transfer decisions earlier in life. as we have their contact information, this would indeed be a viable future project. student outcomes while the current practices continue to favour college-to-university transfer as the natural and desirable pathway (as evidenced by many bridging programs) and the often internalized shame and feelings of failure of students who leave university to go to college, it should be noted that this latter pathway has demonstrated later-life employment outcomes in our cohort that are onpar with university-only pathways. one of the benefits of research that document the antecedents and outcomes of student transfer to students in the post-secondary system relates to guidance and shoring up of selfesteem. thus, if students who leave universities to attend caats experience shame and feelings of shame and then come to understand that their later life employment outcomes are on par with university-only pathways, these feeling may be significantly reduced or eliminated. thus, research that focuses on who actually transfers and the later life employment outcomes of student transfer pathways can act as a guidance tool and inform students of the potential benefits of transfer. as already mentioned, our study does have limitations, particularly with regard to the numbers of transfer students across the waves, and other more complete research studies are needed if they are to provide the sorts of information that would be helpful to students planning to transfer during their post-secondary career. tips/advice the analysis presented in this report reveals the value of secondary data in examining the antecedents, covariates, and long-term outcomes of student transfer. it would be important to identify other researchers in ontario and other parts of canada that have conducted similar research studies in the past that can add to this pool of knowledge. for example, we know of researchers in british columbia and alberta that have also conducted longitudinal studies and their datasets may contain information on student transfer and outcomes. these studies may offer a comparative basis for more broadly evaluating employment outcomes. oncat could act as a facilitator/sponsor of secondary data analysis of research studies that contain information relevant to the antecedents, covariates and employment outcomes of student transfer. such studies may either be cross-sectional or longitudinal and offer the opportunity to build a more complete knowledge base than is presently available. furthermore, it would be both interesting and important to develop a meta-analysis of datasets with the help of sophisticated and competent data analysts. knowledge gleaned from a meta- analysis of different dataset may result in information that is useful for the purpose of student guidance and may also help in the creation of strategies at the post-secondary level for building a more seamless transfer system in ontario.

access to education claimed as a right but treated as a privilege: experiences of learners who are incarcerated with accessing educational opportunities and pathways in ontario, canada summary of the findings dr. ardavan eizadirad tina-nadia gopal chambers summary of findings acknowledgements project partners include ontario council on articulation and transfer, humber college and amadeusz. the principal researchers for this study is dr. ardavan eizadirad and tina-nadia gopal chambers. this report was written by dr. ardavan eizadirad and tina-nadia gopal chambers. research assistance was provided by megan macdonald. corresponding author information: ardavan eizadirad aeizadirad@gmail.com tina-nadia gopal chambers gopaltina@gmail.com student who is incarcerated page 02 | acknowledgements summary of findings about the research access to education is a human right that should be upheld for everyone including individuals who are incarcerated as outlined in article 26 of the united nations universal declaration of human rights (united nations, 2022). in phase 1 of this research project, a literature review was conducted to examine what educational opportunities are available to individuals incarcerated in ontario, canada with a focus on availability and accessibility to opportunities and pathways. the findings and recommendations were published in a report in february 2021 titled access to postsecondary schooling and the credit transfer experience of the remand population in ontario (eizadirad, 2021). in phase 2 of this research project, a series of interviews were conducted with various key stakeholders to further explore and expand on the themes and findings from the literature review. it was important to capture perspectives and lived experiences of individuals who accessed education while incarcerated or post-release. the objective was to better understand processes, challenges, and systemic barriers related to accessing education, particularly how to make improvements to ensure the human right of access to education is upheld by incarceration facilities and various levels of government. key guiding questions for the project were: - what are the experiences of individuals who receive educational opportunities while incarcerated? - what are the experiences of individuals incarcerated as they pursue post-secondary education while incarcerated or after being released from jail? - is learning, courses, or training provided while incarcerated, specifically credits earned, formally recognized by colleges or universities they enter? what challenges and barriers are experienced as part of transferring between post-secondary institutions? - what could be enacted and implemented to create greater accessibility to educational opportunities to streamline the transition between post-secondary institutions for learners who are or formerly incarcerated? page 03 | about the research summary of findings about the research who did the research? the research was funded by ontario centre for articulation and transfer and k2 & associates. faculty from humber college and education consulting led the design of the research project and conducted the research. ethics approval was provided by humber college research ethics board #rp-0209. amadeusz contributed outreach, coordination, in-kind resources and support. amadeusz is an ontario charity that supports young people who are incarcerated to create positive change in their lives through access to education, community supports, mentorship and exceptional care. the research team worked in partnership with amadeusz to identify participants to be interviewed. overall, the findings and insights shared throughout this report are based on lived experiences of learners who are or formerly incarcerated as well as others involved with delivery of educational programs within incarceration facilities such as amadeusz staff and representatives from jails or post-secondary institutions. program participant page 04 | about the research summary of findings how was the research done? 25 key informants were recruited and interviewed via purposeful sampling through amadeuszs contacts and networks. interviews were completed between april to june 2021. participants were provided with informed consent outlining the project objectives and the steps involved. for those currently incarcerated, interviews were conducted over the phone and the number of questions asked as part of the interview varied to accommodate the limited time available ranging from 20 to 30 minutes. interviews with amadeusz program participants who were no longer incarcerated, amadeusz staff and administrators, and post-secondary representatives were conducted remotely via phone or zoom in alignment with safety guidelines and protocols associated with covid-19. the remote interviews ranged from 60 to 90 minutes. all interviews were audio-recorded and anonymized to ensure confidentiality. pseudonyms were assigned to participants to further ensure anonymity as part of sharing quotes throughout this report. interview responses were transcribed to facilitate coding and thematic analysis of the data. participants had the option to drop out of the study at any point without any penalties by informing the lead researcher. no-one expressed wanting to drop out after completion of the interviews. participants were provided with a $50 visa gift card as a token of appreciation for their time for participating in the study. page 05 | about the research summary of findings research participants participants were divided into three groups: 1) past and present amadeusz education program staff (n=5). 2) program participants (n=10) who met one of the four criteria outlined below: a. completed high school with amadeusz while incarcerated, started postsecondary courses while incarcerated, and continued their post-secondary studies after being released. b. completed high school with amadeusz while incarcerated, got released, and then started post-secondary studies. c. already had their high school diploma upon incarceration. began postsecondary courses with amadeusz while incarcerated and continued their postsecondary studies after being released. d. already had their high school diploma and enrolled in a post-secondary program before incarceration. continued their post-secondary studies with amadeusz while incarcerated. 3) representatives from post-secondary institutions (n=8) and jails (n=2) interested or involved in delivery of educational programs in incarceration facilities. the table shows the age, gender, and ethnicity of amadeusz program participants interviewed: page 06 | about the research summary of findings report findings finding #1 there needs to be an ideological shift about the purpose of incarceration facilities from being spaces that punish people by warehousing them to spaces that facilitate and promote rehabilitation. by extension, there is a need to disrupt deficit thinking about learners who are incarcerated and negative stereotypes about their potential and competencies. finding #2 education needs to be treated as a right rather than a privilege. education has to be prioritized to make it more accessible and meet the needs of individuals incarcerated for meaningful learning opportunities. finding #3 the physical space of jails needs to be altered with greater access to educational spaces, technology, and resources to facilitate optimal teaching and learning conditions. particularly, there is a need to modernize and create greater access to computers and digital platforms to facilitate effective educational experiences. finding #4 there is a need to implement socio-culturally relevant and responsive curriculum content, pedagogies, and accommodations to better support learners who are incarcerated with consideration for lack of access to resources and technology for distance learning. finding #5 there is a lack of choices in the type of programs and courses offered that can be administered through paper-based correspondence. learners who are incarcerated need more holistic services and financial support to optimize their learning and facilitate pursuit of education post-release with consideration for transfer pathways and costs. page 07 | findings summary of findings recommendations based on the findings the following recommendations are made: #1 amadeusz should host forums and conduct further research to show the positive impact of access to education on learners who are incarcerated. findings should be publicized and shared with various stakeholders to outline the social return in terms of taxpayer savings and how greater access to education leads to more effective reintegration and reduction in recidivism. this will contribute to disrupting deficit thinking about individuals incarcerated and their competencies and further create awareness about education as a human right, even for individuals incarcerated, as outlined in article 26 of the united nations universal declaration of human rights. #2 as part of prioritizing education as a human right, incarceration institutions should have a dedicated space or unit for schooling purposes. when on lockdown, people who are incarcerated should continue to maintain access to educational programs. #3 there should be greater access to computers, technology, digital platforms, and resources to facilitate distance learning and modernize conditions for teaching and learning. these can include dedicating greater spaces to teaching and learning such as a library and providing more educational materials. this also includes better access to computers, educational tools, and assistive-technology in a manner that is safe for conducting research, reading texts, and completing course assignments. all facilities should be upgraded to use video conferencing which would lead to more equitable participation in educational programs. #4 there should be greater staff and instructor training to deliver educational programs in a manner that is socio-culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining to the identities and lived experiences of learners who are incarcerated. trauma-informed, antioppression, and decolonial practices (battiste, 2013; hanna, 2019) are recommended as part of pedagogies to be implemented for course content and delivery. #5 post-secondary institutions should be mandated to have a number of programs and courses available in paper-based correspondence with academic accommodations for learners who are incarcerated. incarceration should be approved as a valid reason to receive accommodations which can be implemented as part of post-secondary institutions equity and inclusion strategies and policies. page 08 | recommendations summary of findings #6 learners who are incarcerated, both provincially and federally, should be compensated with an income for participating in educational programs to mitigate costs for enrolling into educational programs or courses. an income should be earned for completing educational courses similar to the inmate welfare fund (iwf) program. iwf should be extended to include post-secondary schooling as it only applies to high school course completion. #7 ontariolearn (https://www.ontariolearn.com/) is an online platform that supports credit transfer mobility and provides access to post-secondary courses (ontariolearn, 2016). create more awareness of ontariolearn as a transfer mobility platform to help individuals who are incarcerated complete credits and transfer credits between post-secondary institutions including courses completed while incarcerated. access to the ontariolearn platform needs to be given on the inside via computers to help learners who are incarcerated access information about programs they would be interested to pursue, enroll, and how to transfer their credits. #8 there should be federal and provincial bursaries created for learners who are incarcerated. amadeusz has begun to offer scholarships through their organization. post-secondary institutions should have specific bursaries for the individuals who are incarcerated instead of grouping them under existing categories such as mature or low-income students. postsecondary institutions should have a person of contact at their institution to support learners who are incarcerated. #9 a national funding organization, similar to the laughing gull foundation in the united states which has a unique branch focusing on higher education in prison (laughing gull foundation, 2020), should be created that annually reviews proposals for programs and partnerships to improve access to education for individuals incarcerated. a committee should be created with representatives from various stakeholders to assess the applications based on clear criteria outlined and communicated in advance to the public. this will allow for innovative ideas, programs, and partnerships to be presented, assessed, approved, and initiated to meet the demands of greater access to education in incarceration facilities. #10 the creation of a pilot project coalition involving partnerships with various post-secondary institutions is recommended. the coalition would design, create, and implement a pilot program involving transfer pathways, courses, and support services to meet the needs and circumstances of learners who are incarcerated with consideration for their circumstances. part of this program would involve amadeusz existing case management post-release to ensure continuity of access to education and other relevant support services (e.g. securing housing and employment) to facilitate reintegration back into the community. page 09 | recommendations summary of findings learnings as a collective, findings from phase 1 and phase 2 of the research project indicate that access to post-secondary education for individuals incarcerated remains limited and an under-developed sector in canada. organizations such as amadeusz are leading the way but more funding and resources need to be allocated to prioritize education and expand the capacity of current programming as there is a demand for it. a holistic approach involving synergetic partnerships with organizations, agencies, and post-secondary institutions are required to revamp the system and prioritize education as a human right, as education is a significant protective factor in reducing recidivism. overall, the report outlines why the current system is inequitable and unjust, how systemic barriers limit access to quality educational opportunities, and how such barriers can be mitigated through a series of recommendations as next steps for moving forward. new improvements and changes in creating greater access to education and more effective transfer pathways will contribute to higher rates of rehabilitation and reduction in recidivism. this will contribute to government savings in monetary costs in the long term. the implementation of the proposed pilot project would be the next phase of this research. the introduction and implementation of a pilot project needs to be a collective effort involving all levels of the government in partnership with community organizations and post-secondary institutions. the full report will be available for download on the amadeusz website at www.amadeusz.ca page 10 | learnings summary of findings participant voices page 11 | participant voices thank you ontario council on articulation and transfer (https://www.oncat.ca/en/welcome-oncat) and k2 & associates (https://k2.ca/) for funding this research. we would also like to thank the research participants for sharing their knowledge. page 12 | thank you

project snapshot education city transfer mobility analysis: exploring experiences of transfer students in the ottawa region type: research project number: 2019-25 or r1925 project lead: algonquin college of applied arts and technology collaborators: algonquin college of applied arts and technology, university of ottawa, carleton university, la cit collgiale, universit saint-paul. deliverables for website (if applicable): education city transfer mobility analysis: exploring experiences of transfer students in the ottawa region project summary this project intended to map the patterns, motivations, and experiences of transfer students in the ottawa region. the intention was to contribute to removing barriers and improving support systems through strong institutional collaboration and the development of innovative pathways and student opportunities (e.g. personalized program or course opportunities, targeted transfer pathways and agreements). project rationale little is known about the experiences and barriers experienced by transfer students. the few existing studies that include qualitative data on transfer students, have been carried out on an institution-toinstitution basis with only small amounts of participants (decock & janzen, 2016). the collection of institutional data on transfer students would inform to what extent students transfer between participating institutions in general, and more specifically, make use of developed articulation agreements, dual credits and credit transfer opportunities. focus groups will be employed to collect additional data to provide insights into the expectations and experiences of these students. additionally, factors that potentially influence the transfer experience can be explored. findings could help institutional leaders and student advisors to identify the ways in which students experiences do not map the intended design of services or agreements. it will help to identify areas where there is the greatest need for improvement which will in turn provide insights into the factors that contribute to a positive or negative transfer experience. this information can contribute to the development of informed collaborative articulation agreements and policies, and collaborative information collection throughout ontario. what research methods were used? this project intended to adopted a mixed-methods approach to data collection. quantitative data collection was planned in the form of a survey of transfer students as well as the collection and analysis of secondary data sources, such as data on transfer students from each institutions student information system joined with student application data from the ontario universities application centre (ouac) and the ontario college application service (ocas); and two ministry of colleges and universities surveys that are administered to recent postsecondary graduates, the ontario university graduate survey (ougs) and the college graduate satisfaction survey (cgss). the survey was also intended to be a vehicle for recruiting participants for qualitative data collection. qualitative data collection was planned to be based primarily on focus groups, to be conducted with a diverse group of students who had varying transfer experiences. the focus groups could be used to elaborate upon themes generated out of the quantitative data collection, and the protocol was developed to explore a variety of aspects of the transfer student experience with their transfer process, including barriers to mobility, the rationale for their decision-making, their expectations, and their experiences with and needs for support systems at their pre- and posttransfer institutions. the focus group data was to be supplemented by responses to the long answer questions gathered during the survey. due to the covid-19 pandemic and subsequent suspension of in-person activities, a hold was placed on any surveying of students at many of the participating institutions. institutions who were open to having a survey were concerned that the unpredictable nature of the time, for both students and institutions, would negatively affect the response rate of the survey. these factors led to holding off on launching the survey. since algonquin college had already completed its survey data collection, planning for focus groups for the 93 survey participants who had indicated that they would be interested in participating had begun. once all on-campus activities were suspended, the planning of the focus group was cancelled, and resources were shifted away from their administration to the institutions coronavirus and covid-19 impact mitigation strategy. similarly, collection of the secondary data was also put on hold in consideration of not wanting to commit institutional capacity to respond and provide data that would be needed elsewhere during this time. at the suspension of this project, the preparation work for data collection was completed instrument development, testing, and piloting; obtaining approval to conduct research at each institution; recruitment for focus groups in the case of algonquin collegethe institutional responses to coronavirus and covid-19 put a halt on their execution. describe any limitations the limitations encountered in this project were mainly data collection related. access to analogous data from participating institutions was a challenge to obtain as each institution gathers student data in different ways. in addition, the access to ouac, ocas, ougs and cgss data was also limited. main collaborator contributions 1. algonquin college of applied arts and technology - algonquin college led this research project from a project management and research capacity. 2. university of ottawa - the university of ottawa co-led this project and was a partner in the collection and analysis of the qualitative data. 3. carleton university - provided input and support to the project and assisted in data collection from their respective institution. 4. la cit collgiale - provided input and support to the project and assisted in data collection from their respective institution. 5. universit saint-paul - provided input and support to the project and assisted in data collection from their respective institution. research findings due to the covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent suspension of project activities, there were no findings, conclusions or recommendations made for this research project at this time. future research in the future (post covid-19 impact), resumption of phase i and ii of the project can be completed based on the initial work completed to date (the survey instrument and focus group questionnaire). phase i includes collecting data on incoming transfer students at the five institutions using application data from ocas and from ouac. phase ii involves gathering qualitative data through focus groups. the outcomes of the focus groups, together with the quantitative data gathered in phase 1, could result in recommendations for the development of targeted and feasible agreements and integrated support for transfer students at the institutions in the ottawa region. student outcomes in the current suspended state, there are no observations or recommendations at this time. with the above mentioned future research option, research in this area can inform a better targeted approach to transfer agreements in the ottawa region. in addition, recommendations for better integration of support for transfer students at the institutions in the ottawa region can be made. institutional outcomes this research process provided insight on the need to develop agreements between institutions to recognize research ethics board approvals. multisite approval for ontario colleges does not extend to universities (or la cit in this case) and consequently leads to redundancy with multiinstitutional research projects. sector or system implications due to the covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent suspension of project activities, there are no insights, cautions or recommendations at this time. tips/advice for others interested in conducting research in this area we would recommend gathering data from participating institutions well as from ouac, ocas, ougs and cgss concurrently with obtaining research ethics board approvals. given our methodology was to obtain reb approvals prior to assembling the data, the delay in both areas of the research was compounded. tools and resources the survey instrument and focus group questionnaire which was developed as a part of this project have been included in the research supporting documents section of the follow up packet.

indigenous entrepreneurship pathways in ontario oncat-funded pathway development project final report: 2017-05 prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer september 2018 acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge all who shared their knowledge and contributed to this project. thank you to the ontario council on articulation and transfer for offering post-secondary institutions a wonderful opportunity to conduct projects that help advance learner mobility in the province. much gratitude and appreciation to melanie sodtka (mba, cpcc), professor and coordinator small business, entrepreneurship and surge founder for the comprehensive review of entrepreneurship programming at mohawk college and collaboration on this project. thank you to members of the algonquin college entrepreneurship working group, innovation, and entrepreneurship committee for their perspectives on developing an entrepreneurial mindset. thanks to erin whyte and vessela zaykova, both with the centre for continuing and online learning at algonquin college for their dedicated research and participation in the outcomes analysis. special consideration and thanks to members of the akwesasne and kitigan zibi communities for their advice about framing learning outcomes for indigenous learners. finally, a very special thank you to andre obonsawin, manager, indigenous initiatives at algonquin college who generously shared his experiences, research and views about indigenous entrepreneurship for this project. without all of your support, this project would not be possible. miigwetch, thank you. project lead pat lychak, m. ed., mba academic manager centre for continuing & online learning algonquin college september 2018 2 contents executive summary ............................................................................................................................................. 4 project purpose and goals................................................................................................................................. 5 methodology.......................................................................................................................................................... 5 phase 1 review of the literature and environmental scan ..................................................................... 5 phase 2 evaluation and recommendation for reciprocal pathways ................................................... 6 phase 3 development of indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes ...................................................... 6 review of the literature ..................................................................................................................................... 6 entrepreneurship ........................................................................................................................................................... 6 future skills for success ............................................................................................................................................ 6 common themes for future employability outcomes .................................................................................... 7 indigenous identity(ies) ............................................................................................................................................... 9 cultural values ................................................................................................................................................................ 9 indigenous entrepreneurship ................................................................................................................................. 10 differences between two forms of entrepreneurship ................................................................................. 11 benefits of indigenous entrepreneurship .......................................................................................................... 11 rationale for indigenizing entrepreneurship .................................................................................................... 13 summary ......................................................................................................................................................................... 13 environmental scan ......................................................................................................................................... 13 pathway development........................................................................................................................... 15 program comparison and analysis ....................................................................................................................... 15 outcomes analysis ...................................................................................................................................................... 15 indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes development ........................................................................... 17 promising practices and lessons learned ................................................................................................. 18 appendix a partner profiles .............................................................................................................. 19 algonquin college ........................................................................................................................................................ 19 mohawk college ........................................................................................................................................................... 19 appendix b relevant programs (shortlist) .................................................................................... 20 appendix c medicine wheel ............................................................................................................. 21 appendix d - bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 22 3 executive summary through funding received from the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), this report outlines research and recommendations for pathways that reflect indigenous entrepreneurship vocational learning outcomes (vlo). in collaboration with mohawk college, algonquin college as the lead institution researched and analyzed outcomes from more than a 100 ontario post-secondary programs in order to propose new indigenous outcomes that support and connect with entrepreneurship programming. ontario institutions such as algonquin and mohawk colleges can in turn use this information to support further enhancement of their respective entrepreneurship programs that also aim to target a growing indigenous learner population. the benefits of entrepreneurship are well documented as determining factors of economic vitality at all levels of society. developing pathways that combine both indigenous and traditional entrepreneurship outcomes gives learners the essential skills and independence they need to start new and innovative business ventures that support sustainability within their communities. moreover, offering learners the opportunity to achieve indigenous learning outcomes can be an extension of traditional practices that can help strengthen self-identity and culture. designed in three phases, the project methodology focused on a content analysis of approved vlos and ministry-approved program content: 1) a review of the literature and environmental scan, 2) an evaluation for reciprocal pathways, and, 3) development of indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes. content analysis methods provided the participants valuable opportunities to analyze and validate relevant outcomes. the program comparison and analysis revealed a variety of differences between ontario credentials and their related outcome sets. most programs had content specific to traditional business, entrepreneurship or indigenous cultural studies. none had specific outcomes related to indigenous entrepreneurship. the project also provided an opportunity to propose outcomes that reflect indigenous entrepreneurship and that would be distinct from traditional entrepreneurship found in the business programs reviewed. these outcomes would have the potential to inform the development of a bridging program that learners could apply when laddering between credentials. the model used to indigenize entrepreneurship outcomes was the medicine wheel. as part of indigenous cultures across the centuries, the circle shape of the medicine wheel represents the interconnectivity of all aspects of ones being, including the connection with the natural world. the medicine wheel provided a foundation from which to indigenize traditional entrepreneurship outcomes. overarching outcomes that align with the four directions that are distinct from traditional entrepreneurship were developed. going forward, these outcomes can inform a bridging program reflecting indigenous entrepreneurship. it was apparent that understandings about indigenous entrepreneurship pathways are diverse and complex. the vision that this project was aiming for simply had not been realized in the ontario postsecondary system. modifications of the project scope allowed for additional reflection and analysis that was required to better understand the complexities. ultimately, the deliverables produced in this project offered a deeper understanding and practical information required in order to advance indigenous programming and pathways that support learner mobility in ontario. 4 project purpose and goals as mandated by oncat, the overarching purpose of this project is to improve student mobility within the public postsecondary education system in ontario.1 the mandate fulfills two primary goals: 1) to create innovative educational opportunities for students, and, 2) to act as a resource for future projects by sharing methodologies, best practices, and lessons learned. in achieving oncats mandate, the project aims to develop indigenous entrepreneurship learning outcomes that can then be delivered via innovative and flexible program pathways. the truth and reconciliation commission (trc) report (2015) emphasizes the need for meeting the learning needs of indigenous people in canada.2 however, few ontario colleges infuse, or indigenize indigenous knowledge into program standards.3 nor are they oriented to meet the demand for indigenous entrepreneurs who seek to develop the skills of self-reliance and knowledge required for non-traditional job markets. developing innovative packaging of indigenous entrepreneurship pathways will advance the truth and reconciliation commissions recommendations as well as support future employment opportunities for an under-represented population. the following intended goals help achieve the purpose of this project: 1. analyze outcomes from ontario college and university programs against indigenous ways of knowing in order to create outcomes that support indigenous and non-indigenous learners. 2. explore potential indigenous entrepreneurship pathways between programs. 3. in the future, develop flexible programming that supports proposed pathways. developing pathways that combine both indigenous and traditional entrepreneurship outcomes gives learners the essential skills and independence they need to start new and innovative business ventures that support economic, social and environmental sustainability within their communities. in addition, pathways between credentials that focus on entrepreneurship are valuable for individuals who possess the motivation to improve their workforce skills. ultimately, these pathways will give learners access to practical training that will help them get into the job market faster. methodology supported by a review of the literature, the project methodology primarily focused on a content analysis of approved vlos and ministry-approved program content. content analysis methods provided the participants valuable opportunities to analyze and validate relevant outcomes that would ultimately contribute to developing pathways that reflected indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes. the content analysis is divided into three phases: phase 1 review of the literature and environmental scan a review of the literature and environmental scan were conducted in order to better understand the research related to industry demand. an environmental scan of existing algonquin and mohawk programs also revealed the current state of entrepreneurship programming at each college and opportunities for pathways. the literature review provided a theoretical framework from which to propose and validate program outcomes. 1 see http://www.oncat.ca/. truth and reconciliation commission of canada (2012) truth and reconciliation commission of canada: calls to action. 3 program standards in ontario reflect the essential learnings that graduates must achieve. components include vocational learning outcomes, essential employability skills and general education. 2 5 phase 2 evaluation and recommendation for reciprocal pathways seventy-nine programs of study and vlos for all ontario college programs and thirty-eight programs across ontario universities were reviewed in order to identify relevant pathways and indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes. phase 3 development of indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes using the medicine wheel teachings as a guiding model, new outcomes were developed as a basis for enhanced vlos in indigenous entrepreneurship. these outcomes were applied to the analysis of program pathways. review of the literature entrepreneurship the benefits of entrepreneurship are well documented throughout the literature as critical determining factors of economic vitality at the local, regional, and national levels.4 as such, there is an intensified demand for skilled workers to enter the workforce with a blend of skills that are traditionally associated with entrepreneurship.5 given this intensified demand, post-secondary institutions can play a key role in developing graduates who possess entrepreneurial skills for both the current and future economies. entrepreneurship is not just about starting a new business venture; it is about affecting change by recognizing opportunities and seeking solutions to improve society. an underlying characteristic common to all entrepreneurs is the compulsion to solve problems. entrepreneurs engage in a process of discovery to find solutions that resolve problems as well as create value for their organizations and communities.6 in essence, entrepreneurship is about recognizing opportunities, which can lead to change and growth for society. entrepreneurship can be framed around a mindset that is curious, flexible, creative and uses critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills to address problems. many entrepreneurs have been recognized as catalysts for change.7 often referred to as changemakers8, entrepreneurs are considered to be action oriented9, innovators, and providers.10 the ability to perceive problems as opportunities, create potential solutions, implement, assess the outcomes, and redesign if necessary are key entrepreneurial activities11. unlike personality traits that are largely fixed, there is the belief that an entrepreneurial mindset can be taught and honed.12 this notion suggests that most all learners can enhance their entrepreneurial skills if given the opportunity. future skills for success according to rbcs future skills report, within the next decade 25% of all canadian jobs will be significantly disrupted by technology and more than 50% will need to adjust their required skills.13 therefore, there is a need for a mobile, skilled workforce that is continually learning, training, and upgrading their skills. in response, post-secondary institutions need to rethink how they view 4 s, c., kretz, a., sigurdson, k., the state of entrepreneurship education in ontarios colleges and universities, (toronto, higher education quality council of ontario, 2014). 5 information and communications technology council (ictc), digital talent: road to 2020 and beyond, (2016). 6 nisod publications, an interdisciplinary approach to creating entrepreneurial learning environments, (texas, university of texas, 2018), 2. 7 lerner, j., & sahlman, w., reviving entrepreneurship, (harvard business review, 2012), 116-119. 8 books, d., everyone a changemaker, (the new york times, 2018). 9 lynch, m., et al., the language of successful entrepreneurs. 10 rbc, humans wanted. 11 singer, s., amors, j. e., & arreola, d. m., global entrepreneurship monitor 2014 global report, (london, uk: global entrepreneurship research association, london school of business, 2014). 12 lynch, m., kamovich, u., andersson, g., & steinert, m., the language of successful entrepreneurs: an empirical starting point for the entrepreneurial mindset, (proceedings of the european conference on innovation and entrepreneurship, 2017), 384-391. 13 rbc, humans wanted: how canadian youth can thrive in the age of disruption, (2018) 6 employment outcomes for their graduates. for example, assisting learners to understand foundational skill clusters such as solvers, providers, facilitators, technicians, crafters, doers and to identify where they fall within these clusters will help them to better prepare for and succeed within a disruptive economy.14 there is consensus on the critical skills needed to be successful in a disruptive skills-based economy. the world economic forum offers a framework for employability skills required for the 21st century (see figure 1). figure 1: 21st-century skills15 this framework supports the earlier assertion that there is an intensified demand for skilled workers to enter the workforce. several of these skills (i.e., critical thinking, problem-solving, and curiosity) are viewed as congruent with the skills of a strong entrepreneurial orientation. common themes for future employability outcomes common themes surrounding future employability outcomes congruent with notions of entrepreneurship found within the literature are: adaptability, problem-solving, risk-tolerance, global and cultural intelligence, collaboration, digital literacy, and client/service orientation. adaptability the theme of adaptability centres on the need for a skilled workforce that is resilient, mobile, growthoriented, and committed to lifelong learning. disruptive technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence demand a digitally skilled workforce that can adapt to the changing needs in a knowledge and skills-based economy16. therefore, learners need to develop an affinity for lifelong 14 ibid. soffel, j., what are the 21st-century skills every student needs, (world economic forum, 2016). 16 ictc, digital talent. 15 7 learning in order to anticipate what comes next. they will need to be mobile and able to leverage the advancement of their skills to move within and between jobs.17 problem-solving one of the most predominant themes in future employability outcomes is the cognitive skill of problem-solving. problem-solving has been identified as being the skill cluster that will see the highest growth in demand within the workplace over the next decade.18 when provided with opportunities that support the development of problem-solving skills, learners become more aware of their individual strengths, what motivates them, and what their potential may be. they also develop a greater sense of confidence in how they can impact society as change-makers.19 risk tolerance risk tolerance is reflected in future employability. learners need to learn about responsible risktaking and how to deal with failure in the right way.20 by definition, iteration is a process in in which repetition of a sequence of operation yields results successively closer to a desired result.21 through an iterative process of experimentation, reflection, and adaptation implies that a certain amount of risk-taking and willingness to fail in order to eventually arrive at the best possible solution is necessary. global and cultural intelligence canada is a multi-cultural society, which is reflected in the workplace. despite this, there is a growing concern that graduates entering the workforce lack the global skills necessary to effectively communicate and collaborate with each other.22 in a mobile skills-based economy, the majority of new ventures and innovative ideas that will help grow the canadian economy are likely to be global in nature23; therefore, there is a need to emphasize the development of cultural intelligence and interpersonal skills to support this globalization of the workplace. collaboration/associational thinking woven throughout the literature is the importance of collaboration in all aspects of entrepreneurship. strong collaborative skills enable learners to leverage the knowledge, skills, and experiences of others to support their innovations.24 similar to collaboration is the cognitive skill of associational thinking25, which is the ability to connect ideas and/or problems that others find unrelated. both collaboration and associational thinking involve interactions with others, which implies the need for strong interpersonal and networking skills. digital literacy the adoption of technology is important to innovation and maintaining canadas competitive edge; yet despite its importance, there is a shortage of skilled workers with the ability to assess and implement technological innovations.26 industry wants graduates who are not only problem-solvers, but are also digitally literate and have the analytical skill to work with data27. skilled talent needs to be developed in order to leverage new and emerging technologies to maintain and increase canadas global competitiveness. 17 rbc, humans wanted. ibid. 19 flannigan, s. l., infusing social entrepreneurship. 20 minogue, s., how ryerson is using. 21 iteration. (2018). in merriam-websters online dictionary. 22 rbc, humans wanted. 23 lerner, j., & sahlman, w., reviving entrepreneurship. 24 lynch, m., et al., the language of successful entrepreneurs. 25 dyer, j., gergersen, h., & christensen, c. m., five discovery skills that distinguish great innovators, (harvard business school, 2011). 26 information and communications technology council (ictc), digital talent. 27 rbc, humans wanted. 18 8 client/customer service oriented research indicates that entrepreneurs have a clear understanding of the needs of their customers and tend to exhibit a win-win type mentality in their attempts to find solutions that fulfill these needs.28 through innovation that is customer focused, it is possible to address a wide range of social issues for the betterment of society as a whole.29 indigenous identity(ies) the term indigenous is generally used to describe a population of people who are descendant from those who inhabited a region prior to later inhabitants; are subject to geographical, political, and/or economic domination by later inhabitants, and who maintain distinctive culture.30 in canada, the term indigenous mirrors the use of the term aboriginal peoples as defined by section 35 of the constitution act (1982) that includes the indian, inuit and mtis peoples of canada.31 the problem with formal definitions, however, is that they do not encapsulate the full spectrum of those who self-identify as indigenous peoples.32 in order to capture the diversity of indigenous peoples worldwide, the united nations instead refers to an understanding of what is meant by indigenous based on the following: self-identification as indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their member historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources distinct social, economic or political systems distinct language, culture and beliefs from non-dominant groups of society resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities (1).33 (united nations permanent forum on indigenous issues, direct quote) for the purpose of this literature review, the uns broader understanding of the term, with an emphasis on self-identification, will define the term indigenous. however, in direct quotes, the original term used by the author(s) is used. cultural values the socioeconomic culture of an indigenous community is informed by their worldview and framed through the foregrounding of social, cultural, and environmental values over economics.34 most commonly shared core values amongst indigenous peoples are protection of ecological balance, solidarity, cultural preservation, holistic worldview, social economic equity, sharing, loyalty, and generosity.35 28 lynch, m., et al., the language of successful entrepreneurs. lerner, j., & sahlman, w., reviving entrepreneurship 30 peredo, a.m., anderson, r.b., galbraith, c., honig, b. and dana, l.p., towards a theory of indigenous entrepreneurship, (international journal of entrepreneurship and small business, 2004), 119. 31 canadian charter of rights and freedoms, part i of the constitution act, 1982, being schedule b to the canada act 1982 (uk), 1982, c 11. 32 gallagher, b., & lawrence, t. b., entrepreneurship and indigenous identity: a study of identity work by indigenous entrepreneurs in british columbia, (international journal of entrepreneurship and small business, 2012). 33 united nations permanent forum on indigenous issues, fact sheet, (n.d.). 34 colbourne, r., indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid ventures. (emerald publishing, 2017), 93-149. 35 curry, j. a., donker, h., & michel, p., social entrepreneurship and indigenous people. (journal of co-operative organization and management, 2016), 108-115. 29 9 indigenous peoples have a collectivist-oriented culture, which emphasizes the individuals socioeconomic interdependence within the community. this collectivist approach is significantly different from western worldviews that promote the needs, wants and desires of the individual as most important.36 37 table 1 displays the different characteristics of these two worldviews. table 1: collectivism versus individualism38 dimension indigenous collectivism social structure group achievement emphasis on inclusion, mutual support and interdependence power sit within a complex ecosystem of relationships; power with rights mutually interactive change cyclical and harmonious knowledge moral imperative goals accounting over time environment/resource orientation resource use land use wealth journey towards knowing relational and context sensitive stewardship sacred trust with responsibilities to future generations group interest ancestors through to 7 generation gifts from the creator western individualism personal achievement emphasis on competition, economic or class stratification sit on top of a series of relationships; power over in competition linear process of progress and development asset to be accumulated rational and fixed nation or international economic interests job creation personal interests present and next generation commodities or assets to exploit sustainable development for sustenance for social ends to be shared or given away unrestricted exploitation for profit for personal means to be accumulated *sources: harper (2003), henry (2007), holder and corntassel (2002), peredo and mclean (2020), tassell et al. (2010) and thornton et al. (2011). indigenous identity and culture are inextricably linked to their value of traditional lands and practices.39 it is important to note that not all indigenous communities share the same socioeconomic values. therefore, the unique social relationships, governing institutions, and values of the communities in which they are based will affect entrepreneurial activities.40 indigenous entrepreneurship some indigenous peoples see economic development through entrepreneurial activities as the key to success; however, their participation in the global economy needs to be on their own terms and respectful of their social, cultural, and environmental values. in order to understand what is meant by indigenous entrepreneurship, it is important to understand what the term entrepreneurship means both on its own and within an indigenous economic development context.41 in the context of economic development, this definition can be narrowed to refer to entrepreneurship as the identification of unmet or under satisfied needs and related opportunities, entrepreneurship as the identification of unmet or under satisfied needs and related opportunities, and the creation braun, k. l., browne, c. v., kaopua, l. s., kim, b. j., & mokuau, n., research on indigenous elders: from positivistic to decolonizing methodologies (the gerontologist, 2014), 117126. 37 colbourne, r., indigenous entrepreneurship. 38 ibid. 39 colbourne, r., indigenous entrepreneurship. 40 ibid. 41 diochon, m., a baseline study of entrepreneurship among first nations women in the atlantic region, (journal of small business and entrepreneurship, 2014), 89-112. 36 10 of enterprises, products, and services in response to these opportunities (3)42. it is when selfidentifying indigenous persons participate in this process that the concept of indigenous entrepreneurship emerges43. differences between two forms of entrepreneurship indigenous entrepreneurial activities differ from western paradigms of entrepreneurship in that they prioritize environmental, social, spiritual and cultural objectives over economic value creation. western entrepreneurial activities, on the other hand, value the economic objective of profit generation over all others. figure 2 illustrates the difference worldviews reflected in indigenous and western socioeconomic objectives. figure 2: indigenous versus western socioeconomic objectives44 furthermore, indigenous entrepreneurship is different from western entrepreneurship in that it must be: a) accountable to the indigenous community within which they operate. b) community-centric with a focus on value creation in a manner that both reflects and leverages the communitys resources, assets, and culture. c) appropriately matched to the communitys socioeconomic needs and objectives. d) able to leverage organizational and governance structures.45 therefore, it is a form of entrepreneurship that is more in line with social entrepreneurship, where the emphasis is on creating/innovating for the benefit of societal change, as indigenous entrepreneurship achieves a unique blend of social, cultural, environmental and economic value creation that is of importance to the community in which it is embedded.46 benefits of indigenous entrepreneurship entrepreneurship can positively contribute to indigenous economic development and strengthen indigenous identities.47 aboriginal affairs and northern development canada (aandc) identify entrepreneurial activities as becoming a key driver of economic opportunity within indigenous 42 hindle, k., anderson, r. b., giberson, r. j., & kayseas, b., relating practice to theory in indigenous entrepreneurship: a pilot investigation of the kitsaki partnership portfolio, (the american indian quarterly, 2005), 1-23. 43 gallagher, b., & lawrence, t. b., entrepreneurship and indigenous identity. 44 ibid. 45 colbourne, r., indigenous entrepreneurship. 46 ibid. 47 gallagher, b., & lawrence, t. b., entrepreneurship and indigenous identity. 11 communities.48 however, in order for indigenous entrepreneurial activities to be successful, there needs to be sufficient support within the community. table 2 describes the factors within indigenous communities that will either support or act as barriers to the economic viability of entrepreneurial activities. table 2: economic viability of business located in aboriginal communities the standing committee on aboriginal peoples (2007).49 opportunities for economic development barriers to economic development stable leadership and vision legislative and regulatory aspects of the indian act willingness to form partnerships with other limited access to lands and resources and capacity to aboriginal communities and with the private sector develop those resources in the pursuit of economic opportunities lack of institutional mechanisms to support economic legitimacy of economic activities to the interactions community insufficient education and training strategic use of available resources limited access to capital qualified labour pool non-competitive physical infrastructure appropriate interplay between politics and business * adapted from the standing senate committee on aboriginal peoples, 2007, ix. through successful implementation and ongoing growth, indigenous entrepreneurial activities can help address complex socioeconomic issues (such as high unemployment rates) by prioritizing, balancing, and blending social, cultural, economic and/or environmental value creation activities.50 51 52 53 many see entrepreneurial activity as a way to support the dual objective of rebuilding their communities on a traditional and culturally grounded foundation while at the same time creating social-economic value.54 the key is that indigenous entrepreneurship does not need to be individualistic; it can be both an expression and an extension of traditional indigenous practices.55 to successfully engage in global economics, indigenous communities need to transform economic actors on their own terms (28)56. entrepreneurial activities need to function in an environment where business must market to a global economy while preserving traditional values, beliefs and other cultural elements (1).57 manitobah mukluks (https://www.manitobah.ca/collections/mukluks) is an entrepreneurial success story that demonstrates how indigenous entrepreneurs can drawn on their unique identities, worldviews and experiences to develop innovative products or services that can make positive contributions back to their communities through celebrating and revitalizing indigenous values, culture and traditions.58 aboriginal affairs and northern development canada (aandc) (2010). backgrounder_aboriginal womens entrepreneurship. key issues. 49 lemelin, r. h., koster, r., & youroukos, n., tangible and intangible indicators of successful aboriginal tourism initiatives: a case study of two successful aboriginal tourism lodges in northern canada, (tourism management, 2015), 318-328. 50 colbourne, r., indigenous entrepreneurship. 51 curry, j., donker, h., & krehbiel, r., development corporations in aboriginal communities: the canadian experience, (journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 2009), 1-19. 52 curry, j. a., donker, h., & michel, p., social entrepreneurship and indigenous people. 53 diochon, m., a baseline study of entrepreneurship among first nations. 54 anderson, r., honig, b., & peredo, a. m., communities in the global economy: where social and indigenous entrepreneurship meet, (cheltenham: uk, edward elgar, 2006), 56-78. 55 gallagher, b., & lawrence, t. b., entrepreneurship and indigenous identity. 56 anderson, r., et al., communities in the global economy: where social. 57 curry, j., donker, h., & krehbiel, r., development corporations in aboriginal communities, (2009). 58 colbourne, r., indigenous entrepreneurship. 48 12 rationale for indigenizing entrepreneurship some purport that indigenization is the process of creating supportive and comfortable spaces within which indigenous people can succeed.59 from a curriculum perspective, indigenizing entrepreneurship learning outcomes means to adapt or modify traditional paradigms in order to infuse indigenous ways of knowing. there is much debate, however, in the research about the potential negative impacts of entrepreneurship on indigenous cultural identity caused by the incongruence between traditional values and business demands,60 61 this negative relationship has been contested by other studies which have found no inherent incompatibility between entrepreneurship and traditional indigenous culture and identity.62 63 according to one researcher, collectivist and individualist cultures neither inherently promote nor inhibit entrepreneurial activities, rather, particular worldviews translate into cultural and social norms, which act as guiding principles for the creation of entrepreneurial ventures through facilitating/constraining, encouraging/discouraging or framing/directing opportunity recognition, venture creation and/or venture structure within indigenous and non-indigenous communities (99).64 summary what is evident from this review is that employers are becoming concerned about graduates entering the workforce without the skills needed to succeed in todays skills-based economy. entrepreneurship is critical for the continued vitality of canadas economy. it is no longer sufficient to add entrepreneurship on the periphery or as an add-on/stand alone course within a program of study. entrepreneurship needs to become an underlying core value of how post-secondary educational institutions operate, design, and deliver educational programs. this review also offered a better understanding of how indigenizing entrepreneurship can support the revitalization of communities. entrepreneurship is viewed as a way to support the dual objective of rebuilding indigenous communities on a traditional and culturally grounded foundation while at the same time creating social-economic value. despite some fears that entrepreneurial activities may have negative impacts on indigenous culture based on western paradigms, indigenous entrepreneurship can help strengthen indigenous self-identity and culture. environmental scan the importance of entrepreneurial education in sustaining and growing canadas economic vitality is well documented. in ontario, virtually all colleges offer some type of entrepreneurship education in the form of individual courses, events and/or full programs of study.65 66 between and within institutions, however, there is often differing conceptualizations of how entrepreneurship and best pedagogical approach to provide entrepreneurship education that coexist.67 59 bopp, m., brown, l., robb, j., reconciliation within the academy: why is indigenization so difficult? (four worlds centre for development learning, 2017). 60 peredo, a. m., & anderson, r. b., indigenous entrepreneurship research: themes and variations, (oxford: uk, elsevier, 2006), 253-273. 61 hindle, k. & moroz, p., indigenous entrepreneurship as a research field: developing a definitional framework from the emerging canon, (international entrepreneurship management journal, 2009), 357385. 62 foley, d., does business success make you any less indigenous? (swinburne university of technology, 2006). 63 hindle, k. & lansdowne, m., brave spirits on new paths: toward a globally relevant paradigm of indigenous entrepreneurship research, (journal of small business and entrepreneurship, 2005), 131141. 64 colbourne, r., indigenous entrepreneurship. 65 s, et al., the state of entrepreneurship. 66 kuratko, d. f., entrepreneurship: theory, process, practice. (mason, oh: south-western, 2014). 67 s, et al., the state of entrepreneurship. 13 currently, the majority of entrepreneurship educational opportunities are concentrated within business and management programs.68 69 however, research indicates that the educational system needs restructuring in order to provide entrepreneurial competencies as important skills for all learners, not just business students, if we want to develop a stronger entrepreneurial culture.70 figures 3 and 4 below illustrate the most common college credentials offered with entrepreneurship course requirements and the most frequent sub-topics of college level entrepreneurship courses. figure 3: most common college credentials with entrepreneurship course(s) requirements71 figure 4: most frequent sub-topics of college entrepreneurship courses72 despite the significant number of entrepreneurial programs and individual courses available within pot-secondary institutions, canadas educational system is still inadequately designed to support todays skills based economy.73 it has been found that many entrepreneurial programs lack connection with their local business and investor community, as well as having a lack of access to incubator facilities.74 as such, there is a need for post secondary educational institutions to develop more effective means of cooperation between educators, employers, and the local community to mitigate the skills and competency gap.75 68 industry canada, the teaching and practice of entrepreneurship within canadian higher education institutions, (2010). s, et al., the state of entrepreneurship. 70 singer, s., amors, j. e., & arreola, d. m., global entrepreneurship 71 s, et al., the state of entrepreneurship. 72 s, et al., the state of entrepreneurship. 73 rbc, humans wanted. 74 s, et al., the state of entrepreneurship. 75 information and communications technology council (ictc), digital talent. 69 14 pathway development program comparison and analysis outcomes analysis seventy-nine programs of study and vlos for all ontario college programs and thirty-eight programs across ontario universities were reviewed in order to identify relevant pathways and indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes. no relevant university programs were identified. of the college programs, nine were identified and shortlisted for potential pathway development (see appendix b). algonquin college current state algonquin college is committed to infusing entrepreneurship into all aspects of college life. a review of the program inventory at the college revealed that 193 courses related to entrepreneurship and business skills were included across programs. two programs were identified that could be used to create a pathway for indigenous entrepreneurship: entrepreneurship acceleration graduate certificate business management and entrepreneurship diploma the college also has supports that help learners who seek to develop themselves as entrepreneurs. the executive-in-residence (eir) program was created by the algonquin students association to foster entrepreneurship at algonquin college. the innovation and entrepreneurship office provides entrepreneurial information, resources, programming and education to help young entrepreneurs, faculty and staff navigate the complex world of entrepreneurship. in particular, the college hosts summit, a 10-week summer intensive program (non-credit) aimed at helping learners aged 18-29 start-up a new business enterprise. the program offers of 40 workshops and hands-on experience and guidance from veteran entrepreneurs and mentors. recently, algonquin invested $44.9-million dollars into the construction of a new building called the dare district. the aim of the dare district, which is an acronym for discover, applied research, and entrepreneurship, is to centralize innovation and entrepreneurial activities. the district also represents indigenous culture and identity with a focus on indigenizing entrepreneurship. to support this goal, the college hosted the inaugural global summit on indigenizing entrepreneurship. the summit gathered experts from across canada and around the world together to share best practices, stories, and perspectives on how indigenous values, histories, and ways of knowing can be infused into entrepreneurial thinking. mohawk college current state in analyzing data from 2017, of the 154 programs offered at mohawk college: there are 20 courses that actively include an entrepreneurship component there are 34 programs of the 5 schools, that include entrepreneurship courses as part of their curriculum, representing 22% of all of mohawk's course offerings or just over 1 in 5 of the 34 programs that offer entrepreneurship, the small business and entrepreneurship is offered through continued education; however, this program is being suspended an additional 31 programs include courses that could be modified to include an entrepreneurship component aboriginal small business management certificate, offered through day school; however, this program is being suspended enrollment trends for programs offering entrepreneurial courses have doubled since the 2014/15 academic year to present 15 during the reporting period of 2017, surge, an ontario centre for excellence (oce) funded entrepreneurship connector at mohawk has offered/involved in (non-credit): served over 10,000 learners since 2014 mentored over 115 clients since 2014 launched 15 start-ups since 2014 9 events and conferences 8 events and seminars 4 competitions and contests 43 start-ups coached and supported mohawk also offers other key programming that supports an entrepreneurial mindset (non-credit hours): a 2 hour self directed on-line module that can be integrated into any course/program. it is a foundational introduction to entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. the agency an experiential learning facility where learners collaborate and develop real world marketing and communications solutions idea works active hub of applied research and innovation, supporting needs of small businesses and medic bridges gaps between innovative small and medium enterprises and digital health needs additive manufacturing innovation centre supports innovation using new manufacturing technologies by offering start-ups a collaborative and low risk environment stoney creek marshall school of skilled trades offer top technology and professional facilities for the skilled trades conclusions the program comparison and analysis uncovered challenges and opportunities when identifying pathways. specifically: a) the analysis revealed a variety of differences between ontario credentials and their related outcome sets. most programs had content specific to traditional business, entrepreneurship or indigenous cultural studies. none had specific outcomes related to indigenous entrepreneurship. hence, identifying pathways between programs whereby learners interested in honing indigenous entrepreneurship skills was a challenge. b) mandated changes to ministry program standards for any existing graduate certificate programs in the area of entrepreneurship management require colleges to modify titles and vlos to meet the new standards.76 to meet this requirement, some colleges are in the process of executing program suspensions or updates, which also limited the ability to identify clear pathways between credentials (e.g., proposed suspension of mohawks small business and entrepreneurship program and aboriginal small business management). c) the project provided an opportunity to propose outcomes that reflect indigenous entrepreneurship and that would be distinct from traditional entrepreneurship found in the business programs reviewed. these outcomes would have the potential to inform the development of bridging program for indigenous entrepreneurship that learners could apply when laddering into or from a credential. 76 colleges of applied arts & technology (caat), ministry of advanced education and skills (mtcu) code 70231. changes to graduate certificates to be implemented by colleges by september 2018. 16 indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes development indigenous entrepreneurship has existed for thousands of years. during pre-colonial times, indigenous peoples maintained strong economic trade networks that relied on skills that today are considered part of an entrepreneurial mindset. however, as the review of the literature illustrated the difference is that entrepreneurship was not as explicit as it is today. therefore, the purpose for developing new outcomes is to deliberately illustrate what is distinct from western views of entrepreneurship with the goal of presenting an approach to indigenous entrepreneurship. community feedback gathered for this project suggested that the medicine wheel be used as the guiding model for the development of indigenous outcomes. the medicine wheel has been a part of indigenous cultures across the centuries. medicine wheels are believed to be the circle of awareness of self and frame the circle of knowledge that provides the power individuals have over their own lives (see appendix c). because it so rooted in indigenous culture, a medicine wheel has been used as a tool to conserve and transmit teachings. for the purpose of this project, the medicine wheel is the tool used to indigenize entrepreneurship outcomes. figure 5 is a representation of the indigenization of entrepreneurship mindset outcomes in the form of a medicine wheel. figure 5: indigenization of entrepreneurship outcomes source: graphic developed by andr obonsawin, algonquin college (may 2018). as mentioned previously, indigenous identity and culture are inextricably linked to traditional lands and practices. developing entrepreneurship outcomes whereby learners can realize the unique social relationships and values of the communities in which they are based will shape the approach to indigenous entrepreneurship. table 3 outlines indigenous entrepreneurship learning outcomes developed based on community feedback gathered for this project. the intent of these outcomes is 17 to potentially inform a bridging program in indigenous entrepreneurship. it is recommended that these outcomes continue to be validated with relevant subject matter experts. table 3: indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes framework entrepreneurial question(s) what entrepreneurial opportunities exist that help revitalize the community? why is this important? whom can i look to for trusted wisdom? what networks will offer collective value and guidance? how can i acknowledge people/communities in order to grow as an indigenous entrepreneur? how do my actions affect others and how do others affect me? how can i ensure my relationships are fair, authentic and trustworthy? what can we learn from each other? how is the activity a value-add for the community? how will i gather feedback about the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial activity from the community? proposed vlo apply skills of creative thinking, risk-taking, and problem-solving when identifying needs in the community. identify elders or knowledge keepers to ensure that business activities support the revitalization of the community. direction east develop skills of compromise, reliability, and teamwork in implementing entrepreneurial activities. west apply empathetic design to evaluating entrepreneurial ventures. north south promising practices and lessons learned on the outset of the project, it became apparent that notions about indigenous entrepreneurship were diverse and complex. it was important to execute a methodical approach to the project plan and team support to help navigate the complexities and address challenges as they arose. in the case of this project, there were few examples of pathways that could be used as a model. what the project vision was targeting simply has not occurred in the ontario post-secondary system. initially, staffing vacancies, administrative turnovers and the ontario college faculty work stoppage created some implementation delays with the course mapping and validation process. in order to ensure that the project was able to proceed, goals were modified to support the overall aim of the project. ultimately, these modifications allowed for additional reflection and analysis. as separate institutions, algonquin and mohawk college have strategic goals that are different yet strive to support a growing student population. each college has different timeframes for program approvals and implementation. as well, each college has a different approach to enlisting internal stakeholder feedback. luckily, through collaborative efforts contingency plans were established to support the efforts of both institutions. we would have preferred to have a program reflecting indigenous entrepreneurship outcomes be fully developed. however, because of the wide scope and complexity this was the best outcome that could be achieved from this project. additionally, this project has also led to better communication and collaboration between the two institutions, which will be beneficial for the continued work on the project. ultimately, the deliverables produced in this project have offered a deeper understanding and practical information required in order to advance indigenous programming and pathways that support learner mobility in ontario. 18 appendix a partner profiles algonquin college algonquin college of applied arts and technology was established in 1967 and was named after the first nations people who lived in the area. with a clear focus on student success, algonquin colleges guiding principle is demonstrated through the quality of its programs, staff, the continual expansion of its facilities, and by forging strategic partnerships. every action since the college was established has been to ensure learners have access to the education and skills training demanded by the marketplace to launch a rewarding career. the centre for continuing and online learning (ccol) is committed to positioning algonquin college as the leading canadian college for high quality, accessible, flexible and personalized online learning and services. ccol offers flexible learning options to give learners the opportunity to further their education on their own time, without the constraints of a typical on-campus schedule. the centre began developing off-campus learning courses in the late 1960s, which evolved into the start of online learning in the mid 90s. since the launch of the first three full-time online programs in fall 2008, the centre has grown to offer 19 full-time online programs, 60 part-time online programs and hundreds of courses. ccol is dedicated to providing high-quality, accessible, flexible, and personalized online learning and services. mohawk college mohawks (2016-2021) strategic plan supports the goal of enhancing established leadership in indigenous education by broadening the understanding about the indigenous community and experience and be the placement school of choice for the colleges indigenous partners. strategic outcomes: increased visibility of indigenous culture adoption and implementation of the colleges and institutes canada protocol commit to making indigenous education a priority implement intellectual and cultural traditions of indigenous peoples through curriculum and learning approaches relevant to learners and communities support learners and employees to increase understanding and reciprocity among indigenous and non-indigenous peoples build relationships and be accountable to indigenous communities in support of selfdetermination through education, training and applied research measurable growth in aboriginal enrolment the articulation agreement with six nations polytechnic is an established academic collaboration that allows six nations and mohawk to serve more fully the indigenous peoples in ontario. this partnership encourages excellence in education that will prepare graduates to make full and meaningful contributions to their communities and society through maximizing their individual personal potential and achievements. objectives: improved aboriginal persons accessibility, retention in and graduation from post-secondary programs that are appropriate to the needs of the learners and their communities increased employment opportunities for aboriginal peoples by improving the skills and education of individuals and preparing them for increased service to their communities, including the area of economic development opportunities to gain the skills required to be fully productive members of their communities 19 appendix b relevant programs (shortlist) college fanshawe mohawk mohawk fanshawe algonquin algonquin program title business fundamentals entrepreneurship small business & entrepreneurship aboriginal small business management business entrepreneurship & management business management & entrepreneurship entrepreneurship acceleration georgian social entrepreneurship in the non-profit sector indigenous governance & public administration business management entrepreneurial enterprise confederation humber credential ontario college certificate ontario college certificate ontario college certificate ontario college diploma ontario college diploma ontario college graduate certificate ontario college graduate certificate ontario college graduate certificate ontario college graduate certificate 20 appendix c medicine wheel source: dr. gus hill: medicine wheel drawing february 21, 2016 kenjgewin teg educational institute wilfred laurier university 21 appendix d - bibliography aboriginal affairs and northern development canada (aandc) (2010). backgrounder _ aboriginal womens entrepreneurship: key issues. retrieved from http://www.aadncaandc.gc.ca/eng/1292345911615/1292345967813. anderson, r., honig, b., & peredo, a. m. (2006). communities in the global economy: where social and indigenous entrepreneurship meet. in c. steyaert & d. hjorth (eds.), entrepreneurship as social change, (pp. 56-78), cheltenham, uk: edward elgar. bopp, m., brown, l., robb, j. (2017). reconciliation within the academy: why is indigenization so difficult? four worlds centre for development learning. retrieved from http://www.fourworlds.ca/pdf_downloads/reconciliation_within_the_academy_final.pdf braun, k. l., browne, c. v., kaopua, l. s., kim, b. j., & mokuau, n. (2014). research on indigenous elders: from positivistic to decolonizing methodologies. the gerontologist, 54(1), 117126. books, d., (2018, february). everyone a changemaker. the new york times. retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/opinion/changemaker-social-entrepreneur.html canadian charter of rights and freedoms, part i of the constitution act, 1982, being schedule b to the canada act 1982 (uk), 1982, c 11. retrieved from http://caid.ca/constact010208.pdf colbourne, r. (2017). indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid ventures. in a. corbett & j. katz (eds.), perspectives & approaches to blended value entrepreneurship (pp. 93-149). emerald publishing. curry, j., donker, h., & krehbiel, r. (2009). development corporations in aboriginal communities: the canadian experience. journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 14(1), 1-19. curry, j. a., donker, h., & michel, p. (2016). social entrepreneurship and indigenous people. journal of co-operative organization and management, 4, 108-115. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcom.2016.09.002 diochon, m. (2014). a baseline study of entrepreneurship among first nations women in the atlantic region. journal of small business and entrepreneurship, 27(1), 89-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08276331.2014.988050 dyer, j., gergersen, h., & christensen, c. m. (2011, july). five discovery skills that distinguish great innovators. harvard business school. retrieved from https://hbswk.hbs.edu /item/five-discoveryskills-that-distinguish-great-innovators flannigan, s. l. (n.d.). infusing social entrepreneurship into teaching and learning: an esoteric discussion. retrieved from https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.nacce.com/resource/resmgr/ docs/infusing_entrepreneurial_thi.pdf foley, d. (2006). does business success make you any less indigenous? swinburne university of technology. retrieved from http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/ir/onlineconferences /agse2006/foley_p241.pdf 22 gallagher, b., & lawrence, t. b. (2012). entrepreneurship and indigenous identity: a study of identity work by indigenous entrepreneurs in british columbia. international journal of entrepreneurship and small business, 17(4). doi 10.1504/ijesb.2012.050162 hindle, k., anderson, r. b., giberson, r. j., & kayseas, b. (2005). relating practice to theory in indigenous entrepreneurship: a pilot investigation of the kitsaki partnership portfolio. the american indian quarterly, 29(1-2), 1-23. hindle, k. & lansdowne, m. (2005). brave spirits on new paths: toward a globally relevant paradigm of indigenous entrepreneurship research. journal of small business and entrepreneurship, 18(2), 131141. hindle, k. & moroz, p. (2009). indigenous entrepreneurship as a research field: developing a definitional framework from the emerging canon. international entrepreneurship management journal, 6(4), 357385. industry canada. (2010). the teaching and practice of entrepreneurship within canadian higher education institutions. retrieved from https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/ vwapj/entrepreneurship-entreprenariat_dec2010_eng.pdf/$file/entrepreneurshipentreprenariat_dec2010_eng.pdf information and communications technology council (ictc). (2016). digital talent: road to 2020 and beyond. retrieved from https://ww.ictc-ctic.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2016/03/ictc_digitaltalent2020_english_final_march2016.pdf iteration. (2018). in merriam-websters online dictionary. retrieved from https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/iteration kuratko, d. f. (2014). entrepreneurship: theory, process, practice. mason, oh: south-western. lerner, j., & sahlman, w. (2012, march). reviving entrepreneurship. harvard business review, 90(3), 116-119. lemelin, r. h., koster, r., & youroukos, n. (2015). tangible and intangible indicators of successful aboriginal tourism initiatives: a case study of two successful aboriginal tourism lodges in northern canada. tourism management, 47, 318-328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.10.011 lynch, m., kamovich, u., andersson, g., & steinert, m. (2017). the language of successful entrepreneurs: an empirical starting point for the entrepreneurial mindset. proceedings of the european conference on innovation and entrepreneurship (ecie), 384-391. retrieved from https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2479769/ lynch_etal_2017_proceedings_ecie_the_%2blanguage_of_successful_entrepreneurs.pdf?sequen ce=1&isallowed=y nisod publications. (2018, january). an interdisciplinary approach to creating entrepreneurial learning environments. the nisod papers, 9, 1-3. university of texas: austin, tx. peredo, a. m., & anderson, r. b. (2006). indigenous entrepreneurship research: themes and variations, in c. 23 peredo, a.m., anderson, r.b., galbraith, c., honig, b. and dana, l.p. (2004). towards a theory of indigenous entrepreneurship. international journal of entrepreneurship and small business, 1(1), 119. rbc. (2018). humans wanted: how canadian youth can thrive in the age of disruption. retrieved from http://www.rbc.com/newsroom/_assets-custom/pdf/03-2018-rbc-future-skills-report.pdf s, c., kretz, a., sigurdson, k. (2014). the state of entrepreneurship education in ontarios colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario (heqco). singer, s., amors, j. e., & arreola, d. m. (2014). global entrepreneurship monitor 2014 global report. global entrepreneurship research association. london school of business: london, uk soffel, j. (2016, march). what are the 21st-century skills every student needs? world economic forum. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/03/21st-century-skills-future-jobsstudents/ truth and reconciliation commission of canada. (2012). truth and reconciliation commission of canada: calls to action. retrieved from http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution /file/2015/ findings/calls_to_action_english2.pdf united nations permanent forum on indigenous issues. (n.d.). fact sheet. retrieved from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/5session_factsheet1.pdf 24

strategic plan 2023-2026 table of contents vision, mandate, values, and strategic priorities 01 strategic priority 1 02 strategic priority 2 03 strategic priority 3 04 strategic priority 4 05 strategic priority 5 06 vision, mandate, values, and strategic priorities vision a postsecondary education and training system that empowers learners to build upon their previous education and work experience to achieve their personal, educational, and professional goals. mandate the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) drives innovation to help postsecondary learners get where they want to go, no matter where they begin. we do this as a vital partner and convener of the postsecondary education and training sectors, maximizing opportunities for institutional collaboration to create academic pathways, facilitating recognition of prior learning, and supporting learner transitions and entry into the labour market. values grounded in a commitment to equity, diversity, access, and inclusion, oncats activities are guided by the following values: learner-centred: we are dedicated to understanding and supporting the diverse needs, aspirations, and challenges of learners at publicly assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in ontario. impact: we take action to create measurable and transformative change for ontario learners. adaptability: we respond to the evolving needs of ontario learners, our partners, and stakeholders. collaboration: we drive success through the strength of our relationships. knowledge sharing: we foster an environment where knowledge is freely exchanged. strategic priorities 1. make pathways through postsecondary education and training and into the labour market more transparent. 2. improve opportunities for learner mobility. 3. understand learner mobility. 4. raise awareness of learner mobility. 5. build oncat capacity and expertise. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.1 strategic priority 1 make pathways through postsecondary education and training and into the labour market more transparent oncat will provide a one-stop online portal for students, workers, and newcomers to navigate the education-to-employment pathways available to them at any point in their academic journey. this online resource will create more visible links between the many education and career opportunities available to a person wishing to shape their future. activities expand the collection and availability of postsecondary institutional pathway and course information. maintain and improve oncat's public-facing platform based on feedback from learners and partners and guided by government priorities. become a convener for organizations focused on education-to-employment pathways. how will we know we are successful? non-ontario pathways and courses are integrated onto oncats public-facing platform. oncat services are continually expanded to support a one-stop portal for learner mobility. learners can search for pathways based on interests, skills, and career opportunities. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.2 strategic priority 2 improve opportunities for learner mobility oncat will develop and support initiatives that make it easier for learners to move between postsecondary programs and institutions. by funding innovative projects and fostering collaborative activities, oncat will boost the capacity of postsecondary partners to establish and expand academic pathways, increase recognition of prior learning, and implement learner-centric transfer policies and practices. activities provide funding and support for institutional projects that catalyze the implementation of academic pathways, policies, and practices. working with our indigenous partners, implement a dedicated strategy to support pathways for indigenous learners. provide funding and support for pilot programs that test new ideas for improving the transfer experience for learners. coordinate sector-wide engagement activities and training opportunities that cultivate the collective expertise of institutional personnel responsible for transfer functions. how will we know we are successful? postsecondary institutions increase their total number of academic pathways. pilot programs identify promising ideas that can be replicated across multiple institutions. engagement activities reach a vibrant community of active participants. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.3 strategic priority 3 understand learner mobility oncat will design, conduct, and commission research activities that deepen the sectors understanding of key issues and emerging trends in learner mobility. by collecting and analyzing data from postsecondary institutions, government sources, and external stakeholders, oncat will highlight practices that facilitate learner mobility and recommend policies that reduce systemic obstacles. activities design, conduct, and commission research activities that study general topics about learner mobility (transfer demographics, curriculum development, etc.). design, conduct, and commission research activities that investigate specific oncat priorities (newcomer experiences, education-toemployment pathways, etc.). generate data reports and dashboards that inform stakeholder strategies and policies. how will we know we are successful? research projects identify insightful findings and are shared with postsecondary institutions, government departments, and external stakeholders. oncat-funded research makes a notable contribution to the academic community through publications, presentations, and other activities. data reports and dashboards provide timely and useful information for postsecondary partners. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.4 strategic priority 4 raise awareness of learner mobility oncat will ensure that learners across ontario are fully informed of their options for mobility and are aware of the multitude of benefits that mobility can bring, including the acquisition of new skills and knowledge and unlocking available career opportunities. activities develop and implement a communications and marketing campaign to promote oncat platforms to key audiences. maintain and improve the oncat.ca website to provide information and resources to postsecondary institutions and the public, including conference proceedings, pathway development and research reports. explore oncat rebrand. how will we know we are successful? increased awareness of learner resources on mobility. increased oncat online platform use. oncat rebrand completed. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.5 strategic priority 5 build oncat capacity and expertise understanding that the long-term success of learner mobility initiatives depends on the ability to adapt, evolve, and innovate, oncat will invest in the development of internal capabilities, systems and expertise that will empower oncat employees to continue to drive positive change and create new opportunities for learners in ontario. activities: continue to build a culture of communication, collaboration and learning within oncat. enhance opportunities for training and professional development for employees based on organizational and individual objectives. implement gradual return-to-office policy based on strategic priorities. administer employee satisfaction survey and adapt plans based on feedback. execute targeted human resources strategy that ensures hiring is based on oncats mandate, values, and culture. how will we know we are successful? performance management and staff development plans are successfully executed across the organization and aligned with oncats strategic priorities. internal systems are reviewed and improved to ease workflow and productivity. the employee satisfaction survey is conducted, and results are shared with oncat management and staff. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.6 helping learners get where they want to go, no matter where they begin.

access to post-secondary schooling and the credit transfer experience of the remand* population in ontario *remand, or pre-trial detention, refers to the temporary detention of accused persons in provincial or territorial custody prior to trial or a finding of guilt (correctional services program, 2017). report prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer by ardavan eizadirad, phd edication consulting february 2021 1 table of contents executive summary ........................................................................................................................3 introduction, background, and objectives..7 primary research scope .................................................................................................................8 who are the remand population? ...................................................................................................9 why the focus on access to education? ........................................................................................9 the rise in the remand population: remand population outnumbering sentenced offenders..11 consequences of being remanded into custody..........................................................................16 lack of access to education is part of a larger systemic racism...18 the right to education for the remand population- from lack of recognition to inconsistency and ineffectiveness in implementation..........................24 accessing education while federally incarcerated: overview from intake assessment to program placement............................................................................................27 organizations offering education program within facilities in ontario..32 amadeusz...........................................................................................................................33 walls to bridges (w2b) ....................................................................................................37 ontario organizations offering programs to incarcerated individuals post-release...40 learning lessons from models and programs in the united states..............................................42 concerns, findings, and recommendations..................................................................................47 summary and conclusion- where do we go from here?..........................................................51 references......................................................................................................................................54 2 executive summary although many people perceive those incarcerated from a deficit lens (portelli & sharma, 2014), often blaming them for their circumstances, it is important to emphasize that majority of people incarcerated in ontario, and on a larger scale in canada, are part of the remand population, meaning they are legally innocent and temporarily incarcerated as part of pre-trial detention (correctional services program, 2017). it is important to ensure those who are incarcerated have access to education which is their human right as outlined in article 26 of the united nations universal declaration of human rights. currently, this is not the case in ontario as access to education is not treated as a priority often lacking resources and funding and instead punitive measures such as lockdowns and solitary confinement are used as common practices to manage day to day realities and escalating situations within prisons and jails (office of the auditor general of ontario, 2019; sapers et al., 2018). these practices are reactive in their approach and often have harmful short and long-term impacts on those incarcerated. more importantly, these practices do not align with the long-term goal of rehabilitation and promotion of effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community. overall, this extensive report outlines how access to post-secondary education for those incarcerated within ontario and on a larger scale in canada remains limited and an underdeveloped sector with minimal opportunities. organizations such as amadeusz and walls to bridges are leading the way in ontario by creating opportunities for access to post-secondary education for those incarcerated, but they are not able to keep up with the demand for education. access to education needs to be treated as a priority on a systemic level supported by various levels of government, with funding and resource allocation, to further support rehabilitation of those incarcerated as education is a key protective factor in reducing recidivism (davis et al., 2013). to make this a reality, a more holistic approach is needed requiring synergetic partnerships and collaborations with organizations, non-profits, community agencies, and postsecondary organizations to drastically revamp the current system and its policies and practices at all levels. this report builds off of many previous reports that directly and indirectly examined access to education in jails, prisons, and correctional facilities. this report specifically outlines three major concerns and findings regarding challenges and barriers to creating and accessing educational opportunities for those incarcerated. it goes beyond critique to outline suggestions and action-oriented recommendations for what can be changed, altered, or introduced and how it can be enacted to mitigate some of the challenges and barriers outlined. 3 concerns and finding #1: there is a lack of information available to the public about education programs offered in correctional facilities, who it is used by, and its outcomes. information that is currently available via government websites are generic in nature. access to information is a systemic barrier that disadvantages families of those who have a member incarcerated as well as those who are released and are seeking relevant programs and services to better themselves and their living circumstances. recommendations: whereas information about some programs are outlined in various reports, there needs to be a tab or a central hub on correctional service of canadas website, that provides a holistic compiled list of information about the various educational programs offered, which organizations offer programs via partnerships, the scope and duration of each program, which institutions it is offered within, and criteria for participation. collection and sharing of race-based data is also recommended by each institution in terms of who gets approved for such programs, rate of success in completion of the program, and barriers in delivery and enactment of the programs. it is highly recommended for the provincial government to also compile a list of organizations that offer relevant post-release programs and services to those incarcerated. this comprehensive list should outline the various programs available and the criteria and cost for participation in such programs and services. these recommendations will help mitigate the systemic barrier of access to information both while incarcerated and post-release. concerns and finding #2: access to education needs to be more of a priority, supported with funding and resources, to promote rehabilitation and effective reintegration back into the community. this will lead to savings for the justice system as it costs correctional service canada an average of $111,202 annually to incarcerate one man (and twice as much to incarcerate one woman), with only $2950 of that money spent on education per prisoner (chan et al., 2017, para. 16). currently, the type of programs offered are limited, there is a lack of capacity within institutions to meet educational demands, programs offered lack quality due to restrictions imposed in how they can be delivered, and overall lack of partnerships with postsecondary institutions to offer education in prison. majority of the educational programs offered are high school diploma focused or do not take into consideration unique needs and circumstances of those incarcerated such as limited access to learning tools and platforms. recommendations: it is recommended to create a national funding organization, similar to the laughing gull foundation in the united states which has a unique branch focusing on higher education in prison, that annually reviews proposals for programs and partnerships to improve access to education for those incarcerated. a committee should be created with representatives from various stakeholders to assess the applications based on clear criteria outlined and communicated in advance to the public. this will allow for innovative ideas, programs, and 4 partnerships to be presented, assessed, approved, and initiated to meet the demands of access to education within prisons, jails, and correctional facilities. overall, more funding and resources needs to be allocated for education, and the government needs to provide incentives for universities to create post-secondary educational programs for those incarcerated. it is also recommended that a national list is created outlining various educational programs offered by universities and important factors such as criteria for getting in, costs, duration of the program, and how courses are delivered. the creation of a national and/or provincial government branch dedicated to higher education in prison will centre the goal of rehabilitation, reduce long-term costs affiliated with keeping people incarcerated, and lead to more effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community. such level of commitment from the government in making access to education a priority with incentives for post-secondary educations to create and maintain partnerships will lead to innovative policies and practices that will modernize how education is offered given the limitations affiliated with delivering programming in jail settings. this multi-layer collaborative approach will allow relevant non-profit and community organizations to enter innovative partnerships with post-secondary institutions to facilitate delivery of programming that is socio-culturally relevant and responsive to the needs of those incarcerated. also, it is highly recommended that selective grants are created by the canadian government for those incarcerated to gain further access to educational opportunities. this can have similar attributes and characteristics to the pell grants in the united states, but it needs to give consideration for local and national needs in canada instead of being a copy and paste approach. concerns and finding #3: there is a need to modernize policies, practices, and processes involved at various levels within jails, prisons, and correctional facilities to create more opportunities for access to quality education. this involves creating a unique intake assessment for the remand population similar for those sentenced, improving the processes involved within intake assessment for those sentenced, more effective data collection and sharing across institutions, and more resources and space allocated for educational programs. this would contribute to an increase in educational opportunities available to meet demand, increase in attendance for programs with low enrollment, and overall raise the quality and consistency of how educational programs are offered. recommendations: various changes in different areas are recommended as part of modernization to improve access and quality of education for those incarcerated. these include upgrading libraries in terms of space available for teaching and learning, updating the list of books, magazines, and other educational materials available based on interests of those incarcerated, better access to computers, educational tools, space, and assistive-technology in a manner that is safe for conducting research and completing course assignments, and providing specific training for instructors and staff to more effectively offer educational programs. all 5 facilities should be upgraded so they are enabled to use video conferencing which would lead to creation and more access to educational opportunities and course offerings. this can also be supplemented by allocating more time for trained and certified instructors and staff to engage with in-person teaching supported by the facility. as we continue to navigate the challenges affiliated with the covid-19 pandemic, which includes many educational programs being impacted ranging from being put on hold to adapted or offered less consistently, we must take the opportunity to reflect and ask ourselves whether the current system at various level of government and points in the justice system is prioritizing access to education to promote and reinforce the long-term goal of rehabilitation for those incarcerated. this report outlines why the current system is inequitable and unjust, how systemic barriers impact different social groups leading to disparities in outcomes at various levels within the justice system, and why we need to introduce new legislation, policies, and practices to improve and modernize the system with respect to access to education for those incarcerated. new improvements and changes will contribute to reinforcement of rehabilitation which will lead to savings in monetary costs by reducing recidivism and ensuring more effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community post-release. the introduction and implementation of such new changes needs to be a collective effort involving all levels of the government with advocacy and allyship from organizations and community members to make it an urgent issue. we conclude by pointing out that every once in a while recommendations and insights are shared from different reports. in many cases, they advocate for similar recommendations on a systemic level. let us not continue to shelf these recommendations and recognize we are talking about peoples lives and families who are greatly impacted by incarceration. let us remain openminded, compassionate, and empathetic with how we view those who are incarcerated. they should be seen as subjects with spirits and emotions instead of objects to be locked away. we have to be willing to examine issues from multiple perspectives, recognize our blind spots, and challenge deficit thinking rooted in pre-judgement that blames individuals for their circumstances without consideration for systemic factors. if we want to be honest with improving access to education for those incarcerated and quality of such programs, we must move from critique and understanding to taking collective actions in our various roles and positionalities given our respective access to power and privilege. our legacy as a nation and our humanity as a country depends on this. 6 introduction, background, and objectives the key objective of this report is to provide an overview of who are the remand population, to what extent the remand population and those sentenced can access educational programs and services, and to provide a scan of unique programs in ontario that provide postsecondary education to those incarcerated. as part of the analysis, programs that exists in the united states are also examined to provide multiple approaches and perspectives on how to improve access to education to reinforce the goal of reducing recidivism and support holistic and more effective transition and reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community. access to education for the remand population and those incarcerated is a timely and relevant issue to explore as it is a human right outlined in article 26 of the united nations universal declaration of human rights (united nations, 2021). while opportunities for access to education are limited across the country and in the province of ontario, the covid-19 pandemic has further intensified and exasperated these barriers and limitations due to new restrictions rooted is social distancing to minimize the spread of the corona virus. these restrictions have resulted in a range of changes in programming from certain programs being put on hold to some being adapted or offered less frequently. this can have harmful short and longterm impacts on the mental health of the remand population who are looking for opportunities to better themselves as they await their trial date while navigating the difficult social conditions in correctional facilities affiliated with jail subculture such as overcrowding, use of lockdowns, solitary confinement, and exposure to various incidents of violence. (sapers et al., 2017). a 2016 report by john howard society of ontario titled reintegration in ontario: practices, priorities, and effective models points out, individuals in the ontario jails are not provided with adequate or proper medical or psychiatric assessments and treatment. furthermore prisons are not equipped to deal with people who have severe mental health issues due to the limited access to prescription medication and healthcare for mental health issues. segregation and overcrowding can also compound mental health issues. (p. 30) the intersection of inaccessibility or timely access to mental health support services and lack of access to educational opportunities intensifies the disadvantages experienced by the remand population, even more so in our current context that has led to temporarily shut down of regular programs and services due to covid-19 restrictions. the upcoming sections of this report will explore and discuss who are the remand population, what are provincial and national trends with the remand population over the last decade, provide an overview of intake assessment and identification of educational needs of those incarcerated, identify educational programs and services offered in canada and united 7 states to support access to education as a human right, and examine case studies of organizations in ontario which provide post-secondary educational programs to the remand population. overall, various themes are outlined to shed light on factors that contribute to reinforcing inequitable access to education. in response, various recommendations are made to improve access to education systemically and in collaboration with various government levels, community organizations, and post-secondary institutions. this would be part of the vision and strategies involved to make access to education a sustainable reality for those incarcerated as its benefits outweigh the costs, both socially and in terms of monetary value (davis et al., 2013). overall, the objective of this report is to better understand to what extent educational programs are available and accessible to the remand population and those incarcerated with a particular focus on access to post-secondary education, whether courses/programs completed while incarcerated are formally recognized by post-secondary educational institutions, and how to improve the processes involved to support effective re-integration of those in remand postrelease. access to education while incarcerated and recognition of such credits earned by postsecondary institutions can be a key protective factor in creating opportunities for upward social mobility and crime deterrence post-release. education is a human right, even if incarcerated, and consequentially a foundational tool and investment in securing employment, as stable employment is one of the major pillars for the successful reintegration of releasees (john howard society of ontario, 2016, p. 20). primary research scope the key objective of this report is to conduct a scan of programs and the extents which they provide post-secondary education to individuals who are incarcerated, with a particular focus on the remand population in ontario. the goal is to better understand processes involved including challenges and systemic barriers related to accessing education while incarcerated and how to improve such conditions to ensure the human right of access to education is upheld by correctional facilities and the federal government. as an extension of this exploration, it is important to consider to what extent learning while incarcerated in formally recognized by postsecondary educational institutions, what opportunities and programs already exist, what are some of their shortcoming and challenges, to what extent these programs are supported and funded by various levels of government, and how overall access to education can be improved through synergic collaborations (eizadirad, 2020) between correctional facilities, post-secondary institutions, and community organizations. as part of phase 2 related to this research, we hope to interview participants who currently access or in the past have accessed educational programs while incarcerated to understand their lived experiences including: - what are the experiences of remanded individuals who receive educational training while incarcerated? what are their experiences as they attempt to enter post-secondary education after being released from jail? 8 - is their learning, more specifically credits earned, formally recognized by the colleges or universities they enter? what challenges and barriers do they experience during this process? - what could be enacted and implemented to create greater access to education for the remand population and to streamline their transition to post-secondary education? who are the remand population? according to the federal criminal records act, a person is considered a youth between the age of 12 and 17, and if charged with a crime during this time, the youth criminal justice act applies to them. this includes parameters such as in most cases having their name banned from being revealed to the public and the use of extrajudicial measures to hold first-time, non-violent offers accountable. at age 18, a person is considered an adult (government of canada, criminal records act, 1985, c. c-47). when a person is charged with a crime, if the crime they are charged with is serious in nature, they are likely held in custody until their bail hearing. a bail hearing does not determine whether the charged person is guilty or innocent. it is a court order that grants or denies permission to be released back into the community while the case is processed until trial date. if the person is granted bail, they will have to follow the conditions set by the judge. if the judge does not grant bail or if bail is set at an amount that the individual cannot afford, they are remanded into custody. a person remanded into custody must remain in a maximum-security facility until their trial which can take months or years depending on the complexity and the nature of the charges. if the accused are found guilty at trial and sentenced to jail time, the length of the sentence determines whether they are transferred to a provincial or a federal facility. as george, gopal, and woods (2014) point out, the federal government is responsible for overseeing the incarceration and care of individuals sentenced to two years or more and provincial/territorial governments are similarly responsible for individuals sentenced to two years less a day and pre-trial custody (p. 35). this process is also explained visually via an approximately 5-minute whiteboard video produced by amadeusz for educational purposes. it can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu-nrnzcnam. why the focus on access to education? education is a key protective factor in reducing recidivism and enhancing a more holistic and effective reintegration and resettlement back into the community post-release (davis et al., 2013; john howard society of ontario, 2016; eizadirad, 2016; mcmurtry & curling, 2008; richer et al., 2015). investing in education would be a more sustainable long-term proactive approach, both in terms of outcomes and costs, rather than investment in reactionary punitive approaches rooted intensive surveillance and mandatory minimum sentences to reduce crime rates (eizadirad, 2016; john howard society of ontario, 2018). 9 chan et al. (2017) compiled a report from various statistical resources titled everything you were never taught about canadas prison systems. a primer on canadas urgent human rights crisis which includes numerous infographics to contextualize and emphasize the inaccessibility to education for the remand population and how systemic inequities contribute to over-representation of black, indigenous, people of colour, and those living in poverty being incarcerated in canada (colour of poverty, 2019; john howard society of ontario, 2018). specifically referring to the findings of a 2004 study by bazos and hausman which compared the cost-saving analysis of one million dollar invested in incarceration compared to prison education programs, the infographic shows that one million invested in incarceration prevents approximately 350 crimes whereas the same amount invested in prison education programs prevents approximately 600 crimes (bazos & hausman, 2004). figure 1. chan et al. (2017). impact of crime prevention with a one million dollar investment. investments in prison education saves tax dollars in the long run as those who are released are less likely to re-offend leading to lower rates of recidivism and being re-incarcerated. chan et al. (2017) discuss what this translates into in terms of monetary value where it costs correctional service canada an average of $111,202 annually to incarcerate one man (and twice as much to 10 incarcerate one woman), with only $2950 of that money spent on education per prisoner (para. 16). a more recent report by the office of the auditor general of ontario (2019) titled annual report 2019: reports on correctional services and court operations outlines that, [t]he ministry does not have fully effective systems and procedures in place to ensure that institutional programs and services are delivered economically, efficiently, and in accordance with legislative and policy requirements. specifically, we found that correctional institutions are not equipped to deal with challenges resulting from the greater proportion of remand population and inmates with possible mental health issues. this adversely affects the availability and content of programming and treatment that would otherwise help inmates reintegrate positively into the community and reduce recidivism. (p. 20) these statistics are alarming and paint the picture that access to education as a human right is not maintained and upheld consistently within correctional facilities in canada, and a more systemic approach is needed to ensure education is prioritized and the conditions to access it are improved. investing in educational programs and services will lead to greater returns than punitive measures. the rise in the remand population: remand population outnumbering sentenced offenders the most recent statistics available that outlines the number of people in remand in ontario is outlined in the auditor general of ontario 2019 report which states, on a daily basis, remanded inmates comprise about 71% of the 7,400 inmates in custody. the proportion of remand population in institutions in ontario has increased by 18% in the last 15 years, from 60% of the daily inmate population in 2004/05 to 71% in 2018/19. data from statistics canada indicate that in 2017/18 (the most recent year for which data is available for all canadian jurisdictions), alberta, ontario and manitoba had the highest remand rates in canada. (p. 22) on a national level, 2005 was the first time canadas provincial and territorial jails held more people who were legally innocent in remand compared to sentenced offenders (malakieh, 2019). since 2005, the overall population of adults in remand has consistently outnumbered sentence offenders. the 2017 report by the correctional services program titled trends in the use of remand in canada, 2004/2005 to 2014/2015 provides some detailed statistics about these trends over a 10-year span: 11 - in comparison to ten years earlier, the number of adults in remand has grown almost six times more than the number in sentenced custody. from 2004/2005 to 2014/2015, the average daily adult remand population increased 39%, while the average daily sentenced custody population was up 7%. - all provinces and territories saw their adult remand numbers climb between 2004/2005 and 2014/2015. there have been particularly large increases in average daily counts in nova scotia (+192%), northwest territories (+139%), manitoba (+134%) and alberta (+109%). prince edward island was the only jurisdiction to report a larger increase in its sentenced custody population than in its remand population. - one in four adults (25%) admitted to remand in 2014/2015 were aboriginal persons (excluding alberta and prince edward island). this is about 8 times greater than the representation of aboriginal persons in the overall population (3%). - similar to the situation for adults, on an average day in 2014/2015, there were more youth aged 12 to 17 in pre-trial detention (561 or 56%) than were in sentenced custody (448 or 44%) (excluding quebec). there have been, on average, more youth in pre-trial detention than sentenced custody since 2007/2008. (p. 3) some of these statistics are presented below in a visual format compiled from various resources and reports. figure 2. trends in average daily counts of adults in provincial/territorial custody. by type of custody, selected jurisdictions 2004/2005 to 2013/2015 (correctional services program, 2017, p. 6). 12 figure 3. average daily counts of adults in remand as a proportion of those in custody, by jurisdiction, 2004/2005 and 2014/2015 (correctional services program, 2017, p. 7) what is consistent across canada and in the province of ontario as a trend since 2005 is the increase in the remand population incarcerated compared to sentence offenders. examining more up to date statistics that goes beyond 2015, the 2019 report adult and youth correctional statistics in canada, 2017/2018 points out that these trends have continued: - in 2017/2018, on average per day there were about 50% more adults (14,812) in remand than were in provincial/territorial sentenced custody (9,543) - among the provinces and territories in 2017/2018, eight jurisdictions had a higher proportion of remanded adults versus those in sentenced custody: alberta (70%), ontario (69%), manitoba (69%), nova scotia (65%), british columbia (65%), yukon (62%), the northwest territories (58%) and nunavut (55%) in remand. (malakieh, 2019, pp. 3-4) 13 figure 4. proportion of adult average daily counts to remand and sentenced custody, 2017/2018 (malakieh, 2019, p. 9). examining the numbers expressed in the tables, figures, and statistics as a collective, it shows that since 2005 until now, the number of people in remand has consistently increased over the years. it is also important to emphasize that the remand population has increased at a faster rate than sentenced offenders, particularly in ontario where between 2004/2005 and 2014/2015, the number of adults held in remand on a typical day increased 39%. this was nearly 6 times the increase in the sentenced custody population (+7%). in contrast, between 2004 and 2014, the number of adults charged with a crime by police in canada declined (-2.4%) (correctional services program, 2017, p. 5). most recently, the office of the auditor general of ontario in their 2019 report point out, [a]bout 80% of the approximately 51,000 individuals admitted into ontario adult correctional institutions in 2018/19 were accused persons on remand who were awaiting bail or trial. on a daily basis, remanded inmates represent 71% of the 7,400 inmates in custody. the remaining 29% of inmates are those that have been found guilty of a crime with a sentence of less than two years. the proportion of the remand population in institutions in ontario has increased in the last 15 years, from 60% in 2004/05 to 71% in 2018/19. (p. 5) 14 these trends are alarming given that those in remand have not been proven to be guilty of their charges and are legally innocent. as well, those remanded into custody must serve their time at a maximum-security facility. in ontario, there are eight national correctional facilities for convicted inmates sentenced to two years or more and nine provincial detention centres, nine provincial jails, and nine provincial correctional centres for people awaiting trial or who are serving a sentence up to two years less a day. having to serve time in a maximum-security facility while remanded into custody and awaiting trial can have a large impact on ones mental health particularly with limited access to educational programs and support services. as chan et al. (2017) demonstrate using infographics that represents compiled data in an accessible and easy to understand manner, in 2016, canadas crime rates hit a 45-year low. at the same time, paradoxically and with resounding silence from the public, incarceration rates hit an all time high (para. 4). as stated already, majority of the population incarcerated in canada and within ontario are people remanded into custody awaiting trial. figure 5. chan et al. (2017). percent of people incarcerated in canada as remand population. given the trends of continuous increase in the overall remand population in correctional facilities, and their more rapid increase during a period when canadas crime rate decreased, it is timely and important to focus and discuss access to education and the transfer experience of the remand population as a priority. as the office of the auditor general of ontario (2019) annual report states, in 2017/18, the percentage of ontarios inmates on remand was the second-highest of all jurisdictions in canada. in essence, justice for these inmates is being delayed justice 15 delayed is justice denied (p. 5). this is a trend that is alarming, contributing to perpetuating inequities for those incarcerated, and systemically disadvantaging black, indigenous, people of colour, and those from lower socio-economic status (colour of poverty, 2019; john howard society of ontario, 2016). access to education while remanded is an area which need prioritization to support the holistic needs of those incarcerated as it largely contributes to reducing recidivism and creates opportunities for upward social mobility and reintegration back into the community post-release. consequences of being remanded into custody there are many short and long-term consequences affiliated with being incarcerated. according to the correctional services program (2017) report, studies have shown that many individuals in pre-trial custody are housed in maximum security facilities where they are held in small cells with two or three other people. they often do not have access to rehabilitative or recreational programs, and face a high degree of uncertainty regarding the length of time they will be incarcerated. apart from the potential loss of employment and accommodation, other possible consequences for persons held in remand include separation from family, need to find emergency child care, and missed medication or medical treatments. (p. 4) these consequences are a daily reality for those incarcerated while navigating a jail subculture where there is potential for exposure to sporadic incidents of violence (roderique, 2019; sapers et al., 2018). sapers et al. in their 2018 report institutional violence in ontario- case study: toronto south detention centre provide an overview of their findings where they collected data examining a 90 day investigation of reported incidents of inmate-on-staff violence in ontarios provincial facilities (p. 4). they provide an in-depth case study analysis of the daily realities facing those incarcerated in the toronto south detention centre supplemented with visuals and images from inside the facility, as it was the facility which reported the highest number and greatest rate of increase in reported incidents of inmate-on-staff violence in 2017 (p. 3). the report conducted interviews and surveys with many people with different roles who work in correctional facilities to gain insight about the day to day functioning of these facilities in ontario. as it relates to access to education, it is important to emphasize a few quotes from this report. for example, a recreational officer interviewed critiqued the ineffectiveness of how program is offered and delivered expressing that recreation can have positive impacts of reintegration [but there were] huge limitations given our available space and condition of the jail and that programming is inconsistent, irregular and not available enough to make a difference (p. 73). these limitations also apply on a larger scale to access to educational programs (roderique, 2019). pollack and hutchison (2018) reiterate some of these shortcomings 16 as it applies to delivering the walls to bridges educational program (which will be discussed later in this report) within multiple correctional institutions in ontario involving inmates as students learning alongside students from an outside post-secondary institution. most common barriers identified from perspectives of those who participated in the walls to bridges education program were lack of consistent access to computers, technology such as dvd players, classroom space and the internet (p. 12). particularly for students who were learning while incarcerated, referred to as inside students, lack of access to hardcopy educational materials and lack of access to the internet to complete their assignments were identified as major barriers limiting effective teaching and learning. staff shortages and lockdowns were also identified as contributing to programs being disrupted and delivered inconsistently. sapers et al. (2018) further examined the mindset and attitude of staff working at correctional facilities in ontario and identified how many staff had negative attitudes and stereotypical ideologies towards inmates and their potential from a deficit lens seeing them as incapable or incompetent of learning and rehabilitating back into the community. for example, one experienced officer interviewed stated, the only special programs should be those that deal with mental health issueall others are a waste of time and focus (p. 73). as part of their recommendations, sapers et al. (2018) suggested more education and training for staff to prioritize effective access and support around programs and services offered within correctional facilities which aligns with promoting the goal of rehabilitating inmates. this is important as negative stereotypical attitudes expressed via actions and words by staff towards inmates can lead to further conflict and escalating incidents of violence. more up to date statistics are provided by the office of the auditor general of ontario (2019) which contextualizes and confirms there are limited programs and support services that are accessible to those incarcerated within ontario correctional facilities including the remand population: - in 2018/19, 33% of all inmates admitted across the province had a mental health alert on their file- indicating possible mental health concerns- compared with 7% of inmates in 1998/99. (p. 10) - our audit noted that a growing proportion of inmates have possible mental health issues. without sufficient staff training and appropriate units to place inmates in, these inmates are often sent to segregation as a result of their behaviour. we found that segregation, which keeps inmates isolated as much as 24 hours a day, was being used to confine inmates with mental health issues due to a lack of specialized care beds. (p. 17) - we also found that little emphasis is placed on delivering programming to remanded inmates, who comprise the majority of the inmate population. program staff left it up to the inmates to choose which programs to attend, and made little effort to reach out to and encourage inmates to attend programs. this has contributed to low attendance in programs targeted toward remanded inmates intended to provide information about factors that contribute to criminal behaviour. (pp. 17-18) 17 - to deal with occupancy pressures, we found that the ministry has increased the capacity of 16 of the 25 institutions by an average of 81% more than the original capacity when they were built by adding beds in cells. (p. 18) these various statistics outlined situate how multiple factors intersect and converge leading to limited access to programs and services for rehabilitation purposes at the expense of the use of more punitive tactics. these normalized practices often used within correctional facilities to control incidents of violence via punitive measures are ineffective in supporting mental health of those who are incarcerated. in many circumstances, tactics such as overcrowding in jail cells, use of solitary confinement as punishment or for defusing of a situation, or lack of access to programs and support services leads to intensifying and making matters worse in reducing recidivism and facilitating their rehabilitation back into the community. if the long-term goal of correctional facilities is rehabilitation and reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community, the current system is not making it a priority based on how their policies and processes are enacted and implemented, including lack of prioritization for access to education and resources allocated for delivery of such programs. according to the john howard society of ontario (2018) report the invisible burden: police records and the barriers to employment in toronto, - individuals who become involved with the criminal justice system tend to have lower educational attainment and work experience. opportunities for training during incarceration may be limited, and released individuals may have limited employment opportunities because of low skills, low education, and diminished social networks. - formerly incarcerated individuals returning to the toronto job market upon release are at a distinct disadvantage due to low educational attainment. approximately 75% of prisoners entering federal correctional facilities between 2008 and 2013 had not completed high school or an equivalent, compared to 20% in the canadian population overall. (p. 22) as outlined in the aforementioned statistics in the ontario context, lack of education can greatly contribute to recidivism and re-offending post-release as it is a key protective factor in gaining access to employment and other opportunities for establishing independence post-release. lack of access to education is part of a larger systemic racism lack of opportunities for the remand population, particularly as it relates to access education, is problematic and perpetuates inequities as the time served while awaiting trial becomes counter-productive and in many cases leading to harmful outcomes in mental health and other areas. this subsection outlines how lack of access to education is part of a larger systemic problem embedded within the justice system at various levels that largely disadvantages 18 racialized identities, particularly black, indigenous, people of colour, and those from lower socioeconomic status (colour of poverty, 2019; united way, 2019). roderique (2019) in her article why are most people in prison unconvicted discusses the shortcoming of the justice system by examining perspectives of lawyers and past lived experiences of those remanded into custody. she expresses that the justice system as it currently operates is ineffective financially, morally, or logically (para. 20) leading to a continued increase in the number of people incarcerated on remand simultaneously at a time when canadian crime rates are decreasing. roderique (2019) examines differences in circumstances for those serving time on remand versus being a sentenced offender: in a cruel twist of irony, life on remand is often worse than life in a federal prison. it is a lonely, boring, mentally draining place that seems to only serve to isolate, irritate, and exacerbate any troubles the person is facing in their life, the troubles that usually got them sent to detention in the first place. detainees are held in maximum-security provincial institutions under the most severe restrictions regardless of the nature of the allegation or their criminal history. unlike federal prisons, which have life skills, work, reintegration, rehab, and literacy programs, adults held in pre-trial detention have no chance to work and few opportunities for programming, education, and exercise. (para. 7) it is difficult to have a conversation about systemic inequities in the justice system without having a conversation about race and racialization at an institutional level in canadian society (block & galabuzi, 2011; colour of poverty, 2019; eizadirad, 2019; williams et al., 2013). definitions matter and for the purpose of this report, race and racialization are referred to based on the following definition: race is a socially constructed way of judging, categorizing and creating difference among people based on physical characteristics such as skin colour, eye, lips and nose shape, hair texture and body shape. the process of social construction of race is termed racialization. this is the process by which societies construct races as real, different and unequal in ways that matter to economic, political and social life. (toronto district school board, 2017, p. 75) at the core of racialization is dipartites in access to opportunities that lead to larger inequities. as the colour of poverty (2019) fact sheet racialized poverty in justice and policing points out: - as a result of higher levels of scrutiny compared to white people, minorities are more likely to be arrested, convicted and punished, which has been identified as a significant contributing factor to the overrepresentation of black males in the criminal justice system. 19 - in 2016, black people comprise 3.5% of the general canadian population, but made up 10% of the federally incarcerated population - in 2016, 25% of the total federally incarcerated population and 35% of federallysentenced women were indigenous, despite accounting for only around 4.3% of the total canadian population. - between 2005 and 2015, the number of incarcerated indigenous peoples increased by more than 50%, while the number of incarcerated indigenous women almost doubled - racialized communities are over-represented among the low income population and face heightened risk of homelessness, incarceration, and human rights violations. this increases their likelihood of being over-policed, while diminishing their access to justice and security - access to justice, and the fair representation of racialized individuals before courts, administrative tribunals, and access to legal aid is made that much more difficult because of their race and immigration status on the one hand, and the lack of culturally and linguistically responsive and safe services in the justice system on the other. (pp. 1-2) the aforementioned statistics situate how racialized identities and communities, specifically black, indigenous, people of colour, and those living in poverty are systemically disadvantaged within the canadian justice system at all levels leading to their over-representation in being incarcerated. an example of how systemic inequities lead to inequitable outcomes is black men more likely having criminal records due to anti-black racism within institutional policies and practices (canadian civil liberties association, 2014; colour of poverty, 2019; sapers et al., 2018). this could be attributed to several practices including increased police presence and surveillance in racialized neighbourhoods, racial profiling by officers (eizadirad, 2016), and deficit thinking and stereotypical images normalized via dominant discourse and media representations. zainey (2010) states that the argument could be offered that the adjudicatory system itself is discriminatory in practice; otherwise all races would be convicted at proportional rates and there would be no disparities (p. 286). racialized identities in general have been placed on the margins, making it more challenging for them to move past their criminalized identity postrelease (colour of poverty, 2019; williams, jones & bailey, 2013). at the core of racialization and being a racialized person is navigating inequitable power dynamics at the institutional and societal level in the form of barriers related to accessibility to opportunities and services. these issues impact all identities in the community as well as those incarcerated as part of the remand population, but it has particularly more severe negative consequences for racialized identities and communities. this is a systemic issue that is intrinsic within many institutions that goes beyond the justice system to other institutions such as healthcare, education, government, etc. (block & galabuzi, 2011; colour of poverty, 2019; mcmurtry & curling, 2008). 20 eizadirad (2020) outlines how historically- and we can argue even today in 2021 based on statistics outlined- racialized identities and neighbourhoods are treated as expendable and disposable, disadvantaged by inequitable policies and practices including the intersection of the education and justice system. the convergence of their inequities has led to the school to prison pipeline. reflecting on key historical events in ontario, on may 4, 1992, people took to the streets to protest and resist the systemic discrimination racialized identities were experiencing living in ontario and to show solidarity with the people in los angeles who were experiencing similar issues in a different context where the systemic discrimination was more explicit. these protests were sparked by the acquittal of four white police officers caught on video brutally beating black driver rodney king in the streets of los angeles in 1992. fast forward to 2020 and we have the death and public lynching of george floyd by a white police officer who had his knee placed on mr. floyds neck for over 8 minutes ignoring his plea for not being able to breath. similar to the rodney king beatings which was caught on camera, the death of george floyd was also video recorded and shared with the world publicly sparking world-wide protests bringing attention to anti-black racism embedded in institutional practices at all levels including policing practices. it is important for the purpose of this report focusing on the ontario context that we discuss other key historical incidents and reports which have contributed to mapping the trajectory of anti-black racism and larger system issues in this province. the yonge street uprisings took place in ontario in 1992 which was a symbolic protest about anti-black racism. the premier of ontario at the time, bob rae, assigned stephen lewis as his advisor on race relations and delegated him to consult local communities and produce a report shortly with recommendations to work toward solutions. the following month on june 9, 1992, stephen lewis produced his report titled report of the advisor on race relations to the premier of ontario, bob rae. lewis (1992) outlines that in the span of 1 month, he held seventy meetings with individuals and groups in metro toronto, ottawa, windsor and beyond, supplemented by innumerable phone conversations (p. 1). as one of his key observations and findings, lewis (1992) states, first, what we are dealing with, at root, and fundamentally, is anti-black racism. while it is obviously true that every visible minority community experiences the indignities and wounds of systemic discrimination throughout southern ontario, it is the black community which is the focus. it is blacks who are being shot, it is black youth that is unemployed in excessive numbers, it is black students who are being inappropriately streamed in schools, it is black kids who are disproportionately dropping-out, it is housing communities with large concentrations of black residents where the sense of vulnerability and disadvantage is most acute, it is black employees, professional and nonprofessional, on whom the doors of upward equity slam shut. just as the soothing balm of multiculturalism cannot mask racism, so racism cannot mask its primary target. (p. 2) 21 lewis describes how systemic discrimination, specifically anti-black racism, within institutions trickles down to impact the daily lives of racialized identities and communities contributing to inequality of outcome in various settings including the education and justice system. the various examples mentioned in the report demonstrates how race plays a key role in accessing opportunities and creating disparities in outcomes. similar findings were expressed by mcmurtry and curling (2008) in another ontario report titled review of the roots of youth violence which examined root causes contributing to youth gravitating towards violence following the death of 15-year-old grade nine student jordan manners on may 23, 2007 at c.w. jefferys collegiate institute, a public high school located within the boundaries of the jane and finch neighbourhood (eizadirad 2016; james 2012). manners died in the school hallway as a result of a gunshot wound to the chest. this incident was the first of its kind in toronto where a student had died within a school. in the aftermath of jordan manners death, the premier at the time, dalton mcguinty, approached honorable roy mcmurtry and dr. alvin curling to spend a year seeking to find out where it (youth violence) is coming from- its roots- and what might be done to address them to make ontario safer in the long term (p. 1). this led to the 2008 publication of the review of the roots of youth violence which identifies numerous immediate risk factors that create that state of desperation and put a youth in the immediate path of violence (p. 5). the report defines the roots of youth violence, as the the major conditions in which the immediate risk factors grow and flourish (p. 6). these include poverty, racism, poor community planning and design, issues in the education system, family issues, health issues, lack of youth voice, lack of economic opportunity for youth, and issues in the justice system. as eizadirad (2016) puts it, review of the roots of youth violence report dares to speak the truth by naming race and racism and putting a face to it in terms of institutional practices (p. 178). the report predominantly names racism and poverty as major systemic barriers contributing to youth gravitating toward violence stating that alienation, lack of hope or empathy, and other immediate risk factors are powerfully, but far from exclusively, driven by the intersection of racism and poverty (p. 19). findings from the lewis (1992) and mcmurtry and curling (2008) reports provide historical context for ontario to help contextualize how systemic inequities rooted in the intersection of racism and poverty leads to disparities in outcomes such as the overrepresentation of racialized identities in correctional facilities particularly black and indigenous people (chan et al., 2017; colour of poverty, 2019). chan et al. (2017) situates this argument with a focus on the justice system and who is likely remanded into custody: black and indigenous people, as well as those who were homeless or unemployed at the time of their arrest, are disproportionately not granted bail and incarcerated on remand. in 1995, the commission on systemic racism in the ontario criminal justice system came to the inescapable conclusion that some black people who were detained pre-trial would not have been detained if they were white. this reality remains true in 2017, as do 22 the consequences. people who are incarcerated on remand and subsequently plead not guilty at trial are less likely to be acquitted than those who were not detained pre-trial. also, because remand is seen as temporarydespite the fact that it can stretch up to several yearsprisoners on remand rarely have access to educational programming or vocational training. prisons with a high number of prisoners on remand (usually called detention centres) are maximum security, and are often overcrowded and understaffed. (para. 9) chan et al. (2017) further emphasize that the overrepresentation of racialized communities in canadas prisons reflects the countrys racial profiling and over-policing of black and indigenous people (para. 10). a visual is provided by chan et al. provided below to better understand the statistics. figure 6. chan et al. (2017). systemic racism and overrepresentation of black and indigenous people in the canadian prison system. 23 chan et al. (2017) further deconstruct the statistics pointing out that, out of an average of 14, 615 prisoners in canadian federal institutions on a given day in 2015-2016, 26 percent are indigenous and nine percent are blackand between 2005 and 2016, the federal incarceration rate of black people in canada increased by 70 percent. compare this to the breakdown of the general population: indigenous people only make up 4.3 percent of the population, and black people only 2.8 percent. currently, indigenous women are the fastest growing prison population, representing more than 35 percent of the federal population of women prisoners. such overrepresentation reflects how black and indigenous people are consistently targeted and over-policed in canada. (para. 11) overall, the statistics and visuals presented as part of this section express how systemic racism continues to an issue within canadian society and its institutional policies and practices including the justice system. this is an urgent matter that needs attention to mitigate the disparities and inequities disadvantaging racialized identities. the right to education for the remand population- from lack of recognition to inconsistency and ineffectiveness in implementation it has been internationally recognized that those incarcerated have the right to education (george et al., 2014; united nations, 2021) yet as discussed throughout this report access to education is not prioritized within prisons and correctional facilities. in limited circumstances where educational programs are offered, it is inconsistent and the conditions and resources allocated to the educational programs are minimal and inadequate for promoting effective teaching and learning (richer et al., 2015; sapers et al., 2017). the office of the auditor general of ontario in their 2019 annual report provides an overview of the life skills programs targeted towards remanded inmates: 24 figure 7. life skills programs targeted towards remanded inmates (office of the auditor general of ontario, 2019, p. 76). 25 examining the various types of programs offered to the remand population, george et al. (2014) argue that only religion and addiction-based programs remain consistently implemented across ontario detention centres (p. 40). the budget allocation by correctional services of canada for educational programming is minimal at approximately $2950 per student per year. figure 8. chan et al. (2017). funding for educational programming. this is alarming considering that those remanded into custody are legally innocent yet treated as criminals and provided limited access to education programs to better themselves while awaiting their trial. for access to post-secondary courses and programs, those incarcerated generally must pay for the cost of the course after confirmation that they have all the prerequisites (correctional services canada, 2018). once approved and enrolled into a course, the course is conducted via paper-based correspondence with the post-secondary institution. 26 accessing education while federally incarcerated: overview from intake assessment to program placement there is a demonstrable need for educational programming in canadian federal institutions as approximately 75% of offenders admitted to federal custody reported that they did not have a high school diploma (or equivalent). (correctional service of canada, 2015, p. vii) the following correctional service of canada (csc) websites provide information about intake assessment and guidelines for placement and access to various educational programs for those federally incarcerated which mean sentenced to two year or more: 1) education programs: https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/002/002-0005-en.shtml 2) guidelines for education programs: https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/acts-and-regulations/720-1-gl-eng.shtml#s2f the correctional service of canadas (csc) website (2019) titled education programs states that, education is important as it increases offenders' chances to successfully transition back into society. improved literacy skills may improve an inmate's ability to take part in correctional programs (para. 1). under goals and process, the website outlines the goals of the educational programs offered: address offenders' educational needs increase offenders' basic literacy, social cognition, and problem solving skills prepare offenders for participation in correctional programs, and provide them with the knowledge and skills needed to gain and maintain employment and lawfully reside in the community upon their release the website then explains the steps involved in identifying the educational needs of those incarcerated and how they are placed and monitored within educational programs: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. a review of the initial education-related assessments individual education planning enrolment and participation in the delivery of education programs ongoing assessment of progress reporting 27 it is important to note that in canada there is no federal department of education. as a result, the curriculum offered as part of educational programs aligns with provincial/ territorial legislation where the facility is located delivered by certified teachers and trained staff. according to the correctional services canada report by richer et al. (2015), an educational assessment is required for all offenders within 90 days of intake unless the offender is unwilling, unable (due to illiteracy, language barrier, visual impairment, medical reasons), or not required to complete an assessment. documented assessments (e.g., official transcripts, diploma) and functional assessments (i.e., results of a standardized testing) are used separately or in tandem to determine the appropriate education level to place an offender. education becomes an intervention need on individualized correctional plans when offenders do not possess a grade 12 (or equivalent) level of education when entering the correctional system. if the offenders education level is determined to be below grade 12 or equivalent (using either a documented or functional assessment), the offender will be referred to an educational program. (p. 5) individuals who have not obtained a high school diploma or its equivalent have education identified as a need in their correctional plans. it is important to emphasize that this is not done for those in remand and only for those sentenced to serving two years or more. they are enrolled into the appropriate level of the adult basic education program which has 4 levels described on the csc (2018) website: a) adult basic education i- allows inmates to acquire the basic literacy and numeracy skills to function in society. this program level covers grades 5 and under in all regions except quebec, where this program level covers grade 6 and under. b) adult basic education ii- allows inmates to acquire the necessary education skills to proceed to secondary studies. this program level covers grades 6, 7 and 8 in all regions except quebec, where this program level covers secondary i and ii. c) adult basic education iii- allows inmates to earn compulsory secondary credits as specified by the appropriate ministry of education. this program level covers grades 9 and 10 in all regions except quebec, where this program level covers secondary iii and iv. d) adult basic education iv- allows inmates to earn secondary credits in order to fulfill the requirements of a secondary school diploma (or equivalent) issued by the appropriate ministry of education. this program level covers grades 11 and 12 in all regions except quebec, where this program level covers secondary v 28 majority of people incarcerated do not have a high school degree or its equivalent (correctional service of canada, 2015). according to the invisible burden: police records and the barriers to employment in toronto, a 2018 report by john howard society of ontario, historical data indicates that about 35% of prisoners participate in abe programs and 25% of participants complete them. this may mean a majority of all incarcerated individuals also leave a federal correctional facility without a high school-level education (p. 22). this is problematic given that education is a key protective factor in reducing recidivism and providing access to opportunities to reintegrate back into the community (davis et al, 2013). according to the correctional service of canadas (2015) evaluation of cscs education programs and services report, approximately three quarters of federally sentenced offenders present a need for educational programming (p. vi). the report reiterates the benefits of educational programs expressing that offenders who participated in educational programming had lower rates of conditional release failure compared to non-participants and these results were better for medium and high risk offenders who completed more than 10 educational achievements (p. vii). this finding signifies the importance of continuing to make educational programs accessible for those incarcerated. access to post-secondary is considered different with unique parameters. the correctional service of canada (2019) website under education programs points out: - the post-secondary prerequisite program allows inmates the opportunity to earn additional secondary credits that they require in order to participate in post-secondary studies, vocational programs, or employment. this program is for inmates who already have a high school diploma (or equivalent). - offenders may pursue post-secondary education while incarcerated. the post-secondary education program allows inmates to learn a trade or profession or update trade qualifications. inmates who want to take post-secondary courses must meet the university or college's academic requirements. courses are usually completed through correspondence with community colleges or universities. overall, there are limited post-secondary education programs offered across prisons and correctional facilities in ontario and on a larger scale in canada. courses are usually completed through paper-based correspondence with community colleges or universities. evaluation of cscs education programs and services report identified the following findings with respect to the effectiveness of the education programs offered: 29 figure 9. findings from the evaluation of cscs education programs and services report (richer et al., 2015, pp. ix-x). 30 in response to the aforementioned findings, the report also made a series of recommendations to improve access to educational programs and increase the effectiveness and quality of how programs and services are offered and delivered. these recommendations continue to be relevant and should be prioritized in being enacted and implemented to reinforce education an important platform to promote rehabilitation and reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community. figure 10. recommendations from the evaluation of cscs education programs and services report (richer et al., 2015, p. xi). 31 unfortunately, there has been a lack of urgency and prioritization in improving access to education and lack of a collective effort to increase the quality of how programs are delivered since the reports findings and recommendations published as of 2015. this is reinforced by the most recent report from the office of the auditor general of ontario (2019) which emphasizes that they found little emphasis is placed on delivering programming to remanded inmates, who comprise the majority of the inmate population (p. 17). the report goes on to further emphasize, effectively targeting and delivering programs for inmates held for different periods of time, whether they are in remand or sentenced and whether they are new to the correctional system or repeat offenders, is important toward reducing recidivism. we also found that staff in institutions that we visited did not have a strategy to help inmates contact agencies that would assist them to reintegrate into their communities. (p. 18). these statistics and findings from various reports outline collectively that education must be a priority within correctional facilities to reduce recidivism and support effective rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates back into the community. there are too many gaps in the system functioning as barriers to creating access to education for those incarcerated. if education is to be a priority, it needs to be supported with funding and resources to implement new changes. this has not been the case given that in 2015-2016, the correctional service of canada cut their educational spending by 10 percent (chan et al., 2017, para. 19). organizations offering education program within facilities in ontario in ontario, two programs are leading the way in creating access to post-secondary education programs for the remand and sentenced population: amadeusz and walls to bridges. as this report focuses on the ontario context, an in-depth description of each program is provided in this section outlining an overview of each organization, their history, vision, and goals, and how they deliver their programs. as an extension of exploring how to improve access to education for those incarcerated, particularly with respect to post-secondary education, an overview of some programs in the united states are also discussed. 32 amadeusz website: http://amadeusz.ca/ head office location: 208 evans avenue, office 117 etobicoke, ontario m8z 1j7 email: info@amadeusz.ca telephone: 416-251-0685 mission statement: amadeusz supports young people who are incarcerated to create positive change in their lives through access to education, community supports, mentorship, and exceptional care. vision: creating a future with equitable access to education and community supports. amadeusz is a non-profit organization in ontario that provides access to education, community supports, mentorship, and exceptional care for young people ages 18 to 35 who are or have been incarcerated. as outlined by woods et al. (2018), the idea for amadeusz originated when a group of 6 to 8 young people came together in spaces defined by them as safe such as in apartment building staircases and local housing communities to discuss their experiences, challenges, and needs of living in torontos racialized and marginalized communities. over the years, their frustrations and experience with the intersection of violence, incarceration, and tragedy turned into a desire to make a difference. the youth organized themselves into a formal group and with the support of the executive director of a local non-profit community agency amadeusz as an organization was formulated and established in 2009. in the early years, the most important issue for amadeusz as an organization was mitigating minimal opportunities for young people in remand to access education. amadeusz envisioned that formal educational attainment such as gaining a high school diploma or its equivalent would lead to positive change for the individual while incarcerated and post release as part of reintegration and resettlement back into the community. amadeusz submitted a funding application which was approved for the implementation of a 6-month pilot education program in partnership with a detention centre in toronto. the project was a success and amadeusz continued to grow over time to become an incorporated non-profit organization offering various programs and services centered around creating equitable access to education, community supports, mentorship and care for people in remanded custody. currently, amadeusz facilitates educational programs for youth aged 18 to 35 who are incarcerated at the toronto south detention centre, the toronto east detention centre, and the vanier centre for women. they are actively looking to expand their programming into other facilities to further make education accessible to those incarcerated. they have a long waiting list of participants who have expressed interest to enroll to their programs and services. the goal of amadeusz educational programs is to provide young people who are in detention with the 33 opportunity, resources, and support to complete their high school education and to further pursue post-secondary education. amadeusz is the only organization in ontario that provides two streams of educational programs for those incarcerated as part of the remand population: supporting both completion of courses to earn a high school diploma or its equivalent and offering post-secondary courses. in 2018, amadeusz expanded to provide a service called prosper which provides intensive case management and peer support for young people with firearm related charges. prosper coordinates existing systems to support the transition of those incarcerated back into the community with the objective to reduce their involvement in future violence and crime. below are visuals which provide a historical overview of the growth of amadeusz as outlined in their annual report (2020): 34 below is a step-by-step guide for how the educational programs are implemented within correctional facilities from identification and program placement to evaluation and discharge: 1) referral: program participants are mainly identified through a self-referral process by putting in a request to speak with amadeusz. individuals can also be referred by those working within the institution, including but not limited to, correctional officers, volunteer coordinators, social workers, psychiatrists, community partners and members of the amadeusz staff team. 35 2) intake/assessment: a program facilitator meets with the referred individual to determine program eligibility. if eligible for any of the programs, an intake and educational assessment is conducted to determine the participant's educational goals. if ineligible, the program facilitator will refer the individual to other available services, whenever possible. 3) programming: based on the educational assessment and program eligibility criteria, the participant is placed in one or more of the following programs: high school correspondence credits towards obtaining a ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) general education diploma (ged) preparation and examination- provides support in working through ged-specific content to prepare participants to write the ged exam and obtain their high school equivalency certificate. amadeusz, in partnership with the independent learning centre, runs ged examination sessions multiple times a year at each institution. post-secondary courses- through partnerships with centennial college, northern college, and thompson rivers university participants work towards college certificates or complete courses that can be transferred to their pre-existing post-secondary education through print-based courses. career exploration post-release referrals program eligibility: high school stream: 18 to 35 years old and not yet completed high school post secondary stream: previously completed high school, either by obtaining their ossd or ged certificate 4) evaluation: ongoing feedback from participants, program facilitators, and volunteer coordinators. 5) discharge: when a participant is released or transferred from the institution, program facilitators will do their best to ensure continued support for the participant in meeting their educational goals. files are closed when appropriate. overall, through amadeusz educational programming, there has been 173 ged graduates with an average amount of 19 graduates per year. 17 participants in total have earned their ossd and 180 post-secondary courses have been completed with an average number of 18 post-secondary courses completed per year. 36 56 people have been supported through the amadeusz prosper program. prosper caseworkers have adapted to continue providing support to those incarcerated during the covid-19 pandemic. they each have a direct toll-free number that their participants can call to speak to. in addition, the city of toronto in collaboration with amadeusz and nikki knows, created a peer support phone line that is operating out of the toronto south detention centre. the phone line runs for 6 hours a week and is managed by 2 peer mentors who have lived experiences with incarceration. prosper caseworkers have continued to establish strong relationships with probation and parole officers, lawyers, and institutional staff and various jails to support those incarcerated. most recently in december 2020, amadeusz launched a podcast called off the record as part of advocacy efforts to bring attention to systemic issues including inaccessibility to education while incarcerated. the podcast is hosted by amadeusz peer mentors, two young men who have previously been incarcerated and have participated in amadeusz post-secondary educational programs. they are determined to have tough conversations about their past and current lived experiences. the podcast engages in authentic critical discussions and shares views on personal, social, and systemic issues ranging from gun violence to the effects of covid-19 in jails. each episode includes a track from a local toronto artist. the podcast can be accessed via the following link: https://amadeusz.ca/off-the-record/ walls to bridges (w2b) website: http://wallstobridges.ca/ email: wallstobridges@wlu.ca contact person: dr. shoshana pollack, professor and director of walls to bridges spollack@wlu.ca walls to bridges (w2b) is an innovative educational program that brings together incarcerated (inside) and non-incarcerated (outside) students to study post-secondary courses in jails and prisons across canada. the national hub for the program is based out of the lyle s. hallman faculty of social work at wilfrid laurier university in partnership with grand valley institution for women in kitchener. mission statement: we create educational opportunities in correctional settings where the experiences of teaching and (un)learning challenge assumptions, stigmatization and inequality. 37 values: - we believe in building bridges and solidarity with those who are incarcerated and/or criminalized and those who are not. - we foster integrative learning, involving the whole self; mind, spirit, body and emotions. - we value the wisdom that comes from lived experience, as well as other sources of learning and knowledge. - we aim to create collaborative spaces where critical analysis, dialogue and self-reflection can open up new insights and dismantle preconceptions. walls to bridges (w2b) provides access to education through a collective experience bringing together incarcerated (inside) and non-incarcerated (outside) students led by a trained facilitator to complete a post-secondary course. walls to bridges creates opportunities to understand complexities of criminalization and punishment through reflection on lived experiences via an intersectional analysis. w2b classes are credit courses offered through universities and colleges and taught within correctional settings. all students who successfully complete the course receive a university/college credit. an important principle of w2b courses is that students from outside the correctional system are not mentoring or helping or working with incarcerated/criminalized students. rather, all participants in the class are peers, learning the class content together through innovative, experiential and dialogical pedagogies. w2b was founded based on inspiration from the inside-out prison exchange program in the united states. w2b began in 2011 under the name inside-out canada, and in 2014 was established as its own autonomous canadian based program. in 2012, due to the generous support of the lyle s. hallman foundation, the national w2b hub was established within the faculty of social work at wilfrid laurier university in kitchener, ontario. the first course at wilfrid laurier was offered with partnership with grand valley institution for women led by dr. shoshana pollack. this was a pivotal moment in the walls to bridges story, as students from this course, which included both incarcerated students and master of social work, formed a collective after the course was over. within one year of meeting regularly, the w2b collective established the national w2b instructor training institute. the institute hosts a five-day training for university, college, and community educators each summer reinforcing their dialogical pedagogies to teach others how to effectively facilitate w2b programs in other communities and jurisdictions characterized by collaborative discussion, decision-making, and sharing of work. trainings take place predominately at grand valley institution for women in kitchener, ontario and is led by incarcerated and non-incarcerated alumni of w2b classes and w2b instructors. participants are asked to engage in holistic learning involving mind, body, spirit, and emotions. within this framework, participants: 38 learn how to develop partnerships between educational and correctional institutions. learn experiential activities such as applied theatre and circle pedagogies to explore course content and develop curriculum. understand the unique dynamics of a w2b classroom learn how to facilitate versus instruct experience a collaborative learning community within a prison setting. overall, w2b programs have expanded to be offered through partnerships with other post- secondary institutions including centennial college and university of ottawa. to date, 106 instructors from canada and europe have been trained in the w2b teaching model, leading to the expansion of w2b education to ten canadian correctional facilities and universities. below are details of the most recent courses offered by w2b in winter 2020 including the course name, the instructor, and the post-secondary institution and the correctional facility that offered the course. a more comprehensive list of courses offered can be found on the w2b website. location: warkworth correctional institution, warkworth, on course name: resiliency in society: the bridges and barriers instructor: dale burt, school of justice & emergency services, durham college, oshawa, on location: edmonton institution for women (eifw), edmonton, alberta course name: indigenous women, autobiography, and life writing wgs280 instructor(s): tracy bear and allison sivak native studies/ arts, womens and gender studies, university of alberta, edmonton, alberta location: ottawa carleton detention center, ottawa, on course name: othering and criminal justice instructor: dr. jennifer kilty, department of criminology, university of ottawa, ottawa, on location: grand valley institution for women, kitchener, on course name: law and society: international perspectives [global justice], ly306 instructor: marcia oliver, law and society, wilfrid laurier university, brantford campus, brantford, on 39 director of walls to bridges, dr. shoshana pollack, in her 2019 article transformative praxis with incarcerated women: collaboration, leadership, and voice explains in detail the philosophy and approach behind the delivery of w2b courses: students and instructors in w2b classes are considered both teachers and learners who have intellectual, experiential, and emotional knowledge important for the exploration of course content. similar to the inside-out prison exchange program in the united states, the instructor of a w2b class is considered a facilitator of the learning process- she or he does not lecture but through a variety of teaching techniques holds the space in which students can explore complex and challenging ideas from a variety of perspectives, lived experiences, and contexts. the canadian w2b program has been influenced by indigenous elders and indigenous scholars such as dr. priscilla settee, larry morrison, gayle cyr, and dr. kathy absolon, all of whom participated in circles with w2b collective members and provided teachings on indigenous ways of knowing. the use of learning circles, in which participants take turns speaking while others reflectively listen, is integral to indigenous ways of learning and healing. participants are encouraged to listen openly and reflectively to the perspectives of others and to their own inner dialogue. in w2b classes, this fosters a classroom climate that values different perspectives and supports an understanding of self as situated within the contexts of gender, race, class, culture, sexual orientation, and additional forms of othering. (pp. 6-7) amadeusz and walls to bridges continue to be the main two organizations in ontario offering post-secondary educational programs within various correctional facilities to those who are incarcerated. ontario organizations offering programs to incarcerated individuals post-release it is important to note there are many great organizations which support adults who were incarcerated post-release to facilitate with their rehabilitation and reintegration back into the community. below are names and websites of some of these organizations which provide socioculturally relevant and responsive programs and services to those who were incarcerated. they play a key role in reducing recidivism and providing mediums and platforms for those who were incarcerated to heal from their traumatic experiences and work towards accessing opportunities to express themselves and improve their living conditions and circumstances. 40 think2wice: https://think2.org/about/ think 2wice is an organization that provides culturally sensitive, trauma informed, nontraditional arts based initiatives to incarcerated individuals as well as young people who are gun or gang involved world wide. founded in 2006 in toronto, canada, think 2wice aims to reduce gun violence while assisting individuals to unlearn negative behaviours and think twice. think 2wice assists in eliminating the impact of inequality and social injustice amongst racialized young people in the criminal justice system. they provide services and supports to black and racialized individuals and communities, many of whom are incarcerated and reintegrating back into the community. in working with victims and perpetrators of violence, trauma and grief, think 2wice provides therapeutic supports through workshops, participatory programming, music, theater, film, story sharing and spirituality. with approximately 20 partners, they have provided various initiatives and supports within 8 federal institutions. the forgiveness project: https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/our-purpose/ the forgiveness project collects and shares stories from both victims/survivors and perpetrators of crime and conflict who have rebuilt their lives following hurt and trauma. founded in 2004 by journalist, marina cantacuzino, the forgiveness project provides resources and experiences to help people examine and overcome their own unresolved grievances. the testimonies they collect bear witness to the resilience of the human spirit and act as a powerful antidote to narratives of hate and dehumanisation, presenting alternatives to cycles of conflict, violence, crime and injustice. at the heart of the forgiveness project is an understanding that restorative narratives have the power to transform lives; not only supporting people to deal with issues in their own lives, but also building a climate of tolerance, resilience, hope and empathy. this idea informs their work across multiple platforms in publications and educational resources, through the international f word exhibition, in public conversations, bespoke storytelling course and their award-winning restore prison program. braids for aids- young mens prison project: https://braidsforaids.com/programs/ roy mcmurtry project is a project to engage young men in detention in conversations around hiv/aids and sexual health while they get their hair braided. this is a completely volunteer based program. this program has been very beneficial in informing the organization about youth trends and how to work best with young men. 41 delta family resource centre: https://dfrc.ca/newsite2/about-us/ delta family resource centre is a grassroots, non-profit, community-based agency committed to enhancing the potential of families and children by supporting and addressing identified needs. providing a wide range of programs, services and activities that enhance individual skills and promotes well-being and healthy communities, delta is known for strength in effective outreach, collaboration and strong program which meet identified community needs. overall, this is not an exhaustive list of organizations that offer holistic services to support those who are/were incarcerated. it is highly recommended for the provincial government to compile a list of relevant organization or create a website as a central hub to outline the various services organizations offer and their criteria for participation in such programs and services. this will assist those who have been incarcerated to find relevant services to support their unique needs and circumstances and to reintegrate more effectively back into the community. this would help in mitigating the systemic barrier most ex-incarcerated people experience which involves navigating the day-to-day realities of the world after being excluded from social and community life for a long period due to isolation. learning lessons from models and programs in the united states of particular interest to ontario and canada should be the laughing gull foundation which operates out of the united states as a national funding organization advocating for greater access to educational programs and services for those incarcerated as part of their higher education in prison branch launched in 2015. this program aims to increase access to creditbearing college courses for incarcerated students. the foundation funds various grassroots organizations and community agencies on an annual basis engaged in direct service, organizing, advocacy, and/or culture change work to increase access to education for those incarcerated. this is something that should be replicated in ontario and on a larger scale in canada to prioritize access to education as part of supporting the goal of rehabilitation and effective reintegration back into community. website: https://www.laughinggull.org/higher-education-in-prison vision: we envision healthy and sustainable communities where everyone can be their whole selves and live in balance with the earth. we envision a world in which everyone is supported, included, embraced, and protected, especially those who have been pushed to the margins of our human family. we envision a day when both human rights and human rites of passage include everyone equally and fully. 42 mission: laughing gull foundation leverages our resources to transform systems, institutions, and relationships for the benefit of people and the planet. our mission is to honor our familys evolving identity while proactively addressing broken systems that have created inequality and harmed our planet. recently, in november 2020, the laughing gull foundation published a press release outlining how $1.3 million dollars in funding is being distributed to various organizations that offer programs and services for incarcerated students and returning citizens (laughing gull foundation, 2020). the press release goes on to name the organizations, including their website, and the type of programs that are offered. by clicking each of the programs below, you can learn more about how they are enacted given different laws and policies within each state in which they are offered: alabama prison arts + education project. (alabama) alliance for higher education in prison. (national) claflin university pathways from prison program. (orangeburg, sc) college & community fellowship. (national) the education trust. (washington, dc) florida prison education project@university of central florida. (orlando, fl) ga state university prison education project. (atlanta, ga) guilford college wiser justice program. (greensboro, nc) the chillon project.@life university.(marietta, ga) miami-dade college - institution for educational empowerment. (miami, fl) operation restoration. (new orleans, la) prison to college pipeline program. university of mississippi. (oxford, ms) rappahannock community college correctional ed. program. (warsaw, va) shaw university reducing recidivism through higher education. (raleigh, nc) southern higher education in prison collective. (southern regional) southside va community college campus within walls. (alberta, va) stetson university community education project. (deland, fl) tennessee higher education initiative. (nashville, tennessee) tennessee prison college coalition. (tennessee) university of north alabama-limestone prison programming initiative. (florence, al) unc asheville prison education program. (asheville, nc) unc chapel hill correctional education program. (chapel hill, nc) university of utah research collaborative on hep. (national) vera institute of justice. (national) the virginia foundation for community college education. (virginia) warren wilson college inside out program. (asheville, nc) 43 many of the post-secondary educational programs offered through the organizations outlined above are through correspondence and in partnership with colleges and universities. many of these programs have their own dedicated section on their institutional website describing the program overview and how it is adapted to support the needs of those learning while incarcerated. this is something that is missing in a canadian context. in ontario, and on a larger scale in canada, there is a lack of information available on institutional websites, if any, about unique prison education programs and/or partnerships. this is an area that requires further funding and resource allocation from all levels of canadian government. post-secondary institutions also need to prioritize creating access to education for those who are incarcerated to contribute to mitigating systemic inequities in society and advancing a social justice stance embedded in their policies and practices. the bard prison initiative in new york is a great program to replicate as it is a leading organization in the united states promoting the establishment of more college-in-prison programs with partnerships with various colleges and universities across the country. the initiative works to create greater access to education and to help past students transition into jobs and careers post-release. the bard prison initiative is highlighted in a four-part documentary series available on netflix titled college behind bars. the zoukis consulting group, led by christopher zoukis who earned a degree through completing correspondence post-secondary courses during his 12 years incarcerated, has compiled a comprehensive list of correspondence programs offered by various institutions which covers important aspect such as costs, requirements, and how the program is delivered. you can learn more about the programs they have compiled under the tab education for prisoners available at: https://www.prisonerresource.com/correspondence-programs/ for the purpose of this report, some of the graduate and undergraduate post-secondary programs they outlined are described below, as they offer insights for how new programs can be initiated in a canadian context with respect to consideration to local contexts, laws, and policies. graduate degree programs adams state university: at adams state university you can complete a masters degree while incarcerated. this is a great program at a school proud to provide all individuals with the opportunity for an education. they have helped thousands of prisoners across the united states. california miramar university: california miramar university also appears willing to work with incarcerated students and with institutional security procedures. 44 california coast university: california coast university offers both masters and doctorate degrees, a decent payment plan ($100 per month), high-quality courses, belowaverage tuition, and a textbook rental program. they are not regionally accredited but their degrees seem to be respected in both the private and government sectors. university of south dakota: the university of south dakota used to offer a number of regionally accredited masters degrees and one doctorate degree through correspondence. their tuition rates were at the low end of average, and the school has been around since 1862. however, in 2012 their distance learning programs were converted to online only. in response to many letters received from disappointed incarcerated students, the school planned for a limited paper-based graduate correspondence program (5 courses) to be back in effect by january 2014. undergraduate degree programs adams state university: adams state university offers a number of associate and bachelors degrees, and tuition fees are in the below-average range. in addition, they waive the application fee for incarcerated students. having a number of incarcerated students currently enrolled, they are accustomed to the restrictions involved with educating prisoners. they offer a free, unofficial credit evaluation service. whether or not you enroll at adams state university, you can send them documentation of your prior learning or previously earned credits, and they will tell you how many of those credits qualify for transfer. louisiana state university: louisiana state university does not confer degrees by correspondence but offers individual courses and certificate programs. however, the $182 fee per credit hour is below average. and since they are regionally accredited, this is a good place to earn maximum credits that will be accepted by a more expensive, degree-granting institution. this could significantly reduce the cost of a degree. ohio university: ohio university is regionally accredited as they have a program specifically tailored for the incarcerated (ohio university correctional education), and they confer both associate and bachelors degrees. tuition is in the above-average range, and textbooks and all other fees are included in the flat fee. ohio university is unusual in allowing a free 4-month extension per course. 45 rio salado college: rio salado college offers a program tailored specifically for the incarcerated. they are regionally accredited, offer certificates and associate degrees, and a number of other courses relevant to prisoners. they provide a textbook buy-back program, below-average tuition, an honors program, and the option of taking accelerated courses. thomas edison state: thomas edison state college, a regionally accredited institution, is unique because it allows you to transfer enough credit hours (120) to earn a degree based solely upon transfer credit. thomas edison state college offers a number of credittransfer and other options for earning a degree without taking courses. their special examination program awards credit for the ability to pass an exam with previously obtained knowledge. they offer a number of associate and bachelors degrees at low annual fees ($5,840 to $6,720 per year). university of north carolina: the university of north carolina does not have a degree program by correspondence. however, they are regionally accredited and they allow you to take courses from various north carolina state schools including unc-chapel hill. their courses earn credits that can be applied to a degree if the student transfers to another school. of particular interest is that this university was offering courses free to prisoners in north carolina. they also have a textbook buy-back program. upper iowa university: upper iowa university is another exceptional institution. they are regionally accredited and offer a wide range of courses, certificates, associate degrees, and bachelors degrees. california coast university: california coast university is not regionally accredited. they were recommended earlier for graduate-level studies because there are so few viable graduate programs. however, even though their degrees have been recognized in both the private and government sectors, exercise caution at the undergraduate level. the advantages are the number of associate and bachelors degrees on offer, a payment plan of $100 per month, quality courses, below-average tuition rates, and a textbook buy-back program. they also provide a set list of courses you need to take for any given degree to reduce confusion about degree requirements. 46 the zoukis consulting group also has compiled comprehensive lists of other types of education programs available in the united states including: religious-oriented college programs career and vocational courses ged and high school diploma programs adult continuing education (ace) programs fee-based bible study programs free bible studies in-prison educational programs we are suggesting that a similar list be compiled by the federal and provincial government in canada to allow those incarcerated and their families to support their educational needs and aspirations and to better access information related to costs and criteria for enrollment into postsecondary programs. this will greatly assist in reducing recidivism and helping those incarcerated post-release to reintegrate back into the community and have access to opportunities and careers for upward social mobility. furthermore, in the united states, there has been periodically under different administrations the pell grants which allowed prisoners to apply for funding to pursue postsecondary education and career training with strict criteria for qualification (u.s. department of education, 2015). currently, there are no grants in canada similar to the pell grants, but such model provides new innovative opportunities to create greater access to education for those incarcerated. for example, grants can be allocated for prisoners set to be released within 3 to 5 years to pursue educational courses with some funding and/or subsidy towards tuition costs. this will save money for the justice sector in the long term, as it is more expensive to incarcerate someone per day than to allocate a modest budget for their education. concerns, findings, and recommendations concerns and finding #1: there is a lack of information available to the public about education programs offered in correctional facilities, who it is used by, and its outcomes. information that is currently available via government websites are generic in nature. access to information is a systemic barrier that disadvantages families of those who have a member incarcerated as well as those who are released and are seeking relevant programs and services to better themselves and their living circumstances. 47 recommendations: whereas information about some programs are outlined in various reports, there needs to be a tab or a central hub on correctional service of canadas website, that provides a holistic compiled list of information about the various educational programs offered, which organizations offer programs via partnerships, the scope and duration of each program, which institutions it is offered within, and criteria for participation. collection and sharing of race-based data is also recommended by each institution in terms of who gets approved for such programs, rate of success in completion of the program, and barriers in delivery and enactment of the programs. chan et al. (2017) emphasize that they had to compile information from various sources on different platforms to create their infographics. they further state, information about prisons in canada is extremely difficult to access. although the data presented in this piece was entirely taken from public reports, academic research, and news articles, the information was often buried in tables, long documents, and technical terminology. what we encountered, again and again, was that the information did not existin public data sets or in the media. (para. 33) a focus on access to information via a central hub with user-friendly language for the public will educate the public about the challenges and barriers involved in delivering educational programs within correctional facilities and assist them in accessing opportunities that are available. it will also help create new partnerships with relevant organizations and community agencies to assist in increasing the quality and overall access to education to promote rehabilitation and integration of incarcerated individuals back into the community. it is highly recommended for the provincial government to also compile a list of organizations that offer relevant post-release programs and services to those incarcerated. this comprehensive list should outline the various programs available and the criteria and cost for participation in such programs and services. this will assist those who have been incarcerated and their families to find relevant services to support their unique needs and circumstances to more effectively reintegrate back into the community and become independent. one of the systemic barriers that most ex-incarcerated people experience is navigating the realities of the day-to-day social world after being excluded from community life for a long period due to isolation that is so intrinsic to jail subculture. these recommendations will help mitigate the systemic barrier of access to information both while incarcerated and post-release. 48 concerns and finding #2: access to education needs to be more of a priority, supported with funding and resources, to promote rehabilitation and effective reintegration back into the community. this will lead to savings for the justice system as it costs correctional service canada an average of $111,202 annually to incarcerate one man (and twice as much to incarcerate one woman), with only $2950 of that money spent on education per prisoner (chan et al., 2017, para. 16). currently, the type of programs offered are limited, there is a lack of capacity within institutions to meet educational demands, programs offered lack quality due to restrictions imposed in how they can be delivered, and overall lack of partnerships with postsecondary institutions to offer education in prison. majority of the educational programs offered are high school diploma focused or do not take into consideration unique needs and circumstances of those incarcerated such as limited access to learning tools and platforms. recommendations: it is recommended to create a national funding organization, similar to the laughing gull foundation in the united states which has a unique branch focusing on higher education in prison, that annually reviews proposals for programs and partnerships to improve access to education for those incarcerated. a committee should be created with representatives from various stakeholders to assess the applications based on clear criteria outlined and communicated in advance to the public. this will allow for innovative ideas, programs, and partnerships to be presented, assessed, approved, and initiated to meet the demands of access to education within prisons, jails, and correctional facilities. overall, more funding and resources needs to be allocated for education, and the government needs to provide incentives for universities to create post-secondary educational programs for those incarcerated. it is also recommended that a national list is created outlining various educational programs offered by universities and important factors such as criteria for getting in, costs, duration of the program, and how courses are delivered. the creation of a national and/or provincial government branch dedicated to higher education in prison will centre the goal of rehabilitation, reduce long-term costs affiliated with keeping people incarcerated, and lead to more effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community. such level of commitment from the government in making access to education a priority with incentives for post-secondary educations to create and maintain partnerships will lead to innovative policies and practices that will modernize how education is offered given the limitations affiliated with delivering programming in jail settings. this multi-layer collaborative approach will allow relevant non-profit and community organizations to enter innovative partnerships with post-secondary institutions to facilitate delivery of programming that is socio-culturally relevant and responsive to the needs of those incarcerated. also, it is highly recommended that selective grants are created by the canadian government for those incarcerated to gain further access to educational opportunities. this can have similar attributes and characteristics to the pell grants in the united states, but it needs to give consideration for local and national needs in canada instead of being a copy and paste 49 approach. this can be initiated as a pilot project over a two to five year period, as it is important to collect data to see the results and analyze the outcomes over time. in ontario, this can be incorporated as part of the ontario students assistance program (osap) which includes grants and loans to pursue post-secondary education. overall, the various levels of government must provide incentives for post-secondary institutions to provide alternative or adapted educational programs to ensure access to education is increased and prioritized. in programs where there are opportunities for collaboration between students who are incarcerated and who are not, similar to the walls to bridges program, it is beneficial for students to learn and share their lived experiences and grow as a community of learners. the benefits are beyond simply impacting those who are incarcerated as it also provides experiential learning opportunities for those not incarcerated by examining the complexities and nuances in understanding equity and social justice issues from a micro and macro perspective. concerns and finding #3: there is a need to modernize policies, practices, and processes involved at various levels within jails, prisons, and correctional facilities to create more opportunities for access to quality education. this involves creating a unique intake assessment for the remand population similar for those sentenced, improving the processes involved within intake assessment for those sentenced, more effective data collection and sharing across institutions, and more resources and space allocated for educational programs. this would contribute to an increase in educational opportunities available to meet demand, increase in attendance for programs with low enrollment, and overall raise the quality and consistency of how educational programs are offered. recommendations: various changes in different areas are recommended as part of modernization to improve access and quality of education for those incarcerated. these include upgrading libraries in terms of space available for teaching and learning, updating the list of books, magazines, and other educational materials available based on interests of those incarcerated, better access to computers, educational tools, space, and assistive-technology in a manner that is safe for conducting research and completing course assignments, and providing specific training for instructors and staff to more effectively offer educational programs. all facilities should be upgraded so they are enabled to use video conferencing which would lead to creation and more access to educational opportunities and course offerings. this can also be supplemented by allocating more time for trained and certified instructors and staff to engage with in-person teaching supported by the facility. recommendations from the evaluation of cscs education programs and services (2015) are relevant and should be reviewed (see page 31). also, george et al. (2014) made a series of recommendations in 2014 in look at my life: access to education for the remand population in ontario which are still relevant and should be reviewed for implementation as part of modernizing. access to technological resources to teach and learn is critical as currently 50 almost all post-secondary courses offered to those incarcerated is paper-based correspondence which can be very limiting in terms of how fast the person is able to engage with the material and receive timely feedback about their work and assignments. at all levels there is room for improvement in digitalizing how information is shared to facilitate transition in cases where those incarcerated are transferred to another facility or re-enter a correctional facility due to separate charges. a great resource with detailed recommendations for how to make improvements in teaching and learning conditions within prisons is a 44-page report by erzen et al. (2019) titled equity and excellence in practice: a guide for higher education in prison. the report identities seven core content areas to promote equity and excellence for higher education in prison. these areas include program design, partnerships and collaborations, faculty recruitment, training, and supervision, curriculum, pedagogy, instructional resources, and student advising and support services. improvements and adaptations in these areas, with consideration for unique needs of those incarcerated and their limited access to tools and resources to learn, will contribute to creating greater access to education and higher quality programming in a manner that is equitable and promotes the long-term vision of rehabilitation and effective reintegration back into the community. as the report by erzen et al. (2019) suggests under academic support services, it is essential that higher education in prison programs maintain a holistic approach that includes mentorship, tutoring, advising and the provision of the myriad soft skills that students need to succeed academically (p. 34). summary and conclusion- where do we go from here? although many people perceive those incarcerated from a deficit lens (portelli & sharma, 2014), often blaming them for their circumstances, it is important to emphasize that majority of people incarcerated in ontario, and on a larger scale in canada, are part of the remand population, meaning they are legally innocent and temporarily incarcerated as part of pre-trial detention (correctional services program, 2017). it is important to ensure those who are incarcerated have access to education which is their human right as outlined in article 26 of the united nations universal declaration of human rights. currently, this is not the case in ontario as access to education is not treated as a priority often lacking resources and funding and instead punitive measures such as lockdowns and solitary confinement are used as common practices to manage day to day realities and escalating situations within prisons and jails (office of the auditor general of ontario, 2019; sapers et al., 2018). these practices are reactive in their approach and often have harmful short and long-term impacts on those incarcerated. more importantly, these practices do not align with the long-term goal of rehabilitation and promotion of effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community. 51 overall, access to post-secondary education for those incarcerated remains limited and an under-developed sector in canada. organizations such as amadeusz and walls to bridges are leading the way in ontario, but more funding and resources needs to be allocated to them to expand their programming as there is a demand for it. a holistic approach involving synergetic partnerships and collaborations with organizations, non-profits, agencies, and post-secondary organizations are required to revamp the system and prioritize education at the core of its practices at all levels, as education is the most significant protective factor in reducing recidivism. as erzen et al. (2019) emphasize, the enormous challenges facing the field of higher education in prisonthe lack of oversight and accountability within the prison setting; the complex needs of students; and the material scarcity that pervades the fieldare all microcosms of the most broken and vulnerable edges of the society as a whole. yet while expanding access to excellent educational programs in prisons presents formidable challenges, it also provides an extraordinary opportunity to overcome inequity at a massive scale and to set an exampleboth for our own professional communities and for society as a whole. (p. 39) as we continue to navigate the challenges affiliated with the covid-19 pandemic, which includes many educational programs being impacted ranging from being put on hold to adapted or offered less consistently, we must take the opportunity to reflect and ask ourselves whether the current system at various level of government and points in the justice system is prioritizing access to education to promote and reinforce the long-term goal of rehabilitation for those incarcerated. this report outlines why the current system is inequitable and unjust, how systemic barriers impact different social groups leading to disparities in outcomes at various levels within the justice system, and why we need to introduce new legislation, policies, and practices to improve and modernize the system with respect to access to education for those incarcerated. new improvements and changes will contribute to reinforcement of rehabilitation which will lead to savings in monetary costs by reducing recidivism and ensuring more effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community post-release. the introduction and implementation of such new changes needs to be a collective effort involving all levels of the government and advocacy and allyship from organizations and community members to make it an urgent issue. we conclude by pointing out that every once in a while recommendations and insights are shared from different reports. in many cases, they advocate for similar recommendations on a systemic level. let us not continue to shelf these recommendations and recognize we are talking about peoples lives and families who are greatly impacted by incarceration. as paulo freire (1970) points out in pedagogy of the oppressed, 52 any situation in which "a" objectively exploits "b" or hinders his and her pursuit of selfaffirmation as a responsible person is one of oppression. such a situation in itself constitutes violence, even when sweetened by false generosity, because it interferes with the individual's ontological and historical vocation to be more fully human. (p. 55). let us remain open-minded, compassionate, and empathetic with how we view those incarcerated. they should be seen as subjects with spirits and emotions instead of objects to be locked away. we have to be willing to examine issues from multiple perspectives, recognize our blind spots, and challenge deficit thinking rooted in pre-judgement that blames individuals for their circumstances without consideration for systemic factors. if we want to be honest with improving access to education for those incarcerated and quality of such programs, we must move from critique and understanding to taking collective actions in our various roles and positionalities given our respective access to power and privilege. our legacy as a nation and our humanity as a country depends on this. 53 references amadeusz. (2021). http://amadeusz.ca/ amadeusz. (2020). amadeusz annual report 2019. https://amadeusz.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/amadeusz-annual-report-2019.pdf bard prison initiative. (2020). who we are. https://bpi.bard.edu/who-we-are/ bazos, a., & hausman, j. (2004). correctional education as a crime control program. ucla school of public policy and social research, department of policy studies. https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/media/publications/correctional%20education%20as% 20a%20crime%20control%20program%2c%20bazos%20and%20hausman%2c%2020 04.pdf block, s., & galabuzi, g. (2011). canadas colour coded labour market: the gap for racialized workers. wellesley institute and canadian centre for policy alternatives. http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/wp-content/ uploads/2011/03/colour_coded_labour_marketfinal.pdf canadian civil liberties association (2014). false promises, hidden costs: the case for reframing employment and volunteer police record check practices in canada. https://www.ccla.org/recordchecks/falsepromises chan, j., churn, l., & mcleod, m. 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executive summary: advancing student transfer through enhanced data exchange project led by: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) primary investigator and report author: joanne duklas duklas cornerstone consulting march 2019 executive summary the research and this report explore the practices and potential opportunities for improving transfer and mobility by enhancing digitization and exchange of students official academic credentials, transcripts, and documents. it summarizes the findings from a comprehensive study of data exchange practices and perspectives at post-secondary institutions and their partners in ontario conducted in the summer, fall, and winter of 2018/19. the impetus for this research stems in part from broader efforts to create a national student data exchange network. called the arucc groningen project,1 the goal of that larger initiative includes enabling students to move seamlessly into and between canadian post-secondary institutions and into the workforce by improving official credential, transcript, and academic document exchange. these aspirations directly align with the ontario council on articulation and transfers (oncat) stated intention of understanding and removing systemic barriers that impede seamless transfer. research questions the project explored the following primary and secondary research questions: 1. what broader context, current practices, and associated gaps face ontario post-secondary institutions with respect to student data exchange? 2. what recommendations do ontario post-secondary registrarial leadership and supporting organizations have for advancing institutional capacities and change readiness for data exchange to advance transfer? 3. sub-research questions: a) are there any notable exemplars to help guide change? b) what benefits will result from a national network to advance seamless inter- and intraprovincial transfer for ontario post-secondary institutions and their students? for the purposes of this project, transfer encompasses that which occurs when students move between post-secondary institutions both within canada and internationally. mobility focuses on easing students access to funding and transition into regulatory professions, trades, and the workforce by enhancing trusted sharing of official academic documents with other third parties. research approach a multi-layered approach guided the research to address the above questions. an environmental scan including literature and website reviews provided the context and an opportunity to identify promising practices. the next stage of primary research involved three components: a national bilingual (french, english) survey, qualitative interviews, and inter-institutional regional meetings. the national scope of the research provided opportunities to compare ontario findings to other jurisdictions. the target audience for the primary research included registrarial and data exchange leaders at colleges, institutes, and universities and other supporting organizations across canada including application centres and the seven councils on articulation/admissions and transfer. an external evaluator, joanna pesaro, supported the research process through all its various stages. appendix a contains her summative report. the national, bilingual survey collected 117 responses from 86 public and private post-secondary institutions and experienced an 85% completion rate. of these, respondents from 76 publicly funded 1 http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html institutions participated, which represents 37% (76/204) of the total pool of canadian public postsecondary institutions. for ontario, respondents participated from 53% (24/45) of the publicly funded institutions, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), and the two application centres (ocas - the ontario college application service; ontario universities application centre - ouac). of the 24 institutions, 42% represented colleges/institutes (10/24) and 67% represented universities (14/21). the research process benefitted from the participation of registrarial leaders representing each of the 45 publicly funded post-secondary institutions in ontario and from the partnering support of the ontario college committee of registrars, admissions, and liaison officers (cralo) and the ontario university registrars association (oura). these two organizations formally endorsed this research and the national arucc groningen project. in addition to the above, interviews occurred with the leadership and staff at oncat, ocas, and ouac. in total, the researcher consulted with more than 270 people both in ontario and across canada in the interviews and regional meetings (see appendices b, c, and d for specific organizations contacted). included in this total are those that participated in 11 inter-organizational regional meetings involving 231 people, of which ten were delivered in ontario. some of these were delivered virtually; however, most occurred in person and included meetings in the following regions: toronto, durham (virtually), ottawa, sudbury, and kitchener-waterloo. fifteen organizationally specific interviews occurred with staff from oncat, ocas, ouac, and six colleges and six universities from ontario. the post-secondary institutions involved reflect the diversity that exists in the province across several dimensions such as type of institution, the range of credentials offered, enrolment size, sector affiliation, linguistic focus, and geographical location (figure 1). a student focused consultation meeting occurred with representatives from the three ontario student groups, which included the canadian federation of students (cfs), the college student alliance, and the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa). the collaborative approach to engaging the ontario higher education community in the consultation research process for this project represented a core strength and was necessary due to its complexity. it would not have been possible to conduct this study without this full participation; therefore, gratitude is extended to all these people for their expertise and support. figure 1: diversity of post-secondary institutions and organizations interviewed in ontario data limitations the primary challenge impacting the project was the lack of data available regarding the scope of provincial and national transfer, mobility, and document exchange. improving these gaps would be important to fully understand the trends and volumes and subsequent pressures. for example, transfer in ontario includes intra-provincial, national, and international learners; therefore, identifying the volumes and trends across all these cohorts would better serve post-secondary institutions, future policy development, and other research projects. most research and analysis tend to focus on specific transfer communities within a province, limiting the potential for fully understanding and addressing needs. increasing applications, enrolments, and graduations are driving requests for a host of services across the entire student life cycle. given the above-mentioned data gap, proxy indicators undergird the findings and subsequent recommendations. these include the growth in document and identity fraud, international students, and requests for official outgoing document validation to support students accessing funding, opportunities to study in canada, and the workforce. the transfer volumes are identified to the extent the publicly available data allows. the report provides specific examples of these and other change drivers in section 3.0. rationale for change post-secondary institutional representatives raised concerns regarding growing document and identity fraud in most of the interviews and regional meetings conducted for this project. they indicated that providing trusted exchange of incoming and outgoing academic documents supports quality assured practices and helps to maintain the canadian higher education brand. many also cited the increasing volume pressures which they indicated were adversely affecting service. as an illustrative example, canadian post-secondary institutions have seen a 47% increase from 2015 to 2018 in international student study permits granted by the federal government. in 2018, ontario bound international students represented 64% of the overall volume. other data indicates most of these students are coming from countries such as china, india, south korea, france, and the united states. at least four of these regions maintain trusted institutionally supported and/or government mandated official credential repositories. if canadian post-secondary institutions connected electronically to these entities through a national network for the purpose of official academic document exchange, the improvements to international admissions and transfer processing would be enormous, as would the reduction in the potential for document fraud. at minimum, staff would no longer need to verify the official nature of a document or its source. the report shares other indicators in section 3.0 that demonstrate the need for better methods for document exchange that leverage technology. challenges and gaps to address the first research question, section 4.0 provides an overview of the current data exchange capacities at ontario post-secondary institutions and beyond. the findings suggest the lack of electronic exchange of academic documents presents challenges for transfer and mobility. potential risks include reduced student service (e.g., quality, timeliness), impediments to efficiency for both students and institutions, and untimely decisions including those related to transfer credit allocations. unfortunately, document and identity fraud represent additional concerns. the research revealed several gaps in ontario including the following: (i) insufficient connectivity with recognized institutions and trusted credential repositories across canada and internationally, (ii) a lack of capacity within institutions to automatically assess transcripts, even those that arrive electronically, resulting in manual document assessment, and (iii) growing demands to officially verify incoming and outgoing documents (e.g., documents required for admissions and transfer, offers of admission, and confirmations of enrolment, fees paid, pending graduation, and graduation). for the first gap, students applying from outside of ontario submit documents by mail or in-person that staff subsequently hand review, evaluate, and assess manually for both admissions and transfer credit. institutions typically verify these documents with former institutions, a process that takes time. with respect to the second gap, not all institutions are able to identify the transfer equivalencies awarded at the point of making an offer. this happens for a host of reasons including a lack of trusted official academic document exchange, program specific policies and practices that impede automation of processes, resource limitations, and internal institutional prioritization practices related to technology projects. while some of these areas fall outside of the scope of this project, it is important to understand their inter-relationship and impact on best practice in relation to assessing documents for admission and transfer. for example, it is considered best practice to identify awarded transfer equivalencies at the point of making an offer as it is a time of key decision making for students; therefore, it is important for institutions to enhance capacities in this area. the third gap results from increasing requests for official verification of documents. these likely result from growing concerns about document and identity fraud. exemplars to address the research question focused on identifying potential exemplars, the report highlights international and canadian application centres and data hubs that offer access to trusted electronic academic results (section 3.0). these represent potential partners for a national data exchange network for ontario post-secondary institutions. most of the canadian ones, including those in ontario, focus primarily on exchange of academic credentials within their respective regions to support application into local post-secondary institutions. some, including ouac and ocas, have made initial forays into establishing connectivity across borders. however, the research indicates there are many international regions where the centralized credential repositories exist for ensuring official academic document verification and exchange in support of students transferring between post-secondary institutions and beyond. the report highlights promising exemplars to inform next steps and possibilities. with respect to the aforementioned data limitations affecting this project, exemplar models to consider to improve data collection include the work of the maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec),2 british columbias student transition project,3 burbidge and finnies (burbidge & finnie, 2000) earlier research regarding canadian post-secondary student mobility, and the transfer and mobility research of the us-based national student clearinghouse (the clearinghouse). through the latter organizations research centre,4 institutions access extensive regional and national level transfer and mobility data. the clearinghouse offers its members national data exchange and verification services to thousands of institutions, secondary schools, and students. it represents an exemplar model for the future canadian national data exchange network contemplated by the arucc groningen project. other exemplars related to better understanding the volume of student movement and perspectives include the recent transcript exchange volume study conducted by oncat and ocas with ouacs support (weins & fritz, m., 2018) and ousas student-led study of 1,300 transfer students (2017). recommendations the last research objective included identifying recommendations for moving forward with the establishment of a national data exchange network to support efficiencies as student move into, between, and beyond canadian post-secondary institutions. the core benefits cited included improvement opportunities for efficiency, transfer, and learner mobility. the ontario post-secondary institutions had previously and formally voted at the 2019 arucc annual meeting to continue developing a national student data exchange network to support both domestic and international students.5 none during the ontario consultation disagreed with this position. therefore, the recommendations from the ontario higher education community in section 6.0 provide specific suggestions on how to implement the national data exchange network. the following represent a thematic sampling: 2 ensure the network addresses top priority needs o for ontario, the participants identified improving service, enhancing efficiencies for students and institutions, and mitigating document fraud by establishing trusted, official academic document exchange. the community advised that successfully establishing a national data exchange network requires a prioritized focus on developing the capacity to serve learner transfer and mobility across institutions. ensure adherence to privacy regulations and other relevant statutes help institutional registrarial and technology leaders at post-secondary institutions to obtain support from provosts and presidents for the national data exchange network (i.e., through system wide advocacy and project endorsement efforts) seek out project funding from governments, partners, post-secondary institutions, and others to set up the network http://www.mphec.ca/research/trendsmaritimehighereducation.aspx https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/post-secondary-education/data-research/student-transitionsproject 4 https://nscresearchcenter.org/ 5 http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 3 consult further with the post-secondary institutions regarding the operating structure and governance framework for the national network and ensure support for provincial and institutional diversity, autonomy, and authority carefully consider and adopt cost recovery revenue models when creating the national data exchange network ensure front-facing components and data exchange capacities support canadian bilingualism establish a phased implementation plan o the community provided extensive implementation suggestions which are captured in the report. provide support for onboarding canadian post-secondary institutions and application centres to the network enhancing student transfer and mobility through trusted data portability the ontario research validates the conclusion previously reached by the community that creating a national student data exchange network represents a viable next step to support canadian higher education and student transfer and mobility. the findings suggest that tying accessible student data portability to learner mobility needs to be a strategic intention supported by the highest levels of leadership. while there are many competing priorities, ontario post-secondary institutions are well positioned to both benefit from and contribute to a national student data exchange network. the research indicates that the various aspects of registrarial service delivery consider both the academic and student needs at the core of the activities; however, the registrarial community signalled more is needed as the institutions and students require greater speed, transparency, efficiency, and coherence. providing trusted connections to facilitate seamless and direct electronic academic document exchange (e.g., transcripts, credentials, confirmations of status) from across canada and internationally represents an important first step. supporting further automation and scalable practices within institutions by using electronic student information and next generational technology to reduce burdens on students represents an important next step which will be well served by enhancing official student document exchange. while changing internal institutional practices sits outside the scope of this project, further research is encouraged to assist institutions with identifying ways to enhance internal processes as these relate to automation to support student transfer and mobility. with respect to ontario, additional research and consultation are recommended to help develop the connectivity to a national data exchange network. important next steps include (i) identifying a service provider, (ii) creating a model for exchange that works for the context and diversity that exists in ontario, and (iii) identifying pilot institutions with which to partner on specific data exchange projects. these findings will be of use to oncat, the post-secondary community, and arucc as they collaborate to create better supports for students and institutions. furthermore, the report will inform policy development and resource prioritization discussions related to transfer and student mobility. the national network holds the promise of ensuring quality assured, official electronic exchange of students academic credentials, transcripts and documents through trusted connections. with growing volumes juxtaposed against resource constraints, new and more scalable methods that embrace trusted and secure connectivity, technology, and different approaches to service delivery are not easily achieved but hold the promise of addressing core challenges. the findings from this ontario research indicate a national student data exchange network collaboratively built and coordinated holds the promise of meeting students in their space and supporting their long-term educational journey as they move into or between institutions and into the workforce. the findings from this ontario research indicate a national student data exchange network to support official electronic academic document sharing that is collaboratively built and coordinated holds the promise of meeting students in their space and supporting their long-term educational journey as they move into, between, and beyond canadian post-secondary institutions.

expanding the circle: pathways for indigenous learners across ontario executive summary in 2013, the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (cpril) (confederation college), trent university (trent) and the first nations technical institute (fnti) undertook a project, entitled, pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities. funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), this work aims to address a gap in supporting and advancing learning opportunities for indigenous learners, and learners pursuing indigenous studies, through the creation and formal recognition of indigenous specific learning pathways. results of the first phase of this project included the creation of three pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions, and a model for partnership and collaboration that could be shared. in 2016 the project expanded to include a 2nd circle of partnerships with 8 additional postsecondary institutions. building off of the success of this work, the project expanded again in 2017 inviting 5 additional postsecondary institutions to join, resulting in collaboration that now represents 16 postsecondary institutions across ontario. the objectives of this phase (2017/18) of the project were as follows: (1) to expand and share information on the project model by inviting additional postsecondary institutions to join (2) to develop additional pathways for indigenous learners that include plans for streamlining wrap-around supports and for supporting sustainability of a pathway (3) to build capacity on this pathways project through developing a series of principles for creating pathways for indigenous learners across ontario approximately eighteen (18) pathways for indigenous learners were identified in this phase of the project, resulting in a total of approximately forty (40) pathways for indigenous learners identified to date across 1st, 2nd and 3rd circle partners. the pathways are unique and diverse, spanning across the fields of indigenous studies, social services, environmental studies/sciences, business, education, general arts and science, leadership and governance, nursing, engineering/technology, and language. the projects steering committee also co-developed six overarching principles for pathways for indigenous learners that fall under the following categories: pathways, wrap-around supports, capacity building, respect and equity, data collection, and resources. further, recommended steps that could be taken to strengthen indigenous pathways are identified for each principle. in the next phase of this project the steering committee will work towards identifying indicators for measuring and monitoring the success and sustainability of their implemented pathways.

research brief is there a transferable sociology core in ontario colleges? a content analysis of first-year course outlines dr. rod missaghian, oncat january 2021 a content analysis of first-year course outlines 2 missaghian | january 2021 introduction credit transfer is a complex organizational process requiring input from administrative staff, faculty members, and students alike (see bccat, 2018, p. 45; aacrao, 2017, p. 12). inefficiencies during this process place transfer students at risk of credit loss, as their new institutions may not recognize previously completed coursework. this can lead to the repetition of courses with equivalent content and learning outcomes, needlessly elongating time-to-completion and increasing the cost of education. analyzing how colleges and universities interface with each other and determine course equivalencies can produce intelligence that could inform the improvement of transfer systems. however, research and evaluations of this interfaceincluding work recently funded by oncat (hesa, 2020)typically focus on how the bureaucratic machinery processes transfer credit assessments. this includes technical elements, ranging from the identification of transfer students, to the support role played by transfer advisors and other registrarial staff during the transfer process. however, faculty members involvement in transfer-related processes remains somewhat of a black box across many jurisdictions. this black box exists despite faculty members considerable influence on transfer credit assessment and the development of articulated pathways across differentially structured postsecondary systems. in more centralized systems, such as b.c.s, faculty come together in disciplinary committees to establish equivalencies between the courses offered at their institutions. in many american states, faculty also help to set the parameters for the establishment of common cores, or sets of courses that become fully transferable across public systems (logue, 2017; missaghian, 2020). in more decentralized systems, such as ontarios, faculty are also key players in the construction of bi-lateral agreements that identify transferable courses and receive frequent requests to evaluate new equivalencies. as such, regardless of how a transfer system operates, it is fair to conclude that curriculum assessmentthe process through which faculty members evaluate and contrast course outlinesplays a key role. indeed, in some jurisdictions observers have claimed that faculty, as stewards of their disciplines curriculum, effectively own the system by which equivalency is established (compton et al., 2013, p. 48). given this centrality, the absence of knowledge about how faculty perform transfer credit assessments is problematic. this is particularly true given claims that a high degree of variation exists in the evaluative criteria used by faculty during transfer credit decisions, often due to individual perceptions and personalities (heppner et al., 2019, p. 48296). such claims compel us to learn more about how faculty make decisions on transfer credit and how that evaluative process plays out. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 3 missaghian | january 2021 to develop a better understanding of facultys role in transfer, this summer the research team at oncat decided to explore the curriculum assessment process. experience-driven design principles prevalent in disciplines like digital media, hci (human computer interaction), and marketing suggest that researchers should personally experience processes from the users standpoint. this can help them develop empathy with user challenges and needs, enabling them to conduct superior research and develop superior products (xue & desmet, 2019). we adopt a similar conceptual framework and methodological approach for this exploratory project to understand a critical component of the transfer and articulation process: the evaluation and comparison of course outlines. our overarching goal here is to develop insights that could inform upcoming oncat-funded interview- and survey-based research projects focused on faculty members role in transfer. there is a dearth of research on the process of curriculum assessment and no readily available data sources to explore the intricacies of this activity. for this exploratory exercise, we chose first-year introduction to sociology college courses offered in ontario and taught as part of general arts and science diploma/certificate programs. we felt most qualified to perform this exercise in sociology given that multiple individuals in the oncat research team have taught sociology at the post-secondary level, hold advanced degrees (ma, phd), and have published peer-reviewed articles both drawing from and contributing to this discipline. in addition, oncat has long been interested in pathways between college and university. these specified programs often, but not always, explicitly cite preparation for transfer to other college and university program as a key function. this exploratory empirical examination of course outlines revealed a high degree of consistency in the general makeup of introduction to sociology courses at ontario colleges, while also identifying dimensions along which these documents remain unstandardized. the latter is identified as a potential barrier to the establishment of equivalencies between courses. however, the observed consistencies can serve as a foundation upon which to promote a more transferable set of introductory courses in sociology and other fields. this paper concludes by outlining areas for future inquiry as it pertains to curriculum assessment and faculty in the field of credit transfer. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 4 missaghian | january 2021 some background faculty are a vital stakeholder in postsecondary education systems. through their unions and senates, they influence, at a high level, how colleges and universities function. their power is considerable enough to be viewed at times as a challenge to effective shared governance (austin & jones, 2015, p. 140). collectively, as subject matter experts, faculty members also play a hands-on role in both the design and delivery of courses. when performing teaching duties, they exercise a degree of professional discretion in how they evaluate students work and how they present course material. encroachment on such professional jurisdiction is routinely met with a high degree of resistance. given such powers, it is unsurprising that faculty also play a key role during transfer credit assessment, largely determining whether two courses are equivalent. in the u.s., academics advocate that faculty, as the content area experts, should have primary responsibility for crafting the actual statewide articulation agreements (ignash & townsend, 2001, p. 2). bccat (2018, p.7), british columbias agency in charge of overseeing provincial transfer processes, notes that there is a need to respect faculty expertise during transfer credit assessment: faculty members are asked to participate in the articulation process because of their specialized knowledge of a subject, discipline, or field. when processing articulation requests, institutions should make evaluators aware of appropriate transfer credit options. however, institutions should not overrule evaluators decisions on transferability, or on amounts of transfer credit, when these decisions are based on the evaluators expert knowledge of the specific subject, discipline, or field. (emphasis added) faculty influence on the awarding of transfer credit is exercised in various settings, whether during the negotiation of articulation agreements, within formal articulation committees, or during case-by-case credit assessments. as would be expected, facultys transfer credit assessments do not occur in a vacuum, being influenced by both formal policies and informal criteria. formally, we know that institutions have traditionally had policies that compel assessors to consider the accreditation of the sending institution (u.s. government accountability office, 2005), the timing of course completion, the grade achieved (bccat, 2015), and qualifications of the faculty member (bccat, 2006). recent international policy developments, like the lisbon recognition 1. bccats (2006) statement of instructor qualifications for transferable courses states that instructors who teach academic, degree-level transfer courses will usually possess, at a minimum, a master's degree or equivalent in the discipline or in a closely related area (p. 1). a content analysis of first-year course outlines 5 missaghian | january 2021 convention (lrc), also commit signatories (including canada) to provide access to an assessment of qualifications earned in other countries. under the lrc, a policy of reverse onus places pressure on colleges and universitiesand facultyfor demonstrating that credentials earned abroad do not meet the standards for transfer credit. despite suggestions that transfer credit decisions should be guided by principles of parity in esteem (dennison, 2000), reciprocity (bccat, 2018), and executed in a consistent fashion (cmec, 2020), with faculty members treating others courses as they would their own, many anecdotes suggest that transfer credit decisions are often arbitrary. for example, some suggest applied coursework is given short shrift during transfer credit assessments, counting as electives at best, or not at all, at worst (book, 2015, p. 201-202; also see mcquarrie, 2012). similar views have been expressed about online courses (bccat, 2018). some also suggest that transfer between college and university is hampered by a longstanding university culture that has traditionally viewed college education and college students themselves as being of lower quality (gerhardt & masakure, 2016, p. 81). the multi-faceted environment in which faculty perform curriculum assessment, and its centrality to transfer credit decisions, makes it an important research area. the overlapping forces shaping facultys curriculum assessment, combined with the general autonomy granted to faculty members, introduces considerable uncertainty into transfer credit decisions (hesa, 2020). this can cause problems for students seeking to complete their credentials in a timely fashion and has broader impacts on human capital development (pizarro milian & munro, 2020). despite this, there is a dearth of research on the process of curriculum assessment and no readily available data sources to explore the intricacies of this activity. as such, as a first step to better understand this critical process, and to develop insights to inform future oncat-funded survey- and interview-based research, we decided to analyze a set of publicly available introduction to sociology course outlines from ontario colleges. data and methods the sampling strategy for this project was purposive, focusing on introductory sociology college courses that were mandatory as part of one- or two-year general arts and science diplomas or certificate programs, or available as general education electives that satisfied program requirements. these programs have an explicit transfer component, and many of them have transfer agreements with one or more ontario universities. such parameters 2. for example, several programs, like those at mohawk, humber, sault, seneca, sheridan, and fleming, which have two-year gas (general arts and science) diploma programs, have university transfer in their online program titles. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 6 missaghian | january 2021 ensure that we are analyzing a set of comparable sociology courses with relatively high affinity, being situated within similar programs. programs were explored thoroughly prior to coding outlines, using information gathered exclusively through their online homepages. recent course outlines were downloaded where available, and we also searched through public course outline databases. this process netted 13 out of a potential 24 course outlines. through contacts with institutional transfer advisors, we also obtained an additional four outlines, for a total of 17. the general framework used to examine the content of introductory sociology course outlines is informed by i) the analytical approach used by american researchers who performed content analyses on community college sociology course descriptions (rowell & this, 2013) and catalogues (kain et al., 2007); ii) transfer credit eligibility requirements, posted by institutions online; and iii) documents outlining best practices in transfer credit assessment (bccat, 2018; aacro, 2017). we performed a manual reading of each outline, using these components to create our initial list of codes. we then performed targeted word searches for sociological themes, comparing our counts (see table 1) and their location in the document (i.e., course description, learning outcomes) to similar research (persell et al., 2007; rowell & this, 2013; wagenaar, 2004). it should be noted that none of the abovementioned american research complete course outlines as we have done here. results course descriptions course descriptions are consequential devices, and worthwhile to analyze, given that they serve as summaries of the objectives and main topics covered through a course. particularly for faculty members facing time constraints, and who are unable to perform an in-depth review of the actual reading materials assigned, they serve as an expedient proxy for the information covered. as such, the first part of this analysis focuses exclusively on their content. 3. northern colleges general arts and science program did not have an introduction to sociology course, and la cits program had a criminology but not a sociology elective. this meant that we obtained 17 of a potential 22 course outlines available. 4. there are important differences between canadian and american pse (davies & hammack, 2005), as well as sociology practices (mclaughlin, 2005), that problematize our use of american research. however, without comparable canadian research on this topic, we are left with few options. 5. ontario universities with online information about transfer eligibility include criteria for evaluating course outlines. an acceptable course outline should include several components, such as a course description, a list of potential topics, and a course textbook. we used three of these components to help inform coding in this analysis. 7 a content analysis of first-year course outlines missaghian | january 2021 for comparability purposes, figure 1 displays counts for the occurrence of rowell and thiss (2013) top ten sociological concepts across the course descriptions within our sample. figure 1 allows us to observe that culture is the most popularly cited theme across outlines, reflecting the centrality of culture and norms on sociological explanations of behaviour. socializationbroadly defined as the process through which culture and norms are instilled in individuals within a societyalso ranks very highly. in turn, deviance, the process through which individual behaviour differs from mainstream norms, rounds out the top three in our analytic sample. figure 1. top 10 sociological themes in course descriptions 13 12.5 10 9 7.5 7 5 ch an ge 4 5 g ro up s 2.5 4 th eo rie s 5 re se ar ch 6 5 2 cu ltu re so ci al iz at io n d ev ia nc e in st itu tio n ca tio n so ci al st ra ti so ci al fa m ily 0 note: the counts in this figure record only a single occurrence in the course description for each theme. figure 2 expands our focus, displaying the total number of distinct themes present in the course description of each college course outline. here, we see considerable variation in the degree of specificity or detail present in each course description. in some cases, we see a comprehensive representation of the topics covered. meanwhile, in others, there is only limited detail. we fathom that the latter could present an obstacle to curriculum assessment, making it difficult for instructors to evaluate if two courses are equivalent. 8 a content analysis of first-year course outlines missaghian | january 2021 figure 2. themes cited by college 9 8 6 6 4 4 3 2 1 1 g eo rg ia n lo ya lis t sa ul t 2 1 3 3 3 3 6 6 4 3 2 d ur ha m sh er id an ca m br ia n al go nq co ui nf n ed er at io n m oh aw k n ia ga ra se ne ca fl em in g st .c la ir ca na do re fa ns ha w e h um g eo be rg r e br ow n 0 table 1 (next page) displays the ranking of concepts in our ontario course descriptions compared with rowell and thiss (2013) results. the concepts are listed according to their ranking in our analysis. we see that the first (culture) and second (socialization) ranked concepts on our list were almost identically ranked in rowell and thiss (2013) work, whereas the third-ranked concept (deviance) for this study sat at the very bottom of their top ten. the important takeaway is that each of r&ts core concepts were also represented in at least one course description in the ontario sample. this signals a considerable degree of uniformity in what sociology college faculty consider the core subjects that should be covered in introductory courses. 9 a content analysis of first-year course outlines missaghian | january 2021 table 1. comparison of sociological themes in course descriptions sociological concepts number of institutions with at least one mention comparison to rowell and this (2013) culture 13 #1 socialization 9 #3 deviance 7 #10 social institutions 6 #5 stratification 5 #6 social change 5 #4 groups 5 #2 theories 4 #9 research and methods 4 #7 family 2 #8 other sections of the course outline several outlines did not reference core concepts in their descriptions. it is important to remember that, though highly consequential devices, there are limits to what can be included in course descriptions, with some institutions even providing guidelines on word limits. as such, we looked to other sections of course outlines, such as learning outcomes and proposed weekly topics/modules, for information on course content. learning outcomes, for example, have penetrated course outlines across ontario colleges and universities in recent years, serving as signals of the competencies that students are expected to develop (lennon et al., 2014; taylor, 2016). outlines also often contain detailed information on readings and the thematic structure of a course, which can communicate useful information about material not covered by course descriptions. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 10 missaghian | january 2021 expanding our scope to the entire course outline allows us to develop a far more robust understanding of the landscape of sociology courses at ontario colleges. to orient our discussion, we draw on wagenaars (2004) work, which surveyed a representative sample of sociologists about what key concepts and skills they felt essential to include in an introductory course. table 2 (next page) displays a comparison of wagenaars top 11 concepts to our analysis of the top 11 concepts across our course outlines. while several of the most widely cited concepts are included in his top 11, there are a handful, like foundations/theory and gender and sexuality, which appear only within our sample. this points to potential distinctions between what material is taught in these courses and what are considered key competencies. culture (referenced by 15 of 17 institutions) remained among the most popularly cited topics but was eclipsed by references to research and methodology (see table 2). the latter consisted of broader references to the sociological research process, as well more specific references to qualitative or quantitative research methods. some schools, such as canadore, included specific details about what social research entails, including understanding hypothesis, independent and dependent variables, validity, reliability, representation, correlation and causation. mohawk college was the only institution that did not explicitly mention research and methodology at all in their course outline. of course, the absence of these topics from outlines does not mean that these topics were not covered in the course. 6. it is beyond the scope of this study to discuss differences between u.s. and canadian sociology, but canadian sociologists have noted national differences between how the discipline has evolved over time (see davies 2009; mclaughlin 2004). 11 a content analysis of first-year course outlines missaghian | january 2021 table 2. overall presence of sociological themes across course outline ontario colleges top 11 sociological themes number of institutions with at least one mention ranking in wagenaar (2004) research and methods 16 #9 culture 15 #5 socialization 15 #7 foundations / theory 15 not present gender and sexuality 14 not present crime and deviance 13 not present groups 13 not present stratification 12 #2 race and ethnicity 12 not present applied sociology 11 #6 sociology as a discipline 10 #10 the main takeaways from this broader analysis of the course content are twofold. first, depending on what section of a course outline is being relied on, one may derive a different sense of what material courses cover. for example, we see that in table 1, only four institutions made mention of research within their course descriptions. however, this was a far more pervasive category when other sections, such as learning objectives and weekly modules, were also included in the analysis. though commonly used devices, course descriptions tell a very incomplete (if not misleading) picture about what topics a course actually covers. second, there appears to be an extremely high level of consistency in the type of material covered across introduction to sociology courses in the college sector. however, there seem to be variations in the way certain sociological concepts, such as culture or socialization, are defined, as either general, topical, thematic, or core. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 12 missaghian | january 2021 a note on textbooks course descriptions, learning outcomes, and weekly schedules are useful for course evaluators to understand what course content is contained within an outline. however, in addition to content, there are other less obvious facets that faculty members and other evaluators are bound to engage with in equivalency decisions. two of these important considerations are the textbook used and the evaluation scheme. in the absence of more detailed information and time, both can potentially be used as proxies to evaluate rough equivalencies in the content, rigour, or workload of a course. while a manual examination of the textbooks used by these courses is beyond the scope of this exercise, it is worthwhile to cite some important patterns. only two college outlinescambrian and georgiandid not include specific information about a course textbook. the other 15 institutions cited a total of 12 different textbooks, with only three titles/authors being used by more than one institution. all textbooks were written by canadian sociologists and had canadian editions. as such, while the core concepts between ontario college introduction to sociology classes appear similar, the textbooks assigned varied greatly. this is unsurprising in a system like ontarios, where institutions enjoy great autonomy in how they structure and govern their programs (eastman et al., 2018; jones, 1997). whichever route [students] travel, the resulting transfer credit will depend on faculty decisions based on a comparison of course outlines. though highly consequential, our understanding of this key process remains limited. one takeaway from such diversity is that if curriculum assessment is done in a manner that places considerable weight on the textbooks used in an introductory course, evaluators may be less prone to deem courses in this area equivalent. a knee-jerk reaction to seeing two different textbooks, especially if their titles differ markedly, might be to assume that inconsistencies exist in their coverage of topics, leading to assumed substantive differences. as such, institutional policies should take care to emphasize that using the same texts is not a pre-condition for equivalency. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 13 missaghian | january 2021 discussion on the surface, there appears to be a high degree of general uniformity amongst college introductory sociology courses, notwithstanding the different textbooks assigned. using an analysis of the occurrence of targeted words and phrases, we discovered the presence of core sociological concepts, many of which were identified previously in american research. we found that the majority of colleges are including key sociological concepts like culture and socialization, but that pertinent information is scattered across different sections of the outline, such as course descriptions, learning outcomes, and weekly schedules/modules. while not every outline contained every topic, we do see convergence between several key concepts/categories, with 14, 15 and 16 of a total of 17 institutions mentioning them at least once in their respective outlines (see table 2). this convergence hints at the potential for articulation agreements to streamline equivalencies for general arts and science programs. however, it should be noted that introductory courses generally have more curricular consistency, as these courses prepare students for more specialized upper-level courses. future research should repeat this analysis utilizing outlines for upperyear classes (e.g., mandatory theory and methods courses) in both colleges and universities which are often more specialized, and thus, for which universities may be less likely to grant equivalencies. in addition, comparisons between introductory courses at colleges and universities should also be explored. one simple way to facilitate this research (and curriculum assessment for transfer credit purposes) would be to create a public repository of outlines for courses offered at every ontario postsecondary institution. within disciplines, the sharing of course outlines could promote greater awareness about emerging practices, be it the coverage of novel sociological topics, use of various research tools (e.g., data-scraping), shifting forms of delivery (e.g., online, blended), or assessment practices. currently, researchers wishing to analyze curriculum have to gather these from each institution, requesting them from instructors and administrators who may consider such documents to be their intellectual property. students seeking transfer credit for their previous coursework may also be forced to track down course outlines, wherever they may remain available. in a field like sociology, where discussions about what the field is and should focus on have raged on for decades (see burawoy, 2005; calhoun 1992; carrol 2013; davies, 2009; mclaughlin 2005). thus, finding such a high degree of convergence on core concepts across course outlines is encouraging, if not a bit surprising. it represents the possibility for many disciplines, especially those with arguably greater internal consensus, to develop wide- a content analysis of first-year course outlines 14 missaghian | january 2021 reaching articulation agreements that can facilitate student mobility. ideally, across high affinity areas, such as introduction to sociology, arrangements could be a multilateral, allowing credits from courses like the ones we studied to be recognized at a system-level. multi-lateral agreements would expand the range of possibilities for transfer students looking to move within the system. conclusion college students in ontario who wish to pursue further studies, be it in another college or university program, will need to transfer credits at some point. for some, the path is already clearly laid out in an articulation agreement. for others, the transfer journey may require an assessment of their courses. whichever route they travel, the resulting transfer credit will depend on faculty decisions based on a comparison of course outlines. though highly consequential, our understanding of this key process remains limited. the exercise in this research brief provides us with preliminary insights into what faculty members within a familiar discipline face when they make these decisions. while analyzing course outlines can help us understand the structure and content of curriculum documents, there are limitations with this approach. content analysis can only show us what instructors choose to include in a class, but how teaching unfolds in the classroom and the perceptions driving curricular decision-making cannot be gleaned by such an approach. we are already leveraging these insights to inform more in-depth explorations of faculty members involvement in the transfer process. in a forthcoming interview-based study, we are exploring how sociology faculty members evaluate curriculum, and how their thinking relates to potential transfer equivalency decisions. for example, we are exploring how much attention faculty members place on the textbook used in a course, as well as how their perceptions about instructor credentials, and institutional reputations factor into this process. these are all factors that the content analysis used in this brief is unable to explain. we hope to work closely with the sector to continue to uncover the black box of faculty decision-making in articulation and credit transfer. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 15 missaghian | january 2021 references aacrao, (2017). a guide to best practices: awarding transfer and prior learning. washington dc. austin, i., & jones, g. a. (2015). governance of higher education: global perspectives, theories, and practices. routledge. book, p. a. (2012). credible currencies in the continuing education realm. in shannon, d.w. and robert wiltenburg (eds.). centennial conversations: essential essays in professional, continuing, and online education. calhoun, c. (1992). sociology, other disciplines, and the project of a general understanding of social life. in halliday, terence c. and morris janowitz. (editors). sociology and its publics: the forms and fates of disciplinary organization, p.137196. council of ministers of education, canada (cmec). (2002). ministerial statement on credit transfer in canada. carroll, w. k. (2013). discipline, field, nexus: revisioning sociology. canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie, 50(1), 126. compton, p. k., tafel, j., law, j., & gustafson, r. (2012). facultydetermined course equivalency: the key to ohio's transfer mobility system. new directions for community colleges, 2012(160), 4554. davies, s. (2009). drifting apart? the institutional dynamics awaiting public sociology in canada. canadian journal of sociology, 34(3), 623654. davies, s., & hammack, f. m. (2005). the channeling of student competition in higher education: comparing canada and the us. the journal of higher education, 76(1), 89106. dennison, j. d. (2000). student access and mobility within the british columbia post-secondary system. vancouver: b.c. council on admissions and transfer. eastman, j. a., jones, g. a., bgin-caouette, o., li, s. x., noumi, c., & trottier, c. (2018). provincial oversight and university autonomy in canada: findings of a comparative study of canadian university governance. canadian journal of higher education/revue canadienne denseignement suprieur, 48(3), 6581. gerhardt, k., & masakure, o. (2016). postsecondary student mobility from college to university: academic performance of students. canadian journal of higher education, 46(2), 7891. heppner, a., pawar, a., kivi, d., & mago, v. (2019). automating articulation: applying natural language processing to post-secondary credit transfer. ieee access, 7, 4829548306. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 16 missaghian | january 2021 higher education quality associates (hesa), 2020. oncat post-secondary institutional transfer process mapping project. toronto: on. ignash, j. m., & townsend, b. k. (2001). statewide transfer and articulation policies: current practices and emerging issues. community colleges: policy in the future context, 173, 192. jones, g. a. (1997). higher education in ontario. in glen jones (editor). higher education in canada: different systems, different perspectives, pp.137159. kain, e. l., hendley, a. o., contreras, l. r., & wyatt-baxter, k. k. (2007). sociology in two-year institutions. teaching sociology, 35(4), 350359. lennon, m. c., brijmohan, a., lavigne, e., yang, j., moodie, g., & wheelahan, l. (2016). ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise, university of toronto. lennon, m. c., frank, b., humphreys, j., lenton, r., madsen, k., omri, a., & turner, r. (2014). tuning: identifying and measuring sector-based learning outcomes in postsecondary education. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. logue, a. w. (2017). pathways to reform: credits and conflict at the city university of new york. princeton university press. mclaughlin, n. (2005). canada's impossible science: historical and institutional origins of the coming crisis in anglo-canadian sociology. canadian journal of sociology/cahiers canadiens de sociologie, 140. mcquarrie, f. (2012). trades to academic transfer. special report. british columbia council on admissions and transfer. milian r.p., & munro, y. 2020. credit transfer, articulation & the future of work: towards a federal strategy. canadian journal of higher education. missaghian, r. (2020). policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states. oncat: toronto, on. persell, c. h., pfeiffer, k., & syed, a. (2007). what students should understand after taking an introduction to sociology. teaching sociology, 35(4), 300314. roksa, j., arum, r., & cook, a. (eds.) (2016). defining and assessing learning in higher education. pp. 137 in improving quality in american higher education: learning outcomes and assessments for the 21st century. san francisco: wiley & sons. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 17 missaghian | january 2021 rowell, k. r., & this, c. (2013). exploring the sociology curriculum at community colleges in the united states. the american sociologist, 44(4), 329340. stainsby, m., & erskine, r. (2018). how to articulate: requesting and assessing credit in the b.c. transfer system (3rd edition). british columbia council on admissions and transfer. taylor, j. l. (2016). reverse credit transfer policies and programs: policy rationales, implementation, and implications. community college journal of research and practice, 40(12), 10741090. wagenaar, t. c. (2004). is there a core in sociology? results from a survey. teaching sociology, 32(1), 118. xue, h., & desmet, p. m. (2019). researcher introspection for experience-driven design research. design studies, 63, 3764. a content analysis of first-year course outlines 18 missaghian | august 2020 dr. rod missaghian rod missaghian is a researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/our-expertise/policy-briefs-and -reports established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021

project snapshot expanding pathways in allied health sciences type: pathways development project number: 2020-21 or p2021 project lead: university of ontario institute of technology collaborators: georgian college project summary ontario tech university and georgian college are proposing to develop online pathways from georgian's acupuncture program (ontario college advanced diploma) and two of its human services programs - developmental services worker and social services worker (ontario college diploma programs) into ontario tech university's bachelor of allied health sciences (bahsc) program with the option of further articulating into ontario tech university's unique online graduate diploma in work disability prevention (wdp). the graduate diploma in wdp contains four courses and a practicum. the four courses will be offered as electives in the bahsc so that interested students who take the bahsc pathway can complete all graduate diploma in wdp coursework as part of their honours bachelor degree. graduates from the bahsc would only have to complete the practicum of the graduate diploma to achieve the credential of graduate diploma in wdp. these georgian college programs have been chosen for articulation into the honours degree and graduate diploma because college graduates in these programs are ideal candidates to work in the field of work disability prevention and return to work. the field of work disability is a growing field as noted below in the section on labour market demand. work disability is a multifaceted problem that extends beyond disease and medical diagnosis and requires professionals with multidisciplinary skills that extend beyond health care. evidence indicates that work disability results from complex interactions between stakeholders (employer, insurer, healthcare providers) and the worker.(1) this is a field where professionals require specific training to work in sectors which address work disability prevention and return to work including social services, employment services, health services, and in human resources and health and safety departments in the private and public sectors. in addition, graduates from these college programs are seeking undergraduate and graduate degree completion as well as differentiated skills, expertise and employment options. the graduate diploma in wdp is offered by the faculty of health sciences (fhsc) at ontario tech university in collaboration with the canadian memorial chiropractic college (cmcc) and aligns with the objectives of the ontario tech-cmcc centre for disability prevention and rehabilitation (centre). the centres activities focus on the development and testing of interventions to prevent disability and facilitate the rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities. its work aims to inform policy-makers about the best strategies to reduce the burden of disability in the population. the centres activities focus on the development and testing of interventions to prevent disability and facilitate the rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities. a further pathway could exist for the students who complete the graduate diploma in wdp as credits completed in the first year of coursework could be applied to transition into the faculty of health sciences masters program and complete the master's program sooner. the pathways that will be created with the georgian college programs will be scalable across the province. as the pathways will be based on learning outcomes, graduates of the same programs in other ontario colleges will be eligible for these pathways. (1)young ae, wasiak r, roessler rt, mcpherson km, anema jr, van poppel mn. returntowork outcomes following work disability: stakeholder motivations, interests and concerns. journal of occupational rehabilitation 2005;15(4):543-56. loisel p, durand mj, berthelette d, vzina n, baril r, gagnon d, et al. disability prevention -new paradigm for the management of occupational back pain. disease management & health outcomes 2001: 9(7):351-360. project rationale workplace disability creates a large burden impacting the worker, the company and society. according to the canadian society of professionals in disability management, at any given time, 8% to 12% of the workforce in canada is off work due to injury (https://www.cspdm.ca/). work disability is a multifaceted problem that extends beyond disease and medical diagnosis and requires professionals with multidisciplinary skills that extend beyond health care. evidence indicates that work disability results from complex interactions between stakeholders (employer, insurer, healthcare providers) and the worker. this is a field where professionals require specific training to work in sectors which address work disability prevention and return to work including social services, employment services, health services, and in human resources and health and safety departments in the private and public sectors. graduates from college programs are seeking undergraduate and graduate degree completion as well as differentiated skills, expertise and employment options. the georgian college social services worker, developmental services worker and acupuncture programs were chosen for articulation into the honours bachelor of allied health science (bahsc) degree and graduate diploma because graduates in these programs are ideal candidates to work in the field of work disability prevention and return to work. many college graduates are already working when completing their bachelors degree part-time and an entire additional year for the graduate diploma is daunting. by converting some of the graduate level wdp courses into upper year electives within the bahsc, it creates an opportunity for students to complete their bachelors degree and be immediately eligible for the wdp placement course, saving them a year of schooling and making their skill set available to the wdp labour market much sooner. main collaborators the collaborators were: ontario tech university faculty of health sciences, continuous learning, centre for institutional quality enhancement georgian college of applied arts and technology. results built on partnership with georgian college by providing additional pathways for graduates of the georgian college acupuncture, developmental services worker, and social services work programs to articulate to ontario tech universitys bahsc program and ultimately, if they choose, to ontario tech universitys graduate diploma in work disability prevention (wdp). the georgian programs were reviewed and a possible limitation was identified for the social services worker diploma students, in that they were lacking in medical terminology. therefore, ssw students will be required to complete a medical terminology course prior to enrolling the bahsc. the 4 wdp courses were completed to be fully online increased degree completion opportunities for college graduates. the pathways that were created with the georgian college programs will be scalable across the province. as the pathways were based on learning outcomes, graduates of the same program in other ontario colleges will be eligible for these pathways reduced the length of time for undergraduate degree completion and graduate diploma completion. provided online programs that students can complete at their own pace prepared to graduate highly qualified personnel to work in the field of work disability prevention and return to work. key steps as the group came together we were able to collectively identify the next steps in this process together, understanding what each institution needed to provide to move this work forward. ontario tech took the lead and did the bulk of the work, with georgian providing documentation and consultation along the way. as an overview, these are the steps that we took: 1. identify and understand the scope of the oncat project 2. sharing of course outlines 3. discussing and confirming equivalences and developing the pathway 4. exploring additional learning for ssw students to support the pathway 5. consultation with ssw students, and promotion and information sharing with ssw students 6. finalizing the pathways and providing information and promotional material to students this process worked very well due to the strong relationships and trust between the two institutions. pathways created georgian college graduates will have an ontario college diploma (ocd) or advanced ontario college diploma (aocd), as noted below. ontario tech university's bahsc program is an existing honours bachelor degree. ontario tech universitys graduate diploma in wdp is an existing graduate diploma offered in collaboration with the cmcc and graduates of the graduate diploma in wdp may use credits from coursework completed in the first year of the graduate diploma in wdp program to potentially transition into the faculty of health sciences masters program. all students must complete the following bridging courses with a minimum 2.3 gpa (on a 4.3 point scale) or higher in their first two required courses in order to continue in the program. these courses are: hlsc 1701u information literacy and written communication for the health sciences hlsc 2700u mathematical reasoning in health sciences acupuncture: graduates from georgian college's acupuncture (aocd) program will go into ontario tech university's bahsc program. the bahsc program will contain all four (4) courses from the graduate diploma in wdp and students can choose to take those courses so that they only have to complete the practicum to achieve ontario tech universitys graduate diploma in wdp. developmental services worker: graduates from georgian college's developmental services worker (dsw) program will go into the ontario tech university's bahsc program. the bahsc program will contain all four (4) courses from the graduate diploma in wdp and students can choose to take those courses so that they only have to complete the practicum to achieve ontario tech universitys graduate diploma in wdp. these georgian college graduates will have an ontario college diploma. the dsw program is a well-established program in the community of simcoe. the key performance indicators for dsw indicate that graduates are very satisfied with the education that they receive and how this translates into professional positions they are able to secure postgraduation. additionally, georgian college's employers are equally as satisfied with georgian college graduates and the knowledge that they bring into the field. social services worker: graduates from georgian college's social services worker (ssw) program will go into the ontario tech university's bahsc program. the bahsc program will contain all four (4) courses from the graduate diploma in wdp and students can choose to take those courses so that they only have to complete the practicum to achieve ontario tech universitys graduate diploma in wdp. these georgian college graduates will have an ontario college diploma. similar to the dsw program and evidenced in georgian college's kpi data, ssw graduates are able to secure employment across varied organizations and high employer satisfaction. students entering the program from the georgian college social services worker program will need to complete an additional course in medical terminology through ontario learn by october 15 of their first semester of bahsc enrolment. students from social services worker programs at other colleges will also need to meet this requirement if they have not already completed a medical terminology course. incomplete pathways there were no incompleted pathways. challenges covid 19 represented an initial challenge, but we were able to pivot to online meetings and requested an extended timeline. it took a lot of work and meetings with ontario tech faculty and the wdp course developers, but once the instructors understood the purpose of the exercise, they rose to the challenge and created excellent material. another minor challenge was a low response rate to the survey sent to students at georgian asking about their interest in the pathway (only 3 students responded, 2 of whom were very interested). georgian faculty felt that the combination of time of year and the fact that the initial presentation was online were responsible. this challenge was addressed by ensuring that all students were given links to information about the pathway and they were all invited to the winter open house at ontario tech university to discuss the pathway with the associate dean of undergraduate programs. moving forward, an annual face to face visit or a short online guest lecture by an ontario tech faculty member explaining the wdp and its integration with the bahsc will also ensure georgian students understand this pathway. student outcomes this project provides additional pathways for acupuncture, ssw and dsw students to consider if they are interested in pursuing additional education post graduation. additionally and more importantly, this pathway provides a health option for ssw students to consider, which is the first pathway for ssw students; currently pathways are more traditional (e.g., pathway to social work degrees). students could save the equivalent of 2.5 to 3 years of university fees. because they are given a block transfer of 57 credits, they only require two years to complete the 4 year honours degree. if they opt to take all 4 wdp electives, this is the equivalent of an entire year of full-time post-graduate study (or two years parttime). the average yearly tuition in the bahsc is approximately $6000, representing a $12,000 saving in tuition fees. the fee per 3-credit course in the wdp is approximately $1800. if a student took 4 courses in advance, this represents a saving of $7200. in total a student could save 3 years and $19,200 in tuition if they enrolled in the bahsc and took all four wdp electives. student credential students who complete the pathway will receive a bachelor of health science degree and have the option to apply and receive advanced standing in the work disability prevention graduate diploma program. student time savings yes, students could save the equivalent of 2.5 to 3 years of study; they only require two years to complete the 4 year honours degree. if they opt to take all 4 work disability prevention (wdp) electives, this is the equivalent of an entire year of full-time post-graduate study (or two years part-time) that they would save to complete the graduate diploma. in total a student could save 3 years if they enrolled in the bahsc and took all four wdp electives. for students using this pathway, the estimated time to completion from entering college to completion of the bahsc is 4 years, and from entering college to completion of the bahsc and wdp is 4.5 years. if they pursued a regular degree after college it would total 6 years, and regular degree plus the wdp would total 7 to 7.5 years. student financial savings yes, the average yearly tuition in the bahsc is approximately $6000. students would only need to complete 2 of 4 years, representing a $12,000 saving in tuition fees. the fee per 3-credit course in the wdp is approximately $1800. if a student took the 4 elective courses in advance as part of the bahsc, this represents a saving of $7200. in total a student could save $19,200 in tuition if they enrolled in the bahsc and took all four wdp electives. student flexibility because the bahsc is offered fully online, as are the wdp electives, students can complete the degree from anywhere in the province. for those electing to do the wdp graduate diploma placement course, we can work with local employers to find relevant placements. this provides tremendous flexibility for student learners. student work alignment disability rates and compensation costs continue to trend up in canada with 8% to 12% of the workforce in canada is off work due to injury (https://www.cspdm.ca/), resulting in increased employment opportunities for professionals with the skills to address work disability prevention (wdp) and return to work (rtw). disability determinants can be a combination of physical, work environment, healthcare system and compensation system factors. wdp programs now replace the disease treatment (biomedical) model with a work place prevention biopsychosocial) model focusing on patient reassurance and workplace interventions. such programs need to be customized to training highly qualified individuals with a solid foundation in the intricacies related to rtw. effective and cost-effective strategies to reduce work disability include workplace interventions (carroll et al, disability rehabilitation, 32(38), 607-621)) and rtw management. appropriate disability management strategies may produce a return on investment of $26 per $1 invested (tompa, e. prevention and management, doi 10,1007/978- 1-4614-6214_4, springer new york 2013). there is an urgent need for training practitioners who will act as rtw managers, helping workers and stakeholders to facilitate the rtw process in the complex arena of wdp. few such programs exist and the complexity of issues and the credibility of these professionals drive the need for education at the graduate level. exposure of students to particular labour markets will increase the likelihood of their employability (pransky g, journal of occupational rehabilitation, doi: 10.1007/s10926-0099208-x (published online october 13, 2009)). return to work coordinators (rtwc) can provide a vital role in controlling the increasing direct and indirect work-related disability costs and significantly better return to work outcomes. this pathway will provide graduates with the necessary competencies to influence systemwide challenges. institutional outcomes georgian has now widened what they consider a feasible and desirable pathway for acupuncture and ssw students, understanding that exploring additional pathways into health related learning and professions is important. for ontario tech, a major change document was approved to create these pathways. acupuncture, ssw and dsw graduates are well placed to be successful working in the area of work disability prevention. these new pathways broadened the conversation in the faculty around what a relevant background is in the area of allied health. sector or system implications for those of us at georgian, it was good to work closely with ontario tech to better understand the processes associated with learning outcomes and course equivalencies. it is evident that while colleges and universities differ in some respects, we are similar in how identify learning outcomes which made this work easier to navigate. our similarities in this regard was in the best interest of students as we could identify equivalencies quickly and confidently based on the processes both institutions use. from the ontario tech perspective, the detail in the documents provided by georgian made it is easy to assess the equivalency of learning outcomes from various courses. the approach by both institutions was highly collegial and focused on providing a seamless pathway for college to university transfers, while ensuring that college students were not disadvantaged by knowledge gaps. by providing block transfers of credits, students can focus on taking courses that address their specific knowledge gaps while pursuing their university degree. this also ensures that students from all similar college programs will have access to a similar pathway. tips/advice conversations across institutions are great opportunities to work closely with colleagues at other institutions that you would not otherwise have the opportunity to meet. despite the outcomes, whether you have an agreed upon pathway or not, these collegial conversations are incredibly helpful to understanding how different institutions work and open up opportunities for partnerships in other areas. this has made ontario tech in particular more open to exploring future collaborations. tools and resources the survey provided with the final report can be shared. we have attached to this snapshot a sample pathway infographic.

student mobility and educational outcomes among ontario colleges and universities comparing access to stem fields, graduation rates and timely completion among northern and southern ontario students february 2022 david zarifa, phd professor and canada research chair davidz@nipissingu.ca yujiro sano, phd postdoctoral research fellow avery beall, ma project facilitator department of sociology nipissing university this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors. 1 table of contents list of figures ..............................................................................................................4 list of tables ...............................................................................................................5 overview of the study.................................................................................................6 key findings ................................................................................................................7 part 1: access to stem fields ................................................................................................................... 7 part 2: university graduation and timely completion ........................................................................... 7 part 3: college graduation and timely completion................................................................................ 8 introduction ................................................................................................................9 part 1: access to stem fields .................................................................................... 11 transfer pathways and access to stem fields in ontario institutions ................................................ 13 the relationship between transfer pathways and access to stem fields in ontario institutions .... 16 the relationship between transfer pathways and access to stem fields in southern ontario institutions.............................................................................................................................................. 18 the relationship between transfer pathways and access to stem fields in northern ontario institutions.............................................................................................................................................. 19 comparing the relative differences in stem uptake across northern and southern ontario .......... 21 part 2: university graduation and timely completion .............................................22 transfer pathways, university graduation rates, and timely completion in ontario institutions ... 24 the bivariate relationships between transfer pathways and university graduation and timely completion in ontario institutions ........................................................................................................ 27 the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and university graduation and timely completion in ontario institutions ........................................................................................................ 28 the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and university graduation and timely completion in southern ontario institutions........................................................................................ 32 the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and university graduation and timely completion in northern ontario institutions........................................................................................ 34 part 3: college graduation and timely completion .................................................. 37 transfer pathways, college graduation rates, and timely completion in ontario ............................ 39 the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and college graduation and timely completion in ontario institutions ........................................................................................................ 41 the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and college graduation and timely completion in southern ontario institutions........................................................................................ 43 the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and college graduation and timely completion in northern ontario institutions........................................................................................ 44 conclusions and policy implications ..........................................................................47 appendix a. data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach ................... 51 data sources ........................................................................................................................................... 51 subsamples and restrictions ................................................................................................................. 51 2 dependent variables .............................................................................................................................. 53 independent variables ........................................................................................................................... 53 analytical approaches............................................................................................................................ 55 references ................................................................................................................57 3 list of figures figure 1.1 distribution of stem majors across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 .................... 14 figure 1.2 distribution of transfer types across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017.................. 15 figure 1.3 predicted probabilities of stem by transfer type ontario: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 ......... 17 figure 1.4 predicted probabilities of stem by transfer type and region: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 ...... 21 figure 2.1 distribution of university completion across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 .... 26 figure 2.2 distribution of transfer status across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 ................ 27 figure 2.3 predicted probabilities of university completion by transfer type ontario: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 ............................................................................................................................................... 30 figure 2.4 predicted probabilities of university completion by transfer type southern ontario: psist1ff, 2009 to 2017 ..................................................................................................................................... 32 figure 2.5 predicted probabilities of university completion by transfer type northern ontario: psist1ff, 2009 to 2017 ..................................................................................................................................... 35 figure 3.1 distribution of college completion across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017.......... 40 figure 3.2 distribution of transfer status across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 ................. 41 figure 3.3 predicted probabilities of college completion by transfer type ontario: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 ........................................................................................................................................................ 43 4 list of tables table 1.1 stem subsample characteristics by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 ................... 13 table 1.2 binary logistic regression analyses predicting majoring in stem fields, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 .................................................................................................................................................................... 16 table 1.3 predicted probabilities from binary logistic regressions predicting majoring in stem fields, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 .................................................................................................................................. 19 table 2.1 university completion subsample characteristics by region of institution, psis-t1ff 20092017 ............................................................................................................................................................ 25 table 2.2 unadjusted multinomial logistic regressions predicting university completion by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 ............................................................................................................... 27 table 2.3 adjusted multinomial logistic regressions predicting university completion by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 ............................................................................................................... 28 table 2.4 predicted probabilities of university completion for ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 ............. 31 table 2.5 predicted probabilities of university completion for southern ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 .................................................................................................................................................................... 33 table 2.6 predicted probabilities of university completion for northern ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 .................................................................................................................................................................... 36 table 3.1 college completion subsample characteristics by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 .................................................................................................................................................................... 39 table 3.2 binary logistic regressions predicting college completion by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 ................................................................................................................................................... 42 table 3.3 predicted probabilities predicting college completion by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017 ................................................................................................................................................... 45 5 overview of the study around the globe, student transfer patterns have become increasingly complex, and rates continue to proliferate (taylor & jain, 2017; jenkins & fink, 2015). higher education pathways have taken on numerous shapes and sizes to accommodate delayed entry, prolonged enrolment, attributable in large part to a balancing act of multiple life course obligations (e.g., work, family). likewise, student mobility at ontarios colleges and universities has become increasingly diverse and non-linear, as students encounter multiple starts, stops, and co-enrol in multiple programs (st-denis et al., 2021; li, 2010). as transfer becomes more entrenched in higher education, it remains especially important to continue to monitor how transfer students perform within their higher education programs. at the same time, a growing area of student mobility research points to the importance of examining regional differences in educational trajectories within canada. youth from the northernmost parts of canadas provinces often face significant proximity and sociodemographic barriers to attending postsecondary education, accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing the stem fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) (zarifa et al., 2022; hango et al. 2021; zarifa et al. 2018). in 2020, several new studies investigated the magnitude of a variety of transfer pathways across colleges and universities, the characteristics of students who take the various routes, and the migration flows of transfer students, revealing numerous differences across northern and southern ontario colleges and universities (sano et al. 2020; zarifa et al. 2020; hillier et al. 2020). this study extends that work and similarly draws upon several administrative data sources included in statistics canadas elmlp (education and labour market longitudinal platform). specifically, we use the 2009 to 2017 years of the postsecondary student information system (psis) (for further details, see statistics canada, 2018) as well as family tax data from the t1 family files. these data provide the optimal source for examining the following three key educational outcomes for transfer students in ontarios college and university sectors: 1) access to the stem fields, 2) university graduation and timely completion, and 3) college graduation and timely completion. 6 key findings part 1: access to stem fields overall, 28.26% of students in ontario colleges and universities major in stem fields. while 28.67% of students in southern ontario major in stem fields, only 20.21% of students in northern ontario institutions do the same. in southern ontario, students in non-transfer college (ntc), university to university (uu), university to college (uc), college to university (cu), college to college (cc), and swirler pathways are all significantly less likely to major in stem fields in comparison to nontransfer university students. for southern ontario, ntu shows the highest probability (0.3163), followed by uu (0.2883), uc (0.2510), swirlers (0.2375), ntc (0.2074), cc (0.1336), and cu (0.714). for northern ontario students, only those taking ntc, uu, cu, and cc pathways show significantly lower odds of majoring in stem fields compared to ntu students. in northern ontario, however, the ordering is slightly different than what we observe in southern ontario. in the north, the uc pathway (0.2510) shows the highest probability of entering stem, followed by swirlers (0.2236), ntu (0.2163), uu (0.1773), ntc (0.1602), cc (0.1332) and cu (0.1190). part 2: university graduation and timely completion about 32.9% of students in ontario colleges and universities do not graduate from university within six years, while 36.8% and 30.3% do so within four and six years. the proportion of students who graduate from university within four years is similar between northern (35.2%) and southern students (36.9%); however, the prevalence of graduating from university within six years is much lower among northern students (24.4%) than southern students (30.6%). for southern ontario, in comparison to non-transfer students, transfer students show higher probabilities of taking six years to complete their degrees (0.3882 vs. 0.3023) as well as not complete their degrees (0.4360 vs. 0.3199), and are over half as likely to complete their degrees in four years (0.3778 vs. 0.1758). at northern ontario institutions, the predicted probabilities of not completing university are substantially higher than those from southern ontario institutions for both transfer and non-transfer students, as transfer students in northern ontario are 52.37% likely to not complete their degrees, while their counterparts in southern ontario were 43.60% likely to not complete their degrees. interestingly, the probabilities for completing degrees on time (in four years), were slightly higher among northern ontario non-transfer students (0.3778 vs. 0.3805) and lower among transfer students (0.1758 vs. 0.1145). in terms of six-year completion, 7 transfer students (0.3619) had significantly higher probabilities of completing in this time frame than non-transfer students (0.2282). part 3: college graduation and timely completion overall, 61.9% of students in ontario colleges graduate within three years of starting their programs. for ontario as a whole, transfer students show a significantly lower probability of completing their college programs within three years (0.4109 vs. 0.6395). comparing regions, our results indicate that 70.5% of students in northern ontario graduate from college within three years compared to only 61.1% in southern ontario. in both southern and northern ontario institutions, transfer students are less likely to graduate from college within three years than non-transfer students. in southern ontario institutions, transfer students show considerably lower probabilities (0.4045) of completing their programs compared to non-transfer students (0.6309). for northern ontario, both transfer (0.4735) and non-transfer students (0.7265) have higher probabilities of completing their college programs compared to those at southern colleges (0.4045 and 0.6309 respectively). 8 introduction around the globe, student transfer patterns have become increasingly complex, and rates continue to proliferate (taylor & jain, 2017; jenkins & fink, 2015). higher education pathways have taken on numerous shapes and sizes to accommodate delayed entry, prolonged enrolment, attributable in large part to a balancing act of multiple life course obligations (e.g., work, family) (davies & mehta, 2018; deil-amen, 2015). likewise, student mobility at ontarios colleges and universities has become increasingly diverse and non-linear, as students encounter multiple starts, stops, and co-enrol in multiple programs (st-denis et al., 2021; li, 2010). as transfer becomes more entrenched in higher education, it remains especially pertinent to continue to monitor the educational choices and performance of transfer students throughout their higher education programs. recent studies in ontario certainly underscore the importance of comparing the educational outcomes of transfer and direct-entry students, often attributable to differences across transfer pathways (for example, see walters et al., 2021; walters et al., 2020; davies & pizarro milian, 2020; finnie et al., 2020; drewes et al., 2012; stewart & martinello, 2012). at the same time, a growing area of student mobility research points to the importance of examining regional differences in educational trajectories within canada. much like their counterparts in the territories, youth from canadas provincial north often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to accessing postsecondary education, accessing various types of postsecondary education, and majoring in the stem fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) (zarifa et al., 2022; hango et al., 2021; zarifa et al., 2018). in a series of oncat research briefs in 2020, we separated out regions within larger geographic areas to understand how relationships might be different within pockets of the province of ontario. specifically, our studies investigated the magnitude of a variety of transfer pathways across colleges and universities, the characteristics of students who take the various routes, and the migration flows of transfer students, revealing numerous differences across northern and southern ontario colleges and universities (sano et al., 2020; zarifa et al., 2020; hillier et al., 2020). this work produced new insights into the transfer patterns of students in northern institutions, as well as other regions in ontario. psis administrative data linked to tax data allowed us to overcome a number of limitations to using nationally-representative survey data to examine postsecondary pathways in northern ontario. this study extends that foundational work and similarly draws upon several administrative data sources included in statistics canadas elmlp (education and labour market longitudinal platform). specifically, we use the 2009 to 2017 years of the postsecondary student information system (psis) (for further details, see statistics canada, 2018) as well as family tax data from the t1 family files. these data provide the optimal source for examining regional differences in the following three key educational outcomes for transfer students in ontarios college and university sectors: 1) access to the stem fields, 2) university graduation and timely completion, and 3) college graduation and timely completion. 9 in particular, this research explores the following three sets of research questions: 1. access to stem fields: to what extent are transfer students majoring in the stem fields in ontario colleges and universities? are transfer students in northern and southern ontario majoring in stem fields at the same rates? to what extent does transfer status impact ones likelihood of majoring in the stems, once taking into consideration other relevant factors? 2. university graduation and timely completion: to what extent are transfer students graduating university at different rates than their non-transfer counterparts? do transfer students in northern and southern ontario graduate university at different rates? how do transfer pathways relate to the timely completion of university programs? are there regional differences (northern and southern ontario) in transfer students likelihood of completing their university programs on time? 3. college graduation and timely completion: to what extent are transfer students graduating college at different rates than their non-transfer counterparts? do transfer students in northern and southern ontario graduate college at different rates? how do transfer pathways relate to the timely completion of college programs? are there regional differences (northern and southern ontario) in transfer students likelihood of completing their college programs on time? to answer each set of research questions, we employ a common methodological approach. first, we begin by comparing the relative percentages of students across our transfer measures as well as our educational outcomes. second, we estimate unadjusted bivariate regression models to assess the marginal relationships between transfer status and each of our outcomes: stem fields, university completion and college completion. third, we draw upon adjusted binary logistic and multinomial logistic regressions to take into consideration other key factors simultaneously. in addition, we graph the predicted probabilities from these models to assess and compare the relative impact of transfer pathways on educational outcomes. across all sets of analyses, we investigate the situation as a whole for all colleges and universities in ontario before proceeding to dig deeper and analyse the situation separately for students at northern and southern ontario institutions. finally, we conclude this study by highlighting some of key areas of differences across the two locales and discuss the key implications of these findings. 10 part 1: access to stem fields as higher education systems continue to expand and diversify in many countries (see marginson 2016), researchers concerned with postsecondary access have expanded their sights to examine access to the various pathways within higher education (gerber & cheung, 2008; bastedo & gumport, 2003). on many occasions, access to lucrative fields of study and more recently access to the stems (sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics) has been shown to be far from equal across all socio-demographic groups (hango et al., 2019; triventi et al., 2017; thomsen 2015; gabay-egozi et al., 2015; alon and diprete, 2015; chang et al., 2014; davies et al., 2014; hango, 2013; morgan et al., 2013; riegle-crumb et al., 2012; zarifa 2012; barone 2011). this important point of selection impacts future education and employment outcomes, not the least of which is earnings (betts et al., 2007; davies & hammack, 2005). postsecondary transfer students in stem fields have become a population of interest internationally in the past decade. researchers have typically focused on attrition and retention rates (aulck & west, 2017), persistence and graduation rates (zhang, 2021, 2019; zhang et al., 2019; dika & damico, 2015), and early employment outcomes (jelks & crain, 2020). a rather large body of policy-relevant studies have sought to determine key academic, cultural, and institutional factors that might improve student success as well as those that might negatively impact students abilities to succeed in stem fields (dinh & zhang, 2020; elliot & lakin, 2020a, 2020b; yeo et al., 2020; lopez & jones, 2017; wang et al., 2017; starobin, 2016; wang 2016, 2015; jackson & laanan, 2015; kruse et al., 2015; wang, 2013; reyes, 2011). in canada, much of the research on stem access and inequalities similarly tends to centre around socio-demographic groups and the barriers they face in pursuing these fields of study. typically, researchers have underscored the barriers (and stubbornness of those barriers) preventing women and racialized minorities from accessing the stems (e.g., hango 2013). however, few studies have zeroed in on the experiences of transfer students in the stems (e.g., maier & robson, 2020), and even fewer have assessed how large or small the disparities across transfer and non-transfer groups might be in their ability to access the stem fields (e.g., davies & pizarro milian, 2020). moreover, sector-wide comparisons in ontario, with the objective of understanding potential regional differences in accessing the stems, have also been largely neglected in the existing literature. as such, we begin by first reviewing several recent studies that have looked at transfer students in the stems in ontario, before turning to our empirical analysis of transfer student stem access. using statistics canadas education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp), finnie et al. (2020) linked the postsecondary student information system (psis) and t1 family files (t1ff) to track transfer and field-switching patterns among university graduates in ontario. overall, among all ontario students who entered postsecondary education in 2009 (n = 58,410), only 2% transferred from their original institution to another; 0.9% of transfer students did not change their field of study, while 1.2% changed their field of study (finnie et al., 2020: 14). the 11 remaining students stayed at their institution and in their original field of study (79.3%) or changed their field of study (18.7%). among all students who graduated (n = 22,130), roughly 25% graduated with a stem degree. interestingly, finnie et al. (2020: 15) also reported that students in stem fields, with the exception of engineering and architecture, tend to have a moderately high likelihood of changing their field of study (20%), though students are more likely to stay within their original field of study as they move further into their degree (i.e., third through fifth years). in fact, only education and humanities students have a higher rate of changing their field of study. a recent qualitative study by maier and robson (2020) described the experiences of 20 stem and non-stem students in southern ontario to understand the motivations for transferring within the university to college (uc) pathway. of the 20 students, only two students followed a strict 4-year pathway in a single university program followed by a transfer to the same college program; the remaining 18 students transferred across programs and fields, stopped out and returned, and attempted different programs at different institutions. moreover, they found that stem students took both stem fields and non-stem fields after their transfer, suggesting potential retention difficulties among stem fields. when asked, students described academic, economic, personal struggles and goal changes, personal and parental expectations, and college factors as transfer motivations. most commonly, students described the lack of preparedness for university after high school, lack of academic accommodations at their institutions, and feelings of failure when they struggled academically at university. students felt as though they were failing themselves and their parentswith a particularly elevated sense of failure among second generation canadian studentsfor leaving university to pursue college education. finally, another study in southern ontario (with an approach closest to ours here) by davies and pizarro milian (2020) linked administrative data from the toronto district school board and the university of toronto to investigate the compare access to the stem fields across direct-entry and transfer groups. overall, they found that nearly 40% of direct-entry students entered stem fields compared to only 27% of transfers (davies & pizarro milian, 2020: 3). access to stem also varied considerably across transfer sub-categories. when separating out by transfer types (i.e., the prior institution attended), their analyses revealed that international university transfers and ontario university transfers showed the highest levels of stem access (34% and 30% respectively), followed by those who transferred from ontario colleges (22%) and canadian universities (20%; davies & pizarro milian, 2020: 3). moreover, in their multivariate models, significant differences in direct-entry and transfer access to stem emerged in both unadjusted models as well as when controlling for high school academics, age, gender, and median neighbourhood family income. however, these differences completely attenuated, when additional demographic controls were introduced in saturated models (davies & pizarro milian, 2020). to our knowledge, no existing studies have examined the relationship between transfer pathways and stem access in northern ontario, nor have any compared system-wide patterns across northern and southern regions of ontario. however, recent research points to key 12 differences in stem access across northern and southern canada. specifically, using the youth in transition survey (yits-a), hango et al. (2021) examined the field of study choices in college and university of northern and rural youth in canada with a focus on stem fields. ultimately, their results revealed that the location a student resides in has a significant impact on their field of study choice, even when controlling for other student characteristics, including sociodemographic, parental and family, and student aspirations and academic characteristics. students residing in southern areas of canada were more likely to access stem university programs than students residing in northern, urban areas in canada; however, students residing in northern areas of canada were more likely to access non-university stem programs than students residing in southern areas of canada. while these findings certainly underscore the importance of understanding how students from different regions might have varied levels of access to the stems, it still remains unclear the extent to which transfer student access to the stem fields varies across northern and southern regions of ontario. transfer pathways and access to stem fields in ontario institutions in this section, we first examine the prevalence of stem majors among ontario college and university students before turning to student pathways. table 1.1 shows our univariate findings from the psis-t1ff data. overall, we can see that that 28.26% of students in ontario colleges and universities major in stem fields. moreover, some interesting regional differences emerge in stem field uptake. the results displayed in figure 1.1 show how the distributions of students majoring in the stem fields across northern and southern regions of ontario compare in relation to the province as a whole. interestingly, while 28.67% of students in southern institutions major in stem fields, only 20.21% of students in northern institutions do the same. table 1.1 stem subsample characteristics by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. overall south north stem no yes 71.74 28.26 71.33 28.67 79.79 20.21 transfer type ntu ntc uu uc cu cc swirlers 73.74 16.80 1.79 2.48 2.51 1.89 0.79 73.78 16.84 1.76 2.45 2.50 1.88 0.78 73.02 15.92 2.31 3.00 2.78 1.98 0.99 location of school south north 95.12 4.88 registration status full-time 94.18 94.44 89.05 13 part-time 5.82 5.56 10.95 14.02 14.11 14.70 13.86 13.84 13.89 15.57 14.03 14.10 14.67 13.88 13.85 13.86 15.61 13.87 14.42 15.26 13.65 13.65 14.46 14.68 83.40 16.60 84.01 15.99 71.50 28.50 45.07 54.93 45.37 54.63 39.07 60.93 20.00 19.98 19.99 20.01 20.02 20.23 20.03 19.77 19.73 20.23 15.42 18.97 24.20 25.45 15.96 87.42 12.58 87.55 12.45 84.95 15.05 32.35 67.65 560,200 32.12 67.88 532,890 36.87 63.13 27,310 year of enrolment 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 age 21 22 sex men women parental income lowest lower middle higher highest family composition couple lone family size 3 4 total figure 1.1 distribution of stem majors across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 80 70 percent 60 50 40 bhase 30 stem 20 10 0 ontario northern ontario location 14 southern ontario to get an initial sense of student mobility levels in ontario, figure 1.2 displays the relative distributions of college and university students across postsecondary education (pse) pathways. overall, the graph illustrates that about three quarters of students are non-transfer university (ntu) students in both northern (73.02%) and southern ontario (73.78%), while about 16% are non-transfer college (ntc) students in northern (15.92%) and southern ontario (16.84%). interestingly, students from northern ontario institutions show higher relative percentages across all transfer pathways. specifically, the prevalence of university to university (uu) transfer and university to college (uc) transfer is slightly higher among northern students (2.31% and 3.00% for uu and uc, respectively) than southern students (1.76% and 2.45% for uu and uc, respectively). similarly, the prevalence of college to university (cu) transfer and college to college (cc) transfer is also slightly higher among northern students (2.78% and 1.98% for uu and uc, respectively) than southern students (2.50% and 1.88% for uu and uc, respectively). we also find that more northern students (0.99%) are categorized as swirlers than southern students (0.78%). the relative distributions of several other key institutional, demographic, and family characteristics in ontario, southern ontario, and northern ontario can be found in table 1.1. figure 1.2 distribution of transfer types across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 80.0 70.0 60.0 percent 50.0 40.0 30.0 northern ontario 20.0 southern ontario 10.0 0.0 transfer type 15 the relationship between transfer pathways and access to stem fields in ontario institutions to assess the relationship between transfer pathways and access to stem fields, we turn to a series of statistical models. specifically, table 1.2 shows the findings from our binary logistic regression analyses, which predict the odds of a student majoring in the stem fields. models 1, 3 and 5 include only our transfer variable of interest, and models 2, 4 and 6 include all other variables. table 1.2 binary logistic regression analyses predicting majoring in stem fields, psis-t1ff 20092017. transfer type ntu ntc uu uc cu cc swirlers model 1 overall model 2 model 3 south model 4 model 5 north model 6 0.54*** 0.79*** 0.73*** 0.16*** 0.33*** 0.68*** 0.55*** 0.86*** 0.73*** 0.17*** 0.32*** 0.67*** 0.53*** 0.80*** 0.71*** 0.15*** 0.32*** 0.67*** 0.55*** 0.87*** 0.71*** 0.16*** 0.32*** 0.66*** 0.78*** 0.73** 1.16 0.51*** 0.65*** 1.15 0.67*** 0.76* 1.17 0.46*** 0.53*** 1.05 location of school south - north 0.72*** registration status full-time part-time 0.57*** 0.59*** 0.29*** 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 0.95*** 0.88*** 0.87*** 0.85*** 0.78*** 0.72*** 0.94*** 0.88*** 0.88*** 0.85*** 0.78*** 0.72*** 1.07 0.95 0.86** 0.80*** 0.75*** 0.72*** age 21 22 0.59*** 0.56*** 1.14*** 0.41*** 0.41*** 0.28*** 0.88*** 0.85*** 0.84*** 0.80*** 0.88*** 0.85*** 0.84*** 0.80*** 0.95 1.00 1.08 1.10 year of enrolment sex men women parental income lowest lower middle higher highest family composition 16 couple lone 0.71*** 0.70*** 0.89* family size 3 4 1.03*** 1.03*** log likelihood -327863.63 -312169.96 -313567.11 -299274.81 lr chi2 11340.27*** 42727.61*** 11464.79*** 40049.40*** pseudo r2 0.017 0.064 0.018 0.063 *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001. reference group is bhase (i.e., non-stem fields). -13699.06 93.00*** 0.003 1.06 -12568.49 2354.14*** 0.086 for model 1, the results show that transfer type is indeed a significant predictor of field of study at the bivariate level. in particular, students who take the ntc (or=0.54, p<0.001), uu (or=0.79, p<0.001), uc (or=0.73, p<0.001), cu (or=0.16, p<0.001), cc (or=0.33, p<0.001), and swirler (or=0.68, p<0.001) pathways are all significantly less likely to major in stem fields than ntu students in ontario. in model 2, we can see that these results remain largely consistent, even after accounting for a range of institutional, demographic, and family factors. specifically, ntc (or=0.55, p<0.001), uu (or=0.86, p<0.001), uc (or=0.73, p<0.001), cu (or=0.17, p<0.001), cc (or=0.32, p<0.001), and swirler (or=0.67, p<0.001) students are all significantly less likely to major in stem fields than ntu students in ontario. to further grasp these differences, in figure 1.3, we plot the predicted probabilities (and 95% confidence intervals) of attending a stem program across the various pse pathways. overall, ntu (0.3116), uu (0.2825), uc (0.2510) and swirlers (0.2374) show the highest probabilities of entering stem programs. figure 1.3 predicted probabilities of stem by transfer type ontario: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 17 in addition to transfer type, our results also show that several of our control variables are also significantly associated with students field of study. most notably, consistent with our descriptive statistics, northern ontario students are significantly less likely to major in stem fields than their southern ontario counterparts (or=0.72, p<0.001). similarly, part-time students are less likely to major in stem fields than full-time students (or=0.57, p<0.001). we also find some evidence of increasing access to stem fields over time, as students who enrolled in 2009 (or=0.72, p<0.001), 2010 (or=0.78, p<0.001), 2011 (or=0.85, p<0.001), 2012 (or=0.87, p<0.001), 2013 (or=0.88, p<0.001), and 2014 (or=0.95, p<0.001) are all less likely to major in stem fields than those who did in 2015. in terms of demographic factors, older (or=0.59, p<0.001) and female (or=0.41, p<0.001) students are less likely to major in stem fields than their younger and male counterparts. for family factors, students whose parental income belongs to the highest (or=0.80, p<0.001), higher (or=0.84, p<0.001), middle (or=0.85, p<0.001), and lower (or=0.88, p<0.001) category are less likely to major in stem fields than their lowest counterparts. moreover, students from single-parent families are less likely to major in stem fields than those from two-parent families (or=0.71, p<0.001), and those from larger families have a higher likelihood of majoring in stem fields in comparison to those from smaller families (or=1.03, p<0.001). the relationship between transfer pathways and access to stem fields in southern ontario institutions to further grasp the regional differences uncovered above, we estimate separate models for southern ontario in models 3 and 4 and separate models for northern ontario in models 5 and 6 (see table 1.2). for southern ontario, model 3 shows that transfer type is a significant predictor of field of study at the bivariate level within that region, suggesting that ntc (or=0.53, p<0.001), uu (or=0.80, p<0.001), uc (or=0.71, p<0.001), cu (or=0.15, p<0.001), cc (or=0.32, p<0.001), and swirler (or=0.67, p<0.001) students are all significantly less likely to major in stem fields than ntu students. in model 4, we find that these results remain largely consistent even after accounting for a range of institutional, demographic, and family factors. specifically, ntc (or=0.55, p<0.001), uu (or=0.87, p<0.001), uc (or=0.71, p<0.001), cu (or=0.16, p<0.001), cc (or=0.32, p<0.001), and swirler (or=0.66, p<0.001) students are all significantly less likely to major in stem fields than ntu students in southern ontario. in addition to transfer type, much like our province-wide analyses above, there are a number of control variables that are also significantly associated with field of study in southern ontario. for example, part-time students are less likely to major in stem fields than full-time students (or=0.59, p<0.001). we also find that students who enrolled in 2009 (or=0.72, p<0.001), 2010 (or=0.78, p<0.001), 2011 (or=0.85, p<0.001), 2012 (or=0.88, p<0.001), 2013 (or=0.88, p<0.001), and 2014 (or=0.94, p<0.001) are all less likely to major in stem fields than those who did in 2015. in terms of demographic factors, older (or=0.56, p<0.001) and female (or=0.41, p<0.001) students are less likely to major in stem fields than their younger and male counterparts. for family factors, we find that students whose parental income belongs to the 18 highest (or=0.80, p<0.001), higher (or=0.84, p<0.001), middle (or=0.85, p<0.001), and lower (or=0.88, p<0.001) category are less likely to major in stem fields than their lowest counterparts. moreover, students from single-parent family are less likely to major in stem fields than those from two-parent families (or=0.70, p<0.001), while those from larger families have a higher likelihood of majoring in stem fields (or=1.03, p<0.001). the relationship between transfer pathways and access to stem fields in northern ontario institutions for northern ontario, consistent with the findings from southern ontario, model 5 estimates reveal that transfer type is also significantly associated with field of study at the bivariate level. that is, ntc (or=0.78, p<0.001), uu (or=0.73, p<0.01), cu (or=0.51, p<0.001), and cc (or=0.65, p<0.001) students are all less likely to major in stem fields than ntu students, while the uc and swirler pathways are not significantly different from the ntu pathway. although their magnitude and significance are partially attenuated, these results remain largely unchanged in model 6, even after accounting for theoretically-relevant control variables. specifically, we find that ntc (or=0.67, p<0.001), uu (or=0.76, p<0.05), cu (or=0.46, p<0.001), and cc (or=0.53, p<0.001) students all remain significantly less likely to major in stem fields than ntu students. in addition to transfer type, there are a wide range of control variables that are significantly associated with field of study in northern ontario. for example, part-time students are less likely to major in stem fields than full-time students (or=0.29, p<0.001). we also find that students who enrolled in 2009 (or=0.72, p<0.001), 2010 (or=0.75, p<0.001), 2011 (or=0.80, p<0.001), and 2012 (or=0.86, p<0.01) are all less likely to major in stem fields than those who did in 2015. in terms of demographic factors, older students are more likely to major in stem fields than younger students (or=1.14, p<0.001), although female students are less likely to do so than male students (or=0.28, p<0.001). interestingly, parental income and family size are not significantly associated with field of study, yet we observe that students with singleparent family are less likely to major in stem fields than their two-parent counterparts (or=0.89, p<0.05). the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals for all covariates in the models presented in table 1.2 are displayed in table 1.3. table 1.3 predicted probabilities from binary logistic regressions predicting majoring in stem fields, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. overall margins south 95% ci margins north 95% ci margins 95% ci transfer type ntu 0.3116 0.3103 0.313 0.3163 0.3148 0.3177 0.2163 0.2108 0.2218 ntc 0.2045 0.2019 0.2071 0.2074 0.2047 0.2101 0.1602 0.1499 0.1704 uu 0.2825 0.2737 0.2912 0.2883 0.2792 0.2973 0.1773 0.1478 0.2069 19 uc 0.251 cu 0.0745 cc 0.1337 swirlers 0.2374 south north 0.244 0.2581 0.251 0.2437 0.07 0.079 0.0714 0.0669 0.1272 0.1401 0.1336 0.1269 0.2252 0.2496 0.2375 0.2249 0.2852 0.284 0.2864 0.2278 0.2227 0.2328 full-time 0.2873 0.2861 0.2885 0.291 part-time 0.1914 0.1866 0.1962 2015 0.312 0.3089 2014 0.3017 0.2986 2013 0.287 2012 0.286 2011 0.2798 2010 0.2643 2009 0.2583 0.2409 0.2129 0.2689 0.076 0.119 0.0968 0.1412 0.1402 0.1332 0.1066 0.1597 0.2502 0.2236 0.1767 0.2704 0.2898 0.2922 0.2169 0.2118 0.2219 0.2001 0.195 0.2052 0.0784 0.0683 0.0885 0.3151 0.3163 0.3131 0.3195 0.223 0.2102 0.2357 0.3047 0.3049 0.3017 0.3081 0.2339 0.2212 0.2466 0.284 0.29 0.2905 0.2874 0.2936 0.2148 0.2028 0.2268 0.2829 0.289 0.2904 0.2872 0.2935 0.1999 0.1876 0.2121 0.2768 0.2828 0.2846 0.2814 0.2877 0.1889 0.1768 0.201 0.2613 0.2673 0.2688 0.2657 0.2719 0.18 0.1685 0.1914 0.251 0.2482 0.2537 0.2551 0.2522 0.258 0.1751 0.1638 0.1864 21 0.2962 0.2949 0.2975 0.301 0.2997 0.3023 0.1974 0.192 0.2027 22 0.2034 0.2005 0.2063 0.2005 0.1975 0.2035 0.2167 0.2065 0.2268 men 0.3785 0.3766 0.3803 0.3812 0.3794 0.3831 0.3237 0.3149 0.3324 women 0.2034 0.202 0.2048 0.2079 0.2064 0.2093 0.1215 0.1165 0.1265 lowest 0.3094 0.3066 0.3122 0.3144 0.3115 0.3172 0.1981 0.1852 0.211 lower 0.2847 0.2821 0.2873 0.2893 0.2866 0.292 0.1904 0.1797 0.2011 middle 0.2782 0.2757 0.2807 0.2825 0.2799 0.2852 0.1984 0.189 0.2077 higher 0.2763 0.2738 0.2788 0.2799 0.2773 0.2825 0.2094 0.2001 0.2187 highest 0.268 0.2655 0.2704 0.271 0.2685 0.2735 0.2118 0.2005 0.2232 couple 0.2898 0.2886 0.2911 0.2941 0.2929 0.2954 0.2045 0.1994 0.2095 lone 0.2288 0.2255 0.2322 0.231 0.2276 0.2345 0.1873 0.1738 0.2008 3 0.2785 0.2763 0.2808 0.2828 0.2805 0.2851 0.1965 0.188 0.2049 4 0.2843 0.2829 0.2858 0.2884 0.2869 0.2898 0.2051 0.1992 0.2111 location of school registration status year of enrolment age sex parental income family composition family size 20 comparing the relative differences in stem uptake across northern and southern ontario to get a visual sense of the regional and pathway differences, we plot the predicted probabilities of stem attendance across transfer type and across regions in figure 1.4. for southern ontario, the relative ordering of the pathways is quite similar to the ontario-wide scenario described above in figure 1.3. ntu shows the highest probability (0.3163), followed by uu (0.2883), uc (0.2510), swirlers (0.2375), ntc (0.2074), cc (0.1336), and cu (0.714). in northern ontario, however, our plot reveals that the ordering is slightly different than what we observe in southern ontario (and in ontario as a whole). in the north, the uc pathway (25.10) shows the highest probability of entering stem, followed by swirlers (0.2236), ntu (0.2163), uu (0.1773), ntc (0.1602), cc (0.1332) and cu (0.1190). figure 1.4 predicted probabilities of stem by transfer type and region: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 21 part 2: university graduation and timely completion a second key objective of this study is to assess the extent to which student mobility impacts postsecondary completion and the length of time it takes to do so. in the existing literature, transfer student graduation rates have varied widely. rates have varied across time periods, postsecondary institutions, higher education sectors, and the types of programs and degrees students transfer to and from, typically ranging from about 40% to 70% from the 1990s through to the late-2010s (pretlow et al., 2020; xu et al., 2018; johnson & king, 2017; kopko & crosta, 2016; monaghan & attewell, 2015; melguizo et al., 2011; radford et al., 2010; peter & forrest cataldi, 2005; hoachlander et al., 2003; berkner et al., 2002; cuccaro-alamin, 1997; mccormick, 1997). in comparison to non-transfer or direct-entry students, most researchers have found graduation rates tend to be lower among transfer students at both colleges and universities when compared to direct-entry students (davies & pizarro milian, 2020; walters et al., 2020; monaghan & attewell, 2015; melguizo et al., 2011; radford et al., 2010; peter & forrest cataldi, 2005; hoachlander et al., 2003; berkner et al., 2002; cuccaro-alamin, 1997; mccormick, 1997). yet, a smaller handful of studies have reached the opposite conclusion, where transfer students outperform non-transfer students and demonstrate higher levels of completion (pretlow et al., 2020; johnson & king, 2017). when looking specifically among bachelors degree graduates, international studies (largely from the united states) show similar degrees of varied outcomes, as transfer students typically range from 45% to 65% in their completion of a bachelors degree (chen et al., 2019; melguizo et al., 2011; skomsvold et al., 2011; wang, 2009; peter & forrest cataldi, 2005; koker & hendel, 2003; livingston & wirt, 2003; cuccaro-alamin, 1997). in general, non-transfer students typically complete their bachelors degrees at a slightly higher and faster rate compared to transfer students (chen et al., 2019; skomsvold et al., 2011; li, 2010; radford et al., 2010; berkner et al., 2002; mccormick, 1997). however, prior research in the united states does reveal a few exceptions to the rule, where transfer students graduate with their bachelors degrees at both higher and faster rates than their non-transfer student counterparts (nutting, 2011; carroll, 1989). part of these differences in findings are attributable to the width of the timely completion window that researchers employ to allow bachelors students time to complete their programs. put differently, studies vary in the length of time that is given to allow students enrolled to complete their degrees. overall, the most common window to capture university completion is six years. however, some studies capture bachelors degree timely completion rates as low as under four years, while others follow their trajectories for as many as nine years (zhu, 2021; lin et al., 2020; pretlow et al., 2020; chen et al., 2019; saw, 2019; xu et al., 2018; zarifa et al., 2018; melguizo et al., 2011; nutting, 2011; skomsvold et al., 2011; li, 2010; peter & forrest cataldi, 2005; koker & hendel, 2003; livingston & wirt, 2003; cuccaro-alamin, 1997). for instance, 22 among a sample of over 10,000 students from the beginning postsecondary longitudinal study (1996-2001) from the united states, hoachlander et al. (2003: 28) reported about 35% of cu transfers had earned a bachelors degree within six years of entry. moreover, peter & forrest cataldi (2005) used the same sample of students in the beginning postsecondary longitudinal study, but employed a shorter time frame for completion. not surprisingly, they found slightly lower graduation rates, with 10% of students having earned a bachelors degree in four years or less, and 27% having earned a bachelors degree in more than four years (peter & forrest cataldi, 2005: 20). such differences in measurement and analysis make it challenging for making timely completion and graduation rate comparisons across different samples and subsamples of transfer and non-transfer students. another key factor that contributes to the inconsistencies in the existing literature is the type of transfer pathway under investigation. for university to university pathways, the graduation rate tends to be higher. for example, drawing on about 11,700 students from the beginning postsecondary longitudinal study of 1990-1994, mccormick (1997: 26, 39) reported that only 12% of university to college transfer students earned a bachelors degree compared to about 43% of university to university students who did the same. similarly, pretlow et al. (2020) also reported significant disparities across transfer pathways. of the students who followed the university to college transfer pathway, 25% graduated with a bachelors degree, which was higher than both the certificate and associate degree graduation rates (7% and 13%, respectively; pretlow et al., 2020: 16). despite differing higher education structures, canadian researchers are reaching similar conclusions as their international counterparts. graduation rates in ontario universities tend to vary within the sector as well as across the regions. the most recent data available for all ontario universities is from the 2011-2012 academic year cohort who graduated by 2018 (see cudo key performance indicators on cudo.ouac.on.ca for previous graduation rates). across the entire province, approximately 75% of university students from the 2011 cohort graduated by 2018 (council of ontario universities, 2021). among students in northern and southern ontario, graduation rates differed for university students. among universities in northern ontario with available graduation rates, approximately 79% of students across all programs graduated within six years of entering their program (council of ontario universities, 2021).1 among thirteen universities in southern ontario, approximately 75% of students across all programs graduated within six years of entering their program (council of ontario universities, 2021). many researchers have used various institutional and administrative data from ontario and canada to analyze bachelors degree graduation rates. research on the graduation rates of transfer students across the mid to late 2000s show varying graduation rates as well as a mixture of evidence for both lower and higher graduation rates among transfer and direct-entry students (davies & pizarro milian, 2020; smith et al., 2016; martinello & stewart, 2015; drewes et al., 1 this figure includes only lakehead university and nipissing university. at the time of our search, algoma university and laurentian university rates were not posted. 23 2012; bell, 1998). for instance, both bell (1998) and smith et al. (2016) analyzed longitudinal data to determine timely completion of cu students earning bachelors degrees at york university. bells (1998: 32) findings suggest that close to half (46%) of cu students graduate early or on time compared to 62% of direct-entry student. cu students in smiths (2016: 23) study had similar rates, with just over half (56%) completing their 3-year degrees and 69% completing their 4-year degrees early or on time. findings of both studies suggest that cu transfer students entering york may have slightly lower timely completion rates compared to direct-entry students, but over half of cu transfer students complete their degrees on time (smith et al., 2016; bell, 1998). at brock university, martinello & stewart (2015: 30) found 23% of cu transfer students graduated within three years or less, and 46% graduated in four years, compared to 4% and 36% for direct-entry students, respectively. in fact, cu transfer students at brock university had a complete graduation rate of 69%, substantially higher than direct-entry students 40% graduation rate (martinello & stewart, 2015: 30). at trent university, drewes et al., (2012) found varying rates across three separate intake cohorts (drewes et al., 2012). the 2007 cu cohort had a graduation rate of 51%; the 2008 cu cohort saw a slight decrease in graduation rate (32%); and the 2009 cu cohort saw a further decrease in graduation rate (17%; drewes et al., 2012: 13). most recently, davies & pizarro milian (2020) linked several cohorts of toronto district school board high school administrative data from the 2000s to university of toronto data up to 2018/2019. one of their tasks was to compare graduation rates across direct-entry and transfer groups. their window for graduation roughly spanned about 15 or so years across multiple cohorts. ultimately, when looking at the raw percentages, their study found 68.5% of directentry students completed their degrees compared to only 52.7% of transfer students (davies & pizarro milian, 2020: 3). breaking down the findings further, the authors found that 40.7% of college to university transfers, 56.9% of those from another ontario university or another canadian university, and 53.1% from another international university graduated. davies & pizarro milian (2020) found that by and large, these differences remained significant, even when taking into consideration a battery of socio-demographic and high school academic differences. while the studies above shed light on several institutions in southern ontario, it remains unclear how these relationships might look across ontario as a whole, and how they might differ for universities in northern ontario. transfer pathways, university graduation rates, and timely completion in ontario institutions in order to understand the situation surrounding transfer pathways and timely university completion in ontario, we now turn to our analyses with the psis-t1ff. as in part 1 of this report, we first examine the situation across the entire province before turning to our region-specific analyses. 24 to get an initial sense of how long its taking students in ontario to complete their degrees, we begin by assessing the univariate findings for our university graduation subsample (for further details, see appendix a) are shown in table 2.1. given our focus on university completion and transfer students, we limit our discussion to hone in on only those two key variables here.2 first, in terms of university completion, as shown in figure 2.1, we can see that 32.9% of students in ontario do not graduate from university within six years, while 36.8% and 30.3% do so within four years and six years, respectively (67.1% combined). it is noteworthy that a greater proportion of northern students (40.3%) do not graduate from university within six years in comparison to southern students (32.5%). in addition, while the proportion of students who do graduate from university within four years is similar between northern (35.2%) and southern students (36.9%), the prevalence of graduating from university within six years is much lower among northern students (24.4%) than southern students (30.6%). second, according to figure 2.2, there is a very small proportion of transfer students, accounting for only 4.5% of university students in ontario. however, when we look at its regional variation, the relative proportion of transfer students is considerably larger among northern universities (10.2%) than it is among southern universities (4.2%). table 2.1 university completion subsample characteristics by region of institution, psis-t1ff 20092017. university completion no completion four-year completion six-year completion ever transferred no yes location of school south north field of study bhase stem age of respondents 21 22 sex men women family composition couple lone family size 3 overall south north 32.9 36.8 30.3 32.5 36.9 30.6 40.3 35.2 24.4 95.5 4.5 95.8 4.2 89.8 10.2 66.0 34.0 65.5 34.5 77.8 22.2 88.3 11.7 88.4 11.6 85.2 14.8 44.4 55.6 44.9 55.1 34.1 65.9 89.4 10.6 89.5 10.5 86.9 13.1 31.4 31.4 31.8 95.6 4.4 2 for other institutional, demographic, and family characteristics across ontario, southern ontario, and northern ontario, please see table 2.1. 25 4 parental income lowest lower middle higher highest total 68.6 68.6 68.2 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 39800 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 38050 13.0 20.3 24.9 25.4 16.4 1750 figure 2.1 distribution of university completion across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 80 70 percent 60 50 40 no completion 30 four-year completion 20 six-year completion 10 0 ontario northern southern ontario ontario location 26 figure 2.2 distribution of transfer status across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 100 90 80 percent 70 60 50 transfer 40 non-transfer 30 20 10 0 ontario northern ontario southern ontario location the bivariate relationships between transfer pathways and university graduation and timely completion in ontario institutions to understand the extent to which transfer pathways influence ones likelihood of completing university in a timely manner, we now turn to a series of binary logistic regression models. in table 2.2, the findings from our unadjusted bivariate regression analyses are shown. model 1 includes all ontario institutions, and models 2 and 3 separate out southern and northern institutions respectively. table 2.2 unadjusted multinomial logistic regressions predicting university completion by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. overall model 1 four-year six-year rrr rrr south model 2 four-year six-year rrr rrr north model 3 four-year six-year rrr rrr have ever transferred no yes 0.34*** 0.90* 0.36*** 0.90^ 0.23*** 1.19 lr chi2 328.71*** 273.31*** 59.85*** pseudo r2 0.0038 0.0033 0.0158 log likelihood -43454.32 -41558.432 -1865.5891 ^p<0.1, *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001; reference group for the dependent variable is no completion. relative risk ratios (rrr) are presented. 27 for all ontario universities, the results for model 1 suggest that transfer students are significantly less likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=0.34, p<0.001) and six years (rrr=0.90, p<0.05) in comparison to non-transfer students in ontario.3 in model 2, among southern ontario universities, we find similar results, as transfer students are less likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=0.36, p<0.001) and six years (rrr=0.90, p<0.1) in comparison with non-transfer students. in model 3, for northern ontario, we can see that transfer students are less likely to graduate from university within four years than non-transfer students (rrr=0.23, p<0.001), but unlike the ontario-wide and southern ontario analyses above, there is no statistical significance for six-year completion. in other words, there is no significant difference in the likelihood of northern ontario transfer students completing their degrees in six years versus not completing their degrees at all. the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and university graduation and timely completion in ontario institutions in order to examine the extent to which these relationships hold, when considering all other relevant factors at the same time, we now turn to adjusted binary logistic regression models. table 2.3 shows the findings from these multivariate analyses. once again, in model 1, we include students at all ontario universities, and in models 2 and 3, we include only southern and northern ontario university students respectively. table 2.3 adjusted multinomial logistic regressions predicting university completion by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. transfer status non-transfer transfer location of school south north field of study bhase stem gender men women age of respondents 21 22 overall model 1 four-year six-year rrr rrr south model 2 four-year six-year rrr rrr north model 3 four-year six-year rrr rrr 0.31*** 0.98 0.32*** 0.96 0.21*** 1.21 0.71*** 0.67*** 0.58*** 1.22*** 0.57*** 1.23*** 0.68** 0.91 1.27*** 0.87*** 1.27*** 0.87*** 1.26^ 0.79^ 3.34*** 0.59*** 3.39*** 0.59*** 2.72*** 0.59* 3 rrr refers to the relative risk ratio (i.e., exponentiated multinomial logit coefficients). rrrs indicate how the risk of the outcome for one group compares to the risk of falling in the outcomes reference group. an rrr > 1 indicates that the comparison outcome is more likely. if the rrr < 1, then the outcome is less likely to occur than the reference category. 28 family composition couple lone 0.87*** 0.86*** 0.88** 0.86*** 0.77 0.83 family size 3 4 0.99 1.07* 1.00 1.07* 0.90 1.06 parental income lowest lower 1.07 1.02 1.05 1.01 1.44^ 1.04 middle 1.22*** 1.02 1.22*** 1.03 1.32 0.79 higher 1.30*** 1.01 1.29*** 1.02 1.46^ 0.79 highest 1.41*** 0.95 1.43*** 0.96 1.06 0.82 lr chi2 3855.25*** 3664.47*** 168.24*** pseudo r2 0.0442 0.0439 0.0444 log likelihood -41691.048 -39862.852 -1811.3917 ^p<0.1, *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001; reference group for the dependent variable is no completion. relative risk ratios (rrr) are presented. in a general sense, the results in model 1 indicate that institutional, demographic, and family factors are all significantly associated with university completion in ontario. for transfer status, our results look quite similar to the unadjusted models above, as transfer students remain significantly less likely to graduate from university within four years than non-transfer students (rrr=0.31, p<0.001). however, when adding the effects of these other factors to the mix, there is no longer a significance difference on six-year completion between transfer and non-transfer students. to further grasp the differences across transfer and non-transfer students, figure 2.3 displays the predicted probabilities of university completion across transfer status. transfer students (0.4391 vs. 0.3231) show significantly higher probabilities of not completing their degrees as well as taking six years to complete their degrees (0.3909 vs. 0.2990), while nontransfer students are over twice as likely as transfer students to complete their degrees in four years (0.3779 vs. 0.1701). 29 figure 2.3 predicted probabilities of university completion by transfer type ontario: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 in model 1, we also include a covariate that allows us to capture northern and southern differences. interestingly, the results suggest that northern students are less likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=0.71, p<0.001) and six years (rrr=0.67, p<0.001) than their southern counterparts. in addition to regional differences, we also find that stem students are less likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=0.58, p<0.001), but are more likely to do so within six years (rrr=1.22, p<0.001) in comparison with their bhase counterparts. for demographic factors, female students are more likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=1.27, p<0.001), but are less likely to do so within six years (rrr=0.87, p<0.001) than male students. similarly, older students are more likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=3.34, p<0.001), but are less likely to do so within six years (rrr=0.59, p<0.001) than younger students. for family factors, we find that students with single parent are less likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=0.87, p<0.001) and six years (rrr=0.86, p<0.001) than their couple counterparts. in addition, students from larger families are more likely to graduate from university within six years than those from smaller families (rrr=1.07, p<0.05). finally, parental income is only significantly associated with four-year completion and not sixyear completion, suggesting that students whose parental income belongs to the highest (rrr=1.41, p<0.001), higher (rrr=1.30, p<0.001), and middle (rrr=1.22, p<0.001) categories are all more likely to graduate from university within four years than their lowest counterparts. the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals for all covariates in the models are displayed in table 2.4. 30 table 2.4 predicted probabilities of university completion for ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. no completion margins four-year completion 95% ci margins 95% ci six-year completion margins 95% ci transfer status nontransfer transfer 0.3231 0.3184 0.3278 0.3779 0.3732 0.3826 0.299 0.2945 0.3035 0.4391 0.416 0.4622 0.1701 0.1535 0.1866 0.3909 0.3682 0.4135 location of school south 0.3249 0.3202 0.3296 0.37 0.3653 0.3746 0.3051 0.3006 0.3097 north 0.4093 0.3863 0.4323 0.3334 0.3124 0.3544 0.2574 0.2367 0.278 field of study bhase 0.3163 0.3107 0.3219 0.4141 0.4083 0.42 0.2696 0.2642 0.275 stem 0.3553 0.3471 0.3635 0.2788 0.2713 0.2863 0.3659 0.3578 0.3739 men 0.3358 0.3289 0.3428 0.3323 0.3255 0.3391 0.3318 0.325 0.3387 women 0.3238 0.3176 0.33 0.3963 0.3901 0.4025 0.2799 0.274 0.2858 gender age of respondents 21 0.3441 0.3391 0.349 0.3298 0.3249 0.3346 0.3262 0.3213 0.3311 22 0.2176 0.2054 0.2297 0.6581 0.6442 0.672 0.1243 0.1145 0.1342 couple 0.3251 0.3202 0.33 0.3699 0.365 0.3747 0.3051 0.3003 0.3098 lone 0.3577 0.342 0.3733 0.3552 0.3401 0.3703 0.2871 0.2724 0.3019 3 0.3326 0.3236 0.3416 0.3739 0.365 0.3828 0.2936 0.2848 0.3023 4 0.327 0.3212 0.3327 0.3659 0.3602 0.3716 0.3072 0.3017 0.3126 family composition family size parental income lowest 0.3479 0.3371 0.3588 0.3318 0.3215 0.342 0.3203 0.3097 0.331 lower 0.3391 0.3287 0.3495 0.3433 0.3333 0.3533 0.3176 0.3075 0.3277 middle 0.3234 0.3132 0.3336 0.3713 0.3612 0.3815 0.3052 0.2954 0.3151 higher 0.3177 0.3075 0.3279 0.385 0.3747 0.3953 0.2973 0.2874 0.3071 highest 0.3135 0.3033 0.3237 0.4097 0.3993 0.4201 0.2767 0.2672 0.2863 31 the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and university graduation and timely completion in southern ontario institutions to drill down further into the regional differences uncovered above, we estimate models 2 and 3 on each region separately. for model 2, we include only those students who were enrolled at southern ontario universities. overall, the results are quite similar to the province as a whole, as institutional, demographic, and family factors are significantly associated with university completion. most notably, we find that transfer students are less likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=0.32, p<0.001), and once again, there is no significant difference for six-year completion between transfer and non-transfer students. in figure 2.4, the predicted probabilities for completing university for students in southern ontario institutions are shown. likewise, the picture here looks quite similar to that of the entire province of ontario, as transfer students show higher probabilities of taking six years to complete their degrees (0.3882 vs. 0.3023) as well as not complete their degrees (0.4360 vs. 0.3199), and are over half as likely to complete their degrees in four years (0.3778 vs. 0.1758). figure 2.4 predicted probabilities of university completion by transfer type southern ontario: psist1ff, 2009 to 2017 beyond the transfer relationships, we also find considerable similarities across all other covariates in the models. for instance, stem students are less likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=0.57, p<0.001), but are more likely to do so within six years (rrr=1.23, p<0.001) in comparison with their bhase counterparts. for demographic factors, female students are more likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=1.27, p<0.001), but 32 are less likely to do so within six years (rrr=0.87, p<0.001) than male students. similarly, older students are more likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=3.39, p<0.001), but are less likely to do so within six years (rrr=0.59, p<0.001) than younger students. for family factors, we find that students from single parent families are less likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=0.88, p<0.01) and six years (rrr=0.86, p<0.01) than their those from two-parent families. in addition, students from larger families are more likely to graduate from university within six years than those from smaller families (rrr=1.07, p<0.05). finally, parental income is only significantly associated with four-year completion and not six-year completion, suggesting that students whose parental income belongs to the highest (rrr=1.43, p<0.001), higher (rrr=1.29, p<0.001), and middle (rrr=1.22, p<0.001) categories are all more likely to graduate from university within four years than their lowest counterparts. the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals for all covariates in the models are displayed in table 2.5. table 2.5 predicted probabilities of university completion for southern ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. no completion margins four-year completion 95% ci margins 95% ci six-year completion margins 95% ci transfer status nontransfer transfer 0.3199 0.3152 0.3247 0.3778 0.3731 0.3826 0.3023 0.2976 0.3069 0.436 0.4116 0.4604 0.1758 0.1582 0.1934 0.3882 0.3645 0.4119 field of study bhase 0.3129 0.3071 0.3187 0.4162 0.4102 0.4222 0.2709 0.2653 0.2764 stem 0.3509 0.3426 0.3591 0.2787 0.2711 0.2864 0.3704 0.3622 0.3786 men 0.3324 0.3253 0.3395 0.3333 0.3264 0.3402 0.3343 0.3273 0.3412 women 0.3201 0.3138 0.3264 0.3972 0.3909 0.4036 0.2827 0.2766 0.2888 gender age of respondents 21 0.3404 0.3353 0.3455 0.3305 0.3256 0.3355 0.3291 0.3241 0.3341 22 0.2133 0.2008 0.2257 0.6624 0.6481 0.6767 0.1244 0.1142 0.1345 couple 0.3217 0.3167 0.3267 0.3704 0.3655 0.3754 0.3079 0.3031 0.3128 lone 0.3532 0.3371 0.3692 0.3573 0.3418 0.3728 0.2895 0.2744 0.3047 3 0.3297 0.3205 0.3389 0.374 0.3649 0.3831 0.2964 0.2874 0.3054 4 0.3231 0.3173 0.329 0.3669 0.3611 0.3727 0.31 0.3044 0.3156 family composition family size parental income 33 lowest 0.3442 0.3333 0.3552 0.3334 0.323 0.3438 0.3224 0.3116 0.3332 lower 0.3376 0.3269 0.3482 0.3426 0.3323 0.3528 0.3199 0.3095 0.3302 middle 0.3194 0.3089 0.3298 0.3713 0.3609 0.3818 0.3093 0.2991 0.3195 higher 0.3142 0.3036 0.3247 0.3845 0.3739 0.3951 0.3014 0.2912 0.3115 highest 0.3084 0.2981 0.3187 0.4133 0.4026 0.4239 0.2784 0.2686 0.2881 the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and university graduation and timely completion in northern ontario institutions model 3 shows the models for only northern ontario students. in terms of transfer status, once again, we find that transfer students are less likely to graduate from university within four years than non-transfer students (rrr=0.21, p<0.001), although we do not uncover a significant difference for six-year completion between two groups. this finding is similar to that which we uncovered above in southern ontario universities. in figure 2.5, we plot the predicted probabilities of university completion across transfer status. overall, the relative pattern is the same as southern ontario. however, it is important to note that the predicted probabilities of not completing university are substantially higher than those from southern ontario institutions for both transfer and non-transfer students. specifically, transfer students in northern ontario are 52.37% likely to not complete their degrees, while their counterparts in southern ontario were 43.60% likely to not complete their degrees. interestingly, the probabilities for completing degrees on time (in four years), were slightly higher among northern ontario non-transfer students (0.3778 vs. 0.3805) and quite a bit lower among transfer students (0.1758 vs. 0.1145). in terms of six-year completion, transfer students (0.3619) had significantly higher probabilities of completing in this time frame than non-transfer students (0.2282). 34 figure 2.5 predicted probabilities of university completion by transfer type northern ontario: psist1ff, 2009 to 2017 similar to southern ontario, northern ontario stem students are also less likely to graduate from university within four years than their bhase counterparts (rrr=0.68, p<0.01). for demographic factors, women and older students are more likely to graduate from university within four years (rrr=1.26, p<0.1 and rrr=2.71, p<0.001, respectively), but are less likely to do within six years (rrr=0.79, p<0.1 and rrr=0.59, p<0.05, respectively) than their male and younger counterparts. interestingly, the impact of family factors on university completion is not statistically significant among northern students, except that students whose parental income belongs to higher (rrr=1.46, p<0.1) and lower (rrr=1.44, p<0.1) category are more likely to graduate from university within four years compared to students from the lowest parental income category. the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals for all covariates in the models are displayed in table 2.6. 35 table 2.6 predicted probabilities of university completion for northern ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. no completion margins four-year completion 95% ci margins 95% ci six-year completion margins 95% ci transfer status nontransfer transfer 0.3914 0.3675 0.4152 0.3805 0.3572 0.4038 0.2282 0.2077 0.2486 0.5237 0.451 0.5963 0.1145 0.0692 0.1597 0.3619 0.2924 0.4313 field of study bhase 0.3916 0.3658 0.4175 0.369 0.3443 0.3937 0.2394 0.2168 0.2619 stem 0.4528 0.4034 0.5023 0.2959 0.2513 0.3405 0.2513 0.2094 0.2932 men 0.4087 0.3694 0.448 0.3094 0.2733 0.3454 0.282 0.2463 0.3177 women 0.4036 0.3755 0.4318 0.3751 0.3483 0.402 0.2212 0.1975 0.245 gender age of respondents 21 0.4218 0.3967 0.4469 0.3133 0.2902 0.3365 0.2649 0.2425 0.2873 22 0.3059 0.2482 0.3636 0.5795 0.5185 0.6406 0.1146 0.0758 0.1534 couple 0.398 0.3733 0.4228 0.3582 0.3347 0.3816 0.2438 0.2222 0.2654 lone 0.4523 0.3803 0.5242 0.3177 0.2534 0.3819 0.2301 0.1698 0.2903 3 0.3999 0.3552 0.4446 0.3705 0.3275 0.4135 0.2296 0.1912 0.268 4 0.4075 0.3786 0.4364 0.3449 0.318 0.3718 0.2476 0.2224 0.2727 0.4889 0.2918 0.232 0.3516 0.289 0.2224 0.3557 family composition family size parental income lowest 0.4192 0.3494 lower 0.3711 0.3203 0.422 0.362 0.3133 0.4106 0.2669 0.22 0.3138 middle 0.4103 0.3648 0.4557 0.3654 0.3221 0.4087 0.2244 0.1863 0.2624 higher 0.3959 0.35 0.4418 0.3867 0.3423 0.4312 0.2174 0.1799 0.2549 highest 0.4364 0.3783 0.4944 0.317 0.264 0.3701 0.2466 0.1977 0.2955 36 part 3: college graduation and timely completion in step with the literature on the graduation and timely completion of bachelors degree graduates, the length of time used to assess graduation rates for college programs also varies widely depending on the program and the transfer pathway. typically, researchers have employed time frames for assessment that range from one to four years in length (walters et al., 2021; pretlow et al., 2020; walters et al., 2020; chen et al., 2019; skomsvold et al., 2011; radford et al., 2010; horn, 2009; berkner et al., 2007; berkner et al., 2002; cuccaro-alamin, 1997). unfortunately, in relation to the sheer volume of research on bachelors graduation and timely completion, the existing canadian research on college certificate or diploma completion rates is relatively modest by comparison. necessarily, to provide additional context to inform our study on college graduation and timely completion of transfer students in ontario, we draw upon a number of studies that were conducted on community college graduation rates in the united states. overall, among samples of community college transfer students in united states, researchers have reported wide ranges of graduation rates of certificates (2% to 42%) and associate degrees (4% to 23%), with some degree of variation attributable to differentiation across higher education sectors (e.g., private not-for-profit, private for-profit, public; pretlow et al., 2020; chen et al., 2019; skomsvold et al., 2011; radford et al., 2010; horn, 2009; berkner et al., 2002; cuccaro-alamin, 1997). among uc transfer students, the completion rates for these college programs have shown to be consistently lower. for instance, berkner et al. (2002) drew upon the beginning postsecondary students (bps) longitudinal study students who enrolled in 1995-96 through 2000-01 (n=10,370) in order to examine the completion rates over six years, comparing students who began at both 2-year and 4-year institutions. overall, they found nontransfer students had higher rates of completion. in relation to the uc pathway, of the students who began at 4-year institutions, only 2% had earned an associates degree or certificate, 7% were still enrolled with no degree earned, and 13% had left pse altogether (berkner et al., 2002:vi). similarly, drawing on most recent cohorts of the bps (2011-2012, followed up in 2017), chen et al. (2019:12) found slightly more optimistic results, as among students who began their degrees at 4-year institutions, 2.3% had earned a certificate and 6% had earned an associates degree within six years. turning to college to college pathways, interesting, both skomsvold et al. (2011) and radford et al. (2010) employed the 2004-2009 bps to explore degree attainment with a six-year period and found similar outcomes among cc transfer and non-transfer students. that is, among students who first attended a 2-year institution and transferred, about 8.6% had earned a certificate, 13.5% earned an associates degree compared to 8.4% and 15% of non-transfer students who earned a certificate and an associates degree, respectively (radford et al., 2010:9; see also skomsvold, 2011: 30). 37 for ontarios college system, recent key performance indicator estimates suggest that graduation rates for college students also vary widely across institutions. for 2018 to 2019 graduates, approximately 67.2% of college students across the province had graduated across 1, 2, 3, and 4-year programs (government of ontario, 2021).4 across the regions, the graduation rates for northern ontario colleges ranged from 63.4 to 76.3%, and for southern ontario colleges, they ranged from 63.1 to 74.1%. interestingly, the average graduation rate among ontarios six northern colleges was slightly higher (69%) in comparison to average rate for the 18 colleges in southern ontario (67%) (government of ontario, 2021). while these rates give some indication that perhaps regional differences might exist, they do not shed light on how much college completion rates might vary across transfer and non-transfer pathways.5 in fact, only a few recent studies have examined college graduation rates among transfer students in ontario. for instance, in northern ontario, one study conducted by confederation college (2012) found that their college transfer students graduated at a higher rate compared to their non-transfer counterparts. data on about 1000 students who began their program in the winter 2005 and completed their program in the fall of 2010, revealed that 73% of transfer students completed their program, a considerably higher rate than the schools 2010-11 kpi overall graduation rate (61%) (confederation college, 2012: 13). in southern ontario, smiths (2016) study (discussed in detail above) also analyzed university to college transfer students from york university to seneca college (n = 5,413). among their uc transfer students, 78% completed their program within the standard program length, typically ranging between 1 to 3 years (smith et al., 2016: 6). moreover, their findings revealed that the uc transfer students from york to seneca had much higher timely completion rates than cu transfer students, which the authors largely attribute to students receiving more transfer credits and shorter program lengths (smith et al., 2016). most recently, walters et. al (2020) employed the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) to analyze (n=91,950) students aged 17 to 19 who entered postsecondary education in ontario beginning in september of 2009. walters et al. (2020) used six different pathways to analyze the student mobility: non-transfer university, non-transfer college, university to university, university to college, college to college, and college to university. overall, walters et al. (2020: 11) found graduation rates for non-transfer students were higher (82%) compared to transfer students (57%). when breaking it down by more detailed transfer pathways, non-transfer university students graduated at the highest rate (86%), followed by university to university transfer students (69%), non-transfer college students (67%), university 4 for colleges, kpi graduation rates are based on tracking individual students across one-year, two-year, three-year and four-year programs (see key performance indicators on https://www.ontario.ca/page/college-graduationsatisfaction-and-job-rates). for instance, the rate we cite is based on students who started one-year programs in 2017 to 2018, two-year programs in 2015 to 2016, three-year programs in 2013 to 2014 and four-year programs in 2012 to 2013, and who had graduated by 2018 to 2019. 5 due to the nature of the psis files, linkage restrictions, the reporting structure, sample sizes, and our focus on northern institutions, our methodological approach in this study differs the provincial kpi measurement. 38 to college transfer students (56%), college to university transfer students (51%), and college to college transfer students (40%) (walters et al., 2020: 13). not surprisingly, non-transfer college students completed their programs on time the most of all postsecondary pathways (88% in 4 years or less), followed by non-transfer university students (58%; walters et al., 2020: 13). these findings suggest transfer students take more time to complete their education compared to nontransfer students, not only among bachelors degree graduates, but also among graduates from college programs.6 transfer pathways, college graduation rates, and timely completion in ontario in order to understand the situation surrounding transfer pathways and timely college completion in ontario, we turn to our analyses on a college graduation subsample from the psist1ff linked data (see appendix a for details). once again, we first examine the situation across the entire province before turning to our region-specific analyses. our univariate findings for our college graduation subsample are shown in table 3.1. given their importance to our study, we plot the both college completion as well as the transfer status across each of our locales in figures 3.1 and 3.2. as shown in figure 3.1, our results reveal that 61.9% of students in ontario graduate from college within three years. it is important to note that there appears to be regional variations in college completion across northern and southern ontario. specifically, 70.5% of students in northern ontario graduate from college within three years; however, only 61.1% do so in southern ontario. in terms of transfer status, it is interesting that only 8.7% of students are transfer students in ontario colleges (see figure 3.2). when we look at this trend separately, unlike the differences we saw in the university sector, the relative proportions of transfer to non-transfer students are similar in northern (8.5%) and southern ontario (8.8%) colleges. additional univariate analyses for institutional, demographic, and family characteristics in ontario, southern ontario, and northern ontario can be found in table 3.1. table 3.1 college completion subsample characteristics by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. overall college completion no yes transfer status non-transfer 6 percentage south north 38.05 61.95 38.90 61.10 29.50 70.50 91.26 91.24 91.55 walters et al. (2021) employed the elmlp and additionally linked these data to toronto district school board (tdsb) student records, allowing for a specific subsample of 9,850 students who attended a tdsb secondary school to be analyzed in the september 2009 cohort. walters et al. (2021) also examined the six different pathways described above. ultimately, even within the tdsb-linked subsample, the results proved to be markedly similar, as transfer students tended to show lower graduation rates than their non-transfer counterparts. 39 transfer location of school south north field of study bhase stem year of enrolment 2011 2012 2013 2014 sex men women age of respondents 21 22 family composition couple lone family size 3 4 parental income lowest lower middle higher highest total 8.74 8.76 8.45 82.88 17.12 82.70 17.30 84.7 15.3 19.97 22.43 32.02 25.58 20.64 22.65 31.35 25.37 13.5 20.3 38.6 27.6 49.40 50.60 49.71 50.29 46.14 53.86 72.77 27.23 72.99 27.01 70.50 29.50 81.39 18.61 81.58 18.42 79.50 20.50 40.24 59.76 39.91 60.09 43.53 56.47 20.00 20.00 20.00 20.00 19.99 61,600 20.14 20.14 20.06 19.80 19.87 56,000 18.71 18.71 19.24 22.12 21.22 5,550 90.97 9.03 figure 3.1 distribution of college completion across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 80 70 percent 60 50 40 no 30 yes 20 10 0 ontario northern ontario southern ontario location 40 figure 3.2 distribution of transfer status across ontario regions: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 100 90 80 percent 70 60 50 40 transfer 30 non-transfer 20 10 0 ontario northern ontario southern ontario location the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and college graduation and timely completion in ontario institutions to understand the relationships between transfer pathways and college graduation and timely completion, we turn to a series of binary logistic regression models. models 1 and 2 are estimated on all ontario college students, while models 3 and 4 and models 5 and 6 are estimated on our southern and northern ontario subsamples respectively. at the outset, in table 3.2, our unadjusted (i.e., bivariate) results indicate that transfer students are indeed significantly less likely to graduate from college within three years than nontransfer students in ontario (or=0.37, p<0.001). in model 2, we add a number of key factors to the mix that might also impact college completion rates. for the transfer relationship, it remains largely consistent, even after accounting for these other theoretically-relevant factors on timely completion. this underscores the finding that transfer students are significantly less likely to graduate from college within three years than non-transfer students in ontario (or=0.38, p<0.001). 41 table 3.2 binary logistic regressions predicting college completion by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. model 1 overall model 2 transfer status non-transfer transfer 0.37*** location of school south north field of study bhase stem year of enrolment 2011 2012 2013 2014 gender male female age of respondents 21 22 parental income lowest lower middle higher highest family composition couple lone family size 3 4 lr chi2 1219.19*** pseudo r2 0.0149 log likelihood -40299.389 *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 0.38*** model 3 0.37*** south model 4 0.38*** model 5 north model 6 0.33*** 0.33*** 1.47*** 0.74*** 0.73*** 0.93 1.02 1.05 1.04 0.99 1.03 1.05 1.61*** 1.24* 0.98 1.69*** 1.73*** 1.27*** 1.45*** 1.45*** 1.51*** 1.25*** 1.43*** 1.64*** 1.58*** 1.22*** 1.42*** 1.61*** 1.56*** 1.61*** 1.61*** 2.01*** 1.93*** 0.92*** 0.92*** 1.04 0.96 3395.96*** 0.0415 -39211.001 0.96* 3044.82*** 0.0407 -35915.779 1.05 248.08*** 0.0368 -3248.652 1095.70*** 0.0146 -36890.341 125.22*** 0.0186 -3310.0862 in figure 3.3, the predicted probabilities of completing college across transfer pathways are shown for ontario, northern ontario and southern ontario. we will consider the regional differences in turn below. at this point, for ontario as a whole, we can see that transfer students show a significantly lower probability of completing their college programs within three years (0.4109 vs. 0.6395). 42 figure 3.3 predicted probabilities of college completion by transfer type ontario: psis-t1ff, 2009 to 2017 the results from model 2 also reveal that a range of institutional, demographic, and family factors are associated with college completion. of central importance to our study, the results indicate that northern students are significantly more likely to graduate from college within three years than their southern counterparts (or=1.47, p<0.001). by contrast, students majoring in stem fields are less likely to graduate from college within three years than those majoring in bhase fields (or=0.74, p<0.001). for demographic factors, female (or=1.69, p<0.001) and older students (or=1.45, p<0.001) are both more likely to graduate from college within three years than their male and younger counterparts. finally, when it comes to family factors, we find that students whose parental income belongs to the highest (or=1.58, p<0.001), higher (or=1.64, p<0.001), middle (or=1.43, p<0.001), and lower (or=1.25, p<0.001) category are more likely to graduate from college within three years than their lowest counterparts. in addition, students from single-parent families are more likely to graduate from college within three years than those from two-parent families (or=0.92, p<0.001). the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and college graduation and timely completion in southern ontario institutions turning to southern ontario, in model 3, we observe that transfer students are less likely to graduate from college within three years than non-transfer students at the bivariate level 43 (or=0.37, p<0.001). in model 4, the relationship remains largely consistent even after accounting for all other factors in the model. that is, transfer students remain significantly less likely to graduate from college within three years than non-transfer students in southern ontario (or=0.38, p<0.001). turning back to figure 3.3, we can see that the difference across groups in southern ontario looks markedly similar to what we noticed ontario-wide, as transfer students show considerably lower probabilities (0.4045) of completing their programs compared to non-transfer students (0.6309). model 4 also shows that several institutional, demographic, and family factors are also associated with college completion. students majoring in stem fields are less likely to graduate from college within three years than those majoring in bhase fields (or=0.73, p<0.001). for demographic factors, female (or=1.73, p<0.001) and older students (or=1.45, p<0.001) are both more likely to graduate from college within three years than their male and younger counterparts. finally, when it comes to family factors, we find that students whose parental income belongs to the highest (or=1.56, p<0.001), higher (or=1.61, p<0.001), middle (or=1.42, p<0.001), and lower (or=1.22, p<0.001) category are more likely to graduate from college within three years than their lowest counterparts. in addition, students from single-parent families are more likely to graduate from college within three years than those from two-parent families (or=0.92, p<0.001), while those from larger families have lower odds of graduating from college within three years in comparison to those from smaller families (or=0.96, p<0.05). the multivariate relationships between transfer pathways and college graduation and timely completion in northern ontario institutions for northern ontario, we also estimate unadjusted and adjusted binary logistic regressions. in our unadjusted model, model 5, we can see that transfer students are significantly less likely to graduate from college within three years than non-transfer students (or=0.33, p<0.001). in model 6, we include all other covariates of interest in the model. indeed, the relationship remains largely consistent, even after accounting for these other factors. specifically, transfer students remain significantly less likely to graduate from college within three years than nontransfer students (or=0.33, p<0.001). interestingly, when comparing across regions, the predicted probabilities for northern ontario shown in figure 3.3 indicate both transfer (0.4735) and non-transfer students (0.7265) have higher probabilities of completing their college programs compared to those at southern colleges (0.4045 and 0.6309 respectively). the results in table 3.2 also demonstrate that several other factors impact ones likelihood of completing college in three years. first, students who enter the program in 2012 (or=1.61, p<0.001) and 2013 (or=1.24, p<0.05) are more likely to graduate from college within 44 three years than those who enter in 2011. for demographic factors, female (or=1.27, p<0.001) and older students (or=1.51, p<0.001) are both more likely to graduate from college within three years than their male and younger counterparts. finally, when it comes to family factors, we find that students whose parental income belongs to the highest (or=1.93, p<0.001), higher (or=2.01, p<0.001), middle (or=1.61, p<0.001), and lower (or=1.61, p<0.001) category are more likely to graduate from college within three years than their lowest counterparts. the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals for all covariates in each of the models presented in table 3.2 are displayed in table 3.3. table 3.3 predicted probabilities predicting college completion by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. overall margins south 95% ci margins north 95% ci margins 95% ci ever transferred no 0.6395 0.6356 0.6434 0.6309 0.6268 0.635 0.7265 0.7144 0.7386 yes 0.4109 0.3977 0.424 0.4045 0.3908 0.4183 0.4735 0.4282 0.5189 south 0.6121 0.6082 0.616 north 0.6949 0.683 0.7069 bhase 0.6314 0.6272 0.6355 0.6238 0.6194 0.6281 0.7073 0.6945 0.7201 stem 0.5641 0.5545 0.5736 0.5521 0.5421 0.5622 0.6933 0.6628 0.7238 2011 0.6132 0.6049 0.6216 0.6065 0.5979 0.6152 0.6707 0.6377 0.7036 2012 0.6177 0.6099 0.6256 0.604 0.5958 0.6123 0.7625 0.7383 0.7867 2013 0.6231 0.6165 0.6297 0.614 0.607 0.621 0.7143 0.6956 0.7331 2014 0.6214 0.614 0.6288 0.6171 0.6094 0.6249 0.666 0.6429 0.6892 male 0.5597 0.5541 0.5654 0.5482 0.5423 0.5541 0.6794 0.6613 0.6974 female 0.6785 0.6733 0.6838 0.6738 0.6682 0.6794 0.7271 0.7112 0.7429 21 0.5973 0.5928 0.6019 0.5888 0.584 0.5935 0.6813 0.6665 0.6961 22 0.6786 0.6714 0.6858 0.671 0.6633 0.6786 0.7599 0.7387 0.7812 0.5492 0.54 0.5585 0.5434 0.5337 0.553 0.6036 0.5699 0.6372 location of school field of study year of enrolment gender age of respondents parental income lowest 45 lower 0.6001 0.5916 0.6086 0.5895 0.5806 0.5985 0.7063 0.6781 0.7345 middle 0.6314 0.6231 0.6397 0.6243 0.6156 0.633 0.7054 0.6787 0.732 higher 0.6603 0.6521 0.6685 0.6513 0.6426 0.66 0.7477 0.7237 0.7718 highest 0.653 0.6447 0.6613 0.6445 0.6357 0.6533 0.7406 0.7155 0.7656 couple 0.6228 0.6186 0.6271 0.6147 0.6102 0.6192 0.7034 0.6896 0.7172 lone 0.6051 0.5954 0.6147 0.5947 0.5844 0.6049 0.7112 0.6828 0.7396 3 0.6243 0.6179 0.6307 0.6168 0.61 0.6236 0.6991 0.6797 0.7186 4 0.6163 0.6111 0.6214 0.6071 0.6017 0.6125 0.7097 0.6931 0.7264 family composition family size 46 conclusions and policy implications this study draws upon administrative and tax data in ontario to provide a large-scale empirical assessment of the regional differences surrounding relationships between transfer pathways and several postsecondary educational outcomes. to get a sense of the climate in ontario as a whole, we first conduct analyses for transfer students at colleges and universities across the province, and then proceed with region-specific analyses to further investigate relationships among northern and southern ontario institutions. our analyses employ the most recent statistics canada psis and t1 family tax data currently available in the elmlp and make the following three pertinent contributions: 1) assesses the overall magnitude of uptake as well as the relationships between transfer pathways and majoring in stem fields across regions of ontario, 2) compares the extent to which transfer status relates to university completion and timely completion across regions of ontario, and 3) investigates the relationship between transfer status and college completion and timely completion across regions of ontario. at the outset, it is important to note that across all of our analyses, the trends in southern ontario mirror those of ontario as a whole. this is largely due to the substantially larger proportion of southern ontario students that comprise ontarios college and university populations (n=532,890 in southern ontario; n=27,310 in northern ontario). that is, southern ontario trends tend to dominate province-wide analyses.7 moreover, it is only when northern ontario institutions as separated from the mix, that researchers and policymakers can adequately see the extent to which provincial trends might differ for northern ontario institutions. this alone is a unique contribution of this work, underscoring the importance of addressing regional dynamics for successful program and policy development. overall, our analyses in part 1 of this study revealed several interesting differences in both the magnitude and the relationships between transfer pathways and access to the stems across northern and southern ontario. first, in terms of the sheer magnitude, a greater proportion of students at southern ontario institutions are entering stem programs. specifically, our results showed that about 29% of students in southern ontario institutions majored in one of the stem fields compared to only about 20% of students in northern ontario institutions. second, our results for southern ontario revealed that non-transfer university students were significantly more likely to major in the stem fields than all of the other pathways that we explored. among transfer pathways, however, university to university transfer students showed the highest probability of entering the stems (0.2883), followed closely by university to college transfer students (0.2510), and swirlers (0.2375). interestingly, transfer students who began at a college (cc and cu pathways) showed considerably lower probabilities of majoring in the stem fields (0.1336 and 0.714 respectively), even when considering a range of other factors shown to influence stem access. for students at northern ontario institutions, our findings were slightly 7 as such, we do not recap the ontario-wide findings here, but focus more on the regional similarities and differences across our analyses. 47 different. not only did non-transfer university students (0.2163) have a high probability of entering a stem field, but so too did students who transferred from university to college (0.2409) and swirlers (0.2236). university to university (0.1773) and non-transfer college students (0.1602) came next, followed by comparatively lower probabilities once again among college to college (0.1332) and college to university transfer students (0.1190). for university graduation and timely completion (part 2 above), several key findings emerged from our study. first, in terms of the raw estimates, our analyses revealed that similar proportions of students in northern and southern ontario universities are completing their university degrees within four years (northern ontario, 35.2%; southern ontario, 36.9%). however, when turning to the proportions of students who graduated from university within six years, students at northern ontario institutions showed considerably lower proportions (24.4% vs. 30.6%). second, when taking into consideration other relevant factors shown to influence graduation and timely completion, several additional findings emerged. for southern ontario, in comparison to non-transfer students, transfer students showed significantly higher probabilities of taking six years to complete their degrees (0.3882 vs. 0.3023) as well as not complete their degrees (0.4360 vs. 0.3199), and are over half as likely to complete their degrees in four years (0.3778 vs. 0.1758). at northern ontario institutions, our findings revealed that the predicted probabilities of not completing university are substantially higher than those from southern ontario institutions for both transfer and non-transfer students, as transfer students in northern ontario are 52.37% likely to not complete their degrees, while their counterparts in southern ontario were 43.60% likely to not complete their degrees. interestingly, the probabilities for completing degrees on time (in four years), were slightly higher among northern ontario non-transfer students (southern ontario, 0.3778 vs. northern ontario, 0.3805) and quite a bit lower among transfer students (southern ontario, 0.1758 vs. northern ontario, 0.1145). in terms of six-year completion, transfer students (0.3619) had significantly higher probabilities of completing in this time frame than non-transfer students (0.2282). finally, in part 3, our study also explored the extent to which transfer students experience difficulties completing their college programs in a timely fashion and uncovered several key findings. in terms of raw percentages, fully 61.9% of students in ontario colleges graduate within three years of starting their programs. comparing regions, our results indicate that 70.5% of students in northern ontario graduate from college within three years compared to only 61.1% in southern ontario. in both southern and northern ontario institutions, transfer students are less likely to graduate from college within three years than non-transfer students. when controlling for a number of relevant factors that influence graduation and timely completion, in southern ontario institutions, transfer students showed considerably lower probabilities (0.4045) of completing their programs compared to non-transfer students (0.6309). for northern ontario, the general direction of the relationship was similar, with transfer students showing lower probabilities of competing their programs. however, both transfer (0.4735) and non-transfer students (0.7265) had comparatively higher probabilities of completing their college programs compared to those at southern colleges (0.4045 and 0.6309 respectively). 48 our comparisons across northern and southern ontario colleges and universities have several key implications for policymakers, education administrators, and other relevant stakeholders in ontarios higher education sector who may be concerned with the educational performance of transfer students. in terms of stem access, our findings above underscore the need for monitoring the rate of stem field entry among transfer students. it is clear that direct-entry students are entering into these more lucrative streams at higher rates than their non-transfer counterparts, and there is a need to enhance access to the stems for transfer students, especially those transfer students who transfer college to college and college to university. moreover, this unequal access to the stems was even more apparent among our northern ontario institutions, suggesting enhanced supports to open up access for students in these pathways may be needed. certainly, part of these regional differences may be explained by relatively fewer stem field opportunities currently available among northern institutions, as they typically house a smaller array of programs and fields of study (hango et al., 2019). at the same time, it would be important to ensure that the postsecondary pathways for students leading into those new programs are fully articulated. while our findings here speak to the necessity of increasing access to the stems for transfer students, other research has shown that concerted efforts may be required to further support transfer students who do enter the stems, and in particular, those with certain sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., women, lower ses, visible minorities) (starobin, 2016; myers et al., 2015; reyes, 2011). researchers have pointed to a whole host of factors that might enhance success in stem completion for transfer students (e.g., academic support services, mentoring, internships, increased interactions with faculty, faculty support; peer support; extracurricular activities), with many emphasizing on the necessity of offering these additional supports for particular at risk groups (e.g., women, lower ses) (dinh & zhang, 2020; elliot & lakin 2020a, 2020b; lopez & jones, 2017; starobin, 2016; jackson & laanan, 2015; myers et al., 2015; reyes, 2011;). our graduation and timely completion results revealed that both university and college transfer students in ontario are taking longer to complete their programs than their non-transfer peers. while testament to a broader trend of lengthier times to pse completion (see zarifa et al., 2018), these delays in completion increase costs for students and institutions (korn, 2015; carlozo, 2012; knight, 2004; pitter et al., 1996), put pressure on the availability of sufficient resources per student (jenkins & rodriguez, 2013; hakkinen & uusitalo, 2003), and ultimately lead to greater student debt and fewer years in the labour market to contribute to repayment, savings, and pensions (volkwein & lorang, 1996). moreover, when we considered university graduates, retention of transfer students remains a concern. not only were transfer students overrepresented among those who take longer to complete their degrees (six years), but what is perhaps more troubling is the fact that transfer students were overrepresented among those who do not complete their degrees. for northern ontario institutions, these trends were particularly evident, suggesting that while new policies to enhance the timely completion of 49 transfer university graduates in ontario are highly warranted, they are especially needed in northern ontario. for transfer students who graduate from college, timely completion also remains an issue of concern. our findings certainly suggest that ontario colleges may be in need of implementing additional measures to ensure more timely completion of diploma programs by transfer students. yet, contrary to what we observed for university completion, the story on the timely completion of college programs is more positive in northern ontario than it is in southern ontario. that is, the timely completion of students (both transfer and non-transfer) was more prevalent at northern ontario institutions. further investigation into the potential mechanisms behind these regional differences would certainly be beneficial for informing policies to ensure timely completion of programs. certainly, for bachelors degree completion, researchers consistently report more timely completion among those who begin their studies at university instead of college, being a woman, non-visible minority, and coming from a family within a higher income bracket (zhu, 2021; saw, 2019; chen et al., 2019; xu et al., 2018; shapiro et al., 2017; nutting, 2011; wang, 2009). as such, future research that seeks to identify the sociodemographic, academic, and institutional characteristics of transfer students who take longer to complete their college and university programs is warranted. 50 appendix a. data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources this study draws upon several data sources included in statistics canadas elmlp (education and labour market longitudinal platform). specifically, we use the 2009 to 2017 years of postsecondary student information system (psis) (for further details, see statistics canada, 2018) as well as family tax data from the t1 family files. psis is administrative data collected on all public and not-for-profit postsecondary institutions funded by a provincial ministry of education. there are several reasons why the psis is suitable for this study. for example, it provides a census of enrolments and graduates in all canadian colleges and universities, collected annually since the 2005/2006 academic year, and yields approximately a 95% response rate. at the time of this writing, the 2017/2018 academic year is the most recent academic year available for analysis. another strength of the psis is that it includes variables about the educational institutions, student demographics, and information about the program in which the student is enrolled. they are optimal for use in this study to investigate the characteristics of students who pursue various pse pathways in northern and southern ontario. additionally, we use the psis-t1ff linkage to draw upon additional sociodemographic variables of relevance (e.g., parental income, family composition, family size, etc.). finally, as mentioned in further detail in prior reports (see zarifa et al. 2020; sano et al. 2020; hillier et al. 2020), the psis administrative data overcome a number of limitations (i.e., small sample sizes, lack of institution identifiers) to using other nationally-representative survey data to examine pse pathways in northern ontario that present themselves. subsamples and restrictions stem field subsample for our field of study analyses, we restrict our sample in several important ways. first, we limit our sample to undergraduate students from ontario postsecondary institutions. specifically, this study excludes students who are enrolled in professional, graduate, and postgraduate programs (see finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2017). in addition, there are two different ways of selecting students in the psis, namely the enrolment cohorts and the graduate cohorts. we rely on the enrolment cohorts in our analysis and track students school and type of postsecondary education mobility over two years. specifically, we track seven different cohorts of students (i.e., 2009-11, 2010-12, 2011-13, 2012-14, 2013-15, 2014-16, and 2015-17) to construct our focal independent variablestudents transfer type. for example, for 2009, we first compare differences between 2009 and 2010 institution ids and institution types. we then compare 2010 to 2011 institution ids and institution types. third, we combine observed differences across both comparisons and then combine into the pathway variable below. finally, we pool these cohorts of students together, yielding sizeable analytical samples of 532,890 students in southern institutions and 27,310 students in northern institutions. 51 university graduation and timely completion subsample for mapping out university graduation and timely completion, we also restrict our sample in several important ways. first, we limit our sample to university undergraduate students from ontario postsecondary institutions. specifically, we exclude students who are enrolled in college, professional, graduate, and postgraduate programs (see finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2017). in addition, there are two different ways of selecting students in the psis, namely the enrolment cohorts and the graduate cohorts. as in the subsample for field of study, we rely on the enrolment cohorts in our analysis and track students school and type of postsecondary education mobility over time. following statistics canada (2019), we use three years of information (i.e., 2009, 2010, and 2011) to identify new students. particularly, we initially select entering students in 2011. however, it is possible that these students have already entered university programs previously. according to statistics canada (2019), tracking the same students for two additional years to find possible duplicates is likely to be a sufficient solution to minimize this potential bias. consequently, we identify duplicates in 2009 and 2010 and drop them from our analytical sample. in addition, we track students from 2011 to 2012 and to 2013 to explore whether students change their institutional affiliation over time, which enables us to construct our independent variabletransfer status. this process informs another sample restriction. specifically, to create our independent variable, students need to either stay in the same institution or different institution between 2011 and 2013. therefore, students who drop out of university programs during this period are excluded from analytical sample. moreover, due to our focus on university completion, we also exclude students who are not part of university programs in 2013. taking these restrictions into consideration, we construct our dependent variableuniversity completionby tracking students from 2013 to 2017. to this end, we have analytical samples of 38,050 students in southern institutions and 1,750 students in northern institutions. college graduation and timely completion subsample we restrict our sample in this study in several important ways. for example, as we are interested in understanding college completion in ontario, this study excludes students who are enrolled in university, professional, graduate, and postgraduate programs as well as college students in provinces other than ontario (see finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2017). similar to our other approaches, we rely on the enrolment cohorts in our analysis and track students school and type of postsecondary education mobility over time. we follow statistics canadas recommendation to measure graduation rates over the period of three years after their initial enrolment for college students (statistics canada, 2019). following statistics canada (2019), we use three years of information to identify new students. for example, we can identify initial enrolment by finding entering students in 2011. however, these students may have already entered college programs previously. according to statistics canada (2019), tracking the same students for two additional years to find possible duplicates is likely to be a sufficient solution to minimize this potential bias. following this advice, we identify duplicates in 2009 and 2010 and drop them to capture new entering students in 2011. considering that this study focuses on students transfer pathway, we 52 track students for one year to explore whether they transfer between 2011 and 2012 and drop students in 2012 if they are not part of college program. we need at least one year to capture students transfer pattern. therefore, unfortunately, we are restricted to exclude students from college certificate programs, with an expected completion duration of one year. for this reason, we only include students from college diploma programs, with an expected completion duration of three years. with this sample restriction in mind, we further track these students in 2013 and 2014 to capture whether they graduate from college. repeating this process, we include three other cohorts of students (i.e., 2012-2015, 2013-2016, and 2014-2017) to increase sample size and statistical power. to this end, our analytical sample includes 56,000 southern students and 5,550 northern students. dependent variables stem fields to measure field of study differences, we create a binary variable that captures whether students major in business, humanities, health, arts, social science, and education (i.e., bhase) or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (i.e., stem) (0=bhase; 1=stem).8, 9 university graduation and timely completion this dependent variable captures whether students who start their programs in 2011 graduate from university within four years or six years (0=no completion; 1=four-year completion; 2=sixyear completion). college graduation and timely completion this dependent variable captures college completion within three years since their initial enrolment (0=no completion; 1=completion). independent variables transfer status across all analyses, our focal independent variable captures student pathways. however, the measurement of transfer varied across analyses due to potential residual disclosure issues as well as insufficient sample sizes. for the stem fields analyses, our focal independent variable 8 our field of study dichotomy first combines both 2-digit and 4-digit cip 2016 (classification of instructional program) codes and categorizes them in step with statistic canadas approved classifications (for details, see https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3vd.pl?function=getvd&tvd=401856). 9 we capture their field of study at the time of transfer for each cohort. for the 2009-11 cohort, for example, we capture whether students major in stem or bhase in 2011. this approach enables us to track students from 2009 to 2011 to identify students' transfer type, which is used as an independent variable to predict the field of study in 2011. we repeat this process for other cohorts and create a pooled sample to increase our sample size and statistical power. 53 concerns students transfer pathways over two years since their initial pse enrolment (0=nontransfer university; 1=non-transfer college; 2=university to university; 3=university to college; 4=college to university; 5=college to college; 6=swirlers). due to sample size issues, for the university and college graduation and timely completion analyses, we employ dichotomous indicators of whether or not students transferred institutions during their programs. for university completion analyses, our focal transfer status variable captures whether or not students transferred at least once between 2011 and 2013 (0=non-transfer; 1=transfer).10 for our college completion analyses, our focal transfer status variable captures whether or not students transferred at least once between 2011 and 2012 (0=non-transfer; 1=transfer).11 demographic, program and family characteristics in step with prior reports (see sano et al. 2020; zarifa et al. 2020; hillier et al. 2020), we include several demographic, program, and family characteristics in our analysis. in terms of demographics, we include measures for age (0=younger, 21 or less; 1=older, 22 or more), sex (0=males; 1=females), and the quintiles of gross parental income (0=lowest; 1=lower; 2=middle; 3=higher; 4=highest). second, to account for family characteristics, we include the number of people in the family (0=smaller, 3 or less; 1=larger, 4 or more) and family type (0=two-parent; 1=lone-parent). when working with multiple cohorts, we also account for the academic year of initial enrolment, with the final categories contingent on the specific analyses (0=2015; 1=2014; 2=2013; 3=2012; 4=2011; 5=2010; 6=2009; or 3=2014; 2=2013; 1=2012; 0=2011). in some models, we also include institutional and program factors such as location of school (0=south; 1=north) and field of study (0=bhase; 1=stem). in addition, there are several other demographic variables such as registration status, international student status and immigration status; however, we do not include these variables due to their small sample sizes. moreover, due to data quality issues, and under the advisement of statistics canada, we were also unable to make use of the following variables available in the psis files: total transfer credits; aboriginal or visible minority status; mother tongue; program duration; program duration units; co-op program indicator; credits needed to graduate; program credit units; cumulative credits for program; second specialization; and end date in program. it is important to recognize that our results here do not take into consideration other measures that have been shown to also influence educational outcomes. the psis data are limited by their lack measures of academic performance (gpa, student grades), measures of cultural capital (parental aspirations, parent education), measures of institutional environments, student engagement measures, peer influences, and high school experiences (see for example, davies & pizarro milian, 2020; zhang et al., 2019; zhang, 2019; wang, 2016). should said measures become available to link to the elmlp environment in the future, it would be important for future avenues of research to explore the impact of including these other factors in the mix. 10 11 transfer captures university to university as well as college to university mobility. transfer captures college to college as well as university to college mobility. 54 analytical approaches stem field access to investigate the role of transfer type on field of study, we employ three separate analyses. first, we employ univariate analysis to understand the sample characteristics in ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario. second, we use regression analyses to understand the relationship between transfer type and field of study. six models, two models each for ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario, are built sequentially. in the first model, we estimate the bivariate association between transfer type and field of study. in the second model, we include additional covariates to account for the effects of institutional, demographic, and family factors. considering that the dependent variable is binary in nature, we employ binary logistic regression analysis (long and freese, 2014; long, 1997). these models enable us to map out the key characteristics of those who major in stem fields in ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario. finally, to aid in the interpretation of our findings, we also produce and graph the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals from these models, holding all variables (except for the focal variable) at their sample means or proportions. university graduation and timely completion to investigate the relationship between transfer status and university completion, we employ four separate analyses. first, we employ univariate analysis to understand sample characteristics in ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario. second, bivariate regression analysis is used to understand the gross impact of transfer type on university completion. we build three separate models, one model each for ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario. third, multivariate regression analysis is used to estimate the net impacts of the independent variable on university completion while accounting for institutional, demographic, and family variables. in step with the bivariate analysis approach, we produce three models, one model each for ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario. due to the polytomous nature of the dependent variable, we rely on multinomial logistic regression analysis (long and freese, 2014; long, 1997). finally, we also produce and graph the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals from these models to help visualize the relative differences across groups and regions. college graduation and timely completion to investigate the role of transfer status on college completion, we employ three separate analyses. first, we employ univariate analysis to understand sample characteristics in ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario. second, we use regression analyses to understand the relationship between transfer status and college completion. six models, two models each for ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario, are built sequentially. in the first model, we estimate the bivariate association between transfer status and college completion. in the second model, we adjust for institutional, demographic, and family factors. once again, this dependent variable is binary in nature, so we rely on binary logistic regression analysis. these models enable us to map out the key characteristics of those who graduate from college diplomas within three 55 years in ontario, northern ontario, and southern ontario. finally, to aid in the interpretation of our findings, we also produce and graph the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals from these models. 56 references alon, s., & diprete, t. 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by-law no. 1a being a general by-law of ontario council on articulation and transfer conseil ontarien pour larticulation et le transfert (hereinafter referred to as the corporation) table of contents article 1 interpretation section 1.1 section 1.2 section 1.3 section 1.4 definitions. ........................................................................................................... 4 interpretation. ...................................................................................................... 5 subject to act and articles. ................................................................................ 5 conflict with unanimous member agreement. ............................................ 5 article 2 members section 2.1 section 2.2 section 2.3 section 2.4 membership conditions. ................................................................................... 5 membership dues. .............................................................................................. 6 resignation. ......................................................................................................... 6 removal................................................................................................................ 6 article 3 members' meetings section 3.1 section 3.2 section 3.3 section 3.4 section 3.5 section 3.6 section 3.7 section 3.8 section 3.9 section 3.10 section 3.11 section 3.12 calling annual and special meetings. ............................................................. 6 electronic meetings. ........................................................................................... 6 notice. ................................................................................................................... 6 waiver of notice. ................................................................................................ 7 member representatives. .................................................................................. 7 persons entitled to be present. .......................................................................... 7 quorum. ............................................................................................................... 7 absentee voting at members meetings. ......................................................... 7 procedure. ............................................................................................................ 8 manner of voting. ............................................................................................... 8 votes to govern................................................................................................... 8 adjournment. ...................................................................................................... 8 article 4 board of directors section 4.1 section 4.2 section 4.3 section 4.4 number and qualifications. .............................................................................. 8 ex officio directors............................................................................................. 9 first directors. ................................................................................................... 10 election and term. ............................................................................................ 10 (i) 5837026 v3 section 4.5 remuneration and expenses. .......................................................................... 10 article 5 directors' meetings section 5.1 section 5.2 section 5.3 section 5.4 section 5.5 section 5.6 section 5.7 section 5.8 place of meeting. ............................................................................................... 11 calling of meetings. .......................................................................................... 11 regular meetings. ............................................................................................. 11 notice of meetings. ........................................................................................... 11 waiver of notice. .............................................................................................. 11 voting rights. .................................................................................................... 11 meeting by telephonic, electronic or other communication facility...... 11 quorum. ............................................................................................................. 12 article 6 protection of directors, officers and others section 6.1 section 6.2 section 6.3 limitation of liability....................................................................................... 12 indemnity. .......................................................................................................... 12 insurance. ........................................................................................................... 12 article 7 officers section 7.1 section 7.2 section 7.3 appointment. .................................................................................................... 13 term. ................................................................................................................... 13 removal.............................................................................................................. 13 article 8 duties of officers section 8.1 section 8.2 section 8.3 section 8.4 co-chairs. .......................................................................................................... 13 treasurer. ........................................................................................................... 13 secretary. ............................................................................................................ 14 duties of officers may be delegated.............................................................. 14 article 9 executive committee section 9.1 section 9.2 section 9.3 number and composition. .............................................................................. 14 powers. ............................................................................................................... 14 proceedings. ....................................................................................................... 14 article 10 nominating committee section 10.1 section 10.2 nominating committee. .................................................................................. 15 proceedings. ....................................................................................................... 15 (ii) 5837026 v3 article 11 committees section 11.1 other committees. ............................................................................................ 16 article 12 execution of instruments section 12.1 execution of instruments. ................................................................................ 16 article 13 financial year section 13.1 financial year. ................................................................................................... 16 article 14 miscellaneous section 14.1 section 14.2 section 14.3 notices ................................................................................................................ 17 computation of time ....................................................................................... 17 amendment. ...................................................................................................... 17 article 15 effective date section 15.1 section 15.2 effective date. ................................................................................................... 17 repeal. . .............................................................................................................. 17 (iii) 5837026 v3 article 1 interpretation section 1.1 definitions. in this by-law, unless the context otherwise specifies or requires: act means the canada not-for-profit corporations act and the regulations under the act, all as amended, re-enacted or replaced from time to time. co means colleges ontario collges ontario. co-chair means the president of a university or the president of a college elected to the board of directors of the corporation who together serve as co-chairs of the corporation. college means a publicly-assisted college of applied arts and technology of the province of ontario. cou means the council of ontario universities conseil des universits de lontario. cucc means the college university consortium council conseil du consortium des colleges et des universits. iaesc means the indigenous advanced education skills council recognized in regulation under the indigenous institutes act, 2017. indigenous institute means the indigenous institutes in ontario recognized in regulation under the indigenous institutes act, 2017. institution means a college, university, or indigenous institute. oolc means ontario online learning consortium. ouac means the ontario universities application centre, an organization whose key function is the processing of applications for admission to the publiclyassisted universities of the province of ontario. ocas means the ontario college application service, an organization whose key function is the processing of applications for admission to the publicly-assisted colleges of the province of ontario. oncat means the corporation. person means a natural person, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, corporation, limited liability company, unlimited liability company, joint stock company, trust, unincorporated association, joint venture or other entity (4) 5837026 v3 or governmental or regulatory entity, and pronouns have a similarly extended meaning. recorded address means (i) in the case of a member, the members latest address as shown in the records of the corporation, and (ii) in the case of a director, officer or public accountant, the persons latest address as shown in the records of the corporation or, if applicable, the last notice filed with the director under the act, whichever is the most recent. show of hands means, in connection with a meeting, a show of hands by persons present at the meeting, the functional equivalent of a show of hands by telephonic, electronic or other means of communication and any combination of such methods. university means a public-assisted university of the province of ontario. terms used in this by-law that are defined in the act have the meanings given to such terms in the act. section 1.2 interpretation. the division of this by-law into articles, sections and other subdivisions and the insertion of headings are for convenient reference only and do not affect its interpretation. words importing the singular number include the plural and vice versa. any reference in this by-law to gender includes all genders. in this by-law the words including, includes and include means including (or includes or include) without limitation. section 1.3 subject to act and articles. this by-law is subject to, and should be read in conjunction with, the act and the articles. if there is any conflict or inconsistency between any provision of the act or the articles and any provision of this by-law, the provision of the act or the articles will govern. section 1.4 conflict with unanimous member agreement. if there is any conflict or inconsistency between any provision of a unanimous member agreement and any provision of this by-law, the provision of such unanimous member agreement will govern. article 2 members section 2.1 membership conditions. subject to the articles, there shall be one class of members in the corporation. membership in the corporation is limited to an institution whose application for admission as a member has received the approval of the board of directors of the corporation. each member shall be entitled to receive notice of, attend and vote at all meetings of the members of the corporation. (5) 5837026 v3 section 2.2 membership dues. no membership fees or dues are required unless otherwise directed by the board of directors. section 2.3 resignation. any member may withdraw from the corporation by delivering to the corporation a written resignation and lodging a copy of the same with the secretary of the corporation. section 2.4 removal. any member may be required to resign by a vote of three-quarters (3/4) of the members at an annual meeting provided that any such member shall be granted an opportunity to be heard at such meeting. article 3 members' meetings section 3.1 calling annual and special meetings. the directors and each of the co-chairs have the power to call annual meetings of members and special meetings of members. annual meetings of members and special meetings of members will be held on the date and at the time and place in canada as the person(s) calling the meeting determine. the directors shall call a special meeting of members in accordance with the act on written requisition of members carrying not less than five (5) percent of the votes that may be cast at a meeting. if the directors do not call a meeting within twenty-one (21) days of receiving the requisition, any member who signed the requisition may call the meeting. section 3.2 electronic meetings. meetings of members may be held entirely by means of telephonic, electronic or other communications facility that permits all participants to communicate adequately with each other during the meeting. the directors may establish procedures regarding the holding of meetings of members by such means. section 3.3 notice. notice of the time and place of a meeting of members shall be given to each member entitled to vote at the meeting by the following means: (a) by mail, courier or personal delivery to each member entitled to vote at the meeting, during a period of 14 to 60 days before the day on which the meeting is to be held; or (b) by telephonic, electronic or other communication facility to each member entitled to vote at the meeting, during a period of 48 hours to 35 days before the day on which the meeting is to be held. (6) 5837026 v3 the accidental omission to give notice of any meeting of members to, or the nonreceipt of any notice by, any person, or any error in any notice not affecting the substance of the notice, does not invalidate any resolution passed or any action taken at the meeting. section 3.4 waiver of notice. a member, a members representative, a director or the public accountant and any other person entitled to attend a meeting of members may waive notice of a meeting of members, any irregularity in a notice of meeting of members or any irregularity in a meeting of members. such waiver may be waived in any manner and may be given at any time either before or after the meeting to which the waiver relates. waiver of any notice of a meeting of members cures any irregularity in the notice, any default in the giving of the notice and any default in the timeliness of the notice. section 3.5 member representatives. a representative of the member will be recognized if (i) the member delivers a notice to the corporation, in writing, designating and authorizing an individual to represent the member, (ii) a certified copy of the resolution of the directors or governing body of the member, or a certified copy of an extract from the by-laws of the member, authorizing the representative to represent the member is deposited with the corporation, or (iii) the authorization of the representative is established in another manner that is satisfactory to the co-chairs of the corporation. section 3.6 persons entitled to be present. the only persons entitled to be present at a meeting of members are those persons entitled to vote at the meeting, the directors, the ex officio directors, the officers, the public accountant of the corporation, if appointed, and others who, although not entitled to vote, are entitled or required under any provision of the act or the articles or this by-law to be present at the meeting. any other person may be admitted with the consent of the chair of the meeting or the persons present who are entitled to vote at the meeting. section 3.7 quorum. a quorum at any meeting of the members shall be at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the members each represented by a duly authorized representative. section 3.8 absentee voting at members meetings. pursuant to the act, a member represented by a duly authorized representative entitled to vote at a meeting of members may vote by mailed-in ballot or by means of a telephonic, electronic or other communication facility if the corporation has a system that: (a) enables the votes to be gathered in a manner that permits their subsequent verification, and (b) permits the tallied votes to be presented to the corporation without it being possible for the corporation to identify how each member voted. (7) 5837026 v3 section 3.9 procedure. the chair of a meeting of members will conduct the meeting and determine the procedure to be followed at the meeting. the chairs decision on all matters or things shall be conclusive and binding upon the meeting of members. section 3.10 manner of voting. subject to the act and other applicable law, any question at a meeting of members shall be decided by a show of hands, unless a ballot on the question is required or demanded. subject to the act and other applicable law, the chair of the meeting may require a ballot or any person who is present and entitled to vote may demand a ballot on any question at a meeting of members. the requirement or demand for a ballot may be made either before or after any vote on the question by a show of hands. a ballot will be taken in the manner the chair of the meeting directs. a requirement or demand for a ballot may be withdrawn at any time prior to the taking of the ballot. the result of such ballot shall be the decision of the members upon the question. in the case of a vote by a show of hands, each person present who is entitled to vote has one vote. if a ballot is taken, each person present who is entitled to vote is entitled to the one vote. section 3.11 votes to govern. any question at a meeting of members shall be decided by a majority of the votes cast on the question unless the articles, the by-laws, the act or other applicable law requires otherwise. in case of an equality of votes either when the vote is by a show of hands or when the vote is by a ballot, the chair of the meeting is not entitled to a second or casting vote. section 3.12 adjournment. the chair of any meeting of members may, with the consent of the persons present who are entitled to vote at the meeting, adjourn the meeting from time to time and place to place, subject to such conditions as such persons may decide. any adjourned meeting is duly constituted if held in accordance with the terms of the adjournment and a quorum is present at the adjourned meeting. any business may be considered and transacted at any adjourned meeting which might have been considered and transacted at the original meeting of members. article 4 board of directors section 4.1 number and qualifications. until changed in accordance with the act, the number of directors within the minimum and maximum number of directors specified in the articles is determined to be fifteen (15) of whom: (a) one (1) director shall be a president of a university; (8) 5837026 v3 (b) one (1) director shall be a president of a college; (c) three (3) directors shall be from a university, one of whom is currently a vice-president students (or equivalent), one of whom is a vice-president academic/provost, and one of whom is currently a registrar; (d) three (3) directors shall be from a college, one of whom is currently a vicepresident students (or equivalent), one of whom is a vice-president academic/provost, and one of whom is currently a registrar; (e) two (2) directors shall be students, one of whom is currently enrolled in a college and one of whom is currently enrolled in a university and each of whom has experienced a transfer between institutions or has educational experience in both a college and a university; (f) one (1) director shall be a graduate of the ontario postsecondary system who has transfer experience or educational experience in both a college and a university; (g) two (2) directors shall be representatives of the public, one of whom has experience in the ontario secondary school system related to guidance and career education work and one of whom has experience in financial, audit, governance, risk management or government relations; and (h) two (2) directors shall be from organizations recognized under the indigenous institute act, 2017, one of whom is from an indigenous institute and one of whom is from the iaesc. section 4.2 ex officio directors. in addition to the number of directors set forth in section 4.1, the following shall serve as ex officio directors, who shall be entitled to attend, but not to vote, at all meetings of the board of directors: (a) the executive director of the corporation; (b) the executive director of ouac; (c) the executive director of ocas; (d) the vice-president, research and policy, from co; (e) the senior director, policy and analysis, from cou; and (f) the executive director of oolc. (9) 5837026 v3 section 4.3 first directors. at the first election of directors following the approval of this by-law, the members shall elect directors whose term of office shall be one (1), two (2) or three (3) years in order to establish stability within the board of directors determined as follows: (a) for the six (6) directors qualified under section 4.1 (a), (b), (c) and (d), the representatives of the colleges and the representatives of the universities shall designate which of their respective members shall serve for one (1), two (2) or three (3) year terms; (b) for the three (3) directors qualified under section 4.1 (e) and (f), the election to a one (1), two (2) or three (3) year term shall be done by drawing of lots; and (c) for the two (2) directors qualified under section 4.1 (g), the election to a two (2) or three (3) year term shall be done by drawing of lots. section 4.4 election and term. the members will elect directors yearly at an annual meeting of members. except for the terms of the first directors as set out in section 4.3, the directors term of office is for three (3) years from the date of the meeting at which they are elected or until their successors are elected. retiring directors, if qualified, shall be eligible for re-election for an additional three (3) year term. directors may be elected for a maximum of two (2) consecutive three (3) year terms, following which, at least five (5) years must elapse before his or her re-election to the board. section 4.5 remuneration and expenses. the directors serve as such without remuneration except those qualified under section 4.1 (e); provided that directors may be reimbursed for travelling and other out-ofpocket expenses properly incurred by them in attending directors meetings, committee meetings and members meetings and in the performance of other duties of directors of the corporation. the directors may award remuneration to any director undertaking special services on the corporations behalf beyond the services ordinarily required of a director by the corporation. a director may be employed by or provide services to the corporation otherwise than as a director. such a director may receive remuneration for such employment or services. directors qualified under section 4.1 (e) shall be eligible for an honorarium, the amount of which shall be set by the board of directors. (10) 5837026 v3 article 5 directors' meetings section 5.1 place of meeting. meetings of the board of directors may be held at any time and place to be determined by the directors. section 5.2 calling of meetings. the co-chairs or any two or more directors may call a meeting of the directors at any time. meetings of directors will be held at the time and place as the person(s) calling the meeting determine. section 5.3 regular meetings. the directors may establish regular meetings of directors. any resolution establishing such meetings will specify the dates, times and places of the regular meetings and will be sent to each director. section 5.4 notice of meetings. subject to this section, notice of the time and place of each meeting of directors will be given to each director not less than 48 hours before the time of the meeting. no notice of meeting is required for any regularly scheduled meeting except where the act requires the notice to specify the purpose of, or the business to be transacted at, the meeting. provided a quorum of directors is present, a meeting of directors may be held, without notice, immediately following the annual meeting of members. the accidental omission to give notice of any meeting of directors to, or the nonreceipt of any notice by, any person, or any error in any notice not affecting the substance of the notice, does not invalidate any resolution passed or any action taken at the meeting. section 5.5 waiver of notice. a director may waive notice of a meeting of directors, any irregularity in a notice of meeting of directors or any irregularity in a meeting of directors. such waiver may be given in any manner and may be given at any time either before or after the meeting to which the waiver relates. waiver of any notice of a meeting of directors cures any irregularity in the notice, any default in the giving of the notice and any default in the timeliness of the notice. section 5.6 voting rights. at all meetings of the board of directors, every question shall be decided by a majority of the votes cast. each director is authorized to exercise one (1) vote at all meetings of the board of directors. ex officio directors are not entitled to vote. in case of an equality of votes, the chair of the meeting is not entitled to a second or casting vote. section 5.7 meeting by telephonic, electronic or other communication facility. if all the directors of the corporation present at or participating in a meeting of directors consent, a director may participate in such meeting by means of a telephonic, electronic or other communication facility. a director participating in a meeting by such (11) 5837026 v3 means is deemed to be present at the meeting. any consent is effective whether given before or after the meeting to which it relates and may be given with respect to all meetings of the directors. section 5.8 quorum. a majority of the directors (excluding ex officio directors) in office, from time to time, constitutes a quorum for meetings of the board of directors. when a quorum is present at a meeting of the board of directors, the directors may exercise all or any of the authorities, powers, and discretions by or under the by-laws of the corporation. article 6 protection of directors, officers and others section 6.1 limitation of liability. subject to the act and other applicable law, no director or officer is liable for: (i) the acts, omissions, receipts, failures, neglects or defaults of any other director, officer or employee; (ii) joining in any receipt or other act for conformity; (iii) any loss, damage or expense happening to the corporation through the insufficiency or deficiency of title to any property acquired for or on behalf of the corporation; (iv) the insufficiency or deficiency of any security in or upon which any of the monies of the corporation shall be invested; (v) any loss or damage arising from the bankruptcy, insolvency or tortious acts of any person with whom any of the monies, securities or effects of the corporation shall be deposited; or (vi) any loss occasioned by any error of judgment or oversight on his part, or for any other loss, damage or misfortune whatever which shall happen in the execution of the duties of his office or in relation to his office. section 6.2 indemnity. the corporation will indemnify to the fullest extent permitted by the act (i) any director or officer of the corporation, (ii) any former director or officer of the corporation, (iii) any individual who acts or acted at the corporations request as a director or officer, or in a similar capacity, of another entity, and (iv) their respective heirs and legal representatives. the corporation is authorized to execute agreements in favour of any of the foregoing persons evidencing the terms of the indemnity. nothing in this by-law limits the right of any person entitled to indemnity to claim indemnity apart from the provisions of this by-law. section 6.3 insurance. the corporation may purchase and maintain insurance for the benefit of any person referred to in section 6.2 against such liabilities and in such amounts as the directors may determine and as are permitted by the act. (12) 5837026 v3 article 7 officers section 7.1 appointment. the board of directors shall appoint two (2) co-chairs, one of whom shall be the president of a university, being the director qualified under section 4.1 (a), and the other of whom shall be the president of a college, being the director qualified under section 4.1 (b), to hold office from the date of their appointment and for the duration of their term as a director of the corporation or until their successors are appointed in their stead. the board of directors may annually or more often as may be required, appoint a secretary, a treasurer and any such other officers as the board of directors may determine, including one or more assistants to any of the officers so appointed. any two offices may be held by the same person. except for the co-chairs, officers need not be directors or members. section 7.2 term. except for the co-chairs, the officers of the corporation hold office for one (1) year from the date of appointment or until their successors are appointed in their stead. section 7.3 removal. officers are subject to removal by resolution of the board of directors at any time. article 8 duties of officers section 8.1 co-chairs. the co-chairs shall (i) alternate presiding at all meetings of the board of directors; (ii) alternate presiding at all meetings of the members; (iii) have the general and active management of the affairs of the corporation; and (iv) see that all orders and resolutions of the board of directors are carried into effect. section 8.2 treasurer. the treasurer has the custody of the funds and securities of the corporation and keeps full and accurate accounts of all assets, liabilities, receipts and disbursements of the corporation in the books belonging to the corporation and deposits all monies, securities and other valuable effects in the name and to the credit of the corporation in such chartered bank or trust company, or, in the case of securities, in such registered dealer in securities as may be designated by the board of directors from time to time. he or she disburses the funds of the corporation as may be directed by proper authority taking proper vouchers for such disbursements, and renders to the co-chairs and directors at the regular meeting of the board of directors, or whenever they may require it, an accounting of all the transactions and a statement of the financial position, of the corporation. he or she also performs such other duties as may from time to time be directed by the board of directors. (13) 5837026 v3 section 8.3 secretary. the secretary attends all meetings and acts as secretary thereof and records all votes and minutes of all proceedings in the books to be kept for that purpose. the secretary gives or causes to be given notice of all meetings of the members and of the board of directors. the secretary is under the supervision of and performs such other duties as the board of directors or the co-chairs may prescribe. section 8.4 duties of officers may be delegated. unless the directors determine otherwise, an officer has all powers and authority that are incident to his or her office. an officer will have such other powers, authority, functions and duties that are prescribed or delegated, from time to time, by the directors. the directors may, from time to time, vary, add to or limit the powers and duties of any officer. article 9 executive committee section 9.1 number and composition. the board of directors may appoint an executive committee composed of a minimum of three (3) directors, two (2) of whom shall be the directors serving as co-chairs of the corporation. any executive committee member may be removed by a majority vote of the board of directors. section 9.2 powers. the executive committee exercises such powers as are authorized by the board of directors, except those powers that, under the act, a committee of directors has no authority to exercise. section 9.3 proceedings. meetings of the executive committee may be held at any place in or outside canada. at all meetings of the executive committee, every question shall be decided by a majority of the votes cast on the question. unless otherwise determined by the directors, the executive committee may make, amend or repeal rules and procedures to regulate its meetings including: (i) fixing its quorum, provided that quorum may not be less than a majority of its members; (ii) procedures for calling meetings; (iii) requirements for providing notice of meetings; (iv) selecting a chair for a meeting; and (v) determining whether the chair will have a deciding vote in the event there is an equality of votes cast on a question. subject to the executive committee establishing rules and procedures to regulate its meetings, section 5.1 to section 5.8, inclusive apply to the executive committee, with such changes as are necessary. (14) 5837026 v3 article 10 nominating committee section 10.1 nominating committee. the board of directors shall appoint a nominating committee consisting of (a) not less than three (3) directors of whom one (1) shall be the director qualified under section 4.1 (a) or (c), and/or one (1) shall be the director qualified under section 4.1 (b) or (d), and/or one (1) shall be the director qualified under section 4.1 (h); (b) a representative of the cou; and (c) a representative of the co. one of the two co-chairs shall, if present, act as chair at all meetings of the nominating committee. the nominating committee shall meet no later than two (2) months prior to the annual meeting of members each year to recommend not less than the number of directors determined in accordance with section 4.1 of the by-laws and otherwise qualified in accordance with the provisions of this by-law and the act, for election as directors at the annual meeting of members. any persons recommended by the nominating committee for election to the board shall be approved by the board of directors before the names of such persons are submitted to the members at the annual meeting of members and the board of directors shall have the power to delete any name from or add any name to the list of names recommended by the nominating committee. section 10.2 proceedings. meetings of the nominating committee may be held at any place in or outside canada. at all meetings of the nominating committee, every question shall be decided by a majority of the votes cast on the question. unless otherwise determined by the directors or by this by-law, the nominating committee may make, amend or repeal rules and procedures to regulate its meetings including: (i) fixing its quorum, provided that quorum may not be less than a majority of its members; (ii) procedures for calling meetings; (iii) requirements for providing notice of meetings; (iv) selecting a chair for a meeting; and (v) determining whether the chair will have a deciding vote in the event there is an equality of votes cast on a question. subject to the nominating committee establishing rules and procedures to regulate its meetings, section 5.1 to section 5.8, inclusive apply to the nominating committee, with such changes as are necessary. (15) 5837026 v3 article 11 committees section 11.1 other committees. in addition to the executive committee and the nominating committee, the board of directors may appoint any other committee or committees, as it deems necessary or appropriate, for such purposes and with such powers as the board shall see fit. any such committee may formulate its own rules of procedure, subject to such regulations or directions as the board may from time to time make. any committee member may be removed by resolution of the board of directors. committee members shall receive no remuneration for serving as such, but are entitled to reasonable expenses incurred in the exercise of their duty. article 12 execution of instruments section 12.1 execution of instruments. contracts, documents and instruments may be signed on behalf of the corporation, either manually or by facsimile or by electronic means, (i) by any two of the directors and officers or (ii) by any other person authorized by the directors from time to time (each person referred to in (i) and (ii) is an authorized signatory). voting rights for securities held by the corporation may be exercised on behalf of the corporation by any two authorized signatories. in addition, the directors may, from time to time, authorize any person or persons (i) to sign contracts, documents and instruments generally on behalf of the corporation or to sign specific contracts, documents or instruments on behalf of the corporation and (ii) to exercise voting rights for securities held by the corporation generally or to exercise voting rights for specific securities held by the corporation. any authorized signatory, or other person authorized to sign any contract, document or instrument on behalf of the corporation, may affix the corporate seal to any contract, document or instrument when required. as used in this section, the phrase contracts, documents and instruments means any and all kinds of contracts, documents and instruments in written or electronic form, including cheques, drafts, orders, guarantees, notes, acceptances and bills of exchange, deeds, mortgages, hypothecs, charges, conveyances, transfers, assignments, powers of attorney, agreements, proxies, releases, receipts, discharges and certificates and all other paper writings or electronic writings. article 13 financial year section 13.1 financial year. unless otherwise ordered by the board of directors the financial year of the corporation ends on the 31st day of march in each year. (16) 5837026 v3 article 14 miscellaneous section 14.1 notices any notice, communication or document required to be given, delivered or sent by the corporation to any director, officer, member or public accountant is sufficiently given, delivered or sent if delivered personally, or if delivered to the persons recorded address, or if mailed to the person at the persons recorded address by prepaid mail, or if otherwise communicated by electronic means permitted by the act. the directors may establish procedures to give, deliver or send a notice, communication or document to any director, officer, member or public accountant by any means of communication permitted by the act or other applicable law. in addition, any notice, communication or document may be delivered by the corporation in the form of an electronic document. section 14.2 computation of time in computing the date when notice must be given when a specified number of days' notice of any meeting or other event is required, the date of giving the notice is excluded and the date of the meeting or other event is included. section 14.3 amendment. in accordance with the act, a special resolution of the members is required to make any amendment to section 2.1, section 3.3 or section 3.8 of this by-law. article 15 effective date section 15.1 effective date. this by-law comes into force when made by the directors in accordance with the act. section 15.2 repeal. all previous by-laws of the corporation are repealed as of the coming into force of this by-law. such repeal does not affect the previous operation of any by-law so repealed or affect the validity of any act done or right, privilege, obligation or liability acquired or incurred under any such by-law prior to its repeal. this by-law was made by resolution of the directors on _________________ (revised as of august 2022). secretary this by-law was confirmed by ordinary resolution of the members on _________________ (revised as of september 2022). (17) 5837026 v3 secretary (18) 5837026 v3

ursula mccloy, kathleen williams, stephen childs & kevin du manoir transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities december 2019 centre for research in student mobility senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities list of contacts ursula mccloy director, centre for research in student mobility seneca college ursula.mccloy@senecacollege.ca kathleen williams research analyst, centre for research in student mobility seneca college kate.williams@senecacollege.ca stephen childs senior institutional analyst, surveys and special projects office of institutional planning and analysis york university sechilds@yorku.ca kevin du manoir senior admission data analyst undergraduate admissions and recruitment ryerson university kevin.dumanoir@ryerson.ca 1 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities acknowledgements wed like to thank our partners in ryersons registrars office, including ron ferguson, barbara cecchetto, and charmaine hack. particular thanks to ron ferguson for several informative discussions and for leading the initiative at ryerson. at york, richard smith, director of yorks office of institutional analysis and planning, is thanked for leading the initiative at york university. paula green, administrator of the york seneca partnership and victoria baker, manager of senecas degree and credit transfer office (dcto) are thanked for providing expertise on transfer pathways, and reviewing the report. victoria baker also shared data on behalf of the dcto. henry decock, associate vp, academic partnerships, and karen murkar, chair, school of accounting & financial services at seneca, are thanked for their advisement throughout the project and their review of the final report. a particular thanks go to a variety of data providers across seneca, including steven budinszky, robert lerit, daniel smith, susan lapoint, paul armstrong, and limin chen for contributing to the updating of our linked seneca dataset. pre-2015, mustafizur rahman, john meskes, and michael cunningham of senecas information technology services department supported data extraction from senecas student information system. dilys lehman is thanked for editing the final report, as well as matthew duncan for the report layout. this project was funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer. 2 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table of contents list of contacts ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................................................ 2 executive summary ............................................................................................................................................................................ 7 introduction........................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 literature review............................................................................................................................................................................... 12 college to university ................................................................................................................................................................... 12 university to college ................................................................................................................................................................... 13 transfer agreements and policies for seneca business students .......................................................................... 14 methodology ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 17 results ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22 descriptive analysis ................................................................................................................................................................... 22 pathway analysis ......................................................................................................................................................................... 43 regression results ...................................................................................................................................................................... 54 discussion and conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................... 70 references ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 73 appendix a: program and faculty groupings ................................................................................................................ 74 appendix b. regression model-building ........................................................................................................................... 76 appendix c: reading and math assessment scores ................................................................................................... 77 3 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table of figures figure 1. data sources included in senecas linked student-level dataset ................................................................ 18 figure 2. number of transfers by pathway............................................................................................................................ 23 figure 3. percentage of students at college entry aspiring to attend university after college graduation, by transfer pathway ........................................................................................................................................................................ 26 figure 4. dcto use among study population by transfer pathway and graduation status prior to transfer .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 26 figure 5. seneca reading comprehension assessment scores upon seneca entry, by transfer pathway .. 28 figure 6. grades at sending institution prior to transfer, by transfer pathway and graduation status ...... 30 figure 7. proportion of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson by gender, age, and status in canada at seneca entry ...................................................................................................................................... 31 figure 8. proportion of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson by seneca first business program area and credential ..................................................................................................................................... 31 figure 9. proportion of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson by seneca-entry assessment scores ............................................................................................................................................................................ 32 figure 10. grades at the receiving institution after transfer by pathway and graduation status .................. 39 figure 11. academic outcomes at ryerson after transfer from seneca, by seneca gpa ................................... 41 figure 12. academic outcomes at york after transfer from seneca, by seneca gpa.......................................... 41 figure 13. academic outcomes at seneca after transfer from york, by york gpa.............................................. 42 figure 14. academic outcomes at seneca after transfer from ryerson, by ryerson gpa ............................... 42 4 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities list of tables table 1. york universitys block transfer credit pathways by seneca program/terms completed ................ 15 table 2. ryerson admission requirements for transfer from seneca .......................................................................... 16 table 3. accuplacer proficiency levels .................................................................................................................................... 20 table 4. grading schemes at york, ryerson and seneca ................................................................................................ 20 table 5. socio-demographic characteristics of students by transfer pathway ..................................................... 24 table 6. top reasons for choosing seneca by transfer pathway ................................................................................. 25 table 7. high school academic background by transfer pathway and graduation status prior to transfer .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 27 table 8. algebra and arithmetic assessment testing results by transfer pathway .............................................. 29 table 9. proportion of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson by selected student characteristics ................................................................................................................................................................... 33 table 10. amount of total transfer credit provided to seneca business students transferring to york, by credits earned at seneca and graduation status prior to transfer .............................................................................. 34 table 11. amount of total credit provided to seneca business students transferring to ryerson, by credits earned at seneca and graduation status prior to transfer ............................................................................................. 34 table 12. highest credential enrolled in at york and ryerson by pathway, pre- and post-transfer from seneca ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 table 13. seneca business credential of entry by transfer pathway and graduation status prior to transfer .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 35 table 14. york program of entry by transfer pathway ..................................................................................................... 36 table 15. ryerson program of entry by transfer pathway .............................................................................................. 37 table 16. seneca program area of entry by transfer pathway ...................................................................................... 38 table 17. enrollment status one year after transfer by pathway and graduation status at the sending institution ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 39 table 18. enrollment status two years after transfer by pathway and graduation status at the sending institution .............................................................................................................................................................................................40 table 19. academic outcomes at university for seneca transfer students by estimated transfer credit received ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 43 table 20. number of seneca transfers by program for ryersons direct entry and degree completion pathways, graduates of three-year business administration diplomas ..................................................................... 44 table 21. sending and receiving gpa of seneca transfers in ryersons business direct-entry and degree completion pathways, graduates of senecas three-year business diplomas ........................................................ 45 table 22. graduation and retention rate of seneca transfers in ryersons business direct-entry and degree completion pathways, graduates of senecas three-year business diplomas ........................................ 46 table 23. number of seneca business graduates who transferred to york business and related programs, by program area................................................................................................................................................................................ 47 table 24. sending and receiving gpa of seneca transfers to yorks business and related programs, graduates of senecas business programs ............................................................................................................................ 48 5 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 25. graduation and retention rates of seneca transfers to yorks business and related degrees, graduates of senecas business credentials .......................................................................................................................... 48 table 26. graduation and retention rate of seneca transfers to york's bachelor of commerce, graduates of senecas two- and three-year business diplomas ......................................................................................................... 49 table 27. pathways into seneca's commerce degrees from university (york and ryerson combined) .... 50 table 28. academic performance pre- and post-transfer to a seneca business degree program from university (york/ryerson) ............................................................................................................................................................ 50 table 29. graduation and retention rate of university transfer students to seneca's business degree programs by last program at university compared to seneca non-transfer students whose first program was a seneca business degree .................................................................................................................................................... 51 table 30. pathways to seneca business graduate certificate programs by university and university program area ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 52 table 31. academic performance of students pre- and post-transfer to a seneca business graduate certificate program by transfer pathway ............................................................................................................................... 53 table 32. first-year graduation rate for students transferring from york/ryerson to seneca's business graduate certificate programs .................................................................................................................................................... 54 table 33. regression results: propensity of seneca students to transfer to university ..................................... 56 table 34. regression results: grades at seneca for students transferring from york/ryerson and nontransfer seneca students ............................................................................................................................................................... 58 table 35. regression results: odds of graduating on time at seneca for students transferring from york/ryerson and non-transfer seneca students ..............................................................................................................60 table 36. regression results: grades at seneca for students transferring from york/ryerson ..................... 62 table 37. regression results: odds of graduating on time at seneca for students transferring from york/ryerson ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 65 table 38: regression results: odds of achieving a b average or above at university for students transferring from seneca to york/ryerson ........................................................................................................................... 66 table 39. regression results: odds of first-year retention at university for students transferring from seneca to york/ryerson................................................................................................................................................................ 68 table 40. regression results: odds of graduation within two years after transfer to university for students transferring from seneca to york/ryerson ........................................................................................................ 69 6 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities executive summary students in toronto, ontario, have several options close to the city when considering postsecondary institutions to attend, including, but not limited to, york university, ryerson university, and seneca college. the proximity of these and other post-secondary institutions in toronto facilitates the movement of students between institutions and the creation of pathways. recently, oncats business transfer committee, which is composed of college and university representatives from business faculties across ontario, set a priority to gather data and create a report to share widely on the success of transfer students in business. to address that priority, this study investigates the academic success of students who were enrolled in a seneca college business program during 2012 through 2017, who either transferred to seneca from york university or ryerson university, or transferred from seneca to york or ryerson. research questions include: 1. what share of senecas business students, including non-graduates and graduates, continue to a university program (including graduate degrees)? what share of seneca business entrants transfer from a university program (including graduate certificates)? 2. what is the socio-demographic and academic profile of students who transfer in each direction? how does it compare with the profile of seneca business students who have not transferred? 3. how well do transfer students perform academically after transfer? what are the sociodemographic, program and academic characteristics of those who are successful after transfer? 4. how well are students performing within transfer agreements and other high-volume pathways? does the amount of transfer credit provided have an effect on student success? methods the sample for the current study includes all seneca students who enrolled in a business program at seneca during 2012-13 to 2016-17 (n=24,610). the study sample was shared with york and ryerson who, using a matching procedure based on students personal identifiers, identified which of these students had enrolled at each respective institution at any time from 2007 to 2018. for each matched student, the universities then extracted detailed student data including: the program(s) enrolled in, credits attempted and earned per term, amount of transfer credit awarded upon university entry, term and cumulative gpa, graduation status, and program of graduation. seneca merged the extracted university data with the colleges previously created linked data file for all seneca students. this linked dataset includes data on student demographics, seneca grades and enrollment status, student survey responses at entry, math and english testing results, high school records, and neighbourhood income data from the 2006 census. this study presents the results of both descriptive and regression techniques. 7 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities results of the 24,610 students enrolled in a seneca business program between 2012 and 2017, approximately 11% attended either york or ryerson between 200607 and 201718, and 0.2% attended all three institutions. in total, 1,233 transferred from york to seneca, 392 from ryerson to seneca, 701 from seneca to york, and 395 from seneca to ryerson. student profile overall, senecas business student population is older, with only 43% of students starting at age 20 or under. the share of seneca students age 20 and under was much larger for those who transferred to york (71%) and ryerson (58%). in contrast, the share of students age 20 or under entering seneca from york or ryerson was much lower, at 42% and 20% respectively. business programs at seneca attract large numbers of international students, with an overall share of 36% for the years studied. a high percentage of students who transferred from seneca business to york were also international (42%) compared to the share who transferred to ryerson (42% vs. 11%). the large majority of students transferring from york or ryerson to seneca were canadian citizens (84% and 89%, respectively). only 12% of transfers from york and 6% from ryerson were international students. two thirds of students who eventually transferred to ryerson or york had plans for university upon college entry. university graduates entering seneca primarily enrolled in graduate certificate programs (87%), whereas those who did not complete their university degree entered a range of credentials at seneca, with 18% choosing a college degree. of seneca students continuing on to york or ryerson, an overwhelming share entered business or related programs (82% at york, 95% at ryerson), whereas university students entering seneca came from various university programs. only 32% of students entering seneca graduated from university pre-transfer, whereas 78% of seneca students who transferred to york or ryerson had graduated pretransfer. york and ryerson students who came to seneca without a degree had poor grades, with over two thirds obtaining an average of d or below prior to transfer. in contrast, the university degree-holders who transferred had much stronger grades, with 71% of ryerson transfers and 47% of york transfers having a university average of b or above. of seneca students who transferred to university, 58% had a seneca average of b or above, with graduates having higher averages than non-graduates. propensity to transfer to university: older students, international students, and those who reported english as their first language, were less likely to transfer to york or ryerson. students in three-year diploma programs were most likely to transfer compared to students in the other credentials, whereas students from hospitality and tourism programs were less likely to transfer compared with students from most other program areas. overall, academically stronger students were more likely to continue on to university: students who took university preparatory courses in high school, obtained good grades at seneca, and performed well in math assessment testing at seneca entry, were more likely to continue on to ryerson or york. as would be expected, having plans for university at college entry, or receiving transfer advising at senecas degree and credit transfer office (dcto), greatly increased the rate of transfer. 8 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities comparison of transfer and non-transfer seneca students: students entering business programs from university have stronger high school grades and assessment scores than other nontransfer students, and are more likely to be retained and obtain good grades at seneca. however, when these background characteristics, as well as socio-demographic characteristics, are controlled for in the regression models, university students perform similarly to other seneca students. success after transfer: few factors were found to significantly influence success for students who transfer to york or ryerson: students who scored higher on math assessment upon seneca entry and who had stronger seneca gpas (pre-transfer) obtained higher university gpas and had higher odds of being retained within a year of transferring. the lack of effect of socio-demographic characteristics of interest (such as gender, age, status in canada, first language) on post-transfer success is interesting; these characteristics may have directly influenced students pre-transfer gpa and academic success, but had little or no direct effect on their post-transfer academic success. at seneca, students transferring from york or ryerson obtained higher gpas if they were female, came from a middle-income rather than a low-income neighbourhood, and had a parent with a degree. academic background, including higher hs grades, english and math assessment testing, and university gpa were all associated with a higher gpa at seneca. similar factors were significant in the odds of graduating on-time, however, income and parents education, and english assessment scores were not significant in the regression models. pathway analysis: for students entering seneca from york or ryerson, the selected pathways of interest were those entering a degree or graduate certificate program in business. overall, 12% of senecas business degree students had transferred from york or ryerson; over half them had pursued a business or related degree at university. these students had previously struggled in university, with 85% obtaining an average of d or below, and thus appear to be using the college degree pathway as a second chance at acquiring a degree. at seneca they obtained lower grades than the non-transfer students (gpa of 2.3 vs. 2.5 for non-transfers) and had a higher withdrawal rate at three years after program entry (36% vs. 28%). in contrast, students entering senecas graduate certificate programs in business had good grades at university and performed very well at seneca in terms of graduation rates and grades; 84% graduated within one year, with a gpa of 3.6 /4. students were primarily graduates from the social sciences and humanities (77%), with 58% entering one of two seneca business programs: human resources management and public relations corporate communications. established pathways from seneca business diplomas to commerce degrees were selected for in-depth analysis of seneca business students who transferred to ryerson or york. overall, these long-standing pathways appear to be functioning well. the seneca-to-ryerson business pathway focuses on graduates of three-year business diploma programs who for the most part can enter the third year of one of several business management majors, or enter a standalone two-year degree completion program in business technology management. despite taking, on average, a reduced course load, 43% obtained a ryerson degree within two years, and 73% had a degree within three years of entering. at york, pathways to commerce degrees attract more seneca graduates of two-year programs, and students on average take a reduced course load. overall, 24% of seneca graduates of two-year business programs completed a commerce degree at york within two years, and 40% within three years. in 9 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities comparison, 29% of the three-year diploma graduates completed their degree at york within two years, and 35% within three years. regression models using the whole population of students who transferred to university, irrespective of pathway, showed that it was the amount of credit or advanced standing, as well as seneca pre-transfer grades, that explained who graduated within two years. there was no institutional effect, indicating that the transfer policy was the key determinant. conclusions the significant bi-directional movement of students between seneca college and major neighbouring universities, york and ryerson, is noteworthy, reflective of longstanding institutional partnerships. key drivers of success post-transfer (gpa and retention) include a students gpa prior to transfer and math assessment scores, regardless of pathway (university to college or college to university). overall, the results suggest there are two populations of students taking the university-tocollege pathway: (1) those who did poorly in university and did not graduate and are seeking a second chance at a post-secondary credential and 2) those who are successful university graduates and are choosing one-year graduate certificates with specialized training to prepare them for the labour market. seneca business students transferring to university are, primarily, academically strong students who are continuing in business by laddering their seneca diploma to a university degree. 10 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities introduction toronto has the largest number and highest concentration of post-secondary institutions in canada, including four universities and four publicly funded colleges. many toronto students move between institutions and sectors within the city, in a large part due to the proximity and vast array of post-secondary options. two institutions in particular, ryerson university and york university, have had policies in place for the past 40 to 50 years to facilitate the transfer of students from college to university and have historically led the province in pathway options, receiving the highest share of college transfer students (mccloy, steffler, & decock, 2017a). less is known about the flow of transfer students from toronto universities to colleges. business programs have been a focus of both yorks and ryersons development of collegeto-university pathways. recently, oncats business transfer committee, which includes college and university representatives from business faculties across ontario, set a priority to gather data and create a report to share widely on the success of transfer students in business. in order to address that priority, this study aims to track the mobility patterns and success of seneca college business students for the years 2012 through 2017. several types of academic business program pathways between york, ryerson and seneca are investigated. pathways of interest include: 1. those likely geared to the labour market such as combining two types of postsecondary education (pse) credentials, particularly a degree and college graduate certificate, 2. credential completion such as starting a program at one institution, transferring credit, and completing at another institution, and 3. admission pathways such as not transferring credit but being eligible for admission at another institution. among students who do not complete their first credential prior to transfer are those who may have been academically unsuccessful, or did not find the right fit at their first institution, and therefore chose to switch programs and/or institutions. the student records at the sending institution may have shown these students as having withdrawn, and similarly, the records at the receiving institution may not have shown them to be transfers, especially if the students were not eligible for transfer credit. transfer students who are not eligible for transfer credit may include those who graduated from college access or preparatory programs, or from other one-year college certificate programs, and subsequently enrolled in university with little or no credit. therefore, the goal of this study is to follow students, using institutional administrative databases, who either start a program at university and move to a seneca business program, or start a seneca business program and continue on to university. research questions include: 1. what share of senecas business students, including leavers and graduates, continue on to a university program (including graduate degrees)? what share of seneca business entrants transfer from a university program (including graduate certificates)? 2. what is the socio-demographic and academic profile of those who transfer in each direction? how does it compare with the profile of seneca business students who have not transferred? 11 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities 3. how well do transfer students perform academically after transfer? what are the socio-demographic, program, and academic characteristics of those who are successful after transfer? 4. how well are students performing within transfer agreements and other high-volume pathways? does the amount of transfer credit provided have an effect on student success? literature review college to university transfer student profile there has been extensive research looking to understand the profile of students who transfer from college to university, both in ontario and specifically from seneca college. at the provincial level, an analysis of the key performance indicators (kpi) graduate survey shows that college graduates reporting a disability are only slightly less likely to transfer to university than those without a disability, and college graduates who are indigenous do not differ in their transfer rates from non-indigenous graduates (williams & mccloy, 2019). in addition, college graduates who are less likely to transfer to university are older, from a rural community, do not live nearby a university, are from a low-income neighbourhood, are international, or attended college part-time. college graduates of preparatory/upgrading and community service programs are more likely to transfer to university than graduates of business programs, who in turn are more likely to transfer than graduates of all other program areas at seneca. graduates of two- and three-year college programs are more likely to transfer to university than graduates of one-year credentials (williams & mccloy, 2019). research within seneca college has delved deeply into the academic, motivational, and service-usage factors that may influence whether a student transfers to university directly after college graduation. previous research has found that, in addition to the characteristics reported at the provincial level, the most important driver of whether a graduate transfers to university is having a strong academic background, including both high school and college grades as well as english and math skills at college entry (mccloy, steffler, bain-greenwood & decock, 2017; mccloy & williams, 2019). having a parent with a degree also slightly increases the likelihood of transfer to university (steffler, mccloy, & decock, 2018). students at college entry who indicate they have plans for university after graduation, and students who receive transfer advising at college entry, are far more likely to transfer, even when controlling for aspirations for transfer (mccloy, baker, williams, & decock, 2017). analysis of the ontario graduate satisfaction survey has shown that transfer rates from college to university have been declining, in part due to an increase in the colleges provision of degrees (mccloy, steffler, & decock, 2017a). even so, transfer rates from seneca to york and ryerson remain significant, particularly within business program areas. previous research involving seneca and york, which entailed matching student records, found that between 2001 and 2012, 1,892 seneca business students subsequently enrolled at york (smith et al., 2016). more recent statistics from york indicate that between 2011 and 2015 approximately 116 students per year reported previous enrollment in a seneca business program (york seneca partnership, 2017). additionally, the kpi graduate survey shows that 82% of senecas business graduates who transfer to an ontario university attend ryerson or york. the survey also shows that of all graduates who transfer to ryerson from seneca, 70% come from 12 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities senecas business programs (crsm internal analysis). ryerson has also estimated that between 400 and 500 seneca students transferred to ryerson business programs during 2012 to 2017 (personal communication, ryerson registrars office). success after transfer a study of students who transferred from seneca to york between 2001 and 2012 presented evidence that those who ultimately graduated from york were academically stronger throughout both college and university (smith et al., 2016). overall, the average sending gpa at seneca was 73%, and the gpa obtained at york after transfer was 69%. those who eventually graduated from york had a sending gpa at seneca of 77% and a york gpa of 75%. in comparison, those who withdrew from york had a seneca average of 69% and a york average of 59%. several characteristics were associated with graduation at york after transfer from seneca. students who were female, younger, non-canadian citizens, and non-native english speakers were more likely to graduate. those who received more transfer credit were more likely to graduate, but those who entered business or natural and applied science were less likely to graduate. aspirations for university at the start of college and relatedness of program preand post-transfer had little or no influence on a students likelihood to graduate from york (smith et al., 2016). a follow-up study, which used a subset of the york-seneca dataset (developed for smith et al., 2016) to analyze transfer to york from senecas liberal arts transfer program, found similar results for the associations with graduation rate; however, high school grades were also included in the analysis. interestingly, only seneca grades and not high school grades were associated with subsequent grades at york (mccloy, steffler, & decock, 2017b). in a similar study at algonquin college, students who transferred from algonquin to the university of ottawa were more likely to persist to third year if they attended university fulltime versus part-time, and if they entered engineering rather than health sciences. pretransfer grades and graduation status before transfer were not included in the models (finnie et al., 2012). university to college between 2015 and 2018, 16% of incoming non-international students at seneca submitted a transcript from an ontario university; among these students, 65% had graduated with a university credential prior to seneca entry (bogers, cusson, & staddon, 2019). relative to other students at seneca, students from university were more likely to be female (62% vs. 53%), older (25% vs. 18% over 25 years of age), and from a high-income neighbourhood (46% vs. 34% from the highest tercile). overall, 32% entered a graduate certificate program and 42% entered a business program. students predominately came from toronto universities, with 29% from york, 22% from the university of toronto, and 13% from ryerson. with the growth in degree offerings at seneca, the option exists for seneca to be a receiving institution for students interested in transferring from a university degree program to a college degree program. overall, 15% of domestic students who entered a seneca degree program between 2015 and 2018 submitted an ontario university transcript (crsm internal 13 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities analysis). for the business degree programs, the share who submitted a university transcript was higher at 22%. the data on previous education from the submitted transcripts described above have only been in the seneca information system since 2015, and therefore little is known about the success of these transfer students. results from the seneca-york study (smith et al., 2016) for the years 2001 to 2012, showed that for students who transferred from york to seneca, the average pre-transfer gpa at york was 64% and the average post-transfer gpa at seneca was 76%. those who subsequently graduated from seneca had a higher average at york than those who did not (67% vs. 61%). regression analysis showed that, overall, higher grades preand post-transfer led to an increased likelihood of graduating at seneca. socio-demographic factors and the relatedness between the pre- and post-transfer programs had little effect on graduation at seneca. in the study investigating transfer students between algonquin and the university of ottawa, leaving rates by the second year at algonquin did not differ among those students who transferred from the university of ottawa and those who entered algonquin directly from high school (finnie et al., 2012). however, once controlling for high school grades (which were higher in the university-to-college transfers), student transfers from university were more likely to have withdrawn by the second year at college. transfer agreements and policies for seneca business students seneca to york york university primarily accepts transfer students though its block transfer credit policy, in which a transfer student receives a set amount of credit for the number of semesters previously completed, provided a gpa of 3.0 was obtained (3.3 for bachelor of commerce entry) and the program is aligned and at a sufficient academic level. all of senecas business diploma programs listed in table 1 are considered highly academic by york. graduates of three-year business administration diplomas can enter a bachelor of commerce degree and obtain 42 credits (almost 1.5 years of study), provided they have a gpa of 3.3 and a specified course in math at either the high school (mhf4u) or seneca level. graduates of senecas two-year business programs are eligible for 30 credits per year of study toward a bachelor of commerce degree. policy for block transfer credit is intended to facilitate access to yorks programs while reducing the need to assess individual applications or develop bilateral agreements with colleges. 14 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 1. york universitys block transfer credit pathways by seneca program/terms completed college program/terms completed potential credit from york three-year advanced diploma/6 or more terms 42 credits other york programs 3.0 gpa 5 terms two-year diploma/4 terms 36 credits 30 credits 3.0 gpa 3.0 gpa 3 terms one-year certificate/2 terms 24 credits 15 credits 3.0 gpa 3.0 gpa one term 9 credits 3.0 gpa bcom requirements 3.3 gpa & mhf4u* (advanced functions) or senecas mathematics of business and finance and the business statistics courses. eligible seneca programs (3-yr): business administration - entrepreneurship and small business business administration - financial planning business administration - human resources business administration - international business business administration - management business administration - marketing business administration - purchasing and supply management 3.3 gpa & mhf4u (advanced functions)* or senecas mathematics of business and finance and the business statistics courses. eligible seneca programs (2-yr): accounting and payroll business - insurance business - international business business - marketing financial services - client services business *mhf4u (advanced functions): grade 12 university preparatory math course in ontario hs curriculum. sources: seneca college website, https://www.senecacollege.ca/dcto/guide/york-university.html york university website, https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/transfer/college-transfers york also has two articulation agreements with seneca for the two-year accounting diploma and the three-year accounting and finance diploma offered through seneca. 1 although the agreements have undergone several iterations, currently, those who have graduated since 2015 from the three-year accounting and finance diploma and achieved a c or above in every course completed are eligible for a block of up to 57 credits toward the bachelor of commerce honours degree program at york (four years). for graduates of the two-year accounting diploma, those who have graduated since 2015 and maintained a c or above in every course completed are granted 45 credits toward the bachelor of commerce honours 1 see york universitys website at: https://futurestudents.yorku.ca/transfer/college-transfers/seneca 15 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities degree program at york. both articulation agreements require students to have graduated with a seneca gpa of 3.0 or higher to be eligible for transfer to york. seneca to ryerson ryersons approach to student pathways has focussed on general advanced-standing policies and procedures set by each faculty in conjunction with the registrar and admission offices rather than formal bilateral agreements. likely due to its polytechnic roots, ryerson considers itself to have a public responsibility to facilitate these transfers. these policies have been in existence for decades, likely since ryerson first had the authority to grant degrees in 1971 (personal communication, registrars office). over the years, faculty monitored the performance of transfer students, and designed and modified reach-back courses dependent on students performance, changes to the colleges curriculum, and the requirement that 50% of the program was delivered at ryerson (personal communication, registrars office, ryerson). ryerson considers itself to have particularly strong links with seneca and characterizes the colleges curriculum as an excellent fit. ryersons admission requirements, unlike yorks, require the transfer student to have graduated, and often from a three-year diploma program. the minimum recommended gpa is a 3.0 /4.0, but is generally higher, and can vary each year on a competitive basis. the admission requirements for transfer from a college of applied arts and technology (caat) to ryersons business programs are presented in table 2. table 2. ryerson admission requirements for transfer from seneca ryerson business degree program bachelor of commerce business technology (degree completion) 2-year duration bachelor of commerce business management (direct entry) admission requirements for transfer students from a caat graduate of any caat three-year business program graduate of any caat three-year business program enters third year of the program but may be required to take up to six additional reach-back courses dependent of specific course completion and grades from sending institution. direct entry major offerings include: economics and management science, entrepreneurship, global management, law and business, human resources management, marketing management and real estate management. majors in each of accounting and finance were discontinued for direct entry programs in 2015. bachelor of commerce retail seneca graduates of fashion business (two-year diploma) and management fashion business management (three-year diploma) with a gpa of (direct entry) 3.0 enter third semester with some reach-back courses required. graduates of the three-year program may be eligible for additional transfer credit. bachelor of commerce (honours) graduates of a variety of senecas hospitality and tourism hospitality and tourism management programs are eligible for admission and can apply for individual course transfer credit. sources: seneca college website: https://www.senecacollege.ca/dcto/guide/ryerson-university.html ryerson university website: https://www.ryerson.ca/admissions/undergraduate/requirements/transfer-student/ 16 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities university to seneca pathways primary pathways for both university students and graduates into ontario colleges include graduate certificate programs (which require a degree or diploma) as well as concurrent, collaborative, and accelerated diploma programs. within business, seneca offers a concurrent program with york in creative advertising and 17 graduate certificates in business. however, currently there are no block credit transfer pathways for university students transferring to seneca, 2 and therefore transfer credits from universities are assessed primarily on a courseby-course basis. university courses may be eligible for transfer credit at college if the student achieved the minimum grade requirement: a c for students transferring to non-degree programs and a c+ for students transferring to college degree programs. methodology study population the sample for the study included all seneca students who enrolled in a business program at seneca and earned at least one course credit during 201213 to 201617 (n = 24,610). students were excluded from the study sample if they had first enrolled at seneca prior to 2007. to match student records and combine data between seneca, york and ryerson, the three institutions became joint signatories to data sharing and confidentiality agreements. following approval from the research ethics board (reb), seneca securely transmitted to york and ryerson the personal identifiers (ontario education numbers [oen], full name, date of birth, postal code) for each of the 24,610 seneca business students included in this study. york and ryerson separately identified students within the study sample who had enrolled in a degree program at their respective institutions during 2007 to 2018 through a matching procedure based on students personal identifiers. the universities then extracted data for each matched student, including: the program(s) enrolled in, credits attempted and earned per term, amount of transfer credit awarded upon university entry (from seneca and other), first language (for york only), term and cumulative gpa, graduation status, and program of graduation. seneca merged the extracted data with the colleges previously created linked data file (figure 1) for all seneca students. this linked data file includes student demographics, seneca grades and enrollment status (from the college student information system), entering-student survey responses and placement test results, high school courses and grades, and neighbourhood income data from the 2006 census. there are several agreements for college diploma graduates to transfer to seneca degree programs, for both seneca and non-seneca students. 2 17 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 1. data sources included in senecas linked student-level dataset high school transcripts 2006 census grade 9+ (ocas via seneca sis) neighbourhood income, linked using permanent postal code matched file of students who attended york/ryerson (program, terms enrolled, credits attempted and earned/ term, transfer credit, term graduated, gpa) college student information system demographics, grades, and enrollment status linked studentlevel seneca dataset entering student survey & placement testing intentions after graduation, previous education, and parents education math and english assessment high school records for every seneca student who attended an ontario high school, the colleges student information system contains one record for every high school course taken in grades 9 through 12. the overall senior high school average was calculated from all grade 11 and 12 courses for those students who had a minimum of six grade 11 or 12 courses. the total number of failed grade 11 or 12 high school courses was calculated to better indicate whether the student struggled in high school. a variable was also generated to identify whether a student took mainly university preparation courses or college preparation courses, defined as mostly u and mostly c, respectively. 3 a student was classified as having taken mostly u high school courses if a minimum of half of the grade 11 or 12 courses taken were of a university (u) or university/college (m) type. neighbourhood income as an estimate of individual student household income, the students permanent postal code was matched to household income data from the 2006 census. 4 using the six-digit permanent postal code in the colleges student information system, each student from ontario was assigned to a 2006 dissemination area (da) using a 2011 statistics canada postal code conversion file (pccf). if a students permanent postal code was missing or invalid, the ontario high school postal code was used. a students neighbourhood income 3 see ontario ministry of education (2011), the ontario curriculum grades 9 and 12. course descriptions and prerequisites, http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/secondary/descript/descri9e.pdf 4 the 2006 census was used here because the 2011 census was non-mandatory and considered unreliable. 18 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities group was derived by splitting the das into income terciles of low, medium and high, based on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households. entering student survey during the mandatory placement testing, all entering seneca students must complete a background survey (bdat), which enquires about the following topics: university aspirations upon entry to the college: after graduation from my program, i plan to previous university: the last school i attended was first language: the language i learned first was and whether either parent has a university degree: the highest level of education completed by my father (mother) / guardian is (two separate questions for each parent). the study generated a variable for a students parents education by combining the respondents who reported not knowing either parents education with respondents categorized as having no degree (steffler, mccloy, & decock, 2016). if two or more completed surveys existed, the earliest record was used to reflect a students true entering status. the previous university variable is limited in scope because entering students are only asked about the last school they attended and not whether they have ever attended university or have completed a credential at another institution. program of entry for the purposes of analysis, the program a student entered at their initial post-secondary institution and the program following transfer, were grouped according to specialization (at seneca) or major field of study (at york and ryerson). each university provided specialization major (spemaj) categories for each of their programs. for regression analysis, the spemaj categories were then converted into three academic groupings: business and economics, natural and applied sciences, and social sciences and humanities (appendix a, table a 1). for seneca, the specific seneca business faculty was used for each academic grouping, except for some of the smaller faculties, which were combined (appendix a, table a 2). the seneca dataset also categorized students as entering either a one-year certificate, two-year diploma, three-year diploma, four-year degree, or one-year graduate certificate program. college english and math assessment testing until recently, most business diploma and certificate programs at seneca required entering students to take the computerized placement test, accuplacer, for arithmetic and/or algebra. 5 the placement test assesses the college numeracy and math proficiency level of students entering a college program requiring math. based on the test results, students may or may not be placed in a non-credit foundation math course during their first year of college. entering students also had to complete the accuplacer placement test for reading starting in the fall of 2019, the ontario colleges math test replaced accuplacer at seneca. seneca also phased out language assessment testing, including accuplacer for reading comprehension, in the fall of 2019. 5 19 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities comprehension, though the results were rarely used to determine course placement. for analysis in the study, accuplacers established proficiency levels were used (table 3). table 3. accuplacer proficiency levels 6 arithmetic algebra below minimal skills score / 120 2030 below minimal pre-algebra score / 120 2024 reading comprehension low score / 120 2050 minimal skills basic skills adequate skills substantial skills 3156 5789 90111 112 minimal pre-algebra minimal elementary sufficient elementary substantial elementary 2556 5775 76107 108 minimal adequate sufficient 5177 7898 99120 grades grades before transfer were calculated as the average of all credit courses ever taken at the respective institution up until the student transferred, whereas grades after transfer were the average of all courses at the receiving institution following transfer. gpas were grouped into four categories that correspond to the grade letters a, b, c, or d & below, based on grading schemes provided on each institutions website (table 4). senecas grading scheme was adapted to provide a grade range for the a category (3.75 to 4.0 instead of 4.0). for the descriptive analysis, the actual gpa from the institution was reported. however, the letter grade was used for the regression models with multiple grading schemes, with a grade of b or above (a good grade) as the binary outcome. table 4. grading schemes at york, ryerson and seneca description grade marginal/ unsatisfactory satisfactory/ competent good excellent d/f c b a per cent range <60% 60-69% 70-79% 80-100% * for analysis, senecas a was a gpa of 3.75 to 4.0. seneca gpa, 4pt scale <2 2- <3 3- <4.0* 4* york gpa, 9pt scale <4 4- <6 6.0-<8.0 8.0-9.0 ryerson gpa, 4.33pt scale <1.67 1.67-<2.67 2.67-<3.67 3.67-4.33 progress to graduation the descriptive analysis investigated graduation status (withdrew, still enrolled, or graduated) by pathway for one and two years after transfer. for seneca students, the analysis investigated the percentage who graduated two or three years after transfer. for university students transferring to seneca, the complication of a variety of credential durations necessitated reporting the share of students who either were still enrolled, or graduated two or three years after transfer was reported, and the share who graduated within the standard program length. for york and ryerson, the outcome was defined as whether the student was either still enrolled or graduated one year after transfer. for seneca, the outcome was defined the college board (2016), accuplacer program manual, https://securemedia.collegeboard.org/digitalservices/pdf/accuplacer/accuplacer-program-manual.pdf 6 20 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities as whether the student graduated within the standard program length for the students credential of enrollment. use of senecas degree and credit transfer office (dcto) senecas degree and credit transfer office provides one-on-one transfer advising to seneca students and other transfer-related services (mccloy, baker, decock, & williams, 2017). prior to the first advisement appointment, the student completes an appointment card which, which collects information the students name and id and other information. the student id flags whether or not the student received transfer advising, and is linked to the seneca-yorkryerson database created for this study. transfer credit both york and ryerson provided data on the amount of transfer credit students received upon entering each university for courses completed at other post-secondary institutions. for york, the total amount of transfer credit awarded upon starting at york university was defined as the sum of all credit awarded for a students academic history for all ontario colleges and universities on record. the total amount of transfer credit awarded upon starting at ryerson university was defined as the sum of all credit awarded for a students academic history for all institutions on record. however, as described earlier, students entering via a direct entry or degree completion pathway enter at an upper semester or are admitted directly to the two-year degree completion program, instead of being assigned transfer credit. to harmonise ryersons approach with yorks, an estimate of transfer credit was generated based on the typical number of credits in the first years of ryersons degrees. for students entering business management degrees (full or part time) at the 5d term (5th semester, through ryersons direct transfer pathway), an additional 16 credits were added to the total number of transfer credits (maximum of 6 reach-back courses) awarded on the students record. for students entering business technology (two-year degree completion program, full or part time), an additional 22 credits were added to the total number of transfer credits awarded on the students record to indicate the equivalent of two years of advanced standing received for the college diploma. finally, as an additional rule, for any other program of entry at ryerson, students who entered an advance semester (semester 3 starts) but with no transfer credit on record, were assigned 11 credits. data on transfer credit awarded to incoming seneca students were only available from the start of the 2015 academic year onward; therefore, the data were not used in any of the analyses. analytic methods the current study presents the results of both descriptive and regression techniques. descriptive results for each outcome of interest are presented by selected characteristics. to control for the independent effects of variables, regression models were used for each outcome of interest. linear regression was used when the outcome of interest was a continuous variable, whereas logistic regression was used when the outcome of interest was a 21 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities dichotomous variable. for all regression analyses, the dataset was restricted to individuals with complete data for all variables included in the regression model. the model-building methodology is described in appendix b. for each outcome of interest, four sub-populations were analyzed: 1. the first sub-population was the base population, which included all students with data for socio-demographic and program-related variables including: gender, age, status in canada, gpa, program, credential, dcto use, graduation status, and transfer credit (from york). 2. the second sub-population included all variables as in the first sub-population with the addition of high school data. the addition of high school variables required the exclusion of all international students and those who did not submit high school grades to seneca upon college entry. additionally, this sub-population included neighbourhood income data. 3. the third sub-population included all variables as in the first sub-population with the addition of senecas english assessment scores. this sub-population included international students. seneca assessment testing was completed for all students entering senecas one-year certificate, two-year diploma, and three-year advanced diploma programs; and therefore this sub-population excluded all students entering senecas graduate certificate and degree programs. 4. the fourth sub-population included all variables in the third sub-population, with the addition of seneca math assessment scores. results descriptive analysis student characteristics and motivations by pathway the study population included any student who had enrolled in a seneca business program during fall 2012 to winter 2017, totaling 24,610 students. almost 11% of this group attended either york or ryerson between 2006-07 and 2017-18, and 0.2% 7 attended all three institutions. figure 2 contains the breakdown of the numbers of students who transferred by pathway, as well as the percentage who graduated before transfer. students transferring from university to seneca were mostly non-graduates, with only 35% from york, and 22% from ryerson, graduating before transfer. however, 73% of seneca students who transferred to york, and 86% who transferred to ryerson, graduated before transferring. these students were included for each of the institutions they attended; for example, students who attended ryerson, followed by seneca, then york, were included in both the ryerson-seneca analysis and the seneca-york analysis. in cases where the populations were analysed together, the pathway was affixed to the first transition. 7 22 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 2. number of transfers by pathway 1400 1200 1000 35% 427 800 600 400 515 806 73% 200 0 186 york before seneca seneca before york did not graduate before transferring 86 22% 339 306 86% 56 ryerson before seneca seneca before ryerson graduated before transferring note: includes any seneca student who entered a business program at seneca between 2012 and 2016-2017, and had enrolled in york or ryerson any time between 2007 and 2017-18. table 5 presents distinct socio-demographic characteristics of students by transfer pathway. differences in gender distribution by pathway are shown by both institution and direction of transfer. almost 60% of students originating from york were female, whereas the share of female students going from seneca to york was similar to the share in the overall business student population (52%). students who either came from or continued on to ryerson were more likely to be male than students for other pathways (54% to 56%). the age distribution at the time of entry to senecas business programs also showed distinct patterns by pathway. overall, senecas business student population skewed older, with only 43% of students starting at age 20 or under. students who eventually continued on to york or ryerson were much younger, particularly those continuing on to ryerson (71% were 20 years of age or under at ryerson compared to 58% at york). for university students entering seneca, ryerson students were markedly younger than york students, with 42% under 21 years of age compared to only 20% from york. age differences aside, the socio-demographic characteristics of students entering seneca from york or ryerson were similar to those of the general student population at seneca. with regard to status in canada, a large share of business students at seneca were international (36%). students who continued on to york from seneca were the most similar to the overall seneca population compared to other transfer pathways investigated, with an almost equal share of international students (42%) and canadian students (41%). additionally, only 24% of students who transferred from seneca to york reported english as a first language, which is less than half of the proportion of students who reported english as a first language among all other transfer pathways investigated and the overall seneca population. the vast majority of students originating from york or ryerson were canadian citizens (84% and 89%), with the 23 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities highest proportion of students who were identified as permanent residents 8 being those who transferred from seneca to ryerson (18%). students who came to seneca from york or ryerson were more likely to report having a parent with a degree (42% and 44%, respectively) and to come from a higher-income neighbourhood (44%) than the non-transfer population (37%). 9 compared to the seneca non-transfer students, students who transferred to york or ryerson from seneca were slightly more likely to report having a parent with a degree, and had a similar neighbourhood income distribution. table 5. socio-demographic characteristics of students by transfer pathway gender start age in business program at seneca status in canada english - first language neither parent has a degree neighbourhood income group nontransfers (seneca only) york before seneca ryerson before seneca seneca before york seneca before ryerson total seneca population 21,922 1,233 392 701 395 24,610 female male <19 19-20 21-22 23-24 51.8% 48.0% 18.1% 25.1% 18.6% 13.5% 59.7% 40.3% 1.1% 18.6% 27.3% 29.0% 46.4% 53.6% 2.0% 39.8% 25.8% 20.9% 51.5% 48.5% 23.3% 34.4% 21.7% 8.3% 44.3% 55.7% 33.7% 37.7% 13.2% 6.1% 52.0% 47.9% 17.4% 25.5% 19.2% 14.1% 25+ international canadian citizen domestic other 24.7% 37.7% 49.6% 24.0% 11.6% 83.6% 11.5% 5.6% 88.8% 12.4% 42.4% 41.2% 9.4% 10.6% 71.9% 23.9% 35.6% 52.0% 12.8% 4.8% 5.6% 16.4% 17.5% 12.4% 41.6% 41.4% 56.7% 24.1% 52.6% 41.3% 68.0% 58.4% 56.0% 63.7% 65.4% 67.3% low income mid income 30.1% 32.6% 25.3% 30.6% 20.1% 35.9% 27.3% 31.4% 29.8% 34.2% 29.5% 32.5% high income 37.3% 44.2% 44.0% 41.3% 36.0% 38.0% notes: (1) data on english as a first language and parents education is from a survey that is not administered to those in degree or graduate certificate programs. york, however, also had students first language as a field in its information system and therefore supplemented this variable when missing at seneca. (2) in total, 42 students attended all three institutions and are included in each column: 9 students overlapped with seneca and york in their enrollment, and 2 overlapped with ryerson and are not included in the pathway columns. (3) neighbourhood income excludes international students. senecas entering student survey asks students to indicate their main reason for attending seneca. table 6 presents the results by student pathway. overall, students most commonly indicated that they chose to attend seneca because of available programs of interest and career advancement opportunities. however, these reasons differed by transfer pathway. in table 5, permanent residents are labeled as domestic-other, which includes, in addition to permanent residents, any other students whose status enables them to be eligible for domestic tuition fees. 9 interestingly, results from the national survey of student engagement show both york and ryerson have a higher percentage, with more than half of their first-year students reporting that at least one of their parents has a degree. sources: york university, office of institutional planning and analysis, custom calculation; and ryerson university, https://www.ryerson.ca/upo/reports/undergrad/nsse/. 8 24 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities students entering seneca after attending york or ryerson were somewhat more likely to cite career reasons (after first-choice program availability) as the reason they chose seneca. about one third of students who eventually transferred from seneca to york or ryerson cited university preparation as their main reason for choosing seneca. within the group of students who transferred to ryerson or york, ryerson transfers were more likely to cite first-choice program availability, whereas york transfers were more likely to cite career advancement. ryerson students who transferred in both directions were also more likely to cite the proximity of senecas campus to their home compared to york students who transferred in both directions. overall, the general transfer population was less likely than the non-transfer population to cite senecas faculty reputation as a reason to choose seneca. table 6. top reasons for choosing seneca by transfer pathway first choice program was available to further advance my career to prepare for university good reputation of the faculty campus is close to home family/friends attended seneca seneca's campus is attractive nontransfers (seneca only) 29% york before seneca ryerson before seneca seneca before york seneca before ryerson total seneca population 31% 25% 16% 25% 28% 21% 29% 26% 21% 12% 22% 13% 9% 15% 35% 31% 13% 13% 9% 9% 8% 6% 13% 11% 12% 14% 7% 16% 11% 8% 6% 7% 6% 5% 8% 6% 4% 4% 6% 5% 6% note: students who entered degree and graduate certificate programs at seneca are excluded. the entering survey asked seneca students about their plans post-graduation, with one option being plans to attend university. for students who eventually went on to ryerson or york, two thirds had plans for university upon college entry (figure 3). interestingly, even students who were entering seneca after previous enrollment at york or ryerson (27% and 36%, respectively) indicated they had plans to attend university after graduation from seneca. this may indicate that some students who struggled in university envisioned graduating from college as a pathway back to university. 25 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 3. percentage of students at college entry aspiring to attend university after college graduation, by transfer pathway 80% 70% 69% 65% 60% 50% 40% 36% 34% 27% 30% 20% 10% 0% non- transfers (seneca only) york before seneca ryerson before seneca seneca before york seneca before ryerson note: students who entered degree and graduate certificate programs at seneca are excluded. senecas degree and transfer office (dcto) provides one-on-one advising for students planning to continue on to a college or university degree program. for the current study, the dctos dataset of all students who visited the dcto was merged with our linked student dataset. the results show that a large share of seneca students who transferred to york or ryerson sought out transfer advising (36%), and that those who graduated from their college program before transferring were much more likely to use the dctos advising services (40% vs. 22%). additionally, those who continued on to ryerson were more likely to have received advising than those who went on to york (42% vs. 33%, data not shown). as expected, a minimal use of advising services was observed for students transferring to seneca from york or ryerson (3.2%). figure 4. dcto use among study population by transfer pathway and graduation status prior to transfer 45% 40.3% 40% 36.2% 35% 30% 25% 21.9% 20% 15% 10% 5% 4.7% 4.3% 0.8% 0% non-grads (university) full population grads (university) university before college 3.2% total non-grads (seneca) grads (seneca) total college before university 26 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities academic background table 7 presents the high school academic background for the study population by transfer pathway and graduation status pre-transfer. overall, university-to-seneca transfers had stronger high school academic backgrounds than non-transfers and college-to-university transfers. however, within the university-to-college transfer population, university nongraduates had weaker high school academic backgrounds than those who graduated from university. only 71% of students who transferred from university to seneca without graduating had an average of 7 0 % (compared with 83% for those who graduated), and 17% had failed three or more courses in high school. however, seneca graduates and seneca nongraduates who transferred to york or ryerson had similar high school backgrounds. the one exception, however, were the students who went on to york or ryerson without graduating from seneca: they were more likely to have taken university preparation courses in high school, which was associated with university eligibility (85% and 68%, respectively). therefore, students who transferred from seneca to university without graduating from seneca prior to transfer may have gained entry to university solely on the basis of their high school grades. table 7. high school academic background by transfer pathway and graduation status prior to transfer total sample with hs grades % sample with hs grades >50% senior hs yes courses u/m/oac level hs average (all <60% grade 11/12 60-69% courses) 70-79% 80% number of 0 failed grade 1-2 11/12 courses 3 eligible for yes university university before college non-grads grads (university) (university) 681 210 71.5% 42.0% 97.2% 98.0% college before university non-grads grads (seneca) (seneca) 131 392 75.7% 67.8% 84.7% 67.6% nontransfers 9,079 66.4% 61.9% 1.3% 27.9% 57.1% 13.7% 59.8% 0.0% 17.1% 60.0% 22.9% 71.4% 3.1% 44.3% 35.9% 16.8% 63.4% 1.8% 41.6% 43.9% 12.8% 58.2% 5.8% 43.7% 39.7% 10.8% 55.9% 23.2% 17.0% 80.8% 24.3% 4.3% 86.2% 16.0% 20.6% 42.0% 23.2% 18.6% 28.8% 24.2% 19.9% 25.0% notes: (1) international students at seneca are excluded. (2) hs: high school. to assess whether incoming seneca business students (certificate and diploma programs) are prepared for college-level math and english courses, seneca requires students to complete placement testing upon college entry. figure 5 shows that among students transferring from york or ryerson to seneca, only half had either adequate or sufficient skills in reading comprehension. for students who transferred from seneca to university, those who continued on to ryerson had much stronger skills in reading comprehension, which is likely associated with the much larger share who reported english as their first language. 27 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 5. seneca reading comprehension assessment scores upon seneca entry, by transfer pathway 100% 90% 80% 7% 13% 43% 35% 60% 6% 25% 25% 70% 50% 6% 16% 37% 34% 38% 40% 32% 30% 20% 10% 0% 31% non transfers (seneca only) 42% 38% 30% 17% 12% york before seneca ryerson before seneca 11% seneca before york seneca before ryerson low reading comprehension skills minimal reading comprehension skills adequate reading comprehension skills sufficient reading comprehension skills notes: (1) students who entered degree and graduate certificate programs at seneca are excluded. (2) given that students entering graduate certificate programs do not undergo skills assessment, 93% of the university-to-college sample presented in the current figure had not graduated from university. students math assessment scores at seneca entry differed from reading comprehension results by pathway (table 8). whereas students who originated at york or ryerson outperformed the non-transfer population on senecas math assessment tests for entering students, those who transferred from seneca to york significantly outperformed students across all other transfer pathways. this outcome, in part, reflects the high proportion of seneca to york transfers who were not canadian citizens (59%). previous research on seneca students showed that non-canadian citizens (both international students and permanent residents) had much stronger math skills than seneca students with canadian citizenship (mccloy & williams, 2019). math assessment scores by pathway and status in canada is shown in appendix c 2, clearly demonstrates the gap in math skills between canadian and non-canadian students at seneca. however, it also shows that non-canadian students who transferred to york have stronger math skills than non-canadian students who transferred to ryerson, indicating that math skills alone do not explain the differences in transfer pathway. 28 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 8. algebra and arithmetic assessment testing results by transfer pathway total sample with arithmetic scores arithmetic below minimal skills proficiency minimal skills level basic skills adequate skills substantial skills total sample with algebra scores algebra proficiency level below minimal prealgebra minimal pre-algebra minimal elementary sufficient elementary substantial elementary total average math assessment score (/120) nontransfers (seneca only) 12,373 12% 21% york before seneca 478 10% 14% ryerson before seneca 173 9% 16% seneca before york 526 5% 12% seneca before ryerson 311 7% 18% 28% 26% 13% 11,645 30% 33% 14% 453 29% 38% 8% 167 22% 39% 22% 522 37% 26% 12% 310 5% 3% 2% 2% 2% 31% 16% 25% 25% 15% 32% 25% 17% 39% 17% 13% 25% 31% 23% 27% 22% 25% 17% 43% 17% 73.3 79.3 78.2 89.2 75.0 notes: (1) students who entered degree and graduate certificate programs at seneca are excluded. (2) 94% of the university-tocollege transfers who took a math assessment test had not graduated from university. figure 6 presents students pre-transfer grades by pathway. students who transferred from york or ryerson to seneca without a credential had weak academic backgrounds, with 69% of non-graduates from york and 73% of non-graduates from ryerson having an average of d or below. university graduates had much stronger grades, with ryerson transfers more likely than york transfers to attain an average of b or above (71% vs. 47%). seneca students who transferred to york or ryerson had better grades than those who did not continue on to either institution. among those who transferred, students who had graduated before transferring to york or ryerson, versus those who had not graduated, had stronger grades at seneca. seneca graduates who transferred to ryerson were more likely than those who went on to york to have a b average or above (68% vs. 57%). 29 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 6. grades at sending institution prior to transfer, by transfer pathway and graduation status 100% 90% 80% 7% 22% 70% 2% 3% 2% 45% 35% 69% 60% 13% 11% 24% 44% 16% 14% 26% 36% 54% 50% 40% 30% 69% 20% 25% 52% 37% 29% 10% 0% 30% 25% 73% 26% 5% did not graduate before transfer graduated before transfer york to seneca did not graduate before transfer graduated before transfer did not graduate before transfer ryerson to seneca d & below graduated before transfer seneca to york c 13% b 21% did not graduate before transfer 31% 31% 1% graduated before transfer seneca to ryerson seneca nontransfers a note: grades are the average of all grades at an institution up until the transfer point. propensity to transfer to university this section presents the various characteristics of seneca business students who continued on to ryerson or york (students transferring from ryerson or york are excluded). the results show that older students, international students, and those who reported english as their first language are less likely to transfer, whereas students with a university-educated parent are somewhat more likely to transfer (figure 7, table 9). accounting and finance students and those in three-year diploma programs are also more likely to transfer to university, with those in public administration or hospitality and tourism programs the least likely (figure 8). as would be expected, having plans for university at entry, or receiving transfer advising at the dcto, was positively associated with the likelihood of transfer to university (table 9). overall, academically stronger students are more likely to continue on to university (figure 9, table 9). students who take university preparatory courses in high school, obtain good grades in both high school and at seneca, and perform well in assessment testing (particularly in math) at seneca are more likely to transfer to ryerson or york. interestingly, those who report that their last school was university do not differ in their rate of transfer to york or ryerson. 30 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 7. proportion of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson by gender, age, and status in canada at seneca entry 5.6% high income 5.4% start age in business program at seneca status in canada neighbourhood income group english other 2.2% low income 23-24 21-22 19-20 <19 male female 5.5% 3.9% 2.7% gender 4.9% mid income 5.0% 4.7% domestic - other 5.0% 6.2% canadian citizen 4.5% 7.5% 6.6% international 6.9% 25+ 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% 0% first language figure 8. proportion of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson by seneca first business program area and credential 8.6% 5.1% 3.7% 2.3% 3.9% 3.1% 0.5% seneca first business program area bachelor's degree grad certificate 3-year diploma 0.4% arts, technology, science management public admin/gov't relations hospitality & tourism marketing international business & management accounting & financial services 1.3% 3.2% 2-year diploma 5.6% 1-year certificate 6.0% human resources & leadership 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% 0% credential of first business program 31 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 9. proportion of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson by seneca-entry assessment scores 9.6% 9.1% 6.2% arithmetic proficiency level substantial elementary below minimal pre-algebra substantial skills adequate skills basic skills 2.4% minimal skills below minimal skills sufficient reading comprehension skills adequate reading comprehension skills minimal reading comprehension skills 2.9% english comprehension proficiency 6.7% 4.8% 4.4% 4.3% 6.9% sufficient elementary 6.7% minimal pre-algebra 6.2% 7.0% minimal elementary 8.0% low reading comprehension skills 10% 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% 0% algebra proficiency level note: students who entered degree and graduate certificate programs at seneca are excluded. 32 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 9. proportion of seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson by selected student characteristics >50% senior hs courses u/m/oac level hs average (all grade 11/12 courses) number of grade 11/12 courses a student failed eligible for university seneca gpa, all courses first language university plan at seneca entry was the last school attended a university or degree polytechnic? parent has a degree used dcto neighbourhood income group no yes <60% 60-69% 70-79% 80% 0 1-2 3 no yes <2 2-3 3-3.75 3.75-4 english other no yes no total population (n) 3,607 5,985 534 4,192 3,813 1,052 5,379 2,305 1,908 7,164 2,428 6,785 6,894 6,273 3,044 6,697 9,319 10,116 5,744 12,828 transfer to york or ryerson (n) 147 376 11 221 219 72 311 112 100 355 168 90 362 496 140 361 699 308 607 744 % transfers 4.1% 6.3% 2.1% 5.3% 5.7% 6.8% 5.8% 4.9% 5.2% 5.0% 6.9% 1.3% 5.3% 7.9% 4.6% 5.4% 7.5% 3.0% 10.6% 5.8% yes no yes yes no 3,049 10,622 5,255 1,107 21,886 173 576 341 394 694 5.7% 5.4% 6.5% 35.6% 3.2% low income 5,802 285 4.9% mid income 6,553 362 5.5% high income 6,215 349 5.6% notes: (1) data on english as a first language and parents education are from a survey that is not administered to those in degree or graduate certificate programs. york, however, also had students first language as a field in its information system and therefore supplemented this variable when missing at seneca. (2) hs: high school. table 10 and table 11 present the amount of transfer credit awarded to seneca business students who transferred to york or ryerson, by the amount of credit they accumulated at seneca. approximately half of the students who transferred to york had between two and three years of course credit at seneca. the average course credit toward york was just under one year for seneca graduates, whereas non-graduates averaged just over one semester. among all seneca business students who transferred to york, 18% obtained no credit at york for their previous seneca studies. 33 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 10. amount of total transfer credit provided to seneca business students transferring to york, by credits earned at seneca and graduation status prior to transfer # credits earned at seneca total graduate (seneca) non-graduate (seneca) missing & zero credit <10 n 73 n 4 average total transfer credit - n 69 average total transfer credit 11.4 10-19 129 56 19.9 73 14.4 36 20-29 350 312 25.4 38 24.4 39 30+ 149 143 34.7 6 36.0 16 total 701 515 27.4 186 16.0 129 n 38 notes: (1) transfer credit not specific to seneca courses. (2) average credit includes zero and missing credit (as zero credit). (3) indicates a cell size <5. (4) at seneca, 10 credits = 2 semesters; at york, 30 credits = 2 semesters. the vast majority of students transferred to ryerson after graduating from a three-year diploma at seneca, and thus obtained almost two years of credit toward their ryerson degree. less than 10% of transfer students from seneca received no transfer credit at ryerson for their previous seneca studies. table 11. amount of total credit provided to seneca business students transferring to ryerson, by credits earned at seneca and graduation status prior to transfer # credits earned at seneca total sample graduate (seneca) non-graduate (seneca) <10 10-19 n 22 24 n 2 5 average total transfer credit 16.8 n 20 19 average total transfer credit 2.0 3.3 20-29 30+ total 80 269 395 68 264 339 16.0 19.9 19.1 12 5 56 10.6 20.4 5.9 missing & zero credit n 17 8 10 2 37 notes: (1) transfer credit not specific to seneca courses. (2) average credit includes zero and missing credit (as zero credit). (3) indicates a cell size <5. (4) see the methods section for description of how ryersons direct entry and degree completion pathways were converted to ryerson credit. (5) at seneca, 10 credits = 2 semesters; at ryerson, 22 credits = approximately 4 semesters. (5) we were unable to distinguish between the transfer student who submitted a transcript and received no credit, and the transfer student who did not submit a transcript for transfer credit. programs and credentials by pathway table 12 presents the highest credential a student was enrolled in at york or ryerson by transfer pathway, either prior to their first transfer event or following their return to the initial sending institution. overall, results for york and ryerson students are similar. the highest degree program enrolled in at university was a bachelors for 99% of students who transferred from either york or ryerson. for seneca students who transferred to york or ryerson, the bachelor degree program was the highest credential they enrolled in (98% and 99%, respectively). 34 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 12. highest credential enrolled in at york and ryerson by pathway, pre- and post-transfer from seneca bachelors degree masters degree phd total york to seneca 1,225 7 1 1,233 seneca to york 688 12 1 701 ryerson to seneca 388 1 1 392 seneca to ryerson 391 3 0 395 note: (1) for the ryerson-to-seneca pathway, 2 students in the data file were each identified as a special student. (2) for the seneca-to-ryerson pathway, 1 student in the data file was identified as being in a certificate program. (3) data not shown for these 3 students, but included in column totals. table 13 shows the type of credential enrolled in at seneca by pathway and graduation status. for the university-to-seneca pathway, an overwhelming share of those who graduated from university entered graduate certificate programs, which usually require a credential for entry. those who had not graduated from university predominately entered two- or three-year diploma programs, with york students more likely to enter two-year diplomas (43%) and ryerson students more likely to enter three-year diplomas (40%). interestingly, a substantial share of students entered a bachelors degree program at seneca, particularly students transferring to seneca from ryerson (30%). for the seneca-to-university pathway, non-graduates were somewhat more likely to come from a seneca degree program. seneca graduates who went on to ryerson were mainly from three-year diploma programs (81%), whereas graduates going on to york were split between the two- and three-year diploma programs. table 13. seneca business credential of entry by transfer pathway and graduation status prior to transfer york to seneca ryerson to seneca seneca to york seneca to ryerson university to seneca seneca to university full population non-grads (york) grads (york) non-grads (ryerson) grads (ryerson) non-grads (seneca) grads (seneca) non-grads (seneca) grads (seneca) non-grads (university) grads (university) non-grads (seneca) grads (seneca) total sample 24,610 806 427 306 86 186 515 56 339 1,104 1-year certificate 0.9% 0.5% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.5% 0.8% 1.8% 0.3% 0.5% 2-year diploma 42.7% 42.7% 8.0% 28.8% 9.3% 34.4% 49.7% 19.6% 17.4% 39.0% 3-year diploma 31.6% 32.5% 4.4% 40.2% 0.0% 51.1% 46.0% 53.6% 81.1% 34.6% bachelors degree 7.1% 14.1% 0.5% 27.5% 2.3% 13.4% 1.4% 23.2% 0.9% 17.8% graduate certificate 17.8% 10.2% 87.1% 3.3% 88.4% 0.5% 2.1% 1.8% 0.3% 8.1% 513 242 846 0.0% 0.8% 0.6% 8.2% 31.0% 37.0% 3.7% 51.7% 59.9% 0.8% 15.7% 1.1% 87.3% 0.8% 1.4% students moving from seneca business programs to york mostly entered programs related to business and economics (82%), with the remainder mostly entering arts programs (table 14). students moving in the other direction came from a variety of programs at york, with only 26% from business and related programs, and a large share from arts programs (56%). most of the seneca students who transferred to ryerson entered a business or related program (95%). among students originating at ryerson, 56% came from business or related programs and 20% from science and engineering (table 15). 35 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities many of these institutional differences likely reflect the distribution of program offerings, with yorks programs more based on the arts and humanities compared to ryersons. 10 table 14. york program of entry by transfer pathway first program enrolled in at york total sample % % 20.1% 0.4% york before seneca 77 6 % 6.2% 0.5% york after seneca 313 1 bachelor of commerce schulich bachelor of business administration bachelor of business and arts society economics business economics financial and business economics mathematics for commerce bachelor of human resources management master of accounting master of business administration master of finance master of financial accountability master of human resources management business related sub-total bachelor of arts (other) bachelor of science other total 390 7 150 7.7% 64 5.2% 85 12.1% 100 87 75 5.2% 4.5% 3.9% 37 41 38 3.0% 3.3% 3.1% 62 46 37 8.8% 6.6% 5.3% 15 0.8% 12 1.0% 3 0.4% 68 3.5% 48 3.9% 20 2.9% 1 2 1 3 1 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0 0 1 0 0 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 1 2 0 3 1 0.1% 0.3% 0.0% 0.4% 0.1% 900 781 140 120 1,941 46.4% 40.2% 7.2% 6.2% 100.0% 324 685 128 96 1,233 26.3% 55.6% 10.4% 7.8% 100.0% 574 92 12 23 701 81.9% 13.1% 1.7% 3.3% 100.0% 44.7% 0.1% notes: (1) bachelor of arts (other) excludes arts programs listed above. (2) bachelor of science also includes collaborative nursing and applied science. in 2016, 16% of yorks full-time undergraduate enrollment was in business & commerce, versus 29% at ryerson. almost half (47%) of yorks enrollment was in the social sciences and humanities compared with 25% at ryerson. see: common usage data ontario website at https://cudo.ouac.on.ca/ 10 36 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 15. ryerson program of entry by transfer pathway first program enrolled in at ryerson total sample % % 47.9% 12.2% ryerson before seneca 97 53 % 24.7% 13.5% ryerson after seneca 281 43 bachelor of commerce business management business technology management (information technology) hospitality and tourism management retail management accounting and finance bachelor of international economics and arts finance public administration and governance bachelor of fashion communication design fashion design professional master's diploma - accounting public administration and governance certificate - level 1 master of arts international economics and finance sub-total business related 378 96 48 6.1% 28 7.1% 20 5.1% 25 11 27 3.2% 1.4% 3.4% 15 4 24 3.8% 1.0% 6.1% 10 7 3 2.5% 1.8% 0.8% 2 0.3% 1 0.3% 1 0.3% 5 2 1 1 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0 1 0 0 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 5 1 1 1 1.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 1 0.1% 0 0.0% 1 0.3% bachelor of arts (other) bachelor of science and related bachelor of engineering other total 597 75.7% 223 56.9% 374 94.7% 59 52 40 41 789 7.5% 6.6% 5.1% 5% 100.0% 54 44 36 35 392 13.8% 11.2% 9.2% 8.9% 100.0% 5 8 2 6 395 1.3% 2.0% 0.5% 1.5% 100.0% 71.1% 10.9% notes: (1) bachelor of arts (other) excludes arts programs listed above. (2) bachelor of science also includes collaborative nursing and architecture. at seneca, 62% of business students were mainly enrolled in two program areas: (1) accounting and financial services, and (2) international business and management (table 16). these two program areas were also predominant among students entering seneca from york or ryerson. however, program areas involving human resources and public administration & government relations had a much larger share of students entering from york and ryerson than in the general seneca population, likely because these program areas offer graduate certificates. students who transferred from seneca business to york were most likely to transfer from accounting areas (47%), followed by international business and management areas. seneca students entering ryerson were most likely to originate from international business and management program areas, with a much higher share from the human resources and leadership program area transferring to ryerson (10%) than to york (3.6%). for all pathways, hospitality and tourism programs comprised a lower share of transfer students compared to the non-transfer seneca population. 37 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 16. seneca program area of entry by transfer pathway first program enrolled in at seneca nontransfers (seneca only) york before seneca ryerson before seneca seneca before york seneca before ryerson total seneca population total sample (n) accounting and financial services international business & management hospitality and tourism 21,922 31.1% 31.7% 12.5% 1,233 23.0% 20.1% 6.7% 392 28.3% 29.8% 6.6% 701 46.9% 35.4% 2.3% 395 28.1% 41.3% 5.3% 24,610 31.1% 31.3% 11.8% marketing human resources and leadership arts, technology, science management public administration and government relations 10.0% 7.7% 4.3% 2.7% 13.5% 20.9% 2.8% 13.0% 11.5% 15.1% 3.6% 5.1% 10.4% 3.6% 1.1% 0.3% 11.4% 9.9% 3.8% 0.3% 10.2% 8.4% 4.1% 3.2% note: if a student had previous seneca enrollment data prior to their university-to-seneca transfer date, the first program of enrollment at seneca was identified as the first program enrolled in following their transfer date. academic outcomes after transfer figure 10 presents the distribution of students average grades at their receiving institution by graduation status and transfer pathway. overall, combining graduates and non-graduates, 4% of students who transferred from college to university obtained a grade average of a at their receiving institution; 39% received a b, 43% a c, and 14% a d or below. among students who transferred from university to college, 25% obtained a grade average of a at seneca, 31% a b, 22% a c, and 22% a d or below (data not shown). students who graduated before transferring performed better after transfer, with the effect far more pronounced for the university-toseneca pathways. as shown previously in figure 6, york and ryerson students who came to seneca without a degree had very poor grades, with over two thirds obtaining a d or below prior to transfer. although on average they obtained higher grades at seneca than in university, only 43% from york and 35% from ryerson obtained a b or above at seneca. those entering seneca with a completed degree had strong grades, with 87% from york and 89% from ryerson obtaining an average of b or above. among students who transferred to university, the distribution of grades at the receiving institution differed by graduation status prior to transfer and by the university to which they transferred, with those who transferred to ryerson obtaining better grades. 38 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 10. grades at the receiving institution after transfer by pathway and graduation status 100% 90% 12% 80% 70% 54% 32% 7% 3% 28% 31% 62% 4% 9% 5% 37% 36% 47% 13% 26% 60% 50% 40% 29% 27% 30% 20% 10% 0% 43% 44% 33% 30% did not graduate before transfer 10% 3% graduated before transfer york to seneca did not graduate before transfer 41% 27% 36% 10% 1% graduated before transfer 23% 13% did not graduate before transfer ryerson to seneca graduated before transfer seneca to york d & below c b 30% 32% 23% did not graduate before transfer 31% 8% graduated before transfer seneca to ryerson seneca nontransfers a table 17 and table 18, respectively, present enrollment status after one and two years of study following transfer, by transfer pathway and graduation status. after one year, the overwhelming share of university graduates who had entered seneca have graduated, likely due to the prevalence of one-year graduate certificate programs at seneca. the withdrawal rates were slightly higher for university non-graduates compared to the rest of the pathways and were somewhat similar to those of the seneca non-transfer population. however, firstyear retention was strong for all investigated pathways. table 17. enrollment status one year after transfer by pathway and graduation status at the sending institution york to seneca ryerson to seneca n withdrew still enrolled graduated non-grads (york) 803 20.4% 66.7% 12.8% grads (york) 423 14.2% 10.2% 75.7% non-grads (ryerson) 306 18.6% 74.2% 7.2% grads (ryerson) 86 16.3% 11.6% 72.1% university to seneca* 1,610 18.3% 50.3% 31.4% non-grads (seneca) 159 13.2% 83.0% 3.8% grads (seneca) 411 15.1% 79.1% 5.8% non-grads (seneca) 45 15.6% 82.2% 2.2% grads (seneca) 282 15.2% 84.8% 0.0% seneca to university* 891 14.6% 81.9% 3.5% seneca non-transfers 21,504 18.9% 60.2% 21.0% seneca to york seneca to ryerson notes: (1) students who transferred, or whose first program began after the 2017 winter term, were excluded. (2) *in cases where more than one transfer event was identified per student, only the first transition event was counted. 39 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities at the two-year mark, seneca students who entered york (both graduates and nongraduates) had the highest withdrawal rates of all pathways, with almost one third of students leaving (table 18). the next highest rate of withdrawal by the two-year mark was for students from york and ryerson who left seneca without graduating (28% and 27%, respectively). university graduates who continued to seneca had the highest share of graduates, reflective of their high enrollment in senecas shorter duration graduate certificate programs, followed by seneca graduates who went on to ryerson, 40% of whom completed a degree within two years of transfer. table 18. enrollment status two years after transfer by pathway and graduation status at the sending institution n withdrew still enrolled graduated non-grads (york) 670 27.8% 35.2% 37.0% grads (york) 358 10.6% 2.2% 87.2% non-grads (ryerson) 267 27.3% 51.3% 21.3% grads (ryerson) 65 16.9% 1.5% 81.5% 1,355 22.7% 28.0% 49.3% non-grads (seneca) 115 33.0% 53.0% 13.9% grads (seneca) 289 31.5% 45.3% 23.2% non-grads (seneca) 31 9.7% 83.9% 6.5% grads (seneca) 224 17.4% 42.4% 40.2% seneca to university* 654 25.8% 47.4% 26.8% seneca non-transfers 18,165 26.8% 32.6% 40.6% york to seneca ryerson to seneca university to seneca* seneca to york seneca to ryerson notes: (1) students who transferred, or whose first program began after the 2016 winter term, were excluded. (2) *in cases where more than one transfer event was identified per student, only the first transition event was counted. the results show the strong association between grades before transfer and both graduation rates and grades post-transfer for all transfer pathways. for example, seneca students who continued on to york or ryerson with an average of d or below (gpa <2.0) continued to obtain about a d average in university and had extremely low two- and three-year graduation rates (figure 11, figure 12). although senecas b-average students went on to obtain higher university grades than c average students at seneca, the graduation rates were similar between the two grade levels, particularly at york. university students who entered a seneca business program with a university average of d or below were much less likely to complete their seneca program on time and more likely to receive poor grades at seneca (figure 13, figure 14). university students entering seneca with a university average of c or above tended to obtain an average of b or above at seneca. students from york achieved similar academic outcomes at seneca regardless of whether they had an average of b or c at york: most students were observed to have strong retention and grades of b or above at seneca. however, for ryerson students at seneca, more variation in academic performance was observed between those entering with a university average of b versus c. 40 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 11. academic outcomes at ryerson after transfer from seneca, by seneca gpa 88.9% % graduated at ryerson 90% 3.4 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 3.5 2.7 64.4% 2.4 57.1% 3 50.0% 1.5 27.5% 1 14.3% 16.7% 0.5 10% 0% 2.5 2 38.6% 1.5 4 gpa at ryerson (/4.33) 100% <2 2-3 3-3.75 3.75-4 0 seneca gpa 2-yr grad rate 3-yr grad rate gpa figure 12. academic outcomes at york after transfer from seneca, by seneca gpa 100% 9 90% 8 5.7 % graduated at york 70% 4.9 60% 41% 40% 20% 10% 0% 29% 29% 30% 10% 15% <2 18% 6 5 4 50% 7 4 3 19% 2 1 2-3 2-yr grad rate 3-3.75 seneca gpa 3-yr grad rate 3.75-4 gpa at york (/9.0) 6.6 67% 80% 0 gpa 41 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities figure 13. academic outcomes at seneca after transfer from york, by york gpa 100% 80% 3.6 3.3 71% 83% 83% 79% 88% 89% 4 3.5 3 82% 2.5 64% 2.2 60% 43% 41% 40% 4 50% 50% 2 1.5 1 20% gpa at seneca (/4.0) % graduated/enrolled at seneca 120% 0.5 0% <4 4-6 6-8 0 8-9 york gpa 2-yr grad rate 3-yr grad rate grad on time gpa at seneca figure 14. academic outcomes at seneca after transfer from ryerson, by ryerson gpa % graduated/enrolled at seneca 3.1 100% 80% 60% 71% 2.1 91% 88% 87% 3.8 100%100%100% 2.5 2 38% 40% 3.5 3 73% 73% 60% 58% 4 1.5 1 20% 0% gpa at seneca (/4.0) 3.7 120% 0.5 <1.67 1.67-2.67 2.67-3.67 3.67-4.33 0 ryerson gpa 2-yr grad rate 3-yr grad rate grad on time gpa at seneca table 19 presents the average gpas, retention and graduation outcomes achieved at university by the amount of transfer credit or advanced standing awarded to seneca transfer students. a positive trend was observed for higher gpas among seneca transfer students who received higher advanced standing upon university entry, with a stronger gradient at york. first-year retention differed little by the amount of advanced standing, except for those who entered university with no record of transfer credit, who had lower first-year retention. at ryerson, however, seneca transfer students who received more advanced standing upon university entry had a higher graduation rate within three years of transferring. results for york are complicated by the conferring of both three- and four-year degrees. 42 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities however, at both york and ryerson, the transfer population with more than three semesters of transfer credit had a higher share of graduates within three years. table 19. academic outcomes at university for seneca transfer students by estimated transfer credit received york ryerson transfer credit n mean gpa 4.8/9.0 5.2/9.0 5.5/9.0 5.4/9.0 first year retention 76.3% 88.3% 88.9% 83.9% grad in 3 years 23.5% 29.0% 35.6% 26.2% 0 & missing <15 (<1 semester) 15-29 (1-2 semesters) 30-44 (2-3 semesters) 129 104 327 112 45+ (>3 semesters) 0 & missing <6 (<1 semester) 6-10 (1-2 semesters) 11-16 (2-3 semesters) 17+ (>3 semesters) 29 37 18 14 55 271 6.2/9.0 2.2/4.33 2.6/4.33 2.6/4.33 2.5/4.33 2.7/4.33 85.7% 67.7% 86.7% 60.0% 91.1% 86.7% 60.0% 14.3% 14.3% -50.0% 76.2% notes: (1) transfer credit includes all credit granted at the receiving institution for any previous academic history at another institution (not specific to seneca). (2) for the one-year retention calculation, students who entered university after the 2017 winter term were excluded (n = 131 for york, n = 68 for ryerson); those graduated by the one-year mark were included as retained. (3) for the three-year graduation rate calculation, students who entered university after the 2015 winter term were excluded (n = 435 for york, n = 216 for ryerson). (4) - - indicates a cell size of <5. (5) york also confers three-year ordinary degrees and four-year honours degrees. pathway analysis seneca to ryerson as described, the predominant business pathway for college students at ryerson is the direct entry pathway, which enables graduates of three-year business diplomas to enter the third year of a ryerson business management major, with a requirement of up to six reach-back courses dependent on the students academic history. additionally, ryerson offers a two-year degree completion program in business technology management for caat graduates of three-year business diplomas. table 20 presents in detail the numbers of students moving through these pathways. in total, 292 students in senecas three-year business administration program graduated between 201213 and 201617 and enrolled in one of ryersons business management programs or in its business technology management program. prior to transfer to ryerson, the most common business program from which seneca students graduated was the management diploma program (n = 80), followed by the human resources diploma program (n = 48). the most common ryerson degree program entered by seneca transfer students was marketing, with 67 seneca graduates entering, followed by the now discontinued majors of accounting and finance (n = 56). senecas graduates were often also transferring within majors, with 37 moving within human resources, 33 within marketing, and 30 within accounting and finance. 43 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 20. number of seneca transfers by program for ryersons direct entry and degree completion pathways, graduates of three-year business administration diplomas 5 human resources 1 international business 4 1 management 7 2 3 2 marketing purchasing and supply management 2 total 21 6 real estate 4 35 4 12 1 1 3 7 1 20 37 2 3 1 4 48 12 1 3 7 5 3 36 13 6 7 18 1 9 17 80 1 33 2 4 41 2 12 8 2 30 1 1 other direct entry marketing law & busin hum. res. mgt 1 total financial planning 1 bus tech mgt 1 *acct & finance accounting & finance entrepreneurship and small business global mgt entrepreneurship seneca business advanced diploma program of graduation econ. & mgt. science ryerson business management major 1 2 1 39 46 1 3 14 67 4 56 8 39 292 notes: (1) *accounting and finance majors were discontinued in 2015. (2) business technology management is a degree completion program. (3) seneca programs listed are all three-year diplomas in business administration. (4) other direct-entry pathways include those who did not complete a seneca three-year business diploma, but were admitted as a direct entrant. table 21 shows the academic performance of seneca students who took the direct entry or degree completion pathways offered by ryerson. the average seneca grades pre-transfer were similar across ryerson majors of entry (from 3.1 to 3.3 /4.0, about 75%). however, posttransfer, ryerson grades varied by programs, with graduates who entered entrepreneurship or global management obtained the highest averages (2.9 /4.33), and those who entered economics and management science obtaining the lowest gpa (2.3,c+). average credits taken per year indicates that transfer students were not taking the full course load, which is generally 10 credits per year in upper years. students appeared to be taking somewhat less than an 80% course load, with economics students taking the lightest course load. 44 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 21. sending and receiving gpa of seneca transfers in ryersons business direct-entry and degree completion pathways, graduates of senecas three-year business diplomas ryerson business major n gpa seneca (/4.0) gpa ryerson (/4.33) % failed courses at ryerson economics & management science entrepreneurship global management 21 3.2 2.3 8.7% # credits taken per year 6.3 6 39 3.3 3.3 2.9 2.9 11.9% 3.2% 7.8 8 human resources management law and business marketing management 46 3.2 2.5 5.1% 8.1 14 67 3.1 3.3 2.6 2.7 8.2% 6.3% 7.4 8.1 real estate management accounting & finance business technology* total 4 56 39 292 3.1 3.1 3.2 2.7 2.8 2.7 7.9% 7.6% 6.5% 7.4 8.2 7.8 notes: (1) includes all seneca graduates of a three-year business diploma program who transferred to ryersons business directentry or degree completion pathways between fall 2013 and winter 2017. (2) direct entry accounting and finance majors were discontinued in 2015 and are combined in the above table. (3) - indicates cell size <5. in terms of retention and graduation rates, among seneca students who transferred to ryerson through direct entry or degree completion pathways, graduates in the business technology degree completion program had the highest one-year retention rate (97%) and the highest three-year graduation rate (88%). in addition to having the lowest grades (table 21), transfer students in economics and management science also had the lowest first-year retention rate (63%), with 11% graduating at the two-year mark. overall, 43% of students graduated within two years despite taking, on average, a course load of less than 80%, with 73% graduating within three years. 45 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 22. graduation and retention rate of seneca transfers in ryersons business direct-entry and degree completion pathways, graduates of senecas three-year business diplomas major 2013-2017 entering cohorts (n)* first year retention rate (%) 2-year graduation rate (%) 3-year graduation rate (%) economics & management science 21 62.5% 11.1% --- entrepreneurship 6 --- --- --- global management 39 94.1% 42.3% 69.2% human resources management 46 82.9% 64.7% 80.0% law & business 14 81.8% 62.5% 66.7% marketing management 67 89.3% 38.6% 80.0% real estate management 4 --- --- --- accounting & finance business technology* 56 39 85.7% 96.6% 30.4% 60.9% 62.5% 87.5% total 292 86.9% 42.9% 72.5% notes: (1) includes all seneca graduates of a three-year business diploma program who transferred to ryersons business directentry or *degree completion pathways between fall 2013 and winter 2017. (2) --- indicates cell size <5. (3) for the one-year retention calculation, students who entered ryerson after the 2017 winter term were excluded (n = 41) and those who graduated by the one-year mark were included as retained. (3) for the two-year graduation rate calculation, students who entered ryerson after the 2016 winter term were excluded (n = 89). (4) for the three-year graduation rate calculation, students who entered ryerson after the 2015 winter term were excluded (n = 143). seneca to york as described, yorks block transfer policy categorizes college programs by level of academic rigour. within the business programs, seneca and york have in place two articulation agreements: a two-year accounting diploma and a three-year accounting and finance diploma. during the study period, over 400 students graduated from a seneca business program and transferred to a york business or related program (table 23). among seneca graduates entering business and related programs at york, 57% entered commerce programs. seneca students who transferred to york were more likely to come from two-year diploma programs. overall, the two accounting-related programs (with articulated agreements) had the highest volume of transfers, at over 40% of the total. 46 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 23. number of seneca business graduates who transferred to york business and related programs, by program area commerce 1-year certificate 2-year diploma 3-year diploma 4-year degree grad cert total accounting techniques 0 economics & related 1 busin & society 0 human resources 0 total accounting business - international business business business - marketing financial services - client services accounting and payroll business - insurance international transportation & customs hospitality management hotel & restaurant fashion business accounting & finance business administration - financial planning business administration management business administration international business business administration - human resources business administration - marketing business administration entrepreneurship & small business business administration purchasing & supply management business administration accounting & financial planning bachelor of commerce business management bachelor of commerce international business management financial services compliance administration 81 21 25 15 3 2 0 2 28 35 12 1 1 1 1 4 8 13 10 2 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 1 118 70 47 21 4 3 1 9 1 0 0 0 1 0 42 14 0 5 3 1 3 3 1 0 0 2 50 20 11 2 7 0 20 6 7 3 0 16 1 1 1 7 10 6 4 0 1 4 1 0 0 10 6 2 0 1 0 3 1 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 239 105 59 15 418 1 table 24 and table 25 present the academic performance of seneca business graduates both at seneca and after transfer, at york. transfer students entering commerce at york had the highest seneca gpas (3.3 /4.0) and the highest gpas at york compared to other york program areas. retention and graduation rates, however, were similar across all york program areas, with 25% of seneca transfer students graduating within two years and 38% within three years. on average, students were taking fewer than 20 credits, less than two thirds of a full course load of 30 credits. 47 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 24. sending and receiving gpa of seneca transfers to yorks business and related programs, graduates of senecas business programs n commerce economics & related business and society human resources total 241 106 60 15 422 gpa seneca (/4.0) 3.3 2.8 2.7 2.9 3.1 gpa york (/9.0) 5.8 5.5 5 4.8 5.6 % failed courses at york 2.3% 1.9% 2.6% 4.5% 2.3% # credits taken per year at york 19.5 21.0 18.6 16.7 19.7 note: (1) includes all seneca graduates of two- or three-year business diploma programs who transferred to yorks business degree completion pathways between fall 2013 and winter 2017. table 25. graduation and retention rates of seneca transfers to yorks business and related degrees, graduates of senecas business credentials major 2013-2016 entering cohorts (n)* first year retention (%) 2-year graduation rate (%) 3-year graduation rate (%) commerce 241 85.0% 26.1% 38.6% economics & related 106 89.2% 28.1% 45.0% business and society 60 81.6% 25.8% 33.3% human resources 15 83.3% --- --- total 422 85.7% 25.3% 37.6% notes: (1) includes all seneca business and related graduates who transferred to yorks business and related degrees between fall 2013 and winter 2017. (2) --- indicates cell size <5. (3) for the one-year retention calculation, students who entered york after the 2017 winter term were excluded (n = 86) and those who graduated by the one-year mark were included as retained. (2) for the two-year graduation rate calculation, students who entered york after the 2016 winter term were excluded (n = 185). (3) for the three-year graduation rate calculation, students who entered york after the 2015 winter term were excluded (n = 265). the analysis of transfers to yorks commerce degrees from senecas two- and three-year business diplomas (see table 1 for program list) revealed that students entering york through the block transfer pathway had on average slightly higher seneca grades than those entering through the articulated pathways, but received lower gpas at york. students who took the articulated pathway from accounting and finance had both the highest amount of transfer credit and the highest two- and three- year graduation rates. 48 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 26. graduation and retention rate of seneca transfers to york's bachelor of commerce, graduates of senecas two- and three-year business diplomas n block transfer articulated pathways block & articulated pathways grand total 2-year business grads 3-year business grads 2-year accounting grads 3-year accounting & finance grads 2-year business grads 3-year business grads 2 & 3-yr 66 gpa seneca (/4.0) 3.4 gpa york (/9.0) 5.6 first year retention rate (%) 86.8% 2-year graduation rate (%) 31.4% 3-year graduation rate (%) 39.1% average transfer credit 28.8 44 3.4 5.1 81.3% --- --- 39.5 81 3.2 6 90.0% 19.2% 40.5% 29.8 42 3.3 6.5 78.8% 43.5% 58.3% 44.3 147 3.3 5.8 88.6% 24.1% 40.0% 29.4 86 3.3 5.8 80.0% 29.2% 34.6% 41.9 233 3.3 5.8 85.6% 25.9% 38.4% 33.9 notes: (1) includes all seneca graduates of a two- or three-year business diploma program who transferred to yorks commerce degree programs between fall 2013 and winter 2017. (2) --- indicates cell size <5. (3) for the one-year retention calculation, students who entered york after the 2017 winter term were excluded (n = 45) and those who graduated by the one-year mark were included as retained. (4) for the two-year graduation rate calculation, students who entered york after the 2016 winter term were excluded (n = 98). (5) for the three-year graduation rate calculation, students who entered york after the 2015 winter term were excluded (n = 147). university to seneca business degrees the growth of degree offerings by ontario colleges has created an additional pathway in ontarios post-secondary education landscape: colleges as receivers of transfer students into their degree programs from both colleges and universities. as shown in table 27, almost 200 students entered a seneca commerce degree from either york or ryerson during the fiveyear study period, with over half originating from the related program areas of business, commerce, or economics (54%), 27% from social sciences and humanities, and 19% from the sciences. students were distributed across all of senecas commerce degrees, with the most commonly selected degrees being international accounting and finance, followed by business management. 49 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 27. pathways into seneca's commerce degrees from university (york and ryerson combined) business/ economics/ commerce natural & applied sciences social sciences/ humanities/ other total international accounting & finance 40 seneca bachelor of commerce major human international resources business business strategy & management management technology 27 15 9 financial services management 14 total 105 12 6 9 5 6 38 12 15 6 14 6 53 64 48 30 28 26 196 note: an additional nine students initially entered other seneca non-commerce degree programs before entering a seneca business degree program. table 28 depicts the pre- and post-transfer academic performance of students who transferred to a seneca business degree, by subject area and sending university. overall, results suggest that this group of transfer students performed poorly at university prior to transferring, with 85% obtaining a d or below at university. it appears that switching to seneca was an alternate way to obtain a degree following poor performance at university. once at seneca, their performance improved, with averages in the c to c+ range. students from ryerson had lower gpas both at seneca entry and post-transfer, and a higher share of course failures. seneca non-transfer students in business degree programs had higher gpas at seneca (2.5 vs. 2.3) and a lower rate of course failure. table 28. academic performance pre- and post-transfer to a seneca business degree program from university (york/ryerson) university gpa before transfer seneca outcomes post-transfer n d& below c b& above gpa (/4.0) % failed courses business/ economics/ commerce 44 81.8% 18.2% 0.0% 2.5 19.1% natural & applied sciences 19 89.5% 10.5% 0.0% 2.5 16.5% social sciences/ humanities/ other 48 79.2% 18.8% 2.1% 2.4 22.1% business/ economics/ commerce 61 91.8% 8.2% 0.0% 2.1 27.2% natural & applied sciences 19 89.5% 5.3% 5.3% 2.3 26.1% social sciences/ humanities/ other 5 --- --- --- 2.8 11.7% transfers from york or ryerson (total) 196 84.7% 13.8% 1.5% 2.3 22.6% seneca non-transfer degree students 1,411 --- --- --- 2.5 17.4% york ryerson table 29 presents the graduation and retention rates of university students who transferred to senecas business degree programs, by the last program area enrolled in at university. in 50 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities comparison to students who entered the program from york or ryerson, seneca students who had not transferred had slightly higher retention and graduation rates across all time points assessed. for example, by three years after entry, 36% of transfer students had left their program at seneca without graduating compared to 28% of seneca students who had not transferred from york or ryerson. as seen with grades, ryerson transfers were also less likely than york transfers to be still enrolled or to have graduated within three years of seneca entry. table 29. graduation and retention rate of university transfer students to seneca's business degree programs by last program at university compared to seneca non-transfer students whose first program was a seneca business degree york ryerson # credits earned /yr at seneca first year graduated/ enrolled 2 years graduated/ enrolled 3 years graduated / enrolled business/economics/commerce 7.4 79.6% 73.8% 67.7% natural & applied sciences 8.1 84.2% 66.7% 63.6% social sciences/humanities/other 7.6 81.3% 75.0% 67.5% business/economics/commerce 6.8 80.3% 70.7% 58.5% natural & applied sciences 6.9 89.5% 75.0% 60.0% social sciences/humanities/other 8.6 --- --- --- transfers from york or ryerson 7.3 81.6% 72.8% 64.0% seneca non-transfer students 7.8 85.9% 80.0% 72.1% note: (1) ---cells indicate cell size <5 or 0. (2) seneca non-transfer student population who entered a seneca business degree program (n = 1,411). table 30 presents pathways to senecas business graduate certificate programs by university and university program area. seneca attracts far more york graduates than ryerson graduates to its business-related graduate certificate programs, with york graduates comprising 85% of the total intake. overall, the graduate certificate program with the largest intake of transfer students from york or ryerson was the human resources management program, followed by the program in public relations corporate communications. among students who transferred from york to a seneca graduate certificate program, 83% came from a university program in social sciences, humanities, or other program. alternatively, among students who transferred from ryerson to a seneca graduate certificate program, only 41% came from social sciences, humanities, or other university programs, and 46% came from a university program in business, economics, or commerce. 51 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 30. pathways to seneca business graduate certificate programs by university and university program area university-to-college transfer pathway york to seneca seneca business graduate certificate entered busin/ econ/ comm nat & applied science human resources management pr corporate communications government relations event marketing sports, entertainment, arts global logistics & supply chain management public administration 24 ryerson to seneca busin/ econ/ comm nat & applied science 2 social science/ hum/ other 133 total (n) % total 2 social science/ hum/ other 9 11 181 34% 3 0 109 7 0 8 127 24% 1 0 26 0 0 2 29 6% 4 1 15 3 0 5 28 5% 8 1 8 5 2 0 24 5% 7 0 13 1 0 0 21 4% marketing management professional accounting practice project management environmental green business management non-profit leadership and management other programs* 1 1 14 1 1 2 20 4% 6 0 10 1 1 1 19 4% 0 0 13 0 2 3 18 3% 0 0 11 1 0 0 12 2% 3 0 5 0 1 2 11 2% 10 2 17 7 2 1 39 7% total % total 67 13% 7 1% 374 71% 37 7% 11 2% 33 6% 529 100% 100% *nine graduate certificate programs had fewer than 10 students originating from york and ryerson and are combined in the above table. table 31 presents the academic performance of students pre- and post-transfer to a seneca graduate certificate program by transfer pathway. prior to entering senecas graduate certificate programs, york and ryerson students exiting university achieved an overall gpa of 5.8 (c+) and 2.9 (b-), respectively. during their seneca studies, these students performed well, achieving an overall gpa of 3.6 (b+). 52 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 31. academic performance of students pre- and post-transfer to a seneca business graduate certificate program by transfer pathway university-to-college transfer pathway york to seneca ryerson to seneca seneca business graduate certificate york gpa seneca gpa ryerson gpa seneca gpa human resources management corporate communications event marketing - sports, entertainment, arts government relations global logistics & supply chain management public administration 5.6 5.9 5.7 5.8 5.6 6 3.6 3.9 3.8 3.5 3.2 3.5 2.7 2.9 2.9 2.9 - 3.6 3.9 3.9 3.7 - marketing management professional accounting practice project management - environmental green business management non-profit leadership and management financial services compliance administration 5.4 5.7 6.5 5.8 6.2 - 2.9 3.1 3.7 3.5 3.5 - 2.9 - 3.6 - 2.9 2.9 fraud examination & forensic accounting international business management total 6.1 6.3 5.8 3.9 3.4 3.6 2.9 3.6 notes: (1) -cells indicate cell size <5 or 0. (2) total gpa estimates include all university transfer students who entered seneca graduate certificate programs, including programs not shown due to low cell counts. table 32 presents the first-year graduation rate for york and ryerson students who transferred to a business graduate certificate program at seneca. overall, as seen for the grades in table 31, students are successful post-transfer. across all graduate certificate programs entered, the first-year graduation rate for university transfer students is 84%. the first-year graduation rate is also similar when comparing students who transferred to seneca from york (84%) and ryerson (82%). 53 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 32. first-year graduation rate for students transferring from york/ryerson to seneca's business graduate certificate programs seneca business graduate certificate entered human resources management corporate communication event marketing sports, entertainment, arts government relations global logistics & supply chain management public administration marketing management professional accounting practice project management environmental green business management non-profit leadership and management financial services compliance administration fraud examination & forensic accounting international business management brand management event management event & exhibit design project management information technology total york 1-year grad rate 82% 90% 75% 79% 88% 75% 94% 50% 92% 82% 100% 100% 100% 84% ryerson 1-year grad rate 77% 87% 71% 100% 100% 80% 100% 100% 50% 82% n 181 127 27 26 24 21 20 19 18 12 11 9 6 5 5 5 5 526 overall 1-year grad rate 81.8% 89.8% 74.1% 80.8% 91.7% 76.2% 90.0% 52.6% 94.4% 83.3% 81.8% 77.8% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 60.0% 83.5% notes: (1) - indicates cell size <5 or 0. (2) total graduation rates include all university transfer students who entered a seneca business graduate certificate program, including programs not shown due to low cell counts. regression results for each outcome of interest, four regression models were analyzed: 1. model 1: base population - gender, age, status in canada, gpa, program, credential, dcto use, graduation status, and transfer credit. 2. model 2: model 1 plus high school variables and neighbourhood income data. excludes international students and those without high school grades. 3. model 3: model 1 plus seneca english assessment scores and variables from the entering student survey (e.g., parents education). excludes all students entering senecas graduate certificate programs and degree programs. 4. model 4: model 3 plus seneca math assessment scores. the model-building methodology is described in appendix b. propensity of seneca business students to transfer to university table 33 contains the results of the logistic regression models that investigated the odds of senecas business students to transfer to york or ryerson, excluding students who originated from either university. across all models, older students (23 and older) had lower odds than younger students of transferring from a seneca business program to york or ryerson. differences by gender varied by model. in model 1, which contains no information on skills assessment scores or high 54 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities school grades, gender was not associated with a students odds of transferring to university; nor was this association observed in model 4, which contains math skills assessment. alternatively, in model 2 and model 3, which contain high school grades and english assessment scores, respectively, males were observed to have higher odds of transferring to university. international students were only observed to have lower odds of transferring to university in the models that excluded students enrolled in seneca graduate certificate and degree programs, and included assessment scores. in these same models, students who reported english as their first language were also observed to have lower odds of transferring to university. for program-related variables, enrollment in hospitality and tourism programs was associated with lower odds of transferring to university compared to enrollment in accounting and finance programs at seneca. additionally, enrollment in senecas two-year diploma programs was associated with higher odds of transferring to university compared to enrollment in graduate certificate programs and degree programs, but with lower odds of transferring to university compared to enrollment in three-year diploma programs. for academic and skills-related variables (model 2), students who took more than half of their high school senior courses at the university or mixed preparation level had higher odds of transferring to york or ryerson from seneca. variables related to the number of high school course failures and high school grades were not found to be significant. however, grade average at seneca was a strong influencer on transfer across all models. the odds of transferring to university were 9 to 13 times higher for seneca students with an average of b or above compared to seneca students with an average of d or below. although englishlanguage skills did not influence propensity to transfer, higher math assessment scores at seneca entry (calculated as the average algebra and arithmetic accuplacer scores) were associated with higher odds of transferring to university. across all models, graduating from a seneca program was not associated with the odds of transferring to york or ryerson. having plans for university at seneca entry and obtaining transfer advising were both strongly associated with higher odds of transferring to university, whereas previous selfreported university attendance was not. in models 2, 3, and 4, neighbourhood income and parents education, respectively, were not significantly associated with a students odds of transferring to york or ryerson. 55 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 33. regression results: propensity of seneca students to transfer to university variables gender (ref: female) start age in business program at seneca (ref: <19) variables male model 1 19-20 1.07 (0.10) 0.84 (0.09) 0.50*** (0.07) 0.30*** (0.04) 21-22 23-24 25+ citizenship status (ref: canadian citizen) international used dcto (ref: no) seneca faculty of first business program (ref: accounting and financial services) yes seneca gpa, all courses ever attempted on 4-point scale (ref: <2) domestic - other human resources & leadership international business & management marketing hospitality & tourism public admin/govt relations arts, technology, science mgt. 2-3 3-3.75 3.75-4 credential of first business program (ref: 2-yr diploma) 3-year diploma 1-year certificate grad certificate bachelors degree graduate from seneca (ref: no) da income group (ref: low income) model 2 1.44*** (0.16) 0.86 (0.10) 0.80 (0.12) 0.49*** (0.11) 0.46*** (0.10) --- yes mid income model 3 1.21** (0.10) 0.97 (0.10) 0.90 (0.11) 0.62*** (0.10) 0.39*** (0.06) 0.76*** (0.08) 1.06 (0.13) 7.10*** (0.65) 0.77 (0.14) 0.91 (0.09) model 4 0.92 (0.10) 0.83 (0.11) 0.51*** (0.09) 0.32*** (0.05) 0.64*** (0.07) 1.01 (0.13) 6.78*** (0.64) 0.95 (0.17) 1.07 (0.10) 8.05*** (0.65) 0.65*** (0.10) 0.92 (0.07) 7.80*** (0.91) 0.70 (0.14) 1.01 (0.12) 0.93 (0.11) 0.20*** (0.04) 0.80 (0.53) 0.52*** (0.12) 3.97*** (0.49) 9.28*** (1.13) 8.73*** (1.31) 0.85 (0.15) 0.31*** (0.08) 1.65 (2.35) 0.39*** (0.14) 4.12*** (0.69) 11.38*** (1.92) 12.22*** (2.77) 0.95 (0.13) 0.27*** (0.06) 0.69 (0.19) 1.11 (0.17) 0.28*** (0.09) 1.84 (1.21) 4.61*** (0.65) 12.71*** (1.80) 11.72*** (2.07) 4.43*** (0.65) 11.00*** (1.64) 9.09*** (1.69) 1.45*** (0.11) 1.34 (0.55) 0.11*** (0.04) 0.47*** (0.08) 1.59*** (0.21) 1.38 (0.87) 0.06*** (0.06) 0.48*** (0.11) 1.31*** (0.12) 1.19 (0.59) --- 1.37*** (0.13) 1.15 (0.65) --- --- --- --- --- --- 56 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities variables variables high income model 1 --- model 2 model 3 --- model 4 --- >50% senior hs courses u/m/oac level (ref: no) hs grade 11 to oac gpa yes --- 1.34** (0.15) --- --- 100% scale --- --- --- number of hs grade 11/12 courses a student failed (ref: 0) 1-2 --- --- --- 3 --- --- --- student eligible for university (ref: no) student's first language (ref: other) plans for university (ref: no) last school attended - university (ref: no) one parent has a degree (ref: no) english comprehension assessment score average math assessment score yes --- --- --- english --- --- yes --- --- yes --- --- yes --- --- 120 point scale --- --- 120 point scale --- --- constant r-squared observations 0.00*** (0.00) 0.2683 22,987 0.00*** (0.00) 0.2719 9,599 0.70*** (0.07) 3.09*** (0.27) 0.81** (0.08) 2.80*** (0.26) --- 1.01*** (0.00) 0.00*** (0.00) 0.2895 12,353 0.00*** (0.00) 0.2879 14,708 notes: (1) standard errors in parentheses. (2) ***p<0.01, **p<0.05. (3) empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance, whereas --- indicates the variable was not included in the specific model. (4) for model 2, with high school variables, international students were excluded. (5) for models 3 and 4, including bdat responses and assessment scores, students entering seneca graduate certificate programs or degree programs were excluded. (6) variables investigated but not selected and not presented in above table: year of entry to seneca business program. success at seneca: york and ryerson transfer students compared to nontransfer population table 34 presents the results of regression analyses that investigated the effect of various factors on the academic performance of york and ryerson students who transferred to seneca, compared to senecas non-transfer business students. with regard to seneca gpa, students from both universities outperformed non-transfer seneca business students (model 1). however, when either high school grades or skills assessment results were included (models 2, 3 and 4), the positive observed effect of transfer from a university to seneca on seneca gpa disappeared. for example, results of the regression model investigating the effect of transfer on seneca gpa (model 2), when controlling for high school variables, suggest transfer students from ryerson obtained lower grades compared to non-transfer seneca students. additionally, transfer students from york achieved lower seneca gpas 57 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities compared to non-transfer seneca students when controlling for math assessment scores (model 4). with regard to student-related characteristics, overall findings suggest that females compared to males, and older students compared to younger, were more likely to achieve higher overall gpas at seneca. canadian citizens, compared to non-citizens, and students whose first language was english were each less likely to achieve higher seneca gpas. transfer students who entered hospitality and tourism or marketing programs at seneca were more likely to achieve higher grades than transfers who entered accounting and financial services programs at seneca. additionally, students who entered bachelor degree programs achieved higher overall seneca gpas than students who entered two-year diploma programs at seneca. as shown in model 2 (contains high school variables), students who took more than half of their high school senior courses at the university or mixed preparation level were more likely to achieve higher gpas at seneca. additionally, university eligibility based on high school performance was positively associated with overall seneca gpa. failure in one or more high school courses was negatively associated with the overall gpa achieved at seneca. assessment scores at seneca entry were also positively associated with students overall gpa at seneca. interestingly, students who planned to attend university after college graduation obtained a lower gpa at seneca. table 34. regression results: grades at seneca for students transferring from york/ryerson and non-transfer seneca students variables transfer student (ref: seneca only) variables york gender (ref: female) start age in business program at seneca (ref: <19) male ryerson 19-20 21-22 23-24 25+ citizenship status (ref: canadian citizen) international used dcto (ref: no) seneca faculty of first business program (ref: accounting and financial services) yes domestic - other human resources & leadership international business & management marketing model 1 0.15*** (0.04) 0.19*** (0.06) -0.40*** (0.01) -0.15*** (0.02) -0.03 (0.02) 0.19*** (0.03) 0.57*** (0.02) 0.22*** (0.02) 0.15*** (0.02) 0.48*** (0.04) -0.02 (0.03) -0.10*** (0.02) 0.16*** model 2 -0.07 (0.04) -0.12** (0.06) -0.12*** (0.02) -0.01 (0.02) 0.12*** (0.03) 0.28*** (0.04) 0.48*** (0.03) ---0.07*** (0.03) 0.46*** (0.04) 0.16*** (0.03) 0.02 (0.02) 0.26*** model 3 -0.03 (0.04) 0.12 (0.07) -0.40*** (0.02) -0.18*** (0.02) -0.11*** (0.03) 0.04 (0.03) 0.36*** (0.03) 0.36*** (0.02) 0.27*** (0.03) 0.50*** (0.04) -0.01 (0.04) -0.04** (0.02) 0.13*** model 4 -0.10** (0.05) 0.06 (0.07) -0.41*** (0.02) -0.19*** (0.02) -0.13*** (0.03) 0.03 (0.03) 0.37*** (0.03) 0.23*** (0.02) 0.18*** (0.03) 0.48*** (0.04) 0.15*** (0.04) 0.04** (0.02) 0.11*** 58 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities variables variables da income group (ref: low income) mid income model 1 (0.03) 0.19*** (0.02) -0.01 (0.04) -0.02 (0.07) -0.01 (0.02) 0.28*** (0.03) --- high income --- >50% senior hs courses u/m/oac level (ref: no) hs gpa (grade 11/12) yes --- 100% scale --- number of hs grade 11/12 courses a student failed (ref: 0) student eligible for university (ref: no) student's first language (ref: other) plans for university (ref: no) last school attended university (ref: no) english comprehension assessment score math assessment score 1-2 --- 3 --- yes --- english --- --- yes --- --- yes --- --- 120 point scale --- --- 120 point scale --- --- 0.01*** (0.00) --- r-squared 2.60*** (0.03) 19,156 0.15 -1.94*** (0.12) 8,953 0.33 1.96*** (0.04) 13,799 0.25 hospitality & tourism first business credential at seneca (ref: 2-year diploma) arts, technology, science mgt. 1-year certificate 3-year diploma bachelors degree constant observations r-squared model 2 (0.03) 0.46*** (0.03) 0.07 (0.05) -0.20** (0.09) -0.03 (0.02) 0.08** (0.03) 0.08*** (0.02) 0.05** (0.02) 0.25*** (0.02) model 3 (0.03) 0.25*** (0.02) 0.01 (0.05) model 4 (0.03) 0.32*** (0.04) -0.21 (0.14) --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 0.06*** (0.00) -0.21*** (0.02) -0.30*** (0.03) 0.07*** (0.03) --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- -0.10*** (0.02) -0.18*** (0.02) 0.24*** (0.02) -0.16*** (0.02) 0.15*** (0.02) 0.01*** (0.00) 0.01*** (0.00) 1.44*** (0.05) 11,373 0.28 notes: (1) standard errors in parentheses. (2) ***p<0.01, **p<0.05. (3) empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance, whereas --- indicates the variable was not included in the specific model. (4) for model 2, with high school variables, international students were excluded. (5) for models 3 and 4, including bdat responses and assessment scores, students entering seneca degree programs were excluded. (6) for all models, students entering senecas graduate certificate programs were excluded. (7) variables investigated but not selected and not presented in above table: year of entry to seneca business program and one parent has a degree. table 35 presents the regression results for models investigating the effect of various factors on the odds of graduating within the standard program length for students transferring to 59 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities seneca from york or ryerson compared to non-transfer seneca business students. similar to the results investigating seneca gpa (table 34), model 1 presents evidence of higher odds of graduating on time for students who transferred from university, particularly york, compared to non-transfer seneca business students. this positive effect disappeared when controlling for high school performance (model 2) or skills assessment (models 3 and 4). again, female students compared to male students, and older students compared to younger, had higher odds of graduating within the standard program length. international students compared to domestic students, and students whose first language was not english, were also more likely to graduate on time. students whose first program at seneca was in the program areas of hospitality and tourism or human resources were more likely to graduate within the standard program length than students whose first program at seneca was in accounting and financial services. the odds of graduating on time were higher for students entering bachelor degree programs compared to two-year diploma programs. similar to the results presented in table 34, students who took more than half of their high school senior courses at the university or mixed preparation level had a higher likelihood of graduating within the standard program length. additionally, being eligible for university based on high school performance, and higher assessment score upon seneca entry, were also associated with higher odds of graduating on time. students who had failed one or more high school courses had lower odds of graduating within the standard program length. interestingly, students who indicated on the entering seneca student survey that they planned to attend university after graduation had lower odds of graduating on time. alternatively, students who indicated they had attended a university prior to entering seneca had a higher likelihood of graduating within the standard program length. table 35. regression results: odds of graduating on time at seneca for students transferring from york/ryerson and nontransfer seneca students variables transfer student (ref: seneca only) variables york gender (ref: female) start age in business program at seneca citizenship status (ref: canadian citizen) male used dcto (ref: no) seneca faculty of first business program (ref: accounting & financial services) yes ryerson 1-year increments international domestic other human resources & leadership international business & management model 1 1.25*** (0.11) 1.27 (0.17) 0.60*** (0.02) 1.05*** (0.00) 2.60*** (0.10) 1.34*** (0.07) 2.08*** (0.17) 1.15* (0.09) 0.93 (0.04) model 2 0.96 (0.11) 0.79 (0.13) 0.73*** (0.04) 1.03*** (0.01) --- 2.22*** (0.26) 1.29*** (0.13) 1.06 (0.07) model 3 0.99 (0.10) 1.02 (0.17) 0.59*** (0.02) 1.03*** (0.00) 2.76*** (0.14) 1.43*** (0.09) 2.22*** (0.21) 1.11 (0.11) 1.00 (0.05) model 4 0.87 (0.10) 0.97 (0.18) 0.59*** (0.03) 1.03*** (0.00) 2.45*** (0.15) 1.34*** (0.09) 2.16*** (0.21) 1.38*** (0.14) 1.09 (0.06) 60 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities variables first business credential at seneca (ref: 2-year diploma) variables marketing hospitality & tourism arts, technology, science management 1-year certificate model 1 1.06 (0.07) 1.24*** (0.07) 0.98 (0.10) model 2 1.20* (0.11) 2.07*** (0.18) 1.15 (0.16) model 3 1.01 (0.07) 1.33*** (0.09) 1.10 (0.12) model 4 1.07 (0.09) 1.47*** (0.13) 0.49* (0.21) 0.77 (0.19) 1.28*** (0.09) 1.44*** (0.14) 1.36*** (0.08) 0.85 (0.14) 1.19*** (0.06) --- 0.86 (0.20) 1.14** (0.06) --- --- --- 1.08*** (0.00) 0.72*** (0.05) 0.65*** (0.05) 1.16** (0.08) --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 0.85*** (0.04) 0.65*** (0.03) 1.46*** (0.08) 0.67*** (0.03) 1.31*** (0.08) >50% senior hs courses u/m/oac level (ref: no) hs gpa yes 0.78* (0.12) 1.04 (0.04) 1.54*** (0.11) --- 100% scale --- number of hs grade 11/12 courses a student failed (ref: 0) 1-2 --- 3 --- student eligible for university (ref: no) student's first language (ref: other) plans for university (ref: no) last school attended university (ref: no) english comprehension assessment score math assessment score yes --- english --- --- yes --- --- yes --- --- 120 point scale --- --- 120 point scale --- --- 1.01*** (0.00) --- observations 0.30*** (0.03) 0.0692 16,683 0.00*** (0.00) 0.1018 8,344 0.21*** (0.03) 0.0908 12,476 3-year diploma bachelors degree constant r-squared observations 1.01*** (0.00) 1.01*** (0.00) 0.11*** (0.02) 0.1022 10,147 notes: (1) standard errors in parentheses. (2) ***p<0.01, **p<0.05. (3) empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance, whereas --- indicates the variable was not included in the specific model. (4) for model 2, with high school variables, international students were excluded. (5) for models 3 and 4, including bdat responses and assessment scores, students entering seneca degree programs were excluded. (6) for all models, students entering senecas graduate certificate programs were excluded. (7) variables investigated but not selected and not presented in above table: year of entry to seneca business program, da income group, and one parent has a degree. 61 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities success of york and ryerson transfer students at seneca this section examines the factors influencing academic success at seneca for the population of students that transferred from york or ryerson. results from the regression analyses of various factors affecting the overall seneca gpa of university transfer students are presented in table 36. students transferring from york or ryerson obtained higher gpas at seneca if they were female, came from a middle-income neighbourhood rather than a low-income neighbourhood, and had a parent with a degree. students with canadian citizenship were observed to obtain lower grades at seneca relative to domestic students only in the model containing high school background (model 2). additionally, in model 2, older students were observed to be more likely to achieve higher grades at seneca compared to younger students. university students academic and skills background before transfer to seneca was associated with seneca gpas post-transfer. transfer students who had obtained a high school average of 80% or higher, and who had not failed any high school courses compared to failing three or more, were all more likely to obtain a higher gpa at seneca. as well, higher scores in both english and math assessment at seneca entry were significantly associated with a higher seneca gpa for university transfer students. a higher university cumulative gpa before seneca entry was also associated with higher seneca grades post-transfer. interestingly, an association was not observed between university graduation before transfer and a higher gpa at seneca, in contrast to the results in the descriptive data. for university transfer students, program factors significantly increased the odds of achieving higher gpas at seneca: students who entered hospitality and tourism or marketing obtained higher grades at seneca than students who entered accounting and finance programs; similarly, transfer students entering graduate certificate programs obtained higher grades at seneca than transfer students entering senecas two-year diploma programs. interestingly, the small proportion of transfer students who used the dctos advising services obtained higher grades at seneca compared to those who did not. table 36. regression results: grades at seneca for students transferring from york/ryerson variables university transferred from (ref: york) gender (ref: female) start age in business program at seneca (ref: <19) variables ryerson international model 2 -0.00 (0.07) -0.15** (0.06) 0.37 (0.21) 0.43** (0.21) 0.44** (0.21) 0.70*** (0.21) --- domestic other -0.42*** male 19-20 21-22 23-24 25+ citizenship status (ref: canadian citizen) model 1 0.05 (0.05) -0.22*** (0.04) model 3 0.09 (0.08) -0.28*** (0.07) model 4 0.05 (0.09) -0.31*** (0.08) 62 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities variables variables model 1 used dcto (ref: no) seneca faculty of first business program (ref: accounting & financial services) yes model 2 (0.14) 0.50*** (0.15) 0.25*** (0.09) -0.08 (0.08) 0.20** (0.10) 0.43*** (0.12) 0.65*** (0.12) 0.27 (0.18) model 3 model 4 0.66*** (0.16) 0.14 (0.13) -0.08 (0.09) 0.33*** (0.10) 0.47*** (0.12) 0.69*** (0.17) 0.29** (0.14) -0.01 (0.10) 0.29** (0.14) 0.56*** (0.18) da income group (ref: low income) mid income 0.56*** (0.12) 0.23*** (0.07) -0.15** (0.06) 0.26*** (0.07) 0.43*** (0.10) 0.46*** (0.09) 0.23 (0.13) -0.02 (0.06) 0.07 (0.08) 0.24*** (0.08) 0.80*** (0.06) 1.02*** (0.07) 1.14*** (0.19) --- high income --- hs grade 11 to oac gpa (ref: <69%) 70-79% --- 80% --- number of hs grade 11/12 courses a student failed (ref: 0) 1-2 --- 3 --- student eligible for university (ref: no) one parent has a degree (ref: no) english comprehension assessment score math assessment score yes --- yes --- 0.78*** (0.08) 0.71*** (0.11) 0.78** (0.35) 0.21*** (0.08) 0.07 (0.07) 0.10 (0.08) 0.47*** (0.11) -0.12 (0.07) -0.29*** (0.10) 0.18** (0.08) --- 120 point scale --- --- 120 point scale --- --- 0.15** (0.07) 0.01*** (0.00) --- constant constant 2.25*** (0.07) 1.57*** (0.24) 1.64*** (0.14) human resources & leadership international business & management marketing hospitality & tourism first business credential at seneca (ref: 2-year diploma) public admin/govt relations arts, technology, science management 3-year diploma bachelors degree grad certificate university cumulative gpa before transfer (ref: d) c b a 0.13 (0.24) --- --- --- --- 0.69*** (0.09) 0.84*** (0.14) 1.30 (0.93) --- 0.66*** (0.11) 0.75*** (0.20) 1.49 (0.98) --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --0.20*** (0.08) 0.01*** (0.00) 0.01*** (0.00) 1.25*** (0.20) 63 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities variables observations r-squared variables observations r-squared model 1 1,591 0.41 model 2 854 0.39 model 3 757 0.25 model 4 594 0.20 notes: (1) standard errors in parentheses. (2) ***p<0.01, **p<0.05. (3) empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance, whereas --- indicates the variable was not included in the specific model. (4) for model 2, with high school variables, international students were excluded. (5) for models 3 and 4, including bdat responses and assessment scores, students entering seneca graduate certificate or degree programs were excluded. (6) students entering senecas one-year certificate programs were excluded due to small sample size. (7) variables investigated but not selected and not presented in above table: year of entry to seneca business program, last program at university before transfer, >50% senior high school courses u/m/oac level, students first language, plans for university, and last school attended. the models investigating the odds of students graduating within the standard program length at seneca (table 37) found only one socio-demographic variable associated with graduation: gender. when controlling for all variables of interest, female students compared to male students had higher odds of graduating on time. high school grades were positively associated with graduating on time, as were having a higher university cumulative gpa and a higher math assessment score upon seneca entry. as seen with grades, whether a student graduated from university before transfer had no impact on seneca retention. the business faculty that the student entered was not significantly associated their odds of graduating within the standard program length; however, university transfer students who entered graduate certificate programs were more likely to graduate on time compared to university transfer students who entered two-year diploma programs. students who reported having plans for university at college entry, despite having previously attended university, were less likely to graduate from seneca within their programs standard length compared to students who did not aspire at college entry to return to university following their program at seneca. 64 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 37. regression results: odds of graduating on time at seneca for students transferring from york/ryerson variables university transferred from (ref: york) gender (ref: female) used dcto? (ref: no) first business credential at seneca (ref: 2-year diploma) variables ryerson male yes 3-year diploma bachelors degree grad certificate university cumulative gpa before transfer (ref: d) c b (model 1) a & b (models 2,3,4) a model 1 1.05 (0.15) 0.69*** (0.09) 3.14*** (1.05) 0.76 (0.13) 0.86 (0.19) 3.45*** (0.65) 2.62*** (0.44) 3.05*** (0.65) model 2 0.82 (0.15) 0.62*** (0.11) 3.28*** (1.35) 0.87 (0.19) 0.90 (0.24) 4.20*** (1.16) 3.25*** (0.72) 2.47*** (0.77) model 3 0.97 (0.18) 0.64*** (0.10) 4.61*** (1.76) model 4 0.99 (0.21) 0.57*** (0.11) 4.90*** (1.90) --- --- --- --- 2.54*** (0.52) 2.82*** (0.88) 2.63*** (0.67) 2.22 (0.97) --- --0.61** (0.13) 1.01** (0.00) 0.45** (0.14) 0.0801 520 hs grades 11 to oac gpa 100% scale 2.09 (1.16) --- plans for university (ref: no) math assessment score yes --- 1.04** (0.02) --- 120 point scale --- --- 0.58*** (0.11) --- observations 0.36*** (0.06) 0.1718 1,413 0.02*** (0.02) 0.1951 776 0.82 (0.12) 0.0717 681 constant r-squared observations notes: (1) standard errors in parentheses. (2) ***p<0.01, **p<0.05. (3) empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance, whereas --- indicates the variable was not included in the specific model. (4) for model 2, with high school variables, international students were excluded. (5) for models 3 and 4, including bdat responses and assessment scores, students entering seneca graduate certificate or degree programs were excluded. (6) variables investigated but not selected and not presented in above table: start age in seneca business program, citizenship, seneca faculty of first business program, university graduate before transfer to seneca, year of entry to senecas business program, last program at university before transfer to seneca, da income group, >50% senior high school courses u/m/oac level, number of grade 11/12 courses a student failed, eligible for university, first language, last school attended a university, one parent has a degree, and english comprehension assessment score. success of seneca transfer students at university the final analysis investigated factors influencing success of transfer students from senecas business programs at york or ryerson. table 38 presents the results from logistic regression models that investigated factors potentially associated with achieving an average of b or above at york or ryerson. 65 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities when not controlling for high school background or skills assessment (model 1 only), students transferring from seneca to ryerson were more likely to obtain an average of b or above compared to those who transferred to york. gender and age were only significantly associated with the odds of obtaining a b average or above in model 2, which adjusted for high school variables (international students were excluded), with males and older students outperforming females and younger students, respectively. the likelihood of achieving an average of b or above at university following transfer from seneca was associated primarily with academic background including math assessment scores and seneca gpa (pre-transfer), both of which were strongly associated with university gpa across all models. in models 3 and 4, which excluded students in degree and graduate certificate programs but included skill assessments and survey results, achieving a b average or above at university was significantly associated with pre-transfer grades and the amount of transfer credit received. interestingly, seneca transfer students with no record of transfer credit upon university entry were more likely to obtain a b average or above post-transfer compared to those who received one to three semesters of transfer credit. moreover, there was no observed association between obtaining three or more semesters of transfer credit versus none at all. unlike in the descriptive results, graduating before transfer was not associated with the odds of achieving a b average or better at university. table 38: regression results: odds of achieving a b average or above at university for students transferring from seneca to york/ryerson variables variables model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 university transferred to (ref: york) ryerson 1.41** 1.05 0.98 0.95 (0.19) (0.24) (0.26) (0.30) gender (ref: female) male 1.54** (0.27) start age in business program at seneca 1-year increments 1.05*** citizenship status (ref: canadian citizen) international (0.02) --- 1.59 (0.38) domestic - other 0.79 (0.19) seneca gpa, all courses ever attempted on 4-pt scale (ref: 3.75-4) transfer credits awarded at university (ref: none or missing) 3-3.75 0.24*** 0.17*** 0.15*** 0.15*** (0.06) (0.05) (0.05) (0.06) 2-3 0.10*** (0.03) 0.08*** (0.03) 0.08*** (0.03) 0.08*** (0.03) <2 0.06*** 0.04*** 0.04*** 0.05*** (0.02) (0.02) (0.02) (0.02) 0.92 0.39** 0.42 (0.32) (0.18) (0.21) 1.05 0.51 0.38** (0.32) (0.19) (0.16) 1 semester 1-2 semesters 66 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities variables variables model 1 2-3 semesters 3+ semesters last school attended university (ref: no) average math assessment score constant yes --- model 2 model 3 model 4 0.78 0.44** 0.36** (0.25) (0.16) (0.15) 1.96** 0.96 0.92 (0.62) (0.37) (0.42) --- 0.58** (0.16) 120 point scale --- --- --- 1.02*** (0.00) 3.46*** 1.07 8.36*** 2.86 (0.75) (0.64) (3.85) (1.73) r-squared 0.1002 0.1459 0.1254 0.1552 observations 1,074 740 626 547 notes: (1) standard errors in parentheses. (2) ***p<0.01, **p<0.05. (3) empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance, whereas --- indicates the variable was not included in the specific model. (4) for model 2, with high school variables, international students were excluded. (5) for models 3 and 4, including bdat responses and assessment scores, students entering seneca graduate certificate or degree programs were excluded. (6) variables investigated but not selected and not presented in above table: student used the dcto, seneca faculty of first business program, credential of last program at seneca, year of entry to senecas business program, graduate from seneca, program of entry at university, da income group, >50% senior high school courses u/m/oac level, high school grade 11 to oac gpa, number of grade 11/12 courses a student failed, eligible for university, first language, plans for university, one parent has a degree, and english comprehension assessment score. table 39 presents the results from logistic regression models that investigated the factors associated with a students odds of retention or graduation from york or ryerson one year following transfer from seneca. across all models, the university to which a seneca student transferred was not found to be associated with the students odds of retention one year following transfer. in model 1, international students compared to domestic students, and male transfers compared to female transfers, had higher odds of retention after the first year of university; however, those effects disappeared in models 3 and 4, which include other survey and skills assessment variables. in models 1 and 2, male transfers compared to female transfers had higher odds of retention after the first year of university, an effect not seen in the models containing assessment and survey variables (models 3 and 4). the effect of pre-transfer gpa was only significant in model 1, which does not contain high school or assessment scores, and in the high school model (model 2), which excludes international students. in the models containing assessment scores (models 3 and 4), the only significant explanatory factor was math assessment skills at seneca entry (model 4). any transfer credit provided by the university (or on record) had a positive effect on first-year retention in models 1 and 2. 67 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities table 39. regression results: odds of first-year retention at university for students transferring from seneca to york/ryerson variables university transferred to (ref: york) gender (ref: female) start age in first business program at seneca (ref: <19) variables ryerson model 1 0.85 (0.25) model 2 1.12 (0.25) model 3 1.16 (0.31) male 1.51** (0.31) 1.89*** (0.42) 1.68 (0.45) 2.51*** (0.69) 1.08 (0.28) 1.66 (0.75) 1.16 (0.26) 2.33** (0.94) 0.42 (0.19) 0.60 (0.34) --- 0.44 (0.19) 0.26*** (0.11) 0.20*** (0.10) 0.56** (0.16) 0.51 (0.23) 0.28*** (0.13) 0.19*** (0.10) 2.33** (0.92) 2.38*** (0.72) 2.84*** (1.02) 3.21*** (1.21) --- 3.25*** (1.47) 1.81 (0.61) 2.88*** (1.11) 2.80*** (1.06) --- --- 7.98*** 8.55*** 4.52*** 19-20 21-22 23-24 25+ citizenship status (ref: canadian citizen) international seneca faculty of first business program (ref: accounting & financial services) human resources & leadership international business & management marketing domestic other hospitality & tourism seneca gpa, all courses ever attempted on 4pt scale (ref: 3.75-4) graduate from seneca before transfer? (ref: no) transfer credits awarded at university (ref: 0 & missing) arts, technology, science mgt, public admin/govt rel 3-3.75 2-3 <2 yes 1 semester 1-2 semesters 2-3 semesters 3+ semesters average math assessment score constant 120 point scale model 4 1.27 (0.36) 0.46** (0.17) 0.43 (0.19) 0.17*** (0.10) 0.45 (0.22) 2.71 (1.47) 1.83 (0.59) 3.39** (1.92) ----- 1.02*** (0.01) 1.67 68 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities variables variables r-squared observations model 1 (3.84) 0.0643 889 model 2 (3.80) 0.0404 622 model 3 (0.95) 0.0111 475 model 4 (0.88) 0.0641 473 notes: (1) standard errors in parentheses. (2) ***p<0.01, **p<0.05. (3) empty cells indicate dropped variables due to insignificance, whereas --- indicates the variable was not included in the specific model. (4) for model 2, with high school variables, international students were excluded. (5) for models 3 and 4, including bdat responses and assessment scores, students entering seneca graduate certificate or degree programs were excluded. (6) variables investigated but not selected and not presented in above table: student used the dcto, credential of last program at seneca, year of entry to senecas business program, program of entry at university, da income group, >50% senior high school courses u/m/oac level, high school grade 11 to oac gpa, number of grade 11/12 courses a student failed, eligible for university, first language, plans for university, last school attended university, one parent has a degree, and english comprehension assessment score. the outcome of whether a student graduated from university within two years of transfer was also investigated (table 40). due to a small sample size, only the model that excludes high school grades, survey variables and assessment scores was conducted (model 1). only two factors were associated with higher odds of graduation at the two-year point: seneca gpa pre-transfer and, as expected, transfer credit awarded upon university entry. table 40. regression results: odds of graduation within two years after transfer to university for students transferring from seneca to york/ryerson variables seneca gpa, all courses ever attempted on 4pt scale (ref: 3.75-4) transfer credits awarded at university (ref: 0 & missing) variables 3-3.75 2-3 <2 1 semester 1-2 semesters 2-3 semesters 3+ semesters constant constant r-squared observations observations model 1 0.45*** (0.11) 0.44*** (0.12) 0.25*** 0.31 (0.21) 1.78 (0.62) 1.41 (0.57) 9.03*** (3.70) 0.24*** (0.08) 0.1211 889 notes: (1) standard errors in parentheses. (2) ***p<0.01, **p<0.05. (2) variables investigated but not selected and not presented in above table: gender, students start age in first business program at seneca, citizenship, student used the dcto, seneca faculty of last business program, credential of last program at seneca, graduate from seneca, and program of entry at university. 69 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities discussion and conclusion this study found that 11% of all seneca students who enrolled in a business program between 2012 and 2017 had enrolled at york or ryerson at some point between 2007 and 2018, either before or after their seneca studies. the vast majority of students entering a seneca business program from york or ryerson had not completed their credential prior to college entry (68%), whereas the reverse was the case for students continuing on to york or ryerson after seneca, with 78% graduating from seneca before transfer. most university graduates entered a seneca graduate certificate program (87%), whereas those who left university without a degree entered a range of credentials at seneca, with 18% entering a college degree program. an overwhelming share of seneca students continuing on to york or ryerson entered business or related programs (82% and 95%, respectively), whereas university students entering seneca originated in a variety of programs. among the students who transferred from york or ryerson to a seneca business program, 82% had either graduated or were still enrolled in seneca within one year, and 77% after two years. overall, 49% graduated from seneca within two years. in terms of grades, 56% obtained an average of b or above at seneca. university graduates outperformed nongraduates at seneca academically, mainly as a result of stronger high school and university grades. for seneca business students continuing on to york or ryerson, 85% were retained after one year, and 74% after two years, with 27% graduating within two years of transfer. with regard to grades, 44% of seneca students who transferred to york or ryerson obtained an average of b or above. academic background was the most significant factor in student success following transfer. a students gpa prior to transfer, regardless of pathway (university-to-college or college-touniversity), was consistently associated with their gpa, retention, and odds of graduating following transfer. seneca students who were stronger academically than their peers were more likely to transfer to either york or ryerson. students who performed well at university following transfer from seneca had also performed well at seneca and prior to seneca entry. they had taken university preparatory courses at the high school level, obtained good grades at high school, and had performed well on assessment testing at seneca entry (particularly in math). however, following their transfer to university, their high school background was not a factor in their success, whereas their entering math skills and seneca grades were. however, for both the entire seneca business population under study and students transferring from york or ryerson, high school background was a factor in their academic success at seneca grades before transfer and math skills upon seneca entry were the only consistent influencers on all the outcomes studied. the consistency of math proficiency as a significant factor across all of the models is very interesting, and a potentially important area of future research as this finding may be an indication of how important fundamental math skills are in postsecondary business programs. interestingly, reading comprehension was only significantly associated with academic outcomes at seneca, both in the full population and for students transferring from university, but was not significantly associated with academic performance at university for students who transferred from seneca. previous work has shown the impact of graduating before transfer on most transfer outcomes, independent of grades. in the studys descriptive analysis, students who graduated from their seneca program prior to transfer to university often performed better after 70 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities transfer than students who did not graduate from their seneca program prior to transfer. this effect was even stronger for students transferring from york or ryerson to seneca. students who graduated from their university program prior to transferring to seneca continued to do well at college, with the majority entering graduate certificate programs. however, those students who did not graduate from their university program prior to transferring to seneca were often those who did poorly at the university level, and continued to struggle in their seneca program following transfer. some students who did poorly academically in university may have considered college as a pathway back to university following the completion of a credential or improvement of their grades at college. a large share of students who transferred from york and ryerson (26% and 37%, respectively) indicated on the seneca entering student survey that they aspired to attend university following completion of their seneca program. when investigating student socio-demographic characteristics, the study observed that students who transferred from senecas business programs to university were more likely to be younger and male, and less likely to be international students or to speak english as a first language. parents education and neighbourhood income had no effect on college-touniversity transfer. in terms of retention and grades at seneca, males consistently underperformed females, both within the full seneca population and students who transferred to seneca from york or ryerson. in contrast, within the population that transferred to university males outperformed females for both gpa and first year retention at university in some investigated models. canadian citizens obtained lower grades and were less likely to graduate compared to noncanadian citizens within the full seneca business population. however, citizenship was not significantly associated with academic outcomes following transfer regardless of transfer direction. within the full seneca business population, students reporting english as a first language were less likely to transfer, more likely to obtain lower grades, and less likely to graduate. however, within investigated models, a students first language was not observed to be associated with the outcomes of interest. socio-economic status (measured in this study as a students neighbourhood income and parental education) has been an area of interest for research on student access to postsecondary education, academic success, and transfer from college to university. in the current study, however, these factors were found to have limited significance. neighbourhood income was positively associated with grades in the full seneca population, whereas having a parent with a degree was associated with higher grades at seneca for the university population that transferred. one, perhaps puzzling, finding from this study is that socio-demographic factors have a significant effect on academic outcomes within the full seneca population, but this effect does not often hold within the transfer population. we suggest that socio-demographic characteristics of interest (such as gender, age, status in canada, first language) may affect a students pre-transfer gpa and academic success, which then indirectly influences the students post-transfer academic success. therefore, these socio-demographic factors should continue to be considered in any research studies or evaluations of transfer students and pathways. as seen in a previous review of senecas degree and credit transfer office (mccloy, baker, williams, et al., 2018), students who received transfer advising were far more likely to both transfer to university and outperform other students academically at seneca. in contrast, the current study demonstrates that once a student has transferred to york or ryerson, dcto 71 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities advising has no impact on their academic performance after transfer. this is to be expected the dctos mandate is to inform students about various pathways for university and college admission, not necessarily to prepare them for post-transfer academic success. however, as this study only included academic outcomes, there may be other outcomes related to the impact of the dcto and the transfer experience that were not measured here. pathways of interest: an additional focus of this research was to investigate specific pathways of interest between seneca, york and ryerson. pathways of interest for students entering seneca included a business degree or graduate certificate. the study found that students entering a degree program at seneca had previously struggled in university and appeared to be using senecas degree programs as a second chance at acquiring a degree. after transfer, these students were observed to obtain a slightly higher gpa than in university, however they continued to underperform compared to the non-transfer seneca population. 11 in contrast, students entering business graduate certificates had good grades at university and did very well at seneca in terms of graduation rates and grades. for the college students continuing on to ryerson or york, the study analyzed students transferring within established business pathways from seneca business diplomas to commerce degrees at university. overall, these longstanding pathways appear to be functioning well. the seneca to ryerson business pathway focuses mostly on graduates of three-year business diplomas who can primarily enter the third year of one of several business management majors or enter a stand-alone two-year degree completion program in business technology management. despite taking, on average, a reduced course load at ryerson, 43% obtained a ryerson degree within two years, and 73% had a degree within three years of entering. pathways to yorks commerce degree programs attract more graduates of two-year diploma programs. overall, 24% of two-year business graduates completed a commerce degree in two years, and 40% within three years. for three-year diploma graduates, 29% completed within two years, and 35% within three years. seneca transfers to york were also taking, on average, a reduced course load post-transfer. regression models which were conducted using the whole population of students who transferred to university, irrespective of pathway, demonstrated that a students ability to graduate from ryerson or york within two years of transfer was strongly associated with two factors: (1) the amount of credit or advanced standing received following transfer and (2) seneca grades pre-transfer. there was no institutional effect, an indication that the transfer policy was the key determinant of students graduating within two years after transfer. overall, the results of this research help to highlight the transfer student profile and the factors that influence successful transfer between ontario post-secondary institutions. additionally, these results may help to inform current and future transfer agreements among ontario post-secondary institutions. two ongoing oncat-funded studies will provide a fuller picture of these students through the use of: (1) administrative data from five of ontarios degree-granting colleges, to compare outcomes by transfer pathway to the degrees, and (2) a survey of students transferring between york and seneca, linked with their academic data, that asks students to indicate their motivations for choosing their pathways. 11 72 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities references bogers, e. w., cusson, m., & staddon, m. (2019). understanding profiles and pathways of university to college transfer students. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). finnie, r., pavlic, d., childs, s., daz, v. e., mercier, p., & lewrey, w. (2012). transfer student persistence at algonquin college and university of ottawa. toronto: oncat. mccloy, u., & williams, k. (2019). what is the role of mathematics proficiency on academic and labour market outcomes of college students? toronto: ontario human capital research and innovation fund (ohcrif). https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/ohcrif-math-report-august2019.pdf mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h. (2017a). the changing patterns of college-to-university transfer: examination of ontarios graduate satisfaction survey 2007-2015. toronto: oncat. https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/the-changing-patterns-of-collegeto-university-transfer.pdf mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h. (2017b). pathways from senecas liberal arts transfer program: from college entrance to graduation from university. toronto: oncat. https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/pathways-from-senecas-liberal-artstransfer-program-from-college-entrance-to-university-graduation.pdf mccloy, u., baker, v., williams, k., & decock, h. (2018). seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes. toronto: oncat. https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/senecacolleges_degree_and_credit _transfer_office_a_profile_of_users_and_an_examination_of_outcomes.pdf mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h., & bain-greenwood, f. (2017). from high school to graduation and beyond: pathways of young immigrants in a toronto college. toronto: ohcrif. https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/ohcrif/from-high-schoolto-graduation-and-beyond-pathways-of-young-immigrants-in-a-toronto-college-decfinalx1x.pdf smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in higher education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. steffler, m., mccloy, u., & decock, h. (2018). which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income. toronto: oncat. https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/which_college_students_transfer_to _university_-_final.pdf williams, k., mccloy, u. (2019). transfer pathways to university for ontario college graduates with a disability: an analysis of transfer rates and the student experience. toronto: oncat. https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/crsm_disabilities_paper_frinal_dra ft_oncat_xmdx2.pdf york-seneca partnership (2017). statistical report. unpublished internal analysis, office of institutional planning, york university. 73 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities appendix a: program and faculty groupings table a 1. spemaj groupings for university programs spemaj category business, economics and commerce spemaj codes 41200 414** 42700 commerce/business/administration specialized administration economics natural and applied sciences 5**** agriculture and biological sciences (excluding health professions) 6**** 7**** 8**** engineering and applied sciences health professions and occupations mathematics and physical sciences social sciences, humanities & other 1**** 2**** 3**** education, physical education, recreation and leisure fine and applied arts humanities and related 4**** 9**** social sciences and related (exclude business 412/414) other table a 2. seneca business faculty groupings seneca business faculty groupings human resources and leadership accounting and financial services international business and management marketing hospitality and tourism public administration/government relations arts, technology and science management seneca business faculty centre for human resources school of leadership and human resources school of accounting and financial services school of international business and management school of marketing school of hospitality and tourism school of legal and public administration school of media centre for the built environment school of fashion school of information and communications technology table a 3. seneca programs by business faculty seneca business faculty centre for human resources centre for the built environment school of accounting and financial services seneca program name bachelor of commerce (human resources strategy and technology) business administration - human resources project management environmental accounting accounting and finance accounting and payroll accounting techniques bachelor of commerce (financial services management) bachelor of commerce (international accounting and finance) business - insurance business administration - financial planning business administration accounting & financial planning 74 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities seneca business faculty school of fashion school of hospitality and tourism school of information and communications technology school of international business & management school of leadership & human resources school of legal and public administration school of marketing school of media seneca program name financial services - client services financial services compliance administration financial services practitioner fraud examination and forensic accounting professional accounting practice event management - event and exhibit design fashion business retail management - fashion merchandising global hospitality business development global hospitality operations management hospitality management - hotel and restaurant tourism - travel operations tourism and travel project management - information technology bachelor of commerce (business management) bachelor of commerce (international business management) business business administration - entrepreneurship and small business business administration - management business administration - purchasing and supply management global logistics and supply chain management international business international business administration international business management international transportation and customs green business management human resources management non-profit leadership and management public administration brand management business - marketing business administration - marketing creative advertising event marketing - sports, entertainment, arts honours bachelor of commerce - marketing marketing management sales force automation and crm analytics strategic marketing and marketing analytics corporate communications government relations 75 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities appendix b. regression model-building for each multivariable regression model, purposeful selection 12 was used to select potential confounding variables for inclusion in each analysis. for each independent variable, the unadjusted association with the dependent variable was estimated and those with a p-value 0.25 were selected for inclusion in the multivariable mod el. variables of interest were assessed independently by removing each variable from the multivariable model one at a time. if the independent variables of interest or the corresponding standard errors changed by greater than or equal to 10% upon removal of a variable, the variable was included in the model. the likelihood-ratio (lr) test was used to assess whether inclusion of the variable significantly improved model fit. a variable was kept in the multivariable model if its inclusion statistically improved the fit of the model as determined by a lr test p-value of <0.05. variables for students gender and age were included in all regression models regardless of their statistical significance. collinearity among independent variables of interest was inspected with cross-tabulation and the pearson correlation coefficient. variables that were highly correlated (with pearson correlation coefficients 0.7) were further examinedto determine which set of variables would be included in the final model. 13 12 as proposed by hosmer and lemeshow. see: d.w. hosmer & s. lemeshow (2000), applied logistic regression. new york: wiley. 13 see: e. vittinghoff (2012), regression methods in biostatistics: linear, logistic, survival, and repeated measures models. 2nd ed. new york: springer. 76 transfer patterns of senecas business students: student profile and academic success at toronto universities appendix c: reading and math assessment scores table c 1. reading comprehension scores upon seneca entry by status in canada and transfer pathway (mean scores, /120) international canadian citizen domestic - other total york before seneca 57.2 80.3 66.3 75.9 seneca before york 56.0 72.4 64.0 65.2 ryerson before seneca 61.5 77.8 65.5 76.0 seneca before ryerson 65.3 78.1 71.4 76.0 university before college 57.9 79.5 66.1 75.9 college before university 57.2 75.5 66.9 69.6 seneca non-transfers 57.9 71.0 60.1 65.5 total population 57.8 71.9 60.7 66.3 table c 2. algebra and arithmetic assessment results by transfer pathway, (mean scores, /120) international canadian citizen domestic - other total york before seneca 96.1 73.2 101.3 79.3 seneca before york 103.6 73.9 95.1 89.2 ryerson before seneca 99.0 75.4 87.7 78.2 seneca before ryerson 90.5 70.4 84.9 75.0 university before college 96.5 73.8 97.6 79.0 college before university 102.2 72.1 91.1 83.9 seneca non-transfers 85.2 62.3 82.9 73.3 total population 86.3 63.7 83.9 74.2 77

fair, consistent, and transparent a short guide on assessing transfer credits in ontario august 2021 table of contents 03 03 04 05 07 09 acknowledgements about oncat introduction principles of credit assessment transfer credit process overview guidelines for assessing credit 09 step one: assessing credit eligibility credit currency and rules number of credits student performance type of credit 12 step two: assessing course-to-course equivalency course learning outcomes course assessments course content 14 15 16 17 step three: communicating and recording the decision a note on prior learning assessment (plar) decision-making challenges references this guide was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 3 acknowledgements we would like to thank the contributors to this document. in january 2021, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) convened the following six faculty members to advise on the role of faculty in ontarios transfer system and to develop this resource on credit assessment. carol bureau, sheridan college julie cross, fanshawe college stevie jonathan, six nations polytechnic louis durand, laurentian university marco campagna, algonquin college shawn j. richards, humber college carol bureau sheridan college julie cross fanshawe college stevie jonathan six nations polytechnic louis durand laurentian university marco campagna algonquin college shawn j. richards humber college about oncat established in 2011, oncat was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: developing and maintaining the student-facing website ontransfer.ca, used to connect current and prospective students to transfer opportunities; supporting and funding academic projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontarios regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; and hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 4 introduction in a well-functioning transfer environment, students who transfer should not face barriers. for most postsecondary students in ontario, however, there are significant challenges related to transfer. transfer students may spend more time than direct-entry students completing their studies, and a significant number of these students do not graduate (walters, brown, perekh, reynolds, and einmann, 2021). the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to facilitate a more seamless, transparent transfer system in ontario. while we have made a great deal of progress to improve this system, there is still work to be done. if we increase the efficiency and consistency of credit transfer processes within institutions, we can make a profound difference in the lives of transfer students. faculty and academic departments play a vital role in this process when they assess transfer credit and make determinations about course equivalencies between two or more postsecondary institutions. and yet, despite this important role, many faculty members have shared that they do not receive guidance on how to make these decisions (missaghian, 2021). in response, oncat has consulted transfer advisors, faculty members, and other key personnel to create guidelines for assessing credit. did you know? a recent study of postsecondary students in ontario showed that transfer students were enrolled in their programs longer and carried a higher financial burden than non-transfer students (walters, brown, parekh, einmann, and bader, 2020). another study found that students who transferred to the university of toronto accessed stem courses and graduated at significantly lower rates than their non-transfer peers (davies and pizarro milian, 2020). together, we can change these outcomes. this resource provides a starting point for faculty members, department chairs, and others who wish to ensure that their decision-making process is fair, consistent, and transparent. we provide common elements to consider that can be adapted to fit the needs of a particular department or discipline. we hope that these guidelines are useful, and we welcome your feedback for future iterations. together, lets improve the transfer experience for all! fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 5 principles of credit assessment we believe that credit assessment should be fair, consistent, and transparent. to this end, the following principles should guide credit assessment decisions. 1. our work is student-centred. we recognize that students are the recipients of transfer credit and are most impacted by credit assessment decisions. we work to ensure that students equivalent prior academic learning is appropriately recognized, decisions are made in a timely and efficient manner, and that all communications are student-friendly and written for a general audience often unfamiliar with transfer terminology or practices. students should not have to repeat previously completed learning and course content and should not be denied credit because of technicalities. we strive to ensure that students receive adequate credit for the learning that they have acquired so that they can be successful in their program and other aspirations. all students should be encouraged and supported to follow their chosen career or academic paths, free of unnecessary, bureaucratic, or discriminatory barriers. 2. we strive to assess credit consistently to ensure fairness. we strive to reduce bias to the furthest extent possible by following a consistent checklist of criteria for every decision regarding transfer credit. we acknowledge and respect the primary jurisdiction of each institution for transfer policy and academic integrity. nevertheless, credit transfer decisions should be based on objective criteria whenever possible. having clear objectives for assessment of quality and equivalency will limit potential biases about institutional or departmental reputation, thus creating a more equitable process. fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 6 3. every student should have equal opportunities to excel, and we will work to reduce barriers that impede equal opportunity. all students should be encouraged and supported to follow their chosen career or academic paths, free of unnecessary, bureaucratic, or discriminatory barriers. such barriers may include discrimination (on the basis of race, gender, age, sexuality, and so forth), prior learning conducted in a language other than english, lack of familiarity with the workings of higher education, limited financial support, and beyond. to ensure that credit assessment is accessible to all, we will facilitate a better process for the collection of required documents. the goal is to reduce this barrier for students and provide clear communications to students and transfer staff regarding all assessment processes. 4. we believe in a transparent assessment process. decisions regarding credit transfer are important. students, faculty, and staff have a right to know the criteria used to determine course equivalencies and whether a student receives credit. a transparent credit assessment process encourages consistency and accountability for those tasked with assessing credit. when a decision is made, students should receive information about how their application was assessed and a rationale for the decision. they should also have the right to appeal this decision in a fair manner. 5. we treat other faculty members courses as we would our own. when making decisions about course equivalencies, we respect the academic integrity of other faculty members and their courses. while we may not agree with the choices that a faculty member makes regarding course design and delivery, we respect a faculty members expertise in designing and teaching in their field, and acknowledge that courses and programs, regardless of institution, are subject to curriculum review and rigorous quality assurance processes. the concept of parity of esteem among institutions was coined by john dennison, former co-chair of the british columbia council on articulation and transfer (bccat), and it is something that we uphold and promote. 1. dennison, j. (2000). student access and mobility within the british columbia post-secondary system (vancouver, bc: bc council on admissions and transfer). available at bccat.ca/pubs/dennison.pdf fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 7 transfer credit process overview there are a few ways that academic departments can manage transfer, depending on the volume of transfer credit requests they receive. first, departments can handle transfer credit requests on a case-by-case basis, in which they review a students request/application and assess the course in question. if demand for transfer credit increases, departments may wish to establish policy pathways or articulation agreements between themselves and another institution. policy pathways, also referred to as admission policies, are internal policies that establish credit norms for programs that are true for all external institutions. articulation agreements are determinations between two or more institutions that stipulate course equivalencies and requirements for granting credit. they are helpful when departments receive transfer credit requests for the same course or group of courses. it is likely that departments will engage in all methods, as policy pathways and articulation agreements cannot cover every possible transfer situation. the important point is that institutions engage in transfer credit assessment in some way. on the next page, we have provided a visual process map of how an institution might handle transfer credit request on a course-by-course basis. we have included those steps that involve academic departments and faculties only. when creating or revising a policy on credit assessment, then, it is crucial that academic departments collaborate with other departments that are involved in this process, from the beginning to the end of the transfer credit journey. by bringing all parties to the table, you can ensure that students receive timely information about transfer credit, eligibility, and required documentation so that faculty can do their work without delay. fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario transfer office receives transfer credit request. transfer office submits documentation to relevant departments and faculties to review. transfer office completes credit transfer process. 8 transfer office reviews request and approves eligible credits with mapped course equivalents. transfer office obtains course documentation for eligible credits without course equivalents. academic departments assess course-bycourse equivalencies. academic department sends decision with rationale to transfer office. transfer office notifies student with appeals information. this generalized process map is based on findings from oncats mapit project, conducted in partnership with higher education strategy associates (hesa). fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 9 guidelines for assessing credit whether you are engaged in forming an articulation agreement or are assessing credit for an individual course, consider the following. step 1. assessing credit eligibility. credit currency and rules. number of credits. student performance. type of credit. step 2. assessing course-to-course equivalency. course learning objectives. course assessments. course content. step 3. communicating and recording the decision. step 1. assessing credit eligibility. this step does not require subject matter expertise. credit currency and rules. when did the student receive the credit? some institutions will put a time limit on transfer credit eligibility. if you choose to do this, we suggest that you have a solid rationale based on the needs of the discipline. for example, a computer science department likely needs to update its curricula and program offerings more frequently than a department of language and literature. if you create this condition, it is important to consider how this criterion will affect students and whether the criterion serves the best interests of students. fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 10 number of credits. are the number of credits equal in value? if the credit has not been assessed previously, the next step is to consider the number of credits and their equivalency. the credits between two courses should be equal in value. for example, it is reasonable to suppose that two three-credit courses offered over a period of 1215 weeks (the typical length of an academic semester) are equivalent. the same logic can be applied when comparing two six-credit courses offered over an academic year. there are some institutions that no longer assess instructional hours as a condition for receiving credit because they feel that more weight should be given to learning outcomes and curricula. there are cases, however, when the transfer credit cannot be reasonably compared due to significant differences in the institutions units of measurement. for example, if you are comparing a course that is worth two credits with a course that is worth three credits at your institution, it is much harder to determine equivalence. in these cases, you may consider the number of instructional hours alongside other factors, such as learning outcomes and evaluation schema, to determine equivalence. you might also need to assess credits that are incompatible, such as a three-credit, semester-long course with a six-credit, year-long course. in these cases, we suggest that students receive the same number of credits as their previous course and that assessors find ways to assign the credits accordingly. for example, if introduction to sociology is worth three credits at the students previous institution, then the student should only receive three credits at the receiving institution, even if introduction to sociology is worth six credits at the receiving institution. to avoid these situations, we recommend that departments and programs consider splitting six-credit courses into three-credit courses. a recent oncat study analyzed first-year sociology course outlines from 11 postsecondary institutions in ontario. the author found that universities either offered their intro classes as a full-year credit (september to april), or split the class into two halves, one offered in the fall semester and the second half in the winter. this discrepancy, unfortunately, can result in a loss of transfer credit, as one of the faculty members from the study comments: and quite often the people coming to us have done a half-credit course, a one-term course. so that quite often was the main reason why the equivalency wasnt established (missaghian, 2021). fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 11 student performance. how did the student perform? if you are assessing transfer credit, the student has most likely already met your institutions admissions criteria (including a minimum grade point average) to be considered eligible for transfer. however, your department or faculty may choose to create a minimum grade requirement for a particular course or group of courses to award transfer credit. if this is the case, it is a good practice to share this requirement publicly and provide a rationale for doing so. consider the following when deciding and developing the rationale: does this minimum grade requirement apply to non-transfer students? is this requirement adding an additional barrier for transfer students? for example, if computer science 101 requires a minimum grade of 60 percent to be eligible for transfer credit, but direct-entry students taking an equivalent course only need to pass to receive credit, is this discrepancy equitable? is there a good reason for this discrepancy? type of credit. can the credit be assigned to a specific course? another factor to consider is whether the course can receive assigned or unassigned credit. assigned credit refers to the practice of giving credit for a specific course that exists within your program. for example, an assessor who gives credit for introduction to psychology based on a similar course at the students previous institution has given assigned credit. if the course under consideration has an equivalent course within your department or program, then you may proceed with granting assigned credit. nevertheless, there are times when a course eligible for transfer credit is not offered by your department or institution. in these cases, some institutions have provided additional flexibility to assessors in the form of an elective. for example, if an undergraduate program director from the department of english is assessing the upper-level course, studies in irish literature, and the department does not offer a course on this topic, they can consider granting an elective credit that counts toward the requirements for the departments major or minor. in such cases, the assessor would grant unassigned credit with a course code that reflects the level of instruction but is otherwise generic (e.g., english 4xxx). fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 12 did you know? ontransfer.ca provides a user-friendly platform for students to explore their transfer options and receive support on their academic journey. maintained by oncat, ontransfer.ca has 23,000+ searchable pathways and is continuously being updated with relevant information from ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. step 2. assessing course-to-course equivalency. the second step involves determining course-to-course equivalency by comparing course outlines and/or syllabi. this stage requires subject matter expertise. course learning outcomes. is there consistency between the learning objectives, outcomes, or goals? learning objectives, outcomes, or goals are clear statements that define the intended purpose of a course. they also describe the knowledge and skills that students should acquire upon completion of a course. for example, one statement might read, students will be able to distinguish between different models/conceptualizations of health. the skill in this learning outcome can be identified by the verb distinguish and the knowledge by the noun phrase models/conceptualizations of health. for two courses to be equivalent, the learning outcomes should overlap significantly. to conduct a simple comparison, list the skills and knowledges from both courses side by side and determine if there is considerable consistency. disciplinary norms may allow for greater subjectivity in determining the most important concepts and objectives to include. keep in mind that not all course outlines will have clearly defined course objectives or outcomes. in these cases, assessors may be able to intuit learning outcomes from other statements within the outline. if doing so is not possible, rely on other factors to assess equivalency, such as course content and assessments. fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 13 course assessments. is there reasonable equivalence between the evaluation criteria? another factor you may consider when determining course equivalency is the evaluation of student learning. while no two courses are likely to have the exact same type and number of assessments, the discipline may have established norms for assessing learning and/or competencies that are determined by an accrediting body. for example, a course in accounting might ask students to demonstrate competency by performing standard operating functions for a fictional (or real) business. in these cases, the type and number of assessments are relevant to the decision of awarding or denying transfer credit. in cases where there is no accrediting body that establishes norms for evaluation of student learning, this factor is less important and can become an unnecessary obstacle for awarding transfer credit. in ontarios decentralized postsecondary system, there will likely be variation among liberal arts and science courses with respect to assessments. the same is true for any course that employs universal design for learning (udl) principles, where teaching and assessments vary based on individual students learning styles. assessors would do well to recognize these differences as potential barriers for transfer students. if you choose to deny transfer credit because of these differences, we encourage assessors to document the reasons and make them transparent to the student. you can also work with the institutions in question to negotiate acceptable assessment criteria and other aspects of the course that would result in more positive outcomes for future students. in course-to-course evaluation, assessments should be given careful consideration because not all institutes follow the same epistemological framework embedded in teaching and learning. for example, indigenous institutes (iis) are mandated to focus on indigenous pedagogy, which factors into assessments. this could be a major barrier for students transferring from an ii where assessments may look different but are nonetheless of equal value to assessments heavily focused on quantitative results, for example. stevie jonathan, unit manager university at six nations polytechnic fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 14 course content. is there reasonable equivalence between the course content in terms of field of knowledge and scope? like learning objectives, assessors may want to consider the content of the course when determining course equivalency. course content covers the field of knowledge and its scope (i.e., broad versus narrow) and the level of instruction and/or prerequisites required (e.g., introductory, intermediate, advanced; first-year, second-year, and so forth). you can identify the field and scope of knowledge by reviewing the course description, required readings, topics, and reading schedule. you can determine the level of instruction from the course code and title, required prerequisites, the required reading, and assessment plan. in keeping with the principles of this guide, assessors should not make decisions based on their perception of the quality of a particular institution or professor. accreditation bodies should be seen as the authority in making these determinations. step 3. communicating and recording the decision. once you have reached a decision, communicate this decision in the form of an electronic record that includes a rationale and the criteria used to reach this decision. it is a good practice to make this record accessible to all administrative staff within the institution and to keep this electronic record on file within the department office. for many departments, this record can become a policy based on precedent for any future students who apply to have the same course or group of courses awarded transfer credit. if creating such a policy, we encourage departments to make this policy publicly available and accessible so that students and transfer offices can be notified of this agreement. fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 15 a note on prior learning assessment (plar) oncat recognizes that for some institutions, prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) is connected closely to their transfer processes and may involve the same faculty and/or staff in assessing and providing credit where appropriate. according to the canadian association of prior learning assessment (capla): plar defines processes that allow individuals to identify, document, have assessed, and gain recognition for their prior learning. the learning may be formal, informal, non-formal, or experiential. the context of the learning is not key to the process as the focus is on the learning. plar processes can be undertaken for several purposes, including self-knowledge, credit, or advanced standing at an academic institution, for employment, licensure, career planning or recruitment. according to a survey oncat distributed to transfer advisors in july 2019, 65 percent of institutions identified transfer as centralized within their institutions, while 35 percent identified plar as decentralized (39 respondents). thirty-six percent identified plar as integrated with their transfer processes, while 64 percent identified plar as separate (25 respondents 14 respondents n/a). this guide is intended to assess formal prior learning in a recognized institution, which is separate from plar. while plar is out of the scope of this guide, we acknowledge that some of the same principles may apply. fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 16 decision-making challenges oncats consultation with faculty found that the most common decision-making challenge in the credit assessment process is lack of documentation. this challenge is an unnecessary but significant barrier for faculty since it is impossible to make a sound determination about course-to-course equivalency without course outlines and other important documentation. when creating or revising a policy on credit assessment, then, it is crucial that academic departments collaborate with other departments that are involved in this process, from the beginning to the end of the transfer credit journey. by bringing all parties to the table, you can ensure that students receive timely information about transfer credit, eligibility, and required documentation so that faculty can do their work without delay. the second most common challenge faculty reported was lack of familiarity and experience with this process. we hope this guide provides an introduction for faculty and others involved in credit assessment. for those who are entirely new to this work, we suggest shadowing and consulting with experienced faculty members for a short transitional period so that your decision-making practice embodies the shared values of fairness, consistency, and transparency. fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario references davies, s. & pizarro milian, r. (2020). transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto: gpa, access to stem, and graduation. oncat: toronto, on. click to access the report. missaghian, r. (2021). exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation: sociology as a case of first-year transferability. oncat: toronto, on. click to access the report. walters, d., brown, r., parekh, g., einmann, t. & bader, d. (2020). student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students. oncat: toronto, on. click to access the report. walters, d., brown, r., parekh, g., reynolds, d.. & einmann, t. (2021). postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students: the role of high school academic performance. oncat: toronto, on. click to access the report. 17 fair, consistent, and transparent: a short guide on assessing transfer credit in ontario 18 https://oncat.ca/en/resources established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes.

2020 2021 project snapshot multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph elizabeth dhuey, bradley seward, david walters multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters keywords transfer students; high school performance; non-traditional pse pathways; student mobility; student borrowing; student debt; postsecondary graduation overview students are taking increasingly complex pathways through postsecondary education and acquiring unconventional combinations of credentials (st-denis et al., 2021). this has, in part, been driven by increasingly competitive labour markets, in which graduates require more robust resumes than before to obtain even entry-level jobs. despite these trends, little research exists on the returns associated with holding various (and unconventional) combinations of credentials. this study investigates the relationship between different combinations of credentials and graduates early labour market outcomesincluding earnings, underemployment, and loan obligationsthrough an analysis of ontario respondents in the 2013 and 2018 national graduate surveys. 2 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters why it matters this research suggests that vertical educational pathways experience a labour market gain. by contrast, individuals who pursue a postsecondary credential at a lower level than their first credential are unlikely to increase their earnings and are more likely to be underemployed. these findings suggest that there is no evidence for labour market gains resulting from university-to-college pathways. any claims to the financial benefits of taking a reverse educational pathway should therefore be treated with caution. if programs were put in place to better prepare graduates for postsecondary education, and to avoid the time and monetary costs of switching majors, transferring schools, or pursuing additional degrees, there is the potential for significant individual savings. this report presents a case for alternative opportunities for upskilling and retooling that do not carry the same time and financial costs of a second pass through traditional postsecondary programs. advancements in the short-credential market are continuing to grow, offering novel opportunities to develop skills and competencies via micro-credentials, stackable credits, and badges. as the labour market continues to diversify and specialize in response to rapid advancements in innovation and technology, these types of non-traditional skilling pathways could alleviate some of the individual costs associated with lengthy and costly additional postsecondary pursuits. 3 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters the report also suggests that there may be better ways to support individuals educational interests without the greater risk of more time in school, forgone income in the labour market, or taking on large loans. this may be in the form of improved career counselling directed at high school students or recent secondary school graduates. one pertinent area for investment would be to focus on students without prior family history in postsecondary education or postsecondary completion. if programs were put in place to better prepare graduates for postsecondary education, and to avoid the time and monetary costs of switching majors, transferring schools, or pursuing additional degrees, there is the potential for significant individual savings. key findings demographic profile female students, racial minorities, and immigrants are more likely to be multi-credentialed graduates (mcgs). persons with disabilities appear underrepresented in this population, suggesting that disability status whether via accommodation requirements or financial obligations may be a barrier to obtaining subsequent credentials. individuals with multiple credentials are also more likely to be married and have children. 3 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters underemployment mcgsexcept for those holding two bachelors degreeshave a higher estimated likelihood of experiencing objective underemployment. however, mcgs are generally not more likely than single credential holders to feel overqualified in the jobs they acquire three years after graduating. loan burden mcgsapart from those with multiple university bachelors degreesare no more likely than their single-credentialed counterparts to possess a student loan balance at the end of their studies or to have larger loans. earnings completion of a college credential after a university bachelors degree does not result in increased earnings, but completing a second bachelors degree does provide an earnings increase. nevertheless, there is limited payoff to obtaining a second college credential but a sizable benefit to completing a university credential after college. the figure on the next page presents the average annual earnings of national graduate survey respondents by credential status for the full sample (in blue) and the sample of full-time workers used in the earnings analysis (in orange). 4 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters figure 1: average earnings across credential type, by sample college only college to college college to university title title title university only university to college university to university postgrad postgrad to postgrad postgrad to university/college $30,000 $40,000 full sample $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 full-time workers $80,000 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters figure 2: average outcomes of interest by credit type a. feels overqualified b. underemployed college only college only college to college college to college college to university college to university university only university only university to college university to college university to university university to university postgrad postgrad postgrad to university/college postgrad to university/college postgrad to postgrad postgrad to postgrad overall overall 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 proportion % 50 75 100 proportion % c. loans at graduation d. annual earnings college only college only college to college college to college college to university college to university university only university only university to college university to college university to university university to university postgrad postgrad postgrad to university/college postgrad to university/college postgrad to postgrad postgrad to postgrad overall overall 0 25 50 proportion % 75 100 40000 50000 60000 70000 mean income $ 80000 further reading to read the full report, please visit the report homepage. st-denis, xavier, yacine boujija, and stephen sartor. (2021). non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation. toronto: ontario council for articulation and transfer. click to read the article. 8 to read the full report , please visit : https://oncat .ca/en/projects/multi-credentialed-graduatescanada-employment-earnings-and-student-loan-holding established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. this snapshot was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021.

ontario council on articulation and transfer supports postsecondary students to overcome pandemic learning challenges june 9, 2023 barrie adrienne galway, executive director of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), was joined by jill dunlop, minister of colleges and universities, and kevin weaver, president and ceo of georgian college, to announce the launch of a funding initiative aimed at supporting student access to postsecondary education and academic recovery from the pandemic. oncat has awarded over $560,000 to eight postsecondary institutions in ontario to develop programs and supports for students impacted by the pandemic. these projects include summer courses to help students recover pandemic-related academic gaps, coaching and mentorship programs to help students transition to and adjust to postsecondary studies, and specialized supports for indigenous learners, mature students, and prospective students from historically unrepresented groups. all are designed to support the successful experience of students whose academic journeys have been disrupted over the last few years. a 2022 report from the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) recommends enhanced opportunities for skills development, academic preparation, and transitional supports to prepare students for success in their educational journey, particularly for those whose studies were interrupted or affected by the pandemic. postsecondary institutions are still navigating the impacts of the pandemic on the sector, and it is crucial for them to be able to adapt to their students ever-changing needs, said jill dunlop, minister of colleges and universities. through this funding provided by oncat, these eight institutions have created strategies to support students affected by the pandemic so they can reach their full academic potential. "the pandemic continues to impact students as they move along their academic pathways and we need to ensure that they are set up for success on their journey, said dr. adrienne galway, executive director at oncat. these funding initiatives give students a strong foundation to build upon, especially those experiencing ongoing barriers to postsecondary access exacerbated by the pandemic. in total, oncat is awarding funding for 11 projects led by eight postsecondary institutions: cambrian college, college la cit, george brown college, georgian college, humber college, page | 1 lakehead university, niagara college, and york university. these projects are funded by the government of ontario. students will benefit from these special projects through the 2023-24 school year. established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. for more information, visit www.oncat.ca. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. page | 2

2018-2019 pathways & innovative transfer active grants ontario council on articulation and transfer final reflections report project number: 2018-08 title of project framework for enhancing the mobility of indigenous learners into art and design education project summary brief project summary responding to a recognized need to develop new transfer models and pathways for indigenous learners into art and design degree programs, the project team is developing a framework to enhance indigenous learner mobility that will include flexible, holistic models and strategies for credit transfer, prior learning assessment and culturally relevant student supports. the framework will have broad applicability within the postsecondary sector, but its specific goal is to enhance indigenous learner access into art and design learning and other non-vocational degree programs. overall reflections primary goals building on existing research and established practices within the postsecondary sector for credit transfer and articulation, the goal of this project was to develop a framework for enhancing opportunities for indigenous students by widening access to non-vocational degree learning within and for indigenous learning communities across ontario and beyond. in the original proposal, the following components were identified: an analysis of gaps, opportunities and promising practices for credit transfer for indigenous learners, with a focus on the development of pathways into flexible, interdisciplinary degree programs, using art and design education as a model; models and strategies to ensure developed pathways lead to job opportunities and long term economic outcomes for transfer students (oncat rfp); a framework for aligning indigenous learning outcomes with degree-level expectations that can be used to assess credit transfer between degree programs and diploma and certificate programs in colleges and aboriginal institutes, as well as for assessing non-traditional or noncredit programs or learning (e.g., elders teachings); a model for prior learning assessment (plar) as well as a holistic portfolio model for recruitment and admissions into art and design; a model for wrap around student support services; strategies for providing culturally relevant experiential learning opportunities driven by learning outcomes that align with both curriculum and student goals. the project was intended to support oncats goal of enhancing access for indigenous learners by providing models and strategies that are scalable and replicable at other institutions. the two-year project also sought to build capacity for indigenous pathway development as well as community engagement and consultation within and beyond the university, which are key to ensuring the projects success and long-term sustainability. goal progress notes (innovative transfer) while the work continues, completion of the framework has been delayed, in part, by the disruption caused by the covid-19 pandemic and the need to support the shift to fully online curriculum delivery from march 2020 to april 2021. however, the project work itself has also precipitated a shift in the emphasis and scope of the original proposal. as noted below, one of the key takeaways of the project is a recognition of the need to develop a wholistic approach and to reorient the conversations about student mobility, transfer and articulation from an emphasis on the assessment of learners to an assessment of the readiness of institutions to support the inclusion and success of indigenous learners. changes to policies and practices for articulation and transfer need to be situated within a process of decolonizing both individual institutions and the sector as a whole. this observation was realized through the work of engaging with indigenous communities, working with indigenous faculty and staff at ocad u and other postsecondary institutions, and being attentive to the guidance shared by elders. this engagement has enabled a reexamination and critique of the goals proposed in the original application to oncat. to take one example, the original goal of providing models and examples to ensure pathways lead to employability outcomes will be broadened to reflect the perceptions of indigenous learners regarding the value of postsecondary education, particularly in relation to art and design education. by engaging in conversation with indigenous students, parents, educators, artists and community leaders, we learned that learners educational goals are often centred on being able to make a meaningful contribution to their communities, and this may look different than a conventional understanding of employability. the project team continues to work towards completion of the framework and, in consultation with s. brenda small as external advisor, has developed a workplan to complete it by march 2021. outcomes (innovative transfer) 1. contribution to knowledge and understanding of best practices and models for indigenous learner mobility within sector the project team has taken a collaborative and community-based approach, informed by principles of decolonizing methodologies, to identify and analyze promising practices for articulation, transfer and mobility support through the research and environmental scan components of the project. the literature review, which grounds the project in current scholarship in indigenous epistemologies and indigenous education, supports a broader analysis of gaps, opportunities and promising practices for credit transfer for indigenous learners that isnt currently very present within the research literature in this area. for the environmental scan component of the initiative, the project team used their knowledge of the sector to identify models for prior learning assessment, holistic portfolio review and indigenous learning outcomes developed by other postsecondary institutions. in addition to the framework itself, the work leading up to the development of the framework has involved knowledge-sharing with external partners through site visits and a symposium. indicators demonstrating achievement of outcomes: annotated bibliography environmental scan of models and practices identified at other postsecondary institutions oncat final report indigenous learners pathways framework (in development, to be completed by march 2021) 70 participants attended the indigenous students pathways symposium held at ocad university, toronto, in february 2020 2. contribution to knowledge and practice at ocad u the project supported the hiring of an educational developer (indigenous learning). they brought expertise in indigenous education, identified and developed relationships with partner institutions, and collaborated with indigenous faculty and staff within ocad u, and organized site visits to communities and postsecondary institutions in peterborough, thunder bay and sioux lookout. this role has been established as a permanent role to ensure continued capacity for the work beyond the duration of the project. an advisory committee was also struck to guide the work of the project by reviewing research and approaches from the post-secondary sector and participating in dialogue and community outreach initiatives to inform the development of the framework and accompanying resources. the advisory committee met regularly from september 2018 to april 2020. three indigenous faculty members were offered a course release for participation in this project from september 2018 to april 2020. s. brenda small, vice-president at the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning, confederation college, was invited to participate in the project as an external evaluator and conducted three site visits during the project. initially, she assessed the project plan and consulted with the research team and other campus stakeholders. in subsequent visits, she assessed draft components of the framework and, finally, was asked to review the final report and prepare a response before submission to oncat. indigenous elders and knowledge keepers were invited to ocad u to lead circles and share teachings. these circles were intended to build our collective experience with and relationship to indigenous knowledges, pedagogies and protocols, providing important foundational experience and knowledge to inform the project work. it also enabled members of the project team, advisory committee and academic leadership to begin to develop relationships with indigenous elders and knowledge keepers. the project team established regular meetings of a reading group comprised of staff in the faculty & curriculum development centre to engage collaboratively in the research and share learning with each other. this reading group is ongoing. indicators demonstrating achievement of outcomes: permanent educational developer, indigenous learning role regular meetings of the advisory committee consultations with indigenous education council indigenous elder circles regular meetings of reading group 3. revision to and development of new policies and processes at ocad u a significant component of the work on the project has involved the development of indigenous learning outcomes (ilos). these were developed by ocad us indigenous faculty and the educational developer for indigenous learning, in collaboration with members of the project team and in consultation with the indigenous education council, and they inform a wholistic approach to curriculum that is being adopted across the university. the ilos and the wholistic approach to curriculum were shared with elder shirley williams before they were approved by senate in 2019. they were also blessed by elder ralph johnson in a ceremony held during the indigenous students pathways symposium. melanie printup hope, an artist of tuscarora and european descent and faculty member at ocad u, has been commissioned to prepare a beaded artwork based on elder johnsons blessing. moving forward, the project advisory committee will be reconstituted and expanded to advise the development and revision of new policies and practices at ocad u informed by the framework, including the development of an indigenous admissions policy, prior learning assessment policy and related admissions processes for indigenous applicants. the committee will also take up broad questions of indigenous learner access to advocate for systemic change, including curricular renewal, that will accompany policy revision. indicators demonstrating achievement of outcomes: ocad us indigenous learning outcomes and wholistic approach to curriculum beaded artwork of the indigenous learning outcomes (commissioned and in process) development of new and revised policies at ocad u to support the mobility and success of indigenous learners (in process) 4. consultation and community engagement with elders, community and postsecondary partners consultation within the university was achieved primarily through work with the advisory committee, whose members included the project team, three indigenous faculty members, the chair of the indigenous visual culture program and the manager of the indigenous student centre. consultations were also undertaken with the universitys indigenous education council. the project team also identified and engaged with external partners locally and provincially through site visits, three community roundtables and a symposium on indigenous pathways that was held in february 2020. the project team also began to develop relationships with indigenous elders and knowledge keepers throughout the process, and consulted with elders at key stages of the project. indicators demonstrating outcomes: site visits to postsecondary institutions in peterborough, thunder bay and sioux lookout community roundtables held in peterborough, sioux lookout and toronto indigenous elder and knowledge keeper circles and consultation meetings partnerships and collaboration participating institutions (pathway stream) n/a main collaborators (innovative transfer) n/a changes to collaborators (innovative transfer) n/a collaborator contributions (innovative transfer) n/a pathway development (if applicable) did this project aim to develop pathways? (innovative transfer) no pathways created (innovative transfer) n/a incompleted pathways (innovative transfer) n/a ontransfer.ca information updated (innovative transfer) n/a ontransfer updates (innovative transfer)* none ontransfer.ca pathways (anticipated) (innovative transfer) n/a pathways update timeframe (innovative transfer) n/a transfer credit courses (innovative transfer) none credit equivalency updated on ontransfer.ca (innovative transfer) n/a credit equivalency update timeframe (innovative transfer) n/a outcomes and implications student outcomes (innovative transfer)* the key takeaway of the project and the central argument of the framework is the need for a wholistic approach to indigenous learner mobility and education that focuses on the readiness of institutions to support the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of indigenous learners, in consideration of their whole educational journeys before coming into, during and after leaving their educational program. students, graduates, parents and community members shared stories and experiences that helped the project team to recognize the different kinds of value that learners see in their relationship to education. they also shared many experiences of racism, both in their individual interactions with other students, faculty and administrators, and also in relation to systemic policies, practices and attitudes. institutional systemic racism reflects the historical and ongoing role of education in the colonial oppression of indigenous peoples. the wholistic approach of the framework recognizes that any attempt to enhance opportunities for indigenous learners to enter into postsecondary learning or to articulate into higher levels of learning must be accompanied by changes to institutional policies and practices that recognize and value the knowledges and ways of knowing indigenous learners bring with them, that provide wrap around student services that support the whole learner, and are situated within an intentional and systematic program of decolonizing institutional policies and processes, and curriculum. by the same token, improved student outcomes for access into postsecondary education, credit transfer and articulation and retention (e.g., increased numbers of indigenous learners in programs of learning) must be considered in relation to other, more qualitative indicators of improved student experience and success that reflect the wholistic approach of the framework. institutional outcomes (innovative transfer)* as noted above, the project has had a significant impact on the knowledge and understanding of indigenous learning broadly at the university, in part, through the support in hiring of an educational developer in indigenous learning, as well as through the development of ocad us indigenous learning outcomes. moving forward, the projects advisory committee will be reconstituted as an advisory committee on indigenous learner pathways to seek to implement the framework at ocad u. in the short term, this work will include the development of an indigenous admissions policy (for winter 2021) and revision to the prior learning assessment (plar) policy. sector or system implications (innovative transfer)* the framework will advocate for changes to transfer and articulation practices at the sector level. the project has carried forward work already undertaken and shared by oncat-funded projects, including the pathways for indigenous learners project led by s. brenda small at the centre for policy and research for indigenous learning at confederation college, in collaboration with institutional partners across ontario, as well as the indigenous program pathways project led by canadore college. our contribution to this ongoing conversation and the well-established work in this field is, in addition to an emphasis on wholism, a recognition that the educational journeys of many indigenous learners are not linear and for many, completion of credentials may not be a primary goal and may not be possible. at the sector level, new models for learner mobility, transfer and articulation are needed in order to create greater flexibility and allow for more learner self-direction, and in the context of a decolonizing process that critiques and decentres conventional norms, assumptions and hierarchies that perpetuate systemic racism and create barriers for participation and success in learning. with the above in mind, the framework will seek to create greater fluidity across sector by advocating for: recognition of traditional and cultural knowledge as valid prior learning the 2 + 2 model for articulation agreements 1 to 1 credit transfer practice between colleges and universities access programs that lead to credit equivalencies for diploma and degree learning stackable micro-credentials that allow students to endeavor and combine smaller units of learning from multiple institutions that count towards certificates, diplomas and degrees review and revision of related academic policies and practices to ensure the wellbeing of indigenous learners after transfer or articulation development of cultural and wrap-around supports based on successful models within the sector reflections on action plan key steps (innovative transfer)* broadly, the project involved the following steps: formation of a project advisory committee, project plan and project research methodology; literature review and environmental scan series of indigenous learner community roundtables around ontario key informant interviews (internal and external) development of indigenous learning outcomes analysis of findings hosting an indigenous student pathways symposium to share learnings development of an indigenous learners pathway framework while the project team followed these steps overall, we learned early in the process that we would be required to adjust the action plan and generally treat the process more flexibly and iteratively to enable a strong focus on relationship building and dialogue, both within and outside the university. we also recognized, through consultation with indigenous staff and faculty, that the engagement of indigenous elders and knowledge keepers would play an important overall role in the project that was not fully anticipated. these changes to the project plan had an impact on project timelines, budget and outcomes. please see below for further reflections on this. one component of the original project action plan that we adhered to fairly closely was the development of a set of indigenous learning outcomes (ilos). the ilos were developed through a series of collaborative and dialogical writing sessions such that the ilos were written collectively. importantly, the ilos were shared with elder shirley williams prior to being brought to the university community for further engagement. although the ilos were ultimately approved by the ocad u senate, they were not subject to typical consultation and feedback processes due to the recognition that they emerged from the specialized expertise of our indigenous faculty, elders and community partners. challenges (final report) (innovative transfer)* the projects emphasis on community engagement and our commitment to an iterative, dialogical research and knowledge building process was a key strength of the project, shaping project outcomes in important ways. at the same time, this emphasis led to concrete challenges that could have been mitigated during the planning stage had we had a deeper understanding of the significance of relationship building to the process, and specifically, the extent to which it would shape and delay our original project timelines. see below for further reflections on this. similarly, the project involved significant learning about indigenous knowledge production, community engagement and relationship building, as well as the role of elder knowledges in the project. this learning involved not just the project team and the advisory committee but the university more broadly. although we anticipated this dimension of the work, we underestimated the nature of this and the extent to which it would require intentional change management practices to create the conditions necessary to achieve the project outcomes. finally, the project team also experienced challenges developing a culturally responsible and decolonizing research methodology and, in particular, achieving research ethics board approval where the reb was invested in conventional academic research practices that were inconsistent with indigenous ethics and community protocols. these challenges and the discussions that emerged from them were ultimately extremely fruitful, though, and we have developed a decolonizing research model that may be replicated for similar projects involving indigenous community engagement and knowledge sharing in the future. it is important to note that the input of our external evaluator, s. brenda small, was very important as we navigated these challenges. she brought deep expertise in not just indigenous education, mobility and access but also institutional change. her advice throughout this process was critical to our success. reflections (innovative transfer)* our emphasis on relationship building and elder engagement shaped the project in several key ways, and led to important reflections that became part of the project work itself. first, this emphasis required that we generally take a less prescriptive approach to the consultation process where our relationships with indigenous elders and knowledge keepers were built over time. this was not limited to relationship-building with project team members; it also required that we make space within the university community for faculty, staff and students to learn from indigenous elders. these elder circles were not part of the original project plan but provided essential foundational knowledge sharing for the ocad u community through which the rest of the project work could evolve. finally, elder engagement in the different project activities ensured that the project was accountable to community protocols and engaged meaningfully with indigenous knowledge systems and expertise that is recognized by indigenous communities. this produced challenges for the projects sense of progress but these challenges were ultimately key learnings for the team, with implications for the research itself. for example, the time involved in relationship building did not run neatly alongside the project timelines. in some cases, where consultation was required for project milestones to advance, this created a sense of the work being delayed. in general, because our original project plan included careful timelines intended to ensure that the project was progressing and achieving key outcomes, the evolution of the relationship building components felt in conflict with the overall project needs. as the project progressed, however, we learned that it was our original project plan with its expectation that it would follow a more linear trajectory that was the issue. in effect, we came to understand that relationship-building was not simply supporting the project but was the true work of the project. knowledge mobilization tools and resources (innovative transfer)* a number of resources were produced during the project; at the same time, it was recognized that the most important outputs were relational and process-oriented. these resources include: presentations, an environmental scan, indigenous learning outcomes (aligned with degree level expectations), wholistic approach to curriculum and a research methodology. a commissioned beadwork project is also underway that will create a visual representation of the indigenous learning outcomes to ensure that they have a material presence on campus; this beadwork project emerges directly from the oncat project findings. the process-oriented resources developed include: an advisory committee structure that will extend beyond the duration of the project, dialogue and relationship-building, indigenous pathways symposium, ceremony, shared language and goals around indigenous learner access and mobility, and embodied understanding of indigenous elder protocols and teachings. these resources will ensure that the project work is sustained beyond the project end date through a shared investment in institutional change. finally, we are in the process of producing a framework for indigenous learner access and mobility in art and design education that will document our research methodology, share and reflect upon our learnings and offer a model for other institutions seeking to enhance access to post-secondary art and design education for indigenous learners. the framework has been delayed as a result of the covid-19 pandemic but will be shared with oncat when complete. sharing learning (innovative transfer)* as discussed above, the most important outputs of the project involved significant institutional learning through newly developed processes, relationships and the development of shared language and understanding. this foundational work will need to continue and expand its reach if we are to realize the vision and goals for enhanced access and mobility for indigenous learners. we began to share this work through an indigenous pathways symposium in february 2020. this event brought community partners, students, elders and indigenous scholars and educators together with the ocad u community to discuss questions of indigenous learner access and systemic educational change required to enhance the mobility of indigenous learners across the sector. the event also included a ceremony and feast to mark ocad us commitment to shaping systemic change within our institution and beyond, in collaboration with other post-secondary institutions and indigenous communities. our hope is to continue to convene community gatherings and ceremony as one way of sustaining the relationships enabled by this project and contributing to systemic change within the sector. we are also interested in working with oncat, and through other venues, to disseminate the research more broadly and use our findings to activate institutional and sector-wide change. this would require additional funding and resources. the framework itself will include concrete recommendations and next steps that include policy review, curricular change and student program development. these will need to be prioritized and phased based on institutional capacity and, in some cases, contingent on additional funding and resources. there is also an opportunity to publish the findings in scholarly and professional publications. tips/advice (innovative transfer)* our advice to other institutions builds upon our reflections and learnings above that is, all efforts to increase indigenous learner access and mobility must first focus on relationship building with indigenous knowledges, communities and colleagues to serve as a foundation for that work. through our research and critical engagement with indigenous education and decolonizing scholarship, we would argue that the university must be learner-ready rather than expecting learners to be university-ready. this is particularly true for indigenous learners where the colonial history of education is deeply embedded within institutional and curricular structures. without first building a respectful relationship to indigenous knowledges, including through elder engagement and experience with indigenous protocols, the work of transforming the institution to enable indigenous learner access can not be successful. this has material implications for project planning, timelines and approaches outputs need to be reconceived to focus on process and timelines need to allow for these process-oriented outputs. advice for oncat funding process (innovative transfer)* our experience of oncats funding process was very positive. as a funder, oncat was flexible, wellinformed, collaborative and receptive to the needs of our project. prior to the final awarding of funds, the funding process was collaborative and oncat was very receptive to some key feedback we provided around faculty course releases, increasing the allowable budget for these course releases to recognize our institutional context and the unique expertise of our indigenous faculty. this flexibility was greatly appreciated and proved to be crucial to the projects success. oncat demonstrated other flexibility throughout the project with respect to deadlines, as a result of both shifting project needs and, later, the pandemic. at times, the reporting templates and procedures caused some confusion and seemed cumbersome but any questions we had were addressed easily. student mobility field support (innovative transfer)* the implications for sector-wide practices related to access, mobility, transfer and articulation are described in the above section on sector or system implications. as noted there, the framework will advocate for changes that will have broad implications for indigenous learners access to and ability to move between programs of learning, with a focus on enabling mobility through greater flexibility, learner self-direction and multilateral rather than linear movement. focus areas (innovative transfer)* further work that focuses on transfer between colleges/universities and indigenous institutes, as well as other education systems within and beyond ontario, is needed. in particular, projects that will help to contextualize new transfer pathways and agreements in relation to considerations of access for all learners, as well as decolonizing approaches, will lead to the development of new models for articulation and transfer that support indigenous learners in particular and diverse learners broadly. work that explores the use of micro-credentials to support access and transfer might supplement existing articulation agreements by enabling more flexible, self-directed and multilateral movement between institutions and levels of learning. other feedback (innovative transfer) oncat has been very gracious in acknowledging the extra time and flexibility that was needed in light of the pandemic and the work involved in supporting the transition to fully online course delivery. were very grateful to have had the support of oncat in undertaking this important work and look forward to sharing the final framework once complete.

academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide project oncat 2017-30 executive summary the academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide project focused on producing a practical compilation of background information and documentation pertaining to the delivery of the ace program, with a view to improving the awareness and understanding of the program and promoting mobility and seamless, inter-college transfer credit for ace students across the college system. the target audience for the guide is academic managers, registrar and admissions personnel, and others who may have an interest in learning more about the history and the current delivery of the ace program in the ontario public college system. the academic and career entrance program is a grade 12 equivalent program for mature students delivered by all 24 public colleges in ontario in both english and french, and online via the ace distance program. the ace program enables adult students to complete academic upgrading courses through a flexible, goal-directed program, offered at almost 80 college sites across the province. ace courses can be used to fulfill admission requirements for access to college postsecondary programs and for apprenticeship registration in ontario. although the current version of the ace program was approved for delivery in 2004, its precursor (basic training for skills development level 4) has been offered at all ontario colleges since the creation of the community college system in the late 1960s. to inform the development of the ace reference guide, the project began by conducting an environmental scan to investigate a number of elements of ace program delivery including ace documentation currently on file at colleges, course codes in use at each college, the status of current delivery compared to the original (2004) approved curriculum, grading and transfer credit processes, and strengths and threats related to the ongoing viability of ace program delivery. the ace environmental scan report is included as an appendix in this final project report. the information in the ace reference guide is organized into a number of sections as follows: introduction to the academic and career entrance program ace program environmental scan - overview background and history: btsd to ace ace program development 2002-2004 funding for ace program delivery ace curriculum and course outlines: past, present and future ace certificate and graduation requirements ace course codes and titles ace program delivery models ace distance (online) delivery mastery learning and grading in ace courses ace transfer credit across colleges several appendices are also included in the guide related to both historical and current ace program information. updating and re-issuing the academic and career entrance documentation to all colleges, in the form of the ace reference guide, provides a consolidated resource to promote consistent, coordinated delivery and student mobility within and across colleges, ensuring that this important pathway into postsecondary for adult students is well-understood and consistently delivered. niagara college and the college sector committee for adult upgrading, march 2018

series a statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario: what the university/college applicant survey tells us brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? roger pizarro milian, oncat rod missaghian, oncat henrique hon, oncat february 2022 the authors wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 foreword rod missaghian, oncat postsecondary transfer research in ontario despite making significant strides in recent decades continues to suffer from a lack of data sources that systematically capture patterns in student mobility. for this reason, oncat has been diligently working to find innovative data sources, potential new data-linkages, and other opportunities that allow us to extend our understanding of transfer and student mobility in ontario. in the spring of 2020, academica group graciously provided oncat with access to one of the richest and largest educational datasets in canadian postsecondary education (pse): the university/college applicant survey (ucas). this proprietary data source provides impressive coverage of hundreds of data fields capturing postsecondary applicants demographic characteristics, educational background and aspirations, usage of various information sources, decision-making, and other relevant topics. the ucas has been conducted annually by academica since the mid-2000s and has been fine-tuned over the years in consultation with pse stakeholders to capture emerging topics of interest. during this period, the ucas has been completed by hundreds of thousands of applicants to 100+ canadian colleges, polytechnics, and universities. to date, the ucas remains one of the most trusted data sources for institutional decision-makers across canada. oncat is now releasing a series of briefs and papers that outline the initial statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario based on this ucas dataset. the analysis presented in this series was developed by the oncat research team in partnership with researchers from across the sector and a cross-sector panel of external reviewers. this work builds on previous oncat-funded research (henderson & mccloy, 2017) that also used ucas data. this series contains an introductory paper followed by three briefs: situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academicas university/college applicant survey brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? it is our hope that this statistical research will advance transfer research and instigate useful discussions at multiple levels within policy and administrative circles. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 introduction canadian research has consistently found that university graduates outperform college counterparts across a range of labor market metrics (e.g., dhuey, seward & walters, 2021; ferrer and riddell 2002; finnie, dubois & miyairi, 2020; boothby & drewes, 2006; st-denis, boujija & sartor 2021). it is thus perhaps not surprising that access to university is highly coveted in canada and internationally (davies & pizarro milian, 2016). this has led many canadian social scientists to empirically examine the factors associated with university access (e.g., finnie, wismer & mueller, 2015; frenette, 2007; 2017; robson, anisef, brown & george, 2018). however, research exploring the uptake of disaggregated transfer pathways into universities within ontario is limited, in large part due to the absence of longitudinal data sources capturing k-12 to postsecondary transitions (robson, 2021). in the absence of robust longitudinal data sources, ontario research analyzing pathways into universities has been dominated by studies drawing on (i) the college graduate satisfaction survey (gss) (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017; steffler, mccloy & decock, 2018), (ii) an assortment of custom linkages (e.g., davies & pizarro milian, 2020; robson et al., 2018; walters, brown, parekh, reynolds & einmann, 2021), and (iii) statistics canadas post-secondary student information system (psis) (e.g., finnie et al., 2020; zarifa, sano & hillier., 2020). all these sources have notable deficiencies. one area of ongoing debate in this literature centres on the influence of high school grades on postsecondary pathways. analyzing an administrative linkage between the toronto district school board and the university of toronto, davies & pizarro milian (2020) found that tdsb graduates with lower high school grades were more likely to enter the university by way of a community college, but university transfers had similar high school performance as direct entries. descriptive statistics presented by walters et al. (2021) for a tdsb-psis linkage also showed that students traveling direct entry pathways into ontario universities had higher marks (79%) in grade 12 than lateral transfer (76%) or college-to-university (65%) counterparts. on the other hand, work by steffler et al. (2018) with a custom linkage between seneca and york found that high school grades were negatively correlated with the desire among college entrants disclaimer: the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the authors also wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas. the first author contributed to this study while employed at oncat (2019-2021). the views and interpretations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario or the academica group. for an alternative set of findings, see frenette (2019). the gss captures only the transitions of graduates that go on to university within the six months following college graduation, missing those that transfer prior to graduation or later in the life course. the latter is a particularly notable limitation, given that credential accumulation plays out over long stretches of time (st. denis, boujija & sartor, 2021). on the other hand, available custom k-12 to pse linkages in ontario capture only toronto district school board (tdsb) students and are thus not provincially representative. meanwhile, the psis lacks extensive coverage of student demographics. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 to eventually transfer to a university (e.g., transfer intent), but that their seneca gpa was positively correlated with eventual transfer. the findings of these studies contrast those of earlier canadian research with the youth in transition survey (yits), which did not identify any high school grade or reading proficiency effects on the likelihood of program switching (childs, finnie, & martinello, 2017). unfortunately, this topic is not one that has been explored through recent oncat-funded work (e.g., zarifa et al., 2020) with statistics canadas post-secondary student information system (psis), given that such data currently lacks proxies of academic performance such as grades and standardized tests scores at either the k-12 or pse levels in ontario. as such, making progress on this front will require the continued use of creative workarounds. through this brief, we explore the relationship between high school grades (academic achievement) and the pathways travelled by applicants into ontario universities using academicas university/college applicant survey (ucas). this is a dataset that contains impressive coverage of not only high school grades, but also, a host of demographic characteristics that could serve as confounding variables. our analysis finds that the probability of traveling a college-to-university pathway decrease as h.s. grades rise. meanwhile, the opposite is true for direct entry and university-to-university transfer, with the odds of traveling those pathways increasing as h.s. grades increase. we consider the implications of these findings for both future research and policy in ontario. plan for analysis this brief empirically explores two main questions: 1) do applicants taking various routes (direct entry, college/university transfer) into university differ with respects to their high school grades? 2) does the relationship between high school grades and pathways into university survive controls for other applicant characteristics? two waves of analyses are performed. first, we provide a descriptive overview of h.s. grades among the roughly 46,000 ucas respondents who resided in ontario and applied to university during the 2013-2019 period. this first analytical sample includes only those applicants who would be aged 40 or younger by september 1st of the forthcoming academic year, and who did not contain missing data on either their age or postsecondary history (e.g., most recent institution enrolled in). we do not discuss american research at length, but it too has found that those engaging in upward transfer tend to have lower high school performance than direct entry counterparts (e.g., dietrich & lichtenberger, 2015; grubbs, 2020). applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 second, multinomial logistic regression was used to regress applicant pathways on h.s. grades among the sub-sample of 28,300 applicants with complete data across a broader of controls, including: age, gender, ethno-racial groupings, disability, marital status, dependents, parental education, household income, place of birth, region of residence, primary language, type of high school attended, primary program area applied to, and year applied. to produce a disaggregated applicant pathways category, we utilize a variable identifying the type of institution that the individual was enrolled in during the last calendar year, including (1) high school, (2) college or polytechnic, and (3) university. such variables allow us to focus on student mobility, and those applicants most likely (but not guaranteed) to be seeking transfer credit at the receiving institution. our focal predictor is self-reported grades in the final year of high school, a continuous measure that ranges from 50 to 100% in our analytic sample. findings descriptive statistics descriptive statistics reveal mean differences in the h.s. grades of applicants traveling different pathways into universities. those applying directly from high school tend to have the highest average (84.9%), followed by those applying from another university (83.5%), and then those applying from a college (78.7%). this general ordering of categories closely mirrors those observed by both davies & pizarro milian (2020) and walters et al. (2021) despite the vastly different sampling frames used. visualizing the grade distribution by group also reveals important differences. we see that the distributions for direct entry and university-to-university applicants are quite similar in shape, with the average simply differing by less than 2 percentage points. however, the grades of college-to-university transfers are not only lower, but the distribution is more spread out. it is important to emphasize that, despite the noted differences, there is considerable overlap in the grade distributions across applicant categories. hence, there are many applicants with comparable grades within each group. we experimented with various ways of coding grades, including both the natural log and quintiles of grades. all of these rendered the same general results, serving as additional evidence that observed relationships werent an artifact of any given coding of the predictor. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 another useful way to display the relationship between applicant pathways and h.s. grades is to plot the percentage of students applying through the various pathways across segments of the h.s. grade distribution (figure 2). again, we see that the percentage of direct entry students tends to increase with grades. meanwhile, the percentage of college transfers decreases with grades. the same pattern is also true for university transfers, but the drop is less pronounced. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 regression analyses to assess whether the above-mentioned differences would persist after controlling other applicant characteristics, such as age and gender, we ran regression models to estimate the net relationship between reported h.s. grades and applicant pathways into university. in figure 3, we plot the results of this modeling: the predicted probability that an applicant will travel each pathway into university across various points of the grade distribution. as with our descriptive analyses, we find that the predicted probability of applying via the c2u pathway decreases markedly as grades improve, while the likelihood of applying via direct entry or u2u pathways increases with grades. these predicted probabilities assume the applicant would be aged 19 at the start of the next academic year, and sample means across all other variables in our regression model. the age specification here is important, as our pathway variable does not meaningfully vary at the lower age ranges (since those students have not yet had the opportunity to transfer). a final set of robustness checks were conducted to test for independence of observations. we re-ran the saturated models for single application years to assess whether observed trends would remain consistent to model that included all years. we observed little change from full model when looking at specific years, although some years slightly modified results given their smaller sample sizes. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 discussion our analyses suggest that individuals applying to ontario universities through the various available pathways differ with respects to their h.s. grades. direct entry and university transfer applicants tend to report higher grades than transfers originating from college. one potential interpretation of the observed trends is that those traveling the college-to-university pathway are comparatively lower-achieving students in high school. they may have been unable to gain admission to their preferred university programs directly after high school, and thus, traveled roundabout pathways to their university program of choice. the reason why university transfers do not differ markedly from direct entry applicants with respects to hs academic performance may be that their lateral movement to another university is perhaps motivated by factors other than academics. perhaps it is the function of a poor social fit at their initial university, or to access a field of study not offered at their current institution. of course, further research is required to better understand the dynamics behind these observed trends. what are the practical implications of these findings? for starters, we need to acknowledge that college-to-university transfers may need more academic support once they arrive at university than their counterparts traveling other routes. as such, universities need to invest not only in the recruitment and admission of these students, but also, establishing protocols to ensure they receive the timely academic support and guidance that they need. in the absence of such efforts, college-to-university students may struggle academically. our interpretations of these findings are supported by recent oncat-funded research (davies & pizarro milian, 2020; walters et al., 2021) drawing on various custom linkages, which finds that college-to-university transfers have lower university graduation rates than their direct entry and university transfer counterparts. a key limitation of this analysis is that we cannot distinguish the extent to which grades in the final year of h.s. are from either university or college stream preparatory courses. as such, there are likely further qualitative differences between the grades of college-to-university and other applicants that we cannot control for. future research, drawing on administrative data from school boards, should be able to control for the academic stream that students were on during their final year of high school. lastly, while self-reported gpas have been found to closely approximate actual grades (kuncel, cred,thomas, klieger, seiler & woo, 2005), there is always the possibility that there is some reporting bias, particularly among lower achieving students. this further emphasizes the need for further work on this topic with administrative records. applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? bibliography pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? pizarro milian, missaghian, hon | feb 2022 oncat .ca/statistical- analysis-transfer- and -student-mobilit y- ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

strategic plan 2023-2026 table of contents vision, mandate, values, and strategic priorities 01 strategic priority 1 02 strategic priority 2 03 strategic priority 3 04 strategic priority 4 05 strategic priority 5 06 vision, mandate, values, and strategic priorities vision a postsecondary education and training system that empowers learners to build upon their previous education and work experience to achieve their personal, educational, and professional goals. mandate the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) drives innovation to help postsecondary learners get where they want to go, no matter where they begin. we do this as a vital partner and convener of the postsecondary education and training sectors, maximizing opportunities for institutional collaboration to create academic pathways, facilitating recognition of prior learning, and supporting learner transitions and entry into the labour market. values grounded in a commitment to equity, diversity, access, and inclusion, oncats activities are guided by the following values: learning-centred: we are dedicated to understanding and supporting the diverse needs, aspirations, and challenges of learners at publicly assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in ontario. impact: we take action to create measurable and transformative change for ontario learners. adaptability: we respond to the evolving needs of ontario learners, our partners, and stakeholders. collaboration: we drive success through the strength of our relationships. knowledge sharing: we foster an environment where knowledge is freely exchanged. strategic priorities 1. make pathways through postsecondary education and training and into the labour market more transparent. 2. improve opportunities for learner mobility. 3. understand learner mobility. 4. raise awareness of learner mobility. 5. build oncat capacity and expertise. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.1 strategic priority 1 make pathways through postsecondary education and training and into the labour market more transparent oncat will provide a one-stop online portal for students, workers, and newcomers to navigate the education-to-employment pathways available to them at any point in their academic journey. this online resource will create more visible links between the many education and career opportunities available to a person wishing to shape their future. activities expand the collection and availability of postsecondary institutional pathway and course information. maintain and improve oncat's public-facing platform based on feedback from learners and partners and guided by government priorities. become a convener for organizations focused on education-to-employment pathways. how will we know we are successful? non-ontario pathways and courses are integrated onto oncats public-facing platform. oncat services are continually expanded to support a one-stop portal for learner mobility. learners can search for pathways based on interests, skills, and career opportunities. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.2 strategic priority 2 improve opportunities for learner mobility oncat will develop and support initiatives that make it easier for learners to move between postsecondary programs and institutions. by funding innovative projects and fostering collaborative activities, oncat will boost the capacity of postsecondary partners to establish and expand academic pathways, increase recognition of prior learning, and implement learner-centric transfer policies and practices. activities provide funding and support for institutional projects that catalyze the implementation of academic pathways, policies, and practices. working with our indigenous partners, implement a dedicated strategy to support pathways for indigenous learners. provide funding and support for pilot programs that test new ideas for improving the transfer experience for learners. coordinate sector-wide engagement activities and training opportunities that cultivate the collective expertise of institutional personnel responsible for transfer functions. how will we know we are successful? postsecondary institutions increase their total number of academic pathways. pilot programs identify promising ideas that can be replicated across multiple institutions. engagement activities reach a vibrant community of active participants. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.3 strategic priority 3 understand learner mobility oncat will design, conduct, and commission research activities that deepen the sectors understanding of key issues and emerging trends in learner mobility. by collecting and analyzing data from postsecondary institutions, government sources, and external stakeholders, oncat will highlight practices that facilitate learner mobility and recommend policies that reduce systemic obstacles. activities design, conduct, and commission research activities that study general topics about learner mobility (transfer demographics, curriculum development, etc.). design, conduct, and commission research activities that investigate specific oncat priorities (newcomer experiences, education-toemployment pathways, etc.). generate data reports and dashboards that inform stakeholder strategies and policies. how will we know we are successful? research projects identify insightful findings and are shared with postsecondary institutions, government departments, and external stakeholders. oncat-funded research makes a notable contribution to the academic community through publications, presentations, and other activities. data reports and dashboards provide timely and useful information for postsecondary partners. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.4 strategic priority 4 raise awareness of learner mobility oncat will ensure that learners across ontario are fully informed of their options for mobility and are aware of the multitude of benefits that mobility can bring, including the acquisition of new skills and knowledge and unlocking available career opportunities. activities develop and implement a communications and marketing campaign to promote oncat platforms to key audiences. maintain and improve the oncat.ca website to provide information and resources to postsecondary institutions and the public, including conference proceedings, pathway development and research reports. explore oncat rebrand. how will we know we are successful? increased awareness of learner resources on mobility. increased oncat online platform use. oncat rebrand completed. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.5 strategic priority 5 build oncat capacity and expertise understanding that the long-term success of learner mobility initiatives depends on the ability to adapt, evolve, and innovate, oncat will invest in the development of internal capabilities, systems and expertise that will empower oncat employees to continue to drive positive change and create new opportunities for learners in ontario. activities: continue to build a culture of communication, collaboration and learning within oncat. enhance opportunities for training and professional development for employees based on organizational and individual objectives. implement gradual return-to-office policy based on strategic priorities. administer employee satisfaction survey and adapt plans based on feedback. execute targeted human resources strategy that ensures hiring is based on oncats mandate, values, and culture. how will we know we are successful? performance management and staff development plans are successfully executed across the organization and aligned with oncats strategic priorities. internal systems are reviewed and improved to ease workflow and productivity. the employee satisfaction survey is conducted, and results are shared with oncat management and staff. strategic plan 2023-2026 p.6 helping learners get where they want to go, no matter where they begin.

call for proposals pathways into postsecondary for students impacted by the pandemic apply for this funding opportunity to support access to postsecondary education and support academic recovery from the pandemic. overview oncat is interested in working with postsecondary institutions to support pathways into postsecondary education for students that may require additional transition supports due to educational disruptions experienced during the pandemic. this includes pathways into pse for students that experience historical and ongoing barriers to postsecondary education. these access and pandemic recovery pathways will help students catch up on learning and transition successfully into postsecondary education. through this funding, oncat is interested in projects that incorporate: pathways into postsecondary for students that have been impacted by the pandemic, especially communities of students that experience ongoing barriers to postsecondary access that has been exacerbated by the pandemic; strategies to support academic recovery of students impacted by the pandemic that result in the student earning postsecondary credits; transition year programs, bridges, and transfer pathways with other institutions, in order to support students impacted by the pandemic, to begin their studies and transition into their programs of choice; preference will be given to proposals that allow students to transfer to multiple programs at more than one postsecondary institution. eligibility publicly assisted postsecondary institutions in ontario (colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes), are eligible to apply. applications can be from individual institutions or collaborative initiatives. funding available apply to oncat's seamless transfer stream by december 21, 2022 for the first cohort of funding. grants generally range from $10,000- $100,000. larger grants may be considered based on the project scope. apply to view the budget guidelines, please click here. oncat is funded by the government of ontario

instantan passerelles des programmes techniques des services policiers et technique de radaptation en justice pnale (boral et la cit), vers les programmes universitaires criminologie, sociologie, quit diversit et droits de la personne, et psychologie type: pathway development project number: 2020-27 or p2027 project lead: universit laurentienne collaborators: collge boral, la cit collgiale rsum du projet le projet propose douze (12) parcours partir des programmes collgiaux techniques des services policiers (8) (offert par la cit et le collge boral), et technique de radaptation et justice pnale (4) (offert par la cit), vers les programmes laurentienne criminologie, sociologie, quit diversit et droits de la personne, et psychologie. justification du projet deux facteurs cls nous ont pousss explorer la pertinence de ces passerelles. dabord, la forte popularit de ces programmes au sein des deux collges partenaires, boral et la cit, ainsi que limportante demande du march pour les professionnels de ces domaines. ensuite, la tendance leve observe chez ces diplms de poursuivre des tudes luniversit afin denrichir leur profil de comptences plus pousses en fait de sensibilisation la diversit sociale, lquit, et au respect de lautre de mme que de dvelopper encore davantage leur esprit critique et leurs comptences en communication. en effet, ceux-ci affirment avoir relev que les candidats ayant bonifi leur formation collgiale dun diplme universitaire taient davantage priss de par lenvergure des notions acquises sur des courants sociaux sensibles et la maturit de leur profil. rsultats les passerelles espres taient lintention des tudiants gradus des programmes suivants : du programme techniques des services policiers de la cit et du collge boral, vers les programmes criminologie, sociologie, quit diversit et droits de la personne, et psychologie de la laurentienne du programme technique de radaptation en justice pnale de la cit, vers les programmes criminologie, sociologie, quit diversit et droits de la personne, et psychologie de la laurentienne donc douze (12) passerelles au total taient initialement espres. mesures cls - les plans de cours composant lensemble des programmes collgiaux et universitaires impliqus dans ce projet ont t rcolts = pratique gagnante - des matrices danalyse permettant de comparer les rsultats dapprentissage des cours universitaires avec les rsultats dapprentissage des cours collgiaux ont t labores = pratique gagnante - une analyse prliminaire a t effectue par une spcialiste de contenu pdagogique gnral, afin didentifier les corrlations les plus videntes et de soumettre un rapport aux units acadmiques universitaires pour leur approbation des constats = pratique gagnante parcours crs les douze (12) passerelles espres sont prtes pour approbation par les instances institutionnelles laurentienne. elles devront toutefois attendre que le processus en cours de la lacc soit complt avant dtre dposes. nous valuons que les travaux cet effet devraient reprendre en mai 2021. ceci tant dit, de fortes affinits se sont rvles au niveau des passerelles suivantes : techniques des services policiers et criminologie techniques des services policiers et sociologie techniques des services policiers et psychologie techniques de radaptation et justice pnale et criminologie techniques de radaptation et justice pnale et quit, diversit et droits de la personne dun autre ct, trs peu daffinits semblent possibles pour les passerelles : techniques des services policiers et quit, diversit et droits de la personne techniques de radaptation et justice pnale et sociologie techniques de radaptation et justice pnale et psychologie parcours non termins cette information ne pourra tre fournie qu' la suite de la restructuration en cours de l'universit laurentienne puisque certains programmes impliqus dans les passerelles de ce projet pourraient s'avrer coups dans la nouvelle structure de l'tablissement. dfis le 1er fvrier 2021 luniversit laurentienne a entam, sans aucun pravis, des procdures de restructuration en vertu de la loi sur les arrangements avec les cranciers des compagnies (lacc). ce processus a provoqu une dstabilisation gnralise de ltablissement, qui a d mettre un arrt toutes les dmarches dapprobation relatives au passerelles en cours de dveloppement. les travaux ne pourront reprendre quau cours de lautomne 2021, la lumire des programmes qui auront t pargns des coupures. rsultats pour les tudiants ces passerelles permettront aux diplms collgiaux dsirant sinscrire dans les programmes universitaires cibls dpargner temps et argent. elles leur offriront galement une plus grande reconnaissance titre de professionnel en considrant davantage la valeur des acquis acadmiques spcialiss quils ont rcolts au cours de leur formation collgiale, dmontrant ainsi une considration accrue et par le fait mme, une plus grande valorisation de la formation collgiale. titres dtudes ces passerelles pourraient donner plus rapidement accs aux tudiants collgiaux des programmes de techniques des services policiers et de technique en radaptation et en justice pnale l'obtention des diplmes suivants : - b.a. criminologie - b.a. quit, diversit et droits de la personne - b.a. sociologie - b.a psychologie conomies de temps pour les tudiants cette information reste tre dtermine la suite des processus d'approbation venir. conomies financires pour les tudiants cette information reste tre dtermine la suite des processus d'approbation venir, qui nous indiquera le nombre de crdits accords et qui pourra nous permettre de raliser ce calcul. souplesse pour les tudiants dfinitivement un meilleur accs aux programmes, et un processus amliors de reconnaissance de crdits. harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants dans le cas de ces passerelles, nous assurons l'tudiant une formation plus englobante, qui lui permettra non seulement d'acqurir davantage de connaissances pour son secteur d'activits, mais surtout d'enrichir son profil professionnel sur des questions citoyennes d'importance dans son futur mtier. rsultats pour les tablissements non, aucun. la dmarche entreprise dans le cadre de ce projet a suivi les procdures de la nouvelle mthodologie dveloppe et suivie depuis les trois dernires annes. conseils pratiques nous continuons de croire que la mthodologie se reposant sur lanalyse des corrlations entre les rsultats dapprentissages des programmes collgiaux et universitaires reste le meilleur argument prsenter aux instances institutionnelles en charge de lapprobation des passerelles proposes, puisquelle dmontre de faon factuelle les recoupements et les acquis des diplms collgiaux. nous la recommandons fortement aux autres tablissements postsecondaires. outils et ressources les principaux outils dvelopps dans le cadre de ce projet ont t les matrices danalyse.

multi-college access to postsecondary project snapshot prepared by sarah harvie, training specialist march 12, 2020 hamilton oncat project number: p1910 contents overview ....................................................................................................................................... 3 executive summary .................................................................................................................. 3 partners .................................................................................................................................... 3 pathways .................................................................................................................................. 3 challenges................................................................................................................................. 4 impact ........................................................................................................................................... 5 students .................................................................................................................................... 5 credential ............................................................................................................................. 5 time ...................................................................................................................................... 5 money ................................................................................................................................... 6 flexibility .............................................................................................................................. 6 work ..................................................................................................................................... 6 institutional .............................................................................................................................. 6 sector ........................................................................................................................................ 7 tips & tools ................................................................................................................................... 7 tips ........................................................................................................................................... 7 tools ......................................................................................................................................... 7 visuals ........................................................................................................................................... 7 2 overview executive summary the multi college access to postsecondary (mcap) project supported mohawk colleges centre for community partnerships and experiential learning (ccp&el), which provides communitybased, tuition-free courses for adults facing barriers to postsecondary education through city school by mohawk, and the dual credit program (i.e., school college work initiative or scwi) for high school students. city schools flagship course, college 101, is a course recognized as a general education elective at mohawk college, and is offered on a regular basis through both city school and dual credits/scwi. the course focuses on essential skills for success and pathway planning for postsecondary education, providing students with a transitional steppingstone to college through skill building and support. the mcap project has facilitated access to more options for students participating in college 101 to transfer their credit to participating institutions other than mohawk college, enhancing their academic mobility and opportunity for academic success in colleges throughout the golden horseshoe region. these pathways are important as the city school initiative continues to grow outside of the city of hamilton, and as college 101 continues to be offered in dual credit programming throughout the region. students should have the freedom to choose the postsecondary institution that best meets their needs, unencumbered by geographical limitations. by bringing free credit-based programming directly into underserved communities and neighbourhoods, city school can leverage the institutional support of mohawk colleges access strategy to serve more individuals, while now offering clear and navigable pathways to the students institutions of choice. partners the sending institution for this project was mohawk college. the receiving institutions included: lambton college, fanshawe college, niagara college, and canadore college. six nations polytechnic was also included in this project as a partner in the development of one of the courses involved, and facilitated the connection to canadore college. pathways pathways developed vary among the colleges. the courses at mohawk college involved in this project are collectively referred to as college 101 and are all approved general education elective credits, but it is important to note that there are slightly different versions of the course as it has gone through redevelopment and adaptation over the last five years. the course codes and titles at mohawk college are: 3 ssci 10057 introduction to postsecondary experiences (original gen. ed. course offered through school of liberal studies) ssci 10075 college 101 (updated title and ownership under the centre for community partnerships and experiential learning, the delivering department) ssci 10071 bundled arrows college 101 (developed in partnership with six nations polytechnic) ssci 10073 college 101: indigenous (intellectual property and traditional knowledge contributed by six nations polytechnic removed, and new content redeveloped for hamiltons urban indigenous community) the receiving institution and their respective courses are: fanshawe college ssci 10057 -> college orientation skills, skls 1024, human services foundation certificate ssci 10075, 10071, 10073 -> general education elective lambton college ssci 10057 -> general education elective ssci 10075, 10071, 10073 pending, projected deadline april 30, 2020. niagara college ssci 10057, 10071, 10073, 10075 -> academic and career preparation, stdv 1180, general arts and sciences canadore college ssci 10057 -> tbd ssci 10071 -> ged185 ssci 10073 -> ged180 ssci 10075 -> ged175 challenges a project such as this one necessitates open, collaborative relationships between individuals and institutions. such relationships can take time to develop and evolve. when there are staffing changes and turnover, especially among multiple partners, it can take time to reestablish relationships of trust and collaboration. this challenge was experienced in the course of the mcap project, which caused some minor delays. going forward, we would recommend ensuring that there are multiple contacts at each institution who are apprised of projects and players and thus should there be turnover there will still be a level of connection and continuity. 4 another specific challenge encountered in this project involved the changing nature of course content, naming, and ownership over time. curriculum is not static and changes are made to reflect real-world needs and circumstances. after initial contact had been established with the receiving colleges about one specific course code, a new course code was created to reflect an internal shift of ownership for the course from one academic area to another. this change resulted in the need to revisit the initial agreements with the receiving colleges to add another course code to their respective agreements. the same process was required regarding the bundled arrows course after the above-mentioned reconnection to snp. these requirements resulted in some delays, as we were requesting that receiving institutions revisit our request with new versions of the course(s). the final challenge experienced by the project team resided in our own difficulties navigating internal college processes, given that our access team is connected to but operates somewhat independently of (or parallel to) the full-time post-secondary programs at the college. in some cases, it is reasonable and appropriate for the access team to develop our own policies and processes that are unique to our programs and learners; however, in this instance, we did not need to do so and could have simplified our activities had we known about and understood existing college policies and procedures pertaining to credit transfer activities. as such, this project proved to be an important learning experience and going forward we will be much better positioned to undertake similar initiatives. impact students credential the credits earned through city school by mohawks college 101 course can now be more easily applied to pathways at other colleges throughout the region. this outcome is significant as mohawks access strategy evolves to serve other communities outside of hamilton, including haldimand county, brantford, and burlington region. each of the students who have earned a college 101 credit through city school or mohawks dual credits could now, in theory, transition to the institutions involved in this project with a transfer credit already on their transcripts. to date, 71 students have earned mohawk college general education elective credits through their participation in college 101 through city school, and 138 through dual credits. time the time saved by students through this program is not easily measured, given that each individual students pathway to and through postsecondary education is unique. however, we have heard from many students that the college 101 course prepares them well for further studies, and assists them with making important decisions about their future about which they otherwise would have not felt prepared to make. as such, participation in the college 101 course has helped some students avoid enrolling in a program that does not necessarily meet 5 their needs. that is, we know from broader research that some students report enrolling in a program only to leave that program part-way through because it is not what they expected or is not a good fit, possibly transferring to another program or institution, and in some cases leaving postsecondary altogether. as such, this outcome can result in a delay in the individuals movement forward as they reassess their academic and employment goals after a potentially negative experience. the time they invest in themselves through college 101 can mitigate this possible outcome and ultimately be a time saver for students in their post-secondary journey, giving them the chance to access support and develop skills that are essential for informed decision making and later success. money similarly, the money saved by students as a result of this project is not easily measured given individual life circumstances and post-secondary options and various costs associated. if the average tuition for a year of college is $2400 (see for example, https://www.ontariocolleges.ca/en/colleges/paying-for-college) and a student, having participated in college 101, requests a transfer credit exemption, they could, in theory, save approximately $240 if they have a 10 course load each year. flexibility the flexibility made possible for students by project outcomes is key. city school and dual credit/scwi students participating in college 101 now have clear and tangible options for transfer pathways to other colleges outside of hamilton. now that the ccp&el has a fulsome understanding of internal and external transfer processes, we can continue to build more transfer options for students and articulate more detailed and robust pathways. work the goal of all city school programing is to contribute to economic prosperity through providing free, community-based education and vocational training. as such, this project provides more options for marginalized communities to participate in postsecondary education where they may not have previously considered it, in turn providing more pathways toward employment opportunities that may have been previously unattainable without a college education. institutional as the ccp&el, a newer department of mohawk college, continues to build its suite of credit courses to be offered through city school and dual credit/scwi programming, and interest among community partners to host city school activities in their spaces and neighbourhoods continues to grow, a clear and articulated transfer process had become increasingly important. as a result of this project, the ccp&el team is properly equipped with the institutional knowledge and resources required to guide our students through the transfer process, and are prepared with the knowledge required to establish new and innovative pathways between mohawk college and other institutions. 6 sector the mcap project was a small-scale project, primarily focused on a specific team at a single college. however, we have already benefitted from the learnings of this project through our deepened understanding of transfer agreement processes already established among ontarios colleges, and will continue to utilize those processes to establish transfer pathways for students. the impacts on the transfer system in ontario may only be realized at a larger scale if all colleges are able to highlight their desire to collaborate with other intuitions, and the process for those collaborations are clearly articulated, promoted, and streamlined to encourage inter-college and sector-wide initiatives. tips & tools tips 1. invest in access access programming can be implemented in a way that meets marginalized students needs, while maintaining rigorous academic standards. these gradual entry points to postsecondary education can build skills and confidence in prospective students who can now visualize themselves participating in college life. to learn more about how mohawk college reduces barriers to postsecondary education, visit the city school by mohawk website at www.mohawkcollege.ca/cityschool 2. clearly articulate institutional policies and practices for establishing credit transfer agreements, including staff contacts, in order to facilitate seamless inter-college transfer requests. through this project, student-facing processes and guidelines were easily located as a starting point for students to understand how to request transfers from previously earned credits, however it was much more difficult to identify the appropriate process or contact person for other college staff to connect with to discuss transfer agreements or opportunities to collaborate. by encouraging college-to-college communication, opportunities for joint initiatives could be more easily requested. tools this project facilitated the creation of a department-level guiding document to support staff in the ccp&el with a starting point for consideration when 1) developing a new course or program; 2) working in a community traditionally served by another institution; and, 3) seeking the creation of a transfer credit agreement. visuals this project facilitated the development of a promotional banner for use when city school is working in communities typically served by colleges other than mohawk college (e.g., brantford, haldimand county, norfolk county, burlington, halton region). since college 101 is a course frequently delivered in community-based locations, when promotional activities are taking place we will more easily be able to highlight the pathways college 101 could lead to at other colleges, encouraging participation in our entry-point to college. students in brantford, for example, may be less inclined to consider mohawk college in favour of an institution closer to their home such as conestoga or six nations polytechnic so may not see the relevance of 7 participating in a mohawk college course unless these opportunities are clearly articulated. this banner will facilitate those conversations. 8

transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities northern and southern differences in students who transfer july 20, 2020 authors david zarifa, phd | professor and canada research chair davidz@nipissingu.ca yujiro sano, phd | postdoctoral research fellow cathlene hillier, phd | postdoctoral research fellow department of sociology nipissing university northern and southern differences in students who transfer table of contents 03 overview of the study key findings 05 introduction transfer types and prevalence: do the pathways differ across northern 07 and southern institutions? northern and southern differences: do the characteristics of youth who 08 transfer vary by northern and southern institutions in ontario? characteristics of students who transfer in southern ontario institutions characteristics of students who transfer in northern ontario institutions bivariate analysis between characteristics and transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions 15 conclusion and policy implications 18 appendix: data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources subsample and restrictions dependent variable transfer type independent variables student characteristics analytical approach 22 references 25 figures and tables this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 northern and southern differences in students who transfer overview of the study youth from the northernmost parts of the provinces and territories often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to attending postsecondary education, accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing many lucrative fields of study at the university level such as the stem fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) (pizarro milian, seward, & zarifa, 2020; hango et al., 2019; zarifa, hango, & pizarro milian, 2018). recent research reveals significant differences in the characteristics of ontario students who transfer across and within university and college sectors and also points to the differences in the magnitude of various pathways across northern and southern institutions (zarifa, sano, & hillier, 2020). however, to our knowledge, no existing academic or policy reports have shed light on the types of students who transfer in different regions of ontario, both north and south. this research aims to fill this apparent knowledge gap using administrative data from statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis) (2009 to 2016) linked to t1 family file tax data. no existing academic or policy reports have zeroed in with regional analyses to shed light on the types of students who transfer within northern and southern institutions. as such, there is a need to understand more about the characteristics of students who transfer from different regions of ontario, both north and south. key findings among southern ontario institutions, the most prominent postsecondary pathway is non-transfer university (76.06%), followed by non-transfer college (15.98%), university to college transfers (2.15%), college to university transfers (2.04%), university to university transfers (1.71%), college to college transfers (1.53%), and swirlers (0.54%). in northern ontario, the results are largely consistent. however, the overall level of transfer is slightly higher (8.41% vs. 7.96%), largely attributable to more university to university transfer and swirlers in northern institutions. specifically, the most common route is non-transfer university (78.40%), followed by non-transfer college (13.19%), university to university transfers (2.31%), university to college transfers (2.10%), college to university transfers (1.84%), college to college transfers (1.42%), and swirlers (0.74%). 03 northern and southern differences in students who transfer in southern ontario schools, females show higher probabilities of taking four (university to university, college to university, college to college, and swirler) of the five transfer routes compared to males. the only transfer type where males show a higher probability is university to college transfer. in northern ontario, however, it is males who have higher probabilities of taking all five of the transfer pathways. older students (age 22 and above) in both regions show higher probabilities of taking university to university and non-transfer university pathways and lower probabilities of taking college to college and non-transfer college pathways. however, in northern institutions, older students show higher chances of university to college transfer, lower chances of college to university transfer, and a higher probability of swirling. in southern institutions, the opposite is true, as younger students show higher chances of university to college transfer, lower chances of college to university transfer, and a higher probability of swirling. in both southern and northern ontario, students from lower parental income backgrounds were significantly more likely to take many of the various postsecondary pathways, such as college to university, college to college, non-transfer college, and swirler, than take the non-transfer university route compared to those from higher parental income backgrounds. in both regions, arts/humanities students stand out as having higher chances of taking university to university, university to college, and swirler transfer routes, while social science students also show higher chances of university to college and college to university transfer. health students show the highest probabilities of college to university and college to college transfer. in southern ontario, the natural sciences and social sciences stand out as having the highest probabilities of taking the non-transfer university pathway. in northern ontario, the arts/humanities show greater separation from the other fields in terms of their chances of university to university and university to college transfer, and the social sciences also show significantly higher chances of university to university transfer. 04 northern and southern differences in students who transfer introduction a new and growing body of research points to the importance of examining regional differences in educational trajectories within canada (hillier et al., 2020; zarifa et al., 2020; hango et al., 2019; zarifa et al., 2018). youth from the northernmost parts of provinces and the territories, in particular, often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to attending postsecondary education, accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing many lucrative fields of study at the university level such as the stem fields (pizarro milian et al., 2020; hango et al., 2019; zarifa et al., 2018). moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that students who reside in canadas provincial north are more likely to enter a college program before heading to university (zarifa et al., 2018). at the same time, greater proportions of students are also balancing multiple life obligations (e.g., work, family, etc.) in tandem with pursuing higher education, leading to more complex postsecondary pathways (deil-amen, 2015; kirst & stevens, 2015; davies & mehta, 2018). these changes have prompted increases in student transfer across many colleges and universities (decock, 2004), with some students showing higher chances of taking a transfer route during their postsecondary education (finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2020; zarifa et al., 2020). recent research reveals significant differences in the characteristics of ontario students who transfer across and within university and college sectors and also points to the differences in the magnitude of various pathways across northern and southern institutions (zarifa et al., 2020). however, to our knowledge, no existing academic or policy reports have zeroed in with regional analyses to shed light on the types of students who transfer within northern and southern institutions. as such, there is a need to understand more about the characteristics of students who transfer from different regions of ontario, both north and south. this research aims to fill this apparent knowledge gap using administrative data from statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis) (2009 to 2016) linked to t1 family file tax data. in step with our previous study (see zarifa, sano, and hillier, 2020 for a lengthier discussion on transfer types), we explore five types of transfer in the postsecondary system with seven possible categories: 1) college to university transfers (cu); 2) university to college transfers (uc); 3) college to college transfers (cc); 4) university to university transfers (uu); 5) nontransfer college students (ntc); 6) non-transfer university students (ntu); and 7) swirlers (i.e., those students who changed their institutions more than once within two years). first, we begin by comparing the relative percentages of students who take these various routes across northern and southern institutions. second, we employ bivariate analyses to trace and compare the characteristics of students who transfer in southern ontario 05 northern and southern differences in students who transfer and northern ontario institutions. third, we draw upon multinomial logistic regressions and predicted probabilities to assess and compare the relative impact of students characteristics on transfer types in the two regions. finally, we conclude by highlighting some of the key areas of differences across the two locales and discuss the policy implications of these findings. 06 northern and southern differences in students who transfer transfer types and prevalence: do the pathways differ across northern and southern institutions? in this section, we examine the prevalence of the seven postsecondary pathways described above in both northern ontario and southern ontario institutions. as shown in figure 1 (p. 25) (and table 1, p. 26), the largest proportions of postsecondary students in southern institutions did not transfer within two years after their initial enrolment: ntu (76.06%) and ntc (15.98%). the same was true for northern institutions, where the majority of students in northern institutions did not transfer within two years: ntu (78.40%) and ntc (13.19%). it is important to note, however, that nearly 2.5% more students in northern institutions took the non-transfer university route, and nearly 3% more students in southern institutions took the non-transfer college route. among southern institutions, larger proportions of students transferred across postsecondary sectors, either from university to college (2.15%) or college to university (2.04%). importantly, lateral transfers were less common, including students transferring from university to university (1.71%) and college to college (1.53%). swirling was the least common pathway among students in southern institutions (0.54%). however, among northern institutions, the relative degree of transfer was slightly higher (8.41% vs. 7.96%), largely attributable to more university to university transfers and swirlers in northern institutions. specifically, university to university transfers (2.31%) showed the highest proportion of students, followed by university to college transfers (2.10%), college to university transfers (1.84%), college to college transfers (1.42%), and swirlers (0.74%). additional characteristics of the psis-t1ff subsamples for southern and northern students respectively can be found in table 1 (p. 26). in short, northern ontario institutions show greater relative proportions of older students (19.3% vs. 12.11%), female students (58.46% vs. 53.56%), more students from moderate income families, about 10% more health majors (21.77% vs. 11.61%), as well as smaller relative proportions of arts/humanities (11.36% vs. 19.52%) and social science majors (28.6% vs. 38.84%). these regional differences in student demographics are particularly important for policy makers and administrators when designing, revising, and evaluating articulation and transfer programs and student transition supports. 07 northern and southern differences in students who transfer northern and southern differences: do the characteristics of youth who transfer vary by northern and southern institutions in ontario? characteristics of students who transfer in southern ontario institutions most of what we know about the characteristics of students who transfer in ontario is from studies in postsecondary institutions in southwestern ontario. while there are some studies that utilize provincial data sets (mccloy et al., 2017b; decock et al., 2016; usher & jarvey, 2012; finnie & qiu, 2009), there are no distinctions made between northern and southern institutions to determine the unique characteristics of students who transfer in each region. studies in various institutions in southern ontario find that student demographics predict transfer rates from college to university. for student demographics, findings in the research are not clear. some research finds older students (25+ years) are more likely to transfer to university (acai & newton, 2015; blanchard et al., 2013; gawley & mcgowan, 2006) and other studies find students under the age of 25 more likely to transfer (mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016). also, findings relating to sex are mixed, with some studies finding male students more likely to transfer (acai & newton, 2015; gawley & mcgowan, 2006) and others finding rates of transfer higher among female students (mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016). family background factors are influential predictors in college to university transfer. research finds having at least one parent with postsecondary education is significantly related to transferring (mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016; steffler, mccloy, & decock, 2018). steffler and colleagues (2018) find income has no significant effect on transfer rates. however, low-income students with university educated parents are more likely to plan on transferring from college to university than low-income students without university educated parents (steffler et al., 2018). students academics also relate to transfer. program of study and/or students career aspirations are key determinants of transfer. acai and newton (2015) find students aspiring to the teaching profession are more likely to transfer to university. and, according to decocks (2004) examination of the graduate student survey, general arts and science university programs receive more transfers from college than other programs (see also stewart & martinello, 2012). other research finds social science programs in college receive more university transfers (stewart & martinello, 2012). students with high gpas in college have higher transfer rates to universities than those with low gpas (kennett & mackie, 2014; lang & lopes, 2014; mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016; steffler et al., 2018; stewart & martinello, 2012). nevertheless, smith and colleagues (2016) find that university students who transfer to college are also 08 northern and southern differences in students who transfer strong academically (see also stewart & martinello, 2012). many college students complete their two-year diploma before transferring to university (lang & lopes, 2014; smith et al., 2016), except for foreign language students, who stay in college until they meet the language requirements to gain acceptance in a university program (lang & lopes, 2014). finally, students aspirations to attend university after college are associated with eventually transferring (mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016; steffler et al., 2018). articulation agreements between institutions also influence students decisions to transfer. that is, the amount of credits universities acknowledge from college programs had a significant positive relationship with choices to transfer (gawley & mcgowen, 2006). additionally, other models of articulation are associated with transfer choice. the concurrent college model which has articulation agreements with local universities built into the programis found to generate more college to university transfer students than the traditional model (lang & lopes, 2014; shook, norman, & guyatt, 2016). moreover, those who intend to transfer to university when they enter college are more likely to choose the concurrent program (lang, 2009). characteristics of students who transfer in northern ontario institutions for northern ontario, far less research exists. using graduate satisfaction survey data and administrative data from confederation college and lakehead university, confederation college (2012) conducted research on student transfers in these two institutions located in thunder bay, ontario. the descriptive findings from this study indicate that most students transferring into confederation college are between the ages of 20 and 24 and female. only 12% identified as aboriginal and 6% identified as first-generation. over half (57%) of students transferring to confederation college already had a degree, diploma, or certificate from another postsecondary institution, and 70% of these were transfers from lakehead university. their descriptive results from student transfers into lakehead university only included student transfers from confederation college. in these findings, there was a higher percentage of transfers among female students and those ages 20 to 24. twenty-two percent identified as aboriginal and 24% identified as first-generation. apart from the study discussed above, there remains a dearth of research on the characteristics of students who transfer in postsecondary institutions in northern ontario. therefore, this study intends to fill the gaps in our knowledge about the characteristics of transfer students in northern ontario institutions. 1. unfortunately, our data did not allow us to account for articulation agreements, transfer credits, intentions to transfer, or future schooling aspirations. these remain important areas for further exploration, especially in northern ontario institutions. 09 northern and southern differences in students who transfer bivariate analysis between characteristics and transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions tables 2 (p. 27) and 3 (p. 28) show the results from our bivariate analyses in southern ontario and northern ontario respectively. overall, the bivariate analyses reveal that transfer types are significantly associated with several demographic, program, and family characteristics (p<0.01) in both regions. however, despite similar levels of significance across these characteristics, in this section, we graph the results to provide further insight into how various groups across these characteristics might be represented differently across the categories of our transfer type variables in southern and northern ontario. sex figure 2 (p. 29) points to the importance of sex in understanding transfer types in southern ontario, while figure 3 (p. 29) depicts the relationship for northern ontario. in southern ontario, we find that larger proportions of female students are either entering the university sector without transferring (ntu, 78.08% vs. 73.74%) or transferring into and across the university sector than males (cu, 2.23% vs. 1.82%; uu, 1.84% vs. 1.55%), whereas males have comparatively higher percentages of non-transfer college (ntc, 18.59% vs. 13.72%) and lateral transfer across colleges (cc, 1.57% vs. 1.50%) and transfer into colleges (uc, 2.19% vs. 2.11%). for swirlers, males and females share similar percentages (0.55% vs. 0.53%). for northern ontario (see figure 3), a similar picture emerges, with a few notable differences. as in southern ontario, we find that larger proportions of female students are either entering the university sector without transferring (ntu, 80.14% vs. 75.95%) or transferring across the university sector than males (uu, 2.52% vs. 2.03%), whereas males have comparatively higher percentages of non-transfer college (ntc, 15.70% vs. 11.41%) and lateral transfer across colleges (cc, 1.65% vs. 1.26%). transfer across sectors appears to be the reverse of southern ontario, as females in the north show higher rates of transfer from university into colleges (uc, 2.16% vs. 2.03%) and lower rates of transfer from college to university (cu, 1.80% vs. 1.9%) compared to males. for swirlers, males and females again share similar percentages (0.76% vs. 0.72%). age in terms of age effects in southern ontario, figure 4 (p. 30) reveals that younger, traditionally aged students (those ages 21 or younger) share comparatively lower percentages across most transfer categories, with the exception of university-college transfers, as well as non-transfer university students. specifically, smaller proportions of younger students, compared to older ones, are categorized as uu (1.69% vs. 1.80%), cu (1.79% vs. 3.82%), cc (1.42% vs. 2.29%), ntc (13.68% vs. 32.71%), and swirlers (0.52% vs. 0.69%). conversely, younger students show 10 northern and southern differences in students who transfer higher relative proportions making uc transfers (2.19% vs. 1.84%) and taking the ntu pathway (78.71% vs. 56.85%). among northern ontario schools (figure 5, p. 30), many of our findings are reversed, as younger students had comparatively higher percentages across all transfer and non-transfer pathways, with the exception of the non-transfer university route. that is, larger relative proportions of younger students, compared to older ones, take the uu (2.35% vs. 2.17%), uc (2.35% vs. 1.09%), cu (1.89% vs. 1.63%), cc (1.50% vs. 1.09%), ntc (13.62% vs. 11.41%), and swirler pathways (0.78% vs. 0.54%). parental income family socioeconomic status also emerges as an important predictor of postsecondary pathways in southern ontario (see figure 6, p. 31). specifically, students from the highest parental income category showed the highest percentages in terms of staying within the university sector (uu, 1.78%; ntu, 85.64%), but the lowest percentages in both the ntc (8.09%) pathway as well as nearly all of the transfer routes (uc, 1.82%; cc, 1.32%; cu, 0.88%; and swirlers, 0.48%). in northern ontario, we also find that family socioeconomic status is an important predictor of postsecondary pathways (see figure 7, p. 31). the pattern is largely consistent between northern and southern students, as students from higher income families are by and large transferring less than those from lower income families. in fact, among northern students, the largest proportions for uc (2.36%), cu (2.36%), and swirlers (1.18%) were shared by students whose parental income category was the lowest. conversely, students with high income parents had the largest percentages for uu (2.54%), ntu (85.40%) but the smallest percentages for cc (0.95%) and ntc (6.98%). field of study an interesting story also emerges for field of study (figure 8, p. 32). southern students whose field of study is health-related had the highest percentages transferring college to university (3.84%), college to college (2.58%), and non-transfer college (20.20%). at the same time, students who major in arts/humanities had the largest percentages for university to university (2.38%), university to college (3.09%), and swirler (0.67%) pathways. the social sciences showed the second highest proportions for uu (1.69%), uc (2.28%), and cu (2.03%) transfers. among northern students (figure 9, p. 32), the story looks quite similar. students majoring in health-related subjects had the largest percentages for college to university (2.64%), college to college (2.64%), and non-transfer college routes (19.23%). in addition, students whose field of study is arts/humanities had the highest percentages taking university to university (4.59%) 11 northern and southern differences in students who transfer and university to college (3.67%) pathways. once again, social science students show the second highest percentages for uu (3.13%), uc (2.94%), and cu (2.21%), and the largest relative percentage for both the non-transfer university pathway (82.9%) and swirlers (0.99%). while arts/humanities and the social sciences stand out in both locales, the relative percentages of these students are significantly higher among northern ontario studentsin some cases, the relative percentages are double those of their southern ontario counterparts. multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions to estimate the net impact of each of the characteristics among students, we also perform separate multivariate analyses for southern and northern ontario. these methods consist of multinomial logistic regressions as well as predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals to provide graphical displays of the relative differences across groups. while percentages were shown earlier in the bivariate analyses, predicted probabilities range from 0 to 1 and show the probability that a particular type of student (e.g., female) would take one of the various pathways, also taking into account the impact of all other variables in the model. the odds ratios from multinomial logistic regressions for southern ontario institutions are shown in table 4 (p. 33), and the predicted probabilities derived from those models are shown in table 5 (p. 34). the odds ratios from multinomial logistic regressions for northern ontario are shown in table 6 (p. 35), and the predicted probabilities derived from those models are shown in table 7 (p. 36). the predicted probabilities for both regions are graphed in figures 10 to 17 (pp. 3740). for ease of interpretation, and to make similarities and differences more apparent, we compare each of the effects of the background characteristics in northern and southern institutions in turn. sex in southern ontario, female students show lower odds of taking many of the transfer pathways (e.g., uc, or=0.85, p<0.01; cu, or=0.93, p<0.01; cc, or=0.79, p<0.01; swirlers, or=0.84, p<0.01) as well as the non-transfer college route (or=0.67, p<0.01) compared to taking the non-transfer university route. however, they are more likely to transfer from university to university than take the non-transfer university route (or=1.11, p<0.01) compared to males. interestingly, when looking at the predicted probabilities in figure 10, we can see that females show higher probabilities of taking four (uu, cu, cc, and swirler) of the five transfer routes compared to males. the only transfer type that males have a higher probability of taking is the university to college route. in northern ontario, however, there are some notable differences. female students show lower odds of taking only two transfer pathways (cu, or=0.74, p<0.01; cc, or=0.63, p<0.01) and the non-transfer college route (or=0.63, p<0.01) compared to taking the non-transfer university route. in fact, figure 11 (p. 37) shows that in northern ontario institutions, it is male 12 northern and southern differences in students who transfer students who have higher probabilities of taking all five of the transfer pathways (uu, uc, cu, cc, and swirler). females show higher probabilities of not transferring in university, and males show higher probabilities of not transferring in collegea finding that was reversed among southern ontario institutions. age for age, we find that older students (compared to younger students) are more likely to take many of the transfer pathways (e.g., uu, or=1.50, p<0.01; uc, or=1.17, p<0.01; cu, or=2.46, p<0.01; cc, or=1.96, p<0.01; swirlers, or=1.79, p<0.01) and more likely to stay in the same college (or=2.93, p<0.01) than take the non-transfer university route. moreover, figure 12 shows older students have higher probabilities of taking uu and cu, but younger students have higher probabilities of transferring uc, cc, and swirling. among northern institutions, we find some differences. older students are less likely than younger students to take many of the transfer pathways (e.g., uc, or=0.48, p<0.01; cu, or=0.70, p<0.05; cc, or=0.51, p<0.01; swirlers, or=0.55, p<0.05) as well as stay in the same college (or=0.63, p<0.01) than take the non-transfer university route. in figure 13 (p. 38), we can see that older students show higher probabilities of uu (same as southern ontario), higher probabilities of uc (opposite of southern ontario), lower probabilities of uc transfer (opposite), lower probabilities of cc (same), higher probabilities of ntu (same), lower probabilities of ntc (same), and a higher probability of swirling (opposite). parent income in southern ontario, students from lower parental income backgrounds were significantly more likely to take many of the various postsecondary pathways, such as cu, cc, ntc, and swirlers, than take the non-transfer university route compared to those from higher parental income backgrounds. for the uc transfers, however, the pattern is not necessarily consistent. specifically, students whose parental income categories are lower (or=1.12, p<0.01) and middle (or=1.09, p<0.05) are more likely to take the university to college pathway than take the non-transfer university route; those whose parental income category is highest are less likely to do so (or=0.75, p<0.01). figure 14 (p. 39) sheds light on the predicted probabilities for each group across parental income quintiles. overall, cu and cc and swirler transfer routes show negative relationships with parental income (lower income, higher probability of transfer), the ntu shows an increasing exponential relationship, and ntc shows a decreasing exponential relationship with higher parental income students. in northern ontario, we find that the relationship between parental income and transfer types is largely consistent between northern and southern students. first, for northern students, the results reveal that higher income generally predicts lower odds of taking pathways such as uc, cu, cc, ntc, and swirlers over the ntu route. these findings can be observed in figure 15 (p. 39). as in southern ontario, relationships between parental income 13 northern and southern differences in students who transfer and the chance of taking particular pathways, for cu, cc and swirlers, are negative. that is, higher parental income decreases ones likelihood of taking one of these routes. interestingly, while the relationships for ntu and ntc were non-linear (exponential), for northern ontario, the relationships are linear and the changes in probabilities are greater at lower parental income quintiles. put differently, as parental income increases, the likelihood of not transferring university increases in an incremental fashion, whereas the likelihood of not transferring college decreases in an incremental fashion. field of study in step with previous research using the elmlp and psis (see zarifa et al., 2020; finnie et al., 2020), our findings also reveal that field of study plays an important role in determining postsecondary pathways. compared to those who major in arts/humanities, students who major in health-related subjects are less likely to take the uu (or=0.43, p<0.01), uc (or=0.44, p<0.01), and swirler (or=0.82, p<0.01) pathways but are more likely to take the cu (or=2.43, p<0.01), cc (or=1.76, p<0.01), and ntc (or=1.49, p<0.01) routes over the ntu route. moreover, compared to those who major in arts/humanities, natural science students are less likely to take the uu (or=0.63, p<0.1), uc (or=0.54, p<0.01), cu (or=0.36, p<0.01), cc (or=0.64, p<0.01), ntc (or=0.98, p<0.1), and swirler (or=0.56, p<0.01) routes over the ntu route. in addition, social science students are less likely to take the uu (or=0.70, p<0.01), uc (or=0.71, p<0.01), cc (or=0.72, p<0.01), ntc (or=0.89, p<0.01), and swirler (or=0.70, p<0.01) routes over the ntu route but are more likely to take cu route (or=1.14, p<0.01). in figure 16 (p. 40), the predicted probabilities across all field categories are shown. overall, arts/humanities students stand out as having higher chances of uu, uc, and swirler routes, while social science students also show higher chances of uc and cu transfer. health students show the highest probability of cu and cc transfer. in terms of ntu, the natural sciences and social sciences stand out as having the highest probabilities. in northern ontario, the results are similar. for example, compared to those majoring in arts/humanities, students majoring in health-related subjects are less likely to take the uu (or=0.27, p<0.01), uc (0.22, p<0.01), and swirler (or=0.42, p<0.05) pathways but are more likely to take the cu (or=2.90, p<0.01), cc (or=3.28, p<0.01), and ntc (or=2.08, p<0.01) routes over the ntu route. in addition, natural science students are less likely to take the uu (or=0.44, p<0.01) and uc (or=0.47, p<0.01) routes but are more likely to take the ntc route (or=1.43, p<0.01) than the ntu route. in addition, social science students are less likely to take the uu (or=0.69, p<0.01), uc (or=0.70, p<0.01), and ntc (or=0.63, p<0.01) routes than the ntu route but more likely to take the cu route (or=1.94, p<0.01). when looking at the predicted probabilities in figure 17 (p. 40), however, we can see some interesting differences across the two regions. while the ordering stays similar, some of the gaps across probabilities are larger among northern ontario students. the arts/humanities students stand out further relative to the other fields in terms of their chances of uu and uc transfer. unlike in southern ontario, social science students also show significantly higher chances of uu transfer but at the same time show the highest probability of ntu. 14 northern and southern differences in students who transfer conclusions and policy implications this study is the first to provide a regional examination at the current levels of transfer at northern and southern ontario colleges and universities. we employ statistics canadas psis data linked to family tax data to contribute in two key ways: 1) provide a comparison of the magnitude of multiple transfer and non-transfer pathways in each region; and 2) identify the characteristics of students in each region who are more prone to transfer. our analyses explore seven postsecondary pathways in this research, five of which are transfer pathways. among southern students, the most prominent postsecondary pathway is nontransfer university (76.06%) followed by non-transfer college (15.98%). in northern ontario, the most common route is also non-transfer university (78.40%) followed by non-transfer college (13.19%). in the north, however, the percentages of non-transfer university (78.4%) are slightly higher and the percentages of non-transfer college (13.19%) are slightly lower than in the south. in terms of transfer, the remaining 7.96% of students are spread across the transfer pathways (uc, 2.15%; cu, 2.04%; uu, 1.71%; cc, 1.53%; swirlers, 0.54%). the overall level of transfer is slightly higher in northern institutions (8.41%) and is largely attributable to more uu transfer (2.31%) and swirlers (0.74%) in northern institutions. uc transfers (2.10%) occur at about the same rate, while cu (1.84%) and cc transfers (1.42%) are relatively less common in the north. overall, all characteristics in our bivariate analyses and models were highly statistically significant in both northern and southern institutions. in step with prior work (see zarifa et al., 2020), student age, sex, parental income, field of study, family composition, and family size all show strong and significant effects on student mobility across and within universities and colleges. however, our separate north and south analyses reveal some important differences in the nature and direction of the effects. in terms of sex, several important differences emerge. in southern ontario schools, female students show higher probabilities of taking four (uu, cu, cc, and swirler) of the five transfer routes compared to male students. the only transfer type where male students show a higher probability is university to college transfer. in northern ontario, however, it is male students who have higher probabilities of taking all five of the transfer pathways (uu, uc, cu, cc, and swirler). another finding that differs in the north is that female students show higher probabilities of not transferring in university, and male students show higher probabilities of not transferring in college. 15 northern and southern differences in students who transfer for age, we find that older students (age 22 or older) in both southern and northern ontario alike show higher probabilities of taking uu and ntu pathways and lower probabilities of taking cc and ntc pathways. however, some key differences appear across regions. in northern institutions, older students show higher chances of uc transfer (similar to confederation college, 2012), lower chances of cu transfer, and a higher probability of swirling. in southern institutions, the opposite is true, as younger students show higher chances of uc transfer, lower chances of cu transfer, and a higher probability of swirling. in step with a long history of research in the sociology of education, parental socio-economic status matters. in both southern and northern ontario, students from lower parental income backgrounds were significantly more likely to take many of the various postsecondary pathways, such as cu, cc, ntc, and swirling, than take the non-transfer university route compared to those from higher parental income backgrounds. our findings show cu and cc and swirler transfer routes have negative relationships with parental income (lower income, higher probability of transfer). in southern ontario, however, the relationships between parental income and ntu and parental income and ntc are positive and negative non-linear, exponential relationships respectively. these findings mirror analyses of the province of ontario as a whole (see zarifa et al., 2020). however, in northern ontario, the relationships are linear and the changes in probabilities are greater at lower parental income quintiles. put differently, the differences between lower parental income students are smaller in southern ontario, but the differences at higher parental income quintiles in southern ontario are greater. in northern ontario, the differences appear to increase equally across parental income quintiles. unfortunately, we were unable to further consider how the effects of parental education (see mccloy et al., 2017a; smith et al., 2016) might also explain student pathways nor could we explore the impact of various combinations of parental income and education (see steffler et al. 2018). these remain important avenues for future research, in particular for northern institutions. finally, for field of study in southern schools, students from arts/humanities are taking many transfer routes (uu, uc and swirler routes) more so than students from other fields. at the same time, similar to other studies, we find social science students have higher chances of taking uc and cu pathways (stewart & martinello, 2012). health students show the highest probability of cu and cc transfer. in terms of those who do not transfer and take the university route, natural science and social science students take this pathway the most. among northern institutions, our findings show a similar story across fields. interestingly, arts/humanities students stand out further in the north relative to the other fields in terms of their chances of uu and uc transfer. also, unlike in southern institutions, the social sciences in the north show stronger roots in the university sector, as they stand out with the highest rates of lateral transfer across universities and non-transfer university. it is certainly possible that these differences may be attributable to differences in the availability of certain fields or even differences in the formal articulation agreements operating at institutions within the two regions. while southern ontario contains a myriad of undergraduate programs within their institutions, many of these programs are less prevalent in northern ontario (e.g., engineering). 16 northern and southern differences in students who transfer our comparisons across southern and northern ontario institutions have two key implications for policymakers and education administrators. first, our summaries of the two subsamples for analysis revealed some notable differences across demographics in the two locales. specifically, northern ontario institutions show greater relative proportions of older students (19.3% vs. 12.11%), female students (58.46% vs. 53.56%), more students from moderate income families, about 10% more health majors (21.77 vs. 11.61), as well as smaller relative proportions of arts/humanities (11.36% vs. 19.52%) and social science majors (28.6% vs. 38.84%). as mentioned earlier, it is important for policymakers to consider these regional differences in the academic and demographic compositions of the postsecondary landscapes in order to ensure efficient and effective program design, revision, and evaluation of existing transfer programs, articulation agreements, and student transition supports. second, our results shed light on the characteristics of students who are taking transfer pathways in colleges and universities in both northern and southern ontario separately. this is particularly beneficial for education administrators, student services, and governments who are seeking knowledge on the types of students who are currently transferring, as well as the type of transfer they are engaging in. while age, sex, parental income, and field of study remain key predictors in both regions, our results revealed that the nature of their relationships is often different, with some of the effects even reversing across regions. identifying who takes various pathways in each region separately sets the stage for locationspecific targeted supports to stave off unsuccessful transitions leading to postsecondary stop out or drop out. 17 northern and southern differences in students who transfer appendix: data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources this study uses the postsecondary student information system (psis) (for further details, see statistics canada, 2018). psis is administrative data collected on all public and not-for-profit postsecondary institutions funded by a provincial ministry of education. the data is particularly beneficial in that it provides a census of enrolments and graduates in all canadian colleges and universities, collected annually since the 2005/2006 academic year, and yields approximately a 95% response rate. at the time of this writing, the 2016/2017 academic year is the most recent academic year available for analysis. another strength of the psis is that it includes variables about the educational institutions, student demographics, and information about the program in which the student is enrolled. they are optimal for use in this study to investigate the characteristics of students who pursue various pse pathways in northern and southern ontario. additionally, we use the psis-t1ff linkage (tax years 2004 to 2015) to draw upon additional sociodemographic variables of relevance (e.g., parental income, family composition, family size, etc.). finally, the psis administrative data overcomes a number of limitations of using other nationally representative survey data to examine pse pathways in northern ontario. first, small sample sizes prevent the use of statistics canadas youth in transition survey (yits) to parse out the ontario case. wave attrition further complicates analyses with yits, and data on more recent cohorts are no longer collected. most importantly, neither the yits nor another nationally representative survey, the national graduates survey (ngs), contains institutional identifiers to create northern and southern groupings. subsample and restrictions we restrict our sample in this study in several important ways. for example, we limit our sample to undergraduate students from ontario postsecondary institutions. specifically, this study excludes students who are enrolled in professional, graduate, and postgraduate programs (see finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2017). in addition, there are two different ways of selecting students in the psis, namely the enrolment cohorts and the graduate cohorts. we rely on the enrolment cohorts in our analysis and track students school and type of postsecondary education mobility over two years. 18 northern and southern differences in students who transfer admittedly, it would be ideal to track students transfer types from their initial enrolment in postsecondary education until their graduation. to do so, we would need to draw our sample from the graduate cohorts that allow us to select those students who had attended a college or university program prior to graduating from a college or university program as well as those who did not attend a prior program but graduated with a college diploma or university degree. however, there are three limitations to this approach. first, our preliminary analyses revealed that the number of students included in the graduate cohorts is considerably smaller than those in the enrolment cohorts. moreover, the psis has imputed information on several ontario colleges (see statistics canada, 2019: 34). unfortunately, respondents from these institutions are not available for longitudinal linkage due to a lack of record identification. finally, coupled with these two limitations, considering our interest in students from postsecondary institutions in northern ontario, our sample sizes would be too small to perform the analyses presented here. to overcome these limitations, this study uses the enrolment cohorts to understand students transfer types. specifically, we select those students who were enrolled in a college or university program during the time of data collection and subsequently followed their institution and sector pathways for two years. ultimately, we capture the probability that students change their institution and/or institution type within their first two years of college or university. this approach has several advantages. first, tracking students for two years after their initial enrolment is suitable for documenting their transfer types because transfers often happen during a relatively early stage of ones postsecondary educational career (see hillman, lum, & hossler, 2008; johnson & muse, 2012). second, this approach allows us to keep a large-enough sample size to track students transfer, especially among those students who had started their postsecondary education from twoyear colleges. we adopt this approach and track six different cohorts of students (200911, 201012, 201113, 201214, 201315, and 201416) to understand their transfer types. for example, for 2009, we first compare differences between 2009 and 2010 institution ids and institution types. we then compare 2010 to 2011 institution ids and institution types. third, we combine observed differences across both comparisons and then combine into the pathway variable below. finally, we pool these students together, yielding analytical samples of 404,270 students in southern institutions and 19,020 students in northern institutions. 2. an alternative approach was first explored by extracting and linking across the graduation cohorts in psis. those who graduated in a particular year (e.g., 2016) were linked to their psis records in the previous four years (2012 to 2016). this approach provided a glimpse into graduates last four years of postsecondary participation but revealed far less student mobility. as such, we opted to proceed with our current approach since a significant level of transfer occurs within their first few years of postsecondary education. 3. additional analyses (not shown here) tracked students over four years of time and pool four cohorts of students (2009 to 2013; 2010 to 2014; 2011 to 2015; 2012 to 2016), but sample sizes diminished too much over time (due to graduation from college, attrition, drop out, or stop out). unfortunately, once students leave or graduate from their institution, they are not captured in subsequent waves of psis. 19 northern and southern differences in students who transfer dependent variable the transfer-type variable that we create in this study includes the following seven pathways: (1) college to university transfers, (2) university to college transfers, (3) college to college transfers, (4) university to university transfers, (5) non-transfer college students, (6) nontransfer university students, and (7) swirlers (i.e., those students who changed their institutions more than once within two years). independent variables in step with prior research, we include demographic, program, and family characteristics in our analysis. first, demographic characteristics include age (0=younger, 21 or younger); (1=older, 22 or older), sex (0=males; 1=females), and the quintiles of gross parental income (0=lowest; 1=lower; 2=middle; 3=higher; 4=highest). second, we include one program characteristic major field of study (0=arts/humanities; 1=health; 2=natural sciences; 3=social sciences; 4=other). third, we add family characteristics such as the number of people in the family (0=smaller, 3 or fewer; 1=larger, 4 or more) and family type (0=two-parent; 1=lone-parent). as part of the limitation of the psis, we are not able to include students from imputed institutions. considering that each year contains a different set of imputed institutions, we account for academic year of initial enrolment (0=2009; 1=2010; 2=2011-12; 3=2013; 4=2014). in addition, there are several other demographic variables, such as registration status, international student status, and immigration status; however, we do not include these variables due to their small sample sizes. moreover, due to data quality issues, and under the advisement of statistics canada, we were also unable to make use of the following variables available in the psis files: total transfer credits; aboriginal or visible minority status; mother tongue; program duration; program duration units; co-op program indicator; credits needed to graduate; program credit units; cumulative credits for program; second specialization; and end-date in program. the psis data also lack measures of gpa or student grades to account for academic performance as well as measures of parental aspirations or parent education to account for cultural capital effects. at the same time, we are unable to account for high school education and behavioural metrics (see davies and pizarro milian, 2020). 4. our field of study measure combines both 2-digit and 4-digit cip (classification of instructional program) codes (additional details available upon request). 5. the number of swirlers was too small for 2011 to permit statistics canadas disclosure of our bivariate results, so we combined 2011 and 2012 categories to examine the year of enrolment and transfer types. 20 northern and southern differences in students who transfer analytical approach to investigate the differences in the magnitude of pathways across regions, we use crosstabulations and chi-square tests of the independent variables by our dependent variable of transfer pathway types (i.e., college to university, university to college, college to college, university to university, non-transfer college graduate, non-transfer university graduate, and swirlers) for each type of institution location: northern and southern. second, for each of the institution locations (northern and southern), we utilize pooled multinomial logistic regression models (long, 1997; long and freese, 2014) to map out the effects of the various independent variables (program characteristics, sociodemographic characteristics) on the seven types of transfer pathways. these models will enable us to map out the key characteristics of those who transfer from northern and southern institutions. to aid in the interpretation of our findings, we also produce and graph the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals from these models. 21 northern and southern differences in students who transfer references acai, a., & newton, g. (2015). a comparison of factors related to university students learning: collegetransfer and direct-entry from high school students. canadian journal of higher education, 45(2), 168-192. blanchard, s., ofarrell, j., taylor, d., nimijean, r., legakis, p., philippe, s., & gonsalves, s. (2013). supporting the success of transfer students. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. retrieved from https://www.oncat.ca/en/projects/supporting-success-transfer-students confederation college (2012). measures of student success and student experience following university / college transfers in northwestern ontario. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. retrieved from https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2012-5-confederation-measures-studentsuccess-experience-following-university-college-transfers-northwestern-ontario.pdf davies, s. & pizarro milian, r. (2020). an overview of the tdsb-ut linkage and transfer project. toronto, on: ontario council on articulation and transfer. davies, s., & mehta, j. (2018). the deepening interpenetration of education in modern life. in j. mehta & s. davies (eds.), education in a new society (pp. 83114). chicago: university of chicago press. decock, h. (2004). calculating the college-to-university transfer rate in ontario. college quarterly, 7(1), 121. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej852024.pdf decock, h., dicaire, j., duncan, m., mccloy, u., & steffler, m. (2016). mobility of international students in ontario colleges. vancouver, bc: pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfer. retrieved from https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/pccat_2016_finalxfdx.pdf deil-amen, r. (2015). the traditional college student: a smaller and smaller minority and its implications for diversity and access institutions. in m. w. kirst & m. l. stevens (eds.), remaking college: the changing ecology of higher education (pp. 134168). stanford, ca: stanford university press. finnie, r., dubois, m., & miyairi, m. (2017). how student pathways affect labour market outcomes: evidence from tax-linked administrative data. education policy research institute, university of ottawa. finnie, r., dubois, m., & miyairi, m. (2020). schooling and labour market outcomes of ontario transfer students: evidence from pse-tax linked data. education policy research institute, university of ottawa. finnie, r., & qiu, t. (2009). moving through, moving on: persistence in postsecondary education in atlantic canada, evidence from the psis. ottawa: statistics canada. retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-595-m/81-595-m2009072-eng.htm gawley, t., & mcgowan, r.a. (2006). learning the ropes: a case study of the academic and social experiences of college transfer students within a developing university-college articulation framework. college quarterly, 9(3). retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej835416.pdf 22 northern and southern differences in students who transfer hango, d., zarifa, d., pizarro milian, r., & seward, b. (2019). roots and stems? examining field of study choices among northern and rural youth in canada. studies in higher education. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2019. 1643308 hillier, c., sano, y., zarifa, d., & haan, m. (2020). will they stay or will they go? examining the brain drain in canadas provincial north. canadian review of sociology, 57(2), 174196. doi.org/10.1111/cars.12276 hillman, n., lum t., & hossler, d. (2008). understanding indianas reverse transfer students: a case study in institutional research. community college journal of research and practice, 32, 113134. johnson, i. y., & muse, w. b. (2012). student swirl at a single institution: the role of timing and student characteristics. research in higher education, 53(2), 152181. kennett, d., & mackie, k. (2014). academic resourcefulness and transfer student success: direct entry, college transfer, and university transfer student comparisons. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. retrieved from: https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2013-06-trent-academicresourcefulness-and-transfer-student-success.pdf kirst, m. & stevens, m. (eds.) (2015). remaking college: the changing ecology of higher education. stanford, ca: stanford university press. lang, d. (2009). articulation, transfer, and student choice in a binary post-secondary education system. higher education, 57(3), 355371. lang, d., & lopes, v. (2014). deciding to transfer: a study of college to university choice. college quarterly, 17(3). retrieved from http://collegequarterly.ca/2014-vol17-num03-summer/lang-lopes.html long, j. s. (1997). regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. long, j. s., & freese, j. (2014). regression models for categorical dependent variables using stata, 3rd edition. college station, tx: stata press. mccloy, u., baker, v., williams, k., & decock, h. (2017a). seneca colleges degree and credit transfer office: a profile of users and an examination of outcomes. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. retrieved from: https://www.oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2015-04-final-reportseneca-college-the-degree-and-credit-transfer-office-a-profile-of-users-and-an-evaluation-ofoutcomes.pdf pizarro milian, r., seward, b., & zarifa, d. (2020). differentiation policy and access to higher education in northern ontario, canada: an analysis of unintended consequences. the northern review. doi: https://doi.org/10.22584/nr49.2020.017 shook, c., norman, c., & guyatt, j. (2016). assessing determinants of academic success for college to university transfer. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. retrieved from https://www.oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2015-07-final-report-the-governing-council-of-uoftassessing-determinants-of-academic-success-for-college-to-university-transfer.pdf 23 northern and southern differences in students who transfer smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. retrieved from: http://www.heqco.ca/sitecollectiondocuments/transfer-pathways-in-pse-eng.pdf statistics canada. (2018). postsecondary student information system (psis). retrieved from: http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2sv.pl?function=getsurvey&sdds=5017 statistics canada. (2019). postsecondary student information system (psis) research data centre user guide, 2009 to 2016. ottawa, on: statistics canada. steffler, m., mccloy, u., & decock, h. (2018). which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income. marham, on: the centre for research in student mobility. retrieved from: https://www.oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2014-34-final-report-partc-which-college-students-transfer-to-university.pdf stewart, j., & martinello, f. (2012). are transfer students different? an examination of first year grades and course withdrawals. canadian journal of higher education, 42(1), 2542. usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. retrieved from: https://oncat.ca/en/projects/student-experiencescredit-transfer-ontario-colleges zarifa, d., hango, d., & pizarro milian, r. (2018). proximity, prosperity, and participation: examining access to postsecondary education among youth in canadas provincial north. rural sociology, 83(2), 270314. zarifa, d., sano, y., & hillier, c. (2020). transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities: the magnitude of postsecondary transfer types and the characteristics of those who transfer. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. 24 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figures and tables figure 1. pathways among ontario postsecondary students: northern and southern ontario 25 northern and southern differences in students who transfer table 1. sample characteristics by region of institution. psis-t1ff 2009-2016. 26 northern and southern differences in students who transfer ***p<0.01 obtained from x2 test table 2. bivariate analysis of the dependent and independent variables, southern ontario. psis-t1ff 2009-2016. 27 northern and southern differences in students who transfer ***p<0.01 obtained from x2 test table 3. bivariate analysis of the dependent and independent variables, northern ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2016. 28 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 2. the relationship between sex and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 3. the relationship between sex and transfer pathways, northern ontario 29 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 4. the relationship between age and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 5. the relationship between age and transfer pathways, northern ontario 30 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 6. the relationship between parental income and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 7. the relationship between parental income and transfer pathways, northern ontario 31 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 8. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 9. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, northern ontario 32 northern and southern differences in students who transfer *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01; ntu is the reference category for the dependent variable. table 4. multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types, southern ontario. psis-t1ff 20092016 33 northern and southern differences in students who transfer table 5. predicted probabilities of transfer types, southern ontario. psis-t1ff 20092016 34 northern and southern differences in students who transfer *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01; ntu is the reference category for the dependent variable. table 6. multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types, northern ontario. psis-t1ff 20092016 35 northern and southern differences in students who transfer table 7. predicted probabilities of transfer types, northern ontario, psis-t1ff 2009-2016 36 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 10. the predicted probabilities across sex and transfer type, southern ontario figure 11. the predicted probabilities across sex and transfer type, northern ontario 37 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 12. the predicted probabilities across age and transfer type, southern ontario figure 13. the predicted probabilities across age and transfer type, northern ontario 38 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 14. the predicted probabilities across parent income and transfer type, southern ontario figure 15. the predicted probabilities across parent income and transfer type, northern ontario 39 northern and southern differences in students who transfer figure 16. the predicted probabilities across field of study and transfer type, southern ontario figure 17. the predicted probabilities across field of study and transfer type, northern ontario 40

advanced placement: a look at ontarios landscape executive summary in partnership, mohawk college and hamilton health sciences together worked to map an advanced placement opportunity for hhs employees, whereby training in the workplace could be granted credit into a mohawk college program. educational programming within the department of continuing education was leveraged for its online and part-time learning opportunities, providing prospective learners with flexible deliveries for individuals looking to progress their careers. the main focus of the project was to gain a better understanding of advanced placement practices and, using the knowledge gained, identify and map a potential pathway in partnership with a hamilton employer. the mapped pathway was chosen specifically to address an identified skills gap within the industry, providing value to both the employer and prospective student. since the concept of advanced placement is still in its infancy within canada and in particular, within ontario, mohawk relied heavily on the experience and best practices of british columbia institute of technology (bcit), who continue to stand as leaders in the industry. of the institutions offering advanced placement opportunities, it was found that business was the most common of the recipient program areas. this was often due to the fact that curriculum delivered within the business portfolio best aligned with employer training curriculum and informal work experience. the environmental scan also revealed that, of prospective student audiences, advanced placement programming has largely been established with the canadian armed forces. this could be due to established processes by bcit with the additional existence of national advanced placement and prior learning (n-appl), a national body founded by bcit that provides post-secondary institutions with the opportunity to provide advanced placement to past and current members of the canadian military. together, hhs and mohawk college were able to identify pathways from the cqi employer training to the leadership development series. curriculum mapping between the institutions employed a block transfer approach by using program learning outcomes and instructional hours as the primary measure of complementarity. an 80% alignment between program curriculum was required to be considered eligible for transfer credit, as per the colleges policy on credit transfer. curriculum content was reviewed when the research team was presented with gaps or uncertainties in alignment. the oncat project reinforced the importance of educational partnerships with industry. together, the two institutions were able to address a gap identified in the workplace while providing valuable educational opportunities for hhs employees. beyond the pathway identified, the partnership opened dialogue for future collaborations. mohawk and hhs are committed to the implementation of the cqilds credit transfer opportunity while continuing to explore ways in which to benefit the hamilton workforce. without the project funding, this initiative would likely not have carried forward. mohawk would like to take the opportunity to recognize and acknowledge the support and contribution from oncat.

mechanical engineering concurrent degree/advanced diploma agreement project #: 2017-06 report authors: chris peirone darryl danelon dr. lindita prendi barbara sedlacek dr. bruce minaker dr. jacqueline stagner dr. colin novak date submitted: march 31, 2018 1. list of participants and partner institutions individual participants st. clair college darryl danelon: 519-972-2727 ext. 4402 dr. lindita prendi barbara sedlacek chris peirone university of windsor dr. bruce minaker dr. jacqueline stagner dr. colin novak partner institutions st. clair college 2000 talbot road west windsor, ontario n9a 6s4 university of windsor 401 sunset avenue windsor, ontario n9b 3p4 1 table of contents 1. list of participants and partner institutions ......................................................................................... 1 individual participants............................................................................................................................... 1 st. clair college ..................................................................................................................................... 1 university of windsor ........................................................................................................................... 1 partner institutions ................................................................................................................................... 1 2. executive summary ............................................................................................................................... 3 3. project purpose and goals .................................................................................................................... 4 4. pathway development .......................................................................................................................... 5 a. methodology..................................................................................................................................... 5 pre-selection of courses ........................................................................................................................ 5 evaluation of program learning outcomes (pvlo) .............................................................................. 5 direct course comparison ..................................................................................................................... 5 evaluation of course learning outcomes ............................................................................................. 5 final selection of courses ..................................................................................................................... 5 b. program comparison and analysis .................................................................................................... 6 descriptions of the pre-selected courses ............................................................................................. 6 evaluation of program learning outcomes ........................................................................................ 10 evaluation of course learning outcomes ........................................................................................... 16 final selection of courses for the concurrent degree/advanced diploma agreement ..................... 20 c. implementation process and timelines .......................................................................................... 20 5. summary of pathway created ............................................................................................................ 20 6. appendix ............................................................................................................................................. 21 2 2. executive summary a project has been developed by st. clair college, in partnership with the university of windsor, in which a concurrent agreement for students in the mechanical engineering degree program are able to earn the mechanical engineering technology advanced diploma by attending a customized delivery of courses at st. clair college during off-semesters, by focusing on complementary practical hands-on technical skills. by attending st. clair college during their off-semesters, students will obtain practical hands-on skills in addition to the theoretical concepts developed during their studies at the university of windsor; which are both appealing attributes that employers are in frequent search of. in the past, students have transferred from the mechanical engineering technology program at st. clair college to the university of windsors mechanical engineering degree program. there is a high success rate for these transfer students completing the mechanical engineering program at the university of windsor. of the many students who apply for co-op positions in the mechanical engineering degree program at the university of windsor, a significant amount of these students are denied access due to the competitive nature in the selection of applicants. students who are not in the co-op program can complete the concurrent agreement during their off-semesters. the concurrent agreement will provide the students with valuable hands-on technical skills. as well, university of windsors mechanical engineering degree program consists of many international students. due to the barriers associated with employing these international students, it is more difficult for them to obtain employment. by offering this concurrent agreement, the international students have the option to gain additional credentials, which will better their chances of finding employment in north america as well as keeping them occupied while attempting to gain citizenship into canada. it is expected that a sufficient amount of students will be interested in applying for this concurrent agreement. the concurrent degree/advanced diploma agreement will require the university students to attend the st. clair college during three off-semesters: (1) the summer off-semester between the second year, second semester and the third year, first semester; (2) the winter off-semester between the third-year first and second semesters; and (3) the fall semester prior to entering their fourth-year, first semester. prior to the analysis, a selection of seventeen courses was made based on their hands-on practical course work. of the courses not in the pre-selection of the agreement, further analysis was necessary to justify their absence in the curriculum. when mapping courses for the engineering technologies at st. clair college, two types of learning outcomes are necessary in the analysis: program vocational learning outcomes (vlos) and course learning outcomes (clos). the program vocational learning outcomes are general outcomes that must be met for all engineering technology programs. the course learning outcomes are course-specific learning outcomes that define the topics that are assessed and taught in each course. these are the two types of learning outcomes assessed in the analysis for developing the concurrent agreement. an initial attempt at matching the learning outcomes between the two institutions proved to be unsuccessful due to the significant differences in learning outcomes. a thorough analysis, which is specific to each course, was necessary. the pre-analysis for program vocational learning outcomes was obtained by comparing the st. clair college courses which were not in the discussion of the curriculum. 3 it was important to justify the absence of these courses in the curriculum via direct course comparison and proving that there were no sufficient gaps present in the comparative analysis. after the analysis, all courses which were absent in the curriculum were justified via vlo and clo analysis. seventeen courses were pre-selected for inclusion in the concurrent agreement curriculum. after the vlo analysis, none of the seventeen courses were eliminated from the discussion. as for the clo analysis, thorough course comparison was achieved by carefully considering the course learning outcomes of each st. clair college course and comparing them with course outlines from the mechanical engineering degree program at the university of windsor. after the analysis of clos, two courses were eliminated from the concurrent agreement curriculum. the final curriculum contains fifteen courses. the students will be required to complete five courses each semester during their studies at st. clair college. upon completion of the concurrent agreement, graduates will be equipped with the intended hands-on skills they obtain at st. clair college as well as theoretical concepts they learn at the university of windsor. 3. project purpose and goals the university of windsor and st. clair college of applied arts and technology have both received feedback from industry that the best engineering job candidates are those who have gained both theoretical and practical hands-on engineering knowledge. graduates who possess both credentials are highly sought after as they are well-rounded. building stronger engineering programs is critical for our community, which has been built on innovation in manufacturing and technology. both institutions are committed to completing this initiative and an investment from oncat would assist in accelerating its development and implementation. in addition to creating a better student pathway, as highlighted in the oncat proposal, advanced diploma to degree engineering bridge agreement, the goal for this project is to develop an alternative pathway for students who start at the university of windsor in the bachelor of applied science mechanical engineering degree to achieve the st. clair college advanced diploma credential in addition to their degree concurrently, with the overall goal of achieving both credentials in four years. the primary benefit of this goal is to develop a highly marketable and effective engineering graduate who has hands-on and practical skills in various machining processes, advanced computer-aided design, precision measuring equipment, computer numerical control (cnc) machining, coordinate measuring machine (cmm), etc.; skills that are not part of a typical undergraduate mechanical engineering degree. to achieve this goal, there is need to identify learning outcomes in the advanced diploma program that are not covered by the curriculum of the engineering degree program. this analytical study will be utilized to create a customized delivery of the required curriculum, to be delivered at the college in off-semesters for the engineering program, as an alternative pathway for students who do not enter into or fail to find a placement in the optional cooperative education (co-op) program at the university of windsor. there are many students who do not achieve placement in the co-op program, and initial feedback suggests students would consider this type of agreement to help make them more marketable. both institutions would market this joint agreement together as a unique concurrent engineering, or con-eng offering, replacing what would typically take additional years of time in existing traditional college-to-university engineering agreement pathways. 4 4. pathway development a. methodology pre-selection of courses a pre-selection of courses is made due to the intended purpose of the concurrent degree/advanced diploma agreement; courses which provide hands-on practical practices. this is just a general overview of the courses which may be offered and further analysis may modify this selection. a paragraph for each pre-selected course follows to justify their presence in the discussion for the agreement. evaluation of program learning outcomes (pvlo) the engineering technology programs at st. clair college consist of program vocational learning outcomes: a general overview of learning outcomes that are unique to the courses present in the engineering technology courses. in this step, an evaluation of the program vocational learning outcomes is made on a course-by-course basis. once all learning outcomes are considered for each course, they are tallied up into their corresponding sections to obtain an overall frequency. due to the generality of these learning outcomes, a comparison can be made with the university courses via directcourse-comparison based off of the general description of the courses. direct course comparison in this step, courses are compared from the two institutions that contain similarities. the evaluation of these courses is only necessary for the courses not in the discussion of the pre-selection for the concurrent agreement since it is necessary that the students are exposed to the learning outcomes during their studies at the university. once these courses, which are not present in the pre-selection, are compared with the university courses, the program vocational learning outcomes not covered during the concurrent degree/ advanced diploma are justifiably covered at the university, thus, do not need to be present in the agreement of discussion. evaluation of course learning outcomes course learning outcomes are specific learning outcomes covered in each course. evaluating these courses and comparing with university courses on the course topics basis further justifies the courses selected and not selected for the agreement. in this step, necessary modifications for the curriculum are clearly identified and the course selection can be straightforwardly refined. the college courses and their course learning outcomes are tabulated and the university courses that cover the topics are tabulated according to the learning outcomes. this step clearly justifies the presence and absence of the courses selected for the concurrent agreement. final selection of courses once the analysis of both, program vocational learning outcomes and course learning outcomes are complete, the final selection of courses and course topics can be made. 5 b. program comparison and analysis for mechanical engineering students at the university of windsor interested in attending st. clair colleges mechanical engineering technology automotive product design to obtain a joint degree/advanced diploma in both, mechanical engineering and mechanical engineering technology, upon completion of their b.a.sc. at the university of windsor, a series of existing st. clair college course will be offered which the students are required to completed; modifications to these courses may occur if necessary. with st. clair college implementing co-op terms for the mechanical engineering technology - automotive product design students, the university students will be attending the college for three semesters: the spring semester between their conventional 2b and 3a semesters, during the winter semester between their 3a and 3b semesters and finally, during the fall semester between 3b and 4a. if the required course timeslots do not lie within the scheduled co-op timeslots, there will be separate offerings for those courses. a pre-selection of courses has been made, based on providing hands-on workshops and exposure to software that the students have not experienced during their studies at the university of windsor. the following are proposed courses that may be offered during the above-mentioned three semesters. a more thorough analysis of the program vocational learning outcomes and course learning outcomes will follow which may, in turn, refine the course selections. descriptions of the pre-selected courses semester 1: met 202 pc cad ii gd&t: other than brief introductions to gd&t during their studies at the university of windsor, students who take met 202 will have a more thorough and practical knowledge of the topic than the average university student. gd&t is a very important aspect in the manufacturing industry which is typically neglected for most mechanical engineering students. met 248 manufacturing processes & workshop: this course introduces students to hands on manufacturing experience. the course begins with health and safety in the workplace, then an introduction to manufacturing machines such as lathes, conventional and non-conventional vertical milling machines and finally, hands on working with lathes and vertical milling machines. unlike any course offered during their four years of study at the university, this course will help students with their fourth year capstone project as well as any manufacturing type positions they may encounter during their working careers. met 137 mechanical drafting: although they are exposed to drafting in the first semester of at the university of windsor, it is only an introduction and met 137 exposes the students to more complex parts as well as different views such as auxiliary and projection views. 6 met 181 inspections methods cmm: this course introduces the students to using precision measuring tools such as vernier calipers, micrometers, scales, sine bars and cmm. cmm is a commonly used precision measuring tool in industry and due to the practicality of this course; it is chosen to be one of the proposed courses discussed for the transition. met 471 fluid power: the b.a.sc. mechanical engineering program at the university of windsor exposes students to several theoretical fluid mechanics courses. met 471 is a practical fluid course which introduces students to fluidic devices such as pumps and valves. this course requires students to draw fluidic circuits on cad software and also consists of hands on laboratory which involves working with physical pneumatic systems. students who take this course are equipped with a more practical sense of how fluidics are used to transmit power and do work in industrial applications. semester 2: met 328 catia i: this course introduces the students to the design software, catia. what makes this course different from the catia courses offered at the university of windsor is the complex sketches that the students are required to draw. the course stresses methods of constraining the drawings such that if any changes are made, which is a common occurrence in industry, the entire part will modify accordingly; which will reduce the overall time it takes to make revisions. met 332 driveline & transmission design i: this course introduces topics such as the manufacturing and design of vehicle drivelines and transmissions. students are required to use freehand drawing techniques to prepare mechanical engineering sketches, as well as thorough explanations of the automotive components present in an automotive driveline and transmission. due to the practicality of this course, it has been chosen to be in the discussion for a possible course offered in one of the transition semesters. met 548 engine design i: this course introduces engine topics such as the evolution of the heat engine, the operation of ic engines, the components of engines, fuels and lubricants present in engines and many more. this course prepares students for the engine design ii course offered during their second transition semester. met 448 manufacturing processes ii: this course introduces the students to different types of plastics and the processes in manufacturing these plastics. other topics of this course include: colouring, finishing, using fillers, recycling and joining plastics. students are also exposed to the history and future of the 7 plastics. the above topics are topics that are not present in the mechanical engineering program at the university of windsor and may prove to be viable during their working careers. met 529 brake design: this course introduces topics such as dynamic weight distribution while accelerating and braking. the students are required to complete a project in which they choose a car and perform a full analysis of the design for its braking system. this course also introduces many different braking systems as well their benefits and shortcomings. met 658 finite element analysis: during their third year in the mechanical engineering at the university of windsor, students are required to complete a course called computer aided engineering in which they learn both kinematic dmu and finite element analysis (fea) using catia as the software. in the industry catia is not commonly used software for finite element analysis. met 658 introduces the students to fea using the software ansys, which is more commonly used in industry. in the 21st century, engineers commonly use software to perform calculations to reduce time and cost; the more software a student is exposed to, the more marketable they are. semester 3: met 430 catia ii this course is a project based catia course which requires students to be fluent in cad topics such as assembly, wireframe and surfacing; which are necessary tools in designing automotive bodies and assemblies. although the university of windsor does offer an advanced cad course, it does not provide the emphasis on the above topics to able the students to design automotive parts; which may be a task appointed to them in the automotive industry. met 510 jig & fixture design: met 510 is a design specific course which introduces the uses of jigs and fixtures. the students are given a mechanical part which are finished with milled surfaces as well as dowel pins and tapped holes and are required to design a fixture to produce this part in mass production using minimal setups while still maintaining appropriate tolerances for the finished product; the parts given usually require the proper use of tooling balls which are completely neglected during the studies at the university and commonly used in industry. met 543 mould design: unlike any course offered during their four years of undergraduate studies at the university of windsor, met 543 not only introduces the students to how moulds work, it explains important components such as ejection pins for simply removing the pieces from the mould and fluid channels which are used for heat transfer to remove heat from the moulds and evenly and efficiently solidify the parts. this course also compliments manufacturing processes ii, which 8 they take during their first semester at st. clair college, which explains the process of injecting the polymers into the moulds. similar to jig & fixture design, students are given a product made from a plastic injection mould and are required to design a mould to produce that part for mass production. met 443 suspension & steering design: this practical course thoroughly addresses the designing process of the steering and suspension of a vehicle. aside from the midterm and final examination during this course, students are also responsible for designing a vehicles suspension and steering system as well as the frame. the students are also responsible for a kinematic mock-up up for their design to ensure they use correct parameters for their steering and suspension. this course also consists of hands on activities in which students are exposed to inspection, identification and the operation of suspension and steering systems and components. met 637 driveline & transmission design ii: this is a course which covers advanced topics in the automotive drivelines and transmissions. this course offers hands on laboratory experience involving drivelines and transmissions. the main reason this course is of discussion other than the hands on laboratory exercises is that it is a project based course which exposes them to practical topics and will benefit the students who decide to work in the automotive sector. students are also invited to the sae world congress which will be beneficial in networking their capabilities. met 648 engine design ii: a more hands on take to engine design than engine design i (met 548). students are responsible to not only learn more theory but are responsible for a research project. the research project involves the students grouping in teams of two where they disassemble an engine and set them up on a flow bench to analyse the import heads. initially the heads have a rough cast iron finish. after the initial test, theyre responsible for making a mould of the import heads to closely analyse the surface finish. students are then responsible for grinding and polishing the import heads to a smooth finish, setting them back up on the flow bench and thoroughly analysing the gains achieved from their smooth finish from the original cast iron finish. this course is a very practical course in which they get their hands dirty and become familiar with the parts as well as the assembly of a vehicles engine; they are also exposed to the importance of fluid flow through the imports to achieve greater horsepower and efficiency while still maintaining turbulent flow which is essential for mixing the air with the fuel prior to combustion. 9 evaluation of program learning outcomes to obtain a diploma in the mechanical engineering technology automotive product design program at st. clair college, students are required to be exposed to a certain number of program vocational learning outcomes (vlos) as well as course learning outcomes (clos) associated with each course. aside from the seventeen selected courses that may be offered to the university of windsor students that are aiming to obtain both, a degree and diploma, it is important to evaluate the courses taken during their studies at the university, to ensure that the required number of assessed vlos are met. the following is an analysis of assessed program vocational learning outcomes for the 3 years in the mechanical engineering technology automotive product design program, with the exception of the above courses listed above. since the universitys graduate attributes differ from the colleges vocational learning outcomes, a thorough analysis of the direct course comparison as well as course outlines, where applicable, is required to obtain vlos from the university of windsors courses. unlike the au required for the university students to obtain an accredited bachelors degree, there is no requirement for the number of hours of exposure to the vlos. it is important that students are simply assessed on the vlos via testing, assignments and or laboratories. there are thirteen different programs vocational learning outcomes present at st. clair college numbered from one to thirteen. the following is the list of the thirteen vlos assessed in the engineering technologies at st. clair college: 1. monitor compliance with current legislation, standards, regulations and guidelines. 2. plan, co-ordinate, implement and evaluate quality control and quality assurance procedures to meet organizational standards and requirements. 3. monitor and encourage compliance with current health and safety legislation, as well as organizational practices and procedures. 4. develop and apply sustainability* best practices in workplaces. 5. use current and emerging technologies* to implement mechanical engineering projects. 6. analyze and solve complex mechanical problems by applying mathematics and fundamentals of mechanical engineering. 7. prepare, analyze, evaluate and modify mechanical engineering drawings of automotive components and other related technical documents. 8. design and analyze mechanical components, processes and systems by applying fundamentals of mechanical engineering. 9. design, manufacture and maintain mechanical components according to required specifications. 10. establish and verify the specifications of materials, processes and operations for the design and production of automotive and other mechanical components. 11. plan, implement and evaluate projects by applying project management principles. 12. develop strategies for ongoing personal and professional development to enhance work performance. 13. apply business principles to design and engineering practices. 10 an evaluation for the learning outcomes based off of each mechanical engineering technology course has been made. the following are the courses at st. clair college that the students in this concurrent agreement will not need complete, as well as the assessed program vocational learning outcomes denoted by an x under the vlo number: chm 161a: chemistry i 1 2 3 x 4 5 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 10 x 11 12 13 4 5 x 6 7 x 8 9 10 11 12 13 met 139: pc cad i 1 2 3 mth 128: technical mathematics i 1 2 3 4 5 6 x 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 3 4 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 10 11 12 13 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 10 11 12 13 phy 168: physics 1 2 met 227: applied engineering i 1 2 3 4 met 243: analysis of electrical circuits 1 x 2 3 4 x 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 x 4 5 6 x 7 x 8 9 10 11 12 13 mth 158: geometry 1 2 3 11 mth 203: differential calculus 1 2 3 4 5 6 x 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 4 5 x 6 7 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 12 13 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 10 11 12 x 13 4 5 6 x 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 4 5 6 x 7 8 x 9 10 11 12 13 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 12 13 5 6 x 7 8 x 9 10 x 11 12 13 6 x 7 8 x 9 10 11 12 13 met 317: metallurgy 1 2 x 3 x met 327: applied engineering ii 1 2 3 4 mth 404: integral calculus 1 2 3 met 438: fluid mechanics 1 2 3 met 439: strength of materials 1 x 2 x 3 4 met 521: thermodynamics 1 2 3 4 met 542: mechanics of mechanisms 1 2 3 4 5 x 12 met 541: heat transfer 1 2 3 4 5 6 x 7 8 x 9 10 x 11 12 13 met 623: mechanics of materials & machines 1 2 3 4 5 x 6 x 7 8 x 9 10 11 12 13 4 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 x 12 x 13 x met 629: machine design 1 x 2 3 this concludes the program vocational learning outcomes for the courses not selected in the joint degree/diploma curriculum. the following table represents the frequency of each program vocational learning outcome for the above courses: pvlos frequency 1 3 2 2 3 2 4 1 5 9 6 15 7 8 8 12 9 3 10 6 11 1 12 2 13 2 direct course comparison: the following are direct course comparisons for courses which are not in the discussion of the concurrent degree/advanced diploma agreement. chm 161a: chemistry i this course can be directly compared with the first year chemistry course taken at the university of windsor: 59-110 topics in general chemistry. in fact, 59-110 consists of laboratories in which students are exposed to hands on chemistry assignments which is not present in chm 161a. as a result, vlo numbers 3,6,7,8 and 10 are completely accounted for with the addition of a few more if needed in the step 2 of the analysis. met 139: pc cad i this course can be compared directly with 85-133 engineering and design. in this course, aside from the drafting portion of the course, students are responsible for completing 2-d autocad drawings, which is the main focal point of met 139. as a result, all vlos are accounted for. 13 mth 128: technical mathematics i since all of the topics covered in this course are required knowledge by the university students prior to entering the bachelors of applied science in mechanical engineering program at the university of windsor, the vlos are eliminated from the analysis. phy 168: physics this course can be related to 64-141- introductory physics ii. in fact, aside from the more advanced topics covered in this course, there is also laboratories that are required in introductory physics ii which is absent in phy 168. as a result, all of the learning outcomes are accounted for as well as additional learning outcomes present in the laboratories if necessary. met 227: applied engineering i this course focuses on static engineering problems, similar to the topics covered in 85-111 engineering mechanics. with both, the similar topics covered as well as the similar structures of the courses, all learning outcomes are accounted for. met 243: analysis of electrical circuits aside from not applying the concepts of differential and integral calculus as well as linear algebra in analysis of electrical circuits, a direct course comparison can be made with 85-234 electrical & computing fundamentals. both courses, even though they use different software, also include a computational aspect in the course. as a result, all learning outcomes are accounted for. mth 158: geometry once again, topics in this course are knowledge required by all university students prior to entering the bachelors of applied science program. however, if you were to compare with any course at the university it would be 62-215 - vector calculus. in this course, students are required to calculate gradients in 3-d as well as topics using cylindrical and spherical coordinates which use the knowledge covered in mth 158 with the addition of multivariable calculus. as a result, all learning outcomes are met. mth 203: differential calculus all of the topics as well as a similar structure exists with 62-140 differential calculus, which requires the university students to solve more complex problems. as a result, all learning outcomes are met. met 317: metallurgy this course consists of similarities with 85-219 introduction to engineering materials. one aspect that introduction to engineering materials does not incorporate is hands on material laboratories. instead, the course provides engineering material data in which the students are required to use theory to complete the lab reports. to compensate for the learning outcomes associated with the hands on 14 laboratory present in met 317, the laboratories from topics in general chemistry can projected to cover the remaining learning outcomes. as a result, all learning outcomes are accounted for. met 327: applied engineering ii this course focuses on kinematic and dynamic problems associated with engineering applications. a direct course comparison with 92-210 dynamics can be made. in addition to the similar topics covered, dynamics also requires students to design and build a mechanical part as well as compete against their fellow colleagues with their finished product, which is absent in met 327. in addition to all learning outcomes being met, the design aspect of dynamics can be projected to compensate for similar learning outcomes not met in another course. mth 404: integral calculus this course can be directly compared to 62-141 integral calculus. as a result, all learning outcomes are met. met 438: fluid mechanics this course can be compared to both, a portion of 85-120 engineering thermofluids and 85-233 fluid mechanics i. in fact, both of the courses consist of hands on labs that are not present in met 438. all learning outcomes are met. met 439: strengths of materials both the structure of the above course as well as all topics with the addition of some topics is present in 85-218 mechanics of deformable bodies. as a result, all learning outcomes are met. met 521: thermodynamics the courses 85-120 engineering thermofluids and 85-212 thermodynamics cover all topics in met 521, with similar structures with an addition to hands on labs associated with 85-120 which are not present in met 521. all learning outcomes are met. met 542: mechanics of mechanisms aside from the topics covered in 92-210 dynamics, the remaining topics are covered in 92-421 machine dynamics. met 542 mechanics of mechanisms does consist of a design related project. the design related project from 92-210 dynamics can be projected to compensate for the associated learning outcomes. thus, all learning outcomes are met. met 541: heat transfer this course can be directly compared with the more advanced 92-328 heat transfer course. both courses have similar topics, with more topics present in 92-328, as well as course structure. as a result, all learning outcomes are met. 15 met 623: mechanics of materials & machines all of the topics in this course, with the exception of static and dynamic balancing, are covered in either 85-218 mechanics of deformable bodies or 92-311 stress analysis i. the topic of static and dynamic balancing is covered in 92-323 machine dynamics. all program learning outcomes are met. met 629: machine design between the courses 92-421 machine design and 92-411 design for failure prevention; all topics are covered from met 629 machine design. in addition, met 629 machine design consists of a designrelated group project. a design project is present in 92-411 design for failure prevention. as a result, all learning outcomes are met, respectfully. after the direct-course-comparison evaluation, there are no further steps required to ensure the necessary program vocational learning outcomes are met. not only would including the courses involved in the evaluation to the joint degree/advanced diploma be redundant for the university students to take, it is unnecessary to achieve any learning outcomes aside from the courses selected in the degree/advanced diploma curriculum. evaluation of course learning outcomes to further justify the above direct-course-comparison as well as the selected courses for the jointdegree/advanced diploma agreement, a thorough course mapping in relation to the course learning outcomes (clo) will follow with the exception of the following courses: technical mathematics 1, physics, geometry, differential calculus integral calculus, driveline and transmission design i & ii, brake design, engine design i & ii, suspension & steering design, jig & fixture design and mould design. technical mathematics 1 and geometry cover topics in mathematics that are pre-requisites for entering the program. the physics course covers topics that are present in university level physics courses which is required for the students to complete prior to entering the university. differential and integral calculus are offered at the university in a more advanced structure. as for the automotive courses, this joint-degree-diploma option will be offered to all focuses in mechanical engineering: automotive option, general option, environmental option, materials option and aerospace option. furthermore, aside from the few similar topics covered in 94-330 automotive engineering fundamentals, which is an automotive option course only, the deliverance of the st. clair college courses are more hands on and will not be redundant for the automotive option students to partake in. as for jig & fixture design and mould design, which are unique to st. clair college when comparing with university of windsor, no further analysis is required to justify their existence in the concurrent degree/advanced diploma agreement. aside from the exceptions, the following are clo analysis for the remaining courses of discussion: clo mapping for courses in the pre-selection of the curriculum met 202: pc cad ii gd&t as shown in table 1 of the appendix, there are several clos met from 85-133 and 85-230 in table 1, they are not covered to the extent that is present with met 202. furthermore, 85-230 uses only catia 16 to cover the above learning outcomes; pc cad ii uses autocad, widely used cad software in industry. most importantly are the topics in gd&t, they are only briefly covered in 85-133, which is insufficient in regards to industry standards. met 248: manufacturing processes & workshop of the clos that are met in table 2 of the appendix, they are not delivered in an applied manner. the main focus of met 248 is the hands-on machining, which is not present at the university of windsor. met 137: mechanical drafting even though several clos are covered between 85-133 and 85-230, as shown in table 3 of the appendix, they are only briefly introduced and met 137 covers the topics more thoroughly at a more advanced level. met 181: inspection methods - cmm it can be concluded from table 4 in the appendix that a sufficient amount of clos are not covered at the university of windsor. met 471: fluid power the majority of the clos in table 5 of the appendix are not accounted for at the university of windsor. met 328: catia i it can be concluded that the majority of clos in table 6 of the appendix from met 328 are met with 85230 advanced engineering design. the main difference between the two courses is that catia i is a more advanced level cad course. a possible solution to avoid redundancy is to eliminate catia i from the list of offered courses and create a hybrid catia course to close the gaps between the two catia courses in one single course. met 448: manufacturing processes ii aside from the clos covered from 85-219 introduction to engineering materials, which only briefly covers topics related to the properties of polymers and polymer matrix composites, it does not cover processing these materials which is of great emphasis in met 448. the results are shown in table 7 of the appendix. met 658: mapping for met 658 aside from using different software, met 658 is directly related to 92-459 computer aided engineering as far as topics covered. as a result from the clo mapping in table 8 of the appendix, met 658 can be justifiably removed from the join-degree-diploma curriculum. even though the software ansys is commonly used in industry, it is mostly used for thermofluid applications and not fea. 17 met 430: catia ii the clos covered from 85-230, shown in table 9 of the appendix, are at a much simpler level, similar to the results in table 6. the gaps of met 430 and met 328 can be covered in the span of one course-load. this concludes the course learning outcome mapping necessary for evaluating the concurrent degree/advanced diploma curriculum. with the elimination of met 658 finite element analysis and mapping topics from met 430 and met 328 into one single course, the courses selected for the jointdegree-diploma are justified. the final step is to evaluate the course learning outcomes from the necessary courses which are not in the discussion for the joint-degree-diploma curriculum to justify their absence. clo mapping for courses absent from the curriculum chm 161a: chemistry i as can be concluded from table 10 of the appendix, all clos are met with 85-119 topics in general chemistry. met 139: pc cad it can be concluded from table 11 of the appendix that there are numerous gaps between the material delivered in met 139 compared with 85-133 engineering & design as well as 85-230 advanced engineering design. another important note is that 85-133 engineering & design does not always expose students to autocad. it is important to cover these gaps to ensure that when theyre exposed to the topics in pc cad ii gd&t, theyre equipped with the necessary skills to successfully complete the course. a possible solution is to extend the weekly hours in pc cad ii gd&t and take some time to address these shortcomings prior to delivering the more advanced topics associated with pc cad ii gd&t. met 227: applied engineering i as can be concluded from table 12 of the appendix, all course learning outcomes are met. met 243: analysis of electrical circuits all course learning outcomes are met with 85-234 electrical & computing fundamentals, as shown in table 13 of the appendix. met 317: metallurgy aside from the processing techniques covered in met 317, 85-219 engineering materials fundamentals covers all course learning outcomes. 85-219 covers the theoretical topics of materials in a more in-depth manner than met 317; which is common for the average engineering program at a university. it cannot be justified to add met 317 to the joint-degree-diploma curriculum to cover the processing techniques. the results are shown in table 14 of the appendix. 18 met 327: applied engineering ii all but a few course learning outcomes are met. even though not all clos are met, all course topics are covered and it would be repetitive to add met 327 into the joint-degree-diploma curriculum. the results are shown in table 15 of the appendix. met 438: fluid mechanics as can be shown in table 16 of the appendix, all of the course learning outcomes from met 438 are covered at the university of windsor. met 439: strengths of materials as can be concluded from table 17 of the appendix, all clos from met 439 are met between 85-218 mechanics of deformable bodies and 92-311 stress analysis i. met 521: thermodynamics all course learning outcomes from met 521 are met with the three course numbers listed in table 18 of the appendix. met 542: mechanics of mechanisms with the exception of using computer software to analyse the displacement of four bar mechanisms as well as the topics of cam followers, all clos are met. having the students take this course to cover one topic is unjustifiable. furthermore, the students at the university are exposed to more kinematic and dynamic problems than the students at the college. as a result, this course will not be offered in the joint-degree-diploma curriculum. the results are shown in table 19 of the appendix. met 541: heat transfer between, 85-120 engineering thermofluids and 92-328 heat transfer, all clos are covered for met 541, as shown in table 20 of the appendix. met 623: mechanics of machines & materials all course learning outcomes are covered from table 21 of the appendix. met 629: machine design all course learning outcomes from met 629 are covered at the university of windsor. the results are shown in table 22 of the appendix. this concludes the necessary analysis for the courses not in the discussion for the joint-degree-diploma curriculum. with the elimination of met 658 finite element analysis and met 328 catia i from the joint-degree-diploma curriculum and modifying pc cad ii gd&t and catia ii to accommodate the gaps from pc cad i and catia i, the final 15 joint-degree-diploma courses in their corresponding semesters 19 are as follows: note: courses in italics are designed-specific courses which cover gaps from two or more courses. final selection of courses for the concurrent degree/advanced diploma agreement semester 1: met 2xx pc cad i/ pc cad ii gd&t met 248 manufacturing processes & workshop met 137 mechanical drafting met 181 inspection methods cmm met 471 fluid power semester 2: met 3xx catia i/catia ii met 332 driveline & transmission design i met 548 engine design i met 448 manufacturing processes ii met 529 brake design semester 3: met 510 jig & fixture design met 543 mould design met 443 suspension & steering design met 637 driveline & transmission design ii met 648 engine design ii c. implementation process and timelines the concurrent agreement is expected to take off in the spring of 2018 following the approval of senior operating group at st. clair college. 5. summary of pathway created students enrolled in the mechanical engineering degree program at the university of windsor will have the option of enrolling in a concurrent degree/advanced diploma agreement at st. clair college during their off-semesters. the students will take five courses per semester at st. clair college and following their graduation of their undergraduate studies at the university of windsor, will be designated with an advanced diploma in mechanical engineering technology in addition to their bachelors of applied science in mechanical engineering. 20 6. appendix table 1: clo mapping for met 202 21 table 2: clo mapping for met 248 22 table 3: clo mapping for met 137 table 4: clo mapping for met 181 23 table 5: clo mapping for met 471 table 6: clo mapping for met 328 24 table 7: clo mapping for met 448 table 8: clo mapping for met 658 25 table 9: clo mapping for met 430 table 10: clo mapping for chm 161a 26 table 11: clo mapping for met 139 27 table 12: clo mapping for met 227 28 table 13: clo mapping for met 243 29 table 14: clo mapping for met 317 30 table 15: clo mapping for met 327 31 table 16: clo mapping for met 438 32 table 17: clo mapping for met 439 33 table 18: clo mapping for met 521 34 table 19: clo mapping for met 542 35 table 20: clo mapping for met 541 36 table 21: clo mapping for met 623 37 table 22: clo mapping for met 629 38

final report predicting transfer pathway uptake and associated income profiles a second look at the tdsb-psis linkage focus on disability june 30, 2022 gillian parekh, york university robert s. brown, york university david walters, university of guelph dylan reynolds, university of guelph naleni jacob, independent researcher firrisaa abdulkarim, york university financial support for this research was provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the interpretations and opinions presented in this report reflect those of the authors and not necessarily those of oncat. copyediting services provided by beth mcauley, the editing company, toronto. 1 table of contents table of contents ........................................................................................................................... 2 executive summary ........................................................................................................................ 4 highlights .................................................................................................................................... 4 introduction.................................................................................................................................... 5 data and methods .......................................................................................................................... 6 data and sample ........................................................................................................................ 6 variables ..................................................................................................................................... 7 frequencies .................................................................................................................................... 8 student demographics ............................................................................................................... 9 school-based variables ............................................................................................................ 11 method of analysis for regression ............................................................................................... 13 regression results ........................................................................................................................ 13 mobility and disability: all students......................................................................................... 14 mobility and disability: graduates only ................................................................................... 16 transfer pathway and disability: all students .......................................................................... 19 transfer pathway and disability: graduates only .................................................................... 23 discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 27 conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 29 references .................................................................................................................................... 29 appendix a ................................................................................................................................... 33 appendix b ................................................................................................................................... 42 2 list of tables table 1: mobility pathways ............................................................................................................ 8 table 2: postsecondary outcomes (graduation) ............................................................................ 8 table 3: disability............................................................................................................................ 9 table 4: student demographics .................................................................................................... 10 table 5: field of study ................................................................................................................. 11 table 6: school-based variables .................................................................................................. 12 table 7: ordinary least squares regression predicting income based on mobility for all students (n = 22,550) .................................................................................................................... 34 table 8: ordinary least squares regression predicting income based on mobility for graduates only (n = 17,470).......................................................................................................................... 36 table 9: ordinary least squares regression predicting income based on pathway for all students (n = 22,550) .................................................................................................................... 38 table 10: ordinary least squares regression predicting income based on pathway for graduates only (n = 17,470).......................................................................................................................... 40 table 11: field of study and income tertiles according to disability ....................................... 44 list of figures figure 1: predicted income based on postsecondary mobility (n = 22,550) ............................... 15 figure 2: predicted income based on disability status (n = 22,550)........................................... 15 figure 3: predicted income based on interaction between mobility and disability (n = 22,550) 16 figure 4: predicted income based on postsecondary mobility for graduates only (n = 17,470) 17 figure 5: predicted income based on disability status for graduates only (n = 17,470) .......... 18 figure 6: predicted income based on interaction between mobility and disability for graduates only (n = 17,470).......................................................................................................................... 19 figure 7: predicted income based on postsecondary transfer pathway (n = 22,550) ................. 21 figure 8: predicted income based on disability status (n = 22,550) .......................................... 22 figure 9: predicted income based on interaction between pathway and disability (n = 22,550) 23 figure 10: predicted income based on postsecondary transfer pathway for graduates only (n = 17,470) .......................................................................................................................................... 25 figure 11: predicted income based on disability status for graduates only (n = 17,470) ......... 26 figure 12: predicted income based on interaction between pathway and disability for graduates only (n = 17,470).......................................................................................................................... 27 figure 13: grade 9 credit accumulation and income tertiles according to disability.............. 43 figure 14: grade 9 program of study and income tertiles according to disability ................... 43 figure 15: graduation outcomes and income tertiles according to disability .......................... 45 3 executive summary access to and acquisition of postsecondary education (pse) are increasingly important in securing employment within the canadian labour force (canadian occupational projection system, 2017). pse is also tied to health and well-being outcomes (fonseca & zheng, 2011; irwin, 2015; kearney et al., 2015). students with disabilities have been identified as a group that continues to face barriers in accessing pse (kirby, 2009; ontario human rights commission, 2016) and experiences ongoing accessibility issues within pse programs (dolmage, 2017; national educational association of disability students [neads], 2012; shanouda & spagnuolo, 2021). in a recent canadian study, students with disabilities are identified as being significantly less likely to access pse as compared to their peers (26% to 49%, respectively) (parekh et al., 2022a), and when they do attend pse, are more likely to experience embedded stigma and discrimination (waterfield et al., 2018). similarly, research demonstrates how pse graduates with disabilities continue to face barriers in securing equitable employment opportunities (chatoor, 2021; morris et al., 2018). despite there being established research on the pse outcomes related to transference (walters et al., 2021) and a growing field examining disability and transference, there is far less research addressing the relationship between students experience of disability, transference, pse graduation, and future income. therefore, our analysis not only addresses a particular gap in the scholarly research, but also highlights the barriers students with disabilities encounter as they move through the pse system into the workforce. our analysis addresses the following: 1. do students with and without disabilities achieve parity in predicted income shortly after leaving their programs? 2. dependent on transfer patterns, are students with and without disabilities more or less likely to reach income parity? 3. what role do transfer and students public school experiences play in relation to students earnings shortly after leaving pse? highlights regardless of their academic pathway, students with disabilities consistently earn less than their non-disabled colleagues. students who enter and stay within their college or university program have higher predicted earnings than their respective peers who have transferred between pse institutions. when the control variables were included in the model, the increase in earnings was larger for transfer students with disabilities than transfer students without disabilities, suggesting that if students are going to transfer, students with disabilities are more likely to benefit from transferring than their non-disabled counterparts. in our first analysis examining transfer and graduation from pse (parekh, et al., 2022b), the inclusion of students achievement, program, and school-based variables rendered the gap in students graduation rates for both transfer and disability variables negligible. however, in the analysis of predicted future earnings, the inclusion of these same variables reduced, but did not eliminate, the persistent income gap between both transfer and disability variables. 4 introduction access to and acquisition of postsecondary education (pse) are increasingly important in securing employment within the canadian labour force (canadian occupational projection system, 2017). pse is also tied to health and well-being outcomes (fonseca & zheng, 2011; irwin, 2015; kearney et al., 2015). students with disabilities have been identified as a group that continues to face barriers in accessing pse (kirby, 2009; ontario human rights commission, 2016) as well as experience ongoing accessibility issues within pse programs (dolmage, 2017; national educational association of disability students [neads], 2012; shanouda & spagnuolo, 2021). in a recent canadian study, students with disabilities were significantly less likely to access pse as compared to their peers (parekh et al., 2022a), and once enrolled, were more likely to experience embedded stigma and discrimination (waterfield et al., 2018). for students who are enrolled in pse programs, transference between pse institutions may enable students to secure a seat within a program that best meets their interests and needs. historically, transferring between pse institutions has been connected to less than ideal academic outcomes such as lower graduation rates (walters et al., 2020) and extended pse completion times (percival et al., 2016; tobolowsky & cox, 2012). accessibility issues continue to pose critical barriers within pse programs (dolmage, 2017; neads, 2012; shanouda & spagnuolo, 2021). therefore, it may not be a surprise that students with disabilities are more apt to pursue transfer pathways than their non-disabled peers (parekh et al., 2022). students are motivated to transfer between pse institutions for many reasons, including adapting to family, work, and academic commitments (speers et al., 2012). several theories exist as to why students transition between postsecondary institutions, and these include motivators such as successful integration (carter et al., 2013), student socialization (carter et al., 2013), and the impact of environmental factors (crisp & nuez, 2014). while greater attention is needed to better understand the overall outcomes for students who transition (andrew et al., 2014; bahr, 2012), more attention also needs to be paid to the growing number of students with disabilities who pursue transference in hopes for a better chance to graduate and successfully enter the workforce (anyinam et al., 2020; henderson & mccloy, 2019; milsom & sackett, 2016: williams & mccloy, 2019). interestingly, in a recent canadian study, students who transfer were far more likely to transfer in responses to adverse experiences compared to being driven by a desire for better educational outcomes (childs et al., 2017). in childs et al.s (2017) sample population, 48.4% of community college and 36.1% of university students who transferred stated that they did so because they did not like it/not for me (p. 291). for students with disabilities, transference is also often related to accessing student accessibility services and addressing barriers within classroom, program, and campus environments (henderson & mccloy, 2017; odonnell et al., 2018; williams & mccloy, 2019). despite students with disabilities being more likely to transfer between pse institutions and the historical relationship between transference and pse graduation, a recent study found that, when controlling for students previous achievement, program, and school-based variables, the difference in overall pse graduation rates for students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers was negligible (parekh et al., 2022b). for many students, the motivation of pursuing pse is related to developing the skills and credentials necessary to secure future employment. overall, in 2017, statistics canada data revealed that, for people with disabilities, less than half were employed (47.3%) compared to 74.3% of their non-disabled peers (gatto et al., 2020). statistics canada data also showed that 5 canadians with disabilities were 33% more likely to live in poverty. however, over the last seven years, pse enrollment has risen by 66% for people with disabilities (gatto et al., 2020). researchers have examined the relationship between pse attainment, disability, and future earnings, and their findings have revealed ongoing substantive disparities. for instance, in a study examining the employment outcomes for autistic youth, results demonstrated a 27.6% difference in terms of gainful employment between students who had not accessed pse compared to those who had some pse (whittenburg et al., 2019). in chatoors (2021) study, the following outcomes were determined: graduates with disabilities were more likely to feel overqualified for their jobs as compared to their non-disabled counterparts (48% for disabled students, 34% for nondisabled students) graduates with disabilities were more likely to feel underpaid as compared to their nondisabled counterparts (68% of disabled students report satisfaction vs. 76% of students without a disability). graduates with disabilities were less likely to receive benefits from their employer (health, dental, etc.). pse graduates with disabilities were between 16 and 22% more likely to live in poverty compared to pse graduates without disabilities. overall results revealed that pse graduates with disabilities continued to face barriers in securing equitable employment opportunities (chatoor, 2021). both chatoor (2021) and morris et al. (2018) suggested that the degree of impairment and level of education attained were key intersecting factors in employment outcomes. there are also documented barriers for students with disabilities in particular fields of work. for instance, in another recent canadian study, jarus et al. (2020) found that only 4.8% of workers in the field of healthcare self-identified as having a disability. the authors cited significant institutional barriers, such as long hours of study, inperson placement, and prolonged commitments to their programs. despite there being established research on the pse outcomes related to transference (walters et al., 2021) and a growing field examining disability and transference, there is far less research addressing the relationship among students experience of disability, transference, pse graduation, and future income. therefore, our analysis not only addresses a particular gap in the scholarly research, but also contributes to the extent research that is raising alarms over the barriers students with disabilities encounter as they move through the pse system and into the workforce. data and methods data and sample this research draws from a linkage of data from four sources: the toronto district school boards (tdsb) grade 9 cohort dataset, the postsecondary student information system (psis), and the t1 family file (t1ff). the toronto district school boards (tdsb) grade 9 cohort dataset includes information about students secondary school factors throughout their secondary school careers. the postsecondary student information system consists of the programs and outcomes of all students in canadian colleges and universities. further information 6 relating to these data is provided in our preliminary report (parekh et al., 2022b). finally, the t1 family file contains information about canadians earnings based on income tax records. this studys sample consists of all tdsb students from the 2004 to 2006 cohorts who pursued postsecondary studies at an ontario university or college between 2009 and 2011, and who also had a tax record in 2017.1 students who began their postsecondary studies at unconventional times, including during the winter semester, were excluded from the analyses. variables the dependent variable for this study was individuals income as reported on their 2017 tax record. to mitigate the impact of outlying observations, this variable was capped at $300,000. the two key independent variables were students postsecondary pathways and whether they were identified as having a disability (see below for more information on how the disability variable was constructed). students postsecondary pathways were derived from the psis data by combining the institution where they began their studies and the last institution that they attended during the study period. in the first series of models, a mobility variable was created to distinguish students who stayed at the same institution from students who transferred to another institution. for the second series of analyses, this variable was recoded to distinguish among six pathways: direct entry university (non-transfer university), university to university transfer, university to college transfer, direct entry college (non-transfer college), college to university transfer, and college to college transfer. whether students were identified as having a disability was coded as 0 = no and 1 = yes. those coded as having a disability included students who were accessing tdsb special education services, who received a permanent disability grant from the canada student loans program, or who claimed a disability amount in the 2017 income tax. data related to students sociodemographic characteristics, postsecondary programs, and secondary school variables were included in the statistical analyses as control variables. sociodemographic variables were derived from the tdsb data and included whether students first language was english (0 = yes, 1 = no), whether they were born in canada (0 = yes, 1 = no), their gender (0 = female, 1 = male), and their age when they began grade 9. age included two categories: 14 years or younger and 15 years or older. finally, the average income of students neighbourhoods was included based on students postal code from the tdsb data. postsecondary program information was derived from the psis and included the year students started their programs (2009, 2010, or 2011) and their field of study. the field of study variable distinguishes among liberal arts (arts, humanities, and social sciences), business, stem, health, and other fields. finally, several variables measured secondary school factors. this includes whether students had ever been suspended in elementary or secondary school (0 = no, 1 = yes), whether students passed the ontario secondary school literacy test (osslt) on their first attempt (0 = yes, 1 = 1 students who had records in psis in 2017 were removed. please note that full-time students in 201617 and 2017 18 were removed from the analyses as they would unlikely be able to fully participate in the labour market (parttime students remained in the sample). 7 no), and the number of credits they accumulated in grade 9 (7 or less, 8, or 9 or more). the analyses also include a variable that captures the percentage of time that a student was absent in grade 9, which is coded as follows: 1 = 02%, 2 = 35%, 3 = 610%, 4 = 1120%, and 5 = 21% or more. this variable is conceptually continuous, and is treated as a quantitative variable in the regression models. finally, we also include variables that capture whether students were enrolled in an academic or applied stream in grade 9, and their overall grade 9 average marks, as a percentage grade. frequencies2 mobility pathways: the mobility pathways variable captures students experience of transference within the pse system. from our sample of 22,550 students who accessed the pse system and for whom we had 2017 tax records, 87.1% entered and left pse staying at the same institution from which they began, while 12.9% had a history of transference. a more detailed examination revealed that 64% entered university and stayed within the same university, whereas 24% of students entered and stayed within the same college. of transfer pathways, the university to college pathway was the most popular with 6%, followed by a transfer from university to university at 4%. only 2% of students transferred between colleges and only 1% moved from a college to a university. (see table 1.) table 1: mobility pathways direct entry university university to college university to university direct entry college college to college college to university 63.6% 5.8% 3.9% 23.5% 2.3% 0.9% graduation: the combined graduation rate for both university and college was 77%, while approximately 23% had entered either university or college and had not graduated. (see table 2.) table 2: postsecondary outcomes (graduation) entered college but did not graduate entered university but did not graduate graduated college graduated university 11.0% 12.1% 19.0% 57.9% disability3: the disability variable included: 2 see appendix b for further analysis on structural and program-based variables and future income. note that these descriptions of the disability, student demographic, and school-based variables were drawn from an earlier report for oncat, see parekh et al. (2022b). 3 8 students identified through the tdsbs special education system (excluding gifted). students who did not have experience in special education but applied for the canadian student grant for students with permanent disabilities when accessing postsecondary education. students who both accessed special education in the tdsb and the canadian student grant for students with permanent disabilities. students who were identified as having a disability through the t1 tax files for 2017. note: recent changes to guidelines in disability language encourage the use of identity-first language, such as disabled people, and, when the identity preferences of a group are unknown the preference is to use person-first language, such as people with disabilities. new guidelines have also recommended that the term students with special education needs be discontinued as it is deemed offensive (national center on disability and journalism, 2021). therefore, we will use the term students with disabilities as a descriptor for students included within the disability variable. in our sample, 90% of students did not fall within the disability category whereas 10% met the criteria. (see table 3.) table 3: disability students without disabilities students with disabilities 89.6% 10.4% student demographics students demographic variables (see table 4) included in the study are as follows: language: the language variable examines whether students speak only english or speak other languages. fewer than half of students (45%) in this study spoke only english, whereas 55% spoke other languages. students place of birth: the students place of birth variable identifies whether students were born inside canada or in another country. close to two thirds of this cohort (65%) were born in canada, whereas just over a third (35%) were born outside of canada. gender: the gender of students was taken from the tdsbs student information system. at the time, only the gender categories of male and female were available for analysis. within the studys population, 53% were identified as female and 47% as male. age of students in grade 9: this variable identifies whether students were 14 years of age or younger or 15 years of age when they were in grade 9. the vast majority of students (97%) were 14 years or younger when they were in grade 9, and 3% were 15 years of age. deciles of income: this is a tdsb derived variable. groupings of 10, from the lowest decile or 10% of students with the lowest income, to the highest decile or 10% of students with the highest income. this variable was created by matching the six-digit postal code of a students residence 9 with the median income of the dissemination area (da) in which the student was living, using the variable ecyhnimed from environics analytics (2018 dollars). the deciles were calculated based on all students within the dataset, both those who went to postsecondary and those who did not. therefore, not all deciles of income included in the table 4 below work out to 10%. interestingly, despite the data being organized into equal deciles of 10%, for students who entered the pse system, there was a skew towards higher income with 45% of students falling within the five lower deciles of income and 55% within the five higher deciles of income. year of postsecondary entry: this variable identifies whether students entered postsecondary education in or before 2009 or in or after 2010. within the studys sample, close to half (51%) began their postsecondary education in 2009 or before, close to a third (31%) began in 2010, with 18% beginning in 2011 or later. table 4: student demographics language english only other than english country of birth canada outside canada gender female male age at grade 9 14 or younger 15 years old deciles of income lowest decile of income decile 2 decile 3 decile 4 decile 5 decile 6 decile 7 decile 8 decile 9 highest decile of income start of postsecondary 2009 or earlier 2010 2011 or later 45.1% 54.9% 65.0% 35.0% 52.6% 47.4% 96.9% 3.1% 8.5% 8.4% 8.9% 9.5% 9.6% 10.9% 10.3% 10.3% 11.2% 12.4% 50.7% 31.1% 18.2% field of study: the field of study variable captures the area of study students pursued once they entered pse. in this studys sample, over a third (37%) pursued the arts, with close to a quarter 10 pursuing business (24%) and stem (24%), and the remaining 16% pursuing health and other fields of study. (see table 5.) table 5: field of study liberal arts (arts, humanities, and social sciences) business stem health other 36.8% 23.6% 23.6% 7.6% 8.5% school-based variables this study was able to integrate students public school experiences into the analysis (see table 6). historically, studies on postsecondary education that are reliant on statistics canada data alone have been unable to examine the relationship between students high school experiences and their postsecondary access and outcomes. it is important to note that the vast majority of students in this analysis were born between 1990 and 1992 (that is, they were 14 years of age in 2004, 2005, and 2006), and therefore would have been 25 to 27 years of age as of the 2017 tax year, and would have been just starting their working careers. key secondary school-based variables include: public school suspension data: students who had been suspended have been seen to have a much lower chance of transitioning to postsecondary education (brown & parekh, 2013). records from psis identify those students who had been suspended at any time from jk to grade 12 between 2000 and 2017. since students in this analysis entered grade 9 in fall 2003 to fall 2007, and finished grade 12 between fall 2008 and fall 2012, this would apply to suspensions from the early- to mid-elementary grades (grade 6 for the fall 2003 cohort; grade 2 for the fall 2007 cohort) up to the end of grade 12. while not complete, these records provide an overview of the vast majority of suspensions, since we know that most suspensions took place from grade 6 to grade 12. within this studys population, 85% of students had not been suspended during their time in the tdsb, with 15% experiencing one suspension or more. the ontario secondary school literacy test (osslt): this variable indicates whether students have successfully completed the osslt on their first try. passing the osslt is a mandatory requirement for students to attain an ontario secondary school diploma. in this study, 87% of students passed the osslt upon the first try with 13% either not passing or deferring. grade 9 credit accumulation: in ontario, students are expected to earn eight credits in grade 9. some students may opt to take a summer program and earn nine, others may drop one or more credits as a strategy to lighten the academic load. grade 9 credit accumulation has demonstrated to be an important predictor of future academic achievement (brown, 2010). the vast majority of students in this study earned the expected eight credits in grade 9 (80%) with 9% exceeding 11 expectations by earning nine or more credits. however, 11% of students only earned seven or fewer credits in grade 9. grade 9 program of study: the grade 9 program of study for students is determined based on the majority of grade 910 courses taken at a particular academic level. in ontario, excluding open courses, the options for a course level in grade 9 are academic, applied, and locally developed. there are important relationships between students grade 9 program of study and the courses they pursue throughout their high school tenure. similar to credit accumulation, 84% of students in this study took the majority of their grade 9 courses at the academic level with 16% of students taking the majority of their grade 9 courses in non-academic levels. the grade 9 absenteeism rate: the absenteeism rate is calculated by taking the number of days a student is absent from school, out of the number of days the student is registered in school, for the regular academic year for grade 9 (year 1 of secondary). note that absenteeism is reported in ontario for half days or full days. thus, if a student was registered for 190 school days over the regular school year, and was absent for a total of 19 school days (half days and full days included), the absenteeism rate would be 19 of 190 or 10%. with this breakdown in mind, the majority of students in this study (94%) had an absenteeism rate of or less than 10% and 6% of students had reported absenteeism rates of 11% or higher. the average marks of grade 9 (year 1) courses: the relationship of grade 9 achievement to postsecondary access and to postsecondary graduation has been well documented. research from chicago has confirmed that marks for the grade 9 gpa are stronger predictors than marks for grade 12 standardized tests like the sat (see easton et al., 2017). in the absence of an official gpa, grade 9 average marks are determined to be parallel with easton et al.s (2017) research. the vast majority of students (86%) within this study earned an average grade 9 mark of 60 89%. just over 2% of students received an average mark of less than 50% with 7% of students receiving an average mark of 5059% and 4% of students earning an average mark of 90%+. table 6: school-based variables suspended in public school never at least once first osslt attempt passed did not pass or deferred grade 9 credits seven credits or fewer eight credits nine credits or more grade 9 academic level academic non-academic grade 9 absenteeism 0 to 2% 3 to 5% 84.6% 15.4% 86.5% 13.5% 11.2% 80.3% 8.5% 83.6% 16.4% 54.1% 26.4% 12 6 to 10% 11 to 20% 21% or higher grade 9 average marks below 50 50 to 59 60 to 69 70 to 79 80 to 89 90 plus 13.7% 4.8% 1.1% 2.4% 7.3% 21.4% 35.1% 29.3% 4.4% method of analysis for regression a series of least squares regression models were estimated to examine the effects of transferring and disability on earnings. the initial models examine the effect of mobility and disability on income for all students, followed by similar analyses for only those students who graduated from a postsecondary institution. subsequent analyses examine the effect of transfer pathways and disability on income for all students, followed by models for graduates only. the predictors were added to the models in a series of stages. the first three models examined the effect of (1) mobility or transfer pathway, (2) disability, and (3) both mobility or pathway and disability, without controls. the subsequent models include controls for sociodemographic variables, followed by pse program information, and finally, variables capturing secondary school factors. supplementary analyses tested for interaction effects between mobility or transfer pathway and disability status, with and without controls, to assess whether the effect of transferring programs on earnings was different for students with disabilities than it was for their counterparts without disabilities. regression results for this study, a series of ordinary least squares regression models are estimated, predicting 2017 taxable income from transfer status and disability, with and without controls. the first two series of models are for all students (graduates and non-graduates), followed by models for graduates only. the final series of models first examine the effect of the transfer pathway on income for all student records (graduates and non-graduates), then for just graduates. for each set of regression analyses, model 1 includes only the mobility or transfer pathway variable; model 2 only includes disability status; model 3 assesses their effects together; while model 4 through model 6 add controls for sociodemographic variables, postsecondary program characteristics, and secondary school factors, respectively. the sociodemographic control variables include first language, country of birth, gender, age, and neighbourhood income, while postsecondary controls include the year of first enrollment, field of study, and graduation. secondary school control variables include whether students were suspended, whether they passed the ontario secondary school literacy test (osslt) on their first attempt, as well as their grade 9 academic level, grade 9 absenteeism, grade 9 average marks, and number of grade 9 credits. due to space considerations, the effects of the control variables are provided in the tables, but are sparingly interpreted. 13 mobility and disability: all students table 7 displays the results of the least squares regression models examining the effects of mobility and disability on income for all students. the estimates in model 1 reveal that when coded as a dichotomous variable, students who transfer programs have lower incomes than their direct entry counterparts (p 0.001). model 2 reveals that students with disabilities have lower incomes than their peers without disabilities (p 0.001). these effects remained statistically significant in model 3, when both variables were included together, and in model 4, when sociodemographic control variables were added. in terms of the effects of the sociodemographic characteristics, being 15 years of age or older at the start of grade 9 was associated with a lower income (p 0.001), while being male (p 0.001), being born outside of canada (p 0.05), and speaking a language other than english (p 0.001) were all related to higher earnings. likewise, living in a higher income neighbourhood while in high school was also associated with higher earnings (p 0.001). when the postsecondary controls are added in model 5, the effects of the mobility and disability variables remained significant predictors of lower incomes (p 0.001).4 among the pse variables, starting a postsecondary program later (in 2010 or 2011 as opposed to 2009) was associated with lower incomes (p 0.001), while pursuing studies in business, stem, health, or other fields was related to higher incomes, compared to the liberal arts programs (p 0.001), the reference category. as expected, graduates had higher incomes than non-graduates (p 0.001). when the secondary school controls are included in model 6, mobility and disability status remained statistically significant predictors of lower incomes (p 0.001). this model also reveals that students who failed or deferred the osslt on their first attempt (p 0.001) and those who were in non-academic streams in grade 9 (p 0.001) had lower incomes, while grade 9 absenteeism (p 0.01) and grade 9 average marks (p 0.001) also had a statistically significant impact on earnings. to interpret the effects of mobility and disability status on income, we calculated the predicted incomes for each model, with and without controls. calculations for the estimates with controls are obtained by holding the control variables constant at their means (for quantitative variables) or proportions (for categorical variables). figure 1 displays predicted income for mobile and direct entry (non-transfer) students. in model 1, without controls, transfer students were predicted to earn $35,728 compared to $43,176 for their stationary peers. compared to model 1, this gap was reduced slightly as control variables were added. in model 6, when controlling for disability status as well as sociodemographic, postsecondary, and secondary school variables, transfer students were still predicted to earn less than non-transfer students, though the earnings gap was less than $4,000 ($38,868 compared to $42,709). 4 in this model, the effects of some sociodemographic variables were reduced. due to space considerations, these effects are not interpreted in the text but they can be viewed in the appended tables. 14 figure 1: predicted income based on postsecondary mobility (n = 22,550) $45,000.00 $40,000.00 $35,000.00 $30,000.00 $25,000.00 model 1 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 mobility - no $43,175.50 $43,145.20 $43,148.70 $42,792.70 $42,708.80 mobility - yes $35,727.60 $35,932.10 $35,908.10 $38,303.30 $38,867.80 mobility - no mobility - yes figure 2 displays predicted income based on students disability status. in model 2, where the effect of disability status was estimated without controls, students with disabilities were predicted to earn $32,728 compared to their stationary peers who were predicted to earn $43,300. compared to model 1, this gap shrinks as controls are added, particularly when controls for postsecondary program characteristics and secondary school variables were added in model 5 and model 6, respectively. similar to the results relating to transfer students, the earnings gap was reduced substantially when comparing the estimates in model 6 with all controls, where students with disabilities had predicted incomes of $38,999, while their non-disabled peers were predicted to earn $42,581. figure 2: predicted income based on disability status (n = 22,550) $45,000.00 $40,000.00 $35,000.00 $30,000.00 $25,000.00 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 mobility - no $43,300.40 $43,279.90 $43,240.40 $42,896.60 $42,580.60 mobility - yes $32,727.90 $32,906.60 $33,250.70 $36,246.10 $38,998.60 mobility - no mobility - yes 15 finally, figure 3 displays predicted earnings for the interaction between mobility and disability status.5 the first model presents the predicted probabilities for the interaction without control variables while the second model controls for all sociodemographic, postsecondary, and secondary school variables. without controls, non-transfer students without disabilities were predicted to earn $44,273, compared to $33,303 for non-transfer students with disabilities. transfer students without disabilities had estimated predicted incomes of $36,588 compared to $29,574 for transfer students with a disability. these gaps shrink when controlling for sociodemographic, secondary, and postsecondary control variables, though significant differences remain. with controls, non-transfer students without disabilities were predicted to earn $43,067, compared to $39,594 for non-transfer students with disabilities. similarly, transfer students without disabilities had predicted incomes of $39,309, compared to $35,141 for transfer students with disabilities. figure 3: predicted income based on interaction between mobility and disability (n = 22,550) mobility and disability: graduates only table 8 displays the results for analyses of the effect of mobility and disability on income for only those students who graduated from a postsecondary program. model 1 reveals that mobility was associated with lower earnings (p 0.001) while model 2 reveals that students with disabilities were also estimated to earn less than their non-disabled peers (p 0.001). model 3 reveals that these effects hold when including both variables in the model together. when controlling for sociodemographic variables in model 4, transferring and being students with disabilities again related to lower earnings (p 0.001). among the control 5 the corresponding ordinary least squares regression models are not displayed in appended tables but are available upon request. 16 variables, higher neighbourhood incomes (p 0.001), being male (p 0.001), being born outside of canada (p 0.01), and speaking a first language other than english (p 0.001) all related to increased earnings. in contrast, being 15 years of age or older at the beginning of secondary school related to lower earnings (p 0.001). the effect of mobility and disability remained in model 5, when controlling for postsecondary program characteristics. with respect to the control variables, beginning postsecondary education in 2010 or 2011 related to lower earnings (p 0.001), while students pursuing postsecondary credentials in business (p 0.001), stem (p 0.001), health (p 0.001), or other fields (p 0.01) had higher earnings compared to those who pursued credentials in the liberal arts, the reference category. the effects of mobility and disability remained even when controlling for secondary school measures (see model 6). among the control variables in this model, failing or deferring ones osslt on the first attempt (p 0.001), pursuing a non-academic stream in grade 9 (p 0.001), and earning less than eight credits in grade 9 (p 0.001) were associated with lower incomes, while the effects of grade 9 absenteeism (p 0.05) and grade 9 average marks (p 0.001) were also statistically significant. it is noteworthy that speaking a first language other than english, which predicted higher incomes in model 4, was related to lower incomes in model 6 when controlling for postsecondary information and secondary school factors, though the effect was barely statistically significant (p 0.05). similar to the models that pool graduates and non-graduates, we calculated the predicted earnings for the mobility and disability variables for the models based on graduates only. figure 4 displays predicted earnings for the dichotomous mobility variable. in model 1, without controls, transfer students were predicted to earn $39,218 compared to non-transfer students at $46,525. this gap shrinks slightly when adding sociodemographic, postsecondary, and secondary control variables. in model 6, transfer students were predicted to earn $41,630 while their peers had a predicted income of $46,250. figure 4: predicted income based on postsecondary mobility for graduates only (n = 17,470) $50,000.00 $45,000.00 $40,000.00 $35,000.00 $30,000.00 $25,000.00 model 1 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 mobility - no $46,525.00 $46,499.70 $46,485.40 $46,372.50 $46,250.20 mobility - yes $39,217.80 $39,440.00 $39,566.00 $40,557.10 $41,629.90 mobility - no mobility - yes 17 figure 5 displays predicted earnings based on disability status derived from the estimates in table 8. drawing on the estimates in model 2, without controls, those who were as students with disabilities were predicted to earn $35,940, while their peers without disabilities were predicted to earn $46,695. this gap reduces slightly with the inclusion of sociodemographic controls in model 4 and reduces more with the inclusion of postsecondary and secondary school controls in model 5 and model 6, respectively. in model 6, when controlling for all of these variables, students with disabilities had predicted incomes of $42,139 while those without disabilities were predicted to earn $46,117. figure 5: predicted income based on disability status for graduates only (n = 17,470) $50,000.00 $45,000.00 $40,000.00 $35,000.00 $30,000.00 $25,000.00 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 no disability $46,694.80 $46,678.20 $46,671.20 $46,454.10 $46,116.90 disability $35,939.90 $36,118.10 $36,193.20 $38,521.90 $42,139.20 no disability disability figure 6 displays predicted earnings based on tests of interactions between disability and mobility.6 without controls, non-transfer students without disabilities were predicted to have the highest incomes ($47,435), while transfer students without disabilities were predicted to earn $40,025. for those students with a disability, non-transfer students were predicted to earn $36,453 and transfer students were predicted to earn $32,430. the differences in earnings were reduced when controls were added for sociodemographic variables, postsecondary program information, and secondary school factors. with controls, non-transfer students without disabilities were predicted to earn the most, at $46,584, followed by non-transfer students with disabilities, who had predicted incomes of $42,668. transfer students without disabilities were predicted to earn $42,014, other things being equal, and transfer students with disabilities had predicted earnings of $37,620. 6 the models with interactions are available upon request. 18 figure 6: predicted income based on interaction between mobility and disability for graduates only (n = 17,470) transfer pathway and disability: all students the results of the least squares regression analyses predicting income based on detailed transfer pathways and disability status for all students are provided in table 9. the estimates in model 1 reveal that students who pursued a pathway other than direct entry to university experienced lower incomes compared to that group (p 0.001). likewise, the estimates in model 2 reveal that students with disabilities earned less than their peers without disabilities (p 0.001). the effects of transfer pathways and disability status remained in model 3, when both variables were included in the model. the effect of pathways and disability status remained significant in model 4 when controlling for sociodemographic variables. among the sociodemographic control variables, being 15 years of age or older at the start of secondary school related to lower earnings (p 0.001), while higher neighbourhood income (p 0.001), being male (p 0.001), being born outside of canada (p 0.05), and speaking a first language other than english (p 0.05) were all associated with higher earnings. in model 5, after controlling for postsecondary program information, disability status and pursuing another pathway than direct entry university still resulted in lower incomes, although the effect of the college to university transfer pathway had reduced significance (p 0.05). additionally, beginning postsecondary in 2010 or 2011 resulted in lower earnings (p 0.001) compared to those who started their programs in 2009. those whose studies were in areas relating to business, stem, health, or other fields had higher earnings when compared to students in liberal arts (p 0.001), the reference category. as expected, graduates reported statistically significant higher earnings than non-graduates (p 0.001). finally, the direction of the effect of first language reversed when controlling for postsecondary program information: in 19 this model, those speaking a first language other than english were predicted to earn less than their peers, but this effect was only moderately statistically significant (p 0.05). model 6 controls for secondary school factors, and once again shows that those with disabilities experienced lower earnings than their counterparts without disabilities (p 0.001). with all of the control variables in the model, although most pathways related to lower earnings (p 0.001) relative to the reference category, the effect of the dummy variable representing those who transferred from a college to a university did not produce statistically significant differences in income compared to the direct entry university pathway. as with the estimates from the mobility analyses above, we calculated the predicted incomes for the pse pathway and disability variables, for the models in table 9. the predicted earnings based on the transfer pathway are provided in figure 7. where applicable, the control variables are held constant at their means or proportions. the estimates from model 1, without controls, reveal that direct entry university students had the highest predicted income at $46,699, followed by university to university transfer students at $39,849, then college to university transfer students at $36,657. university to college transfer students had predicted incomes of $34,621, followed by direct entry college and college to college transfer students at $33,244 and $31,286, respectively. the earnings gaps across pathways reduced slightly as controls were added for sociodemographic variables, postsecondary program information, and secondary school factors. in model 6, with all controls, direct entry university students earned the highest amount ($43,372), but they were more closely followed by college to university transfer students ($41,483), direct entry college students ($40,889), college to college transfer students ($39,502), and university to university transfer students ($39,481), with university to college transfer students earning the least ($37,611) in 2017. 20 figure 7: predicted income based on postsecondary transfer pathway (n = 22,550) figure 8 displays the predicted incomes for students based on disability status. without controls in model 2, students with disabilities were predicted to earn more than $10,000 less than their peers ($32,728 compared to $43,300 for students without disabilities). in model 6, with all the controls, students with disabilities were predicted to earn $39,110 and students without disabilities were predicted to earn $42,568. 21 figure 8: predicted income based on disability status (n = 22,550) $45,000.00 $40,000.00 $35,000.00 $30,000.00 $25,000.00 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 no disability $43,300.40 $42,901.70 $42,918.40 $42,763.90 $42,567.80 disability $32,727.90 $36,201.10 $36,056.00 $37,401.60 $39,110.00 no disability disability the predicted earnings displayed in figure 9 are derived from the interaction between transfer pathways and disability status, with and without controls. without controlling for the other variables in the model, direct entry university students with disabilities were predicted to earn $37,699 compared to those without disabilities who earned $47,256. in comparison, university to university transfer students with disabilities earned $32,507, less than their peers without disabilities ($40,791). university to college transfer students with disabilities earned $29,399, compared to those without disabilities who earned $35,172. direct entry college students with disabilities earned $29,999 and those without disabilities had predicted earnings of $34,151. students with disabilities who transferred from college to college ($27,333) or from college to university ($28,312) were also predicted to earn less than their peers ($32,271 and $37,967, respectively). the differences based on both disability status and transfer pathways shrink when including controls for sociodemographic variables, postsecondary program information, and secondary school factors. with controls, direct entry university students, as always, had the highest earnings for both groups: $39,279 for those with disabilities and $43,786 for those without. for students without disabilities, those who transferred from college to university earned $42,157, while those who directly entered college earned $40,939. they were followed by students who transferred from one university to another ($40,238), one college to another ($39,996), or from a university to a college ($37,918). for students with a disability, the highest predicted earnings after direct entry university were direct entry college ($38,950), followed by those who transferred from college to university ($36,277), college to college ($35,894), university to college ($34,796), and university to university ($33,155). 22 figure 9: predicted income based on interaction between pathway and disability (n = 22,550) transfer pathway and disability: graduates only finally, table 10 displays a series of least squares regression models to examine the effect of pathways and disability status on income, with and without controls, but only for those students who graduated from their postsecondary programs. in model 1, the direct entry college pathway decreased earnings compared to the direct entry university (p 0.001), the reference category. moreover, transferring university to university, university to college, or college to college were all associated with increased earnings (p 0.001), relative to the reference category. the college to university pathway did not significantly differ from direct entry university among postsecondary graduates. model 2 provides the zero order estimates for disability status. students with disabilities earned less than their counterparts without disabilities (p 0.001), and the above effects hold in model 3, when both pathways and disability status were included. these effects also remained after adding sociodemographic controls in model 4. among the demographic control variables, being 15 years of age or older at the beginning of secondary 23 school related to decreased incomes (p 0.05), while being male (p 0.001), having higher neighbourhood income (p 0.001), and being born outside of canada (p 0.05) were all statistically significant to having higher earnings. in model 5, when adding controls for postsecondary program information, the effects of pathways and disability status remained. moreover, beginning postsecondary studies in 2010 or 2011 rather than 2009 decreased income (p 0.001), while obtaining credentials in business, stem, health, or other fields was associated with higher incomes, in comparison with graduates of the liberal arts (p 0.001), the reference category. the estimates in model 6 reveal that when adding controls for secondary school factors, the direction and significance of pathways and disability status effects remained, with the exception that the significance of the effect of transferring from college to college were slightly reduced (p 0.01). figure 10 displays predicted earnings based on transfer pathway based on the estimates in table 10. the estimates from model 1, without controls, reveal that direct entry university students earned the most ($49,230), followed by university to university ($44,907), college to university ($43,895), and university to college ($36,467) transfer students. in contrast, direct entry college students ($35,682), and college to college transfer students earned the least ($33,430). these differences were reduced, and some of the ordering of predicted incomes changed, as sociodemographic, postsecondary, and secondary school controls were added. in model 6, with all controls, direct entry university students continued to have the highest predicted earnings ($46,970), followed by college to university transfer students ($45,841), direct entry college students ($43,451), and university to university transfer students ($43,243). college to college transfer students earned $41,784, while university to college transfer students had predicted incomes of $39,649. 24 figure 10: predicted income based on postsecondary transfer pathway for graduates only (n = 17,470) figure 11 displays predicted earnings based on disability status. without controls (model 2), students with disabilities earn $35,940 while students without disabilities earned $46,695. this gap was slightly reduced when controlling for transfer pathways and adding controls for sociodemographic variables, postsecondary information, and secondary school factors in model 4, model 5, and model 6, respectively. in model 6, students with disabilities had predicted earnings of $42,309 while students without disabilities were predicted to earn $46,101. 25 figure 11: predicted income based on disability status for graduates only (n = 17,470) $50,000.00 $45,000.00 $40,000.00 $35,000.00 $30,000.00 $25,000.00 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 no disability $46,694.80 $46,372.10 $46,401.50 $46,296.70 $46,101.10 disability $35,939.90 $39,401.80 $39,086.10 $40,210.30 $42,309.00 no disability disability figure 12 displays predicted earnings based on the interaction between pathways and disability status for students who graduated from a postsecondary institution (models available upon request). again, the differences are starker without controls than with, suggesting that sociodemographic factors, postsecondary program selection, and secondary school factors account for much of the differences in income based on disability and transfer pathways. with controls, direct entry university students earned the most, at $42,980 for students with disabilities and $47,320 for those without disabilities. students with disabilities who took the direct entry college pathway earned less ($40,860), followed by those who transferred from university to college ($38,924), and those who transferred from college to university ($38,415). students with disabilities who made lateral transfers had the lowest predicted earnings, with college to college transfer students earning $35,619 and university to university transfer students earning $35,469. for students without disabilities, graduates who transferred from college to university earned $46,609 in 2017, followed by university to university transfer graduates ($43,998), direct entry to college graduates ($43,562), and college to college transfer graduates ($42,752). finally, students without disabilities had the lowest earnings if they transferred from a university to a college ($39,690). 26 figure 12: predicted income based on interaction between pathway and disability for graduates only (n = 17,470) discussion this study examined disability, mobility pathways, pse graduation, and students predicted future income. earlier research shows that students with disabilities face ongoing barriers in accessing and getting through pse (dolmage, 2017; neads, 2012; parekh, et al., 2022a; shanouda & spagnuolo, 2021). to date, the literature is scant on the extent to which students experience of disability, mobility pathways, program, and school-based variables have influenced students future earnings. the current study showed that despite mobility, program, student and secondary school factors, students with disabilities had consistently lower earnings than students without disabilities. however, transference appears to play an interesting role in mitigating some of the income disparity for students with disabilities. as a singular variable, mobility pathways held a significant relationship with students future income earnings, with mobility linked to lower future income earnings. broken down by individual pathways, with entering and staying at the same university as the reference category, 27 all pathways, with the exception of the college to university pathway, maintained statistical significance in models examining future income earnings for both non-graduate and graduates. overall, earnings were less for students transferring between pse institutions than their counterparts who did not transfer. across each of these variables, students with disabilities earned less than their non-disabled peers. the only time students with disabilities came close to achieving parity with students without disabilities was among graduates who had transferred from university into college (figure 12). even though transference was linked to lower income earnings, we found that the earnings gap experienced by transfer students is smaller for those with disabilities than it is for those without disabilities ($7,685 versus $3,730; see figure 3). as earlier research has identified, students with disabilities are more likely to transfer (parekh et al., 2022b) and transference is typically linked to lower graduation rates (walters et al., 2021) as well as to lower predicted income earnings (as shown in this report). however, as seen in figures 3 and 6, when the control variables were included in the model, the increase in earnings was larger for transfer students with disabilities than transfer students without disabilities, suggesting that if students are going to transfer, students with disabilities are more likely to benefit from transferring than their non-disabled counterparts. the literature suggests that, for students with disabilities, accessibility and accommodations are often key motivators for transference (henderson & mccloy, 2017; odonnell et al., 2018; williams & mccloy, 2019) and, perhaps, this finding, at least partly, reflects a mitigating effect of those transitions. notably, in our earlier report (parekh, et al., 2022b), including controls accounted for much of the gap in transference and graduation, but, as is shown in the current study, did not eliminate the gap in overall earnings between students with and without disabilities. although the earnings gap for transfer and disability persisted, we also found that much of this gap is attributable to the control variables in our analyses. without controls, the gap in earnings was stark across both transfer and disability variables. figures 1 and 2 show that the inclusion of controls accounts for just under a 50% reduction in the gap in future income for transfer and 66% reduction in the gap for disability. this suggests that close to 50% of the gap attributed to transfer and 66% attributed to disability is explained through students program, achievement, and school-based variables. these results may be picking up on other existing factors, obligations or circumstances that motivate or require students to transfer programs. also, they are consistent with chatoors (2021) work which found that students with disabilities who graduated from pse and entered the workforce felt overqualified and underpaid for their work. we also found important differences in outcomes associated with university and college. for instance, without controls, the earnings gap between those with and without disabilities is highest among direct entry university students ($9,556), but considerably smaller for direct entry college students ($4,160) (see figure 9). finally, we discovered that direct entry university registrants without disabilities earned approximately $13,100 more than their non-disabled counterparts in community colleges, whereas students with disabilities earned approximately $7,710 less if they went to college rather than university (see figure 9). the results of this study consistently reveal that universities, attended either directly or indirectly through transferring, represent the least equitable pathways for students with disabilities. 28 education has long been described as a system that levels the playing field and enables historically marginalized communities to compete, but this has been based on a flawed notion of meritocracy (duncan-andrade & morrell, 2008). as shown in this report, results demonstrate that regardless of the academic accomplishments that students with disabilities achieve and, regardless of their pathways to and through public and post-secondary education, disparities in income persist. the role of intersectionality and future research the research and data continue to demonstrate that students with disabilities face ongoing barriers within postsecondary education and workforce sectors. however, we also know that the experience of disability is not singular. students social locations, their positionalities, and the conditions in which they work and learn can impact their ability to access and complete pse studies as well as secure employment within the labour force. therefore, we believe that future research could, and should, integrate an intersectional analysis examining the relational role of identity and structural factors (demographic, program, mobility, etc.) as well as explore outcomes for both high school students who do and do not go on to pursue pse. (see appendix b for further analyses on structural and program-based variables and income.) moreover, as many of the students in this analysis were recently out of school, it would be important to follow students once they enter the labour market to better track their early employment trajectories over time. additionally, further research could examine the differences in experiences within the disability composite variable. conclusion despite comparing those with similar academic credentials who pursued similar pse pathways, students who transfer programs and students with disabilities continue to have lower predicted future income earnings than their respective counterparts. however, the inclusion of controls explained a large part of the gap for both groups. this suggests that there could be salient points of early intervention within the public and postsecondary education systems. in the context of potential earnings, the inclusion of students earlier academic experiences, as well as pse and mobility factors reduced but did not eliminate the gap in students earnings for both transfer students and students with disabilities. transference appears to play an interesting role in relation to disability. even though transference is often attributed to lower graduation and future income, if students are going to transfer, then students with disabilities appear to be receive a larger increase in earnings compared to, but not on par with, their non-disabled peers. these results urge researchers to further examine the barriers that students with disabilities continue to experience in the workforce, and the role that transfer plays in mitigating some of those barriers. references andrews, r., li, j., & lovenheim, m. f. 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(2019). transfer pathways to university for ontario college graduates with a disability: an analysis of transfer rates and the student experience. the centre for research in student mobility, seneca college. 32 appendix a 33 table 7: ordinary least squares regression predicting income based on mobility for all students (n = 22,550) variables mobility no (ref) yes disability no (ref) yes language english (ref) other than english country of birth canada (ref) outside canada gender female (ref) male age 14 or younger (ref) 15 or older neighbourhood income decile start of postsecondary 2009 or prior (ref) 2010 2011 field of study liberal arts (ref) business stem health other graduation from pse no (ref) yes suspended in public school never (ref) at least once first osslt attempt passed (ref) did not pass or deferred grade 9 credits seven (ref) eight b model 1 se(b) p -7447.95 536.89 *** b model 2 se(b) p b model 3 se(b) p b model 4 se(b) mo p b -7213.08 533.41 *** -7240.61 529.25 *** -4489.42 -10572.52 591.28 *** -10373.34 589.09 *** -9989.70 591.14 *** -6650.45 2363.43 424.40 *** -358.78 1066.12 447.45 315.95 3747.67 356.65 *** 4055.39 * -5777.54 1070.85 *** -3494.46 923.30 64.53 *** 632.64 -7707.24 -14642.15 8795.21 7911.84 5041.68 3379.22 10818.88 34 nine grade 9 academic level academic (ref) non-academic percent absent grade 9 grade 9 average marks constant r-square adjusted r-square * p 0.05 ** p 0.01 43175.54 193.14 0.009 0.008 43300.44 189.74 0.014 0.014 44213.35 200.68 0.022 0.022 35519.70 538.85 0.038 0.038 *** p 0.001 35 30145.38 0.144 0.144 table 8: ordinary least squares regression predicting income based on mobility for graduates only (n = 17,470) variables mobility no (ref) yes disability no (ref) yes language english (ref) other than english country of birth canada (ref) outside canada gender female (ref) male age 14 or younger (ref) 15 or older neighbourhood income decile start of postsecondary 2009 or prior (ref) 2010 2011 field of study liberal arts (ref) business stem health other suspended in public school never (ref) at least once first osslt attempt passed (ref) did not pass or deferred grade 9 credits seven (ref) eight nine grade 9 academic level academic (ref) non-academic percent absent grade 9 b model 1 se(b) p -7307.27 686.44 *** b model 2 se(b) p b model 3 se(b) p b model 4 se(b) mo p b -7059.66 682.72 *** -6919.35 676.98 *** -5815.38 -10754.96 742.69 *** -10560.12 740.69 *** -10478.01 740.91 *** -7932.24 1806.92 494.00 *** -569.85 1360.07 517.55 469.07 5321.63 414.12 *** 3916.61 ** -4994.22 1333.60 *** -3530.23 802.06 75.09 *** 707.10 -7829.68 -17741.35 10686.41 9470.15 6133.96 2472.82 36 grade 9 average marks constant r-square adjusted r-square * p 0.05 ** p 0.01 46525.03 219.52 0.006 0.006 46694.82 216.88 0.012 0.012 47400.22 226.73 0.018 0.018 38895.39 632.88 0.035 0.035 *** p 0.001 37 40429.25 0.108 0.107 table 9: ordinary least squares regression predicting income based on pathway for all students (n = 22,550) variables pathway direct entry university (ref) university to university university to college direct entry college college to college college to university disability no (ref) yes language english (ref) other than english country of birth canada (ref) outside canada gender female (ref) male age 14 or younger (ref) 15 or older neighbourhood income decile start of postsecondary 2009 or prior (ref) 2010 2011 field of study liberal arts (ref) business stem health other graduation from pse no (ref) yes suspended in public school never (ref) at least once first osslt attempt passed (ref) did not pass or deferred b model 1 se(b) -6850.21 -12078.32 -13454.70 -15413.46 -10042.15 919.53 763.98 429.72 1169.61 1889.33 p *** *** *** *** *** b model 2 se(b) p b model 3 se(b) -6478.20 -11828.75 -12385.21 -14466.15 -9523.31 917.55 762.17 438.85 1169.35 1884.61 model 4 se(b) p b *** *** *** *** *** -6577.70 -11717.52 -11719.83 -13990.89 -9306.67 912.41 758.18 445.13 1166.16 1874.67 mo p b *** *** *** *** *** -4225.06 -7529.92 -6506.34 -8120.03 -4119.92 -10572.52 591.28 *** -6700.65 593.13 *** -6862.42 594.12 *** -5362.28 979.16 421.18 * -913.45 885.58 440.60 * 217.04 4132.59 351.44 *** 4039.29 -4045.11 1056.42 *** -2882.95 657.38 64.31 *** 538.93 -7383.85 -12521.86 9421.38 8112.51 5774.98 5242.78 10015.40 38 grade 9 credits seven (ref) eight nine grade 9 academic level academic (ref) non-academic percent absent grade 9 grade 9 average marks constant r-square adjusted r-square * p 0.05 ** p 0.01 46699.08 219.91 0.051 0.051 43300.44 189.74 0.014 0.014 47089.38 222.00 0.057 0.056 40413.79 561.41 0.068 0.067 *** p 0.001 39 32353.15 0.152 0.151 table 10: ordinary least squares regression predicting income based on pathway for graduates only (n = 17,470) variables pathway direct entry university (ref) university to university university to college direct entry college college to college college to university disability no (ref) yes language english (ref) other than english country of birth canada (ref) outside canada gender female (ref) male age 14 or younger (ref) 15 or older neighbourhood income decile start of postsecondary 2009 or prior (ref) 2010 2011 field of study liberal arts (ref) business stem health other suspended in public school never (ref) at least once first osslt attempt passed (ref) did not pass or deferred grade 9 credits seven (ref) eight b model 1 se(b) -4322.86 -12763.29 -13547.75 -15799.79 -5335.01 1137.28 960.30 538.79 1696.58 2735.54 p *** *** *** *** b model 2 se(b) p b model 3 se(b) -4049.71 -12491.76 -12487.10 -14841.87 -4989.65 1134.85 958.38 549.32 1695.51 2729.05 model 4 se(b) p b *** *** *** *** -4029.75 -12237.59 -11834.60 -14251.10 -4900.61 1127.11 952.43 553.74 1686.71 2710.93 mo p b *** *** *** *** -3965.89 -9750.52 -8543.20 -11038.26 -3688.98 -10754.96 742.69 *** -6970.26 745.78 *** -7315.47 745.38 *** -6086.40 693.61 489.91 -1184.81 1192.43 510.47 5429.64 408.42 *** 3908.02 * 381.94 -3354.24 1317.24 * -2649.70 569.17 74.82 *** 579.07 -7442.42 -14282.09 11252.78 9461.57 6902.04 4636.14 40 nine grade 9 academic level academic (ref) non-academic percent absent grade 9 grade 9 average marks constant r-square adjusted r-square * p 0.05 ** p 0.01 49230.09 240.76 0.044 0.044 46694.82 216.88 0.012 0.012 49595.98 243.33 0.049 0.048 42980.52 651.65 0.062 0.061 *** p 0.001 41 42243.19 0.120 0.119 appendix b analytical procedure for cross-tabulations to perform the descriptive analysis and cross-tabulations, students were selected using the following criteria: they had been selected for the november 2021 descriptive report (that is, they started in grade 9 in the tdsb in fall 2004, 2005 or 2006); they attended postsecondary institutions in canada (according to psis official enrollment data) up to and including the 201718 school year; they were not full-time postsecondary students in either 201617 or 201718; they had reported information for total income (tirc) in the 2017 tiff file of more than 0 and less than $300,000. this was the same selection criteria used in the tables and regression (although, due to listwise deletion, the number of students in the descriptives is slightly higher than the number of students in the regression tables. a series of three way cross-tabulations were prepared using thirds (tertiles) of 2017 income (as selected above), looking at tertiles of income, disability (no disability/disability) and then with postsecondary graduation; postsecondary field of study; grade 9 credit accumulation; and grade 9 program of study. column percentages were reported. assuming no differences, all groups should be distributed in the lowest third, middle third, and top third of income (that is, 33%, 33%, and 33% in each tertile). cross-tabulation results the first report in this series examined disability, transference, and graduation. one of the key findings of the report was the importance of school-based variables on the students transference through and graduation from pse. for the descriptive results section, we opted to focus on public and postsecondary school-based factors. first, we examine public school variables such as credit accumulation and program of study. next, we examine pse school-based factors such as field of study and graduation. credit accumulation, income, and disability: interestingly, the number of credits students earned in grade 9 had a strong relationship with future income, which was compounded by students disability status. the majority of students, regardless of disability status, who earned seven or fewer credits in grade 9 went on to earn income within the lowest tertile (51% for students without disability and 62% with disability). as shown in table 6, 80% of students earned eight credits in grade 9. while roughly a third of students, regardless of disability status, ended up earning incomes within the middle tertile, there were evident gaps within both the lowest and highest income tertiles with students with disabilities far more likely to earn lower incomes than their non-disabled peers. for students who had earned nine or more credits in grade 9, the largest proportion of students without disabilities (44%) ended up earning incomes within the highest tertile, yet the converse is true for students with disabilities where the largest proportion (44%) continue to earn income within the lowest tertile. 42 figure 13: grade 9 credit accumulation and income tertiles according to disability 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% lowest middle highest lowest middle highest lowest middle highest third third third third third third third third third 7 credits or below 8 credits 9 credits or above no disability 50.7% 35.0% 14.3% 29.9% 33.5% 36.5% 24.7% 31.3% 43.9% disability 62.1% 25.8% 12.1% 45.0% no disability 34.4% 20.6% 43.8% 31.3% 25.0% disability grade 9 program of study, income, and disability: similar to credit accumulation, there is a distinct relationship between the level of program students pursue in secondary school, their disability status, and their future income. the largest proportion (38%) of non-disabled students who pursue the academic program in grade 9 go on to earn incomes within the highest tertile. the opposite appears to be true for students with disabilities where the largest proportion (42%) who pursue the academic program end up earning incomes within the lower tertile. however, for students who pursued a non-academic program of study in grade 9, the largest proportion of students, regardless of disability status ended up earning incomes in the lowest income decile. for students with disabilities who took a non-academic program in high school, the majority (56%) ended up earning incomes in the lowest tertile. figure 14: grade 9 program of study and income tertiles according to disability 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% lowest third middle third highest third lowest third middle third highest third academic non-academic no disablity 29.3% 33.0% 37.7% 46.6% 36.7% 16.6% disability 42.3% 33.1% 24.6% no disablity 55.7% 31.3% 13.0% disability 43 field of study, income, and disability: in an analysis of income and disability, field of study introduces another important factor. with the exception of arts and other field of studies, students without disabilities who pursue business, stem, and health are most likely to earn within the highest income decile. in comparison, regardless of what students with disabilities pursue as a field of study, they are most likely to earn within the lowest income tertile. students with and without disabilities, who pursued stem as a field of study, seemed to be more likely to earn an income within the highest tertile than other fields; however, the income gap across the disability variable remained largely consistent. in fact, for students pursuing health and business, students with disabilities were less than half as likely to earn income within the highest income tertile as students without disabilities. table 11: field of study and income tertiles according to disability liberal arts (arts, humanities, and social sciences) lowest third middle third highest third business lowest third middle third highest third stem lowest third middle third highest third health lowest third middle third highest third other lowest third middle third highest third no disability disability 36.6% 37.2% 26.2% 53.5% 31.7% 14.9% 25.6% 32.3% 42.1% 43.4% 35.8% 20.8% 27.0% 28.8% 44.2% 42.6% 29.8% 27.7% 31.4% 32.0% 36.6% 47.1% 35.3% 17.6% 40.0% 35.3% 24.7% 53.5% 30.2% 16.3% graduation, income, and disability: the benefits of running cross-tabulations is that results can show important relationships between selected variables. when examining postsecondary graduation outcomes alongside future income and disability, it is clear that the three factors have a strong relationship. for students who started but did not graduate from pse, there is a notable relationship with future income. for students without disability, the majority (52.3%) who did 44 not graduate ended up in the lowest income tertile. in contrast, again for students without disability who did graduate, the largest group (40.3%) ended up in the highest income tertile. however, for students with disabilities, whether they graduated or not, the largest proportion still fell within the lowest income tertile (62% for those who graduated and 42% of those who did not). of students who graduated, just over 40% of students without disability ended up earning within the highest income tertile whereas the proportion of students with disability earning within the highest income tertile was close to almost half (23%). this supports arguments that despite earning postsecondary diplomas and degrees, students with disability continue to be disadvantaged in the labour market. figure 15: graduation outcomes and income tertiles according to disability 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% lowest third middle third highest third lowest third middle third highest third did not graduate graduated no disability 52.3% 32.2% 15.6% 25.8% 33.8% 40.3% disability 62.1% 26.3% 11.6% 41.6% 35.5% 22.9% no disability disability there are clear relationships between school-based variables, both public and postsecondary factors, students disability status, and future income. earning extra credits and taking the academic program in grade 9, as well as pursuing business, stem, and health as well as successfully graduating from pse seem to skew students future incomes towards the highest income tertile. yet in this context students with disabilities continue to face a consistent and persistent gap in reaching similar levels of future earnings, compared to students without disabilities. 45

research brief a statistical portrait of transfer students in the tdsb-ut linkage dr. scott davies, university of toronto dr. roger pizarro milian, oncat september 2020 a statistical portrait of transfer students in the tdsb-ut linkage 2 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 last week, we went over some patterns in the rates, sources, and cohort differences in transfer within the tdsb-ut dataset. as we explained, most of that analysis could be replicated by institutional research offices across ontario colleges and universities without the need for any elaborate administrative linkages. today, we move towards presenting analyses that more fully leverage the breadth of measures and sample size of the tdsb-ut dataset. more specifically, we: 1) present descriptive profiles of transfer studentssegmented by the type of institution they transferred fromusing a mixture of academic, behavioural, demographic, and other variables measured during their high school years. for these profiles, we perform a series of difference of means tests (t-tests) that identify which disparities between groups are unlikely to be a result of chance alone (i.e., those that are statistically significant). 2) simultaneously insert these variables into a statistical model that calculates what variables remain correlated with transferring into ut once we account for everything else we know about the students characteristics. before we dive into the details, there are a few things readers should keep in mind. a subset of our variables are based on information gathered by the tdsb through surveying. this means that this data is subject to various forms of response bias. some people are less likely to respond to surveys than others. among those who do respond, some are also more likely to leave certain questions (e.g., income) unanswered. the statistics we present should thus be interpreted as an estimate rather than exact population statistic. the different flavours of transfer column 1 in table 1 presents the characteristics of tdsb students that enter ut directly, without making stops at any other pse institutions. in turn, column 2 presents the same characteristics for an aggregate grouping of all tdsb students that transferred into ut. meanwhile, columns 36 break down those students in column 2, categorizing them by the type of institution that they transferred from. 1. without getting into too much detail, these tests assess whether the size of the observed difference between two groups is large enough to be considered unlikely to exist just due to chance. generally speaking, the bigger the difference, the less likely it is to be due to chance alone. 2. more specifically, we use binary logistic regression models suitable when dealing with dichotomous (0/1) dependent variables. a statistical portrait of transfer students in the tdsb-ut linkage 3 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 in place of significance stars, we colour-code cells to represent the results of difference of means tests (e.g., t-tests) between each transfer grouping and that of direct-entry students. column 2 shows that transfers, as an overall group, are significantly more likely than directentry counterparts to be female, born in canada, speak english at home, self-identify as white, self-identify as a sexual minority, have special education needs, and have parents who hold a professional occupation. meanwhile, academically, transfers had poorer high school track records than their directentry peers, with lower average grades, higher rates of suspension and absenteeism, and being more likely to drop out of high school at some point. they were also more likely to spend an extra year in high school. 3. within the tdsb records, this includes those individuals that self-identify as lgbtq+, questioning, or not sure of orientation. 4 a statistical portrait of transfer students in the tdsb-ut linkage davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 table 1 direct entry other canadian internat'l university university all ontario transfers university ontario college (n=26,916) (n=1,223) (n=689) (n=275) (n=174) (n=64) female 0.562 0.603 0.611 0.535 0.672 0.578 english 0.317 0.523 0.486 0.478 0.734 0.594 white 0.234 0.402 0.358 0.359 0.685 0.419 professional (parent) 0.337 0.411 0.42 0.366 0.488 0.37 university (parent) 0.691 0.717 0.741 0.569 0.871 0.667 two-parent family 0.837 0.811 0.845 0.748 0.795 0.774 sexual majority 0.91 0.898 0.894 0.9 0.905 0.903 born in canada 0.54 0.673 0.673 0.618 0.816 0.578 ever suspended 0.063 0.098 0.087 0.12 0.103 0.094 average grades 79.3 76.6 78.2 71.4 79.7 75.7 absenteeism 1.51 1.81 1.79 1.68 2.05 2 extra year hs 0.007 0.012 0.006 0.033 0 0 ever drop out 0.022 0.034 0.022 0.047 0.034 0.094 transfer out of tdsb 0.048 0.074 0.054 0.102 0.08 0.125 gifted 0.045 0.056 0.039 0.036 0.08 0.063 special needs 0.031 0.052 0.038 0.087 0.046 0.063 variables note: sample sizes vary across each metric due to missing data. legend: significantly more significantly less not significant a statistical portrait of transfer students in the tdsb-ut linkage 5 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 this is not to say that transfer students are a homogenous groupfar from it. there is much variation in how different types of transfers differ from or resemble their directentry counterparts. in columns 3 and 5, we see that transfers from ontario and other canadian universities have academic profiles in hs that are comparable to those of direct entries. they have similar hs grades, drop-out rates, extra year rates, and k12 transfer rates. interestingly, community college transfers statistically differ from direct-entry students across all of those dimensions. at the same time, we see that community college transfers resemble direct-entry students with respect to their gender and their parents occupational category: two areas where significant differences are observed between direct entry and both ontario and canadian university transfers. we interpret this array of differences between transfer sub-categories as indicating that there are likely various flavours of transfer students at ut. this is a finding that has important implications for those thinking about developing transfer student supports. perhaps a one-size-fits-all approach may not be the most effective way of supporting transfers. in statistical models that integrate all of these variables (along with other controls) to estimate their net effectsholding the effect of all others constantwe are able to establish more confidently which variables are correlated with the decision to transfer. again, with all other things being equal, we see that: 1) as average hs grades increase, the likelihood of a student taking a transfer route into ut decreases; however, having a higher english eqao score increases the odds of a student engaging in transfer, and the same is true of having a special education need (sen); 2) increases in absenteeism in hs correspond with an elevated chance of transfer; and 3) being female, a sexual minority, white, coming from a higher income neighbourhood, and being born in canada all improved the odds of engaging in transfer into ut. it is interesting to note that our models, despite containing an extensive number of academic and demographic variables, explain only a relatively small amount of variance (~6%) in our outcome. this means that there are many other factors we dont account for that influence the pathways that students take. this makes sense, given a statistical portrait of transfer students in the tdsb-ut linkage 6 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 that transfer is likely the outcome of life circumstances, which may be difficult to capture in surveys or administrative records. our statistics and model are useful in that they allow us to establish statistically significant differences and relationships between a wide range of variables and transfer. nevertheless, they dont tell us what processes produce these relationships. further (likely qualitative) research is needed to understand the story behind these numbers. however, we can devise a few educated guesses. with respect to lower grades, for example, we believe that it is plausible that students who underperform academically while in hs are more likely to be denied direct entry into ut, given the institutions relatively high admission standards. this could mean that they are funneled into other institutions that have lower admission standards, from which they eventually find their way back into ut after completing their coursework. numerous other interpretations of our other significant predictors are plausible. however, well let readers come to their own conclusions about the mechanisms that may explain them. up next having a sense of which tdsb students tend to transfer into ut, next week, we move towards developing an understanding of their outcomes once they enter the institution. more specifically, we will look at their cumulative gpas, access to stem fields, and eventual graduation rates. a statistical portrait of transfer students in the tdsb-ut linkage 7 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. dr. roger pizarro milian dr. roger pizarro milian is the senior researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/projects/tdsb-ut-linkage-and -transfer-project established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021

data collection template for the data pilot project (last updated: november 2021) overview in january 2020, oncat launched a call for publicly-assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in ontario to participate in a pilot to assess transfer student profiles, which includes uptake of transfer pathways and their characteristics and outcomes. for participating institutions, this template provides further detail on the data reporting requirements. the key data components needed for the project are: a) institution's transfer agreements and transfer policies ; b) enrolled students with credits recognized for previous academic work; and c) linkage between a) and b) that links the students to the transfer pathways they traverse. d) (not for phase 1 participants) enrollment records for direct-entry students. direct entry refers to students who are admitted to your institution directly from high school with no previous postsecondary education. these excel sheets provide further details and instructions: "1. types of transfer credits" this sheet provides definitions for the different student groups relevant for this project. refer to this sheet for the different types of credits recognized for their previous academic work. "2. pathway - bta & ctp" this sheet defines the record layout and data elements for the transfer agreements (bta) and the credit transfer policies (ctp) at your institution. use this sheet to provide a list of btas and ctps at your institution. "3. transfer student profile" this sheet defines the record layout and data elements for transfer student enrolment records. use this sheet to provide the list of students with credits recognized for previous academic work, including detail attributes and the linkage to your bta and ctp. "4. data definition" this sheet provides further descriptions for each of the data elements in the two data sheets "2. pathway - bta & ctp" and "3. transfer student profile". "5. direct entry student profile" (not for phase 1 participants) this sheet defines the record layout and data elements for direct entry student enrolment records. use this sheet to provide the list of direct entry students and the requested attributes. note oncat recognizes that some data fields will not have values populated due to limitations specific to each of the participating institution. 1. student with transfer credits for this project, students with the following characteristics are to be reported: 1) the student has received, at your institution, a minimum threshold transfer credit (one course) for previous postsecondary work. 2) the student is enrolled in a program that leads to a credential in: college one year certificate or post diploma certificate diploma or advanced diploma degree university undergraduate level certificate or diploma preliminary year pre-bachelor or bachelor degree indigenous institute certificate, diploma and degree note1: the one course threshold refers to transfer credit awarded for a typical course irrespective of duration (e.g. one term versus one year). about the mcu's credit transfer (ct) flag the collection of the ct flag as part of the mcu's user/cser data submission began in the fall term of 2015-16. in addition to the core characteristics outlined in the above, the ct flag for a student is raised only when the sending institution is one of the publicly funded post-secondary education institutions in ontario. once it is raised, it should remain until the student graduate from their program. the purpose of the mcu's ct flag is to track intra-provincial transfer. the six types of transfer credits credit type source for credit awarded cr1 ontario transfer students with the mcu ct flag cr2 cr3 cr4 cr5 cr6 previous institution type 45 ontario funded colleges and universities and the 9 indigenous institutes in addition to the institutions in the above group, could also include other ontario institutions ontario students with transfer credits but without the not in the above group. mcu ct flag other canadian institutions in other provinces (colleges, students with transfer credit from canadian universities, high schools and institutions outside of ontario other institutions) other non-canadian institutions students with transfer credit from institutions outside (colleges, universities, high of canada schools and other institutions) students switching program or credential within the same institution your institution stop out students who return to (reactivate at) the same institution after hiatus** your institution *for cr2, a typical scenario include ontario pse students whose transfer creidts are from ontario high school ib, ap and dual credit courses. ** as a default, the term 'hiatus' refers to the stop out period for a full academic year. the length of the stop out period could also be defined by the institutions. 2. agreement record layout use this template to report all the block transfer agreements, credit transfer policy and system transfer policy at your institution. block transfer agreement block transfer agreements (bta) are specific agreements signed between one or more institutions rather than a general policy pathway (pol). #01 transfer agreement id #02 #03 #04 #05 oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date id assigned by institution (e.g.bta001) #5387 2019-01-24 id assigned by institution (e.g.bta002) #3114 2+2 business administration to bachelor of business 2016-01-26 2020-08-01 administration #06 #07 #08 sending sending sending program institution credential title 2+2 business - accounting diploma to bachelor of business administration sault collegediploma college boreal, diploma la cite #09 #10 receiving receiving program credential title #11 oncat funding flag #12 oncat project id business - accounting deg bachelor of business administration n/a n/a business administration bachelor of business administration yes 2014-03 diploma . general transfer policy - institution specific (simplified linkage to oncat id) ct policy id oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date pol001 use generic id (pol001) 2011-05-01 pol002 use generic id (pol002) 2011-05-01 sending sending sending program institution credential title receiving receiving program credential title general transfer policy (college any college program diploma, advanced diploma to in the eligible honours bachelor of arts) any collegesdiploma, advanced credentials diploma deg general transfer policy any college program (advanced diploma to honours in the eligible bachelor of science) any collegesadvanced diploma, credentials certificate deg oncat funding flag oncat project id honours bachelor of arts n/a n/a honours bachelor of science n/a n/a system transfer policy - all colleges (simplified linkage to oncat id) ct system policy id oncat agreement agreement agreement agreement title id start date end date pol001s use generic id (hob) 2014-11-24 pol002s use generic id (hocs) 2015-10-08 pol003s use generic id (pretech) 2018-09-01 ontario college head of business agreement (accounting, business/business sending sending sending program institution credential title receiving receiving program credential title oncat funding flag any college diploma, corresponding advanced diploma college diploma, any collegesdiploma, advanced program diploma diploma, advanced advanced diploma diploma yes any college diploma corresponding ontario college head of program in (police college diploma community services agreement any collegesdiploma, advanced foundations, diploma ece, diploma program in (police yes any engineering ontario college pre-tech any pre-tech technology program agreement any collegescertificate programs diploma, advanced (diploma, diploma advanced yes oncat project id 2014-03 2015-nn 2016-22 3. student record layout granularity: one record per reporting year & reporting semester per student, inculde new, continuing and returning students with credits awarded for previous academic work #01 #01b reporting year reporting semester 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 fall winter winter fall winter winter fall winter #02 #03 #04 #05 anonymized transfer credit type previous id pathway id institution name std0001 bta001 cr1 inst 1 std0001 bta001 cr1 inst 1 std0002 pol001c cr1 inst 2 std0003 zzz cr3 inst 3 std0003 zzz cr3 inst 3 std0004 zzz cr4 inst 4 std0005 zzz cr5 inst 5 std0005 zzz cr5 inst 5 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 fall fall fall fall fall std0001 std0002 std0003 std0004 std0005 bta001 pol001c zzz zzz zzz cr1 cr1 cr3 cr4 cr5 inst 1 inst 2 inst 3 inst 4 inst 5 can-u can-c oth-hs 1 1 1 1 2 std0002 std0003 std0005 pol001c zzz zzz cr1 cr3 cr5 inst 2 inst 3 inst 5 can-c oth-hs 1 1 2 2017/18 2017/18 2017/18 #05b previous institution type can-u can-u can-c oth-hs oth-hs #06 multiple previous institution 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 #07 previous credential a-dip a-dip a-dip #08 previous program title #09 previous program code #10 level of completion of previous completed completed completed completed completed partial partial partial #11 cumulativ e transfer credits 5.00 5.00 5.00 3.50 3.50 10.00 #12 admitted grade point average c c #13 admitted credential deg-3yr deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr deg-4yr dip dip completed completed completed partial partial 5.00 c 5.00 3.50 10.00 deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr dip completed completed partial 5.00 4.00 a-dip deg-4yr dip #14 #15 #16 admitted admitted admitted program program year title code bachelor of arts ba.unsp - unspecific2013/2014 bachelor of arts ba.unsp - unspecific2013/2014 #17 admitted session fall fall #18 #19 registration current status grade point average 10 - full-time c 10 - full-time c #20 current credential deg-3yr deg-3yr #21 current program title bachelor of arts in econ bachelor of arts in econ deg-4yr deg-4yr adip-3 yr adip-3 yr bachelor of arts ba.unsp - unspecific2013/2014 fall 10 - full-time c deg-3yr bachelor of arts in econ #22 current program code ba.econ ba.econ #23 current credits earned at 5.00 10.00 #23b total program credits 15.00 15.00 #24 gender #25 birth year 2-female 2-female 15.00 2-female 20.00 20.00 18.00 18.00 ba.econ 15.00 #28 mother tongue 1990 1990 1988 1990 1990 1992 1980 1980 #26 #27 immigratio fsa of n status permanent address 0 - canadian m5g 0 - canadian m5g 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 001 001 #29 first generation pse y y #30 #35 indigeno graduati us on date indicato n n 1990 1988 1990 1992 1980 0 - canadian m5g 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 001 y n 1988 1990 1980 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian #36 credit transfer flag 1-yes 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 2-no 2-no 1-yes 1-yes 2017.06 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 2017.06 2-no 1-yes 1-yes 2-no 1-yes 4. data element definition data element - agreement record primary field id block transfer pk #04 description note the id assigned to an agreement that defines the terms and conditions that enables students to enter the receiving institution at an advanced level based on recognized block transfer equivalence to a defined set of completed courses or program institution's agreement id. see #2 oncat agreement id academic work at the sending institution. agreement id. oncat agreement id - for signed agreements posted on ontransfer.ca use generic id - for admission type transfer policy or system trasfer policy such as head of for the block transfer agreement previously entered into business oncat ontransfer.ca, please indicate the oncat id assigned for this 'not available' - for agreements not posted on agreement id agreement ontransfer.ca agreement the start date for the terms and conditions defined in the start date block transfer agreement to be in effect. e.g. 2011.05.01 agreement end the end date for the terms and conditions defined in the date block transfer agreement. e.g. 2020.08.01 #05 agreement title the title of the block transfer agreement #01 #02 #03 #06 #07 #08 #09 list all applicable sending institutions. for unspecific sending institutions, specify: 'any colleges' - for all colleges offering the sending programs 'any universities' - for all universities offering the sending programs 'any indigenous institutes' - for all indigenous institutes offering the sending programs sending institution the postsecondary education institution in a transfer agreement where the previous course / program work was completed sending credential credential is an official document recognizing completion of a program or course of study at the postsecondary level. for the purpose of this project, applicable credentials include certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, graduate certificates, and bachelor's degrees (could be 3 year or 4 year). certificates of apprenticeship, post graduate certificates, masters and doctoral degrees are not applicable. list all the applicable credential(s) sending program title receiving credential list all the applicable program(s). for unspecific program, specify: 'any college program' - if applicable to any college program 'any university program' - if applicable to any university program the name of the postsecondary education program at the 'any indigenous institute program' - if applicable sending universitythis field refers to the applicable to any indigenous institute program see #05 college sendingorcredential. credential for the postsecondary programs at the receiving institution. list all the applicable credential(s) #10 #11 #12 list all the applicable program(s). for unspecific program, specify: 'any college program' - if applicable to any college program 'any university program' - if applicable to any university program receiving the name of the postsecondary education program at the 'any indigenous institute program' - if applicable program title receiving college or university to any indigenous institute program yes - funded by oncat oncat funding an indicator for whether the development of the block no - not funded by oncat flag transfer agreement is funded by oncat. na - funding status not tracked oncat project id - for agreement funded by see #10. if the development of this block transfer agreement oncat oncat project is funded by oncat, include the project id that provides the na - for agreements not funded by ocat or the id funding. funding status is not tracked data element - student record field id transfer pk #01 pk #01b pk #02 description valid value or example this field is aligned with the user, cser and psis reporting cycles which generally run from the spring/summer semester reporting year through to the end of the following winter semester. e.g. 2015/16 fall - fall term winter - winter term reporting this field is aligned with the user and cser reporting which spring - spring term semester include spring, summer, fall and winter semester. summer - summer term the anonymized identifier for the transfer student in this postsecondary institution. use the same number for the same anonymized id student from year to year. a 9 digit alpha-numberic #03 transfer pathway id #04 credit type #05 previous institution #05b the pathway id for the transfer agreement or transfer policy that describes the pathway the student had traversed from the sending institution to the current institution. the pathway can be a formal block transfer agreement with another institutions or a general credit transfer policy or a college wide system policy. refer to excel sheet '2. agreement record layout' for more detail. for students with credits awarded based on the transfer agreements or transfer policy, use the corresponding id for the transfer agreement or transfer policy. otherwise , use 'zzz'. cr1 - ontario transfer students with ct flag cr2 - ontario pse students with transfer credits but without ct flag cr3 - transfer students from canadian psi outside of ontario cr4 - transfer students from international psi cr5 - students switching program/credential at same institution credits awarded to the student for academic work completed cr6 - stop out students who return to same prior to the current program. institution after hiatus the previous institution attended where course / program work has been transferred into current institution. if there are multiple prior institutions at time of admission, use the most recent institution attended. * for direct entry students, please report the high school the student attended that formed the basis of admission. e.g. sault college for institutions in ontario 'on-c' - ontario college 'on-u' - ontario university 'on-i' - ontario indigenous institute previous indictor for the type of the previous institution attended as 'on-hs' - ontario high school institution type defined in the data element #05 previous institution. for institutions in canada outside of ontario indicator for students attended multiple institutions previously. most students would have a value of 1. use 2, 3, 4 etc. to indicate the number of previous institutions attended. in the case of student pursued multiple credentials (and/or multiple programs) at the same sending institution, count it as 1. #07 previous credential the credential most recently pursued prior to transfer into the current institution and program. eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (adip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg-4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma (dip), degree (deg) #08 previous program the most recent program pursued prior to transfer into current institution and program. to transfer into current institution and program. see data element #08 'previous program'. the status of completion of the previous credential pursued prior to transfer into current institution and program. see data element #07 'previous credential'. use the program title on the transcript. for college and university programs, use the institution's program code, also provide the statistics canada cip code if available. partial - did not complete the previous credential completed - completed the previous credential #06 multiple previous institution count #10 previous program level of code completion of previous #11 cumulative the total number of credits awarded for academic transfer credits courses/program work completed prior to transfer into awarded current institution and program. #09 please use the unit of measurement at your institution. please provide a cross walk table for translating credits from other institutions. #12 a number representing the average value of the accumulated final grades earned for courses/program completed prior to being admitted into the current institution. the admitted gpa please use the gpa scale at your institution. admitted grade is often a criteria used to determine eligibility for entrance please provide a cross walk table for translating point average into the institution and program. gpa from other institutions. eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (adip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg-4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma (dip), degree (deg) for a degree program, use the combination of qualification sought and institution program title (e.g. bachelor of arts in economics) for other non degree program, use the for all programs, use the institution's program code assigned, and provide the statistics canada cip code if available. for a degree program, also provide the qualification code e.g. ba.econ. #13 admitted credential the credential for the program being admitted to after transfer to the current institution. #14 admitted program the program being admitted to after transfer to the current institution. #15 admitted program code #16 admitted year #17 admitted semester the program code for the program being admitted to after transfer to the current institution. the year in which the student was admitted to at the current institution. see #01 for reporting year. e.g. 2013/14 fall - fall term winter - winter term the semester in which the student was admitted to the spring - spring term current institution. summer - summer term #18 registration status (simplified) #19 current grade point average the type of activity (part-time vs full-time) in which the student is enrolled in for the current academic term. the list of available value here is simplified based on those defined for uesr and cser. a number representing the average value of the accumulated final grades earned for courses completed for the current program. #20 current credential the credential for the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. #21 current program the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. #23 current program code current credits earned at your institution the program code for the current program being pursued after transfer to the current institution. the total number of credits earned at the end of the reporting year & semester for academic course work completed for the please use the unit of measurement at your current program. institution. #23b total program credits the total number of credits required for the entire program. #22 10 - full-time 20 - part-time please use the gpa scale at your institution. please provide a supplementary document for the gpa scale at your institution. eligible credentials include: for college - diploma (dip), advanced diploma (adip), college certificate (cert), 4 year degree (deg - 4yr) for university - 3 year degree (deg-3yr), 4 year degree (deg-4yr), degree - other (deg-oth) for indigenpus institute - certificate (cert), diploma (dip), degree (deg) for a degree program, use the combination of qualification sought and institution program title (e.g. bachelor of arts in economics) for other non degree program, use the institution program title. for all programs, use the institution's program code assigned, and provide the statistics canada cip code if available. please use the unit of measurement at your institution. #24 gender student's declared gender #25 birth year student's birth year #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #35 #36 immigration status fsa of permanent address 1 - male 2 - female 3 - another gender identity e.g. 1990 0 - canadian citizen 1 - permanent resident (landed immigrant) 2 - study permit the student's status in canada, in particular their immigration 3 - diplomatic status for the reported term. 4 - convention refugee (protected person) the list of available value is based on those defined for ocas 5 - visitor and/or ouac. 6 - no status the first three characters (forward sortation area) in the canadian postal code of the permanent address reported by the student on their application for admission. e.g. m5gthe psis code book for the different consult mother tongue the language first spoken by the student and still understood values. some example codes include: based on the statistics canada psis code. '001' - english a student whose parents had not themselves attended 'y' - yes first generation postsecondary education. 'n' - no pse a student who has self-identified as indigenous (status or non- 'y' - yes indigenous status first nation, mtis and/or inuit) 'n' - no indicator graduation the date (year and month) the student received the degree, credit transfer students would report "yes" if they were granted, at any 1 - yes 5. direct entry student record layout (not for phase 1 participants) granularity: one record per reporting year & reporting semester per student, inculde new, continuing and returning direct entry students #01 #01b reporting year reporting semester 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 2015/16 fall winter winter fall winter winter fall winter #02 #05 anonymized previous id institution name std0011 hs 1 std0011 hs 1 std0012 hs 2 std0013 hs 3 std0013 hs 3 std0014 hs 4 std0015 hs 5 std0015 hs 5 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 2016/17 fall fall fall fall fall std0011 std0012 std0013 std0014 std0015 hs 1 hs 2 hs 3 hs 4 hs 5 std0012 std0013 std0015 hs 2 hs 3 hs 5 2017/18 2017/18 2017/18 #05b previous institution type can-non-hs can-non-hs on-hs oth-hs oth-hs can-non-hs c on-hs oth-hs on-hs oth-hs #12 admitted grade point average c c #13 admitted credential deg-3yr deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr deg-4yr dip dip deg-3yr a-dip deg-4yr deg-4yr dip a-dip deg-4yr dip #14 #15 #16 admitted admitted admitted program program year title code bachelor of arts ba.unsp - unspecific2013/2014 bachelor of arts ba.unsp - unspecific2013/2014 #17 admitted session #18 registration status fall fall 10 - full-time 10 - full-time bachelor of arts ba.unsp - unspecific2013/2014 fall 10 - full-time #19 current grade point average c c c #20 current credential deg-3yr deg-3yr #21 #22 #23 current current current program program credits title code earned at bachelor of arts ba.econ in economics 5.00 bachelor of arts ba.econ in economics 10.00 #23 total program credits 15.00 15.00 #24 gender #25 birth year 2-female 2-female 15.00 2-female deg-4yr deg-4yr 20.00 20.00 adip-3 yr adip-3 yr 18.00 18.00 deg-3yr bachelor of arts ba.econ in economics 15.00 #28 mother tongue 1990 1990 1988 1990 1990 1992 1980 1980 #26 #27 immigration fsa of status permanent address 0 - canadian m5g 0 - canadian m5g 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian #30 #35 indigenous graduat indicator ion date 001 001 #29 first generation pse y y 1990 1988 1990 1992 1980 0 - canadian m5g 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 0 - canadian 001 y n 1988 1990 1980 2 - study permit 0 - canadian 0 - canadian n n 2017.06 2017.06

rapport annuel 2021 2022 table des matires 2. message des coprsidences du conseil 3. message de la directrice excutive 4. amliorations des parcours postsecondaires et du systme de transfert de l'ontario 9. recherche interne et projet de donnes 12. engagement du secteur & mobilisation des connaissances 16. informatique et gestion de projet 18. le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario & ontransfer.ca 22. planification stratgique 24. rapports financiers 29. rsum & description des projets financs en 2021-2022 1. message des coprsidences du conseil alors que nous entrions dans la deuxime anne dune pandmie mondiale, le monde de lenseignement postsecondaire a commenc le difficile travail dadaptation une nouvelle normalit. une poque o toutes les institutions taient confrontes de srieux dfis oprationnels et financiers, nous avons constat un engagement renouvel envers la collaboration. les tudiants, les tablissements et le caton se sont prpars une transition vers des espaces dapprentissage, denseignement et de travail hybrides. bien quil sagisse dun signe prometteur de normalit postpandmique, la transition na pas t sans dfis. nous encourageons la rsilience et ladaptabilit ncessaires sur tous les fronts pour en faire un succs. en repensant cette anne, il y a de quoi tre fier. en effet, alors que nous nous tournons vers lavenir du caton, il y a de quoi esprer. nous sommes ravis daccueillir dans l'quipe dre adrienne galway en tant que nouvelle directrice gnrale. dre galway apporte lorganisme plus de vingt ans dexprience postsecondaire et une passion pour le soutien la russite des tudiants; nous sommes convaincus que le caton continuera de prosprer sous sa direction. le caton a connu sa propre priode de transition au cours de la dernire anne. en novembre 2021, nous avons dit au revoir notre directrice gnrale, yvette munro. mme munro tait une prsence inestimable au caton et son influence dans lorganisme continue de se faire sentir. nous la remercions pour ses annes de service. nous tenons galement remercier andrew wilson et shauna love dtre intervenus en tant que directeurs gnraux par intrim alors que le caton sest lanc dans la recherche dun nouveau directeur gnral. leur travail a t essentiel pour aider le caton naviguer dans les eaux de ladaptation une nouvelle normalit. pendant tout ce temps, le caton a continu de travailler de manire constante au service du systme de transfert postsecondaire de lontario et de sadapter aux besoins changeants des tudiants et du personnel transfrs. nous avons vu des projets de recherche sur le couplage de donnes mener de nouvelles perspectives, des tablissements amliorer leurs processus de transfert internes, et davantage dtudiants desservis par ontransfer.ca. au nom du conseil dadministration, nous remercions le gouvernement de lontario pour le financement des travaux du caton, nos partenaires institutionnels pour leur collaboration continue et le ministre des collges et universits de lontario pour leur soutien continu aux parcours et au transfert. nous vous faisons part de nos meilleurs vux pour une autre anne couronne de succs. ron common, prsident, sault college deb maclatchy, prsident & vice-chancelire, wilfrid laurier university 2. message de la directrice excutive au cours des deux dernires annes et demie, le secteur de lducation postsecondaire a fait un travail exemplaire dadaptation, de changement et de pivotement afin de continuer offrir aux tudiants une ducation de qualit suprieure. il y a eu des moments o le pivotement constant nous a tous un peu tourdis, et nos collges, universits et instituts autochtones devraient tre fiers de ce quils ont accompli dans les situations les plus difficiles. le caton est trs reconnaissant envers le secteur postsecondaire pour son engagement et sa coopration continus, surtout face la myriade dautres priorits concurrentes. linstar de nos tablissements partenaires, au cours de la dernire anne, le caton est pass une nouvelle normalit , mais notre mission principale de soutenir la mobilit des tudiants en ontario par les transferts et les parcours est demeure la mme. le caton a ralis dimportants progrs sur plusieurs fronts, qui sont mis en vidence dans le prsent rapport. sur le plan personnel, jai galement vcu une transition importante lorsque jai rejoint le caton en tant que directeur gnral en mai 2022. jai t tellement impressionn par le travail du caton portant sur le soutien des transferts et des parcours en ontario, que ce soit en finanant des projets innovants pour aider les tablissements renforcer leur capacit de communication de donnes, crer des parcours, adopter de nouvelles technologies telles que mycreds (relevs de notes numriques) et mieux comprendre et soutenir les tudiants transfrs en leur fournissant des renseignements jour sur les transferts de crdits via ontransfer.ca. les priodes de transition peuvent tre un peu effrayantes, mais ce sont aussi des moments denthousiasme et de crativit. alors que le caton sengage dans llaboration dun nouveau plan stratgique pour soutenir la mobilit et les parcours des tudiants, tout est possible. comme tous les autres aspects de nos vies, la pandmie a chang lducation postsecondaire et a chang les attentes des tudiants quant leur cheminement postsecondaire et professionnel. nous avons tous appris que la cl du succs est la capacit trouver une voie suivre dans un milieu incertain, et le caton est bien plac pour continuer guider les tudiants dans leur cheminement. lquipe du caton est lun des groupes de professionnels les plus talentueux et engags avec qui jai eu le privilge de travailler et jai hte de voir ce que lavenir nous rserve. adrienne galway directrice excutive, oncat 3. amliorations des parcours postsecondaires et du systme de transfert de l'ontario les subventions en quelques chiffres le caton aide non seulement le systme postsecondaire de lontario dvelopper des parcours en demande axs sur les tudiants et mettre en place des pratiques de transfert cohrentes et transparentes, mais uvre galement lamlioration des systmes de transfert fonds sur des preuves. nos financements visent soutenir la recherche sur la mobilit tudiante, les amliorations au niveau du systme, le dveloppement de parcours et le renforcement des capacits de transfert au sein des tablissements postsecondaires de lontario. nous avons approuv 60 projets en 2021-2022 grce aux voies de financement et aux stratgies dengagement sectoriel du caton. cela comprend : 5 parcours de transfert 3 projets de transparence des transferts 10 projets de recherche 1 bourse de recherche postdoctorale 3 student action projects 7 datapilot (4 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 12 mapit (9 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 2 indigenous institutes transfer grants 11 mycreds onboarding grants 5. projets termins 8 parcours de transfert 10 9 5 projets de research recherche projets mapit 5 projets pilotes de donnes 10 3 projets research daction tudiant 2 projets de transparence des transferts plus de 30 projets ont t achevs en 2021-2022. pour plus de renseignements sur ces derniers ou les autres projets financs par le caton, consultez . pleins feux sur la stratgie : amlioration de la capacit de transfert des tablissements le caton collabore troitement avec ses partenaires pour valuer les rsultats et les expriences des tudiants transfrs, amliorer les processus et travailler la mise en place dun systme plus transparent en ontario. cette anne, il a largi ses stratgies de financement de la capacit de transfert des tablissements avec le lancement du financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones, ainsi que du financement pour lintgration institutionnelle de mescertif . 6. subvention de financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones le first nations technical institute et le seven generations education institute ont tous deux reu une subvention de capacit de transfert de niveau ii en 2021-2022. ce financement permet aux tablissements autochtones damliorer les parcours tudiants et les possibilits de transfert laide de soutien accru aux tudiants transfrs, de conseils en matire de transfert et dautres fonctions de transfert dtermines par ltablissement. mescertif en 2021, le caton a commenc appuyer lintgration des tablissements mescertif, projet national soutenu par lassociation des registraires des universits et collges du canada. il vise crer un portefeuille de crdits numriques de lapprenant et un rseau national dchange de donnes. ladoption de mescertif lchelle du secteur permettra aux tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario dchanger leurs relevs de notes de manire sre et par voie numrique. cela facilitera lchange des relevs de notes des tudiants et permettra aux tablissements de garantir la vracit des documents soumis lors de la candidature. la stratgie du caton a t largement adopte par le secteur lors de sa premire anne dapplication : 11 tablissements ont reu des fonds pour sintgrer mescertif ou pour lutiliser davantage aux fins dchange de relevs de notes. 7. mapit linitiative dapprentissage en collaboration de mapit aide les tablissements cartographier leurs processus de transfert actuels pour leur permettre dy apporter des amliorations. avec laide de higher education strategies associates pour faciliter le processus, chaque tablissement recueille de prcieux renseignements sur leurs processus de transfert. le caton a dj aid 28 tablissements entreprendre linitiative mapit, loccasion de laquelle chacun des participants a pu faire part des processus de transfert efficaces ainsi que des points amliorer. la cohorte n 4 est en cours et le recrutement pour la cohorte n 5 dbutera lautomne 2022. en 2021-2022, nous avons tendu linitiative mapit pour y inclure le financement des projets de phase 2, dans lide damliorer les processus de transfert. initiative dapprentissage en collaboration relative aux projets pilotes de donnes le projet pilote de donnes a t lanc en 2020, et cette anne, nous avons franchi une tape importante en aidant 25 % des tablissements postsecondaires de lontario augmenter leur capacit de rapport des donnes et valuer les rsultats des tudiants transfrs dans leur tablissement. tel est le cas de 26 % des universits et 25 % des collges. le caton continuera daccepter des nouveaux partenaires de faon continue. 8. recherche interne et projet de donnes enqute sur lintention de transfert en septembre 2021, caton a lanc sa premire enqute exclusive en partenariat avec linstitute for social research de luniversit york. alors que nous nous approchons de la fin de la premire anne, nous avons reu prs de 2 500 rponses lenqute. lensemble de donnes comprend des renseignements propos des prises de dcision des futurs tudiants transfrs et inclut le contexte dmographique et ducatif des participants. partir de cette enqute, caton a commenc mener des analyses sur les personnes et les raisons pour lesquelles certaines populations dtudiants sont transfres, sur les parcours les plus populaires ainsi que les types de programmes. lenqute a t prolonge de 12 mois pour augmenter la taille globale de lchantillon ainsi que pour continuer enrichir le panel des tudiants transfrs prospectifs et ventuels qui ont choisi de participer aux futurs entretiens et groupes de discussion. nous esprons lancer lenqute sur lexprience de transfert en 2023 pour suivre les tudiants de la premire vague qui ont fini par tre transfrs. ce projet a pour but de comprendre le parcours des tudiants transfrs, de lintention jusquau transfert. entretiens sur lintention de transfert nous avons men 53 entretiens semi-structurs avec des tudiants qui ont exprim leur intrt au moyen de notre enqute sur lintention de transfert. ces entretiens examinent plus en profondeur les raisons pour lesquelles les tudiants ont voulu tre transfrs et leur donnent loccasion de rflchir plus en dtail leurs expriences postsecondaires. nous avons transcrit et commenc analyser les rponses des tudiants, ce qui nous a aids laborer de nouvelles questions pour la deuxime session denqute et comparer les rsultats entre les deux mthodes de collecte. nous avons galement russi recruter une poigne dtudiants de notre panel pour participer aux groupes de discussion pour aider amliorer notre site web ontransfert pour les futurs utilisateurs. nous esprons publier nos premiers rapports partir des entretiens en janvier 2023. 10. rsultats des tudiants parmi les diffrents parcours de transfert caton a publi un ensemble de mmoires de recherche en fvrier 2022 partir de donnes contenues dans lenqute ucasmc. ces rapports portaient sur les parcours des candidats aux collges et universits de lontario et traitaient de sujets tels que les variations rgionales des aspirations un diplme et les effets du statut socio-conomique ainsi que des rsultats scolaires antrieurs sur les parcours de transfert. comme lucasmc contient des renseignements dmographiques propos des tudiants (catgories ethniques larges) que dautres ensembles de donnes ne contiennent pas, nous continuerons de travailler avec des donnes en 2023. nous esprons publier continuellement des renseignements au secteur en utilisant cette riche source de donnes sur les prfrences des tudiants candidats. les prochains rapports comprendront des donnes sur les tablissements de premier choix des tudiants et linfluence de la race/ethnicit sur les parcours de transfert et les aspirations en matire de diplme. 11. engagement du secteur & mobilisation des connaissances rsum de la recherche en collaboration avec les quipes de recherche et de communication, le caton a conu les sries de rsums de la recherche pour mettre en vidence les principaux rsultats de nos rapports de recherche et mettre laccent sur lapplication de ces donnes probantes aux politiques, la prise de dcision et la pratique professionnelle. les rsums de la recherche visent saisir les conclusions les plus importantes que le secteur doit connatre et susciter davantage de lecture et dintrt pour la recherche portant sur les transferts. les rsums, rdigs par meryl borato, spcialiste de la mobilisation des connaissances, apparaissent sur oncat.ca et sont promus dans le bulletin mensuel du caton. sries de dners-confrences de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits le caton a lanc un vnement dapprentissage mensuel pour le groupe de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance de crdits (gcrc), appel transfer advising lunch and learns (dners-confrences de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits). offerte une fois par mois, la srie dvnements dapprentissage vise renforcer les capacits dans lespace de conseil en transfert et cultiver des pratiques et une prise de dcision fondes sur des donnes probantes. destins la fois aux administrateurs chevronns et au nouveau personnel pour le transfert, ces vnements fournissent des renseignements sur lespace de transfert, les recherches rcentes sur le transfert, les pratiques prometteuses, et permettent aux participants de nouer des relations avec le personnel dautres tablissements. ce jour, nous avons organis des sances de conseil aux tudiants, de communication et de recrutement, et plusieurs sances sur le dveloppement de parcours. 13. centre communautaire en ligne pour le gcrc et le comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants le caton a cr des plateformes de communication interinstitutionnelles qui permettent nos groupes communautaires de partager des ressources, de poser des questions et de communiquer en dehors de nos vnements publics. le site est priv et rserv aux membres du gcrc et du comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants, ce qui facilite une communication plus fluide concernant le transfert, les sondages sur ce que font les autres, les possibilits de mentorat et le soutien gnral entre les membres. animateur communautaire sur le transfert lanne dernire, le caton a lanc une nouvelle initiative dirige par des tudiants appele animateur communautaire sur le transfert. les animateurs communautaires sur le transfert sont des tudiants qui ont t transfrs une fois au cours de leurs tudes postsecondaires. dans le cadre du programme, lanimateur reoit une allocation pour crer une manire crative de partager son exprience et doffrir des conseils ou des astuces aux tudiants actuellement transfrs. lanimateur communautaire en transfert reoit ensuite un encadrement et un mentorat sur son travail cratif par le personnel du caton. les soumissions comprenaient une bande dessine, des articles de blogue, un rcit crit, une courte vido et un essai photographique. jusqu prsent, nous avons organis deux cohortes qui ont termin le programme. vous pouvez consulter le travail cratif des animateurs communautaires en transfert sur oncat.ca! 14. engagement du secteur le caton, avec laide de carolyn poplak, gestionnaire de lengagement du secteur, et de sanja pavlovic, coordonnatrice des comits, continue de travailler avec divers comits tablis, notamment le comit de direction sur les parcours du nord de lontario, le comit directeur des tablissements francophones et bilingues, et le comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants. au printemps 2022, le caton a cr le comit directeur disciplinaire (cdd). le rle du cdd est de conseiller et dorienter le travail du caton, en collaboration avec le ministre des collges et universits (mcu), dans llaboration dun systme de transfert oprationnel. le cdd travaillera plus particulirement avec le caton et les comits disciplinaires (entreprises, services sociaux, etc.) afin de mener lexpansion de la transfrabilit des cours de premire anne. lobjectif est que les tudiants de premire anne puissent tre transfrs dans des programmes similaires avec une reconnaissance complte des crdits. 15. informatique et gestion de projet mises jour et amliorations informatiques l'quipe informatique du caton, y compris allison maldonado, analyste des systmes d'entreprise, et natalie isber, gestionnaire de projet, mise en uvre de cinq sites web sharepoint pour faciliter le partage dinformation et la collaboration entre les partenaires institutionnels de lontario et le caton. 1. carrefour de lducation postsecondaire de lontario 2. site web ontransfer 3. groupe des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits (gcrc) 4. comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants 5. site web du comit directeur de discipline nous avons galement lanc un systme interne de gestion des absences pour simplifier le processus de suivi des absences pour les membres de lquipe et la direction du caton et un logiciel de gestion de projet pour les membres de lquipe du caton afin daccrotre la transparence entre les quipes et damliorer la gestion et la surveillance des tches. 17. le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario & ontransfer.ca le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario fournit une plateforme facile dutilisation permettant aux tudiants dexaminer leurs possibilits de transfert et de recevoir du soutien lors de leur parcours universitaire. capable de prendre en charge les donnes de tous les collges, universits et instituts autochtones de lontario bnficiant dune aide publique, ontransfer.ca est en dveloppement constant afin de soutenir les tudiants et les institutions avec des informations pertinentes et jour. amliorations du site web ontransfer.ca en 2021, lquipe ontransfert continue damliorer le site web en proposant des supports adapts la conception et centrs sur lutilisateur. nous avons lanc avec succs lindex des programmes de cours pour la province, revu et mis jour le contenu du site web, et nous continuons trouver des moyens de simplifier et de rendre oprationnels nos processus de collecte pour les calendriers de cours, les offres en ligne et les quivalences de cours. fin 2021, lquipe a commenc un projet pour amliorer notre logiciel de gestion du contenu qui fournira une conception web moderne et des graphiques pour les utilisateurs en 2022 et au-del. dans les annes venir, nous continuerons nous concentrer sur lamlioration de la navigation, sur la promotion accrue des programmes daccs la demande et sur la facilit de recherche gnrale du site, ainsi que sur des communications plus cibles pour les tudiants transfrs, depuis lintention jusqu ladmission et linscription, en passant par la pr et la postcandidature. 19. analyse de donnes et croissance (1 avril , 2021 - 31 mars, 2022) la pandmie a continu davoir un effet sur la frquentation globale des sites web, mais pas de manire aussi radicale que lanne dernire. la frquentation globale a connu des augmentations modestes, passant de 1,24 % 4,88 %. au dbut de lanne 2022, lindsay mcrae (directrice des communications) a labor un plan de communication actualis afin daugmenter la frquentation du site web et damliorer la faon dont nous partageons les renseignements sur les transferts et les parcours sur le site web de luniversit. 174,180 utilisateurs uniques de ontransfer.ca 252,614 consultations de session la mise en uvre de nos attentes en matire de niveau de service (service level expectations) a permis de rationaliser les processus, ce qui a entran une augmentation de 29 % des fichiers de donnes institutionnelles entre le 1er avril 2021 et le 31 mars 2022. 243,642 1979 quivalences de cours parcours universitaires 25,000 possibilits de parcours uniques 20. salon du transfert dtudiants de lontario dans le cadre de notre stratgie de ramnagement et de services continus, lquipe ontransfer.ca a organis deux salons du transfert dtudiants de lontario russis lautomne 2021 et au printemps 2022, mens par sienna stock (directrice de service, ontransfer.ca). lvnement, organis virtuellement pour garantir la sant et la scurit des participants, a permis aux tudiants transfrs de se mettre en relation directement avec les institutions pour avoir une rponse leurs questions. la dernire dition du salon du transfert dtudiants de lontario a enregistr plus de 1 000 visites uniques aux stands virtuels, prs de 500 documents consults et 335 visionnages de webinaires. quipe ontransfer.ca malgr les dfis lis la pandmie, lquipe a continu de renforcer et damliorer nos supports ontransfer.ca et nos communications. des rsums mensuels cibls ont t labors en utilisant microsoft sharepoint pour transmettre des renseignements importants nos partenaires. lquipe a continu dajuster les attentes en matire de niveau de service et les engagements pour le secteur en dveloppant un systme de billetterie automatis qui utilise le flux de travail pour appuyer les communications internes et externes. 21. planification stratgique plan stratgique 2023-2026 le caton entame des consultations pour un nouveau plan stratgique pour 2023-2026. bien qu'il s'agisse d'un vritable dfi, la pandmie a donn au caton loccasion de se tourner vers de nouvelles formes de soutien et de prestation aux tudiants, ainsi que le temps dexaminer les dfis et les possibilits venir. avec la fin de notre plan stratgique actuel en 2023 et le recrutement de notre nouveau directeur gnral, le moment est venu pour le caton de tracer une nouvelle voie vers lavenir. grce notre collaboration avec le ministre des collges et universits, le caton a dj identifi quatre priorits long terme qui claireront et complteront notre nouveau plan stratgique : 1. tendre la transfrabilit de la premire anne : contribuer aux efforts visant rendre les cours dintroduction ou de base plus facilement transfrables dans tout le secteur. 2. accrotre les parcours intelligents pour les tudiants : travailler avec les tablissements postsecondaires pour largir les parcours des tudiants en demande. 3. aider les tudiants transfrs obtenir leur diplme temps : aider les tudiants transfrs obtenir leur diplme avec des cots excdentaires minimes en temps dtude ou en frais de scolarit. 4. intgration des instituts autochtones au systme de transfert de crdits de lontario : collaborer de manire plus troite avec le troisime pilier du systme dducation postsecondaire de lontario. ces priorits vont de pair avec le travail quotidien du caton en matire de recherche, dlaboration de politiques, de soutien aux tudiants, de collaboration institutionnelle, dengagement sectoriel et de technologie. grce ce processus de consultation, le caton explorera les domaines de croissance et dinvestigation de manire plus approfondie, en sappuyant sur nos atouts en tant quorganisme et en commenant des projets nouveaux et innovants. les consultations sur le plan stratgique auront lieu lautomne 2022 et lhiver 2023, et le conseil dadministration aura loccasion dexaminer et dapprouver le plan au printemps 2023. 23. rapports financiers raports financiers 2021-2022 nos tats financiers audits, qui comprennent ltat de la situation financire au 31 mars 2022, et les tats des rsultats, de lvolution de lactif net et des flux de trsorerie pour lexercice clos, ainsi que les notes affrentes aux tats financiers, y compris un rsum des principales mthodes comptables, se trouvent ladresse suivante: https://oncat.ca/fr/propos-de-nous 25. l'quipe de caton adrienne galway, directrice xecutive lindsay mcrae, charge des communications meryl borato, spcialiste de la mobilisation des connaissances shauna love, directrice des oprations sienna stock, gestionnaire de services d'ontransfer.ca jane waldner, coordonnatrice communication digitale andrew wilson, directeur de transfert et technologie ana skinner, directeur de recherche et donnes peter desera, gestionnaire des finances rod missaghian, chercheur principal natalie isber, chef de projet henrique hon, chercheur quantitatif allison maldonado, tina liu, analyste des systmes analyste de donnes d'affaires inna yeranosyan, coordonnatrice administrative, subventions et projets carolyn poplak, chef de alastair woods, projet: collaborations et analyste principale des programmes politques sanja pavlovic, coordinatrice de comits communautaires nicolas boileau, chercheur liwei liao, coordinateur des donnes de l'ontransfer melinda cheng, assistante aux projets spciaux : projets de donnes abdullah mushtaq, coordinateur xecutif 26. conseil d'administration ron common (coprsident) deborah maclatchy (coprsident) christine bradaric-baus lyne michaud serge demers elaine popp kathryn kettle prsident & pdg, sault college prsidente & vice-chancelire, wilfrid laurier university vice-rectrice aux tudes, canadian memorial chiropractic college vice-rectrice aux tudes, collge boral vice-recteur par intrim aux tudes et provost, universit laurentienne vice-rectrice aux tudes, durham college reprsentante d'tudiant membres d'office du conseil janet hope robert luke marny scully heather lane marc provencher adrienne galway vice-rectrice des politiques et de l'innovation, collges ontario pdg, ecampusontario vice-rectrice de la politique et de la stratgie, cou directrice excutif, ouac prsident et chef de la direction, ocas directrice excutif, oncat ancien membre du conseil : caitlin smith reprsentante d'tudiant 27. nos partenaires 28. rsum & description des projets financs en 2021-2022 voies de financement des parcours de transfert en 2021 #p2220: dveloppement de parcours de transfert en ingnierie et en technologies de lingnierie responsable du projet : universit queens kingston | partenaires : cambrian college, centennial college, conestoga college, mohawk college, collge seneca, sheridan college, collge st-lawrence, universit de toronto | montant accord : $282,700 ce projet appuiera le dveloppement de parcours multi-institutionnels entre le diplme avanc en technologies de lingnierie et les programmes dtudes en ingnierie en ontario. ces parcours permettront aux tudiants dtenteurs dun diplme avanc en technologies de lingnierie provenant dun programme ontarien participant dobtenir une quivalence dans un autre programme ontarien dtudes en ingnierie participant. #p2221: parcours en chimie et en sciences de la vie appliques responsable du projet : universit lakehead | partenaires : fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $12,296 ce projet vise laborer un ensemble de parcours de transfert entre le diplme avanc en sciences de laboratoire avec spcialisation en technologie de laboratoire chimique du fanshawe college et le programme de baccalaurat s sciences spcialis en chimie/baccalaurat s sciences spcialis en sciences de la vie appliques de luniversit lakehead. ce projet va aussi permettre dvaluer la viabilit du dveloppement de parcours supplmentaires dans les programmes de concentration mdicale et les crdits dingnierie connexes de luniversit lakehead. 30. #p2222: admissions directes et parcours de lanne suprieure au sein des collges darts appliqus et de technologie de lontario responsable du projet : universit queens | montant accord : $41,500 ce projet vise identifier les programmes en capacit dadmettre des diplms de collge (certificats/diplmes spcialiss) en premire anne/ lanne suprieure et dlaborer des parcours de transfert de crdits compltement cartographis la facult des arts et des sciences luniversit queens. ce projet permettra de rduire les obstacles rencontrs par les tudiants souhaitant intgrer luniversit queens, dans lide dlaborer des parcours dans des programmes dots dune capacit et dune demande au niveau de lanne suprieure. #p2223: refonte des parcours de baccalaurat spcialis en kinsiologie responsable du projet : universit lakehead | partners: cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, georgian college, sault college | montant accord : $47,971 grce ce projet, luniversit lakehead va actualiser et remanier les parcours de faon reflter les changements dans le curriculum et dans les normes de certification/dassurance de la qualit pour quils cadrent toujours avec le programme dtudes du baccalaurat spcialis en kinsiologie. de plus, ce projet donne loccasion de combiner les parcours similaires dans des parcours multilatraux, ce qui les rend ainsi plus efficaces, cohrents et transparents. #p2243: refonte des parcours de transfert en psychologie des collges boral et la cit vers luniversit de hearst responsable du projet : universit de hearst | partenaires : collge boral, collge la cit | montant accord : $46,030 ce projet va remanier les parcours existants entre les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst et les programmes des collges la cit et boral. cela permettra llaboration de nouveaux parcours et dune ententecadre visant faciliter le transfert de diplms et la tenue jour continue des protocoles dentente. 31. voie de financement des projets de transparence des transferts de 2021 #s2201: largissement de lchange numrique de relevs de notes en ontario par le biais de mescertif responsable du projet : association des registraires des universits et collges du canada | montant accord : $500,000 ce projet vise amliorer les processus de transfert des tudiants par le biais de lchange numrique des relevs de notes. cela permettra au projet mescertif de renforcer, dtendre et de mettre en uvre son portefeuille de crdits de lapprenant ainsi que son rseau national dchange des donnes au sein de tous les collges, universits et tablissements autochtones publics de lontario. ladoption de mescertif lchelle du secteur permettra aux tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario dchanger leurs relevs de notes de manire sre et par voie numrique. ce rseau dchange de donnes favorisera la transparence du transfert des tudiants en facilitant lchange de leurs relevs de notes et en permettant aux tablissements de garantir la vracit des documents soumis lors de la candidature. #s2251: ambassadeurs des tudiants transfrs luniversit trent responsable du projet : universit trent | montant accord : $11,000 ce projet va faciliter la mise en uvre dun rle pilote dambassadeur des tudiants transfrs. lambassadeur des tudiants transfrs de trent jouera un rle important dans le dveloppement et le maintien de relations entre les tudiants transfrs postulant luniversit trent et cette dernire ainsi que fournira de laide ses pairs lors du processus de transfert. 32. #s2255: largissement de lchange numrique de relevs de notes en ontario par le biais de mescertif, 2e anne responsable du projet : association des registraires des universits et collges du canada | montant accord : $500,000 ce projet correspond la deuxime phase dune stratgie pluriannuelle qui permettra dacclrer la numrisation et lintgration scurises des relevs de notes sur mescertif . il fournira une infrastructure dchange de documents lchelle du systme qui peut amliorer lexprience dchange de documents des tudiants transfrs. le projet sattaque aux lacunes relatives aux processus cls et aux dfis lis aux processus de transfert (p. ex., rception des relevs de notes temps, intgralit des documents ncessaires aux dcisions dvaluation du transfert des crdits/ dadmission). phase 2 de mapit en 2021 #s2248: laboration des politiques de transfert de crdits de luniversit de hearst responsable du projet : universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | montant accord : $86,020 ce projet appuie llaboration des politiques de transfert de crdits de luniversit de hearst laquelle devient une universit indpendante. il donnera aussi naissance un outil administratif des quivalences de crdits qui indique les quivalences accorder pour les 20 programmes collgiaux offerts aux 2 collges francophones de lontario : collge la cit et collge boral. 33. #s2249: mise en uvre des nouveaux processus dvaluation des quivalences trent responsable du projet : trent university | montant accord : $55,000 ce projet appuie les amliorations apportes aux valuations des quivalences internes luniversit trent en recueillant les cours dintroduction/de premire anne duniversits de tout le canada pour valuer leur quivalence ceux de luniversit trent. ce projet permettra trent dvaluer les cours en amont et de les intgrer dans la base de donnes de trent, diminuant ainsi la priode dvaluation de transfert des crdits pour les tudiants transfrs trent. #s2250: laboration des lignes directrices dvaluation du transfert des crdits de luniversit lakehead responsable du projet : universit lakehead | montant accord : $51,838 ce projet amliorera le processus de transfert des crdits travers llaboration de lignes directrices et la prise de dcisions relatives lvaluation de transfert des crdits en fonction des cours luniversit lakehead. ce projet comprend llaboration des supports de formation ncessaires pour conseiller efficacement les experts en la matire dans leurs valuations. 34. financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones #i2267: stratgies de transfert du fnti responsable du projet : first nations technical institute | montant accord : $79,637 ce projet aide le fnti amliorer ses fonctions de transfert dans plusieurs domaines cls par le biais dun coordonnateur de parcours ddi. il sagit notamment de dvelopper et damliorer les activits actuelles de transfert pour les programmes partenaires, de fournir aux candidats/tudiants des conseils en matire de transfert et une aide pour les processus de transfert, ainsi quune comprhension des possibilits de parcours. ce projet veille aussi ce que la transfrabilit et les parcours soient pris en compte lors de llaboration de programmes autonomes, ainsi qu dvelopper les processus dadmission, les mesures de gouvernance et les politiques lis au transfert. #i2268: dveloppement de la capacit de mobilit tudiante dans la rgion du trait numro 3 responsable du projet : seven generations education institute | montant accord : $64,240 ce projet aidera le seven generations education institute (sgei) intgrer un poste de coordonnateur de parcours au sein de lorganisme ainsi que parmi le corps tudiant pour quil puisse tablir des relations de confiance et mieux aider les tudiants lors du processus de transfert. le sgei se concentrera sur la cration des politiques et protocoles ncessaires la cration de nouveaux parcours. 35. projets de recherche de 2021 #r2203: a qualitative analysis of the post-transfer experiences of college and university students in ontario chercheuse principale : dr. janice aurini | montant accord : $135,265 ce projet vise faciliter la comprhension des expriences post-transfert des tudiants postsecondaires et de la manire dont elles peuvent varier selon le parcours et la rgion. ce projet intgre une composante longitudinale afin de saisir le transfert des tudiants comme un processus social multiples facettes. ce projet de recherche peut permettre dlaborer de manire informe des politiques et des pratiques damlioration de la rtention des tudiants transfrs dans lensemble de lducation postsecondaire (eps) de lontario, notamment en amliorant les conseils aux tudiants, les programmes de transition et les initiatives visant aider les tudiants sadapter leur nouvel environnement institutionnel. #r2204: prvision de la participation aux parcours de transfert et des profils de revenu associs un deuxime aperu du couplage du tdsb au siep en mettant laccent sur le handicap responsable du projet : york university | chercheuse principale : dr. gillian parekh | cochercheurs : dr. rob brown and dr. david walters | montant accord : $119,609 en 2019, le caton a financ la cration dun projet de couplage de donnes personnalis entre le tdsb et la plemt pour dterminer quel point les tudiants transfrs taient diffrents de leurs homologues entrs directement luniversit quant leur probabilit demprunter auprs du programme canadien daide financire aux tudiants (pcafe). un rapport prliminaire a tudi les tendances lchelle de la province en sappuyant simplement sur le couplage des donnes du siep et du pcafe. un rapport secondaire a explor les mmes tendances en mettant laccent sur le couplage des donnes du tdsb, du siep et du pcafe. ce projet sappuiera sur le couplage des donnes du tdsb, du siep et du fichier des familles t1 (fft1) pour tudier un ensemble supplmentaire de questions mettant laccent sur les indicateurs sociodmographiques, plus particulirement sur le handicap, associes la participation aux parcours de transfert (dsagrgs) et sil existe une prime ou une pnalit de revenu net associe aux parcours de transfert dsagrgs et 36. au statut dhandicap. #r2210: parcours desp non linaires et accumulation de crdits phase 2 : exploitation des couplages de donnes denqute et de donnes administratives pour documenter le rle des antcdents familiaux dans les parcours de transfert dtaills project lead: institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) | chercheur principal : dr. xavier st-denis | montant accord : $167,367 ce projet sappuie sur le premier projet financ par le caton, intitul parcours desp non linaire et accumulation de crdits : portrait statistique et valuation des rsultats sur le march du travail (2020-2021), qui tait bas sur les donnes de ltude longitudinale et internationale des adultes (elia). ce nouveau projet entend produire 3 rapports de recherche et mettre laccent sur le rle des antcdents familiaux dans les parcours de transfert dtaills. #r2211: projet de reproduction des donnes du tdsb et de luniversit de toronto chercheur principal : dr. scott davies | montant accord : $27,290 ce projet va faire avancer les analyses exploratoires lies au transfert laide dun ensemble de donnes tires des dossiers administratifs des tudiants du conseil scolaire du district de toronto (tdsb) et de luniversit de toronto, en exploitant le champ de l tablissement prcdent au sein des dossiers de luniversit de toronto pour identifier les tudiants du tdsb arrivs luniversit depuis un autre tablissement postsecondaire. 37. #r2219: boursier de recherche postdoctorale ayant fait lobjet dun transfert responsable du projet : nipissing university | supervisor: dr. david zarifa | montant accord : $90,675 le caton verse un financement de contrepartie un boursier de recherche postdoctorale de luniversit nipissing dans le cadre dun partenariat de recherche multi-institutionnel financ par le conseil de recherches en sciences humaines (crsh). ce projet tudie les obstacles potentiellement rencontrs par de nombreux jeunes dans la poursuite de leurs tudes postsecondaires et de leur emploi en mettant en relation les donnes du conseil scolaire du district de toronto (tdsb) et les donnes administratives, fiscales et les donnes denqute sur lenseignement postsecondaire. le boursier de recherche postdoctorale prendra part lorganisation et lanalyse des donnes administratives longitudinales couples, la prparation des manuscrits et aux activits de mobilisation des connaissances associes ce projet, y compris la mise en avant des connaissances pertinentes sur la mobilit tudiante et sur le transfert. #r2242: lducation manque des femmes noires : handicap, accs et transfert responsable du projet : toronto metropolitan university (anciennement universit ryerson) | chercheur principal : dr. idil abdillahi | montant accord : $121,845 ce projet de recherche qualitatif va permettre dtudier les expriences des femmes noires handicapes ayant recours au transfert entre les collges et les universits de lontario. ce projet fournira des connaissances cls sur les expriences des tudiants transfrs et contribuera mieux comprendre ce que vivent les femmes noires, les personnes non binaires et trans porteuses de handicap ayant recours au transfert entre les collges et les universits de lontario. 38. #r2254: comprhension du rle de lorientation dans les parcours de transfert du collge vers luniversit responsable du projet : toronto metropolitan university (anciennement universit ryerson) | chercheur principal : sam andrey | co-investigators: andre cote, tianna thompson | montant accord : $58,053 ce projet contribuera une meilleure comprhension des profils et des expriences des tudiants qui relient leur parcours de transfert du collge vers luniversit (ctu) aux effets de lorientation scolaire secondaire et du choix des cours. laide dune enqute et dentretiens semi-structurs avec danciens et dactuels tudiants transfrs du collge luniversit, ce projet va documenter leur parcours acadmique secondaire et postsecondaire. par le biais de cet examen, le projet va chercher savoir si, et jusquo, les expriences dorientation secondaire influencent la raison pour laquelle les tudiants ont recours aux transferts collge vers luniversit et la manire dont ils y ont recours. bourse de recherche postdoctorale #r2256: bourse de recherche postdoctorale du caton responsable du projet : universit de guelph | boursier postdoctoral : j. sparks | superviseur : dr. david walters | montant accord : $110,000 cette bourse de recherche postdoctorale va permettre dtudier le choc du transfert et limpact des services de soutien sur les tudiants transfrs en ontario. le postdoctorant sera appuy par luniversit de guelph, sous la supervision du dr david walters, et le projet de recherche sera men en collaboration avec les membres de lquipe de transitions des tudiants, daccs et de recherche sur les partenariats dans lenseignement tertiaire (student transitions, access & research on tertiary education partnerships). 39. microcrdits en ontario : tude de la superposabilit et de la transfrabilit #r2245: opportunits et obstacles au transfert et la superposition de microcrdits dans les collges et universits publics en ontario chercheur principal : dr. scott davies | montant accord : $74,072 ($69,600+$4,472 hst) ce projet fera avancer la comprhension du potentiel de la transfrabilit et de la superposabilit des microcrdits. ce projet va permettre de mieux comprendre la manire dont les intervenants conoivent les dfis et les russites actuels lors de llaboration et de la mise en uvre des microcrdits transfrables, et ce, par le biais dune analyse approfondie des offres de microcrdits dans le portail ecampus. #r2246: approches sur la superposabilit des microcrdits : options pour lontario responsable du projet : higher education strategy associates | montant accord : $69,900+tvh ce projet vise analyser les approches de superposabilit des microcrdits adoptes dans dautres pays et territoires en vue de prsenter des recommandations pour lontario. ce projet comprend : a) une revue des renseignements publics sur les microcrdits offerts par les collges, universits et tablissements autochtones (publics) dans tout lontario; b) une comparaison des modles internationaux de superposabilit des microcrdits, en sappuyant sur la documentation acadmique et politique; c) des entretiens avec des administrateurs et professeurs de divers collges et universits (publics) de tout lontario; d) des entretiens avec 10 12 propritaires, gestionnaires et instructeurs de collges ontariens. 40. #r2247: tude de la perception des nouveaux arrivants quant la crdibilit des microcrdits dans la facilitation des parcours demploi et dducation postsecondaire responsable du projet : fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | chercheur principal : dr. alexander pershai | cochercheurs : dr. michele manocchi, dr. rob downie | montant accord : $74,882 ce projet va documenter la perception des tudiants sur les microcrdits, en mettant laccent sur la perception des microcrdits dans la facilitation des parcours demploi et dducation postsecondaire. il sagit notamment de savoir si la transfrabilit et la superposabilit des microcrdits doivent tre prises en compte par les conseillers des apprenants et les tablissements postsecondaires offrant des microcrdits. ltude permettra de dtecter les lacunes existantes et de fournir des recommandations pour le dveloppement et lamlioration des microcrdits satisfaisant les besoins en matire demploi et dtudes postsecondaires des nouveaux arrivants en ontario. 41. intgration institutionnelle de mescertif #s2224 | toronto metropolitan university (anciennment universit ryerson) | montant accord : $25,000 #s2225 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute | montant accord : $37,700 #s2226 | university of ottawa | montant accord : $25,375 #s2227 | confederation college | montant accord : $38,500 #s2228 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $25,200 #s2229 | sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $25,958 #s2230 | brock university | montant accord : $25,000 #s2231 | trent university | montant accord : $17,900 #s2232 | universit de hearst | montant accord : $27,720 #s2234 | mohawk college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $25,000 #s2235 | york university | montant accord : $25,000 42. phase 1 des projets pilotes de donnes #d2208 | durham college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $27,500 #d2212 | lambton college | montant accord : $51,843 #d2244 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $33,264 #d2253 | nipissing university | montant accord : $55,000 phase 2 des projets pilotes de donnes #d2202 | trent university | montant accord : $16,200 #d2209 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $43,395 #d2236 | algoma university | montant accord : $55,000 43. mapit 3.0 : projet de cartographie des processus institutionnels #m2214 | lambton college | montant accord : $10,000 #m2215 | the university of ontario institute of technology | montant accord : $10,000 #m2216 | wilfrid laurier university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2217 | collge boral | montant accord : $10,000 #m2218 | the canadore college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $10,000 #m2213 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | montant accord : $36,000 + hst mapit 4.0 : projet de cartographie des processus institutionnels #m2238 | york university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2239 | university of ottawa | montant accord : $10,000 #m2240 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $10,000 #m2241 | algoma university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2237 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | montant accord : $65,000 + hst 44. comit directeur disciplinaire #c2257 | algoma university: david marasco | montant accord : $20,000 #c2259 | collge la cit: isabelle gurin | montant accord : $20,000 #c2260 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology: mary pierce | montant accord : $20,000 #c2261 | sir sandford fleming college of applied arts and technology: david adam baker | montant accord : $20,000 #c2262 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning: melinda kao | montant accord : $20,000 #c2263 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute: susan sinclair | montant accord : $20,000 #c2264 | lakehead university: michel beaulieu | montant accord : $20,000 #c2265 | laurentian university: brigitte desjardins | montant accord : $20,000 #c2266 | university of waterloo: heather o'leary | montant accord : $20,000 45. animateurs communautaires en transfert des cat pour 2021 #t2205 | ahmad butt | montant accord : $1,500 #t2206 | constant yen | montant accord : $1,500 #t2207 | jennifer sparks | montant accord : $1,500 46.

expanding the circle: pathways for indigenous learners across ontario final report the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (confederation college), trent university, and the first nations technical institute, with insight and contributions from 1st, 2nd and 3rd circle steering committee members table of contents: acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................... 3 executive summary....................................................................................................................................... 4 introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5 the project steering committee ............................................................................................................... 6 project design ............................................................................................................................................... 6 relationship-building and partnership ..................................................................................................... 7 building common ground......................................................................................................................... 8 the environmental scan: institutional asset mapping .................................................................... 8 resource sharing.............................................................................................................................. 9 group discussions ............................................................................................................................ 9 final pathways for indigenous learners workshop ......................................................................... 9 collaborative and informed action: pathways, partnerships and principles ......................................... 10 speed-dating/networking ............................................................................................................. 10 pathways for indigenous learners ................................................................................................. 10 partnerships for indigenous learners ............................................................................................ 12 principles for pathways for indigenous learners ........................................................................... 12 discussion: drawing connections to the literature ................................................................................... 14 best practices and lessons learned............................................................................................................ 22 conclusions and new directions................................................................................................................. 23 references .................................................................................................................................................. 24 appendices.................................................................................................................................................. 29 appendix a: wrap around supports ....................................................................................................... 29 appendix b: asset map template ........................................................................................................... 32 appendix c: list of identified potential pathways .................................................................................. 37 appendix d: list of potential pathways and the status of implementation ........................................... 41 appendix e: sample implementation plan.............................................................................................. 45 appendix f: draft principles on pathways for indigenous learners ....................................................... 48 appendix g: draft memorandum of understanding .............................................................................. 52 appendix h: sample posters from steering committee partners .......................................................... 53 2 acknowledgements this work would not have been possible without the vision, leadership and guidance of the first circle partners: confederation college and the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning, first nations technical institute and trent university. in particular, we want to thank dan longboat, don mccaskill, s. brenda small, joyce helmer, suzanne brant, and adam hopkins whose dedication and commitment to indigenous education is creating pathways for indigenous learners. we also wish to thank the presidents of the first circle partnering institutions for their leadership and support for indigenous education. we also want to thank oncat for its ongoing and continued support of the pathways for indigenous learners work. we also wish to thank all second and third circle partnering institutions for your commitment to this work and to indigenous learners who are pursuing postsecondary education in ontario. in particular, we would like to say a huge thank you to the projects steering committee members for your commitment to and participation in this work. steering committee members and meeting participants: first circle confederation college, centre for policy and research in indigenous learning, s. brenda small first nations technical institute, suzanne brant first nations technical institute, joyce helmer trent university, adam hopkins trent university, dan longboat trent university, don mccaskill second circle algoma university, judy syrette, algoma university, dawn white algoma university, dave marasco algonquin college, andre obonsawin algonquin college, sherryl fraser canadore college, jeannette miron canadore college, mary wabano confederation college, leslie macgregor confederation college, centre for policy and research in indigenous learning, emily willson confederation college, shane strickland lakehead university, nancy luckai lambton college, jane manning amy kelaidis, mohawk college mohawk college, amy keladis northern college, diane ryder sault college, carolyn hepburn sault college, angelique lemay trent university, dawn lavell-harvard third circle confederation college, centre for policy and research in indigenous learning, charlene rogers canadore college, micheline demers george brown college, ian wigglesworth george brown college, lori budge george brown college, bob crawford lakehead university, denise baxter laurentian university, shelly moorefrappier laurentian university, melissa ouimette mohawk college, leah hogan nipissing university, tanya lukin-linklater queens university, jan hill queens university, allison yokom university of sudbury, sylvie renault university of sudbury, kristie roberts 3 executive summary in 2013, the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (cpril) (confederation college), trent university (trent) and the first nations technical institute (fnti) undertook a project, entitled, pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities. funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), this work aims to address a gap in supporting and advancing learning opportunities for indigenous learners, and learners pursuing indigenous studies, through the creation and formal recognition of indigenous specific learning pathways. results of the earlier phases of this project included the creation of three pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions, and a model for partnership and collaboration that could be shared. in 2016 the project expanded to include a 2nd circle of partnerships with 8 additional postsecondary institutions. building off of the success of this work, the project expanded again in 2017 inviting 5 additional postsecondary institutions to join the work, resulting in collaboration that now represents 16 postsecondary institutions across ontario. the objectives of this phase (2017/18) of the project were as follows: (1) to expand and share information on the project model by inviting additional postsecondary institutions to join this work (2) to develop additional pathways for indigenous learners that include plans for streamlining wrap-around supports and supporting sustainability of a pathway (3) to build capacity on this pathways project through developing a series of principles for creating pathways for indigenous learners across ontario approximately eighteen (18) pathways for indigenous learners were identified in this phase of the project, resulting in a total of approximately forty pathways for indigenous learners identified to date across 1st, 2nd and 3rd circle partners. the pathways are unique and diverse, spanning across the fields of indigenous studies, social services, environmental studies/sciences, business, education, general arts and science, leadership and governance, nursing, history, engineering/technology, and language. the projects steering committee also co-developed six overarching principles for pathways for indigenous learners that fall under the following categories: pathways, wrap-around supports, capacity building, respect and equity, data collection, and resources. further, critical requirements and possible steps that could be taken to strengthen indigenous pathways are identified under each principle. in the next phase of this project, the steering committee will work towards identifying indicators for measuring and monitoring the success and sustainability of their implemented pathways. 4 introduction more postsecondary institutions in ontario are developing pathways through the transfer of credits, which is allowing for increased learner mobility and unique educational journeys. recognizing this, the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (cpril) (confederation college), trent university (trent) and the first nations technical institute (fnti) undertook a project entitled pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities. launched in 2013, this project aims to address a gap in supporting and advancing learning opportunities for indigenous learners, through the creation and formal recognition of indigenous-specific learning pathways. in 2016, this project expanded to include partnerships with eight additional postsecondary institutions that whose representatives were considered the 2nd circle of partners. this work is grounded by the need to close a gap in education and employment between indigenous and non-indigenous learners, and the need to increase the presence and place of indigenous studies and education in postsecondary environments more broadly. these are needs that have been identified continually in foundational documents such as the truth and reconciliation commission calls to action (2015), and preceding documents like the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (2007), the royal commission on aboriginal peoples (1996), and the national indigenous brotherhoods indian control of indigenous education (1972). throughout the different phases of this project, pathways have been defined as the direct transfer of credits from one program to another. however, pathways have also been broadly characterized to consider the learners entire postsecondary journey including entering into a program, transitioning between programs, and exiting from a program, and the wrap-around support services that would be available to learners throughout their pursuit of a pathway. building upon the success of the model for collaboration and partnership, 1st and 2nd circle partners wanted to further expand upon building pathways and partnerships for indigenous learners by inviting additional postsecondary institutions in ontario to join the project. to date, this project has expanded to a collaboration that now represents 16 ontario colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. this work has also resulted in a successful model for partnership and collaboration around creating pathways for indigenous learners, a model that can be shared. in the current phase of the work (2017/18), there were three main project objectives. first, this project sought to expand and share information on their model by inviting additional postsecondary institutions to join this work. second, this project sought to develop additional pathways for indigenous learners across the most recent iteration of partners, and to focus on establishing plans for streamlining wrap-around supports throughout the pathways, as well as plans for supporting the sustainability of all implemented pathways. lastly, the steering committee sought to build capacity on this pathways project by developing principles for implementing pathways for indigenous learners in ontario postsecondary institutions. this report provides an overview of the application of the projects model for creating pathways and partnerships for indigenous learners to the third iteration (third circle) of partnering institutions, during april 2017 march 2018, as well the resulting pathways and principles for 5 pathways for indigenous learners. the second portion of the report seeks to draw connections between our resulting pathways and principles to relevant bodies of literature. the project steering committee the project steering committee has grown to include representatives from 16 postsecondary institutions (one (1) indigenous institute, seven (7) universities and eight (8) colleges) across ontario, who are a part of either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd circle. details on each circle of partners are outlined below. 1st circle: in 2013-2016 trent university, first nations technical institute, and confederation college began the process of relationship-building that grew out of their unique positions in indigenous education, as three distinct institutions that have a breadth of experience in working in indigenous education and with indigenous communities. through relationship-building and partnership, the pathways for indigenous learners project emerged. throughout the different iterations of the work, 1st circle partners have been responsible for participating in the work as well as for providing advisory support to new members (2nd and 3rd circle partners). 2nd circle: in 2016-17 the 1st circle of partners aimed to expand upon their model by inviting additional postsecondary institutions to join the project. in this phase, eight additional postsecondary institutions joined, comprising the 2nd circle of partners. 2nd circle has been responsible for carrying out the work established in the projects work plan and for attending inperson meetings. they are also responsible for providing mentorship and advisement to the 3rd circle of steering committee partners. 3rd circle: finally, in 2017-18, wanting to build off the success of the first expansion of the steering committee, 1st and 2nd circle partners undertook another phase of inviting postsecondary institutions to join the project. five (5) additional colleges and universities joined, bringing the group to a total of 16 postsecondary institutions from across ontario. project design a focus of this phase of our pathways for indigenous learners project was to expand the projects model, circles of influence (see figure 1) that was established in previous iterations of this work (see cpril, 2016), by inviting a 3rd circle of postsecondary institutions in ontario to join our process. this section serves to provide an overview of the projects design and the application of our model (circles of influence) which is categorized by the following four main elements: relationship-building and partnership; building common ground; collaborative and informed action; and pathways and partnerships for indigenous learners. this project is also grounded by indigenous methodology where ceremony has informed much of the project activities. further, relationship-building and establishing mutual respect and understanding of our responsibility to the work were integral characteristics of our projects model. 6 figure 1: circles of influence, the pathways for indigenous learners project model for partnership and collaboration (slightly modified version from cpril, 2016) relationship-building and partnership there were a number of shared practices and group values that reinforced the projects model, and that guided relationship-building and ultimately the work in creating pathways and principles for indigenous learners. firstly, the steering committee was centred by a shared commitment to supporting and creating equitable opportunities for indigenous learners across our postsecondary institutions. additionally, members of the steering committee dedicated themselves to working with an open heart and mind and with transparency, in order to build and maintain a sense of mutual respect and understanding. the steering committee also established a number of group practices that were critical to maintaining our shared group values. first, members of the steering committee illustrated their commitments to the project through their attendance at and participation in the regular and inperson meetings. in-person meetings have been considered as a critical best practice for this work, as it fosters relationships and creates a time and space for working together. additionally, important practices of the group included sharing a meal at every meeting, alternating host institutions for each meeting, opening and closing the meetings with a prayer, and closing meetings with round table reflections. similar to previous iterations of this work, the expanding the circle project was launched in a customary way, in the form of a feast that was held in thunder bay, ontario in june 2017. during this meeting, all project partners were brought together to share a meal that was mainly comprised of local foods, in order to begin the process of relationship-building. during this launch, 1st and 2nd circle partners took on the responsibility of presenting and sharing reflections on the previous phases of this work and the project objectives for the coming year. new, or 3rd circle partners, were responsible for sharing information on their institutions capacity to take 7 on this project of creating pathways for indigenous learners, as well as what they could contribute to this work. the project launch also included group discussions on foundational topics such as barriers and strategies for implementing pathways for indigenous learners, and was concluded by a formal expression of commitment to joining this work from institutions that now made up the 3rd circle. during the projects launch, project partners also confirmed the work plan for the year, as well a regular the in-person meeting schedule (see table 1). table 1: regular in-person meetings schedule and location date location nd rd june 22 and 23 , 2017 august 16th and 17th, 2017 october 23rd and 24th, 2017 december 13th and 14th, 2017 january 23rd and 24th, 2018 march 6th and 7th, 2018 confederation college, thunder bay, on trent university, peterborough, on lakehead university, thunder bay, on university of sudbury and laurentian university, sudbury, on george brown college, toronto, on queens university, kingston, on building common ground the processes of building common ground helped to establish a mutual understanding of one anothers institutions and the role of this work. it also was integral to the projects objective of developing principles on pathways for indigenous learners. building of a common ground occurred throughout the project, and was facilitated by a number of activities such as asset mapping, resources sharing, group discussions, and workshops. the environmental scan: institutional asset mapping each partnering institution was responsible for completing an institutional asset map, which is a document that comprehensively captures and illustrates an institutions capacity to implement pathways for indigenous learners. in particular, this process involves compiling information on a diverse list of assets, or qualities, entities, resources, etc., that serve as a source of strength for the development of an aspect of a community, such as the development of pathways for indigenous learners across postsecondary institutions (dorfman, 1998). asset mapping is a method that used in the field of community development, and is used to assist a community (e.g. a community of postsecondary institutions) in identifying their strengths, and through deduction, their weaknesses in their development (dorfman, 1998). the asset maps are intended to be used as a starting point for developing pathways as they summarize not only the programs that are available within the institution, but all of the assets that will support the success and implementation of a pathway. for instance, such information includes wrap-around supports that are available to learners, processes for recruiting indigenous learners, data on student characteristics, etc. 8 the asset maps are also considered to be living documents in that they can constantly grow as more assets are identified and categories are developed. for instance, there were several additional categories that were added to the asset map template in this phase, categories which grew out of group discussions on indigenous education and on barriers and strategies for implementing pathways for indigenous learners. in particular, the group wanted to better understand how each institution was supporting the trc calls to action, allocating core funding to indigenous staff and indigenous education, and engaging with communities, particularly in their decision-making on indigenous education. each institution had several opportunities throughout the year to share information on their asset map through both short overview presentations and one-on-one conversations with steering committee members from other institutions. several committee members also developed poster presentations to illustrate the highlights of their asset maps, including how they informed the development of pathways, partnerships, and next steps from their participation in this work. refer to appendix h for sample poster presentations. overall, there was group consensus that the asset map process was useful for developing an in-depth understanding of partnering institutions, including their own. refer to appendix b for the most recent iteration of the asset map template. resource sharing a number of resources that were developed in early phases of this work (e.g. asset maps, sample articulation agreements, examples of curriculum mapping, etc.) were also presented and shared with the group throughout the year. additionally, a number of resources were developed in this phase of the project that specifically aim to build capacity on our project within our partnering institutions and throughout postsecondary education in ontario more widely. such resources include a document on potential principles for pathways for indigenous learners, and institutions poster presentations that were informed by steering committee members asset maps and participation in this work. refer to the appendices for examples of the resources that have been developed and shared throughout this project. group discussions the steering committee also engaged in a number of structured and unstructured group discussions throughout the year to facilitate building a common ground on a number of topics that are foundational to building and implementing pathways for indigenous learners. the steering committee began with broad discussions on indigenous education, which led to the identification of a number of topics that they wanted to discuss in greater depth as a group. these topics included indigenous education, structural racism 9 and inequity, and barriers to and strategies for implementing pathways for indigenous learners. during in-depth discussions, the steering committee was often divided into smaller groups to discuss the proposed topic in greater depth. following the break-out discussions, all members of the steering committee would report back to group, where themes of the group discussions were generated, discussed and confirmed as a group. overall, the themes that emerged from the group discussions informed the creation of principles for supporting the development and implementation of pathways for indigenous learners that span the following categories: pathways for indigenous learners, wrap-around supports, capacity-building, respect and equity, data collection, and resources. further, a series of steps or recommendations were developed based upon strategies, needs, and gaps that the steering committee identified in relation to these categories. refer to the section, principled position on pathways for indigenous learners, and appendix f for further information on the steering committees principles on pathways for indigenous learners. final pathways for indigenous learners workshop finally, this project sought to build capacity on of all the work that has been completed to date for the pathways project through a final project workshop that was held at queens university in kingston, ontario. steering committee members invited representatives from their institutions who could assist them in advancing our pathways work once they returned to their home institution. the focus of this meeting was to provide an overview of the project and its model, highlight results of the project, and share practices and resources that have emerged from the work to date, such as our asset maps, wrap-around supports model, and principles of pathways document. steering committee members also had the opportunity to present institutional posters, which summarized their asset maps and the pathways and partnerships that resulted from their participation in this work. collaborative and informed action: pathways, partnerships and principles overall, relationship-building and partnership, and building of a common ground helped to facilitate achieving the projects objectives of following up on previously identifying pathways, identifying new pathways, and developing principles on pathways. this next section provides an overview of the projects results, illustrating how the process of speed dating guided the identification of additionally potential pathways, and how our facilitated group discussions guided the development of principles on pathways for indigenous learners. speed-dating/ networking similar to the previous phase of this work (2016/17), the process of identifying potential pathways was facilitated by several rounds of speed-dating/networking. this is a process that involves a series of brief one-on-one meetings between steering committee members from two institutions, who meet to explore opportunities for collaboration 10 (cpril, 2016). in the previous phase of this work, the steering committee was smaller in size, and most or all institutions had the opportunity to meet with one another. however, in this phase, while each institution held several meetings with other institutions, they were not able to meet with everyone. in part, this was a result of the size of a larger group, and also a result of the different stages that 2nd and 3rd circle partners were in. for instance, a number of 2nd circle partners were still in the process of implementing the pathways they identified in 2016/17 and not yet in a position to explore new partnerships, whereas 3rd circle partners had not yet undergone this process, and were in a position to explore many potential partnerships. in the initial speed-dating/ networking sessions, 3rd circle partners began discussing possible opportunities for developing pathways and partnerships, whereas 2nd circle partners followed up on the pathway implementation plans that they had completed during 2016/2017. in later meetings, steering committee members met to prioritize and confirm details on pathways that they would commit to work towards implementing. the next section will provide an overview of the results of this process and the pathways that have emerged. pathways for indigenous learners approximately eighteen (18) pathways for indigenous learners were identified in this phase of the project, resulting in a total of approximately forty (40) pathways for indigenous learners identified to date across 1st, 2nd and 3rd circle partners. refer to appendix c for a comprehensive list of pathways that have been identified to date. the status of the implementation of pathways varies across the group, from a number of pathways that will be implemented by september 2018, to pathways that are still undergoing exploration through formal meetings between partnering institutions. at the final workshop, steering committee members provided status updates on their lists of identified pathways. refer to appendix d for sample list of identified pathways from two and their status. overall, there are a diversity of pathways that have been identified to date, spanning the fields of indigenous studies, social services, environmental studies/sciences, business, education, general arts and science, leadership and governance, nursing, engineering/technology, and language. similar to previous years, there were typical types of pathways identified, such as diploma to degree and degree-to-degree, as well as unique, multi-directional pathways such as diploma/certificate to diploma (concurrently), or diploma to certificate. in this phase, in the identification of pathways steering committee partners were also asked to include details on a plan for streamlining wrap-around supports for indigenous learners throughout their pursuit of a pathway, including as they enter into an institution, transition between institutions, and exiting an institution. lastly, steering committee partners were also asked to outline a plan for supporting the sustainability of the pathway once it has been implemented. refer to appendix e for sample implementation plan. 11 partnerships for indigenous learners in addition to the diversity of pathways that were identified by the group, steering committee members also established a number of formal and informal partnerships around supporting pathways for indigenous learners, and indigenous education more broadly. for instance, regarding the support for pathways for indigenous learners, during a networking session, steering committee members from lakehead university and canadore college discovered that there were a number of pre-existing transfer opportunities between their institutions that could be enhanced to better meet the needs of indigenous learners. as such, steering committee members from lakehead university and canadore college began to explore a potential partnership and memorandum of understanding around supporting indigenous learners who are pursuing pre-existing transfer opportunities between their two institutions (appendix g). regarding partnerships around indigenous education more broadly, university of sudbury and queens university are also exploring a possible partnership around a shared indigenous language certificate that could be offered jointly and available to learners at both institutions. lastly, this project has resulted in a number of informal partnerships among steering committee members, where partners have expressed that they now have new colleagues and friendships across more postsecondary institutions that have grown from their participation in this project. principles for pathways for indigenous learners the third and final objective of this project was to build capacity for further pathways development, through the establishment of principled pathways for indigenous learners. specifically, the steering committee sought to develop and outline a number of potential principles that postsecondary institutions should follow in order to demonstrate their capacity, or ability, to implement such pathways. the overarching position and principles on pathways initially grew out of the themes that were discussed during group discussions on barriers and strategies for implementing pathways for indigenous learners, and discussions on indigenous education more broadly. the principles are grounded by steering committees overarching position on pathways for indigenous learners, which is as follows: indigenous learners will be encouraged and supported to pursue postsecondary education pathways that resonate with themselves, that meet their learning needs, and that support their self-determination and self-affirmation. this is the position that grounds the work of creating pathways for indigenous learners. this over-arching position is reinforced by six underlying principles, including: pathways for indigenous learners, student supports, capacity building, respect and equity, data collection, and resources. each section is further broken down by a series of recommendations that institutions should follow, or use as guides, in the implementation 12 of pathways for indigenous learners. a literature review on the emerging themes of our group discussions was also completed, and further supported the development and refinement of the steering committees overarching position and guiding principles. lastly, there are number of documents that pertain to either principles or positions on pathways specifically, or principles and positions on indigenous education that were revealed in the literature review and that informed the format and content of the steering committees principles. for instance, the structure of oncats (n.d.) principles on pathways guided the structure of our principles document. further, a number of the principles that were created by our steering committee are reinforced by a number of principles identified in the universities of canadas (2015) principles on indigenous education, and the college and institutes canadas (n.d.) indigenous education protocol. refer to appendix f for a draft of the principles on pathways for indigenous learners. the next section of the report will draw connections between the overarching position and guiding principles that emerged from our group discussions to relevant scholarly literatures and reports. 13 discussion: drawing connections to the literature the literature review has been structured to respond to six principles: pathways for indigenous learners, wrap-around supports, capacity-building, respect and equity, and data collection. starting with the truth and reconciliation commissions calls to action, the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, the royal commission on aboriginal peoples, and the national indian brotherhoods indian control of indian education, this review considered the relevant works of postsecondary institutions, indigenous organizations and research institutions, including the association of canadian community colleges (accc), the association of universities and colleges of canada (aucc) and indigenous centres at various colleges and universities. on december 21, 1972, the general assembly of the national indian brotherhood presented a paper entitled indian control of indian education to the federal minister of indian affairs and northern development. on february 2, 1973 official recognition to the paper was granted and all of the suggested recommendations were approved, thereby legislating the department of indian affairs and northern development to implement these recommendations. in 1996 the report of the royal commission on aboriginal peoples (rcap) reaffirmed the importance of implementing the 1972 policy paper stating that the federal government has generally insisted that schools conform to provincial regulations with respect to curriculum, school year and so on, thereby restricting schools ability to include innovative, culture-based curriculum (rcap, 1996). in 2006, the assembly of first nations prepared a report card which was designed to assess progress in the implementation of the recommendations from the royal commission. the report card stated that based on our assessment, canada (and by default, canadians) has failed in terms of its action to date (assembly of first nations, 2006, p. 2). concurrently, in 2006, the ontario provincial government had commissioned the first of a series of policy frameworks to begin to formalize the promising practices for indigenous secondary school students. ovide mercredi, in his presentation to northern ontario postsecondary educators said that we would not be focused on access programs for aboriginal students if the crown would have honoured their agreement to support aboriginal control of education. (sudbury, august 2010). in a summary report released in 2015, the truth and reconciliation commission (trc) published "calls to action" urging all levels of government federal, provincial, territorial and indigenous to work together to change policies and programs in a concerted effort to repair the harm caused by residential schools and move forward with reconciliation. building on this rich history of education advocacy, indigenous scholarship and experience, our steering committee consisting of representatives from 16 post secondary institutions, cocreated six overarching principles. each principle identifies the critical requirements and possible steps that could be taken to strengthen indigenous pathway successful for indigenous learners. 14 principle one: pathways for indigenous learners indigenous learners will be able to pursue pathways that that meet their learning needs and support their self-determination. the need to deconstruct the normal institutional bureaucracies and accepted access, mobility and transfer practices is imperative to strengthening communication and provision of appropriate opportunities and successful completion of indigenous learners within the current educational landscape. dr. marie battiste in state of aboriginal learning (2005) identified a number of foundational principles that are necessary in supporting aboriginal learning and education. they included: the recognition that aboriginal peoples believe in the importance of wholistic and life-long learning as being vital to their economic well-being; the inclusion of language, culture and the significance of land as integral for learning; control of the development of learning materials and curriculum and the recognition that aboriginal control is a legitimate right; the correction of inequalities in funding; and partnering with indigenous communities and leadership in any research activities, following ethical principles developed by the indigenous communities and leadership. the principles offered in this project by the projects steering committee are very similar to dr. battistes suggestions created 12 years ago, which further reinforces the need for direct action. malatest & associates (2010) identified barriers to accessing and completing postsecondary education including financial resources, discrimination and lack of role models. a secondary finding from this report identified a number of approaches and strategies that could be employed to strengthen persistence rates. these include: aboriginal student services, aboriginal access programs, and aboriginal designated programs. they cited that success was predicated on institutions providing indigenous learners with indigenous student services which fostered a sense of belonging and an opportunity to practice cultural traditions (p. 73). many scholars over many years have identified that indigenous students who retain their identity are better able to demonstrate resilience in postsecondary environments. selfdetermination in choosing an educational pathway has been noted as leading to success (alfred, 1999; antone, 2001; grande, 2004; huffman, 2001; jackson, smith & hill, 2003; kirkness & barnhardt, 2001; larimore & mcclellan, 2005; mckenna, 2003; and shields, 2005). strengthening indigenous identity and self-determination are critical elements in providing successful wrap-around wholistic learner supports. the recommended steps that emerged under section one: pathways for indigenous learners are as follows: pathways should be recognized as a valid course of study and eligible for student funding. indigenous studies departments, institutional committees on indigenous education, and community representatives should advise on the development of pathways for indigenous learners. pathways should be multi-lateral and reflective of indigenous andragogy/pedagogy. methods for developing pathways (e.g. curriculum-mapping and articulation agreements) need to be flexible and inclusive of indigenous knowledge(s), cultures and andragogy/pedagogy. 15 articulation agreements should include details on credit transfer and academic requirements, a plan for streamlining the wrap-around support services available to indigenous learners, and a plan for ensuring the sustainability of the pathway. staff and faculty within partnering institutions need to aware of and able to communicate details on available pathways for indigenous learners. principle two: student supports indigenous learners will be supported by wrap-around services throughout their pursuit of a pathway. creating a welcoming environment that is culturally recognizable and supportive is important in making indigenous leaners feel wanted, valued and successful. it is critical for each institution to initiate comprehensive wrap-around student support services that are wholistic, effective, and that align with the systems that support pathways to higher learning. institutional commitment to indigenous students can be established in a number of ways. many experts (antone, 2001; hampton & roy, 2002; kirkness & barnhardt, 2001; lundberg, 2007; may & aikman. 2003; and wotherspoon & schissel, 1998) believe that institutions that emphasize diversity, cultural safety and inclusiveness will create an environment where indigenous students can be successful. for example, many indigenous educators (bobiwash, 1999; richardson & blanchet-cohen, 2000; and wotherspoon & schissel, 1998) recognize that the integration of indigenous culture and history into the curriculum and the delivery of curriculum in a culturally significant manner lead to positive outcomes. mentorship programs have been identified as another strategy to increase persistence rates and the smooth integration of indigenous students to postsecondary institutions (accc report, 2005; antone, 2001; heavyrunner & marshall, 2003; jackson, et. al, 2003; larimore & mcclelland, 2005; and wotherspoon & schissel, 1998). this was reaffirmed with the bishkaa summer orientation/mentorship program offered at trent university which was an important finding of the oncat pathway project titled, pathways for indigenous learners: collaborating across aboriginal institutes, colleges, and universities (2016). in this phase, the steering committee also discovered the importance of in-person recruitment, where faculty from trent university met with prospective students at confederation to advertise and share information on their aboriginal community advocacy indigenous studies pathways. during these visits, steering committee members also recognized important wrap-around supports such as providing assistance with finding housing, finding funding sources to offset moving costs, and providing assistance on finding access to daycare services. as well, strong relationships between faculty and indigenous students have also been found to be an influential factor in encouraging students to remain in school. many reports (antoine, 2001; bishop, 2005; hampton & roy, 2002; jackson, et. al, 2003; kanu, 2002; larimore & mcclelland, 2005; lee, 2007; lundberg, 2007; richardson & blanchet-cohen, 2000; shields, 2005; and wotherspoon & schissel, 1998) suggested that when they are treated in a respectful manner, by professors who demonstrate personal warmth, a caring attitude, a genuine interest, with some knowledge of indigenous culture, students are encouraged and are thus able to persist to completion. 16 the provision of support services helps build resilience and creates a level playing field, which is integral to student persistence to graduation; however, it is necessary to examine institutional structures on a regular basis to ensure that promises of access and equity are in fact supported by practice. the recommended steps that emerged from section two: wrap-around supports are as follows: learners should have access to student services that support their wholistic wellbeing throughout their pursuit of a pathway, including entering into, transitioning between and exiting postsecondary institutions. in the development of pathways, partnering institutions should streamline support services to ensure that learners have what they need to persist throughout the pathway. institutions should share information on wise practices of successful student supports. principle three: capacity-building capacity building will ground the development and implementation of pathways for indigenous learners. white shield has asserted that the freedom to express our indigenous identity fully in our educational experience is paramount (p. 123). further, she maintains that mainstream institutions have a responsibility to ensure success for indigenous learners in higher education. lundberg (2007) goes even further, and states that student involvement and institutional commitment to diversity are predictors of successful indigenous student learning. she asserts that institutions have a responsibility for student success, and states her belief that institutions that clearly value diversity, in ways that are evident to students, have higher rates of program completion. concurrently, huffman (2001) has noted that students are often overwhelmed by the lack of familiar cultural connections and initial feelings of alienation within the institutional setting. white shield (2004) has spoken of the extremely painful periods of loneliness, depression and isolation (p. 118) felt by students as they begin their studies in institutions of higher education. she reports that these feelings commonly persist for months. in addition, larimore and mcclelland (2005) emphasize that feelings of isolation are significantly associated to academic performance (p. 21). academic institutions and student support services must understand the student experience from the time that these students arrive in the city. this essential understanding will provide insight into the multi-faceted challenges faced by indigenous learners, many of whom may be relocating from remote, rural environments to larger urban communities. in addition to renewing and extending engagement processes for curriculum review, and combining it with the acknowledgement of the negative impact of education on indigenous peoples, is the need to officially recognize significant indigenous contributions. this can be accomplished through textbooks, educational resources, elders and the ongoing curriculum 17 development to incorporate indigenous learning outcomes, andragogical, pedagogical and indigegogical practices. barnardt (2005) suggests that in order for education to be relevant to indigenous learners, it would be essential that it related to a sense of place and its associated cultural practices and indicators (p. 10). stewart-harawira (2003) proposes that indigenous knowledge is believed to come from the creator and provides explicit directions on how to live ones life (p. 155); that it provides direction on life, how to live and of the interconnections between all things, both animate and inanimate (p. 35) mcgregor (2004) agrees, adding that indigenous knowledge is shared orally through stories from generation to generation since the beginning of time. battiste and henderson further explain that indigenous knowledge is dynamic and varies from territory to territory as people interact with their ecosystems, and other living beings and spirits that share their lands (p. 390). indigenous students attending postsecondary institutions signal the ongoing need for support services. a successful learning experience is not limited to activities that occur in the classroom, but includes every interaction with every person in each department across the academy. the recommended steps that emerged from section three: capacity building, are as follows: in the development of a pathway, partnering institutions need to communicate information on their ability to support pathways for indigenous learners. in the development of pathways, partnering institutions need to identify and generate strategies for breaking down possible barriers to supporting pathways for indigenous learners postsecondary institutions need to create more opportunities for building capacity on indigenous education and learning throughout the institution, to strengthen their abilities to support pathways for indigenous learners. all staff and faculty within postsecondary institutions should be informed on critical documents such as the truth and reconciliation commissions calls to action, the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, the royal commission on aboriginal peoples, and the national indian brotherhoods indian control of indian education. principle four: respect and equity indigenous learners will be able to pursue pathways in an equitable and respectful way. the association of canadian community colleges report (2008) pan-canadian study of first year college students: the characteristics and experience of aboriginal, disabled, immigrant and visible minority students states that the presence of racism towards indigenous people in canadian society has had an impact on the desire of indigenous people to access postsecondary studies and then be successful in completing their studies. an attitude often shared by western educators that underpins indigenous education is to view different knowledge, learning, language and culture as problematic. cajete (1994) says, too often the indian student is viewed as a problem, rather than the unquestioned approaches, attitudes, and curricula of the education system (p.188). he adds, the knowledge, values, skills and interests that indian students possess are largely ignored in favour of strategies aimed at 18 enticing them to conform to mainstream education (p. 188). institutions have a critical role to play in reversing this assumption which can be demonstrated in a number of ways; community consultation in the development of programs and curriculum; an institutional emphasis on diversity, cultural safety and inclusiveness; integrating indigenous culture and history into the curriculum; and delivering curriculum that is based on and responsive to indigenous learning outcomes (accc report, 2005). the current curriculum in contemporary canadian schools is still based on western thinking and practices which only serve to perpetuate an educational experience that reinforces the divide between indigenous thought and practice and western systems of learning (battiste and henderson, 2000; bazylak, 2002; graveline, 1998; bouvier and karlenzig, 2006; henderson-a, 2000; henderson-b, 2000; swartz and ball, 2001). in order to create transformational change this current way of educating must change. a number of advocates (bazylak, 2002; swartz & ball, 2001; bell, 2004; jackson, smith & hill, 2003; lundberg, 2007; white shield, 2004; helmer, 2012) have identified that persistence rates and successful learning outcomes may improve if the current practices change to include content and context that aligns with the learners cultural heritage. white shield (2004) affirms that ...freedom to express our indigenous identity fully in our educational experience is paramount... (p. 123). obvious institutional commitment and responsibility, coupled with a healthy understanding of diversity will have a positive affect with respect to learner retention and success (lundberg, 2007). the recommended steps that emerged from section four: respect and equity, are as follows: in the development of a pathways for indigenous learners partnering institutions need to build their understanding on processes or policies that perpetuate structural racism or inequity in the implementation of pathways, partnering institutions need to identify and implement strategies for removing processes or policies that perpetuate structural racism and inequity principle five: data collection pathways for indigenous learners will be developed and informed by evidence (quantitative and qualitative data). the ongoing challenge to all of the approaches, strategies, suggestions and recommendations for the proposed principles revolve around the lack of authentic data. this is reflected in both quantitative and qualitative data resources in collection and interpretation. access to data, mining, collection, and interpretation must be done with indigenous peoples and the results and recommendations must be used to further the goals and objectives of indigenous peoples. many scholars (kovach, 2010; toulouse, 2006; turner, 2006; and wilson, 2008) emphasize the significance of involving indigenous peoples in the construction and implementation of any data collection effort and that they must be the authors of knowledge and interpretations. these scholars indicate the importance of recognizing indigenous research protocols to ensure that the research is conducted in a culturally respectful manner and that the knowledge that results is shared fully with the participants and their communities. 19 further, typical indicators used to measure success in postsecondary education, such as retention, grades, and employment status after graduation, may be limiting measures of success, as perceived or experienced by indigenous learners. for instance, in a project completed by nipissing university (2015) on redefining indigenous success in postsecondary education, researchers found that perceptions of success extend beyond measures of retention, grades and graduation, and include achievements such as building knowledge, building a strong sense of identity, reclaiming a strong sense of cultural heritage, and building a sense of responsibilities (nipissing university, 2015). the recommended steps that emerged from section five: data collection, are as follows: institutions should participate in collaborative and wholistic methods of data collection that demonstrate their ability to support pathways for indigenous learners (e.g. asset mapping). wholistic data, including quantitative and qualitative data, should guide the development, implementation and monitoring of pathways for indigenous learners. collaborative mechanisms for monitoring the success of pathways for indigenous learners should be established and shared. principle six: resources postsecondary institutions can demonstrate their commitments to reconciliation, in part, by providing greater resources to indigenous education through core funding in 1992, the ontario government established what is now referred to as the postsecondary fund for aboriginal learners (pefal), to provide support for activities that support the access to and completion of postsecondary education for indigenous learners. in order to become eligible for this funding, postsecondary institutions must establish an aboriginal education council, whose role includes providing advisement on indigenous education within a postsecondary institution (ontario government, 2015). while this funding is critical to the support of indigenous education and learners across many postsecondary environments, there was consensus among the steering committee members that more resources are required. in particular, there is a need for greater allocation of core funding specifically for indigenous education, for positions for indigenous staff and faculty, and for the student support services for indigenous learners. this need was highlighted among the steering committees asset maps, where it was evident that there are limited percentages of core funding allocated to indigenous education (including funding for programming, positions, and student services) across all partnering institutions. further, there is a greater need for development of permanent and full time positions for indigenous staff and faculty across postsecondary institutions. upon review of the steering committees asset maps, and from related group discussions, there are limited permanent and full time positions that are designated to or available for indigenous faculty and staff; hiring and staffing for these positions tends to be dependent on pefal funding. the steering committee indicated that postsecondary institutions could demonstrate their commitments to indigenous education and to reconciliation through the allocation of greater and core funding. further, paquette and fallon (2014) support this notion, and express that the greater support of 20 indigenous education and studies within postsecondary institutions could help build and improve relationships with indigenous communities. the recommended steps that emerged from section six: resources are as follows: postsecondary institutions need to commit more resources to indigenous education and learning and for hiring and supporting full-time and permanent positions for indigenous staff and faculty. in the development of pathways, partnering institutions should establish a plan for streamlining requirements for student fees (e.g. application fees, transcript fees, etc), and for funding opportunities such as bursaries and scholarships. refer to appendix f for the draft document on principles for pathways for indigenous learners. 21 best practices and lessons learned there are a number of notable best practices that have emerged from this pathways project. establishing a steering committee that is comprised of diverse individuals, who have diverse positions, across diverse postsecondary institutions in ontario, is a unique and integral feature of the project. having a diverse group of individuals within the steering committee allowed for cross-system and cross-cultural dialogue to take place, and provided opportunity for in depth and wholistic analysis of critical topics in our group discussion. furthermore, it also created a space for the communication of pathways that already exist and for discussions as to how to improve them, such as through more effective communication of what already exists, or through streamlining application processes, or by aligning wrap-around supports. the steering committee members commitments to attending in person meetings was essential to the successes of the project for several reasons. the commitments to regular and in-person meetings created a space for relationship building, building common ground, and completing the projects objectives. the method of asset mapping proved to be a best practice in this phase of the work. the process provided each institution with the opportunity to build their knowledge on their own institutions, as well as each others. the asset mapping process also resulted in the collection of a vast amount of data that can be utilized by institutions outside of this project, such as for informing decision-making around indigenous education within their home institutions. there were also several important lessons learned throughout this project that are important to highlight and consider in future iterations of this work. while the process of speed dating was very effective for identifying a diversity of pathways, the implementation of pathways themselves proved more challenging. in particular, once steering committees returned to their home institutions, it was realized that processes for implementing pathways takes longer than anticipated. as such, the steering committee learned the importance of prioritizing and setting realistic timelines for pathways implementation plans. the steering committee also responded to this challenge by having several group discussions on barriers and strategies for implementing pathways for indigenous learners to help identify where there were common challenges, and also what might be effective strategies for offsetting challenges. for instance, a notable challenge to implementing pathways during this phase of the project was the faculty strike that took place among ontario colleges in fall 2017. another common challenge was the need for greater resources (e.g. time, money, or staff) required for implementing pathways. an identified strategy was to invite additional members from our partnering institutions, who could help move implementation plans forward, to participate in our final workshop. 22 another lesson learned was that it is important to have consistent attendance of steering committee members at project meetings as many meetings built off of one another or integrate opportunities for working and following up on pathways implementation plans. conclusions and new directions overall, this project was successful in achieving its three main objectives, which included, sharing information on and expanding the projects model, building additional pathways and partnerships across new partnering institutions, and developing resources on pathways for indigenous learners. moving forward, the steering committee is committed to working towards implementing pathways that have been identified throughout the different phases of this project. additionally, the steering committee aims to work on the sustainability of the projects work, and the pathways that have been implemented. in particular, in the next phase of this project, the steering committee will work towards identifying indicators for measuring and 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(1998). marginalization, decolonization and voice: prospects for aboriginal education in canada. discussion paper: pan-canadian education research agenda. council of ministers of education, canada. 28 appendices appendix a: wrap around supports comprehensive wrap around supports interaction belonging a framework is the enactment of a respectful relationship with the rest of creation which shares this earth with us a framework is never a noun never simply a metaphor it is more than any words which attempt to denotate it a framework is a journey/ing with 29 spiritual purpose love - we are given strength to walk through all that comes our way as we seek to understand the creators purpose for our lives. accessing elders on and off campus aboriginal counselling on and off campus opportunities for cultural practices opportunities for spiritual practices mental learning humility academic bridging course intensive 1 or 2 week module adaptation of trents research and writing course adapting to systems in new post-secondary institution acknowledging and accepting indigenous cultural difference emotional reflection - truth e-portfolio (to be developed) completion of transition questionnaire/assessment (to be developed) weekly check ins with peer mentor/advisor managing time (transfer shock) self - direction (self-care, self-advocacy) counselling relational interaction - respect promotion of articulation agreements navigators college recruiters develop promotional materials: brochures, postcards, etc. 1st year aca, ncfs, et class visits 2nd year aca, ncfs, et class visits access programs class visits alumni base call/email/mail promotional material high schools career fairs virtual tours website promotion and information meeting with students who are pursuing and meet criteria of articulation agreement introduction to receiving institution staff and faculty assist with application process 30 checking in not out once at receiving institution weekly check ins with peer mentor/advisor follow up by support staff to faculty faculty engagement advocacy social belonging - honesty maintenance of cohort summer orientation biishka, kiikokanawge community connections friendship centres, family connections financial balance - wisdom income source funding logistics employment opportunities pre, mid, post moving costs budgeting bursary applications physical movement self direction courage housing/accommodations daycare, childrens schools safe neighbourhoods health care doctors, dentists, optometrists diet and exercise 31 appendix b: asset map template expanding the circle: pathways for indigenous learners across ontario asset map for partnering institutions the purpose of this document is to assist you in summarizing information pertaining to programs, courses, supports, opportunities, services, etc for indigenous learners within your institution. this information will be helpful throughout the process of this work, in creating learning pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions. when possible, include institutional data that could be useful to or inform the development or creation of learning pathways. **feel free to copy & paste any relevant information from your website** asset description programs and courses (that have a focus on knowledge/pedagogy, culture, knowledge, etc, or where there are indigenous learners enrolled, or that are delivered within communities) programs courses services/support/ resources cultural support (i.e. feasts, sweatlodge, ceremonies, sharing circles) academic support (i.e. academic advising, tutoring, various workshops) individual support (i.e. on campus counselling, elders) financial support (i.e. bursaries, food vouchers, bus tickets, emergency funds, food bank) resource centres? peer mentoring e.g. connections to upper year mentors (please include any informal supports (i.e. rides, out of pocket expenses lunches, coffee)) if you have a gathering space/student lounge/support centre, who typically uses this space? (i.e. 1st year students, 2nd, nonindigenous) 32 do you offer post-graduation services? (i.e. career exploration, job bank, etc.) are there linkages with specific community supports that learners can access? (i.e. off campus counselling, cultural support, etc.) special events and/or cultural programming? informal supports (i.e. rides, out of pocket expenses lunches, coffee)? learner demographics when possible include institutional data do you have a system for obtaining indigenous learner numbers? do you have the numbers for each group? who keeps the data? (i.e. registrars, it, student success centre) where do your learners come from? urban reside in same location as institution or relocated from another urban setting rural reside in location that is within the region of institution, i.e. drive in first nation community or small town remote fly in first nation or inuit communities language is there a language barrier? is english a second language for some of your learners? age is there a higher concentration in a particular age range? education what education level are they entering with? parental status do you have a large number of learners who are parents? prior learning experiences what work experience or educational experience or a combination of both are they bringing with them? 33 staff please list the positions that work directly with indigenous learners or within the realm of support services. (i.e. managers, counsellors, advisors, navigators) are there indigenous studies administration, administrative positions held by indigenous peoples in your institution? are there indigenous counsellors, elders, and/or peer support workers available at your institution? learner recruitment how do indigenous learners typically find out about your institution? do you have a designated indigenous recruiter? if not, how are indigenous learners recruited? (i.e. through mainstream services) where are learners recruited and in what ways? if in schools, what grade levels are targeted? how do you recruit learners for new programs? is there a formal way of tracking this? who makes the initial contact? how is contact maintained? is there follow up or referral to another person or department made? what information is given and by whom? outreach and transition at what point is first contact made with potential indigenous learners application, registration or other? who makes the initial contact? how is contact maintained? is there follow up or referral to another person or department made? what information is given and by whom? 34 if they are directly from high school, does your department have relationships with guidance counsellors or others that work directly with indigenous learners? who helps learners with the transition to your institution? does your department assist with securing housing, daycare or other essential services for learners? does campus residence provide targeted accommodation for indigenous learners? are there specific transition services offered to indigenous learners transfer students? (i.e. separate orientation, eligibility for on campus housing) decision making who is responsible for making decisions for indigenous learners within your institution? are there any groups or councils (e.g. aboriginal education council) that assist in decision making for indigenous learners at your institution? if so, what groups? does your institution have indigenous representation in decision making processes e.g. sitting on the board of governors, sitting in on senior leadership meetings? institutional setting aside from curriculum, in what ways are indigenous knowledge(s) reflected within your institution? the cultures of learning institutions differ from each other; what potential adjustments would indigenous learners have to make as they enter another institution? (i.e. class size, what assignments are like (group presentations, essays, etc.) what does building of community look like at your institution? 35 what pathways, for indigenous learners, between post- secondary institutions do you currently offer? does your institution have a designated position for pathways related work? (e.g. a pathways coordinator who is responsible for the creation, development and support of pathways) does your institution have education or personal development opportunities to inform staff and students on indigenous cultures, education, canadian history, etc? student indigenous funding sources what funders do you currently have relationships with? is there someone from student supports who liaises with the funders? link to community when and how does your institution engage with and involve indigenous communities? institutional documents does you institution have documents or polices that reflect your institutions commitments to indigenous education and learners, the truth and reconciliation commissions calls to action and the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples? % of core funding for indigenous education what % of your institutions core funding is spent on indigenous support services what % of core funding is spent on positions for indigenous faculty and staff other (is there any other useful information that could help to inform our process of creating or supporting pathways for indigenous learners?) 36 appendix c: list of identified potential pathways from aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college aboriginal canadian relations certificate (not a ministry approved certificate), confederation college social service worker, native specialization, sault college confederation college, native child & family social service worker diploma, fnti to diploma to degree concurrent diploma, algonquin college diploma + certificate / concurrently native child & family worker, confederation college sault college, fsd certificate diploma to diploma anishinawbemowin immersion certificate, sault college native child and family worker diploma program, confederation college b.a. indigenous environmental studies/sciences, trent university b.a. indigenous environmental studies/sciences, trent university bachelor of education, lakehead university indigenous language teacher diploma program (iltdp), lakehead university native child and family worker, confederation college anishinawbemowin immersion certificate, sault college aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college gas certificate/diploma, mohawk college ba indigenous learning (can be concurrent with bed program), lakehead university b.a. social work, algoma university aboriginal studies, algonquin college environmental studies, algonquin college anishinaabemowin (ba), algoma university anishinaabemowin (ba), algoma university social service worker, native specialization, sault college native child & family services, social services worker, confederation college pathway type indigenous learning, b.a., lakehead university ba psychology; ba community and economic and social development; ba social work, algoma university certificate to diploma / concurrent diploma to diploma (for advanced for accreditation) diploma to degree diploma to degree degree to degree degree to diploma certificate to diploma, diploma to certificate / concurrently certificate to diploma, diploma to certificate certificate/diploma to degree diploma to degree, articulation caat university diploma to degree 37 ba community economic and social development, algoma university public administrative and governance degree, fnti aboriginal canadian relations certificate (not a ministry approved certificate),, confederation college aboriginal canadian relations certificate, (not a ministry approved certificate), confederation college concurrent certificate (online) with degree concurrent certificate (online) with degree aboriginal community & society certificate, lambton college concurrent diploma, mohawk college diploma + certificate / concurrently aboriginal culture & relationships certificate, lambton college concurrent diploma, mohawk college diploma + certificate / concurrently environmental technicianwater & wastewater systems operations, lambton college bachelor of arts in indigenous environmental studies (honours), trent university diploma to degree liberal studies, lambton college bachelor of arts (honours) in indigenous studies, trent university diploma to degree community justices services, canadore college b.a. indigenous studies program (3 year or 4 year option), university of sudbury diploma to degree indigenous wellness, canadore college b.a. indigenous studies program (3 year or 4 year option), university of sudbury diploma to degree addictions prevention, canadore college b.a. indigenous studies program (3 year or 4 year option), university of sudbury diploma to degree social service worker and mental health and addictions, canadore college b.a. indigenous studies program (3 year or 4 year option), university of sudbury diploma to degree social services worker (native specialization), sault college b.a. indigenous studies program (3 year or 4 year option), university of sudbury diploma to degree mechanical engineering technology btech diploma to degree 38 mohawk college queens university general arts & science (college transfer) aboriginal community and society (on-line) mohawk college lambton college general arts & science (college transfer) aboriginal culture and relationships (on-line) mohawk college lambton college indigenous wellness and addiction prevent (iwap) 2year program, canadore college fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (fasd) 1-year program, sault college diploma to diploma social service worker 2-year (ssw) program, sault college community diabetes worker 1year post diploma program, canadore college diploma to diploma business program, canadore college bachelor of business, laurentian university diploma to degree indigenous social work, sault college indigenous social work laurentian university diploma to degree social work with native specialization, sault college indigenous social work laurentian university diploma to degree aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college ba in political science, lakehead university diploma to degree aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college indigenous studies, trent university diploma to degree aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college ba community and economic and social development, algoma university certificate to degree indigenous programs, confederation college anishnawbemowin program through synchronous web delivery platform, algoma university bachelor of health sciences queens university certificate to degree indigenous studies degree to degree indigenous healing and wellness university of sudbury indigenous studies general education equivalencies & bog certificate supplement general education equivalencies & bog certificate supplement degree to degree 39 queens university university of sudbury trent university algoma university shingwauk kinoomaage gamig university-touniversity indigenous languages certificate queens university algoma university ba in cesd indigenous languages diploma/minor university of sudbury university of sudbury ba in indigenous studies certificate to diploma or degree university-touniversity 40 appendix d: list of potential pathways and their status of implementation (confederation college) identified pathways table confederation college from direction to pathway type diploma to degree update 1 native child and family worker, confederation college ba psychology, ba community and economic and social development, ba social work, algoma university 2 aboriginal canadian relations certificate (online), confederation college ba community and economic and social development, algoma university degree + certificate (online) concurrently curriculum is be shared for faculty review 3 aboriginal canadian relations certificate, confederation college aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college indigenous programs, confederation college bachelor of arts programs, algoma university certificate into 2nd year of degree program articulation agreement in place ba community and economic and social development, algoma university certificate to degree anishnawbemowin program through synchronous web delivery platform, algoma university certificate to degree curriculum to be shared for faculty review initial discussions in progress aboriginal canadian relations certificate (online), public administrative and governance degree, all fnti student pathways, degree + certificate (online) concurrently 4 5 6 curriculum is be shared for faculty review in review 41 7 8 9 confederation college first nations technical institute native child and family worker diploma, confederation college native child & family worker, social services worker, confederation college aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college social service worker, diploma to first nations technical diploma for institute advanced accreditation in review ba social work, fnti, create pathways between community advocacy and diploma and degree in review public administrative & governance degree, first nations technical institute diploma to degree in review indigenous studies, trent university diploma to degree articulation agreement in place indigenous bed, trent university diploma to degree indigenous learning, b.a., lakehead university diploma to degree need to begin this process for review pathway meeting being arranged 10 aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college 11 indigenous programs, confederation college 12 aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college 13 aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college 14 access programming, confederation college ba in political science, diploma to lakehead university degree pathway meeting being arranged access programming, lakehead university pathway meeting being arranged tbd 42 15 confederation college, native child & family worker, aboriginal community advocacy 16 confederation college, native child & family worker 17 confederation college, native child & family 18 confederation college, indigenous learning outcomes 19 aboriginal canadian relations certificate, confederation college sault college, anishnawbemowin immersion certificate diploma + certificate / concurrently mou in progress sault college, social service worker native specialization diploma to diploma faculty to review curriculum sault college, fsd certificate certificate to diploma / concurrent all programs faculty to review curriculum mou in progress concurrent diploma, algonquin college diploma + certificate / concurrently awaiting approval 20 aboriginal community advocacy diploma, confederation college aboriginal studies certificate, algonquin college certificate to diploma curriculum to be reviewed by faculty 21 native child family worker, social service worker, confederation college 22 aboriginal canadian relations, social service worker, native family & indigenous social work degree (bsw) , laurentian university diploma to degree curriculum to be reviewed by faculty ba indigenous studies, university of sudbury certificate or diploma to degree discussions have just begun sault college, indigenous learning outcomes 43 child worker, aboriginal community advocacy program, police foundations, confederation college 23 early childhood education, confederation college 24 media production, confederation college ba folklore and ethnology. university of sudbury diploma to degree discussions have just begun ba, journalism, university of sudbury diploma to degree discussions have just begun 44 appendix e: sample implementation plan pathway template partnering institutions: algoma university and sault college pathway details title of pathway: pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date contact procedure for pathway implementation: eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: social service worker native specialization to bachelor of social work diploma to degree - exceptional au and sc fall 2018 dave marasco and carolyn hepburn minimum b average (ssw-ns) yes 45 minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: b minimum gpa or % required in specific courses not specific grades; only grade in overall program. total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) 54/120 transfer recognition transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of program courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): 22 courses 66/120 to be completed at au anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: approx. 2 years (4 terms) list of eligible institutions and their programs plan for streamlining wrap-around supports between partnering institutions au sc -sc providing office space for au staff -classroom visits at sc -joint orientation activities -joint admissions 46 plan for ensuring the sustainability of the pathway -program oversight by academic units -student tracking -annual review of articulation agreement -data to support success of agreement 47 appendix f: draft principles on pathways for indigenous learners draft principles for pathways for indigenous learners across ontario colleges, universities and indigenous institutes 1st, 2nd, and 3rd circle steering committee partners background in 2013, trent university, the first nations technical institute, and the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (confederation college) launched a project entitled pathways for indigenous learners1: collaborating across indigenous institutes, colleges and universities. this project aimed to address a gap in supporting and advancing learning opportunities for indigenous learners, and learners pursuing indigenous studies, through the creation and formal recognition of indigenous-specific learning pathways. the pathways project has since expanded to now include partnerships with 16 colleges, universities and indigenous institutes across ontario, and has resulted in the identification of a diversity of pathways2 to date. this project relied upon shared group values, practices, and processes to guide the different stages of the work, which include: formal partnership and relationship-building, building a common ground, and collaborative and informed action in the creation of pathways for indigenous learners across 1 learners refers to current, previous or prospective (applicants) students pursuing postsecondary education at a college, university or indigenous institute 2 pathways are characterized as the direct transfer of credits from one program to another. pathways are also broadly characterized to consider the learners entire postsecondary journey including entering into a program, transitioning between programs, and exiting from a program, and the wrap-around supports and services that would be available to learners throughout this journey. 48 our partnering institutions. this project is also grounded by indigenous methodology. ceremony has informed much of the project activities, where members are committed to working with an open heart and an open mind in establishing relationship building, and establishing mutual respect and understanding of our responsibility to this work. position on pathways for indigenous learners indigenous learners will be encouraged and supported to pursue postsecondary education pathways that resonate with themselves, that meet their learning needs, and that support their self-determination and self-affirmation. this is the position that grounds the work of creating pathways for indigenous learners. this position is reinforced by a series of principles that fall within the following sections, including, pathways, student supports, capacity building, respect and equity, data collection, and resources. section 1: pathways for indigenous learners indigenous learners will be able to pursue pathways that that meet their learning needs and support their self-determination. pathways should be recognized as a valid course of study and eligible for student funding. indigenous studies departments, institutional committees on indigenous education, and community representatives should advise the development of pathways for indigenous learners. pathways should be multi-directional and reflective of indigenous andragogy/ pedagogy/ indigigogy3. methods for developing pathways (e.g. curriculum-mapping and articulation agreements) need to be flexible and inclusive of indigenous knowledge(s), cultures and andragogy/pedagogy/ indigigogy. articulation agreements should include details on credit transfer and academic requirements, a plan for streamlining the wrap-around support services available to indigenous learners, and a plan for ensuring the sustainability of the pathway. staff and faculty within partnering institutions need to aware of and able to communicate details on available pathways for indigenous learners. section 2: student supports indigenous learners will be supported by wrap-around4 services throughout their pursuit of a pathway. learners should have access to student services that support their wholistic wellbeing throughout their pursuit of a pathway, including entering into, transitioning between and exiting postsecondary institutions. 3 e.g. https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-social-work/centre-for-indigegogy/index.html 4 wrap around supports reflect services that support the wholistic well being of a learner (social, spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, financial, and physical). 49 in the development of pathways, partnering institutions should streamline support services to ensure that learners have what they need to persist throughout the pathway. institutions should share information on wise practices of successful student supports. section 3: capacity-building capacity building will ground the development and implementation of pathways for indigenous learners. in the development of a pathway, partnering institutions need to communicate information on their ability to support pathways for indigenous learners. in the development of pathways, partnering institutions need to identify and generate strategies for breaking down possible barriers to implementing pathways for indigenous learners. postsecondary institutions need to create more opportunities for building capacity on indigenous education and learning throughout the institution, to strengthen their abilities to support pathways for indigenous learners. all staff and faculty within postsecondary institutions should be informed on critical documents such as the truth and reconciliation committees calls to action (2015), the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (2007), the royal commission on aboriginal peoples (1996), and the national indian brotherhoods indian control of indian education (1972). section 4: respect and equity indigenous learners will be able to pursue pathways in an equitable and respectful way. in the development of pathways for indigenous learners partnering institutions need to build their understanding on processes or policies that perpetuate structural racism or inequity. in the implementation of pathways, partnering institutions need to identify and implement strategies for removing processes or policies that perpetuate structural racism and inequity. section 5: data collection pathways for indigenous learners will be developed and informed by evidence (quantitative and qualitative data). institutions should participate in collaborative and wholistic methods of data collection that demonstrate their ability to support pathways for indigenous learners (e.g. asset mapping). wholistic data5, including quantitative and qualitative data, should guide the development, implementation and monitoring of pathways for indigenous learners. 5 wholistic data refers to the collection of qualitative and quantitative data from diverse sources across the institution including registrars, student services, faculty, learners, etc. 50 collaborative mechanisms for monitoring the success of pathways for indigenous learners should be established and shared. section 6: resources postsecondary institutions can demonstrate their commitments to reconciliation, in part, by providing greater resources to indigenous education through core funding postsecondary institutions need to commit more resources to indigenous education and learning and for hiring and supporting full-time and permanent positions for indigenous staff and faculty. in the development of pathways, partnering institutions should establish a plan for streamlining requirements for student fees (e.g. application fees, transcript fees, etc), and for funding opportunities such as bursaries and scholarships. 51 appendix g: draft memorandum of understanding 52 appendix h: sample posters from steering committee partners algoma university pathways for indigenous learners across ontario colleges, universities and indigenous institutes who we are algoma university aspires to be a recognized leader in anishinaabe learning through partnerships, the incorporation of anishinaabe language and culture throughout the institution, and fulfillment of our special mission. institutional relationships the following assets define algoma university and demonstrates our capacity to participate in/ take on this work: -programming with a focus on indigenous knowledge and pedagogy (ba in anishinaabemowin, ba in community economic and social development, bachelor of social work, other courses) -anishinaabe initiatives division organizes academic and cultural programs, services, and events -anishinaabe student advisor, anishinaabe outreach officer, anishinaabe social and cultural program coordinator new directions continued collaboration with universities, colleges, indigenous institutes, and first nation communities covenant with the shingwauk education trust wrap around supports partnership with shingwauk kinoomaage gamig relationship building shingwauk residential schools centre personal attention children of shingwauk alumni association exploration anishinaabe peoples council framework for indigenous student success shingwauk anishinaabe students association evaluating results anishinaabe student life centre shirley horn, first-ever chancellor of algoma university pathways and partnerships sault college social service worker (native specialization) to algoma university bachelor of social work -proceeding to algoma university senate for approval march 2018 -plans for co-location of staff and assignment of anishinaabe student advisor to support transition of students -joint admissions algoma university ba in anishinaabemowin to lakehead university bachelor of education and indigenous language teacher diploma program -engage faculty in discussions during summer months algoma university ba in community economic and social development and university of sudbury ba in indigenous studies -potential collaboration on james bay coast; discussions ongoing algoma university and confederation college -identified several areas of affinity; further exploration to take place algoma university, trent university, and shingwauk kinoomaage gamig -potential collaboration with algoma university, trent university, and shingwauk kinoomaage gamig 53 canadore college pathways for indigenous learners across ontario colleges, universities and indigenous institutes who we are draft document institutional relationships community partnerships local partners including north bay indian friendship centre, nipissing first nation, true self strong relationships with indigenous communities to deliver programs and community led programs based on their needs strategic partnerships with culturally-aware employers to support students into meaningful work indigenous education partners including fnti, seven gens, neca, and aei opened in 1967 - focus on student success, program and service excellence, connection to community, sustainability and innovation over 65 full time and apprenticeship programs and even more part time programs over 3700 students from over 400 communities graduating 1000 students per year we provide wraparound support to our students often the whole family and that support is academic, emotional, social and spiritual. we design our services to support students in all aspects of their lives and that support is important to transition, retention and student success mary wabano director first peoples centre/associate dean of indigenous studies what about student experience? create pathways that consider and include wrap around supports review existing pathways and create mou to include transition plans that improve the student experience create partnership that support learners transitions and includes community supports create sustainability plan for pathways internal partnerships school of indigenous studies includes 7 culture based programs employing indigenous faculty, using land based and experiential learning and have 80.5% retention rate for indigenous learners casa canadore aboriginal student association the village a new learning, teaching and gathering space reflecting culture and experiential and land-based learning (partnership between school of indigenous students and health, human care and wellness) 7 new pathways created new directions pathways and partnerships how to we better support student transitions lakehead university mou supporting students nipissing university reviewing existing and making them better sault college diploma to diploma combining fasd and iwap, community diabetes worker, and ssw laurentian university business pathway university of sudbury expanding existing and creating new indigenous pathway (ssw, iwap, cjs and mha to indigenous studies degree program 54 confederation college 55 laurentian university 56 university of sudbury 57

research brief policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states rod missaghian, oncat august 2020 policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 2 missaghian | august 2020 introduction in comparison to other jurisdictions, ontarios postsecondary education system (pse) is a relatively late entrant into the field of transfer. when our college system was formed in the 1960s, there was little intention that it would serve as a stepping-stone to university. only in recent decades have we witnessed the boundaries between our sectors loosen, initially through the formation of the college university consortium council and then with oncat (formed in 2011). these entities have worked to facilitate student mobility across the system via a set of articulation agreements that serve as bridges between institutions. these agreements, both bi-lateral and multi-lateral, are formed by autonomous institutions absent of a government mandate, coercion, or strong incentives. by comparison, the united states has had a much longer investment in transfer. american states with highly developed transfer systems, and even those with newer systems, provide international observers with diverse playbooks by which to address elements of the transfer function within their own jurisdictions. moreover, the wealth of empirical transfer research within the u.s. provides solid grounding upon which to judge the relative merits of policy innovations, which could potentially be transplanted with care. there is no publicly available data on credit loss in ontario. however, american data provides some insight into its prevalence. a recent report performed by the united states government accountability office (2017) found that, on average, american transfer students lost the equivalent of a semesters worth of credits. acknowledging the extensive and varied american experiences with transfer, oncat recently performed a scan of statewide transfer policy innovations across the u.s. we conducted a comprehensive review of scholarly and policy-oriented articles and reports while focusing on statewide guaranteed transfer of associate's degrees, statewide reverse transfer, common lower-division courses, and common course numbering. our goal was to identify useful practices that merit consideration for ontario. rather than attempt to push the sector in any direction, we hope to kick-start fruitful conversations about potential strategies to improve the ontario transfer system. our review of american pse systems has netted various interrelated innovations that warrant attention. these are innovations that have the potential to contribute to a more effective transfer system in ontario, from both a student experience as well as a fiscal policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 3 missaghian | august 2020 perspective. these are viewpoints that must be more carefully balanced than ever, given the radical transformations that have been forced upon us by covid-19. below, we provide a brief overview of what each of these policy innovations mean and accomplish. importantly, we also consider barriers to their potential adoption in ontario. in most cases, and as predicted, this exercise leads to more questions than answers. nevertheless, this is a useful outcome that should inspire desire for experimentation within our system. framing the problem: why credit loss matters one of the primary difficulties experienced by transfer students, and a focal point for many oncat activities, is credit loss. credit loss occurs when institutions do not recognize credits earned by a student elsewhere. such failure to recognize prior commensurate learning leads to the repetition of courses and elongates the time-to-completion for credentials. there is no publicly available data on credit loss in ontario. however, american data provides some insight into its prevalence. a recent report performed by the united states 2017 found that, on average, american transfer government accountability office (_____) 2014 students lost the equivalent of a semesters worth of credits. earlier work (simone, _____) also found that less than one third of transfer students were successful in transferring all of their credits. as such, even in systems with far more experience in managing and facilitating transfer, credit loss remains a major policy problem. credit loss is also problematic as it forms a barrier to b.a. degree attainment. students who transfer all (or almost all) of their community college credits are 2.5 times more likely to obtain a b.a. than counterparts who transferred less than half of their credits (monaghan & attewell, 2015). credit loss can also differ for various groups after controlling for demographic characteristics like race and socioeconomic status, making it an equity issue (giani, 2019). lastly, credit loss is financially wasteful for both students and government. tuition costs are already too burdensome for some students, who are saving money by completing a portion of their coursework at less expensive community colleges (belfield, fink & jenkins, _____). 2017 in the state of ohio, reforms aimed at reducing credit loss have been reported to save $20 million annually (see kisker et al., _____). 2011 1. this is particularly prevalent in systems where tuition varies greatly across sectors. according to the college board, the average instate tuition for u.s. public four-year colleges is $10,230more than triple the amount for yearly community college tuition at $3,347. policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 4 missaghian | august 2020 statewide guaranteed transfer in ontario, we combat credit loss through bi- or multi-lateral agreements that set out which courses are equivalent and will transfer. this approach respects institutional autonomy to determine equivalencies, but is labour intensive, and leaves many low-traffic pathways unpaved. in the u.s., roughly 35 state governments have taken a more comprehensive approach, establishing frameworks to guarantee statewide credit transfer (see education 2020 these policies can result in full credit recognition guarantees commission, _____). when students move between publicly funded institutions. considerable work is left for ontario to develop this supporting cast of policies and structures to ensure the success of more ambitious initiatives like reverse or guaranteed transfer. there is considerable variation in how these guaranteed arrangements function. in the state of california, the student transfer achievement reform act (star act) guarantees that students who earn associate degrees for transfer (adts) are granted admission to a california state university campus, and are able to complete their b.a. with only two additional years of full-time study. this arrangement replaced a previous situation where mismatches between community college and university curriculums led students 2014 to complete (on average) an excess of 33% more credits than required (see padilla, _____). other state systems, although they do not have transfer-specific credentials (e.g., adts), have developed legislation that more broadly covers associate degrees or a core set of courses. several states (e.g., kentucky, louisiana, and north carolina) also provide admissions priority to in-state transfer students over out-of-state students to ensure that transfer pathways remain accessible. out-of-state students pay higher tuition fees, so without such measures, universities might be more likely to select them to generate greater revenue. though increasingly popular, there are few evaluations of guaranteed transfer. looking specifically at the early experience of the state of california, baker (_____) 2016 found that the star act did not influence the number of transfer students. more recent analyses 2. it is important to note that these admission guidelines vary by state and often include restrictions, such as minimum gpas; students are also not guaranteed their program or school of choice (lipscomb et al., 2019) policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 5 missaghian | august 2020 of multiple states that have implemented adts (see maine, nevada, new jersey, idaho, kentucky, and mississippi) suggest that they can improve graduation rates at the community college level (spencer, 2019). nevertheless, we are not aware of any evidence that these policies have accomplished their primary goal: improving b.a. completion rates. theoretically, this is something they should achieve by virtue of improving the amount of transfer credit awarded. barriers to guaranteed transfer in ontario in ontario there is no system-level guarantee that students transferring from a community college will obtain a seat at an ontario university. transfer-specific diploma programs exist, but there is no legislation which renders them a guaranteed pathway into a university. the challenges to implementing a system-wide arrangement would be significant due to current governance structures. in states like georgia, a single governing body (board of regents) has complete authority over public universities. this facilitates system-wide arrangementslike guaranteed transferthat require layers of standardization and compliance. in georgia, 42 semester credit hours transfer seamlessly across state2018 central funded community colleges and universities (education commission, _____). coordination can also establish common course numbering systems that streamline transfer credit assessment processes. in colorado, for example, commonly numbered courses fully transfer across publicly funded institutions upon a students enrollment (education commission, 2018). by contrast, in ontario, university senates retain autonomy over academic decision-making, 2002 as such, as enshrined in the acts that created them (jones, shanahan & goyan, _____). establishing guaranteed province-wide transfer would require extensive consultation and persuasion to secure institutional compliance, or a central overriding of university acts, which would be unlikely. in either case, guaranteed transfer should be pursued once other basic processes and infrastructure have been established toward the development of an efficient transfer system. reverse transfer each year, thousands of students in the u.s. transfer from community college to university without first completing their associate of arts (aa)the approximate equivalent to an ontario two-year college diploma. in doing so, they leave their first school without policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 6 missaghian | august 2020 a credential after significant investments of time and money. this is a considerable 2017 suggest that riskdata from the national student clearinghouse (shapiro et al., _____) only 42.2% of american students who enrolled in a community college in 2010, and subsequently transferred to a four-year university, had graduated with a b.a. by 2016. reverse transfer initiatives allow transfer students to apply their university credits retroactively towards a shorter credential from the community college they originally transferred from. this is a meaningful process; obtaining a credential provides a significant boost in labour market outcomes, relative to having some pse but no credential (see giani, attewell, & walling, 2019). reverse transfer initiatives thus serve as a safety net of sorts for transfer students who transfer before obtaining an aa, and fail to acquire a b.a. as of 2018, reverse transfer was set in legislation or board policy in 17 american states, while another 22 states provide them through institutional agreements or mous (see education commission of states, 2018). perhaps the most popular reverse transfer initiative in the u.s. is credit when its due, through which 15 states were funded to establish infrastructure and processes to facilitate reverse transfer. in some cases, this entailed improved data capacity and technology to facilitate the sharing of institutional 2013 data and electronic transcripts for degree audits (taylor, bishop, makela, bragg, & rudd, _____). 2015 (p. iii), reverse transfer arrangements have five according to taylor & bragg, _____ main elements: 1) student identification: outlining the scope of the initiative, including participating institutions and student eligibility requirements. it also involves forecasting prospective usage and identifying target populations to develop operational processes. 2) consent: establishing procedures to secure consent for the sharing of necessary student data to execute reverse transfer initiatives. this can entail policy development at both the institution and jurisdictional (e.g., state/province) levels. institutions need to decide whether they want to adopt opting in or opting out policies, understanding that opting in would require them to do outreach to students. 3) transcript exchange: developing the digital or technical infrastructure to allow for data-sharing and storage. some states, like hawaii, which received 3. memorandum of understanding. policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 7 missaghian | august 2020 cwid grants, have instituted upgrades to their student information systems (sis) and developed new technological platforms to help students track their degree progress in real time. 4) degree audit: developing automated auditing processes to assess course equivalencies between coursework completed at four-year universities and two-year colleges. the products of such automation might include computer systems that help catalogue the potential transfer pathways available to students. 5) advising: engaging and informing students on the courses they need to acquire to secure a shorter credential en route to a b.a. degree. pre-existing infrastructure, state legislation, governance arrangements, and varying levels of institutional buy-in have led to different variations of reverse transfer across u.s. states. one potential drawback of reverse transfer is that it may have a diversionary effect for students seeking a b.a. by virtue of being easily available, it may prompt students on the path to a b.a. to opt out for a shorter credential that would facilitate early labour market entry (belfield, fink & jenkins, 2017). however, an analysis of hawaii and minnesota, two early adopters of reverse transfer policies (taylor & giani, _____), 2019 reveals no evidence that the awarding of an associate degree through such initiatives negatively impacts students progress towards a b.a. indeed, research shows a positive correlation between associate degree completion (prior to transfer) and six-year bachelor attainment rates (spencer, 2019). nevertheless, further research is needed to understand the causal linkage between reverse transfer and b.a. completion. reverse transfer in ontario as stated, no american-style reverse transfer policies currently exist in ontario. there are also significant challenges to the implementation of these policies in our province. first, we do not have a central data warehouse or other mechanism to facilitate the exchange of institutional data required for reverse transfer. nor do we currently have a tradition of data-sharing necessary to develop such mechanisms (green & baumal, _____). 2019 second, 4. the earlier cited study by taylor & bragg (2015) assessed reverse transfer processes for the 12 states that were awarded credit when its due grants and found that the optimization processes were critical in implementing the program. policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 8 missaghian | august 2020 in the absence of centralized governance structures, we would also need to rely on extensive consultation to ensure buy-in from our autonomous pse institutions. given the complexity of reverse transfer arrangements, we are unsure about the feasibility of such an approach; although, given that a number of ontario college/university partnerships exist (e.g., seneca/york), such a model could be piloted among established partnerships. third, it is unclear what amendments need to be made to institutional policies and other privacy regulations to allow for the sharing of student data at this scale. using student data in this manner may require additional consent not currently covered by existing data charters. finally, instructional design, curriculum, and program structures may need to be amended at colleges and universities when reverse transfer is one of the intended purposes. conclusion the purpose of this review was to summarize and explain some key transfer policy innovations in the united states. our hope is that this can lead to further exploration into how to continually improve ontarios world-class pse system. guaranteed transfer, along with reverse transfer, were highlighted, and various student and state-level advantages of these policies were discussed. the potential for improving student mobility, system procceses and degree/diploma completion rates sounds intriguing; however, it is important to remember that the emergence and success of these policies can vary depending on the state. furthermore, governance structures south of the border often provide more unilateral power to centralized entities to administer educational policies and systems. many american state systems were also established and remodeled with transfer specifically in mind. as such, they provide more fertile grounds for transfer policies than ontarios binary system. system level policies like reverse transfer also typically work in tandem with a collection of other complementary policies, like a common lower-core and course numbering, that are important facets in standardizing transfer across a multiplicity of institutions. considerable work is left for ontario to develop this supporting cast of policies and structures to ensure the success of more ambitious initiatives like reverse or guaranteed transfer. policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 9 missaghian | august 2020 references education commission of the states. (2020). 50 state comparison: statewide guaranteed transfer of an associate degree. retrieved on june 15, 2020. http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/mbquest3rta?rep=tr2003 baker, r. (2016). the effects of structured transfer pathways in community colleges. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 38(4), 626646. belfield, c., fink, j., & jenkins, p. d. (2017). is it really cheaper to start at a community college? the consequences of inefficient transfer for community college students seeking bachelors degrees. ccrc working paper no. 94, teachers college: columbia university. dadgar, m., & trimble, m. j. (2015). labor market returns to sub-baccalaureate credentials: how much does a community college degree or certificate pay?. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 37(4), 399418. giani, m. s. (2019). the correlates of credit loss: how demographics, pre-transfer academics, and institutions relate to the loss of credits for vertical transfer students. research in higher education, 60(8), 11131141. giani, m. s., attewell, p., & walling, d. (2019). the value of an incomplete degree: heterogeneity in the labor market benefits of college non-completion. the journal of higher education, 126. green, p., & baumal, b. (2019). legal, ethical and privacy issues affecting data sharing among ontarios higher education institutions in inter-institutional collaboration. college quarterly, 22(2), n2. jones, g. a., shanahan, t., & goyan, p. (2002). traditional governance structurescurrent policy pressures: the academic senate and canadian universities. tertiary education and management, 8(1), 2945. kisker, c. b., wagoner, r. l., & cohen, a. m. (2011). implementing statewide transfer & articulation reform. center for the study of community colleges report, 11(1). lipscomb, t., wallin, c., braun, d., clatterbuck, k., dana, f., keniston, l., ... & mason, c. (2019). improving transferability case studies: building a better bridge to the bachelors. inquiry: the journal of the virginia community collges, 22(1). monaghan, d. b., & attewell, p. (2015). the community college route to the bachelors degree. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 37(1), 7091. policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 10 missaghian | august 2020 simone, s. a. (2014). transferability of postsecondary credit following student transfer or coenrollment. statistical analysis report. nces 2014163. national center for education statistics. spencer, g. (2019). promoting the attainment-to-transfer pathway: effects of transfer associate degree policies across states. the review of higher education, 43(2), 553580. shapiro, d., dundar, a., huie, f., wakhungu, p.k., yuan, x., nathan, a. & hwang, y. (2017, september). tracking transfer: measures of effectiveness in helping community college students to complete bachelors degrees (signature report no. 13). herndon, va: national student clearinghouse research center taylor, j. l., & giani, m. (2019). modeling the effect of the reverse credit transfer associates degree: evidence from two states. the review of higher education, 42(2), 427455. taylor, j. l., & bragg, d. d. (2015). optimizing reverse transfer policies and processes: lessons from twelve cwid states. champaign, il: office of community college research and leadership, university of illinois at urbana-champaign. taylor, j. l. (2016). reverse credit transfer policies and programs: policy rationales, implementation, and implications. community college journal of research and practice, 40(12), 10741090. taylor, j. l., bishop, c., makela, j. p., bragg, d. d., & ruud, c. m. (2013). credit when its due: results from the baseline study. champaign, il: office of community college research and leadership, university of illinois at urbana-champaign. policy innovations in transfer: a look across the united states 11 missaghian | august 2020 rod missaghian rod missaghian is a researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/resources established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2020

project snapshot transfer data custom linkages: improving internal reporting capacity type: data linkages project number: r2144 project lead: canadore college of applied arts and technology project summary this project supports the development of a custom data linkage drawing on data across various administrative data sources within canadore college. it will improve internal reporting capacity and increase data related to transfer student outcomes at canadore. approach overview this project will aim to construct a custom linkage drawing on data across various administrative data sources within canadore college. phase 1 of this project will seek to pool information from across the canadore student information system (sis), the college graduate (kpi) survey, and other pertinent sources. 1. identification of transfer student records for the project 2. review of transcripts and transfer credit workflow data 3. cross reference of the data from the various sources to the sis data set project rationale create a baseline of our transfer credit data. learn what process enhancements will garner the best data within our current systems. methods first, not all data is housed in our student information system, making it very a difficult and manual process to gather all the data required. some examples of challenges we encountered were the availability and ease of retrieval of transcripts from previous institutions. there were a mix of transcripts that were electronic, but many were hard copy transcripts in individual student files. this made for a manual and time-consuming process of trying to retrieve data points such as gpas, previous credentials earned and names of previous institutions. please see institutional outcomes on recommended process changes. another major downfall to trying to map transfer credit students to graduate survey outcomes was response rate. of the over 1,700 transfer credit students, only 111 of those students completed the kpi graduate survey. of those 111 only 41 had recorded any employment related data, therefore trying to draw any conclusions was difficult based on sample size. please see institutional outcomes on recommended process changes for using graduate data to link to transfer credit students. limitations manual review record access during pandemic main collaborators the main collaborators for this project were institutional research, information technology, and the transfer credit officer research findings based on the projects rational of creating a baseline of our transfer credit data as well as learning what process enhancements will garner the best data within our current systems, it became clear that process enhancements would have to occur in order to remove the manual data collection as well as enhancing the amount of data points we could have. there were two main findings while trying to build a baseline database. first, not all data is housed in our student information system, making it very a difficult and manual process to gather all the data required. some examples of challenges we encountered were the availability and ease of retrieval of transcripts from previous institutions. there were a mix of transcripts that were electronic, but many were hard copy transcripts in individual student files. this made for a manual and time-consuming process of trying to retrieve data points such as gpa's, previous credential earned and name of previous institution. please see institutional outcomes on recommended process changes. another major downfall to trying to map transfer credit students to graduate survey outcomes was response rate. of the over 1700 transfer credit students, only 111 of those students completed the kpi graduate survey. of those 111 only 41 had recorded any employment related data, therefore trying to draw any conclusions was difficult based on sample size. please see institutional outcomes on recommended process changes for using graduate data to link to transfer credit students. future research based on the current research, it was clear that there has to be an increased amount of verifiable data to be able to link transfer credit students to graduate outcomes. small institutions have a very small graduate survey completion rates which make it very difficult to draw any conclusions. it may be possible to further this research once data is available from sma 3 is available. statistics canada will be linking enrolment and graduation data (based on postsecondary student information system) and the t1 family file tax data. if student level data is shared with institutions, it will then be possible to map earnings and other variables to transfer credit students vs regular cohort students. student outcomes due to this exercise being more of a discovery project, it will be future projects that will have benefits to transfer credits student or those who are thinking about returning to post-secondary and applying for transfer credit. institutional outcomes most of the recommendations that were identified were around process improvement. it became clear as the research went on that there were some significant data gaps to do this type of analysis. recommendation #1 would be to capture all data points at a single point of entry (preferably canadore's student information system). at the point of the application by the tc student, this information could be captured and stored for easy extraction when needed. recommendation #2 would be for canadore to work to increase their graduate survey response rate to that closer to the provincial average. the culture around tc and tc students has been growing and improving over the last few years. the college and the staff understand the importance of tc and how it positively affects students. canadore has made great strides in improving the ease and access to the transfer credit process as well as promoting the benefits and outcomes it creates. sector or system implications yes, the ability to share information via meetings and workshop sessions augment the understanding of the sector. for smaller institutions, the relevance of projects that are similar in scope and reach are of paramount importance. data garnered that represents the realities of students who study in rural and remote regions bring to light access and mobility issues that may not be the same for learners who are in metro areas. tips i would recommend that institutions have a narrow scope and a well thought out plan, as well as and brainstorm what data is easily accessible, what exist and where, due to this being a data baseline exercise, it was more of a data mining exercise. tools and resources yes, we developed a report that maps transfer credit students to all graduate survey question results. unfortunately, due to low response rates the data is sparse.

1 table of contents acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 1 project purpose ...................................................................................................................... 1 background and context ........................................................................................................ 1 project development by deliverables ..................................................................................... 4 deliverable one .................................................................................................................. 4 deliverable two .................................................................................................................. 5 deliverable three................................................................................................................ 8 references ............................................................................................................................17 acknowledgements the core project team deeply appreciates the efforts of all the professionals, academics and administrators who supported this project with their time, knowledge, skills and creative ideas. faculty: rhonda koster, nancy luckai, scott pound, rafaela jobbitt, student success: nick alderton, richard clark, jo krisko, christina buzzi, anthea kyle enrolment services/student central: kristin grady, cathie oconnor, ashley beda office of aboriginal initiatives: jerri-lynn orr, denise baxter, peggy smith continuing education and distance learning: leslie malcolm, adam humeniuk, rhonda dubec office of institutional analysis: sarah browne, sarah prouty, heather murchison project purpose the original purpose of this project was to pilot and evaluate a unique, for-credit, college to university bridging course for transfer students enrolling into degree programs within the social sciences and humanities by implementing best practices elicited through ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) funded research. as the project evolved, the scope expanded to include students in the faculty of health and behavioural sciences. background and context the term bridge is often used in reference to transition style courses/seminars that tend to occur in the spring/summer semester preceding full-time enrolment in fall. many institutions, particularly those in the united states, use bridging courses as an orientation activity, first year experience and/or experiential transition support (garcia & paz, 2009) with specific components that are developed for and targeted at mature learners and transfer students (townsend & wilson, 2006). geographically, the closest post-secondary institutions to lakehead universitys campuses are confederation college and georgian college, and the majority of the students who participated 2 in the pilot bridging course were from these institutions. as the project progressed and evolved it was expanded to include students in the native access program1, some of whom were also college transfer students. in the emerging ontario credit transfer environment, and lakehead universitys role within that context, the function of bridging courses is primarily to provide students transferring from a college diploma and/or with extended time in the workforce (post-diploma) with the academic skill set and knowledge required to succeed when they enter directly into the second or third year of an undergraduate university degree program. lakehead university is well-known for its block transfer pathways into the bachelor of engineering and honours bachelor of science in forestry programs; both of which require college diploma graduates to complete a mandatory summer bridging program in order to enter directly into the third year of a four-year program. we have learned much from these groups particularly around the importance of cohort development among the students. when considered within the historical context of transfer pathways at lakehead university and significant efforts in recent pathway development, bridging courses/programs can facilitate the offering of robust multi-lateral, block transfer credit pathways by allowing institutions to: ensure students have the pre-requisite courses and knowledge for programs that are associated with strict accreditation criteria via the bridging curriculum; fill micro-gaps in learning outcomes and requisite knowledge between two credentials identified in the transfer pathway development process where, without the bridge, students would not be able to gain transfer credit for a suite of courses associated with a program/course level learning outcome; introduce students to the academic culture and processes of the receiving institution (flaga, 2006). for example, students transitioning from a professional credential to a theory driven credential would require the process oriented theoretical skill sets and knowledge necessary to navigate upper year course expectations without the experiential academic toolkit developed by direct entry students (martinello & stewart, 2015); make use of facilities and resources that may be under-utilized in the spring/summer semester by offering courses that align with mobility initiatives. while lakehead universitys bridging model for existing block transfer agreements has crystallized into functional and well used pathways, new pathway development projects and preexisting pathways in the process of review often include the discussion of potential bridge courses to maximize transfer credit and facilitate student success. both established and developing transfer programs at lakehead university are invested in facilitating transfer student success and this investment has led to a series of research and evaluation projects funded by provincial organizations supporting transfer. below is a table of projects, all of which were funded by oncat, that provides a sequential explanation for the motivations behind this current project and are publicly available via the oncat website. 1 for more detail on the inclusion of the native access program, see the marketing and recruitment subheading on page 7. in summary, the program consists of 5 fces of courses, 3 of which carry university credit and may be used towards a degree if the student chooses to continue with their studies. 3 oncat project # oncat 2012-11 oncat 2015-01 oncat 2015-10 project title student success after transfer from college to lakehead university best practices in bridging diploma/degree pathway: lakehead history degrees (including the ba history online) findings/lessons learned students transferring to lakehead university from a college via block transfer pathways, half of which have a bridging component, had significantly higher success rates than part time students entering through course by course transfer pathways without a bridging component. this study concludes by recommending an exploration of factors influencing the success of these transfer student groups respectively. factors influencing the success of block and non-block transfer students were explored via an: annotated bibliography of research pertaining to best practices in transfer bridging environmental scan of provincial and international best practices in transfer bridging mixed methods research into the motivations and experiences of transfer students at lakehead university three pilot projects were implemented by various university services to serve transfer students founded on the literature and research results, a theoretical model of the transition experience was developed (figure 1) with recommendations for strategic targeting of services and supports based on the phases of the transition experience. taking advantage of synergistic and complementary oncat funded projects, the emerging results of the best practices in bridging project were used to support the development of an online bridging course as a small portion of the overall history pathways project. specifically, an online bridging curriculum was developed to provide graduates of all ontario diploma programs with the process- oriented skill sets and knowledge necessary to enter directly into and succeed within the third year of studies in a bachelor of arts in history degree program. 4 in summary, through these sequential projects, transfer stakeholders at lakehead university were aware that: there appears to be a positive connection between the presence of bridging courses/semesters and indicators of student success (i.e. retention, gpa); successful models of the transition experience and best practices in developing bridging curriculum are available specific to lakehead university; a template for summer bridging courses focused on academic skills has been developed and is founded on evidence-based principles; however, the implementation of a bridge course founded on process oriented academic skill sets specific to upper year undergraduate degree level contexts and targeted at transfer students who are transferring through non-block transfer pathways, particularly pathways in the social sciences and humanities, had yet to be piloted and evaluated. project development by deliverables deliverable one to refine and modify an online bridging course developed for the department of history at lakehead university (oncat project 2015-10) to apply to all college transfer students enrolling into programs within the faculty of social sciences and humanities and the faculty of health and behavioural sciences. the development and refinement of the bridging course was guided by: the oft cited history of post-secondary institutions in ontario (hurlihey, 2012) and the thoughtful and extensive exploration of the ontario post-secondary context published by clark, moran, skolnik, & trick (2009); significant and intensive effort invested into defining and clarifying the differences between the academic skill sets developed in degree level and diploma level studies that is explored in the final report for oncat project 2015-10 (available online via the oncat website); a curriculum committee comprised of the dean of social sciences and humanities, faculty, upper administration and student success centre staff and managers; the theoretical model of student transition developed in oncat project 2015-01 and included below as figure 1 which, briefly summarized, suggests that transfer students go through three phases of transition: pre-transfer, bridging and academic momentum. 5 pre-transfer academic and life processes such as choosing courses and preparing their life circumstances for post-secondary study at the receiving institution. during this phase students indicated they primarily required support with transfer mechanics (re: academic advising) and preparation for the academic and social cultural shift to a new institution. a bridging period commencing in figure 1 - model of transfer transition the first semester of study (spring/summer for a bridge specific course or fall/winter for students with no bridging semester) during which orientation activities should contain mature/transfer student targeting programming that experientially connects students to peer supports, academic support services and services to help them navigate the mechanics and culture of institutional processes. in addition, focus on providing avenues for developing the skill sets necessary to navigate the academic culture of their receiving institution is necessary. if students are able to navigate the cultural transition into the receiving social and academic context, negotiate success (flaga, 2006) in developing a social network and navigating institutional processes through services and supports and develop the skills/supports necessary to succeed academically they should maintain the academic momentum to reach their post secondary goals. students who are required to take remedial coursework or repeat courses that are perceived to be the same as courses they took at their sending institutions or who are repeatedly struggling with transfer mechanics are at risk of losing their momentum and purpose in pursuing the credential, leading to either dropping courses and/or dropping out entirely (douglas & attewell, 2014). as the pilot bridging course would be occurring during the transfer students first semester at lakehead university, we targeted the aptly named bridging phase of the experience and sought to connect students experientially to various services, to the community and social context, and to facilitate sessions on navigating the mechanics and processes within the academic environment while teaching the core academic skill sets through a variety of experiential and typical lessons and activities. a table outlining the initial course content as it connects to learning outcomes is included as appendix a with the final draft of the course outline, resulting from the input of the curriculum committee and continual refinements, included as appendix b. deliverable two to deliver two sections of the pilot bridge course in the fall semester of 2017 as an interdisciplinary, for-credit, first year seminar course using a blend of online and in-person instructional methods 6 offering a new and experimental course at any post-secondary institution requires several steps which are outlined sequentially below with the intent of assisting any postsecondary staff who are hoping to implement a new bridging style course: calendaring a bridging course typically, a bridge style course is offered in the spring/summer semester preceding full time enrollment in a block transfer program. due to the project timeline, it was unlikely that our team would be able to generate the refined course curriculum and calendar a new course and recruit/enroll sufficient students for the summer semester so we targeted the offering for the fall semester of 2017. while we recognize that there is likely to be variation between institutions, the steps we followed to establish a new course are listed below: determining which department will host or own the course (determines course code) and where it will fit within their academic structure; hosting department approval of the course learning outcomes and course structure; hosting faculty council approval of the course learning outcomes and course structure; addition of the course to the academic calendar and academic timetable finally, enrollment and admission data regarding the potential enrollment was assessed to ensure that the risk of not meeting any minimum course enrollment numbers was mitigated or at least managed. since our intention with offering the bridging course was not to offer a department specific course but instead a course that applies to a number of departments within a specific faculty we elected to use an existing university seminar style first year course shell (univ 1016). this shell allows faculty members from different academic units, usually within the same faculty, to offer a shared seminar course focused on inquiry and academic discourse. since the course was already established and had passed through all the approval processes, the curriculum committee worked to generate a specific course structure that balanced academic process learning with rigour and relevant content. as this project was an experimental pilot, flexibility was required in calendaring and scheduling the course which led to some interesting insights and lessons learned during the marketing and recruitment process. marketing and recruitment to prevent non-transfer students from enrolling in the course online, our team in consultation with admissions and enrolment professionals, chose to focus our recruiting on, and then manually enroll, students who fit the following criteria: students must be entering into their first year of studies at lakehead university; students must be enrolling into a program in the faculty of social sciences and humanities; students must be enrolling with a college sending status in their admissions profile indicating that their most recent credential was most likely a college diploma; students must have between 0.5 full course equivalents (fce) and 7.0 fces of transfer credit. generally, the maximum amount of transfer credit awarded for a college diploma (including advanced diplomas) entering into a degree program with no formal 7 block transfer agreement is 5.0 fces but it can reach up to 7.0 fces under very specific circumstances. the intent of this limit was to avoid recruiting college transfer students who had completed a degree at a college or university as they tended to receive between 7.0 and 10.0 fces of transfer credit and would, in theory, already have the academic skill sets the bridging course was intended to provide. we engaged in the following efforts to market the course to transfer students: bi-weekly marketing emails sent to a list of incoming transfer students filtered to best fit the admissions criteria for the course. the admissions and enrolment list shifted on a weekly basis as students accepted offers from one of their potential institution options; the number of students emailed with each send out was, on average, approximately 130. coordination with the transfer advisor in the office of enrolment services who informed appropriate students of the course offering on a one-to-one academic advising basis. attendance and a brief presentation during mature/transfer student orientation activities; short, targeted messages sent out using social media platforms with a link to more information. the result of two months of active recruiting was that out of a list of 17 students who expressed interest, a total of three students actually requested to be enrolled. while our team was willing to waive the usual minimum enrollment requirements to run the pilot course specifically for this project, an enrollment of three students across two campuses was not sufficient. despite our efforts to build an ideal bridging course, transfer students did not seem interested in taking it voluntarily. our team elected to change tack and approach key faculty and staff responsible for transfer and transition pathways that were both non-block and did not already have a bridging component. by offering to provide an academic process-oriented course that would help their transfer students transition into their respective academic programs, we received approval from the following departments to pilot our curriculum: the coordinator of the native access program (nap) on the thunder bay campus reviewed the course content and suggested cross-listing the univ 1016 course code and blending the learning outcomes and content with an existing, not-for-credit mandatory course titled university transitions. this course is described in the academic calendar as the following: traditional aboriginal and contemporary learning styles and evaluation will introduce students to critical thinking, reading and writing for academia, library research skills, and the use of technology in academic contexts. campus and community orientation, student life skills, and aboriginal cultural knowledge make up the personal development content of the program. the benefits of this approach were: o nap students would gain an additional 0.5 fce of course credit in their preuniversity program that could contribute to their degree program; o the course would be co-taught by indigenous and non-indigenous instructors with a transparent enquiry style approach to assist students in balancing indigenous and non-indigenous world views within the context of degree level post-secondary studies; the school of social work on the orillia campus reviewed the univ 1016 course content and approved offering a section of this course to their incoming college transfer students. they saw value in the focus on academic process-oriented skills in 8 preparation for applying to and succeeding in the professional years of the program. the pilot course learning outcomes were then blended with a first-year enquiry style course (intd 1011) offered by the department of interdisciplinary studies to fit within the orillia campus program structure. we were very fortunate in that an instructor, experienced with both the enquiry format and the discipline of social work, was available and eager to deliver this course. the benefits of this approach were: o the intd course, now incorporating the univ 1016 modules and approach, provided the students with a pre-requisite that allowed access to upper year courses on the orillia campus where univ 1016 would not; o the increased likelihood that under the intd course code, should this bridging course be beneficial, it could be offered again without lengthy approvals and administrative processes. therefore, in the fall semester of 2017, the bridging course was offered under the course code univ 1016 to a total of 12 students in the native access program on the thunder bay campus. on the orillia campus, the bridging course was offered under the course code intd 1011 to a total of 5 students in the school of social work. instructional methods and modules the course components were delivered in a blended format - utilizing online and in class - and coordinated between the three instructors and several student success centre professionals to provide the overall experience. these components included: experiential in-class assignments focused on skill sets related to developing research questions and using academic formatting; critical enquiry-based case studies that were relevant to the region (thunder bay/orillia) were introduced; completion of self-directed online course modules on academic integrity; experiential community based/outdoor activities to build communication skills and create social connections within the cohort; student success professionals facilitated in class work shops on: o exam preparation o time management o leadership online interactive gamified policy reviews to encourage self advocacy and knowledge; sequential, laddered writing and presentation assignments that focused on student centred enquiry and process-based skill development for a more detailed review of the course content, assignment structure and laddering please refer to appendices a and b. deliverable three to evaluate the overall influence and experience of the bridging seminar course through measures of student success and qualitative interviews. the influence and experience of the transition process and the impact of the bridging course on that process was evaluated through: 9 a. the development and delivery of a survey instrument that was designed to reflect the learning outcomes of the bridging course and the theoretical model of student transition developed in oncat project 2015-01 (figure 1); b. semi-structured evaluation meetings with the students who took the bridge at both the orillia campus and the thunder bay campus; c. a brief comparison of the college transfer students who did and did not take the bridge in relation to their average lakehead gpa and retention rate a. lessons learned: survey with the intention of measuring variables that related to the transition experience but did not rely solely on grade point average and retention rates, a survey (appendix c) was developed to capture the students level of integration into the academic and social culture of lakehead university. according to our research (oncat 2015-01) with a particular focus on flaga (2006), new transfer students are likely to go through the following phases: 1. becoming aware of services, supports, strategies for success and potential peers; 2. making a connection with the services, supports and peers that seem like a fit with their learning style and personality; 3. becoming familiar with the aforementioned aspects of the university culture and services that they have connected with; 4. negotiating success within the university environment. based on the unique nature of each individual student, what supports they use to negotiate success can be quite varied. some examples used by the students in the bridging course include: meeting regularly with an indigenous elder; meeting with peers for a work out on campus, which ideally would lead to the entire group being on campus and putting in some work time together; booking private work rooms in the library while connecting with the reference librarian when questions came up; getting essay drafts reviewed in the writing assistance centre; 5. integration is the final phase in which the student feels that they are a functional part of the post-secondary institution; ideally, they have found their place or niche in the overall academic, social and environmental context. by bringing student success professionals and various academic supports into the classroom and because their workshops were integrated into course curriculum, we hoped that students who had taken the bridge course would have an increased awareness of services with the facilitation of a connection that increased familiarity. our survey was designed to capture their point along the continuum of transition with the ideal outcome being that transfer students who did take the bridge were further along in their transition process than transfer students who did not take the bridge. the following steps were taken to administer the survey: the survey and research protocol were submitted, reviewed and approved by lakehead universitys research ethics board. 47 individuals were emailed and invited to participate: o 27 transfer students who were eligible to enroll in the bridge at the orillia campus but did not enroll; o 5 who completed the orillia bridging course (intd-1011-fbo); 10 o 15 who completed the thunder bay bridging course (univ-1016-fa). three reminders were sent via email and students who attended the evaluation meetings were informed in person that our team would be circulating an evaluation survey via email; the survey was incentivized with a $10 gift card to either starbucks or tim hortons that was sent to their email upon completion of the survey. out of a total potential sample size of 47, there were 17 responses to the survey. of these 10 were transfer students who did not complete the bridge, three were students who completed the orillia bridge and one was a student who completed the thunder bay bridge. the underwhelming response rate meant that our team had limited opportunities for analysis and interpretation. we were unable to confidently measure the differences between the bridge and non-bridge transition process however; when looking at the transfer cohorts as a whole, this limited data may reveal some insights. across all transfer students, satisfaction with key components of the university were ranked on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = very dissatisfied to 5 = very satisfied) with an option to select not applicable/not important to me which was scored as null. this information is summarized in figure 2. within this sample of the transfer cohort, students were satisfied with their ability to navigate the online services, communicate and develop working relationships with their professors as well as have experiences in the surrounding community. transfer students were most dissatisfied with their ability to establish a social network for both studying and leisure activities and find opportunities for healthy leisure and recreation within their university environment. this dissatisfaction with their experience of establishing a social network is congruent with some of the focus group findings in oncat project 2015-01. when transfer students were introduced into an academic context where social groups and norms had already crystallized, developing a social support network was challenging. this was particularly true for students with more external responsibilities (ie. job, dependents), . figure 2 - satisfaction with success within the context of being mid-term in their second semester of studies at lakehead university, figure 3 summarizes the student perception of various university services in relation to the phases of transition into the university context. on average, students ranked themselves as being aware of all services that were relevant to their situation, however for each service there were only one or two students that ranked the service as being a big part of their success for future studies, the processes of transition could likely be broken down into more variables in that a student, whether direct entry or transfer, could technically integrate into a post-secondary setting and succeed in completing a credential without relying consistently on any one service. critical assumptions made in the development of the survey, which could be refined in any future use of the survey instrument, include: using cumulative gpa from the students transcripts instead of asking students if they were satisfied with their ability to maintain the average they perceived as sufficient. o solution: survey items related to the students perception of their grades and their perceived ability to complete the desired credential could be included in the survey instrument; students transition into a post-secondary context could be measured by indicating their level of awareness and usage patterns of the university support services available to them. o solution: campus life services, responsible for organizing social, cultural and athletic clubs could be included in the list of services affecting the student transition o solution: integration into the university context could be expanded to include phases of transition into the social context of the community and also the social context of in-class/field studies, considering students were most dissatisfied with their ability to make social connections on campus. lastly, we were interested in assessing which of the informal supports students most relied on as our focus group data in oncat project 2015-01 suggested that some students relied on their friends, family and relatives as opposed to fellow classmates and peers for support in completing assignments and navigating the transfer mechanics of post-secondary transition. the group of transfer students surveyed indicated that peers and classmates were their primary informal support as summarized in figure 4. figure 3 - awareness of services figure 4 - use of informal supports b. lessons learned: evaluation meetings evaluation meetings with the students in both of the bridging courses were conducted following a semi-structured interview guide (appendix d) that was sent in advance to students with the invitation to meet. at the end of each meeting the themes of discussion were reviewed and the students confirmed that what would be written in this final report was an accurate summary of their words. the following points are paraphrased combinations of statements made by the students. q1) what are the key factors in your experience of transitioning from your previous academic institution? orillia (intd 1011 social work): students stated that the university context requires them to use a different learning style than at their sending institution and that the academic work at the university is all focused on theory, research, reading and writing; the expectation to challenge and question what is presented in class as opposed to learning how to apply a practical skill in a work-related setting was a major difference in the cultural transition; 15 some of the students expressed that their previous academic institution allowed for work to be completed in class with instructor support available whereas in the university setting they were typically expected to complete their work independently outside of class time; the cohort/community at the sending institution (college) was perceived by the students as more intimate, and they felt more like a community with their instructors and each other, they did not feel that same connection in this institution; the pace of studies was experienced as faster than they were used to at their previous institution; finally, the students were asked which the following environments (academic/social/surrounding community) is the most important to address in a bridging experience or course. the intd 1011 group agreed that 80% of any transition process should be focused on academic skill sets with the remaining 20% focused on developing social connections between faculty and students as well as between the students themselves. this group felt that they did not need support to develop casual social connections or engage in the surrounding community. thunder bay (univ 1016 native access program): students found key aspects of the transition experience involved reading and writing substantially more than they were used to combined with learning all the different styles of academic formatting (apa, chicago and mla). they also realized that they were expected to learn these skills independently while simultaneously incorporating critical thinking into their writing; the speed and intensity of the university workload was a tough transition from either working full time or attending studies at their sending institutions. time management skills were stated by this group as absolutely necessary if they were to stay on track with all of their assignments; with the native access program, several of the students found it easier to develop a cohort and make deep connections than in their previous academic experiences. the group wholeheartedly agreed that it is necessary to develop a cohort to succeed in transitioning to degree level studies. when asked which of the following environments (academic/social/surrounding community) is the most important to address in a bridging experience or course the students agreed that equal weight should be put on each one although a few suggested that facilitating integration into the surrounding community probably was not as necessary as academic and social aspects. q2) how did being enrolled in univ 1016/intd 1011 impact your transition experience? orillia (intd 1011 social work): the in-class workshops facilitating by student success (ie. time management and exam preparation) were mentioned as being very helpful and the students indicated it was unlikely that they would attend these workshops voluntarily or on their own time based on their external family and work responsibilities; students indicated that the sequential experiential lessons in the course that related to critical thinking skills and facilitated the translation of thought/academic enquiry into 16 writing and presentations helped them to develop their skill sets and also to interpret the expectations of professors in their classes; some students noted that the course would benefit them more in the upcoming winter semester than it did in the fall semester when they were taking it; several students indicated that in-course experiential introductions to services and research strategies, such as navigating online journal databases, were more beneficial than web-based video and instructional resources. thunder bay (univ 1016 native access program): lessons that used metaphor, particularly nature-based metaphors, to break down the way that a university functions and how to interpret course outlines, academic policies and assignment descriptions were identified by the whole class as helping them to enhance their understanding of and functioning within the university environment; contrasting indigenous knowledge and world views with some of the more hierarchical and rigid aspects of academic culture was a common theme discussed in class; team and cohort building activities facilitated in part with the student success office made a difference for these students in terms of their integration into the university environment and also providing a venue for components of the course to be customized for different styles of learning; q3) if there was one thing that could be added or removed to meet your needs as a student transitioning to lakehead university during your first semester, what do you think that might be? orillia (intd 1011 social work): some students recommended that a peer mentorship program could be integrated into the course curriculum to facilitated peer connections and support. this suggestion correlates well with the survey responses in that transfer students in this cohort were the least satisfied with their ability to develop social connections for both academics and leisure; integrating introductory work on critical thought and academic writing to prepare students for university transfer was indicated as something that could be offered at the students sending institution or before fall enrolment in full time studies. some students indicated that the shock they experienced in terms of work load and expectations could be mitigated if bridging was started in advance of their decision to enroll at lakehead university; students also suggested that in-class support could be facilitated with respect to academic advising and the functions of enrolment services. several students indicated that in their sending institutions, course schedules were mostly pre-determined and that selecting a large amount of their course load while navigating academic calendar guidelines was challenging. thunder bay (univ 1016 native access program): since the native access program is transitional in nature, many of the professors include academic skills and techniques workshops and gamified lessons in their classes alongside 17 more traditional university content. the students felt that sometimes the amount of work they spent on academic skill related activities took time away from their assignments in other classes; students suggested that academic portions of the course work better for their learning style when lessons related to the content are taught in the outdoors. finally, every student who participated in the evaluation meetings stated that the bridge course is something that should be offered every year and some students indicated that there were students who elected not to take the bridging course that were inquiring into the availability of the course in the winter semester. for the purposes of this pilot project we were unable to offer an additional section of the course during the winter semester of 2018, however, based on the success of this project, lakehead university has put a spring/summer section of univ 1016 in the timetable to assess if students will enroll in the course pre-fall. c. lessons learned: secondary data interestingly, the overall cumulative averages of social work transfer students who did and did not take the bridge were relatively equal after their first semester of studies (students with the bridge - 71.8%; students without the bridge - 72.1%). we excluded three students from our grade point average calculation in the non-bridge group that appear to have dropped out of the program; of these students one had expressed interest in the bridge course but did not end up enrolling. all of the students who completed the bridge course are still enrolled as of winter 2018. analysis of academic averages and grades following the winter semester may be a better indicator of the impact of bridging curriculum, however due to the final report timeline for this project our team will have to wait a few more weeks to access and review this data. references clark, i., moran, g., skolnik, m., & trick, d. (2009). academic transformation: the forces reshaping higher education in ontario. ontario: mcgill-queens university press. douglas, d., & attewell, p. (2014). the bridge and the troll underneath: summer bridge programs and degree completion. american journal of education, 121(1), 67-109. flaga, c. (2006). the process of transition for community college transfer students. community college journal of research and practice, 30, 3-19. garcia, l., & paz, c. (2009). evaluation of summer bridge programs. about campus, 30-31. hurlihey, v. (2012). college-university transfer programs in ontario: a history and a case study. college quarterly, 15(4). martinello, f. & stewart, j. (2015). transfers from college to one ontario university: a four-year outcome study. canadian journal of higher education, 45(1), 18-36. townsend, b. k., & wilson, k. (2006). " a hand hold for a little bit": factors facilitating the success of community college transfer students to a large research university. journal of college student development, 47(4), 439-456. doi: 10.1353/csd.2006.0052 river of knowledge video educational tool (d2l delivered) a) students will be presented with a problem they must approach from the perspective of their discipline using a scenario and also lay person media sources section 2: enquiry based problem number one b) experiential campus tour online virtual tour in person physical campus tour to ensure students connect with resources d2l review what is the purpose of research, theory and knowledge generation vs applied research and vocational training? a) history of ontario colleges and universities what were they meant to do? section 1: setting the stage content/focus lo 2: students will have the ability to use lakehead university resources to find, assess and retrieve appropriate academic literature in relation to their field of study. lo 4: students will be able to apply discipline specific academic formatting, grammar, style and prose to their writing. reference list: students will generate a academically formatted reference list (apa, mla or chicago style based on their degree focus) of research articles they have selected lo 8: students will learn to navigate the desire2learn (d2l) online learning management system. lo 7: students will engage with each other and establish a community of learners and enhance social presence (vaughn, clevelandinnes, & garrison, 2013). associated learning outcome (approved by oncat in grant proposal) lo 1: students will know the purpose of university in related to college and explore their purpose and intentions for engaging in scholarly activity. research question list: students must generate a list of research questions regarding a topic on a special issue using critical thinking skills. tcps 2.0: students will complete the tricouncil research ethics for human subjects certification module. campus knowledge certification of completion: students should be accountable for knowing about students services and resources. transfer students tend to avoid students will be required to read each others academic selves and provide feedback. academic self: students will create a social media style academic self profile on d2l which allows them to explore and connect who they are with the reality of scholarly activities to add meaning and context to their efforts (douglas & attewell, 2014) assignment/evaluation/assessment appendix a curriculum committee review document a) introduce the politics of publishing, predatory journals, primary/secondary sources by discipline b) complete module on academic integrity with regulation reviews in conjunction with ssc section 4: writing a social sciences and humanities research paper a) introduce techniques for formulating research questions for upper year research papers b) students will engage in the cyclical process of reading, writing and critical analysis to create their own research paper that is founded on both their academic self and a theme preselected by the instructor c) students will present their research to the class b) students will learn academic skill sets such as formatting, research retrieval and evaluation, reading for understanding and critical analysis through analyzing this scenario a. discipline specific support will be explored/provided for this content. c) students will engage in group work and scholarly discussion section 3: technical aspects of reading and writing critical analysis questions: students will respond to critical analysis questions for three of their selected readings which will be assessed by their instructors research paper: students will generate a research question, collect research, critically analyze the research, and generate an academically formatted research paper that is peer reviewed by one peer minimum grammar and technical writing: students will complete technical reading modules and tests online or in class online plagiarism module: students will complete the academic integrity content and knowledge test that is being created by continuing education and the student success centre at lakehead university through the library search system on the topic. briefing document: students will synthesize a briefing using their academic skill sets that addressed the class based enquiry issue and submit both a written work as well as engage in a scholarly debate regarding the topic. lo 3: students will be able to read, critically analyze and synthesize the contents of academic literature related to their field of study lo 2, 4, 5 lo 4: students will be able to apply discipline specific academic formatting, grammar, style and prose to their writing. lo 7: students will engage with each other and establish a community of learners and enhance social presence (vaughn, clevelandinnes, & garrison, 2013). lo 2: students will have the ability to use lakehead university resources to find, assess and retrieve appropriate academic literature in relation to their field of study. lo 5: students will be able to synthesize academic arguments from academic literature, course content and communicate both what has been said and what they think through writing. appendix a curriculum committee review document faculty of social sciences and humanities univ 1016 social sciences and humanities seminar (transfer students) fall 2017 instructor information instructor: andrew heppner office location: sn 2005g telephone: (807) 343-8963 e-mail: arheppne@lakeheadu.ca office hours (in person): thursday 10am to 11am or by appointment office hours (online chat): tuesday 7pm-9pm course identification in person class sessions thunder bay campus: friday 1pm to 4pm room number: atac 2021 course description/overview students will develop university level core competencies to support the transition from college diploma to university degrees studies in the social sciences and humanities. focus on retrieving and interpreting scholarly literature, university level writing and academic argumentation will be supplemented by subject specific content on theory, research methods and knowledge generation. course learning objectives 1. students will know the purpose of university and explore their personal purpose and intentions for engaging in scholarly activities 2. students will have the ability to use lakehead university resources to find, assess and retrieve appropriate academic literature in relation to their field of study 3. students will be able to read, critically analyze and synthesize the contents of academic literature related to their field of study 4. students will be able to apply subject specific academic formatting, grammar, style, and prose to their writing 5. students will be able to synthesize arguments from academic literature and course content to communicate what has been said and also what they think through the process of writing. 6. students will understand select processes of conducting research in their field of study as well as the ethical implications of conducting research. 7. students will engage with each other to establish a community of learners 8. students will learn to navigate the desire to learn online education environment course resources course website(s) desire 2 learn online platform @ http://mycourselink.lakeheadu.ca mcgraw hill connect composition required course text connect composition online e-textbook additional readings and resources are available on your desire 2 learn online platform under the heading: readings assignments and evaluations assignment/test major assignments power of process critical reading responses enquiry assignment 1 briefing document enquiry assignment 2 annotated bibliography enquiry assignment 2 presentation writing mechanics online module completion academic self research essay final version micro assignments academic self d2l profile and presentation efficient reference list generation academic integrity certificate tri-council policy certificate university regulations scavenger hunt campus knowledge certificate . date value 20% (4 x 5%) 10% 10% 10% 12% 20% 5% 5% 2% 2% 2% 2% tentative course schedule weeks tentative topic september 8 introduction to the university environment associated assignment or assessment introduction to academic self profile assignment presentation of academic self power of process critical reading response #1 begin writing the enquiry briefing document september 15 whats the difference between university and college experiential campus tour ceremony in the traditional grounds pre-evaluation measures academic self presentations enquiry case study one: sept 22 introduction to the process group formation reading and research question formation enquiry assignment one sept 29 academic publishing retrieving and citing academic sources (apa/mla) ssc academic integrity workshop o plagiarism test enquiry briefing document due date. in class assignment - timed final reference list 5 article annotated bibliography due date enquiry case study 2: incorporate library searches and apa group discussion and topic introduction library article search what is an annotated bibliography? oct 6 enquiry case study 2: experiential community based activity oct 13 reading week no classes oct 20 enquiry case study 2: group presentation in class oct 27 group presentations on topic ssc workshop on exam preparation academic self research topic nov 3 blooms taxonomy and rubrics how to generate an abstract research question getting started on writing research questions the cyclical process of reading/writing to learn writing mechanics online modules become available for completion power of process: critical analysis of your own readings (3 readings) power of process assignment due date final academic self research paper is due nov 10 nov 17 dr. scott pounds perspective what it means to be an expert writing workshop presentation research methods: quantitative research in social sciences and health and behavioural sciences peer evaluation of essays: nov 24 research methods: qualitative techniques and photo elicitation. dec 1st how to give peer feedback on scholarly work essay exchange (must have an essay to share) instructor feedback if possible tcps: tri-council policy 2.0 certification closing ceremony and post evaluation measures assignments assignments are separated into both major and micro categories. major assignments follow a traditional approach to submission in that they must be handed in on time and will be reviewed with feedback provided by the instructor. micro assignments will be facilitated in class but can also be completed online at any point in the course (with the exception of the academic self) for a pass/fail percentage mark. power of process critical reading responses the purpose of this assignment is to provide a cognitive, critical thinking work out for your brain using academic literature and to assist in enhancing your topic knowledge with respect to your writing assignments. to complete this assignment: 1. log into the mcgraw-hill connect composition online textbook 2. from your main page your will see the power of process assignment modules 3. complete the assigned reading (sept 15-22) or upload your own readings (nov 3-10) and write answers to the questions 4. grading criteria will include the following headings: clarity to the reader, insightful reflection and logic. enquiry assignments the purpose of the two enquiry assignments are to use specific case studies as a venue for scholarly discussion and writing activities. a team based approach to enquiry will be used to provide student formed groups with issues related to their field of study that they must advise on using their academic skill sets. detailed instructions will be provided and the instructor will provide time for groups to work in class with guidance. enquiry briefing document during the first enquiry group process each group member will be required to respond to a group generated research question. each individual will write a brief 1-2 page document double spaced in the form of a briefing note that summarizes their research on and attempts to answer the research question and contribute to informing the enquiry process. please follow this link for extensive details on the process of writing a briefing note. enquiry annotated bibliography during the second enquiry group process each individual group member must create an annotated bibliography the contains a minimum of five peer reviewed, academic sources that help to inform their group generated research question. detailed instructions on how to create an annotated bibliography will be covered in class and an example of a high quality annotated bibliography is posted in the resources section of your course d2l site. enquiry presentation as a final assessment of the second enquiry group process the group will present their research findings and any applications of those findings to the enquiry scenario/case study. presentations must include: the use of presentation software (powerpoint/prezi/powtoon or other) in text citations of the research used to inform the points in the presentation a final reference list in the academic formatting style used for your academic discipline (apa/mla/chicago) writing mechanics online modules the writing mechanics modules on your e-textbook site can be completed at any time during the course but will be introduced when you are engaged in significant writing activities to increase the salience of the writing mechanics modules. these modules require a significant time commitment which will pay off in your writing, you wont be able to do them all in one go so try to schedule manageable chunks of time every week to complete them. 1. log into the mcgraw-hill connect composition online textbook 2. from your main page your will see grammar/writing assignment modules 3. complete the assigned reading and respond to the achievesmart multiple choice questions. academic self final research essay the purpose of this assignment is to move through the entire cycle of generating a personal research question on a topic of interest, collect and review academic literature, and synthesize the knowledge developed through your reading and thinking process into a unique written essay. logistical details length: 8 to 10 pages long including the reference list and title page. must use academic formatting formatting (in text citations, reference list, headings, double spaced, running header, title page) must be handed in using the drop box on desire 2 learn o papers must be submitted in docx format. not .pdf or .pages formats have a minimum of ten peer reviewed, academic journal articles. peer reviewed book chapters can be included but cannot be used in lieu of the 6 paper minimum. must use the headings that break the essay into an introduction, body (with subheadings) and a conclusion. for example each heading might contain: introduction general statements regarding topic area purpose/thesis statement (the purpose of this paper is) o eg: the purpose of this paper is to explore tourist motivations for visiting clothing optional beaches and the impacts of clothing optional areas in public tourism settings. how the paper is organized (this paper begins by) body use sub-headings to highlight each component in the structure of your paper you will likely find several articles that follow a theme. use a heading to highlight that theme and put your ideas/research into categories conclusion restate your purpose. summarize (using new languagedont literally cut and paste something youve already written) your key points. micro assignments academic self the purpose of this assignment is to ground you in your goals with relation to expanding your knowledge and perspective as well as introduce you to the knowledge and perspectives of your academic peers. you will construct an online profile that allows you and your peers to explore aspects of your personal and academic evolution leading to your goals and future hopes with regards to your post-secondary education. please follow these steps to complete the assignment: 1. log onto the desire2learn (d2l) online course using your lakehead university log in name and password. 2. locate your name in the top right corner of the screen and click the drop down menu. select the profile button. 3. fill in your profile with the following information in relation to your academic self by september 12trh a. upload an appropriate picture that represents your academic self and select a nickname b. scroll down to the personal info section and complete: i. interests/hobbies: what types of research and knowledge interests you? how have your past experiences and activities professional and personal influenced your interest in university? ii. media: which types of music, books, television shows, movies and web sites have inspired you and influenced your perspective with relation to your field of study. iii. what are your post-secondary goals aside from completing your credential? what do you hope to understand and/or achieve? iv. what is your most memorable learning experience? c. it is not necessary to fill in your social networks, contact information, employment information or birth date. only fill in social network/contact information you are willing to share publically as anyone in any of your classes can view your d2l profile. 4. once the profiles have been completed you will briefly present your interests in class to assist you in forming groups for the group work assignments and also to just get to know each other! evaluation: this is a pass or fail assignment with two components. complete your profile as per these instructions by the due date for 2.5%. 0.5% will be deducted for missing sections. efficient reference list generation this is an in class assignment where you will be required to create an academically formatted reference list on a random research topic in a limited amount of time. you must be in class (virtually/in person) to participate in this assignment. academic integrity/tri-council policy/campus knowledge certificate/university regulations scavenger hunt these assignments are all available on the d2l page for this course. each assignment will be reviewed and discussed in class with time for students to complete, however they can also be completed independently online once the assignment is released on the course site. academic self research paper rubric this rubric will be used and modified to mark most writing based assignments. this is the actual rubric for your final academic self research paper. element writing mechanics ( /20) 85-100 - conforms to apa standards (headings, manuscript header, margins, page numbers, referencing style) - good spelling and grammar - very good sentence structure - paragraphs are well planned and have excellent flow research/ - excellent referencing referencin within the text g - large number of ( /20) journal articles - wide variety of sources (different journals, books and other information sources) content ( /40) 75-84 60-74 - conforms to apa - some mistakes in apa standards (headings, format manuscript header, - some spelling and margins, page numbers) grammatical mistakes - limited spelling or - sentences are grammatical errors somewhat difficult to - good sentence understand structure and paragraph - paragraphs have too flow many ideas < 60 - mistakes in apa format - mistakes in spelling and grammar take away from understanding - sentences are poorly structured - paragraphs are confusing - good referencing within the text - more than 5 journal articles - variety of sources (different journals) - missing some referencing in the text - only 5 journal articles - limited variety of sources (multiple use of same journal or edited volume) - very limited referencing within the text - less than 5 journal sources (or includes web sources) - no variety of sources - missing some required elements of the assignment - some information is inaccurate or out of date - the information is summarized but not well connected to literature - argument is difficult to follow to the conclusion - several missing elements - information is often inaccurate - there is limited connection between literature or purpose of paper - limited development of argument; no real conclusions - all aspects of the - all aspects of the assignment are assignment are completed completed - information is - information is accurate accurate, up to date and and up to date goes beyond what is - good synthesis of required information and - information is connection between synthesized and literature sources connected to course - well constructed material, as well as argument and connects connections being made to conclusion between literature sources - argument is well constructed and connects strongly to conclusion course policies plagiarism: students are referred to section ix of the lakehead university calendar concerning regulations on academic dishonesty. late assignments/missed exams: late assignments or missed exams are excusable only in the event of documented extenuating circumstances, i.e., serious illness or death in the immediate family. penalty for late assignments is 10% deduction per day late. mobile devices: keep your mobile device out of sight unless we are using it for an in class activity. please do not use your note taking computer to watch videos/sports or im with your peers. everybody sitting behind you will be distracted. be present and mindful during class. if you are texting/emailing the cell phone warning system is as follows: a. b. c. d. level 1 informal warning level 2 formal verbal warning level 3 you will be asked to leave level 4 you will be required to meet with your director before returning to class university policies all students are to be aware of and adhere to the following lakehead university and school policies: student code of conduct, academic misconduct, accommodation for students with disabilities ethics for doing research with humans all student projects that include human participants requires ethics approval, following the research ethics process transitions and bridging evaluation survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hyznhn1ejgoqrvbdzswmwk... transitions and bridging evaluation survey the purpose of this survey is to gain insight into the process of transitioning into the academic and social post secondary environments of lakehead university to improve our services and supports. 1 of 8 17-11-28 10:42 am transitions and bridging evaluation survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hyznhn1ejgoqrvbdzswmwk... 1. please answer the following questions with respect to your transition into the post-secondary environment at lakehead university: mark only one oval per row. this is not applicable to me this is not important to me i am very dissatisfied i am dissatified i am neither satisfied nor dissatisfied i am satisfied i am very satisfied my success in using the myinfo online academic administration system my success in seeking out peers to engage in studying and school work my success in establishing social network to engage in social activities outside of studying and school work my success in creating a time management routine that helps me balance life and school my success in developing a working relationship with my professors my success in communicating with my professors my success in selected courses that meet the calendar requirements for my academic program my success in selecting courses that are the best fit for my interests 2 of 8 17-11-28 10:42 am transitions and bridging evaluation survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hyznhn1ejgoqrvbdzswmwk... this is not applicable to me this is not important to me i am very dissatisfied i am dissatified i am neither satisfied nor dissatisfied i am satisfied i am very satisfied my success in navigating the desire 2 learn online education system my success in connecting with and using university services to assist me with my academic work my experiences in connecting with university services for leisure, recreation and volunteer opportunities my success in connecting with administrative services related to the logistics of university my experiences in the community and physical environment where the university is located row 14 3 of 8 17-11-28 10:42 am transitions and bridging evaluation survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hyznhn1ejgoqrvbdzswmwk... 2. for the following academic support services at lakehead university please choose the response that fits best with your experience this past semester: mark only one oval per row. i am not aware of this service i am aware of this service but i have never used it i have had a one-time or small amount of contact with someone from this service i routinely use this service this service is a big part of my success i do not see ever needing this service (not applicable) student success centre - writing assistance centre student success centre - math assistance centre student success center - student success workshops/seminars student success centre - individual appointments professors - office hours and individual appointments 4 of 8 17-11-28 10:42 am transitions and bridging evaluation survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hyznhn1ejgoqrvbdzswmwk... 3. for the following administrative support services at lakehead university please choose the response that fits best with your experience this past semester: mark only one oval per row. i am not aware of this service i am aware of this service but i have never used it i have had a one-time or small amount of contact with someone from this service i routinely use this service this service is a big part of my success i do not see ever needing this service (not applicable) student central academic advising student central admissions and enrollment student awards and financial aid financial services department based academic advising from the faculty/chair of your academic program 5 of 8 17-11-28 10:42 am transitions and bridging evaluation survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hyznhn1ejgoqrvbdzswmwk... 4. for the following campus life services at lakehead university please choose the response that fits best with your experience this past semester: mark only one oval per row. i am not aware of this service i am aware of this service but i have never used it i have had a one-time or small amount of contact with someone from this service i routinely use this service this service is a big part of my success i do not see ever needing this service (not applicable) student success centre orientation student success centre - career services student success centre - excel leadership development student health and counselling services student accessibility services aboriginal and cultural support services lakehead international student services 6 of 8 17-11-28 10:42 am transitions and bridging evaluation survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hyznhn1ejgoqrvbdzswmwk... 5. often students use informal supports to assist with decisions and provide social/academic support. of the following informal supports, please fill in the appropriate response indicated your reliance on each type of support mark only one oval per row. not applicable i do not rely on this form of support i rely very little on this form of support i rely somewhat on this form of support i rely regularly on this form of support i rely heavily on this form of support family members and relatives who are familiar with lakehead university family members and relatives who are not familiar with lakehead university peers and classmates who are currently attending lakehead university friends and acquaintences who have previously attended lakehead university 6. please list and describe any other informal supports that have helped you in your transition process 7 of 8 17-11-28 10:42 am transitions and bridging evaluation survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hyznhn1ejgoqrvbdzswmwk... 7. do you have any other comments about your transition experience? 8. do you have any comments about your experience taking this survey? powered by 8 of 8 17-11-28 10:42 am

documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility report date: march 2018 final report project number: 2017-09 participants and partner institutions lead: northern college 4715 highway 101 east south porcupine on p0n 1h0 t: 705-235-3211 | f: 705-235-7279 mailing address: p.o. box 3211 timmins on p4n 8r6 participating: canadore college 100 college drive, p.o. box 5001 north bay, ontario p1b 8k9 t. 705-474-7600 project manager: dr. audrey j. penner vice president academic and student success northern college pennera@northern.on.ca project lead: diane ryder campus manager, moosonee campus & acting manager, indigenous services northern college ryderd@northern.on.ca documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report contents participants and partner institutions ..................................................................................................1 lead: northern college ........................................................................................................................... 1 participating: canadore college .............................................................................................................. 1 project manager: dr. audrey j. penner................................................................................................... 1 project lead: diane ryder ....................................................................................................................... 1 project purpose and goals..................................................................................................................4 pathway development .......................................................................................................................6 methodology............................................................................................................................................. 7 program comparison and analysis ......................................................................................................... 13 entry point .......................................................................................................................................... 14 implementation process and timelines .................................................................................................. 15 promising practices and lessons learned ...........................................................................................15 promising practices ............................................................................................................................. 16 lessons learned .................................................................................................................................. 17 recommendations .................................................................................................................................. 18 references.......................................................................................................................................19 appendix a ......................................................................................................................................20 office administration- general ................................................................................................................... 20 what is the skills inventory project?.............................................................................................. 23 about the program: office administration- general ................................................................. 24 description of courses ........................................................................................................................ 25 office administration- general: courses in semester 1 .......................................................... 30 office administration- general: courses in semester 2 .......................................................... 31 what are vocational learning outcomes?.................................................................................... 32 what are essential employability skills? ..................................................................................... 33 contact details of the sip facilitators ........................................................................................... 34 appendix b ......................................................................................................................................35 word processing and key boarding 1 ......................................................................................................... 35 how to use this booklet....................................................................................................................... 37 unit 1: ergonomics of the workstation ..................................................................................... 38 2|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report table 1 milestones for pathway development ........................................................................................... 6 table 2 process for skills inventory ............................................................................................................. 8 table 3 course selection ............................................................................................................................ 10 table 4 skills inventory completion........................................................................................................... 11 table 5 skills ranking ................................................................................................................................. 12 table 6 strengths and weaknesses ........................................................................................................... 13 table 7 evaluation framework .................................................................................................................. 15 figure 1 adult upgrading learners transition to postsecondary ............................................................... 14 3|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report project purpose and goals many adult learners enter adult upgrading with rich life experience in a variety of areas, but demonstrate a lack of confidence and may not recognize their skills and/or abilities. these learners often do not transition from adult upgrading, thus limiting their mobility to continue on an educational path and leaving untapped, tremendous human capital. life and program choices become limited as these adults have not received credit where credit is due. seamless mobility for these students is needed to assist them in entering a college or university. documenting a skills inventory is an innovative approach to adult education curriculum delivery, which can be evaluated as a pilot project with expansion potential across the system. academic upgrading in the college system is affiliated with employment ontario (northern college, 2018). the program length is dependent upon the individual learners needs. academic upgrading can help the individual to acquire prerequisites for college programs, job specific or computer skills, or general development to assist learning goals. there is no tuition for academic upgrading at any college in ontario. there are nine (9) academic upgrading sites traditionally offered at northern college: cochrane, haileybury, iroquois falls, kirkland lake campus, hearst, timmins campus, and timmins native friendship centre. northern college offers adult upgrading in satellite sites in kapuskasing, attawapiskat, moose factory, and fort albany. northern college has a high percentage of indigenous learners at traditional campuses, with 100% of learners at satellite sites on the james bay coast, of indigenous heritage. documenting a skills inventory is predicated on the competency based concept of education. competency based education is tailored to variations in learning abilities while leading to more efficient outcomes (educause, 2018). out of competency based education arose the need to develop curriculum designed around the premise of competency. this curriculum is known as dacum (develop a curriculum) (dacum, 2001). the process to develop curriculum using dacum includes capturing the duties, knowledge, and skills required to perform the task under review (canadian vocational association, 2013). in the case of documenting a skills inventory, the curriculum was already in place, so the design required working backwards from the curriculum in place to identify the skills to be documented. this pilot curriculum delivery is suitable for indigenous and non-indigenous learners. a key factor in this project is that it mirrors indigenous ways of knowing more closely than traditional adult education upgrading. in theory, this should meet the needs of indigenous learners more effectively than the more traditional adult upgrading. where skills recognition can occur prior to more formal education or training, an empowerment occurs for the learner, and a recognition grows of what and how that learner can achieve educational goals. the ability to develop seamless personal pathways is an aspirational 4|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report goal of many colleges, and certainly of many adult learners. at the outset of this project, it was hoped that a variety of vocational skills could be identified, however, due to the labour intensive nature of the skills inventory, and the labour disruption that occurred in 2017, the focus had to be narrowed. canadore college participated as a regional partner with the original intent to act as a plar consultant for those programs not offered at northern college. as the focus narrowed to one program, which northern did offer, canadore colleges role merged to assist in vetting the skills identified and assist with the validation process. the goals of this project were to: identify and document a skills inventory for learners in northern colleges adult upgrading programs. provide a transcript type document of these skills. develop a personalized pathway for the learners from adult upgrading through to pse and beyond. formalize the skills inventory as a curriculum offering in adult upgrading. build capacity within the adult education department to continue documenting skills inventories after the pilot project is completed. create a methods manual for future skills inventory in the adult education program or beyond. 5|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report pathway development to develop the skills inventory pathway, a unique approach was defined. unique approaches are common at northern college, which services a geographic area the size of france, utilizing technologies other colleges are only beginning to deploy. the unique approach was to take a pre plar or reverse engineered prior learning assessment recognition (plar) approach. rather than learners coming to us to request plar, we would reach out to the learner and help them assess what they already know. in northern and remote communities, often people work in employment where they do not have the requisite credential, but certainly have the real world experience. the project was delineated into three phases, with milestones attributed to each phase. see table 1. table 1 milestones for pathway development phase i verify skills inventory tool to be used design transcription document to capture skills inventory hire skills inventory facilitator train facilitator in skills inventory protocol design communication plan to learners on the skills inventory pilots calibrate adult upgrading faculty verify plar approaches at participating institution develop travel schedule for facilitator to all sites over the fall semester define required elements of the methods manual 6|page phase ii all sites are visited and participating learners identified inventories are developed with participating learners inventories are reviewed and matched to potential programming plar portfolio is defined and started* midterm report is filed with oncat- mid november individualized pathways are determined in consultation with student advising at the participating institution plar portfolio needs are finalized* learners are linked to the appropriate institution to achieve their pathway* formative evaluation application processes are initiated* phase iii application processes are finalized* measures of success compiled recommendations for follow up made best practices compiled methods manual completed adult education faculty trained in skills inventory work report compiled and submitted to oncat documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report phase i all milestones completed phase ii methods manual is compiled all milestones completed for those learners who participated early in the project. *these milestones are still in progress for learners who joined the project in january and february phase iii all milestones completed for those learners who participated early in the project. *these milestones are still in progress for learners who joined the project in january and february methodology the first step was to hire a facilitator for the project, whose role was to determine skills to measure and identify a tool to use. the facilitator traveled to each northern site with particular emphasis on the remote communities along the james bay coast. it had been decided at the time of application for this project that northern college adult upgrading students were target group as the logical choice. the facilitator needed to break down the curriculum of the chosen program, and identify skills specific to the vocational learning outcomes of that program. the dacum approach was utilized to achieve this. this project was identified as labour intensive, given a one on one inventory approach was required at the pilot stage. by working with adult upgrading learners, northern college demonstrated practical application and completion were a priority. this is important to adult upgrading learners. as the project gained momentum within communities, the appeal of the project reached beyond upgrading students, and into the community itself, whereby workers within the community joined the project, to assess the skills they had built from their real world experience. the next step in the methodology was to determine skills to be measured. this represented the first phase of the project and proved to be the largest challenge the project faced. determined to focus upon vocationally relevant skills, and those most commonly used, the facilitator and the project team, agreed the scope needed to be narrowed to one program which was office administration. while there are many vocational skills an adult upgrading learner may have, the skills associated with office administration were considered to be the broadest reach. once focus was narrowed, documentation of the skills associated with each semester of the office administration program at northern college were defined. this was the beginning of the skills inventory tool. the validation of skills as they were mapped to the office administration program was completed by faculty who taught the program and had the required subject matter expertise. in essence, this was a reverse dacum process. 7|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report once the skills inventory tool for office administration was completed, the next step in the methodology was to have learners work with the skills inventory tool, side by side with the facilitator. this process included tweaking of the tool, as various learners gave feedback on the user friendly aspect of the tool. a process was defined to assist learners in understanding the activity and use of the tool (see table 2). all learners interested in participating, received a handout explaining project goals and the process to identify skills, for an office administration career. table 2 process for skills inventory step 1: you register for the skills inventory project step 6: your sip faciliator will create a personalized action plan based on strengths and weaknesses (feb-april, 2018) step 7: you will be asked to demonstrate your strengths in phase 2 (date tba) 8|page step 2: you will meet with sip faciliator to complete steps 3-5 (feb-april, 2018) step 5: you will complete the skills inventory self assessments for the courses you chose step 8: you can follow your personalized action plan to build on skills in your weak areas step 3: you will gain an overview of skills inventory project using the partcipants guide step 4: you will complete a self assessment selection checklist to determine which courses you will focus on documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report each participant was given a manual specifically tailored to the office administration program, to help them understand what the overall learning for an office administration certificate entailed. this tool was entitled participants guide and provided: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. details of the skills inventory project course load for the office administration program course descriptions vocational learning outcomes for office administration employability essential skills required for office administration the participants guide was developed in phase ii of the project and requires updating based upon completion of a variety of skills inventories, and the subsequent feedback and additional development of skills alignment to the second semester. the participants guide is available in appendix a. in order to keep this manageable from the learners perspective and reinforce the tie to a seamless pathway, learners were asked to choose those courses they believed they had applicable skills (see table 3). the first choices were offered for the first semester of programming. this offering of choice as to what the learner would like to assess, empowered the learners to take on as much or as little in developing their own skills inventory as they were comfortable with. all courses had skills directly mapped to the individual course. learners completed a self-evaluation, based upon the skills linked to this first semester of the office administration program at northern college. each learner completed a table such as in table 3, as a starting point. 9|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report table 3 course selection semester 1- office administration- general course code course name ac1034 introduction to financial accounting cm1903 communications i ev7003 issues in environmental sustainability gn1033 health and safety in1093 computer applications for business and technology ma1024 business math of1023 office procedures i of1136 word processing and keyboarding i do you want to self-assess your skills in this area? once a majority of skills inventories were compiled, the project lead used formative evaluation data on the project, to assist the facilitator in development of a methods manual based upon best practice for ongoing use. it was at this point the labour disruption occurred shutting down some of the northern college adult upgrading centers. in addition, the facilitator hired for phase i and ii of the project was unexpectedly unable to complete the project. this happened in late november, and while the new facilitator hired did a wonderful job, the ability to catch up was limited. the project lead took over much of the facilitators communication and training aspects for the balance of the project. the facilitator offered preliminary workshops at the more remote adult upgrading campuses, however, more training for all adult upgrading faculty will be done throughout the balance of the 2017-2018 academic year in the non-teaching time. table 4 summarizes the skills inventories activity. 10 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report table 4 skills inventory completion total participants 43 academic upgrading community participants geographical participation number of participants still to be assessed 21 9 22 11 moosonee north 38 moosonee south 5 of the forty-three (43) participants, thirty-one (31) completed three (3) or more course assessments, which would be very close to completing a full semester of work at northern college. twelve (12) of the participants completed one (1) or two (2) assessments at the time of writing this report. these participants will continue with their assessments over the next two months. all academic upgrading faculty are aware of the tool, and have an introductory exposure to use of the tool. in all, five (5) academic upgrading staff have currently been fully trained to use the tool, and one (1) first year experience officer. this tool would be an asset within the student advising services, given they are often a first point of contact for plar. further training on the tool is slated for the may-june period of 2018. once the learner had selected the course(s) they wished to have skills evaluation completed upon, the next step was to rank themselves in terms of the specific skills. a sample of how leaners could rank themselves is shown in table 5. appendix b has the full sample of skills for the word processing and keyboarding course. in all steps, the material was made to be as user friendly, in both look and implementation, as possible. this is an important lesson learned to generate learner engagement and follow up. while assessment of essential skills was not a proposed part of this project, the addition of that component was seen as a value added by both adult upgrading faculty and adult learners. the self-rankings were designed to be easily understood while separating them enough that to facilitate judgement by the learner. a recognition that i cannot do it, compared to i can do it perfectly was more effective for self-evaluation than a likert scale would have been. the engagement of the learner in this process was subjective in order to achieve preliminary rankings. competency based education premises the acquisition of new skills, on the learner understanding the skills base they already have. therefore, subjective self-assessment at the outset of this process builds self-awareness critical to skills acquisition. 11 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report table 5 skills ranking module 1- developing keyboarding skills unit 1: ergonomics of the workstation essential employability skill1s6 vocational learning outcomes7 can you do this? i cannot do it i could do it with difficulty i can do it well i can do it perfectly set up your workstation ergonomically recognize the risk factors of musculoskeletal injury recognize environmental concerns in the office recognize and cope with stress on the body learners were then asked to create a tally of their strengths and weaknesses for each skill unit. this would give them a platform for plar portfolio development, and a determination of how much work was required to complete the skill set for particular courses. table 5 shows the approach to tallying strengths and weaknesses. 12 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report table 6 strengths and weaknesses total strengths = strengths total weaknesses = weaknesses (add the i can do it perfectly and i can do it well categories in this section) (add the i can do it with difficulty and i cannot do it categories in this section) to complete the skills inventory, a validation of skills through a variety of experiential learning opportunities needed to occur. this is still occurring as many of the learners joined the project later in january and february. the skills themselves were best captured as a co-curricular activity, and working with the registrars department, northern college was able to do that internally. however, a challenge to this project was to generate a system wide credential recognition, the learner could carry with them. the final activity was to map what the student had achieved to build the personalized pathway to an office administration program. this portion of the project is still ongoing, for two reasons; 1) the delay in late november with the changeover of facilitators, and 2) the uptake of non-adult upgrading learners from within the communities who wanted to become part of the project. program comparison and analysis this innovative pathway did not result in a different or new credential. rather this pathway was tested as a seamless way to engage more adult learners in postsecondary programs to obtain established degrees. the development of the project included alignment with existing, established plar processes. the criteria to compare and evaluate this pathway, was based upon trends and an identified gap within postsecondary as it related to engagement by adult upgrading students. as figure 1 shows, the percentage of adult upgrading learners who went on to post-secondary at northern college, either immediately after completing adult upgrading or later in their learning journey, has been below 50% for the past several years. there was a particularly low transition in 2014-2015 year, at 22%. northern colleges mission excelling in quality accessible education through innovative programs, services and partnerships for the benefit of our northern communities mandates innovative services to northern college communities. therefore, this project directly links to northern colleges mission. the bulk of activity occurred at satellite sites in the colleges northern communities; it filled a gap not previously addressed. 13 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report figure 1 adult upgrading learners transition to postsecondary transition to postsecondary 45% 41% 40% 38% 35% 34% 30% 27% 25% 22% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 we began in the spring of 2017, to build interdepartmental collaboration on the project, meeting with adult upgrading and program faculty to outline the project identify and goals. inter-departmental collaboration was excellent from the start through to the finish of this project. everyone recognized the need to transition more adult upgrading learners into postsecondary programs and the value added this project brought to learners inter-institutional collaboration worked very well. canadore college is our neighboring college to the south. the arrangement was made between the vice presidents academic offices. previous activity on the northern college collaborative programming project, has established a collegial environment between the two institutions. the dean responsible for plar at canadore has worked with northern on many projects and that relationship was expanded through this project. we observed participants who completed at least one or more course assessments, became more motivated in wanting to complete the courses that they were evaluated for. either through a plar process or by wanting to register the next time it was offered. skills identification empowered learners to seek more skill identification. entry point as this project was unique in concept, the entry point was individualized for each learner. this was understood at the outset. the learner would bring a set of skills, which would be credited through the plar process, determining where they would start within the 14 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report office administration program. as not all learners have finished this process, we do not have a predictor of how many starting points there will be. implementation process and timelines given plar processes are already in place, there are no approval processes required to implement the postsecondary pathways. what needs to be monitored is how many learners utilize this pathway and when. part of the gap analysis identified that often adult upgrading learners do not move into postsecondary programs immediately following the upgrading training. tracking these learners over time will be important to see how many actually take up the postsecondary offering. in addition, we included participants in the study, who were not in adult upgrading, but participated based upon community engagement. this group will also be tracked to identify how this provides seamless opportunities for the learner. the fall of 2018 is the expected first intake of learners who have come through this skills inventory project, into the office administration program. promising practices and lessons learned evaluation of this pilot curriculum delivery was based upon the logic model framework. the traditional logic model framework includes a balance of inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. the measures for this project have been mapped to the logic model to demonstrate how it was evaluated. (see table 6) table 7 evaluation framework measure inputs number of learners participating** office administration program material** facilitator training skills inventory defined for office admin time on task to complete inventories student feedback on process and outcomes facilitator and faculty feedback on process and outcomes number accepted to pse compared to previous years number of skills inventories completed faculty trained in skills inventory delivery credit recognition defined and recorded community engagement in education** defined best practices in skills inventory learner pathway expanded processes outputs outcomes ** these measures were included as the project evolved, other measures were designated in the preliminary proposal 15 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report the formal evaluation of the program has not yet been completed, due to delays incurred (labour disruption and change in facilitators). while we had 35 learners involved, we do not yet have the final tally on the number of inventories completed, nor total number of students accepted. promising practices the feedback from students during this process was excellent. many felt it was an opportunity that could not be passed up. the challenge for them was to self-evaluate, with many wanting to be told what their skill level is. the emphasis on self-evaluation is important for a learner to grow and develop. the promising practice here was having this evaluation at the start of the process rather than in the middle (formative) or at the end (summative). this practice empowers learners to a far greater degree than any other form of delivery and pedagogy. this empowerment breeds confidence in the learner for themselves. another promising practice is the community engagement in this approach to learning. typically, as institutions, we engage with individuals first and the community secondly. in this process, to assure the project was understood, the small communities were invited to be part of the process which led to a level of engagement that brought new participants. individual community members became active as recruiters for the project. this is not typical of education delivery and adult upgrading in particular. by offering the skills inventory, we added dimension to adult upgrading not previously seen. rightly or wrongly, adult upgrading can be stigmatized within the postsecondary system. often seen as a lesser form of education by learners and educators, it is an unsung hero in the canadian education landscape. the skills inventory added value to the upgrading program we had not anticipated. instead of talking about upgrading, the learners talked about skills they had or could develop. changing the conversation in this way, elevates the activity in a way that was not anticipated by the project administrator or lead. this conversation needs to occur in as many communities as possible, and expand across the province. 16 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report lessons learned this project provided the opportunity to learn many valuable lessons. lesson 1: estimate your time carefully when dealing with skills inventories. this is a labour intensive activity. defining the skills, mapping them to existing program activity and consolidating how to validate them is time consuming. we had estimated doing more programs than the office administration, however, that would have taken the entire project time with no participants involved, so we opted to do one program and gauge uptake. lesson 2: explanations are critical. this is an innovative approach to learning, explaining the how and the why are necessary for learner engagement. the participants guide is a good example of this concept. lesson 3: skill identification leads to the learner wanting to identify more skills, this is a motivating approach. however, the motivation needs be applied by allowing the learner to approach this in their own time frame. they may want to sit down and do several self-evaluations at once, or they may choose to do one at a time, or anything in between. let the learner lead! lesson 4: trust the learner to know themselves. their self-evaluations are not always accurate, but we experienced learners tend to underestimate themselves rather than over estimate. as this was a subjective approach, faculty did not always believe a learner could have the skill. validation established the correlation between the self-evaluation and the outcome. lesson 5: prepare to change and adapt as you go. this is true of any project, but was even more evident in this situation. even the look of the documents was revised through the process, to assure information was presented in a manner that was most user friendly for the learner. lesson 6: the team recognized upcoming change as communities will begin to see an increase in community members obtaining a recognized credential. the more community members that obtain credentials the more employers will raise expectations about the need for a credential. this will raise the knowledge and skill level within jobs within the communities. this will also hold true for all small towns and communities in northern ontario. 17 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report recommendations the skills inventory approach offers many opportunities for seamless pathways for learners. to facilitate these opportunities, the following recommendations are made. recommendation 1: skills inventories be developed for 5-10 college program offerings in ontario. if the most popular programs were targeted, skills inventories could be created that open additional pathways for learners. recommendation 2: while internal co-curricular recognition was created, a more robust credit (badging/microcredential) system needs to be established across institutions, to encourage the seamless nature of this pathway. recommendation 3: with this tool now available, it is recommended that northern college revaluate the present plar procedures/policy. furthermore, it is recommended that staff from advising services also be trained as they are the first step in meeting with potential plar candidates at the college. recommendation 4: the adult upgrading system provincially should utilize this skills inventory approach. this would mean training on a provincial basis. recommendation 5: a provincial pilot project to examine the development of a skills passport as a way to credential skills inventories should be undertaken. 18 | p a g e documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 final report references canadian vocational association. (2013). cva dacum model presentaiton . retrieved from dacum plus: http://cva-acfp.org/training-and-workshops/cva-dacum-model-presentation/ dacum. (2001). dacum archive and resource website . retrieved from dacum : http://www.dacum.org/ educause. (2018). competency based education. retrieved from educause: https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-learning/competency-based-education-cbe northern college. (2018). academic upgrading. retrieved from northern college academic upgrading: http://www.northernc.on.ca/upgrading/ 19 | p a g e appendix a office administration- general skills inventory project office adminstration- general partcipant guide name: ______________________________ sip facilitator: ________________________ date: _______________________________ 21 | p a g e contents what is the skills inventory project? .............................................................23 about the program: office administration- general ............................24 description of courses ................................................................................................25 office administration- general: courses in semester 1 ...................30 office administration- general: courses in semester 2 ...................31 what are vocational learning outcomes?...................................................32 what are essential employability skills?.....................................................33 contact details of the sip facilitators ...........................................................34 22 | p a g e what is the skills inventory project? the skills inventory project is a research pilot program that is intended to look at experienced workers and their eligibility to receive college micro credentials for their skills acquired on the job. this could validate the skills an employee has and they can work their way up to receiving a college diploma. the project is being developed by northern college and is funded by ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). this project will happen in phases. phase 1: skills inventory tool development and testing (the phase we are in now) phase 2: skills inventory tool demonstrations and evaluation of micro credentials (estimated to begin february 2018) phase 3: possible development of other programs using the skills inventory project model the main aim of this phase 1 is to make a tool that can be used to record and demonstrate vocational learning outcomes and essential employability skills. based on the college course outline, the skills and knowledge acquired in a traditional college classroom will be self-evaluated into strengths and weaknesses. those who state they have strengths in particular areas will be asked to demonstrate this in phase 2 to a skills inventory project (sip) facilitator to evaluate the possibility of a micro credential for a module/ unit/ course credit. 23 | p a g e about the program: office administrationgeneral this program is aimed at people who wish to work in an office environment. the college diploma in office administration- general is very flexible and there are many areas of work that a person can be employed in. the office administration- general program focuses on: communication organizing and planning physical and information resources document production financial functions human resources computer and collaboration applications 24 | p a g e description of courses below is a description of the courses in the office administration- general program at northern college. semester 1 has been completed for the testing in the skills inventory project. this information has been copied from the northern college website. please visit the website for more information: http://www.northernc.on.ca/office-administration-general/ semester 1 ac1034 introduction to financial accounting this course gives hands-on training in fundamental accounting concepts as applied in service and merchandising firms. students will be taken through a complete accounting cycle and will record and report financial transactions. topics include recording entries, preparing financial statements and accounting for merchandising activities. this course will be essential for further study in financial accounting. cm1903 communications i model a communications is a process that defines how we engage with the world. writing is essential and represents the most important formal process of communication. communications 1 is a practical course designed to help students strengthen both oral and written skills as required in industry today. students learn theory and practical applications of good business/technical planning as well as advanced sentence-writing techniques. students acquire knowledge of effective communication practices in todays world of work and apply basic sentence techniques, paragraph strategies, and specialized oral and writing skills including proper usage of mla format in business and/or technical writing situations. the students will also learn about the informal channels of communication that support the creation of authentic relations with peers, colleagues, family and the community. instruction in both formal and informal communication processes combine to assist students to become successful members of the workplace and the communities in which they live. students will be expected to exhibit professionalism in a diverse and inclusive classroom environment. 25 | p a g e gn1033 health and safety this course introduces the student to health and safety in their home, in society and within an occupational setting. students learn about the social and personal benefits of safe work practices and the methods to best prevent accidents or injuries. students will review the role, right and responsibilities of an individual in todays health and safety conscious world. students also learn how to read and interpret the occupational act and regulations. in1093 computer applications for business and technology this course provides a brief review of ms word and ms powerpoint. more features of both these applications will be explored further. ms excel is examined thoroughly along with an introduction to the use of ms project as a project planning and management tool. ma1024 business math in this course, students will begin with a review of basic arithmetic and algebraic manipulations, continuing with the following topics: ratios and proportions, percentages and the percentage formula, discounts, mark-ups and mark-downs, payroll scenarios, break-even analysis, and simple interest. of1023 office procedures i this course will equip the student to find meaningful employment in the administrative field. administrative professionals have more responsibilities in todays work environment. some of the topics covered in this course include: professionalism, telecommunications, records maintenance, technology and soft skills. in-class simulations and discussions provide students with the opportunity to problem solve and participate in group activities. of1136 word processing and keyboarding i this course provides applications that reinforce word processing skills. it focuses on techniques to enable students to produce a wide variety of documents using microsoft word 2013 using windows 7. keyboarding speed and accuracy will be reinforced during document preparation. 26 | p a g e ev7003 issues in environmental sustainability our human society is at a crossroads in terms of our activities and impacts on the environment and our planet. this general education course is of interest to students of all walks of life and all intended professions, in order to increase their awareness of the environment and challenges that impact its health and integrity. this course will also provide information on how one can live more sustainable, and in so doing, help to conserve the environment for the needs and enjoyment of future generations. semester 2 semester 2 has not been completed for the skills inventory project. bu1003 introduction to business concepts in this course, students will be introduced to business in canada, focusing on introductory topics for those interested in employment in a business management role. topics of study will include the relationships between the areas of finance, human resources, marketing, and operations within an organization, business ethics and social responsibility, management concepts and practices, and an exploration of the entrepreneurial spirit. the course brings in numerous examples of practical applications with the involvement of the learners from real-life situations and personal experiences to analyze the concepts discussed. there is also key emphasis on developing awareness towards corporate social responsibility and the relation between ethical practices and management. bu1103 introduction to human resources in this course, students will learn how proper recruitment/selection strategies, and training and development methods, maintain an organizations competitive advantage. the integral role of job design and analysis in affecting compensation management and performance appraisal decisions will be examined. students will investigate a variety of employment and health and safety laws as they relate to managing a diverse workforce. in addition, the fundamental principles of the union-management framework will be explored. 27 | p a g e cm2903 communications ii model a communications 2 is a one-semester course which applies the oral and written communication tools learned in the first semester to specific business/technical applications as required by industry today. the student will enhance writing skills acquired in comm1 and learn to produce effective documents including business letters, memoranda, emails, employment documents as well as reports and problem-solving documents as applicable to their field of study. the course presents the theory and practice necessary for the planning and presentation of short informal and formal reports and introduces the dynamics of planning and participating in meeting situations. students will participate in mock interviews (as applicable), so that they are prepared to sell themselves as they transition into the competitive employment market. students will continue to review grammatical structures and apply editing strategies to business/technical documents through both in-class activities and the usage of the customized online grammar tool. as with comm1, the content will be inclusive and reflect the diverse workplace that students will find themselves in in the future. in2013 computer applications ii this course reinforces the fundamentals of the prerequisite computer applications course while providing further exploration of the microsoft office 2013 suite of applications. students will obtain a more in-depth understanding of the microsoft word, excel, and powerpoint applications. in2113 introduction to computerized bookkeeping during this course, students will gain an understanding of computerized accounting concepts using simply accounting for windows. students will complete applications using the general module, inventory module, accounts payable module, accounts receivable module, and payroll module. theory topics include adjustments and the worksheet, closing entries, trial balances, subsidiary ledgers, special journals, and accounts receivable ledgers. of2136 word processing and keyboarding ii in this course, advanced features in microsoft word will be examined. a variety of documents incorporating word features will be produced. the students will develop timesaving skills and techniques when completing applications. 28 | p a g e keyboarding speed and accuracy will be reinforced during document preparation, practice sessions, and timed drills. of3012 administrative procedures this course analyzes the tasks and responsibilities of an administrative assistant in an electronic office environment. as an administrative professional you will be information central, a valued member of a team in a business or organization where everyone will depend on you to keep the office organized and running efficiently. this course reviews duties and responsibilities of the administrative professional including: telecommunication tools, managing appointments, planning meetings, and arranging travel. of2044 placement this is a two week unpaid work placement with an employer. this placement provides valuable work experience for students. 29 | p a g e office administration- general: courses in semester 1 course code course name compatible with sip ac1034 introduction to financial accounting yes cm1903 communications i yes ev7003 issues in environmental sustainability yes gn1033 health and safety yes in1093 computer applications for business and technology yes ma1024 business math yes of1023 office procedures i yes of1136 word processing and keyboarding i yes 30 | p a g e office administration- general: courses in semester 2 course code course name compatible with sip bu1003 introduction to business no bu1103 introduction to human resources no cm2903 communications ii no in2013 computer applications ii no in2113 introduction to computerized bookkeeping no of2044 placement no of2136 word processing and keyboarding ii no of3012 administrative procedures no 31 | p a g e what are vocational learning outcomes? vocational learning outcomes (vlo) are demonstrations of learning and achievements in a specific college course. this is standard across the province. the vlos below are the culminating tasks you would be able to show after completing each course in the office administration- general program. vocational learning outcomes for office administration- general: vlo 1 conduct oneself professionally and adhere to relevant legislation, standards and codes of ethics vlo 2 schedule and coordinate tasks, within specific deadlines and according to set priorities vlo 3 receive, process and distribute communications in the workplace to assist the flow of information vlo 4 operate and provide support related to the use of office equipment and technologies vlo 5 locate, file and retrieve documents and records from a variety of electronic and paper sources to support daily office operations vlo 7 produce routine business documents and using available technologies standards and formats vlo 8 use interpersonal and client service skills to respond to diversity and to support the vision and mission of the organization vlo 9 compile resources as well as services to prepare summary reports vlo 10 select and use information technologies to support communication with internal and external stakeholders vlo 11 assist in the organization and coordination of meetings and travel arrangements 32 | p a g e what are essential employability skills? essential employability skills (ees) are skills that are critical for success in the workplace, in day to day living and lifelong learning. the skills fall into six categories: communication, numeracy, critical thinking & problem solving, information management, interpersonal and personal. all college programs require its students to demonstrate these skills to graduate. these skills are transferable in all aspects of your life. the ees listed below are what you would be able to show as a result of completing the office administrationgeneral program. essential employability skills for office administration- general: ees 1 communicate clearly, concisely and correctly in the written, spoken and visual form that fulfills the purpose and meets the needs of the audience. ees 2 respond to written spoken or visual messages in a manner that ensures effective communication. ees 5 use a variety of thinking skills to anticipate and solve problems. ees 6 locate, select, organize and document information using appropriate technology and information systems. ees 8 show respect for diverse opinions, values, belief systems and contributions of others. ees 9 interact with others in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and the achievement of goals. ees 10 ees 11 manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects. take responsibility for ones own actions, decision and consequences. 33 | p a g e contact details of the sip facilitators if you have any questions about the skills inventory project please use the contact details below: james bay area (moosonee, moose factory, fort albany, kashechewan, attawapiskat): please contact: sara feero (705-336-2913 option 1- ext. 5617) or email jbec@northern.on.ca timmins, kirkland lake, haileybury and surrounding areas: please contact: amy danchuk (705-235-3211 option 1- ext. 2104) or email danchuka@northern.on.ca 34 | p a g e appendix b word processing and key boarding 1 35 | p a g e skills inventory project office adminstration- general word processing & keyboarding i name: ______________________________ sip facilitator: ________________________ date: _______________________________ 36 | p a g e how to use this booklet this booklet will give you the opportunity to self-assess the skills you have gained through work experience and compare them to vocational learning outcomes (vlo) and essential employability skills (ees). the aim of the this sip will be to see if a micro credential in this northern college course can be earned. below are the steps to complete this assessment: read the first statement in the table honestly reflect on your ability to do the task (depending on what you put, you may need to demonstrate this skill to the sip facilitator in phase 2 of this project) once you have decided, tick one category per statement move onto the next statement until the section is complete when complete, add up the categories i can do it perfectly & i can do it well and write it next to strengths. if you did not tick any, write 0 next, add up the categories i cannot do it & i can do it with difficulty and write it next to weaknessess. if you did not tick any, write 0. 37 | p a g e module 1- developing keyboarding skills unit 1: ergonomics of the workstation essential employability skill1s6 vocational learning outcomes7 can you do this? i cannot do it i could do it with difficulty i can do it well i can do it perfectly set up your workstation ergonomically recognize the risk factors of musculoskeletal injury recognize environmental concerns in the office recognize and cope with stress on the body total strengths = strengths total weaknesses = weaknesses (add the i can do it perfectly and i can do it well categories in this section) (add the i can do it with difficulty and i cannot do it categories in this section) 38 | p a g e module 1- developing keyboarding skills unit 2: the alphabetic keys can you do this? i cannot do it i could do it with difficulty i can do it well i can do it perfectly essential employability skill1snone vocational learning outcomes7 key the alphabetic keys by touch use the mouse appropriately understand the keyboard arrangement keyboard at a rate of 14 gwam or more keyboard using proper technique total strengths = strengths total weaknesses = weaknesses (add the i can do it perfectly and i can do it well categories in this section) (add the i can do it with difficulty and i cannot do it categories in this section) 39 | p a g e module 1- developing keyboarding skills unit 3: figure and symbol keys can you do this? i cannot do it i could do it with difficulty i can do it well i can do it perfectly essential employability skill1s1, 6 vocational learning outcomes7 key the numeric keys by touch use symbol keys correctly build keying speed and accuracy apply correct number expression apply proofreaders marks total strengths = strengths total weaknesses = weaknesses (add the i can do it perfectly and i can do it well categories in this section) (add the i can do it with difficulty and i cannot do it categories in this section) 40 | p a g e module 2- word processing skills unit 1: creating word documents i cannot do it essential employability skill1s1, 6 vocational learning outcomes7 can you do this? i could do it with difficulty i can do it well i can do it perfectly learn and apply essential word 2013 commands create, save and print documents apply text, paragraphs and page formats navigate, review, and edit documents build keyboarding skills total strengths = strengths total weaknesses = weaknesses (add the i can do it perfectly and i can do it well categories in this section) (add the i can do it with difficulty and i cannot do it categories in this section) 41 | p a g e module 3- keyboarding speed unit 1: keyboarding speed- achieving a minimum wpm essential employability skill1snone vocational learning outcomes7 can you do this? i cannot do it i could do it with difficulty i can do it well i can do it perfectly build keyboarding skills (both in speed and accuracy) achieve a minimum net speed of 25 words per minute total strengths = strengths total weaknesses = weaknesses (add the i can do it perfectly and i can do it well categories in this section) (add the i can do it with difficulty and i cannot do it categories in this section) 42 | p a g e office administration- general end of assessment your sip facilitator will look at your results and summarize your strengths and weaknesses. 43 | p a g e word processing and keyboarding i of1136 strengths/ weaknesses summary this page is to be completed by the sip facilitator only. participant name: date of assessment: sip facilitator: word processing and keyboarding i word processing and keyboarding i module / unit # module 1- developing keyboarding skills unit 1: ergonomics of the workstation module 1- developing keyboarding skills unit 2: the alphabetic keys module 1- developing keyboarding skills unit 3: figure and symbol keys module 2- word processing skills unit 1: creating word documents module 3- keyboarding speed unit 1: keyboarding speed- achieving a minimum wpm 44 | p a g e strength number weakness number overall strength or weakness (strength = 50% + 1)

2019 2020 annual report table of contents message from the board co-chairs francophone and bilingual steering committee message from the executive director transfer system improvements 12 / credit transfer projects, 20192020 33 / national and international scope ontransfer.ca pathway development projects 35 / ontransfer.ca website improvements seamless transfer projects 36 / analytics and growth 37 / data enhancement project research projects 22 / mapit: institutional process mapping project 24 / faculty fellows funding stream 25 / transfer pathways datapilot sector engagement 27 / engaging indigenous institutes engaging students inside oncat 39 / supporting student mobility during covid-19 40 / board co-chair changes 40 / first round of summer interns 41 / upcoming strategic plan, 20202023 transfer student action fund (tsaf) student transfer expert panel (step) 28 / engaging transfer advisors transfer advisory group (tag) heads of transfer advising (hota) 29 / relationships and partnerships northern ontario pathways steering committee (nosc) strategic priorities who we are 43 / board of directors 44 / oncat staff 45 / our partners 46 / finances message from the board co-chairs what a year it has been for oncatand for ontarios transfer system. we started this fiscal year with an ambitious strategic planning exercise led by the board of directors and with support from the oncat team. with a new provincial government in place, we became familiar with emerging government priorities to ensure strong alignment with our own. we finalized our new strategic plan, identified key activities to guide our work over the next three years, and look forward to providing a snapshot of the plan, both in this annual report and through our sector networks. today, we are excited about our new directions, but also cognizant that, by the end of 201920, we 5 found ourselves working in a transformed landscape and will be grappling with the immediate and long-term effects of the pandemic on our postsecondary education system for years to come. yet even as we adjust to new ways of working, some things have remained constant. colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes continue to offer high-quality postsecondary education and continue to equip students with the skills needed for a rapidly changing world. students are eager to take control of and chart their own postsecondary learning journey. its still too early to surmise how the pandemic will affect transfer rates and trends but, if recent traffic to ontransfer.ca is an indicator, its clear that students are exploring their options and that oncat will be there to support them. it is also timely that oncats key priorities, for the next three years, focus on expanding in-demand pathways, improving institutional transfer processes, and building our organizations capacity to support students and ontarios postsecondary education institutions. we cannot achieve our goals alone and will work collaboratively with our partner institutions, engaging senior leaders and those working directly with or supporting prospective or incoming transfer students. we also rely on continued support from the government and are grateful that they are on board with our strategic plan and have committed to ongoing encouragement. on behalf of the board, we would like to thank our many postsecondary institution partners and the ontario ministry of colleges and universities for their enduring commitment to ontarios transfer system. especially now, while facing their own fiscal challenges and confronted with other pressing issues, our partners continue to lead and support projects, conduct research and share data, and participate in our committees and pilot projects. finally, thank you to yvette munro, oncats executive director, and the oncat team, for their system stewardship and dedication. thank you for a successful 201920 year, and we look forward to the year ahead. ron common deb maclatchy president, sault college president and vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university 6 message from the executive director in crafting an annual message, i will often look back on our previous report as a reference point. doing this now is an emphatic reminder of how we find ourselves in such different circumstances. today, in the midst of a global pandemic, the familiar rhythms of campus life that often mark the change of seasons and academic terms have been muted, and the ways we work, connect and support each other and our studentshave transformed. at the same time, i am reassured by how ontarios postsecondary education sector has stepped forward to meet these new challenges and encouraged to see so many of our sector partners strengthen their commitment to transferboth within their institutions and across our transfer system. on march 13, we announced our northern business fundamentals co-registration initiative along with our northern college and university partners and were joined by the honourable ross romano, minister of 7 colleges and universities. for many of us there at algoma university, it would be our last in-person gathering for quite some time, and our last chance to sit side-by-side and share a microphone: small acts that now seem quite daring. yet, as i reflect upon that day, i realize we had already been engaged in small (and some larger) acts of daring throughout the year. let me share some of these with you as i look back upon the past twelve months. in 201920, oncat decided not to hold our annual pathways conference, a beloved tradition that brings together transfer leaders and professionals. it was a bold decision that we did not take lightly, but it was required, given the fiscal challenges facing the province. nevertheless, the networking and learning opportunities that the conference afforded us could not be abandoned, so we adapted by piloting webinars and bringing highly informative presentations to our sector meetings and transfer colleagues. the oncat board of directors led a planning exercise to help us identify new and focused strategic priorities, and these priorities have resulted in an integrated strategic plan that will guide oncats activities for the next several years. it is also a plan that establishes clear goals for ontarios transfer system, is more responsive to transfer students, and is a set of goals that we expect to be held accountable for. i am also proud that, along with a committed and talented staff, we have made great strides to enhance the rigour of our research and transfer-related projects. we are currently working with scholars who are at the very cutting edge of student mobility research in canada, and who share our passion for mapping transfer student trajectories and outcomes. similarly, we have continued to fund transfer pathway and seamless transfer projects. we greatly appreciate our project leads generating innovative ideas and thank our colleagues across ontario serving on our rfp review panels. over the past year, we have tested out new ways of collaborating and launched a number of invitational pilots, bringing together small teams of colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes to work, intensely, to tackle tougher areas, whether its reviewing the complexities of transfer processes or collecting transfer data from institutions. as these projects are completed, we will have a radically deeper understanding of how transfer works within different types of institutions and regions. in turn, this helps oncat tailor our supports and activities to respond to the needs of our uniquely ontario-based system. we are also excited to be improving ontransfer.ca, the student-facing and public-serving tool that is both the core service and clear marker of a strong provincial transfer system. over the past year, our institutional partners have continued to provide information to be posted as course equivalencies and transfer pathways, and we are very pleased that, by the first week of april 2020, we had 268,110 course equivalencies and 1,997 transfer pathways. this is critically important these are the resources that most directly serve students, and those who are supporting students, providing them with the information they require to make informed choices about their next steps. at the same time, we are ready for version 2.0 and anticipate new ways to reduce workload, improve efficiencies for our institutional partners, and ensure students have up-to-date information when they need it most. i hope it is clear from these examples that oncat has been thinking and working differently for some time. 8 of course, what we have achieved and initiated would not have happened without the ongoing commitment of our colleagues across ontario pse. we also benefit from strong relationships with other sector organizations, whether they are the provincial networks of registrars, quality assurance bodies, colleges ontario, or the council of ontario universities. having the ability to pick up the phone to bounce around an idea or raise an issue has always been appreciated, and during this time, even more so. i also want to acknowledge the government of ontario and, specifically, the ministry of colleges and universities, for their ongoing commitment to transfer and their funding support to oncat. as a former member of the ontario public service, i can only imagine the unrelenting pressures on the government during this pandemic (and for the years to come), but they have remained supportive and focused on keeping transfer a priority. i would like to acknowledge our board of directors, including our co-chairs ron common, president of sault college, and deborah maclatchy, president and vice-chancellor of wilfrid laurier university. our board, composed primarily of senior administrators from ontarios colleges and universities, as well as transfer students, all have a great deal on their plates 9 and are facing their own unprecedented challenges. i am grateful for their unwavering commitment, leadership, and guidance. we look forward to sharing our ambitious and focused strategic plan and working with our sector partners to make ontario one of the best transfer systems in the world. and, as i write this message while we all continue to work from home, i look forward to the day when we can come together, sit side-by-side, and celebrate our accomplishments once again. until then, stay safe. together with you, yvette munro executive director 2019 a year in 2020 review transfer system improvements through 201920, we reinforced the transfer system in ontario through targeted, oncat-led funding as well as grants that are responsive to institutions and researchers. the following pages outline our funding streams, projects, and recipients. credit transfer projects, 20192020 mapit: institutional process mapping project faculty fellows funding stream transfer pathways datapilot credit transfer projects, 20192020 every year, oncat funds projects that reduce barriers for students transferring between postsecondary institutions and ensure doors are open throughout their academic journey. we offer funding through the following granting streams: 1. pathway development stream. oncat supports pathway development projects that provide meaningful and relevant transfer opportunities to students through increased collaboration between postsecondary institutions in ontario. this stream creates formalized transfer pathways where they may not exist, but where there is clear interest and need expressed by students, and increases transfer pathways for underrepresented students. current pathway development projects are creating transfer opportunities in cybersecurity, allied health, and massage therapy/kinesiology, as well as pathways to undergraduate degrees for francophone students, pathways to support fluency in anishinaabemowin and ogwehoweh languages, and pathways for indigenous learners in remote communities to pursue undergraduate studies. 2. seamless transfer stream. the seamless transfer funding stream supports projects that pilot and test highly integrated approaches to transfer in ontario, and that have the potential to scale. these projects focus on policy/procedural changes and interventions that affect the credit transfer system as a whole. they represent an opportunity to support experimentation and innovations in credit transfer processes and to help identify realistic models that can be scaled province-wide. current seamless transfer projects are supporting program development across three indigenous institutes to be fully transferable, improving institutional processes and faculty assessment guides, reviewing current transferability of preparatory programs in northern institutions, and expanding wrap-around supports and inter-institutional pathway collaboration for indigenous learners. 12 3. research stream. oncat supports research projects that advance knowledge and understanding of the current state of student mobility and credit transfer in ontario. this stream generates knowledge that can directly inform policies, pathways, and institutional practices related to student mobility and transfer. many projects create practical applications for developing stronger cultures of mobility within postsecondary institutions and contribute to a greater understanding of system-wide issues that impact mobility. this years requests for proposals focused on the following priority areas: labour market outcomes of transfer students, industry demand for pathways, transfer+online learning, transfer+apprenticeship, and transfer+industry-based professional development. in addition to the open funding calls, oncat has commissioned data projects that contribute to the development of a strong evidence-base on student mobility and inform planning and system-wide improvements. in 2019, oncat also launched a research ideas portal as a way for researchers to propose transfer research projects that address areas of transfer not covered by the current body of research. applications to the research ideas portal yielded projects on transfer and projects that addressed aspects of the rfp priority areas. current research projects are investigating regional transfer student flows and labour market outcomes using statistics canada data (elmlp); data-sharing feasibility across gta school boards and pse institutions; transfer opportunities for students in remand/incarcerated; credit transfer policies related to online learning programs; and how to fill other knowledge gaps. requests for proposals 13 commissioned data projects research ideas portal spotlight on system-level research projects oncat is working with dr. scott davies (university of toronto), canada research chair in data, equity & policy in education, to lead a data-sharing pilot project that will include gta school boards, colleges, and universities. this dataset will allow for the analysis of student mobility achieved across this region. oncat is currently working with project partners to develop a project charter, along with the necessary technical infrastructure and security protocols to allow for secure data sharing. this project will serve as a proof of concept that will produce the infrastructure and trust for sector organizations to engage in larger-scale data-sharing. an analysis of student mobility within ontarios northern institutions dr. david zarifa nipissing university an analysis of transfer outcomes: tdsb-uoft dataset dr. scott davies university of toronto drawing on statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis), research from dr. david zarifa (nipissing university) will provide new insights into the transfer patterns of students in northern institutions, as well as other regions in ontario. it will investigate the overall magnitude of postsecondary transfer types (across institutions and regions) among ontario colleges and universities, as well as the sociodemographic antecedents of the various types of postsecondary pathways. this includes transfer pathways that require students to relocate across regions (e.g., north/south) of ontario. 14 to gain further insight into the complexity and intersectional nature of postsecondary access, as well as the outcomes of transfer students, it is critical to map the increasingly nonlinear pathways from high school through postsecondary programs and to the labour force. for this project, data linkages will generate new knowledge on pathways, transitions, and outcomes among transfer students in ontario, particularly related to student loan burden. this innovative data linkage plan involves linking numerous cohorts of toronto district school board (tdsb) students with datasets in statistics canadas education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp), including the postsecondary student information system (psis), and canada student loans program (cslp) data. these linkages make it possible to assess the effect of high school performance on the transitions and outcomes of transfer students. the findings from this project will help institutions create new practices, policies, and support for atypical students, particularly those who struggle to subsidize the cost of their schooling. 15 an analysis of student loan burden of transfer students in ontario dr. david walters university of guelph pathway development projects, 20192020 applicants: 14 | approved projects: 10 | amount awarded: $735,239 cambrian college partners: laurentian university, lakehead university university of ottawa partners: algonquin college, carleton university, la cit ontario tech university partner: georgian college confederation college partners: algoma university, lakehead university, laurentian university, sault college, trent university oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute partners: canadore college, sault college, saint paul university developing northern ontario transfer pathways for massage therapy and kinesiology | $57,646 developing pathways in the area of cybersecurity | $49,851 expanding pathways in allied health sciences | $79,635 building language capacity through pathways in anishinaabemowin | $99,605 expanding pathways to postsecondary for nishnawbe aski nation and other learners in community wellness | $71,197 16 six nations polytechnic partners: n/a six nations polytechnic partners: mohawk college, ibm canada laurentian university partners: collge boral, la cit laurentian university partners: collge boral, la cit laurentian university partner: la cit 17 developing pathways for indigenous language revitalization in ogwehoweh languages | $99,690 expanding postsecondary pathways for snp steam academy students | $94,740 developing pathways from police foundations and rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice into bachelor of arts programs in criminology; sociology; equity, diversity and human rights; psychology | $92,400 developing pathways from occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant to bachelor of physical and health education and bachelor of science in kinesiology | $63,525 developing pathways from tourism to bachelor of physical and health education-outdoor adventure leadership | $26,950 seamless transfer projects, 20192020 applicants: 5 | approved projects: 4 | amount awarded: $317,253 first nations technical institute partners: kenjgewinteg educational institute, seven generations education institute developing transferable entry year programming between indigenous institutes | $130,900 lakehead university partners: confederation college, eabametoong first nation, matawa post-secondary education, northern nishnawbe education council, oshki-pimache-o-win, seven generations education institute ryerson university partners: n/a lakehead university partners: confederation college of applied arts and technology, seven generations education institute exploring the transferability of preparatory programs in northwestern ontario postsecondary institutions | $11,550 modernizing transfer credit policy, guidelines and procedures at ryerson | $82,163 formalizing transfer student supports for indigenous learners (phase 2) | $92,640 18 research projects, 20192020 research request for proposals | applicants: 9 | approved projects: 4 | amount awarded: $229,390 university of ottawa | dr. ross finnie exploring schooling and labour market outcomes of ontario students (phase ii) | $71,857 university of toronto | dr. elizabeth dhuey recycling higher education: exploring the labour market returns to multi-credentialism | $115,953 lakehead university partners: confederation college of applied arts and technology, oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute, seven generations education institute canadore college partners: n/a 19 exploring indigenous transfer students data sharing feasibility between northwestern ontario institutions | $25,080 exploring transferability of indigenous cultural safety training programs within ontario | $16,500 commissioned research / data projects | applicants: 4 | approved projects: 4 | amount awarded: $429,655 university of toronto | dr. scott davies multi-institution transfer student dataset pilot | $133,000 dr. scott davies (university of toronto) an analysis of transfer outcomes: tdsb-uoft dataset | $10,500 nipissing university | dr. david zarifa an analysis of student mobility within ontarios northern institutions | $109,107 university of guelph | dr. david walters an analysis of student loan burden of transfer students in ontario | $144,048 (guelph) | $33,000 (dr. david walters) 20 research ideas portal | applicants: 6 | approved projects: 5 | amount awarded: $231,881 york university | dr. paul anisef partner: mcmaster university student transfer processes and labour market outcomes: a life course analysis of the class of 73 | $45,100 ryerson university | dr. ojelanki ngwenyama analysis of north american institutional policies for credit transfers from online learning programs | $109,790 seneca college of applied arts and technology | dr. ursula mccloy mobility trends in ontario: the experience of students transferring into and out of ontario colleges | $29,892 university of toronto | dr. xavier st. denis non-conventional and transfer pathways in postsecondary education: statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes | $32,099 dr. ardavan eizadirad (wilfrid laurier university) the credit transfer experience of the remand population in ontario | $15,000 21 22 mapit: the postsecondary institutional transfer process mapping project oncat aims to improve transfer processes so that they may be more responsive to and transparent for students, lessen the burden of transfer process navigation, and improve efficiency and workflow of transfer credit assessment for institutions. to that end, oncat selected 10 postsecondary institutions to participate in the mapit project to examine the known and the behind the scenes workflow steps by institutions when they receive a transfer application, either directly or through ocas/ouac. through process improvement sessions, oncat has awarded $10,000 each to cambrian college, university of waterloo, conestoga college, laurentian university, brock university, algonquin college, universit de hearst, george brown college, queens university, and first nations technical institute to develop comprehensive workflow documentation of the entire transfer application, assessment, registration, and advisory process. by working through a consortium approach, and with hesa as a consultant, oncat will conduct a gap analysis, develop a deeper understanding of the transfer process from both student and institutional perspectives, develop recommendations, and support institutions to improve future processes. institutions also receive additional funding support from the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu) through the credit transfer institutional grant, and this project will inform institutions, the sector, and mcu on how processes can be improved to support seamless and fairer transfer credit recognition. 23 faculty fellows funding stream oncats faculty fellows program supports faculty members with a track record of championing students and pathways in postsecondary education to increase institutional knowledge about transfer-related data and transfer student experience in their faculty, department, or institution; improve academic processes related to evaluating transfer credits and working with transfer students; and/or share emerging models of successful student mobility initiatives. in the last fiscal, we approved one faculty fellows project from a pool of two applications. universit de hearst integrated procedures to improve the conditions for success of transfer students | $10,000 transfer pathways datapilot in early 2020, oncat launched a call for publicly assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in ontario to participate in a pilot to assess transfer student profiles including student uptake of transfer pathways, along with characteristics and outcomes. institutions that participate will receive funding to support in-house data clean-up, linkage, and analysis focused specifically on transfer students. funding will range up to $50,000 for each participant, depending on the scope of work and level of reporting agreed upon. institutions selected will also participate in meetings to share approaches, learning, and recommendations. 24 sector engagement over the past fiscal year, oncat engaged a wide variety of sector partners, including transfer students and transfer advisors, faculty members, administrators, and institutional leaders, in order to develop and share subject matter expertise about transfer. our sector engagement activities can be broken down into the following broad categories: engaging students engaging transfer advisors relationships and partnerships national and international scope engaging students oncat engages students in new and ongoing ways to ensure transfer student experiences are directly informing transfer system improvements. this year, oncat met with staff from the ontario undergraduate student alliance, the college student alliance, and the canadian federation of students to update them on strategic priorities around transfer. we also engaged students through two important initiatives: 1. transfer student action fund (tsaf). oncat is now offering funding to support projects developed by transfer students for transfer students. these projects can include: 2. student transfer expert panel (step). step members are current students or recent graduates that have transferred at least once in their academic journey in ontario. as representatives of the community oncat serves, step members provide valuable feedback on oncat activities, including ontransfer.ca, research initiatives, committees, governance, and projects. our step members also served on our granting review committee for our most recent round of project rfps. for both the tsaf and step, proposals and applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. community-building activities that help transfer students feel more connected and supported in their postsecondary journey. tools and resources that support transfer students during and after the transfer process. awareness-raising activities that bring attention to transfer student experiences. 26 engaging transfer advisors the transfer advisory group (tag) heads of transfer advising (hota) transfer advisors, at both sending and receiving institutions, are often students first official point of information when making decisions about transfer. this past fiscal year, oncat designed a natural evolution of the tag mentor program. members of hota, or heads of transfer advising, assist oncat with building the capacity and efficacy of transfer advising, both across the system and at institutions. members have significant senior leadership experience in transfer at their institutions and serve as key communication vehicles to disseminate oncats pivotal work on transfer research and policy. to engage transfer advisors directly, oncat works with the transfer advisory group (tag). tags role is to establish and support a community of transfer advisors across ontario to address transfer issues that may impact students through sharing promising practices across institutions; building capacity among advisors and those working directly with students; and using data to inform effective practices. launched in 2018 on facebook workplace, tag also manages an online communications hub where advisors can connect easily with other members, share resources, and update information. 27 more specifically, members have expertise in the hiring and training of staff, developing and implementing policy around articulation and pathway development, ontransfer.ca requirements, and key working knowledge of contemporary transfer advising practices. relationships and partnerships to inform the development of oncats strategic plan, oncat met with numerous representatives from postsecondary institutions. meeting with vpas, presidents, registrars, and other decision-makers offers key insights into how specific institutions handle transfer student enrollment, participate in oncat projects and committees, and engage with ontransfer.ca. oncat also supports many events focused on new pathways. regular updates have been shared with our networks and associations, such as the committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers of ontario, and the ontario university registrars association. oncat has also received special invitations to present at important events and conferences, including the colleges ontario vps conference, colleges ontario recruiters professional development day, ontario school counsellors association, and the international association of admissions organizations. oncat participated in the digital learning review led by heqco, and some of the recommendations have made their way into heqcos report, released in early 2020. oncat also served as member of the council of ontario universities learning outcomes symposium planning committee. 28 northern ontario pathways steering committee the northern ontario pathways steering committee (nosc) supports the continuation of an integrated strategy to create student pathways and enhance institutional collaboration among northern institutions in ontario. all six colleges and four universities from the north are represented on the committee. in march 2020, oncat celebrated the signing of the northern business fundamentals co-registration initiative mou at algoma university. the mou involves algoma university, laurentian university, lakehead university, nipissing university, cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, northern college, and sault college. put simply, this new mou will allow a student to graduate with a university degree in select disciplines while simultaneously earning a oneyear college certificate in business fundamentals. the business fundamentals co-registration initiative is a great example of a made-in-ontario plan to help more students get the top-notch education they need to graduate and find a rewarding career in an in-demand field. id like to congratulate oncat and all northern colleges and universities. this is a great example of what we can achieve when we work together. hon. ross romano, minister of colleges and universities the francophone and bilingual steering committee members of this committee work together to promote an exchange of best practices between francophone and bilingual institutions, to target and reduce barriers to francophone student mobility, and to recommend new articulation and pathway models between institutions and other francophone or bilingual partners. members include collge boral, collge universitaire dominicain, collge universitaire glendon, collge la cit, universit de hearst, universit laurentienne, universit dottawa, universit saint-paul, and universit de sudbury. the committee recently convened to engage partners in data projects and process mapping initiatives. 30 engaging indigenous institutes to ensure indigenous institutes are central in transfer system transformation in ontario, oncat convened colleagues from six nations polytechnic, first nations technical institute, seven generations education institute, kenjgewin teg, oshki-wenjack, iohahi:io akwesasne education and training institute, the indigenous advanced education and skills council, the ministry of colleges and universities, and the mastercard foundation in february 2020 for a transfer systems planning session. over the course of the planning session, insights for how oncat can continue to strengthen transfer pathways with indigenous institutes emerged. these include bringing indigenous institutes, colleges, and universities together as equal partners in designing transfer processes that benefit students and supporting transfer processes for indigenous institute students to ensure their credits/credentials are being recognized during the transfer process. moving forward, oncat will continue to build on its partnerships with indigenous institutes, and this is an ongoing process. we are committed to designing funding, research, sector engagement, and student-facing information that supports the continued engagement of indigenous institutes in transfer system transformation. 31 national and international scope oncat continues to support the pan-canadian consortium on admission and transfer, serving as the consortiums secretary and treasurer and playing a leadership role in organizing the annual general meeting, serving on the pccat conference committee, and reviewing the consortiums by-laws and membership structure. oncat has become involved with catcan, a new network representing the provincial governmental or their independent transfer system-focused organization. the network includes british columbia, alberta, saskatchewan, manitoba, ontario, new brunswick, and nova scotia. oncat served as a proposal reviewer for the national institute for study of transfer students annual conference. oncat also presented on supporting student mobility by engaging system partners & faculty at the conference. oncat attended the 30th anniversary and annual gathering of the british columbia council on admissions and transfer. the arucc groningen initiative is creating a framework to improve international mobility, promoting worldwide education and economic development through the secure electronic exchange of postsecondary student information. oncat, as both a signatory to the project and a funder of arucc research, continues to support this initiative. in february 2020, oncat had the unique opportunity to welcome a nine-person team from hong kong polytechnic university as part of their project to create a student-centered online support system for hong kong. the team had an opportunity to learn from staff members and transfer students from george brown college, humber college, ryerson university, seneca college, and york university. 32 ontransfer.ca ontransfer.ca provides a user-friendly platform for students to investigate their transfer options and receive support on their academic journey. with data from ontarios indigenous institutes and all of the provinces 45 public colleges and universities, ontransfer.ca is continuously being updated with relevant, up-to-date information. heres how we made improvements over the past year. ontransfer.ca website improvements analytics and growth data enhancement project ontransfer.ca website improvements in 2019, we took a design-savvy, user-centric approach to ontransfer.ca. drawing from previous audits and stakeholder consultations, we made several sensible layout and design improvements to the existing ontransfer.ca website as one step in a larger design project. these changes have meant an improved browsing experience from a student-user perspective; simpler navigation pathways; shorter copy using more studentfriendly language; and improved user experience on mobile devices. these changes were publicized via social media, newsletters, and an on-site video guide that walked users through the new features. 34 analytics and growth overall, there were 195,026 users of ontransfer.ca, as well as 276,785 session visits from april 1, 2019, to march 31, 2020: increases of 3.6% and 0.68%, respectively, from the year before. this also includes a significant drop-off of traffic in late february and march while social distancing efforts and closures came into effect across ontario due to covid-19. from april 2019 to december 2019, ontransfers user traffic had increased by nearly 8%. comparing april 2020 and april 2019, there has been a 22.8% increase in course equivalencies (accounting for all institutions) and a 3.2% increase in the number of pathways. 35 data enhancement project ontransfer.ca data enhancement project team: in this past fiscal year, oncat formed a new team to review ontransfer.ca data, address gaps, and work more closely with all institutions to ensure information posted on the website is comprehensive. this includes a targeted campaign to re-engage institutions that have not submitted information on a regular basis or have not posted course equivalency information. transfer and technology director: as our new transfer and technology director, andrew wilson will provide senior leadership on the redevelopment, relaunch, and continuous improvement of ontransfer.ca and support enhanced capacity and process efficiencies across ontarios postsecondary education institutions related to transfer and student mobility. the transfer and technology director, while involved with the current data enhancement project, will lead the development of the ontransfer.ca 2.0 strategy and plan, and launch a new and improved version of ontransfer.ca by 2023. andrew wilson melinda cheng lena balata transfer and technology director research data analyst data enhancement project lead: ontransfer.ca 36 inside oncat oncat is powered by a diverse team of staff members and external stakeholders with a wide range of skills, experiences, and talents. the following pages describe how oncat grew and adapted internally throughout a productive 201920 fiscal year. supporting student mobility during covid-19 board co-chair changes first round of summer interns strategic plan, 202023 supporting student mobility during covid-19 since mid-march 2020, the oncat office has been closed temporarily in response to covid-19 and directives from public health agencies and provincial directives. during the pandemic, oncat staff moved to a remote work model to fulfill all normal services to create strong academic pathways and reduce barriers for students in ontario. the ontario council on articulation and transfer acknowledges the tremendous efforts made by ontarios colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes as they respond to the needs of current and incoming students during this particularly challenging time. we are encouraged by the flexibility and compassion demonstrated by all our sector partners and inspired by the collective efforts being made to support student success and course and credential completion. oncat has worked with sector partners to develop a sector-wide query to gather institutional academic policies, and their changes as a result of covid-19, that may impact transfer admissions and/or assessment. the sharing of this information will support institutions working directly with incoming and prospective transfer students and provide clarity to institutions with existing transfer pathways. as we would expect, we are seeing the effects of the pandemic on active grants and new projects. with all our active and new projects, we are being flexible and understanding, offering adjustments to reporting and activity timelines where needed. 38 board co-chair changes in 201920, oncat was thrilled to welcome ron common, president of sault college, as one of our two board co-chairs. we also sent a fond farewelland many thanksto outgoing board co-chair cheryl jensen, former president and ceo of algonquin college, who showed extraordinary leadership throughout her service to our organization. ron common incoming president, sault college cheryl jensen outgoing first round of summer interns in the summer of 2019, oncat had the pleasure of bringing on three student interns to support co-op and placement requirements for their programs for the first time in our history. we were excited to work alongside aidan hayes, a policy analyst intern from ryerson university; grigorii kniazev, a research analyst intern from humber college; and danielle wong, a digital marketing and content specialist intern from george brown college. 39 former president and ceo, algonquin college upcoming strategic plan, 202023 in 201920, oncat developed a new strategic plan in consultation with the sector, key industry partners, the oncat board, and with the ministry of colleges and universities. this strategic plan will guide oncat in addressing gaps and opportunities identified to advance the maturity of the credit transfer system. as we move toward implementing our strategic plan for the upcoming three-year periodfrom 202021 to 202223the organization is building capacity both internally and throughout the postsecondary education sector in order to pivot towards new and renewed priorities. as always, we continue to build and deliver on a focused mandate that creates opportunities for and meets the needs of ontarios transfer students. 40 strategic priorities, 20202023 priority 1: targeted and in-demand pathways for students with our understanding of transfer behaviour, trends, and the emerging needs and interests of students, we support the development of efficient and effective transfer pathways between institutions and across systems. these provide clearly articulated options that support student access to postsecondary education, laddering of credentials, opportunities for re-training, and the development of new skills. priority 2: transparent, consistent, and seamless transfer credit processes oncat strives to ensure ontario has a leading transfer-receptive pse system. students should be able to navigate the transfer process with relative easeand should receive maximum credit recognition for commensurate academic credits. we work to ease the burden of transfer administration on institutions, provide consistent information, and improve student experience at all stages of their transfer journey. priority 3: robust, reflective governance and operational capacities as the intermediary provincial organization responsible for building a strong transfer system in ontario, oncat has the potential to achieve more than what the government can do alone, develop and share subject matter expertise about transfer, and engage education sector partners to work collaboratively. oncat should be reflective, establish accountabilities, and facilitate improvement to ensure our operational capacities are aligned. 41 board of directors board chairs deb maclatchy, president and vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university ron common, president, sault college board members caitlin smith, george brown college, college student representative christine bradaric-baus, vice-president academic, canadian memorial chiropractic college, external representative elaine popp, vice-president academic, durham college kathryn kettle, university student representative lyne michaud, vice president academic affairs, collge boral pierre riopel, external representative serge demers, interim vice-president, academic and provost, laurentian university susan mccahan, vice-provost, innovations in undergraduate education, university of toronto vacant, college/university graduate representative ex-officio members of the board david fulford, vice-president research, colleges ontario david porter, former ceo, ecampusontario eva busza, vice-president, policy and sector collaboration, council of ontario universities heather lane, executive director, ontario universities' application centre karen creditor, chief executive officer, ontario college application service yvette munro, executive director, oncat 42 oncat team yvette munro shauna love andrew wilson executive director operations director transfer and technology director inna yeranosyan finance manager melinda cheng spencer gordon lena balata research data analyst communications specialist data enhancement project lead: ontransfer.ca sarah fuchs natalie isber carolyn poplak senior policy analyst project manager roger pizarro milian coordinator: grants and projects 43 peter ssekiziyivu desera senior researcher sector engagement manager ana skinner amy oziel rod missaghian jane waldner manager, funding programs operations coordinator researcher office and meeting coordinator our partners oncat partners with all 45 of ontarios public colleges and universities: 44 our partners we also work closely with: indigenous institutes; students; the government of ontario, ministry of colleges and universities; sector organizations like higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) and ecampusontario; representative bodies like the council of ontario universities (cou), colleges ontario (co), the canadian federation of students-ontario (cfs-on), the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa), and the college student alliance (csa). oncat is partnered nationally through the pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfer (pccat) and the provincial councils: 45 finances our audited financial statements, which comprise the statement of financial position as of march 31, 2019, the statements of operations and changes in net assets and cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies, can be found at: https://oncat.ca/en/about-us 46 2019 2020 annual report www.oncat.ca 180 dundas st. w., suite 1902 toronto, on m5g 1z8 the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) is funded by the government of ontario. cette information est aussi disponible en franais.

request for proposals transfer data lab consultation and implementation closing date: may 21, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time (est) closing location: the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) suite 1902, 180 dundas street west toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by: the ontario council on articulation and transfer contact: shauna love, operations director mailto:inquiry@oncat.ca 416.640.6951 ext. 302 main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student-facing website: http://www.ontransfer.ca contents oncat overview ....................................................................................................................................... 3 invitation ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 project overview and objectives ............................................................................................................. 5 scope of work ............................................................................................................................................ 6 phase i: collaborative needs assessment ............................................................................. 6 phase ii: research data lab design and implementation ...................................................... 7 phase iii: external user integration ........................................................................................ 9 rfp submission information .................................................................................................................. 11 key dates..............................................................................................................................11 proposal submission requirements ......................................................................................11 communication .....................................................................................................................12 submission process ..............................................................................................................12 evaluation process .................................................................................................................................. 13 page 2 evaluation criteria .................................................................................................................................... 14 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. working with our network of ontarios 45 colleges and universities, indigenous institutes, students, government, guidance counsellors, as well as other stakeholders provincially and nationally, oncat is building a culture and understanding of transfer so that students can pursue a more seamless and affordable postsecondary education. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: developing and maintaining the student-facing website ontransfer.ca, used to connect current and prospective students to transfer opportunities; supporting and funding academic projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontarios regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; and hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province. page 3 oncat is funded by the government of ontario. invitation oncat is seeking a qualified firm to consult on and build a research data lab and corresponding policies to collect, organize, store, and protect a variety of data sets with varying levels of sensitivity. page 4 currently, oncat depends on partner organizations to house sensitive data sets or store sensitive data in secure offsite servers. the planned transfer data lab (tdl) will provide oncat with the ability to securely store data sets with varied levels of sensitivity so that we can acquire, share, and link key data sets. in addition, oncat will have the ability to provide tdl access to partners interested in transfer research and data enhancement projects. project overview and objectives this tdl will allow oncat to have unique access to, analyze, and link varying data sets onsite. the tdl should be designed to allow oncat to export data expediently and securely, including cyclical reporting and responses to special requests from partners and institutions. in addition, the tdl has the potential to operate in a cost recovery basis through future research partnerships and institutes interested in accessing and analyzing student mobility data. the data linkages that could be created would lend themselves to student mobility/achievement research more broadly, creating an opportunity for oncat to become a central hub for educational policy research in the province. page 5 given this external interest and oncats objective to enhance transfer knowledge, the oncat tdl would be intended for oncat researchers and external partner use. to sustain the tdl, oncat will explore a fee structure using statistics canadas fee structure as a reference. scope of work phase i: collaborative needs assessment the successful candidate will complete a thorough internal needs assessment to determine the requirements related to the tdls: physical design information technology and network training maintenance policies reporting to complete this assessment, the successful candidate will: review similar research data lab and data centre requirements and policies, including statistics canada's steps to establish a research data centre (rdc); conduct oncat employee interviews; and conduct oncat it service provider interviews. determine requirements physical design information technology, hardware information technology, software network requirements training maintenance policies reporting assessment requirements review similar research data lab and data centre requirements and policies including statistics canada's steps to establish a research data centre (rdc) conduct interviews with oncat employees conduct interviews with oncat's it service provider assessment capacity yes no yes no page 6 please complete and include the following chart in your proposal to ensure you submit and identify all the necessary requirements for phase i. phase ii: research data lab design and implementation i. physical design, information technology (hardware/software), and network requirements. to ensure satisfactory level of security, value for money, and to satisfy oncat procurement requirements, the successful candidate will present three data lab design options for oncat consideration. once the data lab design is selected, the successful candidate will consult with oncat to procure the required hardware, software, and any other elements related to the tdls physical design. in addition, the successful candidate will support the construction of the tdl. ii. staffing and training requirements. the successful candidate will provide training for oncat employees to manage the tdl, which will include: tdl training and guide guidance on how to complete tdl reporting privacy and confidentiality requirements to maintain security of the lab in relation to staffing, the successful candidate will provide an overview of responsibilities related to managing the tdl and suggestions for oncat staff assignment of administrator roles, reporting roles, and so forth. iii. maintenance and security auditing requirements. the successful candidate will understand and document daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual maintenance requirements. the candidate will identify any external maintenance and support required so oncat can plan to have these controls in place. in addition, the successful candidate will recommend the frequency and type of security audit required to maintain the integrity of the tdl. oncat expects that any updates to the hardware and server will be accessible and managed on an internal basis. iv. policy requirements. the successful candidate will create policies to manage the governance, controls, and privacy of the tdl. the required policies will be identified as part of the collaborative needs assessment (phase i) but may also include: policy that provides guidance around data classification and any requirements to anonymize or encrypt data using industry standards. internal oncat policies for data security and privacy, including necessary legal documentation for employee sign-off. oncat tdl statement on respecting privacy and protecting confidentiality. a tdl code of conduct for oncat users. v. reporting requirements. the successful candidate will support the build and creation of the initial reports to manage and track the privacy and access to the tdl. once created, these reports will be generated by oncat staff. page 7 the successful candidate will design, present, and implement the tdl requirements identified in phase i. this includes, but is not limited to, the tdls: please complete and include the following chart in your proposal to ensure you submit and identify all the necessary requirements for phase ii. presentation requirements three (3) preliminary data lab options implementation requirements physical design information technology, hardware information technology, software network requirements staff and training requirements tdl training and guide guidance on how to complete tdl reporting privacy and confidentiality requirements to maintain security of the lab overview of responsibilities related to managing the tdl suggestions for oncat staff assignment of administrator roles, reporting roles, and so forth. other training documentation presentation capacity yes no implementation capacity yes no staff and training capacity yes no page 8 design requirements physical design information technology; hardware information technology; software network requirements design capacity yes no maintenance and security auditing capacity maintenance and security auditing requirements understand daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual maintenance requirements document the daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual maintenance requirements identify any external maintenance and support required recommend the frequency and type of security audit required to maintain the integrity of the tdl policy requirements yes no policy capacity yes no create policies to manage the governance, controls and privacy of the tdl reporting requirements build and create reports to manage and track privacy and access to tdl reporting capacity yes no phase iii: external user integration complete external partner interviews, including but not limited to postsecondary staff and researchers; design and configure access for external users; identify and create policies for external users, including but not limited to: o a policy that outlines the terms and conditions for external users to access and use the tdl, including security screening requirements; o a policy that outlines the process for oncat staff to vet all information removed from the lab including statistical results and all notes and documents to ensure any potential risk to confidentiality is substantially mitigated; o a tdl contract and code of conduct; o a data sharing agreement that defines contractual arrangements for acquisition of files, terms and conditions around updates, storage, usage, and disposal at the end of a project; o application form for external parties to request access to the oncat data lab; and o a policy that provides guidance to oncat for making decisions about requests from individuals or organizations seeking access to the oncat tdl; enhance maintenance requirements and guidance as needed; recommend any additional hardware/software required to maintain confidentiality and security of data, including enhanced tracking and audit reporting capability for external users; and create or adapt training materials for external users. please complete and include the following chart in your proposal to ensure you submit and identify all the necessary requirements for phase iii. external user integration requirements complete external partner interviews identify and create policies for external users design access for external users external integration capacity yes no page 9 the successful candidate will enhance the tdl to allow external users (i.e., non-oncat employees) to access and use the physical lab securely. to complete this phase, the successful candidate will: page 10 configure access for external users enhance maintenance requirements and guidance as needed recommend any additional hardware/software required to maintain confidentiality and security of data create or adapt training materials for external users rfp submission information key dates rfp release date march 30, 2021 deadline for questions via inquiry@oncat.ca april 16, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. est questions and answers posting date answers will be posted @ https://oncat.ca/en/open-rfps april 22, 2021 proposal deadline may 21, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. est interviews by teleconference or videoconference week of may 31, 2021 notice of award week of june 7, 2021 proposal submission requirements 1. contact information for the respondent. 2. description of the proposed approach (maximum: 750 words). this should include a description of the organizations business principles and approach to developing a data lab, including principles and roadmap. 3. detailed work plan (maximum: 1,200 words). the work plan should describe activities that are specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic. include a timeline of major tasks and milestones. 4. a detailed budget. 5. qualifications of the respondent (maximum: 750 words). to provide the requested services, the respondent must demonstrate capability, capacity, a history of successfully completing similar complex projects, and related experience. confirm the availability of individuals in the proposal. 6. applicants resume(s) or biographies outlining relevant experiences. include a listing of the staff to be assigned to this project and their respective qualifications, experience with engagements of this scope, including resumes, and their role in those past engagements. 7. two successful case studies of research data lab consultation and creation (ideally with not-for-profits or provincially / federally funded organizations). 8. a statement of understanding on any confidential issues for this project and disclosure concerning any perceived or potential conflicts of interest. page 11 proposals must, at minimum, contain the following: 9. a description of the outcome monitoring and evaluation plan, including a list of tools to track process, output, and outcome measures for each component of the project. 10. technical definitions if required. communication all communication, such as requests for additional information and/or clarification, should be directed in writing by email to mailto:inquiry@oncat.ca with oncat transfer data lab as the subject line. all such rfp-related inquiries must be received no later than april 16, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. est. oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information of a reasonable nature that may be requested by interested vendors. 1. please review all sections of this rfp carefully and follow all instructions. incomplete submissions will not be considered. 2. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to accomplish the desired or intended results of this procurement are solicited. however, proposals that depart from or materially alter the terms, requirements, or scope of work defined by this rfp will be rejected. 3. all costs associated with developing or submitting a proposal (including a potential interview) in response to this rfp and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal, shall be borne by the vendor. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. 4. all proposals should identify the vendor proposed team of professionals, including those employed by subcontractors, if any, along with respective areas of expertise and relevant credentials. agencies should also provide a delineation of the portion of the scope of work for which each of these professionals will be responsible. 5. vendors are required to submit one (1) electronic copy of their proposal to: inquiry@oncat.ca. please ensure the subject line reads as follows: oncat transfer data lab: [company name]. oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of may 21, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. est. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfp document become the property of oncat. oncat can decide to not proceed with these activities. page 12 submission process evaluation process the evaluation process will include several steps. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. oncat is funded by the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu), and as such, services provided by a vendor is contingent upon oncats continued funding from mcu. stage1. proposal submission components proposals will be reviewed for the submission components (section 5.2) and general compliance with the submission proposal requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements will be disqualified. stage 2. evaluation ranking the evaluation committee will evaluate and rank the written proposals to identify the topranked candidate(s) to be invited to the interview stage. if there is a tie between two or more top scoring candidates, the tied candidates will be invited to an interview to break the tie. stage 3. interview(s) the top-ranked candidate(s) will be invited for an interview. interviews will be conducted by phone or zoom. the candidate with the highest score after the interview will be asked for references. stage 4. negotiation prior to award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with candidate identified in stage 3 for the best value option. stage 5. notice of award the successful candidate will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful candidates will be notified after a final agreement has been executed. page 13 references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. evaluation criteria applicants should clearly meet all the criteria listed below: percentage 40% 30% 20% 10% 100% page 14 proposal evaluation criteria overall experience of candidate and demonstrated results our evaluation will include an assessment of your experience as it relates to the requirements within this rfp, evidence of past performance, quality and relevance of past work, references, and related areas. approach to the review our evaluation will rate the overall approach and strategy described/outlined in the proposal and the candidates capacity to perform the engagement within the specified timeframe (prior experience in meeting timelines will be factored in here). budget approach/cost effectiveness our evaluation will investigate your budget framework; candidates must demonstrate an effective and efficient delivery of quality services in relation to the budget allocation. oncat expects the allocation is reasonable and appropriate. qualifications of personnel our evaluation will include an assessment of the qualifications and experience of your managerial team, staff, subcontractors, and related personnel. total

transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions october 10, 2020 authors cathlene hillier, phd | postdoctoral research fellow yujiro sano, phd | postdoctoral research fellow david zarifa, phd | professor and canada research chair davidz@nipissingu.ca department of sociology nipissing university characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions table of contents 03 overview of the study key findings 05 introduction regional transfers and prevalence: does the magnitude of transfer within 07 and across regions differ for northern and southern ontario institutions? 08 northern and southern differences: do the characteristics of students who transfer within and across regions differ at northern and southern institutions in ontario? characteristics of students who transfer within regions characteristics of students who transfer across regions bivariate analysis between characteristics and transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions 14 conclusions and policy implications 17 appendix: data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources subsample and restrictions dependent variable transfer type independent variables student characteristics analytical approach 21 references 24 figures and tables this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions overview of the study research considering transfers between postsecondary institutions has largely focused on the types of transfers that students make across institutions and sectors (e.g., college to university, university to college, college to college, university to university). while some studies have explored regional elements of ontario postsecondary recruitment efforts, with a focus on local catchment areas and community responsiveness (e.g., kaufman, jonker, & hicks, 2018), there is little information on the regional flows of transfers across or within regions in ontario: north to south, south to north, south to south, and north to north. research examining postsecondary education in canadas provincial north points to various differences between southern and northern communities which would suggest that we might expect differences in the characteristics of youth who transfer across regions in ontario (hango et al., 2019; pizarro milian, seward, & zarifa, 2020; zarifa, hango, & pizarro milian, 2018; zarifa, seward, & pizarro milian, 2019). moreover, northern economies continually struggle to maintain local human capital levels to promote economic development, and they commonly share high levels of skill and youth out-migration (fcm 2015a, 2015b; labour market group, 2018; newbold & brown, 2015; zarifa et al., 2018). with northern regions facing these significant challenges, with out-migration and brain drain in particularthe loss of educated and skilled workers (dowsley & southcott, 2017; hillier et al., 2020; laflamme & bagaoui, 2010)it is important to assess empirically the magnitude and key determinants of student transfer behaviours not only within regions but across regions of ontario. key findings the prevalence of transfer across regions is much higher among northern students (4.89%) than southern students (0.29%). by contrast, a larger proportion of southern students (7.67%) are transferring within the region compared to northern students (3.47%). older students have higher probabilities in both regions when it comes to not transferring and for transferring within the same region. however, older students in southern ontario show higher probabilities of transferring across the region, while in northern ontario, it is younger students who show higher probabilities of transferring across the region. in both regions, compared to university students, college students are significantly more likely to transfer within the region and across the region. in southern ontario, compared to full-time students, part-time students are significantly more likely to transfer both within the region and across the region. in northern ontario, however, part-time students are only significantly more likely to transfer across the region than their full-time counterparts. 03 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions for southern ontario students, natural sciences majors show the highest probability of taking the non-transfer route; arts and humanities majors show the highest probability of transferring within the region; and health majors show the highest probability of transferring across the region. for northern ontario, health majors show the highest probability of not transferring, and arts and humanities and social science majors show the highest probabilities of transferring both within and across regions. 04 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions introduction with a growing number of students who transfer schools after completing college or university, or transferring before completion (decock, 2004; finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2020), there is a need to understand more about the characteristics of students who transfer from different regions of ontario, both north and south. youth from the northernmost parts of provinces often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to attending postsecondary institutions, accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing many lucrative fields of study at the university level such as the stem fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) (hango et al., 2019; zarifa et al., 2018). indeed, our two previous studies revealed that both the magnitude of transfer types as well as the sociodemographic and educational characteristics of students who transfer vary across northern and southern ontario postsecondary institutions (sano, hillier, & zarifa, 2020; zarifa, sano, & hillier, 2020). at the same time, new research tracing the out-migration of young adults from northern canada to southern canada suggests that a considerable degree of outmigration occurs before students turn 30, and much of this out-migration is highly correlated with postsecondary education behaviours (hillier et al., 2020). existing transfer research that considers regional pathways largely examines flows between two institutions that have articulation agreements in place (e.g., diploma to degree programs) and are located in close proximity to each other (acai & newton, 2015; blanchard et al., 2013; gawley & mcgowan, 2006). that is, these pathways are primarily within city transfers between a college and a university. however, to our knowledge, no existing academic or policy reports have investigated the magnitude of regional transfer pathways both within and across regions in ontario colleges and universities, nor have they taken a closer look to compare the characteristics of students who take these pathways at northern and southern institutions. this research aims to fill this apparent gap in our understanding by using administrative data from statistics canadas postsecondary student information system (psis) (2009 to 2016) linked to t1 family file tax data (t1ff) to examine the regional flows of student transfers in ontarios college and university sectors. specifically, we explore the overall magnitude as well as the socio-demographic antecedents across three pathways for students at northern and southern institutions: 1) no transfer: students do not transfer within two years after their initial enrolment into postsecondary institution (i.e., college or university); 2) transfer within region: students transfer to another institution but stay within the same region; and 3) transfer across region: students leave their region to transfer to another institution (i.e., south to north or north to south). 05 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions first, we begin by comparing the relative percentages of students who take these various routes across northern and southern institutions. second, we employ bivariate analyses to trace and compare the characteristics of students who transfer in southern ontario and northern ontario institutions. third, we draw upon multinomial logistic regressions and predicted probabilities to assess and compare the relative impact of students characteristics on these transfer types in the two regions. finally, we conclude by highlighting some of the key areas of differences across the two locales and discuss the policy implications of these findings. 06 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions regional transfers and prevalence: does the magnitude of transfer within and across regions differ for northern and southern ontario institutions? in this section, we examine the prevalence of the three postsecondary pathways described above in both northern ontario and southern ontario institutions. table 1 shows the findings from our univariate analysis describing the characteristics of students in the psis-t1ff from northern and southern institutions. the results in figure 1 show that two key differences emerge in the distributions of transfer types across the two locales. first, the prevalence of transferring across regions is considerably higher among students at northern institutions (4.89%) than among those at southern institutions (0.29%). second, much larger proportions of southern students (7.67%) are transferring within their region than northern students (3.47%). put differently, transfer among students at southern ontario institutions tends to stay in southern ontario, whereas the transfer pathways among students from northern ontario institutions transcend regional boundaries. additional characteristics of the 2009 to 2016 psis-t1ff subsamples for southern and northern students respectively can be found in table 1. in short, there are more female students (58.46% vs. 53.56%) and older students (19.30% vs. 12.11%) in northern institutions than southern institutions, and fewer northern students (13.35%) have parents with income falling under the lowest income category than southern students (19.88%). in terms of program characteristics, smaller proportions of northern students, compared to southern students, enroll in college (16.57% vs. 19.74%) and attend postsecondary institutions on a part-time basis (6.57% vs. 31.59%). our analysis also reveals that more northern students major in health sciences (21.77% vs. 11.61%), but fewer northern students major in arts/humanities (11.36% vs. 19.52%), natural sciences (21.24% vs. 26.58%), and social sciences (28.60% vs. 38.84%) relative to southern students. in terms of family characteristics, the prevalence of single parenthood is slightly higher for northern students (13.35%) than southern students (11.88%), although this trend is reversed for having family size larger than four (66.14% and 70.25% for northern and southern students, respectively). 07 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions northern and southern differences: do the characteristics of students who transfer within and across regions differ at northern and southern institutions in ontario? the characteristics of students who transfer within regions for the characteristics of students who transfer within regions, we turn to the literature that examines transfer flows between ontario postsecondary institutions that are located in close proximity to each other. in these studies, age is a key predictor of transfer within regions. yet, some research finds older students (> 25 years) (acai & newton, 2015; blanchard et al., 2013; gawley & mcgowan, 2006) are more likely to transfer to nearby institutions and others find younger students (< 25 years) more likely to transfer locally (mccloy et al., 2017; smith et al., 2016). the sex of the student has also received mixed results, with some researchers discovering female students are more likely to transfer locally (mccloy et al., 2017; smith et al., 2016) and others finding higher rates of transfer among male students (acai & newton, 2015; gawley & mcgowan, 2006). for family background characteristics, having one parent with postsecondary education is positively associated with transferring between institutions in the same region (mccloy et al., 2017; smith et al., 2016; steffler, mccloy, & decock, 2018). in relation to student academics, program of study, gpas, and students aspirations predict local transfers between postsecondary institutions. first, students aspiring to become teachers (acai & newton, 2015) and those seeking general arts and science university programs (decock, 2004; stewart & martinello, 2012) are more likely to transfer from their college to a local university. second, students with high gpas in college have higher transfer rates to universities (kennett & mackie, 2014; lang & lopes, 2014; mccloy et al., 2017; smith et al., 2016; steffler et al., 2018; stewart & martinello, 2012). yet, university students who transfer to college are also strong academically (smith et al., 2016; stewart & martinello, 2012). third, students aspirations to attend university after college are associated with transfers to local universities (mccloy et al., 2017; smith et al., 2016; steffler et al., 2018). the characteristics of students who transfer across regions no literature currently exists that specifically examines transfers across regions. as such, we draw upon the small body of existing research that considers north to south migration f or considerations here. using canadian census data (1996 to 2001), southcott (2002) found all major cities in northern ontario experience significant out-migration, with the exception of indigenous communities. in the rough time-frame when youth leave home to pursue 08 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions postsecondary studies, researchers found that the largest number of out-migrations are among youth aged 15 to 22 (hillier et al., 2020; ohagan, 2014; robichaud, 2013; southcott, 2002). additionally, once individuals leave northern cities for postsecondary education in the south, they are less likely to return (girard & laflamme, 2013; ohagan, 2014). yet, those from smaller northern communities or from other areas in northern ontario often do return to their northern rural communities (ohagan, 2014). in terms of examining the characteristics of individuals who leave their northern communities for the south, existing research in this area is even leaner. in canadas territorial north (dowsley & southcott, 2017) as well as in northern ontario (laflamme & bagaoui, 2010), there is some evidence to suggest a female flight from northern communities, and this out-migration is often attributed to their pursuits of postsecondary education. most recently, across canadas provincial north, hillier and colleagues (2020) found northern canada respondents with higher education levels and higher pisa reading scores (measured at age 15 by the programme for international student assessment) were likelier to migrate south. additionally, parents education was positively associated with the likelihood of migrating south (see also laflamme & bagaoui, 2010). these findings resonate with the aforementioned transfer research which finds students education and skills and parents education levels to be positively related to transfer rates (mccloy et al., 2017; smith et al., 2016; steffler et al., 2018). bivariate analysis between characteristics and transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions tables 2 and 3 show the results from our bivariate analyses in southern ontario and northern ontario respectively. overall, the bivariate analyses reveal that transfer types are impacted by the interplay of demographic, program, and family characteristics among southern and northern students. we also graph these results in figures 2 to 13 to provide further insight into how various groups across these characteristics might be represented differently across the categories of our transfer type variables in southern and northern ontario. sex figures 2 and 3 point to the importance of sex in understanding transfer types in southern and northern ontario respectively. in southern ontario, the relationship between sex and transfer types is statistically significant (p<0.01), indicating that significantly larger proportions of female students are transferring within the region (7.88% vs. 7.41%) or across the region (0.32% vs. 0.26%) than males (see figure 2). for northern ontario, compared to male students, fewer female students transfer within the region (3.42% vs. 3.54%), but more transfer across the region (5.04% vs. 4.81%) (see figure 3). however, the relationship between sex and transfer type is not statistically significant among northern students. 09 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions age in terms of age, the relationships are statistically significant for both northern and southern ontario (p<0.01). in southern ontario, figure 4 shows that larger proportions of older students are transferring both within the region (9.91% vs. 7.36%) and across the region (0.51% vs. 0.26%). interestingly, this pattern is reversed for students in northern institutions, where smaller proportions of older students transfer both within the region (2.72% vs. 3.65%) and across the region (3.81% vs. 5.21%) in comparison with younger students (see figure 5). parental income our bivariate analyses reveal that parental income also significantly impacts transfer types in southern ontario (p<0.01), suggesting that higher parental income generally leads to lower chances of transferring within the region. by contrast, southern students with the lowest parental income have the lowest percentage of transferring across the region while those with the highest parental income have the highest percentage of staying in the same institutions (see figure 6). although the relationship between parental income and transfer types is not statistically significant in northern ontario, the trend is somewhat similar to that of southern students. specifically, the results in figure 7 show that higher parental income generally predicts lower chances of transferring within the region, and students with the lowest parental income have the lowest percentage of staying in the same institutions. type of institution figures 8 and 9 suggest that transfer pathways also vary by the type of institution in southern and northern ontario (p<0.01). in southern ontario, more college students transfer within the region (18.31% vs. 5.05%) and across the region (0.74% vs. 0.18%), but fewer stay in the same institutions (80.95% vs. 94.77%) than university students (see figure 8). in figure 9, we can see this general pattern is similar in northern ontario, where significantly larger proportions of college students transfer within the region (10.76% vs. 2.08%) and across the region (9.81% vs. 3.91%) than university students. registration status in figures 10 and 11, the bivariate results for registration status and transfer type are shown. in southern ontario, registration status has a statistically significant impact on transfer pathways (p<0.01). specifically, more part-time southern students transfer within the region (13.65% vs. 7.39%) and across the region (0.39% vs. 0.29%), but fewer stay within the same institution (85.96% vs. 92.33%) compared to their full-time counterparts. interestingly, slightly smaller proportions of northern part-time students stay in the same institutions (91.20% vs. 91.62%) 10 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions and transfer within the region (3.20% vs. 3.55%) than full-time students, but these differences are not statistically significant. field of study finally, our results also point to field of study as being significantly associated with transfer pathways in southern and northern ontario (p<0.01). among southern students, students majoring in the natural sciences have the highest percentages of staying in the same institutions (94.63%) and the lowest percentage of transferring within the region (5.11%) (see figure 12). by contrast, students majoring in arts and humanities have the lowest percentage of staying in the same institutions (90.65%), the highest percentage of transferring within the region (9.14%), and the lowest percentage of transferring across the region (0.22%). for northern ontario, figure 13 shows students majoring in arts and humanities have the lowest percentage of staying in the same institutions (88.94%), the highest percentage of transferring within the region (4.61%), and the highest percentage of transferring across the region (6.45%). multinomial logistic regression analysis of transfer types: comparing students at northern and southern ontario institutions to estimate the net impact of each of the characteristics among students, we also perform separate multivariate analyses for southern ontario and northern ontario. these methods consist of multinomial logistic regressions as well as predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals to provide graphical displays of the relative differences across groups. while percentages were shown earlier in the bivariate analyses, predicted probabilities range from 0 to 1 and show the probability that a particular type of student (e.g., college) would take one of the various pathways, taking into account the impact that all other variables in the model have as well. the odds ratios from multinomial logistic regressions for southern ontario institutions are shown in table 4 and the predicted probabilities derived from those models are shown in table 5. the odds ratios from multinomial logistic regressions for northern ontario are shown in table 6, and the predicted probabilities derived from those models are shown in table 7. the predicted probabilities for both regions are graphed in figures 14 to 25. for ease of interpretation and to make similarities and differences more apparent, we compare each of the effects of the background characteristics in northern and southern institutions in turn. sex in southern ontario, female students show higher odds of transferring within the region (or=1.07, p<0.01) and across the region (or=1.42, p<0.01) than their male counterparts when compared to the non-transfer route. interestingly, when looking at the predicted probabilities 11 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions in figure 14, we can see that female students show lower probabilities of not transferring and higher probabilities of transferring both within and across the region than male students. in northern ontario, however, the impact of sex on transfer types is not statistically significant. figure 15 shows the same general pattern, yet the differences between male and female probabilities in the north are not large enough to yield statistical significance. age in southern ontario, older students (compared to younger students) are less likely to transfer within the region (or=0.88, p<0.01), but are more likely to transfer across the region than to stay in the same institutions (or=1.43, p<0.01). similarly, in northern ontario, significantly lower odds are observed for older students in terms of both transfer within the region (or=0.79, p<0.05) and across the region (or=0.65, p<0.01). in figures 16 and 17, we can see that older students show higher probabilities in both regions when it comes to not transferring and for transferring within the same region. however, older students in southern ontario show higher probabilities of transferring across the region, while in northern ontario, it is younger students who show higher probabilities of transferring across the region. parental income the impact of parental income on transfer types seems to differ between southern and northern ontario. in southern ontario, higher parental income is positively associated with a higher likelihood of transferring across the region, although students in the highest parental income category are significantly less likely to transfer within the region than their lowest-income counterparts (or=0.93, p<0.01). figure 18 shows the predicted probabilities across the transfer and parental income categories. overall, only the transfers across the region category show a consistently positive relationship with parental income. by contrast, we do not observe any significant relationship between parental income and transfer types in northern ontario. this nonsignificant relationship can be seen in figure 19, where the predicted probabilities for each transfer category appear to stay quite similar across all parental income quintiles. type of institution our results show some interesting and sizeable differences across colleges and universities. in southern ontario, compared to university students, college students are significantly more likely to transfer within the region (or=4.13, p<0.01) and across the region (or=4.65, p<0.01). this pattern is similar in northern ontariosignificantly higher odds are observed of transferring within the region (or=7.12, p<0.01) and across the region (or=3.30, p<0.01) among college students. visually, the general pattern looks similar across locales, but two slight differences emerge in figures 20 and 21. first, while college students show higher probabilities than university students 12 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions for transferring within and across the region, this gap between college and university students appears to be wider in southern ontario for within-region transfer and narrower than that of northern ontario for across-region transfer. registration status the role of registration status on transfer pathways is statistically significant in both southern and northern ontario. in southern ontario, compared to full-time students, part-time students are significantly more likely to transfer both within the region (or=2.05, p<0.01) and across the region (or=1.26, p<0.1) than to take a non-transfer route. in northern ontario, however, part-time students in are only significantly more likely to transfer across the region than their full-time counterparts (or=1.62, p<0.01). these differences across registration status can be seen in figures 22 and 23. moreover, part-time status shows higher probabilities for both within- and across-region transfer in the south, but only a higher probability than full-time status students in terms of across-region transfer in the north. field of study finally, in terms of field of study, several key differences emerge across regions. in southern ontario, compared to students majoring in arts and humanities, those majoring in health (or=0.82, p<0.01), natural sciences (or=0.55, p<0.01), and social sciences (or=0.80, p<0.01) have lower odds of transferring within the region over taking a non-transfer route. interestingly, the trend is reversed for transferring across the region. that is, those majoring in health (or=1.45, p<0.01), natural sciences (or=1.25, p<0.05), and social sciences (or=1.29, p<0.01) have higher odds of transferring across the region. in northern ontario, majoring in health and natural sciences is associated with lower odds of transferring within the region (or=0.42, p<0.01; or=0.57, p<0.01 for within the region and across the region respectively) or across the region (or=0.56, p<0.01; or=0.57, p<0.01). figures 24 and 25 shed light on the absolute differences in probability of taking one of the three pathways. for southern ontario students, natural sciences majors show the highest probability of taking the non-transfer route; arts and humanities majors show the highest probability of transferring within the region; and health majors show the highest probability of transferring across the region. for northern ontario, it is health majors who show the highest probability of not-transferring, and it is arts and humanities and social science majors who show the highest probabilities of transferring both within and across regions. 13 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions conclusions and policy implications this study is the first to provide an empirical assessment of the current level of regional flows with respect to transfer at northern and southern ontario colleges and universities. we employ statistics canadas psis and family tax data to contribute in two key ways: 1) to provide a comparison of the overall magnitude of within region and across region transfer types in each region; and 2) to identify the socio-demographic and educational characteristics of students in each region who are more prone to transferring to an institution that is situated inside or outside their region within two years of beginning their postsecondary education. our analyses explore three major pathways, two of which are transfer pathways (within-region transfer and across-region transfer). overall, the prevalence of transferring across regions is considerably higher among students at northern institutions (4.89%) than among those at southern institutions (0.29%). much larger proportions of southern students (7.67%) are transferring within their region than northern students (3.47%). put differently, transfer among students at southern ontario institutions tends to stay in southern ontario, whereas the transfer pathways among students from northern ontario institutions transcend regional boundaries. these findings resonate with prior research that uncovered significant outmigration for young adults from northern areas of canada (dowsley & southcott, 2017; laflamme & bagaoui, 2010), largely attributable to their pursuits of postsecondary education (hillier et al., 2020; girard & laflamme, 2013). what is interesting to note from our findings here is that at least part of this out-migration appears to be happening during their pursuits of postsecondary schooling. while many students may leave northern regions after high school to begin their postsecondary education at southern institutions, some students do begin their studies at northern institutions before migrating to a southern institution. overall, all socio-demographic and educational characteristics in our analyses showed strong and statistically significant effects on transfer types for southern ontario institutions. these relationships emerged first in our bivariate analyses and remained strong even when controlling for all other factors in our multinomial logistic regression models. resonating with our prior work that explored a myriad of possible transfer types in ontario (see sano et al., 2020; zarifa et al., 2020), student age, sex, parental income, registration status, type of institution, field of study, family composition, and family size all had an impact on student mobility. for northern ontario, however, sex, parental income, and registration status were not statistically significant in our bivariate analyses, and sex and parental income remained non-significant in our multinomial logistic regression models. while many of the student characteristics showed significant effects on within- and across-region transfer pathways 14 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions in both regions, our results did uncover some notable differences across northern and southern ontario institutions. in terms of socio-demographic characteristics, several findings emerged. first, for sex, in southern ontario institutions, female students had lower probabilities of not transferring and higher probabilities of transferring both within and across the region than male students. but, in northern ontario, the impact of sex on transfer types was not strong enough to be statistically significant. second, in terms of age, our results revealed that older students had higher probabilities in both regions when it comes to not transferring and for transferring within the same region. however, older students in southern ontario show higher probabilities of transferring across the region, while in northern ontario, it is younger students who show higher probabilities of transferring across the region. certainly, for these younger students from northern regions, this finding resonates with the youth out-migration literature. it would be fruitful for future research to further disentangle what types of programs, supports, and opportunities are drawing these older students from southern ontario to relocate to northern institutions. finally, the impact of parental income on transfer types also varies between southern and northern ontario. in southern ontario, higher parental income is positively associated with a higher likelihood of transferring across the region. by contrast, our findings did not reveal any statistically significant relationship between parental income and transfer types in northern ontario. our results also point to some key education characteristics that have an impact on transfer behaviours. first, the analyses reveal notable differences across postsecondary sectors. in southern ontario, compared to university students, college students are significantly more likely to transfer within the region and across the region. this pattern is similar in northern ontario. while college students show higher probabilities than university students for transferring within and across the region, this gap between college and university students appears to be wider in southern ontario for within-region transfer and wider in northern ontario for across-region transfer. second, the role of registration status on transfer pathways was statistically significant in both southern and northern ontario. in southern ontario, compared to full-time students, part-time students are significantly more likely to transfer both within the region and across the region. in northern ontario, however, part-time students are only significantly more likely to transfer across the region than their full-time counterparts. finally, several differences emerge across fields of study. for southern ontario students, natural sciences majors show the highest probability of taking the non-transfer route; arts and humanities majors show the highest probability of transferring within the region; and health majors show the highest probability of transferring across the region. for northern ontario, it is health majors who show the highest probability of not transferring, and it is arts and humanities and social science majors who show the highest probabilities of transferring both within and across regions. our comparisons across southern and northern ontario institutions have three key implications for education administrators and policymakers. first, our foundational work on regional flows across ontario colleges and universities in this study offers valuable 15 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions information to inform recruitment and retention strategies, strategic enrolment planning, and articulation agreements. while ontarios public colleges in particular have long understood the importance of being responsive to their local environment and communities in order to foster local catchment efforts (kaufman et al., 2018), our results show that college students are more prone to transfer across the province within two years of beginning their studies. this might suggest the need to monitor behaviours after entry and look for opportunities to promote local retention. second, by identifying who is most likely to transfer across or within regions, articulation agreements and transfer supports can be tailored to demands and unmet needs. it is clear from our results above that some characteristics influence the regional flow aspects of student mobility behaviours more than others, and at times, they influence transfer behaviours differently in northern and southern locations. for northern ontario education administrators in particular, it is important to note that students from northern ontario institutions are more likely to relocate across the province when transferring, suggesting higher levels of overall out-migration in the north. among those who transfer in the north, older students are more likely to transfer within the north, while younger students and part-time students are more likely to out-migrate when transferring. northern college students, as well as arts, humanities and social science majors (in both sectors), are more likely to transfer within the north and out of the north. finally, the regional flows and sectoral differences across college and universities shed light on the unique considerations that each region, as well as each type of institution, may need to consider in fostering successful transitions and articulation agreements. unfortunately, small sample sizes prevented us from further distinguishing whether students who start in a southern college or southern university transfer to a northern university or a northern college and vice versa. as psis cohorts continue to mount, future pooled subsamples might be large enough to explore these additional refinements and would provide additional intra- and inter-regional pathway information for education officials, administrators, and policymakers. 16 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions appendix: data sources, sample, variables, and analytical approach data sources this study uses the postsecondary student information system (psis) (for further details, see statistics canada, 2018). psis is administrative data collected on all public and not-forprofit postsecondary institutions funded by a provincial ministry of education. the data is particularly beneficial in that it provides a census of enrolments and graduates in all canadian colleges and universities, collected annually since the 2005/2006 academic year, and yields approximately a 95% response rate. at the time of writing, the 2016/2017 academic year is the most recent academic year available for analysis. another strength of the psis is that it includes variables about the educational institutions, student demographics, and information about the program in which the student is enrolled. they are optimal for use in this study to investigate the characteristics of students who pursue various pse pathways in northern and southern ontario. additionally, we use the psis-t1ff linkage (tax years 2004 to 2015) to draw upon additional sociodemographic variables of relevance (e.g., parental income, family composition, family size, etc.). finally, the psis administrative data overcomes a number of limitations to using other nationally representative survey data to examine pse pathways in northern ontario. first, small sample sizes prevent the use of statistics canadas youth in transition survey (yits) to parse out the ontario case. wave attrition further complicates analyses with yits, and data on more recent cohorts is no longer collected. most importantly, neither the yits nor another nationally representative survey, the national graduates survey (ngs), contains institutional identifiers to create northern and southern groupings. subsample and restrictions we restrict our sample in this study in several important ways. for example, we limit our sample to undergraduate students from ontario postsecondary institutions. specifically, this study excludes students who are enrolled in professional, graduate, and postgraduate programs (see finnie, dubois, & miyairi, 2017). in addition, there are two different ways of selecting students in the psis, namely the enrolment cohorts and the graduate cohorts. we rely on the enrolment cohorts in our analysis and track students school and type of postsecondary education mobility over two years. 17 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions admittedly, it would be ideal to track students transfer types from their initial enrolment in postsecondary education until their graduation. to do so, we would need to draw our sample from the graduate cohorts that allow us to select those students who had attended a college or university program prior to graduating from a college or university program as well as those who did not attend a prior program but graduated with a college diploma or university degree. however, there are three limitations to this approach. first, our preliminary analyses revealed that the number of students included in the graduate cohorts is considerably smaller than those in the enrolment cohorts. moreover, the psis has imputed information on several ontario colleges (see statistics canada, 2019: 34). unfortunately, respondents from these institutions are not available for longitudinal linkage due to a lack of record identification. finally, coupled with these two limitations, considering our interest in students from postsecondary institutions in northern ontario, our sample sizes would be too small to perform the analyses presented here. to overcome these limitations, this study uses the enrolment cohorts to understand students transfer types. specifically, we select those students who were enrolled in a college or university program during the time of data collection and subsequently followed their institution and sector pathways for two years. ultimately, we capture the probability that students change their institution and/or institution type within their first two years of college or university. this approach has several advantages. first, tracking students for two years after their initial enrolment is suitable for documenting their transfer types because transfers often happen during a relatively early stage of ones postsecondary educational career (see hillman, lum, & hossler, 2008; johnson & muse, 2012). second, this approach allows us to keep a large-enough sample size to track students transfer, especially among those students who had started their postsecondary education from twoyear colleges. we adopt this approach and track six different cohorts of students (200911, 201012, 201113, 201214, 201315, and 201416) to understand their transfer types. for example, for 2009, we first compare differences between 2009 and 2010 institution ids and institution types. we then compare 2010 to 2011 institution ids and institution types. third, we combine observed differences across both comparisons and then combine into the pathway variable below. finally, we pool these students together, yielding analytical samples of 404,270 students in southern institutions and 19,020 students in northern institutions. 1. an alternative approach was first explored by extracting and linking across the graduation cohorts in psis. those who graduated in a particular year (e.g., 2016) were linked to their psis records in the previous four years (2012 to 2016). this approach provided a glimpse into graduates last four years of postsecondary participation but revealed far less student mobility. as such, we opted to proceed with our current approach since a significant level of transfer occurs within their first few years of postsecondary education. 2. additional analyses (not shown here) tracked students over four years of time and pool four cohorts of students (2009 to 2013; 2010 to 2014; 2011 to 2015; 2012 to 2016), but sample sizes diminished too much over time (due to graduation from college, attrition, drop out, or stop out). unfortunately, once students leave or graduate from their institution, they are not captured in subsequent waves of psis. 18 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions dependent variable in our previous reports (see sano et al., 2020; zarifa et al., 2020), we identify seven categories of students transfer type (e.g., college to university transfers, university to college transfers, college to college transfers, university to university transfers, non-transfer college students, non-transfer university students, and swirlers). we initially adopted this coding strategy to explore the heterogeneity of transfer types within and across regions. unfortunately, there is an analytical challenge with this approach because college students who transfer across regions are very small in number, making it difficult to explore regional types of student transfer such as northern college to southern college, northern college to southern university, southern college to northern college, and southern college to northern university. to address this issue, we separately look at transfer types for northern and southern students. in particular, we track students regional choice of postsecondary enrolment for two years (i.e., north to south and south to north). this allows us to explore three possible scenarios each for northern and southern students: 1) students do not transfer within two years after their initial enrolment into postsecondary institution (i.e., college or university); 2) students transfer to another institution but stay within the same region; and 3) students leave their region to transfer to another institution. independent variables in step with prior research, we include demographic, program, and family characteristics in our analysis. first, demographic characteristics include age (0=younger, 21 or under); (1=older, 22 or older), sex (0=males; 1=females), and the quintiles of gross parental income (0=lowest; 1=lower; 2=middle; 3=higher; 4=highest). second, we include one program characteristic: major field of study (0=arts/humanities; 1=health; 2=natural sciences; 3=social sciences; 4=other). third, we add family characteristics such as the number of people in the family (0=smaller, 3 or fewer; 1=larger, 4 or more) and family type (0=two-parent; 1=lone-parent). as part of limitation of the psis, we are not able to include students from imputed institutions. considering that each year contains a different set of imputed institutions, we account for academic year of initial enrolment (0=2009; 1=2010; 2=2011-12; 3=2013; 4=2014). in addition, there are several other demographic variables such as registration status, international student status, and immigration status; however, we do not include these variables due to their small sample sizes. moreover, due to data quality issues, and under the advisement of statistics canada, we were also unable to make use of the following variables available in the psis files: total transfer credits; aboriginal or visible minority status; 3. our field of study measure combines both 2-digit and 4-digit cip (classification of instructional program) codes (additional details available upon request). 4. the number of swirlers was too small for 2011 to permit statistics canadas disclosure of our bivariate results, so we combined 2011 and 2012 categories to examine the year of enrolment and transfer types. 19 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions mother tongue; program duration; program duration units; co-op program indicator; credits needed to graduate; program credit units; cumulative credits for program; second specialization; and end date in program. the psis data also lacks measures of gpa or student grades to account for academic performance as well as measures of parental aspirations or parent education to account for cultural capital effects. at the same time, we are unable to account for high school education and behavioural metrics (see davies and pizarro milian, 2020). analytical approach there are four analytical steps. first, we use univariate analysis to describe the overall pattern of postsecondary transfer types across and within regions separately for northern and southern ontario. second, to uncover the characteristics of those who transfer via the various types of postsecondary pathways, we first use cross-tabulations and chi-square tests of the independent variables by our dependent variable of transfer pathway types in north and south (i.e., no transfer, transfer within the region, and transfer across the region). third, for each of the institution locations (northern and southern), we utilize pooled multinomial logistic regression models (long, 1997; long and freese, 2014) to map out the effects of the various independent variables on transfer pathways. multinomial logistic regression models serve to provide two important facets of information on the data: (1) to identify which predictors are significantly related to the dependent variable, and (2) to indicate how strong each predictor is relative to others (denham, 2010). at the same time, these models enable us to map out the key characteristics of those who transfer, taking into consideration the effects all other characteristics simultaneously. to add further insights into the results, we also graph the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals around those estimates. 20 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions references acai, a., & newton, g. 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(2020). transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities: the magnitude of postsecondary transfer types and the characteristics of those who transfer. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. 23 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figures and tables table 1. sample characteristics by region of institution, psis-t1ff, 2009-2016 24 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 1. pathways among ontario postsecondary students: northern and southern ontario 25 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions table 2. bivariate analysis of the dependent and independent variables, southern ontario, psis-t1ff, 2009-2016 26 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions table 3. bivariate analysis of the dependent and independent variables, northern ontario, psis-t1ff, 2009-2016 27 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 2. the relationship between sex and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 3. the relationship between sex and transfer pathways, northern ontario 28 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 4. the relationship between age and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 5. the relationship between age and transfer pathways, northern ontario 29 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 6. the relationship between parental income and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 7. the relationship between parental income and transfer pathways, northern ontario 30 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 8. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 9. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, northern ontario 31 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 10. the relationship between registration status and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 11. the relationship between registration status and transfer pathways, northern ontario 32 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 12. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, southern ontario figure 13. the relationship between field of study and transfer pathways, northern ontario 33 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions table 4. multinomial logistic regression analysis of type of transfer among students, southern ontario, psis-t1ff, 2009-2016 34 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions table 5. predicted probabilities of type of transfer, southern ontario, psis-t1ff, 2009-2016 35 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions table 6. multinomial logistic regression analysis of type of transfer among students, northern ontario, psis-t1ff, 2009-2016 36 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions table 7. predicted probabilities of type of transfer, northern ontario, psis-t1ff, 2009-2016 37 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 14. the predicted probabilities across sex and transfer type, southern ontario figure 15. the predicted probabilities across sex and transfer type, northern ontario 38 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 16. the predicted probabilities across age and transfer type, southern ontario figure 17. the predicted probabilities across age and transfer type, northern ontario 39 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 18. the predicted probabilities across parent income and transfer type, southern ontario figure 19. the predicted probabilities across parent income and transfer type, northern ontario 40 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 20. the predicted probabilities across type of institution and transfer type, southern ontario figure 21. the predicted probabilities across type of institution and transfer type, northern ontario 41 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 22. the predicted probabilities across registration status and transfer type, southern ontario figure 23. the predicted probabilities across registration status and transfer type, northern ontario 42 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 22. the predicted probabilities across registration status and transfer type, southern ontario figure 23. the predicted probabilities across registration status and transfer type, northern ontario 43 characteristics of students who transfer across and within regions figure 24. the predicted probabilities across field of study and transfer type, southern ontario figure 25. the predicted probabilities across field of study and transfer type, northern ontario 44

rapport annuel 2021 2022 table des matires 2. message des coprsidences du conseil 3. message de la directrice excutive 4. amliorations des parcours postsecondaires et du systme de transfert de l'ontario 9. recherche interne et projet de donnes 12. engagement du secteur & mobilisation des connaissances 16. informatique et gestion de projet 18. le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario & ontransfer.ca 22. planification stratgique 24. rapports financiers 29. rsum & description des projets financs en 2021-2022 1. message des coprsidences du conseil alors que nous entrions dans la deuxime anne dune pandmie mondiale, le monde de lenseignement postsecondaire a commenc le difficile travail dadaptation une nouvelle normalit. une poque o toutes les institutions taient confrontes de srieux dfis oprationnels et financiers, nous avons constat un engagement renouvel envers la collaboration. les tudiants, les tablissements et le caton se sont prpars une transition vers des espaces dapprentissage, denseignement et de travail hybrides. bien quil sagisse dun signe prometteur de normalit postpandmique, la transition na pas t sans dfis. nous encourageons la rsilience et ladaptabilit ncessaires sur tous les fronts pour en faire un succs. en repensant cette anne, il y a de quoi tre fier. en effet, alors que nous nous tournons vers lavenir du caton, il y a de quoi esprer. nous sommes ravis daccueillir dans l'quipe dre adrienne galway en tant que nouvelle directrice gnrale. dre galway apporte lorganisme plus de vingt ans dexprience postsecondaire et une passion pour le soutien la russite des tudiants; nous sommes convaincus que le caton continuera de prosprer sous sa direction. le caton a connu sa propre priode de transition au cours de la dernire anne. en novembre 2021, nous avons dit au revoir notre directrice gnrale, yvette munro. mme munro tait une prsence inestimable au caton et son influence dans lorganisme continue de se faire sentir. nous la remercions pour ses annes de service. nous tenons galement remercier andrew wilson et shauna love dtre intervenus en tant que directeurs gnraux par intrim alors que le caton sest lanc dans la recherche dun nouveau directeur gnral. leur travail a t essentiel pour aider le caton naviguer dans les eaux de ladaptation une nouvelle normalit. pendant tout ce temps, le caton a continu de travailler de manire constante au service du systme de transfert postsecondaire de lontario et de sadapter aux besoins changeants des tudiants et du personnel transfrs. nous avons vu des projets de recherche sur le couplage de donnes mener de nouvelles perspectives, des tablissements amliorer leurs processus de transfert internes, et davantage dtudiants desservis par ontransfer.ca. au nom du conseil dadministration, nous remercions le gouvernement de lontario pour le financement des travaux du caton, nos partenaires institutionnels pour leur collaboration continue et le ministre des collges et universits de lontario pour leur soutien continu aux parcours et au transfert. nous vous faisons part de nos meilleurs vux pour une autre anne couronne de succs. ron common, prsident, sault college deb maclatchy, prsident & vice-chancelire, wilfrid laurier university 2. message de la directrice excutive au cours des deux dernires annes et demie, le secteur de lducation postsecondaire a fait un travail exemplaire dadaptation, de changement et de pivotement afin de continuer offrir aux tudiants une ducation de qualit suprieure. il y a eu des moments o le pivotement constant nous a tous un peu tourdis, et nos collges, universits et instituts autochtones devraient tre fiers de ce quils ont accompli dans les situations les plus difficiles. le caton est trs reconnaissant envers le secteur postsecondaire pour son engagement et sa coopration continus, surtout face la myriade dautres priorits concurrentes. linstar de nos tablissements partenaires, au cours de la dernire anne, le caton est pass une nouvelle normalit , mais notre mission principale de soutenir la mobilit des tudiants en ontario par les transferts et les parcours est demeure la mme. le caton a ralis dimportants progrs sur plusieurs fronts, qui sont mis en vidence dans le prsent rapport. sur le plan personnel, jai galement vcu une transition importante lorsque jai rejoint le caton en tant que directeur gnral en mai 2022. jai t tellement impressionn par le travail du caton portant sur le soutien des transferts et des parcours en ontario, que ce soit en finanant des projets innovants pour aider les tablissements renforcer leur capacit de communication de donnes, crer des parcours, adopter de nouvelles technologies telles que mycreds (relevs de notes numriques) et mieux comprendre et soutenir les tudiants transfrs en leur fournissant des renseignements jour sur les transferts de crdits via ontransfer.ca. les priodes de transition peuvent tre un peu effrayantes, mais ce sont aussi des moments denthousiasme et de crativit. alors que le caton sengage dans llaboration dun nouveau plan stratgique pour soutenir la mobilit et les parcours des tudiants, tout est possible. comme tous les autres aspects de nos vies, la pandmie a chang lducation postsecondaire et a chang les attentes des tudiants quant leur cheminement postsecondaire et professionnel. nous avons tous appris que la cl du succs est la capacit trouver une voie suivre dans un milieu incertain, et le caton est bien plac pour continuer guider les tudiants dans leur cheminement. lquipe du caton est lun des groupes de professionnels les plus talentueux et engags avec qui jai eu le privilge de travailler et jai hte de voir ce que lavenir nous rserve. adrienne galway directrice excutive, oncat 3. amliorations des parcours postsecondaires et du systme de transfert de l'ontario les subventions en quelques chiffres le caton aide non seulement le systme postsecondaire de lontario dvelopper des parcours en demande axs sur les tudiants et mettre en place des pratiques de transfert cohrentes et transparentes, mais uvre galement lamlioration des systmes de transfert fonds sur des preuves. nos financements visent soutenir la recherche sur la mobilit tudiante, les amliorations au niveau du systme, le dveloppement de parcours et le renforcement des capacits de transfert au sein des tablissements postsecondaires de lontario. nous avons approuv 60 projets en 2021-2022 grce aux voies de financement et aux stratgies dengagement sectoriel du caton. cela comprend : 5 parcours de transfert 3 projets de transparence des transferts 10 projets de recherche 1 bourse de recherche postdoctorale 3 student action projects 7 datapilot (4 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 12 mapit (9 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 2 indigenous institutes transfer grants 11 mycreds onboarding grants 5. projets termins 8 parcours de transfert 10 9 5 projets de research recherche projets mapit 5 projets pilotes de donnes 10 3 projets research daction tudiant 2 projets de transparence des transferts plus de 30 projets ont t achevs en 2021-2022. pour plus de renseignements sur ces derniers ou les autres projets financs par le caton, consultez . pleins feux sur la stratgie : amlioration de la capacit de transfert des tablissements le caton collabore troitement avec ses partenaires pour valuer les rsultats et les expriences des tudiants transfrs, amliorer les processus et travailler la mise en place dun systme plus transparent en ontario. cette anne, il a largi ses stratgies de financement de la capacit de transfert des tablissements avec le lancement du financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones, ainsi que du financement pour lintgration institutionnelle de mescertif . 6. subvention de financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones le first nations technical institute et le seven generations education institute ont tous deux reu une subvention de capacit de transfert de niveau ii en 2021-2022. ce financement permet aux tablissements autochtones damliorer les parcours tudiants et les possibilits de transfert laide de soutien accru aux tudiants transfrs, de conseils en matire de transfert et dautres fonctions de transfert dtermines par ltablissement. mescertif en 2021, le caton a commenc appuyer lintgration des tablissements mescertif, projet national soutenu par lassociation des registraires des universits et collges du canada. il vise crer un portefeuille de crdits numriques de lapprenant et un rseau national dchange de donnes. ladoption de mescertif lchelle du secteur permettra aux tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario dchanger leurs relevs de notes de manire sre et par voie numrique. cela facilitera lchange des relevs de notes des tudiants et permettra aux tablissements de garantir la vracit des documents soumis lors de la candidature. la stratgie du caton a t largement adopte par le secteur lors de sa premire anne dapplication : 11 tablissements ont reu des fonds pour sintgrer mescertif ou pour lutiliser davantage aux fins dchange de relevs de notes. 7. mapit linitiative dapprentissage en collaboration de mapit aide les tablissements cartographier leurs processus de transfert actuels pour leur permettre dy apporter des amliorations. avec laide de higher education strategies associates pour faciliter le processus, chaque tablissement recueille de prcieux renseignements sur leurs processus de transfert. le caton a dj aid 28 tablissements entreprendre linitiative mapit, loccasion de laquelle chacun des participants a pu faire part des processus de transfert efficaces ainsi que des points amliorer. la cohorte n 4 est en cours et le recrutement pour la cohorte n 5 dbutera lautomne 2022. en 2021-2022, nous avons tendu linitiative mapit pour y inclure le financement des projets de phase 2, dans lide damliorer les processus de transfert. initiative dapprentissage en collaboration relative aux projets pilotes de donnes le projet pilote de donnes a t lanc en 2020, et cette anne, nous avons franchi une tape importante en aidant 25 % des tablissements postsecondaires de lontario augmenter leur capacit de rapport des donnes et valuer les rsultats des tudiants transfrs dans leur tablissement. tel est le cas de 26 % des universits et 25 % des collges. le caton continuera daccepter des nouveaux partenaires de faon continue. 8. recherche interne et projet de donnes enqute sur lintention de transfert en septembre 2021, caton a lanc sa premire enqute exclusive en partenariat avec linstitute for social research de luniversit york. alors que nous nous approchons de la fin de la premire anne, nous avons reu prs de 2 500 rponses lenqute. lensemble de donnes comprend des renseignements propos des prises de dcision des futurs tudiants transfrs et inclut le contexte dmographique et ducatif des participants. partir de cette enqute, caton a commenc mener des analyses sur les personnes et les raisons pour lesquelles certaines populations dtudiants sont transfres, sur les parcours les plus populaires ainsi que les types de programmes. lenqute a t prolonge de 12 mois pour augmenter la taille globale de lchantillon ainsi que pour continuer enrichir le panel des tudiants transfrs prospectifs et ventuels qui ont choisi de participer aux futurs entretiens et groupes de discussion. nous esprons lancer lenqute sur lexprience de transfert en 2023 pour suivre les tudiants de la premire vague qui ont fini par tre transfrs. ce projet a pour but de comprendre le parcours des tudiants transfrs, de lintention jusquau transfert. entretiens sur lintention de transfert nous avons men 53 entretiens semi-structurs avec des tudiants qui ont exprim leur intrt au moyen de notre enqute sur lintention de transfert. ces entretiens examinent plus en profondeur les raisons pour lesquelles les tudiants ont voulu tre transfrs et leur donnent loccasion de rflchir plus en dtail leurs expriences postsecondaires. nous avons transcrit et commenc analyser les rponses des tudiants, ce qui nous a aids laborer de nouvelles questions pour la deuxime session denqute et comparer les rsultats entre les deux mthodes de collecte. nous avons galement russi recruter une poigne dtudiants de notre panel pour participer aux groupes de discussion pour aider amliorer notre site web ontransfert pour les futurs utilisateurs. nous esprons publier nos premiers rapports partir des entretiens en janvier 2023. 10. rsultats des tudiants parmi les diffrents parcours de transfert caton a publi un ensemble de mmoires de recherche en fvrier 2022 partir de donnes contenues dans lenqute ucasmc. ces rapports portaient sur les parcours des candidats aux collges et universits de lontario et traitaient de sujets tels que les variations rgionales des aspirations un diplme et les effets du statut socio-conomique ainsi que des rsultats scolaires antrieurs sur les parcours de transfert. comme lucasmc contient des renseignements dmographiques propos des tudiants (catgories ethniques larges) que dautres ensembles de donnes ne contiennent pas, nous continuerons de travailler avec des donnes en 2023. nous esprons publier continuellement des renseignements au secteur en utilisant cette riche source de donnes sur les prfrences des tudiants candidats. les prochains rapports comprendront des donnes sur les tablissements de premier choix des tudiants et linfluence de la race/ethnicit sur les parcours de transfert et les aspirations en matire de diplme. 11. engagement du secteur & mobilisation des connaissances rsum de la recherche en collaboration avec les quipes de recherche et de communication, le caton a conu les sries de rsums de la recherche pour mettre en vidence les principaux rsultats de nos rapports de recherche et mettre laccent sur lapplication de ces donnes probantes aux politiques, la prise de dcision et la pratique professionnelle. les rsums de la recherche visent saisir les conclusions les plus importantes que le secteur doit connatre et susciter davantage de lecture et dintrt pour la recherche portant sur les transferts. les rsums, rdigs par meryl borato, spcialiste de la mobilisation des connaissances, apparaissent sur oncat.ca et sont promus dans le bulletin mensuel du caton. sries de dners-confrences de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits le caton a lanc un vnement dapprentissage mensuel pour le groupe de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance de crdits (gcrc), appel transfer advising lunch and learns (dners-confrences de conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits). offerte une fois par mois, la srie dvnements dapprentissage vise renforcer les capacits dans lespace de conseil en transfert et cultiver des pratiques et une prise de dcision fondes sur des donnes probantes. destins la fois aux administrateurs chevronns et au nouveau personnel pour le transfert, ces vnements fournissent des renseignements sur lespace de transfert, les recherches rcentes sur le transfert, les pratiques prometteuses, et permettent aux participants de nouer des relations avec le personnel dautres tablissements. ce jour, nous avons organis des sances de conseil aux tudiants, de communication et de recrutement, et plusieurs sances sur le dveloppement de parcours. 13. centre communautaire en ligne pour le gcrc et le comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants le caton a cr des plateformes de communication interinstitutionnelles qui permettent nos groupes communautaires de partager des ressources, de poser des questions et de communiquer en dehors de nos vnements publics. le site est priv et rserv aux membres du gcrc et du comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants, ce qui facilite une communication plus fluide concernant le transfert, les sondages sur ce que font les autres, les possibilits de mentorat et le soutien gnral entre les membres. animateur communautaire sur le transfert lanne dernire, le caton a lanc une nouvelle initiative dirige par des tudiants appele animateur communautaire sur le transfert. les animateurs communautaires sur le transfert sont des tudiants qui ont t transfrs une fois au cours de leurs tudes postsecondaires. dans le cadre du programme, lanimateur reoit une allocation pour crer une manire crative de partager son exprience et doffrir des conseils ou des astuces aux tudiants actuellement transfrs. lanimateur communautaire en transfert reoit ensuite un encadrement et un mentorat sur son travail cratif par le personnel du caton. les soumissions comprenaient une bande dessine, des articles de blogue, un rcit crit, une courte vido et un essai photographique. jusqu prsent, nous avons organis deux cohortes qui ont termin le programme. vous pouvez consulter le travail cratif des animateurs communautaires en transfert sur oncat.ca! 14. engagement du secteur le caton, avec laide de carolyn poplak, gestionnaire de lengagement du secteur, et de sanja pavlovic, coordonnatrice des comits, continue de travailler avec divers comits tablis, notamment le comit de direction sur les parcours du nord de lontario, le comit directeur des tablissements francophones et bilingues, et le comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants. au printemps 2022, le caton a cr le comit directeur disciplinaire (cdd). le rle du cdd est de conseiller et dorienter le travail du caton, en collaboration avec le ministre des collges et universits (mcu), dans llaboration dun systme de transfert oprationnel. le cdd travaillera plus particulirement avec le caton et les comits disciplinaires (entreprises, services sociaux, etc.) afin de mener lexpansion de la transfrabilit des cours de premire anne. lobjectif est que les tudiants de premire anne puissent tre transfrs dans des programmes similaires avec une reconnaissance complte des crdits. 15. informatique et gestion de projet mises jour et amliorations informatiques l'quipe informatique du caton, y compris allison maldonado, analyste des systmes d'entreprise, et natalie isber, gestionnaire de projet, mise en uvre de cinq sites web sharepoint pour faciliter le partage dinformation et la collaboration entre les partenaires institutionnels de lontario et le caton. 1. carrefour de lducation postsecondaire de lontario 2. site web ontransfer 3. groupe des conseillres et conseillers en reconnaissance des crdits (gcrc) 4. comit dexperts en matire de transfert dtudiants 5. site web du comit directeur de discipline nous avons galement lanc un systme interne de gestion des absences pour simplifier le processus de suivi des absences pour les membres de lquipe et la direction du caton et un logiciel de gestion de projet pour les membres de lquipe du caton afin daccrotre la transparence entre les quipes et damliorer la gestion et la surveillance des tches. 17. le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario & ontransfer.ca le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario le guide sur les parcours de transfert en ontario fournit une plateforme facile dutilisation permettant aux tudiants dexaminer leurs possibilits de transfert et de recevoir du soutien lors de leur parcours universitaire. capable de prendre en charge les donnes de tous les collges, universits et instituts autochtones de lontario bnficiant dune aide publique, ontransfer.ca est en dveloppement constant afin de soutenir les tudiants et les institutions avec des informations pertinentes et jour. amliorations du site web ontransfer.ca en 2021, lquipe ontransfert continue damliorer le site web en proposant des supports adapts la conception et centrs sur lutilisateur. nous avons lanc avec succs lindex des programmes de cours pour la province, revu et mis jour le contenu du site web, et nous continuons trouver des moyens de simplifier et de rendre oprationnels nos processus de collecte pour les calendriers de cours, les offres en ligne et les quivalences de cours. fin 2021, lquipe a commenc un projet pour amliorer notre logiciel de gestion du contenu qui fournira une conception web moderne et des graphiques pour les utilisateurs en 2022 et au-del. dans les annes venir, nous continuerons nous concentrer sur lamlioration de la navigation, sur la promotion accrue des programmes daccs la demande et sur la facilit de recherche gnrale du site, ainsi que sur des communications plus cibles pour les tudiants transfrs, depuis lintention jusqu ladmission et linscription, en passant par la pr et la postcandidature. 19. analyse de donnes et croissance (1 avril , 2021 - 31 mars, 2022) la pandmie a continu davoir un effet sur la frquentation globale des sites web, mais pas de manire aussi radicale que lanne dernire. la frquentation globale a connu des augmentations modestes, passant de 1,24 % 4,88 %. au dbut de lanne 2022, lindsay mcrae (directrice des communications) a labor un plan de communication actualis afin daugmenter la frquentation du site web et damliorer la faon dont nous partageons les renseignements sur les transferts et les parcours sur le site web de luniversit. 174,180 utilisateurs uniques de ontransfer.ca 252,614 consultations de session la mise en uvre de nos attentes en matire de niveau de service (service level expectations) a permis de rationaliser les processus, ce qui a entran une augmentation de 29 % des fichiers de donnes institutionnelles entre le 1er avril 2021 et le 31 mars 2022. 243,642 1979 quivalences de cours parcours universitaires 25,000 possibilits de parcours uniques 20. salon du transfert dtudiants de lontario dans le cadre de notre stratgie de ramnagement et de services continus, lquipe ontransfer.ca a organis deux salons du transfert dtudiants de lontario russis lautomne 2021 et au printemps 2022, mens par sienna stock (directrice de service, ontransfer.ca). lvnement, organis virtuellement pour garantir la sant et la scurit des participants, a permis aux tudiants transfrs de se mettre en relation directement avec les institutions pour avoir une rponse leurs questions. la dernire dition du salon du transfert dtudiants de lontario a enregistr plus de 1 000 visites uniques aux stands virtuels, prs de 500 documents consults et 335 visionnages de webinaires. quipe ontransfer.ca malgr les dfis lis la pandmie, lquipe a continu de renforcer et damliorer nos supports ontransfer.ca et nos communications. des rsums mensuels cibls ont t labors en utilisant microsoft sharepoint pour transmettre des renseignements importants nos partenaires. lquipe a continu dajuster les attentes en matire de niveau de service et les engagements pour le secteur en dveloppant un systme de billetterie automatis qui utilise le flux de travail pour appuyer les communications internes et externes. 21. planification stratgique plan stratgique 2023-2026 le caton entame des consultations pour un nouveau plan stratgique pour 2023-2026. bien qu'il s'agisse d'un vritable dfi, la pandmie a donn au caton loccasion de se tourner vers de nouvelles formes de soutien et de prestation aux tudiants, ainsi que le temps dexaminer les dfis et les possibilits venir. avec la fin de notre plan stratgique actuel en 2023 et le recrutement de notre nouveau directeur gnral, le moment est venu pour le caton de tracer une nouvelle voie vers lavenir. grce notre collaboration avec le ministre des collges et universits, le caton a dj identifi quatre priorits long terme qui claireront et complteront notre nouveau plan stratgique : 1. tendre la transfrabilit de la premire anne : contribuer aux efforts visant rendre les cours dintroduction ou de base plus facilement transfrables dans tout le secteur. 2. accrotre les parcours intelligents pour les tudiants : travailler avec les tablissements postsecondaires pour largir les parcours des tudiants en demande. 3. aider les tudiants transfrs obtenir leur diplme temps : aider les tudiants transfrs obtenir leur diplme avec des cots excdentaires minimes en temps dtude ou en frais de scolarit. 4. intgration des instituts autochtones au systme de transfert de crdits de lontario : collaborer de manire plus troite avec le troisime pilier du systme dducation postsecondaire de lontario. ces priorits vont de pair avec le travail quotidien du caton en matire de recherche, dlaboration de politiques, de soutien aux tudiants, de collaboration institutionnelle, dengagement sectoriel et de technologie. grce ce processus de consultation, le caton explorera les domaines de croissance et dinvestigation de manire plus approfondie, en sappuyant sur nos atouts en tant quorganisme et en commenant des projets nouveaux et innovants. les consultations sur le plan stratgique auront lieu lautomne 2022 et lhiver 2023, et le conseil dadministration aura loccasion dexaminer et dapprouver le plan au printemps 2023. 23. rapports financiers raports financiers 2021-2022 nos tats financiers audits, qui comprennent ltat de la situation financire au 31 mars 2022, et les tats des rsultats, de lvolution de lactif net et des flux de trsorerie pour lexercice clos, ainsi que les notes affrentes aux tats financiers, y compris un rsum des principales mthodes comptables, se trouvent ladresse suivante: https://oncat.ca/fr/propos-de-nous 25. l'quipe de caton adrienne galway, executive director shauna love, operations director lindsay mcrae, communications manager sienna stock, ontransfer.ca service manager jane waldner, digital communications coordinator allison maldonado, business systems analyst andrew wilson, transfer and technology director ana skinner, research, data & funding director rod missaghian, senior researcher natalie isber, project manager tina liu, data analyst inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants & projects peter desera, finance manager alastair woods, senior policy analyst carolyn poplak, manager, sector engagement henrique hon, quantitative researcher nicolas boileau, researcher meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist sanja pavlovic, committees coordinator liwei liao, ontransfer data coordinator abdullah mushtaq, executive & governance 26. coordinator conseil d'administration ron common (coprsident) deborah maclatchy (coprsident) christine bradaric-baus lyne michaud serge demers elaine popp kathryn kettle prsident & pdg, sault college prsidente & vice-chancelire, wilfrid laurier university vice-rectrice aux tudes, canadian memorial chiropractic college vice-rectrice aux tudes, collge boral vice-recteur par intrim aux tudes et provost, universit laurentienne vice-rectrice aux tudes, durham college reprsentante d'tudiant membres d'office du conseil janet hope robert luke marny scully heather lane marc provencher adrienne galway vice-rectrice des politiques et de l'innovation, collges ontario pdg, ecampusontario vice-rectrice de la politique et de la stratgie, cou directrice excutif, ouac prsident et chef de la direction, ocas directrice excutif, oncat ancien membre du conseil : caitlin smith reprsentante d'tudiant 27. nos partenaires 28. rsum & description des projets financs en 2021-2022 voies de financement des parcours de transfert en 2021 #p2220: dveloppement de parcours de transfert en ingnierie et en technologies de lingnierie responsable du projet : universit queens kingston | partenaires : cambrian college, centennial college, conestoga college, mohawk college, collge seneca, sheridan college, collge st-lawrence, universit de toronto | montant accord : $282,700 ce projet appuiera le dveloppement de parcours multi-institutionnels entre le diplme avanc en technologies de lingnierie et les programmes dtudes en ingnierie en ontario. ces parcours permettront aux tudiants dtenteurs dun diplme avanc en technologies de lingnierie provenant dun programme ontarien participant dobtenir une quivalence dans un autre programme ontarien dtudes en ingnierie participant. #p2221: parcours en chimie et en sciences de la vie appliques responsable du projet : universit lakehead | partenaires : fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $12,296 ce projet vise laborer un ensemble de parcours de transfert entre le diplme avanc en sciences de laboratoire avec spcialisation en technologie de laboratoire chimique du fanshawe college et le programme de baccalaurat s sciences spcialis en chimie/baccalaurat s sciences spcialis en sciences de la vie appliques de luniversit lakehead. ce projet va aussi permettre dvaluer la viabilit du dveloppement de parcours supplmentaires dans les programmes de concentration mdicale et les crdits dingnierie connexes de luniversit lakehead. 30. #p2222: admissions directes et parcours de lanne suprieure au sein des collges darts appliqus et de technologie de lontario responsable du projet : universit queens | montant accord : $41,500 ce projet vise identifier les programmes en capacit dadmettre des diplms de collge (certificats/diplmes spcialiss) en premire anne/ lanne suprieure et dlaborer des parcours de transfert de crdits compltement cartographis la facult des arts et des sciences luniversit queens. ce projet permettra de rduire les obstacles rencontrs par les tudiants souhaitant intgrer luniversit queens, dans lide dlaborer des parcours dans des programmes dots dune capacit et dune demande au niveau de lanne suprieure. #p2223: refonte des parcours de baccalaurat spcialis en kinsiologie responsable du projet : universit lakehead | partners: cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, georgian college, sault college | montant accord : $47,971 grce ce projet, luniversit lakehead va actualiser et remanier les parcours de faon reflter les changements dans le curriculum et dans les normes de certification/dassurance de la qualit pour quils cadrent toujours avec le programme dtudes du baccalaurat spcialis en kinsiologie. de plus, ce projet donne loccasion de combiner les parcours similaires dans des parcours multilatraux, ce qui les rend ainsi plus efficaces, cohrents et transparents. #p2243: refonte des parcours de transfert en psychologie des collges boral et la cit vers luniversit de hearst responsable du projet : universit de hearst | partenaires : collge boral, collge la cit | montant accord : $46,030 ce projet va remanier les parcours existants entre les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst et les programmes des collges la cit et boral. cela permettra llaboration de nouveaux parcours et dune ententecadre visant faciliter le transfert de diplms et la tenue jour continue des protocoles dentente. 31. voie de financement des projets de transparence des transferts de 2021 #s2201: largissement de lchange numrique de relevs de notes en ontario par le biais de mescertif responsable du projet : association des registraires des universits et collges du canada | montant accord : $500,000 ce projet vise amliorer les processus de transfert des tudiants par le biais de lchange numrique des relevs de notes. cela permettra au projet mescertif de renforcer, dtendre et de mettre en uvre son portefeuille de crdits de lapprenant ainsi que son rseau national dchange des donnes au sein de tous les collges, universits et tablissements autochtones publics de lontario. ladoption de mescertif lchelle du secteur permettra aux tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario dchanger leurs relevs de notes de manire sre et par voie numrique. ce rseau dchange de donnes favorisera la transparence du transfert des tudiants en facilitant lchange de leurs relevs de notes et en permettant aux tablissements de garantir la vracit des documents soumis lors de la candidature. #s2251: ambassadeurs des tudiants transfrs luniversit trent responsable du projet : universit trent | montant accord : $11,000 ce projet va faciliter la mise en uvre dun rle pilote dambassadeur des tudiants transfrs. lambassadeur des tudiants transfrs de trent jouera un rle important dans le dveloppement et le maintien de relations entre les tudiants transfrs postulant luniversit trent et cette dernire ainsi que fournira de laide ses pairs lors du processus de transfert. 32. #s2255: largissement de lchange numrique de relevs de notes en ontario par le biais de mescertif, 2e anne responsable du projet : association des registraires des universits et collges du canada | montant accord : $500,000 ce projet correspond la deuxime phase dune stratgie pluriannuelle qui permettra dacclrer la numrisation et lintgration scurises des relevs de notes sur mescertif . il fournira une infrastructure dchange de documents lchelle du systme qui peut amliorer lexprience dchange de documents des tudiants transfrs. le projet sattaque aux lacunes relatives aux processus cls et aux dfis lis aux processus de transfert (p. ex., rception des relevs de notes temps, intgralit des documents ncessaires aux dcisions dvaluation du transfert des crdits/ dadmission). phase 2 de mapit en 2021 #s2248: laboration des politiques de transfert de crdits de luniversit de hearst responsable du projet : universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | montant accord : $86,020 ce projet appuie llaboration des politiques de transfert de crdits de luniversit de hearst laquelle devient une universit indpendante. il donnera aussi naissance un outil administratif des quivalences de crdits qui indique les quivalences accorder pour les 20 programmes collgiaux offerts aux 2 collges francophones de lontario : collge la cit et collge boral. 33. #s2249: mise en uvre des nouveaux processus dvaluation des quivalences trent responsable du projet : trent university | montant accord : $55,000 ce projet appuie les amliorations apportes aux valuations des quivalences internes luniversit trent en recueillant les cours dintroduction/de premire anne duniversits de tout le canada pour valuer leur quivalence ceux de luniversit trent. ce projet permettra trent dvaluer les cours en amont et de les intgrer dans la base de donnes de trent, diminuant ainsi la priode dvaluation de transfert des crdits pour les tudiants transfrs trent. #s2250: laboration des lignes directrices dvaluation du transfert des crdits de luniversit lakehead responsable du projet : universit lakehead | montant accord : $51,838 ce projet amliorera le processus de transfert des crdits travers llaboration de lignes directrices et la prise de dcisions relatives lvaluation de transfert des crdits en fonction des cours luniversit lakehead. ce projet comprend llaboration des supports de formation ncessaires pour conseiller efficacement les experts en la matire dans leurs valuations. 34. financement des oprations et de la capacit de transfert des tablissements autochtones #i2267: stratgies de transfert du fnti responsable du projet : first nations technical institute | montant accord : $79,637 ce projet aide le fnti amliorer ses fonctions de transfert dans plusieurs domaines cls par le biais dun coordonnateur de parcours ddi. il sagit notamment de dvelopper et damliorer les activits actuelles de transfert pour les programmes partenaires, de fournir aux candidats/tudiants des conseils en matire de transfert et une aide pour les processus de transfert, ainsi quune comprhension des possibilits de parcours. ce projet veille aussi ce que la transfrabilit et les parcours soient pris en compte lors de llaboration de programmes autonomes, ainsi qu dvelopper les processus dadmission, les mesures de gouvernance et les politiques lis au transfert. #i2268: dveloppement de la capacit de mobilit tudiante dans la rgion du trait numro 3 responsable du projet : seven generations education institute | montant accord : $64,240 ce projet aidera le seven generations education institute (sgei) intgrer un poste de coordonnateur de parcours au sein de lorganisme ainsi que parmi le corps tudiant pour quil puisse tablir des relations de confiance et mieux aider les tudiants lors du processus de transfert. le sgei se concentrera sur la cration des politiques et protocoles ncessaires la cration de nouveaux parcours. 35. projets de recherche de 2021 #r2203: a qualitative analysis of the post-transfer experiences of college and university students in ontario chercheuse principale : dr. janice aurini | montant accord : $135,265 ce projet vise faciliter la comprhension des expriences post-transfert des tudiants postsecondaires et de la manire dont elles peuvent varier selon le parcours et la rgion. ce projet intgre une composante longitudinale afin de saisir le transfert des tudiants comme un processus social multiples facettes. ce projet de recherche peut permettre dlaborer de manire informe des politiques et des pratiques damlioration de la rtention des tudiants transfrs dans lensemble de lducation postsecondaire (eps) de lontario, notamment en amliorant les conseils aux tudiants, les programmes de transition et les initiatives visant aider les tudiants sadapter leur nouvel environnement institutionnel. #r2204: prvision de la participation aux parcours de transfert et des profils de revenu associs un deuxime aperu du couplage du tdsb au siep en mettant laccent sur le handicap responsable du projet : york university | chercheuse principale : dr. gillian parekh | cochercheurs : dr. rob brown and dr. david walters | montant accord : $119,609 en 2019, le caton a financ la cration dun projet de couplage de donnes personnalis entre le tdsb et la plemt pour dterminer quel point les tudiants transfrs taient diffrents de leurs homologues entrs directement luniversit quant leur probabilit demprunter auprs du programme canadien daide financire aux tudiants (pcafe). un rapport prliminaire a tudi les tendances lchelle de la province en sappuyant simplement sur le couplage des donnes du siep et du pcafe. un rapport secondaire a explor les mmes tendances en mettant laccent sur le couplage des donnes du tdsb, du siep et du pcafe. ce projet sappuiera sur le couplage des donnes du tdsb, du siep et du fichier des familles t1 (fft1) pour tudier un ensemble supplmentaire de questions mettant laccent sur les indicateurs sociodmographiques, plus particulirement sur le handicap, associes la participation aux parcours de transfert (dsagrgs) et sil existe une prime ou une pnalit de revenu net associe aux parcours de transfert dsagrgs et 36. au statut dhandicap. #r2210: parcours desp non linaires et accumulation de crdits phase 2 : exploitation des couplages de donnes denqute et de donnes administratives pour documenter le rle des antcdents familiaux dans les parcours de transfert dtaills project lead: institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) | chercheur principal : dr. xavier st-denis | montant accord : $167,367 ce projet sappuie sur le premier projet financ par le caton, intitul parcours desp non linaire et accumulation de crdits : portrait statistique et valuation des rsultats sur le march du travail (2020-2021), qui tait bas sur les donnes de ltude longitudinale et internationale des adultes (elia). ce nouveau projet entend produire 3 rapports de recherche et mettre laccent sur le rle des antcdents familiaux dans les parcours de transfert dtaills. #r2211: projet de reproduction des donnes du tdsb et de luniversit de toronto chercheur principal : dr. scott davies | montant accord : $27,290 ce projet va faire avancer les analyses exploratoires lies au transfert laide dun ensemble de donnes tires des dossiers administratifs des tudiants du conseil scolaire du district de toronto (tdsb) et de luniversit de toronto, en exploitant le champ de l tablissement prcdent au sein des dossiers de luniversit de toronto pour identifier les tudiants du tdsb arrivs luniversit depuis un autre tablissement postsecondaire. 37. #r2219: boursier de recherche postdoctorale ayant fait lobjet dun transfert responsable du projet : nipissing university | supervisor: dr. david zarifa | montant accord : $90,675 le caton verse un financement de contrepartie un boursier de recherche postdoctorale de luniversit nipissing dans le cadre dun partenariat de recherche multi-institutionnel financ par le conseil de recherches en sciences humaines (crsh). ce projet tudie les obstacles potentiellement rencontrs par de nombreux jeunes dans la poursuite de leurs tudes postsecondaires et de leur emploi en mettant en relation les donnes du conseil scolaire du district de toronto (tdsb) et les donnes administratives, fiscales et les donnes denqute sur lenseignement postsecondaire. le boursier de recherche postdoctorale prendra part lorganisation et lanalyse des donnes administratives longitudinales couples, la prparation des manuscrits et aux activits de mobilisation des connaissances associes ce projet, y compris la mise en avant des connaissances pertinentes sur la mobilit tudiante et sur le transfert. #r2242: lducation manque des femmes noires : handicap, accs et transfert responsable du projet : toronto metropolitan university (anciennement universit ryerson) | chercheur principal : dr. idil abdillahi | montant accord : $121,845 ce projet de recherche qualitatif va permettre dtudier les expriences des femmes noires handicapes ayant recours au transfert entre les collges et les universits de lontario. ce projet fournira des connaissances cls sur les expriences des tudiants transfrs et contribuera mieux comprendre ce que vivent les femmes noires, les personnes non binaires et trans porteuses de handicap ayant recours au transfert entre les collges et les universits de lontario. 38. #r2254: comprhension du rle de lorientation dans les parcours de transfert du collge vers luniversit responsable du projet : toronto metropolitan university (anciennement universit ryerson) | chercheur principal : sam andrey | co-investigators: andre cote, tianna thompson | montant accord : $58,053 ce projet contribuera une meilleure comprhension des profils et des expriences des tudiants qui relient leur parcours de transfert du collge vers luniversit (ctu) aux effets de lorientation scolaire secondaire et du choix des cours. laide dune enqute et dentretiens semi-structurs avec danciens et dactuels tudiants transfrs du collge luniversit, ce projet va documenter leur parcours acadmique secondaire et postsecondaire. par le biais de cet examen, le projet va chercher savoir si, et jusquo, les expriences dorientation secondaire influencent la raison pour laquelle les tudiants ont recours aux transferts collge vers luniversit et la manire dont ils y ont recours. bourse de recherche postdoctorale #r2256: bourse de recherche postdoctorale du caton responsable du projet : universit de guelph | boursier postdoctoral : j. sparks | superviseur : dr. david walters | montant accord : $110,000 cette bourse de recherche postdoctorale va permettre dtudier le choc du transfert et limpact des services de soutien sur les tudiants transfrs en ontario. le postdoctorant sera appuy par luniversit de guelph, sous la supervision du dr david walters, et le projet de recherche sera men en collaboration avec les membres de lquipe de transitions des tudiants, daccs et de recherche sur les partenariats dans lenseignement tertiaire (student transitions, access & research on tertiary education partnerships). 39. microcrdits en ontario : tude de la superposabilit et de la transfrabilit #r2245: opportunits et obstacles au transfert et la superposition de microcrdits dans les collges et universits publics en ontario chercheur principal : dr. scott davies | montant accord : $74,072 ($69,600+$4,472 hst) ce projet fera avancer la comprhension du potentiel de la transfrabilit et de la superposabilit des microcrdits. ce projet va permettre de mieux comprendre la manire dont les intervenants conoivent les dfis et les russites actuels lors de llaboration et de la mise en uvre des microcrdits transfrables, et ce, par le biais dune analyse approfondie des offres de microcrdits dans le portail ecampus. #r2246: approches sur la superposabilit des microcrdits : options pour lontario responsable du projet : higher education strategy associates | montant accord : $69,900+tvh ce projet vise analyser les approches de superposabilit des microcrdits adoptes dans dautres pays et territoires en vue de prsenter des recommandations pour lontario. ce projet comprend : a) une revue des renseignements publics sur les microcrdits offerts par les collges, universits et tablissements autochtones (publics) dans tout lontario; b) une comparaison des modles internationaux de superposabilit des microcrdits, en sappuyant sur la documentation acadmique et politique; c) des entretiens avec des administrateurs et professeurs de divers collges et universits (publics) de tout lontario; d) des entretiens avec 10 12 propritaires, gestionnaires et instructeurs de collges ontariens. 40. #r2247: tude de la perception des nouveaux arrivants quant la crdibilit des microcrdits dans la facilitation des parcours demploi et dducation postsecondaire responsable du projet : fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | chercheur principal : dr. alexander pershai | cochercheurs : dr. michele manocchi, dr. rob downie | montant accord : $74,882 ce projet va documenter la perception des tudiants sur les microcrdits, en mettant laccent sur la perception des microcrdits dans la facilitation des parcours demploi et dducation postsecondaire. il sagit notamment de savoir si la transfrabilit et la superposabilit des microcrdits doivent tre prises en compte par les conseillers des apprenants et les tablissements postsecondaires offrant des microcrdits. ltude permettra de dtecter les lacunes existantes et de fournir des recommandations pour le dveloppement et lamlioration des microcrdits satisfaisant les besoins en matire demploi et dtudes postsecondaires des nouveaux arrivants en ontario. 41. intgration institutionnelle de mescertif #s2224 | toronto metropolitan university (anciennment universit ryerson) | montant accord : $25,000 #s2225 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute | montant accord : $37,700 #s2226 | university of ottawa | montant accord : $25,375 #s2227 | confederation college | montant accord : $38,500 #s2228 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $25,200 #s2229 | sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $25,958 #s2230 | brock university | montant accord : $25,000 #s2231 | trent university | montant accord : $17,900 #s2232 | universit de hearst | montant accord : $27,720 #s2234 | mohawk college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $25,000 #s2235 | york university | montant accord : $25,000 42. phase 1 des projets pilotes de donnes #d2208 | durham college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $27,500 #d2212 | lambton college | montant accord : $51,843 #d2244 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $33,264 #d2253 | nipissing university | montant accord : $55,000 phase 2 des projets pilotes de donnes #d2202 | trent university | montant accord : $16,200 #d2209 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $43,395 #d2236 | algoma university | montant accord : $55,000 43. mapit 3.0 : projet de cartographie des processus institutionnels #m2214 | lambton college | montant accord : $10,000 #m2215 | the university of ontario institute of technology | montant accord : $10,000 #m2216 | wilfrid laurier university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2217 | collge boral | montant accord : $10,000 #m2218 | the canadore college of applied arts and technology | montant accord : $10,000 #m2213 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | montant accord : $36,000 + hst mapit 4.0 : projet de cartographie des processus institutionnels #m2238 | york university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2239 | university of ottawa | montant accord : $10,000 #m2240 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | montant accord : $10,000 #m2241 | algoma university | montant accord : $10,000 #m2237 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | montant accord : $65,000 + hst 44. comit directeur disciplinaire #c2257 | algoma university: david marasco | montant accord : $20,000 #c2259 | collge la cit: isabelle gurin | montant accord : $20,000 #c2260 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology: mary pierce | montant accord : $20,000 #c2261 | sir sandford fleming college of applied arts and technology: david adam baker | montant accord : $20,000 #c2262 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning: melinda kao | montant accord : $20,000 #c2263 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute: susan sinclair | montant accord : $20,000 #c2264 | lakehead university: michel beaulieu | montant accord : $20,000 #c2265 | laurentian university: brigitte desjardins | montant accord : $20,000 #c2266 | university of waterloo: heather o'leary | montant accord : $20,000 45. animateurs communautaires en transfert des cat pour 2021 #t2205 | ahmad butt | montant accord : $1,500 #t2206 | constant yen | montant accord : $1,500 #t2207 | jennifer sparks | montant accord : $1,500 46.

1 final report prepared for ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) bachelors of arts/science in psychology with a certificate in addictions and mental health: a new, combined credential contract/file: 2017-15 april 15th, 2018 2 acknowledgements we would like to document and acknowledge all those who assisted in the discussions, planning and development of this novel blended programming. confederation college kim gerrish shane strickland lakehead university nancy luckai andrew heppner michel bdard mirella stroink rupert klein 3 table of contents project purpose and goals 4 methodology, analysis and timelines 5 outline and timeline 5 admission criteria 8 blended program 9 specific course credit requirements 10 appendices appendix a: lakehead university proposed hba program 11 appendix b: confederation college proposed mental health and addictions program 12 appendix c: signed agreement (in principle) between confederation college and lakehead university 13 4 project purpose and goals the primary purpose of this project was to develop a program that blends both the theoretical knowledge of a 4-year undergraduate psychology degree from lakehead university with the applied skills and practicum component of confederation colleges 1-year post graduate certificate in concurrent disorders. the department of psychology saw an opportunity to collaborate with confederation college to address a growing societal concern: the rise in addictions and mental health problems. as part of a recent and extensive curriculum review, the psychology department recognized the value of incorporating a practical component into our degree offerings. aligning with a college that has a pre-existing post-graduate certificate program (recently renamed addictions and mental health) precisely meets the needs of students who are requesting more experiential learning opportunities. the two institutions agreed to explore the potential for partnering in order to offer students an enhanced education to prepare them for careers in the growing and demanding field of addictions and mental health. the specific goals of this project therefore were: a. complete the course and program learning outcomes mapping that will inform the final structure and content of a modified 4 year ba/bsc degree with a specialization in addictions and mental health b. complete the governance processes in both institutions, if required, to bring the new degree credential into service c. offer the new credential for student intake as of september 2018 at the initial meeting between the college and university it was mentioned that both programs were undergoing substantial changes to their curriculum and course delivery. over the course of developing this blended program the goals and purposes were both refined and modified: a. course and program learning outcomes would still be completed for the hba/hbsc degrees b. due to the complexity of the curriculum changes at the college and especially the university the governance processes in both institutions are going to take longer than expected. lakehead will submit program modifications beginning in the fall of 2018 and with a launch date in the fall of 2020. the college will begin changes to their curriculum in september 2018 and have completed their program modifications by the fall of 2020. both institutions will therefore be aligned in the fall of 2020 to begin the planned blended program. c. since intake of students will not commence until both the university and college have completed their program changes the new credential will not be available until september 2020. methodology, analysis and timeline january 2017 institutional partnerships may/june confederation college / lakehead university meetings 5 team leaders met with provost and vice-president academic at lakehead university to discuss timeline for senate approval and to receive approval through lakehead universitys institutional quality assurance process team leaders introduced themselves to the college program director, kim gerrish, and discussed roles, responsibilities, and confirmed the timeline and objectives. during the initial meeting with the college program director it was determined that both the college and university programs would be simultaneously undergoing curriculum modifications that would not be complete and initiated until september 2020. the college program had several major modifications: certificate name was being changed from concurrent disorders to addictions and mental health course expansion from 8 half credits to 12 half credits the courses would no longer be in-class but become online modules and asynchronous. the university psychology degree was also in the process of a major curriculum modification: new program learning outcomes clearly explicating course learning outcomes for all courses modifying all psychology courses into being half-credit courses (with the exception of introductory psychology). changing course requirements for the first two years to reflect the breadth of the field of psychology. course requirements to obtain a ba, hba, bsc, hbsc will therefore change. lakehead initial curriculum development discussions discussions surrounding the major modifications to the psychology degree began in 2015 with a consultant hired in 2016 to assist with the development of the program learning outcomes. this work continued in june with an evaluation of curriculum and the revision of existing program learning outcomes. july a summer student was hired to assist with the curriculum development by comparing various psychology program and also in searching for comparable pathways or programs affiliated with college addictions and mental health certificate programs. project manager: as part of the initial grant application we had intended on hiring a project manager to oversee the curriculum development, student surveys, and coordination with the college in developing the blended program. however, after a failed search for an appropriate project manager that was willing to work as an employee for the university it was decided that the project lead, rupert klein, would take on the majority of responsibilities of the project manager in exchange for a course buyout. a consultant, christine boyko-head, was also contracted twice 6 to assist with the curriculum development and in the preparation of the senate quality assurance and major modification documentation. lakehead curriculum development the college program director was on holidays from july until september so meetings were suspended until her return in september. during this time a curriculum consultant, christine boyko-head, was hired to assist in the development of the psychology degree course learning outcomes and program learning outcomes. with her assistance the initial drafts of the revised lakehead undergraduate curriculum modifications were created. september to facilitate in the development of the blended program various models of blended programs both internal and external to the university had been reviewed. with the understanding that the college certificate program would become online and asynchronous it allowed for the opportunity to blend the courses seamlessly into an hba degree without causing students the disruption of alternating between campus classrooms. meeting again with the college director it was determined that the blended program would be trialed, at first, with the hba degree and not the hbsc or ba/bsc programs. the rationale for focusing on one degree seemed sensible as the psychology department at lakehead has 23 separate degree options in psychology and the largest number of students are registered in the hba. additionally, students in the hba degree must maintain a minimum grade point average to remain in the program and their curriculum allows them to take specific classes that would count for course exemptions from the college. at this same meeting the college director reviewed with us the course descriptions and learning outcomes for the certificate program and broad discussions began on which courses contained redundant material with the university psychology courses. an alumnus from the certificate program who held a psychology degree was interviewed regarding redundant information, as was an instructor for one of the certificate courses. the summer student completed her work and a senior graduate student was hired to assist with the curriculum development and blended program. during this time she compared various psychology programs across the country in regards to their requirements and program learning outcomes. additionally, she assisted in the comparison of various blended program models. october interim report submitted to oncat on september 15th - college strike - december several drafts of the modified curriculum are continuing to be edited and revised within the psychology department. blended program completed draft the university met again with the college director, kim gerrish. a draft of the blended program was presented, edited and revised draft completed. at this meeting the psychology department had a preliminary modified hba degree and the college courses were to be staggered over the last two years of this degree. several course exemptions were suggested and several partial exemptions from a majority of program modules. the college offering their courses online in a clear modular platform makes this latter partial exemption possible as students can skip 7 several online components and move directly into relevant content. it was also determined that if psychology hba students completed the college certificate they would be exempted 1.5 full credit equivalent. approval of modified psychology degrees approved in principle the major modifications of the undergraduate psychology programs including the 4-year hba non-thesis option (appendix a) january 2018 february march university faculty, mirella stroink and rupert klein, went to orillia, on, where lakehead university has a campus, to meet with a representative from georgian college. georgian college has had an addictions and mental health program for over 20 years and we went to discuss with them the possibility of a blended degree program. georgian college seemed interested in the concept and conversation with them will continue in expanding the option of a blended program with them. the program at georgian is both philosophically and practically different than confederation college in that it focuses more on addiction and gambling treatment and has a practicum experience that involves supervision in a therapeutic setting. as lakehead university may soon offer a psychology degree in orillia it seemed prudent to explore this blended option with the local college. department of psychology meets to affirm commitment to the blended program at a department meeting the blended program was presented to the department to seek approval (in principle) to proceed. it is considered in principle as several modifications to the college and university must occur in the next two years to insure that the program launch is not only feasible but also successful. university student survey distributed and responses analyzed on march 5th all undergraduate psychology majors at lakehead (approximately 333 students) were emailed a brief survey requesting their opinions on the program learning outcomes, their satisfaction with various course offerings and interest in the proposed blended program with the college. eighty students completed the survey (approximately 24% of students in the program) across year levels 1 through 4. of those that responded 60 (75%) of students indicated that they would be interested in the blended certificate option, 10 (12.5%) said they were not interested and 10 (12.5%) said they were unsure. in a follow-up question inquiring as to how interested they were: 38 (47.5%) said they were extremely interested and 24 (30%) were very interested with 9 (11.25%) saying they were neutral and 9 (11.25%) saying they were not so interested or not interested at all. this simple, direct, question reflects the interest from students in considering this blended program option. rubric to track enrolling students, their success and satisfaction in the program in the initial oncat grant submission we anticipated tracking and accounting for student successes and satisfaction with the program. several ideas emerged over the course of the grant that modified some aspects of this goal and delayed others. specifically, in tracking enrolling students the university registrar and chair will be aware of the students enrolling into the program, as they will, at the very least, have to indicate their intent and completion of specific college courses to receive a 1.5fce exemption of a non-psychology elective course. likewise, the college program 8 director will be aware of students entering into the blended program as they will be an exception to the usual registration process. consequently, no system needs to be put in place as we will be aware of students enrolling. in regards to developing a rubric to track successes and satisfaction with the program a two part solution was discussed. the first part was to utilize the regular quality assurance data the college collects to track the employment success and satisfaction graduates of the certificate program reported about their experiences and satisfaction. the second part was to send out a survey to students after they graduate to assess more specifically their satisfaction with courses and to query whether they believed the course learning outcomes presented to them in promotional material, the course calendar and syllabi (both in college and university courses) matched their actual experience. as well, whether they felt that these course learning outcomes contributed to the program learning outcomes for the degree and certificate. similar questions regarding courses and program learning outcomes were developed for the aforementioned survey above; however, a finalized version of this for the blended program was put on hold until the start of the program in 2020. the rationale was that it was premature to develop questions on specific course learning outcomes and program learning outcomes that may still be modified, in a minor way, in the next two years. a framework for an online survey has already been created and needs only to be modified for the graduates several years from now. dean strickland signs agreement (in principle) for the blended program prepare documents for senate and iqap april 15th the hired consultant, christine boyko-head, continues to work with the university to prepare the documents for senate/iqap. final report submission to oncat blended program between lakehead university honours baccalaureate in arts (hba) & confederation college addictions and mental health certificate 9 admission criteria lakehead university psychology hba students require a minimum overall average of 70% by the end of their second year to qualify for admission via this articulated program. blended program outline and timeline 4yr hba in psychology year 3 spring summer year 4 principles of psychopharmacology choose 0.5 from either (a) cognition ii or (b) s&p foundations of mental health 1.0 psychology electives o mental health disorders (required) 1.5 open elective (reduction of 0.5 fce if college courses taken) 1.0 non-psychology elective mental health & addictions certificate fall addiction: issues & interventions selection of modules o epistemology of concur disorders winter field practicum safety and crisis selection of modules o pharmacology trauma informed care 2.5 psychology electives at the 3rd or 4th year level (1 fce minimum required 4th year) o psychotherapy * o aboriginal mental health o addictions* 1.5 open elective (reduction of 1.0 fce if college courses taken) 0.5 non-psychology elective note: * recommended when courses are available. fall counseling & treatment case management & practices winter mindfulness motivational interviewing 10 course credit requirements lakehead hba students must complete: to be exempted from the mental health and addiction courses foundations of mental health mental health: issues and interventions (cd130) modules from epistemology of concurrent disorders (cd120) evidence based research (cd201) mental health disorders statistics research methods principles of psychopharmacology modules from psychopharmacology (cd 220) additionally: lakehead university hba psychology students who successfully complete the mental health and addictions courses will be credited 1.5 fces of non-psychology elective courses. 11 appendix a program of study psychology hba non-thesis (4 year program) approved in principle first year: introductory psychology (psyc 1100) 4.0 fce non-psychology electives, including: 2 type a (.5 engl 1015 academic writing and .5 phil 1117 introduction to thinking recommended), 1 type b, 0.5 type e icr totals: 1 required psychology, 4.0 non-psychology electives, 5 overall second year: research methods 0.5 (fall) (required) with lab statistics 0.5 (winter) (required) with lab foundations of neuroscience 0.5 (required) foundations of cognition 0.5 (required) social psychology 0.5 (required) choose 0.5 from either: (a) child development or (b) adult development & aging 1.0 open elective 1.0 non-psychology elective totals: 3.0 required psychology, 1.0 open elective, 1.0 non-psychology elective, 5 overall third year: choose 0.5 from either (a) principles of psychopharmacology or (b) behavioural neuroscience choose 0.5 from either (a) cognition ii or (b) s&p choose 0.5 from either (a) personality or (b) foundations of mental health 1.0 psychology electives 1.5 open elective 1.0 non-psychology elective totals: 1.5 required psychology, 1.0 psychology electives, 1.5 open elective, 1.0 nonpsychology elective, 5 overall fourth year: 1.5 fce 4th year psychology electives* 1.5 psychology electives at the 3rd or 4th year level 1.5 open elective 0.5 non-psychology elective totals: 3.0 psychology electives (1.5 at 4th year), 1.5 open elective, 0.5 non-psychology elective * several 4th year psychology courses will adopt a capstone element and address integrative plos. a new course, advanced seminar in psychology will be a capstone course option 12 appendix b addictions and mental health proposed 2020 program fall epistemology of concurrent disorders mental health: issues and intervention counseling and treatment practice trauma informed care addiction: issues and intervention mindfulness winter evidence based research case management practices psychopharmacology motivational interviewing safety and crisis intervention field practicum 13 appendix c signed agreement (in principle) between confederation college and lakehead university

valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat janvier 2022 auteur rod missaghian, oncat valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat table of contents 03 04 05 05 06 06 introduction revue de la littrature mthodes conclusions - impressions gnrales ra et transfert de crdits : cohsion ou entits distinctes? reconnaissance de crdits par l'ra et acceptation entre les tablissments 07 aide aux tudiants pour l'ra 08 discussion 09 bibliographie this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat introduction ce rapport explore la reprsentation en ligne des renseignements sur lvaluation et la reconnaissance des acquis (ra) pour les collges de lontario subventionns par ltat. lra, ou la reconnaissance des acquis (ra), est un processus qui permet de prendre en compte lducation, le parcours et les expriences professionnelles informelles dun candidat et de les valuer pour les comparer aux rsultats pdagogiques dun crdit postsecondaire formel (blanger et mount, 1998). on offre la possibilit aux tudiants dapporter la preuve, grce plusieurs valuations, de lquivalence entre leur apprentissage par lexprience et les rsultats pdagogiques dfinis par le cours postsecondaire (ou le bloc de cours) pour lequel ils esprent obtenir une reconnaissance officielle. lra nest pas un concept rcent : il sagit dun processus reconnu lchelon international pour la reconnaissance des crdits, tant dans le secteur postsecondaire que dans lindustrie prive (harris et wihak, 2018). de plus, linfluence des tablissements denseignement autochtones a t considrable pour llaboration de la politique relative lra. un soutien accord ds les tapes initiales lassociation canadienne pour la reconnaissance des acquis (acra), lorganisme porte-parole du canada en matire dra, par le first nations technical institute (fnti [institut technique des premires nations]), a t critique pour sa cration. le soutien accord lra en ontario a t plus important au sein des collges subventionns par ltat que dans les universits, dont quelques-unes seulement acceptent les crdits valids selon ce processus (harrison, 2018; conrad 2010). le prsent rapport vise cartographier les reprsentations de lra en ligne grce une exploration des pages web sur lra de collges ontariens subventionns par ltat (si elles existent) ou dautres documents numriques justificatifs (des guides de transfert ou dra, des documents de politiques...) dcrivant des aspects cls du processus dra, tels que les premires tapes dun dpt de candidature, les frais, les aides, les procdures dvaluation et les mthodes de reconnaissance des crdits. lanalyse du contenu de ces pages web a t guide par les questions suivantes : 1) quels sont les types de renseignements offerts autour du sujet de lra sur les pages web des collges? 2) comment prsente-t-on le concept de lra en parallle celui du transfert de crdits? 1. lapprentissage non formel dsigne des cours et des formations suivis hors dtablissements postsecondaires et qui ne donnent pas lieu des crdits formels, alors que lapprentissage informel correspond lapprentissage par lexprience hors du cadre dun cours structur grce des expriences quotidiennes sur un lieu de travail, lautoformation ou la participation la vie communautaire. 2. les tches en lien avec le lieu de travail, telles que les comptences en informatique, ou encore la tenue de la comptabilit ou de comptes fournisseurs, sont des exemples dapprentissage informel souvent pris en compte pour la reconnaissance dans le cadre dvaluations dra. 03 valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat revue de la littrature alors que les tablissements postsecondaires ontariens sefforcent de btir un systme darticulation et de transfert de crdits plus quitable, plus simple et plus efficace, la question des modalits de reconnaissance de lapprentissage antrieure, sous toutes ses formes, ne manquera pas de concider avec le sujet plus large du transfert de crdits formalis. le concept de lra (aussi appele ra ) a t tabli en parallle avec celui du transfert de crdits, car ces deux processus visent aider les apprenants obtenir des crdits pour leur apprentissage prcdent (harrison, 2018). bien que la nature de cet apprentissage varie (la nature de lapprentissage nest pas la mme : crdits pdagogiques formels [transfert de crdits] c. apprentissage informel issu dexpriences relles, souvent acquises dans le cadre dun emploi [ra]), leurs rsultats sont les mmes : ils permettent dobtenir des crdits postsecondaires. toutefois, en ontario, les deux processus sont grs et dots de manire spare parce que leurs financements et leurs procdures dtablissement de rapports sont distinctes. par exemple, dans les annes 1990, le gouvernement de lontario a accord 3 millions de dollars chaque collge de la province pour crer un poste de responsable de lra (harrison, 2018). malheureusement, le financement de lra fait maintenant partie des subventions gnrales de fonctionnement accordes aux tablissements : le dtail de lutilisation des ressources gouvernementales par les tablissements en appui des processus dra nest donc pas clair. bien que le ministre des collges et universits accorde la subvention aux tablissements pour la transfrabilit des crdits, qui peut tre en partie utilise pour le financement de services de conseils (young, pich et jones, 2017), le ministre indique clairement que les fonds ne peuvent pas tre utiliss aux fins dvaluation pour lra (ministre des collges et universits, 2021). certains tablissements ont la possibilit dutiliser ce financement pour embaucher des conseillers et des responsables du transfert, dont le travail consiste aider les tudiants dcouvrir et accder aux possibilits de transfert. toutefois, on ne peut pas confirmer que ces employs assurent aussi des tches dra. cette question est de plus complique par le fait que plusieurs tablissements considrent lra comme un lment du transfert de crdits. en coulisse, on a port de lintrt et accord du soutien lra depuis des dizaines dannes : aux tats-unis, ds les annes 1940, des collges envisageaient de crer des outils permettant de faire valoir la formation et lexprience acquise dans le secteur militaire en accordant des crdits collgiaux correspondants (belanger et mount, 1998). toutefois, dans une certaine mesure, les universits ont rsist lide daccorder des diplmes, aux tats-unis comme au canada : il sagissait de prserver lintgrit de leurs programmes (harrison 2018). malgr leurs rticences, les collges ontariens et dautres partisans de lra ont avanc que cette volution tait ncessaire la promotion du transfert des expriences au sein des populations sous-reprsentes, telles que les apprenants adultes et certains groupes dimmigrants, ainsi que pour la dotation en personnel de certains postes pour lesquels on remarque des lacunes de comptences sur le march du travail (morrissey et collab. 2008). on remarque la prsence dimmigrants qualifis au canada, titulaires de titres de comptence de leur pays dorigine (en soins infirmiers, par exemple). toutefois, selon andersson et guo (2009), moins de 20 % dentre eux travaillent dans leur ancien domaine dactivit, car leurs titres de comptence ne sont pas considrs comme quivalents aux titres canadiens. ils avancent que plutt que de servir de portail vers lacquisition dquivalence des crdits et pour le pourvoi de postes dans des secteurs en pnurie de personnel, lra a jou le rle doutil dvaluation pour les tablissements, agissant potentiellement comme un mcanisme de disqualification. conrad (2010) avance que lon na pas entirement adopt lra et quon ne la pas dfinie comme une priorit parce quelle reprsente un investissement en temps important pour le corps professoral. pour ces raisons, et au vu dun manque de prsence de lra dans les universits ontariennes, lexamen actuel est ax sur les collges de la province. 3. ra est lacronyme gnralement utilis au canada pour dcrire ce processus. on utilise aussi lacronyme ra , employ en afrique du sud ( rpl [recognition of prior learning]), et aux tats-unis on utilise lacronyme pla ( prior learning assessment [ valuation des acquis ]) (conrad, 2014). 04 valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat mthodes pour procder lexamen des pages web relatives lra, le rdacteur fait rfrence des travaux accomplis rcemment en ontario et en colombie-britannique, en sappuyant sur les catgories de renseignements employes dans ces examens (harrison 2018; overton, 2019). nous avons commenc le premier examen des pages web en nous appuyant sur ces catgories aux fins dvaluation de leur applicabilit au contexte ontarien. catgories incluses : montant des frais dra, reprsentation de lra sur les bulletins de notes et ressources offertes aux tudiants en matire dra. nous avons entrepris un deuxime examen des modles de consignation des renseignements laide du logiciel danalyse qualitative nvivo, dans le respect des pratiques exemplaires appliques par les chercheurs tats-uniens (schudde, bradley et absher, 2020) en matire dvaluation de la facilit et de lutilit des renseignements sur le transfert de crdits fournis par les sites web des collges. nous avons par exemple observ un manque de pages web ddies lra (6/24 tablissements). dans le cas de ces tablissements, nous avons d consulter leurs documents de politiques sur lra accessibles en ligne, ainsi que des guides en format pdf lintention des tudiants, qui taient les seules ressources sur le sujet de lra. lorsquun tablissement navait pas de page web prsentant des renseignements sur lra, nous avons utilis la fonction de recherche du site web pour obtenir des renseignements, souvent accessibles dans des documents part. nous avons toutefois interrompu nos recherches de renseignements pertinents sur lra dans les cas o linformation demeurait inaccessible aprs 5 tentatives diffrentes (ou clics). dans ce cas de figure, nous avons eu recours une catgorie ddie : renseignement indisponible . conclusions - impressions gnrales on a parl de lra comme dun processus holistique , ce qui fait probablement rfrence aux attentes diverses auxquelles on espre rpondre pour le candidat (harrison, 2018). outre lobjectif principal, savoir lattribution de crdits pour des expriences prcdentes, le processus dvaluation lui-mme, caractris par le recours plusieurs mthodes, permet aux apprenants adultes de rflchir sur leur parcours, de dfendre leurs expriences prcdentes et, surtout, de valider les expriences acquises hors dun contexte dapprentissage formel. cet examen des pages web sur lra des collges ontariens indique que ces derniers offrent plusieurs moyens aux candidats de valider leurs acquis, par exemple grce des portefeuilles dapprentissage, des tests crits ou oraux et des entrevues. outre ces nombreuses possibilits dvaluation, la marche suivre pour les candidats lra est clairement prsente dans les pages web existantes. on remarque des exceptions : 6 tablissements ne prsentaient aucune marche suivre et ne disposaient pas de pages web ddies lra. malgr le cot relativement important de lvaluation dun cours sous langle de lra (environ 130 $ en moyenne), il est possible dy avoir recours pour une partie importante du programme collgial dun tudiant : en effet, la plupart des tablissements autorisent lutilisation de ce processus pour 50 % ou 75 % des crdits du programme au maximum. on note cependant que les renseignements pour lvaluation par bloc semblent rares, car la plupart des tablissements ne prsentent que linformation relative lra applique un cours en particulier. le processus semble long et compliqu : une dcision pourrait prendre 6 8 semaines, ce qui pourrait savrer problmatique dans les cas o on demande aux tudiants de quitter le cours, et quils courent le risque de ne pas obtenir de crdit si la dcision est ngative. il sagit aussi dun problme en ce qui concerne le financement du rafeo, tant donn que tout cours soumis lra pourrait compromettre le financement accord ltudiant par le gouvernement. 4. schudde et collab. ont valu des sites web en se fondant sur deux critres de mesure : facilit daccs et utilit. le premier examen a observ le nombre de clics ncessaires pour trouver les renseignements requis. le second concernait ltude de la pertinence des renseignements, ainsi que de leur degr dactualit. 05 valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat ra et transfert de crdits : cohsion ou entits distinctes? lexamen des renseignements sur lra accessibles sur les sites web des collges ontariens a rvl des exemples de complmentarit de lra et du transfert de crdit, et dautres situations dans lesquelles il sagit de processus entirement diffrents. par exemple, le collge canadore prsente un sommaire de lra sur sa page ddie au transfert, mais il est ncessaire de suivre un lien vers le guide lintention des tudiants pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements. bien que des renseignements sur lra soient aussi accessibles dans le guide de transfert, ce dernier se trouve dans une section part intitule obtenez des crdits collgiaux grce lra pour les expriences directes ( earn college credit through life experiences plar ). la situation est diffrente au collge sheridan, qui na pas non plus de page ddie lra : cet tablissement inclut lra dans ses possibilits de transfert de crdits sur sa page dorientation. parmi les tablissements examins, 6 collges sur 24 ne disposaient pas de leur propre page web ddie lra. une autre recherche sur google tait ncessaire pour trouver des renseignements sur lra : ce type de recherche pouvait donner des rsultats sous la forme dautres pages, de documents de politiques ou de guides de transfert. dautres liens adapts ont aussi pu tre dcouverts grce la fonction de recherche du site. dautres tablissements, le collge humber par exemple, disposaient de leur propre page ddie lra, qui prsentait beaucoup de renseignements pertinents. lurl de la page montre quelle tait incluse dans la page sur les possibilits de transfert, ce qui laisse penser que bien que les procds et les renseignements les concernant soient distincts, on considre que ce concept fait partie de la catgorie du transfert de crdits. reconnaissance de crdits par l'ra et acceptations entre les tablissements lra est troitement lie aux processus conventionnels de transfert de crdit : il est donc particulirement important pour les tablissements dexpliquer le procd de consignation des crdits issus de lra sur les bulletins de notes, ainsi que les procdures dacceptation du transfert de ces crdits. toutefois, aucun des 24 collges ontariens ne prsente de renseignements en ligne sur la faon dont les crdits dra accords par dautres tablissements sont accepts, ni mme sils sont accepts. cette situation est inquitante, car ces deux processus, bien que diffrents, sont abords comme des concepts similaires, savoir des points daccs lacquisition de titres de comptence. il serait donc dune importance critique pour lharmonisation du transfert de crdits et de lra de dfinir dans quelles conditions les crdits obtenus grce ce processus peuvent tre transfrs vers dautres tablissements. une des tendances observes lors de cet examen en ligne est encourageante : 42 % des tablissements (10/24) indiquent quils attribuent des notes alphabtiques aux crdits dra, selon la mme mthode que pour les autres crdits (voir le tableau 1). de plus, une part similaire des tablissements (9/24) ont prcis quils attribuaient des notes alphabtiques ou une cote cr ( crdit ), sat ( satisfaisant ), s ( satisfaisant ) ou p ( russite ). 5. cr : credit ( crdit ); sat : satisfactory ( satisfaisant ); p : pass ( russite ). 06 valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat un seul tablissement a indiqu que les crdits dra taient consigns comme lobtention dune cote cr , 4 des 24 tablissements nont fourni aucun renseignement sur la mthode dintgration des crdits dra aux bulletins de notes. il semble donc que les 19 tablissements sur 24 qui consignent les notes dra de la mme faon que pour les autres cours devraient en thorie tre en mesure daccepter des crdits dra auxquels on a attribu une cote selon un systme similaire par un autre collge grce lutilisation des mmes conventions de notation. toutefois, ils nindiquent pas explicitement que cest le cas : la question de la possibilit du transfert des crdits dra entre les tablissements de la mme manire que pour les crdits ordinaires, reste donc ouverte. un obstacle potentiel quil pourrait tre intressant dtudier lavenir concerne le rle jou par les descriptions de cours dans le processus de prise de dcisions concernant les quivalences de crdit, ainsi que la possibilit pour les tudiants qui transfrent des crdits dra de soumettre les mmes descriptions de cours pour les transferts de crdits que les lves qui ont suivi le cours. les crdits dra sont valus selon dautres critres (p. ex., portefeuilles, dmonstrations) qui peuvent correspondre aux rsultats pdagogiques dun cours, mais qui ne font pas partie de la prestation conventionnelle de ce cours. aide aux tudiants pour l'ra des tudes prcdentes sont parvenues la conclusion que les intervenants des tablissements comprennent les efforts et les difficults lis lvaluation et ladministration des crdits de lra, et qui exigent des investissements cibls dans les ressources humaines pour faciliter le soutien aux tudiants dans ce domaine (harrison, 2018). par consquent, dans le cadre de cet examen, nous avons tudi la possibilit pour les tudiants daccder un personnel responsable de lra lors de la procdure (voir tableau 2). comme on sy attendait, tant donn la situation de lra parmi les rares mcanismes de transfert offerts, plusieurs des aides lra mentionnes sont prsentes comme des parcours daide plus larges. on cite en particulier les possibilits daccs aux conseillers dorientation (7/24), dont le travail consiste guider les tudiants dans ce processus. un exemple vident de ce phnomne de pollinisation croise concerne le cas du collge fanshawe : on y demande aux tudiants de demander des renseignements sur lra au conseiller dorientation. le collge fanshawe tait lun des 7 tablissements sur 24 qui dirigeaient les tudiants vers un conseiller dorientation pour obtenir des renseignements sur lra. dans 3 tablissements sur 24, on dirigeait les tudiants vers des conseillers dorientation spcialiss en ra, et dans 4 sur 24, vers un bureau responsable de lra. il serait intressant de dterminer dans quelle mesure les responsabilits de conseil en matire de transfert et dorientation se recoupent avec les responsabilits dra, ainsi que le rle jou prcis par les conseillers dorientation (7/24), notamment dans les tablissements qui prsentent lra et le transfert de crdits comme des concepts proches. 07 valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat discussion cet examen des pages web sur lra des collges ontariens a permis de mettre en vidence lexistence de certaines catgories de renseignements entre les 24 collges tudis, malgr labsence de normalisation dans le secteur. par exemple, seuls quatre des collges ontariens prsentent des renseignements sur les limites dattribution de crdits en vigueur dans le cadre de lra. la plupart des tablissements indiquent aussi le cot par crdit de lra et prsentent la marche suivre pour achever le processus avec succs. on note toutefois que quelques tablissements (6/24) navaient pas de page ddie lra : ils prsentaient la place des documents de politiques, dont certains taient difficiles daccs ou ntaient pas dactualit. malgr des appels rcents lamlioration de lintgration de lra au transfert de crdits (harrison, 2018), la ralit de cette intgration semble manquer de clart. en fait, les pages web sur lra de 6 tablissements sur 24 comprennent des renseignements prsentant lra comme un processus distinct du transfert de crdits. par exemple, la page web sur lra du collge mohawk indique clairement : lvaluation et la reconnaissance des acquis (ra) sont axes sur lvaluation des acquis plutt que sur lducation formelle, employe dans le cadre du transfert de crdits universitaires ou de lexemption de cours. en loccurrence, on fait une distinction claire entre lra et le transfert de crdits : cette distinction est moins claire dans dautres tablissements. par exemple, au collge northern, les renseignements sur lra sont prsents sur le site web sous le titre transfert de crdits, examen probatoire et valuation des acquis ( transfer credit, challenge exams, and prior learning assessments ), ce qui donne limpression que lra est troitement lie au transfert de crdits. de la mme faon, sur la page web du collge sheridan, lra est tout dabord place dans les possibilits de transfert de crdits avec lexplication suivante : le transfert de crdits permet aux tudiants du collge sheridan de prsenter une candidature pour la prise en compte de crdits acquis prcdemment ou dune exprience de travail pour leur programme dtude. on pourrait avancer que ce type de prsentation porte penser que lra est un type de transfert : un transfert dexprience plutt que de crdits universitaires. bien que toutes ces faons daborder le concept de lra soient juste sous certains points de vue, leur multiplicit peut compliquer le secteur et la clarification de la faon dont ces deux processus se compltent. dans le cadre dtudes venir du caton, on espre complter ce type dexamen des ressources en ligne grce des entrevues avec des professionnels de lra qui travaillent dans les tablissements concerns pour mieux comprendre la faon dont les reprsentations sont appliques. les aides lra sont-elles accessibles conformment aux modalits prsentes en ligne? le processus est-il simple pour les tudiants? est-ce que de nombreux tudiants choisissent davoir recours lra? comment finance-t-on laide aux tudiants pour lra? on rpond au mieux ces questions grce des tudes qualitatives, qui sont mme de sonder davantage le sujet et daller plus loin que les impressions superficielles qui dcoulent de lanalyse du contenu. 08 valuation et reconnaissance des acquis en ontario : un examen en ligne des renseignements sur lra pour les 24 collges ontariens subventionns par ltat bibliographie andersson, p., & guo, s. (2009). governing through non/recognition: the missing rin the plar for immigrant professionals in canada and sweden. international journal of lifelong education, 28(4), 423-437. belanger, c. h., & mount, j. (1998). prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) in canadian universities. canadian journal of higher education, 28(2/3), 99-119. conrad, d. (2014). rpl in higher education: past, present and potential. in j. harris, c. wihak & j. van kleef (eds.), handbook of the recognition of prior learning: research into practice (pp. 315-335). leicester: the national institute of adult continuing education. harris, j., & wihak, c. (2018). the recognition of non-formal education in higher education: where are we now, and are we learning from experience?. international journal of e-learning & distance education, 33(1), 1-19. harrsion, m. (2018). best practices in prior learning assessment and recogntion in ontario colleges and universities. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat): toronto, on. ministry of colleges and universities. (2021). credit transfer institutional grant (ctig) guidelines and q&as for 2021-22. morrissey, m., myers, d., belanger, p., robitaille, m., davison, p., van kleef, j., & williams, r. (2008). achieving our potential: an action plan for prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) in canada. online submission. overton, m. (2019). prior learning assessment in bc: inventory of plar options, processes, and credit allowances in bc post-secondary institutions. british columbias prior learning action network: victoria, bc. schudde, l., bradley, d., & absher, c. (2020). navigating vertical transfer online: access to and usefulness of transfer information on community college websites. community college review, 48(1), 3-30. young, s., pich, p. g., & jones, g. a. (2017). two towers of transformation: the compatibility of policy goals of differentiation and student mobility. toronto: center for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. 09

rapport final contrat : 2018-01 titre du projet : parcours de transfert de divers programmes des collges boral et la cit vers les programmes de luniversit de hearst liste dtablissements participants universit de hearst collge boral la cit rapport prpar par sylvie roy, charge de projet pour luniversit de hearst, pour le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert - ontario table des matires sommaire 3 objectifs du projet 4 laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie comparaison et analyse entre les programmes processus de mise en uvre 5 5 6 6 sommaire des parcours de transfert crs nouveaux parcours entre le collge boral, la cit et ludeh tat des parcours 7 7 7 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises 9 conclusion 9 annexe a : parcours entre la cit, le collge boral et luniversit de hearst pour les tudiantes et les tudiants en gestion et en administration des affaires 10 annexe b : parcours entre la cit, le collge boral et luniversit de hearst pour les tudiantes et les tudiants en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux 16 annexe c : parcours entre la cit, le collge boral et luniversit de hearst pour les tudiantes et les tudiants en psychologie 20 2 sommaire ce projet dlaboration dentente darticulation a permis llaboration des parcours de transfert de certains programmes collgiaux du collge boral et la cit vers des programmes de luniversit de hearst. trente parcours ont t dvelopps entre des programmes collgiaux et des programmes universitaires qui ont un niveau lev daffinit. les parcours des programmes collgiaux dtudes sur la paix et les conflits, de techniques des services policiers et de techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale ont t labors vers les programmes uniques de b.a. (3 ans) et b.a. (4 ans) dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst. les parcours des programmes collgiaux de techniques en administration des affaires, dadministration des affaires, dadministration des affaires comptabilit, dadministration des affaires finances, dadministration des affaires gestion, dadministration des affaires - marketing ont t labors vers les programmes de b.a. (3 ans) en gestion et de b.a.a. (4 ans) en administration des affaires de luniversit de hearst. les parcours des programmes collgiaux de techniques de travail social et de techniques de travail social grontologie ont t labors vers les programmes de b.a. (3 ans) et b.a. (4 ans) en psychologie de luniversit de hearst. 3 objectifs du projet de manire gnrale, le collge boral, le collge la cit et luniversit de hearst sengagent favoriser le continuum des tudes postsecondaires pour les tudiants francophones et bilingues de lontario et faire preuve de collaboration en matire de dveloppement de nouveaux parcours de transfert. les partenaires conviennent que cette collaboration doit favoriser, entre autres, lexcellence en apprentissage, laccroissement de laccs aux programmes dtudes postsecondaires en franais et la mobilit entre les tablissements. dans le cadre du prsent projet, les partenaires souhaitaient tablir des parcours de transfert pour permettre aux finissantes et aux finissants des collges dans des domaines tels que ladministration, le travail social et les services durgence et juridiques de poursuivre leurs tudes luniversit de hearst afin dobtenir un baccalaurat selon le modle deux annes de collge et une anne luniversit (2+1) ou le modle deux annes au collge et deux annes luniversit (2+2). ce projet vise deux objectifs : tendre les parcours de transfert existants entre les collges et dautres universits, aux programmes de luniversit de hearst pour tre en mesure de desservir la rgion du nord-est de lontario ; dvelopper de nouveaux parcours, notamment vers les programmes interdisciplinaires en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux, ceux-ci uniques luniversit de hearst. plus prcisment, les partenaires se proposaient dexplorer des ententes darrimage de types 2+1 et 2+2 entre les programmes collgiaux et universitaires suivants : techniques en administration des affaires et administration des affaires vers administration des affaires ou gestion ; techniques de travail social vers psychologie ; techniques des services policiers, techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale et tudes sur la paix et les conflits vers tude des enjeux humains et sociaux. luniversit de hearst visait octroyer jusqu deux annes compltes en transfert de crdits, soit 60 des 90 crdits (entente de type 2+1 ) envers les baccalaurats s arts avec concentration et 60 des 120 crdits (entente de type 2+2 ) envers les baccalaurats spcialiss. les partenaires ont galement examin brivement la possibilit dententes inverses dans le cadre de laquelle une personne commencerait ses tudes luniversit de hearst en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux et transfrerait vers lun ou lautre des programmes de techniques des services policiers, de techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale et dtudes sur la paix et les conflits. lobjectif ultime des partenaires est de permettre la clientle de poursuivre des formations pertinentes, enrichissantes et complmentaires au sein des tablissements participants et de lui reconnaitre le maximum de crdits tout en prservant la qualit et la valeur des titres de comptences, tant pour les tudiants que pour les tablissements dducation. 4 cette initiative de collaboration tenait compte galement du rapport produit par la commission de formation du nord-est1 qui prvoit un nombre important demplois qui seront disponibles dans la rgion du nord-est ontarien court et moyen termes dans les domaines identifis par le prsent projet. laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie afin de mener ce projet terme, des tapes ont t suivies. les deux premires tapes constituent le fondement de ce projet. les voici : 1. approbation dune initiative stratgique institutionnelle pour les parcours de transfert francophones et bilingues par le snat de luniversit de hearst qui contient un plan triennal (mars 2017); 2. prparation de la demande de financement au caton (juin 2017); 3. recueil, envoi et change des cursus et des plans de cours des programmes ltude, ainsi que dautres informations pertinentes en lien avec ceux-ci; 4. visites des reprsentants de luniversit de hearst la cit et au collge boral pour rencontrer les quipes professorales et administratives; 5. analyse dtaille des programmes et des plans de cours par chacune des units denseignement concernes; 6. prparation des parcours de transfert incluant lidentification et le nombre de crdits reconnus par luniversit de hearst; 7. enclenchement du processus dapprobation pour obtenir les approbations requises des instances dcisionnelles : a. le snat de luniversit de hearst b. envoi du dossier au vice-rectorat de luniversit laurentienne pour validation du respect de la procdure, accompagn dune lettre du vice-rectorat de luniversit de hearst indiquant sa raction c. validation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne du dossier soumis et du respect des procdures d. confirmation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne que le dossier a t trait et peut poursuivre aux tapes subsquentes e. signature des ententes darticulation entre le collge boral et la cit et luniversit de hearst f. prsentation des ententes darticulation au snat de luniversit laurentienne pour information ce processus dapprobation a t conclu et finalis le 15 mai dernier entre luniversit de hearst et luniversit laurentienne. avant cette date, luniversit laurentienne, tablissement auquel luniversit de hearst est affilie, exigeait la mme procdure la leur quant au processus dapprobation des ententes darticulation. en raison des procdures initiales et des nombreuses dmarches pour en tablir une nouvelle, le projet 1 http://www.fnetb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/northern-ontario-potential-labour-forceretirements.pdf 5 na pu tre complt dans le calendrier de travail prescrit. les dernires tapes, cest-dire celles ayant trait la prparation et signature des protocoles dententes, la publication et la promotion des ententes sont repousses lautomne 2018. comparaison et analyse entre les programmes les normes de chacun des programmes collgiaux et des plans de cours des cours obligatoires respectifs sont analyss et valus en les comparant au mapping et aux objectifs du programme universitaire. pour effectuer lanalyse, les membres des units denseignement ont utilis les balises suivantes : - bibliographie des cours (pertinence et jour); - objectifs du cours prsents devaient correspondre au dveloppement des savoir-faire avancs que sont lanalyse, la synthse et lvaluation critique; - types de travaux qui doivent correspondre latteinte des objectifs prciss; - notions et concepts doivent tre prciss : nombre, pertinence et niveau de complexit. des crdits gnriques sont attribus en quivalence pour les connaissances et les comptences dveloppes lorsquil est impossible de les rattacher un cours ayant une cote de cours propre. aprs avoir identifi les quivalences des cours obligatoires et les quivalences de cours au choix du programme dtudes universitaire, un nouveau parcours voit le jour pour les cohortes diplmes du programme collgial en question. ce nouveau parcours permet ces cohortes de rduire la dure de leurs tudes universitaire et les couts engendrs par celles-ci car elles possdent dj bon nombre de connaissances et des comptences vises par la formation universitaire. une volont institutionnelle dtablir des ententes de type 2 + 1 et 2 + 2 guide le travail la coordination des projets. processus de mise en uvre ds que le processus dapprobation de toutes les ententes sera complt, les quipes suivantes seront informes des dtails relatifs tous les parcours contenus dans les ententes : - le bureau du registraire le bureau des liaisons et des communications les membres la direction les membres du corps professoral le bureau des admissions de luniversit laurentienne sensuivra alors le dveloppement des outils promotionnels, de linscription des ententes divers sites internet (ontransfer.ca, collge boral, la cit, universit de hearst, etc.) et des stratgies de communications et de liaisons dveloppes par les quipes respectives des trois tablissements. les ententes seront affiches aux divers sites susmentionns au plus tard le 1er novembre 2018. 6 sommaire des parcours de transfert crs nouveaux parcours entre le collge boral, la cit et luniversit de hearst tous les parcours de transfert des programmes collgiaux ltude ont t complts et adopts par les instances de luniversit de hearst. au total, on en dnombre 30. les dtails acadmiques de ces parcours se retrouvent aux annexes a, b et c. les parcours dententes inverses nont pas t compltes. le travail danalyse li ceux-ci se poursuivra au dbut de lautomne afin de pouvoir, le cas chant, lajouter aux ententes qui seront signes. tat des parcours ci-dessous dans le tableau, il y a ltat des parcours de tous les programmes collgiaux ltude. programmes universitaires dernire tape complte programmes du collge boral programmes de la cit gestion (ba 3 ans) techniques en administration des affaires (2 ans) administration des affaires comptabilit (3 ans) techniques en administration des affaires (2 ans) administration des affaires (3 ans) administration des affaires comptabilit (3 ans) administration des affaires finance (3 ans) administration des affaires gestion (3 ans) administration des affaires marketing (3 ans) confirmation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne que le dossier a t trait et peut poursuivre aux tapes subsquentes (tape 7.d.) administration des affaires (baa 4 ans) techniques en administration des affaires (2 ans) administration des affaires comptabilit (3 ans) techniques en administration des affaires (2 ans) administration des affaires (3 ans) administration des affaires comptabilit (3 ans) administration des affaires finance confirmation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne que le dossier a t trait et peut poursuivre aux tapes subsquentes (tape 7.d.) (dtails mthodologiques disponibles dans la section mthodologie la page 5 du prsent document) 7 3 ans) administration des affaires gestion (3 ans) administration des affaires marketing (3 ans) tude des enjeux humains et sociaux (ba 3 ans) techniques des services policiers (2 ans) tudes sur la paix et les conflits (2 ans) techniques des services policiers (2 ans) techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale (2 ans) tude des enjeux humains et sociaux (ba 4 ans) techniques des services policiers (2 ans) tudes sur la paix et les conflits (2 ans) techniques des services policiers (2 ans) techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale (2 ans) psychologie (ba 3 ans) techniques de travail social (2 ans) psychologie (ba 4 ans) techniques de travail social (2 ans) techniques de travail social (2 ans) techniques de travail social grontologie (2 ans) techniques de travail social (2 ans) techniques de travail social grontologie (2 ans) confirmation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne que le dossier a t trait et peut poursuivre aux tapes subsquentes (tape 7.d.) confirmation par le vice-recteur aux tudes de luniversit laurentienne que le dossier a t trait et peut poursuivre aux tapes subsquentes (tape 7.d.) adoption par le snat de luniversit de hearst (tape 7.a.) adoption par le snat de luniversit de hearst (tape 7.a.) tous les parcours de transfert des ententes auront atteint ltape de la signature des ententes au plus tard le 15 octobre 2018. 8 meilleures pratiques et leons apprises dabord, pour mener terme ce projet et assurer sa russite, la communication intertablissement a permis au projet de bien senclencher et de progresser dans les premires tapes comme il avait t tabli dans le calendrier de travail. dans un deuxime temps, la communication au sein des quipes professorales des trois tablissements a srement t un gage de succs. les gestionnaires de projet ont bien amorc le projet en prsentant les objectifs et le calendrier de travail leur quipe respective et ont assur le travail continu en lien avec celui-ci. comme les programmes ltude avaient un niveau daffinit lev, il tait raliste datteindre les objectifs fixs quant aux quivalences. bien que le projet ait ses objectifs prcis, il tait primordial de mettre de lavant rgulirement la stratgie institutionnelle pour les parcours de transfert francophones et bilingues de luniversit de hearst. les ralits dmographiques, la vision du ministre, la place que devrait occuper lapprentissage exprientiel sont tous des facteurs sous-jacents importants quon devait considrer dans les analyses. conclusion les trois tablissements sont satisfaits du projet et de ses rsultats malgr les retards occasionns par la procdure dacceptation des ententes entre luniversit de hearst et luniversit laurentienne. nous avons russi crer des parcours de transfert avantageux pour les finissantes et les finissants des programmes collgiaux et, par le fait mme, enrichir les possibilits de formation dans le nord-est de lontario et pour les francophones. 9 annexe a : parcours menant aux programmes de gestion et dadministration des affaires parcours entre le programme de techniques dadministration des affaires du collge boral et de la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral et la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion techniques dadministration des affaires 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits programme du collge boral et la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires techniques dadministration des affaires 2 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4606 (3) admn 4607 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix ----------total : 60 crdits 10 parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires de la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion administration des affaires 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires administration des affaires 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4606 (3) admn 4607 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits 11 parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires - comptabilit du collge boral et de la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral et la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion administration des affaires comptabilit 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits programme du collge boral et la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires administration des affaires comptabilit 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4606 (3) admn 4607 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits 12 parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires - finance de la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion administration des affaires - finance 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires administration des affaires - finance 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4606 (3) admn 4607 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits 13 parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires - gestion de la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion administration des affaires - gestion 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires administration des affaires - gestion 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4606 (3) admn 4607 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits 14 parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires - marketing de la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion administration des affaires - marketing 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires administration des affaires - marketing 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007 (3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117 (3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4606 (3) admn 4607 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits 15 annexe b : parcours menant aux programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux (3 ans et 4 ans) parcours entre le programme dtudes sur la paix et les conflits du collge boral et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux tudes sur la paix et les conflits 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3946 (3) huma 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) soci 3187 (3) sosc 9100 (21) sosc 9200 (18) ----------total : 60 crdits* engl 1542 ou espa 1007 hist 3756 (3) ou hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) ou litt 2646 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) ou gog 1026 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux tudes sur la paix et les conflits 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 1946 (3) huma 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) soci 3187 (3) sosc 9100 (21) sosc 9200 (21) ----------total : 60 crdits* engl 1542 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) litt 2646 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) gog 1026 (3) un cours parmi les suivants : - soci 3076 (3) - gog 3217 (3) - hist 2037 (3) notes des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. notes des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) inte 4915 (6) ----------total : 60 crdits 16 parcours entre le programme de techniques des services policiers du collge boral et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes techniques des services policiers 2 ans (diplme) cosc 1701 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 9100 (3) inte 3026 (3) nati 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) poli 1006 (3) psyc 1106 (3) soci 1016 (3) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (24) ----------total : 60 crdits* hist 3756 (3) ou hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3946 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) ou gog 1026 un cours parmi : - soci 3187 (3) - soci 3076 (3) - gog 3217 (3) - hist 2037 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes techniques des services policiers 2 ans (diplme) cosc 1701 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 9100 (3) inte 3026 (3) nati 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) poli 1006 (3) psyc 1106 (3) soci 1016 (3) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (24) ----------total : 60 crdits* gog 1026 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) ou litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. trois cours parmi les suivants : - gog 3217 (3) - hist 2037 (3) - soci 3187 (3) - soci 3076 (3) inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) inte 4915 (6) ----------total : 60 crdits 17 parcours entre le programme de techniques des services policiers de la cit et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes techniques des services policiers 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 3946 (3) engl 9200 (6) huma 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) soci 2506 (3) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* hist 3756 (3) ou hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) ou litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) ou gog 1026 un cours parmi : soci 3187 (3) soci 3076 (3) gog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes techniques des services policiers 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3026 (3) engl 9200 (6) huma 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) soci 2506 (3) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (15) ----------total : 60 crdits* gog 1026 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) deux cours parmi : - soci 3187 (3) - soci 3076 (3) - gog 3217 (3) - hist 2037 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) inte 4915 (6) ----------total : 60 crdits 18 parcours entre le programme de techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale de la cit et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 3946 (3) huma 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (12) ----------total : 60 crdits* hist 3756 (3) ou hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) ou litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) ou gog 1026 un cours parmi : - soci 3187 (3) - soci 3076 (3) - gog 3217 (3) - hist 2037 (3) ----------total : 30 crdits des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 4915 (6) huma 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* gog 1026 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) litt 2646 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) gog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) soci 3187 (3) soci 3076 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits 19 annexe c : parcours menant aux programmes de psychologie ( 3 ans et 4 ans) parcours entre le programme de techniques de travail social - grontologie de la cit et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie techniques de travail social - grontologie 1,5 ans (diplme) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) psyc 9200 (3) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) sosc 9100 (9) ----------total : 45 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 1 cours au choix psyc des annes suprieures + 6 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 45 crdits programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie techniques de travail social - grontologie 1,5 ans (diplme) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) psyc 9200 (3) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) sosc 9100 (9) ----------total : 45 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) + 5 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 75 crdits 20 parcours entre le programme de techniques de travail social du collge boral et de la cit et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie techniques de travail social (tosc) 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) cosc 1701 (3) soci 1016 (3) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (6) engl 9100 (3) lang 9100 (6) huma 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (3) sosc 9200 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 2 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 30 crdits programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie techniques de travail social (tosc) 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) cosc 1701 (3) soci 1016 (3) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (6) engl 9100 (3) lang 9100 (6) huma 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (3) sosc 9200 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) + 1 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits 21 programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie techniques de travail social (tosc) 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (9) engl 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 2 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 30 crdits programme de la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie techniques de travail social (tosc) 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (9) engl 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (9) ----------total : 60 crdits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) + 1 cours au choix des annes suprieures ----------total : 60 crdits * une moyenne minimale collgiale de 3.2 ou 80 % est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus. 22

project snapshot pathway development through the indigenous early college model type: innovative transfer project number: 2019-28 or i1928 project lead: six nations polytechnic collaborators: six nations polytechnic, mohawk college deliverables for website (if applicable): program of study project summary the steam academy represents a uniquely effective approach to building pathways to post secondary education for indigenous and non-indigenous high school students, where students can begin to braid diploma level courses into their studies. this allows students to build toward their ontario secondary school diploma (ossd), while simultaneously receiving credits toward a software engineering technician diploma. this project has supported six nations polytechnic (snp) and mohawk college to develop curriculum and transfer pathways that link steam academy outcomes with further post secondary opportunities at snp and mohawk college. throughout this project, both snp and mohawk college have gained a great deal of knowledge relating to potential post secondary pathways for our snp steam academy students, and as a peripheral benefit, our partnerships and departmental connections have also been strengthened. project rationale this project, and indeed the entirety of the snp steam academy were created to meet the needs of our learners and community members. through a great deal of planning and community review, it was determined that the current programming available to our six nations learners was insufficient to meet their learning and graduation needs. we therefore established the six nations polytechnic steam academy to address these needs, specifically creating this alternative pathway to ensure that students had additional options to benefit themselves and their community through new and unique post-secondary and career pathways. collaborator contributions six nations polytechnic staff undertook most of the consultation pieces with staff and students. these conversations were extremely insightful and helpful to the project overall. following these conversations the collaborative approach taken towards research and pathway development in this project became a shared responsibility between both institutions. many meetings were held both in person and using online methods to allow for robust consultation and collaboration with many different stakeholders at each institution. mohawk college kindly provided personnel support to help build the pathway options, and six nations polytechnic provided personnel support to verify that these courses could be offered six nations polytechnic from both a financial and a regulatory perspective. six nations polytechnic staff undertook a lead role in the preliminary financial research that has gone into determining if these pathways are financially viable for snp. additionally, ibm as an industry partner in this project provided considerable support regarding the consideration of the benefits and challenges that could be associated with the technology focused pathways and transfer options considered, as well as providing comments and learning around what some of the career-oriented outlooks could be with each of these potential options. key steps consultation - we began this project with consultation from our current students, families, and internally with our staff to see what insight each of these groups could provide. these were mostly conversations and often done within other events, such as parent teacher conferences. we asked the question what other pathways or opportunities would you like to see at snp steam academy? this question was perhaps too broad. because of this, some of the initial input provided was less focused than we would have liked, but once we narrowed the question by instead asking what other post-secondary opportunities would you like to see at snp steam academy? our acquired information became more focused and useful. collaboration - we then took this information and began to collaborate with our partners at mohawk college. much of the feedback that we received revolved around students having additional options should they decide that the current pathway was not to their liking in the latter years of the program, and about providing additional options for students whose interest lied more with other programs such as construction engineering or the arts. this led naturally into discussions about other pathways and transfer opportunities as illustrated elsewhere within this report. research - we then began to research a range of other options with mohawk college as well as looking into the financial viability of these options with other partners and governing bodies. as our work in the early college model is entirely new to canada as a whole, it was often challenging to gather useful information regarding funding for the delivery of this kind of programming. preliminary pathway establishment - snp and mohawk college then took the time to plan out the two attached preliminary pathways. these pathways remain theoretical, but we have now established their viability and that there is indeed interest from the community and student level in pursuing these as options in the future. outcomes 1. increase transfer options for students although the specific pathways of transfer between our two organizations, specifically regarding the snp steam academy software engineering technician program, have yet to be fully established, many new and exciting potential pathways for our students to take have now been explored, reviewed and have been determined to be viable for our students. as our program remains relatively new it is important for us to ensure that our students have a range of options to pursue if/when they choose to pursue additional postsecondary education. furthermore, as the students are very young (starting the snp steam academy software engineering technician program when they are in grade ten) we want to assure that transfer options are available to them should they see themselves as prioritizing something other than software engineering. some of the explored options included: augmented and virtual reality innovation, computer systems technician, cyber security analytics and virtual reality multimedia production. again, although these specific pathways and transfer opportunities have not been fully established (mostly as a consequence of our programs relative infancy) these options are now known to exist for our students. as we progress, we hope to make these readilyavailable transfer options to students at six nations polytechnic. 2. establishment of preliminary work on new student pathways a great deal of preliminary work was undertaken to review and consider additional student pathway options here at the snp steam academy. as has been previously stated, with our program being new we want to ensure that we are both meeting the needs of our community and school population but also ensuring that we are poised to meet future needs as they arise. to this point six nations polytechnic and mohawk college together have throughout this project explored two potential pathways besides the currently established software engineering technician program. these two programs are, like our current offering, built under the early college model allowing students to take a variety of courses taught by both six nations polytechnic staff as well as mohawk college staff leading to dual credit courses and a dual credentialed result. these two programs are a construction techniques program as well as an art and design foundations program. both of these programs have been identified as areas of interest for our current students and as we prioritize meeting community needs both of these programs have been identified as potential pathways for future offering at snp steam academy. the preliminary program of studies for these two pathways as well as sample scope and sequence has for both of them will be attached to this final report. clearer and shared understanding institutional alignments and priorities 3. oftentimes work with various partners amongst post-secondary institutions can become distant and purely business like. we are happy to report however that throughout the duration of this project a great deal of relationship (and indeed team-building) took place, significantly better aligning all staff involved with this project as well as all involved in the snp steam academy early college program as a whole. mohawk college staff were supportive throughout and very receptive to conversations about the reasoning behind initially beginning the school, and for our exploration of additional pathways and transfer options for our students. as six nations polytechnic is an indigenous institute that carefully considers the needs of our community in all of our decisions, it is important to us that our partners share our vision for our students future. throughout this work it was evident that the staff of mohawk college involved in this program have an understanding of the necessity for a program such as ours. close institutional alignment around the early college model and the snp steam academy has also helped us to establish further peripheral programming between our two organizations such as an internship program in partnership with both mohawk college and our partners at ibm that would partially take place at the mohawk college campus this summer and then throughout subsequent summers afterwards. without the time spent on this project building our shared understanding, this extremely positive and student-focused result would have been unlikely. challenges although we were very satisfied with the engagement received it would have likely been beneficial to have engaged additional post secondary partners in this project. outreach was done to other partners on numerous occasions to engage them in these conversations, however due to scheduling and personnel time at all involved institutions, these further conversations did not come to fruition. this is in no way to minimize the exceptional work that was done, simply to state that with projects of this nature often additional input can/could have been beneficial. student outcomes some of the primary benefits of the early college model, both established and discovered throughout this program are: financial savings - there is no cost to being an early college model student at the snp steam academy. this allows students to graduate with both an ontario secondary school diploma and a post secondary credential without incurring any student debt. ability to acquire credential / rate of credential - students are given the opportunity to acquire credentials at a faster rate than they could acquire elsewhere. by utilizing the early college model, and starting students on this pathway at the grade 10 level, students are able to earn these two credentials a full academic year of study faster than previously possible. expanded support structures - by being enrolled both at six nations polytechnic and at mohawk college student support structures are greatly expanded. students have access to both institutions' expertise and support services and are provided with multiple perspectives from professionals at a variety of academic levels. transfer opportunities / flexible learning outcomes - we recognize that when students start on this pathway they are indeed quite young and still very much establishing themselves as both young people and as students. we therefore are happy to have begun excellent conversation and research with mohawk college surrounding innovative transfer opportunities for students to move from the software engineering technician program into other programs such as cyber security analytics and virtual reality multimedia production. this will allow our students to both utilize the dual-credit programming we currently offer and to further customize their learning by transferring to alternative but still adjacent programming as they mature and learn more about what they would like their own individual pathway to look like. student credential students can acquire an ontario secondary school diploma as well as a software engineering technician diploma. student time savings it is possible for students to save time by using this pathway option as the secondary school component and the post-secondary component can both be earned within five years as opposed to the typical six years that it would take via other means. it should be noted that these other means, prior to the establishment of the snp steam academy, were largely unavailable to our students. student financial savings this pathway comes at no cost to students as the entirety of the of the snp steam academy program is tuition free. student flexibility this program has given access to a new field of study that our students would never have been able to access prior to the establishment of the snp steam academy. there are many internal portions of the program that also increase student flexibility and ease of access, such as all snp steam academy courses having blended delivering inbuilt, and the shared support from both six nations polytechnic and mohawk college staff as well as other supporters and mentors from ibm. student work alignment currently, software engineering technicians are one of the top ten top in demand jobs in canada. this level of demand is anticipated to continue to increase over the next five to seven years. by providing our students access to this programming now, we create a well-placed and well prepared student for the future. also, by creating educational programming that partners directly with industry and post-secondary institutions, students are given a much broader scope of learning then they would be under typical circumstances. institutional outcomes as noted above, the institutional cultures of both snp and of mohawk college came into further alignment throughout the duration of this project. through our many discussions we further established both the need for and the impetus behind establishing the early college model here at snp. mohawk college was supportive of these many discussions and also came to further understand why the early college model at snp is truly an effort of reconciliation. previously unconnected staff at multiple levels in departments such as teaching, guidance and administration have also been connected (often for the first time) which has further contributed to the strengthening of our overall partnership, thereby enhancing current and future opportunities to develop programming and smoother transfer opportunities for students. sector or system implications the snp steam academy has already shown significant promise as a student focused early college model. our students are engaged with many skills at both the secondary and postsecondary levels that allow them to explore education and future career options in ways that they (and truly, we as well) have not before been able to do. through interactions with our partners at ibm as well as other institutions and businesses, students have been able to blend secondary, post-secondary, and experiential based learning into an innovative and student focused pathway. also, the shared willingness between snp and mohawk college to consider additional transfer opportunities for students into alternative programs should they eventually determine that the software engineering technician pathway is not the pathway that they would like to follow, allows for a significant amount of student customization to their learning. throughout our time working in the early college model, and while exploring these alternative pathways and transfer opportunities for our students, there are aspects of this kind of program that we do urge caution with. we have been fortunate to have good partners in ibm; the significance of a supportive and flexible corporate partner cannot be understated; their involvement in this program is critical to its success. ibm has assisted us in preparing our students for this type of programming while the students are still early in their educational careers. without adequate preparation for these courses the students could easily find themselves lost in content and unable to progress. by utilizing ibm's expertise in both software and business skills, our students have been given an advantage and are much more likely to achieve success within this program. this is certainly not an exhaustive report on the initial successes and outcomes of our early college model; we would be happy to share more of this learning with oncat through further projects and conversations. tips/advice as noted previously: "there are many other learnings that we have acquired throughout our time with the early college model, and while exploring these alternative pathways and transfer opportunities for our students, that we would indeed urge caution with. we have been exceptionally fortunate to have very good partners and associates in ibm, and the significance of a supportive and flexible corporate partner in this kind of early college program cannot be understated. although the corporate sector is often not as involved in these kind of programs, their involvement in this program is critical to its success. ibm has assisted us in preparing our students for this programming while the students are still early in their educational career in grade 10. without adequate preparation for these courses at such an early stage in their educational journey, the students could easily find themselves lost in content and unable to progress along this pathway. by utilizing their expertise in both software and business/soft skills, our students have been given a great advantage and are much more likely to achieve success within this program." additionally, and foundationally to our program and institution, the value placed on cultural knowledge and indigenous ways of knowing and being have been critical to our continued development and early success with this model. our adherence to the values of ganigoh:yo:/kanikonhr:io (respect and the good mind) in all of our operations, ranging from our institutional relationships to our interactions with students, have been critical to ensuring that our priorities remain the student experience by creating a respectful environment build on cooperation and togetherness. tools and resource yes. we established two new pathway templates as a result of this project. these templates are attached to this report. please find our currently established snp steam academy scope and sequence document attached as well.

a framework for data sharing in academic collaborations and pathways 2017-29 final report (april 2018) ontario council on articulation and transfer page 1 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario table of contents introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 3 executive summary ................................................................................................................................................... 3 challenges and limitations of data warehouses and the use of the oen ..................................................... 4 whats happening elsewhere? examples from british colombia (bc) and the united states (us).......... 5 data sharing template & framework................................................................................................................. 6 list of partner institutions ......................................................................................................................................... 7 research ethics ......................................................................................................................................................... 7 research methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 7 literature review ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 the legal framework fippa (freedom of information and protection of privacy act)......................... 11 the oen (ontario education number) ............................................................................................................. 12 environmental scan of emerging trends & key issues .................................................................................... 12 analysis & limitations of the data ......................................................................................................................... 12 limitations of the study ....................................................................................................................................... 14 promising practices & challenges ........................................................................................................................ 14 conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................ 18 references ................................................................................................................................................................ 21 ontario council on articulation and transfer page 2 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario introduction data sharing in academic collaborations and pathways was a qualitative research project which examined this practice in six ontario postsecondary institutions. a larger more detailed report has been produced about the transfer of data among academic institutions in ontario. however, below is a synopsis and excerpts of highlights from the larger report. as the lead institution on the project, york university followed institutional guidelines for the tendering of the research through its procurement services office. thinklounge was the successful bidder and was subsequently hired to conduct the study by the project team. executive summary this research project was developed to explore data sharing practices between college and university partners in ontario; and to provide broader guidance to pse institutions across the province engaged in student data transfer. three universities and three colleges participated in the study: york university and seneca college; trent university and fleming college; and the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) and durham college. central to the research was an exploration of the current data sharing practices among institutions; how and for what purposes data are being shared inter-institutionally; the legal, privacy and other challenges that needed to be mitigated to facilitate data sharing; and an examination of the data sharing approaches in postsecondary jurisdictions outside of ontario, namely in the us and british colombia. two objectives were central to this study. the first was the provision of a data sharing process for institutions. this was to include best practices from other jurisdictions and industries; the creation of a framework to assess the parameters for data sharing in academic collaboration; providing understanding of the broader factors involved in data sharing; and a draft data sharing agreement or mou (memorandum of understanding) template that could be used by institutions. the second objective was to provide insight into the issues involved in data sharing among ontario postsecondary institutions and suggestions for improving this practice more broadly across the province, with the goal of improving student mobility outcomes within the higher education sector. a steering committee comprised of representatives from the participating institutions was created to provide project oversight. this group was also instrumental to/ supported the participant recruitment process. the research comprised of a literature review, thirty-one interviews and two focus groups. the participants were recruited from a variety or roles/ institutional functions which included but were not limited to administration; faculty/ academic and registration staff; it, legal, privacy and ethics offices. the data collection began in late fall 2017 and concluded in march 2018. additionally, staff from the ontario universities application centre (ouac); the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd), ontario; and the student transitions project in british colombia was interviewed for the research. the study found that the various university acts gave institutions broad authority to collect and create data for educational, research/ statistical and administrative purposes. on the other hand, among ontario colleges, personal data is collected under the authority of maesd ontario council on articulation and transfer page 3 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario (ministry of advanced education and skills development) for educational, administrative and statistical/ research purposes. additionally, all educational institutions in ontario are subject to fippa (freedom of information and protection of privacy act). however, while institutional legislation governs the creation and maintenance of student recordsfippa is the law in ontario that governs the protection and disclosure of records that institutions can create by statute (baumal, april 2018). in short, fippa sets out the parameters for data sharing in the province, including the information being shared among institutions. moreover, fippa governs the use of personal information and the transfer of personal information (baumal, data sharing in academic collaboration: final presenation, 2018). the research also found that the data collected by academic institutions can be broadly classified into two categories: 1) research and planning; and 2) administration. data collected for research and planning were often used to conduct studies on student mobility and for institutional policy planning such as determining space capacity, strategic planning and for the development of agreements. on the other hand, the data collected for administrative purposes involved the sharing of data during/ for student redirection; for the administration of dual credentials and other types of collaborative programs among institutions, and to facilitate general registrarial level transfers. institutional staff interviewed indicated that there was strong knowledge of the fippa legislation and high rates of compliance within their respective organizations. accordingly, despite the presence of privacy policies which broadly outlined the authority to collect personal data from students, many of the institutions still sought / had specific processes in place to notify students for obtaining their permission to share record level data with other institutions. however, the study found that most of the occurrences of data sharing in the province were bilateral, as ontario does not have a centralized data repository or warehouse. challenges and limitations of data warehouses and the use of the oen fippa legislation provides oversight into the type of information that can be provided; how a recipient will use the information; and when and to whom information can be shared/ disseminated. therefore, the research revealed that privacy issues were not the greatest impediment to data sharing among educational institutions in the province of ontario. instead, the translation and matching of records, and agreement on what can be said and done with shared data, remained the primary concerns. in many instances, institutions may have different grading schemes, operational procedures, exam schedules, enrolment and scheduling requirements which differed greatly from another potential institutional partner- resulting in data translation challenges. additionally, very rarely did institutions have shared student numbers which made the matching of student level records difficult and onerous. ontario council on articulation and transfer page 4 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario whats happening elsewhere? examples from british colombia (bc) and the united states (us) other jurisdictions such as british colombia (bc) and the united state (us) have data repositories/ warehouses to facilitate data sharing among many institutions. that data are stored mostly as aggregate level information. while there was an awareness, particularly of the bc model in ontario, where the ministry of advanced educations central data warehouse, through the student transitions project in that province has granted access to aggregate level data, the same could not be said for ontario. the widespread use of the personal information number (pen) in british colombia, which is equivalent to ontarios education number (oen), has facilitated the access to provincial level data among bcs postsecondary institutions. despite the challenges to data sharing in ontario, there remained general ongoing interest in improving and increasing data sharing among educational institutions. particularly among institutions with formalized partnerships and those who viewed themselves as transfer institutions, there was a greater willingness/ openness to increased bilateral collaboration and data sharing. additionally, according to the research findings, senior administrators were increasingly interested in answers to more strategic questions including but not limited to enrolment and retention patterns and saw the value of province-wide data sharing exercises. one proposal for facilitating multilateral data sharing emerging from the research was the establishment of a data sharing repository/ warehouse, like bcs student transitions project (stp). the latter project is a partnership between bcs ministry of advanced education, ministry of education, the university of british colombia. simon fraser university, the university of victoria and the university of northern british colombia to share student level data and track student mobility throughout that provinces education system. the stp governance structure includes a steering committee which has its own terms of reference; a breach of privacy protocol; a data access protocol; a data linkage policy; and a reporting protocol. this approach to data transfer offers a valuable framework and a potentially replicable model for the province of ontario. there were also several best practices emerging from the report. they included the following: 1. only personal information needs protection records that have been properly deidentified are not subject to fippa regulations. therefore, where possible, institutions should consider de-identifying data before its transferred/ shared. 2. data transfer should be secure and include the use of electronic data interface (edi) systems / portals. 3. access levels and data storage should be determined and written into data sharing agreements. ontario council on articulation and transfer page 5 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 4. breach protocols, audit trails and reporting conventions should be agreed to and documented in the data sharing agreement. 5. schedules should also be determined for data exchange and a term limit should be set for the receiving institutions use of the data; as well protocols should be determined for the interpretation of data for publication. 6. transfer only information that is relevant to the purpose. 7. have translation plans, as often, for example, institutions use different gpa systems or interpretations of transferred data. therefore, consideration should be given to standardizing data definitions across institutions. 8. involve many levels of the institution in the creation of data sharing agreements/ arrangements. data sharing template & framework as previously mentioned, there were several deliverables for this research project. these included an mou / data sharing agreement template and framework to guide data sharing practices between and among academic institutions. in creating data sharing agreements, there are several considerations that must be contemplated by institutions. at minimum data sharing agreements must comply with fippa regulations. institutions must make a business case for data exchange of personal student records. agreements must also indicate: o what personal information will be shared; o how the information will be used; o whether data will be de-identified; o how the data will be shared and linked; o the protocols that will be in place to ensure accuracy and security; o how the data will be released; and o the term of the agreement/ termination date. finally, a framework for data sharing must include a good understanding of legal and privacy issues impacting protected data. under fippa, protected data is defined as private or identifiable information. institutions must therefore clearly outline in their data sharing agreement how personal data will be legally protected. any data that can identify a student is protected. this includes data on: race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation or marital or family status of the individual; educational information or financial transactions in which the individual has been involved; [as well] any identifying number, symbol or other particular information assigned to the individual, [such as] address and telephone number (baumal 2018, p.13). ontario council on articulation and transfer page 6 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario list of partner institutions york university seneca college trent university fleming college university of ontario institute of technology durham college research ethics prior to conducting the research, individual ethics applications were completed and submitted to the appropriate research ethics board/ offices at each of the participating institutions. the ontario college strike in the fall 2017 did however cause some delays in the receipt of response and approval, due to staffing limitations. although ontario colleges have a multicollege ethics process, and all the participating colleges in the study were signatories to this agreement, it proved to be more efficient for this project to submit to institutions, individually. as well, support from members of the data sharing steering committee, proved invaluable in securing successful ethics approvals, particularly in submitting the required documentation to the boards, initiating the connections and following up when there were delays. research methodology a total of thirty-one interviews were completed, with a minimum of at least four participants from each of the six institutions. the interviews began in december 2017 and concluded in march 2018. each of the interviews were approximately one hour in length. with permission obtained from participants, interviews were digitally recorded and then uploaded to a computer, adhering to research privacy and confidentiality protocols. following the interviews, two focus groups were completed at york university. there was an average of 7-10 participants at each of the focus groups. these participants had the option of attending via teleconference or in-person. interview and focus group participants were selected from among a range of occupational functions within the various institutions. they included staff from the registrars, privacy and ethics offices; program and academic staff involved in articulation development; it support and senior administrators. staff from these areas were targeted for the research. therefore, purposive sampling was the initial participant recruitment approach. if they were unavailable to participate, they were then asked to recommend others within the organization, which made snowball sampling technique the other approach used to solicit participants for the study. the steering committee for the project was also instrumental in identifying potential research ontario council on articulation and transfer page 7 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario participants and doing the initial introduction of the project and researcher at their respective institutions. the interview questions addressed participants familiarity with and involvement in data sharing practices within their respective institutions. the were asked to comment on the following areas during the interviews: the student consent process/ practice within their institution; privacy, accessibility, use and frequency of use of data sharing, to name a few. also discussed were institutional policies; technological limitations; and the legal requirements for data sharing. the focus groups on the other hand were used to clarify and confirm information emerging from the interviews. additionally, questions around the motivating factors for data sharing within respective institutions; the types of data sharing occurrences/ (purposes for data sharing) within institutions; the types and benefits of data sharing; the challenges such as legal and it hurdles, as well as the process for obtaining student permission; the use of the oen; competition vs cooperation factors implicated in data sharing; and the use and request for data from ocas (ontario college application service) and ouac (ontario university application centre). from these, themes were derived to guide the development of the report. information was also collected from existing documents submitted to the researcher by participating institutions during interviews and focus groups. literature review generally, data sharing requests were grouped into five broad categories, with specific purposes or functions. they were as follows: 1) general registrial/ student registration or student record transfer; 2) for the administration of collaborative1 programs; 3) for student redirection; 4) the use of the term collaborative programs in this report is a general term that encompasses all programs across institutions that formally facilitate student mobility. this term encompasses coregistration programs allow students to enroll in courses at another post-secondary institution for credit towards their degree program at the primary institution1;a joint degree program is a program of study offered by two or more universities or by a university and a college or institute, including an institute of technology and advanced learning, in which successful completion of the requirements is confirmed by a single degree document1; a dual credential program is a program of study offered by two or more universities or by a university and a college or institute, including institutes of technology and advanced learning, in which successful completion of the requirements is confirmed by a separate and different degree/diploma document being awarded by at least two of the participating institutions1; and a collaborative program is a graduate program that provides an additional multidisciplinary experience for students enrolled in and completing the degree requirements for one of a number of approved programs. students meet the admission requirements of and register in the participating (or home) program but ontario council on articulation and transfer page 8 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 1 for research into articulation agreements/ pathways between institutions; and 5) for institutional research and planning. the research found that data collected for the administration of programs and for registrarial purposes often could not be de-identified. this was because the students identity was fundamental to those processes. on the other hand, data collected and shared for research purposes could often be de-identified, since the students identity would not be required for the analysis of this type of data. therefore, in the formulation of data sharing agreements understanding the purposes or functions of the data being collected and shared was critical. data were often transferred between institutions so that records could be matched for research, policy development or administrative purposes. therefore, institutions needed ways to link the data so that student records of the sending institution could be matched with that of the receiving institution, particularly when there were elevated levels of student mobility between partner institutions. data in these instances were often matched using tombstone data, which included name, date of birth and address, for example. in some cases, this type of data along with a student identification number was transferred to facilitate the data linkage. in ontario, any personal information, including an identification number is considered identifying information and is therefore subject to fippa regulations. legally, educational institutions can and do collect tombstone level data from students and generate student identification numbers. however, fippa is the legislation that provides broad guidelines on how this may be shared between and among institutions. given the above, a few best practices have emerged to facilitate the sharing of identifiable information between institutions. some institutional partners have created a common student complete, in addition to the degree requirements of that program, the additional requirements specified by the collaborative program. the degree conferred is that of the home program, and the completion of the collaborative program is indicated by a transcript notation indicating the additional specialization that has been attained.1 sources: http://secretariat-policies.info.yorku.ca/policies/undergraduate-co-registrationoptions-with-ontario-post-secondary-institutions-policy-and-guidelines-on/) http://gradstudies.yorku.ca/current-students/regulations/degree-types/#inter: http://gradstudies.yorku.ca/current-students/regulations/degree-types/#inter: http://gradstudies.yorku.ca/current-students/regulations/degree-types/#inter: ontario council on articulation and transfer page 9 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario numbering system to facilitate data transfer; while others have transferred identifiable data, following strict protocols on access as well as data encryption processes. this information was then matched by the receiving institution. then de-identified information was sent back to the institution who originally requested the information. another best practice that has been utilized was the creation of data key/ unique identifier and stripping tombstone data information after matching the records, before its sent back. the literature review found that by acts of statute, postsecondary institutions in ontario can create and collect information for the development of student records to administer the business of the institution (baumal, april 2018, p. 19). accordingly, all institutions in the study had published privacy statements in their online platforms indicating the types of data that were being collected and their compliance with fippa regulations. however, the colleges appeared to provide more detail in defining the types of personal data that they were collecting from students. some of the colleges collected information on: race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation or marital or family status of the individual; information relating to employment, criminal or educational history; finger prints, blood type; information relating to the medical, psychiatric, psychological history, prognosis, condition, treatment or evaluation; personal opinions; home address and/or telephone number and; any identifying number (e.g. s.i.n., student number), symbol or other particulars assigned to the individual; correspondence sent to the college by the individual that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature, and replies to that correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence; to name a few. these were vital to the accomplishment of the pedagogical and operational activities of the college (baumal, april 2018, p.20-22). on the other hand, some of the university partners in the study indicated specifically which third parties, with whom student information can/ will be shared. for example, at york university, this included: other universities and colleges to verify any information provided as part of an application for admission; other universities and colleges to share incidences of falsified documents or credentials, or share information regarding fraudulent applications for admission; government offices to verify information regarding an application for admission and to support processes for government financial aid; other universities and colleges with which york university maintains a collaborative program partnership; service providers contracted by york university to support business processes.2 (baumal, april 2018, p. 19-20). the university act of each of the participating universities in the study provided the legal parameters for collecting student level data, while the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) granted this authority to the colleges (baumal, april 2018). although carleton university was not one of the partner institutions participating in the study, its privacy statement provided some good insight for the literature review. the institution noted that; 2 https://registrar.yorku.ca/privacy ontario council on articulation and transfer page 10 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario the freedom of information protection of privacy act recognizes the legitimate need to collect personal information in to carry out ones mandate and to provide services but restricts that collection to a defined set of circumstances. the circumstances are the collection of information is expressly authorized by or under an act the information relates directly to and is necessary for the university's operating programs or activities the carleton university act does not specify what personal data elements can be collected. however, personal information must be relevant to the purpose for which it is being collected the university may do its own collection or may authorize an outside agent to carry out the collection on its behalf, either under contract or through an agreement or arrangement in writing with the other agency3 (baumal, april 2018). in the above, carleton university was explicit about the authorization it has to collect and use data under fippa and its university act. also introduced here was the use of data sharing agreements for access by third parties to student information. the legal framework fippa (freedom of information and protection of privacy act) under fippa regulation 41(1) b, c, institutions can use and transfer personal data if it is for the purpose for which it was obtained or compiled or for a consistent purpose...where the discloser made is necessary and proper in the discharge of the institutions functions 4 (baumal, april 2018, p.26). there are several conditions in fippa related to the confidentiality and security of data. they are as follows: 1) if information is to be disclosed to a third party for research purposes, written authorization must be obtained from the institution. 2) there must be a written agreement where the persons having access to the data shall be named. 3) before personal information is disclosed, the persons who will have access to the data shall enter into an agreement, confirming that they will not be disclosing the information to another party. 4) the information shall be kept physically secure and access only given to authorized persons. 5) the receivers of the information shall destroy all individual identifiers in the data as specified in the agreement. 6) the receivers of the information shall not contact persons whose personal information they have obtained without prior written authority from the sending institution. 7) receivers shall ensure that no personal information shall be disclosed in a form which the individual to whom it relates can be identified without the written authority of the institution. 3 https://carleton.ca/privacy/wp-content/uploads/policy_collection1.pdf, p8-9 4 https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90f31#bk57 ontario council on articulation and transfer page 11 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 8) if there is a breach, the receiver shall notify the institution in writing immediately. fippa regulations contained three fundamental pillars. that is, prior to disclosing or agreeing to disclose information, what must be known is 1) the type of information that is expected to be provided/ exchanged; 2) how the recipient will use the information (it purpose); and 3) when and with whom the recipient may share information. these three pillars must also be enshrined in every privacy policy and potential data sharing agreement among institutions. fippa also defines personal information and stipulates that it must be protected and properly disclosed (baumal, april 2018, p. 24). the oen (ontario education number) in the past there have been limitations placed on the use and transfer of the oen between institutions. while the use of the oen can potentially limit the need to transfer tombstone data between institutions, there are limitations. for example, students transferring into ontario pse institutions from outside of the province wont have assigned oens. thus, the accuracy and use of the oen for students transferring in from outside of ontario was problematic. a similar challenge emerges when there is a need to access more historical student level data, as the assignment of oens is relatively new in the province of ontario. despite these challenges, in practice, the oen is being used to carry out registrarial functions, important for the verification of the student record across institutions. additionally, interviewees have confirmed that research has also been completed using the oen. however, provincial-wide access to use the oen has not yet been granted. environmental scan of emerging trends & key issues data sharing has and can be used by institutions to understand broader student mobility patterns within the ontario system. at present though, based on the study results, most of the data exchange, particularly for research purposes, among he six institutions studied was bilateral or in some cases trilateral in scope. some institutions also indicated, however, that they had conducted research for stakeholder provincial organizations such as heqco (higher education quality council of ontario) and oncat (ontario council on articulation and transfer) (baumal, april 2018, p. 33). despite its limitations, the use of the oen remains central to the expansion of data sharing practices in the province of ontario. analysis & limitations of the data in the study, many participants indicated that their institutional websites clearly stated the circumstances under which personal data would be shared with a third party. they further mentioned that there were few technical barriers to data sharing among institutions. however, issues around timeliness, (that is, regarding when information is received by the requesting institution) given the differing exam schedules and grading schemes for example, created some challenges, particularly for data transfer for registrarial purposes. ontario council on articulation and transfer page 12 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario despite the information on the institutional websites regarding the collection and transfer of personal information, some institutions also informed students at the time of application or had them sign forms, giving their expressed permission to release data. in rare instances, the signing of this attestation was sometimes a source of confusion or anxiety for students. students in collaborative programs for example, were sometimes concerned that these forms were part of a reapplication process or were concerned about their grade transfer, particularly if they were under-performing academically. they were consequently anxious about their ability to continue in their chosen program at the university. in many of the institutions where data sharing was occurring there were agreements in place. while the sharing of data was not particularly an issue, the timing, translation, equity in sharing and overall use of the data were some of the hindrances to this process. additionally, concerns were raised about the narrowness of scope often stipulated in data sharing agreements. in some instances, shared data was useful beyond the purpose for which it was stipulated in the agreement. as such, balance was needed to manage the timing and the more extended use of data in partnership agreements. data transfer however was occurring through the various levels and role functions across the institutions studied. the most common data sharing purpose was registrarial level data followed by data sharing for research and planning purposes. the former involved data exchange for program and course registration including for collaborative, dual credential and / or coregistration programs. data quality and accuracy were also a concern and, thus, some institutional pairs opted to use ouac and ocas application data to track the sending institutions students. specific concerns were also raised about the interpretation, analysis and the implications that may be drawn from student level data transferred between institutions. another way that student mobility was being tracked was by the number of requests for transcripts sent to institutions and programs. among study participants there was a growing interest in more open data exchange through formal agreements and/or using the oen. questions were raised though on whether more unrestricted access to this type of data would create more competition between institutions. in response, study participants agreed that the benefits outweighed the costs, noting that more open exchanges of data would allow institutions to play to their individual strengths, thus producing better outcomes for both students and institutions (baumal, april 2018, p. 35). there was however, very limited use of data transfer for the development of articulation agreements. the study found that this may have been because many institutional pairs had very close working relationships and were very familiar with the program offerings and mobility patterns of students who moved between the respective institutions. additionally, the success of articulation agreements was not often measured by transfer outcomes or the academic performance of students in specific programs. ontario council on articulation and transfer page 13 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario data sharing was therefore not confined to the information technology departments of the various institutions studied. instead it was embedded throughout various levels and functions within the institution. additionally, when asked how data sharing could be improved and / or increased, some participants recommended the creation of a more open electronic data interface (edi) system. others mentioned the expanded use of the oen; greater access to ouac and/ or ocas data, or even data collected by the ministry of advanced education and skills development, in ontario. more open and free-flowing exchanges of data can come from [different] sources. first institutions can agree to individual arrangements. second, ouac and ocas can facilitate this kind of transfer, according to some participants (baumal, april 2018, p. 35). the challenge with these information sources is that its mostly aggregate level data that is transferred and stored. limitations of the study the study excluded analysis of transcript level data and data transferred by institutions to ouac or ocas. by and large, the transfer of student transcripts requires the latters consent and have a very defined purpose, which is often connected to the program admissions process. however, all the above data types are subject to fippa regulations. promising practices & challenges the research uncovered several promising practices for data sharing in academic collaborations. only personal information is subject to fippa regulations. therefore, where possible, institutions should transfer and use de-identified information. however, data transferred across institutions for administrative and research purposes were often identifiable, particularly when there was a need to create linkages between other data sets, before it could be de-identified. it was therefore sometimes necessary to transfer identifiable data across institutions to create these linkages. be clear on the benefits to students, institutions and the public. in recognition of the law and other practical considerations, the right to privacy must be weighed against other public interest. institutions must therefore create a business case for why personal data must/ should be shared. the business case should include: a. the goals and objectives of the data sharing activity and the anticipated benefits; b. the potential risk or consequences for not conducting data sharing; c. clarification of why personal information must be shared at this time; d. clarification on why the data need to include personal identifiable information; ontario council on articulation and transfer page 14 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario e. a statement of purpose for which personal information was originally collected; and f. identification of why personal information must be collected indirectly and the advantages of data sharing, when compared with alternative methods of achieving the same objectives. one of the remaining concerns identified by the information and privacy commissioner of ontario was that data transfer may lead to a loss of control by individuals over their data. therefore, where possible, data sharing should not occur without exploring privacy and/ or less intrusive means of achieving the same objectives. transfer data that are relevant to the purpose of the assignment/ for which they were granted. institutions are encouraged to only transfer / release information that is necessary for the purpose at hand. standardizing the definition of personal information. as previously mentioned, the privacy statements of the colleges in the study were very explicit about what constituted private information. additionally, fippa legislation clearly defined personal identifiable information. as a best practice, all postsecondary institutions should clearly define its meaning of personal information. create a translation plan for exchanged data. information related to grading schemes or graduation for example, may differ from institution to institution. data must be clearly understood by sending and receiving institutions for data analysis in the case of research, and to ensure the accuracy of the student record. involve relevant areas of the institution. data exchange involves a number of areas of institutions including programming, registrars, it, legal, privacy and ethics. for the most part, participants indicated that they were comfortable with the level of consultation in which they engaged with other partners. that is not to say that they always engaged with all relevant partners all the time for every data exchange (baumal, april 2018, p. 42). consider de-identifying data & creating a data sharing agreement that governs deidentified data. as mentioned above, de-identified or non-personal data was not subject to fippa legislation and therefore constitutes a best practice. however, as indicated previously, it may not always be possible to de-identify data before its transferred, thus setting in motion the requirement for a business case. additionally, even though data may be de-identified, in smaller academic programs with limited enrolment, it may still be possible to identify certain individual students because of their unique characteristics. therefore, as a best practice, where possible, aggregate small cell level data and create a data sharing and confidentiality agreements between researchers at the relevant institutions who are engaged in transfer. the information and privacy commissioner in ontario has listed several steps for achieving data de-identification. they are: 1) determine the best data set release model; 2) classify variables; 3) determine an acceptable de-identification risk; 4) measure data risk; 5) ontario council on articulation and transfer page 15 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario measure content risk; 6) de-identify data; 7) assess data utility; and 8) document the process. the commissioner also listed specific components for data sharing agreements which included, but was not limited to, the prohibition of the use of de-identified information with other information to identify and individual; placing restrictions on the use and subsequent disclosure of information; ensuring that those who have access to de-identified information is properly trained and understand their obligations with respect to information privacy; requires individuals to notify organizations in cases of breach; and sets out the consequences for a breach. recipients of data are also responsible for protecting groups from attributed disclosure. this may occur when a group is identified negatively by the data thus stigmatizing them (baumal, april 2018, p. 44-45). linking data. data linkages were sometimes necessary to ensure data/ student level record accuracy. this was particularly important for data exchanged for research purposes. one best practice that is often recommended is that the data holder does the data linkage before sending the de-identified data back to the requestor. additionally, following the linkage of datasets, the person doing the data linkage should reduce datasets to the lowest level of identifiability needed to accomplish the research objectives (baumal, april 2018, p. 48). determine access levels and uses for/ of the data. institutions involved in data sharing may wish to consider assigning various access levels to different researchers and team members, especially as it relates to identifiable data (baumal, april 2018, p. 48). implement the data transfer and arrange schedules. institutions indicated that the actual transfer of data between institutions is not tightly controlled, but rather those involved in the actual transfer of data are relied upon to implement transfer in a secure and responsible manner in accordance with institutional policies. for the most part, participants indicated that they were aware of their institutional policies regarding data transfer and implemented them. in fact, it individuals interviewed indicated that their involvement in data transfer was generally rare because the function could be handled directly by the staff involved. best practices of data transfer largely involved securing and encrypting it, and then ensuring that it is stored on a properly secured device at the receiving institution (baumal, april 2018, p. 49-50). storage and verification of the accuracy of the data. although fippa legislation does not specify data storage requirements, there are a few best practices that can be followed. they include: controlling access to rooms, buildings and computers where data is stored; logging the removal of and access to media or hard copy material; not storing confidential information such as personal information on servers or computers connected to external networks; ensuring firewall protection and security upgrades to avoid viruses and malicious software intrusion; and securing computer systems and files using passwords, firewalls, restricting access; using encryption etc. (baumal, april 2018, p. 50-51). ontario council on articulation and transfer page 16 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario reporting breaches and audit trails. a significant amount of agreements contained provisions concerning procedures to address data breaches that would occur on the other side of the agreement. the best practice is for the data steward on the breached side to report the breach immediately to the data steward on the other side (baumal, april 2018, p. 52). if a breach occurs the following steps should be implemented: 1) identify the scope of the breach; report the breach immediately to the appropriate staff; retrieve any documents that may have been disclosed to or taken by an unauthorized recipient; inform persons whose information may have been directly disclosed; and investigate the facts of the breach and make recommendations (baumal, april 2018, p. 52). determining and reporting access conventions. once the data set is in its final form, whether it contains identifiers or not, researchers and policy makers should consider how the data will be reported and accessed to account for privacy concerns, including grouping data so that individuals cannot be identified, and reporting conventions will avoid identifying or stigmatizing any individual or group researchers should [also] address levels of release for the data and the report (baumal, april 2018, p. 52). there are generally three kinds of data release: i) private; ii) semi-private; and iii) public. as a best practice, the public release of information must be de-identified (baumal, april 2018, p. 53). the [data sharing] agreement should address how both the data and the report should be presented to avoid identification and stigmatization of an individual or group. this may mean grouping and/or suppressing some variables and results more broadly in both the data and report so as not to identify or negatively impact any person or identified group. the researchers should consult with institutional policies regarding privacy and confidentiality and any restrictions placed on data that may be included in the data set from third parties. in general, cell sizes that have a count of ten or less should not be released and data should be grouped to avoid results that identify (baumal, april 2018, p. 53) individuals within the data. determining additional usage options. a fundamental aspect of data sharing agreements and data usage is that the exchanged data can only be used for the purpose for which it was exchanged and/or for a certain period. some participants in this study indicated that they were constrained from using data for additional research purposes because the data sharing agreement limited the use of the exchanged data to only a particular use and/or timeframe. those planning on exchanging data should think about future uses of the exchanged data and consult with legal departments to determine if future uses can be permitted and how those uses should be incorporated into data sharing agreements. this may avoid situations where exchanged data cannot be used because the initial data sharing agreement is too limiting (baumal, april 2018, p. 54). ontario council on articulation and transfer page 17 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario conclusion the aim of the research was to explore what student level information was being shared among ontario pse institutions; and to what extent current privacy legislation placed limitations and potentially inhibited or encouraged collaboration related to student mobility and research across institutions. the goal then, was the develop a framework or structure that institutions could use to guide their data sharing practices and create a mou template for data sharing. with the increasing numbers of articulation agreements and formalized partnerships between academic institutions, particularly universities and colleges, there is a growing interest among pses for transfer related data to support for academic planning, program development, partnership and research, more broadly. the widespread use of the ontario education number was being championed as one approach towards understanding system level mobility patterns among ontario institutions. the research found that provincial level institutions such as the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) was among the more vocal with regards to use of the oen. heqco notes that the oen informs policy files at the centre of provincial priorities: mobility, equity of access, student success, and institutional differentiation...the pendulum on protection of privacy is swinging from 20 years of play safe: dont share anything to a balanced approach that protects individuals while promoting evidence-based policy and program design. the ontario ministry of advanced education and skills development is signaling a willingness to share oen data, appropriately protecting privacy, with the broader community and is taking steps to do so (baumal, april 2018, p. 66). centralizing and controlling access to personal information, remains a pivotal issue in ontario. at present, the ministry of advanced education and skills in ontario collects aggregate level data on student mobility within the system using its open sims system. additionally, the interviews with research participants revealed that maesd and heqco have been collaborating on advancing research on student mobility using the oen (baumal, april 2018, p. 67-68). there were several concerns raised, however, with regards to access and control. there was the concern that those who gain access to this data may act as gatekeeper, limiting access to the data, thus creating data release inequities. caution was also encouraged with regards to the creation of private entities for warehousing/ storing student level data/ privatization of data storage in ontario. of concern was the notion that the motives or interests of for-profit entities may not be consistent with privacy concerns or the legislation. system level student data is needed. perhaps, as the research suggested, a model like bcs student ontario council on articulation and transfer page 18 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario transition project with representation from postsecondary institutions and government ministries, might be one approach that would mitigate the above concerns. despite the above concerns, most of the research participants favoured a centralized data sharing approach. furthermore, if in the pursuit of higher levels of accountability within education and a move towards more data informed decision-making and policy development, reliable and consistent high-quality province wide data source(s) would be needed. additionally, at present, ouac (ontario university application centre) and ocas (ontario college application service) collect significant amounts of data. participants in the study noted that ocas was now offering data analytics on the student application data it collects for a fee. this has become a valuable source of business intelligence for many colleges (baumal, april 2018, p. 71). to ensure compliance with fippa regulations the research found that the transfer of students personal data, required data sharing agreements. at minimum the components of a data sharing agreement or mou must include the following: compliance with fippa regulations; an indication of the institutions legislative authority to collect and disseminate data; a business case for data sharing, articulating the benefits of the research when weighed against privacy concerns; clarity on the personal information to be shared; an indication of how the personal information will be used; an indication on whether there will be future disclosure of the data; a de-identification process; clarity on how data will be shared and / or linked; how data accuracy would be maintained; security processes and breach protocols; a release model for the reporting of data; and a termination date for the sharing agreement. in situations where data can be de-identified, fippa provides some guidelines on how this would be achieved, and this process must also be included in data sharing and confidentiality agreements. if the data is to be de-identified, the mou must state: the variables that will be de-identified and how they will occur; when the de-identification will take place; who will do the de-identification and confirm that a confidentiality agreement has been signed and that they have proper and traceable access to the identifiable data; how long the identified records will be maintained; if there will be a link or key between the de-identified and identified data; ontario council on articulation and transfer page 19 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario the methods in place for ensuring that individual records are not identifiable and how variables may need to be grouped together to help in the de-identification; the methods in place for ensuring accuracy of the de-identified data; and if written notice will be provided upon successful de-identification of the data (baumal, april 2018, p. 61). data sharing of system level educational data is greatly needed in ontario. as well, there was a general acceptance across the system that student mobility is not restricted to provincial jurisdictions or simply within countries such as canada or the united states. it is a global phenomenon and as such there is growing interest in student data portability. sharing data across jurisdictions has become a necessity, not only to facilitate international student mobility, but also to seek greater understanding of world-wide and or regional student movement patterns. it is this recognition that has prompted the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc), to sign the groningen declaration on may 6, 2015. canada is therefore a signatory to the groningen declaration, which attempts to create and promote a digital student data ecosystem to make digital student data portability happen5(baumal, april 2018, p. 80). the implications of being signatory to the above declaration will need further exploration, particularly as institutions and the province decide on the next steps towards achieving broader student data transfer in education. 5 http://www.groningendeclaration.org/ ontario council on articulation and transfer page 20 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario references baumal, b. (2018, march 26). data sharing in academic collaboration: final presenation. toronto, ontario: thinklounge research. baumal, b. (april 2018). data sharing in academic collaborations. toronto: thinklounge research. ontario council on articulation and transfer page 21 of 21 oncat is funded by the government of ontario

indigenous problem solving source: http://iroquoisbeadwork.blogspot.com/2011/03/dated-19th-century-iroquois-beadwork-3.html course handbook y1 s1 indigenous sustainable food systems draft may 14, 2020 march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 1 contents course description 3 topics to explore 3 modern problem-solving strategies and techniques 5 haudenosaunee leadership - problem solving techniques 10 defining the actual needs 24 haudenosaunee basic needs 26 redefining haudenosaunee problem-solving skills 36 march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 2 course description this course will introduce effective project design strategies that directly address social inequity. specifically, this course will examine maori models, seven rings strategy, and revisits haudenosaunee problem-solving skills. indigenous conflict resolution frameworks will be appraised throughout the course. first nations people have challenged non-aboriginal systems to ensure that the role of the elders is not minimized. this was one of the very first steps taken to realize aboriginal justice. within the federal correctional system, the role of the elders working with first nations offenders is clearly articulated within the correctional directives for correctional service canada. it is the responsibility of first nations individuals or communities to identify the elders or spiritual advisors they believe can best fulfill that role though ultimately the service makes the final decisions with regard to contracting. the peacemaker, who came to the land of the haudenosaunee, people of the longhouse proclaimed: " human beings should cease abusing one another. he stated that humans are capable of reason, that through the power of reason all humans desire peace and that it is necessary that people organize to ensure that peace will be possible among the people who walk about on the earth. that was the original word about laws- laws were originally made to protect the abuse of humans by other humans." in indigenous societies, community survival was contingent upon maintaining harmonious relationships, and therefore wrong action and conflict disturbed the natural balance and created disharmony; this weakened the community. moreover, this was one of the main reasons why everyone wanted to keep the peace and why everyone was involved in the resolution of conflicts. guilt was never the central focus; the re-establishment of harmony was the true meaning. learning outcomes at the conclusion of this course the learner will be able to: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. define practical sovereignty recognize the essential elements of governance list the basic needs of the haudenosaunee summarize the kahnawake housing project appraise the mind mapping technique compare tows versus swot evaluate maori models of creating problem solving march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 3 8. defend the maori models of creative problem solving 9. describe haudenosaunee principles and practices 10. define the foundations of psychological needs 11. outline and describe what are shared values of an organization topics modern problem-solving strategies and techniques the essential elements of governance characteristics of difficult problems haudenosaunee leadership institute problem solving techniques inventory of creativity techniques a six step process creative problem solving 1 fulfilling basic needs defining the actual needs march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer haudenosaunee basic needs addressing the basic needs of the haudenosaunee basic needs case study creative problem solving 2 maori models creative problem solving 3 seven s strategy redefining haudenosaunee problem solving skills defining basic psychological needs 4 modern problem-solving strategies and techniques effective project design will explicitly address situations of social inequity. this requires defining project policy towards social inequity and creating a framework for implementation which strikes a balance between cultural sensitivity and respect for human rights. project goals and implementing agency policies will be important determinants of an appropriate balance. these are some of the most difficult and critical issues of project design, and they must be addressed on a site by site basis. it is the responsibility of project designers to understand local political structures and to create project structures and operations which are responsive to these local social situations. lee hannah, 1992 a) goal: to find new ways to address old problems b) overview: 1) modern problem-solving strategies and techniques 2) creative problem solving i fulfilling basic needs 3) creative problem solving ii maori models 4) creative problem solving iii - seven rings strategy 5) redefining haudenosaunee problem-solving skills stephen cornell at the harvard project, and his studies of successful governance among the indigenous peoples of the united states of america. that work identifies some basic elements found to be in place where there is successful governance in first nations: independent and separate from politics and business management. 1.practical sovereignty: the nation has taken effective control of its affairs, resources, institutions, developmental strategies, and other decision-making. two other important factors for the economic success of aboriginal nations are: 2.capable governing institutions: the nation supports its jurisdictional power with governing institutions that exercise its powers effectively. such effective capability is typically demonstrated by a court system that is politically march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 3.cultural match: the formal institutions of government must fit the indigenous conceptions of how authority should be organized and exercised.2 (1) strategic orientation as demonstrated by long term planning; and (2) creative leadership that can move beyond the status quo. 5 (3) of course it is one thing to note the existence of these elements and quite another to create them where they do not exist. cornells work in particular emphasized the need to separate policy decisions from administrative decisions, and above all, the need for cultural match. (traditional governance and constitution making among the gitanyow, prepared for the first nations governance centre by albert c. peeling october 11, 2004 ) we must always consider the cultural factors that impact on all things indigenous. things must be practical, capable and offer a cultural match to the pre-existing thoughts and patterns within the community. peeling also identified the specific issues which require examining include: a) what community processes are needed in decision making? b) what impediments lie in the path of first nations seeking to develop decision-making mechanisms? c) what do first nations require in terms of research and technical support? d) what are the policy and legislative issues surrounding constitutional or decision-making mechanism development? modern problem-solving strategies and techniques the "inside-out" approach to personal and self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self - with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. the inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves precedes making and keeping promises to others. it says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 6 stephen covey the 7 habits of highly effective people one modern train of thought is that you, as a leader, can make a difference in creating a more constructive culture at your organization by: being curious about how every other person sees the world; respecting each person's perspective of the world as unique and essential to the group's success; and making sure every person has a chance to speak and be heard. another approach takes the point of view that there are different levels of becoming an effective leader: emerging level achieving technical competencies to start leading experienced level about a decade of leadership, a refined method of decision making seasoned level entering your second decade with experience to deal with the varied challenges of leadership. we will discuss how these two philosophies can impact on haudenosaunee leadership capacities in the future. by employing the seventhgeneration concept, we will create a model for leadership development for the next seven generations. through this we will discover the power of personal vision, values and ethics in the communal process. the participants will explore ways in which their responsibility as an executive to lead must include ways that not only benefits the organization and its employees, but also has a positive impact on them personally, their family and their community. leaders must be affected by the decisions they make. in looking at problem-solving, we will assume that these principles are true for the haudenosaunee. our solutions must address the kind of problems we can anticipate in these areas. we will also use this description throughout the course as the basis of considering primary functions of haudenosaunee political leadership: the essential elements of governance 1) providing a constitutional foundation for self-rule. effective self-government requires a foundation of basic rules that spell out how the nation will govern itself. this is what a constitution does. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 2) making laws. laws specify relationships and rules of behavior for citizens, outsiders, businesses, and even agencies of government. they indicate 7 what things are permissible and what things are not in a variety of specific areas. 3) making day-to-day decisions. the governments of native nations typically are confronted with a vast range of decisions, from whether to enter into litigation in a dispute with another government to how to respond to the needs of a family in trouble, from whether to change the management regime in a nation-owned forest to responding to morale problems in a native-run social program. 4) implementing decisions. once decisions have been made, they have to be implemented. this typically is the task of a bureaucracy or administration: employees of the government carry out decisions made by legislators and policymakers. this is a crucial element of government because it determines how the rules are applied, how policies are implemented, how functions are carried out, and how services are delivered. it shapes much of the citizens experience of their own government, good or bad. 5) providing for the fair and non-political resolution of disputes. the government also needs to assure the nations citizens that when they have disputes, either with each other or with the government itself, they will be dealt with fairly. this requires some sort of mechanism to resolve the disputes. characteristics of difficult problems as elucidated by dietrich drner and later expanded upon by joachim funke, difficult problems have some typical characteristics that can be summarized as follows: intransparency (lack of clarity of the situation) commencement opacity continuation opacity polytely (multiple goals) inexpressiveness enumerability connectivity (hierarchy relation, communication relation, allocation relation) heterogeneity dynamics (time considerations) opposition temporal constraints transience temporal sensitivity complexity (large numbers of items, interrelations, and decisions) march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer phase effects 8 dynamic unpredictability the resolution of difficult problems requires a direct attack on each of these characteristics that are encountered. assignment 1 class activity talking circle indigenous and contemporary problemsolving techniques break into talking circles of 6 for this discussion what are the key differences between indigenous and western problem solving? for example, indigenous problem solving incorporate holistic, environmental, seven generations and other concepts. western problem-solving can be technical process with or without a values bases. 60 minutes and report back to entire class march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 9 haudenosaunee leadership - problem solving techniques source: http://bajpaiabhinay.blogspot.com/2014/04/creative-approaches-to-problem-solving.html creative problem-solving creative problem solving is the mental process of creating a solution to a problem. it is a special form of problem solving in which the solution is independently created rather than learned with assistance. creative problem solving requires more than just knowledge and thinking. creative problem solving always involves creativity. however, creativity often does not involve creative problem solving, especially in fields such as music, poetry, and art. creativity requires newness or novelty as a characteristic of what is created, but creativity does not necessarily imply that what is created has value or is appreciated by other people. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer to qualify as creative problem solving the solution must either have value, clearly solve the stated problem, or be appreciated by someone for whom the situation improves. creative-problem-solving techniques can be categorized as follows: a) creativity techniques designed to shift a person's mental state into one that fosters creativity. these techniques are described in creativity techniques. one such popular technique is to take a break and relax or sleep after intensively trying to think of a solution. b) creativity techniques designed to reframe the problem. for example, reconsidering one's goals by asking 10 "what am i really trying to accomplish?" can lead to useful insights. c) creativity techniques designed to increase the quantity of fresh ideas. this approach is based on the belief that a larger number of ideas increases the chances that one of them has value. some of these techniques involve randomly selecting an idea (such as choosing a word from a list), thinking about similarities with the undesired situation, and hopefully inspiring a related idea that leads to a solution. such techniques are described in creativity techniques. creative-problem-solving techniques designed to efficiently lead to a fresh perspective that causes a solution to become obvious. this category is especially useful for solving especially challenging problems. some of these techniques involve identifying independent dimensions that differentiate (or separate) closely associated concepts. such techniques can overcome the mind's instinctive tendency to use "oversimplified associative thinking" in which two related concepts are so closely associated that their differences, and independence from one another, are overlooked. a frequent approach to teaching creative problem solving is to teach critical thinking in addition to creative thinking, but the effectiveness of this approach is not proven. as an alternative to march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer separating critical and creative thinking, some creative-problem-solving techniques focus on either reducing an idea's disadvantages or extracting a flawed idea's significant advantages and incorporating those advantages into a different idea. creative-problem-solving tools typically consist of software or manipulatable objects (such as cards) that facilitate specific creative-problem-solving techniques. creativity techniques are heuristic methods to facilitate creativity in a person or a group of people. generally, most creativity techniques use associations between the goal (or the problem), the current state (which may be an imperfect solution to the problem), and some stimulus (possibly selected randomly). there is an analogy between many creativity techniques and methods of evolutionary computation. in problem-solving contexts, the random word creativity technique is perhaps the simplest such method. a person confronted with a problem is presented with a randomly generated word, in the hopes of a solution arising from any associations between the word and the problem. a random image, sound, or article can be used instead of a random word as a kind of creativity goad or provocation. 11 inventory of creativity techniques all known creative techniques can be categorized depending on the methods and means utilized: hill-climbing strategy, (or - rephrased gradient descent/ascent, difference reduction) - attempting at every step to move closer to the goal situation. the problem with this approach is that many challenges require that you seem to move away from the goal state in order to clearly see the solution. means-end analysis, more effective than hill-climbing, requires the setting of subgoals based on the process of getting from the initial state to the goal state when solving a problem. working backwards trial-and-error morphological box analogy: has a similar problem (possibly in a different field) been solved before? hypothesis testing: assuming a possible explanation to the problem and trying to prove the assumption. constraint examination: are you assuming a constraint which doesn't really exist? take more time: time pressure can cause one to think in circles (the brain, unhelpfully, tends to be "pulled" towards a particular solution, or aspect of the problem) incubation: input the details of a problem into your mind, then stop focusing on it. the subconscious mind will continue to work on the problem, and the solution might just "pop up" while you are doing something else method of focal objects lateral thinking how to solve it - george plya research: study what others have written about the problem (and related problems). maybe there's already a solution? build (or write) one or more abstract models of the problem. try to prove that the problem cannot be solved. where the proof breaks down can be your starting point for resolving it get help from friends or online problemsolving community (e.g. 3form) root cause analysis assumption reversal (write down your assumptions about the problem, and then reverse them all) march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer wind tunnel: based on socratic method whereby you outrun your logical constraints to reach for new insights to a problem. developed by win wenger. 12 inner vision deck that combines socratic method with metaphorical thinking and assumption breaking. randomization (brainstorming, synectic, image streaming) focusing techniques (morphological analysis, osborn questionary, attribute listing) however, brainstorming seldom yields major innovations. lateral thinking - edward de bono has published numerous books that promote an approach to creative problem solving and creative thinking called lateral thinking. side-problem approach evolutionary directed techniques (hbga, laws of system evolution) can you find a problem analogous to your problem and solve that? knowledge-base techniques (altshuller matrix or contradiction table and 40 innovation principles) can you find a problem more general than your problem...? conceptual blending michael michalko techniques. bodystorming group_passing_technique triz, which is also known as theory of inventive problem solving (tips), was developed by genrich altshuller and his colleagues based on examining more than 200,000 patents. this method is designed to foster the creation and development of patentable inventions but is also useful for creating nonproduct solutions. brainstorming is a group activity designed to increase the quantity of fresh ideas. getting other people involved can help increase knowledge and understanding of the problem and help participants reframe the problem. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer can you solve your problem by deriving a generalization from some examples? can you vary or change your problem to create a new problem (or set of problems) whose solution(s) will help you solve your original problem? can you find a side problem whose solution will help you solve your problem? can you find a problem related to yours that has already been solved and use that to solve your problem? can you find a problem more specialized? can you decompose the problem and "recombine its elements in some new manner"? 13 can you start with the goal and work backwards to something you already know? can you draw a picture of the problem? can you add some new element to your problem to get closer to a solution ? mind mapping technique mind mapping is a creativity technique that both reframes the situation and fosters creativity. tony buzan suggests using the following foundation structures for mind mapping: start in the center with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colors. becoming thinner as they radiate out from the centre. use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your mind map. make the lines the same length as the word/image. select key words and print using upper or lower case letters. use colors your own code throughout the mind map. each word/image must be alone and sitting on its own line. develop your own personal style of mind mapping. the lines must be connected, starting from the central image. the central lines are thicker, organic and flowing, use emphasis and show associations in your mind map. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 14 acceptance objective solution fact idea problem assignment 2 class activity talking circle creative problem solving break into talking circles of 6 for this discussion before getting into a group, research a creative problem-solving technique you find interesting. in your group, discuss how creative problem-solving is like indigenous and how its different to indigenous problem-solving. 60 minutes and report back to entire class march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 15 objective finding acceptance finding fact finding solution finding problem finding idea finding a six-step process 1) of - objective finding - the process starts with sensitivity, an awareness, and a desire to do something. after the most basic facts have been taken into account, one is better off creating personal solutions to problems than searching for existing solutions. the reasons this is true are almost too numerous to list. by solving the problem yourself, you will increase your index of self-reliance, which might eventually become a theme in you r life. in solving the problem, you may create a more efficient solution than anyone has before you (translation: nature might smile on you). you might thereby make an original contribution to the store of human knowledge. if you haven't experienced this, you can't imagine it. but if you have experienced this, you can't describe it. while solving the problem, you will place your personal stamp on the end product, thereby march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer creating a personal expression that cannot be erased by time. 2) ff - fact finding - let us open up our minds to an even greater awareness of whatever this is we desire, or a problem. a greater awareness, seeing more of it. understanding, perceiving it in new ways. we usually start that with an expression like, how to or what ways might i, i had assigned them to go out into the woods even, and see whether they could make some connections with nature that would make them more aware of data about their challenge that they were working on, and then i said, go into problem finding, and make a list of what ways might i 3) pf - problem finding - brainstorming 16 for ideas from which one is selected. come up with ten where is the list that you choose that from, what ways might i . . . search for the aha moment. problem finding is one of the most critical, cause it makes them really try to do some perceptual shifts. you are really focusing on the essence of the problem. i know for companies and for the adults that i have worked with, thats a very scary thing to do because as much as you want to get to the essence of the problem there could be elements of fear or other barriers, which would prevent you from getting there. when youre diverging, considering possibilities, seeing bigger pictures or youre converging, selecting from those possibilities a few that really seem to make sense based on your understanding of the problems and the business challenges and the business facts out there. so basically, problem finding is a combination of being rich with possibilities and open and caught in your old solutions so you can see and pick from new alternatives and not get sucked into what i call the slavery of your old solutions. what you want as an outcome in a problem finding stage is to get the owner of the problem, the client usually, to state it in clear, refined terms so that he and everyone else, understands and agrees that now we are all ready to generate some ideas, to come up with some answers. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 4) if - idea finding: generate ideas - see the problem in a different way sometimes leads to a fast path in finding a solution 5) sf - solution finding: prepare for action - solution finding is figuring out the ways to refinethe ideas that are most promising so you might select one or two or three that have the most promise from 10 or 12it also has a lot to do with having ways to strengthen the idea, it might come out as something that is more of a concept but you have to bring it to the point of describing it in more depth and more detail, so solution finding has to do with refinement and making the ideas sellable, lets say, improved, to improve upon your original concept and get it ready to move forward. 6) af - acceptance finding - after you go through the problem-solving steps, you come to acceptance finding, which by the way, is a step that many people dont get to and im not sure why. but in acceptance finding youre taking your solution and youre really being tremendously specific with it, youre giving all, the whos, the whats, the whys, the where, the whens and the hows. and the one thing that i think is the most important is the what ifs. what if it fails and you have alternative solutions ready and in that part of the acceptance finding we work a lot, especially with children in coping with failure and using failure as an opportunity. acceptance finding has to do with how do you get other folks to accept what you are proposing, so if someone is coming up with an idea for a way to do business 17 better within an organization, you may have to convince several key stakeholders, in that organizations, so acceptance finding would say who are the key people that need to be involved and how do we get them to position themselves to support our ideas, make it happen. acceptance finding also has to do with how we take all this information and put it into a plan of action and consider all of those players all of those individuals and get the support and move forward with it. ultimately it has to come down to whos involved, what are we talking about those individuals doing, either individually or collectively, and by when are they expected to achieve it and perhaps what resources do they need to march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer get the job done. so, it boils down to the people actually being accountable for moving forward and implementing a solution. (with divergence and convergence at each step) popular alternatives to effective problemsolving are fighting, arguing, hassling, demanding, blaming, analyzing and rationalizing, whining, complaining, worrying, nagging, manipulating, hinting, denying and catastrophizing, obsessing, and procrastinating or avoiding (conflict confrontation and resolution). see any favorites? 18 tows versus swot tows analysis (i.e. threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths). this is similar to a swot analysis however our preference for the tows model is due to the fact that it places the assessment of external threats and opportunities before an assessment of internal strengths and weaknesses. this is important because strengths and weaknesses must be examined not only relative to the issue under consideration, but in relation to the opportunities and threats in the environment including the strengths and weaknesses of competitors who may want to achieve the same goal. tows analysis strategic _______________________________ external strengths? issue: internal threats? threats? opportunities? opportunities? constraints??? constraints??? weaknesses? weaknesses? strengths? march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 19 relative to what you are trying to achieve, and relative to others who may want to achieve the same thing. consider these first. ask so what? fit? misfit? one pitfall that many leaders experience in undertaking either a tows or a swot analysis is focusing on developing lengthy lists of threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths without a clear focus as to what they are trying to achieve or without an actionorientation. an experienced team should be able to quickly identify the key threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths. the majority of their time and focus should be devoted to addressing the question so what? the question so what? focuses attention in a number of critical areas such as: how do the threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths identified in the tows analysis specifically relate to the issue at hand? does the analysis indicate that a particular solution is a better fit for the organization? is the organization well-positioned, well-configured, and well-aligned given the situation in the external environment? what are the risks? how serious are they? how can they be mitigated? what makes us think we can address this issue better than our competitors? what specific alternatives might we pursue? thinking ahead, what will we have to do well in the implementation phase in order to be successful? there is an plethora of well-known analytical tools and theories that can be used in conjunction with the tows model in order to deepen the level of analysis (e.g. porters five forces model, value chain analysis, blue ocean, demand and supply analysis, value proposition analysis, life cycle analysis, market attractiveness / strength matrix, stakeholder analysis, market research, economic analysis, environmental scanning, values analysis, etc.). march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 20 assignment 3 class activity talking circle strengths and weakness break into talking circles of 6 for this discussion watch the video warrior in two worlds https://www.pbs.org/video/wxxi-documentaries-warrior-two-worlds/ this documentary is about ely s. parker, a 19th- century seneca indian renaissance man. parker was an engineer, tribal chief, and civil war secretary to general ulysses s. grant. parker was a cherokee actor wes studi hosts this account of parkers struggle in two worlds. he was responsible for preventing racial tensions to rise to its peak for both the indians and the whites. what were the strengths and weaknesses of ely s. parker? how did parker build on the opportunities in his life? could he have done anything different to address the threats and challenges in his life? are there any lessons learned for contemporary haudenosaunee life? remember to be kind and respectful to each other. 60 minutes and report back to entire class march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 21 creative problem solving i fulfilling basic needs the secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests. gail sheehy there are various ways to define the basic needs of all humans. many leaders are faced with trying to address these needs for their societies. economist manfred max-neef created a human scale development theory that is defined as focused and based on the satisfaction of fundamental human needs, on the generation of growing levels of selfreliance, and on the construction of organic articulations of people with nature and technology, of global processes with local activity, of the personal with the social, of planning with autonomy, and of civil society with the state. (max-neef et al, 1987:12) the long-term cross-cultural studies of max-neef suggested that fundamental needs fall into nine universal categories: subsistence understanding creation protection participation identity affection idleness freedom. using that model we will take a trip back in time and define how our ancestral communities addressed those nine needs. we will use the following matrix: fundamental being human needs (qualities) having (things) doing (actions) interacting (settings) living shelter feed, clothe, environment, rest, work social setting subsistence physical and food, mental health work protection care, adaptability autonomy social security, co-operate, health systems, plan, take work of, help affection respect, sense of humour, generosity, sensuality friendships, family, relationships with nature share, take care of, privacy, make love, intimate spaces express of togetherness emotions literature, teachers, policies educational analyse, study, schools, families meditate universities, investigate, communities, critical capacity, understanding curiosity, intuition march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer social care environment, dwelling 22 participation receptiveness, responsibilities, cooperate, associations, dedication, duties, work, dissent, express parties, churches, sense of humour rights opinions neighbourhoods leisure imagination, tranquility spontaneity day-dream, games, parties, remember, peace of mind relax, have fun creation imagination, boldness, inventiveness, curiosity invent, abilities, skills, design, work, compose, techniques interpret identity sense of language, get to know belonging, self- religions, work, oneself, grow, esteem, customs, commit oneself consistency values, norms freedom autonomy, passion, selfesteem, equal rights openmindedness landscapes, intimate spaces, places to be alone build, spaces work, expression, workshops, audiences places belongs everyday settings for one to, dissent, choose, run risks, develop anywhere awareness assignment 4 class activity talking circle fundamental human needs break into talking circles of 6 for this discussion put your decolonization lens and add to the manfred max-neef list of fundamental human needs. colonization has taken away indigenous needs such as land, language, culture, way of life and thinking to name a few. add to the list using a mind map and discuss the value of these needs for haudenosaunee to achieving a good mind. 60 minutes and report back to entire class march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 23 actual needs social determinants of health source: https://www.nursingcenter.com/ncblog/november-2019/social-determinants-of-health defining the actual needs what is missing from this matrix from a haudenosaunee point of view? we need to address the following issues with a unified vision about the quality of life that we are building toward for the sake of the future generations. * social needs: what kind of society do we want in the future? * educational needs: what are the kinds of skills needed to manifest that society? * health needs: how can we restore our mental, physical and spiritual health? * spiritual needs: how can the spiritual traditions of the past contribute to the society in concrete ways? * economic needs: can we develop an internal economy as well as an external economy to be able to subsidize the community infrastructure needed to increase the standard of living of the society to acceptable levels? march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer * artistic expression: how can we develop a stronger, arts-based form of expression of our values, as well as an arts economy? * native language survival and growth: what real steps are needed to assure that our six languages remain part of our daily social interactions? there may be other issues that we can add to this list of concerns. individual communities may have distinctive concerns that they can address within the larger framework we develop. then we will fast forward to today and look at how several of our communities are tackling the same needs. by comparing the two eras, we can see what 24 is missing from today, and what we do today that is better than in the past. consider this quote: there was a moment in iroquois history when the biggest challenge was going to be physical survival. it's no longer that. like all peoples who have diversity in their culture, the biggest challenge is surviving as a cultural group. given that it's inescapable that indians will be surrounded and immersed by a culture that is really global. it's not just the united states. american culture, anglo culture-- you go anywhere in the world and that culture is right in front of you. are they going to be able to maintain themselves as a specific group? now just about every group that can claim some identity, i don't care if you're ukrainian for haudenosaunee values. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer or italian, chinese, whatever - every group in america faces that crisis. but most of those groups have some place where their culture still thrives, and indians don't. if they don't maintain their culture, it's gone. john mohawk, ph.d. is a seneca author, editor, and professor of american studies, in discussing ely parker for the pbs documentary warrior in two worlds. this will result in a group project to create a model haudenosaunee community in the future, in terms of leaders might approach these basic needs. the learners will view the following video and critique how this project addresses one basic need with consideration 25 source: https://nacchocommunique.com/2013/03/25/naccho-aboriginal-health-news-alertdownloadsenate-report-onsocial-determinants-deserves-cross-party-support/ haudenosaunee basic needs wisdom of the elders: conversations with reg henry, shagohedeta (he leads the people) reg henry (1923-1993) was a fluent grand river cayuga speaker and faithkeeper who worked at the woodland cultural centre, brantford, ontario as a linguistic and cultural consultant. tom hill, museum director at the centre wrote of some of the lessons he learned from reg in wadrihwa, winter, 1993. ours is a different lifestyle now and i look back fondly to those old days when we should sit around the wood stove or kitchen table and tell stories in our language with the old folks. you had to use the language then to create the images in the minds of your listeners and make your ideas understandable. . . today, technology, particularly television, seems to wipe out our part. kids are more interested in all the action on t.v. than listening to us folks telling stories. . . the best learning happens through experience. . . when i was a boy march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer and going to school we would play longhouse out in the woodshed during recess. the girls would play with us pretending to cook by making mud pies and the boys would pretend to preach. we would sing and dance just like we did in the longhouse. we played in the cayuga language. now, thats learning from experience. when i was a boy, we would go down to the flats to help our parents look after the gardens. we usually planted our white corn down there. my favorite time was in the summer when we had how the young plants. it seemed like everyone was down along the river working in their fields. . . at noon, you could look all the way down the river and see smoke from the fires being lit for our mothers to make lunch. kids all along the river would jump into the water for their noon hour swim. summer seemed to go on forever then. . . 26 . having a garden for iroquoians is really important. today, people just drive to macs milk to buy their corn, beans and squash. when you plant seeds, water them and see them grow and finally, harvest them. it makes you realize the power of the creator. we have a lot to be thankful for. in the old days we would wear our indian clothes for most ceremonies in the longhouse. you know you should, at least once a year, wear your indian clothes, [and] go out in the fields or the bush and thank the creator. . . our ways are really about consoling the mind. there should be no getting angry. love each other . . . have peace! amos keyes wrote that reg henry used to say: you learn . . . you all learn . . . i will not always he standing here. . . all of you learn. we should all take that responsibility seriously. instead of going to the video store, take your family and go visiting with the elders in the community. ask them about what life was like when they were young. ask them about how things have changed. most important, ask them what they want the young people to remember the most about being haudenosaunee. with the passing of every elder, we lose much knowledge. it is our collective responsibility to learn what we can to keep the wisdom of the elders alive for one more generation. addressing basic needs of the haudenosaunee these charts summarize how the basic elements of haudenosaunee life have changed over the last five hundred years. past present 1) shelter communal longhouse extended families single family home no apartment houses 2) food family and clan gardens family gardens grocery store hunting trapping gathering fishing hunting trapping gathering fishing natural medicines and medicine societies natural medicines community health clinic 3) health march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 27 native healers balance of mind, body and spirit food was a form of medicine health department private physicians attempts to restore traditional diet 4) education children learn by observation children learn by observation and participation children taught primarily by female relatives at home early childhood programs adult education off-reservation schools 5) clothing tanned hides, hand decorated sewn cloths with trade cloth store bought cloths sewn clothes with store bought cloth 6) beliefs longhouse ceremonies christian churches conflicting belief systems annual cycle of ceremonies to give thanks for the bounty of nature. oral history explains the universe assignment 5 class activity talking circle changing world break into talking circles of 6 for this discussion in many ways, life is easier today than out ancestors. but what is the cost? for example, our ancestors did not have diabetes whereas today we eat western foods and there is a diabetes health crisis. discuss the good and bad of contemporary life and the health costs. how do we have to change our mindset and decision-making for seven generations to come? 60 minutes and report back to entire class march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 28 basic needs case study: kahnawake housing project eva johnson and lynn jacobs of the kahnawake environment office shared a video at a renewal energy workshop hosted by hetf in lockport, ny, titled growing a sustainable community, from our roots that describes the process of design and construction a model environmentally friendly house in their community. this project was initiated in 1997 as a joint project of the kahnawake environment office and the kahnawake housing department as a way to find a sustainable shelter that enhanced a good mohawk lifestyle. the goal was to design a house that used less circulation space. the typical suburban style house is not well planned. there is too much wasted space, too many rooms that all need to be heated separately and too much energy loss. by designing a house with a larger habitable space, much like the old-style longhouse, the new mohawk house would be more efficient. the house has an orientation to draw the most warmth from the most powerful source of energy - our elder brother, the sun. the main space and major openings face the south in what is called passive solar design. the house has no basement. it was built on grade so that you can walk directly out on the ground. this eliminates the heating and moisture problems associated with basements and costs much less. the utilities were also designed to reduce waste and save money. the water is heated with solar energy and the floor heating also has a march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer solar powered back-up system that uses any excess solar energy during the winter. photovoltaic systems convert the sun rays into electricity which is then stored in batteries. such systems still require you to consume less electricity, but it is a way to become energy efficient. radiant floor heating is provided by hot water that is pumped through a network of tubing fastened under the floor. by building directly on a concrete floor, rather than abasement, additional thermal mass is created, allowing the floor to slowly release warmth it captured during the day. healthy materials were used in the construction of the house, no treated lumber, which contains arsenic, was used. the most unique feature of the kanata 2000 demonstration house is the use of straw bales as a form of insulation. native switch grass bales make for thick walls and ceiling (they provide an r-50 rating), but the long-term savings from the use of less electricity to cool and heat the house is well worth the cost of construction. the bales are placed within the framed walls. and any spaces are packed with straw as well. straw panels (called strawboard) were used for cabinetry. there is little air in the bales, so they are fire resistant. the house also has an earth black wall, made from natural clay from the community, that provides thermal mass, holding heat longer in the winter, and absorbing more heat in the summer. if you have ever been in a pueblo adobe house in the southwest, you can feel the pleasant 29 environment within, without the need for air conditioning. this unique house was not meant to be a solitary attraction. part of the concept was to create a new neighborhood, that promotes efficient land use, by sharing water wells and cisterns, using complete. environmentally sound biological wastewater treatment processes, and collective composting to provide natural fertilizer for family gardens. the overall plan is to create a new housing development with such houses and the first model is now you're learning as you grow up so that when the time comes when you get to the age when the others have gone by - - it's like your growing up with the older people, and all of a sudden they left and went on ahead somewhere else. it leaves you standing there. now, who is going to do the ceremonies; whos going to run it? that's what they always say: "you learned from us, now i'm going to go into the other world. i have to leave you. you learn all these things so you can carry on. leon shenandoah, onondaga chief ne'honiyo'de:no' - that's what it was like, alberta austin, rebco enterprises, hamburg, ny, 1988 creative problem solving ii maori models tipu ake is a maori organic leadership model, a self-help tool that nurture growth in living organizations. a fundamental premise of tipu ake is that participants start with an examination of themselves, then share their knowledge and listen to other's perspectives so all become wiser. the seven level model covers in its middle level (3) the strong process focus that characterizes the management of most organizations, with the other levels incorporating radical thinking on chaos, innovation, leadership, courage, vision, stakeholders, team commitment, change information sharing, learning, responsiveness, agility, values and march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer sustainability. it encourages us to think well beyond project risk management, capitalizing on opportunities that move us towards the future we seek to grow. it is a framework that gives a wider perspective on leadership principles and knowledge. it demonstrates those project manager / team / organizational behaviours that drive real project success. tipu ake, meaning growing (from within) upwards (ever towards wellness), is based on an analogy with nature and provides a framework that concisely encapsulates current management wisdom on innovation, leadership, management, teamwork, and change 30 creative problem solving iii - seven s strategy the seven-s formula, is a comprehensive guide to analyzing the culture and behavior of corporations and service organizations. the "seven s" model was described briefly by peters and waterman in their book, in search of excellence. it describes a way to analyze a company or organization and it encourages systems thinking. the 7-s model is a tool for managerial analysis and action that provides a structure with which to consider a company as a whole, so that the organization's problems may be diagnosed, and a strategy may be developed and implemented. the 7-s diagram illustrates the multiplicity interconnectedness of elements that define an organization's ability to change. the theory helped to change manager's thinking about how march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer companies could be improved. it says that it is not just a matter of devising a new strategy and following it through. nor is it a matter of setting up new systems and letting them generate improvements strategy - the route that the organization has chosen for its future growth; a plan an organization formulates to gain a sustainable competitive advantage... structure - the framework in which the activities of the organization's members are coordinated. the four basic structural forms are the functional form, divisional structure, matrix structure, and network structure. systems - the formal and informal procedures, including innovation systems, compensation systems, management information systems, and 31 capital allocation systems, that govern everyday activity. style - the leadership approach of top management and the organization's overall operating approach; also the way in which the organization's employees present themselves to the outside world, to suppliers and customers. skills -what the company does best; the distinctive capabilities and competencies that reside in the organization. developed, trained, socialized, integrated, motivated, and how their carriers are managed. shared values - originally called superordinate goals; the guiding concepts and principles of the organization - values and aspirations, often unwritten - that go beyond the conventional statements of corporate objectives; the fundamental ideas around which a business is built; the things that influence a group to work together for a common aim. staff - the organization's human resources; refers to how people are how to use the seven s strategy (a business model) shared values if the business/organization were operating almost perfectly, describe the key things that would be happening. how would you describe the mission of this company to your prospective buyers? strategy if i were invisible and walked through the organization, what would i see that contributed to this success? what are the main strategies in moving this organization to being more successful? if i were invisible and could sit in on a number of conversations between the top 10 people and their staff, what themes would i hear? what are the key short-term goals to achieve these strategies? if this organization were wildly successful, where would it be in 10 years? if you were thinking of selling this successful business/organization, how would you want to be able to describe it to prospective buyers? march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer what are the main constraints executing these strategies? in how confident are you that these strategies are the right ones? why should your customers committed to your company? be 32 what is the value proposition you offer your customers? inquire about: low total cost, operational excellence spans of control superior products, innovation use of teams cutting edge the customer intimacy, i.e. services tailored to customer's unique needs number of management layers alignment mechanisms how would your customers evaluate you as an organization? how do you know that? how have you communicated these strategies to your top people and the rest of the organization? staff describe the strengths and weaknesses of the organization's key people. describe their most important roles in the organization. structure show me an organization chart, or draw me one. describe the departments. roles of the main what kinds of role/turf issues occur between departments? what kinds of communications issues occur between departments? what key things are done in the organization to help integrate various functions and departments that are interdependent? who of these are most important to the success of the business/organization? why? what are you most concerned about regarding the quality of the key staff? why? describe the strengths and weaknesses of the organization's labor force. what are you most concerned about regarding the quality of the organization's labor force? why? what is being done about this now? systems/infrastructure how does the structure help/hinder this organization in accomplishing its strategy? what is being done about this now? march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer describe key systems that support the business/organization, discuss their strengths and weaknesses. 33 reward systems control/information systems customer feedback purchasing/supplier relations manufacturing systems identify customer needs measure quality other what are the 5 most important system problems that if solved or improved would significantly improve profitability or organizational effectiveness? why? what are you doing about these issues now? skills how are important decisions made in this organization? how does top management communicate with key staff? how does it communicate with the labor force? what are the key expectations for how your key people and labor force should behave? how would you describe the organization's style of management? how would others differ in their assessment of that style? what does top management do on a day to day basis to: what key knowledge and skills are needed to succeed in this business/organization? why? reinforce standards how is that expected to change over time? encourage teamwork emphasize quality encourage reasonable risk how would you assess the organization's current strengths and weaknesses against the needed knowledge and skills? clarify roles/responsibilities focus people on goals what challenges does the organization face in strengthening or maintaining this match between knowledge and skills needed now and in the future? what is the organization doing about these issues now? recognize/reward emphasize customers why should employees want to be truly committed to the long-term well-being of this organization? style march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 34 seven s strategy haudenosaunee connections staff individuals and title holders do we have the human resources we need? skills traditional skills/life experiences do we have the skill sets needed? strategy seventh generation do we have a long-range plan? style cultural values how will we go about doing the work? system social organization, cultural protocols is our community support network in place? structure community, nation, confederacy what structure for change do we have? subordinate goals peace, power and righteousness what are we after in the long run? march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 35 redefining haudenosaunee problem-solving skills when what used to control us becomes controlled by us, it is the beginning of a new part of our life. each progress leaves behind a broken barrier that we have conquered; each conquered barrier is another step to our greater selves. arthur f. carmazzi the 6 dimensions of top achievers in addressing the problems faced by our people, we first have to look at ourselves, as leaders. we have to make sure that our attitudes, habits and actions are not the problem. the key is to have a clear set of morals and ethics it is especially important for leaders to adhere to clear moral and ethical values and principles if they want to facilitate human and community development processes. the following eighteen capabilities were identified as those which characterize leaders with high moral integrity by the teacher education program of nur university, santa cruz, bolivia. 1. the capability to evaluate one's own strengths and weaknesses without involving ego. 6. the capability to think systemically and strategically in the search for solutions. 2. the capability to oppose one's lower passions by focusing on higher purposes and capabilities. 7. the capability to form a vision of a desirable future based on shared values and principles, and to articulate this in a concise way that inspires others to work towards its realization. 3. the capability to manage one's affairs and responsibilities with rectitude of conduct based on moral and ethical principles. 4. the capability to learn from systematic reflection upon action within a consistent and evolving framework. 5. the capability to perceive and interpret the significance of current events and trends in the light of an appropriate historical perspective. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 8. the capability to imbue one's actions and thoughts with love. 9. the capability to encourage others and bring happiness to their hearts. 10. the capability to take initiative in a creative and disciplined way. 11. the capability to sustain effort, persevere, and to overcome obstacles. 36 12. the capability to effectively in consultation. participate interconnectedness, service. reciprocity, and 13. the capability to build unity in diversity. 16. the capability to contribute to the establishment of justice. 14. the capability to commit oneself to empowering educational activities as a student and as a teacher. 17. the capability to serve in societal institutions so as to facilitate the expression of the talents of the individuals affected by these institutions in service to humanity. 15. the capability to understand relationships of domination and contribute to their transformation into relationships based on 18. the capability to be a responsible and loving family member, as a child, spouse, parent or grandparent. defining basic psychological needs psychologist abraham maslow developed a different list of basic needs: safety/security -- the need for structure, predictability, stability, and freedom from fear and anxiety. belongingness/love -- the need to be accepted by others and to have strong personal ties with one's family, friends, and identity groups. self-esteem -- the need to be recognized by oneself and others as strong, competent, and capable. it also includes the need to know that one has some effect on her/his environment. personal fulfillment -- the need to reach one's potential in all areas of life. identity -- goes beyond a psychological "sense of self." burton and other human needs theorists define identity as a sense of self in relation to the outside world. identity becomes a problem when one's identity is not recognized as legitimate, or when it is considered inferior or is threatened by others with different identifications. cultural security -- is related to identity, the need for recognition of one's language, traditions, religion, cultural values, ideas, and concepts. march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 37 freedom -- is the condition of having no physical, political, or civil restraints; having the capacity to exercise choice in all aspects of one's life. distributive justice -- is the need for the fair allocation of resources among all members of a community. participation -- is the need to be able to actively partake in and influence civil society. assignment 6 class activity talking circle basic needs break into talking circles of 6 for this discussion watch 7s model of mckinsey explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygcefedmtim discuss in your groups the ideas expressed in the seven s strategy and its possible connections to haudenosaunee leadership. assigned readings: 7s model of mckinsey explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygcefedmtim this webinar gives an outline of the 7s model of mckinsey. it also explaines how to use the model in practise. the model is very usefull for the internal analysis and works complementary with the value chain of porter. if you have any suggestions for other models which you would like to have explained, please leave them in the comment section below. you might also like my other video's: 6 steps of marketing planning: https://youtu.be/v99uqvi4aim michael porter's generic strategies explained: https://youtu.be/nz53copmfig treacy & wiersema's value strategies explained: https://youtu.be/ntuargxup9y the value chain of porter explained: https://youtu.be/aerouqwvqyk abell's business definition explained: https://youtu.be/bnjobebh4ts michael porter's 5 forces model explained: https://youtu.be/33xmkfbzwo8 the bcg model explained: https://youtu.be/tko5tpr2uwe please subscribe to my channel for future webinars and like this video if it is valuable for you! 60 minutes and report back to entire class march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 38 resource restoring cultural sovereignty the creation is a true, material phenomenon, and the creation manifests itself to us through reality. the spiritual universe, then, is manifest to man as the creation, the creation which supports life. we believe that man is real, a part of the creation, and that his duty is to support life in conjunction with the other beings. that is why we call ourselves onkwehon:we - real people. . . we walk about with great respect, for the earth is a very sacred place. . . spiritualism is the highest form of political consciousness. the haudenosaunee message to the western world a basic call to consciousness, akwesasne notes, 1978 a) goal: to understand our way of life based upon the original instructions, our ceremonies and onkwehon:we. b) overview: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) examining the working elements of onkwehon:we original instructions as management road map functions of haudenosaunee social organization addressing clanship, kinship and identity issues promoting shared values, ethics, mores, traditions and beliefs c) course objectives objective 1 - understanding roots what does it mean to the first people of this land, as compared to the newcomers? how are onkwehon:we connected to the land in different ways than the imperial nations? how have the onkwehon:we cultures of the east shaped the way of life of the american colonists? how have english traditions in law shaped our relationship with onkwehon:we nations? how have the treaties with the haudenosaunee created a framework for resolving contemporary issues of conflict? objective 2 - understand connection to the past march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 39 oral history connects people to ideas, places and a sense of destiny. our cultural inheritance shapes the way we look at the world. our shared history provides a common frame of reference to build productive relationships. objective 3 - recognize the commonality of people across time we have benefited from shared experiences we all have concerns over basic needs our futures are linked together march 2, 2020 suzanne brant/kevin deer 40

project snapshot expanding postsecondary pathways for snp steam academy students type: pathway development project number: 2020-25 or p2025 project lead: six nations polytechnic collaborators: mohawk college project summary the steam academy represents a uniquely effective approach to building pathways to postsecondary education for indigenous and non-indigenous high school students, where learners can begin to braid diploma level courses into their studies the early college model. currently, this allows students to build toward their ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) while simultaneously receiving credits toward a software engineering technician diploma. mohawk college and snp have shown consistent commitment to supporting students through new and innovative pathways that address both established and anticipated community needs. to this end, oncat project p2025 aimed to build out a new program of study for students, that would take elements of the existing early college model at steam. these pre-built elements include an accrued, fine-grained understanding of dual credit programming that presents students with innovative transfer opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable. more specifically, this project supported six nations polytechnic (snp) and mohawk college to develop curriculum and transfer pathways that link steam academy outcomes with further postsecondary opportunities. it laid the foundations of an additional stream within snps innovative snp steam academy program: art and design foundations. arts-based learning is culturally appropriate in terms of both content and method; moreover, six nations polytechnic is committed to designing, developing, and delivering arts based programming that is firmly embedded in the hodinohso:ni values of ganigohi:yo:/kanikoriio (respectand the good mind). this new pathway would support learners at snp steam academy in earning a 1-year ontario college certificate credential, awarded by mohawk college, which would then open up a range of additional educational opportunities. it would utilize destination programs at both a primary/external partner institution (mohawk college) and a secondary/internal partner institution (snp college community programs unit) to leverage existing capacities and foundations. collectively, these developments confer significant collateral benefits and increased post-secondary pathway flexibility for snp steam academy students. despite unavoidable delays and pressures of the pandemic, this project was consistently a passion for snp steam academy staff and students. the yet-potential arts and design foundations stream will encourage students to transfer smoothly from secondary school into a transitional program, and from there into either further postsecondary education or direct, skilled entry into the visual and practical arts industry. main collaborators mohawk college snp steam snp college unit (community programs) outcomes in 2020, new teaching and learning methods were developed at six nations polytechnic, in response to the exigencies of the covid-19 pandemic. some of the trailed methodology was specifically in the digital arts; these successful experiments rendered the proposed pathway viable in new and exciting ways. in short: it was established that an art and design foundations stream at snp steam academy, which would yield a 1- year ontario college certificate credential and open up further pathways for local learners, could be taken, in whole or in part, online. this means that the pathways would be accessible to far more than immediately local students, while enrolled learners would gain additional, highly desirable competencies in digital art and design tools and online modalities. this expands the existing range of receiving programs for learners who wish to continue beyond the certificate level, as well as the employability of graduates who wish to enter the job market immediately. more broadly, prospective and future steam students will gain the choice of a non- p-tech stream of study that still affords the benefits of a (now global, and globally recognized) education model. new conversations were initiated, particularly in the arts community at six nations of the grand river, although these extended to other nodes in the broader hodinohso:ni' arts diaspora. within snp, modalities for student and faculty engagement were strengthened through reengagement this was particularly welcome as a cohesive element, maintaining the teaching and learning community during the pandemic. snps unique, dual quality assurance processes were also further reinforced, as community consultation around the viability of the proposed pathway brought together multiple stakeholders and linked key actors within and beyond the institution. finally, this project added to the growing body of data on early college models, that helps to smooth the secondary-to-postsecondary transition. pathways created steam academy to mohawk college (4 programs): -advertising & marketing communications mgmt. (3-year ontario college advanced diploma) -graphic design (3-year ontario college advanced diploma) -photography still & motion (2-year ontario college diploma) -animation 3d (3-year ontario college advanced diploma) all pathways identified, above, were comprehensively mapped. incomplete pathways a number of additional pathways, beyond the five destination programs specified, were parked for later investigation. steam academy to snp college community programs unit (1 program) -indigenous artisan & entrepreneur (2-year ontario college diploma) the pathways to the snp college community programs unit cannot be added to ontransfer.ca until the indigenous artisan & entrepreneur program has been accredited. the typical timeline for accreditation of college-level programs is 18 months. the pathways to the four programs at mohawk college still need review and approval by the partner. the timeline for this last stage cannot be accurately predicted, owing to the systemic and structural stresses of covid-19. student outcomes this new pathway would support learners at snp steam academy in earning a 1-year ontario college certificate credential, awarded by mohawk college, which would then open up a range of additional educational opportunities. it would utilize destination programs at both a primary/external partner institution (mohawk college) and a secondary/internal partner institution (snp college community programs unit) to leverage existing capacities and foundations. collectively, these developments confer significant collateral benefits and increased post-secondary pathway flexibility for snp steam academy students. despite unavoidable delays and pressures of the pandemic, this project was consistently a passion for snp steam academy staff and students. the yet-potential arts and design foundations stream will encourage students to transfer smoothly from secondary school into a transitional program, and from there into either further postsecondary education or direct, skilled entry into the visual and practical arts industry. student time savings the proposed pathways save students up to one full year of study. student financial savings the proposed pathways save students up to one full year of tuition. institutional outcomes new conversations around snps programming areas were initiated, particularly in the arts community at six nations of the grand river, although these extended to other nodes in the broader hodinohso:ni' arts diaspora. within snp, modalities for student and faculty engagement were strengthened through reengagement this was particularly welcome as a cohesive element, maintaining the teaching and learning community during the pandemic. six nations polytechnics unique, dual quality assurance processes were also further reinforced, as community consultation around the viability of the proposed pathway brought together multiple stakeholders and linked key actors within and beyond the institution. sector or system implications sustained, targeted attention to the full inclusion of indigenous institutes (iis) in the current and ideal transfer environment is essential to achieving parity of educational outcomes for indigenous learners. this should include primary research on the actual transfer experiences of those learners, in collaboration with indigenous institutes and/or through the indigenous institutes consortium. this data would confer benefits on both iis and the general mobility landscape. a prior project undertaken by snp established the non-recognition of degrees conferred by indigenous institutes. educational equality-supporting projects could, or even should, act on this funding by, for example, looking at measures to increase awareness and understanding of the quality assurance of programs and courses offered by indigenous institutes, especially among larger ontario universities and colleges. more generally: specific pathways and articulation agreements should not be necessary in an end-state system where mobility is assessed on criteria other than 1:1 matches between distinct syllabi (which is impossible to achieve in practice). in moving toward this end-state, targeted support for indigenous institutes will be necessary, in order to help level the playing field.

discipline steering committee call for participation overview oncat is forming a discipline steering committee (dsc) to advise and steer the work of oncat, in collaboration with mcu, in building a mature transfer system. more specifically, the dsc will work with oncat and the regional discipline committees to lead the expansion of transferability of first-year 101 courses. the goal is for first year students to be able to transfer to like programs with full credit recognition. oncat is looking for seasoned pse professionals who understand the opportunities and challenges in supporting student mobility across the province. dsc members are well versed in partnership development and collaboration with a thorough knowledge of pathway development and credit assessment that serves transfer students. areas of expertise more specifically, we are looking for members who have experience/expertise in key areas. these may include: advising of sending and/or receiving transfer students. building relationships with internal academic departments to support transfer. championing pathways to students and faculty through communication and promotional materials. development and updating of articulation agreements to reflect curriculum changes. development of academic support services such as admissions, registration, recruitment and the maintenance of students and course records. development of policies and initiatives involving credit transfer and student pathways. knowledge of the credit transfer process at your institution including the evaluation and processing of credits. management of the credit transfer institutional grant (ctig) and related activities at your institution. responsibilities 1. participate in monthly dsc meetings. 2. attend regional discipline committee meetings (approximately one additional meeting per month). ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) 180, dundas st. west/rue dundas ouest, suite/bureau 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 t/tl. : 416 640-6951 | f/tlc. : 416 640-6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario |1 3. develop and review appropriate documentation such as terms of references and committee work plans. 4. support the development and implementation of metrics in accordance with mcu expectations. 5. attend external committees as required. funding this will require approximately 6 hours per month. commitment will be required from march 2022 to march 2024. a stipend of $20,000 will be paid to each participating institution for the two years. oncat is seeking at minimum, one representative from the following regions: central east, central west, eastern, northern, western. submissions are welcome from colleges, universities and indigenous institutes. how to apply applications are accepted through our online portal here. for additional information, please reach out to carolyn poplak, manager, sector engagement, at cpoplak@oncat.ca. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) 180, dundas st. west/rue dundas ouest, suite/bureau 1902 toronto (ontario) m5g 1z8 t/tl. : 416 640-6951 | f/tlc. : 416 640-6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario le caton est financ par le gouvernement de lontario | 2

request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution date issued: january 25, 2023 prepared by: ontario council on articulation and transfer 180 dundas street west, suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 tel: (416) 640-6951 fax: (416) 640-6959 contact: it@oncat.ca main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student facing website: www.ontransfer.ca oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 1 table of contents 1. 2. 3. background................................................................................................................................. 5 1.1. about oncat .................................................................................................................... 5 1.2. about ontransfer.ca ......................................................................................................... 5 1.3. about the c2c search ....................................................................................................... 6 important details......................................................................................................................... 7 2.1. instructions ......................................................................................................................... 7 2.2. timetable............................................................................................................................ 7 2.3. contact ............................................................................................................................... 7 requirements.............................................................................................................................. 8 3.1. goal .................................................................................................................................... 8 3.2. product ............................................................................................................................... 8 3.2.1. currently in use ......................................................................................................... 8 3.2.2. fully owned ............................................................................................................... 8 3.2.3. local installation or saas .......................................................................................... 8 3.3. user stories ....................................................................................................................... 8 3.4. data .................................................................................................................................... 8 3.4.1. supports current data ............................................................................................... 8 3.4.2. languages ................................................................................................................. 9 3.4.3. syllabi ......................................................................................................................... 9 3.4.4. pesc codes .............................................................................................................. 9 3.4.5. campus ...................................................................................................................... 9 3.4.6. course versions......................................................................................................... 9 3.4.7. external equivalencies............................................................................................. 10 3.4.8. glossary ................................................................................................................... 10 3.4.9. read-only database access................................................................................... 10 3.4.10. custom fields .......................................................................................................... 10 3.4.11. exporting .................................................................................................................. 10 3.4.12. flexibility................................................................................................................... 10 3.5. backend ........................................................................................................................... 11 3.5.1. user interface........................................................................................................... 11 3.5.2. users and roles....................................................................................................... 11 3.5.3. data maintenance .................................................................................................... 12 3.5.4. evaluation workflow ................................................................................................ 12 3.5.5. communication ........................................................................................................ 14 oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 2 3.5.6. searching ................................................................................................................. 14 3.5.7. reporting and dashboard........................................................................................ 14 3.6. frontend ........................................................................................................................... 15 3.6.1. 3.7. performance..................................................................................................................... 15 3.8. security ............................................................................................................................ 15 3.9. professional services ...................................................................................................... 16 3.9.1. discovery, planning, and analysis .......................................................................... 16 3.9.2. customization .......................................................................................................... 16 3.9.3. data migration .......................................................................................................... 16 3.9.4. development environments..................................................................................... 17 3.9.5. installation or setup ................................................................................................. 17 3.9.6. knowledge transfer ................................................................................................. 17 3.9.7. maintenance and support........................................................................................ 17 3.10. 4. 5. api only ................................................................................................................... 15 future requirements ....................................................................................................... 18 bidding process ........................................................................................................................ 19 4.1. step 1: rfp review......................................................................................................... 19 4.2. step 2: expression of interest.......................................................................................... 19 4.3. step 3: non-disclosure agreement ................................................................................. 19 4.4. step 4: questions ............................................................................................................ 19 4.5. step 5: proposal............................................................................................................... 20 4.6. step 6: product presentation........................................................................................... 22 4.7. step 7: scoring................................................................................................................. 22 4.7.1. proposal ................................................................................................................... 22 4.7.2. presentation ............................................................................................................. 23 4.7.3. selection................................................................................................................... 23 terms and conditions..................................................................................................... 24 5.1. bidder representations and warranties ......................................................................... 24 5.2. general instructions and requirements .......................................................................... 24 5.2.1. bidders to follow instructions.................................................................................. 24 5.2.2. conditional bids may be disqualified ...................................................................... 24 5.2.3. bids in english.......................................................................................................... 24 5.2.4. oncats information in rfp only an estimate...................................................... 25 5.2.5. bidders shall bear their own costs ....................................................................... 25 5.2.6. no guarantee of volume of work or exclusivity of contract .................................. 25 5.2.7. rfp terms............................................................................................................... 25 oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 3 5.2.8. 5.3. communication after issuance of rfp ........................................................................... 26 5.3.1. all new information to bidders by way of addenda ............................................... 26 5.3.2. post-deadline addenda and extension of rfp closing date and time ................ 26 5.3.3. verify information or clarification and incorporate response into bid ................... 26 5.4. bid process requirements .............................................................................................. 27 5.4.1. bids must be submitted on time .............................................................................. 27 5.4.2. bid irrevocable after rfp closing date and time .................................................. 27 5.4.3. bidders to review rfp............................................................................................ 27 5.4.4. no incorporation by reference by bidder ............................................................... 27 5.4.5. amending or withdrawing bids prior to rfp closing date and time .................... 28 5.4.6. bid to be retained by oncat................................................................................. 28 5.5. execution of agreement, notification and debriefing ..................................................... 28 5.5.1. selection of bidder ................................................................................................... 28 5.5.2. failure to enter into agreement............................................................................... 28 5.5.3. notification to other bidders of outcome of procurement process ....................... 28 5.5.4. debriefing ................................................................................................................. 28 5.5.5. bid dispute ............................................................................................................... 29 5.5.6. prohibited bidder communications ......................................................................... 29 5.5.7. bidder not to make a public statement or communicate with media .................... 29 5.5.8. confidential information of oncat......................................................................... 30 5.5.9. freedom of information and protection of privacy act ........................................... 30 5.6. reserved rights and governing law.............................................................................. 31 5.6.1. reserved rights of oncat..................................................................................... 31 5.6.2. governing law of rfp process .............................................................................. 32 5.7. supplementary terms and conditions ............................................................................ 32 5.7.1. 5.8. occupational health and safety requirements ...................................................... 32 publication of data and consent ..................................................................................... 33 5.8.1. 6. accessibility obligations .......................................................................................... 25 publication of data and consent ............................................................................. 33 appendix a form of offer......................................................................................................... 34 oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 4 1. background 1.1. about oncat established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat aims to enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer. working with our network of ontarios 45 colleges and universities, indigenous institutes, students, government, guidance counsellors, as well as other stakeholders provincially and nationally, oncat is building a culture and understanding of transfer so that students can pursue a more seamless and affordable postsecondary education. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: developing and maintaining the student-facing website ontransfer.ca, used to connect current and prospective students to transfer opportunities; supporting and funding academic projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontarios regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; and hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. 1.2. about ontransfer.ca ontransfer.ca is an online service offered by oncat that provides searching functionality for students and stakeholders to explore program pathways and course equivalencies across postsecondary institutions ("institutions"). ongoing collaboration and data initiatives with ontario institutions allow for informative search results and assistance in student mobility. ontransfer.ca includes two types of searches for students interested in transferring between any of ontarios public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 5 program pathways (https://search.ontransfer.ca); and course transfers (c2c search) (https://ontransfer.ca/i/ontransfer+search_course_transfers) both searches have a backend for managing data and a front end for student searches. in addition to online search features, ontransfer.ca connects institutional partners to each other and to prospective transfer students through published institutional resources, marketing and advertising campaigns, committees and student engagement programs, and fairs and conferences held at various times of the year. the scope of this rfp is limited to the c2c search backend. 1.3. about the c2c search the c2c search is a customized off-the-shelf product. it has been in use since 2014. it has a customized back end (skin, accessibility, language, and unique data types for oncat). it also provides customized apis used to build the frontend search with a custom user interface and experience (ui/ux) that conforms with oncats and ontario government branding, accessibility, and language requirements. due to lack of improvements over the last 8 years, the course-to-course search tool no longer meets our requirements. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 6 2. important details this request for proposal (rfp) invites you (vendor or bidder) to submit a proposal (proposal or bid) to replace or improve the c2c search using your transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution (product) configured, customized, and supported according to the requirements set out herein (project or deliverables). 2.1. instructions read the rfp carefully and follow all the instructions in section 4. 2.2. timetable issue date january 25, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. deadline for expression of interest march 1, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. deadline for questions march 10, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. deadline for issuing addenda march 23, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. rfp closing date and time (deadline for proposal submission) march 31, 2023, at 4:00 pm est. presentation and demonstrations to be determined. bids are irrevocable for 120 days after the rfp closing date and time. 2.3. contact all contact with oncat regarding this rfp should be by email only with the oncat contact: it@oncat.ca all emails to the oncat contact will be deemed received once the recipient has replied confirming receipt. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 7 3. requirements 3.1. goal the overarching goal of the project is to refresh the c2c search using an existing product to improve functionality and useability for institutional partners and oncat, and to have a flexible system that can be enhanced over time. 3.2. product 3.2.1. currently in use product must be an existing course equivalency database product that is currently being used to manage course equivalencies. 3.2.2. fully owned the product must be fully owned by the vendor. the product can have third-party, open source, or commercial component dependencies, but they must be disclosed in the vendor's proposal. 3.2.3. local installation or saas the product can be delivered as a software license for local installation or a softwareas-a-service agreement (saas) available on the cloud. 3.3. user stories the vendor must request from oncat, as instructed in section 4.2, the c2c search user story rubric which forms an integral part of this rfp and which provides user stories that help to illustrate many of the requirements herein. 3.4. data 3.4.1. supports current data the product must be able to store, interpret, and process all the data currently in the c2c search such as courses, course details, course equivalencies, institutions, and users. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 8 some examples of current course equivalencies include: one course to one course; one course to many courses; many courses to one course; 3.4.2. course equivalencies specific to the program the student is entering at the receiving institution; non-equivalent courses; expired (archived) course equivalencies; and conditional equivalencies. languages at minimum, the product must be able to store, process (e.g., search), and interpret data using international character sets (i.e., unicode). 3.4.3. syllabi the product must store course syllabi. multiple syllabi need to be attached for each course, evaluation, or calendar. meta data needs to be attached to each syllabus so that course syllabi can be searched. 3.4.4. pesc codes the product must store pesc codes. 3.4.5. campus the product should support equivalencies based on the institution campus at which the course is offered. 3.4.6. course versions the product should track course versions to minimize data entry when course names and numbers change and provide a record of same. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 9 3.4.7. external equivalencies the product must support equivalencies with institutions outside of ontario and/or canada. 3.4.8. glossary the product should have a glossary of terms that oncat can manage. the terms should be flagged with a tool tip in the backend and should be available to the frontend via the frontend api (see 3.6.1 below). 3.4.9. read-only database access the product must allow oncat to directly query (read-only) all the data in the product database (e.g., via sql scripts) or provide some other way for oncat to query the data in real-time or near real-time. 3.4.10. custom fields the product should be flexible enough to accommodate various types of custom fields (in addition to the fields which the vendors product normally provides) that will allow institutions to store their own unique course equivalency data (e.g., language, version, date, comments, lab/no lab flag, legacy course and/or institution codes, syllabi meta data, etc.). 3.4.11. exporting the product must provide flexible end user functionality to export equivalencies and related data, such as courses, programs, institutions, and users so that oncat or institutions can easily use the data outside of the product. 3.4.12. flexibility equivalency data. the product must support complex course equivalencies and/or must be flexible enough to elegantly accommodate unique course equivalencies of institutions and have scalable properties that increase the chances of it being able to accommodate unforeseen data and features in the future. user profile data. the product must store user profile data for oncat and institution users in a way that is compatible with oncat's requirements and is mutable and future proof. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 10 3.5. backend the product must have a backend that allows oncat and institutions to manage all data including institutions, equivalencies, equivalency evaluations and syllabi. 3.5.1. user interface skin. the product must have some ability to customize the skin, color, or branding of the backend user interface. language. the product's user interface must be english. a french user interface is not required. accessibility. the product must comply with the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda), specifically its information and communication standards which currently requires compliance with world wide web consortium web content accessibility guidelines (wcag) 2.0, at level aa. for more information, please see the following: 3.5.2. aoda: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/05a11 information and communication standards: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/110191#bk35 wcag: https://www.w3.org/wai/wcag21/quickref/ users and roles the product must support users organized into groups with roles that provide tiered access to the product's functions and data. oncat users should have access to all data, configurations, and settings, and be able to manage all users, while institution users should have no access to system configuration and settings, be able to access only their own data, and be able to manage only their own users and settings. contact details, such as names and email addresses, must be stored for every user. more specifically, the product needs to support the following users and groups. oncat users oncat super user. view, edit, delete all data and all configuration and settings oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 11 oncat administrator. no access to system configuration or settings, but has access to all data and own settings, except for certain privacy related data institution users institution administrator. access to all institution data, users, and settings program coordinator. restrictions to data and users and own settings 3.5.3. subject matter expert. same as program coordinator except no access to users and some restrictions to data data maintenance add, edit, delete. the product must allow institutions to maintain data, including adding, editing, deleting, or expiring key data such as institutions, programs, courses, equivalencies, course syllabi/outlines, credentials, programs, campus codes, terms, and contacts. minimize re-entry of data. the product should keep a history of changes to a course and connect previous decision to the new course name and connect previous version to the new number so that equivalency information need not be re-entered. validation logic. the product's data maintenance forms should have validation logic where appropriate to avoid entry of incorrect data such as checking for duplicates and required field. bulk load. the product must have comprehensive bulk load, direct connection, or synchronization capabilities so that institutions that have a student information system (sis) can easily move equivalencies and related data, such as courses, programs, institutions, from their system into the product database. bulk loaded data should be identifiable as such to be distinguished from data managed via the user interface and locked if needed on a per institution/campus basis so that the bulk loaded data remains authoritative. additionally, institution information (e.g., pesc list) can be easily bulk uploaded. 3.5.4. evaluation workflow the product must have workflow functionality that allows oncat and institutions to collaboratively create equivalencies using an evaluation process that includes: creating evaluation requests (each with a unique evaluation request id) that are sent to institutions for evaluation; oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 12 controlling the number of evaluation requests that institutions receive and from whom they receive them; adding comments, questions, and answers to each evaluation; timestamping evaluations with due dates or effective dates; reviewing requests and acting on them without logging in; creating new institutions in a standardized way; converting equivalency evaluations into equivalencies and have the ability for them to appear or not appear on the front-end (via the api); and correcting mistakes made during the evaluation process by overwriting completed evaluations. the evaluation workflow must also have notification features such as: email notifications with links to evaluations to initiate and action evaluation requests; combining multiple evaluation request notifications into one periodic request (daily or weekly); notification of outstanding evaluation tasks and ability to resend evaluation events that are outstanding; and notification based on expiry dates or review dates sent to relevant parties. the workflow must allow evaluations that are in progress to be saved. users should be able to access certain quick workflow tasks (such as evaluations) without logging in. comparisons. the product should facilitate comparisons of equivalency decisions. bulk uploads. the product should allow institutions to upload one or more evaluation records from their systems. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 13 3.5.5. communication oncat and institutions should be able to create messages that can be easily sent to individuals or groups of users and appear in their dashboards based on their role. 3.5.6. searching the product's backend should have powerful and flexible search options that combine database fields for searching equivalencies and evaluations, then ideally allow users to save the search options in their account profile for future use. 3.5.7. reporting and dashboard reporting the product must have useful reporting capabilities for oncat and for institutions. existing equivalencies. reports on equivalencies in the system. potential or implied equivalencies. report of any potential or implied equivalencies that exist in the database. for example: (a) if western has accepted a brock course as equivalent to a western course, it would be useful for brock to know that it could consider establishing the reciprocal equivalency (reciprocity); or (b) if westerns course a is equivalent to senecas course b, and senecas course b is equivalent to yorks course c, then it would be useful for western and york to know of the potential or implied equivalency between westerns course a and yorks course c (triangulation). denied equivalences. reports on equivalency evaluations that have been denied. all equivalencies for each course. reports to show all course equivalency decisions for a course. credential and program connections. reports that identify if a course is offered for a particular credential type or required for a particular program. user activity. reports on user activity (when or how often users have logged in and what they have done). dashboard the product should have a dashboard that provides summary information based on the users role at-a-glance. for example: evaluation requests listed/counted/sorted/grouped by status, dates, institution; oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 14 summary of outstanding program requests; number of equivalencies by institution; questions and answers; communication from oncat; and links to reports to which users have access. 3.6. frontend 3.6.1. api only product must allow for secure consumption (reading) of all data and functionality using apis so that a frontend interface, customized according to oncat's and ontario's requirements for branding, accessibility, and language can be developed for ontransfer.ca by external third-party developers. 3.7. performance the product must: have excellent actual and perceived performance with low latency, reduced load times, optimized rendering of assets, and a smooth user interface; be compatible across all modern browsers; and its apis should operate without bottlenecks or other hinderances. if the product is cloud-based, it must operate in a secure hosting environment with high reliability and availability. the servers used for the infrastructure must physically residing in canada and no data may be transferred outside of canada. 3.8. security the product (including all its apis) must use an encryption protocol such as tls 1.2 or higher to ensure all data is transmitted securely. sensitive data must be encrypted when stored (e.g., encryption at rest). oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 15 the product's backend must be password protected and have a password retrieval function. if the product provides two-factor authentication (2fa), it should be optional for the user. additionally, the product should support single sign-on (sso) such as oauth 2.0. oncat should have super administrator access to be able to see all data, reporting, and configuration settings in the system. the product must have protection against the latest security threats, reasonably assumed to be within the scope of such a product, especially protection of students' personal data. updates to the product should close any new threats. all aspects of the project and product must adhere to canadian and ontario privacy laws (e.g., personal information protection and electronic documents act (pipeda)) and resulting data transmission and residency requirements. 3.9. professional services 3.9.1. discovery, planning, and analysis the requirements herein are only for the purposes of estimating the scope and cost of the project. the vendor will be required to perform additional discovery, planning, and analysis to understand oncats requirements with sufficient detail to propose exactly how the product will be customized and data will be migrated to satisfy oncat's requirements before development or customization begins. the results of the discovery and analysis should be presented to oncat in a written technical/specifications document. 3.9.2. customization the vendor will be responsible for all application or database programming, scripting, configuration, or other forms of development required to customize the product. 3.9.3. data migration the vendor will be responsible for successfully moving, cleansing, and/or converting the c2c search data for use in the product. the vendor should follow a methodical data migration project lifecycle with planning, analysis and design, implementation, and closeout. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 16 oncat will provide subject matter experts for the source c2c search system and database. the vendor will be responsible for validating the migration results. the c2c search database currently contains approximately 260,000 active equivalencies, 1,830,000 inactive ones, and 10,000 declined evaluations. 3.9.4. development environments the vendor will be responsible for setting up and maintaining throughout the project the necessary environments for development including development and staging servers. 3.9.5. installation or setup the vendor will be required to install the product if it requires local installation. if the product is a cloud product the vendor will be responsible for all set up or configuration of the product. 3.9.6. knowledge transfer documentation the product must have documentation for administrators on how to set up and maintain the product and for users on how to use it. the front-end apis, and any changes to them, must be well documented. training the vendor must provide oncat with live training via video conference which can be recorded by oncat for future use. training for post-secondary institutions will not be required. 3.9.7. maintenance and support maintenance upgrades. the product should benefit from future upgrades without resulting in any impact on the data and without causing any significant down time, be compatible with customizations of the product that the vendor performed, and not adversely affect the availability, functionality, or performance of the product and its apis. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 17 performing upgrades. the vendor must install, or assist oncats local vendor to install, any upgrades to the product, unless the product is a cloud product in which case the vendor will be responsible for performing all upgrades. technical support the vendor must provide timely assistance to help oncat with any difficulties or problems encountered when using the product. backups all the product's data must be backed up automatically and regularly and must be easy to restore. 3.10. future requirements roadmap. the vendor should have a roadmap for how the product will evolve and improve in the future. customization. the product must be able to accommodate reasonable future customization requests as new requirements arise to address changes in the course articulation landscape, oncat's business needs, and the expectations of students. the vendor must have processes in place to accommodate this. such customization is not within the scope of this project. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 18 4. bidding process 4.1. step 1: rfp review vendors should review this rfp to determine if its product can meet the rfp requirements and if it is interested in submitting a bid. 4.2. step 2: expression of interest a vendor wishing to express interest in submitting a bid must send an email to the oncat contact provided in section 2.3 before the deadline for expression of interest in section 2.2. the email must include: subject: oncat c2c search expression of interest [company name] body: product description and vendor qualifications (500 words max.) 4.3. step 3: non-disclosure agreement after receiving an expression of interest from the vendor, oncat will share a nondisclosure agreement (nda) with the vendor. the vendor must return the signed nda by email to the oncat contact provided in section 2.3. oncat will then: share the c2c search user story rubric, which the vendor will need to complete and return as specified below; and answer questions the vendor may have, provided the deadline for questions in section 2.2 has not passed. 4.4. step 4: questions before working on its proposal, the vendor should review the rfp and, after signing the nda, the c2c search user story rubric carefully. the vendor can email questions to the oncat contact provided in section 2.3 before the deadline for questions in section 2.2. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 19 any additional questions that come up while working on the proposal can be sent to oncat, but must arrive before the deadline for questions. before the deadline for issuing addenda shown in section 2.2, oncat will share all questions and answers with all interested vendors that have singed the nda 4.5. step 5: proposal before the rfp closing date and time in section 2.2, the vendor must submit a written proposal according to the proposal contents and format instructions below to the oncat contact shown in section 2.3. proposal contents and format the email must use the following subject: oncat c2c search proposal [company name] the proposal must include the following and must be structured as described below. 1. qualifications (a) experience & capabilities describe the vendor's capabilities and experience relevant to the project. (b) team describe the team that will be providing the professional services. include past experiences and roles relevant to the project. indicate if any are freelancers, consultants, or subcontractors. provide a resume or brief biography of each team member. (b) references provide three references relevant to the project. 2. requirements describe, in narrative form, how the vendor will meet each requirement listed in section 3 requirements. structure the response so that each requirement listed in the rfp is addressed separately in its own paragraph. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 20 where appropriate, provide details on technology, approach, challenges, limitations, risks, advantages, alternatives, etc. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to meet the requirements will be considered, but proposals that depart significantly from them will be rejected. 3. user stories refer to the c2c search user story rubric which is a microsoft excel spreadsheet file obtained from oncat as described above in sections 4.2 and 4.3. please complete the last four columns in the spreadsheet to indicate if the product can accommodate the user stories described, and if so, does it do it "out-of-the-box" or "with customization". if the response needs to be qualified, use the "notes" column. 4. case studies provide two (2) case studies in narrative form that demonstrate that the vendor's product is currently being used for a transfer credit system, ideally for a not-forprofit or government funded organization. 5. timing outline a work plan that includes major tasks and milestones along with timing for each. 6. pricing break down the pricing as follows: product price (purchase, license, or subscription) customization price data migration price knowledge transfer price maintenance and support price the vendor is welcome to provide additional breakdowns and costs based on different options or scenarios. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 21 as part of the pricing, the vendor must fully disclose and provide the terms of any licenses, including any licenses for third party open source or commercial components that it does not fully own, and that the product is subject to. 7. form of offer the vendor must complete the form of offer in appendix a form of offer and submit it as part of the proposal. 4.6. step 6: product presentation the top scoring vendors, at oncat's absolute and sole discretion, will be invited to meet with oncat to do a live demonstration of their product. presentation content and format with reference to oncat's specific requirements in section 3 and the c2c search user story rubric the vendor must demonstrate which requirements its product currently meets and which can be met with additional configuration or customization by the vendor. the meeting can be either in person or by video conference. it must not exceed 2 hours: approximately 45 minutes for product demonstration, with the balance for introduction, background, discussion, and closing. 4.7. step 7: scoring the vendor's proposal and its product presentation will together be the vendor's bid ("bid") which will be scored as described below. 4.7.1. proposal the proposal will be given a score out of 85. qualifications 15 meeting requirements 35 timing 10 pricing 25 proposal score 85 oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 22 4.7.2. presentation the presentation will be given a score out of 15. presentation score 4.7.3. 15 selection the proposal score and presentation score will be combined to select a vendor. proposal score 85 presentation score 15 total 100 if none of the vendors sufficiently meets oncat's requirements, oncat has the right to select none of them and consider other options for the c2c search. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 23 5. terms and conditions 5.1. bidder representations and warranties by submitting a bid for consideration, the bidder in each case, agrees, confirms or warrants as follows: (i) to be bound to its bid; (ii) that to its best knowledge and belief, no actual or potential conflict of interest exists with respect to the submission of the bid or performance of the contemplated contract other than those disclosed in the form of offer. where oncat discovers a bidders failure to disclose all actual or potential conflicts of interest, oncat may disqualify the bidder or terminate any contract awarded to that bidder pursuant to this procurement process; (iii) that it has accepted the provisions of this rfp and has prepared its bid with reference to all of the provisions of the rfp and has factored all of those provisions, including the insurance requirements, into its pricing assumptions and calculations and into the proposed costs indicated in its pricing; and (iv) that its bid was arrived at separately and independently, without conspiracy, collusion or fraud. see the competition bureau of canada for further information. 5.2. general instructions and requirements 5.2.1. bidders to follow instructions bidders should structure their bids in accordance with the instructions in this rfp. where information is requested in this rfp, any response made in a bid should reference the applicable section numbers of this rfp where that request was made. 5.2.2. conditional bids may be disqualified a bidder who submits conditions, options, variations or contingent statements to the terms set out in the rfp including the form of offer, either as part of its bid or after receiving notice of selection, may be disqualified. 5.2.3. bids in english all bids are to be in english only. any bids received by oncat that are not entirely in the english language may be disqualified. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 24 5.2.4. oncats information in rfp only an estimate oncat and its advisors make no representation, warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained in this rfp or issued by way of addenda. any quantities shown or data contained in this rfp or provided by way of addenda are estimates only and are for the sole purpose of indicating to bidders the general size of the work. 5.2.5. bidders shall bear their own costs the bidder shall bear all costs associated with or incurred in the preparation and presentation of its bid including, but not limited to, if applicable, costs incurred for interviews or demonstrations. 5.2.6. no guarantee of volume of work or exclusivity of contract oncat makes no guarantee of the value or volume of work to be assigned to the successful bidder. the agreement executed with the preferred bidder will not be an exclusive contract for the provision of the described deliverables. oncat may contract with others for the same or similar deliverables to those described in this rfp or may obtain the same or similar deliverables internally. 5.2.7. rfp terms all rights and obligations that apply to this procurement process are found only in the rfp. for greater clarity, no other documents are to be read into this rfp or used to interpret or understand its terms or establish any rights or obligations related to this procurement. 5.2.8. accessibility obligations the province of ontario is committed to the highest possible standard for accessibility. vendor(s) are responsible for complying with the requirements under the ontario human rights code, the ontarians with disabilities act, 2001 and accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act, 2005 (aoda) and its regulations. in circumstances where vendors are providing a service to the public on behalf of oncat, they may need to follow oncat direction to ensure oncat compliance with the aoda and its regulations (such as the integrated accessibility standards regulation). the vendor is responsible for applying integrated accessibility standards regulation and effective dates and timelines as they pertain to the government of ontario, as directed by oncat. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 25 5.3. communication after issuance of rfp 5.3.1. all new information to bidders by way of addenda this rfp may only be amended by oncat by an addendum in accordance with this section. if oncat, for any reason, determines that it is necessary to provide additional information relating to this rfp, such information will be communicated to all bidders through addenda to the rfp. each addendum shall form an integral part of this rfp. each addendum may contain important information including significant changes to this rfp. the onus remains on the bidder to make any necessary amendments and to resubmit its bid based on the addenda. oncat may also be issuing addenda included in the rfp as an attachment, which will contain responses to bidders questions. 5.3.2. post-deadline addenda and extension of rfp closing date and time oncat may, at its discretion, issue addenda after the deadline for issuing addenda and may also then extend the rfp closing date. 5.3.3. verify information or clarification and incorporate response into bid oncat reserves the right, but is not obliged, to verify or seek clarification and supplementary information relating to the verification or clarification from bidders after the rfp closing date and time including those related to an ambiguity in a bid or in any statement made subsequently during the evaluation process. the response received by oncat from a bidder shall, if accepted by oncat, form an integral part of that bidder's bid. however, bidders are cautioned that any verifications or clarifications sought will not be an opportunity either to correct errors or change their bids in any substantive manner. verifications or clarifications under this subsection may be made by whatever means oncat deems appropriate and may include contacting, (a) any person identified in the bid; and (b) persons or entities other than those identified by any bidder. in submitting a bid, a bidder is deemed to consent to oncat's verification or clarification rights. in the event that oncat receives information at any stage of the evaluation process which results in earlier information provided by the bidder being deemed by oncat to be inaccurate, incomplete or misleading, oncat reserves the right to revisit the oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 26 bidders compliance with the mandatory requirements and/or adjust the scoring of rated requirements. 5.4. bid process requirements 5.4.1. bids must be submitted on time bids must be submitted by the rfp closing date and time. bids submitted after this point in time may be deemed late, disqualified, and returned to the bidder, all in the discretion of oncat. 5.4.2. bid irrevocable after rfp closing date and time bids shall remain irrevocable in the form submitted by the bidder for a period of 120 days from the moment that the rfp closing date and time has lapsed. 5.4.3. bidders to review rfp bidders shall promptly examine all the documents comprising this rfp and: (a) shall report any errors, omissions, or ambiguities; and (b) may direct questions or seek additional information in writing by e-mail on or before the deadline for questions to the oncat contact set out in this rfp. all questions submitted by bidders by email to the oncat contact shall be deemed to be received once the e-mail has entered the oncat contacts email inbox. no such communications are to be directed to anyone other than the oncat contact. oncat is under no obligation to provide additional information but may do so at its sole discretion. it is the responsibility of the bidder to seek clarification from the oncat contact on any matter it considers to be unclear. oncat shall not be responsible for any misunderstanding on the part of the bidder concerning this rfp or its process. 5.4.4. no incorporation by reference by bidder except for links to examples where the product's ability to meet the requirements is being demonstrated, the entire content of the bid should be submitted in a fixed form and the content of web sites or other external documents referred to in the bid will not be considered to form part of the bid. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 27 5.4.5. amending or withdrawing bids prior to rfp closing date and time at any time prior to the rfp closing date and time, a bidder may amend or withdraw a submitted bid by sending a notice of amendment or withdrawal to the oncat contact. the right of bidders to amend or withdraw includes amendments or withdrawals wholly initiated by bidders and amendments or withdrawals in response to subsequent information made through an addendum to the rfp. 5.4.6. bid to be retained by oncat oncat will not return any bid or accompanying documentation submitted by a bidder including amended or withdrawn bids. 5.5. execution of agreement, notification and debriefing 5.5.1. selection of bidder oncat anticipates that it will select a bidder within the irrevocable period. notice of selection by oncat will be in writing. oncat and the preferred bidder shall execute an agreement and satisfy any other applicable conditions of this rfp within 30 days of notification of selection. this provision is solely to the benefit of oncat and may be waived by oncat at its sole discretion. 5.5.2. failure to enter into agreement in addition to all of oncats other remedies, if a preferred bidder fails to execute an agreement or satisfy any other applicable conditions within the period of time set out in this rfp following the notice of selection, oncat may, in its sole discretion and without incurring any liability, rescind the selection of that bidder and proceed with the selection of another bidder, or consider other options. 5.5.3. notification to other bidders of outcome of procurement process once the preferred bidder and oncat execute the agreement, the other bidders will be notified by oncat in writing of the outcome of the procurement process, including the name of the preferred bidder, and the award of the contract to the preferred bidder. 5.5.4. debriefing unsuccessful bidders may request a debriefing after receipt of a notification of award. all requests must be made to the oncat contact within sixty (60) days of notification of award. the intent of the debriefing information session is to aid the bidder in presenting oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 28 a better bid in subsequent procurement opportunities. any debriefing provided is not for the purpose of providing an opportunity to challenge the procurement process. 5.5.5. bid dispute bidders are advised that a formal bid dispute process is available, the details for which are available from the oncat contact. 5.5.6. prohibited bidder communications bidders shall address all questions and requests for clarification with respect to their bids, or the rfp documents or the rfp process only to the oncat contact set out in this rfp. bidders shall not contact or make any attempt to contact, (a) any ontario government employee or representative, other than oncat contact; or, (b) any other bidder with respect to a bid, the rfp documents, or the rfp process, at any time during the rfp process. without limiting the generality of the above, bidders, shall not contact or attempt to contact: (a) any member of oncat evaluation team for the rfp; (b) any expert or advisor assisting oncat evaluation team; (c) any staff of the premier of ontarios office or the ontario cabinet office; (d) any member of the ontario provincial parliament or his or her staff or advisors; or (e) any member of the ontario provincial cabinet or their staff or advisors, on matters related to their bids, the rfp documents, or the rfp process at any time during the rfp process. 5.5.7. bidder not to make a public statement or communicate with media a bidder may not at any time directly or indirectly make a public statement or communicate with the media in relation to this rfp or any contract awarded pursuant to oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 29 this rfp without first obtaining the written permission of oncat. where a bidder makes a communication contrary to this section oncat may disclose such information necessary to correct any inaccuracy of information. 5.5.8. confidential information of oncat all information provided by or obtained from oncat in any form in connection with this rfp either before or after the issuance of this rfp: (a) is the sole property of oncat and must be treated as confidential; (b) is not to be used for any purpose other than replying to this rfp and the performance of any subsequent contract; (c) must not be disclosed without prior written authorization from oncat; and (d) shall be returned by the bidders to oncat immediately upon the request of oncat. 5.5.9. freedom of information and protection of privacy act the freedom of information and protection of privacy act, r.s.o. 1990, c.f.31, as amended, applies to information provided to oncat by a bidder. a bidder should identify any information in its bid or any accompanying documentation supplied in confidence for which confidentiality is to be maintained by oncat. the confidentiality of such information will be maintained by oncat, except as otherwise required by law or by order of a court or tribunal. bidders are advised that their bids will, as necessary, be disclosed on a confidential basis, to oncats advisers retained for the purpose of evaluating or participating in the evaluation of their bids. by submitting any personal information requested in this rfp, bidders are agreeing to the use of such information as part of the evaluation process, for any audit of this procurement process and for contract management purposes. where the personal information relates to an individual assigned by the preferred bidder to provide the deliverables, such information may be used by oncat to compare the qualifications of such individual with any proposed substitute or replacement. if a bidder has any questions about the collection and use of personal information pursuant to this rfp, questions are to be submitted to the oncat contact in accordance with the bidders to review rfp section. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 30 5.6. reserved rights and governing law 5.6.1. reserved rights of oncat oncat reserves the right to: (a) make public the names of any or all bidders; the name of the preferred bidder(s); and, the total price for the contract awarded; (b) request written clarification or the submission of supplementary written information in relation to the clarification request from any bidder and incorporate a bidders response to that request for clarification into the bidders bid; (c) assess a bidders bid on the basis of: i. a financial analysis determining the actual cost of the bid when considering factors including transition costs arising from the replacement of existing services, practices, methodologies and infrastructure (howsoever originally established); ii. information provided by references; iii. the bidders past performance on previous contracts awarded by the government of ontario; iv. the information provided by a bidder pursuant to oncat exercising its clarification rights under this rfp process; or v. other relevant information that arises during this rfp process; (d) waive non-compliance where, in oncat's sole discretion, such non-compliance is minor and not of a material nature, or to accept or reject in whole or in part any or all bids, with or without giving notice. such minor non-compliance will be deemed substantial compliance and capable of acceptance. oncat will be the sole judge of whether a bid is accepted or rejected; (e) verify with any bidder or with a third party any information set out in a bid; (f) check references other than those provided by any bidder; (g) disqualify any bidder whose bid contains misrepresentations or any other inaccurate or misleading information; oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 31 (h) disqualify any bid or rescind any contract award where the bidder either: fails to disclose; or is determined to have an actual or perceived unfair advantage or conflict of interest determined to be material by oncat; (i) disqualify any bidder or the bid of any bidder who has engaged in conduct prohibited by this rfp; (j) make changes, including substantial changes, to this rfp provided that those changes are issued by way of addenda in the manner set out in this rfp; (k) select any bidder other than the bidder whose bid reflects the lowest cost to oncat or the highest score; (l) cancel this rfp process at any stage; (m) cancel this rfp process at any stage and procure (whether through issuing a new rfp or not) the same or similar deliverables; (n) accept any bid in whole or in part; or (o) reject any or all bids; and these reserved rights are in addition to any other express rights or any other rights which may be implied in the circumstances and oncat shall not be liable for any expenses, costs, losses or any direct or indirect damages incurred or suffered by any bidder or any third party resulting from oncat exercising any of its express or implied rights under this rfp. by submitting its bid, the bidder authorizes the collection by oncat of the information set out under (e) and (f) in the manner contemplated in those subparagraphs. 5.6.2. governing law of rfp process this rfp process shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the province of ontario and the federal laws of canada applicable therein. 5.7. supplementary terms and conditions 5.7.1. occupational health and safety requirements vendor(s) are required to comply with the occupational health and safety act (ohsa) and regulations and applicable ops and site-specific health and safety requirements. vendor(s) are responsible for meeting all of the employer obligations under the ohsa and shall ensure that all work is carried out safely. the vendor shall ensure that all oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 32 subcontractors (hired by the vendor) work in accordance with the ohsa and its regulations. 5.8. publication of data and consent 5.8.1. publication of data and consent it is ontarios intention, in accordance with the open data directive and as part of its commitment to open data, to publish and allow the public to use: (i) procurement contract data, including the name of the preferred bidder and total contract value; and, (ii) data created or collected as an output of a contract, except where ontario chooses not to publish the data in accordance with the open data directive, such as for privacy, confidentiality, security, legal or commercially sensitive reasons. each bidder, by submitting a bid, expressly consents to the above and agrees that, if it becomes the preferred bidder, it will not object to the above being incorporated into its contract. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 33 6. appendix a form of offer bidder instructions: 1. this form of offer must be signed and all pages of the original included with the bid. 2. other than inserting the information requested and signing the form of offer, a bidder may not make any changes to or qualify the form of offer in its bid. a bid that includes conditions, options, variations or contingent statements that are contrary to or inconsistent with the terms set out in the rfp may be disqualified. bids containing any change may, subject to the express and implied rights of oncat, be disqualified. if a bid is not disqualified despite such changes or qualifications, the provisions of the form of offer as set out in this rfp, will prevail over any such changes or qualifications in or to the form of offer provided in the bid. bidder instructions for tax compliance: 3. bidders are advised that if they are selected for contract award, their ontario tax obligations, if any, must be in good standing at the time of entering into an agreement. oncat will rescind the notice of selection of a bidder for contract award whose ontario tax obligations are not in good standing within the timeframe for satisfying the preconditions of execution set out in the rfp. bidders are required to follow the following process in order to determine their tax compliance status. the ministry of finance (mof) has automated the tax compliance verification (tcv) process by creating an online portal (http://www.etax.fin.gov.on.ca/) where you can confirm your tax compliance status online and at any time. getting a tcv number before you can verify your tax compliance status, your business will need to have a one-key id (https://www.iaa.gov.on.ca/iaalogin/iaalogin.jsp). visit one-key account registration (https://www.appenrol.onekey.gov.on.ca/usermgmtwebapp/registration.iaa) to set up an account. 1. to get your tcv number: register for e-services (https://www.etax.fin.gov.on.ca/eservices/eserviceshome/registeronekey?lang =enn) oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 34 2. select e-services from my services 3. select or add a business on the e-services page 4. select tcv (you will be redirected to bidder portal (http://www.etax.fin.gov.on.ca/) 5. in the bidder portal (https://www.etax.fin.gov.on.ca), select request tcv number on the tcv page 6. attach the filing and balance confirmation (fbc) letter (if required) and select next 7. select view summary to review compliance summary 8. download tcv certificate (optional) 9. provide your email to receive alerts about your account status where to go for help? please refer to the frequently asked questions (https://www.doingbusiness.mgs.gov.on.ca/mbs/psb/psb.nsf/english/faq-tctcprogram) for more information. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 35 this form of offer must be signed, and all pages of the original included with the bid. to: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 1. bidders information full legal name of bidder bidder to insert response any other relevant name under which the bidder carries business bidder to insert response any other registered business name under which the bidder carries on business: bidder to insert response the jurisdiction under which the bidder is formed: bidder to insert response bidder mailing address: bidder to insert response bidder telephone: bidder to insert response bidder representative name: bidder to insert response bidder representative title: bidder to insert response bidder representative e-mail address: bidder to insert response bidder representative mailing address: bidder to insert response bidder representative telephone: bidder to insert response indicate whether the bidder is an individual, a sole proprietorship, a corporation or a partnership: bidder to insert response oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 36 2. offer the bidder has carefully examined the rfp documents and has a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the deliverables required under the rfp. by submitting the bid, the bidder agrees and consents to the terms, conditions and provisions of the rfp, including the form of agreement, and offers to provide the deliverables in accordance with the rates set out in the pricing form. 3. mandatory forms the preferred bidder will enclose as part of the bid, the mandatory forms referenced. 4. addenda the bidder has read and accepted all addenda issued by oncat to date. we understand that the onus remains on us to have made any necessary amendments to our bid based on the addenda. 5. bid irrevocable the bidder agrees that its bid shall be irrevocable for the period of days set out in section 1.3 following the rfp closing date. 6. conflict of interest prior to completing this portion of the form of offer, bidders should refer to the definition of conflict of interest below. conflict of interest includes, but is not limited to, any situation or circumstance where: (a) in relation to the rfp process, the bidder has an unfair advantage or engages in conduct, directly or indirectly, that may give it an unfair advantage, including but not limited to (i) having or having access to information in the preparation of its bid that is confidential to the crown and not available to other bidders; (ii) communicating with any person with a view to influencing preferred treatment in the rfp process including the giving of a benefit of any kind, by or on behalf of the bidder to anyone employed by, or otherwise connected with, oncat; or (iii) engaging in conduct that compromises or could be seen to compromise the integrity of the open and competitive rfp process and render that process noncompetitive and unfair; or (b) in relation to the performance of its contractual obligations in a crown contract, the vendors other commitments, relationships or financial interests (i) could or could be seen to exercise an improper influence over the objective, unbiased and impartial exercise of its independent judgement; or (ii) could or could be oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 37 seen to compromise, impair or be incompatible with the effective performance of its contractual obligations. if the boxes in this section are left blank, the bidder will be deemed to declare that it has no foreseeable conflict of interest (in either definition part (a) or part (b)) in performing the contractual obligations contemplated in the rfp. otherwise, if either or both of the following statements apply, check the appropriate box. part (a) of definition: the bidder declares that there is an actual or potential unfair advantage relating to the preparation and submission of its bid. part (b) of definition: the bidder foresees an actual or potential conflict of interest in performing the contractual obligations contemplated in the rfp. if the bidder declares an actual or potential conflict of interest by marking either of the boxes, the bidder must describe it in the following space provided. (bidder to describe conflict of interest, if applicable) ____________________________________________________________________ in addition to the preceding declarations, the bidder must indicate if any individuals, as employees, advisors, or in any other capacity (a) participated in the preparation of our bid; and (b) were employees of the ontario public service ("ops") and have ceased that employment prior to the rfp closing date, by selecting "yes" or "no". if "yes" is indicated, bidders must complete the following section which relates to potential conflict of interest: the following individuals, as employees, advisors, or in any other capacity (a) participated in the preparation of our bid; and (b) were employees of the ontario public service ("ops") and have ceased that employment prior to the rfp closing date. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 38 name of individual: job classification (of last position within ops): ministry (where last employed with ops): last date of employment with ops: name of last supervisor with ops: brief description of individuals job functions (at last position with ops): brief description of nature of individuals participation in preparation of bid (repeat for each identified individual) the bidder agrees, upon request, to provide oncat with additional information from each individual identified in the preceding form prescribed by the ministry. the ministry will assess this information and may, at its sole and absolute discretion, conclude that an unfair advantage or conflict of interest arises and may, in addition to any other remedies available at law or in equity, disqualify the bid submitted by the bidder. 7. disclosure of information the bidder hereby agrees that any information provided in this bid, even if it is identified as being supplied in confidence, may be disclosed where required by law or if required by order of a court or tribunal. the bidder hereby consents to the disclosure, on a confidential basis, of this bid by oncat to oncats advisors retained for the purpose of evaluating or participating in the evaluation of this bid. 8. proof of insurance the bidder has verified it can, and if selected, it shall obtain insurance coverage in accordance with the form of agreement (appendix b of the rfp). 9. occupational health and safety declaration the bidder agrees, to the extent applicable, that it and any proposed subcontractors each have a written occupational health and safety policy and will maintain a program to implement that policy as required by clause 25(2)(j) of the occupational health and safety act, r.s.o. 1990, c.0.1 (ohsa) as amended. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 39 (a) with respect to the services being offered in this bid, the bidder and its proposed subcontractors acknowledge the responsibility to, and shall: (i) fulfill all of the employer obligations under ohsa and ensure that all work is carried out in accordance with ohsa and its regulations; (ii) appoint and ensure an adequate number of supervisors are provided for the work and that they all satisfy the definition of competent as prescribed in ohsa; (iii) identify any hazards associated with the work, assess the risks and develop appropriate control measures to protect worker safety; (iv) provide information and instruction to all employees to ensure they are informed of the hazards inherent to the work and understand the procedures for minimizing the risk of injury or illness; (v) ensure that workers and supervisors have completed mandatory health and safety awareness training in accordance with o. reg. 297/13; (vi) notify oncat of the occurrence of all work-related health and safety incidents and ministry of labour investigations or orders; and (vii) ensure appropriate emergency management procedures and response in the event of an accident or fire, including an emergency evacuation plan that accommodates for persons with disabilities (in accordance with section 27 of the integrated accessibility standard regulation, accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act, 2005) and shall cause its proposed subcontractors to acknowledge such responsibility and comply with the above requirements (b) the bidder agrees, to the extent applicable, that any and all equipment used in connection with the deliverables under the contract is at all times properly and safely maintained by duly qualified personnel and is at all times in good working order. (c) the bidder agrees, to the extent possible, to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of worker health and safety, as required by the ohsa and shall cause its proposed subcontractors to do the same. 10. tax compliance bidders are advised that if they are selected for contract award, their ontario tax obligations, if any, must be in good standing at the time of entering into an agreement. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 40 the ontario government expects all bidders to meet their ontario tax obligations on a timely basis. i\we hereby undertake that (i) the bidder, if selected for contract award, will be in full compliance with all applicable ontario tax statutes, whether administered by the ontario ministry of finance (mof) or by the canada revenue agency (cra), at the time of entering into an agreement and that, in particular, all returns required to be filed will have been filed and all taxes due and payable under those statutes will have been paid or satisfactory arrangements for their payment will have been made or maintained and (ii) the bidder will take all necessary steps prior to entering into an agreement in order to be in full compliance with all those statutes at the time of entering into the agreement. select yes if you agree select no if you do not agree (may result in your disqualification) tax compliance verification number a bidders tcv number is required by oncat to confirm with the mof that the bidders ontario tax obligations, if any, are in good standing. if the bidder does not provide its tcv number with the form of offer, it will have to provide the tcv number prior to signing an agreement, so oncat can confirm with the mof the bidders tax compliance status at the time of signing the agreement. by providing the tcv number you are consenting to oncat releasing the tcv number to the ministry of finance for tax compliance verification. please enter your tcv number: _________________________ the business number is a business identifier for the canadian revenue agency (cra). it is a nine (9) digit number. it can be found as the first nine digits of your harmonized sales tax (hst) number. please enter the bidder's business number: _________________________ oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 41 11. execution of agreement the bidder understands and agrees that in the event that its bid is selected by oncat, in whole or in part, the bidder agrees to finalize and execute an agreement in accordance with the terms of this rfp. dated at this day of 2023 signature of authorized signing offer signature of witness click here to enter name. print name click here to enter name. name of witness click here to enter title. print title i, the individual indicated above, acknowledge and confirm that (a) i have authority to bind the bidder, (b) i am submitting this bid on behalf of the bidder; (c) the bidder has read, understood, agrees and consents to be bound by the terms, conditions and provisions of the rfp, including the form of agreement, and (d) the bidder offers to provide the deliverables for the rates set out in the commercial response in its bid. oncat request for proposal transfer course evaluation system & syllabus solution 42

coi.lge boral ducalion nnovatlon recherche la cit.i he.nt )camna.ic fln,nin, protocole dentente entre universit de hearst corporation lgalement constitue, ayant ses bureaux au 60, 9 rue, hearst, ontario, pol ino et reprsente par monsieur luc bussires, recteur, dment autoris aux fins des prsentes, tel quil le dclare et collge la cit corporation lgalement constitue, ayant ses bureaux au 801, promenade de laviation, ottawa, ontario, k1k fr3 et reprsente par madame lise bourgeois, prsidente, dment autorise aux fins des prsentes, telle quelle le dclare et collge boral corporation lgalement constitue, ayant ses bureaux au 21, boulevard lasalle, sudbury, ontario, p3a 651 et reprsente par monsieur daniel giroux, prsident dment autoris aux fins des prsentes, tel quil le dclare 2 parcours de transferts des programmes du collge la cit et du collge boral vers les programmes de luniversit de hearst la mission et les objectifs de lentente de collaboration entre le collge boral, le collge la cit et luniversit de hearst stipulent, entre autres, que le collge boral, le collge la cit et luniversit de hearst sengagent encourager lexcellence en apprentissage, assurer des possibilits de formation et accrotre laccs aux programmes dtudes postsecondaires en franais et la mobilit entre les tablissements. en reconnaissance de cette entente-cadre, les parties conviennent que: les cohortes diplmes du collge boral et du collge la cit des programmes identifis lannexe i ont la possibilit daccder aux programmes administration des affaires, gestion, tude des enieux humains et sociaux et psychologie de luniversit de hearst et obtenir un baccalaurat s (3 ans) ou (4 ans) ou un baccalaurat en administration des affaires aprs avoir complete avec succes les cours desdits programmes 1. admissibilit les cohortes diplmes issues des programmes du collge boral et du collge la cit identifis lannexe i seront admissibles aux programmes de luniversit de hearst spcifis ladite annexe; b) les candidates et les candidats admissibles qui sinscrivent dans un des programmes viss par la prsente entente recevront une reconnaissance de leur diplme collgial admissible des quivalences universitaires indiques lannexe i; c) luniversit de hearst ne limitera pas le nombre de personnes diplmes admissibles provenant du collge boral et du collge la cit; d) les candidates et les candidats doivent avoir obtenu leur diplme dtudes collgiales, de mme que la moyenne minimale exige, et doivent remplir les conditions gnrales dadmission de luniversit de hearst, telles que dcrites dans son annuaire. 3 2. critres dadmission les candidates et les candidats admissibles du collge boral et du collge la cit dsirant se prvaloir de la prsente entente doivent suivre la procdure suivante: a) suivre la procdure dadmission de luniversit de hearst b) prsenter cette demande dadmission au plus tard le 30 avril, demande qui doit tre accompagne dun relev de notes officiel attestant lobtention du diplme dans un des programmes identifis lannexe 1 ou encore de linscription lun des programmes identifis lannexe 1. 3. changements aux conditions programmes dtudes dadmission et aux luniversit de hearst est responsable dinformer le collge la cit et le collge boral au printemps de chaque anne de tout changement dans ses conditions dadmission, ses programmes dtudes et apporter les changements au protocole, sil y a lieu. les deux collges sont galement tenus dinformer de tout changement dans ses programmes dtudes et si ncessaire, y apporter les changements au protocole. 4. modalits administratives de lentente darticulation 43 corps professoral le corps professoral de chaque tablissement est rgi par sa propre convention collective. 4.2 aspects financiers les trois parties conviennent que les droits de scolarit ainsi que tout financement reli aux programmes appartiennent ltablissement qui les reoit. 4 les trois parties pourront faire tat de ce protocole dentente dans les documents de promotion de leurs programmes dtudes respectifs et leur site web. les parties conviennent que toute publicit ou activit de marketing du programme est la responsabilit de ltablissement qui entreprend la publicit ou le marketing. les trois parties conviennent quelles sont responsables respectivement des cots associs cette entente. 4.3 droit de refis luniversit de hearst se rserve le droit de refuser dappliquer le prsent protocole dentente un candidat ou une candidate ayant obtenu un diplme collgial vis par le protocole plus de trois (3) ans avant sa demande dadmission. 4.4. dure de len tente la prsente entente sapplique aux cohortes diplmes des programmes identifis lannexe 1. elle se renouvellera automatiquement, danne en anne, moins que lune des parties ne donne un pravis dau moins trois (3) mois aux autres parties de son intention de se retirer. 4.5 rglement des diffrends tout dsaccord entre les parties au sujet de linterprtation, de lapplication ou de ladministration de cette entente ou tout dfaut des parties de sentendre lorsquune entente est ncessaire, dsigns globalement ici de diffrends , doit tre tranch conformment aux dispositions du prsent article. cependant, la dcision dune partie de rsilier lentente selon larticle 4.4 ne constitue par un diffrend aux fins de larticle 4.5. les parties feront tous les efforts raisonnables pour rgler le diffrend rapidement et lamiable par voie de mdiation ou autrement. si le diffrend ne peut tre rgl dans un dlai raisonnable, ce diffrend doit tre soumis larbitrage dun seul arbitre conformment aux dispositions suivantes: s a) la partie qui dsire larbitrage, fait parvenir aux autres parties un avis darbitrage; b) les parties doivent conjointement dsigner une ou un arbitre acceptable pour les trois parties dans les dix (10) jours ouvrables suivant lenvoi de lavis darbitrage; c) si les parties ne sentendent pas sur le choix dune ou un arbitre dans ce dlai de dix (10) jours ouvrables, larbitre doit tre dsign par un juge de la cour suprieure de justice de lontario de la ville dottawa ou de la ville de sudbury, le cas chant; d) les sances darbitrage se tiennent dans la ville dottawa ou dans la ville de sudbury; e) larbitre a le pouvoir de dterminer sa propre procdure et peut rendre sa dcision par crit ou selon toute autre forme quelle ou il choisit; f) chaque partie paie la moiti des frais darbitrage; g) la dcision de larbitre est finale et sans appel et lie les parties. 4.6 indenrnisahon luniversit de hearst sengage indemniser le collge la cit lgard de toute obligation ou perte et de tous cots, dommages-intrts et dpenses (y compris les honoraires davocats, dexperts et de consultants), causes daction, actions, rclamations, demandes, poursuites ou autres instances judiciaires que toute personne pourrait faire, subir, engager, prsenter ou intenter et qui dcouleraient de quelque faon de cette entente ou sy rapportent dune manire ou dune autre rsultant de tout acte, volontaire ou non, de la ngligence de la part de luniversit de hearst, de ses agentes et ses agents, de son personnel, de ses personnes dlgues, de ses bnvoles ou de toute personne pour qui luniversit de hearst est lgalement responsable. luniversit de hearst sengage indemniser le collge boral lgard de toute obligation ou perte et de tous cots, dommages-intrts et dpenses (y compris les honoraires davocats, dexperts et de consultants), causes daction, actions, rclamations, demandes, poursuites ou autres instances judiciaires que toute personne pourrait faire, subir, engager, prsenter ou intenter et qui dcouleraient de quelque faon de cette entente ou sy rapportent dune manire ou dune autre rsultant de tout acte, volontaire ou non, de la ngligence de la part de luniversit de hearst, de ses agentes et de ses agents, de son personnel, de ses personnes dlgues, de ses bnvoles ou de toute personne pour qui luniversit de hearst est lgalement responsable. 6 le collge la cit sengage indemniser luniversit de hearst lgard de toute obligation ou perte et de tous cots, dommages-intrts et dpenses (y compris les honoraires davocats, dexperts et de consultants), causes daction, actions, rclamations, demandes, poursuites ou autres instances judiciaires que toute personne pourrait faire, subir, engager, prsenter ou intenter et qui dcouleraient de quelque faon de cette entente ou sy rapportent dune manire ou dune autre rsultant de tout acte, volontaire ou non, de la ngligence de la part du collge la cit, de ses agentes et ses agents, de son personnel, de ses personnes dlgues, de ses bnvoles ou de toute personne pour qui la cit est lgalement responsable. le collge boral sengage indenwiser luniversit de hearst lgard de toute obligation ou perte et de tous cots, dommages-intrts et dpenses (y compris les honoraires davocats, dexperts et de consultants), causes daction, actions, rclamations, demandes, poursuites ou autres instances judiciaires que toute personne pourrait faire, subir, engager, prsenter ou intenter et qui dcouleraient de quelque faon de cette entente ou sy rapportent dune manire ou dune autre rsultant de tout acte, volontaire ou non, de la ngligence de la part du collge boral, de ses agentes et ses agents, de son personnel, de ses personnes dlgues, de ses bnvoles ou de toute personne pour qui le collge boral est lgalement responsable. 4.7 correspondance toute correspondance destine au collge la cit et affrente au prsent contrat devra tre adresse : vice-prsidence lenseignement collge la cit 801, promenade de laviation ottawa (on) 1<1k 4r3 tlphone: 613 742-2493 poste 2003 tlcopieur : 613 742-2469 - toute correspondance destine au collge boral et affrente au prsent contrat devra tre adresse : vice-prsidence enseignement collge boral - 7 21, boulevard lasalle sudbury (on) p3e 6w1 tlphone : 705 560-6673, poste 2750 tlcopieur: 705 560-0545 toute correspondance destine luniversit de hearst et affrente au prsent contrat devra tre adresse : vice-rectorat lenseignement et la recherche universit de hearst 60, 9e rue s. p. 580 hearst (on) pol 1no tlphone: 705 372-1781 tlcopieur : 705 362-7518 - 4.8 droit applicable la prsente entente doit tre interprte conformment au droit applicable dans la province de lontario. 4.9 intgralit de lentente les parties conviennent que la prsente entente confient lnonc intgral et unique de lentente intervenue entre elles relativement loffre du programme. elle remplace et met fin toute reprsentation, ngociation ou proposition antrieure relativement lobjet de la prsente. 4.20 clauses diverses le prambule (principes de bases) fait partie intgrante de la prsente entente. cette entente na pas pour effet de faire de lune ou de lautre partie lagence de lautre partie, sa reprsentante lgale, sa partenaire dans cette co-entreprise, son associe, employe ou prpose. elle ne cre aucune relation fiduciaire ou mandataire entre les parties. chacune des parties reconnat quelle na aucune autorit pour assumer ou crer quelque obligation que ce soit, expresse ou implicite au nom de lautre partie, sauf et strictement pour ce qui est expressment prvue par cette entente. chacune des parties reconnat galement quelle na aucune autorit 8 pour lier lautre partie de quelque manire que ce soit, ni pour engager la responsabilit de lautre partie. 5. signataires de lentente en foi de quoi, les parties ont sign ottawa, le 14 novembre 2018: pour luniversit de hearst lutt 9jja%.a luc bussires recteur pour le ma)ydard vice-recteur cit lyi1t casimiro prsideni vice-prsidente lenseignement prsident lyne michaud vice-prsidente enseignement - 9 annexe 1 parcours menant aux programmes de gestion et dadministration des affaires parcours entre le programme de techniques dadministration des affaires du collge boral et du collge la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral et du collge_la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearat pour obtenir une concentration en gestion techniques dadministration desaffaires zans (diplme) admn 1106(3) admn 1107(3) admn2006(3) admn2007(3) co5c 1701 (3) cqsc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2606(3) admn 2617(3) admn31i6(3) admn3ii7(3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127(3) admn 3137 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100(6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100(6) huma 9200 (18) langioo (3) lang 1007(3) total 30 crdits total : 60 crdits programme du collge boral et du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de heant cours complter luniversit de nearst pour obtenir une spdaiisadon en. administration des afftis techniques dadministration des affaires zans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006(3) admn2007(3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702(3) con 1006(3) con 1007 (3) admn 2306 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn3jo6(3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3116(3) admn 3117(3) admn 3126(3) admn 3127(3) admn 3137(3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100(6) math 9100(6) 10 huma 9100(6) huma 9200(18) admn 4046(3) admn 4606(3) admn 4607(3) total : 60 crdits* lancioo6 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix total :60 crdit parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires du collge la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion administration des affaires sans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn2006(3) admn2007(3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702(3) con 1006(3) con 1007(3) admn 2606(3) admn 2617(3) admn3ii6(3) admn3ii7(3) admn 3126(3) admn 3127(3) admn 3136(3) admn 3137(3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100(6) huma 9200(18) langioo6 (3) lang 1007(3) total :30 crdits total : 60 crdits programme du collge la cit administration des affaires 3 ans crdits accords par luniversit de hearst admn admn admn admn 1106 (3) 1107(3) 2006 (3) 2007 (3) cours complter luniversit de heant pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires admn admn admn admn 2306(3) 2606 (3) 2617(3) 3106 (3) 11 cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007(3) admn 9100(6) math 9100 (6) huma 9100(6) huma 9200(18) total :60 crdits admn 3107 (3) admn 3116(3) admn 3117(3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127(3) admn 3137(3) admn 3137 (3) admn 4046(3) admn 4606(3) admn 4607(3) langioo6 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures total : 60 crdits parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires- comptabilit du collge boral et du collge la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral et du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de heant catin complter luniversit de heant pour obtenir une concentration en gestion administration des affaires comptabilit 3ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn2007(3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn31i7(3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127(3) admn 3136 (3) admn 3137(3) admn 9100(6) math 9100(6) huma 9100(6) huma 9200 (18) langioo6 (3) lang 1007(3) - total : 60 crdits total 30 crdits 12 programme du collge boral et du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearsi administration des affaires- admn 1106(3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007(3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702(3) con 1006 (3) con 1007 (3) comptabilit 3 ans (diplme) cours complter luniversit de hearsi pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires admn 2306(3) apmn 2606 (3) admn 2617 (3) admn 3106 (3) admn 3107 (3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117(3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137(3) admn 3137(3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4606 (3) admn 4607 (3) admn 9100(6) math 9100(6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) langioo6 (3) lang 1007 (3) total : 60 crdits + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures total 60 crdits parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires finance du collge la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst - programme du collge la cit administration des affaires finance - 3ans (diplme) crdits accords par luniversit de hearsi cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en gestion admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn2006(3) admn2007(3) coec 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) admn 2617(3) admn3ii6(3) admn3ii7(3) admn 3126(3) admn 3127 (3) c0n 1006 (3) admn 3136 (3) admn 2606 (3) 13 con 1007 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100(6) huma 9100(6) huma 9200(18) lang1006 (3) lang 1007(3) total :30 crdits total 60 crdits programme du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de heant administration des affaires finance 3 ans (diplme) aomn 1106(3) admn 1107(3) admn 2006 (3) admn 2007(3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006(3) - con 1007(3) admn 9100 (6) math 9100(6) huma 9100(6) huma 9200(18) total 60 crdits coins complter luniversit de hearst pou obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires admn admn admn admn admn admn 2306(3) 2606(3) 2617 (3) 3106 (3) 3107 (3) 3116 (3) admn 3117(3) admn 3126 (3) 3127 (3) 3137(3) 3137(3) 4046(3) 4606(3) admn 4607(3) admn admn admn admn admn langioo6 (3) lang 1007(3) + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures total 60 crdits 14 parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires gestion du collge la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst - programme du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de heant cours complter luniversit de heant pour obtenir une concentration en gestion administration des affaires gestion 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) admn 2006(3) aomn 2007(3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006(3) con 1007(3) admn 2606(3) admn 2617(3) admn 3116(3) admn 3117(3) admn 3126(3) admn 3127(3) admn 3136(3) admn 3137(3) admn 9100 (6) mati-l 9100 (6) huma 9100 (6) huma 9200 (18) langioo6 (3) lang 1007(3) - total 30 crdits total : 60 crdits programme du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de heant cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en administration des affaires administration des affaires gestion 3 ans (diplme) admn 1106 (3) admn 1107 (3) aomn 2006(3) admn 2007(3) cosc 1701 (3) cosc 1702 (3) con 1006(3) con 1007 (3) admn 2306(3) admn 2606(3) admn 2617(3) admn 3106(3) admn 3107(3) admn 3116 (3) admn 3117(3) admn 3126 (3) admn 3127 (3) admn 3137(3) admn 3137(3) admn 4046 (3) admn 4606 (3) admn 4607 (3) - admn 9100(6) math 9100(6) huma 9100(6) huma 9200(18) total :60 crdits lancioo6 (3) lang_1007_(3) 15 + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures total :60 crdits parcours entre le programme dadministration des affaires - marketing du collge la cit et les programmes dadministration des affaires et de gestion de luniversit de hearst programme du crdits accords par collge la cit luniversit de heant pour obtenir une concentration en gestion des admn 1106 (3) admn 2606 (3) marketing administration affaires cours complter luniversit de hearst admn 1107 (3) admn 2617(3) 3 ans admn 2006 (3) admn 3116 (3) (diplme) admn 2007 (3) admn 3117 (3) cosc 1701 (3) admn 3126 (3) - cosc 1702(3) admn 3127(3) con 1006(3) admn 3136 (3) con 1007 (3) admn 3137 (3) admn 9100 (6) langi0o6 (3) math 9100(6) lang 1007(3) huma 9100(6) huma 9200 (18) total :30 crdits total 60 crdits programme du crdits accords collge la cit : l luniversit de hearst - (diplme) pour obtenir une spcialisation en des afftims k. marketing 3 ans cours complter luniversit de hearat admiisdon administration des affaires par (3) (3) admn 1106(3) admn 1107(3) admn 2306 dmn 2006(3) admn 2617(3) admn 2606 2007(3) cosc 1701 (3) admn admn cosc 1702(3) admn 3116 admn 3106(3) 3107 (3) (3) 16 c0n 1006(3) admn admn admn admn admn admn admn admn con 1007(3) admn 9100(6) math 9100(6) huma 9100(6) huma 9200(18) total :60 crdits 3117(3) 3126(3) 3127(3) 3137(3) 3137(3) 4046(3) 46% (3) 4607(3) langioo6 (3) lang 1007 (3) + 4 cours au choix des annes suprieures total 60 crdits parcours menant aux programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux (3 ans et 4 ans) parcours entre le programme dtudes sur la paix et les conflits du collge boral et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux notes humains et sociaux tudes sur la paix et les conflits 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 1946(3) inte 3946 (3) huma 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) 50c1 3187 (3) sosc 9100(21) sosc 9200 (18) engl 1542 ou espa 1007 hist 3756 (3) ou hist 3757(3) inte 1016(3) inte 3016 (3) ou llfl 2646(3) langioo6 (3) lang 1007(3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516(3) psyc 2517(3) psyc 2606(3) ou goc 1026(3) total 60 crdits total :30 crdits des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. 17 programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter ltjniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux etudes sur la paix et les conflits 2 ans (diplme) engi. 1541 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 1946(3) huma 9100(3) lang 9100(3) soci 3187(3) sosc gioo (21) engl 1542 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757(3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016(3) langido6 (3) lang 1007 (3) lii] 2646 (3) math 2256 (3) sosc 9200 (21) total :60 crdits* psyc 2516(3) psyc 2517(3) psyc 2606 (3) gog 1026(3) un cours parmi les suivants: soci 3076 (3) goc 3217(3) hist 2037(3) notes des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligaloires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. - - - inte 4016 (3) inte 4104(9) inte 4915(6) total_:60_crdits parcours entre le programme de techniques des services policiers du collge boral et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst techniques des services policiers 2 ans (diplme) cosc 1701 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 9100 (3) inte 3026 (3) nati 9100 (3) cours complter luniversit de heant pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes hist 3756 (3) ou hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3946 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans 18 lang 9100 (3) poli 1006 (3) psyc 1106 (3) soci 1016 (3) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200(24) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517(3) psyc 2606 (3) ou geoc 1026 un cours parmi: soc 3187 (3) soc 3076 (3) - - - total :60 crdits - la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux gog 3217(3) humains et sociaux sera hist 2037 (3) utilis. total__30_crdhs programme du crdits accords par cours complter luniversit couge boral luniversit de hearst de henst pour obtenir une spdalisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux techniques des services policiers 2 ans (diplme) cosc 1701 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 9100 (3) inte 3026 (3) nati 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) poli 1006 (3) psyc 1106 (3) soc! 1016(3) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (24) goc 1026(3) total :60 crdits* hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016(3) ou llfl 2646(3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) trois cours parmi les suivants: gog 3217(3) hist 2037(3) s0c13187(3) s0c13076(3) - - - - inte 4016 (3) inte 4104(9) inte 4915(6) total_:_60_crdits notes des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. 19 parcours entre le programme de techniques des services policiers du collge la cit et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme du collge la cit crdits accords par iiiniversit de heant cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en tude des enjeux humains et notes sociaux techniques des services policiers 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542(3) inte 1946 (3) 1nte 3026 (3) inte 3946 (3) engl 9200 (6) huma 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) soci 2506 (3) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (12) hist 3756(3) ou hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016(3) ou llfl 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606(3) ou goc 1026 un cours parmi: soci 3187(3) soc 3076(3) geoc 3217(3) hist 2037(3) - - total :60 crdits - - total :30 crdits programme du collge u cit crdits accords par luniversit de heant techniques des services policiers 2 ans (diplme) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542(3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3026 (3) engl 9200 (6) huma 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) soci 2506 (3) sosc 9100(12) sosc 9200(15) total 60 crdits* cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux goc 1026 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) llfl 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lanc 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) deux cours parmi: soc! 3187 (3) - des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. notes des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude 20 - - - soci 3076(3) glog32l7(3) hist 2037 (3) des enjeux humains etsociauxsera utilis. inte 4016(3) inte 4104(9) inte 4915(6) total_:_60_crdits parcours entre le programme de techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale du collge la cit et les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux de luniversit de hearst programme du collge la cit techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale 2 ans (diplme) crdits accords par luniversit de heant cours complter luniversit de heant pour obtenir une concentntion en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes engl 1541 (3) engl 1542(3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 3946(3) huma 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006(3) psyc 2007(3) psyc 9200(6) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (12) hist 3756 (3) ou hist 3757(3) inte 1016(3) inte 3016 (3) ou li]] 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) ou geoc 1026 un cours parmi: soci 3187 (3) soci 3076 (3) gog 3217(3) hist 2037 (3) des substitutions de cours seront effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitutions, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. - - - total 60 crdits - total: 30 crdits programme du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearat pour obtenir une spcialisation en tude des enjeux humains et sociaux notes techniques de radaptation et engl 1541 (3) engl 1542(3) gog 1026 (3) des substitutions de cours seront hist 3756(3) 21 de justice pnale 2 ans (diplme) inte 1946 (3) inte 3026(3) inte 4915 (6) huma 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007(3) psyc 9200 (6) sosc 9100 (9) sosc 9200 (9) total 60 crdits effectues pour certains cours obligatoires qui ne figurent ni dans les crdits accords, ni dans la section des cours complter. pour effectuer ces substitution5, loutil dquivalence dj adopt pour les programmes dtude des enjeux humains et sociaux sera utilis. hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 3016 (3) lang 1006 (3) lanc 1007(3) ui] 2646 (3) math 2256 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) goc 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) soci 3187 (3) soci 3076 (3) inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) total 60 crdits parcours menant aux programmes de psychologie (3 ans et 4 ans) parcours entre le programme de techniques de travail social grontologie du collge la cit et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst - programme du collge la cit techniques de travail social grontologie 1,5 ans (diplme) - crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de heant pour psyc 2007 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) psyc 9200 (3) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) lang 9100 (6) sosc 9100 (9) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007(3) obtenir une concentration en psychologie psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107(3) psyc 2126(3) psyc 2516(3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + total :45 crdit? i cours au choix psyc des annes suprieures + 6 cours au choix des annes suprieures total 45 crdits 22 programme du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearat cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie techniques de travail social grontologie 1,sans (diplme) psyc 2007(3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) psyc9200(3) beso 1006(3) seso 9100 (6) engl 9100 (6) lang 9100(6) sosc 9100 (9) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) - total :45 crdits psycii06(3) psyc 1107(3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2516(3) psyc 2517(3) psyc 2606(3) psyc 2617(3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217(3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706(3) psyc 4006(3) psyc 4104 (9) + 5 cours au choix des annes suprieures total 75 crdits parcours entre le programme de techniques de travail social du collge boral et du collge la cit et les programmes de psychologie de luniversit de hearst programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une concentration en psychologie techniques de travail social (tosc) 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006(3) psyc 2007(3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906(3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) cosc 1701 (3) sou 1016 (3) beso 1006(3) seso 9100 (6) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106(3) psyc 1107(3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516(3) psyc 2517(3) psyc 3206 (3) + 23 engl 91go (3) lang 9100 (6) huma 9100(3) sosc 9100 (3) sosc 9200 (9) 2 cours au choix des annes suprieures total :30 crdits total : 60 crdits programme du collge boral crdits accords par luniversit de hearst coins complter luniversit de heant pour obtenir une spcblisation en psychologie techniques de travail social (tosc) z ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007(3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) cosc 1701 (3) soc! 1016 (3) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (6) engl 9100 (3) lang 9100 (6) huma 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (3) sosc 9200 (9) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) total z 60 crdits psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104(9) + i cours au choix des annes suprieures total :60 crdits 24 programme du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter * luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une cqncentration en psychologie techniques de travail social (tosc) 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906(3) psyc 4206(3) psyc 4915 (6) beso 1006 (3) seso 9100 (9) engl 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (9) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007(3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107(3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 2 cours au choix des annes suprieures total :60 crdits total :30 crdits programme du collge la cit crdits accords par luniversit de hearst cours complter luniversit de hearst pour obtenir une spcialisation en psychologie techniques de travail social (tosc) 2 ans (diplme) psyc 2006 (3) lang 1006(3) lang 1007(3) psyc 2007(3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3906 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) beso 1006 (3) sf50 9100 (9) engl 9100 (3) lang 9100 (3) sosc 9100(12) sosc 9200 (9) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107(3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517(3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206(3) psyc 3217(3) psyc 3256(3) psyc 3306(3) psyc 3607(3) psyc 3706(3) psyc 4006(3) psyc 4104 (9) total :60 crdits 1- i cours au choix des annes suprieures total_:_60_crdits une moyenne rninirnnk collgiale de 3.2 ou 80% est requise pour obtenir les crdits indiqus.

research brief data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario: past, present, and future dr. scott davies, university of toronto dr. roger pizarro milian, oncat september 2020 data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario 2 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 an efficient postsecondary education (pse) system allows students to switch tracks without experiencing arbitrary credit loss. students should be able to move across programs in different institutions, but within the same field of study (e.g., math), without running into bureaucratic red tape that forces them to repeat prior learning unnecessarily. this saves both students and the province money and ensures that students enter the labour market without delay. in pse systems like ontarios, where our college and university sectors were not originally designed to facilitate cross-sector student mobility, our primary tool in the battle against credit loss is a decentralized framework of articulation agreements. over the years, colleges and universities have developed a web of primarily bilateral agreements to specify how much transfer credit students will receive when they switch institutions. in ontario, academics and policy researchers outside of the provincial government (including oncat) do not have access to an slds-type data source. this has fundamentally shaped the existing research on transfer students in ontario. sadly, we know little about the early predictors of transfer behavior, nor how transfer students perform in pse net of said early predictors. over the next two to three years, oncat is taking concrete steps to ameliorate this situation. rigorously evaluating how students fare in this decentralized system is a difficult task for researchers. studies show that many transfer students take meandering educational pathways: switching institutions, stopping out, and re-starting in unexpected ways or places. these attributes mean that transfer students defy most standard data-collection designs in social science research. for instance, standard cross-sectional surveys will fail to capture the full complexity of their educational histories, unless carefully designed to do so. longitudinal surveys track students over time and can capture mobility patterns, but they are costly and suffer from attrition even when carried out by well-resourced organizations. yits for example, the youth in transition survey (____)a joint initiative between statistics canada and human resources and skills development canada (hrsdc)is the gold standard in canadian educational research datasets. it tracked multiple cohorts of students from their teenage years into young adulthood, collecting detailed information on both data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario 3 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 their education and labour market outcomes. however, the yits sample dropped precipitously from roughly 38,000 in 2000 (cycle 1) to roughly 11,000 by 2010 (cycle 6). such sample sizes are not sufficient for detailed statistical analysis within provinces or regions and thus have limited use for policymakers. this is especially true when it comes to transfer research. since transfer students compose only a small portion (69 percent) of ontarios pse students, we need large samples. these samples need to be further broken down, not only by the four main transfer types, but also by demographics within each type, such as gender, cohort, race, economic class, and immigration status. otherwise, estimates produced by statistical models will lack power and reliability. in addition to broad population coverage and lengthy longitudinal frames, transfer research ideally requires a wealth of metrics reflecting students academic, behavioural, and demographic traits captured early in their life-course. as both researchers and experienced educators will tell you, the seeds of success in education are planted many years before a student steps foot on a college or university campus. if we ignore upstream factors influencing attainment and mobility, we could bias our understanding of what produces challenges in the later stages of the student life-course. the need to account for early life-course metrics presents an additional layer of complexity when choosing or constructing data sources for transfer research. faced with these extreme data demands, student mobility researchers have started to turn to administrative data linkages. by administrative, we refer to records produced through normal operations at schools (both k12 and pse), which are often compiled and stored by coordinating bodies, like school boards or government agencies (e.g., departments, ministries, etc.). linking such sources allows for tracking transfer students throughout their journey, provides population-level coverage, and affords access to detailed academic and other records. such data sources provide the ideal platform for studying student mobility. south of the border, there are numerous examples of these data-linkage efforts. supported by the statewide longitudinal data system (_____), slds many american states have constructed impressive data warehouses (e.g., florida, texas, etc.) that allow for the tracking of individuals across the life-courseall the way from kindergarten to the labour market. in british columbia, the student transitions project (____) stp is also a national leader, allowing for the tracking of students from k12 and through pse. 1. by this, we are referring to college-to-college, college-to-university, university-to-university, and university-to-college. 2019 flouri & buchahan, _____; 2004 hango, _____. 2011 2. for examples, see: brown, gallagher-mackay, & parekh, _____; data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario 4 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 in ontario, academics and policy researchers outside of the provincial government (including oncat) do not have access to an slds-type data source. this has fundamentally shaped the existing research on transfer students in ontario. sadly, we know little about the early predictors of transfer behaviour, nor how transfer students perform in pse net of said early predictors. over the next two to three years, oncat is taking concrete steps to ameliorate this situation. one exciting initiative will pilot large-scale data sharing across k12 and pse organizations in the greater toronto area. our primary goal is to demonstrate to sector stakeholders the utility of administrative linkages for institutional planning, government policy development, and academic research. in the process, we also hope to make significant inroads in the study of transfer research in ontario. as part of this effort, over the coming weeks, we will be publishing some exploratory empirical analyses of transfer using one of the first cross-sector (k12/pse) administrative linkages of its kind in ontario: between the toronto district school board (tdsb) and the university of toronto. the attendees of our most recent transfer advisors group (tag) and francophone committee meetings have already seen the preliminary findings of this project. we hope that profiling this research more broadly will help to raise awareness about the utility of administrative linkages, and, hopefully, inspire interest on the part of other organizations in participating in a broader gta pilot. stay tuned! data infrastructure and student mobility research in ontario 5 davies, pizarro milian | september 2020 dr. scott davies dr. scott davies is professor and the canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education (tier 1) at the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the university of toronto. dr. roger pizarro milian dr. roger pizarro milian is the senior researcher at the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). oncat.ca/en/projects/the-tdsb-ut-linkage-and -transfer-project established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2020

york university psychology degree pathways into seneca college graduate certificates, degrees and diplomas 2018-19 final report march 1, 2019 york/ seneca partnership executive summary in recent years, pathway development has focused predominantly on mobility from colleges into the universities. in ontario, university degrees into college credentials remain largely underexplored. the york university psychology degree pathways into seneca college graduate certificates, degrees and diplomas project was aimed at uncovering opportunities for mobility from the university to the college. the project resulted in the successful development of five pathways: 1) york degrees into seneca graduate certificates two agreements; 2) york degrees into seneca diplomas two agreements; and 3) york degrees into a seneca degree. these agreements are being finalized and will be posted to the oncat website by april 2019. in the degree to graduate certificate pathways, york degree students will receive at least one and up to a maximum of four transfer credits when they opt to enroll in the graduate certificate in advanced investigations and enforcement; and one transfer credit when they enroll in the infant and early child mental health graduate certificate program at seneca college. the minimum and maximum credit allocations were determined by the degree program taken at york and the alignment of the latter to the seneca credential. on the other hand, york degree graduates who enroll in the social service worker (accelerated) diploma program will receive a minimum of one credit and a maximum of three, when they enroll at seneca; and up to nine transfer credits, when they enroll in the behavioural sciences diploma. this latter arrangement was successful at mapping out an accelerated format of the diploma, which had not existed prior to the project. in the resulting allocation of transfer credits, york students who enroll in this diploma will only be required to complete three out of four semesters to obtain this credential. in the degree to degree pathway arrangement there were a number of york degrees that were aligned academically to the honours bachelor of crime and intelligence analysis degree at seneca. however, this arrangement was the most challenging to achieve. this is because degree structures prescribe general education and major requirements as well as elective options for students. what may be an elective course in one degree may be a major requirement in another. additionally, the number of major requirements, general education courses and electives are specifically quantified within each york degree. therefore, the amount of transfer credit that could be granted to individual students would be highly dependent on their prior knowledge of this pathway arrangement, and the allowances for electives within their york degree. consequently, the success of this pathway would be highly dependent on a students initial knowledge, preferably within the first two years of their enrolment at york, and strong student advising, to navigate the degree and maximize the potential for transfer credit at seneca. the achievement of these five pathways were the result of consistent networking and communication between and within each institution. program chairs, associate deans, undergraduate program directors, program staff and academic directors conducted curricula reviews, and offered input, feedback and advice on how to facilitate these pathways. while the psychology program at york university was the primary focus of the project, other cognate degree programs to the seneca credentials emerged during this exploration. accordingly, the most significant learning from this project seem to be that university degrees with major/ minor options offered the most flexibility for degree to degree collaborations with the college. more work needs to be done to explore student mobility opportunities within degree to degree collaboration between colleges and universities. pathway descriptions degrees into graduate certificates 1) honours bachelor of disaster and emergency management; bachelor of disaster and emergency management; degrees in psychology (90-credit and 120-credit ba & bsc); honours ba law and society; and honours ba in criminology. 2) degrees in psychology (90-credit and 120-credit ba & bsc) into the infant and early child mental health, graduate certificate. degrees into diplomas 3) degrees in psychology (90-credit and 120-credit ba & bsc) into the social service worker- gerontology (accelerated) diploma. 4) degrees in psychology (90-credit and 120-credit ba & bsc) into the behavioural sciences diploma. degrees into degrees 5) degrees in psychology (90-credit and 120-credit ba & bsc); honours bachelor of arts, criminology; honours bachelor of public administration; honours bachelor of arts political science and bachelor of political science. the above pathways provide greater recognition of credit towards the completion of the seneca college credentials by graduates from york university degree programs. promising practices as part of the project, multiple university degree programs were assessed as being highly aligned to a single college credential. in this scenario, pathway opportunities between ontarios universities and colleges could be maximized, with a single agreement. however, unlike many college credentials, not all courses offered within a university degree are mandatory. while courses offered within the major of the degree are mandatory, the options for elective and general education courses are varied and multiple. therefore, in these types of university to college pathway arrangements, some of the university level courses identified as transfer credit equivalents for the college credential, may or may not have been taken by the university degree holder, seeking enrolment into a college. therefore, strong advising support would be needed early to help these students take advantage of the advanced standing opportunities that would become available. consequently, due to the nature of university degrees and college credential structures, it would be difficult to approve transfer credit into a college credential as a block allocation, because degree courses taken by transferring students would vary immensely. university degree programs with major/ minor options for students seemed to offer the most flexibility for degree to degree collaboration with the colleges. in the york degrees, a concentration of courses taken within one subject area of at least thirty credits, would constitute a minor. however, the option to do a minor is only allowable within honours degree program structures (120-credits). on the other hand, a major requires at least 30 of the 90 credits required for a bachelors degree or a minimum of 42 of the 120 credits required for an honours degree (york university, 2019). therefore, the opportunity to complete courses equivalent to the transfer credits within the college credential can potentially be accommodated outside of the major, in electives or potentially within a minor. there are also other challenges with degree to degree collaboration between colleges and universities, including the length of time it would take to complete a second lateral credential. however, the applied focus and opportunities for work integrated learning embedded within all college degrees would be an appeal for some students; as well as the interest in specific careers, where these credentials would be highly desirable. furthermore, formalizing a dual credential between college and universities raises other issues regarding quality assurance and governance/ academic ownership. yet despite these concerns, as the instances of degree offerings within colleges increase, degree to degree student mobility will need further exploration.

development of local college-to-college degree pathways supporting francophone students final report contract 2018-14 list of participants and partner institutions algonquin college maggie cusson dean, academic development melissa staddon project lead, academic development alanna macdonald professor, curriculum consultant renay dixon transfer pathways coordinator keith seymour chair, management studies nadim abboud professor, school of business rudy jones professor, biotechnology collge la cit lise frenette gestionnaire, service d'appui aux projets spciaux isabelle gurin charge de projets, service dappui aux projets spciaux michal dumoulin directeur, institut des sciences de la sant et de la vie jean-louis michaud professeur, baccalaurat spcialis en biotechnologie martin racine directeur par intrim, cole dadministration, dhtellerie et de tourisme jean-franois billardon superviseur, donnes scientifiques, bureau du registraire mahamoud djibril statisticien, bureau du registraire oncat 2018-14 final report 2|page contacts algonquin college maggie cusson dean, academic development 1385 woodroffe avenue ottawa, on k2g 1v8 collge la cit lise frenette gestionnaire, service dappui aux projets spciaux 801, promenade de laviation ottawa, on k1k 4r3 tlphone : 613 742-2493 - poste 2003 tlcopieur : 613 742-2469 oncat 2018-14 final report 3|page table of contents 1.0 executive summary .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.0 project purpose and goals ................................................................................................................ 6 3.0 development of transfer pathways.................................................................................................. 6 3.1 methodology....................................................................................................................................... 6 3.2 comparison and analysis of programs ............................................................................................... 7 4.0 summary of pathways created ............................................................................................................... 7 4.1 status of pathways .............................................................................................................................. 7 5.0 promising practices and lessons learned .............................................................................................. 8 6.0 conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 9 oncat 2018-14 final report 4|page 1.0 executive summary this project sought to develop local college-to-college transfer pathways between algonquin college of applied arts and technology (algonquin college) and la cit, le collge darts appliques et de technologie (la cit). the project aimed to benefit graduates of algonquin colleges biotechnology advanced diploma program to pathway into la cits bachelors degree in biotechnology. the project also aimed to benefit the graduates of la cits business administration diploma program to pathway into algonquin colleges bachelor of commerce (esupply chain management) degree. prior to the creation of these pathways, no formal articulation agreements existed between the two institutions. a secondary goal of this project was to establish and strengthen relationships between algonquin college and la cit. oncat 2018-14 final report 5|page 2.0 project purpose and goals the objective of this project was to develop transfer pathways between algonquin college and la cit with the aim of increasing pathway opportunities available for francophone students in the ottawa area and within the province of ontario. prior to this project, no formal articulation agreements existed between algonquin college and la cit, so one of the main goals of this project was to establish and strengthen relationships between the two institutions. when the project was first submitted to oncat, three pathways were proposed: algonquin college program bachelor of commerce (esupply chain management) (honours) bachelor of interior design (honours) biotechnology, ontario college advanced diploma la cit program famille de programmes administration des affaires dcoration intrieure baccalaurat spcialis en biotechnologie once the project was underway, la cit made the decision to suspend the program dcoration intrieure. given the circumstances this particular pathway was cancelled. 3.0 development of transfer pathways 3.1 methodology the steps followed to develop these transfer pathways were as follows: 1. consultations with departments, directors and deans, in person and/or in writing, to identify the pathway and articulation agreement avenues to be developed; 2. identification of articulation models to be developed for each agreement and pathway (in this case, two traditional agreements see summary of pathways); 3. gathering and exchange of the course outlines, course descriptions, curricula, etc., necessary for analysis; 4. comparison and analysis of the program-level learning outcomes determined the gaps in learning that would exist for a student taking a pathway into each program. credits to be given and the courses required to remediate the gap in learning were determined based on the course learning outcomes; 5. initiation of the approval process to obtain consensus from departments at both institutions in the following order: a. department b. faculty c. dean, academic development (algonquin college) and vice-prsidente lenseignement (la cit) d. senior vice-president, academic (algonquin college) e. president, algonquin college and prsidente (la cit) oncat 2018-14 final report 6|page 3.2 comparison and analysis of programs when comparing and analyzing the programs, the program-level learning outcomes were compared in a table to identify gaps in learning that included skills, knowledge and depth of learning. the program of study was reviewed in light of the program-level learning outcomes of the prior credential. credit for a course was granted when the program-level learning outcomes from the prior credential confirm that the student has demonstrated the learning identified in the course learning requirements associated with that course. if additional details were required, the course learning requirements for courses in the prior program of study were reviewed in order to clarify the specific skills and the depth of learning achieved in a previous course. credits outside of the program-learning outcomes (such as general education, breadth or communications credits) were given based on program requirements for the same course in the prior credential. with a list of credits granted, a modified program of study was designed with the remaining courses. once the modified program of study was detailed, it was cross-referenced with the gap analysis to make certain that the remaining courses fill the gap in learning the student would have upon entering the program. the goal is to ensure that the students met all learning outcomes in the new program while being awarded the maximum number of credits to recognize their prior knowledge in a relevant field of study, reducing the cost and time for the student to receive an additional credential. 4.0 summary of pathways created as part of this project, two formal pathways were developed between algonquin and la cit: algonquin college program bachelor of commerce (esupply chain management) (honours) biotechnology, ontario college advanced diploma la cit program famille de programmes administration des affaires baccalaurat spcialis en biotechnologie 4.1 status of pathways the approval process for new articulation agreements and pathways consists of the following steps: step new pathway identified details chair or academic manager communicates the proposed pathway to academic development and the transfer pathways coordinator conduct needs analysis conduct gap analysis draft reviewed by dean, academic development pathway review draft reviewed by senior vice-president, academic draft reviewed and approved by partner institution oncat 2018-14 final report 7|page approval by chair of the receiving program; notification to the chair of the sending program. approval by dean of the receiving program; notification to the chair of the sending program. pathway approval approval by the dean, academic development approval by the senior vice-president, academic approved pathway forwarded to receiving institution for signature communicate the approval of the pathway to the registrars office and confirm implementation timeline. pathway implementation pathway stored in the pathway database and the ontransfer database. each of the pathways above are at the indicated stage as of the date of this report being submitted: pathway famille de programmes administration des affaires to bachelor of commerce (esupply chain management) (honours) biotechnology, ontario college advanced diploma to baccalaurat spcialis en biotechnologie status pathway review pathway review 5.0 promising practices and lessons learned finalizing the pathways to pursue between the two institutions was a bit of a challenge at the beginning of the project due to the fact that la cit is in the midst of restructuring their programming. after further consultation, it was decided that we would stick to the original pathways with the exception of the interior decorating pathway. the understanding is that once la cit has finished restructuring their programs, the two institutions will come together to review the existing pathways and make any changes and/or updates as needed. one lesson that was learned for projects moving forward that involve both an anglophone and francophone institution is the possibility of a need for an external translation service to translate documents from english french or french english. this was not budgeted for at the beginning of the project but ended up being an invaluable resource when it came time to review course outlines. oncat 2018-14 final report 8|page 6.0 conclusion in general, both algonquin college and la cit are satisfied with the progress made on the pathways detailed above. despite significant delays at the beginning of the project, we were still able to make significant progress toward establishing and formalizing pathways for our francophone students. this project gave both algonquin and la cit an opportunity to establish the first formal pathway agreements and has allowed us to set the foundation for continued collaboration and pathway development. oncat 2018-14 final report 9|page

2020/21 invitation for applications: oncat transfer faculty advisor (tfa) submission deadline: september 28, 2020 overview oncat will be inviting applications from faculty for the upcoming 20202021 academic year. this pilot initiative will support the design and development of articulation committees. articulation committees are formed around a particular subject of postsecondary study to review and increase course-to-course equivalencies within similar programs and support the development of transfer/articulation pathways. these committees aim to improve transfer opportunities for students by maximizing transfer credit recognition, where appropriate, and reducing duplication of commensurate previous learning. oncat will be launching the pilot with a focus on two disciplines: i) community/social services and ii) business. oncat is seeking faculty from colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in these fields. the pilot will have a maximum of six faculty, with ideally two faculty members representing both disciplines from each institution type. this is a pilot initiative and may be expanded and/or extended as required. the role of the transfer faculty advisor (tfa) is to: 1. work with oncat to identify relevant programs within each discipline for potential inclusion in disciplinary articulation committees. 2. facilitate collaboration between and within postsecondary institutions in their field of study to produce and communicate articulation pathways for students in ontario. 3. invite and engage faculty within their fields to increase participation to support the development of articulation committees. 4. serve as chairs of the articulation committees. 5. participate in knowledge mobilization and professional development as related to transfer and pathway development as required. 6. increase institutional knowledge about transfer-related data and transfer student experience in their faculty/department/institution. 7. improve academic processes related to evaluating transfer credits and working with transfer students. 8. share emerging models of successful student mobility initiatives. 01 about oncat established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) is a government-funded organization that works with all of ontarios 45 public colleges and universities to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer. oncats student website, ontransfer.ca, is a resource for anyone who is looking for information on how to obtain both a diploma and a degree or is hoping to transfer their courses and programs among the postsecondary institutions in the province. collaboration is at the core of oncats work, enabling us to leverage and build expertise and resources. projects in pathway development, research, and innovative transfer are an integral part of creating a system of mobility in ontario. through an annual rfp process, we provide funding to our publicly funded colleges, universities, and other postsecondary partners to develop and create pathways and agreements, examine student and institutional experiences of transfer, and improve transfer student success. submission criteria faculty should have at least five years of teaching and course/curriculum development experience in their respective discipline, with a good grasp of the curricular structure and design of programs in their area. administrative or curricular experience in articulation and transfer is preferred. this may include a background in the development or review of institutional policies, articulation and transfer pathway coordination, admission assessment, curricular assessment, and/or program quality assurance or development. the faculty member will have experience in participating and/or leading committees within their institutions and/or across the postsecondary sector. faculty must recognize the importance of a student-centred approach and understand that students transfer for many reasons. the role of these faculty advisorsand articulation committeesis to support transfer students in ontarios postsecondary education system. funding available and timelines the institution for each successful transfer faculty advisor candidate will receive $10,000, to be paid in two installments. this funding is intended as a contribution towards a course release for a full-time faculty member (exclusive of benefits) as well as incidental costs related to the planned events. the advisor will be employed by their institution and will not be an employee of oncat. a contract will be signed between the institution and oncat. the work of the tfa will begin in october 2020 and run until june 2021. 02 proposal submission process submissions should include the following components. submission deadline: september 28, 2020 1. a one-page proposal using the proposal submission form (see website for details). 2. a curriculum vitae (cv), including administrative/service and teaching roles. 3. a completed institutional sign-off page, including signatures from the faculty member, their department head, and the institutions vice-president academic. please submit the above documents by email to: cpoplak@oncat.ca. proposal evaluation process your proposal will be reviewed by oncat staff. additional reviewers from the sector may be engaged as required. in general, proposals will be evaluated according to their: clarity and comprehensiveness. demonstrated alignment and experience with the tfa role as outlined in the overview. after the initial review, we may follow up with proponents to address any questions that have arisen during our review. your prompt response is appreciated to expedite the review process. once any questions are addressed and a decision has been made, you will be notified via email. we aim to arrive at final decisions on most proposals by october 5, 2020. successful proponents successful proponents will be expected to enter into a formal agreement with oncat, which will outline the terms and conditions of funding, specifying the project goals, timelines, and expected deliverables. contact to submit an expression of interest, please email carolyn poplak, manager of sector engagement, at ________________ cpoplak@oncat.ca. 03 covid-19 the ontario council on articulation and transfer office is closed temporarily in response to covid-19 and directives from public health agencies. however, oncat staff are working remotely and fulfilling all normal services to create strong academic pathways and reduce barriers for students in ontario. we will be accepting applications from faculty across the province and there is an expectation this work will be done remotely. in-person events may resume according to guidelines from public health. for oncats full statement on covid-19, please visit https://oncat.ca/en/oncat-covid-19-update. please note: the discipline focus and content areas may change at the discretion of oncat. 04

exploring pathways: indigenous cultural safety training programs project overview there is an urgent need for indigenous cultural safety (ics) training that address systemic stereotyping and discrimination and that encourage opportunities to access and utilize strength based approaches to care (allan & smylie, 2015). responding to this need are the calls to action identified through the truth and reconciliation (trc). the trc calls for increased skills-based training within intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism for health practitioners such as medical and nursing students as well as increased recruitment and retention of indigenous professionals in the healthcare field. further, the demand for ics training continues to grow as major employers and regulatory bodies mandate ics training. post secondary education (pse) is answering these calls with increased ics initiatives coupled with substantial growth in the areas of staff and faculty training and the inclusion of ics related content across curriculum. despite growing demands, however, increased research is needed to understand the current ics landscape; including transferability of ics related knowledge for learners. with generous funding from oncat, and building from our in-depth indigenous cultural safety cihr research project, biigiiweyan indigenous cultural safety interprofessional training model, our team set out to explore pathways between industry-based indigenous cultural safety training (ics) and postsecondary education, including existing arrangements that support the recognition/transferability of training by pse institutions. the project explored ics programs in ontario and carried out follow up interviews with pse institutions delivering programming reflective of ics. we also completed an informal inventory of ics training programs within ontario post-secondary educational institutions, community or other government-funded organizations and industry-based ics training. overall, five key themes emerged. themes include recent growth in the areas of ics micro-credentials and professional certificates offered through schools of continuing education; the inclusion of ics learning outcomes across curriculum in health science professional programs; the impact of regulatory bodies on ics within the pse system; the trc as a driving force in ics work; and, ics initiatives appear to target the retention of indigenous learners and faculty and training for non-indigenous faculty or service providers who work with indigenous peoples. |1 in our search, zero diploma or degree programs strictly identified as ics were located in ontario. we did however note four recent developments emerging from schools of continuing studies or professional development centres. in addition to the growth of pse continuing education aimed initiatives, ics in pse continues to overwhelmingly target indigenous student and staff wellness and experience through faculty and staff skill development, retention of indigenous learners by fostering culturally safe educational experiences and curricula, as well as the continued commitment of pse to address the trc calls to action. the ontario ics/ sanyas ics program as well as the cancer care ontario ics program are two prominent community public health driven initiatives characterized by government support, self-directed delivery through online modules, certificates of completion and moc recognition from the ontario college of physicians and surgeons. the ontario ics program is also tied to a small number of graduate medical programs across canada, the ontario government, the bc sanyas ics program, as well as many other health organizations across ontario. there are multiple other smaller ics initiatives operating across ontario through non-profits and health based organizations, targeting workshops or specific content areas that could fall within the ics umbrella. gaps highlighted include pse institutional awareness or vision of ics initiatives, the disconnection between ics initiatives driven by student success services and those undertaken by academic programs as well as limited knowledge and changing definitions of what constitutes cultural safety. our environmental scan uncovered a wealth of activities and literature reflecting the growth of indigenous culturally safe curriculum and the resources required for such initiatives, by educators and administrators. literature also highlights substantial growth in the inclusion of content relevant to cultural safety (indigenous worldviews of health, healing and wellness; history of colonization and assimilation policies, reflective practice, to name a few) in health science program areas, such as nursing, general medicine or dentistry. understanding aspects of cultural safety currently included across curriculum and programs will help us further understand transferability of such credits. despite the abundance of ics initiatives, ics remains uncoordinated with limited cohesion in direction or definition of the concept among pse. what is cultural safety? cultural safety describes the experience of spiritual, social, emotional, and physical safety for indigenous peoples when policies and practices are non-oppressive, non-marginalizing, and respectful (building a strong fire, 2018). it is a term that includes both the process of transferring power in a helping relationship, whereby the patient becomes an active participant in their care rather than a passive recipient, and |2 the positive outcomes associated with more equitable helping relationships between patients and health practitioners (yeung, 2016). cultural safety is closely related to other concepts commonly referred to in the delivery of culturally-appropriate health care and is positioned at one end of a continuum that begins with cultural awareness, moves through cultural sensitivity and cultural competency, and ends with cultural safety as a step-wise progression (churchill et al., 2017, p. 3). individually, cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, and cultural competence are important; however, none account for systemic obstacles that promote inequality (browne et al., 2009). whereas cultural competence emphasizes a set of congruent behaviours, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or amongst professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in a cross-cultural situation (cross, bazron, dennis, & isaacs, 1989, p. 28), cultural safety moves beyond a focus solely on the role of the practitioner to examine the structural power imbalances inherent to helping relationships between patients and health practitioners, and indeed the healthcare system as a whole. accordingly, cultural safety shifts power and authority to the indigenous patient receiving care, who is given the ultimate say in whether care provided was culturally safe or not (yeung, 2016, p. 4). to this end, cultural safety includes factors such as history, racism, oppression and marginalization, and takes into account the experiences and needs of indigenous populations (baskin 2016). research methods we used a combination of web searches and informational interviews with staff at institutions that were undertaking ics initiatives. we also included a survey or the opportunity for email responses, to overcome the challenge of limited responses during covid. our team collected information for the environmental scan from web pages, fact sheets, reports, publications and other gray literature resources that are freely available to the public. information sources include: ontario pse websites government agency websites public health organizations professional association websites aboriginal health advocacy/ organization websites. |3 an internet search was conducted to gather data from ontario post-secondary education institutions (pse), including 21 public universities, 24 public colleges, 9 indigenous institutes; training provided by community or other government-funded organizations and industry-based ics training. pse publicly accessible websites (n=54). the internet scans consisted of keyword strings, including but not limited to; indigenous cultural safety ontario, indigenous cultural safety curriculum, indigenous cultural competency and safety, indigenous cultural safety training, indigenous cultural safety certificate, cultural safety micro-credential, indigenous cultural safety program and indigenous cultural safety education in pse and boolean logic forming combinations of search strings targeted to individual pse institutions. results from these searchers motivated further exploration into specific pse institution websites, as well as follow up emails requesting interviews with staff. we created an ics inventory of ics programs/initiatives, using a chart with the following headings: educational programs, industry, government and health programs, and micro-credentials. emails were sent to contacts of institutions identifying cultural safety or similar work, requesting an interview, with three responses for phone interviews, and nine responses by email or survey. follow-up email inquiries (a maximum of three attempts) were issued. the interviews took place over the phone, or if preferred by participants, responses to the interview questions were submitted via survey/email. 23 institutions were contacted for further information. a set of interview questions guided conversations, and included: 1. name of institution, name and position. 2. what land acknowledgement might you use, which indigenous territory are you on? 3. do you offer indigenous cultural safety within your organization? 4. do you offer courses with curriculum that contain indigenous cultural safety? if so, what are some learning outcomes that would align with teaching cultural safety (students learn about indigenous culture, colonization, history) students also learn about cultural practice, discuss how to incorporate safety from discrimination in their practice? 5. how is this program/ curriculum delivered? 6. what credentials are offered? 7. how many students are enrolled in this course/program? (estimate) 8. are these courses accredited? can credit be transferred or applied to another college, university or organization? please explain further. |4 9. do you have any ics programs responding directly to the trc? please explain. findings there is an abundance of work happening in the realm of cultural safety, across ontario pse. although abundant, ics is far from coordinated or unified. there were zero diploma or degree programs identified, however, we noted considerable ics growth in schools of continuing studies or professional development centres, with four micro-credentials offered. overwhelming however, the work happening in the area of cultural safety training is targeting indigenous student and staff wellness and experience, faculty and staff skill development, retention of indigenous learners by fostering culturally safe educational experiences and curricula, and the continued commitment of pse to address the trc calls to action. literature highlights substantial growth within the inclusion of content relevant to cultural safety (indigenous worldviews of health, healing and wellness; history of colonization and assimilation policies, reflective practice, to name a few) in the areas of health sciences, such as nursing and medicine (baba, 2013 & royal college, 2020). exploring learning outcomes pertaining to ics across curricula will help us further understand transferability of such credits. however institutional awareness of ics initiatives and a disconnection between student success services and initiatives happening across academic programs remain significant barriers to identifying and tracking this information. overall, five key themes emerged from the environmental scan, including: 1. growth in micro-credentials and professional certificates through schools of continuing education and professional development 2. the inclusion of ics learning outcomes across curriculum, particularly within the health sciences, such as pgme and nursing. 3. the relationship of ics to regulatory bodies 4. the trc as a driving force in ics work 5. the focus of ics is on two main areas including retention of indigenous learners in health programs in canada and cultural competence curricula for indigenous and non-indigenous service providers who work with indigenous peoples micro-credentials and professional development certificates within the last year, four micro-credentials with ics content have emerged, including: |5 a. micro-credential in indigenous rights and relationship-building building 2019-20 pilot. partners include sault college, and project learning tree canada. the program aims to develop additional online content to create a stackable micro-credential program for various competencies related to indigenous rights and relationship-building in the forestry sector. b. micro-credential in indigenous cultural safety 2019-20 pilot, which aims to create new content to issue micro-credentials in four key areas within indigenous cultural safety 2019-20 pilot in development. partners include the university of torontos dalla lana school of public health, the waakebiness-bryce institute for indigenous health, and peterborough public health. c. health coach professional certificate, from york university health leadership and learning network, where participants develop knowledge and skills in cultural safety needed to create an inclusive environment as well as navigate diverse views on illness and healing, while maintaining a safe health care practice. d. micro-credential indigenous learning and cultural awareness building relations with indigenous partners, cambrian college participants develop their skills in creating effective communications plans that reflect an understanding of indigenous needs and the needs of your community. the inclusion of ics learning outcomes nursing, post graduate medical education (pgme) and health science literature demonstrate growth in the inclusion of learning outcomes related to ics, embedded across curriculum. however, information appeared piecemeal and required further study. while slightly outside the scope of this environmental scan, we wanted to demonstrate such growth and the potential opportunities to track such ics learning, with the potential of an ics specialization that meets industry requirements or mandates for ics training. the university of torontos collaborative specialization in indigenous health (csih) is an example of this approach at the graduate level. the program is housed within the dalla lana, school of public health, and aims to provide training in indigenous health research and practice for graduate students at u of t, while enhancing mutually beneficial relationships with indigenous peoples, communities and organizations. upon |6 successful completion of the degree requirements in the participating home department and the requirements of the csih, graduate students will receive the notation completed collaborative specialization in indigenous health on their transcript and parchment. graduating students will have received knowledge of indigenous health issues, ways of knowing, and understand cultural safety. in professional-level education programs, baba (2013) identified that undergraduate medical programs are also beginning to bring indigenous cultural competence and safety to the forefront of their curriculum and student resources. programs included in the review were those available for health professionals in public health, medicine and nursing, such as degree programs including; graduate level master of public health degrees, undergraduate level medical (md) education and undergraduate level bachelor of nursing degrees. again, while piecemeal, it demonstrates movement in the area of cultural safety in curriculum. the following are some examples of this work: the university of western ontarios schulich school of medicine and dentistry has an indigenous medicine & dentistry initiative. the initiative provides support for aboriginal students, and encourages physicians of all backgrounds to practice medicine in aboriginal communities and advocate for the improvement of aboriginal health. lakehead university northern ontario school of medicine curriculum threads include aboriginal health. mcmaster university michael g. degroote school of medicine, faculty of health sciences curriculum includes competency training in social & cultural determinants of health elective clerkship: aboriginal health elective. university of ottawa faculty of medicine pre-clerkship curriculum requirements include a unit on aboriginal health aboriginal community clerkships: akwesasne, kitigan zibi or pikwakanagan elective course for indigenous medical students: the impact of traditional healing. university of saskatchewan college of medicine elective course: aboriginal models of mind and mental health elective rotation: aboriginal health and healing. lakehead university school of nursing, faculty of health & behavioral sciences native nurses entry program trent university school of nursing elective courses transcultural concepts in healthcare advanced topics in indigenous peoples, health and the environment. university of windsor faculty of nursing elective courses health issues and care of diverse populations transcultural health culture and health in diverse canada |7 university of toronto, faculty of medicine collaborative program in aboriginal health a resource for md, bscn and mph students program requirements (one of the three following courses) - aboriginal health - politics of aboriginal health - race, indigenous citizenship and self-determination: decolonizing perspectives. seneca college, faculty of continuing education, families in change course demonstrate fundamental values, knowledge and understanding of first nation, inuit, and metis world-views that focus on the cultural competence and cultural safety and to implement an trauma-informed approach by demonstrating strategies to respond to disclosure. sheridan: continuing and professional studies, indigenous worldviews of health health care 42hours/credit value3.0/n.a prerequisite this course invites healthcare and community service practitioners to develop their understanding of indigenous worldviews and improve health outcomes through developing skills in cultural competence. students evaluate existing healthcare services and decision-making processes in canada, with respect to the experience of indigenous peoples. through discussions, case studies, and journal reflections, students apply their knowledge to health system change and learn to respond to the needs of indigenous peoples in responsible and culturally safe ways fleming college, school of justice and community development faculty, power, privilege and oppression course number: soci165 45 hours, prerequisites: none. corequisites: none. this course will provide the foundation for understanding social, economic, cultural, spiritual, racial and political issues within the context of social justice and diversity. students will be introduced to theories and practical applications that affirm the value and worth of all individuals, families, groups and communities by applying practical skills to enhance cultural safety in service delivery. students will critically analyze the various forms of oppression, discrimination, power and privilege, and how to apply anti-oppressive practices in the field of human services. |8 regulatory institutions calling for cultural safety training there are a growing number of regulatory institutions requiring the demonstration of knowledge, skills and credentials in the area of cultural safety. major employers such as the government of ontario are committed to mandating ics training for all employees. the ontario indigenous cultural safety program is one of the largest programs in the province, with over 10,000 ontarians who work in health care who have completed the training, many of them from the ontario government. the ontario college of social workers and social service workers (ocswssw), the indigenous physicians association of canada, aboriginal nurses association of canada, canadian nurses association, college of family physicians of canada and royal college of physicians and surgeons of canada have all called for cultural safety training ranging for their members. it has ranged from recommending short workshops at conferences to integrating more content in medical school curricula to advocating for mandatory accreditation for physicians and surgeons. ex: the royal college of physician and surgeons of canada (royal college) in an effort to promote health equity for indigenous peoples in canada, on october 26, 2017, the governing council of the royal college of physician and surgeons of canada (royal college) approved the recommendation from the indigenous health committee (ihc) that indigenous health become a mandatory component of postgraduate medical education (pgme), including curriculum, assessment and accreditation. an indigenous led health specialty in pgme steering committee has been established to lead and support implementation of the decision. the royal college identified that 7 pgme universities have programs or training in place reflecting cultural safety and one has completed the implementation but is still working on improving the relevancy of the content. three of the 15 universities interviewed mentioned sanyas cultural safety training being accessed; however financial and timing barriers due to the cohort approach to training were indicated as challenges in the feasibility of the training. |9 truth and reconciliation motivating change respondents confirmed that the truth and reconciliation commission of canadas calls to action, which is calling for cultural competency training and the development of anti-racism skills across sectors, is also motivating increased attention to ics within their institution. literature from churchill, parent-bergeron, smylie, ward, fridkin, smylie, and firestone, 2017 reiterates this point. for example, the provision of culturally safe healthcare aligns with recent truth and reconciliation recommendations (e.g., #22, #23, and #24) to incorporate indigenous knowledge in health care practices and offer skills-based training in intercultural understanding conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism for health practitioners. however, literature cautions that ics programs will not have long-term impact if they are developed and implemented without organization-wide and system-level support (baba, 2013; guerra & kurtz, 2016). in relation to the trc, respondents shared ics initiatives in the form of targeted workshops, speakers and faculty skills development. zero respondents shared academic specific initiatives or programs. this could be because the majority of respondents were from student success related positions within indigenous pse centers, compared to faculty or deans. |10 ics focus: indigenous learner retention and cultural safety training for industry professionals the focus of ics appears to be on creating safe spaces and experiences (therefore indirectly on the retention of indigenous learners and faculty) through training opportunities for faculty, as well as cultural safety training for post-licensure non-indigenous human care service workers. initiatives are characterized by workshops and professional development for staff, targeted skill set development such as creating culturally safe spaces, curricula development, communication and is often driven by institutional responses to the trc. only one opportunity, positioned ics as an indigenous health specialization for indigenous learners, repositioning ics training for indigenous learners compared to training for non-indigenous faculty, health care workers to work with indigenous peoples offering culturally safe care. an overview: indigenous cultural safety training programs in ontario of the ics programs reviewed, zero had prerequisites, 4 had micro-credentials, 3 had certificates of completion, and one had an indigenous health specialization. the length of programs varied from 3 to 14 hours with the larger cultural safety programs such as sanyas for example, being 8-10 hours of on-line self-directed learning. course instructors delivered the micro-credentials, while the majority of community health driven programs were delivered through on-line self-directed modules. the pilot micro-credential programs secured additional funding to explore the development and implementation of micro-credentials. wise practice literature on cultural safety curriculum suggest that programs: 1. need to be evaluated 2. need detailed program descriptions in order to be consistently and reliably implemented and evaluated 3. would benefit from curriculum that focuses on power, privilege, and equity; is grounded in decolonizing, anti-racist pedagogy; and is based on principles from transformative education theory 4. must be led by trained facilitators 5. must be offered in effective learning spaces that both challenge resistance from non-indigenous peoples, and support non indigenous peoples to learn from their discomfort 6. need to prioritize support for indigenous learners 7. cannot work in isolation to summarize, literature indicates that cultural safety training programs must be grounded in decolonizing, reflexive, anti-racist pedagogy to enable critical self-reflection and orient the curriculum towards the root causes of indigenous health inequities (churchill; parent-bergeron; smylie; ward, fridkin, smylie, and firestone, 2017). |11 example content/modules of current programs reviewed included: 1. indigenous people of canada and terminology 2. major historical events from indigenous perspectives 3. impacts of the indian act, indian residential schools and the sixties (60s) scoop 4. self-awareness of intergenerational trauma 5. colonization, past and present 6. indigenous worldviews and wellness practices 7. respect and reconciliation in health care 8. indigenous teachings and advocacy in health care system transformation 9. existing trends and socioeconomic conditions impacting indigenous communities 10. indigenous determinants of health 11. creating self awareness that will support in establishing relationships with indigenous communities 12. resources that will support further self-directed learning 13. exploring the health impacts of racism 14. cultural safety in the classroom: addressing anti-indigenous racism in education settings 15. addressing anti-indigenous racism in health care: strategies for implementing system-level change 16. indigenous health equity: examining racism as an indigenous social determinant of health 17. critical race theory and its implication for indigenous cultural safety 18. deconstructing racism strategies for organisational change 19. racism, reconciliation, and indigenous cultural safety 20. setting the context for indigenous cultural safety: facing racism in health mode of delivery instructors through continuing education pse departments delivered micro-credentials. biigiiweyan cultural safety training program was facilitated by community facilitators and indigenous knowledge keepers, with support staff and faculty from pse (baskin, hare, peltier, lougheed, chabbert, boudreau & moir (2020). it was also the only ics training program that utilized live actor simulation to assess knowledge and skill acquisition, combined with 52 learning outcomes. the majority of online learning modules are self-paced and self-directed. gallagher (2015) suggests that the structure and delivery of ics programs are equally important to development and implementation, and developers should consider transformative education theory, which has been widely used in adult education. speaking to decolonization within pse. highlighting the importance of experiential learning, indigenous education theorist marie battiste (2002) states that in order to transform the hearts and minds of people and institutions, they must engage with |12 indigenous knowledges. this considers the role and importance of indigenous knowledge keepers, language speakers, and health and wellness experts within ics programs. programs were delivered both intensively, for example, through a one-day workshop, as well as self-paced on-line delivery of approximately 10 14 hours over an undefined period of time. biigiiweyan cultural safety training was the longest in person program found, at 14 hours of facilitated in person delivery. the shortest identified were workshops, at approximately 3 hours. currently, the highest form of credential offered is a micro-credential certificate and certificate of completion. the royal college of physicians and surgeons of canada offers moc for the following programs: the indigenous cultural safety training program cancer care ontario cultural safety modules cancer care ontario cultural safety modules college of physicians and surgeons of canada continuing culturally safety modules the southwest ontario aboriginal health access centre, which delivers the ontario ics/sanyas program is accredited through the canadian centre for accreditation, a third-party review based on organizational practices that promote ongoing quality improvement and responsive, effective community services. yorks certificate is an approved training program by the national board for health and wellness coaching. |13 further, as mentioned previously, there are a growing number of regulatory institutions requiring the demonstration of knowledge, skills and credentials in the area of cultural safety, including the ontario college of social workers and social service workers (ocswssw), the indigenous physicians association of canada, aboriginal nurses association of canada, canadian nurses association, college of family physicians of canada and royal college of physicians and surgeons of canada have all called for cultural safety training for their members. benefits for learners literature highlights many benefits of ics in pse on increased recruitment and retention of indigenous in health science programs - an area of study underrepresented by indigenous learners and called to attention in the trc (baba, 2013; guerra & kurtz, 2016). the inclusion of ics amoung regulatory bodies also demonstrates the benefits of ics for those pursuing further education and post-graduate professional development as well as those transitioning to employment. last, ics learning outcomes overlap greatly with the content of many indigenous health and social welfare programs, such as indigenous worldviews of healing and wellness; indigenous histories; the present day contexts of colonization; indigenous medicines, helpers and healers; indigenous determinants of health to name a few etc. as one example, many of the learning outcomes found within canadore colleges indigenous wellness and addiction prevention program map to biigiiweyans cultural safety training program learning outcomes. |14 there is untapped potential for indigenous learners, if we can harness ics relevant course content to indigenous undergraduate programs, having learners come out with ics credentials or specialization. mapping ics content across indigenous health, wellness and social service programs offers opportunities to support indigenous learners in coming out with additional ics credentials/specialization that are increasingly being expected at the industry level. further, there is also potential to harness ics for indigenous student retention and pathways in health science programs, starting from indigenous preparatory programs, to undergraduate programs, to professional programs in pgme, to graduate programs and employment. programs such as the university of torontos collaborative specialization in indigenous health is an example of this approach at the graduate level. graduate students receive the notation completed collaborative specialization in indigenous health on their transcript and parchment and graduating students will have received knowledge of indigenous health issues, ways of knowing, and understand cultural safety as well as connect with indigenous knowledge holders and experts. limitations a major limitation to the project is that it occurred during covid. many staff were transitioning to working from home as well as the project occurring over the summer months, resulting in poor response rates. further, not everyone who responded were familiar with ics or ics across their institution. for example, some contacts were not familiar with the ics related learning outcomes within courses. also of importance, web-based searches were often limiting, producing information that primarily focused on student experience of cultural safety (i.e. training for faculty or staff). the majority of pse institutions had limited ics content on their websites. we believe there are multiple reasons for this. currently, cultural safety is loosely packaged within other concepts of cultural sensitivity and cultural competence. further, ics remains strongly positioned within student support service areas or indigenous pse centers, with a focus on the importance of ensuring culturally safe staff and faculty or responding to the trc. further, with a myriad of ics frameworks emerging, with no clear direction on how and to what degree educators should be incorporating ics content into curriculum design, there are few consistencies across the curriculum. our pse website searchers were at times unrevealing of the true landscape of ics within an institution. some initiatives were not profiled or easily accessible on program websites and were instead found through funding organizations with summaries highlighting projects. opposed to an environmental scan, an extensive literature review and comprehensive case studies of select institutions should be undertaken. ics content is emerging across multiple program areas within an institution. connecting with multiple individuals within institutions at varying levels, would help to better understand ics pathways between programs and content areas. |15 moving forward with ics continued work is needed to support institutional and system level ics initiatives and vision. ics initiatives need to connect to academic programs, student and staff services and strategic directions and mandates within and between institutions, as well as to industry. a strong ics landscape will uncover and promote uncharted student pathways and transfer opportunities related to ics. this project highlights the importance of cultural safety being incorporated within all aspects of pse. ics needs to be clearly defined and connected to driving forces such as the trc and regulatory bodies and acknowledged within institutional strategic plans and policies. we need culturally safe, informed employees and learners. we need to ensure stakeholders across the pse sector have a unified ics vision that supports institutions undertaking this important work. further exploration into the link between ics and the increased recruitment, retention and success of indigenous learners and faculty is also recommended to understand further benefits of ics. a more in-depth understanding of ics within pse is needed, including case studies that connect ics pse initiatives to industry and that profile lived experiences of indigenous learners, staff, faculty and indigenous communities. further, creating a common ics pathway/specialization for indigenous learners offers a unique pathway opportunity for indigenous learners and responds to the trc. |16 reference list aboriginal nurses association of canada. 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project snapshot expansion of pathways in engineering type: pathways development project number: 2019-36 or p1936 project lead: algonquin college collaborators: algonquin college of applied arts and technology (lead institution), university of ottawa project summary to enhance student mobility in the ottawa area, this project will support algonquin college and the university of ottawa in establishing reciprocal pathways to help students enhance their skills in stem. this project will focus on creating a bilateral pathway between algonquin colleges civil engineering technology advanced diploma and the university of ottawas bachelor of applied science in civil engineering. project rationale the exploration of student mobility between algonquin college and the university of ottawa identified that students were interested in obtaining a technical education after completing theory-based learning at a university. this was demonstrated by an increase in applicants who have completed prior postsecondary education (both incomplete and complete programs) from uottawa to algonquin programs. similarly, it was noted that graduates from algonquin were seeking degree completion options at uottawa. this project aimed to formalize these pathways to reduce barriers for students. additionally, statistical analyses at uottawa had also demonstrated better retention of local students compared to non-local students, further motivating the creation of formalized pathways between algonquin and uottawa. additionally, applicant data from the ontario college application centre (ocas) indicated that over 550 students with previous education at the university of ottawa applied to continue studies at algonquin college in the 2017/2018 academic year. data collected by uottawa indicated that in the last two years, almost 190 new students with previous education at algonquin college registered annually (out of 900 who applied) in all levels of undergraduate programs, as well as in graduate programs and with special student status. this preliminary review of student movement between the two institutions supports the relevance of previously developed pathways and suggests several opportunities to formalize articulations for pathways that students are forging themselves. due to the lack of formal pathways, students are not receiving the maximum number of course exemptions possible, as well as potentially differing numbers of course exemptions. creating these formal pathways would not only facilitate the transfer of students and ensure the greatest recognition of their past studies but will also assist in the tracking of and the provision of support services to these students. outcomes 1. the development of formal pathways between algonquin college and the university of ottawa, specifically in stem-related programs. the indicator of success was the completion of the a formal pathway. 2. this outcome was achieved by developing a list of courses recognized for transfer credit between both institutions as well as a program sequence for students to follow. 3. main project report: detailed report that captures project activities and recommendations. the indicator of success was the completion of a project report which summarized the project activities, processes and outcomes. this outcome was achieved. 4. pathway snapshot: document that shares the pathways developed, and their potential impact for students. the indicator of success was the completion of a pathway snapshot that summarizes the pathway developed as well as describes its positive impact on students. this outcome was achieved. pathway(s) development key steps the key steps taken to explore pathway viability and develop the pathway are detailed in section "3.0 development of transfer pathways" in the final report document. pathways created a bilateral pathway from algonquin college's civil engineering technology advanced diploma and the university of ottawa's bachelor of applied science in civil engineering was created during this project. challenges due to the covid-19 pandemic, final details to formalize the agreement have been paused temporarily. student outcomes by leveraging both programs, students will be able to obtain significant theoretical knowledge and applied skills to meet the demands of the ever-changing workforce. while this pathway is comparable to the existing pathways or those soon to be completed in this field (lakehead, queens), it is the first of its kind in the national capital region. both algonquin college and the university of ottawa are proud to offer high quality engineering programs and look forward to supporting students in the successful pursuit of continuing their educational journeys through this bilateral agreement. through this pathway, students of both institutions will benefit from applying previously obtained credits towards another credential. this will result in time savings and subsequently financial savings for the student. student credential students from algonquin college's civil engineering technology advanced diploma will be able to pathway to the university of ottawa's bachelor of applied science in civil engineering. conversely, students the university of ottawa's bachelor of applied science in civil engineering will be able to pathway to algonquin college's civil engineering technology advanced diploma. student time savings students who have completed algonquin college's civil engineering technology advanced diploma program who choose to pathway into the university of ottawa's bachelor of applied science in civil engineering program will be able to complete the degree by completing a bridging term (made up of three courses) plus an additional four full terms. this can save students two years towards the completion of the credential. students who have completed the university of ottawa's bachelor of applied science in civil engineering who choose to pathway into algonquin college's civil engineering technology advanced diploma will be able to complete the diploma by completing an additional one and a half year program of study (three terms). this can save students three teams year towards the completion of the credential. student financial savings through this pathway, students of both institutions will benefit from applying previously obtained credits towards another credential. as a result of this, students will benefit from time savings and subsequently financial savings as well. graduates of algonquin college's civil engineering technology advanced diploma entering the university of ottawa's bachelor of applied science in civil engineering program will save four terms which is a potential savings of over $21,000.00. this was calculation is based estimated 2020-2021 tuition fees, supplemental fees, and incidental fees. graduates of the university of ottawa's bachelor of applied science in civil engineering program entering algonquin college's civil engineering technology advanced diploma will save three terms which is a potential savings of over $5,600.00. this was calculation is based the estimated 2020-2021 tuition fees, supplemental fees, and incidental fees. student flexibility this bilateral pathway creates an improved credit recognition processes between both institutions. consequently, the transfer process for students seeking to pathway between the two institutions has been simplified and better encourages students to choose this option. student work alignment this pathway does not contribute towards professional accreditation alignment. however, it does contribute to the completion of credentials in the science, technology, engineering and math (stem) fields, and many such career opportunities that have emerged in recent years in canada. as more organizations seek to modernize their businesses, the demand for people who can fill stem-related jobs has increase. this pathway helps to meet this demand. institutional outcomes there were no changes to institutional practices, policies, and/or institutional culture as a result of this project. sector or system implications please refer to section "5.0 promising practices and lessons learned" in the final report document. tips/advice lean into the work done by other institutions in terms of interpreting the accreditation requirements of a third party organization. tools and resources there were no tools, templates, reports, or presentations developed as part of this project. the list of proposed courses for the modified program of study were attached in an earlier section of this form and a proposed pathway completion sequence is included in the final report document.

a critical reflection on the footprint of articulation agreements at select college-university pairs submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer march 2018 executive summary previous research on student transfer has primarily focused on the student experience. a number of studies have explored student understanding of and satisfaction with the credit transfer process, but the same rigor has not been expended to explore the institutional perspective on credit transfer. the purpose of this study is to understand the reasons institutions undertake the development of articulation agreements, and the type of criteria that the faculty members and administrators involved in their development believe should be included in the documentation of those agreements. in addition, institutional policies and procedures related to the monitoring of articulation agreements were examined to determine how agreements are kept current and how they are monitored for markers of student success such as retention and graduation. the goal of this study was to see where commonalities existed in these processes across institutions to identify best practices for developing and maintaining effective articulation agreements. data analyses were conducted based on a content analysis of the articulation agreements available at each of the institutional pairs, an analysis of themes present in a series of semi-structured interviews, and student transfer data provided by each of the participating universities. the reasons that institutions develop new articulation agreements are similar for both colleges and universities. program alignment and previous relationships between institutions were identified as the most prominent reasons for developing new agreements. universities placed emphasis on developing agreements where there was adequate alignment between programs, while colleges placed emphasis on developing agreements that provided their students with sufficient credit for their previous coursework. many articulation agreements include guidelines to ensure the agreements remain current. these guidelines include renewal dates and procedures for keeping the partners updated on program changes. despite the presence of these guidelines, interview data revealed that poor communication between institutional partners often results in agreements not being regularly updated. interview data, combined with the student data, also revealed that there are gaps in the way transfer student success is monitored post-transfer. the majority of receiving institutions were unable to identify which of their transfer students had used specific articulation agreements to facilitate their transfer leading to significant challenges with monitoring of specific articulation agreements. in addition to this, two out of three receiving institutions were unable to the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 3 identify the college program that transfer students had previously completed. although data does exist to enable tracking of transfer student success, accessibility of data and resource constraints have not allowed articulation developers to use this data to inform the development of better articulation agreements. one of the key findings of this study was that having a strong working relationship between institutional partners was imperative to the development and maintenance of articulation agreements. to strengthen institutional relationships, it is recommended that institutions work towards implementing standardized procedures for developing and maintaining agreements that encourage frequent communication with their institutional partners. it is also recommended that a movement towards standardizing formal agreements through institutional templates has the potential to save resources and ensure consistency when developing new agreements. the use of a consistent, comprehensive template affords an opportunity to make the transfer process more transparent for both students and institutions alike. an important finding of this study was that more attention should be given to monitor the success of students post-transfer. although data on retention and graduation is available for transfer students, these students are not flagged as having moved through an articulation agreement, meaning that it is difficult to monitor the success of these students as a cohort. a key recommendation that could improve monitoring for student success would be to collect more information about transfer students to enable tracking for student success outcomes. another recommendation is that this data be shared with the institutional stakeholders who develop articulation agreements, so these individuals are made aware of the types of agreements that work versus those that do not. finally, it is recommended that the sharing of student success data between institutional partners become part of an annual effort to monitor the effectiveness of these agreements. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 4

education trajectories and effects on labour market outcomes of women, and minorities: evidence from the education and labour market longitudinal linkage platform (elmlp) presented to the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) september 2022 elena hillman, university of western ontario taylor noriko paul, university of western ontario michael haan, university of western ontario wolfgang lehmann, university of western ontario executive summary background canada faces acute labour shortages, spurring the need for an increase in training across several industries and geographies. objectives and research questions this report examines the demographic profile of apprentices in ontario, the common transfer pathways from other pse institutions into apprenticeship training, the sequencing of student pathways from entry through to the labour market, and destinations including completion of their program of study and labour market outcomes. methodology this report uses the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) developed by statistics canada, which allows us to construct various samples through the linkages provided. the samples include data constructed from the postsecondary student information system, the registered apprentice information system (rais) linked with the 2016 canadian census, and the rais linked with the t1 family tax file (t1ff). our report is divided into two main parts. the first looks at entry into apprenticeships, whereas the second looks at completers. the methods used include a sequencing analysis, a logistic regression to examine the predictors of completing a program of study among apprentices, and an ols regression analysis to examine apprentices labour market outcomes. findings our findings demonstrate that most apprentices do not transfer from another type of pse program and that a substantial number are non-visible minority, native-born men who are between the ages of 15 to 24. we also find that not only are major trades groups gender segregated, but a higher number of visible minority apprentices study female dominated trades. in our analyses of the pathways in and out of apprenticeships we find that, while most enter into apprenticeships through employment, many end up re-entering the labour market without completing their apprenticeship training. alternatively, the second most common pathway occurs in the jump from employment, to completion, to employment again. further, through our ordinary least squares regression results, we find that those who switch their program of study earn less than those who do not switch, suggesting that they either transferred to a lower-paying program, or that they may have encountered barriers during the transition. the results also illustrate a significant gender pay gap that is not explained by the covariates in the model. this suggests that factors other than gender segregation in the skilled trades and age impact the pay differential between men and women. 1 table of contents executive summary ........................................................................................................................ 1 acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 3 introduction ................................................................................................................................. 004 objectives ....................................................................................................................................... 5 pathways into apprenticeships ........................................................................................................ 6 data-psis .................................................................................................................................... 7 analytical approach for analyzing transfers ............................................................................ 7 results ......................................................................................................................................... 8 demographic characteristics of apprentices in ontario .............................................................. 8 data- rais and census 2016...................................................................................................... 9 results ....................................................................................................................................... 10 conclusion and limitations ...................................................................................................... 22 destinations: completers and labour market outcomes................................................................ 23 data rais-t1ff ....................................................................................................................... 24 sequence analysis methods...................................................................................................... 25 sequence analysis results ....................................................................................................... 25 logistic regression methods .................................................................................................... 26 models ....................................................................................................................................... 26 results ....................................................................................................................................... 27 data- rais-t1ff ...................................................................................................................... 28 ols methods ............................................................................................................................ 29 ols results............................................................................................................................... 31 conclusion and limitations ...................................................................................................... 34 executive conclusion ................................................................... error! bookmark not defined. references ..................................................................................................................................... 36 appendix i- logistic regression results ..................................................................................... 39 appendix ii- ols regression results .......................................................................................... 40 2 acknowledgements the work presented here has received funding from the research funding program at the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat). this research was supported by funds to the canadian research data centre network (crdcn) from the social sciences and humanities research council (sshrc), the canadian institute for health research (cihr), the canadian foundation for innovation (cfi), and statistics canada. although the research and analysis are based on data from statistics canada, the opinions expressed do not represent the views of statistics canada. they also do not necessarily represent the views of oncat. 3 introduction while a growing body of literature looks at the labour market outcomes of apprentices in canada (see frank and frenette 2019; gunderson and krashinsky 2015; jin, paul, and haan, 2020), the pool of research examining entry into and out of various programs of study, the demographic profile of apprentices, and who is more likely to complete their training is much more limited. this is an important area of study, as developing and maintaining a skilled workforce in ontario is essential for a robust economy equipped with opportunities for workers of various backgrounds (paquin 2009; winter 2020). apprenticeship training programs and certifications, for instance, act as a means of providing skills and knowledge to future tradespeople, thereby allowing them to enter the labour market in lucrative employment positions. tradespeople are a particularly important driving force for a healthy economy in canada, as they are found in almost every industry (statistics canada 2020). nonetheless, skilled trades and apprenticeship training is a relatively rare pathway into the labour market in canada (skof, 2006). to contextualize this, the national apprenticeship survey (mnard, menezes, chan and walker, 2008) indicates that in 2007 only 12% of the canadian labour force was employed in the skilled trades, while only 2% were officially registered as apprentices. not only this, but the survey results also revealed that the majority of apprentices in canada are registered after having worked for a number of years, rather than immediately upon exiting high school. in particular, the average age of canadian apprentices is 30, while the average age at the time of registration is 28 (jin et al., 2020). these findings suggest that apprenticeship training is not a first-choice post-secondary destination for most high school graduates. rather, although difficult to estimate in the absence of reliable data, it is likely that less than one percent of a graduating cohort enrolls in an apprenticeship program immediately after exiting high school. although there have been numerous attempts to increase participation in apprenticeships, especially during times of economic expansion, there has been relatively little success, especially amongst young canadians. a 2013 survey of canadian youth aged 13 to 17, for example, found that 53 percent of respondents identified a university degree as their first-choice postsecondary option, followed by 25% who identified achieving a college diploma as their goal. comparatively, entering an apprenticeship program was mentioned by less than 20 per cent of the surveyed students (canadian apprenticeship forum, 2013). there are both systemic and individual reasons for the low uptake of apprenticeships in canada. an important one, however, is that apprenticeship programs and training remain a hidden pathway for many individuals due to the clear academic bias present in post-secondary educational pathways, wherein much of the focus for both educators and parents remains on getting students enrolled in college and university (sharpe and gibson 2005). as the data above show, most young canadians, as well as their parents, see university as the best method to achieve personal and economic success in a knowledge-driven economy. lehmann, taylor, and wright (2014) have further argued that apprenticeship training has never been a central element 4 of canadas system of labour force development, and that school-based vocational programs in high schools and community colleges play a more important role (stewart and kerr, 2010). the marginal status of apprenticeships as a school-work-transition pathway is exacerbated by very low completion rates (sharpe, 2003). according to the above-mentioned national apprenticeship survey, only 24,495 apprenticeship certificates were issued in canada in 2007 (mnard, menezes, chan and walker, 2008). further, in a 2004 report, the canadian apprenticeship forum (2004) identified the overall negative image of careers in the trades, a lack of information about apprenticeship training, unwelcoming workplaces, and the lack of resources and regulations for apprenticeship training as reasons for low enrolment and completion in youth apprenticeships. yet, apprenticeships offer unparalleled opportunities for experiential learning, leading to the development of skills useful in many lucrative industrial sectors, while also offering wages throughout an apprentices training (sharpe and gibson 2005). moreover, apprenticeship programs offer an alternative for youth who would otherwise not attend post-secondary education to become formally certified which, in turn, can support a more successful transition not only from school to work, but also into adulthood (wright, lehmann, and taylor 2020). apprenticeships could, thus, not only fill skilled labour shortages, but also facilitate the economic integration of some of the most marginalized groups in canada. given that few apprentices begin their programs immediately following high school, and that the average age at registration is 28, many apprentices may be taking divergent pathways through education and employment. therefore, in this report, we investigate the common transfer pathways taken by apprentices from employment and other forms of post-secondary education into apprenticeship training, as well as their overall outcomes, including completion of their program and labour market destinations. objectives this report determines who pursues apprenticeships by examining differences across demographic groups, what pathways students take into apprenticeship training in ontario, and the sequencing of events as they progress through their training. moreover, our report examines the destinations of individuals exiting apprenticeship programs. in investigating the destinations of these individuals, we also include an examination of the drivers of completion of an apprentices program of study as well as their labour market outcomes. we contribute to the body of literature on apprentices in ontario by examining how these patterns differ for men, women, immigrants, indigenous peoples, and visible minorities. as such, our project seeks to address the following research questions: 5 1. who pursues apprenticeship training and what are the pathways that students take into and through these programs (direct entry from high school, from employment, continued enrollment, or from other pse institutions)? 2. what are the destinations of individuals exiting apprenticeships and what characteristics are associated with program completion? how do exits differ for men and women? 3. what are the labour market outcomes of individuals who were in apprenticeship training? part 1: pathways into apprenticeships as outlined earlier, enrolment in apprenticeship programs is, generally, too low to fill skilled labour demands. for this reason, milian and munro (2020) argue that a more extensive credit transfer system would aid pse institutions in handling these shifting demands within the labour market. on the other hand, however, recent literature also indicates that, as of recently, ontario has made gains in terms of new registrants in apprenticeship programs (statistics canada 2020). part of this can be explained by increased investments in infrastructure projects which, in turn, spurred an uptick in apprentices registering as plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters, and refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics, in addition to those entering the construction industry (statistics canada 2020). due to these differing findings, in what follows we examine differences in apprenticeship registration and entry pathways into apprenticeship programs in ontario. one particularly interesting factor to consider within this discussion is gender. for example, women may take divergent pathways into apprenticeship training, especially when compared to their male counterparts. in fact, a report by finnie, dubois, and miyairi (2021) demonstrates that women, in their sample of three universities in ontario and two canadian colleges, accounted for a smaller proportion of younger direct entry students at the participating pse institutions, while comprising a slightly higher proportion of older direct entry students (finnie et al. 2017). women in apprenticeship programs in 2006 were also found to be slightly older than men and fewer were apprentices in red seal trades (frank and jovic, 2017; statistics canada 2017). additionally, laryea and medu (2010) show that women enter apprenticeship programs with higher levels of educational attainment than men. thus, women could experience a higher degree of student mobility into various pse institutions, including apprenticeship programs. similarly, immigrants also tend to enter apprenticeships at an older age (arrowsmith 2018; frank and jovic 2017), which has important implications due to the general tendency of workers to retire at a younger age due to the physical nature of many trade industries (lehmann, taylor, and wright 2014). what these findings suggest is that immigrant students may have a greater likelihood of mobility and/or divergent pathways into apprenticeship programs. in fact, visible minorities, in addition to reporting having experienced greater barriers to participating in apprenticeship programs and discrimination, also represent only 5 to 7% of all apprentices in canada, compared with 16% of the total canadian population (canadian apprenticeship forum 6 2010). unfortunately, however, due to cell size issues, our report could not delineate between these demographic groups. nevertheless, our report contributes to this growing body of literature by examining the pathways into apprenticeships from other pse programs, as these mobility trends are currently understudied. data-psis the post-secondary information system (psis) is an administrative survey of public postsecondary institutions, and includes information for a multitude of programs, including trades, from 2009-2018 (prior to 2009, only selected provinces were included). this dataset includes primarily institution and program information, as well as some demographic characteristics such as age, gender, province of residence, and whether the respondent is an international student. the psis is a rich source of data that can be used for analyzing pathways to and from program types and across institutions, as well as information on completion and enrollment rates. analytical approach for analyzing transfers although our analysis was primarily done on the registered apprentice information system, given our research focus being on apprenticeships, we were able to use the post-secondary information system (psis) to examine whether individuals entered apprenticeship programs from other program types. to create our analytical sample, we used the psis from 2009-2017 and isolated all observations that indicated ontario as the province of study. next, we kept individuals aged 15-64, as this is the primary group that would attend post-secondary institutions and enter the labour market. this age range remained consistent with our samples from other datasets. we removed anyone with a missing person identifier, as well as any repeat person-year observations. due to the low sample size of apprentices in our analytical sample, the psis was not suitable for answering most of our research questions. however, we were able to determine counts of individuals entering apprenticeships from seven broad program types across our study period. table 1- pathways into apprenticeships from different program types all career, post technical, baccalaureate, professional post career, graduate, basic training, technical or health enrolled in education and their professional residency, and apprenticeship in and skills apprenticeship qualifying training undergraduate other time t+1 program program programs program program programs non-apprentice enrolled 24270 6700 1105660 62680 3329090 621090 enrolled in apprentice 370 30460 2360 30 370 150 total 24640 37160 1108020 62710 3329460 621240 note: this table demonstrates unique individuals per year, across 2009-2017. due to low cell counts, some categories had to be combined. source: authors calculations, psis nonprograms 399550 2500 402050 to determine whether individuals attended post-secondary programs prior to apprenticeship training, we lagged the program type variable (some of the categories were collapsed to ensure minimum cell counts were adhered to, as required by statistics canadas disclosure policies), 7 total 5549040 36240 5585280 and created a cross tabulation between the lagged program variable (what individuals were enrolled in time t-1) and the apprenticeship variable. results from 2009-2017 in ontario, table 1 shows that there are only 36,240 individuals enrolled in apprenticeship programs. of these, 2,500 were not in any program the year prior, suggesting that they entered apprenticeships from employment (or unemployment). further, only 30 of these individuals were enrolled in post-career, technical or professional training programs prior to their apprenticeship. comparatively, a slightly higher number of individuals (150) enrolled in apprenticeships after attending post-baccalaureate or health residency programs, followed by undergraduate programs (370), and basic education and skills training programs (370). the second largest category of transfers occurred in individuals who were enrolled in career, technical, and professional programs (trades), or their qualifying programs. unsurprisingly, most of the individuals enrolling in an apprenticeship program were already enrolled in one in the year prior. demographic characteristics of apprentices in ontario our report seeks to examine whether there are any discernable differences in trends across minority and identity groups in terms of who enters apprenticeship training, as well as the types of trades pursued. while a limited body of literature looks at the apprenticeship program participation rates among immigrant and visible minority groups, research indicates that these groups, along with women, experience disadvantages and barriers in terms of access to apprenticeship training (canadian apprenticeship forum 2010), as well as barriers to gainful and equitable employment (anisef, sweet, and frempong 2003; khattab, miaari, and mohamed-ali 2020). while women have made some gains over time, they remained underrepresented in trades in 2016 (statistics canada 2016). in fact, laryea and medu (2010) show that only 10% of women in the national apprenticeship survey of 2007 were in trades. further, women accounted for only 12% of all registrations in 2016, with 52% engaging in hairstylist and esthetician (27%), food services (16%), and early childhood educators and assistants (10%) programs. even more discouraging is that women accounted for only 16% of all certifications completed in 2016 (statistics canada 2016). by comparison, 2,140 women completed apprenticeship training in food and service trades in 2007, accounting for approximately 77% of the total apprenticeship certifications completed by women in that same year (statistics canada 2022). conversely, in 2007, men were most likely to complete apprenticeship programs in metal fabricating, motor vehicle and heavy equipment, and electrical, electronics, and related trades (statistics canada, 2021), which tend to be associated with higher pay than the female-dominated sectors. moreover, laryea and medu (2010) also find that indigenous peoples are represented on par with their proportion of the canadian population within trades. however, indigenous peoples in trades are also older relative to their age distribution in the population, are less likely to have completed their high school education, and have less college education upon entry into an apprenticeship program than non-indigenous apprentices (laryea and medu 2010). these findings have important implications for our report, as indigenous apprentices may not be 8 transferring between pse institutions and programs and, instead, may be seeking apprenticeship programs as an alternative form of pse education. on the other hand, visible minorities are clearly underrepresented within the trades, in that they account for only approximately 8% of all apprentices (arrowsmith 2018). moreover, visible minorities tend to be less aware of such training opportunities when compared to other demographic groups (arrowsmith 2018), while more immigrant men are in female-dominated trades when compared to non-immigrant men (frank and frenette 2019). there are many possible reasons for this disparity, but a leading factor is likely canadas human capital focused immigrant admission policies. as a means of offsetting some of these trends, cooperative programs are available for newcomers to canada. however, a recent report by arrowsmith (2018) indicates that these groups are less likely to participate in targeted programs than indigenous and visible minority apprentices and are often not aware of the availability of such programs. this could be due to a lack of information about trades programs, especially given that 53% of respondents indicated that they knew about apprenticeship programs in high school, as compared to only 32% of immigrants. what this suggests is that participation in apprenticeship programs is less likely for immigrant apprentices. further, the necessity of employer sponsorship seems to be a hurdle for immigrants, as 25% of those within the sample stated that they had difficulty finding an employer to sponsor their apprenticeship (arrowsmith 2018). importantly, however, immigrants in canada are predominately university-educated, which could contribute to these lower numbers. data- rais and census 2016 to further answer our research questions, we use a unique linked dataset from statistics canada. the registered apprenticeship information system (rais) is an administrative survey collected by educational institutions across canada. the rais contains educational, demographic, geographic, and trade information from 1998-2018. it is a useful tool for analyzing trade, apprenticeship, trade qualifiers, and red-seal endorsement information on both canadian and international students. the rais can also be used to assess enrollment and completion rates across a variety of geographic and demographic information. the 2016 canadian census of population, on the other hand, is a detailed microdata file that has been used in a variety of research settings to answer a multitude of research questions, especially pertaining to detailed demographic and geographic information. the 2016 census is a rich survey that allows researchers to determine trends among key groups of interest, such as indigenous populations, immigrants, and visible minorities. the elmlp, therefore, allows for a linkage between the rais and the 2016 census, which allows researchers to answer detailed demographic questions about registered apprentices and trade qualifiers. to determine the demographics of apprentices, we began by manipulating the rais file. we removed all duplicated entries by person-year by keeping the first occurrence of each unique combination. given we were not interested in multiple program attendees, but rather their demographic information, keeping the first observation is an acceptable approach. next, we isolated all ontario records by keeping everyone who attended an ontario institution from 20089 2018 and kept persons in their primary working years, or rather, those between the ages of 15 and 64. once the rais data was cleaned, we merged the census 2016 file and kept persons who had information in both datasets. due to the census being a cross-sectional survey, we used this file exclusively for descriptive statistics and used only time invariant variables. specifically, we generated cross-tabulations of registered apprentices by age, visible minority status, immigration status, sex, and red seal certification status. to combine the datasets, we used a many to one merge of our time-invariant variables of interest to keep the panel structure of the data. to determine the type of trade completed, we rely on the trade name variable available in the rais. importantly, the use of weights is mandatory for the census confidential micro dataset; thus, we used an individual level weighting variable found in the census data to execute our calculations. all frequencies were rounded to base 10 or 100, per statistics canadas vetting policies. results we begin our descriptive analysis by examining the top nine trades across men, women, visible minorities, and non-visible minorities. all tables were calculated from the rais-census merged file. to analyze the top ten trades across groups, we used their trade designation, per the rais, while the census information was used to determine their visible minority status, as indicated in 2016. figure 1 - top 9 trades for men, 20181 the graph depicts the first entry into an apprenticeship program. thousands frequency top 9 trades for men, 2018 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 national occupation codes source: authors calculations, rais-census. 1 due to rdc policy regarding confidentiality, the 10th category for males had to be suppressed. 10 figure 2 - top 10 trades for women in 2018. the graph depicts the first entry into an apprenticeship program. frequency top 10 trades for women, 2018 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 national occupation codes source: authors calculations, rais-census. as we can see from figure 1, men primarily go into trades that prepare them for occupations in automotive services, electrical work, and carpentry, especially when compared to women (figure2), who typically go into hairstyling, early childhood education, and social work. however, women still worked in automotive services and electricians, but do so at a lower rate than their male counterparts. figure 3 - top 10 trades for visible minorities, 2018. 11 frequency top 10 trades for visible minorities, 2018 4,000 3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 national occupation codes source: authors calculations, rais-census. interestingly, when examining the top ten trades for visible minorities, we see a pattern similar to that experienced by men (figure 1), where their top two trades prepare them for work in automotive services and electrical work. the next two categories, however, are more akin to the outcomes from women in figure 2, wherein hairstylists and early childhood education are the third and fourth largest categories. this could be due to the fact that we did not disaggregate visible minority group by gender. figure 4 - top 10 trades for non-visible minorities, 2018. 12 top 10 trades for non-visible minorities, 2018 600 frequency 500 400 300 200 100 0 national occupation codes source: authors calculations, rais-census comparing figure 3 (visible minorities) with figure 4 (non-visible minorities), we see that the pattern remains largely unchanged across the top two categories, which could point to the fact that differences in trade certification lay primarily across gender differences, not visible minority status. however, given there are more men in trades than women, we see more predominantly male trades such as construction, plumbing, and heavy-duty mechanics in figure 4. importantly, the larger counts among visible minorities are likely due to differences in the top ten trades. that is, for visible minorities, the overwhelming majority go into a few key trades, while non-visible minorities are more dispersed across the major trades groups. in other words, the top ten trades for visible minorities capture most of their chosen trades whereas, for non-visible minorities, the counts of individuals are more spread out across the 206 trades groups. our next set of tables examine demographic groups across three enrollment statuses: trade qualifiers, current registrants, and new registrants. figure 5 - enrollment by minority status, 2015. 13 enrollment by minority status, 2015 90 80 70 percentage 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 non-visbile minority indigenous visible minority minority status trade qualifier already registered new registrant source: authors calculations, rais-census. note: there were no trade qualifiers in the data for the indigenous group in 2015. further, figure 5 shows that most of the individuals in our sample are current registrants who do not identify as a visible minority. this is unsurprising, as much of the sample are non-visible minority men. also noteworthy is that trade qualifiers make up the smallest group of all enrollment statuses, pointing to the fact that people typically choose to attend a trades program and pursue an apprenticeship, rather than challenge the program 2. figure 5 also shows significantly lower frequencies of indigenous persons across all enrollment status. figure 6 -apprenticeship vs. trade qualifiers across immigrants and non-immigrants 2 trade qualifiers are those who receive their certificates by challenging the examination without finishing formal training. 14 percentage apprenticeships vs. trade qualifiers across immigrants & non-immigrants, 2018 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 non-immigrant immigrant immigration status registered apprentice trade qualifier source: authors calculations, rais-census. to determine immigrant status, we used the 2016 census variable that indicates whether someone is a permanent resident or non-permanent resident (these two categories were combined into one to satisfy statistics canadas policy on cell counts). figure 6 shows that immigrants go into tradeswhether as trade qualifiers 3 or registered apprenticesat much lower rates than their naturalized or canadian-born counterparts. however, immigrants follow the same pattern as canadian-born or naturalized citizens in that they tend to register as trade qualifiers in significantly lower numbers than as registered apprentices. figure 7 - age group by enrollment status, 2014. 3 trade qualifiers are those who receive their certificates by challenging the examination without finishing formal training. 15 age group by registration type, 2014 60 50 percentage 40 30 20 10 0 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 age groups trade qualifier already registered new registrant source: authors calculations rais-census to examine enrollment status by age, we look across years to ascertain whether trades enrollment has increased, decreased, or remained stagnant. 4 overall, the majority of new registrants are in the 15-24-year-old category, followed by the 2534-year-old category. this finding makes sense, given that trades certifications (and other credentials) are used as a pathway into the labour market and tend to be pursued by people in their primary working years. across years, we can see that the trend largely remains the same, to the exception of 2013, where we see a spike in currently registered individuals, especially in the 2534-year-old group. what this may point to is lower levels of completion rates in 2013. as such, we now turn to completion rates across our demographic groups of interest. figure 8 - completers vs. non-completers by minority status, 2017-2018. 4 due to low cell counts, we were only able to report from 2008-2014 figures. 16 completer vs. non-completer by minority status, 2017-2018 100 90 80 percentage 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 non-visible minority indigenous visible minority minority status non-completer completer source: authors calculations rais-census. figure 8 shows completion rates across two-year intervals and minority status. 5 we define a completer as anyone who received a certificationwhether with a red seal or not, including trade qualifiers. defined here is that the proportion of non-completers has declined from 20082018, but so have overall completion rates. as was suggested in figure 5, figure 8 confirms once again that not only do indigenous persons comprise the smallest category, but their trends also follow a pattern similar to that of visible minorities and non-visible minority individuals. in other words, there are more non-completers in the data than those who successfully finish their program and receive certification. figure 9 - completers across immigration status and registration type, 2018. note: there were no trade qualifiers who completed in 2018 in the data, 100% of completers in both immigrant and non-immigrant categories are registered apprentices. 5 due to low cell counts, we had to report these findings across grouped years. 17 non-completers across immigration status and registration type, 2018 100 90 80 percentage 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 non-imm imm non-completer non-completer registered apprentice trade qualifier source: authors calculations, rais-census. as we have seen in previous tables, immigrants have not only the lowest proportions of entry in apprenticeship programs, but also show significantly lower rates of completion than nonimmigrant canadians. additionally, trade qualifiers represent an exceedingly small portion of individuals when compared to registered apprenticeships. figure 10 - completers vs. non-completers by gender, 2018. 18 completers vs. non-completers across males & females, 2018 100 90 percentage 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 male female completers non-completer completer source: authors calculations, rais-census. figure 10 offers non-completer versus completer rates across both sexes. here, fewer individuals complete an apprenticeship or trade qualification than those who do not. it is possible that, in some instance, individuals may choose to leave training and come back, or complete it over a longer span of time. thus, it is likely that these individuals are continuing in their program over time. interestingly, although we see more women in the data in 2012-2013, that trend gradually decreases from 2014-2018. with respect to rates, figure 10 shows that women have a slightly higher rates of completion as compared to men. figure 11 - completers vs. non-completers across age groups, 2018. 19 completers vs. non-completers across age groups, 2018 100 90 80 percentage 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 age groups non-completer completer source: authors calculations, rais-census. with respect to age (figure 11), we see trends similar to those in figure 10, wherein there are considerably more non-completers than completers across our study period. further, individuals aged 15-24 and 25-35 represent the largest groups across both completers and non-completers, but we can clearly see that young adults ages 25-35 have higher instances of completing their certification over any other category. interestingly, we see higher frequencies of non-completers aged 15-24 from 2008-2011, but from 2012 onwards, that trend changes and we now see more non-completers in the 25-35 age category, until the point that the two groups have similar noncompletion rates in 2018. for many of the years presented, we see a comparable number of people who are in the 35-44 age groups receiving trades certification, pointing to possible retraining later in adulthood. figure 12 - certifications granted across men & women, 2018. 20 certification granted across men & women, 2018 120 100 percentage 80 60 40 20 0 no certificate granted certificate without red seal certificate with red seal certificate type male female source: authors calculations, rais finally, in figure 12, we examine whether a certificate was granted, and whether that certification is with a red seal endorsement. consistent with our previous findings, most of the individuals in our data were not granted a certificate, with this trend applying to both men and women. across all years, to the exception of 2013, men were granted more red seal endorsed certificates than non-red seal. for women, the opposite is observed, wherein women received trades certification without red seal endorsements more often than those with a red seal endorsement, with this trend being observed across all years. sequence of progress through training research on student entry into apprenticeship programs reveals different patterns than that of traditional pse institutions, such as college or university. for example, apprentices typically enter training programs at an older age (jin et al., 2020) than university students (statistics canada 2010). there could be several reasons for this trend. first, despite the presence of apprenticeship grants in canada (government of canada 2021), direct entry from high school into apprenticeship programs remains a difficult pathway for canadian youth (sharpe and gibson 2005). in fact, the overemphasis on traditional pse institutions by counselors and high school administrators has resulted in a mismatch between students expectations and their educational outcomes (sharpe and gibson 2005). moreover, students who do not complete their high school education have no direct pathway into pse (sharpe and gibson 2005), meaning apprenticeship programs may have a higher concentration of these students. as such, entry into 21 apprenticeship programs seem to be more divergent than pathways taken into traditional pse. as such, a key aspect of our report is the investigation of entry into apprenticeship programs and students progress in their training program. part one conclusion and limitations the main findings of our descriptive analysis demonstrate that, currently, apprenticeships are not integrated into a pse transfer system. in other words, very few apprentices enter their program after having attended university, college, or other pse institutions. our pathway analysis, using psis, shows that, aside from apprenticeship continuers, the majority of new apprentices entered from non-programs (i.e., employment), followed by entrants from career/technical programs. this suggests that many across statuses do not involve school-school transitions, but instead a transfer from work to school. demographically, non-minority men continue to enroll in trades in higher numbers relative to other groups, such as women and visible minorities. interestingly, we show that, although women enroll in lower numbers, their completion rates are slightly higher than their male counterparts. however, men have much higher rates of completing a red seal trade, pointing to a potential mobility component associated with the training they most often enroll in. for instance, industries such as oil and gas and forestry often require tradespersons to either work outside their home province or move to areas where these jobs are available. lastly, our analysis demonstrates that, overall, indigenous persons are enrolling in lower numbers as compared to non-visible minority men. we also continue to see evidence of gendered occupations, as evidenced through our top ten trades across men and women. taken together, the completion rates of all groups, year over year, is low relative to the number of persons who continue to be enrolled. with respect to limitations, we were unable to create a linkage between the psis and the rais due to statistics canada policy, which would have allowed us to have a more detailed account of transfers between pses. thus, although we attempted to determine pathways to and from apprenticeships using the psis, due to low numbers of apprentices in this data, we were unable to obtain more detailed counts than those provided in table 1. further, our completer indicator demonstrates the overall graduation rate, relative to those who continue to be enrolled and those who may have dropped out during the school year. as well, we were not able to provide more detailed breakdowns of visible minority status due to additional confidentiality rules of the census files. finally, we presented data for the most recent year available, as no interesting time trend was present in the data over our study period. 22 part two: completers and labour market outcomes apprenticeship training offers lucrative career options for those who do not want to attend traditional pse institutions. as such, our report also examines the destinations of apprenticeship students, including completion of training programs. overall, past research shows that certification completion rates are low in registered apprenticeship programs (jin et al. 2020). this could be due, in part, to higher rates of student mobility when compared with more traditional pses, or it may be linked to issues related to transferring credits across pse institutions. what these findings demonstrate is the need to fully examine the mechanisms through which this occurs. for example, jin et al. (2020) assess the apprenticeship training, certification rates, and labour market outcomes of respondents enrolled in apprenticeship programs and find that, since 2008, very few completed their program. rather, of those who enrolled, 20% left the apprenticeship program, 64% remained enrolled, and only 16% had obtained their certification. nonetheless, exit pathways out of apprenticeship training programs are not always linear in terms of labour market outcomes. for instance, jin et al. (2020) investigated rates of certification completion among apprentices in canada and found that an increasing number of apprentices took longer than the time allotted for their program, while 20% left their program of study without completion. even after doubling the standard time allotment for program completion, only 36% of apprentices completed their certification (jin et al. 2020). these findings are particularly concerning given the higher rates of employment and pay experienced by those who complete their studies (frank and jovic 2017). part of this may be linked to the requirement for individuals enrolled in apprenticeship training to complete a set number of working hours within their field of study. many of these apprentices, however, have prior work and class experience in a trade and, as a result, may attempt to obtain credit for this prior experience. those students who receive credit for in-class or on-the-job training completed prior to registering in an apprenticeship program are shown to be 13% more likely to successfully complete their certification (jin et al. 2020). further, those who worked in an industry closely related to their program of study were even more successful in reaching completion, with 38% of apprentices completing their certification, as compared to only 32% of those working in industries unrelated to their trade (jin et al. 2020). this finding is important in the context of credit transfers in ontario as students able to transfer their credits may also be more successful in obtaining their degree, diploma, or certification. as well, it is also worth noting that, of the individuals who discontinued their enrollment in apprenticeship programs between 2011 and 2013, 13% were re-enrolled by 2015 (frank and jovic 2017). as a result of these findings, and due to the non-linear nature of exit pathways out of apprenticeship programs, our report will examine the individual-level predictors of completion among apprentices in ontario, in addition to their labour market outcomes. some researchers argue that increasing the number of skilled tradespersons can facilitate the growth of the middle class (holzer 2017); however, a push to expand sectors associated with the skilled trades may only be beneficial for some people. for instance, there is a large body of literature that demonstrates that women face inequality in the labour market in comparison to 23 men, yet less is known about women in trades and apprenticeship programs (frank and frenette 2019). although women are not considered a minority group, they have been identified as disadvantaged with regards to labour market inclusion (ferguson 2016). this is surprising, given that women are generally more educated than men (ferguson 2016). in this way, participation in apprenticeship programs could reduce the inequalities experienced by women within the labour market, especially considering that researchers demonstrate that the returns for vocational training are at least on par with those for academic education (statistics canada 2019). however, previous studies have also found that female-dominated trades are associated with lower earnings, despite having similar levels of employment (boothby and drewes 2010). in fact, the literature demonstrates that women in trades earn less than men, despite having higher levels of education when they begin an apprenticeship (laryea and medu 2010). as well, there seems to be an earnings premium for men in the skilled trades that does not exist for women (boothby and drewes 2006), with women registered in male-dominated apprenticeship programs having lower median hourly wages than their male counterparts (frank and frenette 2019). moreover, research shows that apprentices register for their program at approximately 28 years of age (paul, jin, and haan 2022, forthcoming), which is older than students in other pse institutions. these age differences have important implications for earnings, as income has been shown to increase significantly one year after completing certification (paul et al. 2022, forthcoming). also investigated is the association between self-employment and earnings, as studies show that entrepreneurship is growing more common among tradespeople, wherein only 9% of tradespersons were self-employed in 1987 compared to 15% in 2007 (pyper 2008). and finally, we investigate how red seal trades are associated with income as prior work has established that red seal certificates tend to pay more (finnie et al. 2021). our proposed research will build upon the findings outlined above by using administrative data that follows individuals across time to establish a more robust connection between apprenticeships, student mobility, certification completion, and inclusion in the canadian labour market. to complete this report, we access the confidential elmlp datasets through western universitys research data center (rdc). given the confidential nature of the data, researchers must adhere to strict rules and vetting procedures. as such, some of the information is redacted to ensure confidentiality of respondents across all datasets. where necessary, we indicate that the specifics of the data or augmentation process must remain private and, thus, cannot be reported. the datasets we used to answer our research questions were the psis, rais, census of population 2016, and the t1ff. all data manipulation and analyses were conducted using stata 17. we examine each dataset in closer detail below, followed by the methods used in each analysis. data rais-t1ff the registered apprenticeship information system (rais) is an administrative survey collected by educational institutions across canada. the rais contains educational, demographic, geographic, and trade information from 1998-2018. as such, the rais is a useful tool for analyzing trade, apprenticeship, trade qualifiers, and red-seal trades information on both 24 canadian and international students and can be used to assess enrollment and completion rates across a variety of geographic and demographic factors. the t1 family file (t1ff) is a longitudinal census of all canadian tax filers from 1982-2018. the t1ff is a rich source of income data primarily used by researchers to study the labour market outcomes of canadians. in particular, the t1ff holds key income data such as employment earnings, union dues, social assistance payments, and other financial data such as dividends, capital gains/losses, and grant and scholarship funding. further, the elmlp allows for a linkage between the rais and t1ff files, which allows for longitudinal examinations of labour market outcomes across many years and demographic groups. sequence analysis methods in terms of our methodology, we complete a sequence analysis of the most common pathways to and from apprenticeship training using the rais-t1ff file from 2007-2018. importantly, due to the rais data beginning in 2008, we include a persons 2007 tax record to determine their status a year prior to attending a trades program. additionally, the last available year within both the t1ff and the rais was 2018. sequence analyses are useful for determining patterns found in panel data and can shed light on historical trends used to answer economic or sociological questions. to determine the most common pathways into and out of apprenticeships, we code a six-level sequencing variable indicating the following discrete groups: whether a respondent is employed (determined by their t1ff record and if the respondents t4 (employment) income is over $1000); whether a respondent is still in the program (determined by information provided through the rais and a record indicating current enrollment, but not completion); whether the respondent successfully completed their program (determined by the information provided through the rais and a record indicating they have successfully completed their program); whether the respondent dropped out (determined by the information provided through the rais and a record indicating they have discontinued the program); whether the respondent in unemployed (determined by their t1ff record and if their t4 employment income is under $1000); and whether the respondent entered an apprenticeship program as a high school student (determined by the age variable for those aged 15-19 within the rais as a proxy for high school). although we kept only the first person-year record in this merged rais-t1ff file, we confirmed that an overwhelming majority of respondents in the data did not have multiple yearly entries. due to software restrictions imposed at the rdc, we were unable to obtain the necessary stata files to visually present our findings. furthermore, the software available to us only allowed for a simple examination of pathways found in our data. nonetheless, we were able to determine the top 20 most common and longest sequences across observations. sequence analysis results overall, the most common sequence in our data indicates that people enter apprenticeships from employment, followed by seven years of enrollment, and dropping out prior to returning to employment (about 7,000 respondents). the next two most common sequences were similar to 25 the first, but with individuals spending either two or five years in an apprenticeship program prior to dropping out and resuming employment. the fourth most common pattern was to successfully complete the program after being employed in the previous year before resuming employment (about 6,200 respondents). what this fourth sequence might indicate is that either these are trade qualifiers, or they were attending a trades program prior to this. however, our study period did not capture this. moreover, the next four patterns (sequences five through eight) in our analysis indicate that respondents engaged in employment (about 3,700 and 2,700 respondents, respectively), followed by one to four years of enrollment, then successful completion before returning to employment. worth noting, however, is that the top 20 patterns did not include anyone who was in high school (as indicated by the respondents age) or unemployed, indicating that neither of these states are frequent enough among individuals in the data to be captured by the sequencing analysis. logistic regression methods to prepare the rais for merge with the t1ff, we used a methodological approach identical to that taken for the merge with the 2016 census. in other words, we kept the first person-year record for individuals attending an ontario institution between 2008-2017. in order to confirm that the first observation of each individual was comparable to the entire rais file, with respect to proportions across trades and key demographics, we checked the proportions across trades before and after keeping the first record. we then merged the t1ff files from 2007-2018 to capture the year before and after attending an apprenticeship program, as well as their labour market outcomes in the time periods of t-1 and t+1. overall, we kept everyone with a record in both time periods (except for the first and last years) in the rais and t1ff. what we develop then is an analytical sample comprised of tax filing apprentices across our study period. models we run two models on the rais-t1ff to answer the following questions: who completes apprenticeships? and what are their labour market outcomes? for the first question, we run a logistic regression, with a dependent variable for completer, which is a binary variable indicating whether someone completes an apprenticeship program. the logistic regression can be expressed as: log = + ,, ++ ,, ; {1, } equation (1) where the set = { , } defines the regression coefficients for all the independent variables in our model. we denote the independent variables as = , , , , in which the observations are indexed by {1, , }. we define the dependent variable, completer, by , ; {1, }. further, the probability of an individual completing their program is denoted by , given our set of covariates. all variables in the model are expressed as fixed effects. importantly, weights were not applied to this model, as both the rais and t1ff are census files and, as such, do not require weights, per rdc rules. after missing observations were dropped by stata through the modelling process, the logistic regression was inclusive of over 925,000 observations. 26 as defined previously, our dependent variable, completer, is a binary indicator for whether someone completes an apprenticeship program. individuals who were granted a certificate, with or without a red seal, as either a journeyperson or registered apprentice and whose status indicates successful completion of the program are coded as 1. cases that did not meet this definition were coded as 0. we exclude trade qualifiers from this sample, as this particular class of tradesperson does not require attendance or practice through an educational institution. our focal independent variable is whether someone went into a trades program directly from high school. on this end, we use age as a proxy for high school, which we coded as 1 if a person falls between the ages of 15-19, and 0 otherwise, where the reference is not in high school. we further lag this variable to determine whether the individual was in high school the year prior. in addition to our focal independent variable, we also include a number of controls. sex is included as a male/female dummy, where female is the reference. marital status is included as a threelevel dummy variable indicating whether someone is single (reference), married/common-law, or divorced/widowed. age of respondent is grouped into five ten-year categories: 15-25 (reference), 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, and 56-65. presence of children is included as a binary variable, where 1 denotes an individual has children (reference), and 0 denotes there are no children present. union membership was lagged (t-1) and coded as 1 if the observation had union dues above $1.00 (reference) and 0 if no union dues were reported. further, the presence of self-employment income is included as a binary dummy, where 1 indicates that a person has self-employment income (reference) and 0 indicates that they do not. 6 we also include whether someone was enrolled in a red seal trade by coding a binary dummy where 1 indicates the respondent was enrolled in a red seal trade (reference), while 0 indicates that they were not. using an existing variable in the data, we then determine the endorsement of the certificate, where 1 indicates that the certificate is only red seal endorsed (reference), 2 indicates that the certificate is both red seal and non-red seal endorsed, and 3 indicates that the certification is only non-red seal endorsed. we further control for year as a fixed effect, with 2009 being the reference. it is important to note that, because of lagged variables (which creates a missing value in time t-1), we do not have estimates for the year 2008. lastly, we control for the national occupational classification (noc) groups by including 73 groups. these were collapsed from the original roughly 500 groups, with the reference category being conference and event planners. in line with previous research, we use noc codes as proxies for trades certificates (see haan, jin, and paul 2022, in press). for ease of interpretation, we report all coefficients in odds ratios (ors). results based on the regression results (see appendix i for regression output), those who are entering trades directly from high school have a significantly lower likelihood of program completion (or=0.04). further, women have a slightly higher probability of completion over men (or=1.01), and married individuals have the highest probability of completion (or=1.34), followed by divorced individuals (or=1.01), as compared to single people. however, the coefficient for divorced individuals failed to reach statistical significance, indicating it is not 6 the self-employment variable was pre-coded in the data and indicated whether someone claimed self-employment income or not. thus, we did not indicate any dollar amount cut-offs. 27 statistically different from single individuals. with respect to age, and consistent with our results for individuals coming from high school, people aged 26-35 have the highest chance of completion, followed by those aged 36-45 (or=1.10), then those aged 46-55 (or=1.05), as compared to the reference group of persons aged 15-25. in this way, it appears that the likelihood of completion peaks between 26-35 before slowly decreasing, with those aged 56-65 having the lowest probability of completion (or=0.92) compared to the younger generations. also consistent with the findings for age, we see that the presence of children results in a decreased probability of completion (or=0.88) when compared to childless individuals. interestingly, but unsurprisingly, belonging to a union in time t-1 results in a greater likelihood of completion (or=1.29) over those who did not work in a unionized environment. given that many trades are unionized, this finding makes sense. comparatively, those with self-employment income have a decreased chance of completion (or=0.78), possibly due to the time commitment it takes to run a business. further, red seal trades show interesting trends. first, participating in a red seal program in time t-1 results in a higher probability of completion, albeit only slightly (or-1.07), as compared to those who did not attend a red seal trade. next, when looking at the impact of endorsement, individuals who are enrolled in a program wherein the red seal endorsement is optional have the highest probability of completion (or=1.21), followed by only non-red seal endorsed programs (or=1.19), as compared to those in only red seal programs. although we used the noc codes as controls, an interesting finding from the regression results indicates that no one completed a certification in other technical and co-ordinating occupations in motion pictures, broadcasting, and the performing arts during the study period. furthermore, jewellers, jewellery and watch repairers and related occupations have the highest probability of completing (or=35.4), followed by electronics assemblers, fabricators, inspectors, and testers (or=5.36), then chefs (or=5.32), and hairstylists and barbers (or=4.19), as compared to the reference category of conference and event planners. comparatively, the lowest probability of completion is found among the following trades: drillers and blasters in surface mining, quarrying and construction (or=0.09), concrete finishers (or=0.15), and aircraft mechanics and inspectors (or=0.30), as compared to the reference category. across years, the probability of completion is higher for all years in comparison to 2009, with 2018 having the highest predicted probability of completion (or=2.03). data- rais-t1ff to determine the labour market outcomes of completers, we return to the rais-t1ff dataset described above. figure 13 - average incomes of trade qualifiers vs. registered apprentices, 2018. standard deviation indicated by the error bars. 28 average incomes of trade qualifiers vs. registered apprentices, 2018 90000 80000 70000 dollars 60000 50000 40000 30000 20000 10000 0 reg apprentice trade qualifier mean income in 2018 source: authors calculations rais-t1ff we begin exploring labour market outcomes by descriptively analyzing the average incomes across trade qualifiers and registered apprentices. figure 13 shows a clear pattern of trade qualifiers consistently earning more money than registered apprentices up until 2018, where the two groups are mostly similar. given that trade qualifiers have already worked, their experience likely accounts for the differences in wages. interestingly, while we see the incomes of trade qualifiers decrease from 2008-2018, the opposite is demonstrated for registered apprentices, wherein their incomes gradually increase across the study period. ordinary least squares analysis for this next section, we take advantage of the panel structure of the rais-t1ff merge to run a random-effect model, which groups individual respondents across years, thereby resulting in robust standard errors. this model was inclusive of approximately 1,252,000 observations, grouped by person identifier and year as the time component, totalling about 342,000 different respondents for an average of just under four years of data per person. the r-squared of the overall model is 0.24, indicating that about 24% of the variability in logged income is explained through our set of covariates. further, the r-squared within panels explains about 9% of the variability in logged income, while around 30% of the between panels variation in logged income is explained. this can be interpreted as there being more between-group variation (i.e., across people) than what can be seen between years of data for one person (within person variation). in other words, most of the variability of logged income is explained by individual 29 differences, rather than person-specific changes over time. the ordinary least squared regression can be expressed as: , = + , + , ++ , + + equation (2) where , is the logged income of a respondent across 2007-2018. to determine labor market outcomes of apprentices, we use the total employment income of the respondent, as per their t4 income, any self-employment income they may have claimed, as well as other employment income.7 we use all positive incomes, bottom coded at $0.00 and scale all dollar amounts by year to 2018 constant dollars prior to logging. our main independent variable, completer, is coded as 1 (reference) if a certificate was granted, with or without a red seal designation, to either a journeyperson or registered apprentice and their status indicates successful completion of the program with a certificate granted. cases that did not meet this definition were coded as 0. as was the case previously, we exclude trade qualifiers from this sample, as this particular class of tradesperson does not require attendance or practice through an educational institution. further, we code a transfer variable by lagging a persons noc and examining whether they are different in time t, as compared to time t-1. this allows us to determine whether transferring from one program to another results in more or less income. next, we include a number of controls. sex is a male/female dummy, where female is the reference. marital status is included as a three-level dummy variable indicating whether someone is single (reference), married/common-law, or divorced/widowed. ages of respondents were grouped into five ten-year categories for 15-25 (reference), 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, and 56-65. presence of children is included as a binary variable, where 1 denotes an individual has children (reference) and 0 denotes no children. union membership was lagged (t-1) and coded as 1 if the observation had union dues above $1.00 (reference) and 0 if no union dues were reported. presence of self-employment income was included as a binary dummy, where 1 indicates that a person has self-employment income (reference) and 0 indicates that they do not. 8 we include whether someone was enrolled in a red seal trade by coding a binary dummy where 1 indicates the respondent was enrolled in a red seal trade (reference) and 0 indicates that they were not. we then use an existing variable in the data to determine the endorsement of the certificate where 1 denotes a red seal only endorsed (reference), 2 denotes both red seal and non-red seal endorsed, and 3 denotes only non-red seal endorsed. year as a fixed effect is also included, with 2009 as the reference. it is important to note that, because of lagged variables (which creates a missing value in time t-1), we do not have estimates for the year 2008. finally, we control for the national occupational classification (noc) groups by including 73 groups which were collapsed from the original roughly 500, where the reference category is conference and event planners. 7 other employment income refers to any taxable income received through the course of employment, such as gratuities, but that are not indicated on the t4. 8 this variable was pre-coded in the data indicating whether someone claimed self-employment income or not. thus, we did not indicate any dollar amount cut-offs. 30 regression results overall, our regression results (see appendix ii for regression table) show that completers make just under 19% more than non-completers, on average (see figure 14). further, individuals who switch programs, thereby resulting in a different noc classification, make around 15% less than those who stay in their original program or within the same noc grouping (see figure 15). married and common-law individuals make, on average, 16% than their single counterparts, while the divorced group earn approximately 7% more in employment earnings. this finding makes sense, as dual income earnings will claim higher incomes than their single-earner counterparts. we also see a notable gender wage gap for tradespeople, wherein women make almost 24% less than their male counterparts (see figure 16). in terms of age, individuals aged 26-35 earn 19% more than those aged 15-25, while slightly older individuals enjoy the largest earnings premium. in particular, those aged 36-45 and 46-55 make 25% and 23% more than those aged 15-25, respectively, net of the control variables in the model. on the other hand, the oldest individuals in our sample, or those aged 56-65, make 5% less than the reference group of people aged 15-25. additionally, the presence of children results in a decrease in earned income of just under 11%, as compared to individuals without kids. figure 14 - predictive margins of logged employment income across completers and non-completers. predictive margins of logged employment income across completers vs. non-completers 10.45 10.4 10.35 10.3 10.25 10.2 10.15 10.1 non-completer completer source: authors calculations rais-t1ff. note: whisker plots denote 95% confidence interval 31 figure 15 - predictive margins of logged employment income across transferees and non- transferees. predictive margins of logged employment income of tranferees and non-transferees 10.3 10.25 10.2 10.15 10.1 10.05 10 no transfer transferred source: authors calculations rais-t1ff. note: whisker plots denote 95% confidence interval figure 16 - predictive margins of logged employment income across men and women. 32 predictive margins of logged employment income across men and women 10.35 10.3 10.25 10.2 10.15 10.1 10.05 10 9.95 9.9 9.85 men women source: authors calculations rais-t1ff. note: whisker plots denote 95% confidence interval with respect to union involvement, tradespeople who have declared union dues on their tax return have, on average, around 30% more in employment earnings than those that are not associated with a union. self-employed individuals, on the other hand, have just under 21% less declared earnings than those who do not report self-employment wages. further, trade qualifiers earn 6% more than apprentices, however this finding makes sense given that trade qualifiers are admitted into the certification program based on years of experience in their particular trade. also interesting is that those enrolled in red seal trades show a slight disadvantage in terms of employment earnings, at about 4% less compared to those not in a red seal program. however, we do not observe much of a difference with respect to the type of endorsement on a persons certificate. in particular, individuals who have both red seal and non-red seal endorsements make 0.6% less than individuals who hold a red seal only endorsed certificate, while those with only a non-red seal endorsement make just over 1% more employment income, as compared to the reference group. lastly, with respect to yearly trends, we observe that, from 2009 to 2013, individuals reported making less income, on average, when compared to 2008. however, from 2014-2018, tradespeople made more, on average, as compared to 2008. given that the effects of the 2008 recession were observable for several years post-crash, our findings indicate that trades in ontario were affected from 2009-2013, but recover economically post-2013, which follows the business cycle trend that is known to exist over this period. 33 conclusion and limitations overall, this report documents a number of key considerations within the realm of trades and apprenticeships in ontario. amongst these is an outline of the demographic groups most likely to pursue apprenticeship training, the type of trades pursued by these groups, the transfers most common among those who enter apprenticeships, and the destinations of apprentices once they leave their training program. through our analyses, we have shown that, while most students do not transfer into apprenticeship training from another program, those that do transfer come from a bachelors program or a basic education and skill training program. further, our results confirm that trades are gender segregated, yet more visible minorities study female-dominated trades than non-visible minorities. in saying this, however, it is worth noting that most apprentices are nonvisible minority, native-born men. additionally, most individuals register for apprenticeship training between the ages of 15 and 34. moreover, another interesting finding occurred within our sequencing modelling, wherein the most common pathway was those who were engaged in employment, dropped out, and then reentered the labour market later. the second most common pathway, however, was those who worked in paid employment, completed their certification, and returned to work. finally, our ols regression results indicate that those who switch their program of study earn less, on average, than those who remain in the same program of study. as well, there exists a substantial gender pay gap. thus, the pathways taken by apprentices have major implications for labour market outcomes which, in turn, points to a few directions for policy. in particular: 1. policies aimed at supporting students who transition between programs of study within apprenticeship training are essential as these students appear to suffer from an earnings disadvantage 2. the implementation of such transfer programs should include a consideration of the types of credit transfers common among apprentices, which is a limitation of our study. 3. canadas current focus on recruiting high human capital immigrants may be inadvertently reducing the number of people that might pursue an apprenticeship. of importance is that our results rely heavily on descriptive measures and multivariable methods that cannot establish causal pathways. nevertheless, our results show that the ontario council on articulation and credit transfer is a much-needed program to help apprentices navigate through program changes. in sum, we lack a clear picture of who enters apprenticeship training. in addition, research has yet to fully parse out the pathways taken into apprenticeship training among students in ontario, the likelihood of completing apprenticeships, as well as journeypersons labour market outcomes. an investigation of these phenomena can inform ontarios credit transfer system and help decrease the barriers faced by students, particularly among marginalized groups. nonetheless, there are a number of limitations within this study that are worth noting. for one, due to computational requirements, and statistics canada policy, we were unable to complete the sequence analysis and, as such, our findings could not be presented in a visual format. in terms of our regression models, we model the graduation rate per year, which means that everyone who 34 did not graduate in year t is still enrolled in the program. therefore, our non-completer category is comprised of both dropouts and continuers. additionally, we do not know the labour market outcomes of those who dropped out and did not complete the program. given that these individuals would no longer be in the rais sample, it is difficult to determine their long-term financial position relative to those who did complete their program. this is especially true for any estimates post-2018, as this is the last year of the t1ff available to us at that time. lastly, we were unable to include visible minority status in our regressions because there is no possible linkage between the census and the rais-t1ff merged file we created. this was not clear to us as we began our analysis, and there was no indication on statistics canadas data website that these linkages were not allowed.9 as such, we miss a potentially important subset of the population, which is something worth examining further in future studies. 9 https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/microdata/data-centres/data 35 references anisef, paul, robert sweet, and george frempong. 2003. labour market outcomes of immigrant and racial minority university graduates in canada. journal of international migration and integration / revue de lintegration et de la migration internationale 4(4):499522. doi: 10.1007/s12134-003-1012-4. arrowsmith, emily. 2018. apprenticeship in canada: research insights based on data, trends and observations. boothby, daniel, and torben drewes. 2006. postsecondary education in canada: returns to university, college and trades education. canadian public policy 32(1):121. doi: 10.2307/3552240. boothby, daniel, and torben drewes. 2010. returns to apprenticeship in canada. working paper no. 70. vancouver. canadian apprenticeship forum. 2010. creating diversity and career opportunities in the skilled trades. ferguson, sarah jane. 2016. women and education: qualifications, skills and technology. catalogue no. 89-503-x. finnie, ross, michael dubois, and masashi miyairi. 2017. how student pathways affect labour market outcomes: evidence from tax-linked administrative data. finnie, ross, michael dubois, and masashi miyairi. 2021. how much do they make? new evidence on the early career earnings of trade certificate holders. ottawa, on. frank, kristyn, and marc frenette. 2019. how do women in male-dominated apprenticeships fare in the labour market? analytical studies branch research paper series (catalogue no. 11f0019m no. 420):125. frank, kristyn, and emily jovic. 2017. canada overview report 2015. catalogue no. 81-598-x. ottawa: statistics canada. government of canada. 2021. apprenticeship grants. retrieved (https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-socialdevelopment/services/apprentices/grants.html). gunderson, morley, and harry krashinsky. 2015. returns to apprenticeship based on the 2006 canadian census. industrial and labor relations review 68(5):10781101. doi: 10.1177/0019793915591990. haan, michael, hyeongsuk jin, and taylor paul. 2022. the mobility of construction workers in canada: insights from administrative data. journal of applied statial analysis. holzer, harry j. 2017. building a new middle class in the knowledge economy. vol. 5. washington d.c. jin, hyeongsuk, manon langevin, andr lebel, and michael haan. 2020. insights on canadian 36 society factors associated with the completion of apprenticeship training in canada. (75). khattab, nabil, sami miaari, and marwan mohamed-ali. 2020. visible minorities in the canadian labour market: disentangling the effect of religion and ethnicity. ethnicities 20(6):121845. doi: 10.1177/1468796819847750. laryea, smauel a., and kemi medu. 2010. national apprenticeship survey 2007: participation of women, immigrants and aboriginal people in apprenticeship programs. canadian council of directors of apprenticeship. lehmann, wolfgang, alison taylor, and laura wright. 2014. youth apprenticeships in canada: on their inferior status despite skilled labour shortages. journal of vocational education and training 66(4):57289. doi: 10.1080/13636820.2014.958868. milian, roger pizarro, and yvette munro. 2020. credit transfer, articulation & the future of work : towards a federal strategy. 2030. paquin, nicole. 2009. mobility of apprenticeship completers in canada from 2002 to 2007. education matters: insights on education, learning and training in canada (catalogue no.81-004-x-no. 2). paul, taylor, hyeonksuk jin, and michael haan. 2022. do apprenticeships help immigrants more than non-immigrants? insights from canadian administrative data. pyper, wendy. 2008. skilled trades employment. perspectives on labour and income 9(catalogue no. 75-001-x october no. 9):125. sharpe, andrew, and james gibson. 2005. the apprenticeship system in canada : trends and issues. 198. statistics canada. 2010. education matters : insights on education , learning and training in canada trends in the age composition of college and university students and graduates. (81):17. statistics canada. 2016. registered apprenticeship training programs, 2016. ottawa. statistics canada. 2017. national apprenticeship survey: canada overview report 2015 section 7 mobility. statistics canada. 2019. table 37-10-0118-01. number of registered apprentices. ottawa. statistics canada. 2020. new registrations in apprenticeship programs in canada falls in 2019, led by sharp declines in alberta. the daily (catalogue no. 11-001-x). statistics canada. 2022. table: 37-10-0080-01. registered apprenticeship training, completions by major trade groups and sex. retrieved april 20, 2022 (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710008001&pickmembers%5b0% 5d=1.1&pickmembers%5b1%5d=3.3&cubetimeframe.startyear=2003&cubetimeframe .endyear=2007&referenceperiods=20030101%2c20070101). winter, simon. 2020. its the economy, stupid!: on the relative impact of political and economic determinants on migration. vol. 39. springer netherlands. 37 wright, laura, wolfgang lehmann, and alison taylor. 2020. if you want to have a future and a life, do an apprenticeship: the expectations and realities of tradesmens transition to adulthood. journal of youth studies 23(6):74564. doi: 10.1080/13676261.2019.1636947. 38 appendix i- logistic regression results high school (ref=not in high school) female (ref=male) probability of completing -3.193*** (0.0967) 0.0188 red seal & non-red seal endorsed (ref=red seal endorsed only) only non-red seal endorsed probability of completing 0.195*** (0.0277) 0.178*** (0.0325) (0.0143) married/common law (ref=single) divorced ages (ref=15-25) 26-35 0.293*** (0.00820) 0.0112 (0.0183) 2012 46-55 ** 0.0533 (0.0164) 56-65 ** 2014 0.524*** (0.0163) 2015 0.252*** (0.0166) 2016 0.395*** (0.0170) 2017 0.405*** (0.0172) 2018 0.711*** (0.0172) -0.119*** (0.00731) *** 0.255 (0.00807) self-employed (ref=not selfemployed) -0.242 (0.0151) in a red seal trade (ref=not in a red seal trade) 0.0742** (0.0228) constant 0.200*** (0.0168) 0.186*** (0.0167) 0.274*** (0.0166) -0.0775 (0.0285) *** 0.00997 (0.0172) 2013 *** 0.0985 (0.0124) union dues (ref=no union dues) 2011 0.260*** (0.00877) 36-45 children (ref=no children) years (ref=2009) 2010 -3.647*** (0.288) observations 925000 source: authors calculations rais-t1ff. standard errors in parentheses * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001 note: noc groups not reported 39 appendix ii- ols regression results completer (ref=noncompleter) logged employment income 0.172*** (0.002) transferred (ref=no transfer) marital status (ref=single) married/common law divorced -0.166*** (0.002) 0.150*** (0.002) 0.072*** (0.004) red-seal trade (ref=nonred-seal) logged employment income -0.044*** (0.006) red-seal endorsed trade (ref=only red seal endorsed) red seal & non-red seal endorsed trade -0.006 (0.004) only non-red seal endorsed 0.013* (0.006) years (ref=2008) 2009 -0.220*** (0.003) 2010 -0.163*** (0.003) 0.182*** (0.002) 2011 -0.117*** (0.003) 36-45 0.226*** (0.003) 2012 -0.063*** (0.003) 46-55 0.211*** (0.004) 2013 -0.031*** (0.003) 56-65 -0.005 (0.007) -0.114*** (0.002) 2014 0.005 (0.003) 2015 0.043*** (0.003) 2016 0.057*** (0.004) 2017 0.116*** (0.004) 2018 0.166*** (0.004) 10.303*** (0.078) female (ref=male) ages (ref=15-25) 26-35 children (ref=no children) union dues (ref=no union dues) self-employed (ref=not selfemployed) trade qualifier (ref=registered apprentice) -0.269*** (0.004) 0.259*** (0.002) -0.225*** (0.003) 0.058*** (0.005) constant observations 1,252,000 source: authors calculations rais-t1ff. 40 standard errors in parentheses * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 note: noc groups not reported 41

final report oncat project 2017-30 academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide 2018 funded by the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) the opinions, findings, and recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of oncat. p a g e |2 table of contents overview of the final report .............................................................................................................................. 3 acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................. 3 executive summary ............................................................................................................................................. 4 promising practices and lessons learned ........................................................................................................... 5 tools and resources ........................................................................................................................................... 8 ace program environmental scan report 2017 .................................................................................................. 9 academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide 2018 ........................................................................... 21 final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e |3 overview of the final report because the academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide project was not a traditional research project, some elements of the final report differ from those of a formal research project report. the final report contains the following sections in the order they appear below: overview of the final report acknowledgements executive summary promising practices and lessons learned tools and resources the ace environmental scan report 2017 the ace reference guide 2018 appendices to the ace reference guide the research methodology for the environmental scan is included in the e-scan report. the project data set is considered to be the ace reference guide itself. a formal literature review was not conducted, though the review and use of historical and recent ace program documentation informed both the environmental scan and the compilation of the ace reference guide. the key documents are listed in the tools and resources section of this report and most are included as appendices in the ace reference guide. acknowledgements niagara college and the provincial college sector committee for adult upgrading (csc) extend thanks to the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) for supporting this project to develop the academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide. achieving the objective of compiling the ace reference guide involved feedback and input from all 24 public colleges. many academic managers provided key information through the environmental scan questionnaire, email and telephone conversations, and/or at face-to-face meetings. representatives from the ministry of advanced education and skills development also provided insights, especially with respect to the ongoing adult education review in ontario. in addition, thanks are extended to the four colleges (algonquin, boral, cambrian, and canadore) who reviewed the ace reference guide and provided helpful feedback related to content, clarity and format. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e |4 executive summary the academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide project focused on producing a practical compilation of background information and documentation pertaining to the delivery of the ace program, with a view to improving the awareness and understanding of the program and promoting mobility and seamless, inter-college transfer credit for ace students across the college system. the target audience for the guide is academic managers, registrar and admissions personnel, and others who may have an interest in learning more about the history and the current delivery of the ace program in the ontario public college system. the academic and career entrance program is a grade 12 equivalent program for mature students delivered by all 24 public colleges in ontario in both english and french, and online via the ace distance program. the ace program enables adult students to complete academic upgrading courses through a flexible, goaldirected program, offered at almost 80 college sites across the province. ace courses can be used to fulfill admission requirements for access to college postsecondary programs and for apprenticeship registration in ontario. although the current version of the ace program was approved for delivery in 2004, its precursor (basic training for skills development level 4) has been offered at all ontario colleges since the creation of the community college system in the late 1960s. to inform the development of the ace reference guide, the project began by conducting an environmental scan to investigate a number of elements of ace program delivery including ace documentation currently on file at colleges, course codes in use at each college, the status of current delivery compared to the original (2004) approved curriculum, grading and transfer credit processes, and strengths and threats related to the ongoing viability of ace program delivery. the ace environmental scan report is included as an appendix in this final project report. the information in the ace reference guide is organized into a number of sections as follows: introduction to the academic and career entrance program ace program environmental scan - overview background and history: btsd to ace ace program development 2002-2004 funding for ace program delivery ace curriculum and course outlines: past, present and future ace certificate and graduation requirements ace course codes and titles ace program delivery models ace distance (online) delivery mastery learning and grading in ace courses ace transfer credit across colleges several appendices are also included in the guide related to both historical and current ace program information. updating and re-issuing the academic and career entrance program documentation to all colleges, in the form of the ace reference guide, provides a consolidated resource to promote consistent, coordinated delivery and student mobility within and across colleges, ensuring that this important pathway into postsecondary for adult students is well-understood and consistently delivered. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e |5 promising practices and lessons learned the ace reference guide identifies some areas where promising practices and lessons learned could be implemented to promote the viability of ace program delivery and support student mobility and transfer credit. below are nine areas that expand on those mentioned in the ace reference guide itself. 1. liaise with cralo to raise ace awareness and promote ace student mobility it was the intention of this project to liaise with the provincial committee of registrars admissions and liaison officers (cralo) to update their members on the status of the ace program, to address questions related to ace delivery; and to identify issues around ace transfer credit that may be affecting student mobility. the project plan had this liaising scheduled for early winter. unfortunately, the college faculty job action made it difficult for relevant cralo members to devote time to liaising with the project researcher. in the near future, it would be useful for the college sector committee for adult upgrading (csc) to revisit this aspect of the project and approach cralo to conduct discussions as outlined above while also making key cralo members aware of the new ace reference guide and the updated ace course codes document. 2. investigate curriculum update and re-approval process with maesd for a locally approved certificate such as that issued for ace, each college would normally maintain its own curriculum, program requirements, and approval. because ace is a system-wide program built on provincial consistency of curriculum and graduation requirements across all 24 colleges, any program modifications need to be undertaken and submitted to the colleges unit at maesd through a coordinated, system-wide proposal similar to that which was submitted for the original ace program approval. renewing the awareness of the ace program within the colleges unit has been one objective of the ace reference guide project. the csc will continue to liaise with the colleges unit and other maesd personnel to provide updates on ace programming and to discuss the process and documentation required to submit a program modification for the ace program. the csc needs to be aware of the required program modification process so that it can subsequently inform all colleges and engage in plans to move forward with collaboration on ace program updates. discussions with maesd around funding options for ace delivery is also key to the ongoing viability of the program. 3. implement a five-year curriculum renewal plan with all colleges once the ace curriculum updates are completed as described in #2 above, a regular curriculum renewal plan should be implemented. the program quality review cycle for postsecondary college programs is conducted at five-year intervals, so it makes sense to implement a similar cycle for ace program review. in addition, an annual check-with colleges may serve to identify emerging issues and areas where minimal updates to documents, for colleges and the ministry, would help keep the program fresh and current. 4. consider the feasibility of including u-level courses in the ace program the original intent of the ace program was to provide grade 12 equivalent college destination (c-level) courses which mature applicants could complete and use to fulfill admission requirements for college postsecondary programs and for apprenticeship registration. with the advent of degree programs in many colleges, a need has arisen for university destination (u-level) upgrading courses to also be made available to mature applicants who do not have the admission requirements for degree programs. in an effort to retain final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e |6 and support those degree program applicants, a small number of colleges have already developed u-level upgrading courses in-house, particularly in mathematics and communications (english). some colleges deliver these through part-time studies on a fee-payer basis, and some offer one or more u-level courses using lbs funding as they do with the original (c-level) ace courses. it would be worth investigating the possibility of extending the offering of u-level courses to more colleges, ideally as part of an expanded ace program. the csc would be in a position to raise this with colleges to create an inventory noting which colleges are already offering u-level courses, and to determine the levels of interest and feasibility across the system. 5. pursue funding options for ace program delivery with maesd as outlined in the ace reference guide, funding for ace program delivery is now almost exclusively reliant on funding from the literacy and basic skills (lbs) agreement within the employment and training division of maesd. this funding does allow colleges to provide tuition free seats to eligible ace students, but there are challenges associated with the reliance on lbs funding as described in the ace reference guide. the crossover between the program approval for ace residing in the colleges unit within the postsecondary education division, and the funding situated in the employment and training division, considerably diminishes the profile of ace within the college sector and with external stakeholders. the csc should continue to engage with maesd to follow-up on the status of both funded and fee-paying streams in ace. since ace remains the only program still approved within maesds tuition-short funding category (as per maesds 2017-18 enrolment and audit procedures), it will be worthwhile to investigate this further with mased in concert with the discussion regarding the process for ace program updates to be submitted and approved. 6. revisit ace grading and transfer credit policies with all colleges in recent years, the csc has become aware that the original (2004) requirement of achieving 70% as a passing grade for ace courses is no longer in place at some colleges. the ace environmental scan and follow-up discussions with college managers during this project confirmed this finding. it is important for the csc to now facilitate discussions and information sharing among colleges to revisit the ace grading policy with a view to achieving consensus once again on what the passing standard should be for ace courses. generally speaking, the reason cited by the colleges who have not retained the 70% passing grade for ace courses is that their college requires the ace program to use the same grading policy as the majority of nonaccredited postsecondary programs, i.e. a 50% passing grade. it may be that colleges where this has occurred were not aware of the original 70% passing standard for ace courses and/or the reasons behind it. it may also be difficult for those colleges to change the ace grading policy if their college is firm on equating ace with mainstream postsecondary program grading policies. no matter what the reasoning for the current grading policy for ace courses within a college, all colleges would benefit from revisiting ace grading policies and collaboratively discussing the most appropriate way to proceed to ensure ace program integrity and to promote the sound preparation of adult students preparing for postsecondary studies. similarly, colleges also need the opportunity to discuss the current state of student mobility in terms of students being able to complete ace courses at one college and apply for postsecondary at another college. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e |7 the transferability of ace courses for use as admission requirements is a key element of ace programming and needs to be revisited to ensure that the practice is the same as the intent. based on recent discussions among college ace managers, it appears that at least one ace course in particular has become problematic for students who are trying to use it to satisfy admission requirements at some colleges. colleges must be able to say with confidence that ace courses are, indeed, transferable across colleges for use as admission requirements, both to ace students themselves and to other adult education providers and community partners who refer students to the ace program. 7. encourage colleges to include ace information under admission requirements and in decline letters it would be helpful if more colleges made direct reference to the ace courses that are acceptable equivalencies to the secondary school courses listed in their mandatory admission requirements for each program. contact information for the academic upgrading/ace program at the college could also be included so that prospective applicants can contact the au/ace program directly for information on ace courses and eligibility. a small number of colleges do this already and have found it to be a good source of referrals to the ace program and a helpful option for prospective mature students. some colleges also provide information about ace programming to applicants who are declined admission to postsecondary programs because they are missing required courses and/or need to improve their grades to be more competitive in the admissions process. this information can be included in the decline letter that applicants receive. because ace is offered at all 24 colleges across at almost 80 sites, as well as online via ace distance, the information is applicable both to local applicants and those from other parts of the province. 8. pursue employer recognition for the ace certificate as mentioned in the ace reference guide, employer recognition of the ace credential is minimal across the province. funding has never been available to undertake a coordinated, provincial marketing campaign to promote ace to employers. on a local level colleges have liaised with employers, usually as a result of an ace graduate applying for employment and presenting the employer with the ace certificate. it is rare for an employer not to accept ace as a grade 12 equivalent for hiring purposes once they understand what it is and that it is accepted by all public colleges for postsecondary admission. wherever possible, colleges have asked employers to provide a letter confirming acceptance of the ace certificate. this documentation may or may not still be on file at individual colleges. it would be worthwhile for the csc to lead a provincial outreach and marketing campaign to employers to introduce and/or revisit the use of the ace certificate as a grade 12 equivalence for hiring purposes. colleges are very supportive of this idea and have been for many years. project based funding would have to be sought to carry out this type of awareness initiative with employers. 9. support maesds adult education review and related initiatives in late 2017, maesds highly skilled workforce division (hswd) became the workforce policy and innovation division (wpid). one of its early mandates of the hswd, and now of the wpid, is to lead a tri-ministry review of adult education in the province. the other ministries involved in the review include citizenship and final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e |8 immigration, and education. all three ministries (maesd, medu, and mci) have a long history of funding a variety adult education/upgrading programs that cater to many different needs of adult learners. the ace program is part of the wpids adult education review. the csc is pleased to be involved in ongoing consultations with the wpid, and these consultations are especially welcome because of the somewhat lower profile of the ace program compared to other adult education programs across the three ministries. in late 2017, maesd released a discussion paper, strengthening ontarios adult education system and invited public consultation on the paper via the submission of written responses. the csc collaborated with colleges ontario on a system wide response. below is an excerpt from that response which points out the some of the ongoing challenges of ace program sustainability. colleges have developed [a] responsive and successful model despite au/ace programming being underfunded and poorly understood within the learning ministries. within maesd, for example, responsibility for upgrading lies across three separate divisions: the colleges unit within the postsecondary education division approves the au/ace program; the employment and training division provides funding in many cases through the lbs envelope; while the overall strategy for adult education lies within the workforce policy and innovation division. this separation between strategy, funding, and programming results in a disconnected system that is limiting colleges ability to serve adult learners across the province. the csc must continue to work on behalf of all 24 colleges to ensure that ace programming is a viable contributor to the adult education landscape in ontario with a mandate, curriculum, and program delivery model targeted to adult students who want to prepare for college at college. tools and resources the provincial college sector committee for adult upgrading provided several of the resources that contributed to this project: academic and career entrance provincial course codes document, 2017 academic and career entrance course outlines compilation, 2004 apprenticeship policy on academic requirements, maesd, 2013 apprenticeship list of acceptable documentation, maesd, 2013 enrolment and audit procedures, maead, 2017-18 prepared for success report, 2016-17 prepared for success fact sheet, 2017-17 program outline, basic training for skills development (btsd) levels 1 to 4, 1980 program modification proposal, btsd level 4, 2003 program approval letter for academic and career entrance, 2004 in addition, all 24 college academic upgrading/ace managers provided support and insights that contributed to the development of the ace reference guide, with 22 of 24 completing the environmental scan questionnaire. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e |9 oncat project 2017-30 ace program environmental scan report 2017 for the academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide project funded by the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) the opinions, findings, and recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of oncat. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 10 a) background the academic and career entrance (ace) program is a grade 12 equivalent program for adult learners, offered at all 24 public colleges in ontario. it is available in both english and french. ace distance is the online version of the program, administered by the maesd-funded college sector committee for adult upgrading (csc). the csc also provides support and coordination to colleges for the province-wide delivery of ace. the original, system-wide approval for the ace program was issued in 2004 by the colleges unit of maesd (then mtcu). prior to 2004, ace was known as basic training for skills development level 4 (btsd 4). btsd was one of the first approved programs when colleges opened their doors in 1967, and 50 years later ace remains one of the only system-wide programs still being delivered across all colleges. the main purposes of the 2004 updating and renaming of btsd 4 to ace included the following: updating the curriculum to ensure it was meeting the needs of adult students preparing for college postsecondary programs or apprenticeship; re-establishing grade 12 equivalency; and providing consistent program delivery across all colleges to promote ace recognition and student mobility across colleges. the 2004 ace approval includes 10 courses: communications core mathematics business mathematics apprenticeship mathematics technical mathematics biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction computer fundamentals graduation requirements include communications, one math course, and two electives from the approved ace course list. the credential earned is a locally-approved certificate. in practice, 95% (or more) ace students take only the course(s) required for admission to their chosen college postsecondary program. few actually have a goal of achieving the overall ace certificate. this individualized approach, i.e. students taking only the course(s) they need, is a cornerstone of ace program delivery. however, it is worth noting that the full ace certificate is required for those wishing to register for an apprenticeship and for those pursuing direct employment. it is also important to note that all 24 colleges use funding from maesds literacy and basic skills (lbs) program to deliver ace programming, which allows learners to participate at no cost. a small number of colleges also have a fee-payer option for ace. in recent years, the need to re-issue the original ace documentation to colleges and to revisit province-wide policies and processes for ace delivery has become apparent, based on both ongoing inquiries for ace information submitted to the csc by colleges, and also via issues and questions raised in discussions at provincial academic upgrading/ace managers meetings. the development of the ace reference guide, through this oncat-funded project, will provide colleges with upto-date documentation and processes to promote consistent delivery of the ace program as well as student mobility and transfer credit across colleges. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 11 b) proposed inquiry this environmental scan was conducted to identify current features of ace program delivery and related issues and to inform the development of the provincial ace reference guide for use by ontarios public colleges. data collected in this scan will also assist in refining the subsequent stages of this oncat-funded project in two important ways: i. identifying further information that needs to be collected from colleges regarding their ace program delivery; and ii. addressing key issues that must be clarified with colleges to promote student mobility and transfer credit across all college ace programs. the scan was divided into five sections designed to determine the following at each college: which of the approved ace courses are currently being delivered? does the ace curriculum in use align with the original curriculum? how are ace courses graded? who is responsible for retaining ace documentation? how are ace students recognized upon completion? to what extent is the ace program valued within the college? what are the key strengths and challenges with ace program delivery? what kind of documentation is important to include in the ace reference guide? c) research tool a questionnaire was developed by the lead researcher to collect ace program data from each college. all college au/ace managers had previously been informed about the ace reference guide project and the accompanying data collection that would be undertaken. the questionnaire consisted of 23 questions divided into five sections: instructions and contact information ace course outlines ace outcomes and grading ace documentation and recognition ace - broader issues and strengths the specific questions from sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 are listed below. following every question, a space for comments was also provided. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 12 part 1: ace course outlines 1. there are ten approved courses in the ace program, listed below. please check the left-hand column to indicate those that you currently deliver at one or more of your lbs/au sites. we deliver all ten courses listed below at one or more sites. we deliver the following ace courses (check all that apply): ace communications ace computer fundamentals ace self-management/self-direction ace core math ace business math ace apprenticeship math ace technical math ace biology ace chemistry ace physics 2. for the ten approved ace courses, which of the original (2003) ace course outlines do you have on file? we have all ten original course outlines on file we have none of the original course outlines on file we have the following original outlines on file (check all that apply) ace communications ace computer fundamentals ace self-management/self-direction ace core math ace business math ace apprenticeship math ace technical math ace biology ace chemistry ace physics 3. have you formatted some or all of your ace course outlines into your colleges standard course outline template? all some none unsure part 2: ace outcomes and grading 4. in general, do you believe that the outcomes and content in your ace courses closely match that of the original (2003) course outlines? yes no unsure 5. does your academic upgrading program offer one or more additional courses (outside of the ten approved ace courses) that are also accepted for admission at your college? (such courses may pre-date the ace program approval but continue to provide good preparation for specific postsecondary program clusters.) yes no unsure final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 13 6. is the passing grade the same for all of your ace courses? yes no unsure if yes, what is the passing grade? __________ 7. if the passing grade is not the same for all of your ace courses, please specify the passing grade for each course in the left-hand column below. passing grade (%) course ace communications ace computer fundamentals ace self-management/self-direction ace core math ace business math ace apprenticeship math ace technology math ace biology ace chemistry ace physics 8. when ace was originally developed and approved (2003-04), there was agreement across the majority of colleges that the passing grade for ace courses should be 70%. do you agree or disagree that this is a good practice for our ace course delivery across all colleges? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree what do you think is an appropriate passing grade for ace courses? __________ part 3: ace documentation and recognition 9. is your registrars office aware of the ace completion (graduation) requirements for achieving the overall ace certificate, i.e. completion of communications, one math, and two additional ace courses? yes no unsure 10. which area at your college is responsible for maintaining the ace course outlines, curriculum, and completion requirements, i.e. the overall program documentation? check all that apply. registrar dean/director associate dean/chair/program manager academic excellence (or similar) other (please specify) 11. do you have a copy of the most recent (2013) provincial ace course codes table? (this is a list of the course codes used for ace courses at each colleges, designed to facilitate the transferability and acceptance of ace courses across colleges. it is maintained by the csc and will be updated as part of this project.) yes no unsure final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 14 12. does your admissions office have the ace course codes table as well, for their use in assessing postsecondary applicants? yes no unsure 13. what is your estimate of the average number of students (annually) at your college who complete and receive the overall ace certificate, i.e. complete four ace courses including communications, one math, and two additional ace courses? less than 5 5 to 10 11 to 20 21 to 30 31 to 40 51 to 60 61 to 70 71 to 80 81 to 90 91 to 100 14. using the number above, can you estimate this as a percentage of all ace students at your college annually? less than 5% 6 to 10% 11 to 20% 21 to 30% 31 to 40% 51 to 60% 61 to 70% 71 to 80 % 81 to 90% 91 to 100% 15. do your ace graduates participate in the colleges convocation ceremony? yes no unsure 16. other than convocation, do you hold an annual (or more frequent) recognition event for your ace/au students (who may or may not have completed the overall ace certificate)? yes no unsure 17. to what extent do you agree with this statement: the senior admin/executive team at my college values the ace program both as a feeder into postsecondary and as an important service to the community? strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree part 4: ace - broader issues and strengths 18. does your college offer a fee-paying stream for the delivery of ace courses (excluding those for wsib, special projects/contracts with community partners, and ace distance)? yes no unsure 19. at your college, do you feel that there is competition and/or overlap between ace programming and pre programs, e.g. prehealth, pre-technology, pre-media, etc. yes no unsure 20. what do you believe is the biggest threat(s) to the ongoing delivery of ace programming across our colleges? 21. what do you believe is the biggest selling feature or advantage(s) of the ace program for our adult students? 22. is there specific information/documentation that you would like to see included in the ace reference guide that would promote the consistency of ace program delivery and/or promote student access and mobility across colleges? 23. do you have any final comments or suggestions for the csc as we undertake the development of the ace reference guide? final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 15 d) methodology at the cscs provincial conference in early june 2017, college au/ace managers were informed of the oncat - ace reference guide project. in mid-july 2017, the following email was sent by the cscs lead researcher to all 24 au/ace managers, with the environmental scan questionnaire and initial project bulletin attached. the csc needs your feedback in the next few weeks regarding our project with oncat. at the csc-au managers meeting at our june conference, we briefly discussed the cscs oncat-funded project to develop an ace reference guide for use by colleges. (please see also the attached project bulletin.) as part of the project, im now conducting an environmental scan to identify some of the processes and documentation that currently exist within our ace programs. because ace is a system-wide program, delivered by all 24 colleges, it is imperative that the csc collects accurate information from all colleges via the attached questionnaire. the results of the e-scan will help to inform the contents of the ace reference guide. the e-scan is also a deliverable in our project contract with oncat. (note that only aggregate data will be used in the project report; no individual college data will be included.) this is the second ace-related project funded recently by oncat, which is a positive indication of oncats ongoing interest in our ace program delivery and the resulting access it provides to adult students seeking to enter postsecondary college programs. to that end, please complete the attached questionnaire and return it to me by monday, august 15, 2017. if you would prefer to complete the questionnaire via telephone, i will be happy to schedule a time with you to do so. finally, you'll notice that the questionnaire is in a fairly simple ms word format. i chose this "low-tech" approach so that you can easily review the entire questionnaire prior to completing it, and so that i can readily compile the responses, especially any text-based comments. thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this request for information. if you have questions or concerns, please let me know. in early august, a reminder email was sent to colleges who had not yet responded to the questionnaire. although the option for a telephone interview was provided, all respondents chose to complete the questionnaire in writing. e) response rates feedback via the questionnaire was received from 22 of the 24 colleges (92%). two colleges indicated that due to organizational restructuring, there was not a manager with adequate background available to complete the questionnaire at this time. however, all three of those colleges also indicated that they would attempt to provide a response early in the fall 2017. if additional responses are received, the researcher will update this environmental scan report as needed, prior to submitting the final project report. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 16 f) key issues several key issues were identified in the environmental scan as described below. funding for the delivery of ace courses for many years (decades) colleges used the tuition-short funding mechanism to charge fees for the basic training for skills development (btsd) program. as mentioned previously, the ace program is an update of btsd 4. in 2013, the colleges unit of the [then] mtcu eliminated the tuition-short funding stream which made it challenging for college upgrading programs to continue to deliver a fee-paying stream for ace. at that time, there were 11 colleges with an ace fee-paying stream, and now that number has dwindled to one. (this is exclusive of the wsib fee-for-service agreement in place at all 24 colleges for both academic upgrading and postsecondary studies. wsib fees typically do not generate significant revenue for academic upgrading/ace programs.) ace courses are primarily delivered using literacy and basic skills (lbs) funding from the employment and training division of maesd, which enables colleges to provide free seats to eligible adult learners. the reliance on this funding means that colleges must adhere to stringent performance management metrics and reporting which are related to broad contract compliance criteria. in addition, lbs funding has been flat-lined since the late 1990s, so meeting the contact compliance requirements while also maintaining high standards of program delivery is increasingly challenging given current lbs funding levels. ace program curriculum of the 22 colleges who responded to the e-scan questionnaire, all 22 indicated that they are delivering ace courses which closely align to the original 2003 ace outcomes. while there is certainly room to update various pieces of the curriculum, it is important to remember that the 2003 curriculum was evaluated by curriculum services canada and deemed comparable to corresponding grade 12 college-destination secondary school courses. this evaluation was completed in 2007, and the secondary school curriculum to which the ace courses were compared has not been significantly updated since that time. because ace courses are primarily used by adult learners to fulfill admission requirements for postsecondary college programs, the consistency of the curriculum delivery over time is important. in addition, the consistency is also important to promote student mobility, e.g. completing ace courses at one college and applying for postsecondary at a different college. mastery learning and grading in ace courses when the ace program was initially approved system-wide, all colleges agreed that a 70% passing grade was appropriate. the majority of colleges surveyed in this e-scan continue to agree with a 70% passing grade. although it may seem high, it must be noted that ace programs are in the business of preparing students to succeed in postsecondary or apprenticeship training, so achieving less than 70% does not bode well for success. in addition, when the ace program was approved, it was (and still is) important for colleges to distinguish themselves from secondary school adult credit programs where the pass mark is generally 50%. it was noted by several respondents that while the pass mark for course completion may be 50%, the individualized, mastery learning model still used in most ace programs requires students to achieve at least 70% (and sometimes more) on assignments, test, etc., throughout the course before moving on to new material. as a result, many students achieve 70% or better even though the stated passing grade may be 50%. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 17 other colleges noted that although students could pass with a 50%, most realize that in order to be considered for admission to postsecondary programs they require higher grades and therefore strive to achieve those grades. this is especially true for oversubscribed programs where the minimum average required for consideration is often 80% or better. finally, on the topic of grading, a number of colleges have a policy in place where students can pass individual ace courses with less than 70%, but in order to achieve the overall ace certificate they must have a minimum 70% average. the use of mastery learning as an instructional approach is a long-time cornerstone of ace program delivery. the issue of passing grades and minimum requirements for graduation, i.e. completing the ace certificate, warrant further discussion among colleges to promote both consistency and student mobility. provincial ace course codes at one time, colleges collaborated to create and distribute a provincial ace course codes listing, primarily for use by admissions assessors who may be presented with an applicant who has completed ace courses at one college but is applying to postsecondary at another college. since ace course codes (and sometimes course titles) vary from college to college, this listing has become very useful for admissions departments. however, the e-scan indicated that only 63% of colleges have the most recent (2013) listing available and many are unsure if their admissions assessors are aware of the listing. the development of the ace reference guide will include an update of the provincial ace course codes list. this document is key in the effort to promote transfer credit and student mobility, and it is essential that it is kept up-to-date and available at all colleges. responsibility for retaining ace documentation the e-scan results indicated that ace documentation (program approval, course outlines, graduation requirements, course code lists, etc.) is housed in many different areas across colleges. sometimes it is at the dean/director level, sometimes at the associate dean/chair level, possibly at the program level, and/or with a central academic support centre and/or with the registrars office. many colleges indicated that more than one area is responsible for retaining the documentation. while the variation from college to college is not unusual, it is essential that the documentation is readily available to new managers who oversee ace, and this does not appear to be the case at a number of colleges. value of the ace program within colleges at many colleges, senior management recognize the inherent value in supporting ace program delivery, both in terms of making an investment which generates domestic student enrollment in postsecondary as well as providing an important community service. of the 21 respondents to this e-scan, only two indicated that they perceived a lack of support for ace programming from senior management. despite the perceived internal support, some colleges also indicated that the comparatively small financial contribution to overhead available through lbs-funded activity is an ongoing concern, coupled with the increasing space constraints which are the reality at many colleges. in 2015-16 academic year, 3,364 ace students moved into college postsecondary programs at the same college where they completed their ace courses (source: prepared for success report, cscau, 2016). this number remains fairly consistent year over year and can be verified by previous prepared for success reports. conservatively, another 100 students per year (possibly many more) complete ace courses and are admitted to programs at other colleges than those at which they completed their ace program. (the exact number of students who upgrade via ace at one college and move into postsecondary at another college cannot be tracked at this time.) those 3400+ final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 18 students generate significant domestic revenue annually for colleges and are typically successful in terms of gpa and retention. in other words, the majority of ace graduates provide colleges with a strong source of successful and wellprepared mature students. competition between ace and pre programs a small number of colleges indicated that there is real (or perceived) competition between their ace program and programs such as pre-technology, pre-health, pre-media, etc. this is understandable because ace and pre-programs are both intended to assist students in qualifying for admission to other college programs. although ace programs do not include social sciences or vocationally-specific courses, there is considerable similarity between the math, science and communications courses delivered in ace and those delivered in some of the pre-programs. the sense of competition may be more apparent in colleges who struggle to fill their pre-programs, or it may just simply occur by virtue of the similarity of the curriculum in those core courses mentioned above. in any case, colleges should ensure that academic advisors and recruiters understand the ace program and the clientele for whom it may be suitable while also being knowledgeable about the pre-programs. most ace students are not interested in a full-time, tuition-based preparatory program but instead prefer to utilize the individualized, course-based approach which they can access via ace. g) emerging trends and factors affecting ace delivery the e-scan conducted for this project was intended to be a snapshot of ace program delivery which can inform the development of the ace reference guide and also inform discussions which need to occur with the college au/ace managers to establish consensus on relevant issues that affect student mobility and transfer credit. rather than trends as such, the e-scan identified factors that are (and will) affect ace programming across the province. these factors can be captured somewhat by referring to the responses to the two questions at the end of the questionnaire: what are the biggest selling features of ace?; and, what are the biggest threats to ace delivery? strengths of ace program delivery virtually all colleges responded similarly to this question. the most common strengths identified were as follows: the ability to offer free courses and support to adult learners, many of whom are unemployed or underemployed and seeking to upgrade to meet admission requirements for postsecondary college programs, apprenticeship, or in some cases for direct employment. b) the opportunity to prepare for college at college and to access college services, e.g. health centre, counselling, library, fitness, etc. c) scheduling options which allow adult learners to have input into their timetables to help balance employment, family and health needs. d) individualized programming that enables learners to take only the course(s) they need to meet the requirements of their next-step goal. e) the continuous intake model of delivery (at the majority of colleges) so learners can access courses almost any time throughout the year. f) the ability for learners to work individually, at a flexible pace, to complete course work as quickly as possible, or to take more time if difficulties arise. g) the welcoming environment and ongoing support (both academic and personal) available to learners throughout their ace program studies. a) final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 19 threats to ace program delivery the majority of colleges also provided similar insights when identifying threats to ace programming. the most common responses are as follows: a) the lack of stable funding and the resulting need to use lbs funding to deliver ace courses. b) the lack of funding to adequately and widely market ace to potential adult learners. c) ongoing competition (or the perception thereof) between school board adult credit programming for ossd completion and ace programming delivered by colleges d) lack of internal support and/or awareness of ace programming at some colleges e) the heavy administrative burden resulting from the mandatory performance management requirements that are contractually tied to the lbs funding used to deliver ace. f) the lack of an ongoing fee-payer mechanism within the colleges unit to provide a stable fee-paying stream for colleges who wish to use it. g) the ongoing space constraints at many colleges, particularly at main campus sites. h) lack of employer recognition of ace as a grade 12 equivalent credential (for hiring/promotion purposes), which relates to the overall marketing challenges. h) implications for ontario college ace programs many of the strengths cited above bode well for the ongoing success of ace programming in ontario. there is considerable dedication to program quality and student success across all college ace programs. in addition, adult learners gain a big advantage when they are able to prepare for college at college and become familiar with the postsecondary environment while they are completing their upgrading (ace) preparation. the flexibility of the program and course delivery are very appealing to adults, and the level of support they receive in the program is considerable. the implications of some of the threats noted above are substantial. the reliance on lbs funding, and the challenges of establishing (or re-establishing) a fee-payer stream are significant. if the viability of ace programming is threatened, colleges stand to lose a long-established source of well-prepared, domestic, non-traditional students who have already made a commitment to the college by choosing to do their academic upgrading there. the community service that each college provides through ace delivery is also important as there are many partnerships and referral mechanisms in place across communities which link to college academic upgrading/ace programs. the issue of student mobility across ace programs is one that was also raised in response to the final question on the e-scan: is there specific information/documentation that you would like to see included in the ace reference guide that would promote the consistency of ace program delivery and/or promote student access and mobility across colleges? it is clear that all colleges need to revisit their transfer credit policies for ace students, to ensure that the original intent of the ace program is actively and seamlessly maintained, i.e. that all ace courses are transferable across colleges for the purpose of applying to postsecondary programs. a secondary issue to be considered is the combining of ace courses from more than one college (and from the ace distance program) for learners wishing to achieve the overall ace certificate and how that can be readily facilitated. the two issues described above (transferability of ace courses and certificate completion) will be addressed through this oncat ace project in the coming months. the researcher will conduct in-person and/or telephone/email consultations with all colleges with a view to establishing consensus on these issues and others as they arise. in november 2017, all college au/ace managers will meet in person, and these topics can be further discussed at that time. consultation with cralo will also be part of this next phase to ensure that college final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 20 registrars and admissions staff are aware of the transfer credit and mobility issues and solutions around the ace program. when completed, the ace reference guide will include clear information about curriculum, transfer credit, and completion/credential requirements and will provide a centralized and accessible resource for college managers, faculty, and staff. i) conclusion currently, maesds new highly skilled workforce division is reviewing all funded adult education programs in ontario in an effort to create a more seamless and clearer set of pathways for lifelong learning across the province. both lbs and ace are part of that review, as are ministry of educations secondary school adult credit programs. related education such as language training for new immigrants is also part of the review. although the ace program is well-established in all 24 public colleges, there is a need to review and update the documentation and processes related to student mobility, transfer credit and completion. this environmental scan has provided important baseline information regarding the state of ace delivery, the strengths and threats related to programming, and the issues that need to be addressed going forward. this ace reference guide will be a practical resource for college managers, faculty, and staff to promote consistency of program delivery and student mobility within this important adult education pathway in ontario. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 21 academic and career entrance (ace) reference guide 2018 funded by the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) the opinions, findings, and recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of oncat. p a g e | 22 table of contents purpose of the guide ............................................................................................................................................... 23 introduction to the academic and career entrance program .................................................................................. 23 ace program environmental scan 2017 .................................................................................................................. 24 background and history btsd to ace ................................................................................................................... 24 ace program development 2002-2004 ................................................................................................................... 25 funding for ace program delivery ........................................................................................................................... 27 ace curriculum and course outlines: past, present and future .............................................................................. 28 ace certificate and graduation requirements ........................................................................................................ 29 ace course codes and titles .................................................................................................................................... 30 ace program delivery models ................................................................................................................................. 30 ace distance (online) delivery ................................................................................................................................. 31 mastery learning and grading in ace courses ........................................................................................................ 32 ace transfer credit across colleges ......................................................................................................................... 32 summary .................................................................................................................................................................. 33 appendices .............................................................................................................................................................. 34 final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 23 purpose of the guide in recent years, the need to re-issue the original academic and career entrance (ace) program documentation to colleges and to revisit province-wide policies and processes for ace delivery has become apparent, based on ongoing inquiries submitted to the college sector committee for adult upgrading (csc) and also via issues and questions raised in recent years at provincial academic upgrading/ace managers meetings. in addition, requests for information from the ministry of advanced education and skills development (maesd) have also pointed to the need to consolidate historical and current ace documentation and information. this ace reference guide is intended to provide information that supports consistent delivery of the ace program across ontarios 24 public colleges and promotes student mobility and transfer credit. the intended audience is academic managers within the colleges who are involved with preparatory programming and the delivery of ace. it may also be useful for registrar/admissions personnel, especially with respect to issues of ace transfer credit. there has also been interest from some vice presidents, academic in learning more about the background and current status of ace program delivery. introduction to the academic and career entrance program the academic and career entrance (ace) program is an ontario college grade 12 equivalent program for adult students who wish to upgrade their skills and knowledge to meet admission requirements for ontario college postsecondary programs or for registration as an apprentice in ontario. some adult students also use ace to upgrade for direct entry into employment. the program approval (curriculum, graduation requirements, tuition structure, etc.) for ace resides in the postsecondary education division of maesd, while the main source of funding for the activity, the literacy and basic skills program, resides in the employment and training division of maesd. many colleges deliver ace, along with pre-ace courses, under the broader umbrella of academic upgrading, academic and career preparation, or college and career preparation. since 2004, ace has been delivered by all 24 public colleges (english and french) in ontario at almost 80 sites across the province. the ace program is also delivered online (via the ace distance program) by the college sector committee for adult upgrading (csc). in addition, the csc acts on behalf of all 24 colleges to support and coordinate ace program delivery and to liaise with maesd and other stakeholders since 1995, the annual prepared for success report has been compiled and issued by the csc to document program choice, gpa, and retention data in semester one for adult students who move from academic upgrading programs (including ace) into college postsecondary programs. in 2016-17, more than 3,750 former au/ace students entered a variety of college postsecondary programs across the province, achieving an average semester one gpa of 3.15. (source: prepared for success 2016-17). see appendix 1 for a brief fact sheet from the 2016-17 prepared for success report. the terms and content of the original (2004) ace program approval remain in place, though at some colleges the documentation and organizational history regarding ace have been displaced within the institution. as a result, the need for an updated compilation of ace background, policies, and resources is needed, in the form of this ace reference guide. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 24 ace program environmental scan 2017 an environmental scan was conducted in summer 2017 to gather information about the current status of ace program delivery across colleges. twenty-two colleges responded to the e-scan questionnaire which consisted of 23 questions divided into five sections: instructions and contact information ace course outlines ace outcomes and grading ace documentation and recognition ace - broader issues and strengths the key issues identified and discussed in the e-scan report include the following: funding for the ace program delivery ace program curriculum mastery learning and grading in ace courses ace course codes across colleges responsibility for retaining ace documentation value of the ace program within colleges perceived competition between ace and postsecondary general arts and sciences pre- programs emerging trends and factors affecting ace delivery implications for college ace programs a number of the issues identified in the environmental scan have been addressed in this guide. background and history btsd to ace although the ace program in its current form was approved for delivery in 2004, the previous iteration of ace, basic training for skills development level 4 (btsd level 4) dates back to the emergence of the community college system in the late 1960s. in those early years, btsd was one of the first system-wide programs approved for delivery, and it still exists in the college system today. originally, btsd consisted of four separate programs as listed below: btsd level 1: equivalent to grades 1 to 4; btsd level 2: equivalent to grades 5 to 8 ; btsd level 3: equivalent to grade 9 - 10; and btsd level 4: equivalent to grade 11 12 (now ace). all four levels included mathematics and communications courses, while btsd level 3 and level 4 also included sciences. colleges issued completion certificates for each level, specifying the courses that the student had completed. some features of the btsd program are included below, as noted in the 1980 btsd program description. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 25 purpose: to meet individual needs and develop competencies in the skills of communications, mathematics and science required to access other training programs and/or the job market. the development of personal, social or life skills is general for all subjects and is particularly included as part of the communications subject area. the program has been designed to provide a natural training progression from skills required by or common to all occupations to higher level skills required by more sophisticated occupations. entrance requirements: pre-tests will determine the trainees functional level to assist the institution to place the trainee at the appropriate learning level. it also enables the trainee to bypass certain sections(s) if he/she can already meet the performance criteria. individual trainees will be required to meet specified objectives and their program time will be negotiated taking into consideration the average time required, the time available, prior experiences and learning style. career clusters: the career cluster courses will provide entry into the corresponding skills or apprenticeship programs. they also provide the basic communications, mathematics, science and other job-related skills to allow the graduate to being to work in some occupations. the general btsd cluster provides entry into those occupations requiring grade equivalency. average duration: duration will vary depending on student aptitude and point of entry. maximum duration of government sponsored students in btsd training is 52 weeks. maximum permissible time for each level is as follows; l1 24 weeks; l2 36 weeks; l3 32 weeks; l4 32 weeks it is interesting to note that many features of the btsd levels 1-4 program listed above were implemented in provincially-funded adult upgrading programs which emerged in the 1980s and 90s including the technical upgrading program, the ontario basic skills program and the literacy and basic skills program (both the original 1997-98 and the updated 2011-12 lbs programs). see appendix 2 for additional details from the 1980 outline. ace program development 2002-2004 in 2002, the csc undertook a consultative project with the support and participation of all 24 colleges to update and re-name the btsd level 4 program. the goals of the project were as follows: to review the btsd level 4 curriculum being delivered across colleges; to review relevant secondary school curricula; to develop new courses which better reflect the academic preparation required for adults seeking to enter college postsecondary or apprenticeship; to promote consistent program delivery across all colleges; to promote course recognition and student mobility across colleges; to validate the curriculum and instructional objectives to ensure grade 12 equivalency and continued access to postsecondary and apprenticeship for adult students in the college system. in 2003, as a result of extensive consultation with college academic upgrading programs, the csc submitted a program modification proposal to the [then] program quality unit, colleges branch, ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu). briefly, the proposal included additional curriculum and courses (for example, computer fundamentals), updated outcomes, an increased funding weight, and a new name: academic and career entrance. all 24 vice-presidents, academic, provided written agreement to the proposed modifications final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 26 to btsd level 4 and the transition to ace. see appendix 3 for an excerpt from the 2003 program modification proposal. in 2004, mtcu approved the ace program proposal, including a small increase in the funding weight of the program within the tuition-short category. all college presidents received a letter confirming the approval. (see appendix 4 for a copy of the letter.) the csc provided the approved course outlines and updated graduation requirements to all colleges, and they were implemented shortly thereafter. the 2004 ace approval includes 10 courses, available in both english and french as listed below: communications core mathematics business mathematics apprenticeship mathematics technical mathematics biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction computer fundamentals to earn an ace certificate, students must complete four ace courses: communications, one math course, and two electives. the credential earned is a locally-approved college certificate. (it should be noted that colleges no longer issue btsd level 1, 2 or 3 certificates.) in practice, the majority of ace students take only the course(s) required for admission to their chosen college postsecondary program. however, the ace certificate is required for those wishing to register for an apprenticeship and for those needing a grade 12 equivalent credential to present to an employer. in 2007, mtcu funded the csc to undertake a pilot project to deliver ace courses online, using lbs funding as part of the e-channel distance learning initiative within the employment and training division. by 2009, ace distance became an ongoing program which is described more fully in the ace distance section of this guide. like the classroom-based ace program, the ace distance program is available in both french and english. also in 2007-08, at the request of the ministry of education, the ace curriculum was submitted to curriculum services canada to assess the comparability of ace courses to corresponding secondary school courses. the results of that evaluation are shown in table 1 on the following page. curriculum services canada also provided a detailed explanation of the features of the course comparability that led to the ace/secondary school course equivalencies. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 27 table 1: ace and ontario secondary school course equivalencies ace-oss equivalencies curriculum services canada 2008 academic and career entrance program (ace) ontario secondary schools english ace communications english, grade 12, college preparation eng4c math ace apprenticeship mathematics foundations for college mathematics, grade 12, college preparation map4c ace business mathematics foundations for college mathematics, grade 12, college preparation map4c ace technical mathematics mathematics for college technology, grade 12, college preparation mct4c ace core mathematics mathematics for work and everyday life, grade 12, workplace preparation mel4e science ace biology biology, grade 11, college preparation sbi3c ace physics physics, grade 11, university preparation sph3u ace physics physics, grade 12, college preparation sph4c ace chemistry chemistry, grade 12, college preparation sch4c funding for ace program delivery btsd levels 1-4, subsequently btsd levels 1-3 and ace, are the only remaining programs that fall under the tuition short category, as listed in maesds 2017-18 enrolment and audit guidelines. as noted in a 2012 mtcu memo to colleges, tuition short funding originated as a category for vocational/prevocational programs of less than 52 weeks duration with separate payment arrangements, i.e. through federalprovincial training agreements that were grand-parented into ministry funding and reporting procedures after the original inter-governmental agreements ended. at one time, colleges delivered many short-term programs under the tuition short category. in addition to btsd, programs such as english as a second language, basic job readiness training, and a variety of locally driven, employment focused training programs for which a grade 12 or equivalent was not required were categorized as tuition short programs. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 28 seat purchases were commonly made by the [then] canada manpower agency and workers compensation board. private insurance companies and indigenous organizations also purchased seats for their clients. students who were not sponsored could often obtain funding for tuition and materials from the colleges ontario special bursary plan (osbp). fulltime activity in tuition short programs is measured in trainee days, with one day equal to five trainee hours. one weighted funding unit (wfu) is equal to 180 trainee days. tuition is charged as a weekly rate. part-time activity is measured in student contact hours (sch). the hourly tuition is usually set the same as for continuing education courses. colleges reporting to the ministry for tuition short programs must itemize trainee days and schs in order to be eligible for a general purpose operating grant allocation. this model readily allows students to enter and exit on a weekly basis, attend full or part-time, and results in students (or sponsoring agencies) only being charged for the number of weeks or hours that the student participates in the program. this was (and still is) key in the self-directed, flexibly-paced programming offered in btsd levels 1-3 and ace. in 2013, mtcu discontinued the tuition short category for all programs except btsd levels 1-3 and ace. other programs that had been under the tuition short category were either converted to postsecondary certificate or diploma programs, or discontinued. at that time the csc, along with a number of colleges, advocated with mtcu to ensure that the tuition short program category remained available for btsd levels 1-3 and ace so that the model of continuous intake, flexibly-paced delivery could continue. currently, only a very small number of colleges still offer btsd 1-3 and ace programming for fee-payers. those who do continue to report on that tuition short activity via trainee days and schs as outlined above. however, the tuition that each college charges to wsib for btsd and ace courses (under the terms of the provincial wsib service agreement with all colleges) are based on the tuition short model. there are two significant contributors to the decline of fee-payer btsd and ace students across the colleges. one is the 2012-13 transition from the ontario special bursary plan to the institution-funded special bursary, which has resulted in fewer adult students being able to access bursary funds for fee-payer btsd and ace programming. the second contributor is the increasing challenge associated with meeting the targets for the number of learners served under the maesd-funded literacy and basic skills (lbs) service agreements. as a result, colleges have increasingly moved potential btsd and ace students into seats funded through their lbs service agreement to help achieve the learners served target. because maesds lbs guidelines do not support nor mandate any specific curriculum, colleges can use lbs funding to provide free seats for btsd levels 1-3 and ace courses. a significant drawback of colleges having to rely on lbs funding to deliver pre-ace and ace is that they must adhere to the mandated lbs performance management framework which does not lend itself to academic, course-based, credentialed programming such as ace. also, it has become increasingly difficult to meet contractual lbs obligations with limited provincial funding and increased administrative and reporting demands within the lbs agreements. ace curriculum and course outlines: past, present and future when the ace program approval was granted by mtcu in 2004, the resulting course outlines were created in a format which differs from the current course outline format that is now considered acceptable across colleges. for example, the original ace outlines included a mixture of content, outcomes, expectations, and examples of final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 29 instructional activities. in other words, those original outlines contained curriculum elements as well as objectives and/or outcomes. over the years, most colleges have transferred the original ace outlines into their own course outline template and added information on essential employability skills, internal college processes, etc., while at the same time removing some of the more specific curriculum information which is no longer included in a typical college course outline. in this guide, the original 2004 ace course outlines have been reformatted into a more streamlined template. no changes to the course content or outcomes have been made. the original outlines, in the updated template, can be found in appendix 5 of this guide. although much of the original ace curriculum still provides sound background for adults preparing for college postsecondary studies or apprenticeship, all ace courses should be reviewed and updated in the near future. the csc would be pleased to lead a consultative process with all 24 colleges to undertake this curriculum review and renewal. for that purpose, the csc is liaising with maesd to identify the process for submitting ace program revisions and subsequently gaining system-wide approval for those revisions. since the original ace curriculum was evaluated by curriculum services canada and deemed comparable to corresponding ontario grade 12 college-destination secondary school courses (see table 1), it would be prudent to undertake a new evaluation for comparability to grade 12 courses when revisions are made to the ace curriculum. ace certificate and graduation requirements as mentioned in the ace program development section of this guide, the ace graduation requirements include four courses: communications, one mathematics course, and two electives from the approved ace course list. students who complete those requirements are then eligible to receive a locally-approved ace certificate from their college. (see appendix 6 for a sample certificate.) most ace students take only the course(s) required for admission to their chosen college postsecondary program, but each year a number complete the overall ace certificate. the ace certificate is also an acceptable grade 12 equivalent credential for registration as an apprentice in ontario. appendix 7 contains maesds most recent (2013) apprenticeship policy on academic requirements for registration, as well as the list of acceptable documents, both of which confirm the acceptance of the ace certificate as grade 12 equivalent for apprenticeship registration. a number of employers also accept the ace certificate as grade 12 equivalent for hiring purposes. colleges often liaise directly with employers if an ace graduate is applying for employment and the employer requires information about the ace program and the certificate. a coordinated provincial campaign to market ace to employers would be welcomed by all college ace programs to increase employer awareness and recognition of the ace credential. to date, funding has not been available for such a marketing initiative, though colleges continue to discuss the need and importance of pursuing this. all colleges provide some form of recognition for ace graduates. some include ace certificate recipients in their convocation ceremonies. others have smaller recognition and celebration events within the academic upgrading/ace department and often invite college executive team members and local dignitaries. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 30 ace course codes and titles at various points in recent years, the suggestion has been made that all colleges use the same course codes for ace courses, to promote student mobility and transfer credit. since each college has its own format for assigning course codes, it is not possible to have the same codes across all colleges. some years ago, in order to assist with ace student mobility, the csc collected ace course codes from all colleges for in-class and online delivery options (as these can be different), and compiled them in a single reference document. the resulting ace course codes document has been updated a number of times over the years and was updated again in 2017 as part of the development of this guide. see appendix 8 for the updated ace course codes document. the ace course codes compilation is provided to all colleges for use by academic managers and admissions personnel. in terms of student mobility, the ace course codes document is particularly useful when a student completes ace courses at one college but applies to a postsecondary program at another college. it is also useful when a student takes ace courses at more than one college and completes the graduation requirements for the overall ace certificate, in which case transfer credits would be assessed by the college issuing the certificate. although ace course codes cannot be uniform across colleges, it may be feasible for colleges to return to using the original (or updated) ace course titles. this is an area to be explored further. having consistent course titles across colleges would further contribute to transparency and enhance student mobility and transfer credit. ace program delivery models the ace program delivery models in place across the 24 colleges have many similarities and are derived from the 1980 btsd program guidelines. (see appendix 2). ace is a flexible, student-centred program where adult students can be assessed to determine prior learning and starting points in the continuum of the curriculum; take advantage of continuous intake throughout the year, i.e. weekly, biweekly, monthly; take only the courses needed for their chosen goal; learn in a self-directed environment; be part of a college community of adult learners; have options for flexible scheduling, e.g. full-time, part-time, days, evenings; complete course work at an accelerated (or decelerated) pace as appropriate; stop out if life circumstances warrant but readily return to the program; obtain admission requirements for college programs or apprenticeship, or upgrade for employment; and complete ace certificate requirements if they wish. these remain as delivery features across colleges. some colleges also offer traditional, semester-based intake with a teacher-led format for specific courses, but the majority offer continuous intake with a self-directed learning model. all colleges also deliver pre-ace courses. the majority of students start with one or more pre-ace courses to prepare them for the academic content and rigour of the ace course(s) required for their postsecondary or apprenticeship goal. the initial assessment process for students noted above determines placement in the continuum of the pre-ace through ace curriculum. therefore, access to ace coursework may either be through promotion from pre-ace courses or by direct entry if a student demonstrates the academic readiness. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 31 as mentioned earlier in this guide, many colleges describe and market their pre-ace and ace courses under a broader title or department such as academic upgrading, academic and career preparation, or college and career preparation, to name a few. this has become more common as colleges have had to rely increasingly (and now almost exclusively) on lbs funding to deliver programming. because maesds lbs guidelines do not support any specific curriculum, it has become simpler for many colleges to embed pre-ace and ace in the broader academic upgrading program entity. this is an unfortunate situation for ace programming across the province because it significantly diminishes awareness and marketing of ace, both within and outside of the college. arguably, the most enduring feature of pre-ace and ace program delivery is the opportunity for adult students to prepare for college at college. students can take advantage of college services and resources just as postsecondary students do. as they proceed through the program, they can gradually familiarize themselves with college processes and services, use the colleges learning management system, and readily access information about their postsecondary goals. this familiarity with the college as a whole contributes significantly to the preparedness and confidence of ace students when they transition into postsecondary studies. ace distance (online) delivery the ace distance program provides asynchronous, online delivery for all ten approved ace courses, in both english and french, with 24/7/365 technical support. the csc holds the agreement with maesd to deliver ace distance as part of the lbs e-channel distance learning initiative within the employment and training division. a fee-payer stream also exists. intakes are monthly, with a minimum of six free intakes per year. applicants must meet similar eligibility requirements as those in classroom-based ace courses, including completion of the learn to learn readiness module. remedial (pre-ace) courses are also available in communications and mathematics. in addition, ace distance offers university preparation courses in biology and chemistry through the fee-paying stream. ace distance courses are part of the ontariolearn consortium (a shared collection of online college courses across all 24 public colleges). in 2018, ace distance will be undertaking a refresh and updating of the instructional design and presentation of several courses within the program. in the lbs-funded (free) stream, students are registered in ace distance via the csc and also with the part-time studies department at their local college. registration at a college provides access to college services and ensures that students receive final grades which become part of their permanent student record and appear on an official transcript. this is essential since students use ace distance courses as prerequisites to apply for postsecondary programs, just as classroom-based students do. fee-paying ace students also register through their local college but do not have to meet the same eligibility requirements as lbs-funded students do. students can be registered concurrently in a classroom-based ace program and in ace distance (free or feepaying), e.g. a student may take ace biology and chemistry in a classroom setting while also being registered in ace communications through ace distance. to achieve the requirements for the ace certificate, ace distance courses can be combined with classroom-based ace courses. some students complete all required courses online to qualify for the ace certificate, in which case the registering college issues the certificate. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 32 mastery learning and grading in ace courses when the ace program was initially approved system-wide, all colleges agreed that a 70% passing grade was appropriate for all courses. (the passing grade for most btsd courses had been 80%.) the majority of colleges surveyed in the 2017 ace environmental scan continue to use a 70% passing grade. although it may seem high, it must be noted that ace programs are in the business of preparing students to succeed in postsecondary programs and/or apprenticeship training, so achieving less than 70% does not bode well for success in further education. in addition, it is important for colleges to distinguish themselves from various non-college adult upgrading programs where the 50% standard is acceptable. while the official passing grade for ace course completion may be less than 70% at a small number of colleges, the individualized, mastery learning model still used in most ace programs requires students to achieve at least 70% (and sometimes more) on assignments, tests, etc. within the course before moving on to new material. as a result, many students achieve 70% or better, irrespective of the stated passing grade. the majority of ace students realize that in order to be considered for admission to postsecondary programs they require higher grades than 50% and therefore strive to achieve those grades. this is especially true for students applying to oversubscribed programs where the minimum grades required for consideration is often well over 80%. the issue of grading standards for ace courses warrants further discussion among colleges in the context of consistency, student mobility and preparedness for postsecondary studies. ace transfer credit across colleges one of the cornerstones of the ace program is the consistent delivery of ace course outcomes across all 24 colleges, based on the approved 2004 curriculum. in the 2017 ace environmental scan, all 22 colleges who responded indicated that they are delivering ace courses which closely align to the original 2004 ace course outcomes. the provincial consistency of ace course delivery is important for a number of reasons: to ensure ace course acceptance for postsecondary admission across colleges; to promote a consistent level of knowledge and skills for ace students as they prepare for further education; and to provide seamless transfer credit for ace students taking courses at more than one college, especially with respect to achieving the requirements for the ace certificate. although most ace students take all of their courses at one college, some do complete courses at more than one college and subsequently need to obtain transfer credit if they have met the graduation requirements and wish to receive the ace certificate. several colleges have granted transfer credit for the purpose of issuing the ace certificate, and those that have not could do so via their colleges existing transfer credit process. the ace course codes document is particularly important in assessing transfer credit as well as assessing admission requirements across colleges. based on the 2017 ace environmental scan data, the majority of colleges agree that substitutions or transfer credit of non-ace courses should not be considered when determining eligibility for the ace certificate. the main reason cited for this approach is to maintain the integrity of the ace program as a college preparatory and upgrading program where adult students prepare for college at college using curriculum, instructional final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 33 approaches, and evaluation criteria designed for that purpose. a small number of colleges feel that ace should be subject to the same residency and transfer credit processes as those for postsecondary programs, which could allow transfer credit of non-ace courses to be used toward the granting of the ace certificate. additional consultation is needed among colleges to fully address this topic and work toward consensus. summary the ontario colleges academic and career entrance program is a key component of adult education in the province. ace programs have a long and successful history of producing well-prepared adult students who are highly successfully when they transition to postsecondary studies, apprenticeship, and employment. although the ace program is well-established in all 24 public colleges, it would be useful to review and update the curriculum and revisit consensus program policies. it is also important that the csc proceeds with the engagement of maesd to discuss options for the funding of ace program delivery. the csc hopes that this ace reference guide will be a practical resource to promote understanding of the ace program and consistency of program delivery and student mobility within this important adult education pathway in ontario. final report ace reference guide project 2018 p a g e | 34 appendices appendix 1: prepared for success fact sheet, 2016-17 appendix 2: btsd program description, 1980 appendix 3: btsd level 4 program modification proposal, 2003 appendix 4: ace program approval letter, 2004 appendix 5: ace course outlines, 2004 appendix 6: sample ace certificate appendix7: apprenticeship policy on academic requirements, maesd, 2013 appendix 8: ace program provincial course codes list, 2017 final report ace reference guide project 2018 appendix 1: prepared for success fact sheet factsheet prepared for success college upgrading programs continue to prepare graduates for success in postsecondary programs what is prepared for success? prepared for success (pfs) is an annual study conducted by the college sector committee for adult upgrading (csc). it examines the postsecondary outcomes of students who have moved from upgrading programs to full time postsecondary programs at their colleges. how long has this study been conducted? the pfs study has been conducted annually since 2001, or 18 years. the purpose of this study is to document the positive impact that academic upgrading has on the success of students who enter postsecondary programs. every year, pfs has shown that individuals who have received prior training in college academic upgrading programs: achieve high marks in postsecondary programs; have the necessary commitment to complete their education; and make the right program choices (low rate of program change). academic upgrading programs continue to provide thousands of dedicated, well- who provides the data for this study? all 24 ontario public colleges are asked to participate each year. in 2016-2017, 22 colleges provided data. what are the highlights of the 2016-2017 study? a total of 3,750 upgrading graduates what is the purpose of pfs? what has this study shown? prepared, successful students to ontarios public colleges. enrolled in postsecondary programs an increase of 386 students over the previous year (with two colleges not reporting data). these students represent at least $9 million in tuition revenue plus operating grant funding for ontario public colleges in 2016-2017.* *calculated at $2400 tuition per student. source: ontariocolleges.ca/colleges/paying-for-college conclusions academic upgrading graduates are highachieving, low-attrition contributors to the ontario public college system (71% reenrollment in a second semester, 5% program change, average gpa of 3.15). well-prepared, high-performance and careerfocussed, these students are poised to become highly-skilled workers, contributing significantly to the provincial economy. this employment ontario service is funded in part by the government of canada and the government of ontario through the canada-ontario job fund agreement. appendix 2: btsd program outline, 1980 appendix 3: program modification btsd 4 to ace 2003 ministry of training, colleges and universities proposal to modify an mtcu-funded program for assistance in completing this form, refer to the policy and procedure manual, programs section. 1. college college sector committee for adult upgrading (csc) the csc is a subcommittee of acaato 2. current program title and aps number (provide the mtcu approved title) basic training for skills development ccdo code 9605-000-00 (sample aps 00066 at canadore college; each of the 24 colleges has a distinct aps code) 3. modification(s) proposed (describe the proposed modification of title, duration, program content, quota or campus of program delivery) program name: from basic training for skills development (btsd) to academic and career entrance program (ace) duration: the current approval indicates 32 weeks for btsd iv. duration in this modification proposal is provided in terms of contact hours per course. program content: current btsd iv approval is very broad: communications, mathematics and science. proposed modification is more specific and includes communications, mathematics (core, apprenticeship, business, technology ), science ( biology, chemistry, physics ) and adds computers and self management/self direction. quota: na 4. rationale for the proposed modification(s) program name: the name basic training for skills development (btsd) reflected the primary purpose of the program when it was approved in 1967, but there have been significant changes in the educational and employment environment since then. the change to academic and career entrance was identified by the advisory committee as more accurately reflecting the dual purposes of providing adult students with the necessary academic and personal management skills required to qualify for admission to post secondary programs and/or to secure employment opportunities or improvements. although btsd has remained as the name for funding purposes, in reality it has ceased to be used by colleges when advertising or describing the program for potential students. (the use of the term basic has definite negative connotations based on its application in the secondary school system.) it is also the feeling of the advisory committee that the new name and particularly the acronym, ace, has significant marketing potential for the college system. duration: the original approval was for a program funded almost exclusively by the federal government on a per diem basis. the guidelines indicate that most students should be able to complete btsd levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 in a 52 week period. the proposed modification is for btsd iv only. hours for each of the 10 courses have been identified as follows: communications: 150 hours, self management/self direction: 55 hours, computers: 110 hours, biology: 120 hours, chemistry: 120 hours, physics:140 hours, core mathematics: 120 hours, apprenticeship mathematics: 100 hours, business mathematics: 120 hours, and technology mathematics: 120 hours the use of contact hours instead of weeks also reflects changes to delivery since 1967. in 1967, block intakes with minimal individual replacement of drop outs were the norm. now, the dominant practice is continuous intake and individualized delivery. students are scheduled for a minimum of 6 hours per week to a maximum of 25 hours. the student, in consultation with the college, determines scheduling. individual student needs, availability and non-school commitments (family, employment) are taken into consideration. graduation requirements: in order to graduate from the program i.e. receive an ace certificate, students must complete ace communications, one ace mathematics course, and any two other ace courses. the hours required for graduation range from a minimum of 435 hours to a maximum of 530 hours. hours depend on the ace courses selected by individual students based on their academic, training, and/or employment goals. program content: subjects identified in the existing btsd approval are communications (levels 1 4), mathematics levels 1 4) and science (levels 3 & 4). these broad descriptions met the training needs of participants in 1967, but since then the postsecondary learning environment and consequently entrance requirements have changed significantly. the program content for the academic and career entrance program reflects the reality that different postsecondary programs require different upgrading courses and academic skills to ensure success in postsecondary. updated course outlines are attached for the following: communications, computers, self management/self direction, core mathematics, apprenticeship mathematics, business mathematics, technology mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics. in 1967, self management/self direction and computers were not available or recognized as critical to academic and employment success. the proposed 10 courses reflect the need to individualize training for specific employment and academic goals. quota: na 5. proposed date of implementation of the modification april 1, 2003 6. college contact responsible for this proposal name lynne wallace title executive director, college sector committee for adult upgrading (csc) phone 705-675-2124 or 705 969-2963 7. required appendices. refer to the policy and procedure manual, for explanations of information to be included in appendices. for a title change, provide appendix iv program advisory committee support. for content changes, provide appendix i, program competencies, courses, and course competencies, and indicate where the changes have been made. also, provide appendix iv program advisory committee support and if appropriate, appendix ii, evidence of need for the program. for duration change, provide appendix i program competencies, courses and course competencies, and indicate where changes in either have been made. also, provide appendix iv, program advisory committee support. for quota change, provide appendix ii, evidence of need for the program and appendix iv, program advisory committee support. if practical experience facilities are required, identify the facilities to be used and arrangements made for their use and attach as an appendix. 8. date of board of governors' meeting at which the proposed program modification was approved 9. president's signature date 13-2980 (rev. 9/99) please send five copies of the proposal to: manager, program quality unit, colleges branch, ministry of training, colleges and universities, 9th floor, mowat block, 900 bay street, toronto, ontario m7a 1l2 appendix 4: ace approval letter 2004 appendix 5: course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace communications course outline 2003 course description successful learners must be effective communicators in academic, personal and work settings. effective communicators are able to express themselves well when presenting and defending ideas and opinions by using oral, visual and written forms of communications. learners who achieve the learning outcomes will have well-developed communication skills that will prepare them for success in a variety of college postsecondary programs. suggested length: 150 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. general learning outcomes throughout this course, learners will: read with understanding for various purposes write clearly to express ideas speak and listen effectively interpret the media effectively expectations the communications course emphasizes consolidation of reading, writing and speaking and listening skills. learners will be asked to demonstrate their ability to do the following: evaluate information, ideas, issues and styles of a variety of informational texts, media works and literary pieces; use different sources for gathering information; select appropriate forms of writing; choose from a range of organizational structures in producing unified and effective written work; process and use oral communications effectively; and analyze a variety of media works. content the content of the course is shaped both by the demands at the postsecondary college level and the college preparation english curriculum in the secondary school. areas of study include but are not limited to the following: vocabulary development technical reading analysis of literacy works analysis of media forms researching information note-taking summarizing technical/business writing (letters, resumes, etc.) report and essay writing library/resource use oral presentations group discussions evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 1|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace communications course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes 1.0 read with understanding for various purposes learners who have successfully completed this unit will have demonstrated their ability to evaluate information, ideas, issues and styles of a variety of informational texts and literary pieces. select and uses a wide variety of effective reading strategies. 1.1 apply a variety of strategies to extend vocabulary while reading with an emphasis discerning nuances and comprehension judging precision. select and uses specific and significance evidence from texts to support judgments and arguments. analyze and assess ideas, issues, explicit and implicit information in texts and media works. identify bias in written media works. 1.2 compares ideas, values and perspectives in texts. interpretation analyzes the influence of various factors (social, cultural and/or economic) on the themes and interpretations of texts. analyze how elements in fictional and non-fictional works are used to enhance or influence meaning. 1.3 analyze how language is used in expository writing to communicate information and ideas. analyze how authors use a variety of means such as literary devices to enhance meaning in texts. forms and conventions analyze the effect of the author's in a choice of language, syntax and literacy devices on self and others. explain how writers use elements of design to organize information and present ideas. 2.0 write clearly to express ideas learners who have successfully completed this unit will have demonstrated their ability to produce unified and effective written work by using different sources for gathering information, selecting appropriate forms of writing and choosing from a range of organizational structures. investigate topics for written work by posing questions, and identifying information needs and purposes for writing. 2.1 develop research plans to acquire information and ideas. research gather information from a variety of sources. understand issues surrounding plagiarism. assess information and ideas from research to determine whether they are sufficient, reliable, credible, and suitable to the form and purpose of the writing. 2.2 select and use appropriate forms to produce written work (book reports, research reports, summaries, short essays, video scripts) for specific audiences and purposes. purpose and form select and use voice appropriate to purpose and audience. select and use language such as specialized vocabulary and figurative language as appropriate to purpose and audience. use appropriate structures and organizational patterns to present information in reports, essays, and expressive writing. 2.3 revise drafts using editing and proofreading skills to strengthen content and improve organization, precision, organization expression and effective style. cite research information acceptable research methodology. use a variety of elements of grammar correctly and effectively. use grammar in unconventional ways for a particular effect. 2.4 use punctuation correctly to achieve clarity. mechanics spell technical and literary terms correctly. confirm spelling of unfamiliar words by using word knowledge and a variety of resources. 2|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace communications course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes (continued) 3.0 speak and listen effectively learners who have successfully completed this unit will have demonstrated their ability to process and use oral communications effectively. use an expanded vocabulary appropriate to the topic. make effective use of specialized business and technical language. 3.1 use the language structures of standard canadian english. presenting use techniques for making effective oral presentations with a focus on previewing reviewing, summarizing, using parallel structure and sustaining an appropriate tone. use props, handouts, charts and technology effectively. contribute to and lead discussions suggest directions and solve problems with a group. 3.2 connect ideas and arguments to other knowledge. interacting make inferences. summarize important ideas. record key information. 3.3 detect assumptions, omissions and perspectives in discussions and oral presentations. assess the validity of arguments, evidence and conclusions. listening formulate questions to extend understanding. 4.0 interpret the media effectively learners who have successfully completed this unit will have demonstrated their ability to assess a variety of media works and to create one type of media work. distinguish between explicit and implicit messages in media works 4.1 explain how key elements in media forms are used to influence people. analysis explain how different audiences react to different media works explore connections between media works/practices with industry codes/government regulations. 4.2 design or collaborate on the creation of a media work based on knowledge of media works. development document choices about design and production made during the creation of the media works. 3|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace core mathematics course outline 2003 course description successful learners in this program will be able to perform numeric and algebraic operations with and without the use of technology, estimate measurements, collect, display, and analyze data and effectively defend and communicate their solutions. the general learning outcomes plus the appropriate goal-specific outcomes of this course are prerequisite for students whose goal is grade 12 equivalency in apprenticeship, technical, or business mathematics. students seeking the grade 12 equivalency in mathematics for everyday life/workplace preparation must complete the general learning outcomes and the goal-specific outcomes for everyday financing. suggested length: 60 - 90 hours for the general learning outcomes with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. 20 30 hours for the goal specific outcomes with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. general learning outcomes (units 1, 2, and 3) throughout this course, learners will: use mathematical operations and simple algebra. identify relationships among values. apply rules of statistics and probability. goal specific outcomes (units 4, 5, 6, and 7) apprenticeship and technical math: solve problems involving measurement, geometry, and analytic geometry. (units 4 and 5) business math: solve problems involving simple and compound interest (unit 6) workplace math: solve problems involving everyday finance applications (unit 7) apprenticeship and technical mathematics goal specific expectations (units 4 and 5) investigate transformational geometry. understand geometric relationships. write equations of relations and identify shapes of their graph. investigate properties of slope. graph and write linear equations. business mathematics goal specific expectations (unit 6) calculate simple interest. calculate compound interest. compare simple and compound interest applications mathematics for everyday life (workplace) goal specific expectations (unit 7) identify various ways of earning money. understand national and provincial forms of taxation understand purchasing. understand saving and investing understand borrowing. understand costs of owning and operating a vehicle understand travel costs. compare costs of various modes of travel determine costs of renting and buying a house design budgets. evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 4|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace core mathematics course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes note: units 1 to 6 are compulsory; units 7 and 8 are elective units, one of which must be completed as determined by the students goal and in consultation with the professor. 1.0 number sense and algebra 2.0 relationships 3.0 statistics and probability 4.0 measurement and geometry 5.0 analytic geometry 6.0 simple and compound interest 7.0 everyday financing consolidate and apply numerical skills. understand and apply laws of exponents. apply scientific notation. manipulate polynomial expressions. solve first-degree equations including formulas and pythagorean theorem. use algebraic models (first-degree equations to solve problems). communicate solutions and justify reasoning applied. pose problems associated with numerical relationships. collect data using principles of sampling and surveying. organize, display and analyze data appropriately. use linear relational graphs to interpolate and extrapolate values. describe, in written form, situations that match the events illustrated in various graphs. determine whether a relation is linear or non-linear. describe conditions that affect the shape of a graph. construct and interpret graphs collect and organize data. apply principles of probability. interpret statements about statistics and probability. sketch various 2-d and 3-d figures on the 2-d plane. investigate maxima and minima for area and volume. describe applications of maxima and minima. understand and apply the si (metric) system. measure accurately in metric units. estimate distances and capacities using metric units. solve problems involving area, perimeter, and volume of composite 2-d and 3-d figures. judge reasonableness of solutions. estimate with reasonable accuracy the perimeter and area of large regions. apply transformational geometry. investigate geometric relationships. investigate the relationship between the equation of a relation and the shape of its graph. investigate the properties of slope. calculate simple and compound interest. solve applied problems using simple and compound interest. identify various ways of earning money. explain national and provincial forms of taxation. describe purchasing. describe saving and investing. describe the process of borrowing calculate costs of owning and operating a vehicle. compare costs of various modes of travel determine costs of renting and buying a house. design budgets 5|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace apprenticeship mathematics course outline 2003 course description learners who complete this course successfully will have consolidated their basic mathematical skills, improved their problem-solving techniques, and learned the basics of functions, analytic geometry, and trigonometry. depending on their longer-term goals, they will also choose two or three of: operating with functions, statistics and probability, personal finance, workplace finance, exponential growth, and applications of sequences and series. these skills will prepare them for various college apprenticeship programs, and/or for the workplace. suggested length: 100 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. prerequisite: core mathematics (general learning outcomes and apprenticeship and technical goal-specific outcomes) general learning outcomes throughout this course, learners will: solve mathematical problems using a variety of appropriate strategies. use basic number concepts to solve practical problems and as a foundation for advanced concepts. use algebraic notation, axioms, and modelling in solving problems and as a foundation for advanced concepts manage and interpret statistical data. content the content of the course is shaped both by the demands at the postsecondary college level and the college preparation chemistry curriculum in the secondary school. areas of study include but are not limited to the following: core course content (compulsory units of study) number sense and algebra measurement and geometry proportional reasoning analytic geometry relations and functions trigonometric functions elective course content (1 out of 2 units of study) statistics and probability personal and workplace finance evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 6|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace apprenticeship mathematics course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes note: units 1 to 6 are compulsory; units 7 and 8 are elective units, one of which must be completed as determined by the students goal and in consultation with the professor. 1.0 number sense and algebra 2.0 measurement and geometry 3.0 proportional reasoning 4.0 analytic geometry 5.0 relations and functions 6.0 trigonometric functions 7.0 statistics and probability 8.0 personal and workplace finance perform operations on polynomials. expand and simplify polynomial expressions involving several variables. solve first degree equations, including equations with fractional coefficients, using an algebraic method manipulate scientific formulae. substitute into formulae and solve for one variable, with and without the help of technology. use algebraic modelling to solve problems in various topics, e.g. relations, measurement, direct, partial and joint variation. communicate solutions to problems in appropriate mathematical forms, e.g. written explanation, formulae, charts, tables, graphs. justify the reasoning used in solving problems. estimate, with reasonable accuracy, distances and capacities in metric and imperial units estimate, with reasonable accuracy, large numbers. judge the reasonableness of answers produced by a calculator, a computer, or manual calculation, using mental mathematics and estimation. solve problems involving the properties of the interior and exterior angles of triangles and quadrilaterals, and of angles related to parallel lines. communicate the solutions, using appropriate language and mathematical forms, e.g. written explanations diagrams, formulae, tables. solve problems involving percent, ratio, rate. solve problems involving direct, inverse and joint proportions. solve problems with similar triangles in realistic applications. determine the characteristics that distinguish the equation of a straight line from the equations of non-linear relations. use graphing software to obtain graphs. classify relations according to the shapes of their graphs. identify y = mx + b and ax + by + c = 0 as standard forms of linear equations, including the special cases x = a, y = b. identify y = ax2 + b as a standard form of a quadratic equation. expand and simplify polynomials involving multiplication and squaring of binomials. factor polynomials including difference of squares, incomplete square, and sum and difference of cube. solve quadratic equations by factoring, using the remainder theorem and factor theorem. use systems of linear equations to solve workplace-related problems. construct graphs of quadratic functions whose equations are given the form y = a(x h)2 + k, or y = ax2 + bx + c. obtain graphs of quadratic functions whose equations are given the form y = a(x h)2 + k, or y = ax2 + bx + c using graphing software. determine the maxima and minima of quadratic functions using a calculator or graphing software. identify the effect of simple transformations on the graph and the equation of y = x2. define the primary and secondary trigonometric ratios of angles, using the sides in right triangles demonstrate an understanding of the signs of these rations for obtuse angles. solve problems involving the sides and angles in right triangles using primary trig rations. solve problems involving the side and angles of oblique triangles, using the sine law and the cosine law. collect and organize data. identify and apply measures of central tendency. display data using appropriate graphical representations. interpret data from a variety of sources. apply principles of probability in a variety of applications solve problems involving various ways or earning money, e.g. salary, hourly rate, overtime, commission, using calculator or appropriate software. solve problems involving the estimation and calculation of various taxes. estimate and calculate discounts, sale prices, and after-tax costs. identify, calculate, and compare the interest costs involved in making purchases under various plans, e.g. installment, layaway, credit card, credit line. explain the overhead and fixed costs involved in operating a small business. 7|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace business mathematics course outline 2003 course description this course provides students with the mathematical skills needed to perform business operations. it builds a strong foundation for students moving on to further study and training in specialized business studies. it will also provide practical skills for those who wish to move directly into the world of business. suggested length: 100 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. prerequisite: core mathematics (general learning outcomes and business goal-specific outcomes) general learning outcomes throughout this course, learners will: apply algebraic skills, manipulate algebraic formulas, and improve problem-solving skills. use estimation in a variety of applications, solve problems involving measurement , and judge solutions for reasonableness and accuracy. manipulate ratios and proportions, and apply them in the solution of various problems. determine the relationship between the form of an equation and the shape of its graph (linear or quadratic). graph linear and non-linear relations, and describe the connections between various representations of relations. manipulate trigonometric ratios of any angle, and solve problems involving these ratios. collect, organize, display, analyze and interpret data; apply probability to a variety of situations. solve problems involving various forms of remuneration and taxation; investigate saving and investments, borrowing, and purchasing of items. content the content of the course is shaped both by the demands at the postsecondary college level and the college preparation mathematics curriculum in the secondary school. areas of study include but are not limited to the following: exponential growth: broaden understanding of exponential growth as it applies to personal finance investigate properties of exponential functions manipulate exponential expressions solve problems and investigate financial applications involving: simple interest compound interest annuities retail-buying, selling, and commission apply mathematics in making informed decisions about transportation accommodation evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 8|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace business mathematics course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes 1.0 exponential growth 2.0 arithmetic and geometric sequences and series 3.0 simple and compound interest 4.0 retail sales 5.0 annuities 6.0 organizing and analyzing data describe the significance of exponential growth or decay. identify exponential growth or decay using tables of values, graphs or equations. sketch graphs of exponential functions. use graphing software or graphing calculator to investigate the properties of exponential functions including range, domain, increasing or decreasing through domain, asymptotes. manipulate exponential expressions. determines terms that follow three or more given terms in a sequence. distinguish whether a sequence is arithmetic, geometric or neither. solves problems using formulas for the nth term and sum of n terms of arithmetic & geometric sequences and series. calculates simple & compound interest solve questions for any variable of equation l=prt using a scientific calculator. calculate a or p in formula a = p(1+it)n using a scientific calculator calculate i or n in formula a = p(1+it)n using a spreadsheet. identify relationship between simple interest, arithmetic sequences, and linear growth. solve problems related to the relationship between compound interest, geometric sequences and exponential growth. apply formulas to solve complex word problems involving discounts, markups, markdowns, profit and loss. calculate present value and periodic payment of a regular annuity using a scientific calculator. generate an amortization table using a spreadsheet or other software. generate questions that have a finite number of responses for own investigation. college data on relevant information related to the alternatives to be considered in making a decision. compare alternatives by rating and ranking information and by applying mathematical calculations and analysis. summarize and present data in various formats (tables, charts, graphs, calculations, explanatory notes). make inferences and convincing arguments based on data analysis. 9|p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace technical mathematics course outline 2003 course description the technical mathematics course builds on and expands the fundamental algebraic skills mastered in core mathematics. calculators and/or appropriate software are an integral part of the course. the objective of the course is to prepare students to have the necessary mathematical skills to prepare for mathematics-focused college postsecondary programs. students who have successfully achieved the learning outcomes will be able to apply their skills to solve applied problems involving trigonometry, polynomial/rational/exponential expressions, polynomial/exponential/logarithmic functions, and the principles of geometry and measurement. suggested length: 120 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. prerequisite: core mathematics (general learning outcomes and apprenticeship and technical goal specific outcomes) general learning outcomes in this course, learners will: use computation and algebraic manipulation. use measurement for various purposes and solve geometry problems. solve problems involving trigonometry. analyze models of a variety of functions. content the content of the course is shaped both by the demands at the postsecondary college level and the college preparation mathematics curriculum in the secondary school. areas of study include but are not limited to the following: polynomials and factoring linear equations systems of equations rational expressions radicals/complex numbers quadratics logarithms trigonometry evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 10 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace technical mathematics course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes 1.0 monomials, polynomials, and factoring 2.0 equations in one variable and formulas 3.0 systems of equations 4.0 fractional expressions and equations 5.0 radicals and complex numbers 6.0 quadratics 7.0 logarithms and functions 8.0 trigonometry 9.0 measurement and geometry simplify algebraic expressions factor polynomials create and solve algebraic equations in one variable. manipulate formulas. determine the point of intersection of linear equations. solve problems of linear equations in two variables. solve equations in there variables. solve applied problems. simplify rational expressions. solve rational equations. solve problems involving factional equations apply the laws of exponents to simplify expressions. manipulate algebraic expressions. demonstrate a working knowledge of quadratic equations determine the relationship between the equations and the graph o quadratic functions. solve problems involving quadratic equations. apply logarithmic functions demonstrate an understanding of exponential growth and decay. demonstrate facility in the use of function notation. demonstrate the manipulation of algebraic expressions demonstrate an understanding of proportionality. demonstrate the use of radian measure in solving equations and graphing. solve problems involving trigonometry with triangles. determine the relationships between the graphs and the equations of sinusoidal functions. demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between three-dimensional objects and their twodimensional representations. use measurement in a variety of ways. solve geometry problems. 11 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace biology course outline 2003 course description this biology course provides learners with a strong knowledge of biology as it applies to health, social and environmental issues. emphasis is given to analyzing problems, performing laboratory exercises and communicating scientific information effectively. the content of the course reflects the needs of many adult learners entering postsecondary college programs in health and environmental sciences. as such, it allows learners to complete five out of a possible six units of study. suggested length: 120 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. general learning outcomes throughout this course, learners will: employ, individually and in groups, a disciplined approach to the processes of biology including scientific inquiry, problem solving and design. apply biology concepts and principles in such areas as the study of cells, microbiology, human anatomy and physiology, plant structure and physiology and environmental science. apply knowledge of the content to health, workplace, societal, and environmental biology issues. select and use appropriate numeric, symbolic, graphical and linguistic modes to represent and communicate scientific concepts and experimental results. assess career choices in science and technology perform various laboratory activities (real-time or virtual) in accordance with laboratory, college and legislated safety procedures. content the content of the course is shaped both by the demands at the postsecondary college level and the college preparation biology curriculum in the secondary school. areas of study include but are not limited to the following: cell biology - cell theory, structure/function of organelles, cellular processes, transport mechanisms microbiology - anatomy, physiology, reproduction and genetic composition of representative organisms from the monera, protists, fungi and bacteria; viruses; genetic manipulation; symbiotic relationships involving micro-organisms human anatomy and physiology - human systems such as nervous, skeleto-muscular, digestive, cardiovascular, reproductive, endocrine, etc.; pathophysiology of those systems; homeostasis plant structure and physiology - classification of plants, life cycle, growth and differentiation, role of tropisms environmental science - principles of taxonomy, energy pyramids, symbiotic relationships, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, population growth biomes related laboratory activities (virtual or real-time) may be included pertaining to the above topics. evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 12 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace biology course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes note: any five of six units are required for course completion as determined by the learners goal. 1.0 cellular biology 2.0 microbiology 3.0 human anatomy and physiology i 4.0 human anatomy and physiology ii 5.0 plant structure and physiology 6.0 environmental science list the main points of the cell theory. explain the functions of organelles. identify and describe the 4 major biochemical compounds. describe the role of enzymes in biochemical reactions. define various transport processes across cell membranes. list the features of each stage of mitosis. compare respiration and photosynthesis. apply knowledge of cellular processes to a personal or medical issue. compare representative bacteria, protists, viruses and fungi in terms of shape, motility, role and connection to human disease. describe different modes of reproduction in micro-organisms. compare the genetic material of viruses and bacteria with those of eukaryotic cells. identify the symbiotic roles of micro organisms. illustrate some uses of viruses and bacteria in biotechnology and genetic engineering. evaluate the implications of viral, bacterial and fungal infections on a human host. define the levels of organization from cells through to systems describe the anatomy and physiology of the following systems: musculo-skeletal, circulatory, nervous, endocrine, reproductive. explain the causes, symptoms and treatments of major disorders of the above systems. define homeostasis. explain the role of the endocrine system and central nervous system in maintaining homeostasis. list the features of each stage of meiosis. apply principles of genetics to solve simple patterns of inheritance. describe the anatomy and physiology of the following systems: respiratory, digestive, excretory, and lymphatic. explain the causes, symptoms and treatments of major disorders of the above systems. describe the composition of blood. identify abo blood types based on antigen/antibody presence. explain the roles of various types of white blood cells with respect to the immune response. illustrate how plants are classified by identifying characteristics. describe the structure and physiology of plant tissues. explain the steps in the life cycle of a plant. differentiates between major divisions of plants. describe the processes of growth and differentiation in plants. explain the role of tropisms in plants. identify the importance of plant diversity in maintaining ecosystems. outline the use of plants in various industries (food, textile, etc.). explain the role of aquatic plants in the purification of waste or run-off water. demonstrate an understanding of taxonomy by classifying organisms from a local ecosystem use energy pyramids to explain the mechanisms and interactions of a food chain. explain the ecological role of representative organisms from each of the kingdoms of life. describe the flow of matter through the biogeochemical cycles (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and water cycles). define population growth and the factors influencing it. analyze a local environmental issue. 13 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace biology course outline 2003 (cond) laboratory component note: program managers were surveyed in july 2002 regarding feasibility of real-time lab offerings for obs iv/btsd 4 sciences. since the availability of such a lab component varies among the colleges, the use of virtual lab activities may be an option for some colleges. a preliminary list of virtual resources is included following this chart. those resources have not yet been reviewed but are meant as a starting point to assist identifying appropriate virtual resources. general outcomes for laboratory component 1.0 cellular biology 2.0 microbiology 3.0 human anatomy and physiology i 4.0 human anatomy and physiology ii 5.0 plant structure and physiology 6.0 environmental science complete laboratory activities in an organized and safe manner. recognize and identify common laboratory equipment and apparatus. record complete, objective observations. use a variety of measuring devices. performs accurate measurements utilizing the correct number of significant digits. create tables and graphs from data collected. use experimental results to lead to conclusions and interpretations of data. identify the importance of controlled conditions during experimentation. determine factors affecting rates of diffusion across various membranes. prepare a wet mount of a stained specimen. investigate the effect of environment on enzyme action. conduct tests to identify macromolecules. identify various specimens using prepared slides. prepare a culture of micro organisms on agar using aseptic techniques. design and conduct an experiment to determine the effect of an antibacterial agent on a bacterial culture. use various instruments to collect data on human conditions such as heart rate, blood pressure, pulse. design and conduct an experiment related to human physiology, i.e. the effect of breathing patterns during exercise on heart rate. perform a dissection of a vertebrate to identify organs and the relationship between structures and their functions. survey and analyze the eating habits of a sample group in terms of potential health issues. design and conduct an experiment related to human physiology, i.e. the effect of breathing patterns during exercise on heart rate. perform a dissection of a vertebrate to identify organs and the relationship between structures and their functions. investigate tropisms by growing plants from seed. distinguish between monocot and dicot plants, using appropriate instruments and sources. investigate and explain how a change in one population can affect the entire food web. investigate the effect that human population growth has on the environment and the quality of life of the affected ecosystem. 14 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace chemistry course outline 2003 course description this chemistry course provides learners with a strong knowledge of chemistry as it applies to industry and environmental issues. emphasis is given to analyzing problems, performing laboratory exercises and communicating scientific information effectively. the content of the course reflects the needs of many adult learners entering postsecondary college programs in health and environmental sciences. as such, it allows learners to complete three core units and two elective units of study. suggested length: 120 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. general learning outcomes throughout this course, learners will: employ, individually and in groups, a disciplined approach to the processes of biology including scientific inquiry, problem solving and design. apply biology concepts and principles in such areas as the study of cells, microbiology, human anatomy and physiology, plant structure and physiology and environmental science. apply knowledge of the content to health, workplace, societal, and environmental biology issues. select and use appropriate numeric, symbolic, graphical and linguistic modes to represent and communicate scientific concepts and experimental results. assess career choices in science and technology perform various laboratory activities (real-time or virtual) in accordance with laboratory, college and legislated safety procedures. content the content of the course is shaped both by the demands at the postsecondary college level and the college preparation chemistry curriculum in the secondary school. areas of study include but are not limited to the following: core course content (compulsory units of study) nature of matter - atomic theory, sub-atomic particles, periodic table, lewis structures, ions, elements, compounds qualitative analysis - observations and inferences, processes, bohr model, bonding, spectroscopy chemical calculations - mole concept, chemical equations, experimental error, percentage composition, stoichiometry, percentage yield, industry and everyday applications elective course content (2 out of 3 units of study) electrochemistry - galvanic and electrolytic cells, redox reactions, corrosion, conductance, displacement reactions, electrochemical cells, industry and everyday applications organic chemistry - characteristics of carbon, properties of molecules, functional groups, organic reactions, distillation, industry applications chemistry in the environment - properties of gases, acids and bases, acid rain, air quality, societal and economic implications related laboratory activities (virtual or real-time) may be included pertaining to the above topics. evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 15 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace chemistry course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes note: units 1, 2, and 3 are compulsory; units 4, 5, and 6 are elective units, two of which must be complete as determined by learners goal. 1.0 nature of matter 2.0 qualitative analysis 3.0 chemical calculations 4.0 electrochemistry 5.0 organic chemistry 6.0 chemistry in the environment define and classify matter. distinguish between physical and chemical properties. identify the key points of dalton's atomic theory. name the three basic sub-atomic particles and lists their properties. draw lewis structures. distinguish between elements, compounds and ions. describe the periodic classification of the elements. recognize trends within the periodic table. explain the difference between observation and inference. describe the basic processes in qualitative analysis (flame tests, precipitation reactions, and absorption spectra). use lewis structures to illustrate covalent and ionic bonding. relate the charge on an ion to electron loss or gain. use a solubility table to predict precipitate formation. write double displacement and net ionic equations. name inorganic compounds using the rules of nomenclature. write chemical formulas for molecules and compounds. identify types of chemical reactions. write balanced equations. define the mole concept. calculate formula and molecular masses. explain how the following variables are related: coefficients in balanced chemical equations, molar quantities, mass and number of particles. solve problems involving moles, molar mass and avogadros number. solve problems involving mole, mass, and volume calculations in chemical equations. calculate percentage yield. identify sources of experimental error. name the components of galvanic and electrolytic cells. describe the role of galvanic and electrolytic cells in terms of oxidation and reduction. explain the chemical reactions involved in corrosion. relate the chemistry of corrosion to the chemical reactions in an electrochemical cell. describe various techniques used to prevent corrosion of metals. describe the characteristics of the carbon atom in terms of bonding and the formation of long chain molecules. explain the general properties of molecules containing oxygen or nitrogen. identify the structures of the functional groups that define their common families i.e. alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, etc. draw lewis structures to represent covalent bonding in organic compounds. describe, with the use of structural formulas, organic reactions such as addition, combustion, polymerization. list the characteristics of gases. states the effect of temperature and pressure on a fixed quantity of gas. explain the arrhenius definition of acids and bases. differentiate between strong and weak acids with respect to dissociation. write balanced chemical equations for neutralization reactions. identify the gases responsible for acid rain and their sources. apply the definitions of concentrated and dilute to acids. identify substances in environmental water whose concentration must be controlled to ensure the water is fit for human consumption and use. 16 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace chemistry course outline 2003 (cond) laboratory component note: program managers were surveyed in july 2002 regarding feasibility of real-time lab offerings for obs iv/btsd 4 sciences. since the availability of such a lab component varies among the colleges, the use of virtual lab activities may be an option for some colleges. a preliminary list of virtual resources is included following this chart. those resources have not yet been reviewed but are meant as a starting point to assist identifying appropriate virtual resources. general outcomes for laboratory component 1.0 nature of matter 2.0 qualitative analysis 3.0 chemical calculations 4.0 electrochemistry 5.0 organic chemistry 6.0 chemistry in the environment complete laboratory activities in an organized and safe manner. recognize and identify common laboratory equipment and apparatus. record complete, objective observations. use a variety of measuring devices. perform accurate measurements utilizing the correct number of significant digits. create tables and graphs from data collected. use experimental results to lead to conclusions and interpretations of data. identify the importance of controlled conditions during experimentation. construct molecular models using a kit. investigate the chemical properties of representative families of elements (e.g., combustibility, reaction with water of mg, ca or c, si). investigate the properties of changes in substances, and classify them as physical or chemical based on experiments (e.g., solubility, combustibility, change of state, changes in colour). determine the presence of ions in an unknown sample i.e. a household chemical, using flame tests and precipitate reactions. conduct qualitative analysis using such equipment as gas discharge tubes, centrifuge and spectroscope. identify an unknown gas sample by comparing its observed absorption spectra with known spectra of known gases. prepare aqueous solutions, using appropriate concentration units. dilute a stock solution to a specified concentration. construct a galvanic cell and assess its advantages and disadvantages in terms of portability, rechargability, chemical spillage, etc. design and carry out procedure to determine the factors that affect the rate of corrosion i.e. stress, two metal contacts, nature of electrolyte, etc. determine the physical and chemical properties of some common organic compounds i.e. solubility, conductivity, odour. identify trends based on those properties. synthesize a condensation product i.e. aspirin or an ester, a common organic compound (soap). determine acidity of common household substances using an indicator. conduct an acid-base titration to determine concentration of an acid or a base. determine the concentration of dissolved ions i.e. calcium ions in a water sample using gravimetric and colourimetric analysis. 17 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace physics course outline 2003 course description this physics course will enable the learners to develop the basic concepts of physics. learners will study and explore concepts related to dynamics, forces, energy, mechanics, electricity and fluids. they will apply these concepts and principles to solve applied problems while communicating the scientific and technical information and evaluating the impact of physics on society and the environment. the content of the course reflects the needs of many adult learners entering postsecondary college programs in technology and related fields. as such, it allows learners to complete three core units and two elective units of study. suggested length: 140 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. general learning outcomes throughout this course, learners will: apply physics concepts and principles to solve problems. communicate scientific and technical information effectively and perform laboratory activities. evaluate the implication of physics and its application to personal, workplace, societal, and global issues. content the content of the course is shaped both by the demands at the postsecondary college level and the college preparation physics curriculum in the secondary school. areas of study include but are not limited to the following: core course content (compulsory units of study) forces and motion work, energy, power and machines light and optics elective course content (2 out of 3 units of study) electricity and magnetism waves and sound hydraulic and pneumatic systems related laboratory activities (virtual or real-time) may be included pertaining to the above topics. evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 18 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace physics course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes 1.0 forces and motion 2.0 work, energy, power, and machines 3.0 light and optics 4.0 waves and sound 5.0 electricity and magnetism 6.0 hydraulic and pneumatic systems differentiate between scalar and vector quantities. use vector diagrams to analyze uniform motion in two dimensions. combine vector quantities graphically to solve motion and force problems. analyze the gravitational force acting on an object near, and at a distance from, the surface of the earth. analyze the forces acting on an object and determine the acceleration of the object. apply newton's three laws of motion to explain straight line motion. analyze the relationship among the net force acting on an object, its mass, and its acceleration to discover newton's laws. explain the difference between uniform and non-uniform motion define and specify units for displacement, velocity, uniform acceleration, average and instantaneous acceleration. solve problems of uniform motion involving displacement, velocity, acceleration, and time. define and specify units and solve problems involving force, displacement, and work. define and specify units and solve problems involving power, work, and time. define and specify units and solve problems involving potential energy and kinetic energy. apply the law of conservation of energy to relate work, kinetic energy, and potential energy. analyze the relationships among percent efficiency, input energy, and output energy. define and specify the units for force, coefficients of frictions, torque, mechanical advantage, and work. identify and give practical examples of simple machines (inclined plane, wedge, screw, pulley, wheel and axle). state the law of the lever and apply it to solve related problems. name the three classes of levers and give practical examples of each. define and specify the units related to the concepts of light use snell's law to indicate how the velocity and wavelength of light depend on the index of refraction. use ray diagrams to explain total internal reflection. use ray diagrams to illustrate the characteristics and positions of images formed by lenses. solve problems for distance, size of image, or size of object using the lens equation. define and specify the units of mechanical wave concepts. define periodic motion and describe energy transfer by wave motion. describe with the aid of diagrams sound waves in air, sound characteristics, and velocity/wavelength/frequency relationships. compare the speed of sound in different media, and describe the effect of temperature on the speed of sound. describe what happens to speed and wave motion as a wave passes from one medium to another. apply the knowledge of mechanical resonance to sound. explain interference and diffraction of sound waves. define and specify the units of electric charge, electric current, electric potential, electric flow, magnetic field, electromagnetic induction. apply the right hand rule to determine the magnetic field produced when electric current flows through a long straight conductor and a solenoid. explain the factors that affect the force on a current-carrying conductor in a magnetic field. apply lenz's law to applicable problems. compare dc and ac and electrical systems. solve problems involving voltage, current, power, time. describe the function of basic circuit components. analyze circuit problems involving potential difference, current and resistance. distinguish between analog and digital circuits. use the concepts and units related to fluids to solve applicable problems. state bernoulli's principle and describe practical applications. state pascal's principle and explain how it applies to brakes, lifts, etc. describe common components used in hydraulic and pneumatic systems. solve applied problems using the relationships among force, area, pressure, volume and time in hydraulic and pneumatic systems. 19 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace computer skills course outline 2003 course description this course prepares learners to perform basic computer skills needed to succeed in further studies as well as providing practical skills for those who wish to move directly to the world of work. it enables students to create documents, navigate the internet to conduct research and communicate in educational, workplace and personal settings. suggested length: 110 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. general learning outcomes students who have successfully completed this course will have demonstrated their ability to use success strategies that promote lifelong learning and that can be applied in their personal, employment and academic lives. expectations learn and use appropriate computer terminology. recognize and perform basic tasks required to operate a computer. develop basic keyboard mastery, speed and accuracy using an electronic keyboard. use appropriate functions of one or more operating systems and apply them to application programs. use word processing software to produce documents for academic, vocational and personal use. produce and manipulate spreadsheets in order to perform basic financial analysis and calculations. use an operating system to manage files. content the content of the course is shaped by the demands and expectations at the postsecondary level and in the workplace. areas include but are not limited to the following: software applications creation of documents electronic file management electronic research electronic communication evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 20 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace computer skills course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes 1.0 software applications 2.0 creation of documents 3.0 electronic file management 4.0 electronic communication 5.0 electronic research 6.0 ethical issues related to information technology demonstrate the use of software. demonstrate the use of software features that facilitate the joint production of documents. produce correctly formatted documents from printed, handwritten and revised copies. demonstrate an understanding of the different processes for managing electronic data. communicate with others using electronic tools. use electronic media to gather information for a particular purpose. use electronic tools to collect information required to solve a specific problem. demonstrate an understanding of ethical business practices related to the use of information technology. 21 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace self-management/self-direction course outline 2003 course description the self-management/self-direction course provides students with an opportunity to learn and use success strategies that can be applied to their academic, employment and personal life. the strategies will equip them with the knowledge, skills and behaviours to become effective, confident and flexible learners. the course will focus on areas such as self-reflection, critical thinking, goal setting, study skills, organizational skills, group dynamics and career/employment exploration. suggested length: 55 hours with the understanding that some learners may require additional time to complete the course. general learning outcomes students who have successfully completed this course will have demonstrated their ability to use success strategies that promote lifelong learning and that can be applied in their personal, employment and academic lives. expectations demonstrate a variety of self-assessment and self-reflection techniques. use systematic methods to solve problems and make decisions demonstrate responsibility in their role as a learner. formulate achievable educational, employment and personal goal. use efficient learning strategies to facilitate the learning process. use organizational techniques and approaches to meet deadlines. work effectively with other students on an individual basis and in a group setting. demonstrate knowledge and use of college structure, supports and resources. demonstrate knowledge of community resources, structures and supports. embrace the belief that learning continues for life. content the content of the course is shaped by the demands and expectations at the postsecondary level and in the workplace. areas include but are not limited to the following: study skills ( develop learning strategies, analyze learning styles, note taking, reading text books techniques for writing exams) development of a training plan ( setting long and short term goals ) career preparation ( achieving -long term goal success ) time-management strategies stress-management approaches interaction with others in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and goals use of the library development and implementation of an innovative job search strategy conflict resolution techniques participation in college and community events networking evaluation for the course the methods and weightings of assessments and evaluation are determined by individual colleges. 22 | p a g e course outlines - academic and career entrance program 2003 ace self-management/self-direction course outline 2003 (cond) units and specific outcomes 1.0 self-awareness 2.0 critical thinking 3.0 responsibility for self 4.0 goal setting 5.0 developing strategies for learning and employment 6.0 organizational skills 7.0 working with others 8.0 maximizing the college experience 9.0 community involvement 10.0 lifelong learning demonstrates a variety of self-reflection and self-assessment techniques. uses systematic methods to analyze information, solve problems, and make decisions. demonstrates responsibility in role of learner. formulates achievable educational, employment, and personal goals. uses efficient strategies to facilitate the learning process and to find suitable employment. uses organizational techniques and approaches to meet deadlines. works effectively with other students on an individual basis and in a group setting. demonstrates knowledge and use of college structure, supports and resources demonstrates knowledge of community resources, structures and supports. embraces the belief that learning continues for life. 23 | p a g e appendix 6: sample ace certificate appendix 7: apprenticeship academic requirements 2013 date: april 08, 2013 version: 1.0 page: 1 of 4 312 confirming academic requirement oor procedure reference: http://cscportal.edu.gov.on.ca/sites/oruportal/pages/apprenticeship/oor/oor_apprentices.aspx ?source=thanks.aspx 1.0 revision history april 08, 2013 2.0 1.0 new document parties affected applicants for an apprenticeship program 3.0 legislative/regulatory references http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_09o22_e.htm ontario college of trades and apprenticeship act, 2009 (octaa) section 64 functions section 65 training agreements regulations board regulation establishing apprenticeship programs (pending) policies ontario college of trades policy for setting academic entry requirement (pending) forms 0121661 application for apprenticeship training 4.0 policy 4.1 the ministry will determine whether applicants for an apprenticeship program established by the ontario college of trades meet the academic entry requirements set out by the registrar of the ontario college of trades. 4.1.1 placeholder for the ontario college of trades tradespecific academic entry requirements 312 confirming academic requirement date: april 08, 2013 version: 1.0 page: 2 of 4 oor procedure reference: http://cscportal.edu.gov.on.ca/sites/oruportal/pages/apprenticeship/oor/oor_apprentices.aspx ?source=thanks.aspx 4.2 4.1.2 the ministry will accept apprentices registered in other canadian jurisdictions without confirming that they meet the ontario academic requirement for their trade if they provide proof that they have a valid registration in the other jurisdiction at the time they wish to register in ontario as an apprentice. equivalency to grade 12 for the purpose of apprenticeship registration 4.2.1 for the purpose of entrance into an apprenticeship program where the academic entry requirement is grade 12 (ossd) or its equivalent, the following are considered equivalent to an ontario secondary school diploma: (a) a secondary school graduation diploma from any other canadian province or territory or from issued by a state or territory of the unites states. note: the equivalent to the ossd in quebec is the secondaire v graduation diploma. the diploma from quebecs high school trades program, although a graduation diploma, is not the equivalent of an ossd. (b) a canadian general education development (ged) certificate issued by a canadian province or territory or issued by a state or territory of the united states. (c) a noncanadian ged certificate determined by the independent learning centre (ilc) to be equivalent to the ontario ged. (d) a transcript, diploma or certificate from another country, assessed at an ontario ossd level by a recognized assessment service. (e) a canadian postsecondary diploma or degree. (f) a noncanadian postsecondary diploma or degree that has been assessed as equivalent to a canadian postsecondary diploma or degree by a recognized assessment service. (g) an academic and career entrance/accs carrires tudes (ace) certificate issued by an ontario college of applied arts & technology 312 confirming academic requirement date: april 08, 2013 version: 1.0 page: 3 of 4 oor procedure reference: http://cscportal.edu.gov.on.ca/sites/oruportal/pages/apprenticeship/oor/oor_apprentices.aspx ?source=thanks.aspx or an ontario college institute of technology and advanced learning. (h) a certificate of completion for a ministry of training, colleges and universitiesapproved tradespecific training program from an ontario college of applied arts & technology or an ontario college institute of technology and advanced learning. (i) a certificate of apprenticeship or certificate of qualification in any trade from ontario or other canadian jurisdiction. (j) a certificate of completion of an academic upgrading program from another canadian jurisdiction that is accepted by an ontario college of applied arts & technology or an ontario college institute of technology and advanced learning for entry into an ontario postsecondary program. (k) a postsecondary certificate of completion for a tradespecific training program from another canadian jurisdiction that is equivalent to a certificate program delivered by an ontario college of applied arts & technology or an ontario college institute of technology and advanced learning as assessed by this institution. (l) a postsecondary certificate of completion for a tradespecific training program from a noncanadian jurisdiction that has been assessed by a recognized assessment service as equivalent to a tradespecific certificate program delivered by an ontario college of applied arts & technology or an ontario college institute of technology and advanced learning. (m) the successful completion of a college of applied arts and technology, an ontario college institute of technology, or a university admission test by a graduate of a home schooling program or a private school in ontario. 4.3 equivalency to another grade level 312 confirming academic requirement date: april 08, 2013 version: 1.0 page: 4 of 4 oor procedure reference: http://cscportal.edu.gov.on.ca/sites/oruportal/pages/apprenticeship/oor/oor_apprentices.aspx ?source=thanks.aspx (a) successful completion of a grade level from another canadian province or territory is equivalent to the same ontario grade level. (b) an assessment of a noncanadian educational level to an ontario grade level by a recognized assessment service is acceptable. 4.4 apprentices previously registered under the trades qualification and apprenticeship act (tqaa) 4.4.1 an apprentice whose tqaa contract of apprenticeship is deemed to be a training agreement under octaa and who subsequently enters into other registered training agreements under the octaa for the same trade will be subject to the academic standards in place at the time of original registration under the tqaa. 4.5 apprentices previously registered under the apprenticeship and certification act (aca) 4.5.1 an apprentice whose aca training agreement is deemed to be a training agreement under octaa and who subsequently enters into other registered training agreements under the octaa for the same trade will be subject to the academic standards in place at the time of original registration under the aca. ministry of advanced education and skills development ministre de lenseignement suprieur et de la formation professionnelle employment and training division division de l'emploi et de la formation proof of education acceptable documentation for proof of education (please attach photocopy of only one of the following): secondary school diploma academic transcript post-secondary diploma (diplomas or certificates from private career colleges are not acceptable) post-secondary degree general education development (ged) certificate transcript, diploma, certificate or degree from another country outside of canada and the united states, assessed by a recognized assessment service level iv ontario basic skills academic and career entrance (ace) certificate certificate of completion of a ministry advanced education and skills development approved tradespecific training program from an ontario college of applied arts and technology certificate of apprenticeship or certificate of qualification in any trade from ontario or other canadian jurisdiction certificate of completion of an academic upgrading program that is accepted by an ontario college of applied arts & technology for entry into an ontario postsecondary program proof of social insurance number acceptable documentation for social insurance number (please attach photocopy of only one of the following): sin card government issued document verifying sin number proof of age acceptable documentation for proof of age (please attach photocopy of only one of the following): drivers license (including graduated license) passport (valid or expired) birth certificate new ontario id card nexus card recent photo accompanied by a letter from a notary public or lawyer confirming date of photo baptismal certificate acceptable documentation of proof of age if accompanied by a photo: certificate of canadian citizenship or naturalization certificate of indian or mtis status issued by the federal government current identity document issued by a government ministry or agency with a vigorous registration and security clearance process (e.g., opp or rcmp security check) canadian firearms registration licence please note: do not submit original documents. to ensure the security of your personal information, you may wish to send copies of your documents through password protected email, registered mail or in person. appendix 8: ace course codes list academic and career entrance (ace) program provincial course codes list fall 2017 compiled by www.cscau.com ace course codes revised 2017 algonquin ace course title communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math* technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) college preparation communication computer skills n/a college preparation mathematics business intermediate mathematics college preparation mathematics technology college preparation biology college preparation chemistry n/a success strategies oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e* mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code enl5958 dat0110 mat0001 mat0010 mat5951 ace distance delivery course code enl8000 dat3000 mat8010 mat8011 mat8012 mat5952 sci5952 sci5953 sci5954 ssc5727 n/a sci8010 sci8011 sci8012 ssc8010 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title college preparation mathematics technical communications: preparation for degree programs accepted as equivalent to map4c eng4u course code mat0001 enl0076 comments (if required) notes: *mat5951 intermediate mathematics is accepted as equivalent to mbf3c for admission purposes. we offer mat5964 fundamental math for health sciences as part of the preparation for health sciences package of courses and taken that way, it is accepted for admission to some health sciences programs. we have internal agreements with a handful of postsecondary programs that advertise the requirement for map4c but having reviewed the course outline for intermediate math will accept that instead. these agreements are reviewed and updated annually. 2|page ace course codes revised 2017 boral ace course title communication franaise informatique mathmatiques - apprentis mathmatiques financires mathmatiques gnrales mathmatiques techniques biologie chimie physique autogestion/ autodirection your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a oss equivalent fra 4c n/a map 4c, mct 4c* map 4c mel 4e, map 4c*, mct 4c* mct4c sb1 3c, sb1 4c* sch 4c sph 4c, sph3u** n/a in-class delivery course code ace1011 n/a ace1007 ace1008 ace1006 ace1009 ace1003 ace1004 ace1005 n/a ace distance delivery course code ace1011 ace1002 ace1007 ace1008 ace1006 ace1009 ace1003 ace1004 ace1005 ace1001 * course equivalency codes provided by boreal not part of evaluation done by med in 2007. ** sph3u is recognized as equivalent by medu not recognized at boreal as u-stream equivalent additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to course code comments (if required) cambrian ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math* technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e* mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code ace 0400 ace 0401 n/a ace 4303 n/a ace 0404 ace 0406 ace 0405 n/a ace 0402 ace distance delivery course code ace0002 ace0010 ace0008 ace0001 ace0003 ace0007 ace0009 ace0004 ace0005 ace0006 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title accepted as equivalent to course code *core math general mbf 3c ace 0303 *core math advanced mcf 3m ace 0304 comments (if required) course equivalency codes provided by cambrian not part of evaluation done by med in 2008. course equivalency codes provided by cambrian not part of evaluation done by med in 2008. 3|page ace course codes revised 2017 canadore ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code aen 450 aca 450 apm 450 abm 450 aam 450 atm 450 abi 450 ach 450 aph 450 asm 450 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction a ace distance delivery course code cn-aen450 cn-aca450 cn-apm450 cn-abm450 cn-aam450 cn-atm450 cn-abi450 cn-ach450 cn-aph450 cn-asm450 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to centennial ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code acom-012 acmp-012 amat-015 amat-014 amat-012 amat-016 abio-012 ache-012 aphy-012 asel-012 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent ace distance delivery course code additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to 4|page ace course codes revised 2017 conestoga ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code comm 1250 comp 1012 math 1420 math 1375 math 1691 math 1385 scie 1010 scie 1030 scie 1020 cdev 1240 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction ace distance delivery course code olrn1406 olrn1525 olrn1555 olrn1565 olrn1535 olrn1545 olrn1575 olrn1585 olrn1590 olrn1515 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to confederation ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code ue600 uw601 n/a um600 um602 um601 ub600 uc600 up600 uw600 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent ace distance delivery course code ol963 ol971 ol969 ol962 ol964 ol968 ol970 ol965 col966 ol967 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to 5|page ace course codes revised 2017 durham ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) oss equivalent communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code cpc 6403 cmps 1433 n/a n/a cpm 6403 cptm 6401 cpbi 6401 cpch 6401 cpph 6401 ace distance delivery course code ace1084 ace1085 ace1080 ace1082 ace1086 ace1089 ace1081 ace1083 ace1087 ace1088 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to course code comments (if required) fanshawe ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code comm-0006 comp-0002 math-0009 math-0011 math-0010 math-0012 biol-0004 chem-0004 phys-0006 skls-0004 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent ace distance delivery course code comm-0006 comp-0002 math-0009 math-0011 math-0010 math-0012 biol-0004 chem-0004 phys-0006 skls-0004 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to 6|page ace course codes revised 2017 fleming ace course title communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications college preparation computer awareness math062 ace distance delivery course code comm136 comp375 math94 math91 mel4e mct4c math060 math061 math92 math93 sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a scie008 scie012 scie165 gned056 scie130 scie128 scie129 gned82 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mathematics college preparation (business) core mathematics mathematics college preparation (technology) strategies for college & work in-class delivery course code comm007 comp117 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to george brown ace course title communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) ace english ace computer studies ace math for apprenticeship ace math for business workplace math (onsite) ace math for technology ace biology ace chemistry ace physics ace personal and professional exploration (onsite) oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code engl 7031, engl 7101 comp 7101 math 7053, math 7102 math 7103 math 7105, math 7104 math 7101 biol 7004, biol 7104 chem 7004, chem 7104 phy 7004, phy 7104 prep 7138 ace distance delivery course code engl 7121 comp 7121 math 7122 math 7123 math 7124 math 7121 biol 7121 chem 7121 phy 7121 prep 7121 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title ace english accepted as equivalent to eng 4c course code engl 7111 comments (if required) delivered by community partners 7|page ace course codes revised 2017 georgian ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c n/a in-class delivery course code aace 1000 aace 1001 aace 1005 aace 1004 aace 1003 aace 1006 aace 1007 aace 1008 aace 1002 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry self-management/self-direction ace distance delivery course code aace 1000 aace 1001 aace 1005 aace 1004 aace 1003 aace 1006 aace 1007 aace 1008 aace 1009 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to humber ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code acec e10 acec c10 acec m30 acec m20 acec m10 acec m40 acec s20 acec s10 acec s30* acec a10 ace distance delivery course code n/a n/a n/a acec m20 acem 019 n/a acec s20 acec s10 n/a n/a additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title university stream biology university stream chemistry accepted as equivalent to sbi 4u sch 4u course code aces 021 aces 011 comments (if required) 8|page ace course codes revised 2017 la cit ace course title communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a computer skills in-class delivery course code afb18223 afb19129 afb21268 afb21030 ace distance delivery course code afb18223 200 afb19129 200 afb21268 200 afb21030 200 afb18225 afb 18228 afb 18229 afb 18230 afb 19578 afb18225 200 afb 18228 200 afb 18229 200 afb 18230 200 afb 19578 200 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to course code comments (if required) lambton ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code engl 0100 comp 0100 math 0110 math 0120 math 0100 math 0130 biol 0100 chem 0100 phys 0100 skls 0100 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent ace distance delivery course code eng 0100 comp 0100 math 0110 math 0120 math 0100 math 0130 biol 0100 chem 0100 phys 0100 skls 0100 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title accepted as equivalent to 9|page ace course codes revised 2017 loyalist ace course title communications computer fundamentals your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) comm 6000 oss equivalent eng4c ace computers comp 6000 n/a apprenticeship math math 6015 map4c business math math 6014 map4c core math math 6013 mel4e technical math math 6016 mct4c ace success strategies coun 6000 sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction in-class delivery course code engl 6006, engl 6007, engl 6008, engl 6009, engl 6010 comp 6001, comp 6002, comp 6003, comp 6004 math 6006, math 6007, math 6009 math 6007, math 6008, math 6010 math 6001, math 6002, math 6003, math 6004 math 6006, math 6007, math 6008, math 6009 n/a n/a n/a n/a ace distance delivery course code comm9001 comp9045 math9003 math9002 math9000 math9001 hlth9023 hlth9022 hlth9021 gnrl9701 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title ace preparation math ace preparation communication accepted as equivalent to course code math 6012 coun 6001 comments (if required) mohawk ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code comm10148 comp 10083 math 10047 math 10046 math 10045 math 10044 biol 10011 gsci 10004 phys 10000 cred 10044 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent ace distance delivery course code comm10148 comp10083 math10047 math10046 math10045 math10044 biol10011 gsci10004 phys10000 cred10044 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to 10 | p a g e ace course codes revised 2017 niagara ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) oss equivalent communications eng4c computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math n/a map4c map4c core math* mel4e* technical math mct4c biology chemistry physics sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c self-management/self-direction n/a in-class delivery course code ensd1088 or ensd 1090 capl1085 masd1083 masd1082 masd1085 or masd 1091 masd1081 or masd 1092 biol1061 chem1061 phys1061 stdv1084 or stdv 1093 ace distance delivery course code n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a *core math course outcomes have been adjusted for equivalence to map 4c additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to course code comments (if required) northern ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction cm6309 in6307 ma6306 ma6318 ma6308 ma6328 bi6308 ch6308 ph6309 gn6304 in-class delivery course code enl5958 dat0110 mat0001 mat0010 mat5951 mat5952 sci5952 sci5953 sci5954 ssc5727 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent ace distance delivery course code cm6309 in6307 n/a n/a ma6308 n/a bi6308 ch6308 n/a n/a additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to 11 | p a g e ace course codes revised 2017 sault ace course title communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code eng 94 cpt 93 mth 97 mth 95 mth 94 mth 96 bio 94 chm 94 phy 94 sel 93 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent ace computers ace technology mathematics ace foundations for college and career* *title for in-class delivery only ace distance delivery course code ace025 ace030 ace005 ace015 ace035 ace050 ace010 ace020 ace040 ace045 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to seneca ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code eac 149 cpr 090 mth 099 bnm 091 mth 070, mth 097 mth 092 bio 093 chm 093 n/a csm 090 ace distance delivery course code n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to course code comments (if required) 12 | p a g e ace course codes revised 2017 sheridan ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code comm 66200 appl 65000 n/a math 66600 math 66500 n/a biol 66000 chem 66000 n/a life 66520 ace distance delivery course code pending pending pending pending pending pending pending pending pending pending additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title advanced computers accepted as equivalent to grade 12 computers course code appl 66000 comments (if required) st. clair ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction oss equivalent eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code ace 10 ace 28 ace 16 n/a ace 18 ace 12 ace 20 ace 22 ace 24 ace 26 ace distance delivery course code ace 10-067 ace 28-067 ace 16-067 ace 14-067 ace 18-067 ace 12-067 ace 20-067 ace 22-067 ace 24-067 ace 26-067 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to course code comments (if required) 13 | p a g e ace course codes revised 2017 st. lawrence ace course title your colleges course title (if different from the ace title) communications computer fundamentals apprenticeship math business math core math technical math biology chemistry physics self-management/self-direction eng4c n/a map4c map4c mel4e mct4c sb13c sch4c sph3u/sph4c n/a in-class delivery course code acee 6000 acec 6210 acem 6040 acem 6020 acem 6010 acem 6030 aces 6130 aces 6110 aces 6120 aced 6310 course code comments (if required) oss equivalent ace distance delivery course code dace002450 dace010450 dace008450 dace001450 dace003450 dace007450 dace009450 dace004450 dace005450 dace006450 additional courses that can be used to satisfy admission requirements for college. course title n/a accepted as equivalent to 14 | p a g e

project snapshot developing pathways from police foundations and rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice into bachelor of arts programs in criminology; sociology; equity, diversity and human rights; psychology type: pathway development project number: 2020-27 or p2027 project lead: universit laurentienne collaborators: type collaborators here project summary the project proposes twelve (12) pathways from the police foundations (8) (offered by la cit and collge boral) and rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice (4) (offered by la cit), college programs to the laurentian criminology, sociology, equity, diversity and human rights and psychology programs. project rationale two key factors pushed us to explore the relevance of these pathways.first, the high popularity of these programs at the two partner colleges, boral and la cit, as well as the high market demand for professionals in these fields. second, the high tendency observed among these graduates to pursue university studies to enhance their more specialized skills profile in terms of awareness of social diversity, equity and respect for others, as well as developing their critical thinking and their communication skills even further. in fact, they state that they have noted that applicants who enhanced their college education with a university degree were more valued due to the scope of the ideas acquired on sensitive social issues and the maturity of their profile. outcomes the desired pathways were intended for graduates of the following programs: la cit and collge borals police foundations program to laurentians criminology, sociology, equity, diversity and human rights, and psychology programs; from la cit and collge borals rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice to laurentians criminology, sociology, equity, diversity and human rights and psychology program. hence, a total of twelve (12) pathways were initially desired. key steps - the course outlines comprising all of the college and university programs involved in this project were gathered = winning practice - review matrices to compare the learning outcomes of the university courses with the learning outcomes of the college courses were developed = winning practice - a preliminary review was performed by a general instructional content specialist to identify the most obvious correlations and submit a report to the university academic units for their approval of the findings = winning practice pathways created the twelve (12) desired pathways are ready for approval by the laurentian institutional bodies. however, they will need to wait for the ongoing ccaa process to be completed before they are filed. we expect that work to resume in may 2021. that being said, strong compatibilities have been identified with the following pathways: police foundations and criminology police foundations and sociology police foundations and psychology rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice and criminology rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice and equity, diversity and human rights on the other hand, very little compatibility seems possible for the following pathways: police foundations and equity, diversity and human rights rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice and sociology rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice and psychology incomplete pathways this information can only be provided after the restructuring underway at laurentian university is complete because some of the programs involved in this projects pathways may be cut in the institutions new structure. challenges on february 1, 2021, laurentian university initiated, with no notice, restructuring procedures under the companies creditors arrangement act (ccaa). this process caused general destabilization at the institution, which had to put a stop to all approval processes related to pathways under development. the work can only resume in fall 2021, based on the programs that will have been spared from the cuts. student outcomes these pathways will help college graduates who want to enroll in targeted university programs save time and money. they will also offer them greater recognition as professionals through greater consideration of the value of the specialized academic skills gained throughout their college education, thereby demonstrating increased consideration and therefore the greater value of their college education. student credential these pathways could provide college students from the police foundations and rehabilitation techniques and criminal justice programs faster access to obtaining the following degrees: - b.a. criminology - b.a. equity, diversity and human rights - b.a. sociology - b.a psychology student time savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes. student financial savings this information is yet to be determined following the upcoming approval processes, which will indicate the number of credits granted and allow us to perform this calculation. student flexibility definitely better access to the programs and an improved credit recognition process. student work alignment in the case of these pathways, we give the student a more encompassing education, which will allow them not only to gain more knowledge in their field, but especially to enhance their professional profile on issues of civic importance in their future career. institutional outcomes no, none. the process undertaken as part of this project followed the procedures of the new methodology developed and followed for the last three years. tips/advice we still believe that the methodology based on the review of correlations between the learning outcomes of the college and university programs continues to be the best argument to present to the institutional bodies responsible for the approval of the proposed pathways because it shows, in a factual manner, the overlaps and skills of the college graduates. we strongly recommend it to other post-secondary institutions. tools and resources the key tool developed as part of this project is the review matrix.

2020 2021 project snapshot non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation: statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario xavier st-denis, yacine boujija, & stephen sartor non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario keywords non-linear pse pathways; credential accumulation; student mobility; labour market outcomes; student transfers; inequality. overview research on post-secondary education (pse) pathways often focuses on traditional students entering single institutions or staying within specific regions and tracking their movements over relatively short periods of time. in the few cases where canadian research has documented the linkages between such pathways and labor market outcomes, the research focuses on the years immediately following graduation. such focus ignores credential accumulation that play out later in the life course. this research overcomes these limitations using the 2016 longitudinal and international study of adults (lisa). it examines both the predictors of non-linear post-secondary pathway uptake, as well as the labour market outcomes associated with such pathways. 2 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario why it matters there are large earnings gaps between respondents whose first post-secondary educational credentials are a trade/vocational/apprenticeship (tva) certificate, a college certificate or diploma, or a bachelors degree or higher, in part driven by the pathways associated with that first credential. no pathway appears to help close the gap between tva or college graduates and bachelor graduates, except in the case of a small number of graduates with a bachelors degree who go on to complete a second credential below a bachelors degree. these findings point in a few directions: policies and programs that support transfer pathways from tva or college to bachelor programs may translate into higher income levels not only because a bachelors degree is associated with a higher income level, but because bachelor graduates are more likely to then complete a graduate degree. the design of programs for credit transfer should take into consideration the patterns identified in this report in terms of drivers of different pathways and associated labour market outcomes. one may ask whether a college-to-university transfer is more beneficial than graduating from college before completing a bachelors program and under which circumstances. for example, credit transfer and recognition from a completed college program to a bachelor program may facilitate the successful completion of a bachelor program. but it may also support the subsequent completion of a graduate degree, especially knowing that so few college graduates end up completing a graduate degree. 3 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario key findings credential accumulation one primary finding of this research is that a substantial amount of credential accumulation occurs well beyond the traditional ages associated with post-secondary education. many individuals obtain their first credentials during or after their mid-20s (figure 1), and approximately half of second credentials acquisition occurs between an individuals late 20s to mid-30s (figure 2). figure 1: cumulative share of population with a first pse credential at different ages percentage 60 40 20 0 21 years old 25 years old 29 years old 34 years old 49 years old age range 1956-1980 birth cohort 1956-1968 birth cohort 1966-1980 birth cohort 4 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario figure 2: cumulative share of population with a second pse credential at different ages 30 25 percentage 20 15 10 5 0 25 years old 29 years old 34 years old 49 years old age range 1956-1980 birth cohort 1956-1968 birth cohort 1966-1980 birth cohort 5 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario pse pathways with multiple credentials the most common (23.7%) educational pathway among 35-59 year-olds in ontario is a post-secondary credential below a bachelors degree (see figure 3). the second most common pathway among this group is a bachelors degree with no further pse (15.2%). from here, we also see a number of nonlinear pathways commonly studied within the transfer literature: 7.2% of ontario residents completed a first credential below the bachelors level and then obtained a second credential at the same level (e.g., lateral movement). 3.0% of ontario residents completed a first credential at below the bachelors level and then obtained a credential at the bachelors level or higher (e.g., vertical movement). 3.6% of ontario residents obtained a bachelors degree and then obtained a second credential at below the bachelors level (e.g., reverse flows). 2.1% of ontario residents obtained a bachelors degree and then obtained a second credential at same level (e.g., lateral movement). in total, 15.9% of all ontario adults (35-59 years old) in 2016 followed a non-linear educational pathway. this represents 24.5% of all pse graduates. 6 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario figure 3: credential accumulation pathways, 35-59 years old. 30 27.5 25.9 25 24.7 23.7 percentage 20 15.2 15 13.3 11.6 10 10.1 9.2 7.6 7.4 7.2 5 0 3.5 no high school certi cate high school certi cate complete to below bachelor's to bachelor's or more canada no pse credential 3.0 first credential: below bachelor's 2.4 complete 3.6 to below bachelor's 1.9 2.1 to bachelor's to graduate ontario first credential: bachelor's or more 7 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario labour market outcomes the second part of our analysis explores the relationship between post-secondary pathways and employment income. figure 4 displays the average income by pathway, net of observed characteristics. the reference category is respondents who completed a single credential at the college level (or other non-university certificate or diploma). two main patterns are worth highlighting: those who complete a single bachelors degree have an average income over 10% higher than those who complete a second credential at the college or tva level after also obtaining a first credential at the bachelors level. meanwhile, completing a graduate degree provides a relative income boost. among those who first obtain a college-level credential, any additional credential provides an income boost. for this group, completing a bachelors degree as a second credential is associated with returns more than twice as large as a second credential at the college or tva level. for those that start at the tva level, second credentials have a relatively mild effect on income. 8 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario 0.5 0.25 0 first credential: college et e pl m ra d g co ua te r's ba ch e lo ge lle co tv a et e pl m co ra d g ba ch e lo ua te r's ge lle co tv a pl m co ra d g first credential: tva et e te ua r's lo ch e ba co lle ge -0.25 tv a difference in employment income from reference category figure 4: relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 * first credential: bachelor's *detailed pathways from model with interaction between level of first credential and the highest credential subsequently obtained (second, third, or fourth), 1956-1980 birth cohorts. note: the reference group for all plotted coefficients is first credential: college > complete. all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, age at completion of last pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. 7 further reading to read the full report, please visit the report homepage. boothby, daniel, and torben drewes. 2006. "postsecondary education in canada: returns to university, college and trades education." canadian public policy / analyse de politiques 32 (1): 121. https://doi.org/10.2307/3552240. dhuey, elizabeth, bradley seward, and david walters. "multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding." toronto: ontario council for articulation and transfer. finnie, ross, michael dubois, and masashi miyairi. 2021. post-graduation earnings outcomes of ontario transfer students: evidence from pse-tax linked data. ottawa: education policy research initiative. ntwari, aim, and eric fecteau. 2020. "the impact of short-duration credentials after an undergraduate degree on labour market outcomes." education, learning and training: research paper series. ottawa: statistics canada. wall, katherine. 2021. "completion of a college certificate or diploma after a bachelors degree."insights on canadian society 2021 (april): 15. walters, david. 2003. "'recycling': the economic implications of obtaining additional post-secondary credentials at lower or equivalent levels*. canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie 40 (4): 46380. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618x.2003.tb00257.x. 9 zarifa, david. 2012. persistent inequality or liberation from social origins? determining who attends graduate and professional schools in canadas expanded postsecondary system: persistent inequality or liberation from social origins? canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie 49 (2): 10937. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618x.2011.01286.x. zarifa, david, yujiro sano, and cathlene hillier. 2020. transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities: the magnitude of postsecondary transfer types and the characteristics of those who transfer. toronto: ontario council for articulation and transfer. 10 to read the full report , please visit : https://oncat .ca/en/projects/multi-credentialed-graduatescanada-employment-earnings-and-student-loan-holding established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. this snapshot was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021.

1 oncat project 2018-10 oncat final report: 2018-10 workplace safety and prevention partnerships and ladder to degree february 28, 2019 2 oncat project 2018-10 contents february 28, 2019 __________________________________________________________________ 1 project team ______________________________________________________________________ 3 executive summary ________________________________________________________________ 4 project purpose and goals ___________________________________________________________ 5 pathway development _____________________________________________________________ 11 course: ohs 1023 occupational health and safety _______________________________________ 17 course: ohs 2043 accident prevention theory and investigation ____________________________ 17 course: ohs 3013 emergency planning and management _________________________________ 17 course: ohs 2023 risk management __________________________________________________ 18 program comparison and analysis __________________________________________________ 20 implementation process and timelines _______________________________________________ 21 summary of pathway created _______________________________________________________ 22 promising practices and lessons learned ______________________________________________ 24 financial report __________________________________________________________________ 26 appendix a mou draft ___________________________________________________________ 27 3 oncat project 2018-10 project team the project team is comprised of representatives from lambton college, seneca college, cambrian college and ryerson university. lambton college project team members: 1. david simon, e-learning manager and coordinator, program development & pathways 2. john barker, program coordinator, workplace safety and prevention 3. erin soeder, program coordinator, environmental technician (ewso) 4. terry babbey, director, information technology 5. julie carlton, director, financial planning 6. nadine cervi, associate faculty (english) and pathways research consultant seneca college project team members: 7. henry decock, associate vice president, academic partnerships 8. tony mallette, chair, school of health sciences 9. ivy chiu loke, director, program quality 10. alvin shum, director, service delivery cambrian college team members: 11. joanne maclellan, chair, schools of engineering technology and environmental studies 12. charline smith, pathways office strategic initiatives department 4 oncat project 2018-10 13. rick daoust, director, information technology department 14. meghan roy, director, financial services 15. tracy mcmillan, manager financial services ryerson university project team members: 16. thomas tenkate, associate professor & director, school of occupational and public health 17. charmaine hack, university registrar executive summary seneca college, lambton college, and cambrian college worked together to create an innovative collaboration to jointly offer and share curriculum of the in-demand credential workplace safety and prevention (wspp) diploma so graduates can ladder into ryerson universitys occupational health and safety (basc) degree program. lambton college currently offers the wspp diploma program, and the main goal of this pathway project was to have seneca college and cambrian college offer the wspp program and to share in the delivery of certain occupational health & safety courses that are embedded in the wspp program. before this could happen, seneca college and cambrian college would need to receive program approvals. when seneca and cambrian received their program approvals, the project team started working on utilizing their institutional strengths to incorporate new technologies into the design and construction of curriculum materials for each ohs course. for example, lambton college subject matter experts (smes) worked on augmenting four ohs courses using technology (see pp. 18-20). in addition, the it subcommittee members for this project were reviewing various educational technologies systems (i.e. web-conferencing system) that would potentially be used to deliver the courses synchronously between seneca, lambton, and cambrian. at this time, ryerson university and the curriculum subcommittee members, reviewed the wspp program map and course outlines to determine the pathway entry into ryersons occupational health 5 oncat project 2018-10 and safety degree. after a detailed review of the diploma courses, a proposal was created by ryerson for a 2+2 model diploma graduates will complete 2 years at ryerson to obtain the degree. to review the full details of this pathway, please see the section titled summary of pathway created. project purpose and goals this proposed project is a perfect fit in terms of alignment to innovation in curriculum and ultimately program design as noted in the description of the project goals listed below. specifically, this collaborative project provides for the delivery of a unique diploma which is currently offered at only a rural caat location and which also has no identified degree completion pathway. coupled with increased industry demand for qualified and externally accredited workplace safety professionals, this proposal seeks to address these issues while providing a sustainable model that can be employed or expanded for years to come. the intended goals (and future goals) of the project are listed below: 1. the development of the only transfer degree pathway option in a related area that enhances student mobility and expands transfer opportunities. this agreement is based on coordinated curricula and dedicated pathways to provide a seamless student experience. 2. identifying supporting courses (other than core occupational health and safety courses) at each diploma partner that will be fully transferrable within the credential. in addition, to make all courses fully transferable (credit-for-credit) between any of these diploma partners. this enhances student mobility between regional partners as the transfer model allows students to start the program at one college and transfer to a partner college for program completion. 3. incorporating previously learned best practices (i.e. academic scheduling, pre-semester start-up checklists, etc.) to ensure program scalability and economies of scale while improving the overall student experience regardless of geographic location. 4. utilizing shared organizational strengths in learning technologies augment and enhance classroom-based occupational health and safety courses to add innovative educational technologies into courses content to develop a richer set of learning resources. this may be 6 oncat project 2018-10 accomplished by mapping and expanding delivery methods, creating, and/or incorporating augmented and virtual reality to the learning. this allows students the opportunity to master the curriculum through greater adaptive curriculum, videos and simulations. 5. researching and establishing the preferred educational delivery platforms that will be used by each diploma partner to effectively deliver the robust learning materials. this may include the development of a designated spaces (classrooms) that better support the learner experience with the incorporation of these new educational technologies in the classroom. 6. developing a shared curriculum program costing model into this collaborative delivery to provide a fiscally sustainable program solution to meet the specialized demand of province-wide public and private sector employer needs. 7. offering the program in 3 geographically distributed caats partnering for this collaborative delivery model. this provides for greater shared economies of scale and enhanced provincewide student mobility between regions for program delivery across partner colleges. under the most common area for employment for the wspp program, noc 2263 inspectors in public and environmental health and occupational health and safety, the most current employment outlook is listed as above average, or the highest rating for 2017-2021. above average labour market conditions usually mean that, relative to the employment situation overall, there is a better likelihood of finding stable work in this occupation, and employment prospects are attractive or improving. in addition to the bachelors degree or college diploma in a discipline such as food science, environmental studies, chemistry or heath and safety, occupational health and safety officers may require certification with the board of canadian registered safety professionals (bcrsp). student demand with very little marketing and recruitment for this program, the first intake at lambton college resulted in a total of 34 students, which was 14 students over the initial lambton college program costing projects of 20 students in the first year. it is anticipated that with similar industries in the greater sudbury area (like the sarnia-lambton area) and the need for occupational health and safety officers in the greater toronto region, the projected new student numbers will greatly increase based on the employment outlook and need. 7 oncat project 2018-10 project timeline to ensure that the following pathway project is completed on-time, the project responsibilities have been separated into specific timelines for the partnered institutions to follow. please see the following timeline below: project responsibilities: april 1, 2018 february 28, 2019 project committee and external evaluator selection plan (april, 2018) cambrian, lambton, seneca and ryerson university will create a project committee and enlist the required contacts. the committee will define specific roles and responsibilities, deliverables and deadlines. members will be given initial deliverables to report on in the next scheduled meeting. the group will discuss a plan to hire an external project evaluator. once a selection has been made, the proposal and project plan will be shared with the external evaluator, who will review the quality and success of the pathway through verifying methodology, assessing the validity of outcomes, determining value of the pathway for students, and providing recommendations by way of a summative report. they will be granted access to agreements between institutions and relevant college student survey results, and provide guidance on the overall project goals. scheduled meeting plan (may, 2018) - the project committee will determine a scheduled timeline of meetings in order to complete the project tasks. curriculum development and enhancement (may - december, 2018) curriculum teams begin curriculum planning enhancements in cross-taught courses. curriculum development will be done with consistent navigation, look and feel to create a cohesive student experience using universal instructional design. reviews of course outlines, course learning outcomes and syllabus to determine the appropriate learning resources to support enhanced development. diploma equivalency mapping (may - june, 2018) curriculum mapping identifying course equivalencies will be established and shared. transfer mapping (may - december, 2018) curriculum mapping identifying course equivalencies for diploma into degree established and shared. educational technology (may - july, 2018) project teams will collaborate to determine most appropriate educational technology for shared classroom deliveries. 8 oncat project 2018-10 program development (may 2018 feb 2019) program development to occur at cambrian and seneca colleges to obtain all internal and external program approvals to offer the diploma program. interim report 1 (august 1, 2018) submitted to oncat. best practices for shared program success (september 2018 january, 2019) project teams from diploma partners will establish best practices based on learned experiences to ensure start-up, as well as long term sustainability. interim report 2 (december 1, 2018) submitted to oncat. program approval and marketing strategy (january - february, 2019) all development, including mous/transfer agreements will be completed, signed and approved. final report (february 28, 2019) submitted to oncat. shared program costing (october, 2018 june, 2019) project teams to determine shared program costing. project management: the committee intends to meet (in the beginning) by telephone or email. the initial meetings will be used to discuss the project expectations, confirm timelines and individual responsibilities. task will be assigned and regular check-ins will occur as per the agreed upon schedule. external evaluation plan dr. marjorie mccolm worked at george brown college for 23 years in a variety of senior academic leadership positions including dean, director academic excellence and associate vice-president academic. dr. mccolm was responsible for the development of the colleges institutional research department and designing and implementing the colleges quality assurances processes. she also participated in a numerous canadian and provincial community college committees associated with program development and quality assurance. dr. mccolm was a board member of ontario college quality assurance service. since her retirement dr. mccolm was the project manager for the pre-health science project funded by ontario council for articulation and transfer and she continues to serve on audit panels for the ontario college quality assurance service. 9 oncat project 2018-10 please see below for the external evaluators timeline for this project: external evaluator timeline activity dates develop evaluation plan and sign contract. march 1 2018 provide input on project goals, inputs, activities and timelines with project leaders identify risks and potential unintended consequences. march may 2018 monitor progress on goals with regard to curriculum development and mapping and review interim report may to august provide input regarding the establishment of best practices for shared delivery. sept. to dec. 2018 provide input on the development of memorandums of understanding that are developed between the participating colleges regarding all standards of the program including admissions, program and course outcomes, transferability, delivery methods and the implementation of program changes. support the development of transfer arrangement with ryerson university and the participating colleges. january to february, 2019 review of final draft report, develop final evaluation report include a narrative on the formative and summative evaluation activities and results. feb. 28, 2019 key formative evaluation points evaluation guideline project design provide a clear rationale for the project, which includes relevant data to support the project goals. project goals ensure all the required inputs are in place to support achieving the project goals. provide a clear and comprehensive project plan that delineates responsibilities and timelines for each activity. approval processes outline how participants are to communicate and consult as work progresses and where and when final approval of products are determined. provide clear timelines for internal and external approvals and consultations. identify potential challenges that may result in the 10 oncat project 2018-10 unintended consequences inability for participants to complete their tasks on time. develop action plans to mitigate any potential challenges. key summative evaluation points evaluation guidelines short term outcomes of the project determine whether the activities of the project were completed and mou is in place. recommendations on potential replication strategies make recommendations on how partner institutions may implement the delivery of the program. make recommendations on how the processes of this project may assist others who which to collaborate on the delivery of a program and ladder into a degree program. deliverables please see below for the projected deliverables set at the beginning of this project by the project team members: milestones date notes (if none, please write n/a) diploma program 2018/03/01 ongoing (as noted above) 2019/02/01 n/a 2018/07/01 n/a 2018/08/01 n/a development health and safety curriculum enhancements for distance delivery diploma equivalency mapping (diploma partners) interim report 1 11 oncat project 2018-10 curriculum mapping 2018/12/01 n/a interim report 2 2018/12/01 n/a best practices for 2019/01/01 n/a 2019/02/28 n/a 2019/02/28 n/a (ryerson degree) shared programs program approvals/mou/transfer agreement final report pathway development a) methodology this pathway project could not have been completed without the hard work and innovative collaboration between all project team members. the project team knew that this would be a huge undertaking, but from the very start of the project, it was clear that between each partner institution, the end goal of this pathway would be met. please see below for some highlights from the working groups meetings and methods when developing this pathway project: in march, the project team met to discuss the working plan. the project lead from lambton suggested creating subcommittees. the group believed having subcommittees would create a more effective work flow, having one member from each subcommittee report back to the larger group. the subcommittees that were created for this project are listed below: 1. group 1 curriculum subcommittee 2. group 2 subject matter expert(s) subcommittee 12 oncat project 2018-10 3. group 3 information technology (it) subcommittee 4. group 4 costing model subcommittee in june, the members of lambton college, cambrian college and ryerson university met at seneca college to discuss the occupational health and safety (ohs) courses, and which courses each college would be assigned to enhance utilizing their institutional strengths to incorporate new technologies into the design and construction of curriculum materials and resources. during this meeting, lambton selected their four courses first. lambtons faculty members were already familiar with the courses and knew which ones they wanted to start enhancing using educational technology. project team members from seneca and cambrian discussed which courses best suited their institutions and knowledge, and selected the courses listed below: institution name courses cambrian college ohs 2013 ergonomics ohs 3043 health and wellness ohs 2033 ohs management systems ohs 3063 introduction to process safety lambton college ohs 1023 occupational health and safety ohs 2023 risk management ohs 2043 accident prevention & investigation ohs 3013 emergency planning and management seneca college ohs 2053 - disability management ohs 3003 - industrial hygiene and toxicology ohs 4003 - industrial hygiene and toxicology lab ohs 3055 - operational safety 13 oncat project 2018-10 the next decision the group needed to make was what type of educational technology platform to use to synchronously deliver the ohs courses between lambton, seneca, and cambrian. in october, the project team met at seneca again to discuss the educational technology platform. there were two options presented to the group: big blue button and adobe connect. the it subcommittee met separately and did a review of the capabilities and values for both big blue button and adobe connect. the result from this meeting was to use adobe connect. this is the webconferencing system that we will use to synchronously deliver the ohs courses to students at seneca, lambton, and cambrian. during the second half of the project, the team worked on the actual delivery methods (i.e. in-class, hybrid, online) for courses that will be offered at lambton, seneca, and cambrian. in addition, the team worked on transfer recognition, agreement objectives and the actual administration of the project. an important piece for this pathway project was to create a transfer agreement that is seamless the group really wanted to execute a 2+2 model. ryerson university did a detailed review of the diploma courses, and it was clear that a 2+2 model would be achieved. please see the working plan below and the key milestones the group determined for this project: work description item milestone 1 first project meeting (completed by teleconference) 2 second project meeting (completed by teleconference) the project team was assembled, and the working plan for this project was discussed and confirmed at this meeting. the project subcommittees were confirmed at this meeting. lambton college outlined lessons learned from their collaborative joint delivered ewso program, and the dividing of ohs courses was completed. (anticipated or actual) completion date 12-feb-18 23-apr-18 14 oncat project 2018-10 3 curriculum analysis and gap analysis the wspp program map and the course outlines were sent for review. several delays on the mapping in january. the mapping for a block transfer was completed in february 2019. 01-jan-19 (anticipated) 4 third project meeting (completed by teleconference) 7-june-18 5 fourth project meeting (hosted by seneca) 6 interim report 1 7 it subcommittee meeting 1 8 curriculum subcommittee meeting 1 updates on program approvals at seneca and cambrian were discussed. smes for the ohs courses were discussed and to be determined by the next meeting. updates on program approvals for seneca and cambrian were discussed once again, and the potential costing model for this project. this report outlined the progress of the project as of august 1, 2018. it was submitted to oncat by nadine cervi. the it subcommittee met to discuss potential web-conferencing systems to use for this project. wspp program map and course outlines were reviewed by the curriculum subcommittee to start the gap analysis process. 27-june-18 01-aug-18 12-sept-18 18-sept-18 15 oncat project 2018-10 it subcommittee meeting 2 fifth project meeting (hosted by seneca) 8 interim report 2 9 10 11 12 13 educational technology development program development (cambrian) program development (seneca) finance subcommittee meeting 1 sixth project meeting (using the webconferencing system selected, adobe connect) 14 final meeting (using adobe connect) two web-conferencing systems were looked at big blue button and adobe connect. the subcommittee group reviewed all the features of both systems. the decision would be made at a later date. the group discussed which colleges would be in charge of augmenting certain ohs courses each college was assigned four. also, the group discussed which web-conferencing system would be used to deliver the courses synchronously (i.e. either big blue button or adobe connect). the it subcommittee would determine the webconferencing system at a later date. this report outlined the progress of the project as of december 1, 2018. it was submitted to oncat by nadine cervi. completed completed completed completed the project team used adobe connect to conduct this meeting. the team discussed final action items, and created a plan to finalize the final report to be submitted to oncat. cancelled 19-oct-18 26-oct-18 01-dec-18 12-jan-19 12-jan-19 12-jan-19 21-jan-19 22-jan-19 13-feb-19 16 oncat project 2018-10 15 16 final report to oncat program approval/mou transfer agreement completed completed 28-feb-19 04-feb-19 note: the project team members tried to meet in person as often as possible as this method for meetings is the most effective and productive. seneca college hosted all of the face-to-face meetings because this was the most central location for our members from cambrian college and lambton college; however, it was not always feasible due to travel time and conditions. in this case, the project team used the selected web-conferencing system (adobe connect) to conduct meetings. this was a great way to get familiar with the web-conferencing system that each college will use to delivery courses. this type of meeting was deemed best for interaction during the initial gap analysis component, and then the final review of the outcomes, syllabi and delivery modes. additional full or partial team member meetings were also conducted by teleconference during the project as the most efficient use of peoples time to keep the project moving forward. b) project team work please see below for short summaries on what each partner institution worked on throughout the duration of this pathway project: cambrian college cambrian was the lead for the projects costing subcommittee, and part of their role was to create a potential costing model for the shared delivery of the wspp program between colleges. the costing subcommittee comprised of a representative from seneca, lambton, and cambrian, and the group would meet several times to discuss what the costing model would look like for this particular project. the costing model is currently in progress; however, the model will be based on the following principles: allocation of tuition (less a contribution to the registering college for administrative costs) across teaching contract hours in each semester. core operating grant is excluded from this model. a fee per course per student will be determined based on this allocation and agreed upon prior to each semester. lambton college please see below for the four ohs courses that lambton college has worked on and enhanced using innovative technology using lambtons very own design house: 17 oncat project 2018-10 course: ohs 1023 occupational health and safety learning outcome covered: define key stakeholders/players in a workplace environment activity: a gamified drag and drop exercise where students will have to match the correct player/actor with the right definition. students achieve points for correct answers and receive a score at the end. this is a good reinforcing exercise to help students become aware of the significant roles and different individuals/groups that are relevant in a workplace safety program. learning outcome covered: ohs act activity: a gamified trivia activity where students will be given a specific time limit to find the correct location of a certain act or regulation of the ohs act (e.g. what section of the oh&s act address the powers of the joint health & safety representatives?). questions are in the form of multiple choice, fillin-the-blank and drag-and-drop. this is an important reinforcing activity as it helps students become comfortable using and reading legislation as well as working with the ohs act and regulations. course: ohs 2043 accident prevention theory and investigation learning outcome covered: discuss and conduct a workplace inspection activity: a virtual tour/inspection of a residential house job site. students can navigate through the jobsite through the use of 360 images on a monitor or vr viewer and input/label the appropriate steps to conducting a workplace inspection. after navigating through the job site, learners create a list of any site issues/problems they identify in reference to the inspection process. this is a reinforcement activity for identifying the necessary steps to take when entering a job site and provides practice for completing an inspection and identifying hazards. learning outcome covered: discuss the different accident theories activity: a gamified matching activity where students match scenarios and definitions to eight different accident theories. students must discern from the given scenario or definition what the relevant accident theory would be. this reinforcement activity allows students to compare and contrast different accident theories and explain how they can be applied to a variety of situations. course: ohs 3013 emergency planning and management learning outcome covered: name the basic elements of an emergency plan 18 oncat project 2018-10 activity: students identify the proper steps and order of a comprehensive safety plan by completing a drag-and-drop and fill-in-the-blank/rearrangement activity that consists of a series of jumbled and incomplete emergency plan diagrams. this is a 2 step activity where the first diagram outlines the development process of creating a policy, assigning a coordinator, a planning committee, conducting hazard and risk assessment, identifying the appropriate laws, regulations and creating an organizational plan with certain roles and responsibilities which further evolves into identifying the appropriate resources, including personal and equipment both internal and external. in the second step of the activity, students will develop an emergency plan for a specific industry example using drag-and-drop interactions. this reinforcement activity provides the learners the theory relevant to emergency planning as well as a practical scenario application. course: ohs 2023 risk management learning outcome covered: explaining voluntary vs. involuntary risk activity: students compare and contrast the types of risk in a gamified way by identifying the risk type presented in the form of images, text scenarios and videos for a point reward. the questions are in the form of multiple choice. this is a reinforcement activity to give the learners multiple examples of various types of risk. learning outcome covered: complete a risk assessment activity: students will navigate a virtual tour of a working farm filmed using 360 degree images and video that includes scripted scenarios and workers doing a variety of different activities. students navigate through the tour and view the scenarios and then complete a risk assessment using the checklist and fmea frameworks as well as what-if scenarios. this provides the learners with practical application and simulated experience of creating a risk assessment in a low-stakes learning environment. seneca college senecas program mapped to the lambton program outcomes and identified equivalent courses that were already utilized in other program areas at seneca. a preliminary program proposal (ppp) was created through the academic chair, school of health sciences and the program quality department. the ppp was presented to the deans committee and was approved after a few minor adjustments. the full program proposal (fpp) was developed and presented to the deans committee where it was 19 oncat project 2018-10 approved to move to the next level. the dean, faculty of applied arts and health sciences, presented the approved fpp to the senior executive committee and to the academic planning and student affairs committee. both committees approved and the final approval with the board of governors was scheduled for february 20, 2019. the program has also been approved through mtcu and cvs. course development for courses that were not deemed as equivalent has been completed for the anatomy and physiology area of study. we have secured a current full-time faculty member to start working on the development of the four core courses assigned to seneca college. conversations with all three partners resulted in the decision to utilize adobe connect as the platform to deliver the synchronous courses between all schools as there were some issues identified with big blue button being compatible with the different learning management systems used by the individual colleges. ryerson university a multidisciplinary team from units across ryerson university was convened to contribute to this project. the project leads at ryerson university were dr. thomas tenkate, director, school of occupational and public health, and charmaine hack, university registrar. dr. tenkates role was to provide academic oversight regarding the program/courses, and ms. hack provided oversight in regard to university processes for admissions and transfer credits. staff from curriculum advising, curriculum management, admissions and the learning and teaching office all contributed to preparing and reviewing possible options for providing a pathway from the ohs diploma offered by the three colleges to the ohs degree offered by ryerson university. details about the diploma program (i.e. curriculum and course outlines) were provided by lambton college to ryerson university, and through meetings of the project partners, dr. tenkate conducted follow-up inquiries with the colleges to gain a fuller understanding of the diploma program, its content and the way it is/was to be delivered. in addition, details of previous pathways/articulation agreements were obtained from the colleges to provide an understanding of current best-practice. initially, a detailed academic review of the diploma curriculum and a gap analysis was undertaken by dr. tenkate, with input from various stakeholders within the university. based on this academic review, a proposal was prepared and then a viability review of this proposal was coordinated by ms. hack, seeking input from curriculum advising, curriculum management, admissions and the learning and teaching office. based on this review, a final pathway proposal was prepared. 20 oncat project 2018-10 program comparison and analysis comencing fall 2019, a new curriculum for the 4-year degree in ohs (i.e. bachelor of applied science in occupational health and safety) will be offered by ryerson university (see attachment 1). a 2-year fast track option for completing the degree is available for applicants who hold an undergraduate degree (see attachment 2). the courses in the 2-year fast track option are the same core courses as in the 4year degree, but to meet accreditation requirements, there are 26 required courses in the 2-year fast track option. students in both the 4-year and 2-year options have the same courses at the same time in the same room. this means that timetabling/scheduling of courses is a limiting factor because some of the ohs courses are also taken by the public health students, meaning that in total, 6 cohorts of students (when the co-op options are also considered) are taking a number of courses together. as such, it is difficult for students who drop or miss a course from an earlier year to make it up later due to scheduling clashes. the new curriculum for the 2-year fast track degree option will commence in fall 2020. a course-by-course review was undertaken of the diploma program to identify alignment with courses offered in the new 4-year undergraduate degree in ohs. diploma courses for which credit was deemed to be appropriate are identified in attachments 1 & 2 by strikethrough font of the course name. a course-by course summary between the degree and diploma is as follows: undergraduate degree diploma alignment # courses needed to complete the degree 4 year degree in ohs: 30 core courses 11 / 30 19 4 open electives 4/4 0 3 lower level 3 upper level 6 liberal studies (3 lower level, 3 upper level) 0 upper level 2 year fast track option in ohs: 26 core courses 3 liberal studies needed prior to entry (from u/g degree) 7 / 26 19 3 lower level 0 21 oncat project 2018-10 based on the review of alignment between the courses offered in the diploma and those offered in the degree, it was initially proposed that the diploma students be offered a 2 + 2 arrangement. for example, they complete the 2 year diploma and then are admitted into either the following listed below: option 1: 3rd year of the undergraduate degree in ohs, but with a defined sequence of courses to be completed which is different to the usual 3rd and 4th years of the program. option 2: the 2-year fast track option, but with a slightly revised set of courses. please see the summary of pathway created template for more information about 2+2 pathway reached and appendix a pathway agreement (draft). a formal agreement is in the process of being creating. implementation process and timelines please see below for the approval processes for each institution involved in this project. seneca program approval process the approval process at seneca took a bit longer than at cambrian. there were some delays with the internal approval piece; however, the proposal for the program was accepted at the deans level in 22 oncat project 2018-10 december. the program proposal went through all the steps and committees listed above, and it was approved to start in fall 2019. cambrian program approval process cambrian received approval in early september 2018 to run the wspp program for fall 2019. the process was delayed at one point at mtcu; however, the process was completed shortly after-the-fact. ryerson program approval process due to the timing of the commencement of the new curriculum for the ohs degree, it is proposed that this pathway arrangement be offered to diploma students starting fall 2020. summary of pathway created the table below provides details about the 2018-10 workplace safety and prevention partnerships and ladder to degree pathway development project: pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles from: lambton college, seneca college or cambrian college to: ryerson university pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: degree completion pathway the following postsecondary institutions involved in the creation of the pathway are the following: cambrian college lambton college seneca college pathway implementation date (senate approval): september 2020 pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): september 2020 23 oncat project 2018-10 contact procedure for pathway implementation: david.simon@lambtoncollege.ca or nadine.cervi@lambtoncollege.ca eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): eligible graduates of the workplace safety & prevention ontario college diploma two-year program from either lambton college, seneca college or cambrian college can ladder into ryerson universitys bachelor of applied science in occupational health and safety. applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: workplace safety & prevention ontario college diploma two-year program at either lambton college, seneca college, or cambrian college. minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: gpa of 3.0. a higher gpa may be required subject to competition. minimum gpa or % required in specific courses nil total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving credit awarded for 18 courses out of a total of 40 courses. institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): diploma-to-degree students will receive a block credit of 18 courses from the 4-year degree and will be offered advanced standing entry into the 2-year fast track option of the degree. they will be required to complete 19 core courses plus 3 liberal studies courses (i.e. a total of 22 courses) in order to satisfy the degree requirements. 22 program courses to be completed out of a total of 40 courses. these courses are the following: year 1, semester 1: enh121, enh220, chy152, ohs301, ohs314 year 1, semester 2: ohs322, enh440, enh122, ohs709, upper level liberal studies elective year 2, semester 1: enh522, ohs523, enh825, ohs509, poh705, upper level liberal studies elective year 2, semester 2: ohs422, ohs621, ohs623, ohs800, ohs806, upper level liberal studies elective 24 oncat project 2018-10 anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: list of eligible institutions and their programs 2 years lambton college: workplace safety & prevention seneca college: workplace safety & prevention cambrian college: workplace safety & prevention promising practices and lessons learned a) promising practices the purpose of this pathway project was to create a seamless pathway for our students. this was the main goal for the pathway and for the project team. having this goal clearly stated from the start of the project allowed the team to work together in collaboration, making sure the success of this pathway was completed. for this project, it was essential to have subcommittees. from past oncat projects, working with multiple institutions, we learned that there needs to be structured groups that can report back to the main project team this vision allowed for effective conversations and for tasks to be completed on time. also, it was essential to have one project team member lead the administrative aspects of this project (i.e. setting meetings, completing the interim and final reports, maintaining all documents, etc.). this was the most efficient way of moving this project forward, and this really helped to reduce any types of obstacles we have all experienced in the past with funded projects. b) lessons learned please see below for the following lessons learned (and solutions) that the project team came across during the duration of this project: 25 oncat project 2018-10 synchronous delivery platforms lambton college already offers a joint delivery program for their environmental technician water & wastewater systems operations ontario college two-year diploma with northern college. lambton colleges project team members shared their current experience with this joint delivery program, and came up with some best practices and lessons learned when collaboratively delivering a program between partner institutions. please see below for the lessons learned from this program and what solutions the wspp project team discovered: communication: it is recommended to establish a contact list for each college so everyone knows whom to contact for specific issues (i.e. learning management system (lms) issues, student account issues, etc.). regular check-in meetings are vital leading up to and throughout the first delivery of a program/course. the host college for a program or service such as the lms will need to include participant colleges in communications (i.e. lambton needs to let participant colleges know when we are doing d2l maintenance or providing faculty with directions on semester-end procedures etc.). standardization: faculty need to be provided with the necessary guidance and coaching on delivering an online synchronous course. the expectation is that an online delivery needs to be more engaging than a traditional course delivery. as much as physically and financially possible, standardization of facilities and delivery systems is beneficial to the students success. common lmss and lab and multimedia facilities help to provide a consistent educational experience. support: support systems for faculty and students need to be clearly defined. for example, if lambton college is providing lms access to seneca and cambrian students and faculty, who do they go to for technical issues (cant login, course not displaying properly) and who would the faculty go to for lms support to setup and structure a course or test in the lms? 26 oncat project 2018-10 gap analysis lessons learned when completing the gap analysis for this particular project, it was important to acknowledge that a direct course-for-course credit transfer approach may not be entirely appropriate for transitioning diploma-to-degree students given the following issues: (1) not direct alignment between diploma and degree course content, and (2) the sequencing of courses in the degree means that despite awarding significant credit, this credit is likely to be spread throughout the degree, and so without a new sequence of courses for the diploma-to-degree students, they would still have to take between 3 and 4 years to complete the degree, but at a reduced workload. recognition of the knowledge, skills and experiences which diploma students will bring on entry into the degree, due to the focused and work-relevant training they have received, including the value of the field placement. financial report the financial report for the 2018-10 workplace safety and prevention partnerships and ladder to degree pathway development project was submitted as a separate document to oncat. 27 oncat project 2018-10 appendix a pathway agreement (draft) please note that a formal articulation agreement is in process. the following information below is the proposed pathway agreement. oncat project ohs diploma development & degree pathway to ryerson university prepared by: thomas tenkate, february 11, 2019 proposal: based on the review of alignment between the courses offered in the diploma and those offered in the degree, it is proposed that the diploma students are offered a 2 + 2 arrangement, i.e. they complete the 2 year diploma and then are admitted into either: option 1: 3rd year of the undergraduate degree in ohs, but with a defined sequence of courses to be completed which is different to the usual 3rd and 4th years of the program; or option 2: the 2 year fast track option, but with a slightly revised set of courses. due to where the courses (for credit) are placed within the 4 year undergraduate degree, it is proposed that the diploma to degree students follow a course sequence which aligns with the 2 year fast track option, as this addresses any issues associated with scheduling clashes of courses. the diploma to degree students would complete less courses than the standard 2 year fast track option due to receiving course credits for the following core courses (of the 2 year fast track option): ohs 323 accident theory ohs477 disability management poh201 determinants of health ohs421 occupational hygiene 1 poh407 environment and emergencies ohs811 ohse management systems ohs516 ergonomics however, as the diploma students have only completed 3 liberal studies electives (which i consider to be lower level liberal studies courses), they would have to complete 3 upper level liberal studies courses. in total, the diploma to degree students would then complete 19 core courses plus 3 liberal studies courses in order to satisfy the degree requirements. this is a total of 22 courses which exceeds the 50% minimum residency requirement for ryerson degrees. the proposed course sequence is as follows: 28 oncat project 2018-10 year 1 semester 1 semester 2 environmental health law (enh 121) introductory toxicology (ohs 322) pathophysiology (enh 220) biostatistics (enh 440) introductory organic chemistry (chy 152) epidemiology (enh 122) biological agents (ohs 301) fire and radiation safety (ohs 709) physical agents (ohs 314) upper level liberal studies elective year 2 semester 3 semester 4 research methods (enh 522) advanced toxicology (ohs 422) safety evaluation techniques (ohs 523) occupational hygiene ii (ohs 621) risk assessment (enh 825) safety control methods (ohs 623) systems safety (ohs 509) sectoral applications (ohs 800) health education and promotion (poh 705) advanced health and safety law (ohs 806) upper level liberal studies elective upper level liberal studies elective due to the timing of the commencement of the new curriculum, it is proposed that this pathway arrangement be offered to diploma students from fall 2020. attachment 1: new program for occupational health and safety 4 year (commencing fall 2019) year 1 semester 1 (common to both programs) semester 2 (common to both programs) professional practice (poh 100) introductory toxicology (ohs 322) (pre-requisites: pathophysiology enh 220 and general chemistry chy 104) data management (poh 103) biostatistics (enh 440) environmental health law (enh 121) determinants of health (poh 201) general chemistry (chy 104) communication in the health sciences (cmn 100) 29 oncat project 2018-10 pathophysiology (enh 220) lower level liberal study table a year 2 semester 3 semester 4 lower level liberal study table a epidemiology (enh 122) introductory organic chemistry (chy 152) (prerequisite: general chemistry chy 104) open elective biological agents (ohs 301) fire and radiation safety (ohs 709) (prerequisite: physical agents ohs 314) accident theory (ohs 323) advanced toxicology (ohs 422) (pre-requisite: introductory toxicology ohs 322) physical agents (ohs 314) occupational hygiene i (ohs 421) year 3 semester 5 semester 6 research methods (enh 522) (pre-requisite: epidemiology enh 122) occupational hygiene ii (ohs 621) (pre-requisite: occupational hygiene i ohs 421) systems safety (ohs 509) (pre-requisite: physical agents ohs 314) ergonomics (ohs 516) (pre-requisites: physical agents ohs 314 and pathophysiology enh 220 or occupational health and safety ohs 508) safety evaluation techniques (ohs 523) (pre-requisite: physical agents ohs 314) environment and emergencies (poh 407) open elective open elective lower level liberal study table a upper level liberal study table b year 4 semester 7 semester 8 health education and promotion (poh 705) sectoral applications (ohs 800) risk assessment (enh 825) advanced health and safety law (ohs 806) (prerequisite: environmental health law enh 121) disability management (ohs 477) (pre-requisite: ergonomics ohs 516) ohse management systems (ohs 811) upper level liberal study table b safety control methods (ohs 623) (pre-requisites: accident theory ohs 323 & ohs 523) open elective upper level liberal study table b 30 oncat project 2018-10 attachment 2: program structure for the 2-year fast-track bachelor of applied science (occupational health and safety) (commencing fall 2020) year 1 semester 1 semester 2 environmental health law (enh 121) introductory toxicology (ohs 322) pathophysiology (enh 220) biostatistics (enh 440) introductory organic chemistry (chy 152) determinants of health (poh 201) biological agents (ohs 301) occupational hygiene i (ohs 421) accident theory (ohs 323) epidemiology (enh 122) physical agents (ohs 314) fire and radiation safety (ohs 709) ergonomics (ohs 516) year 2 semester 3 semester 4 research methods (enh 522) advanced toxicology (ohs 422) safety evaluation techniques (ohs 523) occupational hygiene ii (ohs 621) risk assessment (enh 825) environment and emergencies (poh 407) disability management (ohs 477) safety control methods (ohs 623) systems safety (ohs 509) ohse management systems (ohs 811) health education and promotion (poh 705) sectoral applications (ohs 800) advanced health and safety law (ohs 806)

education city transfer mobility analysis: exploring experiences of transfer students in the ottawa region r1925 research project reflection report table of contents education city transfer mobility analysis: exploring experiences of transfer students in the ottawa region ....................................................................................................................... 1 introduction ........................................................................................................................... 3 participating institutions .................................................................................................................. 3 research questions .......................................................................................................................... 3 methodological overview ................................................................................................................ 4 impact of coronavirus and covid-19 on data collection.................................................................. 5 work completed..................................................................................................................... 6 literature review ............................................................................................................................. 7 development of data collection instruments ................................................................................... 8 survey................................................................................................................................................................... 8 focus group protocol ........................................................................................................................................... 9 notable references from the development of data collection instruments .................................................... 9 introduction this project aimed to map the patterns, motivations, and experiences of transfer students in the ottawa region. while we are unable to, at this time, answer the research questions driving this project or use its findings to provide recommendations on removing barriers faced by transfer students and improving support systems used by transfer students, a great deal of work had been done in preparation for the now-paused data collection. as such, this final reflection report will provide a brief overview of the projects participating institutions, research questions, and methodological approach, while also detailing the evolving impact of the coronavirus and covid-19 on our capacity to complete this project. participating institutions the ottawa region, or the national capital region (ncr), is home to five public postsecondary institutions: three public universitiescarleton university, university of ottawa, and st. paul universityand two public collegesalgonquin college and collge la cit. additionally, of the five institutions, two are bilingual universities and one is a french-language college. the five institutions are already part of a provincially supported initiative, education city, that is looking for ways to improve student mobility and the student transfer experience, between institutions and between academic programs at each institution. this research project was being led by algonquin college and co-led by the university of ottawa, with the other partners providing input and being responsible for supporting data collection at their own institutions. research questions this project was driven by three main research questions which aimed to explore the characteristics/demographics, motivations and expectations, as well as obstacles and challenges experienced by transfer students in the ncr, specifically: 1. what are the characteristics of the transfer population in the national capital region? how many students transfer from college-to-college, university-to-university, universityto-college and college to university? how many of those students transfer from within the ottawa region? what are the general characteristics of transfer students? 2. what are the motivations and expectations of the different types of transfer students (i.e. college-to-university transfer students and vice versa, university-to-university and college-tocollege transfer students, french-to-english education and vice versa, international students, transferring within the region or from outside, etc.)? what are the expectations of these transfer students? did the services provided meet their expectations? if not, why? what factors influence the expectations and motivations of transfer students? 3. what are the obstacles and challenges experienced by transfer students? what kind of systems or agreements are already in place to promote and facilitate transfers between the institutions in the ottawa regions? are students satisfied with these services? how can colleges and universities facilitate transfer students best? what type of agreements or support systems need to be in place or created? methodological overview this project adopted a mixed-methods approach to data collection. quantitative data collection was planned in the form of a survey of transfer students as well as the collection and analysis of secondary data sources, such as data on transfer students from each institutions student information system joined with student application data from the ontario universities application centre (ouac) and the ontario college application service (ocas); and two ministry of colleges and universities surveys that are administered to recent postsecondary graduates, the ontario university graduate survey (ougs) and the college graduate satisfaction survey (cgss). the survey was also intended to be a vehicle for recruiting participants for qualitative data collection. qualitative data collection was planned to be based primarily on focus groups, to be conducted with a diverse group of students who had varying transfer experiences. the focus groups could be used to elaborate upon themes generated out of the quantitative data collection, and the protocol was developed to explore a variety of aspects of the transfer student experience with their transfer process, including barriers to mobility, the rationale for their decision-making, their expectations, and their experiences with and needs for support systems at their pre- and post-transfer institutions. the focus group data was to be supplemented by responses to the long answer questions gathered during the survey. impact of coronavirus and covid-19 on data collection with approval to conduct research received from each institutions research ethics board in early 2020, the survey that was developed was piloted on students at algonquin college. the desire to synchronize the release of the survey at the remaining institutions meant that the survey was on the cusp of going live right as the first serious impacts of coronavirus and covid-19 were being felt. we were informed that a hold had been placed on any surveying of students at both carleton university and the university of ottawa. st. paul university was still open to having us survey their students, however we were concerned that the unpredictable nature of the time, for both students and institutions, would negatively affect the response rate of the survey as well as influence the responses of the participants, thus we likewise held off on launching the survey. since algonquin college had already completed its survey data collection, we had begun to plan the focus groups for the 93 survey participants who had indicated that they would be interested in participating. as those drew nearer to being administered, however, all on-campus activities were suspended which resulted in the cancelled of the focus group, and resources were shifted away from their administration to the institutions coronavirus and covid-19 impact mitigation strategy. similarly, collection of the secondary data was also put on hold in consideration of not wanting to commit institutional capacity to respond and provide data that would be needed elsewhere during this time, for example in the emergency development of online courses and transition to online teaching. in sum, just as the preparation work for data collection was completedinstrument development, testing, and piloting; obtaining approval to conduct research at each institution; recruitment for focus groups in the case of algonquin collegethe institutional responses to coronavirus and covid-19 put a halt on their execution. work completed despite not being able to execute the bulk of the intended data collection, considerable effort has gone into the project. aside from applications to each of the institutions research ethics boardsa lengthy process in and of itselfwe conducted a literature review of research on student transfer experience; developed a survey instrument to help us understand the transfer experiences of students; and developed a focus group protocol. each of these will be detailed below. for the literature review, the full document will be appended. literature review the literature review looked at the work that had been conducted to date on the characteristics of transfer students and student experiences, specifically focusing on oncat-funded research. transfer students differ from direct-entry postsecondary students, typically being older, are more likely to have dependents, and are more likely to work part-time. four themes are covered in the literature review: student motivations to transfer; expectations of the transfer process; experience of the transfer process; and, experience in the transferred program. on the four themes, the literature review concludes that research shows that students overwhelmingly transfer because of career-related considerationsmost notably to enhance career advancement opportunities. although only minimally researched, students also report that their transfer programs prepared them for the job market; which augments the decision to transfer for career-considerations. university students also transfer to college to develop or strengthen practical skills. although information is unavailable, it is possible that students who transfer to college to develop skills may do so because of career-advancement considerations. although some research indicates that students are transferring to related and somewhat related programs, students also decide to transfer when their fields of interest change. students seek other institutional programs to pursue this shifted interest. however, regardless of reason to transfer, geographic location is a central determinant for where students will transfer to. students overwhelmingly transfer to regionlocal post-secondary institutions. accordingly, collaboration between inter-regional institutions will greatly contribute to the success of students as students will be able to locate related programming closely available to them. research examining students expectations of the transfer experience, is unfortunately, quite limited. however, research shows that students do have expectations of the different workloads between college and university. these are often pre-conceived notions that college is more hands-on whereas university learning revolves around abstract and theoretical learning. through high school teachers and college instructors, students also come to expect the university workload to be most arduous. such expectations may be verified in real-life experiences because students do report receiving lower grades than they received in college. some research also shows that students expect clear guidelines for the application process, as well as clear and accessible information related to the transfer process. however, although not always the case, students explain a difficulty in finding such information. accordingly, it is extremely valuable that post-secondary institutions provide guidelines and information in a clear and accessible manner. doing so in a centralized location would certainly be the most effective as students primarily use the internet to search for and acquire transfer information; however, students report feeling frustrated when unable to easily access information. students have some expectations about eligible transfer credits and these expectations are typically accurate. accordingly, students are shown to be good predictors of transfer credit eligibility. that being said, guidelines and information for eligible credits is highly helpful for students who might otherwise become confused about eligible criteria. providing this support eases the transfer experience and encourages student success. university-to-college transfer students typically feel academically prepared for their transfer program. however, research reports that college-to-university transfer students feel unprepared for university, specifically as essay writing is the most popular assignment in university. this is unsurprising as these students note that their last essay writing experience was in high school. making such expectations known to college-to-university transfer students may alleviate the shock of transitioning to essay-based coursework, while also providing foresight to prepare for the assignment shift. however, research generally finds that all transfer students are equally successful compared to direct-entry students, and some research even shows that transfer students outperform direct-entry students. the most significant consideration here would be the shock that college-to-university transfer students experience; however, this might be mitigated with adequate foresight, awareness, and preparation. lastly, transfer students do not identify typically as first-year students and as a result, transfer students may ignore valuable communication and information directed to first-year students. accordingly, communication specifically directed to transfer students might reduce any communication gaps. orientations that centre upon academic preparation and information are also mainly used by transfer students who otherwise find the social aspect of freshman orientations as irrelevant or quite frankly a waste of time. transfer students typically have external responsibilities which require attention; consequently, providing information in a clear manner reduces the amount of time transfer students must dedicate in sifting through communication. the full literature review can be found as an appendix to this report. development of data collection instruments survey the development of the survey instrument occurred in the summer of 2019 and was based on the literature that was reviewed, including instruments that were previously used in other research projects on student transfer experiences. the questionnaires from existing data products such as the ougs and the cgss were also consulted; while these products are administered on a regular basis by the ministry and the cgss in particular has previous analyses on student transfer (e.g. mccloy, steffler, & decock, 2017), they are only administered to recent graduates. based on our literature review, we expected that this dataset might miss a significant portion of transfer students: transfer students with a long gap between postsecondary education experiences. nonetheless, the questions from them were helpful for the construction of our survey instrument, with the cgss questionnaire in particular providing many of our items. other sources of items used in the construction of our survey questionnaire notably included blanchard et al.s (2013) interview guide; confederation colleges (2012) student pathway survey; decock and janzens (2015) interview guide; gerhardt, arai, carroll, and ackermans (2012) focus group guide; gorman, phelps, and carleys (2012) interview guide; and henderson and mccloys (2017) report. after its initial construction, the draft of the survey was circulated to the project stakeholder group for review and input, then translated. several revisions were suggested by the university of ottawas office of institutional research and planning (irp) in early 2020 including the removal of several questions whose data could be obtained through an institutions student information system. though the survey data collection was completed at algonquin college, because of the suspension of the project due to coronavirus and covid-19, the data have yet to be analysed. the latest version of the survey (post-irp revisions) has been attached as an appendix. focus group protocol the development of the focus group protocol occurred in the summer of 2019. it too was created based on work done in previous projects on student transfer experiences. it is based on blanchard et al.s (2013) interview guide. after a draft of the protocol was developed, it was circulated to stakeholders for review and feedback. the focus group protocol was never used. though focus groups were planned at algonquin college, they were cancelled as part of the institutions response to coronavirus and covid19. the focus group protocol has been attached as an appendix. notable references from the development of data collection instruments blanchard, s., ofarrell, j., taylor, d., nimijean, r., legakis, p., phillipe, s. & gonsalves, s. (2013). supporting the success of transfer students. toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2013-04-final-report-support-the-success-oftransfer-students.pdf confederation college. (2012). measures of student success and student experience following university/college transfers in northwestern ontario. toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2012-5-confederation-measures-studentsuccess-experience-following-university-college-transfers-northwestern-ontario.pdf decock, h. & janzen, k. (2015). a qualitative study of the york-seneca transfer experience. toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/2013-09/aqualitative-study-of-the-york-seneca-transfer-experience12.5.2016.pdf gerhardt, k., arai, b., carroll, m. & ackerman, m. (2012). postsecondary student mobility from college to university: experience and policy. toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2012-12-laurier-postsecondary-student-mobilitycollege-university-experience-policy.pdf gorman, g., phelps, c. & carley, r. (2012). exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students. toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2012-4-conestoga-exploring-successeschallenges-diploma-degree-transfer.pdf henderson, c. & mccloy, u. (2017). from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer students. toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2016-10-final-report-seneca-collegefrom-application-and-beyond.pdf education city transfer mobility analysis: literature review of ontario student transfer motivations, expectations and experience fall 2019 2 student transfer experience abstract as students increasingly non-linearly navigate their post-secondary education, understanding the student transfer process between institutions is vital. indeed, it is particularly valuable to understand transfer students perspectives of transferring because transfer students experiences provide insights into the successes and challenges of transfer programs. this literature review explores research by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) to understand ontario transfer student experiences. more specifically, this literature review reports on students motivations to transfer, students expectations and experiences of the transfer process, and students experience of their transfer program. in examining these aspects, insights are acquired regarding the obstacles and challenges that transfer students encounter. through understanding these common aspects, transfer programs and post-secondary institutions may consider routes to enhance and ease the transfer process for students. 3 student transfer experience table of contents introduction 4 student motivations to transfer 5 career opportunities skills field of study location plans to attend university student expectations of the transfer process workload expectations application process information expectations student experience of the transfer process information sources credit transfers student experience of the transfer program academic preparation student success job preparation sense of student identity 5 7 8 9 10 11 11 13 13 14 14 16 18 18 19 21 22 conclusion 23 references 27 student transfer experience 4 introduction after recognizing other provincial initiatives to support post-secondary transfer students, ontario listed student mobility as a primary education goal (colleges ontario, 2009). researchers (voorhees and harvey, 2005; penner, howieson & ditullio, 2017) assert that every post-secondary school manage student mobility as a part of their institutional culture. this direction increases transfer pathways, and currently over 1,900 credit transfer pathways are available to ontario students (oncat, 2019). indeed, ontarios priority to clearly define transfer pathways across institutions enables a smoother transition for transfer students (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). following efforts to improve higher education student mobility, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was established to enhance student mobility across institutions through research and collaborative projects. the research aptly depicts that transfer students are typically older (gorman, phelps & carley, 2012; blanchard, et al., 2013; acai & newton, 2015), are more likely to have dependents (coffey, et al., 2014; kennett & maki, 2014; henderson & mccloy, 2017), and work part-time (kennett & maki, 2014; shook, norman & guyatt, 2016; university of ontario institute of technology, 2016). therefore, transfer students have a school life significantly different from direct-entry post-secondary students. while research examining transfer student demographics is important, understanding the transfer student experience is valuable. this is central because it illuminates the motivations, expectations, success, and challenges that transfer students experience, and in turn, these understandings influence the ability of post-secondary institutions to enhance transfer pathways and programs. accordingly, this literature review uses oncat-funded research to specifically examine ontario transfer students perspectives surrounding the transfer experience. some student transfer experience 5 research outside of oncat is also used to support common themes. the following literature review discusses: 1) student motivations to transfer; 2) expectations of the transfer process; 3) experience of the transfer process; and, 4) experience in the transferred program. student motivations to transfer career opportunities career consideration is the most common reason for transferring. this is unsurprising as the labour market affects transfers, particularly to university (see mccloy, steffler & decock, 2016a). in surveying between 100 and 150 students at each of ontarios 24 colleges, usher and jarvey (2012) found that just over half of transfer students transferred because it was believed to improve career opportunities. in a confederation college study (2012), researchers found that career considerations were the most cited reason for transferring, and that this related to finding a job, finding a steadier job, changing careers, [and] upgrading education to qualify for professional designations (p. 20). a confederation college study (2013) surveying transfer students found that 67% indicated that their main reason for transferring to college was because it enabled more opportunities for career advancement (p. 16). the focus group further advanced this motivation with 88% of participants indicating that they transferred to college to build new skills or to further develop skills to improve future employment opportunities. one focus group participant acknowledged thats why i switched, because there were no jobs (p. 19). through focus groups with seneca to york and york to seneca transfer students, decock and janzen (2015) similarly found that the decision to transfer was career-related for students transferring from college to university. these transfer students recognized that they could obtain employment with student transfer experience 6 their college education, however subsequent career advancement seemed unlikely. for example, one participant recognized that university-educated employees working at the same company as him, received better packages than i did. when i started to look for better opportunities in the market, [the] most attractive jobs require[d] a bachelor degree or a master degree (p. 13). another participant noted that, even if they hire you, you cant get a promotion unless you continue to study and that is hard when you are working and takes very long (p. 13). this perhaps explains why in kennett and makis quantitative study, college-to-university transfer students were the most likely between university-to-college transfer students and direct-entry students to acknowledge career reasons as their main reason for transferring. similarly, gorman, phelps, and carley (2012) found that transfer students perceived a college degree as a practical mechanism for greater career opportunities. the researchers explain that according to transfer students, a college degree is more vocationally focused than a university degree [they believed] that a college degree would help them to further their careers and, indeed, some believed that their opportunities would be limited or non-existent without it (p. 19). mccloy, baker, williams, and decock (2017) also found that transfer students at seneca college overwhelmingly transfer because of greater career advancement opportunities. in this case, 90% of transfer students who used senecas degree and credit transfer office transferred because of career advancement considerations, compared with 89% of non-user transfer students. however, students who entered college with plans to attend university in the future were much less likely to transfer because of career advancement reasoning regardless of whether they used the degree and credit transfer office. interestingly, while it could be surmised that a lack of career opportunities would compel students to transfer in order to enhance career opportunities, this does not seem to be the case. student transfer experience 7 rather, the emphasis, as noted above, regards career advancement. decock and mccloy (2011) clarify this distinction in analysing the ontario college graduate satisfaction survey. the researchers find that the main reason for transferring was because of more opportunities for career advancement and that 60% of transfer students specifically acknowledged that a lack of job was not a reason (p. 36). similarly, a study at confederation college (2012) found that many students transferred to gain the education necessary for a particular desired position (p. 22). skills students also express transferring from university to college because they were interested in developing existing or new skills. while the university experience is comprised of theoretical knowledge, students perceive college as an avenue to acquire practical skills to augment their theoretical knowledge (decock & janzen, 2015, p. 22). in a confederation college study (2013), students transferred to college to develop practical skills. a student explains that university was unhelpful in developing practical skills; it was not hands-on at all and i needed something that was more hands-on and got you in the community using your skills (p. 19). durham college (2013) found that enhancing career opportunities was the primary reason for transferring into a fast track program, however 73% of these respondents enrolled to acquire hands-on experience, while 50% wanted to develop their present skills further, and 50% wanted to develop a new, specialized skill. these skills, however, are still related to career advancement as many students perceived these skills as giv[ing] them an edge in the labour market (p. 30). it is likely that skills development is a secondary reason, often included in the career-related rationale to transfer; which, is reflected in usher and jarvey (2012) wherein not a single response identified skills as the major reason to transfer. student transfer experience 8 field of study a discrepancy between motivations to transfer involves transfer students interests in a field of study. with nearly 25% of respondents, usher and jarvey (2012) found that a changed field of interest constituted the second most cited reason for transferring. one student elaborated on this reasoning by explaining that, when i first went to college i started off in international trade but i didn't like it after a while and i didn't pursue work in that career ... it turns out that i like accounting more than i thought i would back in high school (p. 15). importantly, the researchers note that because students are transferring schools for entirely new programs, these students would be significantly less eligible for transfer credits.1 however, mccloy, steffler, and decock (2017) found that college graduates were predominantly transferring to related fields of study. the study examined data from the 20062007 and 2014-2015 graduate satisfaction surveys and found that almost two-thirds of transfer students transferred to a related field of study. the researchers further elucidate that 54% reported that [their new program] was very related and 36% indicated it was somewhat related (p. 56). a study from durham college (2012) also found that 24% of students who transferred into a fast-track program indicated their transferred program was highly related to their previous study, and 20% noted that it was somewhat related. however, 56% of respondents reported that their transfer program was not related. the researchers suggest that labour market changes and program availability likely influence students decisions to enrol in a related field of study. indeed, change in the labour market is shown to affect university transfers (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2016). more research is needed in this area to elaborate upon these inconsistencies. it is possible that jarvey and ushers (2012) findings about students changing 1 this topic will be further discussed below. student transfer experience 9 their field of interest may be shrouded in the results of the other responses. for example, 54% of respondents indicate that the major reason for their transfer was due to career advancement opportunities, however it is very possible, and indeed likely, that a large segment of these respondents sought extra education in similar fields that relate to their career. furthermore, while jarvey and usher determine that changing interest in a field of study is a reason to transfer, transferring due to retaining a field of interest is nonsensical. location although not nearly as important as career-related reasoning, institutional location also appears to influence the decision-making of students considering where to transfer. in their survey of transfer students, usher and jarvey (2012) found that nearly 10% of students cited location as their primary reason for deciding to transfer. although confederation college (2012) found that career-related reasons were the primary reason for transferring, the researchers report that many participants also identified location as a motivating factor because they desired to stay in the region closest to their homes (p. 20). location preference, following career considerations, was also identified as a motivating factor by decock and janzen (2015). a study conducted by durham college (2013) found that 35% of transfer students in the advanced diploma program identified location as a primary motivation to transfer to durham college. although not identified as a motivation specifically, durham college (2016) illustrates that students with prior post-secondary education experience are overwhelmingly likely to transfer to schools in the same provincial region. the researchers further determine that transfer students with prior college experience were specifically more likely to state location as a decision to transfer to a particular institution. fisher, nay, wilson, and wood (2012) uncovered student transfer experience 10 the same motivation for transfer students to ocad with prior college experience, but also found that most university transfer students also reported location as their major reason. mccloy, steffler, and decock (2017) similarly report that students in the greater toronto area are most likely to transfer to local institutions because of the close proximity and variety of accessible schools. this finding was again reinforced by mccloy, baker, williams, and decock (2017), wherein the researchers found that transfer students are much more likely to transfer locally, with almost four out of five transferring to a university in the metro toronto area (p. 35). considering the primacy of geographic location as a motivating factor when transferring, it is important for universities to collaborate and develop inter-institutional pathways. accordingly, durham college (2016) researchers pointedly explain that, the evidence of regional preference is important in that it makes it incumbent, at least on the institutions in that geographic region, to develop viable inter-institutional credit transfer opportunities amongst themselves. (p. 35) indeed, failure to develop clear and coherent collaborative initiatives amongst regionally local institutions would hinder the ease, and possibly the success, of local transfer students. plans to attend university many college students transferring to university originally enrolled in college with plans to subsequently enrol in university. this is perhaps unsurprising as king and warren (2006) determined that high school students often perceive college as a vehicle into university. kerr, mccloy, and lui (2010) report that according to the 2009 college applicant survey, 18% of college applicants stated that their ultimate academic credential was a university bachelor degree and an additional 12 per cent intended to pursue a professional or graduate degree (p. 16). however, lang (2009) also found that most students plan to attend university only after student transfer experience 11 enrolling in a college program. mccloy, steffler, and decock (2016b) examined datasets from seneca colleges liberal arts transfer program from 2002 to 2012 and found the surprising fact that while only 7% of the 2002-2010 stream of entrants had high school grades and courses eligible for university, 82% of entrants planned to enrol in university following college. in reviewing 2010-2015 college applicant data, henderson and mccloy (2017) noted slightly over 31% of applicants intended to enrol in university. in a follow-up survey, the researchers found that of this group, 13.4% still planned to transfer to university, while 47.1% already had transferred. accordingly, the initial aspirations to attend university typically remain. steffler, mccloy, and decock (2018) also found that 49% of college entrants with university-educated parents planned to attend university after college compared to 43% of students without university-educated parents (p. 8.). students with university-educated parents, and from low-income neighbourhoods, were the most likely to intend to transfer to university. this study showed that 25.1% of college entrants who planned to attend university following college, did in fact transfer. accordingly, the researchers conclude that, facilitating and encouraging college to university transfermay be a vehicle to reduce the socioeconomic inequity in university attendance in ontario (p. 36). student expectations of transfer process workload expectations while most research examines the workload experiences of transfer students, some research examines the workload expectations of transfer students. leading up to and as entering desired programs, transfer students express having specific expectations of the workload awaiting them. mcgregor, et al (2019) found that college-to-university transfer students student transfer experience 12 specifically had difficulty adapting to their university environment because of differing expectations regarding the university workload. as gerhardt, et al (2012) found, many students are led to have higher expectations of university coursework due to insights from high school teachers and college instructors. other researchers (gawley & mcgowan, 2006; cameron, 2005) also found that students transferred to university with expectations of tougher workloads. interestingly, gawley and mcgowan (2006) found that college-to-university transfer students expected much more socializing, but experienced significantly less. however, henderson and mccloy (2017) noted that 42% of college-to-university transfer students did not expect to experience any workload challenges between college and university. gorman et al (2012) reported that many students felt underprepared for degree programs. consequently, ensuring that students have an adequate understanding about workload expectations could ease the transition so that students are do not experience a transfer shock. on a related note, explaining to transfer students that such a transfer shock can occur might be beneficial for transfer students to ensure that they may recognize the shock as a common experience and not an instance reflecting individual incompetence. college-to-university transfer students also expected professors to be distant and unapproachable. however, gawley and mcgowan (2006) discovered that, focus group accounts illustrated the unexpectedly approachable, passionate, and helpful qualities of the professors at the university (p. 8). because of the limited research examining student expectations of their transfer destination it is difficult to understand pre-conceived perceptions. notably, research in this area may be valuable in determining whether workload expectations function as a deterrent for students considering transferring. student transfer experience 13 application expectations the application process is the initial phase towards successfully transferring, and students expect a degree of guidance to adequately fulfil application procedures. in fact, henderson & mccloy (2017) note that the lack of guidance on application procedures was the most cited challenge faced by students transferring to universityregistering a response rate of 25.4%. in addition, submitting applications (14.8%), and the application process being too complicated (4.1%) were challenges faced by students. this further reflects that transfer students expect the process to be relatively simplified at the least. it is also possible that the lack of guidelines explains why 25% of students in usher & jarvey (2012) identified the application process as taking one to more than three weeks to complete. accordingly, luckai et al (2015) incorporate clear and accessible guidance outlines for application procedures as a best practice for transfer programs. information expectations students initiate the transfer process expecting to find clear and accessible information to help guide the process. however, in surveys comparing transfer student expectations before and after transferring to centennial college, arnold & woodhead (2015) found that while 80% of transfer students expected to find clear information relating to eligible credit transfers, only 47% were successful. gerhardt, arai, carroll, and ackerman (2012) similarly found the lack of clear information as a central frustration for transfer students. fisher et al (2012) explain that students find it difficult to locate relevant information largely because information is embedded in layers of university policy as the default organizational structure (p. 18). although minimal research examines what transfer students expect in terms of transfer information, it is certain that student transfer experience 14 information, and the type of information sources, is a vital component of the transfer student experience. student experience of transfer process information sources providing clear information about the transfer process and credit eligibility is paramount. without providing clear information about what to expect from either the program or the transfer process, students report finding the transfer experience confusing. as one student explained, it would be beneficial to have, little extra sessions or seminarsexplainingthe pros and cons of bridging over (gorman, phelps & carley, 2012 p. 24). gorman, phelps, and carley (2012) also found that many students did not have information to properly plan the path from diploma to degree (p. 24). importantly, durham college (2016) also determined that student difficulty to actually find the first-point-of-contact for transfer information is a major barrier (p. 57). although schools may provide information important to transfer students, transfer students typically ignore these communications because they do not think it applies to them (blanchard, et al., 2013). because of this problem, blanchard, et al (2013) found that transfer students at carleton university consider returning students to be the most valuable sources of advice and information. to maximize the ease of transition and success, providing clear and easily accessible information online is essential (flaga, 2006; gerhardt & ackerman, 2014; luckai, et al., 2016). as will be discussed further below, transfer students do not perceive orientations as valuable, and henderson and mccloy (2017) also found that traditional information sources such as brochures, open houses, and university fairs are not often used by college-to-university transfer students. student transfer experience 15 research shows that students predominantly use websites as their sources of information for transitioning and program details (decock & mccloy, 2011; fisher, nay, wilson, & wood, 2012; confederation college, 2012; henderson & mccloy, 2017). websites were frequently noted by students as enabling an easier transition, while website issues such as information that was difficult to access or deemed insufficient frustrated students (decock & janzen, 2015). in fact, students note that websites should be improved to provide clear information to transfer students (decock & janzen, 2015; henderson & mccloy, 2017). one student experience from centennial college (woodhead & oh, 2016) reflects the ease enabled from clearly presented online information; i looked [on] the website and i found everything i need to know, literally. how they work, how to regist[er] and [use] mycentennial. so for me, it was really straightforward (p. 35). students specifically find online information as frustrating if information is unorganized and buried within layers of other information (gerhardt, 2012; oncat, 2013; decock & janzen, 2015). in using student insights from the literature, lukai, et al (2016) specifically recommend that institutions create a one-stop-shop online for students to access all pertinent information accompanied with a checklist (p. 7). interestingly, teaching faculty are increasingly viewed upon as main sources of information for transfer students (usher & jarvey, 2012; decock & janzen, 2015). gerhardt et al (2012) report that transfer students had specific instructors who encouraged them to transfer, and helped to prepare them in the process (p. 29). in fact, the prevalence of teaching staff assisting students is impressive with 51% of respondents across ontario colleges indicating receiving information and assistance from faculty (usher & jarvey, 2012). in addition, students view faculty as responsible for providing information. one student explained that, i think in the diploma program the professors could havebrought more awareness to [the degree program] student transfer experience 16 (gorman, phelps & carley, 2012, p. 23). however, gerhardt, et al (2012) report that it is difficult for faculty to assist transfer students without solicitation because transfer students must selfidentify to teaching staff. luckily, students not only reported feeling comfortable disclosing transfer status to college instructors, but even went so far as to recommend it as part of a good survival strategy for future transfer students (p. 19). credit transfers as part of the transfer process, students identify courses that may be eligible for credit transfer to their new program. however, because of clarity issues, students may have difficulties identifying eligible transfer credits (luckai, et al., 2016; kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010). for example, henderson and mccloy (2017) found that two-thirds of college students aspiring for a university degree did not know how much credit they expected to receive for their college education (p. 7). indeed, students require specific guidelines explicating eligible credits as one student explains that they [werent] aware that it didnt have to be, like, exact matches (woodhead & oh, 2016, p. 50). in fact, durham college researchers (2016) assert that because of the lack of clear and easily accessible credit transfer information provided by ontario institutions, transfer students become reliant upon, informal, inefficient practices, and scant infrastructure (p. 59). following research (andres, 2001) showing that almost three quarters of british columbian transfer students were able to find relevant information about eligible credit transfers, arnold and woodhead (2013) recommend credit transfer databases in ontario to help guide student decision-making. however, arnold and woodhead (2013) were able to conclude that students are good predictors of perceiving eligible credits. indeed, usher and jarvey (2012) found that 69% of students received the expected number of eligible credits. decock and mccloy (2011) found that student transfer experience 17 almost two-thirds of transfer graduates received the amount of credits they had expected, while 15% even received more than they expected. however, the researchers also note a discrepancy between students transferring to college versus those transferring to university, with graduates attending university programs considerably less likely to have acquired the expected amount (p. 60). it is possible that results are swayed depending upon whether transfer programs are related to previous studies. mccloy, steffler, and decock (2017) show that those transferring to a related field of study receive much more transfer credits compared to those entering an unrelated fieldat a rate nearly half of those entering into a related field. durham college (2016) also determined that students expect to receive information about eligible credits within a specific timeframe. when credit transfer information is included in the admission package for the new program, the researchers find that 40% of respondents expect the credit transfer processing time to be less than two weeks, while 34% expect the processing time to be less than one week. however, usher & jarvey (2012) found that the amount of time it takes ontario transfer students to learn about the results of their credit transfer ranges from one week to longer than a month. according to an analysis of the graduate student satisfaction survey, in 2015, only one-quarter of transfers found out whether they were receiving transfer credit when they were offered admission (mccloy, steffler, and decock, 2017, p. 42). however, nearly 65% of ontario transfer students in another study specifically recommended that institutions provide credit transfer information when they offer admission packages (durham college, 2016). accordingly, it may be valuable for institutions to consider offering, at the very least, clearer insights towards eligible credit transfers for prospective and accepted transfer students. one study at ocad found that students felt that the credit transfer process is labour intensive, requires too much information and remains subjective (fisher, nay, wilson & student transfer experience 18 wood, 2012, p. 3). despite this frustration however, other research shows that either ontario transfer students do not experience this frustration or that it is not a significant influence on their overall satisfaction with the credit transfer process. usher and jarvey (2012) noted that 60% of ontario transfer students found the process easy or very easy, while durham college researchers (2016) shared that 85% of ontario transfer students found the process as easy or very easy. the researchers also indicated that 87.5% of transfer students found the credit transfer application easy to understand, and 86.9% found the application took an important amount of time. while more research is needed to determine generalizable expectations, students have concerns about eligibility criteria. providing clear information for students to understand credit edibility will definitively improve and positively influence students transfer credit expectations. student transfer program experience academic preparation ensuring that students are academically prepared is essential, as research shows that college-to-university transfer students are more successful in and satisfied with their transfer program if they feel that the college adequately prepared them for it (berger & malaney, 2003). in examining the ontarios graduate satisfaction survey, mccloy, steffler, and decock (2017) find that 85% of university-to-college transfer students are satisfied with their academic preparation, while 81% of college-to-university transfer students are satisfied with their academic preparation.2 decock and mccloy (2011) reached similar results using 2001-2007 data from the same survey. however, blanchard et al (2013) found that college students transferring to carleton university felt unprepared for university studies, specifically in academic literacy, 2 the lower rate of satisfaction for college-to-university transfer students will be discussed further in the following section. student transfer experience 19 research, critical thinking, and analysis (p. 10). indeed, there is the perception that college does not adequately prepare students for university studies (see skolnick, 2011). because of the different type of assignments in university, college-to-university transfer students specifically find university challenging. one student explains that in college, assignments included, group projects all the time. and [in university] its essays. i havent written an essay since grade 12 which is four years ago, so i struggled with the essays at first but now im graduating. im comfortable (gawley & mcgowan, 2006, p. 7). furthermore, different teaching approaches by university professors can be frustrating for students. one student explained that professors, werent consistent. every professor was different and some just spoon fed you while others would make you work extra hard, which is not fair, because some of us are prepared and some arent. when you go to york, youre like, what happened? i'm not ready for this. (mallette, et al, 2015, p. 30) most of the research illustrates that college-to-university transfer students feel unprepared for university assignments, however, as shown by mccloy, steffler, and decock (2017), ontario college-to-university transfer students still mainly feel well-prepared for their university studies. nonetheless, the challenges reported here do affect transfer student experiences and should be addressed in some manner to ease their transition and maximize academic success. student success overall, transfer students perform just as well as direct-entry students (decock & mccloy, 2011; drewes, et al., 2012; lakehead university, 2012; stewart & martinello, 2012; shook, norman & guyatt, 2016), while gorman, phelps, and carley (2012) found that transfer students performed better than direct-entry students. there were no significant gpa differences between direct-entry, university-to-college, and college-to-college students enrolled at ocad (fisher, nay, wilson & wood, 2012). this is unsurprising as acai and newton (2015) found that student transfer experience 20 transfer students do not differ in learning and academic approaches. however, stewart and martinello (2012) also highlight that a difficulty in understanding transfer student success is that, of the few studies that have examined college-to-university transfer in ontario, all have identified student success differently (p. 3). however, college-to-university transfer students seem to find the adjustment into university culture more difficult and may explain why fewer college-to-university transfer students are satisfied with their academic preparation (see above). cameron (2005) found that college-to-university transfer students typically drop in gpa initially when adjusting to a new program that lasts into the second semester. one student explained that, i was so used to getting 'a's... .i really worked on this paper for over a week but it was just not knowing how they were going to mark and what they were looking for-it was frightening to me and i felt that i had worked really hard on this paper and i got a 'c'-i almost fell off my chair. i wanted to die-i am failure-i am not going to do very well here. (p. 32) similarly, gawley and mcgowan (2006) found that the gpa of college-to-university transfer students dropped by an average of 2.37 points in their first university year, and an inability to recover to college-level grades after two years. the change in workload and expectations are associated with a lower academic performance. indeed, making academic expectations known to students is vital, as one student explained that, i thought i got the expectations, but when i got the marks back [at york] it was a completely different picture. i was like, oh, okay, i didnt (mallette, et al., 2015, p. 31). some transfer students appreciated university assignments for their straightforward expectations and criteria, while others found the expectations and criteria more difficult to understand; however, students emphasised the need for direct feedback on assignments to understand areas of improvement (gerhardt, arai, carroll & ackerman, 2012). student transfer experience 21 however, as confederation college (2012) found, university-to-college transfer students typically outperform direct-entry students. college-to-university transfer students identified having more free time in university compared to college because there were greater numbers of assignments in college courses, compared to fewer, and heavier weighed, university assignment (gerhardt, arai, carroll & ackerman, 2012). one student explained that the many assignments in colleges allowed for greater opportunities of success, whereas in university if you perform poorly on even one assignment youre done (p. 26). conversely, university students who transferred into a fast track college program, did not feel the coursework was more difficult than university, but did admit that assignments were more abundant and required dedicating more time to completing assignments (durham college, 2016). most research tends to show that transfer students perform just as well as direct-entry students, although adjusting to different expectations and workloads may reduce transfer student success. accordingly, college-touniversity transfer students should specifically be informed of higher expectations and the university emphasis on scholarly writing assignments. job preparation although little research exists, there are indications that students felt as though their transfer program prepared them for the job market. durham college (2013) found that 88% of fast track graduates felt that their programs were either extremely helpful or helpful in locating employment. graduates from another study (university of ontario institute of technology, 2016) similarly identified increased abilities to choose where they practice and increased professional employment opportunities as the stated outcomes of their transfer programs. although more research is needed, this research reassures that the expectation to transfer for career-related reasons is achievable. student transfer experience 22 sense of student identity a significant challenge for transfer students is navigating their identity as transfer students. because of their prior educational experience, transfer students do identify as first-year students when starting their new program (gerhardt, arai, carroll & ackerman, 2012; blanchard, et al., 2013). as one student explained, were not really first year students. were not really third year students. were sort of in between (gawley & mcgowan, 2006, p. 10). due to this ambiguous sense of self-identity, transfer students generally ignore communications sent to first year students (blanchard, et al., 2013). as a result of this ambiguity, students report a sense of loneliness and isolation (mcgregor, matsui, pletneva & park, 2019; mallette, et al., 2015). during the transition process, one student remarked that, i think everyone felt very alone (mallette, et al., 2015, p. 25), while another explained that, transitioning from second to third year was the worst; you had no one to talk to (mallette, et al., 2015, p. 25). cameron (2005) similarly found that students experience this sense of loneliness as they transition to a new program without former peers and pre-established relationship. however, cameron did find that transfer student loneliness was most acute during the beginning of the transfer experience, but dissipated as relationships gradually formed with new peers. furthermore, because of their prior experiences, and some of the conditions mentioned above, transfer students have different responsibilities and characteristics compared to directentry students that make it difficult to relate and immerse with direct-entry students. for example, while direct-entry students are more interested in relaxing and social activities (fisher, nay, wilson & wood, 2012; kennett & maki, 2014), transfer students spend greater time working and caring for dependents (kennett & maki, 2014; henderson & mccloy, 2017). these responsibilities may impede time available for social activities that would ease the transition and student transfer experience 23 reduce the sense of loneliness and isolation (cameron, 2005). kennett and maki (2014) found that whereas direct-entry students participated in open houses, summer orientations, university preparation events, transfer students are more focused on academic opportunities such as introduction seminars. indeed, transfer students felt that orientations should focus more on academic aspects (henderson & mccloy, 2017). instead, in one study, transfer students found the social/school-spirit emphasis in orientations as unappealing (gawley & mcgowen, 2006). these students were frustrated because im not going to cheer for the colour blue (p. 9) and it was sort of a silly thing (p. 9). blais and harper (2013) explain that transfer students are less interested in the high-energy excitement of freshman orientation events and do not want to feel that they are wasting their time (p 16). these sentiments were reflected in a study by confederation college (2012) as well. similarly, blanchard et al, (2013) report that, transfer students did not attend orientation events at all, and if they had, they typically disliked the experience. they explain that transfer students, viewed orientation as a primarily social activity whereas they were looking for one that focuses more on academic transition (p. 11). while orientations are important, transfer students find the social aspect of orientation unappealing in contrast to the merits of academic activities. in addition, considering their numerous responsibilities compared to most direct-entry students, transfer students are less likely to plan time for orientations with a social focus. conclusion understanding transfer students perspectives is integral for improving transfer programs while also designing future transfer infrastructure. it is therefore important to consider transfer student characteristics, and their motivations and expectations of transferring. to create more student transfer experience 24 effective and efficient transfer programs it is also important to examine the types of challenges that transfer students encounter. research shows that students overwhelmingly transfer because of career-related considerationsmost notably to enhance career advancement opportunities. although only minimally researched, students also report that their transfer programs prepared them for the job market; which augments the decision to transfer for career-considerations. university students also transfer to college to develop or strengthen practical skills. although information is unavailable, it is possible that students who transfer to college to develop skills may do so because of career-advancement considerations. although some research indicates that students are transferring to related and somewhat related programs, students also decide to transfer when their fields of interest change. students seek other institutional programs to pursue this shifted interest. however, regardless of reason to transfer, geographic location is a central determinant for where students will transfer to. students overwhelmingly transfer to region-local postsecondary institutions. accordingly, collaboration between inter-regional institutions will greatly contribute to the success of students as students will be able to locate related programming closely available to them. research examining students expectations of the transfer experience, is unfortunately, quite limited. however, research shows that students do have expectations of the different workloads between college and university. these are often pre-conceived notions that college is more hands-on whereas university learning revolves around abstract and theoretical learning. through high school teachers and college instructors, students also come to expect the university workload to be most arduous. such expectations may be verified in real-life experiences because students do report receiving lower grades than they received in college. some research also student transfer experience 25 shows that students expect clear guidelines for the application process, as well as clear and accessible information related to the transfer process. however, although not always the case, students explain a difficulty in finding such information. accordingly, it is extremely valuable that post-secondary institutions provide guidelines and information in a clear and accessible manner. doing so in a centralized location would certainly be the most effective as students primarily use the internet to search for and acquire transfer information; however, students report feeling frustrated when unable to easily access information. students have some expectations about eligible transfer credits and these expectations are typically accurate. accordingly, students are shown to be good predictors of transfer credit eligibility. that being said, guidelines and information for eligible credits is highly helpful for students who might otherwise become confused about eligible criteria. providing this support eases the transfer experience and encourages student success. university-to-college transfer students typically feel academically prepared for their transfer program. however, research reports that college-to-university transfer students feel unprepared for university, specifically as essay writing is the most popular assignment in university. this is unsurprising as these students note that their last essay writing experience was in high school. making such expectations known to college-to-university transfer students may alleviate the shock of transitioning to essay-based coursework, while also providing foresight to prepare for the assignment shift. however, research generally finds that all transfer students are equally successful compared to direct-entry students, and some research even shows that transfer students outperform direct-entry students. the most significant consideration here would be the shock that college-to-university transfer students experience; however, this might be mitigated with adequate foresight, awareness, and preparation. student transfer experience 26 lastly, transfer students do not identify typically as first-year students and as a result transfer students may ignore valuable communication and information directed to first-year students. accordingly, communication specifically directed to transfer students might reduce any communication gaps. orientations that centre upon academic preparation and information are also mainly used by transfer students who otherwise find the social aspect of freshman orientations as irrelevant or quite frankly a waste of time. transfer students typically have external responsibilities which require attention; consequently, providing information in a clear manner reduces the amount of time transfer students must dedicate in sifting through communication. 27 student transfer experience references acai, a. & newton, g. 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(2018). which college students transfer to university? the role of parental education and neighbourhood income. toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://www.senecacollege.ca/mobilityresearch/reports/which_college_students_transfer _to_university_-_final.pdf stewart, j. & martinello, m. (2012). transfer students in ontario: how are they faring? toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2012-1-brock-transfer-students-in-ontariohow-are-they-faring.pdf university of ontario institute of technology. (2016). expanded collaborative evaluation of student performance, experience, and outcomes in registered practical nurse nursing degree (rpn-bscn) bridging education. toronto, on: oncat. retrieved from, https://oncat.ca/sites/default/files/research/2013-07-final-report-expandedcollaborative-evaluation-of-student-performance-experience-and-outcomes-inregistered-practical-nurse.pdf student transfer experience 34 usher, a. & jarvey, p. 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lexprience de la population tudiante ayant opt pour une entente darrimage entre le collge la cit et luniversit saint-paul rapport final prsent au conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario projet caton 2018-23 pour la recherche sur la mobilit tudiante mars 2019 cette tude est une initiative du collge la cit en partenariat avec luniversit saint-paul. elle a t rendue possible grce lappui financier du conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton). auteure : ltude a t ralise par la chercheuse indpendante marive forest de la firme sociopol. marieveforest@sociopol.ca valuateur externe : lvaluateur externe marc johnson de la firme socius a collabor ltude. marc.johnson@socius.ca remerciements : nous remercions les personnes qui ont collabor cette tude, en particulier celles qui ont particip aux entretiens et au questionnaire en ligne. un remerciement sincre pauline blanger, gestionnaire des programmes d'tudes et projets stratgiques, luniversit saint-paul, et lise frenette, gestionnaire, service dappui aux projets spciaux, au collge la cit pour leur collaboration de tous les instants. les conclusions et les recommandations sont celles des auteurs et ne refltent pas ncessairement les points de vue du conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario. note : dans ce document, le genre masculin est utilis comme gnrique, dans le seul but de ne pas alourdir le texte. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 2 table des matires sommaire ........................................................................................................................................... 5 notes mthodologiques................................................................................................................ 5 analyse des rsultats ..................................................................................................................... 5 recommandations ........................................................................................................................ 6 introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 8 mandat........................................................................................................................................... 8 notes mthodologiques................................................................................................................ 8 valorisation de la mobilit tudiante ............................................................................................. 10 contexte international et ontarien ............................................................................................ 10 ententes de transfert entre la cit et luniversit saint-paul .................................................. 11 rpartition de la participation aux ententes de transfert de la population tudiante provenant de la cit inscrite lautomne 2018 lusp ....................................................... 12 analyse cible de la littrature lie aux ententes darrimage....................................................... 13 promouvoir les ententes ............................................................................................................. 13 prendre une dcision .................................................................................................................. 13 passer du collge luniversit................................................................................................... 13 les difficults rencontres .......................................................................................................... 14 russir ses tudes universitaires ................................................................................................ 14 perception des tudiants quant aux avantages des ententes darrimage ............................... 15 perceptions des tudiants et des diplms de luniversit saint-paul lgard de leur parcours li une entente darrimage 2 + 2 ................................................................ 16 profil des tudiants sonds et interrogs .................................................................................. 16 opter pour une entente darrimage .......................................................................................... 17 promotion ................................................................................................................................ 17 raisons ..................................................................................................................................... 17 satisfaction gnrale lgard des ententes darrimage .......................................................... 18 exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 3 les relations et la vie luniversit saint-paul .......................................................................... 20 les apprentissages luniversit saint-paul : perspectives de la population tudiante et diplme ...................................................................................................................................... 21 satisfaction gnrale ............................................................................................................... 21 continuit et complmentarit .............................................................................................. 22 redondances et lacunes ......................................................................................................... 23 les apprentissages luniversit saint-paul : perspectives du corps professoral ................... 25 apports au niveau des savoirs et des savoir-tre .................................................................. 25 perspectives du corps professoral : lacunes au niveau des savoirs et des savoir-faire....... 26 prvoir la suite ............................................................................................................................. 27 russite scolaire .............................................................................................................................. 29 diffrentes cohortes, diffrents rsultats .................................................................................. 30 des expriences par programme distinctes .............................................................................. 30 considrer lge et le sexe .......................................................................................................... 31 remarques conclusives et recommandations ............................................................................... 32 annexe a : guide dentrevue auprs des tudiants 2 + 2 ............................................................. 36 annexe b : rapport dvaluation externe ...................................................................................... 37 compte-rendu des tches de suivi ............................................................................................. 37 valuation sommative des rsultats escompts........................................................................ 37 recommandations ...................................................................................................................... 38 bibliographie .................................................................................................................................... 40 exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 4 sommaire le collge la cit, en partenariat avec luniversit saint-paul (usp), a souhait mener une recherche valuative portant sur la nature de lexprience de la population tudiante ayant opt pour une entente darrimage entre leurs tablissements. les expriences tudies renvoient particulirement aux apprentissages, la russite scolaire, la vie sociale et au parcours administratif. les ententes darrimage retenues dans le cadre de cette tude sont des ententes officielles permettant le transfert de 60 crdits pour des tudiants ayant complt un programme collgial cibl et poursuivant leurs tudes lusp dans un programme prdfini. on nomme les tudiants ayant opt pour des ententes de transfert de 60 crdits des tudiants 2 + 2 pour souligner le fait qu la fin de leur programme collgial dune dure de deux ans (majoritairement), ils peuvent russir un baccalaurat en deux ans galement. notes mthodologiques en plus dune brve recension des crits, la dmarche adopte au cours de cette tude a permis de recueillir des donnes auprs de publics varis par le biais de quatre mthodes distinctes entre novembre 2018 et janvier 2019. une combinaison dapproches comprhensive, comparative et valuative devait permettre de mieux saisir les expriences et les perspectives lgard des ententes de transfert 2 + 2. premirement, un questionnaire a t mis en ligne lintention des tudiants inscrits en troisime et en quatrime anne dans un des programmes de baccalaurat viss par ltude, soit communications sociales, thique publique, tudes de conflits et relations humaines et spiritualit. au total, 70 tudiants ont particip au sondage, incluant 55 tudiants 2 + 2 et 15 tudiants du groupe tmoin, soit des tudiants ayant adopt dautres parcours. deuximement, partant du sondage en ligne, 16 tudiants ayant opt pour une entente de transfert de 60 crdits ont t recruts pour des entretiens. troisimement, des entretiens ont t mens galement auprs de 3 tudiants diplms de lusp ayant bnfici dententes de transfert 2 + 2. enfin, 9 entretiens ont pu tre conduits auprs de membres du corps professoral et du personnel administratif de lusp. analyse des rsultats tout dabord, des analyses formules dans le cadre de cette recherche, on retient lattitude favorable des tudiants lgard de leurs tudes postsecondaires au sein dententes darrimage de 60 crdits. plusieurs dimensions positives de ces parcours ont t mises en lumire. si des dimensions plus pratiques, comme un gain en employabilit et conomie en temps, sont exposes au moment de justifier loption dune entente darrimage 2 + 2, lapprciation de lexprience de ces ententes renvoie galement des dimensions plus gnrales et comprhensives, comme la chance de combiner des apprentissages pratiques et thoriques ou la chance de bnficier de lenvironnement plus familier de lusp exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 5 la question des apprentissages a t largement aborde par le biais du questionnaire en ligne et des entretiens. on retient ici quune large majorit des tudiants 2 + 2 considrent que les cours suivis la cit les ont bien prpars leur exprience scolaire lusp. une analyse plus fine de ces rsultats montre que les premiers programmes avoir fait lobjet dententes de transfert soit les programmes journalisme et relations publiques de la cit menant vers le baccalaurat en communications sociales de lusp semblent offrir la continuit la plus apprcie, tant par la population tudiante que par le corps professoral interrog. cela tant, presque la totalit des personnes interroges ont t en mesure didentifier certaines faiblesses ou lacunes lies ces ententes ainsi que des manires dy remdier. dune part, on admet des enjeux administratifs suscitant une confusion, au niveau de loffre de cours par exemple. des imprcisions concernant les cours crdits semblent susciter davantage de difficults, certains cours savrant trs difficiles ou trs faciles en regard de la prparation reue la cit. dautre part, certains enjeux touchent de manire plus gnrale les expriences dapprentissage. par exemple, des difficults lies la rdaction de travaux scientifiques et lappropriation du vocabulaire de la discipline ont t rapports tant par la population tudiante que par le corps professoral. la petite taille des chantillons analyss lors de lexamen des rsultats scolaires ne permet doffrir quune perspective exploratoire quil importera de prciser dans les annes venir. pour linstant, si lanalyse des rsultats pour les programmes tudes de conflits et relations humaines et spiritualit ne permet pas de voir de diffrences marques entre le groupe dtudiants 2 + 2 et le groupe tmoin, lanalyse des rsultats scolaires des tudiants en communications sociales montre une plus grande russite de la part des tudiants 2 + 2. recommandations le rapport prsente quatre recommandations permettant de rpondre plusieurs des proccupations souleves. prvoir un processus de rtroaction continue de la population tudiante et du corps professoral en vue daffiner le processus de reconnaissance de crdits nous recommandons que le processus de reconnaissance de crdits tienne compte des observations des professeurs et des expriences vcues par les tudiants 2 + 2 dans le cadre de leurs tudes universitaires pour affiner le parcours scolaire. cette procdure sinscrirait dans le cadre des pratiques exemplaires visant le partage des perspectives lies aux contenus enseigns et aux aptitudes de travail dans une optique damlioration continue des ententes. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 6 dvelopper les comptences en rdaction de textes scientifiques et les connaissances gnrales lies la discipline nous recommandons que des comits disciplinaires forms de reprsentants du collge la cit et de lusp se penchent sur la question des aptitudes en rdaction scientifique et des connaissances gnrales lies la discipline. ces comits auraient prciser la ou les options les plus susceptibles de dvelopper ces comptences et ces savoirs, ce, de manire favoriser les apprentissages pour lensemble du parcours des tudiants 2 + 2. prciser et simplifier lintgration des tudiants 2 + 2 luniversit saintpaul nous recommandons que lusp revoie ses manires de faire afin que les normes et les procdures administratives associes aux ententes de transfert de 60 crdits soient simplifies et formalises. galement, laccessibilit aux conseillers pdagogiques pourrait tre bonifie pour une meilleure transition. poursuivre lanalyse de lexprience des tudiants ayant opt pour entente darrimage de 60 crdits nous recommandons que la cit et lusp renouvellent leur collaboration de manire poursuivre leurs investigations lies lexprience de la population tudiante bnficiant dententes darrimage de 60 crdits. laugmentation continue du nombre de diplms de la cit adoptant un parcours de transfert 2 + 2 annuellement permettra une meilleure comprhension de lexprience tudiante en fonction des programmes auxquels ils sont inscrits. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 7 introduction mandat le collge la cit (la cit) et luniversit saint-paul (usp) ont souhait mener une recherche valuative portant sur la nature des expriences de la population tudiante poursuivant des tudes postsecondaires par le biais dententes darrimage entre la cit et lusp. les expriences tudies renvoient particulirement aux apprentissages, la russite scolaire, la vie sociale et au parcours administratif. les ententes darrimage retenues dans le cadre de cette tude sont des ententes officielles permettant le transfert de 60 crdits pour des tudiants ayant complt un programme collgial cibl de deux ou trois ans et souhaitant entamer un baccalaurat lusp. on nomme les tudiants ayant opt pour des ententes de transfert de 60 crdits des tudiants 2 + 2 pour souligner le fait qu la fin de leur programme collgial dune dure de deux ans (majoritairement), ils peuvent obtenir un baccalaurat en deux ans galement. notes mthodologiques ltude a t mene entre juin 2018 et fvrier 2019. ses approches sont triples. dabord, elle a adopt une approche comprhensive du fait quelle a cherch interprter le point de vue de lexprience vcue par la population tudiante et le personnel enseignant. elle a aussi opt pour une approche comparative du fait quelle a pu mettre en parallle les expriences de la population tudiante provenant de la cit et ayant opt pour une entente de transfert 2 + 2 avec celles des tudiants ayant eu un parcours autre, en particulier ceux poursuivant un baccalaurat de quatre ans. elle a finalement adopt une approche valuative du fait que les questions poses ont cherch prciser la valeur scolaire et exprientielle des ententes de transfert 2 + 2 pour la population tudiante, ainsi que pour le corps professoral. au niveau mthodologique, une approche mixte a permis de recueillir et de croiser des donnes provenant de sources varies. en premier lieu, une recension cible des crits portant sur les ententes de transfert entre tablissements postsecondaires et leurs effets sur les parcours de la population tudiante a t mene. cette recension a vis retenir surtout les crits portant sur le contexte ontarien. en second lieu, diffrentes cueillettes de donnes ont permis de combiner des informations issues de donnes administratives, dentretiens semi-dirigs et dun questionnaire en ligne. une approbation du comit dthique la recherche du collge la cit et de lusp a t obtenue en vue de la ralisation des entretiens et du questionnaire en ligne. de manire respecter les termes noncs dans la proposition de recherche, lors de la cueillette de donnes et de la rdaction du rapport, nous avons cherch prserver la confidentialit des personnes ayant particip cette tude. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 8 plus prcisment, les dmarches mthodologiques suivantes ont t adoptes. 1. un questionnaire a t mis en ligne en novembre et dcembre 2018 lintention des tudiants inscrits en troisime et en quatrime anne dans les programmes de baccalaurat viss par ltude, soit communications sociales, thique publique, tudes de conflits, relations humaines et spiritualit et innovation sociale. au total, 70 tudiants ont particip au sondage, incluant 55 tudiants 2 + 2 et 15 tudiants du groupe tmoin. tous les tudiants rpondant ces premiers critres taient invits complter le questionnaire, autant ceux ayant opt pour une entente de transfert de type 2 + 2 que les autres. la chercheuse sest prsente dans six cours distincts pour prsenter le sondage aux tudiants. les cours ont t choisis en fonction de diffrents critres : probabilit de prsence dtudiants inscrits en troisime ou quatrime anne; proportion dtudiants 2 + 2, nombre dtudiants, varit des disciplines enseignes. 2. des entretiens1 ont t raliss auprs de 16 tudiants (diplms de la cit) ayant opt pour une entente de transfert 2 + 2. le questionnaire prvu pour ces entretiens est prsent en annexe a2. ces tudiants ont t recruts au moyen du questionnaire en ligne. la fin du questionnaire en ligne, ceux qui souhaitaient participer un entretien taient invits laisser leurs coordonnes. les entretiens ont t conduits en prsentiel et taient dune dure de 25 40 minutes. 3. des entretiens ont t mens galement auprs de 3 tudiants diplms de lusp ayant bnfici dententes de transfert 2 + 2 impliquant la cit. la mthodologie initiale prvoyait davantage dentretiens auprs de cette clientle. de fait, lors de la collation des grades en mai 2018, on comptait 29 diplms ayant bnfici dententes darrimage 2 + 2 entre la cit et lusp. comme lusp a modifi rcemment sa manire de colliger linformation sur ses diplms, il ne nous tait pas possible de savoir le nombre total de diplms issus de ces ententes, ni de communiquer avec les anciens diplms. le recrutement a t fait par le biais des services administratifs de lusp. malgr les efforts, ces dmarches nont pas permis de recruter davantage de candidats. 4. des entretiens ont t conduits auprs de 7 professeurs de lusp (2 femmes et 5 hommes) et de 3 membres du personnel administratif (3 femmes) de lusp. le recrutement du personnel enseignant a t fait partir des critres suivants : proportion dtudiants 2 + 2 dans leurs classes prsentes ou passes et varit des disciplines enseignes. les entretiens auprs du personnel enseignant visaient recueillir leur perspective lgard de 1 lors de tous les entretiens, des notes manuscrites ont t prises par la chercheuse. les citations prsentes dans ce rapport peuvent donc ne pas reflter exactement les propos des personnes interroges. 2 seul le questionnaire dentretien destin aux tudiants a t intgr en annexe sachant que celui labor lintention des diplms et du corps professoral proposait une structure et des questions similaires. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 9 lexprience de la population tudiante 2 + 2, alors que les entretiens auprs du personnel administratif visaient davantage prciser la nature des processus et des environnements administratifs au sein desquels voluaient les tudiants 2 + 2 lusp. valorisation de la mobilit tudiante de manire gnrale, dans la littrature, on reconnait diffrentes valeurs socitales et conomiques la mobilit tudiante. pour la population tudiante, elle apparait comme une valeur ajoute, celle-ci tant associe une meilleure russite scolaire, une plus grande persvrance, une rponse leurs besoins spcifiques, une occasion daugmenter lemployabilit et des cots moins levs. pour les tablissements et les gouvernements, la mobilit tudiante renvoie notamment une plus grande adquation avec le march du travail, une rduction des cots (pour les gouvernements) ou une occasion daugmenter les clientles. les propos ci-aprs prcisent sommairement le contexte ontarien o cette mobilit tudiante se traduit dans la formalisation dententes de transfert entre tablissements postsecondaires. contexte international et ontarien si des ententes de transfert ont t dveloppes en floride ds les annes 1960, au canada cest lalberta qui initia une telle vision de lducation postsecondaire en fondant le conseil pour ladmission et le transfert de lalberta en 1974 (la cit collgiale, 2013). en ontario, ds les annes 1990, par le biais de lappui du conseil du consortium des collges et universits (cccu), plusieurs ententes de transfert entre les collges et les universits ont peu peu t mises en place. la formalisation et la promotion de ces ententes ont toutefois t possibles surtout aprs la cration du conseil ontarien pour larticulation et le transfert en 2011, qui a spcifiquement pour mission d'amliorer le parcours des tudiants et de rduire les obstacles pour ceux qui cherchent effectuer un transfert dans l'un des 45 tablissements postsecondaires publics de l'ontario (oncat.ca). au sein de cet organisme, un engagement plus important lgard du contexte des tudes postsecondaires en franais sest concrtis en 2016 par la mise en place du comit directeur des tablissements francophones et bilingues o les obstacles spcifiques sont discuts, tout autant que les pratiques mettre en place et promouvoir. partant des 262 ententes recenses en ontario en 2015 et portant sur des parcours scolaires en langue franaise ou bilingues auprs des tablissements postsecondaires partenaires de la politique damnagement linguistique3, prs de 80 % de celles-ci proposaient des parcours 3 ces tablissements sont : collge boral, collge universitaire dominicain, collge universitaire glendon, la cit, universit de hearst, universit dottawa, universit laurentienne, universit saint-paul. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 10 scolaires entirement raliss lintrieur de la province (pgf consultants, 2017, p. 21). aussi, 94 % de ces ententes taient tablies des collges vers les tablissements universitaires. la cit (53 %) et le collge boral (43 %) taient les tablissements qui alimentaient le plus les ententes entre les tablissements de langue franaise au postsecondaire en ontario. alors que luniversit saint-paul (49 %), luniversit laurentienne (22 %) et le collge universitaire glendon (10 %) taient les principaux bnficiaires des ententes darrimage. ces ententes permettent dobtenir des reconnaissances de crdits variant entre 12 et 93 crdits, celles plus rcentes ayant tendance reconnatre davantage de crdits. ententes de transfert entre la cit et luniversit saint-paul les collaborations entre la cit et lusp favorisant la mobilit tudiante ont galement dbut dans les annes 1990, mais cest en 2012 que les premires ententes de transfert intgrant 60 crdits soit lquivalent de deux annes universitaires ont vu le jour. en 2016, le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) a labor, en collaboration avec les huit tablissements partenaires de la politique damnagement linguistique, sa politique-cadre de soutien aux tablissements postsecondaires offrant des programmes en franais en ontario. cette politique, qui vise fournir un cadre stratgique de prise de dcision pour son personnel et encadrer loffre de services aux tablissements postsecondaires dispensant des programmes en franais et bilingues, exige galement lengagement des tablissements. cest donc en rfrence ce cadre stratgique, et grce lappui financier du caton pour lexamen de diffrentes opportunits en matire de parcours de transfert, que ces tablissements ont labor leur stratgie institutionnelle. dans la foule de cette planification stratgique, la cit et lusp ont labor un plan de dveloppement de parcours de transfert qui inclut la mise en place de 45 ententes de transfert 2 + 2 entre 2017 et 2020. en 2018, un total de 59 ententes avait t mis en place entre la cit et lusp. lautomne 2018, 139 tudiants bnficiaient dune entente de transfert 2 + 2 lusp et 130 de ces tudiants taient des diplms de la cit. si 18 programmes de la cit offraient des possibilits dententes de transfert de 60 crdits, les tudiants inscrits lusp lautomne 2018 provenaient de 13 programmes diffrents de la cit. les programmes de lusp associs des ententes darrimage avec la cit sont quant eux au nombre de cinq : communications sociales, thique publique, tudes de conflits, relations humaines et spiritualit et innovation sociale. lusp attire un nombre important dtudiants de la cit par le biais de ces ententes. mentionnons que la cit a dvelopp galement des ententes avec dautres universits ontariennes comme luniversit laurentienne, luniversit de sudbury, luniversit dottawa, luniversit de hearst et le collge universitaire glendon. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 11 rpartition de la participation aux ententes de transfert de la population tudiante provenant de la cit inscrite lautomne 2018 lusp programmes de la cit communications sociales programmes de lusp relations thique tudes de humaines et publique conflits spiritualit adjoint juridique ducation en services lenfance interventions auprs de personnes ayant un handicap journalisme 2% 8% 2% publicit et communication marketing relations publiques techniques de travail social techniques des services policiers techniques de travail social - grontologie autres 3% 10 % 13 % 12 % 22 % 17 % 3% 4% techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale techniques dducation spcialise totaux 1% parajuriste totaux innovation sociale 15 % 5% 2% 41 % 38 % 1% exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 12 analyse cible de la littrature lie aux ententes darrimage promouvoir les ententes la promotion de la mobilit tudiante et des ententes de transfert prend des visages diffrents dans les diffrentes rgions du canada. les bonnes pratiques recenses dans la littrature rappellent que, pour encourager la participation la mobilit entre tablissements postsecondaires, il importe dinformer les tudiants tt dans leur parcours des possibilits de transfert, de favoriser le contact humain avec diffrents publics (tudiants, personnel administratif et de soutien, enseignants) et de diffuser des renseignements par le biais de publications varies (la cit, 2013). ltude ralise par decock et al. en ontario (2011) rappelle que les sources dinformation mobilises par les tudiants passant du collge luniversit sont par ailleurs multiples. si, de manire gnrale, les sites web des tablissements postsecondaires sont largement consults, ceux des universits sont plus souvent sollicits par les tudiants cherchant passer du collge luniversit. le personnel responsable de conseiller les tudiants et de coordonner les programmes savre galement une source dinformation mobilise rgulirement par les tudiants. prendre une dcision une enqute portant sur les tudiants gradus entre 2001 et 2006 de collges en ontario indiquait que 43 % dentre eux avaient dcid avant leur arrive au collge de poursuivre des tudes universitaires, alors que cette dcision a t prise au dbut de leur parcours collgial par 6 % dentre eux, les autres (51 %) ayant pris cette dcision au cours de leurs tudes collgiales (decock et al., 2011). cette tude nous apprend galement quune majorit (55 %) des tudiants ayant transit par le collge avant de poursuivre leurs tudes ( luniversit ou ailleurs) affirme quil leur tait ncessaire de passer par le collge pour tre qualifi au programme auquel ils sont maintenant inscrits (decock et al., 2011). une tude portant sur les ententes entre le collge seneca et luniversit york prcise que lintention des tudiants daller luniversit ds le dbut dun parcours collgial ne rsulte pas en davantage de succs scolaire pour ceux-ci (conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur, 2016). passer du collge luniversit le passage du collge luniversit peut savrer une exprience hasardeuse dans plusieurs situations de transfert. si, du ct des tudiants, leur ngligence, leurs attentes dmesures ou leur incomprhension peuvent expliquer une part de la confusion quils vivent (caton, 2013), dautres facteurs plus systmiques doivent tre pris en compte. par exemple, si une tude rappelle que 84 % des tudiants sonds ont dit tre satisfaits de leur prparation scolaire, il exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 13 demeure que certains tudiants jugent la prparation reue insuffisante ou inadquate (decock et al., 2011, p. 69-70). les difficults rencontres quelques barrires ont t mentionnes par les tudiants francophones de lontario bnficiant dententes de transfert : la difficult dharmoniser les prrequis ou cours pralables, la reconnaissance des cours suivis au collgial, lobligation de suivre certains cours fondamentaux et la difficult daligner les cours que doit suivre ltudiant au cours de son cheminement universitaire au calendrier de cours de ltablissement; le manque dappui des bureaux des registraires pendant les mois dt; la transition plus difficile pour certains tudiants, notamment au chapitre des attentes leves des professeurs universitaires en ce qui a trait aux travaux (axion, 2017) . russir ses tudes universitaires la littrature examine par le conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur en 2011 tendait montrer peu deffet des ententes de transferts sur les rsultats scolaires il est amplement dmontr que les tudiants qui sont passs du collgeuniversit ont une [moyenne pondre cumulative (mpc)] similaire ou parfois seulement lgrement infrieure celle des tudiants entrant luniversit au sortir du secondaire. nous avons constat que les premiers obtenaient une mpc similaire ou suprieure celle obtenue par les seconds en alberta, en colombiebritannique, en californie, en floride, en oregon, au texas et dans ltat de washington. nous navons trouv des preuves du contraire pour aucun des territoires examins (conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur, 2013, p. 19) lors de cette analyse des ententes darrimage, une des caractristiques qui mrite dtre souligne est quaucun des programmes ontariens examins noffrait une relle formule 2 + 2, sachant que les programmes offerts exigeaient des cours additionnels dpassant les exigences de la formule 2 + 2 (conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur, 2013). certaines tudes notent tout de mme une rduction de la moyenne des tudiants lors de la premire session luniversit (paterson mcguire et belcheir, 2013, p. 2). une tude ralise auprs dtudiants faisant lexprience dententes de transfert entre le collge seneca et luniversit york notait quant elle que les tudiants ayant gradu de luniversit aprs avoir bnfici dententes dtenaient gnralement des moyennes suprieures tant au collge qu luniversit (conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur, 2016). au total, il exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 14 semble que les performances collgiales et celles de la premire session universitaire soient les meilleurs prdicteurs de la russite et de la persvrance des tudiants bnficiant dune entente de transfert (pascarella & terrenizi, 1991, 2005; wang, 2009). perception des tudiants quant aux avantages des ententes darrimage les facteurs motivant les tudiants francophones de lontario adopter une entente darrimage sont surtout associs (axion, 2017) : la possibilit de terminer les tudes plus tt; les cots moindres engendrs en conjuguant les parcours collgial et universitaire; lapprentissage pratique (collgial) et thorique (universitaire) que lon peut obtenir en suivant un tel cheminement; laugmentation des possibilits dembauche. la perception lie aux cots moindres est confirme par la littrature, surtout pour les ententes o davantage de crdits sont reconnus. de fait, trs gnralement, en ontario, le cot global pour le gouvernement et ltudiant que reprsente lachvement dtudes postsecondaires menant un grade selon la formule 2 + 2 est plus faible que celui du parcours universitaire de quatre ans au sortir du secondaire (conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur, 2013, p. 21) . les conomies ralises pouvaient reprsenter de 14 % 30 % du cot dun programme exclusivement universitaire en 2011 (conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur, 2013, p. 31). en ce qui a trait laugmentation de lemployabilit des tudiants 2 + 2, selon une tude mene par axion, cette croyance savre rpandue dans la mesure o une majorit des tudiants francophones interrogs croit que leurs tudes postsecondaires dans le cadre dune entente darrimage a contribu faire progresser leur carrire, alors que certains dentre eux croient que leurs diplmes obtenus dans le cadre dententes darrimage constituent une valeur ajoute pour les employeurs (2017). exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 15 perceptions des tudiants et des diplms de luniversit saint-paul lgard de leur parcours li une entente darrimage 2+2 profil des tudiants sonds et interrogs le questionnaire mis en ligne dans le cadre de cette tude a t complt par 70 tudiants. de ce nombre, 55 rpondants sont des tudiants 2 + 2 alors que les 15 autres rpondants sont des tudiants dont les parcours scolaires varient (groupe tmoin). cela tant, toutes les personnes ayant rpondu au questionnaire taient inscrites en troisime ou en quatrime anne lusp, ce qui signifie que plusieurs tudiants 2 + 2 en taient leur premire session lusp lorsquils ont particip ltude. tous les tudiants taient inscrits dans trois des cinq programmes pour lesquels des ententes darrimage de 60 crdits sont en place, soit communications sociales, relations humaines et spiritualit et tudes de conflits. en ce qui a trait au groupe tmoin, ils taient plus nombreux (67 %) provenir du programme tudes de conflits que les tudiants 2 + 2 (46 %). une forte proportion des tudiants 2 + 2 participant au sondage tait des femmes (80 %), des personnes dont le franais est la langue maternelle (80 %) et des personnes dont le franais est la langue officielle dans laquelle ils sont le plus laise (65 %). les tudiants du groupe tmoin, taient proportionnellement moins nombreux tre des femmes (67 %), mais plus nombreux avoir le franais comme langue maternelle (87 %) et le franais comme langue officielle prfre (73 %). plus de la moiti (58 %) des tudiants 2 + 2 sonds avaient 24 ans ou moins, une proportion similaire au groupe tmoin (60 %). un peu plus de la moiti des tudiants 2 + 2 ayant particip une entrevue avait fait des tudes postsecondaires plus larges que celles engages dans le cadre de leur entente darrimage avec ou sans diplme. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 16 en ce qui a trait aux entretiens avec les tudiants 2 + 2, leur profil savre similaire celui de lensemble des rpondants au questionnaire sachant que ce sont les personnes ayant rpondu au questionnaire qui se sont portes volontaire pour faire un entretien. les entretiens conduits auprs de trois tudiantes diplmes dun parcours 2 + 2 sajoutent lanalyse globale des donnes dentretiens. on notera que ces trois rpondantes sont des femmes de moins de 29 ans qui ont tudi en communications sociales lusp. leurs propos permettent donc de bonifier la perspective lie au programme communications sociales qui savre plus rduite partir du questionnaire (5 tudiants) et des entretiens (2 tudiants). opter pour une entente darrimage promotion la cit et lusp font de plus en plus la promotion des ententes de transfert. bien que ces ententes ne soient pas au premier plan de limage de marque que projettent ces tablissements, elles apparaissent dsormais rapidement comme un atout mis de lavant sur les sites web et lors des visites dans dautres tablissements scolaires, telles les coles secondaires. lusp en particulier, les stratgies de promotion des ententes darrimage se peaufinent de plus en plus, sachant que plusieurs ententes de transfert se sont ajoutes dans les deux dernires annes. les tudiants interrogs ont presque tous entendu parler des ententes de transfert par le biais de la promotion faite directement par ces tablissements. une grande majorit des personnes ont indiqu avoir appris lexistence dententes de transfert au cours de leur programme collgial, souvent lors de leur deuxime anne au collge. une seule personne a indiqu avoir choisi son programme la cit donc, ds la fin de son secondaire en raison des ententes darrimage 2 + 2. plusieurs ont mentionn que des professeurs de la cit leur parlaient des ententes de transfert se rapportant directement leur programme dtudes, cette approche semblant susciter un enthousiasme plus grand de la part des tudiants. dans les autres cas, les sources dinformation taient variables, voire multiples : visite de lusp la cit, visite des tudiants de la cit lusp, affiche ou lecture des sites web. une tudiante a indiqu avoir appris par hasard lexistence de ces ententes par le biais dune amie. raisons les raisons voques pour justifier le choix dune entente darrimage 2 + 2 se rapportent le plus souvent une logique utilitaire, les dlais dobtention dun deuxime diplme courts et les possibilits demploi bonifies par ce deuxime diplme se rvlant comme des opportunits singulires saisir. si prs de la moiti des personnes interroges avaient dj envisag un parcours universitaire, pour dautres, une entente darrimage 2 + 2 devient un lment dclencheur rendant envisageable et souhaitable un passage luniversit. dans certains cas, le collge semble agir comme dtour permettant un apprivoisement exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 17 progressif des tudes postsecondaires. de fait, le collge parait plus accessible aux tudiants ayant une confiance limite ou lorsque leurs intentions sont confuses, ou encore lorsque leur dossier scolaire est plus faible, voire trop faible. dautres raisons sont galement voques o le contexte particulier de lusp devient un lment dcisif. on parle alors par exemple de loriginalit des programmes offerts, de la taille plus petite de luniversit ou des possibilits de diplmes aux tudes suprieures. jaspire faire une matrise en []. jtais quand mme dchire entre ce programme et philosophie, et je me suis dit que pour lemployabilit ce serait mieux [ce programme]. et il ny avait pas de programme de transfert pour philosophie. je navais pas en tte de poursuivre luniversit ensuite. mais vers la fin nous avons eu une visite de luniversit saint-paul []. jai trouv a intressant. avec un bac, a pouvait faire une grande ouverture dans la recherche de mon travail par la suite. il y avait une pression daller luniversit en sortant du secondaire. mais je navais pas de bonnes notes. jai des collgues qui sont alls directement luniversit, mais moi, quand jai fini mon secondaire je navais pas les notes. et maintenant, jai deux diplmes alors queux nen ont quun ! satisfaction gnrale lgard des ententes darrimage comme en tmoigne le graphique sur la satisfaction des tudiants, pour chaque lment propos, les rpondants se disent satisfaits ou trs satisfaits dans 83 % 92 %. cette grande satisfaction est visible galement lors des entretiens, les tudiants exprimant gnralement un enthousiasme important lgard de leur parcours au sein dune entente darrimage 2 + 2, mme quand des critiques propos de dimensions prcises sont nonces. les tudiants qualifient de diffrentes manires cette satisfaction en notant par exemple : la chance davoir pu faire lexprience de deux tablissements postsecondaires distincts, la chance de combiner un apprentissage plus pratique un apprentissage plus thorique, la chance davoir particip des stages avant daller lusp, les perspectives demployabilit ouvertes par un tel parcours, la petite taille de lusp, lengagement des professeurs et du personnel administratif lusp, etc. lexprience de transition constitue la dimension la moins bien note (83 %), alors que lexprience globale du parcours 2 + 2 parait la plus satisfaisante (92 %). exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 18 si les commentaires des personnes interroges lgard de leur exprience de transition sont gnralement positifs, certains tmoignent de linsatisfaction au niveau administratif. on souligne notamment un manque de clart au moment de choisir les cours. par exemple certains cours seraient prsents comme une option sans tre disponibles, limitant ainsi le nombre doptions relles. quelques tudiants ont indiqu que des options de cours requerraient des autorisations, et parfois des justifications crites, ce qui leur paraissait une tape superflue ou complique. certains ont soulign une difficult daccs aux conseillers pdagogiques, du fait quil fallait prendre rendez-vous ou que les dlais les dcourageaient. on a indiqu galement que des procdures ou des options, en ce qui a trait aux alternatives, en termes de parcours scolaires, pourraient tre mieux expliques. il importe de souligner par ailleurs que lusp offre des sessions dorientation pour les choix de cours auxquelles trs peu dtudiants participent. en entretiens, deux tudiants ont abord les dsagrments causs par lobligation quils avaient eu de choisir une mineure lors de leur inscription en 2017 lusp. cela tant, cette situation semble ne pas stre reproduite pour les tudiants ayant dbut lanne suivante. en gros oui [a rpondait mes attentes] car javais lu le cursus. je savais o je men allais. au niveau de laccueil je ne savais pas trop quoi mattendre. finalement a a bien t. jai toujours t bien reue et accompagne. plusieurs cours avaient des pralables mais ceux-ci ne pouvaient mtre offerts. il fallait que jaille voir ladmission pour demander lautorisation. cest quand mme facile rgler mais cest une tape de plus. un point que je veux souligner cest que le monde ici [ luniversit saint-paul] sont formidables. lensemble des tudiants du groupe tmoin ont indiqu tre satisfaits ou trs satisfaits en ce qui a trait leur exprience scolaire lusp, alors que 95 % dentre eux ont affirm tre au exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 19 moins satisfaits de leur exprience globale lusp. en ce sens, ces tudiants semblent davantage favorables leurs expriences lusp que les tudiants 2 + 2. notons enfin que, tous les tudiants interrogs ont jug comme trs positive la combinaison des apprentissages pratiques et thoriques. trois tudiants ont tout de mme mentionn quil leur aurait t bnfique davoir eu dabord un apprentissage thorique luniversit puis un apprentissage technique au collge. les relations et la vie luniversit saint-paul lanalyse du questionnaire en ligne montre que les tudiants nayant pas bnfici dententes de transfert 2 + 2 sont plus enclins juger de manire positive leurs relations avec les autres tudiants, les professeurs et les conseillers pdagogiques. ainsi, 40 % des tudiants 2 + 2 considrent leurs relations avec les tudiants comme excellente, alors que les tudiants du groupe tmoin sont 60 % avoir cette mme opinion. cest au niveau des relations avec les conseillers pdagogiques que les diffrences paraissent plus importantes, sachant que les tudiants 2 + 2 sont moins satisfaits de ces relations dans 35 % des cas (rponses 1 et 2 combines), compar 20 % pour les tudiants du groupe tmoin. de manire gnrale, on peut penser que lattachement et limplication des tudiants luniversit augmentent au fil des ans, ce qui peut expliquer lcart entre les rpondants des deux groupes tant en ce qui a trait la qualit des relations avec les tudiants, les professeurs et les conseillers pdagogiques qu la participation des expriences telles qutre membre dun collectif, dune association ou dune quipe sportive. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 20 rappelons que les tudiants 2 + 2 qui ont rpondu au questionnaire frquentaient lusp depuis moins longtemps que les autres. en outre, on peut penser que les particularits des ententes de transfert amnent davantage dinteractions avec les conseillers pdagogiques et que ces relations sont plus fraiches dans la mmoire des personnes sondes. aussi, les entretiens rappellent que les tudiants 2 + 2 semblaient demeurer plus prs de leurs collgues de la cit durant leurs deux annes lusp. on note enfin que les tudiants de moins de 22 ans sont gnralement plus critiques quant aux relations quils entretiennent avec ces trois groupes. les apprentissages luniversit saint-paul : perspectives de la population tudiante et diplme satisfaction gnrale la question des apprentissages a t largement aborde lors du questionnaire en ligne et lors des entretiens. il sagissait de comprendre quelles continuits et quelles ruptures taient vcues par les tudiants 2 + 2 lors du passage entre le collgial et luniversit, en particulier aux niveaux des habitudes de travail et des connaissances. le questionnaire en ligne nous permet de saisir une satisfaction gnrale quant la manire dont les tudiants ont t prpars lors de leur formation la cit, 80 % des rpondants ayant indiqu tre daccord ou tout fait daccord avec le fait que leur passage la cit les avait bien prpars leur exprience scolaire lusp. la question sur les comptences acquises la cit et lusp montre exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 21 galement une satisfaction importante sachant que toutes les comptences suggres sont considres acquises au moins modrment par les personnes sondes. cela tant, sachant que seuls 43 % des tudiants sonds taient tout fait satisfaits de leur prparation et que 20 % dentre eux ntaient pas satisfaits, il importe de prciser les perspectives plus mitiges des tudiants interrogs en ce qui a trait leur prparation scolaire. de plus, les entretiens ont montr que les programmes frquents affectaient ce niveau de satisfaction. retenons tout de mme que, comme les entretiens et les questionnaires nont pas t administrs de manire exhaustive ou quitable pour tous les programmes, il est impossible doffrir ici un portrait fin pour chacun des parcours. lanalyse qui suit doit donc tre considre comme une analyse prliminaire poursuivre. continuit et complmentarit on remarque que les premiers programmes avoir fait lobjet dententes de transfert, soit les programmes journalisme et relations publiques de la cit qui menaient en communications sociales lusp, semblent offrir une continuit apprcie, tant par les tudiants que par les professeurs interrogs. on souligne que les acquis plus pratiques de la cit impliquant de nombreux exercices dcriture servent de base des rflexions plus soutenues dans le domaine des communications sociales et publiques abordes en classe. les tudiants acquirent donc la cit non seulement une connaissance du vocabulaire employ par les exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 22 professeurs, mais aussi une comprhension, parfois plus pointue, de ce quengagent concrtement les rflexions plus thoriques abordes en classe. la participation des tudiants 2 + 2 aux discussions en salle de classe vient enrichir, voire illustrer, les propos des enseignants. ces propos rejoignent galement lexprience de plusieurs tudiants inscrits en relations humaines et spiritualit ou en tudes de conflits. tous les membres de la population tudiante et du corps professoral rencontrs reconnaissaient une grande valeur la combinaison des formes dapprentissages et de contenus la cit et lusp. jai limpression que le secondaire ma prpar pour le collge, et le collge ma prpar luniversit. oui, a rpondait absolument [ mes attentes]. les profs sont fantastiques. cest une petite cole avec de petites classes alors cest plus interactif en salle de classe. [] cest plus personnel aussi entre collgues et avec les profs. si jtais venue faire un bac ici je naurais pas eu ma formation pratique. [] ce que jaime de la cit cest quils concentrent tous les cours sur les personnes ges. ici cest plus gnral. a complte bien ce que jai vu au collge. les ponts quils font ont du sens. redondances et lacunes partant du fait que les rsultats du questionnaire en ligne montrent certaines insatisfactions, une analyse plus fine de celles-ci savre porteuse. on notera que ce sont les rpondants inscrits en tudes des conflits (9 tudiants sur 11) et en relations humaines et spiritualit (2 tudiants sur 11) qui ont not une insatisfaction lgard de la prparation reue la cit. de manire gnrale, lors des entretiens, on comprend que les lacunes des tudiants ayant rencontr des difficults se situent trois niveaux. premirement, les programmes sources la cit par exemple techniques dducation spcialise ou techniques en travail social ne semblaient pas toujours les prparer adquatement la rdaction de travaux scientifiques de type universitaire. lapprentissage de la manire de rdiger de tels travaux structure du texte, cadre argumentaire de type scientifique, mthode apa, etc. et la pratique de la rdaction scientifique semblaient marginaux dans le cadre de leur programme collgial. en fait, si deux tudiants interrogs ont dit avoir eu la chance de dvelopper leurs aptitudes lgard de lcriture scientifique, les autres semblaient considrer que cette dimension ntait pas importante pour leurs professeurs la cit ou mme absente de leurs apprentissages. aussi, une fois lusp, ces tudiants sentent quils devaient dj matriser ces comptences. certains tudiants interrogs ont indiqu avoir mobilis des ressources du centre de rdaction de lusp, gnralement par le biais de rencontres individualises avec des conseillers en rdaction, et ils ont jug que cet exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 23 appui tait utile et efficace. par ailleurs, ces tudiants ont galement indiqu que lappui la rdaction de travaux universitaire gagnerait tre formalis et gnralis. le professeur [de lusp] tait vite rpondre aux courriels. mais ctait beaucoup dapprendre par moi-mme. il nous a envoy le guide de prsentation. mais, pour nous, le problme ctait : quoi crire, comment sy prendre. ils ne demandent pas de dissertation la cit. on faisait des fiches dactivit, o tu rdiges en fonction de la rencontre que tu viens davoir. ctait pour tre appliqu au march du travail. [] il y a un manque pour tre au niveau universitaire. si ton franais nest pas correct, a peut tre difficile de lamliorer la cit. deuximement, les cours reconnus et les cours offerts ne semblent pas optimaux pour certains tudiants interrogs. les tudiants formulant ce type de critique soulignent ne pas comprendre pourquoi certains cours ont t crdits, pourquoi certains cours ne leur sont pas crdits ou pourquoi certains cours ne leur sont pas recommands. les tudiants inscrits en communications sociales et en relations humaines et spiritualits semblaient vivre davantage de redondances. par exemple, des tudiants se trouvaient devoir suivre un cours dont la matire avait dj t vue la cit alors quils auraient prfr quon leur offre un choix diffrent. en revanche, les tudiants en tudes de conflits semblaient ressentir plutt des lacunes au niveau des contenus. ils ont crdit un cours en politique internationale. je suis alle voir une conseillre pour reprendre ce cours-l. jaurais vraiment voulu le faire. je comprends, mais en mme temps pas vraiment. je nai jamais vu a [lorsque jtudiais la cit], la politique internationale. on a eu plusieurs cours de crdits, mais quand on arrivait dans les cours 2000 ou 3000 on navait aucune ide de quoi ils parlaient. troisimement, certains tudiants ont soulign que les concepts ou les thories utiliss et les sujets traits en arrivant luniversit tmoignent dun cart important par rapport aux thmes qui taient abords la cit dans le programme source. cet cart semble engendrer une confusion pour divers tudiants qui disent, par ailleurs, avoir senti une aisance plus grande avec les notions enseignes de la part de leurs collgues inscrits lusp dans un programme de quatre ans. ils mentionnent galement avoir eu sapproprier la matire de manire prcipite la premire session. si, souvent, les tudiants diront que ces difficults sestompent rapidement ds la deuxime session, certains mentionnent que la marche vers les cours de cte 3000 et 4000 la deuxime anne est plus difficile. ces mmes tudiants reconnaissent exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 24 une flexibilit de la part de leurs professeurs qui prennent gnralement le temps de rpondre adquatement leurs questions en classe ou par crit. il y avait un vocabulaire diffrent et ceux qui sont dj lusp ont un avantage. je trouve que je le sens plus la diffrence en quatrime anne qu la premire session. ce moment-l, les profs taient conciliants car il y avait beaucoup de 2 + 2 et ils semblaient ajuster leur cours. il importe de noter que lusp offre des sessions dorientation au dbut de lanne universitaire et que trs peu dtudiants issus dententes 2 + 2 y participent. ces sessions visent informer sur les fonctionnements de luniversit, tels que la bibliothque, ou les enjeux lis au plagiat. un service de mentorat avait galement t mis en place en septembre 2018 en vue dappuyer les tudiants dans les domaines suivants : stratgies dapprentissage efficaces; astuces pour la gestion du temps; conseils pour comprendre le contenu du cours; conseils pour comprendre les lignes directrices et les attentes du travail et des examens. le personnel administratif prcise que ce service tait offert lensemble de la population tudiante et quaucun tudiant na cherch en bnficier. les apprentissages luniversit saint-paul : perspectives du corps professoral les entretiens avec le corps professoral ont rvl de grandes similitudes en regard de la perspective des tudiants, bien que les personnes interroges aient sembl un peu plus critiques. il importe de rappeler que seuls sept membres du corps professoral ont t interrogs. en outre, ces personnes reconnaissaient que la valeur de leurs jugements pouvait tre limite du fait quelles ntaient pas toujours en mesure didentifier avec prcision les tudiants 2 + 2. toutes ont affirm tout de mme avoir une certaine aisance les reconnatre en classe, notamment du fait quils se regroupent et se connaissent bien, mais aussi du fait quils posent des questions se rapportant leur contexte. apports au niveau des savoirs et des savoir-tre les professeurs en communications sociales reconnaissent plus aisment des forces aux tudiants 2 + 2, notamment au niveau de la rdaction et de leurs connaissances gnrales en relations publique et en journalisme. les professeurs enseignant des cours dont le contenu est plus appliqu ou adoptant des approches plus exprientielles (par exemple, en relations humaines et spiritualit) semblent galement apprcier davantage les forces des tudiants 2 + 2. tous les professeurs interrogs notent la prsence active et bnfique de ces tudiants en classe, par exemple du fait quils partagent des expriences concrtes et quils prsentent exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 25 gnralement une plus grande confiance pour sexprimer. ils soulignent tout autant le srieux de ces tudiants et leur application lgard de leur russite. souvent je vais me servir de leurs expriences pour quils en parlent et les prsentent aux autres. ce quils apprennent en classe, a leur parle parce quils lont dj vcu sur le march du travail. ils sont trs engags. il y a beaucoup de points qui sont soulevs de leur pratique professionnelle. il y a un apport dexemples qui vient de ces tudiants et qui est trs intressant. [] on gagne en apprentissages. perspectives du corps professoral : lacunes au niveau des savoirs et des savoir-faire les professeurs ayant formul des critiques semblent avoir des contenus plus thoriques enseigner. ils reconnaissent des faiblesses particulirement au niveau des connaissances gnrales lies la discipline et au niveau des capacits produire des textes scientifiques. ils ont indiqu observer ces carts lors des questions poses par les tudiants, lors des discussions en classe ou lors de la correction des travaux. de manire assurer le succs des tudiants 2 + 2, certains professeurs prcisent quils ont eu modifier au fil des sessions, tantt des stratgies denseignement, tantt des contenus, tantt des mthodes dvaluation. si, pour certains, ces modifications savrent somme toute positives du fait quelles les ont forc rendre leurs cours plus interactifs par exemple dautres les voient comme posant problme du fait quelles engendrent une diminution du niveau de difficult global de la matire enseigne. jai redsign mon cours [] pour quil soit plus adapt un 2+2. [] cest la question type dun 2+2 : comment je mets a en pratique ? mais je nai pas perdu en enseignement thorique, car mes cours sont tous exprientiel. le saut tait petit. jai eu expliquer des notions de base pour quils intgrent davantage la matire. ce que je prenais pour acquis ne ltait pas. elles prfraient que jexplique plus. a na pas vraiment entrav le droulement du cours, mais normalement en troisime anne je ne le fais pas. il y a une certaine diffrence, [] surtout au niveau des connaissances gnrales. aussi au niveau des mthodologies : [] faire une rflexion sur un texte, utiliser des concepts et les mettre en relation avec dautres concepts [], rsumer des textes scientifiques. vraiment, on a t obligs de descendre dun ou deux crans. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 26 au total, les entretiens avec le corps professoral montraient bien que ces derniers en sont gnralement leurs premires expriences avec des cohortes plus nombreuses dtudiants 2 + 2. ainsi, bien que, du point de vue de la transmission des connaissances ou des approches pdagogiques, certains jugent comme bnfiques la venue de ces cohortes et que dautres les considrent comme plus problmatiques, tous semblent penser que des ajustements, parfois trs mineurs, taient ncessaires pour assurer une russite scolaire de qualit gale entre les diffrents groupes dtudiants mais aussi en regard des cohortes passes. prvoir la suite il peut tre intressant de comparer les perspectives davenir des diffrentes cohortes dtudiants, dautant quau moment dopter pour une entente darrimage de type 2 + 2 ces tudiants soulignent leur intrt augmenter leur chance dtre embauch ou davoir un emploi plus avantageux. on observe que les rponses au questionnaire concernant les perspectives davenir continuent daller en ce sens. de fait, les tudiants 2 + 2 sont plus nombreux (76 %) considrer que leur formation lusp savre utile pour trouver un emploi ou entreprendre une carrire que les tudiants ayant adopt dautres parcours (60 %). en outre, considrant que 33 % du groupe dtudiants aux parcours multiples ne savent pas si leur programme leur sera utile au moment dentrer sur le march du travail, on peut imaginer que ces personnes peuvent avoir une moins bonne connaissance du march du travail que les tudiants 2 + 2. de fait, les tudiants 2 + 2 ont tous eu des stages au moment o ils tudiaient la cit. ainsi, non seulement chaque tudiant 2 + 2 a fait au moins un stage, mais il a eu loccasion de discuter avec ses collgues des autres environnements de stage. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 27 les entretiens rappellent par ailleurs que plusieurs dentre eux travaillent dj dans leur domaine dtudes temps partiel du fait de leur exprience de stage ou du fait quils ont obtenu un premier diplme. cet emploi et leur frquentation du march du travail les amnent aussi tre plus nombreux (42 %) savoir o ils travailleront, comparativement aux autres tudiants de lusp sonds (20 %). cela tant, tous nenvisagent pas travailler temps plein aprs leur baccalaurat. questionn savoir quelle serait leur principale occupation durant lanne suivant leurs tudes universitaires, plus de la moiti (51 %) ont dit simaginer sur le march du travail, tantt comme entrepreneur ou travailleur autonome (35 %), tantt comme employ (15 %). cette plus grande assurance quant aux perspectives demploi se reflte dans une moins grande confiance des tudiants 2 + 2 (64 %) que les autres tudiants (80 %) lgard du fait que leur baccalaurat les prpare adquatement pour entreprendre des tudes suprieures. ils demeurent tout de mme 20 % envisager principalement cette option la fin de leur baccalaurat. les entretiens avec les tudiants 2 + 2 montrent bien que la confiance lgard des tudes universitaires de premier et de deuxime cycle se construit peu peu. lencouragement des professeurs, ainsi que lexprience positive des tudiants lgard de la matire enseigne et de leur russite scolaire les amnent au fil du temps dvelopper cet intrt plus grand envers les tudes universitaires. quand jai fait mon stage la cit jaidais les gens dans le domaine mais ce ntait pas une aide excessive. et je me suis dit que si jallais luniversit jaurais des tches plus intressantes. l, cest un peu la mme chose. je me dis que je pourrais faire plus avec une matrise. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 28 aprs, je veux minscrire la maitrise en []. je ne sais pas si cest bien contingent. [] javais dj en tte un peu de faire une matrise quand jai commenc le bac. mais cest plus raliste maintenant. on a un cours de mthode de recherche que jai ador. cest lui qui me donne le got de continuer [ la matrise]. russite scolaire il a sembl utile, dans le cadre de cette tude, danalyser et de comparer les rsultats scolaires des tudiants 2 + 2. dune part, plusieurs commentaires des personnes interroges rappellent que les performances des tudiants 2 + 2 proccupent les principaux intresss, mais aussi le corps professoral. dautre part, bien que les cadres dentrevues aient t rdigs de manire mettre en lumire une perspective comparative entre la population tudiante 2 + 2 et celle du groupe tmoin, ce regard comparatif semble avoir merg spontanment pour plusieurs, en particulier au moment de qualifier les enjeux dintgration de la matire et des habitudes de travail. si trs peu dtudiants ont indiqu souponner un cart au niveau des rsultats scolaires en tant que tel, plusieurs ont jug que les diffrentes cohortes ntaient pas outilles de manire gale ou quitable au moment de se prparer aux valuations. lexamen des moyennes des tudiants permet de circonscrire une analyse prliminaire. le caractre prliminaire de cette analyse doit tre rapport au fait que, le nombre dtudiants de chaque cohorte tant rduit, les moyennes varient sensiblement dune anne lautre. en outre, comme la perspective temporelle est rduite, du fait quil ne nous est possible dexaminer que deux ou trois cohortes tudiantes en fonction du dtail des variables analyses , il importera de poursuivre cet examen afin de consolider ces premires analyses. dans lanalyse qui suit, nous avons examin les moyennes pondres cumulatives4 mais aussi celles observes en troisime et en quatrime anne. les moyennes de deux groupes sont compares soit celles des tudiants 2 + 2 et celles des groupes tmoins. les groupes tmoins sont constitus dtudiants inscrits dans les mmes programmes que les tudiants 2 + 2 et pour lesquels les trois moyennes analyses ici taient disponibles. trois cohortes sont retenues, soit celle ayant gradu en mai 2017, celle ayant gradu en mai 2018 et celle inscrite en troisime anne pour lanne 2017-2018. les donnes administratives nous ont t communiques en juillet 2018. 4 la moyenne pondre cumulative est une mesure du rendement scolaire de ltudiant pour lensemble des cours suivis (avec ou sans succs) par ltudiant. elle se calcule en divisant la somme de toutes les notes pondres par la somme des crdits de tous les cours suivis (avec ou sans succs) par ltudiant. une moyenne pondre cumulative de 7 quivaut 75 %-79 % ou b+. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 29 diffrentes cohortes, diffrents rsultats dans un premier temps, lorsquon sattarde aux deux groupes dtudiants (2 + 2 et tmoin), on remarque que les moyennes pondres cumulatives sont sensiblement les mmes pour la cohorte ayant obtenu leur diplme en mai 2018 et pour la cohorte inscrite en troisime anne en 2017-2018. cela tant, on remarque que les trois moyennes observes (troisime anne, quatrime anne et pondre cumulative) de la cohorte dtudiants 2 + 2 ayant gradu en 2017 sont suprieures celles du groupe tmoin. de manire gnrale, on peut penser que le nombre grandissant dtudiants participant aux ententes de transfert 2 + 2 et le nombre grandissant de programmes pour lesquels ces ententes se qualifient expliquent ce rapprochement des moyennes. moyennes de diffrentes cohortes moyenne troisime anne moyenne quatrime anne moyenne pondre cumulative nombre tudiants tudiants 2 + 2 inscrits en 3e anne 7,78 50 groupe tmoin inscrit en 3e anne 7,66 108 tudiants 2 + 2 diplms mai 2018 7,31 7,96 7,45 18 groupe tmoin diplms mai 2018 7,24 7,63 7,62 39 tudiants 2 + 2 diplms mai 2017 8,09 7,98 8,33 9 groupe tmoin diplms mai 2017 7,82 7,63 7,73 34 des expriences par programme distinctes dans un second temps, les moyennes rvlent toutefois des distinctions lorsque les programmes auxquels sont inscrits les tudiants sont mis en exergue. le tableau ci-aprs ne prsente les donnes que pour les trois programmes o le nombre dinscriptions tait suprieur cinq et permettait une approche comparative, soit tudes de conflits, communications sociales et relations humaines et spiritualit. une seule cohorte a pu tre analyse en ce qui a trait au programme relations humaines et spiritualit du fait que le nombre dinscriptions tait infrieur 5 pour lanne 2018. pour le programme tudes de conflits, on note que les tudiants 2 + 2 ayant gradu en 2018 semblaient lgrement plus faibles que les tudiants du groupe tmoin, cette tendance semblant sinverser toutefois avec la cohorte inscrite en troisime anne en 2017-2018. le programme communications sociales prsente un portrait distinct du fait que les tudiants 2 + 2 performent davantage que les tudiants du groupe tmoin, et ce, de manire assez franche pour toutes les moyennes observes. comme les donnes sont limites, il est plus difficile de formuler des constats pour le programme relations humaines et spiritualit. les donnes montrent tout de mme exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 30 davantage de difficults pour les tudiants 2 + 2 lors de leur premire anne lusp en 20172018. cet examen des rsultats scolaires de diffrentes cohortes par programme permet dtablir des ponts avec lexprience partage lors des entretiens. dune part, les tudiants dont les ententes darrimage les mnent en communications sociales ont sembl tre mieux prpars dun point de vue scolaire leur exprience universitaire, les premires ententes (impliquant les programmes journalisme et relations publiques de la cit) paraissant les plus contigus. dautre part, les parcours des cohortes plus rcentes et inscrites dans dautres programmes ne permettent pas dobserver de tendances trs marques ce jour, ce qui renvoie galement aux propos des entretiens qui tmoignaient dexpriences tantt positives tantt ngatives en regard des apprentissages. moyennes de diffrentes cohortes par type de programme moyenne troisime anne moyenne quatrime anne moyenne pondre cumulative nombre tudiants tudes de conflits tudiants 2 + 2 inscrits en 3e anne 7,76 25 groupe tmoin inscrit en 3e anne 7,16 37 tudiants 2 + 2 diplms mai 2018 6,87 7,84 7,03 9 groupe tmoin diplms mai 2018 7,21 7,33 7,30 15 communications sociales tudiants 2 + 2 inscrits en 3e anne groupe tmoin inscrit en 3e anne 7,76 9 6,77 27 tudiants 2 + 2 diplms mai 2018 8,16 8,45 8,15 6 groupe tmoin diplms mai 2018 7,30 7,31 7,39 12 relations humaines et spiritualit tudiants 2 + 2 inscrits en 3e anne groupe tmoin inscrit en 3e anne 8,07 15 8,54 18 considrer lge et le sexe nous avons galement cherch valuer leffet dautres variables sur la moyenne pondre cumulative. pour toutes les cohortes, au niveau des groupes dge, on remarque que les tudiants 2 + 2 de moins de 22 ans et ceux de plus de 30 ans performent moins que les tudiants du groupe tmoin. en revanche les tudiants 2 + 2 ayant entre 22 et 30 ans exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 31 performent davantage que ceux du groupe tmoin ayant le mme ge. pour toutes les cohortes et tous les groupes tudis, les femmes performent davantage que les hommes. remarques conclusives et recommandations des analyses proposes dans le cadre de cette recherche valuative, on doit retenir tout dabord lattitude trs favorable des tudiants lgard de leurs tudes postsecondaires menes dans le cadre dententes darrimage de 60 crdits. plusieurs dimensions positives de ces ententes ont t mises en lumire. si des dimensions plus pratiques gain en employabilit et conomie en temps sont exposes au moment de justifier le choix dune entente darrimage 2 + 2, lapprciation de lexprience de ces ententes renvoie galement des dimensions plus gnrales et comprhensives, comme la chance de combiner des apprentissages pratiques et thoriques ou la chance de bnficier de lenvironnement plus familier de lusp. cela tant, presque la totalit des personnes interroges ont t en mesure didentifier des faiblesses ou des lacunes lies ces ententes ainsi que des manires dy remdier. une premire orientation des possibles amliorations envisages touche lencadrement et ladministration des ententes darrimage. une seconde dimension porte plus spcifiquement sur les expriences dapprentissage. nous avons labor ci-aprs quatre recommandations permettant de rpondre plusieurs des proccupations souleves. prvoir un processus de rtroaction continue de la population tudiante et du corps professoral en vue daffiner le processus de reconnaissance de crdits des tudiants et des professeurs ont suggr que le processus de reconnaissance de crdits soit affin. les personnes interroges suggraient que, dans certains cas, cet affinement mnerait vers moins de cours crdits, alors que, dans dautres cas, il mnerait vers des transferts de crdits diffrents. selon eux, le processus gagnerait tre plus en phase avec lexprience tudiante et professorale, en amont de la signature des ententes, mais plus encore rapidement aprs leur mise en uvre. dans une perspective administrative et corporative, llaboration dune entente de transfert requiert un examen rigoureux des programmes collgiaux et universitaires correspondants, avec une attention particulire envers les objectifs dapprentissages. au moment de concevoir ces ententes, les directions des programmes, des experts en pdagogie et des reprsentants des membres du personnel enseignant viss lusp et la cit sont impliqus dans lanalyse des cursus et les dcisions sont prises par les directions des secteurs lenseignement. cela tant, si des dialogues entre ces deux tablissements sont ncessaires pour les administrateurs responsables de ces ententes, les dialogues entre les corps professoraux de ces tablissements exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 32 semblent tre moins frquents. les tablissements pourraient prvoir davantage dopportunits pour que ces dialogues aient lieu au moment danalyser les ententes de transfert de crdits. dautre part, lors des entretiens, les tudiants aux prises avec de tels enjeux taient en mesure de nommer avec prcision les cours o les apprentissages taient plus redondants, les cours qui auraient t utiles leur programme et ceux qui ne leur taient pas offerts, ou alors les cours pour lesquels des prrequis auraient t ncessaires. ces savoirs exprientiels des tudiants pourraient tre davantage mobiliss par le personnel responsable de la gestion des ententes de transfert. limplication des tudiants pourrait sinscrire dans un processus damlioration continue de la pertinence des parcours scolaires suggrs o les tudiants de lusp ayant opt pour une entente de transfert de 60 crdits partagent collectivement leurs perspectives. ces partages pourraient avoir lieu ds la fin de la premire anne dune nouvelle entente, tre rpts la fin de la seconde anne, puis tre repris par la suite de manire continue tous les trois ou quatre ans. nous recommandons que le processus de reconnaissance de crdits tienne compte des observations des professeurs et des expriences vcues par les tudiants 2 + 2 durant leurs tudes universitaires pour affiner le parcours scolaire. cette procdure sinscrirait dans le cadre des pratiques exemplaires visant le partage des perspectives lies aux contenus enseigns et aux aptitudes de travail dans une optique damlioration continue des ententes. dvelopper les comptences en rdaction de textes scientifiques et les connaissances gnrales lies la discipline au niveau des apprentissages, la capacit rdiger un texte universitaire caractre scientifique est largement la comptence qui a sembl le plus poser problme aux tudiants interrogs. on note ainsi que le dveloppement darguments scientifiques, la capacit mobiliser et mettre en dialogue des concepts, la capacit chercher et mobiliser des rfrences scientifiques, ainsi que la capacit structurer un texte sont autant de comptences que les tudiants 2 + 2 sembleraient gagner dvelopper. plusieurs ont rappel que les tudiants de lusp adoptant un parcours rgulier taient tenus de suivre le cours analyse critique, lecture et criture de travaux universitaires qui leur permet dintgrer ce type dapprentissage. les connaissances partages dans le cours approches dans les humanits : interprtations de lexprience humaine semblait galement dun certain intrt dans le cas o les cours des programmes de la cit nabordaient pas ou abordaient trs peu les traditions de base en sciences humaines. en outre, certains savoirs partags lors des journes daccueil de lusp prvoient le partage de certains savoirs et comptences jugs dficitaires par les personnes interroges. cela tant, les solutions prioriser ne sont pas apparues de manire vidente lors des entretiens. deux voies principales impliquant plusieurs options ont t envisages, une exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 33 premire engageant la cit, et une seconde impliquant lusp. premirement, la cit pourrait modifier son offre de cours pour livrer des cours plus adapts aux tudiants souhaitant poursuivre leurs tudes luniversit. aussi, au-del de llaboration de nouveaux cours, on rappelait que les professeurs, dans le cadre de cours existants, pourraient accompagner de manire plus rigoureuse les tudiants pour dvelopper leurs aptitudes crire des textes scientifiques en les amenant rdiger de plus longs textes et crire selon les normes scientifiques. enfin, limplication du collge la cit ce niveau pourrait galement consister en une rvision plus large de ses programmes de manire mieux reconnatre le fait que plusieurs de ses finissants poursuivent des tudes universitaires aprs leur passage au collge. deuximement, on a suggr quun cours pourrait tre offert lusp aux tudiants entamant un baccalaurat par le biais dune entente 2 + 2 lt prcdant le dbut de leur programme ce cours pourrait prendre diffrentes formes, par exemple en prenant la forme dun cours intensif dabord et en intgrant un volet de lecture dirige stalant sur une plus longue priode par la suite. un tel cours pourrait galement tre offert durant la session, mais sous une forme diffrente, en intgrant lapprentissage en ligne par exemple. il permettrait dapprivoiser lcriture et la recherche en contexte scientifique en sappuyant sur le cours obligatoire, analyse critique, lecture et criture de travaux universitaires. il y aurait lieu galement de modifier lapproche de lusp au moment de laccueil des tudiants 2 + 2 de manire ce que les sessions dinformations offertes attirent un plus large public. on pourrait penser galement investiguer pour mieux saisir les besoins des tudiants en matire de mentorat afin dvaluer la possibilit de ractiver ce service. cette offre dappoint au niveau des comptences rdactionnelles et en recherche pourrait tre accompagne, dans certains cas, dune offre associe aux domaines dtudes enseigns lusp et portant plus spcifiquement sur des contenus thoriques et conceptuels. il sagirait cette fois de transmettre des connaissances plus gnrales lies au domaine dtudes. ici, llaboration de ces savoirs pourrait impliquer plus troitement le corps professoral pour le dveloppement de contenus en ligne et/ou interactif mobilisables par tous les tudiants de la discipline. nous recommandons que des comits disciplinaires forms de reprsentants du collge la cit et de lusp se penchent sur la question des aptitudes en rdaction scientifique et des connaissances gnrales lies la discipline. ces comits auraient prciser la ou les options les plus susceptibles de dvelopper ces comptences et ces savoirs, ce, de manire favoriser les apprentissages pour lensemble du parcours des tudiants 2 + 2. prciser et simplifier lintgration des tudiants 2 + 2 luniversit saintpaul si nombre dtudiants vivent une certaine confusion au moment de commencer leurs tudes universitaires, peu importe leur provenance, ceux entamant un baccalaurat dans le cadre exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 34 dune entente darrimage de 60 crdits gagneraient ce que leurs parcours soient clarifis. les appuis offerts aux tudiants 2 + 2 par la cit pourraient tre largis par une prsentation plus systmatique de linformation. de mme, laccs aux conseillers pdagogiques lusp pourrait tre facilit, en offrant davantage de sances sans rendez-vous par exemple. au total, les normes et les procdures gagneraient tre revues afin dtre simplifies et plus systmatiquement accessibles. ce faisant, lutilisation des technologies pourrait tre bonifie pour le partage plus systmatique dinformations ou mme pour augmenter laccessibilit des conseillers pdagogiques (par vidoconfrence). par ailleurs, la densit des parcours rend les erreurs des tudiants, par exemple au niveau des choix de cours, plus lourdes de consquences. nous recommandons que lusp revoie ses manires de faire afin que les normes et les procdures associes aux ententes de transfert de 60 crdits soient simplifies et formalises. laccessibilit aux conseillers pdagogiques pourrait galement tre bonifie. poursuivre lanalyse de lexprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits tant donn : que le nombre dententes de transfert 2 + 2 augmentera de manire significative entre la cit et lusp au cours des prochaines annes; que le personnel administratif et le corps professoral de ces deux tablissements ajustent de manire rgulire leurs manires de faire; que lanalyse des rsultats scolaires des tudiants portait sur des cohortes restreintes; quil est impossible de raliser un nombre important dentretiens avec un auprs dtudiants diplms ayant bnfici dententes de transfert de 60 crdits; nous considrons que les analyses prsentes dans ce rapport offrent un portrait prliminaire de la situation quil importera de bonifier dans les annes venir. nous recommandons que la cit et lusp renouvellent leur collaboration de manire poursuivre leurs investigations lies lexprience de la population tudiante bnficiant dententes darrimage de 60 crdits. laugmentation continue du nombre de diplms de la cit adoptant un parcours de transfert 2 + 2 annuellement permettra une meilleure comprhension de lexprience tudiante en fonction des programmes auxquels ils sont inscrits. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 35 annexe a : guide dentrevue auprs des tudiants 2 + 2 exprience du parcours 2+2 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 prsentez les raisons principales qui vous ont conduit choisir un parcours faisant l'objet d'une entente d'arrimage entre la cit et l'universit saint-paul. considrez-vous avoir reu de la part de la cit et de l'universit saint-paul toute la documentation dont vous aviez besoin pour faire la transition entre ces deux tablissements ? expliquez. comment pourrait-on amliorer cette exprience ? considrez-vous avoir reu de la cit et de l'universit saint-paul tout l'appui dont vous aviez besoin, de la part du personnel enseignant et administratif, pour faire la transition entre ces deux tablissements ? expliquez. comment pourrait-on amliorer cette exprience ? considrez-vous que l'offre de cours l'universit saint-paul vous permet d'accomplir votre baccalaurat en deux ans ? expliquez. comment pourrait-on amliorer cette exprience ? en ce qui a trait aux habitudes de travail, (communication, prise de notes, lectures, travail d'quipe), considrez-vous comme avantageuse la formation reue la cit ? expliquez. considrez-vous qu'il vous a t facile de vous intgrer la vie sociale l'universit saintpaul ? expliquez. comment pourrait-on amliorer cette exprience ? jugez-vous que la combinaison d'une formation technique et d'une formation universitaire sera un avantage sur le march du travail ? expliquez. quelles dimensions de l'entente permettant la combinaison d'un diplme collgial et universitaire pourraient tre amliores au niveau de la prparation au march du travail ? renseignements personnels 10 quel programme tes-vous inscrit l'universit saint-paul ? 11 quel programme tiez-vous inscrit la cit ? homme / femme / je midentifie comme : 12 veuillez indiquer votre identit de genre : dans quel groupe d'ge vous moins de 22 ans / 22-24 ans / 25-29 ans / 30-24 ans / 13 situez-vous ? 35-39 ans / 40-49 ans / 50-64 ans / 65 ans et plus 14 en plus de vos diplmes obtenus dans le cadre de votre parcours 2+2, avez-vous obtenu d'autres diplmes d'tudes postsecondaires? prcisez. 15 quelle est votre langue maternelle ? franais / anglais / autre 16 dans quelle langue officielle du canada tes-vous le plus franais / anglais / les deux l'aise ? exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 36 annexe b : rapport dvaluation externe par marc l. johnson, phd, q compte-rendu des tches de suivi mes services en tant quvaluateur conseil ont t retenus plusieurs tapes de ce projet de recherche. phase de conception. jai t associ au projet de cette tude ds sa conception (octobre 2017). jai alors soumis des suggestions sur le type dexpertise mobiliser, sur les sources et les mthodes de collecte des donnes possibles. ajustements mthodologiques. une fois le projet sur les rails, jai t appel ragir aux dfis qui se posaient quant la collecte des donnes. ltablissement de lchantillon anticip tant plus difficile raliser que prvu, lquipe a d rorganiser les approches de collecte des donnes et ma consult cet effet (mars, avril, mai 2018). validation des instruments. une fois le devis mthodologique ajust, jai t appel examiner le design des instruments de collecte des donnes, soit les guides dentrevues et le questionnaire de sondage (mai et aot 2018). apprciation des donnes collectes. une fois la collecte des donnes ralise et lanalyse entame, jai t consult sur la qualit des donnes (fvrier 2019). examen du rapport de ltude. enfin, jai t appel revoir le rapport de ltude et y apporter mes commentaires, ainsi qu produire ce compte-rendu (mars 2019). valuation sommative des rsultats escompts ltude se donnait un objectif assez simple : valuer la formule des ententes darrimage 2 +2 entre le collge la cit et luniversit saint-paul sous langle de lexprience de la population tudiante. cet objectif de nature qualitative se dclinait par des questions de recherche5 relatives la russite scolaire (q.1), aux apprentissages raliss selon la perception des employeurs (q.9), la dure des tudes (q.4), lintgration dans le contexte universitaire (q.2), aux diffrences en termes de connaissances, aptitudes et comptences (q.3) ou dcoulant du profil 5 le projet de recherche, rdig en anglais, indique here are some of the research questions , ce qui laisse entendre que les dix questions pouvaient ou non tre actionnes dans ltude et que cette dernire pouvait aussi stendre dautres questions au besoin. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 37 sociodmographique (q.5), la satisfaction des tudiants (q.6) et des employeurs (q.10) et la confiance de dboucher vers des emplois (q.8) ou des tudes suprieures (q.7). cette tude a dabord une contribution intressante la connaissance de la mobilit tudiante dans le cadre dententes de transfert entre collges et universits. la revue des crits (voir sections error! reference source not found. et error! reference source not found.) propose intressera les chercheurs et intervenants chargs de dvelopper ou damliorer des ententes darrimage. ltude a russi produire des constatations pour la plupart des questions voques ci-dessus. au vu de ces constatations, la chercheuse a t en mesure de proposer des recommandations fondes visant amliorer lexprience des tudiants par des modifications dans la mise en uvre et lencadrement dententes darrimage. cependant, trois questions de recherche (q.4, q.9 et q.10) nont pas trouv de rponse. la question de la dure des tudes (q.4), tout comme celle de la perception des employeurs lgard des apprentissages des diplms (q.9) et de leur satisfaction gnrale lgard des diplms (q.10) nont pas pu tre abordes par lanalyse en raison de la composition de la population de ltude. comme lexplique la chercheure dans ses error! reference source not found. (voir section error! reference source not found.), la population tudiante retenue ne comptait que 27 diplms (issus de quatre programmes collgiaux et se dirigeant vers trois programmes universitaires associs quatre ententes de transfert de 60 crdits). malgr des efforts rpts, le recrutement de lchantillon na permis dinterviewer que trois diplms. en consquence, il tait peu intressant de rechercher et dinterviewer des employeurs ayant connu ces diplms, ni danalyser la dure des tudes pour un si petit chantillon. recommandations ltude sappuie sur une mthodologie qui a pu produire des donnes qualitatives significatives afin de comprendre lexprience tudiante dans le cadre des programmes slectionns. je serais donc enclin recommander quelle soit prise en compte par dautres tudes qui voudraient se pencher sur un objet similaire. il leur faudrait bien videmment ladapter leurs besoins. par contre, sur le plan quantitatif, la constitution dun chantillon significatif de diplms a prsent un dfi important pour la prsente tude. il a t possible, partir de lchantillon des participants actuels aux programmes viss, de mener une recherche descriptive afin de caractriser la formule relativement innovante que reprsentent les articulations 2 + 2, ainsi quune recherche exploratoire afin de saisir les dfis qui ont merg lors de leur mise en uvre. il fut toutefois plus difficile dvaluer limpact de tels programmes car, pour ce faire, il aurait fallu que les programmes aient gnr suffisamment de diplms pour constituer un exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 38 chantillon significatif qui puisse tre compar un groupe tmoin. dans le cas prsent, ce ne fut pas possible. pour les autres tudes qui sintresseront un objet similaire, je recommande de bien jauger au pralable la population qui sera examine et lchantillon qui pourra en tre tir. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 39 bibliographie axion (2017). profil des tudiants francophones qui suivent des parcours scolaires. ottawa : ministre de lenseignement suprieur et de la formation professionnelle. conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur (2016). transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto : prpar par smith, r. decock, h., lin, s. sidhu, r. et mccloy, u. conseil ontarien de la qualit de lenseignement suprieur (2013). les ententes de transfert des crdits du collge luniversit et lenseignement universitaire de premier cycle : lontario dans un contexte pancanadien et international : prpar par trick, d. de david trick and associates. cowin, b. (2013). student transfer, success, and mobility in bc post-secondary institutions. a synthesis of research. vancouver: british columbia council on admissions and transfer. decock, h. mccloy, u., liu, s., hu, b. (2011). the transfer experience of ontario college graduates who further their education. an analysis of ontarios college graduate satisfaction survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. la cit collgiale (2013). des meilleurs pratiques pour assurer la mobilit tudiante des collges vers les universits. toronto : conseil ontarien pour larticulation et le transfert. pgf consultants (2017). projet : tat des lieux des parcours scolaires offerts en langue franaise au postsecondaire en ontario. rapport final. ottawa. exprience des tudiants ayant opt pour une entente darrimage de 60 crdits 40

coming full circle: evaluating the success and sustainability of our pathways for indigenous learners model march 1st, 2019 2018-05 centre for policy and research in indigenous learning 1 table of contents acknowledgements.......................................................................................................................... 3 introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4 background ...................................................................................................................................................4 the project steering committee ...................................................................................................................5 the model ayaakwaamisiiwin ...................................................................................................................5 guiding research questions .........................................................................................................................7 literature review and environmental scan...................................................................................... 8 transfer and mobility in ontario ..................................................................................................................8 pathways for indigenous learners ............................................................................................................. 10 tracking/monitoring pathways.................................................................................................................. 12 project design and methodology ................................................................................................... 14 group reflection and sharing circles ........................................................................................................ 14 semi-structured interviews ....................................................................................................................... 15 respondent participation .......................................................................................................................... 15 analysis of the data set ............................................................................................................................. 15 development and application of the evaluative tool ............................................................................... 17 results and key findings question one ...................................................................................... 18 outcomes: our intent versus our impact ................................................................................................. 18 successes and benefits of our model ........................................................................................................ 19 areas for improvement.............................................................................................................................. 22 challenges to implementing pathways for indigenous learners .............................................................. 25 supporting the implementation of pathways for indigenous learners .................................................... 30 supporting the sustainability of our pathways.......................................................................................... 32 results and key findings: question two ........................................................................................ 35 assessing pathways: appropriate methods for data collection ............................................................... 35 monitoring pathways for indigenous learners--metrics and indicators of success ................................. 35 recommendations and next steps ................................................................................................ 38 conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 39 references ..................................................................................................................................... 40 appendix a: wrap around support framework ........................................................................................ 44 appendix b: list of pathways and their status .......................................................................................... 47 appendix c: interview guide ..................................................................................................................... 50 appendix e: application of the evaluative tool ......................................................................................... 51 appendix e: sample articulation agreement ............................................................................................ 53 (draft agreement)................................................................................................................................. 53 2 acknowledgements meegwetch, thank you, to the original founding members of the pathways for indigenous learners project from confederation college, first nations technical institute and trent university for your example and vision for this work. it set a strong foundation that we are able to learn grow from. thank you to the advisory committee members, adam hopkins, s. brenda small, don mccaskill, emily willson and joyce helmer for your leadership and direction. a very big thank you to lisa schmidt for providing feedback and reviewing project materials and reports. meegwetch, thank you, to bruce beardy, professor, anishinaabemowin language, confederation college for working with members of the projects advisory committee, and for providing a name in the anishinaabe language that captures all of the elements of our model and our work around pathways. we are grateful for your help. thank you to all of the past and present partners and steering committee members who have been a part of this work. you participation, guidance and feedback over the past five years has been integral to the success of this collaboration. thank you to the key informants and meeting participants who were a part of the coming full circle project. your reflection and feedback have grounded this work, and will inform where we take our work as we move forward. thank you to dr. lorrilee mcgregor, for your guidance and direction as an external evaluator. lastly, thank you to the ontario council on articulation and transfer for your continued support of this work. 3 introduction background in 2013, indigenous educators from confederation college, first nations technical institute (fnti), and trent university established a partnership that sought to increase access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners across the province of ontario. in particular, the pathways for indigenous learners project was launched, and agreements signed that established three postsecondary pathways across the partnering institutions in the fields of indigenous studies, social work, and environmental studies. these pathways were grounded in a commitment to indigenous learners, and included unique elements such as: relationship-building between partnering institutions to encourage prospective learners to access new and existing pathways; curriculum mapping based on indigenous learning outcomes; a wraparound support services model (appendix a); and a transition program, biishkaa, coordinated by trent university (cpril, 2013-2016). in 2013, presidents from each partnering institution met in person at fnti to sign a memorandum of understanding demonstrating their support for this work. further, each partnering institution received beaded panels as seen in figure 1 to further signify the partnership. figure 1: picture from the day that presidents from confederation college, first nations technical institute, and trent university signed the memorandum of understanding (left), and a picture of the beaded panels that each president received to signify the partnership (right). 4 the project steering committee this project has since undergone second and third iterations, embracing second and third circle partners; the full circle of partners now includes 16 colleges and universities and an indigenous institute, from across ontario and who constitute the project steering committee. shared values, practices and commitments, relationship building, building common ground, and collaborative and informed action ground the steering committees model of collaboration and partnership. figure 2: image of the first, second and third circle first circle: in 2013-2016, through relationship partners building and partnership, the pathways for indigenous learners project emerged between trent university, first nations technical institute, and confederation college. first circle partners also act as the advisory committee project, providing guidance and direction. second circle: in 2016-17 the first circle of partners grew their model by inviting additional postsecondary institutions to join the project. in this phase, eight additional postsecondary institutions joined, comprising the second circle of partners. third circle: in 2017-18, wanting to build off the success of the first expansion of the steering committee, five additional colleges and universities joined the third circle of partners, bringing the group to a total of 16 postsecondary institutions from across ontario. the model ayaakwaamisiiwin ayaakwaamisiiwin, the name of our pathways for indigenous learners model (see figure 3), is an anishinaabemowin word that means to be carefully prepared for what you encounter, and able to overcome what you experience so that you are able to move forward. this applies to indigenous learners following a pathway; it applies to the pathways in place; and it applies to an institution supporting a pathway. for the learner, it means that they have everything they need to navigate a pathway and succeed, and they are equipped to overcome any obstacles that they may face. for the institution, it means that they have everything in place to support a pathway and they are equipped to respond to the needs and experiences of indigenous learners. this model reflects all of our elements and processes for creating and supporting pathways for indigenous learners. 5 figure 3: the pathways for indigenous learners project model, ayaakwaamisiiwin for partnership and collaboration (slightly modified version from cpril, 2016) work to date has resulted in the identification of a lengthy list of pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions. further, this work has led to partnerships that support indigenous learners, such as through curriculum sharing in the field of indigenous education and by generating multi-institutional commitments to breaking down barriers to pursuing or following pathways. not least of the positive outcomes of this work is the establishment of a province-wide network comprised of indigenous and non-indigenous partners with diverse roles and responsibilities within an array of postsecondary institutions. due to the trusting relationships that have been built by our engaging with one another across institutes, colleges and universities, there have emerged new champions and advocates for indigenous learner pathways and learner success in ontario. this five-year collaboration has also contributed to a greater ease with each other and a comfort level with challenging conversations. such conversations range in topic from breaking down silos across postsecondary institutions to underlying competition in postsecondary education, not to mention systemic barriers and systemic racism. in other words, relationships amongst the participants in this network have been one of the greatest successes of this work. these same relationships have led to candid conversations and a growing awareness of some of the challenges we face in establishing pathways. while the working group has succeeded in identifying an expansive list of pathways, only six pathways agreements have been created (although there are more near implementation). this reality highlights that, despite our successes, it was incumbent upon us to explore those challenges to getting pathways in place and sustaining them. thus, with three iterations of project partners and a desire to understand project successes and areas for improvement, the cfc project undertook research to critically examine the success and sustainability of our model for creating pathways for indigenous learners. through this evaluation we have had an opportunity to tell the story of our work and the people involved. while, we highlight our accomplishments, we are honest about the 6 areas that we need to improve. specifically, this project has two main objectives: 1) evaluating the effectiveness of our process in terms of creating pathways for indigenous learners; and 2) creating an evaluation framework for measuring and monitoring the success and sustainability of pathways that have been implemented across our partnering institutions. guiding research questions in the early phases of project development, members of the first circle steering committee met to reflect on previous phases of the pathways for indigenous learners work, and to discuss next steps. the group identified evaluation as a critical next step, and then framed the following as guiding questions: 1. how well has our process worked for creating pathways for indigenous learners across our partnering institutions? what were the challenges and supports to implementing pathways across our partnering institutions and how were these challenges overcome? how many pathways have been successfully implemented across our partnering institutions? what are the experiences of indigenous learners who have followed the pathways developed through this initiative? how do we ensure the sustainability of these pathways for indigenous learners across partnering institutions? 2. what evaluation framework should be used to measure the success and sustainability of our pathways for indigenous learners? what are appropriate methods for collecting data? what are the indicators of success? how will these indicators be measured? 7 literature review and environmental scan to begin our evaluation process, we undertook a literature review on relevant topics including: indigenous models of project and program evaluation; monitoring and evaluating pathways (transfer and mobility) in postsecondary education; pathways for indigenous learners and conceptualizations of success for indigenous learners in postsecondary education. results of the literature review helped to ground the project and guide the development of research materials; for instance, the literature review informed the development of an interview guide, as well as providing some measures or indicators to include within our final evaluative tool for monitoring pathways. an environmental scan was conducted alongside of the literature review. the purpose of the environmental scan was to search for and review research reports and tools that document processes for monitoring student transfer mobility, and the success of pathways, in ontario and in british columbia. in particular, critical research and project reports from the ontario council on articulation and transfer and the british columbia council on articulation and transfer (bbccat) websites were identified and reviewed. further, key informants from the projects partnering institutions were asked to share information on their institutions methods for monitoring transfer and mobility. through the environmental scan and the literature we identified relevant knowledge, key challenges, wise or promising practices for monitoring pathways, and for monitoring and supporting pathways specifically for indigenous learners. transfer and mobility in ontario pathways are characterized as routes that students take to move between and among levels of educational credentials, institutions, and programs (ontario policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system, 2011). an enhanced transfer system increases accessibility to postsecondary education and training and, ultimately, employability, which provides a good argument for supporting the prioritization of pathways (bccat, 2007). british columbia, alberta and quebec have led the way in supporting transfer and mobility across postsecondary education. while ontario may be behind in terms of transfer and mobility, pathways are becoming increasingly popular across the province (association of canadian community colleges, 2011; gawley and mcgowan, 2006; king, 2015; oncat, 2015; ontario government, 2011; popovic, 2012). for instance, ontario saw an increase of 160 pathways involving 46 institutions between 2009 and 2012 (colleges ontario, n.d.). while many formal articulation and credit transfer agreements across institutions exist, ontario does not have a provincial process or system in place for credit transfer and student mobility across all postsecondary environments (ontario government, 2011). we are still at an institutional level, and not a systems level in terms of transfer and mobility. moreover, the current design of the postsecondary education system in ontario presents challenges to implementing pathways. whereas some education systems are intentionally designed for the integration of pathways, ontario is designed as a binary where institutions such as colleges and universities have different vocational and learning outcomes (oise, n.d.). as such, the alignment of programs, courses and learning outcomes require time and resources to map out, and must often be approached on a case-by-case basis. further, as a binary system, ontarios postsecondary structure creates different governance models, funding models, language/terminology, 8 and quality assurance mechanisms for colleges and universities. therefore, regarding transfer and mobility, our current system demands a series of unique articulation agreements that are dependent on the communication and relationship-building of partnering institutions. sometime this results in considerable coordination, time and resources expended in order to develop agreements and maintain partnerships at the institutional level (kettle, 2018; lennon et al., 2016). in ontario, there are bi-lateral and multi-lateral transfers being negotiated between and among colleges and universities, with the most transfers occurring between two colleges, or between a university and a college (csa, 2011; popovic, 2012). the most common forms of pathways in ontario include the transfer of identified credits from one program to another, or the transfer of an entire credential for a block of credit towards another credential (e.g. certificate, degree or diploma). a common example of the transfer of entire degree is the 2 + 2 agreement, where a student can transfer their two year diploma and receive a credit of two years towards a four year undergraduate degree, therefore only requiring two more years of study at the university level (popovic, 2012). previous research thus points to some areas for improvement within ontarios current system for transfer and mobility. first, the lack of consistency, and in some cases, inability, to transfer credits from one institution to another is a barrier to mobility (popovic, 2012). second, the lack of clarity in the credit granting process is a challenge; university students with previous college experience indicated a need for better orientation sessions at the university around admission processes and criteria, including opportunities for advanced credit (henderson et al, 2017). lastly, communication of existing pathways is identified as an area for improvement. this was found in a study in which a number of students in a college who aspired to go on to university reported not knowing that there was a formal transfer agreement in place, indicating the need for greater communication and marketing of pathways. third, quality assurance remains a barrier in credit transfer processes. for instance, previous research indicates that, in ontario, it is not always possible to combine a college diploma with two years at a university, as not all college programs have learning outcomes that can be recognized in a four-year degree. the education policy institute has characterized credit transfer as knowledge currency, wherein institutional bodies like senates are knowledge banks, and have the authority to recognizeor not credits, to determine their relative value. thus, an overall lack of knowledge consistency has resulted in the challenges in mapping transfer credits (education policy institute, 2009). oncat argues that learning outcomes may help with mapping curriculum and ultimately finding alignment and quality assurance between programs and institutions (2015). this was also found to be the case by confederation college and trent university during the establishment of pathway in indigenous studies, in which indigenous learning outcomes were essential to content mapping between programs (cpril, 2014). the perceptions that institutions have of each other can also present a challenge; in some cases there is competition between institutions, or worry that unsuccessful transfer students will reflect poorly on the receiving institution. likewise, institutional attitudes may present a barrier in that not all institutions give equal consideration to pathways as a priority. of course, the response in either case is that institutions need to work together to ensure responsible pathways (lennon, 2016). there are a lot of provincial efforts in place to support the improvement of our transfer system. for instance, ontario, with the support from oncat, is working towards supporting a more integrated 9 system. additionally, in ontario there are a number of resources that have been developed to support institutions with pathways, including a credit transfer guide. there are also councils and organizations that support the success of the credit recognition, such as cou, and oncat. while all of this is essential work, it is important to get the buy-in and support of individual institutions. overall, more and more transfer agreements between institutions are occurring, and processes for transfer and mobility are improving. if we are to move towards a more system level approach (e.g. bc) we will have to address some of the current challenges to creating pathways, including managing different systems of governance, different language, different credentialing. a systems approach also may present challenges such as to unique programming that set institutions, or programs at institutions apart (bccat, 2007; education policy institute, 2009). research also suggests that governments, if they wish to see dramatic improvements to pathways integration, need to be aggressive in the approaches to stimulating progress. overall, improving the transfer system requires political prioritization and support, aligning systems and technology, determining common definitions and measures and supporting cooperation across diverse institutions (education policy institute). pathways for indigenous learners while closing, there remains a gap in enrolment in the attainment of postsecondary education between indigenous and non-indigenous learners. for instance, according to statistics canada (2011), nearly half (48%) of indigenous people from ages 25-64 had postsecondary qualifications as compared to 64.7 percent of non-indigenous people ages 25-64 (statistics canada, 2011). closing this gap is essential to reconciliation (truth and reconciliation commission of canada, 2015). it is also essential for supporting the rights, success, and well-being of indigenous people in canada, as illustrated by a number of critical documents. for example, the un states that indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize their cultures and customs. they also have the right to improve their economic and social conditions, including education, employment, and vocational training (undrip, 2007). the national indian brotherhood echoes these goals in their statement: we believe in educationas a preparation for total living; as a means of free choice of where to live and work; as a means of enabling us to participate fully in our social, economic, political and education advancement (1972). likewise, the assembly of first nations (afn) reiterated the need for indigenous self-governance in education, in order to promote self-sufficiency for indigenous communities and to enrich cultural and linguistic identities (2010). the afn also calls for increased indigenous representation in education, indigenous worldviews in curricula, funding for indigenous education, and wrap-around supports for indigenous students. responding to the needs identified above, the ministry of training, colleges and universities developed an aboriginal postsecondary education and training policy framework (2011), which aims to close the educational attainment gap between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples and is intended to improve indigenous learners achievements in education. the authors recognize that educational attainment is essential to reducing the socio-economic gap between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples and 10 communities. the framework adopts a wholistic approach based upon the indigenous concept of interconnectedness. this idea is supported by the fact that higher education leads to higher socioeconomic status and overall emotional, mental, and physical wellness. therefore, incorporating wrap around supports will lead to higher rates of indigenous learners and success in postsecondary education and will ensure that indigenous learners have the appropriate skills and formal education to participate in the evolving economy (mtcu, 2011). these initiatives are fully compatible with an enhanced transfer system, as such a system increases accessibility to postsecondary and ultimately employability and employment opportunities (kettle et al 2018). previous research indicates that pathways help to increase accessibility to postsecondary education, especially to underrepresented or more vulnerable groups amongst the wider population (lennon et al., 2016). for instance, colleges have been perceived as gateways to higher education, where traditionally disadvantaged groups of the population tend to have higher enrolment. through collegeuniversity transfer agreements, access to university programming is increased for traditionally disadvantaged groups (lennon et al., 2016). further, research indicates indigenous learners are among the sectors most likely to transfer (kettle et al., 2018). for instance, one study illustrated that a larger percentage of indigenous students in university had previously gone to college, compared to their counterparts (henderson et al., 2017). lastly, a study completed by brown (2003), in the united states, illustrates that tribal colleges played a critical role as a stepping-stone in the transition from secondary to postsecondary education. more and more work is taking place in ontario on increasing access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners through transfer and mobility initiatives. in particular, oncat has funded a number of projects seeking to improve pathways for indigenous learners, and pathways within indigenous studies. for instance, through their work on pathways for indigenous learners across ontarios postsecondary landscape, the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (confederation college), first nations technical institute, and trent university have been working together to create opportunities and increase accessibility to postsecondary education for indigenous learners. this partnership has developed a framework titled shifting the landscape: a framework for creating pathways in indigenous education which aims to assist institutions in increasing transfer and mobility for indigenous and non-indigenous learners pursuing pathways within indigenous education (cpril, 2018). canadore college is also undertaking research on understanding and improving indigenous program pathways in ontario by conducting an inventory of such pathways, as well as developing an indigenous program pathways action plan (2017). indigenous learners may face unique barriers in their pursuit of postsecondary education, such as historical barriers, educational obstacles, social, economic and geographic obstacles, cultural and pedagogical obstacles, and financial obstacles (preston, 2008). it is essential to identify the different barriers that exist among indigenous learners and to find wholistic methods to student supports, such as wrap-around services (association of community colleges, 2010; preston, 2008; wesley-esquimaux, n.d.) wrap-around supports aim to support the wholistic well-being of a student, including their social, spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, financial, and physical wellbeing (shifting the landscape, 2018). additionally, several reports have found that bridging programs have been instrumental in aiding learners transitions from one learning environment to another, especially in instances where programs are ongoing throughout the year (hill-macdonald, 2015). bridging programs were identified as 11 particularly helpful for learners who were moving to a new city, who have been out of school for a while, or who were entering into western postsecondary learning for the first time (hill-macdonald, 2015; medovarski, 2015). this was also found in the earlier pathways for indigenous learners work, where trent universitys biishkaa bridging program assisted the transition for transfer students from confederation colleges aboriginal community advocacy program into the indigenous studies program and university life at trent (cpril, 2014). lastly, it is critical to note that indigenous institutes will soon be in a stronger position to support pathways for indigenous learners. in particular, the provincial government has provided indigenous institutes with funding to increase capacity so that they can deliver their own certificate, diploma and degree granting programs (ontario government, 2017). this will formalize the position of indigenous institutes as a third pillar of postsecondary education in ontario, opening opportunities for more partnerships and pathways development. tracking/monitoring pathways the ontario government has been working to understand and improve tracking and monitoring of transfer and mobility in ontario. currently, rates of transfer and mobility amongst ontarios postsecondary institutions are difficult to measure and, surprisingly, there is limited information available from such significant sources as statistics canada. in some cases, patterns of transfer and mobility could be extrapolated using a cross-section of data sources. for instance, large databases exist in ontario, e.g. the ontario education number (oen), ontario applications university centre (ouac); however, public access is not available, and there are still limitations to the data to analyze (education policy institute, n.d.). this is to say that the way our postsecondary system is designed presents challenges to tracking and monitoring the transfer and mobility of students across ontarios postsecondary institutions. similar to the identified challenges in finding alignment across programming from institution to institution, tracking data on pathways faces obstacles due to the nature of ontarios postsecondary structures. in particular, as a binary system, systems, methods, and codes for tracking data vary from institution to institution. as previously noted, british columbia is leading the way on monitoring transfer and mobility. british columbia also has diverse data sets to draw upon for monitoring transfer and mobility. for instance, similar to the ontario education number (oen), british columbia has the provincial education number or pen. in one study, the bccat indicates that "a system for tracking mobility must have the ability to follow a students progress through a particular program taken at two or more institutions, or to follow the student as they move from program to program, institution to institution" (2007, p.9). as such, the b.c. government has been actively working on aligning and improving data systems, to better share and align key data sets including enrolment data at the institutional and program levels, pens, student personal information/demographics, and student aid (similar to osap). again, a number of barriers were identified similar to what could be expected in streaming lining ontarios data sets. these challenges include data structure diversity, coordination of data collection timing, different governance models, operational structures, variety in program lengths and inconsistency in credit values. recommendations from this work include that some type of standardization needs to happen; for instance, institutions need to 12 develop systems for using the same program codes and data structures. further, this work needs to start with a pilot project involving a subset of program across institutions (bccat, 2007). the literature also indicates that we need to better understand students perspectives on pathways, and in particular their interest and demand for mobility. in particular, we do not sufficiently understand if, or why, students want to transfer/move from one institution or another, or their perception of the benefits (education policy institute, 2009). lastly, many advocates have expressed the need for improved data collection methods on indigenous learners so that reliable and consistent data can be collected to evaluate the success of initiatives and programs. in the report, titled achieving results through partnership: first progress report on the implementation of the ontario aboriginal postsecondary education and training policy framework (2015), the mtcu acknowledges the progress in funding, program delivery, and indigenous consultation and control within indigenous education, but stresses the need for improved record keeping. additionally, voluntary and flexible indigenous learner self-identification procedures can provide more accurate statistics on indigenous learners and the programming they are enrolled in (mtcu, 2015). better data collection will enable more effective evaluation and monitoring initiatives. 13 project design and methodology this project used a multi-methods design, employing both qualitative and quantitative research approaches to evaluate how well our process has worked for identifying pathways and the success and sustainability of pathways that have been implemented (creswell, 2014). in addition to qualitative and quantitative methods, our methodology also integrates indigenous values and principles of evaluation and research (kovach, 2012; wilson 2008). indeed, the pathways for indigenous learners projects are all grounded by indigenous methodology. ceremony has informed much of our project activities. each project begins with a customary feast where partners come together to share a meal, reflect on previous work, and to discuss the work ahead. additionally, at our project launches, each partner presented to the group what they and their institution would bring to the work. through these processes, members are committed to working with an open heart and an open mind in establishing a common ground. further, relationship building and establishing mutual respect and understanding of our responsibility and accountability to the work are integral characteristics of our projects model. lastly, reflection is built into every project meeting, and is an integral part of this phase, where through sharing circles and one on one interviews, project partners have shared their reflections on this work. evaluation is used to measure the effectiveness of a projects or programs ability to meet its intended outcomes, as well as to systematically gather information for reflection on how well it worked (stetler et al., 2006). indigenous methods of evaluation and measuring success were also reviewed and a part of the project model. in her paper on indigenous methods of evaluation and indigenous student success lafrance (2008) describes evaluation research as evaluation is about learning from thoughtful reflection and assessment values that are central to our mission as educators. lafrance further outlines, core values of and indigenous framework that grounded are processes for evaluation. for example, gathered information in multiple ways and from multiple perspectives to develop a wholistic and deep understanding of our context. lastly, through this work we hope to support the relationships that we have built by building capacity and taking action on what we have learned (lafrance, 2008). specifically, our methodology is broken down into two phases: phase 1 involved formative evaluation using qualitative methods including a literature review, group reflection and sharing circles, and semistructured interviews. here, methods of formative evaluation were employed to assess the operationalization of the original project and its work plan as well on how well the project met its intended goals (stetler et al., 2006); phase 2 involved summative evaluation using qualitative and quantitative methods including semi-structured interviews with key informants, alongside our evaluative tool. the following section serves to provide an overview of our research methodology and the specific methods that will be used in each phase. group reflection and sharing circles as part of the formative evaluation, we held in-person group reflection sessions with partners from the first, second and third circle partners at our regular in-person meetings. here partners had the opportunity to reflect and share their thoughts and critical feedback on our process for identifying pathways for indigenous learners. the key areas that the steering committee reflected on included: how 14 well our process worked for creating pathways; appropriate methods for data collection; and how we define a successful pathway. semi-structured interviews semi structured key informant interviews were used for both formative and summative evaluation. participants of the key informant interviews include representatives who sit on our project steering committees first, second, and third circle of partners. the interview guide was informed by the literature review and by members of the projects advisory committee (first circle partners). all interviews were semi-structured in that there were particular questions/topics that each participant was asked about, although there was flexibility in the order that they were asked to promote a more natural and fluid dialogue. most of the interview questions were open ended, aside from the questions that focused on how many pathways were developed and implemented through this work. the first half of the interview explored themes and topics relating to how well our model worked for creating pathways for indigenous learners. the second half of the interview covered topics such as the success that participants had with implementing pathways within their own institutions, and how successful the pathways had been (e.g. student enrolment/completion/ satisfaction) since their implementation. interviews also explored thoughts and perceptions as to what is required to ensure that this project and the pathways for indigenous learners that are developed are sustainable. (see appendix c for a copy of the interview guide). research ethics approval was received by confederation colleges research ethics board on june 28th, 2019. respondent participation overall, steering committee members from 12 out of the original 15 partnering institutions had the opportunity to share their reflection through either the sharing circles and the key informant interviews, or both. in particular, two sharing circles were held with steering committee members at our two inperson meetings, in may 2018 (n=17) and november 2018 (n=19). additionally, 15 interviews were completed with steering committee representatives, who represented 11 of the original 15 partnering institutions. interviews were completed from july 2018 january 2019. the target sample was based on interviewing at least one representative from each partner institution, continuing until reaching thematic saturation in the content of interview responses (bowen, 2008). as a result of conflicting schedules and project timelines, not every original steering committee member was interviewed; however, thematic saturation was achieved in that there was consistency in the lengthy list of themes identified among key informant interviews. this next section provides an overview of the results and key findings of the sharing circles, key informant interviews, and evaluative tool application, which are organized as responses to the original overarching research questions. analysis of the data set methods of thematic and content analysis on the data gathered from sharing circles and the semistructured interviews were employed, resulting in a lengthy list of themes (saldana, 2009). the research team linked key themes with supportive quotes from key informant interviews, notes from meeting 15 minutes, and themes identified within the environmental scan and literature review as a way to triangulate the data. in particular, results of the analysis of the key informant interviews, the review of meeting minutes, and the literature review were entered into an excel spreadsheet to facilitate organization of the data and generation of overarching themes and trends. triangulation is a useful method in qualitative research to validate and capture different dimensions of a topic. in the case of this research, triangulation of results helped to link different sources of information in providing a wholistic understanding. table 1: demonstrating the triangulation method challenges to implementing pathways theme description supportive quote(from key informant or meeting minutes) navigating understanding the i think we have challenges systems different systems with navigating the systems and models of themselves, like in your own governance across institutions, who is institutions responsible for implementing these pathways, who do i need to talk to, which stakeholders do i need to involve supports to implementing pathways theme description the asset map process of gathering information for the asset map, and the resulting document itself supportive quote(from key informant or meeting minutes) i think that the asset map is essential, that has been an awesome tool, if we are just talking about process, i think that the asset map is really helping us see where our strengths are and our weaknesses are, and helping people through these pathways link to theme found in the literature ontario pse is not designed a binary system, which is a way where college programs are seamless articulated with university programs programming and alignment varies requiring time and resources to map out program affinity. as a binary system, colleges and universities have different governance models, funding models, terminology, quality assurance mechanisms. the way the current system is, is a series of individual articulation agreements that are dependent on the communication and work of partnering institutions (lennon et al., 2016) link to the literature asset mapping is a method used in community development that involved collecting information on a community's strengths, or resources, that support a certain aspect of a community. through this approach, communities can identify areas of strength, and by deduction, areas of weakness, in terms of developing particular 16 strategies or initiatives (dorfman, 1998). development and application of the evaluative tool results of the literature review, the sharing circles, and the key informant interviews informed the development of an evaluative tool for monitoring the success and sustainability of the pathways for indigenous learners that emerge out of this work. the evaluative tool was applied to existing pathways that came out of this project. as more pathways are implemented, it will be distributed among first, second and third circle partners to gather quantitative and qualitative summative data on the outcomes of our project, including the following measures: number of pathways created; number of pathways implemented; additional information on pathways (e.g. how pathways are marketed/advertised); and evaluation of pathways outcomes, (e.g. enrolment of learners, completion rates, etc). the tool will continue to help to ensure that key elements of our pathways model are in place to support a successful and sustainable pathway. (see page 35). there are limitations to our methodology that are important to note. firstly, there are limited pathways in place, which presented challenges when it came to testing out and applying our evaluative tool. secondly, this study proposed to interview indigenous learners who are pursuing our pathways; however, at the time of this study we had limited pathways in place (three), and no indigenous learners pursuing those implemented pathways. however, results of this work have informed the development of a monitoring tool that, going forward, will aim to gather multiple sources of information, including learners experiences. 17 results and key findings question one how well has our process worked for creating pathways for indigenous learners across our partnering institutions? outcomes: our intent versus our impact i think everyone was really honest and open in conversations, so even though the group was focused on pathways, and creating pathways for indigenous learners, we were also able to produce other things that are really useful, like the position paper, that might have a broader impact, in terms of process. that crossed boundaries that resulted in different concrete things. collectively this work has succeeded in achieving several outcomes that extend beyond our initial intention of creating pathways for indigenous learners. when reflecting on our successes, the group characterized these unexpected outcomes as the impact versus our intention; this is to say that, while we intended to come together to work on pathways for indigenous learners, our impact was much greater. outcomes from our work include the following: establishment of a diverse network that is committed to working on pathways for indigenous learners 6 agreements for pathways for indigenous learners (see appendix b); diverse list of prospective, and/or nearly implemented, pathways for indigenous learners partnerships for indigenous learners (e.g. an mou on sharing curriculum in indigenous education between sault college and confederation college) a unique articulation agreement integrating key elements of pathways for indigenous learners, including institutional commitments, wrap around services, and pathways monitoring (see appendix e) development of critical documents e.g. principled position on pathways for indigenous learners, and templates (e.g. asset map templates, curriculum mapping samples, etc) 18 successes and benefits of our model through sharing circles and key informant interviews, we asked steering committee partners to identify areas of success and areas for improvement for our model and processes for creating pathways for indigenous learners. the data generated can be organized according to the themes as identified in figure 4. the discussion that follows highlights and discusses the three most common responses. successes of our project model 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 the project model and leadersip relationship building and partnerships capacity building addressing growth and student needs learning tools and resources figure 4: a graph of the themes under project successes and the number of times they were mentioned in key informant interviews project leadership and relationship-building key informants indicated that the leadership of the projects advisory committee (first circle partners from confederation college, first nations technical institute and trent university) was an integral part of the projects success and that the commitment and relationship piece was very critical having a clear terms of reference clarifying expectations for the participants, the welcoming feast, incorporating culture definitely was a strength for me, as an indigenous person, it really created a sense of pride. i think the way that it was incorporated so seamlessly, there was a natural feel to it. it didnt seem unusual. it was really an amazing experience to be a part of an indigenous led and focused project. you could feel the difference. the first circles model for partnership focused on relationship-building and was grounded in indigenous methodologies, values and principles. for instance, meetings were opened by a welcome address and opening prayer, partners spent time getting to know one another over meal sharing, and each meeting integrated areas for practicing reflection. this partnership was also grounded by documents such as terms of reference agreements, and memoranda of understanding that were signed by the presidents from each partnering institution (see figure 1). in addition to their model for collaboration and partnership, the first circle of partners established a model for pathways development. key elements of 19 the pathways development model included: building pathways between programs that are rooted in indigenous knowledge(s), mapping curriculum via indigenous learning outcomes, aligning wrap-around support services, and assisting learners transitions between programs through bridging programs (i.e., biishkaa). first circle partners also carried relationship-building into the implementation phase, whereby staff and faculty from both institutions met in person in the development of the pathway. furthermore, faculty and staff from trent also met with prospective students at confederation college to share information on pathways with learners, and to understand and address any barriers they would face in accessing the transfer opportunity. this work resulted in a successful pathway in indigenous studies between confederation college and trent university. two other articulation agreements were also developed in the fields of environmental studies and social work. further, key informants perceived that the project succeeded in expanding from the first circle into a second circle of partners. the first circle of partners carried over many of the same processes and values into the second circles; new partners were invited to join in a customary feast to learn about the pathways for indigenous learners model. to support a reciprocal relationship, new partners were asked to demonstrate their commitment and contributions to this project. key informants expressed strong support for the integration of indigenous methodologies, values and principles and perceived that the integration was a significant factor in the success of the project. in particular, key informants indicated that the continuation of the first circle approach was integral to successful investment in the project, and partnership development between steering committee members: the meetings were good, i think the positive side of getting together in various meetings is that we met face to face, there is nothing like meeting face to face formally and informally. i mean i sit on a lot of committees and i was very impressed with the organization and thought put into this project. although there are a limited number of pathways that have been implemented through this work to date, steering committee members perceived a number of benefits to their participation in our process. in particular, participants expressed that it was beneficial to belong to a large and diverse network that is dedicated to improving access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners. the network is a huge benefit the learning being able to play a role in a project that is so committed to indigenous education i loved the variety of roles, it wasnt just the heads of indigenous initiatives meeting together it was a bit random in terms of the mixing, but i think it was really good and allowed for different perspectives. they further identified that the relationships and partnerships that grew out of this network were beneficial in ways that go beyond the formation of pathways. one key informant noted: i think that first, one of the things that went well is that we established relationships among colleges and universities, colleges and colleges, and universities and universities. our meetings were very interesting in 20 that way. we can now pick up the phone and say we have some students here for you. capacity-building one further success of the project as identified by key informants is capacity-building. in particular, participants indicated that they have a stronger understanding of the different postsecondary systems in ontario, of the meaning of cross-cultural learning, and of the unique considerations for supporting pathways for indigenous learners. key informants stated that they gained specific assets and knowledge through the sharing resources; one example of such is the wrap-around support model. as one informant elaborated, i think it opened a lot of peoples eyes opened up whether it is about wrap around services, whether it is about opportunities for indigenous learners on the same point, our informants expressed gratitude for the learning that they acquired in the various discussions that were held in our meetings, even on difficult topics such as systemic racism and the underlying assumptions that institutions held towards each other. steering committee members seem to be aware that this project has supported their own personal growth and learning, in part from having the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions with the group, and in part because of their access to new tools and resources that grew out of this work. the following statement sums up this awareness: personal learning, being able to learn about different institutions/ roles that people have in their institution, it was an opportunity to share information on best practices across institutions if you have a problem, another institution may have a way to address itit was a side benefit that came out of this, youre creating awareness that can be shared across the system. it is through this type of capacity building that institutions can better address the needs of indigenous learners, which key informants also identified as a success of this model. further, it is important to note that our steering committees shared values of trust and honesty allowed us to create a space to safely have these conversations. 21 areas for improvement areas for improvement 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 figure 5: a graph of the themes under areas for improvement and the number of times they were mentioned in key informant interviews when interviewed, the steering committee members identified a number of areas for improvement in our processes. it needs to be observed that one of the critical gaps as identified by key informants was, simply put, the need for more pathways. indeed, it can be said that all of the identified areas for improvement that follow are factors in the overarching concern with the relative lack of fully implemented pathways. guidance to new members and the third circle transition supporting different stages of transition and providing guidance to new members of the group was identified as a common concern by key informants. for instance, while the first to second circle transition was perceived as a success, key informants suggested the inclusion of the third circle could have been better timed, as indicated here: the transition from first to second circle seemed really smooth to me the second to third i think felt a bit more cumbersome, there was a lot more people, and a lot of people who are at different places and understanding. in particular, second circle key informants felt that they could have used more time to work on the pathways that they had identified in earlier phases of the work before exploring new partnerships with third circle partners. as one member explained: 22 the third circle institutions that joined were great and i learned a lot from them and there is a lot of potential. but if there is anything that could be changed, i think maybe leave more time for the second circle stuff to come to fruition. in similar fashion, third circle key informants indicated that they could have benefited from more time, guidance and direction. one key informant noted: i guess just be a little more mindful of the third circle, and how far behind we were. like the asset map itself is an undertaking. we couldnt come to the table and have fulsome conversations because we hadnt done the asset map that was a challenge as third circle member. upon reflection, some of our informants indicated that timing and the size of the group could have contributed to challenges to the second and third circle transition of partners. to facilitate the introduction and integration of new members, it was suggested that the advisory committee creates more process documents and onboarding process for new people at new institutions so each member is fully ready for meetings. lastly, key informants indicated that defining key terms, and ensuring common understandings of certain terminology, would have been beneficial, especially in bringing new members fully into the work. commitment, prioritization and accountability the interviews we have conducted suggest that, in some cases, commitment, prioritization and accountability by steering committee members could be better. our general approach in this project was to be as inclusive as possible, and to continue to invite other institutions to the table; however, not all partners may have realized the level of commitment required in order to participate meaningfully. one key informant observed, people maybe dont understand the amount of work that goes into this, and keeping it successful. another agreed, stating that [i]t is easy to say that you want to do a pathway, but once you get into the weeds, it is much more challenging, there are many obstacles. we did this ambitiously but as we move through it, it is like what did i commit to? people maybe bit off more than they could chew. in a similar vein, key informants indicated that while the commitment of steering committee members at project meetings was apparent, the members needed to improve on the follow up and communication after the in-person meetings. by way of example: i think it was probably not so much not the project management side, more on the side of the participants in terms of making sure they were following up and meeting their commitments. at meetings there was eagerness but then partners go back to their institutions and things start crashing down and things fall to the wayside. 23 key informants further proposed that participating institutions should provide consistent representation at the project meetings. it was understood that [t]his might be hard to control, but the consistency in representation at the table, i think that is really important i think it is ok to bring new people, as long as the core is still there, and then you can bring new people up to speed before they come, but having the core is important. this was viewed as especially important as many partners have competing priorities, and project meetings were intended to provide the time and space to get the work done; when the representation is inconsistent, time must be allocated at each meeting for bringing new participants up to speed. lastly, key informants indicated that the steering committee members could do a better job of setting short and long term priorities and timelines for pathways implementation: timelines, like setting realistic timelines of what pathways development looks like... like at a university in particular, it could be our faculties, they may only meet once a month, so you are talking maybe two months of time just to get the first level of approval. a related theme was the lack of communication or follow up between partners, both in terms of implementation processes and the wider mandate to communicate the importance of pathways for indigenous learners within partnering institutions. in particular, key informants indicated that they need to find better methods for communicating this work within their institution to promote interest and buy in from other staff and faculty, as follows here: make sure you schedule in person follow up meetings when together, and ensure those meetings are in person. whereas another key informant had this to say: well i think improving the communication after the meetings. in some senses you we shouldnt have to do this, but if somebody could coordinate, phone to follow up on an institution working on an articulation agreement and offering help with the process. developing a higher profile for pathways for indigenous learners in another variation on the theme of communication, key informants discussed how more work needs to be done to improve the profile of pathways for indigenous learners across the province and in their home institutions. in part, this could be addressed by improving our methods for informing senior leaders and decision-makers about our project and by engaging them in our processes. for instance, in our expanding the circle project (2018), partners signaled the importance of bringing senior administration to our final project meeting to learn about our work; however, although we attempted to extend invitations, we found that a limited number of senior leaders attended. therefore, championing pathways for indigenous learners in our home institutions was also identified as an area for improvement. upon reflection on our process, one key informant expressed, 24 i think another important thing is that we had a bunch of people in the room that were committed to learn, but then they were responsible for working with a whole other group of people and to education them on the project on how important it is and what we are trying to do and i think most people struggled with this. they needed to do this with senior admin, faculty, the registrar the lack of engagement of decision makers may have been a result of competing schedules, or a need for better communication, but it nevertheless indicates that more work is required to determine the best methods for engaging decisions makers and increase the profile of priority of pathways. challenges to implementing pathways for indigenous learners while our project work has resulted in the identification of an expansive list of potential pathways and related outcomes, it must again be noted that we have implemented fully only a few pathwaysthree to be exact, and created agreements for three others (six pathways in total). through the sharing circles and the key informant interviews, we were able to undertake a deep investigation into potential reasons as to why this is the case. in part, the lack of implemented pathways can be attributed to some of the dynamics identified in the section just above: a need for improvements in training, guidance and direction, and a lack of follow up and commitment/accountability outside of our project meetings. beyond these factors, however, we identified and categorized a number of challenges to implementing pathways for indigenous learners. these challenges can be characterized as individual, institutional or systemic, and are organized as such in the section below. pathways implementation - challenges 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 figure 6: a graph of the themes under pathways implementation - challenges and the number of times they were mentioned in key informant interviews 25 individual challenges competing priorities there were a series of challenges and barriers to implementing pathways that occur at a personal or individual level for participants. the most common challenge identified by key informants was characterized as competing priorities. many of the projects steering committee members perform several roles within their institution, and this pathways-related project is just one of many other initiatives within their portfolios. for instance, one key informant explained, a lot of us are involved in a number of projects it is a challenge finding the time to focus on this. lack of knowledge/understanding a second individual challenge for steering committee members is their lack of knowledge of critical pieces or processes in relation to pathway implementation. by way of example, some key informants expressed a need for more information about curriculum mapping, or that they didnt know who to engage at the different stages of pathways implementation. to further illustrate, a key informant noted, i think we have challenges with navigating the systems themselves, like in your own institutions, who is responsible for implementing these pathways, who do i need to talk to, which stakeholders do i need to involve. another key informant stated that, if people arent familiar with the process, it is even more confusing i know from the beginning to the end i realize that it will take two to three months to start. institutional challenges lack of engagement of senior administration or decision-makers key informants have identified a number of difficulties with implementing pathways at the institutional level pertaining to governance and decision-making, and well as to academics and quality assurance. because of these difficulties, it is critical to have the buy in and from support from senior leaders. however, lack of engagement of senior administration or decision makers was identified as a common hurdle. for instance, [y]ou really have to have buy in of your senior admin, ultimately they are the ones that will say yay or nay part of our challenge, our senior admin wants 2 + 2 and agreements must be 2 + 2 and anything that isn't we are not interested in. conversely, when discussing the impact of having buy in from senior administration a key informant noted that it makes it so much easier. the fact that as an institution, from the president down creating pathways is one of our priorities, so i have the support administratively. lack of resources lack of resources was found to be a barrier to implementing pathways, a factor which may emerge from competing priorities within the institution, but also from the relatively limited pathways development 26 across ontario. in particular, key informants identified that oftentimes there is a lack of time, funding, people, and tools such as guiding documents or policies that would be necessary to support pathways development and implementation. as one key informant observed, one of the challenges is that there are no dedicated resources to actually be doing this, it depends on availability. furthermore, in the context of pathways for indigenous learners, this is amplified by a general lack of core resources allocated to indigenous education within postsecondary institutions. this is to say that: its challenging when indigenous education is not identified as a priority...it can be challenging if it is a priority for you but not for other areas of your institutions. indeed, the lack of resources for indigenous education is often discussed at our steering committee meetings, and has been identified in other research. for instance, in focus groups completed in the shifting the landscape study, student respondents indicated that a lack of resources, particularly in terms of student support, needs to be addressed (cpril, 2018). put another way, this work on paper looks like other oncat projects, but it is not the same partners are in non-sustainable roles, lots of levels to go through, some institutions think this is typical work, some might be in that mindsetbut educators, support staff, are in an unsustainable situation. lack of faculty engagement competing priorities may also lead to a lack of faculty involvement in pathways development, which was identified as an institutional barrier to implementing pathways: in some cases it can be faculty, to give you a specific example, the faculty are busy and hard to contact, while we are trying to do the liaison, we are really struggling to bring people together. key informants have signaled that faculty involvement is essential to the success of pathways, as they have the requisite understanding of course and program curricula, and therefore play an important role in curriculum mapping. additionally, faculty have direct contact with indigenous learners, with whom they can share information about the existence of pathways. our informants have confirmed that, while they can identify potential programs for pathways, they require faculty engagement to establish the affinities between programs across institutions, and they most certainly rely on faculty engagement when they reach the phase of curriculum mapping. faculty have significant pull in moving a pathway forward, as one informant explains: i think part of it was that i think the faculty were involved, and that is another overall weakness for us, the faculty aren't so involved. faculty hold a lot of power in universities. if they know what is going on with this project, and how to do this, that makes a big difference, they will take the initiative. and if administrators see this, i doubt they would block it. stemming from this, faculty also play an important role in quality assurance, ensuring that the curriculum is fully mapped and that credits awarded from courses or programs provide the learner with sufficient knowledge and skill to enter into another program. 27 need for role clarity key informants identified a need for role clarity in terms of distinguishing specific accountabilities within the institution on pathways implementation. they express that clarity is required around who they need to engage, and in particular, concerning who isor who should beresponsible for the various elements of pathways implementation: the other thing is role clarity, which really isn't it has been a bit of barrier in our institutions, only because there has been so much change all the time, and who is responsible for what, [for leading pathways work], we are trying to work on that. student enrolment issues key informants also identified student enrolment, either too high or too low, as a potential issue in pathways implementation. on one hand, you need sufficient enrolment of learners to justify and sustain the implementation of a pathway, or for it to be perceived as successful. on the other hand, one key informant suggested that high volume could be a barrier; if a pathway or program has too many students enrolled, more faculty and resources will need to be allocated to that pathway and program, which may not be possible. one key informant expressed the dynamic in these terms: enrolment has been a challenge for some, too much enrolment to match the faculty complement. so when you talk about a partnership that will increase enrolment that becomes an obstacle to them because then they need another professor. competing timelines and priorities timing and, in particular, the aligning of schedules, was identified as a further barrier at the institutional level. similar to competing schedules at the individual level, institutions have different schedules and timelines for critical meetings in which decisions are made. since such meetings may only occur at certain times of the year, partners who have missed such a meeting may have to wait some time to receive approval on something, as explained here: when i am thinking of a completed project, i am not necessarily thinking of the approved project because the approval takes over a year, because it has a series of steps. and so many committees that it has to go through, and these committees might only meet once a month, and if you miss the month, then your bumped to the next month. for me to complete an articulation, it is done, but not yet going through the approval process and that is just time. 28 competing priorities again, many of the abovementioned challenges could be attributed, at least in part, to competing priorities within the institution. pathways development, or even supporting indigenous education or access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners, may not be the highest priority of senior leadership and decisions makers within the institution. institutional priorities need to shift for there to be faster and greater success in the areas of pathways development and indigenous education. systemic challenges misaligning systems and structures across ontario postsecondary institutions key informants further identified that, while ontario has prioritized improving transfer and mobility across its postsecondary landscape, and, despite the critical work done by key organizations like oncat, there are still inherent systemic challenges to implementing these priorities. transfer and mobility is still a fairly new thing in ontario, as one key informant outlined: the details for pathways is all so new in ontario, it hasnt even been a decade, we have so much to figure out around creating pathways, monitoring pathways. as we have seen, the diversity in systems and the lack of consistency in approach are barriers to mobility. as a binary system, colleges, and universities have different governance models, funding models, language and terminology, and quality assurance mechanisms. as a result, the current transfer system functions as a series of individual articulation agreements that are dependent on the communication, commitment and work of partnering institutions (lennon et al., 2016). in the context of our group, key informants agreed that navigating systems of governance and organization is still challenge. similar to the need for greater role clarity within institution, key informants identified the need for greater understanding of the processes, and who to engage, and when, across our different institutions. as one key informant stated: i think some of the challenges are trying to navigate between the college systems and the university systems themselves. competition among postsecondary institutions lastly, competition between postsecondary institutions was identified in several different forms as underlying barrier to supporting pathways for indigenous learners across our partnering institutions. first, one key informant noted, some more relationship building needs to happen between colleges and universities, some folks may be holding cards closer to the chest, and are still feeling things out. second, key informant interviews indicated that there are still perceived inherent biases regarding the type of learning that occurs in indigenous institutes, colleges and universities; and specifically, the notion that applied and technical learning at colleges is not as theoretical or scholarly as that which is offered at universities. conversely, in some cases there is a perception that universities work in silos, and that they are also competitive, and as a result, do not want to award fair credits to programming offered at other postsecondary institutions. for instance, a key informant explained, trying to navigate between the college system and the university system, i think some of the challenges are i don't think the university system recognizes the quality of the college graduates. 29 alternatively, another informant outlined that, there have been delays, sometime the colleges don't understand the importance of leveraging an articulation with a university, i don't know if colleges are committed to that. key informants also discussed competition for learners and enrolment as a potential barrier to implementing pathways, especially in cases when there are a number of postsecondary institutions within a geographic area. the notion of competition across postsecondary educations institutions and pathways development is supported by other research. for instance, negative perceptions of other institutions was identified as challenge in cases where institutions still perceive particular institutions to be more scholarly than others. additionally, worry that unsuccessful transfer students will negatively impact the reputation of the receiving institution was identified (lennon, 2016). supporting the implementation of pathways for indigenous learners alongside the investigation into challenges and barriers to implementing pathways for indigenous leaners, we also explored wise practices and external and institutional mechanisms that have supported implementing pathways across our partnering institutions. 12 10 pathways implementation - supports 8 6 4 2 0 the asset map support from the steering senior admin committee internal mechanism bringing prioritization stakeholders together figure 7: a graph of the themes under pathways implementation - supports and the number of times they were mentioned in key informant interviews provincial prioritization while the current status of transfer and mobility at the provincial level has been identified as a challenge to pathways implementation, our key informants have been encouraged by the fact that improving transfer and mobility across ontarios postsecondary landscape is a provincial priority, and continued support from organizations like oncat is likewise encouraging. our informants are hopeful that pathways will remain a priority of the provincial government, and that hopefully, this ongoing support trickles down into the priorities of postsecondary institutions. moreover, the key informants indicated that to further support the prioritization of transfer and mobility within ontarios postsecondary institutions, the provincial government needs to offer some sort of incentives to support this work. it is also critical that the government continues to support oncat as they actively promote pathways through the funding of projects that seek to build pathways and enhance transfer and mobility systems. in fact, 30 the literature suggests that governments, if they wish to see dramatic improvements to pathways integration, need to be aggressive in their approaches to stimulating progress. an umbrella of incentives for institutions were identified as a potential approach (data on student mobility; education policy research institute, lennon, 2016). institutional mechanisms our key informants have identified institutional mechanisms that would facilitate the implementation of pathways within their institutions. such mechanisms included greater support from senior administrators and decision makers, the formal engagement of faculty, the creation of pathways coordinator positions, and the establishment of a cross-sector committee for pathways implantation. when discussing the advantage of having a pathways coordinator, one key informant expressed a need for making sure that there is someone to bring the pathway alive, take care of students, leading it and making sure it doesn't get dropped. additionally, key informants indicated that creating a dedicated space for all those who are involved in pathways implementation to meet would also be helpful. such a space would include the registrar, recruiters, student support staff, faculty, students, and even community partners. one key informant explained it thus: the only thing i can think of is developing that pathways committee and assigning the committee key people in the institutions and that it is a part of their regular work. and build capacity among new committee members while another key informant noted, simply, the benefit in [h]aving all the people frontline, instructors, decision makers involved. the main players were all in the same room. in addition to such institutional mechanisms, key informants listed some wise practices from our pathways work as ideal supports for pathways implementation. for instance, key informants identified that steering committee expertise, and in particular the breadth of knowledge present within the committee, facilitated the implementation of pathways. further to this, key informants celebrated the relationships formed among the steering committee members, and even within their institution, as a result of our process. additionally, key informants expressed that in-person meetings is a much-valued aspect of their work on pathways development, as it provided them with a time and space to get work done and to facilitate the development of critical relationships, i.e. relationships are a big one, so spending time in those in person meetings, having the relationship with our partners, we know who to contact we know who to make connections with. building trust was also identified in the literature as an integral part of the transfer process, required at many levels (e.g. in development of agreements, with prospective learners) (lennon, et al., 2016). through relationship building, our steering committee has been able develop trust in each other. 31 development of guiding tools and resources particular tools and resources were perceived as useful to the pathways implementation process. for example, key informants indicated that while the process of completing the asset map1 was time consuming, it was an invaluable tool, as it set the foundation for pathways development and highlighted institutional strengths and weaknesses. indeed, as one key informant put it, i think that the asset map is essential, that has been an awesome tool, if we are just talking about process, i think that the asset map is really helping us see where our strengths are and our weaknesses are, and helping people through these pathways. development of responsible pathways agreements lastly, key informants identified wise practices in the development of pathways agreements that facilitate the pursuit and success of pathways at the learners level. such wise practices include joint admission agreements, 2 + 2 models, and partnerships between institutions that share the same geography, cohort models, and bridging programs. in the final steering committee meeting, partners also identified elements of our pathways that make them responsible, and that these elements are critical to include within our articulation agreements. such elements include a plan for relationship building and engagement supporting the sustainability of our pathways when queried as to how we can support the sustainability of our pathways for indigenous learners, the overarching theme of informants responses was relationship building and maintenance throughout all levels of our pathways. relationships between this diverse group are very powerful. i will be leaning on them in the future. i want my students to go to a place where they are going to have the highest change of succeeding. i can call people up five years ago i would be rolling the dice on whether or not it is a place where i know they would succeed. this begins with building and maintaining relationships between partnering institutions and all who are involved with the implementation of a pathway (e.g. academic units, registrars, support services staff, 1 asset mapping is a method used in community development that involved collecting information on a community's strengths, or resources, that support a certain aspect of a community. through this approach, communities can identify areas of strength, and by deduction, areas of weakness, in terms of developing particular strategies or initiatives (dorfman, 1998). in the context of our work, communities of focus include individual institutions, as well as the community that was created through our steering committee group, that includes reps from each partnering institution. 32 marketing and recruitment, etc.). one key informant put it, i mean from our perspective, i hope we can continue [this project] because it does facilitate the creation of, but also the maintenance of those relationships that we need to make the initiatives successful. relationship-building and maintenance also help to support accountability, which is critical to the success of our pathways. as we learned from our interviews, and the literature, pathways take time, resources and coordination. they involve a lot of people within patterning institutions and often undergo multiple phases to their implementation. it essential everyone who is involved in a pathway is accountable to their role or responsibility. we must be accountable what we commit to bring to this work. robin wall kimmerer puts it in these terms: each person, human or no, is bound to every other in a reciprocal relationship. just as all beings have a duty to me, i have a duty to them. if an animal gives its life. if i receive a streams gift of pure water, then i am responsible for returning a gift in kind. an integral part of a humans education is to know these duties and how to perform them. (2013) further, establishing mechanisms to support this relationship maintenance, and accountability is essential to the sustainability of a pathway. key informants identified a series of possible mechanisms to support sustainability, including establishing a pathways coordinator position, and a pathways committee within the institution. other mechanisms included setting out plans for in-person meetings and regular communication. lastly, key informants indicated that monitoring pathways, and establishing a process for annual review is also critical to support the sustainability of a pathway so that they stay active and relevant: you need to work on pathways on an annual basis, work with your partner, departments, set meetings, you can't neglect them. relationship-building and maintenance also extends to indigenous learners within our institutions. for instance, through relationship-building, staff and faculty within institutions can communicate and market pathways to prospective transfer students, as well as invest time in understanding and addressing the barriers they may be facing in their pursuit of a pathway: putting resources to the front end and middle part, and have all the various people and institutional things in place faculty, to the marketing, to application, to recruiter, to support services like helping them move. the indigenous studies pathway between confederation college and trent university is a great example of this. in the development of this pathway faculty and support services staff from trent university met with prospective pathways students at confederation college to provide information on the pathway, student life at trent university, and to understand some of the concerns that students might have, such as adjustment to student life at a university, moving logistics and costs, and finding a place to live. through this reciprocal process, they were able to address barriers that may have prevented students from following a pathway, and also provided students with a familiar face, a person to contact when they made the move to trent. this example also illustrates the importance of wrap-around supports, which our research also indicated as critical to supporting the sustainability of our pathways. key informants indicated that building a community of practice within our institutions, where supporting pathways for indigenous learners is a priority and a part of the institutional culture, will help to support the sustainability of this work. put another way: [f]or us, it means that they're rolled into our normal 33 business, if it becomes part of the norm, no one questions it. it can't be seen as something a part from or in addition to, it is a part of our normal operation. lastly, key informants also indicated that more robust funding must be allocated to supporting pathways implementation for indigenous learners. funding is necessary for supporting the work on monitoring our pathways, to support travel for in-person meetings between institutions and with students, and for supporting learners who are pursuing our pathways. one key informant asserts, we need external funding if we don't have that external funding, who coordinates the work, and no one will assume it because we don't have the funds to do it. 34 results and key findings: question two what evaluation tool should be used to measure the success and sustainability of our pathways for indigenous learners? through sharing circles and key informant interviews, we asked steering committee partners to identify appropriate evaluation tools for measuring the success and sustainability of our pathways. the data generated can be organized according to the following themes: assessing pathways: appropriate methods for data collection discussions focused on ways to monitor pathway, appropriate methods for data collection, metrics to include, and challenges to monitoring pathways. this next section serves to provide a summary of the topics and themes discusses, and an overview of the evaluative tool. firstly, success must be broadly defined to capture western and indigenous notions of what it means to succeed in postsecondary education. when measuring success, it is important to include empirical measures such as pathways enrolment, retention and completion rates as well measures that address self-determination and autonomy, overall there was a consensus that processes for monitoring pathways need to improve at institutional and systemic levels. the following points represent statements made by our key informants: beyond western approaches, must involve indigenous methodologies data should showcase our process, illustrate our wise practices data should gather information on student stories/ experiences, perceptions, needs, assumptions, gaps, challenges data that is collected should be confidential should help to show where there are gaps/ opportunities we need to determine who is able to access the data/ results modes/ sources of data should include steering committee members, decision makers on pathways (e.g. senior leadership, registrars), learners, registrars, student support services accessing existing data sources ouac, oncat, oen. streamlining data collection direction from senior administrators need to support the alignment of systems monitoring pathways for indigenous learners--metrics and indicators of success overall, there was consensus at steering committee meetings and among key informants that there is a need for tools and resources to guide and monitor our pathways. one key informant expressed a need to, somehow develop tools that will hold people to the fire. at every stage maybe three or four instruments, you know like a questionnaire that has to be filled out that guarantees there is follow up. one at the faculty level, maybe even one at the students. another noted, we need a checklist... is this is where you are at... then do this a checklist, action plan, and who it is assigned to. 35 results of a literature review and environmental scan on methods for tracking student transfer and mobility, and key interviews also informed the development of a tool for monitoring our pathways for indigenous learners. specifically, the monitoring tool was built in a way to address the gaps and barriers in relation to implementing and supporting pathways for indigenous learners, and to also integrate the strengths or supports. the metrics and checklists that were developed fall under the following four themes: relationships and accountability, student experience, academic/ mainstream metrics and wraparound supports, as indicated in the following table. table 2: evaluative tool for monitoring our pathways for indigenous learners relationships and accountability sources of information: internal and external to the institution relationships established between internal and external pathways partners o academic units o registrars o recruitment o student services o prospective indigenous learners capacity building wrap around support streamlined transition plan created/ plan for the hand off pathway signed off and implemented resources are in place pathways marketed to students annual review complete plan for follow up with alumni established notes academic/ mainstream metrics sources of information: academic units/ faculty, the registrar # of applicants enrolment academic performance at sending institution academic performance at receiving institution persistence/ retention graduation next steps (e.g. employment or future studies) notes student experience sources of information: students, faculty, student services the transition barriers experienced and addressed satisfaction and success notes wrap around supports sources of information: student services notes plan and follow through for ongoing check ins wrap around support provided and received 36 this evaluative tool was applied to one of our existing pathways, which is a 2 + 2 pathway agreement from confederation colleges aboriginal community advocacy program into trent universitys indigenous studies program. first, we applied the tool to when the pathway was first implemented in 2016. when we applied the tool to the 2018 version of the pathway, our findings were drastically different. while this is only one case, we are confident that the front end effort put into the relationship building between partnering institutions, and with prospective indigenous learners, and into the support for indigenous learners via a transition program and wrap around services, led to the initial success of this pathway. in later years, this relationship building and maintenance did not occur, which, to use the words expressed in a key informant interview, resulted in the pathway not coming to life, and falling on the shelf (see appendix d). 37 recommendations and next steps the following are recommendations for implementing and supporting the sustainability of pathways for indigenous learners within your institution: 1. demonstrate your commitment and prioritization of pathways by allocating core resources to pathways development and support, and indigenous education; 2. inform senior administrators and decision makers on our pathways for indigenous learners project and engage them in our processes; 3. meet with indigenous learners in the development of pathways to understand their interests, barriers, needs and priorities; 4. inform faculty on our pathways for indigenous learners project and engage them in our processes; 5. use the asset map to guide the alignment of wrap-around support services to your pathways; 6. review and implement recommendations from the document titled shifting the landscape (cpril, 2018); 7. bring together key participants including senior administrators, faculty, support services staff, the registrar, etc. for a meeting on current and prospective pathways for indigenous learners; develop an implementation plan; confirm roles and responsibilities regarding pathways implementation; 8. review challenges to implementing pathways section and determine challenges to implementing pathways for indigenous learners within your own institution; establish a plan for addressing these challenge (see p. 43 for potential supports); 9. establish internal mechanisms for supporting work on pathways for indigenous learners such as developing a pathways coordinator or a pathways committee; set regular and in person meetings; review pathways implementation plans and set long and short term goals; align implementation plans with timelines within partnering institutions; assign responsibilities to participants involved with pathways implementation. 10. integrate the tool for monitoring pathways for indigenous learners (p.35) into your pathways implementation plans, and be sure to use this tool to guide the annual review of pathways; 38 conclusion this five-year collaboration of creating pathways for indigenous learners has resulted in a broad range of outcomes for supporting pathways development, indigenous learners, and indigenous education across the province of ontario. through this phase of our collaboration, we have gained a deeper understanding of the challenges to implementing pathways as well as the limitations that exist within our own model. our most critical learning is that as this group gets larger and as more pathways are created, we cannot lose sight of the original processes and values instilled by the first circle partners. we have to ensure that pathways meetings are grounded by our commitments to indigenous learners and the shared processes and values instilled among the first circle of partners. through this process, we have also identified wise practices and lessons learned that will inform improvements to our model of creating pathways for indigenous learners. for instance, in moving forward we must ensure that we are establishing mechanisms that guide, as well as ensure, our accountabilities and commitments to building successful pathways. important mechanisms include creating opportunities and spaces for relationships building among all those who are involved in a pathway, as well as implementing tools, such as our evaluative tool, to inform and monitor our work. in the next phase of our work we aim to address and integrate our key findings. we also aim to promote knowledge mobilization through the creation of a resource guide for implementing pathways for indigenous learners, and by working with external indigenous communities, groups and organizations to exchange knowledge on this work and on increasing access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners across ontario. 39 references assembly of first nations. 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(2008). research is ceremony: indigenous research methods. halifax: fernwood. 43 appendix a: wrap around support framework a framework is the enactment of a respectful relationship with the rest of creation which shares this earth with us a framework is never a noun never simply a metaphor it is more than any words which attempt to detonate it a framework is a journey/ing with interaction belonging 44 spiritual purpose love - we are given strength to walk through all that comes our way as we seek to understand the creators purpose for our lives. accessing elders on and off campus aboriginal counselling on and off campus opportunities for cultural practices opportunities for spiritual practices mental learning humility academic bridging course intensive 1 or 2 week module adaptation of trents research and writing course adapting to systems in new post-secondary institution acknowledging and accepting indigenous cultural difference emotional reflection - truth e-portfolio (to be developed) completion of transition questionnaire/assessment (to be developed) weekly check ins with peer mentor/advisor managing time (transfer shock) self - direction (self-care, self-advocacy) counselling relational interaction - respect promotion of articulation agreements navigators college recruiters develop promotional materials: brochures, postcards, etc. 1st year aca, ncfs, et class visits 2nd year aca, ncfs, et class visits access programs class visits alumni base call/email/mail promotional material high schools career fairs virtual tours website promotion and information meeting with students who are pursuing and meet criteria of articulation agreement introduction to receiving institution staff and faculty 45 assist with application process checking in not out once at receiving institution weekly check ins with peer mentor/advisor follow up by support staff to faculty faculty engagement advocacy social belonging - honesty maintenance of cohort summer orientation biishka, kiikokanawge community connections friendship centres, family connections financial balance - wisdom income source funding logistics employment opportunities pre, mid, post moving costs budgeting bursary applications physical movement self direction courage housing/accommodations daycare, childrens schools safe neighbourhoods health care doctors, dentists, optometrists diet and exercise 46 appendix b: list of pathways and their status sending learning community receiving learning community status of implementation aboriginal community advocacy (confederation college) indigenous studies (trent university) implemented environmental technician (confederation college) bachelor in indigenous environmental studies (trent university) bachelor in social work, algoma university implemented social service worker, native specialization (sault college) indigenous students in any 2years or 3-year program, canadore college all undergraduate degree program, lakehead university indigenous wellness and addiction prevent (iwap) 2-year program , canadore college fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (fasd) 1-year program , sault college social service worker 2-year (ssw) program, sault college community diabetes worker 1year post diploma program, canadore college business program, canadore college bachelor of business, laurentian university iwap 2-year program, canadore college indigenous studies undergraduate degree program. university of sudbury ssw 2-year program, canadore college indigenous studies undergraduate degree program. university of sudbury joint admission agreement. articulation agreement completed and awaiting final sign off. partnership mou for indigenous students canadore college to lakehead university agreement draft mou created, waiting for signatures to prepare for pilot. pathway identified next steps sharing of curriculum end of nov 2018 and start mapping curriculums 2019 pathway identified next steps sharing of curriculum end of nov 2018 and start mapping curriculums 2019 pathway exists adding canadore to agreement on hold in february no date when it will be implemented pathway identified- mapping of curriculum and draft articulation agreements completed next steps is senate approval (available to students september 2019) pathway identified- mapping of curriculum and draft articulation agreements completed next steps is senate approval (available to students september 2019) 47 mental health and addictions (mha) 2-year program, canadore college indigenous studies undergraduate degree program. university of sudbury cjs (cjs) 2-year program, canadore college indigenous studies undergraduate degree program. university of sudbury pfp program 2-year program, canadore college indigenous studies undergraduate degree program. university of sudbury ece program 2-year program, canadore college bachelor of arts folklore et ethnologie (3 years) program, university of sudbury social service worker, native specialization, sault college indigenous social work, laurentian university pathway identified- mapping of curriculum and draft articulation agreements completed next steps is senate approval (available to students september 2019) pathway identified- mapping of curriculum and draft articulation agreements completed next steps is senate approval (available to students september 2019) pathway identified- mapping of curriculum and draft articulation agreements completed next steps is senate approval (available to students september 2019) add canadore to existing articulation agreements finalizing documents (available to students january 2018) we have arrived at a 63 of 120 credit agreement if both sides agree. next steps approval of proposal from sault college, department approval at lu, faculty approval at lu, senate committee approval at lu. aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college ba community & economic social development, algoma university ba/hba political science, lakehead university aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college ba/hba sociology, lakehead university aboriginal community advocacy, confederation college ba/hba indigenous learning, lakehead university articulation agreement created. awaiting final sign off. projected fall 2019 enrolment. curriculum reviewed and proposal moving through senate approval process (available to students september 2019) curriculum reviewed and proposal moving through senate approval process (available to students september 2019) curriculum reviewed and proposal moving through senate 48 approval process (available to students september 2019) native child and family services, confederation college native child and family services, confederation college anishinaabemowin immersion certificate social service worker, first nations technical institute curriculum shared and under review on hold. new ssw program standard across the province. curriculum was previously shared and under review. 49 appendix c: interview guide (1) from your experience, how well has our process worked for creating pathways for indigenous learners? a. how has our pathways for indigenous learners model informed the development of pathways for indigenous learners? i. what went well? ii. what could have gone better? iii. what would you have changed? b. what do you think were the benefits of the three years of our process of attempting to create pathways for indigenous learners (i.e. first, second and third circle)? c. how could our process be improved? d. what are the outcomes that resulted from your participation in this project? (e.g. pathways, partnerships, relationship building, establishing a network, etc). e. how many pathways were identified by our process that involve your institution? are any of these pathways implemented? i. if yes, what pathways? ii. if not, why werent any pathways implemented? f. what were challenges to implementing pathways? g. what has facilitated the implementation of pathways? h. there were not many pathways that resulted from our process. why do you think that was the case? (2) how do we measure the success and sustainability of the pathways for indigenous learners across our partnering institutions? a. what are the experiences of indigenous learners who have followed the pathways developed through this initiative? b. how does your institution currently monitor pathways? c. who is responsible for the implementation of pathways? d. how should we measure the success of our implemented pathways? what metrics should be included within our evaluative tool? e. how do we ensure the sustainability of the pathways that have been developed? f. do you have any other comments or suggestions? 50 appendix e: application of the evaluative tool application of the evaluative tool to the pathway between confederation colleges aboriginal community advocacy and trent universitys indigenous studies, 2015 versus 2018 2015 pathway 51 2018 pathway 52 appendix e: sample articulation agreement (draft agreement) this articulation agreement represent an exemplary pathway for indigenous learner. it uniquely integrates core elements of our model including relationship building and commitment of partnering institutions, incorporation of a wraparound services model, and a commitment to monitoring. diploma-to-degree exceptional transfer agreement [community economic and social development] between algoma university (hereinafter au) sault ste. marie, on and confederation college (hereinafter cc) thunder bay, on 1.0 general provisions: i. this articulation agreement sets forth guidelines for the partnership that will exist between au and cc. this agreement describes the standard transfer credit 53 pathways for one-year ontario college certificate programs, two-year ontario college diploma programs and three-year ontario college advanced diploma programs; the goal of this agreement is to provide maximum opportunity for students to achieve the benefits of combining a college diploma and a university degree; the fundamental means embodied in this agreement is the recognition of prior learning and a credit transfer system in the province of ontario that optimizes pathways and minimizes unnecessary duplication of students learning and barriers to student mobility; the agreement shall be continuous from year to year; however, either party may terminate the agreement if notice in writing is given at least six months prior to the date on which the termination becomes effective. students enrolled at the time of notice of termination will be given the opportunity to complete their degree studies based on the terms of the agreement when they commenced their studies; au and cc will assign members to an advisory council to actively monitor the implementation of the pathway, using co-developed evaluation methodology and tools. ii. iii. iv. v. 1.1 block transfer credit agreement specifications: i. cc diploma and certificate program graduates must meet au admission requirements defined as the successful completion of a two or three-year diploma program or a one-year certificate program with a minimum overall average of b (3.00 gpa) to be eligible for block transfer credit recognition. the following cc diploma program will be considered as part of the exceptional transfer credit framework: aboriginal community advocacy program [aca two-year] (appendix a summarizes credit recognition based on the transfer agreement between au and cc) ii. successful applicants from the aforementioned two-year diploma program with a minimum overall average of 3.00 gpa (b) or greater will receive recognition as follows: 54 57 transfer credits towards the three-year bachelor of arts in community development program [ba3.cdev]; algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 60 transfer credits towards the four-year honours bachelor of arts in community economic and social development program [ba4.cesd]; 45 transfer credits toward the three-year bachelor of arts in community economic and social development program [ba3.cesd] iii. cc diploma graduates from the aforementioned program with a 2.50 2.99 gpa (c+) will receive transfer recognition for a maximum of 15 credits towards the bachelor of arts in community development and community economic and social development degree programs; students with a 2.49 gpa or less (c-/c) grade will be eligible for admission, but will not receive transfer credit. iv. in the case of course code changes, au and cc agree to update the agreement accordingly. v. each cc graduate admitted to au via this agreement will receive an individualized diploma to degree completion chart outlining the number of transfer credits received and the courses required for completion of the designated degree program. 55 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 1.2 institutional commitment algoma university and confederation college agree to implement a wrap-around support model for this exceptional agreement. the agreement is designed to facilitate the seamless transfer of students, and in particular indigenous learners. the wrap-around support model involves active participation by both institutions at all stages of the student experience. au and cc agree to assign a working group with representation from both institutions for this pathway agreement to explicitly identify which wrap-around supports will be provided in accordance with the model below. the success of this agreement will be monitored by the working group by examining student success and support provision using the wrap-around framework. in addition, the parties agree to the following: au will: collaborate with cc to provide information to students in their first year of study at cc regarding the transfer pathway. encourage pathway preparation by providing information to advisors at cc on college courses that will maximize transfer credit for this pathway. assign an anishinaabe student success advisor to work with cc students while they are in the cc diploma program. ensure applicants from cc receive priority entry to the university through a joint admissions process. waive the requirements for a completed transfer application and the transfer application fee. collaborate with cc to connect students and faculty to university resources while in the cc diploma program (faculty, library, learning resources, housing, etc.). provide au pathway scholarships to eligible students. cc will: collaborate with au to provide information to students in their first year of study at cc regarding the transfer pathway. encourage pathway preparation by providing opportunity for advisors and faculty at cc to learn about college courses that will maximize transfer credit for this pathway. assign an advisor to serve as the primary liaison for cc students interested in the au pathway while they are in the cc diploma program. collaborate with au to connect students and faculty to university resources while in the cc diploma program (faculty, library, learning resources, housing, etc.) 56 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 both parties agree to work collaboratively to build a strong inter-institutional working relationship to facilitate seamless transfer using a wrap-around support model that puts the student at the centre. 57 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 58 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 signing authority the parties have each assigned an individual to be responsible for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the diploma-to-degree transfer agreement: for algoma university (au), asima vezina president and vice chancellor 1520 queen street east sault ste. marie, on p6a 2g4 canada for confederation college (cc), kathleen lynch president and ceo 1450 nakina drive thunder bay, on p7c 4w1 canada 59 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 in witness whereof we have executed this transfer agreement by our duly authorized officers, signature of authorized representatives of au and cc: _________________________________________________________ asima vezina, president and vice chancellor, au _______________ date __________________________________________________________ kathleen lynch, president and ceo, cc _______________ date appendix a confederation college algoma university diploma-to-degree exceptional transfer agreement 60 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 for maximum transfer credit, a minimum final gpa average of 3.00 (b) is required for the exceptional agreement. students who complete the aboriginal community advocacy program (two-year) at cc will receive course recognition as follows towards the bachelor of arts in community development [ba3.cdev]: bachelor of arts in community development (ba3.cdev) course recognition anis 1006 anis 1007 cesd 1006 cesd 2607 cesd 3456 cesd 3906 cesd 3907 cosc 1701 huma 9100 [6 credits] huma 9200 [6 credits] sosc 9100 [6 credits] sosc 9200 [9 credits] swrk 9200 [6 credits] 57 credits *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted 61 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 for maximum transfer credit, a minimum final gpa average of 3.00 (b) is required for the exceptional agreement. students who complete the aboriginal community advocacy program (two-year) at cc will receive course recognition as follows towards the honours bachelor of arts in community economic and social development [ba4.cesd]: bachelor of arts in community economic and social development [ba4.cesd] course recognition cesd 1006 cesd 3017 cosc 1701 geog 1027 poli 1007 soci 1016 swrk 1006 huma 9100 [6 credits] huma 9200 [9 credits] 62 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 sosc 9100 [9 credits] sosc 9200 [15 credits] 60 credits *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted 63 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 for maximum transfer credit, a minimum final gpa average of 3.00 (b) is required for the exceptional agreement. students who complete the aboriginal community advocacy program (two-year) at cc will receive course recognition as follows towards the general bachelor of arts in community economic and social development [ba3.cesd]: bachelor of arts in community economic and social development [ba3.cesd] course recognition cesd 1006 cosc 1701 geog 1027 poli 1007 soci 1016 swrk 1006 swrk 2127 huma 9100 [6 credits] huma 9200 [6 credits] sosc 9100 [6 credits] sosc 9200 [6 credits] 45 credits *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted 64 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 appendix b confederation college algoma university diploma-to-degree block & exceptional transfer agreement course list anis 1006 anishinaabe peoples and our homelands i anis 1007 anishinaabe peoples and our homelands ii cesd 1006 introduction to community economic and social development i cesd 2607 community engagement and strategic planning cesd 3017 directed studies cesd practicum cesd 3456 community advocacy and social justice 65 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 cesd 3906 community economic and social development: selected topics i cesd 3907 community economic and social development: selected topics ii cosc 1701 computer applications i geog 1027 introduction to the physical environment poli 1007 political science ii: world politics soci 1016 understanding society i: principles and processes swrk 1006 introduction to social welfare in the north swrk 2127 introduction to social work research huma 9100 humanities, first-year non-equivalent [6 credits] huma 9200 humanities, second-year non-equivalent [6 credits] huma 9200 humanities, second-year non-equivalent [9 credits] sosc 9100 social science, first-year non-equivalent [9 credits] sosc 9100 social science, first-year non-equivalent [6 credits] sosc 9200 social science, second-year non-equivalent [6 credits] sosc 9200 social science, second-year non-equivalent [9 credits] sosc 9200 social science, second-year non-equivalent [15 credits] swrk 9200 social work, second-year non-equivalent [6 credits] *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted 66 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019

project snapshot fostering a successful transition: formalizing our commitment to indigenous learners type: innovative transfer project number: 2019-23 or i1923 project lead: lakehead university collaborators: confederation college, canadore college deliverables for website (if applicable): project summary: formalizing our commitment to indigenous learners project summary learners, support staff, influencers, and community members have called attention to the barriers to uptake present in current articulation agreements for indigenous learners focused only on awarding academic credit. this project will support lakehead university, canadore college, and confederation college in the development and implementation of a formalized commitment, in the form of a signed memorandum of understanding, to collaborate and synchronize supports for indigenous learners across institutions. by generating a formalized agreement to foster collaboration across institutions, wrap around supports can connect and provide inter-institutional communication and laddered transitions for indigenous learners. project rationale the need for the project resulted from the work done during the oncat funded pathways for indigenous learners project lead by the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (cpril) at confederation college. the collaborators who worked on this project recognized that lakehead university, confederation college, and canadore college had many articulated pathways credentials related to indigenous learning however these pathways were under utilized. the office of indigenous initiatives (formerly the office of aboriginal initiatives) had anecdotal reports of the transfer related challenges faced by indigenous learners and this project was a response to those reports and a coordinated effort to hear and respond to the students and support staff serving these learners. main collaborators confederation college: don duclos (registrar) was the primary contact for this project. canadore college: micheline demers (transfer officer) was the primary contact for this project. gerard peltier (recruiter) played a key role. collaborator contributions confederation college: attended in person and video conference based meetings on a monthly basis. arranged and conducted transfer student focus groups. created and shared a database of credentials that contain the highest percentage of self-identified indigenous learners to structure supports. hosted lakehead university information/discussion sessions in the apiwin student lounge to discuss issues around transfer. participated in the development of the memorandum of understanding. contributed to relationship building between all partnership institutions at a student, administrative, faculty and upper administrative level. canadore college: attended in person and video conference based meetings on a monthly basis. engaged their indigenous student advisory council to consult and participate in multiple phases of the project (focus groups and campus visits/feedback sessions). created and shared a database of credentials that contain the highest percentage of self-identified indigenous learners to structure supports. facilitated student and staff travel to both thunder bay and orillia as a component of the "charter class." participated in the development of the memorandum of understanding. contributed to relationship building between all partnership institutions at a student, administrative, faculty and upper administrative level. key steps 1) human resources and team formation: during this project time was spent on identifying the key project staff and also communicating with each department that provides supports for indigenous learners. significant time was put into communicating the purpose of this project and also into opening the project and ensuring that all the stakeholders/voices at the university and its partners were heard. 2) coordinate meetings of steering committee: in person meetings were very productive and having monthly and sometimes bi-weekly online check-in meetings was useful as well. roles and duties associated with oncat funded projects are often layered on top of other job responsibilities for many project partners and having regular online meetings was a good prompt to keep momentum going. it was interesting to see how each institution addressed their roles in their own unique way and produced results that served the project. 3) develop the memorandum of understanding: the associate vice provost academic (special projects) drafted a memorandum of understanding that both reflected the outcomes of the project and contains a realistic call to action with timelines. some of the project partners, particularly boots on the ground staff, were concerned that an mou would be too vague and not result in actual change (hence putting significant time into communicating with all the front line staff). the project team has ensured that the mou contains items that will require action. 4) recruit/invite a charter class: we were able to host students and visit partner institutions throughout the project to meet with front line staff, air their concerns and questions, and also share their own unique stories to contribute to our growing body of knowledge on seamless transfer experiences. canadore college's strategy of hiring their indigenous student advisory council to contribute was effective. outcomes there were two main outcomes associated with this project. primary outcome - a signed memorandum of understanding (mou) with the exception of a signing ceremony, an mou has been produced that balances action items generated from focus groups and student feedback with high level administrative guidance and direction. once we have conducted a signing ceremony between the presidents (and/or a designate) from all participating institutions, we intend to share the mou template with oncat and the province as a template. secondary outcome - establish a list of communication protocols between relevant student supports at partnering institutions. our original intention was to have a gantt chart style list of sequenced supports across all institutions that would span that the lifetime of the student experience across all their studies and potential transfers. this outcome was overly ambitious within the time span of the project and also required re-framing. as the project evolved some of the team members challenged this overall approach to student services, particularly with indigenous focused cultural and academic supports. the initial vision involved a eurocentric engineering style approach to student services for indigenous students across multiple institutions. ultimately, in the process of connecting with students, faculty, support services staff, elders, and education counsellors from first nations it became clear that a cultural shift to a more relational approach was necessary. to move towards achieving this re-framed outcome, we made a clear and definitive acknowledgement that individual relationships are the foundation for the success and longevity of this mou. the development of new transfer pathways and communication between wrap around supports relies on fostering 'personal yet professional' style relationships. however, these relationships take time to establish through meetings and gatherings. the extent to which our project has made strides towards this outcome includes: 1) multiple one to one and group meetings (both online and in person) between faculty members, support staff, and first nation representatives in the thunder bay and orillia regions with a focus on relationship building and listening to student perspectives. these relationships are truly the foundation for seamless transfer. during the writing of this report, senior administration members who connected over the course of this project are planning to expand transfer pathways and create more innovative transfer mechanisms. faculty members have reached out in person on behalf of their students who are interested in transferring instead of referring their students to the automated student central phone line. the fundamental substrate of trust and relationship building is probably the biggest outcome of this project and is currently benefiting students directly. 2) data sharing between institutional planning and analysis departments at all three institutions to identify the most active transfer pathways and credentials for self identified indigenous learners. 3) focus group data from transfer students at all three partner institutions was reviewed by the project team. the outcomes of this analysis will be shared internally during an in person meeting as the initial component of the extended project. this will be completed when the pandemic allows for staff to return to the university. if the pandemic lasts for the entire spring/summer semester, we will then have to find an alternative method of sharing. once these research outcomes have been reviewed both internally and by all partners, we would be willing to share with the province. 4) project partners have held indigenous focused transfer education sessions in their own physical spaces and in spaces at the partner institutions. the value of breaking the ice and starting to spend time supporting students across institutions is a move towards the secondary project outcome. challenges the primary challenge this project faced was the onset of a global pandemic at a critical phase of our project (mou signing and charter class visits as outlined in the work plan). this delayed our final charter class visit and the final mou review and signing process. student outcomes the project benefits students in numerous ways: 1) increased awareness. within the focus groups and one-to-one staff meetings, it was clear that key people were not aware of all transfer opportunities or updates to transfer agreements that would benefit their students. key staff members now know who to talk to when information is necessary and also know that they can bring people into their classrooms and collective spaces for transfer information sessions. 2) procedural awareness and navigation. students indicated that the application and enrolment process is intimidating and filled with technical jargon that is difficult to interpret for first generation post-secondary students. for example, one academic calendar related to the health profession programming indicates that the third and fourth year of a program are "professional" years. a couple of the students in a campus visit group interpreted this as meaning that they needed to be a full fledged professional before they were allowed to enter into the third year of the program. as a result, they would not apply to that program because they believed they were ineligible. 3) financial savings. with the joint admissions policy proposed in our mou, students will save application fees. we are also hoping to explore applying for education funding for two sequential credentials (particularly two for two style block transfers) so that students do not need to apply twice for funding to get a degree/diploma combination. finally, we have discussed indigenous specific scholarships and bursaries which are being reviewed by senior administration. mature and learn more about what they would like their own individual pathway to look like. student flexibility students are aware of transfer opportunities at the beginning of their first post-secondary credential and have access to transfer supports and information throughout their time in postsecondary. exploring how students may be able to waive certain fees associated with application and registration that previously acted as significant barriers to post-secondary. if students decide to transfer they will have personal relationships with support staff, peers, and also have completed many logistical processes before arriving at the receiving institution. institutional outcomes the primary changes to institutional practices as a result of the first phase of this project were: 1) strengthening of inter-institutional relationships and building trust that will lead to increased collaboration and communication. 2) collected a qualitative and quantitative data set from three institutions that will allow for a more relational and culturally appropriate approach to student supports across the student experience. 3) the memorandum of understanding generated references exploring changes to admissions policy, potential increase financial support, and also inter-institutional wrap around supports and campus visits. sector or system implications in light of oncat approving a year long extension of this project, we hope to provide a exemplar model of how a group of regional partners can collaborate to support student mobility from the moment the student arrives at the first institution in their postsecondary journey. this project demonstrates that the process of developing a memorandum of understanding and the relationship building that underlies this document is a good first step towards a more collaborative and therefore seamless system. tips/advice we benefited from the guidelines published by the centre for policy and research in indigenous learning (cpril) at confederation college to guide our approach to this project. one meeting that stands out was having elder gerry martin open the project and when asked what our primary focus should be he recommended that we "listen". the theme of listening was really well received by the primary representatives of each institution and guided the project. spending time at partnering institutions talking with students and support staff, essentially experiencing their institutional culture and building a relationship, was the key to developing collaborative policy from the grassroots that is actionable and designed to help the people who need it the most. for any institution considering developing a seamless transfer model for indigenous learners, we recommend reviewing the cpril research documents and taking a relational approach to policy development. tools and resource the primary resources that was developed in this project is the memorandum of understanding. we will share this document once we have completed the signing ceremony.

understanding transfer experience in the skilled trades submitted to the ontario council of articulation and transfer (oncat) april 28, 2022 principal investigator kyle paul researchers rashmi gupta matthew hack samantha sandford abstract the shortage of skilled trades workers in ontario has led to a renewed focus on enabling access to skilled trades education through related postsecondary enrolment and apprenticeship training. the construction sector has been especially impacted by the shortage of trained skilled tradespersons and was the focus of this research project. the key purpose of this research project was the collation and organization of longitudinal datasets to support skilled trades research in ontario. these datasets were prepared and explored in order to determine whether there are any trends and patterns associated with students enrolled in a skilled trades programs, particularly those related to the construction sector. the analysis confirmed a widely perceived notion that interest in construction related skilled trades programs is prevalent among the young, domestic, male population. the research study, however, also found evidence that older students in skilled trades programs, particularly those with prior postsecondary experience, were likely to have higher academic performance in the first semester than their younger peer group. the study also found evidence of a need for continued supports for female students in skilled trades programs. the research additionally identified the significant opportunity to promote skilled trades education to international students to help address the skilled trades labour shortage in the province and contribute to the economy. the research study explored potential antecedent academic pathways for students enrolling in skilled trades programs, and identified key informational barriers to executing further research in the area. the limited investigation did, however, indicate the potential for pathways among certain programs in the technology occupational cluster to skilled trades programs. while the study was able to successfully identify the predictors of academic success for students in skilled trades programs, further research with more information on related pathways is required to model the academic performance variance more fully. this exploratory research represents the first phase of a research project that will inform recommendations to strengthen skilled trades education in ontarios construction sector. the next phase of research is recommended to examine the interconnections between postsecondary skilled trades programs and the ontario apprenticeship training system within the construction sector, including student interest in apprenticeship training programs, pathways into apprenticeships for the graduates of skilled trades postsecondary programs, the relative success of students enrolling in apprenticeship training after a postsecondary experience, and the employment outcomes for graduates of skilled trades postsecondary programs. table of contents introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 purpose of the study ........................................................................................................................... 1 research questions.............................................................................................................................. 1 definitions of key terms ..................................................................................................................... 2 summary of key findings .................................................................................................................... 2 limitations of the study ..................................................................................................................... 3 literature review ..................................................................................................................................... 4 defining skilled trades ....................................................................................................................... 4 educational pathways into skilled trades in ontario ............................................................... 4 skilled trades educational pathways and labour market outcomes ................................... 7 skilled trades workforce .................................................................................................................. 8 data and methods.................................................................................................................................. 13 data sources and project datasets ............................................................................................... 13 program categories .......................................................................................................................... 15 methods ................................................................................................................................................ 17 results and discussion.......................................................................................................................... 19 section i: student population ......................................................................................................... 20 section ii: mobility patterns ............................................................................................................ 26 section iii: occupational cluster & credential pathways ....................................................... 34 section iv: time before re-enrolment ........................................................................................... 39 section v: student outcomes .......................................................................................................... 40 section vi: regression analysis ....................................................................................................... 43 conclusions ............................................................................................................................................. 45 key findings and recommendations .............................................................................................. 45 limitations and future research ................................................................................................... 47 appendices ................................................................................................................................................ 52 appendix a: skilled trades sectors ................................................................................................. 52 appendix b: categorization of dc programs included in the research study .................... 53 references ................................................................................................................................................ 58 introduction purpose of the study the shortage of skilled trades workers in ontario has led to a renewed focus on enabling access to skilled trades education through related postsecondary programs and apprenticeship training. the construction sector has been particularly impacted by the shortage of trained skilled tradespersons and is the focus of this research. currently, there is very little research available on student mobility in construction related postsecondary programs in ontario. this study provides a preliminary but indepth exploration of demographic profiles, student mobility and academic success factors for construction related (cr) postsecondary programs and a comparative analysis with the postsecondary non-construction related (ncr) programs. research questions postsecondary student interest in construction sector programs 1. what is the overall profile of a student in a construction program, and have there been demographic changes in recent years? 2. what is the educational history of postsecondary students pursuing additional qualifications in the construction sector? transfer experience 3. what proportion of students enrolling in construction programs utilize credit transferred from a different institution? 4. what are the pathways students leverage to gain access to a construction program? student outcomes 5. are there differences in the semester one grade point averages of students with prior education in a postsecondary skilled trades program as compared to those who do not have prior postsecondary experience? 6. are the completion rates different for the students with partial postsecondary experience as compared to students who do not have a previous experience? 7. what, if anything, suggests an increased likelihood of enrolling in a skilled trades program as a subsequent enrolment? 8. are there certain graduation predictors for students enrolled in skilled trades programs? construction programs? 1 definitions of key terms the following is a list of key terms used throughout this report: caat: colleges of applied arts and technology (referred to as college) mcu: ministry of colleges and universities ocas: ontario college application service oncat: ontario council on articulation and transfer ouac: ontario universities application centre pse: postsecondary experience summary of key findings demographic opportunities durham college (dc) students enrolled in construction related skilled trades programs are predominantly domestic, male and younger than students enrolled in other programs. there is a significant opportunity to increase representation of female and other underrepresented populations in these programs. while there is an increasing awareness of the need for female participation, most of the diversity efforts remain focused on recruitment. the results of the study indicate higher first semester academic performance by male students in the skilled trades programs, and hence potential opportunities to provide greater support to female students in skilled trades education. this research study also provides the first assessment of the particularly small proportion of international students enrolled in the skilled trades programs at dc. given that the study results empirically demonstrate the high academic performance of international students in skilled trades programs, and the skilled trades labour shortage impacting ontario, it is critical that greater concerted efforts be made in international recruitment campaigns to make international students aware of the education and career opportunities in this field. prior postsecondary education: pathways and impact a small proportion of students enrolled in skilled trades cr programs have prior postsecondary experience, and very few students utilize credit transfer opportunities. however, these students with prior postsecondary experience demonstrate higher academic performance than their peer group that does not have prior postsecondary experience. in particular, students who are currently enrolled in the programs affiliated with the technology occupational cluster may find subsequent interest in skilled trades programs, and leverage their common prior learning through credit transfers. 2 limitations of the study investigation of student population limited to single institution dc was an appropriate choice for this study as it has a wide range of programs and is established in the area of skilled trades. however, as a single site study, findings can only be used to guide further research rather than draw broader conclusions. it is also important to note that dc does not offer all of the skilled trades programs available in the publicly-funded college system. limited availability of prior postsecondary education data at non-caat institutions in ontario or at postsecondary institutions outside of ontario in order to assess prior postsecondary education, this study relied on data from the ontario college application service (ocas), which provides services to ontarios publicly-funded colleges. there is no secondary data available to provide a comprehensive history of enrolment at universities, career colleges, international institutions and colleges in other provinces/territories. limited availability of select socio-demographic data this study limited reporting on socio-demographics for which data is reliable and consistently available (e.g., age, gender and residency status). while there was interest in exploring other socio-demographics such as indigenous identification, the data was unavailable. additionally, the gender analysis relied on data that includes only the categories male, female and unknown. limited ability to identify high affinity programs for skilled trades program pathways due to deployment of credit transfer flag as a permanent attribute on student record the indicator signifying a student has been granted credit toward the completion of a program (i.e., ct flag) is assigned to the student record for the duration of their studies at dc, even if they enroll in multiple programs. as a result, the presence of a ct flag does not necessarily indicate that prior education was in a related field of study for the program. unavailability of graduation/completion records for prior postsecondary experience this study was successful in collating validated information on the dc skilled trades students prior postsecondary education enrolment at ontario colleges, but unfortunately, information was not available on whether the students completed and graduated from these prior postsecondary programs. thus, analysis on the graduation rates was not feasible. the research study, however, did assess student academic success outcome by collating and examining the student performance for first semester gpa which is a strong predictor of eventual student graduation. 3 literature review defining skilled trades skilled trades are occupations that require hands-on work and specialized skills, knowledge or abilities (government of ontario, 2021a). skilled trades are found in both the goods-producing and services-producing sectors of the economy, and are generally categorized as construction, transportation/motive power, manufacturing/industrial or service (canadian apprenticeship forum, n.d.). 1 in canada, skilled trades are classified as either compulsory or voluntary. compulsory trades require individuals to be registered as an apprentice, journeyperson candidate or journeyperson in order to work in the trade. apprenticeship training and certification is also available for voluntary trades, but is not legally required for employment (ontario college of trades, 2020). there are more than 300 officially recognized skilled trades in canada, but they are not all designated (i.e., apprenticeable occupations) in every province and territory. additionally, classifications of trades as compulsory or voluntary vary across the country. each province and territory holds responsibility for legislating, regulating and monitoring its training and employment requirements for skilled trades (lefebvre, et al. 2012). for instance, there are currently 144 designated trades in ontario, 23 of which are designated compulsory, meaning it is illegal to practice without proper certification. conversely, in british columbia there are currently no compulsory trades. 2 canada also has an interprovincial red seal program, which allows tradespersons who have successfully passed the red seal examination to have their certification recognized nationally. the red seal is designated for 55 skilled trades, and is considered a national standard of excellence indicating that a journeyperson has met a common standard of knowledge and experience in their trade (canadian apprenticeship forum, n.d.). educational pathways into skilled trades in ontario apprenticeship in ontario, apprenticeship training is largely recognized as a key pathway for gaining the requisite skills and knowledge to work in the skilled trades. apprenticeship is a form of education that combines classroom-based training with paid, on-the-job training. in see appendix a for descriptions of the four main skilled trades sectors. there have been recent efforts by the ministry of advanced education and skills training (2021) to introduce certification requirements for specific trades. 1 2 4 ontario, the apprenticeship system falls under the purview of the ministry of labour, training and skills development, and requires the participation of a sponsor (employer) and an approved training delivery agent (tda) (chatoor & kaufman, 2020). the ministry determines how many apprenticeship seats are allocated to each tda. ontarios apprenticeships involve approximately 20 per cent of in-class training and 80 per cent of on-the-job training, and are typically two to five years in length (chatoor & kaufman, 2020). when an apprentice has completed all elements of the apprenticeship, they receive a certificate of apprenticeship (c of a) and are referred to as a journeyperson candidate. this certificate allows them to pursue a certificate of qualification (c of q). for many trades, this requires the apprentice to pass a certification exam, which is typically a multiple-choice test and requires a minimum of 70 per cent to pass. once a c of q is obtained, the title of journeyperson is applied (chatoor & kaufman, 2020). the process of registering as an apprentice requires finding an employer who is prepared to participate in an apprenticeship agreement. individuals must be at least 16 years of age and legally able to work in ontario. many employers hire individuals first as a labourer, and enter into an apprenticeship agreement after they have proven to be capable and responsible. a registered training agreement is a contract between the apprentice, sponsor and provincial apprenticeship authority (government of ontario, n.d.). apprenticeship in ontario was regulated by the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu) under the trades qualification and apprenticeship act, 1990 (tqaa) and the apprenticeship and certification act, 1998 (aca), until the ontario college of trades and apprenticeship act, 2009 was introduced. the ontario college of trades (ocot) was officially established in 2013 to oversee apprenticeship programs, set training standards, investigate infractions and conduct trades-related research (ontario college of trades, 2020). in 2013, the ontario chamber of commerce (occ) released a review of ontarios apprenticeship system and advocated for a complete overhaul of the provincial approach to regulating the skilled trades (holmes & hjartarson, 2013, p. 3). the occs report is particularly critical of the journeyperson-to-apprentice ratio in ontario, which was among the highest in canada at the time. the report argues that a high ratio is restrictive for small-and-medium-sized businesses, and discourages their participation in the apprenticeship system. this sentiment is echoed in a c.d. howe institute commentary by brydon and dachis (2013). their analysis found that a high ratio reduces entry into the labour force and contributes to a shortage of skilled labour in that trade (bryden & dachis, 2013, p. 10). in response to calls for improvements to the ontario skilled trades and apprenticeship system, the government is winding down the ocot and replacing it with a new crown agency, skilled trades ontario. a remodeling of the system was initiated through bill 5 47, making ontario open for business act, 2018, which includes a reduction of journeymen to apprentice ratios to 1:1 (government of ontario, 2021b). more recently, the new skilled trades act (2021) has been established with the intent to implement a system that is more efficient and easier to navigate, including a simplified pathway for apprentice registration, issuance of certificates and renewals and equivalency assessments (wall, 2021). skilled trades ontario will also work to help end the stigma around careers in construction, as well as conduct research into the skilled trades and apprenticeships so that the province and employers will be able to anticipate future needs (wall, 2021). pre-apprenticeship programs pre-apprenticeship programs are available in ontario to help individuals gain the skills and experience they need to find work as an apprentice. these programs are funded by the government of ontario and are free of cost to participants. pre-apprenticeship programs are offered by different organizations including colleges and other tdas, are typically 40 weeks in duration, and usually include safety training, level-1 apprenticeship in-class training, and work placements (ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2015). secondary school opportunities throughout canada, there are various high school initiatives that introduce students to the skilled trades and provide early training. in ontario, the ontario youth apprenticeship program (oyap) allows students to explore a career in the skilled trades and gain credits towards postsecondary education. similarly, specialist high skills major (shsm) programs allow students to customize their secondary school education to suit their interests. shsms are available for a variety of sectors, including construction. students complete their major through a series of courses (8-10) and workplace experience (government of ontario, 2015). postsecondary programs although apprenticeships are recognized as a key pathway into the skilled trades, the 2006 census shows that only a small proportion (approximately 17 per cent) of workers in these occupations completed a registered apprenticeship program (crocker, 2011). a similar proportion hold other forms of trades certificates, including those earned through postsecondary education. in ontario, certificate and diploma programs in skilled trades are offered by public and private colleges. these programs include both theory and practical hands-on training, and prepare graduates to enter the workforce or pursue an apprenticeship. upon completion of some trades-related programs, graduates may be eligible for exemption of the in-school training portion for the respective trade. 6 tradespeople in ontario who have not followed the apprenticeship pathway can still obtain a c of q through a trades equivalency assessment (tea). the tea process allows individuals with equivalent qualifications and experience in a trade to challenge the certification examination. this can include tradespeople in international skilled trades, and apprentices or journeypersons from other canadian jurisdictions (government of ontario, 2021a). skilled trades educational pathways and labour market outcomes the impact of education on the labour market outcomes of tradespeople has been explored in several canadian studies (ahmed, 2010; chatoor & kaufman, 2020; frank & jovic 2017; mnard, chan & walker, 2008; laporte & mueller, 2012). for instance, frank and jovic (2017) provide a national overview of the data generated from the 2015 national apprenticeship survey (nas). one of the key findings of the survey is that apprentices who completed their programs were more likely to find employment (frank & jovic, 2017). more recently (2021), finnie, dubois and miyairi released a comprehensive report on the earnings of red seal apprentices using the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp). their findings are similar to those of frank and jovic (2017), in that those who complete apprenticeships earn approximately 9 to 10 per cent more than trade qualifiers (i.e., those who have on-the-job training and received a c of q). finnie, dubois and miyairi also compared the earnings of journeypersons to postsecondary education graduates and found that men with trade certificates earn significantly more than men with bachelors degrees and college-level certificates or diplomas in the first year of work. however, the same is not true for women, who earn far less with trade certification (finnie, dubois & miyairi, 2021). research on labour market outcomes in the skilled trades has primarily focused on comparing the outcomes of those who have completed an apprenticeship program to those who started an apprenticeship but discontinued. however, some research assesses labour market outcomes based on other pathways into the skilled trades (gunderson & krashinsky, 2012; crocker, 2011; boothby & dewes, 2010; statistics canada, 2017a). gunderson and krashinsky (2012) found that males in construction and mechanical trades with an apprenticeship certificate earned 15 per cent more than those in the trades who were not apprenticed. like finnie, dubois and miyairis 2021 report, gunderson and krashinsky (2012) found the situation is vastly different for females, who earn even less than females who have only completed high school. a study by boothby and drewes (2010) came to similar conclusions. there are limitations to these studies, stemming from the use of 2006 census data, which does not identify those with postsecondary qualifications in addition to apprenticeship. a 2009 report by the canadian apprenticeship forum (caf) used a 7 different combination of data sources (e.g., labour force survey and 2007 national apprenticeship survey) to compare the labour market outcomes of trades program completers and graduates of select trades/technical college, but the study did not include ontario (crocker et al., 2014). in recognition of limited research in this area, the canadian council of directors of apprenticeship (ccda) commissioned a research plan to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between apprenticeship completion, certification and outcomes (crocker, pepin, hurrell, wald, wiebe, wong & ahmed, 2014, p.1). a key focus of this research includes examining differences in these outcomes among those who enter the trades through apprenticeship versus other routes, those who complete their programs and those who either discontinue or remain in the program for much longer than the nominal time required to complete (crocker, et al. 2014, p.1). among other findings, the study confirmed there is an income advantage for tradespeople with a c of q earned through apprenticeship or trade qualification, and an additional income advantage for those who complete apprenticeships (crocker, et al. 2014). skilled trades workforce demographic profile it is estimated that 22.1 per cent of employed canadians worked in skilled trades occupations in 2015 (frank & jovic, 2017). as a whole, the skilled trades workforce is distributed throughout the provinces and territories proportional to the overall population, but there are differences among the individual trades. for instance, alberta, which accounts for approximately 12 per cent of canadas labour force, employs 20 per cent of the countrys plumbers, pipefitters, and gas fitters (statistics canada, 2016). the aging population is posing a challenge for canadas workforce overall, and the skilled trades are not an exception. in ontario, 21 per cent of residents will be older than 64 by 2029, and youth aged 15 to 24 will account for less than 10 per cent of the population (dijkema, 2018). buildforce canada, a construction labour market organization, believes the skilled trades will be particularly impacted by this shift in demographics because of the cumbersome and lengthy apprenticeship training system (buildforce canada, 2020a). the average age of an apprentice in ontario in 2012 was 29.9 years and over one-quarter of certified journeyperson were 55 and older in 2019 (statistics canada, 2020a). however, lefebrve, simonova and wang argue that gauging the age structure of skilled trades would best be done by examining the situation of specific trade in a particular province (p.24). for instance, plumbers, pipefitters and gas fitters have a relatively young age structure, while machinists and related occupations, heavy equipment operators and machinery and transportation equipment mechanics have a high proportion of workers close to retirement (lefebrve, et al., 2012). 8 similarly, the highest level of education completed before apprenticeship differs significantly among the individual skilled trades. in their 2020 study, chatoor and kaufman used 2015 nas data to explore the apprenticeship system in ontario. they found that it is common for apprentices to have already completed as postsecondary credential before starting their apprenticeship. in the service trades, 45 per cent of apprentices had a prior postsecondary credential, and the same was true for 24.4 per cent of apprentices in construction (chatoor & kaufman, 2020). this finding was also highlighted in a 2018 canadian apprenticeship forum report by arrowsmith, in which she indicates most apprentices work first or pursue another form of postsecondary education prior to securing an apprenticeship opportunity (arrowsmith, 2018). the underrepresentation of females in the skilled trades is commonly identified as an issue in skilled trades literature (barnetson, 2018; frank & frenette, 2019; frank & jovic, 2017; laryea & medu, 2010). the gender mix is highly unbalanced, with males accounting for over 90 per cent of all trades workers in 2011 (frank & frenette, 2019). similarly, females represent only 13.7 per cent of apprentices in canada (ibid.). this imbalance is even more acute in specific regions and trades. for instance, in ontarios construction industry, females comprise only 3.8 per cent of workers. females who do work in the trades are largely concentrated in the services industry in trades such as hairstylist and esthetician (frank & frenette, 2019) recent immigrants are also identified as an underrepresented group in skilled trades. according to the 2007 labour force survey (lfs), 17 per cent of workers in the trades were immigrants, which is significantly lower than the 21 per cent of workers that are immigrants in the non-trades occupations. similarly, immigrants account for only 8.7 per cent of apprentices, which is less than half of their share of the population of canada (frank & jovic, 2017). on the other hand, indigenous canadians account for a larger proportion of apprentices as compared to their general population representation in canada (6 per cent vs 4 per cent) (arrowsmith 2018; buildforce canada 2021; frank & jovic 2017). labour supply and demand it is widely perceived that there is a disconnect between the supply and demand of the skilled trades labour force. a prevalent opinion in the literature is that there is a looming shortage of skilled tradespeople that is largely due to canadas aging population (dijkema, 2018; carey, 2014; pyper, 2008; haan, et al., 2020; stuckey & munro, 2013; spence, 2012). in canada, more than 700,000 workers in the skilled trades are expected to retire by 2028 (government of canada, 2021). according to buildforce canada, the construction and maintenance sector in ontario will be particularly impacted, and will need to hire, train and retain 100,000 additional workers over the next decade to keep pace with demands (2021). this gap will stem from an anticipated record number of retirements that will coincide with new 9 infrastructure projects, including public transportation and two nuclear refurbishment projects in the greater toronto area and southwestern ontario (buildforce canada, 2020b). the canadian apprenticeship forum (2021) echoes this sentiment and estimates there will be a gap of 60,000 registered apprentices in canada by 2025. however, research led by pepin for the ccda emphasizes that the multiple pathways into the trades must be considered when assessing the potential for a labour shortage. the researchers argue that the lfs and census are most likely to underrepresent the extent and contribution of canadians with trades and apprenticeship background since they do not identify those who are uncertified but have some trades and apprenticeship training while working in related jobs; or those who have trades and apprenticeship certificates along with higher education levels (crocker et al., 2014, p 222). they call for future research to focus on the link between education and occupation. similarly, lefebvre, simonova and wang (2012) explain that a labour shortage speaks to the insufficient number of people available in a given occupation to satisfy employers labour demand (p.11). their report highlights the difficulty of directly observing and measuring labour shortages. they are critical of government policy response that focuses on resolving labour shortages rather than ensuring that effective stabilizing mechanisms are in place. ontario released an apprenticeship strategy in 2018 which aims to improve the apprenticeship system and respond to the needs of the economy and workforce (government of ontario, 2018). key to the apprenticeship strategy is increasing participation of underrepresented groups. the opportunity to increase diversity within the skilled trades is prevalent in the literature (frank & frenette, 2019; ericksen& palladino-schultheiss, 2009; greene & stitt-gohdes, 1997). women, indigenous peoples, recent immigrants, racialized canadians, youth, and persons with disabilities are often recognized as an untapped source of skilled trades labour, and increasing their participation is seen as key to meeting labour demands (canadian apprenticeship forum, 2004). promoting the skilled trades as a viable career option is also a key objective of the 2018 apprenticeship strategy. the ontario government recognizes that the skilled trades are typically not encouraged within the current education system, which emphasizes academic and high-vocation skills (the conference board of canada, 2002). research suggests there is an implicit bias against the trades among parents and students, which serves as a barrier to apprenticeship participation (sharpe & gibson, 2005; schuetze, 2003; taylor, 2003; canadian apprenticeship forum, 2005; deussing, 2015; gallagher & kitching, 2003; jean-louis, 2017). a poll by the canadian apprenticeship forum and skills canada in 2005 set out to identify the awareness, attitudes and perception of youth and their influences towards skilled trades and apprenticeship throughout canada (canadian apprenticeship forum, 10 2005, p.1). the study confirmed that stereotypes are prevalent about skilled trades among canadian youth, including that skilled trades are only suited to males, and that tradespeople are not well respected in society. these perceptions act as a barrier to increasing youth participation in skilled trades. a similar study in 2015 found a more positive perception of jobs in the trades, but still limited interest in pursuing skilled trades as a career (deussing, 2015). more recently in 2021, green, melnick and pariser prepared a report for the ministry of labour, training and skills development on increasing the engagement of young people in the skilled trades and addressing the stigma and barriers associated with pursuing a career in the skilled trades (p.1.). this report was informed by consultations with multiple stakeholders, including youth, apprentices and employers. key among their findings is a lack of clear information about apprenticeship pathways that discourages youth from pursuing the skilled trades. the report also emphasizes the importance of addressing the poor perception of skilled trades. one suggestion from stakeholders is the reclassification of apprenticeship to be more in line with postsecondary nomenclature (e.g., skilled trades diploma of qualification) (green, et al., 2021). in their 2005 report on the apprenticeship system in canada, sharpe and gibson also argue that the apprenticeship system should be integrated into the postsecondary system to improve the potential advancement of apprentices and the flexibility of their credentials (p.11). mcu has recently approved a process that allows colleges to grant apprentices with an ontario college certificate upon the successful completion of their apprenticeship training. this initiative enables the provinces economic recovery from the pandemic by supporting awareness of the skilled trades, and contributes to the efforts to modernize the apprenticeship system. there is also a body of literature that calls for the adoption of a competency-based approach to trades training and credentialing as a means of increasing labour supply (lane & griffiths, 2015; drummond & kachuck rosenbluth, 2015; dijkema, 2018). lane and griffiths (2015) argue that a competency-based model in which people are credentialed for specific competencies and can stack these credentials together to qualify for different trades (p.2), is advantageous to tradespeople, employers and the economy as a whole. this type of system is more efficient and cost-effective, and allows for labour mobility geographically and between trades. a focus on competencies and graduated credentials was also included in policy recommendations by dijkema to the ontario government in 2018 (p.1.). this recommendation was integrated into the modernizing the skilled trades and apprenticeship act, 2019, which introduces a framework based on portable skill sets (government of ontario, 2019). this new framework is under development, but proposes a system in which apprentices and journeypersons can work in a variety of industries or trades, and will allow employers to train apprentices with exactly the skills they need for the jobs they have available. 11 apprenticeship completion rates despite the strong demand for tradespeople, the number of new registrations in apprenticeship programs is decreasing in canada. there are differences throughout the country, with ontario experiencing a slight increase in new registrations from 2018 to 2019 (1.9 per cent), compared to a national decline of 2.9 per cent (statistics canada, 2021). there are also differences among the trades, with the construction industry seeing the strongest growth in registrations. in ontario, new registrations in construction related apprenticeship programs reached a five-year high in 2019 (statistics canada, 2020a). however, the covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on new registrations in 2020, with a decline of 29 per cent from the year prior (statistics canada, 2021). the decline was even more significant in ontario (37 per cent). there are some signs of recovery in 2021, but numbers remain well below 2019 (statistics canada, 2020a). the canadian apprenticeship forums 2021 national labour market information report suggests future research will need to assess the impact of the pandemic on the labour supply of tradespeople (canadian apprenticeship forum, 2021). apprenticeship registrations alone do not provide a fulsome picture of the supply of certified tradespeople. despite the well-documented benefits of obtaining certification, only about half of canadian apprentices complete their programs (government of canada, 2014). furthermore, most apprentices take longer than the usual program duration to earn their certificate. apprenticeship programs range in duration from two years to five years, depending on the trades itself and the jurisdiction. however, less than one-fifth of apprentices in canada complete their training within the designated time period (statistics canada, 2020b). in a 2010 study, cadieux used 2007 nas data to explore the time to completion in apprenticeship programs. he found that having prior technical training in the trades contributes to shorter completion time of an apprenticeship. however, cadieux also found that taking part in a high school apprenticeship initiative actually leads to longer completion times (cadieux, 2010). completion rates (i.e., the proportion of apprentices that successfully complete their apprenticeship program) for apprentices have also been explored from a variety of perspectives, including comparing completion rates for different trades (desjardins & paquin, 2010; arrowmsith, 2018), and exploring factors associated with completion rates (arrowsmith, 2017; campbell, 2010; dostie 2010; haan, et al., 2020; laporte & mueller 2011; lane & griffiths, 2015). in their 2020 canadian study, jin, langevin, lebel and haan found that apprentices who were credited for previous work experience or training were more likely to complete their program (haan, et al., 2020, p.1). the same study found that apprentices registered in compulsory trades were less likely to be discontinuers (haan, et al., 2020). 12 in his report overcoming skills shortage in canada, carey (2014) argues that low completion rates contribute to the skilled trades labour shortage because it limits the number of journeypersons who can train other apprentices. in examining reasons for low completion rates, carey cites multiple studies (akyeampong, 1991, laporte & mueller, 2012) that highlight the labour market penalties for non-completion, including lower wages as compared to completers. carey identifies multiple barriers to completion, including financial burdens due to un-paid periods of in-class training, fragmented inter-provincial apprenticeship programming, and inadequate numeracy and literacy skills (carey, 2014). data and methods data sources and project datasets the study population is comprised of postsecondary students who were enrolled in dc full-time during any of the fall semesters from 2016 to 2020. the data for the study population was collated from three key sources: college strategic enrolment reporting dc cser dataset the college statistical enrolment reporting (cser) file contains records of enrolment for full-time postsecondary students. cser files are formally audited and submitted by colleges to mcu for funding purposes. the cser file is prepared and submitted once each semester (november 1, march 1, and june 30). these files contain demographic and program information for each student, such as date of birth, gender, country of citizenship, postal code, program of study, mcu code and credential type. student enrolments included on the cser files for the reporting period (fall 2016 to fall 2020) were consolidated to create the base dataset of the study population, referred to as dc cser in this study. the dc cser dataset is a compilation of full-time postsecondary students enrolled at dc in the fall semesters over the 2016 to 2020 period. it is important to note that the students included in the dc cser dataset: are unique for any given semester; but may be repeated between the semesters if they are re-enrolled at dc in a subsequent fall semester between 2017 and 2020 because they progressed to a subsequent year of study, repeated a year of study, or re-enrolled in a different program. this ensures that the student population can be investigated for any unique attributes, as well as tracked as a cohort to examine longitudinal trends. in addition, the dc cser dataset includes demographic variables such as program of study, credential, occupational cluster associated with the program of study, year of study, gender, and residency status. 13 student information system (sis) dc ocas dataset durhams colleges student information system (sis) is the centralized repository of formal records and information for all the students enrolled at dc at any given time. the sis contains the official records of students demographic attributes, contact information, applications and enrolment details, program information, and related academic information including graduation. domestic postsecondary applicants in ontario are required to apply to colleges through the centralized web portal facilitated by ontario college application service (ocas). ocas is an application processing centre for admissions for each of the 24 ontario colleges. it collects and maintains detailed information about college applicants and enrollees. the ocas data system, which collects information through the web portal, directly interfaces with the dc sis system, and provides daily updates of applicant information through a direct electronic transmission. as part of the ocas application, applicants are strongly recommended to declare their prior postsecondary education. however, it is a voluntary question and many applicants choose to declare only partial information, or sometimes nothing at all. furthermore, there is no validation of the information submitted in response to this question unless it is part of a programs admission requirements. application information, including prior postsecondary experiences and additional demographic details, for the students included in the dc cser dataset was collated from the sis and is referred to as the dc ocas dataset in this study. in addition, the dc cser dataset was further enhanced with information on students prior programs of study at dc, year of study, and first semester grade point average (gpa) from the sis system. ontario college applicant system (ocas) system ocas dataset in addition to serving as the centralized processing centre for all of the 24 publiclyfunded colleges, ocas also maintains a centralized data warehouse detailing the fulltime postsecondary enrolments at each of the colleges. ocas receives the cser reports from each of the 24 colleges, collates the longitudinal information in a data warehouse, and further enhances student enrolment information by matching it with the corresponding application information based on the ontario education number (oen). the oen is a unique numerical identifier attributed by the ministry of education to each student in the province of ontario when they start their academic journey in elementary school, and is carried through to postsecondary education in ontario. for students who do not have a prior elementary or secondary academic history in the province of ontario (e.g., international students), the first college they attend assigns them with a unique numerical identifier as stipulated by mcu, and this unique identifier is carried through all 14 postsecondary education. oens thus offer an important mechanism for tracking the transfer of students between different institutions, and their academic outcomes. while the dc ocas dataset provides some information on dc applicants prior postsecondary experience, the information is neither complete nor validated. for the purpose of this study, it was important that students prior postsecondary experiences be explored more fully and reliably. ocas holds prior verified enrolment information for all of the 24 colleges in the system, and hence offers a unique opportunity to track the prior postsecondary experiences of the dc students in the ontario publicly funded college system. oens for the students included in the dc cser were provided to ocas with a request for the prior enrolment history of these students at the various colleges over the last 20 years since 2000. for the any of the students who had a prior enrolment history in the college system, ocas provided a dataset with the following details, where available: college(s) of previous enrolment program(s) of previous enrolment start date(s) of previous program(s) first generation status aboriginal ancestry description gender country of citizenship mother tongue date of birth applicant type whether the student had a dual credit course record this customized information on dc cser students entire enrolment history at the other 23 colleges was collated, and is referred to as the system ocas dataset in this study. program categories this research study includes a comparative investigation of dcs skilled trades programs, with a particular focus on the construction sector related postsecondary programs. to ensure that the student data is analyzed within the proposed framework, students postsecondary programs of enrolment at dc were distinctly classified into four categories depending on whether they were related to skilled trades and/or the construction sector: 15 skilled trades construction related (skilled trades cr) non-skilled trades construction related (non-skilled trades cr) skilled trades non-construction related (skilled trades ncr) non-skilled trades non-construction related (non-skilled trades ncr) the classification of a program as construction related is intended to reflect the skilled trades designated by the ontario college of trades as construction trades. skilled trades non-construction related indicates that a program corresponds to a skilled trade that is classified in any of the other groups designated by the ontario college of trades (e.g., services, motive power). dc offers a total of 130 postsecondary programs across a wide range of disciplines. in addition to the apprenticeship and sector classifications provided by the ontario college of trades, the following occupational, industrial, and program related classifications were employed to organize dc programs across the four categories: national occupational classification (noc) north american industry classification system (naics) program learning outcomes as delineated on the program standards for the various postsecondary programs in ontario, released by mcu, ontario ontario college of trades classification and program learning outcomes as outlined on the program standards by mcu, were employed to determine the categorization of postsecondary programs between skilled trades and non-skilled trades categories. these were then further assessed to determine their relevance to the construction sector. the construction sector employs a wide variety of occupations in skilled trades and 10 postsecondary programs at dc are included in the skilled trades cr category as presented in appendix b. the remaining 20 skilled trades were included in the skilled trades ncr category. there were a few programs that could have been classified in more than one program category. in such cases, any equivalencies established by ministry of labour, ontario and program learning outcomes were employed to categorize the program uniquely in one of the program categories. for example, while the graduates of the mechanical technician millwright program may find employment in the construction sector, this program was classified as industrial based on the ministry of labour, ontario equivalency interpretation, and therefore included in the skilled trades ncr category. the non-skilled trades postsecondary programs were categorized according to the related occupations and industry where graduates have typically found employment in the past. noc and naics data for each of these programs was assessed to determine whether they could be classified as related to the construction sector. of particular note in the non-skilled trades category are the civil engineering technology and architecture engineering technology programs. these are the only programs that are not typically included in the skilled trades category and yet play an important role in the construction sector. hence, these programs are included in the non-skilled trades cr category. a complete list of the programs included in each category is available in appendix b. 16 methods this research study is unique and the first of its kind. significant effort was deployed in exploring and addressing the data paucity in the skilled trades education area. the primary focus of this research study was to explore the data availability and collate extensive datasets to delineate the postsecondary pathways, and investigate the demographic profile of students enrolled in skilled trades related programs, particularly those related to the occupations in the construction sector. this research study also undertakes an exploratory, comparative investigation of student attributes and longitudinal trends across four defined program categories. the research study proposes to explore the pathways of students who are enrolling in skilled trades programs, and whether exposure to prior postsecondary programs plays a role in their subsequent interest in the skilled trades. when the research proposal was formulated, the terms direct entry and non-direct entry were used to make this distinction. however, upon further exploration, it was revealed that these classifications would not be the best approach to examine the intended distinctions. while the term direct entry implies that a student has enrolled in a postsecondary program right after graduating from high school, non-direct entry does not imply that students undertook a prior postsecondary experience before enrolling in a subsequent program. rather, nondirect entry only implies that there was a time gap between the students graduation from high school and subsequent postsecondary enrolment. during that time gap, the student may or may not have attended postsecondary education at another institution. to ensure clarity, the research study refers to students as having prior postsecondary enrolment instead of non-direct entry. key research questions were explored using descriptive analysis for the data variables as indicated below. the descriptive analysis is presented comparatively for each of the four program categories as identified in the prior section. in addition, insights derived from the descriptive analysis will help to establish trends in enrolment, a profile of student enrolments in each of the reporting years, and will further enable a comparative analysis across the four program categories. student demographic profiles: enrolment credentials age gender residency status (i.e., international vs. domestic) voluntary, self-reported information on indigenous and first generation status was provided by ocas as part of system ocas dataset, but it is not representative of the student population. currently, the information on indigenous and first generation attributes of students exists in fragmented databases and there is no consolidated 17 dataset available for fulsome analysis and reporting. hence this information was deemed inadequate to be included in the analysis for this research study. mobility patterns: prior (voluntary/unverified) postsecondary enrolment prior (verified) postsecondary enrolment number of prior institution(s) and prior program(s) attended prior (verified) enrolment at dc occupational cluster and credential pathways: prior (verified) enrolment by occupational cluster prior (verified) enrolment by occupational sub-cluster prior (verified) postsecondary enrolment by credential prior (verified) postsecondary program-level enrolment re-enrolment: number of months since prior (verified) postsecondary enrolment additionally, regression analyses were conducted to investigate whether student demographic factors, prior postsecondary experience (verified), occupational cluster related to the prior program of study, prior credential level, and the time interval between prior postsecondary and subsequent dc program enrolment are predictors of student interest in skilled trades programs and subsequent success as determined by first semester gpa for students in skilled trades programs. 18 results and discussion this section presents findings from the preliminary but in-depth exploratory study of demographic profiles, mobility and academic success factors of students in skilled trades postsecondary programs, and particularly those in the construction sector. in order to facilitate an understanding of how skilled trades programs compare to nonskilled trades programs, as well as how construction related (cr) programs compare to non-construction related (ncr) programs, the data are displayed for four distinct categories: skilled trades cr, non-skilled trades cr, skilled trades ncr, and nonskilled trades ncr. there are three distinct datasets used in the analysis: the dc cser dataset is a compilation of full-time postsecondary students enrolled at dc in the fall semesters over the 2016 to 2020 period. a customized dataset referred to as system ocas, includes the enrolment history for these students at the other 23 colleges. the dc ocas dataset includes details of dc students applications through the ocas portal. data presented in aggregate is a count of unique students over the 2016 to 2020 reporting period, and is based on their most recent enrolment record at dc. conversely, data presented longitudinally includes a count of students in a given year, and therefore counts students more than once over the reporting period if they re-enrolled in a subsequent fall semester between 2017 and 2020. the aggregate tables provide a summary of a given variable and allow for an overall comparison between the program categories, whereas the longitudinal tables allow for comparisons within a category to determine whether there have been any changes over time. 19 section i: student population a. enrolment trends (dc cser) table 1 presents fall postsecondary enrolment longitudinally according to the established program categories. this table includes the count and proportion of the student population, and are referenced in the subsequent data analysis. table 1: dc cser - total postsecondary enrolment; fall program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 5.0% (510) 1.0% (98) 13.6% (1,378) 80.3% (8,120) 5.1% (559) 1.1% (125) 13.2% (1,433) 80.5% (8,756) 5.1% (597) 1.3% (153) 12.9% (1,499) 80.7% (9,380) 5.1% (600) 1.6% (183) 12.6% (1,476) 80.7% (9,424) 4.4% (466) 1.8% (193) 12.1% (1,282) 81.6% (8,628) 10,106 10,873 11,629 11,683 10,569 overall enrolment at dc had been increasing over the reporting period, but there was a decline in 2020 during the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. a similar trend is evident for each category except for non-skilled trades cr, which slightly increased enrolment in 2020. enrolment in skilled trades ncr programs began to decline before the pandemic. moreover, the proportion of dc enrolment accounted for by skilled trades related programming (cr & ncr) has steadily declined since 2016. table 2 presents a summary of enrolment by credential. students who enrolled at dc in multiple programs over the reporting period are counted once, based on their most recent program. table 2: dc cser total postsecondary enrolment by credential; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 20 certificate diploma 35.4% (651) 0.0% (0) 16.0% (712) 14.7% (4,055) 15.8% (5,418) 64.6% (1,187) 17.5% (70) 67.6% (3,009) 51.4% (14,318) 53.8% (18,584) advanced diploma 0.0% (0) 82.5% (331) 13.9% (620) 21.6% (5,983) 20.2% (6,934) graduate certificate 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 2.5% (110) 12.0% (3,307) 10.0% (3,417) bachelors degree 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 0.3% (80) 0.2% (80) total 1,838 401 4,451 27,743 34,433 only certificate and diploma programs are included in the skilled trades cr category, and hence the students are limited to only those credential levels. there are opportunities to pursue construction related advanced diplomas through non-skilled trades programs, such as civil engineering technology, but graduate certificates and bachelors degrees are only currently available in ncr programs. table 3 presents longitudinal enrolment for skilled trades cr programs by credential. students are counted once in a given year, but may be counted multiple times over the reporting period. table 3: dc cser total postsecondary enrolment in skilled trades cr programs by credential; fall credential certificate diploma total 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 32.4% (165) 67.6% (345) 33.8% (189) 66.2% (370) 33.0% (197) 67.0% (400) 29.7% (178) 70.3% (422) 29.8% (139) 70.2% (327) 510 559 597 600 466 it is evident in table 3 that students enrolling in skilled trades cr programs are increasingly opting for the highest credential available (diploma). table 4 through table 6 present longitudinal enrolment for the remaining program categories by credential. table 4: dc cser total postsecondary enrolment in non-skilled trades cr programs by credential; fall credential diploma advanced diploma total 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 23.5% (23) 76.5% (75) 28.8% (36) 71.2% (89) 20.9% (32) 79.1% (121) 14.2% (26) 85.8% (157) 10.4% (20) 89.6% (173) 98 125 153 183 193 similar to skilled trades cr programs, there is an increasing trend of enrolling in higher credentials among students in non-skilled trades cr programs. 21 table 5: dc cser total postsecondary enrolment in skilled trades ncr programs by credential; fall credential certificate diploma advanced diploma graduate certificate total 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 12.9% (178) 67.5% (930) 16.7% (230) 2.9% (40) 13.4% (192) 68.7% (985) 15.4% (221) 2.4% (35) 14.9% (223) 67.9% (1,018) 14.8% (222) 2.4% (36) 14.2% (210) 71.2% (1,051) 12.6% (186) 2.0% (29) 13.9% (178) 70.0% (898) 14.1% (181) 2.0% (25) 1,378 1,433 1,499 1,476 1,282 the distribution of enrolment among credentials has been relatively stable for skilled trades ncr students over the reporting period. table 6: dc cser total postsecondary enrolment in non-skilled trades ncr programs by credential; fall credential certificate diploma advanced diploma graduate certificate bachelors degree total 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 14.7% (1,192) 52.4% (4,250) 25.6% (2,080) 7.4% (598) 0.0% (0) 14.1% (1,237) 54.6% (4,780) 24.4% (2,135) 6.9% (604) 0.0% (0) 13.1% (1,229) 55.5% (5,208) 23.6% (2,211) 7.6% (710) 0.2% (22) 12.5% (1,180) 54.8% (5,164) 24.2% (2,282) 8.1% (768) 0.3% (30) 10.8% (933) 54.3% (4,683) 24.5% (2,116) 9.5% (823) 0.8% (73) 8,120 8,756 9,380 9,424 8,628 similar to skilled trades ncr programs, the enrolment distribution of non-skilled trades ncr programs has remained relatively stable over the reporting period, though there was a slight increase in graduate certificate enrolments in 2020 while enrolment in certificates declined. 22 b. demographics (dc cser) to further develop the profile of skilled trades cr students, socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, residency and indigenous identity) are explored in table 7 through table 9. the age distribution of college students in ontario tends to be wide, but this study seeks to explore the age trends specific to each of the program categories. for the purposes of this research, age is calculated as of the enrolment year. the analysis is based on median age rather than average age in order to avoid results being skewed by outliers. median age will provide a reliable indicator of trends in age composition among the four program categories. the gender composition of ontario colleges is balanced between males and females, but the literature suggests that males are significantly overrepresented in skilled trades occupations. the analysis of gender in this study is limited to the categories used in college application and enrolment reporting (male, female and unknown). international student enrolment has been increasing in the ontario college system, and the literature identifies immigrants as an underrepresented group in skilled trades. for the purposes of this research, international students are identified as per funding status. according to the literature, the skilled trades are an important source of employment for indigenous canadians; therefore, the proportion of students who self-identify as indigenous is also explored in this study. age table 7 presents the median age of students enrolled in each program category over the reporting period. table 7: dc cser median age of postsecondary students; fall program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 23 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 24.0 (510) 25.0 (98) 25.0 (1,378) 26.0 (8,120) 25.0 (10,106) 23.0 (559) 25.0 (125) 24.0 (1,433) 25.0 (8,756) 24.0 (10,873) 22.0 (597) 23.0 (153) 23.0 (1,499) 24.0 (9,380) 23.0 (11,629) 21.0 (600) 22.0 (183) 22.0 (1,476) 23.0 (9,424) 22.0 (11,683) 20.0 (466) 21.0 (193) 21.0 (1,282) 22.0 (8,628) 22.0 (10,569) the median age of dc students has declined by approximately three years between fall 2016 and fall 2020. this trend is evident among all four program categories. it should also be noted that skilled trades cr programs have consistently had a lower median age than the other three categories over the reporting period. gender table 8 presents the proportion of students who identify as male, female or unknown genders within each program category over the reporting period. table 8: dc cser gender identity of postsecondary students; fall program category gender male skilled trades cr female unknown male non-skilled trades cr female unknown male skilled trades ncr female unknown male non-skilled trades ncr female unknown male total female unknown 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 97.1% (495) 2.9% (15) 0.0% (0) 73.5% (72) 26.5% (26) 0.0% (0) 53.9% (743) 46.0% (634) 0.1% (1) 47.1% (3,821) 52.8% (4,288) 0.1% (11) 50.8% (5,131) 49.1% (4,963) 0.1% (12) 96.6% (540) 3.4% (19) 0.0% (0) 70.48% (88) 29.6% (37) 0.0% (0) 55.5% (797) 44.4% (636) 0.0% (0) 47.9% (4,192) 52.1% (4,564) 0.0% (0) 51.7% (5,617) 48.3% (5,256) 0.0% (0) 95.0% (567) 5.0% (30) 0.0% (0) 73.2% (112) 26.8% (41) 0.0% (0) 58.4% (875) 41.5% (622) 0.1% (2) 47.4% (4,444) 52.6% (4,935) 0.0% (1) 51.6% (5,998) 48.4% (5,628) 0.0% (3) 92.8% (557) 7.0% (42) 0.2% (1) 76.0% (139) 23.5% (43) 0.5% (1) 57.2% (844) 42.5% (627) 0.3% (5) 47.1% (4,437) 52.7% (4,967) 0.2% (20) 51.2% (5,977) 48.6% (5,679) 0.2% (27) 93.6% (436) 6.0% (28) 0.4% (2) 73.1% (141) 26.9% (52) 0.0% (0) 56.3% (723) 43.4% (556) 0.3% (4) 45.2% (3,901) 54.5% (4,696) 0.3% (30) 49.2% (5,201) 50.5% (5,332) 0.3% (36) cr programs (both skilled trades and non-skilled trades) have consistently had a very high proportion of male students, while the skilled trades ncr programs have 24 more female representation. comparatively, dc overall and the non-skilled trades ncr programs are relatively balanced in regards to male and female genders. residency status table 9 presents the proportion of international students that are enrolled in each program category over the reporting period. table 9: dc cser proportion of international students; fall program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2.0% (10) 2.0% (2) 7.0% (97) 6.1% (492) 5.9% (601) 1.6% (9) 8.0% (10) 8.2% (118) 10.8% (950) 10.0% (1,087) 2.7% (16) 9.2% (14) 12.1% (181) 17.4% (1,636) 15.9% (1,847) 3.0% (18) 10.4% (19) 13.1% (194) 18.6% (1,757) 17.0% (1,988) 2.6% (12) 6.7% (13) 9.5% (122) 15.4% (1,327) 14.0% (1,474) the vast majority of students in the skilled trades cr category are domestic students. the proportion of international students was steadily increasing for each of the other three groups over the reporting period, but there was a decline in 2020. indigenous identity there are three distinct data sources to identify indigenous students at dc. students can self-identify as indigenous on their application through ocas, an internal equity, diversity & inclusion (edi) survey, or through a form submitted to the first peoples indigenous centre at dc. currently, these three data sources are fragmented, and it was determined that using only the data collected through ocas does not provide a fulsome picture of dcs indigenous population. as a result, data regarding indigenous identity has been excluded from the analysis. however, there will be an opportunity to explore this demographic in future reporting, as the office of equity, diversity and inclusion at dc is working to consolidate the three data sources to produce an accurate representation of the indigenous student population. overall student profile table 10 presents an overall student profile for dc and each of the four program categories. this table is based on an aggregation of students over the reporting period based on their most recent program at dc. 25 table 10: dc cser demographic profile by program category; aggregate age (median/years) gender (%male) residency (%international) skilled trades cr 23.0 94.9% 2.2% non-skilled trades cr 23.0 73.2% 7.2% skilled trades ncr 23.0 57.3% 9.3% non-skilled trades ncr 24.0 45.4% 14.5% total 24.0 49.7% 13.1% program category overall, skilled trades cr students at dc are predominantly domestic, male and younger than the dc average. the demographics of students in skilled trades ncr programs differ significantly in gender and residency from skilled trades cr students. section ii: mobility patterns there is significant debate on whether there is a shortage of skilled trades workers in ontario. this has led to renewed interest in exploring whether students in skilled trades programs initially make a committed choice to this field of study or whether they follow an academic journey through other postsecondary programs before pursuing education in skilled trades. in this section, the postsecondary experiences of the students enrolled at dc over the 2016 to 2020 reporting period are explored. prior postsecondary experience is considered both in the context of education at another postsecondary institution, as well as previous enrolment in another program at dc. there is also an effort to distinguish between having prior postsecondary enrolment and utilizing credit transfer. a. self-declared prior postsecondary experience (dc ocas) during the application process though ocas, students have the opportunity to indicate whether they have postsecondary experience at an ontario postsecondary institution. an exploration of the dc ocas dataset provides an initial understanding of the proportion of domestic students with prior postsecondary experiences, as well as the type of institution they attended. this is the only dataset that includes prior enrolment at an ontario university. 26 table 11 presents the residency status of dc students over the reporting period. the mobility patterns of the domestic students identified in this table are explored further in this section. table 11: dc cser postsecondary enrolment by student type; aggregate program category domestic international 97.8% (1,797) 92.8% (372) 90.7% (4,038) 85.5% (23,719) 86.9% (29,926) 2.2% (41) 7.2% (29) 9.3% (413) 14.5% (4,024) 13.1% (4,507) skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total total 1,838 401 4,451 27,742 34,433 table 12 presents the residency status of dc students for each year to explore the change in proportion of domestic and international student populations over the fiveyear reporting period. the overall decline in enrolment in 2020 coincides with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. table 12: dc cser postsecondary enrolment by student type; fall program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 27 residency domestic international domestic international domestic international domestic international domestic international 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 98.0% (500) 2.0% (10) 98.0% (96) 2.0% (2) 93.0% (1,281) 7.0% (97) 93.9% (7,628) 6.1% (492) 94.1% (9,505) 5.9% (601) 98.4% (550) 1.6% (9) 92.0% (115) 8.0% (10) 91.8% (1,315) 8.2% (118) 89.2% (7,806) 10.8% (950) 90.0% (9,786) 10.0% (1,087) 97.3% (581) 2.7% (16) 90.8% (139) 9.2% (14) 87.9% (1,318) 12.1% (181) 82.6% (7,744) 17.4% (1,636) 84.1% (9,782) 15.9% (1,847) 97.0% (582) 3.0% (18) 89.6% (164) 10.4% (19) 86.9% (1,282) 13.1% (194) 81.4% (7,667) 18.6% (1,757) 83.0% (9,695) 17.0% (1,988) 97.4% (454) 2.6% (12) 93.3% (180) 6.7% (13) 90.5% (1,160) 9.5% (122) 84.6% (7,301) 15.4% (1,327) 86.1% (9,095) 13.9% (1,474) table 13 indicates the number of students enrolled at dc over the 2016 to 2020 reporting period that had self-declared prior postsecondary experience when applying to a program at dc. due to low counts, international institutions, private institutions, and non-publicly funded colleges (i.e., career colleges) are excluded from the table below. if a student had previously attended another program at dc, this experience is included under the ontario college category. table 13: dc ocas self-declared prior postsecondary experience by program category; aggregate self-declared prior postsecondary experience 5.0% (91) 4.5% (18) 7.0% (310) 9.2% (2,559) 8.6% (2,978) program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total no selfdeclared prior postsecondary experience 95.0% (1,747) 95.5% (383) 93.0% (4,141) 90.8% (25,184) 91.4% (31,455) total 1,838 401 4,451 27,743 34,433 approximately 9% of all dc students over the reporting period self-declared prior postsecondary experience on their application to dc. when considering the base population of domestic students only (29,926 as established in table 11), the proportion is slightly higher at 10%. table 14 indicates the type of institution that was attended by students who declared a prior postsecondary experience on their ocas application. the data are presented longitudinally, therefore students may be counted more than once over the reporting period if they submitted multiple applications across the years. table 14: dc ocas - self-declared prior enrolment experiences; fall institution type ontario college ontario university total 28 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 83.5% (609) 16.5% (120) 84.9% (678) 15.1% (121) 86.1% (661) 13.9% (107) 88.1% (796) 11.9% (108) 89.3% (815) 10.7% (98) 729 799 768 904 913 as is evident in table 14, the vast majority of students who self-declared a prior postsecondary experience at another ontario institution, had attended a college. an exploration of this data for each program category did not yield anything of note. b. confirmed prior postsecondary experience (system ocas) it is evident that students who self-declared prior postsecondary experience had predominately attended an ontario publicly-funded college. however, the optional nature of this self-declaration suggests that it underrepresents the prior postsecondary experiences of dcs students. the mobility patterns of students are more thoroughly explored through use of ocas records of verified enrolment. the system ocas dataset includes dc students authenticated records of enrolment at other colleges, prior to attending dc. table 15 presents the proportion of students who were enrolled at another college prior to enrolling at dc. previous enrolment at dc is not included in this analysis. table 15: system ocas prior postsecondary experience at other colleges by program category; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total prior postsecondary experience 6.1% (113) 11.7% (47) 7.4% (331) 7.7% (2,139) 7.6% (2,630) no prior postsecondary experience 93.9% (1,725) 88.3% (354) 92.6% (4,120) 92.3% (25,606) 92.4% (31,803) total 1,838 401 4,451 27,743 34,433 proportions in table 15, indicate that approximately 8% of students had prior postsecondary experience at another college prior to enrolling at dc. the skilled trades cr category has the lowest proportion of students with prior postsecondary experience. 29 table 16 presents the proportion of students with prior postsecondary experience by year in order to assess whether there have been changes over time. table 16: system ocas prior postsecondary experience at other colleges by program category; fall program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 3.9% (20) 7.1% (7) 3.7% (51) 5.0% (403) 4.8% (481) 6.1% (34) 10.4% (13) 6.7% (97) 7.0% (624) 7.0% (760) 5.4% (32) 11.1% (17) 8.9% (133) 8.0% (743) 8.0% (928) 7.7% (46) 10.9% (20) 9.1% (135) 8.5% (802) 8.6% (1,003) 8.4% (39) 13.5% (26) 8.7% (113) 9.0% (779) 9.0% (953) the proportion of students with prior postsecondary experience increased for all four program categories since the beginning of the reporting period. in 2020, the proportion of students in skilled trades cr programs with prior postsecondary experience is only slightly lower than skilled trades ncr and non-skilled trades ncr. table 17 and table 18 present the number of colleges and programs that students enrolled in prior to dc. table 17: system ocas - number of institutions attended prior to dc by program category; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 30 1 2 3 4 92.8% (103) 95.5% (42) 90.6% (298) 90.1% (1,934) 90.4% (2,377) 6.3% (7) 4.5% (2) 9.4% (31) 8.9% (190) 8.7% (230) 0.9% (1) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 1.0% (21) 0.8% (22) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (1) 0.0% (1) total 111 44 329 2,146 2,630 table 18: system ocas - number of programs attended prior to dc by program category; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 1 2 3 4 5+ 84.7% (94) 79.5% (35) 78.7% (259) 73.6% (1,580) 74.8% (1,968) 11.7% (13) 9.1% (4) 17.6% (58) 20.8% (446) 19.8% (521) 2.7% (3) 11.4% (5) 3.0% (10) 4.8% (103) 4.6% (121) 0.9% (1) 0.0% (0) 0.6% (2) 0.6% (12) 0.6% (15) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 0.0% (0) 0.2% (5) 0.2% (5) total 111 44 329 2,146 2,630 overall, very few students have enrolled in more than one college prior to enrolling at dc. however, there is larger proportion of students who enrolled in multiple programs prior to dc. a very small proportion of students enrolled in skilled trades cr programs have prior postsecondary experience, and those that do have primarily attended only one other institution and one other program. building an understanding of why there is a relatively lower level of mobility for students entering into skilled trades cr programs will help determine whether there is a need to increase pathways or other mobility opportunities. c. dc to dc (dc cser) the previous subsection explored the prior postsecondary experience of dc students at the other 23 ontario colleges. the data analyzed thus far did not include students prior experience at dc in other programs. table 19 indicates the proportion of students with a record of postsecondary enrolment at dc prior to enrolling in their most recent program at dc. it is important to note that students who were found to have prior dc enrolment in table 19 may also have been identified as having prior postsecondary enrolment at another college in the analysis presented in prior sections. 31 table 19: dc cser proportion of students with prior dc enrolment; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total prior dc enrolment no prior dc enrolment 33.1% (608) 34.9% (140) 24.1% (1,072) 32.7% (9,071) 31.6% (10,891) 66.9% (1,230) 65.1% (261) 75.9% (3,379) 67.3% (18,672) 66.9% (23,542) total 1,838 401 4,451 27,743 34,433 it is evident that a large proportion of students (32%) attend multiple programs at dc. there is a higher proportion of students in cr programs that had previously enrolled in another dc program than both of the ncr categories. table 20 provides insight into the types of programs that students had previously been enrolled in at dc. the table below indicates the type of program students were enrolled in at dc prior to their most recent enrolment across the four program categories of interest. table 20: dc cser proportion of students with prior dc enrolment by program category; aggregate most recent program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total skilled trades cr 78.6% (478) 3.6% (5) 7.0% (75) 0.6% (58) 5.7% (616) previous program category nonnonskilled skilled skilled trades trades trades cr ncr ncr 0.8% 12.0% 8.6% (5) (73) (52) 85.7% 1.4% 9.3% (120) (2) (13) 0.7% 64.6% 27.7% (8) (692) (297) 0.1% 3.5% 95.8% (9) (314) (8,689) 1.3% 9.9% 83.1% (142) (1,081) (9,051) total 608 140 1,072 9,070 10,890 the majority of students with prior postsecondary experience at dc subsequently enrolled in programs within the same category. it is evident that a large proportion (91%) of students in skilled trades cr programs had previously been enrolled in skilled trades related programs (78.6% in skilled trades cr and 12.0% in skilled 32 trades ncr). it appears there is a higher level of mobility from other categories into skilled trades ncr programs. d. credit for prior postsecondary experience (dc cser) having established that approximately 8% of dc students over the reporting period have prior postsecondary experience at another college, it is important to consider whether students were building on their prior experiences. credit transfer enables students to receive credit for prior learning, and progress in their studies without having to unnecessarily repeat courses. a credit transfer flag (ct flag) on a student record indicates that a student was granted credit from a previous program (either completed or partially completed). the ct flag serves as an indicator that the program in which students enrolled at dc is related to their prior education at another college. an important limitation to recognize is that once applied, the ct flag remains on the student record for the duration of their time at dc, irrespective of the subsequent related or unrelated dc program in which they may enrol. while this is a significant limitation, an analysis of the ct flag was conducted to establish a baseline assessment of the proportion of students who had been approved for credit for prior learning, and how the proportions may be distributed across the four program categories. based on the analysis of the subsection of these first time ct flag students, table 21 presents the proportion of dc students with prior postsecondary experience at another college who utilized credit transfer. table 21: dc cser proportion of students with prior postsecondary enrolment by ct flag; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total has credit flag 17.7% (20) 25.5% (12) 22.1% (73) 18.2% (389) 18.8% (494) does not have credit flag 82.3% (93) 74.5% (35) 77.9% (258) 81.8% (1,750) 81.2% (2,136) total 113 47 331 2,139 2,630 it is evident that a lower proportion of students in skilled trades cr programs have utilized credit transfer as compared to the other categories. 33 table 22 explores the five-year trend of ct flags by the program categories. table 22: dc cser proportion of students with prior postsecondary enrolment by ct flag by program category; fall program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr credit status has credit flag no credit flag has credit flag no credit flag has credit flag no credit flag has credit flag no credit flag 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 0.0% (0) 100.0% (20) 0.0% (0) 100.0% (7) 0.0% (0) 100.0% (51) 0.2% (1) 99.8% (402) 23.5% (8) 76.5% (26) 30.8% (4) 69.2% (9) 28.1% (27) 72.9% (70) 19.9% (123) 81.2% (501) 9.4% (3) 90.6% (29) 23.5% (4) 76.5% (13) 30.1% (40) 69.9% (93) 20.6% (154) 79.4% (592) 6.5% (3) 93.5% (43) 15.0% (3) 85.0% (17) 15.6% (21) 84.4% (114) 14.7% (118) 85.3% (684) 23.1% (9) 76.9% (30) 30.8% (8) 69.2% (18) 18.0% (20) 83.8% (93) 22.4% (174) 77.9% (605) while examining the use of credit transfer among the four categories provides some insight into the mobility patterns of students, the process by which the ct flag is applied inhibits analysis. it is not possible to assert that a student used credit transfer for the most recent program they are enrolled in, since the flag is permanent on a student record once applied. as a result of this limitation, the next section explores mobility patterns based on attributes of prior and most recent programs. section iii: occupational cluster & credential pathways this section explores the prior postsecondary experiences of dc students to determine whether there are pathways stemming from specific areas of study, credentials or programs into skilled trades cr programs. the prior postsecondary experiences are examined using the ocas system dataset that includes students who have a record of enrolment at another college only, and excludes dc. whether a student completed the program in which they were enrolled is not accounted for in this analysis. table 23 through table 25 present data based on occupational clusters and subclusters. an occupational cluster is a grouping of mcu codes containing a number of programs leading to related occupations. occupational clusters are defined in the mtcu-aps table maintained by mcu, and include applied arts, business, health, and technology, which are further subdivided into more specific occupational areas referred to as sub-clusters. 34 a. occupational clusters (system ocas) table 23 cross tabulates the occupational cluster in which students were enrolled prior to dc with the occupational cluster of their most recent program at dc. table 23: system ocas occupational cluster of enrolment prior to and at dc; aggregate most recent occupational cluster at dc arts business health technology total occupational cluster prior to dc arts business health technology 62.6% (649) 42.6% (243) 38.3% (200) 26.4% (132) 46.5% (1,224) 19.2% (199) 37.8% (216) 5.9% (31) 13.6% (68) 19.5% (514) 8.5% (88) 6.0% (34) 51.7% (270) 5.4% (27) 15.9% (419) 9.7% (101) 13.7% (78) 4.0% (21) 54.6% (273) 18.0% (473) total 1,037 571 522 500 2,630 cr programs are classified under the technology occupational cluster. while approximately half of the students enrolled in the technology occupational cluster prior to dc continued in this same cluster at dc, approximately 45% of students moved from technology programs into arts, business or health. this is indicative of students shifting career paths. the greatest shift into technology from another occupational cluster is business (14%). table 24 indicates the occupational cluster prior to enrolling at dc according to program category. this table provides insight into whether students continued their education in a related field. table 24: system ocas most recent occupational cluster of enrolment prior to dc by program category; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 35 arts business health technology 31.5% (35) 11.4% (5) 41.0% (135) 48.9% (1049) 46.6% (1,224) 13.5% (15) 6.8% (3) 24.0% (79) 19.4% (417) 19.5% (514) 2.7% (3) 2.3% (1) 5.8% (18) 18.5% (397) 15.9% (419) 52.3% (58) 79.6% (35) 29.5% (97) 13.2% (283) 18.0% (473) total 111 44 329 2,146 2,630 a significant proportion of the students in skilled trades cr programs at dc had previously been enrolled in the programs affiliated with technology occupational cluster. students in skilled trades ncr programs however, come from a variety of occupational clusters. dc students enrolled in cr programs, whether in the skilled trades category or nonskilled trades category, had prior postsecondary experience in the programs affiliated with the technology cluster at 52.3% and 79.6% respectively. b. occupational sub-clusters (system ocas) table 25 presents select occupational sub-clusters in which students were enrolled prior to dc. for the purposes of this analysis, the sub-clusters most associated with skilled trades cr are prioritized (i.e., sub-clusters that represent five or more students in skilled trades cr programs are listed, while all others are included in other). skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 18.9% (21) 4.5% (2) 7.3% (24) 3.3% (71) 4.5% (118) 12.6% (14) 2.3% (1) 6.7% (22) 15.3% (328) 13.9% (365) 7.2% (8) 9.1% (4) 4.9% (16) 2.2% (47) 2.9% (75) 7.2% (8) 0.0% (0) 3.0% (10) 6.8% (145) 6.2% (163) 4.5% (5) 0.0% (0) 4.6% (15) 5.8% (125) 5.5% (145) 5.5% (5) 2.3% (1) 2.4% (8) 3.6% (77) 3.5% (91) 55.0% (50) 18.2% (36) 28.9% (234) 37.0% (1,353) 63.6% (1,673) total other management business media security law and mechanical upgrading preparatory/ program category electronics table 25: system ocas most recent occupational sub-cluster of enrolment prior to dc; aggregate 111 44 329 2,146 2,630 it is evident that a relatively large proportion of students in skilled trades cr programs had previously enrolled in electronics programs at other colleges. 36 c. credentials (system ocas) the credentials analysis explores whether students enrolled in specific credentials pathway more readily into the skilled trades programs, particularly those related to the construction sector. table 26 presents the credential in which students were enrolled prior to their most recent program at dc. 20.2% (22) 0.0% (0) 3.7% (4) 111 non-skilled trades cr 16.3% (7) 41.9% (19) 34.9% (15) 4.7% (2) 2.3% (1) 44 skilled trades ncr 19.8% (65) 54.4% (179) 22.8% (75) 0.9% (3) 2.1% (7) 329 non-skilled trades ncr 24.0% (514) 46.7% (1,005) 19.8% (425) 2.2% (46) 7.3% (156) 2,146 616 1,258 537 51 168 2,630 total total bachelors degree 48.6% (55) advanced diploma 27.5% (30) diploma skilled trades cr program category certificate graduate certificate table 26: system ocas most recent credential of enrolment prior to dc; aggregate across all four program categories, the highest proportion of students have engaged in prior postsecondary education at the diploma level. this finding, however, in part could be attributed to the credential mix offered at the colleges collectively, as diplomas account for approximately 30% of all programs. the key finding of note is that a significant proportion (64.6%) of skilled trades cr students enrolled at dc in diploma level postsecondary programs (refer to table 2), and that a significant proportion of skilled trades cr students engaged in prior postsecondary education at the diploma level (table 26). the disposition to move from a diploma program to a diploma program is a preliminary indication of opportunities for credit transfers for these students. 37 d. program (system ocas) figure 1 presents the most common programs that students were enrolled in prior to their most recent program at dc. the number of students enrolled in each program over the reporting period is indicated in parentheses. figure 1: system ocas - most recent program of enrolment prior to dc; aggregate skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr electrical engineering technician (9) civil engineering technology (5) police foundations (6) architectural technology (5) electrical techniques (5) civil engineering technician (3) trades and technology fundamentals (5) heating, refrigeration and air conditioning technician (4) building renovation technology (3) architectural technician (2) electrical engineering technician (2) paramedic (3) skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr early childhood education (11) police foundations (74) culinary management (11) bachelor of science in nursing (65) social service worker (10) police foundations (6) social service worker (54) pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas (52) practical nursing (48) child and youth worker (5) paramedic (45) child and youth care (10) pre-health science (44) early childhood education (43) figure 1 indicates that at least a few students from civil and architecture programs at other colleges have chosen to subsequently enroll at dc in civil/architecture programs. 38 section iv: time before re-enrolment this section is an exploratory attempt to examine the time associated with the transition from one program to another. since each of the four program categories has a different set of credentials available, it implies that students will take varying lengths of time to complete their credential, and that direct comparisons cannot be made between the four program categories for the re-enrolment analysis. graduation status from prior postsecondary program(s) for the student population is unfortunately not available as part of the dataset examined in this study, and hence the varying lengths of time between prior postsecondary enrolment and the subsequent postsecondary program enrolment cannot be fully accounted for. the data is, however, presented longitudinally to allow an analysis of changes over time. it is important to note that the length of time indicates the number of months between records of enrolment. the data does not consider completion of a program. future analysis would benefit from examining the duration of time between graduation and beginning a new program. table 27 indicates the median number of months between students prior postsecondary enrolment and their most recent enrolment at dc. table 27: system ocas number of months since prior postsecondary enrolment and most recent program at dc; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 total 13.2 (21) 12.2 (9) 24.4 (52) 24.4 (411) 24.4 (493) 20.3 (21) 24.4 (7) 24.4 (66) 24.4 (429) 24.4 (523) 24.3 (22) 30.4 (8) 24.3 (81) 24.3 (459) 24.3 (570) 24.3 (27) 22.3 (8) 36.5 (78) 24.3 (441) 24.3 (554) 34.5 (20) 24.4 (12) 36.5 (52) 32.5 (406) 32.5 (490) 24.3 (111) 24.4 (44) 24.4 (329) 24.4 (2,146) 24.4 (2,630) on average, two years have elapsed between the time students in skilled trades cr programs were enrolled at another college and their most recent enrolment at dc. there has been a significant change over time, as skilled trades cr students are most recently associated with nearly three years between enrolment compared to one year in 2016. a similar change is evident in all of the categories, but is more pronounced for skilled trades cr students. the cause of this gap should be explored further, as it may indicate that students are entering the labour force before returning for further education. 39 section v: student outcomes this section explores the academic outcomes of students based on having or not having prior postsecondary experience. examining first semester grade point averages (gpa) of students within each of the program categories will provide insight into whether having prior postsecondary education has an impact on academic success. the data does not consider the extent to which prior postsecondary experience is related to the program. also, subsequent research would be required to examine whether the differences between the four categories are statistically meaningful. a. grade point average - prior postsecondary experience (system ocas) table 28 presents the aggregated gpa for students in first semester between fall 2016 and fall 2020. it further presents a comparison of students with and without prior postsecondary education at another college. it is important to note that students that were granted advanced block standing, and hence were enrolled in higher semesters, are not included in this table. gpa is presented on a five-point scale, where 5.0 is the highest gpa possible. table 28: system ocas gpa of first semester students with prior postsecondary experience at other colleges by program category; aggregate category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total has prior postsecondary 3.8 (108) 3.4 (46) 3.2 (308) 3.0 (1,966) 3.1 (2,405) no prior postsecondary 3.6 (1,448) 3.1 (320) 3.1 (3,490) 3.1 (18,811) 3.1 (23,511) total 1,556 366 3,798 20,777 25,916 although there is a significant difference in the number of students with prior postsecondary education and those without, it is evident that students with prior postsecondary education at another college have a slightly higher average gpa in their first semester of study than those that do not, in all program categories except for nonskilled trades ncr. the greatest difference in gpa is for non-skilled trades cr programs. it should be noted that skilled trades cr students with prior postsecondary experience have the highest gpa across all categories. 40 table 29 assesses trends by providing a comparison of gpas for each category over the reporting period. table 29: system ocas gpa of first semester students with prior postsecondary experience at other colleges by program category; fall program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr status prior pse no prior pse prior pse no prior pse prior pse no prior pse prior pse no prior pse 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 3.7 (19) 3.7 (315) 3.8 (7) 3.5 (41) 2.9 (44) 2.9 (746) 3.0 (368) 3.0 (3,904) 3.8 (25) 3.7 (382) 2.9 (6) 2.9 (53) 3.6 (66) 3.0 (771) 3.1 (428) 3.1 (4,487) 3.8 (27) 3.3 (360) 3.6 (7) 3.2 (78) 3.2 (82) 3.1 (769) 3.0 (458) 3.0 (4,509) 3.7 (34) 3.5 (329) 3.2 (12) 3.1 (84) 3.2 (76) 3.2 (736) 3.0 (465) 3.0 (4,304) 4.1 (27) 3.8 (226) 3.4 (16) 3.0 (69) 2.9 (45) 3.1 (577) 3.0 (409) 3.0 (3,687) the gpa of skilled trades cr students with prior postsecondary education has increased over the reporting period. conversely, the gpa of students in skilled trades ncr has declined and is slightly lower than those without prior postsecondary education. b. grade point average - dc to dc (dc cser) while the previous subsection examined the gpas of students with prior postsecondary education at the other 23 colleges, it is also important to consider the students with a history of enrolment at dc. table 30 compares the gpas of first semester students with prior enrolment at dc to those without prior enrolment at dc. 41 table 30: dc cser gpa of first semester students with prior dc experience by program category; aggregate program category skilled trades cr non-skilled trades cr skilled trades ncr non-skilled trades ncr total has prior dc enrolment no prior dc enrolment 3.7 (555) 3.1 (146) 3.0 (1,244) 2.9 (7,311) 3.0 (8,591) 3.5 (1,051) 3.2 (234) 3.1 (2,764) 3.2 (14,795) 3.2 (18,844) total 1,606 380 4,008 22,106 27,435 unlike the comparison of having prior postsecondary education at another college versus not, a history of enrolment at dc is not associated with a higher gpa for the non-skilled trades cr and skilled trades ncr program categories. in fact, skilled trades cr programs is the only category in which gpa is higher for students who have a prior dc enrolment. this implies that, on an exploratory basis, within the given research study student dataset: students enrolling in dc skilled trades cr programs perform better on their first semester gpa if they have a prior postsecondary education; students enrolling in dc non-skilled trades cr programs perform better on their first semester gpa if they have prior postsecondary education from a college other than dc; students enrolling in dc skilled trades ncr programs perform better on their first semester gpa if they have prior postsecondary education from a college other than dc; students enrolling in dc non-skilled trades ncr programs perform worse on their first semester gpa if they have a prior postsecondary education. further research would be required to establish whether these findings are significant and replicable. subsequent section examines the predictors of academic success in skilled trades programs. 42 section vi: regression analysis a. predictors of enrolment in skilled trades programs (dc cser) regression analyses were conducted to investigate whether there were factors that contributed to respondents decision to enrol in a skilled trades program. sociodemographic variables were explored in the first analysis (gender, age and residency) with additional performance attributes (number of prior institutions, number of programs previously enrolled in, and most recent credential level) subsequently examined as possible factors that may predict students decision. table 31 presents results of the analysis to identify factors that predict enrolment in skilled trades (cr & ncr) programs. it indicates that age (older), gender (males), and previous credential type (those of longer duration) are the predictors of students interest in enrolling in skilled trades (cr & ncr) programs. gender (male) is relatively the strongest predictor of enrolment in skilled trades programs followed by the credential type pursued in prior postsecondary experience (diploma). table 31: regression analysis predictors of student enrolment in skilled trades programs standard error significance age .010 .004 .004** gender .296 .030 .000** residency (domestic/international) -.001 .007 .876 number of colleges previously attended -.050 .066 .447 number of programs previously enrolled in .045 .039 .252 previous credential type .093 .035 .008** prior pse -.019 .045 .676 prior pse same occupational cluster .002 .045 .971 variable constant 1.011 pseudo r2 .174 x2 16.494; p <.001 n 633 **p < 0.01 43 b. predictors of academic success in skilled trades programs (dc cser) the research study had initially hoped to investigate and identify the graduation predictors for students enrolled in skilled trades programs, particularly cr programs. however, given the non-availability of data for completion of prior postsecondary education and limited socio-demographic data, the academic success was re-oriented to academic success in the first semester of the program as defined by the gpa in the first semester. first semester gpa is a well-researched and established predictor of student graduation in research literature (gershenfeld, hood & zhan, 2015). table 32 presents results of the analysis to identify factors that predict first semester performance of the students in skilled trade programs. the results indicate that students who are older, male, studying on international study permits, and those who have engaged in prior postsecondary education, had higher gpas in the first semester of their enrolment in the skilled trades programs. prior postsecondary experience is the strongest predictor of performance in a skilled trades program, followed by the gender (male). table 32: regression analysis predictors of students first semester gpa standard error significance age .033 .004 .000** gender -.147 .044 .001** residency (domestic/international) .021 .008 .007** prior pse .207 .009 .035* variable constant 1.972 pseudo r2 .025 x2 25.673; p <.001 n 4,035 *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 while the model demonstrates that each of the variables included is a significant predictor of the first semester gpa, the overall pseudo r2 for the model has a low value. the significant p values and the low r2 indicate that likely additional variables need to be added to the model to generate a better model fit and increase the variance explained by the model. 44 conclusions key findings and recommendations this study was unique in that it was the first systematic attempt to collate organized, longitudinal datasets for research in the areas of postsecondary skilled trades education in ontario. overall, this study was exploratory in nature and had a primary goal of determining whether there are any trends and patterns associated with students enrolled in a postsecondary skilled trades programs, particularly those related to the construction sector. it is evident that while the majority of these students do not have prior postsecondary experience at other colleges, there is a large proportion that enroll in multiple programs at dc. additionally, it appears that skilled trades cr programs appeal notably to students with prior postsecondary education in technology-related programs. given these findings, the following are four key recommendations for further research: expend efforts to increase gender diversity in the skilled trades the analysis presented in the results and discussion section empirically confirms the anecdotal evidence that students in skilled trades programs tend to be males. this gender discrepancy is more pronounced in the skilled trades programs as compared to non-skilled trades programs related to the construction sector. the ontario college sector has made significant efforts to build awareness and generate interest in the skilled trades among non-male populations, particularly, females. it is important that continued, extensive efforts be expended to raise the awareness of skilled trades educational and career opportunities in the non-traditional gender groups, particularly with regard to the construction sector. promote skilled trades educational opportunities to international students the shortage of skilled trades labour in ontario was a significant impetus in undertaking this research study. the results of the study indicate that there is an extremely low proportion of international students enrolled in the programs related to the construction sector, particularly in the skilled trades programs. this gap presents an enormous opportunity for the ontario colleges to address the shortage of skilled labour in the province by promoting skilled trades educational and career opportunities as part of international student recruitment, and raising the profile of these programs to address cultural or societal biases. it would be helpful as part of the international recruitment campaign to reinforce the academic rigor underlying certification in the skilled trades, and the robust employment opportunities in canada. it is important to consider 45 international student preferences for longer duration programs, since they allow for longer duration work permits after graduating from the program. explore credit transfer opportunities for students with prior postsecondary experience enrolled in skilled trades programs the longitudinal descriptive analysis in this study reinforced anecdotal classroom observations that students enrolled in the skilled trades cr programs are younger than those in the other three program categories, and that over the five-year period of 2016 to 2020, their median age has declined from 24 years to 20 years. however, while the median age of the students in skilled trades cr programs has declined over the five years, their proportion engaging in prior postsecondary has almost doubled from 3.9% to 8.4% over the same period. these proportions only include prior postsecondary at colleges other than dc and if they were to include the prior postsecondary at dc, they would likely be even higher. the increase in the prior postsecondary experience coupled with the finding that significant proportion of those are taking place from a diploma program to diploma program, provides indirect but significant credence that there may be opportunities for credit transfer, at least for general electives courses. limitations of how the ct flag is currently deployed and recorded on enrolment files precluded the opportunity to fully investigate the levels of affinity between prior postsecondary programs and subsequent interest in skilled trades programs. the limited analysis, however, did reveal a higher proportion of interest from students in technology related programs to subsequently enroll in skilled trades cr programs. explore pathway opportunities between traditional technology programs and skilled trades programs the results of the study indicate that a very small proportion of students enrolled in skilled trades programs tend to have prior postsecondary experience as compared to students enrolled in non-skilled trades programs. however, almost half of the students enrolled in the skilled trades cr programs at dc who had prior postsecondary experience, had engaged with a postsecondary program associated with the technology occupational cluster. this indicates significant potential for acknowledging common competencies and transferable skills between the traditional technology programs and the skilled trades programs related to construction sector. it offers an opportunity for further exploration to determine any potential pathways. in particular, students who had prior enrolment in electronics and mechanical programs were subsequently interested in enrolling in programs related to the construction sector. support academic success of women in skilled trades programs the regression results indicate that male students in skilled trades (cr & ncr) programs have higher academic performance than females. it is important to ensure 46 that adequate teaching and learning supports, as well as socio-economic supports, such as, childcare, mentors, and social supports, are available to women who participate in skilled trades cr programs and aspire to eventually undertake careers in skilled trades occupations. also, skilled trades cr programs are generally perceived to be an appealing domain for young, male-centric population. the regression results indicate that older students, especially students who have engaged in prior postsecondary experience, are better situated to excel in these skilled trades programs. limitations and future research expand the study population to include multiple institutions this research study was unique and first-of-its-kind in ontario in its attempt to undertake a systematic investigation into attributes and enrolment patterns of the students enrolled in skilled trades programs. however, the base population investigated in this study was limited to the students enrolled at dc over the 2016 to 2020 period. while dc does offer a variety of skilled trades programs, expanding the study to include multiple institutions will allow a greater pool of skilled trades programs to be included along with a larger sample size so the conclusions can be generalized to an even greater student population. exploratory studies are an important and critical step in preliminary analysis of the current environment, seeking insights into historical patterns, and allowing for anomalies to be identified. exploratory investigations, however, constitute only the first step in developing fuller and more reliable framework of findings that can support action planning. the findings from this exploratory research should be followed by wellstructured empirical investigations that compare the attributes and outcomes of the four program categories identified. expand verifiable prior postsecondary data collection and record-keeping through collaboration between ocas, ouac, oncat and postsecondary institutions in ontario this study was able to recourse reliable and validated data for prior postsecondary experience from ocas. however, given the nature of reporting, this valid information was limited to prior postsecondary experience at the colleges in ontario. the study attempted to further enhance the prior postsecondary information with data from self-declared prior postsecondary experience field on the ocas application. while the additional prior postsecondary information derived from this source included universities, private and career colleges, and institutions outside of ontario, the information is unfortunately neither complete nor fully verifiable. ocas applications afford an important opportunity to collect more complete and verifiable prior education data; it is recommended that greater collaboration between ocas, ouac, oncat and 47 the postsecondary institutions in ontario can yield further significant results in collecting and usefully analyzing the information to support action planning. create a reliable, integrated data repository for socio-demographic data to include in future skilled trades research the research study had initially intended to include important socio-demographic attributes such as indigenous identity and first generation status. however, in the course of data collection it was determined that there is no comprehensive record that reliably and consistently identifies students for these attributes. there are also other key attributes that this study would benefit from including, such as ability or socio-economic class. dc currently collects data through multiple channels, such as ocas applications, edi surveys, and self-identification in-person. currently, dc is exploring ways of integrating the data from these various sources and centralizing data recording in the banner sis to ensure reliable reporting. further research will again explore the inclusion of sociodemographic variables once the databases are fully and reliably established. improve identification and recording of credit transfers for prior postsecondary experiences the ability to investigate program affinity in prior postsecondary education for skilled trades students was severely limited in this study due to the deployment of credit transfer as a permanent marker on the student record for the duration of their time at the given institution. ontarios colleges use cser specifications to assign and report the ct flag for a student who has been awarded credit transfer. unfortunately, once awarded, a ct flag is a permanent identifier on the student record irrespective of the subsequent programs in which they may enroll, and whether they receive any further prior learning credit for those programs. this creates significant difficulty in ascertaining whether a student has received relevant credit in a program in any given academic year or semester and adversely impacts the ability to analyze and report on student mobility. ensuring that each credit transfer for students can be uniquely identified to the given program and attributed to a given academic year or semester would significantly improve the quality of reporting. furthermore, additional data relevant to prior postsecondary experiences should also be recorded. most institutions can report the courses that were leveraged in the awarding of a credit, but not additional details, such as credit counts awarded for specific programs, number of times credit transfer applied, record of denied credits, particular pathway leverage if any, type of pathways, and type of institution credited (college or university). 48 explore pathways between skilled trades postsecondary education and apprenticeship training there is significant value in undertaking efforts to map the curriculum of skilled trades postsecondary programs to that of relevant apprenticeship programs. dc has taken the initiative to formalize apprenticeship programs as ontario college certificates to support the modernization of the skilled trades and apprenticeship system, and enable the provinces economic recovery. this would serve as a key step in facilitating student transfers between postsecondary education and apprenticeship training. dc has commenced this process with the following 10 programs: 1. culinary skills cook ii apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 43107, trade# 415a 2. early childhood assistant - apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 41211, trade# 620c 3. electrical techniques construction and maintenance apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 45613, trade# 309a 4. electrical techniques industrial electrician apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 45613, trade# 442a 5. manufacturing techniques millwright apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 47000, trade# 433a 6. mechanical techniques elevating devices mechanic apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 41007, trade# 636e 7. mechanical techniques steamfitting apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 41007, trade# 307a 8. motive power fundamentals automotive service apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 46405, trade# 310s 9. plumbing techniques - apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 41010, trade# 306a 10. welding techniques apprenticeship, ontario college certificate, mtcu code 44900, trade# 456a building an understanding of the pathways that students follow to enrol in skilled trades postsecondary programs is only a preliminary step in understanding student mobility. it is also important to explore student pathways into and out of apprenticeship programs. in particular, the next stage of research is recommended to explore student interest in apprenticeship training programs, access to apprenticeship opportunities for the graduates of skilled trades postsecondary programs, the relative success of students enrolling in apprenticeship training after a postsecondary experience, and the employment outcomes for graduates in skilled trades postsecondary programs. figure 2 provides an overview of the proposed investigation into student mobility. 49 figure 2: student pathways from postsecondary to apprenticeship to employment the future proposed study would represent a first-of-its-kind exploration into student transfers from postsecondary to apprenticeship training programs in the construction sector in ontario. as figure 1 illustrates, the potential pathways are complex. the project would also aspire to model characteristics of successful transfer students using logistic regression, if data adequacy and statistical assumptions are met. predictors of transfer student success in apprenticeship training have not been evaluated to date in ontario and would benefit from further research. the following research questions are recommended for a future study: 1. postsecondary student interest in construction sector apprenticeship training programs at dc a. what is the interest among the graduates of postsecondary skilled trades programs in pursuing apprenticeship training in the construction sector? b. what is the interest among the graduates of non-skilled trades postsecondary programs in pursuing apprenticeship training in the construction sector? 2. transfer experience a. what barriers limit postsecondary students ability to successfully enrol in apprenticeship training in the construction sector? b. what supports enable postsecondary students to successfully transfer to apprenticeship training in the construction sector? c. explore the aspects of edi in apprenticeship training. are the various equity seeking groups represented in apprenticeship training programs? what impact do socio-demographic or diversity markers (for example, gender, ability, age or socio-economic class) have on access to apprenticeship training? 50 3. graduate outcomes a. what are the differences in the in-class completion rates (measured by graduation) for apprentices with prior education in a postsecondary skilled trades program as compared to apprentices who do not have prior postsecondary experience? are these completion rates different for the students with partial postsecondary experience as compared to students who graduated from the postsecondary programs? are the inclass completion rates different for apprenticeship students whose prior postsecondary education is in a skilled trades related area? b. investigate the graduate outcomes, including employment outcomes, for graduates from postsecondary skilled trades programs. i. has the colleges skilled trades related postsecondary programming resulted in the increased availability of skilled workers over the last few years? what are the longitudinal graduation rate trends for students enrolled in postsecondary skilled trades programs? ii. are graduates of the skilled trades postsecondary program able to find relevant employment opportunities? what are the employment outcomes, such as overall employment, full-time employment, employment in a related field for graduates of the postsecondary skilled trades programs? 51 appendices appendix a: skilled trades sectors construction tradespersons are active in building, maintaining and renovating residential, commercial, industrial and public infrastructure projects (e.g., general carpenter, ironworker, electrician, plumber and tower crane operator). transportation (motive power) tradespersons fix, repair, or maintain vehicle engines and bodies (e.g., agricultural equipment technician, automotive service technician, and heavy duty equipment technicians). manufacturing (industrial) tradespersons are involved in precision machining, tooling trades, mould making and millwrighting. (e.g., welder, tool & die makers and industrial mechanic millwright) services tradespersons work directly with the public by offering their services to customers (e.g., landscape horticulturalists, cooks, and hairstylists). (government of ontario, 2021a). 52 appendix b: categorization of dc programs included in the research study mtcu code 41007 44900 45500 45501 45613 48200 48202 55613 57600 58100 mtcu code 43107 44702 49100 51211 51641 53905 52205 53107 52711 54900 55203 55300 55503 56405 59100 60701 65203 72205 73002 73106 53 skilled trades construction related (cr) mtcu title certificates mechanical techniques welding techniques heating, air conditioning and refrigeration techniques gas technician 2 electrical techniques construction trades techniques construction & hoisting techniques diplomas electrical engineering technician carpentry - renovation building construction technician skilled trades non-construction related (ncr) mtcu title certificates chef training pre-technology stationary engineering diplomas early childhood education developmental services worker landscape and horticultural technician special events planning - destination tourism culinary management artisan agriculture welding engineering technician electronics engineering technician mechanical engineering technician - tool and machine design energy systems engineering technician motive power technician stationary engineering advanced diplomas child and youth worker electronics engineering technology graduate certificates event management information systems security advanced baking and pastry arts cluster technology technology cluster business applied arts technology applied arts business technology applied arts technology business non-skilled trades construction related (cr) mtcu code mtcu title diplomas architectural technician 50600 civil engineering technician 51003 advanced diplomas architectural technology 60600 civil engineering technology 61003 mtcu code 40719 41598 41599 41800 41903 41904 43015 44700 59650 40208 42305 42313 42320 43200 41469 41603 41629 40505 50721 50805 51827 51830 51831 51901 51903 51914 52005 52006 52100 52203 54 non-skilled trades non-construction related (ncr) mtcu title certificates human services foundation pre-health sciences pathway to certificates and diplomas pre-health sciences pathway to advanced diplomas and degrees art fundamentals media fundamentals pre-media (media and communications fundamental) emergency services fundamentals general arts and science - one-year community integration through co-operative education business fundamentals court reporting - stenomask office administration - general dental office administration hospitality and tourism personal support worker animal care dental assistant (level i and ii) computer foundations diplomas social service worker library and information technician video production digital photography and imaging photography animation - television broadcasting - radio music business administration journalism - web and print journalism - print and broadcasting advertising recreation leadership cluster technology technology cluster applied arts business health technology applied arts 52209 52211 52937 53007 53008 53401 54701 50721 59403 50100 50104 50200 50201 50223 50503 50513 52306 52307 52308 52316 52613 52803 52900 53200 58900 51407 51502 51634 51637 50501 50505 51007 51302 52705 53011 60243 61800 61820 61900 61901 61914 62006 55 fitness and health promotion sports administration cosmetic techniques law and security administration police foundations esthetician general arts and science - diploma social service worker media arts business - accounting accounting and payroll business business - finance business - human resources computer programmer internet website development office administration - legal office administration real estate office administration - medical office administration - executive court and tribunal agent insurance business - marketing hotel and restaurant management business - materials management practical nursing occupational/ physiotherapy 9-1-1 emergency and call centre communications paramedic instrumentation engineering technician computer systems technician mechanical engineering technician chemical laboratory technician water and waste water technician fire and life safety systems technician advanced diplomas public relations fine arts and crafts - advanced graphic design game development animation music business management journalism - print and broadcasting business health technology applied arts 62100 62211 69403 60100 60201 60204 60223 60503 62611 62900 68900 61618 61628 60505 61007 61021 61301 61302 61303 61304 62700 70705 70708 70711 70717 70739 70902 71496 72104 72211 72616 73016 79402 79406 70202 70207 70223 70502 72614 71423 71506 71637 56 advertising sport management contemporary media production business administration - accounting business administration - finance business administration - professional golf management business administration - human resources management computer programmer analyst legal administration business administration - marketing materials management massage therapy dental hygiene (direct entry) computer systems technology mechanical engineering technology electro-mechanical engineering technology chemical engineering technology chemical technology - bioengineering biomedical engineering technology biotechnology technologist resources/environmental technology graduate certificates penology and youth mediation autism and behavioural science research analyst victimology addictions: treatment and prevention activation coordination in gerontology advertising-account management sport business management library reference and information management advanced investigations advanced television and film video effects international business management project management human resources management information systems business analyst court and administrative tribunal agent registered nurse - critical care nursing communicative disorders assistant advanced care paramedic business health technology applied arts business health 80720 81646 57 baccalaureate degrees bachelor of behavioural science honours bachelor of health care technology management applied arts health references ahmed, n. 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schooling and labour market outcomes of ontario transfer students evidence from pse-tax linked data february 28, 2020 ross finnie, education policy research initiative, university of ottawa michael dubois, education policy research initiative, university of ottawa masashi miyairi, education policy research initiative, university of ottawa the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfers (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. executive summary objective and research questions this study addresses the following three questions for ontario university students: what are the student and program characteristics associated with student mobility, captured by university transfers and changes in field of study? how are university transfers and changes in field of study related to graduation outcome? how are university transfers and changes in field of study related to post-graduation earnings? methodology this study constructs an analysis sample from the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp), a dataset at statistics canada which allows us to link the postsecondary student information system (psis), administrative data on canadian post-secondary education (pse) students, to personal income tax information stored in the t1 family files (t1ff). the enrollment histories and graduation outcomes of the fall 2009 entry cohort are tracked and their changes in field of study and institution attended are noted. for graduates from this cohort, their income tax information in the t1ff is extracted to calculate their employment earnings one year after graduation. the variables of interest (transfer rates, graduation rates, and first-year employment earnings after graduation) are calculated and broken down by student and program characteristics including field of study, gender, age and immigration status. moreover, graduation rates and first-year employment earnings are broken down by different student mobility patterns to investigate the relationship between the outcome of interest and student transfers. the differences are also adjusted using statistical modelling techniques to account for differences in other characteristics across the groups being compared. findings field of study is the primary characteristics related to student transfers. the humanities and other fields of study are the two fields most associated with the change in field of study or institution. on the other hand, architecture, engineering and related technologies is the field least associated with student mobility, with students in visual and performing arts and communications technologies, health and related fields, and personal, protective and transportation services not far behind. 2 little differences are found between male and female students in their propensities to transfer to a different university or to change field of study once their program and student characteristics are taken into account. on the other hand, more pronounced differences are found across immigration status, with international students and permanent residents being much more likely to change field of study than canadian citizens. conditional on the first-year enrollment (i.e., fall 2009 entrants still being enrolled in fall 2010), four-year graduation rates among transfers students are lower than students who stay in the same university and field of study by 18 and 27 percentage points, depending whether transfer students also change field of study or not, respectively. while these differences narrow to 6 and 7 percentage points two years later (six-year graduation), the lower graduation rates of transfer students suggest that transfers students experience a slower academic progression. the mean employment earnings one year after graduation of transfer students who study the in the same field throughout their academic career are not statistically different from those of students who remain in the same university and field. on the other hand, transfer students who change field of study have lower mean earnings than non-transfer students who remain in the same field of study by $3,100, with this difference being statistically significant at the 5 percent level. however, non-transfer students who change field of study also have lower earnings than their counterparts without a change in field of study, which may suggest the lower earnings are not due to transfer to a different university, per se. policy implications whether the lower graduation rates of transfer students are due to some form of barrier in the transfer system or is related to unobservable characteristics of transfer students remain to be answered and will require further research in order to develop policies that would provide a more seamless transfer experience and also support students through to graduation. this study provides a more comprehensive view of ontario transfer students by taking advantage of a system-wide pse enrollment and graduation information. by necessity due to a data coverage issue in the elmlp for ontario college students until the 2014/2015 reporting cycle, this study focuses on student mobility among ontario universities only. however, university-touniversity transfers have been far less studied compared to college-to-university transfers. therefore, this study provides new and unique evidence on this relatively unexplored subject. moreover, this study put into practice the possibility of using the elmlp to analyze student pathways and transfers at the system-wide level. as more complete data coverage over a longer time period become available for ontario colleges, this study starts to lay the methodological groundwork to study college-to-university, college-to-college, as well as university-to-college transfers for future projects. 3 table of contents executive summary ...................................................................................................................... 2 1. introduction........................................................................................................................... 6 2. data and analytical approach ............................................................................................ 7 2.1. the education and labour market longitudinal platform .............................................. 7 2.2. the transfer type ............................................................................................................ 8 2.3. the graduation outcome measure .................................................................................. 9 2.4. the earnings measure ...................................................................................................... 9 2.5. selection of 2009 entry cohort...................................................................................... 10 2.6. tracking university enrollment and graduation ........................................................... 10 2.7. construction of post-graduation earnings sample ....................................................... 11 2.8. sample characteristics ................................................................................................... 12 3. analysis of student transfer ............................................................................................. 14 3.1. descriptive analysis ...................................................................................................... 14 3.2. modelling analysis ........................................................................................................ 17 the model............................................................................................................................. 17 the findings ........................................................................................................................ 18 4. analysis of graduation outcome ...................................................................................... 21 4.1. descriptive analysis ...................................................................................................... 21 4.2. modelling analysis ........................................................................................................ 25 the model............................................................................................................................. 25 the findings ........................................................................................................................ 25 5. analysis of post-graduation earnings ............................................................................. 28 5.1. descriptive analysis ...................................................................................................... 28 5.2. modelling analysis ........................................................................................................ 28 the model............................................................................................................................. 28 the findings ........................................................................................................................ 29 6. conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 30 7. references ............................................................................................................................ 33 8. appendix .............................................................................................................................. 34 4 list of figures figure 1. four, five and six-year graduation rates, 2009 entry cohort .................................... 21 figure 2. graduation rates by transfer type (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2010) ..... 23 figure 3. graduation rates by transfer type (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2011) ..... 24 figure 4. differences in graduation rates by transfer group (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2010) ...................................................................................................................................... 26 figure 5. differences in graduation rates by transfer group (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2011) ...................................................................................................................................... 27 figure 6. mean earnings one year after graduation by transfer type ..................................... 28 figure 7. differences in mean earnings one year after graduation by transfer type ............. 30 list of tables table 1. sample characteristics at entry (n = 63,471) ................................................................ 12 table 2. enrollment status by year (%) (n = 63,471) ................................................................. 13 table 3. characteristics of the graduate sample (n = 22,130) .................................................... 13 table 4. rates of transfer and change in field of study from previous fall snapshot date (%) ....................................................................................................................................................... 14 table 5. transfer rates from 2009 to 2010 by characteristics (%) ............................................. 14 table 6. transfer rates from 2010 to 2011 by characteristics (%) ............................................. 16 table 7. differences in transfer rates from the baseline categories, from 2009 to 2010 (%) ... 19 table 8. differences in transfer rates from the baseline categories, from 2010 to 2011 (%) ... 20 table 9. graduation rates from different points in time (%)..................................................... 22 list of appendix tables table a1. multinomial logit model estimates for transfers and change in field of study, fall 2009 to fall 2010 .......................................................................................................................... 34 table a2. multinomial logit model estimates for transfers and change in field of study, fall 2010 to fall 2011 .......................................................................................................................... 35 table a3. logit model estimates for graduation, from fall 2010 ............................................. 36 table a4. logit model estimates for graduation, from fall 2011 ............................................. 37 table a5: estimation results for post-graduation earnings regression .................................... 38 5 1. introduction as ontario pursues a differentiated university system where institutions build on their specific strengths, mandates and missions (jonker and hicks, 2016), researchers and stakeholders in post-secondary education (pse) argue that policies that facilitate student mobility plays an important complementary role in such a system (e.g., weingarten and deller, 2010; young, pich, and jones 2017). in a differentiated university system, some student may need a trialand-error process to find a university that fits their goals and needs or a transfer to a different institution may benefit students if their aspirations or circumstances change while attending a university. extensive work has already been done to examine transfer students and pathways in ontario; however, the limited availability of data has restricted research to examining specific pathways and transfers between a pair of institutions, or a coalition of institutions, formed to examine pathways and transfers for a particular group of students. while the ontario education number (oen), now used in the post-secondary education sector, represents a great opportunity to learn about system-wide pathways, the limited number of years available to date are not conducive to an outcome-based analysis. the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu) currently uses the oen to produce an annual student mobility report, which constitutes an accounting exercise detailing the flow of students across ontario pse institution. several other canadian jurisdictions have pursued system-wide analyses of transfer students. since 1991 the british columbia council on admissions and transfers (bccat) has prepared transfer student profile reports on a periodic basis. their recent report (2015) included a standardized reporting template used to collect data from all publicly funded pse institutions in the province. meanwhile, the maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec) has used the postsecondary student information system (psis) to collect information from all pse institutions in these provinces in order to examine a wide variety of topics, including the time to graduation for students who change programs, transfer between institutions, or do both, in comparison to students who remain in the same program and institution for the duration of their studies, as well as the overall average. this study not only offers a first step to addressing the lag in research in student mobility in ontario by providing a system-wide analysis of transfer students encompassing all universities in ontario but also produce pioneering research on the labour market outcomes of transfer students. specifically, using statistics canadas new education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) that link psis to personal income tax data (t1 family file, t1ff), this study examines the characteristics of students who transfer between ontario universities or change fields of study, and compare their schooling and labour market outcomes (to be specific, graduation and post-graduation earnings) to those of non-transfer students. unfortunately, the psis data in the elmlp has a severe data coverage gap in enrollment and graduation data for ontario colleges until the 2014/15 reporting cycle, which prevents us from examining student transfer from college to universities. because of this, we exclusively focus on 6 movements between bachelors degree programs in ontario universities as a starting point of a system-wide analysis for ontario. unlike this study, most existing research on pse transfer focus on transfers from college-level programs to university programs. therefore, there is very little research on student mobility at the bachelors degree level. some canadian studies shed light on this subject while their main focus remains on college to university transfer, however. using administrative data from brock university, stewart and martinello (2012) find that the proportion of male students is higher among transfer students from other universities than for direct entrants from high schools (44.6 percent compared to 37.0 percent), although the difference is not statistically significant. the faculty of general studies is more popular among transfer students from other universities than among direct-entry students (20.7 percent compared to 10.3 percent). in contrast, using data for new registrants at trent university, drewes et. al. (2012) find that female students account for more transfer students from other universities than direct-entry students (68.7 compared to 63.2 percent). nursing is more popular among the former than the latter (19.7 compared to 8 percent), while sciences and business are less popular for transfer students than direct-entry students (18.6 percent compared to 23.1 percent, and 2.4 percent compared to 9.3 percent, respectively). these findings suggest that some program and student characteristics are associated with a higher likelihood of transfers. therefore, taking these different student and program characteristics into account when examining differences in schooling and labour market outcomes between transfer and direct-entry students is important. this report is organized as follows. section 2 describes the elmlp and the construction of the analysis data. sections 3, 4, and 5 present the methodologies for each analysis as well as the findings for the student mobility, graduation outcome, and post-graduation earnings analyses. section 6, then, concludes this report. 2. data and analytical approach 2.1. the education and labour market longitudinal platform this study constructs an analysis sample from the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp), a longitudinal data environment including administrative data held by statistics canada on pse students and personal income tax information. specifically, the two core components of the elmlp used in this analysis are the postsecondary student information system (psis) and the t1 family files (t1ff). psis consists of administrative records of pse students, collected annually, from all publiclyfunded colleges and universities in canada. psis is thus closer to a census of all canadian pse students, as opposed to a sample, although there are some gaps in the elmlps coverage, some of which are discussed below. information in psis includes students program (type of credential, classification of instructional program [cip] code, program name), institution (type, location), and personal 7 characteristics (age, gender, immigration status, and current and permanent address) (statistics canada, n.d., psis codebook). in principle, psis includes one record per program in which a student is enrolled in each reporting cycle. therefore, consider these three examples 1. a student in two programs in a year would have two records, 2. a student in the same program over two years would also have two records, and 3. a student in one program in a year and in another the next would also have two records. consistent with its relational database structure, psis does not explicitly link individuals across their different pse records either within a given year or across years. instead, individuals masterid must be used to identify all records associated with a given individual in any given year. then the information included in each record must be used to identify which records in later years represent the continuation of an earlier program and which represent new programs. psis data on the elmlp are available for all canadian provinces and territories from the 2009/10 reporting cycle (generally from the spring/summer semester through the end of the following winter semester) onward. however, enrollment and graduation records of almost half of ontario colleges are missing from the elmlp until the 2014/15 reporting cycle. this data limitation significantly reduces the sample coverage for ontario college graduates, which leads us to limit this study to bachelors degree students in ontario universities. the t1ff data on the elmlp are taken from personal income tax returns transferred to statistics canada by the canada revenue agency and contains income from various sources, including employment income, income from government programs (such as social assistance, employment insurance, and the child tax benefit), and various tax credits and deductions (pse tax credits, cpp and rpp contributions, union dues). also included are personal characteristics such as age, gender, and postal code (statistics canada, 2018). finally, industry of employment is also available, represented by the three-digit north american industry classification system (naics3) code. all t1ff information is at the person (student) level except for the additional availability of some selected family-level variables, including parental income, family type, family size, and number of children. t1ff information is available for all individuals with psis records on the elmlp from 2004 onward, including the years before, during, and following pse, depending on when the student was enrolled. 2.2. the transfer type we measure student mobility in two dimensions. the first dimension is change in institution, i.e., transfer to a different institution. a move between parent and affiliated institutions, or between different campuses of the same university is not considered a transfer. the second dimension is change in field of study, where field of study is represented by the primary groupings of classification on instructional program (cip) code, which consists of 13 8 aggregated categories of field of study. (see statistics canada (2012) for more details of the primary groupings) with these two dimensions, students are categorized into four transfer type groups: - students staying in the same institution and field of study, students staying in the same institution but changing the field of study, students transferring to a different institution but same in field of study, and students transferring to a different institution and changing in field of study. students institutions and field of study are captured at the fall snapshot date, a date between september 30 and december 1 chosen by each institution. the timeframe for these changes depends on the analysis. sometime changes are measured relative to the snapshot date in the entry year, or in other cases, they are measured relative to the previous snapshot date. which timeframe is used is always indicated. 2.3. the graduation outcome measure the schooling outcome of students is measured by four, five, and six-year graduation. as the focus of this study is the 2009 entry cohort, students graduate within four years if they graduate by august 2013, within five years if they graduate by august 2014, and so on. 2.4. the earnings measure this study focuses on total before-tax employment earnings, which are calculated by combining all paid employment income (wages, salaries, and commissions) reported on t4 slips, positive net income earned from self-employment (business, professional, commissions, farming, and fishing), indian exempt employment income, and other taxable employment income that is not reported on a t4 slip, such as tips and gratuities.1 earnings are adjusted to constant 2016 dollars using the national level consumer price index (cpi). one important caveat of the self-employment income category is that it includes only unincorporated earnings. in some cases, however, graduates may form corporations and earnings may be transmitted through dividends, allocated to family members, or retained within the corporation, all of which are not available on the elmlp. earnings paid out in salary from the 1 for employment income to be considered indian exempt, the location of the employment duties is a major factor, as most on-reserve work is classified as tax exempt. however, cra also recognizes that employees of bands, tribal councils, or organizations that operate on behalf of bands or tribal councils may perform most of their activities off reserve. if the employer is a resident on a reserve and the employed is in a non-commercial activity for the social, cultural, educational, or economic development of indigenous peoples who for the most part live on reserves, the income of their employees is also tax exempt. for more information on the guidelines covering indian exempt employment income under section 87 of the indian act, visit https://www.canada.ca/en/revenueagency/services/aboriginal-peoples/indian-act-exemption-employment-income-guidelines.html. 9 corporation to individuals themselves would, however, be included in the earnings measure as employment income. 2.5. selection of 2009 entry cohort we focus on students pursing a bachelors degree in ontario universities, where the definition of bachelors degree programs corresponds to the undergraduate degree program under statistics canadas classification of programs and credential. this means that students in programs in law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, optometry, and veterinary medicine are excluded from the analysis sample. at the time of this study, psis data are available for ontario pse institutions from 2009/2010 reporting cycle to the 2016/2017 reporting cycle, while the t1ff information is available from 2004 through to 2015. it typically takes five years for the majority of students to graduate from university with a bachelors degree in canada, meaning that typical students starting university in fall 2010 or later do not have income information for the first full-year after graduation. in other words, the 2009 entry cohort is the only group for which both graduation and postgraduation labour market outcomes are likely observed for a large majority of students, leading us to select the 2009 entry cohort for this analysis. to identify the 2009 entry cohort, we employ the following multi-step procedure. first, we identify a pool of 2009 entrants who are reported as having university enrollment records with original start dates falling in the second half of 2009 (july to december 2009). not all of these students enter the ontario university system in 2009 for the first time. for example, if a student has entered a bachelors program in 2008 and then switched to an honour bachelors program in 2009, the original start date of the latter program may be recorded the 2009 fall semester. thus, these students should not be considered as 2009 entrants. however, without enrollment data before 2009, it is not possible to identify 2009 entrants with prior pse experience to exclude them from the analysis using psis. in the absence of information indicating that the 2009 enrollment records represent students first university program, we only include individuals age 17 to 19 at the end of 2009 to increase the likelihood that students in the sample are indeed all 2009 university entrants.2 further, for students included this way, we scan all enrollment records from all reporting cycles available to see if they have any enrollment records with starting dates before the second half of 2009. if so, those individuals are not considered 2009 entrants and are excluded from the sample. 2.6. tracking university enrollment and graduation once 2009 entrants are identified, enrollment records from the 2009/10 to 2016/17 reporting cycles are extracted for these individuals to construct their enrollment histories, which consist of 2 to gauge the effectiveness of this age restriction to limit 2009 entrants to students without prior pse experience at the university level, we apply the same method to select 2010 entrants, and then use the 2009/10 psis data to find how many students in that cohort have enrollment records in that period. approximately 14 percent of this group indeed have enrollment record in 2009. 10 sequences of institutions and fields of study at each fall snapshot date. enrollment histories are tracked until the first time individuals graduate from university, or the first time their enrollment records are not found in the extracted psis data. the latter case occurs for various reasons, including withdrawal, stop out, or transfers to ontario colleges or to pse institutions in different provinces or territories. for each 2009 entrant, enrollment records across different reporting cycles having the same masterid, institution code, and cip code are linked together to form spells of bachelors programs started by this individual. once program spell data are constructed in this way, we track institution and field of study of students on each snapshot date, starting with their program starting in fall 2009. if an ongoing spell ends without graduation and another spell appears on the next snapshot date, then we continue with the new spell. if more than one program spell starts, in this case, we select only one of them as the main program according to the following order of priority: - programs at the same institution and field of study as the previous program programs at the same institution but a different field of study from the previous program programs at a different institution but the same field of study as the previous program programs at a different institution and a different field of study from the previous program. in order to focus on bachelors program students, students are excluded from the sample if their enrollment histories indicate they have spells of professional degree program. moreover, if enrollment histories indicate that student graduated in less than 3 years from entry, they are excluded from the sample, as bachelors degree generally takes 3 years of study or more. a very small fraction of 2009 entrants have multiple enrollment records on the 2009 fall snapshot date and these students are excluded from the analysis. 2.7. construction of post-graduation earnings sample for students who graduate from a bachelors program, t1ff data is extracted to obtain their first-year earnings after graduation. tracking of post-graduation outcome starts in the first full year after graduation. therefore, for those graduating in 2013, the first year correspond to 2014. as the most recent tax-year for which t1ff information is available is 2015, our graduate samples are restricted to those who graduate by 2014. three additional sample restrictions are imposed. first, individuals who do not file taxes are excluded for that year. this restriction applies to approximately 10 percent of the sample. second, individuals are also excluded from the analysis if they are identified (through the fulltime pse education tax credit information included in t1ff) as pursuing further full-time pse after graduation. this restriction is imposed because further schooling typically leads to less active engagement in the labour market while the individual is in school, and new skills or credentials acquired following a return to school could lead to an earnings premium upon labour 11 market re-entry. for bachelors degree graduates, this restriction applies to approximately 40 percent of the sample one year following graduation. third, in order to focus on graduates who are meaningfully engaged in the labour market, those whose total before-tax earnings are lower than $1,000 are excluded from the sample. this restriction applies to approximately 3 percent of the sample. 2.8. sample characteristics table 1 presents the sample characteristics of the fall 2009 entrants. the most common field of study at entry is the humanities (21 percent), closely followed by social and behavioural sciences and law (19 percent), and business, management and public administration (16 percent). female students account for a majority of the sample (57 percent), and the most common age at entry is 18 (67 percent), followed by 19 (31 percent). canadian citizen account for over 90 percent of the sample, while permanent residents and international students account for 5 percent each. table 1. sample characteristics at entry (n = 63,471) distribution (%) field of study at entry education visual and performing arts, and communication technologies humanities social and behavioural sciences and law business, management and public administration physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences architecture, engineering and related technologies agriculture, natural sciences and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other sex male female age at entry 17 18 19 immigration status canadian citizen permanent resident international student 1.9 4.5 20.6 18.9 16.1 13.7 2.9 9.8 1.5 8.4 0.6 1.0 42.6 57.4 1.5 67.2 31.2 90.2 5.3 4.5 over time, the sample size gradually decreases as students leave or graduate from ontario universities. table 2 presents the enrollment status of the fall 2009 entry cohort on the fall snapshot date for each academic year. the enrollment rate declines greatly from 2012 to 2013, and 2013 to 2014 again, mainly because they are the 4th and 5th academic years of fall 2009 entrants and most of them graduate over that period. in fall 2014, only 6 percent of the students remain enrolled in university. 12 table 2. enrollment status by year (%) (n = 63,471) year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 enrolled not enrolled 100.0 92.0 86.6 77.7 32.2 6.1 1.4 0.0 8.0 13.4 22.3 67.8 93.9 98.6 table 3 presents the characteristics of the graduate sample (i.e., graduates from the 2009 entry cohort whose first-year earnings are included in the sample). as shown below, 70 percent of the 2009 entrants graduate within five years and the post-graduation sample restrictions (i.e., nonfilers, those who pursue further pse, and low earners) affect roughly 50 percent of graduates. therefore, the sample size is reduced from 63,471 graduates to 22,130. table 3. characteristics of the graduate sample (n = 22,130) distribution (%) field of study at graduation education visual and performing arts, and communications technologies humanities social and behavioural sciences and law business, management and public administration physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences architecture, engineering and related technologies agriculture, natural resources and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other sex male female age at entry 17 18 19 immigration status canadian citizen permanent resident international student 1.2 5.3 8.8 27.6 20.0 7.9 2.6 12.4 2.1 10.7 0.9 0.4 42.4 57.6 1.3 68.7 30.1 92.0 4.9 3.0 unlike upon university entry in fall 2009, the most common field of study is social and behavioural sciences and law (27.6 percent), followed by business, management and public administration (20.0 percent), and the proportion of humanities graduates is much lower (8.8 percent as opposed 20.6 percent at entry). this decrease is partly because of humanities students higher tendency to switch to different fields, discussed further below, as well as their higher tendency to pursue further education after graduation. 13 the gender distribution of the graduate sample is unchanged from that of the entrant sample, with female students accounting for 58 percent. the distribution of age and immigration status at entry of the graduate sample is relatively unchanged from those of the entrant sample. 3. analysis of student transfer 3.1. descriptive analysis table 4 presents how students chose university and field of study relative to the previous year on each fall snapshot date from 2010 to 2015. table 4. rates of transfer and change in field of study from previous fall snapshot date (%) no transfer, no transfer, no fos change fos change year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 79.3 90.4 95.1 95.8 94.4 93.8 18.7 8.3 4.4 3.8 4.8 5.2 transfer, no fos change transfer, fos change 0.9 0.5 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.7 1.2 0.7 0.3 0.3 0.6 0.3 n 58,410 54,975 49,341 20,418 3,861 921 each year, a large majority of continuing students stay at the same university and remain in the same field of study, which account for close to 80 percent of the sample in 2010, and over 90 percent from 2011 onward. university transfers, whether they involve a change in field of study or not, are uncommon events for students, together accounting for at most 2 percent. most students who transfer institution or change field of study are indeed those who only change field of study. changes in field of study are by far the most frequent in 2010, at 19 percent, and the frequency steadily declines over time, to 8 percent in 2011 and to less than 6 percent from 2012 onward. because a large majority of university transfers and field of study changes occur in the first two years of university, we focus our analysis on these two years for the remainder of this section. table 5 breaks down transfer rates from fall 2009 to fall 2010 by field of study, gender, age, and immigration status in 2009. table 5. transfer rates from 2009 to 2010 by characteristics (%) no transfer, no transfer, transfer, transfer, no fos change fos change no fos change fos change all students field of study in fall 2009 education visual and performing arts, and communications technologies humanities social and behavioural sciences and law business, management and public administration n 79.3 18.7 0.9 1.2 58,410 67.0 91.1 31.4 6.2 0.3 0.8 1.3 1.1 1,137 2,529 55.5 85.7 86.0 42.1 11.8 12.0 0.8 1.5 1.0 1.6 1.1 0.9 11,712 10,824 9,603 14 physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences architecture, engineering and related technologies agriculture, natural resources and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other gender male female age at entry 17 18 19 immigration status canadian citizen permanent resident international student 79.9 77.0 93.9 79.3 91.7 90.0 33.3 18.3 20.8 4.5 18.7 6.7 9.2 62.6 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.7 0.6 0.0 0.0 1.1 1.4 1.0 1.3 0.9 0.8 4.0 8,160 1,698 5,778 897 5,088 390 594 82.1 77.3 15.9 20.7 0.8 0.9 1.2 1.2 24,633 33,777 77.2 78.2 81.7 21.5 19.7 16.3 0.3 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.2 1.0 906 39,777 17,333 79.4 80.0 75.4 18.5 18.1 22.9 0.9 0.6 1.1 1.2 1.4 0.7 52,782 3,099 2,532 the likelihood of remaining in the same university and field of study varies widely across field of study, with the humanities and other field of study being the two groups least likely to remain in the same university and field of study (55.5 and 33.3 percent, respectively). approximately two-fifths of humanities students change their field of study while staying enrolled in the same university, and just over 2 percent of them transfer to a new university the majority of which also change field of study (1.6% compared to 0.8 percent who remain in the same field). students in the other field have a even a higher likelihood to choose a different field of study from the previous fall than humanities students, with 62.6 percent of them changing field of study within the same university and 4 percent moving to a different university to study a different field. this high rate of change in field of study may be expected for this group of students because the large majority of detailed fields of study under this category are multidisciplinary programs. students in physical and life sciences and related technologies, mathematics, computer and information sciences, and agriculture, natural resources and conservation have also moderately high likelihood of moving to a different field of study, at approximately 20 percent. at the opposite end, students in architecture, engineering and related technologies are most likely to stay in the same university and field of study, with 94 percent of them choosing to do so. over 90 percent of students in visual and performing arts and communications technologies, health and related fields, and personal, protective and transportation services also stay in the same university and field of study. in contrast to change in field of study, transfers are much more infrequent across field of study. the other field category is associated with the highest likelihood of student transfers at 4 percent, while personal, protective and transportation service has the lowest likelihood at 0.8 percent. the likelihood of student transfer for the rest of the fields is approximately 2 percent, 15 essentially the same value as the overall rate of student transfer in the sample (regardless of whether they change field of study or not). male students (82.1 percent) are more likely to stay in the same university and study the same field of study from the previous period than female students (77.3 percent). this difference mirrors female students higher likelihood (20.7 percent) to change field of study within the same university than male students (15.9 percent), while the likelihood of student transfer is virtually the same for male and female students, whether or not transfer involves change in field of study. higher age at entry is related a higher likelihood of staying in the same university and field of study, and a lower likelihood of changing field of study within the same university. transfer rates, whether student also change their field of study or not, are indistinguishable across entry age. international students are less likely to stay in the same university and field of study, and more likely to change their field of study than canadian citizens and permanent residents. table 6 breaks down the rates of transfers from fall 2010 to fall 2011 by field of study in 2010, as well as gender, age, and immigration status at entry (i.e., fall 2009). table 6. transfer rates from 2010 to 2011 by characteristics (%) no transfer, no transfer, transfer, transfer, no fos change fos change no fos change fos change all students field of study education visual and performing arts, and communications technologies humanities social and behavioural sciences and law business, management and public administration physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences architecture, engineering and related technologies agriculture, natural resources and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other gender male female age at entry 17 18 19 immigration status canadian citizen permanent resident international student n 90.4 8.3 0.5 0.7 54,975 88.6 93.0 10.7 5.8 0.0 0.4 0.7 0.4 813 79.7 91.9 93.2 89.3 84.5 96.7 18.6 6.8 5.5 9.5 14.3 2.7 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.4 0.3 0.1 1.0 0.7 0.5 0.8 0.9 0.5 7,563 13,731 8,739 7,407 1,722 89.8 94.4 94.4 74.3 9.3 4.9 4.0 21.8 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.6 0.4 1.6 4.0 1,002 4,998 375 303 90.8 90.2 8.0 8.6 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.7 22,932 32,043 90.5 90.1 91.2 7.7 8.6 7.8 1.1 0.5 0.5 0.7 0.7 0.5 852 37,755 16,365 90.6 89.0 87.9 8.1 9.6 11.3 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.7 0.8 0.3 49,686 2,952 2,340 2,832 5,481 16 the likelihood of remaining in the same university and field of study is substantially higher in this period (3rd fall) than the previous period (2nd fall) for all fields of study, while qualitative differences across field of study largely remains the same, with students in the humanities and the other field being the least likely to stay, and those in architecture and engineering and related technologies the most likely to do so. the likelihood of transferring to a different university remains at the same level as the previous period at 4 percent for students in the other field, while the corresponding rates are below 2 percent for students in other 11 fields of study. the differences in the likelihood to transfer to a different university with respect to gender, age and immigration status are much smaller than in the previous period, with male and female students in particular resembling each other in this regard. students entering universities at age 17 have a slightly higher likelihood to transfer to a different university than their older counterparts (by close to 2 percentage points). international students are slightly more likely to change field of study within the same university than canadian citizens or permanent residents. the differences in likelihood to transfer to a different university across immigration status is very small, being at most 0.5 percentage point. 3.2. modelling analysis the model while the observed differences in the transfer rates presented in tables 5 and 6 suggest that, while some student characteristics are more associated with transfer to a different university and change in field of study than other, these differences may be partly explained by differences in other characteristics among groups. as shown above, humanities students are more likely to change their field of study than engineering students, and gender composition between these two fields are very different, with female students choosing humanities more and engineering less than male students. these differences in chosen field of study between male and female may account for the differences in transfer rates between the two groups. by accounting for multiple factors related to transfers at the same time, a statistical modelling analysis can disentangle the complex interrelationship. to understand what characteristics are associated with university transfers and changes in field of study while controlling for other characteristics, we perform a multinomial logit analysis. in this analytical framework, the probability of transferring to a different university and/or changing field of study from the previous fall is expressed as a function of observed characteristics as follows: ( , ) = exp() , 1 + exp() + exp() + exp() (, ) = exp() , 1 + exp() + exp() + exp() 17 and (, ) = exp() , 1 + exp() + exp() + exp() respectively. the probability of staying in the same university and field of study is, 1 ( , ) (, ) (, ), which is rewritten as ( , ) = 1 . 1 + exp() + exp() + exp() x represents a set of explanatory variables including the field of study in the previous fall, gender, age, and immigration status at entry. both , , and express linear combinations of the explanatory variables, through which transfer and these characteristics are linked to the likelihoods to transfer to a different university and to change field of study. one category from each characteristic in the explanatory variables needs to be omitted from the model to make estimation possible. these omitted categories define the profile of the baseline group in the analysis, but choice do not affect the implications of estimation results and therefore can be arbitrary. in what follows, we select social and behavioural sciences and law, male student, 18 years of age, and canadian citizen as the omitted categories from field of study, gender, age, and immigration status at entry, respectively. the model is estimated by the maximum likelihood method. the estimation results from fall 2009 to fall 2010 and from fall 2010 to fall 2011 are presented in appendix tables a1 and a2. the findings to analyze how a particular student characteristic is related to students decisions to transfer university or change their field of study while all other characteristics are also taken into account, the likelihood to belong to each of the four university transfer/field of study change categories is predicted for each student in the sample while one of the student and program characteristics is assumed to be the same for all students with the other characteristics being unchanged from the observed profile for each student. then the resulting likelihoods are averaged over every student in the sample. in this way, for example, a difference between male and female students can be evaluated while both student groups are assumed to be the same in terms of field of study, entry age, and immigration status. table 7 presents, within each student and program characteristic, how the transfer rates of each category differ from the transfer rates of the given baseline category based on the estimated multinomial logit model of fall 2009 to fall 2010 transfers. for comparison, the corresponding values from the simple descriptive statistics are presented in the parentheses directly below. 18 table 7. differences in transfer rates from the baseline categories, from 2009 to 2010 (%) no transfer, no transfer, transfer, transfer, no fos change fos change no fos change fos change field of study (base: social and behavioural sciences and law) education visual and performing arts, and communications technologies humanities business, management and public administration physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences architecture, engineering and related technologies agriculture, natural resources and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other gender (base: male) female age at entry (base: 18) 17 19 immigration status (base: canadian citizen) permanent resident international student -18.7* (-18.7) 6.5* (6.2) -30.2* (-30.2) 1.0* (0.3) -5.0* (-5.8) -8.1* (-8.7) 8.8* (8.2) -6.7* (-6.4) 6.2* (6.0) 5.1* (4.3) -51.8* (-52.4) 19.9* (19.6) -5.8* (-5.6) 30.3* (30.4) -0.4* (0.2) 5.8* (6.5) 8.5* (9.1) -7.7* (-7.3) 7.2* (6.9) -5.1* (-5.1) -2.8 (-2.5) 50.3* (50.8) -1.2* (-1.2) -0.7* (-0.6) -0.7* (-0.7) -0.5* (-0.4) -0.8* (-0.8) -0.7* (-0.8) -1.0* (-0.9) -0.8* (-0.8) -0.8* (-0.9) -1.5* (-1.5) -1.5* (-1.5) 0.1 (0.3) 0.1 (0.0) 0.5* (0.5) -0.1 (-0.1) 0.0 (0.0) 0.3 (0.4) -0.1 (0.0) 0.3 (0.3) -0.2 (-0.1) -0.8* (-0.3) 2.9* (3.0) -1.0* (-4.8) 1.1* (4.7) 0.0 (0.0) -0.1 (0.0) -1.1 (-1.1) 3.9* (3.5) 1.7 (1.9) -3.7* (-3.3) -0.3 (-0.5) 0.0 (0.1) -0.3 (-0.3) -0.2* (-0.2) -4.0* (0.5) -9.0* (-4.1) 4.0* (-0.4) 9.2* (4.4) -0.2 (-0.3) 0.3 (0.2) 0.2 (0.2) -0.5* (-0.5) notes: * indicates that values are statistically significant at the 5 percent level. values in parentheses are calculated from the regular sample averages. generally, accounting for gender, immigration status, and age at entry do not affect the differences in transfer rates across field of study. differences between male and female students are predicted to be smaller by the multinomial logit model, with female students being less likely to choose the same university and field of study as the previous period than male students by 1 percentage point, as opposed to 5 percentage point found in the simple sample averages. differences in transfer rates across age at entry is mostly unchanged from the simple sample statistics. in contrast, differences in transfer rates across immigration status are magnified once 19 other student and program characteristics are taken into account. the estimation results from the multinomial logit model indicate that permanent residents and international students are less likely to remain in the same university and field of study as the previous period than canadian citizens by 9 and 4 percentage points, respectively, as opposed to 1 and 4 percentage points found in the simple sample averages. table 8 conducts the same exercise as table 7, but the results are based on the multinomial logit model of fall 2010 to fall 2011 transfers. table 8. differences in transfer rates from the baseline categories, from 2010 to 2011 (%) no transfer, no transfer, transfer, transfer, no fos change fos change no fos change fos change field of study (base: social and behavioural sciences and law) education visual and performing arts, and communications technologies humanities business, management and public administration physical and life sciences and technologies mathematics, computer and information sciences architecture, engineering and related technologies agriculture, natural resources and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other gender (base: male) female age at entry (base: 18) 17 19 immigration status (base: canadian citizen) permanent resident international student -4.0* (-3.3) 1.2* (1.1) -12.5* (12.1) 1.8* (1.3) -2.3* (-2.6) -6.1* (-7.4) 5.2* (4.8) -1.8 (-2.1) 2.5* (2.5) 2.9* (2.5) -17.5* (-17.6) 4.5* (3.9) -1.0* (-0.9) 12.3* (11.9) -1.6* (-1.2) 2.5* (2.7) 6.4* (7.5) -4.4* (-4.1) 2.6* (2.5) -1.9* (-1.9) -2.8* (-2.8) 14.8* (15.0) -0.7* (-0.7) -0.3 (-0.3) 0.0 (0.0) 0.1 (0.1) -0.3* (-0.3) -0.3* (-0.3) -0.5* (-0.6) -0.6* (-0.4) -0.3* (-0.4) -0.7* (-0.7) -0.7* (-0.7) 0.2 (0.1) 0.0 (0.1) 0.3* (0.3) -0.2* (-.0.2) 0.0 (0.1) 0.1 (0.2) -0.3* (-0.2) -0.2 (-0.1) -0.3* (-0.3) 0.6 (0.9) 3.4* (3.3) 0.5 (-0.7) -0.3 (0.7) 0.0 (0.1) -0.1 (-0.1) -0.1 (0.4) 1.6* (1.0) -0.6 (-0.9) -1.4* (-0.8) 0.5 (0.5) -0.1 (-0.1) 0.2 (0.0) -0.2** (-0.2) -3.4* (-1.6) -4.9* (-2.7) 3.1* (1.4) 5.5* (3.1) 0.1 (0.1) -0.1 (0.0) 0.2 (0.1) -0.5* (-0.4) notes: * indicates that values are statistically significant at the 5 percent level. values in parentheses are calculated from the regular sample averages. 20 the differences in transfer rates predicted from the model are generally similar to those obtained by the simple descriptive statistics, except for those across immigration status. the differences among canadian citizens, permanent residents, and international students are more pronounced in the multinomial logit model than in the simple sample averages, which is also found for the previous period. the multinomial logit model indicates that permanent residents and international students are less likely to remain in the same university and field of study than canadian citizen by 3.4 and 4.9 percentage points, respectively, as opposed to 1.6 and 2.7 percent obtained from the simple sample averages. these results indicate that field of study is the primary characteristic related to students likelihood to transfer to a different university as well as to choose a different field of study from the previous period. immigration status and age at entry are related to these decisions to a lesser extent. transfers and change in field of study do not seem strongly related to gender once other characteristics are taken into account. 4. analysis of graduation outcome 4.1. descriptive analysis figure 1 presents the four, five, and six-year graduation rates for the fall 2009 entry cohort. close to a half of them graduate in 4 years. the graduation rate reaches 71 percent after 5 years of university enrollment and 76 percent after 6 years. figure 1. four, five and six-year graduation rates, 2009 entry cohort when analyzing the relationship between graduation and university transfer, it is important to recognize that university leavers are always classified as non-graduates, and they are less likely to be classified either as transfer students or students who change field of study. for example, students who leave in the first year never have chance to change university nor field of study, 21 and therefore would be classified as non-transfer students remaining in the same institution and field of study, which lowers graduation rates for this transfer group. therefore, to control the effect of student persistence on transfer and graduation, we produce two subsamples of the fall 2009 entry cohort, by including 1) only students who continued to be enrolled in fall 2010 and 2) those who continued until fall 2011. we calculate the graduation rates among these subsamples and then breakdown the graduation rates by transfer type to see if university transfers and changes in field of study up to these points are related to graduation. table 9 compares the four, five, and six-year graduation rates obtained in these two subsamples with those for the full fall 2009 cohort sample. table 9. graduation rates from different points in time (%) sample all students students who stay enrolled in fall 2010 students who stay enrolled in fall 2011 4 year 5 year graduation graduation 44.6 48.3 51.1 70.7 76.5 81.0 6 year graduation 75.7 82.0 86.8 unsurprisingly, graduation rates in the two subsamples are higher than those for the whole sample, because the sample restriction excludes first- and second-year university leavers. for example, the four-year graduation rate conditional on students still being enrolled in fall 2010 is 48.3 percent as opposed to 44.6 percent among the full cohort. overall, these differences are not large as the leaving rate of the fall 2009 cohort is low. figure 2 presents the four, five, and six-year graduation rates broken down by transfer type for the subsample restricted to students who stay enrolled in fall 2010. students are grouped into different transfer types based on university transfer and change in field of study from fall 2009 to fall 2010. 22 figure 2. graduation rates by transfer type (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2010) students who remain the same university and field of study have the highest graduation rates, with 49.3, 77.4, and 82.5 percent for their four, five, and six-year graduation rates. non-transfer students who change their field of study have slightly lower but comparable graduation rates, with a 3 percentage point difference at most. in contrast, transfer students have appreciably lower graduation rates, whether they have changed their field of study or not. in particular, the four-year graduation rate is 32.9 percent for transfer students who remain in their field, and 21.5 percent for transfer students who change theirs. transfer students catch up on graduation over time with non-transfer students, however. the differences in graduation rates between non-transfer students who remain in the same fields of study narrow to approximately 7 percent after 6 years. 23 figure 3 presents the graduation rates broken down by transfer type group for the four, five, and six-year graduation among the subsample who stay enrolled in fall 2011. this time, students are grouped into different transfer types based on their change in university and field of study from fall 2009 to fall 2011. figure 3. graduation rates by transfer type (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2011) the patterns in differences in graduation rates across transfer group in this subsample are qualitatively the same as those in the other subsample: transfer students have lower graduation rates, particularly for four-year graduation. the differences in graduation rates between transfer students who change field of study and their counterparts who remain in the same field are more pronounced in this subsample than the other 24 subsample, with the former having noticeably lower graduation rates than the latter (by 14, 7, and 5 percentage points for the four, five, and six-year graduation). 4.2. modelling analysis the model in this section, we conduct a statistical analysis using the same approach as the analysis of characteristics of transfer students above. with just two possible outcomes to consider (graduation or not), the multinomial logit model is reduced to a regular logit model, expressed as pr() = exp() . 1 + exp() the explanatory variables include students transfer types as well as other observed characteristics (the field of study in the fall 2010 or 2011, depending on a subsample used, gender, age, and immigration status at entry). the estimation results for two subsamples of the fall 2009 entry cohort are presented in appendix tables a3 and a4. the findings to show how accounting for student and program characteristics affect differences in graduation rate across transfer type, we use the estimation results to predict a graduation probability for every student in the sample while assuming that they belong to the same transfer type group, and then take the average of these predicted probabilities. this average predicted probability is calculated for each of the four transfer types, which results in the predicted graduation rates while accounting of the other sample characteristics. for the subsample of fall 2009 entrants who were still enrolled in fall 2010, figure 4 presents the predicted differences in graduation rates relative to the baseline group (blue bars), along with the corresponding values from the sample graduation rates (red bars). the vertical error bars represent the 95 percent confidence intervals for the difference in graduation rate. 25 figure 4. differences in graduation rates by transfer group (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2010) accounting for students field of study, gender, entry age, and immigration status has only minor effects in the differences in graduation rates across transfer type. if any, the difference in the sixyear graduation rate narrows to less than 1 percent between non-transfer students who have chosen a different field of study and their counterparts who have remained in theirs. the difference is not statistically significant. figure 5 presents the differences in graduation rates predicted from the logit model for the other subsample, i.e., fall 2009 entry students who were still enrolled in fall 2011. 26 figure 5. differences in graduation rates by transfer group (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2011) again, accounting for student and program characteristics generally has little to no effect on the differences in graduation rates. the only notable differences are seen for the difference in the four-year graduation rate between non-transfer students who have changed their field of study and non-transfer student who remain in theirs, with the difference widening from 6.3 to 7.4 percent. the same magnitude of change is seen for the difference in the four-year graduation rate between transfer students who remain in their fields of study and non-transfer students who also remain in their fields, although the value predicted by the model is not different from the sample counterpart at the 5 percent statistical significance level. a slightly smaller change in a 27 difference in graduation rate is seen for the six-year graduation rate between these two groups (by 0.8 percentage point), but this difference is not statistically significant either. 5. analysis of post-graduation earnings 5.1. descriptive analysis figure 6 presents the mean first-year earnings of graduates from the fall 2009 entry cohort by transfer type, with the 95 percent confidence interval represented by error bars. figure 6. mean earnings one year after graduation by transfer type mean earnings is highest, at $36,400, for students who remained at the same institution within the same field of study throughout their studies, followed by $34,400 for students who transferred to new institutions but remained in the same fields of study. the difference is not statistically significant, however, due to the large standard error of the mean earnings for the transfer students. the two groups who have the lowest earnings are those associated with a change in field of study, with $29,200 for non-transfer students who changed their fields of study, and $31,700 for transfer students who have changed their field of study. these earnings levels are statistically different from the mean earnings of graduates who remain in the same institution and field of study. 5.2. modelling analysis the model we model the relationship between earnings and various student characteristics including their student mobility outcomes as 28 = () + . in this model, the dependent variable y, which represents graduates earnings, is related to a set of explanatory variables x that include their changes in university and field of study, as well as field of study at graduation, gender, age, immigration status at entry, and the calendar year of graduation. the error term captures a portion of earnings left unexplained by the explanatory variables in the model. for each explanatory variable in the regression model, estimation results provide differences in earnings between a baseline category and other categories, while those being compared have otherwise the same characteristics. we set non-transfer students with no change in field as the baseline group for the indicator variable capturing a students mobility decisions. for the year of graduation, 2013 represents the baseline group as it is the year the fall 2009 entrants in the samples graduated the most. the baseline categories for field of study, gender, age and immigration status are social and behavioural sciences and law, male, age 18, and canadian citizens, respectively. the model is estimated by an ordinary least square method. it is important to note that the differences in earnings estimated in this way do not have causal interpretations. in other words, they are not solely attributable to differences in student mobility without further assumptions. the gap could result from pre-existing differences in students ability or other factors that are unobservable but correlated with university transfer or change in field of study. identifying the causal effects of student mobility on post-graduation earnings would require further investigations using more complex analytical techniques or more detailed data on student in order to control for such factors, and is beyond the scope of this study. the findings appendix table a5 presents the estimation results from the earnings regression model, and figure 7 shows the differences in mean earnings between the baseline transfer type group (i.e. non-transfer students who have never changed their field of study) and other transfer type groups obtained from the model (blue bars). the error bars represent the 95 confidence intervals. the figure also presents the corresponding differences in mean earnings obtained from the sample mean (red bars). 29 figure 7. differences in mean earnings one year after graduation by transfer type while students in the baseline group (non-transfer students who have not changed their field of study) are still the highest earners, differences in mean earnings by transfer type narrow substantially once other student and program characteristics are controlled for by the earnings regression model. based on the estimation results, the mean earnings differences are reduced to $2,500, $600, and $3,100 for non-transfer students who change field of study, transfer students who remain in the same field of study, and transfer students who change their field of study, below the baseline group. the differences between the baseline group and students who have changed their field of study, whether or not they are transfer students, are statistically significant. in contrast, the difference in mean earnings between non-transfer students and transfer students are not statistically significant. in other words, the estimation results indicate that post-graduation earnings are unrelated to students decisions to transfer or not as long as they do not involve a change in field of study. transfer students earn less if they also change in field of study. these lower earnings may be due to change in field of study alone and not university transfer behaviours. 6. conclusion this report provides the findings from a system-wide analysis of transfer students among ontario universities, which examines how student and program characteristics relate to institutional transfers and changes in field of study, and how student mobility relates to graduation and postgraduation employment earnings outcomes relative to non-transfer students. to this end, the analysis tracks the enrollment histories of the 2009 entry cohort to ontario universities (bachelors degree programs only), and then obtain graduation and post-graduation employment earnings from the enrollment, graduation, and personal income tax information contained in the elmlp. 30 we find that transfer students account for 2 percent of 2009 entrants continuing to their second year, fall 2010, and merely 1 percent of those continuing from fall 2010 to fall 2011. most observed year-to-year changes in either field of study or university are indeed changes in field of study within the same university, accounting for 20 percent and 10 percent of the enrollment patterns observed from fall 2009 to fall 2010, and from fall 2010 to fall 2011, respectively. field of study is the primary characteristics related to student transfers. the humanities and other fields of study are the two fields most associated with the change in field of study or institution. on the other hand, architecture, engineering and related technologies is the field least associated with student mobility, with students in visual and performing arts and communications technologies, health and related fields, and personal, protective and transportation services not far behind. little differences are found between male and female students in their propensities to transfer to a different university or to change field of study once their program and student characteristics are taken into account. on the other hand, more pronounced differences are found across immigration status, with international students and permanent residents being much more likely to change field of study than canadian citizens. conditional on the first-year enrollment (i.e., fall 2009 entrants still being enrolled in fall 2010), four-year graduation rates among transfers students are lower than students who stay in the same university and field of study by 18 and 27 percentage points, depending whether transfer students also change field of study or not, respectively. while these differences narrow to 6 and 7 percentage points two years later (six-year graduation), the lower graduation rates of transfer students suggest that transfers students experience a slower academic progression. whether this is due to some form of barrier in the transfer system or is related to unobservable characteristics of transfer students remain to be answered and will require further research.3 the mean employment earnings one year after graduation of transfer students who study the in the same field throughout their academic career are not statistically different from those of students who remain in the same university and field. on the other hand, transfer students who change field of study have lower mean earnings than non-transfer students who remain in the same field of study by $3,100, with this difference being statistically significant at the 5 percent level. however, non-transfer students who change field of study also have lower earnings than their counterparts without a change in field of study, which may suggest the lower earnings are not due to transfer to a different university, per se. overall, this study provides a more comprehensive view of ontario transfer students by taking advantage of a system-wide pse enrollment and graduation information. by necessity due to a data coverage issue in the elmlp for ontario college students until the 2014/2015 reporting cycle, this study focuses on student mobility among ontario universities only. however, 3 statistics canada (n.d.) recommends not using the psis variables totcred and ttrancrd included in the elmlp, which represent the cumulative credits for programs and total transfer credits, for ontario due to low coverage rates. 31 university-to-university transfers have been far less studied compared to college-to-university transfers. therefore, this study provides new and unique evidence on this relatively unexplored subject. moreover, this study put into practice the possibility of using the elmlp to analyze student pathways and transfers at the system-wide level. as more complete data coverage over a longer time period become available for ontario colleges, this study starts to lay the methodological groundwork to study college-to-university, college-to-college, as well as university-to-college transfers for future projects. 32 7. references drewes, t., maki, k., lew, k., wilson m. and stringham k. (2012). analysis of caat transfer students academic performance at trent university. toronto: ontario council of articulation and transfer. jonker, l. and hicks, m. (2016). the differentiation of the ontario university system: where are we now and where should we go? toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. kerr, a., mccloy, u. and liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: student who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. statistics canada (2012) classification of instructional programs (cip) canada 2011. ottawa: government of canada. statistics canada (2018) linkage of the post-secondary student information system (psis) and the t1 family file: ad hoc custom reference product for selected t1ff variables for the years 2004 to 2015. ottawa: government of canada. statistics canada (n.d.) analytical consideration for psis variables. ottawa: government of canada. stewart, j. and f. martinello (2012). are transfer students different? an examination of first-year grades and course withdrawals. canadian journal of higher education 42(1):25-42. tikina, a. (2015). bc transfer students: profile and performance report (2008/09-/13). vancouver: bc council of admissions and transfer. young, s., pich p. g. and jones, g. a. (2017). the two towers of transformation: the compatibility of the policy goalds of differentiation and student mobility. toronto: center for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. weingarten, h. p. and deller, f. (2010). the benefits of greater differentiation of ontarios university sector. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 33 8. appendix table a1. multinomial logit model estimates for transfers and change in field of study, fall 2009 to fall 2010 outcome (base: no transfer & no fos change) no transfer & fos transfer & no fos transfer & fos change change change field of study (omitted: social and behavioural sciences and law) education 1.226 (0.071) visual and performing arts, and communications technologies -0.732 humanities (0.088) 1.702 (0.035) business, management and public administration -0.047 physical and life sciences and technologies (0.044) 0.455 (0.042) mathematics, computer and information sciences 0.637 *** -1.466 (0.584) ** 0.308 (0.295) *** -0.746 (0.244) -0.182 (0.132) *** -0.011 (0.209) 0.832 (0.120) -0.393 (0.133) -0.673 (0.157) *** *** -0.564 (0.294) * 0.362 (0.230) *** -1.185 (0.210) *** -0.156 (0.167) *** -0.709 (0.418) -0.911 (0.195) -15.368 (886.033) -15.390 (1 187.375) * 0.307 (0.306) -0.247 (0.175) -1.498 (1.006) 2.238 (0.240) *** *** (0.068) architecture, engineering and related technologies -1.116 (0.072) agriculture, natural resources and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other gender (omitted: male) female age at entry (omitted: 18) 17 19 immigration status (omitted: canadian citizen) permanent resident international student 0.551 (0.091) -0.625 (0.063) -0.319 (0.180) 2.592 (0.093) 0.083 (0.024) 0.114 (0.089) -0.291 (0.026) 0.290 (0.052) 0.618 *** * *** *** *** *** *** *** *** -0.147 (0.144) 0.019 (0.145) -0.013 (0.095) -0.030 (0.082) -0.384 (0.455) -0.048 (0.098) -0.276 (0.360) -0.248 (0.088) -0.216 (0.238) 0.398 0.258 (0.166) -0.345 ** *** *** *** 34 (0.054) (0.202) -1.970 *** -4.042 (0.036) (0.111) notes: n = 58,143. standard errors in parentheses. * p < 0.1; ** p <0.05; *** p<0.01 constant (0.251) *** -4.283 (0.115) *** table a2. multinomial logit model estimates for transfers and change in field of study, fall 2010 to fall 2011 outcome (base: no transfer & no fos change) no transfer & fos transfer & no fos transfer & fos change change change field of study (omitted: social and behavioural sciences and law) education 0.542 (0.071) visual and performing arts, and communications technologies -0.169 humanities (0.088) 1.168 (0.035) business, management and public administration -0.290 physical and life sciences and technologies (0.044) 0.329 (0.042) mathematics, computer and information sciences 0.721 *** -14.961 (0.584) *** 0.271 (0.295) * -0.483 (0.244) 0.145 (0.132) ** 0.015 (0.209) 0.476 (0.120) *** *** *** -1.071 -0.611 (0.294) ** 0.206 (0.230) *** -1.634 (0.210) *** -0.545 (0.167) *** -1.889 (0.418) -0.720 (0.195) -15.048 (886.033) -15.911 (1 187.375) *** -0.291 (0.306) -0.527 (0.175) 0.603 (1.006) 1.977 (0.240) (0.072) agriculture, natural resources and conservation health and related fields personal, protective and transportation services other gender (omitted: male) female age at entry (omitted: 18) 17 19 0.337 (0.091) -0.348 (0.063) -0.549 (0.180) 1.358 (0.093) -0.047 (0.024) -0.070 (0.089) -0.198 (0.026) *** -0.390 (0.144) 0.091 (0.145) *** (0.068) architecture, engineering and related technologies 0.135 (0.133) -0.457 (0.157) *** *** *** * *** *** -0.019 (0.095) -0.177 (0.082) 0.639 (0.455) -0.162 (0.098) 0.233 (0.360) -0.306 (0.088) * *** *** *** *** *** ** *** 35 immigration status (omitted: canadian citizen) permanent resident international student 0.379 (0.052) 0.601 (0.054) *** 0.185 (0.238) -0.053 (0.202) *** -2.550 *** -4.863 (0.036) (0.111) notes: n = 54,0975. standard errors in parentheses. * p < 0.1; ** p <0.05; *** p<0.01 constant *** 0.304 (0.166) -1.222 (0.251) * -4.692 (0.115) *** *** table a3. logit model estimates for graduation (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2010) four-year graduation transfer type (base: no transfer & no fos change) no transfer & fos change -0.233 (0.023) transfer & no fos change -0.780 (0.097) transfer & fos change -1.356 (0.095) field of study (base: social and behavioural sciences and law) education -1.208 (0.077) visual and performing arts and communications technologies 0.004 (0.041) humanities -0.456 (0.028) business, management and public administration -0.323 (0.028) physical and life sciences and technologies -0.267 (0.029) mathematics, computer and information sciences -1.135 (0.058) architecture, engineering and related technologies -0.852 (0.036) agriculture, natural resources and conservation -0.282 (0.065) health and related field 0.316 (0.035) personal, protective and transportation services 0.247 (0.107) other -0.537 (0.115) gender (base: male) female 0.544 (0.018) five-year graduation *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** six-year graduation -0.191 (0.026) -0.738 (0.094) -0.649 (0.082) *** -0.129 (0.029) -0.406 (0.106) -0.323 (0.092) *** -0.640 (0.079) *** -0.624 (0.084) *** -0.129 (0.049) -0.625 (0.032) -0.252 (0.033) -0.110 (0.035) -0.640 (0.054) 0.075 (0.041) 0.053 (0.081) 0.471 (0.047) -0.025 (0.128) -0.651 (0.120) *** -0.118 (0.054) -0.658 (0.034) -0.232 (0.036) -0.018 (0.039) -0.402 (0.059) 0.430 (0.048) 0.088 (0.090) 0.564 (0.054) -0.161 (0.134) -0.653 (0.126) ** 0.585 (0.021) *** 0.522 (0.023) *** *** *** *** *** *** *** * *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 36 entry age (base: 18) 17 19 immigration status (base: canadian citizen) permanent resident international student 0.010 (0.071) 0.221 (0.019) -0.412 (0.040) -0.059 (0.043) *** *** 0.111 (0.084) -0.183 (0.022) -0.227 (0.043) -0.167 (0.047) constant -0.101 *** 1.157 (0.024) (0.028) notes: n = 58,143. standard errors in parentheses. * p < 0.1; ** p <0.05; *** p<0.01 *** *** *** *** 0.029 (0.093) -0.265 (0.024) *** -0.133 (0.048) -0.186 (0.051) *** 1.483 (0.031) *** *** table a4. logit model estimates for graduation (conditional on being enrolled in fall 2011) four-year graduation transfer type (base: no transfer & no fos change) no transfer & fos change -0.418 (0.023) transfer & no fos change -0.917 (0.082) transfer & fos change -1.708 (0.084) field of study (base: social and behavioural sciences and law) education -1.400 (0.083) visual and performing arts and communications technologies 0.030 (0.043) humanities -0.358 (0.030) business, management and public administration -0.386 (0.029) physical and life sciences and technologies -0.275 (0.030) mathematics, computer and information sciences -1.238 (0.060) architecture, engineering and related technologies -0.974 (0.036) agriculture, natural resources and conservation -0.352 (0.065) health and related field 0.255 (0.035) personal, protective and transportation services 0.289 (0.111) five-year graduation *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** six-year graduation -0.429 (0.028) -0.935 (0.082) -1.299 (0.069) *** -0.129 (0.029) -0.406 (0.106) -0.323 (0.092) *** -0.946 (0.087) *** -0.624 (0.084) *** -0.199 (0.055) -0.614 (0.037) -0.435 (0.037) -0.193 (0.040) -0.857 (0.058) -0.149 (0.045) 0.022 (0.088) 0.318 (0.052) -0.123 (0.140) *** -0.118 (0.054) -0.658 (0.034) -0.232 (0.036) -0.018 (0.039) -0.402 (0.059) 0.430 (0.048) 0.088 (0.090) 0.564 (0.054) -0.161 (0.134) ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 37 other gender (base: male) female entry age (base: 18) 17 19 immigration status (base: canadian citizen) permanent resident international student -0.467 (0.120) (0.000) 0.532 (0.019) 0.043 (0.073) 0.277 (0.020) -0.440 (0.041) -0.019 (0.045) *** -0.640 (0.135) *** -0.653 (0.126) *** *** 0.597 (0.023) *** 0.522 (0.023) *** 0.217 (0.096) -0.135 (0.024) ** 0.029 (0.093) -0.265 (0.024) -0.299 (0.046) -0.102 (0.053) *** *** *** constant 0.081 *** 1.579 (0.025) (0.032) notes: n = 54,975. standard errors in parentheses. * p < 0.1; ** p <0.05; *** p<0.01 *** * *** *** -0.133 (0.048) -0.186 (0.051) *** 1.483 (0.031) *** *** table a5: estimation results for post-graduation earnings regression transfer type (omitted: no transfer & no fos change) no transfer & fos change -2.5 *** (0.3) transfer & no fos change -0.6 (1.5) transfer & fos change -3.1 *** (1.0) field of study (omitted: social and behavioural sciences and law) education 0.4 (0.9) visual and performing arts, and communications technologies -4.5 *** (0.5) humanities -3.2 *** (0.4) business, management and public administration 9.3 *** (0.4) physical and life sciences and technologies -0.8 (0.5) 38 mathematics, computer and information sciences 19.7 *** (1.3) architecture, engineering and related technologies 22.8 *** (0.6) agriculture, natural resources and conservation 4.5 *** (0.9) health and related fields 16.0 *** (0.6) personal, protective and transportation services -0.4 (1.1) other 7.2 *** (2.3) gender (omitted: male) female -0.5 (0.3) year of graduation (omitted: 2013) 2012 -2.7 *** (0.4) 2014 4.0 *** (0.3) age at entry (omitted: 18) 17 1.1 (1.5) 19 -0.8 ** (0.3) immigration status (omitted: canadian citizen) permanent resident -2.2 *** (0.6) international student -4.0 *** (0.9) constant 28.5 *** (0.4) notes: n = 22,130. the dependent variable is employment earnings (in $1,000). standard errors in parentheses. * p < 0.1; ** p <0.05; *** p<0.01 39

diploma-to-degree exceptional transfer agreement [community economic and social development] between algoma university (hereinafter au) sault ste. marie, on and confederation college (hereinafter cc) thunder bay, on 1.0 general provisions: i. this articulation agreement sets forth guidelines for the partnership that will exist between au and cc. this agreement describes the standard transfer credit pathways for one-year ontario college certificate programs, two-year ontario college diploma programs and three-year ontario college advanced diploma programs; ii. the goal of this agreement is to provide maximum opportunity for students to achieve the benefits of combining a college diploma and a university degree; iii. the fundamental means embodied in this agreement is the recognition of prior learning and a credit transfer system in the province of ontario that optimizes pathways and minimizes unnecessary duplication of students learning and barriers to student mobility; iv. the agreement shall be continuous from year to year; however, either party may terminate the agreement if notice in writing is given at least six months prior to the date on which the termination becomes effective. students enrolled at the time of notice of termination will be given the opportunity to complete their degree studies based on the terms of the agreement when they commenced their studies; v. au and cc will assign members to an advisory council to actively monitor the implementation of the pathway, using co-developed evaluation methodology and tools. 1.1 block transfer credit agreement specifications: i. cc diploma and certificate program graduates must meet au admission requirements defined as the successful completion of a two or three-year diploma program or a 1 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 one-year certificate program with a minimum overall average of b (3.00 gpa) to be eligible for block transfer credit recognition. the following cc diploma program will be considered as part of the exceptional transfer credit framework: aboriginal community advocacy program [aca two-year] (appendix a summarizes credit recognition based on the transfer agreement between au and cc) ii. successful applicants from the aforementioned two-year diploma program with a minimum overall average of 3.00 gpa (b) or greater will receive recognition as follows: 57 transfer credits towards the three-year bachelor of arts in community development program [ba3.cdev]; 60 transfer credits towards the four-year honours bachelor of arts in community economic and social development program [ba4.cesd]; 45 transfer credits toward the three-year bachelor of arts in community economic and social development program [ba3.cesd] iii. cc diploma graduates from the aforementioned program with a 2.50 2.99 gpa (c+) will receive transfer recognition for a maximum of 15 credits towards the bachelor of arts in community development and community economic and social development degree programs; students with a 2.49 gpa or less (c-/c) grade will be eligible for admission, but will not receive transfer credit. iv. in the case of course code changes, au and cc agree to update the agreement accordingly. v. each cc graduate admitted to au via this agreement will receive an individualized diploma to degree completion chart outlining the number of transfer credits received and the courses required for completion of the designated degree program. 2 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 1.2 institutional commitment algoma university and confederation college agree to implement a wrap-around support model for this exceptional agreement. the agreement is designed to facilitate the seamless transfer of students, and in particular indigenous learners. the wrap-around support model involves active participation by both institutions at all stages of the student experience. au and cc agree to assign a working group with representation from both institutions for this pathway agreement to explicitly identify which wrap-around supports will be provided in accordance with the model below. the success of this agreement will be monitored by the working group by examining student success and support provision using the wrap-around framework. in addition, the parties agree to the following: au will: collaborate with cc to provide information to students in their first year of study at cc regarding the transfer pathway. encourage pathway preparation by providing information to advisors at cc on college courses that will maximize transfer credit for this pathway. assign an anishinaabe student success advisor to work with cc students while they are in the cc diploma program. ensure applicants from cc receive priority entry to the university through a joint admissions process. waive the requirements for a completed transfer application and the transfer application fee. collaborate with cc to connect students and faculty to university resources while in the cc diploma program (faculty, library, learning resources, housing, etc.). provide au pathway scholarships to eligible students. cc will: collaborate with au to provide information to students in their first year of study at cc regarding the transfer pathway. encourage pathway preparation by providing opportunity for advisors and faculty at cc to learn about college courses that will maximize transfer credit for this pathway. assign an advisor to serve as the primary liaison for cc students interested in the au pathway while they are in the cc diploma program. collaborate with au to connect students and faculty to university resources while in the cc diploma program (faculty, library, learning resources, housing, etc.) 3 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 both parties agree to work collaboratively to build a strong inter-institutional working relationship to facilitate seamless transfer using a wrap-around support model that puts the student at the centre. 4 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 signing authority the parties have each assigned an individual to be responsible for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the diploma-to-degree transfer agreement: for algoma university (au), asima vezina president and vice chancellor 1520 queen street east sault ste. marie, on p6a 2g4 canada for confederation college (cc), kathleen lynch president and ceo 1450 nakina drive thunder bay, on p7c 4w1 canada in witness whereof we have executed this transfer agreement by our duly authorized officers, signature of authorized representatives of au and cc: _________________________________________________________ asima vezina, president and vice chancellor, au _______________ date __________________________________________________________ kathleen lynch, president and ceo, cc _______________ date 5 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 appendix a confederation college algoma university diploma-to-degree exceptional transfer agreement for maximum transfer credit, a minimum final gpa average of 3.00 (b) is required for the exceptional agreement. students who complete the aboriginal community advocacy program (two-year) at cc will receive course recognition as follows towards the bachelor of arts in community development [ba3.cdev]: bachelor of arts in community development (ba3.cdev) course recognition anis 1006 anis 1007 cesd 1006 cesd 2607 cesd 3456 cesd 3906 cesd 3907 cosc 1701 huma 9100 [6 credits] huma 9200 [6 credits] sosc 9100 [6 credits] sosc 9200 [9 credits] swrk 9200 [6 credits] 57 credits *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted 6 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 for maximum transfer credit, a minimum final gpa average of 3.00 (b) is required for the exceptional agreement. students who complete the aboriginal community advocacy program (two-year) at cc will receive course recognition as follows towards the honours bachelor of arts in community economic and social development [ba4.cesd]: bachelor of arts in community economic and social development [ba4.cesd] course recognition cesd 1006 cesd 3017 cosc 1701 geog 1027 poli 1007 soci 1016 swrk 1006 huma 9100 [6 credits] huma 9200 [9 credits] sosc 9100 [9 credits] sosc 9200 [15 credits] 60 credits *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted 7 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 for maximum transfer credit, a minimum final gpa average of 3.00 (b) is required for the exceptional agreement. students who complete the aboriginal community advocacy program (two-year) at cc will receive course recognition as follows towards the general bachelor of arts in community economic and social development [ba3.cesd]: bachelor of arts in community economic and social development [ba3.cesd] course recognition cesd 1006 cosc 1701 geog 1027 poli 1007 soci 1016 swrk 1006 swrk 2127 huma 9100 [6 credits] huma 9200 [6 credits] sosc 9100 [6 credits] sosc 9200 [6 credits] 45 credits *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted 8 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019 appendix b confederation college algoma university diploma-to-degree block & exceptional transfer agreement course list anis 1006 anishinaabe peoples and our homelands i anis 1007 anishinaabe peoples and our homelands ii cesd 1006 introduction to community economic and social development i cesd 2607 community engagement and strategic planning cesd 3017 directed studies cesd practicum cesd 3456 community advocacy and social justice cesd 3906 community economic and social development: selected topics i cesd 3907 community economic and social development: selected topics ii cosc 1701 computer applications i geog 1027 introduction to the physical environment poli 1007 political science ii: world politics soci 1016 understanding society i: principles and processes swrk 1006 introduction to social welfare in the north swrk 2127 introduction to social work research huma 9100 humanities, first-year non-equivalent [6 credits] huma 9200 humanities, second-year non-equivalent [6 credits] huma 9200 humanities, second-year non-equivalent [9 credits] sosc 9100 social science, first-year non-equivalent [9 credits] sosc 9100 social science, first-year non-equivalent [6 credits] sosc 9200 social science, second-year non-equivalent [6 credits] sosc 9200 social science, second-year non-equivalent [9 credits] sosc 9200 social science, second-year non-equivalent [15 credits] swrk 9200 social work, second-year non-equivalent [6 credits] *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted 9 algoma university confederation college, exceptional transfer agreement [aboriginal community advocacy >> community economic & social development], february 2019

project p1912 final report engineering technology to engineering pathway development prepared by: max ullrich, project manager march 28, 2022 1 introduction this document serves as the final report of the oncat project p1912. the development of this engineering transfer pathway continues as part of oncat project p2220. since development is continuing and details are subject to change, this document shows a snapshot in time of the pathway development. 2 pathway overview the engineering technology to engineering pathway is a queens-led project supported by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the objective of the project is to create an ontario-wide network of transfer opportunities between engineering technology and accredited engineering programs. this will allow a student holding an ontario advanced diploma in engineering technology from a participating college program to transfer cleanly into a participating ontario engineering degree program. over time, the pathway will be scaled to include other sending and receiving institutions, so design decisions are made to accommodate this. this transfer pathway must address the challenge of providing additional prerequisite university courses in a timely manner while maintaining a manageable college workload and ensuring that program accreditation requirements are met. given these factors, a one-term summer bridge was not feasible which led to the development of a three-phase transfer pathway model: the two or three transfer preparatory courses are asynchronous courses completed online while students complete the final year of their advanced diploma program. performance in these courses is used as part of a conditional admission offer. they represent an opportunity for students to experience the rigour and workload expected in an engineering program without having to commit an entire semester of tuition or move cities. the summer bridge consists of 6 courses taken in-person at queens. these custom courses were developed to address the specific course content gaps between the engineering technology and accredited engineering programs. generally, five courses are common to all engineering disciplines, and one is specific to the engineering discipline. the students then enter the upper years of their accredited engineering program and complete the remaining degree requirements after their transfer credits and bridging courses are factored in. 2.1 proposed pathway eligibility criteria students could apply to their desired receiving institution and complete the bridging courses from queens on a letter of permission. it is proposed that applicants be considered from engineering technology students who have completed a minimum of 3 semesters and who have a cumulative gpa of 70% or above. then, successful applicants will be given a conditional acceptance offer requiring: minimum grade of 70% in their preparatory courses successfully complete diploma with a minimum 70% cumulative gpa. cases should be reviewed if the acceptance offer conditions are not met. progression from the summer bridge to the fall semester should be governed by standard faculty policies and regulations. 2.2 workload the preparatory courses will be taken online on top of the students' normal college workload in their final year. the market research (n= 1286) found that students with a high interest in obtaining a degree reporting they feel they could take on 1 (32% of respondents), 2 (42% of respondents), or 3 (18% of respondents) courses at the same time as they finished their diploma. therefore, the workload of the preparatory courses is not likely a large dissuading factor. the summer bridge contains approximately 24 credits. the first year of the queens engineering program contains approximately 20-24 credits per semester. therefore, the workload of the summer bridge is similar to that of a first-year semester. 2.3 accreditation the canadian engineering accreditation board (ceab) accredits engineering programs. graduating from an accredited program fulfills the academic requirement for licensure as a professional engineering (p.eng.). there are additional requirements for licensure, including work experience and an exam. this transfer pathway is not a distinct engineering program. instead, the pathway offers students an alternate method of completing the requirements of existing accredited engineering programs. an important consideration for accreditation is that a certain number of course credits must be taught by a professor with a p.eng. the pathway is being designed so that licensure status of college professors will not be counted toward this requirement the requirement will be met through the courses delivered as part of the bridge and by the receiving institution. this requirement will be verified on a student-by-student basis in case students deviate from the standard pathway. another important consideration for accreditation is the validation process for systematically granting transfer credits. the accredited program must verify and provide evidence that the academic level of the course for which transfer credit is granted (i.e., the advanced diploma course) is equal to or above the academic level of the course in the accredited program. this was verified through a rigorous and documented transfer credit review process done with the course instructor. in addition, the sending program will share their course outlines each year and confirm the course content has not changed substantially since it was approved as a transfer credit. in cases where a course has changed, the new course outline will be reviewed by the course professor who teaches the course at the accredited program. 3 queens engineering bridge pilot queens university will pilot this transfer pathway by receiving students into the civil and mining engineering programs from 6 partner engineering technology programs. applicants from non-partner programs will also be considered. while there are a variety of college students with various academic backgrounds who could potentially transfer into an accredited engineering program, this transfer pathway is open to eligible students (or graduates) from 3-year engineering technology programs in ontario, with a focus on partnering sending institutions. students from these programs will be eligible to apply if they have a 70% grade point average (gpa) or above. graduates from any ontario engineering technology program are eligible for the pathway pending a case-by-case review of their transcript and eligible transfer credits. students from institutions that do not meet these requirements or who are otherwise not eligible may still apply for entry into queens engineerings common first year using existing transfer application mechanisms. for the pilot program, the first cohort of students will apply for admission to queens in summer 2023, complete preparatory courses concurrent with the final year of their advanced diploma during the 2023 - 2024 academic year, attend queens campus for the summer bridge in summer 2024, and enter their selected discipline at queens in fall 2024. generally, students should apply for the same engineering discipline as their engineering technology diploma; however, students in mechanical or civil engineering technology programs could also apply for mining engineering due to the similarity in courses and interest from the mining department in attracting these students. 3.1 example bridging pathway courses the bridging courses, along with the transfer credits, would allow students to gain the key prerequisite credits in time to join the direct-entry cohort at approximately a third-year level in september. an example of the bridging courses for a typical civil engineering technology student bridging into the queens engineering program are shown in table 1. table 1: example bridging courses for a civil engineering technology student transferring into the queens civil engineering program. phase 1: preparatory courses concurrent with diploma 2: summer bridge in-person 3: degree completion in-person course introduction to linear algebra (first-year) physics 1 mechanics (first-year) introductory chemistry (first-year) engineering design and practice (first- and second-year) introduction to computer programming (first-year) calculus ii (first-year) statistics and differential equations (second-year) solid mechanics ii (second-year) students would take primarily third year courses, while backfilling any remaining first- or second-year courses as required with space available due to upper-year transfer credits. 4 conclusion this initiative proposes a common engineering transfer pathway to simplify the transfer process for students and institutions. the transfer process is simplified for engineering technology students by predetermining the transfer credits, offering administrative and academic support throughout the transfer process, and providing a clear and welcoming transfer process. the pathway also has a manageable workload and results in few courses needing to be taken out of sequence. from an institutional standpoint, this pathway should reduce the cost and complexity of accepting bridging students because the bridging courses that are already developed and being run by queens can be leveraged. this will also standardize much of the administrative workload since the transfer credits will be predetermined and there are standard processes in place for admission and accreditation. it greatly improves the existing college-to-university engineering transfer landscape by providing a welcoming, supported, and clearly defined transfer pathway between multiple institutions.

documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility report date: march 2018 project number: 2017-09 executive summary participants and partner institutions lead: northern college 4715 highway 101 east south porcupine on p0n 1h0 t: 705-235-3211 | f: 705-235-7279 mailing address: p.o. box 3211 timmins on p4n 8r6 participating: canadore college 100 college drive, p.o. box 5001 north bay, ontario p1b 8k9 t. 705-474-7600 project manager: dr. audrey j. penner vice president academic and student success northern college pennera@northern.on.ca project lead: diane ryder campus manager, moosonee campus & acting manager, indigenous services northern college ryderd@northern.on.ca documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 executive summary project purpose and goals northern college offers adult upgrading in its traditional campuses with satellite sites in kapuskasing, iroquois falls, timmins native friendship center, cochrane, hearst, moose factory, attawapiskat, and fort albany. northern college has high percentages of indigenous learners at traditional campuses, with 100% at satellite sites on the james bay coast. access to postsecondary education for these learners can be limited to adult upgrading based upon prior experience in schools, and their own feelings of self-worth. documenting a skills inventory is an innovative approach to adult education curriculum delivery, which can be evaluated as a pilot project with expansion potential across the system. the goals of this project were to: identify and document a skills inventory for learners in northern colleges adult upgrading programs. provide a transcript type document of these skills. develop a personalized pathway for the learners from adult upgrading through to pse and beyond. formalize the skills inventory as a curriculum offering in adult upgrading. build capacity within the adult education department to continue documenting skills inventories after the pilot project is completed. create a methods manual for future skills inventory in the adult education program or beyond. pathway development to develop the skills inventory pathway, a unique approach was defined. unique approaches are common at northern college, which services a geographic area the size of france, utilizing technologies that other colleges are only beginning to employ. the unique approach was to take a pre plar or reverse engineered plar (prior learning assessment recognition) approach. rather than students coming to us to request plar, we would reach out to the learner and help them assess what they already know. in northern and remote communities, often people work in employment where they do not have the requisite credential, but they certainly have the real world experience. 2|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 executive summary methodology the first step was to hire a facilitator for the project, whose role was to determine the skills to be measured and identify a tool to use. the next step was to determine the exact skills related to existing programming to be measured. once the skills inventory tool for office administration was completed, the next step was to have learners work within the skills inventory tool, side by side with the facilitator. all learners who were interested in participating, received a handout explaining project goals and the process to identify skills, for an office administration career. each participant who agreed to complete the activity, was given a resource specifically tailored to the office administration program, to help them understand what the overall learning outcomes for an office administration certificate. this tool was entitled participants guide and provided: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. details of the skills inventory project course load for the office administration program course descriptions vocational learning outcomes for office administration employability essential skills required for office administration program comparison and analysis this innovative pathway did not result in a different or new credential. rather this pathway was tested as a seamless way to engage more adult learners into postsecondary programs to obtain established degrees. the development of the project included alignment with existing, established plar processes. the criteria to compare and evaluate this pathway, was based upon trends and an identified gap within postsecondary related to engagement by adult upgrading students. as figure 1 shows, the percentage of adult upgrading learners who went on to postsecondary at northern college, either immediately after completing adult upgrading or later in their learning journey, has been below 50% for the past several years. as part of northern colleges mission to excelling in quality accessible education through innovative programs, services and partnerships for the benefit of our northern communities, this project is seen as part of the mandate to provide innovative services to northern college communities. as the bulk of activity occurred at satellite sites in the colleges northern communities, this pathways project filled a gap not previously addressed. 3|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 executive summary figure 1 adult upgrading learners transition to postsecondary transition to postsecondary 45% 40% 41% 38% 35% 34% 30% 27% 25% 22% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 implementation process and timelines plar processes are already in place at northern college; there are no approval processes required to implement this postsecondary pathways. what needs to be monitored is how many learners utilize this pathway and when. part of the gap analysis identified, was often adult upgrading learners do not move into postsecondary programs immediately following upgrading training. tracking these learners over time will be important to see how many actually take a postsecondary offering, and in particular those who go on to office administration, the program specifically targeted in this project. in addition, we included participants in the study, who were not in adult upgrading, but participated based upon community engagement. this group will also be tracked to identify how this provides seamless opportunities for this group of learners. the fall of 2018 is the expected first intake of learners into the office administration program, who have come through this skills inventory project. 4|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 executive summary promising practices and lessons learned evaluation of this pilot curriculum delivery was based upon the logic model framework. the traditional logic model framework includes a balance of inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. the measures for this project have been mapped to the logic model to demonstrate how it was evaluated. table 1 skills inventory evaluation framework measure inputs number of learners participating** office administration program material** facilitator training skills inventory defined for office admin time on task to complete inventories student feedback on process and outcomes facilitator and faculty feedback on process and outcomes number accepted to pse compared to previous years number of skills inventories completed faculty trained in skills inventory delivery credit recognition defined and recorded community engagement in education** defined best practices in skills inventory learner pathway expanded processes outputs outcomes promising practices the feedback from students during this process was excellent. many felt it was an opportunity that could not be passed up. the challenge for them was to self-evaluate, with many wanting to be told what their skill level is. the emphasis on self-evaluation is important for a learner to grow and develop. the promising practice here was having this evaluation at the start of the process rather than in the middle (formative) or at the end (summative). this practice empowers learners to a far greater degree than any other form of delivery or pedagogy. this empowerment breeds confidence for the learner in themselves. 5|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 executive summary lessons learned this project provided the opportunity to learn many valuable lessons. lesson 1: estimate your time carefully when dealing with skills inventories. this is a labour intensive activity. defining the skills, mapping them to existing program activity and consolidating how to validate them is time consuming. we estimated doing more programs, however, that would have taken the entire project time with no participants involved, so we opted to do one program and gauge uptake. lesson 2: explanations are critical. this is an innovative approach to learning, explaining the how and the why are necessary for learner engagement. the participants guide is a good example of this concept. lesson 3: allow the learner to approach this in their own time frame. they may want to sit down and do several self-evaluations at once, or they may choose to do one at a time, or anything in between. let the learner lead! lesson 4: trust the learner to know themselves. their self-evaluations may not always be accurate, but we experienced learners tend to underestimate themselves rather than over estimate. as this was a subjective approach, faculty did not always believe a learner could have the skill. validation established the correlation between the self-evaluation and the outcome. lesson 5: prepare to change and adapt as you go. this is true of any project, but was even more evident in this situation. even the look of the documents was revised through the process, to assure information was presented in a user friendly manner for the learner. lesson 6: the team recognized upcoming change as communities will begin to see an increase in community members obtaining a recognized credential. the more community members that obtain credentials the more employers will raise expectations about the need for a credential. this will raise the knowledge and skill level within jobs within the communities. this will also hold true for all small towns and communities in northern ontario 6|page documenting a skills inventory for seamless mobility oncat project #2017-09 executive summary recommendations the skills inventory approach offers many opportunities for seamless pathways for learners. to facilitate these opportunities, the following recommendations have been made. recommendation 1: skills inventories be developed for 5-10 college program offerings in ontario. if the most popular programs were targeted, skills inventories could be created that open additional pathways for learners. recommendation 2: while internal co-curricular recognition was created, a more robust credit (badging/microcredential) system needs to be established across institutions, to encourage the seamless nature of this pathway. recommendation 3: with this tool now available, it is recommended that northern college revaluate the present plar procedures/policy. furthermore, it is recommended that staff from advising services also be trained as they are the first step in meeting with potential plar candidates at the college. recommendation 4: the adult upgrading system provincially should utilize this skills inventory approach. this would mean training on a provincial basis. recommendation 5: a provincial pilot project to examine the development of a skills passport as a way to credential skills inventories should be undertaken. 7|page

project snapshot nipissing university nsse analysis project type: research project number: 2021-45 or r2145 project lead: nipissing university principal investigators: heather daoust (institutional analyst), stephen tedesco (director, institutional planning and analysis) project summary through this project, nipissing university will attempt to align where possible fields within the nsse across the 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020 iterations of the survey. the intent will be to pool observations across years to produce a large enough sample across years to analyze differences amongst students that started their post-secondary education at nipissing with those that started their post-secondary education elsewhere. project rationale as was alluded to in the project overview, the nsse had a significant overhaul between the 2014 and 2011 iterations. that being said, aligning nsse 2006 through 2011 was a relatively simple task, as was the alignment of nsse 2020 through nsse 2014. the lion share of the work that this project aimed to accomplish was harmonizing nsse 2014 with nsse 2011. methods due to the relatively small size of nipissing university, it was decided that once the nsse surveys were harmonized then we could pool observations across years to analyze differences amongst students that started their post-secondary education at nipissing with those that started their post-secondary education elsewhere. group differences were analysed for significance at the = 0.05 level using an independent t-test for equality of means. levenes test for equality of variance was completed for each t-test and our results outline whether or not equal variances were assumed. describe any limitations limitations the alignment of the six versions of the nsse instrument did introduce some subjectivity in instances where questions did not have a direct alignment. another limitation specific to our nsse data files was that there were three instances where fields aligned within the canadian nsse codebooks but responses were not included in the nipissing data file(s) for a given year. this resulted in our sample size being restricted for these fields. it should be noted (and is outlined in detail in the nsse version alignment file), that there are some circumstances that even deriving/recoding values will not achieve perfect alignment through all iterations of nsse. here are some examples: 1. questions regarding number of papers and length (q7); page count categories changed and overlapped previous categories. 2. questions regarding challenge to do best work (q10); one significant likert scale value change restricts direct comparison of results (e.g., nsse 2014: 1 = not at all; nsse 2011: 1 = very little). 3. questions regarding quality interactions (q13); descriptors on likert scale changed entirely. research findings summary of findings academics [significance ( = 0.05)] major category class level enrolment status online courses grades living arrangement varsity athletes no significance aspiration level of education engagement [significance ( = 0.05)] 41 measures of engagement were found to have significant group differences among those with and without ppse. with respect to demographics and academics, the categories in which we observed significant group differences didnt come as much surprise to us. with respect to the engagement indicators, there were some interesting observations. generally speaking, students without ppse tended to display more institutional satisfaction than those who had prior ppse (see q15, q19, q20). the same phenomenon was observed when evaluating institutional emphasis (see q14). conversely, students with ppse tended to identify more prevalence of high-impact practices in their programming (q2, q4, q6, q8) than students without ppse. as mentioned above, the entire analysis nipissings nsse data is outlined in appendix a: analysis of nsse results. future research future research the scope of this project included basic significance testing of differences in responses between students with/without previous post-secondary education. we were able to identify key areas where significance was noted, but deeper investigation into these differences was outside the current scope. the base testing we have completed could be expanded upon to include further and more detailed data analysis. another area of interest is to complete further analysis on those questions corresponding to high impact practices (hips) within the nsse instruments. pre and post 2012 versions of nsse-defined hips did not align and so we were restricted in the number of responses available for further analysis in this area. student outcomes as far as prior learning experience is concerned, nipissing is among the top five institutions in the province with respect to the number of undergraduate learners with previous postsecondary experience (ppse). confirmation statistics from ouac also illustrate that proportion of student acceptances that are assessed for advanced standing at nipissing university is nearly five times greater than the sector (i.e. 28% for nipissing vs. sector average of about 6%). research like this provide us deeper insight into academic and engagement differences amongst transfer students and will allow us to build the necessary supports to ensure their successful transition into their studies at the university. institutional outcomes the project specifications asked us to investigate the feasibility of linkages between nsse and other available administrative data sources within nipissing, in particular, our student information system and graduate kpi survey data. since we only began in this office in 2017 (and after nsse 2017 was administered), we spent a considerable amount of searching through our digital records to find crosswalk files for each nsse. we are happy to say that we have a full set of crosswalks for our nsse data which means that we can directly link nsse results to our administrative data (i.e., our sis). now that we have put in the work to source these crosswalks we look forward to the opportunity to work with oncat to investigate deeper linkages to improve the body of knowledge with respect to student transfer experiences at nipissing.

annual report 2021 2022 table of contents 2 message from the board co-chairs 3 message from the executive director 4 ontario pse pathways & transfer system improvements 9 internal research & data projects 12 sector engagement & knowledge mobilization 16 it and project management 18 ontario's transfer & pathways guide & ontransfer.ca 22 strategic planning 24 finance reports 29 summary & project descriptions of 2021-2022 funded projects 1. message from the board co-chairs as we entered the second year of a global pandemic, the world of postsecondary education began the challenging work of adapting to a new normal. students, institutions and oncat alike braced themselves for a transition to hybrid learning, teaching and workspaces. though a promising sign of post-pandemic normal, the transition was not without challenges. and we commend the resilience and adaptability needed on all fronts to make it a success. oncat experienced its own period of transition this past year. in november 2021, we said goodbye to our executive director, yvette munro. yvette was an invaluable presence at oncat and her impact on the organization continues to be felt. we thank her for her years of service. we would also like to thank andrew wilson and shauna love for stepping in as interim executive directors as oncat embarked on a search for a new executive director. their work was integral in helping oncat navigate the waters of adapting to a new normal. through it all, oncat has continued to work steadily in service of ontarios postsecondary transfer system, adapting to the shifting needs of transfer students and staff. we have seen data linkage research projects lead to new insights, institutions improve their internal transfer processes, and more students served by ontransfer.ca. at a time when all institutions faced serious operational and financial challenges, we have seen a renewed commitment to collaboration. as we reflect back on this year, there is much to be proud of. and as we look to the future for oncat, there is much to be hopeful for. we are thrilled to welcome dr. adrienne galway aboard as our new executive director. adrienne brings over twenty years of postsecondary experience and a passion for supporting student success, and we are confident oncat will continue to flourish under her leadership. on behalf of the board, we thank the government of ontario for funding oncats work, our institutional partners for their continued collaboration, and the ontario ministry of colleges and universities for their continued support of pathways and transfer. best wishes for another successful year ahead. ron common, president, sault college deb maclatchy, president & vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university 2. message from the executive director over the past two and a half years, the postsecondary education sector has done an exemplary job of adapting, changing and pivoting in order to continue to provide students with high quality education. there were times that the constant pivoting made us all a little dizzy, and our colleges, universities and indigenous institutes should be proud of what they have accomplished under the most challenging of circumstances. oncat is very grateful to the postsecondary sector for its continued engagement and cooperation, especially in the face of the myriad of other competing priorities. like our partner institutions, over the past year oncat has transitioned to a new normal, but our core mission to support student mobility in ontario through transfer and pathways has remained the same. oncat has made significant progress on a number of fronts, which are highlighted in this report. on a personal level, i also experienced a significant transition when i joined oncat as executive director in may 2022. i have been so impressed by oncats work to support transfer and pathways in ontario, whether it is through funding innovative projects to help institutions build their data reporting capacity, develop pathways, adopt new technologies such as mycreds(digital transcripts), and better understand and support transfer students by providing students with up-to-date credit transfer information through ontransfer.ca. times of transition can be a little frightening, but they are also times of excitement and creativity. as oncat embarks upon the development of a new strategic plan to support student mobility and pathways, the sky is the limit. like every other aspect of our lives, the pandemic has changed postsecondary education and it has changed student expectations of their postsecondary and career journey. we have all learned that key to success is the ability to find a path forward through uncertain terrain, and oncat is well positioned to continue to guide students on their journey. the oncat team is one of the most talented and engaged group of professionals that i have had the privilege to work with and i am excited to see what the future holds. adrienne galway executive director, oncat 3. ontario pse pathways & transfer system improvements grants by the numbers oncat supports the postsecondary system in ontario to develop in-demand and student-centred pathways, implement consistent and transparent transfer practices and ensure evidence-driven transfer system improvements. led by ana skinner, research, data & funding director, and aided by inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants & projects, we provide funding to support student mobility research, system-level improvements, pathway development, and transfer capacity building within ontario postsecondary institutions. across oncats funding streams and sector engagement strategies, we approved over 60 projects in 2021-2022. the projects include: 5 transfer pathways 3 seamless transfer 10 research 1 postdoctoral research fellowship 3 student action projects 7 datapilot (4 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 12 mapit (9 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 2 indigenous institutes transfer grants 11 mycredsonboarding grants 5. completed projects 8 10 9 5 pathway research mapit 5 datapilot 3 student research action projects 2 seamless transfer more than 30 projects were completed in 2021/22. for more information on these and other projects funded by oncat, check out https://oncat.ca/en/projects-search for project snapshots. strategy spotlight: enhanced institution transfer capacity oncat works deeply with our partners to assess transfer student outcomes and experiences, address process improvements and work towards a more seamless system in ontario. this year, oncat expanded our institution transfer capacity funding strategies. this included the launch the indigenous institutes transfer operations and capacity fund and mycredsinstitutional onboarding fund. 6. indigenous institutes transfer operations and capacity grant first nations technical institute and seven generations education institute were awarded ii transfer capacity grants in 2021-2022. funding supports indigenous institutes to enhance student pathways and transfer opportunities through increased transfer student supports, transfer advising and other transfer functions determined by the institute. mycreds in 2021, oncat began supporting the onboarding of institutions to mycreds. mycredsis a national project supported by the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) to create a digital learner credential wallet and national data exchange network. sector-wide adoption of mycredswill provide digital and secure transcript exchange between ontarios publicly assisted postsecondary institutions, will make it easier for students to share their transcripts and for institutions to ensure the veracity of application documents. the first year of oncats strategy has seen strong uptake from the sector, with 11 institutions receiving funding to onboard and/or enhance their use of mycredsfor transcript exchange. 7. mapit the mapit learning collaborative supports institutions to map their current transfer processes in order to support process improvements. working with higher education strategy associates to facilitate the process, each institution gains valuable insights on their transfer processes. to date, oncat has supported 28 institutions through mapit, where oncat and participating institutions are able to share effective transfer processes and areas for improvement. cohort 4 is underway and recruitment for cohort 5 will begin in fall 2022. in 2021-2022, we expanded mapit to include funding for phase 2 projects focused on improving transfer processes. datapilot learning collaborative the datapilot launched in 2020, and this year we reached an important milestone of working with 25% of ontario postsecondary institutions to increase their data reporting capacity and assess transfer student outcomes at their institution. this includes 26% of universities and 25% of colleges. oncat will continue to accept new partners on an ongoing basis. 8. internal research & data projects transfer intent survey in september of 2021, oncat launched its first proprietary survey in partnership with york universitys institute for social research. as we approach the one-year mark, we have close to 2,500 completed survey responses. the dataset includes information about prospective transfer student decision-making and includes the demographic and educational background of participants. from this survey, oncat has begun developing analyses about who and why certain student populations transfer, the most popular pathways, as well as program types. the survey has been extended for another 12 months to bolster the overall sample size, as well as to continue to add to the panel of prospective and eventual transfer students that have opted in for future interviews and focus groups. we hope to launch the transfer experience survey in 2023, as a follow up with students from the first wave who eventually transferred. this project aims to understand the transfer student journey from the point of intent to transfer. transfer intent interviews we have completed 53 semi-structured interviews with students who expressed interest through our transfer intent survey. these interviews probe more deeply into the reasons why students want to transfer and allows students the space to reflect in more detail on their experiences in postsecondary. we have transcribed and begun analyzing student responses, which have helped us develop new questions for the survey reboot, as well as compare results between the two collection methods. we have also successfully recruited a handful of students from our panel to participate in focus groups to help improve our ontransfer website for future users. we hope to release our initial reports from the interviews in january of 2023. 10. student outcomes across transfer pathways oncat published a set of research briefs in february 2022, drawing from data contained in the ucas survey. these reports focused on applicant pathways into ontario colleges and universities and included topics such as regional variations in degree aspirations and the effects of socio-economic status and prior academic achievement on transfer pathways. since the ucas contains demographic information about students (i.e., broad ethnic categories) that other datasets do not include, we will continue to work with this data into 2023. we hope to continually release information to the sector using this rich data source on student applicant preferences. upcoming reports include data about students first-choice institutions and the influence of race/ethnicity on transfer pathways and degree aspirations. 11. sector engagement & knowledge mobilization research spotlights working with the research and communications teams, oncat designed the research spotlight series to highlight key findings from our research reports and emphasize the application of this evidence to policy, decision-making, and professional practice. research spotlights are intended to capture the most significant findings that the sector needs to know about and to spark further reading and interest in transfer research. spotlights, written by meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist, appear on oncat.ca and are promoted through oncats monthly newsletter. transfer advising lunch and learn series oncat launched a monthly learning event for the transfer advisor group, called transfer advising lunch and learns. offered once per month, the learning event series is meant to build capacity in the transfer advising space and cultivate evidence-based practices and decision-making. intended for both seasoned administrators and staff entirely new to transfer, these events provide information about the transfer space, recent research on transfer, promising practices, as well as allow participants to build relationships with staff at other institutions. to date, we have held sessions on student advising, communications and recruitment, and multiple sessions on pathway development. 13. online community hub for tag and hota oncat created inter-institutional communications platforms on microsoft sharepoint that allow our community groups to share resources, ask questions, and communicate outside of our publicly-held events. the site is private and restricted to transfer advisor group (tag) and heads of transfer advising (hota) community members, which is facilitating smoother communication regarding transfer, polls about what others are doing, mentorship opportunities, and general support among members. community animators on transfer last year, oncat launched a new student-led initiative called the community animators on transfer (cats). cats are students who transferred once during their time in postsecondary. as part of the program, they receive a stipend to develop a creative way to share their experience and to offer advice or tips to current transfer students. cats then receive coaching and mentorship on their creative work by oncat staff. submissions have included a comic strip, blog posts, written narrative, a short video, and a photographic essay. so far, we have had two cohorts complete the program. you can view the cats creative work on oncat.ca! 14. sector engagement oncat, with the help of carolyn poplak, manager of sector engagement, and sanja pavlovic, committees coordinator, continues to work with various established committees including the northern ontario pathways steering committee, the francophone and bilingual advisory committee and the heads of transfer advising committee. in spring 2022, oncat established the discipline steering committee (dsc). the role of the dsc is to advise and steer the work of oncat, in collaboration with the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu), in building a mature transfer system. more specifically, the dsc will work with oncat and the discipline committees (business, social services etc.) to lead the expansion of transferability of first year courses. the goal is for first year students to be able to transfer to like programs with full credit recognition. 15. it & project management it updates & improvements oncat's it team, including allison maldonado, business systems analyst, and natalie isber, project manager, implemented five sharepoint sites to facilitate information sharing and collaboration among ontario institutional partners and oncat. 1. ontario postsecondary education hub 2. ontransfer site 3. transfer advisor group (tag) site 4. heads of transfer advising (hota) site 5. discipline steering committee site they also launched an internal absence management system to simplify the absence tracking process for oncat team members and management and introduced a project management software for oncat team members to increase transparency across teams and improve task management and oversight. 17. ontario's transfer & pathways guide & ontransfer.ca ontario's transfer & pathways guide (ontransfer.ca) ontarios transfer & pathways guide provides a user-friendly platform for students to investigate their transfer options and receive support on their academic journey. able to support data from ontarios all the provinces publicly assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes, ontransfer.ca has ongoing development to support students and institutions with relevant, up-to-date information. ontransfer.ca website improvements in 2021, the ontransfer.ca team (led by andrew wilson, transfer and technology director), continued to enhance the website by providing design-savvy and usercentric supports. we successfully launched course outline/syllabi index for the province, reviewed and updated the websites content, and continue to find ways to simplify and operationalize our collection processes for course calendars, online offerings, and course equivalencies. in late 2021, the team began a project to improve our content management software (cms) that will provide modern web design and user graphics for 2022 and beyond. our focus in the coming years will continue to be on better navigation, increased promotion of in-demand pathway programs and overall site searchability, along with more targeted communications for transfer students from intent, pre- and post-application, admission, and registration. 19. analytics and growth the pandemic has continued to effect overall website traffic to oncat.ca, though not as dramatically as in the previous year, with overall traffic seeing modest increases of these numbers by 1.24% and 4.88%. beginning in early 2022, an updated communication plan was developed by lindsay mcrae (communications manager) and implemented with the support of jane waldner (digital communications coordinator) to increase website traffic and enhance how we share transfer and pathway information on the transfer & pathways guide. service level implementation 174,180 unique users of ontransfer.ca 252,614 unique session visits implementation of ontransfer.ca's service level expectations (sles) has streamlined processes that resulted in an 29% increase in institutional data files from april 1, 2021 to march 31, 2022. 243,642 course equivalencies 1979 25,000 academic pathways unique pathways 20. ontario student transfer fair as part of our continued redevelopment and service strategy, the ontransfer.ca team hosted two successful ostfs in fall 2021 and spring 2022, led by sienna stock (ontransfer.ca service manager). held virtually to ensure the health and safety of participants, the event allowed transfer students to connect directly with institutions to have their specific questions answered. the latest ostf saw over 1,000 unique visits to virtual booths, almost 500 documents accessed, and 335 webinar views. ontransfer.ca team despite challenges related to the pandemic, the team continued to strengthen and improve our ontransfer.ca supports and communications. targeted monthly digests were established using ms sharepoint to communicate important information for our partners. the team has continued to adjust sles and commitments to the sector through the development of an automated ticketing system that utilizes workflow to support internal and external communications. 21. strategic planning strategic plan for 2023-2026 oncat is embarking on consultations for a new strategic plan for 2023-2026, which will be aided by oncat's senior policy analyst, alastair woods. while certainly challenging, the pandemic gave oncat an opportunity to pivot to new forms of student support and delivery, as well as time to consider the challenges and opportunities ahead. with our current strategic plan coming to a close in 2023 and the recruitment of our new executive director (adrienne galway), now is the perfect time for oncat to chart a new course into the future. through our collaboration with the ministry of colleges and universities, oncat has already identified four longterm priorities that will inform and complement our new strategic plan: 1. expanding first-year transferability: assisting in efforts to make introductory/core courses more easily transferable across the sector. 2. increasing smart pathways for students: working with postsecondary institutions to scale up in-demand student pathways. 3. helping transfer students to graduate on time: supporting transfer students to graduate with minimal excess costs in study time or tuition fees. 4. integrating indigenous institutes into ontario's credit transfer system: closer collaboration with the third pillar of ontarios postsecondary education system. these priorities run alongside oncats day-to-day work in research, policy development, student support, institutional collaboration, sector engagement and technology. through this consultation process, oncat will explore areas for growth and further investigation, building upon our strengths as an organization and moving into new and innovative projects. the strategic plan consultations will take place in fall 2022 and winter 2023, with the board of directors given an opportunity to review and approve the plan in spring 2023. 1. 23. financial report financial report 2021-2022 our audited financial statement for 2021-2022 can be found at: https://oncat.ca/en/about-us the report is comprised of the statement of financial position as of march 31, 2022; the statements of operations and changes in net assets and cash flows for the year; and notes on the financial statements including a summary of significant accounting policies. 25. oncat team adrienne galway, executive director lindsay mcrae, communications manager meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist shauna love, operations director sienna stock, ontransfer.ca service manager jane waldner, digital communications coordinator andrew wilson, transfer and technology director ana skinner, research, data & funding director rod missaghian, senior researcher natalie isber, project manager allison maldonado, business systems analyst tina liu, data analyst peter desera, finance manager alastair woods, senior policy analyst carolyn poplak, manager, sector engagement henrique hon, quantitative researcher nicolas boileau, researcher melinda cheng, research data analyst inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants & projects sanja pavlovic, committees coordinator liwei liao, ontransfer data coordinator abdullah mushtaq, executive & governance coordinator 26. board of directors ron common (co-chair) deborah maclatchy (co-chair) christine bradaric-baus lyne michaud serge demers elaine popp kathryn kettle president & ceo, sault college president & vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university vice-president academic of canadian memorial chiropractic college vice-president academic, collge boral interim vice-president, academic and provost, laurentian university vice-president academic, durham college student representative ex officio members of the board: janet hope robert luke marny scully heather lane marc provencher adrienne galway vp of policy and innovation, colleges ontario ceo, ecampusontario vp of policy and strategy, cou executive director, ouac president & ceo, ocas executive director, oncat former board member: caitlin smith student representative 27. our partners 28. summary & project descriptions of 2021-2022 funded projects 2021 transfer pathways funding stream #p2220: engineering and engineering technology transfer pathway development project lead: queen's university at kingston | partners: cambrian college, centennial college, conestoga college, mohawk college, seneca college, sheridan college, st. lawrence college, university of toronto | amount awarded: $282,700 this project will support multi-institutional pathways between engineering technology advanced diploma and engineering degree programs in ontario. these pathways will allow students holding an ontario advanced diploma in engineering technology from a participating program to receive advanced standing in a participating ontario engineering degree program. #p2221: pathways in chemistry and applied life science project lead: lakehead university | partners: fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $12,296 the goal of this project is to develop a set of transfer pathways to and from fanshawe colleges chemical laboratory technology - science laboratory advanced diploma and lakehead universitys honours bachelor of science in chemistry/honours bachelor of science in applied life science. the project will also assess the viability of developing additional pathways into lakehead university's medical concentration programs and related engineering credentials. 30. #p2222: ontario caat direct admissions and upper year pathways project lead: queen's university | amount awarded: $41,500 the goal of this project is to identify programs that have capacity to bring college graduates (specified certificates/ diplomas) into first year/ upper year and develop pathways with fully mapped transfer credits in the faculty of arts and science at queens university. this project will reduce barriers for college students interested in attending queens university, focusing on developing pathways into programs with both capacity and demand at the upper year level. #p2223: remodeling honours bachelor of kinesiology pathways project lead: lakehead university | partners: cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, georgian college, sault college | amount awarded: $47,971 through this project, lakehead university will update and re-model pathways to reflect changes in curriculum and accreditation/quality assurance standards so that they continue to align with the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) degree program. furthermore, this project represents an opportunity to combine similar pathways into multilateral pathways, thus making them more efficient, consistent, and transparent. #p2243: remodelling of colleges boreal/la cite to universite de hearst psychology transfer pathways project lead: universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | amount awarded: $46,030 this project will remodel existing pathways between universit de hearst psychology programs and collges la cit and boral programs. it will support the development of new pathways and an umbrella agreement to facilitate the transfer of graduates and the ongoing maintenance of the memoranda of understanding. 31. 2021 seamless transfer #s2201: expansion of digital transcript exchange in ontario through mycreds project lead: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada | amount awarded: $500,000 the goal of this project is to help improve transfer student processes through digital transcript exchange. it will support mycredsoperations to build, expand and implement its learner credential wallet and national data exchange network for all of ontarios publicly funded colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. sectorwide adoption of mycredswill provide digital and secure transcript exchange between ontarios publiclyassisted postsecondary institutions. this data exchange network will facilitate more seamless student transfer by making it easier for students to share their transcripts and for institutions to ensure the veracity of application documents. #s2251: transfer student ambassadors at trent university project lead: trent university | amount awarded: $11,000 this project will support the implementation of a transfer student ambassador pilot. the trent transfer student ambassador will play an important role in developing and maintaining relationships between transfer students applying to trent and the university and provide peer supports through the transfer process. 32. #s2255: expansion of digital transcript exchange in ontario through mycreds, year 2 project lead: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada | amount awarded: $500,000 this project is the second phase of a multi-year strategy that will help accelerate the secure digitizing and onboarding of transcripts to mycreds. it will provide system-level document exchange infrastructure that can improve transfer student experiences of document exchange. the project addresses key process gaps and challenges in transfer processes (e.g., timely receipt of transcripts, completeness of documents for transfer credit assessment/admission decisions). mapit phase 2 funding stream #s2248: development of universit de hearst credit transfer policies project lead: universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | amount awarded: $86,020 this project supports the development of universit de hearst credit transfer policies as it becomes an independent university. it will also create a credit equivalencies administrative tool that stipulates equivalencies to be granted for the 20 collegiate programs at the two french-language colleges in ontario: college la cit and collge boral. 33. #s2249: implementing new equivalency assessment processes at trent project lead: trent university | amount awarded: $55,000 this project supports improvements to internal equivalency assessments at trent university by collecting first year/introductory courses from universities across canada to assess for their trent equivalencies. this project will allow trent to pre-emptively assess courses and input them into trents database, helping decrease the transfer credit assessment period for university transfer students coming to trent. #s2250: lakehead university development of transfer credit assessment (tca) guidelines project lead: lakehead university | amount awarded: $51,838 this project will enhance the transfer credit process through the development of transfer credit assessment (tca), guidelines and decision-making for course-by-course tca at lakehead university. this project includes the development of training materials required to effectively advise subject-matter experts in their assessments. 34. indigenous institutes transfer operations & capacity funding #i2267: fnti transfer strategies project lead: first nations technical institute | amount awarded: $79,637 this project supports fnti to enhance its transfer functions in several key areas through a dedicated pathways coordinator. this includes developing and enhancing current transfer operations for partnered programs; providing applicants/students with transfer counselling and assistance with transfer processes and understanding pathway opportunities, ensuring transferability and pathways are considered with the development of standalone programs; and developing admissions, governance and policies related to transfer. #i2268: developing capacity for student mobility in the treaty 3 region project lead: seven generations education institute | amount awarded: $64,240 this project will support seven generations education institute (sgei) to integrate a pathways coordinator position across the organization as well as among the student body so that it can build trusting relationships and better assist students in the transfer process. sgei will focus on creating necessary protocols and policies that will help to build opportunities to create new pathways. 35. 2021 research projects #r2203: a qualitative analysis of the post-transfer experiences of college and university students in ontario principal investigator: dr. janice aurini | amount awarded: $135,265 the goal of this project is to advance understandings of university and college students' post-transfer experiences and how they may vary by pathway and region. this project builds in a longitudinal component to capture student transfer as a multi-faceted social process. this research has the potential to inform the development of policies and practices that improve transfer student retention across the ontario pse, including enhancing student advising, bridging programs, and initiatives to help students adjust to their new institutional environments. #r2204: predicting transfer pathway uptake and associated income profiles a second look at the tdsb-psis linkage with a focus on disability project lead: york university | principal investigator: dr. gillian parekh | co-investigators: dr. rob brown and dr. david walters | amount awarded: $119,609 in 2019, oncat funded the creation of the custom tdsb-elmlp linkage to examine the extent to which transfer students differ from direct entry counterparts in their propensity to borrow from the canada student loans program (cslp). a preliminary report explored provincial-level trends drawing simply on the psis-cslp linkage. a secondary report explored the same trends with a focus on the tdsb-psis-cslp linkage. this project will draw on the tdsb-psis-t1ff linkage to explore an additional set of questions focused on socio-demographic predictors, with a particular focus on disability, across (disaggregated) transfer pathway uptake and whether there is a net earnings premium or "penalty" associated with disaggregated transfer pathways and disability status. 36. #r2210: non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation - phase 2: leveraging surveyadministrative data linkages to document the role of family background in detailed transfer pathways project lead: institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) | principal investigator: dr. xavier st-denis | amount awarded: $167,367 this project draws on the first oncat-funded project, non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation: statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes (2020-2021), which was based on data from the longitudinal and international study of adults (lisa). this new project intends to produce 3 research papers and focus on the role of family background in detailed transfer pathways. #r2211: tdsb-uoft replication project principal investigator: dr. scott davies | amount awarded: $27,290 this project will advance exploratory transfer related analyses with dataset between administrative student records at the toronto district school board (tdsb) and the university of toronto, leveraging the previous institution field within the university of toronto records to identify those tdsb students that arrived at the university from another postsecondary institution. 37. #r2219: transfer postdoctoral research fellow project lead: nipissing university | supervisor: dr. david zarifa | amount awarded: $90,675 oncat is providing matching funding for a postdoctoral research fellow at nipissing university, as part of a multi-institutional research partnership funded by sshrc. this project explores the potential barriers experienced by many youth as they pursue postsecondary education and employment by linking toronto district school board (tdsb) data with postsecondary administrative, survey, and tax data. the postdoctoral research fellow will help organize and analyze linked longitudinal administrative data, prepare manuscripts, and support knowledge mobilization activities associated with this project - including highlighting relevant transfer and student mobility insights. #r2242: the missed education" of black women: disability, access and transfer project lead: toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | principal investigator: dr. idil abdillahi | amount awarded: $121,845 this qualitative research project will explore the experiences of disabled black women transferring between ontario colleges and ontario universities. it will provide key insights on transfer student experiences and contribute to deeper understanding of the experiences of black women, non-binary, and trans people living with disabilities transferring between ontario colleges and universities. 38. #r2254: understanding the role of streaming in college-to-university pathways project lead: toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | principal investigator: sam andrey | co-investigators: andre cote, tianna thompson | amount awarded: $58,053 this project will contribute to deeper understanding of the profiles and experiences of students who connect their college to university (ctu) transfer pathway to the impacts of secondary academic streaming and course selection. using a survey and semi-structured interviews with current and former college-to-university transfer students, the project will document their secondary and post-secondary academic pathways. through this examination the project will investigate if, and to what extent, secondary streaming experiences influence why and how students access ctu transfer. postdoctoral research fellowship #r2256: oncat post doctoral research fellowship project lead: university of guelph | postdoc fellow: j. sparks | supervisor: dr. david walters | amount awarded: $110,000 this post doctoral research fellowship will investigate transfer shock and the impact of support services on transfer students in ontario. the postdoc will be supported by the university of guelph, under the supervision of dr. david walters, and the research project will be conducted in collaboration with members of the student transitions, access & research on tertiary education partnerships team. 39. micro-credentials in ontario: exploring stackability & transferability #r2245: possibilities and barriers to transfer and stacking of micro-credentials in ontario public colleges and universities principal investigator: dr. scott davies | amount awarded: $74,072 ($69,600+$4,472 hst) this project will advance understandings of the potential for transferability and stackability among microcredentials. through an in-depth scan of micro-credential offerings in the ecampus portal and key informant interviews, this project will deepen understandings on how stakeholders understand current challenges and successes when designing and implementing transferable micro-credentials. #r2246: approaches to stackability of micro-credentials: options for ontario project lead: higher education strategy associates | amount awarded: $69,900+hst this project includes a jurisdictional analysis that will explore approaches to micro-credential stackability in other countries and jurisdictions to present recommendations for ontario. the project includes a) a review of publicly available information on micro-credentials offered by (public) colleges, universities and indigenous institutes across ontario; b) a comparison of international models for stacking micro-credentials, drawing on academic and policy literature c) interviews with administrators and faculty from a diverse range of (public) colleges and universities across ontario; d) interviews with 10-12 ontario career college owners, managers and instructors. 40. #r2247: exploring newcomer perceptions of micro-credentials credibility in facilitating employment and postsecondary education pathways project lead: fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | principal investigator: dr. alexander pershai | co-investigators: dr. michele manocchi, dr. rob downie | amount awarded: $74,882 this project will document student perceptions of micro-credentials, with a focus on newcomer perceptions of micro-credentials in facilitating employment and postsecondary education pathways. this includes whether transferability and stackability among micro-credentials is a consideration for learners' advisors and postsecondary institutions offering micro-credentials. the study will identify existing gaps and provide recommendations for the development and enhancement of micro-credentials to address the employment and postsecondary needs of newcomers to ontario. 41. mycredsinstitutional onboarding #s2224 | toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2225 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute | amount awarded: $37,700 #s2226 | university of ottawa | amount awarded: $25,375 #s2227 | confederation college | amount awarded: $38,500 #s2228 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $25,200 #s2229 | sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $25,958 #s2230 | brock university | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2231 | trent university | amount awarded: $17,900 #s2232 | universit de hearst | amount awarded: $27,720 #s2234 | mohawk college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2235 | york university | amount awarded: $25,000 42. datapilot phase 1 #d2208 | durham college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $27,500 #d2212 | lambton college | amount awarded: $51,843 #d2244 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $33,264 #d2253 | nipissing university | amount awarded: $55,000 datapilot phase 2 #d2202 | trent university | amount awarded: $16,200 #d2209 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $43,395 #d2236 | algoma university | amount awarded: $55,000 43. mapit 3.0 institutional process mapping project #m2214 | lambton college | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2215 | the university of ontario institute of technology | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2216 | wilfrid laurier university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2217 | collge boral | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2218 | the canadore college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2213 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | amount awarded: $36,000 + hst mapit 4.0 institutional process mapping project #m2238 | york university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2239 | university of ottawa | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2240 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2241 | algoma university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2237 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | amount awarded: $65,000 + hst 44. discipline steering committee #c2257 | algoma university: david marasco | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2259 | collge la cit: isabelle gurin | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2260 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology: mary pierce | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2261 | sir sandford fleming college of applied arts and technology: david adam baker | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2262 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning: melinda kao | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2263 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute: susan sinclair | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2264 | lakehead university: michel beaulieu | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2265 | laurentian university: brigitte desjardins | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2266 | university of waterloo: heather o'leary | amount awarded: $20,000 45. 2021 community animators on transfer (cats) #t2205 | ahmad butt | amount awarded: $1,500 #t2206 | constant yen | amount awarded: $1,500 #t2207 | jennifer sparks | amount awarded: $1,500 46.

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2020 2021 project snapshot non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation: statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario xavier st-denis, yacine boujija, & stephen sartor non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario keywords non-linear pse pathways; credential accumulation; student mobility; labour market outcomes; student transfers; inequality. overview research on post-secondary education (pse) pathways often focuses on traditional students entering single institutions or staying within specific regions and tracking their movements over relatively short periods of time. in the few cases where canadian research has documented the linkages between such pathways and labor market outcomes, the research focuses on the years immediately following graduation. such focus ignores credential accumulation that play out later in the life course. this research overcomes these limitations using the 2016 longitudinal and international study of adults (lisa). it examines both the predictors of non-linear post-secondary pathway uptake, as well as the labour market outcomes associated with such pathways. 2 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario why it matters there are large earnings gaps between respondents whose first post-secondary educational credentials are a trade/vocational/apprenticeship (tva) certificate, a college certificate or diploma, or a bachelors degree or higher, in part driven by the pathways associated with that first credential. no pathway appears to help close the gap between tva or college graduates and bachelor graduates, except in the case of a small number of graduates with a bachelors degree who go on to complete a second credential below a bachelors degree. these findings point in a few directions: policies and programs that support transfer pathways from tva or college to bachelor programs may translate into higher income levels not only because a bachelors degree is associated with a higher income level, but because bachelor graduates are more likely to then complete a graduate degree. the design of programs for credit transfer should take into consideration the patterns identified in this report in terms of drivers of different pathways and associated labour market outcomes. one may ask whether a college-to-university transfer is more beneficial than graduating from college before completing a bachelors program and under which circumstances. for example, credit transfer and recognition from a completed college program to a bachelor program may facilitate the successful completion of a bachelor program. but it may also support the subsequent completion of a graduate degree, especially knowing that so few college graduates end up completing a graduate degree. 3 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario key findings credential accumulation one primary finding of this research is that a substantial amount of credential accumulation occurs well beyond the traditional ages associated with post-secondary education. many individuals obtain their first credentials during or after their mid-20s (figure 1), and approximately half of second credentials acquisition occurs between an individuals late 20s to mid-30s (figure 2). figure 1: cumulative share of population with a first pse credential at different ages percentage 60 40 20 0 21 years old 25 years old 29 years old 34 years old 49 years old age range 1956-1980 birth cohort 1956-1968 birth cohort 1966-1980 birth cohort 4 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario figure 2: cumulative share of population with a second pse credential at different ages 30 25 percentage 20 15 10 5 0 25 years old 29 years old 34 years old 49 years old age range 1956-1980 birth cohort 1956-1968 birth cohort 1966-1980 birth cohort 5 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario pse pathways with multiple credentials the most common (23.7%) educational pathway among 35-59 year-olds in ontario is a post-secondary credential below a bachelors degree (see figure 3). the second most common pathway among this group is a bachelors degree with no further pse (15.2%). from here, we also see a number of nonlinear pathways commonly studied within the transfer literature: 7.2% of individuals who complete a first credential below the bachelors level obtain a second credential at the same level (e.g., lateral movement). 3.0% of individuals who complete a first credential at below the bachelors level obtain a credential at the bachelors level or higher (e.g., vertical movement). 3.6% of those that obtain a bachelors degree first go on to obtain a second credential at below the bachelors level (e.g., reverse flows). 2.1% of those that obtain a bachelors degree first go on to obtain a second credential at same level (e.g., lateral movement). in total, 15.9% of all ontario adults (35-59 years old) in 2016 followed a non-linear educational pathway. this represents 24.5% of all pse graduates. 6 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario figure 3: credential accumulation pathways, 35-59 years old. 30 percentage 20 10 0 no high school certi cate high school certi cate first pse credential below bachelor's level to below bachelor's to bachelor's or more first pse credential bachelor's or more to below bachelor's to bachelor's to graduate pse credentials canada ontario 7 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario labour market outcomes the second part of our analysis explores the relationship between post-secondary pathways and employment income. figure 4 displays the average income by pathway, net of observed characteristics. the reference category is respondents who completed a single credential at the college level (or other non-university certificate or diploma). two main patterns are worth highlighting: those who complete a single bachelors degree have an average income over 10% higher than those who complete a second credential at the college or tva level after also obtaining a first credential at the bachelors level. meanwhile, completing a graduate degree provides a relative income boost. among those who first obtain a college-level credential, any additional credential provides an income boost. for this group, completing a bachelors degree as a second credential is associated with returns more than twice as large as a second credential at the college or tva level. for those that start at the tva level, second credentials have a relatively mild effect on income. 8 non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation institut national de la recherche scientifique, universit de montral, university of western ontario 0.5 0.25 0 first credential: college et e pl m ra d g co ua te r's ba ch e lo ge lle co tv a et e pl m co ra d g ba ch e lo ua te r's ge lle co tv a pl m co ra d g first credential: tva et e te ua r's lo ch e ba co lle ge -0.25 tv a difference in employment income from reference category figure 4: relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 * first credential: bachelor's *detailed pathways from model with interaction between level of first credential and the highest credential subsequently obtained (second, third, or fourth), 1956-1980 birth cohorts. note: the reference group for all plotted coefficients is first credential: college > complete. all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, age at completion of last pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. 7 further reading to read the full report, please visit the report homepage. boothby, daniel, and torben drewes. 2006. "postsecondary education in canada: returns to university, college and trades education." canadian public policy / analyse de politiques 32 (1): 121. https://doi.org/10.2307/3552240. dhuey, elizabeth, bradley seward, and david walters. "multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding." toronto: ontario council for articulation and transfer. finnie, ross, michael dubois, and masashi miyairi. 2021. post-graduation earnings outcomes of ontario transfer students: evidence from pse-tax linked data. ottawa: education policy research initiative. ntwari, aim, and eric fecteau. 2020. "the impact of short-duration credentials after an undergraduate degree on labour market outcomes." education, learning and training: research paper series. ottawa: statistics canada. wall, katherine. 2021. "completion of a college certificate or diploma after a bachelors degree."insights on canadian society 2021 (april): 15. walters, david. 2003. "'recycling': the economic implications of obtaining additional post-secondary credentials at lower or equivalent levels*. canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie 40 (4): 46380. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618x.2003.tb00257.x. 9 zarifa, david. 2012. persistent inequality or liberation from social origins? determining who attends graduate and professional schools in canadas expanded postsecondary system: persistent inequality or liberation from social origins? canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie 49 (2): 10937. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618x.2011.01286.x. zarifa, david, yujiro sano, and cathlene hillier. 2020. transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities: the magnitude of postsecondary transfer types and the characteristics of those who transfer. toronto: ontario council for articulation and transfer. 10 to read the full report , please visit : https://oncat .ca/en/projects/multi-credentialed-graduatescanada-employment-earnings-and-student-loan-holding established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. this snapshot was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021.

instantan pathway development in the arts and sciences type: pathways development project number: 2019-18 or p1918 project lead: laurentian university collaborators: le collge la cit rsum du projet le projet favorise le passage des tudiants des programmes collgiaux vers les programmes universitaires, dans les domaines des sciences et des arts. les passerelles cibles sont les suivantes : 1) du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, vers les programmes biochimie, biologie et chimie pharmaceutique de la laurentienne 2) des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit, vers le tout nouveau programme droit et politique de la laurentienne. justification du projet 1) les programmes biochimie et chimie pharmaceutique la laurentienne ont attir une quinzaine dtudiants au fil des 4 annes dtudes (en 2015, 2016 et 2017). pour ces annes, on en compte 5, 6 et 8, respectivement, en premire anne et on observe un taux de rtention moyen la deuxime anne de 73%. comme nous offrons loption dun baccalaurat de 3 ans ou de 4 ans, environ 11 % des tudiants dcident de poursuivre pour une 4e anne. avec cette passerelle, nous souhaitions maintenir un nombre dtudiants plus lev, pour assurer une dynamique plus intressante. aussi, comme la cit compte annuellement une vingtaine dtudiants gradus en techniques pharmaceutiques, nous estimions que 40% dentre eux dsireraient profiter de cette opportunit. 2) une restructuration du programme de science politique la laurentienne a permis de crer un nouveau programme pour rejoindre davantage les intrts des tudiants: un b.a droit et politique. le programme initial attirant peu dtudiants (de 2014 2016, moins que 5 tudiants y taient inscrits en premire et deuxime anne, bien que le taux de rtention moyen tait de 90 %), il fut dcid que le domaine de la science politique serait combin avec celui du droit, permettant ainsi un apprentissage multidisciplinaire aux tudiants. lors de nos changes le collge la cit, a mentionn tre la recherche de connaissances multidisciplinaires pour leurs tudiants en journalisme et relations publiques. pour ces deux disciplines, loffre que proposait notre nouveau programme droit et politique tait des plus pertinentes aux besoins voqus. en moyenne, la cit dcerne une dizaine de diplmes en journalisme et une trentaine en relations publiques annuellement. selon les chiffres, nous estimions 25 le nombre dtudiants qui seraient intresss poursuivre leurs tudes par lentremise de cette passerelle, selon les informations rcoltes auprs des tudiants de la cit. principaux collaborateurs le collge la cit a eu la responsabilit de fournir la documentation ncessaire l'analyse des programmes cibls pour les passerelles, de participer aux rencontres et de faciliter la communication avec leurs coordonnateurs de programmes dans le cadre des questions de prcisions lies l'analyse des corrlations entre les cours collgiaux et universitaires. luniversit laurentienne quant elle, titre de principal coordonnateur du projet, sest charge d'excuter le plan de travail, de mener les travaux d'analyse, de coordonner les changes de communications et d'informations avec le collge la cit, d'assurer la bonne gestion financire et d'effectuer les rapports de suivis auprs du caton. rsultats obtenus les rsultats de ce projet visait ultimement llaboration de cinq (5) passerelles collgeuniversit, soit trois (3) dans le domaine des sciences et deux (2) dans le domaine des arts. au cours de la dernire anne, nous avons ralis la premire analyse des programmes cibls et identifi les cours de spcialisation qui pourraient tre reconnus chez les diplms collgiaux. nos recommandations sont prsentement en attente dtre values par les diffrentes instances institutionnelles. laboration des parcours mesures cls deux facteurs cls nous ont pouss explorer la pertinence de ces passerelles. dans le cas des deux passerelles en provenance des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit vers le programme droit et politique de la laurentienne, il sagissait surtout de voir de quelle faon, titre de partenaires postsecondaires, nous pouvions nous associer pour offrir aux tudiants de ces programmes collgiaux francophones une valeur ajoute qui leur apporterait une comptitivit sur le march du travail, particulirement froce dans le domaine des communications. dun autre ct, dans le cas des trois passerelles partir du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, il sagissait de promouvoir les possibilits de formation complmentaire qui permettraient daugmenter les dbouchs professionnels pour les diplms de ce programme, tout ayant loccasion dalimenter la fois un nouveau programme en place la laurentienne forte affinit avec ce programme collgial, soit le b.sc chimie pharmaceutique. parcours crs les cinq (5) passerelles espres sont en cours dapprobation par les instances institutionnelles laurentienne : 1) du programme techniques pharmaceutiques de la cit, vers les programmes biochimie, biologie et chimie pharmaceutique de la laurentienne 2) des programmes de journalisme et de relations publiques de la cit, vers le tout nouveau programme droit et politique de la laurentienne. dfis lensemble des dmarches relatives la ralisation de ce projet sest fait sans embuche particulire. rsultats pour les tudiants ces passerelles permettront aux diplms collgiaux dsirant sinscrire dans les programmes universitaires cibls dpargner temps et argent. elles leur offriront galement une plus grande reconnaissance titre de professionnel en considrant davantage la valeur des acquis acadmiques spcialiss quils ont rcolts au cours de leur formation collgiale, dmontrant ainsi une considration accrue et par le fait mme, une plus grande valorisation de la formation collgiale. titres dtudes voir pice jointe : caton1920_bilan cours reconnus_arts et sciences. noter quil sagit des crdits qui seront potentiellement reconnus. les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. conomies de temps pour les tudiants noter que ces informations ne sont quvalues sur le temps potentiel sauv par ltudiant, tant donn que les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. passerelle du programme de journalisme vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 2 semestres. passerelle du programme de relations publiques vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 2 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biologie : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biochimie : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. chimie pharmaceutique : environ 2.5 semestres. conomies financires pour les tudiants ces informations ne sont quvalues sur les frais de scolarits potentiels sauvs par ltudiant, tant donn que les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. les conomies associes aux frais affrents et sa dlocalisation pour suivre les cours sont en sus. passerelle du programme de journalisme vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 7 500$ passerelle du programme de relations publiques vers le b.a. droit et politique : environ 7 500$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biologie : environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. biochimie : environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme techniques pharmaceutiques vers le b.sc. chimie pharmaceutique : environ 9 375$ souplesse pour les tudiants dabord, la reconnaissance de crdit potentielle dans le cadre de ces passerelles semble assez avantageuse. il faudra suivre si les diffrentes instances dcisionnelles accepteront les reconnaissances recommandes la suite de lanalyse effectue dans le cadre de ce projet. de plus, plusieurs cours associs au programme du b.a. en droit et politique de la laurentienne sont accessibles en ligne. ce qui ajoute encore davantage de flexibilit au diplm collgial ou encore ltudiant potentiel dj sur le march du travail de pouvoir poursuivre ses tudes universitaires sans se voir imposer une dlocalisation obligatoire. harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants initialement, le collge la cit nous a contact pour llaboration de cette passerelle dans le but doffrir une valeur ajoute en fait demployabilit puisque plusieurs dentre eux, issus de leur campus de toronto, aspirent des emplois queens park et manifestaient un intrt bonifier leur ducation dune dimension politique. nous pouvons donc affirmer quen effet, cette passerelle contribue lemployabilit des tudiants. rsultats pour les tablissements deleted: non, aucun. la dmarche entreprise dans le cadre de ce projet a suivi les procdures de la nouvelle mthodologie dveloppe et suivie depuis les deux dernires annes. conseils pratiques notre avis, la mthodologie se reposant sur lanalyse des corrlations entre les rsultats dapprentissages des programmes collgiaux et universitaires reste le meilleur argument prsenter aux instances institutionnelles en charge de lapprobation des passerelles proposes, deleted: tips/advice puisquelle dmontre de faon factuelle les recoupements et les acquis des diplms collgiaux. nous la recommandons fortement. outils et ressources les principaux outils dvelopps dans le cadre de ce projet ont t les matrices danalyse. elles sont tlverses dans la section des livrables du projet. deleted: tools and resources

student mobility and educational outcomes among ontario colleges and universities replicating descriptive statistics with the addition of the 2016-17 psis cycle and non-imputed college data february 2022 yujiro sano, phd postdoctoral research fellow david zarifa, phd professor and canada research chair davidz@nipissingu.ca department of sociology nipissing university this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors. table of contents overview of the study.................................................................................................................................. 3 results........................................................................................................................................................... 5 references .................................................................................................................................................... 6 overview of the study using statistics canadas postsecondary student information system, our prior work previously illustrated that tracking students for three years for each cohort and combining six cohorts together (i.e., 200911, 201012, 201113, 201214, 201315, and 201416) may be an efficient approach to understand the various student mobility pathways among university and college students in northern and southern ontario (see sano, hillier, and zarifa, 2020; zarifa, sano, and hillier, 2020). specifically, we capture seven important pathways taken by students during their first two years of their initial postsecondary enrolment: 1) non-transfer university (ntu); 2) nontransfer college (ntc); 3) university to university (uu); 4) university to college (uc); 5) college to university (cu); 6) college to college (cc); and 7) swirlers. since its publication, another cycle of the psis (i.e., 2016-17) has become available. as such, we update our overall distributions with the new cycle for two important reasons. first, the sample size increases with the addition of students from the 2016-17 cycle (i.e., sample size is 432,280 and 560,200 for the previous and currently analysis, respectively), which allows us to achieve greater statistical power, improving our analytical capacity. second, due to the technical limitation of the psis, our previous analyses required the use of imputed data for many college-level students, especially those at northern ontario colleges. in addition to adding the 2016-17 cycle, statistics canadas new version of the psis provides non-imputed information for the college-level students, which enables us to better observe the transfer pathways that involve college institutions. table 1. the psis sample and subsample characteristics by region of institution, psis-t1ff 2009-2017. field of study arts/humanities health natural sciences social sciences other transfer type ntu ntc uu uc cu cc swirlers location of school south north registration status full-time part-time overall south north 17.62 12.92 25.72 38.44 5.30 17.96 12.33 26.11 38.92 4.68 10.87 24.45 18.12 29.10 17.46 73.74 16.80 1.79 2.48 2.51 1.89 0.79 73.78 16.84 1.76 2.45 2.50 1.88 0.78 73.02 15.92 2.31 3.00 2.78 1.98 0.99 94.18 5.82 94.44 5.56 89.05 10.95 14.02 14.11 14.70 13.86 13.84 13.89 15.57 14.03 14.10 14.67 13.88 13.85 13.86 15.61 13.87 14.42 15.26 13.65 13.65 14.46 14.68 83.40 16.60 84.01 15.99 71.50 28.50 45.07 54.93 45.37 54.63 39.07 60.93 20.00 19.98 19.99 20.01 20.02 20.23 20.03 19.77 19.73 20.23 15.42 18.97 24.20 25.45 15.96 87.42 12.58 87.55 12.45 84.95 15.05 32.35 67.65 560,200 32.12 67.88 532,890 36.87 63.13 27,310 95.12 4.88 year of enrolment 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 age 21 22 sex men women parental income lowest lower middle higher highest family composition couple lone family size 3 4 total results with these modifications in mind, we briefly discuss our descriptive findings shown in table 1 and make comparisons to our findings in our previous report (see zarifa, sano, and hillier, 2020). overall, it is important to note that these new estimates are largely consistent with those that were uncovered in our previous report. this is largely because our modification to the dataset has mostly impacted college-level students in northern ontario, which has a little impact on overall sample, due to their relatively small sample size. reflecting a bit more closely on this change, however, we can observe that the proportion of northern students increases slightly in the current analysis (i.e., 4.88%) in comparison to our estimate in the previous analysis (i.e., 4.49%). similarly, when we look closer at northern students (see sano, hillier, and zarifa, 2020), it is apparent that the proportion of transfer pathways that involve college institutions such as nontransfer college (15.92% vs. 13.19%), university to college (3.00% vs. 2.10%), college to university (i.e., 2.78% vs. 1.84%), and college to college (i.e., 1.98% vs. 1.42%) has slightly increased in the current analysis in comparison with the previous one. we also find that the proportion of nontransfer university students is smaller in the current analysis (i.e., 73.02% vs. 78.40%). taken together, these differences suggest that the non-imputed dataset may be better suited for capturing the diverse nature of students transfer pathways, particularly those in northern ontario. references sano, y., hillier, c., & zarifa, d. (2020). transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities: northern and southern differences in students who transfer. ontario council on articulation and transfer. zarifa, d., sano, y., & hillier, c. (2020). transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities: the magnitude of postsecondary transfer types and the characteristics of those who transfer. ontario council on articulation and transfer.

rsum 15 mai 2020 caton projet # p1924 titre du projet : parcours de transfert inverss b.a. en tudes de lenvironnement vers des programmes du collge boral et du collge la cit tablissement responsable : collge la cit dure du projet : 15 avril 2020 mise jour propose par : lise frenette collge la cit lfrene@lacitec.on.ca 613 742-2483 .2023 www.oncat.ca | www.ontransfer.ca 180 dundas street w | suite 1902 toronto on, m5g 1z8 rsum l'objectif premier de ce projet etait d'analyser les parcours collegiaux des programmes en environnement forestier et en agriculture et le programme de baccalaurat en etudes de l'environnement afin d'etablir des ententes inversees pour permettre aux etudiants de l'universite laurentienne de terminer leurs etudes au collge boral ou au collge la cit au sein des programmes en environnement forestier ou en agriculture. environnement forestier suite a l'analyse des cursus, des plans de cours (pdc), des objectifs dapprentissage, des competences specifiques et des competences transversales des programmes collegiaux et du programme universitaire, certaines similarites ont ete notees entre les programmes collgiaux en foresterie et le baccalaurat en etudes de lenvironnement de luniversite laurentienne. les lments communs se trouvaient dans certains cours plus thoriques des programmes collgiaux. malgre certaines pistes interessantes pour les programmes en foresterie, l'analyse actuelle n'a pas ete concluante, car les cours des programmes collegiaux contiennent un nombre beaucoup plus eleve d'activites d'apprentissage pratiques sur le terrain, dactivits en entreprise, de projets avec des partenaires locaux que le programme universitaire. agriculture les programmes en agriculture du collge la cit et du collge boral ont peu delements communs avec le baccalaureat en etudes de lenvironnement de luniversite laurentienne. la lueur des analyses, il a t observ que la majorit des rsultats dapprentissage liees aux comptences spcifiques telles que la legislation liee au domaine de lagroalimentaire, les sciences agricoles, la machinerie agricole, la production animale, la production de fruits et legumes et dautres notions touchant directement au domaine agricole netaient pas presentes dans le curriculum universitaire. en gnral un lment important est ressorti de lanalyse approfondie de tous les pdcs des programmes, soit lecart lie au nombre d'heures de cours pratiques et des activits dapprentissage exprientiel des deux colleges et ceux de l'universite laurentienne. la dimension pratique des programmes collegiaux, soit plus de 50% de lensemble des programmes, a rendu difficile larrimage entre les resultats d'apprentissage universitaires beaucoup plus axs sur la thorie, aux competences et aux resultats d'apprentissage collegiaux. cette analyse a aussi mis en lumiere le grand defi quengendre l'offre de cours des colleges dans la mise en place concrete d'une entente inversee avec un tablissement universitaire. plusieurs scenarios ont ete evalues, mais des enjeux demeurent non rsolus tels loffre cours spcialiss et les stages qui sont prsents selon un horaire fixe durant les deux annes de formation au collge. en somme, meme avec certains elements communs pour les programmes en foresterie et le programme universitaire etudes de l'environnement, l'offre de cours unique dans les deux colleges s'avre un defi de taille trop important relever dans limmdiat. 1 note complmentaire ayant adopt un nouveau modle pdagogique axe sur lapproche par competences, le college la cite est en pleine transformation de ses programmes detudes. une fois cet exercice termin, le college sera en mesure doffrir des parcours spcialiss la carte par le biais dunites dapprentissage aux etudiants inscrits dans un programme universitaire qui souhaitent dvelopper leurs comptences pratiques lies leur choix de carrire. 2

value driven mobility: expanding mobility cultures executive summary report date: april 2018 project number: 2017-34 value driven mobility: expanding the culture of mobility executive summary introduction the intent of this project was to continue work with the rich data collected during the recent study, creating a culture of mobility conducted in collaboration with the ontario council on articulation and transfer [oncat] (penner, howieson, & ditullio, 2017). results of the 2017 study allowed a culture of mobility to be described on a spectrum (figure 1). values associated with a culture of mobility were identified, along with best practices/processes leading to a hypothesis that: values and best practices are two variables (mueller, 2015) acting as drivers, to move culture along a mobility spectrum. unanticipated findings included gaps on the spectrum, as well as underutilized pathways existing at all institutions. addressing gaps in the spectrum through application of best practices, and identifying pathway utilization are important components of expanding institutions organizational culture as it pertains to student mobility. figure 1. culture of mobility spectrum the current project incorporated two goals: the first was to use the 2017 data in order to create culture of mobility spectrum maps illustrating each institutions cultural placement based on the values and behaviours that were communicated during data collection. the second goal was to have each institution select a best practice intervention to apply through the fall 2017 semester and collect quantitative survey data measuring values and behaviours to estimate whether the intervention had the effect of movement on the mobility spectrum. describing a culture of mobility, providing feedback about institutions cultures as measured by survey data, and sharing best practices mapped through qualitative interviews with key informants across the parameters of the participants, provided impetus for cultural expansion. the opportunity and means to inject new practices that had been shown to represent values as drivers in a culture that supports student mobility was related to positive change for the majority of this projects participants. 1|page environmental scan an environmental scan was performed in order to assist the researchers in understanding why students are transferring between postsecondary institutions as well as how their requests are being accommodated by both the transferring and receiving institutions. the question as to whether participating institutions had created a means to track pathway utilization was also explored during the environmental scan. key informants at each institution were asked if they had the ability to track and report the level at which their pathways agreements with partner institutions were utilized. the results of this aspect of the environmental scan indicated that the post-secondary system in ontario has not yet addressed the creation of a mechanism for tracking underutilized pathways. only one of the participating institutions had collected and organized pathways utilization data. there are a variety of reasons as to why a student may choose to engage in credit transfer activities, including pursuing a different field of interest, increasing career opportunities, and employer request for academic upgrading (oncat, 2013). although credit transfer pathways have improved, some students find the process confusing with regards to variations in grading systems, the absence of a data base that could store postsecondary students academic records, and terminology that is used inconsistently (oncat, 2013). the topic of credit transfer in ontario continues to be of interest for postsecondary institutions. as a result, new studies are being published annually. research has shown that postsecondary institutions are striving to improve student mobility options. the ministry of advanced education and skills development reports that over 55,000 students are taking advantage of articulation agreements within ontario institutions every year. in addition, there are over 1,400 credit transfer pathways in ontario (ocas, n.d.). these pathways are believed to lead to over 800,000 individual transfer opportunities (nation talk, 2017). one study in particular determined that by an ontario credit transfer students fourth year of university, they were more likely to graduate when compared to a student who had not selected a credit transfer route (martinello & stewart, 2015). in recent years, research has focused on the cost of credit transfer amongst ontario institutions as well as students subsequent academic performance. to put this into perspective, oncat is funding an increasing number of studies every year. between 2016 and 2017, oncat granted funding to 40 new projects, focusing on innovative curriculum delivery and pathways development among postsecondary institutions in ontario (oncat, n.d.). literature review a literature review was conducted in order to address the topics of student mobility, value systems, and institutional culture. in addition, a focus was placed on the relationship between value systems within an institution and the development of institutional culture (mueller, 2014). this includes literature outlining organizational culture, change management, and quality assurance. student mobility demands are continually increasing; therefore, it is of the utmost importance that institutions become articulate as well as responsive in terms of managing student mobility (voorhees & harvey, 2005). research has already been performed on the effect that value systems have on institutional quality; however, there has been little focus on the relationship between value systems and a culture of mobility (penner, 2007). branson (2008) stated that the quality of ones work is influenced by their organizations ideology, which is ultimately experienced by its culture. this author also argued that the bedrock of organizational change is values alignment with regards to its culture. in addition, in order to be successful, the leaders within an organization may choose to adopt practices that allow employees to be creative and innovative. he furthered this statement by likening an organizations culture to a force by which 2|page members are drawn together (branson, 2008). he also discussed how values-aligned organizations often endeavor to align their employees values with their organizations in an effort to understand their influence. branson (2008) continued by arguing that if values are not aligned, there is a low likelihood that the organization can operate efficiently. by understanding its culture, an institution is more apt to build sustainable credit transfer programs, as its impact on student mobility will be more apparent (harrison, 2005). previous research, such as the recent study on measuring the cost of credit transfer in small colleges, have outlined numerous best practices, including the consideration of value system within an institution as a gauge of credit transfer initiatives (penner & howieson, 2016). the results of this research project will help build upon the body of knowledge regarding student mobility in ontario. before implementing organizational change, one must consider the types of conditions that would increase favourability amongst its members. according to weiner (2009), the first of which is change valence, a state that refers to whether the members of an organization value the proposed change. this includes whether they feel it is necessary, beneficial, and/or important. kurt lewins (1947) work is often considered to be a cornerstone in change theory. burnes (2004a) reexamined the works of lewin, arguing that his findings are still valid in modern society. in lewins field theory, he proposed that group behaviour had the power to modify individual behaviour. as a result, he considered individual behaviour to be a function of the field, otherwise known as the group environment. therefore, behaviour changes were said to result from forces within the field. lewin believed that if one understood these forces, they would be able to identify the forces that require modification in order to bring about change (burnes, 2004a). research about cultural change as it applies to student mobility was published in creating a culture of mobility: needs of small institutions, determined that an institutions culture of mobility can be thought of as phases upon a spectrum. each phase of cultural development is characterized by specific indicators and best practices. it was also determined that values, specifically student success, mobility, access, and faculty engagement are associated with an institutions culture of mobility. this study concluded that based on their findings, institutions could be plotted on the culture of mobility spectrum. upon review of their results, the participating institutions would then have the ability to make informed choices as to their goals of movement across the spectrum (penner et al., 2017). by considering previous research on value systems, institutional culture, and organizational change, one is more adept in determining the most appropriate method to invoke change within their specific institution. in doing so, the institution has the opportunity to consider how best to prepare their staff for new policies and procedure to increase student mobility, based upon their best practices. 3|page methodology the goals of this project were: to extrapolate and apply a specific, agreed upon best practice where the institutions cultures of mobility are at a different point on the spectrum and measure the effect of this application. to create a matrix values mapped to the cultural spectrum, to guide future cultural development. to identify the culture of mobility gaps that exist at various places on the culture of mobility spectrum within the ten participating institutions. to inventory underutilized pathways and identify approaches to improve utilization. to achieve these goals, ten (10) small institutions participated to determine the culture of mobility within their institution. the research questions to fulfill the goals of this project are: how does an institution move their culture of mobility along the full spectrum? 1. where are the gaps in mobility, based upon the existing cultures in these ten institutions? 2. what existing best practices could fill the gaps, and how do we adapt and apply within our institutions? 3. how can underused pathways be better utilized? findings using pretest and posttest survey data to map participating institutions on a spectrum that describes the culture of mobility, this study addressed the research questions inquiring about the gaps in existing cultures of mobility for each institution and whether best practices interventions could fill cultural gaps. considering a modest participant pool (eight small institutions) and data set (n=99 for pretest and n=72 for posttest), the results are encouraging. seventy-five percent of the participating institutions showed forward movement on the spectrum of cultural mobility for the practices indicating culture variable. in addition, 25% showed forward movement for the behaviours indicating values variable. table 1 is a summary of institutions cultural shifts on the spectrum before and after the intervention. table 1. movement on the culture of mobility before and after best practice interventions institution best practice categories results identification implemented values number 1 4|page new procedural behaviours employee engagement providing information to help student decisions waitlist* moved backward from mature phase to established phase employee engagement* and sem* moved backwards from transitioning to mature into established phase practices information to help students* moved forward from transitioning to established into established phase. new behaviours* moved backwards from established phase into transitioning to established institution identification number best practice categories implemented results values 2 new procedural behaviours employee engagement no movement on the spectrum 3 new procedural behaviours return on investment* moved backward from mature phase into transitioning to mature waitlist* moved backward from transitioning to mature into established phase 4 new procedural behaviours employee engagement providing information to help student decisions new procedural behaviours no movement on the spectrum new procedural behaviours general shift forward from established into transitioning to mature 5 6 employee engagement no movement on the spectrum 7 providing information to help student decisions general shift forward from established to mature phase 8 providing information to help student decisions no movement on the spectrum new procedural behaviours *questionnaire item 5|page practices student mobility terms used* moved forward from forming phase into established phase. student mobility terms understood* moved forward from established phase to mature phase new behaviours* moved backwards from mature phase into transitioning to mature information to help students* moved backwards from mature phase into transitioning to mature information to help students* moved forward form established phase into mature phase internal communication* moved forward from established phase into transitioning to mature phase general shift forward. internal communication* moved a full phase forward from transitioning to established to transitioning to mature internal communication* moved forward from transitioning to mature into mature phase no movement on the spectrum further investigation regarding a connection between the type of best practices intervention applied and forward movement on the culture of mobility spectrum revealed that of the seven participants who applied new procedural behaviours for at least one of their best practices intervention, 71% experienced forward cultural shifts. conversely, of the four participants who applied providing information to help student decisions as one of their interventions, 75% experienced forward movement on the cultural spectrum. one hundred percent of participants who used employee engagement as part of their intervention demonstrated forward cultural movement. a comparison with those participants who did not use employee engagement as part of their intervention resulted in the observation that only 50% of those institutions moved forward on the culture of mobility spectrum. conclusion and recommendations exploring change in culture is necessary in supporting student mobility for ontarios postsecondary education system. the present studys results revealed in the last year, all of the participating institutions experienced overall forward movement on the culture of mobility spectrum, although in specific areas, there was some backward movement. it was also discovered the participant group of institutions does not have a consistent method to track underutilized pathways. responses to best practice interventions were moderate and varied for the participating group; however, employee engagement emerged as an integral variable to facilitate forward cultural change. further research is needed to support theories that organizational change does not stabilize without member understanding and alignment (branson, 2008; weiner, 2009). recommendations from these findings are as follows: recommendation one: a method to track underutilized pathways be created and an inventory compiled with an assessment of why the pathways are underutilized. recommendation two: the survey tool used to measure cultural placement on the mobility spectrum be validated for further use with other institutions. recommendation three: further research be designed to specifically examine employee engagement as a factor in culture of mobility change. 6|page

instantan pathway development in college health science and university liberal science type: pathways development project number: 2019-37 or p1937 project lead: laurentian university collaborators: le collge la cit, le collge boral et l'universit laurentienne rsum du projet le projet veut offrir aux diplms du domaine de la sant la possibilit dobtenir un grade universitaire de faon acclre, par le biais dune passerelle avec notre b.sc. sciences librales. il permettra aussi aux tudiants du programme de sciences librales de profiter de reconnaissance de crdits dans les programmes de la sant cibls sils dsirent sinscrire au collge. justification du projet la pertinence du dveloppement de telles passerelles sest faite criante la lumire de lexigence particulire pour des candidats de ces domaines oeuvrant dans le milieu hospitalier, de dtenir un baccalaurat afin de pouvoir accder des postes administratifs. comme le b.sc. sciences librales offert la laurentienne est structur de faon souple et compos dune belle gamme de cours accessibles distance, il semblait tre le programme idal arrimer pour atteindre lobjectif vis. principaux collaborateurs le collge la cit, le collge boral et l'universit laurentienne le collge la cit et le collge boral ont eu la responsabilit de fournir la documentation ncessaire l'analyse des programmes cibls pour les passerelles, de participer aux rencontres et de faciliter la communication avec leurs coordonnateurs de programmes dans le cadre des travaux d'analyse des corrlations entre les cours de chaque tablissement. luniversit laurentienne quant elle, titre de principal coordonnateur du projet, sest charge d'excuter le plan de travail, de mener les travaux d'analyse, de coordonner les changes de communications et d'informations avec le collge la cit et le collge boral, d'assurer la bonne gestion financire et d'effectuer les rapports de suivis auprs du caton. rsultats obtenus en fait, par le biais de ce projet, nous esprions non seulement arriver laborer des passerelles du collge vers luniversit, mais galement de luniversit vers le collge. malheureusement, nous en arrivons la conclusion qu part les cours complmentaires requis des programmes collgiaux, les cours spcialiss ne sauraient tre reconnus la lumire des cours qui composent le programme de b.sc librales laurentienne. cependant, la faisabilit des passerelles partir des programmes collgiaux vers le programme universitaire reste trs plausible. tout dpendra des prochaines tapes dapprobation de nos recommandations. laboration des parcours mesures cls ltape cl au succs de ce projet est assurment celle o nous avons choisi de modifier lapproche danalyse pour quelle puisse sapparenter davantage la structure particulire du programme de b.sc librales, en regroupant les crdits collgiaux obtenus en suites thmatiques de cours. parcours crs les passerelles finalement en cours dapprobation sont les suivantes: 1) thrapie respiratoire de la cit (3 ans) 2) soins paramdicaux (2 ans) de la cit et / soins paramdicaux avancs (1 an) de la cit 3) assistant de lergothrapeute et de physiothrapeute de la cit et du collge boral (2 ans) 4) lectroneurodiagnostic de la cit (2 ans) vers le programme b.sc. sciences librales de luniversit laurentienne. donc sept (6) passerelles au total sont en cours dapprobation par les instances institutionnelles laurentienne. parcours incomplets effectivement, une (1) des sept (7) passerelles espres ne pourra tre labore pour le moment. en cours danne, le collge boral a pris la dcision de rviser son programme de soins paramdicaux. comme lanalyse prliminaire des corrlations entre les rsultats dapprentissage a t faite sur lancienne structure du programme, il a t entendu que cette passerelle ne serait pas soumise pour processus dapprobation cette anne, mais plutt envisage une fois la rvision du programme du collge boral complte et que les recommandations de reconnaissance soient ajustes en fonction des rvisions apportes au programme. noter toutefois que le processus dapprobation avec le programme de soins paramdicaux du collge la cit ira de lavant. dfis videmment, la question des chances est toujours une question de taille. la collecte des plans de cours, llaboration des matrices, et lanalyse des corrlations entre les rsultats dapprentissage semblent reprsenter lensemble des dmarches ralisables sur un calendrier acadmique. les processus dapprobation par les instances institutionnels doivent tre envisags dans lanne subsquente, pour tre ralistes. rsultats pour les tudiants les avantages des passerelles cibles dans ce projet vont au-del des avantages habituels. en effet, les passerelles collges-universits et universits-collges cherchent gnralement pargner temps et argent aux tudiants qui en bnficient. dans le cas prsent, non seulement les tudiants profiteront de ces avantages, mais ils pourront galement enfin, grce lacquisition dun baccalaurat, accder des postes administratifs auxquels ils nauraient pu appliquer sans un bac. titres dtudes voir pice jointe : caton1920_bilan cours reconnus_sc librales. noter quil sagit des crdits qui seront potentiellement reconnus. les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. conomies de temps pour les tudiants noter que ces informations ne sont quvalues sur le temps potentiel sauv par ltudiant, tant donn que les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. passerelle du programme de lassistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute (collge boral) vers le b.sc. sciences librales : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme de lassistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute (la cit) vers le b.sc. sciences librales : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme lectroneurodiagnostic vers le b.sc. sciences librales : environ 3 semestres. passerelle du programme de thrapie respiratoire vers le b.sc. sciences librales : environ 4 semestres. passerelle du programme de lassistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute vers le b.sc. sciences librales : environ 3.5 semestres. conomies financires pour les tudiants ces informations ne sont quvalues sur les frais de scolarits potentiels sauv par ltudiant, tant donn que les diverses instances dcisionnelles de la laurentienne doivent dabord y donner leur approbation avant la reconnaissance officielle. les conomies associes aux frais affrents et sa dlocalisation pour suivre les cours sont en sus. passerelle du programme de lassistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute (collge boral) vers le b.sc. sciences librales: environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme de lassistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute (la cit) vers le b.sc. sciences librales: environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme lectroneurodiagnostic vers le b.sc. sciences librales: environ 11 250$ passerelle du programme de thrapie respiratoire vers le b.sc. sciences librales: environ 15 000$ passerelle du programme de lassistant de lergothrapeute et du physiothrapeute vers le b.sc. sciences librales: environ 13 125$ souplesse pour les tudiants dabord, la reconnaissance de crdit potentielle dans le cadre de ces passerelles semble bien avantageuse. il faudra suivre si les diffrentes instances dcisionnelles accepteront les reconnaissances recommandes la suite de lanalyse effectue dans le cadre de ce projet. de plus, plusieurs cours associs au programme du b.sc sciences librales de la laurentienne sont accessibles en ligne. ce qui ajoute encore davantage de flexibilit au diplm collgial ou encore ltudiant potentiel dj sur le march du travail de pouvoir poursuivre ses tudes universitaires sans se voir imposer une dlocalisation obligatoire. harmonisation avec le travail des tudiants la motivation initiale de ce projet tait essentiellement base sur lavantage comptitif quil offrirait aux tudiants sur le march du travail dans le domaine hospitalier et qui aspirent des postes administratifs ncessitant un baccalaurat. nous pouvons donc affirmer quen effet, cette passerelle contribue lemployabilit des tudiants. rsultats pour les tablissements pas ce stade. certes, nous avons chang la faon de faire lanalyse pour rpondre la structure particulire du b.sc. librales de la laurentienne. toutefois, les changements au niveau des pratiques institutionnelles se feront davantage au niveau des critres qui confirmeront lapprobation des passerelles recommandes par les diffrentes instances institutionnelles. rpercussions sur le secteur ou le systme la situation vcue avec le collge boral et la passerelle que nous esprions dvelopper en soins paramdicaux (2 ans) aurait probablement pu tre anticipe lors du dpt des projets. nos expriences dmontrent quil faut un minimum de deux ans pour complter la cration dune passerelle, de lanalyse des corrlations des programmes la finalisation des processus dapprobation. dans un tel contexte, les dates prvues des rvisions des programmes collgiaux devraient tre prises en considration pour sassurer que la rvision nentre pas en conflit avec les objectifs de projets de passerelles. conseils pratiques le cas du programme de b.sc. sciences librales de luniversit laurentienne est assez unique. toutefois advenant le cas quun autre programme fonctionne galement plutt par suites thmatiques de cours que par cours prescrits, nous recommandons fortement de ne pas se limiter la corrlations des rsultats dapprentissage. le regroupement des cours collgiaux par thmatiques reprsente la mthodologie adopter. outils et ressources les principaux outils dvelopps dans le cadre de ce projet ont t les matrices danalyse. elles sont tlverses dans la section des livrables du projet.

2020 2021 project snapshot multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph elizabeth dhuey, bradley seward, david walters multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters keywords transfer students; high school performance; non-traditional pse pathways; student mobility; student borrowing; student debt; postsecondary graduation overview students are taking increasingly complex pathways through postsecondary education and acquiring unconventional combinations of credentials (st-denis et al., 2021). this has, in part, been driven by increasingly competitive labour markets, in which graduates require more robust resumes than before to obtain even entry-level jobs. despite these trends, little research exists on the returns associated with holding various (and unconventional) combinations of credentials. this study investigates the relationship between different combinations of credentials and graduates early labour market outcomesincluding earnings, underemployment, and loan obligationsthrough an analysis of ontario respondents in the 2013 and 2018 national graduate surveys. 2 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters why it matters this research suggests that vertical educational pathways experience a labour market gain. by contrast, individuals who pursue a postsecondary credential at a lower level than their first credential are unlikely to increase their earnings and are more likely to be underemployed. these findings suggest that there is no evidence for labour market gains resulting from university-to-college pathways. any claims to the financial benefits of taking a reverse educational pathway should therefore be treated with caution. if programs were put in place to better prepare graduates for postsecondary education, and to avoid the time and monetary costs of switching majors, transferring schools, or pursuing additional degrees, there is the potential for significant individual savings. this report presents a case for alternative opportunities for upskilling and retooling that do not carry the same time and financial costs of a second pass through traditional postsecondary programs. advancements in the short-credential market are continuing to grow, offering novel opportunities to develop skills and competencies via micro-credentials, stackable credits, and badges. as the labour market continues to diversify and specialize in response to rapid advancements in innovation and technology, these types of non-traditional skilling pathways could alleviate some of the individual costs associated with lengthy and costly additional postsecondary pursuits. 3 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters the report also suggests that there may be better ways to support individuals educational interests without the greater risk of more time in school, forgone income in the labour market, or taking on large loans. this may be in the form of improved career counselling directed at high school students or recent secondary school graduates. one pertinent area for investment would be to focus on students without prior family history in postsecondary education or postsecondary completion. if programs were put in place to better prepare graduates for postsecondary education, and to avoid the time and monetary costs of switching majors, transferring schools, or pursuing additional degrees, there is the potential for significant individual savings. key findings demographic profile female students, racial minorities, and immigrants are more likely to be multi-credentialed graduates (mcgs). persons with disabilities appear underrepresented in this population, suggesting that disability status whether via accommodation requirements or financial obligations may be a barrier to obtaining subsequent credentials. individuals with multiple credentials are also more likely to be married and have children. 3 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters underemployment mcgsexcept for those holding two bachelors degreeshave a higher estimated likelihood of experiencing objective underemployment. however, mcgs are generally not more likely than single credential holders to feel overqualified in the jobs they acquire three years after graduating. loan burden mcgsapart from those with multiple university bachelors degreesare no more likely than their single-credentialed counterparts to possess a student loan balance at the end of their studies or to have larger loans. earnings completion of a college credential after a university bachelors degree does not result in increased earnings, but completing a second bachelors degree does provide an earnings increase. nevertheless, there is limited payoff to obtaining a second college credential but a sizable benefit to completing a university credential after college. the figure on the next page presents the average annual earnings of national graduate survey respondents by credential status for the full sample (in blue) and the sample of full-time workers used in the earnings analysis (in orange). 4 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters figure 1: average earnings across credential type, by sample college only college to college college to university university only university to college university to university postgrad postgrad to postgrad postgrad to university/college $30,000 $40,000 full sample $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 full-time workers $80,000 multi-credentialed graduates in canada: employment, earnings, and student loan holding university of toronto, university of guelph | dhuey, seward & walters figure 2: average outcomes of interest by credit type a. feels overqualified b. underemployed college only college only college to college college to college college to university college to university university only university only university to college university to college university to university university to university postgrad postgrad postgrad to university/college postgrad to university/college postgrad to postgrad postgrad to postgrad overall overall 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 proportion % 50 75 100 proportion % c. loans at graduation d. annual earnings college only college only college to college college to college college to university college to university university only university only university to college university to college university to university university to university postgrad postgrad postgrad to university/college postgrad to university/college postgrad to postgrad postgrad to postgrad overall overall 0 25 50 proportion % 75 100 40000 50000 60000 70000 mean income $ 80000 further reading to read the full report, please visit the report homepage. st-denis, xavier, yacine boujija, and stephen sartor. (2021). non-linear pse pathways and credential and credential accumulation. toronto: ontario council for articulation and transfer. click to read the article. 8 to read the full report , please visit : https://oncat .ca/en/projects/multi-credentialed-graduatescanada-employment-earnings-and-student-loan-holding established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. this snapshot was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021.

project snapshot schooling and labour market outcomes of ontario transfer students type: research project number: 2019-12 or r1912 project lead: university of ottawa collaborators:this project did not involve direct institutional collaboration and instead made use of statistics canada's education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) in order to examine data for all ontario universities. deliverables for website (if applicable): schooling and labour market outcomes of ontario transfer students evidence from pse-tax linked data project summary the education policy research initiative (epri) used statistics canadas new education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) to examine university transfer students in ontario to identify the characteristics of transfer students and compare their schooling and labour market outcomes to those of non-transfer students. this project represents the first system-wide analysis of transfer students encompassing all universities in ontario, covering a period of six years. project rationale extensive work has already been done to examine transfer students and pathways in ontario. however, data limitations have previously restricted research to examining specific pathways an d transfers between pairs of institutions, or coalitions of institutions formed to examine pathways and transfers. while the ontario education number (oen), now used in the postsecondary education (pse) sector, represents a great opportunity to learn about systemwide pathways, few years of pse data are available, limiting any outcome- based analysis. to our knowledge, the oen is currently used to produce an annual student mobility report, which constitutes an accounting exercise detailing the flow of students across ontario pse institutions and they data could soon be used to look at student outcomes as it kee ps following students over their academic pathways. a number of other canadian jurisdictions have undertaken systemwide analysis of transfer students. since 1991 the british columbia council on admissions and transfers (bccat) has prepared transfer student profile reports on a periodic basis. the maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec) has used the postsecondary student information system (psis) to collect information from all pse institutions in those provinces in order to examine a wide variety of topics, including the time to graduation for students who change programs, transfer between institutions, or do both, in comparison to students who remain in the same program and institution for the duration of their studies. the project proposed here would represent the first systemwide analysis of transfer students encompassing all universities in ontario and would also under take a pioneering analysis of the labour market outcomes of transfer students, thereby putting ontario at the forefront of transfer student research. this project used statistics canadas new education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp), linking psis administrative data on all pse students at all pse institutions across the country to personal income tax data, to examine the characteristics of transfer students from ontario universities, and compare their schooling (e.g., graduation rates) and labour market outcomes (e.g., earnings) to those of non-transfer students. what research methods were used? this study constructs an analysis sample from the education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp), a dataset at statistics canada which allows us to link the postsecondary student information system (psis), administrative data on canadian postsecondary education (pse) students, to personal income tax information stored in the t1 family files (t1ff). the enrollment histories and graduation outcomes of the fall 2009 entry cohort are tracked and their changes in field of study and institution attended are noted. for graduates from this cohort, their income tax information in the t1ff is extracted to calculate their employment earnings one year after graduation. the variables of interest (transfer rates, graduation rates, and firstyear employment earnings after graduation) are calculated and broken down by student and program characteristics including field of study, gender, age and immigration status. moreover, graduation rates and firstyear employment earnings are broken down by different student mobility patterns to investigate the relationship between the outcome of interest and student transfers. the differences are also adjusted using statistical modelling techniques to account for difference s in other characteristics across the groups being compared. describe any limitations the differences in earnings estimated in this report (using an ordinary least square method) do not have causal interpretations. in other words, they are not solely attributable to differences in student mobility without further assumptions. the gap could result from preexisting differences in students ability or other factors that are unobservable but correlated with university transfer or change in field of study. identifying the causal effects of student mobility on postgraduation earnings would require further investigations using more complex analytical techniques or more detailed data on student in order to control for such factors, and is beyond the scope of this study. considering the limited number of years available on the elmlp, we could only look at the first year of postgraduation earnings. as the elmlp updates on a yearly basis, we could continue to explore earnings of transfer students to see if experience in the labour market becomes an equalizer and whether types of transfer still matter. also, while the goal was to only examine students without prior enrollment, it is impossible to determine whether 2009 entrants are truly first time pse goers. in the absence of information indicating that the 2009 enrollment records represent students first university program, we only include individuals age 17 to 19 at the end of 2009 to increase the likelihood that students in the sample are indeed all 2009 first-time university entrants. finally, we only examine students who are continuously enrolled. this means that students with interruption in their academic pathway are removed from this initial analysis. research findings field of study is the primary characteristics related to student transfers. the humanities and other fields of study, which mostly encompass general and multidisciplinary programs, are the two fields most associated with the change in field of study or institution. on the other hand, architecture, engineering and related technologies is the field least associated with student mobility, with students in visual and performing arts and communications technologies, health and related fields, and personal, protective and transportation services not far behind. little differences are found between male and female students in their propensities to transfer to a different university or to change field of study once their program and student characteristics are taken into account. on the other hand, more pronounced differences are found across immigration status, with international students and permanent residents being much more likely to change field of study than canadian citizens. conditional on the firstyear enrollment (i.e., fall 2009 entrants still being enrolled in fall 2010), fouryear graduation rates among transfers students are lower than students who stay in the same university and field of study by 18 and 27 percentage points, depending whether transfer students also change field of study or not, respectively. while these differences narrow to 6 and 7 percentage points two years later (sixyear graduation), the lower graduation rates of transfer students suggest that transfers students experience a slower academic progression. the mean employment earnings one year after graduation of transfer students who study the in the same field throughout their academic career are not statistically different from those of students who remain in the same university and field. on the other hand, transfer students who change field of study have lower mean earnings than nontransfer students who remain in the same field of study by $3,100, with this difference being statistically significant at the 5 percent level. however, nontransfer students who change field of study also have lower earnings than their counterparts without a change in field of study, which may suggest the lower earnings are not due to transfer to a different university, per se. future research future research could explore the relationship between a change of field of study and labour market outcomes in greater detail. in this project, we identify a negative relationship between change in field of study and earnings, both for students also transferring between different universities and for students remaining at the same university. future research could also update this analysis using additional years of labour market information to see how the relationship holds or changes over time. student outcomes this project benefits transfer students by providing them with a deeper understanding of the relationship between transferring between universities and/or programs and their likelihood of graduating, time to completing their degree, and their earnings following graduation. sector or system implications this study provides a more comprehensive view of ontario transfer students by taking advantage of a systemwide pse enrollment and graduation information. by necessity due to a data coverage issue in the elmlp for ontario college students until the 2014/2015 reporting cycle, this study focuses on student mobility among ontario universities only. however, university-touniversity transfers have been far less studied compared to college-touniversity transfers. therefore, this study provides new and unique evidence on this relatively unexplored subject. moreover, this study put into practice the possibility of using the elmlp to analyze student path ways and transfers at the systemwide level. as more complete data coverage over a longer time period become available for ontario colleges, this study starts to lay the methodological groundwork to study college-touniversity, college-to-college, as well as university-to-college transfers for future projects. tips/advice our advice is to ensure that researchers are very familiar with the dataset, including gaps and data quality concerns, before beginning a project in this area. additionally, developing institutional knowledge about the nature of the ontario transfer system is useful in order to interpret the data.

oncat careers communications manager location: toronto, ontario, canada type: full-time location: downtown toronto location at university and dundas, near st. patrick station (180 dundas west, suite 1902) salary range: $75,000 to $85,000 about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's publicly funded colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. as a member organization, we work with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. as a non-profit organization created and funded by the government of ontario, oncat works with postsecondary education institutions to build a seamless system for transfer credit in ontario and support student mobility. oncat staff are currently working in a hybrid environment with a minimum of two (2) days in the office per week and may increase in-office days. about the position if you are a talented and creative communications professional looking to join a diverse group of highly skilled, intelligent people who are passionate about student mobility, we are looking for a communications manager. reporting to the policy and public affairs director, the incumbent will be digitally savvy and collaborative. their main responsibility will be supporting the implementation of oncats strategic goals and priorities through the continued development and execution of oncats communications plan. this includes creative development and production of print and digital communications and collaborating with oncat colleagues on knowledge mobilization initiatives that make sector-wide research and policy work more creatively accessible. the incumbent cultivates and manages positive communications internally and externally with students, postsecondary education partners, media, and the community. key responsibilities ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 communications managment manages the development of communication materials with the support of a digital communications coordinator. prepares written materials including copywriting for business communications, reports, media releases, newsletters, presentation scripts, conference materials and the annual report. works with oncats senior researcher to capture and represent research project findings in accessible formats for multiple audiences. collaborates with oncat colleagues and stakeholders developing visually engaging and informative communications materials and maintaining a strong social media presence for oncat and ontransfer.ca. represents oncat at various media events, workshops, and fairs internal and external to the organization. synthesizes insights from multiple oncat activities and initiatives to support oncats priorities. manages the development and oversight of oncats visual identity and brand. develops print collateral including brochures, annual reports, infographics, and corporate communications materials. ensures consistency and quality in oncats products and communication materials. manages external vendors to coordinate production and printing. develops content for microsoft sharepoint hub, ontransfer.ca, oncat.ca and social media channels (e.g., twitter, facebook, youtube, etc.). works with oncat staff leads to ensure oncats corporate website is updated, and content refreshed on a regular basis. nurtures and builds relationships with vendors and other industry contacts to craft and execute creative marketing materials. communication planning and evaluation develops and manages oncats annual communications/public relations plan to advance and broaden awareness of programs and priorities. evaluates spending, defining return on investment for promotional activities in line with oncats budget. manages oncats social media strategy broadening reach to appropriate audiences. collaborates with oncats policy and public affairs director to ensure objectives are met. leads departmental budget development and monitoring. oversees production of oncats print and digital communication to promote both the corporate and student facing websites (oncat.ca and ontransfer.ca). supports the redevelopment of oncat.ca and collaborates with colleagues in the redevelopment of ontransfer.ca. manages advertising and marketing of oncat/ontransfer.ca activities. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 monitors effective benchmarks (best practices) for measuring the impact of digital marketing campaigns. advises in the development & execution of digital ads, including the management of google analytics. advises on media buying opportunities, purchases advertisements and researches new opportunities to increase awareness of ontransfer.ca. education and experience undergraduate degree or advanced diploma, preferably in marketing or communications. 5 to 7 years of relevant work experience in communications progressively into senior roles. experience managing stakeholder relations, communication/media plans, projects, and initiatives. experience working in a non-profit (provincial or national) or broader public sector organization, or postsecondary educational institution. excellent written and verbal communication skills, including: o copy writing (including web content) o proofreading and editing o copy editing o ability to clearly communicate information effectively and persuasively knowledge of ontarios postsecondary education sector. experience supervising marketing and graphic projects and using social media tools to engage with stakeholders. strong project and time management skills. excellent attention to detail. ability to establish, collaborate and maintain relationships with a diverse range of people and organizations (e.g., vendors, internal experts or teams, stakeholders, students). demonstrated ability to work independently and work collaboratively in a team environment. high proficiency with ms office and knowledge of adobe creative suite. fluency in french is an asset. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is may 1st 11:59pm est. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening, or an interview will be contacted. additional testing may be required. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3 oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require an accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. oncat welcomes qualified applications from persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples from north america, including first nations, metis and inuit peoples, visible minorities (racialized) persons, and those who identify as women and/or 2slgbtq+. oncat supports an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |4

financial statements ontario council on articulation and transfer march 31, 2019 ontario council on articulation and transfer contents page independent auditor's report 1-2 statement of financial position 3 statements of operations and changes in net assets 4 statement of cash flows 5 notes to the financial statements 6 - 10 independent auditor's report grant thornton llp 11th floor 200 king street west, box 11 toronto, on m5h 3t4 t +1 416 366 0100 f +1 416 360 4949 www.grantthornton.ca to the members of ontario council on articulation and transfer opinion we have audited the financial statements of ontario council on articulation and transfer (the organization), which comprise the statement of financial position as at march 31, 2019, and the statements of operations and changes in net assets and cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. in our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the organization as at march 31, 2019, and its its results of operations and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations. basis for opinion we conducted our audit in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards. our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. we are independent of the organization in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in canada, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. we believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. responsibilities of management and those charged with governance for the financial statements management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations, and for such internal control as management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. in preparing the financial statements, management is responsible for assessing the organization's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless management either intends to liquidate the organization or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so. those charged with governance are responsible for overseeing the organization's financial reporting process. audit | tax | advisory grant thornton llp. a canadian member of grant thornton international ltd 1 auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. as part of an audit in accordance with canadian generally accepted auditing standards, we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit. we also: identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control. obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the organization's internal control. evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by management. conclude on the appropriateness of management's use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the organization's ability to continue as a going concern. if we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor's report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor's report. however, future events or conditions may cause the organization to cease to continue as a going concern. evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation. we communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit. toronto, canada september 27, 2019 chartered professional accountants licensed public accountants audit | tax | advisory grant thornton llp. a canadian member of grant thornton international ltd 2 ontario council on articulation and transfer statement of financial position march 31 assets current cash accounts receivable (note 3) prepaid expenses property and equipment (note 4) intangible assets (note 5) liabilities current accounts payable and accrued liabilities deferred revenue (note 7) 2019 2018 $ 4,016,567 54,578 66,380 $ 2,843,251 95,097 113,383 4,137,525 3,051,731 142,281 8,867 168,913 14,284 $ 4,288,673 $ 3,234,928 $ 1,948,951 2,339,722 $ 1,518,933 1,715,995 $ 4,288,673 $ 3,234,928 commitments (note 8) on behalf of the board member see accompanying notes to the financial statements. member 3 ontario council on articulation and transfer statements of operations and changes in net assets year ended march 31 revenues government grants investment income other income 2019 2018 $ 5,343,677 16,119 35,063 $ 6,087,197 9,332 35,263 5,394,859 6,131,792 3,504,046 1,350,855 206,840 175,963 60,342 35,242 26,275 22,159 13,137 4,058,682 1,283,413 167,117 210,926 61,332 277,439 34,312 21,443 17,128 5,394,859 6,131,792 expenditures project expense salaries and benefits accomodations professional fees computing and financial services amortization travel and meetings communications office and general excess of revenues over expenses $ - $ - surplus, beginning of year $ - $ - excess of revenues over expenses surplus, end of year $ see accompanying notes to the financial statements. - $ - 4 ontario council on articulation and transfer statement of cash flows year ended march 31 2019 2018 increase (decrease) in cash operating excess of revenues over expenses items not affecting cash amortization of property and equipment amortization of intangible assets change in non-cash working capital items accounts receivable prepaid expenses accounts payable and accrued liabilities deferred revenue $ - - 29,825 5,417 277,439 - 35,242 277,439 40,519 47,003 430,018 623,727 1,176,509 investing purchase of property and equipment $ (3,193) 158,904 (12,735) (1,165,083) 1,330,015 588,540 (157,647) increase in cash 1,173,316 430,893 cash beginning of year 2,843,251 2,412,358 $ 4,016,567 $ 2,843,251 end of year see accompanying notes to the financial statements. 5 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2019 1. nature of organization ontario council on articulation and transfer (the organization) was incorporated on august 23, 2011 by letters patent under the laws of canada. the organization is responsible for directing and managing the day-to-day activities and operations associated with the council including academic collaboration fund projects, the ontransfer web site, including the ontario transfer guide and course equivalency database, and various research activities. 2. significant accounting policies these financial statements have been prepared in accordance with canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations (asnpo) using the deferral fund method of reporting externally restricted contributions. use of estimates the preparation of the organizations financial statements in conformity with asnpo requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the balance sheet date and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making estimates, actual results could differ from those estimates. financial instruments the organizations financial instruments are comprised of cash, accounts receivable and accounts payable. financial assets and liabilities are initially recognized at their fair value. the organization subsequently measures all financial assets and financial liabilities at amortized cost. property and equipment property and equipment are recorded at cost and are being amortized over their estimated useful lives. the annual amortization rates are as follows: furniture leasehold improvements computer equipment 5 years 10 years 3 years intangible assets intangible assets are recorded at cost and amortized over their useful lives. software license costs are amortized over the length of the transfer payment agreement. website and software costs are amortized on a straight-line basis over 5 years. accrual of expenses expenses have been recorded using the accrual basis of accounting, and all expenses have been recorded in the period to which the expense relates. 6 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2019 2. significant accounting policies (continued) revenue recognition grants are initially recorded as deferred revenue and are recognized as revenue in the year in which the related expenses are incurred. investment and other income is recognized when received or receivable and the amount can be reasonably estimated and collection reasonably assured. 3. accounts receivable 2019 hst receivable 4. $ 54,578 2018 $ 95,097 property and equipment cost furniture leasehold improvements computer equipment accumulated amortization 2019 2018 net book value net book value $ 94,438 195,875 38,510 $ 65,501 90,660 30,381 $ 28,937 105,215 8,129 $ 44,092 114,148 10,673 $ 328,823 $ 186,542 $ 142,281 $ 168,913 the organization completed leasehold improvements in fiscal 2018. netted against the cost of the leasehold improvements is a leasehold reimbursement from the landlord of $188,360. 5. intangible assets website and software software license cost 2019 2018 net book value net book value cost accumulated amortization $ 1,484,317 399,000 $ 1,475,450 399,000 $ 8,867 - $ 14,284 - $ 1,883,317 $ 1,874,450 $ 8,867 $ 14,284 7 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2019 6. bank indebtedness the organization has a line of credit in the amount of $500,000 bearing interest at prime plus 1.5%, due on demand and secured with a general security agreement. as at march 31, 2019, the balance was $nil (2018 - $nil). 7. deferred revenue 2019 2018 deferred revenue, beginning of period funds received less: revenue recognized $ 1,715,995 $ 385,980 5,967,404 7,417,211 (5,343,677) (6,087,196) deferred revenue, end of period $ 2,339,722 8. $ 1,715,995 commitments (a) premises lease agreement the organization is committed under the terms of the operating lease for premises up to fiscal 2028. the annual minimum lease payments over the next five years are as follows: 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 subsequent years $ 109,527 111,745 111,745 114,849 117,066 399,974 $ 964,906 (b) credit transfer project the organization entered into agreements with a number of ontario colleges and universities to prepare components of the various initiatives undertaken by the organization. under the terms of the agreements, the colleges and universities have been engaged to complete portions of the pathway development, innovative curriculum development, and research projects up to fiscal 2022. the annual minimum commitment payments over the next three years are as follows: 2020 2021 2022 $ 1,066,353 190,146 85,536 8 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2019 9. financial instruments transactions in financial instruments may result in the organization assuming or transferring to another party one of more the financial risks described below. the required disclosures provide information that assists users of the financial statements in assessing the extent of risk related to financial instruments. credit risk the organizations credit risk is primarily with respect to their accounts receivable. given the nature of receivables, the organization does not consider credit risk to be significant. liquidity risk the organizations liquidity risk represents the risk that the organization could encounter difficulty in meeting obligations associated with financial liabilities. the organization is exposed to liquidity risk mainly in respect of its accounts payable. the organization manages liquidity risk by maintaining cash balances in excess of outstanding obligations. market risk market risk is the risk that the fair value or expected future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in market prices. market risk comprises three types of risk: currency risk, interest rate risk and other price risk. the organization is not exposed to significant currency risk, interest rate risk or other price risk due to the nature of their financial instruments. 9 ontario council on articulation and transfer notes to the financial statements march 31, 2019 10. ministry spending reconciliation the reconciliation of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (formerly ministry of advanced education and skills development) funding and expenditures is as follows. 2019 funding received during the year funds received from the ministry (note 7) total expenditures expenses per statement of operations items capitalized for accounting purposes property and equipment less: amortization 2018 $ 5,967,404 $ 7,417,211 $ 5,394,859 $ 6,131,792 3,193 (35,242) 157,647 (277,439) $ 5,362,810 $ 6,012,000 surplus other income investment income $ 604,594 35,063 16,119 $ 1,405,211 35,263 9,332 total surplus $ 655,776 $ 1,449,806 10

acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge and express appreciation for the efforts of software development team that include: dr. vijay mago (project lead) atish pawar natural language processing algorithm sahib singh budhiraja, jayant chowdary pdf learning outcome extraction daniel kivi, joshua romito web development dillon small data analysis and r+ support nancy luckai strategic oversight kaylin kainulainen kinesiology content expert table of contents project purpose and goals 4 methodology and milestones 5 pass 1: maximize the similarity pass 2: bound the similarity building a domain specific corpus uploading course content accessing the program database comparing two programs running an analysis user output testing and refining the predictive model 2015-22: pathways to the honours bachelor in outdoor recreation 2018-11: two way transfer developing post-secondary mobility pathways for ontario health, fitness and well being students 2016-24: honours bachelor in computer science conclusions 5 5 6 6 7 8 8 9 11 11 13 14 16 project purpose and goals the purpose of this project was to develop an unsupervised natural language processing algorithm and an online web-based interface that will automatically compare and contrast program and course level learning outcomes (lo) associated with postsecondary education. the goals associated with this project include: goal: to develop a natural language processing (nlp) algorithm that identifies key aspects of syntax, grammar and semantics of post-secondary learning outcomes as informed by recognized taxonomies of learning. goal: to apply the nlp algorithm in a matching/gap analysis capacity whereby the algorithm is able to analyze two separate post-secondary programs and both accurately and reliably generate a list of matching program level and course level learning outcomes and a list of non-matching program level and course level learning outcomes. goal: to operationalize the natural language processing tool such that it is applicable to large data sets (ex. game education matrix) but also accessible to ontario postsecondary institutions who have a database of learning outcomes and content data that could be used to generate transfer pathway possibilities. ideally, if learning outcomes are associated with specific courses, the tool would recommend a list of courses that could be included in a block transfer credit package or that are duplicated in an integrated diploma/degree program. essentially, the goal was to create an online tool that post-secondary partners can use to upload their course information and learning outcomes into a database, select courses and run a comparison between either a program or a set of pre-selected courses. the nlp algorithm generates calculations of semantic similarity between learning outcomes, the courses associated with those learning outcomes and generates visual outputs that assist institutions in seeing the similarities and differences between their respective programs. methodology and milestones the project phases below describe the technical process our team used to develop an algorithm using natural language processes, the processes associated with the development of the web based application and concludes with a summary of all testing processes. defining low and high level nlp tasks the following phases describe the specific nlp related processes which may only be accessible to computer science specialists. pass 1: maximize the similarity the methodology used for this project considers the text as a sequence of words and deals with all the words in sentences separately according to their semantic and syntactic structure. the information content of the word is related to the frequency of the meaning of the word in a lexical database or a corpus. a semantic vector is formed for each sentence which contains the weight assigned to each word for every other word from the second sentence in comparison. this step also takes into account the information content of the word, for instance, word frequency from a standard corpus. semantic similarity is calculated based on two semantic vectors. an order vector is formed for each sentence which considers the syntactic similarity between the sentences. finally, semantic similarity is calculated based on semantic vectors and order vectors. pass 1 deals with the three important aspects: word similarity, sentence similarity, and word order similarity pass 2: bound the similarity the first pass of the algorithm returns the maximized similarity between two sentences. the second pass of the algorithm aims at computing a more robust similarity by reducing the ancillary similarity which causes skewness in results by considering syntactical structure, adjectives and adverbs, and negations in the sentences. skewness in this context implies the deviation of the similarity from the similarity in the sick dataset1. we use spacys dependency parser model which is the best performing model in the context of this algorithm. the intuitive idea behind this model is to keep track of the syntactical differences by incrementing a global dependency variable. the semantic analysis of any two sentences starts off with the comparison of words in the sentences and thereby determining the semantic similarity between all the words. hence, the semantic similarity between words is the most crucial aspect when establishing the semantic similarity between sentences. within the context of our testing, it was clear that the semantic relations between words in post-secondary education are highly domain-specific. therefore, we began to apply processes that would allow for the use of a domainspecific corpus to support enhanced word similarity. 1 pawar, a., & mago, v. (2018). calculating the similarity between words and sentences using a lexical database and corpus statistics. arxiv preprint arxiv:1802.05667. building a domain specific corpus learning objectives from course outlines can contain peculiar words with meanings that are field specific. for instance, the word python, in the domain of computer science, means a programming language whereas it could mean a species of reptiles in a more general sense. hence, using a general purpose corpus does not always provide reliable results for highly specialized fields with technical jargon. so, building a domainspecific corpus and training the model with the corpus was applied in the later stages of this project. we chose wikipedia as a source for compiling a corpus where a user can select a sub-category under which resides many sub-categories related to their domain to train the model. we used the petscan api to get the wikipedia structure of a particular category, the wikipedia python api to retrieve and parse the articles to get the textual content from the article webpage. finally, we stored the corpus as a python file which enables us to compile the corpus to find if there are any non-ascii characters. filtering such characters is a necessary step before training the model. every article is stored as a list element in the file for simpler iterations. developing the online database and recommendation system the purpose of the application is to give end users (admissions/registrars office, faculty, chairs, upper administration and students) the ability to upload course content and learning outcomes related to two different programs and receive a visual analysis of the similarities and differences. the following outlines the user experience and details associated with how the system applies various rules to sort through courses. uploading course content figure 1 figure 1 captures the web application upload screen. a user can input the name of the program, select from a list of all ontario post-secondary institutions, input the course name and course code and the instructor (optional). then the user can either upload a pdf of their course outline whereby the learning outcomes will be extracted or users can manually input their learning outcomes (entitled course objectives on the website). users can then save as many courses as they would like and submit those saved courses into a database associated with the program and institution. accessing the program database figure 2 once a user has uploaded a set of courses the user can access their database. this database contains all the courses and learning outcomes accessible to the user and the user can edit the courses or learning outcomes whenever they see fit. if this application was applied in the context of a transfer project initiative between multiple institutions shared access to the project data via the database could be provided. this allows for an online accessible repository of all courses and learning outcomes associated with a pathway. all transfer related staff and faculty can view, update and change courses to modify agreements for program reviews, ministry program standards changes, accreditation and cyclical program reviews. comparing two programs figure 3 to compare the semantic similarities between two programs a user can select from their list of uploaded programs to identify a sending program and a receiving program. the page loads a list of courses associated with the selected credential and users can choose to exclude courses from the analysis. for instance, in one of our testing phases the user wanted to only compare anatomy courses between two health related credentials, therefore the user moved all unnecessary courses to the excluded courses box visible at the bottom portion of the image above. running an analysis once the user has completed selecting the courses for analysis, they initiate the process by way of a start processing button and the system starts to compare every word of every learning outcome in every course and comes up a semantic similarity percentage between all sending and receiving institution learning outcomes. a score is calculated for each combination of receiving and sending courses by averaging all of the individual learning objective scores between the two respective courses. the learning objective score is simply the highest semantic match made between that learning objective, and any learning objective from the sending course. however, courses that have many semantically similar learning objectives should be preferred over courses that only have one of few similar learning objectives, so the learning objective with the highest semantic score is taken from the course with the most significant semantic scores, if such a course is available. the logic for these decisions is displayed in figure 4. figure 4 user output figure 5 users have three options to view the output from the nlp application analysis. 1. a results page, shown in figure 5, that allows the user to select any set of courses from the overall analysis and see the exact semantic similarity calculation between any learning outcomes from those selected courses. an overall calculation of the similarity between all courses selected is displayed. in the example picture above the overall course match between the two courses selected is 29% (very low) with individual learning outcome percentages displayed below. 2. a report page can be generated that provides a: a. list of suggested courses for the user to consider for transfer credit that is ranked based on the highest percentage of semantic similarity. b. a heatmap of all the courses included in the analysis that allow users to see areas where different courses may overlap and see overarching trends for future investigation. in the example of a heatmap in figure 6 the r series represents all the courses from one institution and the s series represents all the courses from a different institution. note that the courses associated with the s and r series are not visible in the image. 3. an excel file of all the learning outcome level and course level similarity percentages can also be generated and downloaded. figure 6 from the example heatmap above it is apparent that courses r7, r8 and r9 are more similar to the s series than courses r1, r2 and r3. additionally, course s4 seems to have no similarity at all. the heatmap provides an overall visualization that can support transfer pathway discussions at a program lo level and insights as to where the overlaps exist between two programs. testing and refining the predictive model algorithm testing the initial development of the unsupervised, general purpose algorithm included extracting the learning outcomes from 500 course outlines randomly selected and downloaded from a variety of global post-secondary institutions. word to word and sentence to sentence comparisons were evaluated against standardized benchmarks in the field of natural language processing including the sick dataset and the rubenstein and goodenough benchmark2. content expert comparison testing course and learning outcome information from previous oncat funded pathways projects were used to test the accuracy and functionality of the system when compared to the decisions made by content experts and faculty members. we conducted three separate tests with historical data from oncat pathway projects 2015-22, 2018-11, and 2016-24. 2015-22: pathways to the honours bachelor in outdoor recreation of the multiple pathways developed in oncat project 2015-22, we compared the historical data from the georgian college tourism marketing and product development diploma (17 course outlines containing 97 learning outcomes) and the honours bachelor in outdoor recreation degree (13 course outlines containing 101 learning outcomes). the analysis included approximately 20,806 sentence to sentence comparisons and took 31 hours and 45 minutes to process. the style of gap analysis used by the project team in the historical project involved a 100+ page document containing tables where matching courses and learning outcomes were placed side and side with overlapping learning outcomes highlighted. courses used in the historical project were shortlisted by the content experts and so we conducted our analysis on the short-listed courses. 2 pawar, a., & mago, v. (2018). calculating the similarity between words and sentences using a lexical database and corpus statistics. arxiv preprint arxiv:1802.05667. hbor ranking comparison 80 80 80 64 research design 57 69 57 68 67 66 natural areas programming evaluation and foundations and tourism assessment of recreation content expert rank nlp rank figure 7 we elected to compare the percentage of overlapping learning outcomes between two courses selected by the content experts to the percentage of semantic similarity calculated by the nlp algorithm for courses that were included in the analysis. additionally, we were interested in whether the nlp system, as a recommender system where the highest overlapping course would be recommended first, would choose the same courses and the content experts. for the hbor pathways the nlp system would have recommended giving credit for research design, natural areas and tourism, then programming, evaluation and assessment and finally foundations of recreation. the actual program credit awarded in the historical project included foundations of recreation and programming. while the other credits were considered by the project team, they were not included for a variety of reasons beyond percentage of learning outcome overlap. the outcomes from this initial round of testing include decisions to: restructure the flow of database to decrease the amount of time needed to process the learning outcomes noted that semantic similarity on highly technical outdoor courses was not a good match and we may require a corpus to train the algorithm in certain settings. brief definition and description of a corpus: for the purposes of this report, a corpus is simply a large number of documents from a specific field of study. used in a machine learning context, the system reads all of the documents and builds a map of linkages between words to be able to calculate semantic similarity for a specific field. an example from this project would be the word python. in the field of computer science python is the name of a programming language, in general however a python is a snake. when the word python was compared to the word language using two different general-purpose algorithms the measure of semantic similarity was 56% and 42% respectively. when a computer science corpus was used to train the system the similarity between the word python and language increased to 81% which is accurate only in the field of computer science. future tests should either include a live content expert ranking or come from projects that include content experts ranking overlaps using surveys with percentages for a more accurate analysis. 2018-11: two way transfer developing post-secondary mobility pathways for ontario health, fitness and well being students to conduct an in person ranking of the individual semantic similarity calculations the project coordinator for project 2018-11 volunteered to do an analysis of the nlp output from learning outcomes associated with the anatomy courses in the strength and conditioning diploma from canadore college and the anatomy courses required in the honours bachelor in kinesiology at lakehead university. after completing the analysis we downloaded the excel files and the content expert ranked each learning outcome individually as either good, neutral or bad. out of 100 semantic similarity calculations between learning outcomes the content expert determined that 88 of the matches were ranked as bad, 6 matches were ranked as neutral and 6 matches were ranked as good. considering the relative success of the outdoor recreation testing, this came as a surprise to the team. when we examined the language of the learning outcomes it became clear that for a highly specialized field with specific technical jargon, such as anatomy and physiology, it would be necessary to train the algorithm using domain specific databases (a corpus) of language. table 1 provides a sample of the kinesiology output. the actual semantics of the sentence from the receiving institution anatomy course identify and describe the organization of the nervous system including anatomical and functional classifications is similar to the sentence identify the structure and function of the circulatory system and some common disorders however to any health professional these learning outcomes would be associated with two completely different aspects of human anatomy. table 1 identify and describe the organization of the nervous system including anatomical and functional classifications. identify the main components of the human skeletal structure and perform flexibility movements, including static, dynamic, and pnf. identify the structure and function of the circulatory system and some common disorders identify the structure and function of the respiratory system and some common disorders identify the structures, planes, regions, and structural levels of organization % course number over lap 82 rec 114 general exercise protocol 78 rec112 anatomy and physiology 78 rec112 anatomy and physiology 77 rec112 anatomy and physiology the primary outcome from this round of testing was a determination to implement a corpus whereby a user could train the nlp system on the language specific to a highly technical field. if this application were to be applicable to fields as diverse as engineering, botany and gerontology it was necessary to have a system that would recognize the language of each field and calculate semantic similarity accordingly. 2016-24: honours bachelor in computer science for our third and final test the project team implemented a computer science corpus to analyze learning outcomes from a historical pathway development project. a component of the computer science pathways project included an online survey in which faculty members from both participating institutions ranked the percentage of overlap between a set of pre-determined courses via an online survey. therefore, we could evaluate the difference between a human ranked percentage of overlap with an nlp algorithm ranked percentage of semantic similarity both on a scale of one to ten. additionally, we processed all of the learning outcome and course comparisons using both the general purpose, unsupervised algorithm and also on a supervised algorithm trained to understand computer science language using a corpus of specific wikipedia documents. to compile the corpus from wikipedia 160,624 articles were collected from the subcategory computing using the wikipedia python api. the articles were retrieved and parsed to extract the textual content and then stored as a python file which is used to compile the body of articles and remove any non-ascii characters. through this process our team recognized that we would be able to automate the process of developing a corpus using wikipedia so that any user, including laypeople, would be able to select the appropriate category in wikipedia and compile a domain specific corpus in real time. completing this component could be considered for future, related work. table 2 and figure 8 outline provide the results of this final test. the mean human similarity contains the average overlap of the indicated set of courses and respective learning outcomes using survey data. six computer science faculty from lakehead university and three computer programmer faculty from georgian college completed the survey and ranked each of the 11 course combinations. the domain specific similarity column contains the results of the nlp system when the computer science corpus was applied to train the system. the general purpose similarity column contains the results of the unsupervised, general purpose algorithm with no field specific training. table 2 figure 8 it is clear that the domain specific semantic similarity is closer to the content experts ranking of semantic similarity across all 11 courses with the exception of course number nine. this final test demonstrates that the nlp system can provide functional recommendations for both the overlap in course level learning outcomes but also in recommending courses to consider for transfer credit transfer pathway project teams. figure 9 compares the top overlapping courses as ranked by all three testing systems. figure 9 upon debriefing the results of this round of testing with the project team, all of whom are computer science experts and graduate students we came to following conclusions: developing a domain specific corpus function is necessary for the accuracy and legitimacy of the nlp tool within the context of post-secondary education (pse), there are political and social factors that may influence content experts when ranking of similarity between two courses that could include: o bias in the valuation of personal intellectual property with a bias to rank courses as unique and different from other courses with similar content o perceptions that upper year level courses in a four-year program can not be equivalent to courses in a two-year program regardless of learning outcome overlaps conclusions this project represents a significant step in the development of a professional and highlevel application that implements machine learning to provide valid and reliable recommendations on the similarities between related courses across all the domains of the ontario pse system. to summarize, this project included the development of a general algorithm, a wikipedia corpus compiling system template, an online transfer information database and accessible, user friendly course comparison system. while this system is currently functional and can be made accessible to stakeholders across ontario, our team recognizes that more work can be done to: increase the professionalism and user experience on the website develop an easy and accessible function for users to select and compile a corpus that is specific to their domain. incorporate improvements in the accuracy of the general-purpose unsupervised nlp algorithm

oncat final report: 2017-02 lambton college social service worker, ontario college diploma and child and youth care, ontario college advanced diploma to bachelor of social work, algoma university march 15, 2018 david marasco university registrar david simon elearning manager, project lead and program and pathways development coordinator, lambton college brian leahy - director, extension programming and distributed learning nadine cervi pathways research consultant, lambton college project team the project team is comprised of representatives from lambton college and algoma university. lambton college project team members: 1. david simon, elearning manager, project lead and program and pathways development coordinator 2. maryjane comiskey, dean, school of health sciences and community services 3. nadine cervi, pathways research consultant 4. mary mchenry, professor, child and youth care program 5. lori green, coordinator, social service worker program algoma university project team members: 6. david marasco, university registrar 7. brian leahy, director, extension programming and distributed learning 8. dr. barbara waterfall, associate professor and director of social work contents project team ______________________________________________________________________ 2 executive summary ________________________________________________________________ 4 project purpose and goals ___________________________________________________________ 6 pathway development ______________________________________________________________ 8 summary of pathway created _______________________________________________________ 18 promising practices and lessons learned ______________________________________________ 20 appendix a articulation agreement _________________________________________________ 22 appendix b joint admissions offer of acceptance letter ________________________________ 27 appendix c key milestones ________________________________________________________ 32 appendix d risk management _____________________________________________________ 33 executive summary the goal of this project is to provide an innovative, collaborative pathway that allow lambton college social service worker (ssw), ontario college diploma and child and youth care (cyc), ontario college advanced diploma graduates to complete the bachelor of social work through algoma university, onsite in their community at lambton college in sarnia, ontario. this pathway is a unique learning opportunity for students because it provides students the flexibility to achieve both a degree and diploma at lambton college. when the project team was assembled in april 2017, the group discussed the need to create this particular pathway. specifically, the project team agreed that this pathway will enhance student mobility, providing access to an in-demand degree in a rural location. since both institutions cater to rural and remote students, this pathway meets students expectations as it allows lambton college graduates to continue to receive key benefits they are accustomed to such as small classes and flexible delivery options, along with satisfying a degree requirement that is highly valued by employers. offering algomas bachelor of social work in sarnia, ontario, was a very important part of the decision to create this pathway between the two institutions. this pathway will give lambtons ssw and cyc graduates an accessible, cost effective option to enhance their career pathway. in order to start this project, the project team created a working plan. this working plan outlines the major milestones and timelines for task completion it was a key tool in keeping both partner institutions on track during the fiscal year. a pivotal meeting was held on august 21, 2017, where the team discussed the following action items for this project: 1. the implementation of a joint admissions offer. 2. the number of transfer credits lambtons ssw and cyc students will receive upon entry into algomas bachelor of social work. 3. a review of the initial draft articulation agreement, looking at the language used and financial responsibilities for each partner. currently, algoma university offers the bachelor of social work program on-site at northern colleges timmins campus. algoma and northern offer a joint admissions program for northern colleges graduates who complete a two or three-year ontario college diploma program or an ontario college advanced diploma program to seamlessly transfer into algomas bachelor of social work. termed algoma u at timmins, this is a unique learning opportunity, which provides diploma-to-degree and university transfer students with the opportunity to accelerate their career path and put them on the path to professional success, while living at home. this flexibility makes the university education both accessible and affordable. all courses are offered at the timmins campus of northern college of applied arts and technology, helping students in northern ontario complete their educational wishes without having to move and uproot their families for an extended period of time. both the algoma university social work and community development degree programs are delivered either in-person in timmins, or via interactive videoconference from the sault ste. marie campus. professors are trained experts in their fields of study, and they place course content in a northern ontario context. at algoma u at timmins, students also benefit from studying in the ideal classroom environment, which boasts small, supportive classes that afford more one-on-one time with the professors. upon being accepted into the algoma u at timmins program, students participate in an orientation session and are provided with an orientation package to help them become familiar with the university and the support services available at the timmins campus of northern college. as this model has proven to be successful, and seeing the similarities between the remote northern institutions with rural lambton college, algoma university is the preferred partner to expand this programming to the sarnia-lambton area. in addition to enhancing mobility and providing access to an in-demand degree in a rural location, both institutions have significant indigenous student populations within their respective catchments. lambton colleges ssw and cyc programs both offer rigorous curriculum, preparing students to feel confident in their skill set because of the professional expectations at placement. the curriculum design and placement opportunity help to enhance their maturity and commitment to their chosen profession. this experience also confirms their goals of completing a degree after they obtain their diplomas. thus, our students who chose to pursue degrees, and specifically bachelor of social work programs, have been reported to be well prepared, accessing a solid foundation in skills and knowledge in the helping field. in october, however, the ontario college faculty work stoppage took place province-wide and lasted a total of five weeks. several of our team members are also faculty, and thus they were not able to work on the project during the duration of the work stoppage. the faculty strike had only a minor impact on the project. the project team revised the working plan, outlining new deadlines for particular action items. with the revised deadlines in place, lambton college and algoma university completed the deliverables outlined in the signed project agreement from oncat as four meetings took place as well as course outlines, course syllabi and learning outcomes were reviewed. the draft articulation agreement and joint admissions policy has been created. the next steps are for both institutions to review and approve the content which is currently in progress. for the second half of the project, the team members will continue to collaborate on the actual delivery methods (i.e. in-class, hybrid, online) for courses that will be offered through algoma university at lambton college. in addition, the team will work on the transfer recognition, agreement objectives as well as the actual administration of the project. in addition, the future goal for this project is to expand the pathway to other ontario colleges with a social service worker, ontario college diploma program and child and a youth care, ontario college advanced diploma programs that also share similar student mobility barriers once the pathway has been completed. project purpose and goals both lambton college and algoma university focus on providing flexible, seamless pathways for all students. the overall goal of this pathway project is to develop an innovative, collaborative path that allows lambton college social service worker (ssw) and child and youth care (cyc) graduates to complete the bachelor of social work through algoma university, on-site in their community at lambton college. this pathway is a unique learning opportunity for students as it provides students the flexibility to achieve both a degree and diploma at lambton college. this proposal idea greatly enhances student mobility, expands transfer opportunities, and creates a seamless pathway that reduces mobility barriers for students in the sarnia-lambton area. as both institutions cater to rural and remote students, this proposal continues to meet student expectations as it allows lambton college graduates to continue to receive key benefits they are accustomed to such as small classes and flexible delivery options, along with satisfying a degree requirement that is highly valued by employers. offering algomas bachelor of social work in sarnia is very important because it allows ssw and cyc graduates an accessible, cost effective option to enhance their career pathway. in addition to enhancing mobility and providing access to an in-demand degree in a rural location, both institutions have significant indigenous student populations within their respective catchments. the algoma university bachelor of social work curriculum addresses specific needs of this group through courses that focus on indigenous cultures in ontario. indigenous education is equally important to lambton college because of regional indigenous communities, and specifically, indigenous learners. the main goals of this project include the following: 1. creation of a new pathway with a high volume of students, but a low volume of available and student-accessible pathways. algoma universitys and lambton colleges commitment to creating a pathway for ssw graduates and cyc graduates from lambton college into algomas bachelor of social work. bachelor of social work courses will be delivered either in-person in sarnia, ontario (lambton college campus), or via interactive videoconference from algoma universitys sault ste. marie campus. 2. to ensure a smooth and seamless diploma to degree transition, both institutions facilitate a joint admissions policy where students accepted into the ssw program at lambton college receive a conditional offer of admission (joint admission) to algoma universitys bachelor of social work program (eligibility and gpa degree requirements will apply). 3. to encourage greater interest and participation from indigenous learners. as previously stated, the algoma university bachelor of social work has embedded content in current course curriculum that addresses specific needs of the indigenous learner. 4. to provide current lambton college ssw and cyc graduates in the catchment area access to a degree completion model within the local community. 5. to identify other high affinity lambton college programs to algoma university degree options. 6. the future goal of the project is to expand the pathway to other ontario colleges with social service worker, ontario college diplomas and child and youth care, ontario college advanced diplomas that also share similar student mobility barriers once the pathway project has been completed. all parties are committed to running the pathway for as long as the two programs are active at each of the participating institutions. project management to ensure that the following pathway project is completed on-time, the project responsibilities have been separated into two different phases with specific timelines for the lead college and university to follow. please see the following timeline below: phase one: april 1, 2017 march 1, 2018 project committee selection (april, 2017) lambton college and algoma university will create a project committee and enlist the required contacts at both institutions. the committee will work together to define what the seamless pathway will look like for students. scheduled meeting plan (may, 2017) the project committee will determine a scheduled timeline of meetings in order to complete the project tasks. the committee will discuss the number of meetings that need to take place and the types of meetings (i.e. teleconference, in-person, etc.). curriculum development (october, 2017) documents such as course outlines, learning outcomes, and syllabus will be submitted to the relevant committees at algoma university from lambton college for review and approval. interim report (november, 2017) the interim report to oncat is submitted. program approval and marketing strategy (february, 2018) - the pathway developed will be signed and approved. once signed, a collaborative marketing strategy will be implemented by lambton college and algoma university. final report (march, 2018) - final report to oncat will be submitted. the final report will be comprised of the following components: an executive summary; a description of the pathway; details of expected implementation date; a report on best practices and lessons learned from this project, in order that future proponents can build on the project experiences; a detailed financial statement. phase 2: create partnerships (march, 2018) - share transfer information with other colleges with the hopes to build interest in forming new partnership agreements with other colleges. project management (ongoing) - the committee intends to meet (in the beginning) by telephone or email. the initial meetings will be used to discuss the project expectations, confirm timelines, and individual responsibilities. the faculty leads for each committee will review the course outlines, course learning outcomes, and syllabus to determine the appropriate create transfer. once the pathway is completed, algoma university and lambton college will identify the minimum gpa and other relevant eligibility standards for students for the established pathway. based on the curriculum and course outline review, transfer credits that will be granted to students entering the pathway will be determined. when the agreement is complete, lambton college will update the oncat course-to-course database with the relevant information. pathway development a) methodology the starting point for this project was to assemble a project team with sufficient knowledge of both the social service worker and the child and youth care programs. once assembled, the project team had an initial meeting to discuss the importance of delivering algomas bachelor of social work on-site at lambton college. during this meeting, the project team discussed responsibilities for each partner institution, and the responsibilities for each team member. the course outlines and program maps for lambtons ssw and cyc programs were provided to algoma university for review by the respected faculty. next, the team reviewed the gaps for accuracy and viability. after this review, the director of extension programming and distributed learning from algoma university was employed to assist with the development of a draft articulation agreement based on the gap analysis conducted by algomas faculty. simultaneously, the group discussed creating a joint admissions offer for this pathway project. these deliverables were expected to be done by december, 2017. the ontario college faculty work stoppage, however, hindered the progress on the draft articulation agreement and the joint admissions acceptance offer. these key action items for this project were not accomplished on time, and thus the original working plan was adjusted accordingly. this final design is presented for management approval in mid-march. below is the revised working plan it reflects the changes made to the deadlines because of the ontario faculty work stoppage that occurred from october to november 2017. as shown, the revised plan does not affect the projects anticipated completion date of march 31, 2018. working plan commencing april 1, 2017 date item work description outcome february 22, 2017 first project committee member meeting to assemble the project committees from both lambton college and algoma university the initial meeting. initial phone meeting algoma university and lambton college project team met on february 22, 2017, to discuss the potential pathway plan, timelines, and action items for deliverables. introductions were made by each participant, and an agreement on the project plan was confirmed. the milestones and timelines were solidified. also, a brief gap analysis took place and is planned for the next meeting. timeline for completion february 22, 2017 completed teleconference april 2017 curriculum and gap analysis may 10, 2017 second project committee member meeting updates on project timelines regarding curriculum development. teleconference august 21, 2017 third project committee member meeting lambton college hosts faculty leads discussed documents such as course outlines and learning outcomes. the course syllabi will be submitted to the relevant committees at algoma from lambton (and vice-versa) for review. algoma universitys lead faculty to review course maps and outlines. the gap analysis should be complete by the end of september. lambton college team members discussed the capabilities of using mobile technology for courses. the next step is to have a face-to-face meeting at lambton college. the algoma university project team travelled to lambton college to work on the draft articulation and joint admissions agreement for this project. the next meeting to take place at december 6 to january 16completed a summary of the curriculum gap results (in-progress). may 10, 2017completed august 21, 2017completed september mou 15, 2017 algoma university in october 2017. the draft articulation and join admissions agreement (mou), with revisions, sent to lambton college for review. september 15, 2017 revised due date: february 1, 2018 completed september fourth meeting 18, 2017 project committee discussion on the delivery methods the course outline analysis for lambtons ssw and cyc programs were presented and discussed in order to determine the gaps. september draft interim 22, 2017 report internal lambton colleges pathways research consultant to develop and circulate the draft interim report for lambton college internal project committee members to review. october 2, 2017 october 1, 2017 fifth project committee members meeting meeting (postponed) draft interim report external november 1, 2017 submit interim report a summary of the colleges gap results and the next steps were discussed and agreed upon by the project members from algoma and lambton. september 22, 2017completed pathway approved the draft interim report was circulated to the algoma project team members for review and edits. algoma university to submit interim report to oncat, along with an invoice for the second round of funding. september 18, 2017completed rescheduled for january 2018 october 1, 2017 completed november 1, 2017 revised due date: january 5, 2017 (invoice) completed january 115 2018 project committee members joint admissions offer draft january 22, 2018 final report draft internal and external february 1, 2018 draft articulation agreement/joint offer of admissions finalized february 26-27, 2018 project committee members meeting algoma university hosts march 1, 2018 pathway agreement and signed and approved march 15, 2018 submit final report to oncat april 2018 project committee members lambton college project committee members will work on an internal plan to coordinate logistics of the various delivery methods for each course. the joint admissions offer will be complete by february 2018. lambton colleges pathways research consultant to circulate the final report draft to lambtons team members and algomas team members for review. algoma university to draft the articulation agreement and joint admissions policy, and send it to lambton college for review. two project team members from lambton college visited algoma university to discuss and approve the mou and joint admissions offer. both partner institutions come together at lambton college to sign pathway agreement (press release and media announcements) approvals held at lambton college). the final report will be submitted to oncat by algoma university. the project team members from algoma university and lambton college will develop and implement a collaborative marketing strategy. the pathways research consultant at anticipated date february 28, 2018 march 1, 2018 completed march 13, 2018 completed february 26-27, 2018 - completed pathway approved tbd march 15, 2018 may 31, 2018 may 2018 project committee members lambton will assist with updating the ontransfer.ca database with the new agreement details. both institutions will share transfer credit information with other colleges in hopes to build an interest in forming new partnership agreements with other colleges that offer ssw and cyc. june 30, 2018 note: the partner college teams have held face-to-face meetings on two occasions, one at lambton college and another at algoma university. these face-to-face meetings were deemed best by the group for interaction during the initial stages of the project, including the gap analysis component, the finalization of the articulation agreement, and the joint admissions policy. additional full or partial team member meetings were conducted by teleconference because it was the most efficient use of peoples time to keep the project moving forward. b) program comparison and analysis gap analysis based on learning outcomes ssw bsw outcomes of prior study (based on social service worker program standard) vocational outcomes (vo) bachelor of social work degree program outcomes knowledge 1. describe multiple theoretical and 1. develop and conceptual bases of maintain professional social work relationships which knowledge and adhere to practice, including professional, legal, the social and ethical standards construction of aligned to social theory and practice service work. that may reflect 2. identify strengths, social injustices by resources, and employing a multichallenges of centric approach. individuals, families, groups, and analysis of links and/or gaps in knowledge and skills remediation of gap link to vo4 at introductory level, gap addressed at introductory level in the following college courses: introduction to social welfare (nc), canadian social welfare and aboriginal social policies (sc), and social welfare policy & practice (sc). gap is remediated in swrk 2106, swrk 2107, swrk 2356, swrk 3206, swrk 3207, 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. communities to promote accessible and responsive programs and services. recognize diverse needs and experiences of individuals, groups, families, and communities to 2. demonstrate a promote accessible detailed and responsive understanding of programs and structural, services. anishinaabe and identify current feminist approaches social policy, relevant to social work and legislation, and social welfare. political, social, and/or economic systems and their impacts on service delivery. advocate for appropriate access to resources to assist individuals, families, groups, and communities. develop and maintain positive working relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and comprehension and community partners. analysis develop strategies 3. understand the and plans that lead current state of to the promotion of knowledge in the self-care, improved humanities and job performance, and relevant behavioral enhanced work and social sciences, relationships. including human integrate social behavior and human group work and development in the group facilitation social environment; skills across a wide demonstrate an range of ability to apply environments, critical thinking skills supporting growth swrk 3406, swrk 3407, swrk 3596, swrk 3806, swrk 4206. link to vo4 at introductory level, gap addressed at introductory level in the following college courses: canadian social welfare and aboriginal social policies (sc), introduction to social welfare (nc), social welfare policy & practice (sc). gap is remediated in: swrk 2107, swrk 3206, swrk 3207, swrk 3806, swrk 4206, swrk 4004. link to ge1, ees4, ees5, ees7, ees8 college transfer students will take a minimum 15 credits in general electives in year three and year four at the university level. and development of individuals, families, and communities. 9. work in communities to advocate for change strategies that promote social and economic justice and challenge patterns of oppression and discrimination. to the analysis of social structures, social problems, and social policies; and, display intellectual abilities and scholarly attitudes of curiosity, open-mindedness and reasoning and commitment to life long learning 4. understand social works origins, purposes, and practices. link to vo2, vo3,vo8, at introductory level, gap addressed at introductory level in the following college courses: canadian social welfare and aboriginal social policies (sc), introduction to social welfare (nc), social welfare policy & practice (sc), social work practice i (nc), foundations for balanced practice (sc), and foundations for social services fieldwork & practice. gap is remediated in swrk 2106, swrk 2107, swrk 3406, swrk 3407, swrk 3206. gap gap remediated in swrk 3206, swrk 3207, swrk 4206 essential employability skills (ees) 1. communicate clearly, concisely and correctly in written, spoken, and visual form that fulfills the purpose and meets the needs of the audience. 5. understand the 2. respond to written, francophone reality spoken, or visual in quebec and other messages in a francophone realities manner that ensures in canada and the effective implications of these communication. realities for social 3. execute policy and the mathematical practice of social operations work. accurately. 4. apply a systematic 6. understand and approach to solve support social service problems. development and 5. use a variety of sustainability in thinking skills to northern ontario, anticipate and solve including the problems. importance of 6. locate, select, collaborative organize, and relationships with document community service information using organizations and appropriate professionals in rural, technology and remote, and northern information systems. environments. 7. analyze, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources. 8. show respect for the diverse opinions, 7. understand and values, belief utilize research systems, and methods in all facets contributions of of social work others. knowledge and 9. interact with others practice. in groups or teams in ways that contribute to effective working relationships and the 8. apply comprehensive achievement of knowledge of the goals. concepts, theories, 10. manage the use of and principles in the time and other field of social work to resources to systematic inquiry, complete projects. critical evaluation, 11. take responsibility and direct generalist for ones own social work strengthsactions, decisions, based practice within and consequences. a structural/ anishinaabe/ ruralremote/ feminist general education model. (ge) 1. graduates will have taken 3-5 courses exposing them to at least one discipline 9. arrive at professional outside their main judgements and field of study that actions, based on an increases their integration of theory awareness of the and practice within society and culture in the context of which they live and professional values work. and the relevant link to vo1, vo2, vo5, vo6, vo8, vo9 at introductory level, gap addressed at introductory level in the following college courses: community organization (nc), capacity building for communities (sc), and college-level field placement work. gap is remediated in swrk 2107, swrk 3016, swrk 4206, swrk 4206. gap gap is remediated in swrk 2127, swrk 2016, swrk 3456. gap gap is remediated in swrk 2356, swrk 4004. gap gap is remediated in swrk 2356, swrk 3596, swrk 4004. social work code of ethics. 10. practice social work, including community development, at the entry-level with diverse populations in and with northern, rural, remote, anishinaabe and franco-ontarian communities. link to vo1, vo6, vo8, and vo9. 11. demonstrate a strong awareness of anishinaabe history, culture, learning, the process of decolonization, anishinaabe social programs, social link to vo3, vo5, welfare, and kinship vo7, and vo9, gap. support systems. 12. demonstrate an awareness of self in terms of antioppressive values, beliefs and experiences as these impact upon social work practice and an ability to employ the principles of positive self-care in personal and professional settings. 13. promote social work practice in the context of grassroots community resiliency by understanding link to vo7. this outcome is developed at the advanced level through work in swrk 4004. addressed at introductory level in the following college courses: social work and first nations people (nc), and introduction to aboriginal peoples of canada (sc). gap is remediated in swrk 2106, swrk 3207, swrk 3406, swrk 3407. addressed in the following college courses: social service worker reflective practice (nc), foundations for social service services fieldwork and practice (sc), all field placement. gap is remediated at a more peoples ability to meet their own needs. 14. communicate effectively in written, spoken, and visual formats using current technology both in an academic and a field setting and employ various modes of technology in the practice of social work in northern and remote communities. advanced level in swrk 2356, swrk 3206, swrk 3596, cesd 1007, swrk 4004. gap gap is remediated in swrk 2356, swrk 3406, swrk 3407, swrk 2016. c) implementation process and timeline the pathway implementation process and timeline for this project is anticipated in the near future. the partner institutions have worked together to maintain the revised work plan timelines in order to meet the implementation date. please see below for the next implementation dates for moving forward with this pathway project: action item pathway approval implementation date march 2018 pathway launch 2019 the communications plan will include the following steps: 1. first, each partner institution will receive a draft copy of the agreement for review. feedback regarding the agreement will be requested from all schools to ensure that the information is accurate. 2. next, the agreement, once approved, will be circulated to each partner institution for signatures. note: when the agreement is complete, lambton colleges pathways research consultant will coordinate with oncat to update the to update the course-to-course database with the relevant information 3. after the agreement is signed, an online and written marketing communications plan will be developed. 4. finally, all partner institutions will update their schools website to include information on the transfer opportunities available for graduates of the social service worker and child and youth care programs. summary of pathway created the table below provides details about the 2017-02 lambton college social service worker, ontario college diploma and child and youth care, ontario college advanced diploma to bachelor of social work, algoma university pathway development project: pathway details title of pathway: use official program/credential titles pathway type: degree completion, certificate to diploma, diploma to diploma, degree to diploma, etc. list other postsecondary institution/s involved in the creation of the pathway: pathway implementation date (senate approval): pathway implementation date (posting to the ontransfer.ca website): contact procedure for pathway implementation: from: social service worker (ssw) ontario college diploma and child and youth care (cyc) ontario college advanced diploma to: bachelor of social work diploma and advanced diploma to degree (d2d) lambton college and algoma university fall 2018 for the pathway with a possible offering of the program on the lambton college site beginning fall 2019. the articulation includes a joint admissions agreement so that the transition from college to university is as seamless as possible. tbd lambton colleges pathways research consultant and algomas universitys registrar to coordinate with oncat to update the courseto-course database with the appropriate pathway details. eligibility for the pathway (student eligibility for the pathway): lambton colleges social service worker (ssw) ontario college diploma and child and youth care (cyc) ontario college advanced diploma graduates applicant must have graduated from the program at the sending institution: yes minimum program gpa or % required to be eligible for this pathway: to be eligible for maximum transfer recognition, students must have a minimum 3.00 gpa or b average with receipt of the college credential. minimum gpa or % required in specific courses cumulative gpa of 3.00 total number of transfer credits / full courses to be granted at receiving 45 credits of 120 total credits required for the degree institution (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120) transfer credits granted (please describe pathway clearly and succinctly): social service worker (45 credits): huma 9100 (12 credits) huma 9200 (9 credits) swrk 9100 (9 credits) soci 2406 psyc 1107 soci 2036 psyc 9201 sosc 9201 child and youth worker (45 credits): huma 9100 (6 credits) huma 9200 (6 credits) psyc 1106 psyc 1107 sosc 9100 (6 credits) sosc 9200 (6 credits) psyc 2007 swrk 9100 (6 credits) soci 2036 swrk 3606 total number of pro gram courses that must be completed at the receiving institution in order to graduate (please express as a numerical proportion, i.e. 90 of 120): 75 credits or 25 semester courses anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time: the anticipated time to complete the credential if enrolled full-time is 5 terms. list of eligible institutions and their programs lambton colleges social service worker (ssw) ontario college diploma and child & youth care (cyc) ontario college advanced diploma programs promising practices and lessons learned a) promising practices the main point of this pathway project is to provide a seamless pathway for students, enhancing their potential career options. specifically, one practice that was implemented at the start of the pathway development was to have one of the institutions lead on the analysis and documentation, and then reviewed, critiqued, and enhanced by the partner team members. this practice was the most efficient way for moving this project forward. throughout the duration of the project, there were several operational practices put into place in order to successfully complete the pathway project on time. please see below for the main operational practices used to help maintain and increase the productivity of this project: 1. creating a working plan at the beginning of the project. this working plan outlines the main responsibilities, action items, and timelines for the project. 2. maintaining regular teleconference meetings to update each partner on the work accomplished. the regular teleconferences increased accountability for both partner institutions to complete their assigned tasks by the proposed deadlines. 3. having one administration contact for submitting all documents (i.e. interim report, invoices, etc.) to oncat. b) lessons learned please see below for the key lessons learned during the implementation of this project: 1. to ensure that there is a defined project plan with confirmed timelines. the project team created a project plan, setting due dates for deliverables to be completed by. creating the project plan helped both institutions stay on task, although minor deviations did occur. 2. the gap analysis process hindered the project and postponed the set deadline for the gap analysis (and course outline) review. the project team learned that each partner must be willing to give and take on what gap is essential to the success of the students utilizing this pathway. for example, project members from both lambton and algoma discussed respecting each institutions curriculum and courses embedded with practical application, specifically at the college level. when this type of dialogue occurs, then a compromise can be achieved regarding what courses can be tweaked or enhanced in order ensure student success. appendix a articulation agreement block transfer agreement between algoma university (hereinafter au) sault ste. marie, on and lambton college (hereinafter lc) sarnia, on i.0 general provisions: i. ii. iii. iv. v. this articulation agreement sets forth guidelines for the partnership that will exist between au and lc. this agreement describes the standard transfer credit pathways for two and three-year ontario college diploma programs and ontario college advanced diploma programs; the goal of this agreement is to provide maximum opportunity for students to achieve the benefits of combining a college diploma and a university degree; the fundamental means embodied in this agreement is the recognition of prior learning and a credit transfer system in the province of ontario that optimizes pathways and minimizes unnecessary duplication of students learning and barriers to student mobility; the agreement shall be continuous from year to year; however, either party may terminate the agreement if notice in writing is given at least three months prior to the date on which the termination becomes effective. students enrolled at the time of notice of termination will be given the opportunity to complete their degree studies within three years based on the terms of the agreement when they commenced their studies; the au-registrar and the lc-vp, will actively monitor the success of students participating in this agreement, provide feedback and maintain the agreement. 1.1 block transfer credit agreement specifications: i. lc diploma program graduates must meet au admission requirements defined as the successful completion of a three-year diploma program with a minimum overall average of b (3.00 gpa) to be eligible for transfer credit recognition. the following lc diploma programs will be considered as part of the block transfer credit framework: social service worker program child and youth care program (appendix a summarizes credit recognition based on the transfer agreement between au and lc.) ii. successful applicants from the social service worker (2-year) diploma program with a minimum overall average of 3.00 gpa (b) or greater will receive recognition as follows: 45 transfer credits towards the four-year bachelor of social work degree program. iii. lc diploma graduates from the aforementioned program with a 2.50 2.99 gpa (c+) will receive transfer recognition for a maximum of 15 credits towards the four-year bachelor of social work program; students with a 2.49 gpa or less (c-/c) grade will be eligible for admission, but will not receive transfer credit. iv. successful applicants from the child and youth care (3-year) advanced diploma program with a minimum overall average of 3.00 gpa (b) or greater will receive recognition as follows: 45 transfer credits towards the four-year bachelor of social work degree program. v. lc diploma graduates from the aforementioned program with a 2.50 2.99 gpa (c+) will receive transfer recognition for a maximum of 30 credits towards the four-year bachelor of social work program; students with a 2.49 gpa or less (c-/c) grade will be eligible for admission, but will not receive transfer credit. vi. in the case of course code changes, au and lc agree to update the agreement accordingly. vii. each lc graduate admitted to au via this agreement will receive an individualized diploma to degree completion chart outlining the number of transfer credits received and the courses required for completion of the designated degree program. signing authority the parties have each assigned an individual to be responsible for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the diploma-to-degree transfer agreement: for algoma university (au): asima vezina president and vice chancellor 1520 queen street east sault ste. marie, on p6a 2g4 canada for lambton college (lc): donna church vice president, academic 1457 london road sarnia, on n7s 6k4 article vii in witness whereof we have executed this transfer agreement by our duly authorized officers, signature of authorized representatives of au and lc: __________________________________________________________ asima vezina, president and vice chancellor ___________________ date __________________________________________________________ donna church, vice president, academic ___________________ 25 oncat project 2017-02 appendix a lambton college-algoma university diploma-to-degree transfer agreement a minimum final gpa of 3.00 (b) is required for maximum credit transfer recognition. students who complete the social service worker 2-year program at lc will receive course recognition as follows: social service worker (lc) bachelor of social work (au) course recognition course completion huma 9100 (12 credits) huma 9200 (9 credits) swrk 9100 (9 credits) soci 2406 psyc 1107 soci 2036 psyc 9201 sosc 9201 swrk 1006/1007 soci 1016 soci 1017 or anis 1006 swrk 2106/2107 swrk 2356 swrk 2127 swrk 2406 swrk 3206/3207 swrk 3456 swrk 3596 swrk 3406/3407 swrk 3806 swrk 4206/4207 swrk 4004 (12 credits) 9 elective credits 75 credits 45 credits a minimum final gpa of 3.00 (b) is required for maximum credit transfer recognition. students who complete the child and youth care 3-year program at lc will receive course recognition as follows: child and youth care (lc) bachelor of social work (au) course recognition course completion huma 9100 (6 credits) huma 9200 (6 credits) psyc 1106 psyc 1107 sosc 9100 (6 credits) sosc 9200 (6 credits) psyc 2007 swrk 1006/1007 soci 1016 soci 1017 or anis 1006 swrk 2106/2107 swrk 2356 swrk 2127 swrk 2406 26 oncat project 2017-02 swrk 9100 (6 credits) soci 2036 swrk 3606 45 credits swrk 3206/3207 swrk 3456 swrk 3596 swrk 3406/3407 swrk 3806 swrk 4206/4207 swrk 4004 (12 credits) 9 elective credits 75 credits *all courses have a weight of three (3) credits unless otherwise noted. 27 oncat project 2017-02 appendix b joint admissions offer of acceptance letter memorandum of understanding joint admissions between algoma university (au) and lambton college (lc) algoma university and lambton college agree to implement a joint admissions program that will facilitate the admission of qualified students enrolled at lambton college who complete a diploma programs at lambton college to algoma universitys degree programs. the agreement also seeks to reduce the time, costs and barriers of higher education by encouraging students to continue their education after they complete their respective diploma program by improved and collaborative academic advising, and by completion of joint admissions contracts. the program is designed to facilitate the transfer of students earning a college diploma from lambton college once application is made, they may opt to pursue an offer from algoma university via the joint admissions program. general provisions: i. ii. iii. iv. v. this agreement sets forth guidelines for the joint admissions partnership that will exist between au and lc. this agreement describes dual offer of admissions, as well as, the seamless transfer for students who complete a two or three-year ontario college diploma program or an ontario college advanced diploma program at lambton college; the goal of this agreement is to provide maximum opportunity for students to achieve the benefits of combining a college diploma and a university degree; the fundamental means embodied in this agreement is the recognition of prior learning and a credit transfer system in the province of ontario that optimizes pathways and minimizes unnecessary duplication of students learning and barriers to student mobility as well as the seamless admissions process for qualified candidates; this agreement shall become effective beginning with the fall semester 2016 and will remain in effect continuous from year to year; however, either party may terminate the agreement if notice in writing is given at least six months prior to the date on which the termination becomes effective. the au-registrar and the lc-registrar, will actively monitor the success of students participating in this agreement, provide feedback and maintain the agreement. joint admission to community college and university allows students to begin their post-secondary studies in college and a seamless transition to universities to complete their bachelors degree. the agreement seeks to develop the following: 1. encourage academic preparation by allowing students to choose courses at the college level that will assist them to better focus on a program of study at university. 28 oncat project 2017-02 2. promote better communication regarding transfer procedures, including the positive experiences of transfer statistics show that transfer students perform just as well as direct entry students over four years of study. 3. increase support for community college advisors to help them to attend to students at each stage of the transfer process. 4. ensure community college applicants receive priority in the admissions process. 5. sets transfer targets for students from community colleges. this sends the message that transfer is possible and probable for most transferring community college students and creates a transfer- culture. 6. promoting effective transfer, the culture requires both community colleges and universities to increase the success of transferring students. 7. block transfers would clearly articulate college course recognition allowing for advanced placement at algoma university simplifying the transfer credit decisions allowing for a friendlier transfer culture. benefits: eligible candidates are conditionally accepted to algoma university and given priority admissions. students admitted to lambton college will have a structured plan to help facilitate their transition from diploma to degree depending on their program of study through a defined pathway. students will receive accurate information on diploma/degree completion. students will enjoy the benefits of advising from an au/sc academic advisor during their studies at lambton college in an effort to prepare them for their respective degree program at algoma university. process: qualified applicants will receive a joint offer of admission from both lc and au. students may complete the au joint admissions application (jaa) to participate in the agreement. students are encouraged to indicate interest as soon as possible to ensure eligibility and a smooth transition. upon admission to lambton college and upon receipt of the jaa, a conditional letter of acceptance from algoma university will be issued. throughout the process, students are encouraged to work with the their academic advisor at the community college, review the au academic calendar, contact the admission office at algoma university with questions, and attend program specific admissions sessions hosted at the respective college by an algoma university representative. once the student has decided to accept the conditional offer of admissions, algoma university will provide them with a detailed summary of required courses to complete the degree program based on length of the college program and gpa awarded at the college level. during their last semester of study at the college, students must request that an official copy of their academic transcript be mailed to algoma university for final assessment. once it has been determined that they have satisfied the admission requirements for their intended program of study, an official acceptance letter will be issued. in order to secure a spot for the desired term of entry and program, students will be required to accept the terms of the final offer letter from algoma university with requisite tuition deposit. 29 oncat project 2017-02 algoma university will: provide updated transfer agreements both within our transfer credit framework and any exceptional agreements in collaboration with lambton college; guarantee admission for lambton college students who: 1. complete and submit a joint admissions contract to the admissions office at lc and indicate on the joint admissions contract to permit the exchange of student information between au and lc; 2. the joint admissions contract should be completed and submitted in the first 30 days of classes at lc; provide reasonable access to academic advisors, who can develop and provide degree plans for prospective students; advise students the elective course selection to complete the degree at a community college; waive the existing requirements of a completed transfer application and the transfer application fee for students seeking joint admission under this agreement; and develop incentives for students to participate in the joint admissions agreement between au and lc (i.e. use of learning resources, access to sporting events at au student rates, library etc.) lambton college will: collaborate with au to promote the joint admissions agreement; assist students interested in participating in the joint admissions agreement in completing and submitting the joint admissions contract during their first 30 days of courses; and provide a copy of the community college application and all transcripts of each student seeking joint admission to au in accordance to the guidelines and the joint admissions agreement. lc will not charge additional fees to students to facilitate this exchange of information. both parties agree to work collaboratively to create professional development opportunities for recruitment/liaison staff, academic advising staff to enhance student retention, communication and improve the effectiveness of the au lc student transition. this agreement provides joint admission to the bachelor of social work program. depending on the program of study, students may be required to complete specific course requirements or conditions may apply. 30 oncat project 2017-02 signing authority the parties have each assigned an individual to be responsible for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the memorandum of understanding joint admissions: for algoma university (au): asima vezina, president and vice chancellor 1520 queen street east sault ste. marie, on p6a 2g4 canada for lambton college (lc): donna church vice president, academic 1457 london road sarnia, on n7s 6k4 article vii in witness whereof we have executed this memorandum of agreement by our duly authorized officers, signature of authorized representatives of au and lc: __________________________________________________________ asima vezina, president and vice-chancellor, au _________________ date __________________________________________________________ donna church, vice president, lc _________________ date 31 oncat project 2017-02 appendix a scholarships algoma university pathway scholarships are available to students applying for a degree completion program under an articulation agreement, after earning a 2 or 3-year diploma from an ontario community college. only those students who are enrolled in 24 credits or more over two consecutive fall/winter terms are eligible. awards are decided using the overall average obtained by the candidate on completion of the college diploma. awards are non-renewable. algoma university pathway scholarship renewable (level 1) an entrance award of $2000 to all candidates presenting an average of 3.70 4.00 algoma university pathway scholarship renewable (level 1) an entrance award of $1500 to all candidates presenting an average of 3.30 3.69 algoma university pathway scholarship non-renewable an entrance award of $1000 to all candidates presenting an average of 3.00 3.29 32 oncat project 2017-02 appendix c key milestones the following table outlines the key milestones for the project: id. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 title first project meeting course syllabi review second project meeting third project meeting (lambton to host) created draft agreement fourth project meeting (algoma to host) interim report to oncat fifth project meeting (algoma hosts) pathway developed, signed and approved final report draft for review final report to oncat planned current forecast completion date completion date 22-02-17 15-03-17 10-05-17 21-08-17 actual completion date 22-02-17 06-05-17 10-05-17 21-08-17 12-12-16 18-09-17 12-12-16 18-09-17 01-02-18 18-09-17 30-01-17 02-10-17 30-01-17 01-18-18 05-01-18 27-02-18 01-03-18 tbd 01-02-18 15-03-18 01-03-18 15-03-18 01-02-18 15-03-18 33 oncat project 2017-02 appendix d risk management the following table below outlines the risks that were involved in the pathway project development: id. 1 2 risk summer holidays faculty members were off and not able to complete work on-time ontario college faculty strike province and system wide mitigation plan (what is being done to prevent the risk) contingency plan (what will be done if the risk occurs) more than one individual involved where possible to maintain continuity management project team members to continue to work on the deliverables likelihood of occurring low potential impact (dollar / schedule / quality etc.) had a minor impact the schedule had a minor impact on the schedule

quit, uniformit et transparence guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario aot 2021 table des matires 03 03 04 05 07 09 remerciements propos du caton introduction principes de lvaluation des crdits aperu du processus relatif aux transferts de crdits directives dvaluation des crdits 09 premire tape : valuer ladmissibilit du crdi validit du crdit et rgles nombre de crdits performance de ltudiant type de crdit 12 deuxime tape : valuer lquivalence entre les cours rsultats dapprentissage du cours valuations dans le cadre du cours contenu du cours 15 15 16 17 troisime tape : communiquer et consigner la dcision valuation et reconnaissance des acquis dfis dcisionnels rfrences le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) est financ par le gouvernement de lontario. droits d'auteur, caton, 2021 quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 3 remerciements nous souhaitons remercier les personnes ayant particip llaboration de ce document. en janvier 2021, le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert - ontario (caton) a runi les six membres du corps enseignant suivants pour recueillir leurs conseils sur le rle de la facult dans le systme de transfert ontarien et prparer ce document sur lvaluation des crdits. carol bureau, collge sheridan julie cross, collge fanshawe stevie jonathan, cole polytechnique des six nations louis durand, universit laurentienne marco campagna, collge algonquin shawn j. richards, collge humber carol bureau collge sheridan julie cross collge fanshawe stevie jonathan louis durand cole polytechnique des six nations universit laurentienne marco campagna collge algonquin shawn j. richards collge humber propos du caton fond en 2011, le caton a pour mission damliorer le parcours des tudiants et de rduire les obstacles pour ceux qui cherchent effectuer un transfert entre les collges, universits publics et tablissements autochtones de lontario. aux cts de nos membres et intervenants, nous faisons cela : en dveloppant et en maintenant le site web pour tudiants ontransfer.ca, qui sert mettre en relation les tudiants actuels et les tudiants potentiels pour crer des possibilits de transferts; en appuyant et finanant des projets universitaires visant crer et largir les parcours de transfert de crdits et amliorer notre comprhension de la mobilit des tudiants et de lexprience du transfert pour les tudiants; en faisant participer les rgions et collectivits de lontario des discussions en groupe diriges; en recueillant des donnes sur les transferts de crdits et en partageant des ressources; en organisant des vnements qui runissent des experts en transfert de crdits de partout dans la province. quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 4 introduction dans un environnement de transfert oprationnel, les tudiants ne devraient rencontrer aucun obstacle leur transfert. pourtant, la plupart des tudiants de niveau postsecondaire en ontario sont confronts dimportantes difficults lies au transfert. les tudiants effectuant un transfert peuvent mettre plus de temps achever leurs tudes que les tudiants inscrits directement, et un plus grand nombre dtudiants transfrs nobtiennent pas leur diplme (walters, brown, perekh, reynolds, et einmann, 2021). le conseil pour l'articulation et le transfert - ontario (caton) a t cr pour mettre en place un systme de transfert plus intgr et transparent en ontario. dimportants progrs ont t raliss pour amliorer ce systme, mais il reste du chemin faire. en renforant lefficacit et luniformit des processus de transfert de crdits entre les tablissements, nous pouvons vraiment changer les choses pour les tudiants souhaitant effectuer un transfert. les dpartements des facults et universits jouent un rle crucial dans ce processus, lorsquils valuent les transferts de crdits et prennent des dcisions sur les quivalences de cours entre deux ou plusieurs tablissements postsecondaires. pourtant, malgr ce rle important, de nombreux membres du corps enseignant ont indiqu ne pas avoir reu de directives sur la faon de prendre de telles dcisions (missaghian, 2021). par consquent, le caton a consult des conseillers en transfert, des membres du corps enseignant et dautres membres du personnel essentiels pour laborer des directives sur lvaluation des crdits. le saviez-vous? une tude rcente mene sur des tudiants de niveau postsecondaire en ontario a montr que pour les tudiants effectuant des transferts, les tudes taient plus longues et plus coteuses que pour les tudiants non transfrs (walters, brown, parekh, einmann, et bader, 2020). une autre tude a rvl que les tudiants ayant effectu un transfert vers luniversit de toronto taient bien moins nombreux accder aux cours de stim et obtenir leur diplme que leurs pairs non transfrs (davies et pizarro milian, 2020). quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 5 cette ressource offre un point de dpart aux membres du corps enseignant, aux directeurs de dpartements et autres personnes souhaitant sassurer que leur processus dcisionnel est quitable, uniforme et transparent. nous fournissons des lments communs prendre en compte qui peuvent tre adapts aux diffrents besoins de chaque dpartement ou discipline. nous esprons que ces directives vous seront utiles. vos commentaires pour les futures versions sont les bienvenus. ensemble, nous pouvons amliorer lexprience du transfert pour tous les tudiants! principes de lvaluation des crdits nous estimons que lvaluation des crdits doit tre quitable, uniforme et transparente. pour cela, les principes suivants doivent guider vos dcisions dvaluation des crdits. 1. notre travail est ax sur les tudiants. nous sommes conscients que les tudiants sont les bnficiaires des transferts de crdits et sont les personnes les plus touches par les dcisions prises ce sujet. nous uvrons pour que les acquis scolaires quivalents dun tudiant soient reconnus comme il se doit, que les dcisions soient prises de manire rapide et efficace et que toutes les communications soient adaptes aux tudiants et crites pour un public gnral, qui souvent ne connait pas la terminologie ou les pratiques relatives aux transferts. les tudiants ne devraient pas avoir recommencer un apprentissage ou des cours dj acquis et ne devraient pas se voir refuser des crdits pour des questions de forme. nous mettons tout en uvre pour que les tudiants reoivent les crdits appropris pour leurs acquis afin quils puissent russir leur programme et satisfaire leurs aspirations. 2. nous nous efforons dvaluer les crdits de faon uniforme pour assurer lquit. nous nous efforons de combattre les prjugs, dans la mesure du possible, en suivant une liste uniforme de critres pour chaque dcision relative aux transferts de crdits. nous reconnaissons et respectons la comptence prpondrante de chaque tablissement quant aux politiques de transfert et lintgrit universitaire. nanmoins, les dcisions relatives aux transferts de crdits doivent tre fondes sur des critres objectifs lorsque cela est possible. la dfinition dobjectifs clairs pour lvaluation de la qualit et de lquivalence permettra de limiter les potentiels prjugs concernant la rputation dun tablissement ou dun dpartement, tout en crant un processus plus quitable. quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 6 3. chaque tudiant doit avoir des chances gales dexceller et nous ferons tout pour rduire les obstacles que ceux-ci peuvent rencontrer. tous les tudiants doivent tre encourags poursuivre leur choix de carrire ou de parcours universitaire et tre soutenus dans cette dmarche, sans tre confronts des obstacles inutiles, bureaucratiques ou discriminatoires. ces obstacles peuvent tre la discrimination (lie la race, au sexe, lge, la sexualit, etc.), les tudes menes dans une langue autre que langlais, le manque de connaissance sur le mode de fonctionnement des tudes suprieures, un soutien financier limit et autre. pour sassurer que chacun peut bnficier dune valuation des crdits, nous favoriserons la mise en place dun meilleur processus pour la collecte des documents ncessaires. ceci afin dliminer cet obstacle pour les tudiants et de communiquer clairement avec les tudiants et le personnel responsable des transferts au sujet de tous les processus dvaluation. tous les tudiants doivent tre encourags poursuivre leur choix de carrire ou de parcours universitaire et tre soutenus dans cette dmarche, sans tre confronts des obstacles inutiles, bureaucratiques ou discriminatoires. 4. nous croyons en un processus dvaluation transparent. les dcisions concernant les transferts de crdits sont importantes. les tudiants, la facult et le personnel ont le droit de connatre les critres utiliss pour dterminer les quivalences de cours et les crdits attribus aux tudiants. un processus dvaluation des crdits transparent favorise luniformit et la responsabilisation des personnes charges de lvaluation. lorsquune dcision est prise, les tudiants doivent tre informs de la faon dont leur demande a t value et recevoir une justification de la dcision. les tudiants devraient aussi avoir le droit de faire appel de cette dcision de faon quitable. quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 7 5. nous devons traiter les cours des autres membres du corps enseignant comme nous le ferions pour les ntres. lorsque nous prenons des dcisions sur des quivalences de cours, nous respectons lintgrit universitaire dautres membres du corps enseignant et de leurs cours. nous pouvons ne pas tre daccord sur les choix pris par un membre du corps enseignant concernant la conception et lexcution de ses cours, mais nous respectons son expertise en matire de conception et denseignement dans son domaine. nous reconnaissons galement que les cours et les programmes, quel que soit ltablissement, sont soumis une rvision et des processus rigoureux dassurance de la qualit. le concept de la parit destime a t invent par john dennison, ancien coprsident du british columbia council on articulation and transfer (bccat). cest un concept que nous soutenons et promouvons. aperu du processus relatif aux transferts de crdits il existe plusieurs faons de grer les transferts pour les dpartements universitaires, en fonction du volume de demandes de transferts de crdits reues. par exemple, les dpartements peuvent traiter les demandes de transferts de crdits au cas par cas, cest--dire, quils examinent la demande dun tudiant et valuent le cours en question. si les demandes de transferts de crdits augmentent, les dpartements peuvent tablir des approches politiques ou des ententes darticulation entre eux ou avec un autre tablissement. les approches politiques, aussi appeles politiques dadmission sont des politiques internes qui tablissent des normes relatives aux crdits pour les programmes, qui sappliquent tous les tablissements externes. les ententes darticulation sont des documents tablis entre deux ou plusieurs tablissements qui indiquent les quivalences de cours et les exigences relatives lobtention des crdits. ces ententes sont utiles lorsque les dpartements reoivent des demandes de crdits reconnus pour le mme cours ou groupe de cours. il est probable que les dpartements emploient toutes ces mthodes, car les approches politiques et les ententes darticulation ne permettent pas de traiter toutes les situations de transfert possibles. limportant est que les tablissements participent dune certaine faon lvaluation des transferts de crdits. 1. dennison, j. (2000). student access and mobility within the british columbia post-secondary system (vancouver, bc: bc council on admissions and transfer). source : bccat.ca/pubs/dennison.pdf quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario vous trouverez ci-dessous un schma de la faon dont un tablissement peut traiter une demande de transfert de crdits au cas par cas. nous avons indiqu les tapes qui ncessitent seulement la participation des dpartements universitaires ou des facults. le bureau charg des transferts reoit la demande de transfert de crdits. le bureau charg des transferts soumet les documents aux dpartements/facults concerns en vue de leur examen. le bureau charg des transferts achve le processus de transfert de crdit. le bureau charg des transferts examine la demande et approuve les crdits admissibles avec des quivalences de cours reconnues. le bureau charg des transferts obtient les documents relatifs aux cours pour les crdits admissibles sans quivalences de cours. les dpartements universitaires valuent les quivalences entre les cours. le dpartement universitaire envoie sa dcision avec une justification au bureau charg des transferts. le bureau charg des transferts informe ltudiant sur les possibilits dappel. ce schma gnralis est fond sur les conclusions du projet mapit du caton ralis en partenariat avec la socit de conseils higher education strategy associates (hesa). 8 quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 9 directives dvaluation des crdits que vous participiez la conclusion dune entente darticulation ou lvaluation des crdits pour un cours individuel, veuillez prendre en compte ce qui suit. premire tape : valuer ladmissibilit du crdit validit du crdit et rgles nombre de crdits performance de ltudiant type de crdit deuxime tape : valuer lquivalence entre les cours objectifs dapprentissage du cours valuations dans le cadre du cours contenu du cours troisime tape : communiquer et consigner la dcision premire tape : valuer ladmissibilit du crdit cette tape ne requiert pas dexpertise en la matire. validit du crdit et rgles quand ltudiant a-t-il reu le crdit? certains tablissements fixent un dlai pour ladmissibilit des transferts de crdits. si vous choisissez dappliquer cette mthode, nous vous recommandons davoir une justification solide fonde sur les besoins de la discipline. par exemple, un dpartement dinformatique doit probablement mettre jour son programme dtudes et ses cours plus souvent quun programme de langues et de littrature. si vous mettez en place cette condition, il est important de rflchir limpact de ce critre sur les tudiants et de vous demander sil sert les intrts fondamentaux des tudiants. quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 10 nombre de crdits le nombre de crdits est-il de valeur gale? si le crdit na pas dj t valu, la prochaine tape est de tenir compte du nombre de crdits et de leur quivalence. les crdits entre deux cours doivent tre de valeur gale. par exemple, on peut raisonnablement supposer que deux cours valant trois crdits donns sur une priode de 12 15 semaines (dure habituelle dun semestre universitaire) sont quivalents. la mme logique sapplique lorsquon compare deux cours valant six crdits donns sur une anne universitaire. certains tablissements ne tiennent plus compte des heures de formation comme condition dobtention dun crdit, car ils estiment quune plus grande importance doit tre accorde aux rsultats dapprentissage et au programme dtudes. il existe toutefois des cas o le crdit reconnu ne peut pas raisonnablement tre compar en raison de diffrences considrables dans les units de mesure des tablissements. par exemple, si vous comparez un cours valant deux crdits avec un cours valant trois crdits dans votre tablissement, il est bien plus difficile de dterminer lquivalence. dans ce cas, vous pouvez tenir compte du nombre dheures de formation en plus dautres facteurs, comme les rsultats dapprentissage et la grille dvaluation, pour dterminer lquivalence. lorsque vous crez ou rvisez une politique sur lvaluation des crdits, il est essentiel de demander la collaboration des dpartements universitaires avec dautres dpartements participant au processus, du dbut la fin du parcours de transfert de crdits. vous devrez peut-tre valuer des crdits qui sont incompatibles, comme un cours valant 3 crdits donn sur un semestre et un cours valant 6 crdits donn sur une anne. dans ce cas, nous vous conseillons doctroyer aux tudiants le mme nombre de crdits que celui obtenu dans leur cours prcdent et que les valuateurs trouvent un moyen dattribuer les crdits en consquence. par exemple, si le cours introduction la sociologie vaut trois crdits dans ltablissement prcdent de ltudiant, alors ltudiant devrait recevoir seulement trois crdits dans ltablissement daccueil, mme si le cours introduction la sociologie vaut six crdits dans cet tablissement. pour viter ce genre de situations, nous recommandons que les dpartements et les programmes envisagent de diviser les cours valant six crdits en cours valant trois crdits. quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 11 une rcente tude mene par le caton valuait le plan de cours de premire anne de sociologie dans 11 tablissements postsecondaires en ontario. lauteur a constat que les universits proposaient soit les cours dintroduction comme crdit sur une anne (septembre avril) soit en divisant les cours en deux moitis, lune offerte au premier semestre et lautre pendant lhiver . cette divergence peut, malheureusement, entraner une perte de crdits reconnus, comme lindique un membre du corps enseignant : bien souvent, les tudiants qui nous parviennent ont suivi un cours valant un demi-crdit, soit un cours dun trimestre. cest bien souvent pour cette principale raison que lquivalence ntait pas tablie missaghian, 2021). performance de ltudiant quel est le niveau de performance de ltudiant? si vous valuez un transfert de crdits, ltudiant a trs probablement dj satisfait vos critres dadmission (y compris lobtention dune certaine moyenne) pour tre admissible au transfert. toutefois, votre dpartement ou facult peut choisir de crer une exigence de note minimale pour un cours prcis ou un groupe de cours afin doctroyer un crdit reconnu. dans ce cas, nous recommandons de faire connatre publiquement cette exigence et de la justifier. lorsque vous prenez cette dcision et prparez la justification, posez-vous les questions suivantes : lexigence de note minimale sapplique-t-elle aux tudiants non transfrs? cette exigence constitue-t-elle un obstacle supplmentaire pour les tudiants cherchant effectuer un transfert? par exemple, si le cours dintroduction linformatique ncessite une note minimale de 60 p. cent pour tre admissible au transfert de crdit, mais que les tudiants non transfrs suivant un cours quivalent doivent juste russir lexamen pour recevoir le crdit, cet cart est-il quitable? cet cart peut-il tre justifi? type de crdit le crdit peut-il tre attribu un cours prcis? un autre facteur prendre en compte est de savoir si le cours peut recevoir un crdit attribu ou non attribu. le terme crdit attribu dsigne la pratique qui consiste attribuer un crdit pour un cours prcis qui existe dans votre programme. par exemple, un valuateur qui accorde un crdit pour le cours introduction la psychologie quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 12 en se fondant sur un cours similaire dans ltablissement prcdent de ltudiant a octroy un crdit attribu. sil existe dans votre dpartement ou programme un cours quivalent au cours en question, vous pouvez octroyer un crdit attribu. nanmoins, il arrive quun cours admissible un crdit reconnu ne soit pas offert dans votre dpartement ou tablissement. dans ce cas, certains tablissements ont octroy aux valuateurs une plus grande marge de manuvre sous la forme de crdits facultatifs. par exemple, si le directeur dun programme de premier cycle du dpartement danglais value un cours de niveau suprieur, tude de la littrature irlandaise , et que le dpartement noffre pas de cours sur ce sujet, il peut envisager daccorder un crdit facultatif qui satisfait aux exigences relatives la majeure ou la mineure du dpartement. dans de tels cas, lvaluateur peut octroyer un crdit non attribu avec un numro de cours qui reflte le niveau denseignement mais est gnrique (p. ex., anglais 4xxx). le saviez-vous? ontransfer.ca propose une plateforme conviviale pour les tudiants qui souhaitent se renseigner sur les possibilits de transfert et recevoir de laide dans leur parcours universitaire. tenu jour par le caton, ontransfer.ca intgre plus de 23 000 parcours et est continuellement mis jour avec des renseignements pertinents transmis par les collges publics, universits et tablissements autochtones de lontario. deuxime tape : valuer lquivalence entre les cours la deuxime tape consiste dterminer lquivalence entre les cours en comparant le plan de cours ou le programme. cette tape ncessite une expertise en la matire. rsultats dapprentissage du cours y a-t-il une cohrence entre les objectifs, les rsultats ou les buts dapprentissage? les objectifs, les rsultats ou les buts dapprentissage sont des noncs clairs qui dfinissent la finalit prvue dun cours. ils dcrivent aussi les connaissances et comptences que les tudiants devraient acqurir en terminant ce cours. quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 13 voici un exemple dnonc : les tudiants seront en mesure de faire la distinction entre diffrents modles de sant ou concepts lis ce domaine . la comptence de ce rsultat dapprentissage peut tre repre par lutilisation de faire la distinction et la connaissance par modles de sant ou concepts lis ce domaine . pour que deux cours soient quivalents, les rsultats dapprentissage doivent se recouper considrablement. pour faire une simple comparaison, vous pouvez faire une liste des comptences et connaissances des deux cours cte cte et dterminer si le niveau de cohrence est assez important. les normes disciplinaires peuvent permettre une plus grande objectivit dans la dtermination des concepts et objectifs les plus importants prendre en compte. gardez lesprit que tous les plans de cours ne possdent pas des objectifs ou rsultats clairement dfinis. dans ces cas, les valuateurs peuvent dduire les rsultats partir dautres noncs dun plan de cours. dans le cas contraire, utilisez dautres facteurs pour valuer lquivalence, comme le contenu du cours et ses valuations. valuations dans le cadre du cours y a-t-il une quivalence raisonnable entre les critres dvaluation? un autre facteur dont vous pouvez tenir compte lorsque vous dterminez lquivalence dun cours est lvaluation de lapprentissage des tudiants. bien quil soit peu probable que deux cours aient exactement le mme type et le mme nombre dvaluations, des normes sur lvaluation de lapprentissage ou des comptences peuvent avoir t tablies pour la discipline et tre dtermines par un organisme daccrditation. par exemple, dans un cours de comptabilit, les tudiants peuvent devoir dmontrer une comptence en ralisant des travaux pratiques normaliss pour une entreprise fictive (ou relle). dans ce cas, le type et le nombre dvaluations sont utiles pour prendre la dcision daccorder ou de refuser un transfert de crdit. lorsquil ny a pas dorganisme daccrditation tablissant des normes sur lvaluation de lapprentissage des tudiants, ce facteur est moins important et devient un obstacle inutile loctroi dun crdit reconnu. le systme denseignement postsecondaire dcentralis de lontario prsente probablement des carts entre les cours des arts libraux et ceux de sciences concernant les valuations. cela sapplique tous les cours qui respectent les principes de la conception universelle de lapprentissage selon lesquels lenseignement et les valuations varient en fonction des styles dapprentissages individuels des tudiants. les valuateurs feraient bien de reconnatre que ces diffrences sont des obstacles potentiels pour les tudiants effectuant un transfert. si vous dcidez quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 14 de refuser le transfert de crdit en raison de ces diffrences, nous vous conseillons de documenter les motifs de votre dcision et de les communiquer de manire transparente ltudiant. vous pouvez aussi collaborer avec les tablissements en question pour ngocier des critres dvaluation acceptables et dautres aspects du cours qui permettraient damliorer la situation pour les futurs tudiants. dans le cadre dune valuation de lquivalence entre les cours, les dcisions doivent tre mrement rflchies car tous les tablissements ne suivent pas le mme cadre pistmologique intgr lapprentissage et lenseignement. par exemple, les tablissements autochtones sont mandats pour se concentrer sur la pdagogie autochtone, dont il faut tenir compte lors des valuations. cela pourrait tre un obstacle majeur pour les tudiants effectuant un transfert depuis un tablissement autochtone o les valuations peuvent sembler diffrentes, mais tre nanmoins dune valeur gale aux valuations fortement axes sur les rsultats quantitatifs, par exemple. stevie jonathan, chef de service, universit lcole polytechnique des six nations contenu du cours y a-t-il une quivalence raisonnable entre le contenu du cours en matire de champ et de porte des connaissances? tout comme pour les objectifs dapprentissage, les valuateurs pourraient prendre en compte le contenu du cours lorsquils dterminent lquivalence. le contenu du cours couvre le champ de connaissances et leur porte (large ou troite) et le niveau de scolarit ou les prrequis (p. ex., introduction, niveau intermdiaire, avanc, premire anne, deuxime anne, etc.). vous pouvez trouver le champ et la porte des connaissances en lisant la description du cours, les lectures obligatoires, les sujets et le calendrier. vous pouvez dterminer le niveau de scolarit requis partir du numro et du titre du cours, des prrequis, des lectures obligatoires et du plan dvaluation. selon les principes du prsent guide, les valuateurs ne devraient pas prendre de dcisions fondes sur leur perception de la qualit de lenseignement dun tablissement ou dun enseignant en particulier. on doit considrer que le pouvoir de prendre ces dcisions revient aux organismes daccrditation. quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 15 troisime tape : communiquer et consigner la dcision lorsque vous avez pris votre dcision, communiquez-la sous la forme dun dossier lectronique contenant une justification et les critres utiliss pour y parvenir. il est bon de rendre ce dossier accessible lensemble du personnel administratif de ltablissement et de le garder en liasse dans le bureau du dpartement. dans de nombreux dpartements, ce dossier peut devenir une politique fonde sur un prcdent pour les futurs tudiants faisant une demande de transfert de crdit pour le mme cours ou groupe de cours. si vous crez une telle politique, nous encourageons les dpartements rendre cette politique publique et accessible afin que les tudiants et les bureaux chargs des transferts soient informs de cette entente. valuation et reconnaissance des acquis le caton reconnait que pour certains tablissements, le processus dvaluation et reconnaissance des acquis est troitement li aux processus de transfert et peut faire appel la mme facult ou au mme personnel pour valuer et octroyer le crdit, le cas chant. selon lassociation canadienne de reconnaissance des acquis (capla) : le terme valuation et reconnaissance des acquis dfinit des processus permettant aux personnes de dterminer, de documenter, de faire valuer leurs acquis et dobtenir une reconnaissance de ceux-ci. lapprentissage peut tre formel, informel, non formel ou exprientiel. le contexte de lapprentissage nest pas essentiel au processus, car laccent est mis sur lapprentissage lui-mme. les processus dvaluation et reconnaissance des acquis peuvent tre entrepris diverses fins, notamment la connaissance de soi, lobtention de crdits ou dquivalences dans un tablissement universitaire, un emploi, une autorisation dexercer, un plan de carrire ou un recrutement. selon un sondage diffus auprs des conseillers en transfert par le caton en juillet 2019, pour 65 p. cent des tablissements les transferts sont un processus centralis au sein des tablissements, alors que 35 p. cent ont indiqu que le processus dvaluation et reconnaissance des acquis tait dcentralis (39 rpondants). pour 36 p. cent, le processus dvaluation et reconnaissance des acquis tait intgr aux processus de transfert, alors que 64 p. cent ont indiqu quil sagissait de processus distincts (25 rpondants, 14 rpondants ont rpondu s.o. ). quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario 16 ce guide sert valuer les acquis formels obtenus dans un tablissement reconnu, ce qui est diffrent de lvaluation et la reconnaissance des acquis. le processus dvaluation et reconnaissance des acquis nentre pas dans le cadre du prsent guide, mais nous reconnaissons que certains principes identiques peuvent sappliquer. dfis dcisionnels la consultation mene par le caton auprs des facults a rvl que le dfi dcisionnel le plus courant lors du processus dvaluation des crdits tait le manque de documentation. ce dfi reprsente un obstacle inutile mais considrable pour la facult, puisquil est impossible de prendre une dcision juste propos de lquivalence entre deux cours sans connatre le plan de cours et dautres documents importants. lorsque vous crez ou rvisez une politique sur lvaluation des crdits, il est essentiel de demander la collaboration des dpartements universitaires avec dautres dpartements participant au processus, du dbut la fin du parcours de transfert de crdits. en invitant toutes les parties participer, vous vous assurez que les tudiants seront informs en temps opportun sur le transfert de crdit, ladmissibilit et quils recevront la documentation requise afin que la facult puisse faire son travail sans tarder. le deuxime dfi le plus courant signal par les facults tait le manque de connaissance et dexprience relatif ce processus. nous esprons que ce guide servira dintroduction aux facults et aux autres parties prenant part lvaluation des crdits. pour les personnes compltement novices, nous conseillons deffectuer une formation par observation et de consulter des membres expriments du corps enseignant pour une petite priode de transition afin dintgrer votre pratique dcisionnelle les valeurs communes dquit, duniformit et de transparence. quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario rfrences davies, s. & pizarro milian, r. (2020). transfer student outcomes at the university of toronto: gpa, access to stem, and graduation. oncat: toronto, on. accdez au document ici. missaghian, r. (2021). exploring university faculty perceptions on curriculum evaluation: sociology as a case of first-year transferability. oncat: toronto, on. accdez au document ici. walters, d., brown, r., parekh, g., einmann, t. & bader, d. (2020). student loan outcomes of ontario transfer students. oncat: toronto, on. accdez au document ici. walters, d., brown, r., parekh, g., reynolds, d.. & einmann, t. (2021). postsecondary borrowing patterns and graduation among transfer students: the role of high school academic performance. oncat: toronto, on. accdez au document ici. 17 quit, uniformit et transparence : guide abrg sur lvaluation des transferts de crdits en ontario https://oncat.ca/fr/ressources fond en 2011, le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert - ontario (caton) a pour mission damliorer le parcours des tudiants et de rduire les obstacles pour ceux qui cherchent effectuer un transfert dans lun des 45 tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario. 18

non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes june 18, 2021 authors xavier st-denis, phd institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) yacine boujija universit de montral stephen sartor university of western ontario table of contents acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 1 introduction ...................................................................................................................... 2 context ............................................................................................................................................ 2 objectives ........................................................................................................................................ 2 key findings in brief ......................................................................................................................... 3 review of the literature................................................................................................... 5 data and methods ............................................................................................................. 7 data ................................................................................................................................................. 7 construction of the analytic sample ................................................................................................. 9 methods .......................................................................................................................................... 9 multinomial regression ..................................................................................................................................... 10 ols regression ................................................................................................................................................... 11 results ............................................................................................................................... 13 credential accumulation over the life course ................................................................................. 13 overview of different pse credential accumulation pathways in the canadian and ontario populations ................................................................................................................................... 16 drivers of variation in pse credential accumulation pathways........................................................ 20 background characteristics as drivers of differences in pse pathways ............................................................. 24 the role of other characteristics of pse pathways ............................................................................................ 32 pse credential accumulation pathways as drivers of income differences in adulthood ................... 37 baseline results ................................................................................................................................................. 37 accounting for the role of fields of study .......................................................................................................... 40 job characteristics as mechanisms underpinning differences in employment income .................................... 44 conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 50 references ......................................................................................................................... 52 appendix a. supplemental results ................................................................................. 55 acknowledgements this work received financial support under the research insight program of the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat). the analysis presented in this paper was conducted at the quebec interuniversity centre for social statistics which is part of the canadian research data centre network (crdcn). the services and activities provided by the qicss are made possible by the financial or in-kind support of the social sciences and humanities research council (sshrc), the canadian institutes of health research (cihr), the canada foundation for innovation (cfi), statistics canada, the fonds de recherche du qubec - socit et culture (frqsc), the fonds de recherche du qubec - sant (frqs) and the quebec universities. the views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the crdcn or its partners. 1 introduction context research over the last decades in social sciences has emphasized that a large proportion of students follow non-conventional and non-linear pathways through pse (denice 2019; hearn 1992; milesi 2010). this includes not completing a program, transferring between programs and institutions (goldrick-rab and pfeffer 2009; monaghan and attewell 2015; goldrick-rab and han 2011), delaying or interrupting enrollment (bozick and deluca 2005; goldrick-rab 2006; goldrick-rab and han 2011), studying part-time, combining different social roles (parent and student, worker and student, etc.) (roksa and velez 2012; 2010; weiss and roksa 2016), and accumulating credentials in a non-linear way (college after bachelors, or the accumulation of several credentials at the same level) (walters 2003; wall 2021; ntwari and fecteau 2020). transfer and articulation policies and programs can contribute to supporting students taking various pathways through postsecondary education (pse), and address obstacles students face when aiming to change programs or institutions during the course of a program of study. appropriate interventions can therefore play an important role in structuring the pathways students follow through pse. in this report, we adopt a perspective on pse pathways that focuses on pse credential accumulation dynamics. in a context where an increasing share of students complete more than one pse credential, we base our report on the insight that transfer and articulation policies may gain to be informed by a better understanding of pathways that involve different sequences of accumulation of two or more pse credentials. for example, measures that support the completion of a bachelors degree as a first credential through transfers may be beneficial if bachelors graduates are likely to then follow specific credential accumulation pathways such as the completion of a graduate or professional degree. more specifically, this project is motivated by a related set of considerations. first, many studies of non-conventional or non-linear pse pathways and of the labour market outcomes associated with them use data that measure short-term trajectories and outcomes for subsamples of all pse participants, often at specific stages of their experience through pse (for example, students below 25 years old attending a college program). second, for related reasons, we lack a clear account of the long-term labour market outcomes associated with a broad range of pse credential accumulation pathways. an understanding of these dynamics may contribute to the design and orientation of transfer and articulation policies and programs. objectives the primary expected outcome of this report is to document dynamics related to pse pathways that include more than one credential, and to better understand the labour market 2 benefits and penalties associated with non-linear pathways that involve various patterns of credential accumulation. to do so, this report sets three objectives: 1. present a statistical portrait of different pse credential accumulation pathways in ontario and in canada, in order to identify the share of postsecondary students who follow non-linear pathways such as those completing several postsecondary certificate, diplomas or degrees at the bachelor level or below. 2. document the drivers of different pse credential accumulation pathways by leveraging the high level of detail available in the longitudinal and international study of adults (2016). 3. evaluate the employment and labour market outcomes associated with different pse credential accumulation pathways, such as earnings differences between individuals following different pathways. in doing so, we aim to analyse the drivers of income differences between pse credential accumulation pathways. key findings in brief the first set of findings presented in this report shows that by the time canadians born between 1956 and 1980 reached 35 years old, approximately 60% of them had completed one pse credential, and more than 20% completed a second credential or more. for some canadians, this means completing a graduate degree after a bachelors degree. at the same time, credential accumulation pathways are often non-linear, and a large proportion of the population complete their first or second credentials well into their 20s, 30s or even 40s. the results presented in this report yields two main analytical insights: 1. the level of the first completed credential is strongly related to the level of the highest credential to ever be obtained, which has an influence on access to more highly rewarded pse pathways. specifically, those who enter pse at a level below a bachelors degree have low probabilities of completing a second credential, low probabilities of completing bachelors degree, and even lower probabilities of completing a graduate or professional degree. this is consequential given that a graduate or professional degree is associated with substantially higher employment income than other levels of educational attainment. different background characteristics are associated with the level of the first credential and with the level of the second credential conditional on the first credential among pse participants, and in particular parental education and visible minority status. 2. the accumulation of the same two credentials (college and bachelors) but in different orders is associated with different average income levels, net of observed characteristics. more generally, the same level of highest credential is associated with different income levels depending on the credential accumulation pathways followed to complete them. importantly, the size of the premium associated with completing a bachelors degree as their second credential after a trade/vocational or apprenticeship certificate or a college certificate or diploma is smaller than the 3 premium associated with completing a bachelors degree as ones first and single credential. this has implications for transfer and articulation policies to the extent that they may contribute to attenuating the impact of certain obstacles to accessing pathways that are most likely to translate into advantageous labour market outcomes. finally, the results suggest that selection dynamics are at play based on characteristics that are not measured in most datasets. more broadly, the mechanisms underpinning some of the differences in income associated with different pse credential accumulation pathways remain unaccounted for even in analyses leveraging detailed data on the characteristics of pse pathways and of jobs held by respondents. in order to better understand the drivers of pse credential accumulation pathways and the outcomes associated with them, causal research designs or more fine-grained data may be necessary. 4 review of the literature the classical literature on human capital (becker 1964) and status attainment (blau and duncan 1967; featherman and hauser 1978) focuses on years of education and conceptualize education in terms of a relatively continuous quantity of skills, capital, or resources. some of the literature on access to postsecondary education adopts a perspective with similar consequences to the extent that it conceptualizes access in terms of binary participation or non-participation (finnie and pavlic 2013). some sociologists have emphasized the importance of conceptualizing educational attainment as a sequence of steps (mare 1980). the common shortcoming of all these perspectives is that they do not leave room for conceptualizing pathways into and through pse as a non-linear and possibly disorderly process. indeed, a literature on pse pathways increasingly recognizes the heterogeneity in student trajectories (denice 2019; childs, finnie, and martinello 2017). this literature also highlights the association between background characteristics such as parental socioeconomic status and different dimensions of pse pathways (not just level of educational attainment) (goldrickrab 2006; zarifa et al. 2018). in canada, many studies that adopt a perspective taking into account non-linearity and complexity in pse pathways are limited to a single institution, or a single subnational region. further, many studies are constrained by the short duration between completion of the first observed credential/pathway and the end of the observation period because of the available sources of data. for these reasons, little is known about the long-term outcomes, especially for older individuals, for those who follow conventional post-secondary pathways and those who do not at a national level. for example, stewart and martinello (2012) use a small sample from a single institution to study persistence in postsecondary education among transfer and non- transfer students. childs, finnie and martinello (2017) use a representative sample of the canadian population to study the persistence of transfer students in postsecondary education. however, the dataset does not allow to quantify all different pathways and transfers, especially those occurring later in the life course of students (the sample includes individuals between 15 and 23 years old, therefore limited in coverage to transfers and program changes taking place early in the education trajectory of postsecondary students). a number of more dated studies suffer from similar limitations (vaala 1993; 1991; gawley and mcgowan 2006). while valuable contributions, these studies leave open several data gaps on the importance of diverse postsecondary education pathways in ontario and in canada, and do not allow to properly assess the outcomes associated with each of the different pathways. this is in part related to the focus of the studies discussed above on transfer pathways, which are generally observed within the first few years of a spell in a program of study. at the same time, the narrow time range of most studies is an important limitation to existing studies because a large part of pathways through pse tends to occur at later ages (see for example hango 2010). a minority of college applicants in ontario (40%) are originated from high school, while so-called non-direct entrants are often older, with previous experience in pse (including completed pse credentials (kerr 2011). an international literature on lifelong learning 5 likewise emphasizes that late pse participation age (after 25) for a large portion of hs graduation cohorts, often motivated by reskilling (chesters, cuervo, and fu 2020). more broadly, non-transfer university (76.17%) and non-transfer college (15.86%) are the most prevalent pathways to the completion of a pse credential in ontario (zarifa, sano, and hillier 2020). few students transfer institutions (childs, finnie, and martinello 2017; finnie, dubois, and miyairi 2021; zarifa, sano, and hillier 2020). we argue that this justifies a broader approach to the study of non-linear pse pathways to include pse credential accumulation and related outcomes over the longer term. for example, many credential accumulation pathways may gain to be the focus on transfer and articulation programs even when involving completed programs. indeed, a relatively limited literature documents the accumulation of credentials after a first credential (walters 2003; wall 2021; ntwari and fecteau 2020). the scope of this literature may be extended to include contributions focusing on access to graduate school (zarifa 2012) to the extent that it consists of one among many possible credential accumulation pathways. at the same time, the contributions that document the reverse or horizontal accumulation of credentials are almost non-existent in canada. boothby and drewes (2006) do document multiple credentials accumulation using census data from 1980 to 2000, which showed that a non-negligible share of trades, college and bachelor graduates held more than one credential (which was not necessarily associated with an earnings premium). however, that data did not allow to measure those who held two credentials at the same level. in the us and the uk literature, some literature focuses on re-enrollment and adult/lifelong learning. it highlights differences by parental socioeconomic status (bukodi, bourne, and betthuser 2019; jacob and weiss 2011; elman and orand 2007) as well as a greater likelihood of re-enrollment of in vocational or college programs (townsend 2003). again, many of the contributions focus on a specific subpopulation. in sum, we lack a clear portrait of the patterns and drivers of pse credential accumulation pathways in the overall population, as well as the long-term outcomes associated with different pathways. this evaluation of the state of the literature guides this paper and its stated objectives. 6 data and methods data we use data from wave 3 of the longitudinal and international study of adults, a survey conducted by statistics canada between january and june 2016. the first and second waves of the survey were conducted over the same 6-month period in 2012 and 2014 respectively. the sample includes responding sample members, who are 15 to 65 years old at the time of the survey. it also includes children of respondents younger than 15 years old. there sample members are not administered the questionnaire. once they turn 15 years old, they become responding sample members. all original sample members, that is those who resided in a sampled household at wave 1, are followed longitudinally in subsequent waves even if they change households. adults who join a household where at least one of the original sample members resides are temporarily included in the sample but no data is collected from them. there are no other refreshments to the sample. because of these design features of the survey, the lisa sample is representative of the noninstitutionalized canadian population residing outside of the territories in 2012. crosssectional respondent weights that account for attrition between waves are produced at each wave to allow the production of corresponding population estimates. the initial sample included approximately 34,000 respondents residing in 11,000 canadian households (excluding the territories). at wave 3, attrition (sample members not responding to the survey because of refusal, death, emigration, or non-contact) resulted in an overall smaller sample even if some children aged into the responding sample when they turned 15 (new responding sample members). our analysis uses data from wave 3 because it includes a retrospective postsecondary education history module. this module includes information on the first four pse certificates, diplomas or degrees completed by respondents, and more specifically the level of each credential and its field of study, as well as the duration and start and completion date of the credential. importantly, note that no data is collected for programs of study that were not completed. in other words, the wave 3 pse history module provides information on pse credential accumulation but not on transfers between programs of study where the program of origin is not completed. nevertheless, the pse history module also collects information on the first year when a respondent participated to pse. if that year is different from the year when the first completed pse credential was started, we can infer that a transfer or another type of pathway involving non-completion of the first credential occurred. no such information can be derived for programs that may have been started (but not completed) after the start date of the first completed degree. the lisa variable capturing the level of each pse credential uses 11 different categories, which we recode into four aggregate categories that capture the most relevant differences in 7 levels: trades/vocational/apprenticeship certificates; certificates or diploma at the college/cegep/university below bachelors level; bachelors degrees; graduate and first professional degrees. the correspondence is reported in table 1. note that in analyses using samples of the overall canadian population, pre-university cegep diplomas (obtained in quebec) are not counted as pse credentials because they are not intended to be terminal credentials and they are a re-requisite for access to bachelors programs and include content that is part of the last year of secondary education in other provinces. this would lead to an inflation of the number of respondents with more than one pse credentials. technical cegep diplomas (dec de formation technique) and a.c.s. (attestation dtudes collgiales) certificates, intended to be terminal and relatively equivalent to college diploma or certifications offered in other provinces, are included in the analysis. credentials with a duration below three months are also excluded from the sample. table 1. derived variable, level of pse credentials categories of the derived variable categories from raw lisa variable on pse level 1. trade/vocational/ trade/vocational certificate (includes an attestation of apprenticeship certificate vocational training, diploma of vocational studies, or (abbreviation: tva) attestation of vocational specialization offered in quebec) apprenticeship certificate 2. college/cegep/university cegep diploma or certificate [exclusion in this study: prebelow bachelors diploma or university cegep programs; not excluded: dec certificate technique and a.c.s] (abbreviation: college) non-university certificate or diploma from a college, school of nursing, technical institute university transfer program university certificate or diploma below bachelor's degree 3. bachelors degree bachelor's degree 4. graduate or first university certificate above the bachelor's professional degree first professional degree (degree in law (ll.b.), medicine (abberviation: graduate) (m.d.), dentistry (d.d.s., d.m.d), veterinary medicine (d.v.m.), optometry (o.d.), divinity) masters ph.d. several additional data cleaning steps were necessary in order to construct the pse pathway variables used in our analyses. these steps were necessary to address inconsistencies and missingness in the raw data. this includes the deterministic imputation of missing credential start and end dates based on standard program durations. 8 construction of the analytic sample we leverage the fact that the pse history module of the wave 3 of lisa provides information on the number and level of pse credentials accumulated by respondents, including in what order and with what timing. most of the analysis is restricted to respondents who obtained at least one pse credential. in addition, some of our analysis implements an upper age bound to the pse history variable to allow for analyses pooling cohorts together. this step is implemented because the lisa sample is cross-sectional, and respondents are observed at very different ages in 2016, when wave 3 data is collected. this step also allows for the comparison of different birth cohorts or for tracking the outcomes of a given birth cohort at different ages (setting different upper age bounds). as an example, a large part of our analysis sets an upper age bound for credential accumulation at 35 years old, meaning that only the credentials completed by respondents before they turn 35 years old are included. throughout all of the report, the analytic sample is restricted to respondents who were 35 to 59 years old in (early) 2016, corresponding to the 1956 to 1980 birth cohorts. respondents below 35 years old are excluded because the objective of this paper is to focus on pse pathways and their outcomes in a long-term perspective, in contrast with studies that focus exclusively on young graduates (often excluding older adult graduates) and on outcomes observed within a small number of years from graduation. in order to include only respondents who completed most of their pse in canada, we exclude respondents who arrived in canada after 15 years old. we also exclude immigrants who report spending less than 10 years in canada after 15 years old. this yields an analytic sample of approximately 4000 respondents with at least one pse credential in 2016, representing a population of 6,478,400 individuals age 35 to 59 in 2016 with at least one pse credential. ontario is the focus of this report, but some of the results are reported for canada only because of sample size limitations. the ontario analytic sample is drawn from respondents with at least one pse credential in 2016 reported having graduated from an ontario high school (no geographic identifier is available for the institution of the first credential). this yields a sample size of close to 1000 observations representing a population of 2,300,100 ontario high school graduates age 35 to 59 in 2016 with at least one pse credential. methods the report presents results from three types of analyses. first, we provide an overall description of the different pse pathways followed by the sample respondents. second, we report results from multinomial regressions providing estimates of the relationship between different background characteristics and different pathways through pse. third, we estimate a set of ordinary least square (ols) regressions models to document to what extent specific pse pathways are associated with different labour market outcomes, and what are the drivers of income differences between respondents who followed different pathways. 9 in most of the analysis, our focus is on the first completed credential and the highest of any of the second, third or fourth credentials subsequently completed, if any.1 this research design allows to study the role of the first completed credential in the pathways subsequently taken by respondents in pse. as reported below, most respondents complete only one or two credentials. very few respondents complete three or more. results based on regression models allow to estimate the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables net of other variables included in the model. this allows to address cases of omitted variable bias, where the association between two variable is driven by a third variable correlated with both the dependent and the main independent variable. for example, the association between income and a specific pse pathway may be biased if that pathway is more likely to be followed by respondents who complete their pse at a later age, if in turn, completing pse at a later age is itself associated with a lower income. regression models including several predictors, or independent variables, are called multivariate regression models. we use two distinct classes of regression models that are each appropriate for a different type of dependent variables (categorical and continuous). the rest of this section provides general information on the regression models. note that the estimates from our regression models may not be interpreted as causal estimates because respondents may select into certain pathways based on unobserved characteristics (not measured in the lisa dataset), such as grades or abilities. multinomial regression the results from multinomial regressions use the variable capturing the four levels of the the second completed pse credential as the dependent variable (the level of the second or third credential is used if the respondent completed more than two credentials and one of them is at a higher level than the second credential). an additional category of the dependent variable is created for respondents who completed only a single pse credential. that dependent variable is regressed on a variable capturing the level of the first completed credential. in other words, the model estimates the odds of completing a second credential at a given level (or to complete no further credentials), conditional on the level of the first pse credential. the following variables capturing the background of respondents as well as other dimensions of their pse pathways are included in order to document the relationship between different pse pathways on one hand, and parental background and of the respondents characteristics on the other. background variables: gender (male/female) parental education 1 specifications using information on the first and second completed credentials only yield results that are very consistent with those obtained from our preferred specification. regression output used for this comparison are reported in appendix figure a.1 and table a.3. 10 immigration status first-generation immigrant parents visible minority indigenous identity (aboriginal identity variable) province (at time of survey or at high school completion, depending on specification) birth cohort (quadratic) pse pathway variables: age when completed first credential field of study of first credential any non-completed pse program before start of first completed degree (dummy) the sample is restricted to respondents who completed at least one pse credential before 35 years old. any credentials completed after that age are excluded from the analysis.2 ols regression regression analysis is also used to document income differences between respondents who followed different pse credential accumulation pathways. these models regress income on pse pathway variables and a set of controls. two different dependent variables are used: 1. the log of annual employment income in 2015 including t4 earnings and net selfemployment income, for respondents with non-zero employment income (source: t1ff data with imputation by statistics canada); 2. weekly labour earnings in the survey reference week, for respondents employed at survey date only (source: survey questionnaire with imputation by statistics canada); the first specification excludes respondents who report being employed for zero week or being employed part time part year in 2015. the second specification excludes respondents who were not employed at survey date. the controls include those listed in the previous section as well as the following controls: employment participation in 20153; years of labour force experience (self-reported at survey date); some models use field of study of first and last credentials; 2 see appendix figure a.2 for an analysis restricted to respondents age 50 to 59 in 2016, allowing to include all credentials completed before 50 years old. 3 this derived variable uses the following categories: full-time full year employment; full-time part year employment (at least half of the year); part-time full year employment; part-time part year employment (at least half of the year); full-time part year employment (less than half of the year); part-time part year employment (less than half of the year); not employed in 2015. 11 whether the respondent completed credentials in more than one field of study; whether the respondent completed any stem program; whether the respondent changed fields of study between the first and second completed pse credential; a set of job characteristics for the job held in the survey reference period (occupation, industry, job skill use demand, and the supervision of any employees). 12 results credential accumulation over the life course in the introduction, we argued that the scope of many analyses of pse pathways are limited by their use of data with samples limited to young respondents, likely to miss important dimensions of pathways and important variations in outcomes that can be observed at later ages. here, we report data showing the share of the population in the 1956-1980 birth cohorts who had completed one pse credential (figure 1.1) and two or more pse credentials (figure 1.2) by the time they reached different ages. the figures plot cumulative shares, meaning that the estimates reported at 25 years old, for example, include those who completed a credential before 21 years old and those who completed it between 21 and 25 years old. results are reported separately for two cohort groups in addition to the overall population born in 1956-1980: the sample is divided between the 1956-1965 and 1966-1980 birth cohorts. the first cohort group is observed at 35 years old in 2016 at the latest, and the second cohort group is observed at 50 years old at the latest, allowing to observe the second cohorts credential accumulation at older ages. figure 1.1 shows that many canadians completed a first pse credential at very different ages. at 21 years old, 25.0% of canadians born between 1956 and 1980 had completed one credential. that proportion doubled to 50.3% by 25 years old and increased to 60.9% by 34 years old.4 we also find disparities across cohorts, with the rate of completion of a first pse credential after 21 years old being substantially higher for the younger cohort even if no gap is observed by 21 years old. finally, results specific to the 1956-1965 birth cohort show an increase of 7.1% in the share of canadians completing their first pse credential between 35 and 49 years old. next, we report results on the completion of a second credential (or more). in figure 1.2, we find that by 25 years old, 11.1% of canadians had completed a second credential. by 29 years old, that proportion increased to 17.3%, and by 34 years old, to 22.8%. again, we find a large gap between the 1956-1965 and 1966-1980 birth cohorts, with the younger cohort having an almost 10 percentage points higher 2nd credential completion rate before reaching 35 years old. results from the 1956-1965 cohort also show a substantial increase in the share of the population with a second pse credential between 35 and 49 years old, from 17.1% to 24.5%. together, these results point to the relevance of using pse history data covering a longer age range when studying pse pathways, especially in analyses focusing on credential accumulations. importantly, second credentials are often completed well after ones mid-20s. the timing of completion of many pse credentials also calls for measuring labour market and economic outcomes at later ages than some of the existing literature. the return on investment to a pse credential is likely to become visible only a certain time after graduation 4 note that these estimates are consistent with similar estimates drawn from the 2016 long-form census public-use data. 13 and the accumulation of some labour force experience. the data used in this study allow to take into account these initial findings and conclusions. 14 figure 1.1. cumulative share of population with a first pse credential at different ages, 1956-1980 birth cohorts 80.0 70.0 60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 21 years old 25 years old 1956-1980 birth cohort 29 years old 34 years old 1956-1965 birth cohort 49 years old 1966-1980 birth cohort source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). figure 1.2. cumulative share of population with a second or more pse credential at different ages, 1956-1980 birth cohorts 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 25 years old 1956-1980 birth cohort 29 years old 34 years old 1956-1965 birth cohort 49 years old 1966-1980 birth cohort source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). 15 overview of different pse credential accumulation pathways in the canadian and ontario populations building on the previous section, we focus on the distribution of educational attainment in canada and ontario including information on pse credential accumulation. this allows to highlight the different pse credential accumulation pathways that may lead to the same final or highest credential. to do so, we reconstruct pse histories for each respondent age 35 to 59 years old in our sample. in figure 2.1, we report data based on derived a variable capturing broad pse credential accumulation pathways showing the level of the first completed pse credential, and then the level of the second, third or fourth credential, whichever the highest. those who complete a single pse credential are included in the complete category. the values plotted on the y-axis (and reported at the top of each bar) correspond to the percentage of the overall population following each pathway. figure 2.2 reports percentages based on the same data, but conditional on the level of the first pse credential. results are reported separately for canada overall and for ontario. the distribution of pse pathways in ontario is relatively similar to the canadian distribution. we find that the pse participation rate (share of the population with a pse credential) in the 1956-1980 birth cohorts in 2016 (at 35-59 years old) is 60.9% in canada and 64.9% in ontario. the most frequent pse entry pathway is the completion of a first pse credential below a bachelors degree (trade, apprenticeship, or vocational certificate, college certificate or diploma, or other equivalent credentials): 35.8% of canadians and 33.9% of ontario residents have followed that pathway compared with 25% canadians and 31% ontario residents completing a first pse credential at the bachelors level or above (e.g., first professional degree). consistent with figure 1, figure 2.1 shows that a relatively large share of canadians accumulates more than one pse credential. at the same time, figure 2.2 shows that the population completing a bachelors degree as their first credential are more likely to complete a second degree: around 50% do so, predominantly at the graduate level. among those who completed a first pse credential below the bachelors level, 30% obtain a second pse credential. importantly, figure 2.1 also shows that analyses focusing only on the highest degree are likely to miss important differences between graduates driven by non-linear pse credential accumulation.5 the share of respondents who follow a linear pathway of completing a bachelors degree followed by a graduate degree is 7.4% in canada and 10.1% in ontario. in contrast, 15.4% of canadians and 15.9% of ontario residents follow a non-linear credential accumulation pathway. analyses focusing only on the highest pse credential would ignore the possible impact of the other degrees held by these individuals. 5 note that our data only captures one of many dimensions of non-linear or non-conventional pathways, as highlighted in the review of the literature. 16 more specifically, close to 30% of those who complete a first pse credential then go on to complete a second credential at the same level as the first (lateral or horizontal accumulation), such as those accumulating two or more certificates or diploma below the bachelors level). around five percent complete a bachelors degree (or more)6 after a first pse credential below the bachelors level, or the reverse, which are generally regarded as non-conventional pathways. standard analyses measuring the highest degree (in this case, the bachelors degree) would not report the existence of that additional trades/vocational/apprenticeship or college credential. finally, one important finding stands out: of all canadian in our sample, only 3.5% followed a tva/college-to-bachelors degree pathway (3.0% in ontario). in other words, among bachelors graduates in our sample, only 12.3% obtained their bachelors degree as a second, third or fourth degree (8.8% in ontario). note that this represents less than 10% of those who completed a first pse credential below the bachelors level (see figure 3.2). the 91.7% of other bachelors graduates in our sample obtained their bachelors as their first pse credential. this finding, combined with the fact that access to graduate school is almost exclusively limited to those who complete a bachelors degree as their first credential, suggests that the level of the entry pathway into pse is related to overall achievement. a focus on pse pathways can highlight the existence of cumulative disadvantage dynamics. the next sections explore the drivers and outcomes associated with these dynamics. 6 the category "to bachelors or more includes graduate degrees and first professional degrees. however, almost no respondents in our sample followed that pathway. the large majority of respondents following that pathway completed a bachelors degree after their first pse credential below the bachelors level. 17 figure 2.1. credential accumulation pathways by geography, 35-59 years old 30.0 27.5 25.9 24.7 25.0 23.7 20.0 15.2 15.0 13.3 11.6 10.0 10.1 9.2 7.6 7.2 5.0 7.4 3.6 3.5 3.0 2.4 1.9 2.1 0.0 no high school high school certificate certificate no pse credential complete to below to bachelor or bachelor more first pse credential: below bachelor's canada complete to below to bachelor to graduate bachelor first pse credential: bachelor's or more ontario source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). note: the ontario subsample correspondents to lisa respondents who resided in ontario at survey date. 18 figure 2.2. credential accumulation pathways conditional on the level of first pse credential by geography, 35-59 years old 80.0 70.0 69.1 69.8 60.0 53.2 48.9 50.0 40.0 32.5 29.6 30.0 21.1 21.3 20.0 11.7 9.8 8.9 10.0 9.6 7.6 6.8 0.0 complete to below bachelor to bachelor or more first pse credential: below bachelor's complete to below bachelor to bachelor to graduate first pse credential: bachelor's or more canada ontario source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). note: the ontario subsample correspondents to lisa respondents who resided in ontario at survey date. 19 drivers of variation in pse credential accumulation pathways in this section, we report results from multinomial logistic regression models to documents which variables are associated with different pse credential accumulation pathways. the models regress the five possible destination categories for the second pse credential (or more, whichever is the highest) on the level of the first pse credential and on a set of background (gender, visible minority status, parental background, etc.) and pse pathway characteristics (age at completion of first pse credential, whether any spell in pse that did not lead to a degree was completed by the respondent before the first credential was completed, and field of study of first credential). with these results, we aim to document the characteristics of the population following different pse credential accumulation pathways. the results presented in the figures are average marginal effects (ame) derived from the multinomial regression log odds estimates. these can be interpreted as the difference in the probability of completing a second credential at a given level (tva, college, bachelor, or graduate, or not completing a second credential [the complete] category in the figures) that is associated with certain characteristics, or category of an independent variable, compared to the reference category. in other words, the ames estimate the difference in the probability of following different pse credential accumulation pathways between categories of respondents. the figures also report the 95% confidence intervals associated with each ame estimate. ames are statistically significant at the p<0.05 level if the confidence intervals do not cross zero on the y-axis of the figures. association between first and second completed pse credential first, we focus on the relationship between the first pse credential and the level of the highest credential completed afterwards, if any. this will contribute to our understanding of cumulative processes such as differences in the ability to complete more highly rewarded credentials conditional on the first completed credential at entry in pse. figure 3 shows the probability of completing a second (or more) credential at a given level (if any) conditional on the level of the first credential. estimates are ames from models controlling for a set of background characteristics (gender, visible minority status, immigration status of self and parent, parental education, indigenous identity, province of residence at high school graduation, age, age at completion of first credential, and whether the respondent completed any pse before the start date of their first completed credential). the level of the first credential appears to be strongly related to the subsequent pathway into pse. more specifically, those who completed a first pse credential at the bachelors level were significantly less likely than their counterparts who completed a college credential to then complete a second credential. in canada overall, this difference is driven by a probability of completing a graduate degree 25 points higher for bachelors degree graduate than college graduates. the difference is in the same direction and the estimates are of larger sizes in ontario. there is no significant difference in the probability of completing a graduate degree 20 as a second credential between college graduates and those who completed a tva certificate as a first credential. in addition, we find no difference between the three first credential levels in the probability of completing a bachelors degree as a second credential, meaning that those who complete their first degree below the bachelors level are not more likely to then follow an upward pathway into bachelors or, especially, graduate education. moreover, at the canadian level, there is evidence of horizontal accumulation for those not completing college as their first credential, since they are less likely to then complete a second credential at the college level. the same goes for the probability of completing a second tva certificate for those who completed a tva certificate as their first pse credential. we conduct a set of robustness checks to ensure that our estimates are consistent across a set of model specifications. in figure a.1, we restrict the analysis to the relationship between the first and second credential, if any, rather than between the first and the highest of the second, third, or fourth credential, if any. we find no notable difference between the two specifications. in figure a.2, we restrict the analysis to the birth cohorts who were 50 to 59 years old in 2016 (the 1956-1965 birth cohorts). this restriction allows us to estimate two types of models: one restricting the analysis to pse credentials completed before 35 years old by the respondents in these birth cohorts, and the other including all credentials completed before the same respondents were 50 years old. again, the results are consistent with those reported in figure 3, and the same patterns are observed at both ages7. these robustness checks suggest that 35 years old is an appropriate upper age bound for measuring the pse pathways of respondents for the purpose of this analysis, even if figure 1 shows that close to 10 percent of the population complete a first and a second pse credential between 35 and 50 years old. this may be due to the fact that the same dynamics that drive differences at early ages also drive differences at later ages. 7 the size of estimates from different logistic regression models cannot be directly compared because differences may be driven by the rescaling factor included in the estimates rather than differences between the true estimates (allison 1999). we therefore refrain from discussing differences in effect sizes between canada and ontario, and with figures b1 and b2. 21 figure 3. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by level of first credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada 2 college 3 bachelor or more tv c a ol le ba ge ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ge ch le ba ol tv a c el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ch ol c ba le tv a ge -.4 -.3 -.2 -.1 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 1 trade/voc/apprenticeship level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound 22 b. ontario 2 college 3 bachelor or more el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ge ch le ba ol tv a c el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ge ch le ba ol tv a c el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ch ba c ol le tv a ge -.4 -.3 -.2 -.1 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 1 trade/voc/apprenticeship level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. 23 background characteristics as drivers of differences in pse pathways next, we explore how the level of the second credential (or more) is associated with the background characteristics of the respondents. we focus on the education and immigration status of parents, on gender differences, and on differences by visible minority status. we also explore the role of pse spells that did not lead to the completion of a pse credential before the start of the first completed pse credential. together, these findings will improve our understanding of inequalities between groups in their credential accumulation pathways. it is a first step in improving our understanding of the role of different pse pathways in accounting for group differences in income. figures 4 and 5 report ames capturing group differences in the probability of completing a second credential (or more) at a given level (the outcome variable/dependent variable in the model). the ames are derived from the same model as the one from which the estimates in figure 3 are drawn. in other words, the estimates are net of the level of the first completed credential and other controls. the association between our background characteristics of interest and our outcome variable does not vary by level of the first credential. in separate models with interactions between these two variables, we found little variation in the impact of background characteristics across levels of the first credential, except for parental education. the results of this interaction model for parental education are reported below. the results reported in figure 4 can be interpreted the following way: 1. we observe little gender differences at the canadian level except for a lower probability of completing a tva credential as a second credential for women than men. at the ontario level, we find a statistically significant difference of 10 probability points between men and women in the likelihood of completing a single credential, with women more likely than men to accumulate more than one credential before 35 years old. 2. in canada in general and in ontario, pse graduates who are part of a visible minority group are less likely than those who are not part of a visible minority group to complete a second pse credential, mostly driven by their lower probability of completing a bachelor or a graduate degree as their second credential. however, the estimates for bachelors degree and single credential completion are only statistically significant at the p<0.10 level, but not at the p<0.05 level, in the canadian sample. in the ontario sample, only the ame for graduate degree is statistically significant at the p<0.10 level, while the others two estimates are slightly above that threshold. 3. none of the ames for the relationship between parental immigration status and the respondents second credential pathway are statistically significant. 4. respondents who report a pse spell before the start date of their first completed pse credential have a smaller probability of completing a single credential than those who did not, although this is not associated with an increased probability of completing a second pse credential at any level in particular, as shown by the similar effect sizes and absence of statistical significance for the other coefficients. 24 figure 4. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by background characteristics, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada -.1 0 .1 .2 1st gen immigrant parents pse before 1st completed cred women el or g ra du at c om e pl et e ch ge ba c ol le tv a el or g ra du at c om e pl et e ch ba c ol le tv a ge -.1 0 .1 .2 visible minority level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound 25 b. ontario -.2 0 .2 .4 1st gen immigrant parents pse before 1st completed cred women el or g ra du at c om e pl et e ch ge ba c ol le tv a el or g ra du at c om e pl et e ch ba c ol le tv a ge -.2 0 .2 .4 visible minority level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. 26 next, we focus on parental education. figure 5 shows that at the canada level, the population with at least one parent who completed a university degree is significantly more likely to complete more than one pse credential, driven by the higher probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential than those with at least one parent with pse below the university level, and those with no parent having completed any pse. no other differences are found. importantly, having parents with some pse below the university level does not appear to be associated with different credential accumulation patterns than those with no parents with any pse. the patterns for ontario are broadly similar, but none of the estimates are statistically significant. we let the relationship between parental education and the level of the second credential (or more) vary by the level of the first credential by adding an interaction term to the baseline model already described in this section. the results of this supplemental model are reported in figure 6 (for canada only due to sample size limitations). in that figure, average predicted probabilities rather than average marginal effects are reported, for ease of interpretation. the main findings are the following: 1. among those who completed a tva certificate as their first credential, respondents with at least one parent with university-level education have a lower probability of completing a single pse credential that those with parents with lower levels of education. this is driven by their higher probability of completing a second tva certificate rather than completing a second pse credential at another level (college, bachelors or graduate level). 2. among those who completed a college certificate or diploma as their first credential, there appears to be a positive relationship between parental education and the probability of completing a second credential at the bachelors or graduate level. however, the confidence intervals largely overlap. 3. finally, among those who completed a bachelors degree (or higher) as their first credential, those with at least one parent with university-level education have a lower probability of completing a single pse credential that those with parents with lower levels of education. this is driven by their higher probability of completing a graduate degree. the results from the interaction model improve our understanding of the drivers of patterns found earlier in the data: the greater probability of completing a second tva certificate among respondents with a tva certificate as their first credential is partly driven by the subgroup of those respondents with more educated parents. the same is true for the greater probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential among those with a bachelors degree as their first credential: this difference is also partly driven by the bachelor graduates with more educated parents. overall, these results point at some differences in the pse credential accumulation pathways in canada and ontario for visible minority respondents (remember, these estimates are net of the immigration status of respondents and their parents, and no respondent in the sample immigrated after age 15). this points at possible obstacles specific to racialized individuals. on the other hand, the absence of differences by gender and parental immigration status is in line with the existing literature. 27 figure 5. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by parental education level, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada some pse university education ge ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e le ba ol tv a c ge ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e le ba ol tv a c ge ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ba c ol le tv a -.15 -.1 -.05 0 .05 .1 .15 no pse level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound 28 b. ontario some pse university education el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ge ch le ba ol tv a c el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ge ch le ba ol tv a c el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ch ba c ol le tv a ge -.15 -.1 -.05 0 .05 .1 .15 no pse level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the three categories in the panel subtitles correspond to the educational attainment of the most educated parent. pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. 29 figure 6. average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by parental education, 1956-1980 birth cohorts some pse, tva university, tva no pse, college some pse, college university, college no pse, bachelor+ some pse, bachelor+ university, bachelor+ t c va ol ba leg c e g hel ra or c dua om te pl et e t c va ol ba leg c e g hel ra or c dua om te pl et e t c va ol ba leg c e g hel ra or c dua om te pl et e 0 .2 .4 .6 .8 0 .2 .4 .6 .8 0 .2 .4 .6 .8 no pse, tva level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the three categories before the comma in the panel subtitles correspond to the educational attainment of the most educated parent. the three categories after the comma in the panel subtitles correspond to the first completed pse credential of the respondent. pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 30 supplemental results on the relationship between background characteristics and the level of the first pse credential the results reported here focus on pathways from the first to the second (or more) credential. in appendix figures a.3 and a.4, we explore whether these group differences are likely to reinforce differences found between these groups when analyzing differences in the level of the first pse credential they complete. we find that this is indeed the case. multinomial logistic model regressing the level of the first credential (tva, college, or bachelor+) on parental education and immigration status, gender, immigration status of self, visible minority status, indigenous identity, whether a pse spell before the start date of the first completed pse credential is reported, and province of high school graduation yield the following results: 1. women in the canada and ontario samples are less likely than men to complete a first credential at the tva level and more likely to complete a college or a bachelors degree (last estimate is statistically significant for canada overall only); 2. visible minority individuals in both canada and ontario are more likely than those reporting being white to complete a college certificate or diploma as their first credential. in the canada sample, this difference is predominantly driven by the lower probability of completing a tva as their first credential. 3. respondents with at least one first generation immigrant parent are more likely to complete a bachelors degree and less likely to complete a college certificate or diploma as their first credential than respondents with both parents born in canada. the ames for college are only statistically significant at the p<0.10 level in both samples. 4. respondents with at least one university-educated parent have a likelihood of completing a bachelors degree as their first pse credential at least 20 probability points greater than those with no parent with any pse education. they are also significantly less likely (in the canadian and ontario samples) to complete a first credential at both the tva and college level. those with at least one parent with some pse are also slightly more lightly to complete a bachelors degree than respondents with less educated parents, but that effect is small (and non-statistically significant in the ontario sample). 5. finally, respondents with a pse spell before the start of their first completed pse credential have a higher probability of completing a bachelors degree as their first credential in the canadian sample (at the p<0.10 level). however, the reverse is true in the ontario sample, with a greater probability of completing a college certificate or diploma and a lower probability of completing a bachelors degree than their counterparts who do not report any previous spell in pse (both differences are statistically significant at the p<0.05 level). overall, these findings highlight the emergence of differences in credential accumulation between groups visible at entry into pse, with those differences largely persisting as individuals accumulate a second credential or more. 31 the role of other characteristics of pse pathways finally, we document the role of some of the characteristics of the first completed credential: the field of study and age at completion. the literature does identify fields of study as important drivers of transfer pathways (finnie, dubois, and miyairi 2021) and suggests that they play a role in credential accumulation (ntwari and fecteau 2020). to the extent that some fields of study are associated with lower probabilities of employment and lower expected employment income, graduates from these fields of study may decide to complete a second credential to compensate that disadvantage before they enter the labour market, or to return to pse after an initial spell on the labour market. the variable for time at completion of first credential is likely to capture the combined effect of delayed enrollment and degree duration in pse (e.g. discontinuous enrollment or part-time studies in a single program), two factors known to be inversely associated with persistence and completion rates (goldrickrab 2006). age at completion of first pse credential in figure 7, panel a, we report average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) at a given level as a function of age at completion of the first credential. the reported estimates are derived from the same model used in previous sections (with controls for background characteristics and province of high school graduate, as well as conditional on the level of the first credential). in panel b, we report results of a model interacting the age at completion of the first credential with the level of the first credential. the predicted probabilities are calculated at two-year intervals between age 20 and 34, stopping before our upper age bound of 35 years old. the results in panel a show a rapid decrease in the probability of completing a bachelors degree as a second credential as age at first credential increases, and an overall increase in the probability of completing a single credential rather than two or more credentials as the age of completion of the first degree increases. in panel b, the interaction model estimates show that most of the differences in the level of the second credential across respondents with different first credential levels is attenuated among respondents who complete their first credential at later ages, and trend towards zero (the size of the coefficients estimate the difference in probability points compared to the baseline category, college graduates, for different ages at completion of the first credential). importantly, the higher probability of completing a graduate (or first professional) degree as a second credential for those with a bachelors degree as their first credential relative to the two other groups slowly decreases as age at completion of the first credential increases, but the difference loses statistical significance at 34 years old only. this is a noteworthy finding because graduate/first professional degrees can have long durations but are associated with important labour market advantages in canada (boudarbat & lemieux 2010). in other words, this finding suggests that more advantageous credential accumulation pathways among bachelors graduates persist even when a bachelors degree is obtained as a first pse credential at an older age. 32 robustness check: the impact of censoring pse history at 35 years old importantly, results reported in figure 7 may underestimate differences at older completion ages because the youngest birth cohort in the sample was 35 years old at survey date, leading us to exclude from the analysis any credential completed after that age across all cohorts of the sample, for consistency purposes. as a robustness check, we adopt the same approach as the one implemented in figure a.2. we replicate the models in figure 7, restricting our sample to the 1956-1965 birth cohorts (age 50-59 at survey date). this allows us to document the relationship between the level of the second credential (or more) and age at completion of the first credential at completion age 20 to 488. in figure a.5, we show that censoring pse histories at 35 years old does appear to lead to an underestimation of the gap between bachelors graduates and other groups in the probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential when the first credential is completed at an older age. in models censoring the pse histories at 50 years old, that gap remains stable at later completion ages, including at completion ages above 35 years old. this finding supports our interpretation that completing a bachelors degree as a first credential is associated with distinct pse credential accumulation pathways (most notably, substantially greater probability of a graduate degree) even when a bachelors degree is completed as a first credential at older ages. field of study of first pse credential to conclude this section, we report the results of a multinomial logistic regression model adding a variable capturing the field of study of the first pse credential as an independent variable (no interaction term). all other variables are the same as the ones in the baseline model used throughout this section. the field of study variable is based on the classification of instructional programs (2011) 1-digit categories. figure 8 reports average marginal effects in the probability of completing a second credential (or more) at a given level, if any, relative to the baseline group, business, management and public administration programs. the estimates are net of all other covariates in the model. note that due to large differences is effect sizes, the scale of the y-axis in each panel varies. the following fields of study are more likely to accumulate a second credential or more (the level of the second credentials that respondents in each field of study are more likely to complete are reported in parentheses: 1. humanities (college, bachelors, and graduate/first professional level credentials); 2. social and behavioural sciences, and law (graduate/first professional degree); 3. physical and life sciences (bachelors and graduate/first professional degrees); 4. those with another or unknown field of study (graduate/first professional degree). 8 predicted probabilities are reported for the 20-44 years old completion age only because of the small number of individuals completing a pse credential outside of that range, and the unreliable point estimate and confidence intervals resulting from that feature of the data. 33 note that graduates from a first credential in health and related fields are less likely to complete a college degree as a second credential than the baseline group. in sum, it appears that canadians who complete a first credential in a more general and less vocationally-oriented/less professionally-focused field of study are more likely to accumulate a second credential. for humanities graduates, this translates into a high relative probability of completing a college degree, and for all of the four groups listed above, this also translates into a higher probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential (or more). for humanities and physical and life sciences graduates, the same is true for completing a bachelors degree as a second credential. overall, this subsection has highlighted that the timing of entry into pse and the selected field of study of the first credential have an influence on later credential accumulation pathways. 34 figure 7. average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by age at completion of first pse credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. model without interaction (average predicted probabilities) .05 .05 0 0 0 .1 .1 .15 bachelor .15 college .02 .04 .06 .08 tva 20 30 35 complete 0 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 .05 .1 .15 .2 graduate 25 20 25 30 35 20 25 30 35 age at completion 1st pse credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound b. interaction with interaction: age at completion x level of first credential (average marginal effects: college as baseline) -.1 0 .1 -.15 -.1 -.05 0 .05 bachelor -.15 -.1 -.05 0 .05 college .2 tva 20 30 35 complete -.1 -.2 0 -.1 .1 0 .2 .1 .3 graduate 25 20 25 30 35 20 25 30 35 age at completion 1st pse credential trade/voc/apprenticeship 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound bachelor or more 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 35 figure 8. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by field of study (cip) of first credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts 0 .1 -.2 -.4 0 -.1 -.2 business, mgmt & public adm physical/life sc. -.2 -1 -.2 -.1 0 0 1 .2 0 -.1 .1 social/behav sc. & law humanities .2 arts & comms .1 education .2 .1 .1 0 -.1 .2 personal/protective/transpo services other/unknown 0 0 -.5 tv c a ol le ba ge ch g elo ra r d c uate om pl et e tv c a ol le ba ge ch g elo ra r d c uate om pl et e tv c a ol le ba ge ch g elo ra r d c uate om pl et e -.2 -.1 -.1 -.05 0 .1 .05 .1 health and related .5 -.1 0 -.1 -.05 0 .1 .05 .2 math, computer and info sc. architect., engineering & relatedagri/natural res./conservation level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). field of study of first credential based on the classification of instructional programs 2011 (cip). 36 pse credential accumulation pathways as drivers of income differences in adulthood having established a relationship between pse credential accumulation pathways and a set of background variables and characteristics of the first completed pse credential, we now turn to an analysis of the relationship between credential accumulation and employment income. the objective of this section is to document whether we observe any income gaps between different credential accumulation pathways, especially those that complete their highest credential at the same level, but through different routes. we also aim to explore the drivers of any differences we may find. first, we investigate the role of field of study differences, knowing that different pathways are associated with different fields of study, and that fields of study are differently rewarded on the labour market. second, we narrow in on the role of a set of job characteristics in accounting for the relationship between different pse pathways and employment income. more specifically, we aim to document whether any income differences may be driven by the sorting and selection of graduates into different occupations and industries, and into jobs with different skills demand. this will allow to better understand the labour market dynamics that underpin income differences between respondents with various pse pathways. baseline results as described in the methods section, this section reports results of ols regression models. in these models, the natural log of annual employment income in 2015 is regressed against the credential accumulation pathway variable also used in figure 2.2, and the following set of controls: sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), age, age at completion of first pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term.9 sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. for analyses of the ontario sample, observations include all ontario residents at survey date (2016).10 the coefficients of interest in these ols regressions are the dummies for the categorical pse credential accumulation pathway variable. the reference category for that variable is respondents who completed a single pse credential at the college level. the coefficients for other categories capture the difference in the log of income between the reference category 9 note that for this analysis, we use control variables measured at survey date (employment patterns in 2015, work experience as of survey date, and importantly, annual income in 2015; in some analyses, we also use other job characteristics measured at survey date such as occupation and industry). accordingly, we do not censor pse histories in our main models. rather, we construct our pse pathway variable based on the credentials accumulated by survey date, when respondents are between 35 and 59 (allowing enough time for the youngest cohorts to accumulate pse credentials). 10 we do not use the province of graduation for these analyses because the province controls aim to net out any inter-provincial income differences that would be observed at survey date, when income is also observed. 37 and a given pse pathway, net of control variables. differences in the log of income can be interpreted as the average percentage difference in income associated with a given pse pathway relative to the reference category.11 in figure 9, we report the coefficients from a series of seven ols regression models. the first model is the baseline model estimated with the specification described in the two paragraphs above. the seven panels in the figure correspond to the seven categories of the main independent variable (pse pathway type), with the third category (single pse credential at the college level) left blank as it is the reference category. the effect sizes of the coefficients are reported using dots and plotted against the y-axis, scaled in natural log points. as described in the figure legend, different types of markers indicate statistical significance levels. for reference, appendix table a.1 reports the exact point estimates and p-values, as well as fit statistics and other details on the model specification. first, we discuss baseline estimates reported in figure 9 (model 1 baseline, with markers further on the left of the x-axis of each panel). we will discuss the other six models in the next sub-section. the baseline results for both panels (canada and ontario) show a statistically significant gap between the baseline category and all other pse credential accumulation pathway categories except the pathway capturing those who completed a credential below the bachelors level as a first credential, and completed a second credential at the same level. at the same time, there are substantial differences in the size of the income premium across pathway types. first, the two pathways associated with the highest income are those with a bachelors degree as their first credential and who completed a second credential at the same level or at the graduate level. in panel a, completing a graduate degree as a second credential is associated with an employment income level 60.9% higher on average than the reference category. for those completing a bachelors degree as a second credential, the premium is 56.3%. in panel b, restricted to residents of ontario, the order is reversed, with accumulating two credentials at the bachelors level associated with an income level 78.4% higher on average than the reference category, and a bachelors followed by a graduate degree being associated with a 70.8% premium. second, we find that completing a single credential at the bachelors level is associated with a smaller income premium than the two other categories, but a higher income premium than both other categories that also have a bachelors degree as their highest credential. more specifically, we find a smaller coefficient size for respondents who complete a bachelors degree and then a credential below the bachelors level (tva or college), and for those who completed the same two credentials in the reverse order (credential below bachelor level followed by a bachelors degree), relative to those who completed a single credential at the bachelors level. in all three cases, the difference with the reference category is statistically significant. in the canada panel, accumulating the two credentials in a reverse order (bachelors degree followed by a credential below bachelors) is associated with lower income levels, on average, than those who follow the opposite, upward pathway, with a coefficient of 0.274 compared with 0.358. in the ontario panel, the order is reversed, and the size of the 11 for example, a log coefficient of 0.10 can be interpreted as a 10 percent average difference in income between a given pathway and the reference category. 38 gap is smaller, with coefficients of 0.398 and 0.349 respectively. that is, in the ontario sample, the premium associated with completing a credential below the bachelors level after completing a bachelors degree is substantially larger than in the canadian sample. robustness check: complex measures of pse pathways with interaction models our main analysis relies on a derived variable that consists in a simplified categorisation of all the possible pse credential accumulation pathways, especially the collapsing of the tva and college categories into a single below bachelors degree category. in appendix figure a.6, we present the results of an alternative specification that captures more of the possible pathways, at the expense of a much greater number of model parameters. except from that difference in the pathway variable(s), the specification of the model in figure a.6 is identical to the specification in the baseline model in figure 9. it regresses the log of annual employment income on a categorical variable capturing the level of the first credential (three categories: tva, college, and bachelor or more), another categorical variable capturing the level of the second credential (tva, college, bachelors degree, graduate or first professional degree, and completed pse for those with a single pse credential only), as well as an interaction between those two variables. this yields 14 parameters from which predicted probabilities are derived. the full model parameters are reported in appendix table a.2. we focus our attention on the predicted probabilities reported in figure a.6.12 the results in figure a.6 show patterns similar to those in figure 9, but also reveals some heterogeneity masked by the simplified pathway variable used in figure 9. several differences emerge: 1. there are essentially no net income premiums associated with credential accumulation among those who obtain a tva certificate as their first credential. 2. there is a statistically significant net income difference between college graduates (first credential) who obtain a second credential at the tva or college level (see the pvalues for the corresponding dummies in table a.2) relative to those who complete a single college certificate or diploma. 3. the net difference in the income associated with completed a single credential at the bachelors level versus first completing a college certificate or diploma before completing a bachelors degree as a second credential is small, at less than 0.05 log points. 4. the pathway consisting of first completing a college credential before completing a graduate or first professional credential (as a second, or more likely a third or fourth credential) is associated with an income premium substantially higher than the two pathways listed in point 3. note that as shown in the first part of the results section, the probability of following that pathway is very small. 12 each bar in the figure reports the income gap between a given pathway and the baseline pathway (a single college credential), net of controls (holding other sample characteristics constant). the predicted probabilities are obtained by adding the coefficients associated with each pathway. first example, the estimate for the bar corresponding to completing a first credential at the bachelors level followed by a graduate degree is obtained by adding the coefficient for each of the two dummies and for the interaction between those dummies. 39 at the same time, the difference in the size of the coefficient between those who first complete a bachelors degree and then complete a second credential at the tva or college level relative to those who follow a pathway from college to bachelors degree (the reverse) is similar to the one observed in figure 9 for the corresponding categories. overall, readers should keep this masked heterogeneity in mind when interpreting the results. at the same time, r-squared fit statistics suggest that little explanatory power is gained from this more detailed specification. accordingly, we rely on our baseline specification with a simplified derived pathway variable in order to avoid overfitting the data and for ease of interpretation. other robustness checks we run an additional series of checks to document the underlying dynamics of our regression models. first, we document the impact of using a measure of pathways that use the level of the second credential rather than the level of the highest credential completed after the first credential. the results are reported in appendix table a.3. we find negligible differences in the size of the estimates. second, we document the impact of the controls for employment in 2015 and for years of work experience on the estimates, as well as the sensitivity of the estimates to sample exclusions based on employment patterns in 2015. results reported in appendix table a.4 show that the absolute and relative size of the coefficients are not substantially influenced by the exclusion of marginally employed respondents (employed part-time, part year for less than half of the year in 2015) in addition to the exclusion of respondents not employed in 2015. also importantly, comparing the coefficients for models 1 and 2 in table a.4.2 shows that some the pathway coefficients in the ontario sample are impacted by the addition of employment patterns and work experience controls. more specifically, the employment income premium for completing two bachelors degree is close to 0.15 log points larger in models with those two controls, suggesting that respondents following this pathway are less likely to be employed full-time, full year and/or to have a large number of years of work experience than the reference category (and those who complete a bachelors degree followed by a graduate degree). more generally, results from appendix table a.4 point at important differences in the labour force participation patterns of respondents with different pathways, which account for some of the income gaps between those categories to the extent that differences in labour force participation patterns are associated with different average income levels. accounting for the role of fields of study estimates from models 2 to 7 reported in figure 9 allow to start answering a question stemming from our baseline results: what are the mechanisms that underpin income gaps between pse pathways? we know from the first part of the results section that some of the 40 fields of study of first completed credentials are associated with specific pse credential accumulation pathways. if there is also a relationship between the field of study of the first credential and employment income, then it is possible that the lower (or higher) income associated with a given pse pathway is driven by the lower (or higher) income associated with the fields of study most prevalent among those who followed that given pathway. in practice, if income differences between pathways are attenuated by controlling for the field of study of the first credential, these income differences between pathways can be attributed to income differences between fields of study (and the association between fields of study with different income premiums and pathway type). in figure 9, we implement that approach by controlling for different measures related to the fields of study of respondents in our sample. models 2 and 3 control for the 1-digit and 2-digit cip codes (2011) of the first completed credential respectively. models 4 and 5 do the same for the fields of study of the second completed credential. then, model 6 investigates whether the net income differences associated with different pathways can be accounted for by the fact that respondents who follow specific pathways are more likely to have at least one stem credential (a group of fields of study that are expected to be associated with more favourable labour market outcomes). finally, model 7 follows the same intuition and investigates whether some pathways are more likely to involve a change in field of study (also called recycling), which may itself be associated with lower income on average, net of controls. indeed, changing fields of study during program transfers is associated with a short-term earnings penalty (finnie, dubois, and miyairi 2021). we find that the field of study of the first credential, especially when measured at the 2-digit level, accounts for most of the gap between the coefficient for the bachelor-to-college pathway and the college-to-bachelor pathway in the canadian sample, and between the coefficients of the bachelor-to-college pathway and completing a single bachelors degree in the ontario sample. this may be interpreted as evidence that bachelors graduates in less rewarded fields of study may seek to pursue a more applied second credential at the college level to supplement the skills developed in pse.13 overall, however, field of study variables, and especially the dummy for any stem, account for little of the net average differences in income between most pathways. in other words, figure 9 provides little supporting evidence of a possible role of fields of study as drivers of income differences among respondents who follow various pse credential accumulation pathways. 13 at the same time, we refrain from a causal interpretation to the extent that students with different unobserved characteristics such as abilities and competencies may select into different fields of study in the first place. 41 1 3 2 f bas o fo s e lin s 1s 1st e t c cr 4 e 5 fo fos red d de s 2 2n nd t. d c cre 6 red d an d y e 7 st t. an e y m re cy 1 2 ba cl 3 fo fos se lin s 1s 1st e t c cr 4 e 5 fo fos red d de s 2 2n nd t. d c cre 6 red d an d y e 7 st t. an e y m re cy 1 2 ba cl 3 fo fos se lin s 1s 1st e t c cr 4 e 5 fo fos red d de s 2 2n nd t. d c cre 6 red d an d y e 7 st t. an e y m re cy 1 cl 2 b 3 as f fo os e lin s 1s 1st e t c cr 4 e 5 fo fos red d de s 2 2n nd t. d c cre 6 red d an d y e 7 st t. an e y m re cy cl 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 coefficient (b) 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 figure 9. relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada below bachelor, to below bachelorbelow bachelor, to bachelor+ bachelor+, to below bachelor bachelor+, to bachelor p0.10 p<0,10 below bachelor, complete bachelor+, to graduate p<0.05 bachelor+, complete model p<0.01 42 b. ontario below bachelor, complete bachelor+, to bachelor bachelor+, to graduate bachelor+, complete 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 bachelor+, to below bachelor 1 3 2 f bas fo os e lin s 1s 1st e c t 5 4 f cre red fo os d d s 2n 2nd et. d c c re 6 red d an d y e 7 st t. an e y m re cy 1 cl 3 2 f bas fo os e lin s 1s 1st e t c cr 4 e 5 fo fos red d de s 2 2n nd t. d c cre 6 red d an d y e 7 st t. an e y m re cy 1 cl 2 b 3 as f fo os e l in s 1s 1st e t c cr 4 e 5 fo fos red d d s 2n 2nd et. d c cre 6 red d an d y e 7 st t. an e y m re cy 1 cl 2 b 3 as f fo os e lin s 1s 1st e t c cr 4 e 5 fo fos red d de s 2 2n nd t. d c cre 6 red d an d y e 7 st t. an e y m re cy cl coefficient (b) 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 below bachelor, to below bachelorbelow bachelor, to bachelor+ model p0.10 p<0,10 p<0.05 p<0.01 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the reference group for all plotted coefficients is below bachelors, complete. all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status, immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, age at completion of first pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. the ontario sample includes all ontario residents at survey date (2016). estimates also reported in appendix table a.1. fos = field of study. det. = detailed, 2-digit fos cip 2011 code (no det. mentions stands for 1-digit cip 2011 code). recycl = recycling (change in field of study between credentials). 43 job characteristics as mechanisms underpinning differences in employment income in this final results subsection, we supplement our analysis of variables that may account for differences in annual employment income across different pse pathways by considering the role of job characteristics. this analysis can contribute to shed light on the role of sorting and selection into different types of jobs in driving income differences between respondents who followed specific pse credential accumulation pathways. we rely on the same approach as the previous subsection, controlling for different variables capturing the characteristics of the jobs held by respondents, and more specifically their occupation (47 categories), industry (26 categories), any responsibility supervising employees, and the demand for job skill use14. tables 2.1 (canada sample) and 2.2 (ontario sample) report the results of models using the natural log of annual employment income in 2015 as the dependent variable. as in previous models, the sample is restricted to respondents who were employed for at least one week in 2015. the same controls as those used in the models reported in figure 9 are used, in addition to the job characteristics variables. tables 3.1 (canada sample) and 3.2 (ontario sample) replicate the analysis using weekly earnings. in this case, the sample is restricted to those who were dependent employees (not self-employed) in the survey reference period. the dependent variable measures the natural log of earnings from wages and salaries (excluding bonuses and self-employment income). the control employment patterns in 2015 is replaced by a measure of weekly worked hours. when comparing the pse pathway coefficients from model 1 to models 2 to 7 in tables 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2, we find that controls for all types of job characteristics reduce the size of the estimates, with occupation dummies and job skill use indices having the strongest impact. we interpret the results as evidence that the net average employment income gaps between the reference category (single credential below the bachelor level) and the other pathway categories is driven by the sorting and selection of respondents following other pathways than the reference category into occupations, industries and jobs with skill levels that are associated with higher net income premiums on average. for example, in figure 2.2., after controlling for job characteristics, as shown by comparing models 1 and 7, the coefficient for a single bachelors degree diminishes from 0.533 to 0.130 log points, meaning that the net annual employment income gap between that pathway category and the reference category in ontario decreases to 13% (and is not statistically significant) net of job characteristics. however, the difference in the size of the coefficients relative to pathway types other than the baseline category remains constant in most cases. for example, the difference in the coefficient for respondents with a single bachelors degree and those with a bachelors degree followed by a graduate degree is 0.167 log points in model 1 (0.700-0.533) while it is 0.102 log points in model 7 (0.232-0.130). similar patterns are found across specifications and pairs of coefficients. we interpret this as evidence that even net of differences in an extensive number of observed job characteristics, there remains important net income differences 14 these variables are additive indices based on survey questions asking respondents to report the importance of the use of several types of general skills in their jobs. we aggregate these questions into five categories: literacy, numeracy, computer, soft and physical skills by adding the importance scores of the items in each skill category. 44 associated with different pse pathways, which may be associated with unobserved characteristics of the respondents or their jobs. also note that the coefficient for a linear credential accumulation pathway from a bachelors degree to a graduate degree remains substantial and statistically significant across specifications. in sum, our analysis highlights important income differences associated with specific pse credential accumulation pathways. it also points at the role of fields of study and job characteristics as partial drivers of these differences. the limited role of fields of study suggests that some pathways involve completing programs in less economically rewarding fields of study, but that this is an overall marginal driver of income differences across pse pathways. the role of occupations and job skill use suggest that certain pathways may be associated with the development of competencies and skills more highly rewarded on the labour market, although some heterogeneity remains unaccounted for in fully specified models. 45 table 2.1. influence of job characteristics on relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts, canada model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 model 7 b p b p b p b p b p b p b p pse pathways below bachelor, to below bachelor 0.046 0.388 0.058 0.278 -0.010 0.840 0.017 0.738 -0.014 0.763 0.010 0.855 -0.032 0.484 below bachelor, to bachelor+ 0.336 0.000 0.325 0.000 0.243 0.001 0.142 0.060 0.071 0.323 0.188 0.011 0.025 0.725 below bachelor, complete 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . bachelor+, to below bachelor 0.268 0.005 0.253 0.007 0.210 0.020 0.144 0.129 0.105 0.232 0.147 0.113 0.066 0.450 bachelor+, to bachelor 0.550 0.000 0.567 0.000 0.496 0.000 0.390 0.000 0.321 0.000 0.384 0.000 0.271 0.001 bachelor+, to graduate 0.616 0.000 0.584 0.000 0.554 0.000 0.418 0.000 0.319 0.000 0.426 0.000 0.262 0.000 bachelor+, complete 0.451 0.000 0.426 0.000 0.410 0.000 0.289 0.000 0.247 0.000 0.316 0.000 0.207 0.000 supervising employees (ref.: no) yes 0.246 0.000 0.249 0.000 0.210 0.000 industry dummies yes yes yes occupation dummies yes yes yes job skill use indices literacy skills 0.006 0.030 0.000 0.942 numeracy skills -0.007 0.059 -0.006 0.051 computer skills 0.004 0.158 0.009 0.002 soft skills 0.008 0.001 0.006 0.017 physical skills -0.041 0.000 -0.031 0.000 employment in 2015 full-time full year 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . part-time full year -0.902 0.000 -0.854 0.000 -0.847 0.000 -0.843 0.000 -0.748 0.000 -0.844 0.000 -0.745 0.000 full-time part year (half or more) -0.491 0.000 -0.457 0.000 -0.455 0.000 -0.441 0.000 -0.390 0.000 -0.430 0.000 -0.368 0.000 part-time part year (half or more) -1.584 0.000 -1.524 0.000 -1.541 0.000 -1.414 0.000 -1.367 0.000 -1.549 0.000 -1.347 0.000 full-time part year (less than half) -1.220 0.000 -1.204 0.000 -1.174 0.000 -1.122 0.000 -1.071 0.000 -1.154 0.000 -1.034 0.000 part-time part year (less than half) -2.456 0.000 -2.383 0.000 -2.442 0.000 -2.433 0.000 -2.340 0.000 -2.331 0.000 -2.272 0.000 years of work experience 0.041 0.001 0.040 0.001 0.038 0.000 0.037 0.000 0.035 0.000 0.036 0.003 0.034 0.000 years of work experience, squared -0.001 0.035 -0.001 0.026 -0.001 0.016 -0.001 0.012 -0.001 0.007 -0.001 0.033 -0.001 0.005 constant 8.849 0.000 9.075 0.000 8.646 0.000 10.500 0.000 10.163 0.000 8.342 0.000 9.938 0.000 r-squared 0.366 0.381 0.429 0.436 0.488 0.394 0.499 adjusted r-squared 0.359 0.373 0.418 0.422 0.470 0.386 0.481 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, and age at completion of first credential. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. 46 table 2.2. influence of job characteristics on relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts, ontario model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 model 7 b p b p b p b p b p b p b p pse pathways below bachelor, to below bachelor 0.062 0.509 0.078 0.402 -0.039 0.666 -0.018 0.849 -0.071 0.458 0.008 0.933 -0.114 0.239 below bachelor, to bachelor+ 0.318 0.064 0.342 0.044 0.110 0.515 0.092 0.588 -0.039 0.827 0.120 0.452 -0.119 0.480 below bachelor, complete 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . bachelor+, to below bachelor 0.410 0.010 0.393 0.011 0.241 0.116 0.257 0.098 0.107 0.466 0.221 0.149 0.020 0.890 bachelor+, to bachelor 0.804 0.000 0.825 0.000 0.737 0.000 0.601 0.000 0.480 0.007 0.609 0.000 0.416 0.019 bachelor+, to graduate 0.700 0.000 0.655 0.000 0.617 0.000 0.455 0.000 0.301 0.014 0.469 0.000 0.232 0.066 bachelor+, complete 0.533 0.000 0.479 0.000 0.432 0.000 0.297 0.005 0.201 0.062 0.348 0.001 0.130 0.231 supervising employees (ref.: no) yes 0.332 0.000 0.367 0.000 0.339 0.000 industry dummies yes yes yes occupation dummies yes yes yes job skill use indices literacy skills 0.004 0.494 -0.001 0.797 numeracy skills -0.011 0.077 -0.005 0.441 computer skills 0.004 0.468 0.003 0.612 soft skills 0.014 0.006 0.010 0.041 physical skills -0.067 0.000 -0.056 0.000 employment in 2015 full-time full year 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . part-time full year -0.930 0.000 -0.863 0.000 -0.804 0.000 -0.800 0.000 -0.648 0.000 -0.858 0.000 -0.637 0.000 full-time part year (half or more) -0.847 0.000 -0.808 0.000 -0.752 0.000 -0.811 0.000 -0.702 0.000 -0.761 0.000 -0.679 0.000 part-time part year (half or more) -1.167 0.000 -1.115 0.001 -1.212 0.000 -0.949 0.007 -1.007 0.002 -1.163 0.000 -1.007 0.003 full-time part year (less than half) -0.976 0.024 -0.922 0.020 -1.077 0.006 -0.786 0.049 -0.855 0.020 -0.862 0.021 -0.868 0.021 part-time part year (less than half) -2.388 0.000 -2.267 0.000 -2.493 0.000 -2.315 0.000 -2.259 0.000 -2.230 0.000 -2.161 0.000 years of work experience 0.055 0.013 0.053 0.013 0.054 0.009 0.060 0.002 0.048 0.015 0.048 0.020 0.050 0.009 years of work experience, squared -0.001 0.095 -0.001 0.067 -0.001 0.080 -0.001 0.035 -0.001 0.084 -0.001 0.105 -0.001 0.060 constant 8.250 0.000 8.255 0.000 8.345 0.000 9.583 0.000 9.004 0.000 7.334 0.000 9.101 0.000 r-squared 0.400 0.424 0.467 0.491 0.555 0.441 0.569 adjusted r-squared 0.375 0.399 0.421 0.431 0.480 0.412 0.492 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, and age at completion of first credential. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. the ontario sample includes all ontario residents at survey date (2016). 47 table 3.1. influence of job characteristics on relationship between pse pathway and weekly earnings (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts, canada model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 b p b p b p b p b p b p pse pathways below bachelor, to below bachelor 0.041 0.180 0.048 0.108 0.001 0.972 0.013 0.636 -0.007 0.802 0.008 0.791 below bachelor, to bachelor+ 0.382 0.000 0.374 0.000 0.316 0.000 0.214 0.000 0.168 0.000 0.268 0.000 below bachelor, complete 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . bachelor+, to below bachelor 0.185 0.002 0.174 0.003 0.138 0.014 0.079 0.167 0.050 0.356 0.079 0.172 bachelor+, to bachelor 0.379 0.000 0.388 0.000 0.353 0.000 0.247 0.000 0.188 0.000 0.255 0.000 bachelor+, to graduate 0.482 0.000 0.473 0.000 0.438 0.000 0.342 0.000 0.285 0.000 0.340 0.000 bachelor+, complete 0.345 0.000 0.334 0.000 0.310 0.000 0.200 0.000 0.172 0.000 0.236 0.000 supervising employees (ref.: no) yes 0.119 0.000 0.090 0.000 industry dummies yes yes occupation dummies yes yes job skill use indices literacy skills 0.005 0.020 numeracy skills -0.004 0.104 computer skills 0.010 0.000 soft skills 0.005 0.005 physical skills -0.014 0.005 weekly work hours 0.022 0.000 0.021 0.000 0.022 0.000 0.021 0.000 0.020 0.000 0.021 0.000 years of work experience 0.031 0.001 0.031 0.001 0.027 0.000 0.026 0.000 0.024 0.000 0.028 0.001 years of work experience, squared 0.000 0.061 0.000 0.056 0.000 0.031 0.000 0.026 0.000 0.018 0.000 0.039 constant 6.386 0.000 6.498 0.000 6.007 0.000 6.988 0.000 6.664 0.000 5.946 0.000 r-squared 0.478 0.485 0.536 0.555 0.594 0.518 adjusted r-squared 0.472 0.479 0.526 0.543 0.578 0.512 model 7 b p -0.027 0.136 0.000 0.021 0.146 0.250 0.144 0.304 0.002 . 0.707 0.004 0.000 0.001 0.045 0.053 yes yes 0.000 -0.003 0.011 0.004 -0.007 0.020 0.024 0.000 6.338 0.608 0.592 0.930 0.223 0.000 0.005 0.118 0.000 0.000 0.009 0.000 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, and age at completion of first credential. sample restricted to employed respondents in survey reference week (excluding self-employed). self-employment income and bonuses not included. 48 table 3.2. influence of job characteristics on relationship between pse pathway and weekly earnings (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts, ontario model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 b p b p b p b p b p b p pse pathways below bachelor, to below bachelor -0.021 0.737 -0.011 0.858 -0.092 0.110 -0.033 0.611 -0.078 0.210 -0.054 0.380 below bachelor, to bachelor+ 0.414 0.002 0.425 0.002 0.257 0.046 0.276 0.028 0.142 0.274 0.270 0.029 below bachelor, complete 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . bachelor+, to below bachelor 0.253 0.014 0.247 0.016 0.143 0.135 0.147 0.178 0.048 0.639 0.101 0.329 bachelor+, to bachelor 0.409 0.000 0.431 0.000 0.355 0.000 0.349 0.000 0.205 0.042 0.277 0.004 bachelor+, to graduate 0.575 0.000 0.577 0.000 0.472 0.000 0.473 0.000 0.318 0.000 0.417 0.000 bachelor+, complete 0.390 0.000 0.377 0.000 0.299 0.000 0.256 0.000 0.158 0.008 0.256 0.000 supervising employees (ref.: no) yes 0.120 0.005 0.104 0.016 industry dummies yes yes occupation dummies yes yes job skill use indices literacy skills 0.004 0.247 numeracy skills -0.005 0.192 computer skills 0.010 0.003 soft skills 0.007 0.015 physical skills -0.035 0.001 weekly work hours 0.020 0.000 0.019 0.000 0.021 0.000 0.018 0.000 0.018 0.000 0.018 0.000 years of work experience 0.043 0.008 0.043 0.008 0.033 0.007 0.038 0.002 0.026 0.029 0.040 0.004 years of work experience, squared -0.001 0.091 -0.001 0.076 0.000 0.102 -0.001 0.056 0.000 0.217 -0.001 0.035 constant 6.562 0.000 6.560 0.000 6.157 0.000 6.646 0.000 5.709 0.000 5.490 0.000 r-squared 0.523 0.530 0.605 0.621 0.681 0.582 adjusted r-squared 0.503 0.509 0.568 0.570 0.617 0.560 model 7 b p -0.123 0.063 0.000 -0.011 0.133 0.261 0.114 0.050 0.612 . 0.914 0.203 0.001 0.059 0.058 0.199 yes yes 0.000 -0.003 0.011 0.007 -0.028 0.017 0.028 0.000 5.532 0.701 0.638 0.895 0.504 0.010 0.015 0.006 0.000 0.016 0.119 0.000 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, and age at completion of first credential. sample restricted to employed respondents in survey reference week (excluding self-employed). self-employment income and bonuses not included. the ontario sample includes all ontario residents at survey date (2016). 49 conclusion this report aimed to document pse credential accumulation pathways, especially those involving non-linear trajectories. we have shown that more than 20% of canadians complete more than one pse credential, and around 15% of canadians follow a non-linear credential accumulation pathway or another type of credential accumulation pathway that may be considered non-conventional, such as completed a college certificate or diploma as a first credential before completing a bachelors degree. at the same time, we find strong evidence of dynamics of cumulative disadvantages rooted un credential accumulation patterns. certain types of credential accumulation are associated with substantial employment income premiums, but they are unevenly distributed based on the level of the first credential, which itself is associated with certain background characteristics such as parental education and visible minority status (as with the level of the second credential, conditional on the level of the first credential). in sum, there in large earnings gaps between respondents whose first pse credentials are a tva certificate, a college certificate or diploma, or bachelors degree or higher, in part driven by the pathways associated with that first credential. also note that no pathway for tva or college graduates appears to allow closing the gap between them and bachelor graduates, on average (except in the case of the small number of bachelor graduates who go on to complete a second credential below the bachelor level, a pathway associated with a smaller income premium than completing a single credential at the bachelors level). this points at a few directions: 1. policies and programs that support transfer pathways from tva or college to bachelor programs may translate into higher income levels not only because a bachelor is associated with a higher income level, but because bachelor graduates are more likely to then complete a graduate degree. 2. these programs can take many forms, including programs that facilitate the accumulation of completed credentials rather than transfers without completion of the initial program. the design of programs for credit transfer should take into consideration the patterns identified in this report in terms of drivers of different pathways and associated labour market outcomes. one may ask whether a collegeto-university transfer is more beneficial than graduating from college before completing a bachelors program, and under which circumstances. for example, credit transfer and recognition from a completed college program to a bachelor program may facilitate the successful completion of a bachelor program. but it may also support the subsequent completion of a graduate degree, especially knowing that so few college graduates end up completing a graduate degree. these discussion points come with an important caveat. the results presented in this report are descriptive in nature. no causal inference may be directly drawn from the analysis. more specifically, it is possible that respondents who complete a tva or college certificate as their first credential achieve a lower income level because of unobserved personal or background 50 characteristics that are associated both with educational access, aspiration, and success, and with income. in this case, the impact of any policy interventions aimed at supporting certain pathways on income may be attenuated compared with our reported estimates. more broadly, future work should study to the profiles of those who go on to complete a tva or college degree after a bachelors degree. in this study, we were able to 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transfer pathways among ontario colleges and universities: the magnitude of postsecondary transfer types and the characteristics of those who transfer. toronto: ontario council for articulation and transfer. 54 appendix a. supplemental results figure a.1. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential before 35 years old by level of first credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts (canada) 2 college 3 bachelor or more tv c a ol le ba ge ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ge ol le ba tv a c el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ch ba c ol le tv a ge -.4 -.3 -.2 -.1 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 1 trade/voc/apprenticeship level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 55 figure a.2. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 and 50 years old by level of first credential, 1956-1965 birth cohorts (canada) a. at 35 years old 2 college 3 bachelor or more ge ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e le ba ol tv a c ge ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e le ba ol tv a c ge ch el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ba c ol le tv a -.2 -.1 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 1 trade/voc/apprenticeship level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound 56 b. at 50 years old 2 college 3 bachelor or more el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ge ch le ba ol tv a c el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ge ch le ba ol tv a c el or g ra du a c om te pl et e ch ol c ba le tv a ge -.2 -.1 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 1 trade/voc/apprenticeship level of second credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: in panel a, pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. in panel b, pse credential completed at 50 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 57 figure a.3. average marginal probabilities of completing a first pse credential at a given level before 35 years old by background characteristics, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada pse before 1st cred visible minority women m or e ge or c ba ch el or el ch or ol le tv a m or e ge or ol le tv a ba ch el or c or m or e ge le ol c or e m tv a ba ba ch el or c or ol le tv a ge -.2 -.1 0 .1 .2 1st gen immigrant parents level of first credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound 58 b. ontario pse before 1st cred visible minority women e m or ge ba ch el or c or ol le tv a e m or ge ba ch el or c or el ch or ol le tv a e or m or ge le ol c or m tv a ba ba ch el or c or ol le tv a ge e -.4 -.2 0 .2 .4 1st gen immigrant parents level of first credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. 59 figure a.4. average marginal probabilities of completing a first pse credential at a given level before 35 years old by parental education level, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada some pse university education e or ge m le or ol or el ch ba ch el or c m or tv a e or ge le ol c or tv a ba ba ch el or c or ol m le tv a ge e -.2 0 .2 .4 no pse level of first credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound 60 b. ontario some pse university education or e ge rm le ol ba ch e lo ro c rm ch e lo ro tv a or e ge le ol c e or tv a ba ba ch e lo ro c ol rm le tv a ge -.2 0 .2 .4 no pse level of first credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the three categories in the panel subtitles correspond to the educational attainment of the most educated parent. pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. 61 figure a.5.1. average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) by age at completion of 1st pse credential, 1956-1965 birth cohorts a. at 35 years old bachelor .1 .05 .05 0 0 0 .05 .1 .1 .15 college .15 tva 20 30 35 complete .5 0 1 .05 .1 .15 .2 graduate 25 20 25 30 35 20 25 30 35 age at completion 1st pse credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound b. at 50 years old bachelor .05 0 .1 .15 .1 0 .05 .2 .1 .15 college .25 tva 20 40 50 complete 0 .5 .6 .1 .7 .8 .2 graduate 30 20 30 40 50 20 30 40 50 age at completion 1st pse credential average marginal effect 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 62 figure a.5.2. average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) by age at completion of 1st pse credential, 1956-1965 birth cohorts (model with interaction) a. at 35 years old bachelor -.1 -.1 -.2 -.1 0 0 0 .1 .1 .1 .2 .2 college .2 tva 20 30 35 -.4 0 .1 -.2 .2 0 .3 .2 complete .4 graduate 25 20 25 30 35 20 25 30 35 age at completion 1st pse credential trade/voc/apprenticeship 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound bachelor or more 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound b. at 50 years old bachelor 0 0 -.2 -.1 -.1 -.3 -.2 -.1 .1 0 .1 college .2 tva 20 40 50 complete -.4 0 -.2 .2 0 .4 .2 .6 graduate 30 20 30 40 50 20 30 40 50 age at completion 1st pse credential trade/voc/apprenticeship 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound bachelor or more 95% confidence interval, lower bound/upper bound source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 63 figure a.6. relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), detailed pathways from model with interaction between level of first and second credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 -0.1 first credential: tva first credential: college complete graduate bachelor college tva complete graduate bachelor college tva complete graduate bachelor tva -0.3 college -0.2 first credential: bachelor source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the reference group for all plotted coefficients is first credential: college x complete cell. all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, age at completion of last pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. detailed regression output reported in appendix table a.2. 64 table a1.1. relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts, canada model 1 b p model 2 b p model 3 b p model 4 b p model 5 b p model 6 b p model 7 b p pse pathway below bachelor, to below bachelor 0.060 0.257 0.063 0.254 0.067 0.226 0.051 0.359 0.036 0.512 0.053 0.315 0.096 0.147 below bachelor, to bachelor+ 0.358 0.000 0.342 0.000 0.327 0.000 0.391 0.000 0.358 0.000 0.350 0.000 0.402 0.000 below bachelor, complete 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . bachelor+, to below bachelor 0.274 0.004 0.325 0.001 0.311 0.002 0.298 0.002 0.271 0.003 0.261 0.006 0.326 0.002 bachelor+, to bachelor 0.563 0.000 0.619 0.000 0.603 0.000 0.617 0.000 0.582 0.000 0.556 0.000 0.614 0.000 bachelor+, to graduate 0.609 0.000 0.644 0.000 0.613 0.000 0.654 0.000 0.620 0.000 0.596 0.000 0.650 0.000 bachelor+, complete 0.466 0.000 0.489 0.000 0.456 0.000 0.518 0.000 0.488 0.000 0.458 0.000 0.467 0.000 fos, first credential yes fos, first credential, detailed yes fos, last credential yes fos, last credential, detailed yes any stem: no (reference) 0.000 . any stem: yes 0.081 0.062 any recycling: no (reference) 0.000 . any recycling: yes -0.063 0.273 constant 8.951 0.000 9.063 0.000 8.686 0.000 8.915 0.000 8.529 0.000 8.905 0.000 8.979 0.000 r-squared 0.399 0.409 0.422 0.412 0.430 0.400 0.399 adjusted r-squared 0.393 0.401 0.410 0.403 0.419 0.394 0.393 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status, immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, age at completion of first pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. fos = field of study. detailed = 2-digit fos cip 2011 code (no mention of detailed stands for 1-digit cip 2011 code). recycling = change in field of study between credentials. 65 table a1.2. relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts, ontario pse pathway below bachelor, to below bachelor below bachelor, to bachelor+ below bachelor, complete bachelor+, to below bachelor bachelor+, to bachelor bachelor+, to graduate bachelor+, complete fos, first credential fos, first credential, detailed fos, last credential fos, last credential, detailed any stem: no (reference) any stem: yes any recycling: no (reference) any recycling: yes constant model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 model 6 model 7 b p b p b p b p b p b p b p 0.072 0.349 0.000 0.398 0.784 0.708 0.552 0.448 0.056 . 0.014 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.065 0.300 0.000 0.406 0.793 0.718 0.531 yes 0.504 0.076 . 0.015 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.088 0.331 0.000 0.441 0.780 0.731 0.479 0.381 0.037 . 0.007 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.062 0.352 0.000 0.421 0.828 0.788 0.611 0.546 0.045 . 0.009 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.080 0.275 0.000 0.390 0.695 0.693 0.537 0.445 0.110 . 0.011 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.071 0.347 0.000 0.394 0.783 0.704 0.550 0.453 0.057 . 0.016 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.108 0.389 0.000 0.450 0.835 0.752 0.552 0.313 0.036 . 0.014 0.000 0.000 0.000 yes yes yes 0.000 . 0.025 0.766 7.908 0.000 8.123 0.000 7.860 0.000 7.672 0.000 7.591 0.000 7.860 0.000 0.000 . -0.064 0.530 7.915 0.000 0.421 0.396 r-squared 0.420 0.443 0.474 0.434 0.468 0.420 adjusted r-squared 0.397 0.411 0.427 0.401 0.420 0.396 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status, immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), age, age at completion of first pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. the ontario sample includes all ontario residents at survey date (2016). fos = field of study. detailed = 2-digit fos cip 2011 code (no mention of detailed stands for 1-digit cip 2011 code). recycling = change in field of study between credentials. 66 table a.2. relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015, comparison of detailed pathways interaction models, 1956-1980 birth cohorts first credential variable: version 1 model 1 model 2 model 3 first credential variable: version 2 model 1 model 2 model 3 first credential tva -0.136 0.009 -0.112 0.018 -0.044 0.399 -0.136 0.009 -0.112 0.019 -0.044 0.401 college 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . bachelor 0.395 0.000 0.340 0.000 0.458 0.000 0.381 0.000 0.326 0.000 0.444 0.000 graduate 0.534 0.000 0.493 0.000 0.613 0.000 second credential tva 0.050 0.582 0.170 0.094 0.053 0.556 0.172 0.090 college 0.066 0.253 0.171 0.022 0.071 0.220 0.170 0.023 bachelor 0.275 0.000 0.416 0.000 0.278 0.000 0.418 0.000 graduate 0.283 0.000 0.585 0.000 0.285 0.000 0.587 0.000 complete 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . 0.000 . interaction terms tva x tva -0.142 0.406 -0.144 0.401 tva x college -0.068 0.552 -0.067 0.558 tva x bachelor -0.277 0.371 -0.280 0.365 tva x graduate -0.702 0.056 -0.699 0.056 tva x complete 0.000 . 0.000 . college x tva 0.000 . 0.000 . college x college 0.000 . 0.000 . college x bachelor 0.000 . 0.000 . college x graduate 0.000 . 0.000 . college x complete 0.000 . 0.000 . bachelor's x tva -0.300 0.131 -0.289 0.146 bachelor's x college -0.290 0.023 -0.313 0.014 bachelor's x bachelor -0.282 0.026 -0.233 0.066 bachelor's x graduate -0.386 0.001 -0.384 0.002 bachelor's x complete 0.000 . 0.000 . graduate x tva 0.000 . graduate x college 0.000 . graduate x bachelor 0.490 0.264 graduate x graduate -0.797 0.001 graduate x complete -0.407 0.097 constant 8.702 0.000 8.904 0.000 8.849 0.000 8.723 0.000 8.929 0.000 8.809 0.000 r-squared 0.388 0.398 0.403 0.389 0.399 0.406 adjusted r-squared 0.382 0.392 0.396 0.383 0.393 0.398 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: in version 1 models, the bachelor category for the first credential includes those with a graduate degree as their first credential. all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status, immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, age at completion of last pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. 67 table a.3. relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), derived pathway variable, 1956-1980 birth cohorts pathway variable type: pse pathway below bachelor, to below bachelor below bachelor, to bachelor+ below bachelor, complete bachelor+, to below bachelor bachelor+, to bachelor bachelor+, to graduate bachelor+, complete age at last credential squared term 1st to highest b p 0.128 0.427 0.000 0.344 0.602 0.666 0.470 yes 0.033 0.000 . 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1st to 2nd b p 0.118 0.470 0.000 0.369 0.649 0.661 0.470 0.045 0.000 . 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 yes employment in 2015 dummies yes yes weekly work hours (ref week) years of work experience squared term yes yes constant 10.778 0.000 10.946 0.000 r-squared 0.202 0.319 adjusted r-squared 0.195 0.312 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, and age. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. 68 table a.4.1. robustness checks of estimates of the relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts, canada sample employed in 2015 sample employed in 2015 (excl. zero weeks of empl) (excl. pt/py less than half yr) model 1 b p pse pathways below bachelor, to below bachelor below bachelor, to bachelor+ below bachelor, complete bachelor+, to below bachelor bachelor+, to bachelor bachelor+, to graduate bachelor+, complete employment in 2015 full-time full year part-time full year full-time part year (half or more) part-time part year (half or more) full-time part year (less than half) part-time part year (less than half) years of work experience years of work experience, squared constant r-squared adjusted r-squared 0.063 0.314 0.000 0.286 0.513 0.621 0.460 model 2 b p 0.338 0.000 . 0.006 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.060 0.358 0.000 0.274 0.563 0.609 0.466 0.257 0.000 . 0.004 0.000 0.000 0.000 6.479 0.000 0.141 0.134 0.000 -0.914 -0.466 -1.631 -1.374 -2.845 0.039 -0.001 8.951 0.399 0.393 . 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.001 0.047 0.000 model 1 b p 0.075 0.296 0.000 0.294 0.502 0.646 0.473 0.254 0.001 . 0.004 0.000 0.000 0.000 6.887 0.000 0.150 0.143 model 2 b p 0.049 0.360 0.000 0.269 0.559 0.628 0.472 0.353 0.000 . 0.005 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 -0.902 -0.465 -1.622 -1.371 . 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.041 0.001 -0.001 0.035 9.048 0.000 0.370 0.363 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, and age at completion of first credential. 69 table a.4.2. robustness checks of estimates of the relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts, ontario sample employed in 2015 sample employed in 2015 (excl. zero weeks of empl) (excl. pt/py less than half yr) model 1 b p pse pathways below bachelor, to below bachelor below bachelor, to bachelor+ below bachelor, complete bachelor+, to below bachelor bachelor+, to bachelor bachelor+, to graduate bachelor+, complete employment in 2015 full-time full year part-time full year full-time part year (half or more) part-time part year (half or more) full-time part year (less than half) part-time part year (less than half) years of work experience years of work experience, squared constant r-squared adjusted r-squared 0.064 0.290 0.000 0.398 0.647 0.750 0.506 model 2 b p 0.576 0.165 . 0.017 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.072 0.349 0.000 0.398 0.784 0.708 0.552 0.448 0.056 . 0.014 0.000 0.000 0.000 6.251 0.002 0.173 0.148 0.000 -0.930 -0.764 -1.509 -1.278 -2.565 0.053 -0.001 7.908 0.420 0.397 . 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.001 0.000 0.017 0.140 0.000 model 1 b p 0.059 0.258 0.000 0.422 0.606 0.727 0.508 0.598 0.217 . 0.010 0.000 0.000 0.000 6.612 0.001 0.178 0.153 model 2 b p 0.033 0.344 0.000 0.383 0.777 0.708 0.555 0.727 0.060 . 0.019 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 -0.920 -0.763 -1.505 -1.272 . 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.001 0.054 0.014 -0.001 0.144 7.773 0.000 0.399 0.375 source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), age, and age at completion of first credential. the ontario sample includes all ontario residents at survey date (2016). 70 oncat .ca/en/projects/non-linear-pse-pathways- and credential- accumul ation-statistical-portrait- and - evaluation established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. this report was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021

prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges november 8, 2021 authors rod missaghian, oncat prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges table of contents 03 04 05 05 06 06 introduction literature review methods findings - overall impressions plar and credit transfer: cohesion or separate entities? plar credit recognition and acceptance between institutions 07 student supports for plar 08 discussion 09 bibliography this report was prepared for and funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges introduction this report explores the on-line representation of prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) information for ontarios publicly funded colleges. plar, or recognition of prior learning (rpl), is a process that considers an applicants prior informal educational, life, and work experiences and weighs them against the learning outcomes of a formalized post-secondary credit (blanger & mount, 1998). students are given the opportunity, through a variety of potential assessments, to demonstrate equivalency between their experiential learning and the learning outcomes designated by the postsecondary course (or block of courses) for which they hope to gain formal recognition. plar is not new, having existed as an internationally recognized process for credit recognition both in the post-secondary sector and in private industry (harris & wihak, 2018). in addition, indigenous institutes have been very influential in the development of plar policy. early support for the canadian association for prior learning assessment (capla), canadas national voice on plar, by first nations technical institute (fnti) was instrumental in its early establishment. support for plar in ontario has been stronger amongst the publicly funded colleges, as only a handful of universities accept plar credits (harrison, 2018; conrad 2010). the goal of this report is to map out the representation of plar online through an exploration of publicly funded ontario college plar web pages (if available) or alternative supporting digital documents (i.e. transfer or plar guides, policy documents) that describe key features of the plar process, such as first steps in application, fees, supports, assessment procedures, and method of credit recognition. while analyzing the content of these web pages, the following research questions guided the analysis: 1) what types of information are available about plar on college web pages? 2) how is plar conceptualized alongside credit transfer? 1. non-formal learning refers to courses and training taken outside of post-secondary institutions that that do not result in formal credit, whereas informal learning refers to incidental experiential learning that happens outside of a structured course, through daily workplace experiences, selfstudy or community involvement. 2. workplace-based tasks, like computer skills, or book-keeping and accounts payable are examples of the informal learning that is often considered for recognition in plar assessments. 03 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges literature review as ontario post-secondary institutions work towards building a more equitable, seamless, and efficient credit transfer and articulation system, the issue of how to recognize prior learning, in all its forms, is sure to commingle with formalized credit transfer more broadly. plar (also referred to as rpl) has been conceptualized together with credit transfer, as both processes aim to help learners achieve credit for prior learning (harrison, 2018). while the nature of that learning differs formalized educational credits (credit transfer) versus informal learning characterized by life experiences often gained in spheres of employment (plar) the outcome of the two processes is the same: receiving post-secondary credit. however, in ontario the two processes are administered and resourced differently because they are funded and reported on separately. for example, in the 1990s the ontario government directed 3 million dollars to each ontario college to establish a plar facilitator position (harrison, 2018). unfortunately, plar funding is now part of the overall operational grants for institutions, so it is unclear how institutions are using government resources to support plar processes. while the ministry of colleges and universities provides the credit transfer institutional grant (ctig) which can be partly used towards advising services (young, pich & jones, 2017), they make it clear that funds cannot be used for plar assessments (ministry of colleges and universities, 2021). while some institutions may decide to use that funding to hire transfer advisors/officers whose job is to help students access and learn about available credit transfer opportunities, it is unclear whether these staff also handle plar duties. this matter is complicated by the fact that several institutions consider plar as a part of the credit transfer umbrella. there has been interest in and support behind the scenes for plar for decades, tracing all the way back to the 1940s in the u.s. , as colleges used to look at creating a link between training in the military and ways to account for that experience in college credit granting (belanger & mount, 1998). however, there has also been some resistance from degree granting universities, both in the u.s. and canada, as they strive to preserve the integrity of their programs (harrison 2018). despite this hesitance, colleges in ontario and other proponents of plar have framed its emergence as a necessary step in promoting the transfer of experiences of underrepresented populations, like adult learners and certain immigrant groups, towards filling labour market positions, where a shortage of skills remain (morrissey et al. 2008). however, despite the presence of qualified immigrants to canada with credentials like nursing from their country of origin, andersson & guo (2009) argue that less than 20% end up working in their former occupations as their credentials are not considered equivalent; instead of plar acting as a portal towards gaining credit equivalency and filling shortages in certain occupational sectors, they argue that it has functioned more as an institutional assessment tool, potentially acting as a disqualifying mechanism. conrad (2010) argues that because plar requires a large time investment from faculty that it has not been fully adopted or considered a priority. for these reasons, and for a lack of a plar presence in ontario universities, the current scan focuses on ontario colleges. 3. plar is most commonly used acronym in canada for describing this process, rpl which is used in south africa is also used, and in the u.s. pla is used (conrad, 2014). 04 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges methods to undertake the scan of plar web pages, i referenced recent work in ontario and bc, utilizing the same information categories used in those scans (harrison 2018; overton, 2019). i began the first scan of web pages using these categories, to assess their applicability with the ontario context. categories included: plar fee amounts, how plar is reflected on transcripts as well as available student resources for plar. using best practices for assessing the ease and usefulness of credit transfer information on college websites conducted by researchers in the us (schudde, bradley & absher, 2020), i undertook a second scan of the information recording patterns using nvivo qualitative software. one of the themes that emerged, for example, reflected the lack of a designated web page for plar (6/24 institutions); for those institutions i had to refer to their online plar policy or student guide pdfs as the sole document for plar information. if an institution did not have a webpage for their plar information, i used the institutional search bar to recover any records, which could often be found on these separate documents. however, i stopped my search for relevant plar information if after 5 different searches, or clicks, the information was unattainable. in those cases, i coded a particular plar category as information not available. findings: overall impressions plar has been referred to as a holistic process, likely referring to the multiple goals that rpl hopes to provide for the applicant (harrison, 2018). in addition to the primary purpose of the granting of credit for prior experiences, the assessment process itself, characterized by multiple modes of assessment, allows opportunities for adult learners to self-reflect, advocate on behalf of their prior experiences, and most importantly, validate their experiences as learners outside of formalized settings. this scan of ontario college plar web pages demonstrates that ontario colleges provide multiple ways for plar applicants to validate their learning, from the presence of learning portfolios to written or oral tests and interviews. in addition to these multiple assessment opportunities, the steps required for plar applicants are clearly outlined on the available web pages. there are exceptions, as 6 institutions did not provide steps, nor did they have designated plar web pages. while the cost for assessing a course via plar is not cheap, averaging around $130, the opportunity to use plar for a good portion of a students college program is available, as most institutions allow up to 50 to 75% of program credits to undergo the plar process. however, the information for block assessment seems to be scant, as most institutions provide only information about course-specific plar. the process does seem lengthy and complicated as it could take up to 6 to 8 weeks for a decision; this could be problematic when students are required to withdraw from the course and potentially not be granted a credit if unsuccessful. it is also an issue with regards to osap funding as any plar course could compromise the funding that students receive from the government. 4. schudde and colleagues assessed websites based on two metrics, ease of access and usefulness. the first looked at how many clicks were required to locate necessary information while the latter looked at the relevance of information and whether it was up to date. 05 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges plar and credit transfer: cohesion or separate entities? through conducting this scan of ontario college plar websites, we can see examples of how plar and credit transfer fit together and also how they are entirely separate processes. for example, canadore college provides a brief summary of plar on their transfer page, but one has to link to their plar student guide for more comprehensive information. while plar information is also found within the transfer guide, it is located as its own section entitled earn college credit through life experiences plar. in contrast, sheridan, which also does not have a dedicated plar web page, includes plar as one of their credit transfer options on their pathways page. of the institutions scanned, 6/24 colleges did not have their own designated plar webpages. either a separate google search was required to find evidence of plar information embedded in other pages or policy documents, transfer guides, or the institutional home search function had to be utilized to produce the appropriate links. other institutions, like humber, in contrast, had their own plar webpage with much of the relevant information contained therein; the url path shows the page embedded within the transfer options page which suggests that while the information and processes for plar are separate, it is still conceptualized as belonging to the credit transfer family. plar credit recognition and acceptance between institutions plar is closely connected to conventional credit transfer processes, thus making it important for institutions to explain how plar credit is recorded on transcripts, as well as their procedures for accepting the transfer of plar credits. however, none of the 24 ontario colleges provide information online about how and whether plar credits from other institutions are accepted. this is concerning, given that the two processes, while different, are conceptualized in similar ways, as access points to gaining credentials. thus, it would be critical for aligning credit transfer and plar to know under what conditions plar credits are transferable to other institutions. one encouraging trend discovered in this online scan is that 42% (10/24) of institutions reported assigning letter grades for plar credit in the same way they record credits for non-plar credits (see table 1.). additionally, a similar number (9/24) of institutions indicated that they assign letter grades and/or a cr sat s or p designation. 5.cr refers to credit; sat refers to satisfactory and p refers to pass. 06 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges a single institution indicated that plar credits are recorded as a cr earned, while 4/24 institutions did not provide information regarding how plar credits are assigned credit on transcripts. therefore, it seems that the 19/24 institutions who record plar grades in the same way as other courses, should technically be in a position to accept similarly graded plar credits from other colleges, given that the same grading conventions are used. however, they do not explicitly state whether this is the case, leaving questions as to whether plar credits can be transferred successfully between institutions in the same way as conventional credits. one potential obstacle worth investigating in future studies is the role of course outlines in credit equivalency decisions, and whether students transferring plar credits can submit the same course outlines for transfer credit as students that took the course. plar credits are assessed using other assessment criteria (i.e. portfolios, demonstrations) that may satisfy the learning outcomes of a course, but are not part of conventional course delivery. student supports for plar prior research has found that institutional stakeholders understand the effort and challenges that exist with the assessment and administration of plar credits, necessitating targeted investments in human resources to help support students through plar (harrison, 2018). thus, as part of this scan, i looked for the presence of plar support staff available to help students through the process (see table 2). as expected, given the recurring theme of plar as one of a few potential transfer mechanisms, several of the cited supports for plar are phrased as broader pathways support, specifically citing the availability of pathways advisors (7/24), whose job it is to help shepherd plar students through the process. this cross pollination between advising duties is evident in the example of fanshawe, who advise students to consult with their pathways advisor for plar information. fanshawe was one of 7/24 institutions that directed students to a pathways advisor for plar information, while a select few referred students to specialized plar advisors 3/24 or a plar office 4/24. it would be interesting to know whether and to what extent transfer and pathways advising duties cross pollinate with plar and precisely what is the role of a pathways advisor (7/24), particularly in those institutions that frame plar and credit transfer more closely together. 07 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges discussion this scan of ontario college plar webpages has revealed that while information is not standardized across the sector, there are certain categories of information that are consistent across the 24 colleges analyzed in this report. for example, all but 4 of the colleges in ontario provide information about credit award limits pertaining to plar credits. most institutions also reported the cost of plar per credit, as well as outlining the steps required to successfully complete a plar. however, there were a handful of institutions (6/24) who did not have a designated plar webpage, instead offering policy documents, a few of which were dated and not easily accessible. while there have been recent calls to better integrate plar with credit transfer (harrison, 2018), there seems to be a lack of clarity with regards to what this integration may look like. in fact, 6/24 institutions plar websites include information which frame plar as distinct from credit transfer. for example, on mohawk colleges plar webpage it clearly states: prior learning assessment & recognition (plar) focuses on the evaluation of prior learning rather than the formal educational courses used in the academic transfer of credits or course exemptions. here, a clear distinction is made between plar and credit transfer, whereas the distinction is less clear at other institutions. for example, at northern college, information about plar is introduced on their website under the heading transfer credit, challenge exams, and prior learning assessments giving the impression that plar is closely associated with transfer credit. similarly, on the sheridan page, plar is first located as part of one of the options for credit transfer with the explanation that: credit transfer allows sheridan students to apply previously acquired learning credits or workplace experience towards their current program of study. this type of framing arguably suggests that plar is a type of transfer a transfer of experience versus the transfer of acquired learning credits. while all of these various ways of conceptualizing plar are true in some respects, this variegated way of conceptualizing plar may make it more difficult for the sector to achieve clarity on how these two processes can and do complement one another. future oncat research hopes to complement this type of web scan with interviews with plar practitioners at the institutions to understand more about how these online representations are carried out in practice. are plar supports as readily available as they appear online? how seamless is the process for students? are there many students who opt for plar? how is student support for plar funded? these questions are better answered through qualitative work that can probe more deeply and expand the surface impressions which are available through content analysis. 08 prior learning assessment in ontario: an online scan of plar information for ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges bibliography andersson, p., & guo, s. (2009). governing through non/recognition: the missing rin the plar for immigrant professionals in canada and sweden. international journal of lifelong education, 28(4), 423-437. belanger, c. h., & mount, j. (1998). prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) in canadian universities. canadian journal of higher education, 28(2/3), 99-119. conrad, d. (2014). rpl in higher education: past, present and potential. in j. harris, c. wihak & j. van kleef (eds.), handbook of the recognition of prior learning: research into practice (pp. 315-335). leicester: the national institute of adult continuing education. harris, j., & wihak, c. (2018). the recognition of non-formal education in higher education: where are we now, and are we learning from experience?. international journal of e-learning & distance education, 33(1), 1-19. harrsion, m. (2018). best practices in prior learning assessment and recogntion in ontario colleges and universities. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat): toronto, on. ministry of colleges and universities. (2021). credit transfer institutional grant (ctig) guidelines and q&as for 2021-22. morrissey, m., myers, d., belanger, p., robitaille, m., davison, p., van kleef, j., & williams, r. (2008). achieving our potential: an action plan for prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) in canada. online submission. overton, m. (2019). prior learning assessment in bc: inventory of plar options, processes, and credit allowances in bc post-secondary institutions. british columbias prior learning action network: victoria, bc. schudde, l., bradley, d., & absher, c. (2020). navigating vertical transfer online: access to and usefulness of transfer information on community college websites. community college review, 48(1), 3-30. young, s., pich, p. g., & jones, g. a. (2017). two towers of transformation: the compatibility of policy goals of differentiation and student mobility. toronto: center for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. 09

summary may 15, 2020 caton project # i1921 project title: pathways & innovative transfer bat in biotechnology (college la cite) and a bsc in biochemistry (laurentian university) responsible institution: collge la cit project duration: april 15, 2020 proposed update: lise frenette collge la cit lfrene@lacitec.on.ca 613 742-2483 .2023 www.oncat.ca | www.ontransfer.ca 180 dundas street w | suite 1902 toronto on, m5g 1z8 summary the main objective of this project was to study and explore the possibility of establishing an innovative agreement to enable students to earn a double undergraduate degree in four years. if successful, this project will enable students to obtain two bachelors degrees, a bat in biotechnology (college la cite) and a bsc in biochemistry (laurentian university), in half the time. following the detailed analysis of the programs (learning objectives, specific and transversal skills), and despite certain similarities mainly related to the field of chemistry, the experts concluded that it would be difficult, almost impossible, for a student to cover the whole subject matter in depth if the two programs were combined and the two degrees obtained in half the time. the analysis focused, among other things, on the real advantages of such an innovative pathway in terms of the quality of teaching and learning linked to the specific skills of each program and to the transversal skills that the student would have time to develop and perfect in half the time. another important element in the analysis was the difference related to the number of hours of practical courses at the college and those at laurentian university, this being considerable for the "laboratory" and "work place" components. according to the professors of the la cit, this element of analysis was incompatible between the two programs. in conclusion, the development of the innovative pathway between la cit (specialized bachelor degree in biotechnology) and laurentian university (bachelor degree in biochemistry) cannot be implemented. on the other hand, the professors of the specialized bachelor in biotechnology of la cit wished to pursuit an initiative with another university program which would offer a real complementarity to the field of biotechnology in a compressed pathway for the student. 1

transfer data lab consultation and implementation applicant questions and answers 1. can oncat comment on or provide a budget range allocated for the transfer data lab ? we are looking for three budget tiers and/or options: budget, median, and high. no floor or ceiling has been set. 2. will oncat consider cloud solutions to host the tdl, or is the goal to set it up fully on premises? if cloud could be considered, would the data need to stay in canada? the goal is to set up fully on premises and in canada. 3. how many third parties currently host data to be transferred to the tdl? we currently have one third party hosting the data. 4. how much data is subject to the migration? to begin, it will be under 100 gb, approximately. 5. what frequency of access is tdl expected to produce? daily. 6. how many tables / attributes encompass the data load? fewer than 100 gb. 7. will oncat assign fully dedicated and available resources to the consulting team for coordination, content sharing, and project management within the firm? yes. 8. how many external parties would phase iii encompass? while we are unsure at the moment, the intent would be to give individual access to select external parties once they sign confidentiality agreements. 9. is training delivery considered part of the scope of the project, or simply the development of manuals? the scope includes the manuals. as for training delivery, we would prefer tiered options if possible. 10. will oncat consider a t&m fee structure for phase i, phase ii, and/or phase iii? yes, we will consider t&m fee structure for each phase. 11. would oncat consider offshore/remote resources? page 2 while we would be open to remote resources, such as for software updates, we are not looking for offshore/remote solutions in terms of accessing our data.

creating mobility for students enrolled in new programs at fnti a common core cultural curriculum (4c) for indigenous post secondary learners at the first nations technical institute final report august 30, 2020 first nations technical institute (fnti) report prepared by dr. joyce helmer and adam hopkins, first nations technical institute indigenous curriculum is not a conceptit is series of life teachings that honour the gifts that each learner carries. it is our responsibility as educators to create the space to realize this potential. dr. joyce helmer, anishinaabe-kwe, 2020 2 acknowledgments gchi-meegwetch to all of the participants in this project. together we have created a different space and place in the indigenous post-secondary landscape. fnti faculty, staff and administration trent university (social work) centre for policy in indigenous research and learning, confederation college (s. brenda small) indigenous justice program advisory committee (shannon butcher, carol green, jessica brant, clinton doxtator, stacia loft, m. fumerton) laurentian university (shelley moore-frappier) aboriginal shelters of ontario team (family violence certification) ancestral visions (trauma informed care program - rod jeffries) dr. simon brascoup (indigenous food sustainability) rick hill (senior cultural advisor) onkwehon:we midwifery program (dorothy green, ashley lickers, julie wilson) 3 table of contents acknowledgements executive summary section one: introduction fnti as learning institution what we stand for in the post secondary sector fntis transformative learning model meeting learners and community needs protecting indigenous knowledge process and purpose indigenous program development bachelor of indigenous social work program description bachelor of indigenous science: foods sustainability program description bachelor of indigenous health sciences: midwifery program description section two: program mapping process metrics provincial qualifications framework indigenous learning outcomes framework program comparisons and analysis collaborative community response section three: program reference and resource guides (r&r guide) section four: pathways and mobility common core cultural curriculum (4c) options for common core curriculum summary of pathways indigenous articulations and relationship building lessons learned and suggested considerations addendum: april 2021 addendum appendices 4 executive summary the first nations technical institute in tyendinaga mohawk territory is currently developing some of the first university undergraduate degrees offered by indigenous institutes in ontario. these newly created programs are being developed to accommodate an archive of common core cultural curriculum (4cs) are uniquely structured and will be delivered unlike anything that currently exists in public education in the country. this project has enabled fnti to identify and begin to develop and secure pathways for students entering and exiting indigenous programming across institutions with full or partial credentials. this project has also helped to define options to either complete or continue with post graduate studies at other post-secondary institutions in ontario. the goals of this project were to map the existing cultural courses using the ontario qualifications framework and the indigenous learning outcomes. subsequent to that each of the newly proposed courses were analyzed to produce additional curriculum maps aligning the courses, content and intended learning outcomes across all courses in all programs. creating a common resource guide for this new process was critical as a step to developing relationships with some of the existing pse partners and will be instrumental in guiding the next steps with the key stakeholders in pathways offices in ontario. existing articulation agreements were reviewed and newly identified relationships were explored to enable learners enrolled in the newly developed programs to enter and exit with ease from this unique environment to more traditional western education systems. 5 section one: introduction fnti as learning institution fnti strives to create healthy, prosperous and vibrant learners and communities through transformative learning experiences which are built on a foundation of indigenous knowledges. we are committed to the success of our learners, our program deliveries, policies, and wrap around supports which allows us to continually innovate to facilitate sustainability, improvement and positive change throughout the institution. a central component of all that we do is to incorporate indigenous worldviews, knowledge and values to reinforce and maintain our cultural self-determination. what we stand for in the post secondary sector fnti serves as the third pillar of post-secondary education sector (pse) in ontario. as an indigenous pse we are pivotal to enhancing access and mobility options to the indigenous communities throughout the province. we are positioned to afford learners opportunities to earn a diploma, degree or advanced degrees in collaboration with our other pse partners. in addition, fntis responsive and flexible delivery model allows indigenous communities to respond to broader labour market trends, as well as individual and specific labour market needs in indigenous communities. as a recent example, a central ontario anishinaabe community had made the strategic decision to extend their k-3 programming to k-6 and was in urgent need of more qualified staff to work in the community. in a relatively short turn around, fnti was able to offer the required programming in the community to quickly respond and meet their workforce requirements with their own community members. fntis transformative learning model fnti provides learners with opportunities to critically reflect on personal purpose, gifts, assumptions, values and belief systems, in order to facilitate autonomous thinking, personal growth, and selfdetermination. meeting learners and community needs fnti serves multiple indigenous constituents locally, nationally and internationally. due to the methods in which our programs are delivered we are called on by many indigenous groups, organizations and communities who may have specific needs they feel can be met with our programming and/or delivery. locally, fnti delivers an aviation full-time post-secondary program as well as community programs. our commitment to the local community is to provide support and learning programs that enhance other opportunities available to community members. additional community programming includes the tyendinaga justice circle, an alternative justice forum for indigenous youth in the community. additionally, fnti has partnered with various services provided by the mohawks of the bay of quinte to assist in service and program delivery for the community. as well, fnti has the training and development centre which will tailor training to the needs of indigenous and non-indigenous, government and non-governmental organizations, business and individuals. 6 the development and delivery of post-secondary programming at fnti are direct results of requests made by indigenous people and communities throughout canada. fnti is known for our intensive professional mode of delivery and programming particularly geared to mature and adult learners who may also be employed full time. we are also known for creating learning environments which are informed by and respectful of our learner's cultural heritage and traditions. programs developed at fnti are reflective of indigenous cultural knowledge, traditions, ceremony and when possible indigenous languages. as well, part of fntis core mission is to ensure that community program offerings are current, viable and relevant to the communities that we serve. this means that a great deal of engagement and deliberate communication throughout the year takes place to determine where and when to deliver programming. we have ensured that our relationship with the communities that we serve is respectful, responsive and sustainable. once we receive a request and determine that we have a viable place to run programming, the following would further inform our decision to go ahead with a delivery: 1) localized labour market trend analysis 2) gap analysis of current programming (review current sector offerings) 3) review regional indigenous labour market needs 4) input from indigenous skills and training agencies protecting indigenous knowledge fnti upholds its indigenous philosophies through its conduct and business practices; through our policies, internal and informal ways of interaction and sharing, adhering to values of and vision of our local communities and those communities that we serve. fnti is cognizant of protection of indigenous knowledges, and traditional ecological knowledge. as well, we are developing internal capacity to deal with the use, the dissemination, protocols, housing, and archiving. a critical component of our self-determination is the role of fntl's cultural advisors/ elders. they are part of the spiritual and traditional knowledges. the classroom teachings/learnings become more powerful, deeper and enriched when these knowledges are spoken, taught and passed on to faculty and learners by these knowledge keepers. there is a heavy reliance on these knowledge keepers throughout the development of our new undergraduate programs. process and purpose as evidenced above, there is a need for creating custom accessibility and mobility approaches for indigenous learners in our current pse environment. it is well articulated in academic literature that indigenous learners are well served in a culturally responsive environment. fnti strives to create that environment and work with our partners to align a similar response in partner institutions. creating pathways for seamless admissions and transfers from an indigenous institute is critical at this time as we are at the beginning of offering our own undergraduate degrees. relationship building, information sharing and formalizing processes is vital. 7 this project afforded fnti to examine newly developing indigenous undergraduate programs and explore various elements to build a common core of cultural knowledges to serve as a foundation. indigenous program development currently, at fnti a number of undergraduate degree level programs have been in various stages of development. a number have been completed over the course of this project and are scheduled to begin in the current academic year. the bachelor of indigenous social work, bachelor of science in food sustainability, bachelor of health science: midwifery, bachelor of indigenous law and justice are all four-year programs what will be offered in the 2020/21 enrollment cycle. indigenous trauma based approaches, family violence diploma, and a 4-year undergraduate degree in indigenous leadership are also currently in various stages of development and are also incorporating elements or all of the common core cultural curriculum. following are some samples of the proposed indigenous undergraduate program descriptions: bachelor of indigenous social work program description the bachelor of indigenous social work (bisw) degree program will provide fntis typical high level of academic rigour and indigenous education, with traditional practices and cultural knowledge, which are expected by indigenous peoples across the province. indigenous social workers play an integral role in the health and well-being of families and the communities. changes in legislation have resulted in networks of first nations child and family services agencies building greater workforce capacity in communities across ontario and canada. graduates from the program will be equipped to reduce the number of indigenous children in care. backed by invaluable indigenous education, they will improve systems to be truly child and family centred, community directed, and focused on prevention and early intervention. bachelor of indigenous science: foods sustainability program description this unique degree is being designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to contribute to food sovereignty, community growth, economic development and ecological restoration at first nations, mtis and inuit communities across canada. the degree will incorporate experiential learning on the land with teachings that revolve around the traditional haudenosaunee* food systems cycle. this indigenous education opportunity will provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to help communities across canada. seed care and seed saving, sustainable horticulture, foraging wild foods and medicines, soil health and sustainability, and traditional fishing and hunting principles will be components of the learning experience. fnti has built a greenhouse that has been specifically conceived to support the new stand-alone degree program. greenhouses can be used to address critical issues affecting indigenous communities, such as climate change, food security and relationships to environment, food and diet. agricultural, horticultural, arboriculture crops grown in the greenhouse will help expose students to a wide variety of ideas, opportunities and tastes. this additional element of indigenous education will begin to enhance their relationship to food, their environment and the earth. 8 *haudenosaunee is an indigenous term for people of the longhouse who are known as the iroquois confederacy by the french, and the league of five nations by the english. the confederacy is properly called the haudenosaunee confederacy. bachelor of indigenous health sciences: midwifery program description the indigenous midwifery program, another integral indigenous education opportunity, will increase access to culturally safe midwifery care in ontario. indigenous midwives will support the health and wellbeing of indigenous women, babies, families and communities, offering choices for indigenous peoples to deliver and receive care on their traditional lands. the comprehensive stand-alone indigenous midwifery degree will be four years in length and bring a traditional indigenous model of care to the forefront. this indigenous education programs approach and curriculum is rooted in indigenous worldviews, which recognize that onkwehn:we* midwives provide primary care during the prenatal period, labour, delivery and up to six weeks postpartum. services include puberty teachings, sex education, preconception care, pregnancy, birthing, post-natal/post-partum care, traditional parenting, well-woman and well-baby care, and much more. indigenous midwives practice under the exemption for aboriginal midwives in the midwifery act, 1991, which is also defined in the regulated health professions act, 1991, recognizing the right of onkwehn:we midwives to practice autonomously with indigenous women, babies, families and communities. in 2017, indigenous midwives were granted access to similar funding streams as registered midwives with the ontario ministry of health and long-term care. *onkwehn:we is an indigenous term referring to human beings and all of life earth, water, plants, vegetables, trees, animals, rocks, winds, sun, moon, stars, and spirit world. a number of additional programs are currently in various stages of development. they include bachelor of indigenous education, bachelor of indigenous leadership, family violence worker diploma and the trauma informed approaches diploma. 9 section two: program mapping process metrics at the completion of this project the indigenous advanced education and skill council (iaesc.ca) qualification framework was not available. therefore, two specific validated metrics were utilized to consolidate and distill the information from each of the programs; the ontario provincial qualifications framework, and the indigenous learning outcomes. provincial qualifications framework the ontario qualifications framework (oqf) is used within the ontario education system. it provides information on postsecondary certificates, diplomas, undergraduate and graduate degree programs. (www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/programs/oqf/) indigenous learning outcomes framework the indigenous learning outcomes used in the curriculum and program mapping originated in 2009 from the negahneewin education council at confederation college in thunder bay. these outcomes demonstrate cultural knowledge acquisition, skills and values with application to a multitude of community contexts: urban, remote, rural, organizational. linkages to community relationships are central threads throughout each outcome and by extrapolation to regional, national and global perspectives. these learning outcomes by composition link to the principles of reflection, responsibility, relationship, reciprocity and reclamation. these outcomes are critical to creating consistent foundational building blocks across all programs. (https://www.confederationcollege.ca/professionaldevelopment/ilo). program comparisons and analysis the unique nature of the program development afforded wide and various opportunities to review and develop individual program content while auditing the options for common core content and delivery options. this allowed us opportunities to integrate knowledges across courses and in various contexts. this was achieved through building complex wholistic reviews of content, delivery, industry needs, current curriculum material and practices in other institutions, timing, barriers, relationship to customary indigenous practices (apprenticing) and ongoing relationship building with other affinity programs and schools. a review of available course content from trent, ryerson and laurentian universities provided a level of comparison and examples of like-minded indigenous program offerings. extensive discussions with a variety of institutional personnel from registrars, vice presidents and faculty members provided insight into their respective philosophies, values, beliefs and nuances of indigenous curricula content and delivery. this was useful to ensure that learners were indeed able to transfer and mobility was possible between and among programs and institutions with seamless success. 10 collaborative community response a critical element in the project deliberations was the inclusion of comprehensive community involvement and feedback on every aspect of the project. multiple meetings and conversations were carried out to garner support and seek feedback at various points. a variety of individuals were provided with different components of the curriculum content to review, modify and edit as relevant. specific content experts were involved to provide a deeper dive into indigenous specific historical context design. the pathway forward will continue to be collaborative and relational between relevant community stakeholders. 11 section three: program reference and resource guides (r&r guide) concurrent with the 4c development and the undergraduate program development a comprehensive table of contents (appendix 1) of references and resources was suggested. each new program will be provided with a guidebook specific to each program area. the r & r guide is divided into sections with an introductory unit containing information that is common to all programs. each program will have a separate unit which will be a repository of current processes, practices, content, modules, assessments, assignments, and pedagogical suggestions. as well, all program storyboards, course outlines, lesson plans, schedules and a comprehensive bibliography will be maintained for each program in their respective units. this will be an invaluable resource to new personnel and will ensure current documents for yearly program reviews. 12 section four: pathways and mobility it has been well documented that in order for indigenous learners to succeed within the western education system it is vital that learners are able to develop a sense of belonging. one of the ways to develop a sense of belonging a student needs is to find commonalities with their own lives and living conditions. learners will begin to understand the similarities among the diverse indigenous nations through their own personal context. the inclusion of cultural practice within the education curriculum can develop this sense of belonging. providing the opportunity for a student to know oneself and ones heritage will ensure that learners develop a strong sense of identity, leading to greater self-confidence and higher persistence rates. including a plethora of consistent common cultural core curriculum options will serve to continuously enhance a students sense of belonging and the contents and contexts will provide deeper meanings and richer understandings of course content and relationships to lived personal and professional experience. on a micro level, the continuity of indigenous references made during lectures will serve to continuously enhance a students sense of belonging and it will provide a deeper meaning and understanding to the topics being discussed. one of the ways that fnti has chosen to address the academic cultural responsiveness if through a common core curriculum. historically a common core curriculum is often viewed as a one size fits all framework. our definition of common core encompasses common courses that would or could be applied to multiple programs as applicable but also includes what we teach (content) and how we teach it (andragogy and indigegogy). common core cultural curriculum a core component of the undergraduate content development included a suite of 20 indigenous cultural courses. they were developed to inform the foundation of a common core cultural curricular approach which afford learners opportunities to learn about themselves in relation to their own culture whichever nation they belong to. it is our understanding that an inclusive approach to integrating knowledges is critical to learners feeling a sense of belonging to their own nation and the global indigenous landscape. each of these courses have/will be developed into a comprehensive teaching guide with a wide-ranging list of supporting documents and resource suggestions. (appendix 2) these courses will be available in face-to-face and online delivery platforms. the 20 courses include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. introduction to indigenous studies 1: world view and cultural fluency indigenous well being and health indigenous oral traditions, creation teachings and original instructions introduction to indigenous studies 2: identity and social organization principles of indigenous sovereignty and nation building indigenous agricultural heritage indigenous governance teachings indigenous problem solving principles of indigenous leadership effective indigenous leadership skill sets recovering health sovereignty 13 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. indigenous ecological knowledge continuity and change: profiles in indigenous history indigenous economies expressive indigenous culture building indigenous community capacity 17. indigenous founding values 18. indigenous sports traditions 19. restoring environmental sovereignty 20. cultural components to treaty making the suite of common core courses is meant to provide a foundation of knowledges and skills to strengthen the learners scope within their respective disciplines. the common core curriculum contents were developed by subject experts and indigenous knowledge keepers and language speakers to encompass indigenous history, languages and relationships. this archive of courses will be available for inclusion in any program at anytime. the delivery and scheduling profile allow for a number of options that are flexible and collaborative across programs and within programs. the fnti common core cultural curriculum (4 cs) is a framework for making local context driven curricula. it stresses customary identities shaped by a common language aligned with contemporary models of education. as stated previously, we understand that it is critical to include local history and traditions, customs, values and beliefs in our pedagogy. in this way it is our goal to reshape perceptions far beyond the conventional methods of teaching. some important considerations within the development and implementation of the fnti 4c initiative includes the following elements and strategies: a) the capability to teach and infuse language throughout all aspects of course development, planning and implementation b) the inclusion of integrated learning opportunities. integrated learning is the ability to draw on a range of skills, viewpoints, contexts, and situations and apply them to the current topic or condition. in the 4c initiative we could bring together different disciplines such as social work and indigenous justice or midwifery and food systems so that students can work together to make the connections between their respective subject areas. these opportunities would allow learners to collaborate on systemic approaches to specific cases or topics. utilizing diverse and contradictory points of view will assist learners to understand issues and positions contextually. this approach could apply across the suite of program offerings. c) adding aspects of critical relational and reflective practice components such as culture camps and health & wellbeing courses. cultural education consists of the capacity for reflection. in a common core cultural curriculum, learners learn to reflect upon their own culture, culture of others and culture in general. this capacity for relational engagement and critical reflection is a main form of self-consciousness, cultural self-consciousness but also philosophy, science and citizenship. it strengthens cultural identity and will serve as part of the continuum throughout the learners post secondary experience at fnti. the considerate intention of the 4c cultural mirroring process will provide an ongoing approach to checking in with oneself and strengthening individual self-determination for moving successfully through school and onward. d) creation of essential teaching teams to ensure culturally responsive teaching (crt). 14 culturally responsive teaching fully recognizes and respects learners for who they are and what they bring (their personal gifts) to the classroom. crt empowers learners to expand their capabilities in other domains such as social, emotional, and political arenas. crt includes learnersindividual skills, languages, and attitudes and makes those attributes meaningful in every aspect of the learning each team will include indigenous knowledge keepers and/or elder advisors collaborating with faculty facilitator/instructors, student success facilitators and a diversity of learners. this reinforces the notion of teachers are learners and a part of the learning process, not necessarily as the only one with the subject knowledge. accessing the skills and stories of the wider community is another way to include culture in the curriculum. culturally responsive teaching and support teams who live and breathe the culture add a tangible depth to the material when they share indigenous knowledge and culture. the teams serve in classroom management and support roles can ensure the support structure, strategic direction and organisational goals align with a strong cultural practice curriculum e) acknowledgment of the connection to the land. the inclusion of placed based and servicelearning integration is important to the 4c initiative to ground the source of all learning for indigenous peoples. land/place based and service- learning offers a way for learners to explore the connections discovered in their integrated learning environments to not only reinforce the learning but to make learning relevant. place based and service learning are particularly effective for community collaborative projects. this will be critical elements in the midwifery, indigenous justice and indigenous food systems programs. the sense of belonging, community and purpose that comes from land/place based and service-learning is enormous. it encourages learners to make a support, encourage and sustain their own communities. options for common core curriculum the 4c curriculum of comprehensive, historic and linguistically accurate courses invite a number of options that will be readily available to program developers as new post secondary programs are being created and to individual faculty members as they prepare their course material. these common courses can also serve as possible enhanced professional development opportunities with community partners. for example, the indigenous worldview course can be offered in conjunction with the community language immersion program. fnti is actively involved in partnering with community entities with existing local programming. for example, tribal councils with established language and cultural programming developed within communities resources could be established as laddering into fnti programs. these resources could also be added to the suite already established to broaden the scope of program content. formalized pathways through memorandums of understanding could be created to further create seamless access and transferability between tribal territories. the flexibility of the 4c initiative in our current academic setting is endless. a few examples: 1. the 20 completed courses could be offered as a stand-alone two-year indigenous studies diploma program. 2. the successful completion of the indigenous studies diploma would then be a pre-requisite to acceptance into every fnti accredited post-secondary program 15 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. the 4c program could be utilized as a library of options for individual program planning affording flexibility while maintaining the consistent core of intended learning outcomes and common core standards across the respective programs. the 4c courses could be used as possible electives to enhance and extend program course choices. the whole content of each of the course be included in each program resource guide to provide elements of information to enhance course preparation. examples include areas of indigenous research and communications courses could be supplemented with historical information included in the 4c courses. the 4c courses could be offered to a combination of programs at the same time. for example, indigenous social work, indigenous justice, aviation and midwifery could all be enrolled in the same course at the same time. for example, indigenous worldview or indigenous history) some of the 4c courses lend themselves to a specific andragogy which would include culture camps. for example, the inclusion of a cultural camp at the beginning of each year would serve to engage learners in their post secondary experience with other learners and provide a culturally responsive atmosphere while achieving credits. 4c course could be offered as electives in our academic partnership programs. our academic partners may want to collaborate on offering fnti indigenous courses within their on-campus programs. summary of pathways this project was carried out concurrently with the provincial indigenous education strategy credentialing guidelines. in preparation for the approved guidelines the project sought to draft possible pathways that would be available for transfer (entry and exit) from fntis suite of programs. the following graphics outline some possible strategies for future articulation agreements. 16 *indigenous social work (laurentian univeristy) social service worker (st.lawrence) bachelor of indigenous social work masters of social work (laurier) *indigenous studies (laurentian, trent) figure 1: pathways for the proposed bachelor of indigenous social work program (bisw) the proposed bachelor of indigenous social work program has a number of confirmed and proposed pathways that will allow learners a greater mobility between institutions and credentials. fnti currently has a robust pathway for learners completing the social service worker program at canadore college. these learners will automatically move into the bisw program if they choose to continue their postsecondary studies. a current articulation agreement with wilfred laurier opens up the pathway for a graduate degree. in this project initial discussion were carried out with laurentian university to begin to create the relationship between their *indigenous social work and *indigenous studies programs and the new program at fnti. fnti, trent university and confederation college have an existing memorandum of understanding and it expected to confirm specific program articulations as the new bisw program accreditation is confirmed. 17 justice and security servcie programs indigenous studies (trent, larurentian) community advocacy, (confederation) law & justice (ex. laurentian and algoma universities bachelor of indigenous law and justice law schools (ontario, bc) figure 2: pathways for the proposed bachelor of indigenous law and justice there are a number of affinity programs that are available for learners as part of the indigenous law and justice pathway. a number of colleges offer justice and security programming while not identified as an indigenous program offer indigenous specific content and practicum opportunities. the graduates of this indigenous law and justice will be well prepared as a socially accountable and sociologically knowledgeable practitioner and be well positioned to enroll in law school to become a lawyer. learners will also be able to transfer to either laurentian university or algoma university into the bachelor of law & justice program. 18 bachelor in food & nutrition *bachelor of health science bachelor of indigenous science: food sustainability food science graduate program (carleton) agriculture and horticulture diplomas *trent(ers) indigenous environmental figure 3: pathways for the proposed bachelor of indigenous food sustainability the pathways into the bachelor of indigenous food sustainability are numerous and varied. individuals from diploma level programs could ladder into the program from any agriculture or horticulture program across canada. options for pathways to be developed between the indigenous food sustainability and other undergraduate programs in food and nutrition may also be available. fnti of also offering a bachelor of health science which would afford possibilities of transfer between the programs and/or combined classes for possible dual credentials or block credit transfers. 19 bachelor of nursing bachelor of health sciences (pt/ot) bachelor of indigenous health science: midwifery masters in nursing science (msn) social sciences diploma figure 4: pathways for the bachelor of indigenous health science: midwifery there is a direct affinity between the bachelor of nursing degrees and the health science: midwifery program. direct pathways between schools of nursing and fntis midwifery program would be easily articulated. the same holds true between the undergraduate health sciences programs. with curriculum mapping a number of social science programs such as social work and early childhood education, personal support worker and social services worker could provide some transferability to and from the indigenous health science midwifery program. indigenous articulations and relationship building creating and strengthening the 4c initiative requires ongoing and sustained relationships with local community members and colleagues from other nations, indigenous institutes, colleges and universities. in previous oncat projects fnti along with our academic partners (trent university and confederation college) developed a specific articulation agreement (appendix 3) that was led by algoma university. this newly developed articulation provides a much broader responsibility than criteria for academic transfer. this articulation agreement asks collaborators to articulate the wrap around supports that will be available to the learners as they move between and among the post secondary program offerings. this has proved quite responsive to date and will be used as the foundational 20 document for our documentation and partnerships related to these newly developed indigenous programs. in addition to articulation, including a variety of knowledge sources brings meaning and context to the relationship building and the learning. collaborative partnerships at the operational level may provide opportunities for faculty and students to be introduced to new and germane role models. these new collaborations can increase faculty complement, provide guest speakers and perhaps expand support to all levels of engagement. lessons learned and suggested considerations in order to ensure rigour and quality assurance the project sought to review existing curriculum materials from other post-secondary institutions. an online search as well as face-to-face enquiries were conducted of both college level and university level programs hoping to access course descriptions and intended learning outcomes for the affinity programs. college level content was widely available and easy to access via institutional websites. university level course content is not available at all unless someone internally to the institution is willing to share their course material. with respect to this project, the alignment of curriculum between exit and entry affinity programs will be critical. mapping all content from the learners existing institution with our program and vis versa will only assist in ensuring the learner is well prepared and success is built into the program. without transparency of curriculum content between institutions the learners may be in jeopardy and set up for failure in their transfer efforts. further work needs to be carried out to create specific alignments between fnti and other post-secondary institutions. respective of an articulation agreement, alignments need to include shared resources, open access to course materials, and extensive collaborative course and program mapping. it would important to include the office of the registrar in all of these processes. the ability to build and strengthen institutional relationships takes time and extensive travel. the covid19 pandemic shelter in place order came in mid-project limiting integral face-to-face meetings however activities were carried out utilizing a virtual resource. relationship building was further somewhat limited as all work that was required had also migrated to a virtual environment and individuals were functioning in semi-crisis mode. we also realized that in order for fnti learners to transfer easily to another pse in ontario the other pses had to recognize our 4c curriculum as integrate to all of out undergraduate degrees and diploma. additional time and resource will be required to fully apprise ontarios pses of our innovative indigenous approaches. an ongoing theme that surfaced throughout the work was the ability to track the transfers and the pathways with the integration of the 4c elements. receiver institutions would be required to accept and assess these credits and the recommendation to transfer. rigorous and detailed tracking mechanisms would need to be created that aligned with existing processes. again, this would require time and resources to create. 21 addendum april 2021 pathways, articulation and relationship building fnti has continued to build the new bachelor level degrees culminating in accreditation within the next year. these programs include bachelors degrees in indigenous justice, indigenous social work, science (food systems) and health (midwifery). there are clear affinity programs across the post secondary sector where strong pathways and articulations can be created. ongoing relationships building efforts continue with the goal of formalizing partnerships. face-to-face meetings continue to be limited to virtual meetings and will require ongoing additional time to formalize. in previous oncat projects fnti along with our academic partners (trent university and confederation college) developed a specific articulation agreement that was led by algoma university. the agreement includes that a wrap around support process must be in place in the receiving institution. in the future articulation agreements clauses can now include support for block transfer for the fnti common cultural curriculum courses (4c). retrospective analysis as new undergraduate programs continue to be shaped the integration and operationalization of a common cultural curriculum has become more evident. each program is unique and requires a variety of pedagogical approaches to ensure success. completing this project has afforded opportunities to examine the possibilities prior to accreditation. there are options for electives, collaborative interdisciplinary learning and micro-credentialling that have been recognized and are now included in the creation, research and development process. this work has also enabled us to analyze some pilot testing for experiential learning inclusion in our bachelor of health science: food sustainability program which will be extremely useful in the current development of a dedicated virtual access program. fnti has engaged in discussions with other registrar colleagues to discuss transfer initiatives and access options. this project has provided the foundation for the subsequent oncat project which is a collaborative among 3 indigenous institutes. subsequent to the second oncat project we have continued to build tangible and concrete access and pathways initiatives that re-imagines how we engage with prospective learners. momentum and awareness the results of this project, while somewhat modified have been extremely beneficial in setting the stage for continued growth and collaborative action towards a more responsive educational admissions environment. while we are focused on growth and development, we are sensitive to continuing to build the momentum we have realized. we will be developing a process to inform and raise awareness of our new and innovative undergraduate programs and continue to build and enhance the admissions processes so that all learners are included. 22 appendices appendix 1: reference and resource guide table of contents appendix 2: sample course module appendix 3: sample diploma-to-degree exceptional transfer agreement appendix 4: sample of ontario qualifications framework curriculum map template appendix 5: sample of indigenous learning outcomes mapping template figures figure 1: pathways for the proposed bachelor of indigenous social work program (bisw) figure 2: pathways for the proposed bachelor of indigenous law and justice figure 3: pathways for the proposed bachelor of indigenous food sustainability figure 4: pathways for the bachelor of indigenous health science: midwifery 23

2020 2021 annual report table of contents 03 message from the board co-chairs 05 message from the executive director 08 transfer system improvements funding streams spotlight on seamless transfer projects recently completed work with new administrative linkages spotlight on new system-level research projects oncat internal data and research projects 16 ontransfer.ca website improvements analytics and growth ontransfer.ca services 21 sector engagement and knowledge mobilization heads of transfer advising (hota) the transfer faculty advisory committee transfer student projects transfer advisors and covid-19 27 oncat strategic plan, 20202023 29 oncat team, board, partners, and finances 36 appendix: summary and project descriptions of 20202021 funded projects message from the board co-chairs this has been a year unlike any other for oncat, postsecondary institutions, students, and for our world. our fiscal year began amidst ontarios first lockdown and saw our classes move online, campuses close, and our sector brace for inevitable uncertainty. it was difficult to anticipate how the year would unfold and how quickly we would need to adapt and respond. a year later, we can look back now and agree that we, like our students, were resilient and found ways to work differently. despite all these unknowns, there was a great deal we were certain of. the previous year, oncat had established a strategic plan, identifying key priorities focused on supporting the development of in-demand pathways, facilitating fair and seamless transfer processes, and strengthening oncats organizational capacity. those priorities did not have to shift because of the pandemic; in fact, we found that they had greater resonance because of it. our focus on what needed to get done was also strongly supported by the government of ontario, both through continued funding as well as the ministry of colleges and universities commitment to working with us to identify additional areas for mcu/oncat collaboration. as colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes, we share a common interest in providing top-notch postsecondary education to students and helping direct-entry and transfer students gain the skills they need to thrive, regardless of the hurdles they encounter along the way. the hard work of the oncat team over the past year has resulted in many new, successful projects to support and aid institutions. 03 we have seen traffic to ontransfer.ca increase significantly, data linkage research projects lead to new insights, and institutions improve their internal transfer processes. at a time when all institutions face serious operational and financial challenges, instead of remaining in silos, we have seen a renewed commitment to collaboration. on behalf of the board, we would like to thank our many postsecondary institution partners and the ontario ministry of colleges and universities for supporting transfer. we also want to extend our appreciation to the oncat team for their accomplishments over this past year we know it has not been easy. we all hope for and look forward to a smoother year ahead. ron common deb maclatchy president, sault college president and vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university 04 message from the executive director its hard to believe that despite another year passing, most of our day-to-day work lives have remained relatively unchanged from last spring. it feels as though the global pandemic has taken from us temporarily, of course, but still longer than we originally imagined the many joys that come from campus life and the changing seasons of the academic year. a full year has passed without the excitement of students moving into residence or the cheers as graduates cross the convocation platform. for those of us working in postsecondary education, we miss grabbing the occasional coffee with colleagues or catching up at annual sector gatherings. all our virtual meetings have had many cherished moments, however. ive been introduced to a few pandemic puppies (shout-outs to river, zahra, and kirby!), discovered the expert bread bakers among us, and seen some novel virtual meeting backgrounds. and most certainly, over the last month, there does seem to be light shining at the end of this long tunnel as we begin to plan for a post-vaccine year ahead. this past year has also seen a great deal happen across ontarios transfer system. i am glad to highlight some of these achievements, and many more are featured in this report, but must begin by acknowledging the unwavering cooperation of our sector partners. this could have been the year that you told us, quite believably, that you had too many pressing issues, or no bandwidth to participate in an oncat project or attend yet another virtual meeting. you did not and we were pleasantly surprised by your willingness to join our data pilots, participate in process mapping collaboratives, and help us update and refresh ontransfer.ca. the relationships we built with notable and skilled quantitative researchers over this past year have generated new research and data that give us a clearer picture of ontarios transfer students. we have also deepened our connection with indigenous institutes, and through their participation across many of oncats initiatives and through their willingness to share with us we know there is a great deal of work we can do, together, to address the unique barriers facing indigenous transfer students. 05 no doubt: the pandemic threw some new challenges our way and we had to get creative. as many institutions considered establishing interim policies relating to grades, alternatives to exams and deferrals, some of our student-facing transfer colleagues wondered about unintentional implications for transfer students in particular. in response, we encouraged institutions to consider these implications, both short- and longterm, and issued a covid-19 policies and practices survey and shared results widely. we also saw transfer fairs put on hold, reducing opportunities for prospective transfer students to discover transfer pathways and meet transfer admissions officers. in response, the first-ever, all-virtual ontario student transfer fair was launched in may, providing an online platform for students to view presentations and visit transfer booths from about 40 colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. we have also made very good progress in our ongoing discussions with the ontario ministry of colleges and universities on what will become the credit transfer system strategic plan. weve had the opportunity to consult and share potential new priorities with institutions, sector organizations, and committees, and look forward to finalizing details with the ministry over the summer. we remain grateful to the ontario government for their ongoing funding support to oncat and to public institutions through the credit transfer institutional grant, which enables us to work together and continue to build a strong transfer system in our province. all levels of government and every government portfolio has been affected deeply by the pandemic and the ministry of colleges and universities is no different. as such, we are very appreciative that transfer has remained a priority and that the ministry continues to reach out to and engage our organization as often as they do. a final word of thank you to oncats board of directors and staff. our board is primarily composed of senior academic leaders from ontarios colleges and universities, as well as transfer students, and the direction they have provided and the time they have dedicated, especially over the past year, has been critical to our success. i am both privileged and humbled to work with a stellar team, including some new (virtual!) faces. their expertise and backgrounds are varied, but we all share a common interest in making a difference for transfer students and doing so in collaboration with our partner institutions. 06 clearly this has been a time unlike any other. we are all eager to put most of this behind us, but these past 15 months have taught us to work differently, value connection, and expose inequity and injustice. we have lots to catch up on but even more to do. i have faith that we will find a way to do this together and look forward to seeing you, in person, once again. keep well. covid-19 funding adjustments in response to the uncertainties facing our institutional partners, we implemented ongoing funding intake processes across a number of funding streams. the shift to an open intake process offers greater flexibility in developing proposals. we also worked collaboratively with our project leaders to adjust timelines and project activities to mitigate against disruptions. yvette munro executive director 08 transfer system improvements transfer system improvements oncat offers project grants and facilitates learning collaboratives to bring about student-level, institution-level, and system-level change. our grant-making strategies are designed to: 1) build a body of knowledge on student mobility in ontario to inform planning and sector-wide improvements. 2) support the development and implementation of in-demand pathways. 3) enhance student-centred transfer processes in postsecondary institutions and across the sector. staying receptive to our stakeholders concerns and insights ensures our work is continually informed by the field and current and emerging transferrelated research. this years funding guidelines and rfp priorities are designed to build on the momentum of 20192020 and oncats strategic plan. funding streams transfer pathways transfer pathway funding supports pathway viability exploration and the development, scaling, and remodeling of pathways. this stream helps institutions focus on preliminary stages of inter-institutional collaboration identifying student interest, regional needs, institutional priorities, labour market opportunities, and the diverse experiences of under-represented learners. seamless transfer seamless transfer projects support experimentation and innovations in credit transfer processes and identify models that can be scaled provincewide. this includes projects that support transformation within an institution and projects that affect the credit transfer system across ontario. research and data linkages research and data linkage projects generate knowledge that can directly inform policies, pathways, and institutional practices, which in turn contribute to a better understanding of system-wide issues that impact transfer and student mobility. 10 mapit learning collaborative mapit supports the documentation of the current state of transfer processes at publicly assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes in ontario so institutions can identify process improvements to better serve the needs of transfer students. institutions work with higher education strategy associates (hesa) to record the step-by-step processes of both students and institution staff as student transfer from one postsecondary institution to another thus helping to identify pain points in the process. the first cohort completed mapit in june of 2020, and nine institutions joined the second mapit cohort in the winter of 2021. datapilot learning collaborative the datapilot enhances transfer student reporting capacity within postsecondary institutions to assess transfer student uptake of pathways and student outcomes. institutions receive funding to support in-house data clean-up, linkage, and analysis focused specifically on transfer students. oncat also provides in-kind data analysis support. there were two intakes in 20202021 with six institutions completing the first phase of the datapilot and four institutions joining the second cohort. #1 #2 spotlight on seamless transfer projects through seamless transfer projects, oncat is seeing institutional collaborations focused on indigenous transfer student success. during 202021, oncat continued to support indigenous student transfer pathways and strategies, both between and within indigenous institutes, colleges, and universities. developing transferable entry-year programming between indigenous institutes first nations technical institute, seven generations education institute, and kenjegewin teg educational institute collaborated on developing an indigenous institute-specific, indigenous learner-centred, entry year of programming. this one-year admissions program (the good red road program) is designed to create and support trusting relationships and career counseling while assisting admissions and student support teams to get a deeper understanding of their learners hopes and potential. students entering the good red road program will have full transferability and will receive advanced standing upon admission to several diploma- and degree-level programs across the three institutions. actioning inter-institutional transition supports for indigenous learners (phase 3) oncat has been supporting inter-institutional collaboration to encourage and facilitate educational opportunities for indigenous transfer students. the first phase of this project culminated in the formal signing of a five-year memorandum of understanding between lakehead university, confederation college, and canadore college in feb. 2021 that outlines how the institutions will develop and establish transfer agreements and support the enhancement of wrap-around supports for indigenous transfer students. in 2020-21, oncat continued to support the expansion of this work. guided by indigenous worldviews, lakehead university, confederation college, seven generations education institute, anishinabek employment and training services, and oshki pimache-o-win: the wenjack institute will apply a collaborative and reciprocal approach to indigenous student mobility and pathways (see our appendix for more information). 12 recently completed work with new administrative linkages during 2020-2021, several oncat-funded studies drew on innovative data sources, spurring significant advancements in transfer research within the province. linkages between pse enrolment data and k-12 academics, debt borrowing, and tax files have allowed for analyses of the precursors and consequences of transfer that were previously not possible. insights derived from these projects are advancing both academic and policy discussions about transfer, and informing the design of new oncat research projects and data sources. dr. scott davies (canada research chair in data, equity and policy in education, university of toronto) analyzed transfer students using a first-of-its-kind administrative linkage between the toronto district school board (tdsb) and university of toronto records containing 32,000+ students. dr. david zarifa (canada research chair in life course transitions in northern and rural communities, nipissing university) and his team analyzed regional patterns in student mobility across ontario postsecondary education using a sample of 420,000+ students in the psis and the t1 family files. dr. ross finnies (university of ottawa) phase-ii analysis of transfer student labour market outcomes used the postsecondary student information system (psis) and t1 family files in statistics canadas education and labour market longitudinal platform (elmlp) containing information on 65,000+ ontario graduates. drs. david walters (university of guelph), rob brown, and gillian parekh (york university) analyzed student loan borrowing, focusing on a sample of 90,000+ students in the psis and canada student loans program (cslp) files in the elmlp. 13 spotlight on new system-level research projects apprentices in ontario: who pursues apprenticeships and what are their pathways into and out of various pse institutions and the labour market? drawing on the psis and registered apprenticeship information system (rais) files in statistics canadas elmlp, dr. michael haan previously the canada research chair in migration & ethnic relations and dr. wolfgang lehman (both at western university) will examine student pathways into and out of registered apprenticeships in ontario. the project will focus on the sequencing of pathways and on existing disparities in the pathways and outcomes of visible minority, immigrant, indigenous, and female registered apprentices. student outcomes across transfer pathways: a phase ii regional analysis dr. david zarifas team at nipissing university will build on his existing research on the predictors of transfer across regions via a phase ii study, which aims to explore the intersections of transfer pathways, geographical region, and measures of student success, including graduation rates and time-to-completion, as well as access to stem fields. they will also reproduce a set of tables with summary statistics from their original initial set of reports using updated psis files containing additional data on students within the ontario college sector. 14 oncat internal research and data projects transfer intent survey (tis) this fall, working with york universitys institute for social research (isr), oncat has designed a new survey that will explore the demographic and educational backgrounds of prospective transfer students. by randomly sampling individuals searching the ontransfer.ca database, the tis will generate data on both the characteristics of individuals interested in transfer, as well as the programs and institutions they are interested in transferring to. this survey will be launched in august of 2021, and will be active over a 12-month period, providing oncat with real-time information on transfer interest across the province. an opt-in feature will also allow oncat to follow up with survey respondents to evaluate their transfer experience, potential roadblocks faced, as well as other related outcomes. student outcomes across transfer pathways: a phase ii regional analysis in the summer of 2020, oncat secured access to the ucas survey, which contains information on hundreds of thousands of applicants to ontario colleges and universities since the mid-2000s. using this proprietary data source, and building on existing research, oncats research team has been working on an array of research briefs that explore the correlations of transfer pathways. initial findings from these analyses will be published in the summer of 2021. oncat is collaborating on multiple briefs with academic and policy researchers across various organizations in our sector, including nipissing university, the university of toronto, and the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco). 15 ontransfer.ca ontransfer.ca provides a user-friendly platform for students to explore their transfer options and receive support on their academic journey. able to support data from ontarios indigenous institutes and all of the provinces 45 public colleges and universities, ontransfer.ca is continuously being updated with relevant, up-to-date information. heres how we made improvements in 2020/2021. 17 website improvements in 2020, we continued to retool ontransfer.ca to be design-savvy and usercentric. based on google analytics, previous audits and stakeholder consultations, we improved the browsing experience; simplified navigation; overhauled data collection methods; and added a new pathway search functionality. many of these improvements will be operationalized early in the new fiscal year and will support ongoing development of ontransfer.ca in 2021. search pathways ... 18 analytics and growth comparing april 1, 2020, and march 31, 2021, there was an 8.46% increase in course equivalencies (accounting for all institutions) and a 3.36% increase in the number of pathways. overall, there were 172,052 unique users and 240,850 session visits. these numbers represent a decrease of 11.7% and12.9% from the previous fiscal year due to covid-19 and the suspension of in-person events. spencer gordon communications specialist beginning in nov. 2020, new social media campaigns were launched by spencer gordon (communications specialist) to increase website traffic and support students via targeted messaging about transfer information. comparing jan. 1 and mar. 31, 2020 and 2021, ontransfer.cas new user traffic has actually increased by 8.58%. platforms now established, numbers continue to rise! 19 ontransfer.ca services part of ontransfer.cas commitment to enhancing services for transfer students is through articulating our commitment to institutions. to do so, we developed a service level expectations document to catalogue issues, incidents, and questions as they occur so that they can be reviewed and analyzed to enhance our supports annually. andrew wilson transfer and technology director we have had a number of staffing changes this reporting year; sienna stock (service manager) joined in july 2020 and sarra saiyed sienna stock ontransfer.ca service manager (coordinator) joined in april 2021. these two will support the continued redevelopment of ontransfer.ca and enhance capacity and process efficiencies related to transfer and student mobility across ontarios postsecondary institutions. in addition, in spring 2021, these staff sarra saiyed ontransfer.ca coordinator members were fundamental in providing administrative support for ontarios first all-digital student transfer fair. 20 sector engagement & knowledge mobilization sector engagement and knowledge mobilization oncat recognizes the diversity of stakeholders in ontarios postsecondary system. to ensure credit transfer and student mobility is developed to serve and represent all parties, we bring together stakeholders in facilitated communities of practice. in early april 2021, oncat hired a knowledge mobilization specialist to expand and amplify our research and policy work and develop our knowledge mobilization plan, aligned with oncats three-year strategic plan and based on input from our sector partners and researchers. these activities will include the development of research snapshots, spotlights on innovative transfer policies, guides and resources, workshops and training sessions that enhance the capacity of transfer personnel, as well as events that elevate the profile of transfer more broadly. carolyn poplak manager, sector engagement meryl borato knowledge mobilization specialist 22 heads of transfer advising (hota) heads of transfer advising (hota) is made up of representatives from indigenous institutes, colleges, and universities across ontario. these members people with significant senior leadership experience in transfer advise and support oncat on how to better serve a mature transfer system through building the capacity and efficacy of transfer advising, both across the system and at individual institutions. an evolution of the transfer advisor group (tag), hota has met monthly since the summer of 2020. heather o'leary university of waterloo sharon estok centennial college victoria baker seneca college david adam baker centennial college judy tavares humber college scott walker conestoga college sheila lafrance iohahi:io akwesasne education & training institute 23 the transfer faculty advisory committee oncat brought together a group of six faculty members from different disciplines. formed in january 2021, the faculty advisory committee advises on how we can support diverse faculty courseto-course equivalency review processes. the longerterm goal is to improve transfer opportunities for students by maximizing transfer credit recognition, where appropriate, and reducing duplication of commensurate previous learning. this tfac has helped develop the credit transfer assessment guide, which will support faculty in making assessment decisions across the province and serve as an anchoring resource for discipline-based transfer committees. carol bureau sheridan college julie cross fanshawe college stevie jonathan six nations polytechnic louis durand laurentian university marco campagna algonquin college shawn j. richards humber college 24 transfer student projects in the summer of 2020, oncat piloted the development of three student-led, transfer-related projects. topics included understanding the transfer journey from a student perspective, transfer and the trades, and transferring within ontario from an international perspective. these three initiatives will be communicated to the sector in the upcoming months as oncat continues to support student-led initiatives! 25 transfer advisors and covid-19 oncat distributed a survey to institutions to garner any shifts in transfer policies and processes in response to covid-19. a preliminary survey was distributed in the spring of 2020 and updated in early fall. two webinars were held following the survey to bring transfer advisors together virtually to share the responses and discuss some of the creative ways institutions have supported students in this challenging time. 26 oncat strategic plan, 20202023 strategic priorities priority 1: targeted and in-demand pathways for students with our understanding of transfer behaviour, trends, and the emerging needs and interests of students, we support the development of efficient and effective transfer pathways between institutions and across systems. these provide clearly articulated options that support student access to postsecondary education, laddering of credentials, opportunities for re-training, and the development of new skills. priority 2: transparent, consistent, and seamless transfer credit processes oncat strives to ensure ontario has a leading transfer-receptive pse system. students should be able to navigate the transfer process with relative ease and should receive maximum credit recognition for commensurate academic credits. we work to ease the burden of transfer administration on institutions, provide consistent information, and improve student experience at all stages of their transfer journey. priority 3: robust, reflective governance and operational capacities as the intermediary provincial organization responsible for building a strong transfer system in ontario, oncat has the potential to achieve more than what the government can do alone, develop and share subject matter expertise about transfer, and engage education sector partners to work collaboratively. oncat should be reflective, establish accountabilities, and facilitate improvement to ensure our operational capacities are aligned. 28 oncat team, board, partners, & finances yvette munro shauna love andrew wilson executive director operations director transfer and technology director roger pizarro milian peter ssekiziyivu desera finance manager sarah fuchs carolyn poplak spencer gordon senior researcher senior policy analyst manager, sector engagement communications specialist ana skinner melinda cheng rod missaghian henrique hon manager, funding programs research data analyst researcher quantitative researcher derek chan sienna stock allison maldonado sarra saiyed project manager ontransfer.ca service manager business systems analyst ontransfer.ca coordinator inna yeranosyan meryl borato jane waldner anjana rao knowledge mobilization specialist office and meeting coordinator operations coordinator coordinator: grants and projects 30 board of directors board chairs deb maclatchy, president and vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university ron common, president, sault college board members caitlin smith, george brown college, college student representative christine bradaric-baus, vice president academic and chief learning officer, canadian memorial chiropractic college elaine popp, vice-president academic, durham college kathryn kettle, university student representative lyne michaud, vice president academic affairs, collge boral pierre riopel, external representative serge demers, avp, student affairs, registrar and secretary of senate, laurentian university ex-officio members of the board david corcoran, senior researcher, policy advisor and statistician, colleges ontario robert luke, chief executive officer, ecampusontario eva busza, vice-president, policy and sector collaboration, council of ontario universities heather lane, executive director, ontario universities' application centre karen creditor, president and ceo, ontario college application service yvette munro, executive director, oncat 31 our partners 32 our partners we also work closely with: indigenous institutes; students; the government of ontario, ministry of colleges and universities; sector organizations like higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) and ecampusontario; and representative bodies like the council of ontario universities (cou), colleges ontario (co), the canadian federation of students-ontario (cfs-on), the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa), and the college student alliance (csa). oncat is partnered nationally through the pan-canadian consortium on admissions & transfer (pccat) and the provincial councils: 33 finances our audited financial statements, which comprise the statement of financial position as of march 31, 2020, the statements of operations and changes in net assets and cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies, can be found at: https://oncat.ca/en/about-us 08 34 2020 2021 annual report www.oncat.ca 180 dundas st. w., suite 1902 toronto, on m5g 1z8 the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) is funded by the government of ontario. cette information est aussi disponible en franais. appendix: summary and project descriptions of 20202021 funded projects 20202021 transfer pathways funding stream remodeling transfer pathways in the business management and business administration fields between collge boral, collge la cit, and universit de hearst project lead: universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | amount awarded: $44,335 collge boral, collge la cit, and universit de hearst are committed to continuing their efforts to promote the continuum of postsecondary education for francophone and bilingual students in ontario. this project will support the continued collaboration on transfer pathways in business management and business administration. through this project, the partners will remodel existing transfer pathways and add new institutional programs to them so that graduates of college programs can obtain their bachelors degree in business management or business administration at the universit de hearst. the partners will also develop an umbrella agreement to help facilitate transfer pathways, determine the number of credits recognized, and develop the internal administrative tools required to manage the pathways more effectively based on the realities of the originating/receiving institutions. 20202021 seamless transfer funding stream actioning inter-institutional transition supports for indigenous learners (phase 3) project lead: lakehead university | partners: confederation college, seven generations education institute, aets (anishinabek employment and training services), oshki pimache-o-win: the wenjack institute | amount awarded: $105,666 by supporting inter-institutional collaboration and expanding on a memorandum of understanding to include additional institutional partners, this project helps maximize transfer supports for indigenous students. guided by indigenous worldviews, new and existing project partners will apply a collaborative and reciprocal approach to indigenous postsecondary mobility. collaborators intend to create and update credit transfer pathways; explore creative credential and transfer credit combinations (microcredentials and certificates leading toward a degree) that are directly related to first nations education and employment outcomes; develop joint admissions policies with current and new partners; expand wrap-around supports for indigenous learners; and pilot a shared indigenous transfer staff position between participating institutions. broadly, project partners at regional colleges, indigenous institutes, and lakehead university are working together to identify, locate, and begin to disrupt colonial structures and pedagogy that exists in postsecondary student mobility and the transition between different types of institutions. 37 understanding transfer student experience and outcomes through business intelligence analytics project lead: lakehead university | amount awarded: $77,448 this project leverages existing transfer student datasets developed with oncat support to enhance the understanding of transfer student experiences and outcomes through the development of enhanced transfer student business intelligence visualizations. through this project, lakehead university will also construct data models that will improve the understanding of its transfer student outcomes and potentially identify early alerts and indicators to support transfer student success and new transfer pathway opportunities. these datasets will also support decision-making at the faculty level and decisions related to academic and non-academic supports for transfer students with the aim of improving student outcomes. indigenizing prior learning assessment and recognition (plar): exploring how postsecondary institutions can recognize indigenous community-based knowledge during credit- and degree-granting processes project lead: lakehead university | partners: nokiiwin tribal council, kiikenomaga kikenjigewen employment & training services (kkets) | principal investigator: dr. lana ray | amount awarded: $114,095 this community-based participatory action research project explores how postsecondary institutions can recognize indigenous community-based knowledge during credit- and degree-granting processes, as well as the readiness of institutions to do so. it will be conducted in collaboration with nokiiwin tribal council and kiikenomaga kikenjigewen employment & training services (kkets), and will help increase knowledge of the intersections of plar and the credit transfer system through the development of a policy paper on indigenous plar, a feasibility workbook for postsecondary institutions, and a plan to implement indigenous plar at lakehead university. 38 20202021 research projects apprentices in ontario: who pursues apprenticeships and what are their pathways into and out of various pse institutions and the labour market? project lead: western university | principal investigator: dr. michael haan | amount awarded: $84,678 an important and under-researched aspect of developing a skilled workforce in canada are the pathways taken by students into and out of pse and apprenticeships, and, more specifically, how student mobility factors into completion rates. drawing on statistics canadas education and labour market longitudinal platform, this research project will analyze the students who pursue apprenticeships; what lateral and vertical transfer pathways students take into and out of various postsecondary education institutions in ontario; and the sequencing of these transfers. in addition, this study is interested in examining the destinations of individuals exiting apprenticeship programs, including vertical transfers into other apprenticeship programs, divergent transfers into colleges and/or university programs, and direct-entry into the labour market. an important contribution of this study will be to investigate visible minority, immigrant, indigenous, and female apprentice registration in training programs, their certification completion rates, and the degree of student mobility and vertical and lateral transfers taken by these groups into apprenticeship programs in ontario. implications of covid-19 on student mobility at seneca college project lead: seneca college | principal investigator: dr. ursula mccloy | amount awarded: $37,672 when the global covid-19 pandemic struck in march 2020, postsecondary institutions quickly made the shift from in-person to almost completely online delivery. adapting to online learning, uncertainty about our current and longer-term economic future, and coping with social isolation can have major effects on student attendance, transfer, and academic performance. this project explores the effects of the pandemic on seneca college students. this study will compare seneca students who entered the college in the fall of 2020 or winter of 2021 with entrants from the previous five years (201516 to 201920). overall effects of the pandemic will be compared with a particular focus on transfer students and direct-entry students. demographic comparisons include: neighbourhood income, age, gender, status in canada (international, citizen, or other), country of birth, geographic distance from college, pathway taken into college, sending institutions (within region, outside of region, or province), and program selection, including program area and credential. 39 understanding transfer experience in the skilled trades project lead: durham college | principal investigator: tbd | amount awarded: $101,428 the shortage of skilled trade workers in ontario has led to a renewed focus on enabling access to skilled trades education through related postsecondary and apprenticeship training. this project explores the educational pathways taken by students entering construction-related programs at durham college, their demographic profiles, and academic outcomes. to do so, it contrasts this group with individuals entering non-constructed related programs within the institution. layering and animating meaning: exploring experiences of black college-to-university transfer students at mcmaster university through interviews and digital storytelling project lead: mcmaster university | principal investigator: dr. selina mudavanhu | amount awarded: $110,168 this project explores the experiences of black college-to-university transfer students at mcmaster university, focusing specifically on their experiences of transferring and settling into university. the project will identify ways of making the transfer process more seamless for black students as well as ways universities can develop supportive and inclusive environments. 40 trading places: the flow of students into and out of apprenticeship programs project lead: mcmaster university | principal investigators: dr. nicole malette, dr. karen robson | amount awarded: $63,850 apprenticeships provide alternative education pathways for a significant proportion of the canadian population. however, little is known about the reasons students transfer into apprenticeship programs or the educational pathways of former apprenticeship students. similarly, very little is known in canada about students with university or college education who transfer into apprenticeship programs, either before or after completing their degrees/diplomas. through interviews with ontario-based former apprentices who left to attend college or university (not connected to their apprenticeship program), as well as former college or university students who left their postsecondary institution to pursue apprenticeships, this project will advance understandings of former apprenticeship/undergraduate students educational pathways and transfer pathways, informing the design and implementation of transfer student support strategies and continued education policies. access to postsecondary schooling and the credit transfer experience of incarcerated students in ontario project lead: amadeusz | project partners: humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | principal investigator: tina-nadia chambers | co-investigator: dr. ardavan eizadirad | amount awarded: $44,000 this project explores the transfer experiences of students who are or have been in remand custody in ontario. through interviews with students in remand, incarcerated or recently released from custody, educators working in remand facilities, and postsecondary institutions, this research will help identify formal and informal pathways for students while incarcerated and opportunities or barriers to transfer between postsecondary institutions after students complete postsecondary courses while incarcerated. this project will help inform programming and strategies to develop pathway and supportive credit transfer processes for the incarcerated population in ontario. 41 an analysis of student mobility within ontarios northern and southern institutions: phase 2 project lead: nipissing university | principal investigator: dr. david zarifa | amount awarded: $114,932 a growing area of student mobility research points to the importance of examining regional differences in educational trajectories within canada. students from the northernmost parts of provinces often face significant proximity and socio-demographic barriers to attending postsecondary education, accessing various types of postsecondary education, and accessing many lucrative fields of study at the university level, such as the stem fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). this project explores regional differences in educational trajectories within ontario. building on the first phase of research utilizing statistics canadas postsecondary student information system, this second phase will explore the following: graduation rates, access to stem fields, and timely completion for transfer students in northern and southern ontario. 42 20202021 data linkages nipissing university nsse analysis project project lead: nipissing university | amount awarded: $30,000 this project supports the analysis of the national survey of student engagement results at nipissing university across multiple years in order to analyze differences among students that entered directly with those who had previous post-secondary experience. this project will help increase institutional data related to transfer student experiences and outcomes. transfer data custom linkages: improving internal reporting capacity project lead: canadore college | amount awarded: $24,150 this project supports the development of a custom data linkage drawing on across various administrative data sources within canadore college. it will improve internal reporting capacity and increase data related to transfer student outcomes at canadore. 43

instantan developing pathways in the area of cybersecurity type: pathway development project number: 2020-22 or p2022 project lead: university of ottawa collaborators: algonquin college, carleton university, collge la cit rsum du projet the four partner institutions are already working together as part of the education city initiative, a project that aims to examine the possibility of collaboratively developing an innovative model that provides educational experiences focusing on developing human skills, foundation knowledge and applied competencies related to the chosen field of work in the ottawa area. building on this collaboration as well as their existing expertise and programs in the field of cybersecurity, the four institutions seek to establish reciprocal transfer pathways (collegeuniversity and university-college) in order to enhance student mobility in the ottawa area in this emerging and increasingly important field of study. rsultats la volont de crer un micro-programme bilingue entre les quatre institutions sur la cyberscurit, en se fondant sur les forces de chaque tablissement et leur complmentarit. mesures cls l'analyse des curriculums a dmontr qu'il n'est pas possible de reconnatre des crdits entre les collges et les universits. par contre, chaque tablissement a des forces dans le domaine de la cyberscurit, qui sont complmentaires. le groupe de travail souhaite explorer la possibilit de crer un micro-programme bilingue entre les quatre tablissements. dfis il y a eu deux dfis principaux. tout d'abord, les normes d'agrment des programmes de gnie rendent difficiles les reconnaissances de crdits. ensuite, dans les universits, les tudiants qui suivent les cours de cyberscurit sont en troisime ou quatrime anne et ces cours ont des pralables pour lesquels il n'est pas possible de faire d'quivalence de crdits avec les collges. conseils pratiques lorsqu'on fait l'analyse des curriculums, de ne pas seulement penser la reconnaissance des crdits, mais galement chercher voir comment d'autres types de parcours pourraient tre dvelopps.

annual report 2021 2022 table of contents 2 message from the board co-chairs 3 message from the executive director 4 ontario pse pathways & transfer system improvements 9 internal research & data projects 12 sector engagement & knowledge mobilization 16 it and project management 18 ontario's transfer & pathways guide & ontransfer.ca 22 strategic planning 24 finance reports 29 summary & project descriptions of 2021-2022 funded projects 1. message from the board co-chairs as we entered the second year of a global pandemic, the world of postsecondary education began the challenging work of adapting to a new normal. students, institutions and oncat alike braced themselves for a transition to hybrid learning, teaching and workspaces. though a promising sign of post-pandemic normal, the transition was not without challenges. and we commend the resilience and adaptability needed on all fronts to make it a success. oncat experienced its own period of transition this past year. in november 2021, we said goodbye to our executive director, yvette munro. yvette was an invaluable presence at oncat and her impact on the organization continues to be felt. we thank her for her years of service. we would also like to thank andrew wilson and shauna love for stepping in as interim executive directors as oncat embarked on a search for a new executive director. their work was integral in helping oncat navigate the waters of adapting to a new normal. through it all, oncat has continued to work steadily in service of ontarios postsecondary transfer system, adapting to the shifting needs of transfer students and staff. we have seen data linkage research projects lead to new insights, institutions improve their internal transfer processes, and more students served by ontransfer.ca. at a time when all institutions faced serious operational and financial challenges, we have seen a renewed commitment to collaboration. as we reflect back on this year, there is much to be proud of. and as we look to the future for oncat, there is much to be hopeful for. we are thrilled to welcome dr. adrienne galway aboard as our new executive director. adrienne brings over twenty years of postsecondary experience and a passion for supporting student success, and we are confident oncat will continue to flourish under her leadership. on behalf of the board, we thank the government of ontario for funding oncats work, our institutional partners for their continued collaboration, and the ontario ministry of colleges and universities for their continued support of pathways and transfer. best wishes for another successful year ahead. ron common, president, sault college deb maclatchy, president & vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university 2. message from the executive director over the past two and a half years, the postsecondary education sector has done an exemplary job of adapting, changing and pivoting in order to continue to provide students with high quality education. there were times that the constant pivoting made us all a little dizzy, and our colleges, universities and indigenous institutes should be proud of what they have accomplished under the most challenging of circumstances. oncat is very grateful to the postsecondary sector for its continued engagement and cooperation, especially in the face of the myriad of other competing priorities. like our partner institutions, over the past year oncat has transitioned to a new normal, but our core mission to support student mobility in ontario through transfer and pathways has remained the same. oncat has made significant progress on a number of fronts, which are highlighted in this report. on a personal level, i also experienced a significant transition when i joined oncat as executive director in may 2022. i have been so impressed by oncats work to support transfer and pathways in ontario, whether it is through funding innovative projects to help institutions build their data reporting capacity, develop pathways, adopt new technologies such as mycreds(digital transcripts), and better understand and support transfer students by providing students with up-to-date credit transfer information through ontransfer.ca. times of transition can be a little frightening, but they are also times of excitement and creativity. as oncat embarks upon the development of a new strategic plan to support student mobility and pathways, the sky is the limit. like every other aspect of our lives, the pandemic has changed postsecondary education and it has changed student expectations of their postsecondary and career journey. we have all learned that key to success is the ability to find a path forward through uncertain terrain, and oncat is well positioned to continue to guide students on their journey. the oncat team is one of the most talented and engaged group of professionals that i have had the privilege to work with and i am excited to see what the future holds. adrienne galway executive director, oncat 3. ontario pse pathways & transfer system improvements grants by the numbers oncat supports the postsecondary system in ontario to develop in-demand and student-centred pathways, implement consistent and transparent transfer practices and ensure evidence-driven transfer system improvements. led by ana skinner, research, data & funding director, and aided by inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants & projects, we provide funding to support student mobility research, system-level improvements, pathway development, and transfer capacity building within ontario postsecondary institutions. across oncats funding streams and sector engagement strategies, we approved over 60 projects in 2021-2022. the projects include: 5 transfer pathways 3 seamless transfer 10 research 1 postdoctoral research fellowship 3 student action projects 7 datapilot (4 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 12 mapit (9 phase 1, 2 phase 2) 2 indigenous institutes transfer grants 11 mycredsonboarding grants 5. completed projects 8 10 9 5 pathway research mapit 5 datapilot 3 student research action projects 2 seamless transfer more than 30 projects were completed in 2021/22. for more information on these and other projects funded by oncat, check out https://oncat.ca/en/projects-search for project snapshots. strategy spotlight: enhanced institution transfer capacity oncat works deeply with our partners to assess transfer student outcomes and experiences, address process improvements and work towards a more seamless system in ontario. this year, oncat expanded our institution transfer capacity funding strategies. this included the launch the indigenous institutes transfer operations and capacity fund and mycredsinstitutional onboarding fund. 6. indigenous institutes transfer operations and capacity grant first nations technical institute and seven generations education institute were awarded ii transfer capacity grants in 2021-2022. funding supports indigenous institutes to enhance student pathways and transfer opportunities through increased transfer student supports, transfer advising and other transfer functions determined by the institute. mycreds in 2021, oncat began supporting the onboarding of institutions to mycreds. mycredsis a national project supported by the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) to create a digital learner credential wallet and national data exchange network. sector-wide adoption of mycredswill provide digital and secure transcript exchange between ontarios publicly assisted postsecondary institutions, will make it easier for students to share their transcripts and for institutions to ensure the veracity of application documents. the first year of oncats strategy has seen strong uptake from the sector, with 11 institutions receiving funding to onboard and/or enhance their use of mycredsfor transcript exchange. 7. mapit the mapit learning collaborative supports institutions to map their current transfer processes in order to support process improvements. working with higher education strategy associates to facilitate the process, each institution gains valuable insights on their transfer processes. to date, oncat has supported 28 institutions through mapit, where oncat and participating institutions are able to share effective transfer processes and areas for improvement. cohort 4 is underway and recruitment for cohort 5 will begin in fall 2022. in 2021-2022, we expanded mapit to include funding for phase 2 projects focused on improving transfer processes. datapilot learning collaborative the datapilot launched in 2020, and this year we reached an important milestone of working with 25% of ontario postsecondary institutions to increase their data reporting capacity and assess transfer student outcomes at their institution. this includes 26% of universities and 25% of colleges. oncat will continue to accept new partners on an ongoing basis. 8. internal research & data projects transfer intent survey in september of 2021, oncat launched its first proprietary survey in partnership with york universitys institute for social research. as we approach the one-year mark, we have close to 2,500 completed survey responses. the dataset includes information about prospective transfer student decision-making and includes the demographic and educational background of participants. from this survey, oncat has begun developing analyses about who and why certain student populations transfer, the most popular pathways, as well as program types. the survey has been extended for another 12 months to bolster the overall sample size, as well as to continue to add to the panel of prospective and eventual transfer students that have opted in for future interviews and focus groups. we hope to launch the transfer experience survey in 2023, as a follow up with students from the first wave who eventually transferred. this project aims to understand the transfer student journey from the point of intent to transfer. transfer intent interviews we have completed 53 semi-structured interviews with students who expressed interest through our transfer intent survey. these interviews probe more deeply into the reasons why students want to transfer and allows students the space to reflect in more detail on their experiences in postsecondary. we have transcribed and begun analyzing student responses, which have helped us develop new questions for the survey reboot, as well as compare results between the two collection methods. we have also successfully recruited a handful of students from our panel to participate in focus groups to help improve our ontransfer website for future users. we hope to release our initial reports from the interviews in january of 2023. 10. student outcomes across transfer pathways oncat published a set of research briefs in february 2022, drawing from data contained in the ucas survey. these reports focused on applicant pathways into ontario colleges and universities and included topics such as regional variations in degree aspirations and the effects of socio-economic status and prior academic achievement on transfer pathways. since the ucas contains demographic information about students (i.e., broad ethnic categories) that other datasets do not include, we will continue to work with this data into 2023. we hope to continually release information to the sector using this rich data source on student applicant preferences. upcoming reports include data about students first-choice institutions and the influence of race/ethnicity on transfer pathways and degree aspirations. 11. sector engagement & knowledge mobilization research spotlights working with the research and communications teams, oncat designed the research spotlight series to highlight key findings from our research reports and emphasize the application of this evidence to policy, decision-making, and professional practice. research spotlights are intended to capture the most significant findings that the sector needs to know about and to spark further reading and interest in transfer research. spotlights, written by meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist, appear on oncat.ca and are promoted through oncats monthly newsletter. transfer advising lunch and learn series oncat launched a monthly learning event for the transfer advisor group, called transfer advising lunch and learns. offered once per month, the learning event series is meant to build capacity in the transfer advising space and cultivate evidence-based practices and decision-making. intended for both seasoned administrators and staff entirely new to transfer, these events provide information about the transfer space, recent research on transfer, promising practices, as well as allow participants to build relationships with staff at other institutions. to date, we have held sessions on student advising, communications and recruitment, and multiple sessions on pathway development. 13. online community hub for tag and hota oncat created inter-institutional communications platforms on microsoft sharepoint that allow our community groups to share resources, ask questions, and communicate outside of our publicly-held events. the site is private and restricted to transfer advisor group (tag) and heads of transfer advising (hota) community members, which is facilitating smoother communication regarding transfer, polls about what others are doing, mentorship opportunities, and general support among members. community animators on transfer last year, oncat launched a new student-led initiative called the community animators on transfer (cats). cats are students who transferred once during their time in postsecondary. as part of the program, they receive a stipend to develop a creative way to share their experience and to offer advice or tips to current transfer students. cats then receive coaching and mentorship on their creative work by oncat staff. submissions have included a comic strip, blog posts, written narrative, a short video, and a photographic essay. so far, we have had two cohorts complete the program. you can view the cats creative work on oncat.ca! 14. sector engagement oncat, with the help of carolyn poplak, manager of sector engagement, and sanja pavlovic, committees coordinator, continues to work with various established committees including the northern ontario pathways steering committee, the francophone and bilingual advisory committee and the heads of transfer advising committee. in spring 2022, oncat established the discipline steering committee (dsc). the role of the dsc is to advise and steer the work of oncat, in collaboration with the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu), in building a mature transfer system. more specifically, the dsc will work with oncat and the discipline committees (business, social services etc.) to lead the expansion of transferability of first year courses. the goal is for first year students to be able to transfer to like programs with full credit recognition. 15. it & project management it updates & improvements oncat's it team, including allison maldonado, business systems analyst, and natalie isber, project manager, implemented five sharepoint sites to facilitate information sharing and collaboration among ontario institutional partners and oncat. 1. ontario postsecondary education hub 2. ontransfer site 3. transfer advisor group (tag) site 4. heads of transfer advising (hota) site 5. discipline steering committee site they also launched an internal absence management system to simplify the absence tracking process for oncat team members and management and introduced a project management software for oncat team members to increase transparency across teams and improve task management and oversight. 17. ontario's transfer & pathways guide & ontransfer.ca ontario's transfer & pathways guide (ontransfer.ca) ontarios transfer & pathways guide provides a user-friendly platform for students to investigate their transfer options and receive support on their academic journey. able to support data from ontarios all the provinces publicly assisted colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes, ontransfer.ca has ongoing development to support students and institutions with relevant, up-to-date information. ontransfer.ca website improvements in 2021, the ontransfer.ca team (led by andrew wilson, transfer and technology director), continued to enhance the website by providing design-savvy and usercentric supports. we successfully launched course outline/syllabi index for the province, reviewed and updated the websites content, and continue to find ways to simplify and operationalize our collection processes for course calendars, online offerings, and course equivalencies. in late 2021, the team began a project to improve our content management software (cms) that will provide modern web design and user graphics for 2022 and beyond. our focus in the coming years will continue to be on better navigation, increased promotion of in-demand pathway programs and overall site searchability, along with more targeted communications for transfer students from intent, pre- and post-application, admission, and registration. 19. analytics and growth the pandemic has continued to effect overall website traffic to oncat.ca, though not as dramatically as in the previous year, with overall traffic seeing modest increases of these numbers by 1.24% and 4.88%. beginning in early 2022, an updated communication plan was developed by lindsay mcrae (communications manager) and implemented with the support of jane waldner (digital communications coordinator) to increase website traffic and enhance how we share transfer and pathway information on the transfer & pathways guide. service level implimentation 1. 174,180 unique users of ontransfer.ca 252,614 unique session visits implementation of ontransfer.ca's service level expectations (sles) has streamlined processes that resulted in an 29% increase in institutional data files from april 1, 2021 to march 31, 2022. 243,642 course equivalencies 1979 25,000 academic pathways unique pathways 20. ontario student transfer fair as part of our continued redevelopment and service strategy, the ontransfer.ca team hosted two successful ostfs in fall 2021 and spring 2022, led by sienna stock (ontransfer.ca service manager). held virtually to ensure the health and safety of participants, the event allowed transfer students to connect directly with institutions to have their specific questions answered. the latest ostf saw over 1,000 unique visits to virtual booths, almost 500 documents accessed, and 335 webinar views. ontransfer.ca team despite challenges related to the pandemic, the team continued to strengthen and improve our ontransfer.ca supports and communications. targeted monthly digests were established using ms sharepoint to communicate important information for our partners. the team has continued to adjust sles and commitments to the sector through the development of an automated ticketing system that utilizes workflow to support internal and external communications. 21. strategic planning strategic plan for 2023-2026 oncat is embarking on consultations for a new strategic plan for 2023-2026, which will be aided by oncat's senior policy analyst, alastair woods. while certainly challenging, the pandemic gave oncat an opportunity to pivot to new forms of student support and delivery, as well as time to consider the challenges and opportunities ahead. with our current strategic plan coming to a close in 2023 and the recruitment of our new executive director (adrienne galway), now is the perfect time for oncat to chart a new course into the future. through our collaboration with the ministry of colleges and universities, oncat has already identified four longterm priorities that will inform and complement our new strategic plan: 1. expanding first-year transferability: assisting in efforts to make introductory/core courses more easily transferable across the sector. 2. increasing smart pathways for students: working with postsecondary institutions to scale up in-demand student pathways. 3. helping transfer students to graduate on time: supporting transfer students to graduate with minimal excess costs in study time or tuition fees. 4. integrating indigenous institutes into ontario's credit transfer system: closer collaboration with the third pillar of ontarios postsecondary education system. these priorities run alongside oncats day-to-day work in research, policy development, student support, institutional collaboration, sector engagement and technology. through this consultation process, oncat will explore areas for growth and further investigation, building upon our strengths as an organization and moving into new and innovative projects. the strategic plan consultations will take place in fall 2022 and winter 2023, with the board of directors given an opportunity to review and approve the plan in spring 2023. 1. 23. financial report financial report 2021-2022 our audited financial statement for 2021-2022 can be found at: https://oncat.ca/en/about-us the report is comprised of the statement of financial position as of march 31, 2022; the statements of operations and changes in net assets and cash flows for the year; and notes on the financial statements including a summary of significant accounting policies. 25. oncat team adrienne galway, executive director lindsay mcrae, communications manager meryl borato, knowledge mobilization specialist shauna love, operations director sienna stock, ontransfer.ca service manager jane waldner, digital communications coordinator andrew wilson, transfer and technology director ana skinner, research, data & funding director rod missaghian, senior researcher natalie isber, project manager allison maldonado, business systems analyst tina liu, data analyst peter desera, finance manager alastair woods, senior policy analyst carolyn poplak, manager, sector engagement henrique hon, quantitative researcher nicolas boileau, researcher melinda cheng, research data analyst inna yeranosyan, administrative coordinator, grants & projects sanja pavlovic, committees coordinator liwei liao, ontransfer data coordinator abdullah mushtaq, executive & governance coordinator 26. board of directors ron common (co-chair) deborah maclatchy (co-chair) christine bradaric-baus lyne michaud serge demers elaine popp kathryn kettle president & ceo, sault college president & vice-chancellor, wilfrid laurier university vice-president academic of canadian memorial chiropractic college vice-president academic, collge boral interim vice-president, academic and provost, laurentian university vice-president academic, durham college student representative ex officio members of the board: janet hope robert luke marny scully heather lane marc provencher adrienne galway vp of policy and innovation, colleges ontario ceo, ecampusontario vp of policy and strategy, cou executive director, ouac president & ceo, ocas executive director, oncat former board member: caitlin smith student representative 27. our partners 28. summary & project descriptions of 2021-2022 funded projects 2021 transfer pathways funding stream #p2220: engineering and engineering technology transfer pathway development project lead: queen's university at kingston | partners: cambrian college, centennial college, conestoga college, mohawk college, seneca college, sheridan college, st. lawrence college, university of toronto | amount awarded: $282,700 this project will support multi-institutional pathways between engineering technology advanced diploma and engineering degree programs in ontario. these pathways will allow students holding an ontario advanced diploma in engineering technology from a participating program to receive advanced standing in a participating ontario engineering degree program. #p2221: pathways in chemistry and applied life science project lead: lakehead university | partners: fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $12,296 the goal of this project is to develop a set of transfer pathways to and from fanshawe colleges chemical laboratory technology - science laboratory advanced diploma and lakehead universitys honours bachelor of science in chemistry/honours bachelor of science in applied life science. the project will also assess the viability of developing additional pathways into lakehead university's medical concentration programs and related engineering credentials. 30. #p2222: ontario caat direct admissions and upper year pathways project lead: queen's university | amount awarded: $41,500 the goal of this project is to identify programs that have capacity to bring college graduates (specified certificates/ diplomas) into first year/ upper year and develop pathways with fully mapped transfer credits in the faculty of arts and science at queens university. this project will reduce barriers for college students interested in attending queens university, focusing on developing pathways into programs with both capacity and demand at the upper year level. #p2223: remodeling honours bachelor of kinesiology pathways project lead: lakehead university | partners: cambrian college, canadore college, collge boral, confederation college, georgian college, sault college | amount awarded: $47,971 through this project, lakehead university will update and re-model pathways to reflect changes in curriculum and accreditation/quality assurance standards so that they continue to align with the honours bachelor of kinesiology (hbk) degree program. furthermore, this project represents an opportunity to combine similar pathways into multilateral pathways, thus making them more efficient, consistent, and transparent. #p2243: remodelling of colleges boreal/la cite to universite de hearst psychology transfer pathways project lead: universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | amount awarded: $46,030 this project will remodel existing pathways between universit de hearst psychology programs and collges la cit and boral programs. it will support the development of new pathways and an umbrella agreement to facilitate the transfer of graduates and the ongoing maintenance of the memoranda of understanding. 31. 2021 seamless transfer #s2201: expansion of digital transcript exchange in ontario through mycreds project lead: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada | amount awarded: $500,000 the goal of this project is to help improve transfer student processes through digital transcript exchange. it will support mycredsoperations to build, expand and implement its learner credential wallet and national data exchange network for all of ontarios publicly funded colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. sectorwide adoption of mycredswill provide digital and secure transcript exchange between ontarios publiclyassisted postsecondary institutions. this data exchange network will facilitate more seamless student transfer by making it easier for students to share their transcripts and for institutions to ensure the veracity of application documents. #s2251: transfer student ambassadors at trent university project lead: trent university | amount awarded: $11,000 this project will support the implementation of a transfer student ambassador pilot. the trent transfer student ambassador will play an important role in developing and maintaining relationships between transfer students applying to trent and the university and provide peer supports through the transfer process. 32. #s2255: expansion of digital transcript exchange in ontario through mycreds, year 2 project lead: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada | amount awarded: $500,000 this project is the second phase of a multi-year strategy that will help accelerate the secure digitizing and onboarding of transcripts to mycreds. it will provide system-level document exchange infrastructure that can improve transfer student experiences of document exchange. the project addresses key process gaps and challenges in transfer processes (e.g., timely receipt of transcripts, completeness of documents for transfer credit assessment/admission decisions). mapit phase 2 funding stream #s2248: development of universit de hearst credit transfer policies project lead: universit de hearst | partners: collge boral, collge la cit | amount awarded: $86,020 this project supports the development of universit de hearst credit transfer policies as it becomes an independent university. it will also create a credit equivalencies administrative tool that stipulates equivalencies to be granted for the 20 collegiate programs at the two french-language colleges in ontario: college la cit and collge boral. 33. #s2249: implementing new equivalency assessment processes at trent project lead: trent university | amount awarded: $55,000 this project supports improvements to internal equivalency assessments at trent university by collecting first year/introductory courses from universities across canada to assess for their trent equivalencies. this project will allow trent to pre-emptively assess courses and input them into trents database, helping decrease the transfer credit assessment period for university transfer students coming to trent. #s2250: lakehead university development of transfer credit assessment (tca) guidelines project lead: lakehead university | amount awarded: $51,838 this project will enhance the transfer credit process through the development of transfer credit assessment (tca), guidelines and decision-making for course-by-course tca at lakehead university. this project includes the development of training materials required to effectively advise subject-matter experts in their assessments. 34. indigenous institutes transfer operations & capacity funding #i2267: fnti transfer strategies project lead: first nations technical institute | amount awarded: $79,637 this project supports fnti to enhance its transfer functions in several key areas through a dedicated pathways coordinator. this includes developing and enhancing current transfer operations for partnered programs; providing applicants/students with transfer counselling and assistance with transfer processes and understanding pathway opportunities, ensuring transferability and pathways are considered with the development of standalone programs; and developing admissions, governance and policies related to transfer. #i2268: developing capacity for student mobility in the treaty 3 region project lead: seven generations education institute | amount awarded: $64,240 this project will support seven generations education institute (sgei) to integrate a pathways coordinator position across the organization as well as among the student body so that it can build trusting relationships and better assist students in the transfer process. sgei will focus on creating necessary protocols and policies that will help to build opportunities to create new pathways. 35. 2021 research projects #r2203: a qualitative analysis of the post-transfer experiences of college and university students in ontario principal investigator: dr. janice aurini | amount awarded: $135,265 the goal of this project is to advance understandings of university and college students' post-transfer experiences and how they may vary by pathway and region. this project builds in a longitudinal component to capture student transfer as a multi-faceted social process. this research has the potential to inform the development of policies and practices that improve transfer student retention across the ontario pse, including enhancing student advising, bridging programs, and initiatives to help students adjust to their new institutional environments. #r2204: predicting transfer pathway uptake and associated income profiles a second look at the tdsb-psis linkage with a focus on disability project lead: york university | principal investigator: dr. gillian parekh | co-investigators: dr. rob brown and dr. david walters | amount awarded: $119,609 in 2019, oncat funded the creation of the custom tdsb-elmlp linkage to examine the extent to which transfer students differ from direct entry counterparts in their propensity to borrow from the canada student loans program (cslp). a preliminary report explored provincial-level trends drawing simply on the psis-cslp linkage. a secondary report explored the same trends with a focus on the tdsb-psis-cslp linkage. this project will draw on the tdsb-psis-t1ff linkage to explore an additional set of questions focused on socio-demographic predictors, with a particular focus on disability, across (disaggregated) transfer pathway uptake and whether there is a net earnings premium or "penalty" associated with disaggregated transfer pathways and disability status. 36. #r2210: non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation - phase 2: leveraging surveyadministrative data linkages to document the role of family background in detailed transfer pathways project lead: institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) | principal investigator: dr. xavier st-denis | amount awarded: $167,367 this project draws on the first oncat-funded project, non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation: statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes (2020-2021), which was based on data from the longitudinal and international study of adults (lisa). this new project intends to produce 3 research papers and focus on the role of family background in detailed transfer pathways. #r2211: tdsb-uoft replication project principal investigator: dr. scott davies | amount awarded: $27,290 this project will advance exploratory transfer related analyses with dataset between administrative student records at the toronto district school board (tdsb) and the university of toronto, leveraging the previous institution field within the university of toronto records to identify those tdsb students that arrived at the university from another postsecondary institution. 37. #r2219: transfer postdoctoral research fellow project lead: nipissing university | supervisor: dr. david zarifa | amount awarded: $90,675 oncat is providing matching funding for a postdoctoral research fellow at nipissing university, as part of a multi-institutional research partnership funded by sshrc. this project explores the potential barriers experienced by many youth as they pursue postsecondary education and employment by linking toronto district school board (tdsb) data with postsecondary administrative, survey, and tax data. the postdoctoral research fellow will help organize and analyze linked longitudinal administrative data, prepare manuscripts, and support knowledge mobilization activities associated with this project - including highlighting relevant transfer and student mobility insights. #r2242: the missed education" of black women: disability, access and transfer project lead: toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | principal investigator: dr. idil abdillahi | amount awarded: $121,845 this qualitative research project will explore the experiences of disabled black women transferring between ontario colleges and ontario universities. it will provide key insights on transfer student experiences and contribute to deeper understanding of the experiences of black women, non-binary, and trans people living with disabilities transferring between ontario colleges and universities. 38. #r2254: understanding the role of streaming in college-to-university pathways project lead: toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | principal investigator: sam andrey | co-investigators: andre cote, tianna thompson | amount awarded: $58,053 this project will contribute to deeper understanding of the profiles and experiences of students who connect their college to university (ctu) transfer pathway to the impacts of secondary academic streaming and course selection. using a survey and semi-structured interviews with current and former college-to-university transfer students, the project will document their secondary and post-secondary academic pathways. through this examination the project will investigate if, and to what extent, secondary streaming experiences influence why and how students access ctu transfer. postdoctoral research fellowship #r2256: oncat post doctoral research fellowship project lead: university of guelph | postdoc fellow: j. sparks | supervisor: dr. david walters | amount awarded: $110,000 this post doctoral research fellowship will investigate transfer shock and the impact of support services on transfer students in ontario. the postdoc will be supported by the university of guelph, under the supervision of dr. david walters, and the research project will be conducted in collaboration with members of the student transitions, access & research on tertiary education partnerships team. 39. micro-credentials in ontario: exploring stackability & transferability #r2245: possibilities and barriers to transfer and stacking of micro-credentials in ontario public colleges and universities principal investigator: dr. scott davies | amount awarded: $74,072 ($69,600+$4,472 hst) this project will advance understandings of the potential for transferability and stackability among microcredentials. through an in-depth scan of micro-credential offerings in the ecampus portal and key informant interviews, this project will deepen understandings on how stakeholders understand current challenges and successes when designing and implementing transferable micro-credentials. #r2246: approaches to stackability of micro-credentials: options for ontario project lead: higher education strategy associates | amount awarded: $69,900+hst this project includes a jurisdictional analysis that will explore approaches to micro-credential stackability in other countries and jurisdictions to present recommendations for ontario. the project includes a) a review of publicly available information on micro-credentials offered by (public) colleges, universities and indigenous institutes across ontario; b) a comparison of international models for stacking micro-credentials, drawing on academic and policy literature c) interviews with administrators and faculty from a diverse range of (public) colleges and universities across ontario; d) interviews with 10-12 ontario career college owners, managers and instructors. 40. #r2247: exploring newcomer perceptions of micro-credentials credibility in facilitating employment and postsecondary education pathways project lead: fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | principal investigator: dr. alexander pershai | co-investigators: dr. michele manocchi, dr. rob downie | amount awarded: $74,882 this project will document student perceptions of micro-credentials, with a focus on newcomer perceptions of micro-credentials in facilitating employment and postsecondary education pathways. this includes whether transferability and stackability among micro-credentials is a consideration for learners' advisors and postsecondary institutions offering micro-credentials. the study will identify existing gaps and provide recommendations for the development and enhancement of micro-credentials to address the employment and postsecondary needs of newcomers to ontario. 41. mycredsinstitutional onboarding #s2224 | toronto metropolitan university (formerly ryerson university) | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2225 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute | amount awarded: $37,700 #s2226 | university of ottawa | amount awarded: $25,375 #s2227 | confederation college | amount awarded: $38,500 #s2228 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $25,200 #s2229 | sheridan college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $25,958 #s2230 | brock university | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2231 | trent university | amount awarded: $17,900 #s2232 | universit de hearst | amount awarded: $27,720 #s2234 | mohawk college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $25,000 #s2235 | york university | amount awarded: $25,000 42. datapilot phase 1 #d2208 | durham college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $27,500 #d2212 | lambton college | amount awarded: $51,843 #d2244 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $33,264 #d2253 | nipissing university | amount awarded: $55,000 datapilot phase 2 #d2202 | trent university | amount awarded: $16,200 #d2209 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $43,395 #d2236 | algoma university | amount awarded: $55,000 43. mapit 3.0 institutional process mapping project #m2214 | lambton college | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2215 | the university of ontario institute of technology | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2216 | wilfrid laurier university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2217 | collge boral | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2218 | the canadore college of applied arts and technology | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2213 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | amount awarded: $36,000 + hst mapit 4.0 institutional process mapping project #m2238 | york university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2239 | university of ottawa | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2240 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2241 | algoma university | amount awarded: $10,000 #m2237 | consultant: higher education strategies associates | amount awarded: $65,000 + hst 44. discipline steering committee #c2257 | algoma university: david marasco | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2259 | collge la cit: isabelle gurin | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2260 | fanshawe college of applied arts and technology: mary pierce | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2261 | sir sandford fleming college of applied arts and technology: david adam baker | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2262 | humber college institute of technology and advanced learning: melinda kao | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2263 | oshki-pimache-o-win: the wenjack education institute: susan sinclair | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2264 | lakehead university: michel beaulieu | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2265 | laurentian university: brigitte desjardins | amount awarded: $20,000 #c2266 | university of waterloo: heather o'leary | amount awarded: $20,000 45. 2021 community animators on transfer (cats) #t2205 | ahmad butt | amount awarded: $1,500 #t2206 | constant yen | amount awarded: $1,500 #t2207 | jennifer sparks | amount awarded: $1,500 46.

experiences of learners who are incarcerated with accessing educational opportunities in ontario, canada ardavan eizadirad wilfrid laurier university tina-nadia gopal chambers university of guelph-humber access to education is a human right that should be upheld for everyone including individuals who are incarcerated as outlined in article 26 of the united nations universal declaration of human rights. 25 interviews were conducted between april to june 2021 with various key stakeholders: 5 staff involved with the delivery of educational programs in jails, 10 learners who are or were formerly incarcerated, and 10 representatives from post-secondary institutions or jails. the objective was to identify barriers limiting access to education, while incarcerated and post-release, and how such barriers can be mitigated. responses were examined using critical race theory as a paradigm and thematic analysis as a methodology. findings indicate that access to education for individuals who are incarcerated remains limited, not prioritized, and overall an underdeveloped sector in canada. more funding and resources need to be allocated to prioritize education and expand the capacity of incarceration facilities to offer more programming in ways that are accessible and socio-culturally relevant. keywords: prison education, access to education, incarceration, remand, systemic inequities introduction jail in my opinion does not reform people unless they're given the right tools inside. jail only makes criminals worse criminals when you restrict them access to good things such as education. incarcerated student access to education is a human right that should be upheld for everyone including individuals who are incarcerated as outlined in article 26 of the united nations universal declaration of human rights (united nations, 2022). in phase one of this research project, a literature review was conducted to examine what current educational opportunities exist in terms of programs and pathways and how they are delivered for individuals who are incarcerated in ontario, canada. the findings and recommendations were published in a report in february 2021 titled access to post-secondary schooling and the credit transfer experience of the remand population in ontario (eizadirad, 2021). the report outlines three major findings from the literature review: journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 31 1) there is a lack of information available to the public about the types of programs offered in incarceration facilities including criteria for enrollment, who it is used by, and its outcomes. access to information is a systemic barrier that disadvantages families of those impacted by incarceration as well as individuals incarcerated post-release. 2) limited access to education needs to be more of a priority supported with funding and resources to promote rehabilitation and effective reintegration back into the community. the type of educational programs offered are limited, lack capacity within institutions to meet demand, and are low in quality due to restrictions imposed on how they can be delivered. 3) there is a need to modernize policies, practices, and processes involved at various levels within correctional facilities to create more opportunities for access to quality education. the majority of the educational programs offered are high school diplomas, due to need, with limited access to learning spaces, technology, and computers to facilitate effective teaching and learning. guiding research questions in phase two of this research project, a series of interviews were conducted with various key stakeholders to further explore the findings from the literature review. it was important to capture the perspectives and lived experiences of individuals who accessed education while incarcerated or postrelease. the objective was to better understand the challenges and systemic barriers they experienced while striving to access educational opportunities. the key guiding questions for the project were: - what are the experiences of individuals who receive educational opportunities while incarcerated? - what are the experiences of individuals incarcerated as they pursue post-secondary education while incarcerated and after being released from jail? - are courses or training provided to individuals while incarcerated, specifically credits earned, formally recognized by colleges or universities post-release? the research team worked in partnership with amadeusz to identify participants to be interviewed. amadeusz (https://amadeusz.ca/home) is a charity in ontario that provides opportunities, resources, and supports to young people held in remand to complete high school and pursue post-secondary schooling (amadeusz, 2022). the findings identified are based on perspectives and lived experiences of learners who are incarcerated as well as other stakeholders interviewed involved with the delivery of educational programs within incarceration facilities. the objective was to identify systemic barriers to accessing educational opportunities and outline a series of recommendations leading to improvements for more equitable access. recruitment and research participants ethics approval was granted by humber colleges research ethics board. 25 key informants were recruited and interviewed via purposeful sampling through amadeuszs contacts and networks. participants were divided into three groups: - past and present amadeusz education program staff (n=5). - program participants (n=10) who met one of the four criteria outlined below: a) completed high school with amadeusz while incarcerated, started post-secondary courses while incarcerated, and continued their post-secondary studies after being released. b) completed high school with amadeusz while incarcerated, got released, and then started post-secondary studies. c) already had their high school diploma upon incarceration. began post-secondary courses with amadeusz while incarcerated and continued their post-secondary studies after being released. d) already had their high school diploma and enrolled in a post-secondary program before incarceration. continued their post-secondary studies with amadeusz while incarcerated. 32 journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 - representatives from post-secondary institutions (n=8) and jails (n=2) interested or involved with the delivery of educational programs in incarceration facilities. interviews were done between april to june 2021. participants were provided with informed consent outlining the project objectives and the steps involved. for those currently incarcerated, interviews were conducted over the phone and the number of questions asked were reduced to accommodate the limited time available ranging from 20 to 30 minutes. interviews with amadeusz program participants who were no longer incarcerated as well as amadeusz staff, administrators, and post-secondary representatives were conducted over the phone or via zoom in alignment with safety guidelines and protocols associated with covid-19. the remote interviews took approximately 60 to 90 minutes to be administered. all interviews were audio-recorded and anonymized to ensure confidentiality. pseudonyms were assigned to participants to further ensure anonymity as part of sharing quotes. interview responses were transcribed to facilitate coding and thematic analysis of the data. participants had the option to drop out of the study at any point without any penalties by informing the lead researcher. participants were provided with a $50 visa gift card as a token of appreciation for their time participating in the study. methodology and theoretical framework interview responses were examined using critical race theory (crt) as a theoretical paradigm and thematic analysis as a methodology for data analysis (clarke & braun, 2017; green et al. 2007; denzin & lincoln, 2000; xu & zammit, 2020). crt, which recently has been banned in some places in the united states, provides a framework to examine how racism operates through policies and processes embedded within the social fabric of institutions proclaimed as neutral and colorblind. crt provides an alternative perspective to neoliberal discourses that glorify meritocracy, individualism, and competition (au, 2016; carter & welner, 2013; eizadirad & portelli, 2018; lopez, 2003). as au (2016) explains, the ideology of meritocracy asserts that, regardless of social position, economic class, gender, race, or culture (or any other form of socially or institutionally defined difference), everyone has an equal chance at becoming successful based purely on individual merit and hard work. (p. 46) furthermore, lopez (2003) expands on how institutional policies and practices can serve as gatekeeping mechanisms that privilege some identities and social groups at the expense of oppressing others. as lopez (2003) states, unfortunately, for the vast majority of people of color and other marginalized groups who are constantly reminded daily that they are second-class citizens in this countrythe concept of rights is elusive (p. 75). as it relates to this article, we examine what it means to have a right to education and whether it is upheld for those incarcerated. we focus on access to education being proclaimed as a human right but is this the case when it comes to individuals who are incarcerated, given that there is an overrepresentation of racialized and minoritized identities within incarceration facilities? crt provides a framework to critically examine who is privileged and advantaged and who is excluded and oppressed and in what ways. this involves going beyond the individual realm to community and institutional factors that influence the lack of access to education for learners who are incarcerated. the narratives expressed by the participants interviewed, particularly learners who are incarcerated, help to identify systemic inequities that serve as barriers to accessing education during incarceration and post-release. findings were identified through thematic analysis. clarke and braun (2017) operationalize thematic analysis as a method for identifying, analyzing, and interpreting patterns of meaning (themes) within qualitative data (p. 297). codes were identified after transcription of all interviews and through ongoing dialogue and discussions between the researchers. codes were interconnected to capture reoccurring themes expressed by the various stakeholders interviewed. this aligns with how xu and zammit (2020) envision thematic analysis where it involves finding repeated meanings across a data set, which is crucial to the interpretation of phenomena where the theme captures some crucial information about the data about the research questions (p. 2). journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 33 amadeusz and the need for more educational opportunities for learners who are incarcerated amadeusz is a charity that supports young people who are incarcerated to create positive change in their lives through access to education, community support, mentorship, and exceptional care (amadeusz, 2022; eizadirad & gopal-chambers, 2021). amadeusz values and prioritizes creating greater access to educational opportunities, courses, and programs for learners while incarcerated and post-release. studies and statistics have shown that there is low education achievement among the incarcerated population. as woods et al. (2018) emphasize, [i]t is estimated that 75% of individuals do not have a high school education upon entry to a federal correctional facility. more specifically, the correctional service of canada found that 82% of individuals test below a grade 10 level and 37% of males have a grade 9 education or less. (p. 61) therefore, there is a need to create greater access to educational opportunities and transfer pathways for individuals incarcerated, particularly since education has been identified as a major protective factor in mitigating recidivism (davis et al., 2013; john howard society of ontario, 2016; mcmurtry & curling, 2008; richer et al., 2015). a cost-saving analysis of one million dollars invested in incarceration compared to prison education has shown that one million invested in incarceration prevents approximately 350 crimes whereas the same amount invested in prison education prevents approximately 600 crimes (bazos & hausman, 2004). in canada, as of 2005, the overall population of adults in remand has consistently outnumbered sentenced offenders with limited access to educational opportunities. 2005 was the first time that canadas provincial and territorial jails held more people who were legally innocent in remand compared to sentenced offenders (correctional services program, 2017; malakieh, 2019). amadeusz facilitates educational programs for young people aged 18 to 35 who are incarcerated at the toronto south detention centre, the toronto east detention centre, and the vanier centre for women. amadeusz is actively seeking funding to expand its programming into other facilities to further make education more accessible to individuals incarcerated. they have a long waiting list of participants who have expressed interest to enroll in their programs and services yet the demand cannot always be met. the goal of amadeusz educational programs is to provide young people who are in detention with the opportunity, resources and supports to complete their high school diploma or general education diploma (ged) and to further pursue post-secondary education while incarcerated and post-release. accessing amadeusz educational programs is a five-step process: 1) referral: program participants are identified through a self-referral process by putting in a request to speak with amadeusz staff. individuals can also be referred by others working within the institution including correctional officers, volunteer coordinators, social workers, psychiatrists, community partners, and members of the amadeusz staff team. 2) intake/assessment: a program facilitator meets with the referred individual to determine program eligibility. if eligible for any of the available educational programs, an intake and educational assessment are conducted. once enrolled in the program, the participant is supported to create an educational plan which includes their goals. if ineligible, the program facilitator refers the individual to other available services. 3) programming: based on the educational assessment and program eligibility, the participant is placed in one or more of the following streams: a) high school correspondence credits towards obtaining an ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) b) ged preparation and examination c) post-secondary courses d) career exploration e) post-release referrals 34 journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 4) evaluation: ongoing feedback from participants, program facilitators, and volunteer coordinators is collected to assess the progress of the student in the program. 5) discharge: when a participant is released or transferred from one institution to another, program facilitators do their best to ensure continued support for the participant in their educational goals and finishing their program. files are closed when appropriate. since 2009, amadeuszs high school completion stream has graduated 52 people with their ontario secondary school diploma (ossd) and 173 people with their ged. in the post-secondary stream, 251 post-secondary courses have been completed with 6 people having obtained a postsecondary certificate. demographics of the research participants and the interview questions five past and current amadeusz staff and administrators were interviewed about their experiences planning, implementing, and supporting learners incarcerated with their educational goals and aspirations. those interviewed were involved with the high school and post-secondary program streams. ten participants who accessed amadeusz educational programs or courses in the high school or post-secondary stream were also interviewed. table 1 outlines the age, gender, and ethnicity of the program participants interviewed. table 1 age, gender, and ethnicity of program participants interviewed participant age 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 31 34 34 28 29 28 32 gender (self-identified) trans female male male male male male male 8 9 10 28 41 26 male male male ethnicity (self-identified) mixed identity black and african chinese latino and hispanic jamaican white mixed identity: scottish, irish, welsh. dutch, spanish, and filipino jamaican and canadian japanese white the average age of individuals interviewed was 31. nine of the participants self-identified as male with one participant being a trans female. eight of the respondents self-identified as racialized with two being white. lastly, eight representatives from post-secondary institutions and two representatives from jails were interviewed about their interest and involvement in educational programs within incarceration facilities. emerging themes and findings in this section, four major findings are shared based on the emerging codes and themes from the interview transcriptions (clarke & braun, 2017; green et al. 2007; denzin & lincoln, 2000; xu & zammit, 2020). the discussion of the themes is supported by quotes from the research participants. finding #1: there needs to be an ideological shift about the purpose of incarceration facilities from being spaces that punish people by warehousing them to spaces that facilitate and promote rehabilitation. by extension, there is a need to disrupt deficit thinking about learners who are incarcerated and negative stereotypes about their potential and competencies. journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 35 according to the correctional service of canadas evaluation of cscs education programs and services (2015) report approximately three-quarters of federally sentenced offenders present a need for educational programming (p. vi). a common theme expressed by individuals who accessed education while incarcerated was how incarceration facilities prioritized security and discipline at the expense of promoting learning and rehabilitation as one interviewee explained, i can have goals so that my time in custody is not just about killing time. we should invest in people's mental health and education much more. stop investing billions of dollars in jail and start spending on education and in genuine health, mental health care, in genuine tools that will help people get out of that hole because just putting them there for three months or longer does nothing. many interviewees echoed how institutions treat them as threats instead of humans who have a right to education. individuals incarcerated expressed that they wanted to better their lives by spending their time constructively but the lack of accessibility to meaningful educational programs did not help. they also mentioned that the hypermasculine jail culture where they must constantly be on the lookout for their safety due to sporadic incidents of violence makes it very hard to focus and pursue educational goals and aspirations consistently. a study by the canadian civil liberties association (2021), titled education for ontario youth in detention: a qualitative report, conducted 50 interviews with youth, staff, teachers at detention facilities, and justice system professionals to explore the extent education is available to youth in detention, and the barriers they may face (p. 5). although the focus of the report was on youth offenders whereas we interviewed adults incarcerated, both identified that facilities were treating youth [and in our case adults] as security threats to be managed, rather than students deserving of rehabilitation through educational opportunities (p. 5) the report further connects this to anti-black racism where the majority of the youth are black (p. 5). the lack of access to educational programs is highly problematic given that majority of people incarcerated do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent (correctional service of canada, 2015), and education is one of the most effective protective factors in facilitating reintegration and mitigating recidivism post-release. other interviewees spoke about how information about the availability of educational programs is not readily shared. as one interviewee put it, we have so many inmates in these buildings and it's silly that they dont understand what's available to them. it's like they keep this information hidden from people who can benefit from it. the canadian civil liberties association (2021) report attributes some of the barriers to accessing educational programs for learners who are incarcerated to gaps in oversight and accountability which contribute to allowing the educational deficits identified to persist unabated (p. 5). as another interviewee expressed, sometimes learners are post-secondary ready, they just don't know until they've had an opportunity to find out. many learners who were incarcerated expressed that the way incarceration facilities operate creates more barriers to accessing education and other relevant services such as mental health support. the subculture of always being seen as a threat from a deficit lens justifies limited access to rights associated with the rhetoric of managing risk and violence among inmates (portelli & sharma, 2014). this contributes to individuals who are incarcerated not bettering themselves, and in many cases getting worse over time due to a lack of accessibility to socio-culturally relevant support services to meet their needs (davis et al., 2013; eizadirad, 2016; george et al., 2014; john howard society of ontario, 2016). as one interviewee explained: jail in my opinion does not reform people unless they're given the right tools inside. jail only makes criminals worse criminals when you restrict them access to good things such as education. and it's not even like that's what they want it's because that's what they need to do to survive. when you're just surrounded by it, it just becomes you, and so the longer you stay in jail, the longer you're surrounded by those people, and the worse off you come 36 journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 out. especially when you come out after say more than a few months. you don't feel like you belong in normal society so you gravitate towards the type of people you were inside with, right? so i think, you know, having certain access while you're in jail and then having access to supports afterward is a big thing. without access to support services and other social determinants such as housing and a steady income, the risks of gravitating towards recidivism increase. other learners who were incarcerated as well as other stakeholders interviewed strongly expressed that even though the literature and statistics clearly outline that education is the best protective factor towards mitigating recidivism, there is a misalignment between theory and how jails operate in facilitating access to education. getting into an educational program often takes long, in many cases with long waitlists, and there are constant disruptions to the program impacted by factors such as lockdowns, taking away of privileges, or use of solitary confinement (correctional service of canada has ended solitary confinement as of november 2019 and now uses the term structured intervention units) as a result of poor behavior or involvement with violent incidents. one of the institutional representatives explained that there needs to be more flexibility and options to overcome the restrictions in jails associated with how educational programs are offered so it becomes more accessible: if institutions wanted to make print-based materials for incarcerated individuals, then they would. we need to like, humanize this a little bit more. these are human beings who are intelligent and have all of these skills and can go to amazing places and they just don't have access because so many people have continually told them no, no, no. this echoes the report from the office of the auditor general of ontario (2019) which found that little emphasis is placed on delivering programming to remanded inmates, who comprise the majority of the inmate population (p. 17). overall, there needs to be an ideological shift about the purpose of incarceration facilities from being spaces that punish people by warehousing them to spaces that facilitate and promote rehabilitation, during incarceration and post-release, through greater access to education. part of this involves disrupting deficit thinking about individuals who are incarcerated where they are constantly treated as a threat. finding #2: education needs to be treated as a right rather than a privilege. education has to be prioritized to make it more accessible and the type of programs offered diversified to meet the needs of various individuals incarcerated. many participants shared how the infrastructure, design, layout, and operation of incarceration facilities serve as a barrier to accessing education on the inside. as one interviewee stated, there is a lot of talk about the value of education, and it is said to be supported, but it is just talk and no action. another interviewee felt that there was more support provided post-release, but the time spent while incarcerated was much more isolating and less productive due to the limited educational opportunities available. he stated, everything is offered to you after your release or before your release or things like that. there are very little things for you to do while you're there on the inside. there is a misalignment between theory and practice where constantly education is proclaimed as an effective protective factor in reducing recidivism yet not prioritized. organizations such as amadeusz offer educational programs to learners who are incarcerated need more funding to help increase their capacity to offer their programs to more participants across more facilities. chan et al. (2017) outline how it costs correctional service canada an average of $111,202 annually to incarcerate one man (and twice as much to incarcerate one woman), with only $2950 of that money spent on education per prisoner (para. 16). this applies to individuals who are doing their time in a federal incarceration facility. a more recent report by the office of the auditor general of ontario (2019) titled annual report 2019: reports on correctional services and court operations states that, journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 37 [t]he ministry does not have fully effective systems and procedures in place to ensure that institutional programs and services are delivered economically, efficiently, and by legislative and policy requirements. specifically, we found that correctional institutions are not equipped to deal with challenges resulting from the greater proportion of the remand population and inmates with possible mental health issues. this adversely affects the availability and content of programming and treatment that would otherwise help inmates reintegrate positively into the community and reduce recidivism. (p. 20) these statistics and trends confirm that access to education as a human right is not upheld consistently within incarceration facilities in canada (people for education, 2022). a more systemic approach is needed to ensure education is prioritized and the conditions to access education are improved. this would benefit all stakeholders as investing in educational programs and services will lead to greater returns in terms of reducing recidivism which in the long run leads to tax dollar savings. many other learners who were incarcerated expressed the emotional, mental, and spiritual benefits they gained from accessing an educational program where they interacted with someone who cared about their future: just even to have somebody that was kind of helping you towards doing something good for yourself inside was a huge help for me. when you don't have somebody to try and keep you grounded when you're in jail, you are forced into this mentality for survival. and then, you know, the only way to do it is to assimilate with everybody. i am just trying to say if i have you guys, i have somebody to talk to. i have somebody going to give me some career options, give me some creative options, and i wouldn't be incarcerated. others expressed that it was a new start to learn from their mistakes and better themselves. as one interviewee stated, what became important to me was more than just getting my previous education validated but to also get a new start. yet, the collective responses from individuals who accessed educational programs while incarcerated indicate that the type of programs and courses offered are limited. there is a lack of capacity within institutions to meet educational demands as programs offered often lack quality due to restrictions imposed on how they can be delivered, predominantly being paper-based correspondence. as well, there is a lack of partnerships with post-secondary institutions to offer education in prison. various amadeusz staff interviewed explained how there are often long waitlists to access their programming due to capacity associated with funding. many learners who are incarcerated expressed frustrations about the length of time it takes to be assessed to gain access to educational programs. another interviewee further explained how creating greater access to education will lead to reduced incarceration rates: if we were investing in inmates to get access to education and the help they would need, then we would not need jails. representatives from post-secondary institutions expressed similar sentiments about how there are many barriers in place which limit accessing educational opportunities within incarceration facilities ranging from lack of funding and partnerships to the limited time dedicated to education and frequency of the sessions. as one of the jail representatives explained, it's more so accessibility to the inmates and space to have that accessibility. at the end of the day, we're an institution. so while systemically there is a lot of progress and there is a lot of research being done that supports how important having access to services like school and social work is, ultimately if the jail's locked down that day, the jail's locked down that day. 38 journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 overall, access to education is not treated as a priority. instead, education is treated as optional and a privilege for individuals who demonstrate good behavior. there are often disruptions to delivering educational programs as expressed by amadeusz staff on days where punitive measures such as lockdowns or solitary confinement are used to manage the day to day risks within prisons and jails (office of the auditor general of ontario, 2019; sapers et al., 2017, 2018). as one interviewee explained, it would help people if there is more of a structure because when they're in there, it's not structured when like the teacher can't come in certain days or we're locked down or something. when we're locked down, we get a shower and phone program, so you either get to take a shower or phone. you have a certain amount of time, you know? it's a right as inmates so how come education is not our right? these practices limit access to education for individuals who are incarcerated. they are reactive in their approach and often have harmful short and long-term impacts. more importantly, these practices do not align with the long-term goal of rehabilitation and effective reintegration of those incarcerated back into the community. finding #3: the physical space of jails needs to be altered to create greater access to educational spaces, technology, and resources to facilitate optimal teaching and learning conditions. particularly, there is a need to modernize and create greater access to computers and digital platforms to facilitate more educational experiences. there is a need to modernize policies, practices, and processes at incarceration facilities to create more opportunities for accessing quality education. one of the common concerns raised by learners who are incarcerated were the lack of space allocated for educational programs. as one interviewee stated, they should set aside an area in jail for education. there should be like a schooling area where people could go and feel safe.. another person echoed similar sentiments by stating, more or less the correction facility itself is the barrier. many individuals who are incarcerated expressed how the lack of space dedicated to schooling and learning creates a culture of always feeling at risk and having to worry about ones safety which contributes to difficulties in focusing. the following statements from various learners who accessed education while incarcerated reflect such sentiments: it's very difficult to focus on things even though you might have the time in here. how do you lay out your books to study when there's no space to lay out your books to study when you have like, a cellmate in a tiny space? how do you try to organize your thoughts and your papers when you don't know how to take notes, when you've never been taught how to study, when you don't know how to prepare for an exam, when there's no quiet time ever, when you always have to be worried about not being too absorbed in your stuff because you always have to be worried about what's happening around you and if there's you know, maybe there's tension on the range. the space, unfortunately, seems to require that people, no matter what else is going on, stay attuned to what's happening there which means that like, you can't ever really 100% focus on something, which makes it hard to study. beyond access to space, lack of access to computers and technology was a common barrier mentioned throughout the interviews. as one of the post-secondary representatives stated, we're in a very technologically advanced society now, and i feel like the approach to education is very outdated. like they should be able to have computers that the inmates can access to complete work related to their courses. lack of access to technology was also identified by the canadian civil liberties association (2021) report journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 39 concerning experiences of youth offenders. youth offenders expressed similar sentiments about how greater access to computer resources, institutional libraries, and optimization of delivery will lead to more positive experiences. as one of our interviewees stated, most distance learning now requires computer access, so that is a massive barrier that continues to really limit access. i think even a lot of people without really recognizing it think that it is really a wonderful thing that, um, that distance education is available online and it creates more access, but a lot of people don't think about what happens then when people just are not able to use a computer and don't have internet access, and can't print things easily, and can't have hardcover textbooks, and can't bind course material together. others interviewed expressed how it is great that many institutions are now offering more courses remotely via distance education in response to covid-19, but a major barrier remains access to computers and technology on the inside associated with deficit thinking and the fear of learners abusing their access. paper-based correspondence learning does not align with best practices in education pedagogically where the learner often works in isolation without access to consistent guidance or support. this does not create many opportunities for collaborative work which has shown to be effective as a learning pedagogy. overall, there need to be more spaces designed for schooling within incarceration facilities with greater investments in creating access to computers, technology, resources, support services, and digital platforms so learners who are incarcerated receive quality education where they can conduct research and engage in effective pedagogical practices. finding #4: there is a need to implement socio-culturally relevant and responsive curriculum content, pedagogies, and accommodations to better support learners who are incarcerated with considerations for lack of access to resources and technology. there is a correlation between race and racialization and the magnitude of systemic inequities experienced by racialized identities including black, indigenous, people of colour (bipoc), and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds in canadian society (colour of poverty, 2019; eizadirad, 2019; toronto foundation, 2021; williams et al., 2013). findings from the lewis (1992) and mcmurtry and curling (2008) reports provide historical context for ontario which contextualize how systemic inequities rooted in the intersection of racism and poverty lead to disparities in outcomes such as the overrepresentation of racialized identities in correctional facilities particularly black and indigenous people (chan et al., 2017; colour of poverty, 2019). this is a problematic trend that continues today due to systemic barriers. chan et al. (2017) emphasize that the overrepresentation of racialized communities in canadas prisons reflects the countrys racial profiling and over-policing of black and indigenous people (para. 10). racialized identities experience more systemic barriers contributing to the perpetuation of the school to prison pipeline (carter & welner, 2013; eizadirad, 2019). lack of representation, mentorship, and culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining pedagogies leads to many racialized identities being pushed out of schools because schools and their content, policies, and pedagogies are not reflective of racialized identities and their histories and lived experiences (au, 2016; colour of poverty, 2019; dei et al., 1997; james, 2020; ladson-billings, 2006). as one of the amdeusz staff explained, education is often an outcome, right? it's an outcome of like all of the other things that a young person is dealing with, so whether that's systemic discrimination from being a racialized person, reintegration, coming from a low-income background, you know, a history of community violence, like there's so many social determinants of health that need to be addressed before somebody can really think about being successful from an education perspective. 40 journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 hence, there is a need to implement socio-culturally relevant and responsive curriculum content, pedagogies, and accommodations to support learners who are incarcerated (eizadirad et al., 2022). as the canadian civil liberties association (2021) report outlines courses are often written from a colonial lens that does not acknowledge other histories or present-day lived experiences (p. 25) and the transition to an entirely self-directed learning model was particularly challenging for youth in detention, especially those with significant learning challenges and acute needs (p. 7). this was also echoed by incarcerated learners we interviewed who expressed, even though yes there was some access, it was still a pretty independent and isolating sort of experience. for me it wasn't really like deep learning all the time because it still required that somebody was able to learn basically straight out of a textbook with very little support. an amadeusz educational facilitator further explained, i don't know what real learning looks like but giving somebody a textbook and confusing assignments and saying do these assignments, we'll get you marks back whenever we get them back to you, and then you'll do an exam does not align with best practices. to me, that is a real disservice to somebody who is at a precarious place along their education journey. furthermore, the education offered within incarceration facilities does not take into account accommodations or modifications learners may need for circumstances related to limitations in accessing resources or technology. should being incarcerated be recognized as a need for accommodation? this is something that needs to be considered by post-secondary institutions given the limitations incarcerated learners experience in completing their work and submitting it on time through paper-based correspondence. as one amadeusz staff involved with delivering educational programs stated, we advocated at a college to see if the incarcerated learner would qualify as a student with a disability just because by definition at the college in particular it stated that anyone facing barriers and challenges to their learning may qualify for accommodations. we were trying to kind of use that and to say well, look at all of the challenges and barriers that they're facing, right? like why they cant qualify for, you know, accommodations and further support? even if it's like a course extension. in ontario to qualify for accommodations, one needs legal documentation of a learning disability or an individual education plan initiated and approved by the school board. incarceration is not a condition and hence is not approved under accommodations. concerning accessing further support services post-release, numerous participants outlined how there were no specific transfer pathways for people coming out of incarceration. they expressed that they would fall under and receive the same resources and supports as a mature or transition year student. a report by erzen et al. (2019) titled equity and excellence in practice: a guide for higher education in prison suggests that, it is essential that higher education in prison programs maintain a holistic approach that includes mentorship, tutoring, advising and the provision of the myriad soft skills that students need to succeed academically (p. 34). part of this would require discussions about what constitutes academic accommodations beyond exceptionalities to encompass the environment in which one resides, and the barriers that prevent meaningful participation in effective learning such as lack of access to computers and technology within incarceration facilities. while many post-secondary institutions have equity and inclusive education policies and strategies, these strategies do not specifically account for the needs of learners who are incarcerated. journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 41 creating curriculum content that is socio-culturally relevant and responsive to the lived experiences of learners who are incarcerated would also lead to higher-quality educational experiences and more engagement from the incarcerated learners. as one incarcerated learner stated, i wish educational programs offered by amadeusz were not optional, and it was actually possible for everybody in jail to do, you know? because the rate of the kind of people coming back to jail would be a lot lower in my opinion. it's a whole revolving door system because there's not enough help for people in jail. this aligns with findings from the canadian civil liberties association (2021) which states, there were also concerns expressed that programming was arbitrary and was not developed in partnership with youth to ensure it accounted for their lived experiences (p. 8). overall, more funding and resources need to be allocated for education and the various levels of government need to provide incentives for universities to create post-secondary educational programs and transfer pathways for individuals incarcerated. recommendations based on the findings from the literature review in phase one of the research project and interviews with various stakeholders in phase two, the following recommendations are made to improve access to education for learners who are incarcerated: 1. amadeusz should host forums and conduct further research to show the positive impact of access to education on learners who are incarcerated. findings should be publicized and shared with various stakeholders to outline the social return in terms of taxpayer savings and more effective reintegration and reduction in recidivism. this will contribute to disrupting deficit thinking about individuals who are incarcerated and further create awareness about education as a human right, even for individuals who are incarcerated as outlined in article 26 of the united nations universal declaration of human rights. 2. as part of prioritizing education as a human right, incarceration institutions should have a dedicated space or unit for schooling purposes. when on lockdown, people who are incarcerated should continue to maintain access to educational programs. 3. there should be greater access to computers, technology, digital platforms, and resources to facilitate distance learning and modernize conditions for teaching and learning. these can include dedicating greater spaces to teaching and learning such as a library and providing more educational materials. this also includes better access to computers, educational tools, and assistive technology in a manner that is safe for conducting research, reading texts, and completing course assignments. 4. there should be greater staff and instructor training to deliver educational programs in a manner that is socio-culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining to the identities and lived experiences of learners who are incarcerated. trauma-informed, anti-oppression, and decolonial practices (battiste, 2013; hanna, 2019) are recommended as part of pedagogies to be implemented for course content and delivery. 5. post-secondary institutions should be mandated to have several programs and courses available in paper-based correspondence with academic accommodations for individuals who are incarcerated. incarceration should be approved as a valid reason to receive accommodations that can be implemented as part of post-secondary institutions equity and inclusion policies. 6. there should be federal and provincial bursaries created for learners who are incarcerated. amadeusz has begun to offer scholarships to learners who are incarcerated or post-release. post-secondary institutions should have specific bursaries for individuals who are incarcerated instead of grouping them under existing categories such as mature or low-income students. 7. a coalition should be created involving partnerships with various post-secondary institutions to advocate for greater access to educational opportunities for learners who are incarcerated. 42 journal of higher education theory and practice vol. 23(1) 2023 the coalition would design, create, and implement a pilot program involving transfer pathways, courses, and support services to meet the needs of learners who are incarcerated with consideration for their circumstances. part of this program would involve amadeusz providing their existing case management service post-release to ensure continuity of access to education and other relevant support services (e.g. securing housing and employment) to facilitate reintegration back into the community. conclusion and next steps in phase one of this research project, a literature review was conducted to examine what educational opportunities are available to individuals who are incarcerated in ontario, canada with a focus on availability, accessibility, and post-release pathways. in phase two, interviews were conducted with various stakeholders to further learn about the lived experiences of those impacted by incarceration and those who are interested or involved in delivering educational programs to individuals who are incarcerated. the objective was to better understand processes, challenges, and systemic barriers related to accessing education while incarcerated and post-release, particularly how to make improvements to ensure the human right of access to education is upheld by incarceration facilities, post-secondary institutions, and various levels of government. as a collective, findings from both phases of the research project indicate that access to post-secondary education for individuals who are incarcerated remains limited and an under-developed sector in canada. more funding and resources need to be allocated to prioritize education and expand current programming as there is a demand for it. a holistic approach involving synergetic partnerships with non-profits, community agencies, and post-secondary institutions is required to revamp the system and prioritize education as a human right. this is important given that education is a significant protective factor in reducing recidivism. overall, this report outlines why the limited educational opportunities offered in incarceration facilities in canada are inequitable and unjust, and how systemic barriers further limit access to quality educational opportunities. a series of recommendations were outlined as the next steps to mitigate such systemic barriers and to create greater access to education for individuals who are incarcerated, both during incarceration as well as post-release. investing in such recommendations would contribute to higher rates of rehabilitation and a reduction in recidivism. acknowledgement funding for this research project was provided by ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat: https://www.oncat.ca/en/welcome-oncat) and k2 and associates(https://k2.ca/). references amadeusz. 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series a statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario: what the university/college applicant survey tells us brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academica's university/college applicant survey roger pizarro milian, oncat david zarifa, nipissing university rod missaghian, oncat february 2022 the authors wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 foreword rod missaghian, oncat postsecondary transfer research in ontario despite making significant strides in recent decades continues to suffer from a lack of data sources that systematically capture patterns in student mobility. for this reason, oncat has been diligently working to find innovative data sources, potential new data-linkages, and other opportunities that allow us to extend our understanding of transfer and student mobility in ontario. in the spring of 2020, academica group graciously provided oncat with access to one of the richest and largest educational datasets in canadian postsecondary education (pse): the university/college applicant survey (ucas). this proprietary data source provides impressive coverage of hundreds of data fields capturing postsecondary applicants demographic characteristics, educational background and aspirations, usage of various information sources, decision-making, and other relevant topics. the ucas has been conducted annually by academica since the mid-2000s and has been fine-tuned over the years in consultation with pse stakeholders to capture emerging topics of interest. during this period, the ucas has been completed by hundreds of thousands of applicants to 100+ canadian colleges, polytechnics, and universities. to date, the ucas remains one of the most trusted data sources for institutional decision-makers across canada. oncat is now releasing a series of briefs and papers that outline the initial statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario based on this ucas dataset. the analysis presented in this series was developed by the oncat research team in partnership with researchers from across the sector and a cross-sector panel of external reviewers. this work builds on previous oncat-funded research (henderson & mccloy, 2017) that also used ucas data. this series contains an introductory paper followed by three briefs: situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academicas university/college applicant survey brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? it is our hope that this statistical research will advance transfer research and instigate useful discussions at multiple levels within policy and administrative circles. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 introduction each year, thousands of individuals apply and are accepted into colleges across ontario, gaining access to world-class training opportunities primarily at the sub-baccalaureate level. the oecd (2012; 2014) has highlighted the instrumental role that colleges in canada play in promoting an inclusive skills development ecosystem. with the growth of articulation agreements between ontario colleges and universities, colleges now also represent a viable pathway to an abundance of university degree programs. in the united states, 2-year community college (cc) student aspirations for 4-year degree programs have been well documented (see chan & wang, 2020; wang & lee, 2019). in canada, however, theres less research on this subject a fact attributable to the absence of survey data on this topic. the lack of work on this subject in ontario is unfortunate, as research has found that student aspirations are an important predictor of transfer out behavior (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p. 10). studying degree aspirations among college applicants is particularly useful intelligence for policy development. at a provincial level, examining regional disparities in degree aspirations could inform the design of targeted strategies, such as regional articulation hubs, to promote seamless transfer. of course, an understanding of demand for degrees among college applicants can also inform the further development of applied degree programs within the college sector itself, a market which is in its early stages of development within the province. in this brief, we examine degree aspirations among a sample of 31,000 first-time ontario college applicants within academicas university/college applicant survey dataset (2013-2019). we focus on disparities that exist across the various geographical regions in ontario, while accounting for the unique characteristics of these sub-populations. a regional focus is warranted given that research finds that both pse attainment, skills development, and student mobility rates differ significantly across regions, with the provincial north being particularly disadvantaged (zarifa, seward, & pizarro milian, 2019; zarifa, hango & pizarro milian, 2018; zarifa, sano & hillier 2020a; 2020b). we explore this topic using a combination of descriptive statistics and logistic regression modelling. disclaimer: the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the authors also wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas. the first author of this brief contributed to this piece during his employment at oncat (2019-2021). the views and interpretations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the academica group, government of ontario, statistics canada, or any other affiliated entity. though ontario colleges are now able to grant degrees, reports suggest that college degree-granting programs account for only a small fraction (2%) of the provinces degree-level enrollments (hicks et al., 2013). more recent ministry of colleges and university (2020) data for the 2019-20 academic year show that only 6% of degree-level enrollments in ontario are in the college sector. moreover, statistics canada reports note that college degrees are generally concentrated in more specific, applied areas than university bachelors degree programs (frenette, 2019, p. 7). thus, we operate under the assumption that for most students, completing a degree at an ontario college is not an option due to limited availability. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 the relevance of regional disparities in aspirations american research finds that anywhere from 60-80% of community college students aspire to obtain a 4-year degree (bailey & morest, 2006; hoachlander, sikora, horn, & carroll, 2003; wang & lee, 2019). it has also found disparities in aspirations across various demographic categories (e.g., buchmann & dalton, 2002; howley, 2006; kao & tienda, 1998; pascarella, 1984; raabe & wlfer, 2019; sewell & shah, 1968; zimmermann, 2020). as well, a substantial body of research has found a link between aspirations and early life-course trajectories (irvin, byun, meece, reed & farmer, 2016, p. 178). for oncat, degree aspirations serve as a useful proxy for transfer intent during or after the completion of a college certificate or diploma. canadian studies have repeatedly shown that individuals in remote regions possess lower levels of educational attainment (zarifa et al., 2018; alasia, 2003, p. 1). an early study, focusing on ruralurban gaps in education from 1981-1996, concluded that a major divide existed in canada, with southern and western regions eclipsing northern and eastern regions when it comes to educational attainment. research has also found that northern and rural canadians have lower rates of access to university stem programs (hango, zarifa, pizarro milian & seward, 2021). these regional disparities are far from a canadian problem, with similar disparities also being documented across other countries (e.g., dickerson & mcintosh, 2013; gibbons & vignoles, 2012; spiess & wrohlich, 2010; white & lee, 2019). the argument has been made that education and skill development policies suitable for urban centres are often disconnected from the challenges faced by communities in peripheral geographical regions (pizarro milian, seward & zarifa, 2020). such facts necessitate that policymaking and analysis carefully consider regions as a primary dimension along which inequities in education and training exist. focus this analysis throughof this brief, we address the following two questions: 1. do the degree aspirations of first-time college applicants differ regionally in ontario? 2. to what extent are regional disparities in aspirations attributable to student socio-demographic and other applicant characteristics? we focus specifically on ontario college applicants designated in the ucas dataset as being first-entry or delayed-entry from high school, excluding those with any reported postsecondary-level studies. we code those aspiring to a 4-year degree or graduate-level credentials (e.g., m.a, ph.d.) as aspirants (=1), and others (e.g., college diplomas/certificates) as non-aspirants (=0). we experimented with including those aspiring to a post-graduate certificate in either group and it did not bias observed regional effects. results presented here include them in the aspirant category. we purposely restrict our analysis to this relatively more homogenous group. doing so hopefully limits some of the unobserved variance that comes along with more mature applicants. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 we also exclude those respondents more than 30 years old at the time of application. we acknowledge the importance of these excluded groups, particularly mature and non-direct applicants, and leave it to future research to explore the nuances of their aspirations. these restrictions leave us with an analytic sample of approximately 31,000 individuals. we begin our analyses with descriptive statistics, and then move to logistic regression models. the latter is a common modelling strategy when trying to predict binary categorical dependent variables. in our case, whether a student aspires towards a 4-year degree (or more) versus those who do not (long, 2014). moreover, to further highlight our findings, we produce graphical displays of the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals of aspiring to a degree (or more) across each of our regions. findings basic descriptive statistics (see figure 1) demonstrate great variability in the degree aspirations of first-time college applicants across regions of ontario. we observe a gradual decline in aspirations by region, with over 15% separating the highest (metro and greater toronto area (gta) and lowest (northern ontario). however, given that demographics differ markedly across regions, it is important to account for variations in ethno-racial groupings, immigrant status and other metrics when comparing regions. to do so, we fit an initial logistic regression model (model 1) which incorporates only the regional variable and the year an individual applied, followed by a second model (model 2) that accounts for a wide range of socio-demographic and academic predictors of degree aspirations. this analytical strategy allows us to compare how the estimated relationship between region and degree aspirations changes once we account for applicant characteristics (which differ across regions). in model 1 (see figure 2), like the descriptive data, we see those individuals in the metro and gta have significantly higher aspirations (.39), with others lagging significantly behind (.2028). controlling for various demographic and academic factors in model 2 shrinks the gap between these two groups, as the predicted probabilities for the metro (.33) and greater toronto (.34) areas are reduced by roughly .05-.06 points. nevertheless, these gaps remain statistically significant in the underlying regression models. the size of our analytic sample also reflects our use of listwise deletion to handle those observations with missing data and dont know responses across several predictors in our models. in some cases, we do retain these categories when they represent a sizable share (>3-5%) of responses. the region categories were created using individuals forward sortation area at the time of application. the distribution of our respondents across regions is: 6.5% north, 18.5% eastern, 26.8% southwest, 23.4% central, 9.7% metro, and 15.2% gta (excluding metro). this includes age, sex, place of birth, ethno-racial grouping, disability status, first language, marital status, whether they had dependents, parental education, parental income, approximate high school average in grade 12, type of high school attended (e.g., public/private), and primary field of study applied to. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 discussion our analyses show that degree aspirations differ markedly among college applicants residing in different regions of ontario and that these differences persist even after we control for their academic and demographic traits. such findings prove remarkably robust, and raise several important questions, from both a research and policy standpoint. researchers may question: what triggers these regional disparities in applicant ambitions? let us assume that these disparities are not entirely a function of some unobservable demographic or attitudinal factors. one potential explanation may be that applicants are rationally adjusting their aspirations in accordance with available jobs in their region (zarifa et al., 2020b). this would explain why those in the highly urbanized metro and greater toronto areas desire degrees at a higher rate in line with local industries than those in more remote and rural regions in the province. economic theory tells us that individuals should stop consuming education once the returns to an additional unit of learning no longer exceeds its cost. this could be the dynamic we are observing here. of course, further research is needed to better understand the causal mechanisms at play. we imagine that this work will necessitate a more in-depth qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, approach. from a policy standpoint, there are several ways to interpret these findings. one potential takeaway is that, though regional disparities exist, even in the lowest aspiring regions we see that roughly 1 in 5 college applicants aspires to a degree. as such, the province should augment college-to-university pathways in an indiscriminate fashion, to pave the way for all aspirants. a second takeaway may be that regional variations in aspirations should guide the differential allocation of resources towards college-to-university pathway development. the argument could be made that, based on objective interest levels alone, far more attention should be given to this task within the greater toronto area, as opposed to the provincial north. a more detailed analysis of aspirations, cross-referenced with employer demand for degrees across program areas, could provide a useful blueprint for where priority investments could be made to create more efficient transfer pathways between college and university programming. this latter approach may prove most strategic for the province. funding university pathways in regions where there is limited demand, though it would not harm anyone, is arguably inefficient public policy. in robustness checks not presented, we refit our saturated models on sub-samples of applicants that had higher high marks (e.g., >80%), high parental income or education, and various other sub-groups. the reported regional differences remained statistically significant even in these far more homogenous groups. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey bibliography pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 oncat .ca/statistical- analysis-transfer- and -student-mobilit y- ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

faculty perspectives on diploma-degree pathways and student preparedness oncat project 2017-35 final report november 28, 2018 jean odonnell, silvana miller and daniel fowler strategic planning and institutional analysis, humber college 1 executive summary funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), this study investigated faculty perspectives on students academic preparedness and social adjustment, as well as their views on the effectiveness of pathways in supporting students academic goals and the colleges enrolment objectives. the research focused on three intra-institutional, diploma-degree pathways and combined interviews, an online survey and an analysis of student grades to address the research questions. faculty perspectives on pathway students academic preparedness and social integration is important because of the role that they play in promoting these opportunities and influencing student experience. the associate deans, program coordinators and faculty that participated in this study recognized the value of pathways in meeting strategic enrolment targets, improving student access to advanced credentials and enhancing students employment prospects. they were also cognizant of the need for comprehensive curriculum mapping to ensure that pathway students acquire the appropriate knowledge and skills to ease the transfer from diploma to degree programs. further, they recognized the value of and often took part in various strategies and events that promote pathways and orientate students to their new programs. the pathways examined in this study were intra-institutional block transfers typically involving multiple students from the same cohort. the nature of this transition is not likely to create the same level of transfer shock or administrative, academic and social challenges often associated with credit transfer and inter-institutional pathways (e.g., see decock & janzen, 2015; ishitani, 2008; toblowsky & cox, 2012). however, faculty were sensitive to potential issues, particularly those related to the social integration of pathway students and took steps to facilitate a cohesive classroom environment. finally, while faculty believed that in general, students were appropriately prepared for degree studies, they also reported that pathway students were less skilled in areas such as writing, research and foundational content than their non-pathway colleagues. however, analysis of student grades and academic standing showed pathway students outperformed their colleagues in every semester. as the first line in promoting pathways and shaping the student experience, it is important to ensure that faculty have an accurate and complete understanding of the successes and challenges associated with pathway programs and in particular, student performance. 2

projet # 2017-21 amlioration de parcours de transfert existants et dveloppement de parcours de transfert avec le bac s arts une collaboration entre luniversit de sudbury, le collge boral et la cit p. 1 2. table des matires 3. liste des participants et des tablissements partenaires ............................................................. 3 4. sommaire .................................................................................................................................... 6 5. objectifs du projet...................................................................................................................... 7 6. laboration de parcours de transfert ........................................................................................... 8 a. mthodologie .......................................................................................................................... 9 b. comparaison et analyse du programme ................................................................................ 10 c. processus de mise en uvre et chanciers .......................................................................... 10 7. sommaire des parcours de transfert crs ................................................................................. 12 8. pratiques prometteuses et leons retenues ................................................................................ 14 pratiques prometteuses.............................................................................................................. 14 leons retenues ......................................................................................................................... 14 dfis .......................................................................................................................................... 15 10. annexes................................................................................................................................... 15 modles de parcours de transfert .............................................................................................. 15 a) rvisions des parcours de transfert existants ................................................................. 16 b) dveloppement de nouvelles ententes ........................................................................... 26 p. 2 3. liste des participants et des tablissements partenaires nom des membres de lquipe kristie roberts janelle radey michael hankard titres des membres de lquipe rle universit de sudbury coordonnatrice-mobilit coordinatrice de projet - analyses tudiante prliminaires des programmes, les normes, les cursus, les plans de cours kroberts@usudbury.ca et rsultats dapprentissages, 705 673 5661 poste 363 coordination de rencontres avec les dpartements, dveloppement des projets, coordination et communication avec les partenaires et rdaction de lentente administratrice de projets gestionnaire de projet -participation aux rencontres avec les dpartements, jx1_lemieux@usudbury.ca rencontres hebdomadaires avec la 705.673.5661 poste 305 coordonnatrice-mobilit tudiante, dveloppement du projet et de la stratgie de communication chef du dpartement, indigenous expert de contenu, approbations studies jack laughlin chef du dpartement, sciences religieuses expert de contenu, approbations lucien pelletier chef du dpartement, philosophie expert de contenu, approbations daniela moisa chef du dpartement, tudes journalistiques expert de contenu, approbations daniela moisa chef du dpartement, folklore et ethnologie expert de contenu, approbations sylvie renault secrtaire gnrale approbations, ngociations, contrats, consultations - acadmique marianne denis adjointe administrative coordination des rencontres et voyages lynne cyr services financiers traitement des paiements, factures et des remboursements sophie bouffard rectrice consultations p. 3 sarah noel agente de communications marketing et promotion des ententes roxanne langemann agente de liaison promotion et recrutement, sensibilisation des ententes collge boral experts de contenu experts de contenu albert lapalme professeur, techniques des services policiers sylvie martelli et lise ross-lalande valrie malmiste francine ross-noel professeurs, techniques de travail social professeur, adjoint juridique professeur, ducation en services l'enfance professeur, tudes sur la paix et les conflits professeur, directrice/directeur des services funraires (classes 1 et 2) gestionnaire gestionnaire cap norlanda joseph camille lemieux marie-claude mallet daniel leduc julie allen tina montgomery marc despatie liane romain nathalie danielou nancy blanger lynda blanger christian st-onge christian st-onge registraire doyenne - cole des mtiers et des technologies appliques chef - communications stratgiques direction, services de dveloppement pdagogique et de technologies ducatives la cit professeur et conseillre pdagogique professeur, techniques des services policiers professeur, techniques de travail social professeur, parajuriste professeur, adjoint juridique examine les programmes d'tudes, value les objectifs et les rsultats d'apprentissage des cours/programmes, examine lments de rendement, les valuations, analyse la mapping des programmes, etc. expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu charg de projets superviseur du charg de projets et consultations consultations consultations communications consultations expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu p. 4 pascale reed-lang jean-maurice lafond alexandre de courvil nicol jean-denis bujold-scott daniel tremblay joseph aghaby / isabelle gurin stphane ct frdric thibaultchabot lise frenette chantal thiboutot pascale montminy patrice supper annie chartrand marie robertson professeur, ducation en services l'enfance professeur, relations publiques professeur, production tlvisuelle professeur, radio professeur, journalisme mobilit tudiante expert de contenu registraire doyen, institut des technologies, des arts et de la communication (itac) directrice, projets spciaux consultations consultations, approbations et participation aux rencontres directrice principale, planification institutionnelle et imputabilit gestionnaire en communication la cit directeur, itac doyenne, institut des services d'urgence et juridiques (isuj) et cole d'administration, d'htellerie et de tourisme doyenne, institut des sciences de la sant et de la vie et de l'cole des sciences sociales et humaines dominique germain directrice, isuj paulette bouffard directrice cfcl, la cit expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu expert de contenu charg de projets consultations, participations aux rencontres, gestion et contrle de qualit consultations et participation aux rencontres responsable de la promotion et du marketing des nouvelles ententes value la faisabilit de chaque voie et assure une mise en uvre adquate avec le directeur. participer aux rencontres. value la faisabilit de chaque voie et assure une mise en uvre adquate avec le directeur. participer aux rencontres. value la faisabilit de chaque voie et assure une mise en uvre adquate avec le directeur. participer aux rencontres. assurer la connexion entre le gestionnaire de projet et les professeurs. valuer la faisabilit de chaque voie et assurer une bonne mise en uvre. assurer la connexion entre le gestionnaire de projet et les professeurs. valuer la faisabilit de chaque voie et assurer une bonne mise en uvre. p. 5 4. sommaire le projet comporte deux volets. il consiste amliorer les parcours existants entre le collge boral et le collge la cit, en plus danalyser, dlaborer et mettre en uvre de nouveaux parcours de transfert vers des programmes du baccalaurat s arts de luniversit de sudbury, membre de la fdration laurentienne. une rvision des quatre ententes darticulations existantes a t effectue pour valuer la possibilit daugmenter le nombre de crdits accords aux tudiants qui peuvent profiter de ces parcours de transfert avec succs : ducation en services lenfance (collge boral) vers folklore et ethnologie (u de sudbury); directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur et directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur (collge boral) vers sciences religieuses (u de sudbury); journalisme (la cit) vers tudes journalistiques (u de sudbury). galement, le projet a rsult en dveloppement de sept nouveaux parcours : ducation en services lenfance (la cit) vers folklore et ethnologie (u de sudbury); radio (la cit) vers tudes journalistiques (u de sudbury); production tlvisuelle (la cit) vers tudes journalistiques (u de sudbury); relations publiques (la cit) vers tudes journalistiques (u de sudbury); techniques de travail social (collge boral et la cit) vers indigenous studies (u de sudbury); techniques de services policiers (collge boral et la cit) vers indigenous studies (u de sudbury); tudes sur la paix et conflits (collge boral) vers sciences religieuses (u de sudbury). malheureusement, quatre parcours proposs dans la soumission nont pas pu tre crs ou rviss. au collge boral, deux programmes qui ont t identifis dans le cadre de ce projet ont t suspendus, et donc aucune articulation na t cr et demeure en attente : rvision de techniques et gestion de scne (collge boral) vers tudes journalistiques (u de sudbury); dveloppement de techniques en prospection et exploration minire (collge boral) vers indigenous studies (u de sudbury). suite une analyse des programmes, les deux articulations suivantes nont pas t retenues, en raison dun manque daffinit entre les programmes : dveloppement dadjoint juridique (la cit) vers philosophie (u de sudbury); dveloppement de parajuriste (la cit) vers philosophie (u de sudbury). p. 6 5. objectifs du projet luniversit de sudbury reconnait limportance de dvelopper des partenariats avec autres institutions postsecondaires afin de faciliter la mobilit des tudiantes et tudiants qui dsirent suivre des parcours plus personnaliss pour accder au monde du travail. depuis quelques annes, luniversit de sudbury a cr et maintien des ententes darticulation francophones, anglophones et bilingues avec plusieurs collges et universits en ontario. dans le cadre de ce projet, luniversit de sudbury, le collge boral et la cit veulent offrir aux diplms des collges francophones la possibilit dobtenir un baccalaurat en franais ou bilingue sans ddoubler leurs apprentissages dans un domaine li ou complmentaire leur domaine dtudes, et ce, dans un laps de temps raisonnable. laccent sur la collaboration entre institutions permet chaque tudiant de se spcialiser dans certains domaines, mais donne tout de mme accs une plus grande varit de programmes pour les tudiants, particulirement en franais. tant donn que plusieurs employeurs exigent maintenant le baccalaurat comme critre dembauche, mais quils recherchent aussi une main-duvre possdant des comptences et des connaissances de nature appliqus, des ententes darticulation et des collaborations entre les universits et collges permettent aux tudiants de profiter des deux approches andragogiques afin dapprofondir leurs connaissances. elles permettent aussi de bien dvelopper la pense critique des tudiants et leurs connaissances thoriques dans un domaine particulier. limportance de la mobilit tudiante et de la cration de nouveaux cheminements devient de plus en plus reconnue. en crant plus doptions de parcours, on espre faire appel et rpondre aux besoins des tudiants francophones et bilingues en assurant quil y ait une varit de parcours axs sur la qualit. p. 7 6. laboration de parcours de transfert # programme collgial 1 ducation en services lenfance (collge boral) directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur (collge boral) 2 3 4 5 6 directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur (collge boral) journalisme (la cit) ducation en services lenfance (la cit) radio (la cit) production tlvisuelle (la cit) 7 relations publiques (la cit) 8 techniques de travail social (collge boral et la cit) 9 techniques des services policiers (collge boral et la cit) programme luniversit de sudbury folklore et ethnologie sciences religieuses tudes journalistiques folklore et ethnologie tudes journalistiques tudes journalistiques tudes journalistiques processus complt en approbation pas de suivi en attente x x x x x x x indigenous studies x indigenous studies x 10 tudes sur la paix et conflits (collge boral) sciences religieuses 11 adjoint juridique (la collge boral et la cit) philosophie x philosophie tudes journalistiques x x 12 parajuriste (la cit) 13 gestion de scne (collge boral) 14 techniques de prospection et exploration minire (collge boral) indigenous studies x x p. 8 a. mthodologie le dveloppement de la stratgie institutionnelle de luniversit de sudbury face la mobilit tudiante a su dclencher la motivation pour des projets de mobilit et le dveloppement dententes darticulation. luniversit de sudbury a mme russi crer un nouveau poste et a embauch une coordonnatrice de mobilit tudiante. la mthodologie suivante a t observe : divers changes avec le collge boral et la cit, notamment, le recueil et lchange des objectifs des programmes identifis ainsi que des plans de cours, le mapping , les rsultats et activits dapprentissages, en plus de dautres informations disponibles; rencontres de dmarrage avec les chefs et professeurs des programmes : sensibilisation des dpartements face la mobilit tudiante et du projet; sensibilisation des chefs et les professeurs au niveau des curriculums, plans de cours, mapping et cursus collgiaux. ces rencontres ont aussi servi pour expliquer le processus dapprobation et les tapes suivre linterne, une fois quune entente est dveloppe ou rvise; analyse des ententes existantes (comparaison des rsultats dapprentissage des diffrents programmes, identification des diffrences entre les curriculums, etc.); analyse comparative entre programmes (valuation des attentes et rsultats dapprentissage, lectures des plans de cours et curriculums) afin de proposer des possibilits dententes; consultations avec les intervenants cls des programmes afin de valider les analyses comparatives; dveloppement et finalisation des parcours et prparation des protocoles dententes selon les analyses comparatives et les rvisions proposes par les intervenants des programmes; validation finale des parcours dvelopps par les dpartements afin dentamer le processus dapprobation; lentente suit le processus dapprobation de luniversit de sudbury (snat), et par la suite, luniversit laurentienne (conseil de la facult des arts, comit des admissions, promotions et requtes, snat). selon le processus dapprobation luniversit, nos articulations doivent passer par le dpartement, ensuite le snat de luniversit de sudbury, ensuite le conseil de la facult des arts et finalement le comit des admissions, promotions et requtes luniversit laurentienne. une fois ces quatre tapes compltes, les protocoles dententes sont remis aux collges pour approbation. une fois signe, une copie de lentente est fournie au bureau des admissions de luniversit laurentienne qui coordonne la publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca. luniversit travaille aussi dvelopper une stratgie de communication qui servira promouvoir toutes les ententes et projets de mobilit tudiante. une page web est maintenant ddie aux ententes sur le site web de luniversit, et les ententes figurent maintenant sur les pages web de chaque programme afin de donner encore plus de visibilit. une stratgie de communication plus dtaille sera labore au printemps afin de promouvoir celles-ci auprs des tudiants des deux collges, des futurs tudiants, provenant du secondaire ou des apprenants adultes et la communaut universitaire. p. 9 b. comparaison et analyse du programme plusieurs outils et sources dinformation ont t utiliss pour comparer et analyser les programmes. pour les programmes collgiaux, ces sources incluent : les descriptions des cours, les cursus, le mapping du programme (rafp et rare), les normes du programme, les plans de cours, et le cadre de classification des titres de comptences de lontario (pour les programmes agrments). les plans de cours et les objectifs et rsultats dapprentissage ont t les principales sources quant aux programmes universitaires. la coordonnatrice a pu prendre ces outils pour faire une analyse prliminaire des dossiers que les intervenants cls au sein des dpartements ont pu complt et valid, tant les experts de contenu. la coordonnatrice a assur le lien entre les dpartements, ce qui a facilit la tche et acclr le processus. plusieurs rencontres du ct administratif ont aussi eu lieu avec ladministratrice du projet et la secrtaire gnrale de luniversit. les diverses rencontres avec le bureau dadmission de luniversit laurentienne a aussi t propices pour tablir la mise en uvre des parcours. une pratique gagnante a t lopportunit pour des membres du personnel administratif et chef de dpartements de prendre rencontre la cit. lors de cette journe, il a t possible de rencontrer les membres de lquipe la cit, mais aussi des professeurs et doyens responsables des programmes de journalisme, radio, production tlvisuelle, parajuriste, adjoint juridique, techniques en services sociales et techniques en services policiers. la journe a aussi inclue une tourne des installations, qui a aid dmontrer le niveau dapprentissage des tudiants collgiaux dans ces domaines (p.ex : quipements utiliss). c. processus de mise en uvre et chanciers processus dapprobation aux diffrents niveaux des tablissements 1 approbation du dpartement 2 snat de luniversit de sudbury 3 conseil de la facult des arts de l'universit laurentienne 4 comit des admissions, promotions et requtes de l'universit laurentienne tant membre de la fdration laurentienne, le processus dapprobation se fait deux niveaux. linterne, le dpartement doit approuver larticulation propose et demander que celle-ci soit prsente au snat de luniversit de sudbury. une fois approuve au snat, lentente est envoye au conseil de la facult des arts de luniversit laurentienne. si approuve, lentente est ensuite prsente p. 10 au comit des admissions, promotions et requtes. une fois approuve ce dernier comit, lentente peut tre envoye pour signature par les partenaires et mise en uvre. le processus dapprobation peut avoir un impact sur lchancier de la mise en uvre, puisque les trois comits ne se rencontrent quune fois par mois, entre les mois de septembre mai. si un comit demande que lentente soit retravaille pour une raison ou une autre, celle-ci est retarde dau moins un mois afin de paratre la prochaine rencontre, et donc retarde le processus en entier. voici les dates dapprobation pour les ententes dveloppes : # programmes 1 de : ducation en services lenfance (collge boral) : folklore et ethnologie 2 de : directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur et directrice (collge boral) de : directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur (collge boral) dpt. snat u de s conseil facult des arts comit dadmissions promotions et requtes novembre 2017 10 janvier 2018 9 fvrier 2018 21 fvrier 2018 novembre 2017 10 janvier 2018 9 fvrier 2018 21 fvrier 2018 janvier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 janvier 2018 14 mars 2018 13 avril 2018 7 mai 2018 janvier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 : sciences religieuses 3 de : journalisme (la cit) : tudes journalistiques 4 de : ducation en services lenfance (la cit) : folklore et ethnologie 5 de : radio la cit : tudes journalistiques p. 11 5 de : production tlvisuelle (la cit) janvier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 janvier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 fvrier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 fvrier 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 mars 2018 11 avril 2018 11 mai 2018 23 mai 2018 : tudes journalistiques 7 de : relations publiques (la cit) : tudes journalistiques 8 de : techniques de travail social (collge boral et la cit) : indigenous studies 9 de : techniques des services policiers (collge boral et la cit) : indigenous studies 10 de : tudes sur la paix et conflits (collge boral) : sciences religieuses 7. sommaire des parcours de transfert crs le tableau ici-bas rsume les parcours de transfert crs. les dtails spcifiques figurent dans le modle du parcours de transfert en annexes. noter que les dtails des parcours sont sujets des changements, suite au processus dapprobation en cours. # 1 programmes de : ducation en services lenfance au collge boral points saillants russi rviser lentente existante augment le nombre de crdits offerts de 36 42 : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie (concentration) luniversit de sudbury 2 de : directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur et directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur du collge boral russi rviser lentente existante augment le nombre de crdits offerts de 24 42 p. 12 : baccalaurat s arts (concentration ou spcialisation) en sciences religieuses luniversit de sudbury 3 de : ducation en services lenfance de la cit ltudiant sera crdit jusqu 42 crdits ltudiant sera crdit jusqu 54 crdits ltudiant sera crdit jusqu 54 crdits ltudiant sera crdit jusqu 60 crdits et pourra complter le baccalaurat en deux ans si approuve, ce sera lune des seules ententes ce niveau au sein de la fdration laurentienne ltudiant sera crdit jusqu 60 crdits et pourra complter le baccalaurat en deux ans. si approuve, ce sera lune des seules ententes ce niveau au sein de la fdration laurentienne ltudiant sera crdit jusqu 42 crdits : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie (concentration) luniversit de sudbury 4 de : radio la cit : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) tudes journalistiques luniversit de sudbury 5 de : production tlvisuelle la cit : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) tudes journalistiques luniversit de sudbury 6 de : journalisme la cit : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) tudes journalistiques luniversit de sudbury 7 de : relations publiques la cit : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) tudes journalistiques luniversit de sudbury 8 de : techniques de travail social au collge boral : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) en indigenous studies luniversit de sudbury 9 de : techniques des services policiers au collge boral ltudiant sera crdit jusqu 42 crdits p. 13 : baccalareat s arts (concentration on spcialisation) en indigenous studies luniversit de sudbury 10 de : tudes sur la paix et conflits du collge boral ltudiant sera crdit jusqu 42 crdits : diplme envers un baccalareat s arts (3 concentration ou spcialisation) en sciences religieuses luniversit de sudbury suite une analyse des experts sujets, il a t conclu quil ny avait pas assez de liens et un manque daffinit entre les programmes dadjoint juridique et parajuriste envers le programme de philosophie. les professeurs ne voyaient pas assez de congruence entre les rsultats dapprentissage et ne supportaient pas la cration de ces passerelles. il est aussi important de noter que nous navons pas pu rviser lentente avec le programme de techniques en gestion de scne cause du fait que le programme est prsentement suspendu au collge boral. pour la mme raison, on na pas cr une entente pour le cheminement des tudiants du programme de techniques de prospection et exploration minire envers le programme dindigenous studies puisque ce programme est galement suspendu. 8. pratiques prometteuses et leons retenues pratiques prometteuses le processus est facilit quand lanalyse prliminaire est faite avant de communiquer avec le dpartement. ceci vite des dlais importants et est apprci par le dpartement. de faon gnrale, lanalyse prliminaire aide dterminer sil y a des liens entre les programmes et quels cours peuvent possiblement tre transfrables. par la suite, le dpartement peut creuser de faon plus importante et valider le travail propos. la sensibilisation des professeurs est essentielle la russite du projet. ceux qui avaient une bonne connaissance de la mobilit tudiante et de ses avantages taient plus flexibles et motivs dans le dveloppement de parcours. ceux qui ne ltaient pas avaient toujours une rticence envers ce type de projet. leons retenues les analyses comparatives reprsentent un travail mticuleux et prennent beaucoup de temps. une bonne gestion du temps est importante. p. 14 il faut planifier toutes les tapes du processus dapprobation dans lhoraire. il faut aussi planifier davantage autour des dates des rencontres, car, souvent, les rencontres nont lieu quune fois par mois. dfis la considration des nouvelles exigences du baccalaurat s arts mise en pratique lautomne 2017. ce changement exige que tout tudiant du b.a. doit suivre 18 crdits, dont : 6 crdits qui favorisent la sensibilisation linguistique; 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50 % de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits de cours qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique. ceci dit, il a fallu garder des crdits au choix pour que les tudiants puissent rencontrer ces exigences, ce qui eut un impact sur le nombre de crdits accords. la sensibilisation des professeurs demeure toujours un dfi important. certains membres des facults ont une rticence envers ce type de partenariat, craignant par exemple des pertes dans leurs effectifs de premire anne et des inquitudes par rapport au niveau dapprentissage et de connaissances des tudiants provenant du collge. cest toujours travailler dans la poursuite de nos objectifs en mobilit tudiante. 10. annexes modles de parcours de transfert noter que les dtails des parcours sont sujets des changements, suite au processus dapprobation en cours. p. 15 a) rvisions des parcours de transfert existants dtails sur le parcours de transfert titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : de : ducation en services lenfance (collge boral) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie s/o approbation du dpartement de folklore et ethnologie : novembre 2017 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : le 10 janvier 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : le 9 fvrier 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : le 21 fvrier 2018 date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication suite la rception de lentente signe (mars/avril 2018). sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : p. 16 procdure de contact pour la mise en signature de lentente est en cours. une fois signe, une copie de uvre du parcours de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit transfert : laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : diplm du programme dducation en services lenfance du collge boral diplme en ducation en services lenfance au collge boral m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 p. 17 nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat : + 6 crdits lang 1005f + 3 crdits folk 1116 + 3 crdits folk 1117 + 30 crdits folk dans les cinq blocs (6 crdits par bloc) + 6 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone tel que dans les cours folk/etam 2276(3 crdits) et folk/etam 2287(3 crdits) 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si 1.5 annes ou 48 crdits ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de collge boral leurs programmes p. 18 titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur (collge boral) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en sciences religieuses baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en sciences religieuses (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en sciences religieuses diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en sciences religieuses s/o date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du approbation du dpartement de sciences religieuses : novembre 2017 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : le 10 janvier 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : le 9 fvrier 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : le 21 fvrier 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (mars/avril 2018) signature de lentente est en cours. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. p. 19 parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : diplm du programme de directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur ou diplm du programme de directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur diplme de directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 1 avec permis dembaumeur ou directrice ou directeur de funrailles classe 2 sans permis dembaumeur au collge boral m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 maximum de 42 crdits sur 120 p. 20 nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + 6 crdits : lang 1005f + 12 crdits srel dans deux des quatre blocs (6 crdits par bloc) + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 2000 ou 3000 + 18 crdits au choix ; ltudiant doit assurer de rencontrer lexigence de 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + 6 crdits - sensibilisation linguistique : lang 1005f + 12 crdits srel dans deux des quatre blocs (6 crdits par bloc) + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 2000 ou 3000 + 18 crdits au choix, ltudiant doit assurer de rencontrer lexigence de 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et + 6 crdits au choix (avec au moins 6 crdits de la srie 3000) + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 4000 + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires (annes suprieures) total de 78 crdits sur 120 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de leurs programmes bac de 3 ans : 1.5 annes ou 48 crdits bac de 4 ans : 2.5 annes ou 78 crdits collge boral p. 21 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : journalisme (la cit) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et luniversit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions p. 22 du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de journalisme diplme en journalisme de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 60 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 30 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 15 crdits s/o maximum de 60 crdits sur 90 maximum de 60 crdits sur 120 p. 23 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + lang 1005f (6 crdits) + etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) + etjo 4195 f (6 crdits) + 15 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 30 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + lang 1005 f (6 crdits) + etjo 3226 f (3 crdits) + etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) + etjo 4195 f (6 crdits) + 18 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 6 crdits de la srie etjo 2000 3 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 9 crdits de la srie etjo 4000 + 24 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : p. 24 ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 60 crdits sur 120 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de leurs programmes bac de 3 ans : 1 ans ou 30 crdits bac de 4 ans : 2 ans ou 60 crdits la cit p. 25 b) dveloppement de nouvelles ententes dtails sur le parcours de transfert titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : de : ducation en services lenfance (la cit) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en folklore et ethnologie s/o date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : le 14 mars 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 13 avril 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 7 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et luniversit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme dducation en services lenfance de la cit p. 26 le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion diplme dducation en services lenfance de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat : + 6 crdits lang 1005f + 3 crdits folk 1116 + 3 crdits folk 1117 + 30 crdits folk dans les cinq blocs (6 crdits par bloc) + 6 crdits au choix p. 27 numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : *en plus des exigences de la concentration, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone tel que dans les cours folk/etam 2276(3 crdits) et folk/etam 2287(3 crdits) 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si 1.5 annes ou 48 crdits ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de la cit leurs programmes p. 28 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : radio (la cit) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, p. 29 du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de radio diplme en radio de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 54 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 54 crdits sur 90 maximum de 54 crdits sur 120 p. 30 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : lang 1005 (6 crdits) etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) 9 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 3 crdits de la srie 2000 6 crdits de la srie 3000 etjo 4195 (6 crdits) 12 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 3 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 54 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : lang 1005 (6 crdits) etjo 3226f (3 crdits) etjo3257 f (3 crdits) 30 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 12 crdits de la srie 2000 9 crdits de la srie 3000 9 crdits de la srie 4000 etjo 4195 (6 crdits) 18 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : p. 31 ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 66 crdits sur 120 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de leurs programmes bac de 3 ans : 1 ans ou 36 crdits bac de 4 ans : 2 ans ou 66 crdits la cit p. 32 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du production tlvisuelle (la cit) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions p. 33 parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de production tlvisuelle diplme du programme de production tlvisuelle la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 54 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 54 crdits sur 90 maximum de 54 crdits sur 120 p. 34 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + lang 1005 f (6 crdits) + 12 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 6 crdits de la srie etjo 2000 6 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 + etjo 4195 (6 crdits) + 12 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 3 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 36 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + lang 1005 f (6 crdits) + etjo 2257 (3 crdits) + etjo 3226 f (3 crdits) + 27 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 12 crdits de la srie etjo 2000 6 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 9 crdits de la srie etjo 4000 + etjo 4195 (6 crdits) + 21 crdits au choix p. 35 *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 66 crdits sur 120 crdits dure prvue avant lobtention 2 ans ou 36 crdits sur 90 du titre si ltudiant est 2 ans ou 66 crdits sur 120 inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements la cit admissibles et de leurs programmes p. 36 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : relations publiques (la cit) : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en tudes journalistiques diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en tudes journalistiques s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 date de mise en uvre du parcours de suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : p. 37 procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de relations publiques diplme du programme de relations publiques de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 60 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 30 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 15 crdits s/o maximum de 60 crdits de 90 maximum de 60 crdits sur 120 p. 38 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + lang 1005 (6 crdits) + etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) + etjo 4195 (6 crdits) + 3 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 + 12 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la concentration de 3 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 30 crdits de 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + lang 1005 (6 crdits) + etjo 2257 f (3 crdits) + etjo3226 f (3 crdits) + etjo 3257 f (3 crdits) + etjo 4195 (6 crdits) + 21 crdits de la liste de cours etjo 6 crdits de la srie etjo 2000 6 crdits de la srie etjo 3000 9 crdits de la srie etjo 4000 + 18 crdits au choix *en plus des exigences de la spcialisation de 4 ans, ltudiant doit aussi sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : ltudiant doit sassurer de rencontrer les exigences du bac : 6 crdits de cours ayant au moins 50% de contenu autochtone et 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 60 crdits de 120 crdits p. 39 nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : dure prvue avant bac de 3 ans : 1 ans ou 30 crdits lobtention du titre si ltudiant bac de 4 ans : 2 ans ou 60 crdits est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et la cit de leurs programmes p. 40 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : techniques de travail social (collge boral) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en indigenous studies baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en indigenous studies (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en indigenous studies diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en indigenous studies s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 date de mise en uvre du parcours de suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : p. 41 procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de techniques de travail social diplme de techniques de travail social de la cit m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 maximum de 42 crdits sur 120 p. 42 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + 3 crdits indg 1116e + 3 crdits indg 1117e + 6 crdits de la srie de langues a ou b + 6 crdits indg 2285e + 6 crdits indg 3105e + 6 crdits indg 3215e + 6 crdits indg au niveau 3000 ou 4000 +6 crdits au choix + 6 crdits au choix + 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + 3 crdits indg 1116e + 3 crdits indg 1117e + 6 crdits de la srie de langues a ou b + 6 crdits indg 2285e + 6 crdits indg 3105e + 6 crdits indg 3215e + 12 indg crdits au niveau 4000 + 18 crdits indg des annes suprieurs (niveaux 2000, 3000 ou 4000) + 18 crdits aux choix + 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 78 crdits sur 120 crdits p. 43 dure prvue avant 1.5 ans ou 48 crdits lobtention du titre si ltudiant 2.5 ans ou 78 crdits est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et collge boral de leurs programmes p. 44 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : techniques des services policiers (collge boral) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en indigenous studies baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en indigenous studies (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en indigenous studies diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) indigenous studies s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 date de mise en uvre du parcours de suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : p. 45 procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplm du programme de techniques des services policiers diplme du programme de techniques des services policiers m.p.c. 3.2 = 54 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 maximum de 42 crdits sur 120 p. 46 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + 3 crdits indg 1116e + 3 crdits indg 1117e + 6 crdits de la srie de langues a ou b + 6 crdits indg 2285e + 6 crdits indg 3105e + 6 crdits indg 3215e + 6 crdits indg crdits au niveau 3000 ou 4000 + 6 crdits aux choix total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + 3 crdits indg 1116e + 3 crdits indg 1117e + 6 crdits de la srie de langue a or b + 6 crdits indg 2285e + 6 crdits indg 3105e + 6 crdits indg 3215e + 12 crdits indg au niveau 4000 + 18 crdits des annes suprieures (niveau 2000, 3000 ou 4000) + 18 crdits au choix + 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique total de 78 crdits sur 120 crdits p. 47 dure prvue avant bac de 3 ans : 1.5 ans ou 48 crdits lobtention du titre si ltudiant bac de 4 ans : 2.5 ans ou 78 crdits est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et collge boral de leurs programmes p. 48 dtails sur le parcours de transfert de : tudes sur la paix et conflits (collge boral) titre du parcours de transfert : utiliser les noms officiels des programmes ou des titres type de parcours de transfert : achvement de grade, de certificat diplme, de diplme diplme, de grade diplme, etc. numrez les autres tablissements postsecondaires qui participent la cration du parcours de transfert : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (approbation du snat) : date de mise en uvre du parcours de transfert (publication sur le site web ontransfert.ca) : procdure de contact pour la mise en uvre : baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en sciences religieuses baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) en sciences religieuses (universit de sudbury) diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (gnral) en sciences religieuses diplme envers un baccalaurat s arts (spcialis) sciences religieuses s/o approbation du dpartement dtudes journalistiques : janvier 2018 approbation du snat de luniversit de sudbury : sera prsent le 11 avril 2018 approbation du conseil de la facult des arts (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 11 mai 2018 approbation du comit des admissions, promotions et requtes (universit laurentienne) : sera prsent le 23 mai 2018 suite la rception de lentente signe (printemps 2018). une fois lentente est approuve, elle sera evoye pour signature luniversit de sudbury, la cit et universit laurentienne. une fois signe, p. 49 du parcours de transfert : admissibilit au parcours de transfert (pour les tudiants) : le candidat doit avoir obtenu un diplme du programme ltablissement dorigine : mpc ou % minimal du programme requis pour tre admissible ce parcours de transfert : mpc ou % minimal requis dans des cours spcifiques nombre total de crdits reconnus ou de cours complets qui seront accords par ltablissement de destination (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) une copie de lentente sera fournie au bureau des admissions luniversit laurentienne et le processus pour la mise en uvre sera complt. diplmes dtudes sur la paix et les conflits diplm du programme dtudes sur la paix et les conflits m.p.c. 3.2 = 42 crdits m.p.c. 2.8 = 24 crdits m.p.c. 2.4 = 12 crdits s/o maximum de 42 crdits sur 90 maximum de 42 crdits sur 120 p. 50 crdits reconnus accords (veuillez dcrire le parcours de transfert de faon claire et succincte) : nombre total de cours du programme qui doivent tre russis ltablissement de destination afin dobtenir le diplme (doit tre exprim comme proportion numrique, p. ex., 90 sur 120) : ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 3 ans : + 6 crdits lang 1005f + 6 crdits en srel 1005 + 6 crdits srel soit dans le bloc 1 tudes bibliques ou dans le bloc 2 religions occidentales (cest noter que ltudiant aura rencontr les exigences du bloc 3 religions du monde et du bloc 4 religion et culture dans le cadre de cette entente. + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 2000 ou 3000 + 18 crdits au choix (dont 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique) total de 48 crdits sur 90 crdits ltudiant(e) devra complter avec succs les cours suivants afin dobtenir son baccalaurat de 4 ans : + 6 crdits lang1005f + 6 crdits srel 1005 + 6 crdits srel soit dans le bloc 1 tudes bibliques ou dans le bloc 2 religions occidentales (cest noter que ltudiant aura rencontr les exigences du bloc 3 religions du monde et du bloc 4 religion et culture dans le cadre de cette entente. + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires de la srie 2000 ou 3000 + 12 crdits srel de la srie 4000 + 12 crdits srel supplmentaires (annes suprieures) + 24 crdits au choix (dont 6 crdits qui favorisent lacquisition dune culture scientifique) total : 78 crdits de 120 crdits p. 51 dure prvue avant lobtention du titre si ltudiant est inscrit temps plein : liste dtablissements admissibles et de leurs programmes bac de 3 ans : 1.5 ans ou 48 crdits bac de 4 ans : 2.5 ans ou 78 crdits collge boral p. 52

addressing the challenges experienced by students with disabilities in accessing and persisting in postsecondary education (pse) and attaining pse credentials must begin with an understanding of their experiences in pse. this project explored transfer experiences of pse students with disabilities, developing recommendations to promote enhanced experiences of transfer. postsecondary mobility and the experience of transfer for students with disability final (draft) project report: 06-30-18 durham college: leslie graham memorial university of newfoundland: christine arnold neads: frank smith, mahadeo sukhai nipissing university: charles anyinam, rick vanderlee seneca college: ursula mccloy, kate williams uoit: sue coffey, ellen vogel, bill muirhead, hilde zitzelsberger, robert balogh york university: celina da silva table of contents acknowledgements 2 executive summary 3 literature review/environmental scan.. 5 secondary analysis of the ontario college graduate survey, 2014-2016.. 20 perceptions and experiences of college-university transfer among postsecondary students with disabilities. 83 perceptions of postsecondary service providers to students with disabilities 113 recommendations to support and promote transfer of postsecondary students with disabilities 114 closing thoughts. 116 1 acknowledgements the research team is grateful to oncat for the funding provided for this project. we would like to acknowledge the tremendous support of our research coordinator, nicole deziel, and our research assistants, sydney dwyer and nathaniel ballantyne. additionally, administrative support for this project provided by kimberley mccartney-young at uoit has been outstanding. additionally, the generosity demonstrated by our community partner, the national educational association of disabled students (neads) has enabled us to conduct this study in a much more meaningful way by nesting a unique college-university transfer focus within their larger pse study. we are grateful for their ongoing willingness to collaborate and their advocacy for students with disabilities across canada. finally, and most importantly, the research team would like to extend heartfelt appreciation to the participants of this study. we appreciate the trust our participants place in us as students with disabilities who have elected to share their thoughts, perceptions, and experiences of post-secondary education (pse) and college-university transfer. their participation in this study provides us with critical insights into how pse is effectively meeting the needs of students with disabilities and what improvements can and must be made. 2 executive summary background: access to and participation in postsecondary education (pse) is critical to achieving individual and societal prosperity, stability, and security (finnie, childs, & wismer, 2011; phac, 2011). access to pse is equally critical from an equity perspective. benefits of pse are well documented and yet historic challenges to promoting access to and creating appropriate supports for students with disabilities have contributed to their significant underrepresentation in pse (finnie et al., 2011; heqco, 2013; rae, 2005; statistics canada 2012). students with disabilities access and attain pse credentials at lower rates than those without disabilities (mccloy & declou, 2013). this disparity is largely driven by lower university participation and degree attainment rates and offset by higher college participation and college credential attainment rates (finnie et al., 2011; heqco, 2013). data from 1980 to 2000 reveals this gap between the two groups has remained relatively unchanged (boothby, & drewes 2006). despite this difference, tsagris and muirhead (2012) note that college and university students in pse experience similar challenges. twice as many ontarians without a disability have university degrees than those with disabilities (rae, 2005). mccloy and declou (2013) report that in 2006, of ontario students who at age 15 were reported to have a disability, 68% by the age 21 had participated in pse (46% college, 22% university), compared to 84% of students (55% college, 29% university) without disabilities. students with disabilities are less likely to attend university if they are in ontario as compared to other provinces and regions (finnie et al., 2011). increasing participation of students with disabilities in pse is vital to achieving the full contribution of people with disabilities in society. addressing this challenge is not only of key importance to future economic competiveness, it lies at the very heart of the beliefs embedded within canadian culture, society, and the pse system itself about equity and justice (finnie, mueller, sweetman, & usher, 2010). addressing the challenges and barriers experienced by students with disabilities in accessing, persisting, and attaining pse credentials requires a multifaceted approach, beginning with an understanding of their experiences in pse. given that data reveals: a) a disparity between college and university participation/graduation rates for students with disabilities versus those without, and; b) a significant gap between participation/graduation at college versus university for students with disabilities, the transfer experience between college and university sectors must be viewed as a critical consideration in this context. to that end, this project employed a variety of approaches in order to develop greater insight into the transfer experiences of students with disabilities in pse in ontario. according to the statistics canadas canadian survey on disability (2012), university students with disabilities are likely to be younger, more likely to be female, much less likely to identify as indigenous, more likely to be an immigrant and slightly less likely to be a member of the visible minority population than non-university students with disabilities. nearly one-third (30.4%) of post-secondary students with disabilities report experiencing only one type of disability. among university students with disabilities, 37.3% reports only one type of disability, while among the 207,180 non-university students with disabilities, this number drops to 26.6%. 3 the project: this project was undertaken with team members representing uoit (lead institution), durham college, george brown college, memorial university of newfoundland, the national educational association of disabled students, nipissing university, seneca college, and york university. there were four major aims of this project: 1. determine the current share of college graduates with a disability who continue on to university a. for those who transfer, are the following similar to their peers without a disability: i. university and program choice (e.g., proximity institution to home; stem vs non-stem, college preparatory programs, program affinity etc.)? ii. transfer experience (satisfaction with academic preparation, transfer credit, overall transfer experience, etc.)? 2. through online collection of qualitative and quantitative self-report data from pse students with disabilities, explore their transfer experiences and perceptions 3. through consultations with college and university service professionals, explore perspectives on the transfer experiences of pse students with disabilities 4. develop recommendations to promote enhanced experiences of transfer for ontario pse students with disabilities data collection and analysis continues for all phases of the project. as a result, this report should be considered draft only (and not published yet), with a commitment from the research team to provide oncat with a subsequent report in the fall of 2018. at this point, emerging findings are presented with draft recommendations. 4 literature review/environmental scan while post-secondary education is the driver of ontario competitiveness within the economy, access to equitable post-secondary education is lacking within the province (finnie, childs, & wismer, 2011). there is a large underrepresentation of students with disabilities in post-secondary institutions in ontario (higher education quality council of ontario, 2009). for students without disabilities, 84% of students will enroll in some form of post-secondary education by the age of 21. for students with disabilities, only 68% will enroll in post-secondary education by the age of 21, making an alarming 16% discrepancy between the two groups of students (mccloy & declou, 2013). similarly, in a 2001 participation and activity survey (pals), results also found that there was an overwhelming 15% point different between students attending post-secondary schooling with and without disabilities (finnie et al., 2011). in a more recent survey conducted by statistics canada in 2012 titled canadian survey on disability (csd), it is noted that 20% of individuals with a disability did not obtain their high school diploma, compared to 11% of individuals who do not have a disability not obtaining a high school diploma (arim, 2015). furthermore, there is statistical significance between those with disabilities and those without who obtained some sort of certificate, diploma, or degree at the university level, with 14% for those affected by a disability, and 27% for those unaffected (arim, 2015). post-secondary education is often necessary for meaningful future employment, and upon successful completion of post-secondary education, 69.1% of students with disabilities secured employment (holmes, silvestri, & harrison, 2011). defining disability defining disability is a complex process. one can experience a disability that affects their mental, physical, or cognitive processes (ontario human rights commission [ohrc], n.d.). disabilities can exist independently, or multiple disabilities can exist at once. a student could be born with a disability, have acquired one from an accident, or developed one later in life and they can be temporary or permanent (ontario human rights commission [ohrc], n.d.). most importantly, it is necessary to understand that a disability affects the individuals ability to be an active participant in their environment at an equal level with those around them (ontario human rights commission [ohrc], n.d.). the accessibility for ontarians with disability act (aoda), published in 2005, was created with the intention of ontario becoming a barrier free and accessible province by the year 2025 (aoda, 2005), citing that those with disabilities had a legal right to the equitable accessibility of services and resources in comparison to those without disabilities (aoda, 2005). within this act, the ontario government refers to students attending post-secondary institutions as customers, buying the service of education and reserve the right to have full accessibility to this by whatever means necessary (aoda, 2005). there are numerous descriptors to explain and organize different classifications of disabilities. most commonly, disabilities are described as mental, physical, or cognitive impairments. the pals differentiates disabilities as physical or other (mccloy & declou, 2013; wei et al., 2014). pals findings indicate that those with physical disabilities are 18 percent points more likely to have attained postsecondary education versus those suffering from other disabilities which could include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, and autism spectrum disorders (asd) (mccloy & declou, 5 2013; wei et al., 2014). the csd classifies disabilities by severity, ranging from mild to severe (arim, 2015). csd findings demonstrate that the percentage of degree attainment among individuals living with a disability decreases as the severity of the disability increases, with 12% for severe disability, and 21% for mild disability (arim, 2015). it is essential to further evaluate the cause of this discrepancy, and the findings suggest that there are greater barriers to those accessing education who are suffering from other disabilities versus physical, more visible disabilities. examples mental health diagnoses continue to be a major burden and challenge for those entering the postsecondary school system. oftentimes, the first episode of a mental health disorder correlates with the average age in which individuals are first entering post-secondary schooling (holmes, silvestri, & harrison, 2011). students who have accessed disability services for mental health challenges in postsecondary note that they have faced challenges in maintaining focus and concentration, decreased energy, and have missed multiple classes due to frequent sick days (holmes, silvestri, & harrison, 2011). similarly, students with asd reported having far more resources available to them in secondary school than post-secondary (alcorn & mackay, 2010). once entering into post-secondary institutions, students are faced with challenges that include finding safe areas for them to study and learn, such as sensory friendly rooms (alcorn & mackay, 2010). therefore, students with asd report that simply meeting the requirements of a post-secondary education program are not possible (alcorn & mackay, 2010). college versus university enrollment students without disabilities are reported to have a higher percentage of students enrolled in university programs than college diploma programs (finnie et al., 2011; mccloy & declou, 2013; sattler, 2010). inversely, for students with disabilities, there was a higher enrollment rate in college diploma programs than universities (finnie et al., 2011; mccloy & declou, 2013; sattler, 2010). the cause of these relationships is unknown; however, it is necessary to further examine the course expectations of college versus university ones to better understand why this discrepancy exists. it is also essential to examine the resources to support students with disabilities offered by college diploma programs versus university programs to further understand the above relationships. students in university programs who reported requiring adaptive technology or digital textbooks noted that it often increased the length of time required to complete their programs (woods, cook, declou, mccloy, 2013). inversely, college students noted that there was no effect on the length of time it took to successfully complete their course requirements (woods et al., 2013). completion of education students with disabilities are reported to have higher rates of leaving their post-secondary education programs prior to successful completion, versus those who do not experience disabilities (woods et al., 2013; sattler, 2010). wei et al. (2013) found that while there has been a recent increase in the percentage of students with asd enrolling in post-secondary schooling, the graduation rate has remained the same, identifying the concept of student persistence as requiring further inquiry. sattler 6 (2010) notes that students often leave post-secondary programs due to health-related problems, as well as because of time management issues. students who were unable to complete their chosen programs reported feeling unsupported in their post-secondary schooling as well as non-academic areas, such as insufficient financial aid (sattler, 2010). transferring to university programs it is noted that students who do not suffer from disabilities are more likely to enter directly into university, whereas students with disabilities are more likely to transition from college to a university program (sattler, 2010). additionally, wei et al. (2014) found that students who were diagnosed with asd were more likely to transition to a university program from college if enrolled in science, technology, engineering, or mathematic (stem) programs. wei et al. (2014), identifies that for students with asd, initially enrolling in a two-year college program may be a viable option for students who are leaving secondary school, but require more development, resources, and preparation before entering into a four-year university program. furthermore, johnson, zascavage, & gerber (2013) note that while there is no reported difference in gpa between students with disabilities who enrolled directly into a university program and those who began in a two-year program and transitioned to a four-year program, there is a higher rate of successful completion for those who transitioned from college to university. again, it is suggested that perhaps the resources offered in college programs are more accessible and bountiful than those offered in university programs (johnson, zascavage, & gerber, 2013). program choice students with disabilities in both college and university programs are least likely to enroll in business or health science programs (mccloy & declou, 2013). mccloy and declou (2013), note that students with disabilities are least likely to enroll in master of business administration or medicine programs. students do, however, appear to have a greater interest in enrolling in teaching and doctorate degrees. for students with disabilities in college programs, social sciences and applied technologies are their program of choice. for those with disabilities in university programs, the most popular programs are social sciences and humanities (mccloy & declou, 2013). barriers to transition while there is a discrepancy in the achievement of post-secondary schooling for those with disabilities and those without, the rationale for the difference is relatively unknown. a college education is more easily attained by students with disabilities versus the attainment of a post-secondary degree at a university (woods et al., 2013). additionally, woods et al. (2013) note that students with disabilities reported requiring additional time to complete university programs, but not requiring additional time to complete college programs. 7 secondary to post-secondary sadly, the transition from secondary school to post-secondary education lacks fluidity and resources. barrow (2013) discusses that while primary and secondary schools create and follow individual education plans for students experiencing disabilities, they often focus solely on the secondary school realm and fail to acknowledge the difficult transition to post-secondary schooling. furthermore, mccloy & declou (2013) explain that students who are diagnosed with asd are suddenly thrusted into a learning environment that lack safe sensory spaces, new social experiences, chaotic schedules and locations that they are not accustomed to. these new environments are often jarring for students with asd and contribute to poor academic performance (mccloy & declou, 2013). moreover, students with asd, like many other disabilities, may require increased length of time to complete their program, allowing for less chaotic scheduling. post-secondary programs often have rigid schedules and prerequisites courses only offered at certain times, creating yet another barrier for students to attain a degree or diploma (alcorn, 2010). tsagris and muirhead (2012), argue that students with disabilities should be provided ample time to prepare for the new post-secondary environment, but are often not able to do so. many post-secondary schools lack transition programs throughout the summer months which would allow students to become comfortable with this newer, more complex setting. (tsagris & muirhead, 2012; enhancing accessibility in post-secondary education institutions, 2012). identification of disability in post-secondary in order to access resources in post-secondary disability departments, the student is required to disclose their disability to the post-secondary institution. therefore, for students to access the resources they are legally entitled to, they must overcome the obstacle of repeatedly disclosing their disability, which as previously mentioned, can be socially isolating and anxiety provoking (mckenzie, 2015; tsagaris & muirhead, 2012). mckenzie (2015), notes how difficult it is for students to repeatedly have to show evidence that they have a disability, as they navigate the post-secondary education system. this requirement to provide proof, often more than once, of ones disability is a deterrent from entering into future programs, such as the transition from a two-year to four-year program (mckenzie, 2015). as discussed above, students are apprehensive to disclose their disability to their post-secondary education institutions for fear that they may be negatively perceived (hadley, 2016). dadeppo (2009) explores tintos social model, suggesting that students are only as successful in university as they are in integrating into their social environment. therefore, if a students initial experience in university is isolating and anxiety provoking, it is even further challenging to integrate socially. dadeppo (2009) and hadley (2014), explain that students who disclose their learning disabilities often experience a decrease in their self-esteem. tsagris & muirhead (2012), explain that there is often shame and embarrassment associated with ones identification with their learning disability, further contributing to apprehensiveness in disclosing their disability to a post-secondary institution. it is noted, however, that there is a higher rate of disability disclosure at colleges than at universities (holmes, silvestri, & harrison (2011). sadly, if the student is ultimately able to disclose and verify their disability successfully, it is 8 observed that access to resources such as, peer mentors can be delayed by a higher demand than supply (alcorn, 2010). most students who reported having disabilities did not actually access the resources available to them in their post-secondary institutions, therefore suggesting that the resources were not truly accessible to begin with (woods et al., 2013). support in post-secondary unfortunately, professors and staff at universities often do not receive universal education to support students with disabilities (jones, weir, & hart, 2011). mckenzie (2015), further explains that the concept of ableism, discrimination in favor of able-bodied people, is prevalent in universities, and that students with disabilities often feel as if they are being managed as they attempt to successfully navigate their post-secondary education program. the guide titled, enhancing accessibility in post-secondary education institutions (2012) indicates that some course instructors appear far more eager to support students with disabilities while others are apprehensive to support students, and report not having received the proper training to assist them. sadly, while provincial legislation exists to encourage a barrier free and accessible schooling system, there are no provincial or federal legislation dictating universally how post-secondary schools must do so (enhancing accessibility in post-secondary education institutions, 2012). sattler (2010) notes that students with disabilities often encounter financial challenges in postsecondary education. moreover, sattler (2010) also found that students with disabilities are often older than students attending post-secondary education without disabilities. therefore, these students inherently have additional responsibilities such as caring for a family, further adding to the financial burden. students who left their post-secondary programs prior to completion reported feeling unsupported by their institution in non-academic areas, such as experiencing difficulty balancing their jobs with school responsibilities (sattler, 2010). facilitators legislation over the last twenty years, there has been an increasing demand for the ontario government to provide better services for ontarians with disabilities. the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities (aod) act aims to make post-secondary education equally accessible to all (ontario, 2005). government legislation in partnership with post-secondary institutions are working to diminish barriers that post-secondary students with disabilities continue to face. it is the hope that in targeting the college and university transfer processes, post-secondary education will become more accessible and supportive to students, such as those with lds in the future (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). financial burden continues to be a primary barrier for equitable access to post-secondary education including the transfer from college programs to universities. there are three funding programs for students with disabilities that include the ontario student assistance programs bursary for students with disabilities, access fund for students with disabilities and the enhanced services fund (bradley & fund, 2010). the funds were created upon the principles of the aod to provide additional aid to 9 students who self-identify as having a disability. the funding is intended to assist with the cost of disability related services (bradley & fund, 2010). the aod legislation is intended to assist in the improvement of accessibility, not only through the identification of barriers, but by creating suitable de-escalation and prevention mechanisms (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). legislators are currently working to utilize these principles to break down barriers for those with disabilities (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). the learning disabilities association of ontario, the higher education quality council of ontario (heqco) and the ontario human rights commission are working to support those with disabilities and reduce barriers to actively participate in society. the ontario human rights commissions disability policy emphasizes the right of those with disability to have access to the education system that is conducive to them participating in and having the same experience as those without a disability (ontario human rights commission, n.d.). by increasing partnerships and affiliations with world-leading higher education and research organizations, the best resources and knowledge can be obtained to foster appropriate access, quality, and design of regulations to the education system itself (heqco, n.d.). the learning opportunities task force (lotf) was created to develop and enhance programming and strategies to benefit students with learning disabilities (yaworski, 2003). in order for students with learning disabilities to succeed in college or universities, the lotf argues that sufficient funding be provided to all post-secondary institutions in order to properly train its facilitators (yaworski, 2003). by ensuring programs are equipped with qualified staff, students with disabilities will be provided allinclusive support to promote learning strategies and assistive technologies to accommodate their specific needs (yaworski, 2003). the lotf indicated that the funding of these services should align with and reflect the actual number of students who require these services from post-secondary institutions (yaworski, 2003). in accordance with this suggestion, the learning disabilities association of ontario (ldao) began to make recommendations and develop strategies to keep this goal in mind, that of in servicing faculty and promoting awareness of their duty to accommodate students with learning disabilities (yaworski, 2003). the ldao published a response to the lotf stating that it not only supports the lotf mandate, but that it praises the task force for the quality of work being developed and implemented (yaworski, 2003). following this response, the ldao has made its own recommendations to the ministry of citizenship and to the ontario human rights commission (yaworski, 2003). these recommendations focused on the need for accessibility plans and accountability mechanisms (yaworski, 2003). furthermore, the ldao declared its agreement with the recommendation of the lotf that there needs to be more uniformity across the map in terms of definitions and diagnostic assessments being used in publicly funded programs in the province of ontario (yaworski, 2003). consistent guidelines that can be followed by social, health, and educational services will allow for learning disability educational programming to better align with each other and in turn, create a more seamless pathway for transitioning students and their support staff (e.g., learning strategists and assistive technologists). the result of this conclusive recommendation was the creation of the enhanced services fund. 10 initiatives in 2002, financial support was granted across ontario by the ministry of training colleges and universities enhanced services fund (esf) to help colleges and universities provide additional enhanced supports specific to using the lotf approach. it is clear that the availability of transition programming for students with learning disabilities is an integral component for students with learning disabilities. the ministry of training colleges and universities esf has provided basic support to all postsecondary disability centers across ontario to assist them in providing general disability services such as staff education. to support this province-wide implementation, cambrian colleges pilot program organized staff training supports designed to better guarantee the quality of expertise of both learning strategists and assistive technologists (nichols, et al., 2002). the learning strategists/assistive technology training initiative, funded by lotf and further supported by cambrian college, has now become a provincially recognized training program (nichols, et al., 2002). here, services are individualized to be more aligned with student information processing deficits and strengths (tsagris, 2012). strategic instruction is developed for each students individual and unique learning needs and academic requirements. there is an individual counselling and/or coaching component of the esf that, rather than focusing on therapeutic interventions, centers around targeted learning disability-related issues (tsagaris, 2012). utilizing this mtcu enhanced services fund (esf) program design, the academic success of students will most likely increase, and more students will be able to complete their post-secondary education (tsagris, 2012). through the implementation of this program alone, individual needs of students with learning disabilities are recognized and plans are created to better accommodate each student. innovation in addition to government funding, there are a variety of partnership programs available for students with learning disabilities to better assist them in the transfer process to postsecondary education. as stated on page 1 of the lotf final report summary (1997), ...too few students with learning disabilities get the help that they need to make the transition to college or university. to help these students realize their potential, we will establish pilot projects at the college and university level, to provide real help to learning disabled students in a meaningful way. following this speech, the ontario government then formed the learning opportunities task force (lotf) which carried out its work from 1997-2002 to not only ease the transition of students from different educational programs but also enrich resources offered to students with disabilities to have equitable access to their education (nichols, et al. 2002). this innovative work ultimately provided the foundation used for enhanced student services available to students with disabilities in ontarios colleges and universities today. as a result of the lotfs evidence and findings, the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) began to render targeted funding province-wide in order to improve its services (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). 11 transition programming for students with lds and ldhd today in ontario, all publicly funded colleges and universities provide some kind of transition program for students who identify as having learning disabilities (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). the mtcu has supported a summer transition program (stp) since 2006. in 2011-2012, the government provided over two million dollars a year to ontario colleges and universities to advance the transition of students with learning disabilities from secondary to postsecondary education. although this is wonderful news for the province of ontario, it is disconcerting to note that there is no similar provincial transition initiative anywhere else in canada (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). during summer transition programs, colleges and universities collaborate with local school boards and other special education service providers to attract and recruit students with learning disabilities and adhd while they are still in high school (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). each post-secondary institution has received summer transition funding and is obligated to develop a marketing strategy as part of its yearly transition proposal to the mtcu (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). this marketing is integral to the success of these summer transition programs because if students are not informed that these beneficial transfer programs exist, they will not access these services and have a more difficult time in their college/university transfer period. stp is specifically designed to target students with learning disabilities and attention hyperactivity deficit disorder. beginning in the month of may, the program offers an introductory one-day outreach session that is offered to high school students with disabilities and their parents (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). after the outreach session, students who wish to attend the stp can submit their disability documentation and participate in an intake session (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). before any consideration can be made pertaining to their acceptance into the program, students are required to undergo a current psychoeducational assessment (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). if this assessment is successfully completed, the students then attend the stp at the end of the summer (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). it is important to note that psychoeducational assessments are considered valid for life after the age of 18 years, however prior to the age of 18, assessment data is not considered stable, as the person is still developing (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). the stp has two forms, one version created to be delivered to college students and the other version delivered to university students. a two-week program is delivered to college students, and a one-week program delivered to university students at the end of the month of august. the curriculum design is delivered in both a classroom setting and computer lab, with each day covering a specific theme and content designed to enhance knowledge and skills related to self-determination and learning strategies (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). stemming from the stp is the student homepage, which is a personal website that students create during the stp so that they can share information related to their disability and educational accommodations with their professors. a students website has several pages, as students work with a general template that includes components such as, an introduction, about me, my disability, accommodation, faculty, and links pertaining to their lds (tsagris & muirhead, 2012). overall, the stp is an excellent resource for both students and their families to familiarize themselves with the transition process and become comfortable talking about their disabilities and accommodation needs. selfadvocacy is an imperative tool for students transitioning to postsecondary, and by enrolling in the stp program, students learn strategies to better advocate for themselves by exploring the different ways 12 they prefer to learn and receive information. many schools in ontario have websites where students can apply to the stp program at that establishment, such as uoit, seneca college, ryerson, and guelph university, which are easily found through a simple google search. the learning disabilities association of ontario website provides information to the public regarding various lds and adhd, and free access to resources for parents, students and families. additionally, the website provides links to information on scholarships and bursaries for students with an ld/adhd, and a multitude of online workshops including but not limited to learning styles and self advocacy for youth and adults, job-fit employment preparation and partnering with schools for student success: effective parent advocacy (ldao, 2015). knowing that these courses and resources are available is beneficial; however the benefit can only be applied if the knowledge is there. similar resources can be found on the transition resources guide website, which is dedicated to providing resources for transitioning students with disabilities. viewers can access resources for choosing a college or university, residence and campus accessibility, accessibility services, and are even provided the opportunity for students and support workers to share their college/university transfer stories. funded by the government of ontario, this website lists various disability support services including summer transition programs and peer mentoring (transition resources guide for students with disabilities, 2018). the transition resources guide website provides meaningful insight to how websites intended to be tools for students with lds are designed and what information is accessible to those using these types of websites as a resource. it is important to continue to explore how to provide greater access to information for students with lds so that websites and resources including and similar to those mentioned above can be utilized to their full potential. more specifically, it is important to explore how to train educators and professors to use these tools so that they are able to better understand lds and adhd, and therefore able to appropriately assist students in transitioning. outside of ontario and canada, efforts continue to be made to ease the college/university transfer process. an example of this effort can be seen examining the think college vermont program. evidence suggests that students with disabilities in rural or remote communities have a low rate of graduation, and employment rates for these students are also low (ryan, 2014). there are now grants in the united states to support programs for students with intellectual disabilities, including think college vermont, which is focused on academics, independent living, social, and employment skills (ryan, 2014). the programs values consist of social justice, diversity, and equity based on the principles of determination, inclusion, and empowerment. within this program there was a person-centered planning program that assisted students in determining what was important to them (ryan, 2014). these students were given extended time for assignments, writing center support, 1:1 help at the accessibility center, peer support, and in meetings with course instructors (ryan, 2014). students noted that after being involved in this program, they had an increased ability to navigate the campus, experienced inclusion in the postsecondary realm and were able to get an associate degree (ryan, 2014). since access to education lies at the heart of its development and is integral to the success of all persons, the continual innovation of transition programs worldwide will help to guarantee that students with disabilities receive equal opportunities as their peers in the post-secondary domain. 13 transition programming for students with mental health disabilities and addictions the ontario government has prioritized mental health at both the provincial and federal level, and continues to take steps to ensure equality and non-discrimination for all people with disabilities (ontario human rights commission, 2012). under the ohrc, whether a disability is visible or not, all people with disabilities have the same rights and should be granted equal opportunities (ontario human rights commission, 2012). despite the ontario governments efforts, there are far less resources and accommodative services available to students experiencing mental health challenges than there are catering to those with learning disabilities. the population of people with mental health issues and addictions are extremely diverse. consequently, their experiences of disability, impairment, and societal barriers differ across the board (ontario human rights commission, 2012). the domino effect of a lack of appropriate mental health services on peoples lives includes increased criminalization, increased homelessness, perpetuation of poverty, increased social isolation, and deteriorating physical and mental health (ontario human rights commission, 2012). thus, understanding mental health disorders and addictions and creating acceptable accommodation programs and services for students is integral, especially for students in the process of obtaining a post-secondary degree. it is difficult to access resources for mental health disorders as not all mental health diagnoses qualify as disability. a students access to disability services requires a dsm-iv diagnosis. in addition to registering with campus disability services, students are able to register with mental health disability services at their post-secondary institution if necessary. a 2012 ontario human rights commission report highlighted the duty of post-secondary institutions to accommodate its students to the point of undue hardship, and specific focus was placed on students with mental health disabilities (ontario human rights commission, 2012). proof of diagnosis or disability is often required for post-secondary students in order to access accommodation services (ontario human rights commission, 2012). unfortunately, the delays in societal mental health services, such as obtaining an appointment with a medical practitioner, lead to limited access to education for students with psychiatric disabilities and addictions, since schools and institutions heavily rely on verification from doctors (ontario human rights commission, 2012). this situation results in students with mental health disabilities missing out on accommodations that would enhance their student experience and likely increase their chances of successfully completing their post-secondary education. thus, in 2013, the mtcu created the mental health innovation fund in order to support the existing challenges in accommodating post-secondary students with mental health disabilities (ontario human rights commission, 2012). the purpose of this fund is to ease the development of mental health resources within canada (canadian psychiatric association, 2013). the mental health innovation fund was intended to run over the course of five years and to put $250 million into speeding up the circulation of mental health services within the community, and even more specifically to provide the resources necessary to advance innovations to improve patient access, quality of care and health outcomes (canadian psychiatric association, 2013). accommodating mental health issues and addictions is often seen as a greater challenge than to accommodate other types of disabilities, and this idea is evident in post-secondary institutions (ontario 14 human rights commission, 2012). since the majority of mental health disorders are invisible in nature, the responsibility is almost solely on the student to seek help and accommodations. the accommodation process for a student can only begin when someone identifies their need accommodation due to a disability-related need (ontario human rights commission, 2012). because of this, organizations and institutions have reported a need for additional clarity on what they can and cannot ask a person with a mental health issue about any potential accommodation needs to ensure no rights to privacy are violated (ontario human rights commission, 2012:40). the ontario human rights commission (2012) noted that oftentimes, doctors notes, which are heavily relied on for accommodation purposes, are vague, and may not provide all of the information required in order to make an accommodation. the most common forms of accommodation that may be needed by students with mental health disabilities include alternative methods of testing, time extensions for assignments, and consideration of time missed to address a disability (ontario human rights commission, 2012:81). these types of accommodations center around each individual class and the preference of the professor of each class. many students reported getting the impression that their professors believed they were faking their disability because there are no physical signs, and attributing their desires for accommodation to laziness (ontario human rights commission, 2012). the lack of trust in professor-student relationships, in addition to a lack of appropriate treatment or assessment services can result in the students education being interrupted (ontario human rights commission, 2012). in fact, the ontario secondary school teachers federation (osstf/feeso) said that due to the lack of proper resources to assess and treat such students, the education system may need to deny access to schools to students who present a threat, either to themselves or others (ontario human rights commission, 2012). there is concern that students with multiple disabilities, including behavioural, intellectual and developmental disabilities such as autism or add/adhd are often suspended or expelled from schools due to disability-related behaviours, without appropriately considering accommodation (ontario human rights commission, 2012). both parents and students have reported that students who are frequently suspended and/or lack accommodation in school tend to develop anxiety disorders, depression and low self-confidence (ontario human rights commission, 2012). the need for facilitators and educators to consider the fluctuating nature of a persons mental health disability when considering accommodation planning is crucial (ontario human rights commission, 2012). it is clear that the education system and the ontario government are becoming increasingly aware of what is lacking in terms of mental health disability services; however, the next steps need to be targeting these gaps and answering the questions that continue to arise. gaps overall, the understanding of student accessibility in post-secondary institutions continues to be relatively ambiguous. firstly, it is difficult to quantify the number of students who truly do experience disabilities considering that several studies have been based on self-reporting approaches (hadley, 2016; mckenzie, c, 2005) . therefore, it is possible that students in university programs could be underreporting their disabilities in comparison to students in college programs. however, further research is required to establish if students feel unable to reveal their disability in the post-secondary realm. 15 additionally, it is challenging to hypothesize why there is such a low percentage of student transfers from college to university programs for students with disabilities. there are factors such as age, socioeconomic status, as well as location of universities in relation to the students home that could contribute on an individual basis. furthermore, examination of online transitioning programs for students with disabilities is warranted to support those students considering transferring from the college to university sector. accessibility of resources for students with disabilities utilizing online programs would then additionally have to be assessed to examine the student transfer experience. 16 references accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act, s.o. 2005, c.11. retrieved from http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_05a11_e.htm alcorn mackay, s., higher education quality council of ontario, & gibson library connections, i. (2010). identifying trends and supports for students with autism spectrum disorder transitioning into postsecondary. toronto, ont: higher education quality council of ontario. arim, r., canadian electronic library (firm), & statistics canada. (2015). a profile of persons with disabilities among canadians aged 15 years or older, 2012. ottawa, ontario: statistics canada. barrow, s.a. (2013). the transition of secondary students with learning disabilities and postsecondary life opportunities. illinois state university. bradley, l. & preston, k. (2010). police paper: students with disabilities: recognizing and relieving barriers to post-secondary education. ontario undergraduate student alliance canadian psychiatric association (2013). creating a mental health innovation fund. retrieved from https://www.cpa-apc.org/wp-content/uploads/cpa-lobby-day-leave-behind_mental-healthinnovation-fund-en-003.pdf dadeppo, l.m.w. (2009). integration factors related to the academic success and intent to persist of college students with learning disabilities. learning disabilities, research and practice. 24(3), 122131. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5826.2009.00286.x disabilities, opportunities, internetworking, and technology. (2012). moving on: the two-four step. university of washington. http://www.washington.edu/doit/moving-two-four-step enhancing accessibility in post-secondary education institutions: a guide for disability service providers (pp. 1-41, publication). (2012). national educational association of disabled students. finnie, r., childs, s., & wismer, a. (2011). under-represented groups in postsecondary education in ontario: evidence from the youth in transition survey. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. flaherty, m. & roussy, a. (2014). a failed game changer: post-secondary education and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act. education of law journal,forthcoming, 24(1). retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/p apers.cfm?abstract_id=2510991. hadley, w. (2016). the four year college experience of one student with multiple learning disabilities. college student journal. 51(1), 19-28. higher education quality council of ontario. (2009). third annual research and review plan. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. 17 higher education quality council of ontario. (n.d.). research plan strategic direction 2017-2020. retrieved from http://www.heqco.ca/en-ca/research/research plan/pages/home.aspx holmes, a., kostakos, m., silvestri, r., canadian electronic library (firm), & higher education quality council of ontario. (2011). the impact of mental health problems in the community college student population. toronto, ont: higher education quality council of ontario. johnson, g., zascavage, v., & gerber, s. junior college experience and students with learning disabilities: implications for success at four year universities. college student journal, 42(4), 1162-1168 jones, m., weir, c., & hart, d. (2011). impact on teacher education programs of students with intellectual disabilities attending college. insight: a think college brief on policy, research and practice. (6). http://www.thinkcollege.net learning disabilities association of ontario. (2015). retrieved from http://www.ldao.ca/ learning disabilities association of ontario summer transition program. (2015). retrieved from http://www.ldao.ca/summer-transition-programs-for-students-entering-college-or-universitysign-up-now/ marquis, e., schormans, a.f., jung, b., vietinghoff, c., wilton, r., & baptiste, s. (2016). charting the landscape of accessible education for post-secondary students with disabilities. canadian journal of disability studies, 5(2). retrieved from: http://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/272/479 mccloy, u. & declou, l. (2013). disability in ontario: postsecondary education participation rates, student experience and labour market outcomes. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. mckenzie, c. (2015). navigating post-secondary institutions in ontario with a disability. the pursuit of accommodations. canadian journal of disability studies, 4(1). retrieved from: http://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/186 ontario. (2005). accessibility for ontarians with disability act. retrieved from https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/05a11 ontario human rights commission. (2012). minds that matter: report on the consultation on human rights, mental health and addictions (rep.). retrieved from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/minds%20that%20matter_report%20on%20the%20co nsultation%20on%20human%20rights%2c%20mental%20health%20and%20addictions.pdf ontario human rights commission (n.d.). the opportunity to succeed: achieving barrier-free education for students with disabilities, consultation report (pp. 45-65, post-secondary). human rights law and policy in ontario. 18 perras, c., m. ed., oct. educational consultant, ldao. (2018, may 04). post-secondary transition planning for students with lds. retrieved from https://www.ldatschool.c a/post-secondarytransition-planning/ ryan, s.m. (2014). inclusive rural post secondary education program for students with intellectual disabilities. rural special education quarterly. 33(2), 18-28. doi:10.1177/875687051403300204 sattler, peggy, academica group inc. (2010). from postsecondary application to the labour market: the pathways of under-represented groups. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. thomson, g. (2018, march 27). hiring people with disabilities: recruiting with aoda accessibility in mind. retrieved from https://www.aoda.ca/hiring-people-with-disabilities-recruiting-with-aodaaccessibility-in-mind/ transition resource guide for students with disabilities (2018). support services available at postsecondary. retrieved from http://www.transitionresourceguide.ca/resources/support-servicesavailable-at-post-secondary tsagris, d., muirhead, b., higher education quality control of ontario, & canadian electronic library (firm). (2012). evaluating postsecondary supports for ontario students with learning disabilities. toronto, ont: higher education quality control of ontario. wei, x., christiano, e. r. a., yu, j. w., blackorby, j., shattuck, p., & newman, l. a. (2014). postsecondary pathways and persistence for stem versus non-stem majors: among college students with an autism spectrum disorder. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 44(5), 1159-1167. doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1978-5 woods, k. l., cook, m., declou, l., mccloy, u., canadian electronic library (firm), & higher education quality council of ontario. (2013). succeeding with disabilities: graduates with disabilities and the factors affecting time-to-completion. toronto [ontario]: higher education quality council of ontario. yaworski, c. (2003). ldao response to the learning opportunities task force report (rep.). learning disabilities association of ontario. 19 secondary analysis of the ontario college graduate survey, 2014-2016 this section of the report provides data from an analysis of the ontario graduate satisfaction survey for the years 2014, 2015, and 2016. the graduate satisfaction survey is administered to all college graduates with an ontario college credential from a publicly funded college of applied arts and technology (caat). starting in 2013-14, all graduate respondents have been asked two questions relating to disability, one asked "can you tell me if you consider yourself to have a physical, intellectual, mental health or learning disability?", and the second asked whether they had registered with disability services at the college while a student. over the past two years, 87,220 graduates responded to the first question, with 9105 respondents (10.4%) self-identified as having a disability. in terms of usage of disability services, of the 87,408 respondents to the question, 7588 (8.7%) indicated they had. the analysis presented in the section involved comparisons of those who selfidentified as having a disability, and those who did not, and those who used disability services, versus those who did not. methods this study uses data from the graduate satisfaction survey (gss) for the academic years of 2013-2014 to 2015-2016 to investigate whether college graduates who report a disability differ from graduates who do not report a disability in terms of transfer rates to university and their transfer experiences. the gss is administered to all college graduates with an ontario college credential from a publically funded college of applied arts and technology (caat) in ontario. it is administered approximately six months after graduation through telephone surveys conducted by an external service provider to whom the colleges provide contact information and graduate characteristics such as age, gender and program of study. the graduate record file of each college is examined by college auditors and reported to maesd, which uses the results to gauge the performance of colleges on three of the five key performance indicators (kpis): graduate satisfaction rate; employment rate; and employer satisfaction rate. each kpi is tied to a modest sum of performance funding and made public. the first question of the survey asks the student if they went on to further education, either full or part time. those indicating they were enrolled full time complete a detailed survey about their current education. graduates who indicate they are working part time and attending school part time are asked several employment-related questions as well as fewer questions on their education. analytic aims there were three analytic aims for the current study: 1. estimating the effect of disability and registering with the office for students with a disability on the rate of transfer to university among ontario college graduates; 2. estimating the effect of disability and registering with the office for students with a disability on student satisfaction with their transfer experience to university; and 3. estimating the effect of disability and registering with the office for students with a disability on student satisfaction with their academic preparation for transfer to university. study population all analyses included individuals who graduated from any of ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges during 2013-2014 to 2015-2016 and responded to the gss approximately six months following graduation. graduates from graduate certificate program or a four year bachelors degree were 20 excluded, as well as those who did not respond to either the question on the gss regarding selfreported disability status or self-reported registration with the office for students with a disability. analysis 2 was further restricted to include graduates who transferred to university and responded to the survey question that pertained to their satisfaction with their transfer experience. analysis 3 was further restricted to include graduates who transferred to university and responded to the survey question that pertained to their satisfaction with their academic preparation for transfer. study variables administrative fields administrative fields provided to maesd by the colleges included program, credential, college, college campus of graduation, full- versus part-time status, sex, age, permanent postal code (first three digits), and international status at graduation. this study derived several variables from these administrative data. program area seven program area groupings were derived from maesds occupation cluster classification system, described in an earlier report by mccloy & liu (2010). college region and size the classifications for college region and size are the same as described previously by mccloy & liu (2010). the study used the first digit of the colleges postal code to determine its provincial region (central, eastern, metro toronto, northern, or southwestern), and used student enrolment to determine college size (small, medium, or large). a list of ontarios 24 publicly funded colleges and how they were classified by region and size are presented in appendix 2. distance and selectivity of nearest university a variable was derived from the use of graduates permanent postal codes to indicate their geographical proximity to the nearest ontario university: 50 km or less; greater than 50 km and less than 80 km; and greater than or equal to 80 km. an additional variable was created to describe the academic selectivity of the nearest university, using published historical admission averages1. universities with high school entering overall averages of over 85% were defined as selective. selective universities identified included the university of toronto, mcmaster, queens, western, and waterloo. neighbourhood income for a proxy of each graduates household income, the three-digit permanent postal code was matched to 2006 census household income data. each graduates neighbourhood income group was classified into low, medium, or high income terciles based on the average pre-tax household income for ontario households. international and non-ontario students were excluded from the neighbourhood income analysis. survey fields the first question on the gss asks whether the respondent is enrolled in full- or part-time education in the reference week. if the response is yes, information regarding institution name and type, college or university credential, university program of study entered, and reasons for furthering education was collected. the specific wording of the questions from the survey used in this report are presented in appendix 1. 1 see https://cudo.ouac.on.ca/ for ontario university admission averages. 21 institution name and type when a graduate responded that they were currently enrolled in further education, a dropdown list of names of ontario publically funded postsecondary institutions is provided to the interviewer on the gss. these institutions are subsequently grouped under university, college, or other education. specific institution names are provided as open ended responses to other university, other college, and other education. for the current study, these open field responses were all reviewed, cleaned and recoded as necessary as some responses were found on the ontario institution list, whereas others were incorrectly identified as colleges or universities. online research was conducted to determine the correct institution type for unknown institutions. college or university credential survey responses regarding the college or university credential the graduate was currently enrolled in were classified as degree, certificate/diploma, degree offered jointly with a college or university, or no credential specified. university program of study entered the university program of study the graduate was currently enrolled in was classified according to the university student information system (usis).2 transfer experience all graduates who indicated they were enrolled in further education, either full or part time, were asked their reasons which included three response options: major reason; minor reason; or not a reason. respondents who indicated they were enrolled full time in further education were asked further questions about their transfer experience, perceptions, and information sources including: the reported amount, their satisfaction with, and the timing of notification of transfer credit; relatedness of university program entered to program from which they graduated; whether they would have been accepted into a university program without college graduation; when they decided to transfer; information sources; and satisfaction with academic preparation and the transition experience. disability starting in 2013-2014, the gss asked all graduate respondents whether they considered themselves to have a physical, intellectual, mental health or learning disability and whether they had registered with disability services at the college while a student. analytic methods both descriptive and regression techniques were used to estimate the effect of disability status and registration with the office for students with a disability on transfer outcomes. logistic regression was used to control for independent effects of selected characteristics. the outcome of interest for each analytic aim was defined as a dichotomous variable, yes or no, for the individual transferring to university, being satisfied with their transfer experience, and being satisfied with their academic preparation. for all regression analyses, the dataset was restricted to individuals with complete data for all variables included in the regression model. variables examined for inclusion in regression models included: status in canada; age; sex; program duration; program type; college region; distance of 2 http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/document/3124_d3_t4_v1-eng.pdf 22 nearest university from permanent address; whether closest university to permanent address is selective; permanent address is in an urban or rural region; income terciles of ontario fsa; program size; size of college; academic year of graduation; academic term the student graduated; and full or part-time status upon graduation. model building for each multivariable regression model, purposeful selection, as proposed by hosmer and lemeshow (2000), was used to select potential confounding variables to be included in each analysis. for each independent variable, the unadjusted association with the dependent variable was estimated and those with a p-value 0.25 were selected for inclusion in the multivariable model. variables of interest and those that met the inclusion criteria in the multivariable model were assessed independently for inclusion in the model by removing each variable from the multivariable model one at a time. if the independent variable of interest or its corresponding standard error changed by greater than or equal to 10% upon removal of a variable, the variable was included in the model. additionally, the likelihood-ratio (lr) test was used to assess whether inclusion of the variable significantly improved model fit. a variable was kept in the multivariable model if its inclusion statistically improved the fit of the model as determined by a lr test p-value of <0.05. collinearity among independent variables of interest was inspected with cross-tabulation and the pearson correlation coefficient. variables that were highly correlated (with pearson correlation coefficients 0.7) were further examined to decide which set of variables would be included in the final model (vittinghoff, 2012). limitations 1. graduates are asked to report on their status during a specified reference week six months after graduating, which may lead to some issues: a. an underestimate of transfer rate, particularly for students who graduate in the fall term as their reference week would be in june/july, a non-traditional enrolment semester; and b. students are asked only if they are currently attending college or university in the reference week not whether they had ever enrolled or have registered in an upcoming semester. 2. only graduates are counted. as this is a graduate survey, students who transferred without graduating are not counted. other research has shown that approximately one-third of students who transferred from seneca to york university were not graduates (smith et al. 2016). 3. several variables that have been shown to strongly affect transfer rates such as aspirations for transfer to university at college entry, academic background (including previous postsecondary attendance, and grades in college) were not available at the provincial level. these may differ by disability status. results transfer to university descriptive results during 2014 to 2016 a total of 290,891 students graduated from a publically funded ontario college. of the total graduate population, 142,673 (49%) responded to the gss of whom 120,879 were graduates of a one year certificate, two year diploma or three year diploma program. table 1 presents 23 transfer rates to university, college or other further education among survey respondents. overall, over one-quarter of graduates had furthered their education within six months of graduating, with 5.8% of transferring to university (95% ci: 5.7%, 6.0%). table 1. proportion of ontario college graduates of 1 year certificate, 2 year, or 3 year diploma programs who furthered their education by pathway, 2014-2016. 2014 80,729 44,687 6.0% 20.0% 26.6% number of graduates number of responses transferred to university transferred to college transferred to further education 2015 82,626 39,044 5.9% 19.7% 26.0% 2016 82,245 37,148 5.6% 18.8% 25.8% total 245,600 120,879 5.8% 19.5% 26.2% table 2 presents the proportion of graduates who transferred to university by selected characteristics. a slightly lower proportion of graduates transferred to university among graduates who self-identified themselves as having a disability and among graduates who indicated that they had registered with the office for students with a disability compared to graduates who self-identified as having no disability and did not register with the office for students with a disability, respectively. a notably lower proportion of graduates transferred to university among international students compared to ontario residents, as well as students >25 years of age compared to younger age groups, males compared to females, 1 year certificate programs compared to 2 and 3 year diploma programs, graduates whose permanent address was >50 km from nearest university compared to <50 km, graduates with permanent addresses in rural settings compared to urban settings, graduates from low income households compared to high income households, and part time graduates compared to fulltime graduates. students who graduated from programs in community service or preparatory/upgrading programs had a high rate of transfer to university relative to other college programs. table 2. proportion of graduates who transferred to university among total respondent population, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. variables labels self-identified with a disability no yes missing no yes missing other international <22 year 22-25 years >25 years missing female male missing certificate (1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) registered with the office for students with disability? status in canada age sex credential type n 91,205 11,657 18,017 93,362 9,708 17,809 107,169 13,710 35,886 43,917 41,071 5 64,587 56,189 103 27,107 71,320 22,452 proportion transferred to university (%) 6.3 5.9 3.4 6.3 5.9 3.4 6.3 2.6 8.3 6.2 3.2 0 6.1 5.6 6.8 4.2 5.5 8.8 95% ci 6.2, 6.5 5.5, 6.3 3.1, 3.7 6.2, 6.5 5.5, 6.4 3.1, 3.7 6.1, 6.4 2.3, 2.9 8.1, 8.6 6.0, 6.5 3.1, 3.4 5.9, 6.3 5.4, 5.7 3.3, 13.6 4.0, 4.5 5.4, 5.7 8.5, 9.2 24 program area ontario college region distance of nearest university from permanent address is the closest university to permanent address a selective university? permanent address income tercile of ontario fsa program size college size academic year of graduation term student graduated academic load at graduation business community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/upgrading engineering/technology central eastern metro toronto northern southwestern <50 kms 50-79 kms 80 kms missing no yes missing urban rural missing low income mid income high income missing <46 graduates 46-106 graduates 107 graduates small medium large 2014 2015 2016 summer fall winter full time part time 23,253 24,447 11,934 15,567 7,192 10,928 27,558 30,544 22,135 38,790 8,953 20,457 98,320 11,477 9,887 1,195 89,390 30,294 1,195 103,338 16,499 1,042 45,231 41,543 29,573 4,532 40,205 38,000 42,674 9,715 40,231 70,933 44,687 39,044 37,148 27,488 15,497 77,894 102,632 18,247 7.5 10.1 3.7 1.8 1.7 10.1 3.3 6.1 6.3 6.1 5.6 4.6 6.1 4.8 5.1 4.0 6.1 5.1 4.0 6.0 4.8 3.9 5.1 5.8 6.4 9.8 5.3 5.9 6.3 4.8 6.1 5.8 6.0 5.9 5.6 4.3 1.4 7.3 6.2 4.0 7.2, 7.9 9.7, 10.5 3.4, 4.1 1.6, 2.0 1.4, 2.0 9.5, 10.6 3.1, 3.5 5.9, 6.4 6.0, 6.7 5.8, 6.3 5.2, 6.1 4.3, 4.9 5.9, 6.2 4.5, 5.2 4.7, 5.6 3.0, 5.3 6.0 6.3 4.9, 5.3 3.0, 5.3 5.9, 6.2 4.5, 5.1 2.9, 5.3 4.9, 5.3 5.6, 6.0 6.2, 6.7 9.0, 10.7 5.1, 5.6 5.6, 6.1 6.1, 6.5 4.4, 5.2 5.9, 6.4 5.6, 6.0 5.8, 6.2 5.7, 6.2 5.3, 5.8 4.1, 4.5 1.2, 1.6 7.1, 7.5 6.0, 6.3 3.7, 4.3 figure 1error! reference source not found. presents transfer rates to university by year and semester of graduation, as well as by full or part-time status at graduation for graduates who did and did not report a disability. a notably lower proportion of graduates transferred to university in 2014 among graduates who reported having a disability (5.4%; 95% ci: 4.7%, 6.1%) compared to those who did not report having a disability (6.5%; 95% ci: 6.2%, 6.8%). in comparison, in 2015 and 2016 a similar proportion of graduates transferred to university among those who did and did not report a disability. additionally, a notably lower proportion of graduates transferred to university among graduates who reported having a disability and were enrolled part time at the time of graduation (2.8%; 95% ci: 2.2%, 3.6%) compared to graduates with no disability who were enrolled part time at the time of graduation (4.4%; 95% ci: 4.0%, 4.7%). 25 figure 1. proportion of graduates who transferred to university among respondents of disability status by college graduation characteristics. 9.0% 8.0% 8.0% 7.0% 6.0% 6.5% 6.5% 6.5% 5.4% 7.3% 5.9% 5.7% 6.7% 6.5% 4.6% 4.1% 5.0% 4.4% 4.0% 2.8% 3.0% 1.5% 1.5% 2.0% 1.0% 0.0% 2014 2015 2016 academic year of graduation summer fall winter term student graduated self-reported disability yes full time part time academic load at graduation self-reported disability no appendix 3.1 restricts the sample to those who responded to the disability identity question. among graduates who reported having a disability, a higher, but not significant, proportion transferred to university among those who registered with the office for students with a disability (6.2%; 95% ci: 5.6%, 6.8%) compared to those who did not register with the office for students with a disability (5.5%; 95% ci: 4.9%, 6.2%). alternatively, among graduates who reported having no disability, a lower proportion transferred to university among those who registered with the office for students with a disability (5.3%; 95% ci: 4.5%, 6.2%) compared to those who did not register with the office for students with a disability (6.4%; 95% ci: 6.2%, 6.5%). figure 2 compares the proportion of graduates who transferred to university for graduates who did and did not self-identify as having a disability by sociodemographic variables. as seen in the full population (table 2), among graduates who reported having a disability, graduates were more likely to transfer if they were not international, were younger, female, came from a high income neighbourhood, and lived in urban settings compared to rural settings. across most characteristics, graduates without a disability were slightly more likely to transfer. however, a slightly higher proportion of graduates with a disability compared to graduates without a disability transferred to university among international students and graduates >25 years of age. 26 figure 2. proportion of graduates who transferred to university among those who responded to disability status by sociodemographic variables. 10.0% 9.1% 9.0% 8.0% 7.0% 6.0% 7.8% 5.0% 3.0% 6.5% 6.1% 6.0% 5.3% 4.1% 3.4% 3.2% 2.8% 4.0% 6.5% 6.3% 6.8% 6.0% 6.7% 6.1% 6.9% 6.2% 6.7% 5.2% 5.6% 5.8% 4.7% 4.9% 2.0% 1.0% status in canada age self-reported disability yes sex permanent address high income mid income low income rural urban male female >25 years 22-25 years <22 years international other 0.0% income tercile self-reported disability no figure 3 presents the proportion of graduates who transferred to university by college program characteristics. as seen in the full population, among graduates who reported a disability, a higher proportion transferred to university among those who completed a 3 year diploma program compared to 1 year certificate and 2 year diploma programs, and who completed programs in community services, preparatory/upgrading and business. transfer rates are slightly lower across all program characteristics for graduates who reported a disability with the exceptions of two and three year diplomas and creative and applied arts areas, in which transfers rates were higher or similar for graduates reporting a disability compared to those who did not. 27 figure 3. proportion of graduates who transferred to university among those who responded to disability status by college program characteristics. 12.0% 9.5% 9.3% 10.0% 8.0% 6.0% 6.4% 6.8% 5.8% 6.2% 6.3% 5.1% 4.0% 4.7% 3.2% 8.2% 11.1% 9.6% 10.8% 8.7% 7.0% 6.2% 5.9% 4.0% 4.1% 2.0% 3.6% 3.2% 1.9% 2.0% 1.5% 1.2% program size credential type self-reported disability yes eng/tech prep/upgrading hospitality health creative and applied arts community service business advanced diploma (3 yr) diploma (2 yr) certificate (1 yr) 107 graduates 46-106 graduates <46 graduates 0.0% program area self-reported disability no figure 4 presents the proportion of graduates who transferred to university among those who did and did not self-identify as having a disability by college characteristics. overall, graduates from the southwestern region, whose permanent address was further than 50km from a university, and from smaller colleges, are less likely to transfer. across most categories of college characteristics, graduates with a disability have a slightly lower transfer rate. however, graduates reporting a disability from the northern region of ontario were slightly more likely to transfer than their peers without a disability. 28 figure 4. proportion of graduates who transferred to university among those who responded to disability status by college characteristics. 8.0% 7.0% 6.0% 6.7% 5.6% 6.8% 6.5% 6.7% 6.2% 6.3% 5.9% 6.6% 6.0% 5.0% 4.6% 5.0% 5.2% 5.6% 5.1% 4.9% 6.6% 6.3% 6.6% 6.2% 5.6% 5.1% 5.0% 4.9% 6.3% 5.8% 4.0% 3.0% 2.0% 1.0% college region distance of nearest uni is closest uni to from perm address perm address selective? self-reported disability yes large medium small yes no 80 kms 50-79 kms <50 kms southwestern northern metro toronto eastern central 0.0% college size self-reported disability no 29 table 3 and figure 5 present the proportion of graduates who transferred to university by the college of graduation. the highest transfer rate was observed for la cit collgiale (15.3%), followed by durham (8.4%), seneca (7.3%) and canadore (7.2%). the lowest transfer rates were observed for northern, (2.8%), lambton (2.9%), conestoga (3.6%) and collge boral (3.8%). graduates reporting a disability had a higher transfer rate to university at cambrian, canadore, centennial, collge boral and la cit collgiale than their peers who did not report a disability. 30 table 3. proportion of graduates who transferred to university by the college they graduated from. college graduated from total population n=120,879 self-reported disability yes no n=11,657 n=91,205 algonquin 5.3% 5.1% 5.6% collge boral 3.8% 5.1% 3.9% cambrian 5.5% 8.5% 5.6% canadore 7.2% 8.2% 7.4% centennial 4.7% 6.1% 5.1% confederation 6.9% 6.9% 7.6% conestoga 3.6% 2.8% 4.0% durham 8.4% 7.7% 8.9% fanshawe 5.6% 6.1% 6.0% georgian 5.5% 5.7% 5.9% george brown 6.0% 6.4% 6.5% humber 6.0% 5.6% 6.6% la cit collgiale 15.3% 17.1% 16.0% lambton 2.9% 1.4% 3.0% loyalist 3.6% 3.9% 4.0% mohawk 5.6% 3.7% 6.3% niagara 5.7% 6.3% 6.2% northern 2.8% 2.7% 3.1% sault 6.8% 6.9% 7.5% seneca 7.3% 7.1% 7.7% sheridan 5.7% 5.2% 6.4% st. lawrence 4.4% 5.1% 4.7% sir sandford fleming 5.4% 5.9% 5.8% st. clair 4.9% 4.8% 5.3% total 5.8% 5.9% 6.3% *note: 18,017 of the total graduates did not respond on the gss to the question regarding self-reported disability status. transfer rate (%) figure 5. proportion of graduates who transferred to university by college they graduated from. 18.0% 16.0% 14.0% 12.0% 10.0% 8.0% 6.0% 4.0% 2.0% 0.0% self-reported disability self-reported disability 31 among all college graduates who transferred to university, the top three specific programs with the highest number of transfers to university was the social service worker, police foundations, and one year general arts and science programs (results not shown). the same three programs had the highest number of transfers to university among those graduates who reported not having a disability whereas among those graduates who transferred to university and reported having a disability, the three college programs with the highest number of transfers included social service worker, general arts and science and child and youth worker (results not shown). table 4 and figure 6 present the proportion of graduates enrolled in each specific university among the population of graduates who transferred to university. overall, the highest share of transfers was observed for york (13.9%) and ryerson (10.7%). laurentian, western and york had a higher share of transfers who reported a disability whereas a lower proportion of graduates who reported having a disability enrolled at lakehead, mcmaster and the ontario institute of technology. patterns are seen between college and university partnerships within cities of origin. for example cambrian and boreal, both in sudbury, have a higher transfer rate to university for their graduates who report a disability. similarly, laurentian university in sudbury receives a larger provincial share of transfer students with a disability (6.6%) than without a disability (4.9%). in hamilton, mohawk graduates with a disability have a lower transfer rate to mcmaster university, versus graduates without a disability (3.7% vs 6.3%). however, mcmaster also receives a lower province-wide share of graduates with a disability compared to the total transfer population (2% vs 3.6%). table 4. proportion of graduates who transferred to university who enrolled at each specific university among all university transfers. university transferred to other university brock carleton guelph lakehead laurentian mcmaster ottawa queens ryerson toronto trent waterloo western wilfrid laurier windsor york nipissing ontario institute of technology ontario college of art & design algoma guelph humber provincial total total population n=7,065 9.6% 5.1% 4.1% 4.2% 4.7% 5.0% 3.6% 6.4% 0.5% 10.7% 4.6% 3.4% 1.4% 4.2% 2.7% 3.1% 13.9% 3.3% 6.6% 1.0% 1.2% 0.7% 100% self-reported disability yes n=684 no n=5,770 9.5% 5.7% 4.7% 3.9% 3.5% 6.6% 2.0% 6.1% 0.6% 11.1% 4.4% 4.2% 1.9% 6.0% 2.2% 2.6% 14.5% 2.6% 4.1% 1.3% 1.3% 1.0% 100% 9.7% 5.0% 4.1% 4.3% 5.0% 4.9% 3.6% 6.6% 0.5% 10.7% 4.7% 3.3% 1.3% 4.0% 2.8% 3.0% 13.7% 3.3% 6.8% 1.0% 1.1% 0.6% 100% 32 figure 6. proportion of graduates who transferred to university who enrolled at each specific university among all university transfers. 16.0% 14.0% 12.0% 10.0% 8.0% 6.0% 4.0% 2.0% 0.0% self-reported having a disability self-reported having a disability 33 figure 7 contains the distribution of university transfer by college program area graduated from and university program area entered. overall, graduates predominately transfer into related program areas, with the majority transferring between community service programs in college and social science programs in university, followed by transfer between college and university business programs. by disability status, movement between community service and social sciences is more common for graduates with a disability compared to graduates without a disability (32% vs 26%), whereas movement between business programs and engineering and related programs were less common for graduates who reported a disability compared to those who did not report a disability. 34 figure 7. distribution of university transfers by college and university field of studies, by self-reported disability status 35% 32% 30% 26% 25% 19% 20% 15% 13% 9% 10% 8% 5% 5% 5% 3% 4% 5% 3% 4% 4% 0% college college business college college college college college business community to university preparatory to engineering to community preparatory to to university service to commerce university social university service to university social science university social sciences engineering & university health sciences applied science education/ phys ed did not report a disability reported a disability regression results to investigate the effect of selected characteristics on the odds of transferring to university, eight regression models were performed (table 5 & table 6). models 1, 3, 5 & 7 include international students and students originally from outside of ontario whereas models 2, 4, 6 & 8 are restricted to graduates with an ontario permanent address. models including international and non-ontario students exclude neighbourhood characteristics such as income level and other geographic characteristics such as proximity to nearest university. models 1 & 2 include all graduates from 2014-2016 and investigates the effect of selected characteristics on the odds of transferring to university. models 3 & 4 are restricted to those graduates who responded to the gss question regarding self-identified disabilities. models 5 & 6 are restricted to those graduates who responded to the gss question regarding self-identified registration with the office for students with a disability. models 7 & 8 are restricted to both those individuals who responded yes, they self-identified with a disability and responded to the gss question regarding self-identified registration with the office for students with a disability. overall, among those variables selected to be included in the multivariable regression models, similar results were observed across models. sociodemographics in general, results of multivariable models provide evidence that among graduates of ontario publicly funded colleges, international students have a lower odds of transferring to university. a lower odds of transferring to university was also observed for older age groups compared to younger age 35 groups and females compared to males when adjusting for selected covariates. a higher odds of transferring to university was observed for graduates who are among high income households compared to low income households. college programs a higher odds of transferring to university was observed for graduates of 2 and 3 year diploma programs compared to 1 year certificate programs. graduates of community service and preparatory/upgrading programs compared to business programs were more likely to transfer to university and all other programs (creative and applied arts, health, hospitality, engineering/technology) compared to business were less likely to transfer to university. additionally, graduates of medium and large colleges were observed to have a higher odds of transferring to university than graduates of small colleges. a higher odds of transferring to university was observed for graduates who are considered to have been full-time students at the time of their college graduation compared to part-time students. geography in comparison to graduates of colleges located in central ontario, graduates of colleges located in metro and northern regions of ontario have a higher odds of transferring to university. graduates of colleges located in the southwestern region of ontario have a lower odds of transferring to university compared to graduates of colleges in the central region of ontario. graduates whose permanent address was located in a rural setting have a lower odds of transferring to university compared to graduates residing in urban settings. similarly, graduates whose permanent address is >80 kms from the nearest university have a lower odds of transferring to university compared to graduates who have a permanent address <50 kms to the nearest university. time trends results of multivariate models 1-6 provide evidence for a decrease in the odds for transferring to university in the 2016 academic year compared to the 2014 academic year when adjusting for all selected model covariates. however, when the graduate population is restricted to those who selfidentify themselves as having a disability (models 7 & 8) the effect of academic year on the odds of transferring to university is not observed and this variable was not selected for inclusion in the multivariable model. disability status results of models 3 and 4, respectively, provide evidence for a lower odds of transferring to university among graduates who self-identified themselves as having a disability (model 3: 0.92, 95% ci: 0.84, 1.00; model 4: 0.91, 95% ci: 0.83, 0.99). similarly, results of models 5 and 6 provide evidence for a lower odds of transferring to university among graduates who self-identified as registering with the office for students with a disability (model 5: 0.92, 95% ci: 0.84, 1.00; model 6: 0.91, 95% ci: 0.83, 1.00). however, among the population of graduates who self-identified as having a disability, no association was observed among those who registered with the office for students with a disability and the odds of transferring to university (model 7: 1.07, 95% ci: 0.91, 1.26, model 8: 1.04, 95% ci: 0.88, 1.23). 36 table 5. regression analysis: transfer to university and the effect of self-identified disability on transfer, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels self-identified with a disability (ref=no) status in canada (ref=other) yes age (ref=<22 years) 22-25 years international >25 years sex (ref=female) male credential type (ref=certificate (1 yr)) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) program area (ref=business) community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/ upgrading engineering/ technology college region (ref=central) eastern metro toronto northern southwestern distance of nearest university from permanent address (ref=<50 kms) 50-79 kms permanent address (ref=urban) income tercile of ontario fsa (ref=low income) rural 80 kms mid income (1) transfer to university (including international students) (2) transfer to university (excluding international students) (4) transfer to university (excluding international students) 0.908** (0.041) 0.733*** (0.024) 0.399*** (0.015) 1.097*** (0.032) 2.839*** (0.165) (3) transfer to university (including international students) 0.918** (0.040) 0.447*** (0.028) 0.732*** (0.023) 0.383*** (0.015) 1.071** (0.031) 2.405*** (0.132) 0.424*** (0.025) 0.733*** (0.022) 0.384*** (0.014) 1.068** (0.029) 2.388*** (0.125) 5.006*** (0.286) 6.087*** (0.385) 4.954*** (0.297) 6.017*** (0.399) 1.168*** (0.042) 1.260*** (0.048) 1.180*** (0.044) 1.269*** (0.051) 0.320*** (0.018) 0.274*** (0.019) 0.239*** (0.023) 0.304*** (0.018) 0.308*** (0.022) 0.213*** (0.025) 0.316*** (0.018) 0.268*** (0.019) 0.237*** (0.024) 0.295*** (0.019) 0.303*** (0.022) 0.210*** (0.026) 2.591*** (0.148) 3.501*** (0.224) 2.509*** (0.151) 3.365*** (0.226) 0.365*** (0.016) 1.002 (0.038) 0.399*** (0.019) 0.850*** (0.036) 0.367*** (0.017) 0.996 (0.040) 0.398*** (0.020) 0.845*** (0.038) 1.198*** (0.046) 1.191*** (0.081) 0.726*** (0.031) 1.110*** (0.044) 1.180** (0.087) 0.676*** (0.030) 0.920 (0.050) 0.812*** (0.053) 0.779*** (0.037) 1.052 (0.034) 1.194*** (0.048) 1.177** (0.084) 0.730*** (0.032) 1.108** (0.046) 1.190** (0.092) 0.686*** (0.032) 0.922 (0.053) 0.797*** (0.054) 0.779*** (0.039) 1.055 (0.036) 0.734*** (0.025) 0.401*** (0.016) 1.103*** (0.034) 2.844*** (0.173) 37 high income college size (ref=small) medium large academic year of graduation (ref=2014) 2015 2016 term student graduated (ref=summer) fall winter academic load at graduation (ref=full time) constant part time pseudo r2 observations standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05 1.417*** (0.093) 1.361*** (0.095) 0.992 (0.030) 0.926** (0.029) 0.265*** (0.020) 1.156*** (0.042) 0.698*** (0.031) 0.039*** (0.004) 0.1061 120,773 1.136*** (0.040) 1.212*** (0.086) 1.212** (0.093) 0.989 (0.031) 0.900*** (0.030) 0.240*** (0.020) 1.110*** (0.043) 0.671*** (0.031) 0.037*** (0.004) 0.1081 104,043 1.427*** (0.098) 1.377*** (0.101) 1.032 (0.032) 0.928** (0.031) 0.266*** (0.021) 1.203*** (0.046) 0.686*** (0.032) 0.040*** (0.004) 0.1088 102,768 1.137*** (0.042) 1.227*** (0.092) 1.236*** (0.099) 1.034 (0.034) 0.897*** (0.032) 0.242*** (0.021) 1.157*** (0.047) 0.662*** (0.033) 0.038*** (0.004) 0.1115 89,198 table 6. regression analysis: the effect of registering with the disability office on transfer to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels registered with office for students with a disability (ref=no) status in canada (ref=other) age (ref=<22 years) yes international 22-25 years >25 years sex (ref=female) male credential type (ref=certificate 1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) program area (ref=business) community service creative and applied arts health (5) transfer to university (including international students) 0.916 (6) transfer to university (excluding international students) 0.907** (7) transfer to university (including international disability popn) 1.071 (8) transfer to university (excluding international disability popn) 1.040 (0.043) 0.447*** (0.028) 0.733*** (0.023) 0.384*** (0.015) 1.071** (0.031) 2.406*** (0.131) (0.044) (0.090) 0.735*** (0.025) 0.402*** (0.016) 1.103*** (0.033) 2.844*** (0.173) (0.090) 0.472*** (0.093) 0.691*** (0.069) 0.474*** (0.052) 0.667*** (0.069) 0.482*** (0.054) 4.127*** (0.679) 5.181*** (0.927) 4.971*** (0.297) 6.033*** (0.400) 8.121*** (1.510) 10.926*** (2.198) 1.181*** (0.044) 1.268*** (0.051) 0.984 (0.116) 1.087 (0.135) 0.316*** (0.018) 0.268*** (0.019) 0.295*** (0.019) 0.303*** (0.022) 0.378*** (0.062) 0.227*** (0.060) 0.386*** (0.067) 0.248*** (0.068) 38 hospitality prep/ upgrading engineering/ technology college region (ref=central) eastern metro toronto northern southwestern distance of nearest university from permanent address (ref=<50 kms) permanent address (ref=urban) income tercile of ontario fsa (ref=low income) 0.234*** (0.024) 0.207*** (0.025) 0.180*** (0.061) 0.169*** (0.067) 2.509*** (0.150) 3.359*** (0.225) 2.813*** (0.489) 4.182*** (0.807) 0.369*** (0.017) 0.994 (0.040) 1.193*** (0.048) 1.178** (0.084) 0.730*** (0.032) 0.371*** (0.059) 1.052 (0.130) 1.339** (0.171) 1.799*** (0.369) 0.819 (0.113) 0.419*** (0.070) 1.073 (0.135) 1.367** (0.180) 1.684** (0.366) 0.737** (0.106) 1.423*** (0.098) 1.374*** (0.101) 1.031 (0.032) 0.927** (0.031) 0.265*** (0.021) 1.202*** (0.046) 0.687*** 0.399*** (0.020) 0.843*** (0.037) 1.107** (0.046) 1.191** (0.093) 0.687*** (0.032) 0.921 (0.053) 0.798*** (0.054) 0.780*** (0.039) 1.054 (0.036) 1.134*** (0.042) 1.224*** (0.091) 1.235*** (0.099) 1.033 (0.034) 0.895*** (0.032) 0.241*** (0.021) 1.158*** (0.047) 0.663*** (0.032) 0.040*** (0.004) 0.1089 102,975 (0.033) 0.038*** (0.004) 0.1116 89,356 50-79 kms 80 kms rural mid income high income college size (ref=small) medium large academic year of graduation (ref=2014) 2015 2016 term student graduated (ref=summer) fall winter academic load at graduation (ref=full time) constant part time pseudo r2 observations standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05 0.736** (0.101) 1.833*** (0.376) 1.711** (0.378) 1.702** (0.362) 1.544 (0.354) 0.292*** (0.070) 1.161 (0.137) 0.458*** 0.262*** (0.071) 1.140 (0.142) 0.453*** (0.069) 0.019*** (0.006) 0.1089 11,562 (0.071) 0.016*** (0.005) 0.1172 10,502 transfer experience descriptive results figure 8 compares the major sources of information used by college graduates who transferred to university by self-reported disability status. overall, there were no differences in sources of information used by transfer students by whether the graduate reported a disability. in general, among the total population, major sources of information for transfer to university included university 39 websites/publications (55.8%), information from college faculty/staff including counselors/program coordinators (41.3%), and information from university staff including registrar office and faculty (38.4%). figure 8. proportion of graduates who transferred to university and reported each of the following sources as a major source of information when making plans for further education, 2014-2016. 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% total population disability university credit transfer advising college credit transfer advising services parents and family ontransfer.ca website other students (current and former) university staff university website/publications registrary offices, student services, ect college faculty/staff college hard copy publications college website 0.0% no disability total population n=5,847, disability population n=585, no disability population n=4,939. 40 figure 9 presents the major reasons for furthering education by disability status for college graduates who transferred to university. in general, among the total population, major reasons for furthering education included more opportunities for career advancement (88.9%) and to get a diploma/certificate/degree (85.0%). other commonly reported major reasons for further education among the total population included to upgrade/improve skills (73.5%), interest in further/more indepth training in their field (72.8%), and to gain theoretical knowledge/broader education (72.4%). as seen for information sources, reasons for transfer did not differ by disability status for graduates who transferred to university. 41 figure 9. proportion of graduates who transferred to university and reported the following reason(s) as a major reason for continuing their education, 2014-2016. total population disability company required/paid for it formal transfer agreement upgrade/improve skills more opportunities for career advancement encouragement from others gain knowledge/ broader education for professional designation interest in pursuing a different field of study further/more in-depth training in field to get diploma/ certificate/degree no work/job available in field of study potential for higher income 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% no disability total population n=6,079, disability population n=642, no disability population n=5437; includes those who transferred full or part time and who responded to all the questions in the series. table 7 presents the proportion of graduates who transferred to university that were satisfied with their transfer experience. overall, 80.4% of graduates were satisfied with their transfer experience. graduates who self-identified with a disability were less likely to be satisfied compared to graduates who self-identified as having no disability (76.7% vs 80.8%), as well as those who registered with the office for students with a disability compared to those who did not (76.8% vs 80.7%). additionally, graduates who attended college in the northern region of ontario were also less likely to be satisfied compared to graduates who attended colleges in other regions of ontario. a higher proportion of graduates were satisfied with their transfer experience among those who were in the youngest age group compared to the highest age group, who graduated from a 1 year certificate program compared to 2 or 3 year diploma programs, who graduated from a larger program compared to a smaller program, and among those who graduated from a large college compared to a small college. similar estimates for the proportion of graduates satisfied with their transfer experience was observed by status in canada, sex, distance of nearest university to permanent address, whether their permanent address was in a rural or urban setting, income tercile, academic year of graduation, and academic load at graduation. table 7. proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their transfer experience to university among respondent population, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016.. variables labels n self-identified with a disability no yes missing 5,145 615 309 proportion satisfied with transfer experience (%) 80.8 76.7 81.6 95% ci 79.7, 81.8 73.2, 79.9 76.8, 85.5 42 registered with the office for students with disability? no 5,252 yes 514 missing 303 status in canada other 5,771 international 298 age <22 year 2,731 22-25 years 2,309 >25 years 1,029 sex female 3,378 male 2,686 missing 5 credential type certificate (1 yr) 1,033 diploma (2 yr) 3,372 advanced diploma (3 yr) 1,664 program area business 1,459 community service 2,143 creative and applied arts 381 health 209 hospitality 96 prep/upgrading 999 engineering/ technology 782 college region central 1,600 eastern 1,211 metro toronto 1,991 northern 456 southwestern 811 distance of nearest university <50 kms 5,084 from permanent address 50-79 kms 498 80 kms 443 missing 44 is the closest university to permanent no 4,679 address a selective university? yes 1,346 missing 44 permanent address urban 5,333 rural 699 missing 37 income tercile of ontario fsa low income 2,010 mid income 2,059 high income 1,622 missing 378 program size <46 graduates 1,851 46-106 graduates 1,905 107 graduates 2,313 college size small 415 medium 2,165 large 3,489 academic year of graduation 2014 2,330 2015 1,960 2016 1,779 term student graduated summer 954 fall 139 winter 4,976 academic load at graduation full time 5,541 part time 528 note: includes all respondents who answered the transition experience question. n=6,069 80.7 76.8 81.2 80.1 86.9 82.5 79.9 75.9 80.5 80.2 80.0 83.8 81.4 76.3 80.5 79.9 83.7 77.5 81.3 84.4 75.3 80.9 81.7 80.1 74.3 81.8 80.3 80.1 81.5 81.8 80.8 79.0 81.8 80.3 80.4 86.5 79.8 79.9 81.4 81.5 78.3 79.9 82.4 78.8 79.1 81.4 79.7 80.6 81.1 76.6 78.4 81.2 80.3 81.4 79.6, 81.7 73.0, 80.3 76.4, 85.2 79.0, 81.1 82.6, 90.3 81.1, 83.9 78.2, 81.4 73.2, 78.4 79.2, 81.8 78.7, 81.7 25.7, 97.9 81.5, 86.0 80.0, 82.7 74.2, 78.2 78.4, 82.5 78.2, 81.6 79.7, 87.1 71.3, 82.7 72.1, 87.9 82.0, 86.5 72.2, 78.2 78.9, 82.7 79.4, 83.7 78.2, 81.8 70.1, 78.1 78.9, 84.3 79.2, 81.4 76.4, 83.4 77.6, 84.8 67.5, 90.7 79.6, 81.9 76.8, 81.1 67.5, 90.7 79.3, 81.4 77.3, 83.2 71.1, 94.3 78.0, 81.5 78.2, 81.6 79.5, 83.3 77.2, 85.1 76.4, 80.2 78.0, 81.6 80.8, 83.9 74.6, 82.5 77.3, 80.7 80.1, 82.7 78.0, 81.3 78.8, 82.3 79.2, 82.8 73.8, 79.2 70.8, 84.5 80.1, 82.2 79.2, 81.3 77.9, 84.5 43 figure 10 presents the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their transition experience by graduation characteristics. across year of graduation, semester of graduation, and full or part time status, graduates with a disability compared to graduates without a disability report being somewhat less satisfied with their transition experience. figure 10. the proportion of graduates satisfied with their transition experience among those that transferred to university and responded to disability status by graduation characteristics. 100% 90% 80% 80.8% 81.9% 84.2% 80.6% 77.8% 82.0% 81.7% 80.0% 79.5% 77.3% 76.9% 76.7% 76.5% 75.7% 74.6% 72.2% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2014 2015 2016 academic year of graduation summer fall winter term student graduated self-reported disability yes full time part time academic load at graduation self-reported disability no 44 figure 11 presents the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their transfer experience by sociodemographic characteristics and self-reported disability status.3 overall, a higher, but not significant, proportion of graduates was observed to be satisfied with their transfer experience to university among those who reported no disability compared to those who reported having a disability across sociodemographic characteristics. 3 a detailed table of the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their transfer experience is presented in appendix 3.2. 45 figure 11. the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their transfer experience among those who transferred to university and responded to disability status by sociodemographic characteristics. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% status in canada age self-reported disability yes sex permanent address high income mid income low income rural urban male female >25 years 22-25 years <22 years international other 0% income tercile self-reported disability no 46 figure 12 presents the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their transfer experience by college program characteristics and self-reported disability status. no statistically significant differences were observed for the proportion of graduates satisfied with their transfer experience among graduates with and without a disability by college program characteristics. 47 figure 12. the proportion of graduates satisfied with their transfer experience among those who transferred to university by college program characteristics and disability status. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% program size credential type self-reported disability yes eng/tech prep/upgrading hospitality health creative and applied arts community service business advanced diploma (3 yr) diploma (2 yr) certificate (1 yr) 107 graduates 46-106 graduates <46 graduates 0% program area self-reported disability no 48 figure 13 presents the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their transfer experience by college characteristics and disability status. overall, a lower proportion of graduates were satisfied with their transfer experience who graduated from a college in the northern region of ontario compared other regions. a notably lower proportion of graduates were satisfied with their transfer experience among those who graduated from a college in the northern region of ontario and who reported a disability (59.7%; 95% ci: 47.0, 71.2%) compared to graduates who graduated from a college in the northern region of ontario and reported no disability (76.1%; 95% ci: 71.4%, 80.2%). additionally, a notably lower proportion of graduates were satisfied with their transfer experience among those who graduated from a small college and who reported a disability (60.0%; 95% ci: 45.8%, 72.7%) compared to those who graduated from a small college and reported no disability (81.0%; 95% ci: 76.4%, 84.9%). 49 figure 13. the proportion of graduates satisfied with their transfer experience among those that transferred to university by college characteristics and disability status. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% college region distance of nearest uni is closest uni to from perm address perm address selective? self-reported disability yes large medium small yes no 80 kms 50-79 kms <50 kms southwestern northern metro toronto eastern central 0% college size self-reported disability no 50 figure 14 presents the proportion of graduates who believed they would have been accepted into their current program without graduating from college first among those that transferred to university and responded to disability status. overall, 42% of graduates who transferred to university believed they would have been accepted into their current program without graduating college first whereas 54% did not. similar proportions of graduates who transferred to university expressed similar views across disability status. 51 figure 14. distribution of graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status by whether they believed they would have been accepted without graduating from their college program first, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% yes no don't know do you think you would have been accepted into your current program without graduating from college first? self-reported disability self-reported disability 52 figure 15 presents the distribution of when graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status decided to further their education after college graduation. overall, 39% of graduates who transferred to university decided to further their education before entering into their college program and 50% decided either at the start of their college program or during the completion of their program. only 11% of graduates who transferred to university decided to further their education following completion of their college program. a similar distribution of graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status was observed among those who reported having a disability compared to those who reported having no disability by when they decided to further their education. 53 figure 15. distribution of graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status by when they decided to further their education, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. 50.0% 45.0% 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% before entering college program at the start of college program during college program after completion of college program when did you decide that you would further your education after college graduation? self-reported disability self-reported disability figure 16 presents the distribution of graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status by how related their current program is to their college program. overall, 55% of graduates who transferred to university reported their current program was very related to their college program. no differences were observed by the relatedness of current program to college program when comparing graduates who reported having a disability to those who reported having no disability. figure 16. distribution of graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status by the relatedness of their current program to previous college program, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% not related at all somewhat related very related how is current program related to college program? self-reported disability self-reported disability figure 17 presents the distribution of the amount of credit the graduate received towards their current program from their college program among graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status. overall, among graduates of 2 year diploma programs at college who 54 transferred to university, approximately 38% received one year of credit and 25% received 2 or more years of credit. alternatively, among graduates of 3 year diploma programs at college who transferred to university, approximately 57% received two or more years of credit towards their current program. similar results were observed for the amount of credit received towards their current program among graduates who transferred to university and reported having a disability compared to those who reported having no disability. figure 17. distribution of graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status by the amount of credit received from college program, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% none less about one one to two or none less about one one to two or than half a year two more than half a year two more half a year years years half a year years years year year 2 yr diploma 3 yr diploma how much credit did you receive from your college program towards your current program? self-reported disability yes self-reported disability no 55 figure 18 presents the distribution of the amount of credit that was received compared to the amount expected by graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status. overall, among graduates who transferred to university approximately 56% received the same amount of credit as expected towards their new program and 27% received less credit than was expected. similar results were observed for the amount of credit received compared to what was expected among graduates who transferred to university and reported having a disability compared to graduates who transferred to university and reported having no disability. 56 figure 18. distribution of graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status by the amount of credit they received compared to expected, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% less than expected the same as expected more than expected relative to what you expected, the amount of credit you received was self-reported disability self-reported disability regression results to investigate the effect of selected characteristics on the odds of being satisfied with graduates transfer to university, six regression models were performed (table 8 & table 9). models 9, 11, and 13 include international students whereas models 10, 12 and 14 are restricted to graduates with an ontario permanent address. models 9 & 10 include all graduates 2014-2016 and investigates the effect of selected characteristics on the odds of a graduate being satisfied with their transfer experience to university among those graduates who transferred to university. models 11 & 12 are restricted to those graduates who transferred to university and responded to the gss question regarding selfidentified disabilities. models 13 & 14 are restricted to those graduates who transferred to university and responded to the gss question regarding self-identified registration with the office for students with a disability. overall, among those variables selected to be included in the multivariable regression models, similar results were observed across models. sociodemographics in general, results of multivariable models provide evidence that among graduates of ontario publicly funded colleges, international students compared to ontario residents have a higher odds of being satisfied with their transfer experience to university. older age groups compared to younger age groups have a lower odds of being satisfied with their transfer experience to university. college programs graduates of 2 and 3 year diploma programs compared to 1 year certificate programs have a lower odds of being satisfied with their transfer experience to university. a lower odds of being satisfied with their transfer experience to university was also observed for graduates whose permanent address was closest to a university that was selective compared to non-selective. additionally, graduates who 57 are considered to have been part-time students at the time of their college graduation have a higher odds of being satisfied with their transfer experience compared to full-time graduates. geography in comparison to graduates of colleges located in central ontario, graduates of colleges located in the northern region of ontario have a lower odds of being satisfied with their transfer experience to university. disability status results of models 11 and 12 provide evidence for a lower odds of being satisfied with the transition experience to university among graduates who self-identified themselves as having a disability compared to no disability (model 11: 0.79, 95% ci: 0.65, 0.97; model 12: 0.79, 95% ci: 0.64, 0.97). similarly, results of models 13 and 14 suggest there may be a lower odds of being satisfied with their transfer experience to university among graduates who self-identified as registering with the office for students with a disability compared to graduates who did not (model 13: 0.82, 95% ci: 0.66, 1.02; model 14: 0.84, 95% ci: 0.67, 1.05). however, among the population of graduates who self-identified as having a disability, no association was observed among those who registered with the office for students with a disability and the odds of transferring to university. results of univariate analysis including international students (or: 1.05; 95% ci: 0.72, 1.55) and univariate analysis excluding international students (or: 1.10; 95% ci: 0.74, 1.63) provide no evidence for a difference in the odds of being satisfied with graduates transition experience to university by self-identified registration with the office for students with a disability among the population of graduates who self-identified with a disability. table 8. regression analysis: satisfaction with transfer experience and effect of self-identified disability on the satisfaction with transfer experience to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels self-identified with a disability (ref=no) status in canada (ref=other) age (ref=<22 years) yes international 22-25 years >25 years sex (ref=female) male credential type (ref=certificate 1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) college region (ref=central) (9) transfer experience (including international students) (10) transfer experience (excluding international students) (12) transfer experience (excluding international disability popn) 0.791** (0.084) 0.985 (0.078) 0.783*** (0.074) (11) transfer experience (including international disability popn) 0.793** (0.082) 1.784*** (0.330) 0.959 (0.077) 0.771*** (0.074) 1.672*** (0.298) 0.949 (0.074) 0.749*** (0.069) 0.823** (0.080) 0.834 (0.082) 0.824 (0.082) 0.831 (0.084) 0.636*** (0.068) 0.637*** (0.069) 0.627*** (0.069) 0.630*** (0.070) 1.038 (0.103) 1.017 (0.102) 1.052 (0.107) 1.038 (0.107) 0.982 (0.081) 0.798** (0.078) eastern 58 metro toronto northern southwestern is the closest university to permanent address selective? (ref=no) college size (ref=small) yes medium large term student graduated (ref=summer) fall winter academic load at graduation (ref=full time) constant 0.859 (0.087) 0.600*** (0.102) 1.032 (0.116) part time pseudo r2 observations standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05 0.712 (0.125) 0.870 (0.166) 1.068 (0.238) 1.367*** (0.129) 1.339** (0.173) 5.515*** (1.221) 0.0138 6,069 0.879 (0.091) 0.599*** (0.105) 1.097 (0.128) 0.785*** (0.066) 0.694** (0.124) 0.900 (0.173) 1.011 (0.240) 1.356*** (0.123) 5.723*** (1.285) 0.0131 5,753 0.858 (0.089) 0.585*** (0.103) 1.003 (0.115) 0.869 (0.092) 0.580*** (0.106) 1.047 (0.125) 0.814** 0.723 (0.133) 0.866 (0.172) 1.124 (0.255) 1.435*** (0.138) 1.367** (0.071) 0.711 (0.133) 0.889 (0.178) 1.067 (0.258) 1.510*** (0.149) 1.306 (0.182) 5.365*** (1.229) 0.0158 5,760 (0.178) 5.238*** (1.229) 0.015 5,455 table 9. regression analysis: the effect of registering with the disability office on satisfaction of transfer experience to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels registered with office for students with a disability (ref=no) status in canada (ref=other) age (ref=<22 years) yes international 22-25 years >25 years credential type (ref=certificate (1 yr)) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) college region (ref=central) eastern metro toronto northern southwestern is the closest university yes transfer experience (including international students) 0.821 (0.092) 1.765*** (0.327) 0.962 (0.077) 0.766*** (0.073) 0.825 (0.083) 0.632*** (0.069) 1.046 (0.107) 0.855 (0.089) 0.582*** (0.103) 1.003 (0.115) transfer experience (excluding international students) 0.835 (0.095) 0.986 (0.081) 0.794** (0.077) 0.831 (0.084) 0.635*** (0.071) 1.030 (0.106) 0.866 (0.092) 0.576*** (0.105) 1.049 (0.125) 0.809** 59 to permanent address selective? (ref=no) college size (ref=small) medium 0.727 (0.133) 0.871 (0.173) 1.121 (0.255) 1.436*** (0.138) 1.382** (0.184) 5.298*** (1.213) 0.0154 5,766 large term student graduated (ref=summer) fall winter academic load at graduation (ref=full time) constant part time pseudo r2 observations standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05 (0.070) 0.712 (0.133) 0.893 (0.179) 1.062 (0.257) 1.512*** (0.149) 1.317** (0.179) 5.181*** (1.216) 0.0146 5,461 appendix 3.8 contains regression models with additional variables including: source of transfer info major reason for transfer; how much transfer credit the student received; when the student was notified of transfer credit; credit received vs. expected; and how related the students current program is to previous. with the addition of these variables, graduates with a disability who transferred to university were less likely to report satisfaction with their transition experience to university. satisfaction with academic preparation descriptive results table 10 presents the proportion of graduates who transferred to university and were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university. overall, among the graduate population that transferred to university, the proportion that was satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university was 85.0%. university transfers who reported a disability were only slightly less likely to be satisfied with their academic preparation (82.6% vs 85.2%), with a similar result seen for those who indicated use of the disability service office. a higher proportion of graduates were satisfied with their academic preparation among international students compared to ontario residents, students whose permanent address was greater than or more than 80 kms from the nearest university compared to less than 50 kms, and if the graduates permanent address was located in a rural setting compared to an urban setting. a lower proportion of graduates were satisfied with their academic preparation among those who graduated from a 3 year diploma program compared to a 1 year certificate and who graduated from the engineering/technology field compared to business. for the remaining characteristics, there was little difference observed in satisfaction with academic preparation. table 10. proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for university transfer, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. variables labels n self-identified with a disability no yes missing no yes missing other 5,136 614 307 5,240 516 301 5,758 registered with the office for students with disability? status in canada proportion satisfied with academic preparation (%) 85.2 82.6 86.6 85.1 83.7 85.7 84.8 95% ci 84.2, 86.2 79.4, 85.4 82.4, 90.0 84.1, 86.1 80.3, 86.7 81.3, 89.2 83.9, 85.7 60 international 299 89.0 84.9, 92.1 <22 year 2,719 85.7 84.3, 86.9 22-25 years 2,306 84.7 83.2, 86.1 >25 years 1,032 84.1 81.7, 86.2 sex female 3,369 85.4 84.2, 86.6 male 2,683 84.5 83.1, 85.9 missing 5 100.0 program duration 1 year 1,029 86.9 84.7, 88.8 2 years 3,366 85.3 84.1, 86.5 3 years 1,662 83.4 81.5, 85.1 program type business 1,456 86.1 84.3, 87.8 community service 2,138 84.5 82.9, 86.0 creative and applied arts 379 85.8 81.9, 88.9 health 208 88.5 83.3, 92.2 hospitality 95 84.2 75.4, 90.3 prep/upgrading 999 87.2 85.0, 89.1 engineering/ technology 782 80.6 77.6, 83.2 college region central 1,596 84.8 82.9, 86.5 eastern 1,205 86.4 84.3, 88.2 metro 1,989 83.7 82.0, 85.3 northern 456 85.7 82.2, 88.7 southwestern 811 86.4 83.9, 88.6 distance of nearest university <50 kms 5,073 84.4 83.4, 85.4 from permanent address 50-79 kms 498 87.1 83.9, 89.8 80 kms 442 89.8 86.6, 92.3 missing 44 86.4 72.6, 93.8 is the closest university to permanent no 4,670 85.4 84.4, 86.4 address a selective university? yes 1,343 83.6 81.5, 85.5 missing 44 86.4 72.6, 93.8 rural or urban permanent address urban 5,322 84.7 83.7, 85.6 rural 698 87.5 84.9, 89.8 missing 37 86.5 71.1, 94.3 income tercile of ontario fsa low income 2,008 85.6 84.0, 87.1 mid income 2,058 84.2 82.5, 85.7 high income 1,618 84.9 83.1, 86.6 missing 373 87.4 83.6, 90.4 program size <46 students 1,847 85.1 83.4, 86.6 46-106 students 1,899 84.6 82.9, 86.1 107 students 2,311 85.4 83.9, 86.8 college size small 414 86.7 83.1, 89.7 medium 2,157 84.8 83.3, 86.3 large 3,486 85.0 83.7, 86.1 academic year of graduation 2014 2,323 84.9 83.4, 86.3 2015 1,956 85.8 84.2, 87.3 2016 1,778 84.4 82.7, 86.0 term student graduated summer 953 85.4 83.0, 87.5 fall 137 82.5 75.2, 88.0 winter 4,967 85.0 84.0, 86.0 academic load at graduation full time 5,529 85.0 84.0, 85.9 part time 528 85.4 82.1, 88.2 note: n=6,057. a detailed table of the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university by disability status is presented in appendix 3.3. age figure 19 presents the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university by graduation year, semester and full or part time status by 61 disability status. across categories of graduation characteristics, no statistically significant differences was observed among graduates who self-identified as having a disability compared to graduates who self-identified as having no disability. figure 19. proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to by disability status by year, term, and academic load. 100.0% 90.0% 84.9% 86.1% 84.6% 83.4% 80.0% 85.2% 84.7% 84.6% 79.1% 94.4% 85.1% 86.5% 85.4% 82.7% 80.3% 81.8% 80.8% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 2014 2015 2016 academic year of graduation summer fall winter term student graduated self-reported disability yes full time part time academic load at graduation self-reported disability no 62 figure 20 presents the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university by sociodemographic characteristics and disability status. similar estimates for the proportion of graduates satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university was observed among those who self-identified as having and not having a disability across sociodemographic characteristics, with the exception of income. a higher proportion of graduates with a disability were satisfied with their academic preparation among those in the highest income tercile group (89.3%; 95% ci: 84.0%, 93.0%) compared to the lowest (80.4%; 95% ci: 74.0%, 85.6%). 63 figure 20. proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university among those who transferred and responded to disability status by socicodemographic characteristics. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% status in canada age self-reported disability yes sex permanent address high income mid income low income rural urban male female >25 years 22-25 years <22 years international other 0% income tercile self-reported disability no 64 figure 21 presents the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university by college program characteristics and disability status. across categories of college program characteristics, no statistically significant differences was observed among graduates who self-identified as having a disability compared to graduates who self-identified as having no disability. 65 figure 21. proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university among those who transferred and responded to disability status by college program characteristics. 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% program size credential type self-reported disability yes eng/tech prep/upgrading hospitality health creative and applied arts community service business advanced diploma (3 yr) diploma (2 yr) certificate (1 yr) 107 graduates 46-106 graduates <46 graduates 0.0% program area self-reported disability no 66 figure 22 presents the proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university by college characteristics and disability status. across categories of college characteristics, no statistically significant differences was observed among graduates who self-identified as having a disability compared to graduates who self-identified as having no disability. 67 figure 22. proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university among those who transferred and responded to disability status by college characteristics. 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% college region distance of nearest uni is closest uni to from perm address perm address selective? self-reported disability yes large medium small yes no 80 kms 50-79 kms <50 kms southwestern northern metro toronto eastern central 0.0% college size self-reported disability no regression results to investigate the effect of selected characteristics on the odds of being satisfied with a graduates academic preparation for transfer to university, six regression models were performed (table 11 & table 12). models 15, 17 & 19 include international students whereas models 16, 18 & 20 are restricted to graduates with an ontario permanent address. models 15 & 16 include all graduates 20142016 and investigates the effect of selected characteristics on the odds of a graduate being satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university among those graduates who transferred to university. models 17 & 18 are further restricted to those graduates who transferred to university and responded to the gss question regarding self-identified disabilities. models 19 & 20 are restricted to those graduates who transferred to university and responded to the gss question regarding selfidentified registration with the office for students with disabilities. sociodemographics in general, results of multivariable models provide evidence that among graduates of ontario publicly funded colleges, international students compared to ontario residents have a higher odds of being satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university. 68 college programs graduates of 3 year diploma programs compared to 1 year certificate programs were observed to have a lower odds of being satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university. a lower odds of being satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university was also observed for graduates of engineering/technology programs compared to business programs. geography graduates whose permanent address is greater than or equal to 80 kms from the nearest university have a higher odds of being satisfied with their academic preparation for transfer to university compared to graduates who have a permanent address less than 50 kms to the nearest university. disability status results of models 17 and 18, respectively, do not provide evidence for a lower odds of being satisfied with academic preparation for transfer to university among graduates who self-identified themselves as having a disability compared to no disability (model 17: 0.81, 95% ci: 0.65, 1.01; model 18: 0.82, 95% ci: 0.65, 1.04). similarly, results of models 19 and 20 do not provide statistically significant evidence of a lower odds of being satisfied with academic preparation for transfer to university among graduates who self-identified as registering with the office for students with a disability (model 19: 0.89, 95% ci: 0.699, 1.14; model 20: 0.93, 95% ci: 0.72, 1.20). additionally, results of univariate analysis including international students (or: 1.35; 95% ci: 0.89, 2.06) and univariate analysis excluding international students (or: 1.43; 95% ci: 0.93, 2.20) provide no evidence for a difference in the odds of being satisfied with graduates academic preparation for transfer to university by self-identified registration with the office for students with a disability among the population of graduates who selfidentified with a disability. table 11. regression analysis: satisfaction with academic preparation and effect of self-identified disability on satisfaction with academic preparation, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels self-identified with a disability (ref=no) status in canada (ref=other) credential type (ref=certificate 1 yr) yes international (15) academic preparation (including international students) (16) academic preparation (excluding international students) diploma ( 2 yr) community service creative and applied arts health (18) academic preparation (excluding international disability popn) 0.823 (0.097) 1.469** (0.283) 0.911 (0.097) advanced diploma (3 yr) program area (ref=business) (17) academic preparation (including international disability popn) 0.811 (0.092) 0.750** (0.087) 0.913 (0.089) 0.921 (0.092) 0.970 (0.099) 0.991 (0.164) 1.275 1.025 (0.176) 1.257 1.044 (0.183) 1.313 69 hospitality prep/ upgrading engineering/ technology distance of nearest university from permanent address (ref=<50 kms) constant (0.294) 0.824 (0.241) (0.291) 0.775 (0.245) (0.316) 0.784 (0.249) 1.129 (0.138) 1.125 (0.140) 1.135 (0.143) 0.678*** (0.080) 0.689*** (0.084) 1.268 (0.178) 1.691*** (0.280) 5.634*** (0.451) 0.0064 5,740 0.704*** (0.088) 1.295 (0.189) 1.648*** (0.277) 5.572*** (0.455) 0.0067 5,444 50-79 kms 80 kms pseudo r2 observations standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05 5.974*** (0.464) 0.0046 6,057 6.615*** (0.627) 0.0022 5,750 table 12. regression analysis: the effect of registering with the disability office on satisfaction with academic preparation, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels registered with office for students with a disability (ref=no) status in canada (ref=other) program area (ref=business) yes international community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/ upgrading engineering/ technology distance of nearest university from permanent address (ref=<50 kms) constant pseudo r2 observations standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05 (19) academic preparation (including international students) 0.895 (0.113) 1.490** (0.291) 0.962 (0.096) 1.008 (0.170) 1.412 (0.345) 0.824 (0.242) 1.145 (0.142) 0.697*** (0.084) 50-79 kms 80 kms 5.846*** (0.463) 0.0047 5,756 (20) academic preparation (excluding international students) 0.931 (0.121) 0.966 (0.098) 1.036 (0.182) 1.378 (0.338) 0.767 (0.244) 1.125 (0.142) 0.706*** (0.088) 1.283 (0.187) 1.649*** (0.277) 5.527*** (0.451) 0.0063 5,450 70 however, appendix 3.10 shows that, when additional variables are included in the regression model, self-reported disability status becomes significant. additional variables included source of transfer information, reasons for transfer, how much transfer credit the student received, when the student was notified of transfer credit, credit received vs. expected, and how related the students current program is to previous. conclusions graduates with a disability are more likely to transfer between college community service and university social sciences (32% vs 26%), whereas they are less likely to transfer between business programs (13% vs 19%) and engineering and related programs (3% vs 8%). the results also show that college graduates who report a disability are slightly less likely to transfer to university six months after graduation, even when controlling for a wide variety of student, program, and college characteristics. of those who transfer to university, they are also somewhat less likely to be satisfied with the experience, a result seen in both the descriptive analysis and the regression models. some variables that were not available or this study, may explain these differences. these potentially include academic factors, such as high school and college grades, as well as whether the graduates had similar aspirations (with or without a disability) for transfer to university. 71 references hosmer, d.w. & lemeshow, l. (2000). applied logistic regression. 2nd ed. new york: wiley. smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. vittinghoff, e. (2012). regression methods in biostatistics: linear, logistic, survival, and repeated measures models. 2nd ed. new york: springer. 72 appendix appendix 1. graduate satisfaction survey, questions of relevance 1. first of all, could you tell me whether you were attending an educational institution on a full-time basis or part-time basis during the week of july 1st - 7th, 2014? [g/e] 1 2 3 2. yes, full-time [754] yes, part-time no -- continue -- continue -- skip to q.6 and during that week, were you attending a college, a university or other institution? 01 o college (other) [755 - 756] specify: ________________________-- continue 02 algonquin 03 college boreal 04 cambrian 05 canadore 06 centennial 07 la cite collgiale 08 conestoga 09 confederation 10 durham 11 fanshawe 12 george brown 13 georgian 14x le college des grands lacs (invisible and unavailable to the interviewer) 15 humber 16 lambton 17 loyalist 18 mohawk 19 niagara 20 northern 21 st. clair 22 st. lawrence 23 sault (pronounced: sue) 24 seneca 25 sheridan 26 sir sandford fleming 51 o university (other) specify: ________________________ -- skip to q.4 71 algoma [new in 07f] 52 brock/concordia lutheran seminary/college/college dominician de philosophie et 53 carleton 54 guelph 55 lakehead 56 laurentian/huntington/sudbury/hearst/thorneloe 57 mcmaster/mcmaster divinity college 68 nipissing 70 ontario college of art & design/ocad [new in 05s] 69 ontario institute of technology/uoit [new in 05w] 58 ottawa/st. paul university 59 queens/queen's theological college 60 ryerson 73 3. 4. 72 the michener institute [08s only] 61 toronto/knox college/regis college/st. augustine's seminary/st. michael'scollege/trinity college/victoria university/wycliffe college 62 trent 63 waterloo/conradgrebel university college/renison college/st. jerome's university/st. paul's united college/waterloo lutheran seminary 64 western/brescia college/huron college/king's college/st. peter's seminary 65 wilfred laurier 66 windsor 67 york 81o other educational institution (specify) _______________ skip to q.5 98 refused was this a... read list 0-4, 6-9 [revised in 08s] 1 second year option or transition from a one year program [838] 3 third year option or transition from a two year program 2 two year diploma 8 three year advanced diploma 9 graduate certificate or post-diploma 6 college degree 7 degree offered jointly with a university (i.e. a collaborative program) ] 0 one year certificate, or 4 continuing education course 5 neither/refused [do not read] was this a university... read list 1 - 3, 5 [revised in 08s] 1 certificate or diploma program, or [922] [v113] 2 undergraduate degree program 6 graduate or professional degree program 3 continuing education course 5 degree offered jointly with a college (i.e. a collaborative program), or 4 neither/refused (do not read) 4a. what program did you enrol in? (university respondents, using usis/ spemag codes) 5a. please tell me whether each of the following were a major reason, a minor reason or not a a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. l. potential for higher income no work/ job available in your field of study to get diploma/ certificate/ degree interest in further/ more in-depth training in field interest in pursuing a different field of study needed for professional designation gain theoretical knowledge/ broader education encouragement from others (family members, friends, faculty) more opportunities for career advancement upgrade/ improve skills there was a formal transfer agreement between your previous and your current program company required/ paid for it major minor not a reason rf dk 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 [1180] 9 [1181] 9 [1182] 9 [1183] 9 [1184] 9 [1185] 9 [1186] 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 8 8 8 8 9 [1187] 9 [1188] 9 [1189] 9 [1190] 3 2 1 8 9 [1191] 74 if answered part time in q1, skip to q.6, else continue: 5b. when you were making your plans for further education, please tell me whether each of the following was a major source of information, minor source of information or not used at all? read and rotate list not used major minor at all rf dk a. college website 9 [1192] 3 2 1 8 b. college hard copy publications 9 [1193] 3 2 1 8 program coordinators 3 d. college administration, i.e. registrars office, 2 1 8 9 [1194] student services e. university website/ publications 9 [1196] 3 2 3 1 2 8 1 9 [1195] 8 faculty, etc.) 3 g. other students (including current and former 2 1 8 9 [1197] college and university students) 2 1 8 9 [1198] 3 2 1 8 c. f. college faculty/ counselors/ university staff (including registrars office, 3 h. ontransfer.ca web site 9 [3954] 5e. list i. parents and family 3 2 1 8 9 [1200] j. college credit transfer advising services 3 2 1 8 9 [3955] k. university credit transfer advising services 3 2 1 8 9 [3956] when did you decide that you would further your education after college graduation? was it... read 1 before entering the ________________ (college program) program at __________ college [1453] [new in 06s] 2 at the start of the ____________________ (college program) program at __________ (college) college 3 during the ________________________ (college program) program at __________ (college) college 4 after completion of the ____________________ (college program) program at _ (college) college 8 refused 9 don't know 75 5k. first? 5f. do you think you would have been accepted into your current program without graduating from college 1 yes [1459] [new in 06s] 2 no 8 refused 9 don't know how related is your current program to the _____________ (college progam) at ___________ (college) college? would you say it is....... read list 1-3 3 2 1 8 9 very related [1454][v156] [new in 06s] somewhat related not at all related refused don't know 5g. not asked (new in 12s) 5gg. did you request credit for previous college or university learning towards the program you are currently enrolled in? [new in 06s, revised in 08s, new in 12s] 1 yes [3957] 2 no 8 refused 9 dont know please estimate how much credit you have or will receive from your ________________ (program name) toward your current program. would it be.... read list 0- 6 5h. 5i. list 1- 6 6 more than two years [1456] [new in 06s, revised in 08s] 5 two years 4 one to two years 3 one year 2 about half a year 1 less than half a year 0 none 8 refused skip to q.5l 9 don't know skip to q.5l when did you find out whether you were receiving credit for your college program? 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 5j. was it..... read with the offer of admission [1457 [new in 06s] at or before registration after registration have not heard yet go to q.5kk have not applied for credit yet, or go to q.5kk you are not applying for credit go to q.5kk refused go to q.5kk don't know go to q.5kk relative to what you expected, the amount of credit you received was.... read list 1-3 1 2 3 less than expected [1458] [new in 06s] the same as expected, or more than expected 76 8 9 5kk did you use credit transfer advising services for the program you are currently enrolled in? 1 2 8 9 5kkk 5l. refused don't know yes, used credit advising services [3958] [new in 12s] no, didnt use credit advising services skip to q.5l refused skip to q.5l dont know skip to q.5l overall, how satisfied were you with the credit transfer advising services for the program you are currently enrolled in? 5 very satisfied [3959] [new in 12s] 4 satisfied 3 neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 2 dissatisfied 1 very dissatisfied 8 refused 9 do not know overall, how satisfied are you with the transition experience from college to your current program? 5 4 3 2 1 8 9 very satisfied [1460] [new in 06s] satisfied neither satisfied nor dissatisfied dissatisfied very dissatisfied refused don't know 5m. and, overall, how satisfied are you with your academic preparation for your current program of study? [1461][v163] [new in 06s] 5 4 3 2 1 8 9 44c. 44d. 44e. very satisfied satisfied neither satisfied nor dissatisfied dissatisfied very dissatisfied refused don't know in order to group our data, can you tell me if you consider yourself to have a physical, intellectual, mental health or learning disability? [4301] [new in 13s] did you register with the office for students with disabilities at any point during your career at ________(i.1 institution from list)? [4302] [new in 13s] do you want to self-identify as an aboriginal person, that is, someone who is related to, or descended from, the original peoples of canada? [4303] [new in 14s] 77 appendix 2. classification of college size and region code algo bore camb cana cent conf cons durh fans grbr geor humb laci lamb loyt moha niag nort saul sene sher slaw ssfl stcl college name algonquin college collge boral cambrian college canadore college centennial college confederation college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college sir sandford fleming college st. clair college college region eastern northern northern northern metro toronto northern southwestern central southwestern metro toronto central metro toronto eastern southwestern eastern central central northern northern metro toronto central eastern eastern southwestern college size large small medium small large small medium medium large large medium large medium small small large medium small small large large medium medium medium college region is classified according to the postal code of the colleges main campus. (eastern:k; central:l; metro:m; north:p; south:n) college size is classified according to ocas reported fall enrolment for 2015 for all funding types (eg. collaborative nursing, international) (ocas report # rpt0061; report ran: sep 21, 2016) 78 appendix 3. additional descriptive tables appendix 3.1. proportion of graduates who transferred to university among graduates who responded to disability status, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. n=120,862. variables registered with the office for students with disability? status in canada age sex credential type program area college region distance of nearest university from permanent address is the closest university to permanent address a selective university? permanent address income tercile of ontario fsa program size labels no yes missing other international <22 year 22-25 years >25 years female male missing certificate (1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) business community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/upgrading engineering/ technology central eastern metro toronto northern southwestern <50 kms 50-79 kms 80 kms missing no yes missing urban rural missing low income mid income high income missing <46 graduates disability (n=11,657) proportion transferred to university (%) 5.5 6.2 0 6.1 3.2 7.8 6.0 4.1 6.3 5.3 14.3 3.2 6.2 9.5 7.0 9.6 4.1 1.5 1.2 8.7 3.2 5.6 6.2 6.3 6.7 4.6 6.0 5.1 4.9 6.0 6.2 5.0 6.0 6.0 4.7 6.8 4.9 5.8 6.7 10.4 5.1 no disability (n=91,205) 95% ci 4.9, 6.2 5.6, 6.8 5.7, 6.6 2.3, 4.5 7.0, 8.8 5.3, 6.8 3.5, 4.8 5.7, 6.9 4.7, 6.0 1.7, 62.1 2.7, 3.9 5.7, 6.8 8.2, 11.0 5.9, 8.2 8.6, 10.7 3.2, 5.3 0.9, 2.3 0.7, 2.3 7.3, 10.3 2.5, 4.1 4.8, 6.6 5.3, 7.3 5.6, 7.2 5.3, 8.5 3.8, 5.6 5.6, 6.5 4.0, 6.5 3.6, 6.6 2.5, 13.7 5.7, 6.7 4.3, 5.9 2.5, 13.7 5.6, 6.5 3.7, 5.9 2.8, 15.3 4.3, 5.6 5.1, 6.5 5.9, 7.7 7.5, 14.1 4.5, 5.8 proportion transferred to university (%) 6.4 5.3 3.4 6.7 2.8 9.1 6.8 3.4 6.5 6.1 7.1 4.7 5.9 9.3 8.2 11.1 4.0 1.9 2.0 10.8 3.6 6.7 6.8 6.5 5.9 5.0 6.6 5.2 5.6 4.7 6.6 5.6 4.7 6.5 5.2 4.5 5.6 6.2 6.9 10.8 5.8 95% ci 6.2, 6.5 4.5, 6.2 1.5, 7.4 6.6, 6.9 2.5, 3.2 8.8, 9.5 6.5, 7.1 3.2 3.6 6.3, 6.8 5.9, 6.3 3.2, 15.1 4.4, 5.0 5.7, 6.1 8.9, 9.8 7.8, 8.6 10.6, 11.6 3.6, 4.4 1.7, 2.2 1.6, 2.4 10.2, 11.5 3.4, 3.9 6.4, 7.0 6.4, 7.2 6.3, 6.8 5.3, 6.5 4.7, 5.4 6.4, 6.7 4.7, 5.7 5.1, 6.1 3.5, 6.3 6.4, 6.8 5.3, 5.9 3.5, 6.3 6.4, 6.7 4.8, 5.6 3.3, 6.2 5.4, 5.8 6.0, 6.5 6.6, 7.2 9.8, 11.9 5.6, 6.1 79 college size academic year of graduation term student graduated academic load at graduation 46-106 graduates 107 graduates small medium large 2014 2015 2016 summer fall winter full time part time 6.2 6.3 4.9 6.3 5.8 5.4 6.5 5.7 4.1 1.5 7.3 6.5 2.8 5.5, 7.1 5.6, 7.1 3.8, 6.4 5.6, 7.1 5.2, 6.3 4.7, 6.1 5.8, 7.4 5.0, 6.6 3.4, 5.0 1.0, 2.2 6.7, 7.9 6.1, 7.0 2.2, 3.6 6.4 6.8 5.1 6.6 6.3 6.5 6.5 5.9 4.6 1.5 8.0 6.7 4.4 6.1, 6.7 6.5, 7.0 4.6, 5.7 6.4, 6.9 6.1, 6.5 6.2, 6.8 6.2, 6.8 5.6, 6.2 4.3, 4.8 1.3, 1.7 7.8, 8.2 6.5, 6.8 4.0, 4.7 appendix 3.2. proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their transfer experience among graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. n=5,760. variables labels registered with the office for students with disability? status in canada no yes other international <22 year 22-25 years >25 years female male missing certificate (1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) business community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/upgrading engineering/ technology central eastern metro toronto northern southwestern <50 kms 50-79 kms 80 kms missing age sex credential type program area college region distance of nearest university from permanent address disability (n=615) proportion 95% ci satisfied with transfer experience (%) 76.2 70.3, 81.2 77.1 72.6, 81.1 76.3 72.7, 79.6 84.4 67.2, 93.4 77.6 72.0, 82.4 76.4 70.2, 81.6 75.8 68.3, 82.1 76.6 72.0, 80.6 76.9 71.1, 81.8 100 80.0 70.9, 86.8 77.4 72.9, 81.3 72.6 79.8 75.7 64.4, 79.5 71.4, 86.2 69.9, 80.7 76.9 62.5 88.9 78.0 63.4, 86.5 36.9, 82.6 46.8, 98.6 69.5, 84.6 74.6 76.6 79.8 78.2 59.7 81.2 76.6 78.6 76.3 75.0 61.9, 84.1 68.8, 83.0 72.0, 85.9 72.0, 83.4 47.0, 71.2 71.4, 88.2 72.7, 80.1 65.8, 87.5 60.1, 87.3 17.9, 97.6 no disability (n=5,145) proportion 95% ci satisfied with transfer experience (%) 80.9 79.8, 82.0 75.2 67.0, 81.9 80.4 79.3, 81.5 87.8 83.2, 91.3 83.0 81.4, 84.5 80.2 78.4, 81.9 75.9 72.8, 78.7 81.0 79.5, 82.4 80.5 78.9, 82.1 75.0 18.0, 97.6 84.2 81.7, 86.5 81.9 80.4, 83.3 76.4 74.2, 78.6 80.5 80.5 84.8 78.3, 82.6 78.5, 82.2 80.3, 88.4 77.5 81.2 85.1 75.7 70.8, 83.1 71.4, 88.2 82.5, 87.4 72.4, 78.7 81.4 82.2 80.1 76.1 81.4 80.6 80.9 81.8 82.5 79.2, 83.4 79.7, 84.4 78.2, 82.0 71.4, 80.2 78.2, 84.1 79.4, 81.8 76.8, 84.5 77.6, 85.3 67.4, 91.5 80 is the closest university to permanent address a selective university? permanent address income tercile of ontario fsa program size college size academic year of graduation term student graduated academic load at graduation no yes missing urban rural missing low income mid income high income missing <46 graduates 46-106 graduates 107 graduates small medium large 2014 2015 2016 summer fall winter full time part time 76.8 76.6 75.0 76.7 76.9 75.0 76.2 76.3 79.3 67.7 74.7 76.3 78.7 60.0 78.7 78.0 75.7 79.5 74.6 72.2 84.2 77.3 76.7 76.9 72.8, 80.4 68.9, 82.9 17.9, 97.6 73.0, 80.1 65.1, 85.7 17.9, 97.6 69.5, 81.8 70.1, 81.6 72.8, 84.5 49.4, 81.9 68.0, 80.5 69.7, 81.8 73.0, 83.4 45.8, 72.7 72.6, 83.7 73.3, 82.0 69.5, 81.0 73.6, 84.3 67.6, 80.5 62.0, 80.5 60.0, 95.0 73.4, 80.7 73.1, 80.0 63.4, 86.5 81.1 79.5 82.5 80.7 80.8 87.9 80.2 80.3 81.5 82.7 78.8 80.0 82.9 81.0 79.3 81.6 80.0 80.8 81.9 76.5 77.8 81.7 80.6 82.0 79.9, 82.3 77.0, 81.7 67.4, 91.5 79.5, 81.8 77.4, 83.8 71.5, 95.4 78.2, 82.0 78.4, 82.1 79.4, 83.5 78.4, 86.4 76.7, 80.8 78.0, 81.9 81.2, 84.5 76.4, 84.9 77.4, 81.1 80.2, 83.0 78.3, 81.7 78.9, 82.6 79.7, 83.9 73.4, 79.3 69.3, 84.4 80.5, 82.8 79.5, 81.7 78.2, 85.3 appendix 3.3. proportion of graduates who were satisfied with their academic preparation for university transfer among graduates who transferred to university and responded to disability status, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. n=5,750. variables labels registered with the office for students with disability? status in canada no yes other international <22 year 22-25 years >25 years female male missing certificate (1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) business community service creative and applied arts age sex credential type program area disability (n=614) proportion 95% ci satisfied with academic preparation (%) 79.8 74.2, 84.5 84.3 80.2, 87.6 82.5 79.2, 85.4 84.4 67.1, 93.4 82.8 77.6, 87.0 82.8 77.1, 87.3 81.9 74.8, 87.3 82.9 78.7, 86.4 82.0 76.6, 86.4 100 80.8 71.8, 87.4 82.1 77.9, 85.7 85.2 86.0 82.1 78.1, 90.3 78.3, 91.2 76.8, 86.4 86.3 73.7, 93.4 no disability (n=5,136) proportion 95% ci satisfied with academic preparation (%) 85.4 84.4, 86.3 81.5 73.9, 87.3 85.0 84.0, 86.0 89.5 85.0, 92.7 85.9 84.4, 87.2 84.7 83.1, 86.2 84.7 82.1, 87.0 85.7 84.4, 87.0 84.6 83.1, 86.0 100 87.3 84.9, 89.3 85.9 84.6, 87.1 82.8 80.7, 84.6 85.7 85.1 85.4 83.7, 87.6 83.3, 86.7 81.0, 88.9 81 college region distance of nearest university from permanent address is the closest university to permanent address a selective university? permanent address income tercile of ontario fsa program size college size academic year of graduation term student graduated academic load at graduation health hospitality prep/upgrading engineering/ technology central eastern metro toronto northern southwestern <50 kms 50-79 kms 80 kms missing no yes missing urban rural missing low income mid income high income missing <46 graduates 46-106 graduates 107 graduates small medium large 2014 2015 2016 summer fall winter full time part time 93.8 77.8 80.5 64.9, 99.2 39.7, 94.9 72.3, 86.7 76.7 82.5 82.9 82.1 82.3 83.5 82.1 80.7 92.1 75.0 83.6 79.4 75.0 82.7 81.8 75.0 80.4 78.8 89.3 80.6 84.4 83.7 80.3 82.0 82.4 82.8 84.6 83.4 79.1 84.6 94.4 81.8 82.7 80.8 64.2, 85.7 75.1, 88.0 75.4, 88.5 76.1, 86.8 70.6, 90.0 74.0, 90.0 78.6, 85.2 68.3, 89.0 77.9, 97.5 17.9, 97.6 79.9, 86.7 71.9, 85.3 17.9, 97.6 79.3, 85.7 70.5, 89.4 17.9, 97.6 74.0, 85.6 72.7, 83.8 84.0, 93.0 62.7, 91.2 78.4, 89.0 77.7, 88.3 74.7, 84.8 68.7, 90.4 76.6, 87.0 78.5, 86.4 79.1, 88.8 77.9, 87.8 72.4, 84.5 75.6, 90.7 68.0, 99.3 78.2, 84.9 79.4, 85.7 67.6, 89.4 88.2 84.7 87.9 80.8 82.6, 92.2 75.4, 90.9 85.5, 89.9 77.7, 83.6 85.3 86.9 83.6 86.1 86.5 84.6 88.2 89.3 87.5 85.5 84.2 87.5 84.9 87.9 87.9 86.1 84.8 84.0 87.8 84.9 84.8 85.9 87.3 85.3 85.0 84.9 86.1 84.7 85.2 80.3 85.4 85.1 86.5 83.3, 87.0 84.6, 88.8 81.7, 85.2 82.1, 89.3 83.7, 88.9 83.5, 85.6 84.7, 91.0 85.8, 92.0 73.0, 94.8 84.4, 86.6 81.9, 86.2 73.0, 94.8 83.8, 85.9 85.0, 90.3 71.5, 95.4 84.4, 87.7 83.0, 86.4 82.0, 85.9 83.9, 90.9 83.0, 86.6 83.0, 86.5 84.3, 87.4 83.3, 90.5 83.6, 86.8 83.6, 86.2 83.3, 86.4 84.4, 87.7 82.6, 86.5 82.6, 87.5 72.1, 86.6 84.3, 86.4 84.1, 86.1 83.0, 89.4 appendix 3.4. proportion of graduates who transferred to university among graduates who responded to registration with the disability office, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. n=103,070. variables labels self-identified with a disability no yes missing other international <22 year 22-25 years status in canada age registered with disability office proportion 95% ci transferred to university 5.3 6.2 5.2 6.1 3.3 7.7 6.2 4.5, 6.2 5.6, 6.8 2.4, 11.2 5.6, 6.6 2.1, 5.1 6.8, 8.8 5.4, 7.0 did not register with disability office proportion 95% ci transferred to university 6.4 6.2, 6.5 5.5 4.9, 6.2 2.5 1.3, 4.8 6.7 6.6, 6.9 2.8 2.5, 3.2 9.1 8.7, 9.4 6.8 6.5, 7.0 82 sex credential type program area college region distance of nearest university from permanent address is the closest university to permanent address a selective university? rural? income tercile of ontario fsa program size college size academic year of graduation term student graduated academic load at graduation >25 years missing female male missing certificate (1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) business community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/upgrading engineering/technology central eastern metro toronto northern southwestern <50 kms 50-79 kms 80 kms missing no yes missing urban rural missing low income mid income high income missing <46 graduates 46-106 graduates 107 graduates small medium large 2014 2015 2016 summer fall winter full time part time 4.2 n/a 6.4 5.2 16.7 3.0 6.2 9.7 6.9 9.9 3.6, 5.0 5.8, 7.1 4.6, 6.0 1.9, 67.8 2.4, 3.7 5.6, 6.8 8.4, 11.3 5.8, 8.2 8.7, 11.1 3.4 0 6.5 6.1 7.0 4.7 5.9 9.3 8.2 11.0 4.1 1.7 1.2 8.4 3.4 5.9 5.8 6.5 6.4 4.8 6.1 5.2 4.9 7.8 6.0 5.5 7.8 6.1 4.8 8.5 5.3 5.4 7.0 10.5 5.3 6.1 6.3 4.2 6.2 6.0 5.6 6.3 5.8 4.9 1.5 7.1 6.5 3.6 3.1, 5.4 1.1, 2.6 0.6, 2.5 6.9, 10.2 2.6, 4.3 5.0, 7.0 4.9, 7.0 5.7, 7.4 4.9, 8.2 3.9, 5.9 5.6, 6.6 4.0, 6.9 3.5, 6.7 2.9, 19.3 5.5, 6.6 4.7, 6.5 2.9, 19.3 5.6, 6.6 3.7, 6.1 3.2, 20.8 4.6, 6.1 4.7, 6.2 6.1, 8.0 7.0, 15.4 4.6, 6.2 5.3, 7.0 5.6, 7.2 3.0, 5.8 5.4, 7.2 5.4, 6.6 4.9, 6.4 5.6, 7.2 5.0, 6.8 4.1, 6.0 0.9, 2.3 6.5, 7.8 5.9, 7.0 2.9, 4.5 4.0 1.9 1.9 10.8 3.6 6.7 6.8 6.5 6.0 5.0 6.5 5.2 5.6 4.6 6.6 5.5 4.6 6.5 5.2 4.5 5.5 6.3 6.8 10.8 5.8 6.4 6.7 5.2 6.6 6.3 6.5 6.5 5.9 4.5 1.5 8.0 6.7 4.2 3.2, 3.6 6.3, 6.7 5.9, 6.3 3.2, 14.7 4.4, 5.0 5.7, 6.1 8.9, 9.8 7.8, 8.6 10.6, 11.5 3.6, 4.4 1.7, 2.1 1.6, 2.3 10.1, 11.5 3.4, 3.9 6.4, 7.0 6.4, 7.2 6.2, 6.8 5.4, 6.5 4.6, 5.3 6.4, 6.7 4.7, 5.6 5.1, 6.1 3.4, 6.2 6.4, 6.8 5.3, 5.8 3.4, 6.2 6.3, 6.7 4.8, 5.6 3.3, 6.2 5.3, 5.8 6.0, 6.5 6.5, 7.2 9.8, 11.8 5.5, 6.1 6.1, 6.7 6.5, 7.0 4.7, 5.7 6.4, 6.9 6.1, 6.5 6.2, 6.7 6.2, 6.8 5.6, 6.2 4.2, 4.8 1.3, 1.7 7.8, 8.2 6.5, 6.8 3.9, 4.6 83 appendix 3.5. proportion of graduates who transferred to university among graduates who self-reported a disability by whether they registered with the disability office, ontario graduates, six months after graduation, 2014-2016. n=11,569. variables labels status in canada other international <22 year 22-25 years >25 years female male missing certificate (1 yr) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) business community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/upgrading engineering/technology central eastern metro toronto northern southwestern <50 kms 50-79 kms 80 kms missing no yes missing urban rural missing low income mid income high income missing <46 graduates 46-106 graduates 107 graduates small medium large 2014 2015 2016 summer age sex credential type program area college region distance of nearest university from permanent address is the closest university to permanent address a selective university? rural? income tercile of ontario fsa program size college size academic year of graduation term student graduated registered with disability office proportion 95% ci transferred to university 6.3 5.7, 6.9 4.2 2.6, 6.8 8.3 7.1, 9.6 6.1 5.2, 7.1 4.6 3.8, 5.5 6.6 5.9, 7.4 5.6 4.8, 6.5 20.0 2.1, 74.3 3.1 2.4, 3.9 6.7 5.9, 7.5 10.0 8.3, 12.0 6.8 5.5, 8.5 10.1 8.8, 11.6 4.6 1.3 1.0 8.7 3.8 5.8 6.6 7.0 6.3 4.9 6.4 5.3 4.4 9.4 6.3 5.8 9.4 6.4 4.8 10.0 5.7 5.6 7.1 11.1 5.3 6.7 6.7 4.5 6.5 6.3 6.0 6.4 6.1 5.0 3.4, 6.2 0.7, 2.4 0.4, 2.5 6.9, 10.8 2.9, 5.1 4.8, 7.1 5.4, 8.0 5.9, 8.2 4.6, 8.6 3.8, 6.2 5.8, 7.1 3.8, 7.3 2.9, 6.6 3.0, 25.7 5.7, 7.0 4.8, 6.9 3.0, 2.6 5.8, 7.0 3.6, 6.4 3.2, 27.2 4.8, 6.7 4.7, 6.6 6.1, 8.4 6.8, 17.6 4.5, 6.3 5.7, 7.8 5.7, 7.7 3.1, 6.4 5.5, 7.6 5.5, 7.1 5.2, 7.0 5.5, 7.5 5.1, 7.2 4.0, 6.3 did not register with disability office proportion 95% ci transferred to university 6.0 5.3, 6.8 2.7 1.7, 4.3 7.4 6.1, 8.8 6.0 4.9, 7.2 3.5 2.8, 4.5 5.9 5.1, 6.9 5.1 4.2, 6.1 0 3.5 2.7, 4.7 5.7 4.9, 6.6 9.0 7.0, 11.4 7.3 5.7, 9.4 9.1 7.5, 10.9 2.3, 5.3 3.5 1.8 0.9, 3.5 1.5 0.7, 3.4 8.9 6.8, 11.5 2.5 1.7, 3.8 5.5 4.3, 7.0 5.8 4.5, 7.5 5.6 4.5, 6.8 7.6 5.3, 10.8 4.3 3.1, 5.9 5.6 4.9, 6.4 4.9 3.3, 7.3 5.7 3.7, 8.7 4.2 1.0, 15.4 6.1 5.3, 6.9 4.1 3.1, 5.4 4.2 1.0, 15.4 5.7 5.0, 6.4 4.6 3.2, 6.6 4.9 1.2, 17.8 4.0 3.2, 5.0 6.2 5.1, 7.5 6.2 5.0, 7.7 10.2 6.6, 15.2 5.0 4.1, 6.2 5.6 4.6, 7.0 5.9 4.9, 7.2 5.8 3.9, 8.5 6.1 5.0, 7.4 5.2 4.4, 6.1 4.5 3.6, 5.6 6.9 5.7, 8.2 5.4 4.3, 6.7 3.0 2.2, 4.2 84 academic load at graduation fall winter full time part time 1.4 7.5 6.8 3.6 0.8, 2.5 6.7, 8.3 6.2, 7.5 2.7, 4.7 1.6 7.2 6.3 1.5 0.9, 3.0 6.4, 8.2 5.6, 7.1 0.8, 2.6 appendix 3.6. distribution of selected characteristics related to transfer to university and transfer credit received, ontario graduates, 2014-2016. college program graduated from do you think you would have been accepted into your current program without graduating from college first? yes no dont know when did you decide that you would further your education after college graduation? before entering college program at the start of college program during college program after completion of college program how is current program related to college program? not related at all somewhat related very related how much credit did you receive from your college program towards your current program? (2 year diploma graduates) none less than half a year about half a year one year one to two years two or more years how much credit did you receive from your college program towards your current program? (3 year diploma graduates) none less than half a year about half a year one year one to two years two or more years relative to what you expected, the amount of credit you received was less than expected the same as expected more than expected overall, how satisfied are you with the transition experience from college to your current program? very dissatisfied dissatisfied neither satisfied nor dissatisfied satisfied very satisfied overall, how satisfied are you with your academic preparation for your current program of study? very dissatisfied dissatisfied total population transferred to university self-reported disability yes no 42.0% 53.6% 36.6% 59.3% 42.7% 53.4% 38.8% 5.4% 44.9% 11.0% 42.3% 4.7% 43.3% 9.8% 38.2% 5.5% 45.4% 11.0% 9.4% 35.6% 54.9% 10.2% 34.8% 55.0% 9.3% 35.5% 55.2% 8.4% 6.5% 9.4% 38.0% 12.9% 24.7% 7.2% 6.4% 8.9% 41.8% 12.0% 23.7% 8.5% 6.6% 9.6% 37.4% 13.1% 24.8% 3.9% 3.6% 6.2% 12.3% 17.2% 56.7% 5.4% 3.9% 4.6% 13.1% 20.8% 52.3% 3.6% 3.5% 6.6% 12.3% 17.2% 56.8% 27.4% 56.1% 16.5% 25.8% 52.1% 22.1% 27.5% 56.6% 15.9% 2.1% 5.5% 12.0% 46.5% 33.9% 3.3% 6.3% 13.7% 45.5% 31.2% 1.9% 5.4% 11.9% 46.4% 34.3% 1.2% 4.6% 2.0% 7.2% 1.1% 4.2% 85 neither satisfied nor dissatisfied satisfied very satisfied 9.2% 50.0% 35.1% 8.3% 47.7% 34.9% 9.5% 50.2% 35.0% appendix 3.7. proportion of college graduates who transferred to university by college program graduated from. college program graduated from total population n=120,879 business community service creative and applied arts health hospitality preparatory/upgrading engineering/technology total 7.5% 10.1% 3.7% 1.8% 1.7% 10.1% 3.3% 5.8% self-reported disability yes no n=11,657 n=91,205 7.0% 9.6% 4.1% 1.5% 1.2% 8.7% 3.2% 5.9% 8.2% 11.1% 4.0% 1.9% 2.0% 10.8% 3.6% 6.3% regression results with extra variables additional variables examined: source of transfer info (college, university, or students and family); major reason for transfer (encouragement from others, certificate or designation, training/theory/upgrading skills/different field, income/no job/company paid/rapport, or transfer agreement); how much transfer credit the student received; when the student was notified of transfer credit; credit received vs. expected; and how related the students current program is to previous. appendix 3.8. regression analysis: satisfaction with transfer experience and the effect of self-identified disability on satisfaction with transfer experience to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels self-identified with a disability (ref=no) status in canada (ref=other) age (ref=<22 years) yes international 22-25 years >25 years credential type (ref=certificate (1 yr)) diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) program area (ref=business) community service creative and applied arts transfer experience (including international students) transfer experience (excluding international students) transfer experience (excluding international disability popn) 0.763** (0.095) 1.692** (0.370) 1.011 (0.090) 0.786** (0.085) 0.922 (0.176) transfer experience (including international disability popn) 0.780** (0.095) 1.900*** (0.437) 0.931 (0.183) 0.855 (0.167) 0.894 (0.179) 0.565*** (0.121) 0.562*** (0.122) 0.515*** (0.111) 0.524*** (0.116) 0.752*** (0.083) 0.739*** (0.084) 0.729*** (0.083) 0.720*** (0.083) 1.374 (0.271) 1.385 (0.281) 1.308 (0.265) 1.335 (0.277) 86 health hospitality prep/ upgrading engineering/ technology college region (ref=central) northern southwestern 0.753 (0.177) 1.140 (0.440) 0.746 (0.177) 1.040 (0.431) 1.106 (0.211) 1.132 (0.223) 1.047 (0.205) 1.093 (0.220) 0.760** (0.094) 0.783* (0.100) 0.757** (0.096) 0.791* (0.103) 1.070 (0.124) 0.925 (0.109) 0.606** (0.119) 1.074 (0.142) 1.018 (0.120) 0.932 (0.111) 0.590*** (0.120) 1.141 (0.156) 0.769*** 1.072 (0.128) 1.052 (0.109) 0.659*** (0.100) 1.062 (0.143) yes medium large term student graduated (ref=summer) 0.831 (0.194) 1.038 (0.427) eastern metro toronto is the closest university to permanent address selective? (ref=no) college size (ref=small) 0.813 (0.187) 1.188 (0.454) (0.076) 0.710* (0.146) 0.942 (0.208) 1.078 (0.300) 1.334*** (0.145) 1.174 (0.315) 1.341*** (0.146) 1.067 (0.171) 1.309* (0.206) 1.075 (0.301) 1.370*** (0.151) 1.423*** (0.114) 1.265*** 1.441*** (0.117) 1.289*** 1.421*** (0.117) 1.278*** 1.442*** (0.120) 1.291*** (0.098) (0.101) (0.101) (0.104) 2.154*** 2.147*** 2.133*** 2.176*** (0.287) (0.292) (0.292) (0.303) 1.318 (0.223) 1.349* (0.230) 1.467** (0.254) 1.485** (0.259) 1.611*** 1.708*** 1.703*** 1.752*** 0.711* (0.143) 0.905 (0.199) fall winter college major source of transfer info (ref=no) university major source of transfer info (ref=no) students & family major source of transfer info (ref=no) major reason: encouragement from others (ref=no) major reason: certificate or designation (ref=no) major reason: interest in training/theory/ upgrading skills (ref=no) major reason: income/ no job/company paid/rapport (ref=no) major reason: transfer agreement (ref=no) how much transfer credit did the student receive? (ref=none) yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 1 year or less more than 1 year 87 (0.290) notified of transfer credit (ref=after program start) start of program or earlier credit received vs. expected (ref=less than expected) the same as expected (0.313) (0.315) (0.327) 2.294*** (0.201) 2.291*** (0.194) 3.216*** (0.432) 2.302*** (0.200) 2.276*** (0.201) 3.088*** (0.402) 2.112*** (0.293) 3.100*** (0.412) 3.215*** (0.440) 2.092*** (0.283) 2.637*** (0.359) 2.100*** (0.292) 2.038*** (0.290) 2.575*** (0.342) constant 0.473** (0.166) pseudo r2 0.0761 observations 4,861 standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1 0.839* (0.075) 0.390** (0.143) 0.0778 4,619 2.636*** (0.360) 0.291*** (0.088) 0.0766 4,616 2.589*** (0.361) 0.227*** (0.075) 0.0758 4,400 more than expected how related is current program to previous? (ref=not related) program somewhat related program very related appendix 3.9. regression analysis: the effect of registering with the disability office on satisfaction of transfer experience to university, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels registered with office for students with a disability (ref=no) status in canada (ref=other) credential type (ref=certificate (1 yr)) yes international diploma (2 yr) advanced diploma (3 yr) program area (ref=business) community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/ upgrading transfer experience (including international students) 0.856 transfer experience (excluding international students) 0.848 transfer experience (including international disability popn) 1.022 transfer experience (excluding international disability popn) 1.051 (0.113) 1.915*** (0.441) 0.832 (0.163) (0.113) (0.243) (0.256) 0.509*** (0.110) 0.527*** (0.117) 0.737*** (0.084) 0.712*** (0.082) 1.316 (0.266) 0.816 (0.195) 1.130 (0.437) 1.327 (0.275) 0.775 (0.186) 1.014 (0.420) 1.027 (0.200) 1.083 (0.217) 0.896 (0.180) 88 engineering/ technology college region (ref=central) eastern metro toronto northern southwestern college size (ref=small) 0.768** (0.098) 1.072 (0.128) 1.029 (0.107) 0.651*** (0.099) 1.056 (0.142) medium large term student graduated (ref=summer) fall winter academic load at graduation (ref=full time) college major source of transfer info (ref=no) university major source of transfer info (ref=no) students & family major source of transfer info (ref=no) major reason: encouragement from others (ref=no) major reason: certificate or designation (ref=no) major reason: interest in training/theory/ upgrading skills (ref=no) major reason: income/ no job/company paid/rapport (ref=no) major reason: transfer agreement (ref=no) how much transfer credit did the student receive? (ref=none) part time 1.197 (0.322) 1.463*** (0.171) 1.353** 0.790* (0.103) 2.046* (0.755) 1.648 (0.507) 0.613 (0.237) 1.894 (0.747) 2.071* (0.775) 1.602 (0.507) 0.547 (0.217) 1.801 (0.735) 0.533** (0.144) 0.504** (0.142) 2.561*** 2.836*** 1.077 (0.173) 1.320* (0.207) 1.072 (0.300) 1.369*** (0.151) (0.209) yes yes yes 1.411*** (0.116) 1.279*** 1.435*** (0.119) 1.293*** (0.101) (0.104) 2.126*** 2.181*** (0.291) (0.304) 1.460** (0.252) 1.495** (0.260) 1.700*** (0.314) 1.772*** (0.330) yes yes yes yes yes 1 year or less more than 1 year notified of transfer credit (ref=after program start) start of program or earlier credit received vs. expected (ref=less than the same as expected 2.292*** 2.255*** 89 expected) (0.199) (0.199) (0.688) (0.782) 3.074*** (0.409) 3.176*** (0.434) 2.915*** (0.973) 3.322*** (1.147) 2.132*** (0.297) 2.046*** (0.291) 2.027* (0.742) 1.952* (0.741) 2.682*** (0.367) constant 0.267*** (0.082) pseudo r2 0.0762 observations 4,621 standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1 2.598*** (0.362) 0.221*** (0.073) 0.0745 4,405 3.867*** (1.404) 0.763 (0.364) 0.084 491 3.825*** (1.439) 0.739 (0.367) 0.0925 465 more than expected how related is current program to previous? (ref=not related) program somewhat related program very related 90 regression results with extra variables additional variables examined: source of transfer info (college, university, or students and family); major reason for transfer (encouragement from others, certificate or designation, training/theory/upgrading skills/different field, income/no job/company paid/rapport, or transfer agreement); how much transfer credit the student received; when the student was notified of transfer credit; credit received vs. expected; and how related the students current program is to previous. appendix 3.10. regression analysis: satisfaction with academic preparation and the effect of self-identified disability on satisfaction with academic preparation, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels self-identified with a disability (ref=no) program area (ref=business) yes community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/ upgrading engineering/ technology distance of nearest university from permanent address (ref=<50 kms) college major source of transfer info (ref=no) university major source of transfer info (ref=no) students & family major source of transfer info (ref=no) major reason: encouragement from others (ref=no) major reason: certificate or designation (ref=no) major reason: interest in training/theory/ upgrading skills (ref=no) major reason: income/ no job/company academic preparation (including international students) academic preparation (excluding international students) academic preparation (including international disability popn) 0.758** (0.099) academic preparation (excluding international disability popn) 0.773* (0.105) 0.777** (0.084) 0.804* (0.090) 0.828* (0.092) 0.854 (0.098) 0.981 (0.193) 1.397 (0.407) 1.188 (0.449) 1.008 (0.205) 1.424 (0.418) 1.239 (0.532) 0.999 (0.202) 1.434 (0.432) 1.220 (0.463) 1.017 (0.213) 1.452 (0.441) 1.251 (0.540) 1.239 (0.193) 1.295 (0.208) 1.305* (0.208) 1.340* (0.218) 0.607*** (0.081) 0.625*** (0.085) 1.615*** (0.137) 0.622*** (0.086) 1.331* (0.220) 1.743*** (0.350) 1.588*** (0.138) 1.600*** (0.139) 0.635*** (0.090) 1.348* (0.233) 1.673** (0.342) 1.562*** (0.139) 1.730*** 1.802*** 1.714*** 1.779*** (0.252) (0.268) (0.257) (0.273) 50-79 kms 80 kms yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 91 paid/rapport (ref=no) major reason: transfer agreement (ref=no) how much transfer credit did the student receive? (ref=none) yes 1 year or less more than 1 year notified of transfer credit (ref=after program start) start of program or earlier credit received vs. expected (ref=less than expected) the same as expected 1.874*** (0.171) 1.886*** (0.176) 1.856*** (0.174) 1.867*** (0.179) 2.084*** (0.278) 2.108*** (0.290) 2.118*** (0.291) 2.144*** (0.304) 1.874*** (0.257) 1.812*** (0.255) 1.776*** (0.251) 1.714*** (0.250) 3.079*** (0.421) constant 0.872 (0.174) pseudo r2 0.0546 observations 4,853 standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1 3.090*** (0.436) 0.777 (0.160) 0.059 4,611 3.004*** (0.425) 0.905 (0.187) 0.0547 4,609 3.007*** (0.439) 0.817 (0.174) 0.0587 4,378 more than expected how related is current program to previous? (ref=not related) program somewhat related program very related appendix 3.11. regression analysis: the effect of registering with the disability office on satisfaction with academic preparation, six months after graduation, ontario college graduates, 2014-2016. variables labels registered with office for students with a disability (ref=no) program area (ref=business) yes community service creative and applied arts health hospitality prep/ upgrading academic preparation (including international students) 0.879 academic preparation (excluding international students) 0.917 academic preparation (including international disability popn) 1.224 academic preparation (excluding international disability popn) 1.333 (0.127) (0.136) (0.306) (0.357) 0.825* (0.091) 0.848 (0.097) 0.993 (0.200) 1.563 (0.485) 1.198 (0.454) 1.010 (0.211) 1.579 (0.494) 1.225 (0.528) 1.286 1.317* 92 engineering/ technology distance of nearest university from permanent address (ref=<50 kms) income tercile of ontario fsa (ref=low income) (0.204) (0.214) 0.625*** (0.085) 0.635*** (0.090) 1.337* (0.231) 1.675** (0.342) 50-79 kms 80 kms mid income 1.885** (0.466) 0.804 (0.243) 2.141** (0.764) 2.112*** (0.558) 1.863*** (0.179) 1.667* (0.459) 2.018** (0.595) 2.092*** (0.287) 2.118*** (0.300) 2.387** (0.888) 2.451** (0.943) 1.794*** (0.254) 1.730*** (0.252) 3.223*** (1.223) 3.410*** (1.379) 3.028*** (0.429) 0.884 (0.183) 3.034*** (0.443) 0.798 (0.170) 3.368*** (1.207) 0.660 (0.273) 3.607*** (1.393) 0.444* (0.217) high income college major source of transfer info (ref=no) university major source of transfer info (ref=no) students & family major source of transfer info (ref=no) major reason: encouragement from others (ref=no) major reason: certificate or designation (ref=no) major reason: interest in training/theory/ upgrading skills (ref=no) major reason: income/ no job/company paid/rapport (ref=no) major reason: transfer agreement (ref=no) how much transfer credit did the student receive? (ref=none) yes notified of transfer credit (ref=after program start) start of program or earlier credit received vs. expected (ref=less than expected) the same as expected 1.720*** 1.783*** (0.258) (0.273) 1.850*** (0.174) yes yes yes yes yes yes 1 year or less more than 1 year program somewhat related program very related constant 1.573*** (0.140) yes more than expected how related is current program to previous? (ref=not related) 1.609*** (0.140) 93 pseudo r2 0.0542 observations 4,614 standard error in parentheses; ***p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1 0.0582 4,383 0.0568 492 0.0905 449 94 experiences and perceptions of college-university transfer among students disabilities for this component of the project, a partnership was formed between researchers at uoit, durham college, memorial university of newfoundland, nipissing university, seneca college, and york university and the national educational association of disabled students (neads). the goal was to collaboratively conduct research that focused on the transfer experience of students with disabilities in ontario. fortuitously, neads was in the process of developing a study that aimed to be a thorough examination of the current landscape of accessibility, services, accommodations, technical equipment and supports for students with disabilities at publicly-funded postsecondary institutions across canada. the focus on experiences and perceptions of college-university transfer among students with disabilities was not specific to the neads landscape study, and therefore this project was complementary to the neads focus, while not overlapping it. throughout the summer and fall of 2017, the research team collaborated with the larger neads landscape study team to develop a mixed methods research tool to collect data from postsecondary students with disabilities. participants were asked about themselves, their experiences and perceptions of college-university transfer, the barriers and facilitators to transfer that they experienced, and their recommendations for system improvement based on their own experiences. while the lengthy college sector strike in ontario in the fall of 2017 and the complicated process for securing research ethics board approval delayed the project, we are happy to provide preliminary data based on the online survey which launched in late spring of 2018 and which continues to collect data. neads has been very effective in distributing the survey through all their channels (website, listserve, social media such as facebook and twitter). additionally, neads is exploring the possibility of translating the study into french to support greater acquisition of data from all possible student voices. in addition, we will be extending the reb (anticipated application amendment for summer 2018) to include enhanced distribution through student disability service offices at postsecondary institutions. the emerging data is important to consider, but we would caution that our commitment to the most robust data collection and analysis in order to honour the voices and experiences of transfer students with disabilities requires that we consider this to be preliminary data only. as a result, we request that this report not be published until we provide an updated data set with analysis and recommendations in fall 2018. 95 preliminary findings since the launch of the online survey, a total of 197 responses have been recorded. of those responses, 112 are considered complete, while 85 are partial surveys. of the 197 responses, 59 were from participants who were involved in college-university transfer (37 complete and 22 partial responses). completion rates for both the college-university transfer survey and the larger landscape survey were similar (62.7% for the larger survey; 60.8% for the transfer survey). these data are presented in table 1. table 1: survey response rates the following preliminary data analysis provides a snapshot of participants who responded to the survey. in nesting the transfer survey within the larger landscape study (neads), we are fortunate to be able to: 1) gain insight into the experiences and perceptions of college-university transfer among pse students with disabilities, and 2) compare various responses between pse students with disabilities who are involved with transfer and those who are not. to undertake these comparisons, participants responses to question #12 of the overall online survey were utilized to create comparison groups. in subsequent data analysis, comparisons beyond the two major categories of transfer or non-transfer, to include subcategories indicated by the responses to question 12 will be undertaken if we obtain sufficient numbers of responses to make these comparisons meaningful. 12. please indicate if you have been involved in college-university transfer. this type of transfer refers to when students start out in a college program and switch over to a university program. for it to be considered a transfer, you must get academic credit for the courses you have already taken. ( ) i have transferred between a college and university program ( ) i was/am thinking about transferring or trying to transfer ( ) i applied to transfer but wasnt able to ( ) i have not been involved in college-university transfer 96 throughout the report, when comparing responses and profiles of participants who had transfer experience versus those who did not, consistent colour coding was employed. indigo was used to designate responses from participants who had experience with transfer. teal was used to designate responses from participants who did not have experience with transfer. of the participants who completed the survey, 161 responded to question #12, with more than one third (37.8%) indicating they have been involved in college-university transfer. of the 64 participants who responded that they had been involved in college-university transfer (having transferred, thinking about transferring, applied to transfer but unsuccessful), the overwhelming majority had successfully completed a transfer from a college to university program (n = 43). see figure 1. figure 1: participation in college-university transfer among all survey respondents demographic profile the following demographic details provide information about the lives and social contexts of participants. comparisons are made using completed survey data, with self-identified participation in 97 college-university transfer through response to question #12 enabling categorization as either transfer students or non-transfer students. full-time versus part-time study the overwhelming majority of participants are full-time students (84.7% of transfer students; 82.5% of non-transfer students). see figure 2. figure 2: full-time versus part-time enrolment age age distributions between transfer and non-transfer students were very similar. the largest number of participants within both groups reported their birth year between 1995-1999. of potential interest, transfer students generally indicated age range selections that were slightly older, on average, than nontransfer students. see table 2 and figure 3. 98 table 2: age 99 figure 3: age gender participants were asked to indicate the gender they identified as. for both transfer and non-transfer students, most participants self-identified as female (64.1% for transfer students; 70.1% for non-transfer students). the percentage of respondents who self-identify as male was almost equal for both groups (23.1% for transfer students; 24.1 for non-transfer students). see figure 4. figure 4: gender identity 100 self-identification as an aboriginal person among both transfer and non-transfer participants, rates of self-identification as an aboriginal person were low (3.7% for non-transfer students; 12.8% for transfer students). however, the three times larger representation of aboriginal persons among the transfer student group requires further investigation, given what is known about under-representation of aboriginal persons in general in pse and potentially the intersection of self-identification as both an aboriginal person and disabled. see figure 5. figure 5: self-identification as an aboriginal person 101 ethnicity while most of both the transfer and non-transfer students indicated their ethnicity as caucasian, the degree to which diversity is represented among the two groups is worthy of further examination. for example, while close to 44% of non-transfer participants selected caucasian for their ethnicity, more than 63% of transfer students indicated the same. understanding what factors influence collegeuniversity transfer choices and college-university transfer opportunities among various sub-groups of persons with disabilities is an important consideration. see figure 6. figure 6: ethnicity marital status and children consistent potentially with the slightly older age of transfer versus non-transfer participants, transfer students were more than twice as likely to be married (12.8% compared to 5.4%) and more than three times as likely to have children (17.9% compared to 5.4%) than non-transfer students. see figure 7 and figure 8. 102 figure 7: current marital status figure 8: children type of disability data on the types of disabilities experienced by pse students are worthy of much greater examination. for both transfer students and non-transfer students, psychiatric and mental health disabilities (including anxiety, depression, and others) were the most highly reported (52% for transfer students; 55.7% for non-transfer students). when psychiatric disabilities and mental health challenges were combined, more than four out of five respondents in both the transfer and non-transfer category selfidentified with these types of disability. this finding is noteworthy. among both groups, approximately one in four respondents self-identified as having a disability associated with chronic illness (23.7% for transfer students; 27.8% for non-transfer students) and adhd (25.4% for transfer students; 21.6% for non-transfer students). additionally, similar distributions were seen between both groups in that close to one in five respondents self-identified as having a learning disability (18.6% for transfer students; 103 17.5% for non-transfer students). much higher representation of disability associated with acquired brain injury was seen among transfer students (11.9%) compare to non-transfer students (1%). similarly, mobility or functional disability was more than twice as prevalent in the sub-group of transfer students (18.6% for transfer students; 8.2% for non-transfer students). see figure 9. figure 9: disability 104 105 onset of disability more than 20% of both transfer and non-transfer respondents indicated that they were born with their disability. for transfer students, the second most frequent response was onset/acquisition between ages 6-12, while for non-transfer students, the second highest response category was between ages 1317. amongst both the transfer and non-transfer students, a significant number indicated that their age at onset of their disability was 18-22. when asked if they were enrolled in pse when they acquired their disability, the majority of both transfer and non-transfer students indicated they were (59.3% for transfer students; 56.1% for non-transfer students). see figure 10 and figure 11. 106 figure 10: onset of disability figure 11: enrolled in pse when acquired disability 107 province while the study was launched nationally, consistent with neads membership, responses are heavily weighted toward students attending pse in ontario. more than four out of five transfer and non-transfer students who completed the survey were from ontario. see figure 12. figure 12: province of enrolment in pse type of educational institution participants were asked to indicate whether they were currently completing their students at a university, a college, a cegep, or other. overwhelmingly, both transfer and non-transfer students who responded to the survey were studying at university (89.8% for transfer students; 96.9% for non-transfer students). for non-transfer students, the remaining 3.1% were attending college. for transfer students, 8.5% were attending college, while 1.7% (or 1 participant) indicated other. see figure 13. 108 figure 13: type of educational institution attendance at orientation participants were asked if they attended orientation at their institution. additional follow-up questions about their experience and perceptions of orientation will be presented as part of the neads landscape study. however, a summary of distribution of attendance versus non-attendance is presented here as a comparison between transfer and non-transfer students. figure 14 presents an overview of attendance 109 at orientation. it is worth noting that while the majority of both transfer and non-transfer students attend orientation, there is an observable gap between transfer students (57.9%) and non-transfer students (71.3%). given the effort focused on orientation specifically directed toward transfer students, this under-representation at orientation activities of students with disabilities who transfer from college to university is an important finding. see figure 14. figure 14: attendance at orientation 110 registration with disability services participants were asked to identify if they were registered with the disability services at their college or university. for both transfer and non-transfer students, 92.2% indicated that they were registered at their institution. see figure 15. figure 15: registration with disability services 111 disability-related accommodation similarly, participants were asked if they used disability-related accommodation for their studies. among both transfer and non-transfer students, approximately 90% indicated they used accommodations. more detailed inquiry into the type and nature of accommodations will be presented as part of the landscape study (neads). see figure 16. figure 16: disability-related accommodation 112 perceptions of college-university transfer among participants who indicate experience with transfer the data presented in this section represent an analysis of responses to questions about the collegeuniversity transfer experience and perceptions of college-university transfer amongst participants who indicated experience with transfer. that experience could include having successfully transferred, thinking about transferring, or having applied to transfer but been unsuccessful. the data remains preliminary as we are continuing to collect responses through our online questionnaire. for that reason, the research team will defer detailed statistical analysis and the development of any potential statistical models until we have been able to create as robust a data set as possible. in the meantime, we will present descriptive analyses of the emerging trends. a total of 37 participants responded to the transfer component of the survey, six of whom had tried to transfer and been unsuccessful (unsuccessful) and 31 of whom had successfully transferred (successful). type of transfer completed participants were asked to indicate the type of transfer they completed. the largest number (48.3%) transferred from college to university where the programs were not officially connected. another 20.7% transferred where there was a formal articulation agreement. the remainder were either unsure if there was an agreement or preferred not to respond. figure 17: type of transfer 113 credit transfer students who successfully transferred were asked to indicate how much of their university program they received credit for. almost one quarter (24.1%) indicated they received credit for 4 semesters or more, with 17.2% receiving credit for 3 semesters, 13.8% for 2 semesters, and 20.7% for 1 semester. the variation in length of program and program requirements makes specific comment on the amount of transfer credit granted difficult. however, it is well established in the literature that the perception of inadequate transfer credit is one of the most significant barriers to college-university transfer. see figure 18. figure 18: credit transfer knowledge about college-university transfer participants were asked how much they felt they knew about college-university transfer, ranging from nothing to everything they needed to know. for participants who had tried to transfer but been unsuccessful, half indicated they knew nothing to very little, while an equal number indicated they knew some things to everything. see table 3. a total of 31 participants who had successfully transferred from college to university responded to the same question. interestingly, there responses reflected more confidence in their knowledge of transfer. almost 84% of successful transfers indicated that they know some things, lots of things, or everything they needed to know. see table 4. this variation in response 114 pattern deserves further monitoring as additional data come in given that the relationship between how much one knows about college-university transfer and successful transfer may be central to recommendations about how to promote successful transfer amongst students with disabilities. table 3: knowledge about college-university transfer among unsuccessful applicants table 4: knowledge about college-university transfer among successful transfers positive perception of college-university transfer participants were asked to comment on the degree to which they held a positive or negative perception of college-university transfer. among unsuccessful transfers, one-third held a somewhat positive perception, while the remained held no view, preferred not to answer, or had neither a positive or negative perception. see table 5. for successful transfers, 40% held either a somewhat or very positive view of college-university transfer, while 23.3% held somewhat negative or very negative perceptions. see table 6. this response pattern is interesting given that successful transfers had only marginally more 115 positive perceptions of transfer, while at the same time also demonstrating more negative perceptions. further data collection is warranted, but it would appear that the experience of college-university transfer for students who are successful in transferring is not always a positive one. table 5: perception of college-university transfer among unsuccessful applicants table 5: perception of college-university transfer among successful transfers benefits of transferring participants who had successfully transferred between college-university were asked to indicate what they perceived the benefits of transfer to be. fully one-third of respondents indicated that they felt that college-university transfer may be a better route for pse for students with disabilities than going straight to university. additionally, 30% indicated that: 1) there was lots of information specific to disabilities and accommodation, 2) good support for transfer students with disabilities at university after switching over, and 3) universities are receptive to students with disabilities. almost 27% indicated that: 1) systems and 116 processes related to disabilities and accommodations were manageable, and 2) colleges are receptive to students with disabilities. at the same time, 23% indicated that colleges provided good support for transfer students with disabilities prior to switching over. see table 7. recognizing the inclination amongst a fair number of participants to view college-university transfer as a better route for students with disabilities is an important finding in and of itself (i.e., potentially one that may have value within the community of disabled students seeking to make decisions about pse participation). additionally, gleaning better insight into how and why this is a better route for some students with disabilities will aid pse service providers, high school counsellors, family and students in seeking and providing information to support decisions-making around access to pse that is the best fit for each student. table 7: benefits of transferring for successful transfers barriers to college-university transfer participants were also asked to share their perceptions of barriers to college-university transfer. amongst successful transfers who responded to this question, at least half indicated that: 1) there was a lack of information about who can help with the process (60%), 2) there was not enough information specific to disabilities and accommodation (56.7%), and 3) there was not enough support for transfer of students with disabilities at universities after switching over. as well, more than 40% of successful 117 transfers indicated that: 1) the systems and processes related to disabilities and accommodations are too complicated (46.7%), 2) poor transfer credit arrangements exist (46.7%), and 3) ultimately having a disability may be a barrier to transferring from college to university (40%). the picture that emerges is one of mixed experiences where some participants who have successfully transferred see this route as potentially more optimal than direct entry to university. on the other hand, large numbers of students with disabilities who have successfully transferred identify multiple challenges associated with this pse experience, including challenges with systems, processes, supports, and information. table 8: barriers to transferring for successful transfers challenges associated with transfer successful transfer students with disabilities were asked to indicate if they had experienced a range of general challenges when transferring. overwhelmingly, they indicated: 1) difficulty finding or confirming requirements for transfer credit (58.6%), inconsistent or inadequate information about the transfer process (51.7%), lack of guidance on application procedures (48.3%), complicated and time-consuming 118 application processes (44.8%), lengthy timelines for decisions (44.8%), and fewer transfer credits than expected (37.9%). unfortunately, these responses, included in table 9, are consistent with the challenges identified by students in general about the transfer process. creating more streamlined, transparent systems in which information is readily available and accessible, processes are as straightforward as possible, and timelines are reasonable and adhered to may be essential in promoting successful college-university transfer for students with disabilities. table 9: challenges associated with transfer challenges associated with disability in transfer process participants who successfully transferred from college to university were asked to comment on whether they experienced any challenges specifically associated with their disability in the transfer process. just over half (51.7%) indicated they did not experience any disability-related challenges, while 24.1% indicated that they did experience disability related challenges. finally, 24.1% elected not to say. when 119 asked to explain what they perceived to be disability related challenges, participants included comments about challenges associated with disability services, accommodation, and new processes. see table 10. table 10: disability associated challenges with transfer benefits associated with disability in transfer process participants who had successfully transferred from college to university were also asked to indicate if they felt they had experienced any benefits when transferring to their program associated with their disability. again, half of the respondents indicated no benefits, while 25% indicated that they had experienced benefits associated with their disability. self-identified benefits included receiving support (including disability supports and counselling), accommodations, priority for residence, a more open community of students with disabilities, and official diagnosis. see table 11. 120 table 11: disability associated benefits with transfer onset of transfer planning participants were asked at what point they began thinking about college-university transfer. more than half indicated that they began thinking about transfer after starting college (24.1%) or after doing well in college (34.5%). this is an interesting finding in that students who have not begun a process of anticipatory planning toward transfer may find they are not in a program with an articulation agreement that maximizes credit transfer or that there is not a pathway for transfer. just less than 14% indicated that they began thinking of transfer in high school. further examination of the point at which students with disabilities begin to think of college-university transfer will be helpful in determining when decision points occur and the context for decision-making. ensuring the high school teachers, high school guidance counsellors, and members of the community are aware of the many opportunities associated with college-university transfer and the processes involved may be an important factor in promoting not 121 only greater awareness, but also greater anticipatory planning in relation to college-university transfer amongst students with disabilities. see table 12. table 12: onset of transfer planning successful transfer student perceptions of advising services participants who had successfully completed a college-university transfer were asked to comment on their experience with advising services at their college and university in terms of their helpfulness in general and their helpfulness in advising related to disability and accommodation. responses indicated that by and large, the majority of participants found advising services at both their college and university to be somewhat helpful in general and in relation to disability-specific foci. see table 13. of note, more than one quarter of respondents indicated that they were not aware of advising services at their college or did not use advising services for either general issues (25%) or disability related foci (32.1). these numbers are smaller for their university advising services, but still 14.2% indicated that they either were not aware of advising services or did not use advising services in general or for disability-related foci. these significant numbers are important when considered how effectively students with disabilities are able to seek out and secure support and potentially accommodations in pse programs. 122 table 13: successful transfer student perceptions of advising services satisfaction with transition experience finally, participants who had successfully completed a transfer from college to university were asked to indicate how satisfied they were with their transition experience to university. approximately one-third were satisfied or very satisfied (32.2%), 42.9% were neutral, and 14.3% were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, with 10.7% preferring not to say. while one might hope that more than one third of transfer students with disabilities would indicate some degree of satisfaction with their transition experience, the relatively low rate of dissatisfaction may be considered reassuring. see figure 18. 123 figure 18: satisfaction with transition experience among successful transfers 124 perceptions of postsecondary service providers to students with disabilities exploring the experiences and perceptions of college and university service providers to students with disabilities is critical to developing a robust understanding of the intersection of disability and pse. this oncat funded research team collaborated with the complimentary research team led by neads and funded by the government of canadas social development partnerships program (sdpp-d) of employment and social development canada to develop qualitative questions for pse service providers. the focus of this inquiry is to explore their thoughts and feeling about the college-university transfer experience of students with disabilities. face to face consultations are expected to take place throughout the fall of 2018 and analysis of responses specific to issues associated with the transfer experience of students with disabilities will be provided in our updated report in the fall of 2018. additionally, a brief online questionnaire for service providers is in development to support broader acquisition of perspectives. this questionnaire is anticipated to launch in september of 2018 and results will be provided to oncat in the updated fall 2018 report. 125 recommendations to support and promote transfer of postsecondary students with disabilities 1. this report focused on pse students with disabilities perceptions and experiences of collegeuniversity transfer. equally important would be to understand the university-to-college transfer experience for students with disabilities and the role this academic pathway may play in successful participation in pse for students with disabilities. 2. given the under-representation of aboriginal persons in general in pse, explore in greater detail the higher representation of persons self-identifying as aboriginal within the transfer student group (compared to the non-transfer student group). understanding if college-university transfer is an important pse pathway not only for aboriginal pse students with disabilities but also for aboriginal pse students in general is important in promoting mechanisms and pathways for pse participation. 3. it would seem important that all pse institutions invest in robust, multifaceted orientation programs for all students with disabilities, and particularly for those with disabilities given the complexity that transfer students with disabilities describe around entering a new system. ensuring that transfer students with disabilities benefit from transparent and accessible exposure to what they may experience in terms of academic and cultural differences, and the array of available support services would promote smoother transitions. however, at the same time it is important to explore with greater granularity what factors influence participation at orientation activities for transfer students with disabilities, given their moderate at best attendance at these, in order to develop orientation programs offered in a manner to maximize perceived value and accessibility to students with disabilities. 4. examine in greater detail the prevalence, experience, and difficulties associated with mental health challenges and psychiatric disabilities among transfer students with disabilities. 5. transfer students with disabilities experienced challenges associated with disability assessments and accommodation. streamlining the transfer and recognition of prior disability assessments is essential so that these assessments, and the resulting accommodations, can follow students from high school to college to university. 6. while the majority of both transfer and non-transfer students indicated their ethnicity as caucasian (44% for non-transfer students; 63% for transfer students), the degree to which diversity is represented among the two groups is worthy of further examination. understanding what factors influence college-university transfer choices and college-university transfer opportunities among various sub-groups of persons with disabilities, including those associated with ethnicity, are important considerations. 126 7. with continued data collection, determine if how much a student feels they know about collegeuniversity transfer is positively correlated with successful college-university transfer. if this relationship can be demonstrated, explore options to increase and enhance mechanisms to make information about college-university transfer available and accessible. 8. recognizing the inclination amongst a fair number of participants to view college-university transfer as a better route for students with disabilities, gleaning better insight into this perception will aid pse service providers, high school counsellors, family and students in seeking and providing information to support decisions-making around access to pse that is the best fit for each student. additionally, despite the potential this route to pse holds, many students with disabilities report very significant barriers to transfer, including those associated with systems, processes, supports, and information. streamlining mechanisms that make the process of transfer more transparent and ensuring there are service providers knowledgeable about and sensitive to the unique needs and experiences of students with disabilities may help to offset the barriers currently experienced by disabled transfer students. 9. ensuring the high school teachers, high school guidance counsellors, and members of the community are aware of the many opportunities associated with college-university transfer and the processes involved may be an important factor in promoting not only greater awareness, but also greater anticipatory planning in relation to college-university transfer amongst students with disabilities. 10. creating more streamlined, transparent systems in which information is readily available and accessible, processes are as straightforward as possible, and timelines are reasonable and adhered to is essential in promoting successful college-university transfer for students with disabilities. this is important as well because of the need to have supports transferred from institution to institution (policy and procedural variations) and the communication among institutions that could occur to make this possible for students who request this streamlining. 11. while the majority of participants found advising services at both their college and university to be somewhat helpful in general and in relation to disability-specific foci, significant numbers of participants indicated that they were not aware of or didnt make use of advising services for either general purposes or in relation to disability-associated issues/needs. these significant numbers are important when considered how effectively students with disabilities are able to seek out and secure support and potentially accommodations in pse programs. ensuring all transfer students, including those with disabilities, are aware of the range of services available through advising services and how to access these services is essential. while data would suggest many transfer students may not attend orientation in which this type of information is typically reviewed, alternate mechanisms for creating awareness about advising services among students with disabilities and transfer students is essential. 127 closing thoughts while this report represents data analysis in the context of ongoing data collection, emerging finding illuminate the postsecondary experiences of students with disabilities who are involved in collegeuniversity transfer. without question, the data indicates how very vital transfer opportunities are for students with disabilities. however, this awareness must be tempered with the realization that the systems in place remain imperfect and students with disabilities experience many hardships in trying to participate fully in pse. in response to emerging data, the research team has committed to continuing data collection through the summer of 2018, extending the existing reb approval to disseminate more widely and to include online data collection from pse service providers to students with disabilities, and attempt to secure funding to translate the study into french in order to as fully as possible capture the voices and experiences of all pse students with disabilities who would like to participate. the research team will provide an updated report to oncat in fall 2018 reflecting their full findings and recommendations based on the full data set at that time. in the meantime, we are happy to receive any feedback and request that until the updated report is submitted, this report be considered draft and not for publication. 128

project snapshot pathway development in college health science and university liberal science type: pathways development project number: 2019-37 or p1937 project lead: laurentian university collaborators: le collge la cit, le collge boral et l'universit laurentienne project summary the project offers health sciences graduates the opportunity to obtain an accelerated university degree via our liberal science b.sc. pathway. it will also permit students in the liberal science program to take advantage of the credit recognition in the identified health sciences programs if they wish to enroll at the college. project rationale the relevance of developing these types of pathways became evident in light of the specific requirement for applicants in these fields working in hospital settings to have a bachelor degree in order to access administrative positions. given that the liberal science b.sc. offered at laurentian is structured in a flexible manner and is comprised of a wide array of courses accessible remotely, it seemed to be the ideal program to align with for the intended objective. main collaborators la cit, collge boral and laurentian university la cit and collge boral were responsible for providing the documentation necessary to review the programs identified for the pathways, attending meetings and facilitating communication with the program coordinators as part of the work to review the correlations between each institutions courses. as the main project coordinator, laurentian university is responsible for carrying out the work plan, conducting the reviews, coordinating the exchange of communications and information with la cit and collge boral, providing good financial management and providing follow-up reports to oncat. outcomes rsultats in fact, through this project, we hope not only to develop pathways from the college to the university, but also from the university to the college. unfortunately, we have reached the conclusion that aside from the required complementary courses of the college programs, the specialized courses would not be recognized in light of the courses that comprise the laurentian liberal science b.sc. program. however, the feasibility of pathways from the college programs to the university program remains very plausible. everything will depend on the next steps in the approval of our recommendations. pathway(s) development key steps the key step in the success of this project is certainly our choice to amend the review approach so that it is more in line with the specific structure of the liberal science b.sc. program, by grouping together the college credits based on course themes. pathways created the final pathways in the approval stage are the following: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) la cits respiratory therapy (3 years) la cits paramedic (2 years) and / la cits advanced paramedic (1 year) la cits and collge borals occupational and physiotherapy assistant (2 years) la cits electroneurodiagnostics (2 years) toward laurentian universitys liberal science b.sc. program. hence, seven (6) [sic] pathways in all are pending approval by the laurentian institutional bodies. incomplete pathways indeed, one (1) of the seven (7) desired pathways cannot be developed for the time being. during the year, collge boral decided to revise its paramedic program. given that the preliminary review of the correlations between the learning outcomes was done based on the old program structure, it was agreed that this pathway would not be submitted for the approval process this year, but that instead it would be considered once the revision of collge borals program is complete and the recognition recommendations are adjusted based on the revisions made to the program. note, however, that the approval process for the la cit paramedic program will move forward. challenges naturally, the matter of deadlines is always a considerable issue. collecting course outlines, developing matrices, and reviewing the correlations between the learning outcomes all appear to be steps that are attainable on an academic schedule. the approval processes by the institutional bodies should be considered the subsequent year, in order to be realistic. student outcomes the benefits of the pathways identified in this project extend beyond the usual benefits. in fact, college-university and university-college pathways generally seek to save the students who benefit from them time and money. in this case, not only will the students enjoy these benefits, but in the end, by obtaining a bachelor degree, they can also access administrative positions that they would not have been able to apply to without a bachelor degree. student credential laurentians various decision-making bodies need to approve them first before they are officially recognized. student time savings note that this information is based only the potential time saved by the student given that laurentians various decision-making bodies must grant their approval first before they are officially recognized. occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (collge boral) pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 3 semesters. occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (la cit) pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 3 semesters. electroneurodiagnostics program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 3 semesters. respiratory therapy program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 4 semesters. occupational therapist and physiotherapist assistant program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately 3.5 semesters. student financial savings this information is based only the potential tuition fees saved by the student given that laurentians various decision-making bodies must grant their approval first before they are officially recognized. there are additional savings associated with ancillary expenses and relocation expenses to take the courses. occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (collge boral) pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $11,250 occupational therapy and physiotherapy assistant program (la cit) pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $11,250 electroneurodiagnostics program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $11,250 respiratory therapy program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $15,000 occupational therapist and physiotherapist assistant program pathway to the liberal science b.sc.: approximately $13,125 student flexibility first, the potential credit recognition as part of these pathways appears to be quite beneficial. we will have to monitor if the various decision-making bodies will accept the recommended recognitions based on the review conducted as part of this project. moreover, several courses associated with laurentians liberal science b.sc. are accessible online, which gives the college graduate or the student potentially already on the job market the added benefit of flexibility to be able to pursue their university education without being forced to relocate. student work alignment the initial motivation for this project was essentially based on the competitive advantage it would give students on the job market in the hospital industry aspiring to be in administrative positions that require a bachelor degree. hence, we can say that this pathway indeed does contribute to students employability. institutional outcomes none at this stage. certainly, we have changed the way of conducting the reviews to respond to the specific structure of laurentians liberal science b.sc. however, the changes with regard to institutional practices will be more in terms of the criteria that will confirm the approval of the pathways recommended by the various institutional bodies. sector or system implications the situation experienced with collge boral and the paramedic pathway (2 years) that we hoped to develop could probably have been anticipated at the time the projects were submitted. our experience shows that at least two years are required to develop a pathway, from the review of the program correlations to the finalization of the approval process. in that context, the scheduled dates of the revisions to the college program should be taken into consideration to ensure that the revision does not conflict with the objectives of the pathway projects. tips and advice the case of laurentian universitys liberal science b.sc. program is quite unique. however, in the event that another program works the same way based on course themes rather than on prescribed courses, we strongly recommend not limiting ourselves to the correlations of the learning outcomes. grouping college courses together by themes is the methodology to adopt. tools and resources the key tools developed as part of this project were the review matrices. they have been uploaded to the project deliverables section.

oncat careers senior researcher location: toronto, ontario, canada type: full-time, eligible for pension salary range: $80 000-$90 000 category: research, data and funding department deadline: october 24th, 2022 about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges and universities. as a member organization, it works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. about the position the senior researcher supports the development and oversees the implementation of oncats research plan. the senior researcher ensures that oncat-led and/or funded research projects align with the organizations mandate and strategic priorities and works closely with consultants, researchers (from other postsecondary educational institutions and/or pse organizations), oncats committees/working groups, and oncats staff/senior management. this position will provide coordination to and research expertise on various research initiatives/projects. this position will also provide oversight to oncats grant (rfp) program supporting credit transfer and student mobility research and strategic analysis of oncat-funded research projects to inform future planning. as oncat continues to support system improvements and the development of a mature transfer system in ontario, this position will be critical to moving projects forward, ensuring their success and translating knowledge from multiple and across projects to support system development. to be successful in this position you will display mature judgment, expert knowledge of research and research methodologies, a commitment to high quality work, excellent project management skills, and work effectively independently and in a professional team environment. you must also be committed to the value of postsecondary education, be dedicated to improving the transfer student experience, and demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills. responsibilities 1. research planning and implementation (30%) leads the design and co-ordination of oncats overall research plan. ensures the research plan supports functions across operations, collaborations, granting and policy, and overall oncat strategic priorities. provides support to oncats funding strategies, including its research and transfer system improvement projects, including identifying rfp topics, and supporting funding review processes, as an internal reviewer, ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 conducts scans and shares evidence, to inform transfer strategies, including presenting evidence from funded projects and/or other jurisdictions to inform institutional projects. coordinates tasks and projects, delegating to researcher and quantitative researcher, and supervising them to ensure deliverables are being met. monitors oncats research budget and ensures research activities, internal and external, align with budgets. 2. managing and supporting research projects (30%) works collaboratively with senior management and research, data and funding team to implement annual oncat research grants stream. coordinates projects and supervises oncats researcher and oncats quantitative researcher on projects and research activities. provides coordination to support various aspects of the research project life cycle (e.g., request for proposal, application, proposal adjudication, awards, contracts and payments, interim reporting and check, and final reporting). ensures accountability of transfer payment funds and proper grants management protocol. re-negotiates deliverables/contracts or closes grants, where needed, to ensure value for money and alignment with oncats mandate and priorities. 3. knowledge mobilization and planning (30%) maintains an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art research on transfer/articulation, along with the methodological techniques and data sources that it employs. shares key insights with the oncat team through internal briefings and presentations, as well as with external stakeholders through blogs, workshops, and other communications efforts. plays a key role in knowledge mobilization, collaborating with oncats communications team to translate the findings of funded projects into deliverables (e.g., graphics, dashboards) that can be digested by varied stakeholders, including pse administration, policymakers, and students. synthesizes and analyzes findings from multiple oncat research projects and research grants to provide accessible information to inform sector partners, oncat communications, etc. edits and summarizes internal or oncat-funded project final reports in preparation for public posting. participates in postsecondary sector and credit transfer-related conference, symposia, and fairs. 4. stakeholder relations (10%) interacts with numerous stakeholders to advance oncats research priorities including academic researchers, institutional analysts, policymakers, pse administrators, as well as colleagues working across other cats in north america. interacts with groups in adjacent sectors, including k-12 (e.g., tdsb) and the labour market (e.g., cpa). establishing relationships with these groups allows oncat to capitalize on potential opportunities for collaboration on data-sharing or research-related activities. engages sector partners and research community to support, inform and champion oncats mandate. direct reports this position supervises 2 direct reports ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 candidate requirements education/knowledge masters degree in a related field. phd preferred. knowledge of postsecondary education, and issues of credit transfer, access, and student success in postsecondary education. understanding of existing research and data resources available in the canadian postsecondary sector. knowledge of research and evaluation methodologies, tools, statistics, and techniques. knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods. knowledge of project management principles and methodologies to oversee and guide the overall delivery of mandates and strategies. experience 3-5 years of experience in research project management. experience working with outside consultants and managing contracted projects to successful completion. experience conducting research, writing research papers for publication (e.g., articles), and briefs. track record of delivering high-quality work product under a deadline. experience managing a complex budget. experience working in cross functional teams. preferred experience (asset) doctoral candidacy or phd. bilingual in french and english. skills & abilities exceptional organizational skills and ability to work simultaneously on multiple projects. ability to overcome unforeseen obstacles and see projects through to completion. ability to remain flexible, calm under pressure, and adaptive to change as priorities shift. exceptional written and oral communication skills and public speaking facility. ability to work well in a team atmosphere working both independently and with team members. technical expertise utilizing a variety of common office and statistical software. ability to quickly learn new function areas. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca. the deadline to apply october 24th by 11:59pm. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening, or an interview will be contacted. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3 oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require accommodations during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |4

project snapshot transfer student ambassadors at trent university type: seamless transfer project number: s2251 project lead: trent university project summary this project will support the implementation of a transfer student ambassador pilot. the trent transfer student ambassador will play an important role in developing and maintaining relationships between transfer students applying to trent and the university and provide peer supports through the transfer process. project rationale trent's recruitment team did not have dedicated transfer student ambassador positions within their office. as trent continues to place a greater emphasis on recruiting transfer students as a part of its overall strategic enrollment management plan, it was necessary to have transfer student ambassadors as a part of this plan. by hiring these ambassadors, it allowed for a greater breadth of academic experiences to be represented within the recruitment office. main collaborators - office of articulation and transfer pathways - recruitment office - admissions office key steps determine how many student ambassadors should be hired per campus (peterborough and durham) how long their contracts should be? what task should be assigned to them? results overall, the project allowed transfer applicants and prospective students to receive specific admissions and transfer information related to their academic background, provided to them by student ambassadors who came from similar experiences. this meant that not only were these individuals able to receive relevant information in a timely manner, but they were also able to develop a rapport with trent representatives who had shared experiences. the results of this project were shown to have an increased attendance of trent's transfer events at both campuses; and an increase in the amount of meeting scheduled with the transfer enrolment advisor to discuss accepting offers of admissions. more results and details were provided in the final report. challenges challenges of this project are that many questions and transfers happen in the winter semester. we see an uptake in transfers and inquiries in the winter term as students are completing their fall term at another institution then decide/start inquiring about transferring in the winter term for the next academic year. finding transfer students of various programs and years, or students who are not yet graduating was a challenge, as well as engagement of students to apply for the position. student outcomes this project benefits transfer students in various ways: prospective transfer students are able to connect with current transfer students and ask them about their experiences, this connection is genuine as current students have gone through the process - i think that lived experience is so important, as someone who is not a transfer student, i can only relate so much; but having a transfer ambassador helps with genuine answers and the ability to ask questions that are relevant. it helps prospective transfer students feel confident in their decision to transfer and study at trent university. transfer students feel more prepared, as they have their apprehensions alleviated and their questions answered. lessens the stress and the gap of who to ask questions to. as an enrolment advisor students can come to me or reach out to me with questions, but most times students will not book time or not know who to reach out to. having the transfer ambassadors be the ones reaching out to prospective students, they are taking the initiative and starting the initial conversation. it allowed for transfer applicants to know that there is a strong community of transfer students at trent. student time savings having dedicated transfer ambassadors who were a part of a calling campaign allowed for transfer applicants to receive relevant information on next steps in the transfer process in a timely manner. this allowed for the students to make an informed decision on if and where they would like to transfer quicker. providing answers to students questions and giving them the necessary information to make a decision results in them making their decision faster and this project shows that. student flexibility this project made the transfer process easier on students because the transfer ambassadors were able to directly communicate with applicants and provide them with the information they needed on next steps. it also gave students an opportunity to ask any questions they might have. this meant that the student did not have to find this information on their own or perhaps make an uninformed decision when it came to transferring to trent. institutional outcomes i debriefed with the transfer ambassadors every week to see what types of conversations they were having, but most importantly any feedback the transfer ambassadors had about the project. having the transfer ambassadors for the first time, their feedback was key - this really helped in hearing what conversations they were having and what transfer students had questions about throughout the pandemic. consideration on maintaining transfer student ambassadors and continuing the transfer calling campaign will be taken under advisement by the recruitment team for future intake periods. sector or system implications the connection with prospective transfer students is very crucial here, as our approach is studentcentered as we are connecting firsthand with students and inquiring about any questions they may have. it allows for an open-ended conversation and expression of their thoughts on our transfer student process. it also allows for students to notify us about what is making them nervous. collecting those themes in common answers helps drive our next task for the transfer ambassadors. it also notifies trent of our transfer process and how it works and if it is what students are looking for. i would rather hear from students and share their feedback with our admissions team. it helps indicate what are stressors for students when applying and going through the process transfer students are already a unique demographic that any information helps to get them to feel confident in any transfer pathway. it also helps see what types of communications are effective for transfer students, whether that be phone calls, emails, in-person events, or follow ups. tips advice i would give: training transfer ambassadors prior and making sure they are confident in the transfer student process. knowing where the gaps are in your transfer processes. connecting with as many transfer students as possible, and getting contact information researching on how other schools support their transfer students. being flexible and having the ability to pivot to accommodate plans. tools and resources for this project, i developed a reference binder/manual for the transfer student ambassadors and developed a training. this was helpful for the transfer ambassadors to have as they referred to it when talking to prospective transfer students - no two transfer students are the same, by providing them with the proper tools makes for a more engaging conversation.

a critical reflection on the footprint of articulation agreements at select college-university pairs submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer march 2018 contact information durham college debbie mckee demczyk office of research services, innovation and entrepreneurship debbie.mckeedemczyk@durhamcollege.ca (905) 721.2000 ext. 3669 university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) brad macisaac planning analysis and registrar brad.macisaac@uoit.ca (905) 721.8668 ext. 5688 canadore college jeannette miron strategic enrolment services jeannette.miron@canadorecollege.ca (705) 474.7600 ext. 5341 nipissing university debra iafrate office of the registrar debrai@nipissingu.ca (705) 474.3450 ext. 4251 seneca college henry decock centre for research in student mobility henry.decock@senecacollege.ca (416) 491.5050 ext. 77929 york university paula green office of the vice provost academic pgreen@yorku.ca (416) 736.2100 ext. 77666 the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 2 executive summary previous research on student transfer has primarily focused on the student experience. a number of studies have explored student understanding of and satisfaction with the credit transfer process, but the same rigor has not been expended to explore the institutional perspective on credit transfer. the purpose of this study is to understand the reasons institutions undertake the development of articulation agreements, and the type of criteria that the faculty members and administrators involved in their development believe should be included in the documentation of those agreements. in addition, institutional policies and procedures related to the monitoring of articulation agreements were examined to determine how agreements are kept current and how they are monitored for markers of student success such as retention and graduation. the goal of this study was to see where commonalities existed in these processes across institutions to identify best practices for developing and maintaining effective articulation agreements. data analyses were conducted based on a content analysis of the articulation agreements available at each of the institutional pairs, an analysis of themes present in a series of semi-structured interviews, and student transfer data provided by each of the participating universities. the reasons that institutions develop new articulation agreements are similar for both colleges and universities. program alignment and previous relationships between institutions were identified as the most prominent reasons for developing new agreements. universities placed emphasis on developing agreements where there was adequate alignment between programs, while colleges placed emphasis on developing agreements that provided their students with sufficient credit for their previous coursework. many articulation agreements include guidelines to ensure the agreements remain current. these guidelines include renewal dates and procedures for keeping the partners updated on program changes. despite the presence of these guidelines, interview data revealed that poor communication between institutional partners often results in agreements not being regularly updated. interview data, combined with the student data, also revealed that there are gaps in the way transfer student success is monitored post-transfer. the majority of receiving institutions were unable to identify which of their transfer students had used specific articulation agreements to facilitate their transfer leading to significant challenges with monitoring of specific articulation agreements. in addition to this, two out of three receiving institutions were unable to the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 3 identify the college program that transfer students had previously completed. although data does exist to enable tracking of transfer student success, accessibility of data and resource constraints have not allowed articulation developers to use this data to inform the development of better articulation agreements. one of the key findings of this study was that having a strong working relationship between institutional partners was imperative to the development and maintenance of articulation agreements. to strengthen institutional relationships, it is recommended that institutions work towards implementing standardized procedures for developing and maintaining agreements that encourage frequent communication with their institutional partners. it is also recommended that a movement towards standardizing formal agreements through institutional templates has the potential to save resources and ensure consistency when developing new agreements. the use of a consistent, comprehensive template affords an opportunity to make the transfer process more transparent for both students and institutions alike. an important finding of this study was that more attention should be given to monitor the success of students post-transfer. although data on retention and graduation is available for transfer students, these students are not flagged as having moved through an articulation agreement, meaning that it is difficult to monitor the success of these students as a cohort. a key recommendation that could improve monitoring for student success would be to collect more information about transfer students to enable tracking for student success outcomes. another recommendation is that this data be shared with the institutional stakeholders who develop articulation agreements, so these individuals are made aware of the types of agreements that work versus those that do not. finally, it is recommended that the sharing of student success data between institutional partners become part of an annual effort to monitor the effectiveness of these agreements. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 4 table of contents section i: background purpose of the study ............................................................................................................8 research questions ..............................................................................................................8 definitions of key terms ....................................................................................................9 limitations of the study.......................................................................................................9 section ii: literature review the purpose of articulation agreements ..........................................................................13 the criteria included in articulation agreements ............................................................15 the institutional stakeholders involved in articulation development .............................17 improving articulation agreements in ontario .................................................................18 section iii: methodology participants .........................................................................................................................20 procedure ...........................................................................................................................20 methods of data collection ...............................................................................................21 section iv: data analysis the rationale that inform the criteria of articulation agreements ..................................23 common criteria for articulation development across institutions .................................29 criteria for keeping articulation agreements current .....................................................32 available student usage data of articulation agreements ............................................33 trends for student persistence and graduation ...............................................................38 the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 5 section v: conclusions and recommendations communication between institutional partners .................................................................41 updating formal articulation documents.........................................................................42 recommendations ..............................................................................................................43 references .................................................................................................................48 appendices appendix a: interview questions .....................................................................................51 appendix b: student data request template ...................................................................53 the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 6 list of tables table 1: key criteria for undertaking the development of a formal pathway ................................23 table 2: important considerations when formulating a pathway agreement ................................25 table 3: events that would trigger the evaluation of a pathway....................................................31 table 4: total number of student transfers .................................................................................33 table 5: total number of agreements and destination programs ...............................................34 table 6: c2u2 number of student transfers ................................................................................35 table 7: c3u3 number of student transfers by year ...................................................................36 the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 7 section i: background purpose of the study a large proportion of recent research on student transfer pathways has been rooted in the viewpoint and satisfaction of the students themselves. the process of credit transfer has thoroughly explored the student perspective, including students awareness and understanding of the process, as well as their satisfaction with post-transfer outcomes (durham college, 2016; colleges ontario, 2008; academia group, 2017). the purpose of this study is to examine the structure and utility of current articulation agreements by exploring the institutional perspective towards the development and maintenance of articulation agreements. as institutions face increasing demands to create a seamless educational experience for students by supporting mobility, an examination of articulation agreements must occur to ensure students have the best chance of achieving their academic goals while institutions retain value for their investment in pathway creation. thus, this study aims to examine the reasons that institutions develop new pathways and identify specific criteria that should be included in the formal documentation of these agreements. the study will also explore the extent to which articulation agreements are monitored for currency, as well as for markers of student success such as retention and graduation. research questions the following research questions will be explored in this study in an effort to promote effectiveness of articulation agreements: section 1: creating an articulation agreement 1. what rationale inform the creation of frequently utilized articulation agreements? a. do these characteristics differ from less utilized agreements? b. is the rationale for frequently utilized articulation agreements readily identifiable? 2. are the key criteria for the establishment of articulation agreements, common for certain institutions? the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 8 section 2: updating an articulation agreement 3. what unique criteria are used to ensure that the reasons for pathway development remain valid/current? a. what steps would be taken if pathways were found not to be current? b. are there additional criteria that should be included? c. do such criteria require updating? d. what are the processes that are used for updating pathways? section 3: monitoring articulation agreement usage 4. is data available to determine student usage of articulation agreements? a. if so, to what extent are students utilizing these agreements? b. what trends in usage appear in recent years? c. are there agreements that are unused? if so, do these agreements remain active? 5. what are the trends for student persistence and graduation, for students taking advantage of the articulation agreements? definitions of key terms the following is a list of key terms used throughout this report: articulation agreement: official agreement between two (bilateral) or more (multilateral) postsecondary institutions that defines the terms and conditions enabling students to transfer between specific programs credit: the recognition of previous coursework completed by a student through granted credit hours in lieu of classwork. gpa minimum: minimum gpa required for consideration for admission into a program as articulated in the agreement. pathway: defined route from one program or institution to another program or institution that specifies eligibility requirements and how transfer credits will be accepted and applied at the receiving institution the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 9 periodic review: refers to the pre-specified, cyclical period when the articulating institutions agree to review the articulation agreement. it may be expressed as a specific future date or as a general period of time. physical resources: resources needed to effectively operationalize the agreement, either formally articulated in the agreement or through informal assessment by the articulated partners. program alignment: the extent to which articulating programs are similar in terms of curriculum, learning outcomes and occupational areas of interest for graduates. program changes: refers to substantial changes in the curriculum, credits, pre-requisites or any related aspects of the postsecondary program. relationship between institutions: refers to a pre-established working relationship between institutions. this could occur through either formal collaborations or other informal interactions induced by geographic proximity or other commonalities between institutions. student mobility: refers to opportunities that promote student movement and encourage academic continuation. student success outcome: refers to the institutional practice of tracking markers of student success such as retention and graduation. transfer: the movement of a student from one postsecondary institution to another with credit granted by the receiving institution for courses taken at the sending institution limitations of the study this study was extensive in its scope and was largely exploratory within an area of research that has otherwise been previously unexplored. as can be expected with a study of this size, there were a number of limitations. student demographic information was not requested as part of the student usage data from each college-university pair, in order to keep the study focused on the institutional perspective. hence this study does not address unique attributes of individual transfer students. there were also limitations related to the availability of data. most institutions did not maintain explicit records of whether a student had transferred using a formal articulation the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 10 agreement. instead, each university provided data for all of their incoming transfer students who had declared previous experience at the partnering college. the student dataset was therefore populated assuming that any student who had transferred between programs where an articulation agreement existed had transferred using that agreement. another limitation with data collection was an inability to identify the particular college program that a particular student had transferred from. specifically, not all institutional contacts were able to specify which college program incoming students had previously completed. some institutions also offered more than one version of the various degree programs. the student transfer data collected did not capture the unique variation between a 120 credit honours bachelor degree or a 90 credit bachelor degree. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 11 section ii: literature review articulated pathways have become increasingly common in post-secondary education. recent research has demonstrated that students are increasingly reporting previous postsecondary experience, and many report the desire to pursue multiple credentials (colleges ontario, 2009). similarly, it has become increasingly common for students to move between programs and institutions as their academic goals or personal circumstances change. as a result, it has become necessary for institutions to make pathways available to students which enable the seamless transition between institutions and programs. these pathways are often formalized and referred to as articulation agreements. articulation agreements represent a written commitment between the administrators at each institution, linking their respective programs through guidelines for credit transfer (oncat, 2013). the purpose of articulation agreements is to facilitate student transfer between postsecondary institutions, in an efficient and non-repetitive way. by acknowledging the previous learning students have done, articulation agreements enable transfer students to avoid the needless repetition of courses while working towards a desired credential (oncat, 2013; government of ontario, 2017). when it comes to the development of articulation agreements, there are three important perspectives to be considered: the student perspective, the perspective of the sending institution, and that of the receiving institution. from the student perspective, articulation agreements provide assurance of the ability to move between programs, and clarify the processes involved in transferring. from the perspective of the sending institution, articulation agreements represent a guarantee that the credentials earned by their students will be recognized and appropriately valued by the receiving institution. from the perspective of the receiving institution, articulation agreements represent an assurance that incoming students will possess the skills required to be successful in their programs post-transfer. articulation agreements promise a number of benefits for students and institutions alike. for students, these agreements enable entry into post-secondary programs while providing the opportunity for additional skill development at each institution they attend. for the sending institutions, these agreements convey value for the credentials they grant, potentially making the credential more sought after. for receiving institutions, articulation agreements ensure that students with requisite skills and knowledge are joining and contributing to the viability of the the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 12 program as they progress toward graduation. however, for such an important and universally beneficial process, not much is known about the administrative goals and processes that inform the creation of articulation agreements. recent, research on articulation agreements has primarily focused on the student experience and has highlighted a number of student issues, such as a lack of awareness and understanding of the transfer process (durham college, 2016; colleges ontario 2008; academia group, 2017). however, while extensive research has been conducted on the student perspective on credit transfer, very little has been done to explore the institutional perspective on articulation agreements and credit transfer. as such, very little is known about the reasons why, or the process through which, institutions develop and maintain articulation agreements. one factor that contributes to the lack of knowledge about the institutional perspective on articulation agreements is that few institutions provide public access to the policy documents that govern student transfer. in some cases, formal written records of agreements or related policies do not exist at all, making it difficult to assess how these processes vary from institution to institution. as a result, little is known about how the inclusion of certain criteria in articulation agreements contributes to the effectiveness of the agreement. similarly, little is known about how the consultation of various institutional stakeholders may vary between, or even within, institutions. in order to establish best practices for developing articulation agreements, further exploration of these phenomena are needed. this is a significant gap in the literature on articulation agreements that this research will seek to bridge. the purpose of articulation agreements articulation agreements and credit transfer are an important part of the postsecondary experience for many students, as they promote student preparedness and academic continuation. from a student perspective, the purpose of an articulation agreement is to provide assurance and clarity on the transfer process. through these formal agreements, students are able to complete their studies in a shorter period of time than would otherwise be possible. this streamlining is important, as one responsibility of postsecondary institutions is to prepare students to enter the labor market. articulation agreements support this goal by enabling students to engage in a variety of learning experiences which prepare them to enter the labour market (government of ontario, 2017). this additional experience gained by students who have studied at both college the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 13 and university makes them more competitive in the eyes of future employers (mccloy, steffler, & decock, 2016). thus, articulation agreements provide students with a well-rounded learning experience that supports them in developing a wide range of skills that prepare them to succeed when entering the labour market. articulation agreements also offer students the chance to continue their education when their individual circumstances would otherwise prevent them from doing so. for example, for students whose grades make them ineligible for university following high school graduation, articulation agreements provide an opportunity to adjust to post-secondary expectations and improve their grades before re-applying (smith, decock, lin, sidhu, & mccloy, 2016). in the case of students who relocate, articulation agreements enable movement between institutions and the continuation of study. articulation agreements also provide access to post-secondary programs for mature students who may aspire to higher education but have been out of school for a number of years. this is an important demographic to support, as mature students often have very different life circumstances and responsibilities than students straight out of high school (lauder & cuthbertson, 1998; wilson, 1997). beyond their utility for students, articulation agreements also benefit the institutions that offer them. from the institutional perspective, articulation agreements ensure that credentials from the sending institution will be valued, while assuring the receiving institution that incoming students will be well-prepared for their new programs (government of ontario, 2017). articulation agreements also serve to add value to institutional credentials by linking them with programs at other credible institutions. by providing options for student mobility, institutions are able to increase both the attractiveness and perceived value of their credential to prospective applicants, potentially contributing to increased student enrolment. additionally, articulation agreements allow institutions to streamline the credit transfer process through standardization of credit to be granted. this streamlining reduces the resources that would otherwise be required to assess transfer students on a case by case basis. thus, articulation agreements enhance the effectiveness of the credit transfer process for students and institutions alike. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 14 the criteria included in articulation agreements the development of a formal articulation agreement between institutions can be long and arduous, due to the number of criteria that need to be included and negotiated to ensure the agreement will be effective (durham college, 2016; auld et al., 2002). the purpose of including these criteria is to create a threshold for consideration of acceptance for an articulation agreement, assuming that students who meet the criteria will be better prepared for the receiving program than those who do not. there is currently no list of agreed upon criteria that must be included in articulation agreements in ontario. as these criteria are not standardized and many institutions do not allow public access to their policy documents, it can be difficult to identify whether there is overlap in the criteria that are included in the agreements of various institutions. however, based on the criteria that are frequently discussed in relation to student transfer, an argument can be made for the type of content that should be included in the documentation of formal articulation agreements. number of credits granted. there are a number of considerations that go into determining the amount of credit that will be granted as part of an articulation agreement. such considerations include program alignment and requirements needed for program completion, as well as minimums and maximums for the number of transfer credits that can be granted. one instance where these considerations are particularly important is in the number of credits to be granted for students with diplomas compared to students with advanced diplomas. since advanced diplomas traditionally cover an additional year of content compared to standard diplomas (types of programs, 2018), advanced diploma students may receive more transfer credit as they will have a greater breadth of study. in fact, it has been shown that number of credit hours completed increases the likelihood of a student completing a transfer, and that taking higher level courses has been associated with a greater likelihood of success post-transfer (damico, dika, elling, algozzine & ginn, 2014). in addition, there is evidence to suggest that the number of credits granted is associated with grade point average (gpa), such that more credits granted predicts a higher gpa in the transfer program (gerhardt & masakure, 2016). this is true even controlling for a number of other factors such as campus, cohort, semester of study, or previous college background. however, there is also evidence that this effect may be non-linear, in that credits up to a certain the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 15 amount are predictive of a higher gpa, while after that point gpa tends to drop off again (gerhardt & masakure, 2016). this indicates that assigning credit efficiently can play an important role in whether a student is successful in their program post-transfer. gpa minimum. previous research has found evidence that having a higher gpa at the time of transfer is related both to academic success post-transfer and retention (wang, 2009; luo, williams & vieweg, 2007). as such, the inclusion of gpa minimums in articulation agreements may serve as both a threshold for consideration for acceptance, as well as an indicator of student preparedness. this is important, as student preparedness has frequently been shown to have a positive relationship with student success post-transfer (durham college, 2014). ensuring that incoming students meet minimum gpa requirements may help to assure both the sending institution and the receiving institution that transferring students will be successful in their new programs. gpa has also been studied within the context of transfer shock, which refers to the phenomenon of students experiencing a decline in gpa following a transfer into a new program (cejda, 2006). transfer shock has traditionally been studied within the context of monitoring student success post-transfer between high-affinity programs. these studies have found that students transferring within the areas of business, mathematics, and science experience more transfer shock than their counterparts in education, fine arts, and social sciences and humanities (cejda, 2006; cejda, kaylor & rewey, 1998). bridge versus direct entry. another important criteria that should be identified in an articulation agreement is whether the transfer will be direct entry or include a bridge semester. a direct entry agreement is defined by a 2+2 program delivery where a student completes a two year diploma and then moves directly into the third year of a degree program (trick, 2013). by contrast, a bridge is defined by a 2+2.5 program delivery where a student completes a two year diploma and then moves into the third year of a degree program after completing a summer of bridging courses (mccloy, steffler, & decock, 2016). these courses are intended to prepare students for their post-transfer degree program by making up any requisite content needed for the degree program that was not delivered by the diploma program. awareness. in previous studies, students have reported not finding out about the possibility of articulating until after they were already enrolled in a college program (academia the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 16 group, 2017). in this study, only 39% of students reported being aware of the possibility when they first applied. at the time of the study, only 7% of respondents were involved in a pathway program, despite 28% reporting that they would have been interested had they been aware of the option at the time of their application. an earlier study conducted by durham college (2016) found that the top three ways students hear about the possibility of credit transfer are through a friend or family member (26.4%), a faculty member (21.8%), or through their current schools website (21.8%). however, 56.6% of students reported that they would have liked to receive information on credit transfer with their admissions booklet. these discrepancies highlight a difference between how students want to be made aware of their transfer options and how they are actually being made aware of their options. this difference may lead to fewer students taking advantage of articulation agreements than would otherwise be the case, simply because they are unaware that the option exists (academia group, 2017). the institutional stakeholders involved in articulation development there are many different aspects that must be outlined in an articulation agreement, each requiring the unique expertise of a variety of different institutional stakeholders. for example, determining alignment between programs typically requires individuals from both the sending and receiving institutions who are intimately familiar with the program content to evaluate learning outcomes at the course and program level. this expertise ensures that students enjoy a successful transfer experience while minimizing the unnecessary repetition of courses with similar learning outcomes. similarly, administrators may make recommendations on the maximum number of transfer students admitted during a given year based on space limitations. the institutional stakeholders responsible for each of these tasks may vary depending on how each institution divides administrative responsibilities, or who holds the necessary expertise. additionally, there may be other academic structures that influence the development of articulation agreements. for example, at the university level, articulation agreements may need to be approved by the institutional senate or the academic council, while at the college level there is an entirely different approval process often unique to a given institution. there are currently no standardized guidelines for who should be responsible for specific tasks related to articulation development across institutions in ontario. as these processes are unique to each institution, it is difficult to determine based on past research whether there are the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 17 similarities in how institutions delegate tasks when it comes to the development and maintenance of agreements. there is evidence that administrative staff (mcgowan & gawley, 2006) and faculty (ignash & townsend, 2000) are often involved in the process, although there is little information as to the specific tasks they are likely to undertake. however, recommendations from past research do highlight the importance of institutions ensuring their administrative capacity is able to withstand the growing demands of articulation development and maintenance (gawley & mcgowan, 2006). additionally, recommendations have been made about ensuring ongoing communication between each institution and students, to ensure that all involved parties have a thorough understanding of the process. improving articulation agreements in ontario in 2009, only 17% of college students in ontario reported having previous postsecondary experience; in contrast, up to 41% and 48% of college students in alberta and british columbia respectively reported having previous post-secondary experience (colleges ontario 2009). in another study, college students in ontario reported finding the process of articulating to be difficult and confusing (durham college, 2016). additionally, students reported not being aware of the option to transfer as early as they would like to be (academia group, 2017), not knowing who to contact when they have problems, and not being granted as much credit as they believe they should (durham college, 2016). however, the creation of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat; established 2011) is evidence of a systemic commitment to better understanding pathways, for both students and institutions. specifically, oncats mandate involves commitments both to students and institutions that promote greater understanding about the transfer system in ontario. not only is oncat committed to improving communication about mobility opportunities to students, but they are also committed to helping institutions identify and fill gaps in the system in order to improve the available opportunities for mobility (oncat, 2013). in the six years since its conception, oncat has worked to improve student mobility in ontario. however, there is still room for further improvement. much is still unknown about how articulation agreements are developed, such as the institutional stakeholders who are involved in the development of articulation agreements and the criteria that should inform their creation. the process of developing articulation agreements is not standardized within institutions, let alone the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 18 across institutions or provinces. students in ontario have expressed a desire for there to be a standardized approach to student transfer, which would ensure consistency and fairness across institutions (durham college, 2016). such an approach would promote increased understanding of the process for both students and institutions. in order to develop a framework for standardization, an analysis of the current policies and processes related to the development and maintenance of articulation agreements at institutions across ontario must be conducted. best practices for developing effective agreements will be determined by seeing where there is overlap across institutions, and where that overlap is successful in promoting student usage of articulated agreements and the resulting student success. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 19 section iii: methodology participants this study was conducted using the data from three college and university pairs within the province of ontario. participants were chosen by employing a convenience based sampling strategy seeking representation from small, medium, and large paired institutions. these classifications align with the classifications of college size according to colleges ontario (pwc, 2017). the chosen pairs of canadore college and nipissing university, durham college and the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit), as well as seneca college and york university were recruited based on existing relationships between institutional representatives. in part, these pairs were invited because they were known to have a history of collaboration, and hence a rich student transfer environment. across ontario, there are a number of post-secondary institutions that vary according to size by student enrolment. variation in the number of students and the number of programs at an institution may have some effect on the number of articulation agreements established. for example, large institutions often have a greater number of programs and thus a greater number of potential pathway creation opportunities. the purpose of including pairs of varying sizes was to provide some example of the variation that may exist among these pairs, and to allow for an examination of the development of articulation agreements in ontario regardless of institution size. in order to maintain the confidentiality of the institutions involved in this study, the pairs were randomly coded and are identified as c1u1, c2u2, and c3u3 for the purpose of reporting analyses and results. procedure each of the six prospective partnering institutions were invited to participate in the study, via email to an institutional contact at each school. as the study included six institutions, research ethics board (reb) approval was sought from each institution (only one submission was made for canadore and nipissing, who share a board), as well as from the multi-site approval board. initially, each contact was asked to provide all of the available articulation agreements for their institution to the research team. upon receiving these agreements, a content analysis was undertaken to identify the discrete criteria included in each articulation agreement. thereafter, the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 20 the institutional contacts were contacted to assist with scheduling interviews. interview requests were made with academic deans and administrators at each institution, based on the extensiveness of their experience with developing articulation agreements. once the interviews had been conducted, they were transcribed and sent back to the interviewees for their approval. upon approval, the transcripts were coded for key themes by which the interview data could be organized. finally, the research team requested data from each participating university for students who had transferred from their college partner (e.g., had declared previous experience at their partnering college; see appendix a). to ensure consistency of data reported across various institutions, a template in microsoft excel containing the requested variables was provided to the respective institutional contacts to populate. student transfer data was examined with the information collected from the content analysis of articulation agreements. methods of data collection data for this study was collected in the form of articulation agreements, interviews, and student transfer data. the purpose of examining the articulation agreements was to develop a framework of the criteria included in the agreements available at each partnering institution that could potentially inform future agreement creation. the purpose of requesting student transfer data was to examine student usage of each agreement to determine whether the inclusion of certain criteria made those agreements more attractive to students. finally, the purpose of conducting interviews was to expand upon the information available in the agreements to further clarify the institutional perspective. together, these three sources were used to create a comprehensive understanding of the institutional perspective on articulation agreements. articulation agreements. an inventory of articulation agreements between the three participating college-university pairs was compiled for content analysis. to ensure that the study remained in scope, only agreements that articulated between a college program (e.g., certificate, diploma, or advanced diploma) and a university degree program were considered. it is important to note that the agreements included in this analysis reflect those that were available at the time of data collection and may be different from those available at the time this report is released. in total, 281 articulation agreements were examined across the three institutional pairs. this number reflects the number of formal pathways available rather than the number of articulation the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 21 documents, as several documents detailed more than one transfer agreement. a dataset was created for each pair of institutions that included all of the agreements operating between the two schools, categorized by the criteria documented within them. each available agreement was evaluated for elements of both mechanical (e.g., gpa requirements, number of credits to be granted) and administrative (e.g., guidelines for updating, length of agreement) structure, to see which criteria were commonly addressed across institutions, and which were unique. interviews. semi-structured interviews with two to three academic deans or other key personnel (e.g., pathway officers) were conducted at each of the participating institutions. there were six interviews conducted at the college level and eight interviews conducted at the university level, for a total of 14 interviews. individuals were selected based on recommendations from the institutional contact, determined by who had the most experience with developing articulation agreements. each interview lasted between 30 and 45 minutes, and covered a number of subjects related to the development and maintenance of articulation agreements (see appendix b). the purpose of these interviews was to provide a better understanding of the criteria involved in articulation development, beyond what was included in the agreements themselves. student data. enrolment data was collected from each of the receiving institutions for transfer students who had enrolled between the years of 2011 and 2015, and who had declared previous experience at their partnering college. the data set included variables such as the college program the student transferred from, the university program they transferred into and whether a formal agreement had been used to facilitate transfer, where such information was available. information was also collected on the specific year students transferred, and whether the student was still enrolled in the university program two years after their transfer. the purpose of collecting this data was to allow for an assessment of the utilization of each agreement in terms of student interest, uptake, and student persistence. however, most of the institutions did not maintain explicit records of whether a student had transferred using a formal articulation agreement; thus, this information had to be inferred. to facilitate this inference with confidence, the data for movement of a student between institutions was organized by both sending and receiving program. in cases where an agreement existed between those sending and receiving programs, the data was used to infer student usage of that agreement. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 22 section iv: data analysis rationale that inform the creation of articulation agreements to better understand the motivations that drive institutions to develop new articulation agreements, the research team conducted a series of interviews with persons familiar with articulation development or maintenance at each institutional partner. interviewees were asked a series of questions to examine the considerations that were important in the decision to develop a new articulation agreement. several responses appeared across both college and university interviews while there were also a number of responses that were unique to one institution or another (refer to table 1). table 1: key considerations for development of a formal pathway college university program alignment 4 6 relationship between institutions 3 5 student mobility 3 5 student interest 3 4 enrollment 3 4 institutional strategic priority 2 4 sufficient credit 4 1 program reputation 1 3 regional viability 3 1 labor market viability 3 1 physical resources 0 1 student success outcomes 1 0 the most common reasons reported for undertaking the development of an articulation agreement were, program alignment, a pre-existing relationship with the institutional partner, and promotion of student mobility. these responses were the most common across both the college and university interviews, demonstrating that both types of institutions envision these as important considerations in the decision to develop new agreements. program alignment was addressed in a number of different ways. for interviewees from universities, program alignment related to a desire for assurance that incoming students would be well prepared for success in their new programs. a number of university interviewees expressed a desire to continue developing articulation agreements, but cautioned against developing agreements where there was not sufficient program alignment. these interviewees indicated concern that trying to the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 23 develop agreements where there was low alignment could lead to students struggling in their new programs as a result of not having covered requisite course content. the college interviewees approached program alignment by placing an alternative emphasis on the importance of developing agreements that grant their students sufficient credit for the previous course work they have completed. [two for two] is usually what were going after now. so they have two years of a diploma and youll be able to finish your degree in two years. college interviewees expressed a desire to see their credentials acknowledged by their university partners through the assignment of an appropriate amount of credit to students. the general consensus was that in programs that are well aligned, previous college experience should be viewed as taking the place of the first two years of a university degree, and therefore the desired amount of credit is often equivalent to two years. relationship between the institutions was discussed within the interviews both in the form of program level and faculty/school level relationships, and the pre-existing relationship between the institutions. examples of program level relationships most often emphasized the relationships between individual instructors, where faculty/school level relationships often emphasized relationships between individual deans or other senior administrators. most interviews identified pre-existing articulation agreements as a key defining factor in their relationship. such agreements represented assurance of a willing partner institution and a history of successful you also have faculty that come from other environments where it has worked well, and so some of them can be great advocates in terms of i did this at my previous institution, we had some really amazing students coming this way, can we consider it here? collaboration leading to a belief that future agreements would be successful. another recurring theme throughout the interviews was how the previous experience of the individuals involved could drive the development of articulation agreements. for example, a faculty member coming in from another institution where there were a number of successful articulation agreements and bringing that experience with them, leading to the development of new agreements. student mobility was emphasized as the promotion of student movement through offering agreements to facilitate transfer. while every institution emphasized the importance of the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 24 facilitating student transfer, several indicated that the desire to provide students with access to further learning opportunities was at the heart of their decision to develop articulation agreements, even where relatively little student movement was expected. data was also analyzed at the institutional level, to identify common considerations between partnering institutions. c1u1 displayed some overlap specifically concerning enrolment. the college in this pair emphasized the importance of undertaking pathway development for the purpose of recruiting students, where the university emphasized the importance of pathway development related to supporting enrolment. c3u3 similarly demonstrated overlap related to the theme of program reputation. the college partner in this pair indicated that the reputation of the program, alignment, and granting of sufficient credit were all key consideration for undertaking new articulation agreements. the university partner in this pair similarly indicated the quality of the college program and alignment between credentials were important considerations prior to undertaking the development of new articulation agreements. however, further exploration through interviews indicated that the perception of a quality college program was not based on an established set of criteria, but rather an individual perception. c2u2 demonstrated the most overlap among the institutional partners interviewed each indicating the importance of regional and labour market viability, program alignment and the relationship between institutional stakeholders as key to the decision to develop new agreements. in addition to identifying the institutional motivations behind developing articulation agreements, interviewees were also asked to identify criteria that should be outlined in the documentation of an articulation agreement. highlights of the responses are displayed below (refer to table 2). table 2: necessary criteria program alignment credit physical resources gpa minimum information sharing bridge regional viability labor market viability student support college 1 3 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study university 5 3 4 3 2 2 0 0 0 25 the most common responses indicated that program alignment, the number of credits that would be granted, necessary physical resources and the minimum gpa needed to qualify for admission under the agreement were believed by interviewees as necessary to include in the formal documentation of a new articulation agreement. university interviewees again identified program alignment as a top consideration. as the receiving institutions, university interviewees also noted the importance of considerations such as the physical resources that would be necessary to operate the agreement effectively (e.g., available lab space). college interviewees emphasized the importance of regional and labour market viability to some extent however, it was not a key consideration for receiving partners. similarly, college interviewees emphasized the importance of making sufficient student supports available to students throughout the transfer process. when examining the current articulation agreements at each of the partnering institutions a number of the criteria described in the interviews were found to have been included in the formal documentation. for example, credits to be granted and minimum gpa were outlined in all agreements where they were applicable. in some cases, articulation agreements outlined movement from a college program into a selection of different university programs. as the minimum gpa for each programs varied, a minimum gpa was not listed in these agreements. the content analysis also revealed that considerations around information sharing were mentioned in most of the agreements, regardless of institutional pair. this occurred either broadly (e.g., outlining that each institution had to report program changes to their partner), or in a way that was more structured. an example of communication between partners being more structured can be found in the c3u3 agreements specifying that their agreements would be reviewed every spring by both institutions. in contrast, the interviews revealed that the majority of ongoing communication was informal and borne out of the relationships between senior administrators at partnering institutions. in addition to this, interviewees also indicated that specific bridging courses should be outlined in the documentation of an agreement. evidence of this practice was discovered in the content analysis, such that all of the agreements where bridging courses were necessary outlined which courses the student would be required to take during the summer following a transfer. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 26 criteria inclusion and student usage. the interviewees were not able to conclusively identify the criteria that were related to student uptake of specific agreements. to determine this, a series of t-tests were conducted to look at mean differences in student usage for agreements where the criteria were included. although usage of individual agreements was not able to be determined for the c1u1 pair, usage of the articulated c2u2 and c3u3 agreements were analysed and are reported below. percent of credit granted. the first criteria examined was percent of credit granted. for the purpose of analysis, this variable was separated into comparison groups based on the range of data available for each institutional pair. for the c2u2 pair, percent of credit granted ranged from 13% to 50% and was therefore separated into four comparison groups (< 29%, 30%-39%, 4049%, and 50% +). a test of homogeneity of variance revealed that assumptions were violated, thus the welchs f was used for testing and was found to be significant (f = 9.15, p = .001, df [3, 19.30]). a post-hoc analysis determined that there were significant mean differences between the < 29% and 30%-39% groups (md = -31.11, p = .01), as well as the 30%-39% and 40%-49% groups (md = 35.23, p = .005), and the 30%-39% and 50% + groups (md = 38. 33, p = .014).the mean number of student transfers were higher in the 30-39% group compared to the <29% group. this implies that assigning a lower amount of credit in an articulation agreement may impact the number of students interested in following this pathway. however, it is interesting to note that this trend ceases to exist once the credit allowed is greater than 40%. future research into this phenomenon has the potential to further explain this result. for the c3u3 pair, percent of credit granted ranged from 30% to 43% and was therefore broken into two comparison groups (< 39% and 40% +). as there were only two comparison groups, a t-test was conducted to test for mean differences between the groups; the results were not significant. gpa minimum. many of the minimum gpa requirements listed in the articulation agreements were the same within institutions. for this reason, t-tests were conducted to determine if there was a mean difference in number of student transfers, based on whether or not the agreements identified a minimum gpa. as many of the minimums were the same across an institutions agreements, an analysis of the minimums themselves would not be meaningful. for the c2u2 pair, the mean number of student transfers through agreements that identified a gpa the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 27 minimum was m = 13.24, while the mean number of transfers through agreements that did not identify a gpa minimum was m = 44.86. the t-test conducted to compare these means was not significant; thus it cannot be established whether a significant difference exists in number of student transfers between agreements that identified a gpa minimum and those that did not. for the c3u3 pair, a t-test could not be conducted because all of their agreements included a gpa minimum, thus there was no comparable group. program delivery. program delivery, specified whether the agreement included a bridge semester or was direct entry. for the c2u2 pair, the mean number of student transfers through programs including a bridge semester was m = 19.74, while the mean number of transfers through direct entry programs was m = 21.10. the t-test conducted to compare these means was not significant implying that there was no significant difference in number of student transfers between programs that included a bridge semester and those that were direct entry. for the c3u3 pair, a t-test could not be conducted because all of their agreements were direct entry. promotion. promotion is defined as whether an agreement outlined how the institutions would promote the agreement to their students. this variable was used as a proxy for student awareness of an agreement. for the c2u2 pair, the mean number of student transfers through agreements that outlined promotion was m = 14.11, while the average number of transfers through agreements that did not outline promotion was m = 28.46. the t-test conducted to compare these means was not significant (t = 1.03, p = .32, df [38, 13.86]), meaning that there was not a significant difference in number of student transfers between programs that outlined promotion and those that did not. for the c3u3 pair, a t-test could not be conducted because all of their agreements outlined how the agreement would be promoted, thus there was nothing to compare this group to. key findings. based on the c2u2 data, the only criteria that was significantly related to number of student transfers was percent of credit granted. none of the c3u3 criteria varied enough to allow for an analysis. the content analysis of the c3u3 agreements, indicated that all of the agreements that had been collected were signed in 2017. due to the recent nature of these agreements, all of the agreements had a high level of homogeneity. this homogeneity may be a result of institutional efforts to ensure consistency through updating. if this were the case, it may not have been possible to examine the agreements as they existed for the students who took the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 28 advantage of them between the years of 2011 and 2015. as a result, these findings may not present a complete picture of how the inclusion of these criteria were related to number of student transfers. common criteria for articulation development across institutions tables 1 and 2 show that while there was some variation in the considerations that college and university interviewees deemed important for articulation development, it seems that key criteria for development were similar across institutions. the content analysis revealed that many of the same criteria were outlined, regardless of institutional pair. while conclusive data on the extent to which these variables were related to student uptake of specific agreements could not be deduced, there is evidence that these criteria are viewed as crucial to the development of an agreement across a variety of institutions. this was supported through both the interviews and an analysis of the agreements themselves. interestingly, some agreements included criteria that were unique to a specific institutional pair. many of the c3u3 agreements specified available spaces as a potential reason for limiting student transfer. although none of the agreements from the other institutions included guidelines for refusal or details outlining student caps, one interview revealed that institutions might be using other strategies to ensure that student enrolment does not exceed available resources. the interviewee revealed that adjustments to admission requirements such as minimum gpa make entry more competitive when there is an increase in student demand for transfer into a program eliminating the need for a formal cap. by reducing the number of students who qualify for an they have gpa requirements in place so what they would adjust is the requirement. so for example, an articulation with [institution 1] may have a lower gpa requirement than an articulation with [institution 2], because [institution 2] has fewer spots available. so, they never put a cap on the number, what they do is they up the requirements to get in if that happens. agreement, institutions are able to ensure that they only admit as many students as they are able to accommodate, rendering student caps and refusal guidelines unnecessary. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 29 additionally, c1u1 agreements included several unique criteria in order to accommodate for programs that operated via a shared delivery format. as part of these agreements, students transfer back and forth between the two institutions over the course of four years, meaning that a students enrolment status at each institution changes multiple times while they complete their credentials. in order to accommodate for this, the c1u1 agreements outline institutional responsibilities to the student, as well as considerations related to eligibility for funding and sports team participation. interviews were important in yielding additional insights on criteria included in the articulations. for example, one of the institutions shared that they had begun incorporating a graduated gpa policy into their agreements. the graduated gpa policy determines the number of transfer credits to be granted to students based on their gpa, with students possessing higher gpas receiving more credit upon transferring than students with lower gpas. the interviewee stated that the purpose of this policy was to both reward and attract higher caliber students to the program. the content analysis revealed that the considerations from this policy were not explicitly written into the formal articulation agreements, and only one interviewee from the institution mentioned the policy. this may imply that some members of the institution are not aware that such a policy exists. similarly, if a policy is not clearly and explicitly articulated in the agreement, some students may not be aware that those options are available to them. more importantly, the exclusion of this policy from the formal documentation of the institutions agreements creates the possibility that other institutions may be operating agreements with the addition of policies that have not yet been documented in the formal articulation agreement. if this is the case, it is not possible to gain a holistic understanding of an institutions policies and practices related to credit transfer simply by observing their formal articulation agreements. the presence of formal documents that have not been updated to include all of an institutions transfer policies may also contribute to student confusion about the process of credit transfer. criteria for keeping articulation agreements current the majority of the agreements examined for this study had a renewal date included in the formal documentation that specified when the institutional partners would review an agreement to determine if it required updating. a number of agreements also outlined the process to be followed if the updates were required before the formal renewal date. in most cases, the the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 30 procedure involved reporting program changes to the partner immediately so that a review could take place and the agreement could be updated if necessary. in order to determine the type of changes that would lead to the review of an agreement, interviewees were asked to explain the triggers for the evaluation of an articulation agreement (refer to table 3). table 3: evaluating agreements student success outcomes program changes periodic review ad-hoc review uptake labor market viability college 2 2 1 2 2 1 university 5 3 3 2 1 0 the most common responses for the type of changes that trigger the evaluation of an agreement outside of its formal renewal date were student success outcomes and program changes. however, despite program changes being mentioned during the interviews, and within the agreements themselves, as a trigger for the evaluation of an agreement, many interviewees revealed that limited communication between institutional partners can lead to program changes not being communicated. as a result, these updates are often not made to the formal agreements. in fact, almost all interviewees shared experiences about agreements not being properly reviewed and updated due to inadequate communication related to program changes. in many cases, unreported changes were often discovered when students had transferred and began struggling in their new program. then, either as [reviewing the agreements] should be happening far more often than it had because we found some schools had changed their legal course that they were taking so there was no longer alignment. [] in theory, every time the program was changed we were supposed to be notified. in reality, that process is definitely still a work in progress and needed to get updated. the result of student complaints or students failing courses, the agreement would be reviewed and updated. this finding supports the earlier emphasis placed on information sharing and assurance of program alignment. student success outcomes were referenced in a number of different fashions. these included the responsibility for tracking students for persistence and graduation, and the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 31 disseminating the data to teams that work with transfer students. further emphasizing the need for close collaboration and communication, both college and university interviewees expressed a strong desire for access to data that would enable a close monitoring of transfer students. in particular, one interviewee expressed a desire for information sharing between partners on an annual basis to facilitate proactive discussions. there was little variation between the institutional pairs. c1u1 saw overlap in the triggers for pathway evaluation, with the most significant overlap relating to student success outcomes such as students being unsuccessful in their post-transfer programs. c2u2 saw the least amount of overlap in responses to this question indicating a larger range of possible circumstances that would trigger the evaluation of a pathway. interviewees were asked to identify the steps that would be taken if an ad-hoc review determined that the articulation had become outdated. a number of interviewees indicated that the process would be similar to a scheduled renewal meeting. the institutional stakeholders who had initially been involved in determining program alignment and mapping courses (often faculty members or program coordinators) would meet to review course outlines and redo the course mapping. one interesting finding related to the maintenance of articulation agreements was that whether agreements are formally or informally updated is based on the type of change that occurred. for example, during the interviews it was indicated that only major program changes, such as a change in the courses offered as part of either credential, would result in the agreement being re-written immediately. however, in the case of non-curricular changes, such as alterations to a program name, the change may be updated in the online system but not formally written into the documentation until the next renewal period. in this way, modified agreements could be offered to students without a formal re-write of the documentation occurring, helping to save institutional time and resources. availability of student usage data of articulation agreements one major limitation in determining student usage of the collected articulation agreements was that the majority of institutions were unable to indicate definitively whether a student had transferred through a formal articulation agreement. instead, each university the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 32 provided data for incoming transfer students from the partner institution between the years of 2011 and 2015. an assumption was made that any student who had transferred between programs where an articulation agreement existed (as determined by the articulation agreement documents received from each institution) had transferred under that agreement. as such, the usage numbers reported represent only what can be inferred from the data set received, and may not accurately reflect the full number or scope of transfers occurring at each institution. this information is presented in table 4. table 4: total number of student transfers total number year c1u1 c2u2 of students 418 100 179 2011 (100.0%) (29.3%) (42.8%) 477 103 195 2012 (100.0%) (21.6%) (40.9%) 427 73 167 2013 (100.0%) (17.1%) (39.1%) 416 72 191 2014 (100.0%) (17.3%) (45.9%) 446 80 177 2015 (100.0%) (17.9%) (39.7%) 2,184 428 909 total (100.0%) (19.0%) (42.0%) c3u3 139 (33.3%) 179 (37.5%) 187 (43.8%) 153 (36.8%) 189 (42.4%) 847 (39.0%) in total, there were 2,184 student transfers between all of the institutional pairs for the years of 2011 through 2015, with 2012 having the largest number of student transfers overall. to track the movement of these students, student transfer data was used to populate the agreements available at each institution. it should be noted that among the partners, c2u2 and c3u3 had the greatest number of student transfers overall, roughly twice as many transfers as c1u1. across the pairs student transfer has been relatively stable in the 5 years of data reported. for the purpose of the following analyses, articulated agreements were classified as agreements where there was formal documentation outlining student movement from one program to the other. non-articulated agreements outlined student movement between programs where no formal documentation existed, including block transfer agreements. retention was determined based on whether a student was enrolled in the same program two years after their the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 33 initial enrolment, but whether they were progressing through each semester as intended was not considered. in total, there were 281 articulation agreements operating between all of the institutional pairs (refer to table 5), leading into 91 destination programs. to determine if student usage trends were different based on institution size, the data were further separated by institutional pair. these analyses examined trends in student usage of articulated verses non-articulated agreements, as well as retention data. student demographic data was not collected, and thus trends based on demographic information are not discussed below. table 5: total number of agreements and destination programs number of number of agreements destination programs 18 7 c1u1 (6.5%) (7.6%) 49 14 c2u2 (17.4%) (15.3%) 214 70 c3u3 (76.1%) (77.1%) 281 91 total (100.0%) (100.0%) c1u1 institutional pair. for the c1u1 pair, a total of 18 articulation agreements were reported. across these agreements, there were a total of 7 unique destination programs. between the years of 2011 and 2015, there were a total of 428 student transfers between these institutions. unfortunately, this institutional pairing was unable to provide information on the specific college programs the incoming university transfer students had previously completed. thus, it was not possible to use student data to determine the usage trends of specific articulation agreements. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 34 table 6: c2u2 number of student transfers by year articulated not retained total total enrolled after 2 (a) after 2 years years 179 151 138 13 2011 (20.0%) (84.0%) (91.0%) (9.0%) 195 161 133 28 2012 (21.0%) (83.0%) (83.0%) (17.0%) 167 148 124 24 2013 (18.0%) (89.0%) (84.0%) (16.0%) 191 158 135 23 2014 (21.0%) (83.0%) (85.0%) (15.0%) 177 133 n/a n/a 2015 (20.0%) (75.0%) 909 751 530 88 total (100.0%) (83.0%) (85.7%) (14.3%) non-articulated total (na) 28 (16.0%) 34 (17.0%) 19 (11.0%) 33 (17.0%) 44 (25.0%) 158 (17.0%) 14 (50.0%) 25 (74.0%) 18 (95.0%) 26 (79.0%) not enrolled after 2 years 14 (50.0%) 9 (26.0%) 1 (5.0%) 7 (21.0%) n/a n/a 83 (72.8%) 31 (27.2%) retained after 2 years for the c2u2 pair, a total of 49 articulation agreements were examined. across these agreements, there were a total of 14 unique destination programs. student usage of these agreements was examined for the years between 2011 and 2015; as such, there is no data on graduation or retention after two years for students who transferred in 2015. during this time, there were a total of 943 student transfers between these institutions. in total, 34 students were removed from analysis because their college program could not be determined. after exclusions, 909 students out of 943 were remained. table 6 presents the total number of students across five years as well as the retention rates after two years. the majority (83%) of student transfers between the c2u2 pair occurred through articulated agreements, rather than through non-articulated pathways. overall, students were more likely to be retained after two years if they had transferred through an articulated, rather than a non-articulated, pathway (85.7% compared to 72.8%). in contrast, students who had transferred through non-articulated pathways were more likely than those who used articulated agreements to have left their program after two years (27.2% compared to 14.3%). the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 35 table 7: c3u3 number of student transfers by year articulated not retained total enrolled total (a) after 2 after 2 years years 139 57 39 18 2011 (17.0%) (41.0%) (68.0%) (32.0%) 179 63 42 21 2012 (21.0%) (35.0%) (67.0%) (33.0%) 187 63 39 24 2013 (22.0%) (34.0%) (62.0%) (38.0%) 153 55 42 13 2014 (18.0%) (36.0%) (76.0%) (24.0%) 189 70 n/a n/a 2015 (22.0%) (37.0%) 847 308 162 76 total (100.0%) (36.4%) (68.0%) (32.0%) non-articulated total (na) 82 (59.0%) 116 (65.0%) 124 (66.0%) 98 (64.0%) 119 (63.0%) 539 (63.6%) 57 (70.0%) 79 (68.0%) 89 (72.0%) 63 (64.0%) not enrolled after 2 years 25 (30.0%) 37 (32.0%) 35 (28.0%) 35 (36.0%) n/a n/a 288 (69.0%) 132 (31.0%) retained after 2 years for the c3u3 pair, a total of 214 articulation agreements were examined. across these agreements, there were a total of 70 unique destination programs. for the purpose of analysis, programs with articulations into both ba and ba(hons) degrees in the same program were combined, since it was not possible to tell which degree the student had actually transferred into. in order the merge the agreements, all students who used either the ba or ba(hons) agreement were counted as having transferred through the ba(hons) agreement. after merging, there were a total of 146 agreements with 57 unique destination programs. student usage of these agreements was examined for the years between 2011 and 2015; as such, there is no data on retention after two years for students who transferred in 2015. during this time, there were a total of 847 student transfers between these institutions. table 7 breaks down student usage of these pathways by year. the majority (63.6%) of student transfers between the c3u3 pair occurred through nonarticulated pathways, rather than articulated agreements. overall, students who transferred through articulated agreements and non-articulated pathways were approximately equally as likely to still be enrolled in their program, or to have left their program, after two years. there was a slightly higher chance of students from non-articulated pathways still being enrolled in their program after two years (69% compared to 68%), and for students from articulated agreements to have left their program after two years (32% compared to 31%). it is important to the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 36 note that this definition of retention also excludes students who are still enrolled at a receiving institution but in a different program than they transferred into. unused agreements. one sentiment that was repeated in a number of the interviews was the belief that articulation agreements hold value beyond their purpose as tools for facilitating student transfer. specifically, articulation agreements were seen as adding perceived value to a credential by linking college programs with respected university programs, and as tools for prospective college students to negotiate with their parents. a number of the college interviewees mentioned that students and their families often believe that a university degree should be the goal of all post-secondary studies. these interviewees argued that having a list of available articulations could help students successfully negotiate a pathway to degree attainment at a university through a college program. the perceived value of articulation agreements beyond their function of facilitating student transfer may help to explain the reasons that agreements remain operating even when students are not using them for transfer purposes. while missing student transfer data did so if theyre having a conversation with their parents and they want to enter graphic design or animation or public relations or journalism at [institution] and their parents are pushing them to get a credential of choice - which is a degree - they can say, well, you know what, why dont i do this because its what i want to do and what id be good at, and i can always move to a degree. and here are the conditions under which i can move to a degree and here are my choices. not allow the research team to populate specific articulation agreements with student usage data for the c1u1 pair, the data did allow for a determination of how many of the agreements at the other pairs went unused between the years of 2011 and 2015. of the 49 agreements offered between the c2u2 institutions, 11 agreements (22%) were unused between 2011 and 2015; while 120 out of 146 of the articulations (82%) between the c3u3 institutions were unused. this discrepancy may be partially explained by the large number of block transfer agreements available between the c3u3 pair, potentially showing that students prefer block transfers over articulation agreements when given the choice. since articulation agreements were perceived to hold value even when they are not being used, the notion of terminating agreements with lower use was widely rejected by interviewees. instead, unused articulation agreements often revert to being credit minimums at the time of their the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 37 expiry, rather than being shut down altogether. credit minimums imply that although the formal document would no longer be operating, the agreement may still be used as a guideline for the number of credits to be granted to students with similar credentials upon transfer. credit minimums were especially helpful for facilitating student transfer between programs where an articulation does not exist that have similar learning outcomes to sending programs where an articulation does exist. for example, an agreement between a paralegal diploma and a law studies degree may act as a guideline for how much credit to give an incoming law clerk student, if an agreement did not already exist between the law clerk diploma and the legal studies degree. trends for student retention and graduation as part of the student data request, all three universities were able to provide longitudinal data for their transfer students. analysis of this data indicated that among c2u2 students, those who moved through articulated agreements were more likely to be retained, and less likely to have left their program, after two years than students who had moved through non-articulated pathways. among c3u3 students those who moved through non-articulated pathways were more likely to be retained, and less likely to have left their program, after two years than students who had moved through articulated agreements. despite the longitudinal data being made available when requested, the responses of interviewees varied when asked whether their institution tracked markers of student success (such as retention or graduation rates) for transfer students. variation in the responses of interviewees indicates a lack of awareness on transfer data practices at the institution. the lack of active tracking of retention or graduation data for transfer cohorts was attributed to resource constraint by the interviewees. however there was significant interest in monitoring the retention and graduation rates of transfer students. some other common responses indicated that the interviewees believed the data was being tracked, even though they had not seen the data themselves. during the college interviews, interviewees often mentioned that unless they consistently asked their university partners for updates on the success of unless we seek it out, we dont often get [updates] from the institutions that we send students to. their students, the updates were not given to them. although interviewees attributed this to poor the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 38 communication between institutional partners, university responses about how this data is tracked may indicate that these updates are not given because the information is not monitored at the level it is being requested from. at the partner level there was significant overlap between responses from c1u1 and c2u2. c1u1 interviewees both indicated that retention for transfer students was either tracked by the registrars office, or they were unsure whether this data was being tracked at all. similarly, c2u2 interviewees indicated that retention data was not available at the faculty/school level, or that the extent to which this data was available depended on the relationship between the stakeholders. there was less overlap in responses to this question from c3u3 interviewees. the diverse set of responses to this question may indicate some confusion about the extent to which this data was available to the respondents interviewed. as previously mentioned, an analysis of student transfer data (including retention and graduation) from the c1u1 pair was not possible due to an inability to determine which of their students had used formal articulation agreements. the fact that the majority of the institutions from whom student data was requested could not identify which transfer students had used formal agreements, let alone which specific agreement they had used, hinted at some gaps in the way data is recorded for transfer students. in general, the responses that interviewees gave to this question showed a lack of certainty from both college and university staff about whether the data was tracked at all, and if so, who would have access to it. the lack of communication between colleges and universities in this area may be the result of data on retention and graduation for transfer students not being easily identifiable or accessible. where data was shared between institutions, the information was often anecdotal and occurred only between institutions where the relationship was especially close. in a few cases, interviewees described partner institutions where their departments had a particularly good working relationship as those most likely to provide updates on student success post-transfer. this is to be expected since institutions with relationships where there is little communication would not have the same so that would be dependent on the relationships that we have. i would say with the relationship with [partner institution], we did that on a regular basis [] we would meet once or twice a year. opportunity to provide feedback as a pair of institutions the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 39 where there is constant communication. this again supports the argument that the relationship between institutions is a key determinant in the successful development and maintenance of articulation agreements. a consistent finding across interviews was that the data on student success did not make it back to the primary stakeholders involved in developing articulation agreements. data accessibility was identified as a key barrier across stakeholder if [retention and graduation] are tracked at the registrarial level, i dont think that information has sort of to date really been shared that broadly. roles and classifications. interviewees believed that better access to data would contribute to developing more effective agreements. a number of interviewees indicated that access to data on the success of their students would help make them aware of problems with their articulation agreements so that changes and updates could be made to benefit future students. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 40 section v: conclusions and recommendations this study represents a first in the study of student transfer by examining the institutional perspectives on articulation and transfer. a number of important findings emerged from this project including the common goals among college and university partners. understanding the common interests shared by institutional partners has the potential to improve the student transfer process by placing greater emphasis on the shared interests of each partner. additionally, this was the first time that the various triggers for evaluating a pathway have been considered in the literature on student transfer. a better understanding of these triggers for the evaluation of agreements has the potential to inform a more consistent and standardized approach to making changes to the articulation agreements that govern student transfer. understanding that articulation agreements undergo evaluation as part of renewal processes and as part of exercises to ensure the ongoing success of students, it also becomes important to understand the specific rationale behind the creation of these agreements. through the interviews conducted, this rationale was examined and has the potential to enable a more informed examination of the efficacy of articulation agreements. the key finding of this study is that there is room for improvement when it comes to the development and maintenance of articulation agreements. there are a number of gaps in the way student transfer data is recorded and monitored. these limitations restricted the analysis of institutional policies and practices related to the development, maintenance, and operation of articulation agreements. specifically, most institutions do not maintain explicit records of students who had transferred using an official articulation agreement. additionally, there were gaps in the data needed to determine which program a student had come from or which level of a program they had transferred into (e.g., ba versus ba(hons)). this meant that in many cases it was not possible to assess student usage of specific articulation agreements. despite this gap in the study, the findings revealed some high-level trends related to the development and maintenance of articulation agreements. these findings, and the resulting recommendations, are further explained below. communication between institutional partners one theme that seemed to emerge consistently was the importance the relationship between institutional partners. regardless of what question was asked, one of the most common the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 41 answers was, it depends on the relationship between the institutions. this highlighted the importance of a strong working relationship in all aspects of developing, implementing, and maintaining articulation agreements. foundations for a strong institutional relationship emerged in a variety of ways. on the contrary, having a relationship characterized as less than ideal could obstruct the process of articulation development altogether. where a set of administrators do not work well together there is less motivation to develop agreements between their respective institutions. this often resulted in agreements either not being developed, or agreements becoming outdated and suboptimal in supporting student transfer. one final potential source that may frustrate the ongoing communication and relationship building between institutions at the program level is the rotation of incumbents in faculty/program level administrative roles every three to five years. this supports the case for developing and maintaining formal documentation related to institutional polities on student transfer so that knowledge is not lost when the position is vacated. one strategy that was used to increase communication between institutions was to reach out to all institutional partners every spring, rather than waiting for the agreements renewal date, to ensure that active agreements remain current. as part of this process, the designated office would send a summary of the content of their agreements to their institutional partners, along with any changes they had made to their programs, and then ask if the partner had made any changes to their program. this practice was viewed as an invaluable tool for building institutional relationships and ensuring that the maintenance of agreements occurred proactively. despite a number of other interviewees expressing a desire for a similarly frequent level of contact with their institutional partners, this strategy was only referenced once. updating formal articulation documents another important finding of this study was that institutions with recently updated articulation agreements were less likely to show variation in how those agreements operated. in contrast, institutions with agreements of differing ages showed variation in the criteria included in their formal articulation documents. this provides evidence that as institutions are updating their agreements, there is a natural inclination to make them more consistent with one another. in the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 42 fact, even collected agreements that were different in their formal documentation may be operating similarly to each other at the department level. as mentioned previously, noncurricular program changes would typically only result in department-level updates to articulation agreements. these changes would be updated in an institutions online system so that students could effectively move through the agreement, but would not be formally updated in the articulation documents until the next renewal period. handling updates in this way is a benefit to institutions, as formally re-writing an articulation every time a course name changes would be an unnecessary drain on the resources involved in maintaining agreements. however, despite interviewees reporting that major changes should result in articulation documents being updated before their renewal period, there seems to be evidence that even major changes to available articulation agreements are only being updated at the department level. data collected for this project provided evidence that at least one pair of institutions were operating agreements in a fashion different from their formally documented agreements. more specifically, large numbers of students were moving from a college program to a university program where no articulation was available, but these transfers looked almost identical to transfers between similar programs where an articulation was available. a challenge with this approach is that despite it allowing for efficient movement among students who had taken advantage of these agreements, without formal documentation many students may not know that this pathway is available to them. we mentioned above that students have requested consistency between institutions in terms of articulation offerings (durham college, 2016), and that applies within institutions as well. in order to ensure consistency and equal opportunity for all students interested in student transfer, it would be beneficial for all of an institutions agreements to be formally documented. additionally, updated policies such as the graduated gpa should make it into formal articulation documents to ensure that administrators and students are being made aware of them. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 43 recommendations the recommendations made based on this research have been divided into three categories: policy considerations, communication, and student success outcomes monitoring and are presented in the following section. policy considerations this study found limited awareness of the formal documentation process and its accessibility at both the college and university partners. in the absence of formal articulation development guidelines, previous articulation agreements are used as templates for developing new agreements. the most commonly reported uses for previous agreements was as templates for negotiating agreements with new partners while maintaining consistency. interviewees who felt they had strong templates often reported that the process of developing new agreements was easy, where others relayed that the process was often frustrating and time consuming. vision for articulations. it is recommended that institutions develop of a strategic vision statement that outlines specific goals and rationale for developing articulation agreements that will guide the creation of new agreements. it is recommended that these statements be shared to inform the process of maintaining agreements by clearly outlining each partners expectations. this will further enable each institution to examine whether agreements are effective in achieving the purposes for which they were created. one challenge with monitoring agreements for effectiveness is the limited information available on the goals of these agreements. by clearly outlining the goals of articulation agreements, more effective monitoring can be undertaken. further, this clear vision would enable a better understanding of the multiple purposes articulation agreements serve. formally document and outline the process for developing articulation agreements. this formal documentation should include the identification of the institutional departments and stakeholders who will be involved in the various stages of articulation development and outline their specific roles. this process document should also outline the stakeholders that will be responsible for key tasks such as program mapping. clearly enunciated policy and procedures for articulation development would further standardize the articulation development process that was found to be varied and unique among the partner institutions. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 44 standardize documentation. the standardization of documentation will result in the creation of clear guidelines for the necessary criteria to include in the documentation of articulation agreements. the criteria that should be included are the number of credits granted to the transfer student, the minimum gpa requirements, and the physical resource considerations necessary to operate the agreement. once a list of necessary criteria has been formalized, institutions should create a template for articulation development that streamlines the process of creating articulation agreements and to ensure consistency in the agreements developed. to ensure consistency among the agreements available across an institution, agreements that were established prior to the template should be updated to reflect the newly established standards. following the update, drafts of the previous agreements should be retained to ensure continuity of the transfer framework. updating agreements. create guidelines to govern what changes require an agreement to be formally re-written, or updated informally and the process to be undertaken should these changes occur. specifically, each institution should outline the individuals who will be responsible for reporting changes to their institutional partners. this designate should also be aware of the person at the partnering institution who should be contacted when changes are made to ensure that these changes will be communicated effectively and addressed appropriately. once changes have been made to a formal agreement, institutional designates will need to communicate the changes to administrators and faculty. communication of transfer information communication to students. institutions should ensure that the formal documentation of their agreements includes all of the relevant considerations from policies relevant for student transfer. additionally, a robust communication strategy should be established to ensure that information about transferring is being communicated to prospective transfer students in a consistent fashion. creating and maintaining a specific page on each institutions website that displays each articulation agreement and the relevant considerations from policies that govern student transfer would afford a consistent approach to communicating the available opportunities to prospective the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 45 students. additionally this would enable the effective communication of changes to agreements to students and administrators alike. articulation repository. program changes, including curriculum changes, may necessitate changes to the pre-requisites for the receiving program. it is recommended that an updated list of pre-requisites be maintained for each articulation agreement that is easily accessible to the various institutional stakeholders involved in the process of articulation development or maintenance. this repository will provide a longitudinal record of how an articulation has evolved over the years in its requirements as well as ensure that it serves as a resource for when other agreements experience program changes. student success data. data on student success outcomes for transfer cohorts should be made available to the institutional stakeholders involved with developing and maintaining articulation agreements, at both college and university partners. this information should be shared between institutional partners on a regular basis, preferably annually. these yearly reviews will allow institutions to identify areas where students are struggling so that agreements can be updated to better meet the needs of their students post-transfer. in the event that students are struggling in a manner that requires changes to the agreement, institutions should have a policy in place outlining the next steps to be taken to effect this change. student success outcomes monitoring data designate. institutions should assign a designate or office the responsibility for monitoring student success outcomes for transfer cohorts. these outcomes would include retention, graduation, and continuation in alternative programs. further, to enable the meaningful exchange of data between partnering institutions, data sharing agreements should be established to ensure that each institution is recording transfer data in a consistent fashion. an additional benefit of this designated responsibility would include the ability to share data with partners on an annual basis. breakdowns in communication that currently inhibit this process may differ at the level of the faculty and administrator. future research should seek to identify these differences and ways they can be mitigated to ensure that effective communication occurs. transfer student attributes. transfer students should be monitored independently and as a group. by identifying incoming students that have transferred through the various articulation the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 46 agreements available, better information sharing would be enabled. information such as whether an incoming student took advantage of an agreement, and the particular agreement they used for their transfer should be recorded. for agreements that outline movement between a variety of college and/or university programs, the specific sending and receiving programs should be recorded. similarly, if an agreement is in place for both diploma and advanced diploma students transferring into a university program, the credential obtained and commensurate amount of credit granted should each be recorded. the receiving program should also be recorded to enable a holistic understanding of the outcomes for transfer students. student success outcomes. institutions should monitor the progression of students posttransfer so that new agreements can be developed in areas of interest to students. in cases where students are making use of an articulation agreement to enable access to a university program where no formal pathway exists, the tracking of student movement post-transfer would help to understand this trend. for example, if police foundations students are transferring through a formal pathway into criminology and then later changing programs to psychology, understanding this post-transfer outcome could facilitate consideration for the development of a new pathway. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 47 references academia group. (2017). pathway programs: the interest is there, but is the awareness? retrieved from: https://forum.academica.ca/forum/pathway-programs-the-interest-isthere-but-is-the-awareness auld, d., genoe, m., trick, d., nightingale, m., groarke, l., bockner. patterson, b. (2002). summary proceedings from the cucc forum. cejda, b.d. (1997). an examination of transfer shock in academic disciplines. community college journal of research and practice, 21(3), 279-288. cejda, b.d., kaylor, a.j., & rewey, k.l. (1998). transfer shock in an academic discipline: the relationship between students majors and their academic performance. community college review, 26(3), 1-13. colleges ontario. (2008). improving college system pathways: project highlight report. retrieved from: http://www.collegesontario.org/research/studentmobility/co_improvingpathwayshighlights_sept08.pdf colleges ontario. (2009). student mobility between ontarios colleges and universities. retrieved from: http://www.collegesontario.org/research/studentmobility/student_mobility_09.pdf damico, m.m., dika, s.l., elling, t.w., algozzine, b., & ginn, d.j. (2014). early integration and other outcomes for community college transfer students. research in higher education, 55(4), 370-399. durham college. (2016). credit where credit is due: understanding the credit transfer experience at ontario colleges. retrieved from: http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2014-31-finalreport-credit-where-credit-is-due-understanding-credit-transfer-in-ontario-colleges.pdf durham college. (2014). assessing the effectiveness of ontario college preparatory programs offered at durham college. retrieved from: http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2013-08-durham- the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 48 assessing-the-effectiveness-of-ontario-college-preparatory-programs-offered-atdurham-college.pdf gawley, t., & mcgowan, r.a. (2006). learning the ropes: a case study of the academic and social experiences of college transfer students within a developing university-college articulation framework. college quarterly, 9(3), 1-18. gerhardt, k., & masakure, o. (2016). postsecondary student mobility from college to university: academic performance of students. the canadian journal of higher education, 46(2), 78-91. retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dcuoit.ca/docview/1824510846?accountid=14694 government of ontario. (2017). strengthening ontarios adult education system: a discussion paper to guide public consultation about ways to improve adult education in ontario. retrieved from: https://www.ontario.ca/page/strengthening-ontarios-adult-educationsystem ignash, j. m., & townsend, b. k. (2000). evaluating state-level articulation agreements according to good practice. community college review, 28(3), 1-21. lauder, w., & cuthbertson, p. (1998). course-related family and financial problems of mature nursing students. nurse education today, 18(5), 419-425. luo, m., williams, j.e., & vieweg, b. (2007). transitioning transfer students: interactive factors that influence first-year retention. college & university, 83(2), 8-19. mccloy, u., steffler, m., & decock, h. (2016). the impact of labour market and policy changes on university transfer: the case study of early childhood education. toronto, ontario: seneca college. mcgowan, r.a., & gawley, t. (2006). the university side of the college transfer experience: insights from university staff. college quarterly, 9(3), 1-17. ontario council on articulation and transfer. (2013). forging new pathways to improve student mobility in the province of ontario. toronto, ontario: ontario council on articulation and transfer. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 49 pricewaterhousecoopers. (2017). fiscal sustainability of ontario colleges. retrieved from: http://www.collegesontario.org/policy-positions/positionpapers/fiscal%20sustainability%20of%20ontario%20colleges%20final%2004.01.16.pd f smith, r., decock, h., lin, s., sidhu, r., & mccloy, u. (2016). transfer pathways in postsecondary education: york university and seneca college as a case study. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. strayhorn, t.l. (2011). bridging the pipeline: increasing underrepresented students preparation for college through a summer bridge program. american behavioral scientist, 55(2), 142159. trick, d. (2013) college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. types of programs at ontario colleges. (n.d.). retrieved from: https://www.ontariocolleges.ca/en/apply/program-types wang, x. (2009). baccalaureate attainment and college persistence of community college transfer students at four-year institutions. research in higher education, 50(6), 570-588. wilson, f. (1997). the construction of paradox: one case of mature students in higher education. higher education quarterly, 51(4), 347-366, doi: 10.1111/1468-2273.00051 the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 50 appendices appendix a: interview questions 1. please describe some key criteria for undertaking the development of a formal pathway. if you have never developed a pathway, what criteria would you consider important? i. do the criteria you have listed vary depending on other variables, e.g. enrolment numbers, program area, etc? ii. are there additional (external factors) that affect the decision whether to develop a pathway? 2. who is most likely to participate in a pathway development meeting? i. what rationale determines the inclusion of institutional stakeholders? 3. what unique motivations underlie the goals of the various stakeholders who participate in the development of articulation agreements? i. do these vary depending on the program/faculty/individual? 4. what are some important considerations when formulating a pathway agreement? a. what makes these considerations important? b. institution/program specific? 5. does a formal process document (not with respect to compliance) exist for the development of an articulation agreement? if so, can you please discuss the content? 6. in what ways are current articulation agreements considered/referenced in the creation of new agreements? 7. please describe the extent to which current agreements are monitored for retention/graduation. a. success (control for size of field) i. retention ii. graduation 1. account for early leavers due to job? 2. should it be persistence? b. relevance (in relation to?) i. validity c. effectiveness i. consultation/ follow-ups with partnering institution d. have you ever capped enrolment on an agreement i. regulated programs? 8. thinking about the future of student success, what are some areas of opportunity/ growth/ change for current pathways or pathways under development? a. impact of degrees b. consultation with other non-partner institutions the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 51 c. d. e. f. g. certificate to degrees alternative pathways student interest groups metrics notion of sun setting 9. please describe the events that would trigger the evaluation of a pathway. a. what steps are taken when it is determined that a pathway needs updating? b. how does the operation of older agreements differ from their original documents? 10. is there anything else that you would like to make clear about the construction/maintenance of pathways? the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 52 appendix b: student data request template when we requested student data from each of the participating universities, we sent out an excel template that included headings for each of the variables we were collecting. for clarity, the second page of the excel file defined each of the variables of interest as below. student id: unique identifier for each student. college program: the name of the program the student was enrolled in prior to their transfer. transfer pathway used: whether or not the student used an articulated transfer pathway; if so, which one they used. name of faculty: the name of the faculty that hosts the program the student transferred into. year of enrolment: the year the student began taking classes at your institution towards their credential. program name: the name of the program the student transferred into. credential: the type of credential their post-transfer program would earn them. enrolled after 2 years: a yes or no acknowledgement of whether or not the student was still enrolled at the university after 2 years. persistence by program: the number of students in the post-transfer program at the end of each school year. the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 53 the footprint of articulation agreements oncat provincial study 54

request for proposals translation and proofreading services closing date: march 18, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time (est) closing location: the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) suite 1902, 180 dundas street west toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by: the ontario council on articulation and transfer contact: shauna love, operations director communications@oncat.ca 416.640.6951 ext. 302 main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student-facing website: http://www.ontransfer.ca contents oncat overview .......................................................................................................................3 invitation .....................................................................................................................................4 scope of work .............................................................................................................................5 translation services ................................................................................................................5 proofreading services .............................................................................................................5 project overview .........................................................................................................................7 request process .....................................................................................................................7 translation schedule ...............................................................................................................7 translation budget ..................................................................................................................7 contract duration ....................................................................................................................7 rfp submission information.......................................................................................................8 key dates................................................................................................................................8 proposal requirements ...........................................................................................................8 technical evaluation ...............................................................................................................9 communication .......................................................................................................................9 submission process ................................................................................................................9 evaluation criteria .....................................................................................................................12 page 2 evaluation process ...................................................................................................................11 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. working with our network of ontarios 45 colleges and universities, indigenous institutes, students, government, guidance counsellors, as well as other stakeholders provincially and nationally, oncat is building a culture and understanding of transfer so that students can pursue a more seamless and affordable postsecondary education. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: developing and maintaining the student-facing website ontransfer.ca, used to connect current and prospective students to transfer opportunities; supporting and funding academic projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontarios regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; and hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province. oncat is funded by the government of ontario. page 3 oncat follows the requirements under the french languages services act (flsa) as it applies to public service agencies and is committed to ongoing improvements on how we communicate with and engage francophone audiences across ontario. invitation oncat is seeking a qualified firm to provide translation and proofreading services from english to french and french to english on an as and when needed basis. in addition, oncat may periodically decide to review pages of the oncat.ca french website and ontransfer.ca french website to ensure they meets expectations of accurate translation, including reference and use of oncats lexicon of preferred terms. oncat requires a broad range of content to be translated, for both print and web, including academic papers, project abstracts, brochures, website content, marketing and advertising copy, newsletters, and public communications. oncat is seeking a qualified firm with: experience translating content for educational and postsecondary institutions, government institutions, or government agencies; the ability to provide translations and proofreading services that align with ontario government terminology; the ability to commit to and meet required timelines (see section 3); a rigorous and effective quality assurance process; clear process for escalating issues and the ability to provide translation feedback that can be incorporated into future projects; and excellent communication skills and customer service skills. page 4 scope of work translation services the successful candidate will provide translation services on an as and when needed basis for the translation of english to french and/or french to english. translation is defined as the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. oncat expects that translated text has been reviewed and edited to meet oncat expectations of accurate translation, including reference and use of oncats lexicon of preferred terms. 1. a request will be submitted by oncat for translation services for english to french or french to english on a per-project basis. a lexicon of preferred terms will be provided, which should be saved and referenced by the translator. 2. the request will be categorized as a regular translation or rush translation. a. regular translation: i. for requests up to 1,000 words, translation is required in four (4) business days. ii. for requests longer than 1,000 words, translation is to be delivered at a mutually agreed upon date, ensuring quality standards can be met. b. rush translation: i. for requests up to 500 words, translation is to be delivered within one (1) business day. ii. for requests longer than 500 words, translation is to be delivered as quickly as work can be done, ensuring quality standards can be met. if a vendors definition of regular and rush differ from the above, additional details must be included in the submitted proposal. all translations are expected to be submitted through the successful vendors quality assurance process. the vendor is expected to maintain the formatting of the document or text sent, within reason. proofreading services the successful candidate will provide proofreading services on an as and when required basis for proofreading of french copy. proofreading is defined as comparing an edited final draft with the source document to ensure all text has been transferred from the source correctly, correcting typographical errors and format inconsistencies as well as accuracy of any cross-references. proofreading may also page 5 the process for translation services is: include the translation of corrections and editions made to a document in one language into the translated version of the same document. most proofreading requests will encompass french to english content or proofreading french content to ensure it meets oncat expectations of accurate translation, including reference and use of oncats lexicon of preferred terms. the process for proofreading of french copy is: 1. a request will be submitted by oncat for proofreading services on a per-project basis. 2. proofreading projects could include: a. reading current copy to ensure proper use of oncat terminology preferences. a lexicon of preferred terms will be provided. b. comparing current copy to english copy to ensure consistency of wording. page 6 the vendor is expected to maintain the formatting of the document or text sent, within reason. project overview request process the request process must include the ability for oncat to include and record the following: requester name and department (one of the following will be provided): o operating o system improvements o system performance o digital infrastructure o sector engagement content to be translated / proofread as a .doc or pdf attachment. type of request: o translation: regular, ___ words @ $___ / word rush, ___ words @ $___ / word total: $__________ the requester name and department provided in the request must be included in the final invoice for each request. currently, all requests are submitted via e-mail, but oncat is open to an alternative process as long as the information above can be included on the requests and final invoices. oncat translates documents that will be used for public distribution in both official languages. most translation requirements are 1,000 words or fewer with a translated return time of four (4) business days. oncats translation needs can vary widely from month to month, but on average, oncat requires four documents to be translated per month. translation budget oncat budgets $20,000 to $25,000 per year for translation. contract duration the successful candidate will enter into a contract with oncat for a period of one year. oncat may, at its sole option, extend the agreement for two consecutive one-year periods. the successful candidate must have the capacity to meet oncats translation requirements. refer to the section 4.2 for the expected schedule. if for any reason the successful cannot fulfill the requirements of this agreement, oncat reserves the right to seek quotations from a different vendor. page 7 translation schedule rfp submission information key dates rfp release date february 24, 2021 deadline for questions via communications@oncat.ca. march 8, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. est questions & answers posting date answers will be posted @ https://oncat.ca/en/open-rfps march 10, 2021 proposal deadline march 18, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. est content for technical evaluation provided to respondent contact person march 24, 2021 at approx. 9:00 a.m. est technical submission closing date march 24, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. est selection and negotiation period week of march 29, 2021 notice of award week of april 5, 2021 proposals must, at minimum, contain the following: 1. company information including: legal name. company overview, # of employees, organizational structure. full address. additional location(s). name and title of person authorized to sign on behalf of the respondent name, title, e-mail, and phone number of rfp contact person (the technical evaluation will be sent to this person). name, title, e-mail, and phone number of a secondary rfp contact person (the technical evaluation will also be sent to this person as back-up). 2. description of translation and proofreading process, including: request process, quality assurance process, issue escalation process, and lexicon management and updating process. 3. fee structure in canadian dollars including all related fees and exclusive of taxes, with specific interest in: page 8 proposal requirements 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. price per word for regular translation: i. english to french ii. french to english price per word for rush translation: i. english to french ii. french to english all-inclusive hourly rate for regular proofreading services. all-inclusive hourly rate for rush proofreading services. qualifications of the respondent to provide the requested services including capability, capacity, related experience, and three similarly complex project examples. a list of three current clients and a short description of the type of work completed. a listing of the staff to be assigned to this project and their respective qualifications, experience on engagements of this scope, including a short bio and their role in those past engagements. a statement of understanding on any confidential issues for this project and disclosure concerning any perceived or potential conflicts of interest. technical definitions if required. technical evaluation selected candidates must provide one (1) translated document to oncat by email by 2:00 p.m. est on march 24, 2021. communication all communication, such as requests for additional information and/or clarification, should be directed in writing by email to communications@oncat.ca with translation rfp as the subject line. all such rfp-related inquiries must be received no later than march 8, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time (est). oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information of a reasonable nature that may be requested by interested vendors. submission process 1. please review all sections of this rfp carefully and follow all instructions. incomplete submissions will not be considered. 2. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to accomplish the desired or intended results of this procurement are solicited. however, proposals that depart from or page 9 the top three (3) candidates selected based on the proposals submitted will be requested to complete a 200-word translation for technical evaluation. this translation request will be emailed by oncat to the rfp contact person and secondary rfp contact person provided in each proposal. materially alter the terms, requirements, or scope of work defined by this rfp will be rejected. 3. all costs associated with developing or submitting a proposal (including a potential interview) in response to this rfp and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal, shall be borne by the vendor. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. 4. all proposals should identify the vendor proposed team of professionals, including those employed by subcontractors, if any, along with respective areas of expertise and relevant credentials. agencies should also provide a delineation of the portion of the scope of work for which each of these professionals will be responsible. 5. vendors are required to submit one (1) electronic copy of their proposal to: communications@oncat.ca. please ensure the subject line reads as follows: translation & proofreading services: [company name]. oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of march 18, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. est. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. page 10 all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfp document become the property of oncat. oncat can decide to not proceed with these activities. evaluation process the evaluation process will include several steps. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. oncat is funded by the ministry of colleges and universities (mcu), and as such, services provided by a vendor is contingent upon oncats continued funding from mcu. 1. mandatory requirements proposals will be reviewed for mandatory requirements and general compliance with the submission proposal requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements will be disqualified. 2. proposal evaluation the evaluation committee will complete the proposal evaluation criteria template and rank the written proposals. the three (3) top-ranked vendors will be invited to stage 2 technical evaluation. 4. technical evaluation review and evaluation the evaluation committee will review each translation independently and score for quality, consistency, and accuracy. the technical evaluation score will be added to the proposal evaluation score to determine each vendors final score. if there is a tie between two or more top scoring vendors, the tied vendors will be invited to an interview that will break the tie. the highest-scored provider(s) may be called for an interview. the preferred provider will be asked for references. references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. 5. negotiation prior to award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with vendor(s) identified for the best value option. 6. notice of award the successful vendor will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful vendor(s) will be notified after a final agreement has been executed. page 11 3. technical evaluation on march 24, 2021 at approx. 9:00 a.m. est, oncat will provide the top three (3) vendors with a document for translation of approximately 200 words by email. all vendors will receive the same translation. vendors must send their translated document back to oncat by march 24, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. eastern standard time (est). vendors must ensure that proposals are received by 2:00 p.m. est. proposals received after 2 p.m. est will not be accepted. please allow up to 15 minutes for your email to clear the oncat server. evaluation criteria applicants should clearly meet all the criteria listed below: points /20 /5 /5 /30 /20 /50 page 12 proposal evaluation criteria budget approach/cost effectiveness price per word for regular translation: o english to french o french to english price per word for rush translation: o english to french o french to english approach request process quality assurance process issue escalation process proofreading process qualifications of vendor history and experience with similar organizations, educational institutions, government institutions, and government agencies. proven ability to provide translations and proofreading services that align with ontario government terminology. the ability to commit to and meet required timelines (see section 3). subtotal technical evaluation criteria technical evaluation total possible points

appel de propositions microcertifications en ontario : explorer la cumulabilit et la transfrabilit contexte le gouvernement provincial de lontario a lanc lanne dernire sa stratgie en matire de microcertifications visant financer des projets de dveloppement de nouveaux parcours permettant aux apprenants ontariens de se former et damliorer leurs comptences pour occuper des emplois en demande. cette initiative comprend le dveloppement du portail provincial qui regroupe jusqu 1 200 microcertifications diffrentes offertes dans les collges et universits de lontario. cette stratgie comprend le lancement du fonds ontarien daide pour la microcertification, lequel met 15 millions de dollars la disposition des tablissements pour quils largissent leurs offres et tablissent des partenariats avec des prestataires de formation et des employeurs. comme il sagit dun domaine nouveau et en volution en ontario, on peut en apprendre beaucoup sur la relation entre ces nouvelles offres de microcertifications et le transfert de crdits. ces questions importantes doivent donc se poser : les microcertifications sont-elles conues en tenant compte de leur cumulabilit et de leur transfrabilit dans le systme postsecondaire? comment les autres tablissements postsecondaires reconnatront-ils ces cours abrgs dans le processus de transfert de crdits? propos de lappel de propositions pour aider rpondre ces vastes questions, le caton finance des recherches qui aideront comprendre le cadre des microcertifications en ontario et le chevauchement potentiel avec les questions prvalant dans le transfert et la reconnaissance des crdits. nous acceptons les propositions qui exploreront et tudieront les processus existants, tels que le portail des microcertifications, et les partenariats entre les tablissements et les partenaires industriels/employeurs rgionaux. nous souhaitons comprendre comment ces initiatives soutiennent le cumul, lchelonnement et la transfrabilit des microcertifications et comment elles pourraient se recouper avec lassurance qualit et lra (valuation et reconnaissance des acquis). le caton invite les chercheurs qui souhaitent explorer et cartographier systmatiquement les arrangements existants pour la reconnaissance officielle de la formation en entreprise ou des microcertifications actuellement offertes par les tablissements postsecondaires publics de lontario, soumettre leurs propositions. cette revue pourrait comprendre notamment les lments suivants : 1. des analyses de lenvironnement ou du contenu des offres actuelles du portail des microcertifications et de leur potentiel de cumul et de transfrabilit. 2. des entrevues approfondies et des groupes de discussion avec des intervenants cls du secteur, y compris des conseillers en transfert de crdits et des membres du personnel des registraires des collges publics, des universits et des tablissements autochtones, ainsi que des reprsentants de groupes offrant une formation en entreprise en ontario. 3. des tudes de cas de partenariats actuels entre des tablissements et des partenaires de lindustrie qui ont utilis des fonds gouvernementaux pour dvelopper de nouvelles microcertifications afin de comprendre le fonctionnement de cet cosystme de comptences, ses objectifs et la faon dont ces expriences et ces formations peuvent tre transfrables lavenir. financement le financement peut varier entre 10 000 $ pour une analyse environnementale complte des offres de microcertifications en ontario et 75 000 $ pour un projet de recherche approfondie. les projets de recherche qui comprennent une analyse de lenvironnement et des entrevues approfondies et/ou des groupes de discussion avec les principaux dcideurs impliqus dans lapprobation des cours et des titres de comptences des microcertifications, et/ou pour alimenter les tudes de cas, pourraient tre admissibles un financement de 50 000 $ 75 000 $. par exemple, une tude comportant plus de 20 entrevues et dautres mthodes pourrait tre admissible un montant maximal de 75 000 $. qualifications les proposants doivent faire preuve dune exprience en recherche sur les politiques, avec une expertise dans la recherche sur lenseignement postsecondaire, les approches qualitatives et les mthodes mixtes (par exemple, lanalyse de contenu grande chelle). demande pour demander un financement, soumettez votre proposition dans le canal des projets de recherche du caton. date limite *** la date limite de dpt des candidatures est le 23 fvrier 2022. *** coordonnes si vous souhaitez discuter de votre projet avant de soumettre votre proposition, veuillez communiquer avec rod missaghian, chercheur principal, ladresse rmissaghian@oncat.ca

project snapshot pathway development in the arts and sciences type: pathways development project number: 2019-18 or p1918 project lead: laurentian university collaborators: le collge la cit project summary the project promotes the passage of students from college programs to university programs in the fields of arts and science. the following pathways are identified: 1) from la cits pharmaceutical techniques programs to laurentians biochemistry, biology and pharmaceutical chemistry programs 2) from la cits journalism and public relations programs to laurentians new law and justice program project rationale the biochemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry programs at laurentian have attracted about 15 students over 4 academic years (in 2015, 2016 and 2017). for those years, there are 5, 6 and 8 students respectively in first year and we note an average retention rate of 73% in second year. given that we offer the option of a 3 or 4-year bachelor degree, about 11% of students decide to go on for a 4th year. with this pathway, we hope to maintain a higher number of students, to provide a more attractive dynamic. also, given that la cit hast about 20 graduates in pharmaceutical techniques annually, we estimate that 40% of them would like to take advantage of this opportunity. a restructuring of the political science program at laurentian led to the creation of a new program to further meet the interest of students: a b.a. in law and justice. given that the initial program attracted few students (from 2014 to 2016, fewer than five students were enrolled in first and second year, although the average retention rate was 90%), it was decided that the field of political science would be combined with law, thereby offering students multidisciplinary learning. during our discussions la cit mentioned that it was seeking multidisciplinary knowledge for their journalism and public relations students. for these two disciplines, the offer proposed by our new law and justice program was among the most relevant to the stated needs. on average, la cit awards about 10 diplomas in journalism and about 30 in public relations annually. based on the numbers, we estimate that 25 students would be interested in continuing their studies through this pathway, according to the information gathered from la cit students. main collaborators la cit was responsible for providing the documentation necessary to review the programs targeted for the pathways, attending the meetings and facilitating communication with their program coordinators for clarification on reviewing the correlations between the college and university courses. as the main project coordinator, laurentian university was responsible for carrying out the work plan, conducting the review work, coordinating the exchange of communications and information with la cit, providing good financial management and providing follow-up reports to oncat. outcomes ultimately, the outcomes of this project aimed at developing five (5) college-university pathways, namely three (3) in the science field and two (2) in the arts field. over the last year, we completed the first review of the targeted programs and identified the specialization courses that could be recognized for college graduates. our recommendations are now pending assessment by the various institutional bodies. pathway(s) development key steps two key factors pushed us to explore the relevance of these pathways. in the case of the two pathways from la cits journalism and public relations programs to laurentians law and justice program, it is mainly about seeing how, as post-secondary partners, we could come together to offer students in these francophone college programs the added value that would make them competitive in the job market, which is particularly fierce in the communications industry. on the other hand, in the case of the three pathways from la cits pharmaceutical techniques program, it was a matter of promoting the opportunities for additional studies that would help increase job opportunities for graduates of this program, while having the opportunity to feed the new program in place at laurentian that is strongly aligned with this college program, namely the pharmaceutical chemistry b.sc. pathways created the five (5) desired pathways are awaiting approval by laurentians institutional bodies: 1) from la cits pharmaceutical techniques program to laurentians biochemistry, biology and pharmaceutical chemistry programs 2) from la cits journalism and public relations programs to laurentians new law and justice program challenges all of the steps associated with completing this project took place with no specific pitfalls. student outcomes these pathways save college graduates who want to enroll in the targeted university programs time and money. they will also offer them greater recognition as professionals given the value of the specialized academic skills they acquired during their college education, demonstrating increased consideration and thereby, the greater value of the college education. student credentials laurentians various decision-making bodies need to approve them first before they are officially recognized. student time savings note that this information is based only the potential time saved by the student given that laurentians various decision-making bodies must grant their approval first before they are officially recognized. pathway from the journalism program to the law and justice b.a.: approximately 2 semesters. pathway from the public relations program to the law and justice b.a.: approximately 2 semesters. pathway from the pharmaceutical techniques program to the biology b.sc.: approximately 3 semesters. pathway from the pharmaceutical techniques program to the biochemistry b.sc.: approximately 3 semesters. pathway from the pharmaceutical techniques program to the pharmaceutical chemistry b.sc.: approximately 2.5 semesters. student financial savings this information is based only the potential tuition fees saved by the student given that laurentians various decision-making bodies must grant their approval first before they are officially recognized. there are additional savings associated with ancillary expenses and relocation expenses to take the courses. pathway from the journalism program to the law and justice b.a.: approximately $7,500 pathway from the public relations program to the law and justice b.a.: approximately $7,500 pathway from the pharmaceutical techniques program to the biology b.sc.: approximately $11,250 pathway from the pharmaceutical techniques program to the biochemistry b.sc.: approximately $11,250 pathway from the pharmaceutical techniques program to the pharmaceutical chemistry b.sc.: approximately $9,375 student flexibility first, the potential credit recognition as part of these pathways appears to be quite beneficial. we will have to monitor if the various decision-making bodies will accept the recommended recognitions based on the review conducted as part of this project. moreover, several courses associated with laurentians law and justice b.a. are accessible online, which gives the college graduate or the student potentially already on the job market the added benefit of flexibility to be able to pursue their university education without being forced to relocate. student work alignment initially, la cit contacted us to develop this pathway with a view to offering added value in terms of employability because several of them, from their toronto campus, aspire toward jobs at queens park and expressed an interest in upgrading their education with a political dimension. hence, we can state that this pathway does indeed contribute to student employability. institutional outcomes the process undertaken as part of this project followed the procedures of the new methodology developed and followed for the last two years. tips/advice in our opinion, the methodology based on the review of correlations between the learning outcomes of the college and university programs is still the best argument to present to the institutional bodies responsible for approving the proposed pathways because it shows, in a factual manner, the overlap and the skills of college graduates. we strongly recommend it. tools and resources the key tools developed as part of this project were the review matrices. they have been uploaded to the project deliverables section.

series a statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario: what the university/college applicant survey tells us brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academica's university/college applicant survey roger pizarro milian, oncat david zarifa, nipissing university rod missaghian, oncat february 2022 the authors wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 foreword rod missaghian, oncat postsecondary transfer research in ontario despite making significant strides in recent decades continues to suffer from a lack of data sources that systematically capture patterns in student mobility. for this reason, oncat has been diligently working to find innovative data sources, potential new data-linkages, and other opportunities that allow us to extend our understanding of transfer and student mobility in ontario. in the spring of 2020, academica group graciously provided oncat with access to one of the richest and largest educational datasets in canadian postsecondary education (pse): the university/college applicant survey (ucas). this proprietary data source provides impressive coverage of hundreds of data fields capturing postsecondary applicants demographic characteristics, educational background and aspirations, usage of various information sources, decision-making, and other relevant topics. the ucas has been conducted annually by academica since the mid-2000s and has been fine-tuned over the years in consultation with pse stakeholders to capture emerging topics of interest. during this period, the ucas has been completed by hundreds of thousands of applicants to 100+ canadian colleges, polytechnics, and universities. to date, the ucas remains one of the most trusted data sources for institutional decision-makers across canada. oncat is now releasing a series of briefs and papers that outline the initial statistical analysis of transfer and student mobility in ontario based on this ucas dataset. the analysis presented in this series was developed by the oncat research team in partnership with researchers from across the sector and a cross-sector panel of external reviewers. this work builds on previous oncat-funded research (henderson & mccloy, 2017) that also used ucas data. this series contains an introductory paper followed by three briefs: situating the ucas dataset within the ontario pse data landscape brief 1: regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academicas university/college applicant survey brief 2: does socio-economic background matter? a look at pathways into ontario colleges brief 3: applicant pathways into university: do high school grades matter? it is our hope that this statistical research will advance transfer research and instigate useful discussions at multiple levels within policy and administrative circles. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 introduction each year, thousands of individuals apply and are accepted into colleges across ontario, gaining access to world-class training opportunities primarily at the sub-baccalaureate level. the oecd (2012; 2014) has highlighted the instrumental role that colleges in canada play in promoting an inclusive skills development ecosystem. with the growth of articulation agreements between ontario colleges and universities, colleges now also represent a viable pathway to an abundance of university degree programs. in the united states, 2-year community college (cc) student aspirations for 4-year degree programs have been well documented (see chan & wang, 2020; wang & lee, 2019). in canada, however, theres less research on this subject a fact attributable to the absence of survey data on this topic. the lack of work on this subject in ontario is unfortunate, as research has found that student aspirations are an important predictor of transfer out behavior (mccloy, steffler & decock, 2017, p. 10). studying degree aspirations among college applicants is particularly useful intelligence for policy development. at a provincial level, examining regional disparities in degree aspirations could inform the design of targeted strategies, such as regional articulation hubs, to promote seamless transfer. of course, an understanding of demand for degrees among college applicants can also inform the further development of applied degree programs within the college sector itself, a market which is in its early stages of development within the province. in this brief, we examine degree aspirations among a sample of 31,000 first-time ontario college applicants within academicas university/college applicant survey dataset (2013-2019). we focus on disparities that exist across the various geographical regions in ontario, while accounting for the unique characteristics of these sub-populations. a regional focus is warranted given that research finds that both pse attainment, skills development, and student mobility rates differ significantly across regions, with the provincial north being particularly disadvantaged (zarifa, seward, & pizarro milian, 2019; zarifa, hango & pizarro milian, 2018; zarifa, sano & hillier 2020a; 2020b). we explore this topic using a combination of descriptive statistics and logistic regression modelling. disclaimer: the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), funded by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the authors also wish to thank the academica group for providing them with access to the ucas. the first author of this brief contributed to this piece during his employment at oncat (2019-2021). the views and interpretations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the academica group, government of ontario, statistics canada, or any other affiliated entity. though ontario colleges are now able to grant degrees, reports suggest that college degree-granting programs account for only a small fraction (2%) of the provinces degree-level enrollments (hicks et al., 2013). more recent ministry of colleges and university (2020) data for the 2019-20 academic year show that only 6% of degree-level enrollments in ontario are in the college sector. moreover, statistics canada reports note that college degrees are generally concentrated in more specific, applied areas than university bachelors degree programs (frenette, 2019, p. 7). thus, we operate under the assumption that for most students, completing a degree at an ontario college is not an option due to limited availability. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 the relevance of regional disparities in aspirations american research finds that anywhere from 60-80% of community college students aspire to obtain a 4-year degree (bailey & morest, 2006; hoachlander, sikora, horn, & carroll, 2003; wang & lee, 2019). it has also found disparities in aspirations across various demographic categories (e.g., buchmann & dalton, 2002; howley, 2006; kao & tienda, 1998; pascarella, 1984; raabe & wlfer, 2019; sewell & shah, 1968; zimmermann, 2020). as well, a substantial body of research has found a link between aspirations and early life-course trajectories (irvin, byun, meece, reed & farmer, 2016, p. 178). for oncat, degree aspirations serve as a useful proxy for transfer intent during or after the completion of a college certificate or diploma. canadian studies have repeatedly shown that individuals in remote regions possess lower levels of educational attainment (zarifa et al., 2018; alasia, 2003, p. 1). an early study, focusing on ruralurban gaps in education from 1981-1996, concluded that a major divide existed in canada, with southern and western regions eclipsing northern and eastern regions when it comes to educational attainment. research has also found that northern and rural canadians have lower rates of access to university stem programs (hango, zarifa, pizarro milian & seward, 2021). these regional disparities are far from a canadian problem, with similar disparities also being documented across other countries (e.g., dickerson & mcintosh, 2013; gibbons & vignoles, 2012; spiess & wrohlich, 2010; white & lee, 2019). the argument has been made that education and skill development policies suitable for urban centres are often disconnected from the challenges faced by communities in peripheral geographical regions (pizarro milian, seward & zarifa, 2020). such facts necessitate that policymaking and analysis carefully consider regions as a primary dimension along which inequities in education and training exist. focus of this analysis through this brief, we address the following two questions: 1. do the degree aspirations of first-time college applicants differ regionally in ontario? 2. to what extent are regional disparities in aspirations attributable to student socio-demographic and other applicant characteristics? we focus specifically on ontario college applicants designated in the ucas dataset as being first-entry or delayed-entry from high school, excluding those with any reported postsecondary-level studies. we code those aspiring to a 4-year degree or graduate-level credentials (e.g., m.a, ph.d.) as aspirants (=1), and others (e.g., college diplomas/certificates) as non-aspirants (=0). we experimented with including those aspiring to a post-graduate certificate in either group and it did not bias observed regional effects. results presented here include them in the aspirant category. we purposely restrict our analysis to this relatively more homogenous group. doing so hopefully limits some of the unobserved variance that comes along with more mature applicants. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 we also exclude those respondents more than 30 years old at the time of application. we acknowledge the importance of these excluded groups, particularly mature and non-direct applicants, and leave it to future research to explore the nuances of their aspirations. these restrictions leave us with an analytic sample of approximately 31,000 individuals. we begin our analyses with descriptive statistics, and then move to logistic regression models. the latter is a common modelling strategy when trying to predict binary categorical dependent variables. in our case, whether a student aspires towards a 4-year degree (or more) versus those who do not (long, 2014). moreover, to further highlight our findings, we produce graphical displays of the predicted probabilities and 95% confidence intervals of aspiring to a degree (or more) across each of our regions. findings basic descriptive statistics (see figure 1) demonstrate great variability in the degree aspirations of first-time college applicants across regions of ontario. we observe a gradual decline in aspirations by region, with over 15% separating the highest (metro and greater toronto area (gta) and lowest (northern ontario). however, given that demographics differ markedly across regions, it is important to account for variations in ethno-racial groupings, immigrant status and other metrics when comparing regions. to do so, we fit an initial logistic regression model (model 1) which incorporates only the regional variable and the year an individual applied, followed by a second model (model 2) that accounts for a wide range of socio-demographic and academic predictors of degree aspirations. this analytical strategy allows us to compare how the estimated relationship between region and degree aspirations changes once we account for applicant characteristics (which differ across regions). in model 1 (see figure 2), like the descriptive data, we see those individuals in the metro and gta have significantly higher aspirations (.39), with others lagging significantly behind (.2028). controlling for various demographic and academic factors in model 2 shrinks the gap between these two groups, as the predicted probabilities for the metro (.33) and greater toronto (.34) areas are reduced by roughly .05-.06 points. nevertheless, these gaps remain statistically significant in the underlying regression models. the size of our analytic sample also reflects our use of listwise deletion to handle those observations with missing data and dont know responses across several predictors in our models. in some cases, we do retain these categories when they represent a sizable share (>3-5%) of responses. the region categories were created using individuals forward sortation area at the time of application. the distribution of our respondents across regions is: 6.5% north, 18.5% eastern, 26.8% southwest, 23.4% central, 9.7% metro, and 15.2% gta (excluding metro). this includes age, sex, place of birth, ethno-racial grouping, disability status, first language, marital status, whether they had dependents, parental education, parental income, approximate high school average in grade 12, type of high school attended (e.g., public/private), and primary field of study applied to. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 discussion our analyses show that degree aspirations differ markedly among college applicants residing in different regions of ontario and that these differences persist even after we control for their academic and demographic traits. such findings prove remarkably robust, and raise several important questions, from both a research and policy standpoint. researchers may question: what triggers these regional disparities in applicant ambitions? let us assume that these disparities are not entirely a function of some unobservable demographic or attitudinal factors. one potential explanation may be that applicants are rationally adjusting their aspirations in accordance with available jobs in their region (zarifa et al., 2020b). this would explain why those in the highly urbanized metro and greater toronto areas desire degrees at a higher rate in line with local industries than those in more remote and rural regions in the province. economic theory tells us that individuals should stop consuming education once the returns to an additional unit of learning no longer exceeds its cost. this could be the dynamic we are observing here. of course, further research is needed to better understand the causal mechanisms at play. we imagine that this work will necessitate a more in-depth qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, approach. from a policy standpoint, there are several ways to interpret these findings. one potential takeaway is that, though regional disparities exist, even in the lowest aspiring regions we see that roughly 1 in 5 college applicants aspires to a degree. as such, the province should augment college-to-university pathways in an indiscriminate fashion, to pave the way for all aspirants. a second takeaway may be that regional variations in aspirations should guide the differential allocation of resources towards college-to-university pathway development. the argument could be made that, based on objective interest levels alone, far more attention should be given to this task within the greater toronto area, as opposed to the provincial north. a more detailed analysis of aspirations, cross-referenced with employer demand for degrees across program areas, could provide a useful blueprint for where priority investments could be made to create more efficient transfer pathways between college and university programming. this latter approach may prove most strategic for the province. funding university pathways in regions where there is limited demand, though it would not harm anyone, is arguably inefficient public policy. in robustness checks not presented, we refit our saturated models on sub-samples of applicants that had higher high marks (e.g., >80%), high parental income or education, and various other sub-groups. the reported regional differences remained statistically significant even in these far more homogenous groups. regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey bibliography pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 regional disparities in transfer intent among ontario college applicants: insights from academia's university/college applicant survey pizarro milian, zarifa, missaghian | feb 2022 oncat .ca/statistical- analysis-transfer- and -student-mobilit y- ontario established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. the authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the ontario council or articulation and transfer (oncat), administered by the ontario ministry of colleges and universities, to develop this publication. the views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2022

bidirectional transfer pathway for ontarios engineering and technology programs project 2018-06 final report hannah smith, m. roxanna gholami, alexandra downie, brian frank, roderick turner, nerissa mulligan, jake kaupp prepared for the ontario council on articulation and transfer march 9, 2019 copyright c 2019 the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). all rights reserved. oncat is funded by the government of ontario ontario council on articulation and transfer 180 dundas street west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 www.oncat.ca final report for oncat project 2018-06 contents executive summary ..................................................................................................................................... iii 1 background ........................................................................................................................................... 1 2 literature review .................................................................................................................................. 1 3 2.1 benefits of transfer....................................................................................................................... 1 2.2 transfer challenges....................................................................................................................... 2 2.3 current transfer practices ............................................................................................................ 3 methods ................................................................................................................................................ 3 3.1 analysis of extant and attempted transfer pathways.................................................................. 4 3.1.1 interviews with institutions .................................................................................................. 4 3.1.2 interviews with students and graduates.............................................................................. 5 3.1.3 interview data analysis ......................................................................................................... 6 3.2 curriculum gap analysis ............................................................................................................... 6 3.2.1 4 engineering advanced diploma to engineering degree transfer ......................................... 7 results ................................................................................................................................................... 9 4.1 identification and analysis of extant and attempted pathways .................................................. 9 4.1.1 interviews with institutions .................................................................................................. 9 4.1.2 interviews with students and graduates............................................................................ 15 4.2 identification of interested partner institutions ......................................................................... 19 4.3 curriculum analysis of select partner institution programs ....................................................... 20 4.3.1 gap analysis for transfer from engineering technology advanced diploma to engineering degree program .................................................................................................................................. 20 4.3.2 development of three phase pathway model ................................................................... 38 4.3.3 three-phase transfer pathway model overviews .............................................................. 39 4.3.4 process analysis for transfer from engineering degree to engineering technology advanced diploma program ............................................................................................................... 45 5 recommendations .............................................................................................................................. 46 5.1 advanced diploma to degree transfer pathway pilot program ................................................. 46 5.1.1 confirmation of participant institutions ............................................................................. 47 i final report for oncat project 2018-06 5.1.2 ongoing development of pathway model.......................................................................... 47 5.1.3 development of student supports ..................................................................................... 49 5.2 long term possibilities................................................................................................................ 50 5.2.1 promotion of pathway option to students ........................................................................ 50 5.2.2 expansion of the number of participant institutions and discipline pathways .................. 50 5.2.3 exploration of value of introducing more consistency within engineering technology and engineering degree programs ............................................................................................................ 50 5.2.4 5.3 exploration of establishing pathways with other provinces .............................................. 50 engineering technology lab skills module ................................................................................. 50 6 conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 51 7 references .......................................................................................................................................... 52 8 appendices .......................................................................................................................................... 53 8.1 appendix a: ethics documentation ............................................................................................ 53 8.2 appendix b: institutional interview questions ........................................................................... 55 8.3 appendix c: student and graduate interview questions ........................................................... 56 8.4 appendix d: transfer pathway infographic ................................................................................ 57 ii final report for oncat project 2018-06 executive summary the viability of a multi-institutional transfer pathway between engineering technology advanced diploma and engineering degree programs in ontario has been an ongoing discussion for decades. several recent oncat studies have moved this discourse forward substantively. this study combined previous findings with extensive additional research to produce a viable advanced diploma to degree transfer pathway model. the study also yielded the finding that, given the low volume and highly individualized circumstances of students transferring in other direction, pathway bi-directionality is not warranted at this time. the study reached these results through investigation of the following key research questions: 1) what is the current landscape of engineering and engineering technology transfer in canada? a. what current practices exist for engineering transfer? b. what bridging programs or transfer agreements are in place, and how were they created? what are the experiences of students who have followed those paths? c. what risks and pitfalls are concomitant with engineering transfer? 2) how much commonality is there between engineering and engineering technology curricula, from the perspectives of course content, learning outcomes, and accreditation criteria? 3) how can these findings contribute to the development of a large-scale, bi-directional engineering transfer pathway? due to the range and complexity of the research questions, multiple research methods were employed. indepth interviews with key stakeholders in extant and attempted transfer pathway programs were conducted. students and graduates of existing transfer programs were interviewed. discussions with content specialists, and both regulator and accreditor consultants were had. previous study findings, literature, and publicly available information were reviewed carefully to ensure that the assessment had been comprehensive. in addition to these qualitative techniques, a quantitative, detailed gap analysis was conducted for civil, mechanical and electrical engineering programs between institutions whose programs were determined to be a potentially good fit for a future pilot program. the analysis involved comparisons of program course descriptions, learning outcomes (los), and assigned accreditation units (aus). key research results can be summarized as follows: 1) analysis confirmed that the advanced diploma to degree pathway meets an identified need and has growth potential. it was also confirmed that increasing access to engineering degrees in this manner offers the potential to diversify engineering program student populations, as college pathways to engineering degrees have been demonstrated to disproportionately benefit visible minorities. transfer pathways have been established successfully in other provinces such as british columbia and alberta but, due to the ontario college system having been established independently of the universities, infrastructure differences preclude directly adopting any of iii final report for oncat project 2018-06 these. there are successful institution-specific pathways in ontario as well and it would be expedient to develop any multi-institutional model with the flexibility to include them. there is much to be learned from all extant and attempted pathway models. it was also confirmed that students transferring from engineering degree to engineering technology advanced diplomas are doing so overwhelmingly in response to academic failure. this leads to highly individualized transcripts, which in combination with the low numbers, preclude investment in a bi-directional pathway at this time. 2) a detailed gap analysis of the commonality between engineering and engineering technology curricula for three disciplines revealed that the missing coursework could not be contained to a single bridge term, but that there were a number of possibilities for integrating additional courses prior to transfer and during program completion at the receiving institution. interview findings highlighted the importance of student supports being offered in transfer success. 3) analysis of the combined research findings made it possible to develop a three-phase engineering advanced diploma to engineering degree transfer pathway model, designed with the flexibility to incorporate extant institution specific transfer pathways, while also providing a solid foundation for development of a pilot multi-institutional transfer pathway: phase 1 (transfer preparation) is completed while the student is still enrolled in their advanced diploma program. qualifying students are supported in incorporating additional courses that have been identified as filling engineering program gaps and being feasible to undertake in addition to the advanced diploma workload. there are three possible delivery mechanisms for such courses: in house, on-line, or at geographically convenient institutions. students may also decide to take courses during or outside of term, depending on availability. phase 2 (bridge term) is completed at a designated bridge institution prior to entering the receiving degree granting institution. a block of missing courses is delivered as a cohesive session. phase 3 (program completion) is completed while attending the receiving degree granting institution. students are supported in creating a plan to incorporate all remaining missing courses. courses may be taken in house or on-line. in some instances, courses that might otherwise be designated as electives will be requisite for transfer students in order to ensure that they meet the missing au requirements. the pathway model was reviewed with study partners and institutions that would be interested in such a multi-institutional pilot were identified for future reference. the response was positive. a review by regulator and accreditor consultants was also favourable. the studys success in developing a viable transfer pathway model paves the way for the development of a pilot program. this could be initially implemented in stages with the subset of identified interested institutions and then expanded province wide. iv final report for oncat project 2018-06 1 background unlike other provinces such as british columbia, ontarios engineering technology advanced diploma and degree granting institutions were established as completely distinct entities, without any view to facilitating transfer between them. this has made the process of determining what are appropriate transfer credits a complicated and frustrating experience for transfer student, as well as a labour-intensive effort for the receiving institution. engineering degree program accreditation requirements present additional complications for students moving from advanced diploma to degree programs. the receiving institution must ensure that all transfer credits can be defended from the perspective of not only course content, but accreditation unit (au) count based on the canadian engineering accreditation board (ceab) requirements. fortunately, the relatively recent shift in the university sector towards defining course and program level learning outcomes in addition to course descriptions have provided an additional mechanism for program comparison. this has made it feasible to explore developing a multi-institutional pathway model. the study builds on the results of several recent oncat studies (2015-29, 2016-11, 2017-39), incorporating extensive additional research to develop a viable transfer pathway model that would be a solid foundation on which to build a pilot program. 2 literature review the relevant literature is briefly reviewed below in three key areas: a) the benefits of engineering transfer; b) current challenges within engineering transfer; and c) current practices for transfer between engineering technology and engineering programs. limited documentation in a canadian context is available; thus, some inferences must be drawn from a north american perspective. 2.1 benefits of transfer research done in ontario suggests that college programs tend to enrol higher numbers of learners who are traditionally disadvantaged (deller & oldford, 2011; trick, 2013). pathways from diploma-granting to degree-granting programs are seen as a way to increase access to marginalized or underrepresented students, including low-income, adult, or indigenous learners. these pathways also increase opportunity for individuals with weak academic history (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010; lennon, zhao, & gluszynski, 2011). 1 final report for oncat project 2018-06 internationally, ogilvie (2014) suggested that college programs could act as a smooth transition between high school and degree programs, allowing students to build confidence in their academic abilities. this would be particularly useful for students who were warier of their ability in a university lifestyle. college pathways to engineering programs disproportionately improve access to engineering degrees for visible minorities, with some students relying on transfer as a pathway to a baccalaureate degree (lattuca, terenzini, ro, & knight, 2014; sullivan et al., 2012). zhang and ozuna (2015) conducted a qualitative study to explore engineering students academic and interpersonal experiences of transfer, both prior to and following successful transfer. they found that many of the successful transfer students believed that it was beneficial to learn fundamental concepts in college courses, as their professors were more accessible and dedicated to teaching. college as a pathway gave confidence to students who were otherwise afraid of the university experience. 2.2 transfer challenges although the benefits of increasing representation in the engineering student body are tangible, transfer remains challenging for many reasons, from course content to administrative challenges. much of the existing research focuses on challenges from a student perspective. zhang and ozuna (2015) concluded that mathematics in particular was difficult for transferring students, often resulting in low mathematical identity. in a math-heavy program like engineering, this presents challenges for incoming students. laugerman, rover, shelley, and mickelson (2015) estimated retention rates in engineering programs for a group of approximately 1200 transfer students, using grades from calculus i and ii, and physics i. they found that high grades in the introductory calculus courses seemed to be a higher predictor of retention than physics, suggesting that high achievers in mathematics are more likely to overcome the initial difficulty identified by zhang and ozuna. in their 2015 paper, zhang and ozuna also found that many students are unaware of college pathways to engineering degrees until late in their college career. this can make achieving requirements for transfer difficult, often resulting in reduced credit for courses taken. engineering programs would greatly benefit from increased diversity of the student population, which would result from increasing the transfer opportunities between engineering technology and engineering programs in ontario. however, the large variation in ontarios higher education transfer policies, engineering and engineering technology syllabi, and course delivery and focus present a 2 final report for oncat project 2018-06 problem for the development of a large-scale transfer system in the engineering sector (zakani, frank, turner, & kaupp, 2016). 2.3 current transfer practices little documentation was found on current methods of engineering transfer. it is common practice for institutions to engage in articulation agreements whereby certain criteria are met by the sending institution, and the receiving institution allocates certain spaces for incoming transfer students. mattis and sislin (2005) argued that the articulation agreement model is not sufficient for sustainable, successful transfer pathways. they identified areas for improvement in transfer practices, largely centered around cooperation and resource sharing between diploma and degree granting institutions. further suggestions were made for increased student support at the institutional level, particularly for student counselling, connections between students and staff, learning communities of transfer students, and workshops or training modules for college advisors. 3 methods given the above literature search, it was evident that more investigation in a canadian context was warranted. perspectives of engineering transfer from the institutional level would add valuable context to the necessary components of successful canadian engineering transfer. key research questions were defined as follows: 1) what is the current landscape of engineering and engineering technology transfer in canada? a. what current practices exist for engineering transfer? b. what bridging programs or transfer agreements are in place, and how were they created? what are the experiences of students who have followed those paths? c. what risks and pitfalls are concomitant with engineering transfer? 2) how much commonality is there between engineering and engineering technology curricula, from the perspectives of course content, learning outcomes, and accreditation criteria? 3) how can these findings contribute to the development of a large-scale, bi-directional engineering transfer pathway? the research team employed a range of methods in obtaining the requisite information for this project, as warranted by the range of associated tasks: 3 final report for oncat project 2018-06 3.1 analysis of extant and attempted transfer pathways in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in extant and attempted transfer pathway programs (out of province and by individual institution) were conducted, where possible. interviews with current and previous engineering transfer students were also conducted to allow for consideration of the student transfer experience. discussions with content specialists were had. previous project findings, literature, and publicly available information were reviewed as warranted. the methodology utilized for each for interview varied as appropriate for the research questions. qualitative research was best suited for information gathering, as the diverse understanding, practices, and experiences within the canadian engineering transfer landscape renders quantitative study inefficient and limiting. a phenomenographical framework was used for analysis of data from institutions, as we focus on differences in understanding of a group of individuals; here, the experiences and processes of engineering transfer of across canada (marton, 1981). for the student interviews, a phenomenological framework and analysis was deemed more appropriate, as we attempted to dive into common experiences, themes, and opinions of those with first hand experience of the transfer process (creswell, 2013). ethical clearance for the study was granted by the queens university general research ethics board (greb) prior to data collection. approval documentation is available in appendix a: ethics documentation. the data collection and analysis methods for each set of interviews is detailed below. 3.1.1 interviews with institutions though there are significant differences between provincial delivery of higher education, the national accreditation requirements present one of the largest challenges to transfer pathway development, so a national study was deemed to be most applicable. semi-structured interviews were undertaken with institutions with existing or attempted transfer pathways into accredited engineering or unaccredited bachelor of technology programs. this was useful for adjusting to the nuances of each interview and allowed for probing questions when necessary. the interview questions themselves were structured to elicit detailed responses describing a) existing or attempted transfer pathways or bridging programs and their formation; b) current use of and demand for the pathway; c) lessons learned; d) risks or pitfalls; and e) advice for a province-wide program. these questions are available in appendix b: institutional interview questions. interviews were conducted via telephone. when possible, recordings were made to assist in data analysis. 4 final report for oncat project 2018-06 a combination of convenience and snowball sampling was used. convenience sampling was first used to establish contact with those interested in speaking about transfer practices at their institutions, and snowball sampling was also included to ensure that both well-established and unique perspectives were heard. participant roles varied at every institution; the only required criterion was that the participant was knowledgeable and comfortable speaking about the transfer practices at their institution. an attempt was made to stratify by location to gain a full perspective of canadian transfer, but institutional availability made this difficult. speaking to all institutions with transfer pathways in canada was not feasible given the timeline of the project, so efforts were concentrated in ontario and known successful pathways in british columbia and alberta. a total of 14 interviews were completed with representatives from 15 different institutions or groups. the interview sample by province and type of institution is seen in table 1. when possible, oneon-one interviews were conducted; however, in a few cases small focus groups were held to invite many perspectives. table 1. sample by province and institution type. note that some institutions were both diploma and degree granting they have been counted dependent on the program affiliation of the interviewee. independent variable group n province ontario 8 alberta 3 british columbia 4 type of degree granting 7 program/group advanced diploma 7 granting transfer council 1 3.1.2 interviews with students and graduates interviews were further conducted with graduates and students currently enrolled in ontario engineering transfer programs. analysis was focused on ontario students, as their experiences would be more relevant for the region of interest. as with the above methods, semi-structured interviews were used. 5 final report for oncat project 2018-06 interview questions were developed, focusing on: a) rationale for student transfer; b) experiences while studying; and c) experiences or plans post-graduation. these questions were designed to obtain an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the pathways from a student perspective and are available in appendix c: student and graduate interview questions. interviews were conducted by phone or in person, as applicable, and were recorded when possible. convenience sampling was used to select interview participants. student and/or graduate contact information was obtained from institutional interview participants, and individuals who were available and willing to participate were interviewed. contact information was only received for vertical transfer students who had transferred from an engineering technology to an engineering program, due to the relatively small number of reverse transfers. a total of 8 interviews were conducted with students and graduates of 4 engineering technology to engineering transfer pathways in ontario. two participants were still completing their undergraduate degrees, while 6 had graduated and moved on to full-time employment or further studies. following the completion of 8 interviews, saturation was observed in the themes and perspectives observed and, as such, interviews were halted. 3.1.3 interview data analysis a similar approach to analysis was employed for both institutional and student interviews. detailed notes were used for the analysis rather than transcripts, as recordings were not available for all conducted interviews. inductive coding was undertaken on these detailed notes. for institutional interviews, the general approach of a phenomenographic analysis was followed; that is, to study both the what aspect and the how aspect of the phenomenon in question (larsson & holmstrm, 2007). for student interviews, a phenomenological method was employed, where small codes were grouped into larger themes, representative of the essence of the data set. the inherent bias of the researcher as the instrument in qualitative research was limited as much as possible by bracketing out experiences and attempting to view the data from as fresh a perspective as possible. 3.2 curriculum gap analysis to determine the goodness of fit of engineering technology programs for transfer into a given engineering degree programs, a detailed curriculum gap analysis was undertaken. 6 final report for oncat project 2018-06 3.2.1 engineering advanced diploma to engineering degree transfer the ceab has defined accreditation units (aus) to ensure content and quality of engineering curricula. aus are categorized in seven groups, namely: mathematics, natural sciences, mathematics and natural sciences, engineering science, engineering design, engineering science and engineering design, and complementary studies. an au is defined on an hourly basis and represents the actual time that students spend on a particular activity with faculty or faculty representatives (teaching assistants as an example). accordingly, one hour of lecture and one hour of laboratory/tutorial are equivalent to 1 au and 0.5 au respectively. all engineering students must meet the minimum au requirements for a successful graduation. table 2 presents au categories and associated minimum aus required (ceab, 2018). aus are separated into specified and unspecified, with specified aus representing specific program content (mathematics, engineering science, etc.) and unspecified adding to the total required au count for graduation. table 2.-au category and associated minimum specified and unspecified aus required (ceab, 2018). au category minimum aus required mathematics 195 natural sciences 195 mathematics and natural sciences 420 engineering science 225 engineering design 225 engineering science and engineering design 900 complementary studies 225 sub-total 1545 total aus 1950 for the engineering technology advanced diploma to engineering degree program pathway model, a gap analysis was conducted for the civil, mechanical and electrical engineering programs between institutions whose programs were determined to be a good fit for a future pilot program, based on results of a broad, high level program analysis of current programs, and drawing on work done in oncat project #2016-11 (zakani et al., 2016). expressed institutional interest was also considered. 7 final report for oncat project 2018-06 to achieve this, learning outcomes (los) and course descriptions (content) of these disciplines at queens and interested institutions were carefully reviewed. due to the existence of the queens-slc transfer in civil engineering program, the gap analysis conducted was confirmed through discussions and emails with those parties involved in the original transfer. as part of the gap analysis process, the equivalency threshold for granting credit to a given course was assigned as 75%. as a result, courses with more than 75% equivalency received both credit and the associated aus. these courses are shown as yes in gap analysis tables in section 4.3.1. the following list highlights the key items considered during the gap analysis process: a course from a given year at the college may not necessarily be equivalent to the same course at the given year. for example, a 3rd-year college course may be equivalent to a 2ndyear university course. in some instances, two or three college courses were equivalent to one course at the university level (queens). given the fact that college students finish their third year before starting an engineering program at the university, the summation of credited aus from the 1st year and the 2nd year were deducted from the total aus being offered at queens in order to determine the number of aus required to be developed/covered in the pathway model. complementary studies are mandatory at queens, although the number of each is variable across the disciplines. in most cases, general education courses from the college met the complementary studies requirement at queens. similar to the complementary studies courses, students are required to take a certain number of technical electives (variable among different engineering programs) in order to successfully graduate from their program. if a given college course had more than 75% equivalency with a given technical course at queens, both the credit and the associated aus were granted. however, a unique scenario was found for civil engineering program in which students are required to take 8 technical elective courses. since the queens civil engineering program meets the minimum specified au requirements by the end of the third year, transfer students from the slc college received credit for the technical courses taken at the college even if those courses are not being offered at queens, as these specific 8 final report for oncat project 2018-06 courses were counted as unspecified aus, which could include any relevant engineering content. a few college courses from each discipline were identified with 50% equivalency with the counterpart courses at queens. these courses were identified as maybe in gap analysis tables and are open for further discussion with colleges. potentially, the maybe courses could be offered as a module (instead of a whole course), or two maybe courses could be merged into a one course, where the contents are relevant. the college courses with less than 50% equivalency were identified as no in gap analysis tables. 4 results 4.1 identification and analysis of extant and attempted pathways extant and attempted pathways were identified by reaching out through discussions and emails with the relevant personnel and review of publicly available information. interviews were then conducted to gather information about them. 4.1.1 interviews with institutions results from the institutional interviews were grouped into three main areas: a) factors of canadian engineering transfer; b) success strategies; and c) risks and pitfalls of transfer in engineering. 4.1.1.1 factors of canadian engineering transfer interview participants were asked to describe the transfer pathways and programs in which their institutions participated. the overwhelming result from this portion of the analysis was that pathways and programs are remarkably varied between institutions. there were common factors, however, which differed dependent on the pathway: a) timeline; b) structure; c) development; and d) scale. these factors are highlighted in figure 1. 9 final report for oncat project 2018-06 figure 1. map showing the breakdown of categories present in the factors of engineering transfer theme. the timeline of the pathways refers mainly to the year at which the transferring student enters the degree program. it was common for students to enter engineering degree programs at a 2nd or 3rd year level, dependent on many factors, such as course equivalencies, work terms, and student success in engineering technology courses. in ontario, the timeline of existing transfer pathways was also influenced by graduation schedules for advanced diploma programs. with differing graduation times, entry into fall-entry engineering degrees was sometimes challenging. similarly, engineering programs with work terms had challenges accepting students from engineering technology programs when the timeline did not align directly. thus, some programs required an additional 3 years of study from transferring students following the completion of their advanced diploma, while some required 2-2.5 years. the structure of the transfer pathways also influenced the timeline. commonly pathways include a transitionary program or set of courses to bridge the gaps present between the skill-set and knowledge base developed in the advanced diploma and that required upon entry into a given year of an engineering program. these programs were referred to as bridging programs or simply bridges. these bridges were generally developed by detailed course matching between programs by course content and learning outcomes. this allowed as much credit as possible to be given to incoming students for previously covered material, while indicating what content would need to be topped up 10 final report for oncat project 2018-06 to allow entry at a specified point in the final program of study. the bridges must also consider the minimum requirements for accreditation units (aus) necessary to meet accreditation requirements. the wide range of college engineering technology curricula was a common theme through the interview process. thus, any bridge meant to service more than one sending institution would need to be flexible enough to meet the requirements of students from multiple programs. in a unique case, a large group of institutions have shifted towards the standardization of first year curriculum an attempt to reduce the difficulty of transfer due to disparate programs. the length and rigor of bridges were, again, dependent on the individual institutions being bridged. an engineering technology program with most curricula equivalent to first-year engineering would require fewer courses to enable transfer into the second year of the program. for larger scale transfer pathways, then, it was common to have bridging packages dependent on the sending institution which dictated the required bridge for the transitioning student. the development of the transfer pathways in their entirety differed from institution to institution. in a few cases, engineering programs were built to cater specifically to transfer students. this approach allows the engineering program to be structured from-the-ground-up, considering the type of learning that students would likely do in engineering technology. these programs were then built with possible pathways in mind, making them more streamlined and efficient for transferring students. in extreme cases, programs have been developed at the university level for which an advanced diploma in engineering technology is an entry requirement. however, not all of these transfer only programs are accredited by the canadian engineering accreditation board (ceab), limiting interest from students. finally, the scale of the transfer pathways varied across canada. often, institutions followed the articulation agreement model a one-to-one pathway for student mobility. some cases operated on a larger scale, with one engineering program receiving students from engineering technology programs at multiple colleges. the scalability of the transfer pathways investigated seemed to be dictated by the previous factors identified; that is, the timeline, structure, and development of the pathway itself. 11 final report for oncat project 2018-06 4.1.1.2 success strategies part of the qualitative analysis uncovered strategies and requirements for transfer pathway success. thematic analysis grouped these results into four main themes: a) communication; b) collaboration; c) consideration; and d) accreditation. the breakdown of these themes can be seen in figure 2. figure 2. map showing the breakdown of categories present in the success strategies theme. communication and collaboration were often spoken of in conjunction by interview participants. not only was open communication between sending and receiving institutions paramount in the successful development of a transfer pathway, but both institutions also needed to be willing to collaborate on programs and requirements to meet student needs. sending institutions made it clear that they were beholden to the receivers they must meet certain requirements to initiate or uphold a transfer pathway. the more clearly those requirements (gpa, course content, timelines) were articulated by the receivers, the more easily those demands could be met by their partners. the credit-granting process is individual to each institution, making transparency of expectations more difficult. institutions also often spoke of the importance of clear, open communication to build trust and foster a culture of growth. this could be done through frequent close contact of involved parties, or a larger scale annual meeting of all institutions to foster new connections and ensure goodwill. a strong theme that emerged from analysis was that of broad consideration of transfer. this generally focused on the student experience, in terms of both knowledge requirements and support. a high proportion of interviews noted that meeting incoming students at their current level of knowledge was paramount to transfer pathway success. college technology graduates will often have a 12 final report for oncat project 2018-06 lower level academic transcript from their high school education, as they may have been guided into primarily university/college m-level or college c-level courses. the focus, then, must on be bridging these students into post-technology university program courses. it can be difficult to reconcile those differences in an engineering degree program with common curricula, particularly without the support of instructors and faculty at the receiving institution. thus, it was determined to be essential to have flexibility in curricula to meet the needs to incoming students. many participants noted that, although some knowledge gaps must be addressed, there were other aspects in which incoming students excelled and should be given credit. practical, hands-on components were often areas of excellence in transfer students. opportunities to reward students for their achievements should be regarded as highly as areas for improvement. some sending institutions identified reluctance to grant advanced standing on the part of receiving institutions, which (anecdotally) students were often discouraged by. consideration of the student experience was a key theme throughout the interviews. interviewees recommended that the timeline and workload of any proposed bridge be carefully considered, and that student academic supports be provided when necessary. although few institutions mentioned successfully implemented support programs, student guidance was often seen as beneficial in helping students to realize their educational and career goals. anecdotally, many institutions were adamant that students were looking for a straight pathway to professional practice, making the accreditation of engineering programs a key component to transfer. accreditation requirements were identified as a significant challenge to development of successful engineering transfer pathways in canada. to receive accredited status by the ceab, engineering programs must meet certain minimums in terms of accreditation unit counts for various categories of course content (math, natural science, engineering science, engineering design, and complementary studies). transfer programs have had to consider the aus necessary to meet these minimums, as well as how transfer credits will impact the au count for transferring students. these requirements have often necessitated case-by-case analysis of applicants a time consuming and costly process. to minimize accreditation risk, it was fairly common practice among interviewees to ensure that all au minimums were met by courses taken at the degree-granting institution. this, however, increased the required time-to-completion for transfer students, as they had to complete all necessary aus in house. 13 final report for oncat project 2018-06 4.1.1.3 risks and pitfalls participating institutions also identified areas of risk, where promising pathways might fail before or after implementation, shown in figure 3. these included the lack of any of the success characteristics above, but also addressed key features not addressed previously. figure 3. map showing the categories present in the factors of engineering transfer theme. the willingness (or lack thereof) of institutions to participate in such programs was mentioned by participants. several college programs voiced a desire for more interest in transfer on the part of accredited engineering programs. it was acknowledged that strong partnerships and collaboration require effort from both receiving and sending institutions, and yet without them pathways tended to fail. participation and interest also had to be maintained in order to develop sustainable pathways. with changing curricula and programs, constant reassessment of transfer pathways was necessary to ensure their success. a lack of continued maintenance was highlighted as an area of failure for several pathways. maintenance was also hindered by a lack of knowledge dissemination; it was highly recommended that participant institutions avoid the situation where one individual or institution is harboring transfer knowledge and specifics. proper documentation and dissemination of all approaches, pathways, and agreements was deemed to be essential. consideration of the capacity of receiving engineering programs was also consistently mentioned throughout the interviews. it was viewed as imperative that students not only complete any required bridge courses, but that there be a spot in an engineering program made available for them to occupy upon bridge completion. although it was acknowledged that demand is never certain, it was also made clear that engineering programs must actively set aside seats for transfer students and communicate with college partners about availability for pathway success 14 final report for oncat project 2018-06 finally, as mentioned in the accreditation section above, complex admissions and administration have been a barrier to successful pathway implementation. applications were identified as being very time consuming, as they often behave been assessed on a case by case basis, sometimes by more than one individual. participants suggested that admissions cannot generally be managed successfully by a centralized university admissions structure, but rather would be best implemented within the engineering academic unit. this, of course, requires a considerable investment of time and resources, particularly as curriculum is subject to frequent revisions, restructuring, and improvement. an admission process, therefore, was suggested to be more feasible than a fixed admission template. 4.1.2 interviews with students and graduates the transfer process is intended to be for the benefit of students, and thus is student focused. to gain an understanding of student rationale for transfer, benefits, and challenges of current transfer systems, student interviews were completed. results are detailed below. 4.1.2.1 transfer student rationale students discussed their rationale for transfer in two capacities, one being the rationale for not entering an engineering degree directly out of high school, the other being the rationale for transferring into an engineering program following the completion of their advanced diploma. key messages are highlighted in figure 4. these areas were important to explore to fully understand the stories and perspectives of transferring students within the engineering landscape. figure 4. map showing the categories present in the student rationale theme. participants spoke about their entry into engineering technology programs as generally being the result of not being ready not ready to move away, not emotionally mature enough to commit to a degree program, or not ready academically. each participant had a unique story about their entry into a college program and subsequent enrollment in an engineering degree. this highlights the diversity of 15 final report for oncat project 2018-06 student experience in these pathways, and the importance of unbiased consideration when developing transfer opportunities. the rationale students had for vertical transfer into engineering was generally focused on career growth; participants believed that having both diploma and degree would result in better opportunities and more room for advancement in the workplace. participants often came to this conclusion following a co-op or work placement in their diploma program. they spoke of how they felt that work done in engineering technology could be repetitive and lacked opportunity for advancement, whereas variety and advancement opportunities would be more likely in an engineering position. some also spoke of experiences in which they saw engineering technologists and engineers doing much the same work, but for very different pay. this motivated students to pursue further education. eligibility for designation as a professional engineer (p.eng.) was also very appealing to students and motivated them to pursue transfer into engineering programs. many participants spoke of the p.eng. designation as a mark of pride in their work, and important to their identity as engineers and professionals. thus, retaining accredited status of transfer programs is essential in engineering. several students also remarked that they were interested in transfer because it presented opportunities for a higher level of learning, often on theoretical and abstract concepts, or more openended creative design. these participants spoke of their natural affinity for engineering, which they only uncovered through participation in an engineering technology program. many of the participants had gone on to pursue graduate degrees. 4.1.2.2 transfer benefits the students extolled several virtues of their transfer experience, developed from the rigorous program and the variation in curricula. a summary of benefits as identified by students is seen in figure 5. 16 final report for oncat project 2018-06 figure 5. map showing the categories present in the benefits of transfer theme. on the whole, students felt well academically prepared for entry into their engineering degree programs. they spoke about their skillset for certain practical components (often software modelling or drawing, and lab skills) as more highly developed than their peers who had entered the program from year 1. the combination of engineering technology and engineering was beneficial in developing a diverse skillset amongst students. the interviewees discussed how having both the practicality and real-world grounding of the engineering technology diploma strongly complimented the more abstract and theoretical learning in engineering degree programs. several participants discussed how a foundation of practical knowledge was helpful to them in learning complex theoretical concepts; often these concepts came more naturally to them than to their direct-entry counterparts, as they had the foundational knowledge of how these theories were applied in a real world context. graduates also strongly believed that having an engineering technology diploma was a benefit to them in the workplace. they discussed how they often advanced more quickly than their colleagues who possessed just an engineering degree, as they were able to think more critically and practically about projects, and had more experience building and designing. the rigor of intermediary bridging programs was challenging, as will be further explored in section 4.1.2.3, but benefitted students through their development of sound work ethic and time management skills. many participants discussed how, if they could get through the bridge, they were confident that they could handle anything an engineering degree might throw their way. they felt their work ethic and time management skills also gave them an edge over direct-entry students; they were entering upper years of the program with good study habits and skills, giving them a means to succeed early on. 17 final report for oncat project 2018-06 the rigor of the program also resulted in an expedient path to degree completion, something appreciated by all the participants. most discussed how they were interested in the shortest pathway possible, and sometimes chose pathways purposefully based on time-to-completion. although an intense bridging program has many challenges, students were willing to forgive those to graduate sooner. 4.1.2.3 transfer challenges although the transfer experience did result in a number of benefits to students, they were also presented with challenges as they completed their programs. some of these challenges highlighted a lack of support network for transferring students, while others focused more on difficulty in the pace of the program. all identified challenges are summarized in figure 6. figure 7. map showing the categories present in the challenges of transfer theme. some students mentioned the fact that they were unaware of the possibility of transfer until late in their college career. one student also discussed how he believed that others would have benefitted from knowing about the opportunity earlier, as it would help them to make course and program decisions that would support transfer. the students did appreciate the flexibility of the transfer programs, however, which allowed them to enroll even after late discovery. pathway awareness, they said, should be promoted without sacrificing the ease of access for students who choose transfer toward the end of their advanced diploma program. not only did the awareness of the program itself present challenges for students, but rigorous bridging programs presented academic difficulties. students reported that these programs were incredibly challenging, not generally due to difficult academic content, but because they were often condensed into a short time-frame and had a tremendous workload. many students referred to their bridge program as containing upwards of eight courses, presented over a four-month period which 18 final report for oncat project 2018-06 would be challenging for any student. interviewees discussed the benefits of this approach as investigated in the previous section it prepared them well to succeed in their university degrees and was an excellent introduction to the expectation of a higher level of learning. however, these students did discuss the very negative impact that this workload had upon their personal and emotional lives, with one student joking that he nearly got divorced. both of the previous factors were referenced to support the largest theme arising from student data collection; there is a lack of support available for transfer students, particularly in the midst of their transfer between institutions. this support ranges from academic to social and seemed a particularly prevalent need for students transferring into entirely new institutions. these students spoke of the expectation of faculty and staff that they would be familiar with the university, as they were technically upper year students upon arrival. however, these students were unable to locate buildings or classes, or find necessary student resources. academic support was also lacking for students in these programs, particularly as they were not used to larger class sizes associated with the engineering degree experience. many interviewees spoke about not knowing how to ask for help in an academic context. these students also found the transfer experience isolating at first their cohort was small, and had difficulty adjusting to the university setting. student support, therefore, must play a critical role in the development of any new engineering transfer pathway. students also mentioned a sense of frustration with repetitive course content. they felt that certain required courses for transfer were redundant, as they had covered very similar material at the engineering technology level. this, they said, was demotivating to complete homework and assignments, as they felt their previous knowledge was being overlooked. a rigorous gap analysis is thus key to both confidence in student knowledge base, and student satisfaction. 4.2 identification of interested partner institutions interested institutions were identified by reaching out through discussions and emails with the relevant personnel. those interested in future pilot program participation were then considered for discipline-specific program comparisons, with selections made based on proportion of program similarities identified in oncat project #2016-11and additional analysis for civil engineering programs. 19 final report for oncat project 2018-06 table 3 shows institutions who responded with interest to an enquiry made to all ontario colleges and universities with engineering or engineering technology programs. colleges selected for partnership in initial program development phases have been flagged. table 3. institutions interested in inclusion in the project over the long term, with checkmarks indicating those selected as partners for any potential pilot program. institution current partner queens university laurentian university uoit university of windsor york university conestoga college sheridan college seneca college mohawk college st. lawrence college cambrian college niagara college fleming college centennial college collge la cit 4.3 curriculum analysis of select partner institution programs 4.3.1 gap analysis for transfer from engineering technology advanced diploma to engineering degree program using the methods outlined in 3.2.1, a detailed gap analysis was conducted of sample programs in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering technology and engineering. note that all programs were mapped for eligibility to queens university programs; however, oncat project #2016-11 suggested that queens university had representative programs for ontario institutions in both mechanical and 20 final report for oncat project 2018-06 electrical engineering (zakani et al., 2016). thus we posit that these maps would likely be similar for many engineering degree programs in ontario. all mapping was done by the research team and is indicative of an initial attempt to determine program eligibility. since mapping was done in house, these are not necessarily representative of what final program maps would look like. college names have been redacted to ensure anonymity. the results of the gap analysis are shown in the tables 4(a-e), 5(a-e), 6(a-e), and 7(a-e): 21 final report for oncat project 2018-06 tables 4a-4e. transfer to civil engineering program summary; transferrable courses by year, and au analysis a) first year civil engineering courses degree course number apsc 101 apsc 102 apsc 103 apsc 111 apsc 112 apsc 131 apsc 132 apsc 143 degree course title engineering problem solving and modelling experimentation and design engineering design project physics i physics ii chemistry and materials chemistry and its applications introduction to computer programming for engineers diploma course equivalency yes no yes yes no no no earth systems and engineering yes apsc 162 engineering graphics yes apsc 182 calculus i calculus ii introduction to linear algebra applied engineering mechanics degree course au total civl 32 introduction to physics and effective teamwork & civl 43 workplace safety & comp 75 computer applications in excel civl 64 water and wastewater technology & civl 74 water and wastewater tech lab & civl 11 applied physics no apsc 151 apsc 171 apsc 172 apsc 174 diploma course title(s) yes no no yes civl 01 the subsurface environment civl 38 technical drafting & civl 39 computer assisted drafting design 1 & civl 40 computer assisted design ii math 18 intermediate math & math 20 basic calculus civl 46 mechanics & civl 56 mechanics of materials laboratory 22 diploma course au equivalency total degree course au by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed 35 34 0 0 0 16 0 16 18 0 0 18 17 0 17 18 35 - 40 40 40 40 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 30 40 30 0 40 30 40 30 18 0 0 0 0 6 0 10 0 10 16 0 0 0 0 22 0 10 0 10 40 40 - 40 0 0 0 0 40 0 40 - 40 0 17 17 8 15 0 15 40 30 0 0 0 0 20 10 30 30 40 40 40 40 40 40 0 0 0 40 40 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 - 20 0 0 0 0 15 5 20 20 final report for oncat project 2018-06 b) second year civil engineering courses degree course number apsc 200 apsc 221 apsc 293 apsc 101 apsc 102 civl 200 civl 210 apsc 103 apsc 111 civl 215 apsc 112 apsc 131 civl 222 apsc 132 degree course title engineering design and practice ii economics and business practices in engineering engineering communications l engineering problem solving and modelling experimentation and design diploma course equivalency no no no yes no yes no yes yes yes no no no no civl 230 apsc 143 civl 231 professional skills i chemistry for civil engineers engineering design project physics i for civil engineers materials physics ii methods for civil numerical chemistry engineers and materials chemistry and its applications introduction to computer solid mechanics i programming foriiengineers solid mechanics apsc 151 earth systems and engineering yes civl 250 hydraulics i applied mathematics for civil mthe 224 engineers 1st complementary studies apsc 162 engineering 2nd year course (list graphics a) 2nd complementary studies 2nd year course (list a) apsc 171 calculus i apsc 172 calculus ii apsc 174 introduction to linear algebra apsc 182 applied engineering mechanics yes no no yes no yes no no yes no no yes diploma course title(s) degree course au total civl 32 introduction to physics and effective teamwork & civl 43 workplace safety & comp computer civl 6175 work placement & applications in excel comm 110 communication for college civl 64 water and wastewater technology & civl 74 water and wastewater tech lab & civl 23 construction civl 11 applied physics materials civl 14 mechanics of materials civl subsurface civl 01 13 the mechanics of fluids environment & civl drafting & civl 38 18 technical fluid mechanics lab civl 39 computer assisted drafting design 1 & civl 40 computer assisted design ii math 18 intermediate math & math 20 basic calculus civl 46 mechanics & civl 56 mechanics of materials laboratory 23 diploma course au equivalency total degree course au by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed 48 0 0 0 12 0 36 36 - 36 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 35 34 0 0 0 16 0 16 18 0 0 18 17 0 17 18 35 - 28 55 40 40 54 40 40 60 40 0 0 0 00 0 0 45 0 0 20 0 40 12 30 400 30 0 20 0 40 12 30 40 45 30 8 0 18 00 0 00 0 0 20 6 0 32 10 0 15 10 20 15 16 0 10 0 00 0 20 35 22 0 42 10 0 15 10 28 40 40 54 -- 50 40 54 0 00 0 00 0 00 0 00 50 40 54 0 00 50 40 54 50 -- 40 0 17 17 8 15 0 15 40 48 0 4 4 0 22 22 44 48 50 50 0 50 0 0 0 0 - 30 36 00 00 00 0 36 200 100 300 30- 36 40 40 40 0 40 40 40 0 0 0 0 0 40 40 40 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 - 20 0 0 0 0 15 5 20 20 final report for oncat project 2018-06 c) third and fourth years civil engineering courses degree course number civl 300 civl 330 civl 331 civl 340 civl 341 civl apsc350 101 apsc 102 civl 360 civl 371 civl apsc372 103 apsc 111 3rd apscyear 112 apsc 131 3rd year apsc 132 3rd year apsc 143 civl 400 apsc 151 civl 460 4th year 4th year apsc 162 degree course title professional skills ii structural analysis structural steel design geotechnical engineering i geotechnical engineering ii and engineering problem solving hydraulics ii modelling civil engineering design and experimentation and design practice iii groundwater engineering water and wastewater engineering engineering design project 1st complementary studies physics i course physics (list ii a) 2nd complementary studies chemistry and materials course (list a) chemistry and its applications introduction to computer 1 management elective course programming for engineers professional skills civil engineering design and earth systems and engineering practice 8 technical electives from list 1 & 2 (ii) 1 complementary studies course (from list a, b, c, or d) engineering graphics program total (i) variable (general education courses) (ii) at least 6 of which must be from list 1 apsc 171 calculus i apsc 172 calculus ii apsc 174 introduction to linear algebra apsc 182 applied engineering mechanics diploma course equivalency no no no yes no no yes no no no no yes yes yes no no yes no yes no no yes no see table below yes yes yes no no yes diploma course title(s) degree course au total civl 32 introduction to physics and effective teamwork & civl mechanics civl 50 43 soil workplace safety & comp 75 computer applications in excel civl 64 water and wastewater technology & civl 74 water and wastewater tech lab & civl 11 applied physics (i) (i) civl 26 environmental management civl 01 the subsurface environment civl 38 technical drafting & civl 39 computer assisted drafting design 1 & civl 05 technical report (list civl 40 computer assisted b) design ii diploma course au equivalency total degree course au by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed 28 44 48 44 48 44 35 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 00 28 0 0 0 0 180 0 44 12 32 12 14 0 0 0 36 12 36 30 17 0 44 48 44 48 44 17 22 44 35- 34 48 44 0 0 0 16 0 0 16 0 0 0 12 0 18 0 30 0 36 14 18 36 44 - 48 40 40 36 40 00 0 00 12 0 40 300 12 0 40 300 20 6 0 100 16 16 0 00 36 22 0 100 40 36 40 0 0 0 40 0 30 40 0 30 180 0 36 0 0 36 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 10 48 40 40 3636 - 24 40 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 0 28 0 40 0 0 0 0 0 40 0 24 - 40 44 0 0 17 0 17 0 8 12 15 0 0 60 15 60 40 - 36 30 1995 0 0 215 0 0 221 0 0 436 36 0 396 0 20 491 0 10 391 0 30 882 36 30 671 40 40 40 40 40 40 0 0 0 40 40 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 - 20 0 0 0 0 15 5 20 20 309 math 18 intermediate math & math 20 basic calculus civl 46 mechanics & civl 56 mechanics of materials laboratory 24 final report for oncat project 2018-06 d) technical electives diploma course title(s) degree course title tehnical elective 1 technical elective 2 technical elective 3 technical elective 4 civl 25 hydrology civl 02 introduction to gis & civl 24 construction management civl 22 highway technology & civl 58 highway technology lab civil 12 surveying e) required aus for graduation academic year 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year transfer transfer year 1 transfer year 2 required au to make up degree course au total 519 567 492 417 degree course au by ceab category math 120 95 0 0 au total math 245 40 180 0 661 175 ns 173 36 12 0 ns 57 16 136 m+ns 293 131 12 0 m+ns 97 16 311 cs 44 140 136 76 cs 44 8 132 es 134 193 164 0 es 56 104 167 ed es+ed 48 103 180 60 ed 48 52 51 182 296 344 60 es+ed 104 156 218 25 certificate course au equivalency total 245 180 210 36 certificate course au equivalency by ceab category math ns 40 0 0 0 m+ns 57 16 12 0 97 16 12 0 cs es 44 8 24 36 ed 56 104 74 0 es+ed 48 52 28 0 104 156 102 0 final report for oncat project 2018-06 tables 5a-5e. transfer to mechanical engineering program summary from diploma program a; transferrable courses by year, and au analysis a) first year mechanical engineering courses degree course number degree course title apsc 101 problem analysis and modelling apsc 102 apsc 103 apsc 111 apsc 112 apsc 131 apsc 132 apsc 143 experimentation and measurement engineering design mechanics electricity and magnetism chemistry and materials chemistry and its applications introduction to computer programming for engineers earth systems and engineering apsc 151 apsc 162 diploma course equivalency no no no no no maybe no engineering graphics apsc 172 apsc 174 apsc 182 calculus i calculus ii introduction to linear algebra applied engineering mechanics yes no no yes degree course au total 35 34 40 40 40 40 40 phys10009 - physical science 40 diploma course au equivalency total degree course au by ceab category math ns 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 m+ns cs es ed es+ed 0 0 0 40 30 40 30 0 16 0 40 30 40 30 18 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 18 6 0 10 0 10 17 0 16 0 0 0 0 17 18 22 0 10 0 10 - 0 0 0 40 0 40 40 0 0 16 16 10 14 0 14 - cadm10045 - engineering drawing 1 lecture & cadm10046 - engineering drawing 1 lab & cadm10047 engineering drawing 2 lab & cadm10048 - introduction to solid modelling 30 0 0 0 0 20 10 30 30 mathma383 - differential calculus & mathma483 - integral calculus 40 40 0 40 0 0 0 0 40 40 40 20 40 40 0 0 0 40 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 0 0 0 20 20 no no yes apsc 171 diploma course title(s) mechmc322 - statics 26 5 final report for oncat project 2018-06 b) second year mechanical engineering courses degree course number degree course title apsc 101 mech 221 problem analysis and modelling statics and solid mechanics apsc 102 mthe 225 apsc 103 mech111 213 apsc apsc 112 mech 217 apsc 131 apsc 132 apsc 143 mech 230 experimentation and measurement ordinary differential equations engineering design manufacturing methods mechanics electricity and magnetism measurement in mechatronics chemistry and materials chemistry and its applications introduction to computer programming for engineers no earth systems and engineering no yes thermodynamics i yes mech162 270 apsc materials science and engineering engineering graphics apsc 200 apsc 293 engineering design and practice ii engineering communications i elec 210 apsc 171 introductory calculus i electric circuits and machines mthe 272 apsc mech172 228 apsc mech174 241 apsc apsc 182 221 application of numerical methods calculus ii and dynamics kinematics introduction to linear algebra fluid mechanics i applied engineering mechanics economics and business practices in yes yes no no yes no yes yes engineering no apsc 151 diploma course equivalency no yes no no no no maybe no maybe no yes maybe yes yes diploma course title(s) mechmc364 - strength of materials manu10042 - materials and processes in manufacturing metr10005 - metrology lecture & phys10009 - physical science metr10006 - metrology lab & metr10007 - measurement systems lecture & metr10008 - measurement systems lab cadm10045 - engineering mechmc491 - thermodynamics drawing 1 lecture & matl10110 - properties of cadm10046 - engineering materials lecture & drawing 1 lab & matl10111 - properties of cadm10047 engineering drawing materials lab 2 lab & ieng10113 - capstone project cadm10048 - introduction to solid modelling comm11040 - communication d mathma383 - differential elec10085 - electricity lecture & calculus & - electricity lab elec10086 mathma483 - integral calculus mechmc422 - dynamics mech10018 - fluid mechanics mechmc322 - statics 27 degree course au total 48 35 34 42 40 54 40 40 40 40 51 40 diploma course au equivalency total degree course au by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed 0 0 0 0 400 30 40 30 0 0 0 16 42 0 400 30 40 30 0 0 180 0 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 0 18 0 6 36 0 10 0 10 36 40 170 0 0 16 18 0 0 0 0 15 0 48 17 18 0 22 54 0 10 0 10 51 40 40 0 16 42 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 16 10 14 0 14 4851 - 42 0 30 30 0 12 0 12 42 45 30 00 12 0 12 0 00 33 20 100 33 30 45 30 48 0 0 0 12 0 36 36 - 12 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 12 51 40 400 00 400 00 51 0 00 51 0 51 40 42 40 42 40 42 20 36 20 400 400 0 0 11 0 24 0 0 20 40 11 40 24 0 0 0 00 00 0 36 11 0 31 0 18 15 0 11 00 0 5 0 22 0 31 0 18 20 0 424220 0 - final report for oncat project 2018-06 c) third and fourth years mechanical engineering courses degree course number apsc 101 mech 321 mech 328 apsc 102 mech 396 apsc 103 or apsc 111 mech 398 apsc 112 apsc 131 mech 323 apsc 132 apsc 143 mech 346 mech 350 apsc 151 mthe 367 mech 397 mech 399 mech 330 apsc 162 mech 341 3rd year mech 460 mech 464 apsc 171 4th apscyear 172 apsc 174 4th apscyear 182 4th year (i) variable degree course title problem analysis and modelling solid mechanics ii dynamics and vibration experimentation and measurement mechanical and materials engineering engineering design laboratory i mechanics mechanical engineering laboratory i electricity and magnetism chemistry and materials machine design chemistry and its applications introduction to computer programming for heat transfer engineers automatic control earth systems and engineering engineering data analysis mechanical and materials engineering laboratory ii mechanical engineering laboratory ii applied thermodynamics ii engineering graphics fluid mechanics ii technical elective or complementary studies team project - conceive and design communications and project management calculus i 1 complementary studies course (from list a ) calculus ii 1 complementary studies course (from list introduction to linear algebra a , b, c, or d) applied engineering mechanics 8 technical electives total program (general education courses) diploma course equivalency no no no no no no no no no maybe no yes maybe no no no no no no no no no yes no yes diploma course title(s) mechmc512 - machine design 1 phys10009 - physical science & mechmc614 - machine design 2 mech10019 - heat transfer cadm10045 - engineering drawing 1 lecture & cadm10046 - engineering drawing 1 lab & cadm10047 engineering drawing 2 lab & cadm10048 - introduction to solid modelling mathma383 - differential ieng10005 calculus & - project management mathma483 - integral calculus (i) yes yes no no yes (i) yes mechmc322 - statics see table below 28 degree course au total degree course au by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed diploma course au equivalency total 42 35 42 34 36 40 40 0 40 40 54 40 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 40 0 30 40 0 30 0 0 11 16 0 40 0 30 40 0 30 0 18 0 12 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 30 0 17 18 246 0 0 10 0 27 10 12 17 14 0 16 0 0 0 0 27 0 42 17 31 18 24 22 0 0 10 0 54 10 54 - 42 40 42 40 42 0 0 0 0 31 0 0 16 0 0 0 16 31 0 0 10 0 42 40 23 14 11 0 19 0 0 42 40 42 14 11 - 24 0 0 0 0 24 0 24 0 42 30 42 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 42 20 31 0 0 10 0 0 42 30 31 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 0 0 0 0 0 48 48 - 18 40 0 40 0 0 0 40 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 40 36 40 40 36 20 324 1980 0 40 40 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 00 15 0 680 0 0 00 20 0 928 36 3620 244 36 0 360 0 0 208 0 0 240 0 40 40 0 0 0 484 0 5 0 248 30- 567 final report for oncat project 2018-06 d) technical electives diploma course title(s) degree course title cadmmc634 cim and cnc stenmc400 automation 1 & stenmc500 automation 2 technical elective 1 technical elective 2 e) required aus for graduation academic year 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year degree course au total 519 555 444 504 transfer transfer year 1 transfer year 2 required au to make up au total 90 333 651 degree course au by ceab category math 136 62 42 0 ns 40 0 158 ns 156 77 11 0 ns 0 77 156 m+ns cs 292 139 53 0 m+ns 40 77 314 es 46 60 12 90 cs 133 276 271 21 es 0 12 94 ed es+ed 48 80 72 69 ed 35 229 145 es+ed 15 15 98 29 181 356 343 90 50 244 243 diploma diploma course au equivalency by ceab category course au equivalency math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed total 90 40 0 40 0 35 15 50 333 0 77 77 12 229 15 244 54 0 0 0 0 27 27 54 90 0 0 0 90 0 0 0 final report for oncat project 2018-06 tables 6a-6e. transfer to mechanical engineering program summary from diploma program b; transferrable courses by year, and au analysis a) first year mechanical engineering courses degree course number apsc 101 degree course title diploma course equivalency problem analysis and modelling apsc 151 maybe experimentation and measurement no engineering design no mechanics no electricity and magnetism no chemistry and materials no chemistry and its applications no introduction to computer programming for engineers no earth systems and engineering no apsc 162 engineering graphics apsc 102 apsc 103 apsc 111 apsc 112 apsc 131 apsc 132 apsc 143 apsc 171 apsc 172 apsc 174 apsc 182 calculus i calculus ii introduction to linear algebra applied engineering mechanics yes yes no no yes diploma course title(s) prog 1395 - visual basic for application for engineering degree course au total 35 34 40 40 40 40 40 40 mech1050 - engineering drawing i & mech1065 - engineering drawing ii & drwg2220 - advanced solid modeling math2130 - calculus mech1220 - applied mechanics 30 degree course au by ceab category math ns 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 m+ns cs es ed es+ed 0 0 0 40 30 40 30 0 16 0 40 30 40 30 18 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 18 6 0 10 0 10 17 0 16 0 0 0 0 17 18 22 0 10 0 10 diploma course au equivalency total - 0 0 0 40 0 40 40 0 0 16 16 10 14 0 14 - 30 0 0 0 20 10 30 30 40 40 40 20 40 40 40 0 0 0 0 0 40 40 40 0 0 0 0 15 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 20 40 20 0 0 0 0 final report for oncat project 2018-06 b) second year mechanical engineering courses degree course number degree course title apsc 101 mech 221 mthe102 225 apsc problem analysis and modelling statics and solid mechanics ordinary differential experimentation and equations measurement apsc 103 mech111 213 apsc apsc 112 mech131 217 apsc apsc 132 mech143 230 apsc mech 270 engineering design manufacturing methods mechanics electricity and magnetism measurement mechatronics chemistry and in materials chemistry and its applications thermodynamics i introduction to computer materials science and engineering programming for engineers yes maybe no no no no yes no no maybe no yes yes no apsc 151 earth systems and engineering no apsc 162 200 apsc engineering graphics design and practice ii engineering apsc 171 apsc 293 apsc 172 apsc 174 apsc 182 elec 210 calculus i engineering communications i calculus ii introduction to linear algebra introductory electricmechanics circuits and applied engineering machines mthe 272 application of numerical methods mech 228 kinematics and dynamics mech 241 fluid mechanics i diploma course equivalency yes maybe yes no yes no yes yes no no maybe apsc 221 economics and business practices in engineering maybe diploma course title(s) prog 1395 - visual basic for mech2030 for - mechanics of materials application engineering mach1010 - conventional machining processes & manu2000 - manufacturing dimm2010 - dimensional metrology and coordinate measuring machines mech3070 - thermodynamics 1 mech 1130 - engineering materials mech 3190 - engineering project and mech1050 - engineering drawing i & report a & mech1065 - engineering drawing ii & mech3200 - engineering project and drwg2220 - advanced solid report b & modeling cepr1020 - co-op and career math2130 - calculus comm1085 - college reading & writing skills eece1475 - electrical fundamentals & mech1220 - applied mechanics cntr3061 - electrical machines and controls ifme3010 - mechanics and dynamics of fluids econ1041 - engineering economics 31 degree course au total diploma course au equivalency total degree course au by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed 48 35 42 34 40 54 40 40 40 51 40 42 40 45 00 42 16 0 00 0 00 0 0 00 00 00 0 400 30 400 30 30 0 12 00 42 16 0 400 30 400 30 30 0 12 180 00 18 00 0 00 0 0 0 48 0 180 40 0 16 16 48 30 00 00 40 40 12 40 20 51 40 400 40 0 0 42 42 es+ed 48 17 180 22 54 0 10 0 51 10 12 40 33 48-- 6 36 0 10 0 36 10 12 40 33 170 00 16 18 0 0 0 15 0 0 00 10 14 0 14 - 00 12 200 36 10 36 30 30 0 0 0 0 0 40 400 40 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 51 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 20 51 40 1220 51 20 0 0 11 20 11 0 0 11 31 11 0 22 31 - 42 0 24 24 0 18 0 18 36 0 0 0 36 0 0 0 54-42 45- - final report for oncat project 2018-06 c) third and fourth years mechanical engineering courses degree course number apsc 101 degree course title diploma course equivalency problem analysis and modelling maybe apsc 102 experimentation mech 321 solid mechanics iiand measurement no apsc 103 engineering design no yes apsc 111 mechanics no mech 328 dynamics and vibration no apsc 112 electricity and magnetism no mech 396 mechanical and materials apsc 131 chemistry and materials no or engineering laboratory i no apsc 132 chemistry and its applications no mech 398 mechanical engineering laboratory i no apsc 143 introduction to computer programming for engineers no mech 323 machine design yes apsc 151 earth systems and engineering no mech 346 heat transfer no mech 350 automatic control no apsc 162 engineering graphics mthe 367 engineering data analysis yes maybe apsc 171 calculus i yes mech 397 mechanical and materials apsc 172 calculus ii no engineering laboratory ii no apsc 174 introduction to linear algebra no mech 399 mechanical engineering laboratory no apsc 182 applied engineering mechanics yes mech 330 applied thermodynamics ii yes mech 341 fluid mechanics ii no 3rd year technical elective or complementary studies maybe mech 460 team project - conceive and design no mech 464 communications and project management no 1 complementary studies course 4th year (from list a ) yes 1 complementary studies course 4th year (from list a , b, c, or d) yes 4th year 8 technical electives see table below program total (i) variable (general education courses) diploma course title(s) prog 1395 - visual basic for mech2110 - applied mechanics application for engineering (advanced) & mech 2090 -mechanics of materials (advanced) mech2070 - engineering design i & mech3065 - mechanics of machines mech1050 - engineering drawing i & mech1065 - engineering drawing ii & drwg2220 - advanced solid qual2010 - quality assurance and modeling systems math2130 - calculus mech1220 - applied mechanics mech3080- thermodynamics ii (i) degree course au total 35 34 42 40 40 42 40 40 36 40 0 40 54 40 42 42 30 42 40 24 40 40 0 20 42 42 diploma course au equivalency total degree course au by ceab category math ns 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 m+ns cs es 0 0 0 0 0 31 40 0 40 40 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 40 11 30 40 0 30 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 0 0 40 11 30 40 0 30 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 31 40 0 40 40 0 0 0 11 18 0 18 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 48 0 0 18 0 36 ed es+ed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 30 6 0 17 10 0 24 10 0 40 27 14 42 23 20 11 0 24 0 0 0 15 42 31 17 0 12 16 0 14 0 0 0 0 0 27 0 0 19 10 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 17 18 42 22 0 31 10 0 24 10 0 40 54 14 42 42 30 11 0 24 0 0 0 20 42 31 0 0 0 48 48 0 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 0 0 0 36 36 0 0 0 36 0 0 0 36 324 1980 240 244 484 208 680 248 928 552 36 (i) (i) 32 425430 40 20 42 - final report for oncat project 2018-06 d) technical electives degree course title technical elective 1 diploma course title(s) mech3050 computer aided stress analysis e) required aus for graduation academic year 1st year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year transfer transfer year 1 transfer year 2 required au to make up degree course au total degree course au by ceab category math 519 555 444 504 136 62 42 0 au total 90 252 732 math 40 0 158 ns 156 77 11 0 ns 0 42 191 m+ns cs 292 139 53 0 m+ns 40 42 349 es 46 60 12 90 cs ed 133 276 271 21 es 0 12 94 es+ed 48 80 72 69 181 356 343 90 15 18 95 es+ed 50 198 289 ed 35 180 194 33 diploma course au equivalenc y total 90 252 138 72 math 40 0 0 0 ns m+ns 0 42 0 0 40 42 0 0 cs es 0 12 0 72 35 180 99 0 ed es+ed 15 18 39 0 50 198 138 0 final report for oncat project 2018-06 tables 7a-7e. transfer to electrical engineering program summary; transferrable courses by year, and au analysis a) first year electrical engineering courses degree course number apsc 101 degree course title engineering problem solving and modelling diploma course equivalency degree course au total diploma course title(s) no degree course au by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed diploma course au equivalency total es+ed 35 0 0 0 18 0 17 17 34 0 16 16 0 18 0 18 34 40 0 0 0 18 6 16 22 40 apsc 102 experimentation and design yes apsc 103 engineering design project yes lin 155 electronic lab instrumentation and techniques etd 555 engineering technology and design apsc 111 physics i yes phy 354 physics for electronics 40 0 40 40 0 0 0 0 40 apsc 112 physics ii no 40 0 30 30 0 10 0 10 - apsc 131 chemistry and materials no 40 0 40 40 0 0 0 0 - apsc 132 chemistry and its applications no 40 0 30 30 0 10 0 10 - prg 155 programming fundamentals using c & prg 255 advanced programming using c apsc 143 introduction to computer programming for engineers yes 40 0 0 0 0 40 0 40 40 apsc 151 earth systems and engineering no 40 0 17 17 8 15 0 15 - apsc 162 engineering graphics no 30 0 0 0 0 20 10 30 - 40 40 0 40 0 0 0 0 - 40 40 0 40 0 0 0 0 - 40 40 0 40 0 0 0 0 - 20 0 0 0 0 15 5 20 - apsc 171 calculus i maybe apsc 172 calculus ii no apsc 174 introduction to linear algebra maybe apsc 182 applied engineering mechanics no mth 356 mathematics introductory calculus and statistics & amt 453 advanced mathematics mth147 mathematics with foundations or mth155 - mathematics 34 final report for oncat project 2018-06 b) second year electrical engineering courses degree course number elec 221 apsc 101 degree course title engineering problem solving and electric circuits modelling diploma course equivalency yes no elec 252 electronics i yes elec 271 apsc 102 digital systems and design experimentation yes elec 273 apsc 103 elec 274 no yes no apsc 111 elec 278 apsc 112 elec 280 apsc 131 apsc 200 apsc 132 numerical methods and optimization engineering design project computer architecture fundamentals of information physics i structures physics ii fundamentals of electromagnetics chemistry and materials engineering design and practice ii chemistry and its applications apsc 293 apsc 143 introduction to computer engineering communications i programming for engineers yes yes apsc 151 earth systems and engineering no apsc 162 elec 299 engineering graphics mechatronics project no maybe mthe 228 complex analysis differential equations for electrical and computer engineers 1 complementary studies course (from calculus i list a) calculus ii no mthe 235 apsc 171 2nd year apsc 172 yes no no yes no yes no diploma course title(s) ecr 255 ac circuit principles eld155 255electronic electronics: lin lab semiconductor devices instrumentation and dgs 255 digital systems techniques etd 555 engineering technology and design 51 35 phy 354 physics for electronics trn 553 transmission theory no maybe yes no tpj 655 technical project com 101 communicating prg 155 programming across contexts & fundamentals using c & tec 400 technical prg 255 advanced communications programming using c mec 300 introduction to mechatronics & mec 400 mechatronics, pneumatics, and hydraulics mth 356 mathematics introductory calculus and statistics & amt 453 advanced mathematics (i) mth147 mathematics with foundations or mth155 - mathematics apsc 174 introduction to linear algebra maybe apsc 182 applied engineering mechanics no degree course au total 35 degree course au by ceab category math ns 00 m+ns 00 cs 00 es 180 ed diploma course au equivalency total es+ed 51 0 17 51 17 51 51 0 0 0 0 36 15 51 51 51 34 0 160 160 0 23 18 28 0 51 18 51 34 42 40 48 21 0 0 0 0 0 21 0 0 0 18 0 21 6 26 0 16 22 21 22 48 40 - 40 48 40 55 40 48 40 0 12 0 10 0 0 0 40 0 30 27 40 0 30 40 12 30 37 40 0 30 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 12 0 0 24 10 18 0 0 10 0 36 0 0 36 10 18 0 36 10 40 55 48 - 12 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 40 0 0 0 40 12 40 40 0 17 17 8 15 0 15 - 30 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 0 10 18 30 18 - 42 42 0 42 0 0 18 18 - 36 40 36 40 27 40 400 0 0 00 27 40 400 0 0 36 0 9 0 00 0 0 00 0 0 00 0- 40 40 0 40 0 0 0 0 - 20 0 0 0 0 15 5 20 - final report for oncat project 2018-06 c) third and fourth years electrical engineering courses degree course number apsc 101 elec 323 elec 324 apsc elec102 326 elec 353 degree course title engineering problem solving and continuous-time signals and modelling diploma course equivalency apsc 221 enph 336 apsc 143 3rd year apsc 151 apsc 162 3rd year 3rd year elec 490 apsc 171 4th year apsc 172 4th year cs es ed 0 0 18 0 0 0 16 0 0 12 12 16 31 0 0 0 0 0 33 36 18 11 27 40 0 0 0 18 48 40 42 0 0 0 40 40 0 0 0 30 0 0 30 no no 40 27 00 40 0 no 40 0 30 36 39 0 0 0 18 no apsc 132 m+ns 0 applied engineering mechanics apsc elec131 390 ns 12 12 310 0 apsc 182 apsc 112 math 35 apsc 174 (i) variable elec 371 elec 381 degree course au by ceab category 45 48 34 42 54 no no yes no no apsc 111 diploma course title(s) no systems discrete-time signals and systems experimentation and design probability and random processes electronics ii engineering design project and microprocessor interfacing embedded systems physics i applications of electromagnetics physics ii electrical and computer chemistry anddesign materials engineering chemistry and itsbusiness applications economics and practices in engineering solid state devices introduction to computer 1 complementary studies course programming for engineers (from list a) earth systems and engineering 1st elective course (from list a or engineering graphics b) 2nd elective course (from list a or b) electrical engineering project 1 complementary studies course calculus i (from list calculus ii a , b, c, or d) 8 technical electives program total introduction to linearcourses) algebra (general education apsc 103 degree course au total yes no no yes lin 155 electronic lab instrumentation and techniques etd 555 engineering technology and design phy 354 physics for electronics no no no yes yes no 40 prg 155 programming fundamentals using c & prg 255 advanced programming using c 40 (i) no maybe mth 356 mathematics introductory calculus and statistics & amt 453 advanced mathematics yes no (i) see table below mth147 mathematics with foundations or mth155 - mathematics no no maybe 17 17 27 33 36 18 11 54 34- 6 16 22 40 0 0 0 36 0 24 12 0 18 48 0 42 40 40 0 70 00 200 200 -- 30 0 10 0 10 - 18 36 0 0 21 0 0 0 21 - 0 40 0 0 0 10 0 0 10 - - 0 17 36 8 0 15 0 40 17 0 40 0 0 15 - 30 0 0 0 0 20 10 30 42 84 0 0 0 21 0 63 0 42 36 0 es+ed 36 40 no 0 diploma course au equivalency total 0 0 0 -- 40 40 0 40 0 0 0 0 - 36 40 298 1976 40 0 40 31 318 00 0 218 31 536 360 0 240 00 11 541 00 0 337 00 11 806 36458 40 40 0 40 0 0 0 0 - 20 0 0 0 0 15 5 20 - 0 final report for oncat project 2018-06 d) technical electives degree course title tehnical elective 1 technical elective 2 technical elective 3 technical elective 4 certificate course title(s) elm 453 electrical machines net 455 networking essentials csf 453 control systems fundamentals com 455 communication fundamentals & com 556 wireless & satellite communication systems e) aus to make up academic year degree course au total degree course au by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed certificate course au equivalency total certificate course au equivalency by ceab category math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed 1st year 519 120 173 293 44 134 48 182 154 0 56 56 18 64 16 80 2nd year 538 112 27 139 60 208 149 348 268 10 27 37 60 128 79 207 3rd year 501 55 18 73 79 188 77 265 0 0 0 0 36 0 0 0 4th year 418 31 0 31 57 11 63 11 36 0 0 0 36 0 0 0 transfer au total math ns m+ns cs es ed es+ed transfer year 1 154 0 56 56 18 64 16 80 transfer year 2 268 10 27 37 60 128 79 207 required au to make up 635 222 117 339 26 150 102 243 37 final report for oncat project 2018-06 4.3.2 development of three phase pathway model drawing on the combined study findings the research team defined key characteristics for a viable model. it was determined that our model needed to address the significant challenge of providing the missing courses in a timely manner while respecting the student need for a manageable workload, and also ensuring that accreditation requirements were being met. the student requests for built in support during the transition was also noted. given these factors, a one term bridge was found to not be feasible for a multi-institutional pathway, given the variability between curricula. the potential options for delivering some of the missing courses to students prior to transition and after they completed their bridge were explored. this led to development of a three-phase engineering technology advanced diploma to engineering degree transfer pathway model, designed with the flexibility to incorporate extant institution specific transfer pathways, while also providing a solid foundation for development of a pilot multi-institutional bridge program. o phase 1 (transfer preparation) is completed while the student is still enrolled in their advanced diploma program. qualifying students are supported in incorporating additional courses that have been identified as filling engineering program gaps and being feasible to undertake in addition to the advanced diploma workload. there are three possible delivery mechanisms for such courses: in house, on-line, or at geographically convenient institutions. students may decide to take courses during or outside of term, depending on availability. in some instances, institutions may accept a degree course of sufficiently overlapping course content as a substitute for the advanced diploma equivalent, thus reducing repetition. o phase 2 (bridge term) is completed at a designated bridge institution prior to entering the receiving degree granting institution. a block of missing courses is delivered as a cohesive session. o phase 3 (program completion) is completed while attending the receiving degree granting institution. students are supported in creating a plan to incorporate all remaining missing courses. courses may be taken in house or on-line. in some instances, courses that might 38 final report for oncat project 2018-06 otherwise be designated as electives will be requisite for transfer students in order to ensure that they meet the missing au requirements. a visual depiction of this model is available in appendix d: transfer pathway infographic. there are successful institution specific pathways in ontario as well and it would be expedient to develop any multiinstitutional model with the flexibility to include them. there is much to be learned from all extant and attempted pathway models. 4.3.3 three-phase transfer pathway model overviews this three-phase model was applied to sample programs in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering technology and engineering. tables 8 through 11 show sample mapping for civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering technology to engineering pathways. all mapping was done by the research team and is indicative of an initial attempt to determine program eligibility. since mapping was done in house, these are not necessarily representative of what final program maps would look like. college names have been redacted to ensure anonymity. 39 final report for oncat project 2018-06 table 8. overview of three-phase transfer pathway from civil engineering technology program to queens university civil engineering. bridge phase course gaps method of delivery phase 1 apsc 174 linear algebra apsc 171 calculus i apsc 143 introduction to computer programming for engineers apsc 112 physics 2 apsc 172 calculus 2 apsc 162 engineering graphics civl 231 solid mechanics ii apsc 10x/apsc 200/apsc 293 apsc 131 chemistry and materials apsc 132 chemistry its applications civl 210 chemistry for civil engineering civl 222 numerical methods for civil engineers mthe 224 applied mathematics for civil engineers apsc 151 earth systems and engineering ecampus ontario ecampus ontario ecampus ontario phase 1 or phase 2 (depending on the structure of the diploma program and the structure of the bridge) phase 2 phase 3 40 ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site at receiving institution final report for oncat project 2018-06 table 9. overview of three-phase transfer pathway from mechanical engineering technology program (a) to queens university mechanical engineering. bridge phase course gaps method of delivery phase 1 apsc 174 linear algebra apsc 111 physics 1 apsc 143 introduction to computer programming for engineers apsc 112 physics 2 apsc 172 calculus 2 mthe 225 ordinary differential equations mech 241 fluid mechanics i apsc 10x/apsc 200/apsc 293 apsc 131 chemistry and materials apsc 132 chemistry its applications mech 217 measurement in mechatronics mech 228 kinematics and dynamics mthe 272 application of numerical methods apsc 151 earth systems and engineering ecampus ontario ecampus ontario ecampus ontario phase 1 or phase 2 (depending on the structure of the diploma program and the structure of the bridge) phase 2 phase 3 41 ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site at receiving institution final report for oncat project 2018-06 table 10. overview of three-phase transfer pathway from mechanical engineering technology program (b) to queens university mechanical engineering bridge phase course gaps method of delivery phase 1 apsc 174 linear algebra apsc 111 physics 1 apsc 143 introduction to computer programming for engineers apsc 112 physics 2 apsc 172 calculus 2 mthe 225 ordinary differential equations apsc 10x/apsc 200/apsc 293 apsc 131 chemistry and materials apsc 132 chemistry its applications mech 213 manufacturing methods mthe 272 application of numerical methods apsc 151 earth systems and engineering ecampus ontario ecampus ontario ecampus ontario phase 1 or phase 2 (depending on the structure of the diploma program and the structure of the bridge) phase 2 phase 3 42 ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site at receiving institution final report for oncat project 2018-06 table 11. overview of three-phase transfer pathway from electrical engineering technology program to queens electrical engineering bridge phase course gaps method of delivery phase 1 apsc 174 linear algebra apsc 111 physics 1 apsc 143 introduction to computer programming for engineers apsc 182 applied engineering mechanics phase 1 or phase 2 apsc 112 physics 2 (depending on the structure apsc 172 calculus 2 of the diploma program mthe 235 differential equations and the structure of the for electrical and computer bridge) engineers mthe 299 complex analysis phase 2 apsc 10x elec 273 numerical methods and optimization elec 274 computer architecture elec 278 fundamentals of computer structures elec 299 mechatronics project phase 3 apsc 151 earth systems and engineering apsc 131 chemistry and materials apsc 132 chemistry and applications 4.3.3.1 ecampus ontario ecampus ontario ecampus ontario ecampus ontario ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site ecampus ontario or on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site on-site ecampus ontario or at receiving institution at receiving institution at receiving institution consultation with peo and ceab regarding pathway model at intervals throughout the study, designated peo and ceab consultants were provided with updates on study progress, and well as content to review for feedback. this consultation with peo and ceab guided analysis of course mapping to focus on equivalent courses from engineering technology to engineering, with a focus on the transferable aus for each course. in a teleconference the draft pathway model was discussed, and they provided the following feedback: 43 final report for oncat project 2018-06 any bridging program developed would not be applicable to be accredited by ceab in its own right, only as a part of a full engineering program it is imperative that any transfer program provide evidence of all courses done in the advanced diploma and/or bridging program that are receiving credit, as well as all program aus, specific aus, graduate attributes, and other gaps consideration and documentation will be required of the p.eng. status of instructors for courses involving engineering science and engineering design content. a bridging program would be an ideal place to introduce content requiring instruction by a p.eng. any transfer program must take into consideration that 50% of the aus for the program must be taken at the degree granting institution. thorough documentation specifying courses, aus, specific aus, and graduate attributes of the transfer program, signed by all participating parties and institutions would be extremely beneficial to include in any submission made by a participating university for accreditation of an engineering program. 4.3.3.2 consultation with college and university partners regarding pathway model the pathway model was also shared with college and university contacts for review and discussion, resulting in key messages as follows: college programs did not have interest in developing new course material to ease transfer for the benefit of a limited number of students, particularly as engineering technology programs are already content heavy. o they were, however, amenable to the idea that certain courses be offered at a higher level which could replace core engineering technology courses to make transfer more expedient. for example, the replacement of an engineering technology calculus course with one more aligned with engineering program content. the three-phase model was well-regarded by all institutions, and the flexibility it offers was deemed beneficial. institutions with existing engineering transfer pathways expressed interest in inclusion of phase 1 courses in their program, to ease the transition into a rigorous bridge. this emphasized the willingness of inclusion in the program on behalf of some extant pathways. 44 final report for oncat project 2018-06 4.3.4 process analysis for transfer from engineering degree to engineering technology advanced diploma program discussions were held with advanced diploma institutions personnel, who provided insights into the present process. anonymized individual student transfer documentation was reviewed in detail with personnel with assigned transfer responsibilities, resulting in the identification of two overarching methods of transfer, of which some institutions use one or the other, or a combination of both. description of the methods is available in table 11. table 11. description of required information and equivalency determination process for two methods used for transfer into engineering technology programs. method 1 information provided to advanced diploma granting institution process for determining equivalency transcript and course outlines for all courses is received. all information assessed by receiving institution to determine which credits will be offered. conditional credits are often offered and granted only after a prior learning assessment and recognition (plar), depending on the common practice at any given institution. often these are 50% theory, 50% practical lab skills. these might also be used to assess whether student is up to speed on some components of courses, without which these credits are not equivalent (probability in a mathematics course, for example). method 2 information provided to advanced diploma granting institution process for determining equivalency transfer credit requests selected by the student are received, along with grades and course outlines in the relevant subjects. some institutions require a transcript, but others are not permitted to request it. course outlines for the course in the year completed by the student are requested, if at all possible. if not available, most current available outline is accepted. generally, even a small but significant missing element will result in denial of credit. some institutions, however, require only a 75-80% equivalency. some institutions are developing internal data bases of transfer credit information for recognized equivalencies to increase assessment efficiency. 45 final report for oncat project 2018-06 transfer students into engineering technology programs consistently lack the hands-on practical lab skills of their peers in the advanced diploma programs. this often impacts initial student confidence and success rates, but supplemental lab skills support has been found to be effective. findings from this research were then discussed with a larger group comprised of stakeholders, including both university and college representatives. the overwhelming majority of those consulted was that, given the low volume of students transferring and the highly individualized nature of their transfer circumstances (due to transfers overwhelmingly being in response to academic failure), a bi-directional pathway model is not required at this time. 5 recommendations the following section details recommendations for further pursuit of a large-scale engineering transfer system, with both short- and long-term objectives and considerations. 5.1 advanced diploma to degree transfer pathway pilot program a detailed gap analysis of the commonality between engineering and engineering technology curricula for three disciplines revealed that the missing coursework could not be contained to a single bridge program. the three-phase transfer pathway model developed in this study addresses this by integrating additional courses prior to transfer and during program completion at the receiving institution. it provides a solid foundation on which to build a pilot program. the scale and pace of the pilot program, in terms of number of participant institutions and disciplines, will be determined by available funding and resources. the pilot program coordinator (ppc) will share findings with all partner institutions, as well as those who express interest in becoming involved in future at regular intervals throughout. given the associated development costs and complexities, it is reasonable to assume that the pilot program will be implemented in multiple stages: stage 1: development of an initial offering of three-phase pathway(s), based on this studys findings and the available budget. stage 2: delivery of the stage 1 pathway(s). stage 3: expansion of the stage 1 pathway(s) to include the remaining institutions and disciplines included in this study. 46 final report for oncat project 2018-06 stage 4: analysis of stage 1 and stage 3 pathway(s) delivery experience in order to develop plan for increasing the scale to the provincial level. this studys program gap analyses (civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering) between potential participant institutions will be reviewed carefully by the ppc to determine the best fit program matches for each stage of the pilot program. once this has been confirmed the following steps will be taken: 5.1.1 confirmation of participant institutions once the budget has been confirmed, partner institutions for the identified best fit program matches for stages 1 and 3 will be contacted by the ppc to ascertain their continued interest in participation. once all participants have confirmed interest, then a memorandum of understanding would be drafted to ensure clear delegation of responsibilities. there will be two overlapping but not identical groups participating in the pilot program: sending and receiving institutions: as per the study analysis, there will be one sending (engineering technology advanced diploma) institution and one receiving institution (engineering degree program) for each discipline pathway. bridging institutions: the limited number of discipline pathways in the pilot program warrants one host institution developing the phase 2 bridge program. extant bridge program institutions will also be encouraged to be involved: their expertise is valued, and they may find some of the pilot program pathway phase 1 and phase 3 course options of interest for their institutions to consider. 5.1.2 ongoing development of pathway model the pilot program will provide additional information and experience required to refine the three-phase model. this will help to address existent and arising challenges. as explained in section 4, the identified program au gaps are filled by transfer students taking additional courses, which are slotted in to the phase that is the best fit in terms of both program flow and student success. 5.1.2.1 initial model phase 1: transfer preparation this phase is completed by the student while still enrolled in their advanced diploma program. the interested student receives support in developing a plan to incorporate those missing courses 47 final report for oncat project 2018-06 identified as being feasible to undertake in addition to regular program work load, and accessible from their institution. there are three potential delivery mechanisms, for the phase 1 courses: on-site (courses already being offered for other programs at the participant institution). online (ecampus ontario). off-site (geographically close institutions offering necessary courses). it is important that the student have access to support while adjusting to the increased academic workload. this introductory phase offers the student the opportunity to test their capability to complete the transfer before incurring the associated costs of phase 2 and 3 of their pathway. phase 2: bridge term this phase is completed on site at a designated bridge institution prior to entering the receiving degree granting institution. a block of missing courses (those common to most disciplines and prerequisite for year of entry) is delivered as a cohesive session. customized courses could potentially fill a combination of missing au categories. phase 3: program completion this phase is completed while attending the receiving degree granting institution. the student receives support in developing a plan that will ensure that they incorporate the remaining missing courses in such as a way as to optimize their program work load. there are three potential delivery mechanisms (maximises student options such that they could take some during regular term, and others during breaks): on-site (elective courses that ensure the missing credits being designated as requisite for the transfer student - if demand sufficient, there is potential to add courses). online (ecampus ontario). off-site (geographically close institutions offering necessary courses). 5.1.2.2 development possibilities some potential developments for the pathway that have been discussed are: (phase 1) partner colleges have expressed a willingness to consider counting phase 1 courses in place of an advanced diploma course where there is sufficient course content commonality. this would reduce student workload and repetition of material. 48 final report for oncat project 2018-06 (phase 2) the experience of living on campus and attending courses with peers who are making the same transition could be morale and confidence building for incoming students. (phase 3) - as the pathways become more established, some courses may be adjusted to address the au count issue, such that the elective lists for transfer students dont have to be constricted. 5.1.2.3 associated challenges some challenges associated with the pathway are: developing some discipline pathways may not be cost effective if there is not sufficient student demand. keeping student costs down will be a challenge. considering student needs as well as institutional convenience in developing pathway timelines can be difficult. the accreditation unit count for receiving institution will likely present a challenge, particularly with respect to ensuring that 50% aus are granted within the degree program. this will require maintenance and detailed analysis on behalf of all participating parties. 5.1.3 development of student supports the inclusion of student support networks was a key component of the qualitative analysis, both from an institutional and a student perspective. the housing of student advisors or support staff, however, presents a challenge with a large-scale system. there is thus a need for a small number of centralized bridge institutions that are able to provide student support as the transfer occurs. in stage 1 of the pilot program, it will be important to identify what supports are available at all participant institutions and accessed as needed by students. the experience of students in stage 2 will inform further analysis of how these existing supports can be either leveraged or expanded to include the transfer program, both at the university and college level most efficiently. possible areas of student support include: administration, scheduling, academic support, and orientation and introduction to new institutions to encourage a sense of belonging. 5.1.3.1 supporting under-represented learners one of the goals of the pathway is to increase access to engineering for underrepresented groups. in order to maximize retention rates it will be important to ensure that any population specific challenges that might be faced by incoming students are addressed discretely and expediently. these 49 final report for oncat project 2018-06 may include language support, more readily available and targeted academic support, and community building within programs to encourage a sense of fit. 5.2 long term possibilities 5.2.1 promotion of pathway option to students an established engineering technology advanced diploma to engineering degree pathway would be well worth promoting to students. participant colleges could benefit from an increased student intake, and engineering programs would benefit from the addition of a qualified, diverse addition to their student population in the upper years of their programs. 5.2.2 expansion of the number of participant institutions and discipline pathways successful completion of the pilot program will offer the possibility of building on existing agreements to increase both the number of participant institutions and the available discipline pathways. 5.2.3 exploration of value of introducing more consistency within engineering technology and engineering degree programs as students move around more fluidly the institutions start to share practices and consider whether there should be more commonality within ad programs and within engineering programs in ontario. e.g. bc has been working on an agreement about some principles for what a common first year includes, allowing more fluid transfer. 5.2.4 exploration of establishing pathways with other provinces should a province wide system be successfully implemented, thought may be given to expansion on a national scale. a similar development process would be applicable for transfer between institutions in different provinces, given the national level of engineering accreditation in canada. here, communication would be paramount to account for increased distance. 5.3 engineering technology lab skills module although the demand for reverse transfer does not warrant the development of a full multi- institution pathway at this time, the lack of practical labs skills was a challenge to students entering engineering technology programs with advanced standing. student could benefit from the development of a short-term lab skills module to be taken prior to starting their courses at the college level. due to the variation in college curriculum, these modules should be developed unique to the engineering 50 final report for oncat project 2018-06 technology program in question, at this time. should more demand for transfer of this kind present itself in the future, these modules can serve as the starting point for an intermediary bridging program. 6 conclusion the studys pathway model paves the way for the development of a pilot program. a successful method for determining equivalency has been documented and explored for several proof of concept pathways. information regarding institutional and student experience of transfer was collected. these analyses resulted in the development of a three-phase model of transfer for engineering technology to engineering programs. this could be initially implemented with the subset of identified interested institutions and then expanded systematically province wide, following the equivalency determining process. implementation of a pilot for this model of engineering transfer is necessary to test the validity and feasibility of this model, while increasing trust and partnerships between engineering and engineering technology programs, providing increased access to diverse learners, and pushing for increased student support through non-traditional learning pathways. 51 final report for oncat project 2018-06 7 references creswell, j. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design. choosing among five approaches (third edit). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. deller, f., & oldford, s. (2011). participation of low-income students in ontario. higher education quality council of ontario. toronto, ontario. kerr, a., mccloy, u., & liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. higher education quality council of ontario. toronto, ontario. larsson, j., & holmstrm, i. (2007). phenomenographic or phenomenological analysis: does it matter? examples from a study on anaesthesiologists work. international journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 2(1), 5564. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482620601068105 lattuca, l., terenzini, p., ro, h. k., & knight, d. (2014). americas overlooked engineers: community colleges and diversity in engineering education. national science foundation. laugerman, m., rover, d., shelley, m., & mickelson, s. (2015). determining graduation rates in engineering for community college transfer students using data mining. international journal of engineering education. lennon, m. c., zhao, h., & gluszynski, t. (2011). educational pathways of youth in ontario: factors impacting educational pathways. higher education quality council of ontario. toronto, ontario. marton, f. (1981). phenomenography ? describing conceptions of the world around us. instructional science, 10(2), 177200. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00132516 mattis, m. c., & sislin, j. (eds.). (2005). enhancing the community college pathway to engineering careers. national academies press. ogilvie, a. m. (2014). a review of the literature on transfer student pathways to engineering degrees. in 2014 asee annual conference & exposition (p. 24.101.1-24.101.14). indianapolis, indiana. sullivan, m. d., de cohen, c. c., barna, m. j., orr, m. k., long, r. a., & ohland, m. w. (2012). understanding engineering transfer students: demographic characteristics and educational outcomes. in 2012 frontiers in education conference proceedings (pp. 16). ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/fie.2012.6462442 trick, d. (2013). college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context. higher education quality council of ontario. toronto, ontario. zakani, s., frank, b., turner, r., & kaupp, j. (2016). framework for transferability between engineering and technology programs: project 2015-29. ontario council on articulation and transfer. toronto. zhang, y. (leaf), & ozuna, t. (2015). pathways to engineering: the validation experiences of transfer students. community college journal of research and practice, 39(4), 355365. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2014.981892 52 final report for oncat project 2018-06 8 appendices 8.1 appendix a: ethics documentation 53 final report for oncat project 2018-06 54 final report for oncat project 2018-06 8.2 appendix b: institutional interview questions 1. please describe your pathway or bridging program 2. what process was used to develop your pathway? (e.g. is it block transfer, were courses compared individually for specific matching outcomes, one-to-one course mapping, etc) 3. what is the demand for this type of pathway? 4. does your pathway including bridging courses or modules, and if so how were these defined? 5. how effective is the pathway? (i.e. when students transfer via the pathway, how well do they do in their new program?) 6. what have you learned from your experience with this pathway, and how would you change the process/setup if you were to create another one? 7. are there any limits to transfer that you are aware of (engineering technology to engineering or vice versa)? 8. are there any risks to be aware of when building a bridging program of pathway, and is so, do you know of a way they can be mitigated? 9. would a more general (province-wide or broader) bridging process, which takes into account the current contents of source and destination programs, be more effective than developing and maintaining custom pathways between specific institutions? 10. what do you think are the principles for building a province-wide bridge? 11. are there any other successful examples of bridges or pathways? 12. is there anyone else we should talk to? 55 final report for oncat project 2018-06 8.3 appendix c: student and graduate interview questions 1. where did you complete your engineering degree? 2. where did you complete your engineering technology diploma? 3. what is the name of the institution where you completed a bridging program (if applicable)? 4. what discipline of engineering are you studying or did you study? 5. what made you decide to complete an engineering degree after earning an engineering technology diploma? 6. when did you decide you wanted to complete an engineering degree? 7. did you work as an engineering technologist before returning to complete your engineering degree, or did you go directly from the engineering technology program to the bridge to the engineering degree? 8. how long was your bridging program? 9. compared to your peers who started in year 1 of the engineering degree program, did you feel the engineering technology diploma + bridging program made you less prepared, just as prepared or more prepared for your courses in the engineering degree program? 10. were there any course(s) in your engineering program you felt particularly underprepared for? if so, which course(s), and why? 11. were there any course(s) in your engineering program you felt particularly prepared for? if so, which course(s), and why? 12. if you have already graduated, did you feel your background in both engineering technology and engineering made you less prepared, just as prepared or more prepared than your peers who entered into the engineering degree program directly into year 1? 13. how do you feel you would have done in the engineering program had you gone directly into year 1, instead of engineering technology + bridge? 14. is certification as a professional engineer important to you? why? 15. if you have graduated from an engineering program, are you working in an engineering job? do you think your program(s) have adequately prepared you for the workplace? why or why not? 56 final report for oncat project 2018-06 8.4 appendix d: transfer pathway infographic 57

indigenous program pathways inventory project, phase two: a study of student transfer experience prepared by: dr. lana ray1, janine landry1, jeannette miron2 & elaine toombs1 date: april, 2019 suggested citation: ray, l. landry, j., miron, j. & toombs, e. (may 2019). indigenous program pathways inventory project, phase two: a study of student transfer experience. north bay: canadore college. this research was funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 1 2 lakehead university canadore college foreword throughout this project and others before, the resounding issue of access to postsecondary education for indigenous learners is highlighted time and time again. community led bridging programs, recognition of experience, mentorship and wholistic student support systems are examples of initiatives that aboriginal institutes, colleges and universities are championing in order to address some of the calls to action as identified in the truth and reconciliation report. in phase one of the indigenous program pathways inventory project, the goal was to identify the many indigenous programs and pathways that existed at aboriginal institutes, colleges, and universities in the province of ontario. the report showcased the variety of offerings and wrap around support systems available. it also identified tensions and challenges of creating pathways in an indigenous context and noted the absence of the student voice in assessing the pathway experience. this led us to phase two, a study of the student transfer experience. garnering the student voice is important for educators, administrators and policy makers who seek to improve the success and experience of students as they navigate the system. data for indigenous populations is difficult to glean as it is many times rolled into mass survey tools. moreover, available data does not always mean relevant data as indigenous peoples, in many cases, remain marginalized within the research process. yet, we know that indigenous learners possess unique yet diverse experiences so we cannot take a one size fits all approach to indigenous education. it was important to us that we maintain indigenous student voice and experience at the centre of this research. we sought out learners as well as those who work to support them along their pathway journey to shape the survey and make meaning of the results. what was resoundingly clear was that while progress has been made, there is still work to do to implement changes to policy, standards and delivery in order to positively shift access opportunities and create meaningful change. thank you, to all who participated, shared their knowledge and contributed to this project. we would like to call upon those working within the field of education to amplify the voices of learners by sharing the findings and taking action within your respective circles. miigwetch, nia:wen, merci, thank you, jeannette miron registrar and director, strategic enrolment services, canadore college a study of student transfer experience dr lana ray assistant professor, indigenous learning, lakehead university 2 executive summary amid the truth and reconciliation commission of canadas (2015) calls to action is improving education attainment levels and success rates for indigenous peoples (p. 2). indigenous enrolment and completion rates in postsecondary education (pse) have improved (mckeown, vedan, jacknife, & tolmie, 2018; restoule et al., 2013). yet, indigenous peoples in canada still remain underrepresented in pse (restoule et al., 2013; stol, houwer & todd, 2016; mckeown et al., 2018) with indigenous learners, comprising about 1% of the overall college and university student population in ontario with 16,000 indigenous learners enrolled (bathish et al., 2017, p. 4). a program pathway is a route from one program to another within or between postsecondary institutions that contains benefits such as transfer credits or guaranteed acceptance. research has shown that implementing pathways is a promising practice to support pse access and attainment, especially among underrepresented populations. thus, pathways may support broader decolonization strategies that support reconciliation among indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in canada (ray, 2017; ottmann, 2017). building on phase 1 of the research which examined indigenous program pathways from an institutional perspective, this research sought to expand current understandings of indigenous program pathways in ontario by privileging student voice and examining pathways from student perspectives. this was achieved primarily through the dissemination of an online student survey at ontario colleges and universities (n= 330 participants). three indigenous student focus groups, and online engagement sessions and a one-day indigenous pathway forum also took place to ensure the postsecondary communities participation in survey design and analysis. this report presents the results of this research. it details who is accessing pathways to and/or from indigenous programs, the experiences of pathway students within these programs, and the overall experiences of indigenous transfer students in ontario, whether or not they are enrolled in an indigenous program. overall the research found that generally students seem content with their pathway experience and that there were more advantages than disadvantages to being a pathway learner. results also showed that those who were more likely to already attend pse were the students utilizing pathways the most, bringing into question the role of pathways in creating access to pse. a study of student transfer experience 3 table of contents foreword........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 2 executive summary ................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 table of contents ................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 background .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 methodology ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 institutional participation and engagement .................................................................................................................................. 6 data collection ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 7 online student survey ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7 student lunch and learns ............................................................................................................................................................. 8 data analysis ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9 indigenous pathways forum............................................................................................................................................................ 9 online sessions .....................................................................................................................................................................................10 research limitations ..............................................................................................................................................................................10 results ............................................................................................................................................................................................................11 indigenous program pathway learner demographics ...........................................................................................................11 indigenous identity .................................................................................................................................................................................12 gender ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................13 age ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................13 community residence type prior to pse ......................................................................................................................................13 access to indigenous program pathway information..............................................................................................................14 areas of study and academic history .............................................................................................................................................17 pathway direction....................................................................................................................................................................................18 learner preparedness satisfaction ..................................................................................................................................................20 learner supports ......................................................................................................................................................................................21 bridging programs ..............................................................................................................................................................................22 advantages and disadvantages .....................................................................................................................................................23 credit transfer .....................................................................................................................................................................................25 conclusion and recommendations .........................................................................................................................................26 references...................................................................................................................................................................................................27 a study of student transfer experience 4 background since the early 2000s, indigenous enrolment and completion rates in postsecondary education (pse) have improved (mckeown, vedan, jacknife, & tolmie, 2018; restoule et al., 2013). the proportion of indigenous peoples with a bachelors degree and college diploma rose from 7.7% to 10.9% and 18.7% to 23% respectively between 2006 to 2016 (statistics canada, 2017). today, indigenous students account for 5% of the college student population and this number jumps to 15% for northern colleges (co, 2018). among ontario universities, there are 6500 self-identified indigenous students (bathish et al., 2017). with a 33% increase in indigenous programs since 2013, there has never been so much opportunity for culturallyrelevant education within postsecondary institutions (universities canada, 2015). yet, indigenous peoples in canada still remain underrepresented in pse (restoule et al., 2013; stol, houwer & todd, 2016; mckeown, vedan, jacknife & tolmie, 2018). indigenous learners, comprise about 1% of the undergraduate and graduate college and university population in ontario with 16,000 indigenous learners enrolled (bathish et al., 2017, p. 4). indigenous peoples are especially underrepresented in the university sector as they are more likely to attain college and trade credentials than university degrees (stol, houwer & todd, 2016, p. 11). according to universities canada (2016), less than 10% of indigenous people aged 25 to 64 have a university degree, whereas more than 26% of their non-indigenous counterparts possess this credential. ontario is not exempt from this trend (sawyer et al., 2016). bathish and colleagues (2017) argue that the rates of enrolment are concerningly low since 42% of the provinces indigenous population is under the age of 25 (p. 4). furthermore, rates of high school diploma or equivalency certificates among indigenous peoples aged 25-64 in canada are increasing with almost 7 in 10 indigenous people aged 25 to 64 in possession of a high school diploma or equivalency certificate (statistics canada, 2017, p. 7). although indigenous peoples are increasingly eligible for pse, they are not gaining access at the same rate. amid the truth and reconciliation commission of canadas (2015) calls to action is improving education attainment levels and success rates for indigenous peoples (p. 2). the need to ensure that indigenous peoples are encouraged and enabled to equitably access, engage, and succeed throughout their postsecondary careers and beyond remains (bathish et al., 2017, p. 4). access and success in postsecondary education is a vital component to the reconciliation process (bathish et al., 2017; universities canada, n.d), and is also linked to individual and community health (stol, houwer & todd, 2016, p. 25) program pathways have been put forth as a promising practice to improve access to pse (camman et al., 2014). traditional pathways from college to university can facilitate access for individuals with lower socioeconomic status or limited postsecondary experience in their family (decock, 2006). kinnane et al. (2013) noted targeted pathway programs, mentoring programs and early intervention and targeted skill development as strategies to improve pse participation (as cited in vitartas, ambrose, millar & anh dang, 2015). providing adequate educational offerings and pathways to access higher education, including preparatory, bridging programs, and wholistic supports, as well as ensuring adequate transitional arrangements between preparatory programs and higher education were identified as promising practices to increase access and retention for indigenous learners in australia (smith, trinidad, & larkin, 2015). indeed, pathways can be seen as one component of broader institution-wide indigenization and decolonizing strategies to support access to and completion of pse, and ultimately reconciliation among indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in canada (ray, 2017; ottmann, 2017). in ontario there is approximately 21 500 learners transferring within the province annually via the 600+ pathways and 35000+ transfer opportunities available (oncat, online). however, as suggested by camman and colleagues (2014), ontarios postsecondary institutions are not equal in their capacity to attract students from under-represented groups, meaning that effective transfer pathways between postsecondary institutions could support the facilitation of a more accessible and equitable education system overall (p. 4). a study of student transfer experience 5 transfer effectiveness has generally relied on mechanisms of transfer as opposed to descriptive analysis. very little is known about transfer experiences and the characteristics of the transfer student in ontario (decock, 2006). indigenous pathways are no exception, and more information is needed on indigenous learners pathway experiences (ray, 2017, p. 32). a deeper understanding of indigenous pathways and transitions into higher education can help to better understand and enhance persistence in higher education (frawley, smith & larkin, 2015; waterman & sands, (2016). obtaining the direct opinions of indigenous students can fill a gap in knowledge and expertise that adminstrators typically do not possess (gavakip, p. 159 as cited in ottmann, 2017, p. 106). this mixed-methods research seeks to enhance understanding of indigenous program pathways in ontario. for the purpose of this project, a program pathway is defined as a route from one program to another within or between postsecondary institutions that contains benefits such as transfer credits or guaranteed acceptance. an indigenous program pathway, unless otherwise stated, refers to a pathway between indigenous programs or a program pathway utilized by an indigenous learner. this project builds on the prior work of report authors, ray and miron, entitled indigenous program pathways inventory project: phase one. this research sought to understand indigenous program pathways from an institutional perspective. the focus of this report is understanding indigenous program pathways from student perspectives and as such this report (phase 2) privileges learners voice. this report examines who is accessing pathways to and/or from indigenous programs, the experiences of pathway students within these programs, and the overall experiences of indigenous transfer students in ontario, whether or not they have been enrolled in an indigenous program. methodology the study employed a participatory mixed-methods approach to examine indigenous program pathway experiences in ontario postsecondary institutions. more specifically, the study sought to better understand: who is accessing pathways to and/or from indigenous programs? what program pathways indigenous learners are accessing, if not indigenous program pathways? what are the transfer experiences of indigenous learners and those accessing indigenous program pathways? what are the perceptions of pathways by indigenous learners and those accessing indigenous program pathways? and, what are common characteristics of indigenous program pathways and pathways accessed by indigenous learners? an online student survey was disseminated at ontario colleges and universities across the province and 3 student focus groups were also conducted. the research was participatory in nature through the engagement of learners and members of the broader postsecondary community in survey design, implementation and analysis. institutional participation and engagement ontario postsecondary institutions were invited to collaborate on the project via email. efforts were made to identify and reach out to an indigenous lead, pathway/transfer lead and a representative from the registrars office for each institution. in some cases, a representative from each of these sectors could not be identified, but at minimum, one point of contact was made with each institution. a study of student transfer experience 6 in total, 25 institutions (aboriginal institutes n=1; colleges n=15; universities n=9) participated in the research project in some capacity. while not all institutions participated in all project activities, the scope of collaboration included: providing advisement on institutional processes for student engagement and supporting submissions to research ethics boards; participating in group sessions online or via telephone to provide input into survey design; facilitating student survey dissemination; providing advisement on and supporting student focus groups; participating in a one-day indigenous pathway forum to provide input into data analysis direction and interpretation of preliminary results; and, participating in group sessions online to provide further input on the data analysis and report recommendations. data collection data was collected primarily through an anonymous online student survey. three follow-up student focus groups were also held. online student survey the survey was developed collaboratively with postsecondary institutions and indigenous learners. two online sessions were held using webex which provided institutional representatives an opportunity to provide feedback on question design and develop new questions. table one provides an overview of institutional participation in the online sessions. table 1 survey development engagement by institution type and number of participants online session date # of participating institutions october 31, 2018 4 (colleges n=2; universities n=2) november 1, 2018 6 (colleges n=5; universities n=1) email (excludes institutions 1 (university n=1) that participated in an online session) overall 11 (colleges n=7; universities n=4) # of participants n=4 n=7 n=1 n=12 additional feedback was also received via email. this included feedback by institutions who provided input during the online sessions but wished to provide further feedback as well as institutions who did not participate in an online session. institutions had the autonomy to decide who should attend the online sessions and were encouraged to share the draft survey with relevant parties within their institutions (employees, indigenous education council members, and students). one college also tested the survey with a group of students. the final survey was inputted into surveymonkey and was comprised of 39 questions which were a mix of likert-type, open-ended and close-ended questions. it was distributed at 13 colleges, 6 universities and 0 aboriginal institutes throughout the province. table two provides an overview of survey distribution. a study of student transfer experience 7 table 2 sites of student survey dissemination by region region southwestern central/gta/metro eastern northern participating institutions fanshawe college mohawk college university of windsor centennial college georgian college university of toronto york university algonquin college fleming college loyalist college st. lawrence college niagara college algoma university canadore college cambrian college confederation college lakehead university nipissing university sault college surveys were distributed to learners between january to march 2019 primarily via their student email accounts. in some instances, the survey was advertised on institution-wide communication bulletins or indigenous student support listservs 1. learners who participated in the survey had the opportunity to win 1 of 2 ipads. to be eligible to participate, students had to have: participated in a program pathway and self-identify as indigenous; or participated in a program pathway to and/or from an indigenous program. of 1089 potential participants who were interested in the study, 1061 (97.3%) stated they read the initial study information and 963 consented to participation. of these participants, 356 met the above eligibility criteria related to engaging in a program transfer. after data cleaning (including removal of participants who did not complete any questions following consent), the final sample size was n= 330 participants. student lunch and learns lunch and learn sites were selected based on the following criteria: level of student engagement in the online student survey; willingness of host institution; and, availability of host institution. based off this criteria, three institutions were identified as hosts for these sessions. in all three cases, indigenous support services at each institution helped with the organization and recruitment for the sessions. in one instance, the indigenous student association was also involved in the organization of the session. in a limited number of institutions, institution-wide dissemination was not possible and the survey was disseminated via aboriginal self-identification list-servs. this may have resulted in an overrepresentation of indigenous respondents. 1 a study of student transfer experience 8 the sessions were advertised as student lunch and learns. this name seemed more appropriate than focus groups because we were interested in engaging with students about preliminary results to further an understanding of indigenous program pathways and potential recommendations for enhancing student experience. those who participated also received a hot lunch in addition to a $10 gift certificate. three student sessions were conducted between february-april 2019 and each lasted approximately 1-1.5 hours. the majority of students who attended had participated in a transfer. there were also students in attendance who were in the process of or were interested in transferring. further information on the student sessions can be found in table 3. table 3 student lunch and learns by location and number of participants institution date lakehead university february 26, 2019 canadore college march 19, 2019 sault college april 1, 2019 data analysis number of participants n=1 n=2 n=7 quantitative analyses of the online survey data were completed using spss. descriptive statistics (including means, ranges, and percentages) were used to report participant demographic data. inferential statistical analyses were completed using independent t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (anovas) tests. qualitative information provided by participants was amalgamated and summarized. given the limited qualitative participant responses, descriptive, rather than thematic analyses were completed. the student focus groups (discussed above), a 1-day indigenous pathways forum and online sessions with members of the postsecondary community were held to discuss survey results. the purpose for these sessions was to enhance the understanding and relevancy of data findings and recommendations through community participation. indigenous pathways forum on march 1, 2019 a forum was held in toronto, on. table 4 provides an overview of participation. table 4 indigenous pathways forum participation by postsecondary institution participating institution number of participants aboriginal institutes oshki-pimache-o-win n=1 colleges algonquin college n=1 cambrian college n=1 canadore college n=2 fanshawe college n=1 mohawk college n=1 sault college n=1 st. lawrence college n=2 universities york university n=1 other ontario council on articulation and transfer n=3 total n=10 n=14 a study of student transfer experience 9 the purpose of the forum was to gain the reactions and interpretations of members of the postsecondary education community to preliminary survey results as well as to receive guidance on additional areas of interest for data analysis. institutions were responsible for choosing who would attend the session and a mix of those responsible for indigenous student supports, academic programming and admissions and enrolment attended the forum. in addition to preliminary results being presented, results were also captured through interactive infographics. infographics containing results from key aspects of a students pathway experience were presented. indigenous pathway forum attendees were asked to review the findings similar to how the student would experience their pathway transfer, from learning about the pathway, to applying to the pathway to arriving at the transfer program. as participants walked alongside the pathway experience they were asked to identify key reactions to or interpretations of preliminary results and recommendations to enhance pathway experiences. figure 1 interactive infographics at the indigenous pathway forum online sessions participating institutions were provided with the results, discussion, and recommendation sections of the draft final report. subsequently, two online sessions were held to provide members from the postsecondary institution community a final opportunity to provide input into the interpretation of results and creation of recommendations. table 5 provides a summary of community engagement in data analysis via online sessions. table 5 participation in online data analysis session by institution type and number of participants online session date # of participating institutions # of participants april 25, 2019 4 (aboriginal institutes n=1; colleges n=3) n=5 april 26, 2019 3 (colleges n=2; universities n=1) n=3 email 1 (university n=1) n=1 overall 8 (aboriginal institutes n=1; colleges n=5; n=9 universities n=2) research limitations for some survey questions the response rate was too low and could not be considered as representative of the indigenous program pathways population. in these instances, only descriptive analyses could occur. the online survey was not disseminated at aboriginal institutes nor at institutions outside of ontario yet students may be transferring across provinces, within aboriginal institutes or between an aboriginal institute and a a study of student transfer experience 10 college or university. as a result, this research is limited in its perspective on indigenous program pathway experiences in ontario. results in this section the results of the student survey are presented and discussed. to ensure that the results be interpreted within local contexts, indigenous student lunch and learns, an indigenous forum and webex sessions with pse representatives were conducted to discuss results. the insights that arose from these engagements as well as recent literature are presented alongside the results. indigenous program pathway learner demographics survey participants were asked about their indigeneity, gender, age, and residency prior to attending pse. participating institutions were divided into four regions, as per the colleges ontario regions, classified as southwestern, eastern, and northern. for the purposes of this review, the central, greater toronto area and metro areas were combined. table 6 provides an overview of survey participant demographics by region. table 6 student survey participant demographics by pse region region (n= 173) southwestern number of students gender age community residence prior to postsecondary (multiple selections) indigenous students female male other/prefer not to say under 19 19 to 24 25 to 35 35 to 40 40+ urban area (> 10 000) small town (1 000 to 9 999) rural community (<1 000) first nation community located near an urban community first nation community located near a rural community remote first nation community a study of student transfer experience 31 (17.9%) central/ metro/ gta 8 (4.7%) 17 14 0 7 1 0 17 (9.8%) 0 22 4 2 3 18 6 3 2 4 (2.3%) 0 6 2 0 0 6 3 1 0 eastern 21 (12.1%) 21 (12.1%) 9 11 0 1 14 3 0 2 5 8 3 2 northern 113 (65.3%) 96 (55.5%) 87 23 2 1 53 46 6 6 59 29 16 9 2 1 3 12 0 0 2 3 11 one-way anovas were completed to determine if institutional region influenced pathways experiences of students. it appears that for students who participated in the study, indigenous program pathways are similar across participating institutions. further details on regional results are found throughout the report. indigenous identity table 7 provides a breakdown of demographic information for indigenous participants in comparison to the overall survey population. almost half the sample identified as indigenous (n= 154; 46.7%). when asked to select from a range of backgrounds, the majority of respondents identified as first nation (n=82; 52.9%) and status indian (n=82; 52.9%), followed by mtis (n= 33; 21.29%), non-status indian (n=15; 9.68%), and inuit (n=7; 4.52%). the remainder indicated their background was not listed, unknown, or that they would prefer not to say (n= 25). table 7 indigenous and non-indigenous survey respondents by gender, age and community residence prior to pse participant demographic (n=*) total number of number of indigenous participants (%) participants total 330 (100%) 154 (46.7%) gender female 130 (69.5%) 106 (n=187) male 55 (29.4%) 42 trans 1 (0.5%) 1 non-binary 1 (0.5%) 1 age (n=187) under 19 4 (2.1%) 4 19 to 24 104 (55.6%) 77 25 to 35 57 (30.5%) 47 35 to 40 11 (5.9%) 10 40+ 11 (5.9%) 11 community urban area (> 10 000) 96 73 residence small town (1 000 to 9 999) 49 38 prior to rural community (<1 000) 23 20 postsecondary first nation community located near 15 14 (multiple an urban community selections) first nation community located near 19 19 12.3% a rural community remote first nation community 5 5 3.2% note. * indicates the number of participants that answered this question among indigenous forum attendees, the high number of non-indigenous survey respondents was unexpected. many indigenous scholars, have articulated that indigenous students must be the target population of indigenous programming (cook-lynn 1997; deloria 1998; forbes 1998), however the response rate of nonindigenous students appears to corroborate a finding in phase 1 of the study which noted an increasing amount of non-indigenous students accessing indigenous programming. in phase 1, some institutional representatives indicated that it is non-indigenous learners and/or indigenous learners who reside in urban areas that are accessing indigenous programs and pathways. for example, one institution shared that approximately 40% of students in their indigenous programs are non-indigenous (ray, 2017, p. 20). there was an interest by indigenous forum attendees to understand more about the high levels of nonindigenous enrolment. one attendee explained that it could just be personal interest or because such programs provide more bang for your buck. this has been referred to in the literature as the parity paradox (paquette & fallon, 2014), or program plus approach (wabano, 2014) whereas indigenous programming must meet provincial standards in addition to the expectations of indigenous communities. the suggestion is that indigenous programs offer additional value. a study of student transfer experience 12 the percentage of status indian survey respondents was also disproportionately high in comparison to the national household survey (2011). this voluntary national survey which includes on and off-reserve, found that 54.8% of mtis, 52.1% of non-status indians, and 42.3% of status indians possess postsecondary qualifications (ferguson & zhao, 2011). gender of the 187 participants who identified their gender, 130 identified as female (69.5%), 55 identified as male, 1 identified as trans, and 1 as non-binary. within this sample of respondents that identified as indigenous, 106 (69%) identified as female, 42 identified as male, 1 as trans, and 1 as non-binary. the general gender distribution is consistent with colleges ontarios (2018) findings that most (52%) of their full-time student body is female, with approximately 1% of the student body identifying with a gender other than male or female. still, female participation in the survey is much higher than female participation in pse. those in attendance at the indigenous forum wanted to better understand the reasoning for this vast over representation and identified a need to more effectively engage indigenous males in pse pathways. the higher percentage of female respondents may be attributed to the areas of programming and pathways. in ontario, indigenous programs and subsequently pathways fall largely within the realm of the social sciences, social services, and health (ray, 2017). women are generally overrepresented in such program areas (hango, 2013). whereas men are more likely to study engineering or computer sciences, women account for 92.7% of young nursing graduates aged 25 to 34 at the bachelor's level and 64.4% of young graduates and the majority of young graduates aged 25 to 34 in health fields at the college level (statistics canada, 2017, p. 6). this trend continues into graduate studies with women accounting for the majority of doctoral graduates in the social and behavioural sciences (statistics canada, 2017, p. 4). age of the 187 participants who identified their age, the majority of participants (n= 104; 55.6%) were between the ages of 19 to 24, or 25 to 34 (n= 57; 30.5%), while less participants were under 19 (n= 4; 2.1%), 35 to 40 (n= 11; 5.9%) or over 40 (n= 11; 5.9%). the age range of the sample (n= 149) who identified as indigenous was similar to the overall participant sample, with most participants reporting being between the ages of 19 to 24 (n= 77; 51.7%) and 25 to 34 (n=47; 31.5%), and less reporting under the age of 19 (n=4; 2.7%), 34 to 40 (n=10; 6.7%), and over 40 (n=11; 7.4%). the age distribution of respondents differs in comparison to restoule and colleagues (2013) ontario postsecondary education student survey which noted that 79% of respondents were over the age of 25 and that over 60% of learners had accessed postsecondary studies through a bridging program or as a mature student (restoule et al., 2013). monkman (2016) noted that it is imperative for pathways to be provided for mature indigenous learners, especially considering that many first nation communities prioritize recent high school graduates or students continuing their graduate studies over those who have been out of school for a while (as cited in hallmark & reed, 2016, p.5) community residence type prior to pse survey participants were asked to identify the community types in which they resided in the 5 years prior to attending pse. the majority of indigenous participants lived in the same community type for the 5-year duration prior to postsecondary education. the survey could not discern if individuals lived in the same community or a different community within the same community type. almost half (47.4%) of indigenous participants indicated that they lived in an urban community prior to pse, whereas 37.7% reported living in a small town or rural community. 24.6% of indigenous participants lived on-reserve, and only 3.2% of these respondents indicated that it was a remote reserve. a study of student transfer experience 13 similar findings have been noted. the 2011 national household survey and the 2016 census data both show that those living off-reserve were more likely to have completed postsecondary education (ferguson & zhao, 2011; statistics canada, 2017). for example, 21.2% of off-reserve, status-indians possessed a college diploma and 10.9% had a university degree compared to 14.8% and 4.7% respectively for their on-reserve counterparts (ferguson & zhao, 2011). administrators at postsecondary institutions from phase one of this study reported that among indigenous learners, it was those from urban areas who are second or third generation learners that are accessing indigenous programs and pathways (ray, 2017, p. 20). this trend exists internationally as well. in australia, students from regional and remote areas remain largely underrepresented in pse. (frawley, smith & larkin, 2015). this trend of under-access, while slight, is reversed among non-indigenous learners. colleges ontario (2018) reports that there is a slightly disproportionately high number of applicants to college from rural and small population centres, in comparison to cities. this may be explained by a number of factors including a general trend of mobility from rural to urban areas and the socio-economic status of first nation peoples on-reserve in comparison to non-reserve rural areas and urban areas. those who attended the indigenous forum were not surprised by the high number of indigenous students who resided in urban areas and low representation of indigenous peoples who lived in first nation communities. this is supported by the literature which suggests that geographic proximity and available transfers are closely related (trick, 2013). moreover, a survey of indspire recipients found that most indigenous learners attending university listed close proximity to home as an influential factor in deciding what institution to attend (indspire 2013 as cited in sawyer et al., 2016). those at the indigenous forum explained that finding affordable housing, moving costs, delays in the application process due to the need for band funding letters, and infrastructure challenges are all barriers to accessing pse for learners coming from first nation communities. in the online engagement sessions, the distinct challenges that learners from rural and remote first nations face in relation to pse was stressed. these learners face unique financial challenges due to geography, must leave their home communities and travel far distances to access pse, all while dealing with a vast array of other systematic and structural barriers. other studies have also reported similar barriers for indigenous peoples living on reserve, including having to leave their communities (statistics canada, 2017) and travelling long distances to attend pse (mckeown, vedan, jacknife & tolmie, 2018). bathish and colleagues (2017) explain that travelling from home to attend university for indigenous students in ontario can be both financially and emotionally challenging (p. 5). forum participants recommended that more be done to effectively engage rural and remote first nation communities. this would include enhanced promotion of pathways and pathway development. in particular, pathways options that include programs delivered in online or blended models should be explored. access to indigenous program pathway information participants were asked to indicate how they first became aware of a program pathway. postsecondary websites were the most common source of transfer information for learners (see table 8). no difference was noted among those living on-reserve and off-reserve or between indigenous and non-indigenous learners. qualitative comments suggested that pathway learners were also likely to get information from peers or other people known to them in their community that are either affiliated with the school or have completed a similar program. table 8 source of program pathway information for indigenous program pathway students program pathway information number of students (%) (n= 154) website of second institution 30 (19.48) website of initial institution 26 (16.88%) a study of student transfer experience 14 recruiters visiting classes information sessions pamphlets community visits other 23 (14.94%) 12 (7.79%) 8 (5.19%) 3 (1.95%) 42 (27.27%) these findings resonated with students during the lunch and learns. a few students shared they had similar experiences to survey respondents and that they learned of the option by a friend who had already went through the transfer or a school website. they explained it was helpful to have someone guide them along the way who has already completed the process. the students who shared that they mostly learned through searching their schools website noted that there is nothing easily accessible online, there are no drop-down menus or links to take you right to pathway opportunities. students said they would like to see the information be more accessible, direct and understandable. some learners also saw ads on facebook and other sites. lastly, a few students shared that they learned about their transfer or pathway from support services. ontario einfo has previously been identified as a place to house university pathway information so that it is easily accessible (bathish et al., 2017, p. 7). future further, the ontario universities aboriginal student resource portal provides a further option, especially if the scope could be expanded to also include colleges and aboriginal institutes and linked to existing repositories. oncats ontransfer is a repository for all ontario college and university course to course equivalency and articulated pathway agreements and could be a central resource for all students seeking pathway opportunities. however, if was noted in an online engagement session that, if adopted, the site needs to be delivered through a more user-friendly interface and efforts should be made to clarify and simplify language surrounding pathways. overall, these findings are somewhat consistent with the most common ways that institutions reported notifying learners about pathways. phase 1 of the project found that institutions were more likely to notify learners of potential pathways through websites (n=10), pamphlets (n=8), and classroom visits by recruiters (n=7) (ray, 2017, p. 18). additionally, when these survey results were shared with indigenous forum participants, the response was that this was to be expected as younger generations are very comfortable with computers and technology; however, 25% of university websites do not feature sections dedicated to programs and services offered to support indigenous students (universities canada, 2016). other studies have noted different findings. particularly that indigenous students are limited in their ability to access online and in-person information about pse because of a lack of internet access and geographic location (bathish et. al., 2017, p. 7). while these results differ they are not conflicting as there was a lack of representation of indigenous participants who specified that they resided in a remote first nation community prior to attending pse in the survey. this in and of itself may speak to the need to better engage and address barriers to pse and pathways for individuals living on-reserve. the ontario postsecondary access & inclusion program (opaip) was identified as a place to seek resources and develop and implement strategies to improve in-person and online engagement with rural and remote indigenous peoples. the program was created to improve access to, and retention in pse for first generation student populations through outreach, transition, and retention. the literature also identified the aboriginal postsecondary information program (apsip) as a site where this work could be undertaken (bathish et al., 2017, p. 7). one institution from phase 1 of the study believed that there was a lack of promotion in indigenous communities and agencies connected with indigenous communities (ray, 2017, p. 18). the need to better engage first nation communities was also noted at the indigenous forum. the ontario native education counselling association (oneca) could be invaluable to advertising program pathways. prior research has also identified friendship centres, regional associations and first nation community representatives as potential partners in promoting pathways (bathish et al., 2017, p. 7). a study of student transfer experience 15 additionally, engagement with the pse community identified that additional efforts should be made to ensure that recruiters, faculty and support staff are also informed of pathway opportunities. some session attendees discussed that there is inconsistent information circulating in their own institution about pathways or that they were not aware of the pathway opportunities that exist. lastly, notifications of new and existent pathway opportunities could be sent out to program alumni. survey participants were also asked to identify whether they found out about their program pathway before entry into their transfer program, while in their transfer program, or after graduation from their transfer program. survey findings revealed that most students found out about their program pathway while attending the program they transferred from (n= 70), while many also found this information before beginning their initial program (n=53), and less after graduation from the program they transferred from (n=21). a one-way anova found no significant regional differences for these groups (f (4, 139) = .568, p= .686). the literature suggests that learners want to know about pathway opportunities prior to entering pse so that they can better plan for their academic journey. college ontarios (2018) environmental scan of college applicants and students found that 11% of respondents from their applicant survey identified transfer to university as a major reason for applying to college, while 4% identified transfer to another college as a major reason. decock (2006) found that for students who do not meet university entrance requirements and/or who have families with limited postsecondary experience and/or who have a low to middle socioeconomic status, college is a viable and sometimes the only route to university. moreover, at seneca college, evidence points to a growing intent among students coming from high school to use college as a vehicle to university and thus there is an expectation by students that the college provide this opportunity (decock, 2006). these findings are consistent with the experience of one lunch and learn participant who shared that if it was known that there was a pathway that started with a two-year college diploma that students could later transfer into the partnering university to complete another two years to receive a degree, they would have taken that route from the beginning. this individual shared that they regretted wasting time and money on going to university first at a young age, not doing very well and felt as though while not quite ready for university back then, they probably would have done well in a college program. furthermore, the use of college as a stepping stone to college was also discussed in an online engagement session. not all high schools in ontario have the capacity to offer advanced courses which are required to meet university admission requirements. thus, for some students, college is the only way to access university. in other cases, participation in college can enhance student comfort in pse and confidence to apply to and attend university. early engagement about program pathways can raise student aspirations and mitigate against students pursuing educational paths that are less or incompatible with future study (fleming & grace, 2015, p. 75). this may be particularly helpful for indigenous students, as dalley-trim, alloway and walker (2008) found that students from disadvantaged backgrounds may be more likely to self-select into pathways that inhibit future study (as cited in fleming and grace, 2015, p. 75). restoule and colleagues (2013) argue that supporting indigenous learners entry to pse must begin earlier than at the point of access and that high school students desire to have information about pse as early as grade 9. almost all students at the lunch and learns suggested better promotion and marketing as well as earlier promotion. the importance of effective communication was also stressed during the online engagement sessions. many students suggested that colleges and universities should be promoting the transfers or pathways early on in either high school or in the beginning of a program. one student stated that it: would be helpful to have possibly second year students go into high schools to talk about the program and another stated: a study of student transfer experience 16 if more promotion of pathways and transfers were more available when we initially started, could have been more invested into certain programs. promotion / marketing through mail outs/ social media, through pse sector and high schools. other methods of earlier promotion that were mentioned include brief information around the opportunity of pathways in pse acceptance letters, and information sessions. one suggestion that was made was utilizing conversion calls to reach out to incoming or potential students to hear from current students about their experiences and pathway options. these findings were supported by indigenous forum participants who articulated that engagement and promoting pathway opportunities need to begin during high school so students can better plan their pse journeys. it was mentioned during online engagement that if students know of pathways in advance they can then submit their education plan to their first nation for funding, mitigating delays or additional barriers that may be associated with receiving such funding. areas of study and academic history participants were asked to identify their educational history following completion of secondary school. of the total sample (n= 330), 155 participants endorsed participation in one postsecondary program, 139 endorsed two programs, 56 endorsed three programs, 22 endorsed four programs, and 6 endorsed attendances to five programs. of these programs attended by pathway learners, most were classified (according to college ontario 2018) to be in applied arts, followed by business, health, and science/technology domains. table 9 provides an overview of program attendance by area of study. table 9 number of programs attended by area of study area of study program 1 program 2 applied arts 75 (48.4%) 76 (54.7%) social services 47 35 education 4 6 social sciences 11 27 humanities 4 3 art/graphic design 9 5 business 22 (14.2%) 18 (12.9%) health 25 (16.1%) 20 (14.4%) science/technology 33 (21.3%) 25 (18.0%) total respondents 155 139 program 3 33 (58.9%) 12 5 9 3 4 9 (16.1%) 9 (16.1%) 5 (8.9%) 56 program 4 13 (59.1%) 4 1 8 3 (13.6%) 3 (13.6%) 3 (13.6%) 22 program 5 5 (83.3%) 1 1 1 2 1 (16.7%) 6 overall the areas of study are consistent with other studies which found indigenous learners have higher enrolment in programs within the applied arts. for example, in a british columbia study on indigenous student pathways, trades, abe programming, health, early childhood education, family/community studies, social work, child and youth care, and indigenous-focused programs were the most popular (mckeown, vedan, jacknife, & tolmie, 2018, p. 17). one australian study found that indigenous students were most represented in society and culture, and health and underrepresented in business (dept. of education 2013 as cited in vitartas, ambrose, millar & anh dang, 2015, p. 85). moreover, descriptive analyses indicated that most participants (n= 107, 73.8%) remained within their general area of study as compared to the 38 participants who switched program area of study (26.2%) (see table 10). table 10 area of study of initial program and transfer program transfer program applied business arts a study of student transfer experience health science/ technology total 17 initial program total applied arts business health science/technology 60 3 7 8 78 4 14 1 1 20 3 0 16 1 20 7 0 5 18 30 74 17 29 28 148 when examining the breakdown of program enrolment for pathway students in the applied arts, education was noted for its low percentage among indigenous forum attendees. however, pathways may not be equally relevant among fields, especially in instances where there is a professional designation. it was identified at the indigenous forum that some careers do not need higher level credentials. for example, for early childhood education, a college diploma is required. waterman & sands (2016) reported similar findings, stating that students returned to school to get that piece of paper, for increased respect within the workplace (p. 64). also, according to the ministry of advanced education and skills developments (now mtcu) 2016/17 student satisfaction survey, just under 50% of students who apply to a certificate program did so to prepare for employment and 75% applying for a diploma did so for the same reasons (co, 2018). it was also mentioned at the forum that in some cases the pathway may not resonate to learners as a pathway, which also may explain some of the low number of survey respondents in particular fields. one example given was a pathway from a bachelor of arts degree to a bachelors of education. while this study provided a start to better understanding areas of study of pathway students, forum participants identified the need for further information from both current and prospective learners on their areas of interest. the need for increasing access in stem fields was also noted. overall, the availability of pathways appears somewhat aligned with program availability. colleges ontario (2018) found that graduates from community service programs accounted for 20% of all graduates. they also found that graduate rates of native community worker programs were up by over 36%, health was up by over 12%, and engineering and social services were slightly up whereas education graduates were down almost 5% (co, 2018). while other studies have shown a tendency for indigenous learners, including pathway learners to be enrolled and/or graduate from the applied arts, this has not been the case for non-indigenous learners. according to oncat (n.d), across the province the most popular pathways are in business, with only 7% of pathways found within the social sciences. whereas, a significant difference might be expected between indigenous and non-indigenous learners in terms of area of study in this research, none was noted. the lack of significant difference between areas of study among indigenous and non-indigenous might be explained by the availability of indigenous programs and thus pathways to non-indigenous learners. as indicated prior, for non-indigenous learners to be eligible for the study they must have transferred to and/or from an indigenous program. most postsecondary indigenous programs and pathways in ontario are found within the applied arts, with social services being the most widespread (ray, 2017, p. 13). the prevalence of social services pathways is almost double when compared to pathways in other areas of study (ray, 2017). this understanding was affirmed at the indigenous forum whereas it was identified that most indigenous programming is in community and health studies. pathway direction the majority of participants who responded to the question on number of program transfers (n= 155) indicated that they have completed one program transfer in their postsecondary academic career (n= 82, 52.9% of sample), while less participants indicated 3 programs (n= 36, 23.2%), 4 programs (n= 16, 10.3%), or 5 programs (n= 5, 3.2%). when the number of programs per participant were compared for indigenous and non-indigenous students, indigenous students were significantly more likely to report more transfer than non-indigenous students (t (47) = 2.13, p =.046; indigenous m= 2.50 sd= .95; non-indigenous m= 2.14 sd= .76). a study of student transfer experience 18 students were asked to list all programs they have previously attended and describe if the program was in progress, completed, or not completed. not all programs were listed sequentially by students, and therefore, programs could not be compared. results from this question indicated that most students completed programs they had attended. table 11 program transfer completion rates program 1 completed 75 (48.4%) in progress 22 (14.2%) did not complete 25 (16.1%) total respondents 155 program 2 76 (54.7%) 18 (12.9%) 20 (14.4%) 139 program 3 33 (58.9%) 9 (16.1%) 9 (16.1%) 56 program 4 13 (59.1%) 3 (13.6%) 3 (13.6%) 22 program 5 5 (83.3%) 1 (16.7%) 6 pathways for learners are not always straightforward. these findings show that, especially among indigenous learners there is a high level of pse mobility. learners attend a number of programs over their academic career and they may not complete all programs attended, however they remain part of the learners journey toward achieving their education goals. one pathway learner who shared their journey during a lunch and learn demonstrates this point. the student shared that they were at risk in their program and went to see a counsellor. this is when they learned about other options that were available to them, i started in pre-health and my studies were at risk specifically my sciences, met with education counsellor here at _____ college. explained my options- looked at my interests and determined ssw-ns (social service worker- native specialization) was for me. in an american context, waterman and sands (2016) suggest that among indigenous learners, the completion of a four-year degree is not traditional with some students attending multiple institutions over their lifetime because of community and family responsibilities (p. 51). some similar findings were noted in canada. in phase 1 of the study, some postsecondary institutions noted that indigenous learners may enter or return to pse years after high school or after a preparatory program (ray, 2017, p. 18), whereas mckeown and colleagues (2018) found that in british columbia while there were more students making direct transitions from high school to pse, often indigenous learners transferred mid-way through their degree from smaller to larger institutions or would restart programs (p. 21). another survey finding was that more students (n= 90, 60.4%) switched program type or training programs than remained in a similar education level (n=59, 39.6). of 147 respondents, most students identified they moved to a higher level of education in their transfer (i.e.: diploma to degree; n= 65; 44.2%). many also remained in the same level of educational program throughout their transfer (n= 59 of 147; 40.1%), while fewer students transferred to a less advanced level (n= 23; 15.6%). these trends were similar for indigenous students, with the majority moving to a more advanced level of education as a result of their transfer (n= 58), while 47 remained in a similar level, and 18 transferred to a less advanced level. of 19 participants over the age of 35, 7 remained in a similar educational program level, 3 moved to a lower level, and 9 moved to a more advanced level of education. this is similar to other program pathway trends. table 12 program type of initial program and transfer program transfer program certificate diploma advanced ba/bsc diploma initial certificate 14 7 0 2 program diploma 14 27 3 7 a study of student transfer experience ma/msc 0 0 other 0 0 total 23 51 19 total advanced diploma bachelors masters other 0 9 0 0 78 1 30 0 1 20 4 8 1 0 16 2 12 1 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 4 8 60 2 3 147 while traditional pathways from college to university were most common, pathways remain diverse with more than half of students reporting a lateral or reverse transfer. these findings are consistent with other studies that suggest that in addition to traditional pathways, horizontal and reverse pathways are also desirable. college ontarios (2018) recent study highlights the popularity of intra-lateral pathways reporting that recent college graduates were most likely to enrol at a university or continue studies at their college of graduation with very few students choosing to go to a different college. in an indigenous context, restoule and associates (2013) found that learners did not follow the typical or traditional sequence and algoma university suggests that northern ontario learners, especially those that are indigenous, will often start their studies at college and complete them at university (decock, 2006, p. 48). this was corroborated by phase 1 study findings. during a roundtable discussion, similar to the indigenous pathway forum, institutional representatives shared that adult learners may have attended pse but left due to family commitments or other reasons, sometimes leaving part way through a semester and/or returning to pse many years later (ray, 2017, p. 20). in the case of reverse transfers, quinley and quinley (1999) suggest that students may participate in a reverse transfer for financial, academic, emotional/personal, or career reasons as well as if they are ambivalent or dissatisfied with their current program (as cited in waterman & sands, 2006, p. 54). various tensions related to pathway direction were identified and discussed at the indigenous pathway forum. forum attendees shared that some first nation funding policies endorse a traditional vertical pathway which can discourage reverse or lateral transfers. a similar point was made by one student in terms of their community-based funding. they suggested a general arts and sciences program for any first nation students who are unsure of what program they want to attend, so that it does not affect their funding. forum participants also discussed that postsecondary institutions can be resistant to being a sending institution. in ontario, decock (2006) has noted that an emphasis on transfer can be perceived as a devaluation of the colleges function (p. 17). it was recommended at the forum that institutions take a student-centered stance toward pathways because when institutions focus on supporting students no matter what their educational goals are, students often come back to their institution at some point, send their children or friends or provide positive feedback via word of mouth. learner preparedness satisfaction independent samples t-tests were used to determine if program pathways experiences were different for indigenous learners when compared to non-indigenous ones. no significant differences were detected for satisfaction of transfer between indigenous (m= 1.91 sd= .89) and non-indigenous (m= 1.81 sd= .98) students (t (13) = .295, p =.83). similarly, no significant differences were detected for perceived transfer program preparedness between indigenous (m= 1.74 sd= .83) and non-indigenous (m= 1.66 sd= .70) students (t (37) = .486, p =.24). there were no significant differences reported for satisfaction with transfer (t(62) = .619, p =..48; level same m= 2.00 sd= .84; level different m= 1.86 sd= .96); number of courses applied to transfer program (t(77) = .724, p =.667; level same m= 2.42 sd= 1.79; level different m= 2.68 sd= 1.87); the applicability of original learning to current program (t(58) = -.079, p = .360; level same m= 2.-3 sd= 1.11; level different m= 2.06 sd= 1.04); or how many courses were repeated due to transfer (t(51) = -.092, p = .80; level same m= 1.61 sd= 2.3; level different m= 1.67 sd= 2.75). a study of student transfer experience 20 independent t-tests compared differences between students that transferred laterally across educational programs or who moved to another educational program level. students who transferred to a similar program (m= 1.63 sd= .72) reported they were significantly less prepared (t (121) = -1.201., p =.037) than students who transferred to another program level (m= 1.79 sd= .88). it is possible that students who complete preliminary certifications or diplomas prior to completing advanced diploma or degrees may report higher transfer preparedness. prior research has found that transfer students using vertical pathways do quite well and enjoy the compliment of theory and applied study (algoma university college, 2004, p. 8 as cited in decock, 2006, p. 48).there were also significant differences between lateral and vertical pathway students related to satisfaction with transfer credits, with students who transitioned to a different level of education within their pathways rating a higher satisfaction with program credit transfer (t (90) = -1.07, p = .037; level same m= 1.11 sd= .31; level different m= 1.17 sd= .39). learner supports when participants from the student online survey were asked to identify services that either the institution they transferred from or provided for them, the most commonly endorsed services were those related to general academic skill building (n=60; 28.8% of responses) and financial services (n= 40; 19.28% of responses), followed by wellness or counselling services (n= 34; 16.3%), cultural services (n= 26; 12.4%), health services (n= 17; 8.1%), and child care (n= 5; 2.4%). there were no significant differences in the number of supports provided by different regions. the lack of significant difference is compatible with council of ontario university survey findings, in which ninety-five percent of respondents indicated that a variety of supports and services are currently available to students such as an indigenous space where students can practice their culture and traditions, visit with elders, access tutoring, counselling and advising services, and recognizing indigenous student achievement through awards and events (cou, 2017, p. 6). students from the lunch and learns stressed the importance of supports during their transitions. one student discussed the necessity of a wrap around approach for indigenous students in pse. this individual mentioned that because of retention rates of indigenous people, it is necessary to have those supports in place. the individual indicated that they themselves had struggles in their education and that if they hadnt received support and hadnt known about and made transfers they would be not sure of [their] succession of studies. some students who attended the lunch and learns stated that they did not have enough guiding support throughout the process and that this was an issue. in discussion, many students were not sure who to seek out to help them with the process and one student reported that their process began too late which led to some withdrawn courses on their transcript. yet, students who had found an appropriate person to support them said that their transfer experience was great. for some indigenous students, seeking out the right people in such a large institution could be difficult and therefore affect their ability to complete a program or to get into another. a recommendation arising out of the lunch and learns was to identify and include contact information for the appropriate person to support them on transfer information alongside other pathway information that is easy to understand and readily available. overall, the supports that were accessed are alike those identified in various other studies. among underrepresented groups in pse, stol, houwer and todd (2016) identified the need for financial and nonfinancial supports (2016, p. 5) whereas bathish and colleagues (2017) identified childcare as a need among indigenous students (p. 27). moreover, indspire scholarship and bursary recipients between 2015-2018 indicated the need for financial support to help with housing, food and childcare, and the difficulty of attending a place that did not value their culture, identity and belonging (indspire, 2018). lastly, a 10-year systematic review identified family responsibilities, finance and funding, in addition to fears of loss of identity and discrimination as barriers to pse (deonandan, janoudi, & uzun, 2017). most participants who responded to the survey identified they received supports either completely or mostly from their initial institution (n= 92; 44.0% of responses), 63 participants stated they received support equally from both intuitions (30.1%), and 55 students stated they received most or complete support from the institution they transferred to (26.31%). despite receiving more supports from the institution students a study of student transfer experience 21 transfer from, most students indicated that both institutions (n= 38; 39.18%) or the institution they transferred to (n= 34; 35.05%) provided the most helpful support during their transfer, while less students stated it was the institution they transferred from (n=18; 18.56%). a one-way anova found no significant differences between number of supports and the type of institution that provided the supports (f (2, 93) = .344, p= .710; transfer from m= 2.14 sd= 1.2; transfer to m= 2.03 sd= 1.34; equal m= 2.33 sd= 1.4. the level of support from sending institutions was unexpected to some indigenous forum participants however it was noted by one attendee that this is expected in a traditional pathway as colleges generally do a better job at providing wrap around supports for learners. this does however, contradict with the survey finding that there were no significant differences between number and types of support at institutions. moreover, a 2017 universities canada survey found that over 66% of canadian universities reach out to prospective indigenous learners to notify them of available program supports and services (universities canada, n.d). bridging programs for this project, a bridging program was defined as a program that helps students make the transition from one program to another within or between educational institutions. these programs can assist students with academic preparation before they start their new program and can include condensed courses or skills and information to help students best succeed in their new program. the literature suggests that bridging programs can support students to build their self-confidence and commitment to fulfilling their education and career goals. (stol, houwer, & todd, 2016, p. 18), can reduce barriers to pse participation (stol, houwer, & todd, 2016, p. 5) and can improve indigenous learner success in pse (malatest, 2002). the majority of indigenous program pathway learners who responded to this question (97 of 135 respondents; 71.9%) did not attend a bridging program during their transfer. this experience differs from the general experience noted in the literature of indigenous learners entering pse in any way. for example, over 60% of indigenous learners in an ontario study first accessed postsecondary studies through a bridging program or as mature students (restoule et al., 2013). in australia, more than 50% of indigenous students who entered university did so through enabling courses or special programs, whereas only 47.3% of indigenous students entered university because of education credentials compared to 83.0% of nonindigenous students (diisrte, 2012 as cited in smith, trinidad & larkin, 2015, p. 21). the discrepancy may be due in part to the scope and availability of transition programs. whereas, 69% of canadian universities offer programs to help indigenous students transition to university, including outreach programs in indigenous communities, academic support and mentorship (universities canada, 2016), only about 25% of colleges and universities who participated in phase 1 of this study reported a bridging or transition program in place specific to pathway learners (ray, 2017, p. 18). a study in british columbia, which had a similar scope of examining pse transfers from an institutional lens, also found that postsecondary institutions typically did not offer orientation sessions specific to indigenous learners (mckeown, vedan, jacknife & tolmie, 2018, p. 18). of the participants who indicated they did attend a bridging program (n=39), 24 (61.5%) indicated the bridging program was mandatory. the length of bridging program (reported by 32 participants) was highly variable. eleven participants (34.4% of sample) reported their program was 1 month or more, while 10 indicated their program was 1 day or less. of 33 participants, most indicated their bridging program was either extremely or very helpful (n= 25, 75.8%), while 7 participants responded that the program was somewhat helpful, and 1 stated it was not so helpful. most participants felt they would have completed their transfer even if there was not a transfer program in place at their institution (80 responded likely or very likely of 159 participants). a higher percentage of mature students found the bridging program to be less helpful. of these 19 students (over the age of 35), 13 did not use a bridging program. of the 5 that responded, 4 indicated the program was not helpful or only somewhat helpful, while 1 student stated it was very helpful. a study of student transfer experience 22 advantages and disadvantages overall, survey respondents believed that there were more advantages than disadvantages to indigenous program pathways. participants (n=41) identified the following advantages: 1. educational advancement (n=33; 80.49% responses) 2. professional advancement (n=19; 46.34 % responses) 3. greater access to postsecondary education (n=16; 39.02% responses) 4. earn multiple degrees in less time (n=14; 34.15% responses) 5. flexibility and convenience (n=14; 34.15% responses) 6. guaranteed entrance into a program (n=11; 26.83%) 7. lower tuition costs and improved mobility (n=7; 17.07% responses) 8. other responses (n=6) a. placement experience b. exemption from general education classes meant a lighter course load for some semesters c. racism at previous school d. hands on experience in college and able to apply that knowledge to university e. more accessible f. allows me to stay in my home community to save money only 4 participants who answered the question did not identify any advantages. lunch and learn attendees confirmed the finding that overall there were more advantages than disadvantages to pathways. specifically, it was explained that transferring can allow for flexibility and ease. in terms of moving from a college program to a university program, students felt an ease in transitioning. this allowed students to get comfortable in postsecondary education prior to jumping into a university program. for some of the students, completing a college diploma first, allowed them to boost their marks and overall average to be able to attend university later. transferring or utilising a pathway can also allow students to cut their time in school, and therefore costs. for one student, they explained that this is going to allow them to spread courses out over the next two years and spend more time with their young daughter. for others this simply meant being able to lighten their course load. like indigenous program pathway learners, postsecondary institutions in ontario also identified educational advancement (91%) as the most popular advantage (ray, 2017, p. 28). institutions generally ranked advantages in the same order as learners, but at a much higher rate: greater access (91%) and professional advancement opportunities for the learner (74%). both institutions (57%) and learners (17%) were less consistent in their reporting of lowering cost as an advantage. trick (2013) explains that pathways are only financially advantageous if learners can complete a diploma and degree in 4 years however, learners only break-even if completion takes 4.5-5 years (p. 32). thus, those who completed more quickly may have a much different experience in terms of financial advantages when compared to those who took more time to complete their programs. a recommendation from the forum was for full year courses to be separated and listed as two 0.5 fces. this may enhance the number of transfer credits available. it was identified at the forum that depending on transfer credits awarded, a transfer can result in a change from full-time to part-time status and this could impact external funding. also, indigenous forum participants noted that when transferring from university to college there are fees associated with transferring credits and prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) that add an additional expense to learners. a recent report by the ontario undergraduate student alliance conveys that there are currently no set costs and learners could pay $175.00 or almost $500.00 out of pocket per course (bathish et al., 2017, p. 9-10). the report suggests that plar be standardized and subsidized as part of a strategy to support equitable education for indigenous learners in particular (bathish et al., 2017, p. 10). a recommendation arising from the forum was to further examine the role of the ministry of training, colleges and universities (mtcu) tuition and a study of student transfer experience 23 ancillary fees ministers binding policy directive which currently houses plar in the regular fee program in creating financial barriers to pse. many indigenous forum participants were initially surprised that educational advancement was by far the most noted advantage and thought that earning multiple credentials in less time or guaranteed entrance would have been higher. in terms of guaranteed acceptance this may be explained through a lack of availability-if learners are not receiving guaranteed entrance they will not report it as an advantage. further guaranteed entrance incentives and their potential impacts was identified as in need of further study. for educational advancement, those at the forum explained that this may be at least partially explained by the need for indigenous learners to return back to school for the purpose of seeking a certification or to advance in their current career. they noted that this finding expands current understandings about the purpose of pse and what success means. this is consistent with the literature which suggests that learners are entering pse with the expectation that pathways will be in place. in addition, like the online student survey, in phase 1, it was also noted in the comment section that an advantage of pathways is that they allow learners to study closer to home (ray, 2017, p. 28). over 25% (n=17) of the 67 respondents who answered the question on transfer disadvantages reported that there were no disadvantages that they could think of. other respondents noted the following disadvantages: 1. duplicate courses/course material (n=36; 53.73% of responses) 2. had to take courses i didnt want to take (n=23; 34.33% of responses) 3. transfer credits undervalued (n=20; 29.85% of responses) 4. difficult to schedule courses needed to graduate (n=17; 25.37% of responses) 5. greater cost (n=16; 23.88% of responses) 6. course load issues (n=12; 17.91%) 7. difficult to take courses needed for accreditation/certification (n=10; 14.93%% of responses) 8. other (n=3) a. daily commute is long b. courses i would like to take are not included in program requirements c. program only granted admission to one specific program the disadvantage of duplicating courses/course material was the most commonly reported disadvantage, which is consistent with phase 1 findings (35%) (ray, 2017, p. 29). undervaluing of transfer credits was comparable between learners (29.85%) and institutional responses from phase 1 (20%), as was course load delivery issues (17.91% and 10% respectively) and difficult to take courses needed for accreditation (14.93% and 10% respectively) (ray, 2017, p. 29). being more mindful of pathway needs during course scheduling was suggested. lunch and learns helped to provide a broader understanding about course duplication. in some cases, students were credited for courses that they took a long time ago which made it difficult for them to keep up in the second year of course material. although they received a credit, they explained that they could have used a content refresher. for some of the students who retook certain courses, some were pleased to do so because they needed the refresher or wanted to know the material better. one student shared that they retook certain courses because they wanted to have an extra year of being certified in particular certificates that only last so many years. there most likely are costs associated with these certifications that they student would then have to pay out of pocket if not covered in their program. offering an alternative perspective, one student brought forward that for any students who may be utilizing osap, if you complete a transfer and are paying for your courses, having to retake certain ones could be very costly. their suggestion was to make sure students know about this and know to stay on top of their courses so that this sort of thing doesnt cost them. although only mentioned by one survey respondent, ensuring intra-mobility within an institution after transfer was identified as an area of improvement. those at the forum also believed this to be a potential a study of student transfer experience 24 area of improvement. phase 1 of the research found that some institutions do allow for transfer students to keep their applied credits if they enter a different program of study after initially transferring to their institution if other institutions wish to adopt this practice. credit transfer the majority of participants (n= 123; 79.8%) stated that course credits were applied to their program when they transferred. most stated that up to a year worth of credits were applied (n=48; 40.0%) and they were satisfied with the amount of credits applied in their transfer (n= 102; 85.0% of sample). most students did not have to repeat courses in their transfer (n=78; 65.0% of sample). of those that did have to repeat courses, participants responses indicated the mean number of repeated courses was 1.8 (n=120 responses, range from 1 to 15). one-way anovas indicated that having credits transferred and the number of credits transferred were not significantly associated with transfer satisfaction. the applicability of prior learning within a transfer program was examined, with no significant differences found (t (14) = -2.03., p =.98) for how content learned in their original program transferred to transfer program for indigenous (m= 1.94 sd= 1.05) and non-indigenous participants (m= 2.63 sd= 1.02). students also described how many credits were transferred within their program pathway. indigenous students (m= 2.71 sd= 1.91) reported significantly more (t (39) = 1.58, p =.01) prior course credits applied within their transfer program than non-indigenous students (m= 2.13 sd= 2.13). despite this difference, there were no significant differences related to student satisfaction with number of courses transferred (t (32) = .200., p =.69; indigenous m= 1.15 sd= .36; non-indigenous m= 1.13 sd= .35). there were also no significant differences for how many courses were repeated following program transfer (t (21) = -.342., p =.48; indigenous m= 1.60 sd= 2.5; non-indigenous m= 1.87 sd= 2.7). no significant regional differences were detected for satisfaction with transfer experience (f (2, 63) = 1.46, p = .239), number of courses transferred (f (4, 110 = .618, p = .650), satisfaction with number of courses transferred (f (4, 110) = .967, p = .428), or how learning was applied from original to transfer program (f (2, 63 = .090, p = .914). the number of courses repeated following program transfer (f (3, 64) = 2.04, p = .117) were also not significant across regions. whereas most students indicated that up to a year worth of credits were applied (n=48; 40.0%), the most common amount of credit received from the institution survey disseminated in phase 1 was above one year, but under two years worth of credits (ray, 2017, p. 21). in ontario, postsecondary institutions have received envelope funding to create pathways and articulation agreements between institutions, thus historically they have been developed on a case by case basis. colleges are currently required to demonstrate laddering and pathway opportunities in their submissions for program funding approval. in this climate, institutions philosophies and beliefs can play an important role in the variance of transfer credits. for example, while one university was non receptive to a 2+2 type transfer agreement on the basis that two years of college and two years of university was not equivalent to a bachelors degree with a 4-year university residency, the training in college is not equivalent to the foundation years in university (university of guelph, 2004, p. 12 as cited in decock, 2006, p. 48). alternatively, decock (2006) notes that another university was more willing to acknowledge the different, but valued experiences of both institutions, and positioned this approach as responsive to the needs of indigenous students in northern ontario that were more likely to start at college and then complete their studies at university with success (algoma university college, 2004, p. 8 as cited in decock, 2006, p. 48). those attending the indigenous forum shared that the case by case approach to pathway agreements can be confusing. specifically, sending and receiving institutions can hold different understandings about a pathway resulting in students receiving conflicting information. practices identified that may be helpful is to include a review of pathway agreements in annual program reviews, have a pathway coordinator to centralize the process and have information on pathways that is easily digestible. phase 1 of the study suggested that conducting an environmental scan of pathway agreements become standard work within the program pathway development process to support consistency among transfers (ray, 2017). a study of student transfer experience 25 conclusion and recommendations it has been almost a decade since the indigenous issues in postsecondary education: building on best practices conference urged for the formal and informal development of access routes to university and college for indigenous learners and the creation of mechanisms to enable smooth transitions among pathways (rosenbluth, 2011). this study has attempted to contribute to this call by providing a better understanding of the current indigenous program pathways in place as well as student experiences within these pathways. this is deemed a worthy cause as pathways have been put forth as a means to enhance access and success in pse. moreover, the capacity of pathways to do so has also positioned them within the decolonizing strategies of postsecondary institutions and in the context of reconciliation. however, while this study has found that generally, students seem content with their pathway experience and that there were more advantages than disadvantages to being a pathway learner, those who were more likely to already attend pse were the students utilizing pathways the most. it was found that a large number of non-indigenous students were utilizing pathways to and from indigenous programs and indigenous students accessing pathways were predominately, female, under the age of 25 and from urban cities or towns. otherwise put, while pathways are often implemented under a mandate of access, they appear to be failing segments of the population who are most underrepresented in pse. decock (2006) argues that it is difficult to claim pathways as a mechanism to enhance equity and access in the absence of a policy or mechanism to encourage transfer (p. 14). while the authors believe that pathways are a worthy cause and do have a role to play in decolonizing education, a more pro-active stance and targeted approach to pathway development and maintenance is needed. to do so effectively will require a willingness to take risks with program and policy development, invest in innovative program delivery models, and commitment to the sustainability and scaling-up of promising practices and policy responses (frawley, smith & larkin, 2015). this report concludes with some initial recommendations to further this work. recommendation 1: to successfully implement pathways under a mandate of access, targeted strategies that are tailored toward the experiences of indigenous students most underrepresented in pse must be implemented. recommendation 2: all departments and agencies that play a role in supporting access and completion of pse for indigenous learners must be involved in pathway conversations, promotion and strategies. recommendation 3: indigenous pathway information should be easily accessible at one central location in addition to local sites in plain language. recommendation 4: indigenous learners enter pse and participate in program pathways for a variety of reasons, including educational and professional advancement. these reasons should guide pathway development and design. recommendation 5: policies at a first nation, postsecondary institution and ministry level that impede effective pathway design and implementation to support access should be identified and revised. recommendation 6: in support of the above recommendations additional research should be undertaken in the following areas: lateral transfers, pathway experiences of rural and remote first nation learners and mature learners, current and innovative transfer practice and policy, and forecasting of areas of study and transfer need among indigenous learners. a study of student transfer experience 26 references assembly of first nations. 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(2013) college-to-university transfer arrangements and undergraduate education: ontario in a national and international context. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. truth and reconciliation commission of canada (trc) (2015). truth and reconciliation commission of canada: calls to action. winnipeg, mb: trc. retrieved from http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/final%20reports/executive_summary_english_web.pdf universities canada. (n.d.). indigenous student education. retrieved from https://www.univcan.ca/priorities/indigenous-education/ universities canada. (2015). facts and stats overview. retrieved from http://www.univcan.ca/universities/facts-and-stats/ universities canada. (2016). enhancing indigenous student success at canadas universities. retrieved from https://www.univcan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/enhancing-indigenous-student-access-atcanadian-universities-june-2016accessible.pdf vitartas, p., ambrose, k., millar, h. & dang, t.k. anh. 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february 2019 participants and institutions reana maier, mcmaster university karen robson, mcmaster university the authors would like to acknowledge arshia chima for her invaluable assistance in running this project and the ontario council on articulation and transfer, without whose funding this research would not have been possible. icons made by appzgear, becris, cursor creative, dave gandy, flat-icons-com, freepik, good ware, gregor cresnar, made by made premium, scott de jonge, smashicons, srip, surang and wanicon from www.flaticon.com. infographics and graphic design by jason mckay (jasonmckay.artist@gmail.com) suggested citation: maier, r., & robson, k. (2019). exploring reverse transfer in ontario: a qualitative study of university-to-college mobility. toronto: ontario council on articulation and transfer. table of contents executive summary .....................................................................................1 introduction....................................................................................................3 literature review .......................................................................................4 who undertakes a utc transfer? ..................................................................4 motivations for utc transfer ........................................................................5 concerns around workforce entry .....................................................................5 academic failure in university ..........................................................................6 emotional reasons ..............................................................................................6 financial reasons ...............................................................................................6 the utc transfer process ................................................................................7 proximity dimension...........................................................................................7 utc transfer outcomes ....................................................................................8 transfer shock ....................................................................................................8 academic success................................................................................................8 completion ..........................................................................................................9 methods ...............................................................................................................9 data .......................................................................................................................9 recruitment .........................................................................................................9 instruments ........................................................................................................10 data analysis .....................................................................................................11 findings ..............................................................................................................11 sample demographic characteristics ...........................................................11 high school and pse ........................................................................................13 participant post-secondary pathways .........................................................14 transfer motivations..............................................................................19 i wasnt getting anywhere: leaving university ......................................19 academic struggles ...........................................................................................19 physical/mental health/sen struggles ............................................................22 future prospects ...............................................................................................24 entering college ..............................................................................................25 subject interest ..................................................................................................26 college learning environment .........................................................................27 location.............................................................................................................27 future prospects ...............................................................................................28 discussion ...........................................................................................................29 i transfer experiences...............................................................................30 the transfer process .......................................................................................30 finding out about credit transfer ...................................................................30 getting information...........................................................................................31 steps in the transfer process ............................................................................32 transfer credit success ....................................................................................33 transfer facilitators and obstacles ...........................................................34 transfer recommendations and advice .......................................................36 transfer recommendations...............................................................................36 transfer advice .................................................................................................36 transfer reflections ..............................................................................38 positive reflections .........................................................................................38 ambivalent and negative reflections .........................................................40 conclusion and policy recommendations ................................44 policy recommendations .................................................................................45 references .......................................................................................................48 appendix a .........................................................................................................52 appendix b .........................................................................................................55 ii executive summary in this study, we explore the experiences of ontario students who have engaged in reverse transfer, i.e. moving from university-to-college (utc), focusing on their reasons for doing so and their transfer experiences, with particular attention to obstacles they may have encountered in order to address systemic barriers through targeted policy recommendations. data was collected through qualitative interviews with 20 participants who began their post-secondary journey in a university program, but left that program before completing it, and subsequently pursued a college program. our research questions were as follows: what factors led to the decision to reverse transfer? what were participants experiences and perceptions of the reverse transfer process, particularly in regard to any barriers encountered? if barriers were identified (by the participant or in the analysis phase), how might they have been reduced? major findings transfer motivations o it was necessary to separate motivations for leaving university and motivations for entering college in order to fully understand pse journeys. o motivations for leaving university were clustered into three themes: academic struggles, mental/physical health/sen struggles, and future prospects. these were highly interconnected and characterized by difficulties, ranging from mild to severe, coping with university. o despite struggles, participants often spent prolonged periods of time attempting to progress through university before deciding to leave. o motivations for entering college were more practical and straightforward, related to: subject interest, college learning environment, location, and future prospects. o utc transfers are unique in the transfer landscape as they appear to happen only in response to plans going awry; they are never planned. o the pull factors of college only become relevant after the push factors of the participants university experience force them to reevaluate their plans. transfer experiences o on the whole, participants found the process of transferring credits quite simple. o fifteen participants knew before applying to college that transferring credits would be a possibility, four were informed shortly after starting college, and one was not informed until well into his college program. o key sources for information on transfer credits were: online sources (primarily college websites) and college staff (student services, program staff, career services, academic advisors). o steps in the transfer credit process were highly similar among the participants, involving three main steps: 1) filling out a form; 2) arranging a university transcript to be sent to college; and 3) providing course descriptions/syllabi to prove equivalency. 1 o six participants had all transfer credits requests approved, seven had some of their requests approved, four had no requests approved, and three did not apply for any transfer credits. o the most common reason for having a request rejected was that the college course was too specialized, and the university course was not enough of an equivalent. o main transfer facilitators were college websites and college staff. o main transfer obstacles were highly specialized college courses and finding outlines/syllabi from university courses. o participants advice to other potential utc transfer students fell into two main categories: practical advice about the transfer process and more general advice about post-secondary pathways. in particular, they encouraged transferring students to do research, explore options, and not to let biases in favour of university over college hold them back. transfer reflections o overwhelmingly, the participants reflected very positively on their decision to leave university and pursue college. o several participants expressed a wish to have transferred earlier or to have gone to college straight out of high school instead of going to university. o there were some negative or ambivalent reflections about having left university before completing their degrees. these were largely related to a sense of personal failure and/or the negative reactions of others, particularly parents. o personal and external (usually parental) negative reflections were tied to cultural and societal expectations about high achievement and perceptions of university education as superior to college education, hence the language of reverse transfer. o external negative reflections were often tempered over time to varying degrees by relief over participants improved health or state of mind or just doing something and having a direction again. policy recommendations o make transfer credits part of the college (and university) application process, or at least advise any applying student that if they have post-secondary credits, they may be transferrable. o colleges to target utc transfer students with information sessions or packets advising of transfer credit process and make them aware of all support services available, academic and personal, in order to address the struggles that derailed their university studies. o continue to develop universal course database to facilitate transfer credits. o abandon reverse transfer language in favour of something neutral. o make persistence, academic performance, and completion data available to better track pse pathways and the success of utc transfer students through their new programs o more information about post-secondary pathways aimed at high school students, building awareness from the beginning that transfer is an option and may well be a feature of their post-secondary journey. 2 introduction in response to increasing demand in the 1960s for an expanded post-secondary education (pse) sector, the ontario college system was created to operate separately from the already established university system, providing an alternate pse route that offered shorter, vocationally focused courses (anisef, axelrod, baichman-anisef, james, and turrittin 2000). today, direct entry from high school into either a university degree or a college diploma and completion of that program within the standard timeframe remains the most common post-secondary pathway for ontarios students. this is sometimes referred to as a linear or traditional pathway. over the past few decades, however, there has been an increase in the number of students taking nonlinear or non-traditional pathways through pse. such pathways can include gap years, temporary program interruptions, transfers between and within post-secondary institutions before programs are completed, changing from full to part-time studies or vice versa, or attending and completing multiple programs at multiple institutions, with varying amounts of time in between. according to the national graduates survey 2013 conducted by statistics canada, only 53% of those who graduated with a baccalaureate degree in 2010 entered their program directly from high school. of those who graduated from a college program, only 28% entered directly from high school. for both college and bachelors program graduates, over 30% had previously completed some other form of pse (ferguson & wang 2014). the upswing in transfer activity, particularly between colleges and universities, sparked an increased interest on the part of pse institutions and policymakers in how to evaluate and treat previously completed pse courses. this led to the provincial government establishing the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) in 2011 in order to, enhance student pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios 45 public postsecondary institutions (oncat, n.d.a) by creating a knowledge base to facilitate the transfer of credits between institutions. the majority of canadian research on post-secondary transfer focuses on college-to-university (ctu) pathways, reflecting the influence of the american pse system, in which two-year colleges were established as a stepping-stone to completing a degree at a four-year college, shaping our ideas about the direction and purpose of post-secondary transfer (bell 2006, durham college 2016). indeed, movement in the opposite direction, i.e. a university-to-college (utc) pathway, is often referred to in the literature as a reverse transfer. wilson (2009) noted that while utc transfer appears to be a growing phenomenon in the ontario postsecondary landscape, it is difficult to get an accurate idea of the extent of this growth. data sources are scattered and difficult to link with other measures of interest (kerr, mccloy, and liu 2010). as a result, very little research has looked into utc transfer, resulting in a paucity of data on the subject. there is no central database in ontario that tracks students through various post-secondary pathways or at least one that is accessible to education researchers. data for each institution tends to remain within that institution and is often regarded as proprietary and inaccessible to researchers, particularly those outside of the particular institution in question. for that reason, research tends to be institution-specific. we can see from the centralized ontario university and college application centre data whether individuals confirm an offer of acceptance at a college or university at one point in time and then later 3 confirm an offer at a different institution, indicating they transferred, but we cannot tell anything about success, completion, or motivations for the move. national and provincial surveys, such as statistics canadas national graduate survey or the maesd student satisfaction survey, have limitations when it comes to tracking pathways, especially for those who transfer out of a program before completion or continue their education more than 6 months after leaving a program (kerr, mccloy, and liu, 2010). literature review the evidence that is available about utc transfer is often localized, though taken collectively, it does suggest that this type of transfer is indeed on the rise. a study from confederation college (ontario) examining student registration and the graduate satisfaction survey found that from 2005 to 2010 the proportion of transfer students who came from university programs was higher than those who came from college programs. the number of students who transferred from lakehead university, who make up the majority of utc transfers at confederation, increased by 7% over the period studied (confederation college, 2012). usher and jarveys study used a sample made up of transfer students from all ontario colleges, and just over half of this sample came from university degree programs (2012). academica (2014) reported that one-fifth of ontarios total transfer student population were utc transfers, and a report focusing on transfers amongst former toronto district school board students found a similar proportion (robson, brown, maier, and ranjbar 2017). who undertakes a utc transfer? based on the type of localized studies available within the transfer research literature, the profile of students with previous university experience entering college programs is somewhat different than those who transfer from college to university. transfer students, in general, are unsurprisingly older than direct entry students, but utc transfer students are more likely to be over 25 years old, and they tend to enroll in narrow and applied (as opposed to general or preparatory) courses (oncat 2013). goldrick-rab and pfeffer (2009) found that utc transfer is also more commonly observed among students from low socioeconomic backgrounds compared to those from advantaged backgrounds, who tend to engage in lateral transfer (i.e., mobility from university to university). this could be partly attributed to the comparatively lower cost of college programs. the authors also attribute this finding to the poorer academic performance of low ses students, which they link to lower levels of parental educational attainment. a case study of student mobility between york university and seneca college, one of the few quantitative studies available with a relatively large dataset, indicated that utc transfer students were, in comparison to ctu transfer students, slightly younger (though still older than the direct entry student population) and more likely to be a canadian citizen, speak english or french as their mother tongue, and have at least one parent with some post-secondary education (smith, decock, lin, sidhu, and mccloy 2016). a 2017 report provides some wide-ranging information on utc transfer students (robson, brown, maier, and ranjbar 2017). this study used data from the tdsb and ontario college application system to map the postsecondary pathways of toronto high school students who graduated in 2011. the dataset followed these students through five successive postsecondary 4 application cycles (2010-2014), and approximately 19% of transferring students were found to have confirmed a college place despite having confirmed a university place in an earlier application cycle, indicating a utc transfer. because the dataset also contained various demographic characteristics, the authors were able to run bivariate analyses to determine correlates of utc transfer. they did not find a statistically significant relationship between sex and utc transfer, meaning that males were not more likely to undertake a utc transfer or vice versa. they did, however, find some association between social class and utc transfer, with utc transfer occurring in lower ses groups, consistent with goldrick-rab and pfeffers findings (2009). further exploratory analysis of the dataset indicated a statistically significant relationship between self-identified race and utc transfer; black, south asian, and southeast asian students were also found to be more likely to undertake a utc transfer. unfortunately, the data did not include any information about students motivations for or their experience of transfer. motivations for utc transfer the literature addressing the motivations for utc transfer is very sparse, and much of what does exist is based upon us data, whose 2 and 4-year college paths are similar to our college and university programs, but with important differences, the most important distinction being that college programs in ontario are usually vocationally directed, unlike the us model. it is important to note that the available ontario data on utc transfer often indicates whether a college applicant/student has prior university experience, but usually does not differentiate between those who have completed a university degree and those who transfer before completing a degree. it is therefore difficult to discern how these two groups of students (utc without completing university and utc after university complete) differ. kerr, mccloy, and liu posit that, for those who have completed a university degree, returning to pse to obtain a college credential is likely the result of employment concerns as the above research indicates, such as skills upgrading, career changes, or an inability to have foreign credentials recognized (2010, 14). whether these are the same reasons for those who transfer to college before finishing a university degree is unclear. we do, however, include these studies in the review below because of the paucity of canadian literature on the subject. concerns around workforce entry current research from ontario suggests that the goals of utc transfer students are largely focused on workforce entry, and they are therefore drawn to the practical experience offered by college programs (kerr, mccloy, & liu, 2010), although similar findings around acquisition of occupational training have been found in us studies (lebard 1999). for example, focus group data from students who transferred from lakehead university to confederation college indicated that career preparation and time to pursue part-time work while studying were significant advantages to studying at college rather than the university. participants were interested in finding a job, finding a steadier or more lucrative job, or upgrading their education in order to qualify for a professional designation (confederation college, 2012). students with previous university experience who transferred to the ontario college of art and design (ocad) reported making the decision to transfer in order to enter a more applied program with a more art-focused curriculum, which would lead to greater employment opportunities (fisher et al., 2012). wilson (2009) pointed out that canada has a large and growing immigrant 5 population, and that students with university degrees who are now enrolled in college programs may be foreign professionals looking to gain credentials recognized in canada. because utc transfer students tend to be motivated by career-related reasons, it is unsurprising that access to co-op or work placement programs are listed as key to choosing college programs over further university education (decock and janzen 2015). though some university degrees offer co-op programs, they are far more common in the college system, and transfer students often see these as a more promising stepping stone to job placement after graduation than a general arts or sciences university degree. the shorter programs and work placement opportunities also make colleges an attractive option for those looking for a career change (confederation 2012). in a 2012 survey of post-secondary transfer students, usher and jarvey (2012) found that 73% of respondents who did a utc transfer chose to pursue study in a different field in college than their original university program. moreover, the majority of utc transfers who changed fields were significantly more likely to have come from a university arts program. academic failure in university while improved career opportunity is by far the most commonly cited motivation for a utc transfer in the existant canadian literature, other reasons have also been identified in previous studies. a focus group participant in a study of student mobility between york university and seneca college found her university program too difficult and felt she was unprepared academically for university, which became reflected in her academic record. college was an opportunity to continue post-secondary education in a less intense environment and redeem a poor university performance (decock and janzen 2015). similar findings were revealed in american studies of utc students who encountered problems keeping up with the academic pace required at university (hagedorn and castro 1999; mitra 2018) and faced academic dismissal (lebard 1999). emotional reasons there are a variety of reasons for students leaving university to pursue college education that can be labelled emotional. hagedorn and castro (1999) found that utc students reported homesickness, immaturity, substance abuse, and difficulty adjusting to university life. similarly, ontario-based research found that utc students disliked the university learning style or environment (usher and jarvey 2012, 15), and wanted to live closer to home (confederation 2012; usher and jarvey 2012). mitras (2018) recent qualitative study of 28 utc students in nyc concluded that participants were deeply affected by the emotional reasons for leaving university and argued that their ongoing persistence education demonstrated resilience. similarly to hagedorn and castro (1999), interviewees in mitras study expressed embarrassment about leaving university and the need to prove themselves elsewhere. hagedorn and castros participants also expressed a desire to save face by participating in utc rather than admitting defeat in pse. financial reasons the cost of university relative to college has also been found to be a motivator of utc both in ontario (usher and jarvey 2012) and in a california-based study (hagedorn and castro 1999), 6 with the cost of college being substantially less than university. an extensive review by lebard (1999) also revealed that the lower cost of college was a common motivator for american utc students. the utc transfer process because there has been little research specifically on utc transfers, we do not know if the process in such cases is significantly different from other types of transfer. there is a theme of dissatisfaction with the transfer process in general across oncat research, centring on issues of expectation and communication. this may be due to the greater focus on ctu transfer, as the literature suggests that, on average, ctu transfer students receive fewer credits than utc or university-to-university transfer students (confederation college, 2012; fisher et al., 2012; stewart & martinello, 2012). this has led many ctu transfer students to be less satisfied with the transfer process than other types transfer students, largely due to disappointed expectations about the transferability of their college credits to universities (confederation college, 2012; fisher et al., 2012; gerhardt et al., 2013). indeed, in a study focusing on transfers into college (from either university or other colleges), usher and jarvey (2012) reported that 69% of survey respondents received all the credits for which they had applied, and only 19% felt the transfer process was difficult or very difficult (28). satisfaction levels have also been found to be directly related to the perceived ease of the transfer process (blais & harper, 2013; carleton university, 2013; durham college, 2016); transfer wait times (confederation college, 2012); communication of admissions decisions (durham college, 2014; usher & jarvey, 2012); and the requirements associated with earning transfer credits (arnold & woodhead, 2015; confederation college, 2012; oncat, 2013). the common thread across these factors is communication, and it is the most important predictor of student satisfaction with the transfer process. those institutions and transfer programs that overtly and comprehensively communicate the requirements associated with inter-institutional transfer, that are well-planned and properly administered, and that provide students with the rationale for their admissions decisions were rated the highest by transferring students (arnold, 2012; durham college, 2014; fisher et al., 2012). proximity dimension the york-seneca case study is one of the only studies that directly addresses utc transfer, and it indicated there were some differences in the transfer process for this group (compared to ctu transfers), though the results must be treated with caution due to a very small sample size (three participants in the utc focus group and 12 in the ctu focus group). the utc group reported fewer difficulties in the transfer process, though frustration over locating accurate information was a common element for both groups. the utc group also sought very little assistance from their sending institution, with the majority of their interactions around transfer taking place at their receiving institution. the seneca-york partnership appeared to largely benefit the ctu group. both groups recommended more detailed information on each institutions website and dedicated, informed staff at each institution who work with counterparts at the other institution to address credit transfer (decock and janzen 2015). it should also be noted that these two institutions are literally on the same physical campus and thus the proximity dimension discussed by wilson (2009) is particularly relevant. wilson argued that when considering issues of transfer, whether it be utc or ctu, shared campus agreements obviously enhance the 7 experience of students, and these agreements are more likely to be found between institutions that are in close physical proximity to one another. utc transfer outcomes in terms of utc transfer outcomes, there are at least two aspects to consider: those that occur shortly after the transfer process and those that occur later. transfer shock transfer shock refers to the adjustment that students must make adapting from being a university student to being a college student. in the research literature on college-to-university transfer, some studies have noted the experience of transfer shock on the part of the transferring student (oncat 2013; blais and harper 2013; carleton university 2013). the new environment and different campus culture can leave transfer students feeling confused and isolated, especially as they tend to be older than direct entry students and may have little experience of the university system. in the york-seneca case study discussed above, the ctu group appeared to have more difficulties adjusting to university than the utc group did adjusting to college, suggesting culture shock may not be as much of a concern, but there has been almost no exploration of this in the rest of the literature. academic success there has been little investigation into the academic success or persistence of utc transfer students. much of the evidence available about the outcomes of transfer students has been limited to ctu transfers, and this is mixed. stewart and martinello (2012) found them to have poorer academic performance than direct entry students, and a summary of oncat research up to 2013 reported slightly below average persistence rates overall for transfer students (oncat 2013). however, a number of other studies have shown them to perform at least as well, if not better than direct entry students, particularly if their transfer was part of an articulated agreement (shook et al. 2016; gorman, phelps, and carley 2012; drewes et al. 2012; gerhardt, arai, carroll, and ackerman 2012). qualitative findings demonstrate that ctu transfer students can be intimidated by the demands of university study and feel academically unprepared to meet those demands (carleton university 2013). what little evidence we do have about utc transfer students suggests that they do not tend to struggle academically post-transfer. a study of both ctu and utc students who transferred from algonquin college to the university of ottawa and vice versa showed that the ctu transfers were more likely to leave compared to direct entry high school students, but the utc transfers showed no difference in persistence rates to their direct entry counterparts (finnie, pavlic, childs, diaz, mercier, and lewrey 2013). a study of transfer students between york university and seneca college (in both directions) between 2000 and 2012 found that utc students fared better post-transfer in terms of gpa. the ctu students had an overall average gpa of 73% while at seneca, which dropped slightly to 69% while at york. the utc students, in contrast, improved their gpa post-transfer, going from an overall average of 64% while at york to 76% while at seneca (smith, decock, lin, sidhu, and mccloy 2016, 4-6). 8 completion the available research on utc students suggests that their completion rates were high, particularly when compare to ctu students. in the york/seneca study cited above f the 47% ctu students had graduated by 2012, and 33% had withdrawn before completing their university program. in comparison 59% of utc students had graduated by 2012, and 25% had withdrawn. methods data due to the exploratory nature of our study and the level of detail required to answer our research questions, we employed a small-scale qualitative design, collecting data through in-depth interviews with 20 purposively-sampled participants who met the criteria of having been enrolled in a university program and then transferring to a college program without completing university. because we were interested in utc transfer scenarios where the university degree was not completed, we limited eligibility to students who were enrolled in a public university in southern ontario, but transferred before completing the degree to a public college in southern ontario within the last ten years. the study was open to those who were current students or had already graduated from a college program, and there was no restriction in terms of the length of time in between the participants university program and their college program. indeed, we hoped we would get a range of possible pathways, some including time off in between programs and some not. recruitment individuals were recruited in a variety of ways. one of the researchers advertised the study through her twitter, facebook, and linkedin accounts, which were shared by various connections. studies were also advertised by the colleges themselves, but this was accomplished in a much more complicated manner, and depended upon the willingness of individual institutions to assist us. participants were given $50 cash to participate in this study. recruitment, in general, was a difficult hurdle, not because of a lack of interested participants, but because of the administrative process involved in getting the study advertised at colleges around southern ontario. in all but one case, advertising for participants required us to go through research ethics board (reb) reviews at each of the colleges at which we hoped to recruit, though we had already cleared the project through the reb at mcmaster university. once ethics clearance was obtained at each college, separate institutional approval was needed in order to display posters. reb contacts at each college were also not always clear on who we needed to contact to physically have the posters displayed, even once we had ethics clearance and institutional approval, leaving us to email several offices and departments in order to track down who had that responsibility. in the end, the earliest we were able to have posters displayed and begin recruiting at one college was late march, and the last college to get our posters up did so in mid-june. most participating colleges put up paper posters around their campus, but two colleges advertised the study via information screens, and one of these also included an item in the newsfeed widget of their online student services portal. figure 1 shows the various ways 9 participants found out about our study, with physical posters and the newsfeed widget being the most effective. figure 1. participants discovery of the study newsfeed widget 35% poster 45% tv screen ad 10% twitter 10% interested participants contacted us through a specially created project email address, and after answering a few eligibility screening questions, an interview time was arranged. we ensured that there was a balance of male and female participants but imposed no other criteria on our sample. all interviews took place either at mcmaster or at the participants college, whichever was most convenient for the participant. interviews were audio recorded and ranged in length from 24 minutes to 91 minutes, with an average length of 42 minutes. participants could indicate on the demographic form whether they would like to review their transcribed interview and correct or add any information. eleven participants chose this option, though none of them returned any amendments. instruments participants were asked to complete a form which gathered information on the participants background characteristics such as age, sex and gender, self-identified race, education, parental education and occupation, average marks in high school, and special education needs (see appendix a for the full participant demographic form). this items chosen in developing this form were derived mainly from the tdsb student census questionnaire (yau and oreilly 2007), as this would provide us with the same demographic data we used in our previous oncat project unraveling the knot (2017), allowing for possible comparisons to the findings from that study. participants were asked to fill in this form at the beginning of the interview. 10 the interview schedule was semi-structured, consisting of open-ended questions that covered: 1) the participants current schedule and commitments (inside and outside school); 2) latter high school years, particularly academic achievement and plans for pse; 3) university experiences; 4) transfer motivations; 5) transfer process; 6) college experiences; and 7) transfer reflections (see appendix b for the full interview schedule). we composed the interview schedule to address our research questions and based on information from the research literature review. participants had an opportunity at the end of the interview to raise any points or issues they felt were important but that were not covered by our questions. there were no other restrictions, e.g. age, sex, program of study, on eligibility for participation. data analysis the interview transcripts were coded using the qualitative data analysis software package ligre. we designed an initial coding scheme based on our research questions and on the research literature, but additional codes were added as the analysis progressed. the final codification tree had eight roots, which represented the overall themes present in the data and largely corresponded to the major sections of the interview schedule: out of school commitments, high school experience, life expectations, university experience, transfer experience, college experience, transfer reflections, and perceptions of university vs. college. each of these themes were further divided into subthemes or branches, which were in turn divided into the leaves that were used to tag fragments of the interview transcripts. for example, under the root transfer experience, there were six branches motivation, process, obstacles, facilitators, recommendations to institutions, and advice to other transferring students. under the motivation branch of the transfer experience root, there were five leaves that represented the various reasons given in the interviews for transferring from university to college, such as dissatisfaction with university program, health/personal circumstances, and future work prospects. for the purposes of this report, we prioritize the transfer experience and reflections and use the other themes, particularly university and college experience, to provide more detailed context to the participants responses regarding transfer. findings sample demographic characteristics the sample was made up of 10 males and 10 females of diverse racial backgrounds and programs of study, ranging in age from 20 to 32 years old with an average age of 24.4 years old. ten participants identified as white, and 10 identified as a visible minority (see figure 1 for breakdown of racial backgrounds), with six participants having been born outside of canada. seven further participants identified as a second-generation immigrant, with one or both parents being born outside of canada. thirteen participants had at least one parent who had completed a university degree, a further four had at least one parent who had completed a college diploma, and three participants whose parents did not have any post-secondary education or who did not know their parents level of education. 11 table 1. sample demographics age racial background white non-white born outside canada participant not participant, but at least one parent employment status full-time part-time unemployed income under 10,000 10,000-19,999 20,000+ parents education at least one parent completed university at least one parent completed college no post-secondary/dont know parents occupation low medium high small business owner retired unemployed dont know 24.4 (range 20-32) 10 10 6 7 1 15 4 11 6 2 13 4 3 mother 4 9 3 1 1 0 2 father 2 4 4 3 1 1 5 figure 2. racial backgrounds of participants 12 southeast asian 10% mixed 5% south asian 10% white 50% east asian 10% middle eastern 5% black african 10% high school and pse participants high school graduation year ranged from 2004 to 2016, and all participants reported having average high school grades of 70 and above, with 16 out of 20 reporting grades of 80 and above. four participants reported being identified as having a special education need. 15 participants completed high school in four years and then went straight into a full-time university program, while the remaining five either did a victory lap year of high school or worked or both before starting university. the next section will discuss in more detail the participants postsecondary pathways. five of the participants had completed at least one college program at the time of the interview, one participant had completed a university degree 1, and the remaining 14 had not yet completed any post-secondary qualification. at the time of the interviews, fourteen of the participants were full-time students and two were full-time students. of the full-time students, ten had part-time employment, as did both of the part-time students, while four were full-time students only. four participants were not in school at the time of the interview, three of whom were employed part-time and one employed fulltime. there were ten origin universities where participants attempted their first post-secondary program, and seven receiver colleges to which the participants transferred. table 2. origin and receiver institutions sender institutions carleton university university of ottawa mcmaster university university of waterloo receiver institutions sheridan college humber college mohawk college michener institute 1 this participant completed a university degree after high school, but then started a second university degree that was not completed before transferring to a college program. 13 guelph university ryerson university york university university of western ontario university of toronto trent university george brown college conestoga college seneca college table 3. pre- and post-transfer programs pre-transfer program (university) general sciences social sciences computer science nursing math engineering journalism business communications post-transfer program (college) medical tech-related social services computer programming business administration office administration nursing accounting engineering or engineering-related international development biotechnology the participants came from a variety of university programs, both stem and non-stem, and transferred into a variety of college programs, both stem and non-stem. these are listed in table 3, and the transfer pathway patterns will be discussed in more detail in the next section. participant post-secondary pathways because we focused on students who underwent a university-to-college transfer, we knew we would be dealing with non-linear or non-traditional post-secondary pathways, but we did not expect the variation we encountered among our participants. in fact, only two participants completed high school in four years, went into a full-time university program and stayed in that same program until they decided to transfer, then went straight into a college program and stayed in that same program. the remaining 18 participants had more steps -- often many more steps -to their post-secondary education journey. in addition to utc transfers, we had participants who did victory lap years in high school, delayed entry to pse and took gap years before starting university, transferred between different programs within university (sometimes by choice, sometimes because of academic probation requirements), took hiatuses during and after university but before college to work or deal with health or personal issues, took remedial courses in order to improve their chances of getting into certain programs, and attempted and sometimes completed multiple college programs. some of them also had plans for further postsecondary education after completing the program they were in (or had recently finished) at the time of the interview. table 4 lists the most common elements present in the participants pse journeys, other than a simple utc transfer, along with the number of participants who reported taking that step. table 4. common steps in participants pse journeys high school victory lap 3 14 within university program change 3+ years attempting same university program multiple university programs attempted 2 multiple college programs attempted multiple college programs completed remedial courses 3 hiatus (for health or personal circumstances) hiatus (work) utc transfer stem to non-stem (or vice versa) 8 4 2 5 4 2 8 6 5 though transferring from a university program to a college program, the majority of our participants (15) remained within the same or a similar subject area pre- and post-transfer. for example, one participant transferred from a university engineering degree program to a college engineering degree program, and one transferred from a nursing degree to a nursing diploma. there were several instances of transfers from general sciences or computer science degree programs to computer or technology-related college diplomas, such as programming or medical equipment technicians. three students who were in university social sciences transferred to social service work programs in college. we did have five participants who changed subjects completely from pre- to post-transfer, switching from stem to non-stem subjects or vice versa, for example, general sciences to accounting or business administration or social sciences to software development. the amount of time participants spent attempting a university program before leaving ranged from one year to seven years, with an average between two and two and a half years. this does not necessarily mean that participants were in the same program, attending full-time, and successfully completing courses during their university period. eight participants changed programs within university, sometimes by choice usually due to lack of subject interest, but for three participants, this program switch was forced by the university due to poor academic performance. a common condition of academic probation reported by the participants was to have students who were not achieving the grades required by their program to take courses in a different program for a semester in order to earn their way back into the original program. two participants spent multiple years in this pattern of poor academic performance in their original program, followed by academic probation in another program, reentry back to the original program, poor academic performance, academic probation, and so on. another participant was not forced to change programs because of their poor academic performance, but also fell into a pattern of failing and having to repeat courses, spending years in university while making little progress toward the completion of a degree. for many of our participants, the number of years spent in a university program cannot therefore be taken as a measure of progress towards completion. in figure 3 on the next two pages, we have visual representations of six of our participants pse journeys, up to the time of the interview. we chose simple and complicated journeys to give an 2 by this, we mean that the participant attempted one university program, then had a hiatus, then attempted a new university program, different to the first. 3 by this, we mean that the participant either went back to high school or similar after their attempt at a university program in order to improve their grades and further post-secondary opportunities. 15 idea of the range and variety present in the interviews. our findings suggest that the metaphor of a linear pathway is generally incorrect for the vast majority of utc students (moodie 2004), with the likeness being more similar to that of a swirl (de los santos jr. and wright 1990) or a deck of cards being shuffled (maxwell, hagedorn, brocato, moon, and perrakis 2002). 16 figure 3. example participant postsecondary pathways 17 18 transfer motivations in coming to grips with our participants motivations for transfer, we quickly realized that, while these motivations can be distilled down to a general list, the full picture was usually more complicated. consistent with previous studies in the area, participants rarely had a single reason behind their decision to transfer. far more often, there were multiple reasons having to do with their situations at the time (both personally and academically), future prospects, money, and parental and self-expectations. these multiple reasons also tended to be connected to each other, reinforcing (or exacerbating) each other, rather than representing entirely separate motivations (hagedorn and castro 1999; mitra 2018). we also quickly realized that, perhaps because we were dealing with transfers that took place before the participants had finished their original university program, we needed to make a distinction between reasons for leaving university and reasons for entering college. these reasons were also often connected, though we found that they only partially overlapped. examining them first separately helped us to pinpoint what makes the mid-program utc transfer unique in the transfer landscape it happened almost exclusively in response to something not going according to plan. first, we will discuss motivations for leaving university, which we clustered around three main themes: academic struggles, physical/mental health struggles, and future concerns. figure 4 (following page) maps the relationships between the various reasons our participants gave for leaving university. we will then discuss reasons for choosing to pursue college. i wasnt getting anywhere: leaving university academic struggles there were a number of motivations for leaving university that we clustered around the theme of academic struggles. several participants talked about how unprepared high school had left them for university study. the majority of our participants had been successful in high school, as far as normal secondary school indicators go, with all having graduated from high school, 16 out of 20 reporting average grades of 80 and above upon graduation, and all being accepted to university. however, participants also commented on the relatively low effort it took to achieve high marks in high school. they found university courses a struggle in comparison. as one participant put it, with university, i cant coast like i could in high school. you have to actually do the work otherwise youre going to fall behind (oncat18-13). this was echoed by other participants: i had mid to high 80s in grade 12 in pretty much everything. and then jump to university, and i remember my first mid-term for economics, i think i mightve gotten a 50 on it. and that just kind of set the tone for how it is in university (oncat18-12). it was a hard transition from high school to university. from graduating with 90s, the first year i had like 60s, and i was like, oh my god, i have never gotten a 60 in my life, and i have no idea how to study (oncat18-05). 19 so when i went to university, those habits [getting work done at the last minute, which was enough to get by in high school] had been ingrained in me. and they did not serve me well. so i had to relearn how to learn, and i struggled a lot with that. and my sense of commitment was very difficult. i had no grounding because my only grounding was really what i was interested in (oncat18-10). as this last quote indicates, the majority of our participants found that they were struggling with a combination of more difficult material, and also, perhaps more importantly, an environment in which self-motivation and self-discipline were required in order to be successful. their courses were more intellectually challenging and the workload in most cases greater than what they had experienced in high school, and many of them were missing the skills that would have helped them cope with this increased demand. while a few participants listed their newfound autonomy as one of the positive aspects of university, others found that this led them into trouble when it came to time management and discovered that the last minute study and moderate effort that saw them through high school would not be sufficient in university. 12 participants reported significant academic struggles, including low grades, failing courses, being forced to change program, and, in two cases, one year academic suspensions from university. even students who were not experiencing derailing academic struggles were concerned about workloads and fine grades still not being enough to advance to further levels of study, like grad school or medical school. as we discussed in the participant pathways section, academic struggles resulted in some participants falling into a pattern of failing and re-attempting courses, sometimes for years, while making very little progress toward the completion of their degree. figure 4. motivations for leaving university 20 these academic struggles were exacerbated by a lack of motivation, often fueled by disillusionment with their subject, and resulted in patterns of non-attendance. because participants were now in an environment in which their attendance was largely unmonitored and grades based on infrequent testing rather than regular assignments, some began to lose motivation to attend class and keep up with readings, particularly if they found they were not particularly interested in the subject matter or enjoying their studies: i just wasnt enjoying it at all, and it was even difficult to go to class. i just felt no motivation . . . i need to be interested in what im studying (oncat18-01). i guess [i was] losing interest in my program . . . i was vaguely fascinated by some of the things i was learning in [my major], but the other courses that i was taking, the content just did not appeal to me. i guess academically, intellectually, or whatever. it never stimulated my interest (oncat18-14). i just didnt feel satisfied, i didnt feel happy. so yeah, i was kind of thinking about switching. so, it took me three semesters, you know, where my performance was basically a downward spiral. thats when i thought, okay, thats it (oncat18-15). for about a quarter of our participants, disillusionment with their subject was partially caused by frustration with what they saw as the overly theoretical nature of university learning. students in both arts programs and stem programs expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of practical applications for the content they were learning in their courses: translating [theoretical knowledge] into application is a skill that is not being taught (oncat18-10). one arts student was particularly exacerbated by the academic nature of her major: anthropology especially, its so much navel-gazing. like, its so academic, its so removed from, i dont know, anything hands-on. i mean there are people who do some hands-on [anthropological work], and then your professors go, oh, but thats applied, thats applied anthropology, and then this nose turning (oncat18-09). other participants were also disappointed with the lack of a hands-on component to their university experience, and they often linked this directly to future potential work scenarios. one participant whose university program included a lab component felt that even this was still too theoretically oriented to be of use in a future job: i felt like the lab was just too detached from people. and i just felt like it was, i dont know, i just couldnt imagine myself doing it (oncat18-01). future prospects as a motivation for leaving university will be discussed further below, and will be revisited in the next section on motivations for entering college. throughout these interconnecting issues related to academic struggles was a sense of the university as an indifferent place indifferent to participants problems, indifferent to their needs, indifferent to their success or failure. one participant said that this was made clear from the very beginning: orientation. the guy basically told us that this isnt high school, and if you fail, nobody cares. those are almost the exact same words (oncat18-13). another participant felt that the university only cared about her money; [i]t really felt like the university just doesnt care about you. they have your money, they get your money in, and thats how it is 21 (oncat18-17). this was echoed by oncat18-08, who said that, it felt like you were just thrown in there and if you can do it, great. if you cant, well then, too bad. youve given us your money. participants felt that this sense of individuals, like themselves, as insignificant was reflected in many aspects of their university experience: class sizes in the hundreds, lack of academic and other kinds of support, professors difficult to reach or simply unavailable, administrative issues and the length of time it took to solve them (a particular program for two participants who had been in pilot programs at university that ended up being riddled with administrative problems for which no solutions were being offered), sometimes questionable quality of instruction, and lack of flexibility in scheduling. this sense of the university as indifferent was problematic in a number of ways, not least because it appeared to be discouraging our participants from even attempting to seek help. when asked if there was support available to help them through their academic struggles, some participants spoke about the limited availability of help and the difficulty in obtaining it, such as tutoring: professors usually were doing their own research so it was hard to get a hold of them. if you were lucky you got the lab ta (oncat18-18); i would be waiting on answers when the answers no longer matter (oncat18-12). however, some also admitted that they did not know if the university provided support because they did not look: i dont know if there was [academic support services], i never heard of it, and i didnt even bother to look (oncat18-13) i dont think i really looked, to be honest. i dont think i looked for any resources, but i dont think i was really told about any either (oncat18-12). it was not made clear to me. i think that there probably was. i mean, i would hope. thats maybe . . . just hopeful thinking because i dont know for a fact. i was never approached or never got involved in any kind of support system (oncat18-10). physical/mental health/sen struggles the lack of support and the university as an indifferent place carries through to our second prominent theme: physical/mental health and sen struggles. while we have separated these from academic struggles for the purposes of this discussion, they were highly intertwined with academic struggles, with difficulties in one area spilling over into the other. we had four participants who had been identified as having a special education need, and navigating their universitys accommodations services proved a tricky task. oncat18-03 was able to secure some accommodations at university in the form of extended deadlines, but found his experiences with that office were hit and miss in terms of the help they offered: its really who you talk to. if i get somebody whos sympathetic, then they might [be able to help], but if someones just really caught up in like the bureaucracy, then nope. oncat18-04 was also able to secure some exam-related accommodations at university, but these were subsequently taken away when an incident at another university caused 18-04s university to change their policy surrounding sen accommodations. oncat18-07 felt that the university did not do enough to ensure that students knew what services were available, as she was not aware that she could get accommodations for sen until after almost four years of struggling. the difficulty in securing accommodations and the inconsistency with which those accommodations were honoured 22 unsurprisingly caused these participants to struggle academically and added unnecessary stress to an already demanding environment. half of the participants reported mental health struggles that ended up playing a significant role in their decision to leave university. some of these participants understandably did not want to discuss the nature of these struggles, referring to them in general terms (mental health issues, personal issues, etc.), but some volunteered more detailed information about the toll university took on their mental health. these struggles took a number of forms and ranged from mild to severe, including anxiety, insecurity, inability to concentrate/work depression, hospitalization and suicidal thoughts. the scale of the university and, as discussed above, the participants sense of the university as indifferent to them caused many to feel isolated and alienated from faculty, staff, and even their peers, another marked different from high school: its a lot of people in one room. its a little bit overwhelming if youre coming from high school setting of 30 students max to 500 or more students in one classroom . . . i remember sitting in the lecture halls and feeling very uncomfortable (oncat18-11). i felt like it wasnt for me . . . the [university] culture. i felt alone (oncat18-10). that was also a big change [from high school], because the classes were so big, it was hard to really make connections (oncat18-12). you make your own way and theres no real structure to it. youre not tethered to anything, which is supposed to be this great thing, and im sure it is for a lot of people, all this freedom. i think when i started unraveling and i wanted something to hold onto, there was nothing there (oncat18-09). [i]n university, i didnt really have a lot of friends in my program, so i felt isolated. so i think that was also a contributing factor . . . i found myself becoming more and more withdrawn. i stopped attending my classes (oncat18-06). mental health struggles had a significant negative effect on the participants ability to cope with university workloads. whether academic struggles were a cause or a consequence of mental health issues, they created a negative feedback loop that derailed progress through the participants degree programs. some expressed frustration with being stuck, not getting anywhere or hitting a brick wall, particularly those who got into a pattern of failing and repeating courses. unlike those students who did not seek help for academic struggles, most of the participants who experienced mental health issues did attempt to seek help from the university, but largely found such supports lacking. participants reported having to wait anywhere from a couple of weeks to six months to get an appointment with university counseling services, and they were very limited in the number of sessions allowed. two participants also found the counselors unhelpful and dismissive of their concerns, telling them they just need to exercise or were just homesick. one participant described the labyrinthine bureaucratic process necessary to secure 23 documentation from university accommodations to withdraw from classes (rather than have a fail on his transcript) following a period of hospitalization, only to have a professor reject his request. three participants ended up seeking help outside the university because the help available within the university was so inadequate. for a smaller number of participants, physical health problems also played a factor in their decision to leave university. mental health struggles led to physical health issues for some, including oncat18-08: i think the point where it started, like, making me physically sick is when i was like, okay, ive got to figure something else out. for two participants, commuting times began to take a significant toll on both health and academic performance: i had to wake up very, very early and then leave, get home, but didnt go to sleep until very, very late because i still had to do homework and stuff. and so that really took a toll on my health, like i got sick all the time, i was missing a lot of classes. i considered going into residence for my last year, but when i looked into it, i couldnt afford residence and tuition, so i ultimately decided to drop out (oncat 18-20). oncat18-13 reported that the commute to university, which could be up to an hour and a half each way, contributed to his depression and poor physical health, but he also could not afford to live on campus. future prospects though future prospects was a less prominent motivation for leaving university than the clusters discussed above, it was highly significant for the minority for whom it was a factor, and it linked strongly to a greater number of participants in their motivations for subsequently pursuing college. participants concerns about the future centered on job prospects and expected returns on their university degree. essentially, they did not think that the university program they were pursuing would lead to a viable job. there were two key reasons for this: lack of practical experience in university programs and perceived bleak job markets in their chosen fields. as discussed in the section on academic struggles, there were some participants who were frustrated with what they saw as the overly theoretical nature of university learning. at least part of this frustration stemmed from a desire to be employable once their degree finished, and they did not think their university programs were preparing them adequately for the workforce. oncat18-01 wanted to work with people in the medical field, but felt that even the lab component of her program was too far removed from that to be useful in a job. oncat18-17 felt that what employers were looking for was not theoretical knowledge, but work experience, so much so that, once you had completed a co-op program, there was often no need to go back and finish whatever program for which it had been an element. though oncat18-09 had at one point considered going on to do a masters degree after finishing her ba, she became disillusioned with her subject (anthropology) and felt that even with an ma, her job prospects were not promising, nor would she find that work particularly meaningful. other participants continued to enjoy their university subjects, but were concerned about the lack of jobs in their field. in particular, they began to doubt whether completing their degrees was worthwhile if there was little hope of getting a job in that same field once they were done: 24 i learned more about how hard it was to get a job as a teacher in ontario . . . theres a backlog, a lot of teachers arent able to find full-time work. theyre substituting. so that kind of, i guess, disillusioned me to that prospect (oncat18-06). i was also afraid that no matter how far i go, you know, i just had this fear of i would be able to find a job . . . i was just always told theres no jobs in this field . . . id rather go and do something where i have this pretty much guaranteed chance of finding a job (oncat18-14). im sure if i took some [more time] i could finish [my degree] but then why bother if the job markets looking bad. im paying a lot of money that may not lead me somewhere (oncat18-18). entering college the participants descriptions of their decision to transfer and the events surrounding it indicate that the majority made the decision to leave university first, prompting them to look for an alternative pathway. only four participants were still considering staying in university when they came across the idea of college as an alternative. oncat18-01, who had gradually lost interest in her university program (general sciences) and did not see it as an appealing future career, decided to apply to college as an alternative while still at university and with the intention of finishing her university degree if she did not get into the college program she wanted. similarly, oncat18-02 was considering an ma as her next step, but applied to college as a back-up plan. when she got into the college program, she decided not to pursue the ma. oncat18-12 and oncat18-05 wanted to leave the university program they were in, and in the course of looking for alternative university programs, found college programs that better suited their interests and circumstances. in 18-12s case, he was interested in architecture, but there were no university programs nearby that offered an architecture program, but a university academic advisor made him aware of a diploma course at a nearby college. 18-05 was interested in social work, but found the entry requirements for nearby university social work programs too competitive, so decided to try a similar college diploma course instead. for the majority of the participants (16 out of 20), however, the decision to leave university came first and was largely separate from their decision to pursue college. these were divided between those who, upon deciding to leave university, decided quickly (within a few months) to pursue college, while others took much longer, anywhere from four months to a few years. for those participants who had experienced mental health or other personal difficulties, this time was often spent in recovery as they addressed the issues that had contributed to their struggles in university. others spent time working, volunteering, traveling, or in leisure activities. only one participant, oncat18-15, first attempted to find work matching his interests (computer programming), but found that without post-secondary qualifications, he was not being hired, thus prompting him to pursue college. the remaining 19 out of 20 participants were committed to completing some form of post-secondary education on their way to a job or career, regardless of whether they pursued college almost immediately after leaving university or came to that decision later. 25 after the turmoil and struggle that characterized the participants decisions to leave university, their reasons for pursuing college were much more positive and straightforward, coming under the general themes of subject interest, college learning environment, location, and future prospects. table 5 lists these reasons and the number of participants who gave them, which are discussed further below. as with motivations for leaving university, most participants had multiple reasons for entering college, so the numbers in table 5 add up to more than 20. table 5. motivations for choosing college subject interest college offered program that suited interests no universities offered program for specific field college learning environment short program length easier entry requirements than university cheaper than university smaller classes hands-on learning friendlier environment career/specific job oriented learning location close to home minimal commute close to social support close to a university (for possible transfer in future) change of environment future prospects job placement/co-op easier to get a job after more stable job opportunities after finishing 16 2 6 3 2 2 2 1 2 6 6 3 1 2 8 3 2 subject interest at the core of the participants motivations for choosing college was that courses being offered suited their interests. this may seem like a very simple, even banal, observation, but considering the number of participants who reported losing interest in the subject they were studying in university, being interested and even excited about post-secondary education should not be underestimated. it was by far the most common reason for choosing to pursue college. moreover, because they had spent time in university and, for some, working, they had a better developed sense of their interests and the kind of work they would like to do in the future, or, at least, what they were not interested in doing. as oncat18-15 put it when choosing a program to enter, i was a little bit more decisive. in two cases, as mentioned above, participants chose to enter college programs because there were no university programs nearby for what they wanted to study, namely cosmetic science and architecture. 26 college learning environment while subject interest was the most common motivation given for choosing a college program, it was never given as the sole reason. interest in a particular course being offered was always accompanied by other reasons, and they often had to do with the college learning environment. after all, most of the subjects the participants were interested in studying were also offered at university. given the negative experience many of them had at university, however, they were looking for a different learning environment. participants were often drawn to what they saw as the advantages of college such as smaller class sizes, easier entry requirements, friendlier atmosphere, shorter program lengths, cheaper tuition, and hands-on learning: part of it, i didnt want a super long program . . . i didnt want to be in school for another three years (oncat18-02). i was looking for a program that was a year. i could have done two years but i was just mainly looking for a year so i can graduate on time (oncat18-20). i decided not to enroll in university because of the university fees being so high. and i was scared that i would apply it to a program to which i turned out to hate in the end (oncat18-11). its very hands-on. theres so much support, like everybody knows you by name. youre not afraid to ask for help. its [a] very team-oriented environment. you get to know the classes are a lot smaller (oncat18-07). i was pretty sure i could get into college . . . even if i did have a couple of fs (oncat18-03). these are in clear contrast to many of the complaints the participants had about the university learning environment: huge class sizes, the university as indifferent and impersonal, theoretically-oriented learning, and lack of support. indeed, while many of the participants had spoken about university as shock compared to high school, many of them commented that college was much more like high school, which made it an easier transition: another way i look at it, comparing it real quickly with a class here at [college], it feels like high school. the classes are much smaller. obviously, enrolment is also much smaller, so a professor teaching me here can teach in a similar way as a high school teacher where if you have a question, they will stop the class to answer, whereas in a lecture hall, the professor doesnt see you, doesnt hear you, hes just reading lecture slides and thats it (oncat18-17). it is also worth noting that, while not all participants listed aspects of the college learning environment as reasons for choosing college, they were discussed as positives later in the interview when asked what they liked about their college programs. location location was the second most cited reason for choosing to go to college. the participants were interested in studying particular subjects in a college learning environment, but they wanted to 27 do so close to home. this is another motive that should not be underestimated, considering how many of the participants struggled with mental health, isolation, and commuting while at university. being able to live at or near home made sense financially, practically, and emotionally and psychologically. oncat18-03, who had struggled with serious mental health issues while at university, put it this way, so, the major draw about college for me was that i could essentially stay at home and come here [college at which he was enrolled]. it was low risk. i didnt have to look for an apartment away from home and get rid of all my social supports. for oncat18-20, a college location close to home was so important that it was what she looked for first, before even deciding what program to take: i was looking for colleges that were near my area . . . and then from there i kind of scrolled through the website [of the college nearest me] seeing what they had in store. future prospects closely connected to the appeal of college learning as hands-on and career-oriented was the perception that college would be more beneficial to future prospects. thirteen participants listed a job-related motivation as a reason for choosing college. they felt that a college diploma would make it either easier to get a job after graduating or would lead to more stable job opportunities in the future: im taking this course because i think that theres a lot of future potential with computer engineering technology (oncat18-10). its a good career, you know? you go into [the college program you choose] its what you are. like, its not up in the air where you can get a job (oncat18-06). i ended up taking respiratory therapy just because it seemed like it had a lot of growth opportunity and a lot of diversity. you can work in a lot of places (oncat18-01). the opportunity for future work opportunities was, for 8 participants, concentrated in the inclusion of co-op or job placements in their programs. several more participants also listed coop or job placements as one of the positives of college education in a later section of the interview, though they did not initially cite it as a motivation for choosing college. job placements would give them the work experience that, according to oncat18-17, employers were looking for, even more than a degree or a diploma: they want work experience . . . i know a lot of people who, whether here or at other universities, they do co-op, and their employers are just like, work. we are giving you a full-time job now . . . they dont need to go back school . . . so, yeah, the actual handson practical is the reason i wanted to do the program. figure 5 represents the relationship between the above motivations for choosing to enter college. subject interest is at the core, but it is significant that it rests within a college learning environment, and that these together are situated in a desirable geographical location, i.e. one 28 that is close to home. reaching through these layers from the core of subject interest and out beyond the edge are future prospects. figure 5. motivations for choosing college discussion as was noted in the literature review, college-to-university transfers have been the more visible type of transfer between these two pse systems, with college often seen as a stepping-stone to university. transfer research shows that it is not uncommon for college students to have university in mind as a later step along their pse journey. indeed, there are programs that are designed with a transfer from college to university built in, known as articulated agreements or 29 bridging programs, and these transfers have been shown to be highly successful due to the careful integration and planning efforts of both institutions. we have found no evidence in this study or in the research literature, however, to suggest that mid-program utc transfers are often planned in this way, either by individual students or as part of any institutions program design. as this section demonstrates, none of our participants began pse with the intention, however vague, of taking a college program at some point, and a mid-program utc transfer was certainly not part of any participants short or long term education plans. usher and jarveys (2012) study of students who transfer into college (either from university or other colleges) found very few respondents who cited dissatisfaction or a negative experience as a reason for transferring, which they argue suggests that transfers have more to do with pull factors than push factors. however, they also stated that 18 respondents said they did not like the university learning style or environment and that this was a factor in their decision to transfer. moreover, they did not distinguish between reasons for leaving their initial program and reasons for pursuing another program, a distinction we found necessary to make in order to make sense of our participants transfer motivations. disaffection with university was a prominent theme amongst our participants in their decision to leave university, and, we would argue, should be counted as a push factor. indeed, our discussion of transfer motivations here shows that push factors are highly relevant for utc transfer students. many of the participants had negative experiences at university and expressed a great deal of dissatisfaction with the university environment. as noted above, a utc transfer is, as far as we can see, almost never something that is planned. it seems very unlikely that the participants would still have transferred to college if they had been coping well with their university studies, enjoying their programs, and were not hampered by personal circumstances, like mental health struggles. in other words, for many of our participants, while their reasons for leaving university were related to their reasons for pursuing college, the pull factors of college became relevant only after the push factors of negative university experiences and trying personal circumstances forced them to reevaluate their plans. transfer experiences our participants motivations for transfer provided some stark contrast with what appears in the research literature for other types of transfer, but was consistent with what little research is available on utc transfer from the united states. the actual process involved in transferring, specifically applying for transfer credits, however, was substantially similar to what has been previously reported for almost all types of transfer in ontario. in this section, we will first discuss the transfer process: how participants knew that transfer credits were a possibility, where they found information, what the transfer process involved, and whether they were able to successfully transfer credits and why. we will then discuss what the participants saw as transfer obstacles and facilitators, and finally, transfer recommendations and advice. the transfer process finding out about credit transfer thirteen of our participants knew before applying to college that transfer credits would be a possibility, though not all remembered precisely how they first found that information. because 30 they were already aware of transfer credits, they sought out information from various sources, which will be discussed in the next section, about the process before or during application to college: i always knew that u of t, for example, had their own transfer system. i assumed that all colleges had their own transfer system, so i just made an appointment with the colleges career services (oncat18-18). four other participants had not realized that credit transfer for courses taken in university might be a possibility, but found out from other people after starting college, three from college staff members and one from a friend on the same course: i actually didnt know until i think one of my friends was talking about transferring credits from her old university to here and how she was trying to go through that process, so i asked a little about the information and then she handed me an extra form she had. oncat18-11: i didnt know . . . i think [i found out] based on a teacher referring to a different possibility of not doing a microsoft class . . . to either transfer out of it if you have already completed one or if you are willing to take the challenge test and see if you know the material well enough. interviewer: so that gave you the idea that maybe . . . oncat18-11: some other [courses] might count, too, exactly. three participants did not inquire about using any of their previous university credits toward their college program. two had applied to college using only their high school transcript, and one of these was actually able to get an exemption for a math class based on that, but was told that nothing else from high school would be applicable for a credit. because this participant had been in an arts program in university but was now in a primarily math-based program at college, he felt there was no point in giving the college his university transcript and applying for credits. another participant knew that transferring credits between college programs could be done, but assumed that the same would not apply for university to college transfers: i just thought universities and colleges are so different, you know, there is no way they will give me anything (oncat18-15). moreover, there was no mention during either the application process or orientation of transferring university credits, so he never considered applying for them. he did recently find out that it was a possibility and that his college program has elective courses toward which he might be able to use previous university credits and was planning to look into that for the next semester. the third participant seemed to know that transferring university credits to college was a possibility, but was not interested in finding out more: i never tried. there might have been because we cover some of [the same] stuff, but basically, no (oncat18-13). getting information once our participants knew that they might be able to get transfer credits for their university courses, they sought information from a variety of sources on the procedures and process. figure 6 shows the breakdown of sources pursued by our participants in their information search. 31 figure 6. information sources about transfer credits career services 5% academic advisor 5% program staff 27% online 42% student services 21% online sources can be further broken down into college websites, student forums, facebook groups, the ontario colleges website, and oncats website, with college websites being by far the most commonly consulted information source. student services, program staff, career services, and academic advisors were almost entirely those at the receiving institution. only one participant consulted staff at both the origin and receiving institutions. steps in the transfer process for all participants, applying for transfer credits was done after they had been accepted to their college program, but different colleges asked participants to apply at different times. for some, the college encouraged participants to apply for transfer credits as soon as they received their acceptance. others were told to get their documentation together but not to apply until the semester had started. the majority of interactions involved in obtaining transfer credits were at the participants receiving institution. interactions with the sending institutions, i.e. universities, were limited to online requests for transcripts to be sent to the college, and occasionally tracking down previous professors or tas in order to find course outlines/syllabi from university classes. for the majority of our participants, applying for transfer credits consisted of three main steps: 1) filling out a form indicating the college courses they wanted to be exempt from and the university courses they thought would suffice as credit and sending it to the correct office at the college; 2) arranging for a university transcript to be sent to that same office; and 3) providing a course description/syllabus for the university courses they listed on the form in order for the college to determine that it was sufficiently similar to the college course to approve the exemption. much of this was done online, but occasionally participants would bring hard copy paperwork into the relevant offices. participants were informed usually within a few weeks whether their requests had been approved, via email or online student services portals. 32 for three participants, the process was slightly different, involving an extra step or even dropping a step from the usual process. one participant did not have to provide a course syllabus for one of her requests because the transfer credit, university english to exempt her from a college communications course, was very common and so was automatically approved without further documentation needed. for another participant, the transfer office was not certain whether the university course was enough of a match to the college course to grant exemption, and directed the participant to contact the professor teaching the college course, as the decision would then be at the professors discretion. another participant felt that one of his requests had been rejected unfairly. he contacted the office to appeal the decision and was told to resend the information for them to reconsider. the request was ultimately approved. transfer credit success figure 7 shows our participants success in terms of credit transfer approval. six out of 20 participants were able to get all of their of their transfer credit requests approved, seven were able to get some of their requests approved, and a further seven participants did not have any credits transferred. of those seven, four did not have any of their requests approved, while three did not apply. figure 7. transfer credit success no credit transfer application made 15% no requests approved 20% all requests approved 30% some requests approved 35% the most common courses that were approved for credit transfer were those that counted towards electives in the participants college programs. there were very few instances of participants getting exemptions for core program courses. relatedly, the most common reason reported for having a request rejected was that the university and college courses were not a close enough match in the colleges assessment to warrant an exemption. several participants commented on the highly specialized nature of their college courses, making transfer credits less of a possibility: 33 it was really difficult to transfer credits just because its such a unique program . . . i took a course in gender and gender politics [in university], and i tried to combine the two so i wouldnt have to take gender and development [at college], but they said no, its too unique (oncat18-04). the [university] course has to be very specifically like what the course were taking [in college] . . . there was an anthropology course i took at [university], but it wasnt close enough to one of the anthropology courses here. and so, they were just, they said no (oncat18-06). one participant was able to get a transfer credit despite the courses not being a precise match. she was able to get an approval for a sociology elective in college because she had taken several anthropology courses in university, however, this case appears to be very much in the minority. the only other reason reported for having a request denied was because the participants mark in the university course was too low. it is worth noting that some participants were not very concerned with whether their transfer credits were approved or not. while some were hoping for more credits than what they eventually had approved, any disappointment or frustration expressed was mild. two participants reported being so focused on a new beginning in college that the question of credit transfer was not of prime concern: its something i wanted to kind of start fresh, i guess, so it didnt really bother me too much whether or not i would be able to transfer [credits] successfully (oncat18-14). for me, it wasnt even all that important. i was just, kind of, grateful to be out of [university] and, you know, feeling productive. i was like, i hope they give me the credit, but if they dont, its okay (oncat18-09). one participant event went so far as to decline a transfer credit in her effort to get the most out of her college program: they offered to let me off my electives, but i chose not to because . . . there was a couple of electives they were offering that i said, you know what, maybe it would be beneficial (oncat18-18). transfer facilitators and obstacles overwhelmingly, the participants reported finding the credit transfer process fairly simple, describing it variously as, pretty seamless (18-07), very easy (18-14 and 18-16), not too bad (18-01), simple as that (18-08), not too stressful (18-09), and not too complicated (18-18). as discussed above, those participants who sought information did so via online sources, primarily college websites, and through college staff, such as student services, department staff, and academic advisors. participants listed these online and staff resources as the main transfer facilitators and found them, for the most part, very helpful: i was kind of intimidated by it in the beginning, but then when i read the steps on how to transfer credits [on the college website], i realized that it was actually pretty simple (oncat18-07). 34 i went to [student services] here, and they ended up setting it all up and helping me out here . . . they were so helpful. they gave me a little sheet of paper that had step-by-step, first do this, and then do this, all that kind of stuff (oncat18-05). i did have to track down course outlines, i did have to make an appointment, get everything . . . but it wasnt too complicated. i got my answer within a couple of weeks (oncat18-18). in terms of transfer obstacles, the two most commonly reported were the highly specialized nature of college courses and having to find outlines/syllabi from previous university courses. the former was the reason behind most of the transfer credit rejections reported by our participants, causing some frustration. for example, oncat18-19 had taken biology courses in university in sub-divisions, such as botany, but the college would not consider these in combination to exempt her from a general biology course in her college course. oncat18-17 felt that this reflected one of the key differences between university and college: the big reason for [my credit transfer requests being rejected] was because there were no lab credits. there is no theory here . . . its all practical, its all hands-on. finding outlines or syllabi from previous university courses in order to show equivalency to college courses has been well established in the research literature as a source of frustration for ctu transferring students (gerhardt, arai, carroll, and ackerman, 2012; fisher, nay, wilson, and wood, 2012; lakehead university 2012; durham college 2016), and this appears to be no different for utc students. in some cases, these outlines were easy to locate, but sometimes it proved more difficult, mainly due to the amount of time that had passed. the longer it had been since the participant took the course, the more of a challenge it became to find the right syllabus: it was kind of hard for me because . . . some courses were like two or three years old, and i had to go all the way back there trying to search for it (oncat18-16). it had to be specific, what was needed and for a lot of those i didnt actually have, so i had to go back to previous years . . . the professor doesnt even have my year online, so i had to get a previous year (oncat18-17). other obstacles were reported, but by only one or two participants each. these included: online information being confusing, having to go to individual professors for exemption permission, having to prove english competency (international student), not knowing where to go for information, conflicting and/or inaccurate information from college staff, and administrative errors at university causing delays to a student getting final transcripts. three participants did not have any complaints to report for themselves, but did report frustrating transfer credit situations they had heard from other students: credit equivalency fluctuating because of the amount of time that had elapsed since the university course was taken, inefficient processing of paperwork, and incomplete or conflicting information from college staff. again, it is important to note that while our participants did report these frustrations, the overall impression left by the transfer process was that it was simple and straightforward. 35 transfer recommendations and advice transfer recommendations participants were asked if they would make any recommendations to post-secondary institutions to improve the transfer process. because they had little trouble with the process overall, there were not many suggestions for its streamlining, but what suggestions were made are summarized below. general recommendations maintain a universal database of all university and college courses and their potential equivalencies, which would be available to both post-secondary institutions and transferring students to search. recommendations for receiving institutions more dedicated staff to process transfer credit requests, particularly at peak times like the fall provide complete and detailed information to those inquiring about credit transfer, do not just answer the specific questions transferring students ask. students do not always know what questions they should be asking and so end up with incomplete information. make credit transfer more visible, particularly for utc transfers. mention it during orientation and during the first week of classes. hold information sessions or provide a space where students transferring outside a bridging program can go for transfer guidance. offer seminars for utc transfer students to explore the issues that derailed them in university to ensure they do not happen in college, as well. recommendations for origin institutions universities should make more of an effort to assess why people are leaving before completing their programs. we will discuss these recommendations further in our final section on policy recommendations. transfer advice participants were also asked what advice they would give for other students thinking about transferring from university to college. we grouped these into two categories: specific practical advice about the transfer process and more general advice about post-secondary pathways. the most common piece of practical advice our participants would give is to, do your research (oncat18-16). participants were very much in unison on this point. they felt that potential transfer students should be strongly encouraged to seek all the information they could about how different colleges deal with transfer credits, or, if the student has already decided on a college, to get as much detail as possible on that colleges transfer process. participants suggested exploring college websites, contacting the registrars office, academic advisors, or student services for help or going on college tours. oncat18-05 emphasized seeking help from the receiving institution and not the origin institution: 36 talk to where you want to go, not where youre coming from . . . i found that [the university] didnt want to give me information about [college] because they obviously want you to stay, they want your money, they want you as a student. whereas [the college] was over-the-moon willing to help you because they want the student. participants would also encourage utc transfer students to take careful stock of what they did in university and how it might be applicable to their new college program, because the college will only consider those transfer credits the student requests, rather than looking at an entire university transcript to see what might be eligible. our participants had a great deal more to say in the vein of general advice about post-secondary pathways. echoing their advice to do your research when investigating transfer processes, they strongly encouraged students to think about what they want, now and for the future, discuss things with friends and family, seek out information, and explore all their post-secondary options before making a choice: i would advise them to plan out ahead and see what their actual goals after school are. and then see whichever path works best for them (oncat18-13). figure out what you want before you apply. yeah, because schools an investment, and i know a lot of people who have gone to school just for the sake of going to school, but i know from my experience if i wasnt engaged in what i was learning, i wasnt actually learning anything (oncat18-03). i would say dont go to school unless you know exactly what you want to take. youre just wasting your time [otherwise], wasting your time and money. just wait a bit and then decide (oncat18-06). make sure youre doing it for the right reasons (oncat18-17). relatedly, oncat18-04 encouraged students to be advocates for themselves on their postsecondary journey, to take responsibility for their path, rather than letting the institutions look after their best interests. for oncat18-19 and 18-20, this meant making a decision that was right for them, rather than doing what their parents or others thought they should: if you dont think [university] is going to take you where you want to [be], then you shouldnt go, and you shouldnt listen to your parents, because its going to be your life in the end, its not theirs (oncat18-19). indeed, several participants expressed some regret over not taking the time to explore different options after high school and assuming, often under the influence of parents, that university was the only path, as will be discussed in the next section on transfer reflections. they were eager to let students struggling at university know that university is not the only option, that college education was just as legitimate a path and might suit them much better: i guess not to let your biases that university is superior prevent you from going to college. i feel like way too many people go to university now just because its expected of them 37 and them they end up graduating with these essentially useless degrees, because everyone has an undergraduate degree now (oncat18-02). just really think about it, and if you feel like [college] is the right decision for you, if you feel like you cant handle university, honestly, theres no shame. leave it. its still going to be there [later] (oncat18-09). cut your losses . . . and other people who are similar, where your mental health is degrading, your grades over are degrading, and financially or in any kind of way its hard for you to reach that goal, university, you dont have to stay (oncat18-16). oncat18-07 and 18-08 warned, however, that a change of direction and institution was not a guaranteed remedy for the struggles and hardships of university. it was therefore important to consider the nature of the problems that underlay the negative experiences of so many utc transfer students and to make sure these were being addressed: it can be a bit intimidating to go from one post-secondary institution where you didnt have a necessarily great experience right into another one, but i think the biggest thing is to just keep an open mind and know that your new experience isnt necessarily going to be just like your old one, [but] its also not going to fix all your problems . . . you still have to work away at certain things in yourself and figure out, like, what you can do to make your experience better there, which is what im trying to do right now (oncat1808). transfer reflections positive reflections participants were asked to reflect on their decision to leave university and go to college, and how they felt about it now, looking back. on the whole, they reflected very positively on their transfer, with 18 out of 20 explicitly stating that it was a good decision, and they were happy with it. oncat18-01 summed up the feelings of the majority of the participants when she said, i think it was a good decision to come here, and i think it was kind of nice to get a fresh start. like several of the others, she was enjoying her college program much more than she had enjoyed university and felt she had been able to re-establish her work ethic. oncat18-05 expressed similar sentiments in that she was not repeating the procrastination and dread of study that plagued her university experience. oncat18-05s long commute was also gone, something that was a relief to oncat18-20, as well. six other participants commented on their improved academic performance since beginning their college programs, which was cause for celebration given the academic struggles that characterized many of their university experiences: i really see myself completing this, which is thrilling for me because of everything ive, i guess, experienced academically so far (oncat18-14). ive always worked hard, but now its showing (oncat18-04). 38 i felt like i was doing something real, and then i actually started to do well in it, because i got that continuous feedback . . . positive feedback (oncat18-03). for oncat18-03 and three other participants, their time in college had not only seen academic improvement, it was also helpful in terms of recovering from some of the mental and physical health struggles they experienced in university. oncat18-19 felt that being closer to home, renewed interest in her studies, and the smaller and more personal college learning environment made going to college, the best decision for me and my health. oncat18-20 felt that staying in university would have meant worsening health and increasing stress, but going to college instead has allowed her to recover. oncat18-03s turnaround since leaving university, where he experienced severe mental health struggles, was significantly boosted by his college experience, which he felt had given him purpose: [this college program] is probably the best that could have happened to me because there was a time when i even questioned if i could work again because of my diagnosis. and to be able to see myself gradually inch forward and get to a point where im now working in a field thats not food service, like i actually have qualifications now, its incredible. i feel immensely proud. only two of our participants seemed to be experiencing some of the same problems in college (mental health struggles and academic struggles) that had been significant factors in their decision to leave university, but both these participants maintained that the decision to transfer was a good one. the improved performance of our participants supports the (albeit scant) evidence in the research literature that utc transfer students tend to fare well post-transfer. nine participants were not only happy with their decision to leave university and go to college, but they expressed a wish to have transferred earlier, or even to have skipped university altogether and gone to college straight out of high school: interviewer: if you had known about [your current college program] before, do you think you might have just started with that? oncat18-01: yeah, i think i probably would have just started with this. and then if i wanted to do more schooling afterwards, there are a lot of different bridging programs . . . so i kind of wish i had started with this first and then afterwards, if i wanted to get that bachelors, [go to university]. i think i should have just gone straight into college from high school. if i could talk to myself back then, thats what i would say (oncat18-13). my only regret is that i didnt do it sooner (oncat18-15). admittedly, i wish i had made it sooner [the decision to transfer] . . . in terms of overall money, i would have saved a lot, and i would have saved myself a lot of time (oncat18-18). unsurprisingly, a number of participants felt that their future job prospects were improved by the decision to go to college, providing another reason for positive reflection on their transfer. 39 oncat18-07 thought that university education did not necessarily provide students with a career direction and left them with a great deal of uncertainty over finding a job after degree completion. indeed, she wondered whether graduate school was now necessary in order to find a job in your degree field because so many people have undergraduate degrees. college, on the other hand, focused students in a very specific direction, and, gets results much faster. oncat18-18 reported seeing friends graduate from university with top marks, still have trouble finding work, and end up working in an unrelated field. oncat 18-20 did not think she would have gotten a job right away if she had finished her university degree, but already has a job lined up for when she finishes her college diploma, largely thanks to the job placement that was part of the program. getting results faster was especially important for two of our participants because they reported being impatient to move on from education. this was not because they did not like school or learning, though there was an element of being tired of it, but because they felt that being in school at their age meant they were behind where they should be on their life pathways or behind where others their age were on their life pathways. having to continue their education was delaying other important activities or milestones, such as working, earning money, buying a house, and having a family: im 25, i want to start working. im tired of being in school, and i want to have money and a house and get my life together . . . i could have been 22 and working, and now ill be 25 and working (oncat18-02). this sense of being behind, or being left behind, was particularly acute for oncat18-08, who compared his own position with that of peers and of his parents when they were his age, and found his position wanting: i wish i had just found a way to keep my head down and powered through [my degree] because right now, im 27, im still not done my education, you know? i work at a [retail store] . . . [former classmates] are finished the diploma program, and theyre working, and theyre moving on with their lives. at the end of the day, theyre making money, and im not. my parents had me when they were 20, right, and they were both done university and everything . . . they were ready to go out into the world. ambivalent and negative reflections despite the overall positive nature of our participants reflections, there were some lingering regrets and doubts expressed by many, though they did not cause any of them to regret wholesale the decision to leave university and go to college. three participants had only a year left on their university degrees when they decided to leave, and while they were happy in their college programs, there was some part of them that wished they had stayed to complete it. as oncat18-01 put it, i kind of wish i had just stuck out the year to complete it. this was echoed by oncat18-20, who said, i do regret just leaving during third year because i did have one year left, and i have a lot of people telling me you could have just finished it and then went to college. she went on to say, however, that this regret was small and did not make her 40 question her decision to transfer, because she did not feel she would have been able to handle another year in university. for two other participants, it was not so much not finishing the degree they regretted as the missed opportunities they might otherwise have had if they did finish it. oncat18-10 thought that a university degree would not necessarily make him a better or more qualified potential employee, but that having a degree would make him more likely to get interviews at certain places. oncat18-02, who, as quoted above, was tired of school and wanted to move into work, felt that college was, for her, a compromise, a way to move on with life more quickly, though maybe not in her first choice career: honestly, i still think i would have rather gone into research if that would have been a possibility [which would have necessitated graduate school], but i think given my circumstances and everything thats happened, im happy with where its going towards, i guess. oncat18-18 said that he did not regret not finishing his university degree, but, wouldnt mind still having a science degree to [his] name, because others recognize it as an accomplishment. more often, though, participants reported regrets over not finishing their university degrees and going to college instead for two other reasons: a sense of personal failure and disappointing others. six participants felt that leaving university before graduating reflected badly on them and left them with a sense of failure, especially in the period leading up to and immediately after their departure from university. i started to think about what made me feel bad for not finishing that program, and it was essentially that i felt like i had failed. i felt like i had just, i reached my limit, i tried to push against it, and i couldnt do it (oncat18-03). oh, yeah, there are still parts of me that feel like i failed just because i didnt finish what i started. i always pictured graduating [from university], so thats kind of gone now . . . i was really devastated because i felt like i was a failure for not being able to complete [my degree] (oncat18-04). its important to me as a person just to finish what i started. its a little bit like something that you kind of just think, what if? and putting your mind to it and saying, yeah, i can finish that (oncat18-11). i dont think i should feel regret, but i do. i guess i feel like sometimes . . . that i might have wasted time, you know, with my life trying to pursue things that didnt end up going through (oncat18-14). the other prominent source of regret or ambivalence came from the reactions of others to their decision to transfer. 18 out of 20 participants reported that, at the time of the interview, their family and friends were supportive of the participants choices and were happy to see them succeeding in college. 13 participants also reported, however, that approval of their decision was 41 not universal, that some significant people in their lives did not support transfer, at least initially. this appears to be largely due to cultural and societal expectations surrounding high achievement, particularly as enforced by parents, and perceptions of college education versus university education, with university education seen as being superior. indeed, participants spoke at length in this section and other sections of the interview about their own and others biases in favour of university over college. four participants linked this bias toward university to race, culture, and immigrant status: a lot of children of immigrants, they kind of push their kids to go to university, and its kind of unrealistic sometimes when . . . thats not what they want to do (oncat18-01). my parents, being eastern european parents, thought that, obviously, a university is the only want to get my degree and everything . . . there was a lot of, i guess, stigma around colleges in my family, probably just due to lack of information. my parents just didnt know enough about what colleges offer to have a better judgment about it (oncat1808). its just in our brown culture. i think in asian culture in general, thats the thing, youre supposed to aim high . . . doing something in engineering or something medical. whatever it is, do it in a university, thats where you get a better job (oncat18-12). especially i think in south asian communities, when they immigrated over here, they worked tough jobs, and i know all my cousins, they kind of have the same experience where they . . . dont even talk about college. college is kind of looked down upon. so, its university, thats the just the natural progression (oncat18-12). its just since [my parents] are from the philippines, theyre kind of old school, and theyre like, oh, no, you need a university degree (oncat18-19). of the 13 participants who reported disapproval from family or friends, 10 identified as either visible minority or first or second generation immigrants or both. these participants experiences support other canadian education research, showing that recent immigrants tend to have higher expectations for their lives and of their children (kaushik and drolet 2018; areepattamannil and lee 2014), and that certain ethno-racial groups, particularly asian groups, have higher academic achievements than peers from other groups (robson, anisef, and brown 2016), which some researchers have linked to high parental expectations (yau, oreilly, rosolen, and archer 2011; yau, rosolen, and archer 2015). it is perhaps not surprising, then, that some participants from met with resistance when they decided to leave university and pursue college instead: i was kind of seen as a failure [by my mom] (oncat18-11). at first, [my mom] was like, why are you dropping out? you have one year left, you wasted all these years now, and you wasted all this money. why dont you just finish it? (oncat18-20). 42 it caused a lot of issues between me and my dad, to be honest, because he was very, you need to go to university. you are not going to college (oncat18-05). even though my dad is the one that i called [for approval to transfer], and he was the one that said, you know, if thats what you choose, thats fine, well support you, its still there in the back of his head, and hell still mention it. so, that kind of keeps it in my head, too, unfortunately, but it is what it is (oncat18-12). the perception of university education as superior to college education is even reflected in the language often used to describe university-to-college mobility, i.e. reverse transfer. this term reflects ideas about the usual or normal direction of transfer between universities and colleges, which, historically, has been from college-to-university. the phrase reverse transfer means a utc transfer in a literal sense, but the word reverse rather negatively implies that the student is going backward or in the wrong direction. none of our participants reported being aware of this phrase, but many were on the receiving end of comments that made them feel as though they were somehow moving backward: i have had some people tell me that typically college is a step down from university . . . or theyd get really confused because i would tell them i was in university and all of a sudden, im in college, and theyre like, what happened? (oncat18-20). my friend sometimes would say something like, those who cannot do science, do business (oncat18-11). its so weird to tell people that i went to [university] and now im here. they look at it like, oh, okay, so you werent good enough to go to university, so you came here (oncat18-12). one of my friends was like, okay, people transfer from college to university. you are doing it the other way around (oncat18-15). fortunately for our participants, the vast majority who reported initially negative reactions from family and/or friends found that these reactions became tempered over time and turned positive once family and friends saw either the toll university was taking on the participant or the improvement the participants experienced in their personal and academic circumstances once at college: once it got to a point where they clearly saw that i was struggling and not getting anywhere, they did then support the decision (oncat18-08). for some, the eventual support stemmed from their parents relief that the participant was just doing something, as it was for oncat18-07: [my family] are just happy im in school, because ive been out of school. like, theres that gap. and theyre like, we dont care what you do, just be going to school. this was echoed by oncat18-09, who said, honestly, i think everybody was probably just grateful that i was doing something at all. 43 conclusion and policy recommendations this project sheds light on a largely unstudied phenomenon in the ontario post-secondary landscape: university-to-college transfer. the in-depth qualitative data we gathered from our participants on motivations for, experiences of, and reflections on transfer help to enlarge and clarify our understanding of utc transfer in particular and post-secondary mobility more generally. in order to get a clearer picture of participants motivations for transfer, we departed from much of the previous research on transfer and separated their reasons for leaving university from their reasons for choosing college. this lead to two of our most important findings: 1) utc transfers appeared to happen only in response to plans going awry. they were never planned; and 2) the pull factors of college only became relevant after the push factors of university experience forced participants to reevaluate their plans. leaving university was motivated by academic struggles, mental/physical health and sen struggles, and concerns over future prospects. these three themes were highly interconnected, particularly academic and mental health struggles, creating negative feedback loops that derailed university study. despite these struggles, some participants still spent prolonged periods of time in university attempting to complete their degrees. once the decision to leave university was made, participants then turned to alternative options, one of which was college. their reasons for entering college were practical and straightforward, relating to four main elements: subject interest, college learning environment, location, and future prospects. participants experience of the transfer process was substantially similar to what has been previously documented in the literature. on the whole, participants described it as simple, though they did find the highly specialized nature of some college courses and finding syllabi for old university courses frustrating. specialized college courses meant that university courses were sometimes not equivalent enough to warrant an exemption, which was the most common reason for having a transfer credit request rejected. college websites and college staff were listed as the most common sources of information on credit transfer and the best facilitators of the process. participants would encourage other potential utc transfer students to do their research, explore all post-secondary options, and not to let biases in favour of university over college hold them back. overall, participants reflected very positively on their decision to leave university and go to college. several wished they had left university earlier or even gone to college straight out of high school and not gone to university at all. negative or ambivalent reflections most often related to a sense of personal failure for not having finished what they started and/or the negative reactions of others, particularly parents. for some, negative reflections on leaving university were tied to cultural and societal expectations about high achievement and perceptions of university education as superior to college education as reflected in the phrase reverse transfer. however, participants found that such negative reflections from family and friends were tempered over time when their health, state of mind, motivation, and academics improved while at college. 44 policy recommendations making policy recommendations around utc transfer is a somewhat tricky proposition in ontario, because each institution has jurisdiction over its own policy and practices. without an overarching transfer system in which all post-secondary institutions participate, mobility between institutions will always be more difficult than within-institution mobility. recommendations that are not institution specific, that would require coordinated participation from multiple institutions, therefore often run the risk of proving ineffectual. likewise, recommendations that would require significant expenditures on the part of institutions or overhauls of existing transfer infrastructure also run the risk of simply being ignored because they are too costly or complicated. we also realize that several universities and colleges (particularly those in close proximity to each other) have their own articulation agreements in place already. with that in mind, we have tried to make our recommendations moderate in scope. 1. make credit transfer part of the application process. non-linear pathways are an established feature of the post-secondary landscape, however, this project and other transfer research shows that students can be unaware of the potential for transfer credits when moving from institution to institution. we think this is a particular hazard for utc transfer students, because, as oncat18-15 put it, i just thought universities and colleges are so different, you know, there is no way they will give me anything. for this reason, we recommend that transfer, or at least the awareness of transfer, become integrated into the application process for both universities and colleges. when students apply to ontario universities and colleges through ouas or ocas, they can indicate that they have previous post-secondary experience, and this would be an ideal place to inform them that, if they do have previous post-secondary, they may be eligible for transfer credits and to contact their receiving institution for more details. even this bare minimum of information would help prevent transferring students from missing out on the opportunity of transfer credits because they simply did not know it was possible. 2. information sessions aimed specifically at utc transfer students once they are accepted to college. combining several of the transfer recommendations made by our participants, we recommend information sessions, or perhaps information packets, specifically aimed at utc transfer students to be held or given out once the student has been accepted to the college or during the first weeks of classes. such sessions could address transfer credits and the transfer process, as well as making the students aware of the various support services the college offers, academic and personal. we feel a rundown of support services is particularly important for utc transfer students given the sometimes intense struggles our participants related during their time at university. we feel that it would be in the best interests of both the utc students and the college to provide an opportunity for the students to reflect on their university experiences and any struggles they had during that time, if they have not done so already, in order to ensure that these problems are not repeated in college. 45 3. universities should conduct exit surveys with students who leave before completing their degree in order to evaluate programs and support services. exit interviews are common in the world of employment, but have not yet, to our knowledge, been widely implemented to students leaving post-secondary institutions. following the suggestion of one of our participants, we recommend that universities conduct exit surveys with leaving students (interviews may be too cumbersome due to the number of students who drop out), with especial attention to those who leave before completing their program. these surveys can be used to evaluate programs and support services and identify problem areas. it would also be beneficial if some of the data from these surveys, properly anonymized, could be made available to post-secondary education scholars for further study. 4. ontario post-secondary institutions should build and maintain a database of courses and transfer equivalents. the idea of a universal database was taken up by oncat, and they maintain one on the ontransfer.ca website, but this is not an official guide. in order for this to be a more useful resource, it must be taken further with the co-operation of all ontario post-secondary institutions. to represent a true and reliable guide to transfer credit possibilities, such a database would need to be updated (at least annually) with course descriptions and transfer equivalents by each institution and be available to all other institutions and ontario students. 5. wider data availability on post-secondary pathways and post-secondary success. in order to better track and study post-secondary pathways, researchers need access to data on enrollment, persistence, academic performance, and completion. without this, it is difficult if not impossible to get a complete picture of mobility in the post-secondary landscape and to gauge how successful utc transfer students are in their new programs. 6. more information about non-linear post-secondary pathways and transfer should be aimed at high school students. our study shows that high school students in ontario can be better informed about their post-secondary options and, moreover, should be made aware of the potential for nonlinear pathways and post-secondary mobility. transfer is an option of which they should be aware at the outset, as it may well be a feature of their post-secondary journey. 7. reverse transfer should no longer be used as a descriptor for university-to-college mobility. the phrase reverse transfer has negative connotations because it implies that college-touniversity transfer is normal and correct, and university-to-college transfer is abnormal and incorrect, that utc transfer students are going the wrong way, as it were. the perception of university 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(2018). ready for a new start? a case study of students who transfer from four-year institutions to community college: experiences and learned navigational strategies. doctoral dissertation. new york: teachers college, columbia university. maxwell, w., hagedorn, l. s., brocato, p., moon, h. s., & perrakis, a. (2002). proceedings from the annual meetings of the american educational research association: the community college shuffle: student patterns of multiple enrolments. new orleans, la: american educational research association. moodie, g. (2004). reverse transfer in australia. international journal of training research 2(2), 24-48. doi:10.5172/ijtr.2.2.24 robson, k., brown, r., & anisef, p. (2016). identifying the complexity of barriers faced by marginalized youth in transition to postsecondary education in ontario. in w. lehmann (eds), education and society: canadian perspectives (51-65). london: oxford university press. robson, k., brown, r. s., maier, r., & ranjbar, m. (2016). unraveling the knot: understanding the diverse postsecondary pathways of toronto high school students. retrieved from: ontario council on articulation and transfer website: http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2016-09- finalreport-mcmaster-university-unraveling-the-knot-understanding-the-diversepostsecondary-pathways.pdf sidhu, r., lin, s., munro, y., smith, r., parna, j., & de oca sarasua, e. (2016). are excess credits for college-to-university transfer students a concern?: a case study within the ontario context. retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content /pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2014-32-final-report-excess-credit-study-atyorkuniversity.pdf shook, c., norman, c., & guyatt, j. (2016). assessing determinants of academic success for college to university transfer in the diploma to degree program: executive summary. retrieved from ontario council on articulation and transfer website: http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2015-07final-report-the-governing-council-of-uoft-assessing-determinants-ofacademicsuccess-for-college-to-university-transfer.pdf stewart, j., & martinello, f. (2012). transfer students in ontario: how are they faring? retrieved from ontario council on articulation and transfer website: 50 http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2012-1brock-transfer-students-in-ontario-how-are-they-faring.pdf usher, a., & jarvey, p. (2012). student experiences in credit transfer at ontario colleges: final report. retrieved from ontario council on articulation and transfer website: http://www.oncat.ca/files_docs/content/pdf/en/oncat_research_reports/2012-3collegesontario-student-experiences-credit-transfer-ontario-colleges-en.pdf waterman, s. j., & sands, t. l. (2016). a pathway to college success: reverse transfer as a means to move forward among the haudenosaunee (iroquois). journal of american indian education, 55(2), 51-74. ontario council on articulation and transfer. (n.d.). welcome to the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat). retrieved from http://www.oncat.ca/ wilson, d. n. (2009). reverse transfer constraints upon planning post secondary programs. in r. l. raby & e. j. valeau (eds.), community college models: globalization and higher education reform (pp. 401-416). new york: springer. yau, m., & o'reilly, j. (2007). student census, grades 7-12: system overview. toronto: toronto district school board. retrieved from: https://www.tdsb.on.ca/portals/research/docs/reports/2006studentcensussystemovervie w1.pdf yau, m., oreilly, j., roselen, l., & archer, b. (2011). census portraits: understanding our students ethno-racial backgrounds: east asian students. toronto: toronto district school board. retrieved from: https://www.tdsb.on.ca/portals/research/docs/reports/portraitseastasian.pdf yau, m., roselen, l., & archer, b. (2015). census portraits: understanding our students backgrounds: south asian students. toronto: toronto district school board. retrieved from: https://www.tdsb.on.ca/portals/research/docs/reports/portraitssouthasian.pdf 51 appendix a participant demographic form a study of university-to-college transfers in southern ontario instructions: please fill in some basic background information about yourself. you may skip any questions you do not wish to answer. 1. year of birth: __________ 2. sex: male ______ female______ intersex: ______ prefer not to say ______ 3. with which gender do you most identify: male ___ female___ transgender___ other (please specify)___________ prefer not to say___ 4. where were you born? (top 10 countries of birth after canada are listed) afghanistan___ canada___ india___ pakistan___ south korea___ united states___ bangladesh___ china___ iran___ philippines___ sri lanka___ other (specify)____________ 4b. if you were born outside of canada, in what year did you immigrate? ________ 5. where were your parents born? (pick two if your parents were born in different countries) afghanistan___ canada___ india___ pakistan___ south korea___ united states___ bangladesh___ china___ iran___ philippines___ sri lanka___ other (specify)____________ 52 6. which of the following best describes your racial background? (pick only one) aboriginal___ asian east (e.g. china, japan, korea)___ asian south (e.g. india, pakistan, sri lanka)___ asian southeast (e.g. malaysia, philippines, vietnam)____ black africa (e.g. ghana, kenya, somalia)___ black canada black caribbean region (e.g. jamaica, barbados)___ latin america (e.g. argentina, chile, el salvador)___ indian-caribbean (e.g. guyana with origins in india)___ middle eastern (e.g. egypt, iran, lebanon)___ white canada___ white europe (e.g. england, italy, portugal, russia)___ other (please specify)__________________ 7. what levels of education have you completed (in canada or in any other country)? i have completed: secondary school _____ college ______ university _____ 8. what is your employment status? i am: employed full-time ____ employed part-time ____ unemployed ____ a full-time student ____ a part-time student ____ a stay-at-home parent ____ 9. what is your approximate income? under $10,000___ $20,000 and under___ $30,000 and under___ $40,000 and under___ $50,000 and over___ 10. what levels of education have your parents completed (in canada or in any other country)? my mother has completed: secondary___ college___ university___ dont know___ my father has completed: secondary___ college___ university___ dont know___ my caregiver has completed: secondary___ college___ university___ dont know___ 11. what is your parents employment status? (pick only one for each parent) my mother is: employed full-time___ employed part-time___ unemployed__ a stay-at-home parent___ retired___ dont know___ my father is: employed full-time___ employed part-time___ unemployed__ a stay-at-home parent___ retired___ dont know___ my caregiver is: employed full-time___ employed part-time___ unemployed__ a stay-at-home parent___ retired___ dont know___ 53 12. if your parents work, what are their jobs/occupations? (write what they do, such as cashier, teacher, truck driver, computer technician, restaurant owner, accountant, bookkeeper, nurse, office manager, auto mechanic, lawyer, etc.) my mothers job is: __________________________ dont know___ my fathers job is: __________________________ dont know___ my caregivers job is: __________________________ dont know___ 13. in what year did you graduate from high school? __________ 14. what were your average grades in high school? 90-100____ 80-89____ 70-79____ 60-69____ 50-59____ below 50____ 15. have you ever been identified as having a special education need or accommodation, including and individual education plan? no_______ yes (please specify)______________________________ 54 appendix b interview schedule university-to-college transfers information about these interview questions: i am going to ask you questins about your experience of university-to-college transfers. this interview will be one-to-one and will be openended (not just yes or no answers). sometimes i will use short questions to make sure i understand what you told me (so, you are saying that . . .), to get more information (please tell me more.), or to learn what you think or feel about something (why do you think that is?). please feel free to bring in any information you feel is relevant, even if i havent asked about it specifically. you do not have to answer any question if you dont wish to. i will make every effort to protect your anonymity, however, we are sometimes identifiable through the stories we tell, so please keep this in mind when providing your answer. you can leave out certain information or ask that it not be sued if you feel it would compromise your privacy. 1. information about your life currently: age, main activities school, work, family, and other commitments. no detailed information necessary, just an idea of how majority of time is spent and commitment load. for example, can ask what kind of work they do and if full or part-time, but dont need to know where or specific duties 2. tell me about yourself in secondary school what kind of student? enjoyable time or not? plans and ambitions for the future, i.e. what decisions did you make about what you would do after high school? 3. tell me about the university program in which you enrolled and why you chose that program. describe the schedule and course demands. what did you like about it? what did you dislike about it? 4. what led to your decision to transfer out of that program? 5. what about the university program would have needed to change in order for your to have remained in it? 6. why did you choose the college program in which youre enrolled now? 7. describe the transfer process. how did you find out what you needed to do to transfer? what were the steps you had to go through? 8. how would you characterize the transfer process? easy or difficult? straightforward or complicated? were there obstacles? if yes, please describe them. 9. is there anything that could have been done to make the transfer process easier? 10. tell me about the college program in which youre enrolled now. describe the schedule and course demands. what do you like about it? what do you dislike about it? 11. looking back, what do you think about your decision to transfer? 12. what were the perceptions of others in terms of your decision to transfer? 13. what advice would you give someone who was thinking about transferring from university to college? 14. is there anything else youd like to add, anything you feel is important for us to know but that i didnt ask about? 55

bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 bachelor of mining engineering technology project #: 2014-21 queens university northern college prepared by: david yokom submitted: april 30th, 2018 page 1 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 list of participants queens university dr. lynann clapham associate dean (academic) engineering.academic@queensu.ca dr. takis katsabanis head, robert m. buchan department of mining takis.katsabanis@queensu.ca david yokom project manager david.yokom@queensu.ca eric tremblay manager, engineering teaching and learning team tremblaye@queensu.ca northern college aaron klooster associate dean (trades and technologies) kimberley norman program coordinator kloostera@northern.on.ca normank@northern.on.ca page 2 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 table of contents executive summary ............................................................................................................. 4 project purpose and goals............................................................................................. 6 pathway development ...................................................................................................... 8 methodology ...................................................................................................................... 9 program comparison and analysis ................................................................................. 13 implementation process and timelines ........................................................................... 15 summary of pathway(s) created .............................................................................. 16 promising practices and lessons learned......................................................... 17 online learning artifacts ................................................................................................ 17 online quality control .................................................................................................... 18 community of learners ................................................................................................... 19 laboratory experience ..................................................................................................... 20 the challenge of design ................................................................................................. 21 financial report (separate document) ............................................................... 23 financial summary .......................................................................................................... 23 personnel .......................................................................................................................... 24 course development ........................................................................................................ 24 in-kind contributions ...................................................................................................... 24 appendices (separate document) .............................................................................. 25 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. curriculum ............................................................................................................... 25 queens university northern college memorandum of understanding ............ 184 queens university northern college articulation and transfer agreement .... 187 approvals process for a new undergraduate program proposal .......................... 197 math gap analysis ................................................................................................ 198 undergraduate degree-level expecations to learning outcome mapping.......... 210 page 3 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 executive summary the robert m. buchan department of mining at queens university and northern colleges haileybury school of mines (nchsm) applied to the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) in 2014 for funding to support the development of a diploma-to-degree pathway in mining engineering. oncat funded the proposal with a $1,117,005 grant for course development, and the faculty of engineering and applied science (feas) contributed an additional $1,124,816.15 to support program and curriculum development, as well as program coordination and administration, it infrastructure, and marketing and recruitment initiatives. the oncat and feas funds covered an initial three-year pilot of the program (which was extended by one year), with the feas funding then used to bridge the pilot program development phase into the program delivery phase until the program was fully developed. the btech program is a diploma-to-degree pathway initially designed for the 2-year mine engineering technician program offered at northern college, but eventually expanded to include graduates of any engineering technology program seeking to upgrade their academic credentials. graduates who maintained a 75% cumulative average in their college program receive block transfer credit for the first two years of study, and start the btech program enrolling in a customized bridging curriculum designed to close the knowledge gap between college and university. upon successful completion of the bridge, students move directly into year 3, and then year 4. each year also includes an on-site field school, an experiential learning module where students complete a series of laboratories necessary to obtain their degree. the program includes seven bridge courses, twelve year 3 courses, twelve year 4 courses, as well as two field schools. course development was achieved through multi-disciplinary course development teams, which included expertise in educational development and instructional design, multimedia technologies, as well as subject matter expertise. the teams broke the development timeline into four phases, designed to break the development cycle into manageable components, starting with scoping the course and identifying learning outcomes, through content development, and finishing with a quality review. development timelines typically ranged from 8-12 months, with some outliers taking as long as 24 months to complete. the average cost to develop a course was $43k. graduates of the program receive a bachelors of mining engineering technology (btech) degree which is currently unaccredited. initial discussions with the professional engineers of ontario (peo) have highlighted issues with online programming, and additional discussions will be necessary if a pathway to licensure is to be established. while students cannot apply for licensure upon graduation, they are eligible to apply for masters studies (either in the masters of science, or masters of engineering programs). however; the issue of accreditation and licensure remains an on-going risk for the programs long-term success. the btech program opened enrollment in january 2016. since that time, weve had 66 applications, made 57 offers of admission, and currently have 34 students active in the program. while this continues to exceed original enrollment forecasts, identifying strategies to improve our retention rate will be an on-going priority as we move from pilot phase into regular operation. recruitment efforts are driven by a multi-faceted outreach program that includes both targeted page 4 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 digital promotion, and on-campus recruitment visits. three formal articulation and transfer agreements have been signed with northern college, cambrian college, and saskatchewan polytechnic who all have mining engineering technology programs, as well as over a dozen other engineering technology programs that can articulate into the btech program. as the program grows, we hope to add more partnerships with relevant college programs. page 5 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 project purpose and goals queens universitys robert m. buchan department of mining and northern colleges haileybury school of mines (nchsm) have partnered on a joint collaboration to create a new diploma-todegree bachelor of mining engineering technology (btech) program. the idea for the program was conceived at the college level. through consultations with their industry advisory committee, northern college identified a pathway need for their graduates to obtain a university degree. the college approached queens university about a potential collaboration. building on the successful strategy employed by nchsms online mining engineering technician program, the foundations of an online btech program were formed. the program is open to the 2-yr mine engineering technician graduates from northern college, as well as any 3-yr college engineering technology program graduates. a survey of 500 mining professionals1 were asked to rate on a scale of 1-10 recent engineering graduates preparedness to enter the workforce, nearly 56% of respondents ranked new hire engineers as only being between a 5-7 out of 10. of those respondents, 79% identified graduates as lacking practical hands-on training, 46% identified management skills, and 43% identified communication skills. the detailed results of the survey are shown in figures 1 and 2. figure 1: survey response to the question: thinking about new hire engineers, how prepared are they to enter your workforce? 1. 2014 bachelor of technology industry survey, queens university page 6 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 figure 2: survey response to the question: thinking about new hire engineers, what training do they lack upon entering your workforce? as a result of the survey information, the btech program curriculum was designed to provide a balance of technical, managerial, and societal skills. table 1 shows the program learning outcomes (plos) that were used for the development of the curriculum. fundamentally, the curriculum provides depth of knowledge and background theory in a broad range of technical mining competencies, while also emphasizing practical application skills through current and emerging trends towards using technologically advanced equipment. table 1: program learning outcomes 1. identify, formulate, analyze, and solve typical mining engineering problems using a balance of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and earth sciences 2. conduct experiments, analyze and interpret data 3. choose and implement sustainable methods for the safe extraction, handling, and processing of mineral resources to meet the technical, economic, and environmental needs of society 4. employ modern engineering tools effectively for the purpose of mine planning and design, as well as for data visualization, analysis and interpretation 5. value the mining industrys unique characteristics in terms of its economic, legal, environmental and societal elements 6. work professionally and communicate effectively in a team-based multi-disciplinary environment. articulate and justify technical solutions to diverse audiences page 7 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 pathway development the btech diploma-to-degree pathway is shown in figure 3, with the to date number of applications and offers since inception shown in figure 4. figure 3: btech program pathway diagram figure 4: btech program applications and offers page 8 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 methodology following the initial consultation process in 2012, northern college and queens university signed a memorandum of understanding (mou) in 2014 (appendix 2). the mou agreed to share resources and expertise on the development of a new online degree program. due to the size and scope of the project, a dedicated project manager was hired in the fall of 2014 to oversee the approvals process, development, and pilot delivery of the program. the approvals process for a new degree program at queens university requires extensive thought relating to quality assurance (its officially called the queens university quality assurance process, or quqap). initial development of the program framework occurred at the mining department level, and was presented to the faculty of engineering and applied science faculty board for approval in november 2014. following faculty board approval, the program was submitted to the senate committee on academic development for approval in february 2015, and following that received queens senate approval in march 2015. from there, the program was submitted to the ministry of training, colleges, and universities (mtcu) for approval, which was received in may 2015. while not officially a program, course development initiated in january 2015 starting with the bridging curriculum. because the program intakes students from any engineering technology background (civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc.) it was necessary to build a set of customizable bridging courses, that various students could take to fill their theoretical gaps, depending on their backgrounds. additionally, because the various college programs were so diverse in the type of content taught, rather than individually map the college programs to the btech program, it was decided to map the necessary theory required in year 4 of the program back to year 3, and then build the necessary theoretical knowledge taught in the bridge from those requirements (see appendix 5 for an example of the math gap analysis report). the benefit of this approach was that any college engineering technology graduate could enroll in the program; and their specific bridging requirements would depend on their knowledge. one criteria of the btech program is a progression rule that requires students exit the bridge with a minimum 65% cumulative average, which prevents anyone from enrolling in upper year curriculum without the necessary foundational theory. the btech program opened enrollment in january 2016. recruitment efforts initially targeted institutions with multi-disciplinary engineering technology programs. in 2017, three formal articulation and transfer agreements were signed with northern college, cambrian college, and saskatchewan polytechnic who all have mining engineering technology programs, as well as over a dozen other engineering technology programs that can articulate into the btech program. an example of the articulation and transfer agreement signed between queens university and northern college is shown in appendix 3. as the program grows, we hope to add more partnerships with relevant college programs. as stated previously, the program adopted a multidisciplinary team-based approach to course design and development. course development teams can be comprised of individuals with various roles shown in figure 5: page 9 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 figure 5: multi-disciplinary course development team the diversity of the course development team provides additional strengths through its ability to present a variety of perspectives. some course authors describe the experience as transformational, as for many this was the first time in their careers that they had been supported with experts in the field of learning. the course development process being employed is a process loosely based on the first three steps in the popular analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation (addie) model of instructional systems design (branch, 2009)2, but adapted for the unique needs of engineering learners. in an 8-12 month period, the course design process passes through four phases, shown in figure 6: 2 branch, r. m. (2009). instructional design: the addie approach. new york: springer. page 10 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 figure 6: phased course development process phase 1 (~1 month): the course development team assembles to clarify their roles, establish agreed-upon milestones and develop a team-based communication strategy. their first courserelated task is to determine the course-level, and week-level learning outcomes, and align them with the overarching btech program-level learning outcomes (plos). next, they continue this alignment into the assessment scheme and design a balance of activities that satisfy the quality standards, while providing opportunities for interaction and active learning. finally, a course design scoping report is produced and used to communicate the planned course design with the mining department, in order to obtain feedback. this is an important feedback step that allows for any modifications to the course design and development plan early in the process. phase 2 (~1 month): the course design team explores and selects technology tools that best fit with the types of content and assessments being planned for the course. during this phase, the team typically chooses one week of the course to experiment upon. using a rapid prototyping approach, they create a small number of learning objects, and iterate them into finished products. page 11 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 phase 3 (~5 months): equipped with the lessons-learned from phase 2, the team then systematically creates all the course content, learning activities, and assessments for the online course. this activity often requires consultation with other more-transient members of the team including content contributors, information technology staff, and members of the local community. finally, the completed course material is organized on the learning management system adopted at queens, brightspace by desire2learn3. phase 4 (~1 month): the team engages in a two-part quality assurance phase. it is important to note that decision-making processes in phases 1, 2, and 3 are guided by the evidence-based quality matter framework and that phase 4 represents a different type of quality assurance. it includes a review of the course content by the btech program coordinator, who looks for disconnections, ambiguities and errors. once these deficiencies are repaired, a faculty member (who did not participate on the course development team) conducts a comprehensive review of the course in order to ensure it meets the intended learning outcomes, the assessments are achievable, and that the overall course meets the quality standards of the department. this feedback helps inform either final adjustments to the course material, or future directions for course improvement. figure 7: quality matters framework quality is the primary driver in online course design and development in the faculty of engineering and applied science at queens. in order to operationalize this, the feas adopted an evidencebased approach when designing and developing curriculum. to help guide decisions at all stages of the course development projects, the feas uses the well-established quality matters framework4 for defining quality in online courses (shown in figure 7). key staff that work on course development teams have been formally trained in this quality benchmarking system and use its principles to inform their practice. 3 4 https://www.d2l.com www.qualitymatters.org page 12 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 program comparison and analysis the program recognizes the value of a students college diploma (in any 3-yr engineering technology program, or a 2-yr mine engineering technician program), and grants block transfer credits for the first two years of the bachelors degree. however; it was recognized that a gap in the core sciences exists - specifically in a college graduates mathematics, physics, and chemistry knowledge. a solid understanding of the foundational theory in these areas is essential for student success in the university curriculum, particularly in the advanced study courses in year 3 and 4. initially, the thought was to map specific college programs to university but it was quickly realized that the differences between programs would make this task difficult. instead, a gap analysis (appendix 2) was done to map the necessary skills from the programs 4th year curriculum, down to what students would need entering 3rd year, and then to close the gap between college and university, the program created a set of customized bridging courses. students are required to take specific courses in various math, physics, chemistry, geology, or surveying theory that are identified as lacking in their college education. the bridge represents a critical component to the programs success. it serves as a proving ground for the btech program, and prepares them for their university education. requiring that students pass the bridge with a minimum 65% average ensures that only students who have the potential to succeed are able to move beyond the foundational theory portion of the program (and saves those students who might otherwise have failed the time and money of making a prolonged attempt). overall, the program, course-level, and weekly learning outcomes are all constructively aligned, and map to the undergraduate degree-level expectations (udles). this mapping is shown in appendix 6. another essential element of the program is the online delivery format. industry continually identifies a need for professional development and continuing an employees education. however; very few employees are able to relocate to an academic institution to continue their educational career both professional and personal responsibilities often prevent long-term relocation. online education presents an incredible opportunity to overcome this geographic obstacle. by offering content online, students can access their instructors and classmates from virtually anywhere in the world (with an internet connection). the challenge has been to overcome the online stigma in technical disciplines like engineering education. jones et. al. (2009)5 established that, when courses are well designed, with committed instructors who have the appropriate supports, online delivery is not inferior to classroom delivery in a higher education context. however, in technical disciplines where the line between training and education are often blurred, the quality of online higher education courses has been questioned. in order to overcome this challenge queens university adopted a two-pronged approach: first, quality was deemed the primary driver in online course design and development. in 2014, queens became an institutional member to the most respected evidence-based standard setting body for quality in online education: quality matters. the articulated standards are applied directly to all courses in the btech program by specially trained personnel. secondly, queens university adopted a multi-disciplinary approach to assembling course development teams who design and 5 jones, et. al., (2009) evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: a meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed505824.pdf page 13 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 develop online courses. adopting a team approach meant that the course design and development process takes longer and costs more than the traditional development process; however, quality levels meet or exceed residential program standards. this approach to creating curriculum has been transformational for the btech program. courses have been created that foster an optimum environment for learning, where students have a clear understanding of what is expected of them, and are guided in a student-centric and supportive environment. the program is constructively aligned throughout, from program-level outcomes, to course-level outcomes, to content, through to the assessments. as a result, both students and employers can be certain that graduates of the btech program at queens are well-equipped to immediately make positive impacts in the workplace. finally, the secret ingredient that truly differentiates the program has been the involvement of industry in content creation. naturally, a bachelor of mining engineering technology degree places an emphasis on the technology. in order to stay relevant, the program consulted industry on which technologies should be showcased; not as a sales tactic, but to educate the student on the tools and technologies being used in the modern mining industry today. in many cases, industry experts contributed to course development, and helped inform the curriculum at the course-level. having access to mining industry data, training documentation, case studies, simulations, equipment, and technologies, and carefully integrating these into the curriculum where appropriate, has proven to be a clear differentiator for the program. it is worth mentioning that while most institutions offer support to their students with dedicated program coordinators, and other student services, the btech program, being online, also includes all the regular student support elements, through online interactions. additionally, every student has a virtual meeting with the program academic advisor at the start of their studies to develop a customized individual learning plan (ilp), which serves as a roadmap to the completion of their degree. due to the highly flexible delivery format of the program, if a student encounters a significant change in their life (professional or family obligations often arise), they can adjust their ilp accordingly. it is this flexibility that allows working professionals to balance their work and personal lives with their academic careers. page 14 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 implementation process and timelines it should be stated up front that the btech program went through an accelerated approvals process, due to the desire to initiate development early in the project, in an attempt to begin program delivery in fall 2015. the actual approval steps and dates are shown in table 2, while the more typical approvals timeline is shown in appendix 4. table 2: approvals timeline approval faculty of engineering and applied science faculty board external review university units: head, robert m. buchan department of mining dean, faculty of engineering and applied science office of the university librarian university registrar chief information officer & associate vp (it services) executive director, budget and planning provost and vice principal (academic) senate committee on academic development senate ministry of training, colleges, and universities date november 19th, 2014 january 8th, 2015 january 26th, 2015 january 26th, 2015 january 26th, 2015 january 27th, 2015 january 26th, 2015 january 26th, 2015 january 26th, 2015 february 4th, 2015 march 31st, 2015 may 22nd, 2015 obtaining approvals is an iterative and time-consuming process. initial development details are relatively straight-forward, and its recommended that broad consultations with all signatories occur in the initial development phase. once approvals are obtained, if any details need to be changed substantially, it can require restarting the approvals process. in particular, any stakeholders involved in resourcing the project (finance, it, library, etc.) need to be given ample opportunity to understand the program, and what their expected contributions will be. the key approval for the btech program was at senate, which allowed for the program to be advertised and promoted, and also enabled the registrars office to activate the program for enrollments. finally, external approval agencies such as the ministry of training, colleges, and universities need to be given lots of time to review the program, since it will be one of many under review, and will be prioritized accordingly. page 15 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 summary of pathway(s) created one typical example of the transfer pathway is shown in figure 8. the pathway can vary slightly depending on the program(s) at the sending institution. mining engineering technician engineering technology 72 units mining engineering technology customized bridging curriculum year 3 transfer credits year 3 transfer credits field school i year 3 72 units 10 units year 4 transfer credits field school ii year 4 bachelor of mining engineering technology degree 154 units total figure 8: transfer pathway graduates of any college 3-year engineering technology program, or 2-year mine engineering technician program will receive two years of unspecified block transfer credit for their diplomas. they are required to take a customized bridging curriculum (typically ranging from 3-6 courses), specific to the gaps identified in their prior academic record. students are required to exit the bridge with a minimum 65% average in order to enroll in upper year curriculum (where they may be eligible for additional transfer credits, specific to their prior academic record, but evaluated on a case-by-case basis). there are twelve year 3 courses, and twelve year 4 courses. in the summer of each year, students are required to come to campus to complete on-site laboratories. upon graduation, students will receive their bachelors degree in mining engineering technology. while the program is unaccredited (meaning they cannot directly apply for licensure), graduates are eligible to apply for post-undergraduate study (masters of science, masters of engineering, masters of business administration, etc.). page 16 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 promising practices and lessons learned online learning artifacts in online learning, students can sometimes express a feeling of disconnectedness from their classmates, the learning environment, and ultimately from the university. this sense of separation is often referred to as transactional distance (benson, 2009)6. experienced course development teams actively work to minimize this perceived transactional distance in the course design and development phases, so that the instructor is set up for success once the course delivery phase begins. guided by the philosophy of pedagogy driving the technology choices, the team creates a series of customized, diverse, and modern learning objects that are well-aligned with the learning outcomes in each course. these learning-objects are designed to make strong connections between the teaching team and the students. some examples include: reality-check videos: these videos are not made by the instructors; they are made by research assistants that are closer to the age of the student (i.e. in the age range of typical teaching assistants). this allows for a different perspective on the material that resonates with many students. these videos do not duplicate the purpose-built videos made by the instructor, but rather build upon those foundations, by guiding the student to make connections between real-world engineering applications, and the underlying theory itself. the reality-check videos have a higher production value from a look and feel perspective than most instructor-led purpose-built video, which enhances the student experience, while visually bringing a younger, more practical perspective into the course. lightboard-enabled problem solving videos: engineering relies heavily on the ability to express the discipline visually by hand; whether sketching out a diagram, solving a problem, or illustrating a concept. the feas has built a lightboard made of architectural glass to facilitate hand-annotation of concepts for online learners. the videos created using the lightboard allow the instructor to make a direct eye-to-eye visual connection while hand annotating material on the board. the result is a high-impact learning object, far better than a textbook equivalent of a solved problem, that promotes a connection between the teaching team and the student. 360o spherical video: a major challenge in all professional programs is the ability to give students a better sense of the types of physical real-world environments that represent the workplace. the challenge is exacerbated somewhat in online learning settings because students typically have a high degree of geographic diversity. one way to mitigate this problem is to bring the environment to the student. the btech program employs 360 spherical video as a method that enables students to explore the environment in a virtual 360 fashion. a brief showcase of learning object examples used in the btech program can be found at: https://vimeo.com/183852353. to further enhance the student-to-student interaction and relevance of the courses in the btech program, course development teams also focused on the assessment piece. assessments are 6 benson, r., & samarawickrema, g. (2009). addressing the context of e-learning: using transactional distance theory to inform design. distance education, 30(1), 5-21. page 17 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 required elements in post-secondary courses and traditionally most methods are individual in nature. the culture in the feas strongly supports the development of team working skills in accordance with engineering accreditation bodies across the world. in order to foster teamwork and relevancy in online courses, student-to-student interaction is built into the assessment scheme in various forms; including team projects, group presentations, small group discussions, and cooperative student-to-student peer assessment and feedback. some of this requires both synchronous and asynchronous student-to-student or student-to-teaching team interaction. as required, all online courses in the btech program provide the necessary supports for students to navigate the technical tools required to interact together, regardless of their geographical location, or degree of mobility during any academic semester. furthermore, to extend the interaction outside the online classroom, the btech program strategically leverages social media in the form of linkedin, facebook, and twitter, enabling students to make social connections with each other, employers, the university, and practitioners. this ability to network is an essential factor to developing solid life-long learning skills in btech graduates. together these approaches and learning objects are carefully integrated within the course, creating a pedagogically sound course that is stimulating and differs significantly from traditional online training modules, many of which have less effective types of designs such as click-click-click-go low levels of interaction, or they simply act as repositories of documents. online quality control in the course development process described in the methodology section, phase 4 is a qualityassurance phase; however, quality does not end there. prior to the first day of class, instructors receive an orientation, as well as some coaching on effective online teaching practices, if required. during the course delivery, instructors continue to have on-demand access to instructional designers and multimedia support personnel. instructors also interact closely with the btech program coordinator to monitor and ensure that appropriate service standards for instructor-tostudent interaction are in-place, and that student satisfaction remains high. students are informally asked to complete an anonymous survey within the first four weeks of the course in an effort to explore if any minor adjustment of the teaching approach could benefit the students. if a student is identified as at-risk (e.g.: failing tests, not logging into the system, low participation rates in discussion boards, etc.), the program coordinator and the instructor work together to develop an intervention plan. in the last three weeks of the course, students are invited to complete an anonymous end-of-course student evaluation of online teaching effectiveness survey (bangert, 2008)7. in addition, after each courses inaugural delivery, a detailed post-delivery report is generated that has three parts: 1) the results of the end-of-course survey, 2) a timeaudit of student effort, and 3) an internally-generated quality matters assessment. this detailed report will inform decisions and drive the first cycle of the iterative adjustments necessary in order to evolve, keep current, and strengthen the online course year-over-year. 7 bangert, a (2008). the development and validation of the student evaluation of online teaching effectiveness. comp in the schools 25(1):25-47. page 18 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 several student supports are in place at queens to contribute to course quality and promote student success. they include: technical support: support for the brightspace learning management system (via 1-800 telephone and in-browser online live-chat) is available 24x7x365. non-brightspace technical support is accessible via an online support/trouble ticket system year-round, or by telephone (monday friday, 8:30am - 4:30pm). remote access: students have remote access to extensive electronic library resources including services and consultations offered through student academic success services (i.e. writing centre and learning strategies unit). accessibility: the learning management system, as well as specific course materials include several accessibility elements that meet the needs of a diverse set of students. for example, videos are closed-captioned, slides used in purpose-built presentations are available for download, and the interface is compliant with common accessibility standards such as section 508 of the united states rehabilitation act, the access for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda), and web content accessibility guidelines 2.0. students also have remote access to disability support services and consultations, with the assurance that appropriate academic accommodations will be implemented. exams: where applicable, the proctored final exam will be administered by an established network of distributed exam centers to ensure a high level of academic integrity, and students who find themselves in particularly remote geographical locations will be encouraged to use a web-based secure invigilation service. community of learners several factors have been identified to facilitate student persistence in taking online courses (hart, 2012)8, including: flexibility: students lead complex lives, often with family and professional responsibilities that need to be balanced with their educational studies. flexibility in the btech program means students can progress dynamically through the curriculum at a pace of their choosing (full-time vs part-time), with a curriculum calendar that spans three semesters a year. courses are designed to minimize the need for a student to be available at a specific time during the week. when necessary to satisfy a specific objective, synchronous student-tostudent interaction exists; however, the program is built with the intent of minimizing these encounters in favour of asynchronous interactions, which provide more individual flexibility and puts the locus of control for time management into the hands of the students. relevance: students report satisfaction when they perceive quality in the courses and relevance of the course material to their real-life contexts. every effort is made to provide 8 hart, c. (2012). factors associated with student persistence in an online program of study: a review of the literature. journal of interactive online learning, 11(1), 19-42. page 19 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 real-life mining context, examples, case studies and connections within elements of the online courses. the btech program has forged many useful industry partnerships that allow students to interact closely with many of the tools and technologies being used in the industry today from within their courses. social connectedness, instructor presence, and student engagement: a strong predictor of learner persistence in online programs is their ability to engage in a broad sense. to form connections with classmates in small or large group work activities, to perceive a connection with the teaching team, and to engage in active learning are elements that when assembled together form a rich tapestry that supports engagement. learning activities and opportunities for feedback are included in online courses that promote these factors. for example, the course development team includes elements in courses that challenge learners to analyze, synthesize, evaluate and create relevant material. due to the technical nature of the btech program, many of these active learning activities lend themselves well to analysis of physical environments, experimentation, simulation, and design projects. these activities are often present in the courses as active learning labs or projects that are sometimes performed with the aid technical lab kits. laboratory experience it is accepted that the engineering curriculum must prepare students to practice engineering, applying the rules of science to the design of safe and functional systems. the exact role of the laboratory in engineering education varies according to its nature. it can be supported that research laboratories serve the purpose of collecting experimental data to learn about a new process or to test a proposed design, while teaching laboratories serve the purpose of preparing students for the challenges of their careers. the objectives of engineering instructional laboratories (outlined by feisel and rosa (2005)9) are to provide a useful reference for designing the laboratory experience of the students in our online program. according to these objectives, the students must apply sensors, test models, conduct experiments, collect analyze and interpret data, design products and systems, learn from failures, be able to solve real-world problems with creativity and independently, be able to operate engineering tools, identify safety and environmental issues, communicate effectively, work in teams effectively, behave ethically and find solutions to relevant real world problems. meeting these objectives is not an easy task in a purely online environment. training in the applications of sensors, testing of theories, data acquisition analysis and interpretation may be accomplished through computer simulation or use of laboratory kits (i.e. programmable data acquisition units and sensors) or recorded laboratory experiments. these techniques are being used in some of the online courses of the btech program. one example is the metrology and data analysis course, which uses arduino boards and sensors sent to students, which are sent to the students, and are used by them to collect data. the courses in physics and chemistry have pre- 9 feisel, l. d., & rosa, a. j. (2005). the role of the laboratory in undergraduate engineering education. journal of engineering education, 94(1), 121-130. page 20 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 recorded experiments which generate data for discussion and interpretation. however, many of the previous objectives remain unfulfilled, requiring a hands-on experience. the proposed solution was to augment the active learning elements found directly in the online courses by adding two face-to-face extended sessions into the curriculum. these field schools enable students to perform experiments at the laboratories of the institution over a one-week period in the summer. each laboratory project is seen as an opportunity to apply engineering tools to conduct investigations, collect, analyze and interpret data, enhance safety awareness, make the connection to real world problems, work in teams, and produce an engineering report. the laboratory sessions planned cover a wide range of topics to provide adequate hands-on experience in surveying, mining instrumentation, mineral processing, geomechanics, blasting, ventilation, metallurgical techniques, geomatics and orebody modelling. let us now use, as an example of the proposed laboratories, the blasting laboratory, which has a duration of three days. the students use sensors and data acquisition systems to measure commercial explosives performance under a variety of conditions, collect far field and close to source vibration data, examine the effect of wave superposition, collect air shock and sound wave pressure measurements, produce and interpret attenuation relationships for blast design and conduct a small scale blast, where they analyse the effect of timing and other blasting parameters on blast fragmentation. the university laboratory has the equipment needed, enables quick data dissemination, and provides an appropriate classroom to assist instruction, interpretation and team work, as well as optimum conditions for a high pace of learning in which most, if not all, of the previously identified objectives can be met in a single laboratory session. the challenge of design in the btech program, a variety of courses provide traditional engineering science education and use engineering design problems, consisting of made up projects, created by the course authors. these typically reinforce the application of engineering tools and techniques, or offer design examples in the various areas of the program (i.e. planning and design software in open pit and underground mining, design software in blasting, etc.). the students are instructed in course specific design tools, and instructional videos on the use of these tools provide effective ways of transferring knowledge to the students. however, mining involves systems thinking and design, requiring a realistic project-based learning approach. to satisfy this requirement, the program intends to build a capstone project course into the curriculum, where real world design concepts are examined in projects provided by industry. however; several challenges are anticipated. at the start of the design project students will need to generate a discussion amongst themselves, as well as with their instructors and clients to define objectives and understand constraints (dym et. al., 2005)10. with a focus on the mining industry, the intent will be to design a complex system, in which students will need to consider interdependencies of components, economics objectives and constraints, social and environmental impacts, as well as the ability to deal with uncertainty (incomplete information being common work practice in industry). students will develop the 10 dym, c. l., agogino, a. m., eris, o., frey, d. d., & leifer, l. j. (2005). engineering design thinking, teaching, and learning. journal of engineering education, 94(1), 103-120. page 21 of 22 bachelor of mining engineering technology may 2018 necessary skills to cope with complexity. these skills will be supported through a coaching process (typically with the instructor; but possibly through industry expert support). another aspect of systems design is that it is argumentative; it can be beneficial to argue with others over advantages and disadvantages of design alternatives. students in our online program come with a variety of technical backgrounds, and their geographical diversity provides a definite advantage towards producing a variety of viewpoints to enhance the argumentative process; however, the distance between students can also be perceived as creating a communication problem. dym et. al. suggested that educators should embrace the notion that engineering design courses and perhaps many engineering courses should be taught across geographically dispersed, culturally diverse, international networks. the suggestion is not to benefit the argumentative process only, but to also improve the documentation process, which is often better in geographically dispersed situations. as such, the challenge becomes to enable a good discussion process between the design groups, and provide efficient coaching. ultimately, for the capstone project, there will be a need for both synchronous and asynchronous elements in the design process. the programs intent is to include some synchronous components, where coordinated interactions can be advantageous. an example would be at the design definition phase of the project, where the problem is introduced and discussed between client(s), coaches, and students, where milestones are defined, and timelines must be discussed. hence, although the program primarily uses asynchronous communications, it is also possible to utilize synchronous communication, when there is an advantage to do so. page 22 of 22

expriences des tudiants en matire de transfert de crdits dans les collges de l'ontario rapport final alex usher paul jarvey table des matires sommaire ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 mthodologie................................................................................................................................................ 5 conception et mise en pratique de l'outil de recherche .......................................................................... 5 slection de l'chantillon .......................................................................................................................... 6 rsum de la collecte des donnes .......................................................................................................... 7 dfinitions utilises dans ce rapport ........................................................................................................ 8 rsultats : donnes dmographiques........................................................................................................... 9 rsultats : sources, destinations et moment du transfert ......................................................................... 10 rsultats : le processus de transfert ........................................................................................................... 14 moment du transfert .............................................................................................................................. 14 raisons du transfert ................................................................................................................................ 15 sources de renseignements .................................................................................................................... 16 assistance dans l'tablissement de destination ..................................................................................... 20 la cohrence des renseignements fournis ............................................................................................. 20 niveau de comprhension ...................................................................................................................... 26 satisfaction gnrale................................................................................................................................... 27 difficult perue du transfert de crdits..................................................................................................... 29 facteurs dmographiques ...................................................................................................................... 29 programme d'tudes prcdent ............................................................................................................. 30 le processus d'application ...................................................................................................................... 30 explication des crdits reus ................................................................................................................... 32 dure de prparation de la demande et dlai d'attente du rsultat ..................................................... 32 autres facteurs ........................................................................................................................................ 34 une tude plus approfondie de la difficult perue ............................................................................... 34 qualit perue de l'aide obtenue ............................................................................................................... 36 ge .......................................................................................................................................................... 37 temps coul depuis les dernires tudes ............................................................................................. 37 le processus d'application ...................................................................................................................... 37 explication des crdits reus ................................................................................................................... 38 i autres facteurs ........................................................................................................................................ 39 analyse plus approfondie de l'aide ......................................................................................................... 40 facteurs supplmentaires noter .............................................................................................................. 42 les tudiants ayant choisi de ne pas faire de demande de transfert de crdits .................................... 42 niveau de comprhension ...................................................................................................................... 43 autres suggestions des participants ....................................................................................................... 44 conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 46 annexe b : rsum des essais statistiques ................................................................................................. 49 tableaux tableau 1 : diagramme du rsum du processus ......................................................................................... 6 tableau 2 : rsum de la collecte des donnes ........................................................................................... 8 tableau 3 : caractristiques concernant l'ge et le sexe dans la comparaison entre l'chantillon et la population gnrale ...................................................................................................................................... 9 tableau 4 : rpartition des personnes interroges selon l'tablissement ................................................. 10 tableau 5 : comparaison des programmes d'tudes des tablissements sources par rapport aux tablissements de destination (pour l'ensemble des participants) ............................................................ 12 tableau 6 : programme d'tudes source et de destination par type d'tablissement source ................... 13 tableau 7 : choix du programme de destination par type d'tablissement prcdent ............................. 13 tableau 8 : rsum des raisons de transfert .............................................................................................. 15 tableau 9 : sources de renseignements ..................................................................................................... 16 tableau 10 : caractristiques de l'chantillon : demande et obtention de transfert de crdits ............... 23 tableau 11 : rsum des crdits reus et du raccourcissement du programme d'tude actuel ............... 23 tableau 12: rsum de l'obtention des crdits attendus et explication de la dcision............................. 24 tableau 13 : rsum des raisons de non application ................................................................................. 42 ii figures figure 1 : type de programme source et destination................................................................................. 11 figure 2 : proportion de cursus termins par le pass ............................................................................... 11 figure 3 : changement de programme d'tudes en gnral et par type d'tablissement......................... 12 figure 4 : dure du dlai entre l'tablissement source et l'tablissement de destination ........................ 14 figure 5 : moment de la demande de transfert de crdits......................................................................... 15 figure 6 : rsum des sources d'assistance ............................................................................................... 20 figure 7 : dlai de prparation de la demande .......................................................................................... 22 figure 8 : dlai d'attente des rsultats de la demande .............................................................................. 22 figure 9 : satisfaction vis--vis de l'explication de la dcision.................................................................... 25 figure 10 : niveau de comprhension du processus de transfert de crdits maintenant et au dbut du processus de demande de transfert de crdits .......................................................................................... 26 figure 11 : satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme d'tudes ........................................................... 27 figure 12 : qualit de l'aide par rapport la satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme d'tudes ...... 28 figure 13 : difficult par rapport la satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme d'tudes ................. 28 figure 14 : difficult gnrale perue du processus de transfert de crdits .............................................. 29 figure 15 : ge par rapport la difficult perue d'un transfert de crdit ................................................ 30 figure 16 : degr d'avancement du programme d'tudes prcdent par rapport la difficult perue .. 30 figure 17 : moment de la demande par rapport la difficult perue ...................................................... 31 figure 18 : rception des crdits attendus par rapport la difficult perue ........................................... 32 figure 19 : satisfaction vis--vis de l'explication de la dcision par rapport la difficult perue ............ 32 figure 20 : dlai requis pour prparer la demande et les documents justificatifs par rapport la difficult .................................................................................................................................................................... 33 figure 21 : dlai d'attente du rsultat de la demande par rapport la difficult ...................................... 33 figure 22 : rsum de la qualit de l'aide obtenue.................................................................................... 36 figure 23 : ge par rapport la qualit de l'aide obtenue ......................................................................... 37 figure 24 : obtention de crdits par rapport la qualit de l'aide ............................................................ 38 figure 25 : explication de la dcision par rapport la qualit de l'aide ..................................................... 38 figure 26 : dlai requis pour prparer la demande et les documents justificatifs par rapport la qualit de l'aide ....................................................................................................................................................... 39 figure 27 : dlai d'attente du rsultat de la demande par rapport la qualit de l'aide .......................... 39 figure 28 : niveau de comprhension et raccourcissement du programme d'tudes. ............................. 43 iii sommaire les parcours universitaires reposent de plus en plus sur le transfert entre tablissements postsecondaires, car un nombre croissant d'tudiants passent d'un tablissement un autre, suivent diffrents cursus ou reprennent leurs tudes postsecondaires. afin d'amliorer les parcours au sein d'un collge ou entre plusieurs tablissements, pour comprendre les obstacles que peuvent rencontrer les tudiants et afin d'laborer une stratgie d'amlioration de la mobilit des tudiants, les collges de l'ontario se sont lancs dans le projet d'amlioration des parcours intitul improving college system pathways. les pages qui suivent contiennent les rsultats d'une tude visant soutenir les objectifs du projet icsp en obtenant une meilleure comprhension des expriences de transfert des tudiants. cette tude portait sur les origines de leur satisfaction et de leur mcontentement, ainsi que sur les obstacles potentiels au transfert de crdits entre les collges de l'ontario. entre janvier et juin 2012, 232 tudiants de 23 collges de l'ensemble de l'ontario ont t interrogs propos de leur exprience en matire de transfert de crdits. nous leur avons demand de parler des difficults au niveau du processus de transfert de crdit en gnral, de la qualit de l'assistance qu'ils ont reue et nous leurs avons pos une srie de questions conues pour dterminer les obstacles potentiels au transfert de crdits entre les collges de l'ontario. sommairement, le degr de satisfaction des tudiants en ce qui concerne leur nouvelle cole tait troitement li la difficult perue du processus de transfert de crdit et la qualit perue de l'assistance du personnel des collges au cours du processus de transfert. en trs grande majorit, les tudiants du systme collgial de l'ontario ayant particip cette tude ont exprim des sentiments positifs concernant leur tablissement, le personnel qu'ils ont rencontr et leurs expriences en matire de transfert des crdits. certains tudiants ont nanmoins rencontr des difficults et exprim un certain mcontentement. chacun des sept points ci-dessous aborde une pratique ou une politique qui semble avoir jou un rle dans le processus de transfert de crdit et qui a eu un impact sur l'exprience des tudiants, fournissant ainsi un domaine d'amlioration potentielle pour certains tablissements de l'ontario : l'exhaustivit ainsi que l'accessibilit des renseignements de base concernant le processus. le personnel et les tudiants s'appuient sur des renseignements concernant la faon d'avancer dans le processus : les personnes contacter, les documents requis, les chances et le simple fait de savoir si le transfert de crdits est possible. une grande majorit des personnes interroges ont indiqu avoir recherch ces renseignements sur le site web du collge qu'ils frquentaient au moment de l'tude. l'exhaustivit et l'accessibilit des renseignements dtaills concernant le processus, comme le fait de savoir quels crdits obtenus peuvent faire l'objet d'un transfert et l'impact que le transfert de crdits peut avoir sur l'emploi du temps, les frais de scolarit ainsi que d'autres page | 1 facteurs. ces renseignements taient souvent recherchs en ligne et souvent fournis en personne, par le personnel ou le corps professoral. les expriences les plus positives des participants provenaient des interactions avec les membres du personnel qui taient la fois efficaces et fiables. de faon similaire, les expriences les plus ngatives dcoulaient de situations dans lesquelles ils avaient l'impression de ne pas avoir t traits de faon approprie. les personnes interroges ont fourni des rponses positives lorsque le processus tait rationalis et simple. le fait de ne pas avoir resoumettre les documents, la rduction du nombre de documents et d'approbations requis et la cration d'un point de contact unique peuvent aider rduire la complexit du processus de demande pour les tudiants. il a souvent t mentionn que l'obtention de la description des cours tait difficile et prenait beaucoup de temps, en particulier pour les tudiants ayant quitt l'enseignement postsecondaire depuis plus longtemps. les personnes interroges ont signal diffrentes faons selon lesquelles les tablissements les ont aids dans ces difficults, y compris en les aidant communiquer avec leur tablissement prcdent, en n'exigeant pas de description pour les cours qui ont dj t valus pour d'autres tudiants et en acceptant les descriptions non officielles ou en se montrant de toute autre faon flexibles en ce qui concerne les documents exigs. les tudiants ayant attendu une semaine ou moins pour apprendre les rsultats de leur demande de transfert de crdits taient plus susceptibles d'exprimer une difficult moindre et une satisfaction gnrale plus importante. les tudiants ayant compris les raisons pour lesquelles leur demande de crdits avait t refuse exprimaient rarement une frustration. le fait de fournir un raisonnement clair pourrait aider multiplier les expriences positives. page | 2 introduction les parcours universitaires reposent souvent sur le transfert entre tablissements postsecondaires, car un nombre croissant d'tudiants passent d'un tablissement un autre, suivent diffrents cursus ou reprennent leurs tudes postsecondaires. la proportion de candidats l'admission au collge en ontario ayant une exprience prcdente dans l'enseignement postsecondaire a augment de faon rgulire au cours des dernires annes. 37 % des tudiants en collge ont indiqu avoir une exprience postsecondaire dans le sondage sur la satisfaction des tudiantes et tudiants de 2007-2008 (ministre de la formation et des collges et universits de l'ontario, mfcu), un nombre qui a atteint les 41 % dans le sondage sur la satisfaction des tudiantes et tudiants de 2010-2011. le mme sondage demandait galement aux tudiants la raison principale de leur demande d'inscription dans l'enseignement postsecondaire. la proportion d'tudiants qui ont indiqu le faire pour se prparer pour d'autres tudes universitaires ou collgiales est passe de 16 % en 2000 19 % en 2010-2011. la capacit des tudiants obtenir des crdits pour leurs expriences scolaires prcdentes affecte leur capacit se dplacer d'un tablissement un autre, et, comme cela est tudi dans ce rapport, les expriences en matire de transfert de crdits sont troitement lies la satisfaction gnrale de l'tudiant. les pages suivantes rapportent les rsultats d'une tude visant mieux comprendre les expriences de transfert des tudiants, l'origine de leur satisfaction et de leur mcontentement et les obstacles potentiels au transfert de crdits entre les collges de l'ontario. nous avons demand aux tudiants de parler des difficults du processus de transfert de crdits en gnral et de leur perception de la qualit de l'aide obtenue. ces deux variables sont troitement lies la satisfaction gnrale, et elles sont utilises tout au long de ce rapport en tant que variables dpendantes (voir difficults perues, la page 27 et qualit perue de l'aide obtenue, la page 34). le mandat de cette tude a commenc en 2006, lorsque les collges de l'ontario se sont lancs dans le projet d'amlioration des parcours intitul improving college system pathways (icsp) afin d'amliorer les parcours au sein d'un collge et entre plusieurs collges, de comprendre les obstacles que les tudiants peuvent rencontrer et de dvelopper des stratgies visant amliorer la mobilit des tudiants. l'tude icsp a permis de dceler un certain mcontentement en ce qui concerne le processus existant de transfert de crdits 1et a propos une deuxime phase de recherche visant explorer les sources de ce mcontentement. ce rapport, expriences des tudiants en matire de transfert de crdits dans les collges de l'ontario, prsente un rsum des rsultats de la deuxime phase de recherche. cette tude soutient les objectifs de l'tude icsp de la faon suivante : 1 voir collges ontario (2008). rapport sur les faits saillants du projet d'amlioration des parcours improving college systems pathways, p. 2. page | 3 i. ii. en offrant une tude plus approfondie des problmes identifis au cours de la recherche de l'icsp; et en identifiant et en explorant les obstacles potentiels aux parcours alternatifs, y compris les transferts entre collges et d'une universit un collge. cette tude a t entirement commande par collges ontario et le projet a t dirig par le groupe de travail du comit de coordination des vice-prsidences l'enseignement. ce projet a t financ par le consortium des collges et des universits (dsormais le conseil ontarien pour l'articulation et le transfert). page | 4 mthodologie cette tude a t ralise au moyen d'une mthodologie base sur plusieurs sondages visant recueillir des donnes quantitatives et qualitatives concernant les expriences de transfert de crdits des tudiants dans les collges de l'ontario. l'outil de recherche associait un sondage en ligne un entretien tlphonique. cette mthodologie a permis l'analyse des facteurs de contribution aux difficults rencontres par les tudiants effectuant un transfert et elle a galement donn aux tudiants interrogs la possibilit de communiquer leur exprience en dtails. cet outil a permis de recueillir des donnes sur diffrents sujets concernant le transfert, en explorant ainsi la satisfaction et le mcontentement des tudiants effectuant un transfert. conception et mise en pratique de l'outil de recherche le personnel administratif de chaque collge participant a identifi les tudiants effectuant un transfert et correspondant aux critres de l'tude (voir ci-dessous). un sous-ensemble de 100 120 tudiants admissibles slectionns au hasard a t invit participer par courriel. le courriel d'invitation indiquait l'objectif de l'entretien, sa dure et les types de renseignements qui seraient recueillis. il mentionnait galement le paiement incitatif qui consistait en une carte-cadeau de 40 $ pour amazon.ca ou itunes.ca. les tudiants qui ont choisi de participer ont t dirigs vers la premire section d'un questionnaire en deux parties. la premire partie tait administre sous la forme d'un sondage en ligne qui valuait l'admissibilit des personnes interroges et recueillait les renseignements de base concernant le profil dmographique et la formation scolaire des tudiants. cela a permis de simplifier le processus de slection d'chantillon et de rduire la dure de la deuxime partie (l'entretien tlphonique). une fois le sondage de slection en ligne termin, nous avons demand aux participants admissibles de choisir un moment de la journe pour l'entretien tlphonique. un membre de l'quipe de recherche a appel l'tudiant au moment choisi et a administr la deuxime partie de l'outil de sondage, compose d'un questionnaire tlphonique d'une dure moyenne (30 minutes). page | 5 tableau 1 : diagramme du rsum du processus 1: invitation par courriel le personnel administratif de chaque collge a identifi les enquts ventuels (les tudiants qui satisfont des conditions requises pour les recherches). nous avons choisi au hasard 100 200 tudiants qui satisfont les critres de slection et nous leur avons envoy une invitation par courriel. un lien l'outil de slection prliminaire a t inclus dans l'invitation. 2: l'outil de slection prliminaire en ligne nous avons recueilli des donnes dmographiques de base ainsi que des renseignements de base sur les antcdents scolaires de l'enqut. cette technique de slection prliminaire nous a permis de confirmer automatiquement si l'enqut satisfait les conditions requises pour participer tout en nous gagnant du temps. 3: interview tlphonique a t prvu aprs avoir complt le processus de slection prliminaire, les enquts ont choisi l'heure de leur interview tlphonique. 4: interview tlphonique les enquts ont rpondu un questionnaire dtaill. 5: analyse et rapport les rsultats ont t examins selon des mthodologies qualitatives et quantitatives. un sommaire des rsultats locaux a t fourni chaque collge o des recherches ont t effectues. slection de l'chantillon chantillon cibl : a. les tudiants rcemment transfrs (c.--d. compter du semestre d'automne 2010) qui intgrent un nouvel tablissement; b. les tudiants ayant effectu un transfert partir d'un programme collgiale ou universitaire de l'ontario; c. les tudiants classs comme tudiants nationaux; et d. les tudiants qui n'taient pas inscrits dans un programme de certificat d'tudes suprieures au moment de l'tude. les tudiants ont t invits participer s'ils rpondaient aux critres de slection dfinis ci-dessus. ces critres ont t conus pour s'assurer que les participants avaient rcemment connu un processus de transfert; que l'chantillon comprendrait des participants transfrs depuis des universits et des collges; que l'chantillon comprendrait des tudiants qui pouvaient avoir t admissibles mais qui avaient choisi de ne pas faire de demande ou n'avaient pas reu de crdits; et que l'chantillon ne comprenait pas d'tudiants internationaux, d'tudiants diplms et d'tudiants ayant effectu un transfert depuis une autre province que l'ontario. page | 6 un nombre total de 232 rponses compltes ont t recueillies entre fvrier et juillet 2012. nous avons interrog entre 9 et 11 participants de chaque collge, sauf un : le collge la cit a t exclu de la recherche en raison de la rponse trs faible au courriel d'invitation (seul un tudiant a rpondu). bien que les tudiants invits participer constituaient un chantillon alatoire de la population tudiante potentiellement admissible dans les collges de l'ontario, seuls les tudiants qui ont choisi de participer ont t inclus. il est donc possible que le biais de volontariat ait affect les rsultats. de plus, il existe des diffrences potentielles dans la faon dont les tablissements recueillent et maintiennent les donnes des tudiants qui ont t utilises pour identifier les participants admissibles. aucune de ces deux sources potentielles de biais n'a t contrle dans cette tude. bien que les recherches prcdentes de hesa dans le secteur postsecondaire n'aient pas permis de dcouvrir un impact considrable de ces biais sur des tudes similaires, 2il convient de garder l'esprit la prsence de ces sources potentielles lors de l'analyse de ces rsultats. rsum de la collecte des donnes en moyenne, le sondage de prslection a t effectu en trois minutes et quatre secondes. les entretiens tlphoniques ont t effectus en moyenne en 26 minutes. le taux de rponse au courriel d'invitation variait considrablement entre les tablissements, ce dont le personnel du bureau du registraire nous avait avertis en indiquant que la qualit de leurs listes de courriels variait. dans l'ensemble des collges de l'ontario, le taux de rponse moyen tait de 16,7 %, mais il variait d'un maximum de 30 % un minimum de 7,6 %. parmi les participants prslectionns, 247 sur 605 taient admissibles la participation l'tude, soit 40,8 %. 23 personnes interroges, ou 9,3 %, n'ont pas rpondu au tlphone l'heure convenue. aucun participant n'a choisi de se retirer de cette tude. 2 les biais dans les sondages des tudiants peuvent tre examins par comparaison avec des sources de donnes indpendantes telles que les donnes de sondage et d'administration de statistique canada. de faon gnrale, les seules biais significatifs dans les sondages sur les tudiants sont lis au sexe : les femmes ont tendance participer plus volontairement aux demandes de sondage que les hommes. toutefois, comme le sexe n'est pas un facteur dans les rsultats de cette tude, nous pensons qu'il convient donc de supposer que l'effet du biais de volontariat n'a pas d'importance particulire dans le cas prsent. page | 7 tableau 2 : rsum de la collecte des donnes algonquin boral cambrian canadore centennial conestoga confederation durham fanshawe fleming george brown georgian humber lambton loyalist mohawk niagara northern sault st. clair st. lawrence seneca sheridan nombre total des participants invits 120 150 120 120 100 120 120 120 120 120 120 100 120 120 120 600 120 126 120 120 120 150 120 nombre total des participants prslectionns 21 69 33 20 21 36 20 30 29 16 22 13 15 18 17 46 24 17 25 31 30 20 13 nombre total des participants prvus 11 9 11 11 10 11 11 12 11 11 11 11 10 11 11 10 11 11 11 9 11 11 10 nombre total des participants interrogs 11 9 10 11 10 10 9 11 9 11 11 10 10 11 9 9 11 10 11 10 11 9 9 dfinitions utilises dans ce rapport lorsqu'un tudiant effectue un transfert de l'tablissement a vers l'tablissement b, compte non tenu du programme d'tude, du niveau d'tude ou de l'cart entre les deux tablissements, l'tablissement a est appel l'tablissement source ou l'tablissement prcdent, et l'tablissement b est appel l'tablissement de destination ou l'tablissement actuel. les personnes interroges peuvent avoir plusieurs tablissements sources, mais un seul tablissement de destination. page | 8 rsultats : donnes dmographiques une srie de caractristiques dmographiques ont t recueillies auprs de chaque participant afin de mieux organiser leurs rponses et de fournir un aperu plus prcis du processus de transfert de crdits. en plus de fournir une possibilit d'ajustement des diffrences entre les caractristiques de l'chantillon et ceux de la population gnrale, elles taient galement utilises pour vrifier les sources d'obstacles bases sur les caractristiques dmographiques. un aperu dmographique de l'chantillon utilis dans cette tude indique un nombre lgrement suprieur de femmes que d'hommes dans l'ensemble des tudiants des collges de l'ontario. il existe des diffrences importantes au niveau de l'ge entre l'chantillon et la population gnrale, en particulier parmi les participants de moins de 21 ans. ce rsultat tait attendu en raison des critres d'admissibilit qui ncessitaient que les tudiants aient une exprience postsecondaire prcdente et qui excluaient donc les participants potentiels plus jeunes. tableau 3 : caractristiques concernant l'ge et le sexe dans la comparaison entre l'chantillon et la population gnrale chantillon rsultats) (nos population (tous les tudiants des collges de l'ontario) sexe homme femme 36 % 63 % 48 % 52 % ge <21 21 25 ans 26 30 ans 31 35 ans > 35 11% 53 % 20 % 9% 5% 39 % 39 % 10 % 4% 7% page | 9 rsultats : sources, destinations et moment du transfert l'chantillon tait contrl pour inclure entre neuf et onze personnes interroges de chaque collge participant de l'ontario. l'chantillon n'tait pas contrl pour l'tablissement prcdent. les personnes interroges ont signal une exprience postsecondaire prcdente dans 44 tablissements diffrents de l'ontario, les plus frquemment cits tant le collge fanshawe, l'universit de guelph-humber, le collge george brown et le collge algonquin. tableau 4 : rpartition des personnes interroges selon l'tablissement tablissement prcdent collge fanshawe universit de guelph humber collge george brown collge algonquin universit lakehead universit de windsor universit d'ottawa universit york collge fleming universit nipissing collge st lawrence universit brock collge niagara collge cambrian universit laurentienne collge st clair collge centennial universit mcmaster collge sheridan universit trent universit de l'ontario universit de waterloo rpartition des personnes interroges 11 11 10 10 9 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 tablissement prcdent universit de toronto universit de l'ouest l'ontario universit wilfrid laurier universit carleton collge conestoga collge georgian collge mohawk universit queen's universit algoma collge durham collge sault collge canadore collge loyalist iuto universit guelph collge humber collge northern universit d'ottawa collge seneca universit ryerson collge confederation la cit collgiale de rpartition des personnes interroges 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 le type d'institution source des personnes interroges tait galement rparti entre les collges et les universits, avec 52 % indiquant que leur tablissement prcdent tait une universit et 47 % indiquant que c'tait un collge. de faon gnrale, la moiti des personnes interroges ont indiqu avoir t inscrites prcdemment dans un programme menant un diplme universitaire (ce qui est logique lorsqu'on considre qu'environ la moiti des personnes interroges taient prcdemment l'universit), alors que 13 % et page | 10 34 % des participants indiquaient avoir t inscrits dans un programme d'tudes menant un certificat et un diplme dtudes collgiales, respectivement. parmi les tudiants dont l'tablissement source tait un collge, 28 % ont indiqu avoir t inscrits dans un programme menant un certificat et 71 % ont indiqu avoir t inscrits dans un programme menant un diplme dtudes collgiales. figure 1 : type de programme source et destination source source diplme 13% 34% titre universitaire certificat 51% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80%100% destination certificat titre universitaire diplme certificat titre universitaire diplme nous avons galement demand aux tudiants d'estimer quelle proportion de leur ancien programme d'tudes ils avaient termine. en raison des diffrents programmes et collges ayant diffrents jalons et diffrentes faons d'valuer la progression, nous avons demand aux personnes interroges d'estimer la part totale du programme d'tudes qu'ils avaient effectue, au lieu de fournir la dure pendant laquelle ils avaient t inscrits. 41 % des tudiants ont indiqu qu'ils avaient termin tous les lments requis d'un cursus prcdent. les 59 % restant ont indiqu qu'ils avaient partiellement termin leur cursus. figure 2 : proportion de cursus termins par le pass moins d'un quart 17% environ un quart 41% 14% environ la moiti environ les trois quarts plus des trois quarts (mais pas tout) 17% 6% tout (tous les crdits requis ont t obtenus) 4% la majorit des personnes interroges ont choisi de poursuivre un programme d'tudes dans un domaine diffrent de leur programme d'tudes prcdent. cela tait le cas de 73 % des participants dont l'tablissement prcdent tait une universit, alors que 52 % des participants issus d'un collge ont indiqu avoir effectu un transfert vers un programme diffrent. page | 11 figure 3 : changement de programme d'tudes en gnral et par type d'tablissement 4% universit 73% 25% 34% collge 62% 52% 0% programme d'tudes diffrent 20% 45% 40% 60% programme d'tudes identique 80% 100% inconnu dans l'ensemble, la tendance principale parmi les participants tait un mouvement vers des programmes d'affaires et de services communautaires. les programmes de sant et de sciences de la sant attiraient galement les tudiants transfrs (mme si un nombre considrable d'tudiants effectuaient un transfert depuis un programme de ce domaine). tableau 5 : comparaison des programmes d'tudes des tablissements sources par rapport aux tablissements de destination (pour l'ensemble des participants) sant et sciences de la sant technologie autre 9 1 74 4 2 1 14 14 15 4 3 46 2 12 2 5 24 1 2 8 1 14 0 3 6 1 1 11 36 39 52 26 12 arts 11 21 affaires 2 5 services communautaires sant et sciences de la sant technologie 3 7 3 autre 0 total 18 2 total services communaut aires 13 affaires 19 arts programme d'tudes prcdent programme d'tudes actuel le programme d'tudes source varie selon les participants dont l'tablissement prcdent tait un collge et ceux dont l'tablissement prcdent tait une universit. les personnes interroges ayant page | 12 prcdemment frquent une universit avaient plus tendance effectuer un transfert depuis un programme d'arts que depuis tout autre type de programme universitaire et, par rapport aux lves des collges, ils avaient plus de chances d'tre issus d'un programme d'arts. les participants ayant prcdemment frquent un collge avaient, au contraire, plus tendance effectuer un transfert depuis un programme de services communautaires. il n'existait aucune diffrence majeure au niveau du programme d'tudes de destination : les tudiants issus des collges et des universits se regroupaient dans des programmes d'tudes d'affaires, de sant et de services communautaires. tableau 6 : programme d'tudes source et de destination par type d'tablissement source programme source arts affaires services communautaires sant et sciences de la sant technologie autre (vierge) collge universit 13 % 13 % 49 % 3% 27 % 14 % 11 % 10 % 8% 5% 26 % 5% 4% 16 % programme de collge universit destination 11 % 7% arts 22 % 22 % affaires services 18 % 19 % communautaires sant et sciences de la 28 % 31 % sant 11 % 12 % technologie 7% 5% autre 4 % 3% (vierge) les tudiants issus de programmes universitaires d'arts ne restaient gnralement pas dans des programmes d'arts. parmi les 14 tudiants issus d'un programme collgial d'arts, 5 (36 %) ont choisi de continuer leurs tudes dans un programme d'arts. par contre, parmi les 60 personnes interroges issues d'un programme universitaire d'arts, seuls 6 (10 %) ont indiqu avoir choisi un programme d'arts. aucune diffrence majeure n'a t signale par les participants issus d'autres domaines d'tude. tableau 7 : choix du programme de destination par type d'tablissement prcdent affaires services communaut aires sant et sciences de la sant technologie autre arts (collge) 5 4 3 1 1 0 14 arts (universit) 6 17 18 12 8 1 60 total arts programme d'tudes prcdent programme d'tudes actuel page | 13 la proportion du programme d'tudes prcdent effectue avant le transfert ne semble pas avoir d'impact sur le fait que le programme d'tudes actuel soit diffrent ou non du programme d'tudes prcdent. la proportion de participants indiquant avoir choisi un programme d'tudes diffrent de leur programme prcdent tait de 66 % et 61 %, pour ceux qui avaient termin et ceux qui n'avaient pas termin leur programme prcdent, respectivement. rsultats : le processus de transfert moment du transfert nous avons demand aux personnes interroges le dlai qui s'tait coul entre le moment o ils ont quitt leur ancien programme d'tudes et l'inscription dans leur programme d'tudes actuel. nous avons suppos que cela pouvait avoir un impact important sur les expriences de transfert de crdits : l'exprience des tudiants qui venaient directement d'un autre tablissement pouvait tre bonne, car ils auraient pu trouver de l'aide auprs de l'tablissement prcdent et de l'tablissement actuel. figure 4 : dure du dlai entre l'tablissement source et l'tablissement de destination 12% 37% 19% quatre mois ou moins au-del de quatre mois, mais moins de deux ans entre deux et cinq ans au-del de cinq ans 30% nous avons galement demand aux participants quel moment ils avaient effectu une demande de transfert de crdits. plus de la moiti d'entre eux ont fait leur demande au cours du premier semestre aprs le dbut des cours, alors qu'environ un quart l'avait faite avant le dbut des cours, mais aprs leur inscription. page | 14 figure 5 : moment de la demande de transfert de crdits. 3% 2% 13% 27% aprs mon inscription dans l'tablissement, mais avant le dbut des cours aprs le dbut des cours, mais pendant le premier trimestre aprs le premier trimestre 54% en mme temps que mon dossier d'inscription pour le programme d'tude que je suis actuellement avant de faire la demande d'inscription raisons du transfert nous avons demand aux personnes interroges pourquoi elles avaient choisi de continuer leurs tudes postsecondaires dans leur tablissement actuel. une grande majorit des participants ont parl de raisons lies leur carrire. un total de 43 tudiants ont cit des raisons lies leur potentiel de rentabilit long terme (compris ci-dessous dans la catgorie des possibilits de carrire). seuls deux participants ont indiqu que leur dcision tait motive par une insatisfaction au niveau de l'enseignement ou du programme dans leur tablissement prcdent. veuillez noter que ces catgories ne s'excluent pas mutuellement. tableau 8 : rsum des raisons de transfert nombre de personnes raison de transfert interroges amliorer les possibilits de carrire 111 le domaine d'intrt a chang 50 n'apprciait pas le style ou l'environnement 18 d'enseignement de l'universit emplacement (dmnagement ou transfert pour se 17 rapprocher de son foyer) pour se prparer un autre cursus 6 cots (frais de scolarit et dpenses connexes) 4 plusieurs tudiants ont galement rpondu avoir effectu un transfert spcialement pour avoir accs aux programmes d'tudes coopratives dans leur tablissement de destination, en pensant que cela permettrait d'amliorer leurs chances d'emploi. plusieurs participants ont galement effectu un transfert parce qu'ils avaient l'impression que le programme de l'tablissement de destination tait de haute qualit. page | 15 la premire fois que je suis all(e) au collge, j'ai commenc dans le commerce international, mais a ne m'a pas plu aprs un certain temps et j'ai dcid de ne pas travailler dans ce domaine... il se trouve que j'aime la comptabilit plus que je ne le pensais au lyce. j'ai choisi mon cole actuelle, car je pensais que l'enseignement pratique au collge serait mieux pour moi que l'enseignement thorique l'universit. de nouvelles possibilits de carrire. aprs avoir obtenu mon diplme universitaire, lorsque j'ai dcouvert le bassin d'emploi pour les personnes ayant le mme diplme que moi, je n'avais pas assez d'exprience pratique pour obtenir le type d'emploi que je voulais. j'avais quitt l'cole depuis 16 ans, alors j'avais l'impression de manquer d'ducation. je change de carrire. je travaille normalement dans des bureaux administratifs, mais maintenant je vais travailler dans la communaut en aidant les autres. je voulais reprendre o j'avais arrt il y a 16 ans. seuls deux participants ont effectu un transfert en raison d'une insatisfaction ou d'une exprience ngative dans leur tablissement prcdent. cela suggre fortement que les transferts doivent tre envisags comme tant lis aux facteurs d' attraction et non de rpulsion . sources de renseignements nous avons demand aux participants s'ils avaient recherch des renseignements auprs d'autres sources que le personnel de leurs tablissements prcdent et actuel, et d'indiquer laquelle de ces sources tait selon eux la plus utile. environ la moiti des personnes interroges (98) ont indiqu avoir cherch en ligne sur le site web de leur tablissement actuel, et sept tudiants ont indiqu avoir cherch sur le site web de leur ancien tablissement. dix tudiants ont indiqu avoir cherch des renseignements supplmentaires auprs d'amis et de collgues. trois personnes se sont appuyes sur la description imprime du processus fournie par un coordonnateur des programmes d'tudes ou par le bureau du registraire. l'un des participants a indiqu s'tre appuy sur le site web www.ocutg.on.ca. il faut noter que 14 participants ne se rappelaient pas o ils avaient recherch des renseignements. tableau 9 : sources de renseignements sources de renseignements (autres que le personnel) site web de l'tablissement actuel ne se rappelle pas nombre de personnes interroges 114 14 page | 16 amis et collgues site web de l'tablissement prcdent autre 12 10 3 cinq des personnes interroges ont indiqu que les renseignements trouvs en ligne taient plus utiles que les renseignements fournis en personne par le personnel. l'un des tudiants a indiqu que la disponibilit des renseignements concernant le processus tait lie une perception de responsabilit. je pense simplement que pour ce type de processus, lorsqu'ils sont annoncs en ligne et que la politique est claire, le collge est tenu responsable. cela signifie que vous avez l'assurance que le processus est suivi. un groupe de participants de taille similaire a indiqu avoir demand des renseignements auprs de leur tablissement prcdent, sans en avoir reu. mon tablissement prcdent ne m'a fourni aucune renseignement... j'ai rencontr un conseiller [dans mon tablissement source] afin d'obtenir des renseignements sur le transfert de crdits, et la personne n'a pas t d'une grande aide, on m'a juste dit de demander mon [tablissement actuel]. nous avons galement demand l'ensemble des personnes interroges quels renseignements auraient t les plus utiles lorsqu'ils ont dbut le processus de transfert de crdits. la rponse la plus courante tait qu'aucun renseignement supplmentaire n'aurait t utile ce moment-l, et que tous les renseignements ncessaires taient disponibles. au total, 91 participants, soit 39 %, n'ont pas jug ncessaire d'avoir des renseignements supplmentaires. la deuxime rponse la plus courante dsignait le manque de renseignements de base disponibles concernant le processus. un total de 69 participants, soit 30 %, ont indiqu que des renseignements de base concernant le processus de transfert de crdits, comme les personnes contacter, la liste des documents requis et les chances importantes, auraient t les plus utiles dans leur cas. de nombreux participants ont indiqu avoir trouv des renseignements de base en ligne, mais un groupe important d'autres participants n'ont pas pu trouver les renseignements qu'ils attendaient en ligne. [le plus difficile tait] de comprendre o commencer. je ne savais pas qui appeler, si je devais m'adresser mon collge [source ou de destination]. je ne savais pas comment trouver quelqu'un qui m'adresser, je ne savais pas o commencer. un manque de connaissances de base concernant le processus (et la difficult trouver des renseignements de base concernant le processus) a clairement jou un rle dans la frustration de certains tudiants. page | 17 il n'y avait pas de processus. il n'y avait pas de bureau officiel o une personne examinait votre relev de notes. il n'y avait pas d'informations claires sur la marche suivre ou sur les renseignements ncessaires. la troisime rponse la plus courante concernait les renseignements dtaills sur le processus de transfert de crdits, y compris la faon dont le transfert de crdits affecterait l'emploi du temps de l'tudiant, le fait que les crdits aient un impact sur l'admissibilit au rafeo, la faon dont les cours prcdents ont t valus au cours du processus de demande de transfert de crdits et pourquoi des frais taient requis. un total de 60 participants, soit 26 %, ont signal ce type d'informations. parmi eux, environ un tiers des participants (19) ont indiqu qu'un meilleur aperu des crdits de cours potentiellement admissibles au transfert auraient t le plus utile dans leur cas. j'aurais aim savoir ce qu'ils recherchaient au cours du processus de transfert de crdits. l'origine, lorsque j'ai dcid de transfrer des crdits, j'ai utilis les crdits du cours d'anglais, mais ils n'taient pas admissibles, car mes cours taient principalement bass sur la littrature, alors que le collge voulait un cours d'anglais qui comprenait plus d'lments d'criture. s'ils me l'avaient dit tout de suite, cela aurait t plus simple. je prends moins de classes, mais je ne savais pas que j'allais nouveau devoir payer pour les cours, car je reois le rafeo et je dois payer des frais de scolarit plein temps. j'aurais aim le savoir. c'est injuste de payer deux fois, vraiment injuste. plusieurs participants ont indiqu que cette incertitude signifiait qu'ils avaient pay pour faire valuer des crdits qui ont t refuss et ils ont exprim une certaine frustration en raison des frais qui auraient pu tre vits. bien que le paiement rserv aux valuations de crdits acceptes crerait plusieurs incitations dsagrables et contraires l'thique pour les tablissements, une meilleure comprhension des critres utiliss pour dcider des transferts de crdits pourrait permettre aux tudiants de faire plus attention dans le choix des crdits soumettre l'valuation. une proccupation plus urgente est apparue en raison de cette incertitude et de la dure du processus de prise de dcision. plusieurs tudiants ayant suivi des cours pour lesquels ils pensaient recevoir les crdits plus tard ont indiqu que cette incertitude tait une source de proccupation. ils s'inquitaient surtout des efforts fournis par un tudiant pour suivre un cours qu'il n'est peut-tre pas tenu de suivre en fin de compte. la quatrime rponse la plus courante tait tout simplement de savoir que le transfert de crdits tait possible. un total de 35 participants, soit 15 %, ont spcifiquement mentionn ceci lorsque nous leur avons demand quels renseignements auraient t les plus utiles au dbut du processus. au cours des entretiens, les participants de plusieurs tablissements diffrents ont indiqu que la possibilit d'un transfert de crdits tait un domaine qui ncessitait une meilleure information. de nombreux participants ont fait remarqu aux personnes qui les interrogeaient qu'ils n'avaient entendu parler du processus de transfert de crdits qu'une fois que les cours avaient commenc, et quatre d'entre eux ont page | 18 indiqu que de nombreuses personnes ne font pas de demande tout simplement parce qu'ils ignorent que c'est possible. certains collges semblent avoir une attitude proactive cet gard. le coordonnateur de programmes nous a dit que le transfert de crdits tait possible. le premier jour de notre orientation, ils ont expliqu tous les dtails de l'cole. l'une des choses dont ils ont parl tait le transfert de crdits. ils nous ont dit o aller, qui parler et ce que nous devions apporter. ils nous ont aids nous sentir bien prpars. " il aurait t utile de savoir comment le faire avant d'arriver au collge. j'ai appris la plupart du processus en arrivant, mais j'aurais aim me sentir prt(e) avant de commencer. un petit groupe d'tudiants a comment le fait qu'ils auraient aim tre directement avertis des rsultats de leur demande (c.--d. savoir si les crdits avaient t accords). bien que nous n'ayons pas pos cette question directement aux participants, certains ont volontairement donn des renseignements sur la faon dont ils avaient t informs des rsultats. certains ont signal qu'on leur avait donn les rsultats en personne au cours d'un entretien, alors que d'autres ont indiqu avoir reu un courriel confirmant la rception de leurs crdits (et donnant des instructions concernant la marche suivre pour recevoir des exemptions de cours et faire les modifications ncessaires leur emploi du temps). d'autres tudiants, toutefois, ont indiqu qu'ils n'avaient pas t informs des rsultats de leur demande. huit personnes ont signal avoir vrifi continuellement leur dossier scolaire en ligne pour voir si les crdits avaient t accords. bien que ce facteur n'ait pas t directement mesur, la frquence laquelle cette information a t mentionne par les participants indique son importance. il a fallu deux mois avant que le registraire retire finalement les cours de mon emploi du temps, et je devais constamment vrifier en ligne pour m'assurer que les cours avaient t retirs, pour ne pas chouer ces cours. cinq tudiant ont signal avoir t informs des rsultats de leur demande par courriel. ce courriel contenait un lien vers un raisonnement qui expliquait pourquoi leurs crdits avaient t accords ou non. aucun tudiant n'a indiqu avoir besoin de renseignements concernant les tablissements disposant de programmes qui acceptent le transfert de crdits. une fois encore, cela correspond l'ide que le transfert est une question d' attraction et non de rpulsion ; les tudiants trouvent le nouveau programme qu'ils souhaitent et vont dans l'tablissement qui correspond. dans l'ensemble, ils ne recherchent pas de faon alatoire de nouveaux programmes parce qu'ils n'aiment pas celui qu'ils suivaient. page | 19 assistance dans l'tablissement de destination les tudiants ont indiqu avoir trouv de l'aide auprs de diffrents membres du personnel dans leur tablissement actuel. une grande majorit des tudiants a indiqu avoir obtenu de l'aide auprs du corps professoral, une catgorie qui comprend les coordonnateurs de programmes d'tudes, les professeurs et les doyens. 41 % d'autres participants ont obtenu de l'aide auprs du personnel, comme par exemple les conseillers, le personnel des services aux tudiants, les agents d'aide scolaire et le personnel du bureau du registraire. huit tudiants n'taient pas srs de savoir qui les avait aids. figure 6 : rsum des sources d'assistance 8% corps professoral personnel 41% 51% incertain il y a une leon importante retenir. les tudiants peroivent clairement le corps professoral comme le personnel de premire ligne, les personnes qui s'adresser pour trouver de l'aide pour rsoudre leurs problmes administratifs. la cohrence des renseignements fournis nous avons demand aux tudiants si les renseignements obtenus auprs du personnel taient cohrents, la fois au sein de leur tablissement actuel et entre leur tablissement prcdent et leur tablissement actuel. la majorit (85 %) des personnes interroges ont indiqu que les renseignements obtenus semblaient cohrents au sein de leur tablissement actuel. les 25 % de participants qui ont indiqu que les renseignements n'taient pas cohrents ont fourni diffrentes raisons. dans plusieurs tablissements, les tudiants avaient l'impression que le personnel ne comprenait pas clairement le processus de transfert de crdits. plusieurs copies des relevs de notes n'taient pas requises, bien qu'on m'ait dit qu'elles l'taient l'origine. (le participant a d'abord t inform que des copies des relevs de notes devaient tre soumises dans deux bureaux diffrents, mais il a dcouvert plus tard que ce n'tait pas le cas.) page | 20 j'ai rencontr deux personnes diffrentes, car les exemptions devaient tre dans deux programmes diffrents. les deux personnes m'ont dit que je ne recevrais pas d'exemption selon le processus habituel. pour le cours de psychologie, on m'a dit que le nouveau doyen tait plus strict sur l'anciennet des cours pour m'autoriser avoir une exemption. j'avais l'impression que personne ne savait ce qui se passait. j'ai du trouver les renseignements par moi-mme. on me renvoyait sans arrt vers d'autres personnes. j'allais voir quelqu'un et on me disait que je devais parler une autre personne. j'allais voir cette personne, et elle me renvoyait une autre personne encore. c'tait cause d'un manque de connaissances de la part de mes professeurs et du bureau du registraire. je suis d'abord all(e) voir mon coordonnateur de programmes et [il/elle] m'a dit que je devais parler individuellement chaque professeur. mais ils m'ont dit que je devais parler au coordonnateur de programmes. [il/elle] m'a renvoy(e) vers mes professeurs qui avaient alors t avertis que je devais parler aux coordonnateurs des programmes d'tudes pour mes cours option. alors je suis all(e) voir les coordonnateurs de chaque programme d'tude et ils m'ont aid(e) et ont simplifi le processus. mais le plus dur tait de trouver les personnes qui m'adresser. tous les tudiants sauf un ont indiqu que les renseignements qu'ils avaient obtenus taient cohrents entre leur tablissement actuel et leur tablissement prcdent. douze participants ont utilis cette question pour fournir des commentaires sur le fait que leur tablissement actuel avait t d'une plus grande aide que leur tablissement prcdent. le processus d'application le processus de demande typique comprenait le remplissage d'un formulaire de demande, le fait de le faire signer ou approuver par le reprsentant du dpartement appropri et la soumission du formulaire et des documents justificatifs au registraire ou au coordonnateur de transfert. nous avons galement demand aux personnes interroges combien de temps avait t ncessaire la prparation de la demande de transfert de crdits (y compris les documents justificatifs) ainsi que la dure du dlai d'attente des rsultats. la dure des deux processus variait considrablement, certains participants indiquant des dlais trs longs (plus d'un mois) et une majorit indiquant que les deux processus avaient dur moins d'une semaine. page | 21 figure 7 : dlai de prparation de la demande 9% 34% 16% une journe ou moins plus d'une journe, mais moins d'une semaine plus d'une semaine, mais moins de trois semaines plus de trois semaines 42% les personnes interroges ont attendu en moyenne deux semaines avant de connatre le rsultat de leur demande. environ un cinquime des participants l'ont appris dans la journe suivant la demande, parfois parce qu'on leur donnait immdiatement le rsultat. un petit groupe de 14 participants a attendu plus d'un mois avant de connatre le rsultat de leur demande. figure 8 : dlai d'attente des rsultats de la demande 8% 21% une journe ou moins plus d'une journe, mais moins d'une semaine 35% plus d'une semaine, mais moins d'un mois 36% plus d'un mois une fois que les tudiants connaissaient le rsultat, ils peuvent avoir contact un membre du personnel afin de modifier leur emploi du temps pour prendre en compte les exemptions dcoulant des crdits accords (s'il y a lieu). crdits accords les participants ont t inclus dans cette tude, qu'ils aient effectu ou non une demande de transfert de crdits, et qu'ils aient ou non obtenu ces crdits. bien que la majorit des tudiants aient fait une demande et reu des crdits, ce n'est pas le cas pour une part importante de l'chantillon. page | 22 tableau 10 : caractristiques de l'chantillon : demande et obtention de transfert de crdits avez-vous reu un transfert de crdits? non avez-vous fait une demande de transfert de crdits? oui non 13 % 7% oui 4% 75 % la quantit de crdits reus tait estime de deux faons : le nombre de crdits reus et la dure du raccourcissement du programme d'tudes des participants. dans la plupart des cas, les nombres taient trs faibles, avec environ 60 % des tudiants recevant moins de 5 crdits. lors de l'tude de la dure du raccourcissement du programme d'tudes des participants, une image plus prcise apparat. une grande partie des participants (38 %) ont reu un transfert de crdits pour plus de quatre cours, mais seuls 4 % ont indiqu que leur programme d'tudes avait t raccourci d'un semestre ou plus. pour 32 des participants ayant reu des crdits pour plus de quatre cours, le transfert de crdits n'a pas eu d'impact sur la dure de leur programme d'tude actuel. tableau 11 : rsum des crdits reus et du raccourcissement du programme d'tude actuel nombre de crdits reus dure du raccourcissement du programme d'tudes actuel plus court de moins d'un semestre ou de mme dure un semestre ou plus, mais moins de deux deux semestres ou plus, mais moins de trois trois semestres ou plus, mais moins de quatre quatre semestres ou plus % compte 0-4 5-8 9-12 >13 80 % 144 78 % 23 % 4% 5% 8% 9% 2% 1% 14 17 4 1 14 % 6% 0% 0% 64 % 12 % 0% 0% 7% 41 % 0% 0% 14 % 41 % 100 % 100 % le tableau ci-dessus illustre un lment important du transfert de crdits au collge : dans la plupart des cas, les tudiants effectuant un transfert ne bnficient pas d'un raccourcissement trs important. seuls 13 % des tudiants ayant reu un transfert de crdits ont raccourci leur programme d'un maximum d'un an. il existe deux raisons cela. premirement, un rappel de la figure 3 (page 12) indiquant que la plupart des tudiants effectuent un transfert non seulement d'un programme un autre, mais en changeant compltement de domaine. par consquent, il est improbable qu'un grand nombre d'tudiants possdent des prrequis, tout simplement parce que leur domaine d'tudes prcdent peut tre relativement diffrent du nouveau. deuximement, il est important de se rappeler que la plupart des programmes de collge, contrairement ceux d'universit, ont tendance tre plus troitement lis (c.--d. qu'un plus grand nombre de cours sont prescrits et moins de cours sont option). il y a tout simplement moins de crdits gnraux disponibles accorder selon l'exprience prcdente. page | 23 dcisions et explications concernant l'attribution de crdits de faon gnrale, 69 % des personnes interroges ont indiqu avoir reu tous les crdits qu'elles s'attendaient recevoir. sur l'chantillon total d'tudiants, 53 % ont galement reu un explication concernant la raison pour laquelle ils avaient reu ou non des crdits. certains des participants ayant obtenu des explications ont reu tous les crdits qu'ils attendaient, mais ce n'est pas le cas pour d'autres. les participants taient plus susceptibles d'obtenir des explications s'ils n'avaient pas reu tous les crdits demands. tableau 12: rsum de l'obtention des crdits attendus et explication de la dcision avez-vous reu les crdits que vous vous attendiez recevoir? vous a-t-on donn une raison pour laquelle vous avez ou n'avez pas obtenu d'quivalences? oui non non 80 (41 %) 12 (6 %) oui 54 (28 %) 48 (25 %) la grande majorit (77 %) des participants ayant reu une explication taient satisfaits de cette explication. le fait de ne pas tre satisfait de l'explication a t signal presque exclusivement par les tudiants qui n'avaient pas reu tous les crdits qu'ils attendaient. par consquent, il existe videmment un doute concernant le degr auquel l'insatisfaction des explications est en fait l'expression d'une insatisfaction des rsultats. mais le fait qu'une majorit de ces tudiants rejets demeurent satisfaits des explications donnes suggre que les coles expliquent efficacement les raisons du rejet dans la grande majorit des cas. page | 24 figure 9 : satisfaction vis--vis de l'explication de la dcision toutes les personnes interroges les personnes interroges qui ont reu les crdits qu'elles attendaient 2% les personnes interroges qui n'ont pas reu les crdits qu'elles attendaient 23% 46% 54% 77% satisfait par l'explication 98% mcontent de l'explication les raisons de l'insatisfaction variaient. certains des commentaires les plus courants taient que l'explication ne contenait pas suffisamment de renseignements ou que ces renseignements concernant la dcision n'taient pas clairs, les participants n'taient pas d'accord avec la dcision ou, dans un petit nombre de cas, les participants ont indiqu avoir reu une explication brve et ddaigneuse directement du personnel. c'tait bref et ils m'ont dit que je n'tais pas admissible un transfert de crdits, car ils n'taient pas suffisamment similaires. lorsque j'ai vrifi, il y avait quelques diffrences, mais c'est ce qui se passe entre les coles. je ne sais pas combien de temps ils ont pris pour examiner la demande et les plans de cours, mais je pensais que c'tait injuste. ils n'ont pas fourni suffisamment de dtails pour m'expliquer pourquoi je n'tais pas admissible. je pense vraiment qu'ils n'ont pas fait l'valuation de faon juste. une fois que j'ai vu comment ils avaient fait, il tait trop tard pour rectifier la situation. je n'tais pas satisfait(e) de ce que le bureau du registraire m'a dit. j'avais l'impression qu'ils me donnaient simplement une rponse htive pour se dbarrasser de moi. mais j'ai obtenu une trs bonne explication auprs des professeurs. ils m'ont expliqu pourquoi j'tais exempt(e). page | 25 niveau de comprhension lorsque nous leur avons demand d'valuer leur niveau actuel de comprhension du processus de transfert, la plupart des participants ont donn une note de 1 ou 2 sur une chelle de 1 5 o 1 tait une comprhension trs claire et 5 tait une incomprhension totale. nous avons galement demand aux tudiants d'estimer leur niveau de comprhension lorsqu'ils ont entam le processus de transfert de crdits. 33 % des personnes interroges ont indiqu ne pas comprendre du tout le processus au dbut de celui-ci. le niveau actuel de comprhension et le niveau de comprhension initial ne sont pas lis la satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme, la difficult perue du processus de transfert de crdits ou au niveau de qualit de l'aide obtenue. figure 10 : niveau de comprhension du processus de transfert de crdits maintenant et au dbut du processus de demande de transfert de crdits comprhension actuelle 4% comprhension au dbut du processus de transfert de crdit 7% 17% 33% 17% 41% 15% 31% 1 (trs bonne comprhension) 2 3 4 5 (ne comprend pas du tout) 16% 19% 1 (trs bonne comprhension) 2 3 4 5 (ne comprend pas du tout) page | 26 satisfaction gnrale cette tude comprenait l'examen des variables qui affectent la perception des participants de l'efficacit des institutions et la faon dont ces perceptions affectent au final la satisfaction vis--vis du programme en soi; une variable conue pour reproduire les donnes de l'indicateur cl de performance (icp) de la satisfaction des tudiants recueillies tous les ans dans l'ensemble des collges de l'ontario. nous avons demand chaque tudiant : quel point tes-vous satisfait(e) de votre programme en gnral? cette variable a t complte par deux variables connexes dpendantes : la difficult gnrale du processus de transfert de crdits et la qualit perue de l'aide obtenue auprs du personnel. ensemble, ces variables permettent de raliser une analyse approfondie qui est prsente dans les pages qui suivent. en moyenne, la satisfaction gnrale tait leve, avec environ 83 % des participants indiquant qu'ils taient satisfaits (1 ou 2 sur une chelle de 1 5 o 1 signifie trs satisfait et 5 signifie trs insatisfait). il convient de noter qu'une grande partie des tudiants ayant indiqu avoir rencontr des problmes au cours du processus de transfert de crdits ont nanmoins signal un niveau lev de satisfaction gnrale. figure 11 : satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme d'tudes 2% 4% 11% 1 (trs satisfait) 2 51% 3 4 32% 5 (trs insatisfait) la satisfaction tait troitement lie la fois la difficult du processus de transfert de crdits et la qualit perue de l'aide obtenue auprs du personnel. les participants ayant trouv le processus facile (facile ou trs facile) taient moins susceptibles d'exprimer une insatisfaction vis--vis de leur programme d'tudes en gnral (trs insatisfait ou insatisfait). de faon similaire, ceux qui taient satisfaits (trs satisfait ou satisfait) taient susceptibles de mieux noter la qualit de l'aide obtenue. page | 27 figure 12 : qualit de l'aide par rapport la satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme d'tudes 1 (m'a bien aid) 2 1 (trs satisfait) 2 3 3 4 4 5 (trs insatisfait) 5 (ne m'a pas aid du tout) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% figure 13 : difficult par rapport la satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme d'tudes 1 (trs facile) 2 1 (trs satisfait) 2 3 3 4 4 5 (trs insatisfait) 5 (trs difficile) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% la relation troite entre la difficult et la qualit de l'aide et la satisfaction gnrale souligne l'importance de ces variables dans l'exprience des tudiants et dans les fonctions administratives des institutions. en raison de cette relation et comme ces deux variables sont susceptibles d'action (c.--d. qu'elles peuvent tre directement affectes par la politique institutionnelle), elles sont explores de faon plus approfondie dans les pages qui suivent. page | 28 difficult perue du transfert de crdits nous avons pos la question suivante aux participants : selon vous, quel est le degr de difficult du processus en gnral? l'aspect ouvert de cette question signifiait que tout type de difficult participerait l'impression des participants. cette question n'a pas t pose aux tudiants qui n'ont pas reu de crdits ou qui ont automatiquement reu des crdits (sans prendre aucune mesure). aprs avoir rpondu cette question, nous avons demand aux tudiants d'identifier ce qui, selon eux, tait la partie la plus difficile du processus. bien que les participants aient t trs positifs en gnral, les rponses aux lments qualitatifs et quantitatifs de ces questions variaient entre les diffrents sous-groupes de participants. en gnral, une majorit de participants (60 %) avait l'impression que le processus de transfert de crdits tait facile (1 ou 2 sur une chelle 5 points o 1 signifie trs facile et 5 trs difficile ). figure 14 : difficult gnrale perue du processus de transfert de crdits 7% 1 (trs facile) 12% 33% 2 3 21% 4 5 (trs difficile) 27% facteurs dmographiques l'ge est faiblement li la difficult perue. les participants gs de 21 25 ans taient plus susceptibles de dcrire le processus comme tant facile (1 ou 2 sur une chelle allant de 1 5 o 1 signifie trs facile et 5 signifie trs difficile) par rapport aux participants gs de 26 30 ans. veuillez noter que bien que d'autres groupes d'ge semblent montrer diffrents niveaux de perception de la difficult, ces rsultats ne sont pas significatifs en raison d'une taille d'chantillon infrieure dans ces groupes. page | 29 figure 15 : ge par rapport la difficult perue d'un transfert de crdit >35 31-35 1 (trs facile) 2 26-30 3 4 21-25 5 (trs difficile) 18-20 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% programme d'tudes prcdent parmi les participants qui n'ont pas termin un programme d'tudes prcdent, 13 % ont indiqu que le processus de transfert de crdits tait difficile (difficile ou trs difficile). parmi ceux qui avaient termin un programme d'tudes prcdent, 27 % ont indiqu que le processus tait difficile. de faon intressante, le nombre de crdits transfrs n'avait pas d'impact significatif sur la difficult perue. figure 16 : degr d'avancement du programme d'tudes prcdent par rapport la difficult perue 1 (trs facile) achev 2 3 4 inachev 5 (trs difficile) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% le processus d'application le processus de demande a t tudi au moyen d'une srie de questions poses aux tudiants afin qu'ils puissent dcrire leur participation au processus, les actions requises, les documents justificatifs requis et le dlai ncessaire. nous avons galement demand aux participants d'exprimer leur perception de la difficult du processus et nous les avons invits dcrire la partie la plus difficile. bien page | 30 que le processus en gnral soit similaire pour la majorit des participants, un petit groupe a dcrit des expriences extrmement divergentes. une corrlation faible, mais statistiquement significative, a t dcouverte entre la difficult du processus et le moment o la demande t effectue. les tudiants ayant fait leur demande au cours du premier semestre taient beaucoup moins susceptibles d'valuer le processus comme tant facile (1 ou 2 sur une chelle allant de trs facile trs difficile) que les personnes ayant fait leur demande de transfert de crdits en mme temps que leur demande d'admission ou avant. figure 17 : moment de la demande par rapport la difficult perue aprs le premier trimestre 1 (trs facile) aprs le dbut des cours, mais pendant le premier trimestre 2 aprs mon inscription dans l'tablissement, mais avant le dbut des cours avant ou en mme temps que mon dossier d'inscription pour le programme d'tude que je suis actuellement 3 4 5 (trs difficile) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% la plupart des participants ont reu tous les crdits qu'ils s'attendaient obtenir. une corrlation a t observe entre cette variable et le niveau de difficult. les tudiants ayant reu les crdits qu'ils attendaient taient plus susceptibles d'valuer le processus comme tant trs facile. ces participants taient galement moins susceptibles d'valuer le processus comme tant trs difficile. bien qu'il ne soit pas surprenant que les tudiants ayant reu le transfert de crdits qu'ils attendaient taient plus susceptibles de donner une valuation positive du processus, il est important de noter que ces tudiants taient galement plus susceptibles d'exprimer une satisfaction gnrale vis--vis de leur programme d'tudes. page | 31 figure 18 : rception des crdits attendus par rapport la difficult perue 1 (trs facile) n'a pas reu tous les crdits attendus 2 3 4 a reu tous les crdits attendus 5 (trs difficile) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% explication des crdits reus les personnes satisfaites de l'explication fournie taient beaucoup plus susceptibles de trouver le processus de transfert de crdits facile. figure 19 : satisfaction vis--vis de l'explication de la dcision par rapport la difficult perue satisfait par l'explication 1 (trs facile) 2 3 4 mcontent de l'explication 5 (trs difficile) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% dure de prparation de la demande et dlai d'attente du rsultat nous avons demand aux tudiants d'valuer le temps ncessaire pour prparer la demande ainsi que les documents justificatifs, et le dlai d'attente du rsultat de leur demande. ces deux mesures taient lies la perception des tudiants de la difficult du processus de transfert de crdits et la satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme d'tudes. les tudiants qui ont eu besoin de moins d'une semaine pour prparer leur demande et les documents justificatifs taient plus susceptibles d'exprimer un sentiment positif vis--vis de l'ensemble des aspects de l'exprience. cela tait particulirement vident pour le niveau de difficult o les tudiants taient plus susceptibles d'valuer le processus comme tant difficile (4 5 sur une chelle de 1 5). page | 32 figure 20 : dlai requis pour prparer la demande et les documents justificatifs par rapport la difficult plus de trois semaines 1 (trs facile) plus d'une semaine, mais moins de trois semaines 2 3 plus d'une journe, mais moins d'une semaine 4 5 (trs difficile) une journe ou moins 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% de faon similaire, les tudiants ayant attendu plus d'un mois pour connatre le rsultat de leur demande taient moins susceptibles de trouver ce processus facile (1 ou 2 sur la mme chelle) et plus susceptibles de trouver le processus difficile (4 ou 5) que les autres participants. les tudiants ayant attendu une semaine ou plus taient moins susceptibles de trouver le processus facile (1 ou 2) que les participants ayant attendu moins d'une semaine. figure 21 : dlai d'attente du rsultat de la demande par rapport la difficult plus d'un mois 1 (trs facile) plus d'une semaine, mais moins de trois semaines 2 3 plus d'une journe, mais moins d'une semaine 4 5 (trs difficile) une journe ou moins 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% le lien solide dcrit par ces chiffres se retrouvait dans les commentaires qualitatifs des tudiants tout au long de l'entretien. les tudiants ont frquemment signal que la partie la plus difficile du processus tait l'attente du rsultat de leur demande, car ils assistaient parfois des cours pour lesquels ils avaient une chance d'tre exempts si leur demande tait accepte. de faon similaire, les tudiants ont souvent indiqu que le temps et les efforts requis pour obtenir les plans de cours taient la partie la plus difficile. dans trois cas isols, le dlai important du processus a rendu le transfert de crdits impossible, car le semestre pour lequel les crdits devaient tre appliqus tait termin. page | 33 autres facteurs il n'existait aucun lien entre la difficult perue du processus de transfert et le sexe, le type de programme prcdent (diplme universitaire, certificat ou diplme collgial), le degr d'avancement du programme d'tudes prcdent ou le domaine du programme d'tudes prcdent (aprs le contrle de l'effet de l'tablissement actuel). une tude plus approfondie de la difficult perue une image plus nuance est apparue lorsque nous avons demand aux participants quelle tait la partie la plus difficile du processus. les participants ont principalement mentionn des difficults rencontres lors de l'obtention des plans de cours. tous mes plans de cours taient 5 heures de voiture, dans une remise, car j'avais dmnag, donc il tait difficile de les retrouver... cela n'aurait pas t si difficile si j'avais su avant de dmnager et de commencer les cours que j'allais avoir besoin de ces renseignements. il existait cinq autres domaines qui prsentaient des difficults pour les tudiants : i. ii. iii. l'obtention de renseignements de base concernant la procdure (comme la personne contacter et les documents requis). l'obtention de renseignements avancs concernant le processus, y compris les cours potentiellement admissibles au transfert de crdits, la faon dont les demandes sont values et la faon dont les crdits peuvent affecter l'emploi du temps de l'tudiant. la participation un cours pour lequel les crdits pourraient tre accords plus tard. cette difficult a t signale dans presque tous les collges par des tudiants qui ont particip un cours et qui ont parfois mme termin des travaux pour ce cours dont ils pouvaient tre exempts si leur demande tait accorde. la partie la plus difficile tait l'angoisse de ne pas savoir ce qu'il se passait. il tait prfrable d'assister au [cours] jusqu' ce que je puisse prendre ce rendez-vous et obtenir l'autorisation d'exemption, afin de ne pas prendre de retard. iv. le paiement des frais le paiement des frais tait la partie la plus difficile du processus pour certains des participants. bien que dans certains cas, la proccupation tait purement financire, dans d'autres, elle dcoulait d'un manque de comprhension de la raison pour laquelle ces frais taient ncessaires ou d'un sentiment d'injustice li au paiement de l'valuation des cours mme si les crdits n'taient pas accords ainsi qu'au paiement des mmes frais de scolarit mme si les crdits taient accords. page | 34 v. une mauvaise exprience du service. un petit nombre de participant ont indiqu avoir eu une exprience ngative avec le personnel. ils ont indiqu que le personnel n'avait pas t capable de rpondre des questions de base concernant le processus, avait fourni des rponses errones ou avait renvoy l'tudiant vers un autre membre du personnel qui n'tait pas concern. plusieurs tudiants ont signal une interaction personnelle ngative avec un membre du personnel et d'autres ont indiqu que les files d'attente pour parler la personne approprie taient trop longues. la difficult perue du processus de transfert de crdits, ainsi que les sources de ces difficults, suggrent en gnral l'absence d'obstacles majeurs au transfert de crdits dans les collges de l'ontario. chacun des domaines numrs ci-dessus est un domaine potentiel d'amlioration qui pourrait aider prvenir les expriences difficiles et amliorer l'exprience des tudiants en matire de transfert de crdits. comme nous l'tudions dans la section suivante, la difficult perue est souvent troitement lie l'aide obtenue auprs du corps professoral et du personnel. page | 35 qualit perue de l'aide obtenue l'aide que vous avez obtenue vous a-t-elle t utile? nous avons pos cette question aux tudiants afin d'valuer l'aide qu'ils ont obtenue auprs du personnel du collge pendant le processus de transfert, sans tenir compte de la nature de l'aide. cette question a permis d'obtenir une valuation d'un niveau lev et quantitativement comparable des interactions avec le personnel du collge au cours du processus de transfert des crdits. aprs cette question, les participants ont eu la possibilit d'exprimer les raisons pour lesquelles l'aide obtenue leur avait t utile ou non. nous n'avons donn cette possibilit qu'aux tudiants ayant indiqu avoir eu une interaction directe avec le personnel. la majorit des participants (74 %) ont obtenu de l'aide vis--vis du transfert de crdits auprs du personnel. lorsque nous leur avons demand si l'aide obtenue avait t utile (sur une chelle de 1 5, 1 signifiant trs utile et 5 signifiant compltement inutile), 49 % des personnes interroges ont rpondu qu'elles avaient jug l'aide trs utile. figure 22 : rsum de la qualit de l'aide obtenue 2% 9% 1 (m'a bien aid) 15% 49% 2 3 4 5 (ne m'a pas aid du tout) 25% page | 36 ge il existe une corrlation faible entre l'ge et la qualit de l'aide obtenue auprs du personnel, les participants plus jeunes (de 18 20 ans) tant moins susceptibles de qualifier l'aide obtenue d'utile (1 ou 2 sur une chelle de 1 5), par rapport aux tudiants gs de 26 30 ans. comme la plupart des participants taient dans ces deux groupes d'ge, les diffrences observes entre d'autres groupes reprsentaient un petit nombre de rponses et n'taient pas significatives. figure 23 : ge par rapport la qualit de l'aide obtenue >35 31-35 1 (m'a bien aid) 2 26-30 3 4 21-25 5 (ne m'a pas aid du tout) 18-20 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% temps coul depuis les dernires tudes une relation faible a t observe entre le temps coul depuis les dernires tudes et la qualit perue de l'aide obtenue. les tudiants signalant un dlai de plus de 5 ans depuis les dernires tudes taient plus susceptibles de qualifier l'aide obtenue d'utile (1 ou 2 sur une chelle allant de 1 5), par rapport aux autres participants. le processus d'application il n'existe aucun lien entre le moment de la demande et la qualit perue de l'aide obtenue. une corrlation a t observe entre le fait que les crdits attendus aient t accords ou non et la qualit perue de l'aide obtenue. les tudiants ayant reu les crdits qu'ils attendaient taient beaucoup plus susceptibles de qualifier l'aide obtenue comme tant trs utile. ces participants taient galement bien moins susceptibles de qualifier l'aide obtenue comme tant compltement inutile. bien qu'il ne soit pas surprenant que les tudiants ayant reu le transfert de crdits qu'ils attendaient taient page | 37 plus susceptibles de donner une valuation positive du processus, il est important de noter que cela a galement entran une satisfaction gnrale plus leve vis--vis de leur programme d'tudes. figure 24 : obtention de crdits par rapport la qualit de l'aide n'a pas reu tous les crdits attendus 1 (m'a bien aid) 2 3 a reu tous les crdits attendus 4 5 (ne m'a pas aid du tout) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% explication des crdits reus les tudiants qui taient satisfaits de l'explication taient beaucoup plus susceptibles de qualifier l'aide obtenue comme tant utile (1 ou 2 sur une chelle allant de 1 5). la satisfaction vis--vis de l'explication tait galement lie la satisfaction gnrale vis--vis du programme d'tudes et avec la difficult perue du processus de transfert de crdits. figure 25 : explication de la dcision par rapport la qualit de l'aide 1 (m'a bien aid) satisfait par l'explication 2 3 mcontent de l'explication 4 5 (ne m'a pas aid du tout) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% nous avons galement demand aux personnes interroges combien de temps avait t ncessaire la prparation de la demande de transfert de crdits (y compris les documents justificatifs) ainsi que la dure du dlai d'attente des rsultats. ces mesures taient lies la perception des tudiants en ce qui concerne la qualit de l'aide obtenue. dans l'ensemble de ces mesures, les tudiants dont le dlai de prparation de la demande et des documents justificatifs tait infrieur une semaine taient plus susceptibles d'exprimer un sentiment positif vis--vis de l'ensemble des aspects de l'exprience : ils taient moins susceptibles de qualifier l'aide d'inutile (4 ou 5 sur une chelle de 1 5) et moins susceptibles de qualifier le processus de difficile (4 ou 5 sur une chelle de 1 5). page | 38 figure 26 : dlai requis pour prparer la demande et les documents justificatifs par rapport la qualit de l'aide plus de trois semaines 1 (m'a bien aid) plus d'une semaine, mais moins de trois semaines 2 3 plus d'une journe, mais moins d'une semaine 4 5 (ne m'a pas aid du tout) une journe ou moins 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% de faon similaire, le dlai d'attente du rsultat de la demande de transfert de crdits tait galement li la perception de la qualit de l'aide. la grande majorit des tudiants (douze sur quatorze) ayant qualifi l'aide d'inutile (4 ou 5 sur une chelle de 1 5) ont attendu plus d'une semaine avant d'obtenir le rsultat de leur demande. figure 27 : dlai d'attente du rsultat de la demande par rapport la qualit de l'aide plus d'un mois 1 (m'a bien aid) plus d'une semaine, mais moins de trois semaines plus d'une journe, mais moins d'une semaine 2 3 4 une journe ou moins 5 (ne m'a pas aid du tout) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% autres facteurs aucune corrlation n'a t observe entre la qualit de l'aide obtenue et le sexe, le type de programme prcdent (diplme universitaire, certificat ou diplme collgial), le degr d'avancement du programme d'tudes prcdent ou le domaine du programme d'tudes prcdent (aprs le contrle de l'effet de l'tablissement actuel). page | 39 analyse plus approfondie de l'aide nous avons galement demand aux participants le type d'aide qu'ils avaient obtenue. les deux rponses les plus courantes taient que les tudiants avaient obtenu de l'aide pour comprendre les bases du processus de transfert de crdits et rcuprer les documents justificatifs. le coordonnateur de programmes a vraiment fait le maximum. je n'avais qu'une copie non officielle de mon relev de notes, alors il/elle m'a dit d'attendre 20 minutes le temps qu'il/elle obtienne une copie de mon relev dans les archives. cela m'a permis de gagner du temps et d'viter une autre visite dans son bureau. un petit groupe d'tudiants (16 %) ont obtenu de l'aide auprs de leur tablissement prcdent. dans la plupart des cas, l'aide consistait assister l'tudiant rcuprer les plans de cours et les relevs de notes requis pour le processus de transfert de crdits. dans deux cas, l'aide consistait expliquer les bases du transfert de crdits et envoyer les participants vers les personnes appropries dans leur tablissement actuel. comme cela est indiqu plus haut, il existait des diffrences importantes entre les tablissements en ce qui concerne cette mesure. le nombre de rponses par tablissement est trop faible pour tablir des comparaisons entre les tablissements. cette question n'a t pose qu'aux participants ayant indiqu qu'ils avaient obtenu de l'aide auprs de leur tablissement actuel; par consquent, le nombre de rponses par tablissement est seulement de 5 dans certains cas. nous avons obtenu le plus d'impressions positives dans les cas o le personnel traitait les problmes qui leur taient prsents de faon rapide et efficace. dans ces cas-l, le membre du personnel avait les connaissances et les ressources ncessaires pour aider l'tudiant, ou il/elle connaissait la personne approprie pour traiter le problme en question. les personnes interroges ont galement signal un service personnalis et aimable comme tant un facteur positif. le personnel au collge [l'tablissement actuel] a montr qu'il s'intressait moi, en tant que personne. j'avais l'impression d'tre un numro dans [mon tablissement source], c'tait comme un moulin l-bas; ils ne cherchaient qu' se dbarrasser des tudiants. les participants ont galement souvent indiqu que la vitesse laquelle on les avait aids tait une source de satisfaction. cela correspond troitement aux rsultats quantitatifs lis la dure du processus de transfert de crdit (ci-dessus). les impressions ngatives vis--vis de l'aide obtenue concernaient deux domaines. premirement, l'incapacit fournir l'aide requise, telle que l'incapacit fournir la bonne rponse une question page | 40 pose. deuximement, les tudiants ont ragi de faon ngative au fait d'tre envoys vers le mauvais bureau pour obtenir une rponse leur question ou une solution leur problme. un grand nombre de ces tudiants avaient l'impression d'tre renvoys d'un bureau un autre ou transmis un autre membre du personnel. dans un petit nombre de cas isols, les personnes interroges ont galement peru qu'elles n'avaient pas t bien traites par le personnel. personne ne me tenait au courant de la situation. je devais y retourner pour poser des questions, ce qui n'tait pas facile, car les gens semblaient ne pas vraiment connatre le processus. j'ai d m'adresser plusieurs personnes juste pour obtenir une rponse, et mme dans ce cas-l, certaines personnes m'ont dit des choses totalement diffrentes. les conseillers scolaires et le personnel des admissions n'taient pas clairs en ce qui concerne le processus et ils ne savaient mme pas o obtenir le formulaire, ce qui tait trs ennuyant. je suis all(e) poser toutes mes questions au coordonnateur de programmes, et [il/elle] a trouv tous les formulaires pour moi et m'a dit quels documents j'allais devoir obtenir. ils ne m'ont pas aid(e) comprendre le reste du processus de transfert de crdits depuis mon tablissement prcdent ou ce dont j'avais besoin. j'ai d aller sur le site web et tout comprendre par moi-mme... j'avais l'impression que peu de personnes taient issues de l'universit et que le personnel ne savait pas vraiment comment faire dans ce cas. ils taient brusques, un peu impolis et trs distants. c'tait trs intimidant. la faon dont ils me parlaient n'tait pas celle laquelle on s'attend en tant que personne qui vous paye pour aller l'cole. page | 41 facteurs supplmentaires noter les tudiants ayant choisi de ne pas faire de demande de transfert de crdits un petit groupe de 40 tudiants auraient pu tre admissibles au transfert de crdits, mais ils ont choisi de ne pas en faire la demande. alors que 16 de ces participants n'ont fourni aucune raison au fait de ne pas avoir prsent de demande de transfert de crdits, les explications du reste du groupe sont rparties en quatre catgories. dix personnes n'ont pas fait la demande, car elles pensaient que leur demande de crdits ne serait pas accepte. huit participants auraient pu faire la demande, mais ont choisi de ne pas la faire, car ils souhaitaient amliorer leurs connaissances dans la matire tudie. neuf participants ignoraient que le transfert de crdits tait possible, et deux n'ont pas fait la demande, car ils avaient l'impression que le processus tait trop compliqu. tableau 13 : rsum des raisons de non application raison de non application au transfert de crdits pensaient que les crdits ne seraient pas accords ignoraient que le transfert de crdits tait possible souhaitaient suivre nouveau le cours le processus tait trop compliqu nombre de personnes interroges 10 9 8 2 trois autres tudiants ont galement indiqu dans les questions suivantes qu'ils avaient l'impression que le processus tait trop contraignant, dans tous les cas aprs avoir t dcourags par une impression initiale. ma professeure n'tait pas sre du processus et m'a suggr d'aller au bureau du registraire ou aux services aux tudiants. elle n'en savait rien. en me basant sur cela, j'ai dcid que a devait tre trop contraignant. l'une des personnes interroges n'a pas fait la demande pour l'ensemble des crdits admissibles afin de pouvoir maintenir son statut d'tudiant temps plein pour le financement des tudes. je n'ai pas fait la demande cause de mon financement. j'aurais pu recevoir des crdits pour les cours que je dois suivre, mais je ne pouvais plus faire de transfert de crdits, car, dans ce cas-l, je n'aurais plus t un(e) tudiant(e) temps plein et j'aurais perdu mon financement de seconde carrire. personne ne m'a donn d'autres options, s'il y en a. page | 42 niveau de comprhension bien qu'il soit li la satisfaction de manire moins importante que la qualit de l'aide obtenue ou la difficult gnrale, le niveau de comprhension tait galement li d'autres parties des donnes de cette tude. premirement, les participants ayant effectu une demande de transfert de crdits taient plus susceptibles de signaler des niveaux levs de comprhension. de faon similaire, la quantit de crdits obtenus et le temps de raccourcissement du programme des personnes interroges taient galement lis au niveau de comprhension. les participants ayant reu plus de 4 crdits ou ceux dont le programme d'tudes a t raccourci d'un semestre complet ou plus ont signal des niveaux de comprhension plus levs. figure 28 : niveau de comprhension et raccourcissement du programme d'tudes. plus court de moins d'un semestre ou de mme dure 1 (trs bonne comprhension) 2 3 4 5 (ne comprend pas du tout) plus court d'un semestre ou plus 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% de faon intressante, aucun autre facteur n'avait de relation significative avec le niveau de comprhension. certaines des variables les plus significatives ont t mises l'essai, mais aucun lien n'a t dcouvert. ces variables comprenaient : la personne auprs de laquelle les tudiants ont obtenu de l'aide le fait que tout autre type d'aide ait t obtenu ou non, auprs de l'tablissement prcdent ou actuel le fait que les participants aient recherch ou non des renseignements ailleurs l'endroit o les participants ont recherch d'autres renseignements le temps coul depuis le programme d'tudes prcdent et le programme actuel le type d'tablissement et le niveau d'tudes dans l'tablissement prcdent et dans l'tablissement actuel l'ge et le sexe le fait que le programme d'tudes prcdent ait t termin ou non page | 43 autres suggestions des participants tout au long des entretiens, les participants ont eu plusieurs fois l'occasion d'exprimer leurs proccupations. au cours de la dernire de ces occasions, nous avons demand aux tudiants s'il existait quelque chose qu'ils souhaiteraient amliorer au niveau du processus de transfert de crdits en gnral. les rponses cette question refltaient gnralement les difficults rencontres par chaque personne interroge. les rponses les plus courantes cette question ont dj t tudies en profondeur plus haut dans ce rapport. certaines des suggestions d'amlioration plus inhabituelles sont numres cidessous. un petit nombre d'tudiants ont mentionn la normalisation des cours dans l'ensemble des collges de l'ontario. selon certains participants, il semblait paradoxal de dcouvrir que les cours essentiels taient diffrents entre les tablissements et ces personnes pensaient qu'il serait plus logique de normaliser les plans de cours dans l'ensemble des tablissements. l'ontario dans son ensemble doit clarifier ses plans de cours de faon gnrale. ainsi, si vous suivez un programme dans un tablissement, il devrait tre identique dans les autres tablissements, car nous sommes dans la mme province. ainsi, si je transfre les crdits d'un programme d'un tablissement un autre, je dois pouvoir obtenir le transfert de crdits. c'est pour cela que j'ai d faire une anne supplmentaire et que j'ai d aller dans deux tablissements prcdents distincts, cause de certains de mes crdits. de faon similaire, un petit groupe de quatre participants ont indiqu que l'incohrence des processus et des pratiques dans les collges entranaient une certaine confusion, car ces personnes s'taient faites une certaine ide du processus dans leur tablissement actuel, mais cette ide s'est rvle tre fausse. contrairement certains rsultats prcdents de l'tude icsp, cette difficult n'a t mentionne que par un trs petit nombre d'tudiants et n'a engendr qu'une confusion mineure et rapidement claircie pour les quatre participants. l'tablissement d'une base de donnes accessible au public concernant les cours transfrables a t suggr par trois participants. ils imaginaient un systme permettant aux tablissements de partager les renseignements concernant les cours qui avaient t approuvs pour le transfert de crdits et qui mettrait ces renseignements la disposition des tudiants tout en fournissant un lieu d'change de renseignements connexes, tels que les plans de cours. j'ai d appeler le collge, tre orient(e) vers le bon bureau, obtenir le document sous le bon format (pdf) par courriel, etc. j'aimerais obtenir automatiquement ces documents sous format numrique au moment de ma graduation (preuve d'inscription, plans de cours, etc. cela aurait t trs pratique). ou j'aimerais qu'il y ait une base de donnes commune pour tous les tablissements qui me permettrait de savoir quels page | 44 cours sont admissibles et sur laquelle toutes les coles pourraient se connecter et rendre l'accs plus facile. page | 45 conclusion en trs grande majorit, les tudiants du systme collgial de l'ontario ayant particip cette tude ont exprim des sentiments positifs concernant leur tablissement, le personnel qu'ils ont rencontr et leurs expriences en matire de transfert des crdits. l'analyse ci-dessus tudie une large srie d'obstacles potentiels au transfert de crdits et classe les facteurs ayant contribu aux expriences positives et ngatives des tudiants. ces expriences taient gnralement trs positives, avec un petit nombre d'tudiants exprimant une insatisfaction, mme parmi ceux qui ont eu certaines difficults pendant le processus. plusieurs domaines ont t identifis dans lesquels les pratiques des tablissements trs bien nots diffraient de celles d'autres tablissements. chacune des sept recommandations ci-dessous aborde une pratique ou une politique qui semble avoir facilit le processus de transfert de crdits l o elle a t rencontre. chaque lment reprsente une directive potentielle pour les pratiques futures des collges de l'ontario. i. les collges ayant le plus de rponses positives s'assuraient que le personnel et les tudiants avaient facilement accs aux renseignements de base concernant le processus de transfert de crdits. les renseignements de base comprennent le fait que le transfert de crdits est possible, la faon de progresser dans le processus de transfert de crdits (explicitement), les documents requis, les coordonnes (quels bureaux ou quelles personnes doivent tre contacts pour chaque tape du processus) et les dates et chances importantes du processus. ces renseignements sont essentiels pour les tudiants qui souhaitent faire une demande de transfert de crdits et pour les membres du personnel qui peuvent les aider. les renseignements doivent tre accessibles au personnel ainsi qu'aux tudiants et ils doivent tre prpars en ayant les deux publics cibles l'esprit. une connaissance simple du transfert de crdits permet aux tudiants d'initier le processus plus tt, ce qui limite le risque d'avoir faire face des contraintes temporelles ou de devoir suivre des cours pour lesquels ils s'attendent recevoir des crdits plus tard une plainte courante chez les tudiants. l'un des participants a suggr de faire du transfert de crdits une part essentielle du formulaire commun de demande dadmission sur www.ontariocolleges.ca, et une autre personne a suggr d'envoyer une lettre ou un courriel concernant le transfert de crdits l'ensemble des nouveaux tudiants ayant une exprience pralable dans l'enseignement postsecondaire. des tudiants de trois collges ont indiqu avoir entendu parler du transfert de crdits pendant une prsentation ou au cours de l'orientation des tudiants. en gnral, les participants ont indiqu qu'ils avaient consult le site web de leur collge actuel plus souvent que toute autre source. ii. les collges ayant le plus de rponses positives ont galement fourni des renseignements dtaills concernant le processus. une fois que les tudiants ont initi le processus de transfert de crdits, ils avaient souvent des questions plus dtailles afin de savoir quels crdits taient admissibles et en quoi le transfert de crdits aurait un impact sur eux. page | 46 les renseignements prcis devraient comprendre des dtails sur le processus d'valuation afin que les tudiants puissent anticiper de faon raisonnable l'acceptation ou le rejet de leur demande (en incluant potentiellement une liste des cours qui ont t accepts pour le transfert de crdits par le pass) ainsi qu'une description claire de la faon dont les crdits pourraient avoir un impact sur leur emploi du temps et sur leur admissibilit au rafeo. le fait de mettre ces renseignements la disposition du personnel et des tudiants peut permettre d'viter des problmes importants (comme le passage au statut d'tudiant temps partiel et le lancement par inadvertance du remboursement du prt du rafeo) et d'offrir une ressource pour rpondre aux questions les plus courantes. la plupart des tudiants ont recherch ces renseignements sur le site web de leur tablissement actuel. iii. les collges ayant le plus de rponses positives faisaient preuve d'une culture de services efficaces. les expriences les plus positives des participants provenaient des interactions avec les membres du personnel qui taient la fois efficaces et fiables. de faon similaire, les expriences les plus ngatives dcoulaient de situations dans lesquelles ils avaient l'impression de ne pas avoir t traits de faon approprie. dans de nombreux cas, les tudiants indiquaient s'tre retrouvs dans le bureau d'un doyen compatissant, d'un membre du corps professoral ou d'un autre membre du personnel qui les a aids lancer le processus ou rsoudre un problme. un systme au sein duquel les diffrents membres du corps professoral et du personnel comprennent les bases du processus de transfert de crdits est plus solide et permet de rduire les chances d'avoir des tudiants frustrs par un membre du personnel qui se trouve dans l'incapacit de les aider ou de fournir des renseignements prcis. j'ai recherch de l'aide dans le bureau du registraire, mais ils m'ont induit(e) en erreur en me disant que mes cours prcdent ne seraient pas admissible au transfert. aprs cela, je suis all(e) voir l'un de mes professeurs qui m'a beaucoup aid(e). [il/elle] m'a expliqu les formulaires, le processus, [il/elle] m'a aid(e) remplir les formulaires, [il/elle] a sign les formulaires, a examin mon relev de notes afin de s'assurer que mes notes taient acceptables et a recherch le plan du cours en ligne. iv. les collges ayant le plus de rponses positives avaient simplifi le processus de demande de transfert de crdits. le fait de ne pas avoir resoumettre les documents, la rduction du nombre de documents et d'approbations requis et la cration d'un point de contact unique peuvent aider rduire la complexit du processus de demande pour les tudiants. v. les collges ayant le plus de rponses possibles offraient un soutien aux lves qui rencontraient des difficults pour obtenir les plans ou les descriptions de cours. il a souvent t mentionn que l'obtention de la description des cours tait difficile et prenait beaucoup de page | 47 temps, en particulier pour les tudiants ayant quitt l'enseignement postsecondaire depuis plus longtemps. les personnes interroges ont signal diffrentes faons selon lesquelles les tablissements les ont aids dans ces difficults, y compris en les aidant communiquer avec leur tablissement prcdent, en n'exigeant pas de description pour les cours qui ont dj t valus pour d'autres tudiants et en acceptant les descriptions non officielles ou en se montrant de toute autre faon flexibles en ce qui concerne les documents exigs. vi. les collges ayant le plus de rponses positives valuaient les demandes en une semaine ou moins. les tudiants qui attendaient une semaine ou moins taient bien plus susceptibles d'exprimer une difficult perue moindre et une satisfaction gnrale plus importante. l'tablissement d'une norme d'valuation d'une semaine serait donc une tape efficace dans l'amlioration de l'exprience de transfert de crdits. de faon similaire, les tablissements les mieux nots avertissaient rapidement les tudiants du rsultat de leur demande de transfert de crdits (par courriel ou de toute autre faon). cette pratique permettait de rduire les retards entre l'valuation de la demande de transfert de crdits et l'annonce du rsultat l'tudiant. vii. les collges ayant le plus de rponses positives fournissaient des justifications pour les rsultats de l'valuation ainsi que pour les positions de la politique. les tudiants ayant compris les raisons pour lesquelles leur demande de crdits avait t refuse exprimaient rarement une frustration. trs peu d'tudiants comprenaient la raison de la dcision et taient en dsaccord avec celle-ci. le fait de fournir un raisonnement clair pourrait aider multiplier les expriences positives. cela s'applique galement aux frais pays pour les valuations de transfert de crdits, aux effets sur l'emploi du temps (ou l'absence d'impact) et la continuit des frais de scolarit malgr l'obtention des crdits. page | 48 annexe a : rsum des essais statistiques i1 avez-vous obtenu des quivalences pour les cours que vous avez suivis dans l'tablissement que vous frquentiez prcdemment? i2 avez-vous fait une dmarche supplmentaire afin que des quivalences vous soient accordes? b1 et quelle est la principale raison pour laquelle vous avez dcid de poursuivre des tudes postsecondaires dans l'tablissement o vous tes maintenant? c1 quand avez-vous dcid de faire une demande afin de recevoir des quivalences? guide :est-ce que vous l'avez fait au mme moment o vous avez soumis votre dossier d'inscription pour le programme d'tude que vous suivez actuellement, aprs votre inscription dans l'tablissement, mais avant le dbut des cours, ou aprs que les cours avaient commenc? [1] en mme temps que mon dossier d'inscription pour le programme d'tude que je suis actuellement [2] aprs m'tre inscrit(e) dans l'tablissement, mais avant le dbut des cours [3] aprs que les cours avaient commenc, mais au cours du premier trimestre page | 49 [4] aprs le premier trimestre c2 que vous a-t-il fallu faire pour faire une demande d'quivalence? c3 quel est le programme d'tudes que vous suivez actuellement? [1] arts [2] affaires [3] services communautaires [4] sant et sciences de la sant [5] technologie [98] autre (prcisez) c4 est-ce que votre domaine d'tudes est le mme que celui que vous suiviez dans l'tablissement o vous tiez prcdemment? c5 quel tait votre domaine d'tudes? [1] arts [2] affaires [3] services communautaires [4] sant et sciences de la sant page | 50 [5] technologie [98] autre (prcisez) c6 pourquoi n'avez vous pas essay d'obtenir des quivalences pour les tudes que vous avez faites dans un autre domaine? c7 quel est le nombre d'quivalences que vous avez obtenues lorsque que vous vous tes inscrit dans votre nouvel tablissement? c8 le programme d'tudes que vous suivez actuellement a t rduit de combien de temps? [1] moins d'un trimestre [2] un trimestre ou plus, mais moins de deux [3] deux trimestres ou plus, mais moins de trois [4] trois trimestres ou plus, mais moins de quatre [5] quatre trimestres ou plus c9 avez-cous reu une explication en ce qui concerne la raison pour laquelle vous n'avez pas obtenu d'quivalences? c10 pensiez-vous recevoir des quivalences pour des cours qui n'ont pas t reconnus? page | 51 c11 vous a-t-on donn une raison pour laquelle vous avez ou n'avez pas obtenu d'quivalences? c12 est-ce que l'explication qui vous a t donne tait suffisante selon vous? d1 si on vous demande de juger uniquement le processus de transfert de l'tablissement que vous frquentez l'heure actuelle, sur une chelle de 1 5, quelle est la note que vous accordez au processus, en sachant que 1 correspond un processus trs facile et 5 extrmement difficile? [1] trs facile [2] facile [3] ni facile, ni difficile [4] difficile [5] trs difficile d2 quelle est la partie du processus d'obtention d'quivalences que vous avez trouve la plus difficile? veuillez expliquer pourquoi. est-ce qu'il y a quelque chose en particulier qui a rendu la situation de demande d'obtention d'quivalences plus ardue? d3 combien de temps avez-vous mis pour remplir la demande d'quivalences et pour rassembler tous les documents qui vous taient rclams? page | 52 d4 une fois que vous aviez envoy votre dossier accompagn de toutes les pices justificatives l'tablissement d'enseignement, combien de temps s'est coul avant que vous obteniez une rponse propos des rsultats? d5 si vous tenez compte de l'tablissement que vous frquentez, avez-vous reu quelque aide que ce soit en ce qui concerne l'obtention d'quivalences? [1] service de consultation et d'orientation [2] les services aux tudiants [3] professeurs ou coordinateurs des programmes d'tudes [4] conseiller en enseignement [5] pas certain (l'interlocuteur ne sait quel est leur rle dans l'tablissement) d6 qu'est ce qu'ils ont fait pour vous venir en aide? d7 sur une chelle de 1 5, l'aide que vous avez reue a-t-elle contribue vous aider, en considrant que 1 correspond une aide trs importante et 5 une aide qui n'a fait aucune diffrence? [1] m'a aid considrablement [2] m'a bien aid page | 53 [3] m'a quelque peu aid [4] m'a peu aid [5] ne m'a pas aid du tout d8 veuillez donner des dtails en expliquant comment l'aide a fait ou non une diffrence. d9 l'information que vous avez reue tait-elle cohrente? d10 l'information que vous avez reue tait-elle claire et facile comprendre? d11 avez-vous reu de l'aide en ce qui a trait l'obtention d'quivalences, tout spcialement de la part de l'tablissement que vous frquentiez auparavant? d12 qu'est ce qu'ils ont fait pour vous venir en aide? d13 sur une chelle de 1 5, l'aide que vous avez reue a-t-elle contribue vous aider, en considrant que 1 correspond une aide trs importante et 5 une aide qui n'a fait aucune diffrence? page | 54 [1] m'a aid considrablement [2] m'a bien aid [3] m'a quelque peu aid [4] m'a peu aid [5] ne m'a pas aid du tout d14 veuillez donner des dtails en expliquant comment l'aide a fait ou non une diffrence. d15 l'information que vous avez reue tait-elle cohrente? d16 l'information que vous avez reue tait-elle claire et facile comprendre? d17 est-ce que l'information qui vous a t transmise par votre ancien tablissement d'enseignement et l'tablissement actuel diffre? veuillez expliquer quelles sont les diffrences. d18 avez-vous essay de trouver de l'information supplmentaire ailleurs? d19 quelle tait l'information qui vous en appris le plus sur le sujet? page | 55 d20 pensez-vous que vous comprenez bien le processus d'obtention d'quivalences? veuillez attribuer une note entre 1 et 5 pour qualifier ce que vous comprenez du processus, en sachant que 1 tant une trs bonne comprhension et que 5 est ne comprend pas du tout . [1] trs bonne comprhension [2] bonne comprhension [3] comprend un peu [4] ne comprend pas beaucoup [5] ne comprend pas du tout d21 si vous analysez la situation, pensez-vous qu'au moment o vous avez fait la demande de transfert vous aviez une bonne comprhension du processus et ce avant de prendre la dcision de vous engager? veuillez attribuer une note entre 1 et 5 pour qualifier ce que vous comprenez du processus, en sachant que 1 tant une trs bonne comprhension et que 5 est aucune comprhension . [1] trs bonne comprhension [2] bonne comprhension [3] comprend un peu [4] ne comprend pas beaucoup [5] ne comprend pas du tout d22 quels renseignements supplmentaires l'poque vous auraient t utiles? e1 en vous basant sur une chelle de 1 5, quel est votre tat de satisfaction en ce qui concerne le programme d'tudes que vous suivez actuellement, en sachant que 1 correspond trs satisfait et que 5 correspond trs insatisfait? [1] trs satisfait [2] satisfait page | 56 [3] ni satisfait, ni insatisfait [4] insatisfait [5] trs insatisfait e2 quelles sont les raisons pour lesquelles vous tes satisfait ou insatisfait? e3 si vous devez juger les processus d'obtention d'quivalences du dbut jusqu' la fin, peuventils tre amliors d'une manire ou d'une autre? y-a-t'il quelque chose qui selon vous pourrait avoir rendu ce processus plus facile, ou qui aurait pu contribuer ce que vous preniez une meilleure dcision? page | 57 annexe b : rsum des essais statistiques les deux tableaux ci-dessous offrent un rsum des essais statistiques raliss au cours de cette tude. seuls les essais permettant d'obtenir des rsultats significatifs p = 0,05 sont indiqus, l'exception de trois rsultats faibles qui taient significatifs p = 0,10. une mesure non paramtrique (rho de spearman) est applique dans tous les essais deux variables impliquant des questions qui font appel l'chelle de mesure likkert, car il ne peut tre raisonnablement suppos que les options sur une chelle de likkert sont rparties de faon linaire, un prrequis ncessaire des essais paramtriques tels que la corrlation de pearson. tableau 1 : rsum des essais statistiques : corrlation entre deux variables (rho de spearman) variable 1 satisfaction gnrale vis-vis du programme d'tudes (question e1) satisfaction gnrale vis-vis du programme d'tudes (question e1) satisfaction gnrale vis-vis du programme d'tudes (question e1) satisfaction gnrale vis-vis du programme d'tudes (question e1) satisfaction gnrale vis-vis du programme d'tudes (question e1) difficult du processus de transfert de crdits (question d1) difficult du processus de transfert de crdits (question d1) difficult du processus de transfert de crdits (question d1) difficult du processus de transfert de crdits (question d1) difficult du processus de transfert de crdits (question d1) difficult du processus de variable 2 difficult du processus de transfert de crdits (question d1)* qualit perue de l'aide obtenue (question d7) temps requis pour prparer la demande (question d3) temps coul avant de connatre le rsultat (question d4) comprhension actuelle du processus de transfert de crdits (question d20) degr d'avancement du programme prcdent (question a14) temps requis pour prparer la demande (question d3) temps coul avant de connatre le rsultat (question d4) les crdits attendus ont t obtenus (question c10) satisfaction vis--vis de l'explication donne (question c12) qualit perue de l'aide n coefficient de corrlation signification (bilatrale) 180 0,137 0,049 162 0,239 0,002 181 0,171 0,021 181 0,168 0,023 227 - 0,145 0,029 182 0,129 0,082 (faible) 182 0,260 000 182 0,169 0,022 182 0,205 0,006 93 0,429 0,000 140 0,414 0,000 page | 58 transfert de crdits (question d1) qualit perue de l'aide obtenue (question d7) qualit perue de l'aide obtenue (question d7) qualit perue de l'aide obtenue (question d7) qualit perue de l'aide obtenue (question d7) comprhension actuelle du processus de transfert de crdits (question d20) obtenue (question d7) crdits attendus reus (question c10) satisfaction vis--vis de l'explication donne (question c12) temps requis pour prparer la demande (question d3) temps coul avant de connatre le rsultat (question d4) raccourcissement du programme d'tudes grce aux crdits reus (question c8) 140 0,168 0,032 76 - 0,651 0,000 140 0,167 0,049 140 0,350 0,000 191 - 0,131 0,070 (faible) tableau 2 : rsum des essais statistiques : comparaisons des moyennes des chantillons indpendants (mannwhitney u) variable 1 qualit perue de l'aide obtenue (question d7) difficult du processus de transfert de crdits (question d1) variable 2 ge (par tranches de 5 ans, comparaison des participants gs de 26 30 ans et de ceux gs de 18 20 ans, question a2) ge (par tranches de 5 ans, question a2) n u signification asymptotique (bilatrale) 55 606,5 0,047 182 374 0,091 (faible) page | 59

oncat careers senior researcher location: toronto, ontario, canada type: full-time, eligible for pension salary range: $80 000-$90 000 category: research, data and funding department deadline: october 24th, 2022 about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges and universities. as a member organization, it works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. about the position the senior researcher supports the development and oversees the implementation of oncats research plan. the senior researcher ensures that oncat-led and/or funded research projects align with the organizations mandate and strategic priorities and works closely with consultants, researchers (from other postsecondary educational institutions and/or pse organizations), oncats committees/working groups, and oncats staff/senior management. this position will provide coordination to and research expertise on various research initiatives/projects. this position will also provide oversight to oncats grant (rfp) program supporting credit transfer and student mobility research and strategic analysis of oncat-funded research projects to inform future planning. as oncat continues to support system improvements and the development of a mature transfer system in ontario, this position will be critical to moving projects forward, ensuring their success and translating knowledge from multiple and across projects to support system development. to be successful in this position you will display mature judgment, expert knowledge of research and research methodologies, a commitment to high quality work, excellent project management skills, and work effectively independently and in a professional team environment. you must also be committed to the value of postsecondary education, be dedicated to improving the transfer student experience, and demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills. responsibilities 1. research planning and implementation (30%) leads the design and co-ordination of oncats overall research plan. ensures the research plan supports functions across operations, collaborations, granting and policy, and overall oncat strategic priorities. provides support to oncats funding strategies, including its research and transfer system improvement projects, including identifying rfp topics, and supporting funding review processes, as an internal reviewer, ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 conducts scans and shares evidence, to inform transfer strategies, including presenting evidence from funded projects and/or other jurisdictions to inform institutional projects. coordinates tasks and projects, delegating to researcher and quantitative researcher, and supervising them to ensure deliverables are being met. monitors oncats research budget and ensures research activities, internal and external, align with budgets. 2. managing and supporting research projects (30%) works collaboratively with senior management and research, data and funding team to implement annual oncat research grants stream. coordinates projects and supervises oncats researcher and oncats quantitative researcher on projects and research activities. provides coordination to support various aspects of the research project life cycle (e.g., request for proposal, application, proposal adjudication, awards, contracts and payments, interim reporting and check, and final reporting). ensures accountability of transfer payment funds and proper grants management protocol. re-negotiates deliverables/contracts or closes grants, where needed, to ensure value for money and alignment with oncats mandate and priorities. 3. knowledge mobilization and planning (30%) maintains an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art research on transfer/articulation, along with the methodological techniques and data sources that it employs. shares key insights with the oncat team through internal briefings and presentations, as well as with external stakeholders through blogs, workshops, and other communications efforts. plays a key role in knowledge mobilization, collaborating with oncats communications team to translate the findings of funded projects into deliverables (e.g., graphics, dashboards) that can be digested by varied stakeholders, including pse administration, policymakers, and students. synthesizes and analyzes findings from multiple oncat research projects and research grants to provide accessible information to inform sector partners, oncat communications, etc. edits and summarizes internal or oncat-funded project final reports in preparation for public posting. participates in postsecondary sector and credit transfer-related conference, symposia, and fairs. 4. stakeholder relations (10%) interacts with numerous stakeholders to advance oncats research priorities including academic researchers, institutional analysts, policymakers, pse administrators, as well as colleagues working across other cats in north america. interacts with groups in adjacent sectors, including k-12 (e.g., tdsb) and the labour market (e.g., cpa). establishing relationships with these groups allows oncat to capitalize on potential opportunities for collaboration on data-sharing or research-related activities. engages sector partners and research community to support, inform and champion oncats mandate. direct reports this position supervises 2 direct reports ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 candidate requirements education/knowledge masters degree in a related field. graduate degree preferred. knowledge of postsecondary education, and issues of credit transfer, access, and student success in postsecondary education. understanding of existing research and data resources available in the canadian postsecondary sector. knowledge of research and evaluation methodologies, tools, statistics, and techniques. knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods. knowledge of project management principles and methodologies to oversee and guide the overall delivery of mandates and strategies. experience 3-5 years of experience in research project management. experience working with outside consultants and managing contracted projects to successful completion. experience conducting research, writing research papers for publication (e.g., articles), and briefs. track record of delivering high-quality work product under a deadline. experience managing a complex budget. experience working in cross functional teams. preferred experience (asset) doctoral candidacy or phd. bilingual in french and english. skills & abilities exceptional organizational skills and ability to work simultaneously on multiple projects. ability to overcome unforeseen obstacles and see projects through to completion. ability to remain flexible, calm under pressure, and adaptive to change as priorities shift. exceptional written and oral communication skills and public speaking facility. ability to work well in a team atmosphere working both independently and with team members. technical expertise utilizing a variety of common office and statistical software. ability to quickly learn new function areas. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca. the deadline to apply october 24th by 11:59pm. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening, or an interview will be contacted. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3 oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require accommodations during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |4

prepared for: the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. w (suite 1902) toronto, on acknowledgements: we would like to thank all of the postsecondary administrators and transfer students who took part in our interviews. your feedback has been exceptionally helpful. we would also like to thank jason mckay and robert zimmer for their help creating graphics and reviewing our research. oncats funding for this work is also deeply appreciated. 2 executive summary overview apprenticeship training is an important postsecondary option for ontario students. one of the main functions of apprenticeships is to facilitate the transition from school to work by creating accessible pathways between education and the labour market. apprenticeship training is the principal means of entry into the skilled trades in ontario. problem there has been a steady decline in canadian apprenticeship program enrolment and completion over the past decade. expanding knowledge economies and local economic instability are two macro-social factors contributing to a decrease in apprenticeship participation. however, less is known about individual reasons for apprenticeship participation or early leaving. there is no data infrastructure that monitors the career pathways of individuals who chose an apprenticeship. similarly, virtually nothing is known about students with university or college education who transfer into apprenticeship programs. to date, no study has explored the transfer processes of students moving between apprenticeships and college/university in ontario. research questions and methods to address this knowledge gap, we conducted a one-year project designed to advance our current understandings of apprenticeship students educational pathways. our three main project aims and research questions were: 1) to explore the challenges affecting former apprenticeship students decisions to transition to college/university: how is the decision to transfer to college/university 3 directly impacted by economic, social, and emotional challenges faced by former apprenticeship students? 2) to explore the challenges affecting former college and university students choosing to transition to apprenticeship programs: how is the decision to transfer to apprenticeship programs directly impacted by economic, social, and emotional challenges faced by undergraduate students? 3) to understand the transfer processes explored by students who moved in either direction: how did institutions help or hinder the transfer process for students? to answer these questions, we collected interview data from 10 postsecondary administrators who work directly with transfer students. we also collected interview data from one ontariobased student who transferred to university from an apprenticeship and five former university students who transferred to apprenticeships. analysis of our interview data allowed us to identify factors that influenced the participants educational pathway choices and experiences. findings we note several trends in the reasoning, challenges and benefits experienced by students who transfer into and out of apprenticeship programming. postsecondary administrators according to the postsecondary administrators we interviewed, students transferred into and out of apprenticeships for the following reasons: better employment opportunities; 4 pursuit of personal interests; and difficulty finding apprenticeship partners. administrators also noted distinct institutional supports and deficits for students transferring into and out of apprenticeship programs: one-to-one academic advising (institutional support); online course transfer tools (institutional support); pre-existing transfer pathways (institutional support); lack of apprenticeship-specific support staff (institutional deficit); and lack of transfer policies (institutional deficit). transfer students individuals who transferred into or out of apprenticeship programs also outlined their reasons for changing programs. however, unlike our administrator interviews, students only cited interest alignment as their reason for switching programs. students also provided examples of challenges and benefits experienced through their transfer process. those challenges and benefits include: lack of apprenticeship-specific support staff (challenge); workplace culture (challenge and benefit); and concrete rewards (benefit). recommendations 5 both postsecondary administrators and students made suggestions for how postsecondary institutions could better support their transfer experiences. with these in mind, we created the following recommendations: expand apprenticeship study areas. provide more institutional support for apprenticeship partnerships. raise awareness of databases that provide transfer pathway information to staff and students. enhance secondary education-level supports for students wishing to pursue apprenticeships. 6 introduction apprenticeships provide alternative education pathways for a significant proportion of the canadian population. in 2019, there were nearly 78,000 canadians enrolled in apprenticeship programs (statistics canada, 2020). a typical apprenticeship involves a contract between an employer and a student, under which the student agrees to receive a relatively low wage in return for training from one or two journeypersons (gunderson & krashinsky, 2015), which is often supplemented by required in-classroom learning at a partnering college. provincial governments and private industries continually favour the expansion of apprenticeship programming in canada (lamberink, 2020), pointing to a shortage of young people training in the skilled trades (decaire, 2021). there remains a steady decline in the number of students enrolling and completing apprenticeships over the past decade (statistics canada, 2020). despite employment and economic growth in recent years, the number of newly certified tradespersons through apprenticeships declined 3.9% in 2019 (statistics canada, 2020). changes to the canadian economy have contributed to this drop, including an expanding knowledge economy and local economic instability. the apprenticeship system is a crucial provider of training in canada, particularly for the skilled trades, for which it remains the principal means of entry. however, little is known about the educational pathways of apprenticeship students out of or into those programs. there is no data infrastructure that monitors the career pathways of individuals who chose an apprenticeship pathway into the skilled trades. similarly, virtually nothing is known in canada about students with university or college education who transfer into apprenticeship programs, either before or after completing their degrees/diplomas. there is no national database on these transfer pathways or on the ability 7 to apply credits across programming (missaghian, 2022). although there is a small but growing literature on this phenomenon in europe (see pilz, 2009; fuller & unwin, 2012; dismore, 2014), no study to date has explored the transfer process of moving between apprenticeships and college/university in either direction in canada. research questions to address this knowledge gap, we conducted a one-year project that aimed at advancing our current understandings of apprenticeship students educational pathways. our three main project aims and research questions were: 1) to explore the challenges affecting former apprenticeship students decisions to transition to college/university: how is the decision to transfer to college/university directly impacted by economic, social, and emotional challenges faced by former apprenticeship students? 2) to explore the challenges affecting former college and university students choosing to transition to apprenticeship programs: how is the decision to transfer to apprenticeship programs directly impacted by economic, social, and emotional challenges faced by undergraduate students? 3) to understand the transfer processes explored by students who moved in either direction: how did institutions help or hinder the transfer process for students? to answer these questions, we collected qualitative interview data from postsecondary administrators who work directly with transfer students. we also collected interview data from one ontario-based student who transferred to university from an apprenticeship and five former 8 university students who transferred to apprenticeships. analysis of our interview data allowed us to identify mechanisms that influenced the participants educational pathway choices. literature review the decline of apprenticeships in canada one of the main functions of apprenticeship programming in canada is to facilitate the transition from school to work by creating accessible pathways between education and the labour market (sharp & gibson, 2005; wright, lehmann, & taylor, 2019). in a constantly changing economy, apprenticeship programs provide students with hands-on workplace skills. students in postsecondary education often lament that they are not learning skills that are directly applicable to the labour market (shell, 2018; webber, 2016). postsecondary students also do not make informed decisions about the types of postsecondary education they pursue. ball et al. (2002) noted that young people typically choose programing based on perceptions, rather than material economic conditions. they often base major life decisions on incomplete or inaccurate information from peers, which can have negative consequences for their career prospects (ball et al., 2002). as a result, many students change their degree and certificate programs a number of times during their undergraduate experience (emerson & mcgoldrick, 2019; griffith, 2010; ferrare & lee, 2014). although there are multiple pathways through education and careers, students often feel as though there are only linear options available to them (taylor et al., 2014). one potential direction students may take is to leave generalized programs and enrol in apprenticeships. 9 however, there is some skepticism about the economic support apprenticeship programs provide individuals. krueger and kumar (2004) argue that apprenticeship programming generally favored the economic conditions of the 1960s and 1970s. during that time, available technologies changed slowly, giving trades people time to adapt. in the information age of the 2000s, when new technologies emerge at a more rapid pace, these types of programs provide fewer economic pay-offs for students. tradespersons have little time to learn new skills and acclimate to technological advances. to make up for the decline in manufacturing-based apprenticeships, there has been a push to expand into new areas, such as sales and business administration. these fields have not traditionally supported apprenticeship education and often do not have the infrastructure to meet needs of students. fuller and unwin (2009) describe modern apprenticeships as divesting employers of responsibility for training and diluting the concept of apprenticeship to little more than work experience. hogarth, gambin, and hasluck (2012) argue that apprenticeships now stand at a crossroads. there has been considerable growth in the range of apprenticeships on offer, with little homogeneity in time, training, content, or returns (hogarth et al., 2012). they argue that these changes leave apprenticeship students in the precarious position of spending valuable resources on programming that may not meet their employment needs (hogarth et al., 2012). another challenge that apprenticeship students face is that their employment is inextricably linked to the health of the local economy. for example, a large decline in apprenticeships occurred in alberta from 2018 to 2019, mirroring national trends (statistics canada, 2020). according to the survey of employment, payrolls and hours, alberta had the slowest employment growth (-0.7%) among provinces in 2019 and was down sharply in industries where 10 apprenticeships are most concentrated (statistics canada, 2020). areas such as construction and mining witnessed a 0.4% decline in growth over the last year (statistics canada, 2020). conversely, strong growth in housing and construction in quebec and ontario saw an increase in apprenticeships among eastern provinces concurrent with albertas decline (statistics canada, 2020). fluctuations in apprenticeship availability, across provinces and over time, demonstrate the precariousness of apprenticeship-based trades. apprenticeship programing also has a marginalized status in the canadian postsecondary system, as evidenced by the number of students who complete their training each year. according to the national apprenticeship survey, less than 2% of the total labour force was registered in an apprenticeship in 2007 (menard et al., 2008). canadian apprenticeships lack the breadth of programming and structure present in older and more established programs globally (ncver, 2001). apprenticeship programming in great britain provides students with a much wider variety of training options than the canadian system. the british system has also greatly expanded into non-traditional sectors for training over the past two decades (ncver, 2001, p. 36). those non-traditional sectors comprise a large share of registrations, particularly business administration (14.2%), retailing (9.9 %), hospitality (7.9%) and health and social care (5.6%) (ncver, 2001, p. 36). other national programs are also far more structured than the canadian apprenticeship system. germany has long-established apprenticeship programming that places the responsibility of employment in the hands of the system itself. the employment search process is integrated into the last two years of secondary schooling for german students streamed into apprenticeship 11 systems (sharp & gibson, 2005). local chambers of commerce in germany also publish lists of potential apprenticeships on offer by employers each year (sharp & gibson, 2005). unlike the german system, the canadian system is much less structured or supported by local communities. canadian students are responsible for finding an employer willing to provide the apprenticeship training themselves. the canadian system also lacks the incentives more established international programs have created. in, france firms must devote 1.5 percent of their payroll value to apprenticeship training or be taxed the difference (sharp & gibson, 2005). this feature not only ensures that companies are willing to provide training to apprentices, but also mitigates the possibility for employers to free-ride off the training of other companies (dresser & rogers, 1999). in addition, the taxes paid by firms that do not provide training are put toward sectorial collector organizations that decide training priorities of the national economy. oftentimes, these taxes are put toward subsidization or reimbursement of training for apprenticeships in the country (greenhalgh, 1999). since the canadian system lacks the structure and incentive of more established national programs globally, apprenticeship options tend to be less popular with young canadians and their parents (wright, lehmann, & taylor, 2019). in addition to these drawbacks, many of the occupations available through the canadian apprenticeship system do not require certification for professionalization. this means that many canadian high school graduates can enter into the labour market, earn on-the-job experience, and make wages comparable to someone who has completed an apprenticeship in that field, without spending the same time or money on postsecondary training. these factors combined have influenced the decline in apprenticeship enrolment across the country. 12 apprenticeship completion in addition to being a less popular option for students and parents, completion rates among apprenticeship programs are also low in canada. in 2001, the completion rate for apprenticeship programming in canada was about 47% and was projected to decrease (sharp & gibson, 2005). to better understand why apprenticeship completion is declining, it is important to understand who is enrolling in canadian apprenticeships. the majority of apprentices are under the age of 25 years of age (53%), self-identify as male (86%), are born in canada (91%), and had a secondary school diploma as their highest level of education (56%) when starting their apprenticeship (arrowsmith, 2020). among students who experience difficulty progressing through their apprenticeship program, some of the most common challenges included financial constraints (25%) and job instability (21%) (arrowsmith, 2020). although apprenticeships are often funded through employers, there are grants, tax credits, and employment insurance (ei) to help students fund their programming. however, a 2015 study by statistics canada-employment and social development canada (esdc) found that no more than 60% of students were aware of applicable grants and programs (frank & jovic, 2017). additionally, students were sometimes denied ei for insufficient hours or because they already had a job (frank & jovic, 2017). two thirds of apprenticeship students also had no financial support to aid with the purchase of necessary work equipment such as tools, or supports such as transportation or meals (frank & jovic, 2017). those who completed their apprenticeship were more likely to receive additional funding support such as grants, training 13 allowances, ei-top-ups, or support from apprenticeship employers compared to those who discontinued. additionally, discontinuers were more likely to have another job for income during their apprenticeship than those who completed (frank & jovic, 2017). these challenges combine to lower the rates of completion among apprenticeship students in canada. program transfer there is some evidence to demonstrate that those who enter apprenticeship programming have previous academic experience. while the majority of apprenticeship students in 2015 had a high school diploma, 17% of apprenticeship students held a collge denseignement gnral et professionnel (cegep) or other nonuniversity certificate or diploma, and 3% had a bachelors degree (frank & jovic, 2017). students who have previously completed or enrolled in a degree program may also reverse transfer or attend a college program that they think will lead to better employment opportunities (arrowsmith, 2020). previous research on reverse transfer suggests that students leave university due to academic challenges, mental/physical health/special education needs, and future prospects (maier & robson, 2020). more often than not, transfers to and from programs are not premeditated by 14 students, and the decision is based on a number of factors related to their educational experiences in either college or university (lang, 2009; maier & robson, 2020). the most common form of postsecondary credit transfer in ontario occurs between college diploma programs into a degree-based program (oncat, 2022). universities and colleges may also have set transfer articulation agreements that guarantee course-credit transfers. postsecondary institutions in ontario also have different transfer processes, policies, and advisors to guide students through the transfer process. despite this, students may experience challenges in deciding their pathways. taylor et al. (2014) suggest that policymakers should raise awareness about transfer programs and increase the flexibility of transfer between postsecondary routes, especially for those students who begin an apprenticeship in high school and may or may not choose to continue. despite the work done by colleges and universities to establish transfer pathways for students, little attention has been paid to students transitioning into or out of apprenticeships in ontario. with apprenticeship enrolment and completion rates declining over the past decade, evidence demonstrating the reasons and experiences of students moving through these programs is needed. this research aims to fill this lacuna by interviewing both transfer students and postsecondary administrators about these processes. methods data 15 the data collected for this study come from interviews with college/university administrators and transfer students. to recruit participants for this study, we first applied for and received permission to conduct interviews from the mcmaster university research ethics board and the multi-college research ethics board. our recruitment process involved email outreach to postsecondary administrators who supported student transfers and apprenticeship programming. we also posted calls for study participation on social media, including twitter, facebook and through academic/labour organizations (e.g., the canadian sociological association monthly newsletters). advertisements for our study included contact information for our team. once interested participants reached out to members of our research team via email, we assessed their eligibility to participate. only students who had transferred between ontario undergraduate and apprenticeship programs were eligible to participate. college and university administrators who worked directly with transfer students or apprenticeship students were eligible to participate. pseudonyms were provided for each participant we interviewed to protect their anonymity throughout the study. in total, we collected 10 interviews from college/university administrators who work directly with apprenticeship or institutional transfer students. of the postsecondary administrators we interviewed, eight were from colleges and two were from universities (see table 1). table 1: administrator pseudonyms and institution types pseudonym mary jessica travis institution type and employment university administrator college administrator college administrator 16 grace melanie claire jacob john sandra max university administrator college administrator college administrator college administrator college administrator college administrator college administrator we also interviewed six transfer students, five of whom transferred from university to an apprenticeship program (see table 2). one student transferred from an apprenticeship program to a university undergraduate program. table 2: student pseudonyms and transfer type pseudonym steve tom morgan stephanie aaron ivy transfer type university to apprenticeship university to apprenticeship university to apprenticeship university to apprenticeship university to apprenticeship apprenticeship to university unfortunately, due to the pandemic and frequent campus shut-downs, collecting interviews with administrators and students was extremely challenging. we reached out to more than 200 administrators across ontario colleges and universities from spring 2021 to winter 2022. administrators who responded to our requests commented that they were feeling overworked and stressed from the pandemic, and didnt have time to complete an interview with us. others noted that they didnt see students transferring to or from apprenticeship programs. student participants were also difficult to connect with, as many students were studying remotely and feeling equally overworked and stressed. 17 procedure prior to the interview date, all administrator and student participants were sent a zoom link, a participant demographic form and a consent form. participants were required to sign and email the interviewers their demographic and consent forms prior to the starting the interview. once these documents were received, the interviewer could start the interview. each interview began with an introduction, an explanation of the study and a review of the consent form. administrators were first asked about their daily work tasks and the capacity in which they support transfer students. they were next asked about some of the programs their institution created to support transfer students and about the benefits or drawbacks of these programs. they were also asked to discuss transfer programs at other institutions that they thought were helpful for students. after discussing programming at their schools, administrators were asked to discuss some of the reasons students give for transferring programs, their biggest transfer challenges, and the benefits of their transfer programs. similar to interviews with administrators, we asked our student participants to first tell us about the program into which they had transferred. we asked them why they had transferred into that program and what program they were originally enrolled in. students were also asked about some of the academic and non-academic challenges they faced before the academic transition and after. they were also asked to describe their academic transfer process, focusing on the resources and obstacles they faced throughout that process. they were then asked if anything could be done to make the transfer process easier for them. 18 following the interviews, both administrators and students were thanked for their participation, and they each received a $15 amazon gift card. participants were also able to keep a version of our consent form, containing our contact information, for their personal records. they were encouraged to contact our research team with any questions about our research or the final report. data analysis all interviews with administrators and students were recorded and transcribed by a third-party transcription service. the interview transcripts were later uploaded to atlas.ti data analysis software. before analyzing the interviews, we developed deductive codes that identified key descriptive variables for both administrators (see appendix a) and student interviews (see appendix b). deductive codes were derived from initial research questions, following qualitative data analysis approaches outlined by crabtree and miller (1999). our deductive codes highlight key themes that we were interested in examining across administrator and student transfer experiences prior to the interviews being conducted. these included academic challenges, academic benefits, economic challenges, economic benefits and reasons for transfer. following the creation of deductive codes, we also developed inductive codes that related to the observed patterns and explanations in the data. inductive codes are derived from the data itself and highlight the themes, theories, and narratives that emerge from raw data (crabtree & miller, 1999; fereday & muir-cochrane, 2006). the inductive codes developed through readings of our interview transcripts include the reasons students gave for switching programs or the suggestions administrators gave for further institutional support. 19 findings our main aim for this research is to better understand the challenges and experiences of students transferring into/out of apprenticeship programming. through interviews with postsecondary administrators and transfer students these issues have been demonstrated in our work. administrators reasons for transfer into and out of apprenticeship programming some of the transfer administrators we contacted for this study commented that they did not see students transitioning into or out of apprenticeship programming at their institution. however, there were others who had helped students through this process, and those individuals provided interviews with us. some of the reasons administrators gave for seeing students transfer into apprenticeships were employment and interest alignment. when asked about the primary reason she saw students transferring into apprenticeship programming, mary, an administrator for a local college, noted that primarily its employment. they can earn while they learn. while most university undergraduate students do not have the opportunity to work in tandem with their studies, apprenticeships provide this option. apprenticeship students are able to gain work experience and financial assistance from their apprenticeship supervisor while they complete their academic programming. another administrator corroborated this point: 20 they can see its a short cycle. they would get into their you know, earning money quicker, instead of just being in a high tuition fee program with kind of not certain employment afterwards. (jacob, college administrator) administrators noted that working while at school was an important aspect of apprenticeship for some students. they noted that in addition to immediate earnings, the greater likelihood for post program employment was also appealing to students. john, a college transfer administrator, commented: what i get from our students who have been at university and are looking to get into a trade, is how hard it is to find work in that field theres such a huge demand in automotive right now for ast and auto body technicians that it makes it easier for them to decide which way they really want to go. the availability of pay and job security upon program completion seems to be a considerable draw for students leaving university for apprenticeship programming. transfer students also entered apprenticeship programming to help align their work with their interests. a number of administrators said that some of the students they worked with wanted to have an active role in their learning. jacob (college administrator) commented that the students found out they were interested in doing more hands-on work, and maybe like applying some business skills and starting their own companies in the future. students moving from university to apprenticeship programming arrived with considerable skillsets and strong academic 21 backgrounds, but were interested in more applicable programming. when asked about why she saw students transferring out of university and into apprenticeships, mary (university administrator) said, i imagine that there is a lot more of that, as students are seeking more applied skills and things that are going to benefit them on the job market. others noted that students were generally more inclined to switching programs to better suit their personal interests. grace (university administrator) noted that students are just more used to change. theyre not going to stick with a program if theyre not happy with it. employment opportunities and personal interests seem to push students into apprenticeship programming, but they also influenced students leaving apprenticeship fields. administrators also commented that they saw students leaving apprenticeships for university degrees to advance their careers: although there should be a lot of opportunity coming out of an apprenticeship, sometimes depending on whats happening in that industry, that can affect the outlook of job security students might find that they feel a little more cushioned if they end up coming into the university setting. (jessica, college administrator) with a changing economy, a diverse academic background might help students feel more protected. one administrator we interviewed worked to provide support letters for students transitioning from college programming to university degrees. in those support letters, the administrator was required to outline details for why the student wanted to pursue a degree. she noted that 22 theres a lot of i always wanted to get a degree, but it wasnt a good time in my life or when i was in high school, i got put in the applied stream and never thought that university was an option for me. but now im looking into doing x, y, z career-wise and found that i needed a degree for it. (mary, university administrator) pursuing a university degree following or instead of an apprenticeship helped some students feel more secure in a changing job market. some students also transferred out of apprenticeships because they had greater interest in the conceptual aspects of their program. an administrator with experience in culinary programming noted that students sometimes transfer out of their faculty because its not what they thought it was going to be. or they found that its an area they are passionate about, but maybe from a different angle. so rather than the practical side, theyre more interested in the theoretical side. so, they want to pursue education at a higher level. (jessica, college administrator) although some students were satisfied with the applicable skills provided by their apprenticeship, others preferred to pursue academic advancement through university programming. 23 students also transferred out of apprenticeships due to difficulty securing an apprenticeship partner. when a student enters an apprenticeship program, it is their duty to secure a tradesperson to work with. depending on the trade, students will work on-site in a designated workplace, earning the skills and knowledge necessary for achieving accreditation in that field. however, students sometimes have difficulty finding a workplace to earn their accreditation hours. one administrator noted, sometimes, yeah, its because they cannot find an apprenticeship (claire, college administrator). similarly, another administrator commented that for the most part, difficulties arose for the student when employment relationships break down and there isnt another one readily available (sandra, college administrator). although apprenticeship programs are aimed at providing students with the skills and working relationships that will help them pursue a career in a given trade, finding and maintaining an apprenticeship outside of the classroom can be difficult. for administrators, the reasons students gave for transferring into and out of apprenticeship programming centred on financial challenges and career needs. for those leaving university to pursue an apprenticeship, the monetary gain of working while going to school seemed enticing. the promise of learning hands-on skills that would translate directly into post program employment also seemed like a worthwhile long-term investment for some students. however, apprenticeships didnt suit the career needs of others. administrators noted that students transferred out of apprenticeship programs because they wished to advance their careers beyond the scope of that programming or had trouble finding suitable apprenticeship placements. others noted that students seemed more apt to changing programs to better suit their personal needs. while there are a small number of individuals transferring between these two academic spaces, 24 their motives appear similar. for both groups, career advancement and economic stability are at the forefront of student transfer decisions. institutional support and shortcomings for transfer processes after discussing the reasons students transferred into or out of apprenticeship programming, we also discussed institutional support for these pathways. there were three main areas that administrators noted as useful for supporting students through program transitions: 1) available academic advising, 2) online course tools, and 3) transfer pathways. administrators noted that most academic institutions had some type of advising that helped students through transfer processes. grace, a university transfer administrator, commented that universities are offering many sessions, whether in person or virtual, to recruit students and to talk to them about the process of transferring. another administrator noted that if they reach out to us about how to fill out the application or what can be expected, we help with things of that nature (mary, university administrator). college staff also noted that some institutions had on-campus units dedicated to helping students transfer programs: there are departments that support students here at [institution name] in transferring we do have departments here to help students in that transition (john, college administrator). most of the postsecondary administrators interviewed for this research mentioned some type of advising office or resource available to help students into and out of programming at their school. administrators also commented that online course tools were available at some institutions to help students find their way through the transition process. one administrator said that her institution had automated the transfer credit system. as she explained, we break it down to 25 eligible courses taken within five years of the transfer. we show students everything that is a benefit for them to see, and they can check oh i didnt meet the grade for this (claire, college administrator). claire noted that this process is beneficial for students because they dont have to wait on staff responses to see if their previous coursework is accepted at their new school. they can check for themselves. another administrator noted that her school also had an automated portal supporting transfer processes. sandra, a college transfer administrator, commented, we do have a transfer credit portal, where students can go in and apply and say okay, well, ive done this particular course or this program at institution x, now i want to transfer those credits into a program. administrators noted that these types of services were extremely helpful for letting students know up-front the types of courses that could be accepted in their new program. administrators noted, however, that without pre-arranged agreements between institutions, there are few courses that are transferable across different postsecondary landscapes. pre-existing transfer pathways between schools seemed especially helpful for staff and students. while few of these exist between apprenticeship programming and universities, they did exist between some colleges and universities in ontario. as one university administrator noted, the biggest benefit is timeline to degree completion. so, the recognition of their former studies at college and that coming through to the university we have a number of pathways. (mary, university administrator) 26 at this particular institution, the university had pre-established credit pathways to help students who completed two years in a college program complete an additional two years at the university to qualify for an undergraduate degree. many of the administrators interviewed for this project commented that pre-established pathways between institutions made transfers easier. as a college administrator (jessica) remarked, its not a matter of a student needing to apply and submit their course outlines and then us reviewing them, its a matter of youre coming from an institution we recognize. so we know right off the bat without even looking at your transcript that these are the credits youre going to get an advanced standing. another administrator noted, its way easier for us. we dont have to look at every course individually. we dont have to request course syllabi, because thats all been done (grace, university administrator). for students transferring to institutions without pre-established pathways, the journey can be more challenging. claire, a college administrator, noted that students [who] are not pathway students often dont know what credits they are going to receive. without an established transfer pathway, some students find out which courses are transferable only after they have paid tuition fees and have been accepted into a new program. unfortunately, this means some students do not receive credit for their previous academic experience and spend more time in school. some institutions recognize this problem and are working to give students information about their credits before admission. one college administrator commented: 27 at [college name], the way our admission process works, we will take the best from everything. and then those transcripts that were submitted during the admissions process can be used for credit transfer. we are working on implementing earlier information for at least applicants who have provided transcripts basically having an assessment done and giving them a preview of what they might get if they come to [college name] on their offer of admission. (jacob, college administrator) where transfer pathways are not available, providing students with information about credits before they accept an offer can help them determine the financial and time-cost of their new academic program. a lack of transfer policies between institutions was a considerable problem identified by administrators. jacob (college administrator) noted that while more students are transferring into the apprenticeship program, if we had a better system, like transferring to the university, it would be a larger number of students. jacob commented that he had seen large numbers of students leaving previous programming and wishing to pursue apprenticeships at their school. another administrator lamented that without formal agreements between institutions, students are at risk of not having their previous education recognized. jessica (college administrator) said, one of the drawbacks is that there might be credits that they feel are within the conversion, but were not actually granted to them. so we can only do half worth of credits as a transfer. 28 completing transfer agreements across institutions poses some challenges for administrators. grace (university administrator) described the work involved: at our institution, we have a couple of province-wide agreements with a couple of programs. but those have to be reviewed, and i mean that would be a bigger task. because we have to look at every ontario college and review the entire curriculum for each. although transfer pathways support student transitions, they require an exceptional amount of time and monetary investments by the participating institutions. they involve mapping all relevant curricula across institutions and keeping this information updated over time. to make matters more challenging, there is variability in undergraduate course content across programs and professors. keeping track of which courses are and will continue to be transferable across multiple institutions is not an easy task. administrator program suggestions and suggestions for students in addition to outlining institutional supports and shortcomings related to the transfer process, administrators also provided a number of suggestions for new programming. one of the more popular suggestions was providing students with online resources for transfer information processes. administrators noted that some students didnt understand all of the requirements needed to transfer programs before they started the process. to solve this problem, claire (college transfer administrator) recommended more education for students about what credit transfer is, or realistic expectations for students about the process would be good. 29 the transfer process across institutions can be confusing, and if there are no staff available to walk students through the process, learning about all aspects of the practice can be overwhelming. claire (college administrator) addressed these challenges: so personally we are redoing our pathways and student transfer websites we are working on our faqs. that should make it easier. grace (university administrator) also highlighted additional areas for online support: if universities are already offering virtual information sessions, they could talk to students about the whole process of transferring and applying, too. institutions that already provide video libraries or online information sessions for incoming students could create additional content focusing on transfer processes at their school. other administrators noted that a repository of transfer information would be extremely helpful. mary (university administrator) commented, i would love to have an apprenticeship to university booklet or something like that that i could give to students. another administrator noted, something that would be great the possibility of a course syllabi database for college and universities (grace, university administrator). administrators noted that having access to a database of syllabi and transfer pathways would be helpful. however, this already exists. the ontario centre for articulation and transfer (oncat) hosts a website with listings of available courses and transfer pathways across institutions. given college and university transfer administrators lack of awareness of this resource, greater discussion and advertisement of the websites services might be helpful. 30 in addition to providing suggestions for institutional changes, administrators also provided tips for students interested in transferring between programs. administrators encouraged students to be organized throughout the application process. claire (college administrator) said that she told students, make sure you have all your course outlines. especially if youre at an institution where you have full online access download those outlines. transfer processes can be different for each postsecondary institution. course listings can also vary across schools. two courses that have the same name, but are registered at different institutions, might have variable curricula. if a student would like their previous coursework to transfer to another program, it is important that they have those course outlines ready for review. another administrator similarly advised students, just keep your documentation [laughs] and follow through with the process. dont let a delay or a requirement to submit something drag you down (sandra, college administrator). administrators commented that they needed time to read through student applications and to cross-reference course materials. if a student didnt have the required documentation readily available, it could cause delays in the transfer process. administrators also just wanted students to enroll in programs that best suited their personal interests. according to john (college administrator), the best advice i can give is you want to make sure whatever career you choose, doesnt matter if its a doctor, lawyer or a different type of trade, you want to make sure you are happy doing that type of work. you really want to enjoy it.... if you dont enjoy it, youre never going to excel, right? 31 jessica (college administrator) echoed these sentiments, stating, i would ask them what is it thats driving their motivation, what is it that theyre hoping to gain, what are their expectations? in addition to highlighting the importance of choosing the right path, jessica (college administrator) also wanted to remind students that the final commitment to make the switch doesnt happen until the offer is on the table and theyre ready to accept it. so even though they are exploring, they still have the option to change their mind if they want to. choosing the appropriate postsecondary program is not an easy task. administrators we interviewed commented on the academic challenges of various programs and the importance of students finding the one that best suited them. the transfer process across postsecondary institutions and academic programming can be extremely difficult to navigate. administrators for this study identified a number of challenges students commonly encounter throughout this process. they noted that having online resources and pre-established relationships between different postsecondary institutions would help them and students bridge these gaps more successfully. in addition to changing institutional relationships, they also suggested that students could better support their transitions by keeping their academic records and course syllabi on-hand. overall, our administrators were encouraging of students transferring programs and wanted them to find the programs that they were most happy completing. 32 student interviews transfer reasons our research also focused on in-depth interviews with students who had transferred into or out of apprenticeship programs in ontario. the most common reason students gave for making this transition was interest alignment. some students felt pressured to pursue an undergraduate degree after high school. steve (university to apprenticeship student) commented, i would have been the first person in my extended family not to have a university degree. so, thats the only reason i went to university just because we all did that type of thing. morgan (university to apprenticeship student) also pursued a university undergraduate degree before transferring into an apprenticeship program. he experienced a push to go to university from family members: i was good at math in high school and kind of had pressure well, not pressure from my parents but, encouragement from my parents to go to university. there is a pervasive culture around postsecondary education that suggests university is a more prestigious and advantageous path for students to pursue. as steve (university to apprenticeship student) elaborated, generations of people were saying if you want a good job, then this is the path you go. its what society puts out there. this type of attitude places pressure on high school students to pursue university routes that do not necessarily align with their academic or personal interests. stephanie, a student who switched from university to an apprenticeship, expressed similar concerns: i think i also felt some pressure to go through university. like, i remember in high school, the teachers would say things like trades can pay well too but, theres 33 always this feeling that people who go into the trades arent smart enough for university or something. for stephanie (university to apprenticeship student), these expectations compelled her to apply to university after high school. despite social pressures, some students discovered that their personal interests aligned more closely with apprenticeship programs. stephanie (university to apprenticeship student) learned about arborist apprenticeships through a tree planting summer job. she commented, i kind of enjoy difficult tasks physical tasks. and it was a good mental challenge to me every day. i think it made me think about what i really wanted to do for a living. for her, working outside was far removed from her previous experiences living and studying in toronto. having the opportunity to engage in physical labour outdoors was more appealing to her than undergraduate coursework. morgan (university to apprenticeship student) also realized that the hands-on nature of apprenticeship programming was more to his taste: i knew i wanted to get into the trades. but i didnt want to be a plumber and i didnt want to get into hvac. i liked math, and so i thought electrical that was sort of the one i tended towards. some of the reasons students gave for entering undergraduate degrees shifted into their apprenticeship interests. morgan realized that his university-based math focus could apply to his apprenticeship program. similarly, steve (university to apprenticeship student) pursued an undergraduate degree in commerce before switching into a carpentry/construction-focused apprenticeship: 34 i was a business-oriented, numbers kid. math was my strong suit it may have been influenced a bit by my father. like, when he retired he started his own contracting business, and so maybe a bit of that was an influence here. although steve first pursued a commerce degree, he realized after two years of study that an apprenticeship program would allow him to use his business and math skills, while simultaneously working in a hands-on field. a student who switched from apprenticeship to university also commented on better interest alignment. ivy (apprenticeship to university student) transferred into an undergraduate program because she preferred a theoretical approach to problem solving. she commented that there was just something about the way anthropology is really holistic. i was doing readings and getting really excited about them, so thats why i chose that program. having the opportunity to take social sciences courses as electives at college gave ivy the opportunity to learn more about other studies that fit with her personal interests. although administrators interviewed for this research said they commonly saw students switching programs for greater economic stability, the students in this study explained that they transferred programs based on interest alignments. for many of the students, the university programs in which they were previously enrolled suited their academic aptitudes, but didnt fulfil their personal interests. similarly, the student who transitioned into university pursued a degree program because she had more interest in that type of learning. it seems that both sets of students 35 were taking time to critically assess their aptitude for the programs into which they transferred, rather than just the economic benefits available to them. transition challenges and benefits although the students in our study were largely appreciative of their new academic pursuits, they did encounter some challenges transitioning across programs. one complaint was that the transfer process was confusing and often unsupported. according to stephanie (university to apprenticeship student), no one really knows about the program or just didnt really know how to help me. that experience was really frustrating. transitioning from an undergraduate program to an apprenticeship, stephanie had difficulty finding someone who could help her determine which courses credits she could carry over to the new program. similarly, steve (university to apprenticeship student) had difficulty finding support for his transition. although he was provided a transfer liaison from his new institution, that person was limited in their capacity to help throughout the process. steve complained that if your assigned person was more available or was more supported, able to help you, i think that would be better. but, theyre extremely busy and [helping] people across many trades. they dont have time. because the liaison had to help students transition to all programs at their school, they sometimes lacked the resources to help steve troubleshoot course transfer. steve suggested that if institutions had liaisons for each program, with industry knowledge, this would help facilitate the transfer process more effectively. 36 students also experienced frustration getting their host institution to recognize the challenges they were experiencing: i remember going through to get into my first semester class and it was just so much running around, calling phone numbers. i would get transferred to this department and theyd be like oh, you need to talk to this person. and i was like i just spoke to that person! they directed me to you! (stephanie, university to apprenticeship student) the lack of program-specific liaisons seemed to be one of the biggest challenges students faced transitioning into apprenticeship studies. once the transfer process was completed, students discussed a number of personal benefits. the most commonly cited benefits were positive workplace cultures and social connections. morgan (university to apprenticeship student) enthused, i love the people i work with! its a very open work environment. you can always speak your mind. similarly, tom (university to apprenticeship student) commented, when we go to school, its a class of 30 and everybody in the class all works for the same union its a pretty tight-knit group. aaron (university to apprenticeship student) also found strong connections within his workplace, but noted that this wasnt always common. he explained: 37 i think its pretty workplace dependent i know a lot of companies will make it tough for apprentices when theyre first starting out. you know, for the first year just cleaning up cardboard, but i think it depends where you are. i sort of went in and it was hopping! for aaron, a busy apprenticeship kept him engaged and eager to return to work every day. he acknowledged that some apprenticeships can be difficult in the beginning, but that hadnt been his experience. having the opportunity to continue working during the pandemic also played a role in some students responses. stephanie (university to apprenticeship student) was able to continue working through the social restrictions of covid 19 pandemic. stephanie commented, that is one thing thats been nice is that through the pandemic, that ive been able to continue working and its outside. for students, being part of an academic program that created positive social outlets and allowed them to continue working/studying was extremely important. students also felt that apprenticeship programming had more concrete rewards than their previous undergraduate coursework. when asked what the biggest benefit of his transition was, morgan (university to apprenticeship student) said, i guess getting paid to learn? that is sort of how it is, so it feels more worthwhile? like, i see tangible achievements. new learning environments also gave students with different learning needs the opportunity to academically excel. as steve (university to apprenticeship student) explained, i wanted a job that kept me interested. im probably one of your add type candidates. i like to be constantly challenged and have a job thats almost always evolving. not only did students feel that they were gaining 38 money and hands-on experience that would support their careers, they also felt they were learning in environments that suited their personal strengths. in-program challenges although students who transitioned largely enjoyed their work, they did mention some difficulties balancing their worklife commitments. when asked about some of the biggest challenges he faced in his new role, tom (university to apprenticeship student) responded, general scheduling, right? so, depending on where you work, you have a completely different schedule. right now im happy im on a maintenance contract. we work five or eight hour days a week, 40 hours a week. students mentioned that their work hours can change depending on their placement and that balancing these commitments with coursework can be difficult. aarons (university to apprenticeship student) apprenticeship required him to travel, and this sometimes disrupted his time with family: the distance from family was tough. more than i would have wanted to admit based on i was three hours away, or whatever. but you know, id miss them every now and then. and not eating home cooked meals so you just ate pizza. others also mentioned the difficulty of balancing commuting with coursework. ivy (apprenticeship to university student) stated that 39 a big one was commuting. there isnt any other [program] offered in the area so i had to commute. sometimes it meant waking up a 4 oclock to catch the train to be there for 6 oclock in the morning. the commute was a lot at the time. schools, home, and workplaces were sometimes located in different cities for students, requiring them to drive longer distances after the transition. female students we interviewed also encountered discrimination in their apprenticeship environments. ivy (apprenticeship to university student) said, i loved the program. my instructors were great! i had some really good peers. but, there were issues that i encountered in the industry, like with sexism, and with my peers. and that was sometimes an issue at school. ivy did not elaborate on the types of experiences she encountered, but the same sentiments were echoed by stephanie (university to apprenticeship student): non-academic wise, there are some challenges. especially for me as a woman and a minority in other ways its a very white male dominated industry. stephanie noted that most of the instructors for her program were white males, who also owned companies in which apprentices worked. stephanie said, sometimes, you know, some comments are made and just the general attitude about certain things doesnt always feel the most supportive of someone like me. being a female in a largely white male workplace subjected certain members of our study group to unnecessarily uncomfortable situations. advice for students 40 overall, the students interviewed for this study were extremely pleased with their decisions to switch programs. they found that the coursework and hands-on nature of apprenticeship suited their aims. for those who transitioned from apprenticeships to university, the theoretical approach to problem-solving fulfilled their interests too. when we concluded our interviews, we asked students if there was any advice they would like to pass along to others considering the transition to or from apprenticeships. overall, they suggested that students take more time to think about their postsecondary decisions. tom (university to apprenticeship student) commented, if you can, id say take a year off after high school take some time and dont rush in. they also recommended students find support early. steve (university to apprenticeship student) suggested that students talk to someone whos already done what you wanted to do and get it all, get everything. ask any question you think would be relevant or irrelevant. he also noted that it is important to find help from individuals who have gone through apprenticeships in the past decade because there have been many policy changes within different trades programs, and new students should be aware of these. mirroring steves suggestions, ivy (apprenticeship to university student) had this advice: get as much support as possible. if you have connections from other programs, use them. for ivy, knowing people in different programs helped her see the abundance of academic and career opportunities available. interviewees also cautioned other students to be wary of the social pressure to pursue a university degree. stephanie (university to apprenticeship student) echoed the sentiments of other respondents: 41 feeling like i needed to go to university or that going into the trades meant that i wasnt smart enough for university or something like that i would say dont buy into that. its not a thingif thats the experience you want to have and how you want to use your brain and your body and thats of interest to you, then yeah definitely go for it! instead of pursuing educational pathways based on social pressure, students we interviewed recommended choosing academic programming based on personal, academic, and professional goals. summary of findings apprenticeships provide ontario students with an important alternative education pathway. however, there remains little information about the academic routes students pursue into and out of these programs. to date, no study has explored the transfer processes moving between apprenticeships and college/university for ontario students. through interviews with postsecondary transfer administrators and transfer students, we aimed to answer the following research questions: 1) how is the decision to transfer to college/university directly impacted by economic, social, and emotional challenges faced by former apprenticeship students? 2) how is the decision to transfer to apprenticeship programs directly impacted by economic, social, and emotional challenges faced by undergraduate students? and 3) how did institutions help or hinder the transfer process for students? analysis of our interview data demonstrates that there are a number of factors that influence students decisions to transfer into or out of an 42 apprenticeship program. our data also reveal ways that postsecondary institutions can work to better support students through those transitions. interviewed administrators commented that students seemed likely to switch programs in search of better employment opportunities and in response to difficulties building apprentice relationships. they noted that students were sometimes reluctant to finish undergraduate degrees because they didnt see tangible skillsets available to them through those routes. by transferring to apprenticeship, students could gain the applicable knowledge to be successful in a changing economy. some postsecondary administrators also commented that they also saw students moving out of apprenticeships because they had difficulty finding partnerships for their jobplacement learning requirements. they saw students leaving apprenticeship due to unsuccessful placement relationships, difficulty finding a business willing to support their apprenticeship, or because those relationships sometimes fell apart over time. figure 1: summary of findings 43 administrators also discussed the support and shortcomings of transfer processes for students. they noted that some institutions provide online course tools and transfer liaisons to help students get the credits they need when changing programs. administrators also took note of preexisting transfer pathways between some universities and colleges. they said that although these did not yet exist between postsecondary institutions and apprenticeship programming, they would be helpful for future students interested in transferring between these two types of learning. in addition to interviewing administrators about the assistance they provide students, we also interviewed students about their transfer process experiences. the reasons students provided for 44 transitioning into or out of apprenticeship programs were slightly different than the ones administrators provided. students commented that they decided to transfer programs because they were following their own personal interests. several students noted that they initially pursued university degrees because they felt pressure from family and educators toward that academic route. however, through social contacts and summer jobs, they learned that their interests were more keenly connected to the hands-on training provided through apprenticeships. they also noted that the employment available through apprenticeships better suited their personal interests and aptitudes. the single student we interviewed who transferred from an apprenticeship to a university program similarly commented that her transfer was based on the pursuit of personal interests. instead of applicable solutions to problems, she felt more engaged with theoretical explanations that were provided through undergraduate programming. although all the students we interviewed seemed happy with their transition decisions, they did encounter some challenges along the way. students complained that the transition process was confusing and difficult to navigate. they said that it was sometimes unclear which courses could transfer over to their new programming, and that administrators sometimes had little information to support this process. students acknowledged that while colleges provided transition support teams to students, these teams were sometimes understaffed. one student remarked that their program liaison was required to support many students across multiple programs and didnt have enough time to help everyone. female students interviewed for this study also commented that they experienced discrimination in apprenticeship fields. the combination of these experiences meant that some students felt under supported through the transfer process and within their apprenticeship training. 45 recommendations given the information that was provided to us through interviews with postsecondary administrators and transfer students, we can make a number of recommendations to help support the transition process for students. first, it would be extremely helpful if there were greater awareness of a provincial database that provides information about the available transfer pathways between schools and the application of credits for those programs. administrators sometimes complained that they were unable to provide students with information they needed about course transfer until after they had been accepted to the program. students also complained that some administrators were unsure of which course credits could be transferred into their new academic programming. oncat already supports a website (https://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php?page=exploring_options&sec_id=3 ) with some of this information available to postsecondary staff and students. since the students and administrators we interviewed were unaware of this resource, more attention toward publicity and maintenance of this site might be helpful. in addition to providing students with information about transfer pathways before they enroll in a new program, canadian postsecondary institutions could take note of european apprenticeship programs with histories of institutional support. because canada has witnessed a decline in apprenticeship participation over the last decade (statistics canada, 2020), the expansion of apprenticeships into new technical sectors might be helpful. for example, britain has developed apprenticeship programming that follows the growing knowledge economy (sharp & gibson, 2005). by offering apprenticeships in sectors like information technology and business 46 management, apprenticeship programming could better meet the needs of students here. additionally, postsecondary institutions could better support students by taking on the responsibility of finding apprenticeships for students. in germany, education institutions are responsible for building and maintaining relationships with companies that provide apprenticeship opportunities for students (sharp & gibson, 2005). since difficulty finding and maintaining workplace relationships with apprentices was one of the biggest challenges administrators noted for apprenticeship students in ontario, maintaining these relationships institutionally might be a more effective solution. more guidance to pursue trades at the secondary education level should also be provided to students. students who were transferring from university to apprenticeship programming commented that they experienced pressure to matriculate into an undergraduate degree rather than a trades program. some students felt that choosing an apprenticeship program over an undergraduate degree was only for those who were less academically inclined. they noted that they had pursued a degree because they felt pressure to apply to university rather than college. ontario guidance counselors and high school teachers could work to better demonstrate the benefits of apprenticeship programming for students. this might help dismantle the perceived stigma associated with trades programming among students. more work needs to be done to show students that the pursuit of trades programming is not an academic failure, but a valid postsecondary education choice. this research demonstrates the challenges and benefits students experience in their postsecondary transfer processes into and out of apprenticeships. despite difficulties, the 47 students we interviewed were overwhelmingly happy with their decisions to transfer schools. we believe that the enthusiasm they showed for their newfound programming and employment should inspire greater support for postsecondary transition pathways into and out of apprenticeships. every student deserves to be enrolled in the academic program best suits their personal goals. 48 resources arrowsmith, e., & ra malatest and associates (firm). 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(2019) if you want to have a future and a life, do an apprenticeship: the expectations and realities of tradesmens transition to adulthood. journal of youth studies 23(6), 745-764. 51 appendix a: administrative interview deductive codes name common challenges code type deductive code definition common challenges admin sees of students transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program example so, if students are going from postsecondary institution to postsecondary institution that can cause issues with funding in terms of grants and osap. common benefits deductive code common benefits transitioning admin sees of students transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program i think the last piece in terms of the experience is that they have the applied skills and now they have an opportunity to gain both applied and theoretical skills. institutional support deductive code types of transition or pre-program support provide by admins institution i would say, ministry consultant, or counselors, they work directly with applicants. so when the student is registered as apprentice they get sponsored by the company, and they get in touch with ministry consultant. institutional shortcomings deductive code types of transition or pre-program support that the admin wishes their institution provided a guidance counselor or a transfer liaison person, that doesnt exist right now. our transfer students are just thrown into first-year stuff. other institution support deductive code programming that other institutions have that are supportive of transfer students they do a lot of what we call block transfers, and so they have a lot of agreements, basically, between themselves and other institutions. transfer reasons from students deductive code reasons students give admin for transfer i would say employment. they would get into their you know, earning money quicker, instead of just being stuck with a high tuition fee and a kind of a not certain employment afterwards. 52 program suggestions deductive code suggestions from administrators for additional programs at their institutions i would love to have an apprenticeship to university booklet or something like that that i could give to students. student suggestions deductive code administrator suggestions for students interested in transferring programs i would definitely say like meet your program counselors, meet your professors, like be open and ask for help. 53 appendix b: student interview deductive codes name transition challenges code type deductive code definition general challenges experienced by student transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program example exactly yeah, i don't have any relatives or friends who are in the field. so i didn't otherwise know about it at all. transition benefits deductive code general benefits experienced by student transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program ive been able to continue working and its outside its one of the draws for me with changing careers paths and going into this field was being able to work outside. home-life challenges deductive code home-life challenges experienced by student transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program i would say just definitely like work-life balance and just workschool balance, like just trying to manage my time. academic challenges deductive code academic challenges experienced by student transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program most of the preliminary work and everything is done through the ministry and theyre the gatekeepers for everything. so even if you thought you were going to school on a certain date, if the ministry hasnt notified the school yet, they cant even talk to you, they cant even tell you what kind of books youd need, nothing. reasons for transitioning deductive code reasons student gives for transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program id say the group of people. i wont get too much into that, but i wasnt a big fan of a lot of the people there. economic challenges deductive code economic challenges experienced by student transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program and thats actually what kind of drew me away from the industry because i was working so hard, i had so much experience and it wasnt really paying off like monetarily or the kind of like lifestyle i wanted to have. economic benefits deductive code economic benefits experienced by student transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program yeah im glad i did it. the hours are better, i mean the pay will be better when im done. 54 academic benefits deductive code academic benefits experienced by student transitioning into/out of apprenticeship program and like having that sort of trade training where its like a very hands-on experience. 55

oncat careers senior researcher location: toronto, ontario, canada type: full-time, eligible for pension salary range: $80 000-$90 000 category: research, data and funding department deadline: october 24th, 2022 about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges and universities. as a member organization, it works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. about the position the senior researcher supports the development and oversees the implementation of oncats research plan. the senior researcher ensures that oncat-led and/or funded research projects align with the organizations mandate and strategic priorities and works closely with consultants, researchers (from other postsecondary educational institutions and/or pse organizations), oncat committees/ working groups, and oncat staff/senior management. this position will provide coordination to and research expertise on various research initiatives/projects. this position will also provide oversight to oncats grant (rfp) program supporting credit transfer and student mobility research and strategic analysis of oncat funded research projects to inform future planning. as oncat continues to support system improvements and the development of a mature transfer system in ontario, this position will be critical to moving projects forward, ensuring their success and translating knowledge from multiple and across projects to support system development. to be successful in this position you will display mature judgment, expert knowledge of research and research methodologies, a commitment to high quality work, excellent project management skills, and work effectively independently and in a professional team environment. you must also be committed to the value of postsecondary education, be dedicated to improving the transfer student experience, and demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills. responsibilities 1. research planning and implementation (30%) leads the design and co-ordination of oncats overall research plan. ensures the research plan supports functions across operations, collaborations, granting and policy, and overall oncat strategic priorities. provides support to oncats funding strategies, including its research and transfer system improvement projects, including identifying rfp topics and supporting funding review processes, as an internal reviewer, conducts scans and shares evidence, to inform transfer strategies, including presenting evidence from funded projects and/or other jurisdictions to inform institutional projects ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 coordinates tasks and projects, delegating to researcher and quantitative researcher, and supervising them to ensure deliverables are being met monitors oncat research budget and ensures research activities, internal and external, align with budgets. 2. managing and supporting research projects (30%) works collaboratively with senior management and research, data and funding team to implement annual oncat research grants stream. coordinates projects and supervises oncat researcher and oncat quantitative researcher on projects and research activities. provides coordination to support various aspects of the research project life cycle (e.g. request for proposal, application, proposal adjudication, awards, contracts and payments, interim reporting and check, and final reporting). ensures accountability of transfer payment funds and proper grants management protocol. re-negotiates deliverables/contracts or closes grants, where needed, to ensure value for money and alignment with oncat mandate and priorities. 3. knowledge mobilization and planning (30%) maintains an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art research on transfer/articulation, along with the methodological techniques and data sources that it employs. shares key insights with oncat team through internal briefings and presentations, as well as with external stakeholders through blogs, workshops and other communications efforts plays a key role in knowledge mobilization, collaborating with oncats communications team to translate the findings of funded projects into deliverables (e.g. graphics, dashboards) that can be digested by varied stakeholders, including pse administration, policymakers and students. synthesizes and analyses findings from multiple oncat research projects and research grants to provide accessible information to inform sector partners, oncat communications, etc. edits and summarizes internal or oncat-funded project final reports in preparation for public posting. participates in postsecondary sector and credit transfer-related conference, symposia and fairs 4. stakeholder relations (10%) interacts with numerous stakeholders to advance oncats research priorities including academic researchers, institutional analysts, policymakers, pse administrators, as well as colleagues working across other cats in north america. interacts with groups in adjacent sectors, including k-12 (e.g. tdsb) and the labour market (e.g. cpa). establishing relationships with these groups allows oncat to capitalize on potential opportunities for collaboration on data-sharing or research-related activities. engages sector partners and research community to support, inform and champion oncat mandate. direct reports this position supervises 2 direct reports candidate requirements ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 education/knowledge masters degree in a related field. graduate degree preferred. knowledge of postsecondary education, and issues of credit transfer, access, and student success in postsecondary education. understanding of existing research and data resources available in the canadian postsecondary sector. knowledge of research and evaluation methodologies, tools, statistics, and techniques. knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods. knowledge of project management principles and methodologies to oversee and guide the overall delivery of mandates and strategies. experience 3-5 years of experience in research project management. experience working with outside consultants and managing contracted projects to successful completion. experience conducting research, writing research papers for publication (e.g. articles), and briefs. track record of delivering high-quality work product under a deadline. experience managing a complex budget. experience working in cross functional teams. preferred experience (asset) doctoral candidacy or phd bilingual in french and english skills & abilities exceptional organizational skills and ability to work simultaneously on multiple projects. ability to overcome unforeseen obstacles and see projects through to completion. ability to remain flexible, calm under pressure, and adaptive to change as priorities shift. exceptional written and oral communication skills and public speaking facility. ability to work well in a team atmosphere working both independently and with team members. technical expertise utilizing a variety of common office and statistical software. ability to quickly learn new function areas. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca. the deadline to apply october 24th by 11:59pm. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening or an interview will be contacted. commented [as1]: @shauna love is this email address still where applications are directed? oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require an accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

bachelor of mining engineering technology program executive summary the robert m. buchan department of mining at queens university and northern colleges haileybury school of mines (nchsm) applied to the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) in 2014 for funding to support the development of a diploma-to-degree pathway in mining engineering. oncat funded the proposal with a $1,117,005 grant for course development, and the faculty of engineering and applied science (feas) contributed an additional $1,124,816.15 to support program and curriculum development, as well as program coordination and administration, it infrastructure, and marketing and recruitment initiatives. the oncat and feas funds covered an initial three-year pilot of the program (which was extended by one year), with the feas funding then used to bridge the pilot program development phase into the program delivery phase until the program was fully developed. the btech program is a diploma-to-degree pathway initially designed for the 2-year mine engineering technician program offered at northern college, but eventually expanded to include graduates of any engineering technology program seeking to upgrade their academic credentials. graduates who maintained a 75% cumulative average in their college program receive block transfer credit for the first two years of study, and start the btech program enrolling in a customized bridging curriculum designed to close the knowledge gap between college and university. upon successful completion of the bridge, students move directly into year 3, and then year 4. each year also includes an on-site field school, an experiential learning module where students complete a series of laboratories necessary to obtain their degree. the program includes seven bridge courses, twelve year 3 courses, twelve year 4 courses, as well as two field schools. course development was achieved through multi-disciplinary course development teams, which included expertise in educational development and instructional design, multimedia technologies, as well as subject matter expertise. the teams broke the development timeline into four phases, designed to break the development cycle into manageable components, starting with scoping the course and identifying learning outcomes, through content development, and finishing with a quality review. development timelines typically ranged from 8-12 months, with some outliers taking as long as 24 months to complete. the average cost to develop a course was $43k. graduates of the program receive a bachelors of mining engineering technology (btech) degree which is currently unaccredited. initial discussions with the professional engineers of ontario (peo) have highlighted issues with online programming, and additional discussions will be necessary if a pathway to licensure is to be established. while students cannot apply for licensure upon graduation, they are eligible to apply for masters studies (either in the masters of science, or masters of engineering programs). however; the issue of accreditation and licensure remains an on-going risk for the programs long-term success. the btech program opened enrollment in january 2016. since that time, weve had 66 applications, made 57 offers of admission, and currently have 34 students active in the program. while this continues to exceed original enrollment forecasts, identifying strategies to improve our retention rate will be an on-going priority as we move from pilot phase into regular operation. recruitment efforts are driven by a multi-faceted outreach program that includes both targeted digital promotion, and on-campus recruitment visits. three formal articulation and transfer agreements have been signed with northern college, cambrian college, and saskatchewan polytechnic who all have mining engineering technology programs, as well as over a dozen other engineering technology programs that can articulate into the btech program. as the program grows, we hope to add more partnerships with relevant college programs.

non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes july 28, 2021 authors xavier st-denis, phd institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) yacine boujija universit de montral stephen sartor university of western ontario non-linear pse pathways and credential accumulation statistical portrait and evaluation of labour market outcomes presented to the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat) xavier st-denis, phd institut national de la recherche scientifique (inrs) yacine boujija universit de montral stephen sartor university of western ontario july 28, 2021 table of contents acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 1 introduction ..................................................................................................................... 2 context..........................................................................................................................................2 objectives......................................................................................................................................2 key findings in brief .......................................................................................................................3 review of the literature .................................................................................................. 5 data and methods ............................................................................................................ 7 data ..............................................................................................................................................7 construction of the analytic sample................................................................................................9 methods ........................................................................................................................................9 multinomial regression ......................................................................................................................................10 ols regression ....................................................................................................................................................11 results .............................................................................................................................. 13 credential accumulation over the life course ................................................................................ 13 overview of different pse credential accumulation pathways in the canadian and ontario populations ................................................................................................................................. 15 drivers of variation in pse credential accumulation pathways ....................................................... 17 the role of other characteristics of pse pathways .............................................................................................29 pse credential accumulation pathways as drivers of income differences in adulthood ................... 34 baseline results ..................................................................................................................................................34 accounting for the role of fields of study...........................................................................................................37 job characteristics as mechanisms underpinning differences in employment income .....................................41 conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 47 references ........................................................................................................................ 49 appendix a. supplemental results ................................................................................ 52 acknowledgements this work received financial support via the research funding program of the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat). the analysis presented in this paper was conducted at the quebec interuniversity centre for social statistics which is part of the canadian research data centre network (crdcn). the services and activities provided by the qicss are made possible by the financial or in-kind support of the social sciences and humanities research council (sshrc), the canadian institutes of health research (cihr), the canada foundation for innovation (cfi), statistics canada, the fonds de recherche du qubec - socit et culture (frqsc), the fonds de recherche du qubec - sant (frqs) and the quebec universities. the views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the crdcn, its partners or oncat. 1 introduction context research over the last decades in social sciences has emphasized that a large proportion of students follow non-conventional and non-linear pathways through pse (denice 2019; hearn 1992; milesi 2010). this includes: not completing a program, transferring between programs and institutions (goldrick-rab and pfeffer 2009; monaghan and attewell 2015; goldrick-rab and han 2011), delaying or interrupting enrollment (bozick and deluca 2005; goldrick-rab 2006; goldrick-rab and han 2011), studying part-time, combining different social roles (parent and student, worker and student, etc.) (roksa and velez 2012; 2010; weiss and roksa 2016), and accumulating credentials in a non-linear way (college after bachelors, or the accumulation of several credentials at the same level) (walters 2003; wall 2021; ntwari and fecteau 2020). transfer and articulation policies and programs can contribute to supporting students taking various pathways through postsecondary education (pse) and address obstacles students face when aiming to change programs or institutions during the course of a program of study. appropriate interventions can therefore play an important role in structuring the pathways students follow through pse. in this report, we adopt a perspective on pse pathways that focuses on pse credential accumulation dynamics and on mobile students. in a context where an increasing share of students complete more than one pse credential, we base our report on the insight that transfer and articulation policies can be informed by a better understanding of pathways that involve different sequences of accumulation of two or more pse credentials. for example, measures that support the completion of a bachelors degree as a first credential through transfers may be beneficial if bachelors graduates are likely to then follow specific credential accumulation pathways, such as the completion of a graduate or professional degree. more specifically, this project is motivated by a related set of considerations. first, many studies of non-conventional or non-linear pse pathways and of the labour market outcomes associated with them use data that measure short-term trajectories and outcomes for subsamples of all pse participants, often at specific stages of their experience through pse (for example, students below 25 years old attending a college program). second, for related reasons, we lack a clear account of the long-term labour market outcomes associated with a broad range of pse credential accumulation pathways. an understanding of these dynamics may contribute to the design and orientation of transfer and articulation policies and programs. objectives the primary expected outcome of this report is to document dynamics related to pse pathways that include more than one credential, and to better understand the labour market benefits and penalties associated with non-linear pathways that involve various patterns of credential accumulation. to do so, this report sets three objectives: 2 1. present a statistical portrait of different pse credential accumulation pathways in ontario and in canada, in order to identify the share of postsecondary students who follow non-linear pathways, such as those completing several postsecondary certificates, diplomas or degrees at the bachelor level or below. 2. document the drivers of different pse credential accumulation pathways by leveraging the high level of detail available in the longitudinal and international study of adults (2016). 3. evaluate the employment and labour market outcomes associated with different pse credential accumulation pathways, such as earnings differences between individuals following different pathways. in doing so, we aim to analyse the drivers of income differences between pse credential accumulation pathways. key findings in brief the first set of findings presented in this report show that by the time canadians born between 1956 and 1980 reached 35 years old, approximately 60% of them had completed one pse credential, and more than 20% completed a second credential or more. for some canadians, this means completing a graduate degree after a bachelors degree. for others, this means completing a college certificate or diploma as a second credential. credential accumulation pathways are often non-linear, and a large proportion of the population complete their first or second credentials well into their 20s, 30s or even 40s. the results presented in this report yields three main analytical insights: 1. the level of the first completed credential is strongly related to the level of the highest credential to ever be obtained. importantly, this has an influence on access to more highly rewarded pse pathways. specifically, those who enter pse at a level below a bachelors degree have a low probability of completing a second credential relative to those who complete a bachelors degree as their first credential. more specifically, they have a low probability of completing a bachelors degree as their second degree, and even lower probabilities of completing a graduate or first professional degree. this is consequential given that a graduate or first professional degree is associated with substantially higher employment income than other levels of educational attainment. different background characteristics are associated with the level of the first credential and with the level of the second credential conditional on the first credential among pse participants, and in particular parental education and visible minority status. 2. the sequence of credential accumulation matters. the accumulation of the same pair of credentials (college certificate/diploma and bachelors degree) but in different orders is associated with different average income levels, net of observed characteristics. more generally, the same level of highest credential is associated with different income levels depending on the credential accumulation pathways followed to complete them. these employment income gaps appear to be driven in part by differences in the field of study of the first completed credential. importantly, the net size of the annual employment income premium associated with completing a bachelors degree as ones first and only credential is larger than the net size of the 3 premium associated with completing a bachelors degree as ones second credential after a trade/vocational or apprenticeship certificate or a college certificate or diploma. 3. different pse credential accumulation pathways translate into different types of jobs. we find that differences in the industry and occupation of employment of workers and in the intensity of the skills they use at work accounts for a substantial share of the employment income premiums or penalties associated with specific pse pathways. this could mean that certain pathways may be associated with the development of competencies and skills more highly rewarded on the labour market. our findings may contribute to the design of transfer and articulation policies and programs attenuating the impact of certain obstacles to accessing pse pathways that are most likely to translate into positive labour market outcomes. finally, our results suggest that selection dynamics are at play based on characteristics that are not measured in most datasets. more broadly, the mechanisms underpinning some of the differences in income associated with different pse credential accumulation pathways remain unaccounted for even in analyses leveraging detailed data on the characteristics of pse pathways and of jobs held by respondents. in order to better understand the drivers of pse credential accumulation pathways and the outcomes associated with them, causal research designs or more fine-grained data may be necessary. 4 review of the literature the classical literature on human capital (becker 1964) and status attainment (blau and duncan 1967; featherman and hauser 1978) focuses on years of education and conceptualize education in terms of a relatively continuous quantity of skills, capital, or resources. some of the literature on access to postsecondary education adopts a perspective with similar consequences to the extent that it conceptualizes access in terms of binary participation or non-participation (finnie and pavlic 2013). some sociologists have emphasized the importance of conceptualizing educational attainment as a sequence of steps (mare 1980). the common shortcoming of all these perspectives is that they leave little room for conceptualizing pathways into and through pse as a non-linear and possibly disorderly process. indeed, literature on pse pathways increasingly recognizes the heterogeneity in student trajectories (denice 2019; childs, finnie, and martinello 2017). this literature also highlights the association between background characteristics such as parental socioeconomic status and different dimensions of pse pathways (not just level of educational attainment) (goldrickrab 2006; zarifa et al. 2018). in canada, many studies that adopt a perspective taking into account non-linearity and complexity in pse pathways are limited to a single institution, or a single subnational region. further, many studies are constrained by the short duration between completion of the first observed credential/pathway and the end of the observation period because of the available sources of data. for these reasons, little is known about the long-term outcomes at a national level, especially for older individuals, for those who follow conventional post-secondary pathways, and those who do not. for example, stewart and martinello (2012) use a small sample from a single institution to study persistence in postsecondary education among transfer and non- transfer students. childs, finnie and martinello (2017) use a representative sample of the canadian population to study the persistence of transfer students in postsecondary education. however, the dataset does not allow users to quantify all different pathways and transfers, especially those occurring later in the life course of students (the sample includes individuals between 15 and 23 years old, therefore limited in coverage to transfers and program changes taking place early in the education trajectory of postsecondary students). a number of more dated studies suffer from similar limitations (vaala 1993; 1991; gawley and mcgowan 2006). while valuable contributions, these studies leave open several data gaps on the importance of diverse postsecondary education pathways in ontario and in canada, and do not allow to properly assess the outcomes associated with each of the different pathways. this is in part related to the focus of the studies discussed above on transfer pathways, which are generally observed within the first few years of a spell in a program of study. at the same time, the narrow time range of most studies is an important limitation to existing studies because a large part of pathways through pse tends to occur at later ages (see for example hango 2010). a minority of college applicants in ontario (40%) originate from high school, while socalled non-direct entrants are often older, with previous experience in pse (including completed pse credentials) (kerr 2011). international literature on lifelong learning likewise emphasizes the late pse participation age (after 25 years old) of a large portion of hs graduation cohorts, often motivated by reskilling (chesters, cuervo, and fu 2020). 5 more broadly, non-transfer university (76.17%) and non-transfer college (15.86%) are the most prevalent pathways to the completion of a pse credential in ontario (zarifa, sano, and hillier 2020). few students transfer institutions (childs, finnie, and martinello 2017; finnie, dubois, and miyairi 2021; zarifa, sano, and hillier 2020). we argue that this justifies a broader approach to the study of non-linear pse pathways to include pse credential accumulation and related outcomes over the longer term. for example, many credential accumulation pathways may gain to be the focus of transfer and articulation programs even when involving completed programs. indeed, a relatively limited literature documents the accumulation of credentials after a first credential (walters 2003; wall 2021; ntwari and fecteau 2020). the scope of this literature may be extended to include contributions focusing on access to graduate school (zarifa 2012) to the extent that it consists of one among many possible credential accumulation pathways. at the same time, the contributions that aim to directly document the reverse or horizontal accumulation of credentials are almost non-existent in canada. boothby and drewes (2006) do document multiple credentials accumulation using census data from 1980 to 2000, which showed that a non-negligible share of trades, college and bachelor graduates held more than one credential (which was not necessarily associated with an earnings premium). however, that data did not allow to measure those who held two credentials at the same level. in the us and the uk literature, some literature focuses on re-enrollment and adult/lifelong learning. it highlights differences by parental socioeconomic status (bukodi, bourne, and betthuser 2019; jacob and weiss 2011; elman and orand 2007) as well as a greater likelihood of re-enrollment in vocational or college programs (townsend 2003). again, many of the contributions focus on a specific subpopulation. in sum, we lack a clear portrait of the patterns and drivers of pse credential accumulation pathways in the overall population, as well as the long-term outcomes associated with different pathways. the evaluation of the state of the literature presented in this section guides this paper and its stated objectives. 6 data and methods data we use data from wave 3 of the longitudinal and international study of adults (lisa), a survey conducted by statistics canada between january and june 2016. the first and second waves of the survey were conducted over the same 6-month period in 2012 and 2014 respectively. the sample includes responding sample members who are 15 years old or more at the time of the survey. it also includes children of respondents younger than 15 years old. these sample members are not administered the questionnaire. once they turn 15 years old, they become responding sample members. all original sample members, those who resided in a sampled household at wave 1, are followed longitudinally in subsequent waves even if they change households. adults who join a household where at least one of the original sample members resides are temporarily included in the sample but no data is collected from them. there are no other refreshments to the sample. because of these design features of the survey, the lisa sample is representative of the noninstitutionalized canadian population residing outside of the territories in 2012. crosssectional respondent weights that account for attrition between waves are produced at each wave to allow the production of corresponding population estimates. the initial sample included approximately 34,000 respondents residing in 11,000 canadian households (excluding the territories). at wave 3, attrition (sample members not responding to the survey because of refusal, death, emigration, or non-contact) resulted in an overall smaller sample even if some children aged into the responding sample when they turned 15 (new responding sample members). our analysis uses data from wave 3 because it includes a retrospective postsecondary education history module. this module includes information on the first four pse certificates, diplomas or degrees completed by respondents, and more specifically the level of each credential and its field of study, as well as the duration and start and completion date of the credential. importantly, note that no data is collected for programs of study that were not completed. in other words, the wave 3 pse history module provides information on pse credential accumulation but not on transfers between programs of study where the program of origin is not completed. nevertheless, the pse history module also collects information on the first year when a respondent participated to pse. if that year is different from the year when the first completed pse credential was started, we can infer that a transfer or another type of pathway involving non-completion of the first credential occurred. no such information can be derived for programs that may have been started (but not completed) after the start date of the first completed degree. the lisa variable capturing the level of each pse credential uses 11 different categories, which we recode into four aggregate categories that capture the most relevant differences in levels: trades/vocational/apprenticeship certificates; certificates or diploma at the 7 college/cegep/university below bachelors level; bachelors degrees; graduate and first professional degrees. the correspondence is reported in table 1. note that in analyses using samples of the overall canadian population, pre-university cegep diplomas (obtained in quebec) are not counted as pse credentials because they are not intended to be terminal credentials and they are a pre-requisite for access to bachelors programs and include content that is part of the last year of secondary education in other provinces. this would lead to an inflation of the number of respondents with more than one pse credentials. technical cegep diplomas (dec de formation technique) and a.c.s. (attestation dtudes collgiales) certificates, intended to be terminal and relatively equivalent to college diploma or certifications offered in other provinces, are included in the analysis. credentials with a duration below three months are also excluded from the sample. several additional data cleaning steps were necessary in order to construct the pse pathway variables used in our analyses. these steps were necessary to address inconsistencies and missingness in the raw data. this includes the deterministic imputation of missing credential start and end dates based on standard program durations. 8 construction of the analytic sample we leverage the fact that the pse history module of the wave 3 of lisa provides information on the number and level of pse credentials accumulated by respondents, including in what order and with what timing. most of the analysis is restricted to respondents who obtained at least one pse credential. in addition, some of our analysis implements an upper age bound to the pse history variable to allow for analyses pooling cohorts together. this step is implemented because the lisa sample is cross-sectional, and respondents are observed at very different ages in 2016, when wave 3 data is collected. this step also allows for the comparison of different birth cohorts or for tracking the outcomes of a given birth cohort at different ages (setting different upper age bounds). as an example, a large part of our analysis sets an upper age bound for credential accumulation at 35 years old, meaning that only the credentials completed by respondents before they turn 35 years old are included. throughout this report, the analytic sample is restricted to respondents who were 35 to 59 years old in (early) 2016, corresponding to the 1956 to 1980 birth cohorts. respondents below 35 years old are excluded because the objective of this paper is to focus on pse pathways and their outcomes in a long-term perspective, in contrast with studies that focus exclusively on young graduates (often excluding older adult graduates) and on outcomes observed within a small number of years from graduation. in order to include only respondents who completed most of their pse in canada, we exclude respondents who arrived in canada after 15 years old. we also exclude immigrants who report spending less than 10 years in canada after 15 years old. this yields an analytic sample of approximately 4000 respondents with at least one pse credential in 2016, representing a population of 6,478,400 individuals age 35 to 59 in 2016 with at least one pse credential. ontario is the focus of this report, but some of the results are reported for canada only because of sample size limitations. the ontario analytic sample is drawn from respondents with at least one pse credential in 2016 who reported having graduated from an ontario high school (no geographic identifier is available for the institution of the first credential). this yields a sample size of close to 1000 observations representing a population of 2,300,100 ontario high school graduates age 35 to 59 in 2016 with at least one pse credential. methods the report presents results from three types of analyses. first, we provide an overall description of the different pse pathways followed by the sample respondents. second, we report results from multinomial regressions providing estimates of the relationship between different background characteristics and different pathways through pse. third, we estimate a set of ordinary least square (ols) regressions models to document to what extent specific pse pathways are associated with different labour market outcomes, and what are the drivers of income differences between respondents who followed different pathways. 9 in most of the analysis, our focus is on the first completed credential and the highest of any of the second, third or fourth credentials subsequently completed, if any.1 this research design allows to study the role of the first completed credential in the pathways subsequently taken by respondents in pse. most respondents complete only one or two credentials. few respondents complete three or more. results based on regression models allow to estimate the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables net of other variables included in the model. this allows to address cases of omitted variable bias, where the association between two variable is driven by a third variable correlated with both the dependent and the main independent variable. for example, the association between income and a specific pse pathway may be biased if that pathway is more likely to be followed by respondents who complete their pse at a later age, if in turn, completing pse at a later age is itself associated with a lower income. regression models including several predictors, or independent variables, are called multivariate regression models. we use two distinct classes of regression models that are each appropriate for a different type of dependent variables (categorical and continuous). the rest of this section provides general information on the regression models. note that the estimates from our regression models may not be interpreted as causal estimates because respondents may select into certain pathways based on unobserved characteristics (not measured in the lisa dataset), such as grades or abilities. multinomial regression the results from multinomial regressions use the variable capturing the four levels of the second completed pse credential as the dependent variable (the level of the second or third credential is used if the respondent completed more than two credentials and one of them is at a higher level than the second credential). an additional category of the dependent variable is created for respondents who completed only a single pse credential. that dependent variable is regressed on a variable capturing the level of the first completed credential. in other words, the model estimates the odds of completing a second credential at a given level (or to complete no further credentials), conditional on the level of the first pse credential. the following variables capturing the background of respondents as well as other dimensions of their pse pathways are included in order to document the relationship between different pse pathways on one hand, and parental background and the respondents characteristics on the other. background variables: gender (male/female) parental education immigration status 1 specifications using information on the first and second completed credentials only yield results that are very consistent with those obtained from our preferred specification. regression output used for this comparison are reported in appendix figure a.1 and table a.3. 10 first-generation immigrant parents visible minority indigenous identity (aboriginal identity variable) province (at time of survey or at high school completion, depending on specification) birth cohort (quadratic) pse pathway variables: age when completed first credential field of study of first credential any non-completed pse program before start of first completed degree (dummy) the sample is restricted to respondents who completed at least one pse credential before 35 years old. any credentials completed after that age are excluded from the analysis. 2 ols regression regression analysis is also used to document income differences between respondents who followed different pse credential accumulation pathways. these models regress income on the pse pathway variables and a set of controls. two different dependent variables are used: 1. the log of annual employment income in 2015, including t4 earnings and net selfemployment income, for respondents with non-zero employment income (source: t1ff data with imputation by statistics canada); 2. weekly labour earnings in the survey reference week, for respondents employed at survey date only (source: survey questionnaire with imputation by statistics canada); the first specification excludes respondents who report being employed for zero weeks or being employed part-time, part-year in 2015. the second specification excludes respondents who were not employed at survey date. the controls include those listed in the previous section, as well as the following controls: employment participation in 20153; years of labour force experience (self-reported at survey date); some models use field of study of first and last credentials; whether the respondent completed credentials in more than one field of study; whether the respondent completed any stem program; 2 see appendix figure a.2 for an analysis restricted to respondents age 50 to 59 in 2016, allowing us to include all credentials completed before 50 years old. 3 this derived variable uses the following categories: full-time full year employment; full-time part year employment (at least half of the year); part-time full year employment; part-time part year employment (at least half of the year); full-time part year employment (less than half of the year); part-time part year employment (less than half of the year); not employed in 2015. 11 whether the respondent changed fields of study between the first and second completed pse credential; a set of job characteristics for the job held in the survey reference period (occupation, industry, job skill use demand, and the supervision of any employees). 12 results credential accumulation over the life course in the introduction, we argued that the scope of many analyses of pse pathways are limited by their use of data with samples limited to young respondents, likely to miss important dimensions of pathways and important variations in outcomes that can be observed at later ages. here, we report data showing the share of the population in the 1956-1980 birth cohorts who had completed one pse credential (figure 1.1) and two or more pse credentials (figure 1.2) by the time they reached different ages. the figures plot cumulative shares, meaning that the estimates reported at 25 years old, for example, include those who completed a credential before 21 years old and those who completed it between 21 and 25 years old. results are reported separately for two cohort groups in addition to the overall population born in 1956-1980: the sample is divided between the 1956-1965 and 1966-1980 birth cohorts. the first cohort group is observed at 35 years old in 2016 at the latest, and the second cohort group is observed at 50 years old at the latest, allowing to observe the second cohorts credential accumulation at older ages. figure 1.1 shows that many canadians completed a first pse credential at very different ages. at 21 years old, 25.0% of canadians born between 1956 and 1980 had completed one credential. that proportion doubled to 50.3% by 25 years old and increased to 60.9% by 34 years old.4 we also find disparities across cohorts, with the rate of completion of a first pse credential after 21 years old being substantially higher for the younger cohort even if no gap is observed by 21 years old. finally, results specific to the 1956-1965 birth cohort show an increase of 7.1% in the share of canadians completing their first pse credential between 35 and 49 years old. next, we report results on the completion of a second credential (or more). in figure 1.2, we find that by 25 years old, 11.1% of canadians had completed a second credential. by 29 years old, that proportion increased to 17.3%, and by 34 years old, to 22.8%. again, we find a large gap between the 1956-1965 and 1966-1980 birth cohorts, with the younger cohort having an almost 10 percentage points higher 2nd credential completion rate before reaching 35 years old. results from the 1956-1965 cohort also show a substantial increase in the share of the population with a second pse credential between 35 and 49 years old, from 17.1% to 24.5%. together, these results point to the relevance of using pse history data covering a longer age range when studying pse pathways, especially in analyses focusing on credential accumulation. importantly, second credentials are often completed well after ones mid-20s. the timing of completion of many pse credentials also calls for measuring labour market and economic outcomes at later ages than some of the existing literature. the return on investment to a pse credential is likely to become visible only a certain time after graduation and the accumulation of some labour force experience. the data used in this study allow us to take into account these initial findings and conclusions. 4 note that these estimates are consistent with similar estimates drawn from the 2016 long-form census public-use data. 13 figure 1.1. cumulative share of population with a first pse credential at different ages, 1956-1980 birth cohorts source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). figure 1.2. cumulative share of population with a second or more pse credential at different ages, 1956-1980 birth cohorts 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 25 years old 1956-1980 birth cohort 29 years old 34 years old 1956-1965 birth cohort 49 years old 1966-1980 birth cohort source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). 14 overview of different pse credential accumulation pathways in the canadian and ontario populations building on the previous section, we focus on the distribution of educational attainment in canada and ontario, including information on pse credential accumulation. this allows us to highlight the different pse credential accumulation pathways that may lead to the same final or highest credential. to do so, we reconstruct pse histories for each respondent age 35 to 59 years old in our sample. in figure 2.1, we report data based on derived a variable capturing broad pse credential accumulation pathways showing the level of the first completed pse credential, and then the level of the second, third or fourth credential, whichever the highest. those who complete a single pse credential are included in the complete category. the values plotted on the y-axis (and reported at the top of each bar) correspond to the percentage of the overall population following each pathway. figure 2.2 reports percentages based on the same data, but conditional on the level of the first pse credential. results are reported separately for canada overall and for ontario. the distribution of pse pathways in ontario is relatively similar to the canadian distribution. we find that the share of the population with a pse credential in the 1956-1980 birth cohorts in 2016 (at 35-59 years old) is 60.9% in canada and 64.9% in ontario. the most frequent pse entry pathway is the completion of a first pse credential below a bachelors degree (trade, apprenticeship, or vocational certificate, college certificate or diploma, or other equivalent credentials): 35.8% of canadians and 33.9% of ontario residents have followed that pathway compared with 25% canadians and 31% ontario residents completing a first pse credential at the bachelors level or above (e.g., first professional degree). consistent with figure 1, figure 2.1 shows that a relatively large share of canadians accumulate more than one pse credential. at the same time, figure 2.2 shows that the population completing a bachelors degree as their first credential are more likely to complete a second degree: around 50% do so, predominantly at the graduate level. among those who completed a first pse credential below the bachelors level, 30% obtain a second pse credential. importantly, figure 2.1 also shows that analyses focusing only on the highest degree are likely to miss important differences between graduates driven by non-linear pse credential accumulation.5 the share of respondents who follow a linear pathway of completing a bachelors degree followed by a graduate degree is 7.4% in canada and 10.1% in ontario. in contrast, 15.4% of canadians and 15.9% of ontario residents follow a non-linear credential accumulation pathway. analyses focusing only on the highest pse credential would ignore the possible impact of the other degrees held by these individuals. more specifically, close to 30% of those who complete a first pse credential then go on to complete a second credential at the same level as the first (lateral or horizontal accumulation), such as those accumulating two or more certificates or diploma below the bachelors level). 5 note that our data only captures one of many dimensions of non-linear or non-conventional pathways, as highlighted in the review of the literature. 15 around five percent complete a bachelors degree (or more)6 after a first pse credential below the bachelors level, or the reverse, which are generally regarded as non-conventional pathways. standard analyses measuring the highest degree (in this case, the bachelors degree) would not report the existence of that additional trades/vocational/apprenticeship or college credential. finally, one important finding stands out: of all canadian in our sample, only 3.5% followed a tva/college-to-bachelors degree pathway (3.0% in ontario). in other words, among bachelors graduates in our sample, only 12.3% obtained their bachelors degree as a second, third or fourth degree (8.8% in ontario). note that this represents less than 10% of those who completed a first pse credential below the bachelors level (see figure 3.2). the 91.7% of other bachelors graduates in our sample obtained their bachelors as their first pse credential. this finding, combined with the fact that access to graduate school is almost exclusively limited to those who complete a bachelors degree as their first credential, suggests that the level of the entry pathway into pse is related to overall achievement. a focus on pse pathways can highlight the existence of cumulative disadvantage dynamics. the next sections explore the drivers and outcomes associated with these dynamics. figure 2.1. credential accumulation pathways by geography, 35-59 years old source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). note: the ontario subsample correspondents to lisa respondents who resided in ontario at survey date. the category to bachelors or more includes graduate degrees and first professional degrees. however, almost no respondents in our sample followed that pathway. the large majority of respondents following that pathway completed a bachelors degree after their first pse credential below the bachelors level. 6 16 figure 2.2. credential accumulation pathways conditional on the level of first pse credential by geography, 35-59 years old source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). note: the ontario subsample correspondents to lisa respondents who resided in ontario at survey date. drivers of variation in pse credential accumulation pathways in this section, we report results from multinomial logistic regression models to document which variables are associated with different pse credential accumulation pathways. the models regress the five possible destination categories for the second pse credential (or more, whichever is the highest) on the level of the first pse credential and on a set of background (gender, visible minority status, parental background, etc.) and pse pathway characteristics (age at completion of first pse credential, whether they had any spell in pse that did not lead to a completed credential by the respondent before the first credential was reported as completed, and field of study of first credential). with these results, we aim to document the characteristics of the population following different pse credential accumulation pathways. 17 the results presented in the figures are average marginal effects (ame) derived from the multinomial regression log odds estimates. these can be interpreted as the difference in the probability of completing a second credential at a given level (tva, college, bachelor, or graduate, or not completing a second credential [the complete] category in the figures) that is associated with certain characteristics, or category of an independent variable, compared to the reference category. in other words, the ames estimate the difference in the probability of following different pse credential accumulation pathways between categories of respondents. the figures also report the 95% confidence intervals associated with each ame estimate. ames are statistically significant at the p<0.05 level if the confidence intervals do not cross zero on the y-axis of the figures. association between first and second completed pse credential first, we focus on the relationship between the first pse credential and the level of the highest credential completed afterwards, if any. this will contribute to our understanding of cumulative processes such as differences in the ability to complete more highly rewarded credentials conditional on the first completed credential at entry in pse. figure 3 shows the probability of completing a second (or more) credential at a given level (if any) conditional on the level of the first credential. the reference category is set as those who completed a single college credential. estimates are ames from models controlling for a set of background characteristics (gender, visible minority status, immigration status of self and parent, parental education, indigenous identity, province of residence at high school graduation, age, age at completion of first credential, and whether the respondent completed any pse before the start date of their first completed credential). the level of the first credential appears to be strongly related to the subsequent pathway into pse. more specifically, those who completed a first pse credential at the bachelors level were significantly less likely than their counterparts who completed a college credential to then complete a second credential. in canada overall, this difference is driven by a probability of completing a graduate degree 25 points higher for bachelors degree graduate than college graduates. the difference is in the same direction and the estimates are of larger sizes in ontario. there is no significant difference in the probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential between college graduates and those who completed a tva certificate as a first credential. in addition, we find no difference between the three levels of first credential in the probability of completing a bachelors degree as a second credential. completing a first credential below the bachelors level does not make one more likely to then follow an upward pathway into bachelors as a second credential compared with those who complete a bachelors degree or more as their first credential. moreover, at the canadian level, there is evidence of horizontal accumulation for those not completing college as their first credential (tva certificate or bachelors degree), since they are less likely to then complete a second credential at the college level. the same goes for the probability of completing a second tva certificate for those who completed a tva certificate as their first pse credential. we conduct a set of robustness checks to ensure that our estimates are consistent across a set of model specifications. in figure a.1, we restrict the analysis to the relationship between the first and second credential, if any, rather than between the first and the highest of the 18 second, third, or fourth credential, if any. we find no notable difference between the two specifications. in figure a.2, we restrict the analysis to the birth cohorts who were 50 to 59 years old in 2016 (the 1956-1965 birth cohorts). this restriction allows us to estimate two types of models: one restricting the analysis to pse credentials completed before 35 years old by the respondents in these birth cohorts, and the other including all credentials completed before the same respondents were 50 years old. again, the results are consistent with those reported in figure 3, and the same patterns are observed at both ages 7. these robustness checks suggest that 35 years old is an appropriate upper age bound for measuring the pse pathways of respondents for the purpose of this analysis, even if figure 1 shows that close to 10 percent of the population complete a first and a second pse credential between 35 and 50 years old. this may be due to the fact that the same dynamics that drive differences at early ages also drive differences at later ages. figure 3. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by level of first credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada 7 the size of estimates from different logistic regression models cannot be directly compared because differences may be driven by the rescaling factor included in the estimates rather than differences between the true estimates (allison 1999). we therefore refrain from discussing differences in effect sizes between canada and ontario, and with figures b1 and b2. 19 b. ontario source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. background characteristics as drivers of differences in pse pathways next, we explore how the level of the second credential (or more) is associated with the background characteristics of the respondents. we focus on the education and immigration status of parents, on gender differences, and on differences by visible minority status. we also explore the role of pse spells that did not lead to the completion of a pse credential before the start of the first completed pse credential. together, these findings will improve our understanding of inequalities between groups in their credential accumulation pathways. it is a first step in improving our understanding of the role of different pse pathways in accounting for group differences in income. figures 4 and 5 report ames capturing group differences in the probability of completing a second credential (or more) at a given level (the outcome variable/dependent variable in the model). the ames are derived from the same model as the one from which the estimates in figure 3 are drawn. in other words, the estimates are net of the level of the first completed credential and other controls. the association between our background characteristics of interest and our outcome variable does not vary by level of the first credential. in separate 20 models with interactions between these two variables, we found little variation in the impact of background characteristics across levels of the first credential, except for parental education. the results of this interaction model for parental education are reported below. the results reported in figure 4 can be interpreted the following way: 1. we observe little gender differences at the canadian level except for a lower probability of completing a tva credential as a second credential for women than men. at the ontario level, we find a statistically significant difference of 10 percentage points between men and women in the likelihood of completing a single credential, with women more likely than men to accumulate more than one credential before 35 years old. 2. in canada in general and in ontario, pse graduates who are part of a visible minority group are less likely than those who are not part of a visible minority group to complete a second pse credential, mostly driven by their lower probability of completing a bachelor or a graduate degree as their second credential. however, the estimates for bachelors degree and single credential completion are only statistically significant at the p<0.10 level, but not at the p<0.05 level, in the canadian sample. in the ontario sample, only the ame for graduate degree is statistically significant at the p<0.10 level, while the others two estimates are slightly above that threshold. 3. none of the ames for the relationship between parental immigration status and the respondents second credential pathway are statistically significant. 4. respondents who report a pse spell before the start date of their first completed pse credential have a smaller probability of completing a single credential than those who did not, although this is not associated with an increased probability of completing a second pse credential at any level in particular, as shown by the similar effect sizes and absence of statistical significance for the other coefficients. 21 figure 4. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by background characteristics, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada 22 b. ontario source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. 23 next, we focus on parental education. figure 5 shows that at the canada level, the population with at least one parent who completed a university degree is significantly more likely to complete more than one pse credential, driven by the higher probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential than those with at least one parent with pse below the university level, and those with no parent having completed any pse. no other differences are found. importantly, having parents with some pse below the university level does not appear to be associated with different credential accumulation patterns than those with no parents with any pse. the patterns for ontario are broadly similar, but none of the estimates are statistically significant. figure 5. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by parental education level, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada 24 b. ontario source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the three categories in the panel subtitles correspond to the educational attainment of the most educated parent. pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. we let the relationship between parental education and the level of the second credential (or more) vary by the level of the first credential by adding an interaction term to the baseline model already described in this section. the results of this supplemental model are reported in figure 6 (for canada only due to sample size limitations). in that figure, average predicted probabilities rather than average marginal effects are reported, for ease of interpretation. the main findings are the following: 1. among those who completed a tva certificate as their first credential, respondents with at least one parent with university-level education have a lower probability of completing a single pse credential that those with parents with lower levels of education. this is driven by their higher probability of completing a second tva certificate rather than completing a second pse credential at another level (college, bachelors or graduate level). 2. among those who completed a college certificate or diploma as their first credential, there appears to be a positive relationship between parental education and the 25 probability of completing a second credential at the bachelors or graduate level. however, the confidence intervals largely overlap. 3. finally, among those who completed a bachelors degree (or higher) as their first credential, those with at least one parent with university-level education have a lower probability of completing a single pse credential that those with parents with lower levels of education. this is driven by their higher probability of completing a graduate degree. the results from the interaction model improve our understanding of the drivers of patterns found earlier in the data: the greater probability of completing a second tva certificate among respondents with a tva certificate as their first credential is partly driven by the subgroup of those respondents with more educated parents. the same is true for the greater probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential among those with a bachelors degree as their first credential: this difference is also partly driven by the bachelor graduates with more educated parents. overall, these results point at some differences in the pse credential accumulation pathways in canada and ontario for visible minority respondents (remember, these estimates are net of the immigration status of respondents and their parents, and no respondent in the sample immigrated after age 15). this points at possible obstacles specific to racialized individuals. on the other hand, the absence of differences by gender and parental immigration status is in line with the existing literature. 26 figure 6. average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by parental education, 1956-1980 birth cohorts source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the three categories before the comma in the panel subtitles correspond to the educational attainment of the most educated parent. the three categories after the comma in the panel subtitles correspond to the first completed pse credential of the respondent. pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 27 supplemental results on the relationship between background characteristics and the level of the first pse credential the results reported here focus on pathways from the first to the second (or more) credential. in appendix figures a.3 and a.4, we explore whether these group differences are likely to reinforce differences found between these groups when analyzing differences in the level of the first pse credential they complete. we find that this is indeed the case. multinomial logistic model regressing the level of the first credential (tva, college, or bachelor+) on parental education and immigration status, gender, immigration status of self, visible minority status, indigenous identity, whether a pse spell before the start date of the first completed pse credential is reported, and province of high school graduation yield the following results: 1. women in the canada and ontario samples are less likely than men to complete a first credential at the tva level and more likely to complete a college or a bachelors degree (last estimate is statistically significant for canada overall only); 2. visible minority individuals in both canada and ontario are more likely than those reporting being white to complete a college certificate or diploma as their first credential. in the canada sample, this difference is predominantly driven by the lower probability of completing a tva as their first credential. 3. respondents with at least one first generation immigrant parent are more likely to complete a bachelors degree and less likely to complete a college certificate or diploma as their first credential than respondents with both parents born in canada. the ames for college are only statistically significant at the p<0.10 level in both samples. 4. respondents with at least one university-educated parent have a likelihood of completing a bachelors degree as their first pse credential at least 20 percentage points greater than those with no parent with any pse education. they are also significantly less likely (in the canadian and ontario samples) to complete a first credential at both the tva and college level. those with at least one parent with some pse are also slightly more likely to complete a bachelors degree than respondents with less educated parents, but that effect is small (and non-statistically significant in the ontario sample). 5. finally, respondents with a pse spell before the start of their first completed pse credential have a higher probability of completing a bachelors degree as their first credential in the canadian sample (at the p<0.10 level). however, the reverse is true in the ontario sample, with a greater probability of completing a college certificate or diploma and a lower probability of completing a bachelors degree than their counterparts who do not report any previous spell in pse (both differences are statistically significant at the p<0.05 level). overall, these findings highlight the emergence of differences in credential accumulation between groups visible at entry into pse, with those differences largely persisting as individuals accumulate a second credential or more. 28 the role of other characteristics of pse pathways finally, we document the role of some of the characteristics of the first completed credential: the field of study and age at completion. the literature does identify fields of study as important drivers of transfer pathways (finnie, dubois, and miyairi 2021) and suggests that they play a role in credential accumulation (ntwari and fecteau 2020). to the extent that some fields of study are associated with lower probabilities of employment and lower expected employment income, graduates from these fields of study may decide to complete a second credential to compensate that disadvantage before they enter the labour market, or to return to pse after an initial spell on the labour market. the variable for time at completion of first credential is likely to capture the combined effect of delayed enrollment and degree duration in pse (e.g. discontinuous enrollment or part-time studies in a single program), two factors known to be inversely associated with persistence and completion rates (goldrickrab 2006). age at completion of first pse credential in figure 7, panel a, we report average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) at a given level as a function of age at completion of the first credential. the reported estimates are derived from the same model used in previous sections (with controls for background characteristics and province of high school graduate, as well as conditional on the level of the first credential). in panel b, we report results of a model interacting the age at completion of the first credential with the level of the first credential. the predicted probabilities are calculated at two-year intervals between age 20 and 34, stopping before our upper age bound of 35 years old. the results in panel a show a rapid decrease in the probability of completing a bachelors degree as a second credential as age at first credential increases, and an overall increase in the probability of completing a single credential rather than two or more credentials as the age of completion of the first degree increases. in panel b, the interaction model estimates show that most of the differences in the level of the second credential across respondents with different first credential levels is attenuated among respondents who complete their first credential at later ages, and trend towards zero (the size of the coefficients estimate the difference in percentage points compared to the baseline category, college graduates, for different ages at completion of the first credential). importantly, the higher probability of completing a graduate (or first professional) degree as a second credential for those with a bachelors degree as their first credential relative to the two other groups slowly decreases as age at completion of the first credential increases, but the difference loses statistical significance at 34 years old only. this is a noteworthy finding because graduate/first professional degrees can have long durations but are associated with important labour market advantages in canada (boudarbat & lemieux 2010). in other words, this finding suggests that more advantageous credential accumulation pathways among bachelors graduates persist even when a bachelors degree is obtained as a first pse credential at an older age. 29 robustness check: the impact of censoring pse history at 35 years old importantly, results reported in figure 7 may underestimate differences at older completion ages because the youngest birth cohort in the sample was 35 years old at survey date, leading us to exclude from the analysis any credential completed after that age across all cohorts of the sample, for consistency purposes. as a robustness check, we adopt the same approach as the one implemented in figure a.2. we replicate the models in figure 7, restricting our sample to the 1956-1965 birth cohorts (age 50-59 at survey date). this allows us to document the relationship between the level of the second credential (or more) and age at completion of the first credential at completion age 20 to 498. in figure a.5, we show that censoring pse histories at 35 years old does appear to lead to an underestimation of the gap between bachelors graduates and other groups in the probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential when the first credential is completed at an older age. in models censoring the pse histories at 50 years old, that gap remains stable at later completion ages, including at completion ages above 35 years old. this finding supports our interpretation that completing a bachelors degree as a first credential is associated with distinct pse credential accumulation pathways (most notably, substantially greater probability of a graduate degree) even when a bachelors degree is completed as a first credential at older ages. field of study of first pse credential to conclude this section, we report the results of a multinomial logistic regression model adding a variable capturing the field of study of the first pse credential as an independent variable (no interaction term). all other variables are the same as the ones in the baseline model used throughout this section. the field of study variable is based on the classification of instructional programs (2011) 1-digit categories. figure 8 reports average marginal effects in the probability of completing a second credential (or more) at a given level, if any, relative to the baseline group, business, management and public administration programs. the estimates are net of all other covariates in the model. note that due to large differences in effect sizes, the scale of the y-axis in each panel varies. the following fields of study are more likely to accumulate a second credential or more (the level of the second credentials that respondents in each field of study are more likely to complete are reported in parentheses): 1. humanities (college, bachelors, and graduate/first professional level credentials); 2. social and behavioural sciences, and law (graduate/first professional degree); 3. physical and life sciences (bachelors and graduate/first professional degrees); 4. those with another or unknown field of study (graduate/first professional degree). note that graduates from a first credential in health and related fields are less likely to complete a college degree as a second credential than the baseline group. 8 predicted probabilities are reported for the 20-44 years old completion age only because of the small number of individuals completing a pse credential outside of that range, and the unreliable point estimate and confidence intervals resulting from that feature of the data. 30 in sum, it appears that canadians who complete a first credential in a more general and less vocationally oriented/less professionally-focused field of study are more likely to accumulate a second credential. for humanities graduates, this translates into a high relative probability of completing a college degree, and for all of the four groups listed above, this also translates into a higher probability of completing a graduate degree as a second credential (or more). for humanities and physical and life sciences graduates, the same is true for completing a bachelors degree as a second credential. overall, this subsection has highlighted that the timing of entry into pse and the selected field of study of the first credential have an influence on later credential accumulation pathways. 31 figure 7. average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by age at completion of first pse credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. model without interaction (average predicted probabilities) b. interaction with interaction: age at completion x level of first credential (average marginal effects: college as baseline) source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 32 figure 8. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 years old by field of study (cip) of first credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). field of study of first credential based on the classification of instructional programs 2011 (cip). 33 pse credential accumulation pathways as drivers of income differences in adulthood having established a relationship between pse credential accumulation pathways and a set of background variables and characteristics of the first completed pse credential, we now turn to an analysis of the relationship between credential accumulation and employment income. the objective of this section is to document whether we observe any income gaps between different credential accumulation pathways, especially those that complete their highest credential at the same level, but through different routes. we also aim to explore the drivers of any differences we may find. first, we investigate the role of field of study differences, knowing that different pathways are associated with different fields of study, and that fields of study are differently rewarded on the labour market. second, we narrow in on the role of a set of job characteristics in accounting for the relationship between different pse pathways and employment income. more specifically, we aim to document whether any income differences may be driven by the sorting and selection of graduates into different occupations and industries, and into jobs with different skills demand. this will allow to better understand the labour market dynamics that underpin income differences between respondents with various pse pathways. baseline results as described in the methods section, this section reports results of ols regression models. in these models, the natural log of annual employment income in 2015 is regressed against the credential accumulation pathway variable also used in figure 2.2, and the following set of controls: sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), age, age at completion of first pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term.9 sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. for analyses of the ontario sample, observations include all ontario residents at survey date (2016).10 the coefficients of interest in these ols regressions are the dummies for the categorical pse credential accumulation pathway variable. the reference category for that variable is respondents who completed a single pse credential at the college level. the coefficients for other categories capture the difference in the log of income between the reference category and a given pse pathway, net of control variables. differences in the log of income can be 9 note that for this analysis, we use control variables measured at survey date (employment patterns in 2015, work experience as of survey date, and importantly, annual income in 2015; in some analyses, we also use other job characteristics measured at survey date such as occupation and industry). accordingly, we do not censor pse histories in our main models. rather, we construct our pse pathway variable based on the credentials accumulated by survey date, when respondents are between 35 and 59 (allowing enough time for the youngest cohorts to accumulate pse credentials). 10 we do not use the province of graduation for these analyses because the province controls aim to net out any inter-provincial income differences that would be observed at survey date, when income is also observed. 34 interpreted as the average percentage difference in income associated with a given pse pathway relative to the reference category. 11 in figure 9, we report the coefficients from a series of seven ols regression models. the first model is the baseline model estimated with the specification described in the two paragraphs above. the seven panels in the figure correspond to the seven categories of the main independent variable (pse pathway type), with the third category (single pse credential at the college level) left blank as it is the reference category. the effect sizes of the coefficients are reported using dots and plotted against the y-axis, scaled in natural log points. as described in the figure legend, different types of markers indicate statistical significance levels. for reference, appendix table a.1 reports the exact point estimates and p-values, as well as fit statistics and other details on the model specification. first, we discuss baseline estimates reported in figure 9 (model 1 baseline, with markers further on the left of the x-axis of each panel). we will discuss the other six models in the next sub-section. the baseline results for both panels (canada and ontario) show a statistically significant gap between the baseline category and all other pse credential accumulation pathway categories except the pathway capturing those who completed a credential below the bachelors level as a first credential and completed a second credential at the same level. at the same time, there are substantial differences in the size of the income premium across pathway types. first, the two pathways associated with the highest income are those with a bachelors degree as their first credential and who completed a second credential at the same level or at the graduate level. in panel a, completing a graduate degree as a second credential is associated with an employment income level 60.9% higher on average than the reference category. for those completing a bachelors degree as a second credential, the premium is 56.3%. in panel b, restricted to residents of ontario, the order is reversed, with accumulating two credentials at the bachelors level associated with an income level 78.4% higher on average than the reference category, and a bachelors followed by a graduate degree being associated with a 70.8% premium. second, we find that completing a single credential at the bachelors level is associated with a smaller income premium than the two other categories, but a higher income premium than both other categories that also have a bachelors degree as their highest credential. more specifically, we find a smaller coefficient size for respondents who complete a bachelors degree and then a credential below the bachelors level (tva or college), and for those who completed the same two credentials in the reverse order (credential below bachelor level followed by a bachelors degree), relative to those who completed a single credential at the bachelors level. in all three cases, the difference with the reference category is statistically significant. in the canada panel, accumulating the two credentials in a reverse order (bachelors degree followed by a credential below bachelors) is associated with lower income levels, on average, than those who follow the opposite, upward pathway, with a coefficient of 0.274 compared with 0.358. in the ontario panel, the order is reversed, and the size of the gap is smaller, with coefficients of 0.398 and 0.349 respectively. that is, in the ontario 11 for example, a log coefficient of 0.10 can be interpreted as a 10 percent average difference in income between a given pathway and the reference category. 35 sample, the premium associated with completing a credential below the bachelors level after completing a bachelors degree is substantially larger than in the canadian sample. robustness check: complex measures of pse pathways with interaction models our main analysis relies on a derived variable that consists in a simplified categorisation of all the possible pse credential accumulation pathways, especially the collapsing of the tva and college categories into a single below bachelors degree category. in appendix figure a.6, we present the results of an alternative specification that captures more of the possible pathways, at the expense of a much greater number of model parameters. except from that difference in the pathway variable(s), the specification of the model in figure a.6 is identical to the specification in the baseline model in figure 9. it regresses the log of annual employment income on a categorical variable capturing the level of the first credential (three categories: tva, college, and bachelor or more), another categorical variable capturing the level of the second credential (tva, college, bachelors degree, graduate or first professional degree, and completed pse for those with a single pse credential only), as well as an interaction between those two variables. this yields 14 parameters from which predicted probabilities are derived. the full model parameters are reported in appendix table a.2. we focus our attention on the predicted probabilities reported in figure a.6.12 the results in figure a.6 show patterns similar to those in figure 9, but also reveals some heterogeneity masked by the simplified pathway variable used in figure 9. several differences emerge: 1. there are essentially no net income premiums associated with credential accumulation among those who obtain a tva certificate as their first credential. 2. there is a statistically significant net income difference between college graduates (first credential) who obtain a second credential at the tva or college level (see the pvalues for the corresponding dummies in table a.2) relative to those who complete a single college certificate or diploma. 3. the net difference in the income associated with completing a single credential at the bachelors level versus first completing a college certificate or diploma before completing a bachelors degree as a second credential is small, at less than 0.05 log points. 4. the pathway consisting of first completing a college credential before completing a graduate or first professional credential (as a second, or more likely a third or fourth credential) is associated with an income premium substantially higher than the two pathways listed in point 3. note that as shown in the first part of the results section, the probability of following that pathway is very small. at the same time, the difference in the size of the coefficient between those who first complete a bachelors degree and then complete a second credential at the tva or college level relative 12 each bar in the figure reports the income gap between a given pathway and the baseline pathway (a single college credential), net of controls (holding other sample characteristics constant). the predicted probabilities are obtained by adding the coefficients associated with each pathway. first example, the estimate for the bar corresponding to completing a first credential at the bachelors level followed by a graduate degree is obtained by adding the coefficient for each of the two dummies and for the interaction between those dummies. 36 to those who follow a pathway from college to bachelors degree (the reverse) is similar to the one observed in figure 9 for the corresponding categories. overall, readers should keep this masked heterogeneity in mind when interpreting the results. at the same time, r-squared fit statistics suggest that little explanatory power is gained from this more detailed specification. accordingly, we rely on our baseline specification with a simplified derived pathway variable in order to avoid overfitting the data and for ease of interpretation. other robustness checks we run an additional series of checks to document the underlying dynamics of our regression models. first, we document the impact of using a measure of pathways that use the level of the second credential rather than the level of the highest credential completed after the first credential. the results are reported in appendix table a.3. we find negligible differences in the size of the estimates. second, we document the impact of the controls for employment in 2015 and for years of work experience on the estimates, as well as the sensitivity of the estimates to sample exclusions based on employment patterns in 2015. results reported in appendix table a.4 show that the absolute and relative size of the coefficients are not substantially influenced by the exclusion of marginally employed respondents (employed part-time, part year for less than half of the year in 2015) in addition to the exclusion of respondents not employed in 2015. also, we find that comparing the coefficients for models 1 and 2 in table a.4.2 shows that some the pathway coefficients in the ontario sample are strongly impacted by the addition of employment patterns and work experience controls. more specifically, the employment income premium for completing two bachelors degree is close to 0.15 log points larger in models with those two controls, suggesting that respondents following this pathway are less likely to be employed full-time, full year and/or to have a large number of years of work experience than the reference category (and those who complete a bachelors degree followed by a graduate degree). more generally, results from appendix table a.4 point at important differences in the labour force participation patterns of respondents with different pathways, which account for some of the income gaps between those categories to the extent that differences in labour force participation patterns are associated with different average income levels. accounting for the role of fields of study estimates from models 2 to 7 reported in figure 9 allow us to start answering a question stemming from our baseline results: what are the mechanisms that underpin income gaps between pse pathways? we know from the first part of the results section that some of the fields of study of first completed credentials are associated with specific pse credential accumulation pathways. if there is also a relationship between the field of study of the first credential and employment income, then it is possible that the lower (or higher) income associated with a given pse pathway is driven by the lower (or higher) income associated with the fields of study most prevalent among those who followed that given pathway. in 37 practice, if income differences between pathways are attenuated by controlling for the field of study of the first credential, these income differences between pathways can be attributed to income differences between fields of study (and the association between fields of study and different income premiums and pathway type). in figure 9, we implement that approach by controlling for different measures related to the fields of study of respondents in our sample. models 2 and 3 control for the 1-digit and 2-digit cip codes (2011) of the first completed credential respectively. models 4 and 5 do the same for the fields of study of the second completed credential. then, model 6 investigates whether the net income differences associated with different pathways can be accounted for by the fact that respondents who follow specific pathways are more likely to have at least one stem credential (a group of fields of study that are expected to be associated with more favourable labour market outcomes). finally, model 7 follows the same intuition and investigates whether some pathways are more likely to involve a change in field of study (also called recycling), which may itself be associated with lower income on average, net of controls. indeed, changing fields of study during program transfers is associated with a short-term earnings penalty (finnie, dubois, and miyairi 2021). we find that the field of study of the first credential, especially when measured at the 2-digit level, accounts for most of the gap between the coefficient for the bachelor-to-college pathway and the college-to-bachelor pathway in the canadian sample, and between the coefficients of the bachelor-to-college pathway and completing a single bachelors degree in the ontario sample. this may be interpreted as evidence that bachelors graduates in less rewarded fields of study may seek to pursue a more applied second credential at the college level to supplement the skills developed in pse.13 overall, however, field of study variables, and especially the dummy for any stem, account for little of the net average differences in income between most pathways. in other words, figure 9 provides little supporting evidence of a possible role of fields of study as drivers of income differences among respondents who follow various pse credential accumulation pathways. 13 at the same time, we refrain from a causal interpretation to the extent that students with different unobserved characteristics such as abilities and competencies may select into different fields of study in the first place. 38 figure 9. relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada 39 b. ontario source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the reference group for all plotted coefficients is below bachelors, complete. all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status, immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, age at completion of first pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. the ontario sample includes all ontario residents at survey date (2016). estimates also reported in appendix table a.1. fos = field of study. det. = detailed, 2-digit fos cip 2011 code (no det. mentions stands for 1-digit cip 2011 code). recycl = recycling (change in field of study between credentials). 40 job characteristics as mechanisms underpinning differences in employment income in this final results subsection, we supplement our analysis of variables that may account for differences in annual employment income across different pse pathways by considering the role of job characteristics. this analysis can shed light on the role of sorting and selection into different types of jobs in driving income differences between respondents who followed specific pse credential accumulation pathways. we rely on the same approach as the previous subsection, controlling for different variables capturing the characteristics of the jobs held by respondents, and more specifically their occupation (47 categories), industry (26 categories), any responsibility supervising employees, and the demand for job skill use14. tables 2.1 (canada sample) and 2.2 (ontario sample) report the results of models using the natural log of annual employment income in 2015 as the dependent variable. as in previous models, the sample is restricted to respondents who were employed for at least one week in 2015. the same controls as those used in the models reported in figure 9 are used, in addition to the job characteristics variables. tables 3.1 (canada sample) and 3.2 (ontario sample) replicate the analysis using weekly earnings. in this case, the sample is restricted to those who were dependent employees (not self-employed) in the survey reference period. the dependent variable measures the natural log of earnings from wages and salaries (excluding bonuses and self-employment income). the control employment patterns in 2015 is replaced by a measure of weekly worked hours.15 when comparing the pse pathway coefficients from model 1 to models 2 to 7 in tables 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2, we find that controls for all types of job characteristics reduce the size of the estimates, with occupation dummies and job skill use indices having the strongest impact. we interpret the results as evidence that the net average employment income gaps between the reference category (single credential below the bachelor level) and the other pathway categories is driven by the sorting and selection of respondents following other pathways than the reference category into occupations, industries and jobs with skill levels that are associated with higher net income premiums on average. for example, in figure 2.2., after controlling for job characteristics, as shown by comparing models 1 and 7, the coefficient for a single bachelors degree diminishes from 0.533 to 0.130 log points, meaning that the net annual employment income gap between that pathway category and the reference category in ontario decreases to 13% (and is not statistically significant) net of job characteristics. however, the difference in the size of the coefficients relative to pathway types other than the baseline category remains constant in most cases. for example, the difference in the coefficient for respondents with a single bachelors degree and those with a bachelors degree followed by a graduate degree is 0.167 log points in model 1 of table 2.2 (0.700-0.533=0.167) while it is 0.102 log points in model 7 (0.232-0.130=0.102). similar patterns are found across 14 these variables are additive indices based on survey questions asking respondents to report the importance of the use of several types of general skills in their jobs. we aggregate these questions into five categories: literacy, numeracy, computer, soft and physical skills by adding the importance scores of the items in each skill category. 15 the different income variables and samples used in each model lead to different baseline estimates for the earnings associated with each pse pathways in model 1. in models using weekly wages, there is no penalty for completing a bachelors degree after a credential below the bachelor level, relative to completing a bachelors degree as ones first and only credential. 41 specifications and pairs of coefficients. we interpret this as evidence that even net of differences in an extensive number of observed job characteristics, there remains important net income differences associated with different pse pathways, which may be associated with unobserved characteristics of the respondents or their jobs. also note that the coefficient for a linear credential accumulation pathway from a bachelors degree to a graduate degree remains substantial and statistically significant across specifications. in sum, our analysis highlights important income differences associated with specific pse credential accumulation pathways. it also points at the role of fields of study and job characteristics as partial drivers of these differences. the limited role of fields of study suggests that some pathways involve completing programs in less economically rewarding fields of study, but that this is an overall marginal driver of income differences across pse pathways. the role of occupations and job skill use suggest that certain pathways may be associated with the development of competencies and skills more highly rewarded on the labour market, although some heterogeneity remains unaccounted for in fully specified models. 42 43 44 45 46 conclusion this report aimed to document pse credential accumulation pathways, especially those involving non-linear trajectories. we have shown that more than 20% of canadians complete more than one pse credential, and around 15% of canadians follow a non-linear credential accumulation pathway or another type of credential accumulation pathway that may be considered non-conventional, such as completing a college certificate or diploma as a first credential before completing a bachelors degree. at the same time, we find strong evidence of dynamics of cumulative disadvantages rooted in credential accumulation patterns. certain types of credential accumulation are associated with substantial employment income premiums, but they are unevenly distributed based on the level of the first credential, which itself is associated with certain background characteristics such as parental education and visible minority status (as with the level of the second credential, conditional on the level of the first credential). in sum, there are large earnings gaps between respondents whose first pse credentials are a tva certificate, a college certificate or diploma, or bachelors degree or higher, in part driven by the pathways associated with that first credential. also, note that no pathway appears to allow closing the gap between tva or college graduates and bachelor graduates (except in the case of the small number of bachelor graduates who go on to complete a second credential below the bachelor level, a pathway associated with a smaller income premium than completing a single credential at the bachelors level). this points at a few directions: 1. policies and programs that support transfer pathways from tva or college to bachelor programs may translate into higher income levels not only because a bachelor is associated with a higher income level, but because bachelor graduates are more likely to then complete a graduate degree. 2. these programs can take many forms, including programs that facilitate the accumulation of completed credentials rather than transfers without completion of the initial program. the design of programs for credit transfer should take into consideration the patterns identified in this report in terms of drivers of different pathways and associated labour market outcomes. one may ask whether a collegeto-university transfer is more beneficial than graduating from college before completing a bachelors program, and under which circumstances. for example, credit transfer and recognition from a completed college program to a bachelor program may facilitate the successful completion of a bachelor program. but it may also support the subsequent completion of a graduate degree, especially knowing that so few college graduates end up completing a graduate degree. these discussion points come with a caveat. the results presented in this report are descriptive in nature. no causal inference may be directly drawn from the analysis. more specifically, it is possible that respondents who complete a tva or college certificate as their first credential achieve a lower income level because of unobserved personal or background characteristics that are associated both with educational access, aspiration, and success, 47 and with income. in this case, the effect of any policy interventions aimed at supporting certain pathways on income may be attenuated compared with our reported estimates. more broadly, future work should study to the profiles of those who go on to complete a tva or college degree after a bachelors degree. in this study, we were able to highlight the partial role of fields of study. however, other factors that drive students into those programs and into these pathways may play a role, such as abilities and grades, etc. this opens the door for a stronger focus on selection into different pathways based on background and personal characteristics, and on policy interventions focused on earlier stages of the life course. but it also points at the importance of the wage structure, although education policymakers have little influence on the wage structure (for example, which credentials and fields of study are most rewarded on the labour market). finally, our results affirm the importance of examining educational attainment in ways other than a linear, sequential, or upwardly progressive manner (i.e., conventional), as others have shown before (childs, finnie, martinello 2017; denice 2019; milesi 2010; walters 2003). understanding the non-conventional educational careers of students will continue to be important as an increasing share of the population access pse and obtain multiple pse credentials, and as the process of educational attainment continues to extend later into the life course. moreover, the non-conventional credential accumulation behaviours of students help to explain the heterogeneous labour market outcomes associated with pse or ones highest level of education, as our results demonstrate. generally, future research interested in educational attainment, labour market outcomes, and social mobility would do well to consider the non-linear and non-conventional pathways students take 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was completed (no second credential). 52 figure a.2. average marginal probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) before 35 and 50 years old by level of first credential, 1956-1965 birth cohorts (canada) a. at 35 years old 53 b. at 50 years old source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: in panel a, pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. in panel b, pse credential completed at 50 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 54 figure a.3. average marginal probabilities of completing a first pse credential at a given level before 35 years old by background characteristics, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada 55 b. ontario source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. 56 figure a.4. average marginal probabilities of completing a first pse credential at a given level before 35 years old by parental education level, 1956-1980 birth cohorts a. canada 57 b. ontario source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the three categories in the panel subtitles correspond to the educational attainment of the most educated parent. pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the ontario subsample includes respondents reporting graduating from high school in ontario. 58 figure a.5.1. average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) by age at completion of 1st pse credential, 1956-1965 birth cohorts a. at 35 years old b. at 50 years old source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 59 figure a.5.2. average predicted probabilities of completing a second credential (or more) by age at completion of 1st pse credential, 1956-1965 birth cohorts (model with interaction) a. at 35 years old b. at 50 years old source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: pse credential completed at 35 years old or later are not counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). 60 figure a.6. relationship between pse pathway and annual employment income in 2015 (ln), detailed pathways from model with interaction between level of first and second credential, 1956-1980 birth cohorts source: longitudinal and international study of adults, wave 3 (2016). notes: the reference group for all plotted coefficients is first credential: college x complete cell. all pse credentials completed at survey date are counted. the level of the second credential is the level of the highest pse credential completed after the first credential (if any). complete means that a single pse credential was completed (no second credential). all models include controls for sociodemographic characteristics (parental education, gender, marital status immigration status of self and of parents, visible minority status, indigenous identity), province of residence in 2016, age, age at completion of last pse credential, dummies for employment pattern in 2015, and a quadratic work experience term. sample excludes respondents with zero weeks of employment in 2015. detailed regression output reported in appendix table a.2. 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 oncat .ca/en/projects/non-linear-pse-pathways- and credential- accumul ation-statistical-portrait- and - evaluation established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios public colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. this report was prepared for and funded by oncat. the opinions expressed within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of oncat or the government of ontario. copyright, oncat, 2021

principles for credit transfer policies and procedures these principles for credit transfer policies and procedures are intended to act as goals for ontarios 45 publicly funded postsecondary institutions to achieve. given the complexities of credit transfer and the diversity of operational contexts, the principles are broadly stated so that the resulting goals can be achieved in a variety of ways. although the principles are presented sequentially, they are fundamentally interrelated, and work as a whole to encompass the various activities connected to credit transfer, and to balance the needs of students with institutional responsibilities for academic integrity. *student(s) is used inclusively to refer to applicants, as well as current or previous students. section 1: information for students students should have the information they need to make informed decisions about the transfer process. students should be able to easily understand and navigate credit transfer processes, and should know what credit they can expect to receive. information on institutional policies and procedures should be transparent and easily accessible. institutions should provide the maximum amount of information possible as well as resources for additional clarification or inquiry. to support and encourage planning, institutions should provide students access to as much information as possible on course equivalencies, program prerequisites, and levels of achievement on which admission and transfer credit will be awarded. institutions are responsible for communicating with students about policy changes as applicable. in the case where an institution uses prior learning assessment and recognition (plar) to determine advanced standing, the institutions should provide clear information on the methods of plar and how students can access the assessment process. an award of transfer credit should confer certainty: it should be clear which courses are being recognized and how they are being applied, as well as the number of credits awarded. students should have access to information about how credit transfer information will be recorded on transcripts. institutions should be able to provide a rationale for a denial of a credit transfer request. institutions should establish and publicly identify a key point of contact to answer common credit transfer questions from students and other stakeholders. students are responsible for informing themselves about transfer processes and for providing institutions any required information about their previous studies. principles for credit transfer policies and procedures ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) is funded by the government of ontario 1 section 2: admissions decisions / transfer credit evaluation students can expect to be treated equitably by all member institutions. credit transfer decisions should be fair and predictable. students should be able to make the educational choice that best maximizes their educational investment and supports their success. to do so, they need timely information on credit transfer decisions, and the ability to easily compare the decisions of different institutions. actions students must take to support those decisions should be clearly communicated and integrated into routine admissions processes. students should be granted credit for applicable courses successfully completed elsewhere, with successful completion being determined by the credit-granting institution. institutions should respond to requests for transfer decisions in a timely manner, preferably at the time of offer. procedures for credit transfer should be clearly communicated to students early in the application cycle along with any additional information required. where an institution defines a basis of admission for transfer students, the institution should specify the minimum grade requirement for transfer of credit. students should have access to avenues of review/appeal for transfer credit decisions, and this should be clearly communicated with the decision. students should not be disadvantaged by changes made to transfer arrangements while courses/ programs are in progress. section 3: institutional responsibility for academic decisions all members acknowledge and respect the primary jurisdiction of each institution for transfer policy and academic integrity. credit transfer decisions should be fair and predictable. students should be able to make the educational choice that best maximizes their educational investment and supports their success. to do so, they need timely information on credit transfer decisions, and the ability to easily compare the decisions of different institutions. actions students must take to support those decisions should be clearly communicated and integrated into routine admissions processes. each institution should use clearly stated policies and procedures to govern the awarding of transfer credit. institutions may limit admission to programs based on space availability, prerequisites or other criteria required by the program. variations in institutional programs that reflect differing missions, context, expertise, and modes of delivery should be respected. to facilitate credit transfer decisions, upon request institutions should be prepared to provide information such as institutional policies, course outlines, and minimum qualifications for instructors. principles for credit transfer policies and procedures ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) is funded by the government of ontario 2

oncat careers senior researcher location: toronto, ontario, canada type: full-time, eligible for pension salary range: $80 000-$90 000 category: research, data and funding department deadline: october 24th, 2022 about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges and universities. as a member organization, it works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. about the position the senior researcher supports the development and oversees the implementation of oncats research plan. the senior researcher ensures that oncat-led and/or funded research projects align with the organizations mandate and strategic priorities and works closely with consultants, researchers (from other postsecondary educational institutions and/or pse organizations), oncat committees/ working groups, and oncat staff/senior management. this position will provide coordination to and research expertise on various research initiatives/projects. this position will also provide oversight to oncats grant (rfp) program supporting credit transfer and student mobility research and strategic analysis of oncat funded research projects to inform future planning. as oncat continues to support system improvements and the development of a mature transfer system in ontario, this position will be critical to moving projects forward, ensuring their success and translating knowledge from multiple and across projects to support system development. to be successful in this position you will display mature judgment, expert knowledge of research and research methodologies, a commitment to high quality work, excellent project management skills, and work effectively independently and in a professional team environment. you must also be committed to the value of postsecondary education, be dedicated to improving the transfer student experience, and demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills. responsibilities 1. research planning and implementation (30%) leads the design and co-ordination of oncats overall research plan. ensures the research plan supports functions across operations, collaborations, granting and policy, and overall oncat strategic priorities. provides support to oncats funding strategies, including its research and transfer system improvement projects, including identifying rfp topics and supporting funding review processes, as an internal reviewer, conducts scans and shares evidence, to inform transfer strategies, including presenting evidence from funded projects and/or other jurisdictions to inform institutional projects ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 coordinates tasks and projects, delegating to researcher and quantitative researcher, and supervising them to ensure deliverables are being met monitors oncat research budget and ensures research activities, internal and external, align with budgets. 2. managing and supporting research projects (30%) works collaboratively with senior management and research, data and funding team to implement annual oncat research grants stream. coordinates projects and supervises oncat researcher and oncat quantitative researcher on projects and research activities. provides coordination to support various aspects of the research project life cycle (e.g. request for proposal, application, proposal adjudication, awards, contracts and payments, interim reporting and check, and final reporting). ensures accountability of transfer payment funds and proper grants management protocol. re-negotiates deliverables/contracts or closes grants, where needed, to ensure value for money and alignment with oncat mandate and priorities. 3. knowledge mobilization and planning (30%) maintains an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art research on transfer/articulation, along with the methodological techniques and data sources that it employs. shares key insights with oncat team through internal briefings and presentations, as well as with external stakeholders through blogs, workshops and other communications efforts plays a key role in knowledge mobilization, collaborating with oncats communications team to translate the findings of funded projects into deliverables (e.g. graphics, dashboards) that can be digested by varied stakeholders, including pse administration, policymakers and students. synthesizes and analyses findings from multiple oncat research projects and research grants to provide accessible information to inform sector partners, oncat communications, etc. edits and summarizes internal or oncat-funded project final reports in preparation for public posting. participates in postsecondary sector and credit transfer-related conference, symposia and fairs 4. stakeholder relations (10%) interacts with numerous stakeholders to advance oncats research priorities including academic researchers, institutional analysts, policymakers, pse administrators, as well as colleagues working across other cats in north america. interacts with groups in adjacent sectors, including k-12 (e.g. tdsb) and the labour market (e.g. cpa). establishing relationships with these groups allows oncat to capitalize on potential opportunities for collaboration on data-sharing or research-related activities. engages sector partners and research community to support, inform and champion oncat mandate. direct reports this position supervises 2 direct reports candidate requirements ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 education/knowledge masters degree in a related field. graduate degree preferred. knowledge of postsecondary education, and issues of credit transfer, access, and student success in postsecondary education. understanding of existing research and data resources available in the canadian postsecondary sector. knowledge of research and evaluation methodologies, tools, statistics, and techniques. knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods. knowledge of project management principles and methodologies to oversee and guide the overall delivery of mandates and strategies. experience 3-5 years of experience in research project management. experience working with outside consultants and managing contracted projects to successful completion. experience conducting research, writing research papers for publication (e.g. articles), and briefs. track record of delivering high-quality work product under a deadline. experience managing a complex budget. experience working in cross functional teams. preferred experience (asset) doctoral candidacy or phd bilingual in french and english skills & abilities exceptional organizational skills and ability to work simultaneously on multiple projects. ability to overcome unforeseen obstacles and see projects through to completion. ability to remain flexible, calm under pressure, and adaptive to change as priorities shift. exceptional written and oral communication skills and public speaking facility. ability to work well in a team atmosphere working both independently and with team members. technical expertise utilizing a variety of common office and statistical software. ability to quickly learn new function areas. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca. the deadline to apply october 24th by 11:59pm. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening or an interview will be contacted. oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require accommodations during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

final report contract: 2018-16 project title: transfer pathway development list of participating institutions universit de hearst collge boral la cit report to the ontario council for articulation and transfer prepared by sylvie roy, project officer, universit de hearst table of contents summary ................................................................................................................................3 project objectives .................................................................................................................4 transfer pathway development...........................................................................................4 methodology ...................................................................................................4 program comparison and analysis..............................................................5 implementation process.................................................................................6 summary of pathways created .............................................................................................7 new pathways between collge boral, la cit and universit de hearst ..........................................................................................................................7 pathway status ...............................................................................................7 best practices and lessons learned ....................................................................................9 conclusions ............................................................................................................................9 appendix a: pathways to human and social issues studies programs (3 years and 4 years) ....................................................................................................................................10 appendix b: pathways to psychology programs (3 and 4 years) ...................................14 2 summary this articulation agreement development project led to the creation of transfer pathways from several college programs at collge boral and la cit to programs at the universit de hearst. twenty pathways were developed between high-affinity college and university programs. pathways were developed between the child and youth worker, early childhood education and developmental service worker college programs and 3-year ba and 4-year ba programs in psychology at the universit de hearst. other pathways were developed between social service worker, social service worker - gerontology, general arts and science university stream and general arts and science college programs to unique 3-year ba programs and 4-year ba programs in human and social issues studies at universit de hearst. 3 project objectives generally, collge boral, collge la cit and universit de hearst are committed to fostering the continuum of postsecondary education for francophone and bilingual students in ontario and to collaborating on the development of new transfer pathways. the partners agree that this collaboration must promote excellence in learning, greater access to postsecondary programs in french and more mobility between institutions, among other things. through this project, the partners wanted to create transfer pathways to allow college graduates of the early childhood education, child and youth worker, general arts and science, social service worker, social service worker - gerontology and developmental service worker programs to pursue their studies at universit de hearst and obtain a bachelors degree under the two years of college, one year of university (2+1) or two years of college, two years of university (2+2) formula. this project therefore had two objectives: to expand existing transfer pathways between colleges and other universities to universit de hearst programs to serve northeastern ontario; to develop new pathways, especially to interdisciplinary programs in human and social issues studies unique to universit de hearst. more specifically, the partners planned to explore 1+2, 2+1 and 2+2 transfer agreements involving several college and university programs. universit de hearst planned to grant up to two full years of transfer credits, i.e., 60 of 90 credits (2+1 agreement) toward bachelor of arts degrees with a concentration, and 60 of the 120 credits (2+2 agreement) toward specialized bachelor of arts degrees. the partners ultimate goal was to enable clients to pursue relevant, enriching and complementary training at participating institutions and to grant them the maximum number of transfer credits while maintaining the quality and value of credentials obtained in the interests of the students and the educational institutions. this collaborative initiative also took account of the report by the far north east training board1 which expects a large number of job openings in north eastern ontario over the short and medium terms in fields identified by this project. transfer pathway development methodology this project was completed in steps. the first two steps form the basis of this project. 1 http://www.fnetb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/northern-ontario-potential-labour-forceretirements.pdf 4 1. approval by the senate of universit de hearst of an institutional strategic initiative for francophone and bilingual transfer pathways containing a three-year plan (march 2017); 2. preparation of the oncat funding application (november 2017); 3. collection, transmittal and exchange of curricula and course outlines for the programs under review and other relevant information about them; 4. visits by universit de hearst representatives to la cit and collge boral to meet with teaching and administrative teams; 5. detailed analysis of programs and course outlines by each of the teaching units concerned; 6. preparation of pathways, including the identification and number of credits recognized by universit de hearst; 7. commencement of a formal process to obtain the approvals required from decision-making bodies: a. universit de hearst senate b. file sent to the vice-president, laurentian university for validation of compliance with the procedure, along with a letter of response from the vicepresident of universit de hearst c. validation by the vice-president, academic and provost of laurentian university of the file submitted and compliance with procedures d. confirmation by the vice-president, academic and provost of laurentian university that the file has been processed and can continue on to the next steps e. agreements signed between collge boral, la cit and universit de hearst f. submission of the agreements to the senate of laurentian university for information program comparison and analysis the standards of each college program and the respective mandatory course outlines were analyzed and evaluated by comparing them to the university programs mapping and objectives. in performing the analysis, faculty members used the following guidelines: course bibliography (relevant and up-to-date); course objectives had to reflect advanced expertise in analysis, synthesis and critical thinking; the types of assignments had to reflect achievement of the specified objectives; specified notions and concepts: number, relevance and level of complexity. generic credit equivalencies were assigned for knowledge and skills that could not be linked to a course with its own course code. once compulsory and elective course equivalencies were identified for the university program of study, a new pathway was created for graduating cohorts of the college programs in question. these new pathways will allow these cohorts to reduce the length and cost of their university education in light of the knowledge and skills they gained from their college education. institutional interest in establishing "2 + 1" and "2 + 2" agreements guided project coordination work. 5 implementation process as soon as the approval process for all agreements has been completed, the following teams will be informed about details concerning all pathways contained in the agreements: the office of the registrar the liaison and communications office members of management faculty members the laurentian university admissions office the next step is to develop promotional tools, post the agreements on various web sites (ontransfer.ca, collge boral, la cit, universit de hearst, etc.) and have the respective teams of the three institutions develop communications and liaison strategies. the agreements will be posted on the various sites mentioned above no later than april 1, 2019. 6 summary of pathways created new pathways between collge boral, la cit and universit de hearst several of the college program transfer pathways under review have been completed and adopted by authorities at universit de hearst. in total, there are fourteen. six courses are to be submitted in the coming weeks to the senate of universit de hearst. appendices a and b contain academic details for these pathways. pathway status the following chart shows the status of pathways developed for all of the college programs under review. last step completed university programs boral college programs la cit programs (see methodology section on page 5 of this document for methodology details) human and social issues studies (3year ba) 1. general arts and science (1 year) 1. general arts and science - academic stream (1 year) file sent to the office of the vice-president, laurentian university (step 7.b.) human and social issues studies (4year ba) 1. general arts and science (1 year) 1. general arts and science - academic stream (1 year) file sent to the office of the vice-president, laurentian university (step 7.b.) human and social issues studies (3year ba) 1. social service worker (2 years) 1. social service worker (2 years) 2. social service worker - gerontology (1.5 years) human and social issues studies (4year ba) 1. social service worker (2 years) psychology (3-year ba) 1. early childhood education (2 years) 2. child and youth worker (3 years) prepare transfer pathways, including the identification and number of transfer credits granted by universit de hearst (step 6) prepare transfer 1. social service pathways, including worker (2 years) the identification and 2. social service worker gerontology number of transfer credits granted by (1.5 years) universit de hearst (step 6) 1. early childhood file sent to the office education (2 years) of the vice-president, 2. developmental laurentian university services worker (2 (step 7.b.) years) 3. child and youth worker (3 years) 7 psychology (4-year ba) 1. early childhood education (2 years) 2. child and youth worker (3 years) 1. early childhood education (2 years) 2. developmental services worker (2 years) 3. child and youth worker (3 years) file sent to the office of the vice-president, laurentian university (step 7.b.) all agreement transfer pathways will reach the signing stage by march 31, 2019. 8 best practices and lessons learned to complete this project and ensure its success, inter-institutional communication kept the project on track and allowed it to make progress in the early stages as set out in the work schedule. communication among the faculty teams at all three institutions played a key role in the projects success. the project managers effectively launched the project by presenting its objectives and the work schedule to their respective team, and ensuring that the work advanced on schedule. given the high-affinity of the programs under review, the equivalency objectives set were realistic. occasional reminders of the institutional strategy for francophone and bilingual transfer pathways at universit de hearst were helpful. demographic realities, the ministrys vision, the place that experiential learning should play were all important factors underlying the analyses. conclusion the three institutions are satisfied with the project and its results, despite a few delays in the agreement approval process by the senate of universit de hearst and the procedure used by laurentian university. we managed to create transfer pathways beneficial to college program graduates, thereby enriching training opportunities in northeastern ontario and for francophones. 9 appendix a: pathways to human and social issues studies programs (3 years and 4 years) pathways between the collge boral general arts and science program and the human and social issues studies programs offered at universit de hearst collge boral program credits granted by universit de hearst general arts and science program 1 year (certificate) engl 1541 (3) lang 9100 (3) + with the possibility of an additional 24 credits to be determined by a member of the admissions committee in consultation with the teaching unit of study of human and social issues total: 30 credits* courses to be completed at universit de hearst for a concentration in human and social issues studies** hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3016 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 3946 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) litt 2646 (3) math 2256 (3) mth 2101 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) gog 1026 (3) psyc 2606 (3) notes course substitutions will be made for certain compulsory courses that do not appear among credits granted or in courses to be completed section. these substitutions rely on the equivalency tool previously used for human and social issues studies programs. four courses among: - con 1007 (3) - soci 3187 (3) - soci 3076 (3) - gog 3217 (3) - hist 2037 (3) total: 60 credits* collge boral program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst for a human and social issues studies specialization** notes 10 general and applied science program university pathway 1 year (certificate) engl 1541 (3) lang 9100 (3) + with the possibility of an additional 24 credits to be determined by a member of the admissions committee in consultation with the human and social issues studies teaching unit. total: 30 credits* con 1007 (3) gog 1026 (3) gog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3016 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) inte 4915 (6) litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) mth 2101 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) soci 3076 (3) soci 3187 (3) course substitutions will be made for certain compulsory courses not shown in transfer credits or in the section on courses to be completed. these substitutions rely on the equivalency tool previously used for human and social issues studies programs. + 3 elective courses total: 90 credits* for each of the pathways above: - a minimum college average of 3.2 or 80% is required to obtain the credits indicated. * universit de hearst will provide the number of credits indicated. due to university course scheduling or compulsory course pre-requisites, completing a ba in 1 year, 2 years or 3 years may not be possible. * the number of credits to be completed is subject to obtaining the maximum number of transfer credits, i.e., 30. **courses to be completed toward a human and social issues concentration or specialization may change if the program is changed. the program of study requirements are updated annually in the universit de hearst calendar available on our website at http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. for more information, please contact the general secretariat at 705-372-1781 ext. 224 or by email at sylvie_roy@uhearts.ca 11 pathways between the general arts and sciences program la cit university pathway and the universit de hearst human and social issues studies programs collge boral program credits granted by universit de hearst general arts and sciences program university pathway 1 year (certificate) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) lang 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) + with the possibility of an additional 12 credits to be determined by a member of the admissions committee in consultation with the human and social issues study teaching unit. total: 30 credits* courses to be completed at universit de hearst for a concentration in human and social issues studies** hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3016 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 3946 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) litt 2646 (3) math 2256 (3) mth 2101 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) notes course substitutions will be made for certain compulsory courses not listed among the credits granted or in the courses to be completed section. the substitutions are made using the equivalency tool previously used for human and social issues studies programs. gog 1026 (3) psyc 2606 (3) four of the following courses: - con 1007 (3) - soci 3187 (3) - soci 3076 (3) - gog 3217 (3) - hist 2037 (3) total: 60 credits* la cit program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst for a human and social issues studies specialization** notes 12 general and applied science program university pathway 1 year (certificate) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) lang 9100 (6) math 9100 (6) + with the possibility of an additional 12 credits to be determined by a member of the admissions committee in consultation with the human and social issues study teaching unit. total: 30 credits* gog 1026 (3) gog 3217 (3) hist 2037 (3) hist 3756 (3) hist 3757 (3) inte 1016 (3) inte 1946 (3) inte 3016 (3) inte 3026 (3) inte 4016 (3) inte 4104 (9) inte 4915 (6) litt 2646 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) math 2256 (3) mth 2101 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) soci 3076 (3) soci 3187 (3) course substitutions will be made for certain compulsory courses that do not appear in the credits granted or in the courses to be completed section. these substitutions rely on the equivalency tool previously used for human and social issues studies programs. + 3 elective courses total: 90 credits* for each of the pathways above: - a minimum college average of 3.2 or 80% is required to obtain the credits indicated. * universit de hearst will provide the number of credits indicated. due to university course scheduling or compulsory course pre-requisites, completing a b.a. in 1 year, 2 years or 3 years may not be possible. * the number of credits to be completed depends on the maximum number of credits to be obtained, i.e., 30. ** courses to be completed toward a human and social issues concentration or specialization may change if the program is changed. the program of study requirements are updated annually in the universit de hearst calendar available on our website at http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. for more information, please contact the general secretariat at 705-372-1781 ext. 224 or by email at sylvie_roy@uhearts.ca 13 appendix b: pathways to psychology programs (3 and 4 years) pathways between the early childhood education program at collge boral and the psychology program at universit de hearst collge boral program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a concentration in psychology** early childhood psyc 1107 (3) admn 9200 (3) engl 1541 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (3) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (15) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) education 2 years (diploma) notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 3 psyc electives total: 60 credits* total: 30 credits* collge boral program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a specialization in psychology** early childhood psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2006 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) admn 9200 (3) engl 1541 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (18) sosc 9200 (15) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) education 2 years (diploma) total: 60 credits* notes total: 60 credits* for each of the pathways above: 14 - a minimum college average of 3.2 or 80% is required to obtain the credits indicated. * universit de hearst will provide the number of credits indicated. due to university course scheduling or compulsory course pre-requisites, completing a ba in 1 year or 2 years may not be possible. ** courses to be completed toward a human and social issues concentration or specialization may change if the program is changed. the program of study requirements are updated annually in the universit de hearst calendar available on our website at http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. for more information, please contact the general secretariat at 705-372-1781 ext. 224 or by email at sylvie_roy@uhearts.ca collge boral program early childhood education 2 years (diploma) credits granted by universit de hearst admn 9200 (6) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (12) courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a concentration in psychology** notes lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 2 psyc electives (6) total: 60 credits* total: 30 credits* collge boral program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a specialization in psychology** notes 15 early childhood education 2 years (diploma) psyc 1107 (3) admn 9200 (6) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (12) total: 60 credits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) total: 60 credits* for each of the pathways above: - a minimum college average of 3.2 or 80% is required to obtain the credits indicated. * universit de hearst will provide the number of credits indicated. due to university course scheduling or compulsory course pre-requisites, completing a ba in 1 year or 2 years may not be possible. **courses to be completed toward a human and social issues concentration or specialization may change if the program is changed. the program of study requirements are updated annually in the universit de hearst calendar available on our website at http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. for more information, please contact the general secretariat at 705-372-1781 ext. 224 or by email at sylvie_roy@uhearts.ca pathway between the developmental service worker program at la cit and the psychology program at universit de hearst. 16 la cit program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a concentration in psychology** developmental service worker 2 years (diploma) plug 1541 (3) plug 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3317 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (12) notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 1 psyc elective (3) + 1 elective course (3) total: 60 credits* total: 30 credits* la cit program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a specialization in psychology** developmental service worker 2 years (diploma) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 3317 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (12) sosc 9200 (12) total: 60 credits* notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) + 2 elective courses (6) total: 60 credits* 17 for each of the pathways above: - a minimum college average of 3.2 or 80% is required to obtain the credits indicated. * universit de hearst will provide the number of credits indicated. due to university course scheduling or compulsory course pre-requisites, completing a ba in 1 year or 2 years may not be possible. ** courses to be completed toward a human and social issues concentration or specialization may change if the program is changed. the program of study requirements are updated annually in the universit de hearst calendar available on our website at http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. for more information, please contact the general secretariat at 705-372-1781 ext. 224 or by email at sylvie_roy@uhearts.ca pathways between collge borals child and youth worker program and the universit de hearst psychology programs collge boral program child and youth worker 3 years (diploma) credits granted by universit courses to be completed at universit de de hearst hearst to obtain a concentration in psychology** psyc 1107 (3) cosc 1701 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (12) collge boral program notes lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 3 psyc electives (9) total: 60 credits* total: 30 credits* credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a specialization in psychology** notes 18 child and youth worker 3 years (diploma) psyc 1107 (3) cosc 1701 (3) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2806 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (15) sosc 9200 (12) total: 60 credits* lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) psyc 1106 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) total: 60 credits* for each of the pathways above: - a minimum college average of 3.2 or 80% is required to obtain the credits indicated. * universit de hearst will provide the number of credits indicated. due to university course scheduling or compulsory course pre-requisites, completing a ba in 1 year or 2 years may not be possible. ** courses to be completed toward a human and social issues concentration or specialization may change if the program is changed. the program of study requirements are updated annually in the universit de hearst calendar available on our website at http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. for more information, please contact the general secretariat at 705-372-1781 ext. 224 or by email at sylvie_roy@uhearts.ca 19 pathways between la cits child and youth worker program and the universit de hearst psychology programs la cit program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a concentration in psychology** child and youth worker psyc 2517 (3) lang1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) 3 years (diploma) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 3317 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (12) notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 3206 (3) + 2 psyc electives (6) + 1 elective course (3) total: 30 credits* total: 60 credits* la cit program credits granted by universit de hearst courses to be completed at universit de hearst to obtain a specialization in psychology** child and youth worker psyc 2006 (3) psyc 2007 (3) psyc 2517 (3) psyc 3606 (3) psyc 3607 (3) lang 1006 (3) lang 1007 (3) 3 years (diploma) engl 1541 (3) engl 1542 (3) inte 1946 (3) lang 9100 (6) psyc 3317 (3) psyc 4206 (3) psyc 4915 (6) sosc 9100 (6) sosc 9200 (12) total: 60 credits* notes psyc 1106 (3) psyc 1107 (3) psyc 2126 (3) psyc 2516 (3) psyc 2606 (3) psyc 2617 (3) psyc 3206 (3) psyc 3217 (3) psyc 3256 (3) psyc 3306 (3) psyc 3706 (3) psyc 4006 (3) psyc 4104 (9) + 3 elective courses (9) total: 60 credits* 20 for each of the pathways above: - a minimum college average of 3.2 or 80% is required to obtain the credits indicated. * universit de hearst will provide the number of credits indicated. due to university course scheduling or compulsory course pre-requisites, completing a ba in 1 year or 2 years may not be possible. ** courses to be completed toward a human and social issues concentration or specialization may change if the program is changed. the program of study requirements are updated annually in the universit de hearst calendar available on our website at http://www.uhearst.ca/annuaire-0. for more information, please contact the general secretariat at 705-372-1781 ext. 224 or by email at sylvie_roy@uhearts.ca 21

invitation prsenter des candidatures pour 20202021 conseiller du corps professoral en transfert (ccpt) du caton date limite de prsentation : le 28 septembre 2020 aperu le caton invitera les membres du corps professoral prsenter leur candidature pour lanne universitaire 20202021. cette initiative pilote appuiera la conception et la mise sur pied de comits darticulation. des comits darticulation sont forms autour dune discipline propre aux tudes postsecondaires afin dexaminer et daccrotre les quivalences de cours entre programmes semblables et dappuyer llaboration de parcours de transfert et darticulation. ces comits visent amliorer les possibilits de transfert pour les tudiants en maximisant la reconnaissance des crdits, sil y a lieu, et en rduisant la rptition des apprentissages antrieurs correspondants. le caton lancera le projet pilote en mettant laccent sur deux disciplines : les services communautaires et sociaux et les affaires. le caton est la recherche de membres du corps professoral (collge/universit/tablissements autochtones) dans ces disciplines. le projet pilote comptera un maximum de six membres du corps professoraldans lidal, deux membres du corps professoral reprsentant les deux disciplines de chaque type dtablissement. il sagit dune initiative pilote qui peut tre largie ou prolonge au besoin. les membres du ccpt assument les fonctions suivantes : 1. collaborer avec le caton pour dterminer les programmes pertinents propres chaque discipline en vue de leur intgration potentielle aux travaux du comit darticulation de la discipline. 2. faciliter la collaboration entre les tablissements denseignement postsecondaire et au sein de ceux-ci, par rapport au domaine dtudes vis, afin de produire et de communiquer des parcours darticulation pour les tudiants en ontario. 3. inviter et mobiliser les membres du corps professoral uvrant dans la discipline vise afin daccrotre la participation lappui de la cration de comits darticulation. 4. prsider les comits darticulation. 5. participer la mobilisation des connaissances et au perfectionnement professionnel en lien avec les transferts et llaboration de parcours, au besoin. 6. accrotre les connaissances organisationnelles au sujet des donnes sur les transferts et de lexprience des tudiants qui effectuent un transfert dans leur facult, leur dpartement ou leur tablissement. 7. amliorer les processus des tablissements en ce qui concerne lvaluation de la reconnaissance de crdits et la collaboration avec les tudiants qui effectuent un transfert. 8. transmettre des modles mergents dinitiatives russies en matire de mobilit tudiante. 01 au sujet du caton fond en 2011, le conseil pour larticulation et le transfert ontario (caton) est un organisme financ par le gouvernement qui collabore avec les 45 universits et collges publics de lontario pour amliorer le cheminement scolaire et rduire les obstacles auxquels font face les tudiants qui souhaitent passer dun tablissement un autre. ontransfer.ca, le site web tudiant du caton, se veut une ressource pour toute personne qui cherche des renseignements sur la faon dobtenir un diplme et un grade, ou qui voudrait effectuer un transfert de cours et de programmes un autre tablissement denseignement postsecondaire de la province. la collaboration est au cur du travail du caton et nous permet de mettre profit et de renforcer nos comptences et nos ressources. les projets dlaboration de parcours de transfert, de recherche et de transfert novateur font partie intgrante de la cration dun systme de mobilit en ontario. dans le cadre dun processus annuel de demande de propositions (dp), nous finanons nos collges et universits subventionns par ltat et dautres partenaires de lenseignement postsecondaire afin de concevoir et de crer des parcours et des ententes, dtudier les expriences vcues par les tudiants et les tablissements dans le cadre du transfert et daccrotre la russite des transferts dtudiants. critres de prsentation des candidatures les membres du corps professoral doivent avoir au moins cinq annes dexprience de lenseignement et de llaboration de cours ou de programmes dtudes dans leur discipline respective, et avoir une bonne comprhension de la structure curriculaire et de la conception de programmes dans leur domaine. une exprience administrative ou curriculaire en articulation et en transfert est prfrable. il peut sagir dune exprience de llaboration ou de lexamen de politiques dtablissements, de la coordination de larticulation et de parcours de transfert, de lvaluation des admissions, de lvaluation curriculaire, de lassurance de la qualit des programmes ou de llaboration de programmes de qualit. le membre du corps professoral aura une exprience de la participation des comits ou de la direction de comits au sein de son tablissement ou dans lensemble du secteur postsecondaire. le membre du corps professoral doit reconnatre limportance dune approche axe sur les tudiants et comprendre que les tudiants peuvent effectuer un transfert pour de nombreuses raisons. le rle de ce conseiller du corps professoralet des comits darticulationconsiste soutenir les lves qui effectuent un transfert dans le systme denseignement postsecondaire de lontario. 02 budget et chancier ltablissement denseignement auquel est rattach chaque conseiller du corps professoral en transfert retenu recevra 10 000 $, qui seront pays en deux versements. ce financement constitue une indemnit en vue du cong denseignement dun membre du corps professoral plein temps (avantages sociaux non compris), et sert galement payer les cots accessoires lis aux vnements planifis. le conseiller sera un employ de son tablissement et non du caton. un contrat sera sign entre ltablissement et le caton. les travaux du ccpt commenceront en octobre 2020 et se poursuivront jusquen juin 2021. processus de prsentation des propositions submissions should include the following components. date limite de prsentation : le 28 septembre 2020 1) une proposition dune page rdige laide du formulaire de prsentation des propositions ci-dessous. 2) un curriculum vit (cv) prcisant notamment les rles administratifs, de service et denseignement. 3) une page de signature dment remplie par ltablissement, comprenant les signatures du membre du corps professoral, du chef de dpartement et du vice-recteur aux tudes de ltablissement. veuillez soumettre les documents susmentionns par courriel : cpoplak@oncat.ca. processus dvaluation des propositions votre proposition sera examine par le personnel du caton. nous pourrions solliciter la participation dautres examinateurs du secteur, au besoin. en rgle gnrale, les propositions seront values en fonction des lments suivants : la clart et la perspective densemble. la dmonstration de la concordance avec le rle dun ccpt tel que dcrit dans laperu et lexistence dune exprience connexe avre. 03 aprs lexamen initial, nous pourrions faire un suivi auprs des auteurs des propositions pour quils rpondent toute question souleve durant notre examen. une rponse rapide sera apprcie pour acclrer le processus dexamen. ds que les rponses auront t obtenues et quune dcision aura t prise, vous serez avis par courriel. nous esprons arriver aux dcisions dfinitives concernant la plupart des propositions au plus tard le 5 octobre 2020. auteurs des propositions retenues les auteurs des propositions retenues devront conclure avec le caton une entente officielle qui dcrira les modalits du financement en spcifiant les objectifs du projet, les chanciers et les produits livrables prvus. personnes-ressources pour soumettre une dclaration dintrt, veuillez envoyer un courriel carolyn poplak, gestionnaire, engagement du secteur, ladresse suivante : _________________. cpoplak@oncat.ca covid-19 les bureaux du conseil pour larticulation et le transfert de lontario sont ferms temporairement en raison de la pandmie de covid-19 et des consignes des organismes de sant publique. toutefois, le personnel du caton travaille distance et offre tous ses services habituels afin de concevoir dexcellents parcours scolaires et daplanir les obstacles pour les tudiants en ontario. nous accepterons les candidatures des membres du corps professoral de toute la province, et ce travail devrait tre effectu distance. les activits en personne pourront reprendre conformment aux lignes directrices de la sant publique. pour pouvez lire la dclaration complte du caton concernant la covid-19 ladresse suivante : https://oncat.ca/fr/mise-jour-du-caton-sur-la-covid-19. veuillez noter que les disciplines et les sujets viss peuvent changer la discrtion du caton. 04

project snapshot lakehead university development of transfer credit assessment (tca) guidelines type: mapit institutional process mapping project phase 2 project number: s2250 project lead: lakehead university project summary this project will enhance the transfer credit process through the development of transfer credit assessment (tca), guidelines and decision-making for course-by-course tca at lakehead university. this project includes the development of training materials required to effectively advise subject-matter experts in their assessments. project rationale informed by the lakehead university mapit project (m2119) the development of tca guidelines will address one of the areas in the detailed transfer credit process map identified as needing significant change. additionally, lessons learned from the oncat datapilot project (d2104), and other pathway creation projects, emphasize the need for a comprehensive and consistent approach to award transfer credits in support of student mobility and in the creation of an equitable and accessible post-secondary sector. results the key outcomes established for this project included the development of tca guidelines and the creation of supplementary resources/support materials for subject-matter experts. challenges while the project team experienced very few challenges, there was some difficulty locating an abundance of literature focused on transfer best practices and formal conventions. this did, however, highlight the nuances and complexities (especially in the context of international curricula) of transfer credit. student outcomes the development of tca guidelines ensures a transparent process, providing clarity to prospective and current students on the process in which lakehead university accepts and assigns transfer credit. guidelines make it clear how, and under what circumstances, students can expect to receive individual transfer credit. these guidelines provide assurance that transfer credit assessment is managed in a fair, consistent, and equitable manner, across and within departments. a standardized approach eliminates the need for guesswork on the part of the institution and will improve response times. by eliminating ambiguity, the transfer process for course-by-course evaluations can be effectively managed with less time wasted in communicating gaps in understanding and practice. this will result in a more timely assessment decision to prospective and current students. additionally, as part of these guidelines, an appeals process has been proposed. this will empower students to request a reevaluation through the appropriate channels should it be determined necessary. institutional outcomes transparency builds trust, essential to shared governance. the development of guidelines provide clarity on the role that each member plays (faculty, staff, and students) in the transfer credit evaluation process. guidelines also support collective organizational knowledge accessed by any member in time of need. documenting guidelines will also ensure best practices are being followed. with detailed documentation in place, process improvements can be tracked and evaluated to determine whether future revisions yield expected results.

rapport final contrat : 2017-18 architecture transfer pathway development titre du projet : dveloppement de parcours de transfert en architecture prpar par : luniversit laurentienne bureau des affaires francophones 935, chemin du lac ramsey 3e tage, difice parker (p315) sudbury (on) p3e 2c6 tl : 705-675-1151, poste 3421 date : 15 mars 2018 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture liste des intervenants impliqus pour le compte de luniversit laurentienne : andre noiseux, charge de projets; nomie thberge, conseillre principale sylvie landry, directrice du bureau des affaires francophones, partenariats et collaborations; line tremblay, vice-rectrice associe sortante aux tudes et affaires francophones; david lesbarrres, vice-recteur intrimaire associ aux tudes et affaires francophones; osman abour-rabia, doyen de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture; hlne joly, doyenne associe de la facult des sciences, de gnie et darchitecture terrance galvin, directeur sortant de lcole darchitecture mcewen; roch blair, professeur izabel amaral, professeur diane roy, registraire; melissa ouimette, chef du bureau des admissions; joanne musico, directrice des communications. pour le compte du collge boral : marie-claude malette, charge de projets; jocelyne bdard, gestionnaire de projets; daniel leduc, conseiller principal et chef du centre de ressources professionnel; lyne michaud, vice-prsident enseignement; tina montgomery, doyenne de lcole des mtiers et des technologies appliques; denis r. ouimette, coordonnateur des programmes techniques de larchitecture et technologie de larchitecure; julie allen, registraire; ginette brunet, chef du bureau des admissions; jean cotnoir, chef des communications stratgiques. pour le compte du collge la cit : joseph aghaby, charg de projets; lise frenette, directrice de projets spciaux; norman junior poisson rioux, expert de contenu et conseiller pdagogique; nicole dubois, coordonnatrice du programme techniques en architecture; franois barbarie, professeur; jorge magalhaes, professeur; frdric thibeault-chabot, doyen de linstitut des technologies, des arts et de la communication; patrice supper, directeur de linstitut des technologies, des arts et de la communication; paulette bouffard, directrice; stphane ct, registraire; pascale montminy, gestionnaire en communication chantal thiboutot, directrice principale de la planification institutionnelle et de limputabilit. 2 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture table des matires 1) sommaire 4 2) intention et objectifs du projet..5 3) laboration des parcours de transfert....6 4) sommaire des parcours de transferts....12 5) pratiques prometteuses et leons apprises.....13 annexe a : matrices danalyse.... annexe b : modle du parcours de transfert - architecture .. annexe c : rapport financier... 3 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture 1) sommaire lorigine, ce projet voulait dvelopper des ententes de parcours traditionnelles entre le nouveau programme darchitecture de luniversit laurentienne et les programmes techniques darchitecture (2 ans), et technologie de larchitecture (3 ans) au collge boral, pour ensuite faciliter le dveloppement dune entente similaire mais adapte, avec le programme de trois ans en techniques darchitecture du collge la cit. favorisant le dialogue entre tablissements universitaires et collgiaux en plus dencourager la rtention dtudiants francophones dans le systme dducation postsecondaire ontarien, cette initiative rejoignait concrtement les objectifs du caton. grce celle-ci, le nombre dtudiants empruntant et compltant lensemble du continuum dducation en province pourrait augmenter aussi dans un domaine aussi spcialis que larchitecture. deux ententes compltement novatrices lieront donc dsormais lcole darchitecture mcewen de luniversit laurentienne au collge boral et au collge la cit, crant non seulement trois nouveaux parcours de transfert en franais pour les tudiants dans ce domaine, mais favorisant galement laccs aux francophones cette cole unique en province. 4 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture 2) intention et objectifs du projet en plus de rejoindre les objectifs du caton le projet avait, pour les tablissements participants, les vises suivantes : maximiser les acquis des tudiants diplms des programmes techniques darchitecture (2 ans) et technologie de larchitecture (3 ans) du collge boral, ainsi que du programme techniques darchitecture (3 ans) du collge la cit; favoriser laccs aux francophones la seule cole darchitecture bilingue de la province; encourager, voire mme provoquer le dialogue entre luniversit laurentienne, le collge boral et la cit, afin de travailler une certaine cohrence entre les programmes, qui stimulerait la mobilit des tudiants francophones dans le domaine de larchitecture et profiterait lensemble du systme dducation. 5 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture 3) laboration des parcours de transfert mthodologie lide initiale voulait dabord arrimer les programmes techniques darchitecture (2 ans), et technologie de larchitecture (3 ans) du collge boral, au baccalaurat en tudes architecturales de luniversit laurentienne pour seulement ensuite, faciliter le dveloppement dune entente adapte au programme de trois ans en techniques darchitecture du collge la cit. cependant, la lumire des discussions qui se sont tenues au cours des dernires annes qui recommandaient dappuyer davantage laccord des quivalences sur lanalyse des rsultats dapprentissage recoups dans le programme de dpart et le programme darrive, nous avons choisi dinvestir les efforts ncessaires pour que cette analyse soit faite de faon parallle pour lensemble des programmes impliqus, de sorte pouvoir dresser un rel portrait comparatif des rsultats de cette nouvelle mthodologie sur des programmes similaires au sein de deux tablissements diffrents. ainsi, toutes les dmarches danalyse originalement prvues uniquement entre la laurentienne et le collge boral se sont vues ddoubles ds le dbut des travaux afin de pouvoir ultimement conclure si nous pourrions ventuellement nous fier la rigueur dune telle mthodologie pour appliquer des parcours de transfert dvelopps entre la laurentienne et un partenaire collgial pour un programme particulier, un autre partenaire collgial offrant le mme programme. pour le reste, les tapes se sont avres les mmes que celles prvues et proposes dans le cadre du dpt de notre proposition, cest--dire : 6 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture calendrier des activits avril 2017 tapes et livrables - rencontres avec le doyen de lcole darchitecture pour discuter du projet et de ses tapes - allocation des heures sur les formulaires de charge de travail des professeurs-experts de boral et des conseillres pdagogiques pour le printemps 2017 - rencontres avec les directeurs et doyens des programmes, les responsables des centres dappui au personnel et les gestionnaires des bureaux des admissions la laurentienne, boral, et la cit pour prsenter le projet - rencontre de dmarrage avec les professeurs des programmes pour changer sur les objectifs des programmes en architecture de la laurentienne, du collge boral, et de la cit juin 2017 - recueil des plans de cours et autres informations relatives aux rsultats et activits dapprentissage du programme universitaire cibls par le projet (tudes architecturales), et les trois programmes collgiaux (techniques darchitecture de la cit 3 ans, techniques darchitecture de boral 2 ans, et technologie de larchitecture de boral 3 ans) septembre 2017 - laboration dune structure danalyse base sur les rsultats dapprentissage - rtroaction sur la structure danalyse propose par la conseillre principale - approbation de la structure danalyse par le vice-recteur aux tudes et affaires francophones de la laurentienne - construction des matrices - analyse et comparaison des rsultats dapprentissage des diffrents programmes - identification des crdits pouvant tre reconnus - consultation auprs de la chef des admissions de la laurentienne afin de partager les analyses, de complter les rsultats des crdits accords par les normes issues des pratiques administratives gnrales pour les cours au choix et rsultats acadmiques des candidats, et mai 2017 octobre 2017 fvrier 2018 7 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture didentifier la documentation prparer en vue des prochaines tapes dapprobations administratives la laurentienne - consultation des intervenants cls des programmes afin de valider les analyses comparatives effectues des rsultats dapprentissage (directions de programmes de chaque institution, doyens des coles de mtiers des collges et doyen de la facult des sciences, gnie et darchitecture de la laurentienne) - validation finale des parcours dvelopps auprs des intervenants avant dentamer le processus dapprobation - dveloppement et finalisation des parcours dententes traditionnelles selon les analyses comparatives qui ont t valides par les intervenants des programmes mai juin 2018 - finalisation du processus dapprobation luniversit (2 dernires tapes) p ara (academic regulations and awards) p snat de luniversit laurentienne t 2018 - ajout des parcours aux protocoles dententes - communication avec le bureau dadmission pour ajouter les parcours ontransfer.ca mars - avril 2018 comparaison et analyse des programmes comme lanalyse des programmes sur la base de leurs rsultats dapprentissage pour identifier les cours crdits au sein de chacune des passerelles vises reprsentait une pratique nouvelle pour nous, il nous a fallu concevoir, laborer et produire les outils qui documenteraient le plus rigoureusement possible les donnes danalyse afin de nous permettre de valider la pertinence de cette approche. ainsi, des matrices nous permettant de faire la cartographie de lensemble des rsultats dapprentissages de chacun des programmes viss par le projet et leurs 8 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture recoupements ont t dveloppes. celles-ci numrent les rsultats dapprentissage du programme darchitecture de la laurentienne contre vrifi avec les rsultats dapprentissage des programmes de boral et de la cit et sont utilises de la faon suivante : - pour chaque rsultat dapprentissage correspondant entre le programme universitaire et lun des programmes collgiaux, un 1 a t inscrit dans la grille; - les rsultats dapprentissages correspondants sont ensuite additionns par cours darchitecture ul; - si un cours de la laurentienne compte au moins un rsultat dapprentissage correspondant pour tous ses rsultats dapprentissage, on peut proposer au directeur du programme que ce cours ait un quivalent collgial et que le crdit soit reconnu dans lentente; - mme si lorsque lon fait une comparaison de cours par cours il ny a pas un cours du collge qui est exactement lquivalent dun cours de la laurentienne, la cartographie permet de dmontrer que dans lensemble du diplme collgial, les tudiants ont couvert les rsultats dapprentissage de certains cours; - la fin de lexercice, les directeurs des programmes collgiaux sont consults pour valider les rsultats dapprentissages recoups. ils ont alors loccasion de prciser si certains rsultats ont t omis par faute de clart ou de comprhension des syllabus de cours, ou encore mme de proposer une certaine rvision de leur programme de sorte y ajouter un rsultat dapprentissage particulirement dterminant. le document excel regroupant lensemble des matrices danalyse utilises dans le cadre de ce projet vous est prsent en annexe a. 9 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture processus de mise en uvre et chanciers les processus dapprobation ont une incidence importante sur les chanciers dun tel projet et sa mise en uvre. en effet, certains comits comme le snat par exemple, sont confronts des agendas trs chargs, en plus dun calendrier de rencontres trs limit. ainsi, il faut se rendre lvidence, la rencontre de juin reste la plus propice au traitement de dossiers comme celui-ci et vient par consquent interfrer avec le souhait initial de terminer lensemble des travaux pour la mi-mars. cette prise de conscience sest ajout un impondrable cette anne, soit les grves universitaires et collgiales qui ont svi tour tour. en effet, la grve du personnel enseignant dans les collges de lontario lautomne 2017 ayant dur prs de 5 semaines, de nombreux projets de dveloppement touchant la pdagogie ont t mis en veilleuse tant au niveau du collge boral que de la cit. en raison du ramnagement du calendrier scolaire, les professeurs nont pu mener terme ce type de mandat dans les dlais prescrits. la session dautomne la cit sest termine le 26 janvier 2018 et la session dhiver a dbut le 29 janvier 2018. ce nouveau calendrier a forc les tablissements denseignement dannuler la traditionnelle semaine de lecture, ce qui a eu pour rpercussions que le travail de nature administratif qui normalement tait accompli par les enseignants durant cette semaine na pu tre assur cette anne. ceci tant dit, un travail monumental a tout de mme t fait pour nous rapprocher le plus possible de lissue du projet. ce jour, la cartographie des programmes et les rsultats de la premire analyse quelle propose ont t 10 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture dposs pour validation auprs des instances de chaque tablissement. les prochaines semaines nous permettront de raliser les tapes suivantes : - rencontre entre les directeurs de programmes des tablissements afin de faire appel aux rsultats dgags la suite de la premire analyse et proposition de recommandations pour maximiser les parcours; - approbation auprs de ara et information au cpf; - approbation auprs du snat; - ajout des parcours aux protocoles dententes; - communication avec le bureau dadmission pour ajouter les parcours ontransfer.ca; - prparation dune annonce des nouvelles passerelles pour la rentre scolaire. 11 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture 4) sommaire des parcours de transfert crs le tableau suivant vous prsente un bref aperu des parcours de transfert proposs lissue de ce projet. anne 1 - laurentienne arch1006 - design thinking (3 cr) arch1505 - design studio 1: place (6 cr) arch1007 - sacred places (3 cr) arch1515 - studio 2 : place ii (6 cr) arch0100 - coop a1 (1 cr - 14 semaines) anne 2 - laurentienne arch 2306 - design for climat change (3 cr) arch 2316 - structures 1: wood (3 cr) arch 2505 - design studio 3: landscape (6 cr) arch 2036 - canadian art & architecture (3 cr) arch 2326 architecture & ecology (3 cr) arch 2515 - design studio 4: landscape ii (6 cr) coop 1b (14 semaines) anne 3 - laurentienne arch 3006 - indigenous precedents (3 cr) arch 3306 - the well-tempered environment (3 cr) arch 3505 - design studio 5: northern building studio (6 cr) arch 3906 - independent study (3 cr) arch 0300 spring - co-operative 2 (2 cr - 14 semaines) arch 3017 - writings in architecture (3 cr) arch 3316 - structures 2: connections (3 cr) arch 3515 - design studio 6: northern building studio ii (6 cr) coop 2 (14 semaines) anne 4 - laurentienne arch 4006 - building case studies (3 cr) arch 4306 - digital fabrication (3 cr) arch 4505 - studio 7: integrated design (6 cr) arch 4526 - architectural communications (3 cr) arch 4016 - cultural sustainability (3 cr) arch 4316 - structures 3: building systems (3 cr) arch 4515 - studio 8: integrated design 2 (6 cr) boral artg (3 ans) x x x x x boral artq (2 ans) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x la cit (3 ans) x x x x x x x x x le dtails spcifiques associs ces parcours de transferts sont documents dans les modles de parcours fournis en annexe b. attention : il est noter que le nombre de crdits accords anticip dans lanalyse qui est fourni avec ce rapport pourrait tre modifi lorsque les ententes seront prsentes ara et au snat. pour cette raison, luniversit laurentienne sengage fournir un complment de rapport caton lorsque toutes les tapes dapprobation seront compltes. 12 rapport de luniversit laurentienne contrat : 2017-18 parcours de transfert en architecture 5) pratiques prometteuses et leons apprises parmi les pratiques prometteuses, nous retenons limportance de communiquer avec tous les dpartements impliqus des diffrents tablissements. ceux-ci incluent le dpartement du programme en question, la facult, le bureau du registraire et le bureau des admissions, ainsi que les administrateurs et le centre dorientation scolaire qui avisent les tudiants concernant leur horaire, etc. cette communication assure non seulement quil ny ait pas de malentendus, mais aussi que lentente soit en accord avec toutes les rgles de luniversit. de plus, lorsque tous sont au courant de lentente, elle a une meilleure chance dtre approuve lors des diverses tapes dapprobation puisque les membres des comits sont, en gnral, des membres des dpartements nomms ci-haut. bien quil semble y avoir lgrement moins daffinits entre les programmes que le 2 + 2 initialement espr, les intervenants sont tout de mme trs satisfaits du droulement de ce projet. la nouvelle approche danalyse base sur les rsultats dapprentissage a grandement facilit les discussions et a permis dapporter une objectivit saine au processus daccord des quivalences. nous comptons donc poursuivre cette voie dans le cadre du dveloppement de parcours de transfert ventuels, en nous appuyant des mmes outils que ceux conceptualiss pour le prsent projet. 13

faculty perspectives on diploma-degree pathways and student preparedness oncat project 2017-35 final report november 28, 2018 jean odonnell, silvana miller and daniel fowler strategic planning and institutional analysis, humber college 1 project applicants sarah jane greenway, program planning, development and renewal theresa steger, centre for teaching and learning sarah peake, office of the registrar corrine johnston, strategic planning and institutional analysis judy tavares, office of the registrar 2 executive summary funded by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), this study investigated faculty perspectives on students academic preparedness and social adjustment, as well as their views on the effectiveness of pathways in supporting students academic goals and the colleges enrolment objectives. the research focused on three intra-institutional, diploma-degree pathways and combined interviews, an online survey and an analysis of student grades to address the research questions. faculty perspectives on pathway students academic preparedness and social integration is important because of the role that they play in promoting these opportunities and influencing student experience. the associate deans, program coordinators and faculty that participated in this study recognized the value of pathways in meeting strategic enrolment targets, improving student access to advanced credentials and enhancing students employment prospects. they were also cognizant of the need for comprehensive curriculum mapping to ensure that pathway students acquire the appropriate knowledge and skills to ease the transfer from diploma to degree programs. further, they recognized the value of and often took part in various strategies and events that promote pathways and orientate students to their new programs. the pathways examined in this study were intra-institutional block transfers typically involving multiple students from the same cohort. the nature of this transition is not likely to create the same level of transfer shock or administrative, academic and social challenges often associated with credit transfer and inter-institutional pathways (e.g., see decock & janzen, 2015; ishitani, 2008; toblowsky & cox, 2012). however, faculty were sensitive to potential issues, particularly those related to the social integration of pathway students and took steps to facilitate a cohesive classroom environment. finally, while faculty believed that in general, students were appropriately prepared for degree studies, they also reported that pathway students were less skilled in areas such as writing, research and foundational content than their non-pathway colleagues. however, analysis of student grades and academic standing showed pathway students outperformed their colleagues in every semester. as the first line in promoting pathways and shaping the student experience, it is important to ensure that faculty have an accurate and complete understanding of the successes and challenges associated with pathway programs and in particular, student performance. 3 introduction research pertaining to post-secondary pathways, credit transfer and college-university or diplomadegree transfer has focused on three main areas of study: articulation agreements, standards and institutional processes to promote and support transfer (e.g., carter, coyle & leslie, 2011; tobolowsky & cox, 2012; young, pich & jones, 2017), the experiences and outcomes of transfer students including retention and academic performance (e.g., gerhardt & masakure, 2016; gorman, phelps & carley, 2012; ishitani, 2008; lakehead university, 2012; percival et al., 2016) and transfer student characteristics including those related to diversity and access (henderson & mccloy, 2016; kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010; pendelton & lambert-maberly, 2006; porchea et al., 2010). there is little research which examines faculty perspectives regarding pathway students preparedness although their viewpoints may influence both student access and experience. the purpose of this study was to gain insight into faculty: understanding of humber colleges intra-institutional, diploma to degree pathways; perceptions of pathway students academic preparedness and social adjustment; views on the effectiveness of pathways in supporting students academic goals and the colleges enrolment objectives; and role in promoting and supporting existing student pathways. in 2011, the ontario government identified three goals for enhancing student pathways and mobility: to expand and improve pathways to respond to student demand; to improve transparency and access to information about pathways and credit transfer; and to support student success (ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2011). participation by post-secondary institutions is mandatory but each can determine its own level of involvement. in addition, a governmental agency, the ontario council for articulation and transfer (oncat), was established to support the achievement of these goals through research, partnerships and building system capacity. in ontario, research and work in the area of student mobility continues to grow but the lack of a systemwide method for tracking students as they move through post-secondary institutions and the continued approach of bilateral institutional agreements significantly hinders the development of a comprehensive and integrated pathway and transfer system. further, research is highly institution-specific making it difficult to draw conclusions about the success of transfer and pathway processes and programs. however, there appears to be some conclusions that can be drawn from recent research into pathways. the first is that pathways are beneficial to students by increasing access to universities and advanced credentials, particularly for under-represented or at-risk groups (kerr, mccloy & liu, 2010). additionally, pathways provide students with opportunities to acquire both the practical skills associated with diploma programs and broader theoretical learning of a degree program thereby improving employment opportunities (academica group, 2017). the second major conclusion that can be drawn from the research is that when compared to nonpathway students, pathway students excel academically both in terms of retention and gpa (gerhardt & 4 masakure, 2016; gorman, phelps & carley, 2012; ishitani, 2008; lakehead university, 2012). however, differences in age, maturity and experience between pathway students and incoming high school graduates often result in the formers lack of social integration (gawley & mcgowan, 2006; henderson & mccloy, 2016). methodology this research used a mixed methods approach, combining interviews, an online survey and analysis of student grades to understand faculty perspectives on pathways and pathway students. three of the colleges diploma to degree pathways were examined. each of the degree programs had two feeder programs which were two-year diplomas and/or three-year advanced diplomas. table 1 below outlines the feeder and receiver programs, as well the years required to complete both credentials in the pathway. for example, 2+3 indicates the feeder diploma program required two years and the degree required an additional 3 years. table 1 internal program pathways program selection based on pathway popularity feeder program police foundations (diploma) community and justice services (diploma) receiver degree bachelor of social science criminal justice bachelor of social science criminal justice years 2+3 2+3 accounting, business (diploma) accounting, business administration (advanced diploma) bachelor of commerce accounting bachelor of commerce - accounting 2+3 3+2 interior decorating (diploma) architectural technology (advanced diploma) interior design interior design 2+3 3+3 interviews. structured interviews (see appendix a) with associate deans, program coordinators and fulltime faculty teaching in the above described pathway programs focused on their understanding of pathways, their perceptions of pathway students academic preparedness and social adjustment, and their views regarding the role pathways play in supporting student and institutional goals. interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed to identify themes within participants responses. surveys. all part-time and full-time faculty teaching in any of humbers 23 degree programs with a pathway option were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey (see appendix b). the survey focused on perceptions of pathway students academic preparedness and social adjustment. grades analysis. to assess for potential differences in academic performance between pathway and non-pathway students and assess the alignment of faculty perceptions with data on academic performance, students annual gpas for core program courses and their academic standings were compared for each semester between fall 2015 to winter 2018 using t-tests, chi-squared and z-tests. only students in the target degree programs described above were included in this analysis. 5 results participants interviews were conducted with three associate deans, seven program coordinators and three full-time faculty associated with the target pathway programs. participants had an average of 12 years of experience in teaching or administration in post-secondary education with a range of four years to 32 years. of the ten program coordinators and faculty, six taught in diploma (feeder programs) and four taught in degree (receiver) programs. forty-one faculty (27 full-time and 15 part-time) that taught in degree programs offering pathways participated in the online survey. most (35.7%) had taught at humber for 6-10 years while 30.9% had taught for more than 10 years and the remaining 33.4% had taught five years or less. knowledge and promotion of pathways pathways are an important strategy for increasing access to degree programs and improving student experience. deans and faculty interviewed for this study acknowledged the importance of pathways in helping students to achieve their educational and employment goals by providing a mix of applied skills and theoretical knowledge. i see a lot of value in pathways. [they are] great for students who did not have the gpa to get into the degree and needed those 2 years of content learning plus maturity and academic technique. it's great that it is offered to students. at the same time, some also recognized that pathways create opportunities for student recruitment and are effective in helping their programs and schools meet enrolment targets. we strategically bank on [pathways] when looking at projections and our enrolment. you always can count on a certain number of transfers. we do a fair job of promoting these opportunities recognizing its not for every student. when asked to identify the strategies they use to promote pathway opportunities, respondents referenced the open house, various information sessions/fairs/town halls/presentations, direct promotion to top students by faculty and program coordinators, targeted marketing materials, orientation, and the program website. interview participants (associate deans, program coordinators and full time faculty) were knowledgeable of the pathways associated with their programs and able to articulate the requirements for entry into the degree pathways. survey participants (full time and part time faculty) were somewhat less familiar with the degree pathways. specifically, of the 39 participants who provided valid survey responses, 27 (69%) were able to identify the pathways associated with their degree program; full-time faculty and 6 faculty who had been employed at the college more than 10 years were the most knowledgeable. specific to their own classes, most survey respondents (54.8%) were unable to identify pathway students. of those faculty who could identify the pathway students, they reported their students often self-identified or they became aware of them through program tracking and a general knowledge of students within the cohort. perceptions of student academic preparedness overall, interview participants believed that pathway students were well-prepared for degree-level study, in part, because they were among the best students in their diploma programs. however, several respondents were concerned that pathway students lacked the writing, research and referencing skills as well as the theoretical foundation for degree-level study: anecdotally we hear from students that they don't feel as academically prepared as they thought they were going to be, because the writing and the research is at a different level than the diploma program. they are certainly very well versed in their diploma knowledge. for the most part they don't have as many skills connecting theoretical frameworkswhich is a limitation. sometimes there is a weakness in writing; getting the right academic sources to support statements or just the level of writing. survey participants were asked to compare pathway and non-pathway students on several dimensions related to academic preparedness including the overall quality of the work, and writing, research and math skills. table 2 summarizes their responses. overall, most respondents reported pathway students to be equally or more prepared in most skill areas. however, similar to interview participants, over onethird identified skill gaps in writing and research, as well as their general content and foundational knowledge. approximately one-quarter of respondents believed pathway students overall quality of course work demonstrated less skill. table 2 faculty perceptions of academic preparedness quality of course work / assignments writing skills math skills research skills content/foundational knowledge 7 more skilled than non-pathway students equally skilled to non-pathway students less skilled than non-pathway students i dont know / not applicable total 19.0% 38.1% 26.2% 17.7% 42 12.2% 4.9% 16.7% 36.6% 24.4% 26.2% 34.1% 17.1% 38.1% 17.1% 53.6% 19.0% 41 41 42 16.7% 35.7% 30.9% 16.7% 42 students academic performance analysis of students grades indicated that faculty perceptions of pathway students lack of preparedness is inconsistent with the data. specifically, a semester by semester analysis of the grades of pathway and non-pathway students in the target programs shows that pathway students significantly out-performed their non-pathway colleagues in every semester (see table 3). table 3 grades analysis results of t-tests comparing student course grades by pathway status non-pathway pathway course semester n mean (sd) n mean (sd) t df 3 1744 75.0 (11.618) 295 78.0 (8.793) -5.233* 486.131 4 2602 74.4 (12.832) 762 76.9 (12.765) -4.661* 1246.158 5 2061 75.5 (12.866) 542 76.8 (11.806) -2.121* 2601 6 2833 74.5 (12.17) 814 76.4 (10.442) -4.343* 1505.556 7 2162 76.1 (10.619) 552 77.5 (9.074) -3.017* 973.417 78.6 (9.685) 584 80.1 (8.463) -3.514* 1036.131 8 2149 *significant at the p < .05 level. note. sd = standard deviation. analysis of academic standing also revealed that pathway students were significantly more likely to achieve good standing and less likely to be placed in a probationary status than their non-pathway colleagues (see table 4 below). table 4 academic standing results of chi-square (x2) and z-tests on the relationship between student academic standing and pathway status; fall (2015, 2016, 2017) and winter (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) terms fall terms** academic standing good standing probation required to withdraw total pathway n (%) non-pathway n (%) pathway n (%) non-pathway n (%) 406 (96.7%)* 1441 (91.1%)* 452 (95.2%)* 1404 (91.2%)* 10 (2.4%)* 118 (7.5%)* 17 (3.6%)* 110 (7.1%)* 4 (1.0%) 22 (1.4%) 6 (1.3%) 26 (1.7%) 420 (100.0%) 1581 (100.0%) 475 (100.0%) 1540 (100.0%) * z-test, significant at the p < .05 level **chi-square x2, significant at the p < .05 level 8 winter terms** perceptions of student social adjustment the pathway students in this study joined their degree programs in the second or third year of the degree well after students social networks are typically established. while this study did not investigate the students perspectives on their social integration, it asked faculty and associate deans about their perspectives. interview participants reported that pathway students adjusted well to their advanced standing position but some also pointed out that social divides did exist: [there is] room for improvement; i see social cliques that exist with students from their previous programs. the cliques exist well into the 4th year of the degree. we've tried to integrate students more, and it is an area for improvement. to support better social integration, faculty stated that they used group work in the classroom, encouraged pathway students to take advantage of the colleges services, and organized orientation sessions to connect pathway students with non-pathway students. most survey respondents also viewed pathway students social integration positively, identifying them as equally or more adjusted in terms of faculty engagement and collaborative group work, but less socially connected with their classmates (see table 5). as some faculty noted: it can be hard for students to integrate into classes that have already been together for two years. our faculty in third year classes do extensive activities to increase group cohesiveness and facilitate positive group dynamics. our program tends to be pretty tightly-knit as a community, which comes from the students working closely together for four years. it can be tough for pathway students to crack that, though i would say that we have observed that the higher their capabilities, the quicker and easier they integrate. also, on engagement with faculty, we see a lower level there too, probably because they haven't had the time to establish themselves with us the same way the full degree students do. again, maturity and capability skews this in a more positive direction. table 5 faculty perceptions on social adjustment participate in collaborative/ group work make social connections with classmates engage with faculty 9 more than nonpathway students equal to nonpathway students less than nonpathway students i dont know total 16.7% 61.9% 2.4% 19.0% 42 4.8% 52.4% 21.4% 21.4% 42 28.6% 42.8% 11.9% 16.7% 42 conclusion faculty perspectives on pathway students academic preparedness and social integration is important because of the role that they play in promoting these opportunities and influencing student experience. the associate deans, program coordinators and faculty that participated in this study recognized the value of pathways in meeting strategic enrolment targets, improving student access to advanced credentials and enhancing students employment prospects. they were also cognizant of the need for comprehensive curriculum mapping to ensure that pathway students acquire the appropriate knowledge and skills to ease the transfer from diploma to degree programs. further, they recognized the value of and often took part in various strategies and events that promote pathways and orientate students to their new programs. the pathways examined in this study were intra-institutional block transfers typically involving multiple students from the same cohort. the nature of this transition is not likely to create the same level of transfer shock or administrative, academic and social challenges often associated with credit transfer and inter-institutional pathways (e.g., see decock & janzen, 2015; ishitani, 2008; toblowsky & cox, 2012). however, faculty were sensitive to potential issues, particularly those related to the social integration of pathway students and took steps to facilitate a cohesive classroom environment. finally, while faculty believed that in general, students were appropriately prepared for degree studies, they also reported that pathway students were less skilled in areas such as writing, research and foundational content than their non-pathway colleagues. however, analysis of student grades and academic standing showed pathway students outperformed their colleagues in every semester. as the first line in promoting pathways and shaping the student experience, it is important to ensure that faculty have an accurate and complete understanding of the successes and challenges associated with pathway programs and in particular, student performance. further investigation into a wider range of pathway programs and students academic performance is needed. 10 references academica group (feb. 27, 2017). pathway programs: the interest is there, but is the awareness? sourced july 12, 2018 at https://forum.academica.ca/forum/pathway-programs-the-interest-isthere-but-is-the-awareness carter, i., coyle, j. & leslie, d. (2011). easing the transfer of students from college to university programs: how can learning outcomes help? canadian journal of higher education, 41 (2), 1027. decock, h. & janzen, k. (2015). a qualitative study of the york-seneca transfer experience. centre for research in student mobility, seneca college. oncat report 2013-09. gawley, t. & mcgowan, r.a. (2006). learning the ropes: a case study of the academic and social experiences of college transfer students within a developing university-college articulation framework. college quarterly, 9(3), retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej835416.pdf gerhardt, k. & masakure, o. (2016). postsecondary student mobility from college to university: academic performance of students. canadian journal of higher education, 46(2), 78-91. gorman, g., phelps, c. & carley, r. (2012). exploring the success and challenges of diploma to degree transfer students. conestoga college institute of technology and advanced learning. oncat report 2012-04. henderson, c. & mccloy, u. (2016). from application and beyond: tracking aspirations, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of ontarios transfer. report submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer. ishitani, t. (2008). how do transfers survive after transfer shock? a longitudinal study of transfer student departure at a four-year institution. research in higher education, 49 (5), 403-419. kerr, a., mccloy, u., liu, s. (2010). forging pathways: students who transfer between ontario colleges and universities. toronto: higher education quality council of ontario. lakehead university (2012). student success after transfer from college to lakehead university. report submitted to the ontario council on articulation and transfer. ontario ministry of training, colleges and universities (2011). policy statement for ontarios credit transfer system. retrieved from https://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/document.html pendelton, s. & lambert-maberly, a. (2006). undergraduate student survey on student satisfaction & engagement: transfer student experience vs direct entry student experience. vancouver: british columbia council on articulation and transfer. 11 percival, j., digiuseppe, m., goodman, b., lesage, a., longo, f., hinch, r., samis, j., sanchez, o., & rodrigues, a. a. (2016). exploring factors facilitating and hindering college-university pathway program completion. international journal of education management, 30 (1), 20-42. porchea, s. f., allen, j., robbins, s., & phelps, r. p. (2010). predictors of long-term enrollment and degree outcomes for community college students: integrating academic, psychosocial, sociodemographic, and situational factors. the journal of higher education, 81(6), 750778. tobolowsky, b. f. & cox, b. e. (2012). rationalizing neglect: an institutional response to transfer students. the journal of higher education, 83 (3), 389-410. young, s. j., pich, p. g. and jones, g. a. (2017). the two towers of transformation: the compatibility of the policy goals of differentiation and student mobility. toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oiseuniversity of toronto. 12 appendix a interview questions associate dean interview questions 1. using the definition provided, what are the pathway opportunities in your program cluster? 2. how effective are pathways in helping students to reach their educational and employment goals? 3. a) as the associate dean, what are your perceptions of the academic preparedness of students in pathway programs? b) how does their preparedness compare with that of other non-pathway students? c) what strategies or approaches does your school use to help students meet the academic demands of pathway programs? 4. a) as the associate dean, what are your perceptions of the social adjustment of pathway students? b) how does their social adjustment compare with that of other non-pathway students? c) what strategies does your school use to help the adjustment process? 5. how effective are pathway programs at helping humber, your school or programs to meet enrolment goals? 6. what strategies does your school/programs use to promote pathway opportunities? a. how effective are these strategies? b. what role do your program coordinators and faculty play in promoting pathway opportunities? 7. in general, what contributes to the success of a pathway student? 8. what more could humber do to best support our pathway students? program coordinator interview questions 1. how long have you been teaching at humber? 2. what are the pathway opportunities to/from your program(s)? 3. based on the definition provided, would the program(s) you currently teach/coordinate be considered a feeder program (students from your program transition to other programs after completion) or a receiver program (students transition into your program)? a. which programs are feeders (f)? which programs are receivers (r)? 4. how effective are pathways in helping students to reach their educational and employment goals? 13 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. do you believe students in a pathway program that move to a higher credential have an advantage or disadvantage compared with non-pathway students? feeder: to what extent/how frequently do students in the _f_ program transition into the _r_ program? receiver: a) with regards to the _f_ to _r_ pathway, what are your perceptions about the academic preparedness of pathway students entering into the _r_ program? b) how does their preparedness compare with that of other non-pathway students? c) what strategies do you use to help pathway students meet the academic demands of your program? a) how would you describe the social adjustment of pathway students who enter the _r_ program? b) how does their social adjustment compare with that of other non-pathway students? c) what strategies do you use to help the adjustment process of pathway students? all: in general, how effective are pathway programs at helping your program/school to meet enrolment goals? 10. what strategies do you use to promote pathway opportunities? 11. in general, what contributes to the success of a pathway student? 12. what more could humber do to best support our pathway students? faculty interview questions 1. how long have you been teaching at humber? 2. what are the pathway opportunities to/from your program(s)? 3. based on the definition provided, would the program(s) you currently teach in be considered a feeder program (students from your program transition to other programs after completion) or a receiver program (students transition into your program)? a. which programs are feeders (f)? which programs are receivers (r)? 4. how effective are pathways in helping students to reach their educational and employment goals? 5. do you believe students in a pathway program that move to a higher credential have an advantage or disadvantage compared with non-pathway students? 14 6. 7. 8. 9. feeder: to what extent/how frequently do students in the _f_ program transition into the _r_ program? receiver: a) with regards to the _f_ to _r_ pathway, what are your perceptions about the academic preparedness of pathway students entering into the _r_ program? b) how does their preparedness compare with that of other non-pathway students? c) what strategies or approaches do you use to help pathway students meet the academic demands of your program? a) how would you describe the social adjustment of pathway students who enter the _r_ program? b) how does their social adjustment compare with that of other non-pathway students? c) what strategies do you use to help the adjustment process of pathway students? all: what strategies do you use to promote pathway opportunities? 10. in general, what contributes to the success of a pathway student? 11. what more could humber do to best support our pathway students? 15 appendix b online survey questions 1. how long have you been teaching at humber? 2. what is your current teaching status? 3. what diploma/advanced diploma programs receive advanced standing in your degree program (ie., what pathways are associated with your degree program)? 4. are you able to identify students in your class(es) that received advanced standing (ie., pathway students)? 5. how are you able to identify pathway students in your class(es)? 6. how do pathway students compare to non-pathway students on the following academic aspects: more skilled than non-pathway students equally skilled to non-pathway students less skilled than non-pathway students i dont know / not applicable quality of course work/ assignments writing skills math skills research skills content/foundational knowledge please add any additional comments here: 7. how do pathway students compare to non-pathway students on the following social aspects: less skilled than non-pathway students participate in collaborative/group work make social connections with classmates engage with faculty please add any additional comments here: 16 equally skilled to non-pathway students more skilled than non-pathway students i dont know / not applicable

indigenous learning outcomes outcome knowledge skills attitudes 1. relate principles of indigenous knowledge to career field cosmos/creation stories decision-making by consensus pimatisiwin principles justice traditional dispute resolution traditional medicines 1.1. examine the key elements of north american indigenous and western worldviews 1.2. investigate indigenous approaches to decision making 1.3. compare indigenous and euro-canadian approaches to justice 1.4. examine traditional approaches to health and wellness 1.5. relate principles of indigenous knowledge to community wellness appreciate the importance of historical context recognize and respect peoples diversity openness to individual differences be socially responsible and contribute to your community willingness to learn values lifelong learning 2. analyze the impact of colonialism on indigenous communities post-colonial theory and decolonization marginalization and dispossession of indigenous communities residential school experiences agricultural displacement of indigenous farming families self-determination principles 2.1. contrast perceptions of colonialism 2.2. relate colonial policies to contemporary indigenous contexts 2.3. analyze examples of assimilationist policies in relation to indigenous families 2.4. analyze contemporary assertions of indigenous sovereignty, selfdetermination and sustainability appreciate the importance of historical context recognize and respect peoples diversity openness to individual differences be socially responsible and contribute to your community willingness to learn values lifelong learning 3. explain the relationship between land and identity within indigenous societies principle of responsibility among indigenous societies the anishnaabe seven grandfather teachings connection between land and identity 3.1. apply concepts of responsibility to community development 3.2. create a code of ethics based on the anishnaabe seven grandfather teachings 3.3. relate examples of oral tradition of indigenous people in relation to the land 3.4. investigate the significance of traditional ecological knowledge appreciate the importance of historical context recognize and respect peoples diversity openness to individual difference be socially responsible and contribute to your community willingness to learn values lifelong learning 4. compare indigenous and canadian perceptions of inclusion and diversity demographics: local, regional, provincial, national indigenous views of inclusion colonialism, settler governments and immigration multiculturalism in canada social change 4.1. examine inclusion and diversity from an indigenous perspective 4.2. analyze canadian perceptions of inclusion and diversity 4.3. explain the effect of canadas multicultural policies on indigenous people 4.4. examine theories of social change appreciate the importance of historical context recognize and respect peoples diversity openness to individual differences be socially responsible and contribute to your community willingness to learn values lifelong learning indigenous learning outcomes indigenous learning outcomes outcome knowledge skills attitudes 5. analyze racism in relation to indigenous peoples government legislation constitutional recognition of indigenous peoples the canadian charter of rights and freedoms representation and the media the meaning of privilege 5.1. investigate the concept of racism 5.2. analyze legislation and government policies related to racism 5.3. examine current and historical examples of racism in relation to indigenous peoples 5.4 examine common misrepresentations of indigenous people 5.5. analyze the concept of privilege appreciate the importance of historical context recognize and respect peoples diversity openness to individual differences be socially responsible and contribute to your community willingness to learn values lifelong learning 6. generate strategies for reconciling indigenous and canadian relations political discourse between indigenous people and various levels of government political advocacy by indigenous leaders and communities truth and reconciliation commission approaches to indigenous community development and partnerships 6.1. describe current formalized approaches to reconciliation 6.2. analyze the effects of the truth and reconciliation commission of canada 6.3. distinguish between selfdetermination and selfgovernance 6.4. formulate strategies towards the reconciliation of indigenous and canadian relations appreciate the importance of historical context recognize and respect peoples diversity openness to individual differences be socially responsible and contribute to your community willingness to learn values lifelong learning 7. formulate approaches for engaging indigenous community partners indigenous community organizations ethical approach to working with indigenous communities individual and community needs alternative approaches that reflect community development principles 7.1. appreciate the importance of historical context recognize and respect peoples diversity openness to individual differences be socially responsible and contribute to your community willingness to learn values lifelong learning 7.2. 7.3. 7.4. examine local community organizations and resources analyze indigenous community partnerships examine approaches for working with indigenous communities prepare a principled approach to working with indigenous partners indigenous learning outcomes

project snapshot developing pathways in the area of cybersecurity type: pathway development project number: 2020-22 or p2022 project lead: university of ottawa collaborators: algonquin college, carleton university, collge la cit project summary the four partner institutions are already working together as part of the education city initiative, a project that aims to examine the possibility of collaboratively developing an innovative model that provides educational experiences focusing on developing human skills, foundation knowledge and applied competencies related to the chosen field of work in the ottawa area. building on this collaboration as well as their existing expertise and programs in the field of cybersecurity, the four institutions seek to establish reciprocal transfer pathways (collegeuniversity and university-college) in order to enhance student mobility in the ottawa area in this emerging and increasingly important field of study. outcomes the desire to create a bilingual micro-program between the four institutions, based on the strengths of each institution and their complementarity. key steps reviewing the curricula has shown that credits cannot be recognized between the colleges and the universities. however, each institution has strengths in the field of cybersecurity, which are complementary. the working group hopes to explore the possibility of creating a bilingual microprogram between the four institutions. challenges there have been two key challenges. first, the engineering program accreditation standards make the recognition of credits difficult. then, in the universities, students who courses are in third or fourth year and those courses have prerequisites for which credit equivalency cannot be achieved with the colleges. tips/advice when reviewing curricula, do not think only about the recognition of credits, but also try to see how other types of pathways could be developed.

oncat transfer data working group overview oncat is committed to working with postsecondary institutions to inform data reporting processes, including collecting and measuring key transfer student data. oncat is developing a working group, where oncat can share its approaches and methodologies for establishing baselines in key areas including: time-to-completion, excess credits, in-demand pathways and first-year transferability. the working group will help inform these methodologies and their use in transfer data reporting. purpose the transfer data working group will serve as an important advisory body to oncat, related to the development of data reporting approaches and transfer system metrics. this includes: examining proposed metrics relating to measuring time-to-completion for transfer students, in-demand pathways, first-year transferability, and how they may intersect with existing institutional metrics (e.g., for sma). examining oncats proposed metrics calculation methodology and provides recommendations to oncat to ensure alignment with existing methodology for deriving similar metrics. reviewing oncats preliminary calculations, provides feedback on data issues (e.g., sector-wide issues) affecting the quality of the metrics. recommend alternatives for data quality improvements. providing input to oncats research plan relating to transfer student success. membership the transfer data working group will comprise a mix of representatives from publicly assisted postsecondary institutions working in institutional enrollment, research and planning related departments. ideal candidates will have direct responsibility working with enrollment data (or more specifically transfer student related data), analysis and institutional reporting (collection, analysis, interpretation) at their institution . meetings the transfer data working group will begin meeting in november 2022 around some of the key priority metrics. this includes approaches to calculating time-to-completion, in-demand pathways and first year transferability. we anticipate the data working group will meet 4-6 times per year, to be determined with the committee. the initial term will be one year, with possibility of extension. how to join 1. there is a brief expression of interest form, you can access here 2. please submit your expression of interest by november 7, 2022. if you have any questions, please reach out to: melinda cheng, senior data analyst, mcheng@oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario

appel de propositions parcours daccs au postsecondaire pour les tudiants touchs par la pandmie prsentez une demande pour cette occasion de financement visant soutenir laccs lenseignement postsecondaire et favoriser la reprise scolaire aprs la pandmie. aperu le caton souhaite collaborer avec les tablissements denseignement postsecondaire afin de favoriser laccs au postsecondaire pour les tudiants qui pourraient avoir besoin dune aide supplmentaire dans leur transition en raison des perturbations ducatives subies pendant la pandmie. cela comprend les parcours daccs au postsecondaire pour les tudiants qui rencontrent des obstacles historiques et continus lenseignement postsecondaire. ces parcours daccs et de reprise la suite de la pandmie aideront les tudiants rattraper leur apprentissage et russir leur transition vers le postsecondaire. dans le cadre de ce financement, le caton sintresse aux projets qui intgrent : des parcours daccs lenseignement postsecondaire pour les tudiants qui ont t touchs par la pandmie, en particulier les communauts dtudiants qui rencontrent des obstacles continus laccs lenseignement postsecondaire qui ont t exacerbs par la pandmie. stratgies de soutien la reprise scolaire des tudiants touchs par la pandmie qui permettent ltudiant dobtenir des crdits postsecondaires. des programmes danne de transition, des passerelles et des parcours de transfert avec dautres tablissements, afin daider les tudiants touchs par la pandmie commencer leurs tudes et faire la transition vers les programmes de leur choix. les propositions qui permettent aux tudiants de transfrer vers plusieurs programmes dans plus dun tablissement postsecondaire seront privilgies. admissibilit les tablissements postsecondaires de lontario bnficiant dun financement public (collges, universits et tablissements autochtones) peuvent prsenter une demande. les demandes peuvent provenir dtablissements individuels ou dinitiatives de collaboration. funding available prsentez votre demande au projet de transparence des transferts du caton avant le 21 dcembre 2022 pour la premire cohorte de financement. les subventions slvent gnralement entre 10 000 $ et 100 000 $. des subventions plus importantes peuvent tre envisages en fonction de la porte du projet. prsenter une demande pour consulter les lignes directrices sur le budget des projets, cliquez ici. oncat is funded by the government of ontario

8/31/2018 university to college remediation understanding challenges and effectiveness glenn harvell, jennifer percival, alena shah and joe stokes introduction this research project is the third phase of a general arts and science retention pathway developed by uoit/dc under project 2015-23. for this reflective research paper we collected, analyzed, and interpreted both quantitative and qualitative data about the diploma and degree retention pathway program (gas-s), with a focus on exploring and describing the experiences of participants, their choices with respect to continuing at either durham college or uoit, and their subsequent performance. we also discuss lessons learned from this research in the hopes that it will be used to inform the development of future pathways and additional learning supports for students. review of the literature some students in higher education do not persist to graduation, or indeed beyond the first year of study, departing early from academic study for cognitive, social, an institutional factors (swail, 2004). this problem of undergraduate student retention has both plagued higher education institutions, and been prevalent in higher education research for decades (tinto, 2006). researchers have dedicated their focus to why students in higher education fail to complete their program of study, and how institutions can modify/change their approach to reduce the amount of attrition faced by first year cohorts moving into second year; increasing the institutions retention (tinto, 2006). this research has also led to a paradigm shift in how institutions perceive students who fail and what the institutions role is to lessen the chances of that happening. early research (pre 1970s) into why students do not persist to graduation often focused on what the student was lacking, whether that was certain attributes, skills or motivation, to explain why student retention was low (tinto 2006, 1987). much of this early literature mischaracterizes students who have departed from higher education, and from that mischaracterization, a profile of a stereotypical dropout was posited to explain why a student was not retained (tinto, 2006, 1987; astin, 1984). this profile highlighted that students who did not persist to graduation were assumed to be less able, less motivated, and less willing (tinto, 2006, p.2) than their peers who persisted and went on to obtain a degree. this mindset often put the responsibility of student persistence solely on the student and absolved the institution of any responsibility when it came to a student being successful in higher education. as tinto (2006) noted, the students failed, not the institutions (p.2). in the 1970s research on student retention and persistence saw a shift, with new research focusing on not only what the student needed to do to persist, but also what institutions need to do to support students in order for them to be successfully retained. researchers began to look at how a student interacts (or engages) with the institutions environment, both academic and nonacademic and what the connection may be to student retention (astin 1975, 1984; pascarella, 1980; pascarella & terezini 1980). research has since found that student engagement in targeted, meaningful activities, both inside and outside of the classroom, contributes to the persistence and retention of students in higher education (tinto, 2006; kuh, cruce, shoup, kinzie & gonvea, 2008; schroeder, 2013). for activities to be meaningfully engaging, institutions have to take a student-centered approach when developing learning activities, institution wide policies, procedures and co-curricular programming (tinto, 2006; kuh, kuh, kinzie, schuh, whitt & assoc, 2005; kuh, et al. 2008; schroeder, 2013). the student-centered approach means considering a mix of different facets of a students identity/background upon entering the institution such as: race, ethnicity, first generation status, financial responsibilities, familial responsibilities, commuter vs. non-commuter, etc. (tinto, 2006; kuh et al. 2005, 2008; schroeder, 2013) when planning academic and co-curricular endeavors for the student. from the 1970s onwards, acknowledgement of student involvement/engagement as a key contributor to the likelihood that a student persists continues to permeate literature on student retention. researchers noted that student engagement activities must be planned intentionally and responsive to what the student needs both academically and non-academically (tinto, 1987, 2006; kuh et al. 2005, 2008; schroeder, 2013). the focus then became on what kind of engagement opportunities an institution should provide in the hopes of boosting their student retention, with the focus being in primarily three areas: curricular, co-curricular and administrative. research has shown that intentional curricular student engagement opportunities have assisted in promoting persistence in first-year students (tinto, 1987, 2006; kuh et al. 2005, 2008). while each institutions student body context is different, institutions who understand who their students are and engage them in their academic journey, see higher rates of retention among first-year students (kuh et al. 2005). chickering & zelda, (1999) highlight several ways to harness a students engagement towards academic endeavors, for example, increasing and encouraging student-faculty interactions, both outside and inside the classroom. also, creating learning spaces that promote collaboration between students and encourage active learning. providing feedback in a timely fashion so a student has the opportunity to seek assistance and highlighting the importance of time management and organization. lastly, faculty set clear expectations of the course and activities and create learning environments that acknowledge the diverse range of learners and skills sets within their classroom (e.g. not relying solely on exams to assess a students academic capability). these are just some of the ways institutions are engaging their students in a meaningful and intentional way with the hopes of encouraging them to persist. in addition to heightening student engagement within their academics, institutions that adapt their administrative policies, procedures and student services to better respond to their first-year student cohort tend to see an increase in student retention and persistence. a student-centered approach to policies, procedures and student service programming meant that institutions were now using their understanding of who their students are when modifying or creating them (tinto, 1987, 2006; kuh et al. 2005, 2008). a way to adapt policies and procedures that govern students is to look at different processes students encounter, such as course availability and scheduling, reconfiguring space to enhance coordination of academic supports, eliminating bottlenecks in institutional service areas (such as the bookstore) that can cause frustration (schroeder, 2013). student service programming such as orientation, mentoring, and peer events, that actively engage a student by giving them choice and responsibility are more likely to better perform through-out first year but only if these programs have been created/customized to fit the students needs; just having the services available is not enough (kuh et al. 2005). current research acknowledges that having student engagement approaches to both academic and administrative process, policies and programs has assisted with student retention. however, an overarching universal implementation framework still does not exist. tinto (2006) highlights that a considerable amount research has been done around what students need to persist (they need to be engaged in their institution), however, what it still does not tell institutions is how to go about enhancing the engagement they currently have. recent studies (kuh et al. 2005, 2008; schroeder, 2013; chickering & zelda, 1999; zhao & kuh, 2004) have been able to provide examples of what academic and administrative engagement activities can look like, however, an institution wide model on how to implement these activities is still not clear. for example, orientation is an activity commonly cited to help students persist to second-year when planned intentionally and is student-centered. while we know what activity the student may need (orientation), a universal institutional guideline as to how to implement orientation programming to enhance the persistence of all first-year students is still elusive (tinto, 2006). research into a universal intuition-wide student success framework, is still lacking, but researchers are still optimistic about the possibilities of increasing student engagement and retention on campus. several studies have demonstrated how student engagement strategies and activities have enhanced student retention, albeit through institution specific approaches (kuh et al 2005; schroeder 2013; tinto 2016). what does appear to be at the core of these individual success stories, or the common thread that links them, is that each institution took the time to understand their students needs when trying to answer how best to engage them. this engagement may look different at each institution but all have grounds in student-centered approaches that are based off the needs and challenges that their specific student populations face. there may not be a universal, institutional student engagement model that will guarantee student success, but institutions can still bridge this gap by researching who their students are, what they do, and why they are coming to higher education. research has shown that institutions that have a deep understanding of their student, and using that information to plan engagement activities (both academic and co-curricular) have a greater rate of success when retaining students past first-year. with this guiding principle in mind we undertook the development, implementation and modification of a student focused program for academic remediation between a community college and a university. this program dubbed the general arts and science success program, or simply, gas-s was created to allow for greater student success through increased engagement and academic remediation. program design and context some first year university students are at risk of achieving success due to a lack of preparedness for university level academics. currently, the majority of these students end up suspended and do not pursue additional education. the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) and durham college (dc) have collaborated to develop the gas-s program, an alternative pathway from suspension. the pathway allows students successful in gas-s to be eligible to earn a general arts and science certificate concurrently with the continuation of their university degree after suspension. the pathway specifically addresses life skills related to academic success and communication to improve the students preparedness for returning to academia in the fall without losing valuable time towards obtaining their academic goals. while some causes for not achieving success are indeed academic in nature, it was found that the majority of poorly performing students are encountering difficulties due to other issues. these issues include exam anxiety, lack of study skills, long commutes, need to work, schedule conflicts, poor time management, family commitments, financial crisis, stress, loss, or other issues that impose a social or personal burden upon the student. before university, the students were relatively unprepared for the transition, and these issues were not familiar to them. hence, the student has to deal with academia and new life situations at the same time. in the academic success pathway, students that have been suspended from uoit will be given the opportunity to enter a durham college program (gas-s) that will address academic success related deficiencies. the students will undergo an assessment process to identify their specific needs and will have access to academic advisors at both institutions for guidance. upon successfully completing the program, the student returns to university with a position reserved in their program of study allowing for a semester reduction in the time lost due to suspension. the program includes four core courses and two electives to maintain the academic pace expected at the university level. the core courses are academic success, a double-weighted fundamentals of communications course, and a math fundamentals course. in the academic success course, the students concentrate on improving their life skills with particular focus on time management, study skills, responsibility and financial management. the double communication course is essentially one course on individual communication and one course on group communication. the course cover fundamental literacy, verbal and written communication and comprehension but also focuses on communicating with authority and self-advocacy. the math fundamentals course is expected to ensure numeracy skills are present for day-to-day success. the two electives are selected in consultation with the students university academic advisor to provide improved preparation for their specific academic program. this program allows the student to focus on other academic deficiencies upon their return to uoit. the program also allows the student to recognize that they are not in the right program or at the right academic level and thus may choose to transfer to a diploma program at the college or apply to switch university programs during the remedial semester. regardless of the pathway taken, the student is provided the opportunity to be successful in obtaining the academic education that they are most suited for. methodology now entering its third cohort, the gas-s program has helped a number of students remediate academically, and return to university study while allowing others to pursue a college diploma or non-academic pursuits. this study will explore three areas to understand better the efficacy of the gas-s program on student success across two cohorts: 1) academic performance (gpa) and student persistence associated with programmatic outcomes, 2) student surveys that explore attitudinal responses to the program design and its ability to augment student success, and 3) student, faculty and administrator focus groups that centered on student responsiveness to learning outcomes and general success criteria. academic performance to review student academic performance individual course grades and aggregate gpa were compared. starting with initial grade performance at the university, performance in the gas-s summer program and grades achieved for those who were eligible to return to the university after remediation. these data sets were compared to look for correlation in individual course disciplines, and overall academic performance. survey administration during the summer gas-s session a survey was administered to the remedial cohort. the survey questions can be grouped into the following categories: category who the student is # of questions 10 self-perception 8 behaviours 5 comments questions are related to domestic/international, age, dependents, 1st gen., where they live, with whom, etc. questions are related to academic confidence in math, writing, and computer skills, physical ability, creativity, emotion health, drive and determination questions are related to engaging in class, reviewing their work, exploring on their own, accepting lessons learned contacts 9 emotions 7 extra-curricular activities course observations 5 work activities 4 self-evaluation 2 challenges 3 other activities 7 services 11 how to fix 1st year 1 hope for gas-s 1 8 questions are related to who are their contacts for academic help such as professors, tas, advisors, friends, parents, siblings questions are related to loneliness, feelings on unsafe, worry about health, interference with school, family and advisor support questions are related to being in a club, athletics, campus radio, sorority, fraternity questions are related to late assignments, skipped classes, fall asleep in class, witness to academic dishonesty, playing video games questions are related to hours of work, commute time, time on homework, and housework questions are related to how the student perceives themselves academically questions are related to ease or difficulty of developing skills, adjusting to academic demands, or developing friendships questions are related to being bored in class, consumption of alcohol, feeling overwhelmed, depressed, money to family, healthy diet and adequate sleep questions are related to use of academic and nonacademic services on campus for help such as math support, esl, health services, counselling, writing, student accessibility services, advising, peer mentor programs, etc. students were asked to provide their thoughts on how to fix their first year experience students were asked to identify their hope for the gas-s program table 1: survey questions grouped by theme focus groups a total of four sets of focus groups were used in this study. the first focus group involved gas-s students after they had completed the survey but before they completed the gas-s program. the second focus group involved university staff, mainly the academic advisors held several months after completion of the gas-s program. the third focus group involved college staff, instructors and advisors around the same time as the second focus group. the fourth focus group was held one month after the launch of the third gas-s program delivery. this focus group was not originally planned. the group included a small set of academic advisors most closely involved with the students and the gas-s program; the purpose was to determine the reason for the apparent change in gas-s interest. for the student focus group, the following five questions were asked: 1. what challenges have you/did you encounter while at university? 2. tell us about your decision to enter the gas-s program?(main influence/objective) 3. what did you like about the gas-s program? 4. what services or resources did you find helpful while in gas-s and when you return to the university? 5. what suggestions do you have to improve the gas-s program? the second and fourth focus group contained participation of several academic advisors from all faculties with students participating in the program. these groups were asked the following questions: 1. what challenges have you seen students encounter while at university? 2. tell us about your decision to recommend the gas-s program? (influence/objective) 3. what did you like about the gas-s program? 4. what services do you believe would help the students when they return to university? 5. what suggestions do you have to improve gas-s? the focus group for the durham college staff, faculty and advisors were asked the following questions: 1. what challenges did you see that the students encountered while in the gas-s program? 2. what type of student is the gas-s program successful for? 3. what do you like about the gas-s program? 4. what services are helpful to the gas-s student? discussion academic performance an analysis was performed of all of the courses for students that were facing suspension from the university, and eligible for the gas-s program. figure 1 shows the distribution of all gas-s students (first and second cohorts) with respect to the course discipline code (ex. chem, or bio) noting that students may take more than one course or different courses within that code. the discipline code analysis shows that the courses where the students had the most difficulty were business, chemistry, engineering, math, social science, and physics. these disciplines are core courses for the degree programs which students are enrolled, and as such are normally expected to be their area of strength. the distribution of the marks within these disciplines are shown in figure 2. while these at-risk students do struggle in these core courses, figure 2 shows that it is not uniform for all students. some of the students are clearly excelling in some of their courses, while struggling in others. they demonstrate that they can do the material, but the collective effort across all of their courses is weak. this suggests that the material alone is not likely the main problem and this supports the theory that the students are progressing with difficulty due to non-academic matters. 100 frequency distribution of subject_code 200 150 50 0 hy xp t a st ci ss i c so yc ps c s po 1 y ph rs nucl nu ce e m th a m s l lg fr in t s hs c s hl st hi n m gr ci fs s v en r g en l g en n o ec i c csem chps cdsi bu l o bi th n a su l a dt e a subject code figure 1: distribution of students having difficulty with respect to their course code. term 201601 - grades sorted by subject code and course title (term freq=4) 80 final grade numeric value 70 60 50 40 30 y h xp ci ss i c so c y ps sc po s r u n cl u n h t a m fr in t ss h c ls h t is h ci fs s v en r g en l g en n o ec ci cs m e ch s p cd si bu l o bi h t n a u ls a t ed a subject code figure 2: mark distribution of students that progress with difficulty first cohort (summer 2016) the 2016 gas-s cohort was a pilot project with limited seats available. all spots were limited to those students that were 1st year and suspended. not all students that participated in this cohort returned to university. for those that did, an analysis was done to determine their effectiveness in the fall courses compared to their marks obtained in the gas-s program. the data was assessed for all faculties involved to determine if there were any programmatic trends. the results indicate that of those that returned, approximately half were successful in obtain a grade point average (gpa) of 2.0 or greater which is the minimum for clear academic standing, as shown in figure 3. the faculties were mixed between those that succeeded and those that did not. the one outlier being the faculty of health science where great success was observed. further investigation revealed that this increase in success for some faculties was largely due to students transferring to another program in another faculty. some students transferred to either business or social science programs and in doing so obtained a significant increase in their gpa. note that it was common for students entering the gas-s program to request information about how to change programs. one interesting observation is that business students were more modest in their success relative to science and engineering students. returning success by original faculty 4.5 4 3.5 all eng sci busi hsci ssh 0.5 1 uoit fall gpa 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 dc gpa figure 3: grade point average for the first cohort of gas-s students that returned to the university the success rate for the first cohort (2016) was reasonable but not as high as expected. many students did not return to the university or the college. for the second cohort (2017), an analysis of the grades in the gas-s program was done. the results are shown in figure 4. the grades were high for the academic success course and both communication courses with a marked increase in performance for the second communication course. the math and chemistry courses were also reasonable. the remainder of the electives however, were lower grades. in particular, the performance of business students in the management course was very poor. the electives are playing a role in the overall performance. this may be due to the students seeing the electives as less important. there was an incorrect perception that to return to the university, core courses count more than electives. second cohort (summer of 2017) the second gas-s cohort was more engaged in the program than the first cohort. the attendance was higher and the student survey responses showed that if they went to class, they participated in the survey. the number of students that returned to the university from the second cohort was approximately the same number of students that completed the survey. of the 64 that returned to uoit in the fall of 2017, 20 of the students did not perform sufficiently well to persist to the winter term. while this suggests gas-s was not helpful for these students, it is suspected that these students had issues that could not be easily solved even by employing the skills learned in gas-s, or that they were not as engaged in the program. another factor that may have contributed to the lack of student persistence, is that some students wanted to switch to another uoit program but were not able to. figure 4: distribution of grades in the gas-s program for the second cohort usually at uoit when a student returns from probation or suspension, they are strongly advised to repeat courses for which they have a d (gpa 1.0) or f (gpa <1.0) on the transcript. the fastest way to get into clear standing is to eliminate such courses from the cumulative gpa calculation, as a repeated course with a better grade replaces the previous mark. experience before gas-s is that most students will not repeat earlier courses unless mandated to do so. examining the grades before and after for those students that did persist to the winter term shows that approximately half of them retook courses that had a d and thus resulted in a significant improvement in their gpa. this showed an increased understanding of their actual situation in regards to academic standing. figure 5 shows the change in their annual gpa from before gas-s to after gas-s. in the pre-gass phase, all the annual gpas were less than 2.0 with the majority being between 1 and 1.5. students with extremely low gpas (<0.5) were not encouraged to enter the gas-s program in the second cohort. the gas-s histogram for this cohort is peaked at the highest marks. this is not surprising as you needed to get marks in this range to return to the university and doing well in gas-s is expected to result in stronger performance at the university. the annual gpa for the second cohort that completed the winter term is very encouraging. only six students achieved a gpa less than 2.0 and all of those cases were very close to 2.0. the majority of the students obtained an average closer to 3.0 that puts them into the b- range with a significant percentage in the a range. the gas-s program is clearly successful for those students that engaged in the program. considering that some students elected to stay at the college as well, the program was also successful in helping students identify where they need to go. figure 5: gpa distribution for university successful students both before and after the gas-s program second cohort survey the survey was provided to those students in the second cohort while they were in class. while 134 students entered the gas-s program in the second cohort, class attendance was closer to 65 students. a total of 44 students completed the survey suggesting that the survey results are indicative of those that attended class and engaged in class activities. all of the students were domestic with a 60/40 male/female split. 75% of the students were of an age consistent with 1st year students and the remainder represented some of the higher year students that were allowed to take the program in the second delivery. the majority of the students lived in an owned home with their family and very few attended residence. the majority also were funding their studies with loans and reported feeling secure in their funding that money was not a concern. with respect to self-perception, the students classified themselves as average or above average regardless of whether the issue was math, writing, computer skills, or physical ability. there was a significant percentage that identified as having high creativity, a strong emotional health, and to a lesser extent a strong drive and determination. essentially, the group of students that answered the survey did not see any significant weaknesses in their academic ability or selfworth. with respect to behaviours, the students only occasionally asked questions in class. they did however put effort into reviewing their own work, exploring their topics (library, internet), and sought feedback after class, and accept their mistakes as part of the learning process. regarding student-faculty or student-administration contact, the students contacted professors once or twice a month, teaching assistants once a week, and academic advisors approximately twice a term. the students contacted close friends often but usually those friends were outside their program or not at this university. there was also daily contact with family and siblings for the majority of the students. with respect to emotions, there was no clear trend for loneliness. there were no concerns regarding campus safety, or health worries. job interference, was a concern to approximately half of the students. family responsibilities are interfering with several of the students academic work yet it was also evident that there was strong family support for their success. there was also strong support from the faculty and academic advisors at both institutions. as for extra-curricular activities, the survey shows that a few students did join student clubs but essentially there were limited extra-curricular activities on campus over the summer. those that did join student clubs are clearly a minority. regarding course observations, students rarely skipped class or fell asleep in class. few received help though dc tutoring services and many studied with other gas-s students. they did not witness academic dishonesty, and only a few played video games/social media during class. work activities were split, and 50% of the students did not work during the academic year. the remainder worked 11 to 30 hours per week. the majority commuted 4-20 hours per week. 55% spent less than 12 hours a week on homework. 50% spent less than 6 hours on housework per week and the remainder spent 6-18 hours on housework per week. these results suggest the group is usually active doing some activity such as jobs or housework, and that the homework time is reduced because of these activities. when asked regarding the cause of their suspension, the majority of students responded that they were either not prepared for the material or that more study time was required than they expected it to be. the majority of students found that understanding the professors expectations were relatively easy but it was not as easy to develop effective study skills or adjust to the academic demands of the university. the majority also found it relatively easy to make friends which is a surprising result, since from other responses the students indicate that they did not utilize friends in their uoit program for assistance. the majority of the students occasionally found the work boring. a high majority also felt overwhelmed and more than 50% felt occasionally depressed even though the majority also claimed that they were healthy and were getting adequate sleep. more than half support their family with money. with respect to uoit services, essentially they were not used by the students. the sole exception was the uoit academic advisors where 60% of the students reported using their service. when asked regarding how to improve the uoit first-year experience, there was a large variety of responses with no clear concentration. the responses ranged from do nothing, its on the student, to help students understand the services better and make the courses easier to complete. when asked about their hopes for the gas-s program, there were two typical responses. the first was to pass and return to the university for about 60% of the students. the remainder were mostly interested in improving their skill set. focus groups student focus group. although student participation in the survey was very good, student participation in the focus groups was extremely poor and the findings are not statistically significant. despite choosing times optimal for them and offering free food of their choice, the students demonstrated a lack of interest in participating beyond the actual classroom. despite that, the feedback was uniform. the key challenge was time. whether they lost time due to extensive commutes (up to 3 hours to get to school), or family commitments/expectations when they got home, or work commitments, the students agreed that there was no time to do anything outside the classroom. the commitment to these activities exceeded the expectations of the uoit program of study for the time need to spend on homework. the transit issue was raised with the university and an independent study confirmed that the transit times for commuter students were significant, even for those nearby, due to lack of busses, etc. the students also felt that the university environment was an isolated or individual environment while the college was more welcoming and personal, closer to their experience in high school. the main concern for gas-s programming was around scheduling. the students would rather have a full day at the college and have days off during the summer rather than come here for one class on a given day. similar comments have been made about the university schedules. the students also cautioned that their peers that did not attend the focus groups would likely say the opposite about the program and that there was a wide range of opinion on the usefulness of some of the courses, especially the electives. academic advisor focus group. the following challenges were identified: time management, balance course work with external commitments, effort required now more than high school. the advisors spend a significant amount of time helping students adjust schedules that fit with their job requirements and help reduce the workload to something students can handle. the key challenge for the advisors is that there are few tools to work with to help students, such as: insufficient summer courses to help a student catch up and encouraging a student to take lower course loads. recommending the gas-s program to the students was split as to why they would. some advisors recommended gas-s because there was no alternative other than suspension. some recommended the program as it was a useful carrot to help students advance, especially for those students that did not have extenuating circumstances for their lack of success. the advisors found that it was relatively easy to sell the program to the students, likely since there really was no alternative; the uoit appeal process is not fast enough, nor a guarantee, and suspension for one year is the other option. the advisors did like that there was now some option other than a full suspension. they also appreciated the option to transfer to the college. one of the key concerns was that the return to the university in the fall was not always helpful since the pre-requisites needed to start second year had not been completed and thus students were still delayed. while the intent of gas-s was to return students back to first year, for some programs, this does not necessarily provide an advantage as the courses they need to take are in the following semester at uoit. with respect to university services, the advisors felt that modifications to the existing services were necessary. the modifications were not to content but in how to match the student with the appropriate support. the key was to ensure that the students followed up with the advisor regularly so that they could help identify the appropriate supports. the main area for improvement to gas-s was to improve the method for identifying students that need it. diagnostics or interventions that can get the student into the advising office sooner to help guide them towards gas-s and ensure that the program is the right choice for them. there was also some interest in improving the number of elective options for the gas-s student to provide better success for them in the future. college focus group. the college instructors felt that some of the students saw gas-s as punishment and that it was difficult to get them to engage in the classroom, some did not have the fundamental skills expected from high school, and some did not understand the importance of study and soft skills. it took a significant amount of instructor feedback before the students realized they might not return to the university unless they engaged, then the students began to participate in the program. the focus group also advised that students had difficulty with the college culture and had a hard time getting the students out of the laptop mentality (university programs were laptop based). there was some engagement of students to attend support services but largely it was classroom participation only. language and comprehension issues were common yet esl support was hardly accessed. for some technical skills, such as math, it was determined that the students did know sufficient math skill but that they did not take studying those skills seriously. similar observations were made for the other technical skills. testing would be useful to help identify those students that were truly lacking in the fundamental skill. the students also had no significant ability at note taking. gas-s was considered successful for those students that truly wanted to engage. whether they have the fundamental skills or not was not so important. it was important that the student wanted to get more serious about their learning, and that they wanted to take ownership of their learning. gas-s was also useful for those students who did not know what they truly wanted. many discussions were held regarding which program they should be in when they return to the university. some do select the college but the attraction of a university degree appeared to be a driver that the college faculty and staff observed. the college staff and faculty liked that the program was a second chance and believe the true value of the program was engagement. students in the program have rich stories to tell regarding their experience that do come out once they fully engage. the faculty did feel that integration, or at least discussion, of the gas-s program amongst the different instructors would help produce a more cohesive program for the students. there was also an interest to strengthen the connections between the university advising groups and the college advising groups. with respect to services, the academic support unit (sals) in the college was useful to the students. especially for those that intended to stay in the college as the support continued after the summer and the students were more engaged. for university supports, the instructors and advisors felt that more opportunities to collaborate with various university support services would help them encourage the students to use those supports. second academic advising focus group. the final focus group with the university advising team was held after the launch of the third cohort for the gas-s program. the main reason for this was that the number of students interested in the gas-s program declined from the previous years and we needed to determine why. part of the decline appeared to be that some uoit programs no longer supported gas-s for their students. the numbers they had involved in gas-s were small and they preferred suspensions. another factor was a reduction in the effort to advertise and support the program, hence reduced awareness. several students informed the advisor that summer plans for work or travel were already in place and there was no interest in the summer program. others received feedback from upper-year students that stated the program was not useful. this is somewhat ironic since those students were successful through gas-s and able to return to their original program because of this success. it is not clear why these students believed the program was not useful. supposedly, the upper-year students claimed that time management and academic success were good but the rest of the courses were not helpful and that the loss of working for the summer did not justify the benefits they got from it. there was also a sense that not all students needed the entire program or it was not the right fit. while some obviously did, some only needed elements of the program or needed some other type of program. commonality across focus groups common amongst the focus groups was the idea that time is a critical factor. regardless of cause, the students are not succeeding in university due to a lack of time and the same phenomena occurs during the summer gas-s program limiting their ability to attend focus groups or support services. another common factor is engagement. gas-s works for those students that truly want to be in higher education. if they put the effort in, they get the right result. what is missing, is a diagnostic or method to assess that engagement and help the student understand why they are successful or not. finally, gas-s is not for everyone. it has resulted in remedial success for a significant number of students, but not all students benefited from this type of program. conclusions the literature supports that students who have greater involvement in on-campus and academic life will have a greater chance of success in higher education (kuh et al 2005; schroeder 2013; tinto 2016). involvement seemed to be a major factor in students who benefited from the gas-s program. in both cohorts, only a third of students persisted in academic progression after their course work, but those who did seemed to be the students who had higher participation levels in class, and who had reported higher feelings of self-efficacy. in the gas-s program, we observed challenges when there was a lack of engagement for many possible reasons. a significant number of students reported that they live at home with their family. they have family support but also family interference, including financial obligations. this group also has significant travel and housework issues affecting availability of time for study. a second group of students are likely commuters and have a job to help pay for their school since they do not live at home. they may not have family support or constraints but they do have a significant amount of time spent on day-to-day activities outside of class. in either case, it is possible that the amount of time spent on academic work is below the expectations of the program and that effective time management and study habits are an issue. another possible issue is that students were late to utilize university support services. it is clear from their attendance rates in orientation programming, and from the focus groups that the students are very aware the services exist. they do however, not fully understand the benefits and intricacies of the services. unfortunately, the survey instrument does not identify why this is the case, and this may be an area for future research. however, we may infer from the focus group feedback that time is a major factor; there is some indication that there just is simply not enough time available to use these support services. some students will benefit from a college remedial program that contributes to academic success upon returning to university, however, in the case of gas-s, this program helped a minority of students. moreover, the students that benefited the most were those that had higher levels of engagement. future program design may want to focus on engagement factors as well as academic remediation. references astin, a. (1984). student involvement: a developmental theory for higher education. journal of college student personnel, 25, 297-308. astin, a. (1975). preventing students from dropping out. san francisco: jossey-bass. chickering, a.w., & gamson, z.f. (1999). development and adaptations of the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. new directions for teaching and learning, 80, 7581. pascarella, e. (1980). student-faculty informal contact and college outcomes. review of educational research, 50, 545-595. pascarella, e., & terenzini, p. (1980). predicting freshmen persistence and voluntary dropout decisions from a theoretical model. journal of higher education, 51, 60-75. kuh, g. d., cruce, t. m., shoup, r., kinzie, j., & gonyea, r. m. (2008). unmasking the effects of student engagement on first-year college grades and persistence. the journal of higher education, 79(5), 540. kuh, g.d., kinzie, j., schuh, j.h., whitt, e.j. & associates (2005). student success in college: creating conditions that matter. san francisco: jossey-bass. schroeder, c. c., (2013). process and progress in action: examples of what works. new directions for higher education, 161, 71-80. swail, w. s. (2004). the art of student retention: a handbook for practitioners and administrators. virginia beach, va: education policy institute. tinto, v. (1987). leaving college: rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (1st ed). chicago: university of chicago press. tinto, v. (2006). research and practice of student retention: what next? journal of college student retention, 8(1), 1-19. zhao, c., & kuh, g. (2004). adding value: learning communities and student engagement. research in higher education, 45, 115-138.

ontario council on articulation and transfer 180 dundas street west, suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 tel: (416) 640-6951 fax: (416) 640-6959 www.oncat.ca request for proposal curriculum developer closing date: february 14th, 2022, 5:00 est closing location: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) suite 1902, 180 dundas street west toronto, on m5g 1z8 prepared by: ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) contact: carolyn poplak manager, sector engagement cpoplak@oncat.ca main (corporate) website: www.oncat.ca student-facing website: www.ontransfer.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario 1 contents oncat overview ........................................................................................................................................... 3 project overview ........................................................................................................................................... 3 curriculum development ............................................................................................................................... 4 scope of work ................................................................................................................................................ 4 budget ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 communication.............................................................................................................................................. 4 submission process ........................................................................................................................................ 5 proposal requirements .................................................................................................................................. 5 evaluation process ......................................................................................................................................... 6 evaluation criteria weighting ........................................................................................................................ 7 timelines & awards ....................................................................................................................................... 7 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 2 oncat overview established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's public colleges and universities, and indigenous institutes. alongside our members and stakeholders, we do this by: supporting projects aimed at creating and expanding credit transfer pathways and improving our understanding of student mobility and the student transfer experience; engaging ontario's regions and communities through facilitated groups; collecting credit transfer data and sharing resources; hosting events that bring together credit transfer experts from across the province; and, connecting students to transfer opportunities through ontransfer.ca. project overview in 2017, oncat launched the transfer advisor group (tag), a community of transfer advisors across the province addressing transfer issues that may impact students and exploring possible solutions. tag maintains an on-going dialogue on student mobility with a focus on promising practices and knowledge transfer across ontarios postsecondary institutions. to continue to support the work of those working in transfer advising, oncat recognizes that building a standard learning base is necessary to ensure cumulative and sustainable knowledge that will have a positive impact on the experience of transfer students. in alignment with oncats strategic priorities to build a mature transfer system with a focus on technological enhancement and knowledge mobilization, professionalizing transfer advising has the potential to enhance the capacity of institutions. the development of this curriculum will fall under the direction of the manager, sector engagement in consultation with the heads of transfer advising committee (hota). the standard learning base must recognize: 1. the different needs between institutions that are large and small, rural and urban, sending and receiving 2. the different institutional types (college, university, indigenous institute). 3. the transient nature of transfer roles in institutions 4. the needs of new versus more seasoned staff 5. the diversity of functions and responsibilities across (and within institutions) a body of senior transfer advisors met with oncat in december 2019, to discuss the next phase of this work and the building of formalized training and curriculum in transfer. in summary, the objectives include: oncat is funded by the government of ontario 3 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. professionalizing the occupation of transfer advising and its interrelated functions acknowledging the unique role of transfer advising in the advising continuum building transfer literacy and awareness among staff and students understanding transfer from a system perspective building on the knowledge and expertise within the sector supporting consistency in transfer-related work we are looking to integrate these objectives into a set of foundational modules. over time, we may expand content areas into a more in-depth training program. curriculum development oncats goal is an initial foundational online course on transfer for staff in postsecondary institutions in ontario. content areas include: 1. 2. 3. 4. communication coaching and advising transfer and articulation acumen technical literacy the successful candidate will develop the content and instructional design for these four distinct yet interrelated modules to form a core course. scope of work oncat is seeking an experienced adult education professional with expertise in curriculum development and implementation for industry professionals. the successful candidate will have knowledge of the ontario postsecondary landscape with expertise in transfer and pathway development. more specifically, the scope will include: 1. learning competencies: identify key elements of transfer advisor functions in relation to each content area. 2. modules and content: design and develop modules that serve transfer functions in the four areas as above. this includes learning plans, course outlines, lecture materials and educational resources. this will be done in collaboration with oncat and hota. 3. assessment and evaluation: assess how these competencies have been achieved. 4. communication: collaborate with the oncat team and hota to align content and materials with oncat strategic priorities. the elements listed above address our immediate needs with regards to curriculum development. future projects will explore the integration of this course into an instructional platform. budget oncat approximates a budget of $10,000 for the development of this course. communication all communication such as 1) requests for additional information, 2) clarification about the project oncat is funded by the government of ontario 4 and its scope, can be emailed to: cpoplak@oncat.ca all such rfp-related inquiries must be received no later than february 4th, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time. oncat will attempt to provide any assistance or additional information of a reasonable nature requested by interested consultants/consultancies. an aggregate faq will be provided by oncat on january 24, 2022, to all who submit proposals. submission process please review all sections of this rfp carefully and follow instructions as outlined. incomplete submissions will not be considered. 1. alternative approaches and/or methodologies to accomplish the desired or intended results of this procurement will be accepted. however, proposals that depart from or materially alter the terms, requirements, or scope of work defined by this rfp will be rejected. 2. all costs associated with developing or submitting a proposal (including an interview) in response to this rfp and/or in providing any additional information, which oncat considers necessary to evaluate the proposal shall be borne by the consultant/consultancy. oncat assumes no responsibility for such costs. 3. all pricing submitted will be considered fixed unless otherwise indicated herein. 4. all proposals should identify the consultant/consultancys proposed team of professionals, including those employed by subcontractors, if any, along with respective areas of expertise and relevant credentials. agencies should also provide a delineation of the portion of the scope of work for which each of these professionals will be responsible. 5. please advise us if you are able to work in both english and french. this will be considered an asset. consultants/consultancies are required to submit one (1) electronic copy of their proposal to: cpoplak@oncat.ca please ensure the subject line reads as follows: oncat cd proposal: [company name]. oncat will accept proposals on or before the closing date and time of february 14th, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. eastern standard time. proposals shall be irrevocable for any reason for a period of not less than sixty (60) calendar days following the closing date. all proposals submitted to oncat under this rfp document become the property of oncat. proposal requirements proposals must at a minimum contain the following: 1. contact information for the respondent. 2. description of the proposed approach and work plan. activities and timelines should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time oriented. include a timeline of major tasks and milestones. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 5 3. a detailed budget. 4. qualifications of the respondent to provide the requested services including capability, capacity, similarly complex projects in postsecondary education and/or related experience and examples. 5. a listing of the staff to be assigned to this project and their respective qualifications. 6. provide a description of the outcome monitoring and evaluation plan including a list of tools to track process, as well as output and outcome measures for each component of the application. evaluation process the evaluation process will include several stages. oncat reserves the right in its sole discretion to defer presenting any award or to cancel this proposal process at any time without providing reasons for such cancellation. stage 1 - mandatory requirements proposals will be reviewed for mandatory requirements and general compliance with the submission proposal requirements. submissions that do not meet the mandatory requirements may be disqualified. stage 2 - rank the evaluation the evaluation committee will evaluate and rank the written proposals, to identify the topranked consultants/consultancies to be invited to the presentation stage. stage 3 - selection the evaluation committee will complete the evaluation template, rank the proposals and select the preferred consultants/consultancies). consultants/consultancies may be called in for an interview. stage 4 negotiation prior to the award, oncat may negotiate changes to the scope of services (including pricing to meet budget) with consultants/consultancies identified in stage 3 for the best value option. references may be contacted. reference checks will be kept confidential. stage 5 - notice of award the successful consultant/consultancy will be notified in writing. all unsuccessful consultants/consultancies will be notified after a final agreement has been executed. oncat is funded by the government of ontario 6 evaluation criteria weighting overall experience of consultant/consultancy & qualifications of personal our evaluation will include an assessment of your experience as it relates to the requirements within this rfp, evidence of past performance, quality and relevance of past work, references, and related areas 40% scope of work overall approach and strategy described/outlined in the proposal and firm capacity to perform the engagement within the specified timeframe (prior experience of the firm in meeting timelines will be factored in here) as well as the quality and creativity of the proposed strategies 40% postsecondary sector knowledge assessment of consultant/consultancys knowledge of the complexities and functioning of psis and the postsecondary landscape will be taken into consideration here. 10% budget approach/cost effectiveness effective and efficient delivery of quality services is demonstrated in relation to the budget allocation. the allocation is reasonable and appropriate. 10% timelines & awards the work is expected to begin as soon as the award is made. project timelines* rfp release date january 17, 2022 written questions due february 4th, 2022, 5:00pm est aggregate response to questions february 7th, 2022 proposal deadline february 14th, 2022, 5:00pm est evaluation week of february 14th, 2022 selection and negotiation week of february 21st, 2022 notice of award week of february 21st, 2022 oncat is funded by the government of ontario 7

project snapshot pathway development in cinema and film type: pathway development project number: 2019-26 or p1926 project lead: university of ottawa collaborators: senior academic administrators, project coordinators, subjects matter experts and curriculum specialists at both algonquin college and the university of ottawa were involved in various discussions regarding the development of this collaboration. project summary with the recent approval for the development of a $40-million soundstage campus and creative hub in ottawa, the city will become an important player for both the local film industry as well as for canadian and international filmmakers. the increased opportunities to ottawas film industry (estimated 500 new full-time jobs in the film, tv and animation industry) will make the area of media & film a high-interest area of study in the region. this project supported the development of a collaborative program between algonquin colleges new program in film and media production and the university of ottawas ba with major in world cinemas and enhanced collaboration and transfer opportunities between the two institutions in the area of cinema and film. project rationale the development of a formal pathway between the two institutions will reduce barriers for students who are transferring in this area of study. students will benefit from taking courses both at the university, which provide theoretical, analytical and critical foundations, as well as at the college, which focus on practical training. they will also be able to obtain both a college and a university credential through this transfer model. outcomes the project aimed to enhance collaboration and transfer opportunities between the two institutions through the development of a viable transfer model. the proposed new program that is being developed is achieving that goal. the program builds on a similar collaborative model already in place between the two institutions. an articulation agreement between the two institutions formalizing this collaboration is another outcome we are working towards in this project. once the new program passes all necessary approval stages, a formal agreement will be developed to help implement and promote the new program. pathway(s) development key steps the exploration of this pathway built on the two previous collaborations the university of ottawa already has in place with algonquin college, which are all offered through the same department of the university of ottawa. subject matter experts from both institutions discussed the alignment between the two programs. as mentioned, the proposal of a new, collaborative program structure was also facilitated by the fact that a revision of the original university program was underway, and that the college program was still in development. pathways created we are proposing a collaborative ba program in film studies and production including two years of study at the university of ottawa and one intensive year of study at algonquin college (equivalent to two years). this model is similar to two other 2+2 collaborations between the two institutions that have been running successfully for the past ten years. challenges because the project led to the development of a new program, the timeline for the last part of the project, implementation of the pathway, is longer than anticipated. the project aimed to develop a reciprocal transfer model. while our existing 2+2 collaborative programs with algonquin college provide students with the opportunity to start either at the college or at the university, the proposed program structure starts at the university and finishes at the college. this was determined to be the optimal sequence to ensure students obtain the best practical and theoretical experience needed at the end of all sessions of study. student outcomes students will benefit from taking courses both at the university, which provide theoretical, analytical and critical foundations, as well as at the college, which focus on practical training. the proposed program will also allow students to obtain both a college and a university credential in a shorter amount of time. student credential this pathway will led to a new program, in collaboration between algonquin college and the university of ottawa. courses will be followed in both institutions. student time savings at algonquin, the students will have to follow an intensive year (equivalent at two college years). student financial savings because of the intensive year, the students will finish their degree faster and, if they want, join the labour market. student flexibility there is no agreement at the present in cinema and film between algonquin college and the university of ottawa. this new program will benefit students by facilitating transfer between both institutions. student work alignment multiple jobs in the film industry will open in the future years in ottawa and the students who will follow the new program in cinema and film will benefit from those opportunities. institutional outcomes the project aligns very well with the university of ottawas recent initiative to revitalize its undergraduate and graduate programs in order to better meet student and market demands. we are hoping similar collaborations will continue to be developed in the future in other key areas of study. sector or system implications oncat is working towards a more seamless and student-centered transfer system. does this project provide any insights, cautions or recommendations for a more seamless system? please describe. the 2+2 collaborative program is a good model of college-university collaborations. in this case, the analysis and curriculum alignment exercises were facilitated by the fact that a revision of the ba with major in world cinemas university program was underway, and that the film and media production college program was still in development. this allowed for a more flexible process of analysis and alignment of the two programs. tips/advice building on the experience provided by already existing, successful collaborative models is important. as well, developing a collaborative program during the revision of a current program can facilitate the analysis and alignment process as changes are already being considered. tools and resources an articulation agreement will be developed once the program undergoes all internal and external quality assurance processes and will be shared with oncat at that time.

advancing student transfer through enhanced data exchange oncat funded data exchange study project led by: association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) primary investigator and report author: joanne duklas duklas cornerstone consulting march 2019 acknowledgements gratitude is due to the more than 270 higher education leaders across canada who completed the survey and/or participated in interviews and regional meetings as representatives for their institutions and organizations. in addition, the researcher extends particular thanks to the following individuals for lending their support and expertise to the project: ana skinner, project lead: grants program, ontario council on articulation and transfer anna tikina, research officer, british columbia council on admissions and transfer carolyn poplak, project lead: collaborations and community programs, ontario council on articulation and transfer charmaine hack, registrar, ryerson university; former president, arucc (2016-2018); chair, arucc groningen and student mobility steering committee dr. rob fleming, executive director and co-chair, british columbia council on admissions and transfer dr. robert adamoski, director, research and admissions, british columbia council on admissions and transfer james darcy, registrar, university of regina janeen hoover, registrar, conestoga college janene christianson, associate registrar, humber college joanna pesaro, external evaluator, ashvale inc. krista pearson, registrar, algonquin college; representative for the ontario colleges committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo) melissa ouimette, manager, admissions, laurentian university romesh vadivel, assistant registrar and director, mcgill university; president, arucc (2018 to 2020) tracy al-ldrissi, registrar, trent university; representative for the ontario university registrars association (oura) wendy taylor, interim registrar, university of victoria yvette munro, executive director, ontario council on articulation and transfer gratitude is also extended to the individual students and student representatives from the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa), the college student alliance, and the canadian federation of students (cfs) who shared their perspective on the operational improvements they would recommend for enhancing student data exchange. additional appreciation is extended to the arucc groningen and student mobility steering committee, and matthew schultz, research consultant with duklas cornerstone consulting. 1|page executive summary the research and this report explore the practices and potential opportunities for improving transfer and mobility by enhancing digitization and exchange of students official academic credentials, transcripts, and documents. it summarizes the findings from a comprehensive study of data exchange practices and perspectives at post-secondary institutions and their partners in ontario conducted in the summer, fall, and winter of 2018/19. the impetus for this research stems in part from broader efforts to create a national student data exchange network. called the arucc groningen project,1 the goal of that larger initiative includes enabling students to move seamlessly into and between canadian post-secondary institutions and into the workforce by improving official credential, transcript, and academic document exchange. these aspirations directly align with the ontario council on articulation and transfers (oncat) stated intention of understanding and removing systemic barriers that impede seamless transfer. research questions the project explored the following primary and secondary research questions: 1. what broader context, current practices, and associated gaps face ontario post-secondary institutions with respect to student data exchange? 2. what recommendations do ontario post-secondary registrarial leadership and supporting organizations have for advancing institutional capacities and change readiness for data exchange to advance transfer? 3. sub-research questions: a) are there any notable exemplars to help guide change? b) what benefits will result from a national network to advance seamless inter- and intraprovincial transfer for ontario post-secondary institutions and their students? for the purposes of this project, transfer encompasses that which occurs when students move between post-secondary institutions both within canada and internationally. mobility focuses on easing students access to funding and transition into regulatory professions, trades, and the workforce by enhancing trusted sharing of official academic documents with other third parties. research approach a multi-layered approach guided the research to address the above questions. an environmental scan including literature and website reviews provided the context and an opportunity to identify promising practices. the next stage of primary research involved three components: a national bilingual (french, english) survey, qualitative interviews, and inter-institutional regional meetings. the national scope of the research provided opportunities to compare ontario findings to other jurisdictions. the target audience for the primary research included registrarial and data exchange leaders at colleges, institutes, and universities and other supporting organizations across canada including application centres and the seven councils on articulation/admissions and transfer. an external evaluator, joanna pesaro, supported the research process through all its various stages. appendix a contains her summative report. the national, bilingual survey collected 117 responses from 86 public and private post-secondary institutions and experienced an 85% completion rate. of these, respondents from 76 publicly funded 1 http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 2|page institutions participated, which represents 37% (76/204) of the total pool of canadian public postsecondary institutions. for ontario, respondents participated from 53% (24/45) of the publicly funded institutions, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), and the two application centres (ocas - the ontario college application service; ontario universities application centre - ouac). of the 24 institutions, 42% represented colleges/institutes (10/24) and 67% represented universities (14/21). the research process benefitted from the participation of registrarial leaders representing each of the 45 publicly funded post-secondary institutions in ontario and from the partnering support of the ontario college committee of registrars, admissions, and liaison officers (cralo) and the ontario university registrars association (oura). these two organizations formally endorsed this research and the national arucc groningen project. in addition to the above, interviews occurred with the leadership and staff at oncat, ocas, and ouac. in total, the researcher consulted with more than 270 people both in ontario and across canada in the interviews and regional meetings (see appendices b, c, and d for specific organizations contacted). included in this total are those that participated in 11 inter-organizational regional meetings involving 231 people, of which ten were delivered in ontario. some of these were delivered virtually; however, most occurred in person and included meetings in the following regions: toronto, durham (virtually), ottawa, sudbury, and kitchener-waterloo. fifteen organizationally specific interviews occurred with staff from oncat, ocas, ouac, and six colleges and six universities from ontario. the post-secondary institutions involved reflect the diversity that exists in the province across several dimensions such as type of institution, the range of credentials offered, enrolment size, sector affiliation, linguistic focus, and geographical location (figure 1). a student focused consultation meeting occurred with representatives from the three ontario student groups, which included the canadian federation of students (cfs), the college student alliance, and the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa). the collaborative approach to engaging the ontario higher education community in the consultation research process for this project represented a core strength and was necessary due to its complexity. it would not have been possible to conduct this study without this full participation; therefore, gratitude is extended to all these people for their expertise and support. 3|page figure 1: diversity of post-secondary institutions and organizations interviewed in ontario data limitations the primary challenge impacting the project was the lack of data available regarding the scope of provincial and national transfer, mobility, and document exchange. improving these gaps would be important to fully understand the trends and volumes and subsequent pressures. for example, transfer in ontario includes intra-provincial, national, and international learners; therefore, identifying the volumes and trends across all these cohorts would better serve post-secondary institutions, future policy development, and other research projects. most research and analysis tend to focus on specific transfer communities within a province, limiting the potential for fully understanding and addressing needs. increasing applications, enrolments, and graduations are driving requests for a host of services across the entire student life cycle. given the above-mentioned data gap, proxy indicators undergird the findings and subsequent recommendations. these include the growth in document and identity fraud, international students, and requests for official outgoing document validation to support students accessing funding, opportunities to study in canada, and the workforce. the transfer volumes are identified to the extent the publicly available data allows. the report provides specific examples of these and other change drivers in section 3.0. rationale for change post-secondary institutional representatives raised concerns regarding growing document and identity fraud in most of the interviews and regional meetings conducted for this project. they indicated that providing trusted exchange of incoming and outgoing academic documents supports quality assured practices and helps to maintain the canadian higher education brand. many also cited the increasing volume pressures which they indicated were adversely affecting service. as an illustrative example, canadian post-secondary institutions have seen a 47% increase from 2015 to 2018 in international student study permits granted by the federal government. in 2018, ontario bound international students represented 64% of the overall volume. other data indicates most of these students are coming from countries such as china, india, south korea, france, and the united states. at least four of these regions maintain trusted institutionally supported and/or government mandated 4|page official credential repositories. if canadian post-secondary institutions connected electronically to these entities through a national network for the purpose of official academic document exchange, the improvements to international admissions and transfer processing would be enormous, as would the reduction in the potential for document fraud. at minimum, staff would no longer need to verify the official nature of a document or its source. the report shares other indicators in section 3.0 that demonstrate the need for better methods for document exchange that leverage technology. challenges and gaps to address the first research question, section 4.0 provides an overview of the current data exchange capacities at ontario post-secondary institutions and beyond. the findings suggest the lack of electronic exchange of academic documents presents challenges for transfer and mobility. potential risks include reduced student service (e.g., quality, timeliness), impediments to efficiency for both students and institutions, and untimely decisions including those related to transfer credit allocations. unfortunately, document and identity fraud represent additional concerns. the research revealed several gaps in ontario including the following: (i) insufficient connectivity with recognized institutions and trusted credential repositories across canada and internationally, (ii) a lack of capacity within institutions to automatically assess transcripts, even those that arrive electronically, resulting in manual document assessment, and (iii) growing demands to officially verify incoming and outgoing documents (e.g., documents required for admissions and transfer, offers of admission, and confirmations of enrolment, fees paid, pending graduation, and graduation). for the first gap, students applying from outside of ontario submit documents by mail or in-person that staff subsequently hand review, evaluate, and assess manually for both admissions and transfer credit. institutions typically verify these documents with former institutions, a process that takes time. with respect to the second gap, not all institutions are able to identify the transfer equivalencies awarded at the point of making an offer. this happens for a host of reasons including a lack of trusted official academic document exchange, program specific policies and practices that impede automation of processes, resource limitations, and internal institutional prioritization practices related to technology projects. while some of these areas fall outside of the scope of this project, it is important to understand their inter-relationship and impact on best practice in relation to assessing documents for admission and transfer. for example, it is considered best practice to identify awarded transfer equivalencies at the point of making an offer as it is a time of key decision making for students; therefore, it is important for institutions to enhance capacities in this area. the third gap results from increasing requests for official verification of documents. these likely result from growing concerns about document and identity fraud. exemplars to address the research question focused on identifying potential exemplars, the report highlights international and canadian application centres and data hubs that offer access to trusted electronic academic results (section 3.0). these represent potential partners for a national data exchange network for ontario post-secondary institutions. most of the canadian ones, including those in ontario, focus primarily on exchange of academic credentials within their respective regions to support application into local post-secondary institutions. some, including ouac and ocas, have made initial forays into establishing connectivity across borders. however, the research indicates there are many international regions where the centralized credential repositories exist for ensuring official academic document 5|page verification and exchange in support of students transferring between post-secondary institutions and beyond. the report highlights promising exemplars to inform next steps and possibilities. with respect to the aforementioned data limitations affecting this project, exemplar models to consider to improve data collection include the work of the maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec),2 british columbias student transition project,3 burbidge and finnies (burbidge & finnie, 2000) earlier research regarding canadian post-secondary student mobility, and the transfer and mobility research of the us-based national student clearinghouse (the clearinghouse). through the latter organizations research centre,4 institutions access extensive regional and national level transfer and mobility data. the clearinghouse offers its members national data exchange and verification services to thousands of institutions, secondary schools, and students. it represents an exemplar model for the future canadian national data exchange network contemplated by the arucc groningen project. other exemplars related to better understanding the volume of student movement and perspectives include the recent transcript exchange volume study conducted by oncat and ocas with ouacs support (weins & fritz, m., 2018) and ousas student-led study of 1,300 transfer students (2017). recommendations the last research objective included identifying recommendations for moving forward with the establishment of a national data exchange network to support efficiencies as student move into, between, and beyond canadian post-secondary institutions. the core benefits cited included improvement opportunities for efficiency, transfer, and learner mobility. the ontario post-secondary institutions had previously and formally voted at the 2019 arucc annual meeting to continue developing a national student data exchange network to support both domestic and international students.5 none during the ontario consultation disagreed with this position. therefore, the recommendations from the ontario higher education community in section 6.0 provide specific suggestions on how to implement the national data exchange network. the following represent a thematic sampling: ensure the network addresses top priority needs o for ontario, the participants identified improving service, enhancing efficiencies for students and institutions, and mitigating document fraud by establishing trusted, official academic document exchange. the community advised that successfully establishing a national data exchange network requires a prioritized focus on developing the capacity to serve learner transfer and mobility across institutions. ensure adherence to privacy regulations and other relevant statutes help institutional registrarial and technology leaders at post-secondary institutions to obtain support from provosts and presidents for the national data exchange network (i.e., through system wide advocacy and project endorsement efforts) seek out project funding from governments, partners, post-secondary institutions, and others to set up the network 2 http://www.mphec.ca/research/trendsmaritimehighereducation.aspx https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/post-secondary-education/data-research/student-transitionsproject 4 https://nscresearchcenter.org/ 5 http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 3 6|page consult further with the post-secondary institutions regarding the operating structure and governance framework for the national network and ensure support for provincial and institutional diversity, autonomy, and authority carefully consider and adopt cost recovery revenue models when creating the national data exchange network ensure front-facing components and data exchange capacities support canadian bilingualism establish a phased implementation plan o the community provided extensive implementation suggestions which are captured in the report. provide support for onboarding canadian post-secondary institutions and application centres to the network enhancing student transfer and mobility through trusted data portability the ontario research validates the conclusion previously reached by the community that creating a national student data exchange network represents a viable next step to support canadian higher education and student transfer and mobility. the findings suggest that tying accessible student data portability to learner mobility needs to be a strategic intention supported by the highest levels of leadership. while there are many competing priorities, ontario post-secondary institutions are well positioned to both benefit from and contribute to a national student data exchange network. the research indicates that the various aspects of registrarial service delivery consider both the academic and student needs at the core of the activities; however, the registrarial community signalled more is needed as the institutions and students require greater speed, transparency, efficiency, and coherence. providing trusted connections to facilitate seamless and direct electronic academic document exchange (e.g., transcripts, credentials, confirmations of status) from across canada and internationally represents an important first step. supporting further automation and scalable practices within institutions by using electronic student information and next generational technology to reduce burdens on students represents an important next step which will be well served by enhancing official student document exchange. while changing internal institutional practices sits outside the scope of this project, further research is encouraged to assist institutions with identifying ways to enhance internal processes as these relate to automation to support student transfer and mobility. with respect to ontario, additional research and consultation are recommended to help develop the connectivity to a national data exchange network. important next steps include (i) identifying a service provider, (ii) creating a model for exchange that works for the context and diversity that exists in ontario, and (iii) identifying pilot institutions with which to partner on specific data exchange projects. these findings will be of use to oncat, the post-secondary community, and arucc as they collaborate to create better supports for students and institutions. furthermore, the report will inform policy development and resource prioritization discussions related to transfer and student mobility. the national network holds the promise of ensuring quality assured, official electronic exchange of students academic credentials, transcripts and documents through trusted connections. with growing volumes juxtaposed against resource constraints, new and more scalable methods that embrace trusted and secure connectivity, technology, and different approaches to service delivery are not easily achieved but hold the promise of addressing core challenges. the findings from this ontario research indicate a 7|page national student data exchange network collaboratively built and coordinated holds the promise of meeting students in their space and supporting their long-term educational journey as they move into or between institutions and into the workforce. the findings from this ontario research indicate a national student data exchange network to support official electronic academic document sharing that is collaboratively built and coordinated holds the promise of meeting students in their space and supporting their long-term educational journey as they move into, between, and beyond canadian post-secondary institutions. 8|page acronyms acronym aarao acat arucc bccat cfs canpesc catnb cican cicic cmec cralo cuccio educationplannerbc gdn mphec nscat ocas oncat ouac ouca oura ousa pccat pesc warucc full title atlantic association of registrars and admissions officers alberta council on admissions and transfer association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada british columbia council on admissions and transfer canadian federation of students canadian post-secondary electronic standards council user group council for articulations and transfer, new brunswick colleges and institutes canada canadian information centre for international credentials council of ministers of education, canada ontario college committee of registrars, admissions, and liaison officers canadian university council of chief information officers bc institutions' application service groningen maritime provinces higher education commission nova scotia council on articulation and transfer ocas inc., ontario colleges' application service ontario council on articulation and transfer ontario universities' application centre ontario university council on admissions ontario university registrars' association ontario undergraduate student alliance pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer post-secondary electronic standards council - us based western university association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada 9|page contents acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................... 1 executive summary....................................................................................................................................... 2 research questions .............................................................................................................................. 2 research approach ............................................................................................................................... 2 data limitations .................................................................................................................................... 4 rationale for change............................................................................................................................. 4 challenges and gaps ............................................................................................................................. 5 exemplars .............................................................................................................................................. 5 recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 6 enhancing student transfer and mobility through trusted data portability ....................................... 7 acronyms ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 tables .......................................................................................................................................................... 13 figures ......................................................................................................................................................... 13 section 1.0 introduction to the project ................................................................................................... 15 section 2.0 the research approach ........................................................................................................ 17 project collaboration .............................................................................................................................. 17 project phases ......................................................................................................................................... 18 target audience for research ................................................................................................................. 19 national, bilingual survey (french, english)............................................................................................ 20 qualitative interviews and regional feedback sessions ........................................................................ 21 qualitative interviews with institutions and supporting organizations............................................. 22 qualitative interviews with students.................................................................................................. 23 regional meetings .............................................................................................................................. 24 data limitations ...................................................................................................................................... 25 definitions ............................................................................................................................................... 27 section 3: environmental scan ................................................................................................................... 29 stakeholders ........................................................................................................................................... 29 ontario stakeholders .......................................................................................................................... 30 national and international stakeholders ............................................................................................ 30 student stakeholders .......................................................................................................................... 33 increasing needs ..................................................................................................................................... 34 incoming and outgoing document validation example: international students............................... 35 10 | p a g e outgoing document validation example: confirmation of student status for registered education savings plans (resps) .......................................................................................................................... 37 outgoing document validation example: confirmation of graduation status .................................. 37 inter-provincial student transfer trends ............................................................................................ 38 transfer in ontario .............................................................................................................................. 39 national connectivity.............................................................................................................................. 41 overview of privacy regulations............................................................................................................. 42 fraud and security .................................................................................................................................. 44 document and identity fraud ............................................................................................................. 44 data security ....................................................................................................................................... 45 overview of data exchange models ....................................................................................................... 46 section 4.0 - findings: current state student data exchange ................................................................. 49 current data exchange practices ............................................................................................................ 49 ontario data exchange partners ......................................................................................................... 49 sending and receiving practices ......................................................................................................... 50 outgoing document validation: confirmation of enrolment status and credential completion...... 54 international connectivity .................................................................................................................. 55 section 5.0 - gaps/challenges .................................................................................................................... 57 increasing document fraud (inbound and outbound document validation) ....................................... 58 limited supports for confirmation of status or graduation (outbound document validation) ....... 58 limited national and international connectivity (inbound and outbound document exchange) ........ 59 international document validation .................................................................................................... 59 study abroad....................................................................................................................................... 59 limited inter-provincial exchange of electronic data (inbound document exchange) ...................... 60 potential to enhance intra-provincial student data exchange ............................................................... 60 prioritization process for it projects, constrained resources, and inflexible systems .......................... 61 organizational priority setting including for complex it projects ...................................................... 61 limited resources ................................................................................................................................ 62 inflexible it systems ............................................................................................................................ 62 other gaps and challenges identified .................................................................................................... 62 more national tools to support assessment and transfer ................................................................ 64 section 6.0 - findings: recommendations for a national data exchange solution .................................... 66 overview ................................................................................................................................................. 66 11 | p a g e benefit recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 66 funding, operational structure, and governance recommendations .................................................. 68 connectivity recommendations with trusted organizations ................................................................ 68 other implementation recommendations ............................................................................................. 70 overall ................................................................................................................................................. 70 recommendations for online services ............................................................................................... 71 section 7.0 - conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 74 research questions and approach ..................................................................................................... 74 broader context the findings .......................................................................................................... 76 canadian exemplars ............................................................................................................................ 78 next step recommendations from the higher education community .............................................. 79 final thoughts ..................................................................................................................................... 81 appendix a: external evaluator summative assessment report ............................................................... 82 appendix b: post-secondary institutions interviewed ............................................................................... 86 appendix c: organizations involved in the research ................................................................................. 89 appendix d: overview of regional meetings supporting the research process ....................................... 91 appendix e: overview of primary canadian organizations involved in post-secondary student data exchange ..................................................................................................................................................... 93 appendix f: overall summary of data exchange strengths and gaps ....................................................... 95 national bilingual survey demographics ................................................................................................ 97 funding suggestions for the national network ...................................................................................... 98 other recommendations related to document fraud .......................................................................... 99 data exchange needs............................................................................................................................ 100 recommendations for type of information to exchange ................................................................. 101 references ................................................................................................................................................ 103 exhibits ...................................................................................................................................................... 108 exhibit a national survey ................................................................................................................... 109 exhibit b - interview guide ................................................................................................................... 136 exhibit c student overview................................................................................................................ 140 exhibit d regional meeting material ................................................................................................. 142 12 | p a g e tables table 1: international study permits by region ......................................................................................... 36 table 2: ontario transcript exchange volumes .......................................................................................... 40 table 3: student information exchanged electronically by type of institution ontario survey findings52 table 4: data exchange formats used by ontario institutions ................................................................... 52 table 5: online enrolment verification services provided post-secondary institutions ......................... 55 table 6: online credential verification services provided post-secondary institutions only.................. 55 table 7: international exchange organizations and activities with canadian post-secondary institutions and application centres .............................................................................................................................. 56 table 8: thematic summary of data exchange gaps ................................................................................. 57 table 9: potential impediments to onboarding to a national data exchange network ............................ 63 table 10: rank the degree to which a lack of it expertise or in-house staff resources impact organizational ability to connect to a national data exchange network.................................................. 64 table 11: ranking of benefits that must result from the national network .............................................. 67 table 12: suggested next stage consultation questions ........................................................................... 68 table 13: overall ranking of priorities for exchange enhancements ......................................................... 69 table 14: desires for international connectivity ........................................................................................ 69 table 15: ontario respondents priority for connectivity as compared to other provinces...................... 69 table 16: implementation suggestions from qualitative questions in survey .......................................... 70 table 17: thematic recommendations from ontario post-secondary institutions ................................... 79 table 18: suggested source of funding to sustain the national entity after implementation .................. 99 table 19: data exchange preferences for organizations responding to survey ...................................... 101 table 20: desired functionality ................................................................................................................ 101 table 21: preferences for what is exchanged ........................................................................................... 101 table 22: prioritization for student information to focus implementation efforts of national network. .................................................................................................................................................................. 102 figures figure 1: diversity of post-secondary institutions and organizations interviewed in ontario .................... 4 figure 2: research approach ...................................................................................................................... 17 figure 3: the project phases ....................................................................................................................... 19 figure 4: diversity of institutions and organizations interviewed in ontario ............................................ 23 figure 5: locations for in-person regional meetings within ontario ......................................................... 25 figure 6: overview of main organizations involved in student data exchange for canada ...................... 29 figure 7: volume of study permits issued to international post-secondary students in canada .............. 36 figure 8: destination region within ontario .............................................................................................. 36 figure 9: ontario university transfer volume a partial picture .............................................................. 41 figure 10: student information sent and received electronically by ontario post-secondary institutions .................................................................................................................................................................... 51 figure 11: data formats used by ontario post-secondary institutions to exchange student information 52 figure 12: student information sent and received electronically by canadian post-secondary institutions .................................................................................................................................................................... 54 13 | p a g e figure 13: does project management expertise exist within your organization to establish data exchange? ................................................................................................................................................... 64 figure 14: does it expertise exist within your organization to establish data exchange .......................... 64 figure 15: should the national network provide a password protected student portal? .......................... 72 figure 16: should the network provide student facing information in its website? .................................. 73 figure 17: organization type - current data exchange practices (n=99) ................................................... 98 figure 18: should the national network rely on cost recovery and fees for service models (n=100)? .. 98 figure 19: organizational perspective regarding verification of official documents incoming and outgoing.......................................................................................................................................................... 100 14 | p a g e section 1.0 introduction to the project advancing student transfer through enhanced data mobility, an oncat funded project, sought to gauge the readiness of ontarios post-secondary sector to implement trusted student data exchange in support of transfer and mobility. joanne duklas, the primary investigator and author of this final report, led the research for the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc), a national registrarial organization. the project benefitted from the endorsement and support provided by two partnering organizations; the ontario college committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo) and the ontario university registrars association (oura). registrarial leadership from these two organizations represent the recognized public colleges and universities in ontario. an external evaluator, joanna pesaro, provided her expertise to support the research and final report. appendix a contains her final summative assessment of the research process. the projects goals included identifying the current state and readiness for exchanging individual student data and capturing expert advice on the changes and supports needed to facilitate scalable change for transfer. arucc aspires to use the findings to achieve the following: identify enhancements for student data exchange at the institutional and provincial levels; provide research that will be of use to other oncat initiatives and projects seeking to advance transmission of learning outcomes achievement and related academic documents to improve transfer; and, inform policy development and resource prioritization for student data exchange. these goals and aspirations directly align with oncats stated intention of understanding and removing systemic barriers that impede seamless transfer. the findings are relevant for arucc, which is leading a multi-year, broad-scale project focused on creating a national student data exchange network to facilitate transfer and mobility. this initiative is called the arucc groningen and student mobility project (referred to in this report as the arucc groningen project).6 it is being conducted in partnership with the pan-canadian association of admissions and transfer (pccat),7 the canadian university council of chief information officers (cuccio),8 and the canadian post-secondary electronic standards council user group (canpesc).9 oncat staff are members of pccat and several cralo and oura registrars are members of arucc. the impetus for this research resulted from preliminary discussions with both the national and provincial groups and post-secondary institutions, which indicated the need for more research of practices and complexities within ontario institutions to inform changes in the area of student data exchange as these relate to transfer.10 6 http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html see https://pccatweb.org/pccat/ - members include representatives from canadian colleges, institutes, and universities 8 see https://www.cuccio.net/en/ - note: a similar national association for colleges and institutes does not exist at the present time. 9 see http://www.pesc.org/canadian-pesc-user-group.html - members include representatives from canadian colleges, institutes, and universities 10 the oncat research study and the arucc groningen project represent two of three student data exchange projects being led simultaneously by arucc. the third is a project in british columbia that is similar to the oncat project although it focuses on understanding the student data exchange context within that province with funding provided by the british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat). the bc project is being conducted in partnership with the university of victoria. 7 15 | p a g e the arucc groningen project and this ontario project serve broader international goals including supporting the strategic aspirations of institutions and organizations such as colleges and institutes canada and universities canada, to increase the participation of in-bound international students studying in canada and out-bound students seeking to study abroad.11 internationally, this proposal aligns with the lisbon recognition convention (lrc)12 and the groningen network organization (gdn).13 both initiatives seek to improve student access to post-secondary education and subsequent mobility by enhancing quality assured recognition of prior post-secondary studies. the gdn focuses specifically on advancing digitization and trusted student data exchange as means to improve student and cultural mobility. sections 1.0 and 2.0 introduce the project and outline the approach which was guided by the following research questions: 1. what broader context, current practices, and associated gaps face ontario post-secondary institutions with respect to student data exchange? 2. what recommendations do ontario post-secondary registrarial leadership and supporting organizations have for advancing institutional capacities and change readiness for data exchange to advance transfer? 3. sub-research questions: a) are there any notable exemplars to help guide change? b) what benefits will result from a national network that advance seamless inter- and intraprovincial transfer for ontario post-secondary institutions and their students? sections 3.0 to 5.0 provide the detailed findings and sections 6.0 and 7.0 contain the recommendations from the higher education community and concluding remarks. examples of organizations engaging in promising practices beyond ontario are noted in section 3.0. one illustrative model involves the china higher education student information and career center (chesicc) which is government mandated as the official source for most of the chinese students academic results (e.g., secondary credentials, gaokoa results, etc.).14 mcgill university established canadas first connection to chesicc via the national student clearinghouse, an american not-for-profit organization that provides national data exchange and research supports to post-secondary institutions south of the border and around the world. in this example, students from china provide permission for chesicc to send their official academic results directly to mcgill. service enhancements, speed, processing efficiencies, reduced workload, and reduced fraud represent five direct benefits for students and mcgill. other similar models exist around the world. the findings from this research and this final report will be of use to registrarial and pathway leaders involved in transfer and mobility practice and policy within ontarios higher education institutions and allied organizations such as oncat, the ontario universities application centre (ouac), ocas inc., the college application service provider, and government. the final report is not intended for information 11 see http://goglobalcanada.ca/ by the university of ottawa centre for international policy studies and the munk school of global affairs at the university of toronto 12 see https://www.cicic.ca/1398/an-overview-of-the-lisbon-recognition-convention/index.canada 13 see http://www.groningendeclaration.org/ 14 see more details at chesiccs website: https://www.chsi.com.cn/en/. the china academic degrees & graduate education information service provides official verification of degrees. (see http://www.cdgdc.edu.cn/). 16 | p a g e technology professionals, system design architects, programmers, or others involved in the technical aspects of data exchange, integration, and system design. as most of those consulted for the research support the business and policy realms of transfer and mobility, the terminology and the related findings should be considered in that context. section 2.0 the research approach the project included conducting primary and secondary research to identify the current state of postsecondary student data exchange, potential exemplars, and opportunities for enhancements (figure 2). the former included administering a national, bilingual (french, english) survey to capture input from canadian post-secondary institutions and supporting organizations and conducting qualitative interviews and regional consultation meetings with pathway and registrarial experts in canadian higher education. the secondary research involved reviewing websites and scholarly and trade research in the field of student data exchange. this multi-faceted approach ensured meaningful engagement; a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of current practice; and, several opportunities to identify member informed recommendations. figure 2: research approach project collaboration the research process benefitted from participation from registrarial leadership at each of the 45 publicly funded post-secondary institutions in ontario and from the partnering support of the ontario college committee of registrars, admissions, and liaison officers (cralo) and the ontario university registrars association (oura). interviews with the leadership and staff at oncat, ocas (the college application service), and the ontario universities application centre (ouac) informed the findings as well. the collaborative approach to engaging the ontario higher education community in the research consultation process represented a core strength of the project and was necessary due to its complexity. three student data exchange projects led by arucc were happening simultaneously (this oncat project, the arucc groningen project, and a similar bccat funded project). therefore, the primary investigator secured agreement from the various partners to collaborate on the research and to share findings across five deliverables: the oncat research report; three deliverables for the arucc groningen project (i.e., the business case, aruccs funding outreach call, and the planned request for proposal); and the bccat research findings. the approach facilitated efficient data collection and 17 | p a g e avoided interview and survey fatigue. all interview and survey participants were informed of this approach in writing and the primary investigator reiterated this verbally at the start of each interview and regional meeting. all were invited to identify any concerns with this approach; none were reported. the primary investigator developed all communications and interview materials used to support the research in collaboration with each of the partners. the oncat project also included a requirement to employ an external evaluator. joanna pesaro was subsequently engaged. she reviewed and provided comments and suggestions on the research approach, the survey, the communication materials, the interview guide, and the final report for the oncat project. as mentioned earlier, appendix a contains her final assessment report on the research project. project phases the project transitioned through four phases spanning the time period from april 2018 to march 2019: project launch, environmental scan planning, environmental scan launch, and data analysis and report development (figure 3). the project partners, arucc leadership, and external evaluator supported the research through each phase. project launch encompassed confirming and signing the contract with oncat and defining and implementing the partnership framework for the project in collaboration with arucc and the project partners, cralo and oura. this phase also included confirming and validating the project plans with the external evaluator. the next phase involved planning for the environmental scan which included design and testing of the national, bilingual survey and the other forms of consultation. the primary investigator incorporated suggestions for changes to the survey received from the evaluator and the project partners. these same individuals commented on the initial list of locations and participants for the regional meetings and the qualitative interviews. the primary investigator involved the project partners and the external evaluator in providing advice on the format and the supporting communications for the interviews and the regional meetings. the launch of the environmental scan began with the opening of the national survey, a review of institutional websites, and the initial stages of the literature and trade research. to the extent possible, the interviews occurred after institutions and organizations responded to the survey. the regional meetings began in early october with the final one occurring on january 10, 2019. the long time-frame associated with this phase resulted from the scheduling and workload pressures experienced by the institutional representatives participating in the research. the last phase began in december 2018 with the closure of the national survey. it involved a review of the survey findings and the interview notes from the institutional interviews and regional meetings. crafting and submission of the final report occurred in this phase. 18 | p a g e figure 3: the project phases target audience for research the target audience for the survey, the interviews, and the regional meetings included pathway and registrarial experts at post-secondary institutions and supporting organizations. this also included leaders with knowledge of data exchange practices from canadian post-secondary institutions, application centres, and government data hubs.15 the post-secondary institutions involved in the interviews and regional meetings for this report included recognized colleges, institutes, and universities primarily located in ontario supported by research that occurred in other parts of canada (appendix b). all recognized post-secondary institutions in ontario were invited to participate in the interview process and the regional meeting(s) held within their jurisdiction. the supporting organizations invited to participate in the survey, regional meetings, and/or interviews included provincial application centres from across canada such as the ontario universities application centre (ouac) and ocas (the college application centre), transfer pathway councils such as the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), and known government departments that engage in student level data sharing with post-secondary institutions (appendix c). while each of the seven councils on articulation/admissions and transfer participated in the national survey, most of them do not directly support student data exchange; rather, they use anonymized data to support research and policy development. the government departments invited to take the survey included the bc and saskatchewan education ministries, each of which maintain a data repository of secondary school student credentials for their provinces. interviews occurred with an inter-provincial research organization which collects and conducts student mobility research across three provincial jurisdictions called the maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec)16 and a national organization called the canadian information 15 the research scope included post-secondary institutions and applications centres/data hubs that provide most of the student data exchange support in canada; vendors, governments in most jurisdictions, and secondary schools/boards were out of scope. 16 https://www.mphec.ca/ 19 | p a g e centre for international credentials (cicic).17 cicic is part of the council of ministers of education, canada (cmec). it is responsible for establishing credentialing standards in accordance with the lisbon recognition convention18 and disseminating information to the public in support of international credential assessment. national, bilingual survey (french, english) a national, bilingual (french, english) survey supported the research process (exhibit a). it included quantitative and qualitative questions across three dimensions: institution/organizational and respondent demographics including provincial location (to facilitate follow up, cross-tabbing, and a focus on ontario data); the current state for student information systems and data exchange; and questioning to capture expert insights on considerations and requirements for student data exchange. typically, a likert scale was used when capturing expert recommendations and opinions. originally, the research plan involved restricting the survey to distribution within ontario only; however, the existence of the arucc groningen project and the bccat project presented an opportunity for inter-jurisdictional benchmarking. the primary investigator secured agreement from the project partners including cralo, oura, and oncat to distribute the survey nationally and share findings, a decision that was transparently messaged to potential respondents in advance. this approach minimized the number of surveys in the field requesting the same information at the same time. originally, the plan was to distribute the survey in fall 2018 over an eight-week period (october to november); however, consultation with the partners suggested a longer distribution would be appropriate to provide more time for institutional representatives to complete the survey. early consultation suggested a summer launch might be more timely and easier for institutional representatives to accommodate. therefore, the primary investigator opened the survey in midsummer. ultimately, this approach did not prove beneficial due to vacations and institutional workload demands impacting the september start of classes. the project partners and leadership agreed to keep the survey open until the end of november/beginning of december 2018 to accommodate a longer window of opportunity for institutions and allied organizations to respond. the survey was distributed to ontario college and university registrars directly and arucc registrarial members via the national arucc listserv. recommended participants included those with expertise in registrarial systems, information technology, and student data exchange. supplemental distribution occurred to institutions through registrarial association listservs from across canada.19 in addition, the researcher sent email invitations to representatives of supporting organizations and through the listserv of the canadian post-secondary electronic standards user group (canpesc),20 which maintains membership from post-secondary institutions, allied organizations, provincial governments, and vendors involved in student data exchange. appendix c provides a list of organizations contacted. three formal 17 https://www.cicic.ca/ https://www.cicic.ca/1398/an_overview_of_the_lisbon_recognition_convention.canada 19 specifically, the invitation was distributed to colleges, institutes, and universities with membership in arucc and/or the western association of the universities and colleges of canada (warucc), the british columbia registrars association (bcra), the alberta registrars association, the ontario university registrars association (oura), the ontario college committee of registrars, admissions, and liaison officers (cralo), the quebec bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci), and the atlantic association of registrars and admissions officers (aarao). 20 http://www.pesc.org/canadian-pesc-user-group.html 18 20 | p a g e reminders were distributed through the same listservs. potential post-secondary respondents were encouraged to participate in the survey at various pan-provincial and national meetings. material distributed with the survey included a bilingual word version to reduce the number of people accessing the survey to print out an advance copy, links to a website with more information on the project,21 a supplementary document which provided further details about the project and how the results would be used,22 and a contact person for any questions. although more findings are shared in a subsequent section, a total of 117 respondents participated in the survey. qualitative interviews and regional feedback sessions in total, the primary investigator interviewed 40 representatives of higher education organizations and students in fall 2018 for this research. these included 31 qualitative interviews with representatives from ten colleges and nine universities in british columbia, alberta, and ontario23 (appendix b), ten supporting organizations from across canada (appendix c),24 and nine students, one of whom represented a national student association and two of whom represented ontario student associations. fifteen of these interviews included six colleges and six universities from ontario, oncat,25 ocas,26 and ouac.27 initial consultation occurred with the representatives for cralo and oura and the external evaluator to determine which institutions to interview in ontario. adjustments occurred to the original list given institutional schedules and capacity to participate. the final 12 ontario institutions interviewed represent the diversity that exists in the province across several dimensions: location, institution type, sector affiliations, program and credential mix, enrolment size, and linguistic focus (figure 4, appendix b). the consultation research also included conducting 11 inter-organizational regional meetings with 231 representatives from recognized post-secondary institutions and allied organizations in ontario and bc (appendix d). all but one of these were held in ontario. individual participants in the regional meetings typically included registrarial, pathway, and systems/data exchange experts from institutional registrars offices and information technology departments, and from provincial application centres. in one instance, decanal and faculty representatives participated. 21 http://arucc.ca/en/oncat-bccat-projects.html for ontario: http://arucc.ca/uploads/oncat_and_bccat_projects/oncat_funded_data_project_overview_for_website_july_13_2018.pd f for bc: http://arucc.ca/uploads/oncat_and_bccat_projects/proposal_bccat_research_study_for_sharing_with_others_july_16_20 18_revised.pdf 23 an alberta college, medicine hat college, also requested to participate in the interview process. 24 three separate individual interviews occurred for nbcat as the leadership at that organization is exploring creation of an application centre and a transcript exchange. 25 https://oncat.ca/en/welcome-oncat 26 https://www.ontariocolleges.ca/en 27 https://www.ouac.on.ca/ 22 21 | p a g e these interviews and regional meetings served to deepen an understanding of local organizational contexts and perspectives in higher education with respect to student data exchange, clarify the survey findings, and further refine an understanding of the typology of student data exchange practices and perspectives. the report highlights the thematic findings from the ontario interviews with inter-jurisdictional contrasts identified where appropriate. qualitative interviews with institutions and supporting organizations the interviews each took approximately 1 to 1.5 hours and were conducted using a virtual teleconferencing platform called zoom.28 the communication process for the interviews included advance email distribution of the invitation and the interview guide (exhibit b), which went to the registrar or lead for each institution or organization. the guide provided an overview of the project and the interview questions. if a survey response existed for the institution or organization, the primary investigator provided the responses in advance of the interview. the communications messaging also identified the intention to share the findings across the three projects. in addition, the primary investigator created and shared websites with additional information about the arucc groningen project29 and the two oncat and bccat projects.30 at the suggestion of the external evaluator, the websites provided further details on how the data would be used. after sending the original invitation, the primary investigator contacted each institutional registrar or organizational lead to schedule an interview opportunity. they were encouraged to include faculty and staff from across their organization with expertise in student data exchange and transfer. most participants included registrarial and information technology staff. requests for interview opportunities were also made at provincial and national meetings such as at the ontario university registrars forum, the cralo registrars forum, and canpesc. the interviews followed a structured format in terms of moving through the questions in the interview guide. however, unstructured opportunities were encouraged to allow participants to explain their local context more fully. 28 https://zoom.us/ http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 30 http://arucc.ca/en/oncat-bccat-projects.html 29 22 | p a g e figure 4: diversity of institutions and organizations interviewed in ontario qualitative interviews with students originally, the research plan and scope did not include conducting interviews with students. with the support of oncat and two institutions out west (university of victoria, university of regina), the primary investigator spoke with nine students, three of whom participated as a formal representative of their student association; namely, the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa), the ontario college student alliance, and the canadian federation of students (cfs). the institutions and oncat handled the contact and scheduling of these discussions. at no point was the researcher provided their personal information. all participation was voluntary. the invitation to students included an overview of the project with a link to further information (exhibit c). at the start of each discussion, the primary investigator explained how the information that they provided would be used which included a commitment to only provide thematic feedback in the final published report. they were discouraged from sharing confidential personal information and instead asked to provide thoughts on what they or their constituents felt worked or did not work with the sharing of student data between institutions when transferring and what they would recommend be a focus for future changes. the students participated in a group setting either in person or virtually using zoom. the format was structured and included an explanation of the project and how the information provided would be used followed by questions regarding their perspective on the operational aspects of the transfer experience. they were asked to share how they accessed their official academic documents, whether they experienced any challenges, and what they would suggest required change. in the case of the group session with the three student groups, the researcher asked what they have heard or researched regarding the document exchange barriers affecting successful transfer and what they would recommend be changed. each session took approximately 45 minutes. 23 | p a g e regional meetings as noted, the 11 inter-organizational regional meetings occurred between september 2018 and january 2019 and involved a total of 231 people (appendix d). registrarial, pathway, and systems experts from ontario, british columbia, and other canadian institutions, organizations, and government bodies attended these discussions. most of these sessions occurred in person with the location arranged by a local institutional registrarial lead. the primary investigator deliberately selected the in-person locations for the ontario regional meetings to ensure proximity to local institutions and application centres in various regions of the province. these included sudbury, ottawa, kitchener-waterloo, guelph, oshawa, and toronto (figure 5). two occurred using zoom web conferencing. on the advice of the external evaluator, one of these virtual meetings was delivered exclusively for francophone institutions that hold membership in the association des collges et universits de la francophonie canadienne (acufc).31 this session was held in french and led by romesh vadivel, the current arucc president (2018-2020). seven of these meetings were scheduled solely for the project and four opportunities resulted from accessing time on existing agendas of pan-provincial meetings or conferences.32 for the former, advance communication included a formal agenda, an overview abstract of the project, a presentation, and links to the project website.33 the presentation informed the latter meetings. the invitation for each meeting went to the local area registrars with a request to invite faculty and staff with expertise in student data exchange and transfer (exhibit d). those sessions exclusively focused on the project were typically 2 to 2.5 hours in length. the meeting format included an overview of the project, a facilitated opportunity to provide expert advice on current challenges and requirements, and a needs identification and prioritization discussion. the latter provided individual participants with the opportunity to identify their top recommended business needs, which were then reviewed, privately prioritized, and discussed by the group. this approach facilitated a private opportunity for reflection followed by an opportunity as a collective to discuss and validate or discount any identified business needs and to articulate other potential gaps. in the remaining meetings where the primary investigator secured space on existing agendas, the format included providing an overview of the project and having an open discussion about challenges, opportunities, and business needs. the primary investigator led most of these feedback opportunities. in three instances, charmaine hack, chair of the arucc groningen project steering committee, or romesh vadivel, current arucc president (2018-2020) helped lead the sessions. the external evaluator 31 http://acufc.ca/ specifically, these included the fall meetings for the ontario university council on admissions, the ontario university registrars forum, and the bc registrars association, and the ontario colleges fall conference. 33 http://arucc.ca/en/oncat-bccat-projects.html 32 24 | p a g e attended one of these meetings as an observer at the request of the primary investigator (the session at the fall cralo conference). figure 5: locations for in-person regional meetings within ontario fn 1: red icons = ontario universities; green icons = ontario colleges data limitations the registrarial leaders invited to respond to the survey and to participate in the interviews and regional meetings were encouraged to include faculty and staff from across their institution with expertise in student data exchange. in most of the interviews and regional meetings, the participants included registrarial and systems staff. only one regional meeting included faculty. this likely resulted from relying primarily on registrarial and canpesc listservs for participation. also, some registrarial leadership anecdotally indicated that they worked with their technical it staff to complete the survey results and made a collaborative submission. the researcher also met with the inter-institutional ontario college technical group for those institutions that use ellucians banner student information system to explore technical considerations more directly. while these approaches satisfied the objectives of this research, next steps for examining data exchange would benefit from more engagement from system design architects and data security specialists. the survey allowed for more than one response per institution. this worked well for capturing opinions and recommendations. however, a small subset of institutional respondents provided contradictory responses for information about current practices. the primary investigator excluded these responses during the data analysis process to ensure a clear understanding of current practice. limiting the number of organizational respondents or encouraging advance collaboration on responses for information on current practices would be a recommended tactic for future surveys. 25 | p a g e some of the regional consultation opportunities that occurred as a result of accessing space on existing province wide meetings or conferences provided somewhat limited insights for the project. meeting privately in focused regional meetings or directly with registrars was more helpful to this research. future consultation on projects focused on data exchange would benefit from using a similarly focused consultation tactic. with respect to the interviews and regional meetings, most of the discussion and feedback focused on strategic and operational level considerations and needs, not technical requirements. this outcome worked well for this research as the scope did not include capturing a detailed understanding of data exchange architectures and integration practices. as noted above, a more technical analysis would be an appropriate next step for future research to support implementation. the national consultation for the arucc groningen project illustrates the value of this approach. subsequent to completion of the primary research phase for the oncat project and aided by the primary investigator for this project, the arucc groningen project established a national technical advisory committee with information technology, data security, and system design experts from canadian post-secondary institutions.34 the mandate of this group included creating the technical requirements for the national network.35 their knowledge of detailed use case mapping, information flows, data exchange, and data security suggests that further detailed research and consultation of a technical nature would be necessary to support implementation of a network for the ontario postsecondary community and application centres. those consulted for this study provided insights and information that supported achieving the objectives of this research. further detailed research and consultation of a technical nature would be necessary to support implementation of a national network for the ontario post-secondary community and application centres. 34 http://arucc.ca/en/project-governance.html 35 http://arucc.ca/uploads/groningen/groningen_2019/governance_page/tac__terms_of_reference_tac_as_of_jan_25_2019. pdf 26 | p a g e definitions apostille: a legal certification that makes a document from one country valid in another (provided that both are signatories to the 1961 hague convention abolishing the requirement for legalization for foreign public documents. (oxford dictionnaries, 2019) currently, canada is not a signatory to the hague; however, the government provides protocols for establishing the authenticity of documents, including for post-secondary documents (government of canada, 2017). applying the signature of the registrar to a transcript is one example. application centre or data hub: a global reference used in the report to encompass the 11 provincial organizations that centralize some aspect of data collection and exchange as a support to postsecondary studies or transition beyond secondary school for admissions. see appendix c for a list of organizations. application programming intervals (apis): routines, protocols, and tools to allow sharing of data between software that allow standardized information flow (without modifying original content) and communication between different components (mit libraries, n.d.). digital signature: a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of digital messages or documents. a valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender (authentication), that the sender cannot deny having sent the message (nonrepudiation), and that the message was not altered in transit (integrity). (chakroun & keevy, 2018) electronic data interchange (edi): provides a technical basis for automated commercial conversations between two entities, either internal or external. the term edi encompasses the entire electronic data interchange process, including the transmission, message flow, document format, and software used to interpret the documents. (chakroun & keevy, 2018) endpoints: any piece of computer hardware with an internet connection.[e.g.,] desktop computers, laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, and other devices. (national student clearinghouse, educause, ren-isac, 2018) extensible markup language (xml) standard: a flexible way to create information formats and electronically share structured data via the public network, as well as via corporate networkthe pesc xml-based data standard for common credential for certificates, degrees and diplomas is an example of a standard that is designed for both electronic certification production and recording credential learning records. (chakroun & keevy, 2018) flat file format: data stored in a single table following a uniform format; it does not provide relational capacity. example: comma separated values (csv) file metadata: provides information (in the form of data) about other data being sent to support sharing of digitized credentials. providing information about the type of file and content being sent represents an example. multifactor authentication: a system that relies on more than one layer of security to authenticate a user (national student clearinghouse, educause, ren-isac, 2018). official: in the context of this research, it represents a document that is confirmed as authentic by the institutional registrar. typically, a document is considered official when it is provided by the registrar directly to the requestor without being passed to a student (with a students permission provided). 27 | p a g e portable data format (pdf): a document independently of the hardware, operating system and application software used to create the original file. it was designed to create transferable documents that can be shared across multiple computer platforms. [sic] (chakroun & keevy, 2018) adobe documents represent a form of pdf. recognized institution: an institution that has met the quality assurance standards in its respective jurisdiction. for canada, it refers to canadian institutions that are recognized in accordance with the quality assurance protocols within their province or territory as there is no national quality assurance agency. student: institutions define students differently and in accordance with local context. for the arucc groningen project, this oncat research, and the national network, a student includes an individual who meets at least one of the following criteria: 1. has applied to a canadian post-secondary institution either directly or through a provincial application centre 2. has been admitted to a canadian post-secondary institution 3. has completed a credential at a canadian post-secondary institution 4. is currently enrolled in a canadian post-secondary institution 5. was once enrolled in a canadian post-secondary institution supporting organizations: a global reference used in this report to encompass the provincial application centres, data hubs, and councils of articulation/admissions and transfer. trusted international organizations: recognized institutions, government mandated organizations, or organizations designated by recognized institutions in their home country as the official source for students credentials. these organizations are formally designated by the institutions and governments in their regions as being the official source when validating the bone fides of official academic documents for the purposes of post-secondary admission. in the context of this research and the national project, recruitment agents are not categorized within the definition of trusted organizations. use case: a list of actions or event steps typically defining the interactions between a role and a system to achieve a goal.36 36 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/use_case 28 | p a g e section 3: environmental scan one of the objectives of the study included conducting an environmental scan to contextually situate the topic of student data exchange and to identify exemplars. the approach taken for this research included a review of relevant literature, websites, white papers, and other research published by vendors, higher education organizations and leaders, and scholars. the qualitative interviews helped to augment these findings. each of the following topics is briefly explored in this section. stakeholders increasing needs national connectivity privacy regulations document fraud data security data exchange models stakeholders various organizations and vendors provide extensive expertise in partnership with post-secondary institutions to advance student transfer, mobility, and data portability. although listing all the organizations involved in student data exchange sits outside the scope of this research, figure 6 highlights the main canadian and select international ones relevant for ontario post-secondary institutions, the arucc groningen project, and the national student data exchange network.37 figure 6: overview of main organizations involved in student data exchange for canada 37 see appendix e for further details on the canadian organizations involved in data exchange. 29 | p a g e ontario stakeholders in ontario, 45 publicly funded post-secondary institutions and two application centres (the ontario universities application centre (ouac)38 and ocas39 (the college application service centre) directly support student data exchange. the centres support intra-provincial transcript exchange and collect and deliver application information and documentation for ontarios post-secondary institutions as these tasks relate to admissions processing. these and oncat represent the main ontario organizations consulted for this research. the provincial government receives enrolment and graduating information from ontario post-secondary institutions to support a host of purposes including planning for and allocating public funds; supporting post-secondary education and related programs; ensuring legislative compliance; risk management; monitoring and evaluating quality; and conducting research (government of ontario, 2012-19). it further delivers the government financial aid program called the ontario student assistance program (osap).40 extensive student data exchange exists between the post-secondary institutions and the provincial government to support administration of this program. as the research focused on the exchange of academic documents, examining these areas remained out of scope for this research. the findings suggest a subset of ontario post-secondary institutions rely on vendors to support certain functions such as credential verification and transcript/diploma distribution. most ontario institutions rely on vendors for their student information systems; these systems typically provide capacity for data exchange. assessing the various vendor systems remained out of scope for this oncat research; however, they represent important contributing members to the student data exchange discussions both as experts and enablers. they are a source of support, information, and guidance, and provide manuals, service announcements, white papers, and instructional and promotional pieces to support system integration, system design, software and hardware implementation, data exchange, and more. national and international stakeholders prior research conducted by arucc suggests the involvement of four main organizations in postsecondary student data exchange in canada (arucc, 2018):41 post-secondary institutions (approximately 225 of which 204 are publicly funded), centralized application centres (7), provincial government student data exchange hubs (two in british columbia and saskatchewan), and other supporting organizations (i.e., the nova scotia council on articulation and council - nscat42 and the qubec bureau de coopration interuniversitaire - bci) (appendix c). secondary schools/boards, regulatory bodies, provincial and federal governments, and other third-party organizations (e.g., vendors) support post-secondary student data exchange as well. six of the seven canadian councils on articulation/admissions and transfer typically only share anonymized student data to advance research (including oncat); however, they serve an important role to improve transfer supports and ensure provincial and national focus and research on student 38 https://www.ouac.on.ca/ https://www.ontariocolleges.ca/en 40 https://www.ontario.ca/page/osap-ontario-student-assistance-program 41 http://arucc.ca/en/project-overview.html 42 https://www.mynsfuture.ca/ 39 30 | p a g e transfer and mobility within and beyond regional boundaries. any future research and data exchange initiatives would benefit from the involvement and engagement of these partners. most of these application centres and hubs collect data and documents and exchange transcripts to support admissions into post-secondary institutions within their region. the two government bodies in bc and saskatchewan provide official secondary school transcripts, amongst other supports. the nova scotia council on articulation and transfer (nscat) oversees a transcript exchange network in addition to providing other supports.43 the qubec bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci) provides an exchange service to support university students wishing to take a course at another post-secondary institution in that province.44 it also facilitates sending cegep results to ouac.45 including the application centres in future data exchange implementation would be advisable given the supports they provide post-secondary institutions. at the national and international levels, two organizations directly support data exchange: the postsecondary electronic standards council and its canadian working group, the canadian post-secondary electronic standards council user group (canpesc). canpesc is represented on the arucc groningen project steering committee and the projects technical advisory committee. a pesc member also sits on the latter group. these two organizations collaborate with post-secondary institutions, vendors, and other organizations to create open source standards as a support to student data portability to ensure rigour within and between data exchange formats. as one example, pesc provides a change protocol for streamlining any needed advancements or changes to data exchange formats.46 pesc also provides protocols to facilitate exchange between standards such as for supporting pdf (portable document format) exchange that includes xml transmission of the underlying data.47 this support is important as the findings in the next section demonstrate that several institutions across canada use more than one method (i.e., xml, edi, flat files, and pdf) to exchange academic documents when they are able to exchange electronically. the application centres and post-secondary institutions within canada are active participants in pesc. ensuring engagement with and adoption of pesc data exchange standards would make sense for the national network. any future research and data exchange initiatives would benefit from the involvement and engagement of the councils on admissions/articulation and transfer. including the application centres in future data exchange implementation would be advisable given the supports they provide post-secondary institutions. ensuring engagement with and adoption of pesc data exchange standards would make sense for the national network. 43 in subsequent sections, nscat and bci are included in the count for application centres and hubs although they arent considered hubs. 44 https://mobilite-cours.crepuq.qc.ca/4dstatic/enaccueil.html 45 https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/105-transcripts/#quebec 46 https://www.pesc.org/standards-development-1.html 47 https://www.pesc.org/pesc-approved-standards.html 31 | p a g e the international context relevant to this ontario project and the national data exchange network is also informed by the work of the groningen declaration network (gdn), a netherlands trust that is focused on data portability and digitization to enhance student mobility.48 it brings together representatives from around the world who seek to support this effort and serves as the initial inspiration for the arucc groningen project. arucc is a formal signatory to the gdn. the canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic) of the councils of ministers of education, canada (cmec) 49 is supporting similar efforts internationally as the gdn but with a focus on policy and quality assured practices such as are embodied in the new global convention, which seeks to bring together the many regional conventions supporting student mobility such as the lisbon recognition convention (lrc).50 the global convention aspires to stretch across all country boundaries as it focuses on implementing the unesco sustainable development goals (canadian information centre for international credentials, 1990-2019).51 of relevance to this project is goal #4 which focuses on the quality of higher education. according to cicic, the global convention seeks to cooperatively recognize and support student mobility and the right of academic credential recognition and recognition consistency. while it remains to be seen what will emerge of specific relevance to the ontario postsecondary institutions or the national network, digitization represents an aspect of the discussions. as an example, unesco is working collaboratively with other organizations to create a vision for an international standard for electronically documenting, authenticating, and sharing a persons learning in a way that is understandable, supported by broad access (i.e., at anytime and anywhere), and shared in a manner that still allows amendments by the individual document owner and/or the authorized party (chakroun & keevy, 2018, p. 34). exchanging transcripts represents one document type impacted by this vision. other potential documents could include ones like credentials which articulate learning outcomes achieved or the new european qualifications passport for refugees, a document which recognizes prior academic and vocational learning in the absence of official documents.52 while a full discussion of these topics falls outside of the scope of this paper, the context remains important for canadian post-secondary institutions contemplating participation in a national data exchange network. exchanging transcripts represents one document type to exchange. other potential documents could include ones like credentials which articulate learning outcomes achieved or the new european qualifications passport for refugees, a document which recognizes prior academic and vocational learning in the absence of official documents. of relevance to the oncat research and the arucc groningen project is the us-based national student clearinghouse (the clearinghouse). according to its website, the clearinghouse provides data exchange, 48 https://www.groningendeclaration.org/ https://www.cicic.ca/ 50 the lrc is ratified by the canadian government see https://www.cicic.ca/1409/unesco_global_convention_on_the_recognition_of_higher_education_qualifications.canada 51 https://en.unesco.org/sdgs 52 a document providing an assessment of the higher education qualifications based on available documentation and a structured interview. it also presents information on the applicants work experience and language proficiency. the document provides reliable information for integration and progression towards employment and admission to further studies. it is a specially developed assessment scheme for refugees, even for those who cannot fully document their qualifications. [sic] https://www.coe.int/en/web/education/recognition-of-refugees-qualifications 49 32 | p a g e official verification, research services, and other supports for 3,600 post-secondary institutions and 12,200 participating high schools in the united states.53 participants in the research process for this project noted the clearinghouse and referenced it as an exemplar model for the arucc groningen project given its supports for official student data exchange and its broad mandate which includes research. student stakeholders supporting learner mobility and maintaining a student focus sits at the heart of the arucc groningen projects principles; therefore, capturing the student perspective remains an important consideration for the national data exchange project.54 the three student associations in ontario provide a series of supports to post-secondary students including research and advocacy. these include the ontario college student alliance,55 the canadian federation of students (cfs),56 and the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa). while they support various programs for students including administration of health plans, the primary reason for referencing them in this report is to acknowledge their contributions to understanding the student experience as it relates to creating a seamless transfer system. the ontario college student alliance tabled a report examining the ontario transfer system which provided an overview of the experiences of students and the impediments to seamless transfer. the report outlined a series of recommendations to encourage change (popovic, 2012).57 those relevant to the project include calls for increased efficiency, improved supports, and better coordination and tracking (pp. 10-12). the report stresses the value of looking to international jurisdictions for potential exemplars to improve practices (p. 16), a core consideration in both this oncat study and the arucc groningen project. these recommendations align with this current ontario research and plans to create a national data exchange network to enhance student mobility. as with the other student groups, the cfs has long advocated for change to the credit transfer system58 and improvements to supports for international students, a group often impacted by a lack of electronic transcript exchange.59 at the 2018 oncat student pathways in higher education, the cfs chairperson, nour alideeb, emphasized support for student transfer and mobility and noted the lack of clear information, consistency, bureaucracy, and duplication of time and resources.60 suggestions for change included standardizing the processes and increasing access for marginalized learners. ousa examined transfer in a study representing findings from a 2015 survey of more than 10,000 ontario students across six universities.61 a subset of this cohort (13%) reported transferring credits during their studies (47% by transferring into a new institution and 35% by transferring supplementary credits) (2017). findings from this report suggest that transfer represents an important access enabler. as such, it calls for the removal of barriers to assist students. an illustrative example cited in the report 53 https://studentclearinghouse.org/about/ http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 55 https://www.collegestudentalliance.ca/about 56 http://cfsontario.ca/about/principles/ 57 https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/0b1b3b_c7a8d8e56eb14448965b49a82bea84d7.pdf 58 http://cfsontario.ca/campaigns/credit-transfer/ - this dataset focuses on 6 of 7 ousa member institutions; therefore, the association suggests extrapolating the findings to other institutions would be problematic. the data provide interesting insights, however, and are included to help provide additional context. 59 http://cfsontario.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/factsheet-internationalstudents.pdf 60 http://www.oncatconference.com/2018/documents/papers/d1%20-%20canadian%20federation%20of%20students-on.pdf 61 https://www.ousa.ca/research_reports 54 33 | p a g e involves post-secondary institutions noting transfer credit awards within offers of admission as a way to provide students with full information at a critical decision-making point (p. 3). this represents an innovation which would require more scalable service delivery frameworks including electronic academic document exchange between post-secondary institutions and subsequent automation in order to benefit all transfer students. other research highlights from this report of relevance to this project include the following (pp. 14-15): most of the students surveyed received transfer credit for studies completed at ontario postsecondary institutions (81%) with 19% from out-of-province studies. most identified as mature, part-time, indigenous, first generation, from the lowest income bracket, having a disability, and supporting dependants. most came from ontario (92%) with the next highest sending province reported as british columbia (3%). five percent identified as international with most coming from china (47%), nigeria (5%), and india (3%). university to university represented the most common transfer (71%; college to university represented 31%). increasing needs the need to support increasing volumes of students remains an important consideration for this project. the research consultation process found indications of growing volumes of incoming students who bring with them academic documents requiring official validation from the originating institution or organization before canadian post-secondary institutions would approve admissions and/or transfer credit (e.g., for transcripts and language test results). similarly, institutional representatives reported increasing volumes of requests from students with outgoing document validation requests for other third parties that require official verification.62 as the findings in the subsequent sections of the report demonstrate, most institutions are manually addressing many of these activities. much of the incoming document volume likely result from institutional admission standards and the need to ensure a strong fit between students and the academic programs in which they are interested to ensure success. both areas may also result from growing concerns regarding document fraud. regardless of reason, the demands are placing increasing pressures on canadian post-secondary institutions, including those in ontario, as many are receiving paper transcripts, particularly for out-of-province and international students, in addition to formally and officially validating previously provided admission offers and confirmations of status originally shared directly with students. they further reported manual effort to assess transfer credit, even for those who had previously studied in ontario post-secondary institutions and provided electronic transcripts through the application centres. post-secondary institutional representatives indicated that they do not systematically track all the volume transaction trends in these areas. this data gap matches previous research, which examined 62 official confirmations of student status in this context refers to requests by third parties for confirmation directly from the registrar rather than via a student. third parties include other post-secondary institutions, regulatory bodies, trades associations, government, employers, banks, health care providers, and others. outgoing document validation requests are resulting in high volumes of requests to formally and officially confirm offers of admission, enrolment, fees paid, pending graduation, and graduation. 34 | p a g e international document processing practices for transfer and exchange (duklas, january 2019). three areas provide proxy indicators of the growth and volume: international post-secondary study permits, registered education savings plans (resps), and graduation rates. the findings demonstrate the significant volumes impacting institutions and the implications for student service. although briefly addressed below, inter-provincial student transfer volume does not appear to be a significant driver although comprehensive data for examining this area are limited. this represents a focus for future research. the report provides ontarios in-province transfer numbers to the extent these are available. incoming and outgoing document validation example: international students canadian institutions require international applicants to submit various academic and supporting documents to support the admissions and transfer assessment processes, including transcripts and course outlines for those with prior post-secondary studies. official language proficiency test results or other test results (e.g., lsat, gmat, etc.) may also be required. institutions need official validation of these documents from the originating institutions and testing organizations. if admitted, institutions send students offers of admission. as these are sent directly to the students, third-party organizations, including government, contact institutions to officially verify these documents. the canadian government issued 491,070 post-secondary study permits in 2018 versus 333,645 in 2015, which represents a 47% increase.63 most of these students came from china and india. proportionally, ontario represented the largest destination province, attracting 64% of the total pool (figure 7). its volume grew by 58% from 199,920 study permits in 2015 to 315,915 in 2018. in contrast, other provinces and territories grew 31% over the same period. while the year-over-year percentage changes slowed for ontario (from 25% for 2015-16 to 7% from 2016-17), the volume remains notable.64 most of the students enrolled in post-secondary institutions in and around toronto, although institutions in other ontario regions experienced increases (figure 8, table 1). according to the consultation both in ontario and canada, the academic credentials for these students typically arrive as paper documents; some arrive as pdfs which lack machine-readable data.65 most require manual handling during the admissions and transfer credit assessment processes. previous research for arucc conducted by this projects research group indicates several international organizations across the world exist and are well positioned to become trusted providers of official electronic academic credentials to canadian post-secondary institutions to ease this manual processing and speed up service for students.66 due to fraud and other concerns, the above volumes are also driving requests from the federal government to post-secondary institutions to officially validate offers of admission and enrolment for international students. institutions reported time consuming requests to manually vet lists of students 63 source for study permit data: immigration, refugees and citizenship canada, https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/90115b00-f9b8-49e8-afa3-b4cff8facaee 64 institutions do not track data on what portion of these represent transfer students, making further analysis difficult. 65 lsat, gmat, international baccalaureate, and toefl represent examples where it is possible to access these results electronically. as an example, the ontario universities application centre (ouac) accesses lsat scores and others from american testing organizations. 66 see a sample of national level student data exchange and validation services at http://arucc.ca/en/project-overview.html 35 | p a g e with study permits to validate their subsequent enrolment. most indicated a desire to find a more sustainable, trusted, and efficient method to address these types of requests. figure 7: volume of study permits issued to international post-secondary students in canada ontario other provinces/ territories canada 2015 199,920 2016 234,770 2017 293,930 2018 315,915 133,725 150,280 165,795 175,155 333,645 385,050 459,725 491,070 figure 8: destination region within ontario table 1: international study permits by region 2015 2016 2016 2017 2017 2018 2018 % 59% n count 168,580 % 61% n count 137,360 57% n count 174,155 55% 15,210 8% 18,235 8% 21,410 7% 22,405 7% 8,530 4% 13,155 6% 18,335 6% 22,025 7% 10,650 5% 14,295 6% 17,750 6% 19,210 6% % region toronto n count 121,785 ottawa - gatineau (ontario part) kitchener - cambridge waterloo london 36 | p a g e 2015 2016 2016 2017 2017 2018 2018 % % 5% n count 14,130 5% n count 14,505 5% n count 10,435 % region hamilton 5% n count 12,460 st. catharines - niagara 6,385 3% 8,820 4% 11,150 4% 12,710 4% windsor 5,620 3% 6,780 3% 10,440 4% 12,725 4% other regions 21,305 11% 23,665 10% 32,135 11% 38,180 12% column totals 199,920 100% 234,770 100% 293,930 100% 315,915 100% outgoing document validation example: confirmation of student status for registered education savings plans (resps) while not a transfer issue, confirmations of student status to satisfy requests such as to access funding from registered education savings plans (resps) and other third parties represent a form of outgoing documentation validation. the findings indicate these growing requests are eroding registrarial ability to support other areas of the operation. creating a national data exchange network holds the promise to further streamline the student support framework, thereby freeing up staff resources to provide more value-added services to transfer students. as an illustrative example, resp beneficiaries have grown from a population of 53 students when the program first began to over 430,000 in the past twenty years.67 the program is projected to continue growing. resp providers usually require post-secondary students prove they are accepted and enrolled at an institution before allowing funds to be withdrawn. other scholarship organizations typically maintain similar requirements. some canadian institutions provide online capacity for students to download the enrolment confirmation letters which are auto populated with information; however, the research indicates these are in the minority and, at times, not accepted without other customizations. most canadian post-secondary institutions manually write unique letters for these kinds of outgoing document validation requests - a resource-intensive, cumbersome process that causes delays for students. outgoing document validation example: confirmation of graduation status another form of outgoing document validation occurs upon pending or actual graduation. each year, ontario graduates make up 40% of the canadian post-secondary graduating pool.68 from 2012 to 2016, ontario experienced an 11% growth in graduates (from 193,032 to 213,873). most of these students will be required at some point (and often more than once) to provide official proof they have graduated from their former institution. for example, if a university graduate wishes to study in a graduate diploma program in a college, official proof of graduation is usually required at some point in the process. students and post-secondary institutions also need to provide similar types of proof to funding bodies, trades associations, regulatory bodies, prospective employers, and other third parties. the research supporting the national project indicates other options exist for more streamlined, official credential verification services which the national network aims to access.69 67 source for resp data: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/corporate/reports/evaluations/2015canada-education-savings-program.html 68 source for all graduating data: statistics canada. table 37-10-0020-01 postsecondary graduates, by institution type, status of student in canada and sex 69 http://arucc.ca/en/project-overview.html 37 | p a g e as graduation rates increase, more streamlined services will enhance efficiencies for students, postsecondary institutions, and potential employers. while the volume increase is relatively low in comparison to the other data cited in this section, the overall volume is high. furthermore, efficiently supporting graduates with official credential verification and electronic transcript transmission remains essential to ease their transition into other institutions and the workplace. inter-provincial student transfer trends gaps in national inter-provincial student transfer data present challenges when attempting to analyze post-secondary mobility trends. a few indicators from other research provide proxy indicators of the volume and need. universities canada reports that 1 in 10 students study at a canadian university outside their home province (universities canada, n.d.). the maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec) conducted an inter-provincial analysis of new students transferring into the maritimes from other provinces (2013).70 it found students transferred into the maritimes from almost every college and university in canada (i.e., over 200) and from post-secondary institutions in 76 other countries. the diversity is extraordinary and likely replicated in other jurisdictions. thirty-nine percent of the transfers came from other canadian institutions with most coming from ontario (15%). for these cohort years, canadian university and college transfers represented 56% and 23% respectively of this overall pool. in another separate trend analysis, mphec reported that 10,564 canadians moved to new brunswick, nova scotia, and prince edward island for post-secondary study, representing a 4.9% increase over the last ten years (2019). this is a somewhat significant volume for that region given the small number of institutions, although there have been declines in recent years (i.e., -3.3% from the prior year). bc conducted a separate analysis of bc grade 12 secondary school students from 2002/03 to 2007/08 as part of the student transitions project to determine where they completed their post-secondary studies (heslop, 2010). the findings demonstrate that most of those who moved outside of bc for further academic studies went to post-secondary institutions in alberta (32%) and ontario (31%) with the balance heading to post-secondary institutions outside of canada (20%) or other provinces (7%). a national study led by pccat compared inter-provincial mobility from 2007/08 to 2009/10 and found small numbers of students moving across provincial boundaries (heath, 2012). burbidge and finnie examined inter-provincial mobility for baccalaureate-level university students and found overall mobility rates for canada were initially 6.3%, 7.0%, and 6.5% for three separate student cohorts, 1982, 1986, and 1990 (2000). they further found that those who moved tended to choose nearby provinces with nova scotia and ontario being destination regions for those that moved farther away from home. while not a canadian example, a recent report published by the non-profit national student clearinghouse (the clearinghouse) in the united states found a 38% transfer and mobility rate for first-time students who started in post-secondary in fall 2011 (i.e., two out of five who began 70 this study focused on a student cohort enrolled in ten maritime universities from 2006 to 2009. see http://www.mphec.ca/resources/trendsv10n1_2013.pdf 38 | p a g e that fall had enrolled in more than one institution within six years of starting in post-secondary prior to earning their first degree) (shapiro, et al., 2018, july). electronic transcript exchange does not exist to support the sizable inflow of students from other provinces who are seeking to study in the maritimes and ontario, apart from the cegep results that are provided to ontario post-secondary institutions via ouac. it would be helpful for this research, the arucc groningen project, and other research and policy needs if a systematic analysis was conducted of national post-secondary student mobility. in the absence of recent data in this area, the above findings provide indicators of the volume. many of these mobile students are supported by manual assessment practices in ontario post-secondary institutions. a national data exchange network would present opportunities to streamline this work and subsequently enhance service to students. a systematic and comprehensive analysis of provincial, national, and international post-secondary student transfer and mobility rates would be helpful research to inform future policy development. it would further provide a more comprehensive understanding of student service gaps and the volumes impacting post-secondary institutions in ontario and across canada. transfer in ontario publicly available transfer data to assess overall volumes and trends remain somewhat limited for within ontario, likely due to the challenges with identifying transfer students in a systematic way.71 oncat and ocas, with ouacs support, led a project to examine the volume and patterns related to electronic transcript exchange over two time periods: 2015 and 2016 (table 2).72 while focused on the transcript exchange itself, these findings provide proxy indicators of the volume of students seeking to transfer between ontario post-secondary institutions. close to 70% of the transcripts transferred in each cohort year went to colleges (see blue shading in table 2). this was true whether the student was requesting past university or college transcripts. while the dataset between the above and those of student applicants in figure 9 are not the same, the number of transfer applicants to ontario universities suggest some degree of alignment with the above data. the year-over-year change in transfer applicant volume to ontario universities using data from ouac and other institutions indicates significant, although declining, numbers of applicants and 71 beginning in 2015, the ontario government implemented an enrolment reporting identifier (called the credit transfer flag) to monitor transfer volume in the province (ministry of training, colleges and universities, 2015-16). colleges and universities assign the flag if a student is awarded at least one course in transfer (pp. 86-87). as it only applies to those who have received transfer for courses from an ontario post-secondary institution, students who have studied solely in out-of-province or international post-secondary institutions arent represented unless they previously took a course in an ontario post-secondary institution. the implementation of the ontario education number (oen) plus this flag hold the potential to begin to develop the data set needed to understand the transfer trends in the province. such information would be critical to enable change and enhance institutional efficiencies and services to students. the research indicated the flag is applied to the student files after much of the admissions and transfer work is completed as part of the institutional reporting required for enrolment funding. 72 http://www.oncatconference.com/2018/documents/papers/a4.pdf note: not all transcript exchange volume occurring in the province is captured in this data. 39 | p a g e increases in registrants into ontario universities (figure 9).73 the in-year percentage of university registrants to applicants grew from 17% in 2012 to 20% in 2016, potentially suggesting improved efficiencies of some nature. previous college research indicates similar increases in applicants (13%) and registrants (11%) who had prior university experience before entering an ontario college (colleges ontario, 2009). as noted above, institutional representatives in ontario consulted for this research indicated out-ofprovince, international, and, for some institutions, in-province transfer required manual assessment even with the existence of electronic transcript exchange between post-secondary institutions in the province to support admissions. this reality is validated in other research and primarily impacts the transfer credit assessment process for both domestic and international students (duklas, january 2019). while larger institutions tended to have developed internal practices (including automation) to enhance institutional assignment of transfer equivalencies, the consultation for this research suggests that this is not the case for all ontario institutions. given these data and the previously noted increases in international transfer, future research examining overall transfer volumes (intra-provincial, inter-provincial, and international) would be very useful to understand the gaps in student service and the true volumes impacting post-secondary institutions in ontario and across canada. the consultation findings from this research suggest the need for change to provide sustainable supports for post-secondary institutions. table 2: ontario transcript exchange volumes 2015 2016 type of transcript transcripts transcripts percentage percentage transfer exchange sent sent college to university 22,317 17 21,916 17 college to college 38,547 30 38,605 31 university to university 17,699 14 17,474 14 university to college 49,138 38 47,249 38 column totals 127,701 100% 125,244 100 fn 2: adapted from http://www.oncatconference.com/2018/documents/papers/a4.pdf 73 source: ouac and data provided by some universities per cudo https://cudo.ouac.on.ca/page.php?id=7&table=10#univ=1,2,3,8,9,11,12,14,16,17,21,22,23,24,25,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,42&y =2016 40 | p a g e figure 9: ontario university transfer volume a partial picture 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 applicants 32809 33255 33604 32209 35088 registrants 6433 5600 5358 5176 5976 registrants as a % of applicants 20% 17% 16% 16% 17% national connectivity previous arucc research,74 interviews, and website research highlight the student data exchange strengths and gaps in the different jurisdictions across canada (appendix f). thematically, the research indicates that the following areas require resolution, most of which apply to ontario except for intraprovincial application and transcript exchange for admissions. no electronic exchange of official transcripts offering machine readable data exists with trusted international organizations and institutions in other countries beyond a select few institutions. no inter-provincial electronic exchange of official transcripts with machine-readable data exists in any province or territory except on a limited basis in ontario (ouac is exchanging with 11 institutions in various provinces and with two bc institutions through educationplannerbc), and between qubec and ouac and la cit for cegep results. no member-led capacity at the provincial or national levels exists to officially and electronically confirm a students current or former status.75 examples of documents affected by this and dealt with manually in most instances include confirmations of offer, enrolment (full/part-time students), fees paid, pending graduation, and graduation. limited national resources exist to support admissions and transfer in various parts of canada although seven provinces including ontario through oncat, provide transfer supports including online course equivalency and pathway guides.76 no system-wide intra- or inter-provincial electronic high school or post-secondary transcript exchange offering machine-readable data exists in manitoba, newfoundland and labrador, northwest territories, nunavut, or prince edward island. no post-secondary transcript exchange with machine-readable data exists in saskatchewan as well. 74 http://arucc.ca/en/project-overview.html select institutions use third-party vendors to support out-bound document and graduation validation; however, this functionality is not universally available to all institutions. 76 arucc and pccat partnered to create and launch the national transcript and transfer guide, which provides an exemplar model for national tools to support transfer (guide.pccat.arucc.ca). 75 41 | p a g e section 5.0 provides further findings of gaps which validates much of the above research conducted by arucc. overview of privacy regulations the federal and provincial privacy regulations77 and the european union general data protection regulation (gdpr)78 establish the regulatory framework for canadian post-secondary institutions, application centres/data hubs, arucc, and the national data exchange network. according to the consultation for this project, organizationally specific data sharing agreements and privacy and consent of use protocols and statements add an additional layer to support transparent and permission-based student data exchange. while a broad analysis of privacy regulations remains outside the scope of this research, identifying the privacy statutes to which ontario post-secondary institutions and application centres are subject remains relevant. in ontario, the freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa)79 applies to public organizations in the province which include government and provincially funded post-secondary institutions (information and privacy commissioner of ontario, 2014). under fippa, the information and privacy commissioner of ontario (ipco) provides oversight for the act (information and privacy commissioner of ontario, n.d.) and is formally mandated to investigate and resolve appeals and complaints, ensure compliance, review practices, conduct research, educate the community about privacy, and provide the public access to government-held information and the publics own information. the ipco leads meetings/information sessions and produces several resource guides to help with interpretation of fippa. for example, it provides instructions on disposal of electronic media which may be relevant to the national network depending on the model chosen (2018). unlike the other publicly funded post-secondary institutions, the royal military college, a federally funded and provincially chartered associate member of the council of ontario universities (cou),80 adheres to the federal regulation called the privacy act.81 the two ontario application centres, ouac and ocas, follow the federal personal information protection and electronic documents act (pipeda)82 as they are separately incorporated not-for-profit entities. ouac is registered as a private charity (james & mcmillan, 2016). as with the application centres and data hubs operating in other provinces, ouac and ocas serve as exemplars for managing personal information in accordance with the various acts.83 ouacs publicly available privacy practices are described further below to illustrate an ontario specific model.84 ocass privacy policy, privacy code, and terms of use are available publicly as well.85 77 the federal government links to all the canadian and provincial privacy regulations at the following url: https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/02_05_d_15/ 78 https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-protection-eu_en 79 https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90f31 80 https://cou.ca/members-groups/members-of-council/ 81 https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/the-privacy-act/; more information about the privacy act available here: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/corporate/transparency/service-canada.html 82 http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/p-8.6/index.html 83 educationplannerbc = https://www.educationplannerbc.ca/content/privacy; applyalberta = https://www.applyalberta.ca/privacy-policy/; mynsfuture.ca = https://www.mynsfuture.ca/privacy-policy 84 https://www.ouac.on.ca/privacy/ 85 https://www.ontariocolleges.ca/en/ - search privacy to access the privacy policy, privacy code, and terms of use on the ocas inc. website. 42 | p a g e ouacs approach includes publishing an overall privacy statement and links to specific declaration and notice statements for the secondary school audience, the graduate audience, and more. the overall privacy statement includes the following: the information collected (both personal and technical); how data is used and where it is disclosed and transferred; how personal information is protected and access to personal data supported; third-party disclaimers; change protocols (including the process for the applicant to follow to change personal information); and, who to contact for questions, comments, changes, or complaints. using the secondary school audience as an example, the publicly available declaration and notice linked to the above privacy statement and tied to each personal application explains ouacs purpose including the services it provides to students applying to ontario public post-secondary institutions from secondary school.86 it explains the following: what personal information is collected; why it is collected; how it is used; who or what entity has access to it; what information is or is not mandatory; the applicants responsibilities; and, what is disclosed. the declaration and notice presented to applicants also requires their formal consent, verification, and agreement which is captured as part of the online application process. a privacy officer contact is provided for those with additional questions. the european gdpr contains clauses which extend its reach beyond europe to companies located in other parts of the world who are directly marketing to and capturing personal information from european citizens.87 the gdpr regulation and its meaning are fully explained on the european commissions website including what is required in a notice of use. 88 it is inappropriate in the context of this paper to provide interpretations of the statute; however, further legal advice would be needed for the national network to better understand its obligations, if any, related to the gdpr as this may impact ontario post-secondary institutions and application centres. educause, a non-profit organization for higher education information technology staff, provides best practice advice across a range of areas including privacy and data protection. it advises creating data sharing agreements between all partners involved in a student data exchange network to articulate roles, responsibilities and obligations (educause, n.d.). for ontario, that would at minimum mean 86 https://www.ouac.on.ca/privacy/101-declaration/ https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rules-business-and-organisations/applicationregulation/who-does-data-protection-law-apply_en 88 https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rules-business-and-organisations/principles-gdpr/whatinformation-must-be-given-individuals-whose-data-collected_en 87 43 | p a g e between the application centres and the national network. if any direct connections were established with individual institutions, data sharing agreements would likely be necessary. the national network and its service providers must adhere to the federal and provincial privacy regulations including but not limited to the freedom of information and protection of privacy act (fippa), the privacy act, and the personal information protection and electronic documents act (pipeda). adherence to the european union general data protection regulation (gdpr) is also likely necessary, where relevant. fraud and security document and identity fraud it remains difficult to quantify the scope of the post-secondary document fraud challenge in canada as systematic sector level identification and monitoring does not exist, a situation which is not unusual in other jurisdictions (tobenkin, 2011). the world education services, an international credential evaluation organization, provides further information on the scope of the problem, which demonstrates academic document fraud is not unique to canadian post-secondary institutions (trines, 2017). western kentucky university, one of the examples cited, de-enrolled 25 of close to 60 students in a recent case due to admissions fraud (saul, 2016). potentially increasing examples of document fraud are emerging in canada (zavarise, 2018), (rankin, 2016), (giles & craig, 2018). for example, a recent article published by the cbc reports an increase from 10 students submitting fraudulent documents in 2015-16 to close to 50 in 2017-18 at one institution alone (zavarise, 2018). to put this into perspective, if a university or college uncovered 50 enrolled students who had committed admissions fraud and subsequently deenrolled them after the drop date, the total annual revenue loss would be close to $1 million.89 the nature of the fraud varies from academic transcripts and related documents that are altered or created, fake diplomas, and interpretive translations of existing documents (which sometimes unintentionally misrepresent results) (adan, n.d.). furthermore, fraud impacting post-secondary institutions is not limited to education documents but also extends to work permits, bus passes, and more (schmidt, 2018). to combat fraud, immigration, refugees and citizenship canada (ircc) maintains strict criteria for controlling who may support those wishing to study, work, or live in canada.90 according to this research, canadian post-secondary institutions work closely with ircc, canadian border services, and others to ensure compliance and reduce academic document fraud. document fraud relates to identity fraud in that institutions need to ensure that the person applying, enrolling, and subsequently claiming an academic document as theirs is legitimate. this issue is shared with other industries. a telus study reported billions of dollars in costs to canadians due to online fraud 89 tuition fees vary by institution. this calculation is based on $15,000 undergraduate tuition per year for an international student on study permit. it assumes de-enrolment happened after the start of classes and the tuition deadline. according to the consultation for this research, institutional representatives reported that it is extremely difficult to allocate an enrolment seat to another person after the start of classes and subsequently recoup losses in tuition revenue. 90 https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigration-citizenship-representative/learn-aboutrepresentatives.html 44 | p a g e and related crimes with a 25% increase in exposed identities in 2015 alone (canadian bankers association, 2018).91 to address identity fraud, the canadian bankers association (cba) and its leadership have been advocating for government support to create a digital identity system (2018). as part of this effort, the cba is seeking government support for accepting digital identities by using innovative technologies and approaches, including blockchain (parmenter, 2019). in the postsecondary sector, fraud represents a growing issue requiring institutional registrarial and information technology departments to carefully manage student identification and authentication processes to ensure safe and secure access to student records and data housed within institutions (canadian university council of chief information officers (cuccio), n.d.). many canadian postsecondary institutions participate in the eduroam network, which allows students, staff, and faculty to access information through a federated framework using institutionally controlled and managed identities and permission capture.92 as a result, the higher education community maintains access to important information regardless of location. this is one illustrative example of the options available for identity management. creating direct, trusted connections for document exchange supported by a robust identity management framework means greater efficiencies and stronger data security for a national student data exchange network. document and identity fraud mitigation strategies remain critically tied for whatever final solution is chosen. data security the participants in the regional meetings and interviews for this project continually raised the issue of data security. this is to be expected as protecting student data represents a critical concern and focus in higher education (shipley, 2015) (educause, 2019a). in response to a growing focus on student success, educause, an american based non-profit organization focused on higher education information technology, is leading the student genome project which is concerned with advising institutions across several fronts including data security, ethical data stewardship, interoperability, standards, and data management and governance (2019b). for data security and integration, educause suggests addressing several areas when expanding connectivity with outside organizations including vendor management, contracts, service level agreements, and data flows and architecture (gower & hartman, 2019c). the arucc groningen projects national technical advisory committee of data exchange experts from across canada represents an example of ensuring this focus. this group is guiding the technical aspects of purchase and implementation of the national network. members of this committee include representatives from ontario institutions.93 best practice advice provided by the national student clearinghouse, educause, and ren-isac in their report, why cybersecurity matters provides specific suggestions for service contracts for data exchange projects to address these areas (2018). these include the following: breach notification schedules and incident response plans, defined data access roles, independent security assessments, data sharing notifications, security training expectations, and protocols for addressing security patches; 91 https://www.itworldcanada.com/sponsored/demystifying-digital-identity-a-matter-of-trust https://www.eduroam.org/about/institutions/ 93 http://arucc.ca/en/project-governance.html 92 45 | p a g e a risk identification plan that addresses connection points with accountabilities noted for issue resolution and risk mitigation; automated update schedules to address connections at endpoints; 94 and, multifactor authentication.95 educause provides a comprehensive tool for assessing vendors capacities for security and data protection (2019c). while written for the us context, it holds potential for use with the canadian national network. overview of data exchange models a detailed technical review and summary of data exchange models sits outside the scope of this research; however, a brief overview is provided to illustrate the typology and highlight exemplar models in place around the world. those of potential relevance to the national network are described below and include five types: repositories, exchange networks, badging frameworks, blockchain, and hub and spoke (dowling, 2018a).96 the repository model involves student data being centrally stored with access overseen, managed, and curated by a central agency. the china higher education student information and career center (chesicc) represents an example of this model. chesicc, a trusted international organization, stores chinese qualification certificates, enrolment status, gaokao results, and student photos in a central database.97 as one example of its use in canada, mcgill university has established a connection to the chesicc database facilitated by the national student clearinghouse (the clearinghouse) to ensure access to official documents for chinese applicants (duklas, january 2019). students apply to mcgill and provide permission for the documents to be exchanged. chesicc is notified and sends these to mcgill via the clearinghouse for a fee. the documents are official as they go directly from the chinese repository to mcgill. an exchange network represents another model which involves a system-to-system (institution to institution) transfer of information directly between two organizations using apis and other methods (dowling, 2018a). in the post-secondary context, this model involves sending documents or student information directly between institutions without the involvement of students. it is typically a closed and trusted method, although it is possible for students to push documentation through the network by accessing other systems that are connected to the network (chakroun & keevy, 2018). badging frameworks are considered another type of model for exchanging student information and credentials (hickey & otto, 2017). with this approach, students receive electronic symbols called badges that signify successful completion of a learning outcome, topic, or subject area. typically, these are web enabled and contain metadata that facilitate access to more information about what the badge was awarded for, by which organization, the assessment criteria, the evidence of achievement, issuance date, and other data (open badges, 2016). 94 endpoint: any piece of computer hardware with an internet connection.[e.g.,] desktop computers, laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, and other devices. (national student clearinghouse, educause, ren-isac, 2018) 95 multifactor authentication: a system that relies on more than one layer of security to authenticate a user. (national student clearinghouse, educause, ren-isac, 2018) 96 sources for information on models: (dowling, 2018a), (dowling, 2018b) 97 https://www.chsi.com.cn/en/aboutus/database.jsp 46 | p a g e blockchain represents another method institutions and governments are using to enhance portability of credentials (patel, 2018) (the nassau guardian, 2018) (purushotham, 2018).98 two canadian examples include the work of the federal government, which is piloting and exploring applications for blockchain, (national research council canada, 2018) and the credentialing efforts at the southern alberta institute of technology (sait). it became the first institution in the country to launch credentials through a blockchain (southern alberta institute of technology, december 17, 2018). internationally, the european commission has created a consortium called the eu blockchain conservatory and forum, which is focused on monitoring, mapping, and inspiring collaborations and conversations for blockchain (european commission, 2019). to date, the eu has provided 83 million euros to related projects and intends to do more in this area. more broadly, the eu is supporting extensive research and innovations through the european research cluster on the internet of things (iot), which goes beyond blockchain and focuses on coordinating and building a broad based consensus on the ways to realise the internet of things vision for europe (internet of things, 2016). the focus is multi-layered and complex. of relevance to credential exchange is enhancing control of personal data, eliminating intermediaries, designing user-led systems that support data protection and privacy, facilitating digitization, addressing ways to better manage the resulting plethora of data, and ensuring interoperability (vermesan & bacquet (eds), 2017). blockchain is not a fully viable option for the canadian national network because it lacks the capacity to support data processing and exchange. it does, however, present interesting options for augmenting services in that it provides more immediate access for students to their credentials for the purposes of employer verification of official documents. another model for exchange is referred to as the hub and spoke (dowling, 2018a). this model is very common in canada between application centres and institutions. the my equals in australia and new zealand uses this approach for post-secondary student data exchange.99 in that example, institutions maintain control over the data housed in their student information systems and in an institutionally specific partitioned cloud. students access their portal in my equals which allows them to see their official records and share them with others (dowling, 2018a). some of the credential and student data exchange networks currently used do not appear to neatly fall into one model or combine models. for example, emrex, a european project that facilitates learner driven exchange, might be characterized as a network in that it is supported by a trusted network of institutions that are interconnected. it might also be considered a hub and spoke because the students drive the exchange, which is supported by a national or regional server called a national contact point.100 in essence, it is a trusted business-to-business model supported by a regionally located hub where the learner drives the exchange and determines what happens with their data. for example, assuming the institutions have coded all the relevant business rules, the network holds the capability for students to access their former institutions student information system, identify courses previously taken, move their data through the network, deposit it into the student information system of their new destination institution, and have transfer credit automatically reflected in their new student record and transcript (duklas, january 2019). 98 exploring blockchain falls outside of the scope of this research. those interested learning more about this model are encouraged to review dowlings helpful overview in blockchain position paper (2018b). his work focuses on analyzing the public blockchain model. 99 https://www.myequals.edu.au/ 100 http://www.emrex.eu/ 47 | p a g e many of these models facilitate the exchange of various data formats and documents including in pdf, which canadian post-secondary institutional representatives (including those in ontario) suggested would make sense for early implementation of a national network. the american registrars association, aacrao, provides best practice advice for pdf transcript exchange which addresses security, rights management, and accepting secure pdfs as official if they are digitally certified/encrypted (2018). the post-secondary electronic standards council (pesc) provides a data standard format for supporting pdf to support secure exchange.101 for those interested in exploring the various models, chakroun and keevy (2018) provide a very thorough overview in digital credentialing: implications for recognition of learning across borders which is adapted from dowlings work (2018a). they outline the typology of possibilities for consideration by the canadian higher education community. 101 https://www.pesc.org/pesc-approved-standards.html 48 | p a g e section 4.0 - findings: current state student data exchange the primary research through the survey, interviews, and regional meetings sought to identify the current practices supporting student data exchange in canada with a focus on ontario. the following section identifies the ontario findings and contrasts these against the relevant national findings. appendix g provides a brief overview of the survey demographics and additional supplementary findings. for the survey, ontario colleges, institutes, and universities made up 47% of a total pool of 86 institutions which represents the largest group in comparison to any other province. 102 of these, 33% represented colleges/institutes (10/24) and 66% represented universities (14/21).103 this final pool represents 49% of the ontario publicly funded institutions (22/45). current data exchange practices ontario data exchange partners as mentioned previously, ouac and ocas support and enable the ontario application processes for admissions and transcript exchange and provide extensive supports surrounding these activities. for example, both organizations provide online application portals through which students apply to more than one ontario post-secondary institution simultaneously. the centres subsequently transfer the student data to ontarios post-secondary institutions. in addition, both centres support electronic transcript exchange from ontario high schools to ontarios post-secondary institutions, and between ontario post-secondary institutions for the purposes of in-province admissions. both ouac and ocas provide extensive information resources for students. for example, ocas partnered with myblueprint104 to augment the educational resources offered students through provincial high schools across canada and ouac manages einfo (an online resource for students) in collaboration with the ontario universities. it also supports the provincial university information program and the ontario universities fair (ouf), which is touted as one of torontos largest trade fairs.105 ocas recently launched the international application service (ias) to participating colleges. this system offers three portals to support automated offer and communications processes, secure data exchange with college student information systems, and analytics.106 it also facilitates the submission of pdf documents for international students applying to study in participating ontario colleges. ouac provides centralized application services for undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs (i.e., for law, medicine, rehabilitation sciences, and education). it also facilitates transmission of test 102 http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html all the ontario post-secondary institutions and ouac, ocas, and oncat were invited to participate in the survey, interviews, and regional meetings. although 24 ontario post-secondary institutions participated in the survey, contradictory responses were received for current practices by one institution; therefore, at times these results are excluded to ensure one clear response per institution. as the same issue arose with two other institutions from outside ontario, these were also excluded from analyses regarding current state. the final dataset of 99 unique organizations (of which 86 were institutions) informed the current practice findings for the national figures and charts in this section. n counts are adjusted and noted throughout to accommodate these issues. not all results will equal 100% due to rounding. 104 https://www.myblueprint.ca/ 105 http://www.ouf.ca/ 106 https://www.ocas.ca/who-we-are/press/ocas-launches-new-ias 103 49 | p a g e score results to ontario universities from us-based organizations (e.g., law school admission test scores,107 medical mcat scores,108 etc.). oncat, ontarios centralized transfer pathway organization, seeks to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontarios colleges, institutes, and universities.109 its members include all the publicly funded post-secondary colleges and universities in the province. while oncat does not exchange individual student data or documents, it provides students and institutions an online environment supported by three systems to enhance access to course equivalencies and pathway information. students use an online portal within the oncat system to capture self-loaded information to enhance their course equivalency search process. institutions load pathway and equivalency information to the oncat environment to facilitate student plan and search activities related to transfer. sending and receiving practices ontario ontario post-secondary institutions reportedly engage in electronic document exchange across the entire student life cycle which covers the period prior to admissions and through to and beyond graduation (figure 10). however, not all of it is being transmitted in a machine-readable format which limits data exchange, processing, and subsequent automation opportunities. according to the survey findings, the most common information being received electronically by ontario post-secondary institutions includes transcripts (secondary = 91%, post-secondary = 91%), admissions related information (91%), financial aid information (78%), and language proficiency results (65%). less commonly received are diplomas (30%), graduate confirmation (22%), proof of enrolment (17%), cocurricular information (9%), and other documents (0%). ontario institutions reported electronically sending documents such as admissions information (83%), post-secondary transcripts (74%), financial aid information (83%), confirmations of graduation (61%), proof of enrolment (43%), and diplomas (39%) (figure 10). less commonly sent to outside third parties are secondary school transcripts (13%), language proficiency results (4%), and other information (4%). none are electronically distributing co-curricular information (0%). according to the research, canadian post-secondary institutions tend to avoid distributing any documents or data theyve received from other third-party organizations; therefore, the sending results for secondary school transcripts and language proficiency information are to be expected. differences exist between colleges/institutes and universities (table 3). it appears that a higher proportion of colleges/institutes send electronic student information than universities across most categories of information. they appear to receive less student information electronically than universities in areas such as admissions, co-curricular, diploma, language proficiency, and transcripts.110 the two application centres reported sending admissions information, sending and receiving transcripts (both secondary and post-secondary), and receiving proof of enrolment information. one reported 107 https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/olsas-lsat-requirements/ https://www.ouac.on.ca/guide/omsas-mcat/ 109 https://oncat.ca/en/about-us 110 as the n counts are small when data are split between the ontario colleges/institutes and universities, subsequent analysis combines institutional type. 108 50 | p a g e sending co-curricular information,111 diploma information, proof of enrolment, and other information to support professional and graduate application processing. examples provided of other information received and sent by ouac include lsat scores, mcat scores, self-reported test results (gre, gmat, etc.), supporting documentation (pdf), university decision data, applicant response to offer data, and statistical data (both operational and historical). the data exchange formats used by ontario institutions vary (figure 11). most institutions use xml, edi, and flat file formats; however, a significant percentage reported receiving and sending pdfs (57% and 35% respectively). colleges appear to rely less on pdf documents than the universities (table 4). for those institutions that send and receive electronic data, 70% reported in-house capacity exists to transfer data from one format to another without changing the original content (16/23) in contrast to the national finding of 44% (38/86). this represents an important strength when considering ontario post-secondary capabilities for onboarding to a future national data exchange network. the ontario application centres exchange data in a variety of formats and reportedly maintain the capacity to transform electronic data formats (e.g., edi to xml). in the qualitative consultations, institutions and application centres reported moving from edi to xml and using different versions of xml. the latter presents challenges for flexible data exchange and interoperability. it will be important to leverage the centres capacities in this area. figure 10: student information sent and received electronically by ontario post-secondary institutions 111 since co-curricular records are not currently exchanged electronically by canadian application centres, follow up clarification provided by one application centre survey participant who had noted this response indicated that they understood cocurricular to mean non-academic supplemental information provided in the online application form. 51 | p a g e table 3: student information exchanged electronically by type of institution ontario survey findings colleges/institutes (n=9) send total psi responses (n=23) university (n=14) receive send receive send receive co-curricular 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 2 14% 0 0% 2 9% admissions 8 89% 8 89% 11 79% 13 93% 19 83% 21 91% diploma 5 56% 2 22% 4 29% 5 36% 9 39% 7 30% financial aid 8 89% 7 78% 11 79% 11 79% 19 83% 18 78% 6 67% 2 22% 8 57% 3 21% 14 61% 5 22% 8 89% 8 89% 9 64% 13 93% 17 74% 21 91% 1 11% 3 33% 0 0% 12 86% 1 4% 15 65% 4 44% 2 22% 6 43% 2 14% 10 43% 4 17% 2 22% 8 89% 1 7% 13 93% 3 13% 21 91% 0 0% 0 0% 1 7% 0 0% 1 4% 0 0% graduate confirmation post-secondary transcript language proficiency proof of enrolment secondary school transcript other figure 11: data formats used by ontario post-secondary institutions to exchange student information table 4: data exchange formats used by ontario institutions colleges/institutes (n=9) university (n=14) province overall (n=23) for sending for receiving for sending for receiving for sending for receiving edi (ansi x12) flat file 6 67% 6 67% 9 64% 10 71% 15 65% 16 70% 7 78% 6 67% 11 79% 10 71% 18 78% 16 70% json 0 0% 0 0% 1 7% 0 0% 1 4% 0 0% pdf 2 22% 2 22% 6 43% 11 79% 8 35% 13 57% 52 | p a g e colleges/institutes (n=9) university (n=14) province overall (n=23) for sending for receiving for sending for receiving for sending for receiving pdf/a 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 2 14% 0 0% 2 9% pesc xml 4 44% 4 44% 4 29% 5 36% 8 35% 9 39% xml 8 89% 6 67% 6 43% 7 50% 14 61% 13 57% other 1 11% 1 11% 1 7% 0 0% 2 9% 1 4% national as with ontario, most of the student data exchange (sending and receiving) occurs intra-provincially. a limited amount of inter-provincial exchange is occurring, primarily involving ouac in ontario, educationplannerbc in british columbia, applyalberta in alberta, and the bureau de coopration interuniversitaire in qubec. additionally, nova scotia, new brunswick, and saskatchewan are pursuing plans to expand inter-provincial exchange with select canadian jurisdictions. most of the canadian post-secondary institutions reported receiving student information electronically in the following areas (figure 12): as transcripts (high school = 70%; post-secondary = 67%), and for admissions (63%), financial aid (60%), and to satisfy language proficiency (44%).112 similarly, most reported sending post-secondary transcripts (63%), admissions information (69%), financial aid information (67%), proof of enrolment (49%), graduation confirmation (58%), and diploma related information (47%). the format used for data exchange varies across canada.113 while significant exchange occurs using xml, edi, and flat file formats, a notable percentage reported sending and receiving student information using pdf (44% and 49% respectively). this finding aligns with what appears to be happening in ontario. 112 113 these findings include the ontario post-secondary responses. http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 53 | p a g e figure 12: student information sent and received electronically by canadian post-secondary institutions outgoing document validation: confirmation of enrolment status and credential completion ontario just over half of the ontario post-secondary institutions reported not offering online enrolment status verification (52%) or credential verification (57%) services (tables 5 and 7).114 others reported using either in-house designed automated systems on institutional websites,115 or third-party vendors (in both cases for online credential verification only). neither of the application centres provide supports in these areas likely due to their focus on the application and admissions areas. while lower than the national percentages, these findings suggest a significant amount of manual effort exists in ontario colleges, institutes, and universities to support confirmations of status and/or graduation. national similarly, most canadian institutions surveyed across colleges, institutes, and universities indicated that they do not offer online enrolment (60%) or graduation (77%) verification services for students (tables 5 and 6). the same is true of application centres across canada. when ontario results are excluded, the gap in other provinces and territories climbs higher. these findings represent significant gaps as they illustrate the lack of electronic capacity to validate official documents or student status after the point of admission and the manual effort occurring to address these requests from students and third parties. as noted in section 3.0, post-secondary institutions across canada are seeing increasing volumes of these requests across a host of areas including when validating official offers of admission granted to international students with canadian immigration, refugee and citizenship (ircc) and canadian border services, confirming official status of enrolment to third parties such as providers of registered education savings plans (resps) and health care providers, and officially confirming pending or successful completion of graduation to employers, regulatory bodies, and others. 114 institutions were permitted to choose more than one provider. examples of institutional online credential verification systems: https://registrar.yorku.ca/graduation/yuverify and https://ss.cf.ryerson.ca/degreeverification/ 115 54 | p a g e table 5: online enrolment verification services provided post-secondary institutions alberta british columbia ontario qubec 2 other provinces & territories 0 all of canada without ontario (n=63) 3 5% all of canada including ontario (n=86) 4 5% service offered? no response 0 1 1 4% not available 9 8 13 57% 14 8 39 62% 52 60% yes, available in-house 4 7 9 39% 4 3 18 30% 27 31% yes, provided by an external third-party service column totals 0 1 0 0% 2 0 3 5% 3 3% 13 17 23 100% 22 11 63 100% 86 100% table 6: online credential verification services provided post-secondary institutions only alberta british columbia ontario qubec 2 other provincesall&of canada territories without ontario (n=63) 0 3 5% all of canada including ontario (n=86) 4 5% service offered? no response 0 1 1 4% not available 13 14 12 52% 16 11 54 86% 66 77% yes, available in-house 0 1 3 13% 2 0 3 5% 6 7% yes, provided by an external third-party service column totals 0 1 7 30% 2 0 3 5% 10 12% 13 17 23 100% 22 11 63 100% 86 100% international connectivity ontario in the survey, 11 ontario universities and ouac reported exchanging student information with trusted international organizations to support admissions.116 the post-secondary institutions represent 35% (11/31) of those from across canada who reported trading relationships with trusted international entities and 48% of the 23 ontario institutions that participated in the survey.117 within these 11, variety exists: one ontario post-secondary institution reported receiving student information directly from chesicc in china;118 three reported accessing results from the us-based national student clearinghouse described earlier in the report;119 two work with scripsafe, which offers diploma distribution services; five access results from the us-based college board (i.e., advanced placement and sat results);120 116 in the context of this report, trusted international organizations include those that are recognized institutions, government mandated, or designated by recognized institutions in their home country as the official source for students credentials; for this research and the national project, recruitment agents are not categorized within the definition of trusted organizations although it is understood that institutions use recruitment agents. 117 responses for one ontario institution excluded due to contradictory responses on current practices. 118 https://www.chsi.com.cn/en/ 119 https://studentclearinghouse.org/ 120 https://www.collegeboard.org/ 55 | p a g e five access results from the international baccalaureate organization;121 six reportedly use parchment for diploma distribution, a transcript and credential distribution provider;122 and, three receive documents from other international entities (with no further details provided). no colleges reported any international trading relationships with these types of organizations. most of the above-mentioned organizations support the admissions process with incoming academic results or testing data although some also offer out-bound distribution of documents for canadian institutions. as mentioned previously, ocas recently launched the international application service which supports international admissions and international third-party agents who recruit students for the ontario colleges. ouac reported engaging in international exchange with trusted entities to support select application processes (e.g., to access test scores for admission to medicine and law). national thirty one percent (31/99) of the canadian post-secondary institutions, application centres, and data hubs reported engaging with third-party international organizations to exchange student data, in all cases to support the admissions process (table 7).123 most reported using these external providers to access academic results for studies completed in other countries as a support to the admissions process. some are relying on these organizations for outward bound academic documents (i.e., transcripts, diplomas). table 7: international exchange organizations and activities with canadian post-secondary institutions and application centres trusted international organizations receive chesicc (china) my equals (australia/new zealand) gradintelligence (uk) national student clearinghouse (us) credentials scripsafe 2 institutions 1 institution college board (us) credential solutions (us) international baccalaureate organization (international) parchment other124 1 institution 13 institutions; 1 application centre 7 institutions; 1 application centre 12 institutions; 1 application centre 2 institutions 12 institutions 15 institutions 5 institutions send 2 institutions 1 institution plan to send or receive row total 1 institution; 1 application centre 1 application centre dont know/not applicable 95 97 1 application centre 3 institutions 97 83 99 99 91 99 2 institutions 84 99 1 application centre 1 institution 96 86 99 99 4 institutions 1 institution 81 92 99 99 99 99 121 https://www.ibo.org/ https://www.parchment.com/ 123 these data include post-secondary institutions and application centres/data hubs. organizations could choose more than one category of response and identify more than one organization; therefore, the numbers will not add up to 31 unique organizations. 124 the following were referenced under other: salesforce (https://www.salesforce.com/ca/); test score results for act, sat, lsat, and mcat; pdfs and other data from individual international institutions (e.g., stanford). 122 56 | p a g e section 5.0 - gaps/challenges another objective of the project included identifying the potential gaps and challenges which together necessitate creation of a national data exchange network. with the existence of the two application centres in ontario, the post-secondary institutions appear to be supported with respect to most aspects of the admissions process given the supports in place for application data sharing and intra-provincial electronic transcript data exchange. however, the research indicates that important gaps and challenges exist many of which would be enhanced by trusted national and international exchange of official academic documents (table 8). these include growing concerns regarding document and identify fraud; insufficient connectivity with recognized institutions and trusted credential repositories across canada and internationally; and capacity gaps within institutions to automatically assess and assign transfer credit, even for those documents that arrive in an electronic format. in addition to these, institutional participants routinely noted the increasing pressures facing post-secondary institutions due to a lack of resources and government cuts. some also suggested difficulties exist when trying to access internal support and priority status to introduce changes that support transfer and mobility. these gaps impact on students incoming and outgoing documents that require official validation. potential risks include the potential erosion of the canadian higher education brand (due to fraud) and student service (e.g., quality, timeliness). the situation introduces impediments to efficiency for both students and institutions and impacts on many areas including those related to transfer credit. each is described further below. table 8: thematic summary of data exchange gaps gap increasing document fraud details no or limited system level exchange capacity exists to support official validation of outgoing documents (other than ontario post-secondary transcripts) no or limited capacity exists to support official validation of incoming documents for studies completed outside of ontario lack of national and international connectivity for exchanging official documents no or limited system level mechanisms exist to support exchange of official academic transcripts and supporting documents to aid efficient and quality assured admissions, transfer, and exchange processes:125 for canadian educated students from other provinces for internationally educated students documents impacted outgoing ones for other third parties such as offers of admission and confirmations of enrolment, fees paid, pending graduation, and graduation incoming academic documents (and other supporting documents such as language test results) required for admissions and transfer consideration incoming academic documents (and other supporting documents such as language test results) required for admissions and transfer consideration no system-level mechanism exists to electronically share and/or verify official student status at students current or former canadian post-secondary institutions. 125 in the context of this study, submission of official documents is intended to encompass documents that come directly to canadian institutions from other post-secondary institutions or government mandated credential repositories. 57 | p a g e gap challenges with intra-provincial document exchange details no system-level connectivity exists between agreed upon course equivalencies and the application process to support the transfer assessment process. limited automation exists within institutions to support transfer credit decision processes (e.g., automatic assigned of equivalencies or identification of pathways). larger institutions sometimes have created capacity to enhance some aspects of the process through automation. documents impacted offers of admission as these related to providing a student information about transfer credit equivalencies increasing document fraud (inbound and outbound document validation) in the interviews and regional meetings, institutions across ontario and canada regularly mentioned the importance of establishing trusted connections between post-secondary institutions and officially mandated data exchange hubs for academic document exchange to mitigate document fraud. the perception exists that document fraud is growing and resulting in lost enrolments and the erosion of trust. as previously mentioned, it is difficult to identify the scope of fraud occurring as the cases are not tracked at the national level. institutional representatives anecdotally shared proxy indicators such as 3 to 5 fraud cases per week, 35 in total last year, having to review 1400 student files and create customized letters to support expedited visa processes for international students, and having to deenrol students after the refund drop date due to discovering academic document fraud, which resulted in lost revenue to the institution of $2.5 million (due to not being able to recruit additional students to replace those de-enrolled after the start of classes). they reported increasing expectations from external third parties, such as the canadian federal government, to provide official verification of students statuses at their institutions given the concerns about fraud. this issue represents a top priority and undergirds the importance of a national data exchange network. limited supports for confirmation of status or graduation (outbound document validation) related to document fraud are growing requests to officially validate out-bound canadian academic documents. currently, there are no, or limited, system wide capacities (provincially, nationally or, in many cases, institutionally) either in ontario or at other canadian post-secondary institutions to support this area. examples cited in the regional meetings and interviews that would be better served by having this capacity impact documents that provide official verification of offers of admission, enrolment, fees paid, pending graduation, and graduation.126 the core student data required for these examples include student demographic data, institutional and program identifiers, term/session dates, and registration status (offer made when, fees paid including amount, full- or part-time course enrolment, pending graduation, evidence of graduation). as previously noted, 56% of the 23 ontario institutions that participated in the survey reported having no capacity to provide electronic confirmation of a current students enrolment. in contrast, confirmation of graduation reportedly exists for 52% of the 23 ontario institutions and 18% of the 86 institutions from across canada that participated in the survey. only 16 institutions, of which 63% represented ontario institutions, reported providing online confirmation of graduation either by 126 select institutions reported that they rely on third party vendors to support confirmations of final graduation for their alumni. 58 | p a g e creating an in-house system or by partnering with an outside vendor to share graduate student data to facilitate credential verification. the institutions cited the growing volume and manual effort required to officially validate status to fulfill requests from banks or related organizations (e.g., for registered education savings plans), health care or insurance providers, immigration, refugees and citizenship canada (ircc) or the canada border services agency (cbsa), employers, regulatory and apprenticeship bodies, and other third parties. institutions reported that these requests often require customized response and yearly follow up as a minimum. it seems that third-party organizations including the government do not trust status confirmation documentation including offers of admission provided directly by students; hence, the growing volume of manual effort within institutions that is emerging. a national data exchange network would help to resolve this workload in that it would provide immediate and direct official verification capacity. limited national and international connectivity (inbound and outbound document exchange) ontario post-secondary institutions and other canadian institutions stressed that the lack of national and international connectivity to support student academic document exchange causes volume, workload pressures, and document fraud challenges. they emphasized the need for scalable and trusted document exchange capacity to support the portability of official academic documents between trusted entities. according to the research, this need remains for both in-bound international documents and out-bound canadian documents (i.e., for those students who wish to study and work across canada or in other countries). they suggested the lack of connectivity limits capacities to address document fraud. furthermore, the research indicates the current situation is impeding efficiency and automation opportunities, increasing manual document fraud monitoring, and undermining student service (e.g., through increased service turnaround times given the extra time involved in assessing documents and determining their bone fides). international document validation international document assessment remains predominantly manual as institutions report hand review of each document is required by individual staff to ascertain the following: official document status (i.e. not fraudulent); official recognition of the institution/program; admissibility; prerequisite completion; and, transfer credit. this validates the findings from a recent international study on assessment practices (duklas, january 2019). according to the consultation for this research, the current manual approach is not sustainable given the growth of incoming international students. study abroad additionally, a missed opportunity exists to support canadian educated students that wish to study abroad. due to the federated provincial/territorial system for education, those interviewed indicated that canadas post-secondary system looks confusing to those in other countries who are assessing the 59 | p a g e credentials of our graduates for study or work. the diversity of canadian quality assurance and institutional recognition protocols, post-secondary institutions, and credentials cause interpretation challenges. as a result, it is not easy to assess a canadian transcript, establish its bone fides, interpret the contents, and confirm the recognition of the institution from which a student graduated. although helpful when available online or electronically, it is not enough to confirm that someone graduated. given the focus on digitized documents exchanged electronically through a national network, the opportunity exists to identify methods to demystify and streamline the processes for those outside the country assessing the credentials of our graduating students. limited inter-provincial exchange of electronic data (inbound document exchange) as previously mentioned, the survey data and research indicated that very few institutions and only a small number of application centres are exchanging electronic student information across provincial and territorial boundaries. in ontario, ouac is sending electronic transcript data to 11 post-secondary institutions in other provinces and exchanging data with educationplannerbc in british columbia for two bc institutions.127 ouac is also receiving cegep data facilitated by the bureau de coopration interuniversitaire in qubec. other than this, no electronic post-secondary data is being exchanged between ontario institutions and those in other provinces, which means that most of the admissions and transfer processing for out-of-province transfer students involves manual effort. during the interviews and regional meetings, ontario institutional representatives expressed a desire to access electronic high school transcripts from bc and alberta. national findings suggest that student data is desired from institutions and application centre/data hubs in near vicinity to particular provinces and between provinces with larger populations (e.g., between ontario, bc, alberta, and qubec). this latter finding appears to align with the inter-provincial mobility patterns identified in other research (burbidge & finnie, 2000). potential to enhance intra-provincial student data exchange institutional representatives in the ontario interviews and regional meetings indicated that more needs to be done both within institutions and across the province to continue to enhance the capacity of the overall transfer system. the national consultation validated this comment. for example, while larger institutions reported offering in-house equivalency systems which were populated locally, most did not have the capacity to automate work processes related to transfer students, pathways, and equivalency decisions. the ontario institutions and students noted that student data exchange connectivity did not exist between oncat and the two ontario application centres. the students interviewed identified this as a potential gap and area for improvement. on a related note, oncat and ocas recently explored a pilot project to connect the program information on the oncat website to the ontario college application to provide a more direct search experience for students.128 such innovations would be helpful for students. 127 this was the case at the time of the research. for this proof of concept, students searching on the oncat site were presented with an apply now button which took the visitor to the ocas colleges application login page so that they could easily access their college application information. as a result, the ocas page was prepopulated with the name of the program, program identifier, and the receiving institution. no student data was passed to ocas as oncat only captures their name, email address, and answers to security questions to support their portal. 128 60 | p a g e when asked in the ontario regional meetings if participants thought enhancing the tracking and automation of transfer information through the application process and beyond would be a viable goal, responses varied. most indicated they thought it represented an interesting idea for front ending information and enhancing service for transfer students once implemented. a select group (typically representing larger institutions) indicated they already provide this support internally when transcript information is provided electronically, which corroborates findings from a previous research study (duklas, january 2019). however, they indicated manual effort is required when results arrive in nonelectronic formats. the participants in the ontario meetings and interviews suggested that implementation would require the support of faculty members who approve the course equivalencies and that it would be difficult to implement automation at the program transfer level. unlike the emrex exemplar mentioned in the environmental scan, which is entirely student driven, some indicated that their faculty members would likely want to maintain the option to sign off on any equivalencies before the results were shared with students even when the courses had been previously approved for equivalency. prioritization process for it projects, constrained resources, and inflexible systems the findings indicate that prioritizing it projects and organizational focus, a lack of resources and possibly expertise, and inflexible student information systems appear to be the main gaps/challenges to implementing/joining a national data exchange network and enhancing internal automation capacity. ranking within the survey suggests the first two remain the biggest challenges (i.e., prioritization and focus; resource and expertise gaps). the section below provides thematic findings shared by the participants in interviews and regional meetings. organizational priority setting including for complex it projects according to the research, institutional respondents suggested resources were at times prioritized in favour of it projects that address maintenance needs, government mandated projects, and enterprise projects focused on other it needs within institutions (e.g., finance and human resources).129 participants acknowledged the importance of these projects and provided examples to illustrate the various competing priorities. most indicated the project lists were extensive, making it difficult to add more. in the national survey findings, most of the ontario organizations (79%) and those in other provinces (59%) noted that existing organizational priorities would impede onboarding to a national data exchange network (table 9). this may represent a larger concern for ontario organizations. participants in interviews and regional meetings emphasized the importance of engaging government and senior institutional leadership in the national data exchange project. they stressed the importance of capturing their support for any desired advancements for transfer or mobility. however, only 11% of the ontario organizations and 14% of respondents from other provinces thought that overall 129 one institutional representative reported relying on a service agreement with another institution for their student information system which impeded their ability to influence any changes or to onboard to a national data exchange network. this represents a unique situation likely most relevant to young or smaller institutions as most of those in ontario and across canada have purchased a local licence for a student information system from a third-party vendor(s), use an in-house custom developed solution, or use a combination of both. 61 | p a g e organizational support for a national data exchange network to support transfer would be an issue (table 9). limited resources across all consultation venues, organizational representatives raised the issue of limited resources. examples cited included a lack of funding, staff expertise, and time. institutions in smaller urban locations stressed that finding and keeping expert staff represented a challenge, even when funding was provided. both ontario (54%) and national respondents (51%) reported that a lack of staff resources would impact on their ability to connect to a national data exchange network (table 9). respondents reported that a lack of financial resources represented an impediment (ontario = 46%; other provinces = 58%) (table 9). participants in interviews and regional meetings stressed the need for additional resources to support onboarding, for both institutions and application centres/data hubs. the researchers also explored perspectives on staff capacity, which relates to resourcing. in comparison to other provinces, ontario survey respondents appear to have a proportionally higher confidence in the capacity of their in-house it and project management expertise for establishing data exchange with third parties (figures 13 and 14).130 for example, 72% of the ontario respondents indicated their organization had or probably had the project management and it expertise versus 56% and 55% respectively of the respondents from other provinces and territories. when asked to rank the degree to which it expertise would impact onboarding to a national exchange platform, 11% out of 28 ontario respondents indicated this would have a great deal or considerable impact, 43% a moderate impact, and 39% no impact; the other provincial respondents indicated a proportionally higher impact (table 10). inflexible it systems participants reported that the institutional need to maintain older versions of student information systems sometimes impedes flexibility with connecting to other systems or prevents them from receiving or sending documents or data using more advanced exchange formats. the consultation suggested that institutions lack influence with student information system vendors to make customizations to address canadian or provincially specific requirements. when asked in the survey to rank the degree to which inflexible systems would impede onboarding to a national platform, 25% of 28 ontario organizations indicated this was a high ranking concern (i.e., they ranked it a great deal or considerable), which is in line with 23% of organizations from other provinces (table 9). however, most ontario organizations (61%) and 46% of those in other provinces indicated this was a moderate or slight impediment. other gaps and challenges identified an other category in the survey supported by a free form field facilitated respondents providing additional suggestions regarding potential impediments to onboarding to a national solution. three of the 28 ontario respondents who responded shared implementation challenges rather than gaps. one institution noted privacy and data security considerations; another respondent spoke about the need to prioritize projects against other demands; and one of the application centres provided a series of helpful 130 the figures include all responses to the survey that responded yes to being able to answer questions about their organizations data exchange capacities. duplicate responses per organization are included in the opinion type questions; n counts are noted as a result. organizations include all those that participated in the survey. as the numbers of colleges are small within the provinces, the data are combined with university data for the balance of the opinion type findings. 62 | p a g e suggestions which spoke to the technical details of implementation.131 this same respondent noted the need for service and data sharing agreements and other memorandums of understanding to manage the various partnerships involved in the data exchange process. one of the above respondents noted that the pace of change would be directly impacted by the capacity of the partners to participate, which speaks to the need for resourcing and focused prioritization to support onboarding to a national data exchange network. the survey also included a question asking whether respondents thought policies at their organization would impede onboarding to a national data exchange network. of the 28 ontario respondents, 46% indicated that no policy barriers existed that would impede onboarding. seven (25%) indicated yes; of these, five suggested privacy regulations represented an impediment, a concern shared by 14/18 respondents to this question from other provinces. participants in the regional meetings and interviews also raised this issue routinely as did 18 survey respondents from other provinces. one ontario application centre respondent along with a counterpart from another province suggested their provincial mandate might limit their ability to prioritize a focus on onboarding to a national solution. table 9: potential impediments to onboarding to a national data exchange network potential impediment region (ontario n = 28; other provinces n = 71) ontario a great deal/considerable moderately/slightly no don't know 18% 57% 18% 7% other provinces/territories ontario 23% 51% 17% 10% 79% 14% 4% 4% 59% 31% 3% 7% inability to change current processes other provinces/territories ontario 14% 64% 14% 7% 15% 48% 31% 6% inflexible it systems (sis, lms, etc.) other provinces/territories ontario 25% 61% 7% 7% other provinces/territories ontario 23% 46% 20% 11% 11% 57% 18% 14% other provinces/territories ontario 14% 34% 32% 20% 46% 43% 4% 7% other provinces/territories 58% 34% 1% 7% commitment to current processes focus on other organizational priorities lack of buy-in for a national platform solution lack of financial resources at my organization 131 examples cited: different institutional policies; different testing methodologies and requirements from potential trading partners; the need to support multiple standards and file formats (including cross-walking data standards, supporting multiple versions of the same standard (i.e., ensuring backward and forward compatibility), differences in interpreting data, mapping, etc. by various trading partners); workflow methodology differences of various trading partners (e.g., not using requests or acknowledgements, etc.); differences in operational support methodologies across various trading partners (e.g., the handling of system-level reporting, tracking, auditing, logging, and escalation processes for errors and exceptions). 63 | p a g e table 10: rank the degree to which a lack of it expertise or in-house staff resources impact organizational ability to connect to a national data exchange network impediment region a great deal/considerably moderately/slightly no dont know row percentage lack of inhouse it expertise ontario (n=28) other provinces/ territories (n=71) 11% 24% 43% 38% 39% 30% 7% 8% 100% 100% lack of inhouse staff resources ontario (n=28) 54% 29% 7% 11% 100% other provinces/ territories (n=71) 51% 34% 8% 7% 100% figure 13: does project management expertise exist within your organization to establish data exchange? figure 14: does it expertise exist within your organization to establish data exchange more national tools to support assessment and transfer some ontario institutional representatives who participated in the regional meetings and several from across canada noted that a national transfer equivalency and pathway database does not exist. when probed further in the regional meetings and interviews, participants routinely indicated that this type of 64 | p a g e service would appear to enhance transfer and mobility. unlike bc participants in interviews within that region, it wasnt entirely clear to the ontario participants how this tool would enhance efficiencies within institutions. some suggested a tool be created to facilitate comparing grading scales to enable more accurate and faster assessments of student documents. these people suggested the lack of either of these types of supports constrained assessment efforts at the institutional level for both in-bound international and domestic transfer from other provinces. the former corroborates findings from other research (duklas, january 2019). these types of tools sit outside of the scope of the national student data exchange network; however, they illustrate other gaps that, if closed, would enhance institutional efficiency and consistent quality assured assessment of student documents when transferring between post-secondary institutions. 65 | p a g e section 6.0 - findings: recommendations for a national data exchange solution overview a final objective of the research included seeking recommendations from the higher education community about the anticipated benefits and needs for a national data exchange network to support transfer and mobility. the survey, interviews, and regional meetings provided multiple opportunities to share insights. benefit recommendations the survey requested respondents rank the importance of a pre-set list of benefits that must result from the national exchange network (table 11). the question allowed respondents to identify the level of importance for each benefit using a likert scale.132 a freeform field encouraged qualitative comments.133 these benefits serve as important indicators to guide priorities for the national network. top priority benefits for ontario respondents (i.e., ranked as very important and/or important) that proportionally aligned with other jurisdictions across canada include the following: improving service for students (73% for ontario; 72% for other provinces); enhancing efficiencies for students (67% for ontario; 64% for other provinces); enhancing institutional efficiencies; o ontario respondents weighted this equally between very important and important (47%); whereas proportionally more respondents from other provinces ranked this as very important (66%). enhancing improved service for institutions; and, enhancing student transitions between post-secondary institutions in canada or for international students. enhancing study abroad and transition into the workplace appeared as lower priorities as evidenced by the percentages in the moderately/slightly important category. 132 scale: very important, important, moderately important, slightly important, neutral/no opinion, and not important - due to small n counts, the table combines results for moderately important and slightly important and organizational type. the survey allowed only one ranking choice per benefit. the table excludes null responses and includes more than one response per organization. thirty ontario respondents and 76 respondents from other provinces represent the pools for this table. 133 one ontario organization stressed the importance of accuracy over efficiency and importance; four organizations from outside ontario provided insights. of these, one rated efficiency savings in resources (e.g., staff time) as important; one rated improving data exchange supports for national licensing and regulatory bodies as very important; one rated reducing fraud as neutral/no opinion; and one indicated increased transparency for students was important. 66 | p a g e table 11: ranking of benefits that must result from the national network enhancements (listed in descending order based on ontarios very important rank) improved service for students efficiencies for students efficiencies for institutions improved service for institutions improved student services to support transition between canadian institutions improved service for international students wishing to study within canadian psis improved student services to support psi exchange or study abroad enhanced transition of psi students into workplace region (on=30; other provinces=76) very important important moderately/ slightly important not important neutral/no opinion ontario 73% 23% 0% 0% 3% other provinces 72% 22% 3% 0% 3% ontario 67% 27% 3% 0% 3% other provinces 64% 30% 3% 0% 3% ontario 47% 47% 3% 0% 3% other provinces 66% 24% 8% 0% 3% ontario 43% 50% 3% 0% 3% other provinces 62% 25% 11% 0% 3% ontario 37% 47% 7% 7% 3% other provinces 50% 33% 12% 0% 5% ontario 23% 57% 10% 3% 7% other provinces 46% 32% 18% 1% 3% ontario 17% 37% 37% 0% 10% other provinces 24% 45% 25% 1% 5% ontario 17% 30% 33% 7% 13% other provinces 22% 25% 43% 4% 5% row totals, % 30, 100% 76, 100% 30, 100% 76%, 100 30, 100% 76%, 100 30, 100% 76%, 100 30, 100% 76%, 100 30, 100% 76%, 100 30, 100% 76%, 100 30, 100% 76%, 100 67 | p a g e funding, operational structure, and governance recommendations table 12 captures the thematic funding, operational, and governance considerations raised by the ontario higher education community, all of which require further research and consultation (see appendix g for more detailed findings). table 12: suggested next stage consultation questions focus area operational structure and governance trusted membership suggested consultation questions which entity should own the network? an arm of government? arucc? some other separately incorporated entity? what operational structure makes sense? what are the criteria for trusted institutions? sustainability how should the network be structured to ensure it can operate if funding goals remain unattainable? government support what role makes sense for provincial and federal governments? implementation support what supports should be provided to smaller institutions? next steps further consultation needed further consultation needed a respondent advised allowing full participation of recognized private institutions with an associated fees structure. revenue models of network require further consideration one respondent suggested ensuring a flexible structure that could function without regular funding from an outside source. engage government support; however, maintain a member-led network this was considered important given the diversity of the provinces/territories and institutions. provide onboarding support for institutions, particularly small ones that lack resources and expertise connectivity recommendations with trusted organizations survey respondents identified connecting with trusted entities as a priority to enhance transfer and mobility (table 13). establishing connectivity to canadian data hubs ranked higher than with international trusted entities although a desire still exists to connect to the latter (table 14). the survey probed more deeply to understanding the connectivity desired (table 15). again, connectivity with existing canadian hubs, post-secondary institutions, and secondary schools/boards ranked higher, a finding which aligned with other provinces. for ontario, establishing a prioritized implementation plan that includes and considers onboarding opportunities and needs for the application centres/data hubs (ouac, ocas, and others) will be important to future successful implementation (i.e., if application or admissions related exchange or transcript exchange are given priority, it would be extremely helpful to ensure their involvement). other suggested organizations to connect with for the purposes of student data exchange that were identified by the ontario respondents include language proficiency test providers, institutional research bodies (e.g., cirpa),134 the qubec bureau de coopration (bci), and regulatory bodies and associations (e.g., law society, provincial nursing association, etc.). respondents from other provinces suggested 134 http://cirpa-acpri.ca/ 68 | p a g e these same examples and further identified accrediting bodies, government agencies, the us college board, the international baccalaureate organization, and the national student clearinghouse. in the ontario interviews and regional meetings, institutional colleagues stressed the need to connect with the federal government to support validation checks for offers of admission and enrolment; participants routinely noted challenges and manual effort related to this area. the survey data did not identify this as a top priority concern for ontario at 48% (table 15) in comparison to 77% of the respondents from the other provinces. resolving these discrepancies represents an important area of focus for next stage research and the national network. table 13: overall ranking of priorities for exchange enhancements enhancements (listed in descending order based on ontarios very important rank) with other canadian data exchange hubs region (on=30; other provinces=76) ontario very important important not important neutral/no opinion 43% moderately/ slightly important 0% 53% 0% 3% other provinces 41% 32% 13% 1% 13% between canadian institutions ontario 23% 40% 30% 3% 3% other provinces ontario 36% 10% 20% 43% 21% 33% 7% 3% 17% 10% with other international hubs other provinces 13% 38% 34% 3% 12% table 14: desires for international connectivity region send to international organizations ontario other provinces ontario other provinces 74% 74% 85% 11% 4% 4% 4% 10% 4% 7% 22% 5% 19% 4% 27, 100% 73, 100% 27, 100% 73, 100% desired 63% not desirable 11% not applicable i don't know column totals receive from international organizations table 15: ontario respondents priority for connectivity as compared to other provinces priority for connectivity(listed in descending order) with application centre in another province region (on=27, other provinces=73) ontario desired 89% exists already 4% not desired 0% not applicable 4% don't know 4% other provinces 77% 7% 7% 1% 8% with post-secondary institutions in other canadian jurisdictions ontario 89% 4% 0% 4% 4% other provinces 93% 4% 1% 0% 1% with secondary schools and boards in other provinces ontario 70% 11% 4% 4% 11% other provinces 84% 1% 7% 7% 1% with councils of articulation and transfer ontario 67% 15% 4% 7% 7% other provinces 68% 7% 1% 5% 18% with external credential evaluators ontario 67% 11% 4% 4% 15% other provinces 70% 1% 8% 7% 14% 69 | p a g e priority for connectivity(listed in descending order) with professional regulatory bodies region (on=27, other provinces=73) ontario desired with other education organizations (e.g., other private institutions, language testing providers, credential evaluators) with provincial government with canadian federal government with apprenticeship and trades organizations 63% exists already 11% not desired 7% not applicable 0% don't know 19% other provinces 71% 3% 3% 10% 14% ontario 52% 0% 0% 33% 15% other provinces 82% 11% 1% 0% 5% ontario 52% 33% 0% 0% 15% other provinces 56% 38% 0% 1% 4% ontario 48% 11% 0% 4% 37% other provinces 77% 8% 3% 5% 7% ontario 37% 7% 22% 15% 19% other provinces 36% 11% 5% 32% 16% other implementation recommendations overall throughout the survey, respondents provided insights in various freeform sections related to overall implementation matters. these are thematically represented below with details following in subsequent sections (table 16). appendix g provides detailed examples of specific recommendations. table 16: implementation suggestions from qualitative questions in survey focus area made for canada versus made in canada priorities implementation identity management working with existing hubs diversity interoperability suggestions made for canada does not necessarily mean made in canada; consider leveraging vendors from other markets with alternative and extensive experience in this area. avoid building the system from scratch; buy an existing system or extend a proven option. address high volume data exchange needs. prioritize exchange within canada before exchanging internationally. stagger implementation introduce functionality incrementally - avoid trying to be everything to everyone all at once. be flexible and support onboarding for institutions and application centres/data hubs. establish a way to connect student records from different institutions for the same student. work with existing canadian hubs to the extent possible (assuming interest). connect through existing provincial hubs to avoid multiple exchange points. for ontario, participants noted the complexities introduced by having two different application centres. as this exists across the country, this is a reality for the national network to address. consider how to accommodate the different regions, some of which lack data hubs. establish connectivity between near provinces. include private post-secondary institutions. plan for alternative functionality (band width, data storage versus data transfer) and ensure interoperability with other provincial and national/international networks. accommodate different forms of exchange (e.g., pdf is viable, dont discount it; it is easier to implement, as well). ensure the network supports interoperability and flexible data exchange. ensure data is provided in raw form (with no details provided), with multiple communication formats (http, sftp, web service, api, etc.), and uses existing pesc xml standards. standardize the exchange protocols and avoid being too flexible. 70 | p a g e focus area future proofing privacy and policy research opportunity suggestions ensure the network is poised to adopt new technologies and approaches. avoid data policies or agreements that might impede transition to the national network. given the different and stringent privacy requirements in canada, consider options that avoid opening the data file being transmitted. they suggested doing so might impact on local privacy impact assessments. consider future research opportunities that a national data exchange network could bring to better understanding canadas post-secondary transfer and mobility patterns (the clearinghouse in the us was noted as an exemplar). recommendations for online services throughout the research process, the primary investigator asked organizations including those in ontario, for advice regarding the types of online services that should be provided by the national network to enhance transfer and mobility. the options discussed included a website for the trusted organizations sharing data through the network, and an environment for students (e.g., a public facing website, online services, a portal, blockchain access through their phone). services for organizations most organizational respondents in ontario (79% out of 18) and from other provinces (86% out of 73) indicated the national network should provide a password protected website for organizations using the network.135 as a support to the canadian higher education brand, 71% of 28 ontario respondents and 86% of 73 respondents from other provinces supported the national network providing a canadian version of the apostille appended to the electronic student records to demonstrate their authenticity and official nature.136 organizational respondents in ontario and other provinces clearly want the national network to provide bilingual content (86% of 28 ontario respondents; 94% of 73 respondents from other provinces). this theme emerged routinely in the interviews and regional meetings. services for students student portal most respondents across ontario and canada responded with uncertainty about whether the national network should provide a student portal (figure 15), a finding that aligns with feedback from the interviews and regional meetings. generally, the community feels the technology solution proposed may drive the necessity for a portal. thirty-six percent of the ontario respondents and 41% of the respondents from other provinces indicated a student portal was necessary. nine ontario respondents provided further rationale for responding yes. six of these emphasized privacy/consent of use as the primary reason and three suggested it would enhance the search experience for students. two who suggested the latter recommended this enhancement occur after initial implementation of the network. thirty-one percent (9/29 respondents) from other provinces suggested privacy and consent of use served as the primary rationale for providing this support which aligns with the ontario respondents; 45% (13) suggested it would improve student service; 7% (two) suggested it would enhance institutional 135 seven percent and 5% respectively indicated that this was not needed; and the balance remaining indicated they didnt know or it wasnt applicable (with no further details provided). 136 apostille: a legal certification that makes a document from one country valid in another (provided that both are signatories to the 1961 hague convention abolishing the requirement for legalization for foreign public documents. (oxford dictionnaries, 2019) note: as canada is not currently a signatory to the hague, the government provides the authentication criteria for canadian documents, including academic documents (government of canada, 2017). 71 | p a g e efficiency (e.g., by creating one environment for this service); 7% (two) suggested it depends on the final model chosen for the network; and 7% (two) responses were unclear. figure 15: should the national network provide a password protected student portal? student public website consultation in regional meetings suggested two important considerations: (i) you need permission from students to move their data which requires a way to message and manage that process; and (ii) whether a student facing environment is needed depends on the national network model chosen. however, whatever technical solution is chosen for the network, permission management remains an important area for consideration. proportionally more ontario respondents indicated the network should provide a public facing student website (46% versus 43% of respondents from other provinces), although a significant majority in both instances indicated they did not know if it would be necessary initially (36% and 45% respectively) (figure 16). the 12 ontario respondents who responded yes provided additional rationales. ten stressed that a centrally provided website enhances transparency (as a support to privacy/consent of use regulations) and ease of use particularly as the students need to know where their data is being sent. two noted the curation opportunity provided by a central website to reduce confusion. one of these noted the importance of sending students to the central provincial application hub (if applicable) from the national network. nationally, 30 of 32 respondents provided additional detail that validated the ontario perspective and stressed the importance of transparency (for information purposes and privacy/consent of use). one of these noted the value of a public website for enhancing institutional efficiency. in contrast, another respondent noted that it is difficult for institutions to update multiple platforms. another indicated that a phased implementation approach may be advisable (i.e., introducing a student website at a later point). 72 | p a g e figure 16: should the network provide student facing information in its website? online services for students most ontario and national respondents expressed uncertainty (43%) regarding whether online services through the national network were necessary. thirty-nine percent of 28 ontario respondents and 38% of 74 from other provinces indicated yes, services should be provided (18% and 19% respectively responded no). in the qualitative section for this question, 10 ontario respondents suggested providing capacity for students to make and monitor the status of any document or data requests they made. one of these expressed that students should be able to access and monitor any transfer equivalencies received. these comments matched the thematic insights provided by 27 respondents from other provinces. of these, 18 indicated students should be able to send, receive, and/or view their results; two suggested providing access to transfer credit equivalencies; one suggested the site provide central application support; and another suggested it provide career planning functionality (the balance of the remaining responses emphasized that providing online services centrally aligns with student expectations or ensures clarity). one of these respondents also suggested expansion of online services be considered after establishing the network. 73 | p a g e section 7.0 - conclusion the research for this project focused on understanding student data exchange practices and perspectives between ontario post-secondary institutions and their partners. it also explored the potential opportunities for improving transfer and mobility by enhancing digitization and exchange of students academic credentials, transcripts, and other documents. the research group led by joanne duklas through the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) aspires to provide useful research for oncat and the post-secondary community to inform policy development and resource prioritization for transfer and mobility. these aspirations directly align with oncats stated intention of understanding and removing systemic barriers that impede seamless transfer. the impetus for this oncat funded research stems from broader efforts to create a national student data exchange network. the goal of that larger national project, referred to in this report as the arucc groningen project, is to enable students to move seamlessly between canadian post-secondary institutions and into the workforce by improving official credential and academic document exchange. research questions and approach the primary and secondary research questions for the study included the following: 1. what broader context, current practices, and associated gaps face ontario post-secondary institutions with respect to student data exchange? 2. what recommendations do ontario post-secondary registrarial leadership and supporting organizations have for advancing institutional capacities and change readiness for data exchange to advance transfer? 3. sub-research questions: a) are there any notable exemplars to help guide change? b) what benefits will result from a national network that advance seamless inter- and intraprovincial transfer for ontario post-secondary institutions and their students? the separate sections in the report address each of these areas. section 3.0 outlines the broader context and exemplars evident across canada and beyond. sections 4.0 and 5.0 provide the detailed findings regarding current practices and gaps. section 6.0 outlines the recommendations and perceived benefits as identified by the higher education community. a multi-layered approach guided the research. an environmental scan of relevant literature and websites helped to clarify the broader context and promising practices both within canada and beyond. the next stage of primary research involved three components: a national bilingual (french, english) survey, qualitative interviews, and inter-institutional regional meetings. the target audience for the research included registrarial and data exchange leaders at colleges, institutes, and universities. it also included leaders from supporting organizations across canada including application centres such as the ontario universities application centre (ouac) and ocas (the ontario college application service centre) and the seven councils on articulation/admissions and transfer (e.g., the ontario council on articulation and transfer - oncat). the national, bilingual survey collected 117 responses and benefitted from an 85% completion rate. eighty-six public and private post-secondary institutions participated in the survey. of these, 76 publicly funded institutions participated, which represents 37% (76/204) of the total pool of canadian public 74 | p a g e post-secondary institutions. for ontario, respondents from 53% (24/45) of the publicly funded postsecondary institutions participated in the survey in addition to the two application centres, and oncat. the institutions included 42% from colleges/institutes (10/24) and 67% from universities (14/21). the survey contained both qualitative and quantitative opportunities for input. for the recommendations, the primary investigator used a likert scale in the survey to facilitate capturing a maximum number of responses. to support this study, the researcher consulted with more than 270 people both in ontario and across canada in the interviews and regional meetings. this included interviews with 40 representatives of higher education organizations and nine students. the former included 31 institutions (i.e., ten colleges and nine universities from british columbia, alberta, and ontario; appendix b) and ten supporting organizations from across canada (appendix c). fourteen of these interviews included staff who represented oncat, ocas, ouac, and six colleges and six universities from ontario. of the nine students, three represented the canadian federation of students (cfs), the ontario college student alliance, and the ontario undergraduate student alliance (ousa). in addition to the interviews, the researcher held 11 regional meetings involving 231 people, of which ten were delivered in ontario. some of these were delivered virtually; however, most occurred in person. the ontario meetings were held in the following regions: toronto, durham (virtually), ottawa, guelph, sudbury, and kitchener-waterloo. the project received guidance and input from representatives of the ontario college committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo), the ontario university registrars association (oura), and from an external evaluator. the primary investigator also received support from the leadership of the arucc groningen project. the partnerships with key members of the ontario higher education community represented a core strength of the project considering its complexity. it also ensured meaningful research and support for the consultation process. data limitations a lack of data regarding the scope of provincial and national mobility and data exchange hampered the research process; therefore, proxy indicators informed an understanding of the pressures impacting ontario post-secondary institutions. developing capacity to capture data covering the full scope of transfer and mobility would be an area of future enhancement. for example, transfer in ontario includes intra-provincial, national, and international learners; therefore, identifying the volumes and trends across all these cohorts would better serve post-secondary institutions. while conducting this type of research sat outside the scope of this project, the maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec) mobility research,137 british columbias student transition project,138 and burbidge and finnies (burbidge & finnie, 2000) earlier research regarding canadian post-secondary student mobility serve as exemplar models. the us-based national student clearinghouse (nscl) represents another exemplar. it is a non-profit organization that provides post-secondary institutions reporting, data exchange (e.g., transcripts), and official verification of documents. through its research centre,139 institutions access extensive regional and national level transfer and mobility data and 137 http://www.mphec.ca/research/trendsmaritimehighereducation.aspx https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/post-secondary-education/data-research/student-transitionsproject 139 https://nscresearchcenter.org/ 138 75 | p a g e research. other exemplars include the recent transcript exchange volume study conducted by oncat and ocas with ouacs support (weins & fritz, m., 2018) and ousas study of 1,300 transfer students (2017). the former provides a beginning understanding of student intentions related to intra-provincial transfer using transcript exchange as a proxy indicator and the latter represents a multi-institutional example of student-led research of transfer students across six universities. broader context the findings a need for international and national connectivity ontario post-secondary institutions support mobile learners who are moving across canada, studying abroad, or arriving from international destinations many of whom seek transfer credit. currently, most of these institutions lack connectivity to trusted post-secondary institutions and credential repositories beyond the province to support student data exchange. according to the findings, students applying from outside of ontario typically submit documents in non-electronic formats (by mail or in-person) that staff subsequently evaluate and assess manually for both admissions and transfer credit. as the volume is high and growing, the current approach is not sustainable. potential risks include reduced student service (e.g., quality, timeliness) and impediments to efficiency for both students and institutions. unfortunately, document and identity fraud represent additional concerns. both transfer and learner mobility are disadvantaged by this situation. the report references exemplar international organizations and other application centres and data hubs across canada that offer access to trusted electronic academic results (section 3.0). these represent potential partners for ontario post-secondary institutions and application centres to enhance connectivity and subsequent support for students. an example is provided by chesicc which is a government mandated organization that is one of two official sources for many of the academic results for chinese students. mcgill university established canadas first connection to chesicc via the national student clearinghouse, an american not-for-profit organization that provides national data exchange and research supports to post-secondary institutions south of the border and around the world. in this example, transfer and high school graduates from china provide permission for chesicc to send their official academic results to mcgill directly. service enhancements, speed, enhanced processing efficiencies, reduced workload, and reduced fraud represent five direct benefits for students and mcgill. other similar models exist around the world including in australia and new zealand through a platform called my equals. previously completed arucc research provides additional examples of providers from beyond canada that serve as potential connectors for official credential and academic document exchange. ontario transfer reality the emphasis in the province on student transfer and the work of organizations such as oncat, ouac, and ocas positions it well for enhancing student data exchange. electronic transcript exchange to support admissions exists within ontario both for transmitting electronic academic results directly from high school to post-secondary and between institutions. as noted above, improvements are needed for out-of-province and internationally educated students and those transferring out of an ontario post-secondary institution for work or school in another jurisdiction. having noted this, gaps exist even for those who remain fully within the province. for example, many institutions reportedly lack the resources to automate internal practices for transfer students, particularly for transfer credit assessment. as a result, not all institutions identify the transfer equivalencies awarded at the point of 76 | p a g e making an offer, which is considered a best practice as it is a time of key decision making for students. ideally, being able to validate equivalencies in advance of applying is an even better option which emphasizes the important work of oncat. however, official notice of equivalency awards often happens later in the process. while a national data exchange network will not solve all these challenges, providing trusted connections to facilitate seamless and direct electronic academic document exchange from across canada and internationally will free up staff currently focused on authenticating documents. these and other staff experts would be important partners to help institutions to refocus and create additional improvements to internal policies and practices in support of transfer and mobility. electronic transcript exchange developed to specifically support enhancing information access and transfer in the province represents an important area of focus that ties into the work of oncat, the post-secondary institutions, the application centres, and others. while how to improve internal automation capacity within post-secondary institutions represents an area of further study outside the scope of this research, achieving improvements here aligns with the goals of the arucc groningen project where trusted connections, student data exchange, and technology enabled supports improve access and transparency. accessing official documents directly from source institutions in an electronic format represents the first important step; supporting further automation and scalable practices within institutions to reduce burdens on students represents an important next step. growing document and identity fraud section 3.0 briefly explores the growing occurrences of document and identity fraud. post-secondary institutional representatives raised this concern in most of the interviews and regional meetings conducted for this project. the need to establish direct electronic connectivity with trusted organizations and institutions across canada and internationally remains essential to address this challenge. providing trusted exchange of incoming and outgoing academic documents supports quality assured practices and helps to maintain the canadian higher education brand. growing volume increasing applications, enrolments, and graduations are driving requests for a host of services across the entire student life cycle. students require more immediate and scalable supports, including when moving into, between, and beyond institutions. the report provides specific examples of these volume drivers in section 3.0. documents impacted include incoming ones required from students to conduct admissions and transfer assessments and outgoing ones being sent to support students with their next steps and resource needs. the latter include offers of admission and confirmations of enrolment, fees paid, pending graduation, and graduation. post-secondary representatives thoughtfully identified the challenges and potential solutions for addressing these areas through enhanced electronic exchange. sections 5.0 and 6.0 provide these findings. international students illustrate the growing demand of relevance to transfer, ontarios post-secondary needs, and the national data exchange network. while data do not exist to support concise identification of those that are transfer students, the overall number seeking to study in canadian postsecondary institutions grew rapidly in the last three years. for example, canadian post-secondary institutions have seen a 47% increase from 2015 to 2018 in study permits being granted by the federal government to international students. they require this document before arriving in canada. ontario bound international students represent 64% of the volume in 2018. other data indicates most students 77 | p a g e are coming from countries such as china, india, south korea, france, and the united states. at least four of these regions maintain trusted institutionally supported and/or government mandated official credential repositories. if canadian post-secondary institutions connected electronically to these entities through a national network, the improvements to international admissions and transfer processing would be enormous as would the reduction in the potential for document fraud. at minimum, no longer would staff have to verify the official nature of a document that came to the institution directly from a trusted organization by electronic means. outgoing documents presents another example. each international student admitted requires an official offer of admission to be presented to the canadian government in order to access their permit. several post-secondary representatives noted the increasing volume of verification requests from immigration, refugees and citizenship canada (ircc) to validate offers of admission or registration for international students on study permit. while these exercises remain important to efficiently help students and the government, the volume is growing. it would seem this is being driven by concerns about fraud at minimum. another proxy indicator impacting official validation of outgoing documents is the growing volume of requests from students who are required to provide official verification of their current or former status to other third parties. examples of third parties making these requests include funding bodies, regulatory bodies, trades associations, government, and employers. for example, graduation rates increased by 11% in the past five years which means there have been significant increases in the volume of requests to post-secondary institutions to officially validate students credentials. similar challenges exist with official confirmations of enrolment. for example, students require these to access funds from registered education savings plans (resps), an area that has seen a 37% growth since the programs inception. establishing direct electronic connections with trusted international institutions and organizations and other institutions and organizations across canada, including the government, remains essential to support these increases. canadian exemplars ontario post-secondary institutions engage in extensive data exchange with the two provincial application centres, ouac (for universities) and ocas (for colleges). the data and document exchange that occurs serves centralized application processing and transcript exchange as a support for admissions. however, not all applications and transcripts go through the centres. that which does focuses primarily on ontario secondary and post-secondary results, however, even that does not represent all the volume as a portion go direct to institutions. the expertise of application centre staff represents a significant asset to any future national data exchange network. both centres within ontario are exemplars for the intra-provincial application and transcript exchange support they provide member institutions. centres in other jurisdictions across canada offer similar exemplar models. some examples are noted below. 78 | p a g e ouac and educationplannerbc are canadian exemplars for establishing electronic connectivity across canada.140 ouac is a canadian exemplar for establishing international connectivity with trusted organizations.141 ocas handles the transcript distribution ordering system for ouac. it recently launched the international applicant service which supports colleges and their recruitment agents who aid international students during the admissions process. as this research and the national arucc groningen project are focused on establishing connectivity with trusted institutions and organizations providing officially verified documents (e.g., documents received from and verified directly by government mandated credential repositories or from other post-secondary institutions), recruitment agents are not considered primary sources for official transcripts in the context of this project. however, ocas efforts still demonstrate the innovative methods the application centres are pursuing to enhance service to students and post-secondary institutions. finally, the ontario application centres have the capacity to transform student data without altering original content to support flexible, large-scale data exchange. this is a critically important strength when considering national and international data exchange of student data. next step recommendations from the higher education community arucc members, including ontario post-secondary institutions, formally voted at the june biennial national conference to move ahead with a national student data exchange network to support both domestic and international students.142 none during the consultation disagreed with this position. therefore, the recommendations from the ontario higher education community which are explained in detail in section 6.0 and summarized below in table 17, provide specific suggestions on how to implement the national data exchange network. table 17: thematic recommendations from ontario post-secondary institutions ensure the national network addresses top priority needs. captures provostial support and appreciation for the direct relationship between student mobility and student data portability. additional findings and activities key priorities identified by ontario and national higher education organizations: improve service and enhance efficiencies for students and institutions and mitigate document fraud by establishing secure, trusted academic document exchange. the arucc groningen project secured formal written endorsements from university canada and colleges and institutes canada for the national data exchange project.143 several colleges and universities and supporting organizations provided similar written endorsements including the ontario council of articulations and transfer (oncat), the ontario college committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo), the ontario university registrars association (oura), and the ontario council of academic vice presidents of the council of ontario universities. 140 ouac and educationplannerbc maintain exchange for two post-secondary institutions in bc. ouac receives cegep transcript results from qubec. 141 ouac receives test results (e.g., lsat, gmat, etc.) from the united states to support professional and graduate admissions and maintains a partnership with the world education services (wes), an international document credential evaluation firm. wes staff review documents and establish equivalencies between international documents and canadian credentials for students who have studied in other countries. ouac receives pdf evaluations from wes which are distributed to ontario universities to maximize supports and minimize costs for students. 142 http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 143 http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 79 | p a g e ensure the national network accesses alternate funding sources to help registrarial leadership develop the capacities to exchange student data and subsequently support student transfer and mobility imperatives. considers carefully its operating structure and ongoing governance given the federated nature of education in canada. supports canadas diversity. develops a sustainable financial structure and provides the capacity to collect and reconcile back to institutions any fees for service they need to collect. offers bilingual capacity (french and english). establishes a phased implementation plan. supports the onboarding and resource needs of institutions and application centres. provides an institutional online environment and, if applicable, a student accessible environment to facilitate viewing and sharing of official documents regardless of where students studied or wish to study within canada. 144 additional findings and activities the arucc groningen project is actively fundraising and has received initial funding from post-secondary institutions across canada and within ontario. other funders to date include the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), the british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat), campus manitoba, the pan-canadian consortium on admissions and transfer, and the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc). based on the feedback from ontario and bc registrarial leadership, the arucc groningen project is developing a consultation document to capture further input on this area. this speaks to a core principle of the arucc groningen project which is to support the autonomy and diversity of canadian post-secondary institutions and provinces and territories.144 most higher education members advised that the network consider adopting a cost recovery revenue model for the network. this ontario project conducted regional meetings where the primary investigator explored considerations and needs for french only and bilingual institutions. it is clear from the research that a national data exchange network must consider bilingualism and related needs and context. sample components suggested included the following: establish connectivity first between canadian post-secondary and data hubs followed by international trusted entities. start first with establishing exchange for transcripts from across canada and internationally (post-secondary, secondary) and outgoing graduate confirmations and admission offers. facilitate flexible approaches and interoperability. o they suggested the project consider a pdf sharing capacity for those that lack the ability to exchange machine-readable data. however, they also advise ensuring the network supports flexible data exchange formats. involve the application centres in subsequent implementation discussions after the request for proposal (rfp) phase for the national data exchange network (recognizing that some may wish to compete for the rfp). engage system design architects to map out use cases and information flows and clearly align the use cases to the requirements requested by the community. engage privacy experts to support the rfp process. the ontario community and others noted support is needed for smaller institutions and those that rely on other institutions to support their student information system needs. a core principle of the arucc groningen project includes supporting and complementing the efforts of the existing application centres. if a student environment existed, the community stressed that capacity be provided for students to control who sees their documents when and to monitor any of their own ordering requests. http://arucc.ca/en/projects/task-force-groningen.html 80 | p a g e final thoughts the ontario research validates the conclusion that a national student data exchange network represents a viable next step to support canadian higher education and student transfer and mobility. the research findings suggest that tying accessible student data portability to learner mobility needs to be a strategic intention supported by the highest levels of leadership. the community advised that doing so requires a prioritized focus on developing the capacity to serve long-term learner mobility. while there are many competing priorities, ontario post-secondary institutions are well positioned to both benefit from and contribute to a national student data exchange network. the research indicates that the various aspects of registrarial service delivery embed both the academic and student needs at the core of the activities; however, the institutions and students require greater speed, transparency, efficiency, and coherence. the national network holds the promise of addressing these needs and ensuring quality assured, official exchange through trusted connections. with growing volumes juxtaposed against resource constraints, new and more scalable methods that leverage technology and different approaches to service delivery are not easily achieved but hold the promise of addressing core challenges. the findings from this research indicate a national student data exchange network collaboratively built and coordinated holds the promise of meeting students in their space and supporting their long-term educational journey between institutions and into the workforce. 81 | p a g e appendix a: external evaluator summative assessment report external evaluation report for the arucc-oncat project: advancing student transfer through enhanced data mobility one of the deliverables of the oncat-funded project: advancing student transfer through enhanced data mobility was the preparation of an evaluation report by an external evaluator. the report by joanna pesaro, external evaluator, follows. a. synopsis of evaluator methodology and activities (may, 2018 march, 2019) the following activities formed part of the original agreement and were completed by the evaluator: formative & summative 1. reviewed existing project pre-launch documentation to ascertain project scope, goals, research questions, research methodology 2. provided input to ensure clarity of project scope and intended research goals to support communication clarity and alignment 3. reviewed sample communications (i.e., agendas, project introduction letters, powerpoint presentations) 4. built in mechanisms to inform plans for risk/unintended consequences as well as to identify opportunities through timely meetings with project lead as appropriate to key milestones and timelines 5. monitored that relevant and key stakeholders had been identified and that all stakeholders were given equal opportunity to participate and provide feedback 6. assisted with the design of the mixed methodology data collection (quantitative and qualitative) to help ensure that the proposed method of collection and questions posed fulfilled the aims of the previously approved overarching research questions. toward this, the evaluator reviewed the: stakeholder consultation plan, including the stakeholder groups; draft survey questions draft interview guide. 7. reviewed an early draft of the final project report (advancing student transfer through enhanced data mobility) to ensure research questions had been addressed assess whether project goals had been met verify data reported. 82 | p a g e 8. although not part of the original scope of the evaluators activities, as an observer attended two different types of consultation meetings led by the project lead: a webinar conducted for the national project in june, 2018 to which ontario colleagues were invited, and a workshop on the project at the annual ontario committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo) meeting in november, 2018 for the purposes of orientation to the project and to learn firsthand some of the questions posed. b. examples of evaluator input formative process the evaluator provided verbal and written feedback on a number of aspects throughout the course of the project with the explicit aim of helping to ensure that the projects research questions would be effectively answered and the research aims of the primary investigators met. national/ontario survey the evaluators contributions were focused on ensuring that respondents knew how data collected would be used; clarity on the role of personal identifiers collected as part of the survey; clarity around the scope of the project, terminology and language used in the preamble and questions; that key definitions were provided where necessary; and, that the scales used in the survey responses were appropriate. communications/consultation materials the project lead shared prototypes of the variety of communiqus for the project and the evaluator provided feedback (overall clarity, scope) and suggested additional questions for the following: interview questions for in-depth interviews with colleagues template presentation (powerpoint) used in feedback sessions sample meeting agenda student workshop communiqu. stakeholders and consultations the following represents a sampling of recommendations made by the evaluator regarding stakeholder consultations: that there be more institutions from northern ontario consulted and that if geographic constraints were an issue that technology be used to mitigate; that there be stand-alone opportunities for francophone institutions to be consulted in french (whether virtually or in-person where possible); that some thought be given as to how to include affiliates of institutions in discussions; that the definition of internationally-trained students be broadened and clarified as students on a study permit or who are newcomers to canada are two different target audiences and present different needs. 83 | p a g e discussions were also held between the evaluator and the project lead regarding how to increase the participation rates of certain target groups. judicious use of standing association meetings and consultations with steering and executive committee colleagues on how to best reach a target group were deemed good mitigation strategies. as well, individual and personal outreach to request individuals respond to the survey was instituted. one of the stated principles of the project was that it be learner focused. although having explicit consultations with students was not part of the original design of the project, this gap was filled soon after project launch with consultations planned and conducted with a variety of student groups across the country. c. summation the pillars of the oncat project that seeks to investigate the capacity at ontario institutions regarding enhanced student data exchange could be summarized as follows: identification of current state readiness/identification of barriers policy and infrastructure implications benefits and challenges best practice systemic and local change needs these facets were explored by the project lead through a variety of consultation methods such as targeted meetings with relevant stakeholder groups (both in-person and technology mediated), a detailed survey to post-secondary registrarial/systems colleagues, relevant associations, data exchange hubs, etc., an in-depth analysis of the survey and consultation results, a thorough national and international literature and best practice review, and recommendations for moving forward. limitations of the data received via the survey and consultations were presented and reasons for these limitations were addressed in the final report. it does not appear that the identified limitations have undermined the scope of the project or the quality of the research. in some cases, alternative solutions were found. in other cases, recommendations were made to help inform future projects adopting a similar methodology of data collection with multi-stakeholder groups. an important design element of the project was the oversight structure put in place whereby the project lead, through the chair of the steering committee and through project partners such as cralo and oura, had regular and ready access to expert advice, support, and to colleagues in the field. local registrarial leaders in the various jurisdictions were also a key resource for the project. this structure enabled the project lead to consult on opportunities, realize synergies that would further the aims of the project, address and mitigate unexpected challenges, and benefit from expert insights and support. there is evidence of a quality systems check in place: the project lead reported that she sought the expertise of her steering committee colleagues to ensure that she was aware of all available data in the field and that the variety of hard data elements uncovered through a variety of sources (such as ouac, statistics canada, etc.) that were analyzed as part of the research for the report were valid and would help inform the relevant business drivers for the project. as well, the project lead had a system in place to ensure accuracy of data reported by having a research assistant verify the calculations and data sources, as well as cross-checking and performing random spot checks. 84 | p a g e technology was put to good use (e.g., zoom for meetings and simple surveys, electronic survey platform) resulting in economic efficiencies, and which helped ensure a greater number of colleagues were able to participate in the consultations. replicability features this was a complex project with many layers of consultation (qualitative and quantitative), a variety of stakeholders and groups, and content that spanned multiple jurisdictions across national/provincial sectors, post-secondary institutions and affiliate organizations. in addition, it was overseen by three distinct national/provincial organizations (arucc, oncat, bccat). therefore, the capacity of a project lead with breadth and depth of understanding of the various facets of the project, to collaborate, develop partnerships and capitalize on synergies was critical to meeting the outcomes of this type of project. as stated, an important design element of the project was the oversight and collegial support structure in place providing the project with critical access to expert advice and support. the mixed methodology data collection model used was also a significant feature of this project and a good prototype for similar projects in future. conclusion in summary, it is the opinion of the evaluator formed from an early and ongoing involvement in the project and after reading an early draft of the report that the research questions that were designed to inform and assess the capacity for enhanced student data exchange have been rigorously addressed and reflected on in the report prepared by joanne duklas, project lead. the project itself was nimble and able to respond to new opportunities and still maintain scope as evidenced by the inclusion of student groups as a new stakeholder group and an additional session for francophone institutions to cite a couple of examples. project goals have been met. this project has contributed to building capacity for similar projects and is a good model for strategic, multi-jurisdictional partnerships moving forward. 85 | p a g e appendix b: post-secondary institutions interviewed institution algonquin college region ottawa, ontario sector affiliations ontario colleges, polytechnics canada, colleges and institutes canada other details145 campuses: 5 credential offerings: diplomas, certificates, degrees enrolments: 21,106 full-time, 1,550 part-time, 1,300 international, 2,301 apprenticeship website: http://www.algonquincollege.com cambrian college of applied arts and technology sudbury, ontario ontario colleges, polytechnics canada, colleges and institutes canada college of the rockies cranbrook, british columbia bc colleges, colleges and institutes canada conestoga college kitchener, ontario ontario colleges, colleges and institutes canada confederation college thunder bay, ontario ontario colleges, colleges and institutes canada douglas college new westminster, british columbia colleges and institutes canada humber college institutes of technology and advanced learning toronto, ontario ontario colleges, polytechnics canada, colleges and institutes canada kwantlen polytechnic university surry, british columbia la cit ottawa, ontario bc association of institutes and universities (bcaiu), polytechnics canada, colleges and institutes canada, universities canada ontario colleges, association of colleges and universities of the canadian francophonie (acufc) campuses: 3 credential offerings: diplomas, certificates enrolments: 4100 full time; 168 part-time; 305 international; 100 apprentice website: https://cambriancollege.ca/ campuses: 7 credential offerings: diplomas, certificates, associate degrees, degrees, apprenticeship enrolments: 2009 full-time; 260 international; 330 apprentice; website: http://www.cotr.bc.ca/ campuses: 5 credential offerings: diplomas, certificates, degrees enrolments: 13,775 full-time, 439 part-time, 2020 international website: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/ campuses: 9 credential offerings: diplomas, certificates enrolments: 8800 students website: http://www.confederationc.on.ca/ campuses: 2 credential offerings: degrees, associate degrees, post-degree and graduate diplomas enrolments: 3509 full-time; 6787 part-time; 1550 international website: http://www.douglascollege.ca/ campuses: 4 credential offerings: bachelors degrees, diplomas, certificates, graduate certificates, apprenticeship programs enrolments: 29,200 full-time; 23,000 part-time; 3400 international; 2000 apprentice website: http://www.humber.ca/ campuses: 4 credential offerings: bachelors degrees, associate degrees, diplomas, certificates, citations, apprenticeships enrolments: 16,744 fte domestic; 6,002 fte international146 website: http://www.kpu.ca/ campuses: 4 credential offerings: certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas, graduate certificates, bachelors, enrolments: 4,557 full-time domestic; 316 international students147 website: http://www.collegelacite.ca/ 145 source for college and institute information (unless noted otherwise): colleges and institutes canada. (2018). our members. retrieved from https://www.collegesinstitutes.ca/our-members/member-directory/. source for university information (unless noted otherwise): university study canada. retrieved from https://www.universitystudy.ca 146 http://www.kpu.ca/iap/iap-facts 147 https://www.collegelacite.ca/documents/10315/11593/la_cite_sma2_final_version_webfeb_16_2018.pdf 86 | p a g e institution langara college region vancouver, british columbia sector affiliations bc colleges, colleges and institutes canada mcmaster university hamilton, ontario medicine hat college medicine hat, alberta ryerson university toronto, ontario council of ontario universities, u15 group of canadian universities, universities canada comprehensive and community institution,148 colleges and institutes canada council of ontario universities, universities canada trent university peterborough, ontario council of ontario universities, universities canada university of british columbia vancouver, british columbia university of guelph guelph, ontario research universities council of british columbia (rucbc), u15 group of canadian universities, universities canada council of ontario universities, universities canada university of toronto toronto, ontario council of ontario universities, u15 group of canadian universities, universities canada university of victoria victoria, british columbia research universities council of british columbia (rucbc), universities canada other details145 campuses: 2 credential offerings: certificates, diplomas, degrees, post-degree diplomas enrolments: 6388 full-time; 6194 part-time; 2942 international website: http://www.langara.bc.ca/ campuses: 1 credential offerings: undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates enrolments: 27,900 undergraduate; 4,200 graduate; 2,000 part-time website: https://www.mcmaster.ca/ campuses: 2 credential offerings: certificates, diplomas, applied degree programs, college preparation, apprenticeship trades enrolments: 8,000 students website: http://www.mhc.ab.ca/ campuses: 1 credential offerings: undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates enrolments: 27,600 undergraduate; 2,400 graduate; 13,000 parttime website: http://www.ryerson.ca/ campuses: 1 credential offerings: undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates enrolments: 8,500 undergraduate; 500 graduate; 1,350 part-time website: http://www.trentu.ca/ campuses: 2 credential offerings: undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates enrolments: 37,366 undergraduate; 9,522 graduate; 15,000 parttime website: http://www.ubc.ca/ campuses: 1 credential offerings: undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates enrolments: 24,000 undergraduate; 2,700 graduate; 3,500 part-time website: http://www.uoguelph.ca/ campuses: 3 credential offerings: undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates enrolments: 65,600 undergraduate; 17,900 graduate; 8,000 parttime website: http://www.utoronto.ca/ campuses: 1 credential offerings: undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates enrolments: 14,304 undergraduate; 2,940 graduate; 4,500 part-time website: http://www.uvic.ca/ 148 the government of albertas policy categories for post-secondary institutions follow a six-sector model (source: government of alberta. (nov. 2007). roles and mandates policy framework. retrieved from https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/f84f2391-0eda-45d3-a7c6-e19ca51a2d59/resource/1447ca1d-2370-4c2d-a55f973197985e1b/download/4178234-2007-11-roles-and-mandates.pdf, p. 17). 87 | p a g e institution york university region toronto, ontario sector affiliations council of ontario universities, universities canada other details145 campuses: 1 credential offerings: undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates enrolments: 43,800 undergraduate; 4,400 graduate; 7,700 part-time website: http://www.yorku.ca/ 88 | p a g e appendix c: organizations involved in the research organization type region url alberta council on articulation and transfer (acat) transfer and pathway organization; data repository hub (for courses and agreements) application centre and data exchange hub government of british columbia alberta https://acat.alberta.ca/ yes participated in interview process for oncat and bccat projects yes alberta https://applyalberta.ca/ yes no british columbia yes yes transfer and pathway organization; data repository hub (for courses and agreements) government of manitoba british columbia https://www2.gov.bc.ca/g ov/content/governments/ organizationalstructure/ministriesorganizations/ministries/e ducation http://www.bccat.ca/ yes yes yes yes canadian information centre for international credentials (cicic) council on articulations and transfer, new brunswick (catnb) educationplannerbc part of the council of ministers of education, canada (cmec) national https://www.saskatchewa n.ca/government/govern mentstructure/ministries/educ ation https://www.cicic.ca/ yes yes transfer and pathway organization; planning a data exchange hub new brunswick http://catnb.ca/ yes yes application centre yes inter-provincial research organization in the maritimes https://educationplannerb c.ca/ http://www.mphec.ca/ind ex.aspx yes maritime provinces higher education commission (mphec) no yes nova scotia council on articulation and transfer (nscat) ocas (the ontario college application service) ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) ontario universities application centre (ouac) transfer and pathway organization; data exchange hub application centre and data exchange hub british columbia new brunswick, nova scotia, prince edward island nova scotia https://www.mynsfuture. ca/ yes yes ontario https://www.ontariocolle ges.ca/en yes yes transfer pathways organization ontario http://www.oncat.ca/ yes yes application centre and data exchange hub ontario https://www.ouac.on.ca/ yes yes applyalberta bc ministry of education british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat) campus manitoba manitoba sent survey 89 | p a g e organization type region url saskatchewan ministry of education high school data repository saskatchewan sram (and through it to sracq, srasl) cegep application centres; data exchange hubs qubec https://www.saskatchewa n.ca/government/govern mentstructure/ministries/educ ation https://sram.qc.ca/ https://www.sracq.qc.ca/ dossier/ https://srasl.qc.ca/ sent survey yes participated in interview process for oncat and bccat projects no yes - sram yes - sram 90 | p a g e appendix d: overview of regional meetings supporting the research process region type oshawa/durham virtual feedback session kitchener, waterloo, saint catherines, london, guelph, hamilton ottawa, kingston in-person feedback session sudbury in-person feedback session ontario: panprovincial session at the november 2018 ontario college cralo conference in-person presentation and feedback session ontario university registrars forum in-person feedback meeting in-person feedback meeting ontario university council on admissions in-person feedback session ontario college bolt (banner) user group virtual feedback meeting canadian francophone postsecondary institutions virtual feedback meeting (conducted in french) institutions and organizations invited universities: trent, uoit colleges: durham colleges: conestoga, mohawk universities: guelph, waterloo, brock, laurier universities: ottawa, carlton, queens, st. pauls colleges: algonquin, la cit universities: laurentian colleges : collge boral, cambrian all ontario colleges across canada ocas all ontario university registrars ontario university admissions and liaison officers, registrars, oncat, international baccalaureate association, cralo, ontario ministry of advanced education and skills development ontario college systems representatives for institutions that use ellucian banner colleges and universities across canada that deliver francophone education149 audience hosted by registrarial and systems leadership and staff number of participants 4 people representing 2 institutions 18 people representing 6 institutions registrar and systems leadership and staff, decanal leadership 11 people representing 3 institutions algonquin college registrarial and systems leadership and staff 5 people representing 2 institutions laurentian university registrarial and systems leadership and staff; representatives from other third-party organizations at conference (e.g., ocas, oncat, vendors) registrarial leadership 64 people from various colleges and allied organizations in ontario cralo 23 registrars university of toronto pan-provincial leadership in higher education 55 higher education leaders from across the sector university of toronto pan-provincial system leadership in college higher education 7 people representing 7 ontario colleges humber college registrarial leadership 5 people representing 3 institutions organized by primary investigator for project registrarial and systems experts trent university conestoga college 149 the primary investigator invited members of the association des collges et universits de la francophonie canadienne (acufc), which includes 21 colleges and universities that deliver canadian francophone education (http://acufc.ca/). 91 | p a g e region type bc: pan-provincial meeting with the bc registrars association canadian association of post-secondary electronic standards council user group (canpesc) in-person meeting national workshop retreat meeting institutions and organizations invited all bc public and private post-secondary institutions audience canadian and international institutions, organizations, and vendors involved in student data exchange data exchange experts registrarial leadership, bccat representative number of participants 29 registrars representing 29 institutions hosted by 10 data exchange experts representing 7 institutions or application centres/data exchange hubs canpesc, pesc, ontario universities application centre (ouac) vancouver island university 92 | p a g e appendix e: overview of primary canadian organizations involved in post-secondary student data exchange region organizations alberta (ab) alberta council on admissions and transfer (acat) applyalberta bc council on admissions and transfer (bccat) educationplanner bc british columbia (bc) transfer organization application centres newfound land & labrador (nf&lb) north west territories (nwt) nova scotia (ns) nunavut (nu) ontario (on) campus manitoba catnb council of articulations and transfer new brunswick no council or application centre 1 1 1 1 1 nscat nova scotia council on admissions and transfer no council or application centre oncat ouac ontario universities application centre no council or application centre total psis* total organizations 25 27 35 38 9 10 15 15 2 2 2 2 11 12 1 1 45 48 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 planning no council or application centre ocas inc. prince edward pei data exchange services provided (for admissions) application secondary psi transcript data/ school exchange document transcript exchange exchange 1 bc ministry of education manitoba (mb) new brunswick (nb) data hub 1 1 planning 1 1 1 1 1 24 of 45 above 25 of 48 above 1 1 1 1 21 of 45 above 22 of 48 above 3 3 93 | p a g e region organizations qubec (qc) cegep application 3 3 3 48 centres150 bureau de coopration 1 19 interuniversitaire (bci) saskatchewan transfer credit & 1 pathways council 8 sk ministry of 1 1 education no council or 2 application centre across all 7 7 2 7 9 5 225 organizations * counts for private post-secondary institutions are included in select jurisdictions given the different quality assurance approval processes across the various regions. psi counts are taken from government websites; not all are included as jurisdictions vary in terms of their quality assurance approach for defining trusted institutions. inclusion in this chart is not intended to suggest every institution or organization is interested in participating in the national data exchange network. rather, it is intended to demonstrate the potential scope of interest in a trusted national network. the numbers could fluctuate and are also dependent on future protocols for membership in a national network which have yet to be determined. saskatche wan (sk) yukon (yk) column totals transfer organization application centres data hub data exchange services provided (for admissions) application secondary psi transcript data/ school exchange document transcript exchange exchange total psis* 150 includes sram - service rgional d'admission du montral mtropolitain; srasl - service rgional de l'admission des cgeps du saguenay lac-saint-jean; sracq - service rgional d'admission au collgial de qubec. 94 | p a g e total organizations 51 20 10 2 241 appendix f: overall summary of data exchange strengths and gaps region alberta no or limited inprovince/ territory high school to postsecondary exchange exists no inprovince electronic postsecondary to postsecondary exchange no or limited interprovincial high school exchange no or limited interprovincial postsecondary to postsecondary exchange no systemwide international exchange no system-wide capacity to confirm registered student status at postsecondary institutions (from admission offer to graduation) exists x - ab and sk planning x x x x-2 institutions only x x british columbia exists exists x students can individually order and send their transcripts outside of province manitoba x x x x x x new brunswick x - nb planning x - nb planning x ns & nb planning x - ns & nb planning x x newfoundland & labrador x x x x x x northwest territories x x x x x x nova scotia nunavut ontario pei quebec exists x x - ns planning x x - ns and nb planning x - ns and nb planning x x x x x x x limited national quality assured resources and tools to support admissions and transfer provincially focused: province-wide pathway and course equivalency student database exists; acat system building capacity towards representing equivalencies outside of province provincially focused: province-wide pathway and course equivalency student database exists; extensive provincial transfer supports; a pilot project between bccat and university of british columbia being pursued to enhance national and international equivalency improvements provincially focused: province-wide online course system exists provincially focused: province-wide pathway and course equivalency student database exists; support available for plar; extensive transfer and trend research available through mphec provincially focused: province-wide pathway and course equivalency student support exists extensive transfer and trend research available through mphec x exists exists x x - 11 only through ouac x x x x x x exists exists exists x - cegep to ouac only x x provincially focused: province-wide pathway and course equivalency student database exists through oncat; extensive research available extensive transfer and trend research available through mphec provincially focused: inter-university provincial system exists to support studying at another university 95 | p a g e region saskatchewan yukon no or limited inprovince/ territory high school to postsecondary exchange no inprovince electronic postsecondary to postsecondary exchange no or limited interprovincial high school exchange no or limited interprovincial postsecondary to postsecondary exchange x - sk planning x x - sk and ab planning x no systemwide international exchange no system-wide capacity to confirm registered student status at postsecondary institutions (from admission offer to graduation) x x limited national quality assured resources and tools to support admissions and transfer exists through bc x x x x x ministry x equals does not exist; source for data: interviews, website reviews, arucc groningen project (http://arucc.ca/en/projectoverview.html) findings as of july 2018; subject to change. 96 | p a g e appendix g: survey findings national bilingual survey demographics the survey received 117 responses across 109 organizations.151 these 117 respondents represent 47 colleges (40%), 4 institutes (3%), 53 (45%) universities, 7 application centres and government data hubs (6%), and 6 councils and associations (5%).152 of these, 100 respondents completed the survey representing a completion rate of 85%. the dataset for the current state analysis focused on 99 of these organizations.153 all responses across all organization types including duplicate responses are included in the analyses that identifies expert opinions. therefore, n counts are noted throughout. out of 86 institutions within the pool of 99 organizations, 11 identified as private institutions, 2 as other, and 73 as publicly funded post-secondary institutions (figure 17). the total number of public post-secondary institutions equals 76 once those with contradictory responses are readded. the survey received a 37% response rate out of a total pool of 204 publicly funded postsecondary institutions from across canada (76/204).154 twenty-four (27%) of these 76 represented responses for ontario publicly funded institutions that maintain oncat membership (10 colleges/institutes and 14 universities). fifty-three percent (24/45) of these participated in the survey. of these, 42% of the ontario colleges/institutes participated in the survey (10/24) versus 67% of the universities (14/21); therefore, the analysis combines the results for these two groups unless explicitly noted. figure 18 details the data exchange practices reported for each of the organizations. 151 the 109 excludes eight duplicate responses across seven organizations. eight people that identified their organization under other were subsequently reviewed and realigned to facilitate data analysis as the numbers were low. once realigned, five represented councils on admission/articulation and transfer, two were from post-secondary institutions serving the college sector, and one was from an association representing chief information officers. many of these organizations serve broader roles in their jurisdictions (e.g., one is both a council and a data exchange hub); hence, their different approaches to describing their organizations. 153 this approach resolved for duplicates and contradictory responses for a given organization. this subset includes 7 application centres and data hubs, 6 councils on articulation and transfer, and 86 post-secondary institutions. the latter group excludes three post-secondary institutions from the current state analysis because respondents from the same institution provided contradictory responses to the same questions. 154 duplicate responses per institution are not included. given the different approaches to quality assurance approvals in the different provinces, it is not possible to conduct the same analysis for private institutions. 152 97 | p a g e figure 17: organization type - current data exchange practices (n=99) fn 3: excludes institutions and their respondents that provided contradictory responses. the above figure includes one response per organization. funding suggestions for the national network ontario post-secondary institutions and their national counterparts were asked to provide recommendations for funding the national data network (figure 18, table 18). most in ontario believe the network should rely on fees for service and cost recovery more so than their counterparts in other provinces. strong preferences exist for accessing government funding to support the project, a graduated fee for institutions, and requesting support from associate members. figure 18: should the national network rely on cost recovery and fees for service models (n=100)? fn 4: more than one respondent per organization represented in opinion type figures and tables. n counts are adjusted accordingly. 98 | p a g e table 18: suggested source of funding to sustain the national entity after implementation federal government funding region (on=29; other provinces=74) strongly agree provincial government funding ontario other provinces ontario other provinces arucc associate members standardized flat fee ontario other provinces post-secondary institutions standardized flat fee ontario other provinces post-secondary institutions graduated fee ontario other provinces 41% 54% 38% 46% 10% 7% 3% 1% 24% 15% agree 28% 23% 38% 28% 28% 24% 17% 7% 31% 49% disagree 10% 1% 7% 3% 14% 20% 38% 35% 17% 11% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3% 7% 14% 30% 0% 3% 21% 22% 17% 23% 45% 42% 28% 27% 28% 23% 29, 100% 74, 100% 29, 100% 74, 100% 29, 100% 74, 100% 29, 100% 74, 100% 29, 100% 74, 100% strongly disagree no opinion column % other recommendations related to document fraud the survey confirmed the importance of ensuring incoming and outgoing document validation occurs to support authenticating the official bone fides of student documents, a helpful finding given the concerns about document fraud (figure 19). for example, 73% of ontario respondents and 78% of respondents from other provinces indicated that incoming document validation is very important. three respondents to this question, one of whom was from ontario, provided qualitative commentary that emphasized the importance of establishing trusted connections as a method to mitigate fraud.155 this theme arose routinely in interviews and regional meetings. establishing trusted connections either directly with institutions or through recognized application centres and data hubs represents one way to make best efforts to address document fraud.156 155 two further noted that the national network should enable trusted connection and partnerships but not alter the original content of data files or documents. 156 having noted this, even the application centres and data hubs like the national hub need to ensure partners are trusted. 99 | p a g e figure 19: organizational perspective regarding verification of official documents incoming and out-going data exchange needs most ontario organizations (43% of 28 respondents) and those from other provinces (29% of 73 respondents) expect data to be exchanged on a schedule as a mandatory requirement; 39% and 56% respectively would highly desire real time data exchange, to the extent possible. organizational respondents in ontario and from other provinces want maximum flexibility from the national network whether for data exchange formats, batch exchange capacity, individual record exchange, or ability to manage exchange from multiple devices (table 19). in two separate survey questions, respondents provided indications about their desire for the national network to be able to crosswalk data; the finding of 89% for ontario and 90% for other provinces held for both questions. while there are slight variations in desired level of functionality between ontario and the other provinces (table 20), the interest exists for the power to choose what is sent and received and in what format. most respondents from ontario and other provinces desire the flexibility to choose whether to send specific data fields or an entire student record (table 21), again signalling a desire for flexibility. most ontario respondents (93% of 28) and those from other provinces (82% of 73) indicated a desire for specific apis to facilitate standardized data exchange.157 157 application programming intervals (apis) standardizes and facilitates communication between different components by providing routines, protocols, and tools to allow sharing of data between software (mit libraries, n.d.). 100 | p a g e table 19: data exchange preferences for organizations responding to survey region (on=28) data exchange in multiple formats (xml, edi, etc.) ontario other provinces batch exchange ontario other provinces 93% 89% individual record exchange ontario other provinces desired 89% 90% not desired 7% 7% 4% 3% 7% 11% 14% 28, 100% 71, 100% 28, 100% 73, 100% 28, 100% not applicable/dont know column totals 86% 94% ability to manage exchange from multiple devices ontario other provinces 71% 84% 7% 3% 6% 21% 14% 72, 100% 28, 100% 73, 100% table 20: desired functionality ability to. region suppress student data ontario choose what data to receive ontario other provinces 29% 32% mandatory 25% other provinces 32% 29% other provinces 32% highly desirable 18% 14% 25% 30% 25% 30% desirable 25% 11% 25% 19% 25% 18% not desirable 14% 18% 11% 14% 11% 12% not applicable/don't know 18% 26% 11% 5% 11% 8% 28, 100% 73, 100% 28, 100% 73, 100% 28, 100% 73, 100% column totals ontario choose what data to send table 21: preferences for what is exchanged ability to provide specific data fields provide specific student records region ontario other provinces ontario other provinces mandatory 14% 11% 14% 1% highly desirable 39% 37% 29% 36% desirable 21% 14% 18% 4% not desirable 21% 34% 36% 56% not applicable/don't know 4% 3% 4% 3% column totals 28, 100% 72, 100% 28, 100% 73, 100% recommendations for type of information to exchange the findings suggest clear priorities exist with respect to the types of information respondents from ontario and other provinces recommend be the focus for the national network (table 22). this suggests a potential roadmap for incremental development of the network. consistency exists between regions with post-secondary transcript exchange and graduate confirmation representing the highest priorities. language test results ranked third for the other provinces unlike the ontario respondents. transfer assessment requires official post-secondary transcripts; therefore, this represents a strong indication of support for improving exchange to support students moving between post-secondary institutions. confirmation of graduation ranks second for ontario which validates the thematic feedback from the interviews and regional meetings regarding the interest in developing national capacity to enhance confirmation of student and alumni status. 101 | p a g e table 22: prioritization for student information to focus implementation efforts of national network. interested post-secondary transcripts graduate confirmation secondary transcripts admissions information proof of enrolment credential evaluation language test results other (examples cited: graduate test results (gre, tage mage, gmat), sanction alerts, instances of fraud, course outlines, transfer credit equivalency information) ontario 89% not interested 0% already exists 4% not applicable 0% don't know 7% other provinces 88% 1% 7% 1% 3% ontario 85% 0% 0% 0% 15% other provinces 89% 1% 3% 3% 4% ontario 85% 0% 4% 0% 11% other provinces 79% 4% 5% 8% 3% ontario 85% 0% 0% 7% 7% other provinces 75% 7% 3% 3% 12% ontario 78% 4% 0% 4% 15% other provinces 85% 4% 1% 3% 7% ontario 78% 4% 4% 0% 15% other provinces 71% 8% 0% 4% 16% ontario 74% 0% 4% 4% 19% other provinces 81% 3% 1% 5% 10% ontario 4% 0% 0% 33% 63% other provinces 4% 3% 0% 59% 34% 102 | p a g e references aacrao. 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(2018). shedding light on the next generation of mobile students. student pathways higher education conference. toronto, ontario: oncaat. retrieved from https://www.oncatconference.com/2018/documents/papers/a4.pdf zavarise, i. (2018, december 14). upei sees increase in fraudulent international student applications. retrieved march 15, 2019, from cbc: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edwardisland/pei-upei-fraudulent-international-student-applications-1.4811385 107 | p a g e exhibits 108 | p a g e exhibit a national survey canadian student data exchange survey 2018 july 2018 this survey seeks to capture the current state and perspectives regarding electronic student data exchange in canadian post-secondary institutions and allied organizations. the resulting data will inform three projects: the arucc groningen and student mobility project, and two research studies funded separately by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) and the british columbia council on admissions and transfer (bccat). more details regarding these three research projects are available online. we anticipate the results of this research will be published as two separate studies by bccat and oncat in spring 2019. response deadline: december 5, 2018 responses per institution or organization: more than one response per institution/organization is acceptable; however, we strongly recommend you coordinate responses and make one online submission through the registrar's office or other central department as appropriate for your organization. time to completion: approximately 20-35 minutes (timing dependent on participant responses to questions) participants recommended: registrarial experts with knowledge of systems it staff with expertise in electronic student data exchange policies, practices, and technology infrastructure staff with expertise in international assessment practices who would have knowledge of international organizations involved in electronic exchange of student data the survey is being distributed to registrarial and systems leaders at post-secondary institutions and allied organizations across canada. if you have received the survey and know of others at your institution or organization that have expertise in these areas, please forward this survey to their attention. note that all submissions will remain confidential and all published research will be anonymized. more background information on how the data will be used is available online. survey structure: institutional/organizational demographic and participant information current data exchange capacities business needs for a national platform in canada participation: voluntary 109 | p a g e questions: joanne duklas, joanne@duklascornerstone.ca =========================================================== please provide your name. this information will assist the researchers if they need to clarify any of your responses. your title: your email address: your department: central registrar's/admissions office cio or information technology office other, please specify: please provide the following information regarding your institution or organization. institution/organization location: alberta british columbia manitoba new brunswick newfoundland and labrador nova scotia ontario prince edward island quebec 110 | p a g e saskatchewan northwest territories nunavut yukon institution/organization name: institution/organization type: application centre college government institute university other, please specify: is your institution/organization: public private other, please specify: are you able to answer questions regarding your organization's data exchange capabilities? 111 | p a g e yes no the following questions ask about your institution's or organizations capacities to electronically exchange student data with other canadian organizations and institutions. we engage in electronic student data exchange with the following canadian allied organizations... (check all that apply.) educationplannerbc bccat applyalberta campus manitoba ouac ocas send to receive from plan to send plan to receive i don't know not applicable we engage in electronic student data exchange with the following canadian allied organizations... (check all that apply.) bureau de coopration interuniversitaire (bci) sram (qc) sraq (qc) srasl (qc) nbcat nscat send to receive from plan to send plan to receive i don't know not applicable we engage in electronic student data exchange with the following canadian government entities... (check all that apply.) 112 | p a g e federal government ministries provincial government ministries send to receive from plan to send plan to receive i don't know not applicable we engage in electronic student data exchange with the following canadian educational organizations... (check all that apply.) secondary school districts/boards post-secondary institutions send to receive from plan to send plan to receive i don't know not applicable we engage in electronic student data exchange with the following third-party entities... (check all that apply.) apprenticeship/trades associations employers/business sector regulatory bodies (e.g., ontario college of teachers, etc.) external credential evaluators other send to receive from plan to send plan to receive i don't know not applicable if you checked 'other', please specify the name(s) of the organizations with which your institution or organization exchanges student data. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. we electronically exchange. (check all that apply.) admissions data co-curricular data diploma related data send receive plan to send plan to receive i don't know not applicable 113 | p a g e financial aid data graduation confirmation data language proficiency test data post-secondary transcript data proof of enrolment data secondary school transcript data other if you clicked on 'other', what other student data does your organization exchange? if you chose "i don't know" or "not applicable", ignore this section. we use the following data standards when exchanging student data within canada. (check all that apply.) edi (ansi x12) flat file json pdf pdf/a (pdf w/ meta-data embedded) pesc xml xml other for sending for receiving plan to use for sending plan to use for receiving i don't know we don't use this/not applicable if you chose 'other', provide additional information. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. the following questions ask about your institution's or organizations capacities to exchange data with international organizations and institutions. 114 | p a g e we engage in electronic student data exchange with the following international organizations... (check all that apply.) chesicc (chn) digitary / my equals (aus/nz) gradintelligence (uk) national student clearinghouse (us) scripsafe (us) send to receive from plan to send to plan to receive from i don't know not applicable we engage in electronic student data exchange with the following international organizations... (check all that apply.) collegeboard (ap scores) (us) credential solutions (us) international baccalaureate org. (uk) parchment (us) other send to receive from plan to send to plan to receive from i don't know not applicable if you clicked on 'other', with which other international organizations do you exchange data? if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. we electronically exchange the following student data with international organizations. (check all that apply.) secondary school transcript data post-secondary transcript data admissions data co-curricular data send receive plan to send plan to receive i don't know not applicable 115 | p a g e graduation confirmation data diploma related data language proficiency test data proof of enrolment data other what other student data does your organization exchange? if you chose "i don't know" or "not applicable", ignore this section. we use the following data standards when exchanging with international organizations... (check all that apply.) edi flat file json pdf pdf/a (pdf w/ meta-data embedded) pesc xml xml elmo xml other for sending for receiving plan to send plan to receive i don't know we don't use this/not applicable what other data exchange format does your organization use for exchange student data? if you chose "i don't know" or "we don't use this", ignore this section. the following questions seek to clarify your institution's or organizations student systems. where does your organization store student data? check all that apply. at a physical location on-site 116 | p a g e at a physical location off-site in a hosted cloud storage other, please specify: i don't know if applicable, provide the name of the third-party provider who is hosting student data for your organization. what student system does your organization use to centrally store student data? check all that apply. banner colleague datatel peoplesoft powercampus tribal developed in-house other we don't use an sis please indicate what other systems your institution uses. what learning management system (lms) does your organization use, if any? blackboard 117 | p a g e desire2learn moodle other we don't use a learning management system please indicate what other learning management system(s) your institution uses. in which standard(s) does your organization store electronic student data? (check all that apply.) edi json pesc xml xml pdf other specify the other data standard(s) used. does your institution/organization transform student data in-house to support receiving/sending electronic student data? (i.e, we transform in-bound edi to xml; we transform out-bound pdf to edi) yes no i don't know does your institution/organization rely on a third-party organization to transform student data to support receiving/sending electronic student data? 118 | p a g e yes no i don't know provide details which area(s) is responsible for establishing electronic student data exchange with an outside organization? (check all that apply.) information technology department registrar's office other not applicable provide details. the questions in the following section are intended to gauge what online student services your organization currently provides. does your organization offer an online credential verification service? yes, we offer online credential verification yes, we verify our credentials using an external third-party service no, we do not have an online credential verification service specify the third-party used. does your organization offer an online enrollment verification service? yes, we offer online enrollment verification 119 | p a g e yes, we verify enrollment(s) using an external third-party service no, we do not have an online enrollment verification service specify the third-party service used. does your organization offer online document verification services? yes no i don't know please provide details. is your organization engaged in any micro-credentialing or badging initiatives to support students? yes no i don't know we are planning this please provide details. is your organization engaged in any block-chain initiatives or research for students? yes no i don't know please provide details. 120 | p a g e the following questions are intended to understand any possible considerations that might impact on your organizations ability to establish data exchange connectivity. in your opinion, does your organization currently have the project management expertise to establish data exchange functionality with an outside organization? yes, definitely yes, probably unsure/neutral no, probably not no, definitely not in your opinion, does your organization currently have the in-house it expertise to implement data exchange functionality with an outside organization? yes, definitely yes, probably unsure/neutral no, probably not no, definitely not rank the extent to which the following, if any, will impede your organizations ability to connect to a national data exchange platform. a great deal considerably moderately slightly not at all i don't know 121 | p a g e commitment to current processes focus on other organizational priorities inability to change current processes inflexible it systems (sis, lms, etc.) lack of buy-in for a national platform solution lack of financial resources at my organization lack of in-house it expertise lack of in-house staff resources other describe other examples that might impact on your organizations ability to connect to a national data exchange platform. if you selected "not at all" or "i don't know", leave this section blank. are there any existing policies in place at your organization that might impede data exchange with outside organizations? yes no i don't know provide details. is there anything else about your organization that you feel we should be aware of as we contemplate creating a national student data exchange platform? if none, please proceed forward in the survey. business requirements - general the following questions are intended to gauge the overall requirements for a national data exchange platform. what benefits must result from a national data exchange platform? rank the importance of each item. 122 | p a g e enhanced efficiencies for students enhanced efficiencies for institutions improved service for students improved service for institutions improvements for those students wishing to transfer between canadian institutions improvements for international students wishing to study in canada improvements for students wishing to study outside canada (e.g., exchange, study abroad) improvements to enhance transition of students into the workplace other very important important moderately important slightly important not important neutral/no opinion if you chose 'other', please specify what other benefits the national data exchange solution must achieve. if you chose "neutral/no opinion", please let this section blank. what connections must a national data exchange solution establish from the following list? rank the importance of each item. peer-to-peer connections between canadian post- very important important moderately important slightly important not important neutral/no opinion 123 | p a g e secondary institutions connections to other canadian application centres/data exchange hubs connections to other international nodes other connections if you chose 'other', please provide details. if you chose "neutral/no opinion", please let this section blank. what document validation functionality must a national data exchange platform provide? rank the importance of each item. incoming document validation outgoing document validation other very important important moderately important slightly important not important neutral/no opinion if you chose 'other', please specify the other document or data validation needs you would recommend. if you chose "neutral/no opinion", please let this section blank. business requirements - funding supports the following questions are intended to identify the funding options we should consider to support creation and operational sustainment of a national data exchange platform. identify your level of agreement with each of the following funding options to support the initial planning, rfp process, and early stage implementation requirements for the national data exchange project. early stage funding should rely on.... the voluntary financial participation of arucc members that are interested. strongly agree agree no opinion disagree strongly disagree 124 | p a g e an across the board, standardized top up amount to institutional arucc membership fees (i.e., all institutions pay the same amount regardless of size). an across the board, top up to institutional arucc membership fees that is based on a graduated fee according to institutional size. an across the board, standardized, top up fee for any associate members. other if you chose 'other', please specify the other funding options you would recommend to support early stage planning and implementation. if you chose "neutral/no opinion", please let this section blank. identify your level of agreement with each of the following funding options to support regular, ongoing operations necessary to sustain the national data exchange platform beyond implementation. operational funding to sustain the national data exchange platform should rely on.... the voluntary financial participation of arucc members that are interested. an across the board, standardized top up amount to institutional arucc membership fees (i.e., all institutions pay the same amount regardless of size). an across the board, top up to institutional arucc membership fees that is based on a graduated fee according to institutional size. an across the board, standardized, top up fee for any arucc associate members. provincial government funding. federal government funding. cost recovery models (including fees for service). other strongly agree agree no opinion disagree strongly disagree if you chose 'other', please specify the other funding approach you would recommend to sustain regular, ongoing operations for the national data exchange platform. if you chose "neutral/no opinion", please leave this section blank. 125 | p a g e are there any other broader considerations we must be mindful of when creating a national data exchange platform? if none at this time, move forward in the survey. business requirements - student supports the following questions are intended to identify the student services a national data exchange platform should provide. should the national data exchange platform provide student-facing information on its website? yes no i don't know please explain why you believe this is needed. should the national data exchange platform provide any online services for students? yes no i don't know what services would you suggest? should the national data exchange platform provide a student-facing, password protected portal? yes no i don't know if you have reasons for suggesting this is needed, please explain. 126 | p a g e business requirements - canadian post-secondary institutions, application centres, and data exchange hubs the following questions are intended to identify what the national data exchange platform should provide to canadian post-secondary institutions, application centres, and data exchange hubs. the ranking is formatted as follows: mandatory: the proposed national solution must satisfy this. highly desirable: the proposed national solution should satisfy this. desirable: the proposed national solution could satisfy this, but it's not important. not desirable: the proposed national solution should not satisfy this. i don't know not applicable the national platform should provide the following organizational websites an organization-facing website an organization-facing, password protected portal mandatory highly desirable desirable not desirable i don't know not applicable a national platform must provide the capacity for canadian institutions, application centres and data exchange hubs to... all answers assume student permission has been provided. exchange (send and receive) student data in real time exchange (send and receive) student data on a regular schedule exchange (send and receive) multiple forms of student data (xml, pdf, edi, etc.) mandatory highly desirable desirable not desirable i don't know not applicable 127 | p a g e maintain, track and manage bulk student data exchange requests maintain, track and manage individual student data exchange requests manage student data exchange requests from multiple devices. verify individual student data suppress student data choose what student data to send choose what student data to receive business requirements - for canadian post-secondary institutions, application centres, and data exchange hubs the following questions seek to identify other needed capacities for the national data exchange platform. a national platform must have the capacity to... for information on apis, see here. for information on apostilles, see here. provide student data by data type provide student data by student record provide apis that work with different student information systems. provide capacity to transform/crosswalk data standards (e.g., pdf to xml) support a canadian apostille brand/label to demonstrate authenticity of verified student data. highly mandatory desirable not desirable desirable i don't know not applicable 128 | p a g e support bilingual content and other characters with associated symbols. business requirements - for within canada the following questions are intended to identify exchange needs within canada. indicate with which canadian allied organizations you would like to exchange electronic student data. exists alread y mandator y highly desirabl e desirabl e not desirabl e i don't kno w not applicabl e application centre in another province/territory application centre in my province/territory councils of articulation/admissio n and transfer (e.g., bccat, oncat, nbcat, etc.) external credential evaluation services (e.g., wes, iqas, etc.) other allied organization if you chose 'other', specify with which other allied organizations you would like to establish a data exchange relationship. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. indicate with which canadian educational organizations your organization would like to exchange electronic student data. high schools or high school boards located in another province/territory high schools or high school boards within my province/territory exists already highly mandatory desirable not desirable desirable i don't know not applicable 129 | p a g e post-secondary institutions in another province or territory post-secondary institutions within your province/territory other educational organization specify with which other canadian educational organizations your organization would like to establish a data exchange relationship. indicate with which canadian employment organizations you would like to exchange student data. employment recruitment organizations employers mandatory highly desirable desirable not desirable i don't know not applicable other employment organizations specify with which other employment organizations you would like to establish a data exchange relationship. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. indicate with which canadian government entities your organization would like to exchange electronic student data. immigration, refugees and citizenship canada (canadian federal government) provincial ministry other canadian government entity(ies) exists already mandatory highly desirable desirable not desirable i don't know not applicable 130 | p a g e specify with which other government entity(ies) your organizations would like to establish a data exchange relationship. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. indicate with which other entities your organization would like to exchange electronic student data. exists already mandatory highly desirable desirable i not don't desirable know not applicable apprentice/trades bodies professional regulatory bodies (e.g., college of teachers, engineers canada, etc.) other third parties specify with which other entities your organizations would like to establish a data exchange relationship. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. rank the types of student data your organization would most like to exchange with other canadian organizations through a national platform. admissions data co-curricular data credential equivalency evaluation data (e.g., from wes, ices, iqas, etc.) graduation confirmation data language proficiency test data post-secondary transcript data proof of enrolment data very interested interested slightly interested not at all interested already exists i don't know not applicable 131 | p a g e secondary school transcript data other if you chose 'other', provide additional details. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. business requirements - with international organizations the following questions are intended to identify exchange needs with international organizations. all answers assume student permission has been provided. a national platform must have the capacity to allow canadian post-secondary institutions, application centres, and data exchange hubs to... send student data to other international organizations. receive student data from other international organizations. mandatory highly desirable desirable not desirable i don't know not applicable please indicate to which three international countries your organization would most like to send student data. list them in order of priority with the top priority country listed first. please indicate from which three international countries your organization would most like to receive student data. list them in order of priority with the top priority country listed first. indicate with which international parties your organization would like to exchange electronic student data. international government very intereste d intereste d slightly intereste d not at all intereste d alread y exists i don' t kno w not applicabl e 132 | p a g e ministries/departmen ts international postsecondary institutions international secondary or secondary school boards trusted national nodes in other countries or regions involved in student data exchange other international organizations if you chose 'other', identify the organizations or types of organizations with which you would like to establish a data exchange relationship. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. rank the types of student data your organization would most like to exchange with international organizations through a national platform. admissions data co-curricular data diploma related data exchange student learner agreements graduation confirmation data language proficiency test data postsecondary transcript data very interested moderately interested slightly interested not at all interested already exists i don't know not applicable 133 | p a g e proof of enrolment data secondary transcript data other if you chose 'other', provide additional information. if you chose "not applicable" or "i don't know", ignore this section. business requirements - vendors the following questions are intended to identify what requirements a potential vendor of a national data exchange platform should meet. the vendor for the national data exchange platform must provide... a made-in-canada solution with data hosting environments located within canada english and french translation of all messaging (with the original student data remaining in the language provided). full project management support with associated programmers, system architects, network server expertise, and data exchange experts. an implementation project plan a prioritized implementation schedule. evidence of adherence to provincial, federal and european (i.e., gdpr) privacy and consent of use regulations. mandatory highly desirable desirable not desirable i don't know not applicable 134 | p a g e the vendor for the national solution in canada must be prepared to provide... on-boarding supports for each recognized postsecondary institution not currently served by a provincial application centre or data exchange hub. on-boarding support, training, and communication to recognized post-secondary institutions even if they are currently supported by a regional or provincial application centre. on-boarding support, training, and communication to existing provincial application centres or data exchange hubs. mandatory highly desirable desirable not desirable i don't know not applicable are there any other supports you would recommend the vendor provide to post-secondary institutions or application centres? you've reached the end of the survey! your time and participation are much appreciated. please use the field below to offer any additional thoughts or comments you have that we should keep in mind as we continue to develop a national data exchange solution. 135 | p a g e exhibit b - interview guide 136 | p a g e advancing student mobility through data mobility an ontario focus project overview: this project is being led by the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc) in partnership with the ontario university registrars association (oura) and the ontario college committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo) with funding provided by the ontario council on articulation and transfer (bccat). joanne duklas is the primary investigator and project consulting lead. its scope includes indexing the current state of electronic data exchange capacities related to exchange student data to advance mobility and the readiness for change across institutions and allied organizations in ontario. the project also seeks to capture expert advice at the local and system levels regarding the changes and supports necessary to implement a national data exchange solution to advance student mobility. the research aligns with and informs two other similar projects: the bccat data exchange project which replicates the ontario project and the arucc groningen and student mobility project. the latter initiative seeks to create an innovative, trusted, national student data exchange network to facilitate transfer and mobility. these three aligned projects serve broader student mobility goals such as those embedded in the mou between the provincial councils of admissions/articulation and transfer. internationally, the projects align with the lisbon recognition convention and the groningen declaration network organization, each of which seeks to improve student mobility. research team: joanne duklas, the primary investigator, will lead the interviews with support provided by matt schultz, a research assistant at duklas cornerstone consulting. interview guide overview: this interview guide provides an overview of the project and the interview questions. each interview is anticipated to take 1.5 hours and will be conducted via web conferencing. you are welcome to include expert members of your staff from across your organization with knowledge of electronic student data exchange capacities and processes and supporting it systems. overall research approach: the research approach involves conducting a review of scholarly and trade literature and websites focused on electronic data exchange, consulting with data exchange service providers, and identifying data exchange standards and implementation needs. interviews with select institutions, councils on articulation/admissions and transfer, data hubs and other organizations as identified through the research process, will be held to gain a detailed understanding of the current state at various local levels, capture advice, and identify any gaps impacting student data exchange. additionally, the results from a national survey of canadian post-secondary institutions and allied organizations distributed in summer 2018 will provide further insights. the researchers ask that the national survey be completed prior to the interview. each organizations results from the survey will be shared in advance of the interview to help inform the discussions. final report: the final report will be submitted to oncat with a publication goal of spring 2019. it will contain the research findings, identify the current state for data exchange, and highlight any issues, innovative or efficient processes, and promising practices. the report will also contain suggestions for further research. finally, the findings will inform the three projects mentioned above: the bccat data exchange project, the oncat groningen project, and the arucc groningen and student mobility project. please note: all information gleaned from the surveys, interviews and meetings will be anonymized in the final research publications and all identifying information of participants will be kept confidential. 137 | p a g e primary investigator: joanne duklas, researcher and consultant, duklas cornerstone consulting support: matt schultz, research assistant, duklas cornerstone consulting questions regarding this research study should be directed to joanne duklas (joanne@duklascornerstone.ca). groningen interview questions for institutions 1. current state a. given the scope of the project, is there anything regarding your institutions context about which we should be aware? b. how does your institution handle, exchange and, if applicable, store electronic student data? is the process the same for domestic (within-canada) and international students? (examples - student biographical or academic information, transfer credit, exchange credit, course information, etc.) what data exchange is occurring currently (and with which organizations)? are there any plans to connect with other provinces/territories or with trusted data sources outside of canada? c. are there any challenges or complexities either at your institution or within your jurisdiction that will impact national student data exchange? what about for data exchange related to transfer or student mobility? how are you addressing these (if applicable)? 2. business needs: a. assuming this was possible, with which top organizations would you like to establish a student data trading relationship? b. what student data or documents does your institution need to exchange with other institutions or organizations? c. are there particular challenges or gaps you would like to see resolved through enhanced student data exchange at the institutional, provincial, national, and/or international level? what about with respect to student transfer and mobility? d. what benefits would you like to see result from participating in a national data exchange network? what value-add services should be provided as part of a national data exchange network? should a student facing component be included as part of a national data exchange model? 3. recommendations: 138 | p a g e a. what preparation must happen at your institution or within your jurisdiction to advance data exchange that supports student transfer and mobility (e.g., capacity improvements, onboarding, and change readiness)? what recommendations do you have for the project to support these needs? are there any specific recommendations you have related to improving data exchange relevant to student transfer and mobility? b. how do you manage and govern data exchange agreements and adherence to privacy regulations? what advice do you have for us in this area as we move forward with the national data exchange project? c. do you know of any best-in-class examples we should look at more closely? 4. do you have any other comments you would like to share to help us as we move forward with this project? 139 | p a g e exhibit c student overview data exchange and student mobility project partners: ontario college committee of registrars, admissions and liaison officers (cralo); ontario university registrars association (oura) funding partner: ontario council on admissions and transfer (oncat) student feedback session purpose the purpose of this session is to explore students perceptions and experiences on transfer and to identify any issues or suggestions they may have regarding improving the exchange of student or course data between institutions, or between institutions and other third parties (e.g., employers, ita, etc.) to enhance student transfer and mobility. the student roundtable discussion is intended to support research for three projects: an oncat funded project called advancing student mobility through data mobility an ontario focus, a similar data exchange project funded and focused on british columbia, and the arucc groningen and student mobility project, a national student data exchange initiative. each of these is informing creation of a national student data exchange network to support secure, permission-based, student data sharing between institutions and between institutions and other third parties (e.g., government, application centres, regulatory bodies, employers). the oncat funded project, like the bccat funded project, is focused on enhancing understanding of the current data exchange environment in ontario particularly as it relates to student transfer. responses to the questions asked will be captured by a project note taker. these notes will be used to inform a thematic understanding of the issues and recommendations. responses will be kept confidential and only used to inform the research for the above projects. the final reports will summarize the thematic findings from the research and be published on the bccat, oncat, and arucc websites. more project details are available online at http://arucc.ca/en/resources/task-force-groningen.html primary investigator & contact for questions joanne duklas, duklas cornerstone consulting; joanne@duklascornerstone.ca roundtable discussion agenda 1. introductions 2. overview of projects 3. roundtable discussion 4. next steps recommended student participants students who have transferred into (or are considering transferring out of) the institution 140 | p a g e student who are graduating and transitioning into the workforce internationally educated students students who have applied or are contemplating applying to an institution outside the province questions to be explored 1. what was your experience with submitting documents when transferring into any of the institutions you have or are attending? 2. what worked well during this process? 3. what did not work well? 4. what would you change, if you could? 5. do you have any other thoughts or recommendations we should keep in mind? 141 | p a g e exhibit d regional meeting material ======================= invite ==================== greetings, on behalf of the association of registrars of the universities and colleges of canada (arucc), we are cordially inviting you and others from your institution to a regional meeting to discuss the creation of a national student data exchange network. oncat has funded this portion of the project so that we can capture business requirements and advice for the national project. session details are noted below. date: time: location: november 29 2 to 4:30pm rosser boardroom, wc539 5th floor, building c algonquin college 1385 woodroffe avenue ottawa, ontario k2g 1v8 agenda: attached please register in advance at the following site by november 22: https://form.simplesurvey.com/f/l/ottawaregionalmeeting those with admissions, registrarial, transfer, and data exchange/systems expertise are encouraged to participate. the session will be led by joanne duklas, duklas cornerstone consulting, who serves as the primary investigator for this project, and romesh vadivel, arucc president and member of the project steering committee. project background: regional meetings are being held in different parts of the province. feedback gathered will be used for the arucc groningen project funded by oncat which seeks to identify the current state of electronic data exchange capacities and business requirements needed to create a national student data exchange network. the findings will also be used to inform two other projects: the national arucc project, which seeks to create a national student data exchange network to facilitate transfer and mobility, and a similar study in british columbia funded by the bc council on admissions and transfer (bccat). more details regarding the various projects are published online at the following web sites: national project: http://arucc.ca/en/resources/task-force-groningen.html oncat and bccat funded projects: http://arucc.ca/en/oncat-bccat-projects.html project support: 142 | p a g e gratitude is extended to krista pearson, registrar at algonquin college, and tracy al-drissi, registrar at trent university. they are representing cralo and oura for this project. please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have regarding this meeting or the projects. thanks for your time. sincerely, joanne duklas handout attached in email: agenda parking information 143 | p a g e ====================== agenda ============================== 144 | p a g e

oncat careers senior researcher location: toronto, ontario, canada type: full-time, eligible for pension salary range: $80 000-$90 000 category: research, data and funding department deadline: october 24th, 2022 about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's 45 publicly funded colleges and universities. as a member organization, it works with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. about the position the senior researcher supports the development and oversees the implementation of oncats research plan. the senior researcher ensures that oncat-led and/or funded research projects align with the organizations mandate and strategic priorities and works closely with consultants, researchers (from other postsecondary educational institutions and/or pse organizations), oncat committees/working groups, and oncat staff/senior management. this position will provide coordination to and research expertise on various research initiatives/projects. this position will also provide oversight to oncats grant (rfp) program supporting credit transfer and student mobility research and strategic analysis of oncat funded research projects to inform future planning. as oncat continues to support system improvements and the development of a mature transfer system in ontario, this position will be critical to moving projects forward, ensuring their success and translating knowledge from multiple and across projects to support system development. to be successful in this position you will display mature judgment, expert knowledge of research and research methodologies, a commitment to high quality work, excellent project management skills, and work effectively independently and in a professional team environment. you must also be committed to the value of postsecondary education, be dedicated to improving the transfer student experience, and demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills. responsibilities 1. research planning and implementation (30%) leads the design and co-ordination of oncats overall research plan. ensures the research plan supports functions across operations, collaborations, granting and policy, and overall oncat strategic priorities. provides support to oncats funding strategies, including its research and transfer system improvement projects, including identifying rfp topics, and supporting funding review processes, as an internal reviewer, ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 conducts scans and shares evidence, to inform transfer strategies, including presenting evidence from funded projects and/or other jurisdictions to inform institutional projects. coordinates tasks and projects, delegating to researcher and quantitative researcher, and supervising them to ensure deliverables are being met. monitors oncat research budget and ensures research activities, internal and external, align with budgets. 2. managing and supporting research projects (30%) works collaboratively with senior management and research, data and funding team to implement annual oncat research grants stream. coordinates projects and supervises oncat researcher and oncat quantitative researcher on projects and research activities. provides coordination to support various aspects of the research project life cycle (e.g., request for proposal, application, proposal adjudication, awards, contracts and payments, interim reporting and check, and final reporting). ensures accountability of transfer payment funds and proper grants management protocol. re-negotiates deliverables/contracts or closes grants, where needed, to ensure value for money and alignment with oncat mandate and priorities. 3. knowledge mobilization and planning (30%) maintains an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art research on transfer/articulation, along with the methodological techniques and data sources that it employs. shares key insights with oncat team through internal briefings and presentations, as well as with external stakeholders through blogs, workshops, and other communications efforts. plays a key role in knowledge mobilization, collaborating with oncats communications team to translate the findings of funded projects into deliverables (e.g., graphics, dashboards) that can be digested by varied stakeholders, including pse administration, policymakers, and students. synthesizes and analyzes findings from multiple oncat research projects and research grants to provide accessible information to inform sector partners, oncat communications, etc. edits and summarizes internal or oncat-funded project final reports in preparation for public posting. participates in postsecondary sector and credit transfer-related conference, symposia, and fairs. 4. stakeholder relations (10%) interacts with numerous stakeholders to advance oncats research priorities including academic researchers, institutional analysts, policymakers, pse administrators, as well as colleagues working across other cats in north america. interacts with groups in adjacent sectors, including k-12 (e.g., tdsb) and the labour market (e.g., cpa). establishing relationships with these groups allows oncat to capitalize on potential opportunities for collaboration on data-sharing or research-related activities. engages sector partners and research community to support, inform and champion oncat mandate. direct reports this position supervises 2 direct reports ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 candidate requirements education/knowledge masters degree in a related field. graduate degree preferred. knowledge of postsecondary education, and issues of credit transfer, access, and student success in postsecondary education. understanding of existing research and data resources available in the canadian postsecondary sector. knowledge of research and evaluation methodologies, tools, statistics, and techniques. knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods. knowledge of project management principles and methodologies to oversee and guide the overall delivery of mandates and strategies. experience 3-5 years of experience in research project management. experience working with outside consultants and managing contracted projects to successful completion. experience conducting research, writing research papers for publication (e.g., articles), and briefs. track record of delivering high-quality work product under a deadline. experience managing a complex budget. experience working in cross functional teams. preferred experience (asset) doctoral candidacy or phd. bilingual in french and english. skills & abilities exceptional organizational skills and ability to work simultaneously on multiple projects. ability to overcome unforeseen obstacles and see projects through to completion. ability to remain flexible, calm under pressure, and adaptive to change as priorities shift. exceptional written and oral communication skills and public speaking facility. ability to work well in a team atmosphere working both independently and with team members. technical expertise utilizing a variety of common office and statistical software. ability to quickly learn new function areas. application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca. the deadline to apply october 24th by 11:59pm. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening, or an interview will be contacted. oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require accommodations during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

2022 pccat call for proposals hybrid conference the rise & falls: surviving & thriving in a climate of change deadline extended #73a099 submit by march 11, 2022! present & attend june 22-23 2022 in-person or online 2022 cpcat confrence hybride l'essor et les chutes: survivre et prosprer dans le climat de changement appel de propositions date d'chance prolonge #73a099 11 mars 2022 prsenter & participer 22 et 23 juin 2022 en personne ou en ligne

oncat careers data analyst location: toronto, ontario, canada type: contract (or secondment) 2 years with the possibility of extension location: downtown toronto location at university and dundas, near st. patrick station (180 dundas west, suite 1902). remote to start and with flexible work opportunities. salary range: $60,000 to $70,000 please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is february 11th 11:59pm est. about the data analytics position oncat is looking for someone passionate about data analytics, drawing key insights, and building dashboards and metrics by using various post-secondary education data sources. the data analyst contributes to oncats strategic priorities and works cross-functionally under the supervision of oncats senior data analyst. the incumbent will analyse and summarize data managed by oncat and other relevant data sources. they will lead metric reporting initiatives and work collaboratively with researchers and oncat staff to implement reports and dashboards. the data analyst will present preliminary metrics and dashboard prototypes to stakeholder groups and assist with other research and data related functions as needed. about the employer established in 2011, the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) was created to enhance academic pathways and reduce barriers for students looking to transfer among ontario's publicly funded colleges, universities, and indigenous institutes. as a member organization, we work with those institutions to develop transfer credit policies and practices to ease student mobility. as a non-profit organization created and funded by the government of ontario, oncat works with postsecondary education institutions to build a seamless system for transfer credit in ontario and support student mobility. oncat staff are currently working remotely and plan to return to work with a hybrid model (up to 3 days per week in the office) as we monitor toronto public health regulations. key responsibilities jurisdictional scans and best practices research scan relevant studies related to post-secondary education transfer student demand and outcome measures. document and share best practices in metrics design. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |1 data preparation and analysis support the development of data extraction and translation programs for variety of data sources. explore and analyse the extracted data. identify and document data issues. recommend solutions to address data gaps. produce exception reports and facilitate data cleaning processes. metric and dashboard implementation support the design of metrics, interim measures, and develop reports for oncats strategic priorities. collaborate with the research team in the implementation of metrics/interim measures and related reports. support dashboard design discussion and implementation using power bi. prepare presentation and communicate to internal and external stakeholders. education and experience a minimum of three (3) to five (5) years of relevant data analytics and reporting experience using tools such as sas, spss, stata, or r. some experience working with post-secondary institutional data/statistics canada postsecondary student information system (psis) would be an asset. experience working with large scale data sets with both structured and un-structured data. in-depth experience with database platforms and data manipulation tools: o relational databases (mysql, ms sql server) and sql tools, microsoft excel, vba & pivot table, dashboard tools such as tableau or power bi o proficiency in microsoft office suite (word, excel, access, power point, etc.) o experience with diagram software e.g., visio/lucid chart ability to synthesize data into meaningful reports and identify trends. strong written and verbal communication skills, with presentation experience to non-technical audience. able to work independently, with minimal oversight, while meeting project deadlines. familiarity with conducting literature scans for higher education transfer related topics. undergraduate degree in data management, statistics or a related field, masters degree may be considered an asset. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |2 application instructions please email your resume and cover letter to careers@oncat.ca and use the position title as your subject line. the deadline to apply is february 11th 11:59pm est. late applications will not be accepted. we thank you for your interest. only those selected for further screening, or an interview will be contacted. additional testing may be required. oncat is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier free recruitment process to applicants with accessibility needs in accordance with the ontario human rights code and the accessibility for ontarians with disabilities act (aoda). if you require accommodation during this process, please inform oncat of your requirements. oncat welcomes qualified applications from persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples from north america, including first nations, mtis and inuit peoples, visible minorities (racialized) persons, and those who identify as women and/or 2slgbtq+. oncat supports an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace. oncat requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against covid-19, subject to medical and human rights exemptions, in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat) 180 dundas st. west suite 1902 toronto, ontario m5g 1z8 t: (416) 640 6951 | f: (416) 640 6959 www.oncat.ca oncat is funded by the government of ontario |3

ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire eric lav ig ne, a m an da b rijm ohan, jinl i y ang, m ary cath arine lennon cihe report 2016.02 a report to the ontario council for articulation and transfer appendix d institutional profiles (universities) public policy and the attraction of international postsecondary students a report by: pathways to education and work group ontario institute for studies in education (oise) university of toronto 252 bloor st. west, 6th floor toronto, ontario m5s 1v6 canada www.oise.utoronto.ca/cihe please cite this publication as: brijmohan, a., yang, j., lavigne, e. & lennon, m.c. (2016) ontario student mobility: carving paths of desire, appendix d institutional profiles (universities). toronto: centre for the study of canadian and international higher education, oise-university of toronto. institutional profiles table of contents algoma university .......................................................................................................................4 brock university ........................................................................................................................14 carleton university ...................................................................................................................25 lakehead university ..................................................................................................................34 laurentian university ................................................................................................................52 mcmaster university .................................................................................................................63 nipissing university ...................................................................................................................72 ocad university ........................................................................................................................81 queens university .....................................................................................................................85 ryerson university ....................................................................................................................88 saint paul university ...............................................................................................................106 trent university ......................................................................................................................112 university of guelph ...............................................................................................................120 university of guelph-humber..................................................................................................128 university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) ...............................................................139 university of ottawa ...............................................................................................................173 university of toronto ..............................................................................................................181 university of waterloo ............................................................................................................186 university of windsor..............................................................................................................191 western university .................................................................................................................203 wilfrid laurier university ........................................................................................................210 york university ........................................................................................................................219 page 3 of 226 algoma university algoma university was first established in 2008, as an independent, degree granting institution. algoma university focuses its mission to be a teaching-oriented, undergraduate university focusing catering to the needs of northern ontario, while maintaining strong roots in aboriginal culture and community teachings. the main campus of algoma university is located in sault ste. marie, ontario, canada, offering undergraduate university degrees in more than 30 academic programs catering to 1609 students. the bachelor programs range from 3 to 4 year degree programs, and are in the areas of accounting, anishinaabemowin (ojibwe language) biology, business administration, community development, community economic and social development, computer science, economics, english and film, finance and economics, fine arts, french, geography and geology, history and philosophy, law and justice, mathematics, music, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology. algoma university has two offsite campuses in brampton, with their program offerings in business administration, and the other in timmins, which offers programs more catered to social work and community development (retrieved from: https://algomau.ca/about/, https://algomau.ca/about/fast_facts/, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/algoma_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships with public colleges. sault college is the only partner college within commutable range (less than or equal to 80km). approximately 38% of algoma universitys transfer students come from sault college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 120 550 pathways with specific 430 sending programs algoma university has two generic receiving pathways with all 24partnership colleges respectively, which are from any ontario college advanced diploma and any ontario college diploma. partnership colleges supply to 5 different specific program areas of algoma university: business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, science engineering & tech., health, food, medical & recreation, and forest, conservation, technician. algoma university currently has the majority of their receiving partnership agreements supplying program areas of science engineering & tech., and health, food, medical & recreation. page 4 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. past research suggested that reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time (frennette, 2003) institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 5 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university table 1: pathways by sending institution geographical data sending institutions algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) pathway data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) algoma university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 783 8 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 northern 315 4 5 19 24 3 6 0.25 northern 431 5 5 18 23 0 0 0 metro 692 7 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 northern 310 3 5 6 11 0 0 0 southern 747 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 northern 703 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 durham college central 671 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 fanshawe college southern 685 6 5 18 23 0 0 0 fleming college eastern 693 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 george brown college metro 696 7 5 21 26 5 10 0.38 georgian college central 589 6 5 18 23 1 2 0.09 humber college metro 684 7 5 18 23 3 6 0.26 la cit collgiale eastern 797 9 5 6 11 0 0 0 lambton college western 576 5 5 18 23 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 848 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 739 7 5 18 23 0 0 0 niagara college southern 800 8 5 18 23 0 0 0 collge boral conestoga college confederation college page 6 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university geographical data sending institutions region distance (km) pathway data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) algoma university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range students per pathway ratio double northern college northern 590 7 5 19 24 3 6 0.25 sault college* northern 5.8 0 5 31 36 16 32 0.89 seneca college metro 680 7 5 22 27 4 8 0.30 sheridan college central 703 7 5 18 23 5 10 0.43 st. clair college western 578 6 5 18 23 0 0 0 st. lawrence college grand total eastern 928 9 5 18 23 0 0 0 120 430 550 42 84 0.15 38% 38% *institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km page 7 of 226 pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that algoma university has formal agreements to accept students from. algoma university enables both specific pathways and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at algoma university. table 2: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with algoma university generic sending programs any three-year program 48 any ontario college advanced diploma 48 algonquin college 2 cambrian college 2 canadore college 2 centennial college 2 collge boral 2 conestoga college 2 confederation college 2 durham college 2 fanshawe college 2 fleming college 2 george brown college 2 georgian college 2 humber college 2 la cit collgiale 2 lambton college 2 loyalist college 2 mohawk college 2 niagara college 2 northern college 2 sault college 2 seneca college 2 sheridan college 2 st. clair college 2 st. lawrence college 2 any two-year program 72 any ontario college diploma 72 algonquin college 3 cambrian college 3 8 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with algoma university 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 specific programs business/finance/administration 48 any ontario college advanced diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 page 9 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration advanced diploma collge boral la cit collgiale business/commerce or related diploma collge boral la cit collgiale education, community and social services community worker george brown college peace and conflict studies sault college social service worker cambrian college george brown college northern college sault college partnership agreements with algoma university 1 1 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 15 2 2 1 1 8 1 1 1 3 page 10 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs seneca college social service worker - immigrants and refugees seneca college social service worker - native specialization sault college health, food and medical, recreation adventure recreation and parks technician sault college any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college partnership agreements with algoma university 2 2 2 2 2 184 2 2 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 page 11 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college fitness and health promotion sault college science and engineering technology any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with algoma university 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 2 183 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 page 12 of 226 institutional profile: algoma university sending institution programs st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college forest conservation technician sault college grand total partnership agreements with algoma university 4 90 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 550 page 13 of 226 institutional profile: brock university brock university brock university is a public research university located in st. catharines, in southern ontario. brock offers a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees. at the graduate level, brock offers 37 programs, including 6 phd programs. brock university is a primarily undergraduate university, which means it is less involved in graduate education, especially at the phd level and attracts a lower level of research income (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/brock_university). brock university has 7 academic faculties, which consist of applied health sciences, the goodman school of business, education, humanities, mathematics and sciences, social sciences, and the faculty of graduate studies. brock university is home to 594 faculty members, and caters to a student body of 14,727 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca for 2014). partnership description: number structure 24 partnerships with and only with all public colleges geographical proximity 3 college partners are within commutable range (less than 80km): mohawk college, niagara college, and sheridan college. approximately 58% of brock universitys transfer students come from commutable partners. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with generic 48 230 sending program pathways with specific 182 sending programs brock university has two generic pathways with all 24 partnership colleges respectively, which are from any two-year program and any three-year program. partnership colleges supply 6 specific program areas of brock university: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical, recreation, preparation and career planning, and science and engineering technology. brock university currently has the majority of their receiving partnership agreements supplying program areas of health, food, and page 14 of 226 institutional profile: brock university medical, recreation. pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 15 of 226 institutional profile: brock university table 3: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 14,727; percentage of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) pathways total transfer students student per pathway ratio double algonquin college eastern 560 5 2 8 10 11 22 2.2 cambrian college northern 504 5 2 5 7 5 10 1.4 canadore college northern 454 4 2 6 8 6 12 1.5 metro toronto area 145 1 2 8 10 13 26 2.6 collge boral northern 497 5 2 6 8 0 0 0.0 conestoga college southern 119 1 2 4 6 31 62 10.3 confederation college northern 1489 15 2 7 9 2 0 n/a central 191 2 2 7 9 10 100 11.1 southern 191 2 2 15 17 59 118 6.9 eastern 234 2 2 8 10 13 26 2.6 metro toronto area 120 1 2 5 7 30 60 8.6 centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range central 206 2 2 10 12 31 62 5.2 humber college metro toronto area 121 1 2 8 10 63 126 12.6 la cit collgiale eastern 577 5 2 3 5 1 2 0.4 lambton college western 288 3 2 7 9 10 100 11.1 loyalist college eastern 304 3 2 4 6 9 81 13.5 mohawk college* southern 70 1 2 21 23 147 294 12.8 19% niagara college* southern 17 0 2 16 18 191 382 21.2 25% page 16 of 226 institutional profile: brock university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) pathways total transfer students student per pathway ratio double northern college northern 800 8 2 5 7 2 4 0.6 sault college northern 792 8 2 5 7 1 2 0.3 140 1 2 5 7 29 58 8.3 85 1 2 8 10 79 158 15.8 363 3 2 7 9 9 18 2.0 381 4 2 4 6 8 16 2.7 48 182 230 760 1520 6.6 seneca college sheridan college* st. clair college st. lawrence college grand total metro toronto area metro toronto area western eastern % of (doubled) transfer student from institutions within commutable range 10% 55% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. *numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with brock university (as of 27/11/2015). page 17 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that brock university has formal agreements to accept students from. brock university enables both specific pathways and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential (whether it be generic or specific). following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at brock university. numbers reflect the feedback incorporated from consultation with brock university as of 27/11/15. table 4: pathways by sending program sending institution programs any three-year program any three-year program algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any two-year program partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) generic sending programs 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 24 page 18 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture advanced filmmaking fanshawe college art fundamentals sheridan college broadcast journalism - television news fanshawe college broadcasting - television and communications media mohawk college journalism mohawk college public relations mohawk college theatre arts 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 page 19 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs fanshawe college visual effects and editing for contemporary media fanshawe college business/finance/administration human resource management/labour perspectives george brown college education, community and social services behavioural science technology st. lawrence college child and youth worker durham college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college emergency management sheridan college paralegal partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 74 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 20 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs seneca college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college college boreal durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cite collegiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 21 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker - native specialization sault college health, food and medical, recreation cardiovascular technology mohawk college dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college fitness and health promotion niagara college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale massage therapy algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college northern college massothrapie partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 88 1 1 20 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 6 3 3 18 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 22 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs collge boral pharmacy technician centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. clair college recreation and leisure services algonquin college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college seneca college recreation therapy confederation college mohawk college niagara college sport management niagara college preparation and career planning general arts and science degree transfer diploma niagara college science and engineering technology chemical engineering technology mohawk college partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 2 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 page 23 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university sending institution programs computer programmer analyst niagara college computer science technology diploma sheridan college computer systems technology-software development mohawk college winery and viticulture technician niagara college grand total partnership agreements with brock university (degree program) 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 230 page 24 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university carleton university carleton university is a publicly funded university, offering more than 65 academic programs across a wide range of disciplines. currently, carleton university has 6 faculties: faculty of arts and social sciences, faculty of engineering and design, faculty of graduate and postdoctoral affairs, faculty of public affairs, faculty of science, and the sprott school of business. founded in 1942, carleton university is located just south of ottawas city centre, bordering the rideau river and rideau canal (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carleton_university#programs). carleton university caters to 19,979 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca for 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships with and only with all public colleges two college partners are within commutable range (less than 80 km): algonquin college, and la cit collgiale. approximately 79% of all transfer students come from colleges within the commutable range. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with generic 0 229 sending programs pathways with specific 229 sending programs carleton does not accept students from generic programs. carleton university accepts students from partner colleges in the following specific program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, social sciences and humanities, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical, recreation, preparation and career planning, and science and engineering technology. carleton university has the most receiving partnership agreements in the field of education, community, and social services. page 25 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university pathways by sending institution the following tables present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 26 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university table 5: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 19,979 ; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college* cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) pathways data (oncat) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) carlton university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 10 0 0 35 35 96 192 5.49 northern 483 5 0 8 8 3 6 0.75 northern 363 4 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 metro toronto area 425 4 0 8 8 1 2 0.25 eastern 485 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 southern 528 5 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern 1458 16 0 6 6 0 0 0 central 337 4 0 9 9 0 0 0 southern 626 6 0 11 11 1 2 0.18 eastern 337 3 0 11 11 1 2 0.18 metro toronto area 450 5 0 6 6 0 0 0 central 410 5 0 8 8 2 4 0.50 metro toronto area 463 4 0 11 11 3 6 0.55 eastern 14 0 0 6 6 2 4 0.67 lambton college western 723 7 0 6 6 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 269 3 0 26 26 1 2 0.08 mohawk college southern 519 5 0 6 6 2 4 0.67 niagara college southern 582 5 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale* 77% 2% page 27 of 226 institutional profile: carleton university geographical data sending institution northern college sault college region distance (km) pathways data (oncat) travel duration (hr) generic agreements student data (gss data) carlton university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double northern 709 8 0 7 7 0 0 0 northern 792 9 0 5 5 0 0 0 metro toronto area 436 4 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 sheridan college central 486 5 0 7 7 0 0 0 st. clair college western 799 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 eastern 197 2 0 10 10 7 14 1.40 0 229 229 124 248 1.08 seneca college st. lawrence college grand total 79% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 28 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that carleton university has formal agreements to accept students from. carlton university enables only specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at carleton university. table 6: pathways by sending program sending institution programs arts, fine arts and culture applied museum studies algonquin college broadcasting radio algonquin college loyalist college seneca college broadcasting tv algonquin college fashion arts humber college journalism algonquin college sheridan college library and information technician algonquin college music industry arts algonquin college arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities bachelor of human services police studies georgian college business/finance/administration advertising and marketing comms management algonquin college business algonquin college canadore college confederation college durham college humber college partnership agreements carleton university 10 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 32 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 1 page 29 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college business - accounting fanshawe college loyalist college business - marketing fanshawe college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fleming college george brown college humber college loyalist college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - international business algonquin college seneca college business operations centennial college professional accounting algonquin college education, community and social services addiction counsellor northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 149 1 1 18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 30 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college fleming college humber college loyalist college niagara college st. lawrence college community worker george brown college corporate security and risk management algonquin college correctional worker canadore college loyalist college customs and border services loyalist college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 31 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs drug and alcohol counsellor fleming college early childhood education algonquin college canadore college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college loyalist college early childhood education diploma humber college investigative and protective studies loyalist college law clerk algonquin college fanshawe college mental health and addiction worker canadore college paralegal algonquin college fleming college humber college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 44 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 32 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation conestoga college fanshawe college readaptation et justice penale la cit collgiale social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college social service worker-gerontology seneca college health, food and medical, recreation fitness and health promotion algonquin college recreation and leisure services algonquin college strength and sport conditioning canadore college veterinary technician algonquin college preparation and career planning partnership agreements carleton university 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 40 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 33 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university sending institution programs general arts and science algonquin college science and engineering technology architectural technology loyalist college biotechnology technician loyalist college biotechnology technologist algonquin college canadore college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college chemical engineering technician loyalist college chemical engineering technologist durham college loyalist college computer programmer algonquin college computer systems technology seneca college environmental technician loyalist college geomatics technician algonquin college fleming college photonics engineering technologist algonquin college science and technology baccalaurat en biotechnologie la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements carleton university 1 1 28 1 1 2 2 10 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 229 lakehead university lakehead university is a public research university with campuses in thunder bay and orillia, ontario, canada. lakehead university is a comprehensive institution, offering a range of degree and diploma program within its 10 faculties: our university is a comprehensive page 34 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university institution, which offers a broad range of degree and diploma programs within ten faculties: business administration, education, engineering, natural resources management, graduate studies, health and behavioural sciences, bora laskin faculty of law, science and environmental studies, social sciences and humanities. lakehead university is also home to the western campus of the northern ontario school of medicine (retrieved from https://www.lakeheadu.ca/academics/faculties; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lakehead_university). the school has more than 45,000 alumni. lakehead university serves an undergraduate population of 6,132 (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 partnerships only with public colleges. confederation college is the only one within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). approximately 22% of transfer students to lakehead university come from confederation college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 574 pathways with specific 574 sending programs currently, no approved generic receiving pathways to lakehead university. partnership colleges currently supply partnership agreements for 6 program areas: arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical, recreation; preparation and career planning; science and engineering technology. the largest sending program area is science and engineering tech. with 26% of the partnership agreements. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. page 35 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 36 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university table 7: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6,132; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college* durham college fanshawe college fleming college region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) lakehead university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 1449 16 0 30 30 8 16 0.53 northern 1013 11 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern 1098 12 0 17 17 3 6 0.35 metro toronto area 1389 15 0 24 24 0 0 0 northern 1007 11 0 14 14 0 0 0 southern 1438 15 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern 4 0 0 36 36 30 60 1.67 central 1369 15 0 24 24 4 8 0.33 southern 1380 14 0 28 28 8 16 0.57 eastern 1478 15 0 39 39 4 8 0.21 metro toronto area 1394 15 0 17 17 2 4 0.24 central 1284 14 0 33 33 15 30 0.91 metro toronto area 1369 14 0 22 22 13 26 1.18 la cit collgiale eastern 1466 16 0 15 15 0 0 0 lambton college western 1271 13 0 21 21 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 1548 16 0 29 29 2 4 0.14 mohawk college southern 1437 15 0 20 20 12 24 1.20 niagara college southern 1500 16 0 22 22 4 8 0.36 northern college northern 783 9 0 19 19 1 2 0.11 george brown college georgian college humber college 22% page 37 of 226 institutional profile: lakehead university geographical data sending institution sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college region northern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) lakehead university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 697 8 0 29 29 3 6 0.21 1378 14 0 33 33 8 16 0.48 1400 15 0 15 15 7 14 0.93 western 459 4 0 22 22 0 0 0 eastern 1625 17 0 21 21 3 6 0.29 0 574 574 135 270 0.47 metro toronto area metro toronto area grand total 22% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 38 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university pathways by sending institutions the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that lakehead university has formal agreements to accept students from. lakehead university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at lakehead university. table 8: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with lakehead university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 63 any ontario college advanced diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 any ontario college diploma 22 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 conestoga college 1 page 39 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration st. clair college graphic design algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college accounting - business administration durham college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111 1 1 1 1 page 40 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs administrations des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - comptabilit collge boral la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - marketing la cit collgiale business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 54 3 3 3 1 1 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 1 3 16 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 41 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs humber college lambton college niagara college northern college sault college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources algonquin college canadore college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources management loyalist college northern college business administration - international st. clair college business administration - international business algonquin college canadore college niagara college business administration - marketing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 42 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college human resources - business administration durham college marketing - business administration durham college education, community and social services child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 135 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 43 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs loyalist college northern college st. clair college law and security administration cambrian college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection security and investigation conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 49 2 2 2 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 44 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs protection, security & investigation conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college lambton college niagara college sault college st. clair college protection, security and investigation confederation college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with lakehead university 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 50 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 45 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 46 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs st. lawrence college recreation and leisure services confederation college recreation leisure services seneca college preparation and career planning general arts and science algonquin college collge boral confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college northern college st. lawrence college general arts and science - college exploration cambrian college niagara college general arts and science - diploma option conestoga college general arts and science - liberal studies sault college general arts and science - university profile sheridan college general arts and science- college exploration cambrian college general arts and science- diploma option conestoga college liberal arts centennial college seneca college st. clair college science and engineering technology biotechnology centennial college mohawk college biotechnology - advanced durham college seneca college partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 62 38 3 3 3 3 3 5 3 3 3 3 3 3 5 2 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 2 2 9 3 3 3 153 2 1 1 2 1 1 page 47 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs biotechnology advanced centennial college fleming college biotechnology advanced algonquin college biotechnology technician canadore college conestoga college loyalist college biotechnology technologist algonquin college canadore college loyalist college st. lawrence college chemical engineering technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college chemical production and power engineering technology lambton college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college computer engineering technologist sault college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 48 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs computer engineering technology conestoga college fleming college humber college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer engineering technology computing science algonquin college computer systems technology - networking centennial college ecosystem management technician fleming college ecosystem management technology fleming college electrical engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college georgian college niagara college northern college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - control systems humber college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electronics engineering technology centennial college seneca college environment technician sault college environment technologist sault college environmental technician algonquin college confederation college fleming college partnership agreements with lakehead university 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 14 2 3 2 page 49 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs georgian college loyalist college sault college seneca college environmental technologist centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college seneca college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college seneca college environmental technology (co-op) georgian college fish and wildlife conservation technician sault college fish and wildlife technician fleming college fish and wildlife technology fleming college forest conservation technician sault college forest ecosystem management technician confederation college forestry and wildlife management technician/technologist collge boral forestry technician algonquin college fleming college mechanical engineering technology algonquin college centennial college durham college humber college partnership agreements with lakehead university 2 2 1 2 10 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 31 4 4 6 6 4 3 4 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 1 1 5 2 3 9 1 1 1 1 page 50 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - design george brown college techniques en environnement forestier la cit collgiale technologie de l'environnement la cit collgiale technologie du gnie informatique collge boral la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with lakehead university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 574 page 51 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university laurentian university laurentian university is a publicly funded, bilingual university located in sudbury. considered a mid-sized institution, laurentian university caters to 6,132 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). laurentian university offers programs from the follow faculties: faculty of arts, faculty of education, faculty of health, faculty of management, faculty of medicine, faculty of science, engineering & architecture, and the goodman school of mines. recently, in collaboration with lakehead university, laurentian currently features the east campus of the northern ontario school of medicine, offering various graduate level degrees. laurentian university is the largest bilingual provider of distance education in canada (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/laurentian_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 partnerships with all public colleges; 1 partnership with oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute. cambrian college and collge boral are the only sending colleges within commutable range (less than or equal to 80 km). 32% of laurentians transfer student population comes from cambrian college and 12% come from collge boral. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 66 324 pathways with specific 258 sending programs laurentian university has two generic receiving pathways for students from any 3 yr ontario college advanced diploma (eng & french) or any 2 yr diploma. arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical recreation; science and engineering tech. laurentian university has a specific partnership agreement with la cit collgiale allowing students from administration des affaires-services financiers into their certificate of qualification. page 52 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 53 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university table 9: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6304; proportion of registered transfer students: 8% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) laurentian university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double algonquin college eastern 478 5 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 cambrian college* northern 10 0 3 26 29 42 84 2.90 canadore college northern 127 2 3 9 12 5 10 0.83 metro toronto area 392 4 3 9 12 0 0 0 collge boral* northern 7 0 0 17 17 16 32 1.88 conestoga college southern 441 4 3 9 12 0 0 0 confederation college northern 1005 11 3 9 12 0 0 0 central 372 4 3 8 11 0 0 0 southern 540 5 3 12 15 1 2 0.13 centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college eastern 481 5 3 10 13 0 0 0 metro toronto area 397 4 3 8 11 4 8 0.73 central 287 3 3 15 18 33 66 3.67 humber college metro toronto area 372 4 3 10 13 2 4 0.31 la cit collgiale eastern 495 5 0 16 16 4 8 0.50 lambton college western 637 6 3 9 12 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 551 5 3 11 14 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 440 4 3 10 13 1 2 0.15 niagara college southern 503 5 3 9 12 0 0 0 northern college northern 306 4 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 994 11 0 1 1 0 0 0 32% 12% page 54 of 226 institutional profile: laurentian university geographical data sending institution sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college region northern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) laurentian university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 307 3 3 7 10 3 6 0.60 381 4 3 9 12 2 4 0.33 403 4 3 7 10 2 4 0.40 western 716 7 3 7 10 0 0 0 eastern 628 6 3 12 15 12 24 1.60 66 258 324 131 262 0.81 metro toronto area metro toronto area grand total 44% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 55 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that laurentian university has formal agreements to accept students from. laurentian university enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at laurentian university. table 10: pathways by sending program sending institutions programs laurentian university certificate of qualification degree generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college diplme d'tudes collgiales - niveau avanc collge boral la cit collgiale any two-year program any ontario college diploma 47 44 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 1 2 22 22 page 56 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college arts, fine arts and culture advertising cambrian college journalism - print cambrian college business/finance/administration administration des affaires - services financiers la cit collgiale administrations des affaires - comptabilit collge boral any ontario business/finance/administration college advanced diploma cambrian college centennial college conestoga college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college humber college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 58 1 1 23 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 page 57 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs la cit collgiale lambton college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. lawrence college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college diplme de 3 ans en administration des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale public relations cambrian college education, community and social services activation coordinator - gerontology george brown college adjoint juridique collge boral administration de la loi er de la scurit collge boral laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 2 2 2 2 1 31 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 1 1 1 1 154 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 58 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs administration de la loi et de la scurit collge boral la cit collgiale community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college niagara college sheridan college st. lawrence college developmental services worker cambrian college georgian college indigenous wellness & addictions prevention canadore college law & security administration cambrian college law and security administration cambrian college native early childhood education cambrian college oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 2 1 1 12 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 41 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 59 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 page 60 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college diagnostic medical sonography st. clair college diagnostic medical sonography - ultrasound cambrian college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale magnetic resonance imaging cambrian college fanshawe college medical radiation technology cambrian college outdoor adventure algonquin college physical fitness management cambrian college promotion de lactivit physique et de la sant laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 3 3 3 4 2 2 5 2 3 5 2 3 24 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 61 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university sending institutions programs collge boral promotion de l'activit physique et de la sant collge boral technologie en radiation mdicale collge boral science and engineering technology automation engineering technology cambrian college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college technologie du gnie chimique collge boral grand total laurentian university certificate of qualification degree 1 1 1 1 1 1 17 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 324 page 62 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university mcmaster university mcmaster university is a publicly funded university located in hamilton, ontario. mcmaster has 6 faculties: the degroote school of business, engineering, health, sciences, humanities, and social sciences. mcmaster serves an undergraduate population of 21,802. (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mcmaster_university; numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca in 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 partnerships with all public colleges; 1 aboriginal institute. 4 partner colleges are within commutable range (meaning equal to or less than 80 km): conestoga college, george brown college, humber college, six nations polytechnique. 21% of mcmasters transfer population comes from commutable partners. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 131 pathways with specific 131 sending programs mcmaster currently has no receiving partnerships from students of generic sending programs. mcmaster only accepts transfer students from arts, fine-arts, humanities, and social science, and science, engineering, and technology. 95% of mcmasters transfer partnership agreements receive students from science, engineering and technology. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. page 63 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 64 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university table 11: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 21,802; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical proximity data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral conestoga college* confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college* georgian college region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) mcmaster university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 509 5 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern 453 4 0 4 4 0 0 0 metro toronto area 94 1 0 9 9 2 4 0.44 northern 446 4 0 2 2 0 0 0 western 53 1 0 13 13 8 16 1.23 northern 1438 15 0 3 3 0 0 0 central 140 1 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 southern 126 1 0 13 13 6 12 0.92 metro toronto area 70 1 0 8 8 4 8 1.00 central 155 1 0 8 8 3 6 0.75 metro toronto area 70 1 0 8 8 8 16 2.00 la cit collgiale eastern 526 5 0 4 4 0 0 0 loyalist college humber college* eastern 254 2 0 3 3 0 0 0 mohawk college* southern 7 0 0 10 10 46 92 9.20 niagara college southern 92 1 0 5 5 5 10 2.00 northern college northern 750 8 0 2 2 0 0 0 sault college northern 741 7 0 3 3 0 0 0 metro toronto area 89 1 0 8 8 6 12 1.50 seneca college 8% 4% 8% 47% page 65 of 226 institutional profile: mcmaster university geographical proximity data sending institution sheridan college* six nations polytechnic* institute* st. clair college st. lawrence college region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) mcmaster university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double metro toronto area 37 0 0 10 10 6 12 1.20 6% western 37 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 western 300 3 0 4 4 0 0 0 eastern 331 3 0 2 2 0 0 0 131 131 97 194 1.48 grand total 21% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 66 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university pathways by sending institutions the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that mcmaster university has formal agreements to accept students from. mcmaster university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at mcmaster university. table 12: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with mcmaster university specific sending programs arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities bachelor of arts six nations polytechnic institute business/finance/administration business administration advanced diploma mohawk college preparation and career planning general arts and sciences - liberal studies fanshawe college science and engineering technology architectural technology algonquin college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college architecture-construction engineering technology conestoga college chemical engineering technology-automation stream mohawk college chemical engineering technologist sending institutional programs 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 4 125 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 page 67 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs collge boral loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college computer engineering technology mohawk college construction engineering technology george brown college construction engineering technology management fanshawe college construction engineering technologyconstruction management niagara college electrical engineering technologist collge boral electrical engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 page 68 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs fanshawe college niagara college northern college electrical engineering technology - automated systems georgian college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electrical engineering technology (accelerated) fanshawe college electrical engineering technology-control systems humber college electro-mechanical engineering george brown college electromechanical engineering technology sheridan college electro-mechanical engineering technology durham college humber college sheridan college electromechanical engineering technology automation and robotics george brown college electro-mechanical engineering technology automation and robotics centennial college electromechanical engineering technology building automation george brown college electronics engineering technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college humber college niagara college sheridan college electronics engineering technology telecommunications system partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 5 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 69 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs conestoga college electronics engineering technologycommunications seneca college electronics engineering technology-control systems seneca college energy systems engineering technology centennial college conestoga college st. lawrence college energy systems engineering technology - clean and renewable energy mohawk college energy systems technology cambrian college environmental - civil engineering technology conestoga college manufacturing engineering and technology welding and robotics conestoga college manufacturing engineering technology fanshawe college mechanical engineering technology algonquin college durham college fanshawe college george brown college humber college la cit collgiale mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology automated manufacturing conestoga college mechanical engineering technology automotive manufacturing georgian college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design partnership agreements with mcmaster university 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 16 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 70 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university sending institutional programs st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - design centennial college george brown college humber college mechanical engineering technology - design and analysis conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - design and drafting sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - industrial centennial college mechanical engineering technology - industrial design seneca college mechanical engineering technology - robotics and automation conestoga college mechanical engineering technology-building science seneca college mechanical engineering technology-design centennial college mechanical engineering technology-industrial centennial college mechanical engineeringtechnology algonquin college power engineering technology georgian college science laboratory technology fanshawe college technologie de l'architecture la cit collgiale technologie du gnie civil construction la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with mcmaster university 2 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 131 page 71 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university nipissing university nipissing university is a public liberal arts university located in north bay. nipissing university currently serves approximately 3,269 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). nipissing university comprises 3 faculties: the schulich school or education, the faculty of arts and science, and the faculty of applied and professional studies. nipissing university is known for its emphasis in education technology, and teacher preparation. nipissing offers the iteach program, the first to integrate teacher-training with mobile technology across all instructional arenas. as well, nipissing university is one of the largest providers of additional qualification courses for teachers (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nipissing_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 articulated agreements only with college partners. canadore college is the only partner college within commutable range (equal or less than 80 km). 27% of the transfer students to nipissing come from canadore college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 24 180 pathways with specific 156 sending programs nipissing allows one generic pathway for students from any 3 yr diploma program from all the 24 college sending partners. nipissing receives students transferring from the following program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/admin, education, community and social services, health, food, and medical recreation, and science, engineering tech. 47% of the transfer agreements are receiving students from education, community and social services. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. page 72 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 73 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university table 13: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 3269; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) nipissing university (pathways) transfer students double students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 354 4 1 10 11 17 34 3.09 cambrian college northern 123 1 1 6 7 0 0 0 canadore college* northern 0 0 1 8 9 32 64 7.11 centennial college metro toronto area 356 3 1 9 10 5 10 1.00 collge boral northern 125 2 1 3 4 1 2 0.50 conestoga college southern 405 4 1 4 5 0 0 0 confederation college northern 1099 12 1 5 6 0 0 0 durham college central 305 3 1 5 6 1 2 0.33 fanshawe college southern 504 5 1 8 9 13 26 2.89 fleming college eastern 374 4 1 10 11 0 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 361 4 1 4 5 0 0 0 georgian college central 251 2 1 10 11 3 6 0.55 humber college metro toronto area 336 3 1 8 9 2 4 0.44 la cit collgiale eastern 371 4 1 1 2 0 0 0 lambton college western 601 6 1 10 11 6 12 1.09 loyalist college eastern 400 5 1 6 7 0 0 0 mohawk college southern 404 4 1 7 8 0 0 0 niagara college southern 467 4 1 6 7 1 2 0.29 % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 27% page 74 of 226 institutional profile: nipissing university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) nipissing university (pathways) transfer students double students per pathway ratio northern college northern 349 4 1 5 6 0 0 0 sault college northern 432 5 1 5 6 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 345 3 1 5 6 0 0 0 sheridan college metro toronto area 367 4 1 6 7 22 44 6.29 st. clair college western 677 6 1 9 10 15 30 3.00 st. lawrence college eastern 459 5 1 6 7 2 4 0.57 24 156 180 120 240 1.33 grand total % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 27% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80 km page 75 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that nipissing university has formal agreements to accept students from. nipissing university enables generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at nipissing university. table 14: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with nipissing university generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 page 76 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs fine arts georgian college visual and creative arts fleming college business/finance/administration business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration advanced diploma algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college lambton college st. clair college honours bachelor of business administration algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college lambton college st. clair college education, community and social services partnership agreements with nipissing university 4 4 3 3 39 29 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 86 page 77 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral educational assistant fleming college partnership agreements with nipissing university 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 page 78 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs mohawk college st. clair college indigenous wellness and addictions prevention canadore college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with nipissing university 1 1 1 1 21 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 79 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation practical nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college science and engineering technology computer engineering technology humber college electromechanical engineering technology diploma humber college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college grand total partnership agreements with nipissing university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 180 page 80 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university ocad university ocad university is a publicly funded university, located in toronto, ontario, canada. ocad university was formerly known as the ontario college of art and design, and is considered canadas largest and oldest educational institute specializing in offering students art and design programs. ocad university currently caters to approximately 3,319 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). ocad university currently has faculties of art, design, liberal arts, and sciences in alternative programs. the school combines a studiobased education with liberal studies, which is recognised with a bachelor of fine arts (bfa), a bachelor of design (bdes), an interdisciplinary master's in art media and design (ma, mfa or m des), a master of fine arts in criticism and curatorial practice (mfa), a master of design in strategic foresight and innovation (mdes), an executive master of design in advertising (emdes), a master of design in inclusive design (mdes), and a graduate program in digital futures (graduate diploma and ma, mdes, mfa) (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ocad_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 14 partnerships only with colleges 6 colleges that are within commutable distance (meaning equal of less than 80 km): durham college, george brown college, humber college, mohawk college, seneca college, and sheridan college. ocad receives students from the commutable colleges, but only has established approved partnerships with 2 of these colleges: george brown college, and humber college. 83% of ocad universitys transfer students are coming from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 14 pathways with specific 14 sending programs ocad university currently has no generic partnerships from sending partners. ocad university accepts transfer students from programs of 3 discipline areas: arts, fine arts and culture, science and engineering tech; and skills, trades and technologies. 71% of the partnership agreements allow transfer from arts, fine arts, and culture. page 81 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 82 of 226 institutional profile: ocad university table 15: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 3,319; proportion of registered transfer students: 6% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region durham college* fanshawe college fleming college georgian college george brown college* humber college* mohawk college* seneca college* sheridan college* pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement specific agreement student data (gss data) ocad university (pathways) transfer students double central 69 1 0 0 0 1 southern 190 2 0 4 4 2 eastern 115 1 0 3 3 0 central metro toronto area metro toronto area 113 1 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 5 5 7 34 1 0 2 2 3 southern 71 1 0 0 0 metro toronto area 21 0 0 0 0 central 39 1 0 0 0 0 14 14 % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio 2 0 4% 4 1 0 0 4 n/a 14 2.8 29% 6 3 13% 1 2 n/a 4% 4 8 n/a 17% 4 8 n/a 17% 24 48 3.4 83% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 83 of 226 institutional profile: queens university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that ocad university has formal agreements to accept students from. ocad university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at ocad university. table 16: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with ocad university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 10 fashion techniques and design 1 george brown college 1 fine art 4 fanshawe college 4 interior decorating 1 humber college 1 jewellery arts 1 george brown college 1 visual and creative arts (vcad) 3 fleming college 3 science and engineering technology 1 architectural technology 1 humber college 1 skills, trades and technologies 3 game development: game animation 1 george brown college 1 game development: game modelling 1 george brown college 1 interaction design and development 1 george brown college 1 grand total 14 page 84 of 226 institutional profile: queens university queens university queens university is a public research-intensive university located in kingston, ontario, canada. queens offers programs in the following undergraduate, graduate and professional faculties and schools: faculty of arts and science, faculty of education, faculty of engineering and applied science, faculty of health sciences, faculty of law, smith school of business, school of graduate studies, and the school of policy studies (retrieved from: http://www.queensu.ca/academics/programs). queens university caters to 17,265 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca in 2014). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 0 n/a queens university does not have any approved transferpartnership agreements (as reported to oncat in july of 2015). however, queens university is the recipient of transfer students from the following colleges: durham college, humber college, loyalist college, niagara college, seneca college, sheridan college, st. clair college, and st. lawrence college. loyalist college is the only sender of transfer students within commutable range. pathway description: (as taken from ontransfer.ca, july 2015). number pathways with generic 0 0 sending programs generic specific pathways with specific sending programs n/a n/a 0 page 85 of 226 institutional profile: queens university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 86 of 226 institutional profile: queens university table 17: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 17,265; proportion of registered transfer students: 0.43% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region algonquin college pathways data (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) queens university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students students per pathway ratio double % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range 188 2 0 0 0 0 0 n/a 213 2 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 277 3 0 0 0 2 4 n/a 82 1 0 0 0 1 2 n/a southern metro toronto area 395 4 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 250 2 0 0 0 5 10 n/a sheridan college central 299 3 0 0 0 2 4 n/a st. clair college western 613 6 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 3 0 0 0 0 4 8 n/a 22% 0 0 0 17 34 n/a 28% durham college humber college loyalist college* niagara college seneca college st. lawrence college* grand total eastern central metro toronto area eastern eastern 6% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range of queens university, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 87 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university ryerson university ryerson university is a public research university located in downtown toronto. the university has a focus on applied, career-oriented education. ryerson university caters to 23,281 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). ryerson university is home to canada's largest undergraduate business school, the ted rogers school of management, and canada's third largest undergraduate engineering school, the george vari faculty of engineering and architectural science, as well as the faculty of arts, faculty of communication & design, faculty of community services, and the faculty of science. in addition to offering full-time and part-time undergraduate and graduate programs leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, the university also offers part-time degrees, distance education and certificates through the g. raymond chang school of continuing education (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ryerson_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 54 30 colleges with four aboriginal and two private colleges; 23 universities 14 institutions are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). 94% of ryerson universitys transfer students are coming from commutable partners. pathway description: number internal 97 2496 agreements with college 374 pathways with generic 1952 sending programs pathways with specific 544 sending programs generic ryerson university has generic pathways with all partnership universities, sent from any bachelors degree, in business, health, and science. ryerson university does not have generic pathways with partnership colleges. specific the specific pathways concentrate on arts and humanities, business, education, health and medicine, health and recreation and science and technology. the universal specific sending programs are business administration, any two-year diploma in disability studies page 88 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university related fields and disciplines, early childhood education, at least two years undergraduate study in a health-related field and any ontario college advanced diploma in applied health science. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 89 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university table 18: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 23,281; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algoma university algonquin college brock university cambrian college canadore college carleton university centennial college* collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college* fanshawe college first nations technical institute fleming college george brown college* georgian college humber college* region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double northern 697 7 91 8 99 5 10 0.10 eastern 441 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 southern 121 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 northern 414 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 northern 364 4 0 13 13 0 0 0 eastern 451 4 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 25 0 0 17 17 71 142 8.35 eastern 406 4 0 14 14 0 0 0 southern 95 1 0 13 13 1 2 0.15 northern 1399 15 0 17 17 0 0 0 central 68 1 0 17 17 9 18 1.06 southern 191 2 0 17 17 5 10 0.59 eastern 210 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 114 1 0 16 16 1 2 0.13 metro toronto area 3 0 0 19 19 94 188 9.89 central 115 1 0 15 15 2 4 0.27 metro toronto area 34 1 0 16 16 36 72 4.50 22% 3% 29% 11% page 90 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double northern 547 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 457 4 0 15 15 0 0 0 lakehead university northern 1395 15 89 8 97 0 0 0 lambton college western 288 3 0 14 14 0 0 0 laurentian university le collge des grand lacs* loyalist college mcmaster university mohawk college* niagara college nipissing university northern college ocad university* ontario agricultural college oshki-pimacheo-win education & training institute queen's university royal military college of canada northern 398 4 90 8 98 0 0 0 metro toronto area 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 185 2 0 15 15 0 0 0 southern 71 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 71 1 0 16 16 5 10 0.63 southern 134 1 0 15 15 5 10 0.67 northern 362 3 90 8 98 0 0 0 northern 710 7 0 14 14 0 0 0 metro toronto area 1 0 73 1 74 0 0 0 southern 87 1 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 1388 15 0 1 1 0 0 0 eastern 264 3 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 261 3 6 0 6 0 0 0 2% page 91 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution ryerson university* saint paul university sault college seneca college* sheridan college* six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute* trent university university of guelph university of guelphhumber* university of ontario institute of technology* university of ottawa university of toronto* university of waterloo university of windsor western university region pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double metro toronto area 0 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 450 4 89 7 96 0 0 0 northern 701 7 0 12 12 0 0 0 metro toronto area 20 0 0 17 17 53 106 6.24 16% central 39 1 0 16 16 42 84 5.25 13% southern 102 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 western 365 4 0 13 13 0 0 0 3 0 15 15 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 northern 262 metro toronto area 1 eastern 144 2 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 87 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 34 1 88 8 96 0 0 0 central 68 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 eastern 451 4 90 8 98 0 0 0 metro toronto area 2 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 116 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 southern 372 4 89 8 97 0 0 0 western 198 2 89 8 97 0 0 0 page 92 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university geographical data sending institution wilfrid laurier university york university* grand total region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) ryerson university (pathways) specific agreements transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range student-perpathway ratio double southern 115 1 89 8 97 0 0 0 metro toronto area 40 0 89 8 97 0 0 0 1952 544 2496 329 658 0.26 94% *institutions highlighted blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80 km page 93 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that ryerson university has formal agreements to accept students from. ryerson university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at ryerson university. table 19: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with ryerson university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture fashion arts humber college fashion merchandising fanshawe college arts, fine arts, social sciences and humanities any baccalaureate degree in the humanities or social sciences algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university ryerson university trent university university of guelph university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university 2 1 1 1 1 109 20 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 94 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university business any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph partnership agreements with ryerson university 89 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 698 677 32 31 31 31 31 31 31 24 31 1 31 31 31 31 page 95 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university any bachelor's degree. algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university business/finance/administration administration des affaires collge boral la cit collgiale business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college partnership agreements with ryerson university 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 31 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 49 4 2 2 42 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 96 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college fashion business seneca college fashion management george brown college international business administration seneca college education, community and social services any two-year diploma in disability studies related fields and disciplines algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college first nations technical institute fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college kenjgewin teg educational institute la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs partnership agreements with ryerson university 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 214 29 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 97 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute sault college seneca college sheridan college six nations polytechnic institute st. clair college st. lawrence college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community development work centennial college community worker george brown college community worker - outreach and development sheridan college developmental services worker algonquin college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 41 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 page 98 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college loyalist college northern college st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral la cit collgiale educational assistant - special needs support niagara college educational support / educational assistant conestoga college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 46 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 7 1 page 99 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs confederation college fleming college mohawk college northern college sheridan college st. clair college intervenor for deaf-blind persons george brown college interventions auprs des personnes ayant un handicap la cit collgiale mental health and addiction worker canadore college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques d'ducation spcialise collge boral la cit collgiale health and medicine partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 6 3 3 2 1 1 609 page 100 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university at least two years undergraduate study in a health-related field algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university queen's university ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo partnership agreements with ryerson university 462 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 147 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 page 101 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs university of windsor western university wilfrid laurier university york university health, food and medical, recreation academic pathway for nurses george brown college any ontario college advanced diploma in applied health science algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college ontario agricultural college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with ryerson university 7 7 7 7 103 1 1 53 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 102 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college practical nursing / soins infirmiers auxiliaires algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 103 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college rpn bridging to university nursing centennial college science and engineering technology business administration - information systems confederation college durham college computer programmer analyst durham college gis and urban planning fanshawe college health information management fleming college george brown college st. lawrence college urban and regional planning technician geographic information systems (gis) mohawk college science and technology any bachelor's degree algoma university brock university carleton university lakehead university laurentian university mcmaster university nipissing university ocad university queen's university royal military college of canada / collge militaire royal du canada ryerson university saint paul university trent university university of guelph university of guelph-humber university of ontario institute of technology university of ottawa university of toronto university of waterloo university of windsor partnership agreements with ryerson university 1 1 1 1 8 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 704 704 33 32 32 32 33 32 33 24 32 4 32 32 32 32 32 32 33 32 32 32 page 104 of 226 institutional profile: ryerson university sending institution programs western university wilfrid laurier university york university grand total partnership agreements with ryerson university 32 32 32 2496 page 105 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university saint paul university located in the heart of the nations capital, saint paul university (est. 1848) is the founding college of the university of ottawa, with which it has been federated since 1965. a bilingual institution, it offers undergraduate and graduate study programs. saint paul university currently houses four faculties: human sciences, philosophy, theology and canon law. within these faculties are housed programs in 19 disciplines, ranging from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. such disciplines include: anglican studies, biblical studies, canon law, canonical practice, conflict studies, counseling and spirituality, eastern christian studies, ecclesiastical administration, ethics, group facilitation, ministry, pastoral theology, philosophical theology, philosophy, public ethics, religious education, social communications, spirituality, and theology. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/saint_paul_university) saint pauls caters to 203 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 4 college only 2 college sending partners are within commutable range (less than 80 km): algonquin college, and la cit collgiale pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 64 pathways with specific 64 sending programs n/a saint paul university receives transfer students from a variety of disciplines: arts, fine arts, culture; business, finance, administration; education, community, and social services; health, food and medical recreation. 81% of the transfer agreements receive students from programs in education, community, arts, and social services. page 106 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. as the transfer student numbers were taken from graduate satisfaction survey (2013/2014) to provide a sense of which institutions students were transferring from, transfer students to saint paul university were not captured within the scope of our analysis. however, the 2014 transfer student numbers taken from cudo.cou.on.ca are listed below. page 107 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university table 20: pathways by sending institutions 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 203; proportion of registered transfer students: 24% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) saint paul university (pathways) specific agreement transfer students algonquin college* eastern 11 0 0 23 23 collge boral northern 491 5 0 9 9 eastern 11 0 0 17 17 eastern 203 2 0 15 15 0 64 64 la cit collgiale* st. lawrence college grand total double students per pathway ratio % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. **numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with saint paul university as of 27/11/15. page 108 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions to saint paul university. saint paul university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at saint paul university. numbers reflect feedback received from the consultation process with saint paul university as of 27/11/15. table 21: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with saint paul sending institution programs university specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture journalism algonquin college journalisme la cit collgiale professional writing algonquin college radiodiffusion la cit collgiale relations publiques la cit collgiale business/finance/administration advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college public relations algonquin college publicit et communications marketing la cit collgiale education, community and social services adjoint juridique collge boral la cit collgiale early childhood education st. lawrence college child and youth worker 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 51 6 3 3 1 1 6 page 109 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university sending institution programs algonquin college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college st. lawrence college developmental services worker algonquin college law clerk st. lawrence college paralegal algonquin college paramedic algonquin college st. lawrence college police foundations algonquin college st. lawrence college practical nursing algonquin college social service worker algonquin college st. lawrence college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social - grontologie la cit collgiale techniques d'ducation spcialise la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale veterinary technician algonquin college health, food and medical, recreation massage therapy algonquin college practical nursing algonquin college respiratory therapy partnership agreements with saint paul university 3 3 4 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 5 2 3 1 1 4 2 2 1 1 6 3 3 1 1 2 2 6 3 3 1 1 5 2 2 1 1 1 page 110 of 226 institutional profile: saint paul university sending institution programs algonquin college techniques des services en loisir la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with saint paul university 1 1 1 64 page 111 of 226 institutional profile: trent university trent university trent university is a publicly funded university, with campuses in durham, peterborough, and oshawa, ontario. trent university has 34 programs from across the faculties of arts, business, education, and science and technology comprising 19 individual disciplines, 8 interdisciplinary degrees, and 7 graduate programs. the university has continuing education opportunities offering personal and professional development courses and certificates including business and organizational communications, conflict resolution, leadership development, and teaching english as a second language (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/trent_university in august 2015; http://www.trentu.ca/academics/). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 22 only college sending partners. durham college, and fleming college are within commutable range (less than 80km). 20% of the transfer student population to trent university comes from fleming college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 5 137 pathways with specific 132 sending programs trent university allows transfer students from 2 generic sending programs. the first is from a general arts and science-universitytransfer program (2 from fleming college, 2 from durham college) and a 1 from liberal arts (1 from seneca college). trent university has specific receiving pathways into the following areas .arts, fine arts and culture; business/finance/administration; education, community and social services; health, food and medical recreation; science and engineering tech. 66% of the receiving pathways are from program areas in science and engineering tech. page 112 of 226 institutional profile: trent university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. for the purposes of this geographical analysis, the peterborough campus was selected as the main location, as it serves the highest number of students. other branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 113 of 226 institutional profile: trent university table 22: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 6,461; proportion of registered transfer students: 2% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution region algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college* fanshawe college distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) trent university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double eastern 264 3 0 1 1 5 10 10 northern 410 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 northern 311 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 metro toronto area 120 1 0 3 3 4 8 2.7 southern 222 2 0 5 5 1 2 0.4 northern 1396 15 0 2 2 12 24 12 central 78 1 2 20 22 0 0 0 southern 321 3 0 7 7 0 0 0 fleming college* eastern 60 1 2 29 31 42 84 2.7 george brown college metro toronto area 145 2 0 7 7 23 46 6.6 georgian college central 157 2 0 6 6 2 4 0.7 humber college metro toronto area 158 2 0 4 4 1 2 0.5 lambton college western 418 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 110 1 0 11 11 3 6 0.5 mohawk college southern 214 2 0 1 1 2 4 4 niagara college southern 276 3 0 5 5 0 0 0 northern college northern 658 7 0 1 1 0 0 0 20% page 114 of 226 institutional profile: trent university geographical data sending institution region distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreements specific agreements student data (gss data) trent university (pathways) transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double sault college northern 698 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 131 1 1 10 11 4 8 0.73 sheridan college central 180 2 0 7 7 2 4 0.57 st. clair college western 494 5 0 1 1 0 0 0 st. lawrence college eastern 187 2 0 4 4 2 4 1 5 132 137 103 206 1.50 grand total 20% * blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 115 of 226 institutional profile: trent university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to trent university. trent university enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at trent university. table 23: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with trent university generic sending programs preparation and career planning general arts and science - university transfer fleming college general arts and science trent transfer durham college general arts and science university transfer fleming college liberal arts seneca college specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture journalism - broadcast and electronic media durham college journalism - web and print durham college business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college business administration fleming college loyalist college business administration - accounting durham college fleming college business administration - human resource management fleming college business administration - marketing fleming college 5 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 116 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs business administration - materials management fleming college loyalist college business administration-human resources management loyalist college human resources - business administration durham college international trade fleming college marketing - business administration durham college operations management - business administration durham college education, community and social services aboriginal community advocacy program confederation college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation practical nursing fleming college partnership agreements with trent university 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 page 117 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs george brown college science and engineering technology bio-food technologist loyalist college biotechnology - advanced fleming college biotechnology technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology loyalist college computer engineering technology fleming college humber college computer programmer sheridan college computer programmer analyst conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college loyalist college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer system technology durham college fanshawe college george brown college seneca college sheridan college computer systems technician niagara college computer systems technician - networking georgian college computer systems technology conestoga college durham college fanshawe college partnership agreements with trent university 1 90 1 1 5 5 1 1 1 1 5 2 3 3 3 36 3 6 3 6 3 4 2 3 3 3 6 6 10 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 10 1 3 1 page 118 of 226 institutional profile: trent university sending institution programs fleming college george brown college sault college seneca college sheridan college ecosystem management technology fleming college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology durham college fleming college fish and wildlife technology fleming college pharmaceutical and food science technology durham college software engineering technology centennial college grand total partnership agreements with trent university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 3 3 137 page 119 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph university of guelph the university of guelph is a publicly funded research university in guelph, ontario, canada. the university of guelph consists of seven colleges whose undergraduate and graduate programs span the natural and physical sciences, social sciences and humanities: college of arts, college of biological science, college of business and economics, college of physical and engineering science, college of social and applied human sciences, ontario agricultural college, ontario veterinary college (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_guelph#profile_and_programs in august, 2015). the university of guelph is home to 18, 294 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity pathway description: number generic specific 24 colleges only the following 5 sending college partners are within commutable range ( less than 80km commuting distance). centennial college, conestoga college, humber college, mohawk college, sheridan college. 74% of transfer students to the university of guelph come from commutable college sending partners. pathways with 1 137 generic sending programs pathways with 136 specific sending programs guelph allows 1 generic pathway, accepting students from a program from conestoga college in general arts and science. guelph allows specific pathways from the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture; culinary/hospitality/tourism; education, community and social services, and science and engineering technology. 75% of the sending partnership agreements are in the program areas of science, and engineering technology. page 120 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 121 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph table 24: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 18,294; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical data sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* region eastern northern northern metro toronto area pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) distance (km) generic agreement student data (gss data) university of guelph (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 513 5 0 7 7 4 8 1.1 449 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 399 4 0 10 10 1 2 0.2 97 1 0 15 15 4 8 0.5 442 4 1 2 0 8 0 1 10 11 14 28 2.55 1434 15 0 2 2 0 0 0 136 2 0 8 8 1 2 0.25 125 1 0 6 6 7 14 2.33 college boreal conestoga college* confederation college nothern durham college fanshawe college central fleming college george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 186 2 0 9 9 2 4 0.44 88 1 0 4 4 3 6 1.50 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 150 2 0 6 6 4 8 1.33 72 1 0 3 3 39 78 26.00 la cit collgiale eastern 529 5 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 lambton college western 222 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 257 3 0 10 10 0 0 0 southern northern southern 4% 13% 2% 38% page 122 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph geographical data sending institution mohawk college* region southern niagara college northern college southern sault college northern metro toronto area seneca college sheridan college* st. clair college st. lawrence college northern central western eastern distance (km) pathways (oncat data) travel duration (hr) generic agreement student data (gss data) university of guelph (pathways) specific agreement transfer students % of (doubled) transfer student within commutable range students per pathway ratio double 47 1 0 6 6 3 6 1.00 123 1 0 6 6 1 2 0.33 745 8 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 736 8 0 5 5 0 0 0 98 1 0 13 13 6 12 0.92 64 1 0 3 3 11 22 7.33 299 3 0 1 1 1 2 2.00 334 3 0 8 8 0 0 0 137 137 104 208 1.52 grand total 3% 11% 68% *blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 123 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of guelph. guelph enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at the university of guelph. table 25: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with university of sending institution programs guelph generic sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 1 general arts & science 1 conestoga college 1 specific sending programs culinary/hospitality/tourism 29 food and beverage management 1 george brown college 1 gestion htelire et de restaurant 1 la cit collgiale 1 hospitality administration 1 canadore college 1 hospitality administration - hotel and resort 2 fleming college 1 georgian college 1 hospitality management - food and beverage 1 fanshawe college 1 hospitality management - hotel 1 fanshawe college 1 hospitality management - hotel and resort 3 centennial college 1 georgian college 1 sault college 1 hospitality management - hotel and restaurant 6 algonquin college 1 conestoga college 1 niagara college 1 seneca college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and 1 page 124 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs resort confederation college hospitality management - hotel, restaurant and tourism durham college hospitality management - restaurant and catering centennial college hotel and restaurant management fleming college humber college hotel and tourism management lambton college hotel management george brown college tour mg - bus (2-yr) plus hos & tour - mgt sys (1-yr) niagara college tourism and travel algonquin college tourism management - business development niagara college tourism management - cultural & heritage tourism centennial college tourism management - travel industry services humber college tourism mgt - ti (2-yr) plus tourism & hosp ad (1-yr) humber college education, community and social services customs border service - law and security administration fleming college early childhood education conestoga college law and security administration cambrian college protection, security and investigation mohawk college science and engineering technology biotechnology mohawk college biotechnology - advanced fleming college st. lawrence college partnership agreements with university of guelph 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 103 4 4 8 4 4 page 125 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs biotechnology advanced algonquin college durham college seneca college biotechnology technician canadore college conestoga college loyalist college biotechnology technician - industrial microbiology centennial college biotechnology technologist canadore college loyalist college biotechnology technologist - advanced canadore college biotechnology technologist - industrial microbiology centennial college biotechnology technologist - research seneca college chemical engineering technology seneca college chemical laboratory technology - pharmaceutical seneca college computer programmer analyst durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college computer programmer/analyst conestoga college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer systems technology - systems analyst sheridan college environmental technician algonquin college centennial college confederation college fleming college partnership agreements with university of guelph 12 4 4 4 12 4 4 4 4 4 7 3 4 1 1 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 10 1 1 1 1 page 126 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph sending institution programs georgian college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college environmental technician - field and laboratory niagara college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college environmental technician - sampling and monitoring seneca college environmental technician - water and wastewater operations northern college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college seneca college landscape design fanshawe college natural environment technician - conservation and management sault college natural environment technologist - conservation and management sault college software engineering technology centennial college conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with university of guelph 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 137 page 127 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber university of guelph-humber the university of guelph-humber (also known as ugh) is collaboration between the university of guelph and humber college institute of technology & advanced learning and was established in 2002. it is located on humber's north campus in toronto, ontario, canada. the university offers seven four-year undergraduate academic programs, each of which grant a university honours degree from the university of guelph and a college diploma from humber college. the university offers an early childhood degree completion program (basc) and a justice studies degree completion program (baa). these degree completion programs allow professionals in the respective fields with a college diploma to earn their degree while working (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_guelph-humber). partnership description: number 24 structure colleges only. geographical 6 college sending partners are within commutable range (<80 km); proximity centennial college, conestoga college, georgian college, mohawk college, seneca college, and sheridan college. 30% of the transfer students-share to the university of guelph-humber, are coming from commutable partners. pathway description: number generic specific pathways with 14 266 generic sending programs pathways with 252 specific sending programs 1 generic pathway established with 14 college partners from the preparation and career planning stream. guelph-humber accepts transfer students from a general arts and science program. guelph-humber accepts transfer students from the following program areas: arts, fine arts and culture, business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health food and medical, recreation. 69% of the partnership agreements allow transfer students from education, community and social services. page 128 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 129 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber table 26: pathways by sending institution geographic information sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) distance (km) between institutions region travel duration (hr) between institutions double distance (km) between institutions region eastern 455 4 1 12 13 1 2 0.15 northern 385 4 1 14 15 0 0 0 northern metro toronto area 335 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.00 40 1 0 13 13 0 0 0.00 collge boral conestoga college confederation college northern 378 4 0 10 10 0 0 0.00 southern 79 1 1 8 9 1 2 0.22 northern 1370 14 1 8 9 0 0 0.00 durham college fanshawe college central 72 1 0 12 12 0 0 0.00 southern 178 2 1 10 11 0 0 0.00 fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 129 1 0 13 13 0 0 0.00 31 0 1 8 9 0 0 0.00 georgian college 87 1 1 12 13 1 2 0.15 humber college central metro toronto area 0 0 0 15 15 6 12 0.80 la cit collgiale eastern 472 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.00 lambton college western 274 4 1 9 10 0 0 0.00 loyalist college eastern 200 2 1 13 14 0 0 0.00 mohawk college southern 72 1 1 13 14 0 0 0.00 niagara college southern 131 1 1 10 11 0 0 0.00 10% 10% page 130 of 226 institutional profile: university of guelph humber geographic information sending institution northern college region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) distance (km) between institutions region travel duration (hr) between institutions double distance (km) between institutions region northern 682 7 0 8 8 0 0 0.00 673 7 1 7 8 0 0 0.00 seneca college northern metro toronto area 34 1 0 7 7 1 2 0.29 sheridan college central 37 1 1 11 12 0 0 0.00 st. clair college st. lawrence college western 351 3 0 10 10 0 0 0.00 eastern 277 3 1 11 12 0 0 0.00 14 252 266 10 20 0.08 sault college grand total 10% 30% * institutions within commutable range, equal or less than 80 km. page 131 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of guelph-humber. guelph-humber enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at he university of guelph-humber. table 27: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture business administration algonquin college collge boral conestoga college durham college fanshawe college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college journalism centennial college mohawk college journalism - online, print and broadcast loyalist college journalism - print and broadcast durham college humber college media communications humber college public relations cambrian college durham college humber college business/finance/administration accounting - business administration 21 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 28 1 page 132 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs durham college administration des affaires la cit collgiale business administration cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college northern college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 185 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 133 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services worker loyalist college customs border service - law and security administration fleming college developmental services worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 25 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 134 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college ducation en services l'enfance collge boral la cit collgiale law and security administration cambrian college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 45 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 42 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 page 135 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection, security and investigation mohawk college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college social service worker - gerontology sheridan college techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 page 136 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa partnership agreements with university of sending institution programs guelph-humber collge boral la cit collgiale techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques des services policier la cit collgiale techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation fitness and health promotion algonquin college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college fitness and lifestyle management george brown college physical fitness management cambrian college promotion de l'activit physique et de la sant collge boral generic sending programs preparation and career planning general arts and science algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 2 1 18 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 137 of 226 institutional profile: university of ottawa sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. lawrence college grand total partnership agreements with university of guelph-humber 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 266 page 138 of 226 institutional profile: uoit university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) the university of ontario institute of technology (uoit) is a public research university located in oshawa, ontario, canada. the university shares its campus with durham college. the university was founded in 2002 and accepted its first students in 2003, making it one of canada's newest universities. uoit caters to 8,727 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). uoit currently has 7 faculties: faculty of business and information technology, faculty of social sciences and humanities, faculty of education, faculty of energy systems and nuclear science, faculty of engineering and applied science, and a faculty of health sciences (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_ontario_institute_of_technology in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 colleges only. one partnership with the michener institute. 6 of the college sending partners are within commutable range (equal or less than 80km). 35% of all transfer students to uoit come from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 192 1257 pathways with specific 1065 sending programs within the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, health, food and medical, recreation, science, and engineering technology, uoit accepts transfer student from any ontario college diploma (2yr), and any ontario advanced diploma (3 yr). uoit also accepts a general arts and science program from durham college, and fleming college. uoit has specific partnerships across a variety of program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, health, food and medical, recreation, science, and engineering technology, business, finance, administration, skills, trades, and technologies, and education, community and social services. 35% of the partnership agreements with uoit take transfer students from education, community and social services. page 139 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 140 of 226 institutional profile: uoit table 28: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 8,727; proportion of registered transfer students: 3% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to mcmaster university number of specific agreement eastern 391 4 8 63 71 northern 385 4 8 42 50 northern metro toronto area 303 3 8 21 29 43 1 8 68 76 collge boral conestoga college confederation college northern 378 4 8 25 33 southern 142 2 8 49 57 northern 1370 15 8 30 38 durham college fanshawe college central 6 0 8 71 79 241 2 8 55 63 fleming college* george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 65 1 8 47 55 southern 67 1 8 30 38 estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 58 0.76 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0.05 93 186 2.35 3 6 0.10 9 18 0.33 2 4 0.11 1 2 0.04 3 6 0.10 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 134 1 8 48 56 73 1 8 55 63 la cit collgiale eastern 408 4 8 33 41 2 4 0.10 lambton college western 338 3 8 35 43 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 136 1 8 40 48 1 2 0.04 0 0 mohawk college southern 141 1 8 52 60 0 niagara college northern college southern 204 2 8 45 53 0 0 0 northern 650 7 8 24 32 0 0 0 18% 6% 1% 2% page 141 of 226 institutional profile: uoit geographical information sending institution sault college seneca college* sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute* grand total region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to mcmaster university number of specific agreement northern metro toronto area metro toronto area 672 7 8 31 39 50 1 8 60 68 104 1 8 50 58 western 415 4 8 50 58 eastern metro toronto area estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample 214 2 8 38 46 68 1 0 3 3 192 1065 1257 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 0 0 0 14 28 0.41 2 4 0.07 1 2 0.03 0 0 0 0 0 0 161 322 0.26 9% 35% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 142 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to uoit. uoit enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uoit. number reflect oncat data pulled as of 07/11/15. table 29: pathways by sending programs sending institution programs partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college 24 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 24 1 1 page 143 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college arts, fine arts and culture advertising mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college centennial college durham college mohawk college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 67 3 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 page 144 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 145 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs st. clair college st. lawrence college broadcasting - radio, television and film niagara college broadcasting and film centennial college journalism centennial college mohawk college journalism - online, print and broadcast loyalist college journalism - print and broadcast durham college humber college techniques de travail social la cit collgiale business/finance/administration accounting loyalist college seneca college accounting - business durham college accounting - business administration durham college accounting and finance seneca college administration des affaires - compatabilite la cit collgiale administration des affaires comptabilit collge boral administration des affaires - marketing la cit collgiale advertising and marketing communications management algonquin college centennial college durham college mohawk college st. clair college st. lawrence college business - accounting algonquin college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 132 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 16 1 page 146 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs cambrian college canadore college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business - finance centennial college fanshawe college sheridan college business - financial services mohawk college business - human resources confederation college fanshawe college sheridan college st. lawrence college business - insurance fanshawe college seneca college business - marketing algonquin college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college humber college mohawk college northern college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 2 1 2 2 4 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 147 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs st. lawrence college business - operations centennial college durham college business - payroll and bookkeeping fanshawe college business - purchasing conestoga college fanshawe college business accounting - financial and credit management centennial college business administration - accounting algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college niagara college northern college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - accounting and financial services sault college business administration - business operations management centennial college business administration - finance algonquin college sheridan college st. clair college business administration financial planning seneca college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 17 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 page 148 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs business administration - human resources algonquin college centennial college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - human resources management fleming college loyalist college northern college business administration - leadership and management fanshawe college business administration - marketing algonquin college centennial college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college lambton college niagara college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration - materials and operations management algonquin college business administration - operations management durham college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 14 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 2 page 149 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs niagara college business administration - purchasing and supply management seneca college business administration - supply chain and operations management conestoga college financial services - client services seneca college human resources - business durham college human resources - business administration durham college insurance mohawk college insurance - property and casualty conestoga college marketing - business durham college marketing - business administration durham college public relations cambrian college durham college humber college education, community and social services behavioural sciences seneca college child & youth worker northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 440 2 2 3 3 77 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 page 150 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college community and justice services algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college court and tribunal administration seneca college customs border service loyalist college customs border services loyalist college developmental service worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 42 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 2 2 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 151 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs northern college st. clair college developmental services worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college st. clair college interventions aupres des personnes ayant un handicap la cit collgiale law & security administration cambrian college law and security administration cambrian college lambton college niagara college sault college st. clair college law and security administration - customs border services fleming college law and security administration private security mohawk college law and security administration - security and risk management fleming college law clerk algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 152 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college niagara college northern college seneca college st. lawrence college law clerk advanced durham college parajuriste la cit collgiale paralegal algonquin college durham college fleming college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college paralegal education humber college paramedic algonquin college cambrian college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college niagara college northern college st. clair college st. lawrence college police foundations algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 16 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 16 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 84 4 4 4 4 page 153 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college protection security and investigation conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college protection, security and investigation cambrian college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 14 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 39 1 3 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 page 154 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs sault college st. clair college sant mentale et toxicomanie la cit collgiale social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college soins paramdicaux collge boral la cit collgiale techniques dducation spcialise (child and youth worker) collge boral techniques de readaptation et de justice penale la cit collgiale techniques de radaptation et de justice pnale collge boral techniques de travail social collge boral la cit collgiale techniques d'education specialisee collge boral la cit collgiale partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 3 3 1 1 63 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 6 2 4 page 155 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs techniques des services policiers collge boral la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 8 4 4 188 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 156 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college assistant de l'ergothrapeute et assistant du physiothrapeute collge boral la cit collgiale biomedical engineering technology centennial college durham college biotechnology - advanced durham college fleming college cardiovascular technology mohawk college st. clair college dental hygiene algonquin college cambrian college canadore college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college st. clair college fitness & lifesytle management george brown college fitness and health promotion algonquin college centennial college conestoga college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 page 157 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college humber college loyalist college niagara college sault college st. lawrence college health informatics technology centennial college health information management fleming college george brown college st. lawrence college hygine dentaire collge boral la cit collgiale massage therapy algonquin college centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college massothrapie collge boral mohawk college northern college medical laboratory science st. clair college st. lawrence college the michener institute medical laboratory technology cambrian college medical radiation technology algonquin college cambrian college confederation college fanshawe college occupational therapist assistant and partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 2 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 12 page 158 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs physiotherapist assistant canadore college centennial college conestoga college durham college fleming college georgian college humber college mohawk college niagara college sault college st. clair college opticianry georgian college seneca college pharmacy technician centennial college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college st. clair college practical nursing algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 46 3 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 page 159 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college promotion de l'activite physique et de la sante collge boral radiological technology the michener institute respiratory therapy algonquin college canadore college conestoga college fanshawe college st. clair college the michener institute soins infirmiers auxiliaires collge boral la cit collgiale techniques pharmaceutiques collge boral la cit collgiale thrapeute respiratoire la cit collgiale preparation and career planning general arts and science durham college general arts and science - university transfer fleming college science and engineering technology 3d animation, art and design humber college alternative energy engineering technology lambton college animation algonquin college cambrian college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 8 4 4 4 4 372 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 page 160 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs loyalist college seneca college animation - digital arts durham college animation - digital production durham college animation 2d/3d collge boral animation 3d la cit collgiale animation 3d avance la cit collgiale any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 page 161 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college biomedical engineering technology - equipment and devices st. clair college biotechnology canadore college biotechnology - advanced algonquin college centennial college durham college fleming college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college biotechnology advanced algonquin college durham college biotechnology technologist canadore college loyalist college seneca college st. lawrence college biotechnology technologist - industrial partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 page 162 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs microbiology centennial college chemical engineering technologist loyalist college chemical engineering technology durham college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - environmental mohawk college sheridan college chemical engineering technology - lab and process control cambrian college chemical production and power engineering technology lambton college civil engineering technology algonquin college cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college st. clair college st. lawrence college civil engineering technology - environmental conestoga college compter systems technician durham college computer and network support technician humber college computer and networking support technician humber college computer engineering technician fleming college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 page 163 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs george brown college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college mohawk college niagara college northern college sheridan college computer engineering technician - embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology conestoga college fleming college humber college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer engineering technology - computer science algonquin college computer engineering technology - computing science algonquin college computer engineering technology - embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology embedded networks centennial college computer engineering technology - networking st. clair college computer networking and technical support seneca college st. lawrence college computer programmer algonquin college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college georgian college humber college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 18 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 21 2 2 2 1 2 2 page 164 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college computer programmer analyst cambrian college canadore college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college computer programmer/ analyst conestoga college computer programmer/analyst conestoga college computer programming and analysis seneca college computer security and investigations fleming college computer systems technician algonquin college canadore college centennial college collge boral durham college fanshawe college niagara college computer systems technician - network systems mohawk college computer systems technician - networking centennial college georgian college st. clair college computer systems technician - software support mohawk college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 2 2 2 2 2 28 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 3 3 1 1 10 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 2 1 1 page 165 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs computer systems technology algonquin college cambrian college centennial college durham college fanshawe college george brown college la cit collgiale mohawk college seneca college sheridan college computer systems technology - network engineering and security analyst mohawk college computer systems technology - networking algonquin college centennial college st. clair college computer systems technology networking algonquin college centennial college computer systems technology - security algonquin college computer systems technology - software development mohawk college computer systems technology software development & network engineering sheridan college computer systems technology - software development & networking engineering sheridan college computer systems technology - systems analyst sheridan college contemporary web design durham college digital animation centennial college digital media arts seneca college electrical engineering technology algonquin college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 18 1 2 1 3 3 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 6 2 2 2 2 1 1 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 7 1 page 166 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs cambrian college conestoga college confederation college fanshawe college georgian college niagara college electrical engineering technology - control mohawk college electrical engineering technology - control systems humber college electrical engineering technology - process automation sault college electro-mechanical engineering technology durham college sheridan college electro-mechanical engineering technology automation and robotics centennial college humber college electro-mechanical engineering technology building automation george brown college electronics engineering technician - broadband cable seneca college electronics engineering technician communications seneca college electronics engineering technician - computers seneca college electronics engineering technician - control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology centennial college durham college humber college niagara college sheridan college electronics engineering technology - partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 167 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs communications seneca college electronics engineering technology communications seneca college electronics engineering technology - control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology control systems seneca college electronics engineering technology - industrial automation st. clair college electronics engineering technology telecommunications conestoga college energy systems design technology st. clair college energy systems engineering technology centennial college conestoga college st. lawrence college energy systems engineering technology - clean and renewable energy mohawk college energy systems technology cambrian college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college loyalist college sault college seneca college fire protection engineering technology seneca college fire science technology partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 page 168 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs lambton college game art and design centennial college game development algonquin college durham college george brown college niagara college game development technician st. lawrence college game programming george brown college humber college health informatics technology centennial college heating, refrigeration and air conditioning technology humber college heating, refrigeration, and air conditioning technology george brown college information technology support services conestoga college sheridan college instrumentation and control engineering technology lambton college instrumentation engineering technology industrial cambrian college interactive multimedia developer algonquin college internet applications and web development algonquin college durham college fanshawe college st. clair college manufacturing engineering technology fanshawe college manufacturing engineering technology - welding and robotics conestoga college partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 page 169 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs mechanical engineering technology algonquin college durham college humber college mohawk college niagara college sault college sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - automated manufacturing conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - automotive manufacturing georgian college mechanical engineering technology - automotive product design st. clair college mechanical engineering technology - automotive products design georgian college mechanical engineering technology - building sciences seneca college mechanical engineering technology - design centennial college george brown college mechanical engineering technology - design and analysis conestoga college mechanical engineering technology - design and drafting sheridan college mechanical engineering technology - industrial centennial college mechanical engineering technology - industrial design seneca college mechanical engineering technology - robotics and automation conestoga college mobile device integration - cloud infrastructure humber college multimedia 3d animation partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 170 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs humber college multimedia design and development humber college multimedia production confederation college power engineering technology cambrian college georgian college power engineering technology - chemical lambton college power engineering technology - mechanical st. clair college software engineering technician centennial college conestoga college software engineering technology centennial college conestoga college software engineering technology - interactive gaming centennial college techniques du gnie informatique collge boral technologie de l'environment la cit collgiale technologie du genie informatique collge boral la cit collgiale web animation and design georgian college web design and interactive media humber college wireless/mobility telecommunications engineering technician algonquin college wireless/mobility telecommunications engineering technology algonquin college skills, trades and technologies welding engineering technology northern college welding engineering technology - inspection partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 2 5 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 page 171 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with university of ontario institute of technology 1 1257 page 172 of 226 institutional profile: uoit university of ottawa the university of ottawa (uottawa or u of o) is a bilingual public research university in ottawa. the university offers a wide variety of academic programs, administered by ten faculties. it is a member of the u15, a group of research-intensive universities in canada. this research university is a member of the association of universities and colleges of canada. it functions on a semester system, operating fall/winter and spring/summer sessions. undergraduate programs comprise the majority of the school's enrolment, serving 28,537 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). excluding saint paul, the university conferred 5,101 bachelor's degrees, 194 doctoral degrees, 1,439 master's degrees and 2,135 first professional degrees in 2012 (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_ottawa in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 24 colleges only. 2 college partners are within commutable distance (meaning equal or less than 80 km); algonquin college, and la cit collgiale. 83% of the total transfer students to uottawa are from commutable partners. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 48 106 pathways with specific 58 sending programs uottawa has two generic receiving pathways for all sending college partners for students who have competed any ontario college advanced diploma (3 yr) or any ontario college diploma (2 yr). uottawa also accepts students with generic diploma programs in business, finance and administration. uottawa accepts students from the following program areas: arts, fine arts, and culture, business, finance, administration, health, food, and medical recreation. 48% of the sending transfer agreements are from programs in business, finance, and administration. page 173 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 174 of 226 institutional profile: uoit table 30: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 28,537; proportion of registered transfer students: 2% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution algonquin college* cambrian college canadore college centennial college region eastern northern northern metro toronto area distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to uottawa estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 14 0 2 4 6 74 148 24.7 484 5 2 5 7 4 8 1.1 364 4 2 2 4 0 0 0 427 4 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 486 5 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 529 5 2 2 4 3 6 1.5 1459 16 2 2 4 0 0 0 338 4 2 2 4 2 4 1 628 6 2 2 4 0 0 0 collge boral conestoga college confederation college eastern durham college fanshawe college central fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 339 3 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 451 4 2 2 4 3 6 1.5 georgian college central 411 4 2 2 4 4 8 2 humber college la cit collgiale* central 464 4 2 2 4 2 4 1 6 0 2 5 7 86 172 24.6 lambton college western 724 7 2 2 4 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 270 3 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 mohawk college southern 520 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 niagara college northern college southern 583 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 710 8 2 2 4 0 0 0 southern northern southern eastern northern 39% 45% page 175 of 226 institutional profile: uoit geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to uottawa estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 793 9 2 2 4 0 0 0 seneca college northern metro toronto area 438 4 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 sheridan college central 487 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 st. clair college st. lawrence college western 801 8 2 2 4 1 2 0.5 201 2 2 4 6 8 16 2.7 48 58 106 192 384 3.6 sault college eastern grand total 83% *blue highlight=institutions within commutable range, meaning equal or less than 80 km. page 176 of 226 institutional profile: uoit pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of ottawa. uottawa enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uottawa. table 31: pathways by sending program partnership agreements with university of ottawa generic sending programs any three-year program 24 any three-year college advanced diploma in a nonbusiness related field 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 collge boral 1 conestoga college 1 confederation college 1 durham college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 george brown college 1 georgian college 1 humber college 1 la cit collgiale 1 lambton college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 niagara college 1 northern college 1 sault college 1 seneca college 1 sheridan college 1 st. clair college 1 st. lawrence college 1 any two-year program 24 any two-year college diploma in a non-business related field 24 sending institution programs page 177 of 226 institutional profile: uoit partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 7 journalism 1 algonquin college 1 journalisme 1 la cit collgiale 1 music and digital media 1 st. lawrence college 1 music and digital media program 1 st. lawrence college 1 music- performance diploma 3 cambrian college 3 business/finance/administration 50 any three-year college advanced diploma in a business related field 24 algonquin college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 sending institution programs algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college page 178 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year college diploma in a business-related field algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 24 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 179 of 226 institutional profile: uoit sending institution programs seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college public relations algonquin college relations publiques la cit collgiale health, food and medical, recreation techniques des services en loisirs la cit collgiale grand total partnership agreements with university of ottawa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 106 page 180 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto university of toronto the university of toronto (u of t, utoronto, or toronto) is a public research university in toronto. as a collegiate university, it comprises twelve colleges that differ in character and history, each retaining substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs. u of t has two satellite campuses located in scarborough and mississauga. undergraduate the university of toronto offers about 700 undergraduate programs in humanities & social sciences, life sciences, physical & mathematical sciences, commerce & management, computer science, engineering, kinesiology & physical education, music and architecture. the university offers second entry professional programs in education, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, law and medicine. graduate the university of toronto offers 222 masters and doctoral level graduate programs in a wide variety of fields. this includes 59 professional graduate programs and 45 combined programs that include professional masters components. u of t also offers 44 collaborative programs. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_toronto#academics in august 2015). partnership description: number 5 structure colleges only geographical proximity 4 college partners are within commutable range (less than 80km commuting distance). u of t receives transfer students from 3 other colleges which do not have established transfer pathways set up. the three colleges are within commutable range. 95% of the estimated transfer student population to u of t are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 0 9 pathways with specific 9 sending programs u of ts sending partnerships are all with generic pathways, allowing students from the 5 college senders entry with programs in general arts and science. these college programs are all with the intent of the student transferring to university. 2 liberal arts programs (seneca-woodsworth joint transfer) page 181 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 182 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto table 32: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 34,562 ; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution agonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college* durham college* fanshawe college region eastern northern northern metro toronto area central southern distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of toronto number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample 441 4 0 0 0 1 2 397 4 0 0 0 1 2 347 4 0 0 0 1 2 26 0 0 0 0 15 30 12% 68 1 0 0 0 6 12 5% 191 2 0 0 0 1 2 fleming college george brown college* eastern metro toronto area 115 1 0 0 0 3 6 4 0 0 2 2 25 50 georgian college humber college* central metro toronto area 99 1 0 0 0 2 4 35 0 0 2 2 19 38 loyalist college mohawk college* eastern 185 2 0 0 0 1 2 72 1 0 1 1 1 niagara college southern metro toronto area 134 1 0 1 1 21 0 0 2 40 1 0 364 4 262 3 seneca college* sheridan college* st clair college st lawrence college grand total southern central southern eastern estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 20% 19 15% 2 2 1% 1 2 2 2 27 54 27 21% 1 1 22 44 44 17% 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 9 9 128 256 36.6 95% page 183 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto *institutions within commutable range ( less than 80km) *numbers reflect feedback incorporated from consultation with u of t (27/11/2015) page 184 of 226 institutional profile: university of toronto pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to u of t. u of t enables mostly generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at u of t. the following numbers reflect feedback incorporated from u of t consultation as of 27/11/15. table 33: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of toronto specific sending programs preparation and career planning general arts & science - degree transfer niagara college general arts & science - university profile sheridan college general arts & science - university transfer mohawk college general arts & science - college and university transfer humber college general arts and science humber college george brown college liberal arts seneca college seneca-woodsworth joint transfer program (from liberal arts) seneca college grand total 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 9 page 185 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo university of waterloo the university of waterloo (commonly referred to as waterloo, uw or uwaterloo) is a public research university with a main campus located in waterloo, ontario, canada. it was established to fill the need to train engineers and technicians for canada's growing postwar economy. it grew substantially over the next decade, adding a faculty of arts in 1960, and the college of optometry of ontario, which moved from toronto in 1967. currently, the university offers academic programs administered by six faculties and 10 faculty based schools: faculties faculty of applied health sciences faculty of arts faculty of engineering faculty of environment faculty of mathematics faculty of science faculty based schools school of public health and health systems school of accounting and finance balsillie school of international affairs university of waterloo school of architecture school of environment, enterprise and development school of planning david r. cheriton school of computer science school of optometry and vision science school of pharmacy (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_waterloo). uwaterloo is best known for their co-operative education programs. the university is coeducational, and has 29,004 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 10 colleges only 2 colleges listed are within commutable range (equal to or less than 80 km). mohawk college is the only college partner that is in commutable range. though uwaterloo has no articulation agreement with conestoga college, 38% of the total transfer student population come from conestoga college. 42% of the transfer student population come from colleges within commutable range. pathway description: number pathways with generic 1 12 sending programs pathways with specific 11 sending programs generic uwaterloo has 1 generic pathway from niagara college, allowing students to transfer from a general arts and science program. page 186 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo specific u waterloo has 11 specific pathways within the program areas of arts, fine arts, culture; business/finance/administration; health, food, medical, and recreation. the majority of the transfer agreements allow students to transfer from programs in the area of health, food, medical, and recreation. pathways by sending institution: the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 187 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo table 34: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 29,004; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution region algonquin college canadore college centennial college conestoga college* confederation college fanshawe college eastern northern metro toronto area northern northern southern distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreements student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of waterloo number of specific agreements estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range estimated number of students per pathway ratio 540 5 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 426 4 0 1 1 1 2 2 125 1 0 1 1 1 2 2 25 0 0 0 0 20 40 n/a 1461 15 0 0 0 1 2 n/a 108 1 0 3 3 4 8 2.67 fleming college george brown college eastern metro toronto area 214 2 0 1 1 115 1 0 0 0 1 2 n/a georgian college 178 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 humber college central metro toronto area 99 1 0 1 1 3 6 6 lambton college western 205 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 loyalist college mohawk college* eastern 284 3 0 1 1 74 1 0 1 1 2 4 4 niagara college southern metro toronto area 151 2 1 0 1 6 12 12 125 1 0 0 0 5 10 n/a 91 1 0 0 0 4 8 n/a 361 4 0 0 0 1 2 n/a seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college southern central eastern 38% 0 0 4% page 188 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo grand total 1 11 12 52 104 8 42% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range ( less than 80km) page 189 of 226 institutional profile: university of waterloo pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of waterloo. uwaterloo enables mostly specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at uwaterloo. table 35: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of waterloo specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 2 fine arts - advanced 1 georgian college 1 interactive media design and production 1 fanshawe college 1 business/finance/administration 1 business-marketing 1 fanshawe college 1 health, food and medical, recreation 8 recreation and leisure services 7 canadore college 1 centennial college 1 fanshawe college 1 fleming college 1 humber college 1 loyalist college 1 mohawk college 1 sports and recreation management 1 lambton college 1 generic sending programs preparation and career planning 1 general arts and science 1 niagara college 1 grand total 12 page 190 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor university of windsor the university of windsor (u of w or uwindsor) is a public research university in windsor, ontario, canada. uwinsor has an undergraduate population of 11,425 students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). the university of windsor has nine faculties, including the faculty of arts, humanities and social sciences, the faculty of education, the faculty of engineering, odette school of business, the faculty of graduate studies, the faculty of human kinetics, the faculty of law, the faculty of nursing, and the faculty of science. through its various faculties and independent schools, windsor's primary research interests focus on automotive, environmental, and social justice research, yet it has increasingly began focusing on health, natural science, and entrepreneurship research. (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_windsor) partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 25 all colleges st. clair college is within commutable range; 57% of all transfer students to uwindsor come from st. clair college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 6 306 pathways with specific 300 sending programs uwindsor allows a generic pathway in for students with a diploma in general arts and science from lambton college and fleming college. uwindsor has 5 specific pathways within the program areas of arts, fine arts, culture; business/finance/administration; education, community, and social services; and health, food, medical, recreation. 46% of transfer agreements are accepting students in program areas of education, community, and social services. page 191 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 192 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor table 36: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 11,425; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of windsor number of specific agreement transfer students in sample estimated number of transfer students estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 800 7 0 13 13 1 2 0.2 cambrian college northern 736 7 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 canadore college northern 686 6 0 8 8 0 0 0.0 centennial college metro toronto area 384 4 0 13 13 2 4 0.3 collge boral northern 729 7 0 8 8 0 0 0.0 conestoga college southern 300 3 0 10 10 3 6 0.6 confederation college northern 1267 13 0 10 10 0 0 0.0 durham college central 423 4 0 13 13 4 8 0.6 fanshawe college southern 200 2 0 15 15 7 14 0.9 fleming college eastern 473 5 3 13 16 2 4 0.3 george brown college metro toronto area 372 4 0 9 9 3 6 0.7 georgian college central 437 4 0 13 13 0 0 0.0 humber college metro toronto area 359 3 0 13 13 3 6 0.5 la cit collgiale la collge des grands lacs eastern 816 8 0 9 9 0 0 0.0 metro toronto area 373 4 0 4 4 0 0 0.0 lambton college western 116 1 3 17 20 3 6 0.3 loyalist college eastern 544 5 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 mohawk college southern 307 3 0 9 9 0 0 0.0 niagara college southern 385 4 0 12 12 1 2 0.2 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range page 193 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement number of specific agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to university of windsor transfer students in sample estimated number of transfer students estimated number of students per pathway ratio northern college northern 1032 10 0 10 10 0 0 0.0 sault college northern 570 5 0 12 12 0 0 0.0 seneca college metro toronto area 385 4 0 12 12 2 4 0.3 sheridan college central 337 3 0 12 12 5 10 0.8 st. clair college* western 9 0 0 30 30 48 96 3.2 st. lawrence college eastern 621 6 0 11 11 0 0 0.0 6 300 306 84 168 0.5 grand total *institutions within commutable range ( equal or less than 80km) *numbers as of 09/11/15. estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 57% 57% page 194 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs areas from sending partnership agreements to the university of windsor. university of windsor enables both generic and specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at the university of windsor. the following numbers reflect feedback incorporated as of 25/11/15. table 37: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with the university of windsor generic sending programs preparation and career planning 8 general arts and science college exploration 1 lambton college 1 cambrian college 1 canadore college 1 general arts and science - psychology stream lambton college 2 2 general arts and science - university transfer fleming college 3 3 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture bachelor of craft and design (degree program) sheridan college general arts and science algonquin college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college mohawk college niagara college northern college 20 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 195 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs sault college seneca college journalism st. clair college business/finance/administration business algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college business administration algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 2 2 49 24 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 25 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 196 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child and youth care algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college development services worker diploma (2 yr) partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 142 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 13 page 197 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs algonquin college cambrian college centennial college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college northern college st. clair college developmental services worker st. clair college early childhood education algonquin college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college (online) ducation en services l'enfance la cit collgiale partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 25 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 page 198 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs protection, security, and investigation cambrian college police foundations lambton college st. clair college protection, security and investigation algonquin college centennial college conestoga college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college loyalist college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social services worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 3 3 6 3 3 45 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 23 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 199 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs northern college sault college a seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college health, food and medical, recreation dental hygiene st. clair college massage therapy lambton college medical laboratory technician st. clair college medical laboratory technology lambton college recreation and leisure services fanshawe college sports and recreation management lambton college preparation and career planning general arts and science - university transfer fleming college science and engineering technology any ontario college computer technology advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college loyalist college partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 10 3 3 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 80 26 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 200 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college computer-related advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college collge boral conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college la cit collgiale lambton college le collge des grand lacs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college chemical laboratory technology st. clair college civil engineering technology st. clair college computer systems technology - networking partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 50 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 page 201 of 226 institutional profile: university of windsor sending institution programs st. clair college mechanical engineering technology automotive product design st. clair college grand total partnership agreements with the university of windsor 1 1 1 312 page 202 of 226 institutional profile: western university western university western university is a public research university located in london, ontario, canada. western university currently offers undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, and professional degrees through the following faculties: faculty of arts and humanities, richard ivey school of business, faculty of education, faculty of engineering, faculty of health sciences, faculty of information, and media studies, faculty of law, schulich school of medicine and dentistry, don wright faculty of music, faculty of science, and the faculty of social science. western's co-educational student body of over 24,000 represents 107 countries around the world and western scholars have established research and education collaborations and partnerships on every continent. there are more than 306,000 alumni who are active internationally, living and working around the globe (retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/university_of_western_ontario) . in 2014, western university served 22,506 undergraduates (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 18 partners are all public colleges. fanshawe college and lambton college are the only partners within commutable range (>80km). 76% of the transfer students to western university come from fanshawe college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 2 56 pathways with specific 54 sending programs western university allows two generic pathways into their degree programs from students from fanshawe college. western university allows 54 specific pathways into their degree programs. the majority of pathways allow access for students coming from programs in science and engineering technology. page 203 of 226 institutional profile: western university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 204 of 226 institutional profile: western university table 38: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 22,506; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographical information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to western university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 625 6 0 1 1 2 4 4 canadore college northern 511 5 0 1 1 1 2 2 centennial college metro toronto area 209 2 0 2 2 1 2 1 confederation college northern 1362 14 0 1 1 0 0 0 consestoga college southern 125 1 0 0 0 3 6 n/a durham college central 248 3 0 1 1 3 6 6 fanshawe college* southern 8 0 2 27 29 105 210 7.2 fleming college eastern 298 3 0 2 2 0 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 197 2 0 2 2 4 8 4 georgian college central 262 3 0 2 2 3 6 3 humber college metro toronto area 184 2 0 0 0 3 6 n/a lambton college* western 95 1 0 3 3 3 6 2 loyalist college eastern 369 4 0 2 2 1 2 1 mohawk college southern 132 1 0 1 1 1 2 2 niagara college southern 210 2 0 1 1 1 2 2 northern college northern 857 9 0 1 1 0 0 0 sault college northern 665 6 0 2 2 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 210 2 0 3 3 4 8 2.7 sheridan college central 162 2 0 1 1 3 6 6 st clair college western 187 2 0 0 0 1 2 n/a estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 76% 2% page 205 of 226 institutional profile: western university st. lawrence college eastern 446 4 grand total 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 54 56 139 278 4.96 78% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range, meaning less than 80km. page 206 of 226 institutional profile: western university pathways by sending program the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that western university has formal agreements to accept students from. western university enables both specific and generic pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at western university. table 39: pathways by sending program sending institution programs arts, fine arts and culture general arts and science - university preparatory studies major fanshawe college theatre arts fanshawe college business/finance/administration business - accounting fanshawe college business administration - accounting lambton college business-finance fanshawe college education, community and social services child and youth worker fanshawe college lambton college early childhood education fanshawe college general arts and science, first nations studies major fanshawe college police foundations fanshawe college social service worker fanshawe college lambton college social service worker - fast track fanshawe college health, food and medical, recreation culinary management nutrition partnership agreements with western university 3 2 2 1 1 6 4 4 1 1 1 1 8 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 4 2 page 207 of 226 institutional profile: western university sending institution programs george brown college food and nutrition management fanshawe college science and engineering technology chemical laboratory technology - science laboratory fanshawe college computer programmer analyst fanshawe college environment technician algonquin college environmental technician centennial college confederation college fleming college georgian college loyalist college mohawk college seneca college sheridan college st. lawrence college environmental technician - field and laboratory niagara college environmental technician - protection and compliance canadore college environmental technician - sampling and monitoring seneca college environmental technician - water and wastewater operations northern college environmental technologist loyalist college environmental technology centennial college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college seneca college natural environmental technician - conservation and management partnership agreements with western university 2 2 2 35 2 2 3 3 1 1 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 6 1 1 1 1 page 208 of 226 institutional profile: western university sending institution programs sault college natural environmental technologist - conservation and management sault college science laboratory technology fanshawe college grand total partnership agreements with western university 1 1 1 2 2 56 page 209 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university wilfrid laurier university wilfrid laurier university (commonly referred to as laurier or wlu), is a canadian public research university located in the heart of waterloo, ontario, canada. laurier is home to around 14,898 undergraduate students (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca). laurier university offers degree programs through its 6 faculties: faculty of arts, faculty of science, faculty of education, faculty of music, faculty of social work, and the laurier school of business and economics (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wilfrid_laurier_university in august 2015). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 23 colleges only 2 college partners are within commutable range (meaning equal or less than 80km): conestoga college and mohawk college. pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 43 132 pathways with specific 89 sending programs laurier university allows two generic pathways from all partner colleges. students are allowed to transfer from any ontario college advanced diploma, (3 yr) or any ontario college diploma (2yr) laurier university allows specific pathways from business/finance/administration, education, community and social services, health, food and medical recreation. pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. page 210 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 211 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university table 40: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 14,898; proportion of registered transfer students: 0.40% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to wilfred laurier university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio algonquin college eastern 539 5 2 4 6 0 0 0 cambrian college northern 475 5 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 canadore college northern 425 4 2 3 5 0 0 0 centennial college metro toronto area 124 1 2 4 6 0 0 0 collge boral northern 468 5 0 3 3 0 0 0 conestoga college* southern 24 0 2 4 6 36 72 6 confederation college northern 1460 15 2 4 6 0 0 0 durham college central 162 2 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 fanshawe college southern 114 1 2 4 6 2 4 0.33 fleming college eastern 213 2 2 4 6 0 0 george brown college metro toronto area 114 1 1 2 3 2 4 georgian college central 177 2 2 4 6 0 0 humber college metro toronto area 98 1 2 4 6 5 10 0.83 lambton college western 210 2 2 4 6 0 0 0 loyalist college eastern 283 3 2 4 6 0 0 0 mohawk college* southern 73 1 2 5 7 25 50 3.57 estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 41% 0.67 29% page 212 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university geographic information sending institution region distance (km) between institutions pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to wilfred laurier university number of specific agreement estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated number of students per pathway ratio niagara college southern 150 2 2 4 6 9 18 1.5 northern college northern 772 8 2 4 6 0 0 0 sault college northern 763 8 2 4 6 0 0 0 seneca college metro toronto area 124 1 2 4 6 2 4 0.33 sheridan college metro toronto area 90 1 2 4 6 3 6 0.5 st. clair college western 287 5 2 4 6 0 0 0 st. lawrence college eastern 360 3 2 4 6 1 2 0.17 43 89 132 87 174 1.32 grand total estimated % of transfer students within commutable range 70% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning less than 80km. page 213 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that laurier university has formal agreements to accept students from. laurier university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at laurier university. table 41: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university generic sending programs any three-year program any ontario college advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any two-year program any ontario college diploma algonquin college cambrian college 22 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 21 1 1 page 214 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university sending institution programs canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 specific sending programs business/finance/administration any ontario business/finance/administration college advanced diploma collge boral any ontario college business advanced diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college 44 1 1 22 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 page 215 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college any ontario college business diploma algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college education, community and social services child & youth worker northern college child and youth worker algonquin college cambrian college centennial college collge boral confederation college partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 43 1 1 20 1 1 1 1 1 page 216 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs durham college fanshawe college fleming college george brown college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college social service worker algonquin college cambrian college canadore college centennial college conestoga college confederation college durham college fanshawe college fleming college georgian college humber college lambton college loyalist college mohawk college niagara college northern college sault college seneca college sheridan college st. clair college st. lawrence college techniques dducation spcialise collge boral health, food and medical, recreation partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 page 217 of 226 institutional profile: wilfred laurier university sending institution programs pre-health mohawk college pre-health certificate conestoga college grand total partnership agreements with wilfrid laurier university 1 1 1 1 132 page 218 of 226 institutional profile: york university york university york university, located in the gta, falls between the more research intensive and mainly undergraduate clusters. it is canada's third-largest university. it has eleven faculties, namely the faculty of liberal arts & professional studies, faculty of science, lassonde school of engineering, schulich school of business, osgoode hall law school, glendon college, faculty of education, faculty of health, faculty of environmental studies, faculty of graduate studies, the school of the arts, media, performance and design (formerly the faculty of fine arts), and 28 research centres (retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/york_university). partnership description: number structure geographical proximity 29 partners 4 aboriginal institutes, 24 public colleges, and the michener institute. 10 partners are within commutable range. ( meaning equal or less than 80 km distance). pathway description: number pathways with generic sending programs generic specific 1929 1960 pathways with specific 31 sending programs york university has two generic pathways with each partnership college, from any ontario college advanced diploma and any ontario college diploma. except for lambton college, each partnership college has 67 generic pathways (33 from any ontario college advanced diploma and 34 from any ontario college diploma) generic agreements with york university. york university has relatively small number of specific transfer agreements with its partnership colleges, which concentrates on arts, engineering, business and education. most of the specific sending programs are from seneca college. page 219 of 226 institutional profile: york university pathways by sending institutions the following table present information on current transfer pathways in ontario institutions, juxtaposed against geographical data and 2013/2014 student-transfer flows from sending institutions in order to examine where strong connections exist. the first column lists all sending institutions. sending institution holds dual meaning as either a sending partner, (in the form of established sending partnership agreements) and/or as a sending source of transfer students to the receiving institution. the geographical data summarizes the regional location of the sending institutions main campus, the distance (in km) and the travel duration (in hours) from the receiving institution. branch campus locations have not been considered in this analysis, but will be included in the discussion. reasonable commutable parameters were considered less than 80 km, or 1 hour commuting time; institutions that fell within this range are highlighted in blue. the pathway information (taken from oncat/ontransfer.ca) outlines the number of existing pathways agreements between the sending and receiving institutions. also noted, is the nature of whether the agreements are generic or specific. generic agreements note if the receiving institutions recognize programs from any area of study. specific agreements note if the partnership agreement is program/discipline-specific. the student transfer data section summarizes the numbers of transfer students from sending institutions (as captured from the graduate satisfaction survey, 2013/2014). since average response rates for the gss survey were around 50%, the numbers captured were doubled to provide a more representative estimate of actual transfer students from sending institutions. student-per-pathway ratios were also calculated, as well as percentages of transfer students who were within commutable range of receiving institutions. page 220 of 226 institutional profile: york university table 42: pathways by sending institution 2014 full-time total undergraduate enrollment: 39,039; proportion of registered transfer students: 1% (numbers reflect those reported to cudo.cou.on.ca) geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to york university number of specific agreement estimated number of students per pathway ratio estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range algonquin college eastern 442 4 67 0 67 2 4 0.06 cambrian college northern 379 4 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 canadore college northern 329 3 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 metro toronto area 34 0 67 1 68 50 100 1.47 collge boral northern 372 4 67 0 67 6 12 0.18 conestoga college* southern 89 1 55 0 55 3 6 0.11 confederation college northern 1364 14 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 durham college* central 59 1 67 0 67 9 18 0.27 fanshawe college southern 188 2 67 1 68 2 4 0.06 first nations technical institute eastern 220 2 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 fleming college eastern 116 1 67 2 69 1 2 0.03 metro toronto area 41 1 67 0 67 28 56 0.84 7% central 81 1 67 1 68 24 48 0.71 6% metro toronto area 20 0 67 2 69 81 162 2.35 19% northern 512 5 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 la cit collgiale eastern 459 4 67 7 74 1 2 0.03 lambton college western 285 3 65 0 65 0 0 0.00 loyalist college eastern 187 2 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 centennial college* george brown college* georgian college* humber college* kenjgewin teg educational institute 12% 1% 2% page 221 of 226 institutional profile: york university geographic information sending institution distance (km) between institutions region pathway information (oncat data) travel duration (hr) between institutions number of generic agreement student transfer data (gss data) number of pathways to york university number of specific agreement estimated number of students per pathway ratio estimated number of transfer students transfer students in sample estimated % of transfer students within commutable range mohawk college* southern 88 1 67 0 67 8 16 0.24 niagara college southern 151 2 67 0 67 4 8 0.12 northern college northern 676 7 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute northern 1354 14 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 sault college northern 667 7 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 seneca college* metro toronto area 21 0 67 14 81 151 302 3.73 36% sheridan college* metro toronto area 46 1 67 3 70 44 88 1.26 11% six nations polytechnic institute southern 119 1 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 st. clair college western 359 3 67 0 67 1 2 0.03 eastern 264 3 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 metro toronto area 20 0 67 0 67 0 0 0.00 0% 1929 31 1960 417 834 0.43 95% st. lawrence college the michener institute* grand total 2% *institutions highlighted in blue are within commutable range meaning equal or less than 80km. page 222 of 226 pathways by sending programs the following tables illustrate the programs from sending partner institutions that york university has formal agreements to accept students from. york university enables specific pathways to their undergraduate degree programs. in navy blue are the sending program areas and credential. following are the sending partners, and the number of partnership agreements per pathway into programs offered at york university. table 43: pathways by sending program sending institution programs partnership agreements with york university generic sending programs any three-year program 955 any ontario college advanced diploma 955 algonquin college 33 cambrian college 33 canadore college 33 centennial college 33 collge boral 33 conestoga college 33 confederation college 33 durham college 33 fanshawe college 33 first nations technical institute 33 fleming college 33 george brown college 33 georgian college 33 humber college 33 kenjgewin teg educational institute 33 la cit collgiale 33 lambton college 31 loyalist college 33 mohawk college 33 niagara college 33 northern college 33 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 33 sault college 33 seneca college 33 sheridan college 33 six nations polytechnic institute 33 223 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs partnership agreements with york university st. clair college 33 st. lawrence college 33 the michener institute 33 any two-year program 986 any ontario college diploma 986 algonquin college 34 cambrian college 34 canadore college 34 centennial college 34 collge boral 34 conestoga college 34 confederation college 34 durham college 34 fanshawe college 34 first nations technical institute 34 fleming college 34 george brown college 34 georgian college 34 humber college 34 kenjgewin teg educational institute 34 la cit collgiale 34 lambton college 34 loyalist college 34 mohawk college 34 niagara college 34 northern college 34 oshki-pimache-o-win education & training institute 34 sault college 34 seneca college 34 sheridan college 34 six nations polytechnic institute 34 st. clair college 34 st. lawrence college 34 the michener institute 34 specific sending programs arts, fine arts and culture 9 fine art 1 fanshawe college 1 fine arts 1 georgian college 1 page 224 of 226 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs journalisme la cit collgiale media arts sheridan college publicit la cit collgiale relations publiques la cit collgiale theatre performance humber college visual and creative arts fleming college business/finance/administration accounting seneca college accounting and finance seneca college business - accounting centennial college humber college sheridan college education, community and social services education en services a 'enfance la cit collgiale social service worker seneca college social service worker - gerontology seneca college social service worker - immigrant and refugees seneca college techniques de travail social la cit collgiale techniques de travail social - gerontologie la cit collgiale preparation and career planning liberal arts seneca college science and engineering technology biotechnology advanced seneca college biotechnology technologist (research) partnership agreements with york university 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 page 225 of 226 institutional profile: york university sending institution programs seneca college chemical engineering technology seneca college chemical laboratory technology - pharmaceutical seneca college civil engineering technology seneca college ecosystem management technology fleming college environmental technology seneca college grand total partnership agreements with york university 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1960 page 226 of 226

an innovative model for ontario north/south program delivery project 2017-12 mary lynn manton, seneca college mark lamontagne, canadore college 1|page list of participants and partner institutions seneca college mary lynn manton chair, school of information & communications technology scott apted, program coordinator, professor, cty fardad soleimanloo, professor andrew smith, professor ian tipson, program coordinator, professor, cpa canadore college mark lamontagne, dean of trades, technology, justice programs and part time studies caroline corbett, associate dean of trades, technology and justice programs james ronholm, professor 2|page table of contents table of contents .......................................................................................................................................... 3 executive summary....................................................................................................................................... 4 project purpose & goals ............................................................................................................................... 6 pathway development.................................................................................................................................. 7 methodology............................................................................................................................................. 7 program comparison and analysis .......................................................................................................... 10 implementation process and timelines .................................................................................................. 11 summary of pathways(s) created ........................................................................................................... 11 promising practices and lessons learned .......................................................................................... 1211 financial report (as a separate document) ............................................................................................ 13 appendix a .............................................................................................................................................. 14 3|page executive summary the goal of this cross-institutional partnership between seneca college and canadore college is to enable shared delivery of two advanced diploma programs currently offered at seneca computer programming & analysis (cpa) and computer systems technology (cty). through a formal partnership, the two colleges will create an innovative program delivery model that concomitantly provides a pathway to a seneca degree: an honours bachelor of technology in informatics and security (ifs), or an honours bachelor of technology in software development (bsd). this seneca-canadore collaboration aims to set the framework whereby larger ontario colleges and smaller, non-degree granting colleges, can partner on program delivery. the shared program will promote sustainability through creative sharing of resources, to provide a highly scalable model that can be extended to other seneca-canadore program areas, and to other ontario colleges and their communities. the capacity to provide a degree pathway is very important to smaller colleges, and further develops canadores ability to offer multiple entrance pathways and flexible policies and programming, with the focus on students who, without interventions and support, would not otherwise participate in postsecondary education (canadore sma 2017-2020). the proposed model will enable the college to achieve this goal without the significant investment of time and financial resources typically required to develop and implement a new degree program. this initiative lays the foundation to support multi-directional student mobility to, from and within seneca as part of senecas strategic mandate agreement 2 (sma2). the hub-and-spoke model provides for seamless student mobility between ontarios colleges. it will identify and map program pathways among institutions and provide learners access to the support they need to obtain their desired credentials, while also allowing institutions to share resources efficiently and foster student success the seneca-canadore partnership will facilitate a deliberate, conscious and coordinated program planning process that will reverberate with social and economic benefits to students, colleges, and the province. the proposed initiative represents a unique opportunity for canadore to meet workforce demands of the north, providing opportunities for students to gain the skills and knowledge that will strengthen north bays local and regional economies. to maximize student accessibility and success, the program will offer synchronous course delivery that combines in-class, online learning, and experiential learning opportunities. where critical mass exists (e.g., common first-year courses, general education courses, communication courses), courses will be delivered face-to-face at the students home institution. to allow for maximum mobility between the cpa and cty programs, first-year courses will be common where possible, and a bridging mechanism will be established to allow students the flexibility to transfer between programs. the proposed program will build on and benefit from the respective infrastructural and program strengths of seneca and canadore, thereby increasing opportunities for students in both regions and minimizing program delivery costs. while canadore college benefits from the seneca colleges strength in it curriculum and pathways through to degree completion, seneca college also has the opportunity to examine several distance delivery models that have been in existence at canadore 4|page college for many years (northern colleges collaboration program, ontariolearn, contactnorth/contactnord and point-to-point models). the framework developed for synchronous delivery provisions two classrooms at seneca, one for delivery of a course to canadore and the other to receive delivery of a course by canadore. additional technologies to assist in student support for lab based courses is intended to include software that will allow the projection of an instructors machine to student machines as well as the ability for the instructor to view a students desktop in aiding troubleshooting and support of tasks being done by students. these technologies continue to undergo rigorous testing. 5|page project purpose & goals the proposed seneca-canadore collaboration aims to set the framework whereby larger ontario colleges and smaller, non-degree granting colleges, can partner on program delivery, a founding principal in the hub-and-spoke model to support student mobility. the shared program will promote sustainability through creative sharing of resources, to provide a highly scalable model that can be extended to other seneca-canadore program areas, and to other ontario colleges and their communities. the capacity to provide a degree pathway is very important to smaller colleges. the proposed model will enable them to achieve this goal without the significant investment of time and financial resources typically required to develop and implement a new degree program. the goal of the collaboration is to align program planning to enable shared delivery of two advanced diploma programs currently offered at seneca computer programming & analysis (cpa) and computer systems technology (cty). through a formal partnership, the two colleges will create an innovative program delivery model that concomitantly provides a pathway to a seneca degree: an honours bachelor of technology in informatics and security (ifs), or an honours bachelor of technology in software development (bsd). to allow for maximum mobility between the cpa and cty programs, and where possible, first-year courses will be common, and a bridging mechanism will be established to allow students the flexibility to transfer between programs. the proposed program will build on and benefit from the respective infrastructural and program strengths of seneca and canadore, thereby increasing opportunities for students in both regions and minimizing program delivery costs. 6|page pathway development methodology the methodology that was developed for the project involved the establishment of a bi-lateral working group which met regularly to support the project, address curriculum planning issues, and identify and develop the ideal infrastructure to support the innovative curriculum delivery. regular conference call meetings were held as well as face-to-face visits with tracking of activities through appropriate project tracking and documentation. additional resources were engaged, as appropriate, to clarify and confirm aspects of the delivery of this new model. these resources included, but were not limited to: admissions, registration, faculty, information technology services and outside vendors to review technology for synchronous delivery as well as vendors to investigate/acquire technology to support the infrastructure for a longer term delivery vision. the key tasks/deliverables for the project were: date april 7, 2017 april 7, 2017 april 7, 2017 april 28, 2017 august 1, 2017 september 1, 2017 november 1, 2017 december 1, 2017 february 15, 2018 march 15, 2018 task/deliverable sign memorandum of understanding establish a bilateral working group to meet regularly to support the project, address curriculum planning issues, and identify and develop the ideal infrastructure to support innovative curriculum delivery. design and implement appropriate communication mechanisms between the two colleges, including mechanism for reviewing project progress. analysis of respective infrastructure strengths and how best to build on this foundation. determine course development adjustments required for consistent course delivery. identification of existing supports for student success. identify student advising process. identify gaps and required remediation. research and develop co-op opportunities in the north bay region (proximity to canadore) obtain internal and external programmatic approvals as required. identification of indicators to track and monitor the success of innovative program delivery model, and to identify opportunities and constraints. finalize academic plan for implementation. 7|page the kick off held in april 2017 included key players from both institutions to conduct introductions with the key team members and to clarify/confirm project objectives and timelines and to determine frequency of meetings, communications and reporting on progress. this set the stage for follow-on meetings which were held to work around faculty availability and other disruptions that took place. through may, seneca shared an inventory of all curriculum showing for each course, a link to the materials for courses that are not delivered through a learning management system, the evaluation structure and the technology required for each course. this was used as a basis for discussions moving forward for determining which courses could be delivered synchronously and by which institution. this inventory package was expanded to include course outlines, weekly schedules and program maps to present clearly how courses are sequenced. in addition, a demonstration took place at canadore in early may on bigbluebutton (bbb). this was conducted by blind side networks. a faculty member from seneca was present at canadore and seneca. while this demonstration was technically challenging, seneca worked with, and continues to work with blind side networks and the information technology services group at seneca and canadore to ensure the stability of delivering using the bbb software. at the same time, and continuing now, alternate synchronous conference delivery tools continue to be investigated for course delivery. this has led to a demonstration of saba, the platform used by contact north to deliver online courses amongst northern ontario colleges and will subsequently involve investigating newer product offerings. the infrastructure required for synchronous delivery was researched and identified through august and september. it was determined that sending and receiving classrooms would be equipped, initially at seneca to test the synchronous delivery model. in our deliberations, we were mindful of the need for program sustainability, and considered existing technologies and infrastructure throughout our discussions. the following equipment was identified: sending classroom: o a podium computer connected to a wired network with a webcam. this webcam would be used to view the faculty. a second monitor is required to stage course materials/technologies to be used during class delivery. this allows these additional teaching materials to be quickly deployed (for sharing with receiving location) so as not to disrupt the flow of the delivery. o a wearable microphone for the faculty to ensure the voice quality is consistent. o a graphic pad/pen for the faculty to write on a bbb virtual whiteboard. this pad will attached to the podium computer. it was suggested that a dedicated camera be focused on the classroom whiteboard if faculty were not comfortable using the pad attached to the podium computer. it was later determined that the quality of the image from the camera projecting the white board would not adequately transmit so this option was not considered. o a projector to show the output of podium computer on a big screen. o a second project that receives the feed from the remote classroom, positioned at the back of the sending classroom for the faculty to view the remote classroom. 8|page receiving classroom: o a podium computer connected to a wired network. o a project to receive the feed from the sending classroom projected on a big screen. o a powerful microphone with multiple arms to be placed among the students in the remote classroom. this is to ensure that students in the receiving classroom are able to ask questions to the sending classroom and be heard. the send/receive technology model for this initiative is presented in the following diagram. sending receiving preliminary testing using portable technology was conducted beginning in december and identified the following to be addressed when the permanent infrastructure is in place and involve a variety of resources to be involved in finalizing procedures. the order for the permanent equipment to support the sending and receiving platform at the seneca campus was placed in november. at the time of this report, this permanent equipment had not been received and testing at the canadore location had not yet been completed. see appendix a for equipment configuration. the following section outlines items that will continue to be investigated as the project moves to implementation: infrastructure o to support delivery of lab content, a tool such a faronics insight was tested which allowed faculty to connect with a students workstation in a remote lab location, have a conversation with the student while viewing their workstation, control their workstation 9|page and message it. as every course in the cty and cpa program has a lab component, this functionality will be important to be able to support the student effectively from a sending location. further rigorously testing is needed to test various scenarios and unique course needs and deliveries. o seneca use a software deployment platform called myapps, a portal that allows software to be streamed to a desktop, rather than having to install and launch the software on the desktop. based on the software used in courses, licensing issues will have to be determined for delivering courses from canadore. delivery o procedures for ensuring students have access to materials at the sending institution have been identified. receiving institution provide list of students who are participating in the synchronous course to the sending institution the registration office at the sending institution adds students to the course. for first time students, this will involve creating student ids and email addresses for them. upon completion of the course, the sending institution sends the grades to the receiving institution who will then add the grades to the students record. o as canadore will only have a cohort intake in september, procedures for students who fail a course will need to be developed but initial suggestions in discussion are: deliver synchronously from seneca the same course to the students who have failed when offered the following semester take a comparable course through ontario learn o the uniqueness of senecas three year advanced diploma programs, with an introduction in the first two semesters to the skills needed for two diverse careers in information technology - systems and networking administration and software development (programming), requires, from the first semester, courses that are unique to each program to teach the appropriate foundational skills minimizes the ability to make all courses common in the first year. co-op o while co-op was initially listed as one of the tasks, in conversations with canadore, their previous delivery mode of this program was an unpaid internship in the third year so coop as part of this initiative was not pursued or developed. student support o in analyzing the resources required to support students at the receiving end of the delivery, several approaches are being considered, including those making use of the services of contactnorth/contactnord as well as the possibility of providing technician and/or technologist support at the receiving end. program comparison and analysis larger ontario colleges and smaller, non-degree granting colleges, can partner on program delivery. the shared program will promote sustainability through creative sharing of resources, to provide a highly 10 | p a g e scalable model that can be extended to other seneca-canadore program areas, and to other ontario colleges. in this project curriculum will be delivered synchronously. as the cty and cpa programs at seneca college are well established, all course delivery can be done using existing course materials, developed by seneca. in addition, pathways from these diplomas to degree offerings in senecas school of information & communications technology can be supported, meeting existing transfer requirements. students, upon successful completion of appropriate program will be able to pathway to degree programs at seneca. the highest affinity pathways are as follows: three year advanced diploma program in computer systems technology (cty) to honours bachelor of technology informatics & security three year advanced diploma in computer programming & analysis (cpa) to honours bachelor of technology software development. implementation process and timelines just prior to the submission of this report, curriculum was finalized for year one courses to be delivered by seneca synchronously to canadore and canadore to seneca. senecas curriculum is being made available to canadore to facilitate the delivery as canadore have not offered either of these programs in recent years. there are still approvals pending from canadore to confirm technology to deliver. additionally, full functional testing of the synchronous delivery has yet to be completed. consideration of asynchronous delivery has not yet taken place, as the focus has been on ensuring a viable and effective synchronous model. summary of pathways(s) created existing pathways exist for each three year program to either the honours bachelor of technology software development, honours bachelor of technology informatics & security and honours bachelor of commerce business technology management (for computer programming & analysis advanced diploma only). no new pathways were created. 11 | p a g e promising practices and lessons learned this collaboration will continue to be developed. the methodology followed, guided by a project plan was sufficient but would have benefited from the guidance of a resource experienced in these types of collaborations. further effort should also have been expended to investigating technological solutions for actual course delivery as alternatives to bigbluebutton (bbb). testing of synchronous delivery was not completed at a rigorous level to identify, mitigate and document procedures for actual ongoing execution of this type of collaboration. there could still be challenges with quality of bandwidth to sustain quality delivery of courses but without the rigorous testing in a classroom and/or lab setting, not all potential challenges have been recognized. as an initial project for this type of collaboration, the resource commitment required to develop and deliver this was under-estimated. more resources dedicated to this project would have ensured a more successful completion. resources such as faculty, service areas (particularly the technology services staff) to do more investigation and research into existing solutions as well as to conduct more rigorous testing would have enabled the project to complete in a timely manner. the prototype testing done shows promise in the ability to delivery courses synchronously in a manner conducive to student success. availability of robust curricula will allow the startup of new cohorts at remote institutions to be done in a timely manner, reducing the need for them to recruit a large number of qualified faculty as seneca will be able to deliver well established programming synchronously. smaller institutions will be able to deliver programming synchronously to seneca students where their expertise is a fit. 12 | p a g e financial report (as a separate document) see separate document attached. 13 | p a g e appendix a equipment specifications for sending and receiving rooms. below is the updated list for bbb trials. this covers systems for both rooms in portable racks that can be shipped around for demos. we will require that the rooms being used for the demo have had av upgrades within the last two years and are using hdbaset controlled projectors. manufacture r model purpose qt y comments ptzoptics ptvl-zcam stationary camera for canadore room 1 equipped with a wide angle lens, to be mounted above projection screen in canadore room. ptzoptics 20x-sdi robotic hd camera for seneca room 1 to be mounted on the wall at the back of the seneca classroom. will move to presents selected by instructor. crestron dsp-860 audio dsp for canadore room 1 this will take in the wireless mic and array of ceiling microphones and output a clean feed to the capture card. crestron dm-tx-201-c transmitter for camera in seneca room 1 this extends the video and control signals for the seneca camera from the podium to the location it will be mounted. crestron dmps3-4k300-c main matrix switcher and processor 1 this will handle all room control, video switching, lighting control, and audio amplification in the seneca room. crestron dsp-1280 audio dsp for seneca room 1 this will take in the wireless mics and array of ceiling microphones and output a clean feed to the capture card. crestron hd-da2-4k-e hdmi splitters 2 splits the two outputs of the desktop computer. one feed will go to the podium monitors and the other to the classroom video switcher. 14 | p a g e crestron tsw-1060-b-s 10 touch panel 1 touch panel to control microphones, camera presets, room lighting, and basic av functionality in the seneca room. crestron tsw-1060ttk-b-s touch panel stand 1 allows touch panel to sit on a desk audio technica at875r wired microphone s 4 a pair will be placed on stands within both classrooms during the trial to pick up students. for final installation these will be swapped with ceiling microphones. nec e232wmt-bk touch screen computer monitors 2 touch screen computer monitors connected to the computer as an hid. this will fulfill the virtual whiteboard requirements and is not software dependant. matrox mojito max pcie capture card 2 converts the high quality video and audio streams coming from the external equipment into a webcam feed that can be used by any computer applications brtb txbb-25 cable for remote classroom camera 1 to be used for remote classroom camera. will be replaced with in-ceiling cabling for final install. duracat duracat50nbnb durable cat6 2 cables to be run to the tv and camera at the back of the seneca room. will be replaced with inceiling cabling for final install. on stage stands um01 mic stand adapter 1 will mount remote classroom camera onto a mic stand tether tools rsma12 mic stand adapter 1 will mount seneca camera onto a mic stand prox t-8rss 8u rack for remote equipment 1 rack case for remote room. will protect equipment for shipping and allow the system to be portable. prox t-16rss 16u rack for seneca equipment 1 rack case for seneca room. will protect equipment for shipping and allow the system to be portable. furman furman m8x2 rack surge protection 2 rack mount sure protection 15 | p a g e neutrik nc3fxx xlr connectors for wireless microphone s 3 xlr connector for wireless microphone pigtails neutrik nbb75dfgb neutrik bnc panel connector 2 sdi i/o panel connector neutrik nahdmi-w neutrik hdmi connector 3 hdmi i/o panel connector neutrik ne8fdp-b neutrik ethernet connector 6 cat5 i/o panel connector neutrik nc3fd-l-b-1 neutrik xlr connector 4 xlr i/o panel connector neutrik nausb-w-b neutrik usb panel connector 4 usb i/o panel connector gator grwpnluniko gator rack panel 2 i/o panel for rear of each rack to be populated with above connectors generic 3u rack shelf 2 to secure tower computers into the two racks chief k1c220b 1 podium dual monitor mount for seneca room. dual vesa monitor mount equipment to be provided from existing event and spare inventories (alternatives will have to be purchased for the final installation): 6x microphone stands 2x wireless handheld mics 1x wireless clip-on mic 4x xlr mic cables 1x crestron txrx h.264 streamer 16 | p a g e 1x portable tv on a cart to be purchased or swapped in for other components during final install: 1x 85 nec display with hdbaset card 12x ceiling microphones 1x 16u permanent rack 1x spool each of ceiling rated sdi and microphone cable with termination equipment 12x neutrik xlr connectors 1x rack mount ups 1x larger av poe switch 1x aoda compliant table 2x camera ceiling mounts 2x crestron ssw mic active signs 1x crestron dge-100 video overlay module 17 | p a g e

research on current level transfer agreements awareness, usage and maintenance/sustainability ontario colleges heads of business oncat project # 2017-36 executive summary may 2018 prepared by: cookson consulting group inc. executive summary previous project in november of 2014, the heads of business (hob) for the ontario colleges, with the financial support of the ontario council on articulation and transfer (oncat), undertook a pilot project to implement system-wide pathways for four agreements in the disciplines of business, accounting, human resources and marketing. programs business/business administration business accounting/ business admin. - accounting business- human resources/business admin. human resources business- marketing/business admin. marketing maesd # 50200 50100 50223 52900 maesd# 60200 60100 60223 62900 current project in march of 2017 with funding again through oncat, the heads of business launched a research project to evaluate the status of the hob transfer agreements three years after implementation. this project had four primary goals: 1. provide insight into institutional processes required to support student mobility. research question: what is the awareness level of students and college staff of the system level agreements? 2. contribute to our understanding of the student experience of transfer. research question: what are the students attitudes towards their experiences after they have transitioned and what barriers/supports do they report related to their transfer? 3. generate and analyze new quantitative information on student mobility in ontario. research question: how many students have benefited (intentionally/unintentionally) from the system-wide transfer agreements? 4. analyze promising practices in facilitating transfer and supporting transfer student success research question: how effective has the promising practice of curriculum, pathway guides (cpgs) been as a process to keep transfer agreements current? to answer these four questions, the research methodology included seven unique components including system wide and college specific data analyses, student and stakeholder surveys, reviews of existing curriculum pathway guides, website analyses and college stakeholder interviews and focus groups. conclusions and implications in response to the four research questions listed above: 1. the awareness of the four hob transfer agreements is high among the longer tenured college staff, but awareness is lower with newer, less experienced staff. specialists, such as the credit transfer office staff, are generally more aware of the agreements than academic areas, while the awareness level of the agreements among students is reported by staff to be very low. 2. the number of respondents to the survey of business students that had transferred between institutions was not sufficient to provide a perspective on the student experience. our research identified a significant variance in the process and experience between colleges for transfer students. students are surprised that they can obtain transfer credits and, in some cases, misinterpret transfer requirements. 3. it is not possible to determine the exact number of students transferring under the hob agreements because this information is not tracked at the provincial (ocas/oncat) or college level. however, the data supplied by ocas indicates that on average since the time the agreements were implemented, 90 students have transferred each year. conflicting data supplied directly from six colleges showed approximately 63 students per year have transferred over the past four years. 4. the curriculum pathway guides (cpgs) are not widely used to facilitate the transfer of students or to keep the transfer agreements current. when they are used, college staff found the cpgs to be a key part of administering a hob student transfer and maintaining the course requirements specified in the hob transfer agreements. additionally, it is evident that since the implementation of the heads of business agreements, a palpable, cultural shift has occurred within the colleges as it relates to the reciprocity of credits within programs included in the four agreements. despite the culture shift the number of students benefiting from the ability to transfer is significantly less than .01% of all provincial business student registrations. notwithstanding the overarching difficulty in acquiring the necessary data to make informed decisions, this research did bring to light several opportunities for the heads of business and the colleges to benefit from one anothers expertise in communication and processes. several conclusions and implications have been identified for the heads of business and the hob - transfer agreement steering committee to explore in the coming months as it pertains to the ongoing success of the current agreements.

collaborative development of interactive media management pathway (graphic design) final report for contract 2017-04 report prepared by academic quality, mohawk college february 1, 2019 1 table of contents contents collaborative development of interactive media management pathway (graphic design) ....................... 1 final report for contract 2017-04............................................................................................................. 1 table of contents ...................................................................................................................................... 2 project summary....................................................................................................................................... 3 project purpose and goals ........................................................................................................................ 3 pathway development.............................................................................................................................. 3 methodology......................................................................................................................................... 3 program comparison & analysis........................................................................................................... 4 implementation process and timelines ................................................................................................ 4 summary ................................................................................................................................................... 4 references ................................................................................................................................................ 4 2 project summary in 2017, mohawk and algonquin colleges proposed a unique, interactive media management (graphic design) graduate certificate program that provides students with block transfer opportunities. the project outlined parameters and procedures for student transfer while also developing curriculum to support a seamless pathway between the program and conestoga colleges bachelor of graphic design. project purpose and goals in response to increasing market demand in 2017, mohawk and algonquin colleges set out to equip graphic designer professionals and diploma program graduates with interactive media skills, specific to web design and development. to this end, mohawk and algonquin aimed to be the first colleges to jointly design and develop an ontario college graduate certificate (ocgc) program: interactive media management web design and development (imm-wdd), delivered entirely online. the 2015-2017 government of canada job market report for ontario predicted increasing demands for designers with interactive media skills, while print-based media job prospects would decline. this is further supported in the 2017-2019 government of canada job market report: due to technological changes, the demand for designers with digital media skills is expected to increase, while opportunities in traditional print-based design will likely be moderated. the three-term model of the imm-wdd program offers an accelerated completion option for students with advanced competencies as determined by the block transfer parameters. eligible students with graphic design background will receive prior learning credit, which will be assessed on a course by course basis to accommodate potential pathways from other college programs. funding from this oncat grant helped establish the eligibility and parameters of the transfer requirements and the development of processes to support it. initial project goal was to create a direct pathway both into and out of conestoga colleges bachelor of graphic design (bdes) program. however, as program and pathway development progressed, the development of formal pathways and partnerships did not become viable at this time. pathway development methodology project 2017-04 endeavored to create two pathways: one from the imm-wdd program into conestogas bdes program and a second from conestogas bdes program into the imm-wdd program. graduates from the imm-wdd graduate certificate would also be graduates of a graphic design diploma program, an advanced diploma program, or have equivalent industry skills and experience. thus, the pathway articulation from the imm-wdd program to conestogas bdes relied heavily on the outcomes of another ongoing oncat project: 2017-23 ontario college graphic design diplomas and advanced diplomas to conestogas bachelor of design (honours). as a result of ongoing changes to course-level learning outcomes in mohawk colleges 3-year graphic design advanced diploma program, the foundational pathway has not been developed. consequently, the foundational pathway is not in place from which we could build. however, mohawk is committed to revisiting pathway options between our graphic design advanced diploma graduates and interactive media management web 3 design & development certificate graduates once the new graphic design advanced diploma curriculum is in place. the pathway analysis from bdes to imm-wdd took a more traditional approach that included comparing learning outcomes. both mohawk and conestoga compared and mapped learning outcomes at the course level looking for alignment between bdes program courses and immwdd first semester courses in order to achieve a block transfer, directly into semester 2. program comparison & analysis a programmatic analysis of course learning outcomes compared learning outcomes at the course level across all programs involved. as program analysis and pathway development proceeded, we identified that both algonquin college and conestoga college have similar interactive media management programs what were not identified in the initial environmental scan. as a result, it was determined that viable pathways did not exist between the partnering colleges. however, as the project lead, mohawk college has developed an online post-graduate interactive media management web design and development program in such a way that graduates from ontario college graphic design diploma programs and conestogas bachelor of design program can easily pathway into it. implementation process and timelines despite project outcomes, mohawk college is committed to offering an online interactive media management post-graduate certificate program. target dates include finalizing our program of study and submitting our program proposal to curriculum validations service (cvs) in the winter 2019 with a program launch in winter 2020. summary the oncat 2017-04 project experienced many challenges through its life span. as a result, we were not able to achieve the goals established in the initial proposal. however, mohawk college has designed a high-quality online certificate program that will provide graphic design degree and diploma graduates, in addition to industry professionals with the opportunity to enhance their interactive media skills and employability in the ontario and canadian economy. references government of canada (n.d.). 2017-2019 careers outlook report for web designer graphic design. retrieved from https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/outlookreport/occupation/5741 government of canada (n.d.). 2017-2019 careers outlook report for computer programmers and interactive media developers. retrieved from https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/outlookreport/occupation/22536 4